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BIZARRE: 5 | Mind Blowing Facts

The Children’s Booker prize will include works of translation – here are five expert recommendations to get your kids excited

The buzz around the newly announced Children’s Booker has focused on its potential to “tell kids they matter”, as they get their own version of this prestigious literary prize. With children actually included in the judging process, the prize has the power to bring thousands more young people “into the…

The Conversation

Scary stories for kids: All About Ghosts is a non-fiction book that gave me all the knowledge to spot spectres

All About Ghosts by Christopher Maynard is a non-fiction book for children curious about spectral beings. First published in 1977, this book grabbed many children with the vice-like grip of a reanimated hand from a mouldering grave.

The Conversation

The Rose Field takes Philip Pullman’s ‘Dust’ to its philosophical conclusions

The Rose Field, the third and final volume in Philip Pullman’s The Book of Dust trilogy is finally in the hands of his readers.

The Conversation

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The painting that haunts me – seven experts share their favourite scary artwork

With Halloween approaching, we asked seven of our academic experts to tell us about the most unsettling artwork they’ve ever encountered. From gruesome portraits to creepy critters, these are the paintings that have stayed with them long after their first glimpse.

The Conversation

The five most terrifying songs ever recorded

As plastic skeletons enter the shops, pumpkin spice flavourings spread through coffee houses like Japanese knot-weed and jumpers are dug out of drawers, music fans’ playlists also begin to shift, with “spooky sounds” replacing “sunshine mixes”. And, just as Christmas means endless repeats of Mistletoe Wine and Fairytale of New…

The Conversation

How the first animals evolved – a new clue from a tiny relative

The next time you go wild swimming, whether in a lake, river or sea, you are probably sharing the water with one of your tiniest, yet closest relatives.

The Conversation

Scary stories for kids: A Series of Unfortunate Events taught me that grief can’t be understood but can be managed

Sourcing family friendly frightening fiction can be a bit challenging. That said, while straightforward horror texts rarely serve family audiences, the gothic is a mode of storytelling that has a long history of delighting and disgusting parents and children alike.

The Conversation

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Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is an underwhelming ode to ‘the boss’

In the last ten years, Bruce Springsteen has cemented his status as a bona fide music legend.

The Conversation

John Grisham’s The Widow: a legal mystery that asks if a sleazy lawyer can ever be seen as a ‘good’ victim

Is there such a thing as the “perfect victim”? Is it an old lady who is suddenly mugged on the street? And where does a greedy lawyer, eager to profit from an elderly widow’s demise, fit in? Would we have sympathy if he was manipulated and wrongly accused of her…

The Conversation

A brief history of the haunted house in western cinema and literature

A door creaks shut, unexpectedly; a footstep is heard on the stair; a face seen at the window. The haunted house is a staple of gothic writing, television and film, but what is it about this humble setting that holds such a fascination?

The Conversation

Scary stories for kids: these tales of terror made me a hit at sleepovers as a pre-teen

Seeing the cover of Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (1981) has a powerfully Proustian effect on me: my stomach drops a little bit and a shiver of twinned fear and delight runs down my spine, even now, some 35 or so years after I first encountered…

The Conversation

Monsters, menopause and bold women – what to see, read and visit this week

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has long served as a parable – a warning against the hubris of playing God, the dangers of motherless creation, reckless parenthood and unchecked scientific ambition. It’s a story that continues to resonate, revealing how little human ego and error have changed over time.

The Conversation

Scary stories for kids: Watership Down made me aware of my mortality at age four

When I think of my first encounter with horror, I don’t think of a vampire, a witch, or even a possessed girl’s head spinning round (I saw The Exorcist at the age of seven). I think of a Sun God, I think of teeth and claws slicked with blood, I…

The Conversation

The Life of Violet: three unearthed early stories where Virginia Woolf’s genius first sparks to life

Few feelings are more thrilling for a literature scholar than unearthing an archival gem. Urmila Seshagiri, professor of English at the University of Tennessee, got to experience such a jolt when she was told about previously unseen typescripts of three short stories by Virginia Woolf.

The Conversation

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Revenge quitting: is it ever a good idea to leave your job in anger?

Many of us will have experienced the rage that comes with being badly treated at work – and maybe even felt the instinct to pack up and leave. Bad bosses, belittling treatment or poor pay could be behind these kneejerk emotions. But, while most employees swallow their anger and get…

The Conversation

Criminal psychologists are profiling a different kind of killer – environmental offenders

After years of trying to understand the minds of people who hurt others, I have recently turned my attention as a criminal psychologist from violent crimes to the less well-known world of green crime.

The Conversation

Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses uses critical dystopia to challenge us to build a better future

Between 2013 and 2015, Malorie Blackman was Britain’s first black children’s laureate. Her young adult series Noughts and Crosses (2001-21) at once challenges and plays with the prevailing racial ordering of western life and thought.

The Conversation

Reform and Green party members the most ideologically removed from the average voter

Against the backdrop of a fragmenting political system, the 2025 party conference season in the UK has been an unusual one. The Greens and Reform, having secured strong results in the 2024 election, enjoyed an unprecedented level of interest in their events. Members were interviewed in the media and party…

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The Conversation

Starmer overlooks the negativity bias that makes Farage’s tactics so potent

Keir Starmer’s legacy in British politics is already assured. No one in modern British history had managed to come to power with a massive majority and then become the least popular prime minister on record in just over a year.

The Conversation

Often overlooked, Tudor art richly reflected a turbulent century of growth and change

It can sometimes seem like the Tudors are everywhere, at least in Britain: on television, in bookshops and in historic houses and galleries across the country. Yet within the discipline of art history, appreciation for pictures and objects produced in England between 1485 and 1603 has been slow to take…

The Conversation

Caravaggio’s Medusa: why we need to look the Gorgon in the eye

The image is stark and shocking. A decapitated head, her eyes open, her mouth agape in a silent scream, her hair a nest of still-hissing snakes. Blood pours out from her severed neck. She is not quite alive, but she is not yet dead either.

The Guardian - UK

‘A tool in the fight against Amazon’: independent bookshops to begin selling ebooks

A new platform will be an alternative to Kindle, and bookshops will earn 100% of the profit from sales

The Conversation

A contemporary history of Britain’s far right – and how it helps explain why so many people went to the Unite the Kingdom rally in London

The recent “Unite the Kingdom” rally in London shows how easy it is for the radical right to mobilise a mass protest by repackaging a perennial issue as a moral panic. It did so by fusing together fears of migration and crime with a rising distrust in government.

The Conversation

Twilight at 20: how Stephenie Meyer’s vampire saga changed young adult fiction forever

Stephenie Meyer’s debut novel, Twilight, was published in 2005 – the first in a series that went on to sell over 100 million copies worldwide. Twenty years, six novels and five movie adaptations later, it is clear that Twilight has permanently changed the shape of young adult (YA) fiction.

The Conversation

Shakespeare for children: an expert’s top ten books to spark their imagination

As pupils head back to school, they may well encounter Shakespeare’s plays and poems – perhaps for the first time.

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