Books

The dawn of a new year often brings with it the tradition of setting resolutions, be it hitting the gym, picking up a new hobby or kicking an unhealthy habit. A common resolution is to reduce screen time and increase reading hours. However, despite starting the year with high hopes, …

Award-winning actor Ralph Ineson stars as a jail inmate who finds solace and redemption through reading in a short film highlighting the work of a charity that helps prisoners find joy in books. Ineson, best known for playing Finchy in The Office alongside Ricky Gervais, appears as ‘Declan’, who joins …

By inputting the amount of time you spend browsing content on your phone, a new online tool reveals what novels you could have read in the time you spend aimlessly scrolling. It includes literary works like Dracula, Dune, and It. While other featured titles include Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club, …

Conservationists Gerald and Lee Durrell with lemurs at Jersey Zoo in 1987 (Image: Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.) The legendary naturalist Gerald Durrell once noted that “so-called human progress proceeds at the speed of an Exocet missile, whereas conservation proceeds at the pace of a donkey and cart”. Yet, according to …

The last time George RR Martin published a novel in his A Song of Ice and Fire series was in 2011 when Game of Thrones was debuting on HBO. Since then, the 76-year-old has continued to work on the penultimate book, The Winds of Winter, which still doesn’t have a …

Dave Rowntree, Damon Albarn, Alex James and Graham Coxon of Blur (Image: Getty Images) Blur bassist Alex James has revealed how the band was fined £20,000 for smoking on stage when they played their two massive reunion gigs at Wembley Stadium. The musician turned farmer, who was rarely without a …

To order any of the books of featured visit expressbookshop.com or call Express Bookshop on 020 3176 3832. Free UK P&P on orders over £25 Sir Ian Rankin, above, whose 25th Rebus novel Midnight And Blue (Orion) was one of the smash hits of the autumn, says: “White City by Dominic …

To order any of the books of featured visit expressbookshop.com or call Express Bookshop on 020 3176 3832. Free UK P&P on orders over £25 Wyndham and Bannerjee creator Abir Mukherjee, above, whose standalone thriller Hunted (Vintage) is out, now says: “Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst (Macmillan) follows Dave Win, an …

A spokesperson for the website said: “For the second year running, Prince Harry’s Spare is the most traded-in biography of 2024. “This year, we purchased a total of 567 copies.” While Spare’s hardpack edition costs £28 at Waterstones, We Buy Books reportedly offered £3.38 for a second-hand copy of the …

Youngsters have traditionally found joy in using paints and pencils – but now they can also generate images and words by pressing a few keys on computers or phones. Axel – who has illustrated many books for young readers such as The Gruffalo, Zog and The Highway Rat – is …