Breathe

A biography is a daunting task for any writer. How can you summarise a life? Can you realistically cover all of the source material? If the subject is well known, there are probably rival biographies.

A little more than five years ago, I took up early morning swimming. I lived in Austin which is in the center of Texas. In the centre of Austin, there is a large park; in the centre of the large park

During my adult life I must have read – strictly for pleasure – hundreds and hundreds of crime novels that were written during the ‘Golden Age of Crime’ (1920s-50s). That’s no exaggeration. And not on

This month’s story, by O Henry, is a tale of a love triangle re-imagined by the narrator for the stage. The title, ‘The Thing’s The Play’, is a subversion of the Shakespearean quotation ‘The Play’s Th

Debut books are always exciting as a new voice enters the world of literature. Amy Sparkes talks to writer Iqbal Hussain about his debut middle-grade novel, The Night I Borrowed Time, which is publish

When writer Sheila M Averbuch and her husband moved into their Pencaitland home in East Lothian over 20 years ago, the garden was little more than a flat upper lawn with a steep slope down to the bung