Interview: Elie Wiesel

Acclaimed Holocaust writer Elie Wiesel has found fame with a new generation of readers after Oprah Winfrey endorsed his book, Night.

Several years ago, Elie Wiesel's publisher suggested that he have Night, the account of life in the concentration camps which originally made his name, retranslated from the original Yiddish.

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Interview: Howard Jacobson

Howard Jacobson explains the issues he has with rabbis, Philip Roth and Woody Allen - and why that makes him feel more haimishe than ever.

Howard Jacobson quite reasonably describes himself as "entirely and completely Jewish". Put him in a room together with a rabbi, and you will get Jewish electricity - an especially intense connection.

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Interview: Ruby Wax

Ruby Wax is the queen of rapid-fire comedy. But, as she tells Simon Round, humour hasn't healed the legacy of depression left by her Shoah-survivor parents - and so she trained as a psychotherapist

You do not need to research Ruby Wax particularly deeply to know she had a problem childhood. Over the years, her comedy has been peppered with lines about the strange upbringing by her eccentric and neurotic parents.

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Adam Godley: Mr shy and mighty

Adam Godley is one of Britain's finest actors. He is also one of Britain's quietest, with an extreme reluctance to talk about himself.

In a windowless South London room, those involved in the world premiere West End stage version of the multi Oscar-winning movie Rain Man are taking a break. First to the kettle is producer Nica Burns, who looks remarkably calm considering that her production has changed directors. David Grindley had to drop out for family reasons, so Terry Johnson has dropped in.

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How Helen Hunt did God

Hollywood star Helen Hunt has received acclaim for directing and acting in Then She Found Me, the story of an observant woman who has a crisis of faith after facing betrayal.

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Hannah Frank: The artist who finally won recognition at 100

In the 1920s, artist Hannah Frank signed her drawings Al Aaraaf, a name she took from a poem by Edgar Allan Poe. A footnote to the poem explains that Al Aaraaf was a mysterious star that suddenly appeared in the heavens, grew brighter and brighter for a few days, and then suddenly disappeared, never to be seen again. This was how Frank saw herself: as someone who would shine brightly for a short time and then disappear.

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My breakfast with Larry David

A few days ago, I was eating breakfast at The Regency ("Home of the Power Breakfast") Hotel in New York.

At the next table was a bald, middle-aged man in glasses, in a dark grey T-shirt and black shirt jacket reading The New York Times.

"Larry!" I said.

He didn't look up.

"Larry!"

He looked up.

I smiled and leant towards him, my hand outstretched.

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Jerry Springer: ‘I was a poor refugee’

Jerry Springer was born in a London Tube station during a Nazi bombing raid. As a child he dreamt of driving the 102 around Finchley. That's until he moved to New York and became a talk-show celebrity

Hopefully, one day they will get around to putting up a blue plaque to mark Jerry Springer's place of birth. If they do, many JC readers might see it on their way to work because Springer, one of America's most famous faces, was born at East Finchley tube station in North London on a cold winter's night in 1944, during a Nazi bombing raid.

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Julie Burchill: Brash, outspoken and wishing she was Jewish

‘Beautiful and exceptionally intelligent': Julie's views on Jews. Meet Israel's staunchest supporter in the UK media - a working-class former punk from Bristol who's responsible for some of the most entertaining journalism of the past 30 years.

Almost the first words Julie Burchill utters as she opens the door of her Brighton flat are: "Did you go on the rally?" She is referring to the Salute-to-Israel rally at the end of June and which she says was the occasion for her first trip up to London in two years.

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Jonathan Freedland: Why my alter-ego does fiction

Sam Bourne, best-selling thriller writer, is in fact political journalist Jonathan Freedland. He tells us about his dual identity - and the relative freedom of novels

When you think of a thriller-writer called Sam Bourne, what image does the name conjure up? Perhaps a cross between Andy McNab and Frederick Forsyth, a hard-drinking ex-mercenary who has roughed it in equatorial Africa, maybe someone who is familiar with the sleazy backstreets of Moscow, London and New York.

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