Geoffrey Braithwaite, nursing an infatuation with the long-dead author Flaubert, becomes obsessed with learning which of two stuffed parrots--both exhibited in museums as having served as inspiration for Flaubert while he was writing his novel "Un coeur simple"--is the one that really sat on the author's desk.

As boys, George, the son of a Midlands vicar, and Arthur, living in shabby genteel Edinburgh, find themselves in a vast and complex world at the heart of the British Empire. Years later--one struggling with his identity in a world hostile to his ancestry, the other creating the world's most famous detective while in love with a woman who is not his wife--their fates become inextricably connected. In Arthur & George, Julian Barnes explores the grand...

From Alan Bennett's Baffled at a Bookcase, to Lucy Mangan's Library Rules, famous writers tell us all about how libraries are used and why they're important. Tom Holland writes about libraries in the ancient world, while Seth Godin describes what a library will look like in the future. Lionel Shriver thinks books are the best investment, Hardeep Singh Kohli makes a confession and Julie Myerson remembers how her career began beside the shelves.

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