Explore Essays and memoir
Sort by:
Sort by:
The Binoculars of Jah
Colin Grant
‘No matter how I attempted to interpret the email, it could only be read in one way: I was out of the Bunny Wailer club. Jah Bunny had put a curse on me.’
First Sentence: Eliza Griswold
Eliza Griswold
‘This, of course, was years before anyone knew or cared who Boko Haram was.’
Ariel’s Song
Romesh Gunesekera
‘It is to Shakespeare’s pages I return whenever I feel I am sinking. There I can be sure to find a lifeline.’
Best book of 1947: L’Écume des Jours by Boris Vian
Xiaolu Guo
‘In those spring nights, I sat by barbecue stalls in the streets of Beijing, reading this novel under dim streetlights while eating lamb skewers.’
The Price of Freedom, Including VAT
Xiaolu Guo
‘I had lost my native country, now I was going to lose a continent.’
The Sufferings of this Present Time Are Not Worthy to Be Compared With the Glory Which Shall Be Revealed in Us
Matilda Gustavsson
Raqqa Road: A Syrian Escape
Claire Hajaj
‘The morning Helin walked out to die, she dressed carelessly in a loose T-shirt and jeans.’
On Shakespeare and the Quest for Belonging
Minal Hajratwala
‘We may not belong to Shakespeare, nor he to us, ever.’
Spirit Animals
Darrell Hartman
From The Revenant through Jurassic Park and Godzilla, Darrell Hartman traces the evolving meaning of megafauna in popular culture.
Best Book of 1766: Strange Tales From a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling
Dave Haysom
Dave Haysom on why Strange Tales From a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling is the best book of 1766.