Sharp rise in parents seeking to ban anti-racist books in US schools
The American Library Association’s annual Top 10 ‘most challenged’ books is usually dominated by LGBTQ+ reading, but 2020 registered other anxieties
Those Who Can, Teach by Andria Zafirakou review – a lesson in education
A prizewinning teacher makes clear how little government understands about what goes on in schools
Louis de Bernières reveals ‘extreme cruelty’ he suffered at prep school
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin author says the school, where he boarded from the age of eight, delivered routine violence and abuse to its pupils
Frances Harris obituary
Historian who made her name with biographies of leading figures in Stuart Britain
‘Dare to believe’: young writers on their dreams of the sea
To mark the UN’s ocean decade, contestants were asked to write imaginatively on ‘10 years in the ocean’
Jonathan Steinberg obituary
Historian whose work Bismarck: A Life is considered the best study of its subject in the English language
Jane Monckton Smith: ‘Domestic abuse isn’t a row. It’s when one person has become a threat to another’
The author and professor of public protection on the red flags of coercive control and how courts should change to give abuse victims an equal voice
It’s never too late: elderly high-achievers
Joe Biden may have become US president at 78, but imagine becoming a comedian at 89 or writing your first book at 94. We talk to six senior high-flyers…
‘Put down our chisels and pick up our watering cans’: how to raise girls in a challenging world
Appearing at Guardian Australia’s Zoom book club, authors Kasey Edwards and Madonna King shared their research and wisdom with Lucy Clark
Byron Criddle obituary
Other lives: Academic political scientist who produced works on 20th-century French and British politics
What speed reading has taught me about taking my time
I wish I could whip through books, but slow reading can be good too. Try reading The Wind in the Willows at a snail’s pace to appreciate its mystery and beauty, writes Adrian Chiles
Birmingham library brings Shakespeare to life in dozens of languages
The largest Shakespeare collection in a public library is launching Everything to Everybody, with films and readings in most of the city’s 93 languages
Fears rise that Polish libel trial could threaten future Holocaust research
Case brought in wake of rightwing government criminalising blame of Polish nation for Nazi crimes could have implications for further research
‘Price gouging from Covid’: student ebooks costing up to 500% more than in print
Call for inquiry into academic publishers as locked-down students unable to access study material online
Drexciya: how Afrofuturism is inspiring calls for an ocean memorial to slavery
The alternative Black history of a deep-sea civilisation planted the seed for ideas on how to memorialise the 1.8 million Africans who died in the Atlantic