Love Patricia Highsmith? Her life story will make you hate her. The creator of Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr Ripley was an absolute goer, according to a new documentary about her energetic lesbian love life. Fine, but what about her misanthropy, racism and alcoholism, asks Charlotte Mendelson…

Charlotte Mendelson salutes an underrated author with no time for happy endings or comeuppances

I have discovered perfection, the perfect colour; it is red-and-blue.

This startlingly ugly room is where I try to write. But, awful as it looks, the Useless Room, aka the Hopeless Room, represents progress. Until recently, I worked in a sea of Sticklebriks in the sitting-room

The author describes her best distraction techniques, the odd people she meets in the British Library, and the occasional triumphs of a typical working day

Flowers, pah! They’re just a waste of space. The novelist on why her garden is all about ‘growing stuff that I can eat’