The hidden costs of vanity

Emmanuel Macron spends nearly €10,000 a month on make-up; meanwhile Zadie Smith tells her daughter not to waste time doing her face. By Eva Wiseman

Why Arab Muslims love Paradise Lost – and their leaders hate it

Paradise Lost is causing controversy in Egypt 350 years after its publication. Little wonder given its revolutionary message, writes John Milton scholar Islam Issa

8,500 people lost in Mediterranean since death of three-year-old Alan Kurdi

Author Khaled Hosseini responds to images of Syrian boy washed ashore by writing short story animated in virtual reality

Paul Oliver obituary

Respected commentator on architectural history and music, especially the blues

The best books on Cuba: start your reading here

A literary tour of Cuba takes in crime noir, a tale of love and loss set against the Cuban revolution, and a rich chronicle of the Caribbean island’s history

Glenn Miller book clears RAF of accidentally killing band leader

Research by historian Dennis Spragg suggests that the Lancaster bombers often blamed were 90 minutes too early

Cambridge University censorship U-turn is censored by China

Chinese academics commend decision to unblock access to sensitive articles, but Beijing expunges mention of the climbdown from internet

China’s bid to block my journal’s articles is a new attack on academic freedom

Cambridge University Press resisted the bid to block articles from the journal I edit but it’s a worrying development, says China Quarterly editor Tim Pringle

I fear HBO’s Confederate could be a flag waver for today’s neo-Nazis

Depicting the victory of the slave-owning south risks excusing evil, writes the novelist KJ Whittaker

The guilty secret: Chinese crime writer arrested for four cold-case murders

Liu Yongbiao had talked of plans for book about killer author who evades capture but police say he is now a suspect in multiple decades-old murders

Nick Clegg book will reveal How to Stop Brexit

The ex-deputy prime minister’s ‘resistance handbook’, out in October, explains how the EU referendum decision can be reversed while reuniting the UK – and seems destined to fill many remoaners’ Christmas stockings