Award-winning author Iain Banks supports a historic change which he is unlikely to live to seeWhat I used to say, until 4 March this year, was that I did not expect Scottish independence to happen in autumn next year. I think the figures already looked a bit dismal, but I was certain it would happen in my lifetime.Of course, now it looks as though my lifetime won't extend until autumn next year....

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We have to stop state legislators from sneaking creationist and revisionist textbooks into public schoolsLouisiana's legislators are continuing their of the state's public school science classrooms. On 1 May, legislators killed a bill to repeal Louisiana's creationism law, the misnamed Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA).The law allows non-science to be snuck into science classrooms by...

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Cognitive scientist and philosopher Daniel Dennett is one of America's foremost thinkers. In this extract from his new book, he reveals some of the lessons life has taught him1 USE YOUR MISTAKESWe have all heard the forlorn refrain: "Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time!" This phrase has come to stand for the rueful reflection of an idiot, a sign of stupidity, but in fact we...

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Amsterdam to Wolf Hall, Booker winners and bestsellers – authors including JK Rowling, Hilary Mantel, Philip Pullman, Nick Hornby and Ian McEwan annotate their own first editions. The books will be auctioned at Sotheby's next week in aid of English PEN

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Film promising revelations about reclusive Catcher in the Rye author has been snapped up by movie mogul Harvey WeinsteinJD Salinger, the elusive author of The Catcher in the Rye, was one of America's most famous recluses and guarded his private life with fanatical dedication. Yet even he might have been impressed by the immense efforts being undertaken to keep details secret of a new documentary...

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The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5, has divided medical opinionThe field of mental health will face its greatest upset in years on Saturday with the publication of the long-awaited and deeply-controversial US manual for diagnosing mental disorders.Early drafts of the book, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental...

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More than 40 million people globally take an SSRI antidepressant, among them many writers and musicians. But do they hamper the creative process, extinguishing the spark that produces great art, or do they enhance artistic endeavour?Twenty-five years after pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly unleashed Prozac on the red-braced 80s, SSRIs are still the world's most popular antidepressants. They are...

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The Booker Prize-winner The Remains of the Day is Kazuo Ishiguro's most famous novel, but An Artist of the Floating World is his one book that I re-read at least once a year.

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There are more than a billion Muslims in the world, each with an individual view of life. So why are they viewed as a unified group, asks Mohsin Hamid, author of The Reluctant FundamentalistIn 2007, six years after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, I was travelling through Europe and North America. I had just published a novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and as I travelled I was...

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The bestselling author and digital pioneer shows his support for traditional bookshops.

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