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David Barnett

David Barnett writes about books and comics for the Guardian

March 2025

  • Crowd of Chinese people in front of balloons with banners and a building with columns wave Little Red Books in the air

    Mao Zedong’s first Little Red Book had blue cover and less propaganda

    Rare early editions of book by communist party chairman, who shunned the idea of wealth, set to go on sale for £1m

February 2025

  • Nadia Odunayo, founder and CEO of The StoryGraph.

    ‘Reading is part of my identity’: the woman taking on Goodreads owner Amazon

    Software engineer and developer Nadia Odunayo created the social media readers’ platform StoryGraph and its popularity has rocketed

January 2025

  • Danny Brocklehurst

    ‘Our industry should be appalled’: Brassic creator laments lack of working class people in TV and film

    Danny Brocklehurst’s much loved comedy drama raised the bar – now he is calling for greater representation across the industry

December 2024

  • The Magic 8 Ball.

    Tarot, tarantulas and TikTok: exploring our long obsession with predicting the future

    A new exhibition at Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries examines the enduring appeal of divination

November 2024

  • A detail of the graphic novel about Elon Musk by Darryl Cunningham.

    ‘We live in a climate of fear’: graphic novelist’s Elon Musk book can’t find UK or US publisher

    Darryl Cunningham blames fear of ‘legal consequences’ for reluctance to take on book, now only available in French

October 2024

  • Performers in 'beast' costumes in a morris dance at the Illustrious Order of Fools and Beasts Unconvention in Birmingham, last week.

    Robin Hood, morris dances and UFOs: English folklore survey gets post-Brexit reboot

    A fresh look at cultural identity will follow outline of 60-year-old Survey of Language and Folklore, conducted by two academics driving a red Mini
  • Zoe Thorogood and brother James cuddling in front of sunflowers as very young children

    ‘I need positive things to come of this’: graphic novelist rocked by brother’s suicide donates profits to charity

    Award-winning Zoe Thorogood hopes the money raised can help halt rising numbers of young men taking own lives
  • Artist holds an easel and paintbrush

    ‘It’s just crazy’: the retired Cornish builder making thousands from his whale paintings

    Steve Camps had no formal training but his compositions, created in left-over emulsion, are making waves in the art world

September 2024

  • Noel Widdifield and Jim Sullivan, each holding a case attached to their space suit by a hose, stand next to their wives in a 1974 photograph

    ‘It’s just black sky up there’: 50 years on, the transatlantic flight speed record remains unbroken

    Two men flew between New York and London at three times the speed of sound. No other aircraft has since been as fast as the Blackbird SR-71, explains crew member Noel Widdifield

August 2024

  • Bernard Cornwell.

    Sharpe creator Bernard Cornwell apologises to fans for no new novel in 2024

  • Mass roadworks on Bridge Street in the city of Bradford in West Yorkshire, which is preparing to become the UK city of culture 2025.

    Bradford races against the clock to finish works in time for city of culture

July 2024

  • The Piece Hall, after a £19m conservation and transformation programme, Halifax, West Yorkshire.

    ‘Good evening Halifax’: how a Georgian cloth hall became one of the UK’s biggest open-air music venues

  • Jo Callaghan.

    Jo Callaghan wins crime novel of the year with story of an AI detective

June 2024

  • Natasha Khan, known professionally as Bat for Lashes, demonstrates howling

    ‘I cast spells at the audience’: Bat for Lashes on howling, magic and new documentary on witch trials

    Natasha Khan joins Suranne Jones to speak out for women persecuted in the infamous trials – and channels their powers on stage
  • Diane Park outside Wave of Nostalgia

    Meet the people behind three of the UK’s brilliant independent bookshops

    Rebuilding from a fire, competing with Amazon and launching during lockdown – how these indies continue to thrive
  • Charlotte Church, the singer and activist, speaks during a London rally in support of Gaza in March.

    Growing sponsorship row leaves UK summer arts festivals in turmoil

    Book festivals and events still sponsored by Baillie Gifford to meet investment firm amid row over funding

May 2024

  • Patrick Grant, host of the BBC show The Great British Sewing Bee, in a blue suit and tie

    ‘Is this what people wear now?’ Sewing Bee host criticises M&S jumpers and socks

  • A book bound and customised by Geena of ‘beaudelaireslibrary’.

    ‘They made it look so easy’: traditional craft of bookbinding rejuvenated for the TikTok age

  • In a puppet booth, Spike Lidington looks at a marionette of Punch, with velvet trousers and his foot up, and a marionette of Judy, in a long dress  and a hat, look at a baby puppet with a scarf

    Judy stands up to Punch as classic puppet show gets modern makeover

  • One of John Gould’s commissions: a hand-colored lithograph by Henry Constantine Richter of a Lady Amherst’s pheasant.

    ‘Exceptional’: rare books of illustrations from Darwin’s ‘bird man’ on sale for £2m

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