Live webchat: John Bradshaw
The author of the hotly debated In Defence of Dogs will be here between 1pm and 2pm on Friday 5 August. Any questions?
Shawshank Redemption tree split in half by storm
Oak near Mansfield, Ohio, used to shoot scene in which Red finds note from prison friend Andy, 'was rotted in the middle'
Summer readings: Letters from My Windmill by Alphonse Daudet
Veronica Horwell: Though Daudet wrote most of the pieces on the train from Paris, his quiet Provençal tales provide a vivid evocation of place
Public jury campaign launched to take power away from UK’s ‘feral’ elite
Expenses, bonuses and hacking crises share origins, says campaign group that includes Greg Dyke and Philip Pullman
Exiled author Ma Jian banned from visiting China
Writer warns of increasingly repressive political regime after he is stopped from entering Chinese mainland from Hong Kong
Marshall McLuhan’s message was imbued with conservatism
Lance Strate: The Big Ideas: Although an icon of the counterculture movement, the man who coined 'the medium is the message' was no pill-popping hipster
Macmillan ordered to pay $17m for corruption in South Sudan
Macmillan Publishers has been ordered to pay $17m and banned from World Bank tenders for at least three years for paying officials to win an education deal in South Sudan
Science fiction can only hint at God
Francis Spufford: It's perfectly possible to write science fiction that describes belief in tangible ways; but the result is a demotion of God
Death and the Dolce Vita by Stephen Gundle – review
Ian Thomson is fascinated by a book that reveals the real-life scandal behind Federico Fellini's La Dolca Vita
The God of science fiction is big, but not serious
Gwyneth Jones: As a genre, SF is as light on evidence as science itself, but at its best it offers a powerful evocation of what the concept means
Iran’s supreme leader attacks ‘harmful’ books
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks out against books with 'political hidden motives', prompting criticism from former culture minister
Why Reinhold Niebuhr matters now
Sam Haselby: The American pastor's blend of Calvinist spirituality and social awareness has regained popularity in these uncertain times
Science fiction reflects the extremes of human belief
Liz Williams: It is in the extreme that we learn about the consequences – both positive and negative – of faith in our own day
Talk point: Histories of Africa
Which African history books would you recommend?
The theology of Harry Potter
Danielle Elizabeth Tumminio: The diverse students on my course comparing Christian thought with Harry Potter left me hopeful about religious coexistence