Reading Lessons by Carol Atherton review – breathing new life into old texts
How one teacher wrestles meaning and relevance from classics of English literature
Who has been treated most unfairly by history?
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts
Bernardine Evaristo joins calls to save Goldsmiths’ Black British literature MA
Booker-winning author says course ‘shouldn’t be seen as dispensable’ as university seeks to cut 130 academic jobs
‘We may lose ability to think critically at all’: the book-summary apps accused of damaging authors’ sales
A tech sector dedicated to boiling things down has raised temperatures in some quarters of the publishing world
‘Teenagers are exhausting’: Teacher and author Carol Atherton on why her profession deserves more respect
The Head of English at a Lincolnshire secondary school discusses the crisis in education and her mission to make literature live for a new generation
Vernor Vinge obituary
Sci-fi author and computer scientist who coined the term ‘the Singularity’ to describe the rapid acceleration of AI
Did you solve it? Lewis Carroll for insomniacs
The answers to today’s puzzles
‘I don’t think I developed emotionally’: Earl Spencer on the pain of boarding-school abuse
The brother of Diana, princess of Wales, talks about his difficult decision to write about being physically and sexually abused and the resistance he faced from members of his own class
Barbara Megson obituary
Other lives: Historian and author who liked to research everyday lives and unsung organisations
Phil Baines obituary
Graphic designer whose distinctive typographic work graced Penguin book covers, museum signage and London monuments
‘You’re gay, sir, innit?’: As a teacher, I kept my sexuality a secret – until I couldn’t
Would coming out to my pupils start a useful conversation – or spark chaos?
World Book Day: cost of living pushes schools to ditch dress-up plans
Some schools report that the annual call for children to wear book-themed costumes has been dropped to avoid further stretching family budgets
Lack of support for children in England leading to ‘literacy crisis’
Crisis could cost economy £830m for each school year group, according to new research
Terrible news for pedants as Merriam-Webster relaxes the rules of English
It’s fine to end a sentence with a preposition, according to a shock ruling from the American dictionary publisher. But is it OK to recklessly split infinitives?
Author Khaled Hosseini on book bans in the US: ‘It betrays students’
Hosseini’s The Kite Runner has joined a growing list of titles ‘under review’ or challenged by school boards, with nearly 5,894 books banned from July 2021 to June 2023