The Conservative MP and arch-leaver discusses the upside of life outside the EU, serpents in Westminster and the interview that sank her leadership bid

Looking like a couple of elderly polar bears on tour, the ermine-cloaked majesties were the centre of a day that was huge and hideous, exquisite and sacred, all at once

‘Desperate’ tourist who fell foul of country’s total ban fears for her life if complications set in while she waits for transfer to UK

In the last month this newspaper has published two major Martin Amis essays on 9/11 and the rise of extreme Islamism. These, and the release of his new book, means Britain's most celebrated writer is...

This rigorous defence of middle-aged women, who are ignored and vilified, is an often painful read and a future classic

On the eve of her eagerly awaited life of Dickens, the grande dame of literary biography talks to Rachel Cooke about seeing the world through the eyes of her subjects – and why the one remarkable...

For all he may have suffered, and despite his clear love for his wife, the Duke of Sussex’s misfiring memoir is not only tone-deaf to his privilege but at times downright bizarre

A slew of employment tribunals shows many women have been wrongly disciplined for expressing beliefs on gender and sex, says Guardian writer Susanna Rustin

While bookshops and publishers struggle to survive the pandemic, some industry leaders sense an opportunity for permanent change

The island nation is the only country in the EU in which termination is still illegal under any circumstances. But women’s rights groups are pushing for change

The Observer writer on the brilliant publisher, a larger-than-life character among whose many talents was an extraordinary capacity for friendship

John Sutherland makes a brave attempt to rescue the reputation of Larkin’s longstanding lover and muse

Critic and author Rachel Cooke will edit an anthology “dedicated to the special pleasures, intensities and pains that is female friendship” with The Virago Book of Friendship. 

The former enfant terrible of 80s literature is now a self-appointed scourge of victimhood and outrage. He talks about his first book for a decade

The American journalist’s thoughts on how we should respond to art created by dreadful people are muddled and poorly researched

The author emerges from this compelling biography as a difficult outsider whose twin passions were feckless men and drink

Campaigners call for Kathleen Stock to be fired from University of Sussex over views on gender identification

Frances Wilson’s book is as magnificently flawed as its subject – and a work of art in its own right

As her books are reissued here, the formidable Nawal El Saadawi, 83, doctor, author, anti-FGM campaigner and voice of Egyptian feminism, is as combative as ever…

A publisher’s rejection of Roberts’s latest book prompted this candid, absorbing journal of her day-to-day life and search for inner peace

The pictures might be kitsch, the ingredients might be basic, but there is a value in simplicity

Rachel Cooke takes a wry, robust and wide-ranging look at disappointment.

The nonagenarian peer talks to Rachel Cooke about her long and extraordinary life, now retold in a vivid memoir

Bragg has created such a masterly evocation of his early life in Cumbria, you can almost smell the beer and cigarette smoke

Hull University in midwinter provided a perfect backdrop for a centenary lecture series on its most famous librarian

With her debut book, The Right to Sex, a 36-year-old Oxford don is dazzling everyone. She discusses porn, gender dysphoria - and why her students are no snowflakes

Fifty years after leaving County Clare for London, the doyenne of Irish fiction is still preoccupied with the land of her birth. On the eve of a new short-story collection, she talks about love,...

For his latest challenge, the Doctor Who star is taking to the stage in Thomas Ostermeier’s new production of Ibsen’s dynamic, politically charged An Enemy of the People

The Observer critic on lone voices, Twitter pile-ons and how artists benefit from good and bad reviews

Lockdown has closed off too much of the artistic and sporting hinterland that makes our lives worth living

Play which had been due to run at Royal Court shelved after co-director steps down over misconduct allegations

She'll be 80 this year but is still the outspoken champion of feminism she was 30 years ago, when her world-famous bestseller, Lace, first hit the shelves, writes Rachel Cooke

Form and function unite in quiet perfection in an unmissable gathering of the potter’s coveted work, while the Scottish artist lets the sunshine in – up to a point

You may disagree with the US author’s bracing journalism, but her right to spark disquiet goes to the heart of the freedom of expression issue

Francis Wyndham has moved in English literature's most exalted circles. Now, as his own writings are being republished, he talks to Rachel Cooke about his meetings with remarkable men and women

The great biographer on his monumental series on President Johnson, how he works – and why his task is important

Imperilled by Covid and online shopping, the store’s demise marks the end of an epoch

Art Spiegelman's Maus was first published 25 years ago, and to celebrate the anniversary he has created a companion volume. He tells Rachel Cooke about his struggle to get published and his difficult...

The discussions about the affair’s impact are measured – until the presenter shoves the book under the nose of young Muslims

Over three years the exercise regime took Rachel Cooke from terrible back pain to new levels of fitness. But it was a lot harder than she expected

Clever, funny and full of surprises, this true literary original leaps off the page in a wonderfully attentive biography

The island nation is the only country in the EU in which termination is still illegal under any circumstances. But women’s rights groups are pushing for change