It’s never boring at the barber’s when aliens and cryptocurrency are involved

One was abducted and never fancied football afterwards, while the latest waxes eloquently about bitcoin and Elon Musk

Beyond normal: new novel brings Sally Rooney mania to bookshops across UK

Many shops plan to open early for the arrival of Sally Rooney’s latest novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You next month

Our Ladies review – choir of convent schoolgirls cuts loose in Edinburgh

This adaptation of Alan Warner’s The Sopranos is led by a terrific ensemble cast – though some of the gags feel dated post #MeToo

A war evacuee shares her recollections… and reveals how well it works

Lunch with academic Gillian Beer recalls memories of my father, who survived war in Burnley

Sarfraz Manzoor on how prejudice works both ways in British Muslim communities

The broadcaster and writer believes mutual respect between different cultures and faith groups in the UK is possible – he hopes his book will change views

Paradise regained in the New Forest: no planes, no people. Just one man and nature

A wildlife cameraman who recorded the lives of a goshawk family in the New Forest during lockdown came to see them as a symbol of hope

Sam Byers and Salena Godden shortlisted for the Gordon Burn prize

Six fiction and nonfiction titles are in the running for the £5,000 prize, awarded to a work of ‘dazzlingly bold and forward-thinking’ literature

Dolly Parton to publish her first novel in 2022

The country music superstar has teamed up with the novelist James Patterson to write Run, Rose, Run, which will be published in March

Society of Authors distances itself from Philip Pullman’s tweets

The UK’s largest trade union for writers emphasised its anti-racist stance after its president, Pullman, showed support for Kate Clanchy on social media

Kate Clanchy book may be updated to remove racial stereotypes after criticism

Publisher Picador says it is looking at changing passages in prize-winning memoir, which Clanchy intially claimed were not in the book at all

‘I’ll paint you a story about Jackanory…’ TV show’s art up for sale

Lovers of the BBC story slot can recapture their childhood with illustrator’s images for Stig of the Dump and more

‘Thanks for your help, Sticky’: Michael Rosen on learning to walk again after Covid

His traumatic experience with coronavirus inspired Michael Rosen’s new children’s book – about the ‘friend’ he leaned on

Jamaican dub poet Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze dies aged 65

Influential pioneer touched audiences through performance, books, albums – and even Poems on the Underground

Mel Brooks announces his first memoir at the age of 95

All About Me!, to be published on 30 November, will cover everything from the film director’s military service to his long comedic partnership with Carl Reiner

A shared Olympic gold defeats the ‘one champion’ narrative

Mutaz Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi have helped to upturn preconceptions about success, says Guardian columnist Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett