books
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How did our culture became so polarised – and what can Richard Hoggart’s The Uses of Literacy, written 60 years ago, teach us about how we live today?
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The Stephen Spender prize for poetry in translation opens for submissions on 27 February. Award judge Margaret Jull Costa reflects on today’s need for translators
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The author on walking London’s streets, siestas and the daily creative struggle
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Casaubon’s unfinished Key to All Mythologies was not, by the lights of his time, out of touch or deluded
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A promising poet’s second collection delivers work full of subtle music that wears its heart on its sleeve
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Book of the day The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne – sin and torment in Catholic Ireland
Helen DunmoreA picaresque odyssey tracks changing attitudes towards sexual freedoms over the last 70 years and rages against the church
news
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As Philip Pullman announces his ‘equel’ to His Dark Materials, writers pay tribute to his exquisite storytelling and ‘daring heresy’
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I recognised Hanif Kureishi’s depiction of a young man’s uncertain cultural identity immediately, and it began to show me how to be at home everywhere
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Charging around £100 per visit to its pricey collection, it’s not clear if this is an actual library or just a novel spot for wealthy Russians to hold meetings
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books in 2017
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Jane Austen’s bicentenary, Arundhati Roy’s first novel in 20 years, and unpublished F Scott Fitzgerald ... the literary year ahead
regulars
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PodcastPodcastReclaiming history with Yaa Gyasi and Chibundu Onuzo - books podcastThe authors of two buzzy new novels, Homegoing and Welcome to Lagos, explore ancient and modern stories of west Africa
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Reading groupReading groupOverwhelming, yet gorgeous writing: Angela Carter's excessive brillianceNights at the Circus is rich with ingenious verbal invention, extravagant plot devices and eye-popping description. Perhaps a little too rich?
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The first book interviewThe first book interviewAlice Broadway: 'I guess it's inevitable that I became a bit death-obsessed'Ink’s heroine loses faith in a culture where people’s histories are etched on their skin – reflecting its author’s own disaffection from evangelical Christianity
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Book of the dayBook of the dayThe Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne review – sin and torment in Catholic IrelandA picaresque odyssey tracks changing attitudes towards sexual freedoms over the last 70 years and rages against the church
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History The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker: The Story of Britain Through Its Census
Stephen MossRoger Hutchinson’s breezily anecdotal book reveals the history and controversy behind the UK census -
A journalist’s memoir that is also an argument about politics, sex and how society has gone wrong fails to convince
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There is not much that’s intriguing about the determined May, apart from her class-based reaction against her predecessor’s gilded clique
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The Holocaust, religion and the EU’s future are all central issues in the biography of a celebrated, combative thinker
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History The Last of the Tsars by Robert Service – dispelling the myths
Sheila FitzpatrickThe historian and biographer has written an unsentimental, surprising account of Nicholas II from his abdication in March 1917 to his execution -
Society Why I Am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto by Jessa Crispin – it’s time to get radical
Suzanne MooreFeminism used to mean a transformed society, a challenge to romance, a new way to live. Now, Crispin argues, it has been rebranded into banality
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A portrait of a fictional Airdrie rock group morphs into a haunting, hallucinatory vision of the early 80s
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The Nazis control Paris in 1950 and the art world’s surrealist visions have come to life in this dreamlike vision of an alternative history
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A teenager struggles to come of age in a world of religious zealots and predatory teachers in this stark debut
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Fiction Hame by Annalena McAfee – laughs between the lines
Anthony CumminsA Hebridean poet’s secret past is unearthed in this intricate satire on Scottish nationalism -
Polley’s haunting verse narrative blends nursery rhymes, riddles and cautionary tales with a dash of Coleridge
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The fantasy polymath reimagines Asgard, complete with giant cats, collapsible ships and gossipy squirrels
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Cantankerous bards, remote islands and a US billionaire star in a novel steeped in Scots heritage
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A shoplifter falls for a Romanian immigrant in a beautiful collaboration from Sarah Crossan and Brian Conaghan
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Creator of Miffy, the little rabbit who became a star of children’s literature
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The Book of Dust will soon expand Philip Pullman’s landmark fantasy trilogy, but the first books can still teach us a lot about how we live now
people
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Following a young couple in 1960s France, A Sport and a Pastime asks how we make sense of romance and tells the truth about sexual love
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The Egyptian novelist, who was jailed last year for ‘violating public morality’ with his novel The Use of Life, looks back at an experience he hopes is now over
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The author of Sandman, Coraline and other cult hits joined us to answer your questions, on everything from Donald Trump to American Gods
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The pop-science writer behind Everything Bad is Good for You and Wonderland came in to answer your questions, on everything from innovation in science and technology, to his thoughts on the Trump administration
A selection of our favourite literary content from around the world
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The Little Library CaféThe Little Library CaféFood in books: breakfast rolls from The School at the ChaletKate Young seeks some escapist fiction and bakes a breakfast enjoyed by the children in the Austrian boarding school in Brent-Dyer’s novel
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Interview with a Bookstore by Literary HubInterview with a Bookstore by Literary HubInterview with a Bookstore: Blue Willow Bookshop in HoustonCelebrating 20 years since owner Valerie took over, Blue Willow Bookshop is equally split between adults and children’s books, and staffed with knowledgable booksellers who can do anything - including fixing vacuum cleaners
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pictures, video & audio
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The Pulitzer prize-winning novelist looks back on a modern classic at a Guardian book club event
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In the week Sebastian Barry picked up his second Costa book of the year award, he joins us in the studio to read from and discuss Days Without End
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Here are the 23 competition finalists in the running to illustrate The Folio Society’s new edition of the classic story of Fanny Price
you may have missed
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As Nazis occupy our TV screens in the adaptation of Len Deighton’s novel, DJ Taylor explores the alternative world of counter-factual novels
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We must take back our stories and reverse the gaze
Aminatta FornaWriters of African heritage must resist the attempts of others to define us and our history -
Terry Pratchett docudrama is a fittingly imaginative tribute to Discworld's genius
Frank Cottrell BoyceBack in Black’s inventive life story eschews the usual talking heads to focus on the author’s devoted fans – of whom I am one -
The French literary sensation and debut author of The End of Eddy on growing up without books
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Sara Baume I always wanted to be an art monster