By: Ramlal Agarwal The Nobel Committee for Literature awarded Anne Carson the 2026 Nobel Prize, recognising her bold, inventive verse, her playful dialogue with the classical tradition, and her creation of new forms in contemporary literature. Carson has long studied…
By: James Aitchison The 1940s saw the rise of a new genre in pulp fiction — noir. On movie screens, Warner Brothers brought black-and-white noir masterpieces to their fullest potential; think Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon. And while it might…
By: Adam Page I have to be honest from the outset. When someone tells me their favourite novel is A Confederacy of Dunces, I need to know why. Because two types of people love this book, and they exist on…
By: Frank J. Albert Abner Snopes in William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” is stolidly self-justified in his refusal to belong to any community. He is the hero of his own story – the story that plays out in his own…
By: Pradeep Trikha This essay critically examines the poetry of Kiriti Sengupta, situating his work within the broader evolutionary trajectory of his literary oeuvre. It argues that Sengupta occupies a highly specialised, singular niche in contemporary Indian English poetry by…
By James Aitchison Bestsellers in their day, but forgotten now. The pioneers of spy fiction, hundreds of them, produced thousands of stories between 1914 and 1939. Some, like Somerset Maugham’s Ashenden, The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers, John…
By James Aitchison He was called a “book factory”, writing more than 600 novels using 28 different pseudonyms. Some critics shunned him, but readers loved him. They lapped up 80 million copies of his work — in 25 languages! John…
By James Aitchison He was a barrister, spymaster, novelist, poet, a British Lord, and Governor-General of Canada. His most famous book was first filmed in 1935 by Alfred Hitchcock. In the pantheon of great British thriller writers — John le…
By James Aitchison Great films begin with great scripts. As Hollywood director Mervyn LeRoy once pointed out, “You can do nothing unless you have it on paper first.” Yet screenwriters suffered more frustrations and a lower status than many other…
By James Aitchison He was born in Singapore to a Chinese father and British mother. Not only was he the most successful Singaporean author of all time, but also the creator of a character whose uninterrupted success was one of…