Why Will did it their way

Will Wyatt, a loyal servant of the BBC, details his life as a corporation man. David Liddiment switches on to The Fun Factory

Historic library ready for new chapter

Refurbishment will mean treasures go on public display.

A wizard day out

John Crace on why JK Rowling's Harry Potter books have got children hooked on reading.

A blind eye to genocide

Through its non-intervention, the US has been complicit in the deaths of millions, claims Samantha Power in A Problem from Hell. Anthony Holden weighs the evidence

Man on a suicide mission

Robin McKie on two new biographies of the captain of Darwin's Beagle, who was destined for greatness but foundered on the rocks of his own madness

Cut-throats and comic books

In Clouds of Glory, philosopher Bryan Magee recounts vividly his childhood years on the mean streets of Hoxton, says Matthew Reisz

Study left with right result

Chris McManus, a psychologist at University College London, won the £10,000 Aventis science book prize yesterday for his book Left hand, Right Hand.

Blacklisted writer says illness clouded Orwell’s judgement

A founding member of the SDP who appeared onGeorge Orwell's list of communist sympathisersyesterday dismissed it as the work of a dying manwhose mind was clouded by illness and bitternessabout the Spanish Civil War.

Among Orwell’s suspects

The author's suspects

Blair’s babe

Did love turn Orwell into a government stooge?

Bootlegged, but it beat the Bard

Facsimile edition by the British Library enables comparison of the 'good' and 'bad' quartos of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

The composer who never grew up

Benita Eisler's retelling of the tragic story of the 'second Mozart', Chopin's Funeral, makes a vivid and inspiring read

Boy’s own botany

Ian Sansom enjoys a gripping life of tree-frogs and whiskers in Nicholas Wollaston's My Father, Sandy

Funny, peculiar

Nicholas Lezard finds much to savour in JL Carr's eccentric telling of an unconventional life, The Last Englishman