Let’s hear it for the boys
Dave Hill: Is a new book of chap-like pursuits good clean fun, or does it hark back to a nostalgic, colonial past?
The Dangerous Booklet for Girls
Lucy Mangan: A surprise new bestseller, The Dangerous Book for Boys, restates the importance of more traditional hobbies for young males. But what about the females?
The wild one
Aware of the intimidating reputation of Mary Wesley, author of The Camomile Lawn, her daughter-in-law, Xinran, was nervous about meeting her. In fact, she found the loving mother she'd always craved.
Why I killed Che
Gavin Turk on his use of an iconic image of Che Guevara.
Poster boy
His face has become an iconic image, used both as a symbol of protest and a fashion accessory. Richard Gott traces the story of Korda's photo of Che Guevara.
Ilse Barker
Obituary: Writer and poet who filtered her experience of Nazi Germany and America, Fitzrovia and St Ives, into her work.
How Voltaire praised the ‘enlightened despot’ Catherine the Great
Satirist's heartfelt letters to the woman he admired are bought for Russia
The troublemaker
Shirin Ebadi has lived through three different eras in Iran: the western-backed monarchy of the shah, the Islamic republic of Ayatollah Khomeini, and the confrontational regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And as a champion of women's rights, she has been a thorn in the side of all three. She tells Stuart Jeffries how she overcame death threats to become the clerics' 'worst nightmare'.
Indian summer
Michael Billington: It's sexy, savage and performed in seven languages at once. But how will a south Asian production of A Midsummer Night's Dream work in Stratford?
A history of lesbian superheroes
Lotte Jeffs: Holy hole in a doughnut! Batwoman is set to be revealed as a "lipstick lesbian" in the weekly DC comic book 52.
Paradise found
Le Prince Maurice prize for a literary love story has been awarded... presented by a Hollywood star after a week of judging on the tropical island of Mauritius. It's a strange but glorious experience, writes Charlotte Mendelson, who accompanied her partner, shortlisted author Joanna Briscoe, on the most luxurious literary beano in the world.
Gore’s plea on climate change wins ovation
"We're running the planet like a company in liquidation," the former US vice-president Al Gore told an audience at the Hay festival, in an impassioned plea to act on climate change before it is too late.
Peter Viereck
Obituary: Conservative US historian of Nazi thought and writer of complex poetry.
Why Creationism is wrong
Sarah Crown: Steve Jones was preaching to the converted about evolution at the Hay festival. It was just a shame America's 100m creationists could not have been there.