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Ludmila Ulitskaya began her career as a scientist at the Institute of General Genetics in Moscow. In 1970, she was fired for reading and distributing western literature in samizdat (self-published) form. Today, she is one of the most significant writers in Russia. Her works have been translated into 47 languages and have won Russia’s most prestigious literary awards. Ulitskaya has been vocal in her opposition to the Russia-Ukraine war, and, as a result, had to flee Russia for Berlin, Germany, where she currently lives.…

There is a moment at the end of every series of RuPaul’s Drag Race, the Emmy-winning drag queen reality competition, in which the glamorous host asks the finalists to address their younger selves with words of advice and encouragement. No matter how many times you have seen this happen (since its inception in 2009, there have been 16 US seasons, 20 international editions, eight all-star versions and two celebrity spin-offs), watching the contestants open up about their darkest days remains an astonishingly effective…

“I write about families,” Natalia Ginzburg said, “because that is where everything starts, where the germs grow.” The French-born writer and musician Alba Arikha clearly agrees, and has set her brilliant third novel firmly within the crucible of two families: the one her narrator is born into and the one she makes herself as an adult. The narrator is Clara, who, at the start, is a 16-year-old living in Paris and shares some biographical details with her author. (But not the fact her godfather was Samuel Beckett and she…

Today, the F-word is routinely used to describe how we feel, how objectionable someone is, what a bad day it is, or simply to wish someone a Happy AF Birthday. We may all frown upon swearing and profanity, but scientist Emma Byrne believes that we wouldn’t have “made it as the world’s most populous primate if we hadn’t learned to swear”. Scientist and author Emma Byrne (Courtesy the subject) The author of Swearing is Good for You: The Amazing Science of Bad Language, Byrne did her PhD in Expectation Violation…

At the beginning of each year, the world’s corporate and political elite gather in the Swiss ski resort of Davos to pat each other on the back, attend seminars on “the fourth Industrial Revolution” – whatever that might be – and generally mull over the state of the world. Rarely is so much wealth to be found in so few conference rooms. And each year, Oxfam, the global development charity, takes the opportunity to run the numbers on the state of global inequality. Oxfam’s findings are often eye-catching, but this year…

To Robert Browning There is delight in singing, tho’ none hearBeside the singer; and there is delightIn praising, tho’ the praiser sit aloneAnd see the prais’d far off him, far above.Shakspeare is not our poet, but the world’s,Therefore on him no speech! and brief for thee,Browning! Since Chaucer was alive and hale,No man hath walkt along our roads with stepSo active, so inquiring eye, or tongueSo varied in discourse. But warmer climesGive brighter plumage, stronger wing: the breezeOf Alpine highths thou playest with,…

Andrey Kurkov’s latest novel to be translated into English, The Silver Bone, has begins in dramatic fashion. Its hero, Samson Kolechko, is walking in the streets of revolutionary Kyiv. It is the spring of 1919. Suddenly, two Russian Cossacks appear. They chop off his ear with a sabre before riding off. “Hot blood poured down his cheek and seeped under his collar,” Kurkov writes. Samson’s unfortunate father is cut down and killed.The severed right ear – recovered and placed in a tin – plays a central role in Kurkov’s…

Breadcrumb Trail LinksLifeEating & DrinkingCultureBooksIn his third cookbook, Coinneach MacLeod (a.k.a. the Hebridean Baker) shares recipes for nostalgic Scottish treats and stories of Hebridean culture, folklore and history Get the latest from Laura Brehaut straight to your inbox Sign Up Published Mar 15, 2024  •  Last updated 1 day ago  •  12 minute read Clockwise from top left: Scottish author Coinneach MacLeod, fern cake, toasted Selkirk bannock with marmalade syrup and spiced carrot hot cross buns. PHOTOS BY…

Mary Beard is everybody’s favourite poster girl. A classics don from Cambridge, Beard is revered for rescuing Roman history from a dusty discipline, elevating it to a primer on personality and power. Beard is erudite and entertaining; she writes expansively on ancient Rome – everything from laughter to shoes to sex in the swimming pool.A good place to start reading Mary Beard is It’s a Don’s Life. This memoir began as a blog on her life as a don (a lecturer) in Cambridge. I found it zippy and sparkly; it talks about…

When Joanne Harris wrote Chocolat, her novel of morality and magic set in a cloistered French village, she did not expect it to be published, let alone succeed. Her agent thought that it was “very unfashionable writing” and “wasn’t at all the kind of thing he felt would be commercial”. Now, 25 years later, after more than 1m sales and an Oscar-nominated film adaptation starring Johnny Depp, Harris is writing a prequel.In the original novel, protagonist Vianne sets up a chocolaterie – selling champagne truffles,…