Ebenezer Scrooge named most popular Dickens character
Penguin Books poll to mark 200th anniversary of author's birth reveals miser from A Christmas Carol as best lovedA cold-hearted miser bullied by ghosts into gaining a conscience has triumphed over a festering, jilted bride and an alcoholic, nihilistic ...
Mike Gillespie obituary
Bronze sculptures by my friend Mike Gillespie, who has died aged 82, can be seen in several Cambridge colleges, at the Gas Research Centre at Loughborough University and in numerous private collections in Britain and abroad. He urged people not to look...
Andrew McMillan obituary
The Australian writer Andrew McMillan has died at the age of 54. When he was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2010, Andrew announced a "living wake", which was documented by an Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV crew. His friends rallied to his cause...
Basil Payne obituary
My father, the poet and writer Basil Payne, has died aged 88. Basil believed a poet's job was to act not as an oracle, but as a catalyst. He wanted his words to take the reader on a reflective journey of enlightenment, shaped by their own experience.He...
My hero by Simon Callow
'Having experienced the lower depths, he never ceased to commit himself to trying to right the wrongs inflicted by society'You start with the work, of course. In my case The Pickwick Papers, thrust into my hands at the age of 13. It danced before my ey...
Eric Brown’s SF and fantasy choice – reviews
Tuf Voyaging by George RR Martin, Empire State by Adam Christopher, Hell Train by Christopher Fowler and The Devil's Elixir by Raymond KhouryTuf Voyaging by George RR Martin (Gollancz, £8.99)Martin began his writing career with a series of lyrical, r...
Oh, Vienna
The modern world was created by those who haunted the Austrian capital in the first 14 years of the 20th century. The writer returns to the place that gave rise to his latest novel, Waiting for SunriseIt took me about half an hour to walk from the cent...
Thinking the Twentieth Century by Tony Judt
Tony Judt's last book is an admirable assessment of intellectuals and politics in the last centuryIn this marvellous book, two explorers set out on a journey from which only one of them will return. Their unknown land is that often fearsome continent w...
Ebook sales are being driven by downmarket genre fiction