‘Writing is a good way to process what’s going on in your own life’
Norwegian crime writer Thomas Enger on the wit of Harlan Coben and the wisdom of Stephen King
Norwegian crime writer Thomas Enger on the wit of Harlan Coben and the wisdom of Stephen King
‘Writing makes you tune into the world in a way that I might not have experienced if I didn’t write’
Deep Down Dead author Steph Broadribb on what makes her tick as a reader and a writer
A Q&A with Su Bristow, a medical herbalist whose third book is her debut novel, Sealskin
‘It took me so long to see my words in print that I had to learn perseverance’
‘Just the thought of writing a historical novel is unbearable. To me, writing is about what could have happened, not what actually happened’
‘I think the success of His Bloody Project shows that readers are willing to engage with something a little bit out of the ordinary,’ says Man Booker Prize shortlisted author
Michael Stanley, the writing team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip behind the Botswana-based Detective Kubu series, on their literary lives and loves
The author of Epiphany Jones, a novel about Hollywood sex trafficking, on his life as a reader and writer and the many books that inspired him
RB Kelly on her literary life and loves: Mark Anthony, Anne of Green Gables, Terry Pratchett, Ben Elton, observing everything, and the right kind of feedback
A Q&A with 2016 International Dublin Literary Award winner: Reading taught me you will regret being cruel, not being kind
‘I’m proudest of the very last chapter of The Heart of Everything. I didn’t know it was going to be that way until it was’
I often find exchanges I observe in real life inspire an additional scene. When you’re writing, the subconscious often seeks out things that enhance the themes you focus on
On learning how to deal with good reviews: ‘Because I spend a lot of my (writing) time enacting self-doubt and reproach, it can be difficult to trust praise when it comes’
‘Not one big name in Irish literature has even attempted to gauge the feelings on the street and engage with contemporary social realism without sentimentalising it’
Our Book Club author on Eimear McBride, Maud Gonne McBride, Elena Ferrante, Wide Sargasso Sea and why dead people, naturally, are her dream dinner party guests
‘My aim in Dublin Seven was to present a character whose very life and death is seen by society at large as not worth caring about: the young, working-class male’
‘I work as a cleaner in Trinity College and when I get to dust the bookshelves in the Old Library, it smells like musty heaven. I can’t imagine ever sniffing an ebook’
My novel was inspired by sharing an incredible true story with my then 10-year-old daughter when she refused her life-saving injections. She taught me about voice
The Norwegian bestselling author on being inspired by Dostoyevsky and Adrian Mole, and his very strong desire for fiction after five quite autobiographical novels
‘I don’t particularly like doing background research. I would love just to imagine everything. However, since I write about police work, I have to get the facts straight’
‘There is no better way to appreciate another culture or to begin to understand the lives of others than through a well-written novel’
AC/DC biographer Jesse Fink on the difficulties of telling the story of Angus, Malcolm and George Young
‘Read your first drafts out loud to yourself, as if you were giving a sermon – a great way to show up areas in need of improvement’
‘The truth isn’t to be found in books, not even good books, but in people who have a kind heart’
‘No matter what other books I write, that first one will always be very special to me’
‘I read Jaws and The Godfather back to back one summer when I was 14 and was suddenly aware of how powerful fiction could be. Also, they both had dirty bits’
‘When I read Anaïs Nin’s exposing personal enquiries into emotion and excavations of the truth, it transformed my concept of the territory of the written word’
'What was the first book to make an impression on me? The Bible. I had nightmares for weeks'
‘When I was young I had a knack for reading things I didn’t really understand and being caught up in their slipstream. I read Brighton Rock when I was 12 or 13’
‘The majority of female mega-selling authors are all severly under-rated and dismissed as unimportant, purely because they write women’s fiction. It’s nuts’
Brought to Book Q&A: Author of The End of Days on the books and authors that have inspired her
Author from Equatorial Guinea on what he reads and how he writes
‘It is hard to ignore the purported abandonment of narrative artifice in favour of something resembling unflinching, quotidian honesty’
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Full general election coverage including analysis and results for all 43 constituencies
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
Weddings, Births, Deaths and other family notices