Cover Stories: Cheltenham Festival, London Review of Books, Anna Pasternak

Book now for the Cheltenham Festival of Literature, taking place from 11 to 20 October with The Independent as media sponsor. Biographer Richard Holmes and novelist Justin Cartwright are the guest directors. Their brief has been to ask distinguished writers, from all genres: "What does it mean to be human?" Among those considering the question will be Eric Hobsbawm, Doris Lessing, Michael Rosen, Will Hutton, Tony Benn and Andrew Motion. Other writers in a star-crammed programme, with 400 authors and 300 events, include Germaine Greer, Arundhati Roy, Ian Rankin, Kate Adie, Alain de Botton and Michael Palin. More information at www.cheltenhamfestivals.co.uk, or get a brochure from the hotline, on 01242 237377.

¿ There have been numerous complaints that booksellers are dumbing down their range. So serious book buyers within reach of London will be delighted to hear that the London Review of Books plans to open a bookshop, probably in Great Russell Street. The LRB hopes to be open for business in time for Christmas. Stock will mirror the mag's pages.

¿ It's a while since we heard from Anna Pasternak, James Hewitt's infamous ghost for Princess In Love. Now, with a version of her great-uncle's classic Dr Zhivago soon to reach ITV, another Pasternak is at work on a book. Professor Charles Pasternak, nephew of Boris, and Anna's father, is writing a study of evolution and the nature of civilisation for Wiley.