South African author storms festival
Edinburgh captivated as apartheid-era veteran tells of nation's change.
King of gonzo blasts off one last time
Friends gather to see Hunter S Thompson's ashes fired into sky.
Just another day in Harare
Life is difficult these days for Zimbabwe's professional classes, a dispiriting round of endless queues, power cuts and perverse new layers of bureaucracy. But as Ian Holding, author of Unfeeling, the first fictionalised account of contemporary life in Zimbabwe, discovers, his troubles are minor compared with those of the his black employees.
Competition to reveal Britain’s favourite gay novel
Books shortlisted in follow-up project to BBC's Big Read which aims to stimulate debate.
Bookworm Bush’s holiday reading
George Bush has never had a reputation as a bookworm, but for a man derided by his critics as an intellectual lightweight the president's holiday reading list packs a punch. He will be tucking into Salt: A World History, Alexander II: the Last Great Tsar and The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History during his five-week sojourn on his Texas ranch.
Unholy strictures
Karen Armstrong: It is wrong - and dangerous - to believe literal truth can be found in religious texts.
J’accuse
It's a dispute that involves just about every emotive issue you can think of - Israel, Palestine, human rights, freedom of speech. Gary Younge dissects the academic battle that has gripped America.
Brando novel published
A pirate adventure story Marlon Brando co-wrote 30 years ago has been turned into a novel, and it is claimed the work offers insights into the Hollywood star's tumultuous life.
‘I was living fiction’
Robert Baer is about to be played by George Clooney in a movie tipped to win an Oscar. He is also a leading expert on the psychology of suicide bombers. The former CIA agent talks to Stephen Moss about what makes a terrorist.
Our lady of sorrows
Elaine Feinstein tells how poet Anna Akhmatova, whose son was in the Gulag, spoke for millions of Russians of their hell under Stalin in Anna of All The Russians.