It's a book about magic which tries to take magic seriously," says author James Treadwell of his début, Advent (Hodder, February). "It's not a classic portal fantasy where you jump into another world. It's a story about magic coming into our world and [the characters] being forced to confront it, deal...

Firstly, I should probably admit I haven't read everything on this year's Man Booker longlist (to be completely honest I haven't even read half of the list, even though it feels like I spend pretty much all my time reading—but such is the volume of stuff published).

My first reaction to the longlist is shock—I...

There are some writers whose name will always be associated with their first book. Joe Simpson was a 28-year-old climber when Touching the Void was published in 1988, a gripping account of his survival in the Peruvian Andes which has become a mountaineering classic. His latest book, however, is a novel.

The Sound of Gravity...