François Hollande intervenes in Valerie Trierweiler case

Critics accuse president of putting pressure on magistrates as he writes letter to court hearing partner's defamation case

DNA pioneer James Watson reveals helix story was almost never told

The Double Helix's tale of DNA breakthrough became a big hit but had to overcome hostility from the Nobel winner's colleagues

A Poet and Bin-Laden by Hamid Ismailov – review

Hamid Ismailov's picaresque novel mixes genres and viewpoints to provide a fascinating commentary on Islam and central Asia, writes Kate Kellaway

Bret Easton Ellis: Kathryn Bigelow is ‘overrated’ because she’s a ‘hot woman’

Ellis delivers latest Twitter gaffe by suggesting a man wouldn't have won best director Oscar with The Hurt Locker

Alan Moore’s Neonomicon censored by US library

South Carolina library declares award-winning graphic novel 'inappropriate' for its shelves

How do we protest about Amazon’s tax avoidance? Reader reviews

Jonathan Myerson: Customers who like ethical businesses might also like to tell Amazon to pay its fair share, using its own book review facility

Zig Ziglar and staying Up, Up, Up in a Down, Down, Down world

Oliver Burkeman: Britons may have grounds to sneer at positive-thinking gurus, but the late 'Master of Motivation' knew life was also hard work

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey overcomes setbacks for premiere

'Frame envy' as Peter Jackson brings first film in latest JRR Tolkien Middle-earth trilogy to screen in Wellington

Disaster victims ‘need books as well as food’

Supported by dozens of celebrated authors, Libraries Without Borders calls for action to supply 'nourishment for the mind'

Charlie Brooker and Terry Pratchett triumph at Emmys

Black Mirror and Choosing to Die pick up awards at International Emmy ceremony in New York. By Jason Deans

Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner, aims to build bridges to Kabul with new book

There are too many myths about Afghanistan, warns writer as he works on his latest novel, And The Mountains Echoed

Former People: The Last Days of the Russian Aristocracy by Douglas Smith – review

It's hard to pity a privileged elite… until you read this fluent account of what befell the Russian aristocracy under the Bolsheviks, writes Rodric Braithwaite

The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez – review

Juan Gabriel Vásquez's novel explores the legacy of the Colombian drug trade through the experiences of one tortured soul to compelling effect, writes Anita Sethi

Afghans don’t see Nato mission as an occupation, says Kite Runner author

Announcing UK stage play of bestselling book, Khaled Hosseini talks of his desire to forge ties between Afghanistan and west

Poem of the week: To Germany by Charles Hamilton Sorley

Carol Rumens: A moving, mature sonnet from a young soldier who had studied in the Fatherland but was destined to die by a German bullet