Why small is beautiful when it comes to festivals
Michael Billington: One of my favourite festivals is the tiny but perfectly formed Galway theatre festival – and this year's instalment promises to be as brilliant (and boozy) as ever
Thanks to the internet, we’re all literary omnivores now
Where once the book world was controlled by the critical establishment, the IT revolution has shifted power to the people, writes Robert McCrum
Simon Hoggart’s week: No country for ordinary folk
More and more, Britain is run by the rich and well-placed on behalf of the rich and well-placed
Simon Hoggart’s week: Keeping the good life in the family
Fifa is a cosy organisation which – like Soviet Union party trusties – looks after its own
Book World Prague was right to honour Saudi Arabia
Mohammed Hasan Alwan: My country may not be a bastion of free speech, but its writers need international support to continue to move things forward
The Festival of Britain, 60 years on
The Festival of Britain is remembered as an uplifting moment for a nation recovering from war. Iain Sinclair, who visited it aged eight, reflects on the celebrations to mark its 60th anniversary, in our age of corporate sponsorship and Olympics mania
Gigola blends pulp and soft porn at London lesbian and gay film festival
Peter Bradshaw: Laure Charpentier's melodrama follows a charismatic young girl on a steamy ride through the lesbian underworld of 60s Paris
Martin Scorsese to curate Port Eliot film festival
Director to curate four night season at Cornish festival with Brunel viaduct providing backdrop to outdoor screenings
Latitude festival lures Suede and Steve Coogan to Suffolk’s sunshine coast
The National and Paolo Nutini also headline, with Rob Brydon, David Morrissey and Simon Armitage confirmed for other tents
Bath festival’s reading will revive the spirit of the King James Bible
Lindesay Irvine: It was written, says Jeanette Winterson, 'to be read out loud'. A cover-to-cover preachathon at Bath should test that theory
Out of Sri Lanka’s trials comes a beacon of hope
The Galle Literary festival is a haven of civilised values in a country that is no stranger to strife, writes Robert McCrum
At the International Festival of Authors
Toronto's huge literary jamboree is both aggressively international and fiercely Canadian
Malmesbury bids to become UK’s first ‘philosophy town’
Think carefully if you are considering heading to this corner of Wiltshire – the market town that gave us philosopher Thomas Hobbes is aiming to become Britain's capital of thought
London film festival – review
Mulligan and Knightley provide glamour galore, while everyone's favourite Swedish vampire movie is eclipsed, says Jason Solomons
Butterflies at the Wigtown book festival
Patrick Barkham and John Crace, as well as my good self, will be representing the Guardian in the Scottish book capital