Credit Munch

Extract: Bleak Hotel by DM Thomas

His novel was a sensation in the 1980s, and Hollywood came calling. Now DM Thomas reveals the mind-bending twists as a succession of producers tried...

The forgotten poems of Bob Dylan

Spiky, melancholic and often funny: from the 1960s but lost until now

Dr Rowan Williams haunted by student's suicide

A new biography describes how Hilary Watson fell secretly in love with the future Archbishop of Canterbury in the 1970s

Rowan Williams: September 11, where was God?

We reveal how the Archbishop of Canterbury's faith was tested to the limit in the attack on the World Trade Centre

You’ve gone too far, ma’am

A racist remark by the Queen Mother has led presenter Edward Stourton to examine how political correctness warps our lives

The Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition: The shortlist

While the judges sift through the entries to decide the winner, we bring to you the outstanding submissions so far. First up: The Psychic Squad by...

Obama in his own words

In his memoir The Audacity of Hope, the Democratic candidate says he and his opponents have common values

The pin-up is reborn

Photographer Timothy White has sought out famous American beauties – and asked them to make like Betty Grable

Lessons from history would serve bankers well

In this passage, Niall Ferguson looks at how the cost of an English mercenary necessitated the invention of the government bond

How humanity created the credit crunch

As the financial crisis continues to evolve, should a Darwinian approach be applied to failing institutions? This exclusive extract from The Ascent...

Simon Gray: the long goodbye

In his final work, the late playwright Simon Gray addresses matters of life and death with characteristic honesty and wit

Fame and how to survive it

In this candid assessment of his career, Jonathan Ross reveals how easily he found stardom – and then almost lost himself

Oh son, I’m so glad to have failed as a Superdad

As a single father Cosmo Landesman struggled to bond with his boy – until a burnt apple pie drew them together

The demon wife of Fleet Street

Cosmo Landesman couldn’t believe his luck when he married Julie Burchill, the hippest girl in town. Too bad that she lived – and wrote...

The Pooh Also Rises by Alan Coren

A.A.Milne gets an Ernest Hemingway makeover in this extract from the new anthology celebrating the brilliant humorist and Times...

Stick with us, son, we’re gonna be big

Embarrassed since birth, Cosmo Landesman charts his parents’ relentless, madcap – and unsuccessful – pursuit of fame

Extract from Frank Skinner on the Road: Love, Stand-up Comedy and The Queen of the Night

Frank Skinner frets about the dangers and temptations of financial success

Exclusive extract from Payback by Margaret Atwood

The grande dame of fiction offers a timely meditation on debt and the shadow side of wealth

Son of a gun in the family business

Who knew that Elmore Leonard, the Dickens of Detroit, was also the head of a crime-writing dynasty?

10 Books Not To Read Before You Die

The producer of at least three television shows that you may quite like shares with us his definitive list of books that just aren't worth the bother