Bo Diddley with the Bo-ettes, and the Duchess (right) on rhythm guitar, Los Angeles, 1965


Sign in to Granta.com.
‘There’s Bo Diddley. Big hips, pointy shoes, glasses. A gap between his teeth, and a bow tie, in 1965.’
Bo Diddley with the Bo-ettes, and the Duchess (right) on rhythm guitar, Los Angeles, 1965
Sign in to Granta.com.
‘The flirtations of insects and plants are furtive, hidden and often so brief that if you literally blink you might miss what exactly is going on.’
Dino J. Martins on moths and orchids, from Granta 153: Second Nature.
‘The origin of the dysfunctional family: spores. / Friend or foe? True fern or ally?’
Poems by Sylvia Legris, author of Garden Physic.
‘And the trees were safely tucked in. Their roots were rallying in the soil, in this coil. Would the woman also take a turn for the better in her last decade?’
Three stories by Diane Williams.
‘walking alone down a country road – / distracted by the slightly annoying and toxic / first green of spring, eyes overflowing’
A poem by Emily Skillings.
‘Whatever the aftermath, you won’t see the city again except through the agency of absence, recalling this semi-emptiness, this viral uncertainty.’
From 2020: China Miéville on the UK government’s response to coronavirus.
Ben Ratliff has been a pop and jazz critic at the New York Times since 1996. His most recent book is The Jazz Ear: Conversations over Music (Times Books).
More about the author →The authors discuss music, the internet’s gamified reading culture and reading your reviews.
‘I used to be ashamed of it, though I’m not sure what exactly felt shameful.’
On training to be an opera singer.
‘My life as a writer depends on irony and metaphor, and my parents are horrified and alienated by both.’
Translated from the Italian by Elizabeth Harris.
A Kenyan journalist falls in love with the Tizita, popularly called Ethiopian blues, in this extract from Mũkoma Wa Ngũgĩ’s new novel.
Léonard Freed's photographs of Bucharest on 26 December 1989, in Granta 31: The General.
The copyright to all contents of this site is held either by Granta or by the individual authors, and none of the material may be used elsewhere without written permission. For reprint enquiries, contact us.