Issue 1464

A happy homecoming
Sergeant Catherine Cawood can almost glimpse retirement when she’s called to investigate a gangland murder. The father of her grandson is still in prison for crimes he committed years ago. In Halifax, Sara Royle searches for clues about the third and final series of Happy Valley, about to hit screens.

My Manchesters
Many artists, musicians and writers before him have been influenced by the city – he’s even got the autograph of some of them – but Nicholas Royle is doubly influenced by it. In his new collection of short stories, he writes, there are two versions of it.

Prime number of books
Obsessions, family history, ecological disaster, art, religion and war are just some of the themes authors are exploring in fiction in the new year. Antonia Charlesworth rounds up 23 books for 2023.

Plus
Economist James Meadway on the merits of economic inactivity, columnist Saskia Murphy says Jeremy Clarkson’s Meghan Markle column should have been spiked, best of the year’s Letter to my Younger Self and more.