Penelope Lively sees Northern Lights • Tim Mackintosh-Smith gets the shivers with M.R. James • David Gilmour revisits books he read as a child • Duff Hart-Davis smells something fishy • Mike Petty takes a trip to old Fleet Street • John Saumarez Smith is rushed off his feet • Christopher Rush pays tribute to the modest bard of Orkney • Irma Kurtz reflects on adultery • Jill Paton Walsh goes behind the Iron Curtain • Anthony Perry faces the end • Emma Tennant takes an unexpected phone call