Mary Beard: A classicist in a class of her own
Profile: Mary Beard. The delightful don, whose lively blog is read by thousands, is to host a TV series about Pompeii
Antony Flew obituary
Humean philosopher and atheist who ultimately came to believe in intelligent design
Footballers pick books for boys
Boys lag behind girls at school – and one reason is their resistance to reading. But Premier League footballers are coming to their rescue…
University conference sinks its teeth into vampire fiction
A university lecturer hopes the undead can liven up English literature for the Twilight generation
Stories from the book of life
A new scheme aims to boost learning among older people by persuading them to write their memoirs
Melvyn Bragg gives archive of life’s work to Leeds University
Material saved from attic reveals a prolific, driven and organised writer, says head of special collections at Brotherton Library
Fifty books to change the world
From Rachel Caron's Silent Spring, to provocative books on population, leaders in sustainability reveal their essential reading
In praise of… world histories
Editorial: Most history these days deploys the metaphorical magnifying glass. All hail, then, to those rare scholars who rescue the wood from the trees
Stephen Toulmin obituary
Philosopher who was a founding father of argumentation theory
Free books for secondaries to get pupils ‘hooked on reading’
Each school in England is to receive 15 books from a specially designed list to try to get more pupils reading as a hobby
Put em right on Enid Blyton
Jean Hannah Edelstein: The enthusiasm with which parents are buying books featuring old-fashioned discrimination leaves a bad taste in the mouth
Slang does not make literature ‘relevant’
Shirley Dent: Particularly when wielded by those who don't really understand it, it's an insultingly cheap bid to get down with the kids
French university brings manuscripts of Stendhal into the 21st century
Website uses cutting-edge technology to place author's barely legible manuscripts next to scrupulous modern-day transcripts
1282 and all that
Hywel Williams: Welsh historians must look beyond England to challenge their tired and introspective consensus