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James Kidd
James Kidd is a freelance writer based in Oxford, Britain. His writing has appeared in The Independent, Literary Review, The Observer, The Daily Telegraph, The National, Time Out and The Jerusalem Post among others. He hosts the This Writing Life podcast (thiswritinglife.co.uk), featuring interviews with writers such as Hanya Yanagihara, David Mitchell, Amit Chaudhuri and Meena Kandasamy, and co-hosts Lit Bits (litbits.co.uk), named by The Observer as one of its top three literary podcasts.
‘To travel was to read, to read was to travel’: here’s James Kidd’s list of books to take with you on holiday
From an Elon Musk biography and Prince Harry’s Spare to Yellow Face and Hong Kong poetry, Post Magazine’s round-up of 2023’s best books takes as its theme the Cambridge Dictionary word of the year, hallucinate.
American romance and young adult author Colleen Hoover was her fans’ best-kept secret a year ago. Not any more. Reader of human emotions Brené Brown had nearly as viral a year as Hoover.
A new Rizzoli & Isles novel, Listen to Me, gothic ghost story Shape of Night, #MeToo thriller Choose Me and film production with her son Joshua – the Chinese-American writer put on a spurt while stuck at home.
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In the follow-up to her debut novel, Little Gods, Meng Jin cements her reputation as an exciting literary talent with a collection of short stories that explores love, grief and the supernatural.
With much of the world in turmoil, this list of nonfiction and fiction books will open your eyes to change in its many forms, whether channelled through magic, mayhem or a monkey king.
Singapore-based presenter ended a ‘toxic relationship’ with TV to repair another relationship – that with her mother, bedridden after a stroke. It was a chance to confront her own anger and break down barriers.
American writer was accused of many things when she switched from using English to Italian, and moved to Rome. Her essay collection Translating Myself and Others offers a vindication of those decisions.
Canadian writer’s third collection of non-fiction ‘essays and occasional pieces’ ranges from reviews of fellow writers to pieces about issues such as quarantine, beauty and the environment and to personal reflections.
A British Indian and a native Londoner, both trainee doctors, get engaged, but when the future mother-in-laws meet fireworks begin going off. It’s all in good fun, though, in the Brick Lane author’s fifth novel.
In Daughter of the Moon Goddess, Sue Lynn Tan imagines the goddess Chang’e has a daughter, Silver Star. She talks about the long road to publication of her first novel, and how Hong Kong inspires her writing.
From Shakespeare to C.S. Lewis, one reader discovered that despite avoiding any novel that shaped his experience of the pandemic, his experience was shaping the novels he was reading.
Need a break from the usual holiday headaches? Then take a look at our alternative 12 days of Christmas – a historical hodgepodge of festive feats, fails and foul plays.
Identity was on Shelley Parker-Chan’s mind growing up, and it looms large in her brilliant debut novel, She Who Became The Sun. Set in 14th century China, it’s a love letter to Chinese television dramas.
Kiran Millwood Hargrave returns to children’s fiction with this story of a summer holiday in a lighthouse that turns very dark.
The idea of revival and recovery takes centre stage at the 2021 Hong Kong International Literary Festival, whose programme is organised around themes of wellness, community and trauma.
The Sisters Mao by Irish novelist Gavin McCrea interweaves the experiences of Mao Zedong’s actress wife with that of two thespian sisters in 1968 London. He explains what drew him to Jiang Qing’s story.
Fiction or non-fiction, we have the pick of the best books to read this summer, whether you’re on a beach or in lockdown waiting for the pandemic to end.
Rushdie’s second non-fiction anthology, Languages of Truth picks up where Step Across This Line left off in 2002 and is every bit as pleasurable as its predecessor.
Hard Like Water’s hero is bent on vengeance almost from birth, and the Cultural Revolution gives him his opportunity. He seeks something else too, and finds it in his sexual infatuation with a lover.
Jonathan Kos-Read – aka Cao Cao – would have had no trouble drawing on his experiences navigating China’s film industry to evoke the treacherous atmosphere of Jin dynasty hierarchy in The Eunuch.
Sue Cheung’s humorous book Chinglish has received critical acclaim, but writing it meant revisiting the often unpleasant experience of growing up in her family’s Chinese takeaway in the UK, and the brutal violence meted out by her otherwise uncommunicative father.
For journalist Te-Ping Chen, getting to grips with a country the size of China meant looking at the small stuff – which she does in her first short story collection.
Literature Live Around the World kicks off the Year of the Ox with 12 hours of readings and conversations about books, featuring authors from Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida to Karl Ove Knausgard.
Christmas is a time of goodwill to all men and their often bizarre traditions, whether it’s a gift-defecating log or a festive fist-fight. We hitch a ride on the big man’s sleigh to see for ourselves.
If the trend for Gothic novels reflected the revolutions of the era, what does our appetite for psychological thrillers say about the fears and complex reality of the 21st century?
In the Covid-19 era even classic Christmas stories, such as Dickens’ three seasonal tales, take on new connotations.
Longlisted for the Booker Prize, American-Chinese author C Pam Zhang’s novel takes a timely look at racism in the US through the eyes of two Chinese orphans.
Sinologist and ‘global historian’ Jeffrey Wasserstrom, who bore witness to the anger and utopia of Occupy Central in 2014 and last year’s Hong Kong protests, makes just one prediction: that he is unlikely to visit China again.
English exposed the vulnerabilities of the Pulitzer Prize-winner’s parents while Italian gave her ‘a real and new sense of quiet’.
