I‘ve just signed a publishing contract with Ben Fenton, a Fleet Street veteran and director for creative industries at Edelman. His book is on the concept and practicalities of fairness-and that concept's history, science, law, politics, and morality, as well as an explanation of the number 42...

In the summer of 2000, Alexander Chee, then a burgeoning writer struggling to get his first book published, boarded a train to the Upper West Side of Manhattan. On the ride, he pulled out the manuscript that would eventually become his debut novel, Edinburgh, and decided to make an unflinching...

Fanny Blake reports on the crucial contribution of the Quick Reads programme to improving adult literacy

Reading changes lives. It gives renewed confidence, boosts brain power, increases empathy and helps relaxation. In short, reading contributes to individual happiness and to the well-...

You wrote a novel so that people would believe that you knew your own mind.

A few months ago, I had the chance to speak to a group of MFA students about my second novel, Last Seen Leaving. One of them said, "I know that so far you've written literary thrillers, but I see that your new book is a fantasy novel. What did you find to be the biggest difference between...

• ‘Lots of aspiring writers ask me, "How do you write a book without offending people you love?" And you have to make a decision to be honest. I mean it's painful, but I want to write a book that is true to my moral core and that is true to my characters.