Artistic licence

Although the prognosis for the economy in 2009 may be unremittingly grim, the arts will provide plenty of means of imaginative escape this year, with tales of superheroes, pot-smoking children and kinky sex (courtesy of Philip Roth) on the way - and hopefully plenty of reasons to be cheerful.

In the books world, 2009 promises to spill over with fiction from renowned authors. Martin Amis emerges with The Pregnant Widow next autumn, while ...