Cliff Yates, Jeremy Seal, Debjani Chatterjee, Peter Forbes and Ian McMillan share their all-time favourite books, and explain why they matter.

Gillian Allnutt speaks with Geoff Hattersley about poetry and role models, her work with asylum seekers, and the contrasting influences of teaching and meditation on her writing.

Diana Evans takes us to a writer’s retreat in upstate New York, where she considers how race is a theme that seems imposed on black writers, obligating them to rage against racial injustice. Her characters, she says, have the right to be human first, 'to be ordinary.'

Cynan Jones considers place and authenticity in the storytelling process. 'Risk being unique or aim for palatable? That’s the choice, in writing as in wine-making.'