The Latest Breaking News on Books

Sometimes, it's better to just stick with what's on the page. Five years ago, one of Hollywood's most high-profile Stephen King adaptations ignored its source material's biggest lesson.

Other lives: Linguist who became deputy director of Ealing College of Technology and was known affectionately as ‘Mr Liberal Arts’

A book about children’s books is, of course, one for the grown-ups, but it is a subject that holds us long after we’ve joined the readers-aloud rather than the read-to classes. CS Lewis, who was perceptive about the allure of children’s books (he would be, wouldn’t he), observed that he…

The National Book Foundation has awarded Barbara Kingsolver a medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters (DCAL), which has previously been given to Toni Morrison, Philip Roth and Joan Didion among others

Public choosing ‘Shakespeare over invasion’ and becoming more discerning about Britain’s history, says Alan Lester

A RARE first edition of Robert Burns’ poetry could fetch as much as £60,000 when it goes up auction.

The Wickedest by Caleb Femi; Signs, Music by Raymond Antrobus; The Keelie Hawk by Kathleen Jamie; Scattered Snows, to the North by Carl Phillips

Attendees at The Audley pub in Mayfair ate Scotch eggs and Coronation chicken sandwiches, and ditched pints of lager in favour of chilled negronis and glasses of crisp white wine

An interview with editor Deborah Dundas on breaking the story

Clove is a young woman with a seemingly good life. She has an adoring husband, two healthy, happy children and a comfortable home in Portland, a pleasant US city. She is a perfectionist with an obsession with clean eating and super-health who has spent years building such “perfection”.

What happens when death becomes the ultimate marker of one’s commitment to one’s freedom? Jacob Dlamini explores this and other questions in his new book, Dying for Freedom: Political Martyrdom in South Africa. This edited extract, from the chapter Dead and Proud, focuses on Steve Biko’s attitude to martyrdom and…