Tin hats on for the Man Booker wars. It is one of the delights of London life that a prize with the elevated task of picking the Commonwealth's best read should end up with the sort of backstage sniping last seen when Cheryl Cole left the XFactor... more
The Garrick, one of London's last bastions of male exclusivity, has been black-balled by its brother club in New York over its men-only membership policy... more
Of course Britain needs to cut back and avoid becoming a Greek tragedy. But let’s not forget that taking on and managing debt is the way up the ladder — and one way to a more equal society... more
Coinciding with the Labour Party conference is the publication of Robert Harris’s Roman thriller Lustrum, which is dedicated to his friend Peter Mandelson. The blurb on the book jacket says: “Blinded by Ambition. Seduced by Power”. Or as Mandelson prefers to describe himself these days, “a rounded and relaxed person”... more
The country rests safe in the neatly manicured hands of Peter Mandelson: Gordon Brown's best frenemy and the man who exercises such a magnetic pull for protesters that an eco-suffragette promptly chained herself to his Regent's Park railings as he returned home to mind No 10's business for the week... more
HMV sold more than 40,000 Michael Jackson albums in the three days after his death - far outstripping the sales leap it experienced after the deaths of Elvis Presley and John Lennon... more
Three decades after fleeing the United States over a sex case involving a 13-year-old girl, Roman Polanski has asked a Los Angeles court to dismiss the charges ... more
As the literary world mourns the sudden death of Pat Kavanagh, a portrait is emerging of a steely operator and a woman who inspired awe and fear in equal measure... more
The Man Booker judges have determined that Aravind Adiga's debut novel about the seamier side of Indian life is the best fiction of the year. How do they do that?... more
One of this year's Man Booker Prize judges has criticised male academics who sit on literary panels, claiming they pick "highbrow" novels over readable ones... more
Celebrity sells at an astonishing rate, yet at its heart the UK still loves a book for itself and London is a great champion of literature. These are the people who keep us reading.
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Andrew Neil, the broadcaster and former editor of The Sunday Times, today bought one of Britain's leading literary and talent agencies for £4 million... more
Exclusive: After high-profile allegations this season, Charlton's manager is pleased the issue is now being addressed but says the authorities still have plenty of work to do
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