Top 10 books about roots
From American giants such as Toni Morrison and James Baldwin to memoirs by Xiaolu Guo and Vladimir Nabokov, Nadia Owusu picks the best works that explore notions of home
Tag: Biography books
‘The man was obviously a crook’: the decline and fall of Robert Maxwell
Robert Maxwell and Rupert Murdoch were once the two biggest power brokers in British politics. But their fierce rivalry paved the way for Maxwell’s demise
2021 in books: what to look forward to this year
Kazuo Ishiguro returns with a novel about an artificial friend, Zadie Smith brings the Wife of Bath bang up to date, Bill Gates takes on the climate crisis … a literary calendar for the year ahead
Craig Brown: ‘The Diaries of Auberon Waugh. Such bad taste! Who could resist?’
The winner of the Baillie Gifford prize on giving up on Balzac, Saki’s black humour, and why parody doesn’t last long
Barack Obama on the moment he won the presidency – exclusive extract
In this excerpt from A Promised Land, the former president remembers the anxious run-up to the 2008 election. Scroll down to hear a clip of him reading from it
‘She made music jump into 3D’: Wendy Carlos, the reclusive synth genius
She went platinum by plugging Bach into 20th-century machines, and was soon working with Stanley Kubrick. But prejudice around her gender transition pushed Wendy Carlos out of sight
Zen and the art of torso maintenance: Matthew McConaughey’s guide to life
In a new book, Hollywood’s ‘easy-livin’ superstar bares all about his route to the top. Here are some choice nuggets of McConna-sense
Linn Ullmann on her father, Ingmar Bergman: ‘It was as if all the windows of his mind had opened’
The Norwegian author’s powerful new novel, Unquiet, grew out of a series of conversations she recorded with the film director not long before his death
Adam Buxton: ‘I used to think, “Why isn’t Dad more proud of me?” But he was’
The podcaster, comic and radio host has made a career out of his insecurities. But uncovering a family secret has helped him find peace
‘Sloppy’: Baileys under fire over Reclaim Her Name books for Women’s prize
Prize sponsor apologises for putting Frederick Douglass on cover of Martin R Delany biography, while expert in Edith Maude Eaton says author may have never written story at all