31 h. ago Book reviews: Modernist Scotland by Bruce Peter | Brutal Scotland by Simon Phipps

Two new books celebrate and critique some of Scotland’s most important post-war architecture, writes Stuart Kelly

Politics

5 d. ago Historical novels that will knock your socks off: Small Acts of Resistance by Anita Frank, Introducing Mrs Collins by Rachel Parris, The Good Nazi by Samir Machado De Machado

Eithne Farry reviews the best historical fiction out this month

Culture

5 d. ago Inspector gadget Q has a licence to thrill: Quantum of Menace by Vaseem Khan, The Burning Grounds by Abir Mukherjee, The House on Buzzards Bay by Dwyer Murphy

Geoffrey Wansell reviews the best crime fiction

Events

5 d. ago Popular fiction that packs a bunch: ALL GOD'S CREATURES by Anthony Gardner, THE WOMAN FROM BOOK CLUB by Carrie Hughes, BLUFF by Francine Toon

Wendy Holden reviews the best popular fiction

Culture

6 d. ago My horse told me it wanted to die... here's how to listen to your pets

Time to decode the meaning behind the subtle signals your pets might give

Events

6 d. ago The Silver Book by Olivia Laing review – a thin line of beauty

The world of 1970s Italian cinema is the glossy backdrop for an elegantly wrought but shallow novel“Ugliness,” noted Pier Paolo Pasolini, “is never completely depressing or repulsive. It contains within it an allegory of hunger and pain, its history is our history, the history of Fascism It is tragic, but immediate, and for this reason, full of life.” For Pasolini, ugliness was its own kind of truth, such that Rome could lay no claim to being the most beautiful city in the world “if it were not, at the same time, the ugliest”. For some, though, that truth risked becoming “unseeable”. The gaze of the touristic voyeur, said Pasolini, skimmed over slums for the poor “filled with illness, violence, crime, and prostitution”, “convinced of the extraneousness and untimeliness of this sub-proletarian, underdeveloped world”.Olivia Laing’s second novel, The Silver Book, is a work preoccupied with beauty. Set in the world of Italian cinema in 1974, the book o...

Politics

9 d. ago Picture This: A catwalk through every Jean Paul Gaultier collection

Megan Conlon reviews this beautifully illustrated new book which traces the radical history and industry defining designs of Jean Paul Gautier.

Politics

1 week ago The Mushroom Tapes review – Erin Patterson through the eyes of Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein

This account of what the three authors observed during Patterson’s triple murder trial does resemble a podcast transcript at times, but it is extremely readableEvery reader of The Mushroom Tapes will open the book knowing that Erin Patterson was found guilty in July of murdering three people – her in-laws, Gail and Don Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson – and of the attempted murder of Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson. They will also know she was sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 33 years, and is now appealing against her conviction. Who among us hasn’t been roped into speculation about this family tragedy, the carcass of which has been picked over by pundits, amateurs and experts for years now?Over 11 long weeks, the baroque details of the trial of Erin Patterson were made immediately available to a ravenous public – including sightings of Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein, three of Australia’s most celebrated nonfiction writers, in ...

Politics

1 week ago Book of Lives by Margaret Atwood: Fiercely funny tales from a literary mafia don

The Canadian author gets to show her funny side — and settle scores with those who wronged her

Politics

1 week ago How James Corden's thirst for fame 'separated' him and Ruth Jones: Candid emails reveal how Gavin and Stacey creators 'broke

Candid conversations revealed in a new book show James Corden's decision to capitalise on his celebrity almost ruined his relationship with Gavin And Stacey co-creator Ruth Jones

Politics

1 week ago After the success of Gavin and Stacey rocketed creators James Corden and Ruth Jones to fame, we FINALLY know what broke up the real Smithy and Nessa

Candid conversations revealed in a new book show James Corden's decision to capitalise on his celebrity almost ruined his relationship with Gavin And Stacey co-creator Ruth Jones

Events

2 w. ago Book of Lives by Margaret Atwood review – the great novelist reveals her hidden side

A sharp, funny and engaging autobiography from one of the towering literary figures of our ageMargaret Atwood didn’t want to write a literary memoir. She worried it would be boring – “I wrote a book, I wrote a second book, I wrote another book ” Alcoholic excess, debauched parties and sexual transgressions would have perked things up, but she hasn’t lived that way.In the end what she has written is less a memoir than an autobiography, not a slice of life but the whole works, 85 years. Where most such backward looks are cosily triumphalist or anxiously self-justifying, hers is sharp, funny and engaging, a book you can warm to even if you’re not fully au fait (and few people are) with her astonishing output, which in the “also by” contents list here fills two pages. Continue reading...

Culture

2 w. ago The Book Of Memory by Mark Rowlands: Want to live forever? This is the only way to be immortal

In this powerful exploration of memory, philosopher Mark Rowlands reveals that the key to eternal life is to live on in the minds of those you leave behind

Politics

2 w. ago The Years Of The Wizard Rachel Morris: The golden age of the great British magician

Explore the time when magic was seen as science, by some of the most intelligent people of the day.

Politics

2 w. ago Laugh out loud literary fiction: Service by John Tottenham, Borderline Fiction by Derek Owusu, The Wax Child by Olga Ravn

Claire Allfree reviews this week's best literary fiction

Politics

2 w. ago ATLANTIC FURIES by Midge Gillies: Femme fatales who conquered the skies in style

Meet the daring female pioneers of the aviation world

Events

2 w. ago Chasing the Dark by Ben Machell: Haunting that baffled the original ghostbuster

Sceptic and parapsychologist Tony Cornell spent his life disproving the existence of spirits at 'haunted' sites across Britain. But one old mansion in Cambridge proved the exception...

Politics

3 w. ago The Rose Field review: Immerse yourself in Philip Pullman’s dark imagination

It’s a story about growing up. But it’s really about Pullman’s nostalgia for the world in which he grew up

Politics

3 w. ago The Land of Sweet Forever review: How to kill Harper Lee’s reputation

Harper Lee’s third book is a shameful scraping of the barrel by her publishers

Events

3 w. ago Book of Dust review: Immerse yourself in Philip Pullman’s dark imagination

It’s a story about growing up. But it’s really about Pullman’s nostalgia for the world in which he grew up

Politics