Handpicked and home delivered: the book subscription services combating ‘decision fatigue’ The pandemic reignited Australia’s love of reading – and entrepreneurs are reaping the rewards
Reform business rates or risk a high street collapse, say firms Tesco, B&Q and Waterstones join call for tax change to save thousands of retail jobs and shops
Waterstones says paying furloughed staff minimum wage ‘would not be prudent’ Book chain says it is ‘sympathetic’ to petition signed by more than 100 staff in support of employees facing acute uncertainty on scheme
Gareth Jones obituary Other lives: Accomplished academic and best-selling author of business management books
Book sales defy pandemic to hit eight-year high Despite shops being closed for much of 2020, figures show Britons bought books in volume – although many authors continued to struggle
Indie bookshops defy Covid to record highest numbers for seven years There were 967 independents in the UK and Ireland at the end of last year, the most since 2013 - but the figure masks some closures
The Great British Reboot review – could Brexit really give Britain a boost? Alex Brummer’s timely book about our future correctly argues the UK must change, but for the wrong reasons
History tells how people act in pandemics – selfishly, but also with surprising altruism In his book A Journal of the Plague Year, Daniel Defoe describes 17th-century behavior that is unmistakably familiar today
‘It’s been a rollercoaster’: how indie publishers survived – and thrived – in 2020 When lockdown came in March, many small presses feared they would go out of business. But then came an outpouring of support from the public
English bookshops reopen, hoping for Christmas trade rescue after lockdown After calls to allow them to remain open during the second lockdown failed, the next three weeks will be vital for the sector
PRH owner Bertelsmann to buy Simon & Schuster in $2bn deal German media firm, already owner of the giant Penguin Random House, says acquisition of another major publisher is ‘approvable’ within monopoly rules
Pandemic drives ebook and audiobook sales by UK publishers to all-time high Printed book sales plunge in first six months of 2020 on back of shop and school closures
England’s bookshops should be classed as essential, booksellers argue Booksellers Association appeals to government to reopen England’s bookshops in second lockdown, as supermarkets and newsagents allowed to keep selling books
Hundreds of authors join signing initiative to support local bookshops Writers including Matt Haig, Malorie Blackman and Adam Kay are backing #SignForOurBookshops, autographing bookplates by Chris Riddell to boost trade
A new website for independent bookshops is just what the industry needs The high street is clearly facing disaster, but to survive it must make peace with the online world, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins