Filth in a time of handwashing: why lockdown erotica is the hottest trend in publishing
Who knew extreme cleanliness could be a turn on? Ebook authors are kindling lust by rushing out tales for bored, horny, quarantined readers
A book that changed me: the elusive perfection of For the Time Being
Annie Dillard’s 1975 book taught me, a non-believer, that religion can access deeper truths, says the Dublin-based writer Mark O’Connell
The Marquess of Bath obituary
Eccentric aristocrat and chatelain of the Longleat safari park who was a favourite of newspaper gossip columns
Cultural clash: the trouble with writing about the lives of others
Authors are being attacked for telling stories about experiences that aren’t their own. But isn’t that the point of using the imagination?
The best recent poetry – review roundup
Poetry’s claim has always been that it can accompany us even through the worst of times. So it’s a consolation to find that the verse published right now meets that aspiration
Jacqueline Wilson: ‘I’ve never really been in any kind of closet’
The children’s author talks about her latest, perhaps bravest, novel in which she tackles gay love for the first time – and shines a light on her own private life
Jacqueline Wilson reveals publicly that she is gay
Her long partnership with Trish is ‘old news’ to those who know her, but announcing Love Frankie, her new gay love story, she has chosen to tell readers
Stay in your cave: the Gruffalo lends a claw to the coronavirus effort
Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s characters step up to help children through crisis
Booksellers struggle with lack of new stock amid Covid-19 crisis
Shops forced to shut by coronavirus had been surviving with online sales, but difficulties ordering titles present fresh threat
Bruce Dawe’s passing is a great loss but his remarkable, socially aware poetry will remain relevant
For decades when you went into a second-hand bookshop in Australia, if you found only one book of poetry there it would be Bruce Dawe’s Sometimes Gladness
Novelist urges volunteers to be infected with coronavirus
Salley Vickers, 70, says those with immunity could ‘lend a hand’ and suggests idea could appeal to Dominic Cummings
International Booker prize shortlist led by 28-year-old’s debut
The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld joins five other ‘expansively imagined’ novels contending for £50,000 award
Discovery of letters shines light on Thomas Hardy’s second marriage
Author’s second wife, Florence Dugdale, tells of celebrity pressures, and joy at living with ‘one of the kindest men in the world’
A-listers lend talents to bedtime story initiative during lockdown
Natalie Portman and Lupita Nyong’o among those signed up to Instagram Live initiative to raise money for charity
Edinburgh’s August festivals cancelled due to coronavirus
Fringe joins international, book and art festivals and military tattoo in pulling plug