After his mother’s murder, the teenage Ellroy seemed lost to speed and alcohol – until his discovery of crime writing led to a different addiction

When distraught teenage Orla embarks on a secret pilgrimage to her mother’s grave, she meets a ‘mad hairy’ man with miraculous powers

St Cuthbert’s body, rescued from the ‘devilish Danes’, is carried for hundreds of years to its eventual shrine in Durham cathedral

Benjamin Netanyahu has won a staggering sixth term in office – but his alliance with the disreputable right is inching Israel close to catastrophe

The Revd Fergus Butler-Gallie regales us with stories of mistaken identity, hymns with erotic undertones and an archbishop’s surprising take on Lenten penance

A mathematics professor, who specialises in the idea of nothing, is approached by a would-be Bond villain with a dastardly plan of annihilation

But the big ideas seem mainly to consist in acquiring new skills – like boxing and baking – and flexing the imagination muscle

Nicholas Spencer insists they are – and his scientific knowledge is impressive. But do his religious arguments carry weight?