Howard Jacobson used to be bowled over by all things Australian but his love has just run out - and headgear has an unreasonable amount to do with it

Friday Book: MODERN TIMES, MODERN PLACES BY PETER CONRAD, THAMES & HUDSON, pounds 24.95

The Forest of Hours

IF AMIDST the stock-taking at the century's end one man's life could take us through the age of extremes and personify the travails of millions, that man would be Arthur Koestler. As a writer he chronicled the century, as a man he lived it.

LLOYD CLARKE, Deputy Chief Constable of West Yorkshire, has joined the parade of high-ranking officers acknowledging institutional racism in their forces.

ROBIN COOK relaunched his ethical foreign policy yesterday by announcing that Britain would campaign to eliminate torture throughout the world.

Recent revelations indicate that, at one time, the author Salman Rushdie hid from potential assassins in a gazebo in the grounds of Bono's clifftop villa near Dublin. The author's next book is reported to be about a rock group.

By Imre Karacs in Stockholm

Yes, Salman Rushdie, you shall go to the ball. The best news of last week was that the author of Haroun and the Sea of Stories (above) would be able to attend the press night of the stage premiere of his novel without the need for a phalanx of bodyguards. The chances are that he will have enjoyed not only his freedom but the show itself as it has been adapted and directed by Tim Supple, whose versions of Grimm Tales and More Grimm Tales at the Young Vic have been so sensationally enjoyable.

IN HER FIRST interview since defiantly returning home last month, Taslima Nasreen, the controversial Bangladeshi feminist writer, told The Independent of her anguish as Islamic fundamentalists renewed their campaign to have her executed.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories National Theatre London

A week is a long time in literature. At the beginning we had the Starr Report, a classic drama of adultery in high places, if ever there was one. Then, in London, came the announcement of the Booker Prize shortlist, an annual ritual that inspires a routine burst of light-hearted acrimony about the relative loftiness or small-mindedness (take your pick) of the so-called judges appointed to decide such matters.

Iran's retreat on the Salman Rushdie fatwa is not the end of censorship, argues Ursula Owen

Rushdie's plight was never the point. The moderates had to oust the fundamentalists to make friends with the West