"Her ear for dialogue and emotional nuance is sharp, her tone never slipping from a stream of fresh, evocative imagery" writes Charlotte Runcie

Rory Stewart’s theme is borders

Faber, £16.99Francis Spufford is such a prolific and well-respected writer that it’s hard to believe that Golden Hill, his lively historical novel set in 18th-century New York, is his first...

Bloomsbury, £25Quentin Blake’s unique visual language—those swift, scratchy lines and ink blots that magically capture personality in just a few strokes —will forever be associated with...

Faber, £14.99Although primarily lauded for his original poems, the late Seamus Heaney—Nobel Prize winner, Oxford and Harvard professor, globally beloved poet—was also an enormously...

The rock star, who has died aged 69, enjoyed delighting people with his music and acting

It’s a real shame that there are no female athletes in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year shortlist, announced this morning. But what struck me about the all-male list is just how little...

Could we be heading for a 1970s food revival? At a car boot sale recently, I spotted a tool with a frighteningly specific purpose. It was a sardine and cheese platter, lovingly preserved in its...

Most of us feel pretty confident we can tell the difference between male and female athletes, but the Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) isn’t so sure. During last year’s boxing...

What would an e-book festival look like? There were three Kindles held by the three people in my immediate vicinity at the Edinburgh International Book Festival last Wednesday night. Granted we were...