10 h. ago What we’re reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in February

Authors and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the commentsIn Naomi Klein’s most recent book Doppelganger, she talks about Philip Roth quite a lot, which made me realise that though I read quite a lot of Roth as a teenager, I hadn’t read American Pastoral, which is often considered his greatest novel. So I read it and it was great – I had forgotten how funny Roth is. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Andrey Kurkov: ‘At 17, I got my hands on an illegal copy of The Gulag Archipelago’

The Ukrainian author on the joys of Jack London, cracking Hermann Hesse, and the soldier’s tale he can no longer rereadMy earliest reading memory My grandmother’s medical encyclopedias. She was a military surgeon during the second world war and then a doctor for children with tuberculosis. I spent five years of my childhood in her house. I really only looked at the pictures of tumours and wounds, but my curiosity forced me to decode the annotations, which were, as you can imagine, not designed for an emergent reader.My favourite book growing upMartin Eden by Jack London. The main character’s dream of becoming a writer – his tremendously strong will – was probably what captivated me most. Continue reading...

Events

5 d. ago What I have learned in my filthy, bloody, sisyphean quest to tame my garden | Adrian Chiles

It’s chaos as small jobs become big jobs, tools disappear and distractions lead to furious frustration. Then you spot spring’s first flower ...There’s no such thing as gardeners’ block, I once read. This from, I believe, a famous writer who was making the point that if you’ve got writers’ block, you should just go and do something else for a bit. Point taken. There is no such thing as gardeners’ block because if you get stuck doing one job, even in the smallest garden, there are roughly 10m other jobs you can be cracking on with. Which is quite right. And this is what makes gardening either the worst thing for you if – like me – you have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or possibly the best.I stride into the garden full of purpose and ambition, with a smile on my face. Invariably, several hours later, I stagger out of there, aching all over, scratched, bloodied, filthy and demoralised, having dug, scraped, cursed and carried myself to physical and mental exhaust...

Events

7 d. ago When my sister died, it wasn’t just her own childhood memories that disappeared. Mine did too | Jason Hazeley

Millie had fantastic recall, unlike mine. Now there are parts of my past – and myself – that I’ll never be able to rememberI was midway through Kathryn Mannix’s With the End in Mind when it happened. It’s a comforting book – the author is a palliative care consultant – that describes the basics of a good death: a diminuendo. The mind fades. The breath slows. Inevitably, gently, life stops.And then I got the call: my sister Millie had died. Her death, at the age of 47, was sudden and unexpected. She was my only sibling – four years younger than me. I put the book down. I’ll probably never finish it.Jason Hazeley is a comedy writer who is partly responsible for TV untellectual Philomena Cunk Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago ‘It’s a scary time’: Sophie Lewis on the ‘enemy feminisms’ that enable the far right

In a new book the scholar traces a line from reactionary tendencies in history to anti-trans feminists todayIs Donald Trump a feminist?There was a time when anyone asking such a question could reasonably expect to be laughed out of the room. Yet, just three weeks into Trump’s second term, the man responsible for stripping women in the US of the right to an abortion was declared a “feminist kween”, “feminist hero” and “feminist icon” by several prominent feminist writers in the UK. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago I'm a fashion writer and these are my top picks for nailing the cow print trend

Ready to embrace the cow print trend? Our fashion writer has selected these top styles from the high street to nail the style

Politics

1 week ago King Charles and Queen Camilla 'chose to spend Valentine's Day at surprising location and invited closest friends to join them'

The couple, who will celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary this year, reportedly enjoyed a 'quiet dinner' at the Windsor estate on February 14.

Politics

1 week ago ‘You just want to rewind and watch it again and again’: readers choose the most romantic moments in cinema

From uplifting declarations of undying love to shared plates of spaghetti and tearful resignations of what might have been, these are the movie scenes that have touched our readers’ heartsLast week, Guardian writers shared their favourite romantic moments in cinema – here are some more chosen by readers from around the world. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago EU accused of leaving ‘devastating’ copyright loophole in AI Act

Architect of copyright law says EU is ‘supporting big tech instead of protecting European creative ideas’An architect of EU copyright law has said legislation is needed to protect writers, musicians and creatives left exposed by an “irresponsible” legal gap in the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act.The intervention came as 15 cultural organisations wrote to the European Commission this week warning that draft rules to implement the AI Act were “taking several steps backwards” on copyright, while one writer spoke of a “devastating” loophole. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago ‘History was attempted to be buried’: the true story behind Oscar

Director RaMell Ross details horrors behind Florida School for Boys that backdropped the moving film adaptationIt was one of the darkest, most shameful episodes in Florida’s grotesque history of state-sanctioned racism: dozens of children, most of them Black, beaten or shot to death, or sexually abused in a decades-long reign of terror at a secretive and remote reform school.Early next month at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, the horrors that befell the students of the notorious Arthur G Dozier School for Boys will be laid bare before the world, courtesy of a best picture nomination for the “transcendentally moving and frightening film” Nickel Boys, and a best adapted screenplay nod for director RaMell Ross and his co-writer, Joslyn Barnes. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Jack Reacher author explains why book readers ‘were right’ to disapprove of Tom Cruise

‘They were terribly upset about it,’ Child said

Culture