books
-
Poet wins PEN Pinter prize for 'unflinching, unswerving' poetryNorthern Irish writer praised by judges for his ‘fierce intellectual determination’ wins annual award in memory of the late Nobel laureate
-
Al-Britannia, My Country by James Fergusson – a compelling survey of British IslamAssimilation, identity, conservatism and sex are among the issues explored in this study of Britain’s fastest-growing minority population
-
Major/Minor by Alba Arikha – a teenager's memoir of turbulent timesTeen angst, the Holocaust and being Beckett’s goddaughter intertwine in this revelatory family memoir
-
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney – young, gifted and self-destructiveA menage a quatre in post-crash Dublin tests the bonds between close friends
-
Jane Austen's lesbianism is as fictional as Pride and PrejudiceBrouhaha over a wilful misunderstanding of historian Lucy Worsley revisits old territory that exists only in excitable imaginations
hay festival 2017
news
-
Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood lead campaign for displaced writersThe two novelists are among 200 writers and artists backing PEN International’s three-year plan to promote work by censored and persecuted people
-
Unseen Ruth Rendell short stories to be publishedArchive research of crime fiction magazines has recovered nine stories that will be collected under the title A Spot of Folly this autumn
-
The Handmaid's Tale tops book charts after TV series UK debutMargaret Atwood’s 1985 novel rockets to number one on Amazon after Channel 4 begins airing series starring Elisabeth Moss
-
Ed Balls on truth behind Gordon Brown's 'what is polenta?' outburstPolitician turned Strictly star tells Hay festival audience about meeting between Brown and Tony Blair at restaurant in 1994
-
How Dr Seuss could simplify boring, wordy documentsBank of England staff read the children’s classics to learn how to get their message across. Who else would benefit from a little Seussification?
-
Help choose a Pulitzer prize winner for JuneIn honour of the US award’s centenary, please speak up for one of the great American novels it has recognised. Your votes will decide which one we look at
-
regulars
-
Book of the dayBook of the dayQueer City by Peter Ackroyd review – a celebration of gay LondonThe capital’s great chronicler delineates in eye-popping detail the topography of queer desire across the city, from 14th-century brothels to chemsex
-
PodcastPodcastHay festival 2017: Cory Doctorow, Helen Fielding and Shashi Tharoor – podcastWe gaze uneasily to the future with Doctorow, look back on the history of the British Raj with Tharoor, and some comic relief comes from Fielding’s hapless heroine Bridget Jones
-
The Little Library CaféThe Little Library CaféNovel recipes: Macaroons from The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von ArminEnjoying the abundance of a Tuscan holiday, I devoured Von Armin’s novel with some toothsome almond delights
-
Reading groupReading groupHelp choose a Pulitzer prize winner for June's reading groupIn honour of the US award’s centenary, please speak up for one of the great American novels it has recognised. Your votes will decide which one we look at
-
The Transferred Life of George Eliot by Philip Davis – how a novelist shared her wisdomEliot steps in to her narratives to unravel the contradictions of human behaviour. This study skilfully explores how in doing so she drew on her own experiences
-
Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day by Peter AckroydAckroyd’s history of gay culture in the capital is entertaining but sexes up the facts
-
In Pursuit of Memory: The Fight Against Alzheimer’sJoseph Jebelli’s personal study of a disease that has reached epidemic proportions offers the latest research – but not much hope
-
Little Labours by Rivka Galchen – a stimulating curioThe acclaimed US writer marvels at a whole new way of being interrupted in these witty, smart essays about motherhood
-
The Greedy Queen: Eating With Victoria – nothing dainty about these dishesAnnie Gray’s study of Queen Victoria’s eating habits is good on the details but makes some unwise assumptions
-
Bleaker House by Nell Stevens – how not to write a novelWorried that she had lived too boring a life to write good fiction, Stevens set off to a remote island. Her book’s best feature is its honesty
-
An English Guide to Birdwatching by Nicholas Royle – a metafictional fever dreamThis comic story about plagiarism featuring real-life authors is daring but too muddled to take flight
-
Peculiar Ground by Lucy Hughes-Hallett – a well-marshalled family sagaBiographer Lucy Hughes-Hallett has turned her hand to fiction with this accomplished ensemble tale set on a single English estate through the ages
-
Phone by Will Self – a triumph of joined-up thinkingSelf’s modernist trilogy concludes with typical panache and wit
-
House of Names by Colm Tóibín – Greek myths made humanThis retelling of the tragedy of the house of Atreus is magnificently dramatic, but loses its way in Orestes’ wanderings
-
The Ice by Laline Paull – allegory in the ArcticHuman intrigue is mixed with climate change in this tale by the author of The Bees
-
The Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers – murder on the moorsThe desperate rise and fall of a Yorkshire coining gang in the 1760s are made over into myth
-
How Lyra’s story began – exclusive extract from Philip Pullman's new novel
Before His Dark Materials How Lyra’s story began – exclusive extract from Philip Pullman's new novel
In an extract from his forthcoming novel, The Book of Dust, Philip Pullman returns to the magical world of Northern Lights -
The best new picture books and novelsFashion faux pas, silent ninja farting and doggy derring-do are just some of the ingredients in this bumper crop of children’s books
-
Daddy Long Legs by Nadine Brun-Cosme and Aurélie GuillereyFull of quirky detail, this father and son jaunt is satisfyingly silly
people
-
I Love Dick was written ‘in a delirium’Published in 1997, I Love Dick was so far ahead of its time that only now does it seem to be approaching its apex. Chris Kraus discusses it with Elle Hunt
-
Sarah Perry’s cultural highlightsThe author on the painful recollections of Tim Winton, bonding with a town’s memory of Dylan Thomas and one of the best 30 minutes of TV she’s ever seen
-
Penguins, paranoia and an old potato on the island of BleakerThe author of the memoir Bleaker House tells of writing the book in a lonely winter on the Falklands with a meagre diet and a lot of Shakespeare
-
I don’t fit the age, race or class of a bestselling poetRupi Kaur’s first book, Milk and Honey, sold 1.4 million copieS
pictures, video & audio
-
Hay festival 2017: Cory Doctorow, Helen Fielding and Shashi TharoorWe gaze uneasily to the future with Doctorow, look back on the history of the British Raj with Tharoor, and some comic relief comes from Fielding’s hapless heroine Bridget Jones
-
Islands and literature, from Iceland to JamaicaAs the Brexit boat prepares to set sail, writers from islands around the world explain what it means to be from a small place surrounded by sea
-
Funny memoirs with Patricia LockwoodWe talk to the poet-turned-memoirist about Priestdaddy, her account of growing up with a Catholic priest for a father, and discuss our favourite funny autobiographies
you may have missed
-
Arundhati Roy on why it took 20 years to write her second novelThe author of The God Of Small Things talks about political activism – and why she fled India to finish her new book
-
My grandparents were Nazis. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know thisThe complicated love for her German family inspired the writer’s novel about the Holocaust
-
Christopher Hitchens, Margaret Atwood, Hilary Mantel – in conversationChristopher Hitchens on God, Margaret Atwood on The Handmaid’s Tale, Hilary Mantel on Wolf Hall … highlights from Hay’s most memorable interviews
-
Now the shame has liftedKathryn Heyman’s 20 years of novel writing is bookended by books with themes of domestic violence. In that time the conversation has made a welcome shift
Eli Goldstone I can’t think of many great books that aren’t funny