Authors from Jonathan Swift to NoViolet Bulawayo show how much can be done with what might sound a narrow form – and how much fun can be had with it

In memoirs by authors from Philip Roth to Michael Frayn, the Dad-Lit genre is always a little oedipal but there is also room for warmer feelings

The Pulitzer prize-winning novelist on the depiction of Vietnamese people, the fun in Voltaire’s Candide and memorable masturbation scenes

From Louisa May Alcott to Philip Roth and Michael Chabon, writers of fiction have long been fascinated by the dramas of their own trade

WW Norton withdrew Bailey’s Roth biography after a series of allegations about its author. As generational conflict rages in the book world, who decides whether we can separate the art from the artist?

The Pulitzer winner on her love of Trollope, her passion for cooking and the Ian McEwan novel she feels is overrated

From William Shakespeare to WG Sebald, these books are written less to dispel mystery than to accept it