Sara Maitland takes us on a tour of the natural world on her bookshelf, from Robert Macfarlane's book on mountains, Paul Davies' exploration of the universe and Ken and Rod Preston-Mafham's ode to the 'pyschology of invertebrates'.

Every so often Susie Boyt finds a book that fills her with passion and kindles a sense of kinship between her and the author. From Henry James' In the Cage to Patrick Hamilton's Hangover Square, these are the books that inspire hero worship and drive her to write.

Ron Currie, author of his own gripping, artful and often amusing apocalytpic vision God Is Dead, takes us on a journey to the end of time, from the unique sci-fi of Kurt Vonnegut to the good old zombie yarns of Max Brooks.

The Iliad is one of the most enduring and emblematic stories history has ever given us. Adam Foulds, author of the remarkable narrative poem Broken Word, traces its subject - the Trojan War - through centuries of literature and finds the rich cluster of stories it spurned endure into the present day.

Rebecca Abrams' new novel Touching Distance tells the story of a brilliant but largely unrecognised doctor working in 18th century Aberdeen. Here she talks about the books, from writers as diverse as Hilary Mantel and Mikhail Bulgakov, which provided her with both a model and an inspiration.

Steve Toltz, author of A Fraction Of The Whole was recently named at The Hay Festival as 21 of the most exciting writers of the moment. He writes of living in Barcelona and Paris, about the peculiar freedom of writing away from home and those, including John Fowles and Henry Miller, who have found the same.

Tom Coghlan, The Economist's man in Afghanistan, on why the best war reportage is seldom about the fighting itself.