Explore Essays and memoir
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Zadie Smith on ‘Just Right’
Zadie Smith
‘There should be a special term for abandoned stories, and another for the strange limbo in which their occupants live.’
Introduction: Best of Young British Novelists 4
John Freeman
‘We live in unreaderly times, but our belief is that these novelists will be exceptions to the general rule of irrelevance faced by writers today.’
Xiaolu Guo | My Writing Playlist
Xiaolu Guo
‘The challenge of flowing in one continuous outpouring of language in a novel is my killer.’
Tahmima Anam | My Writing Playlist
Tahmima Anam
Tahmima Anam shares a playlist of songs to write to.
Mrs de Pelet
Evie Wyld
‘I see her with her hands cupped in front of her shouting ‘The “O”, ladies, The Vaginal O’ as we read Shakespeare.’
Salman Rushdie on Sunjeev Sahota
Salman Rushdie
‘You open a book by a writer you’ve never heard of and a new voice leaps off the page and makes you listen.’
Forklift Truck Driver Wins Literary Prize!
Adam Foulds
‘There are two options for the young writer and employment. There is the proper job, whatever it might be – law, advertising, medicine or the default choice for many, academia. Or there’s the menial, rent-paying job.’
Chinua Achebe’s Legacy
Ike Anya
‘Who will speak out for us now? Who will ask the hard questions of us and the world that he did?’
Pondlife: A Swimmer’s Journal
Al Alvarez
‘The water was chilly and sweet – cold enough to stay with me and make me shiver while I did some shopping later.’
In the Shadow of John Ascuaga’s Nugget
Claire Vaye Watkins
‘It would be falsely modest to claim that I appreciate the hot dog on any level beneath that of connoisseur.’
Betrayal
Adam Foulds
‘The thrill of this film – and it is thrilling – is seeing that understood and played out by actors of incredible skill.’
