Gillian Flynn used her experience of being laid off after a decade as a journalist to “find a way into” her protagonist Nick, who suffers the same fate in Gone Girl.

The bestselling author's latest thriller draws upon her own personal history.

After her controversial departure from 'Poetry Review', she has returned, sharper than ever, finds Suzi Feay

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

The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun – was there ever a better title to sum up the world of the noir thriller? The narrative delivers all the key genre elements in a plot of audacious simplicity. A beautiful young woman impulsively drives off in her boss's white Thunderbird, heading for the South of France, but locals react as if she had made the same journey the night before. Then she finds a dead body in the boot ….

A recognition of excellence or a ticket to a funeral?

On the night I arrived in England from Denmark, I watched the passing countryside from the backseat of the car and found even the trees alien. At fourteen, I was used to being uprooted and deposited in a new space. Plotted on a map of Copenhagen, the many houses and flats I had called home would have looked like enemy bunkers encroaching on the city centre. So when my English-born mother decided to return home, I thought I knew all about moving.

Book sail

The Palestinian Israeli novelist writes in Hebrew and scripts Israel's top-rated, taboo-busting sitcom.

Where are you now and what can you see?

The Week in Books

Inspired by its brooding landscapes, crime writer Charlotte Williams chose the county as the setting for parts of her latest novel

In a new collection inspired by Stephen Lawrence, the poet Dean Atta calls on his artistic peers to stop using the 'n' word. Some terms should never be reclaimed, he tells Arifa Akbar

"Prepare for surprises and shocks." These were the last – and, indeed, the first – words in a wide-ranging debate on the environment at the Bath Literature Festival yesterday.

John Walsh gives a summary of the talks at the Bath Literary festival