‘I used to say awful things’: Alan Carr on divorce, dating and the skit that haunts him

He’s the extrovert who used to pick on others for laughs. But after struggling in lockdown and a bruising separation, the comic insists he’s grown up – and is happier than ever

International Booker winner Georgi Gospodinov: ‘My dystopian novel became real’

The Bulgarian writer opens up about the political fears that informed his prize-winner Time Shelter, about ‘a Pandora’s box of weaponised nostalgia’

Pete Brown – the final interview: ‘Music gives you a focus, you can see a goal ahead’

A jazz poet and countercultural hero who wrote lyrics for Cream, Brown died last week aged 82. In this interview at sessions last month for his final LP, he explained why he was making art until the end

‘If it’s not a risk… it’s nothing’: Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux on her unapologetic career

The French writer transforms her own life into uncompromising autofiction. With new translations, a film, and unwavering activism, the 82-year-old is living life to the full

M John Harrison: ‘I want to be the first human to imitate ChatGPT’

The titan of literary science fiction on AI hype, writing his ‘anti-memoir’, and his take on Cormac McCarthy’s The Road

Nazir Afzal: ‘Prosecutor by day, DJ by night. That was me in the early 90s’

The lawyer and author, 61, tells Michael Segalov about family tragedies, legal role models, bigoted cops and the Camden trance scene

Rebecca F Kuang: ‘Who has the right to tell a story? It’s the wrong question to ask’

The bestselling author of Babel and the the Poppy War trilogy on her new satire of the publishing industry and why she won’t write in the same genre twice

Raised by addicts, abused, neglected, broke: how Katriona O’Sullivan escaped her fate

Pregnant at 15, and soon to be homeless, O’Sullivan never expected to succeed – but became a leading academic. The author of Poor talks about everything that conspired to keep her down – and her ‘miraculous and rare’ ascent

‘I’d tell myself: you’re a loser, a failure, ugly …’ Matilda’s Mara Wilson on the price of fame

A star at nine, the actor was soon struggling with the death of her mother as well as nosy journalists and demanding fans. Angry, confused and thoroughly lost, how did she ever find her way back?

Ottessa Moshfegh: ‘I’m not brainstorming ways to freak people out’

The acclaimed author on her post-Covid novel Lapvona, the influence of Ingmar Bergman and the Brothers Grimm, and the draw of England in the 90s for her next book

‘I was a bad child actor. Extremely bad’: Emma Cline on the follow up to her hit novel The Girls

The novelist talks about the power of being an outsider, growing up in a family of seven siblings – and exploring the Hamptons in her first novel since her Manson-inspired bestseller

Ukrainian historian Serhii Plokhy: ‘This may not be the last chapter of the Russian empire, but it’s an important one’

The Harvard academic on writing while grieving – and where his country goes from here

‘I remember the exact words’: Markus Zusak on The Messenger – and the review he’ll never forget

In the lead-up to an ABC adaptation of his novel, Zusak talks about life after The Book Thief and why he thinks the show is better than his book

Agustina Bazterrica: ‘Capitalism and cannibalism are almost the same’

The Argentinian writer on her new short-story collection and how her dystopian novel about a human meat industry became a TikTok sensation

Guy Gunaratne: ‘Writing the Abu Ghraib bit of the book took its toll’

Booker-longlisted in 2018 for their debut novel, In Our Mad and Furious City, the Londoner talks about the follow-up, the slippery life story of a terror suspect, and the fellowship of Ali Smith during a time of stress