Helen Rosner on “Great Granny Webster” “Great Granny Webster” presents itself, at first, as a comic novel: a madcap portrait gallery of absurd aristocrats trapped in the self-created, self-imposed miseries of their... Read more »
An initiative that aims to widen access to Booker prize-winning authors is set to launch this week, as research finds that more than a third of UK adults find it hard to... Read more »
Madeleine Thien, author Lately I have loved Dorothy Tse’s City Like Water, translated from Chinese by Natascha Bruce. It is an unclassifiable, sharp, ingenious, passionate novel in which the city that is... Read more »
Malala YousafzaiActivistI have loved going to the theatre ever since I saw my first musical (Matilda in London, when I was 15 years old) – and I love reading about it, too.... Read more »
The children’s laureate, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, has urged the government to prioritise pleasure over learning in children’s reading. Giving evidence to MPs on the education committee, which is investigating the decline in reading... Read more »
Frank Cottrell-Boyce has urged policymakers to treat children’s reading as a “right” rather than a parental duty, warning that Britain is failing to understand the emotional and social value of reading, as... Read more »
My earliest reading memoryI remember reading throughout my childhood, but it’s hard to identify my earliest memory of reading. In a lot of ways, it’s as if my childhood began when I learned to... Read more »
Luke Kennard, writer This is a really good year for new fiction. I don’t think anyone writes about contemporary Englishness as astutely, mercilessly and affectionately as Claire Powell, and her latest novel,... Read more »
The “relentless” focus on measuring literacy progress in schools has “pushed reading for pleasure to the margins”, according to a new report. “Parents and schools both recognise that reading for pleasure matters,... Read more »