When it’s illegal to cause distress to believers, call it for what it is: a secular version of blasphemy
Language can ‘open eyes’, Salman Rushdie wrote, yet still ideas of profanity are being used to silence dissenting voices
Forget Stalin and Trotsky, Animal Farm is a play for our times. Pringles anyone?
George Orwell’s publishers thought his parable was too specific. They needn’t have worried, 80 years on it’s as salient as ever
‘Important and beautiful’ 13th-century Bible returns to Salisbury
Sarum Master Bible to go on display at cathedral after being in private hands for almost 800 years
Femgore: why romcoms are out in women’s fiction – and cannibalism is in
Forget romance and romantasy. An explosive new genre explores the brutality and body horror women experience
Stage musicals should embrace use of surtitles, says lyricist Tim Rice
The songwriter, who has reunited with Andrew Lloyd Webber for a Christmas mystery, said growing popularity of TV subtitles may have a welcome effect in theatres
Get In by Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund review – behind the scenes with Morgan McSweeney, Labour’s arch strategist
This is a rattlingly good tale of a modern-day Machiavelli that ascribes credit for Labour’s journey to power not to Keir Starmer, but to his Irish chief of staff
English writer’s forgotten ‘masterpiece’ predicting rise of Nazis gets new lease of life
Crooked Cross, Sally Carson’s ‘electrifying’ 1934 novel to be republished
‘Dark and dingy’ or ‘a real loss’? Shoppers react to possible loss of WH Smith
Stevenage is one of 500 UK towns where threatened closures will affect local retailers and the publishing trade
The Guardian view on AI and copyright law: big tech must pay
Editorial: Elton John, Paul McCartney and thousands of other artists have called for protection from data crawling. The government must listen
WH Smith sale could turn high street into ‘book desert’, authors say
The retailer is in talks to sell its 500 high street stores, which could be a ‘nail in the coffin for British writers’
‘Deep down, all Englishmen are policemen’: a Spanish correspondent’s view of life in Edwardian London
The journalist and adventurer Julio Camba wrote exquisite sketches about the strange habits of the English
Val McDermid and Damian Barr urge Scottish councils to halt library closures
Authors say plan to shut more than 20 public libraries could have devastating effect on Scotland’s cultural future
Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story review – engaging study of a life less ordinary
One of Ireland’s most important novelists and a woman of fierce intelligence and bravery is celebrated in Sinéad O’Shea’s thoroughly enjoyable documentary
Stage adaptation of Coraline cancelled after allegations against Neil Gaiman
Producers say it is ‘impossible to continue’ with musical that was due to be staged at Leeds Playhouse from April
Michael Longley obituary
Belfast poet of exceptional poise and eloquence – but with a sardonic streak to temper his technical accomplishment