Explore Essays and memoir
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Best Book of 1989: A House with Four Rooms
Esther Rutter
Esther Rutter on why A House with Four Rooms by Rumer Godden is the best book of 1989.
Self-Consciousness
Edward W. Said
‘It was through my mother that I grew more aware of my body as incredibly fraught and problematic.’
Just As It Was
Lucy Scholes
‘Unnatural is as fitting a term as any to describe the life Athill went on to lead, in that the choices she makes continually push against the conventions of her upbringing, class and gender. ’
Touch
Poppy Sebag-Montefiore
‘Touch had its own language, and the rules were the opposite of the ones I knew at home.’
How I Write My Books
Anne Serre
Anne Serre on how she writes. Translated from the French by Mark Hutchinson.
Exile
Elif Shafak
‘The first time I heard the word exile – sürgün – in Turkish, I was a child. It struck me how closely it rhymed with another word: hüzün – melancholy.’
When We Returned to Pakistan
Bina Shah
Bina Shah on growing up in Pakistan. ‘Culture shock was what they called it in those days, but to me it felt like a kidnapping.’
Going Home
Raja Shehadeh
Read an excerpt from Raja Shehadeh’s Going Home, a reflection on ageing, failure, the occupation, and the changing face of Ramallah.
Feeling Southern: A Patagonian Story
Fabián Martínez Siccardi
‘I was harbouring a southern feeling, a deep connection with the South of this real world, where I was born and will probably die.’
