Yvonne Bailey-Smith: ‘I was terrified of giving Zadie my manuscript’
As she joins the family business, the author tells how her career in healthcare and her own early life informed her debut novel, The Day I Fell Off My Island
David Mitchell: ‘The world still thinks autistic people don’t do emotions’
The writer on how translating The Reason I Jump for his non-verbal autistic son was a lifesaver and his excitement at seeing the new Matrix film he co-wrote
Microsoft’s Kate Crawford: ‘AI is neither artificial nor intelligent’
The AI researcher on how natural resources and human labour drive machine learning and the regressive stereotypes that are baked into its algorithms
Zakiya Dalila Harris: ‘Publishing is such a spoofable world’
The author of a debut novel about diversity in the workplace on how black people act around white people, embracing her hair, and what’s changed a year after George Floyd’s murder
Stephen Mangan: ‘Whenever I considered writing, I thought: “What right do you have?”’
The Green Wing and Episodes star talks about making the leap from acting to writing a children’s book about bereavement, and grieving for Helen McCrory and Paul Ritter
‘Who are we performing for?’: Will McPhail on the strange art of small talk
The New Yorker cartoonist’s debut graphic novel In follows an aimless artist who struggles to connect with others. He talks about his own experiences, and his love for drawing ‘characterful’ pigeons
‘They had soul’: Anton Corbijn on 40 years shooting Depeche Mode
He thought they were pop lightweights – then turned them into moody megastars. The photographer recalls his adventures with the band, from desert trips to drug-induced near-death experiences
Esther Freud: ‘I didn’t learn to read till I was about 10’
The Hideous Kinky author on her childhood dyslexia, the frenzy around being a perfect mother, and why there are so few great female artists
Tahmima Anam ‘As a woman, I’m aware of the limitations of tech’
Anam’s new novel The Startup Wife was such a departure, she initially planned to use a pseudonym. She talks about drawing from her own experiences of the tech world for her darkly funny satire
Mateo Askaripour: ‘Everything is sales, whether we call it that or not’
Based on his experiences in corporate America, Askaripour’s satirical debut Black Buck is a bestseller. He talks about success, empathy and microaggressions
‘I almost died last summer’: Sebastian Junger on life, death and his new book Freedom
The author of The Perfect Storm and War discusses the lure of walking the railroads, the safety of small groups, the work of Cormac McCarthy – and literary endeavour in the time of Trump
Mateo García Elizondo: ‘I get a little bored by having to talk about my grandfather’
The writer – and grandson of Gabriel García Márquez – on Mexican folklore, his early love of horror and learning to live with the family’s literary legacy
Theoretical physicist Chiara Marletto: ‘The universal constructor could revolutionise civilisation’
The scientist on why studying elementary particles is only one way of explaining phenomena, how the 3D printer could change the world, and her optimism about women in science
Paris Lees: ‘It drives me crazy when people introduce me as a trans activist’
She survived a troubled youth – and a spell in prison – to forge a new life for herself as a writer and campaigner. Now, despite the pain of revisiting those years, she’s telling her story in full
‘I wasn’t bold enough’: Ed Miliband on losing, leading and the future of Labour
The former Labour leader has always been big on ideas, but never had the chance to put them into practice. He talks about his new vision for politics