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.

Packing lists and California cool: How Joan Didion made the personal iconic

Before minimalism was a hashtag or lifestyle trend, Joan Didion was living it with elegance and intent. Her now-famous packing list, tucked into The White Album, has become a cultural artefact in its own right—a snapshot of a writer whose personal style was as deliberate as her prose.

Is "Performative Reading" really so awkward?

It’s the quietest rebellion of 2025: the reader with a paperback in a coffee shop, a hardcover in hand on the train, a thick novel laid gently on a park bench. Yet according to a recent piece in The Guardian, even this small, once-innocent gesture, reading in public, is now tinged with suspicion. At least reading certain kinds of books is. So, the question is, are we reading, or are we performing?

Why romantasy is the book genre Gen Z can't stop talking about

Once upon a time, fantasy and romance lived in separate kingdoms. One was filled with dragons and quests; the other, with yearning glances and whispered confessions. Now? They’ve merged into a new, single, soaring genre known as "romantasy," and it's captivating Gen Z readers like few others.

Its influence is being felt throughout the publishing industry. I recently discussed this with a friend. He's a crime writer and is thinking about how he can weave elements into a new series. 

It's not hard to see why. In a world that feels increasingly uncertain, romantasy offers emotional intensity and escape in equal measure. With sweeping magical worlds and high-stakes love stories, it's a genre that doesn't ask readers to choose between action and intimacy. Instead, it says: have both.

Short stories, big hearts: ten collections worth reading

Sometimes, when you’re reading, you want to dip in and out. To read a story from start to finish, savouring the words and the rhythm of the story. There’s something deeply satisfying about finishing a tale in one sitting, especially when it lingers like perfume on skin. Short stories, at their best, are emotional distillations. They open small doors to large truths, inviting empathy, surprise, and sometimes awe. Here are ten collections that do just that.

From Memoir meltdown to dystopian excess: Jame Frey returns with a roar

Like a lot of people, I read A Million Little Pieces when it came out. I read it quickly, swept up by its manic rhythm and gut-punching candour. It felt raw, painful, and honest. 

Then came the controversy: the revelations that much of the book, which had been marketed as a memoir, had been fabricated, culminating in a televised public shaming by Oprah Winfrey in 2006. It wasn’t a memoir at all. More of a novel memoir mashup. A novior, if you like.

It was a moment that seemed to draw a line under Frey's literary future, banishing him to the margins of credibility. He was cancelled.

How Glasgow Boys reinvents the coming-of-age novel in Scots

When Margaret McDonald, at just twenty-seven, became the youngest-ever winner of the Carnegie Medal for Glasgow Boys, it felt like more than a milestone. 

It was a reminder that the future of children’s fiction lies not just in big ideas, but in the pulse of regional voices, stories told in our own tongue, rooted in place and people.

McDonald’s novel does exactly that. It is both tender and raw, steeped in Scots dialect, wrestling with the myths of masculinity, brotherhood and belonging. Banjo’s voice catches you from the very first pages, and you just want to keep turning.

Where to start with Martin Amis: The style, satire and the savage beauty of language

With writers you grew up reading, their departure leaves a space in your life that is as close to an ache as books and literature can get. That’s how I feel about Martin Amis.

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.

The Road: A devastating vision, brought beautifully to screen

TikTok got me thinking about great book-to-screen adaptations. There are plenty of good and bad out there. For me, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is one of my all-time favourite book-to-screen adaptations. Not because it’s flashy or overly faithful in a scene-by-scene sense, but because it captures the soul of the novel with eerie precision. Both book and film are bleak, yes. But they’re also deeply human, tender even, and ultimately unforgettable.

From Sylvia Plath to The Smiths: The ultimate bookish playlist

If you're like me, and you love books and music, you probably get the same unique thrill in hearing a favourite book or author woven into a song lyric. It's like a secret handshake between readers and musicians. Whether it’s a simple name-drop or a full-on homage, these songs remind us that the worlds of music and literature are always in conversation. 

Here are twenty-two songs that celebrate books and writers, featuring artists such as Kate Bush, Vampire Weekend, Nirvana, Radiohead, the Smiths, and Black Star.

20 Military history books and memoirs worth your time

From D-Day to drone warfare: definitive reads on modern conflict

If you’ve ever wanted to understand not just what happened in war, but why it happened, and how it felt to those who lived through it, military history is essential reading. These twenty books, focused on World War II and beyond, combine rigorous research with vivid storytelling. Some are sweeping epics; others zoom in on a single battle, soldier, or decision. All of them illuminate the wars that shaped the world we live in today.

20 War Novels that stay with you

Today is 6th June, marking the 81st anniversary of the D-Day landings. D-Day was the largest seaborne invasion in history and a turning point in World War II. A perfect opportunity to reflect only on how war has shaped and scarred the human story.

War novels, at their best, are not just about battlefields, but about the people who move through them, the memories they shoulder, and the hope that flickers even in the darkest hours. 

Here are twenty novels, not only from World War II, but also from other conflicts, that shine a light and tell stories about conflict, compassion, and endurance. Each comes with a quote—a shard of truth, if you like—and a reason to read.

The BookTok Effect: Why is The Secret History still so popular?

One of the most talked-about books on TikTok is Donna Tartt's The Secret History. More than 30 years after its publication, it remains a novel that continues to attract readers and spark debate. Not to mention attracting a new generation of readers. 

It’s a campus novel, a murder mystery, a character study, and a cult classic all in one — and it’s particularly resonant for a generation obsessed with aesthetics, identity, and the allure of darkness.

So what makes The Secret History so enduring?

The Great American Novel: 15 books that define a nation

Last time I wrote about what the Great American Novel is, where it came from and whether it was still needed or even possible.

Everyone, including me, has their own definition of the Great American Novel. But at its heart, the idea is simple: a book that captures the spirit, contradictions, and complexity of America.

An important qualifying factor is that it is not only about literary brilliance. It’s more than that. It’s about resonance. The novels below reflect the American psyche, telling us who we are, who we were, and sometimes who we want to be.

What is the Great American Novel – and does it still matter?

One of the questions I’m endlessly fascinated by when it comes to literature is The Great American Novel.

It is so evocative, and carries such weight. It's more than a slogan — it signals ambition, scope, and the desire to say something profound about the American experience. But what exactly is it? Where did the term come from? Why do writers still chase it and why are we still talking about it.    

The fake summer reading list: AI, outrage, and the decline of trust

This story is so wild. It started, as these things often do, with a list. A sunny-season tradition: the trusted newspaper summer reading list. But this year, one went viral for all the wrong reasons.

The Chicago Sun-Times published a feature recommending new books for summer 2025. Just five of the 15 titles were real. Ray Bradbury wrote Dandelion Wine, Jess Walter penned Beautiful Ruins and Françoise Sagan  Bonjour Tristesse.

The rest? Pure fiction. Literally. Titles like Tidewater Dreams by Isabel Allende (which she never wrote) and The Rainmakers by Pulitzer-winner Percival Everett (also fake) were invented by AI and published as if they were real.

Why Hemingway still matters

This year will be sixty-three years since Ernest Hemingway took his own life. He was 61 and a towering presence in literature. His life was marked by enormous creativity, public myth, and private suffering. Six decades later, his literary legacy remains undiminished. Hemingway wasn’t just one of the great American novelists of the 20th century. He changed the way fiction was written.

His influence on modern writing is unparalleled. He revolutionised the short story, made dialogue sharper and more lifelike, and proved that what you leave out is just as important as what you put in.

That’s why, if you are not already, you should be reading him. If you’re unsure where to begin or have questions, continue reading.

Whatever happened to Douglas Coupland?

Douglas Coupland’s novel Generation X didn’t just name a demographic—it captured a mindset. His fiction defined the detached, drifting, hyper-aware sensibility of 1990s youth culture. Generation X was also published 34 years ago. 

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?

The ADHD plot twist: making sense of ADHD as a writer

This is something of a confession. Something I’ve never shared publicly. I’ve hesitated to say it even privately. Slightly embarrassed, I suppose. 

However, having gone on a bit of a journey with this, it feels like a good time to write about it. 

This time last year, I got diagnosed with ADHD. I know. It sometimes seems that everyone is getting a diagnosis. 

Mine came after one of my children got a diagnosis (both now have one). 

This post is for anyone, writer or otherwise working in this industry, who’s also neurodivergent, or anyone who’s ever felt like their brain doesn’t quite follow the usual rules.

Why you should read Joan Didion and the best books to start with

Joan Didion didn’t just write essays and novels, she rewired what prose could do. Her work is surgically precise and emotionally raw, offering a style that has inspired generations of writers and captivated readers for over half a century. 

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.