Words & Ideas > Essays

Esteemed American journalist David Rieff argues against our passion for the past. He looks at how memory serves nationalistic history every ANZAC Day and annual pilgrimage to Gallipoli, and how memory of past horrors inflame deep-seated ethnic hatreds, violence and wars.

AS I WAS SAYING is a swirling conversation with the reader on everything from travel to dogs and cats, from sport and swearing to the pleasures of idleness. Punctuated at regular intervals by talks Dessaix has given on a wide range of subjects, as well as by some of his most incisive journalism, the conversation invites the reader to join a leisurely guided tour of his chamber of curiosities, featuring pieces collected all over the globe from across the centuries. Whether writing home from Vladivostock or Damascus, discussing what ... read more

Edited by the award-winning and critically-acclaimed Edwidge Danticat, author of "Brother, I Am Dying, " this classic collection of essays showcases the year's best.

In his essay on Tennessee Williams, Colm Toibin reveals an artist profoundly tormented by his sister's mental illness. Through the relationship between W.B. Yeats and his father, Toibin examines a world of family relations, and in Roddy Doyle's writing on his parents illuminates an Ireland reinvented. From John Cheever's journals Toibin makes flesh this darkly comic misanthrope and his intimates. "Educating an intellectual woman," Cheever remarked, "is like letting a rattlesnake into the house." In pieces that range from the import... read more

The new book of essays from Jonathan Franzen, author of Freedom. Jonathan Franzen's 'Freedom' was the runaway most-discussed novel of 2010, an ambitious and searching engagement with life in America in the 21st century. Now, a new collection of Franzen's non-fiction brings fresh demonstrations of his vivid, moral intelligence, confirming his status not only as a great American novelist but also as a master noticer, social critic, and self-investigator. In Farther Away, which gathers together essays and speeches written mostly in ... read more

A treasure trove of Schama's writing with subjects ranging from cookery to Barack Obama.

An artist associated with the New York School of poets, Joe Brainard (1942-1994) was a wonderful writer whose one-of-a-kind autobiographical work "I Remember" ("a completely original book" -Edmund White) has had a wide and growing influence. It is joined in this major new retrospective with many other pieces that for the first time present the full range of Brainard's writing in all its deadpan wit, madcap inventiveness, self-revealing frankness, and generosity of spirit. "The Collected Writings of Joe Brainard" gathers intimate jo... read more

The provocative and best-selling author Christopher Hitchens takes the helm of the twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this perennial favorite that is "reliable and yet still surprising--the best of the best" ("Kirkus Reviews").

As he grew up, Andrew O'Hagan witnessed the decline of Britain and the rise of America, the end of British industry and the rise of Blair and the tabloids. This collection of essays tells the story of that period in our cultural and political life. Through the reported essays that first made O'Hagan's name, it's a book filled both with personal story and the power of documentary witness. Opening with a major personal piece examining the journey of Britain and America since the closing of the Thatcher years, it concludes with a piec... read more

Jessica Mitford was a member of one of England's most legendary families (among her sisters were the novelist Nancy Mitford and the current Duchess of Devonshire) and one of the great muckraking journalists of modern times. Leaving England for America, she pursued a career as an investigative reporter and unrepentant gadfly, publicizing not only the misdeeds of, most famously, the funeral business (The American Way of Death, a bestseller) and the prison business (Kind and Usual Punishment), but also of writing schools and weight-lo... read more

Peter Ruehl's humorous columns on life, family and politics have been one of the Australian Financial Review's most beloved and prominent features for more than two decades. His irreverent wit and ability to puncture pretentiousness with a well-turned phrase gave thousands of dedicated readers a good reason to read the paper back to front on the days the column appeared. His descriptions of growing up with teenage children are laugh-out-loud funny (well, for parents), and a younger generation of readers decided he was cool, with hi... read more

'We shouldn't be too hard on ourselves,' my German colleague said to me. 'We have to be realistic about the problem. The world is split between those who want to save the planet and those who want to save themselves.' In QE44 , Andrew Charlton exposes the rift that will shape our future -progress versus planet; rich versus poor. Who, then, will save us? Charlton shows there are two leading candidates: economists and environmentalists. Each says they know what is best for our grandchildren. Yet environmentalists see economists as me... read more

In The Best Australian Essays 2011, Ramona Koval compiles a diverse and invigorating collection of the year's best non-fiction. Describing world-altering events as well as moments of introspection, and ranging from the provocative to the life affirming, these illuminating essays are certain to stimulate conversation for years to come. Previous contributors include Helen Garner, J.M. Coetzee, Tim Flannery, Inga Clendinnen, Robyn Davidson, Clive James, Chloe Hooper, David Marr, David Malouf, Robert Manne, Noel Pearson and many more.

A collection of essays, reflections and personal stories that show the passion and depth around the issue of same-sex marriage.

This irreverent, controversial account is a ground-breaking, in-depth profile that traces Rudd's years in Queensland, in China, in opposition and finally in government. Based on extensive research, observation and interviewing, it examines the forces that have made Kevin Rudd and the way he wields his power.

In this collection, Alice Munro takes mainly the lives of women, and brings their hidden desires bubbling to the surface. The love of a good woman is not as pure and virtuous as it seems - as in her title story, it can be needy and murderous.

The author is the sort of person who learned about sex from her father's copy of "Fanny Hill", and who once found herself poring over a 1974 Toyota Corolla manual because it was the only thing in her apartment that she had not read at least twice. This title recounts her lifelong obsession with books.

Volume One received blanket review coverage and was acclaimed by readers and critics alike. Word about "The Paris Review" is spreading more and more widely. Canongate is now the UK distributor of "The Paris Review Magazine". Graham Greene, William Faulkner, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Philip Larkin, Raymond Carver, Philip Roth and Toni Morrison.This is a second volume of fascinating interviews from one of the world's best loved literary magazines. The encounters between "The Paris Review" and the world's leading writers have elicited s... read more

What did George W. Bush and John Howard do to conservatism? In their wake, the conservative parties in the US and Australia seem to have lost their way. How did the Right in Australia end up in this place? How might it renew itself? This essay unravels the terms Right and Left, and discusses what a better conservatism might look like.

Whether you are starved of it or steeped in it; embarrassed by it or emboldened by it; whether you commit it or omit it you can't get away from it. In this issue of "Granta" we talk about sex. Sex is our oldest obsession. For as long as we've been doing it, it has been used as a mark of decline and a measure of progress. It has been at the centre of rituals and responsible for revolutions. We make money from it, hide behind it, prohibit and promote it. It relaxes us, revolts us, hurts us and helps us. But whatever we think about it... read more