'This is a hard book to read, not because, as Gilbert tells us, the story was so painful to write, but because the prose is so bad.' Frances Wilson on Elizabeth Gilbert’s emotional recovery programme the-tls.com/lives/autobiogra…

What is the most interesting item on your bookshelf? ‘Currently, a very sleepy cat.’ Twenty Questions with Vincenzo Latronico the-tls.com/regular-features…

What does a writing day look like for you? ‘I write fiction on Wednesday and Sunday mornings between 1 March and 31 October (inclusive).’ Twenty Questions with Simon Okotie the-tls.com/regular-features…

'This is a fictionalized memoir (in Jen’s words, a “forged truth”) that yearns to resolve a painful question: how to grieve a mother who abdicated her responsibility to be one.' Rhoda Kwan: Forged truths the-tls.com/literature/ficti…

'I decided to escape far from home in the hope of making some inroads into the large pile of books – not so much on a writer’s retreat, more like a reader’s retreat.' Mary Beard (@wmarybeard ): Hotel reading the-tls.com/regular-features…

'Young Asa betrayed a mental fixation unknown to psychology that we might call Compulsive Curiosity Syndrome.' Michael Bentley on the compulsive energy of a unique historian the-tls.com/lives/biography/…

'Goethe’s intellectual accomplishments were shaped by, and gave shape to, the unfolding process of a singularly abundant life.' David E. Wellbery on a Goethe’s achievement as artist, scientist and statesman the-tls.com/lives/biography/…

Our regular literary crossword the-tls.com/regular-features…

'I am sure that, in many ways, I am much less expert at the task than the professionals. But I started to feel that none of them captured what I see as my own “down-to-earthness”.' Mary Beard (@wmarybeard ): Recording your own books the-tls.com/regular-features…

A Roman orator in his element the-tls.com/classics/roman/o…

The mindset of an unrepentant Nazi the-tls.com/history/conversa…

Earthbound experiences of comets and meteorites the-tls.com/regular-features…

What is gained and lost when ideas are set down on paper? the-tls.com/literature/liter…

'Less than 1 per cent of current reservoir capacity in England has been added since 1990, with most of the water storage assets on which we rely built between 1945 and 1975.' Tony Juniper on an alternative to the current system of failing water companies the-tls.com/science-technolo…

Transformative encounters with Scottish ospreys the-tls.com/regular-features…

Overweening and destructive tendencies in ancient history and contemporary neuroscience the-tls.com/regular-features…

‘A darg of conversations, a verbal scent – / Tut-tutted discourse, time of day, word-brose.’ – Douglas Dunn the-tls.com/regular-features…

The saga of medieval Orkney the-tls.com/history/medieval…

Lucian’s tall stories and comic dialogues the-tls.com/classics/greek/l…

March in St Augustine,canopy roof plump with medlar fruitand blet persimmon, the trees hummingwhile crawdad tails fanned out under chrome nailsand non-verbal children in floral dungareeschucked wheat bags at holes in the ground,others resting their ... the-tls.com/literature/origi…