Picador author Laura Harrington (left) read The View on the Way Down by fellow Picador author Rebecca Wait (right). She fell in love with the book and decided she had to interview Rebecca for her blog Beyond the Margins. Here's the result - enjoy!

Author Qais Akbar Omar has selected the pictures that best capture the places and people in his book, A Fort of Nine Towers. He takes us from the fort itself across the stunning countryside of Afghanistan, via monuments destroyed in wars and thriving markets.

Set in Hampstead in the sweltering heat of the summer of 1989, Meeting the English follows Struan Roberts, a Scot newly arrived in London and bound for the house of Phillip Prys, a literary giant who has suffered a massive stroke and who now needs constant care. To Struan, the leafy streets of Hampstead and the excruciating heat of London are entirely foreign, as are the strange and careless people who live there. It is to be a life-changing summer . . .