Ghost-writers

Simon & Schuster, the publishing powerhouse behind best-selling authors like Stephen King, Ursula K. Le Guin and Judy Blume, is up for sale.

Its owner, ViacomCBS, announced Wednesday that, after a "strategic review," the book publisher was no longer essential to its business and that it would seek a buyer.

A few years ago, I was surprised to open a newspaper and read that the head teacher of a London public school had decided to ban my books from his library. He described the adventures of Alex Rider, which have sold around 20  million- copies worldwide, in terms so derogatory that I have no mind to repeat them. Suffice it to say that the article quite put me off my cornflakes.  Read more

The novelist didn't realize how fervently society wants to turn us into calculators - every action has a payment or a fee - until she had her first child. Here she reckons with motherhood's ticking meter: every minute with her kids is work lost, and each minute writing subtracts from precious, un-price-able joy.