Geoff Dyer: ‘I am what you might describe as chippy’
The writer, 62, tells James McMahon about his working-class Cheltenham roots, college career and dole-queue days in a Brixton squat where he first began to read
‘Jaws at 35,000 feet’: the flight attendant whose debut thriller sold for seven figures
TJ Newman dreamt up her terror-in-the-skies novel Falling while guarding the cockpit as the pilots took a toilet break. She reveals how she kept going through furlough and 41 rejections
Jhumpa Lahiri: ‘I’ve always existed in a kind of linguistic exile’
A decade ago, the Pulitzer-winning author threw herself into mastering Italian. She talks about her love for Rome, translating Italy’s ‘finest living writer’ and rewriting her own work in English
Julia Donaldson: ‘I worry some children will be unable to sing’
The bestselling author of the Gruffalo is concerned about the limits coronavirus has placed on the lives of her young fans
‘I’m fine with being called an activist’: Angie Thomas on her The Hate U Give prequel
Angie Thomas talks about exploring violence and black fatherhood in her latest young adult novel – and why she’s hoping it won’t be banned
‘Bill and I got pretty friendly’: James Patterson on writing with Clinton and clashing with Trump
His plot-driven thrillers have seen him sell more books than Tolkien, and he has even co-written fiction with the former president. But it’s readers of the future he wants to enthral
Graham Norton: ‘I’m always aware my mother will read the sex scenes’
The chatshow host on his new novel, his pride in appearing on RuPaul’s Drag Race and why Ireland is in a sweet spot right now
Novelist Sunjeev Sahota: ‘It’s dispiriting how little we talk about class in the UK’
His new novel, China Room, shines a light on contemporary British Asian life. But, says the Derby-born author, class, not race, is his overriding concern
Samanta Schweblin: ‘In fiction we try not to talk about technology’
The Argentinian writer on how the small mechanical toys she dreamed up for her latest novel might become a reality; and the film of her debut, Fever Dream
Disaster in Antarctica: Jon McGregor on his suspenseful new novel
His Booker-nominated novel Reservoir 13 was a quiet portrait of rural life. Now he has taken on the peril of the Antarctic. He talks about discovering the thrill of page-turning tension
Mona Eltahawy: ‘Feminism is not a T-shirt or a 9 to 5 job. It’s my existence’
One of the fiercest voices of Middle Eastern feminism, the author of The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls explains her mission to ‘destroy patriarchy’
Jim Parsons and Zachary Quinto: ‘Truman and Tennessee were lightning rods’
The Big Bang Theory and Star Trek actors lend their voices to Capote and Williams in a film about their friendship. They discuss self-loathing, being gay in Hollywood and coping in lockdown
Rickie Lee Jones: ‘I had lived volumes long before I was famous’
A fractured childhood, years as a hippy drifter… the musician’s new memoir tells of her incredible adventures before she found fame
David Remnick: ‘There is no vaccine for climate change’
The New Yorker editor on Fragile Earth, a new collection of the magazine’s climate crisis writing
Laurent Binet: ‘In France, I just feel like we are lost in space’
The acclaimed novelist on the fun of plotting a counterfactual history of the 16th century, reading in lockdown, and his despair at his country’s vaccine rollout