Under ice / Iain Banks -- The brass bar / Louis de Bernières -- Born again / Anne Billson -- Listed for trial / Tibor Fischer -- Lessons in inhaling / Esther Freud -- Sharps and flats / Alan Hollinghurst -- The gourmet / Kazuo Ishiguro -- Failing to Fall / A.L. Kennedy -- Reference points / Philip Kerr -- Eight arms to hold you / Hanif Kureishi -- Letters from Wellfleet / Adam Mars-Jones -- The many colours of blood / Candia McWilliam -- A Bosnian alphabet / Lawrence Norfolk -- A bizarre courtship / Ben Okri -- West / Caryl Phillips -- Scale / Will Self -- Wavery's last post / Nicholas Shakespeare -- Heavy weather / Helen Simpson -- The poetics of sex / Jeanette Winterson.