Hilary Mantel calls for skeleton of Irish ‘giant’ to be repatriated

Charles Byrne’s remains acquired and displayed against wishes in UK for two centuries

Kate Summerscale’s ‘true ghost story’ leads Baillie Gifford prize shortlist

The Haunting of Alma Fielding joins five other books, whose subjects range from the Beatles to the brain, competing for the £50,000 prize for nonfiction

Bernard Cornwell: ‘I play merry hell with history, I admit it’

The bestselling historical novelist talks about being a descendant of his Last Kingdom character Uhtred, and returning to his beloved hero Sharpe

TS Eliot prize unveils ‘unsettling, captivating’ shortlist

Judges say the 10 poetry collections nominated for £25,000 award are ‘as urgent as they are artful’

DBC Pierre’s smartphone era novel leads Goldsmiths prize shortlist

Meanwhile in Dopamine City, which is told in two columns to mimic our divided attention, is one of six finalists for the award for ‘fiction at its most novel’

Chris Killip, hard-hitting photographer of Britain’s working class, dies aged 74

Influential artist, hailed by Martin Parr as a ‘key player’ in British photography, captured human dignity amid industrial decline in England’s north-east

Boris Johnson: The Gambler by Tom Bower review – the defining secret

The affairs, the lies, the shoddy handling of coronavirus … Johnson is let off the hook in this biography – it’s his father, Stanley, who emerges as the villain

Eritrean poet Amanuel Asrat named International Writer of Courage

The author, imprisoned without charge since 2001, was chosen to share the PEN Pinter prize by 2020’s winner Linton Kwesi Johnson

BBC’s The Watch ‘shares no DNA with Terry Pratchett’s work’, says daughter

Rhianna Pratchett joins fans unhappy with the forthcoming TV adaptation of her father’s Discworld stories about Ankh-Morpork’s City Watch

How Soviet spies targeted George Orwell during Spanish civil war

Newly unearthed files from Soviet archives document surveillance of the author and his wife who were fighting in civil war

Runners and writers: who got what in the birthday honours list

Names from across the arts, sport, politics and science are among those recognised

Stephen King, Margaret Atwood and Roxane Gay champion trans rights in open letter

With more than 1,200 signatories the US and Canada including Neil Gaiman and NK Jemisin, message follows row over comments by JK Rowling

‘Master’ of short story Sarah Hall becomes first to win BBC prize twice

The Grotesques, an unsettling story exploring privilege in a university town, wins the £15,000 BBC national short story award

Sir Peregrine Worsthorne obituary

Editor of the Sunday Telegraph, author and contrarian columnist who was one of the last high Tory commentators

Kae Tempest publishes first book since revealing they are non-binary

On Connection, which draws on their life struggles and creative joys, was written ‘for others who don’t fit’