Jeanette Winterson: ‘The male push is to discard the planet: all the boys are going off into space’

The writer’s new essay collection covers 200 years of women and science. She discusses burning books and the ensuing Twitter storm, the end of her marriage, and why a move into politics could be next

David Thewlis: ‘It does get to you, spending more waking hours as a character than oneself’

The actor on his new novel about an irascible director, his faux-feud with Christopher Eccleston and his ‘secret’ marriage

I Alone Can Fix It: Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker on their Trump bestseller

The Washington Post reporters have unleashed a second startling story of incompetence and malevolence in the White House

Leïla Slimani: ‘I think I’m always writing about women, domination, violence’

The French-Moroccan author on why she writes, the complexity of identity, and the first book of a trilogy based on her family history

Jean Hanff Korelitz: ‘I wanted to be a literary novelist. But I realised that I liked plot’

The author of the book behind TV smash The Undoing talks about her new novel The Plot, a thriller about plagiarism – and how she fell for Hugh Grant

Chris Packham: ‘People like me have a very aggravated sense of injustice’

At his New Forest home, the broadcaster and activist discusses autism, Extinction Rebellion and his Self-Isolating Bird Club

Novelist Elif Shafak: ‘I’ve always believed in inherited pain’

The award-winning Turkish-British writer talks about generational trauma, food in exile and how heavy metal helps her write

Jess Phillips: ‘I enjoy feeling angry. It inspires me’

The Labour MP on the sit-down strike she organised in primary school, how she copes with death threats and what she reads to relax

John Boyne: ‘People were criticising my book when they hadn’t read it’

John Boyne talks about the online backlash to his recent YA book and how it inspired his new novel about social media

Léa Seydoux: ‘Art is a sexual energy. It’s the highest form of creation’

She has four films at Cannes film festival, but instead of strutting the Riviera red carpet the actor is isolating in Paris. She talks creativity, sex scenes and the joy of Bond stunts

Kate Baer on the burden of motherhood: ‘My book is like an angry friend’

When her no-holds-barred collection of poetry came out, Kate Baer was inundated with grateful messages. Why had it hit a chord with ordinary mothers struggling to be heard?

Goosebumps author RL Stine: ‘The only lesson in my books is to run’

The veteran children’s horror writer on the fears of today’s generation, why unhappy endings are out, and what happened when he met Stephen King

Miranda Cowley Heller: ‘Writing sex scenes has never scared me’

The author on her debut novel set during a single day on Cape Cod, the pressures of growing up in a literary family, and what she’s learned from reading Ali Smith

Bryant & May author Christopher Fowler: ‘Writing the end was really emotional’

After 20 outings, the unconventional detective duo of Arthur Bryant and John May have solved their last case. But their creator is not willing to let them go entirely …

Robert Harris: ‘My method is usually to start a book on 15 January and finish it on 15 June’

The bestselling author on the dearth of top-quality politicians, his regard for diaries and letters, and his disciplined writing approach