In praise of … literary festivals

Leader: The literary festival has exploded into the life of a score or more British towns over the past decade or two in an extraordinary flowering of literacy. Along with Hay, there is Cheltenham and Bath, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Wigtown.

Major Idiocy

John Harris: Moazzam Begg's interview at the Hay festival suggested that the war on terror is a byword for surreal incompetence.

An Islamic reformation

Sarah Crown: Reza Aslan believes Islamic terrorism is not caused of a clash of civilisations but an argument within Islam.

The magnificent Mr Welles

Alan Warner enjoys Simon Callow's Orson Welles: Hello Americans, the second instalment of a glittering career.

The mythmaker

Seamus Heaney published his first collection when he was 27, he won the Nobel Prize when he was 56 and his 12th book of poetry came out this spring. He talks to James Campbell about growing up on a farm in County Derry, politics and his current project, inspired by a 15th-century Scots poet.

Al Gore – reborn to run?

Martin Kettle: The former vice president is on the road again, promoting his climate change movie. Many wish he would run again for the White House.

Fair games

The ExCel centre, site of this year's London Book FairLast week, the Frankfurt Book Fair - the biggest event of its kind - announced its intention of hosting a convention in London next year. What does this mean for the capital's own beleaguered fair? Sam Edenborough, of the Intercontinental Literary Agency, gives his view.

Hay festival highlights

Spoilt for choice? From Seamus Heaney and Sarah Waters to Salman Rushdie and Al Gore - our pick of the highlights from this year's programme.

Literary invaders in the wake of Francis Drake

Deckchairs, umbrellas, bookshops at every corner, people stuffed into marquees apologising profusely as they bump the elbows of their tweed jackets into one other. The Hay festival is a special literary event.

The glory of the Gardener

The Constant Gardener, the adaptation of John Le Carré's 2001 opus which opens the London film festival tonight, is a tremendously moving film. Literally.

Stars line up for festival gala

Actors Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz and master spy writer John Le Carré are due to walk the red carpet tonight before the gala screening of The Constant Gardener, Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles's adaptation of Le Carré's furious novel about big pharma which opens the 49th annual London film festival.

Being Salman Rushdie

There isn't just one Salman Rushdie but many, lamented the man himself, speaking before a packed audience on the final day of the Festival, writes Anita Sethi. He spoke of his struggle to find a balance between being "a writer" and doing the writing; his perennial anxiety at not feeling represented by his public persona. It isn't as if it's a new struggle, though, he points out, citing Graham Greene's warring public and private selves.