The best children’s books of 2018 for all ages
From celebrity-penned tales to fresh interpretations of the classics, here is our pick of the best for hungry readers from tots to teensChildren’s books have had a record-breaking few years. The sector...
View ArticlePoem of the week: To a Lady … by Elizabeth Moody
A canny verse from ‘the Muse of Surbiton’ takes a wry look at ageing at the same time as flattering its subject’s beauty extravagantlyTo a Lady Who Sent the Author a Present of a Fashionable...
View ArticleGirls Are Coming Out of the Woods by Tishani Doshi review – bold and brave
It’s impossible not to cheer for the poet’s third collection, with her reflections on female bodies and violence feeling exceptionally timelyTishani Doshi’s third collection, Girls Are Coming Out of...
View ArticleSimon Armitage wins Queen's gold medal for poetry 2018
The Huddersfield poet was praised for spinning ‘poems of emotional weight and musical grace from the fabric of our everyday lives’ by laureate Carol Ann DuffyEnglish poet and novelist Simon Armitage...
View Article'A rose with a thousand petals' … what makes an aphorism – and is this a...
Forget haikus, epigrams, proverbs, maxims, adages and riddles. If you’re needing a sliver of wisdom, try an aphorism. There are certainly plenty around …“Be the change you want to see in the world.”...
View ArticleSpoken word poets and rappers inject new energy into an Irish tradition
Young performers are electrifying audiences in Ireland and beyondThe seanchaithe were Ireland’s traditional storytellers, itinerant poets, entertainers and historians who travelled the island regaling...
View ArticlePoem of the week: The Back of Your Head by Nick Drake
The enigma of the stranger in front of you on the bus takes on a droll grandeur in this look at everyday infinityThe Back of Your HeadStranger, I’m looking at the back of your head;at the heart of the...
View ArticleUnplugged: what I learned by logging off and reading 12 books in a week
My mission: quit social media and spend the time reading the year’s top titles. The results were refreshing – and surprisingOn a Sunday in mid-December, I drove towards Nevada City, a former Gold Rush...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Lavernock by Saunders Lewis
A hushed Welsh lyric reflects on the cyclical nature of timeLavernockMoor and sea, skylark’s songascending through the wind’s demesnes,we too standing listeningas we’d listened formerly.Continue...
View ArticleHugh Dickson obituary
Actor with a gift for reading poetry who appeared in the BBC’s Elizabeth R and was a regular in every kind of radio dramaHugh Dickson, who has died aged 91, was one of a small band of actors: the...
View ArticleWhy we are fascinated by miniature books
From a tiny copy of the Divine Comedy and a once-illegal birth control guide to a Bible the size of a stamp, these strange artefacts are masterpieces writ smallIt is known as the “fly’s eye Dante”: an...
View ArticleVertigo & Ghost by Fiona Benson review – from nature to humanity
Poems of violence and motherhood, told through a brutal and compelling evocation of ZeusNothing in Fiona Benson’s fine 2014 debut collection Bright Travellers prepared us for this. After a premonitory...
View Article2019 in books: what you'll be reading this year
The Goldfinch takes flight in cinemas, Robert Macfarlane goes underground and Margaret Atwood continues The Handmaid’s Tale … what to look forward to in the world of books1 Centenary of the birth of...
View ArticleElizabeth Jennings: The Inward War by Dana Greene – review
The inner life of Elizabeth Jennings remains frustratingly elusive in this first biography of the troubled English poetElizabeth Jennings certainly has ballast in the ranks of 20th-century poets and...
View ArticlePoem of the week: From Paradise Lost by John Milton
The muscular blank verse of this great classic reveals a visionary amalgam of the biblical and the classicalFrom Paradise Lost, Book TwoHe ceased; and Satan stayed not to reply, But glad that now his...
View ArticleCosta first novel award winner recalls 'awful' time writing his book
Stuart Turton’s The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle wins £5,000 honour, alongside Sally Rooney who is the youngest author ever to win best novelHis debut The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle might...
View Article'Poetry is the antidote': in fight against Hindu nationalism, India turns to...
Buoyed by social media, Urdu poetry is enjoying new popularity in the face of divisive sectarian politics In a Delhi hockey stadium in December, about 100,000 people of various ages, genders, and...
View ArticleOmar Musa: ‘Australia could be so much better – but instead we indulge our...
Musa’s one-man show, Since Ali Died, is a densely packed hour of theatre, hip-hop and spoken wordThose who think Australia is a land of pretty beaches, long lazy Januarys and no culture wars should be...
View Article'I trembled with shock': my brush with the rapist at the heart of the Nobel...
The trial shocked Sweden and meant there was no Nobel prize for literature in 2018. But long before Jean-Claude Arnault was jailed for rape, I met himI was in my early 20s. I thought of myself as a...
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