Read an excerpt from Kevin Maxwell’s Forced Out in Granta
Three months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, on a cold December morning, I reported for duty at GMP’s training school in Bury, a looming brick structure with long iron gates. At twenty-three years old, with my recently issued uniform in bags, I was about to cross the threshold of the Sedgley Park […]
My Sister the Serial Killer longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year
Oyinkan Braithwaite’s debut novel My Sister the Serial Killer has been longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Read more about the prize and the other longlisted authors here.
The Aitken Alexander Isolation Series: There is Always an After by Mary Paulson-Ellis
There Is Always An After When the edict came I found myself locked down in Cromarty in the North East of Scotland, 170 miles from home. Cromarty is a small town bounded by Firths on two sides – the Moray and the Cromarty. In one of these bodies of water dolphins swim with abandon, leaping […]
Dr Rachel Clarke: Forget medals and flypasts – what we want is proper pay and PPE
Read Rachel Clarke’s column in the Observer here.
How Bernardine Evaristo won the Booker: Rebecca Liu profiles Bernardine Evaristo
Twenty years ago, Bernardine Evaristo visualised winning the Booker Prize. She had been taking upbeat American-style personal development classes, and decided to set herself what seemed like an impossible goal. Though Evaristo had already begun establishing herself as a poet and novelist in London, drawing the respect of her peers as well as critical praise, […]
‘I was a boy who wanted nothing so much as to join the police’: Kevin Maxwell’s Forced Out in The Observer
I was born in Liverpool in 1978, two months before my mum’s 42nd birthday. I was her 11th and last child – she had her own football team. Like all of my siblings, I was mixed race. My mother was white, with long brown hair and piercing blue eyes flecked with green. I was a […]
How it feels to … lose your life’s work in the pub
When her bag was stolen on a night out, Marina Kemp lost her laptop — and the only draft of her first novel. She recalls the strange chapter that followed. Click here to read more.
The Aitken Alexander Isolation Series: Mnemonic by James Scudamore
Mnemonic _____ He is not the sort of person to break his journey to take in a view, not least because his employer, Jerome, has strict rules on the importance of staying focused during research trips. But this morning, on his way to the target’s address, Dan pulls the car over on a high country […]
A.N. Wilson shortlisted for the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography 2020
We are delighted to announce Prince Albert by A.N. Wilson has been shortlisted for the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography 2020. Read more about the prize and the other shortlisted books here.
The Aitken Alexander Isolation Series: Spirit D’escalier the size of a country by Max Porter
‘Spirit D’escalier the Size of a Country’ by Max Porter The government said we could drive so I loaded the boys in the car and we drove up and out of the city to the mile-deep green bowls where the old woods meet the soft stone and the clean springs, and it was green, green, […]