On Thursday 22 May at 1pm AEST we'll be doing a live webchat with Irvine Welsh. What do you want to ask him? He exploded onto the literary scene with Trainspotting in 1993, and has been proudly in our faces ever since. Now Irvine Welsh is back with his 13th novel, The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins, his first set entirely in his adopted home of America and which according to the Observer pokes "at...
Jack London's vivid adventures of a pet dog that goes back to nature reveal an extraordinary style and consummate storytelling Robert McCrum introduces the series The Call of the Wild, a short adventure novel about a sled dog named Buck (a cross between a St Bernard and a Scotch collie) will be one of the strangest, and most strangely potent, narratives in this series. Its author was a one-off, too....
The author's comic novel Lost for Words has beaten Sebastian Faulks's authorised Wodehouse sequel to 'the only prize with a sense of humour' The novelist Edward St Aubyn has shifted from parody into reality by winning the UK's only prize for comic fiction with a satire of literary awards, Lost for Words. St Aubyn carried off the 2014 Wodehouse prize in the face of competition from a novel inspired...
This powerful account of the Edward Snowden case reveals the threat posed by spying Before Glenn Greenwald appeared on Newsnight last October to argue the case for the Snowden revelations on a link from Brazil, the presenter that evening, Kirsty Wark, popped into the green room to have a word with the other guests on the show, one of whom was Pauline Neville-Jones , formerly chair of the Joint Intelligence...
Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 is the latest novel by author Francine Prose. NPR's Lynn Neary speaks with Prose about her novel, set in Paris from the 1920s to the end of World War II....
NPR's Lynn Neary talks to former national coordinator for Security and Counter-Terrorism Richard A. Clarke. He's written a new thriller, Sting of the Drone , a fictional look at the U.S. drone program....
From 2008 to 2013, Nathan Deuel and his family lived in the Middle East. His new memoir about his experience is titled Friday Was The Bomb ....
Daniel Galera's nameless hero uncovers family secrets when he moves to a coastal town in Brazil but his promising novel loses much in translation Daniel Galera is a Brazilian publisher and writer. In his acknowledgments he thanks a friend for being his companion in open-water swimming. Swimming and water play a large part in this novel, and in the life of the main character, who has...
The former archbishop of Canterbury wears his faith lightly in this arresting and surprising compilation of poems This collection a vigorous compilation of old and new poems including translations of Rilke and of several Welsh poets gets off to an unexpected start with an introduction to a "Mrs Noah", who is drying ferns out on deck: "I am Mrs Noah: I call the beasts home/together, the...
Eimear McBride's long ignored but now prize-winning experimental novel offers great rewards to persistent readers This is not a beach read, and Eimear McBride would undoubtedly take that as the compliment it is intended to be. McBride is not interested in giving readers an easy ride; the task she sets herself, with this Goldsmiths prize-winning book , is to stretch the possibilities of language. Sentences...
Dance serves as a metaphor for all our aspirations and disappointments in Maggie Shipstead's thoughtful novel Maggie Shipstead's first novel, Seating Arrangements , was a social satire set during an exclusive society wedding in New England. Her new novel, Astonish Me , examines another, rather different world of ritualistic precision and self-discipline ballet.Joan, a good-but-not-great American ballerina,...
Novelist was passionate self-taught artist whose pictures include images of historical figures in incongruous settings The late Beryl Bainbridge's London home was as crowded as her mind. Continue reading... ...
Simon Heffer remains readable while putting us straight on usage If you are of the opinion that the newspaper headline "the economy shrank steeper than expected" isn't just grammatically incorrect but, as Simon Heffer shrieks, a positively "barbaric" crime against language, then the journalist-turned-grammarian's latest microscopic journey into the English language is required reading....
John Crace boldly sifts the columnist terrible 's ranting down to a five-minute squeal for the weak of stomach Oi, you. Yes you, you poncey metropolitan elite. Put down that Richard Littlejohn autobiography right now. And shut up about Clarkson. How come they get all the attention and you forget there's another irritating gobshite on the block? I can be offensive, too. Wog. There. I've said it. I'll...
Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California oppose cove naming Representative: Twain made derogatory comments in writing A Nevada state panel has withdrawn an attempt to name a Lake Tahoe cove for the celebrated author Mark Twain, citing opposition from a tribe which claims he held racist views on Native Americans. The news echoes a 2011 furore which blew up when a new edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry...
The action in Paula Fox's harrowing 1970 novel is set in motion by an unfriendly alley cat — but it spirals out into a multilayered and pointedly accurate portrayal of the dissolution of a marriage....
The most enduring examples of the work of influential Italian architect and designer Ettore Sottsass Rowan Moore on the godfather of Italian cool Continue reading... ...
The Yorkshire poet on beach cafes, pretentious New Yorker reviews and the comedy of the World Cup Yorkshire-born Simon Armitage is a poet, playwright and novelist who published his first collection of poems, Zoom! , in 1989. He was shortlisted for the Whitbread poetry prize for Kid , The Dead Sea Poems and CloudCuckooLand , and has four times made the shortlist for the TS Eliot prize for poetry. In...
The cultural critic has turned in a fascinating memoir, but the weight of its facts and opinions can be often overwhelming Jonathan Meades occupies a strange, ill-defined yet distinctive position in English letters. A novelist, critic and TV presenter of playfully austere documentaries, his work extends across the arts and deep into food, united by a singular outlook: one of imperious scorn. Even when...
From punk right through to Lady Gaga, Mark Ellen was there, wryly taking note I have never worked with or for Mark Ellen, the music journalist and editor who spent his time at Oxford in Ugly Rumours with Tony Blair, wrote for Smash Hits alongside Neil Tennant, and co-anchored Live Aid before founding (or relaunching) five magazines: New Music News , Select , Q , Mojo and the Word (two have survived...