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Explore Essays and memoir

The Forgotten War

Leila Guerriero

Leila Guerriero investigates the collusion that left so many graves unmarked decades after the Falklands War.

The Fire

Tom de Freston

A fire breaks out in Tom de Freston’s painting studio.

The Trip to Rose Cottage

Cal Flyn

‘People washed up here, and remained.’

Cal Flyn visits the abandoned island of Swona.

Notes on Craft

Sara Freeman

Sara Freeman, author of Tides, on writing while seeing the wood for the trees.

Notes on Craft

Alex Hyde

‘The scrubbing of floors or rugs. People down on their knees, “tamping” the stain.’ Alex Hyde on the everyday gestures that make a life.

Best Book of 2019: A Month in Siena

Emmanuel Iduma

‘In art he finds the language with which to exchange mourning for some measure of equanimity.’

Emmanuel Iduma’s best book of 2019.

Best Book of 1988: Camera

Juliet Jacques

Juliet Jacques on her best book of 1988.

Travelling Secretary

Emmanuel Iduma

‘My life unfolded within the net effect of my father’s choices.’

Memoir by Emmanuel Iduma.

Confluences

Kate Harris

‘The creek was fringed with tall grass and clear as breath.’

Kate Harris in the Taku River Tlingit First Nation.

I Know What Spring Is Like: Clarice, Crônicas and Corcovado

Sinéad Gleeson

‘A state of grace, Lispector writes, should be short-lived, episodic.’

Sinéad Gleeson on Clarice Lispector’s Brazil.

Replace Me

Amber Husain

On neoliberalism’s psychic toll.

Notes on Craft

Juliet Jacques

Juliet Jacques on writing her trans and non-binary characters into being.

Ill Feelings

Alice Hattrick

‘Unravelling refers to a textile that was once complete’.

Traces

Ruchir Joshi

‘Calcutta is an hourglass and each person is a grain of sand. Each day, we all pour through the opening.’

Photographs and memoir by Ruchir Joshi.