Explore Essays and memoir
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From the Spanish Flu to Covid-19
Reina James
Reina James compares our response to Covid-19 to the reaction to the Spanish Flu in 1918.
The Knowledge
Barclay Bram
Barclay Bram on the infamous London black cab exam, and how communal knowledge is changing.
The Beach
Laura Cumming
An excerpt from On Chapel Sands, which has recently been shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2020.
Red Sands
Caroline Crampton
‘They appear against the horizon as the boat slowly sweeps closer into the estuary.’
Caleb Klaces | Notes on Craft
Caleb Klaces
Caleb Klaces on being inspired by Van Gogh’s third image, found during the X-ray scanning of one of Van Gogh’s early, repainted canvases.
Jem Calder | Notes on Craft
Jem Calder
‘I wrote in the address bar of my web browser, in spreadsheet cells, in emails I addressed to myself.’ Jem Calder on writing fiction at his day job.
Introduction
Sigrid Rausing
‘We take our theme from Pwaangulongii Dauod’s remarkable eulogy to the late Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina.’
Editor Sigrid Rausing introduces Granta’s 150th issue.
Carolyn
Andrew O'Hagan
‘Where was Denver in all of this, or the wide open road to Mexico, or the woman, hip to the souls of sensitive men, who was played on-screen by Sissy Spacek and later by Kirsten Dunst?’
Andrew O’Hagan remembers Carolyn Cassady, beat writer and widow of Neal Cassady.
A Portrait of My Mother
Michael Collins (Photographer)
Photographer Michael Collins on his mother’s life following a series of strokes.
Why We Walk
Ian Willms & Adam Foulds
‘There are glimmers of the reality beyond, the promise of redemption even in the darkest places.’
Adam Foulds introduces the photography of Ian Willms.
Binyavanga
Pwaangulongii Dauod
‘There are many writers, including myself, who owe their careers to Binyavanga. He was the most generous writer of his generation.’
Pwaangulongii Dauod remembers the late Binyavanga Wainaina.
Japanese Wives
Noriko Hayashi
‘Every time I remember that moment, I can’t help but cry. I was only twenty-one years old.’
A photoessay by Noriko Hayashi.
The Second Career of Michael Riegels
Oliver Bullough
‘The new law was technical and complicated, but created something genuinely new: the international business company, a hyper-deregulated shell corporation.’
Oliver Bullough investigates the history of shell companies in the British Virgin Islands.
