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Literary snobs should leave Katie Price alone

30.10.09

First Lynda La Plante attacks novels written by celebrities. "Publishers, stop spending your millions on this tripe," she said at the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards earlier this month, singling out Katie Price for special opprobrium... more

Iraq backdrop to Alastair Campbell's choice

14.10.09

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Sporting Miscellanies

09.10.09

Political historians of tomorrow will have cause for gratitude to Channel 4’s When Boris Met Dave for revealing the key formative influence on the Tory leader... more

William Boyd: a tale of two cities

10.09.09

Are you sitting comfortably? Well, don’t take it for granted. Even London’s cosiest middle classes can be reduced to low life at a stroke, according to William Boyd in his latest novel. Here he expands on this and other themes ... more

Eight things to write about a dead Kennedy

02.09.09

Chris Addison lays down the rules for reporting the death of a major American figure... more

No better spot for a barbie than The Crabtree

13.08.09

Its spectacular location on the riverbank makes The Crabtree gastropub a fantastic venue for outdoor dining — weather permitting.... more

Where is the novelist to do our city justice?

31.07.09

Dickens’s novels seemed to encapsulate the entire city and London became the central character of his work... more

Get the perfect set: Have a teeth makeover

15.07.09

Bad teeth are to blame for the grim-faced look we wear on the Tube, says a leading orthodontist. Sophie Goodchild meets a man on a mission to rebuild our confidence... more

Martin Amis's lovers laid bare

02.06.09

Ex-girlfriend reveals all in literary kiss-and-tell ... with his blessing... more

Our migrants’ great gift to this city - literature

02.06.09

Arguments over the consequences of immigration are furious and frequent. But it has another, less-noticed, result: it fertilises literature ... more

How old is ‘too old’?

28.04.09

Former WAG Elen Rives thinks she's past it at 34. Nonsense – the best is yet to come, says one fiftysomething writer... more

Generous spirit behind visions of a bleak future

20.04.09

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Praise poets and pass the exploding sugar

03.04.09

"Look," the novelist standing next to the buffet said, pointing down the room at the new winner of the 2008 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. "He's on his third helping." He sniggered. "That's poets for you."... more

Deeper meaning surfaces from Caio Fonseca

27.03.09

Few abstract artists do the weather-beaten surface as well as the 50-year-old Uruguayan-American painter Caio Fonseca.... more

Time bandits have hijacked my fridge

30.01.09

There should be a word — do the Germans have one? I bet the Germans have one — to describe the emotion of just having missed delivery of a fridge... more

A very British walk through the world

29.01.09

It was 250 years ago this month that the British Museum opened its doors... more

Tributes to Updike, American literature's national treasure

28.01.09

John Updike is remembered as one of the "greatest generation" of American novelists... more

He gave the mundane 'its beautiful due'

28.01.09

It is possible for an author simply to write too much. Fluent wasn't the word for John Updike... more

The number two priority for Boris

26.01.09

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If you want money just buy me drink

17.12.08

Happy birthday to the Colony Room Club which celebrated its 60th anniversary this Monday. I was a proud member of the seedy Soho dive for nigh on 15 years and am saddened by reports of its imminent demise. ... more

JK’s fairy tales are a load of old Hogwarts

05.12.08

Pages and pages on the special properties of wands made from elderwood? That's not literature, it's fiddling... more

Some inside jobs in Writers' Rooms

04.12.08

Eamonn McCabe invites us into private worlds in Writers' Rooms where the secrets of creativity, memories of agonies and inspirations are stored. ... more

The extraordinary life of London's leading agent

22.10.08

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

Tributes pour in for legendary literary agent Pat Kavanagh

21.10.08

Tributes poured in for Pat Kavanagh, the legendary literary agent and wife of novelist Julian Barnes, who has died from a brain tumour... more

The truth behind the cant of a BBC fat cat

17.10.08

The BBC is an anomaly. It is funded by a completely arbitrary tax the licence fee. Only 41 per cent of the population still think this is an appropriate funding mechanism. Yet, for now, the licence fee is rigorously imposed nonetheless, as I found when I decided it was pointless to pay it since I didn't switch the TV on from one month to the next, except to watch DVDs.... more

Literary Life

08.10.08

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. ... more

Rushdie was tight-fisted and arrogant, with a handshake like a wet fish, says Special Branch officer who knew him as Scruffy

26.07.08

In a new book ex-Special Branch detective RON EVANS tells of his toughest job - protecting Salman Rushdie and the girl he was desperate to get into bed.... more