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fromwww.theguardian.com
7 hours ago

Vernon Katz obituary

The Gita was translated and discussed on land, sea, and in the air, in townhouses and country houses, by the Thames and by the Ganges, in the Alps, and on the canals of Venice. I had never known such happiness as this work with Maharishi.
Germany news
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
16 hours ago

On Memoir by Blake Morrison review lessons in life writing from a master

Life writing encompasses personal and collective experiences, requiring careful navigation of emotions and events.
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 days ago

Alan Slingsby obituary

Alan Slingsby was a journalist-philanthropist admired for putting his media skills at the service of the community, producing publications for trade unions and local groups.
Media industry
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 week ago

Jan Morris by Sara Wheeler review masterly account of a flawed figure

Morris was a sympathetic historian of empire who became a republican Welsh nationalist, and yet she accepted a CBE, showcasing her complex identity.
Writing
fromVulture
2 weeks ago

'Most of Us Long to Be Elizabeth Bennet, But Actually, We're Mary'

The Other Bennet Sister imagines Mary's life after the conclusion of Pride and Prejudice, sending her on adventures of the heart and soul in the supportive company of her Aunt and Uncle Gardiner.
Film
London music
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 weeks ago

Dua Lipa to curate London literature festival at Southbank Centre

Dua Lipa will curate the London literature festival at the Southbank Centre from 21 October to 1 November, focusing on books and authors.
#poetry
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 week ago
Books

The best recent poetry review roundup

The collection features unrhymed sonnets exploring the relationship between landscape, language, and human experience amidst themes of illness and trauma.
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago
Books

The best recent poetry review roundup

Three recent poetry collections explore lyric craft, ecological fragility, and personal memory with precise observation, painterly imagery, and elegiac intensity.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 week ago

The best recent poetry review roundup

The collection features unrhymed sonnets exploring the relationship between landscape, language, and human experience amidst themes of illness and trauma.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 weeks ago

Does anyone think Matt Goodwin's book on Britain's demise is a publishing sensation? I mean, other than him | Marina Hyde

Liz Truss's book quickly sold out but fell to No 223 in sales, while Matt Goodwin's book faced controversy over AI assistance and publicity tactics.
Writing
fromwww.theguardian.com
3 weeks ago

Enough Said by Alan Bennett review a man for all seasons

Repetition in Alan Bennett's diaries reveals layered meanings, especially regarding his reflections on the pandemic and personal experiences.
fromHyperallergic
4 weeks ago

Gainsborough's Pride and Prejudice

Lorena Bradford started monthly tours in American Sign Language, established a program for individuals with memory loss, and brought in medical students to learn soft skills to apply in their caregiving. 'I was a sub-department of one,' she joked to writer Emma Cieslik, who spoke with Bradford over Zoom and at the NGA about her own circuitous path into the profession, and the future of the field of museum accessibility.
Arts
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 weeks ago

A new Austen drama made me wonder: is the fate of bookish young women really so different today? | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

The Other Bennet Sister portrays the struggles of an intelligent, bookish girl finding her identity and self-acceptance beyond societal expectations.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
2 weeks ago

Today's Atlantic Trivia: Charles Dickens

The nighttime disorder formerly known as 'Pickwickian syndrome' is now called sleep apnea.
Writing
fromHarvard Gazette
4 weeks ago

The art of College poetry - Harvard Gazette

Harvard College hosts three National Youth Poet Laureates who emphasize performance techniques, personal storytelling, and the transformative power of poetry in their academic and artistic pursuits.
fromLondon On The Inside
1 month ago

One of London's Most Unusual Bookshops | Neighbourhood Watch

Running out of a tiny kiosk in Clerkenwell, Exmouth Cultural Kiosk is a secondhand bookstore and self-publishing project that sells books for as little as £2. The selection rotates often and can include everything from Tennyson to its own guide to Clerkenwell pubs.
London food
Public health
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

Martyn Butler obituary

Martyn Butler co-founded the Terrence Higgins Trust in 1982, Europe's first organization responding to the HIV/AIDS crisis, inspired by his friend Terry Higgins's death.
Writing
fromwww.theguardian.com
4 weeks ago

The Other Bennet Sister review the bookish Pride and Prejudice sister gets her turn in the spotlight

Mary Bennet from Pride and Prejudice has become the focus of numerous retellings and adaptations, most notably Janice Hadlow's bestseller adapted into a 10-part television series.
London
fromTime Out London
1 month ago

London could be getting a new museum dedicated to communist icon Friedrich Engels

A Primrose Hill house where Friedrich Engels lived could become a museum dedicated to socialist philosophy and working-class history.
Books
fromwww.npr.org
1 month ago

Author Luke Kennard talks about his novel, 'Black Bag'

Luke Kennard's novel 'Black Bag' fictionalizes a 1967 psychology experiment where a silent, bagged actor in a classroom gradually becomes liked by students through repeated exposure, exploring how familiarity transforms perception.
Roam Research
fromWIRED
1 month ago

Grammarly Is Offering 'Expert' AI Reviews From Your Favorite Authors-Dead or Alive

Grammarly has expanded from a grammar checker to an AI writing platform offering multiple generative features, including an 'expert review' option that falsely attributes critiques to real academics and deceased authors without their permission or involvement.
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

UK Society of Authors launches logo to identify books written by humans not AI

The SoA said the absence of any government measure to compel tech companies to label AI-generated output meant readers were struggling to distinguish between books written by a human, and machine-generated work based on AI models trained on copyrighted work without permission or payment.
Books
Writing
fromBusiness Matters
1 month ago

Mara Naaman: A Literary Voice Shaping Culture

Building a life around ideas means prioritizing process and learning over outcomes and external validation, enabling deeper intellectual and creative growth.
Music
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

From Bronte to Ballard, Orwell to Okri: the best songs inspired by literature ranked!

Numerous popular songs draw direct inspiration from literature, with artists adapting novels, authors, and literary imagery into lyrics, themes, and song concepts.
fromThe Nation
2 months ago

Barbara Pym's Archaic England

Thatcher rose to power on the back of a campaign to Make Britain Great Again-a promise to reverse the previous two decades of austerity, imperial contraction, and stagnating modernization. By 1979, the country was undeniably in decline-not just materially but on a more ineffable level, too. Divested of the unifying effect of global superpower status, the increasingly dis-United Kingdom's common identity was now an open, and anxious, question.
UK politics
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

The best recent poetry review roundup

Andrew Motion's latest collection explores mortality and loss through elegies, showing a shift toward rootedness and acceptance of death as a universal human experience rather than personal bewilderment.
Europe politics
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

The Country That Made Its Own Canon

Sweden released a national culture canon, sparking controversy over national identity as immigration rises and the nationalist Sweden Democrats gain political influence.
fromCN Traveller
3 years ago

The best things to do in Oxford

The Oxford Artisan Distillery (TOAD) produces its whiskey, gin, vodka and liqueur from heritage wheat and rye varieties rediscovered in the thatch of medieval roofs. It's an example of the extraordinary lengths the distillers go here to create their unique flavours while building a regenerative farming system along the way. Tour the distillery to find out all about the processes involved,
Food & drink
History
fromMedievalists.net
2 months ago

New Medieval Books: Blessed Mary and the Monks of England - Medievalists.net

English Benedictine and Cistercian monks (1000–1215) shaped medieval Mariology by deepening Marian devotion, theological reflection, and using Mary as a model for Christian life.
fromVulture
1 month ago

Jack Lowden, Why Are You Darcy?

Mr. Darcy is its stern romantic lead. He has a massive income from his estate - 10,000 pounds a year - and, according to the novel's witty protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet, just as large of a stick up his ass. Jane Austen was not one to go for lengthy physical descriptions of things, but we do know that when he enters a room, he draws people's attention with a "fine, tall person, handsome features," and a "noble mien."
Film
Science
fromNature
1 month ago

From Victorian voyages to vanishing maps: Books in brief

Historical expeditions and proxy records reveal long-term Earth and ocean processes essential for understanding and addressing contemporary climate and environmental challenges.
Arts
fromwww.npr.org
2 months ago

Julian Barnes' playful new book is also his 'official departure'

An aging writer confronts mortality, memory, and repetition while considering retirement and revisiting past relationships through fiction blending autobiography and invention.
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Bernardine Evaristo renews call to diversify school curriculum in England

There has been progress in the diversity of texts on offer in the GCSE English literature curriculum, but uptake in schools is still low with just 1.9% of GCSE pupils in England studying books by authors of colour, up from 0.7% five years ago, according to a report. Compiled by the campaign group Lit in Colour, the report says progress is too slow and that
Education
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

Saba Sams: I've no interest in reading Wuthering Heights again'

Jacqueline Wilson's unflinching approach to children's literature, alongside works by authors like Gwendoline Riley and Clarice Lispector, demonstrates that literary courage and emotional complexity resonate more powerfully than conventional safety or virtuousness.
Books
fromHarvard Gazette
1 month ago

That's a book? - Harvard Gazette

Italo Calvino used tarot card decks as a computational system to generate interconnected narratives, predating modern AI by decades and demonstrating how structured systems can create complex literary works.
Arts
fromHarvard Gazette
2 months ago

Updike's life in letters - Harvard Gazette

John Updike produced vast correspondence and literary works—over 25,000 letters, 60-plus books, and thousands of shorter pieces—making letters integral to his prolific output.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

The Quantity Theory of Morality by Will Self review raucously inventive state-of-the-nation satire

Will Self's new novel The Quantity Theory of Morality extends his 1991 debut theory by proposing that moral resources are finite and their depletion inevitably triggers widespread bad behavior across all social groups.
fromThe Art Newspaper - International art news and events
2 months ago

A brush with... curator James Lingwood

One of Vija Celmins's wonderful Night Sky works. Maybe one of her charcoal drawings of the cosmos, with a comet flaring across the surface. She conjures up such immensity, and such intimacy, with countless tiny points of light shining out of the darkness. Which cultural experience changed the way you see the world? In a word, Paris. After I left school, I spent several weeks working in Paris and discovered the pleasures of looking, on my own, for myself.
Arts
Arts
fromwww.mercurynews.com
2 months ago

Shakespeare' gets a lot of credit but performer should, too

Jacob Ming-Trent uses Shakespeare and hip-hop to process personal trauma, finding poetic kinship that informs a powerful, authoritative solo theatrical performance.
Writing
fromBig Think
2 months ago

Why "read more" may be the most underrated thinking advice we have

Extensive, wide-ranging reading is essential to develop the skills and raw materials needed to compose clear, effective prose; there is no shortcut.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

What we're reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in February

Claire Baglin's 'On the Clock' uses narrow focus on fast-food work to reveal profound truths about contemporary alienation and precarity with compassion and emotional depth.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Underground wit and poor attention spans | Letters

Poems on the Underground seldom capture the London Underground experience, inspiring satirical commuter poems and comparisons between oral epic attention strategies and modern cinema.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

Ben Markovits: I used to think any book concerned with people falling in love can't be very good'

Reading shaped formative years through detective stories, fantasy epics, and memoirs that provided companionship and escape during frequent moves and family transitions.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

Tessa Hadley on the Power of Memory

A lasting friendship rests on shared sensibility, mutual trust to perceive and understand, and an affinity of insight beyond mere shared experiences.
#julian-barnes
#alfred-tennyson
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Rebel English Academy by Mohammed Hanif review a sure-fire Booker contender

Dark, irony-soaked comedy and farce expose Pakistan's political repression, religious hypocrisy, and violence with subversive, satirical imagination.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Sex, death and parrots: Julian Barnes's best fiction ranked!

Duffy, The Porcupine and The Lemon Table deliver a bisexual private-eye crime caper, a savage satire of a collapsed communist regime, and stories about ageing.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Ali Smith: Henry James had me running down the garden path shouting out loud'

Early exposure to Beatles labels, Charlotte's Web, and Liz Lochhead’s poetry sparked a lifelong love of reading and inspired a desire to write.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

Why Tennyson Feels So Modern

Young Alfred, Lord Tennyson absorbed unsettling scientific ideas, shaping his melancholic temperament and the themes of belief crisis in his poetry.
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Poem of the week: The Secret Day by Stella Benson

The Secret Day My yesterday has gone, has gone and left me tired, And now tomorrow comes and beats upon the door; So I have built To-day, the day that I desired, Lest joy come not again, lest peace return no more, Lest comfort come no more. So I have built To-day, a proud and perfect day, And I have built the towers of cliffs upon the sands; The foxgloves and the gorse I planted on my way;
Books
fromianVisits
1 month ago

Who really made Dickens? New exhibition credits the women he depended on

Charles Dickens's novels are often criticised for their idealised passive female characters, but as the Dickens Museum now shows, he was, in life and in death, surrounded by formidable, intelligent and independent women. A new exhibition at the museum shifts attention away from Dickens as a solitary genius and instead places women at the centre of his creative world and cultural afterlife.
Books
Books
fromHarvard Gazette
2 months ago

The stories behind the books - Harvard Gazette

Harvard's library collection includes books that use layered images, movable elements, and raised type to create interactive, tactile, and accessible reading experiences.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

Another World by Melvyn Bragg review portrait of the broadcaster as a young man

Melvyn Bragg leaves Wigton for Wadham College, embraces Oxford life, explores culture and politics, joins demonstrations, and later reassesses his imperial-minded motives.
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