Nathan Thrall: ‘The scale and brutality of the Israeli response in Gaza hasn’t surprised me, no’

The US journalist and author on his Pulitzer prize-winning book about a Palestinian father, the aftermath of 7 October and what it means to be a Jewish critic of Israel

Darcus Howe’s son Darcus Beese and his activist mother, Barbara: ‘He was imbued with the spirit of the struggle’

He was the first black boss of a UK record label. She was a British Black Panther and one of the Mangrove Nine. They reflect on the ‘madness’ of his childhood, and his memoir that records their groundbreaking legacies

Historian Richard J Evans: ‘I’m planning to write a book about pandemics next. I’ve had enough of Nazis’

The author of the definitive account of the Third Reich on revisiting nazism one last time, the ongoing need to discredit Holocaust denial and fact-checking Martin Amis’s novel The Zone of Interest

Elif Shafak: ‘As a writer in Turkey, you can be attacked, put on trial, imprisoned’

As she confronts the ecological crisis and the persecution of the Yazidi people in her latest novel, the author talks about the difficulty of being a writer – and a woman – in Turkey

Philospher Peter Godfrey-Smith: ‘To some extent, our planet would be better off without humanity’

With the bestselling Other Minds, the philosopher dramatically changed our view of octopuses. Now, concluding his trilogy about the evolution of intelligence, he shows how animal life has shaped the planet itself

Pat Barker and Benjamin Myers in conversation: ‘I’m absolutely intolerable when I’m not writing’

Ahead of new books by both, the two English novelists discuss their friendship, the baggage that comes with being labelled ‘northern writers’ and why the Krankies’ memoir is a must-read

Mick Herron: ‘Most people didn’t know I was writing – I was a secretive kind of writer’

His spy series became the TV hit Slow Horses, and now his earlier novels are being adapted for screen, starring Emma Thompson. Mick Herron talks about finding recognition

Biologist Rosemary Grant: ‘Evolution happens much quicker than Darwin thought’

The evolutionary expert discusses the triumphs and challenges of the groundbreaking research on Galápagos Islands finches she undertook with her husband, Peter

Pulitzer-winning author Anne Applebaum: ‘Often, for autocrats, the second time in power is worse’

The journalist tells of her fears for democracy’s future, the dangers of another Trump presidency and how her husband became Poland’s foreign minister

Orlaine McDonald: ‘As a writer it’s important that I don’t look away’

The debut novelist on her haunting tale of mothers and daughters, the importance of putting black women on the page and the art form that makes her feel most alive

‘I wanted to do pulpy, hyper-violent action’: Keanu Reeves on his novel with China Miéville and the afterlife of The Matrix

What happens when a Hollywood actor and SF author join forces on a novel? The pair talk about their literary bromance – and their quest to turn Reeves’s comic book series into something deeper

Magazine guru Lindsay Nicholson’s life of turmoil: ‘I could see this world I’d created was crumbling’

In her gripping new memoir, the former Good Housekeeping editor describes the car crash that forced her to confront past tragedy as well as the upheavals that followed – leading to her third act

C Pam Zhang: ‘I was aware of the drift towards fascism in Europe’

The Chinese-born, US-based author, whose debut was longlisted for the 2020 Booker, on pursuing pleasure in a volatile world, her taste for chip butties and the joys of being a naive reader

‘My flash kept blinding everyone on the dancefloor’: Elaine Constantine on capturing 90s northern soul all-nighters

The UK photographer took these powerful shots of northern soul nights 30 years ago. Now collected in a new book and exhibition, they offer an intimate glimpse of a peculiarly British subculture

‘I have an obsession with authenticity’: David Baddiel on growing up, golf and family affairs

David Baddiel grew up with an emotionally absent father and a mother having an affair with a golf memorabilia salesman. No wonder he’s written a very funny memoir about it all