New study reveals how Facebook “likes” say a lot more about a person than you first think

Justin Bieber’s fans may complain about a two-hour wait, but it was a different story for those in line to see Stephenie Meyer, the author of the bestselling Twilight novels.  

Barnes & Noble launched a defiance defence of its Nook business despite a calamitous performance from e-books over the crucial Christmas trading period.

The theme of Jonathan Rendall's writing life was risk. He came to prominence in the late 1980s as a vital new voice covering that most literary of sports, boxing, and captured in urgent, seductive prose the risk to life and limb that assails a fighter every time he enters the ring. But the risk came closer to home too. Rendall wrote about playing the odds in a book called, ominously, Twelve Grand. The terms of the contract with his publisher were that he would take his advance – the titular £12,000 – and gamble it. It's one measure of how well the gambling paid that later in life he would joke about a sequel called Twelve Quid.

The Arts Diary

The tiny northeast Indian state of Meghalaya has a special fascination for interesting and sometimes controversial names

Forget the Oscars – the real contest this awards season is between pigeon lofts, tea cosies and pencil sharpeners.

The two Irfans spoke of how they cowered for hours in 45 Celsius heat to avoid being attacked by drone missiles in a graphic description of life in terror camps in the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan.

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is celebrating its 200-year anniversary this year, and is still regarded as one of the country's favourite novels, coming second place in the BBC’s Big Read mission to find the nation’s best-loved book.

Police hails success of the largest counter-terrorism operation since airline plot of 2006

Till ordinary life does us part ...

One of the writers behind cult comedy Beavis and Butt-Head has been shortlisted for a prestigious children's book prize.

The struggling owner of the Yellow Pages will be boosted by the lifting of an outdated advertising price cap on the telephone directory this week.

Restaurants and literature are such natural bedfellows, it's amazing nobody's done this before. Remember Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler? Or The Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers? Remember the little Parisian cafés where Ernest Hemingway claimed (in A Moveable Feast) he used to write when living on next to nothing in 1920s Paris?