Tomasz, Guardian reader Ever since my father presented me with a copy of The Unicorn, beautifully translated into my mother tongue, I have been an ardent admirer of Iris Murdoch’s. I went... Read more »
Too much of the literature taught in UK schools is putting children off reading and thrillers should become part of the curriculum, one of the world’s biggest selling authors has argued. Lee... Read more »
Hay festival president Stephen Fry is backing the organisation’s new campaign to collect recommendations for the most pleasurable books to entice new readers, in a bid to combat falling literacy rates in... Read more »
Geoff Dyer, author I finally got round to Thoreau’s Journal. It is determinedly down-to-earth and soaring, lyrical and belligerent, humane and cantankerous. Walt Whitman thought Thoreau suffered from “a very aggravated case... Read more »
Benjamin Myers, writer Erik Satie Three Piece Suite by Ian Penman is a daring and endlessly inventive portrait of the iconoclastic composer. Penman’s skill lies in his total disregard for tired cliches... Read more »
I had been working on Exeter University’s Ukrainian Wartime Poetry project for two years when the invitation came to travel to the country’s largest literary festival. I didn’t exactly relish the prospect... Read more »
Growing numbers of young people in Finland are buying books in English rather than in their mother tongue, raising fears among publishers over the future of translated literature. One in four titles... Read more »
As brisk weather moves in and the buzz of back-to-school preparations fills the air, you may find yourself drawn to the library or the comfiest chair in the house. The autumn reading... Read more »
Denmark is to stop charging VAT on books in an attempt to get more people reading. At 25%, the country’s tax rate on books is the highest in the world, a policy... Read more »