Transexual marriage contested by children

Ernest Hemingway's eight grandchildren by his youngest son are fighting to keep control of the $7.5m (£4.7m) estate left by Gregory, who became Gloria Hemingway after sex-change surgery.

Dog’s day?

Once the enfant terrible of British literature, he is now simply terrible, say his critics. But his latest novel, Yellow Dog, out next month, has put him on the Booker prize long list for the first time.

Mugabe’s ties to the architect of apartheid

Christopher Hope has met his fair share of tyrants, but none fascinates him so much as Hendrik Verwoerd, the man who created apartheid South Africa, and Robert Mugabe, who is following in his footsteps.

Duchess of scandal

She was a pioneering poet and philosopher and Britain's first literary celebrity. Katie Whitaker on Margaret Cavendish

One for the boys

Bella Bathurst: Come on chaps, take a chance and try reading something a bit different - something by a woman.

Page discrimination

What does a book dedication say about its author? And why are men so much more effusive than women? By Susan Johnson.

Party faithful

Her grandmother was a devout Buddhist, her father a zealous follower of the Communist party. Sun Shuyun remembers growing up in Mao's China - a world of deception, distrust and misunderstanding.

Inside a monster’s mind

In terms of terror and sheer evil, Joseph Stalin was in a class of his own. Simon Sebag Montefiore tells a story of continual slaughter in his biography of the Soviet dictator

A despot and a flirt

Boots, billiards, babies on his knee. Robert Service on the domestic banalities revealed by Simon Sebag Montefiore's biography of Joseph Stalin

Flying high

Her erotic, taboo-busting bestseller, Fear of Flying, was a sensation 30 years ago. But what does Erica Jong think of it now? By Sharon Krum.