Pain on the page: is this the end of the hysterical, ill woman of literature?
From Hilary Mantel to Irenosen Okojie, contemporary writers are rewriting the story of illness and the female body“I am fascinated by the line between writing and physical survival,” Hilary Mantel...
View ArticleParks and re-creations: the best books about Russian landscapes
From the vast steppe to wild forests, country estates to urban parks … Russia’s writers and artists have forged enduring links between nature and nationVladimir Putin’s announcement this week that “we...
View ArticleTop 10 books of everyday social anthropology | Gillian Tett
From studies of the ‘ghost workers’ in the wealthy west to the social meaning of smartphones, these books offer vital insights into how we structure our livesDefining what anthropology really is...
View ArticleBen Macintyre: ‘I wish I’d written The Great Gatsby. Doesn’t everyone?’
The author and journalist on his two unopened copies of Stephen Hawking’s great work and not getting on with Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogyThe book I am currently readingI am working steadily through...
View ArticleAncestors by Alice Roberts review – a story of movement and migration
A brilliant scientific storyteller reads stone, pottery and bones to bring us the latest moving updates about our prehistoric ancestorsIn 2002, not far from Amesbury in southern Wiltshire and a mile or...
View ArticleStories to save the world: the new wave of climate fiction
Now more than ever, novelists are facing up to the unthinkable: the climate crisis. Claire Armitstead talks to Margaret Atwood, Amitav Ghosh and more about the new cli-fiIn September 2017, David Simon,...
View ArticleIn brief: Black Water Sister; Mr Wilder & Me; Teach Yourself to Sleep – reviews
A graduate is haunted by the voice of her grandmother, Jonathan Coe examines fame through a film director, and Kate Mikhail wants to send us to sleepZen ChoPan Macmillan, £14.99, pp384Continue reading...
View ArticleThe Greatest Adventure by Colin Burgess review – a history of human space...
From the first race to the moon to the plutocrats’ search for the next Earth, a story of great risks offers rewardsAt the end of July the second richest man in the world, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, plans to...
View ArticleBan imposed on overseas sale of John Gould’s landmark ornithological studies
Export bar on Gould’s Original Drawings, valued at £1.2m, will run until September to allow domestic institutions time to raise money for purchaseThe UK government has put a temporary ban on a...
View ArticleThis month’s best paperbacks: Mary Trump on ‘Uncle Donald’, a new Elena...
Here are some excellent new paperbacks for July, including Too Much and Never Enough, outstanding translated novels and some fizzing fantasyContinue reading...
View ArticleVaxxers by Sarah Gilbert and Catherine Green; Until Proven Safe by Geoff...
The story of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine is part manifesto for good science communications, part biomedical thriller, while a smart history of quarantines makes their utility resoundingly clearOn...
View ArticleSentient review – in the realm of the senses
Jackie Higgins explains how the animal kingdom has given us new insights into how our senses function in a vivid and highly readable studyWhat can a ballet dancer pirouetting on the spot learn from...
View ArticleWalking the Invisible by Michael Stewart review – following in the Brontës’...
A walking tour of the north of England becomes a celebration of the Brontës’ work and a love letter to the wily, windy places that inspired them I walked recently through the North York Moors national...
View ArticleSocial Warming by Charles Arthur review – a coolly prosecutorial look at...
Social media giants contribute to global conflicts and allow misinformation. How have they gained so much control, and what is that doing to our lives?It’s good to remember that every time Mark...
View ArticleThe Sea Is Not Made of Water by Adam Nicolson review – of mollusc and men
This lyrical dive into rock pools illuminates the interconnectedness of all natural habitatsThere’s a WTF moment about a third of the way through Adam Nicolson’s new book, The Sea Is Not Made of Water....
View ArticleWritten in the wild: the best radical nature writing
From This Land Is Our Land to Why Rebel, the message is that if we take heed of the natural world, we can heal ourselvesEnglish nature writing can be a bit polite. Decorating nature with adjectives has...
View ArticleThis Is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan review – the trip of a lifetime
This fascinating insight into our relationship with mind-altering plants weaves personal experimentation with cultural historyMichael Pollan has written for many years, brilliantly, about our...
View ArticleSpike by Jeremy Farrar and Anjana Ahuja; and Vaxxers by Sarah Gilbert and...
Two urgent and fascinating accounts from the frontlines show how scientists succeeded, and failed, at saving us from Covid-19What did you do in the pandemic, Mummy and Daddy? Memoirs by battered...
View Article12 Bytes by Jeanette Winterson review – how we got here and where we might go...
Twelve essays drawing on years of research into artificial intelligence ask challenging questions about humanity, art, religion and the way we live and loveIn Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein, a...
View ArticleSpike: The Virus v the People review – Sage scientist’s revelatory Covid memoir
Jeremy Farrar’s account of the spread of the pandemic, in particular his view of government policy and fears about the virus’s origins, is genuinely shockingIt cannot be easy keeping confidences when...
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