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Editors' picks

- Crowdfunding campaign hopes to save William Blake's cottage for nation
  
  News: Fundraisers looking to raise £520,000 to buy the house where, he wrote, 'Heaven opens here on all sides her golden Gates'
- High court dramas
  
  Review: Tessa Hadley on Ian McEwan's story of high court judge confronted by a life-or-death decision
- Amazing writer: her books about a scarred boy-wizard who attends a school for magic, but is trailed by a deadly nemesis, was superb. And in no way adapted by other writers
  hoodedclaw49
  commenting on Ursula K Le Guin, rising above genre and so much else
- City of Lies: Love, Sex, Death and the Search for Truth in Tehran
  
  Review, James Buchan: In few other places is the gulf so wide between what is said and what is done
- Graham Joyce, 1954-2014
  
  Obituary: Award-winning writer of fantasy fiction who was an incisive observer of human foibles
- Man Booker prize shortlist revealed
  
  News: Two Americans line up with British novelists and one Australian
  - Comment: Not the Americans we were expecting
  - Gallery: Meet the authors
- 'Next Generation' of poets announced by Poetry Book Society
  
  News: Women 'lead charge' of new authors predicted for great things in the coming years
- September's Reading group: The Bridge by Iain Banks
  
  Sam Jordison: The novel that Banks thought his best seems particularly apt this month
- The top 10 books about Nigeria
  
  Barnaby Phillips chooses fiction and non-fiction that shows an often caricatured nation in all its rich variety
- Simon Rich: 'Art? It's for maniacs'
  
  Interview: He has been compared to Waugh and Wodehouse, and in his latest book he skewers modern hipster life
  - Review: Spoiled Brats - the funniest book of the year?
- Accents, narrators and total silence: how readers 'hear' voices
  
  Do characters speak to you when you read - or are you more affected by the author's voice?
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
  
  Review: Galen Strawson on a swash-buckling account that begins with the origin of the species and ends with post-humans
- The Copernicus Complex by Caleb Scharf
  
  Review, Tim Radford: Is the Earth really so special? And what are the chances of life beyond?
- The Establishment by Owen Jones
  
  Review: David Runciman on a wide-ranging investigation of British elites
- Zone by Mathias Énard – review
  
  Nicholas Lezard's paperback of the week: I am in two minds about this epic single-sentence story of mankind's savagery, hailed as one of the most significant novels of the century
- Head of State – Andrew Marr's first foray into political fiction
  
  Review, Alan Johnson: Cameron gone, Osborne in the Lords... What vision of Britain does the broadcaster's debut novel reveal?
- Fool's Assassin by Robin Hobb
  
  Review, Alison Flood: The unexpected return of FitzChivalry Farseer is modern fantasy at its irresistible best

Latest reviews

Alan Johnson on a debut novel full of intrigue from the ultimate insider
Tim Radford: Is the Earth really so special?
Alison Flood on the irresistible return of a fantasy anti-hero
John Gray on an account of privatisation by stealth over the last 20 years

Latest news

Japan: Hirohito warned attack on Pearl Harbor would be 'self-destructive'

10 Sep 2014: Official 12,000-page biography reveals emperor's thinking but fails to settle debate over his role in decisions leading to Hiroshima
Alan Moore finishes million-word novel Jerusalem

10 Sep 2014: Watchmen and V for Vendetta author has previously said ‘I have doubted that people will even be able to pick it up’
Graham Joyce, much-loved fantasy author, dies aged 59

10 Sep 2014: Author of The Tooth Fairy and Some Kind of Fairy Tale had been suffering from aggressive lymphoma
Controversial author Helen Dale hired to advise senator David Leyonhjelm

9 Sep 2014: Senator defends appointment of writer who created her Ukrainian heritage for book The Hand that Signed the Paper
Australian Richard Flanagan shortlisted for Booker prize

9 Sep 2014: Tasmanian author’s novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North makes final six despite US competition

More books news

Regular series

Top 10s 1 day ago

The top 10 books about Nigeria

Author Barnaby Phillips chooses fiction and non-fiction that shows an often caricatured nation in all its rich variety
Nicholas Lezard's choice 1 day ago

Zone by Mathias Énard – review

Nicholas Lezard's paperback of the week: I am in two minds about this epic single-sentence story of mankind's savagery, hailed as one of the most significant novels of the century so far
Reading group 2 days ago

September's Reading group: The Bridge by Iain Banks

Sam Jordison: The novel that Banks himself thought his best has much to recommend it at any time, but seems particularly apt this month
Carol Rumens's poem of the week 3 days ago

Poem of the week: A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General by Jonathan Swift

Carol Rumens: This verdict on the passing of a publicly celebrated warrior is fuelled by a bracing contempt
Ali Smith 5 days ago

Ali Smith: 'There are two ways to read this novel, but you're stuck with it – you'll end up reading one of them'

The books interview: The academic turned author talks to Alex Clark about modernism, imagination and why she could never be a lawyer
More books series

Latest blogposts

Books blog

The best books on Thailand: start your reading here

11 Sep 2014: Pushpinder Khaneka: Our Thai tour starts with an epic royal saga and ends with a wide-ranging look at the forces that shaped the modern nation
Books blog

How independent should Scottish writing be?

10 Sep 2014: Not surprisingly, many authors have been writing about the referendum, but this political approach to their work has problematic implications
Books blog

Man Booker prize 2014 – let's play guess the shortlist

8 Sep 2014: Guardian books: It's a traditionally impossible game, but we've had a go on the books desk. What are your predictions?
Books blog

Not the Booker prize shortlist: a long look at The Smoke Is Rising by Mahesh Rao

8 Sep 2014: Despite an exhausting profusion of points of view, this is a fascinating drama of Mysore's halting journey into an uncertain future
Books blog

Poem of the week: A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General by Jonathan Swift

8 Sep 2014: Carol Rumens: This verdict on the passing of a publicly celebrated warrior is fuelled by a bracing contempt

Talking points

- The top 10 books about trains

Anything Ursula LeGuin reviews, I'll read. Sad, really - I'm just a hopeless fan. That passage of Mitchell's that she quotes about lights crossing sand dunes could have come out of the Earthsea novels!
CaroOz
commenting on The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell – dazzle of narrative fireworks

- Tips, links and suggestions: what are you reading this week?
  
  Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of them

Top 10s: authors choose their favourite books

The top 10 fictitious biographies

From Nabokov to Woolf to Coetzee, novelist Jonathan Gibbs selects the best imaginary lives presented as the real thing
The top 10 restaurants and bars in modern literature

From the Restaurant at the End of the Universe to the cabman's shelter in Ulysses, chef and author Michael Gibney reviews the best eating and drinking in books
More top 10s

My hero: authors share who inspired them

My hero: Helen Bamber by Helena Kennedy

This tiny, exquisite woman would take on people's pain and somehow help to make them whole again
My hero: Robert Burns by Alex Salmond

Alex Salmond: Scotland's first minister pays tribute to the national bard
More from this series

Latest video

Guardian Live: Brunch with Yotam Ottolenghi - video

Tickets were quickly snapped up by Guardian readers for brunch with the much-loved Yotam Ottolenghi, famous for his comforting multicultural dishes and inventive flavour combinations. Watch the highlights from the event

How to draw...

How to draw… jampires

Gallery (24 pictures)
Sarah McIntyre does her very best to teach us how to draw jampires… but you have to catch the strange and naughty little things first. And, as you will discover in this gallery, that is no easy task.
How to draw… your very own unsuitable pet

Gallery (12 pictures)
Charlotte Voake gives a somewhat scary step-by-step guide on how to draw a less than fluffy friend. It's going to be quite a big one!