Amis, Hitchens and Larkin: bad behaviour and a messy personal life were once a gift for authors. Not any more
Martha Gill
Flaws used to feed their sales but now writers are expected to be saints
January 2023
Republic of Parenthood
I left my baby to write this. How do artists balance creativity and the ache for their child?
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
All writers and painters who are mothers must tread a heroic path. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t have to, says the Guardian columnist Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
November 2022
Top 10s
Top 10 dissenting life stories
From Doris Lessing’s frank memoirs of social change to less famous campaigners in decisive struggles, these accounts provide an inspiring look ‘into the window’ of history
October 2022
The books of my life
Barbara Kingsolver: ‘Middlemarch is about everything, for every person, at every age’
The novelist on taking lessons from Doris Lessing, being inspired by John Steinbeck and why she can no longer read JD Salinger
August 2022
‘Books bring us into being’: how writing about reading became an inspiring literary genre of its own
Bibliomemoirs are an increasingly popular way for writers to celebrate reading and its power to shape lives
April 2022
From the Observer archive
A jazz player, a rock climber and Doris Lessing: life for women over 50, 1975
A war opportunity, the first female ascent in the Alps, and an ex-Communist
July 2021
Top 10s
Top 10 platonic friendships in fiction
From Doris Lessing to Dickens and John Irving, these tales show how passionate, intense and vital ‘just’ friendships can be
March 2021
Books that made me
Jessie Greengrass: 'Frog and Toad Are Friends contains one of the best jokes ever written'
The author on underrated ‘great of feminist literature’ Gaudy Night, looking forward to every Ian Rankin novel, and never finishing Middlemarch
August 2020
Don’t forget so many brilliant women
Letters: An article by Caitlin Moran fails to acknowledge the female writers, politicians and musicians who were involved in groundbreaking work, says Dr Kim Thomas
July 2020
From Donna Tartt to Irvine Welsh: 10 great novels about friendship
Urban junkies, competitive mothers, adolescent girls caught in the world of Charles Manson ... Lara Feigel picks her 10 favourites
January 2020
Books that made me
Tsitsi Dangarembga: ‘Reading Toni Morrison’s Beloved changed my life’
The Zimbabwean author on her love for Toni Morrison and Doris Lessing, and why Reni Eddo-Lodge changed her mind about England
October 2019
Reading group
How much did The Golden Notebook lift from Doris Lessing’s life?
A centenary exhibition of her archive shows the novel’s cast of feverish radicals were drawn recognisably from people she knew
Reading group
Struggling with The Golden Notebook? The hard work is worth it
For every moment of high drama, there are also sections of intense tedium. But Doris Lessing’s masterpiece delivers a big payoff
Reading group
Is The Golden Notebook a feminist novel?
Reading group
Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook is our Reading group book for October
Reading group
Reading group: which Doris Lessing book should we read in October?
February 2019
Book clinic
Book clinic: what’s likely to impress an English literature admissions tutor?
Philip Hensher suggests some great novelists, from GK Chesterton to VS Naipaul, who aren’t on the curriculum
September 2018
On my radar
On my radar: Oona Chaplin’s cultural highlights
Writers’ wilderness haven split over Brecon Beacons phone mast plan
August 2018
'A different way of living': why writers are celebrating middle-age
Viv Albertine, Deborah Levy, Lavinia Greenlaw and Rachel Cusk are redefining life after menopause, children or divorce – and it has never looked so good
