Michele Hanson obituary
Writer whose Guardian columns took the dross of the everyday as the basis for perceptive, funny and unflinching observation
Dolly Parton gives 100 millionth free book to children
The country star’s Imagination Library initiative, set up as a tribute to her illiterate father, reaches major milestone
World Book Day 2018: teachers, send us pictures of your costumes
Which literary character are you dressing up as this year? Share your pictures and be part of a worldwide celebration of books and reading
Don’t knock kids for rereading books. Encourage them to read, full stop
A report that blames children for returning to old favourites misunderstands what reading is all about, says Andrew McCallum, director of the English and Media Centre
The many tongues of Lost in Books, the only bookstore in Fairfield
Most of Fairfield, in Sydney’s west, speaks a language other than English – and now it has a bookstore to match
‘She changed my world’: how a teacher saved me after my mum died
My world was rocked at the age of 12 – but my extraordinary English teacher helped me through it. Now we’re reconnecting
Is this woman the next Philip Glass? And why is she wearing a loudspeaker?
Rolex is paying a fortune to pair young artists up with stars like David Adjaye, Joan Jonas and Alfonso Cuarón. Is there a catch? We join their big Berlin jamboree
Monica Ali on feminism in the 2000s: ‘I hadn’t truly considered the impact of children’
The Brick Lane novelist’s student dreams of imminent gender equality had drowned in a sea of nappies, but then she re-engaged with feminism’s new individualism
The cult of Mary Beard
The long read: How a late-blossoming classics don became Britain’s most beloved intellectual
New Year honours: Bussell, a Bee Gee and a Beatle among gong gang
Ringo Starr given knighthood while others from the arts, business, sport and the community are also recognised
This Christmas, don’t give books to non-readers
For bibliophiles, it is tempting to buy books as presents to ‘fix’ people who don’t read – but this is snobbery of the worst kind
Christmas books to inform and inspire your work in universities
After a difficult year in higher education, the festive break is a time to reset and rethink. Here are four inspiring reads for your stocking
Big-nosed Jesus and God as a second-rate Santa: the worst Christian art
An upside-down apostle, a puff-cheeked baby Jesus, a sub-Santa God … our writer revels in Wonder Beyond Belief, a new book celebrating the glorious weirdness of revered Christian art
Daisy Pulls It Off: Pauline McLynn, Anna Shaffer and more on a spiffing school assembly
Denise Deegan had a West End hit with her parody of 1920s boarding-school novels. Now, Paulette Randall is staging an age-blind revival with a crack cast of actors. They share their teenage memories
Once upon a sexual assault … it’s not outrageous for fairytales to get a modern update
Sleeping Beauty’s roots lie in a story of rape – and when stories strongly shape children’s sense of gender role and agency then old tropes may need reimagining, says author Stephanie Merritt, author and former deputy literary editor of the Observer