'Even on bad writing days there was something I could spend time finding out' Lots of the rules for writing non-fiction are just the same as they are for writing fiction ("Put one word after another", 20 February). Whether it's biography, history, astronomy or anything else that comes in the category of factual, you need to be at your desk just as early (or at least as long) as if y...

An operatic version of the book is on the way, making me wonder which other novels would lend themselves to orchestral arrangements? Ian McEwan has history when it comes to musical interpretations – back in 1982, he collaborated with composer Michael Berkeley on the anti-nuclear weapons oratorio Or Shall We Die? In 2008, he worked (with Berkeley again) on the opera For You, a story of sexual...

A midcentury design history charts the weird course of progress

Helen picked her way back home using the less traveled streets and alleys, avoiding the larger thoroughfares such as Nguyen Hue, where trouble was likely. When she first came to Saigon, full of the country's history from books, it had struck her out little any of the Americans knew or cared about the country, how they traveled the same streets day after day - Nguyen Huge, Hai Ba Trung, Le Loi - wi...

Did you know that carrots were white or purple until the familiar variety was created by 16th century Dutch growers as a tribute to William I, Prince of Orange? Or that the first farmers were "invariably less healthy", due to a more restricted diet and heavier work-load, than their hunter-gatherer predecessors? Dense in revelations, An Edible History of Humanity demonstrates how food has continual...