‘This book will shake the world’
Her novel Wild Swans smashed best-selling records worldwide. So what made Jung Chang then devote 10 years of her life to researching a hefty political biography of Chairman Mao? Lisa Allardice reports.
Race row may spoil Penguin’s birthday
Publisher 'shunning black writers' for its 70th anniversary celebration.
‘Lost’ Kerouac play resurfaces after 50 years
Beat Generation, an unpublished play by Jack Kerouac written in the same year as the publication of his breakthrough work, On the Road, was unearthed in a New Jersey warehouse six months ago. It recounts a day in the life of the hard-drinking, drug-fuelled life of Jack Duluoz, Kerouac's alter-ego.
‘I believe in life after death’
What do leading thinkers from the arts and sciences really believe about God, faith and the afterlife? In a selection of interviews from her fascinating new book, Joan Bakewell talks to Jeanette Winterson, David Puttnam, Robert Winston and Philip Pullman about their beliefs.
Tristan Egolf
Obituary: A novelist rebelling against small-town America.
You love us really
Europeans believe the French to be arrogant, disobedient, rude and promiscuous, according to a new study. All true, says Agnès Poirier. And we Gauls wouldn't have it any other way.
Three tales of La Dolce Vita dip in fountain
A new book has stirred debate over the inspiration for the most famous scene in Italian cinema history.
Tale of two skulls divides Germany
As a nation remembers Schiller, its literary giant, doubt is cast over whose remains are in his sarcophagus.
From swan to hawk
Profile: At 12, Jung Chang saw Mao as a god; 40 years on, the new book from the author of Wild Swans calls him the 'biggest mass murderer in history'. And her own tussles with publisher, agent and film rights confirm she is no shrinking violet.
Reagan diaries to be published
For eight years Ronald Reagan kept a meticulous record of his presidency. That insider's account of life at the helm of the world's superpower will be publicly available with the publication of Reagan's White House diaries.
Yvonne Vera
Obituary: Courageous Zimbabwean writer whose books addressed the taboos of her society.
Extract: Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich
On April 26 1986, the No 4 reactor at the Chernobyl power station blew apart. Facing nuclear disaster on an unprecedented scale, Soviet authorities tried to contain the situation by sending thousands of ill-equipped men into a radioactive maelstrom. In an extract from a new book by Russian journalist Svetlana Alexievich, eyewitnesses recall the terrible human cost of a catastrophe still unfolding today.
Porn writer bids to save US from hardcore invasion
Paul Harris reports from New York on one man's crusade to remove sexual excess from Main Street, USA.
The inside leg
Charlie Porter: I've just bumped into the acquaintance who I'd heard had bought those longed-for Miu Miu shorts. To recap: it was his reported acquisition that stopped me from buying them.