The ‘heretic’ at odds with scientific dogma
Rupert Sheldrake has researched telepathy in dogs, crystals and Chinese medicine in his quest to explore phenomena that science finds hard to explainIt is not often, in liberal north London, that you come face to face with a heretic, but Rupert Sheldra...
Vincent Cassel: ‘You can’t escape from what you are’
The actor, trained ballet dancer, and husband of Monica Bellucci is a man of hidden depths. In his latest role, he plays an anarchic disciple of Sigmund Freud. So, asks Elizabeth Day, did he get to the bottom of why he's drawn to the dark side?Vincent ...
Guardian children’s books podcast: Celia Rees on her new novel for teenagers
The author of Witch Child, Celia Rees, tells Michelle Pauli about her new novel for teens - This Is Not Forgiveness, a political thriller and a twisted romanceMichelle PauliTim Maby
‘I fear Afghanistan will become like Vietnam’
Veteran TV correspondent Sandy Gall on his adventures in Afghanistan, the Taliban and his family's charity clinic in KabulYour new book, War Against the Taliban, is really the third instalment of your long personal engagement with Afghanistan that bega...
Salman Rushdie has found peace – but the Satanic Verses ‘affair’ won’t go away
The terror of Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa has faded but the challenge it posed to artistic freedom has not, as a brush with the Indian authorities has shownFor Salman Rushdie, the "affair" is over. When he walks into a Notting Hill restaurant, his eyes ...
Reading the Arab spring
As Egypt celebrates the first anniversary of the Tahrir Square demonstrations, we look to the literature coming out of the Arab world. Ahdaf Soueif explains what it is like to live in Tahrir Square, while the Guardian's Ian Black – just back from in ...
Umberto Eco: ‘It’s culture, not war, that cements European identity’
The writer and semiologist advocates a sexual revolution to make us all 'European'Outside Umberto Eco's office window in Milan looms the intimidating mass of Sforzesco castle, a reminder, with its towers and blackbirds, of various continental wars. Her...
Guardian Books podcast: Andrew Miller wins Costa book of the year
As Andrew Miller's Pure is anointed the 2011 Costa book of the year, we listen in to the award ceremony with Sarah Crown and discuss what his win means for the 40-year-old prize. Miller talks to Lindesay Irvine about hope, history and his approach to ...
Saturn calling: the sounds of Leyland James Kirby
WG Sebald's sprawling novel The Rings of Saturn has inspired a movie. The composer of its soundtrack tells Ben Beaumont-Thomas why only mashed-up Schubert would do"The book is very ghost-like," says Leyland James Kirby. "So the music is ghost-like too....
John Akomfrah: migration and memory
Akomfrah's Handsworth Songs attracted a huge audience when shown in the wake of last summer's riots. His new film, The Nine Muses, uses Homer to explore mass migration to BritainJohn Akomfrah, widely recognised as one of Britain's most expansive ...
Chad Harbach and Andrew Miller
In a podcast looking at some of the most buzzy new year fiction, we talk to Chad Harbach, whose The Art of Fielding combines baseball and Melvillian scholarship into what many are hailing as the latest Great American Novel. From the other side of the A...
