Leo Tolstoy

Review: One-man band Liu Jian’s three-year labour of love is a crime saga that fizzes with intellect

Think you still have that novel in you? Take some writing tips from Leo Tolstoy, Muriel Spark, John Steinbeck and other famous authors

Survey finds 37% of those actually active in sport put walking as a clear number one

For the Irish, silence is a way of dealing with, and surviving, traumatic exile

Brother of Aidan O’Driscoll speaks at Cork service of how he had turned his life around

A summer series in which Irish Times writers go off the beaten track. Part 1: Blackhead Lighthouse is a perfect retreat in an almost perfect location; here, even bad weather takes on a strange sort of charm

Russian Bolsheviks and Indian nationalists among those inspired by seminal revolt

Taking your ereader to the beach will free you from sandy pages, smudges, sore wrists and one-arm sunburn

With the Ballymaloe Literary Festival taking place this weekend, here are 20 literary quotations to whet the appetite

These are some of our favourite opening lines - could you write one of your own? Post it in the comment box below. We might even find a suitable prize for the best or funniest