From manicured, exclusive retreats built on slave money to common ground in which to seed utopian dreams, gardens occupy a fertile space in our lives and imaginationsI have a dream sometimes. I dream I’m in a house, and discover a door I didn’t know was there. It opens into an unexpected garden, and for a weightless moment I find myself inhabiting new...

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Two teenage boys come of age in a divided and radicalised London in this politically charged debutThe perilous porousness between our online and offline worlds is the spark for Nicolas Padamsee’s tinderbox thriller about two teenage boys. Deeply astute and devastating in its commentary on immigrant communities, England Is Mine joins a new generation...

Former PM’s first-week sales compare with 21,000 for David Cameron’s memoir and 92,000 for Tony Blair bookLiz Truss’s book about her 49-day stint as prime minister sold 2,228 copies in the UK during its first week on sale, after a wall-to-wall promotional media blitz.Ten Years to Save the West: Lessons from the Only Conservative in the Room, combines...

Do you love reading – but all too often find yourself just scrolling through your phone or watching TV? Here is how to get lost in literature againIn the age of digital distractions, it is easy to struggle to find the time and headspace to get lost in literature. How can you get back into the habit? Librarians share the best ways to rediscover reading,...

Philip Pullman will help choose this year’s winners of award set up in memory of the keen young writer who died aged 13 in 2021The Martha Mills young writers’ prize has opened for entries on the theme of “A Secret”.The competition, run by the London Review Bookshop, invites 11- to 14-year-olds living in the UK to submit up to 500 words of any type of...