Jeffrey’s getting it at long last, Nigella’s always had it – what is that crucial promotional X-Factor that turns a good book into a blockbuster? Danuta Kean argues that there’s one very simple rule that authors flout at their peril
Nando Parrado is one of those rare humans. Spend five minutes with him and you feel the weight of the day fall off your shoulders and realise that it isn’t good to be alive, it is bloody marvellous.
The winner can expect big sales and longevity
The Left isn’t going to like Antony Beevor’s book on the Spanish Civil War, but he’s used to controversy – his account of the fall of Berlin elicited heated protests from the Russian ambassador. Danuta Kean talks to him about the joys of digging in the archives, his despair about history students today and his brush with Jackie Onassis
Is Bill Nighy, who plays Slartibartfast in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the coolest man on the planet?
Around fashionistas I always have the overwhelming desire to drag them to the nearest greasy spoon and ram carbohydrates down their elegant anorexic throats.
You can bet the blood of more than one publisher ran cold at allegations last week that 19-year-old author Kaavya Viswanathan was a plagiarist. But no one should be surprised. The scandal is the inevitable consequence of a kind of Pop Idol publishing, which values spin over substance
Michael Palin talks to Danuta Kean about why he loves travel and has no plans to stop
Joanna Trollope, whose latest novel is Brother and Sister, talks to Danuta Kean about adoption, identity crisis and sniping hackettes
Ian Rankin talks to Danuta Kean about disappointing tourists, what makes Rebus tick and why he will never allow his most famous creation to bed Siobhan Clarke
