Gyles Brandreth: ‘Never look back. You might fall down the stairs’

The writer and broadcaster, 75, on keeping busy, meeting TS Eliot and the Queen, and why his wife thinks he’s ridiculous

‘No, that’s fascism’: the librarian who defied Russia’s purge of LGBTQ+ books

When Vladimir Kosarevsky was ordered to destroy gay novels, he raised the alarm instead – then went to Spain to rebuild his life

Sunday with James O’Brien: ‘I like doing “dad” things like mowing the lawn’

The radio presenter on Marmite croissants and the magic of boat yards

‘It was smart to write when I was so angry’: Bonnie Garmus on the winning formula behind Lessons in Chemistry

Her best-selling debut has sold 6m copies and been made into a hit TV series. The author discusses how a bad day in the office was the spark for worldwide success

Kate Ceberano: ‘I’ve been misrepresented by ignorance – I work really hard and I love what I do’

The Australian singer talks about quitting school at 14, growing up in Scientology and why she’s finally coming into her own as an artist, aged 57

Julianne Moore: ‘Like every other woman in the world, I do ceramics’

The star of Todd Haynes’s new film, May December, on giving her character a lisp, surviving the actors’ strike and her plans for Christmas

Michael Rosen: ‘My daughter once called me an “optimistic nihilist”’

The former children’s laureate who has enjoyed a red letter year on striving for happiness, the secret to writing for kids, and which book he wants for Christmas

‘The drugs were good, the music was good, the sex was good’ – cult French writer Ann Scott on her techno years

She ran away to punk London at 12, becoming a drummer, a skinhead and a model. Then she wrote Superstars, about the hard-raving 90s. Now the writer is back – with a novel about a Marvel movie composer relocating to the coast

Ian Broudie: ‘Terry Venables liked Three Lions: “It’s a proper key-tapper, Ian,” he said’

The Lightning Seeds musician on his memories of Britpop, why the FA didn’t like his Three Lions song, and why he loves being a scouser

‘This is a wake-up call’: Booker winner Paul Lynch on his novel about a fascist Ireland

The writer was on the operating table for cancer, then exactly a year later he found out his nightmarish vision had made the shortlist. He reveals why the words for Prophet Song came out with such urgency, there was no time for paragraph breaks

‘She took control of the ship with a pistol’: the high seas heroine who inspired a savage pirate tale

Katherine Howe’s bloody, brutal new novel is about a Boston barmaid who dresses up as a cabin boy and joins a notorious crew of pirates. The writer and keen sailor explains how it was inspired by her great-aunt, who once quelled a mutiny at sea

Alice Winn: ‘We live in the fossilised wreckage of world war one’

The author of In Memoriam, a contender for Waterstones book of the year, on borrowing first-hand accounts of combat, running sex scenes past her gay friends and the eternal impact of the great war

Ken Follett: ‘You don’t have to wear a hairshirt to be in the Labour party’

The writer, 74, on Bollinger Bolsheviks, champagne socialism, the power of public libraries and how he came to write the first of his 36 novels

‘They give us better options for preserving nature’: Ed Yong on revealing the hidden lives of animals

The Pulitzer-winning author, who has just won the Royal Society science book prize for An Immense World, reveals how radical empathy uncovers the forces that have driven evolution and teaches us new ways to engage

‘I lived in a state of terror’: Patricia Cornwell on childhood trauma, her new novel and the search for Bigfoot

As pathologist Kay Scarpetta makes her 28th appearance in print, her creator recalls what it’s really like to conduct a postmortem – and a very odd encounter in the Virginia woods