What a lark: the launch of Philip Reeve’s Larklight
A man in a tweed suit and lavishly knotted tie, huzzas and a porcine engine - it could only be a book launch.
November 1: National Unawareness Day
In protest at the proliferation of "awareness" days, weeks and months, the Idler magazine has decided instead that today we shall turn off, relax and float downstream.
Typewriters at the ready? It’s NaNoWriMo tomorrow!
Wednesday is day one of National Novel Writing Month. There's only one problem. Which story should you tell?
Ready, steady, write! It’s NaNoWriMo time again
If a speeding Jack Kerouac wrote a novel in 20 days, surely a month is time enough for an ordinary mortal? Starting Wednesday, you can test that theory: it's day one of National Novel Writing Month ...
Literature at large: this week’s books events
The first of Nick Tanner's regular weekly roundups of the best books events around the UK and Ireland.
Signing off with Chekhov and chuckles
Edinburgh diary: I bumped into a pal last week - let's call him Simon - who was wearing a chalkstripe suit, looking furious and gesticulating wildly at the book festival's camp on Charlotte Square. 'When are your arty friends all going to bugger off?' he bellowed.
Two-act rant from Sean and Harold
On opposite sides of Edinburgh, two grand septuagenarians - each, in his different way, a British cultural icon - have taken the opportunity to vent their respective spleens.
‘We’ve got madness in the family’
Nina Raine is one of theatre's brightest talents. Does having a famous poet for a father help? By Maddy Costa.
Love in a time of terror
Michel Houellebecq caused a furore with his novel, Platform. So who better to adapt it for stage than 'the Quentin Tarantino of opera', Calixto Bieito? By Stuart Jeffries.
The body beautiful
Despite their monumental proportions and meticulous detail, Ron Mueck's sculptures are also understated. It is this that gives them their unsettling power, writes Craig Raine.
‘Comedy is my self-defence’
On miserable book tours and during her parents' divorce, novelist AL Kennedy consoled herself with humour. She explains why she is now performing on the Fringe.
Away with the fairies
Josh Lacey makes an enchanting discovery at this year's Port Eliot LitFest.
Poets’ corner
Peace and noise ... Patti Smith. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty
The nuclear reaction
John Harris: Never mind the hisses of dissent - as his appearance at Hay proved, James Lovelock is in the business of telling us an uncomfortable kind of truth.