Paul Auster: ‘The right to own a gun in the US is seen as a kind of holy grail’

In their new book, the novelist and his photographer son-in-law document the sites of mass shootings in the US and argue for urgent change in the relationship between Americans and guns

I learned the hard way that Fay Weldon was as sharp-witted as her characters

I jumped at the chance to interview her, but regretted it almost at once after being reminded of a bad review I wrote

Black Panthers, punks and brutalist buildings: the micro-publisher exploring Britain’s lost past

Every week, Café Royal publishes books highlighting forgotten architecture or subcultures, celebrating the work of amateur and professional photographers. And they cost less than a London pint

On my radar: Katy Hessel’s cultural highlights

The art historian and broadcaster on the joys of Emma Corrin’s Orlando, and the exhibition that she has seen three times already

Ann Mactaggart obituary

Other lives: Teacher and accomplished seamstress who became well known for the restoration of harpsichords

In A Time of Panthers: Jeffrey Henson Scales photographs Black history

An absorbing pictorial history of a key component of the Black Power movement shows its relevance has not receded today

Africa’s biggest photography library opens in Ghana

Ghanaian photographer’s crowdfunded project won support of Humans of New York author and boasts more than 30,000 books

Top 10 polar photobooks

From Stefan Christman’s absorbing studies of emperor penguins to Sebastião Salgado’s stunning images of unpeopled wilderness, these are richly rewarding voyages for armchair explorers

Hilma af Klint: A Biography by Julia Voss review – portrait of the painter as a mystic

The Swedish abstract artist who conversed with the dead is described as a woman years ahead of her time in this scholarly, sympathetic study

The big picture: Bill Brandt’s windows into the mind

The Anglo-German photographer’s evocative 1955 portrait typifies the tension he created between person and place

On my radar: David Shrigley’s cultural highlights

The darkly comic artist on being starstruck by Pavement, dining mid-river and a football team he can really get behind

The big picture: Bruno Barbey captures life on the road in 1960s Palermo

The Magnum photographer’s image of a family in Sicily recalls Fellini and Visconti in its romantic depiction of everyday Italian life

‘Pull back the shroud of mystery’: Joan Didion’s revealing estate sale

The often secretive author’s belongings will be available to bid for at an expansive and eye-opening auction

Cinema’s unquenchable thirst for vampires celebrated in posters

The author of a new visual history of bloodsucker films talks about their enduring appeal - and picks some of his favourite posters

Henri Cartier-Bresson: new edition of French photographer’s work published

Eleventh edition of Photographe showcases photographer who was known as ‘the eye of the century’