From The Wolves of Willoughby Chase to Black Hearts in Battersea, Joan Aiken’s tales of plucky orphans surviving in industrial Britain are a keystone of children’s literature There was once a poor widow with two young children who wrote...
From Maigret to Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple, authors choose the whodunnits they love to hunker down with at this time of year A Maigret Christmas and Other Stories by Georges Simenon Continue reading...
The Nobel prize winner pushes at the veil between this world and the next in the immersive tale of a solitary fisherman How should one write about death – not as experienced by those who merely witness it, but by the people doing the...
The Booksellers Association spoke to staff who also highlighted James by Percival Everett, and everything from Chris Hoy’s autobiography to a book about fishing by a dog This year’s Booker prize winner will be the Christmas No 1...
What is Bertie Wooster’s middle name and in which novel did James Bond get married? Test your knowledge with questions by William Boyd, David Baddiel, Sara Collins, Tom Holland, Ali Smith and more • If you enjoyed this quiz, and all of...
Ambika Mod, Thandiwe Newton and Mackenzie Crook are among the lineup in this cinematic telling of Dickens’s classic “The sun is dead and the city mourns,” sighs the narrator at the start of this all-star adaptation of Bleak House....
The Booker-winning novelist on her teenage crush on Winston Graham’s character, the beauty of CS Lewis and how Hermann Hesse changed her life My earliest reading memory Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian. This book will always...
A widower sets out to understand his wife’s death in this tale of memory, trauma and German reunification, from the author of The Reader Bernhard Schlink is best known for his 1995 novel The Reader, which has become a classic of...
A rich and vivid history of the Plantagenet cousins and rivals for the English throne ‘Richard II tried first being a Good King and then a Bad King without enjoying either very much. Then being told he was unbalanced, he got off the...
The leftwing intellectual may be a master of self-justification, but in this book he is clever, cultured and good company One afternoon in the early 1980s, Tariq Ali, wearing only a towel, leapt into a room in Private Eye’s Soho offices....
Shortlisted for the Booker, passed among families and picked up by Cillian Murphy for the big screen, the Irish writer’s razor-sharp fiction leaves you wanting more Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These, shortlisted for the Booker...
A biography of the bard of rural England reveals an unexpectedly adventurous sex life Ronald Blythe is most acclaimed for Akenfield , his 1969 portrait of an English village from the late 19th century onwards. Latterly, the saintly...
The author of sprawling SF mega-novels has switched gears for a fast-moving adventure set between Russia and the US Neal Stephenson is known for enormous, sprawling, infodumpy mega-novels: all-encompassing works that extrapolate...
The first volume of Cher’s extraordinary memoir mixes hard times with the high life In the preface to volume one of Cher’s memoir, she gives us a heads up on the kind of story that is to follow. “Often when I think of my family history,”...
From a boy on a snowy midnight adventure to a gothic family caper via a young offender inspired by poetry, our critics pick their favourite titles of the year The best books to give as gifts this Christmas In the imagination of a small...
The author and artist’s latest gothic novel is inspired by his lifelong love of theatre. He talks about his journey from stage to page – and why his house in Austin is home to a 4ft doll of Madame Tussaud “I need to take a picture of...
At 90, the author reflects on his friendship with Alan Turing, quantum realities and how his grandfather inspired his latest book Alan Garner is a few days from his 90th birthday when we meet, and his plan for the day itself is “to be...
A writer takes his elderly mother on a road trip through the Swiss Alps in an attempt to break with his privileged family’s dysfunctional past Christian Kracht is a Swiss novelist who writes in German. He has been publishing since 1995,...
Invisible Dog by Fabio Morábito; Indeterminate Inflorescence by Lee Seong-bok; The Epic of Cader Idris by Samatar Elmi; A Kiss for the Absolute by Shūzō Takiguchi Invisible Dog by Fabio Morábito, translated by Richard Gwyn (Carcanet,...
A photographer sets out to make a ‘personal geography’ of his native Germany in this poetic tale of loss and belonging For Paul Scraton, a British writer who has lived in Berlin for over 20 years, place is what you carry around in...
A collection of articles, talks, letters and unpublished writing fills important gaps in the great naturalist’s life story ‘Gerald Durrell was magic” chirrups David Attenborough across the cover of this collection by the beloved...
Top authors from Irvine Welsh to Louise Candlish, Conn Iggulden and Julian Clary share their favourite books of the year in Part Two of our brilliant seasonal round-up
The britpop bassist tears himself away from cheese just long enough to play with his old bandmates in this joyfully chaotic memoir Last July, Blur played the biggest shows in their history over two weekend nights at Wembley Stadium. For...
A look at wrath, gluttony and the rest from a medical perspective offers valuable insights – but is disease a good guide to normal functioning? ‘From Adam has sprung one mass of sinners and godless men,” wrote St Augustine, arguably the...
This frustrating novella by a star of global fiction imagines the formative years of Mexico’s first Indigenous president, exiled to New Orleans in the 1850s Every novel by Yuri Herrera teaches you how to read it in the opening scene. His...
The American author sets out to write a “feelgood” romance that honours her commitment to language as a charged, living entity ‘Imagine my surprise when I found it was possible to be both narrative and anti-narrative at the same time,”...
From a radical retelling of Huckleberry Finn to Al Pacino’s autobiography, novelists and nonfiction writers reveal the books they will be giving as gifts – and the volumes they would love to find in their own stocking Illustrations by...
A new Sally Rooney, the return of le Carré’s George Smiley, plus real-life revelations from Al Pacino and Salman Rushdie ... Guardian critics pick the year’s best fiction, memoir, children’s books and more From Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo...
Salman Rushdie’s account of his near-fatal stabbing, a 360-degree view of Queen Elizabeth II and Al Pacino’s rags to riches career are among this year’s most compelling personal histories There are myriad ways to tell the story of a...
From Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo to Alan Hollinghurst’s Our Evenings, Percival Everett’s James and a host of inventive debuts – this year’s highlights in fiction In a year of surprises – a posthumous fable from Gabriel García Márquez,...
The hugely popular author reveals his excitement at the release of his latest Stormlight saga, how he extracted himself from Amazon and why JK Rowling should have stuck to novels It’s 1pm in American Fork, Utah, and the author of one of...
As she publishes a memoir of unseen writing by the beloved author and naturalist, his widow Lee remembers a modest man whose work pioneered animal conservation and inspired the likes of Sir David Attenborough
As new national poet, the Gaelic speaker is looking at all of the languages spoken in the country, to see ‘what we can learn between them’ Peter Mackay seems to write poetry as he speaks. An island, he ponders, “can be seen as bounded by...
The novelist’s cult book about a stay-at-home mother who turns into a dog is now a film starring Amy Adams. She talks about modern parenting, breaking taboos, and how Trump’s win spurred her to write R achel Yoder knows exactly why she...
Ulrich Boschwitz, who wrote the recently rediscovered thriller The Passenger, left another gift behind him when his life was tragically cut short. I had the honour of reinterpreting it for today’s children This story begins in a fever....
A way to personally connect with wildlife is vital when statistics alone can’t convey the scale of the loss Sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid struck Earth, causing the extinction of around 75% of all species. This event was so...
The acclaimed novelist thought he had finished with ‘serious’ books. But now, at 78 and still grieving the loss of his wife, he has a new project on the go I’m going to get a glass of wine, will you have one?” John Banville asks. “I...
The Hamnet author talks about bringing her bestselling Shakespeare novel to the screen, working with Paul Mescal, and how her speech disorder inspired her latest children’s book • Discover 10 more inspirational page-turners for kids It...
Authors and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month I have recently enjoyed Doppelganger by Naomi Klein : a miraculously lucid laying-out of what is really happening in the world via the dark web, the...
A sensational sleigh ride; joyous poetry; amazing animals; a sinister seaside town; a deadly forest; a thrilling heist and more I Am Cat by Jackie Morris , Otter-Barry , £ 20 A ginger cat curls up “ammonite tight” and dreams of ranging...
Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some exciting new paperbacks, from a unique history of Russia to nail-biting crime novels Continue reading...