Stubborn gristle: the gory souvenir Mary Shelley kept after her husband’s death
An action in keeping with ‘Frankenstein’.
Books
Did Oscar Wilde really say, “I have nothing to declare except my genius”?
Did Oscar Wilde ever say his legendary quote?
The books that made “something click” in the head of Stephen King
“I thought, ‘That’s real, that could really happen.’”
“That’s Absurd, Ref”: How football shaped Albert Camus’ philosophy
The French philosopher was a football fanatic.
Captive in broad daylight: the sickening true crime that inspired Vladimir Nabokov to write ‘Lolita’
The novelist was inspired by a horrifying mid-century crime.
Criminal obsession: The three years Elmore Leonard ruled Hollywood
A sudden interest in the crime icon.
“I started seeing crabs”: the story of Jean-Paul Sartre’s crazy mescaline trip
The bad trip of an early literary psychonaut.
The absurd story of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s fake execution
The Russian novelist escaped death by a “hairsbreadth”.
The Sabres of Paradise: The book that inspired Frank Herbert’s ‘Dune’
A spark ignited by Lesley Blanch.