Why novels are speeding up (and readers are not broken)
Shorter chapters reflect screen-era storytelling, not failing attention, as books adapt to film, TV and a culture trained on faster narrative rhythms.
The secret life of the footnote
How the humble footnote escaped academia to become fiction’s secret playground – part scholarship, part satire, and part sleight of hand.
How a Bucket shaped detective fiction’s greatest traditions
Charles Dickens’ Inspector Bucket in Bleak House revolutionised detective fiction, introducing key tropes like methodical sleuthing, fairness, and psychological reveals.
The Old Man and the Sea – yes, but what does it really mean?
Explore the symbolism behind Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea and discover the profound messages hidden beneath the simple tale.
Why Children of Time might just change the way you think
Review: Adrian Tchaikovsky’s exploration of evolution, Children of Time, is a dizzying expanse of nothing and a considerable amount of something.
Everything you need to know about beach reads
Beach reads are not a genre – they can be just about anything. But you do know one when you see one – and that’s what we’re investigating here.