3+ mon, 2+ week ago   (211+ words) This compendium of 49 of Britain’s threatened species features lyrical prose poems evoking each bird’s unique qualities and beautiful recordings of their distinctive calls The Book of Birds delivers a stark warning in its introduction about the “great thinning of the…...

3+ mon, 4+ week ago   (396+ words) The £20,000 award for writers aged 39 or under goes to Joy Is My Middle Name, a collection about navigating race, addiction and womanhood A debut poetry collection with themes including race, addiction and womanhood has won this year’s Swansea University Dylan…...

4+ mon, 2+ week ago   (696+ words) New HarperCollins study finds that daily reading for pleasure among five- to 17-year-olds fell from 39% in 2012 to 25% in 2025 The “relentless” focus on measuring literacy progress in schools has “pushed reading for pleasure to the margins”, according to a new report....

4+ mon, 4+ week ago   (488+ words) I still have my chocolate-scented eraser (why was that even a thing?). Can You Beat This Nostalgic Book Fair Quiz Before Time Runs Out? I still have my chocolate-scented eraser (why was that even a thing?). Whether your parents sent…...

5+ mon, 6+ day ago   (1104+ words) The Guardian My Lover, the Rabbi by Wayne Koestenbaum review – as fierce and strange as anything you’ll read this year With echoes of Balzac and Proust, this tale of obsessive love evokes the dangers and delights of forbidden desire Wayne…...

5+ mon, 1+ week ago   (1123+ words) This garrulous, charming story of a young man stuck in a daycare centre for disabled adults offers a vital insider’s perspectiveUpward Bound is a dismal adult daycare centre in the Los Angeles suburbs, with “poop-coloured” walls and a small swimming…...

5+ mon, 2+ week ago   (1729+ words) As a child, Brown was underestimated, infantilised and dismissed by specialists and teachers. Now 28, he has written an acclaimed debut novel set in an adult day care centre that gives people like him a voice ‘May I say that I’m…...

5+ mon, 2+ week ago   (707+ words) Judges praised the ‘emotional stakes’ of Partridge Boswell’s poem The Gathering, which took the £5,000 top prize A poem about language, love, and processing distressing world events has won this year’s £5,000 National Poetry Competition. The Gathering by Partridge Boswell was picked…...