Ben East

Whether you are looking for the perfect present for someone to treasure or simply a great festive read

Austrian pianist Rudolf Buchbinder will play all of the German great’s piano concertos at Abu Dhabi Classics this week. He tells Ben East why he has devoted his life to the composer’s work

Playwright Suhayla El-Bushra tells us how Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum became a Baghdad bazaar

For Sulaiman, who fled Syria in 2011, his novel was written as a way of making sense of a situation he realised that no one fully understood in Syria, let alone outside its borders

That the 29-year-old debut novelist was in contention for the prize was not just an achievement, but a real surprise

Ahead of her debut album, the singer tells us how music from the far corners of the Earth inspires her sense of purpose in life

The New Zealander, who was bemused by her place on the Instapoet bandwagon, tells us that her audience in Sharjah can expect to learn about authenticity in storytelling

Pakistani author’s perspective on his country is told by writing and opera

Set 10 years before His Dark Materials begins, La Belle Sauvage revels in fruity language and explores philosophy and science

Hany Abu-Assad’s Hollywood debut tries to tear up the plane-crash film template

As the literary world awaits this year’s Man Booker Prize winner, we review the short and longlists

The Romantic era, which is central to this year’s edition of Abu Dhabi Classics, was an uncompromising jump-off point for classical music that still resonates today

In Manhattan Beach, the determined Anna Kerrigan is the first female ship-repair diver in Brooklyn’s Naval Yard, caught up in a familiar world of mobsters and family secrets

Here are our predictions of who will be on this year's Booker Shortlist