The Guardian Long Read, Issue 5

The Guardian Long Read compiles some of the newspaper’s finest long-form journalism. In an age of shrinking attention spans and AI, this magazine offers 100 pages and 55,000 words of thoroughly reported writing. Its ten carefully selected articles are the kind of work that can’t be reduced to bite-sized snippets; they demand to be read in full. The texts also give the design team a chance to adapt the daily newspaper’s design language to a new format, and commission new illustration to accompany the stories—a point of pride that editor David Wolf draws attention to in this edition’s opening letter.

In this issue:
Vol.5 features ten crime and mystery stories, including how the Krays built their own legend, the curious case of the stolen gospel, and what happened when half a tonne of cocaine washed up on a Spanish island. Tales of traffickers, stowaways and kidnappings by masters of crime writing, all beautifully illustrated – the perfect read, or gift, for winter nights.