Leonard Cohen will get us through the election despair
Brief letters: Mood music | Sunak’s election debate | Speed entertaining | Pétanque popularity | Clout bombing | Happy countries
February 2024
‘Kills me every single time’: readers on their favourite breakup songs
For Valentine’s Day, Guardian writers picked their favourite breakup songs and here are some of your picks, all the way from sadness to fury
March 2023
Brief letters
Leonard Cohen could shake it off like Taylor Swift
Leonard Cohen heirs accuse former manager and lawyers of forgery
January 2023
Famous blue leotard: the Leonard Cohen dance show the singer never lived to see
Brief letters
Learning Ukrainian as a sign of solidarity
October 2022
A Ballet of Lepers by Leonard Cohen review – intimations of immortality
Book of the day
A Ballet of Lepers by Leonard Cohen review – violent literary beginnings
September 2022
A lyrical short story by Leonard Cohen: A Montreal poet goes looking for love in a raincoat
In The Jukebox Heart, this posthumously released work, the great singer-songwriter imagines a young romantic courting a mysterious, beautiful woman. Will it end in Hallelujah – or so long Mariette?
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song review – a thorough, respectful documentary
Contributions from John Cale, Judy Collins and more illuminate the singer-songwriter’s art through his best-known song
Hallelujah! Leonard Cohen’s almighty struggle with rejected song that became a classic
A new film tells the story of the song, written over 10 years with 180 versions
August 2022
‘There’s a raw energy’: Hydra, artists’ haven, still casts its spell
The Greek island has attracted poets, writers and musicians for over 8o years, from Henry Miller to Leonard Cohen and Jeff Koons
July 2022
From American Pie to All Too Well: the most debated lyric mysteries ever
Death of a Ladies’ Man review – Gabriel Byrne charms in Philip Roth style dramedy
Brief letters
How the light gets in on the darkest days
The Guardian view on Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah: praise be
June 2022
‘More than a song’: the enduring power of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah
In a new documentary, fans and experts explore the legacy of a song that was originally shunned before becoming a timeless classic
February 2022
Leonard Cohen: previously unpublished novel to be released in autumn
Written in 1956, A Ballet of Lepers will be published alongside other short fiction and a radio play from Cohen’s early career
November 2021
Observer book of the week
Leonard Cohen: The Mystical Roots of Genius review – the God behind the guy
Harry Freedman’s examination of how the musician’s spiritual life shaped his songs is rich in detail if a little too earnest in its quest for enlightenment
October 2021
How Leonard Cohen mined sacred texts for lyrics to his songs
New book reveals extent of the musician’s fascination with scriptures of Judaism and Christianity
