Cover Stories: Dark Tower 5, Esther Rantzen, Vidal and Chomsky on war

Great news for Stephen King's legions of fans: this autumn will bring the fifth volume in his Dark Tower series, begun when he was still a student. Wolves of Calla comes after a five-year hiatus in the best-selling horror-cum-fantasy series and publishers Hodder & Stoughton will sound a pre-publication fanfare by publishing new editions of the first four titles between August and October.

Now for the bad news: Esther Rantzen has written a novel. A Secret Life tells the story of journalist Lucy Strong's campaign to uncover the truth about the death of a friend, a media personality killed in a car crash. The lucky publisher is Century, who recently brought us Dale Winton's memoirs. Be warned: "Esther will be heavily promoting with bookshop events and signings.'' Fortunately, there's still time to book a holiday.

As Bush and Blair continue their jaw-jaw only as a prelude to war-war, Gore Vidal is once more adding his patrician tones to the global shouting match. Dreaming War, from Clearview Books, paints a picture of a spear-carrying population whipped into a frenzied war dance by cynically orchestrated media hype. Come the autumn, Noam Chomsky's Hegemony or Survival? (Hamish Hamilton) will be a call to arms: protest and survive. If the recent global demonstrations are anything to go by, we're already doing so.