Literature

In 2011, the Nobel prize-winning Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk spoke out about the “marginalisation” of non-English writers, about the ‘near-invisibility’ of writers in languages other than English, and about the persistent shortage of translations. He also criticised the response of British and American literary critics, who he said perceived him in narrow terms defined by his nationality. In short, he complained about the western world’s dominance over literary culture. But has anything changed since then? In an exclusive Q&A, The...

I was just thinking that, you know, it has to have been at least twenty years since I last read five hundred pages of porn. Oh, so I’ve got your attention, do I? Well, don’t get your hopes up and your shutters drawn, we’re not talking about that kind of porn. The name of this novel is Agent in Place not Aching in Lace, and it is definitely not the memoir of that carefree courtesan-dominatrix known so fondly to one...

The Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins and Jurassic Park are among the book-to-movie adaptations Brits prefer in film-form, a study has found. A poll of 2,000 adults found that after reading the book and seeing the story unfold on the big screen, many were won over by the movie version of classic tales. Other stories people preferred to watch rather than read include Jaws and Forrest Gump. The 1971 version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Mary Poppins...

Say what one will about genre fiction, usually expressed with a long-nosed sniff of disdain while ice cubes clink against the side of a swirled glass, yet it remains true that thousands, even tens of thousands of readers will derive much more enjoyment from the latest ‘dead body staining the white wicker in the sun room’ than you will from the latest Man Booker approved bit of indulgence where otherwise silent characters drone on and on in an endless interior...

A rare "sex manual" from 1720 revealing the most bizarre beliefs of Georgian England has been unearthed and could fetch hundreds of pounds at auction. The 300-year-old book offers a fascinating insight into attitudes towards sex at a time in Britain when witches were still burnt at the stake. They include weird tips to help women avoid giving birth to children "with a hairy lip, wry mouth or great blubber-lips". It also advises men to eat meat, blackbirds and sparrows...

At the height of the Gold Rush in the mid-1800s, more than 300,000 prospectors flocked to California to seek their fortune. The overwhelming majority returned home broken and penniless. The innovative few, on the other hand, lined their pockets and became some of the wealthiest people on the planet. They recognised consumer needs and set out to meet that demand. Samuel Brannan was one such individual. Instead of seeking gold himself, he opened a string of stores and filled them...

The spectacular neoclassical gardens at Stourhead in Wiltshire attract more than 400,000 visitors per year. Its 18th-Century Great Lake, in particular, is one of the most photographed, romantic spots in Britain. The gardens were created by one of the richest men in England at the time, Henry Hoare II, a banker with the money to indulge a passion for grand landscaping and classical architecture. But Hoare, known as Henry the Magnificent, was anything but the happy, successful man he portrayed...

This witty, engaging and heartfelt new memoir by Peter Meyer is a tour de force of wanderlust. It tells the inspirational true story of growing up ‘wild’ in wildest South Africa, and how our childhoods can and do shape our adult lives. The Boy from the Wild recounts Meyer’s “charmed” life growing up on the Karkloof Valley Nature Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The 1,000-hectare reserve was the brainchild of his late father, James, who set about transforming the site...

Well as far as years go this was certainly one of them. I recall remarking somewhere around the end of 2016, the year when All the Celebrities Died, that we would some day look back at that year as the Good Old Days. Who knew that would almost be immediate? But you know, it wasn’t all bad, just a sweeping majority bad; the same kind of sweeping majority that Theresa May thought was hers to be had until she discovered...