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Rachel Aspden

April 2024

  • A volcanic eruption in the 2022 Werner Herzog documentary, The Fire Within, about Katia and Maurice Krafft.

    Adventures in Volcanoland by Tamsin Mather review – fire and brimstone

    A magical scientific exploration of volcanoes, and how they’ve shaped both nature and human destiny

March 2024

  • The Rafflesia mimics the odour and appearance of rotting flesh.

    Book of the day
    Pathless Forest by Chris Thorogood review – love letter to a monstrous flower

    A botanist goes in search of the vast, stinking Rafflesia in its natural habitat

February 2024

  • A wild boar sow with ‘humbug’ boarlets.

    Book of the day
    Groundbreakers by Chantal Lyons review – the whole hog

    The remarkable story of Britain’s wild boar, and their controversial resurgence

September 2023

  • From left: Sally Ride, Shannon Lucid, Kathryn Sullivan, Rhea Seddon, Anna Fisher and Judy Resnik in 1978.

    Book of the day
    The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts by Loren Grush review – spaceflight pioneer portraits

    From sexist objections to the challenges faced by female crew on Earth and in space, this is a vital record of a giant leap for women

June 2023

  • Kim Kardashian in a 2022 episode of reality show The Kardashians.

    Book of the day
    Self-Made by Tara Isabella Burton review – selfie society

  • SKOREA-NKOREA-DIPLOMACY-SUMMIT<br>North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (L) signs the guest book next to his sister Kim Yo Jong (R) during the Inter-Korean summit with South Korea's President Moon Jae-in at the Peace House building on the southern side of the truce village of Panmunjom on April 27, 2018. - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the South's President Moon Jae-in sat down to a historic summit on April 27 after shaking hands over the Military Demarcation Line that divides their countries in a gesture laden with symbolism. (Photo by Korea Summit Press Pool / Korea Summit Press Pool / AFP) (Photo credit should read KOREA SUMMIT PRESS POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

    Book of the day
    The Sister by Sung-Yoon Lee review – North Korea’s propaganda queen

February 2023

  • Gulchehra Hoja

    Book of the day
    A Stone Is Most Precious Where It Belongs by Gulchehra Hoja review – a powerful testament of Uyghur persecution

    Once the glamorous face of her people on Chinese state TV, the author now lives in the shadow of a superpower’s revenge

August 2022

  • Ramallah, Palestine, where Raja Shehadeh’s father lived after 1948.

    Book of the day
    We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I by Raja Shehadeh review – truth and memory in Palestine

    A human rights lawyer charts the history of his country through his late father’s papers

November 2021

  • Opposition Activists Charged With Inciting Violence<br>CAIRO, EGYPT - MARCH 26: A group of Egyptian protesters gather in front of Cairo's High Court to protest against the summons of five high profile activists on March 26, 2013 in Cairo, Egypt. Five high profile Egyptian activists were summoned by the Egyptian Prosecutor General's office on charges of inciting violent clashes between opposition protesters and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Cairo suburb of Muqattam on March 22. Those charged include renowned blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah, Popular Current member Ahmed Doma, National Salvation Front member Hazem Abdel-Azim, Constitution Party member Ahmed Eid, activist Karim El-Shaer, and journalist and blogger Nawara Negm. (Photo by Ed Giles/Getty Images)

    Book of the day
    You Have Not Yet Been Defeated by Alaa Abd el-Fattah review – a message to the world from an Egyptian prison

    The jailed activist’s writings, some of them smuggled out of his cell, keep the spirit of the 2011 revolution alive

July 2016

  • Raqqa in Syria

    The Girl Who Beat Isis: My Story by Farida Khalaf and Andrea C Hoffmann – review

    A first-person account of what happened after two Yezidi women were captured by Islamic State is as gripping as it is appalling

June 2016

  • Egyptian security forces clear protest camps loyal to ousted President Mohamed Morsi, Cairo, Egypt on 14 August 2013

    The long read
    Generation revolution: how Egypt’s military state betrayed its youth

    The long read: Two years after protests unseated the dictator Hosni Mubarak, a 15-year-old girl in Cairo was ready to risk her life to defeat her country’s brutal army. And she was not alone

August 2015

  • Protesters fill Tahrir Square demanding the removal of President Mubarak, 1 February 2011.

    Circling the Square by Wendell Steavenson review – the Egyptian revolution, up close and personal

    A tough and experienced reporter is swept up in Tahrir Square’s revolutionary fervour

October 2012

  • G Willow Wilson

    Alif the Unseen by G Willow Wilson – review

    The supernatural and the information superhighway collide in G Willow Wilson's imaginative debut novel, writes Rachel Aspden

September 2012

  • Bogotá, Colombia

    Short Walks from Bogotá by Tom Feiling – review

    Tom Feiling takes us on an enlightening journey through a changing country that few understand, writes Rachel Aspden

May 2011

  • Jordanian vendor arranges headscarves for sale, in downtown Amman

    A Quiet Revolution by Leila Ahmed – review

    An incisive history of the hijab reveals surprising shifts in the cultural struggle between Islam and the west, writes Rachel Aspden

April 2011

  • Mohsin Hamid

    Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid – review

    Mohsin Hamid's debut novel is an acutely observed tale of young Pakistanis trapped between worlds, writes Rachel Aspden

March 2011

  • Hoodie Gangs

    Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman – review

    Stephen Kelman's debut is a sympathetic if overhyped portrait of the frightened boys behind Peckham's gangs, says Rachel Aspden

December 2010

  • Beer in the Snooker Club by Waguih Ghali – review

    The tragicomic adventures of two British-educated Egyptian Christians in Nasser's postcolonial Cairo reflect the ups and downs of the author's own life, writes Rachel Aspden

August 2010

  • Helon Habila

    Oil on Water by Helon Habila

    A Conradian river journey in search of a kidnap victim uncovers the human cost of the oil industry in Nigeria, writes Rachel Aspden

March 2010

  • No One Knows About Persian Cats (2009)

    Film blog
    A chance to hear Iran's Voices of the Unheard

    Rachel Aspden: Two films at the Human Rights Watch film festival attempt to bring the real Iran to the eyes of the west – an Islamic republic where secularists and rockers struggle to make a space for themselves

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