"As writers we have a responsibility, sometimes, to make the future seem real.” John Ironmonger
World cinema in the spotlight at LFF 2026

World cinema in the spotlight at LFF 2026

From offbeat French thrillers and Iranian existentialism to edgy Nollywood tales, BFI London Film Festival 2026’s bountiful global movie line-up proves subtitles aren’t a barrier to entertainment. The fate of breakout festival favourites from the last two years could hardly be more different. Gints Zilbalodis’ Flow (2024, Latvia), a mesmerizing,...
BFI London Film Festival 2026 preview

BFI London Film Festival 2026 preview

The 70th edition of the BFI London Film Festival kicks off on Wednesday 7 October with another captivating programme of over 250 features, shorts, series and immersive works from around the world. The Opening and Closing Night Galas each shine fascinating light on the world of theatre. Simon Stone’s lovingly...
Patrick Ryan: Connecting lives

Patrick Ryan: Connecting lives

PATRICK RYAN’S CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED short story collection The Dream Life of Astronauts (2017) marked him out as a writer to watch. His stories brim with rounded often-unforgettable characters living quietly, with yearning, humanity and acceptance. He is a master of dialogue, the unsentimental and the subtle. So when his debut...
Breaking point

Breaking point

ONE DAY THE CHILDREN AND I came home to see Hamad sitting in front of the TV. ‘Why’re you home early?’ Haris asked. ‘To spend time with you,’ Hamad said, patting his lap so Haris could go and sit with him. He only had to look at me in silence...
Latest entries
Before my story had a hero, it had a villain

Before my story had a hero, it had a villain

My debut novel, The Grief Doctor, follows Arthur Mason, a man consumed by the recent loss of his wife Julia. In the pit of his desperation, a lifeline descends in the form of Dr Elizabeth Codelle, a visionary psychiatrist with a private practice off the North Wales coast. Seeking an end to his turmoil, Arthur...
Among the Hemingways

Among the Hemingways

Tim Marshall is a leading authority on geopolitics whose previous books include Prisoners of Geography and The Power of Geography. The Future of Geography: How Power and Politics in Space Will Change Our World (Elliott & Thompson), a Sunday Times bestseller and Book of the Year, is shortlisted in the Non-Fiction category of the 2024...
Holding on to the plot

Holding on to the plot

“My marriage ended because I was cruel. Or because I ate in bed. Or because he liked electronic music and difficult films about men in nature. Or because I did not. Or because I was anxious, and this made me controlling. Or because red wine makes me critical. Or because hunger, stress, and white wine...
Bent coppers

Bent coppers

Remember when the police used to be the good guys? From virtuous sheriffs in Westerns willing to lay down their life in a last-gasp shoot-out, to honest and methodical detectives such as Inspector French in Freeman Wills Crofts’ classic series of books, these were the people we depended on to keep us safe. But the...
'Yellow Peril'

‘Yellow Peril’

Amongst the many novelties of the 1871 Crystal Palace cat show were two Siamese cats, which ‘are said to be the first of the kind ever brought to this country’. Owned by a Mr Maxwell, about whom little is known, the animals were described by one journalist as ‘singular and elegant, in their smooth skins...
From Still City: Diary of an Invasion

From Still City: Diary of an Invasion

Still City, Oksana Maksymchuk’s debut poetry collection in English, reflects life in the wake of extreme and unpredictable violence. Drawing on sources including social media, news coverage, witness accounts, recorded oral histories, photographs, drone video footage, intercepted communication and official documents, Maksymchuk tells the shared experience of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “By calling it...
Too many and not enough

Too many and not enough

On 30 April 2024, the Booksellers’ Association announced Fleur Sinclair of Sevenoaks Bookshop as its new president, having served since 2020 as one of two vice-presidents. When we heard the news, we wanted to ask Fleur for an insight in how she keeps and curates her own books… Tell us about the bookshelves in your...
Look to nature

Look to nature

Writing fiction – especially during the early, inspiration-seeking moments – requires establishing your personal preconditions for creativity, and preparing to inhabit different states of being. Each element of the writing process has its own energy and it helps to recognise what stage you are at, and what you need to draw inspiration from to move...
One person trying to be three or four

One person trying to be three or four

Not many of my days are the same but the range they cycle through remains consistently varied. Let’s take a random sample, say, yesterday, and see what happened in 24 hours of my writing life… Weather: 15 degrees and torrential rain. Bondi Beach, Edge of the World. It hasn’t stopped raining for four days, the sort of water-sheets you only get...
Catskills karma

Catskills karma

In 1973 my family spent a summer in the Catskills, upstate New York. One afternoon I peeped through the fence of our front yard as a woman with long yellow hair lay down in the middle of the road. My mother said there was a house near the river where the hippies lived. They did...
A jumble of many things

A jumble of many things

Agnes Arnold-Forster’s Nostalgia: A History of a Dangerous Emotion explores what nostalgia means and how it’s defined. The book takes us through the history from when it was deemed an illness and could have you sent away to hospital, to today’s obsession with marketing nostalgia to sell products to making countries great again! This is...
The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness

The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness

THE TREE OF ECSTASY AND UNBEARABLE SADNESS is a groundbreaking, large-scale intermodal project weaving together the worlds of art, music and literature in the poignant story of one boy’s journey into mental illness. Readers and listeners are offered a mesmerising visual and auditory tour de force about beauty and resilience, society and belief, that at...