Edinburgh festival 2013: our critics’ picks

Crockery-jugglers, cancer comedy and a church full of comics – plus Richard Burton and Frank Zappa come back from the dead. Our critics select the hottest shows at this year's Edinburgh festival

Anarchy in Peterloo: Shelley’s poem unmasked

In 1819, the Manchester Yeomanry drew their sabres and charged a crowd of demonstrators. As Maxine Peake prepares to perform Shelley's angry poem about the outrage, John Mullan deciphers its verses for modern readers

Readers take control in a new age of print

The broadening scope of literature in a digital world is encouraging readers to make their voices heard in deciding prizes

The Rolling Stones: a career in quotes

Four decades of interviews by one writer shows that everyone – from William Burroughs to Cliff Richard and Bono – has had an opinion about the Stones

Arts head: Melanie Abrahams, founder of Tilt and Renaissance one

The spoken word producer talks new talent and why access to the mainstream doesn't necessarily make for success

Shubbak festival: a refuge for Arab culture at a troubled time

How can a festival celebrate a region gripped with conflict? Omar al-Qattan explains Shubbak, London's Middle Eastern extravaganza

Beanotown: an imaginary world filled with menaces, minxes and dodgers

Jonathan Jones: The Southbank Centre's Festival of Neighbourhood pays homage to Dennis and Gnasher, the Bash St Kids and the comic-book geniuses who created them

PalFest: a book festival where authors listen

Other such occasions for authors are full of talk and chatter – here, we authors have reason to be a little more reticent

Edinburgh international film festival announces lineup for 2013

New British films and American independents loom large in the Scottish cinema showcase, which also features two retrospectives and a revival of The Gorbals Story

Blue Is the Warmest Colour is too moving to be porn

Peter Bradshaw: Julie Maroh, as author of its source novel, has unique credentials to comment, but for what it's worth I felt the film's descent into agony and tears took it clear of titillation

Why the Mail’s Peter Hitchens won’t be making Hay

Media Monkey: MoS columnist dropped from lineup at Telegraph-sponsored festival

Google defends listing extremist websites in its search results

Eric Schmidt tells Hay festival that legal information 'even if it's despicable, will be indexed', and may help track terrorists

Cannes 2013: As I Lay Dying – first look review

James Franco's adaptation of William Faulkner's novel is perhaps not entirely successful, but it's a brave and interesting attempt to pull off a film with a high degree of difficulty, writes Peter Bradshaw