James by Percival Everett – Huckleberry Finn reimagined
Book of the day
James by Percival Everett review – a gripping reimagining of Huckleberry Finn
October 2022
Brief letters
Music is the food of love, so sing on
Brief letters: Dating red flags | A new unit of time | Wisdom of Mark Twain | Who is the PM? | Wood doesn’t grow on trees | Class idiot
September 2021
Books that made me
Alan Johnson: ‘I read Animal Farm at 14 and it changed my life’
The author and former home secretary on disliking Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend and his fondness for PG Wodehouse
August 2021
Top 10s
‘You think wrong!’: top 10 rants in literature
Some distrust kvetching in print, but writers from Shakespeare to Valerie Solanas show there’s nothing wrong with constructive – and even destructive – criticism
February 2021
Hal Holbrook obituary
Hal Holbrook, Deep Throat in All the President's Men, dies aged 95
December 2020
Top 10s
Top 10 Shakespearean books
William Shakespeare’s influence on English literature is enormous, but from Dr Johnson to Germaine Greer, some outstanding works have explored his legacy and life story
September 2020
American classics among most ‘challenged’ books of the decade in US
Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird among works protesters have tried to get removed from schools and libraries
November 2019
The Prince and the Pauper review – trading-places twins double the fun
Sisters Danielle and Nichole Bird create a dreamlike mirror image in a superbly staged production, alive with music, wit and spectacle
April 2019
Why would one man read Mark Twain's whole library?
Alan Gribben has spent 45 years navigating fakes and tracking down lost tomes to study Samuel Langhorne Clemens’s book collection
October 2018
Shortcuts
Who said it: Strictly's Craig Revel Horwood … or Mark Twain?
The writer and the dance judge have both spread their wit and wisdom across three bulging volumes of autobiography. But can you tell who said what?
July 2018
From the Guardian archive
Millicent Fawcett on the passing of the Equal Franchise Act - archive, 1928
6 July 1928: After a campaign of more than 60 years, all women over 21 years old finally get the right to vote with the passing of the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928
February 2018
'Hurtful' Harper Lee and Mark Twain dropped from Minnesota curriculum
To Kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn to be dropped from Duluth area classes because of ‘uncomfortable atmosphere’ their use of racial slurs creates
November 2017
Brief letters
Périgord truffles grow in a Portsmouth fridge
Brief letters: British-grown fungi | Golf courses spoiling landscapes | Government by dirty old men | But what? | Boris Johnson the linguist
July 2017
Literary misquotations quiz: can you get the wrong lines right?
Top 10s
Top 10 opening scenes in books
April 2017
Richard Ford: ‘Who needs friends?’
Bill Murray to release classical music album
March 2017
The retreats where famous authors found inspiration – in pictures
Barack Obama prepares to write his memoir on the South Pacific island of Tetiaroa, once owned by Marlon Brando. Here’s where other authors found inspiration
