Neil Gaiman leads authors demanding action to halt decline of school libraries
Open letter, also signed by Philip Pullman and Malorie Blackman, says falling provision risks consigning children to ‘a lifetime of low achievement’
The Guardian view on translation: an interpretative and creative act
Editorial: Translators bring with them their personalities and prejudices. So it matters that a woman has finally tackled the Odyssey
West Country witchcraft and the hanged women of urban Exeter
Why were so many women accused and then put to death in 16th and 17th century Devon?
John Burrow obituary
Other lives: Influential scholar of medieval English literature
Yes, we must decolonise: our teaching has to go beyond elite white men
There’s no need for outrage over changes to our English curriculum, writes Cambridge academic Priyamvada Gopal
Cambridge student accuses Telegraph of inciting hatred in books row
Lola Olufemi says she received online abuse after newspaper used her picture on its front page story about efforts to ‘decolonise’ English syllabus
How to use picture books to get your class talking about emotions
Helen Hanna and Stefan Kucharczyk offer advice on discussing sensitive issues with children using books by former children’s laureate Anthony Browne
Cambridge academics seek to ‘decolonise’ English syllabus
University condemns abuse directed at group of students who sought to broaden literature studies to include black authors
‘Have you seen the maggots yet?’ Lindsey Fitzharris on the gruesome history of surgery
Medical historian Lindsey Fitzharris is obsessed with mortality – and her new book examines the work of early surgeons, who operated on the dividing line between here and the hereafter
Want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness: are Beveridge’s five evils back?
It’s 75 years since the Beveridge report paved the way for the welfare state, and the UK is again plagued by the problems he aimed to eradicate – from insecure jobs to malnutrition
British philosopher Onora O’Neill wins $1m Berggruen prize
Cambridge emeritus professor is praised for combining ‘rigour with timely prescriptions for what we really need to do’
Hard times: 20th century conflict dominates historical fiction
Research into 650 novels submitted to the Walter Scott prize finds the second world war is the favourite setting for historical novels, while the shifting Victorian and Georgian eras eclipse ‘just a smattering’ of ancient settings
Stop. Grammar time: the adult word nerds going back to school
Formal grammar was taken out of the Australian curriculum in the mid-1970s – and some of us have catching up to do
Denis McQuail obituary
Other lives: Scholar of media and mass communications
Top 10 books about teaching
As another school year begins, here is some of the most instructive reading about this toughest of subjects — from Plato to Shakespeare and beyond