Books

M W Craven with a copy of The Puppet Show (Image: GettyImages) Mike Craven wanted to mark the moment his bestselling books about murder and mayhem in the Lake District had done well enough for him not to need to go back to work in the Probation Service. But rather …

Eric Brown flying a Hawker P1040 (Image: Bonhams/Bournemouth News/REX/Shutterstoc) As conversation-stoppers go, Captain Eric Brown’s statement couldn’t have been more arresting: “Well, of course, the second time I met Hitler, it was different,” he said matter-of-factly. Suddenly you could hear a pin drop amidst the noisy gathering marking his 90th …

Eddie Redmayne, main, as Stephen Wraysford in BBC adaptation of Birdsong (Image: BBC) It was a question that endlessly haunted Sebastian Faulks during the writing in an astonishing six-month burst of creativity of Birdsong, his groundbreaking and bestselling novel of the First World War: “How far can you go?” As …

Sharron Davies with silver Olympic medal her father Terry had gold-plated (Image: Shutterstock) For Christmas a few years ago, former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies received a very unusual present from her father, Terry. Secretly, he had taken her Olympic silver medal and had it dipped in gold plate. It was …

Hero Herbert Castelow cycles between Michel and Gilbert Leduc in France (Image: Supplied) A SAS hero hid in plain sight as a mute butcher’s boy in a French village, to evade Nazis who were searching for him after a failed sabotage mission. Herbert Castelow pretended to be a cousin of …

Christina O’Connor with her dad (Image: FOCUS FEATURES) A victim of Britain’s largest sex grooming gang has told of the ongoing stigma that continues to punish her and many other victims, long after the abuse has ended. Almost every day for more than four years Christina O’Connor was raped, beaten …

Ex-FBI boss James Comey photographed exclusively for the Daily Express (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster) James Comey knows the exact moment his life changed forever. It was a Friday night, October 28, 1977, and the future head of the FBI was home alone with his 15-year-old brother. Comey, aged 16 and a …

Bram Stoker’s penniless widow was rescued from poverty by the Dracula author – from beyond the grave. Long-lost documents reveal he was one of the first writers in history to copyright his work. He took the groundbreaking step because the boom in Victorian theatre-going had led to the rise of …

It was as integral a part of post-war Sundays in Britain as roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and the Sunday Express. For 15 years, from 1957 to 1972, up to a quarter of the households in the country tuned in on Sunday lunchtime to listen to the latest escapades of …

Best-selling author Jo Nesbo has a specially imported desk with a stunning view across Oslo, the city which has been the backdrop for his Harry Hole thrillers for nearly two decades. But this is the one place at which the footballer-turned-author cannot write. Almost a decade ago, Jo revealed sitting …