Salman Rushdie and Bernardine Evaristo on shortlist for more diverse UK exam texts
OCR board asks teachers to vote on books to make A-level and GCSE English courses more inclusive
Children read more challenging books in lockdowns, data reveals
Report on reading habits of more than one million children also finds they read longer books, particularly during school closures
Children’s laureates campaign for £100m a year to fix primary school libraries
Current laureate Cressida Cowell leads demands to ringfence funds to renew ‘deteriorating’ facilities that fail to appeal to students
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