‘When I had heard all the evidence, I leaned back and shut my eyes and began to think.’
Hercule Poirot
Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie

In the best detective novels, there’s always a dazzling twist at the end—Murder on the Orient ...

Newspapers thrive on human interest stories about interesting or unusual people. The story of one person’s experience makes something real. People who have shared the same experience will feel close; people who don’t have the same experience will fe...

The omniscient narrator has long been out of fashion, but research by Jonathan Leavitt and Nicholas Christenfeld has shown that reader enjoyment can be increased with spoilers. Narrators are also not all equal. Narrators in Anthony Trollope’s Bars...

Authors of fiction create their characters and have unlimited insight into their character’s emotions. Emotional involvement in a (fictional) character’s journey keeps readers immersed. Immersion is important because the more immersed a reader is, t...

Stories are usually told in the past tense; the reader reads the past in the present and transports herself into the present of the story world. Deviating from the past tense adds emphasis—something different is happening, something strange. Adults...

During this lockdown our virtual worlds have expanded with FaceTime for family, Teams meetings for colleagues, Skype dinners with friends, theatre on Youtube, and Salon’s online Book Club.

My first online bookclub was with Emma Jane Unsworth who...