Belle on her toes
Margot Fonteyn's story is remarkable, but Meredith Daneman could have given it a little more lift, says Judith Mackrell.
The outsider
William J Mann's Edge of Midnight captures all the complexity and creative energy of John Schlesinger, says Gavin Lambert.
Collins launches online dictionary to debate new words
Collins Dictionaries today launches an online Living Dictionary, in which netheads can suggest new words and argue over whether they should be added to the print version of the dictionary. By Stephen Moss.
Peer review
Uncorked: the science of champagne by Gerard Liger-Belair.
Top libraries to go online in deal with Google
Some of the globe's greatest literary treasures will soon be freely available on the internet under a deal announced between search engine Google and five of the world's top libraries. By Bobbie Johnson.
Blind passion
Michael White enjoys Stephen Pollard's honest look at the beleaguered home secretary, David Blunkett.
Mutant study wins Guardian book prize
Armand Marie Leroi's study of the curious and touching forms into which the human body is sometimes cast, which argues, "there are no monsters", won the £10,000 Guardian First Book award last night.
Pupils face penalties for bad grammar
The head of the government's exam watchdog today indicated he was considering reforms that would see pupils lose marks for poor grammar in a bid to improve literacy.
Breaking the Da Vinci code
Is there anything fresh to be written about Leonardo da Vinci? Lisa Jardine assesses biographies by Charles Nicholl and Martin Kemp.
Biographer takes shine off Spielberg’s Schindler
According to history professor David Crowe's new biography of the German industrialist, Schindler's list, the legendary document containing names of Jewish employees at his Polish factory who were designated as "essential workers" and thus spared from the concentration camps, did not exist.