Tuesday, April 21, 2026

The Child Who Was Wild by Michael Rosen

 

Illustration by Enki Bilal

The Child Who Was Wild

by Michael Rosen


Once there was a woman, a young, young woman
She ran from the city, the old, old city
She ran to the woods, the deep dark woods
She wasn’t seen for days. Days, weeks and months.
She came out of the woods, the deep dark woods
She came with a child, a child who was wild.
She brought the child to the city, the old, old city
He grew and he grew and he grew and he grew
Out of his hands grew shoots: green shoots and leaves
Out of his shoulders grew the lily and the rose
His hair was the blossom that blows in the wind,
He stood in the city, the old, old city
with the leaves and the flowers and the blossom
falling, falling, falling on grey, grey gravel.






‘Every time I write, I doubt myself’: Michael Rosen at 80 on deep grief, self-belief and chocolate cake

 

Michael Rosen


THE BIG INTERVIEW

‘Every time I write, I doubt myself’: Michael Rosen at 80 on deep grief, self-belief and chocolate cake

As told to Lucy Knight

The children’s author answers questions from readers, friends and writers on losing his son Eddie, surviving Covid, who he’d invite to his perfect birthday dinner and where he goes for inspiration


Monday 20 April 2026



Whether you know him from reading his classic picture book We’re Going on A Bear Hunt as a child, from his viral YouTube videos or his tireless support for children’s literacy and the NHS, Michael Rosen has been a household name in the UK for decades. As he turns 80, we gave his peers and Guardian readers the opportunity to put to him the questions they’ve always wanted to ask.

Karol G at Coachella review – electrifying set destined for festival’s hall of fame

 

Karol G performing in Coachella
Photo by Amy Harris


Review

Karol G at Coachella review – electrifying set destined for festival’s hall of fame

Empire Polo Club, Indio, California
With dazzling choreography and head-spinning set pieces, the Colombian star delivered a victorious statement of Latin pride


Adrian Horton

Monday 13 April 2026

Late on the final night of Coachella’s first weekend, after more than a dozen songs, several glorious costume changes and some of the most luscious choreography ever seen in a headliner set, the Colombian superstar Karol G finally introduced herself in English: “I am Carolina Giraldo from Medellín, Colombia, and today, I am the first Latina woman to headline Coachella,” she said to deafening cheers from a crowd dotted with the flags of Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia and other Latin nations. “I’m very happy and very proud,” she added, but “at the same time, it feels late. There has been 27 years of this festival.” Both sincere and pointed, her remarks recalled Beyoncé in 2018, thanking the festival for allowing her to be the first Black woman to headline: “Ain’t that ’bout a bitch?”

Marilyn Monroe by Bert Stern

 




Marilyn Monroe
by Bert Stern
1962

Monday, April 20, 2026

‘After all the horrible things we’ve been through,’ he said to me, ‘if I die of cancer, it will make a bad story’: Siri Hustvedt on losing Paul Auster

 

Siri Hustvedt
Photo by Chris Buck



‘After all the horrible things we’ve been through,’ he said to me, ‘if I die of cancer, it will make a bad story’: Siri Hustvedt on losing Paul Auster

First there was the double tragedy that tore the family apart – then came a deadly diagnosis. The writer reflects on life after the death of her novelist husband


Siri Hustvedt
Sunday 19 April 2026


Iam alive. My husband, Paul Auster, is dead. He died on 30 April 2024, at 6.58pm here in the Brooklyn house where I am now writing these words. He was diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer in January 2023. But before that, in early November 2022, Paul had a CT scan in the emergency room at Mount Sinai West hospital. The radiologist spotted a mass in his right lung and noted it might be cancer.

Hell so feared by Juan Carlos Onetti

 

Juan Carlos Onetti


Hell so feared 

By Juan Carlos Onetti


The first letter, the first photograph, was delivered to him at the newspaper between midnight and closing. He was banging on the typewriter, a little hungry, a little sick from coffee and tobacco, dedicated with familiar pleasure to the march of the sentence and the compliant appearance of words. He was writing, “It is worth noting that the commissioners noticed nothing suspicious or even out of the ordinary in Play Boy’s crowning triumph, when he took full advantage of the wintry track and shot ahead like an arrow at the decisive moment,” when he saw the red hand stained with ink from Politics between his face and the typewriter, holding out the envelope.

Márquez overtakes Cervantes as most translated Spanish-language writer

 

Gabriel García Márquez
París, 1990
Photo by Ulf Andersen

Márquez overtakes Cervantes as most translated Spanish-language writer

This article is more than 3 years old

Author of One Hundred Years of Solitude tops list of those most translated into 10 languages this century ahead of Don Quixote creator

Sunday, April 19, 2026

Lost Federico García Lorca verse discovered 93 years after it was written

 


Federico García Lorca

Lost Federico García Lorca verse discovered 93 years after it was written

Eight-line poem found on the back of a manuscript sheds light on Spanish poet’s preoccupation with time


Sam Jones in Madrid
Sat 18 Apr 2026 05.00 BST

A previously unknown verse attributed to Federico García Lorca has been discovered 93 years after the celebrated Spanish poet and playwright is believed to have jotted it on the back of one of his manuscripts.

‘Difficult love’ / Spanish publisher reprints groundbreaking book of Lorca’s homoerotic sonnets

 



‘Difficult love’: Spanish publisher reprints groundbreaking book of Lorca’s homoerotic sonnets

This article is more than 9 months old

Federico García Lorca’s poems were printed anonymously in 1983 after being hidden away by family for 50 years


Sam Jones in Madrid
Friday 13 June 2025


In the autumn of 1983, dozens of carefully chosen readers received an envelope containing a slim, red booklet of sonnets that had been locked away since they were written almost 50 years earlier by the most famous Spanish poet of the 20th century.

Name of Federico García Lorca's lover emerges after 70 years

 


Federico García Lorca



Name of Federico García Lorca's lover emerges after 70 years

This article is more than 13 years old
Box of mementoes reveals that young art critic Juan Ramírez de Lucas had brief affair with Spanish poet

Giles Tremlette in Madrid
10 May 2012

The identity of the lover to whom Federico García Lorca wrote passionate verse in his final year has been a mystery ever since the poet's assassination during the Spanish civil war. But now, more than 70 years later, his name has finally emerged.

Saturday, April 18, 2026

Paso del Norte by Juan Rulfo

 


PASO DEL NORTE

by Juan Rulfo


“I’m going away, father; so I came to tell you.”

“And where’re you going, if one may know?”

“I’m goin’ to El Norte.”

“Why there? Don’t you have your business here? Aren’t you into selling pigs?”

Remember by Juan Rulfo

 



REMEMBER
by Juan Rulfo

Remember Urbano Gómez, Don Urbano’s son, Dimas’s grandson, the one who directed pastorelas, the Christmas plays, and who died reciting the “cursed angel complaint” during the time of influence. It’s been years since then, maybe fifteen. But you must remember him. Remember we used to call him “El Abuelo,” Grandfather, because his other son, Fidencio Gómez, had two very playful daughters: one dark and very short, who’d been given the mean nickname of “La Arremangada,” Stuck Up, and the other one who was towering and who had light blue eyes and who people even said wasn’t his and about whom you can’t say much more than she suffered from hiccups. Remember the commotion that broke out when we were in Mass and at the exact moment of the Elevation she had a hiccup attack, which sounded as if she were laughing and crying at the same time, until they took her outside and they gave her a bit of sugar water and then she calmed down. She ended up marrying Lucio Chico, the owner of the mescal bar that used to belong to Librado, up the river, where the Teóduloses’ linseed mill is.

Luvina by Juan Rulfo

 


Luvina

by Juan Rulfo 


Of all the high ranges in the south, the one in Luvina is the highest and rockiest. It’s full of that gray stone from which they make lime, but in Luvina they don’t make lime from it nor do they put it to any good use. They call it crude stone there, and the incline that rises toward Luvina is called Crude Stone Hill. The wind and sun have taken care of breaking it down, so the earth around there is white and shining, as if it were bedewed with morning dew; though all this is just words, because in Luvina the days are as cold as the nights and the dew grows thick in the sky before it manages to reach the earth.

Friday, April 17, 2026

Luci Gutiérrez / The New Yorker

 



Luci Gutiérrez 
(Barcelona, 1977)
THE NEW YORKER


Michael Rosen's Sad Book

 

Illustration by Quentin Blake

Michael Rosen's Sad Book

Wednesday 9 November 2016
During a recent visit to The National Museum of Wales we got to view the Quentin Blake Exhibition. This has been running from July 16th and goes through until November 20th and celebrates the wonderful work of the popular author and illustrator. The exhibition is free, as in entry to the museum itself, and is located upstairs. We enjoyed looking at the many works of Quentin Blake, discovering his various work tools, film footage of him working and exploring the artwork. In a large, open and bright area of the room was a long table with books illustrated by Quentin with paper and colouring pencils for visitors to try their hand at their own illustrations.

Thursday, April 16, 2026

Biographies / Jon Klassen

 

Jon Klassen


Jon Klassen

Jon Klassen was born in 1981 in Winnipeg, Canada. He studied illustration in Oakville until 2005 and subsequently moved to Los Angeles where he worked as a designer and illustrator, among others on motion pictures like »City of Ember« (2008), »Coraline« (2009) and »Kung Fu Panda 2« (2011). He was also in charge of the music video for the U2-Song »I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight« (as art director) and for the BBC title sequence of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver (as designer).