Illustration: Javi Aznarez In March 2020, when the mayor of San Francisco instructed all citizens to remain in their houses due to a pandemic, the first thing I did was order all... Read more »
The airy, modern house on the outskirts of Edinburgh shared by Val McDermid and Jo Sharp is surrounded by greenery and feels as though it was designed to provide enough space for... Read more »
My earliest reading memoryWhen I was five and starting school, I would catch a coach from the Oxfordshire village where I lived. Twice a day I read the little metal plaque screwed... Read more »
The author behind an offensive novel depicting toddler role-play has been convicted but spared jail for penning child abuse material. Lauren Ashley Mastrosa, a 34-year-old former marketing executive for a Christian charity,... Read more »
Winners and judges out of pocket as £20,000 writing awards appear to have closed | Awards and prizes
A competition for new writers that promised a £20,000 prize fund appears to have shut down, leaving winners and judges, including a Booker prize-winning novelist, out of pocket. Established in 2022, the... Read more »
“I’ve had a life and I’ve also had a life as a life writer”: Blake Morrison opens his tour d’horizon of arguably literature’s most expanding and expansive genre with a flash of... Read more »
A new £50,000 writing prize that allows readers to select the shortlist from submitted manuscripts – and rewards them with cash prizes for their involvement – has been launched by the publishing... Read more »
The Polish poet Czesław Miłosz is famously credited with the line: “When a writer is born into a family, the family is finished.” In contemporary European literature, a book these days is... Read more »