The biographer and novelist talks to Alex Clark about why he is now in fashion and his troubled relationship with his dad

Writers, broadcasters, friends and publishing insiders recall what it was like to be caught up in the most controversial story in recent literary history, The Satanic Verses and the ensuing fatwa against its author, as Salman Rushdie prepares to bring out his eagerly awaited memoir

Anna Karenina on the beach, The Corrections in Patagonia, Death in Venice in . . . where else? Writers recall their most memorable holiday reads