Commissioning editors say good dialogue is one of the first things that make a book stand out from the crowd - and similarly, that clunky direct speech is one of the first things that will send a book straight from the slushpile to the rejections bin. But while many oth... read more

Do you want to write more effectively, correctly and in a manner which is appropriate for this brave new world of text speak and blogging? Whether you are a professional writer, or writing for your profession, a journalist, non-fiction writer, or simply a would-... read more

Margaret Drabble | Beryl Bainbridge | Angela Carter | Maggie O'Farrell | Elizabeth Jane Howard | A. S. Byatt | Penelope Lively | Sarah Waters | Jonathan Coe | Diana Souhami | Jilly Cooper | Elizabeth Bowen | Mark Bostridge | Alexander McCall Smith | Sarah Dunant | Rac... read more

'Thoughtful, subtle, elegantly clever and oddly joyous, Every Third Thought is beautiful' Kate Mosse In 1995, at the age of forty two, Robert McCrum suffered a dramatic and near-fatal stroke, the subject of his acclaimed memoir My Year ... read more

Should you finish every book you start? How has your family influenced the way you read? What is literary style? How is the Nobel Prize like the World Cup? Why do you hate the book your friend likes? Is writing really just like any othe... read more

Since ancient times human beings have gathered together for social purposes. And since not very long after that writers have written about these occasions. The party is a useful literary device, not only for social comment and satire, but as an occasion where characters can meet, fall in love, fall ou... read more

Since her suicide in 1963 at the age of 30, Sylvia Plath has become a strange icon. This book addresses why this is the case and what this tells us about the way culture picks out important writers. The author argues that without a concept of fantasy we can understand neither Plath's work nor what she... read more

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A brilliant, wide-ranging collection of essays and journalism, spanning the photography of Martin Parr to the paintings of Turner, the writing of Scott-Fitzgerald to the criticism of Susan Sontag, and includes extensive personal pieces.

Herge's Tintin cartoon adventures have been translated into more than fifty languages and read by tens of millions of children aged, as their publishers like to say, 'from 7 to 77'. Arguing that their characters are as strong and their plots as complex as... read more

Booker-winning novelist and one of Britain's foremost poets, Ben Okri is a passionate advocate of the written word. In "A Time for New Dreams", he breaks new ground in an unusual collection of linked essays, which address such diverse themes as childhood, self-censorsh... read more