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
Angels & Demons: the Swansea connection
How do you make a bottle to store antimatter in? Don't ask Dan Brown; ask Professor Mike Charlton of Swansea University, who is researching the complex world of particle theory, in Cern
Marking computer says no to lazy Dickens and dull Austen
Maev Kennedy and her official English exam marking computer take Dickens, Austen and John the Evangelist to task
Don’t close the book on bedtime stories
Alison Flood: Children are being read to less by parents and starting school with poor speech skills. What a sad tale that is
Alan Deyermond obituary
Obituary: A leading scholar of medieval Hispanic literature
The scheme that provides free books for young children
A variety of professionals are working hard to make sure parents read to their babies and toddlers
Young critics review books for the Guardian Children’s Fiction prize
Participants in the Guardian's competition for children demonstrated a taste for gritty and life-changing reads