Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris review – regicides on the run
In 1660, after the Restoration of the monarchy, two of Oliver Cromwell’s soldiers fled to America to escape execution. Harris is at his best in this fictionalisation of their escape and the quest to find them
August 2022
Book of the day
Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris review – a master writer leads us on a 17th-century manhunt
Seven big-hitter books for autumn 2022, from Maggie O’Farrell to Cormac McCarthy
May 2022
The networker
Meet the former Nazi rocket scientist who all too accurately saw the future
John Naughton
As well as serving in the SS and a second act as a Nasa engineer, Wernher von Braun wrote a Martian sci-fi novel with a prescient twist…
February 2022
Audiobook of the week
Munich by Robert Harris audiobook review – inside the backrooms of power
David Rintoul is the authoritative narrator of this thriller about the negotiations between Neville Chamberlain and Hitler in the leadup to the second world war
January 2022
Munich: The Edge of War review – handsome if muted take on Robert Harris’s spy thriller
Peter Bradshaw's film of the week
Munich: The Edge of War review – an elegant what-if twist on wartime history
December 2021
‘Chamberlain was a great man’: why has the PM fooled by Hitler been recast as a hero in new film Munich?
He is seen as the appeaser who fell for Hitler’s lies. But was Chamberlain scapegoated? Writer Robert Harris and actor Jeremy Irons discuss taking on history with their controversial new film
September 2021
How leading thriller writer helped reveal plagiarism of Emmy prizewinner
Robert Harris, whose second world war film was copied, tells how the scandal led to George Stevens Jr being stripped of his awards
July 2021
Books interview
Robert Harris: ‘My method is usually to start a book on 15 January and finish it on 15 June’
The best original photographs from the Observer
Original Observer photography
September 2020
V2 by Robert Harris review – fears of a rocket man
The Nazis’ V2 rocket programme is seen through the eyes of a conflicted German and a female air force office in a familiar but absorbing thriller
February 2020
Beyond Mantel: the historical novels everyone must read
Of course fiction tells someone else’s story
September 2019
The Second Sleep by Robert Harris review – an elegant, post-apocalyptic thriller
Book of the day
The Second Sleep by Robert Harris review – a ‘genre-bending thriller’
May 2019
John le Carré and Neil Gaiman join writers warning Brexit is 'choosing to lose'
Letter to the Guardian signed by many of UK’s most celebrated authors urges voters to support the EU in Thursday’s poll – or prepare for economic damage
March 2019
Top 10s
Top 10 books about building cities
From Mary Beard’s Roman history to Kim Stanley Robinson’s science fiction, Jonathan Carr chooses the best writing about citizens’ eternal challenges
July 2018
Book clinic
Book clinic: what are the best novels about ancient Greeks and Romans?
From the Odyssey to a toga-clad detective, Natalie Haynes picks her favourite fiction about classical antiquity
June 2018
A life in ...
Robert Harris: ‘I'm not sure you can be the world’s superpower and remain a democracy’
The books interview: As the stage adaptation of his Cicero trilogy transfers to the West End, Robert Harris explains why the Roman politician’s story speaks to our age of populism
