From hit novels by late bloomers to artists turned chess masters, our critics select culture that revels in reinvention

The challenge of capturing the triumphs and crushing failures of the stage and concert hall in words has been taken on by writers from Shakespeare to Virginia Woolf and Eimear McBride

The journalist and memoirist on learning from Natalia Ginzburg, the genius of Geoff Dyer’s comedy, and why James Salter is overrated

From Woody Allen reimagining Van Gogh as a dentist, to Marguerite Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian, the joint winners of the Republic of Consciousness prize select the best reimaginings

Comparisons to the Man Booker prize-winner are tricky, but our expert suggests an excellent starting point

Emily Mortimer plays the quietly heroic shop owner at the heart of this fascinating Penelope Fitzgerald adaptation

From horticulture to tsarist Russia, the novelist chooses works that represent new growth

From Graham Greene to John Banville, many writers have been drawn to the dangerous transformations of stories told on the shore. Not exactly beach reading, these are some of the best