Explore Essays and memoir
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Letter from Wyoming
Brad Watson
‘Before I moved to Wyoming in 2005, I was – like a lot of people outside this region, it turns out – not quite sure just where it was.’
Liberation Day
Christa Wolf
‘The world stubbornly refused to end and we were not prepared to cope with a world that refused to end.’
Life and Breasts
Ludmila Ulitskaya
‘Death is here, by our side, and we can make no witty Nabokovian jokes about it.’
Living with Germanness
Nell Zink
‘It sounds like a stand-up comedy routine, but it’s true: I moved to Germany to get away from attractive men.’
Nell Zink on German men.
Ludmila Ulitskaya | On Europe
Ludmila Ulitskaya
‘It seems clear to me that during the past ten years, Russia has reached the apex of its estrangement from Europe.’ Translated from the Russian by Polly Gannon.
Magpie
Esther Woolfson
‘His life was one of calculation and endeavour, of learning and watching, remembering and trying.’
Mama’s Last Hug
Frans de Waal
‘Watching behaviour comes naturally to me, so much so that I may be overdoing it.’
Maori War
Peter Walker
‘It would be hard to overstate the importance of genealogy in Maori society.’
Memory of Light
Prabda Yoon
‘Until a few years ago, to even mention the monarchy with a questioning undertone was taboo.’
Prabda Yoon on democracy in Thailand.
Morwari Zafar | Is Travel Writing Dead?
Morwari Zafar
‘What satellites and the internet don’t do is give a voice to experience. And that’s where travel writing endures.’
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.’
My First European
Edmund White
‘I belong to the last generation of Americans obsessed with Europe and intimidated by it.’
