Joan Didion, in her own words: 23 of the best quotes
The Californian author became the ultimate literary celebrity for her journalistic style. Here are some of her best quotes on writing, love, ageing and fear, plus a selection of essays
Joan Didion, American journalist and author, dies at age 87
The unsparing observer of US culture, politics and public life won huge acclaim for her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking
The book I got for Christmas: ‘I was swept up in the misadventures of Rincewind’
Our series continues as Sam Jordison remembers the ‘profound impact’ Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic had on him
Martha Wells continues run of female Hugo award winners
Wells’s novel Network Effect takes top science fiction award, the sixth successive win for a woman in what was once an almost exclusively male honour roll
The Sinner and the Saint by Kevin Birmingham review – a dazzling literary detective story
How could Dostoevsky get inside the mind of a murderer to create a work of such ferocious fiction as Crime and Punishment?
From Bill Clinton to Robert Peston: celebrity crime fiction on trial
After you’ve written your memoir, publishers these days want anyone famous to write crime novels. We put 10 of the most well-known in the dock
Oliver Jeffers: ‘Catch-22 was the first time I had a physical reaction to a book’
The children’s author on persisting with Joseph Heller’s classic, reading thrillers on planes and how Richard Dawkins made him question certainty
A Christmas Carol’s lesser-known successor gets its moment in the spotlight
The Charles Dickens Museum is hoping to attract new attention to the festive story The Cricket on the Hearth with the first display of some of its illustrations
The Black and White Museum by Ferdinand Dennis review – city snapshots
Short stories from the author of Duppy Conqueror show London life as a series of subtle epiphanies
My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson review – an American tragedy
Set in the near future, this riveting debut explores racist violence and the weight of the past
Anne Rice obituary
Leading writer of supernatural fiction whose 1976 novel Interview With the Vampire was turned into a hit film
New Arabian Nights translation to strip away earlier versions’ racism and sexism
The Annotated Arabian Nights will be the first English translation by a woman, and will include female protagonists that have previously been omitted
Top 10 cosy crime novels
From Agatha Christie to Richard Osman, these books are not without seriousness but they are all set in warm and human worlds we might prefer to our own
Sterling Karat Gold by Isabel Waidner review – subversive satire
This Goldsmiths prize-winning romp through austerity Britain is a provocative act of resistance to our morally slippery times
Prime Minister’s Literary awards 2021: Amanda Lohrey wins $80,000 fiction prize for The Labyrinth
Tasmanian author honoured for poignant novel which also won the Miles Franklin and Voss literary prizes