Explore Essays and memoir
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Samanth Subramanian | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Samanth Subramanian
‘The first time I ever visited a place I’d read about in a travel book was when my family took a holiday in Hong Kong in 1993.’
Colin Thubron | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Colin Thubron
‘The death of travel – and of the travel book – has been predicted for almost a century.’
Old School
Xan Rice
‘Apartheid had marked him, as it has marked all of us, in different ways. It made me hyper-aware of colour.’
Victim Politics
Ben Rawlence
‘The push and pull of identity politics is the child of slavery and empire.’ Ben Rawlence on empire and the construction of white identity.
The False Lords of Misrule
Peter Pomerantsev
Peter Pomerantsev takes us on a tour of the lewd, crude language of modern politics – from Trump to Putin to Duterte, Milo Yianopoulos, Boris Johnson and more.
Best Book of 1950: A Natural History of Trees by Donald Culross Peattie
James Pogue
‘Now more than ever environmentalists need to remember what it’s like to write for that real world.’
Best Book of 1868: Dostoevsky’s The Idiot
Laurie Sheck
‘The beauty of The Idiot lies in its opposition to closed systems.’
Best Book of 2013: When the World Became White by Dalia Betolin-Sherman
Mira Rashty
‘New poetic expressions can still emerge and evolve in Hebrew – an ancient and almost prehistoric language, with its grumbling sound’
Best Book of 2008: Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen
Mika Taylor
‘Rivka Galchen’s debut novel is one of my favourites from the last few years.’
Best Book of 1994: The Land of Green Plums by Herta Müller
Eliza Robertson
‘You'd have to have lived through that bleakness. You'd have to know with your body, your hands, your eyes, your mouth, the weight of that fear – how it’s not strictly describable.’
Best Book of 1970: Moominvalley in November
Aleksi Pöyry
‘This is a book I always return to for its melancholy tone, warm humour and psychological insight.’
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby: Best Book of 1995
Ted Robinson
‘It was a story about music and relationships.’
