The historian is set to lead a ‘stellar’ 2026 panel featuring the Pulp frontman and other acclaimed writers, as the search begins for next year’s standout work of fiction

Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker will feature on the 2026 Booker prize judging panel that will be chaired by the classicist and broadcaster Mary Beard.

Novelist Patricia Lockwood has also been named as a judge, along with the poet Raymond Antrobus and Rebecca Liu, an editor at the Guardian Saturday magazine.

The historian is set to lead a ‘stellar’ 2026 panel featuring the Pulp frontman and other acclaimed writers, as the search begins for next year’s standout work of fiction

Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker will feature on the 2026 Booker prize judging panel that will be chaired by the classicist and broadcaster Mary Beard.

Novelist Patricia Lockwood has also been named as a judge, along with the poet Raymond Antrobus and Rebecca Liu, an editor at the Guardian Saturday magazine.

The historian is set to lead a ‘stellar’ 2026 panel featuring the Pulp frontman and other acclaimed writers, as the search begins for next year’s standout work of fiction

Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker will feature on the 2026 Booker prize judging panel that will be chaired by the classicist and broadcaster Mary Beard.

Novelist Patricia Lockwood has also been named as a judge, along with the poet Raymond Antrobus and Rebecca Liu, an editor at the Guardian Saturday magazine.

Aamir Ahmed , Dr Graham Simpson , Adrian Bell and David Gollancz respond to a letter by a reader whose husband died of the disease after delaying getting a PSA test

It is understandable for patients suffering from a late diagnosis of prostate cancer, or families who have lost loved ones, to demand that something should be done ( Letters, 5 December ). I, however, respect the UK National Screening Committee’s recommendation not to screen most men using the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test.

The job of the committee was to weigh up the benefits and harms of any available test for routine screening. PSA testing, as a first step to diagnose cancer, results in false negatives and a significant number of false positives, meaning it has both low sensitivity and low specificity, making it a poor screening marker. PSA screening has been conducted in the US; there are varying estimates that, over three decades, it has resulted in more than 1 million patients receiving treatment (eg surgery or radiotherapy) they did not need.

Aamir Ahmed , Dr Graham Simpson , Adrian Bell and David Gollancz respond to a letter by a reader whose husband died of the disease after delaying getting a PSA test

It is understandable for patients suffering from a late diagnosis of prostate cancer, or families who have lost loved ones, to demand that something should be done ( Letters, 5 December ). I, however, respect the UK National Screening Committee’s recommendation not to screen most men using the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test.

The job of the committee was to weigh up the benefits and harms of any available test for routine screening. PSA testing, as a first step to diagnose cancer, results in false negatives and a significant number of false positives, meaning it has both low sensitivity and low specificity, making it a poor screening marker. PSA screening has been conducted in the US; there are varying estimates that, over three decades, it has resulted in more than 1 million patients receiving treatment (eg surgery or radiotherapy) they did not need.

Aamir Ahmed , Dr Graham Simpson , Adrian Bell and David Gollancz respond to a letter by a reader whose husband died of the disease after delaying getting a PSA test

It is understandable for patients suffering from a late diagnosis of prostate cancer, or families who have lost loved ones, to demand that something should be done ( Letters, 5 December ). I, however, respect the UK National Screening Committee’s recommendation not to screen most men using the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test.

The job of the committee was to weigh up the benefits and harms of any available test for routine screening. PSA testing, as a first step to diagnose cancer, results in false negatives and a significant number of false positives, meaning it has both low sensitivity and low specificity, making it a poor screening marker. PSA screening has been conducted in the US; there are varying estimates that, over three decades, it has resulted in more than 1 million patients receiving treatment (eg surgery or radiotherapy) they did not need.

Defying the will of the House of Commons will increase calls for radical reform of the upper house sooner rather than later, say the MPs Nia Griffith, Justin Madders and Debbie Abrahams

When visitors come to parliament, it seems incongruous to explain that, in our mother of parliaments, we have a second chamber – the House of Lords – which is unelected. Those who support its existence in its current or similar form justify it on the grounds that it performs a useful revising function which can improve the detail of legislation, and it undoubtedly does good work.

But the fact that it is unelected can only be tolerated in a democracy provided its members accept that it is for the House of Commons to have the last word on what becomes law and what doesn’t in this country.

Defying the will of the House of Commons will increase calls for radical reform of the upper house sooner rather than later, say the MPs Nia Griffith, Justin Madders and Debbie Abrahams

When visitors come to parliament, it seems incongruous to explain that, in our mother of parliaments, we have a second chamber – the House of Lords – which is unelected. Those who support its existence in its current or similar form justify it on the grounds that it performs a useful revising function which can improve the detail of legislation, and it undoubtedly does good work.

But the fact that it is unelected can only be tolerated in a democracy provided its members accept that it is for the House of Commons to have the last word on what becomes law and what doesn’t in this country.

Defying the will of the House of Commons will increase calls for radical reform of the upper house sooner rather than later, say the MPs Nia Griffith, Justin Madders and Debbie Abrahams

When visitors come to parliament, it seems incongruous to explain that, in our mother of parliaments, we have a second chamber – the House of Lords – which is unelected. Those who support its existence in its current or similar form justify it on the grounds that it performs a useful revising function which can improve the detail of legislation, and it undoubtedly does good work.

But the fact that it is unelected can only be tolerated in a democracy provided its members accept that it is for the House of Commons to have the last word on what becomes law and what doesn’t in this country.