Mark Haddon’s THE PORPOISE: A deep dive into the tale of Pericles

  There’s a medieval trader who passes through the middle of Mark Haddon’s notable new book, “The Porpoise.” On the road, the trader hears tales of intrigue. One bit of hearsay involves a city ruled by two sisters, whose brother has gone missing. That brother is in fact the trader himself: Pericles, the prince of […]

The New Yorker: The Empty Promise of Boris Johnson by Sam Knight

The man expected to be Britain’s next Prime Minister makes people in power, including himself, appear ridiculous, but that doesn’t mean he’d dream of handing power to anybody else. In the spring of 1989, the Daily Telegraph sent Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson to Brussels to cover what was then the European Economic Community. Johnson, who was […]

The Big Issue: Review of This Brutal House by Niven Govinden

Shunned youngsters are rescued by stand-in mothers in this troubling novel. Dani Garavelli finds there can be no winners. The glitzy, bitchy sub-culture of the black and Latino vogue balls, with their fiercely contested “walks” and caricature of glamour, frequently lends a touch of exoticism to the mainstream, most recently in the TV series Pose. But […]

Science could learn a lot from Mona Chalabi’s mischievous chart art

Mona Chalabi’s work is a compelling mix of illustration with a journalistic work ethic and a rigorous approach to statistics. The science and art worlds could do with more of this “TMI Queen”.  Artist, illustrator and journalist Mona Chalabi describes herself as the “TMI QUEEN.” If you’re unaware of her “too much information” style, at her first […]

Helen Charman shortlisted for Ivan Juritz Prize 2019

Ivan Juritz Prize Shortlist 2019 We are delighted to announce the shortlist for the Ivan Juritz Prize 2019. With a huge increase in entries this year, most of an extremely high standard, the judges’ decision was particularly difficult. We are very proud of the shortlist and excited that winners from all three categories will go […]

Stand Up and Be Counted Realness — An Interview with Niven Govinden, by Thom Cuell

Niven Govinden’s fifth novel, This Brutal House, is an elegiac and politically engaged portrait of New York’s vogue ball community. The novel focuses on a group of ageing house Mothers, engaged in a silent demonstration outside City Hall to protest against the city’s inaction over the disappearance of countless Children. Govinden explores the bonds that form […]

CLARE ALEXANDER ON HAVING THREE BOOKS IN THE RUNNING FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE

Literary agent extraordinaire Clare Alexander has been involved in the Women’s Prize for Fiction since it’s founding 24 years ago, and this year three books that she represents have been shortlisted:Ordinary People by Diana Evans, The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker and My Sister, the Serial Killerby Oyinkan Braithwaite. We caught up with Clare to ask about the […]

Max Porter’s LANNY longlisted for 2019 Wainwright Prize

The Wainwright Book Prize sponsored by Wainwright Golden Beer. Nature & Travel Writing, in association with the National Trust. A celebration of the outdoors.   Lanny by Max Porter Not far from London, there is a village. This village belongs to the people who live in it and to those who lived in it hundreds […]