Taking control of the ghosts

A new UK-based website displays the writing of survivors of torture and asylum seekers from all over the world, Mark Oliver reports.

9/11: the aftermath

Five years on and Joel Meyerowitz's epic images of Ground Zero remind us anew of the enormity of that day. The veteran photographer spent nine months at the site, shooting mangled steel, mountains of rubble, heroic human effort ... and, finally, an empty pit. As Peter Conrad writes, the images in his new book show destruction on a biblical scale.

Where have all the smokers gone?

David Boaz: Not to the pub, according to figures from Scotland, where anti-tobacco fascism is chipping away at freedom of choice.

Yizhar Smilansky

Obituary: Controversial Israeli novelist who made his countrymen face up to the issue of exile.

The denial of true reflection

John Berger: Günter Grass's idea of honour is beyond our modern moralists. He has lived through his mistakes better than most of us would have done.

The secret persuaders

It was 1940, the Nazis were in the ascendant, the Blitz at its deadliest, and Britain's last hope was to bring a reluctant United States into the war. So it was that the largest covert operation in UK history was launched. William Boyd sheds light on a forgotten spy ring.