Simon Armitage
Simon Armitage seems forever young, but he’s now 48, a testament to how long he’s been in the public eye as one of our favourite poets. I first encountered him … Continue reading
China Mieville
I first read China Mieville in an anthology of new “fabulist” writing (Conjunctions 39) and he stood out for me. I was surprised to find that he was a London-based … Continue reading
Thom Gunn
So different have the American and British poetry scenes been in the second half of the 20th century that finding a poet that straddles both of them seems miraculous. Thom … Continue reading
James Wood
Without a critical culture, is there, in fact, a culture? Literary criticism seemed to be something from the distant past when I was growing up, and though I managed to … Continue reading
Michel Houellebecq
Several years ago I was speaking with a journalist friend who told me he’d just interviewed an exciting new French novelist who was little known in Britain. The name must … Continue reading
A.M. Homes
Iowa graduate, American novelist and short story writer A.M. Homes is a writer that crept up on me. I’d occasionally come across one of her remarkably elastic short stories online … Continue reading
Bruce Chatwin
Bruce Chatwin would have been 70 this year, the same as John Lennon, yet his published novels came late in a life, which was also tragically curtailed. From when I … Continue reading
Philip Roth
I came to Roth late, with 1997’s masterful “American Pastoral.” His was a name I’d seen on bookshelves for years without getting round to reading him. I’d just started my … Continue reading
Matthew Welton
Matthew Welton’s poetry first appeared in magazines, and alongside a number of Faber poets in their shortlived Faber Firsts. These poems and more formed his first collection, “The Book of … Continue reading
David Mitchell
It must have been a review of David Mitchell’s debut novel “Ghostwritten” that made me go straight out and buy it. I read it in one stretch, marvelling at his … Continue reading
