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<p>Dua Lipa has recently re-launched her literary interview podcast</p>

State of the Arts

Dua Lipa and the problem with the celebrity book club mafia

The pop star has turned a page and set out to become a force in the literary world. But we ought to be sceptical about the growing number of celebrities monopolising the publishing industry, writes Fiona Sturges

<p>Stephen T Lewis: ‘Richard got lost in the wars between those two alpha males’</p>

The forgotten genius of The Band’s Richard Manuel

<p>Gráinne O’Hare’s debut is set in the nightclubs of Belfast</p>

interview

Sex, grief and debauchery: Gráinne O’Hare on her new novel Thirst Trap

<p>Munroe Bergdorf’s latest book, ‘Talk to Me’, is a guide on allyship</p>

Interview

Munroe Bergdorf: ‘Half of my face froze from Bell’s palsy’

<p>Simon Armitage: ‘I don’t see it as my job to bring the nation together’</p>

Interview

Simon Armitage: ‘It’s not my job to bring the nation together’

<p>June reading list: From a debut packed with deft humour to an enlightening biography of one of the 20th century’s most intriguing writers, and a non-fiction exploration of the most stigmatised emotion</p>

Books of the Month

What to read this June from a witty revenge tale to a defence of rage

<p>Take a page out of their books: Elif Shafak, Nussaibah Younis and more on the novels that changed their lives</p>

Hay Festival 2025

The book that made me who I am, by Elif Shafak, Tessa Hadley and more

<p>Joanne Harris returns to her most famous character, Vianne, in a prequel book of the same name</p>

Interview

Chocolat’s Joanne Harris: ‘We don’t want machines to dream for us’

<p>Always with a glass-half-full view of the world, Rebecca Solnit is soon appearing at this year’s Hay Festival</p>

interview

Rebecca Solnit: ‘Fiction is treated as more literary – f*** that’

<p>Nicole Kidman won an Oscar for her portrayal of Woolf in ‘The Hours’ </p>

The Reading List

A century of Clarissa: Why Mrs Dalloway will forever fascinate us

<p>Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has long promoted an aggressive form of ‘Britishness’</p>

McCrum on Books

Our national identity is in crisis. What does it mean to be British?

<p>Grounded: People are picking up health memoirs in order to feel less alone in their own issues in life </p>

In Focus

The boom in health memoirs and what they can tell us about being human

Reviews

<p>Emma Jane Unsworth nails the female Gen X and millennial experience in her latest novel</p>

interview

Emma Jane Unsworth: ‘Women are told to feel ashamed of our fantasies’

<p>The Big Three: Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference in 1945</p>

Tim Bouverie recalls The Big Three’s fall-out with wit and sensitivity

<p>‘Source Code’ is the first of a memoir trilogy, looking back on Bill Gates’s early years in Seattle to the 1975 foundation of Microsoft</p>

Amid cyborg tech tycoons, Bill Gates’s memoir offers a more human view

<p>Readers’ history: Orlando Reade’s new book explores the response to ‘Paradise Lost’ over the centuries </p>

The book unearthing the subversive history of Paradise Lost

Lists

<p>What better way to become the best version of yourself other than with a trusty self-help book? (Alamy/PA)</p>

7 books that are cheaper than therapy

<p>Must-reads: the books you can’t miss in 2025 </p>

The books to read in 2025, from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to Adam Kay

<p>With the rise of Instagram and BookTok, the importance of aesthetics in literature is on the rise </p>

Don’t judge a book by its cover: 15 of the most iconic book covers

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