The Canterbury Tales is our reading group book for September
A big one this month – Chaucer’s 14th-century masterpiece. Please join me for a long but much revered pilgrimageThe Canterbury Tales has come out of the hat and will be the reading group choice for...
View ArticleAlexander Shihwarg obituary
iMy friend Alexander Shihwarg, who has died aged 95, invested in, and helped to create, restaurants in London such as the Golden Duck, Nikita’s and the Ebury Wine Bar.Shura, as he was widely known,...
View ArticleElizabeth Siddall: pre-Raphaelites' muse finally gets her own voice, 150...
Best known as the model for Millais’ much loved Ophelia painting, a new book hopes to foreground her own work as a poetHer pale face floating amongst the reeds, Elizabeth Siddall is best remembered as...
View ArticleAmit Chaudhuri: ‘All non-western literature is wilfully underrated’
The author on the importance of DH Lawrence, how Alice Munro inspired him, and early memories of reading Ladybird books in BombayThe book I am currently readingElizabeth Hardwick’s Collected Essays....
View ArticlePoem of the week: Aristocrats by Keith Douglas
A horse and his rider are twisted into grotesque coalescence by violent warfare, in this remarkable and direct poemAristocrats: “I think I am becoming a God”The noble horse with courage in his eye...
View ArticleThe Canterbury Tales: Chaucer's 'plein speke' is a raucous read
Newcomers to the Canterbury Tales may expect piety – but this trip with Chaucer’s motley crew is more like a blowout in MagalufThe opening lines of the Canterbury Tales are among the most famous in...
View ArticleThe 50 biggest books of autumn 2018
From Haruki Murakami to Michelle Obama, what to read this seasonContinue reading...
View ArticleOn my radar: Tracy K Smith’s cultural highlights
The Pulitzer-winning poet on a captivating animation, a powerful opera and a hideaway in AlaskaBorn in Massachusetts, poet Tracy K Smith studied at Harvard and Columbia universities. Since 2003 she has...
View ArticlePoem of the week: The Barber Shop by Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke
A sharp reflection on the sight of a male muse getting his hair cut provides a neat invitation to read more contemporary Greek poetry The Barber ShopA white rose,the barber’s towelaround your...
View ArticleUS losing appetite for reading fiction, research finds
Survey by National Endowment for the Arts records sharp fall in the number of adults who read novels and short storiesThe number of adults in the US reading novels and short stories has hit a new low,...
View ArticleEveryone Knows I Am a Haunting by Shivanee Ramlochan review – fierce fantasy
Women, queer and non-binary voices are loud in the face of repression in a poetry collection that bridges fantasy and reality in modern Caribbean societyShivanee Ramlochan may not yet be widely known...
View ArticleDanez Smith becomes youngest winner of Forward poetry prize
Chair of judges Bidisha pays tribute to collection Don’t Call Us Dead’s ‘passionate and very contemporary’ verseThe 29-year-old African American poet Danez Smith has beaten writers including the US...
View ArticleSex, drugs and social media – Hooked review
Science Gallery, LondonSugar, shopping, cash, drugs, booze and smartphones … this great show details how artists have responded – and succumbed – to addictive vices down the agesCan you become addicted...
View ArticleGeorge the Poet says police stereotyping was behind strip-search
Spoken-word artist says search was unjustified and officers were rude to his parentsThe acclaimed spoken-word artist George the Poet has said police strip-searched him because officers stereotype young...
View ArticleThe Dark Interval: Letters for the Grieving Heart – review
Rainer Maria Rilke’s letters of condolence reveal how the process of mourning can make us wholeRainer Maria Rilke had written 14,000 letters by the time of his death in 1926, aged 51. This slender...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Reformation by Fred D’Aguiar
A compact glimpse of an exploited, despoiled world, this small work offers very large resonancesReformationAll thingspolishedContinue reading...
View ArticleI Wish I Was a Mountain review – jazzy Hermann Hesse tale is stunning
The Egg, BathWith two turntables, a street’s worth of houses and a German fairytale, performance poet Toby Thompson creates a beautiful show for over-sevensChildren live in the moment but by around...
View ArticlePoet in da Corner review – thrilling grime musical leaves you Dizzee
Royal Court, LondonDebris Stevenson tells how grime became her salvation in a show that explores race, representation and authenticityIn 2003, Dizzee Rascal won the Mercury prize for the seminal grime...
View ArticleRobin Robertson: ‘The poetry world is polarised. I’m in the middle, vaguely...
The Man Booker shortlisted writer on his love for Jane Bowles and biographies, and why he never gives books as presentsThe book I’m currently readingAs always, I have submissions to read (I work in...
View ArticleRomance, regrets and notebooks in the freezer: Leonard Cohen’s son on his...
Almost two years after the musician and poet’s death, Adam Cohen explains how his father’s efforts to finish his last collection The Flame ‘bought him some time on Earth’Exclusive: read three poems...
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