Ann Cleeves loses laptop containing draft of new book in Shetland blizzard

Crime writer offers reward for return of computer, thought to have fallen out of bag during wintry weather

Pandemic Diaries by Matt Hancock review – rewriting history

Assembled after the fact, these ‘diaries’ strain the usual definition – and the patience of those wanting a fuller account of government mistakes

JK Rowling launches support centre for female victims of sexual violence

Beira’s Place will add to Edinburgh’s existing rape crisis centre, which is run by a trans woman

Matt Hancock, hero of the pandemic? NHS staff would laugh if it weren’t a tragedy

In a new book, the former health secretary blames everyone but himself for Covid. It’s disgusting

Huge decline of working class people in the arts reflects fall in wider society

Study shows the proportion of musicians, writers and artists with working-class origins has shrunk by half since the 1970s

Have we fallen out of love with celebrity memoirs?

The year’s autobiography big-hitters haven’t sold as well as expected, with buyers disenchanted by pricing and lack of feelgood topics

‘You don’t have to be Bono or Bruce’: the business behind the current glut of music books

In 2022, you can’t budge for new music memoirs and scene histories. But who’s reading them, where’s the quality control – and the diversity?

Have some dignity, Oxford English Dictionary. No one says ‘goblin mode’

I know its word of the year was put to a public vote, but the result smacks of a stunt trying too hard to go viral, says writer Rachel Connolly

Horribly low pay is pushing out my fellow authors – and yes, that really does matter

Writing books has been the great joy of my life, but I fear it’s becoming a career for the elite few, says author Joanne Harris

‘The handwriting is wrong’: Dickens letters dismissed as forgeries

Documents believed to have been written by author withdrawn from auction after expert doubts veracity

Writers’ earnings have plummeted – with women, Black and mixed race authors worst hit

Research shows that the income of professional authors averages only £7,000 in the UK, making the profession ‘inaccessible and unsustainable’ to most

Michael Rosen writes poem in tribute to NHS nurses after Covid recovery

Children’s author who spent 48 days in hospital with virus calls NHS ‘a brilliant and wonderful invention’

Health, humour, Harry: five points from Brandreth’s Queen biography

Gyles Brandreth’s book reveals monarch could do a good Concorde impression and disliked TV ‘mumbling’

Woman’s name and tiny sketches found in 1,300-year-old medieval text

Exclusive: Old English name, Eadburg, repeatedly scored into manuscript had remained hidden for more than 12 centuries

Cop15 essential reading: seven books that explain the biodiversity crisis

Ahead of December’s conference our writers select titles that explain the issues at stake, from animal extinction to marine degradation and loss of habitat