At the age of five, the celebrated children’s author Dame Jacqueline Wilson attended London’s Festival of Britain – a summer of activities and exhibitions around the South Bank to throw off the postwa

Judy Blume’s Superfudge was in our tiny school library, and I wolfed it down at the age of eight. From then, I was side-by-side with all of Judy’s kids, right the way up to 17-year-old Katherine in Fo

Our books editor Zoe West’s favourite picks for the month

From a new voice in literary fiction, this is a brilliantly chaotic, darkly funny story that explores family dysfunction at its most extreme. The Flynns’ messy lives – an open marriage, three very reb

Best books… Roy Foster The emeritus professor of ...

On a chilly February morning, Sheila Murray sat at her kitchen table and stared at her laptop. Lighting up the screen was an invitation for the unveiling of La Serenissima, the newest ship in a luxury