Cover Stories: Paula Radcliffe, Isabel Allende, Cecilia Ahern, London Book Fair

Simon & Schuster has signed the autobiography of Paula Radcliffe – winner of the London Marathon, world record holder and BBC Sports Personality of the Year. The book will chronicle her training for the 2004 Athens Olympics and will be published that autumn, its sales perhaps boosted by a gold medal.

¿ Having written a children's book, City of the Beasts, Isabel Allende is turning her attention to a memoir, which has just been signed up by HarperCollins. My Invented Country will be an account of the US-sponsored coup of 1973 and assassination of Chile's elected president, her uncle Salvador Allende. She will reflect on her enforced exile and adoption of the US as her home.

¿ Prepare for a new Irish voice: Cecilia Ahern, the 21-year-old daughter of the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Her debut novel PS I Love You was snapped up by HarperCollins as publishers staggered back after New Year. Editor Lynne Drew thinks the book a cut above chicklit, Irish or English.

¿ A date for the diaries of aspirant writers: this year's London Book Fair features three masterclasses, all at Olympia on Sunday 16 March. One, on children's fiction, will feature Anne Fine with Tony Bradman; the second, on biography and autobiography, Blake Morrison and Victoria Glendinning. Deborah Moggach and the ever-busy Andrew Davies will lead a session on TV and film scriptwriting. Each two-hour event costs £35, which includes a donation to PEN.