Wednesday, 19 November 2025

Why does every bestseller sound the same? A mini manifesto against beige prose

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Pick up any recent bestseller and you’ll notice it. The prose is clean. Efficient. Emotionally calibrated within an inch of its life. And, y...
Saturday, 15 November 2025

Books that saved my writing: Five under-the-radar titles every writer should read

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Not every book that changes your writing shouts about it. Some sneak in sideways, books that don’t always appear on must-read lists but lodg...
Tuesday, 11 November 2025

The Booker goes blokey: what David Szalay's Flesh tells us about masculinity in fiction

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David Szalay's Flesh is many things: stark, relentless, deeply bodily. But above all, it may be the most blokey Booker winner we've...
Sunday, 9 November 2025

The literary comeback of 2025: Why everyone's quoting Sontag again

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It started, as these things often do, on Instagram. A scan of Susan Sontag's notebook in Helvetica type, posted by an aesthetic account ...
Wednesday, 5 November 2025

Why we’re in love with literary angst

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From tear-in-the-rain heartbreak to existential quiet, bleaker classics are finding a new, eager audience. Remember when reading heavy meant...
Sunday, 2 November 2025

The rise of the hyper-niche book club

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From "sad girl autumn" to "cosy fantasy without war," readers are forming ultra-specific clubs that speak to identity, m...
Monday, 27 October 2025

When pop stars read serious books: what book clubs mean now

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Once upon a time, the book club was a quiet affair. A circle of friends, a bottle of wine, and a novel discussed with enthusiasm or polite d...
Wednesday, 22 October 2025

Why are we still waiting for J.D. Salinger?

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I was a teenager when I first read The Catcher in the Rye, and I remember thinking, quite seriously, that I wanted to be a writer, not in so...
Thursday, 16 October 2025

Do writers need social media? Richard Osman thinks not. Here’s why that’s a problem

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Richard Osman recently sat down with Guardian journalist Marina Hyde and offered a tidbit that has rippled across social media (or all place...
Tuesday, 14 October 2025

The literary echo chamber: Are we reading in circles?

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I love a good book recommendation. Who doesn’t? But lately, I’ve started to wonder: are we all reading the same five novels, over and over a...
Friday, 10 October 2025

Shakespeare and Company: Why Paris’s most famous bookshop still feels like a pilgrimage

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A century after it first opened, Shakespeare and Company remains more than a bookshop; it’s a living testament to the power of words, memory...
Thursday, 9 October 2025

The rise of the fanon canon: when fan fiction influences original fiction

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It was once a guilty secret: some writers honed their skills on fan fiction, sharing stories in the corners of the internet before stepping ...