Katherine Boo

Narrative nonfiction is a style of writing that takes the facts and dramatises them to create novelistic retellings of real life events. Samira Shackle, author of Karachi Vice, a book that offers vivid insight into the lives of five of the city’s residents, recommends five books that have inspired her—and explains how a writer might begin to carve ‘plot’ and ‘characters’ from reams of research material.

Recycling is more than just a blue and green bin in your pantry, says journalist Adam Minter – it’s a global trade with centuries of history that stretches from American scrapyards to Chinese e-waste recycling villages

Half of the world’s population live in cities, and more are moving in. Urbanist Leo Hollis explains how city living makes us smarter and more creative, why slums are set to grow, and what the future of the city holds.

Whether we're thinking about democracy versus authoritarianism, corruption versus good governance, or rich versus poor, there is a lot we can learn from India's recent history, says Dinyar Patel, a historian at SPJIMR in Mumbai. He talks us through some good books on the modern history of a country that has long been the world's largest democracy and is now its most populous country.