Karolina Sutton

Introducing ASTRALABE, the new novel from Daisy Lafarge. The year is 1127. Astralabe, the son of one of the world’s most famous lovers, Abelard and Heloise (whose letters became the cornerstone of romantic literature in Europe), writes to the father he’s never met. @faberbooks.bsky.social

Well, this is grammatically incorrect. For ‘one of’ read ‘a pair of’. He was the son of the pair of them. (As far as we know!)

theguardian.comEnd of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland review – Murakami’s marvel brilliantly brought to lifeWith a dual narrative set in Tokyo and a world of dreams, Philippe Decouflé’s epic production is as bewitching as its balletic unicorns

Bewitching www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/o...

giftarticle.ft.comGillian Anderson and Billy Crudup slug it out in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? — five-star reviewAt London’s Soho Place Theatre, the pair are scintillatingly good in Edward Albee’s vicious portrait of a marriage

Gillian Anderson and Billy Crudup slug it out in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? — five-star review giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... Love Sarah Hemming’s reviews: ‘shockingly good’.

theguardian.comPatrick Radden Keefe’s bestseller London Falling shortlisted for Baillie Gifford prizeThe acclaimed American journalist, who won the nonfiction prize in 2021, is shortlisted alongside Andrea Wulf and Matthew Sweet

The shortlist for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction is out. Congratulations to Patrick Radden Keefe and London Falling! www.theguardian.com/books/2026/o...

Starting out as a visual artist? This Es Devlin exhibition charting her evolution as an artist from teenage years on is perfect. From the London Olympics to Adele & Beyoncé tours, from gallery exhibitions to opera and theatre set designs (Don Giovanni, Chimerica, The Lehman Brothers, Dear England).

What everyone can do now, before it’s too late - a survival guide that is practical and urgent.

UK’s bestselling book of the year so far in its multiple editions. Over a million copies sold. Congratulations, Florence!

This is really GOOD! Cleverly directed, with fantastic performances from Gillian Anderson and Billy Crudup. The whole cast are great.

theguardian.com‘Birdwatching is close to rapture’: Margaret Atwood on why she has given C$1m to avian researchAward-winning novelist celebrates late partner’s love of birds with gift to establish the Graeme Gibson chair in avian biology

“I don’t think it’s a question of what birders are seeing that you’re not. It’s a question of what they’re feeling that you’re not,” Margaret Atwood on avian research, threats to birds, utopias (impossible to create) and dystopia (very easy to make). www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...

Patrick Radden Keefe brings the biggest non-fiction book of the year to the stage. Inside London Falling. Book now www.fane.co.uk/patrick-radd...

If you are lucky to find yourself in Cumbria over the next few days, here is a brilliant show at the Theatre by the Lake in Keswick. The Farmer’s Wife is inspired by Helen Rebanks’ book, written by Hannah Khalil and directed by Liz Stevenson. I cried my eyes out. It’s great.

22 Sept

No AI/robot safeguarding laws have been passed by anyone anywhere. A fantastic essay by Jill Lepore (in a brilliant series on humanity and robotics) Is A.I. Above the Law? www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

wsj.com‘Sketchy AF’: What to Know About How OpenAI Staff Discussed Book-PiratingDocuments recently unsealed in a copyright case show employees weighing the cost of buying books to train early ChatGPT models.

22 Sept

From Publishers Lunch who have a good report on this lunch.publishersmarketplace.com/2026/09/open...

Karolina Sutton@karolinasutton.bsky.social

‘Sketchy AF’ - Open AI/Microsoft executives describe using pirated books downloaded from LibGen www.wsj.com/tech/ai/sket...

22 Sept

‘Sketchy AF’ - Open AI/Microsoft executives describe using pirated books downloaded from LibGen www.wsj.com/tech/ai/sket...

21 Sept

Amia Srinivasan on the cover of AFM.

20 Sept

Coming up… marinahyde.com

20 Sept

Marina Hyde in E17. What a Time to be Alive! @sohotheatre.bsky.social

theguardian.comTech billionaires trying to live for ever? That’s a waste of time, says physicistExclusive: Prof Jim Al-Khalili says he will offer solution to ‘arrow of time’ problem in Royal Institution lectures

20 Sept

‘Things decay, batteries run out, balls run downhill, we grow older (…). All those things point to a directionality of time, and yet fundamentally our equations say there is no preferred direction.’ www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

19 Sept

In this meditation on memory and what makes us who we are, Haruki Murakami recalls his relationship with his father, their estrangement and final reconciliation. ABANDONING A CAT: A Personal Story.

giftarticle.ft.comSophie Okonedo is wonderfully complex in A Month in the Country at the Donmar — reviewLyndsey Turner’s staging of the Turgenev classic is beautifully executed with a rich ensemble cast

19 Sept

The nuance and power of Sophie Okonedo stage performances are in a league of their own. I am there for anything and everything she appears in. She was a revelation in Medea and is perfect in this lovely adaptation of Turgenev giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

17 Sept

New book from Tara Westover, author of EDUCATED apnews.com/article/tara...

apnews.comapnews.com

parapraxismagazine.comThe Romance of Diagnosis — ParapraxisSeeking and Finding the Definite Article daisy lafarge

14 Sept

Daisy Lafarge’s talent will make you gasp. Her essay on the search for a diagnosis of a psychosomatic illness is astonishing. www.parapraxismagazine.com/articles/the...

13 Sept

I have read many interviews with Margaret Atwood & this one, by Decca Aitkenhead, is my favourite of recent years. Really captures both Margaret Atwood & Peggy, her politics & her irrepressible sense of fun. You’ll chuckle. ‘God made the middle finger for a reason’ www.thetimes.com/article/631e...

13 Sept

On politics, gender politics and sex.

11 Sept

‘A fascinating book and a must read’ Thomas Piketty, ‘An out-and-out masterpiece’ William Dalrymple - PEASANTS in the words of other authors who know a thing…

royalcourttheatre.comMan to Man | Royal Court TheatreIn 1930s Germany, a woman puts on her dead husband’s trousers and never takes them off. As the world around her changes, she endures war and dictatorship,

7 Sept

Excited for this. Tilda Swinton in Man to Man at the Royal Court royalcourttheatre.com/events/man-t...

7 Sept

Wonderful. From a tribute to Gloria Steinem in the Sunday Times. (Barbara Nessim was her long-time friend.)

7 Sept

Bestselling titles of 2026 so far: London Falling and The Names top the hardback non-fiction and paperback fiction charts. Congratulations, Patrick and Florence!

6 Sept

Any good reviews of Teenage Sex & Death at Camp Miasma that deal with the two-step, messed-up nature of female desire (male gaze & predator aesthetic in fantasy), othering of the non-binary, horror & the personification of death by teens as way of making it less incomprehensible? I haven’t seen any.

6 Sept

Variety comes close but everyone else seems too scared to go there, focusing purely on the superficial, even the five-star reviews. It is a film about female desire and the othering of the trans experience as well as a love letter to horror and slasher movies.

whatson.bfi.org.ukGalas | BFI London Film Festival 2026Exciting public premieres of some of the most highly anticipated films of the year.

6 Sept

Can I skive off and check into the BFI for a week? London Film Festival comes with new films by Paweł Pawlikowski (with Sandra Hüller) and Andrey Zvyagintsev. whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff/Online/d...

Arresting women with guitars at Kenwood House today. (One of the guitars is a ukulele) @soumayakeynes.ft.com singing about trade wars.

Artist and designer of humbling range and erudition Es Devlin with brilliant public intellectual and writer Ekow Eshun at the FT Weekend Festival. Es’s inspirations are captured in her atlas and her new show at the Design Museum opens later this month designmuseum.org/exhibitions/...

Karolina Sutton reposted

The Guardian

@theguardian.com

theguardian.com‘I’m amazed a human being could do so much’: Gloria Steinem celebrated by Margaret Atwood, Dua Lipa, Lynda Carter and moreAuthors, activists and admirers pay tribute to the feminist icon who died this week at the age of 92

‘I’m amazed a human being could do so much’: Gloria Steinem celebrated by Margaret Atwood, Dua Lipa, Lynda Carter and more

Karolina Sutton reposted

The Guardian

@theguardian.com

theguardian.comHow posh are you? Do you have a therapist? What would you say to Trump at a party? Marina Hyde answers readers’ questionsWe asked you what you most wanted to put to our Guardian columnist. You responded in droves, querying her ‘beef’ with Burnham, who she thinks is this generation’s Hugh Grant, and what she really thinks about Richard Osman ...

How posh are you? Do you have a therapist? What would you say to Trump at a party? Marina Hyde answers readers’ questions

4 Sept

What a Time to Be Alive! (by Britain’s best satirist - every word sharp as a dagger)

3 Sept

The Comet by @edcaesar.bsky.social - a gripping story of courage and resistance by a superb writer. Out in March.

wsj.comAcademia Is in Trouble and This English Professor Understands WhyCombining wicked satire with genuine hope, Randy Boyagoda’s latest novel takes on the financial, moral and cultural crises plaguing modern academia.

3 Sept

Delighted @wsj.com recognise Randy Boyagoda’s genius. A fantastic profile on the eve of the publication of Lords of Serendipity, a campus novel like no other: Dickensian in scope, sharp, funny and tender. Truly brilliant writing. www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

thebookseller.comPatrick Radden Keefe, Ben Macintyre and Charlotte Higgins make Baillie Gifford Prize longlistPatrick Radden Keefe, Ben Macintyre and Charlotte Higgins are among 13 authors longlisted for the 2026 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction.

3 Sept

Britain’s premier non-fiction prize, The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction announces its longlist - congratulations to Patrick Radden Keefe. London Falling is what best narrative non-fiction should be: top-notch reporting, great storytelling www.thebookseller.com/news/patrick...

cundillprize.comThe 2026 Cundill History Prize Shortlist

2 Sept

Congratulations to Jill Lepore whose WE THE PEOPLE: A HISTORY OF THE US CONSTITUTION is shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize www.cundillprize.com/news/the-202...

2 Sept

London Falling UK tour this Autumn. Tickets selling very fast indeed.

1 Sept

Book of Lives by Margaret Atwood. Out in paperback today and a joy to read. (We appear to have tentacles on our heads in this photo insert. As one does, in the Atwood world.)

1 Sept

‘Dazzling’ - starred Kirkus Review for Lords of Serendipity by Randy Boyagoda. A campus novel like no other. www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews...

1 Sept

Edinburgh Books Festival with Mieko Kawakami, author of Sisters in Yellow, Heaven and Breasts and Eggs, amongst others. Outstanding writing from Japan (not a cake shop in sight.)

giftarticle.ft.comThe Cumbrian shepherds racing sunrise to beat the heatAncient farming practices are having to adapt to Britain’s increasingly brutal summers, writes James Rebanks

29 Aug

‘Our little world doesn’t feel as timeless as it once did’ a beautiful and eye-opening essay by James Rebanks in @ftweekend.com on farming during Britain’s hottest summer and learning from American rancher friends how to adapt to droughts and heat giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

26 Aug

Sobering and important. (Via my wonderful colleague @john-ash.bsky.social) @j-amesmarriott.bsky.social

26 Aug

Superb.

25 Aug

This George Saunders quote is how I feel about Jill Lepore and The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State. Out today!