Who’s afraid of Sylvia Plath?

The brief was tough: write a romantic Hollywood drama about mental instability and one of the most controversial literary marriages ever. But when John Brownlow's first draft got the green light, his problems were only beginning. Here he tells a true story of crashing egos, crazy deadlines and booze-fuelled, red-eyed nights working out how poets talk.

Lessing: Blair’s a rabbit

The novelist Doris Lessing has accused the prime minister of being a 'fantasist' and of 'running around like a little rabbit' to please the Americans.

Mean streets

Alexander Trocchi was the smack-addled icon of beat literature, whose writings have been eclipsed by a lurid life of porn, pimping and dissolution in New York, Paris and London. But with a new film out adapted from his novel Young Adam, the Glasgow-born writer's life and work are ripe for re-evaluation. By Tim Cumming.

Universally acknowledged hunk vetoed nude scene

Had screenwriter Andrew Davies had his way, Colin Firth, who played Mr D'Arcy in the TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, would have emerged naked from the lake in one of the most unforgettable moments in British TV history. By Fiachra Gibbons.