1 hour ago JENNY LINDSAY: Scots women were cancelled for simply believing in biology. The courts said we were right. So why is the nation's biggest book festival STILL intent on silencing us?

The alert arrived at 10:30am: 'I searched for your name in the 2025 Edinburgh Book Festival. In vain!'

Events

6 h. ago Hark by Alice Vincent audiobook review – a search for silence

A former music journalist’s exploration of how we listen is informed by her life-changing experience of motherhoodWhen did you last experience total silence? In Hark, the author Alice Vincent goes to extreme lengths to eradicate noise as she spends time in an anechoic chamber, a heavily soundproofed space designed to swallow up sound waves. There she becomes aware of the noises of her own body, from involuntary swallowing to the soft, high-pitched ringing in her ears. But rather than feel unease, she is “confronted with a comfort I couldn’t have imagined – and a familiarity with quietude I didn’t realise I was living in”.Hark is a book about listening, being heard and the author’s shifting relationship with sound in the early years of motherhood. While working as a music journalist in her 20s, Vincent had been surrounded by noise. But now, in her 30s and plunged into domesticity, she finds herself craving quiet. She also examines how others experience sound, investiga...

Politics

10 h. ago Jet2holidays discount codes for June 2025 – £60 off all bookings

From last-minute offers to free child places, these are the Jet2holidays voucher codes to know

Economics

37 h. ago The Cuckoo’s Lea by Michael Warren review – a magical ornithological history of Britain

From buzzards in Oxfordshire to cranes in Kent – how once common birds left their mark in British place namesOld place names recall old ways of belonging. They often reference characteristics of the land or its use, the people who lived there, or the non-human lives they were enmeshed with. A great many of these vivifying genii loci are birds, although their identities aren’t always obvious because language evolves over time. We need a guide.Enter Michael Warren: teacher of English, amateur ornithologist and a man who lives in a Britain different to the one most of us inhabit: a medieval one, which by some magic has “survived in another dimension parallel to our own”. The gift he bestows in this gorgeous book is that, by the end, we live there too, newly able to read the growth rings of place, and to perceive an alternative land shimmering over the one we already know. Continue reading...

Events

38 h. ago Wendy Erskine's debut novel sees largest cast for an audiobook in publisher's history

Writer Wendy Erskine's The Benefactors is one of the most hotly anticipated books of the year for 2025. Audiobook fans are in for a treat, as a cast of more than 30 narrators record this debut novel

Culture

39 h. ago Great Black Hope by Rob Franklin review – privilege and race intersect in a fine debut

A young gay Black man escapes from grief into the hedonism of upper-echelon New York, in a lyrical tale of redemptionLives can turn on one mistake. Smith’s comes when he is caught in the corner of a restaurant in the Hamptons on the last night of summer, snorting cocaine from a key. He walks calmly out with the two khaki-clad police officers, poses for a mugshot and posts his $500 bail.Smith is Black, which won’t help, but he comes from wealth, which will. So he calls his sister, who calls his father in Atlanta, who tells his mother, who collapses on the floor in shock then starts calling lawyers. Smith prepares for his court date with a series of AA meetings and counselling sessions that will make it clear that this promising young man is on the road to redemption. Continue reading...

Politics

52 h. ago ‘We live in a second Red Scare’: what can we learn from a chilling book about Florida’s past?

A harrowing new book looks back at a dark period of US history as the Johns committee targeted Black and queer Americans, drawing parallels to what’s happening nowWith his second book, Robert W Fieseler casts new light on a dark episode: the years in the 1950s and 60s when the Florida legislative investigation committee, commonly known as the Johns committee, persecuted Black and queer Americans in the name of anti-communist red scare politics.“The state of Florida has a very poisonous political system,” Fieseler said, promoting a book published as Ron DeSantis sits in the governor’s mansion, whose virulently anti-LGBTQ+ policies had fueled, if briefly, his presidential ambitions. Continue reading...

Politics

61 h. ago Ordinary Love by Marie Rutkoski review – some of the best sex scenes I’ve read this year

In this page-turning romance, teenage sweethearts reunite as thirtysomething womenSex is notoriously difficult to write. Some authors avoid it entirely; even those who have been called great can come a cropper. Which is why I want to start this review by saying that the sex scenes in Ordinary Love are some of the best I have read this year, and that Marie Rutkoski has a facility for writing physical intimacy that can elude even some of our most gifted authors. Her voice has been compared to that of Sally Rooney. I don’t see much of that in this novel beyond a Rooneyesque ability to write sex well, but that is a talent worth noting.Ordinary Love is a queer romance that tells the story of Emily and Gen, teenage sweethearts who break up in college and reunite in their 30s, their paths having diverged dramatically. Emily marries Jack, who is wealthy and emotionally abusive. When she sees Gen again, she is in the process of leaving him for the second time (the novel opens with ...

Politics

63 h. ago Sanctuary by Marina Warner review – the power of stories in an age of migration

An ambitious meditation on the ability of narrative to shape our perceptions of one another and our experience of homeMarina Warner begins this dazzlingly protean book with a distinctly mundane memory. It is the 1950s, she is a young teen, and the highlight of her week is going to the Saturday morning “flicks” with a neighbour’s slightly older daughter. One particular movie scene has stayed with her: it involves a man dressed in a vaguely historical costume who is fleeing for his life. Face contorted with terror, he makes it as far as the door of a cathedral, whereupon he knocks loudly and cries “Sanctuary!” The door opens a crack, the man slides inside, and the Saturday morning audience breaths a collective sigh of relief. Even if the plot points remain hazy – is Robin Hood somehow involved? – the underlying principle needs no explaining. The fugitive has invoked the ancient right by gaining entrance to a designated sacred space. As long as he stays put his pursuers can’t touch him...

Events

3 d. ago Skyscanner and Google Flights soar ahead: New research reveals the best UK flight booking websites for summer 2025

With millions of UK travellers gearing up for summer holidays, flight comparison and booking platforms are under pressure to deliver a seamless digital experience, with ease of use and speed key to converting holiday dreams into confirmed bookings.

Technology

3 d. ago ‘It’s not quite what I had in mind entering my eighth decade’: the London librarian of Lesbos

Rather than retiring to Greece, 71-year-old Ruth Miller created ‘a sanctuary of hope and healing’ in a refugee campWhere do you see yourself in your 70s? Perhaps on a Greek island, a long way from home with a good book or two.That’s where Ruth Miller is right now, although there’s a twist to the usual tale. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago ‘Oh no! It’s a Gruffalo!’ Julia Donaldson’s 15 best books – ranked!

Her rhyming tales have enchanted children and parents the world over – but which is the best? From a busker’s cat to a greedy rat, it’s time to rate the hits• Parents: what is your child’s favourite Julia Donaldson book?Although Julia Donaldson is best known for her work with Axel Scheffler, her books made with other illustrators yield their own delights. Illustrated by Rebecca Cobb, 2012’s The Paper Dolls has an irresistible sense of childlike wonder, following a string of cut-out dolls as they explore a house while trying to avoid scissors. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Bunches discount codes for June 2025: 15% off flower delivery

Save on seasonal flower delivery with a Bunches promo code this June

Politics

3 d. ago Poem of the week: This Year Her Present by Victoria Melkovska

Gifts sent from a loved one abroad at first bring warmth and joy, then grave alarmThis Year Her Presentwasn’t a book — my shelves sag under the weight of volumes she’s given me over the last two decades since I moved from Ukraine to Ireland; Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine review – a polyphonic portrait of class and trauma in Belfast

The acclaimed short-story writer brings her characters vividly to life in this debut novel about a teenage girl’s assault and its aftermathThat we tend to regard the shift from the short story to the novel as a natural authorial progression perhaps speaks to a failure to recognise the shorter form as its own distinct discipline. Short stories are not novels in miniature, or parts of novels pruned to stand on their own. Without the luxury of space and looser pacing, they demand of the writer a linguistic precision and compression that, at its most radical, borders on the poetic, and which across the breadth of a novel would feel wearying. Novels need room to breathe. The writer expanding their scope therefore faces a difficult adjustment: guarding against density while ensuring they don’t get lost in the space.For Wendy Erskine, the move to a larger canvas feels entirely unforced. Her highly praised stories, collected in 2018’s Sweet Home and 2022’s Dance Move, often display a certai...

Events

3 d. ago Dua Lipa launches a book club for your ears: best podcasts of the week

The Love Again singer expands her media empire with this new podcast. Plus, an astonishing cast of ex-MPs line up to see what might happen if Russia declared war against the UKNot content with her Service95 newsletter and At Your Service podcast, the star expands her media empire. But don’t expect a vanity project: Lipa’s first guest is Jennifer Clement, author of the haunting Widow Basquiat, on the love affair between artist Jean-Michel and his muse Suzanne Mallouk. Hannah J Davies Widely available, episodes weekly Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago Tom Gauld on an author’s visit to the lost property office – cartoon

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Culture

4 d. ago ‘Odd things happened when she was around’: the unnerving vision of Muriel Spark

From blackmail to burglary, the events of Spark’s life often uncannily echoed those of her novels – no wonder the author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie believed she could predict the future“There is a supernatural process going on under the surface and within the substance of all things,” says a priest in Muriel Spark’s 1965 novel The Mandelbaum Gate. Spark believed herself wired into this process. The novelist was aware from the start of “a definite ‘something beyond myself’”, an “access to knowledge that I couldn’t possibly have gained through normal channels”.“Somehow things happened, odd things, when Muriel was around,” recalled her friend Shirley Hazzard. “Everything that happened to Muriel,” according to her American editor Barbara Epler, “had been foreseen”, usually in her books themselves. If Spark wrote about blackmail, she too would be blackmailed; if she wrote about a burglary, she would then be burgled. Thirty years after toying with an idea for The Hoth...

Politics

4 d. ago I was disappeared under Argentina’s dictatorship. I know how autocracy begins | Miriam Lewin

Foreigners treated as enemies, judges under attack: the signs are everywhere in the US. But there are still reasons to hopeLike so many others, I watched the video of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish student at Tufts University, as she was surrounded by men dressed in black, some wearing masks. They carried guns. One grabbed her by the collar. The men surrounded her, and one handcuffed her. You can hear her short shrieks of fear.She must have been terrified. I know I was when, as a 19-year-old student, I was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires by members of an irregular taskforce. I know what it feels like and I know what it portends.Miriam Lewin is a leading Argentine journalist and survivor of the dictatorship. She is the author of six books, including Iosi, the Remorseful Spy forthcoming in English in July 2025 (Seven Stories Press). A seven episode podcast about Miriam Lewin’s experience as a prisoner of the state and her fight for justice is titled The Burden: Avenger Continue r...

Events

5 d. ago KGB defector turned to Britain only after US rejected him several times, book reveals

Vasili Mitrokhin defected in 1992 after spending years copying top-secret documents on Soviet spies and operationsOne of the most consequential Russian defectors in history was turned away several times by the US before he was eventually accepted by Britain and exfiltrated with his family from Russia, according to revelations in a new book.Vasili Mitrokhin, a KGB archivist who spent years copying top-secret documents on some of the most sensitive Soviet spies and operations, was brought out of Russia in 1992 by MI6. His archive of copied documents was exfiltrated separately. But London got hold of his trove only after Mitrokhin gave up trying to get the US to take him seriously. Continue reading...

Events