Books
-
William Boyd remembers an exemplar of the ultimate literary professional, tirelessly writing at the top of his game well into his 80s -
In the Australian-American author’s precise fiction, devastation is the subject and the aim - and the reader is not spared -
A mother and daughter are suspended in grief, in this haunting Italian novel
-
Drinking sherry, bingeing Downton Abbey ... how authors keep up the spirit of the season, even when writing during heatwaves and a nightmarish Christmas
-
The long read: She published her first book in her 40s, and became the biggest selling author of the past decade in any genre – The Gruffalo alone has sold 13m copies. How did this former busker make it so big? -
Adventure on a Bad Night, in which a shopping trip unpicks layers of prejudice, was written in 1944 and rediscovered by the son of a writer fascinated by ‘the possibility of evil’
Books of the year
-
A teenager’s nature diary, the race for a vaccine and the return of Lyra ... books have been vital in getting us through the year. Guardian critics pick 2020’s best fiction, poetry, politics, science and more
-
A fine portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft as an Enlightenment intellectual neglects the complexity of her views on the ‘oppression of my sex’ -
The former Guardian editor offers a compelling tour of journalism and why it matters -
Glory, grief, loss – and incest – are all covered in this panoramic account that makes more sense of the great European dynasty than its rulers often did
-
A village runs its own brutal system of justice, in this slippery fable of mob morality -
The System by Ryan Gattis; The Spiral by Iain Ryan; The Last Resort by Susi Holliday; The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji; and Crocodile Tears by Mercedes Rosende -
A haunting, visionary novel that moves from St Petersburg to St Andrews, with ghosts and saints hovering over every page
-
From toxic masculinity to the #MeToo movement, the author of Girls captures the rocky recalibrations at work in sexual culture -
Themes of love and loneliness, doom and desire are explored in a richly comic collection from an Irish maestro -
A fierce and clear-eyed debut that finds a fresh way to explore humankind’s role in environmental chaos
-
David Walliams, Whoopi Goldberg, Bruce Springsteen … when celebrity authors make big money from children’s books, do young readers and other writers pay the price? -
The prize-winning author’s life is now an episode of Steve McQueen’s hit series Small Axe. He talks about working on the project and his latest novel, based on a Jamaican slave uprising
-
Margaret Atwood, John Banville, Tom Stoppard, Ralph Fiennes, John Boorman and more pay tribute to a master who transcended the limits of spy fiction
-
Ireland’s greatest living writer is as ambitious as ever. She talks about working in Nigeria, coping with critics – and one final novel -
The author of the prize-winning Hamnet on her first children’s book, conquering her stammer, and the advantages of living with a fellow novelist
-
The prize-winning writer on her new memoir Not a Novel, growing up near the Berlin Wall and her support for refugees -
Named the ‘winner of winners’ of the Women’s prize, Bernardine Evaristo, Maggie O’Farrell and others ask the author about the #EndSars protests in Nigeria, writing about Trump, and the culture that got her through 2020 -
The prize-winning author’s life is now an episode of Steve McQueen’s hit series Small Axe. He talks about working on the project and his latest novel, based on a Jamaican slave uprising
What to read
-
Robert McCrum has reached a verdict on his selection of the 100 greatest novels written in English. Take a look at his list -
After two years of careful consideration, Robert McCrum has concluded his selection of the 100 greatest nonfiction books of all time. Take a quick look back at five centuries of great writing -
Regulars
-
The naturalist, TV presenter and writer on overpopulation, the one book he failed to finish and an underrated novel about a woman watching a snail -
The writer’s observations of fellow railway passengers in the 1920s coalesce into an authentically joyous work
-
From Evelyn Waugh to Virginia Woolf and Sally Rooney, these novels offer masterclasses in dialogue-driven narrative
You may have missed
-
When £2.5m of rare books were stolen in an audacious heist at Feltham in 2017, police wondered, what’s the story? By Mark Wilding -
After being mugged, crime author Chris Whitaker found himself unable to cope with the trauma. Putting his thoughts down on paper helped – then disaster struck again -
Her debut about a woman who raises an orangutan as a human was widely praised in 1932, but her work has slipped from sight. Is it time for a revival?
-
The US president’s refusal to concede the election looks unnervingly familiar to a classicist – ancient Rome offers valuable lessons about letting go of power
Most viewed
Children’s books The best of 2020 - for all ages