A Ferrante feast: a night out in support of global literacy

Charity event: Elena Ferrante’s books evoke Naples in all its drama, and inspired a Neapolitan fundraising feast in the heart of urban London – testament to the power of food and literature to do good

Boggle Trump to Trumplestiltskin: Donald inspires new children’s slang

The US president’s name, in more than 100 punning guises, was widely used by very young writers in entries to BBC Radio 2’s 500 Words story contest

Hilary Mantel was right – some academics dislike novelists. But why?

Hostility between academics and popular historians has a lengthy history of its own. Yet it doesn’t make sense – nonfiction and fiction nurture each other

Medieval Jewish papers tell vivid stories in Cambridge exhibition

11th-century documents from Genizah store in Old Cairo synagogue cover whole range of human life, co-curator says

Stiff Upper Lip: Secrets, Crimes and the Schooling of a Ruling Class – review

Alex Renton’s study of the enduring culture of abuse at Britain’s elite schools makes for powerful reading

The 100 best nonfiction books: No 61 – On Liberty by John Stuart Mill (1859)

This fine, lucid writer captured the mood of the time with this spirited assertion of the English individual’s rights

Literature isn’t a luxury but a life-changer

Sharing literature with those who wouldn’t otherwise come into contact with it is a joy

Spy report that criticised Marlowe for ‘gay Christ’ claim is revealed online

British Library releases ‘Baines note’ in which playwright Christopher Marlowe scandalously suggests Christian communion should be smoked in a pipe

Authors condemn £4m library fund as a ‘sop’ and a ‘whitewash’

Patrick Gale, Mark Billingham and Francesca Simon among writers suggesting government scheme will do little to rescue sector that has been hit hard by cuts

Enfin! Female author in French school exams for first time since 1990s

Baccalauréat lists Madame de Lafayette’s La Princesse de Montpensier after protests about sexism in lycée system

The 100 best nonfiction books: No 59 – Culture and Anarchy by Matthew Arnold (1869)

Arnold caught the public mood with this high-minded but entertaining critique of Victorian society, posing questions about the art of civilised living that still perplex us today