First trans woman makes Women’s prize longlist, alongside Dawn French and Ali Smith

Torrey Peters among 16 finalists, with chair of judges Bernardine Evaristo lamenting lack of older writers

‘They were treated terribly’ – why ‘lad lit’ veteran Mike Gayle is finally tackling racism

He just became the first male writer ever to win romantic fiction’s top award. The former agony uncle explains why his latest novel looks back at the ‘virulent’ prejudice of 1950s Britain

Ken Follett gives book proceeds to French cathedral restoration fund

Author donates proceeds from book about Notre-Dame fire to project to save cathedral in Brittany

Diane Abbott signs deal for ‘honest and moving’ memoirs

Book due next summer will recount how she became the UK’s first Black female MP in 1987, and reveal the ‘barrage of hostility’ that has followed her since

Guardians of UK’s literary jewels at risk in V&A plan to cut key library staff

Two-thirds of librarians will lose their jobs in restructuring at London museum under new proposals

How early humans’ quest for food stoked the flames of evolution

A love of complex smells and flavours gave our ancestors an edge and stopped hangovers

Dave Stewart and Joss Stone team up for Time Traveller’s Wife musical

The pair will contribute original music for adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger bestseller expected on stage by early next year

From harmony to imaginary: how the meaning of ‘conspiracy’ has changed

The former first minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, was accused this week of promoting ‘conspiracy theories’

This year’s World Book Day set to be most popular ever

Books That Make You LOL hosted by rapper Kenny Baraka ‘liked’ by 112,000 young people

Researchers read sealed 17th-century letter without opening it

‘Virtual unfolding’ is hailed a breakthrough in the study of historic documents as unopened letter from 1697 is read for the first time using X-ray technology

Bookshop.org raises £1m for UK’s indie booksellers amid lockdown

The profit-sharing platform, billed as an alternative to Amazon, has been used by more than 200,000 UK customers since its November launch

Forget grooming to Zoom – 18th-century men were first to make up

As sales of cosmetics for men soar, book reveals industry’s first boom was in 1700s

Restoration influencer: how Charles II’s clever mistress set trends ahead of her time

Hortense Mancini’s celebrated London salon allowed her female peers the freedoms men enjoyed

Drawing comfort: the sketchbooks that got Chris Riddell through 2020

For the Observer’s cartoonist, keeping a daily pictorial record of events was the only way to make sense of last year. A new book was the result

Writ in water, preserved in plaster: how Keats’ death mask became a collector’s item

The recent sale of a cast for £12,500 is a testament to the Romantic poet’s enduring legacy, on the bicentenary of his death