The Guardian view on the Booker: one award with hundreds of judges
Editorial: Many have an opinion on the latest winner of the UK’s top literary prize, Shehan Karunatilaka. It’s a shame not all of them have read his book
Alis Lesley: the ‘female Elvis’ who takes centre stage on Bob Dylan’s new book cover
Positioned between Little Richard and Eddie Cochran is a rock’n’roll star who had a short-lived music career. So why has Dylan chosen this relative unknown to front his essay collection?
Prima-donna dramas and hedonist paintings: the best culture about Europe
From misty travelogues to the bitchiest of bureaux, our critics select music, tv, literature, art and film that celebrates life on the continent
Nick Hornby on Dickens and Prince: ‘They were both superstars in their own lifetimes’
The author on the twin heroes of his new book, and the different challenges of screenwriting and novels
On my radar: Angela Hartnett’s cultural highlights
The chef on Stanley Tucci in a new BBC murder drama, the charms of San Francisco and meeting her musical hero
Top 10 road novels
Quests across continents, journeys into the past, family holiday disasters or wild dreams of a new life – here are your escape routes
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile review – lip-smackingly good fun with the CGI singing croc
Shawn Mendes voices the much-loved character of the reptile discovered in a pet shop, but it’s Javier Bardem’s flamboyant showman who steals the film
On my radar: Beth Orton’s cultural highlights
The singer-songwriter on the trials of a Macedonian beekeeper, yoga to fall asleep to and a favourite Suffolk walk
Three things with Craig Silvey: ‘I wrote songs, many of them unforgivably awful’
In our weekly interview about objects, the hit Australian author tells us about moonlighting as an electric ukulele player – and the childhood stories he wrote
Emma Thompson, Daniel Craig, Harry Styles: London film festival brings out the big guns
Opening on Wednesday, this year’s festival will host 164 feature films, from Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical to Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
The friend zone: art, music, films and more about platonic love
From Michelangelo’s male muse to Sex Education’s best pals, we pick five passionate but ultimately chaste partnerships
A Ballet of Lepers by Leonard Cohen review – intimations of immortality
A fascinating collection of early fiction foreshadows motifs and concerns that Cohen the performer later mined across decades
In brief: Three Times a Countess; Queen High; Nina Simone’s Gum – review
An eye-opening biography of Raine Spencer; an exciting counterfactual novel set in postwar Britain; and Warren Ellis’s witty account of devotion
Verse, Chorus, Monster! by Graham Coxon review – Britpop’s unlikely lad
In a disarmingly candid memoir, the Blur guitarist relates the madness of fame and addiction, his unease with Britpop, and how folk led him to greener pastures
A Ballet of Lepers by Leonard Cohen review – violent literary beginnings
A novella and short stories from the 1950s showcase Cohen’s fascinating self-fashioning, but also a taint of bitterness