In this week's New Statesman, Jonathan Derbyshire meets Philip Pullman, Ryan Gilbey reviews Roman Polanski's film adaptation of The Ghost, and our television critic Rachel Cooke is watching BBC documentaries.

Elsewhere, in music and performance: Rick Jones meets Russian conductor Semyon Bychkov, and Sanjoy Roy remembers choreographer Pina Bausch, while in books: Roy Hattersley reviews Philip Blond's Red Tory, Sophie Elmhirst sizes up Lucian Randall's book on Brass Eye creator Chris Morris, Richard Howitt reviews a book on the populist radical right in Poland, and Leo Robson takes a look at The Cambridge Companion to English Novelists.

There is an interview with Christopher Harvie, author of Broonland: The Last Days of Gordon Brown, as well as our usuals from radio critic Antonia Quirke, and columnist Will Self on his search for the perfect fish and chips.