In 2003, Khaled Hosseini released his début novel The Kite Runner (Bloomsbury)—10 years later, with just two books, he has gone on to sell more than 38 million copies worldwide and generated more than £23m through UK tills. A publishing sensation, his next book And the Mountains Echoed (Bloomsbury, May),...

When the news came to The Bookseller last year that James Heneage had inked a three-book deal with Quercus my first thought, perhaps like many in the trade, was: oh, the former boss of Ottakar’s. I’m sure it was hard for him to get a book deal.

I tell Heneage this when we meet at the bar at the top of Waterstones...

Nora Eldridge is angry. She is fuming, she is outraged, she is 38 years old, single, alone, reliable, quiet and on the verge of disappearing. She is the woman upstairs.

The Woman Upstairs (Virago, May) is Claire Messud’s fifth novel and one she wanted to write in part because, “as a reader I have always enjoyed...

Most writers love a bit of praise from fans, but Peter James admits to being ill at ease when he was told in Marbella last year: “I like your books, especially the last one—the torture was really good.”   

Disconcerting words, but adding a bit of spice was the fact that James was talking to a British bar...