Marina Warner


Stories come from the past but speak to the present, and I have found that I need to write stories as well as deconstruct them and place them in historical contexts, because I myself love reading works of imagination, and I would like to join the conversation with admired predecessors, who range from Apuleius to Virginia Woolf, Italo Calvino, and Angela Carter.”

Recent Diary Entries
A summons to history: Radwa Ashour’s Andalusia and its afterlife
Granada, by Radwa Ashour, is one of the top 100 novels of the 20th century according to the Arab Writers Union, is now available in a new, complete translation by award-winning translator Kay Heikkinen. The complete edition brings the Granada trilogy’s …
Mysteries and grace: The beauty and humanity of fourteenth-century Sienese art
Marina wrote a review for the TLS (April 18 2025, Issue No 6368) on the exhibition Siena: The rise of painting, 1300–50 (at the National Gallery until June 22), along with the exhibition catalogue edited by Joanna Cannon. The exhibition includes work b …
The Books That Made Me, 1 May 2025, 6.30pm @ the British Academy
At this event, Marina will discuss the most meaningful stories from the realm of myth, folklore and fairy tale, which have shaped and inspired her life and work! She will be in conversation with Ritual Shah. The event is free, but booking is required – …