Author Miscellany

Some links to recent articles on authors from The Guardian. :

The birds have something to tell us again, and the truths are not comfortable ones.

Margaret Atwood writes with passion about how birds have been potent symbols through the ages, but how we ignore their decline at out peril; and she throws some thought-provoking statistics our way. Atwood's latest novel, After the Flood, is of course an account of a future world where most wildlife has become extinct and the human race might well not make it either.

Super power! I was not aware that I had even an ordinary power!

Canadian author Joyce Carol Oates (right) answers a Q&A about her life in The Guardian. Oates best known for her short fiction has two novels out this week : A Fair Maiden and Little Bird Of Heaven.

Stephen King, the well-known rock-star (pictured here with Amy Tan!) makes an appearance on Shooter Jennings latest album.

Here's what happened – I had a nervous breakdown. I was on a book tour. My marriage went to shit. I fell in love with a woman in San Francisco. A leftwing woman named Joan. Red Goddess Joan. It went bad. Big time. Fucking. Bad. I got the fuck out of LA. Then I met a married, pregnant woman . . .

Crime writer James Ellroy (left) talks candidly to David Peace about the mess his life became and how that worked its way into his writing.

Authors pay tribute to celebrated writers (including JG Ballard, Sybille Bedford, Saul Bellow) who died in the "noughties".

And just for a bit of fun ... Reading Copy asks which pet does your favourite author most look like? (Joan Didion and a Squirrel Monkey? Jodi Picoult and a Poodle??)