Jill Paton Walsh remembers her friend Austen Kark and his Attic in Greece • Justin Cartwright reflects on the meaning of animals in fiction • Anthony Perry recalls the strange case of the novel that escaped from Dartmoor • John Keay enjoys a new magical vision of Calcutta • Frances Wood visits Lhasa with Sherlock Holmes • Belinda Hollyer enjoys an exceptional new novel for adolescents • Duff Hart-Davis follows Candida Lycett-Green on horseback across the Yorkshire Dales • Anthony Sattin revisits the Egypt of Waguih Ghali’s Beer in the Snooker Club • Rachel Campbell-Johnston listens in to J.H. Prynne