Raymond Briggs’ genius was his understanding of loss
The writer and illustrator has died aged 88. From The Snowman to When the Wind Blows, his work was sensitive…
ByLiterature
Immerse yourself in the captivating world of literature with our collection of articles, offering literary analysis, book recommendations, author spotlights, and thought-provoking discussions that celebrate the written word.
Censoring university reading lists is crude and condescending
“Offence” isn’t the only way to measure the worth of literature.
By
Mark Haddon: “I’m quite lucky to be alive”
The novelist on his triple heart bypass, literature’s “culture wars”, and why he’s donating book royalties to abortion funds in…
By
Philip Larkin is a love poet who doesn’t trust love
He offers an uncensored picture of a damaged and unhappy sensibility – but leaves us with the possibility of hope.
By
Swapping the sunshine for the dark fatalism of Kurt Vonnegut
In Unstuck in Time, a new documentary about the writer, Vonnegut says he prefers laughter to crying – and it's…
By
A fatal attraction
Thomas Mann, German identity and the romantic allure of Russia.
By
Latin and Greek are not just for the elite
Studying classics has many values, not least helping you spot when charlatan politicians cover their deficiencies with Cicero quotes.
By
Why are so many literary prizes closing?
As several prizes are forced to pause or shut down, writers in the UK say they are losing a “lifeline”.
By
The lying life of Emmanuel Carrère
In his new book, Yoga, the French literary star is fixated on truth – so why does he play fast…
By
How the New Statesman is helping universities understand our changing world
The New Statesman is partnering with leading universities to ensure faculty heads and students benefit from the title’s award-winning writing…
By
The last days of Percy Bysshe Shelley
Two hundred years after he drowned, Shelley's poems of tyranny and freedom speak to our own darkening age.
By
Since when is the point of an English degree getting a “highly skilled” job?
This government’s Gradgrindist education policies seem like a deliberate assault on independent thought.
By
Margo Jefferson: “We were always performing desirable blackness”
The critic and memoirist on growing up in 1960s Chicago, Donald Trump’s “constant oversight”, and her fascination with minstrel shows.
By
How TS Eliot found happiness
Withdrawn and prejudiced, the poet is hard to warm to – but Robert Crawford’s new biography shows how Eliot’s second…
By
Reviewed in short: New books from Sophie Pavelle, Brendan Simms and Steven McGregor, Ana Kinsella and Gerald Murnane
Forget Me Not by Pavelle, The Silver Waterfall by Simms and McGregor, Look Here by Kinsella and Last Letter to…
By
Karl Ove Knausgård to launch tenth anniversary celebration of Goldsmiths Prize
The Norwegian author’s lecture on “why the novel matters” will mark a decade of the groundbreaking fiction prize.
By
No, Philip Larkin is not being “cancelled” by schools
The culture war against teachers and academics is manufactured by right-wing newspapers and rent-a-quote reactionaries.
By
What the “men don’t read novels” debate gets wrong about fiction
Instead of turning literature into an arena for virtue-signalling and culture wars, let’s make room for complexity, mischief and mess.
By
The secret world of Mick Herron
How the author of Slow Horses and Bad Actors became the foremost living spy novelist in the English language.
By
Who is to blame for 30 years of climate change inertia?
Two new books trace the history of global inaction over the climate emergency, and seek to identify the culprits.
By