Mary Beard: the classicist with the common touch | Observer profile
Her current TV series on the Romans has occasioned unkind remarks about her appearance, when, in fact, we should be celebrating her erudition and ability to animate her subjectWhen AA Gill, a television critic, wrote that Professor Mary Beard was barel...
Women writers turn to the horror story
Jeanette Winterson and Helen Dunmore among famous names venturing into the horror genre this yearAs an icy wind blows in from the east, the grip of a good horror story is tightening its hold on many of Britain's leading literary talents. Terrifying new...
Dartmoor Zoo gets Hollywood’s animal magic
We Bought A Zoo, Benjamin Mee's striking memoir of his life as a bereaved single father in charge of lions, tigers and bears, is now a major film starring Matt DamonLife has not taken a predictable path for Benjamin Mee. As a single father bringing up ...
Brontë landscape’s battle for survival as new housing threatens tourist trade
Haworth's church roof needs repairs, while plans for housing estates overshadow moors where the sisters walkedThe Rector of Haworth's three daughters were with him last week as he prepared his sermons for Christmas and the new year, given in the church...
Anthony Burgess archive reveals vast body of previously unseen work
Gifted by the author's widow, the resource includes a great deal of music writing, as well as new literary gemsA greatly expanded slang lexicon for the delinquent droogs of the novel A Clockwork Orange has been unearthed in a vast archive of the work a...
Apps become the secret ingredient in the battle of the celebrity Christmas cookbooks
As hefty new tomes from Heston, Jamie and the rest vie for a place under the tree, the digital revolution hits the kitchen. But can a smartphone ever replace a battered, beloved hardback?The struggle to win the title of bestselling cookery title this C...
The schoolgirl who survived the Holocaust by fooling the Nazis
Helga Weiss, now an artist in Prague, escaped death at Auschwitz by lying to Josef Mengele about her age and saying she was fit to workOn an Auschwitz station platform in 1944, Helga Weiss and her mother fooled one of the most reviled men in modern his...
Publishers expect comedy memoirs to top bestsellers list this Christmas
Light entertainment autobiographies dominate as publishers battle to corner autumn books marketThe publishers of celebrity memoirs are champing at the bit, as they line up for the book industry's annual challenge – Super Thursday.This arbitrary day i...
Sylvia Plath given stamp of approval
The acclaimed poet and former wife of Ted Hughes is among 10 authors to be commemmorated by US postage serviceSylvia Plath, the poet and novelist who took her own life in 1963, is to be commemorated in America on a stamp.British admirers of the writer,...
Time travel saga The History Keepers could be the next Harry Potter-style blockbuster
Damian Dibben is only one of a pack of writers hoping to be the next JK Rowling, but his book has already landed a film dealSince the commercial triumph of Harry Potter, publishers have received sacks of manuscripts that are brimful of broomsticks, wan...
