Severed hands, crushed bones and a ‘monstrous mermaid with sharp teeth’: Reece Shearsmith on his dark obsessions

The League of Gentlemen and Inside No 9 co-creator has always displayed a sense of gothic unease, and his new book combines myth, memoir – and his own disquieting drawings

‘My first photographs coincided with me falling in love’: why children have always adored taking pictures

What makes someone pick up a camera at a young age, and what can their images tell us? A new book and show explore why a child’s first photo could be as formative as their first record

Incinerated novels and destroyed warehouses: Russia’s war on Ukrainian books

A Ukrainian publishing boom sparked by the 2022 invasion is now under threat from the force and frequency of Russian attacks

‘Starchitects go home’: what’s the truth behind Albania’s astonishing building boom?

Sixty top architecture firms from around the world have mooted 500 eye-catching projects across Albania, sparking fury and protests. Now they’re being celebrated in an 800-page tome that some are calling ‘a smoking gun’

Peter Howell obituary

Other lives: Classics lecturer at London University an stalwart of the Victorian Society

Previously unseen drawings by Moomins author Tove Jansson to go on show in London

Exclusive: Exhibition focusing on Finnish writer and artist’s illustrations will include original art from her first Moomins book

Simon Houfe obituary

Other lives: Writer dedicated to Avenue House, the remarkable home of his grandfather Professor Sir Albert Richardson, and its art collection

‘All the watering places are crammed with hot people’: on holiday with Dickens

Exhibition at Charles Dickens Museum in London looks at writer’s holiday pursuits, from Kent to the Isle of Wight

Iris Murdoch artworks from secret room go on display – including self-portrait

Second world war paintings and sketches show novelist ‘engaging with her world in a new light’

The Beverly Hills Housewife by James Cahill review – a trip inside Hockney’s world

Muse Betty Freeman sits at the centre of this sun-drenched book about art, eccentricity, and the spirit of Los Angeles

Love me, love my bruised ego: what the narcissist-artist film tells us about the fear of ageing

Bitter Christmas, Late Fame and The Christophers all depict geniuses aware of their waning acclaim and terrified it will end

Sphinxes, movie stars and 3m books: inside Los Angeles’s beloved art deco library

The showcase library’s centenary was celebrated by thousands who filled the still-relevant public institution

‘People are picking the dumbest fights’: the tortured history of America’s culture wars

In a new book, Isaac Butler goes back to the 1980s to trace how battles started against the arts, from Piss Christ to Mapplethorpe, and looks at what we can learn for today

Beth McKillop obituary

Museum curator and scholar with a special focus on Korean art

Depraved by Daisy Dixon review – a history of dark and dangerous art

From classical painting to video games, this survey of the taboo and the twisted won’t let you look away