No "free" ride in the e-publishing handover
Writers need to get real as they square up to the e-revolutionIt was only a matter of time, and now it's happening. The e-revolution has already begun to inspire vigorous, thoughtful and practical suggestions about the way in which the creative communi...
London in the Eighteenth Century: A Great and Monstrous Thing by Jerry White – review
Jerry White's study of Georgian London depicts a city teeming with sex and violenceBritain and London are virtually synonymous in the eyes of the world. The eve of the Olympics is a good time to go back to the century that saw the making of Britannia a...
The great estate: those global literary brands roll on
The recently deceased Dmitri Nabokov made a fortune from his father's estate, while the houses of Fleming, Tolkien et al are equally at home in the digital ageIn the maelstrom of change that's reshaping the literary coastline, there are not many fixed ...
William Golding’s crisis
One of Britain's most original writers was also one of the most troubled, beset by fears of failure and memories of war. Yet he found solace at sea – until a shocking accident. Here, his daughter talks about life with the Nobel-prize winning authorOn...
The Orange prize sets a comprehensive example to the Booker
By including much of this year's significant English fiction – which notably includes US writers – the Orange has a longlist any books prize could be proud ofThe 2012 Orange Prize longlist lands in the dust kicked up by the ongoing rumpus about the...
The Observer/Anthony Burgess prize
Anthony Burgess, the prolific writer and composer best known for A Clockwork Orange, wrote many reviews for the Observer. It's fitting, then, that we and the Burgess Foundation should sponsor a new arts journalism prize in his memoryFor details/to ente...
Jackie Collins, sort-of self-publisher
Collins's move to republish The Bitch alone is not perhaps as bold as it soundsThe news that Jackie Collins is to self-publish her latest fiction, The Bitch, in the US as an ebook, has exhilarated the Twittersphere. (It's a comprehensive re-write of he...
Private papers of Anthony Sampson, Anatomy of Britain
The author and Observer journalist laid bare the inner workings of the country in his Anatomy of Britain in 1962. His papers, made public for the first time, reveal an irresistible listenerHe was the man who knew everybody. For more than a generation...
Some vulgarities are well worth a butcher’s
Linguistic conservatives won't like it, but Julie Coleman's new history of slang is thrillingly down and dirtyWhat reader could not thrill to an OUP monograph whose index catalogues arf arf, bunny-boiler, fucktard, hornswoggle, reffo, skankaroo, top ba...
Who are the most influential writers?
Setting aside the endless argument over who's best, it's interesting to condsider who's left the deepest mark on other people's workTom Haentjens's call for for artists around the world to make new covers for my list of the 100 greatest novels of all t...
Why modern novelists need to watch their weight
Some great books have no more than 200 pages, so why do we now think that big is best?In these lean times, fiction is putting on weight. Take three of the major novels out in the next few weeks. Never mind the quality, which is variable, feel the width...
The Titanic still offers rich pickings for writers