2 h. ago Bestselling author Stephanie Garber on writing Alchemy of Secrets and her all

Stephanie Garber's debut novel Caraval was published in 2016 and continues to be a huge hit with readers, with the author's latest book, Alchemy of Secrets, out now

Culture

22 h. ago The Filter is one! 50 things we loved this year, from a sleep mask to the perfect pan

Twelve months, thousands of tests and a revolutionary potato masher – here are our readers’ and writers’ ultimate buys• Don’t get the Filter delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereThe Filter is turning one. Since we launched a year ago, we’ve run, hiked, camped and swum; we’ve drunk 455 cups of coffee; washed 34 loads of clothes; slept on mattresses for 2,240 hours, and much more, testing a total of 2,040 products – from coffee machines to gin – to bring you the most rigorous, informed and entertaining buying advice.We’ve even had a decent stab at identifying the preferred lipstick of a global icon. And we’ve helped you consume less – and look after your precious things, from your phone to your wooden kitchen utensils, to make them last longer. Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago Suddenly, it hit me: I’ll never have children | Shanti Nelson

I always figured it would just happen at some point. Talk about an immaculate misconceptionIt hit me hard, out of nowhere.I’m never going to have children.Shanti Nelson is a writer and photographer Continue reading...

Events

7 d. ago Best illustrated children's books of all time to inspire young minds

Discover some of the best illustrated children's books that continue to enchant young readers today, from timeless classics to contemporary favourites

Science

8 d. ago What we’re reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in September

Writers and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the commentsI am really excited by Namanlagh, the first poetry collection in 10 years from the great Tom Paulin. A tone-perfect meditation on illness and recovery, partnership and writing, violence and historical neglect, it is an absolute cracker. There are subtle nods to Derek Mahon and Seamus Heaney, and many of the poems are filled with a sense of late style and unfinished business. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago Voices: ‘Not everyone has a smartphone’: Independent readers divided over mandatory online GP bookings

Our community is divided over mandatory online GP bookings, with some praising the convenience and reduced surgery visits, while others warn it risks excluding older or less tech-savvy patients and could overwhelm doctors

Politics

2 w. ago Trump has called the US postal service ‘a joke’. But don’t expect Amazon to replace it | Niamh Rowe

Amid financial struggles and presidential criticism, USPS is facing challenges. But it plays an essential role in US lifeIn towns where Washington DC is an abstraction, the post office is the front desk of American democracy – sometimes the only public space at all. Here, postmasters are “the human side of government”, as the senator Jennings Randolph put it in 1976. “When such offices are closed,” he warned, “the American flag really comes down.”Championed by Benjamin Franklin in 1775, the roots of the US postal service – whose mandate is to “bind the nation together” – are older than the republic itself. The constitution calls for “post offices and post roads”. The USPS is still legally obligated to provide a “basic and fundamental” service to all Americans. In Scottsbluff, Nebraska, a rural carrier drives more than 700 miles a year to serve just two households.Niamh Rowe is a New York-based writer and podcast producer Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago James Van Der Beek drops out of Dawson’s Creek reunion event due to illness

Van Der Beek has had to pull of the event due to two stomach issues with Hamilton writer Lin Manuel Miranda replacing him for the live reading.

Politics

2 w. ago James Van Der Beek to skip Dawson’s Creek reunion event due to ‘stomach viruses’

The actor will be replaced by Hamilton writer and star Lin-Manuel Miranda for the live charity reading

Politics

3 w. ago Air miles be damned. I say the best way to find out about the joy and complexity of our world is through novels | Pushpinder Khaneka

For me it started with Colombia and Gabriel García Márquez. As I read 200 books from different regions, I gained a clarity news reports seldom giveSign up for our new weekly newsletter Matters of Opinion, where our columnists and writers will reflect on what they’ve been debating, thinking about, reading and moreDear reader, are your shelves heaving under the weight of books by dead white folks? Do your eyes glaze over at the mention of foreign fiction? Is your reading diet missing the vibrant flavours of stories from Africa, Asia and Latin America? Restricting your reading to novels from Europe and North America is like going to an all-you-can-eat Mexican buffet and just eating tortillas. Why do that?I have been getting to know about countries in the global south through literature. Being an intrepid traveller, current events addict and avid reader led me inexorably to read books from around the world. The book that most reeled me in to the ability of literature to open the door to...

Politics

3 w. ago Art lovers rejoice: the National Gallery can finally show us when painting really gets exciting | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Curators can now chart the seismic shifts in 20th-century art – and include more works by women and artists of colourSign up for our new weekly newsletter Matters of Opinion, where our columnists and writers will reflect on what they’ve been debating, thinking about, reading and moreOne of my favourite paintings in the National Gallery’s collection technically breaks the rules: Paul Cézanne’s Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses) was painted in the last decade of his life, its date given as about 1894-1905. It was probably finished after the gallery’s cut-off date of 1900, a cut-off the gallery has just announced it will be jettisoning.To say that I am pleased is an understatement. It always struck me as bizarre that the end date occurs just at the exact point in history when painting is about to become very interesting. Just look at the Baigneuses and what they represent: the leap towards abstraction in the representation of the human form; the composition and its unidentifiable, but un...

Politics

3 w. ago Skinny jeans are showing signs of a comeback. Please make it stop | Dave Schilling

No item of clothing seems to go through revisions more than jeans. And the denim discourse is insufferableIf you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you are wearing clothes. Or my byline photo made you spontaneously strip down to nothing but a pair of crusty underwear and a smile. I don’t judge, and I also don’t blame you. That photo is from a decade ago.Assuming you’re in clothes, then you had to decide what to wear. It’s an arduous task for most of us – the rummaging in a closet, color coordinating, the classic “smell” test to confirm you can go another week without doing your laundry. For me, dressing is a joy. I have multiple closets stocked with clothes – suits, mostly. I have some shorts, some sweats, hoodies and T-shirts, but those are for special occasions only. Like a kid’s birthday or a hangover.Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago The US is on the brink of another era of political violence – and Donald Trump ‘couldn’t care less’ | Jonathan Freedland

In their humane responses to the killing of Charlie Kirk, Democrats are observing the old norms. Things are different now: anger and division ruleSign up for our new weekly newsletter Matters of Opinion, where our columnists and writers will reflect on what they’ve been debating, thinking about, reading and moreThe killing of Charlie Kirk has left the US and those who care about it on edge. The arrest of a suspect, Tyler Robinson, has hardly settled the nerves, not when the revelation of any supposed political allegiances could touch off a fresh round of recriminations. The fear is that the country is about to descend into a new era of political violence, becoming a place where differences are settled not with words and argument but by guns and blood. After all, it has plumbed those depths before.The US was born in violence, fought a civil war less than a century after its founding and in living memory seemed to be on the brink of another one – with a spate of assassinations in the ...

Politics

4 w. ago It’s not too late: the House of Lords can still protect disabled people from this dangerous assisted dying bill | Lucy Webster

MPs passed it without sufficient safeguarding. If there is any point to the upper chamber, it is to give the legislation the open debate we needSign up for our new weekly newsletter Matters of Opinion, where our columnists and writers will reflect on what they’ve been debating, thinking about, reading and moreThe House of Lords has a rare opportunity to prove its worth to the country today, as it begins to debate the assisted dying bill. Personally, I would be in favour of peers throwing out the whole idea, which is what this dangerous and badly written bill surely deserves. But it is unlikely that they will want to go so directly against the Commons, especially on such a controversial issue. So instead I must hope that they listen to disabled people’s groups, as well as legal and medical experts, and at least undo some of the lower house’s most egregious errors.Whether you are for or against the principle of assisted dying (I am pro), we should be able to agree that the passage of ...

Events

4 w. ago If Keir Starmer’s Labour can’t satisfy the unions, another party will | Andy Beckett

At this year’s TUC conference, I found cautious optimism about the employment rights bill – and a resurgent left looking to capture hearts and mindsSign up for our new weekly newsletter Matters of Opinion, where our columnists and writers will reflect on what they’ve been debating, thinking about, reading and more‘Unions winning” declared a giant, cheerily multicoloured sign along the windy seafront side of the Brighton Centre this week. Built in the unions’ distant 1970s heyday, the hulking traditional venue for their annual TUC conference is sometimes a melancholy place, windowless meeting rooms half-full of delegates and union leaders trying to raise their spirits while talking about setbacks, betrayals and rare victories.Yet for much of this conference the sun was out, the wind was light by Brighton standards and, inside the centre, the exhibition stand for Labour Unions, the collective body for those affiliated to the party, was plastered with uplifting posters promoting “Labou...

Politics