What we’re reading: Alan Hollinghurst, Samantha Harvey and Guardian readers on the books they enjoyed in December
Writers and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments
December 2025
‘There’s a sense of our freedoms becoming vulnerable’: novelist Alan Hollinghurst
A knighthood, a lifetime achievement award and a hit theatre production of The Line of Beauty… the author on a year of personal success and political change
November 2025
Alan Hollinghurst wins David Cohen lifetime award for ‘pioneering’ novels
Author says he is ‘overcome with emotion’ after winning £40,000 honour for books including The Line of Beauty and The Swimming-Pool Library
October 2025
The Line of Beauty review – Hollinghurst’s Gatsby-esque social satire is a class act
Jack Holden has elegantly adapted Alan Hollinghurst’s Booker winner about class envy, gay culture and political scandal in 80s Britain
August 2025
The Lost Boys get loose: Jack Holden on rebooting Peter Pan and The Line of Beauty
The actor and writer has turned JM Barrie’s story into the hedonistic nightclub musical Nvrlnd – but his talents are also showcased in a one-man thriller and a queer classic
December 2024
Alan Hollinghurst’s new novel is a sharp account of British theatre – and even pastiches my criticism
Michael Billington
Our Evenings follows an actor through 60 years of treading the boards and holds up a mirror to how society has shapeshifted
October 2024
The books of my life
Alan Hollinghurst: ‘I wrote letters to my schoolfriends in dwarfish runes’
The author on the brilliance of Burroughs, Penelope Fitzgerald’s concise mastery, and a teenage obsession with Middle-earth
September 2024
Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst review – one for the ages
Book of the day
Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst review – his finest novel yet
August 2024
Autumn fiction special 2024
Alan Hollinghurst: an exclusive extract from his new novel Our Evenings
The Booker prize-winning author introduces an excerpt from his latestbook – a story of race and class, love and sexuality
February 2024
Royal Society of Literature refers itself to Charity Commission as authors pen petition
After months of criticism and an open letter signed by Ian McEwan and Alan Hollinghurst the charity confirms referral is in process
July 2023
Top 10s
Top 10: good sex in fiction
‘There were very, very few openly queer kids in my year group’: Joe Lycett, Colm Tóibín and more on how gay life has changed
February 2022
‘A certain pleasant darkness’: what makes a good fictional sex scene?
The novelist Niamh Campbell on why describing intimacy is so difficult and how creative writing about sexuality is changing. Plus, she picks 10 of her favourite examples
February 2021
‘You can smell the sweat and hair gel’: the best nightclub scenes from culture
Writers and artists including Róisín Murphy, Tiffany Calver and Sigala on the art that transports them to the dancefloor during lockdown
July 2020
'The nearest to God we get': stars pick the Beethoven work they cherish
Ali Smith does an opus a month, Tony Hall saw Fidelio on Robben Island, and Lady Brenda Hale used to march to his Grosse Fuge. As the Proms celebrate Beethoven’s 250th anniversary, stars reveal a favourite work
June 2020
Overcoming fears, discovering nature ... what I have learned from lockdown
As lockdown eases, authors including Anne Enright, Mark Haddon and Sebastian Barry reflect on what they have learned – and what comes next
May 2020
'I wanted something 100% pornographic and 100% high art': the joy of writing about sex
As authors from Chaucer to Hollinghurst have shown, sex reveals our emotions, instincts and morals. The question is not why write about sex, claims author Garth Greenwell, it’s why write about anything else?
April 2020
Lockdown culture
Novelists pick books to inspire, uplift, and offer escape
From Hilary Mantel to Kazuo Ishiguro and Marlon James to Sebastian Barry, writers share their favourite literary comforts
March 2020
‘It’s not just a cottage, it’s a shrine.’ Writers join bid to save Derek Jarman’s last home
The campaign to keep the artist’s Dungeness chalet for the nation has just weeks to reach its £3.5m target
