Books
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Comics legend, who has voted only once in his life, makes passionate appeal to help defeat ‘rapacious’ rightwing party in general election
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At 936 pages, The Eighth Life is the novelist’s first book to address her nation’s history. She explains why ‘the Georgian War and Peace’ is not yet complete
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An absorbing survey of Christianity’s subversive origins and enduring influence is filled with vivid portraits, gruesome deaths and moral debates
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Queer writer Edmund White was also honored with a medal for distinguished contribution to American letters
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The poet laureate’s new prize for a collection that focuses on the environment highlights a crisis that can no longer be ignored, plus an exclusive new poem
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A famous crime novelist, an am-dram star and ‘the Moss Side tigress’ in a tribute to female friendship
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Hall is an exceptional writer who can expose the animal in us all, yet some of her new stories are surprisingly soothing
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Growing up in 1970s Belfast means the thrill of punk and first love as well as the threat of violence
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These small masterpieces can capture a character’s essence with a revealing thought or gesture
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Two new books are causing a stir by translating the contortions over EU membership into graphic tales of endearing animals
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As the TV adaptation of Philip Pullman’s epic fantasy His Dark Materials reaches our screens, one writer tells how the trilogy changed her life
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As His Dark Materials comes to TV, the prize-winning children’s author Katherine Rundell looks at how a scrappy girl became one of literature’s best-loved characters
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Losing the 2016 US election was ‘devastating’, but Clinton is keeping up the fight. Mother and daughter talk about authoritarianism, inspiring women and why thrillers are the perfect escape
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At 87, she discusses her memoir of her adventurous early life and her 50-year marriage to the great historian
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Ever since her explosive debut Bad Behaviour, Gaitskill has dealt with pain and intimacy, sex and power. She explains why it was time to address #MeToo
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How did a one-woman show at Edinburgh become a worldwide hit? As a book of the series is published, performers and writers ask her about inspiration, sex and guinea pigs
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Rory MacLean and Luke Harding talk about the challenges of writing about Russia, the subjectivity of experience and getting high on ‘Putin’s Pecker’
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Looking for presents for the literary lovers in your life? Send us your questions for a special Christmas Book clinic …
What to read
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The novelist and playwright on why he keeps a photo of Anne Frank above his desk and championing Jean Rhys
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The author of Elizabeth Is Missing chooses books that explore the physical and emotional impact of dementia
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Once a haven for modernist pioneers, the beautifully cluttered bookshop is now a legend, known for letting travellers stay the night– if they write an autobiography
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Forty years ago, VC Andrews’ novel about incest, rape and murder-by-doughnut was declared ‘deranged swill’, but new books under her name still sell. Why?
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After a lifetime of saying the wrong thing and obsessing over road signs, author Tom Cutler finally received a medical opinion that made sense
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Thirty years after the events of 9 November 1989, five German writers reflect on the day they woke to a united country
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Observer book of the week Bowie’s Books and Why Bowie Matters – the literary life of Ziggy Stardust