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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.

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.

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.

London Mayor, Boris Johnson, launches reading festival

Thu, 16 May 2013 20:25:14 GMT

London's Trafalgar Square is to play host to a giant reading festival for families to enjoy this summer.

Award for Independent columnist Howard Jacobson

Wed, 15 May 2013 22:51:27 GMT

The Independent columnist and novelist Howard Jacobson is celebrating becoming the first writer to claim the UK's only prize for comic fiction for a second time.

Howard Jacobson takes Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Zoo Time

Wed, 15 May 2013 10:02:51 GMT

Howard Jacobson has won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for the second time.

Enter the Inferno: Dan Brown's 'worst book yet' tops bestseller lists on its first day

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:32:54 GMT

Bestselling writer Dan Brown unleashed his latest page turner today as eager fans made Inferno an instant chart-topper.

Dan Brown: Inferno is is not an activist book, I don't have a solution to overpopulation

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:30:59 GMT

Dan Brown is moaning about how difficult it is being a successful author. "I wish I could travel for pleasure," laments the man behind The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, in which secrets and suspense are combined with a guided tour of Italy and other stops in Western Europe.

Dan Brown's Inferno: Publishers poised for biggest-sales since Harry Potter as Da Vinci Code author's latest Robert Langdon story hits shelves

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:01:34 GMT

Dan Brown's new book, Inferno, is roundly expected to whoosh off the shelves - both wooden and digital - upon release tomorrow, its author having already shifted more than 200 million books worldwide.

'Lost' WH Auden journal sheds light on pivotal time for poet

Sun, 12 May 2013 20:46:56 GMT

A journal written by WH Auden that for decades was believed lost has been unearthed, shedding new light on a critical year in the life of one of the giants of 20th century poetry.

Universal announces expansion of Harry Potter theme park

Fri, 10 May 2013 09:34:28 GMT

Fans of Harry Potter and magic, rejoice: Universal Orlando is expanding its Wizarding World of Harry Potter with a new area based on the books' fictional scenes in Diagon Alley and London.

Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell’s new novel leaked online by celebrity hacker Guccifer

Wed, 08 May 2013 14:32:16 GMT

The first 38,000 words of an unpublished novel by Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell has been leaked online by a hacker.

Real Inferno for Dan Brown translators who toil in underground bunker to decode his latest book

Tue, 07 May 2013 12:00:00 GMT

Even Dante could not have conjured quite such a hellish punishment: for almost two months, 11 people were confined to an underground bunker in Italy and forced to read the new novel by Dan Brown – all day, every day. Brown's Inferno, which reportedly makes repeated reference to Dante's Inferno, is due for publication on 14 May.

Footballers' favourite writers? George Best, Paul Scholes... and Henry Kissinger

Mon, 06 May 2013 23:00:09 GMT

Sporting biographies are an obvious inspiration for footballers wanting to emulate their heroes’ success. Perhaps less expected, though, is one journeyman player’s attraction to a 624-page tome on foreign relations by the United States’ most divisive Secretary of State.

Footballers who get 'booked' to encourage children to read more and improve reading standards

Mon, 06 May 2013 23:00:09 GMT

Dan Brown's 'Inferno': Translators toil in bunker to decode his latest book in 11 languages

Sat, 04 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

Harper Lee sues literary agent over rights to To Kill a Mockingbird

Sat, 04 May 2013 12:07:49 GMT

Harper Lee, author of the classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, has sued a literary agent who allegedly tricked her into handing him the copyright to the book.

The dictionary man: 'These days I won't get out of bed for a word unless it's been used hundreds of thousand of times'

Wed, 01 May 2013 17:57:18 GMT

There is something faintly comic, now, about the pioneering work John Simpson did when he took over the Oxford English Dictionary in the mid 1980s. Not the concise one, at one point in almost every home, the grand solver of Scrabble rows, but the massive 20 volume one that haunts the corner of serious libraries the world over.

Fifty Shades of success for British publishing as e-readers spark 2012 sales boom

Wed, 01 May 2013 09:27:00 GMT

Ebooks are not killing the publishing industry as feared by analysts. Quite the opposite, in fact, according to the latest sales figures which show the publishing industry in Britain is booming.

'Cancer did not haunt us. It helped us to understand what matters in life': Robert Peston's heartbreaking tribute to his late wife Siân

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:00:00 GMT

The BBC's Business Editor, Robert Peston, has written a heartbreaking memoir of his wife Siân Busby's battle to finish her final novel before dying from cancer.

'Cancer did not haunt us. It helped us to understand what matters in life': Robert Peston's heartbreaking tribute to his late wife, Siân

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:00:00 GMT

The BBC's Business Editor, Robert Peston, has written a heartbreaking memoir of his wife Siân Busby's battle to finish her final novel before dying from cancer.

'Anne Boleyn was no soap seductress,' says US academic Susan Bordo

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 23:00:00 GMT

Move over Hilary Mantel, there's a new Tudor queen in town. Susan Bordo, a US academic, has produced a controversial new study of Anne Boleyn, which accuses David Starkey of "sexism" and takes Mantel to task for recycling "old stereotypes" in her award-winning books.