Caret by Adam Mars-Jones review – a semi-infinite novel
Book of the day
Caret by Adam Mars-Jones review – God is in the detail
October 2021
The Audio Long Read
Inside the Booker Prize: arguments, agonies and carefully encouraged scandals – podcast
The long read
Inside the Booker Prize: arguments, agonies and carefully encouraged scandals
June 2021
Batlava Lake by Adam Mars-Jones review – Barry no mates
A beautifully constructed novella carefully reveals the failings of a hopelessly unperceptive British army engineer
March 2020
Box Hill by Adam Mars-Jones review – a sparky yet sad vision of gay subculture
Book of the day
Box Hill by Adam Mars-Jones review – the mystery of love
November 2018
Lee Child joins authors auctioning character names for charity
In aid of Freedom from Torture, bids invited for a place in new work by the Jack Reacher author and others including Margaret Atwood and Julian Barnes
May 2016
Nicholas Lezard's choice
Kid Gloves by Adam Mars-Jones review – growing up gay with a homophobic father
Nicholas Lezard’s paperback of the week: an honest, tender and funny memoir about growing up with a high court judge by a writer at the top of his game
November 2015
Kid Gloves: A Voyage Round My Father by Adam Mars-Jones – review
Bigoted, irascible, brilliant … a forensic portrait of a homophobic judge by his gay writer son
August 2015
Kid Gloves by Adam Mars-Jones review – a judgment of father and son
Adam Mars-Jones: ‘When you’re writing about the dead, you have the last word’
March 2014
Is the LRB the best magazine in the world?
The London Review of Books is the most successful literary publication in Europe. What is the paper getting so right, Elizabeth Day asks editor Mary-Kay Wilmers
February 2014
Books blog
The Hatchet Job of the Year doesn't cut it
Alex Clark: This celebration of bookish snark, won by AA Gill for his Morrissey assault, is less daring and less worthy than it thinks
October 2013
The 10 best ...
The 10 best long reads
At nearly 800 pages, Donna Tartt's new novel is a modern epic. But some literary doorstops really are worth the investment… By Alex Clark
December 2012
In praise of ...
In praise of… the hatchet job
Editorial: Literary hatchet jobs are the application of a sharp blade to a distended reputation
February 2012
We lose free speech at our peril
Victoria Coren
Victoria Coren: Yes, journalists, can be savage, but at their best are essential to upholding decency
Adam Mars-Jones: 'The only bad review is one whose writing is soggy'
Adam Mars-Jones, winner of the first Hatchet Job award for a book review in the Observer, reflects on his craft
Review of The Hours author's latest book wins inaugural hatchet job award
Michael Cunningham's novel By Nightfall prompted 1,000-word demolition job in Observer by author and critic Adam Mars-Jones
January 2012
Body of Work: 40 Years of Creative Writing at UEA, edited by Giles Foden – review
A birthday salute to the UEA's creative writing course betrays the usual anxieties about whether writing can be taught. By Peter Ho Davies