Everything is easier with modern technology – except fulfilling your true potential The convenience of modern life is nothing short of astounding. As I write this, my phone is wirelessly sending some of the greatest hits from the 1700s...
Children for Change contains stories, poems, and illustrations from more than 80 collaborators including Jamie Oliver, Mary Portas, David Baddiel and Adam Kay Konnie Huq, Jamie Oliver, David Baddiel, Adam Kay, Mary Portas and Joseph...
A minor tumble in the street gives a small indication of the larger risks a couple face and the consolations of mutual support My husband falling Time trips you like a pavement, says I’ll show you what falling’s for . It’s a stony lesson...
The writer and film-maker’s affection for the city of his youth shines through in this debut graphic novel about family, football and teenage dreams I was drawn to this graphic novel by its Liverpool setting. A brief flick revealed...
The author employs his pitch-perfect repertoire of satirical skills in his first book for five years – a novella about the residents of an upmarket care home during the pandemic Alan Bennett, now 90, hasn’t published anything original in...
The award-winning author’s thoughts on JG Ballard, Colette and… lemons Few British writers are as adept as Deborah Levy at enacting Hilary Mantel’s advice to writers: to make the reader “feel acknowledged, and yet estranged”. Levy’s...
This meticulous reconstruction of Benito Juárez’s time in New Orleans imagines how the inequalities he encountered shaped the future for Mexico’s first indigenous president Yuri Herrera’s evocative novella, crisply translated by Lisa...
In this sharp and engaging book, Shabi addresses the need to understand and confront antisemitism at a time when it is being downplayed by parts of the left and exploited by others on the right When I started to read Rachel Shabi’s new...
Sir David Jason's fifth memoir is an uplifting read with an inspirational message told with the Only Fools and Horses star's characteristic wit and wisdom.
Rachel Burge has just published her fourth book, a spook-fest which melds contemporary teenage life with painstakingly researched English faerie folklore.
The author confronts her own mortality with candour and crisp humour in this thoughtful exploration of bullfighting Ostensibly an exploration of the Spanish corrida de toros , On Bullfighting begins with a confession. Its author AL...
The novelist on why he can’t read JRR Tolkien, being hooked on Muriel Spark and obsessed with James Joyce My earliest reading memory In west Africa, where I was born in 1952, in Ghana to be precise. Aged about five, reading...
Authors, critics and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month Simon Mason is an author new to me but I saw his novel Missing Person: Alice in a bookshop and noticed that both Mick Herron and David Peace had...
The author’s alter ego is on a quest to uncover the life and work of his playwright idol in this whimsical debut The Unfinished Harauld Hughes is something like a South Bank Show House of Leaves : it’s the narrative of the making of a...
A superb history of Christianity’s 2,000-year relationship with our animal instincts Jesus never mentioned homosexuals, masturbation or the role of women in social, let alone sacred, life. Yet that hasn’t stopped millennia of godly...
There are shades of The Shining and Shirley Jackson in these atmospheric short stories set around a haunted hotel in the Fens From the tricksy, unstable terrain of Fen , her debut collection, through the Booker-shortlisted Everything...
Forget the sweets -- Halloween is the perfect time for young readers to enjoy a new book. Here are some seasonal favourites, including a new Paddington story
The Buddha of Suburbia author’s wildly inspiring memoir of illness and defiance ‘All day, all night the body intervenes,” wrote Virginia Woolf in On Being Ill. It “blunts or sharpens, colours or discolours, turns to wax in the warmth of...
This follow-up to the Southern Reach series again explores the mysteries of Area X Ten years ago, Jeff VanderMeer published the three volumes of the Southern Reach trilogy, which between them charted the incursion of the...
From sickle cell to the Covid vaccine – the stories behind medical innovations that have transformed lives ‘A great deal of creativity goes into making new medicines, most of it witnessed and appreciated by only a small handful of...
First broadcast a century ago after a devastating storm sank a steam clipper off the Welsh coast with 450 deaths, the Shipping Forecast remains a daily must-listen for millions of landlubbers...
Agatha Christie meets Saw in rural Essex, dark secrets of the wellbeing industry uncovered and a gripping tale of revenge on the privileged The Saw franchise might have jumped the shark many sequels ago, but luckily for those of us who...
A fun but often unpalatable collection of recipes by authors including Robert Graves, Norman Mailer and Beryl Bainbridge should come with a trigger warning. Anyone for Instant Mince or Dutch Onion Crisps? In most instances, the words “I...
This striking short story collection, set in a spooky hotel in the Fens, offers a fierce interrogation of women’s roles in the folk horror world I heard The Hotel before I read it – Daisy Johnson’s second short story collection was...
From loving letters to his parents expressing early anxieties to later exchanges with scientific heavyweights, this collection of correspondence only cements Sacks’s legacy as a man of great compassion A few months after the death of the...
Mintz’s account of his friendship with the endlessly compelling celebrity couple offers a fascinating insight into their psychodramas but is blunted by his obvious adoration of the pair It is a truth almost universally acknowledged that...
The sequel to bestselling thriller The Plot takes the wife of the first novel’s protagonist and throws her into a satisfyingly twisty, literary satire “Sequels can be very enticing when the initial book has done well,” says a literary...
This remarkable memoir by the bold and fearless Russian opposition leader describes an extraordinary life, from a childhood in the shadow of Chornobyl to surviving a novichok attack and his final days in a remote Arctic penal colony...
The British novelist on including content warnings in her first short story collection, why she struggles at book signings and the ‘flagrant sexism’ female authors are subjected to Newcastle-born Eliza Clark, 30, went viral on TikTok...
His new novel is set during the former PM’s brief premiership, so what happened when they had dinner? The author on politics, cosy crime and bingeing Friends Jonathan Coe takes himself off to a classical concert when he’s stuck with his...
The Nobel laureate’s riff on The Magic Mountain takes on a darkly surreal life of its own in this tale of a young man’s visit to a health resort In Amundsen, a short story by Alice Munro, a young woman comes to teach at a sanatorium...
First-hand accounts give an unrivalled glimpse into the Second World War from those who took part. Here are five of the greatest first-person accounts.
Spellbinding witches; memories of home; treasure hunters; fake facts; fearsome creatures; a great guide to graphic art and more Alphonse, You’re Ruining the Show! by Daisy Hirst, Walker, £12.99 During a sleepover at Granny’s house,...
The novelist and short story writer on her new book about Azrael, the angel of death, her encounters with Raymond Carver and Richard Yates, and why fiction should be uncanny Joy Williams, 80, has written five novels and four story...
Nick Harkaway was a successful novelist in his own right when his brothers asked him to continue their late father’s spy series. Could he pull it off? • Exclusive extract from Karla’s Choice: A John le Carré Novel by Nick Harkaway It...
As the master of myth and fantasy turns 90 today it’s a good time to look at his wide ranging canon – from Booker-nominated novels to children’s fiction, poetry and essays Celebrated author of mythical and fantasy stories Alan Garner...
From young werewolves’ adventures with vampires to hard-up funeral crashers and the late Jeremy Strong’s wonderful final tale This autumn’s publishing schedule is packed with heavy hitters. Piers Torday, he of The Last Wild , has made a...
The British historian on the drama and resonance of the lives of Richard II and Henry VI, the writers she most admires and the book she wishes she had written Helen Castor, 56, is an academic, author and broadcaster whose acclaimed books...
He was known for taboo-busting, transgressive stories about identity, sexuality and belonging. Then the author and screenwriter broke his neck. But he’s still every bit as provocative … • ‘A bomb went off in my life’: read an exclusive...
The Highway 59 author discusses the influence of politics on her crime novels, how Beyoncé caused a backlash, and why Trump’s re-election is not as likely as it seems Attica Locke’s Bluebird, Bluebird was published in the early days of...
An Olympian’s picture book; a miscellany of marvellous kids; volcanoes explained; a dark Celtic adventure; and when teen wishes go wrong MiniTouch: Nature – Touch-and-Feel First Colours , by Rhiannon Findlay and Mini Magique Studio,...
Cosy crime, eco-thrillers, political memoirs, YA fantasy: there’s something for everyone in our pick of the books to look out for in the months ahead Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (Jonathan Cape, out now) Continue reading...
While Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett never wrote a sequel, they did sketch out a plot that will now form a second season. If they wanted to continue the story, I want to watch it In 2017, when Neil Gaiman first sat down in St James’s...
The books world was growing worryingly well-mannered, but Ozick’s response – in verse – to a bad review by Shriver has revived the fine art of feuding Whether it is Henry Fielding mocking Samuel Richardson’s painfully virtuous Pamela...