Reform business rates or risk a high street collapse, say firms

Tesco, B&Q and Waterstones join call for tax change to save thousands of retail jobs and shops

Backlash as Wallace Collection considers closing library to public

More than 10,000 people have signed petition against proposal, which is currently at consultation stage at the museum bequeathed to the nation

Waterstones says paying furloughed staff minimum wage ‘would not be prudent’

Book chain says it is ‘sympathetic’ to petition signed by more than 100 staff in support of employees facing acute uncertainty on scheme

Birmingham library brings Shakespeare to life in dozens of languages

The largest Shakespeare collection in a public library is launching Everything to Everybody, with films and readings in most of the city’s 93 languages

National Library of Wales to receive £2.25m rescue package after protests

Welsh government had said it could not extend funding, but following pressure from campaigners has announced sum ‘to safeguard jobs and deliver strategic priorities’

What Does Jeremy Think? by Suzanne Heywood review – how to manage a prime minister

Inside the civil service ... a portrait and memoir of Jeremy Heywood, who was at the centre of British political life and had a knack for getting his way

Avid reader Oscar’s Zoom bedtime stories give families a welcome escape

Cheltenham teenager read aloud to neighbours’ children in first lockdown and is now branching out

London Review of Books editor Mary-Kay Wilmers steps down after 30 years

Influential editor and co-founder of the literary magazine to be succeeded by senior staff

‘Price gouging from Covid’: student ebooks costing up to 500% more than in print

Call for inquiry into academic publishers as locked-down students unable to access study material online

‘I’m flabbergasted’: Monique Roffey on women, whiteness and winning the Costa

The Mermaid of Black Conch’s author explains why she expected ‘a quiet life’ for the formally daring, magical realist novel that has been declared book of the year

Edinburgh book festival to quit New Town for art school

Festival cites Covid and costs of staging event heavily dependent on live audiences as reason for move

‘Utterly original’ Monique Roffey wins Costa book of the year

The Mermaid of Black Conch takes £30,000 award for 2020’s most enjoyable book, acclaimed by judges a classic in the making

Book sales defy pandemic to hit eight-year high

Despite shops being closed for much of 2020, figures show Britons bought books in volume – although many authors continued to struggle

Michael Rosen backs campaign for big funding rise for NHS

Patient-led pressure group says Covid pandemic shows need for extra £33bn a year

Bhanu Kapil wins TS Eliot poetry prize for ‘radical’ How to Wash a Heart

Judges praise the British-Indian poet’s ‘formidable’ collection, exploring the dynamic between an immigrant and her white, middle-class host