What to Read This Summer by Mark Haddon, Samantha Harvey, Zadie Smith and More
Leading authors such as Zadie Smith, Mark Haddon, Sarah Waters and others share their top summer reads in a Guardian feature. The article highlights Margaret Busby’s African‑diaspora anthology, International Booker‑winning “Taiwan Travelogue,” and three other shortlisted titles ranging from German‑era cinema to Brazilian political horror. Over 70 books are listed, giving readers a curated literary roadmap for the season.
‘We Can’t Give up on Afghans’: Lyse Doucet on the Remarkable ‘People’s History’ that Won Her the Women’s Prize
BBC chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet’s debut book, The Finest Hotel in Kabul, has won the Women’s prize for nonfiction. The work tells Afghanistan’s four‑decade saga through the lens of Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel and its staff, highlighting the country’s cultural...
The Twitnam Summer by Hester Grant Review – Swift, Gay and Pope’s Season in the Sun
Hester Grant’s new biography, The Twitnam Summer, reconstructs the 1726 summer when Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope and John Gay converged in Twickenham. The book paints vivid scenes of their cramped travel, Pope’s riverside villa, and the personal hardships that framed...
Women’s Prize: Virginia Evans Wins for Fiction and Lyse Doucet Takes Award for Nonfiction
Debut novelist Virginia Evans captured the Women’s Prize for Fiction with her novel The Correspondent, while BBC chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet won the nonfiction category for her debut The Finest Hotel in Kabul. Both authors were presented with £30,000...
Lovers XXX by Allie Rowbottom Review – a Wild Journey Through the 80s LA Porn Scene
Allie Rowbottom’s second novel, Lovers XXX, plunges readers into the neon‑lit, cocaine‑fueled world of 1980s Los Angeles pornography through the eyes of teenage runaways Jude and Winnie. The story alternates between Jude’s rise and fall in the early‑80s adult film boom...
Flamboyance by Jack Parlett Review – a Serious Study of the Spectacular
Jack Parlett’s new memoir‑cultural history Flamboyance: The Art of Burning Brightly (Granta, $24.30) argues that flamboyance should be a political aesthetic rather than mere surface style. Drawing on Oscar Wilde, flamenco, 1990s rapper Big L, Lil Nas X and even Donald Trump, the book maps a wide‑ranging...
Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer Review – Fun in the Tuscan Sun
Pulitzer‑winning author Andrew Sean Greer’s latest novel, Villa Coco, is billed as a “charm novel” set amid the sun‑drenched Tuscan hills. The narrative follows a nameless young man hired as an adjutant to the eccentric 92‑year‑old Baronessa Lisabetta, navigating a cast...
A British Childhood by Frank Cottrell-Boyce Review – Are We Raising a Bookless Generation?
Frank Cottrell‑Boyce’s memoir A British Childhood blends personal anecdotes with a stark look at Britain’s growing literacy gap. Drawing on his Waterstones Children’s Laureate work, he details the Reading Rights campaign that found nearly half of primary pupils have never...
The Best Recent Poetry – Review Roundup
The latest poetry roundup spotlights six new collections from leading UK and international presses. Anthony Joseph’s "Haunting the Black Air" expands his avant‑garde lyricism, while Leontia Flynn’s "Selected Poems" re‑asserts her sharp wit and political acuity. The anthology "You Must...
The Children by Melissa Albert Review – Intriguing Fairytale of Creativity’s Dangers
Melissa Albert’s debut adult novel, The Children, turns the spotlight on the dark side of a wildly successful children’s book empire. The story follows Guinevere Sharpe, who inherits her mother’s literary legacy while grappling with family tragedy, a haunted house,...
Dominion by Addie E Citchens Review – Women’s Prize-Shortlisted Portrait of Patriarchy’s Horrors
Addie E Citchens’s debut novel Dominion, shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, explores a Black megachurch family in a fictional Mississippi town. The story follows Rev. Sabre Winfrey Jr., his wife Priscilla, and their prodigious son Wonderboy, whose charisma masks escalating...
Land by Maggie O’Farrell Review – an Ambitious Story of Mapmaking in Ireland
Maggie O’Farrell’s tenth novel, Land, launches in June 2026 as an expansive tale set in the wake of the Irish famine. It follows surveyor Tomás and his son Liam as they chart a remote peninsula, weaving together family drama, Celtic...
‘True Trailblazer’: British Author and Activist Maureen Duffy Dies Aged 92
Maureen Duffy, a prolific British author of more than 60 works and a lifelong activist, died at 92. She received the inaugural Royal Society of Literature Pioneer prize (£10,000, about $12,500) in 2025 and was a founding member of the...
Escaping Babylon by Jesse Bernard Review – an Intimate History of Black British Music
Jesse Bernard’s memoir‑cum‑cultural history *Escaping Babylon* chronicles Black British music from the late‑1980s through the 2000s, weaving his own life story with the rise of Soul II Soul, UK garage, grime and drill. The book spotlights overlooked figures such as Lynden David Hall and...
The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams Review – Twisted Love Story From a Cult Writer
Missouri Williams’s second novel, *The Vivisectors*, plunges readers into a decaying university town overrun by invasive vegetation, where a cynical narrator, Agathe, navigates family trauma and a manipulative academic hierarchy. The story intertwines a grotesque, Ballardian atmosphere with a conventional...