Real readers devour novels. Book-club members believe that one book a month will make them erudite, in much the same way a daily vitamin pill will prevent cancer.

Study shows Amazon reviewers more likely to look favourably on debut authors, while professionals prefer prizewinners

Please Don't Stop The Music scoops the annual Romantic Novel of the Year award

War Horse author Michael Morpurgo and journalist John Pilger are among the guests at this year's London Literature Festival.

A list of book club rules has been drawn up by the influential Middle Class Handbook website to help with a harmonious event. Top of the list is to avoid George Eliot's classic at all costs.

Holocaust survivor Aharon Appelfeld becomes the oldest recipient of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize at 80.

Carlos Fuentes, one of the most famous Latin American authors, known for fiction and political essays, dies in Mexico at the age of 83.

Edward Lear, the artist who popularised the modern-day limerick, has been honoured with a green plaque in London.

Author Jeanette Winterson is to become a professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester.

Though ignored by the literary establishment, the Prophet is widely thought to stand alongside the Bible as one of the best-selling books of all time.