High jinks and horrors

In Too Close to the Sun, Sara Wheeler unveils an infuriating charmer who helped create modern Kenya, says Peter Longworth.

Newly discovered letters show Brecht’s talent for offending

· Isherwood among artists at receiving end of insults · Documents also include photos and manuscripts

Michael Blastland's explanation of his son's autism, Joe, the Only Boy in the World, touches Simon Baron-Cohen.

Fay Weldon has been appointed professor of creative writing at Brunel, the university has announced.

Daniel Davies: It's time for politicians to utilise synergy, take up the struggle, and engage in a myriad of ways with the English language.

Horatio Clare's thoughtful memoir, Running for the Hills, is a cautionary tale for wannabe downshifters, says Daniel Butler.

Why is a great critic ashamed of being fashionable? By John Sutherland.

Amanda Vickery wonders if history books for children from Terry Deary, HE Marshall and EH Gombrich can spark a youthful fascination with the past.

Obituary: An elder statesman of the black community, he campaigned for justice, cultural and social change.

Chris Petit reads Craig Cabell's affectionate account of how Dennis Wheatley drank himself through the second world war.

Mike Phillips on Tahir Shah's The Caliph's House, an unusual account of house-buying abroad.

Blake Morrison is impressed by John Burnside's truly original memoir, A Lie About My Father.

Obituary: Moral philosopher and ready contributor to the sum of human happiness

She dashes off poems and reads Voltaire in her spare time. Now Adora, eight, is coming to tell British pupils how to write.

Council officials apologise after misspelling the word grammar on a road sign outside a school.