A compelling debut novel set on an all-female commune in rural Kent explores how cults ensnare vulnerable peopleAmy Twigg’s striking debut offers a new twist on the cult narrative. Rather than focusing on a charismatic male leader, Spoilt Creatures (the title comes from a letter Vita Sackville-West wrote to Virginia Woolf) is about one woman’s sway...

Fletcher’s epic and witty study unearths the history of the Roman roads and their hold on our imagination, while Gilbert celebrates Alcide De Gasperi, the postwar Christian Democrat politician whose passion for democracy energised a country scarred by war and MussoliniThere are few concepts as resonant as “Roman road”. The words ooze purpose, chutzpah...

The bestselling author on how to avoid reader indifference, the advantage of writing historical stories and why she returns to Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates again and againRose Tremain, 80, published her first novel in 1976 and has gone on to become one of her generation’s most admired talents, garnering numerous literary accolades along with a damehood...

When Charlie Higson published a new Bond novel last year, online critics accused him of turning the iconic spy into a ‘woke, libtard snowflake’ ... But he has always been a complicated character, argues the authorWhich of these statements most closely represents your views about 007? A) James Bond has gone too woke; b) James Bond is a racist, sexist,...

At eight months old she was left on a blanket in the Villa Borghese, Rome. More than 50 years later, prize-winning poet Maria Grazia Calandrone set out to discover the truth behind her abandonmentOn 24 June 1965 a young woman sat her eight-month-old baby girl on a blanket in the gardens of the Villa Borghese in Rome, and walked quickly away. Within...

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