In Flanders Fields review – a powerful commemoration of the first world war
It will be hard for other centenary events to match this original blend of readings and music, writes Robin Denselow
Superman’s debut, Action Comics No 1, sells for $3m
1938 edition regarded as the holy grail of comic books and started superhero industry fetches record price on eBay
Darkness at Noon gave me a deep, life-long interest in politics
Rafael Behr: It wasn’t the action in Arthur Koestler’s book that excited the 19-year-old me, it was the guided tour of a totalitarian mind
National Service review – a cultural history of postwar British call-up
Richard Vinen shows how conscription emphasised the mirage of a nation's importance on the world stage, writes Ian Thomson
The Appian Way review – an evocative history of Europe’s first great road
The classicist Robert Kaster is a knowledgable and engaging guide as he journeys along the queen of Roman roads, writes PD Smith
Jean Redpath obituary
Folk singer who played with Bob Dylan and recorded Robert Burns
Teaching a Stone to Talk made me realise I’m drawn to wild authors
Geoff Dyer: A book that changed me: When I first read Annie Dillard I didn’t get her, but on revisiting her ‘nutty’ work a few years ago I was utterly smitten
Game of Thrones broadcaster HBO defends scenes of sex, violence and rape
Michael Lombardo, president of programming, says he runs a responsible network and adult scenes are not gratuitous
Palace of pain: Netley, the hospital built for an empire of soldiers
The vast Royal Victoria Hospital was as big as a town, with its own gasworks, bakery, reservoir and even prison. But it was still too small to copy with the industrial-scale carnage of the first world war. Philip Hoare – who grew up nearby – tells its story
Door into the Dark opened the portals to a different future
Andrew Motion: A book that changed me: How the ‘slap and squelch’ of Seamus Heaney’s poems propelled me into verse
Ukraine Diaries: Dispatches from Kiev review – an invaluable guide to the present crisis
Andrey Kurkov, the author of Death and the Penguin, is ideally placed to guide us through the Ukrainian revolution as it unfolds, writes Oliver Bullough
Berghain club bouncer launches memoirs about life as a Berlin doorman
Sven Marquardt says it's about the right mix, even if that means 'letting in the odd lawyer with his Gucci-Prada wife'
The best books on Sudan: start your reading here
Tragedies – personal and political, fictional and all too real – abound in Pushpinder Khaneka’s literary tour of Sudan
Reading American Cities: Washington DC in books
Despite being the political centre of America, literature set in and about Washington is not particularly urban. What would you add, asks Charlotte Jones
Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort boss movie section of Teen Choice awards
Stars of Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars clean up in both action and drama categories of the awards show that attracted over 160m votes