Literary Criticism

_______________'[An] acutely observed collection of occasional pieces that pick at absurdist life and reveal him to be a quiz, a cultural critic gifted with precise comic timing' - The Times'Yes,...

A collection of essays, speeches and reviews which examines the individual's, particularly the writer's, relationship to her society. The book includes essays on other writers such as Thomas Mann and...

Following the bestselling "Summer of a Dormouse", Sir John Mortimer - playwright, novelist, octogenarian and erstwhile QC - offers up more lessons in living and growing old disgracefully. What would...

- tutorials and chapters that cover every genre of writing - lots of exercises to unlock your creativity - motivational insights from top authors - practical guidelines for how to...

Irish Women Poets Rediscovered is a ground-breaking collection of original essays which brings to new recognition the lives and work of seventeen remarkable Irish women poets spanning the eighteenth to...

Experience a modern classic on writing as you've never heard it before. With nearly one million copies of Writing Down the Bones in print, Natalie Goldberg has helped change the...

When Graham Greene died in 1991, at the age of 86, his reputation as a great Catholic writer was assured. His books reflected an awareness of sin and confronted discomfiting...

Writing seems to be a problem of some kind. It isn't as if most people can just sit down and start to write brilliantly, get up from the desk, so...

Stuff I've Been Reading by Nick Hornby - the bestselling novelist's rich, witty and inspiring reading diary'Read what you enjoy, not what bores you,' Nick Hornby tells us. And in...

Karl Miller is one of the greatest literary critics of the last fifty years, the founder of the London Review of Books and Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature...

Everything from Beowulf to Bronte rewritten/ruined in twenty Tweets or less in Twitterature, the hilarious expression of every book-lovers' fear of the digital age, by Alexander Acima and Emmett Rensin.From...

In What Is Mine, sociologist Jose Henrique Bortoluci uses interviews with his father, Didi, to retrace the recent history of Brazil and of his family. From the mid-1960s to the...

18M copies of Elena Ferrante's books sold worldwide"This is my last column, after a year that has scared and inspired me."With these words, Elena Ferrante, the bestselling author of My...

Lost in the raging debate over the validity of social construction is the question of what, precisely, is being constructed. Facts, gender, quarks, reality? Is it a person? An object?...

Devoted entirely to the history of the footnote, this quirky but academic study emphasizes the importance of the footnote in offering empirical support for the stories we live by. Its...

The success of the writing courses at UEA belies the myth that writing can't be taught. This coursebook takes aspiring writers through three stages of practice: Gathering - getting started,...

People have always been fascinated by the bull, its violent beauty and innate appeal as a symbol of sexual power. And the elaborate choreography of the bullfight also provides an...

The puppet creates delight and fear. It may evoke the innocent play of childhood, or become a tool of ritual magic, able to negotiate with ghosts and gods. Puppets can...

A visionary, a craftsman, a comedian ... He can do anything with a piece of prose, and it is a humbling experience to see him go to work on what...

Dine with beloved writers in this 'utterly charming' (Nina Stibbe) new anthology of their very own favourite recipes, introduced by Bee Wilson.Agatha Christie's hot bean salad.Jack Kerouac's green pea soup.Allen...

While travelling through the Great Alfoeld, the vast plain in south-eastern Hungary, Esther Kinsky stops in a small town near the Romanian border. Like many other things, the cinema, 'mozi'...

November 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Clive Staples 'Jack' Lewis, when a memorial to him will be placed in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey. Although perhaps...

This critical magnum opus, unprecedented in Shakespeare studies for its scope and daring, is nothing less than an attempt to show the Complete Works - dramatic and poetic - as...