By The Firelight

.......Los que somos fanáticos de las entrevistas con escritores, tenemos en un pedestal al periodista de radio y televisión Joaquín Soler Serrano (Murcia, 1919-Barcelona, 2010), quien acaba de fallecer a los 91 años. En los últimos años padeció esa terrible enfermedad que es el Alzheimer. Pero lo que recordaremos siempre es que en su programa A fondo consig […]

Tony Blair’s political memoir has been pulled apart this week as though it were the palace of a fallen dictator, not so much reviewed as ransacked. Reporters have raced through its 700 pages as though each were some hitherto shuttered room hiding unused ammunition, looted antiquities, piles of purposeless propaganda, racks of vintage wines and extravagant wa […]

Once upon a time there were two brothers who, at the turn of the twentieth century, settled in the small town of Berkhamsted, at the end of the commuter line in Hertfordshire. They each had six children and it is because of one of these children that the above sentence must immediately evoke in most readers over a certain age a sense of ungraspable melanchol […]

The Académie Goncourt has announced its longlist. The book garnering the most attention, of course, is Michel Houellebecq’s controversial La carte et le territoire, which Tahar Ben Jelloun has apparently railed against. But also on the list is the lesser-known Moroccan writer Fouad Laroui, for his Une année chez les Français. According to Banipal, which publ […]

The former prime minister's memoir sold more than 92,000 copies in its first four days on sale, comfortably outdoing figures for Peter Mandelson's rival accountDespite predictions that Peter Mandelson beating him into print would damage sales of Tony Blair's autobiography, the former prime minister's book has trounced his erstwhile spin d […]

• Mike Leigh, Colin Firth and Anton Corbijn to present films• Danny Boyle and Keira Knightley works already confirmed• David Jason and Rupert Friend to present directorial debuts• No world premieres among gala screeningsWarring ballet divas, a reluctant king of England, and an aged Thai gent who can recall his past lives will be among the heroes and heroines […]

From Jim Thompson to Daphne du Maurier, the author and comedian singles out stories that live up to their genre and genuinely do give readers sleepless nightsAs well as making becoming a household name for his work as a writer and actor in comedy shows such as The Fast Show, Charlie Higson has had a parallel and these days just as stellar career as a writer. […]

Join Aleks Krotoski, Keith Stuart and GameBrief.com's Nicholas Lovell on Tech Weekly for a games special.The panel bring you the latest on the 13-year struggle to take Duke Nukem Forever from idea to release – is a mysogynistic, two-dimensional games character relevant in today's more mature gaming culture? There's also a round-up of the headl […]

Welcome back to a bumper New Year edition of the podcast. In a Sounds Jewish exclusive, the critically acclaimed and now Booker-shortlisted author reads an acerbically funny extract from his latest novel, The Finkler Question. Is his depiction of a fictional Jewish anti-Zionist group as the "ASHamed Jews" fair?Challenging his account is Tony Klug, […]