Her Heart for a Compass by Sarah Ferguson review – Mills & Boon debut is chaste good fun

The romance of her heroine’s ‘rebellious’ red hair is much more of a feature in the Duchess of York’s historical novel than sex

Prince Harry should settle bird-shooting mystery in memoirs, say campaigners

Wildlife campaigners hope Harry will shed light on the killing of two of Britain’s rarest birds over Sandringham in 2007

Hay festival director quits after bullying claim upheld

Exit of Peter Florence adds to list of woes that include two years of Covid cancellations and a sex assault claim against a Gulf royal

Ethel Carnie Holdsworth: campaigners push to revive fame of working-class novelist

Thought to be the first blue-collar female novelist, Holdsworth once outsold HG Wells. Now reprints and an alternative blue plaque aim to restore her reputation

Everything You Really Need to Know About Politics by Jess Phillips review – the case for change

The outspoken MP is on a one-woman campaign to banish jargon, snobbery and tradition and make sure politics is for everyone

A brief history of ‘ping’, from gun fights to the NHS Covid-19 app

The word ‘pingdemic’ is spreading as fast as the pandemic. But the meanings of ping stretch from the wild west to showjumping

Crime novelist Mo Hayder dies aged 59 from motor neurone disease

Clare Dunkel, who was diagnosed only months ago, wrote 10 thrillers under the pen name and has been remembered as a ‘ferociously inventive’ presence

4thWrite short story prize reveals ‘engaging and provocative’ 2021 shortlist

Seeking out the best new Black, Asian and minority ethnic writers, this year’s finalists range across continents to show ‘the best of what stories can do’

Booker prize reveals globe-spanning longlist of ‘engrossing stories’

Kazuo Ishiguro makes cut alongside Rachel Cusk and Richard Powers, and novels from Sri Lanka and South Africa compete with choices from the US and UK

Kristen Stewart’s Princess Diana biopic to screen at Venice film festival

Spencer, telling the story of Diana and Charles’s bitter divorce, will battle for the Golden Lion alongside the latest by Pedro Almodóvar

How we made Viz: ‘We printed 150 copies for £42.52’

‘There were complaints that The Fat Slags stereotyped women as sex objects – but they were using their sexuality to get what they wanted, so it was quite the opposite’

UK libraries become ‘death positive’ with books and art on dying

Scheme that started in Redbridge to help people talk about difficult subject is rolled out across country

Not yet published, already damned – why are people running scared of Prince Harry’s memoir?

With the help of a brilliant co-writer, a fully rounded picture may now emerge of the much-maligned royal

I Alone Can Fix It: Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker on their Trump bestseller

The Washington Post reporters have unleashed a second startling story of incompetence and malevolence in the White House

‘A terrifying precedent’: author describes struggle to publish British army history

Simon Akam says Penguin Random House cancelled his book about the British army, The Changing of the Guard, and demanded back his advance after he refused to let the MoD vet it