Idris Elba is longing to tell his story and grant Tilda Swinton the statutory three wishes in George Miller’s heartfelt fantasy

It can be the most toxic of family relationships, as told in Shakespeare or Succession. What really lies at the heart of this age-old struggle

The artist, potter and author on his middle-of-the-night anxiety reading, wanting to be a poet, and the Japanese classic he wishes he had read

In ancient myth – and novels by authors from Neil Gaiman to Toni Morrison – these ambiguous figures are sometimes repressive, sometimes inspiring

Narrative tricks minted in the 19th century are still working in contemporary fiction by authors from Margaret Atwood to Sarah Waters

The supernatural, witchcraft or sex can be spellbinding, while others conjure gold from the everyday human struggle

From Stephen King’s avid fan in Misery to Nabokov’s disturbing tale of preteen Lolita, fixation is a powerful pull for authors – especially when it overlaps with desire

The show’s first guest was marooned three quarters of a century ago this month. Here are the moments that made Desert Island Discs a radio classic

This year’s Erasmus prize winner celebrates the transcendent use of language by Beatrix Potter, Magritte and Shakespeare

From George Orwell to John Wyndham, novelist Linda Grant finds compelling reading about the ‘strange interregnum’ that followed the defeat of Nazi Germany