Books

Tarnished by Iraq and Mandelson – but two new books show they made millions of lives better

Morgan Jones’s new book unpicks the chaos of the campaign for a second referendum

The successes and flaws of The Walsh Sisters adaptation reveals a writer who truly understands women

A remarkable and horrific audio archive of survivors’ stories documents individual upheavals and collective trauma

Her memoir, A Hymn to Life, details unimaginable abuse at the hands of the man she loved – and still manages to leave you with hope

The genre is big business - but Alice Evelyn Yang’s intoxicating debut novel has ambitions well beyond gore and fantasy

As Ramadan and Lent collide, so do old religion, modern body anxiety and the eternal quest for a reset

Every child who has to read or watch the fictional Lord of the Flies deserves to know what actually happened when it played out in real life

Dominic Sandbrook’s new literary podcast struggles with forced chemistry

How the creator of Peanuts created humour from loneliness and sadness

The former iCarly actor’s debut novel, Half His Age, rewrites the story of an age-gap relationship in crude, embarrassing, brilliant style

What happens to real women when men get used to girlfriends they can design and silence?

From Mariupol to Tehran, Cecilia Sala’s new book captures young people forced into extraordinary acts of resistance

Malik Al Nasir’s search for his roots began with a racist jam mascot - and ended with him tracing his heritage to both sides of a brutal trade

Dismissed by friends and launched in an era when women lacked the vote, Ocampo’s Sur magazine became a defining force in 20th-century literature and politics

The writer’s Reith Lecture, just reprinted, caused controversy in 1993 – but its conclusions seem oddly prescient

Artificial Intelligence already lies, manipulates and threatens. And we’re still feeding it, without setting any guidelines

Former Newsnight journalist Deborah Cohen’s new book explores how influencer culture and wellness marketing have created a boom market in dodgy health advice

Trump and co like to imagine the Arctic as empty, silent and ripe for the taking. In fact it is noisy, political and increasingly angry

The American-Asian artist’s brutal killing ended a life of huge promise – but her voice could not be silenced

Mysteries, misdiagnoses and miracles marked the extraordinary life of New Zealand’s greatest writer. Yet she remains oddly undercelebrated in her own land

The great crime writer, who died 50 years ago, may have looked in later life like Miss Marple – but in her youth she was an intrepid world traveller with a passion for surfing

Chloé Zhao’s film is deeply felt and beautifully made – but misses the essence of what made the playwright so great

Every new year, we swear we’ll start anew – but literature shows we never really can

Maria Semple, Catherine Newman and Jennette McCurdy are among the writers with books to look out for in 2026

Crime, corruption and cruelty show how leaders like Trump and Bukele exploit power, and why they must be stopped

The former deputy prime minister is following her ambitious colleague Wes Streeting in penning an autobiography

The country’s wartime tradition of giving novels has become a key part of the season

The Holy City was extracting money from tourists even when Mark Twain visited in 1867

Our writers on their cultural highlights of the year

In Barcelona, key sites from the fight against Franco remain, but their memory has been wiped clean

A hit job on Keir Starmer does no one any favours – but shows how the party’s old grievances have led to its failure in power