Polly Courtney

Novelist and champion of the underdog

The real issue is that publishers make some terrible assumptions about what men and women like to read (or ought to read). In an attempt to capitalise on the dwindling 'mass market' they have carved the reading population up by demographic and crudely assumed that each 'segment' is a homogenous group with similar tastes.

Robert McNamee

Architect and now Director of the Electronic Enlightenment Project

Spring 2013 marks two significant anniversaries for Alexander Pope, perhaps the most representative and alien English poet of the 18th Century.

Sara Bran

Catching the Comet's Tail

Ben is a master of the kind of acute observation of family life that has you pondering the deeper significance of the type of breakfast cereal your spouse prefers.

John Worne

Director of Strategy, the British Council

But in these austere times she also asked for better evidence of the value of culture. In short, her point was that if we want UK Government to continue investing in culture - as public spending gets the squeeze - we in the cultural industries need to demonstrate a return on that investment

Tom Ward

British writer and graduate of Newcastle University, recently named the recipient of the Norman Mailer Student Writing Award 2012, in conjunction with British GQ

University introduced me to writers I would never have read of my own accord. Sam Selvon, Angela Carter, Ballard etc etc. By now I was actively searching out writers. I loved Buk, so wanted to read Fante and Celine. McCarthy was a hero and Patrick DeWitt filled the gap that McCarthy's long-awaited next novel is sure to fill.