Former Orange Prize winner Ann Patchett could pick up the prestigious literary prize for a second time after she was nominated again 10 years after she first won.

In north London, book-lovers have put David Cameron's Big Society into practice. And nationwide the issue has struck a chord

How to crash the London literary scene

Andrew Miller emerges triumphant after support for biography divides the judging panel

From modest beginnings it has become one of the biggest literary festivals on earth. This year the roster of big names talking about their work includes Michael Ondaatje, Tom Stoppard, Richard Dawkins, Annie Proulx, Hari Kunzru, Shashi Tharoor and William Dalrymple, the festival's co-director.

New Year Honours: The Arts

The presents are under the tree, which means that it's time to try your hand at Simon O'Hagan's fiendish brainteaser. If you dare...

Panel defend choice of 29-year-old actor amidst controversy over 'dumbing down' of prize

Alice Oswald is published by Faber & Faber, whose profits were boosted for years by royalties from Cats, Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical version of Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by TS Eliot. Eliot once worked at Lloyds Bank. Does Ms Oswald not feel sullied by the association with Lord Lloyd-Webber? Or by the evidence of Eliot's Mammon-worship?

IMHO: Rushdie stung in Twitter expose of badassery - and bad spelling

By her mid-fifties Candia McWilliam knew the meaning of suffering better than most. As a child her mother committed suicide; she lived through two failed marriages; became an alcoholic, and, yet more cruelly still, while judging the Booker Prize in 2006, started to lose her sight.