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Kate Cantrell

Kate Cantrell

The Conversation

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‘A hard, hard book to write’: Magda Szubanski on trauma, cancer and the cost of coming out

Magda Szubanski’s books are not conventional celebrity memoirs. She doesn’t name-drop or frame her story as one of triumph.

09.10.2026 20

The Conversation

Kate Cantrell

Swan Song: Diana’s brother flips the royal family the bird in his scathing new book

Charles Spencer’s book is as much about him as about the sister he claims to speak for. Beneath the score-settling, it’s a story of a brother...

24.09.2026 30

The Conversation

Kate Cantrell

Periodic Bitch: PMDD may be a ‘life curse’, but this memoir reveals its stigma as the real horror

Periodic Bitch tells what it’s like to live with PMDD: an extreme, chronically understudied and widely misunderstood form of premenstrual illness.

19.05.2026 40

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Kate Cantrell

Chernobyl at 40: the lies, the loss and why we can’t let go

What does the wealth of books, documentaries and dramas about the Chernobyl disaster tell us that history alone cannot?

23.04.2026 40

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Kate Cantrell

Half His Age: Jennette McCurdy’s novel is an uncomfortable take on a new genre – literary abuse

Former child star Jennette McCurdy’s gross, gripping debut novel shows there is no single, correct way to engage with stories about female desire...

07.04.2026 100

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Kate Cantrell

‘My prey, my prize, my Vladimir’: flipping the gender script on predatory professors

In her Netflix series, Vladimir, Julia May Jonas attempts to tame the slippery characters and weighty themes in her novel. That’s a pity.

13.03.2026 50

The Conversation

Kate Cantrell

Olivia Nuzzi didn’t report what she knew about RFK Jr – could she have stopped his rise?

Former journalist Olivia Nuzzi’s American Canto, about her ‘digital affair’ with politician RFK Jr, raises all kinds of ethical questions. Oh,...

19.12.2025 50

The Conversation

Kate Cantrell

Olivia Nuzzi didn’t report what she knew. Did that help RFK Jr become health secretary?

Former journalist Olivia Nuzzi’s American Canto, about her ‘digital affair’ with politician RFK Jr, raises all kinds of ethical questions. Oh,...

18.12.2025 50

The Conversation

Kate Cantrell

Who really photographed Napalm Girl? The famous war photo is now contested history

For five decades, the image was attributed to Associate Press photographer Nick Út. But a documentary recently released on Netflix is challenging...

16.12.2025 40

The Conversation

Kate Cantrell

Prince Andrew stripped of all titles after Virginia Giuffre’s memoir. Her family declares ‘victory’

Nobody’s Girl is Virginia Giuffre’s inside account of the two years she spent as a ‘sex slave’ working for Jeffrey Epstein and co-conspirator...

31.10.2025 40

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Kate Cantrell

Wealthy, whiny and wildly tone deaf: Elizabeth Gilbert’s new memoir exemplifies ‘priv-lit ’

In Elizabeth Gilbert’s shocking new confessional memoir, she falls in love with her dying best friend, enables her addiction – and once again...

19.09.2025 40

The Conversation

Kate Cantrell

Death Cap Murders portrays Erin Patterson as a woman who craved community – and would ‘stop at nothing’

The first Erin Patterson documentary, Stan’s three-part documentary Revealed: Death Cap Murders, depicts Patterson as a loner who craved community.

16.09.2025 40

The Conversation

Kate Cantrell

Congratulations, Get Rich! is a glittering ghost story where emotion is lost to theatrics

Merlynn Tong’s new play feels like it’s not sure if it’s a meditation on loss, or a musical comedy about reinvention.

09.09.2025 40

The Conversation

Kate Cantrell