An interview with Peter Carey

To celebrate the inclusion of Peter Carey’s Parrot and Olivier in America on the 2010 Booker Prize long-list, Bookhugger is proud to present an interview with the author.

David Olusoga on The Kaiser’s Holocaust

In The Kaiser’s Holocaust, David Olusoga and Casper W. Erichsen give us the unknown story of the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples in Germany’s forgotten African empire – an atrocity that foreshadowed the Nazi genocides. It’s an important book and a fascinating – and often grim – read. Here is David Olusoga introducing it, putting the events into a wider context.

Read an extract from When a Billion Chinese Jump

When a Billion Chinese Jump tells the story of China’s – and the world’s – greatest crisis. With filthy water, choking emissions and an unsustainable appetite for resources, China’s development has taken our planet to the environmental edge. Now it faces a stark choice that will affect us all: accept catastrophe or make radical change.

Read an extract from Beautiful Malice

So. Were you glad, deep down? Were you glad to be rid of her? Your perfect sister? Were you secretly glad when she was killed?

Jo Shapcott reads ‘I Go Inside the Tree’

Poet Jo Shapcott reads ‘I Go Inside the Tree’, one of a sequence of poems inspired by trees in her new collection, Of Mutability

Jo Shapcott on her new collection Of Mutability

The award-winning author of Electroplating the Baby, Phrase Book and My Life Asleep, which were gathered together in a selected poems, Her Book, discusses her new collection.

Rob Chapman on Syd Barrett

Syd Barrett is one of the great unknowns of twentieth century music. The early creative force behind Pink Floyd, he spent most of the second half of his life outside of public view, away from fans, press and ex-band members. In Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head, author Rob Chapman attempts to dispel the myths surrounding Syd. Here he shares his experiences researching the life of a notoriously private artist.

Arthur Ransome and the Crisis in Russia

Roland Chambers, author of The Last Englishman: The Double Life of Arthur Ransome, discusses the two volumes of Ransome’s Russian journalism brought back into print by Faber Finds.

Barbara Kingsolver wins the Orange Prize for Fiction

With her novel The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver won this year’s Orange Prize, the result of which was announced on Wednesday night. Read the first chapter here on Bookhugger.

Lucy Worsley discusses life in the Georgian court

Lucy Worlsey, curator of the Historic Royal Palaces, historian and TV presenter, tells stories of the Georgian court at Kensington Palace from her new book Courtiers.

R. N. Morris on switching from thrillers to arias

R. N. Morris explains how he ended up as both a writer of historical crime novels – and the librettist for a new opera…

Maria McCann talks about The Wildling

In her second novel Maria McCann returns to 17th-century England, where life is struggling to return to normal after the horrific tumult of the Civil War. Here, she talks to George Miller about the book.

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Nick Kent on Apathy for the Devil

Legendary NME rock journalist Nick Kent discusses his memoir of the 70s, Apathy for the Devil, which features his encounters with the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Chrissy Hynde, David Bowie and the Sex Pistols.

Andrew O’Hagan: The Book That…

With his new novel (narrated by Marilyn Monroe’s dog) making quite a splash, we find out what books have made a lasting impression on Andrew O’Hagan.

Listen to James Shapiro talk about Contested Will

In his new book Contested Will James Shapiro investigates one of literature’s great mysteries – did Shakespeare actually write what we think he wrote? George Miller talked to him about this controversial topic.

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Mick Jackson answers questions about The Widow’s Tale

In an interview conducted for the Norwich Summer Reads campaign, Mick Jackson talks about his latest novel, his writing approach and the art of fiction.

Robert Williams on writing a first novel

Robert Williams is the author of Luke and Jon, an arresting debut about friendship, grief and love, and winner of the National Book Tokens’ NYP Prize.

Take the kids on a visit to Grubtown

Faber and Faber have launched ‘Visit Grubtown’ (www.visitgrubtown.com), an exciting new online home for Philip Ardagh’s Roald Dahl Funny Prize-winning Grubtown Tales series, drawing on the weird and wonderful characters and settings from all six Grubtown books.

A preview of Lights Out in Wonderland by DBC Pierre

Lights Out in Wonderland is the spectacular third novel from Booker Prize winner DBC Pierre, one of the great fantastical storytellers of his generation.

Jenny Uglow talks to George Miller about A Gambling Man

Acclaimed biographer Jenny Uglow’s previous subjects have included Thomas Bewick and Elizabeth Gaskell. In A Gambling Man she takes on risk-taking Charles II and the regime changing Restoration – inspired, as she explains, by recent events.

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Joanna Kavenna: The Birth of Love

Joanna Kavenna’s first novel Inglorious won the Orange Broadband New Writers Award. Her forthcoming new book The Birth of Love is quite different but equally brilliant – interwoven stories exploring motherhood, often quite bleak and dystopian, featuring four characters (including real Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis, aka the ‘saviour of mothers’) across multiple time zones.

Louise Doughty on Whatever You Love

Two police officers knock on Laura’s door. They tell her that her nine-year old daughter Betty has been hit by a car and killed… So begins Whatever You Love, the new novel by Louise Doughty. Here’s Louise explaining more to Faber Editor, Sarah Savitt.