The agonies of adolescence: The Party, by Tessa Hadley, reviewed
In post-war Bristol, two sisters fall in with a group of arrogant young men and soon feel themselves painfully inferior
My summer of love with God’s gift
Studying in Russia in 1994, Viv Groskop falls in love with a Ukrainian rock guitarist named Bogdan Bogdanovich and accompanies him on a visit home
Anorexia has a long history – but are we any closer to understanding it?
Aged 14, Hadley Freeman succumbed to it, and was offered many conflicting explanations. She herself finally attributes it to a fear of approaching womanhood
‘It felt like a piece of bad news I should pass on to someone else’ – Robert Douglas-Fairhurst on his MS diagnosis
In a powerful and ultimately heartening memoir, the Oxford professor describes being trapped in a mutinous body, and what it does to the spirit
This sceptred isle: the fantasy realm of Redonda
When an Irish shipbuilder’s son was crowned king of a Caribbean rock in 1880, few would have guessed how long this eccentric monarchy would last
An immorality tale: Lapvona, by Ottessa Moshfegh, reviewed
Has there been a better novel this century than Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation? There might not…
Private tragedies: Must I Go, by Yiyun Li, reviewed
I can think of few novels as bleak or dispiriting as Yiyun Li’s 2009 debut, The Vagrants. Set in a…
How to go clubbing without leaving your living room
To my surprise, what I miss most about life before the lockdown are parties. As others pine for restaurants and…
Bill Bryson: It’s impossible to be sick of England
Bill Bryson on writing, loss and the wonders of the human body
