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Delivering this year's Orwell Memorial Lecture to a packed house at Birkbeck College, Hilary Mantel understandably chose to talk about Thomas Crom-well, the hero of her Man Booker-winning novel Wolf Hall.
'I felt that the only thing I was on earth to do was to write' A couple of months ago Mavis Gallant had a dream. A messenger came to the door carrying a cardboard box with a lid on it. On top was written "Mavis Gallant" in big...
The Cartoons that Shook the World , by Jytte Klausen (Yale, £20) In what deserves to become the definitive account of the Danish cartoon controversy of 2005-6, none of the major actors comes out looking too good. Certainly not...
by David E. Anderson Readers coming upon the work of Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964) for the first time in this first decade of the 21st century can be forgiven for not immediately recognizing her as a “Catholic novelist.” Many...
Last June Colum McCann mingled through the crowded terrace of an opulent home near the top of Little Woody Creek Road. He was jovial, relaxed. His latest novel, “Let the Great World Spin,” had been released that week. It’s...
What, apart from being dead and, in their different ways, remarkable, do the following authors have in common: Kingsley Amis, Saul Bellow, Roberto Bolaño, Jorge Luis Borges, William Burroughs, Italo Calvino, John Cheever, Ralph...
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A novel about life in New York City in the 1970s and a biography of U.S. tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt were among the winners at the United States 60th annual National Book Awards on Wednesday.
Cheever: a Life By Blake Bailey Suburban legend Over the course of two unwieldy books, A Tragic Honesty: the Life and Work of Richard Yates and now Cheever: a Life, Blake Bailey has established himself as the most diligent...
Pulitzer prize-winning novelist Philip Roth is up against Amos Oz, Paul Theroux and Nick Cave on the bad sex award shortlist The story of the seduction of a lesbian by an ageing stage actor, which includes an eye-watering scene...
We launch our search for the best books of the decade in the year of White Teeth, The Amber Spyglass and No Logo, but what was your favourite book from 2000? It's still a whole month-and-a-half until the credit-crunched,...
