The world made new
Last week, parts of Britain saw their heaviest snowfall for years. Jenny Diski, author of Skating to Antarctica, celebrates its hold over our imaginations.
They say ‘incident’. To me it’s genocide
When its finest novelist attacked Turkey's bloody past, he became a hero for Armenians and Turks alike, says Nouritza Matossian.
Extra, extra – newspaper vendor writes a bestseller
The headlines Ali Akbar shouts to sell his newspapers are much better than the real thing. 'Osama bin Laden Wedding Pictures' and 'That's It! Retirement at 35' are two of his recent brainwaves. Today he could try 'Parisian News Vendor Writes Bestseller'.
Why two caves are better than one
Sebastian Mallaby combines a history of the World Bank with a biography of its flamboyant president. It will make uncomfortable reading for some, says Richard Adams.
A libertarian legacy
Leader: In the current debate about whether or not journalists are too disrespectful of politicians, it is clear on which side of the argument Hunter S Thompson, who died by his own hand in Colorado on Sunday, would stand.
Call it what you like – this is hell
Mark Danner exposes the double speak that underpins Bush's 'war on terror' in Torture and Truth. Peter Conrad on how America's response to 9/11 unleashed an obscene nightmare.
Temple of the unfamiliar
James Fenton admires the work of a 'brick expressionist', Johan Bossard
Race card
How did the English become white? Gary Taylor finds the answer in a piece of 17th-century street theatre.
Why ruin your life?
Lionel Shriver, author of US bestseller We Need To Talk About Kevin, on why she believes motherhood isn't all it's cracked up to be.
The large print giveth…
There is a crisis in literature. Readers have stopped reading, sales are down, authors are despondent. But US publishers have come to the rescue. Literature's woes, they believe, lie in the smallness of the print.
‘Auschwitz? It’s just lunacy’
Antony Sher never thought he would be able to stage a Holocaust memoir. He tells Samantha Ellis how Primo Levi won him over.