What happens when fierce scientific rivals go head to head? Joel Levy discusses some of history's most epic battles to discredit the work of colleagues. Do these often petty quarrels help or hinder the progress of science?Joel's book Scientific Feuds: ...
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It's the start of another school year and I'm dreaming of new pencil cases, satchels and the books I read in class. But what are the books you remember from your own school days?Fourteen years after I finished school, there's still something about Sept...
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Anointed by Utne Reader as one of a select hundred transformative visionaries, ecologist and philosopher David Abram here attempts to imaginitively engineer the reunion of contemporary man and his animal-respecting ancestors, seeking in near-shamanisti...
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Reports that library services will be cut have been met with orchestrated outcry. The Department of Culture, Media and Sport softened us up for the bad news by revealing that the "proportion of adults visiting a library" had decreased from 48.2% to 39....
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Natalie Portman is superb as a troubled ballet dancer, Robert Rodriguez gets trashy, and a Jerusalem-set drama provides this year's turkey at the Venice film festivalThe Venice film festival began with a feverish combination of burning heat and rainy t...
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Eloisa James on four novels that illustrate why weddings in romances need to be more than just happy endings.
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A feature by P.E. Logan Read more about GalleyCat ReviewsAs Hurricane Franzen bears down on the coasts, no matter where you point the literary compass, and words are lashed to typewriters for deconstruction of the deeper meani...
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The opening sentence of a novel should pique the curiosity. But its closing should be masterlyTo Fowler, for the English language, and Roget, for words that elude one, and Brewer, for almost everything else, I now have to add a new name among reference...
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Philip Roberts writes: Stephen Wall (obituary, 1 September) taught me between 1960 and 1963 at Oxford University. Rather, he educated me in that mild, unassuming, self-deprecatory manner which was his trademark.Stephen would urge me to see the latest F...
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So this week we reach the end of the alphabet and the end of our alphabetical survey of my bookshelves. I’d like to thank everyone for such excellent additions and comments—I can only make suggestions for where to start with authors I re...
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The Hugo Awards have been given since 1953, and every year since 1955, by the annual World Science Fiction Convention (the “Worldcon”). Finalists are nominated by members of the previous Worldcon and of the upcoming one; winners are sele...
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The prologue to Daniel Swift's study of 'the lost airmen of world war two', longlisted for the Guardian first book award
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Bid to end long-standing friction over the unassuming resting place in the Yorkshire village of Heptonstall of Ted Hughes's tragic partnerA small stone in a cemetery in the Yorkshire village of Heptonstall marks the unassuming grave of Sylvia Plath, th...
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The professor of classics at the University of Cambridge gives her verdict on Tony Blair's memoirThe best thing about the Blair book was the stuff about boozing. I had always imagined that New Labour was a "Perrier-and-rocket-salad" party, and that the...
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The veteran Labour politician and president of the Stop the War Coalition gives his verdict on Tony Blair's memoirA Journey tells the story of Tony Blair's remarkable career – 10 years at No 10. Like any memoir, it highlights the story and illustrate...
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Founder considers a £100m-plus bid for the underperforming book chain if HMV's turnaround plan failsTim Waterstone, the founder of the books chain that bears his name, is considering a £100m-plus bid to take the chain private if the parent company, H...
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