Short Non-fiction

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, AKA Mark Twain, came into the world at the heels of Halley’s Comet in 1835 and left it the same way in 1910. In his own words, “The Almighty has said, no doubt: ‘Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they…

My favourite author was a topic I never used to discuss that often. People would list off great names such as Joyce, Dickens, Tolkien, Hemingway, or Twain, and have heated debates about great pieces of literature that I have never read. I…

Let’s get one thing straight before we start; fuck Dickens. Just kidding! I’ve got nothing against Charlie. You go Glen Coco! As a teen, and as a struggling literature graduate, I found writers like Dickens to be immensely stuffy,…

“It is said that your life flashes before your eyes before you die. That is true, it’s called life.” –Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent Death, and this will hardly be news to anyone, is a most cruel, uncaring part of this world.…

The last time I checked BuzzFeed, I noticed that there are a lot of great things to read besides gif captions. Some of those things are books, and some of those books are novels, and some of those novels are full of stirring,…

Those looking for an enjoyable scare for the Halloween season are unlikely to seek one out in a European medieval manuscript. Those things are stuffy and deeply religious, right? It would just be silly to look for anything creepy…

Recently on the ‘sharing is caring’ site, a challenge to readers to list the ten books that have made a lasting impression on them has been busily doing the timeline rounds. As I have many bookish friends, not only was I tagged into this…

This year will see the 100th birthday of the great poet Dylan Thomas. Born in Swansea on October 27 1914, Dylan Thomas wrote many great works throughout his short life, most notably ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ and of course the…

I chose Sylvia Plath as a Legend of the Month for HeadStuff because of Mirror. For those of you who know nothing about Sylvia Plath, she didn't invent the mirror. But imagine if she did? That would be so cool and she might be a Legend of…

Comics Unmasked – Art and Anarchy in the UK Exhibition at The British Library 2 May – 19 August 2014 Comics will be the culture of the year 3792 – Salvador Dalí It may not be quite 3792, but comics seem…