33 h. ago Dame Jilly Cooper ‘changed the way we read books as women’ – Angela Rippon

The broadcaster was friends with the author.

Culture

36 h. ago ‘It’s more than a pretty backdrop’: crime writer Ann Cleeves on the magic of Orkney in Scotland

With her latest book, the author moves detective Jimmy Perez from Shetland to Orkney, where she was inspired by the deep history, huge skies and warm peopleFifty years ago, I headed north for the first time. I’d dropped out of my university literature course – with the arrogance of youth, I thought I could read books anywhere. After a chance meeting in a Putney pub, I got a job as assistant cook in the Bird Observatory in Fair Isle. At that point, I didn’t even know where Fair Isle was. I came from Devon and hadn’t made it farther north than Durham. Scotland was unknown territory.Of course, Fair Isle is part of the Shetland group and lies halfway between Shetland mainland and Orkney. That summer, I fell in love with the Northern Isles, with the romance of the isolation, the bleak beauty and the stories. Over the summer, I worked in the observatory with Alison, an Orcadian lass, who was there for her college holidays. “When you’ve finished your contract,” she said with the easy hospi...

Events

48 h. ago Stormzy among stars reading from Booker Prize novels shortlisted for 2025

Pop star Dua Lipa and Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker are among previous stars to have read excerpts from Booker Prize-nominated novels.

Events

52 h. ago Elizabeth Harrower wrote some of Australia’s best novels then disappeared for decades. Even she wasn’t sure why

A new biography unravels one of Australia’s great literary mysteries and comeback stories, and teases out details of the troubled early years that informed the author’s devastating studies of domestic despotsGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailIn 1966 Elizabeth Harrower was on the brink of literary fame. Critics hailed her fourth book, The Watch Tower, as one of the year’s most important Australian novels, alongside The Solid Mandala by her friend Patrick White. The Sydney Morning Herald’s Harry Kippax wrote that “one can be grateful to have had in twelve months two such additions to the small body of distinguished Australian novels”. An ABC reviewer said Harrower’s “brilliant” book was “one of the best Australian novels I have read for a long while”.Seven years later White won the Nobel prize for literature. By then Harrower had written another novel but withdrawn it from her English publisher, disappointed by his reaction. After some false starts she stopped writing and all...

Events

64 h. ago I've read 140 books this year but only 5 have left me guessing until the end

I'm pretty good at predicting how books will end, but these five had me guessing until the very end

Politics

3 d. ago I write bestselling cosy fantasy books — these are the 12 cosy books you need to read

With the days becoming chillier, pumpkin spice everywhere and just a matter of weeks before the clocks fall back, we're officially in cosy season

Politics

4 d. ago Tim Dowling: II love books – but can’t remember anything about the ones I’ve just read

In bed I lie awake, staring at the books on my nightstand, trying to remember a single salient fact about any of themThe oldest one is recommending the book he’s just finished to me.“You should read this,” he says, handing me a well-thumbed paperback, which I turn over in my hands. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago Tim Dowling: I love books – but can’t remember anything about the ones I’ve just read

In bed I lie awake, staring at the books on my nightstand, trying to remember a single salient fact about any of themThe oldest one is recommending the book he’s just finished to me.“You should read this,” he says, handing me a well-thumbed paperback, which I turn over in my hands. Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago Best Betting Sites UK: New & Top Ranked Bookmakers for October 2025

Compare over 60 licensed and regulated betting sites in the UK and read our reviews of the best online bookmakers for October 2025

Politics

6 d. ago Read about the life and legacy of Jane Goodall in these books

The pioneering activist dedicated her life to the study of chimpanzees

Politics

1 week ago Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue review – nothing has given me greater joy this year

Packed with Agatha Christie-meets-Lost shenanigans, this ludicrous crime drama from Anthony Horowitz is a most perfect piece of televisual trash. Treasure it! We open, bright red Pulp Fiction-y letters tell us, on “Day Nine”. Not “Day One”! Intrigued? You betcha! We are in Los Tríos, Mexico – watching a woman watch the Mexican military police await delivery of nine bodies, to store in an isolated facility’s morgue. Which is fortuitous, because this is the beginning of a new thriller by Anthony Horowitz, called Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue (the title fits brilliantly). The series was originally developed for the short-form platform Quibi; but I thank whoever realised that this perfect piece of trash deserved a larger canvas and broader distribution, and gave it 45 minutes per episode (and, ultimately, to the BBC).I don’t know that anything has given me greater or purer joy this year. Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue is unabashed nonsense, without a trace of cynicism or guile in a w...

Events

1 week ago I've read 15 books by the same author this year — they got me back into reading

I've always loved reading, but in recent years, I've found it hard to get into a book and have been in a reading slump. That was until I discovered this author

Culture

2 w. ago This was my favourite read of the summer – now it’s been Booker 2025 shortlisted

Judge Sarah Jessica Parker described whittling down the list as “real agony”

Politics

2 w. ago 'I'm a New York Times best selling author and everyone should read these 5 books'

The author of 'blend Da Vinci Code and Murder She Wrote' The Secrets of Still Waters Chasm has also written a trilogy of mystery novels

Culture

2 w. ago 'I'm a best selling author and everyone needs to read these 5 books'

Patricia Crisafulli, 65, from Oswego, New York, is a New York Times best selling author and has shared her five favourite books of all time - and her list features all genres

Culture

2 w. ago ‘Brilliantly human’: Kiran Desai and David Szalay make Booker prize shortlist

No debut novels are among the six finalists, with established authors including Ben Markovits and previously shortlisted Andrew Miller in the runningChris Power: ‘As a Booker prize judge I helped whittle 153 books down to a shortlist of six. Here’s why you should read them’No debuts appear on this year’s Booker prize shortlist, which is dominated by established authors including previous winner Kiran Desai and previously shortlisted writers David Szalay and Andrew Miller.Ben Markovits, Susan Choi and Katie Kitamura are also on the list, which was announced at an event at the Southbank Centre in central London on Tuesday evening. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago If Anyone Builds it, Everyone Dies review – how AI could kill us all

If machines become superintelligent we’re toast, say Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares. Should we believe them?What if I told you I could stop you worrying about climate change, and all you had to do was read one book? Great, you’d say, until I mentioned that the reason you’d stop worrying was because the book says our species only has a few years before it’s wiped out by superintelligent AI anyway.We don’t know what form this extinction will take exactly – perhaps an energy-hungry AI will let the millions of fusion power stations it has built run hot, boiling the oceans. Maybe it will want to reconfigure the atoms in our bodies into something more useful. There are many possibilities, almost all of them bad, say Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares in If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies, and who knows which will come true. But just as you can predict that an ice cube dropped into hot water will melt without knowing where any of its individual molecules will end up, you can be sure an A...

Events

2 w. ago I always thought narcissism was just a buzzword – until I read a book and realised I was a hapless victim

After reading a new book, ‘My Parent the Peacock’, Charlotte Cripps realised that narcissistic parenting may well have been at play in her large family. She explains how she was cast in the role of the ‘golden child’, and the impact of this on her later life

Events

3 w. ago 'Martyn booked a hotel room. It was never going to happen...' Read what happened when a 'free bird' met an older woman in our Blind Date

Every week, Femail asks two singletons to report back from their blind date. This week, it was Kelly and Martyn's turn to see if there was a spark between them. Read on to find out what happened...

Politics

3 w. ago Netflix teases new murder mystery adapted from novel hailed 'Agatha Christie at her best'

The streaming giant is set to release a new murder mystery series based on one of Agatha Christie's novels

Events