The top 10 modernisers in literature

From the architects who built the postwar world to the writers who predicted its horrors, John Grindrod selects the books that best evoke the postwar pioneering spirit

Christine Ball obituary

Other lives: Librarian who became involved in many groups researching and collecting information on industrial history

How to talk posh: a rarely marvlous glossary

Steven Poole: If one wants to ensure one never sounds Non-U again, one must really learn the difference between serviettes and napkins, and the correct way to pronounce waistcoat, forehead and golf

Posh Britain: will they always lord it over us?

Stuart Jeffries: In new film The Riot Club, based loosely on the antics of the notorious Bullingdon boys, a gaggle of toffs trash restaurants for larks. Who are these people, how did they turn out like this – and what does it tell us about privilege today?

Chris Brooks obituary

Historian who showed how the law became relevant to ordinary people in the aftermath of the English civil war

David Smail obituary

Clinical psychologist and writer whose work focused on the damaging effects of an unequal society