Let’s turn the air blue, girls – we should be free to curse at will
Women’s body parts have long been appropriated for the purpose of cursing, so it’s only right that we reclaim them with profane gusto
October 2023
Top 10s
The top 10 allegories in fiction, from Plato to Kafka
Authors from Jonathan Swift to NoViolet Bulawayo show how much can be done with what might sound a narrow form – and how much fun can be had with it
March 2022
Gulliver’s Travels review – bedroom voyage to the world of Jonathan Swift
Bewitching video and ingenious sets combine in a staging that turns the 18th-century adventure into an escape for a troubled student
January 2022
The Guardian view on prescience in novels: reading the future
Lighten up the satire? That’s a tall order when life is out-crazying the most vivid fiction
Catherine Bennett
December 2021
Gulliver Returns review – warp speed Lilliput in maddening take on Swift’s classic
A kids’ version of the 18th-century satire could have been ripe for laughs – but this is subpar knockabout stuff
November 2021
You don’t have to be rich to live long and prosper
Letters: Billionaires may spend fortunes on trying to cheat death, but there’s a much easier way, writes Paul Martinez. Plus letters from Luce Gilmore, George Baugh and Geoff Reid
November 2020
Migrants and my own modest proposal
Stewart Lee
As a satirist of equal standing to Jonathan Swift, I thought it time to turn my attention to the Channel
December 2019
Book of the day
The Penguin Book of Oulipo review – writing, a user's manual
Lovers of word games and literary puzzles will relish this indispensable anthology celebrating Perec, Calvino and many others
September 2019
Michael Morpurgo on fighting Brexit: 'I've been spat at. It's almost civil war'
The world’s getting nastier, says the writer, and Britain no longer cares. So he’s hitting back – with a Gulliver’s Travels update that targets Trump, Brexit and the refugee crisis
October 2018
Book of the day
First You Write a Sentence by Joe Moran review – how good writing makes sense of the world
Love verbs and go easy with nouns, and end a sentence on a stressed syllable ... Thoughtful reflections on how to write
August 2018
Ian Hislop on dissent: 'It's cathartic to say, "This is rubbish"'
From an ‘up yours’ to ancient kings to the pussyhats worn on anti-Trump protests, an exhibition curated by the Private Eye editor celebrates resistance to authority down the ages
February 2018
Jonathan Swift: The Reluctant Rebel review – a ‘daring cultural bandit’
John Stubbs’s monumental biography of the Gulliver’s Travels author portrays him as the most notorious writer of his day
November 2017
Jonathan Coe: writing a children’s book for our turbulent times
The author reveals how the simplicity, satire and ambiguity of Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels gave him the spark to write a fantasy story for children
October 2017
100 best nonfiction books of all time
The 100 best nonfiction books: No 88 – A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift (1729)
The satirist’s jaw-dropping solution to the plight of the Irish poor is among the most powerful tracts in the English language
June 2017
Historic Irish library could make more than £1.8m at auction
Ananya Vinay, 12, spells 'marocain' to win National Spelling Bee
March 2016
Guardian Opinion cartoon
Martin Rowson on the crises facing Britain's industry and culture – cartoon
First thoughts
We’ll never live forever: let’s look at end-of-life care differently
Archie Bland
August 2015
The 100 best novels
Did the 100 best English language novels make enough room for the Irish?
Nine Irish authors made it into Robert McCrum’s selection of the best fiction of all time. But were they the right ones, and were there enough of them?
