- Fifty Shades of Grey: Sam Taylor-Johnson confirmed to direct
- 2013-06-20 10:21
- British director of Nowhere Boy is unexpected choice for film adaptation of EL James's bestselling erotic novel Britain's Sam Taylor-Johnson has been named as the surprise choice to direct the forthcoming big-screen adaptation of "mommy porn" literary sensation Fifty Shades of Grey. The artist turn...
- Samson and Delilah: a good effort at biblical sex and violen...
- 2013-06-20 10:00
- Cecil B DeMille's film does justice to the tale of lust and betrayal, despite the stuffed lion and bouncing temple stones Samson and Delilah (1949)Director: Cecil B DeMilleEntertainment grade: BHistory grade: B The story of Samson is recorded in the Bible's book of Judges, thought to have been writt...
- We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo – review
- 2013-06-20 10:00
- NoViolet Bulawayo has extended her Caine prize-winning short story about a Zimbabwean girl coming of age in the US into a novel. But has the prize created an African aesthetic of suffering? I was at a Caine prize seminar a few years back and the discussion was on the state of the new fiction coming...
- Book now
- 2013-06-20 09:30
- Life and work of Iain Banks to be honoured at 30th festival, with Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood and Neil Gaiman also featuring in two-week event partnered by the Guardian The life and works of the late Iain Banks will be celebrated by close friends including Ian Rankin and Val McDermid in a specia...
- Politics Weekly podcast: Andrew Adonis on 5 Days In May
- 2013-06-20 09:30
- After the 2010 general election failed to produce a majority government Westminster went into a frenzy. As one of Labour's key negotiators, Andrew Adonis had a front-row seat for the five days of high-stakes political poker that were being played out in a series of secret meetings between the major...
- Polly Courtney on self-publishing
- 2013-06-20 09:28
- In the first of our series showcasing the best in self-publishing, Polly Courtney explains how, after falling out with her publisher over their 'chick-lit' branding of her novels, she decided to go it alone. The result is her new novel, Feral Youth You achieved the dream of many a would-be author wh...
- Introducing our series on self-published authors
- 2013-06-20 09:27
- Welcome to our new series showcasing the best in self-publishing. Find out how it works and the opportunities for you to get involved Welcome to our new series on self-publishing. For a long time, we have been trying to find a way to cover self-published books. As many of you will remember, we've ha...
- Secret Breakers: The Knights of Neustria by H. L. Dennis - r...
- 2013-06-20 09:00
- 'I knew I had to read it so I overcame my prejudices and picked it up again and I was soon drawn to it like a magnet to iron' The Knights of Neustria is the third book in the Secret Breakers trilogy. Brodie, Hunter, Tusia and the newcomer, Sheldon, are trying to break the fully-coded MS408, an ancie...
- Be true to yourself. Is this really the best the Guides can ...
- 2013-06-20 07:00
- The schmaltzy motto embedded in the organisation's new oath is more likely to build insecure narcissism than help girls develop The oath sworn by the Guides has been an open sore in my psyche since 1981, when my mum wouldn't let me join because of the promise to serve God, Queen and country. Asked w...
- Decline and fall: how American society unravelled
- 2013-06-19 17:47
- Thirty years ago, the old deal that held US society together started to unwind, with social cohesion sacrificed to greed. Was it an inevitable process – or was it engineered by self-interested elites? In or around 1978, America's character changed. For almost half a century, the United States had ...
- At the tender age of 35 Katie Price is to release her fifth ...
- 2013-06-19 15:41
- Katie Price has revealed she is planning to release her fifth autobiography later this year - at the age of just 35.
- Claude in the Spotlight by Alex T Smith - review
- 2013-06-19 15:00
- 'I think boys and girls will like this book (even though it is very pink)' This book is about a dog called Claude who really likes dancing, especially on his bottom. It is a very funny book, with lots of great pictures, which made me laugh. Claude has a friend called Sir Bobblysock (a sock with bob...
- Sally Gardner's Maggot Moon wins the Carnegie medal
- 2013-06-19 13:45
- Dyslexic author's dystopia for teens wins the most prestigious children's books prize in the UK Congratulations to Sally Gardner and Maggot Moon! As if winning the Costa children's book award and being longlisted for the Guardian children's fiction prize was not enough, she's now picked up the UK's ...
- The Professor of Truth by James Robertson
- 2013-06-19 13:30
- James Robertson's impressive study of grief was inspired by the Lockerbie plane bombing It is no accident that the two sections of James Robertson's new novel are subtitled "Ice" and "Fire", reminding us of that astonishing terse poem in which Robert Frost considers which of these two elements migh...
- 'Exams, exams, exams': children's author Sally Gardner says ...
- 2013-06-19 12:58
- Award-winning children's author Sally Gardner today savaged the Government's proposed new national curriculum for stifling creativity in the classroom by leaving pupils with a diet of "exams, exams, exams, exams".
- Carnegie medal winner Sally Gardner attacks Gove
- 2013-06-19 12:49
- Sally Gardner wins the most prestigious children's books prize with dystopic novel Maggot Moon and uses the prize-giving ceremony to slam Gove's 'outdated' new curriculum Dyslexic author Sally Gardner, who today won the Carnegie m...
- Levi Pinfold's Black Dog - in pictures
- 2013-06-19 12:34
- Levi Pinfold is the winner of this year's Kate Greenaway medal, awarded for an outstanding book in terms of illustration for children and young people, with only his second book, Black Dog. Sample his artwork in our gallery
- Our Church by Roger Scruton – review
- 2013-06-19 12:29
- Its heart is in the right place but this account of Anglicanism's past is full of Victorian cliches and misrepresentations I begin this review with a declaration of interest. Roger Scruton and I are rather alike. When very young, we watched our present queen's coronation on small black-and-white tel...
- Academics will need both the physical and virtual library fo...
- 2013-06-19 12:22
- Research no longer starts with a visit to the library building, say Rachel Bruce and Mike Mertens, but it still plays a crucial role Ask someone to describe an academic in the throes of research and there's a good chance that description will include a physical library (or at least a collection of o...
- Shubbak festival: a refuge for Arab culture at a troubled ti...
- 2013-06-19 12:08
- How can a festival celebrate a region gripped with conflict? Omar al-Qattan explains Shubbak, London's Middle Eastern extravaganza These are troubled times to be putting on a festival celebrating a culture that is, on several levels and in different regions of its rich geography, tearing itself apar...
- James Davies's top 10 psychiatry critiques
- 2013-06-19 12:00
- The author of Cracked selects a battery of books that challenge received wisdom about mental illness and how to treat it I wrote Cracked: Why Psychiatry Is Doing More Harm Than Good because of the huge gulf between what most people believe about psychiatric diagnoses and medications and what the evi...



