UK Edition
Hiding under the floorboards with Brian Eno, and other pop stories
Cult songwriter Robyn Hitchcock’s 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left is a charming and compulsively perceptive work
Advertisement
-
Naked embraces and Arthurian fantasies – a Tudor guide to seduction
Our all-consuming, ultimately unsustainable ideal of romance can be traced back to courtly love in the time of Henry VIII
-
Rev Richard Coles interview: ‘Dating again was like waking from hibernation’
Britain’s favourite vicar-turned-author talks losing his husband, being ghosted and why – at last – he’s open to pastures new
-
Joseph O’Neill interview: ‘Why can’t I write from the viewpoint of a black woman?’
The novelist on the freedom of fiction and how modern society self-medicates through football
-
The best graphic novels of 2023, from broken families to a duckling called Norbert
Who said comics have to be comic? This year’s crop gave us haunted spas, apocalyptic visions – and the beauty of pastoral France
-
The best children’s books of 2023, from the King to a Spartan princess
This Christmas, young readers can look forward to tales of His Majesty, three wily monkeys and a sumptuous reimagining of Peter Pan
-
The best music books of 2023, from Bob Dylan to Britney Spears
Looking for a Christmas present for the music-lover in your life? Try Johnny Cash's lyrics, Sly Stone's memoir or Paul McCartney's snapshots
-
The best science books of 2023: from the human battery to what’s inside a black hole
Our top thinkers turned the quest for hard truths into a mind-blowing funride
-
The best Ukraine books of 2023, from histories to pictures of carnage
Year two of the war produced breathless tales of resistance, rebuttals to Russian propaganda, and the death of a promising young writer
-
The best biographies of 2023, from Burton and Taylor to Mrs Orwell
This year, marriage went under the microscope in engrossing tales of mutual obsession, catastrophic union and doublethink
-
The best (and worst) politics books of 2023, from Dorries to DeSantis
The Tory meltdown was a sign of the fractious spirit of the times. But consensus is possible – here are our politics picks of the year
-
The best poetry books of 2023: from Homer to the apocalypse
In the 16 best poetry books of the year, readers meet Shakespeare's wife and Chekhov's sisters, a French comte and a wild London hyena
Advertisement
-
Do you know the difference between ‘codger’ and ‘cadger’?
From ‘catawampus’ to ‘hobbledehoy’, in Origin Uncertain the linguist Anatoly Liberman takes us on a riveting tour of strange etymologies
-
Why centrism, the politics of zombies, must be killed
Keir Starmer, centrist king, is set to take power – which, as this bizarre essay collection (featuring Tony Blair) reveals, is awful news
-
The strange birth of Turkey – and the truth about its national myths
Sami Kent’s The Endless Country is a personal history of Turkey’s first 100 years of independence, and it overflows with surprising stories
-
Why humanity’s appetite for war will never be sated
Richard Overy, one of our finest military historians, turns from the facts of warfare to the ideas behind it in his compelling book Why War?
-
More laughter than tears as celebrities remember literary giant Martin Amis
Great and good of literary and celebrity worlds gather for memorial to author, who died aged 73 last year
-
An uncomfortably weird tale of girlhood in a post-Soviet land
Portraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking, Han Smith’s debut novel, is far too stylised to let its emotional heart show
-
Joseph O’Neill interview: ‘Why can’t I write from the viewpoint of a black woman?’
The novelist on the freedom of fiction and how modern society self-medicates through football
-
Fearne Cotton: I could not do live TV or radio today because cancel culture exists
Former DJ says ‘brutality’ of broadcasting world impacted her mental health and plans to focus on wellness empire
Advertisement
-
Breezy, bolshy, bizarre – a fun science primer for kids
How to Be a Genius Kid, by ‘Waldo Pancake’ (Jim Smith), sees two cartoon narrators whisk us through eight fascinating lessons
-
The girl who commandeered a submarine to look for her mother
The Wonderdays, by Clare Povey, has a solid villain, a daring journey and a sensible, albeit overly emphatic, eco-message
-
A creepy time-slip tale to keep children on the edge of their seats
In Mary Cathleen Brown’s haunting debut novel, The Tall Man, a 12-year-old boy must solve an old mystery and save an imprisoned child
-
Want to expand your children’s vocabulary? Try this book
‘Hyperbole’, ‘harried’, ‘onomatopoeia’ – Colossal Words for Kids, by Colette Hiller and Tor Freeman, will have clever young tongues wagging
-
A story of food banks and grinding poverty – for young children
Tom Percival’s novel, The Wrong Shoes, tells of a stoic young boy and his struggling father. It’s touching, albeit a little too spelled-out
-
Michael Morpurgo’s Finding Alfie is a poignant tale of D-Day
The War Horse author returns with a semi-autobiographical tale about D-Day’s legacy, beautifully illustrated by Michael Foreman
-
This rising star of children’s books has created a stellar new fantasy
Ember Spark and the Thunder of Dragons, by Abi Elphinstone, has a conspiratorial narrator, a fizzing plot and even some sensible lessons
-
Bloomin’ Brilliant: The Life and Work of Raymond Briggs: will leave fans walking in the air
This splendid retrospective charting the author-illustrator’s career is a treat for those who know and love his books
-
The best poetry books of 2024 so far
Our Poetry Book of the Month choices include JH Prynne’s unlikely lullabies, and a dreamlike retelling of Greek myths from Sasha Dugdale
-
One man tackles the entirety of classical poetry – and triumphs
Christopher Childers has spent 10 years on The Penguin Book of Greek and Latin Lyric Verse – and his translations sing from the page
-
Saved from the bin: the secrets of Austen, Beckett and Larkin’s scribbled first drafts
From Raymond Chandler's slippery similes to a scene Austen hid, a new exhibition reveals great writers' early drafts and discarded ideas
-
Imelda May interview: 'I don’t think women have support within the arts'
As the Irish singer champions The Forgotten Yeats Sisters for Sky Arts, she talks about women in history and the thrill of rock'n'roll
Advertisement
