‘90% of YA is crap’: the debate that dominated the Edinburgh book festival
Tempers flare, but readers continue to queue, as authors struggle to explain what is special about young adult fiction
Fully booked: this year’s best literary festivals
Go to Port Eliot to see Ali Smith, Dave Eggers and Max Porter, and see debut crime novels pitted against the likes of Val McDermid in Harrogate
Bookish things to do with children this summer
Summer is right around the corner and the UK is teaming with literary events and festivals. Whether you’d prefer to forage in the forest with the Gruffalo at Just So festival, or hear Melvin Burgess chat about Junk, there’s something for everyone
The Guardian view on the value of fiction: read lies, and learn the truth
Editorial: Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister of Scotland, finds the time to read crime fiction. Good for her: it is through the novel that we learn the real state of things
Julian Barnes to co-curate exhibition of painter Félix Vallotton
The writer, whose latest work is a series of art essays, tells Edinburgh book festival audience he is helping to stage Royal Academy show
Kate Tempest slams conventional poets’ disdain for performance
Arguing against intellectual snobbery, star author says performance returns the artform to ancient days when ‘it was about how well you could communicate’
Alasdair Gray’s Lanark hits the stage: ‘it’s wild and heroic – if we fail, we fail’
‘Scotland’s Ulysses’ has been turned into a theatrical epic at the Edinburgh festival. For playwright David Greig and director Graham Eatough, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
Lee Hall: Why I put Alan Warner’s The Sopranos on stage
The rude, Rabelaisian but very modern tale of a Scottish girls’ school choir on the rampage is simply the funniest novel I’ve ever read – and also transcendent
Tim Key, the superstar standup poet, on fishcakes, Footlights and the fringe
Tim Key was a standup going nowhere fast until one day he took out a notepad and poetry spilled out of him. Now he’s one of the hottest comics around
Harry Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle: a friendship split by spiritualism
The author and the illusionist might seem an odd couple, but a shared interest in the afterlife made for an unlikely bond and a bitter rift
Down and Out in Paris and London review – Orwell meets Toynbee
George Orwell’s 1933 novel is entwined with Polly Toynbee’s book Hard Work in a neatly performed study of poverty then and now
Children’s illustrators’ doodles: watch them in action!
Want to experience the magic of illustration in motion? Then watch these six-second videos of top children’s illustrators drawing. From Axel Scheffler to Debi Gliori, watch the finest British illustrators doodling beautifully for us
Accents, narrators and total silence: how you hear voices when you read
Do characters speak to you when you read – or are you more affected by the author’s voice? In response to a survey investigating what hearing voices means to writers, we asked readers for their experiences. Here are some of your responses
Paco Peña review – an intimate and fiery flamenco tribute to Lorca
Spanish guitar virtuoso Peña leads a band of musicians and dancers in a dazzling show honouring the murdered writer, writes Alice Bain