Books
The Quiet Novel Is Having a Very Loud Year
Slim, patient books are outselling blockbusters at independent shops. Booksellers have a theory about why.
By Nora Whitlock
Culture
Every Culture story, newest first.
All Stories
Page 1 of 2
Books
The Last Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter
A debut about a remote Scottish island earns every one of its long silences.
By Nora Whitlock
Books
Why Everyone You Know Joined a Silent Book Club
No homework, no discussion, no awkward wine. Just an hour of reading in the same room as strangers.
By Nora Whitlock
Books
A Biography of the Pencil, and Everything It Drew
Theo Marchetti's unlikely history of a humble tool turns out to be a history of thinking itself.
By Nora Whitlock
Books
Translators Are Finally Getting Their Names on the Cover
A quiet campaign has changed how international fiction is sold, and sales appear to be following.
By Nora Whitlock
Film & TV
Harbour Lights Is the Film of the Autumn
A tender, wind-blown drama about two ferry pilots has become the sleeper hit nobody saw coming.
By Felix Adeyemi
Film & TV
The Return of the Sixty-Minute Episode
After years of bloated seasons, television's best writers are rediscovering the discipline of the single story.
By Felix Adeyemi
Film & TV
Paper Moons
A hand-animated fable about a village of cartographers took eleven years and looks like nothing else this year.
By Felix Adeyemi
Film & TV
Your Local Cinema Wants to Be Your Living Room
Sofas, supper clubs and film-school Q&As: how small screens are winning back the weeknight crowd.
By Felix Adeyemi
Film & TV
The Long Goodbye of Night Shift
Television's most beloved hospital drama ends after nine seasons, and it knows exactly how to leave.
By Felix Adeyemi
