Tracey Emin and Imelda Staunton get damehoods in king’s birthday honours
Others honoured from cultural world include the writer Monica Ali, choreographer Wayne McGregor and children’s laureate Joseph Coelho
January 2023
In brief: Signal Fires; If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal; Love Marriage – review
A thoughtful novel about a family secret, an insightful investigation into animal intelligence and Monica Ali’s clever comedy of manners
December 2022
My new year resolution
‘I will reflect on my own death – and try to conquer my fears’: the thing I’ll do differently in 2023
I don’t want to be mawkish or indulgent. But I want to consider my mortality in order to live well in the years I have left
November 2022
Top 10s
Top 10 books about losing faith
Authors from Jeanette Winterson to William Shakespeare tell stories of people doubting not just God but everything that gives their life meaning
October 2022
British Library to host Salman Rushdie celebration event
Writers including Hanif Kureishi, Monica Ali and Nigella Lawson will gather in London to share readings and reflections two months after the author was attacked on stage
July 2022
We Are Lady Parts leads South Bank Sky Arts award winners
Sitcom about Muslim female punk band wins best comedy as Opera North, Little Simz and Monica Ali also triumph
June 2022
Authors at Hay festival weigh the meaning of authenticity
Who can write about whom was a running question, tackled by writers from Rose Tremain to Damon Galgut
May 2022
Monica Ali ‘terrified’ of writing sex scenes in new novel
Brick Lane author says fear of winning Bad Sex award loomed over writing of latest book, Love Marriage
April 2022
Hay festival returns with its first in-person event for three years
Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah, Bernardine Evaristo, Elif Shafak and Benedict Cumberbatch are among those taking part in the 11-day gathering in Welsh border town
March 2022
The books of my life
Monica Ali: ‘I can’t imagine life without Tolstoy and Austen’
The novelist on George Orwell’s doublespeak, the psychology of addiction, and the unbearable darkness of Émile Zola
February 2022
Monica Ali says reaction to previous novel caused 10 years of depression
Brick Lane novelist said people were baffled when she wrote about Princess Diana rather than ‘brown people’
Love Marriage by Monica Ali review – lurid turns and lashings of sex
The novelist is on familiar territory and great form with a tale of premarital tension that punctures family life and feminism
Book of the day
Love Marriage by Monica Ali review – a culture-clash engagement
An entertaining exploration of multicultural British modernity - love, sex, class, politics, faith and family – from the author of Brick Lane
January 2022
Observer New Review Q&A
Monica Ali: ‘My children say I’m the worst storyteller ever’
As the Brick Lane author returns with her first novel in a decade, she talks about her ‘catastrophic’ loss of self-confidence, the value of comedy, and critics in the family
Today in Focus
Culture 2022: what to watch, read and listen to this year
Guardian critics Charlotte Northedge, Ben Beaumont-Thomas and Simran Hans look ahead to the best of the year in culture
From stand-in stars to tech titans: The Observer’s faces to watch in 2022
We look at who will be making headlines this year, in both a positive and negative light
February 2020
British Book awards balance art and selling power to decide best writer in 30 years
Novelists rub shoulders with presidents, chefs, comedians and thriller megastars on longlist to define the title with the biggest impact on the book world
August 2019
Impossible times for political novels
Letters:Peter Taylor-Gooby and Doug Sandle respond to Dorian Lynskey’s article on the death of the political novel
February 2018
Women's rights: 100 revolutionary years
Monica Ali on feminism in the 2000s: ‘I hadn’t truly considered the impact of children’
The Brick Lane novelist’s student dreams of imminent gender equality had drowned in a sea of nappies, but then she re-engaged with feminism’s new individualism
November 2017
Judi Dench: 'Practical support is just as important as the name on the letterhead'
Charity trustees Dame Judi Dench, Maxine Peake, writer Monica Ali and presenter Katie Piper tell us what they’ve learned from their chosen causes
