Features & interviews

<p>Booker Prize 2023 winner Paul Lynch with his novel, Prophet Song </p>

Comment

The judges picked the wrong Paul to win this year’s Booker Prize

Six books, three authors called Paul, one £50,000 prize. In the end, Paul Lynch has taken the spoils for his dystopian tale of a totalitarian Ireland – but it doesn’t feel like a winner that will stand the test of time, writes our chief book critic Martin Chilton

<p>‘War is fought in our most intimate places. A hospital is bombed. A nursery is bombed. The places we feel most sheltered are taken from us in war’ </p>

Inside the intense mind of Canadian novelist Anne Michaels

<p>Ben Mezrich’s ‘Breaking Twitter’ is an account of Elon Musk’s controversial takeover of the social media website </p>

Did Elon Musk break Twitter – or did Twitter break him?

<p>Wendy Cope’s poem ‘The Orange’ has brought her work to a whole new generation</p>

How The Orange made Wendy Cope the internet’s favourite poet

<p>‘It’s definitely uncomfortable to be quite so candid’ </p>

Interview

How Nina Stibbe’s marriage breakup sent her back to literary London

<p>Broadway baby: Barbra Streisand revisits her life and career in ‘My Name is Barbra'</p>

Don’t rain on the parade of Barbra Streisand’s 992-page memoir

<p>In her memoir ‘My Account’, Rooney comes across as scrupulously fair and thoughtful</p>

Coleen Rooney’s My Account is the final word on Wagatha (apparently)

<p>Telling it like it is: Bates hails the ‘privilege and huge responsibility of being trusted with women’s stories’ </p>

Interview

Men Who Hate Women author Laura Bates: ‘Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine how bad the backlash would be’

<p>Paul Auster, Anne Michaels and William Boyd are among November’s authors </p>

Books of the month: From William Boyd to Paul Auster

<p>James O’Brien: ‘I fell for Matt Hancock’s schtick for a while. I’ve got to own up to that’</p>

Interview

LBC’s James O’Brien on the problem with Farage and being a ‘bruiser’

<p>‘In our increasingly secular world, the canon of poetry has become the secular liturgy’ </p>

Features

How a poem a day can help us through the hardest of times

<p>‘How would I like to be remembered? As a feminist icon’</p>

Interview

Julia Fox on fame, heroin and Kanye West: ‘Working as a dominatrix was one of the few times I felt safe’

Reviews

<p>Tinker, Tailor, Soldier guy: John le Carré pictured in March 1965</p>

The Secret Life of John le Carré: Two literary men having a breakdown

<p>Britney Spears, photographed performing in 1999, has written a memoir so breathtaking in its rage that you can practically see the spittle on its pages</p>

The Britney memoir is raw, unfiltered and breathtaking in its rage

<p>The best of September’s book releases</p>

Books of the month, from Sebastian Faulks to Zadie Smith

<p>‘Tom Lake’ and ‘Cheri’ are also among the month’s recommendations</p>

Books of the Month, from Anna Funder to Richard Russo

Lists

<p>Lisa Taddeo and Saba Sams are two authors who have shed light on female desire </p>

Nine books that got women’s desire right

<p>Zadie Smith, Deborah Levy, Salman Rushdie, Prince Harry and Elliot Page will all release books in 2023</p>

The best books of 2023, from Prince Harry to Zadie Smith

<p>Cormac McCarthy and Ali Smith also make the list </p>

The 20 best books of the year, from Claire Keegan to Jonathan Coe

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