As writers of English from Australia to India to Sri Lanka command our attention, Salman Rushdie can state confidently that English fiction was moribund until the Empire wrote back, and few, even among the British, demur. A. S. Byatt does, and her case is persuasive. In a series of essays on the...

Ian Fleming was best known for bringing to life the legendary character of James Bond, one of the most beloved and enduring icons of our time, but he was perhaps even more interesting than his creation. His career in Naval Intelligence and extensive travels around the world gave Fleming a keen eye...

In her stage-writing debut, celebrated novelist and essayist Zadie Smith brings to life a comedic and cutting twenty-first century translation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s classic The Wife of Bath. The Wife of Willesden follows Alvita, a Jamaican-born British woman in her mid-50s, as she tells her life...