Royal Society of Literature refers itself to Charity Commission as authors pen petition
After months of criticism and an open letter signed by Ian McEwan and Alan Hollinghurst the charity confirms referral is in process
July 2023
Top 10s
Top 10: good sex in fiction
‘There were very, very few openly queer kids in my year group’: Joe Lycett, Colm Tóibín and more on how gay life has changed
February 2022
‘A certain pleasant darkness’: what makes a good fictional sex scene?
The novelist Niamh Campbell on why describing intimacy is so difficult and how creative writing about sexuality is changing. Plus, she picks 10 of her favourite examples
February 2021
Club culture
‘You can smell the sweat and hair gel’: the best nightclub scenes from culture
Writers and artists including Róisín Murphy, Tiffany Calver and Sigala on the art that transports them to the dancefloor during lockdown
July 2020
'The nearest to God we get': stars pick the Beethoven work they cherish
Ali Smith does an opus a month, Tony Hall saw Fidelio on Robben Island, and Lady Brenda Hale used to march to his Grosse Fuge. As the Proms celebrate Beethoven’s 250th anniversary, stars reveal a favourite work
June 2020
Overcoming fears, discovering nature ... what I have learned from lockdown
As lockdown eases, authors including Anne Enright, Mark Haddon and Sebastian Barry reflect on what they have learned – and what comes next
May 2020
'I wanted something 100% pornographic and 100% high art': the joy of writing about sex
As authors from Chaucer to Hollinghurst have shown, sex reveals our emotions, instincts and morals. The question is not why write about sex, claims author Garth Greenwell, it’s why write about anything else?
April 2020
Lockdown culture
Novelists pick books to inspire, uplift, and offer escape
From Hilary Mantel to Kazuo Ishiguro and Marlon James to Sebastian Barry, writers share their favourite literary comforts
March 2020
‘It’s not just a cottage, it’s a shrine.’ Writers join bid to save Derek Jarman’s last home
The campaign to keep the artist’s Dungeness chalet for the nation has just weeks to reach its £3.5m target
October 2019
Dear Europe: letters from JK Rowling, Neil Gaiman, Mary Beard and more
From Paris to Berlin, fado to football, boat trains to pen friends … public figures reflect on their lifelong relationship with Europe
September 2019
Best culture of the 21st century
The 100 best books of the 21st century
Dazzling debut novels, searing polemics, the history of humanity and trailblazing memoirs ... Read our pick of the best books since 2000
August 2019
Book clinic
Book clinic: what can I read to look cultured when I go to Cambridge?
Zadie Smith and Martin Amis will give you something interesting to contribute to any conversation
October 2018
Booker prize novel sparks free speech row in Czech Republic
Alan Hollinghurst book attacked as ‘pornographic’ after radio broadcasts a short excerpt from it
July 2018
From Do the Right Thing to Swimming Pool: culture's hottest heatwaves
Tension simmers, passions rage and things are never the same again. We pick the books, film and music in which heatwaves inspire race riots, sexual abandon – and even a chainsaw massacre
April 2018
In brief: Mothers: An Essay on Love and Cruelty; The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder; The Sparsholt Affair
Jacqueline Rose’s study of motherhood and culture; Sarah J Harris’s synaesthetic mystery; and Alan Hollinghurst’s decades-spanning novel of art, identity and gay lives
Man Booker festival: Peter Carey, Kazuo Ishiguro and Hilary Mantel among lineup
‘Once-in-a-lifetime’ gathering of winners in London in July will include rare joint appearance from mother-daughter honorees Anita and Kiran Desai
Ali Smith, Kazuo Ishiguro and Hilary Mantel top poll of best UK and Irish authors
Critics, academics and authors vote to find ‘the new Elizabethans’, to correct the tendency to champion older authors as the literary establishment
March 2018
Book clinic
Book clinic: what are the best titles for LGBTQ+ representation?
Armistead Maupin, Jeanette Winterson and a host of other good writers have brought gay literature into the mainstream
November 2017
Best books of 2017
Best books of 2017 – part two
From moving memoirs to far-reaching fiction, novelists, poets and critics pick their best reads of the year
