The TLS

Book reviews, essays and poetry from leading writers since 1902. Subscribe today:

[The TLS @TheTLS]

'Once you get going, it really is great (it’s probably my favourite book of all time). But I think classicists tend to underestimate the challenges of some of those initial barriers to enjoying it.'

Mary Beard (@wmarybeard ): Odyssey fever https://t.co/YvdgXC1Y7b

[The TLS @TheTLS]

'These are not optional extras in a democratic society, they are main-line essentials.'

Mary Beard (@wmarybeard ): Why humans need humanities https://t.co/q6FO1XdKGi

[The TLS @TheTLS]

Scoops and scruples: a new play set in the world of journalism https://t.co/RVayjASQKe

[The TLS @TheTLS]

Pulp's ‘fizzy pop’ on film https://t.co/qiIa21ZPI8

[The TLS @TheTLS]

Gabriel Dax uncovers treachery at MI6 https://t.co/3FxVqFTkj8

[The TLS @TheTLS]

Exploring all sides of ‘wokeness’ https://t.co/1NqJqQqDyD

[The TLS @TheTLS]

A vacant metropolis is populated by ‘citizen-actors’ https://t.co/t3OYXbTtP2

[The TLS @TheTLS]

'This is a hard book to read, not because, as Gilbert tells us, the story was so painful to write, but because the prose is so bad.'

Frances Wilson on Elizabeth Gilbert’s emotional recovery programme
https://t.co/snQ8kXmL5V

[The TLS @TheTLS]

What is the most interesting item on your bookshelf? ‘Currently, a very sleepy cat.’

Twenty Questions with Vincenzo Latronico
https://t.co/ZunuQ1Bke7

[The TLS @TheTLS]

What does a writing day look like for you? ‘I write fiction on Wednesday and Sunday mornings between 1 March and 31 October (inclusive).’

Twenty Questions with Simon Okotie
https://t.co/LLU0ksslO1

[The TLS @TheTLS]

'This is a fictionalized memoir (in Jen’s words, a “forged truth”) that yearns to resolve a painful question: how to grieve a mother who abdicated her responsibility to be one.'

Rhoda Kwan: Forged truths
https://t.co/Ffn22AbTWU

[The TLS @TheTLS]

'I decided to escape far from home in the hope of making some inroads into the large pile of books – not so much on a writer’s retreat, more like a reader’s retreat.'

Mary Beard (@wmarybeard ): Hotel reading https://t.co/dHAmZnMaTj

[The TLS @TheTLS]

'Young Asa betrayed a mental fixation unknown to psychology that we might call Compulsive Curiosity Syndrome.'

Michael Bentley on the compulsive energy of a unique historian
https://t.co/5m1eVIyx9F

[The TLS @TheTLS]

'Goethe’s intellectual accomplishments were shaped by, and gave shape to, the unfolding process of a singularly abundant life.'

David E. Wellbery on a Goethe’s achievement as artist, scientist and statesman
https://t.co/o8bNnX4CFi

[The TLS @TheTLS]

Our regular literary crossword https://t.co/ndp2kLYOzE

[The TLS @TheTLS]

'I am sure that, in many ways, I am much less expert at the task than the professionals. But I started to feel that none of them captured what I see as my own “down-to-earthness”.'

Mary Beard (@wmarybeard ): Recording your own books https://t.co/rQxbIVBJrE

[The TLS @TheTLS]

A Roman orator in his element https://t.co/yGQLAQI678

[The TLS @TheTLS]

The mindset of an unrepentant Nazi https://t.co/lzIwFlHsZq

[The TLS @TheTLS]

Earthbound experiences of comets and meteorites https://t.co/MTXp1Bc7Rn

[The TLS @TheTLS]

What is gained and lost when ideas are set down on paper? https://t.co/AGjAQv05ly