The Shadow of the Mine review – an enlightening story of decline

Was Labour’s ‘red wall’ doomed years ago? Huw Beynon and Ray Hudson’s account looks to two former coalmining regions for the answer

Unfinished Dick King-Smith book completed by great-granddaughter

Ambrose Follows His Nose, found half-finished last year among the late children’s author’s papers, will be published to mark his centenary in 2022

From Tudor courts to BLM, a new book brings London’s black history to life

The work highlights the plaques and art that celebrate a neglected side of the capital’s culture

No one got Angela Carter like Corinna Sargood

The illustrator’s vivid depictions of her annual visits to Mexico reveal why she was the author’s kindred spirit

Publication delayed of epic history book amended after being called ‘too white’

Richard Cohen’s work, revised after criticism of its viewpoint, will not be published this week after a new row over its title

Kei Miller selects the UK’s 10 best emerging writers

The awardwinning poet and writer puts together an ‘unapologetically, triumphantly, diverse’ list of talents at the start of promising careers

Novelists issue plea to save English degrees as demand slumps

Authors blame government ‘prejudice’ against humanities, as loss of applicants hits university courses

English Heritage recognises Blyton and Kipling’s racism – but blue plaques to stay

Blue plaques left unchanged, but charity website details Blyton’s ‘old-fashioned xenophobia’ and Kipling’s ‘imperialist sentiments’

UK libraries and museums unite to save ‘astonishing’ lost library from private buyers

Friends of the National Libraries launch ‘once in a generation’ effort to raise £15m to buy the Honresfield library, packed with works by Brontë sisters, Jane Austen and Walter Scott

New comedy The Green Room to explore obstacles for black writers

Written by Yvvette Edwards and Irenosen Okojie, the ‘timely and clear-eyed’ play will be live-streamed in July

It seemed like a cheap book deal – but it was a club costing £15 a month

Buuks.co.uk didn’t make it clear I was being automatically signed up to a subscription charge

I turned down an MBE – I don’t want an honour glorifying the British empire

I was offered an MBE for ‘services to literature’, but I can’t think of anything I want less, writes author Nikesh Shukla

Jackie Collins: the reality of life in Joan’s shadow

The bestselling author cultivated a confident image. But it belied a personal life dogged by self-doubt, as a new documentary reveals

Seven Ways to Change the World by Gordon Brown; Go Big by Ed Miliband review – what’s the new idea?

The former Labour leaders’ visions for a better tomorrow share a stubborn political optimism, but are they on ‘the credible end of desirable’?

Prue Leith, Lemn Sissay and Alison Moyet recognised in Queen’s birthday honours

Key figures in UK arts, culture and sport rewarded in list dominated by heroes and heroines of pandemic