Latest features and reviews

<p>Literacy rates have stalled or declined across the Western world</p>

Doomsayers warn about a post-lit society – here’s why they are wrong

Our concentration levels may be going down, but predictions of the death of the novel – and reading – are wide of the mark, says Robert McCrum. As 2026 is declared the year of reading, he takes a look at why the life of the mind has a future – even more so in a world of AI

<p>Lena Dunham, Cynthia Erivo and David Hockney all have exciting new projects planned for the next 12 months</p>

2026 culture guide

The biggest books, art, plays, TV and films to look forward to in 2026

<p>It was at Worthy Farm on 25 June 2000 that David Bowie regained his crown as the reigning monarch of contemporary music</p>

Extract

The ‘accidental brilliance’ behind David Bowie’s Glastonbury gig

<p>Get a jumpstart on your new year's resolution to read more with these picks for January</p>

books of the month

What to read this January, including Julian Barnes’s final book

<p>Best of the bunch: The non-fiction and fiction that’ll have everyone talking next year</p>

2026

16 books to have on your radar in 2026

<p>David Walliams has been dropped by his publisher (Ian West/PA)</p>

Features

It’s baffling that David Walliams’s publishing deal lasted this long

Features

The sad truth about Richard Osman and the books you should buy instead

<p>Best of the bunch: here are our top picks of this year’s releases</p>

Features

The best fiction and non-fiction books of 2025

<p>Finnish infantry soldiers fighting the forgotten ‘Winter War’, from 1939-40, in which Josef Stalin’s Soviet army advanced on Finland</p>

Books

The forgotten winter war: A timely reminder of Russia’s threat today

<p>Bookworm: Robert Pattinson in ‘Remember Me’</p>

in focus

Men aren’t vanishing from fiction. The truth is much more complicated

<p>‘I never have a problem with guys who make a movie that misses as long as they make the movie they want to make’: Bill Murray and Wes Anderson on the set of ‘Rushmore’</p>

Extract

How Bill Murray terrified – then befriended – Wes Anderson

<p>iRead: are AI-generated books welcome in our literary world?</p>

In Focus

A troubling question has been raised around human authors vs AI

<p>Sylvia Plath and Taylor Swift: cultural twins or worlds apart? </p>

The Reading List

Maggie Nelson is wrong: Taylor Swift isn’t this generation’s Plath

There are plenty of curious ideas to pursue when examining the global phenomenon of Swift in 2025. The patriarchy hating prolific female artists in a pop world dominated by women doesn’t feel like one of them, writes Hannah Ewens

<p>Parton is a country music trailblazer, business genius and, to many, fairy godmother</p>

The Reading List

Star of the Show: Is Dolly Parton having the final say on her career?

While she still keeps her romantic life firmly behind closed doors, Parton’s new book offers a lively narrative for her extraordinary career, finds Roisin O’Connor, from her impoverished childhood to the cherished country queen she is today