Jack Watkins spoke to the Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, about writing, the environment and refusing to write about Brexit.
Rosie Paterson rounds up the books to read now, and the places they're set in to travel to later.
Charles Dickens died 150 years ago, on 9 June 1870. Since then, Mr Micawber has become a byword for optimism, Scrooge for meanness and Uriah Heep for obsequiousness, and we still quote Mr Bumble’s ‘the law is an ass’. Rupert Godsal explains why these characters are so exuberantly unforgettable.
Michael Billington has been the theatre critic for Country Life (and several other publications) for decades. With theatres closed, he's turned his hand to picking out his 10 favourite books about theatrical life.
A hymn to the horse, a comment on slavery, an ode to rural Norfolk: Anna Sewell’s enduringly popular novel is all this and more 200 years after its author’s birth, explains James Clarke.
We tend to think of pheasants as a relatively ordinary sight, but they're among the world's most beautiful birds — and they're being celebrated in a handsome new book.
Children’s books offer an escape from reality that can last well into adulthood. Here's our pick of the very best.
A fascination with dogs and cars has prompted photographer Martin Usborne to produce a beautiful, unusual and gently haunting book.
One of the most curious trees you'll see in Britain is also one of the most curiously-named: the Monkey Puzzle tree. But how did it get its name?
Eadweard Muybridge was not only the pioneering photographer of motion, but also a murderer. Jason Goodwin relishes this tale of the dashing rogue and adventurer who became his victim.
Derek Turner takes a look at 'Down in the Valley', a slender, but well-conceived volume that revisits the scenes of Laurie Lee's classic of English rural writing.
To mark the forgotten Brontë’s 200th birthday, Charlotte Cory looks back at the life and works of this ‘runt of the literary litter’ and finds she was by no means meek and mild.
Some of our most enduring stories were conceived at Haworth – Jeremy Musson enjoys a literary pilgrimage.
If you were left a tad disappointed by your Christmas presents, you can console yourself with two things. Firstly, by reminding yourself that it really is the thought that counts; and secondly, by putting things right with one of these astonishing and eye-opening tomes, picked out by Barnaby Rogerson.
Our columnist picks not just his books of the year, but also his favourite app and YouTube video.
Sir Quentin Blake reveals the inspiration behind his new exhibition, ‘Anthology of Readers’, in which he affectionately caricatures the bookish among us.
The question of how to take a book off a shelf without damaging it may not be one you've ever given much thought to — but you owe it to your collection to do it the right way.
Leslie Geddes-Brown devours the latest cookery books to hit shelves, from a study of Italian food to a tour of Britain via the medium of cheese.
Today, we might think of spending a few months in a world heritage site in Southern Italy as an enormous privilege. During the Second World War, however, it was anything but.
