The multi-talented Sebastian Faulks can turn his hand to many types of fiction, from the large-scale drama of Birdsong and Charlotte Gray to the more intimate analysis of Human Traces – and he has been commissioned to write the new James Bond novel. He talks to Sunday Times Fiction Editor Peter Kemp about his work as a writer and latest his latest novel Engleby, a chilling portrait of the secret past of a journalist.

We are extremely proud to launch a new and completely original episode from Philip Pullman’s bestselling His Dark Materials. Once Upon a Time in the North is a companion volume to Lyra’s Oxford (though about double the length of that story) and set in Lyra Belacqua’s world before Lyra was born. It is the story of the tough American balloonist Lee Scoresby and the great armoured bear and Lyra’s guardian, Lorek Byrnison. The book recounts the very first meeting of these two heroes – Lee Scoresby and his hare daemon, Hester, crash land their trading balloon on to Novy Odense, a port in the far Arctic North, and so find themselves right in the middle of a political powder keg that threatens to explode into a street-fight. Honour is at stake and Lee is not a man to duck a matter of honour.

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Whose judgements are more trustworthy when it comes to books? Do amateur bloggers online do a better job than established literary critics in the press? Hear two highly regarded literary bloggers – Mark Thwaite, founder of ReadySteadyBook.com, and Lynne Hatwell, founder of dovegreyreader.typepad.com – battle it out with two professional critics – Sunday Times chief reviewer John Carey and broadcaster and journalist John Mullan.

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