Top 10sFictionThe top 10 hotel novelsFrom Robert Bloch's Psycho to Chekhov's Lady With the Dog, Mark Watson explores the magnetism of hotels for novelists Read more writers' top 10s The hotel is a seductive setting for a writer. It houses a wide spectrum of people who do not know each other, yet who spend nights under the same roof and are affected by one another's behaviour in ways they may not be conscious of: they hear each other's bathwater draining away, they catch snippets of conversations in the lifts.

A guide to contemporary classical musicClassical musicA guide to Luigi Nono's musicFew composers have understood as keenly as Nono did that every musical decision also has social and political ramifications, but there is more to his work than the overtly politicalLuigi Nono's music was never going to change the world. There's a cliche that the Italian composer's trenchant political convictions, and the stream of pieces he wrote with avowedly protesting or politically radical titles and messages – the music theatre pieces Intolleranza (which caused a partisan riot at its premiere in 1961 at La Fenice in Venice) and Al gran sole carico d'amore, his anti-fascist orchestral and choral masterpiece from the mid-50s Il canto sospeso, his experimental anti-capitalist cantata for soprano and tape La fabbrica illuminata, or the violent expressionism of the partly improvised A floresta è jovem e cheja de vida – are narrow-minded pieces of agitprop that beat their audiences over the head with superficial sloganising and alternately despairing or utopian imagery.

OpinionWeddings This article is more than 12 years oldCounting the cost of a hobo weddingThis article is more than 12 years oldKirsten HansenA US couple's 'Depression-era' nuptials cost $15,000. But that's less than the wedding industrial complex would likeOver the past week, bridal online communities have been all-aflutter over what's been dubbed Sarah Hunt and Brian Brown's "hobo wedding", which first appeared on the Etsy Handmade Weddings blog. The American couple chose a "

‘I love this music’ … Leif Ove Andsnes Photograph: Helge Hansen/Sony Music Entertainment‘I love this music’ … Leif Ove Andsnes Photograph: Helge Hansen/Sony Music EntertainmentClassical musicReviewLeif Ove Andsnes (Sony) Dvořák’s collection of miniatures is surprisingly little known. This enchanting new recording reveals a composer fascinated by the small complexities of the world around him ‘I love this music and no-one seems to play it.” It’s only a slight exaggeration on Leif Ove Andsnes’s part to say that about Dvořák’s Poetic Tone Pictures; this beautifully recorded release is one of only a handful available, and he is the highest profile of today’s pianists to have recorded this baker’s dozen of miniatures.

Picture books This article is more than 3 years oldGuess How Much I Love You author Sam McBratney dies aged 77This article is more than 3 years oldThe Northern Irish author was best known for his story of Little Nutbrown Hare and Big Nutbrown Hare, which sold more than 50m copies Sam McBratney, the author of the bestselling picture book Guess How Much I Love You, has died at the age of 77.