The poetic facts of life
Tim Radford: By showing science is as much about questions as answers, popular science writing can overcome mistrust.
Clashes of culture
This week the British Academy, in collaboration with the ICA, will debate the relevance of modern literary theory. Are academics lost in ideas, or do the media lack understanding of literature? Here Jonathan Dollimore puts his case.
Desperately seeking love – and a book deal
American psychologist Robert Epstein has received more than 300 letters in response to his appeal for a woman to participate in an experiment in which he and the successful applicant will try to fall in love with each other.
Vorderman’s taming of the Bard
Carol Vorderman proclaimed herself 'more interesting than Shakespeare' after one of her learning aids for children beat the older author in a list of bestselling school textbooks. By John Ezard.
Projectile mapping
Without Mercator, the world would be an altogether flatter place. Geographer Nicholas Crane tells the story of the man who mapped planet Earth
The one-hit wonder
If Mark Gertler had spent less time womanising, he might have been a better artist, as Sarah MacDougall's biography shows
The muse and the widger
She led a life of glamorous scandal, but was Vita Sackville-West any good? Hermione Lee reads Mary Ann Caws's selection of her writings
Nights with the honey monster
Andrea Lynn's Shadow Lovers reveals the unlikely Lothario that was the short, fat, balding HG Wells
Topping up the Queen’s chocolate
Kathryn Hughes on the latest reworking of the life of Sarah Churchill, Ophelia Field's The Favourite
In the shadow of the men
As Brenda Maddox's biography of Rosalind Franklin is published, Hilary Rose wonders if the genius of the 'dark lady of DNA' will ever be recognised
‘I am headed for higher ground’
Reading A Song Flung Up to Heaven, the final instalment of Maya Angelou's memoir, is a painful but moving experience
Music and silence
Clara is a virtuoso performance of the life of Clara Schumann, piano prodigy and wife of composer Robert
He climbed inside faces
A Maverick Eye: The Street Photography of John Deakin takes a snapshot of the 'wizened, acned dwarf' of 1960s Soho who documented city lives