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Boyd’s new short story, The Vanishing Game, was not only commissioned by the firm but is ‘an act of homage’ to the 4x4, writes Alison Flood
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Elif Shafak’s open letter to the journalist Gao Yu celebrates the courageous writings for which she has been jailed in China, but which ‘echo far and wide’
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Do authors of YA novels glamorise crime, or help readers to avoid it? In the wake of the murder of teacher Ann Maguire, authors answer charges of glamorising violence
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Is this an exercise in revenge or self-examination? Journalist Hugo Borst tries to annihilate Man Utd’s would-be saviour. By Roddy Doyle
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News: The stand-off between the internet retail giant and the publishing corporation has drawn both sides into open contention over commercial terms
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Andrew Brown: The brutal Treasure Island villain has a realistic charm and charisma that could have made him an all too plausible politician
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Richard Flanagan's unlikely metaphors lined up against writers including Haruki Murakami and Kirsty Ward
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The Bible garnered 37% of public vote, while On the Origin of Species received 35%, writes Alison Flood
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Thomas’s mother-in-law had ordered that the notebook be burned; her servant saved it for posterity in a paper bag
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Smith’s novel, which has won the £10,000 award for mould-breaking works, comes in two versions: one starting with a Renaissance fresco painter, one with a modern-day teenager in mourning
• Review: How to Be Both -
Miss Blackpool 1964 is the star of a fictional sitcom in Hornby’s new novel, which pays homage to television’s golden years. By Joe Moran
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Review Napoleon the Great by Andrew Roberts review – a ‘marvellously readable’, if partial, biography
What sort of Napoleon does our generation want? This is a fast-paced account, written from inside the imperial entourage. By Mark Mazower -
What are the best British buildings of the last century? And do the critics’ favourites match those of the people, asks Simon Jenkins
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Chris Power: A complex and powerfully emotive collection that tackles psychological derangement with elegance and grace
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Like Socrates on steroids: Žižek is both breathtakingly perceptive and outrageously irresponsible. Is he just out to scandalise, asks Terry Eagleton
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Nicholas Lezard’s paperback of the week: A charming sing-along collection with lluminating notes and anecdotes
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Amazon, which earlier pulled several of Hachette’s books from its inventory, will resume selling all of Hachette’s catalogue
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The author of Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was also a poet and a travel writer. Celebrate his birthday by testing your knowledge of his life and work
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Top 10: Books about books, where literature is integral to life, are a genre in themselves, as terrific titles by authors from Nicholson Baker to Geoff Dyer very readably show
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Luisa Valenzuela’s open letter to a writer sentenced to jail in Paraguay for allegedly plagiarising a novel
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A film bringing a statue of the novelist to life is drawing in the virtual crowds
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Poll: Ten passages of highly-coloured prose are up for the prize every author dreads, the annual Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction award
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Interstellar writer Jonathan Nolan is set to have a go – and it would be a magnificent future if he can pull it off
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Short stories The Emerald Light in the Air by Donald Antrim – ‘Takes those who appear monstrous and reveals their humanity’
Chris Power: A complex and powerfully emotive collection that tackles psychological derangement with elegance and grace -
Miss Blackpool 1964 is the star of a fictional sitcom in Hornby’s new novel, which pays homage to television’s golden years. By Joe Moran
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Graphic novel of the month Bumf by Joe Sacco; Best of Enemies by Jean-Pierre Filiu & David B review – gross, and vastly entertaining
Joe Sacco lets loose in a biting satire of western foreign policy, while Jean-Pierre Filiu and David B offer a more sober take on Middle Eastern history, writes Rachel Cooke
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Fiction The Architect’s Apprentice by Elif Shafak review – architecture as metaphor for building lives
The sultan’s court in 16th-century Istanbul provides the setting for this multilayered tale of ties that bind and grand designs, writes Anita Sethi -
A new super-criminal stalks Victorian London in a clever but contrived hymn to Sherlock Holmes’s nemesis, writes Robert McCrum
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The great American everyman confronts the ageing process in four brilliant overlapping tales, says Kate Kellaway
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Poetry Paper Aeroplane: Selected Poems 1989–2014 by Simon Armitage review – ‘What surprises is how urgent and contemporary his early poems still read’
A timely retrospective for a soaring talent of modern British verse -
A thrilling exploration of good and evil, friendship, family and faith in 17th-century Massachusetts, writes Claire Hazelton
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Is this the biography that the brilliant gardener, once-popular author and masterly self-inventor deserves?. By Alexandra Harris
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Don’t be lulled by the vivid descriptions of ordinary life: this tale of a Methodist minister’s descent into darkness will catch you out, writes Alison Flood
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In his first book for adults, the children’s author demonstrates a Pratchettian vigour and invention . By Harry Ritchie
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This is an exuberant look at love and life in an absurd and godless universe, writes Simon Ings
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A tale of dramatic childbirths, meandering romances, long lives and unexpected deaths from the Pulitzer prize-winning novelist. By Alex Clark
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Self published book of the month Self-published book of the month: Yesterday by Sheila Norton – review
An air of self-congratulation undermines this story of a journalist investigating her teenage past, writes Alfred Hickling -
This west African thriller should help an American original emerge from the publishing shadows, writes Mark Lawson
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In setting his seventh novel around a fictional 1960s television sitcom, Nick Hornby gives himself great scope to defend the cosy comedy at which he excels, writes Alex Preston
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The philosopher-spy sets sail for Plymouth in SJ Parris’s fourth twisting, turning Giordano Bruno thriller, writes Natasha Tripney
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Biography Napoleon the Great by Andrew Roberts review – a ‘marvellously readable’, if partial, biography
What sort of Napoleon does our generation want? This is a fast-paced account, written from inside the imperial entourage. By Mark Mazower -
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What are the best British buildings of the last century? And do the critics’ favourites match those of the people, asks Simon Jenkins
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Telling a different kind of truth about Titmuss, the guiding spirit of the welfare state – with the odd bombshell. By Melissa Benn
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History Germany: Memories of a Nation by Neil MacGregor review – Germany’s past is indeed another country
A detailed analysis of Germany’s history goes a long way to understanding its people and its turbulent politics, writes Antony Beevor -
An account of the Flood significantly different from that told in the Bible should have resonances with modern audiences, writes Nick Fraser
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The letters Nabokov wrote to his wife Véra form a compelling, sensuous record of a man enraptured, writes Ian Thomson
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History In These Times: Living in Britain Through Napoleon’s Wars, 1793-1815 by Jenny Uglow – review
How were the lives of ordinary people changed by the French wars? This is anecdote-rich descriptive history at its best. By Vic Gatrell -
Religion How I Stopped Being a Jew by Shlomo Sand and Unchosen: The Memoirs of a Philo-Semite by Julie Burchill – review
What does it mean to be Jewish today? Two books offer very different perspectives. By Will Self -
The traffic on a cold grey sea that created the modern world – from fashion to feminism, money to marriage customs. By Tom Holland
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This is a vivid study of Russian expansionism and civil insurrection. Has the turmoil reached its peak? How much further will Putin go? By Luke Harding
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Terrorist organisations have often been regarded as too awful to talk to – until we realised we had to talk to them. This ‘guide for negotiators’ shows that dialogue is essential, writes Oliver Miles
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The mayor of London’s paean to Churchill is self-serving but spirited, writes John Kampfner
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The philosopher-spy sets sail for Plymouth in SJ Parris’s fourth twisting, turning Giordano Bruno thriller, writes Natasha Tripney
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Society The Underground Girls of Kabul: The Hidden Lives of Afghan Girls Disguised As Boys by Jenny Nordberg – review
A five-year study into the practice of ‘bacha posh’ sheds new light on oppression in Afghanistan, writes Anita Sethi
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Luisa Valenzuela’s open letter to a writer sentenced to jail in Paraguay for allegedly plagiarising a novel
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A film bringing a statue of the novelist to life is drawing in the virtual crowds
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Interstellar writer Jonathan Nolan is set to have a go – and it would be a magnificent future if he can pull it off
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The bedtime book for frazzled parents is followed by a venture into the jungle of family dinnertime
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Life of Pi author Yann Martel’s open letter to a journalist who has spent his career exposing corruption in Kyrgyzstan, where he is sentenced to life imprisonment
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Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of them
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Mort’s Division Street wins the distinguished Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection prize, writes Claire Armistead
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Philip Roth says that his most famous novel is dated, but like the fallacy of authorial intent we should be sceptical of that reading
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The literary genre defined by William Gibson’s Neuromancer had a massive influence on pop culture. But the cultural future it described is now both daily reality, and a distant digital past
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Ferris beats favourites Eleanor Catton and Eimear McBride to win the £30,000 prize for his novel, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, writes Nicholas Wroe
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With no publication angst and a killer work ethic, science students easily match their peers in the humanities in the art of creative writing. It even makes them better scientists, says novelist and teacher Aifric Campbell
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Ebook readers reveal the most highlighted passages in Harry Potter, the Bible, Lord of the Rings and many more, writes Alison Flood
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Did Charlotte Brontë kill her sisters? Was Hunter S Thompson murdered? And were Shakespeare’s plays actually written by Queen Elizabeth? It’s a fine night to burn your convictions, writes Ema O’Connor
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Yes, they sound workmanlike, and their keys are more satisfying to pound than a computer. But merely using a typewriter cannot magic anyone – even a Hollywood great – into an author, writes Nicholas Lezard
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As Tom Hanks announces that he is to publish a collection of short stories inspired by his love of typewriters, we remember some of the other writers who have cherished them, across the ages
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Sam Jordison: Orwell’s modern classic about totalitarianism is a perfect choice to mark the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall – and to kick off the discussion we’ve got 10 copies to give away
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Macdonald’s H Is for Hawk could become the first memoir after 15 years to win the prestigious prize, writes John Dugdale
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The woman who launched the US farmers market movement is in Australia to stir things up ahead of the G20, with supermarket monopolies, fancy chefs and school meals in her sights
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Bestselling novelist Sarah Waters talks to Rachel Cooke about why she has turned her attention to the stage for her next project
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A portrait of a working-class community on Long Island in the 1970s is shot through with melancholy yet, as Judy Chicurel tells Lucy Scholes, it still evokes fond memories
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Author who blends DNA research with personal stories to examine how people inherit their family’s experiences says understanding how history has shaped you is empowering, writes Johanna Leggatt
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Helen Macdonald’s obsession with falconry got her bullied at school. It has also just won her the Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction. She talks to Stephen Moss about grief, Wordsworth – and training hawks with Bedouins in Abu Dhabi
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In a new series interviewing women who write on the web and shape its discussions, we speak to Mallory Ortberg, founder of the Toast, a general interest site for women of a literary bent
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Every summer the quintessential American novelist heads to Connemara to shoot woodcock. Robert McCrum joins him on the Irish coast
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The novelist tells Kate Kellaway why she was happy to abandon teaching in favour of writing and talks about her new collection of short stories
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After six years of writing a weekly Observer column, David Mitchell answers Tim Lewis’s questions about finding ideas, talking shop with his wife and saying farewell to Peep Show
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The author, 52, on blue-collar jobs, pornography and his father’s murder. By Ed Cumming
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All the work feels worth it when you’ve got a hardback in your hand or you’re going to see a movie that you’re proud of
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Thirty years ago, the first in Kay’s bestselling Fionovar Tapestry fantasy trilogy was published – but before that, a stint helping Christopher Tolkien assemble The Silmarillion showed him the ‘drudgery and mistakes’ that lie behind every great work. He talks to Alison Flood
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The novelist talks to Robert McCrum about literary heavyweights, why she doesn’t like to complain, and how her current and former husbands helped her write her new book
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The US-based Iranian writer Azar Nafisi talks to Viv Groskop about freedom, imagination and inequality – in Islam and the west
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The bestselling biogeographer talks to Oliver Burkeman about dealing with the critics who condemn him as a cultural imperialist
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Scientists and philosophers have long disagreed over life’s big questions. Now a novelist with a foot in each camp wants to get Plato involved, writes Andrew Anthony
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The Australian author talks to Luke Harding about surveillance and Julian Assange
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Brazil’s indigenous people are rarely portrayed in literature. But they are at the heart of former lawyer and activist Paulo Scott’s innovative novel, Nowhere People. He spoke to Richard Lea
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Charlotte Higgins: The Man Booker prize winner on how he wrote The Narrow Road to the Deep North, the inspiration for the love story in it – and the human need for hope
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The books interview: The surgeon-author talks to Sukhdev Sandhu about the limits of medicine, our view of death, and battles over taste with the editor of the New Yorker
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Top 10: Books about books, where literature is integral to life, are a genre in themselves, as terrific titles by authors from Nicholson Baker to Geoff Dyer very readably show
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Nicholas Lezard’s paperback of the week: A charming sing-along collection with lluminating notes and anecdotes
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The literary genre defined by William Gibson’s Neuromancer had a massive influence on pop culture. But the cultural future it described is now both daily reality, and a distant digital past
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Jimmy Carter’s energy policy, stadium rock, the death of Mao, fall of the Shah, The Sweeney and Roy of the Rovers feature as hot topics among Ian Plenderleith’s recommended reads
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Sam Jordison: Orwell’s modern classic about totalitarianism is a perfect choice to mark the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall – and to kick off the discussion we’ve got 10 copies to give away
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Nicholas Lezard’s paperback of the week: This comic strip about a suffering feline is an imaginative tour de force
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Oblique and eccentric, Wyatt’s songs provide the voice of sanity during insane times, writes Jonathan Coe
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Michael Hofmann is an essayist, poet and translator of over 70 books. Answering your questions on countless topics: poetry, writing, the politics of translating, Kafka... read what he had to share
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From the eternally enthralling tale of Dracula, to femmes fatales spooking in the name of feminine sexuality, horror author Lauren Owen selects her favourite vampiric tales
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Nicholas Lezard’s paperback of the week: Compact yet enormous in scope, this reissued guide to the capital has never been bettered
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A poem that first appeared in 1967 explores the thirst of desire, necessary as wine, water and gin-fizz, writes Carol Rumens
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The bestselling biogeographer talks to Oliver Burkeman about dealing with the critics who condemn him as a cultural imperialist
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Whether guinea pigs playing a cricket match or kittens dressed in black tie at a wedding, Walter Potter had a wonderful way of telling stories with his taxidermy, writes Kate Mosse
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Sam Jordison: It’s a quarter of a century since the Berlin Wall came down – so how best to explore that divided world in fiction?
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It’s not science fiction, it’s not realism, but hovers in the unsettling zone in between. From Philip K Dick to Stephen King, Damien Walter takes a tour through transrealism, the emerging genre aiming to kill off ‘consensus reality’
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From Roman legions to medieval mayhem, Cavaliers and Roundheads to the crushing of ideals in the 20th century, there is fertile ground for drama in civil war, writes Robert Wilton
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The children’s laureate tells us about her brilliant final major campaign while she wears her laureate crown – it’s called Project Remix and it starts today!
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Peppered throughout children’s fiction are characters that show their strength and moral fibre in ways other than talking: a tender and loving heart, kindness, resilience, perseverance, quiet courage. The author of The Mute Button selects her silent stars, from Miss Honey to Atticus Finch
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Steve Cole’s new book takes on the Young Bond mantle from Charlie Higson. Site member Joshiey talks to him about what it’s like to write about Bond, moving on from Doctor Who and Astrosaurs, and flying a zeppelins
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Director Olivia Jacobs tells us how her theatre company Tall Stories adapted Julia Donaldson and Axel Schefler’s classic children’s book into a fabulous stage play
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Chris Riddell gives us a glorious insight into the images he created for The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman, including the now infamous kiss scene between The Queen and Sleeping Beauty
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The author of Goodnight Mister Tom and Impossible! explains why the Swallows and Amazons creator Arthur Ransome gave her an alternative childhood and the tools to escape, pulling her into a world where children coped (and camped!) on their own
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Huw Powell wrote his books Spacejackers with his two sons in mind but the positive reaction from girls made him realise with delight that times had changed since he was a lad – here he celebrates gender diversity in sci fi and fantasy fiction – and charts how we got here via Harry Potter, the Hunger Games and through to Rick Yancey’s The 5th Wave
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ShazzSharingan: 'The story includes so many twists and turns, not to mention random amusing events that will have you laughing for hours'
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thedauntlessbookthief: 'This book might be worth trying if you are into science fiction, but alas, this book wasn't for me'
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Rosa.Reader: 'Benjamin Alire Sáenz is the perfect example of showing, not telling'
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Newsflash: The Biggest Book Show on Earth has just got bigger, with over 40 authors, including Jacqueline Wilson, Michael Rosen, Chris Riddell, Cathy Cassidy, Cressida Cowell, Liz Pichon and more travelling across the country to celebrate World Book Day 2015
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ExtraEpic: 'If you play Minecraft then you will love this and if you don't play it, then this is a great way to get you started on the fun!'
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hockey_jess: 'I thought I had worked the book out and it would fall into all the stereotypes you expect in a young adult fiction, but they went against the gravel and produced an outstanding book which paves the way to an exciting new series'
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the master of the ready read foundation: 'Read this insightful book on the gods of Olympus, Percy Jackson And The Greek Gods'
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Scoutingforbooks: 'A chilling story about two different lives. This book will keep you on your feet, up at night and always wanting more with it's edgy and interesting storyline'
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Read the first chapter of the new Young Bond novel from Doctor Who and Astrosaurs author Steve Cole. Bond has been expelled from school and is in Tinseltown – what could possibly go wrong?
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Rosa.Reader: 'The last 70 or so pages pretty much consisted of no breathing and jumping out of your skin when your cat leaps unexpectedly onto your lap'
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Rosa.Reader: 'Everything was perfectly tied up by the end and the whole thing gave me insight into what it's really like to be in an incredibly popular band'
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Rosa.Reader: 'The whole Eleanor-Park relationship avoided cliches and took on a whole new style, and it progressed naturally'
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Potterhead103: 'I can't wait to read the next books in this series!'
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The Book Doctor finds books for a seven-year-old girl who admires Hermione Granger, Pippi Longstocking and the star of Andy Stanton’s Mr Gum books, Polly – what should she read next?
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Mars Bar27: 'As the third in the Madame Pamplemousse series, this book is different, sweeter and has a mystery to be solved'
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Going, going, gone: Phases of Twilight by Jessa Gamble
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With memoir taking the laurels in the UK's biggest non-fiction award we look at life writing, with Samuel Johnson winner Helen Macdonald and the Colombian novelist Tomás González
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We unearth the origins of the uncanny with Darryl Jones and explore the links between terror and comedy with Charlie Higson and Robin Ince
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The second in a series of sound stories designed to lull you into sleep
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Travel writer Robert Macfarlane came to the Guardian book club to discuss his exploration of the ancient tracks that crisscross the globe
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The first in a sponsored series of five sound stories designed to lull you into sleep
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We turn our gaze to the stars, with multiple award-winning science fiction writer Ann Leckie and astrobiologist Caleb Scharf
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Australian writer Richard Flanagan accepts his Man Booker literature prize for his novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North
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Celebrated Australian novelist explains why he is against the criticises decision to expand the Man Booker prize to include US writers
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We look to a troubling future with novels from Emily St John Mandel and Clemens J Setz
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We go in search of poetry's rising stars with Kei Miller, Kate Tempest and a brand-new generation of contemporary poets
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The novelist David Mitchell unwinds his latest novel, The Bone Clocks
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Video: Colm Tóibín speaks in his Dublin flat and reflects on how his mother coped with the loss of his father, the phases of grief and the challenges of transforming family trauma into fiction
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Reading from his new book The Bush: Travels in the Heart of Australia, Don Watson profiles the jolly swagman of fact, fiction and song
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Andrew Marr turns from fact to fiction, while Roger Scruton examines the roots of conservatism
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We assess the 2014 Booker shortlist and hear readings from Howard Jacobson, Ali Smith and Neel Mukherjee
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The novelist reflects on the rise of religion in the modern world
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The novelist talks to Jonathan Freedland and a Guardian audience about the moral dilemmas at the heart of his latest novel, The Children Act
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The novelist talks about the chaotic series of events that left five-year-old Ashya King alone in a Spanish hospital