‘It felt horrific to be in Britain as a Muslim after 9/11’: Pankaj Mishra and Kamila Shamsie in conversation
The writers discuss problems of representation, class, the culture wars and how fiction is a great way to ask difficult questions
Margaret Atwood on feminism, culture wars and speaking her mind: ‘I’m very willing to listen, but not to be scammed’
At 82, the Canadian author has seen it all - and her novels predicted most of it. Just don’t presume you know what she thinks
Sarah Vaughan: ‘Other writers ask if I’ve got a crystal ball. Actually, I just read the news’
As she publishes a thriller about a trolled MP, and Netflix adapts her bestseller Anatomy of a Scandal, the former journalist talks about power, privilege and her unnervingly prescient novels
Michael Crick: ‘I don’t think Farage is a racist… though he does pander to racists’
He’s quit TV after decades of dogged political reporting, written a rollicking biography of Nigel Farage – and, surprisingly, joined Mail+
Francis Spufford: ‘I felt that to call myself a writer would be a boast’
The author of Light Perpetual on a childhood spent hiding in books, dropping a V2 on a fictional London borough and giving up church politics
Dr Julie Smith: ‘Mental health is no different to physical health. No one is immune’
The clinical psychologist has 3 million TikTok followers and now her book is a bestseller. She talks about the simple tools that really help
Sheila Heti: ‘Books by women still get treated differently from those by men’
After her controversial novel about motherhood, the Canadian author has turned the spotlight on her father. She talks about grief, honesty – and her decision not to have children
Why Abraham Lincoln’s meetings with Black Americans matter
Jonathan White’s new book, A House Built By Slaves, takes its title from Michelle Obama and is published at a time of intense controversy over American history and its teaching
Dillibe Onyeama, whose memoir of racist abuse at Eton shook the establishment
Onyeama became the first black person to complete his studies at the prestigious school, and a 1972 book, which Eton tried to quash, detailed the daily racist abuse he suffered
‘Audiences want an event’: inside the groundbreaking new version of Jekyll and Hyde
Is it a play? Or is it a film? There are two sides to director Hope Dickson Leach’s ambitious staging of the classic Robert Louis Stevenson tale
Guy Leschziner: ‘Reality is entirely a construct of our nervous system’
The consultant neurologist and BBC radio presenter has a new book exploring the relationship between sensory perception and the reality it creates
Louise Welsh: ‘It was like driving with the lights off’
The prize-winning author of The Cutting Room on writing its long-awaited follow-up, female victims in crime novels, and the allure of Mrs Danvers
Marian Keyes: ‘Rehab was one of the happiest times of my life’
As her beloved character Rachel returns, older and sober, the Irish author discusses her own journey from addiction to recovery - and the sexist snobbery that surrounds her work
Art Spiegelman on Maus and free speech: ‘Who’s the snowflake now?’
Since his early days in the underground comix scene, Spiegelman has reveled in ‘saying the unsayable’ and subverting convention
Costa winner Hannah Lowe: ‘Should teachers write about students? That question’s too categorical’
The teacher-turned-poet on getting into writing later in life, the ethics of poems about former students and how her years working in schools shaped her thinking