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World's most concise short story writer Lydia Davis wins Booker International Prize 2013

Thu, 23 May 2013 08:30:48 GMT

Lydia Davis, the shortest of all short story writers, whose works can be as brief as a single sentence, has won the fifth Man Booker International Prize.

Lydia Davis, world's most concise short story writer, wins Booker International Prize 2013

Wed, 22 May 2013 20:35:48 GMT

Lydia Davis, the shortest of all short story writers, whose works can be as brief as a single sentence, has won the fifth Man Booker International Prize.

Nostalgia, By Jonathan Buckley

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Get beyond the vaguer-than-vague title and this is some book: a minor-key masterpiece of restraint, invention and the fine art of keeping expectations deliberately low, then elegantly surpassing them. Nostalgia is set in the fictitious Tuscany town of Castelluccio, home to expat British painter Gideon Westfall, a successful but defiantly unfashionable exponent of neo-Neo-Classicism .

The Beatles' lyrics manuscripts and other Fab Four rarities donated to British Library under new scheme

Wed, 22 May 2013 13:54:45 GMT

The British Library has become the first institution to benefit from the Government’s new “lifetime giving” scheme after receiving manuscripts of the lyrics to The Beatles’ hit songs “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “She Said She Said” and “In My Life”, handwritten by John Lennon.

First edition of Harry Potter with annotations by JK Rowling fetches wizard £150,000 price

Wed, 22 May 2013 08:07:31 GMT

A first edition of the first in the Harry Potter series containing hand drawings and annotations by author JK Rowling has sold at auction for £150,000.

The Freemasons' Code: Dan Brown reveals the message that told him the door to the lodge is open

Wed, 22 May 2013 07:23:06 GMT

His best-selling novels illuminate the shadowy organisations that supposedly run the world. But Dan Brown was “honoured” to receive an invitation to join the Freemasons, the arcane fraternity whose tentacles are said to extend into the highest echelons of power.

The Shining Girls, By Lauren Beukes. HarperCollins, £12.99

Tue, 21 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

To begin with, Lauren Beukes had an idea so perfectly simple it sounds like an elevator pitch: "time-travelling serial killer".

Natalie Haynes: Confessions of a Booker judge

Tue, 21 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

I have hit the halfway point. Four months in, 75 books read, 75 left to go. Judging the Man Booker Prize, to paraphrase Bette Davis, is not for sissies. I did the Orange Prize last year (about 50 books for each judge), and it ate up all my free time: during every bus journey, every moment sitting waiting for a film to start, every interval of whatever play I was reviewing, I'd whip out a book and cram a few more pages in.

Confessions of a Booker judge

Tue, 21 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

Inferno author Dan Brown 'honoured' to be invited to join the Freemasons

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:00:06 GMT

Sophie Kinsella on Wedding Night: What if someone deliberately sabotaged your honeymoon?

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:32:59 GMT

English author Sophie Kinsella, 43, is best known for her Shopaholic novels. Born Madeleine Wickham, the writer adopted a pen name made up of her middle name and mother's maiden name, and wrote her first book at the age of 24. She lives in London with her husband and five children.

Sophie Kinsella on Wedding Night: What if someone deliberately sabotaged your honeymoon?

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:32:59 GMT

Dice Man books 'influenced' business tycoon Sir Richard Branson

Tue, 21 May 2013 07:32:35 GMT

Business tycoon Sir Richard Branson has told how he was heavily influenced by the Dice Man books - which encouraged readers to hand over decisions to the throw of a dice.

We're Flying, By Peter Stamm. Granta, £14.99

Mon, 20 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

Here is a double treat for aficionados of Peter Stamm's small canvases of precision as he maps the imprecision of human emotion. Two collections of short stories are published together in Michael Hofmann's taut translations. Stamm's mood pictures capture, claustrophobically, his characters' internal worlds, and his commitment to "making literature out of ordinary people's lives".

School-gate mums: Is 2013's Fifty Shades a novel by Gill Hornby called The Hive?

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:15:44 GMT

We’ve had it up to here with the wizards-and-magic fiction genre. Ditto the romantic-vampires-and-werewolves one.

School-gate mums: 2013's Fifty Shades

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:15:44 GMT

We’ve had it up to here with the wizards-and-magic fiction genre. Ditto the romantic-vampires-and-werewolves one.

The Hive: 'The most hyped release in fiction this spring' which has kick-started the school gates mini-genre

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:15:44 GMT

We’ve had it up to here with the wizards-and-magic fiction genre. Ditto the romantic-vampires-and-werewolves one.

The Hive: 'The most hyped release in fiction this spring' which has kick-started the school gates mini-genre

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:15:44 GMT

We’ve had it up to here with the wizards-and-magic fiction genre. Ditto the romantic-vampires-and-werewolves one.

James Runcie: 'I want a cross between the Open University and a party'

Mon, 20 May 2013 00:04:56 GMT

Seven months ago, James Runcie found himself inextricably double-booked: as the outgoing artistic director of the Bath Literature Festival, he was expected to pack his swansong with fireworks, while as the incoming director of the London Literature Festival, which opens tonight, he was under pressure to begin with a bang.

Prize-winning author Alice Walker gives support to David Icke on Desert Island Discs

Sun, 19 May 2013 14:47:42 GMT

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker has voiced her support for the work of controversial British conspiracy theorist David Icke on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs.

Prize-winning author Alice Walker voices support for David Icke on Desert Island Discs

Sun, 19 May 2013 14:47:42 GMT

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker has voiced her support for the work of controversial British conspiracy theorist David Icke on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs.

The Trundlers: Underrate Them at Your Peril... By Harry Pearson

Sat, 18 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

Cricket's quickies and spinners tend to get far more attention than the medium-pace men, but the pantheon of seamers, swingers and off-stump naggers celebrated here by Harry Pearson reminds us what an integral part of the game bowlers operating largely in the 50-75mph zone have been down the years.

Review: The Humans, By Matt Haig

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Matt Haig's new novel, his fifth for adults, is a wryly humorous look at the human condition as seen by an alien. The narrator comes from the planet Vonnadoria, where life is based around maths, logic and rationality, with no messy emotions to clutter up the immortal existence. So far, so Mr Spock, but the interest comes from the narrator's mission. A professor of maths at Cambridge University, Andrew Martin, has solved the Riemann hypothesis, a real mathematical conundrum involving prime numbers. Vonnadorians believe that this holds the key to space travel, so the narrator's job is to exterminate Martin and anyone to whom he has divulged his discovery.

Review: Big Brother, By Lionel Shriver

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Lionel Shriver is famous for two things: her prize-winning novel about motherhood, We Need to Talk About Kevin, and her personal obsession with diet and exercise. Big Brother conflates the two in being about a woman's reaction to her brother's obesity.

Photography book review: New Fashion Photography, Compiled by Paul Sloman, Introduction by Tim Blanks

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:30:00 GMT

The 21st century has seen dramatic changes in photography, technology, fashion, and art.