Scottish novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist
The 2026 Booker Prize shortlist has been announced, featuring six novels from Jamaica to Scotland. Jurors led by Mary Beard highlight risk-taking writing, with contenders including Marlon James, Elizabeth Strout, Rebecca Perry, Douglas Stuart, M. John Harrison, and Luke Kennard. The winner will be named on November 9 in London.
A modern stage adaptation of Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie receives a powerful, problematising performance. Gayle Rankin leads as Brodie in a production that reframes the 1930s-era school as a crucible of ideology, art, and power, with vivid design and a daring political edge.