This superb novella, a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, feels like a doorstopper, so huge is it in its concerns.

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Peter Jackson posted photos from The Hobbit filming on Facebook to celebrate its completion

Peter Jackson celebrates The Hobbit wrap by posting stream of photos on Facebook

Director Peter Jackson has thrilled his Facebook fans by providing an unprecedented  stream of photos from the set of the final film in The Hobbit trilogy to celebrate the completion of filming in New Zealand.

JK Rowling said Robert Galbraith was doing just fine on his own

How JK Rowling laboured to forge her new identity Robert Galbraith for The Cuckoo's Calling

‘Outed’ Harry Potter creator worked for days to sign crime novel under pen name

The Cuckoo's Calling' is displayed on a shelf at a book store in London. The crime novel has sold out after Harry Potter author JK Rowling was revealed as the book's author

JK Rowling's unmasking boosts sales of The Cuckoo's Calling

Just a few days after JK Rowling was unmasked as the author behind crime novel The Cuckoo’s Calling sales of the book have more than tripled.

Summer listening: Audio books guide

From romance to the Reform Bill, plus an unlikely tale of the road: audio books by Sue Gaisford

'The Ghost Riders of Ordebec' by Fred Vargas; 'Alex' by Pierre Lemaitre

Well it is called noir... How French crime writers killed the competition

As the interest in Nordic detectives and killers wanes, publishers are looking across the Channel for the next wave of crime thrillers.

JK Rowling: the top storyteller of her generation will appear, like a seraph descended from heaven, to meet her public

JK Rowling donned an invisibility cloak for bestselling novel ‘The Cuckoo’s Calling’

She's only gone and cast a Bedazzling Hex on herself!

In a Radio 4 interview, Martin Amis, the son of the author and poet Kingsley Amis, suggests his surname has damaged his career and says he wishes he had put 'greater distance' between himself and his father

Martin Amis says his surname has held him back

The novelist Martin Amis has described his famous surname as a “burden”. In a Radio 4 interview, the son of the author and poet Kingsley Amis suggests his surname has damaged his career and says he wishes he had put “greater distance” between himself and his father.

JK Rowling offered her latest work under a pseudonym to other publishers but was rejected

'I turned down 'Robert Galbraith'': Editor admits rejecting JK Rowling's secret novel

Celebrated crime writer Val McDermid, who wrote a positive “blurb” for the cover of The Cuckoo’s Calling unaware it was a Rowling work

Authenticity and artifice militate against each other in Lottie Moggach’s novel

Book review: Kiss Me First, By Lottie Moggach

You can log-off any time you  like, but can you ever leave?

Book review: In Praise of Messy Lives, By Katie Roiphe

A darn good rubberneck at others’ errors

Book review: A Beautiful Truth, By Colin McAdam

Hey hey, we’re all monkeys

Gaming review: Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros.; Deadpool; Scourge: Outbreak

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros.

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Special report: How my father's face turned up in Robert Capa's lost suitcase

Special report: How my father's face turned up in Robert Capa's lost suitcase

The great war photographer was not one person but two. Their pictures of Spain's civil war, lost for decades, tell a heroic tale
The unmade speech: An alternative draft of history

The unmade speech: An alternative draft of history

Someone, somewhere has to write speeches for world leaders to deliver in the event of disaster. They offer a chilling hint at what could have been
Funny business: Meet the women running comedy

Funny business: Meet the women running comedy

Think comedy’s a man's world? You must be stuck in the 1980s, says Holly Williams
Wilko Johnson: 'You have to live for the minute you're in'

Wilko Johnson: 'You have to live for the minute you're in'

The Dr Feelgood guitarist talks frankly about his terminal illness
Lure of the jingle: Entrepreneurs are giving vintage ice-cream vans a new lease of life

Lure of the jingle

Entrepreneurs are giving vintage ice-cream vans a new lease of life
Who stole the people's own culture?

DJ Taylor: Who stole the people's own culture?

True popular art drives up from the streets, but the commercial world wastes no time in cashing in
Guest List: The IoS Literary Editor suggests some books for your summer holiday

Guest List: IoS Literary Editor suggests some books for your summer holiday

Before you stuff your luggage with this year's Man Booker longlist titles, the case for some varied poolside reading alternatives
What if Edward Snowden had stayed to fight his corner?

Rupert Cornwell: What if Edward Snowden had stayed to fight his corner?

The CIA whistleblower struck a blow for us all, but his 1970s predecessor showed how to win
'A man walks into a bar': Comedian Seann Walsh on the dangers of mixing alcohol and stand-up

Comedian Seann Walsh on alcohol and stand-up

Comedy and booze go together, says Walsh. The trouble is stopping at just the one. So when do the hangovers stop being funny?
From Edinburgh to Hollywood (via the Home Counties): 10 comedic talents blowing up big

Edinburgh to Hollywood: 10 comedic talents blowing up big

Hugh Montgomery profiles the faces to watch, from the sitcom star to the surrealist
'Hello. I have cancer': When comedian Tig Notaro discovered she had a tumour she decided the show must go on

Comedian Tig Notaro: 'Hello. I have cancer'

When Notaro discovered she had a tumour she decided the show must go on
They think it's all ova: Bill Granger's Asia-influenced egg recipes

Bill Granger's Asia-influenced egg recipes

Our chef made his name cooking eggs, but he’s never stopped looking for new ways to serve them
The world wakes up to golf's female big hitters

The world wakes up to golf's female big hitters

With its own Tiger Woods - South Korea's Inbee Park - the women's game has a growing audience
10 athletes ready to take the world by storm in Moscow next week

10 athletes ready to take the world by storm in Moscow next week

Here are the potential stars of the World Championships which begin on Saturday
The Last Word: Luis Suarez and Gareth Bale's art of manipulation

The Last Word: Luis Suarez and Gareth Bale's art of manipulation

Briefings are off the record leading to transfer speculation which is merely a means to an end