Pain is the recipe for a god of food

Simon Wright pays tribute to our culinary kings with Tough Cookies.

Looted ancient book must be sent back to Italy

12th century missal found its way from a cathedral to the British Library. Now its return may mean a law change.

Women writers: dull, depressed and domestic

In the introduction to 13, a collection of poetry, short stories and extracts from novels, the authors Toby Litt and Ali Smith make a sweeping condemnation of the subject matter, writing style and preoccupations of female writers.

The Da Vinci Code: Why everyone loves a conspiracy

Mark Smith sees hackles rise as Catholics come face-to-face with fans of The Da Vinci Code to debate its 'blasphemous' content.

Paris, city of the dead

Hywel Williams: Sartre barely makes the top 100 national figures in a poll, but he was the last great French intellectual.

These guilty men

In Lawless World, Tony Blair and George W Bush stand accused by leading QC Philippe Sands of riding roughshod over international law.

The brothers grim

Moshe Lewin presents a powerful and original analysis of the warring between Lenin and Stalin and the collapse of the Soviet empire in The Soviet Century.