The Guardian: Guardian review

A novel about cricket in New York, interviews with a Nobel poet, and a Hollywood memoir by a chimp . . . writers and politicians pick the best of 2008

Hari Kunzru to Philip Pullman: writers and politicians pick the best books of 2008

Antonia Fraser to Jackie Kay: writers and politicians pick the best books of 2008

The fine art of sporting memoir; more Bad Sex; and bands' literary inspirations

This is luxury, but I try to use the technology in a very practical fashion, the same way as I'd use a knife

Review: Thomas Beecham by John Lucas
A dandy, autodidact and great conductor inspires Simon Callow with hope for the musical future

Review: The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif
John Mullan on the gestation of The Map of Love

Review: The Full English Cassoulet by Richard Mabey and The Thrift Book by India Knight
William Leith wonders whether he has the stomach for the new thrift

Sue Arnold's recommendations of audiobooks for Christmas

Review: The Phiosopher and the Wolf by Mark Rowlands
An animal-loving philosopher reveals to Jonathan Derbyshire the nature of the ape within

Review: Apprenticeship by Peter Gill
A playwright's rigorous reflections on a life in the theatre impress David Hare

Review: Behind Closed Doors by Michael Streeter
Steven Poole finds Streeter veering worryingly close to pop-mystery territory

Review: The Slow Food Story by Geoff Andrews

Review: The Earth in the Attic by Fady Joudah
Charles Bainbridge praises an original and moving first collection from Fady Joudah

Review: Inside Out by Alastair Reid
Reid's poetry offers delicate, lyrical glimpses into his evolving sense of place, says Charles Bainbridge

Review: Modern Poetry in Translation: Palestine
Charles Bainbridge finds brief histories, letters, memoirs, short polemics and a varied gathering of poets

Review: The Last Supper by Pawel Huelle
Michel Faber considers the latest novel from one of Poland's rising stars

Review: Modesty Blaise: Yellowstone Booty by Peter O'Donnell

Nothing to Fear by Matthew d'Ancona

Review: A Finder's Magic by Philippa Pearce
Pearce's final book is a moving farewell to fiction, family and life, says Frank Cottrell Boyce

Review: Dark Echo by FG Cottam

Review: The Maze of Cadiz by Aly Monroe

Review: The Watcher by Brian Freeman

Review: Portobello by Ruth Rendell.
Rendell's Portobello market reveals the vanity of gentrification, says Chris Petit

Judith Kerr: I should be able to draw tigers but I can't. Look at the tiger who came to tea - it's not really a tiger at all

From Sonnets from the Portuguese to Sense and Sensibility

Review: The Poincaré Conjecture by Donal O'Shea
The human stories stand out above the differential geometry and algebriac topology, says Ian Pindar

Review: At Large and At Small by Anne Fadiman
Fadiman sees herself as at once reviving and feminising the "familiar essay", says John Dugdale

Review: The Language of Others by Clare Morrall
This is a fluent read with some astute insights into the perplexities of relationships, says Caroline Miller

Review: Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon
If the historical context appears baffling, don't worry, says Alfred Hickling

Review: Stones of Aran by Tim Robinson
Every inlet carries a tale and Robinson tells them all with enthralling layering of time and space, finds Judith Rice

Review: Fast Ships, Black Sails, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
For those who like that sort of thing there are pirates and plunder aplenty, finds Keith Brooke

In the last of our interviews with shortlisted authors, we talk to Ross Raisin

Small (and indie) is beautiful when it comes to paperbacks, says Nicholas Lezard

Malcolm Gladwell the opportunist, Buruma's 'wonderful' prose and Stephen Baker's bleak vision

Nick Laird on poetry as religion

More Swedish detectives | In praise of Simon Gray | On the rampage | Heat and Dust gets its due | Models galore | The Happy Prince

It isn't men who are Cinderella's problem, but the women in her life holding her back, argues psychotherapist Adam Phillips

Classical pianist Kathryn Stott is captivated by Argentine dance music - thanks to a chance encounter with Yo-Yo Ma

I found myself standing in an immense room: domed, sunlit, beige-carpeted

A story in instalments by Jeanette Winterson, Ali Smith, AM Homes and Jackie Kay

John Crace condenses Justine

This weeks literary events