Wendy Cope is one of our best-loved poets. Her latest book 鈥楲ife, Love and the Archers: Recollections, Reviews and Other Prose鈥� (Two Roads) contains recollections of childhood, television reviews of programmes including 鈥楧allas鈥�, 鈥楴eighbours鈥� and 鈥楾hirtysomething鈥�, and appreciations of poets such as A.E.Housman, Douglas Dunn, and George Herbert.

The historian and academic Joanna Bourke takes us on a journey through the language of pain. Different ages and cultures have found their own metaphors, and as Joanna explains, one man attempted to write a musical score for pain in the 19th century. Joanna鈥檚 latest book 鈥榃ounding the World鈥� shows how the language of pain is often avoided by ballistics specialists 鈥� she's found they turn to what she calls 鈥榖eautifying鈥� language instead. 鈥楾he Story of Pain鈥� is published by Oxford University Press, 鈥榃ounding the World鈥� by Virago.

The poet and novelist Tim Clare welcomes the word of the year, 鈥榁ape鈥� with a brand new commission for The Verb. His steam-punk tale 鈥楢 Case of The Vapers鈥� explores the imagistic resonance of a term we currently only associate with cigarette substitutes. Tim鈥檚 latest book 鈥楾he Honours鈥� (Canongate) is out in April.聽

The journalist Richard Lloyd Parry is the Asia Editor of The Times. As part of our series looking at 鈥楩oreign Books in a Foreign Land鈥�, Richard discusses the popularity of the half-Greek half-Irish writer Lafcadio Hearn in Japan. Hearn wrote at the turn of the 19th century, and is best known for his versions of Japanese ghost stories. Richard explains why he thinks Hearn鈥檚 approach to the culture still appeals to Japanese and non-Japanese readers alike.