Colm Toibin

Novelists such as Colm Tóibín and Naomi Alderman are breathing new life into the gospels.

Hilary Mantel’s Man Booker-winning <em>Wolf Hall</em> was up for the Costa Novel Award, but Colm T&oacute;ib&iacute;n’s <em>Brooklyn</em> got the nod.

Three hundred years ago Samuel Johnson declared that "no man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money". Irish novelist Colm Toibin afrees.