Literary essays

A seed slips beyond a garden wall. A seaweed drifts through an ocean. A tree is planted on a shifting border. A shrub is uprooted from its culture and its land. What happens when these plants leave their original homes and put down roots elsewhere? Born in Canada to a Taiwanese mother and a Welsh...

'Grief is for People' is a deeply moving and surprisingly suspenseful portrait of friendship, and a book about loss packed with verve for life. Sloane Crosley is one of our most renowned observers of contemporary behaviour, and now the pathos that has been ever present in her trademark wit is on ...

Richard Holloway thinks back on some of the questions that have shaped his life. Here are the big asks: Is there a God? How can we forgive? Where does creativity come from? How can we face loss and death? How can we live a good life? And how do we find beauty in the world? To this cause he also r...

In this love letter to the heroes of literacy, James Patterson uncovers true stories from booksellers and librarians. Prepare to enter a world where you can feed your curiosities, discover new voices, and find whatever you need. Meet the smart and talented people who live between the shelves - an...

In the 1940s, it was believed that homosexuality had been becoming more widespread in the aftermath of war. A moral panic ensued, centred around London as the place to which gay men gravitated. Peter Parker explores what it was actually like for queer men in London in this period, whether they we...

How do you see Britain? That might depend on your point of view, and as long time British foreign correspondent, Michael Peel has come to understand, it can look very different from outside. It's tempting to think of the UK as a fundamentally stable and successful nation. But events of the past f...

Kate Humble has a knack for sharing her own journey towards a more pleasing and purposeful life in a way that inspires readers, enables them to reassess their own lives and helps them achieve their personal goals. Having encouraged readers to reconnect with nature in 'Thinking on My Feet' and sim...