Dr Jekyll and a not so wicked Mr Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson deleted "certain appetites" to make his creation Mr Hyde less sinister, an edited draft of his novella to be displayed at the British Library revealsRobert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is one of Eng...
Swedish bestseller has the last laugh
Jonas Jonasson's novel about a centenarian who runs away from an old people's home was rejected by major publishersA small British publisher has acquired the UK rights to a Swedish novel that has become a European publishing phenomenon in the two years...
Birdy author’s memoirs tell of his involvement in a war crime
William Wharton's autobiography describes how his US army unit killed German prisoners in the second world warThe graphic and often painful memoirs of celebrated American author William Wharton – which include an account of his role in the killing of...
How a bearded Virginia Woolf hoaxed the navy
Letter to go on sale revealing how Bloomsbury group duped an admiral – but feared fake beards would give them awayOne of the most famous practical jokes in British military history has returned to haunt the Royal Navy – more than a century later.A ...
Real-life Charles Dickens characters traced
Historian finds many of literature's best-known names in the London streets of Dickens's teenage yearsBill Sikes and Scrooge are among the most well-known characters in English literature but rather than being figments of Charles Dickens's imagination,...
Ian Rankin wants tax incentives to help new authors
Inspector Rebus creator fears for new writing talent as publishers cut advances and internet transforms industryIan Rankin, the author of the Inspector Rebus series, is calling for tax incentives to support new writers, as cash-strapped publishers cut ...
Spielberg gives War Horse author Michael Morpurgo a chance to live his dream
Michael Morpurgo's bit part in Stephen Spielberg's film version of War Horse revived his ambition to follow his parents into an acting careerMichael Morpurgo is one of Britain's most popular writers, a former children's laureate whose novel, War Horse,...
Mystery Chinese blogger scores a hit with Cultural Revolution novel
Under The Hawthorn Tree has already sold more than a million copies in China aloneA novel by an anonymous Chinese author living in America, which started life as a blog, has become a worldwide publishing sensation. It has been snapped up by publishers...
Ted Hughes’s jaguar sculpture hints at poet’s demons
Poet's family to sell rare jaguar sculpture that they believe shows his pain over Sylvia Plath's deathTed Hughes's fascination with jaguars inspired some of his verse, but it was little known until now that it also led him to create two sculptures.One ...
New book lifts gag on jailed Nobel laureate
Liu Xiaobo, winner of Nobel peace prize, will have his collected writings published in English for the first timeRead 'Your Lifelong Prisoner' – Liu Xiaobo's poem from prisonThe collected writings of Chinese Nobel prizewinner Liu Xiaobo have been tra...
CS Forester’s lost crime novel to be published at last
Hornblower author's 1935 novel The Pursued disappeared until found at auction in 2002. Finally, it is hitting the bookshopsA crime novel by CS Forester, written during the period 70 years ago when he created the naval hero Horatio Hornblower and wrote ...
Hollywood stars give voice to their favourite novels in audiobook boom
Kate Winslet, Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman are among the A-list names signing up to read 'talking books'An array of Oscar-winners and A-list stars have signed up to narrate literary classics of their choice for the rapidly growing audiobook market. Ni...
