Why Mansfield Park deserves your attention in Austen’s anniversary year

 In the book world, you cannot have missed it. It’s 2025, and it’s Jane Austen’s year — the 250th anniversary of her birth. So, it's natural that readers will return to the classics: Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility. They sparkle with wit, romantic tension, and iconic heroines — the ones we recommend, adapt, reread, and lovingly quote. But in this anniversary year, I want to make a quieter, more subversive suggestion:

Read Mansfield Park.

Publication of Joan Didion’s journal creates an ethical literary dilemma

Joan Didion has been a monumental influence on countless writers, including myself. Her works, from Slouching Towards Bethlehem to The Year of Magical Thinking, have profoundly shaped modern literature.

Anything new by her is a major literary event. So, the recent announcement of the posthumous publication of her personal journal, Notes to John, has ignited a significant ethical debate within the literary world.

Yes, it is exciting to see Didion's unpublished work, but is it right to publish her personal journals? Especially those detailing conversations with her psychiatrist?

Dialogue that does double duty: How to advance plot and reveal character

Dialogue isn’t just there to make characters sound like they’re speaking. It’s one of the most powerful

tools in a novelist’s kit. The right line of dialogue can move the story forward, deepen a character’s personality, and sometimes even hint at future conflicts. 

When your dialogue serves multiple purposes, it pulls more weight, making your prose more efficient and engaging. Here are four well-known literary examples of how you can achieve this.

How to develop character backstories that bring your novel to life

Every character, even those that appear briefly, benefits from a backstory. Understanding their past not

only aids in writing them more convincingly—it also makes them feel more real, both to you and your readers. This doesn’t imply cramming pages of history into the novel, but possessing a profound understanding of their origins will manifest in subtle, impactful ways.

The Young V&A Bookshop

The Young V&A is an inspirational, active, and fun place for kids (and adults). 

It is brilliantly curated and designed in every corner. Better still, it has a friendly little bookshop, where I came across these rather lovely-looking editions today.