These are the misfit texts: the ghost stories, experimental fragments, and one-off essays that never quite made it into the canon but hold a strange power all their own. They’re small, sometimes imperfect, but full of clues. In them, we catch glimpses of writers unguarded, playful, or restless, working things out before the world was watching.
Amis, who died in 2023 at the age of 73 from cancer, was one of Britain’s most distinctive and dazzling literary voices. The son of Kingsley Amis, author of Lucky Jim, he forged his own reputation as a bold stylist and razor-sharp satirist, chronicling the absurdities and moral disintegration of late 20th-century life with wit, intellect and a signature swagger.
He gave us slackers before they were memeable, office ennui before The Office, and a sense that we were all increasingly plugged in and alienated.
He was prolific for many years, publishing thirteen novels between 1991 and 2013—six of them in his first ten years.
But it’s now been more than a decade since his last novel, Worst. Person. Ever. It was published in 2013. So… what happened?
She helped shape the New Journalism movement in the 1960s, bringing a personal, literary sensibility to reportage. She created some of the most arresting portraits of American life in the second half of the twentieth century.
I’ve always been fascinated by this sub-literary genre, from what makes it work to why it continues to captivate readers and how it manages to be both intensely specific and universally resonant.
The best campus novels transport us to a world of intellectual ambition, youthful recklessness, and, often, profound disillusionment. They capture a moment in life where identity, relationships, and ambition collide.
But what exactly makes a great campus novel, and which books best define the ever-growing genre?
For a while, I thought I needed long, uninterrupted stretches before I could write. Otherwise, what was the point? I told myself that anything less than 90 minutes was pointless—but in reality, I was just putting blockers in the way.
I’ve since learned that writing a novel doesn’t require marathon sessions. It can be done in snatches, even 20 minutes here, a paragraph or two there.
If you feel like you don’t have time to write, you’re not alone. But that doesn’t mean you can’t finish a book. I’ve spent ages thinking about this and collected some strategies and wisdom from authors on how to write a novel when your schedule is packed.
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?
“Show, don’t tell” is one of the oldest pieces of writing advice, but what does it mean? At its core, it encourages readers to experience the story through the characters’ actions, words, and emotions instead of simply being told what to think.
This approach makes the difference between feeling immersed in the narrative and feeling as though you’re merely reading a summary.
