Children’s authors welcome Ofsted’s move to lighten stress on testing

Writers including Frank Cottrell Boyce and Piers Torday cheer announcement that the schools inspectorate will now reward a broader style of education

Can the language of the Vikings fight off the invasion of English?

Icelandic has retained its literary vigour since the Sagas, but TV and tourism are a growing threat

Novel news: world’s biggest bookworms revealed in study

Researchers reveal having more books at home when growing up, even if you don’t necessarily read more, improves educational outcomes

GCSE textbook condemned for racist Caribbean stereotypes

Outcry over ‘sweeping generalisations’ in Hodder Education sociology book

Nicholas Faith obituary

Journalist and scourge of the establishment who tempered his criticism when writing about the wine trade

George Parfitt obituary

Other lives: Literary scholar, teacher and poet with a special interest in the 17th century

Nobel laureate urges Nigeria’s youth to stand for election and oust ‘old fogies’

Wole Soyinka bemoans attacks on girls’ education and calls on young people to mobilise politically in run-up to February poll

David Coates obituary

Other lives: Political economist, author and liberal thinker who embraced the role of public intellectual

David Lowenthal obituary

Scholar who established heritage studies as an academic discipline in its own right

David Watkin obituary

Architectural historian and supporter of the classical tradition

The Coddling of the American Mind review – how elite US liberals have turned rightwards

Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt’s book sets out to rescue students from ‘microaggressions’ and identity politics. But perhaps they merely resist change that might undermine them

Oxford English Dictionary asks teenagers to explain modern slang

OED wants young people to share their ‘particularly elusive’ language, as it evolves through media such as Snapchat and WhatsApp

William Shakespeare: father’s legal skirmishes shed light on bard’s early years

Newly found documents in the National Archives show the playwright’s father John was harassed by Crown informers, which may have influenced his attitude to power and class

What’s behind Mark Zuckerberg’s man-crush on Emperor Augustus?

The Facebook founder’s bromantic hero was a canny operator who was obsessed with power and overrode democracy

Brazil National Museum: as much as 90% of collection destroyed in fire

Building was not insured, the museum’s deputy director said, but some pieces survived including the Bendegó meteorite