Jason Pierce on how rock changed his life and Kurt Vonnegut inspired his latest album

The Irish Museum of Modern Art celebrates its 30th birthday at a tricky time for museums

Jan Carson on identity, Northern Ireland and her new novel, The Fire Starters

Groundhog Day is considered the best example, but it wasn’t the first – or the last

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Hefner died at his Playboy Mansion home from natural causes

Author foresaw the threat to civilisation and the crisis of meaning created by automation

Ralph Steadman spent days trying to find Hunter S Thompson for their first assignment, the landmark article ‘The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved’. The result changed journalism forever

Children should not be misled: real life should be a meritocracy

Brought to Book Q&A: Norwegian author and pianist on where he writes and what he reads

If you’re here for a degree, you’re in the wrong place. College is all about having fun and learning about yourself

Hilary Mantel’s short story The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher caused outrage with its recent publication in the Guardian, but it’s not the first and won’t be last piece of fiction to raise hackles

Review: A brave, humane novel, set in a concentration camp, takes a hard look the attrocities of the second World War

In the first of a series, we recommend some destination-specific titles for summer trips abroad, with help from our correspondents

If you doubt your characters, your readers will doubt them too, so it is important to understand characters’ motivation and make their behaviour and speech convincing