Feuchtgebiete, which translates as 'wetlands' or 'humid zones', is the first book by 30-year-old High Wycombe-born Charlotte Roche. For fans it is an erotic literary classic and an exploration of contemporary concepts of cleanliness and sex and femininity; for critics

The award of the 2008 Wodehouse prize for comic fiction to Will Self for his latest novel, The Butt, was literally inevitable since the day the shortlist was announced last month.

Old technology has a noble history of refusing to die. For decades, vinyl has defied the march of the compact disc. Radio was not killed by television. Nearly every desk in every office in the land is piled with barricades

It's like a Greek tragedy," says George Soros, with a smile playing around his lips. "You can see the trouble coming and you can't avoid it."

Education publisher HM Riverdeep's bankers are at an advanced stage in selling down $7.15bn (€4.8bn) of debt in the group - mainly relating to its planned $4bn (€2.7bn) deal to buy Reed Elsevier's Harcourt US education business.

The author Len Deighton has condemned the family of James Bond author Ian Fleming, accusing them of censorship and "bad taste".

The Observer's literary editor Robert McCrum stood down this month after more than 10 years in the job. And what a tumultuous 10 years. When he started it was a world of 'cigarettes, coffee and strong drink'. But that has

It's the latest ploy to get rich quick: create a quirky blog, solicit a following and-voilà!-six-figure book deal. Last year Collins signed the creators of the photo blog Passive Aggressive Notes for a reported six figures; Christian Lander, whose blog