‘Relentless’ focus on literacy undermines reading for pleasure, says report

New HarperCollins study finds that daily reading for pleasure among five- to 17-year-olds fell from 39% in 2012 to 25% in 2025

‘It’s not a story that’s over’: inside the battle against hatred in America

In The Secret War Against Hate, Pulitzer-prize finalist Steven J Ross looks back at those who infiltrated and prevented hate groups in the US

‘This is so taboo’: Kimberley Nixon on the hell of perinatal OCD – and how she survived it

After the birth of her son during lockdown, the Welsh actor was flooded by disturbing thoughts she couldn’t shake, a plunge into darkness and isolation. She discusses how it changed her and what helped her recover

Adelaide writers’ week sacrificed to save city’s prestigious arts festival, documents show

Briefings obtained by freedom of information warned a ‘cascade of withdrawals’ could lead to collapse of 2026 South Australian festival

Having Spent Life Seeking by Kae Tempest review – painfully earnest tale of trauma and transition

An ex-offender searches for meaning and beauty in the second novel from the spoken-word performer

This Dark Night by Deborah Lutz review – Emily Brontë’s world

Tactile details and a no-nonsense approach make this biography a refreshing change from more lurid fare

Zadie Smith: ‘I don’t know when I read men any more’

At a talk on her latest essay collection, Dead and Alive, Smith said she ‘sometimes’ reads male novelists, but more often seeks the wisdom of older female writers like Helen Garner

The Sheep Detectives review – Hugh Jackman gives a flock in baa-rking mad cosy crime caper

Jackman plays the farmer in this Babe-style feelgood family film about plucky sheep who help solve a murder

Famesick by Lena Dunham review – when celebrity causes side-effects

The Girls creator has endured brickbats and breakdowns – but she doesn’t always make it easy to feel sorry for her

‘I needed to be in that strange, flat place’: how an Orkney garden healed a writer

After her sister died, Victoria Bennett left Cumbria for the remote Scottish archipelago, where she learned to go with the ebb and flow of life

‘It’s still a no-go area’: German author Matthias Jügler on the trauma surrounding the GDR’s ‘stolen children’

The reaction among officials in Germany to his bestselling novel has been hostile. As Mayfly Season is published in the UK, its author explains why

I yearned to be a mother. Why did I feel nothing when my daughter was finally born?

I had presumed I would love her instantly – but a traumatic birth led to devastating numbness

Newly released letters reveal JD Salinger’s wariness over ‘second-rate reviewers’

Exclusive: Author asked to remove reference to his ‘Jewish-Irishness’ from book jacket of The Catcher in the Rye

‘I saw the backlash coming’: civil rights activist Kimberlé Crenshaw on America and race

She coined the term ‘intersectionality’ and helped to develop critical race theory, now her life’s work is under attack by Washington’s war on ‘woke’. As her memoir is published, the legal scholar explains why she’ll never stop speaking truth to power

Haruki Murakami to publish first novel to feature woman as lead character

The Tale of Kaho, out in July, will be 16th novel by Japanese author who has faced criticism for portrayal of women