Before you stuff your luggage with this year's Man Booker longlist titles, Katy Guest makes a case for some varied alternatives

The latest work by Patrick Ness is beyond a short story, but not quite a play. Daniel Hahn learns more ...

Your weekly guide to what's really going on in the world of books

There's a thrill to rummaging through old green-and-cream Penguin paperbacks and stumbling across a familiar face. Freeman Wills Crofts' cover photograph shows he was always avuncular. Born in Dublin in 1879, he remained a railway engineer for most of his working life, and there was very little he couldn't tell you about arched, reinforced concrete viaducts. He didn't become a full-time writer until he was 50, and unexpectedly decided not to explore the world of railway drainage schemes but instead turned to mysteries, creating the excellent Inspector Joseph French.

‘Mother Russia’ had long intrigued the author, but a journey across the country almost changed his mind

The bestselling historical novelist talks to Arifa Akbar about old and new monarchies and her follow-up to The White Queen

Where are you now and what can you see?

The Week in Books

Whether it’s up-and-coming young authors or heavyweight classics you’re after, Sophie Morris finds the books to occupy your mind while bronzing your body

After the boom in Young Adult fiction,  publishers are on the hunt for the next hit genre. Have they found it in the swearing and sex of New Adult fiction?

British writer-cartoonists rarely got the love and respect shown to their American counterparts. Many worked for DC Thomson, the controversial and secretive Scottish publisher famous for producing The Beano and The Dandy comics. Newspapers rarely allowed artists to retain the rights to their work. Often the original art work disappeared, "borrowed" by members of staff, never to be returned. Comics in Britain were considered ephemeral fun for kiddies, and were never accorded the stature that graphic art reached in Europe.

By Jove, Biggles, that chap's a gal, don'tcha know!

Her novels don't sit easily in the crime fiction mainstream – and, whatever you do, says Doug Johnstone, don't ask her for a testimonial

Middle-class problems: Apostrophes