UK English curricula should focus on ‘inclusive and diverse’ stories, author says

Ex-children’s laureate Malorie Blackman says no student should feel English is irrelevant because they do not see themselves reflected in the literature

The English literature curriculum ought to include more “inclusive and diverse” contemporary stories that are “relevant and relatable” to young people’s lives, Malorie Blackman has said.

The author of the Noughts and Crosses novels said in the foreword to a Lit in Colour campaign report that it could encourage more children to read for pleasure. She also said that no child should feel that studying English at school is irrelevant because “they never see themselves” reflected in the literature.

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Jack Reacher would not exist without Birmingham’s libraries, says writer

Lee Child says childhood visits to city’s libraries helped him to create protagonist as he laments proposed closures

It is said that heroes are made, not born.

In the case of the fictional ex-military action man Jack Reacher, it has emerged he was made in a library in Birmingham.

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Donald Trump pushed me to ketamine therapy, niece Mary says in new book

Bestselling author, a trained psychologist, describes debilitating effects of being related to the former president

In a new memoir, Mary L Trump, niece of Donald Trump, writes of being pushed to despair, and ketamine therapy, by her uncle’s victory in the 2016 presidential election, his chaotic, far-right administration and his refusal to leave national politics despite his defeat by Joe Biden in 2020.

“I’m here because five years ago, I lost control of my life,” Mary Trump writes, describing ketamine treatment undertaken in December 2021. “I’m here because the world has fallen away and I don’t know how to find my way back.

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Foreign Office officials said Rishi Sunak should attend D-day event, book reveals

Department twice provided written advice to No 10 before mistake that came to define Sunak’s election campaign

Senior officials at the Foreign Office repeatedly warned No 10 that Rishi Sunak should not leave June’s D-day commemoration in Normandy early, according to new revelations in a book about the Tories’ 14 years in power.

The department passed on two messages to Downing Street in the weeks leading up to the event, which were then ignored in what has gone down as the worst election campaign blunder of the last 14 years.

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Dozens of UK school librarians asked to remove LGBTQ+ books, survey finds

Index on Censorship said 53% of librarians polled had been asked to remove books – and that in more than half of those cases books were taken off shelves

More than two dozen school librarians in the UK have been asked to remove books – many of which are LGBTQ+ titles – from school library shelves, according to new survey data.

The Index on Censorship survey found that 28 of 53 librarians polled – 53% – said that they had been asked to remove books. In more than half of those cases books were taken off shelves.

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Native American author Tommy Orange selected as the next Future Library writer

The Pulitzer prize-shortlisted novelist behind books including There There and Wandering Stars will pen a manuscript that won’t be published until 2114

The next book by Native American author Tommy Orange will not be read for 90 years.

The author of There There and Wandering Stars has been selected as the 11th writer to contribute to the Future Library project, which each year invites an author to produce a manuscript to be stored under lock and key until 2114.

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Advocates react to Utah ban of 13 books in schools and libraries: ‘It’s a tragedy’

Utah is first in the US to outlaw titles statewide they deem ‘indecent’ as free speech advocates worry about impact

Library associations, free speech groups and advocates are expressing outrage and concern after the state of Utah ordered 13 books to be removed from public school classrooms and libraries in accordance with a new state law that passed earlier this year.

“It’s a tragedy,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.

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Utah outlaws books by Judy Blume and Sarah J Maas in first statewide ban

State has ordered books by 13 authors, 12 of them women, to be removed from every public school, classroom and library

Books by Margaret Atwood, Judy Blume, Rupi Kaur and Sarah J Maas are among 13 titles that the state of Utah has ordered to be removed from all public school classrooms and libraries.

This marks the first time a state has outlawed a list of books statewide, according to PEN America’s Jonathan Friedman, who oversees the organisation’s free expression programs.

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Liza Minnelli announces memoir because documentaries ‘didn’t get it right’

Cabaret star says she felt ‘mad as hell’ after hearing stories from people who didn’t know her or her family, and will release untitled book in 2026

Liza Minnelli is to release a memoir after she claimed previous screen depictions of her life “didn’t get it right”.

The 78-year-old US actor and singer will release the book in spring 2026, which will take readers through her career, struggles with substance abuse and love life.

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Liverpool library torched by far-right rioters raises repair funds

Appeal for donations to repair fire damage caused to Spellow Hub library has raised more than £120,000 in two days

A fundraising campaign has raised more than £120,000 to help repair a Liverpool library and community hub that suffered severe fire damage after being targeted by rioters on Saturday night.

Nigella Lawson and children’s laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce are among those who have donated to the gofundme page, which was set up on Sunday afternoon in aid of Spellow Hub library.

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Francine Pascal, creator of the Sweet Valley High books, dies aged 92

Author’s long-running high school book series sold more than 200m copies and led to a hit TV show

Francine Pascal, creator of the long-running Sweet Valley High book series, has died at the age of 92.

According to the New York Times, the author died in New York City as as result of lymphoma. The news was confirmed by her daughter Laurie Wenk-Pascal.

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Trump told nephew to let his disabled son die, then move to Florida, book says

Fred C Trump III calls comment ‘appalling’ in new book All in the Family, to be published next week

Donald Trump told his nephew he should let his disabled son die, then “move down to Florida”, the nephew writes in a new book, calling the comment “appalling”.

“Wait!” Fred C Trump III writes. “What did he just say? That my son doesn’t recognise me? That I should just let him die?

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Angela Merkel chooses privacy over publicity as she celebrates turning 70

Once seen as the world’s most powerful woman, the former German chancellor is now immersed in the arts – and not only as an admirer

At the peak of her career, she was hailed as the world’s most powerful woman and the de-facto leader of the EU.

But as Angela Merkel turns 70 today, there will be no gathering of dignitaries to pay tribute to her legacy. Instead, she will celebrate entering her eighth decade “in private”, a spokesperson for her office told the German news agency dpa.

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Billie Eilish latest star to read CBeebies bedtime story

Oscar-winning singer chooses book by Oliver Jeffers that highlights importance of protecting nature

Billie Eilish has become the latest star to read a CBeebies bedtime story, having chosen a book that teaches children about interacting with nature.

The Oscar-winning singer of What Was I Made For? and Birds of a Feather read This Moose Belongs to Me by the author and illustrator Oliver Jeffers.

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Booktopia will not fill orders and may not issue refunds, say administrators

Customers left out of pocket who placed orders have now become, in effect, unsecured creditors

The administrators handling the collapse of Booktopia have announced that orders placed with Australia’s largest online bookseller will not be filled – and there may be no refunds either.

It means out of pocket customers who placed orders prior to the company entering voluntary administration have now become, in effect, unsecured creditors – which voids store credits and gift cards too.

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Alice Munro knew my stepfather sexually abused me as a child, says Nobel laureate’s daughter

Andrea Robin Skinner says her stepfather sexually assaulted her when she was nine, but her mother said she ‘loved him too much’ to leave him

The daughter of Nobel prize winner Alice Munro, Andrea Robin Skinner, has alleged that her stepfather sexually abused her as a child, and that her mother stayed with him even after he admitted to the abuse.

Skinner revealed the allegations in an essay and a news article in Canada’s Toronto Star on the weekend, writing about how her stepfather, Gerald Fremlin, began sexually assaulting her in 1976 when she was nine years old and he was in his 50s.

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Peter Navarro defends himself in new book while still in prison

The New Maga Deal full of errors and omissions from former Trump adviser convicted of contempt of Congress

In a book due to be published a day before his release from prison this month, the former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro praises Donald Trump’s Maga movement – and claims to list errors and omissions that led to his four-month sentence for criminal contempt of Congress, for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House January 6 committee.

But Navarro makes striking errors and omissions of his own, including jarringly misidentifying Ashli Babbitt – the Trump supporter shot dead at the US Capitol who became a martyr to many on the far right – as a US marine corps veteran.

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Greek poet who inspired Forster, Hockney and Jackie Onassis emerges from the shadows

The writer Constantine Cavafy was largely unpublished in his lifetime, but was revered by artists. His archive and Alexandrian home are now on show for the first time

It was the backdrop to a literary world of the lost Levant. Away from the sea, on a narrow street in the old Greek quarter of Alexandria, 10 Rue Lepsius was the home and creative sanctuary of Constantine Cavafy.

For 26 years, it was here that the poet, a bureaucrat in British-run colonial Egypt, held court, treating writers such as EM Forster to long candle-lit nights of talk over liquors and what the English novelist later recalled as “small bits of bread and cheese”.

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‘It’s a snowball effect’: the generation Z book club making waves in New York

Cassidy Grady’s Sunday reading series ‘Confessions’ seeks fresh avenues for creative expression in wake of pandemic

Reading nights and avant-garde literary groups are rapidly emerging as platforms for younger generations to foster community and creatively share personal narratives – and one new series is making waves in New York.

Literary events are on the rise across the US, with CNN citing that book club listings have grown 24% in 2023 from the previous year.

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Gretchen Whitmer wants to meet far-right plotters who tried to kill her, book reveals

Exclusive: Michigan governor and potential Biden replacement writes in memoir True Gretch of desire for ‘face-to-face’ talks

Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan widely spoken of as a possible Democratic candidate for president should Joe Biden cede to growing pressure and leave the race, wants to meet members of a far-right militia who plotted to kidnap and kill her.

“I asked whether I could meet with one of the handful of plotters who’d pleaded guilty and taken responsibility for their actions, just to talk,” Whitmer writes in a new book, of the plot motivated by resistance to Covid public health measures and revealed with 13 arrests in late 2020.

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