The food bloggers’ fourth book Comfort Food outsold Osman’s second cosy crime novel by just over 1,000 copiesThe fourth Pinch of Nom cookbook, a collection of slimming comfort food recipes, has narrowly pipped Richard Osman to the top of the book cha…
Mental health charity declines donation from Jamie Lynn Spears
Britney Spears’s younger sister has had her offer to give proceeds from her forthcoming book to the non-profit organisation This Is My Brave turned downJamie Lynn Spears’s offer to donate some of the proceeds from her forthcoming memoir to a mental hea…
Handwritten manuscript of The Grapes of Wrath to be published for the first time
This early version of John Steinbeck’s most famous novel, written in less than 100 days, will be released by SP Books on 7 October The handwritten manuscript of John Steinbeck’s masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath, complete with the swearwords excised from…
HarperCollins removes story from David Walliams’ book The World’s Worst Children
After criticism of the ‘casual racism’ of a story about a Chinese boy, the publisher has taken it out of the next print run of the bestselling anthology David Walliams’ story about a Chinese boy called Brian Wong, which was criticised by campaigners f…
Origin story of Dennis the Menace’s jumper to be revealed
To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Beano’s longest-running character, comic strip The Epic Yarn of Awesomeness will tell the garment’s backstoryCruella de Vil was recently given a new backstory by Disney; the Wicked Witch of the West’s past was r…
How to Be an Antiracist author Ibram X Kendi awarded MacArthur ‘genius grant’
Writers Daniel Alarcón and Reginald Dwayne Betts have also been named on the list of 25 new fellows to receive $625,000 from the foundationThe bestselling historian Ibram X Kendi has been awarded a $625,000 (£460,000) MacArthur “genius grant” for his w…
Marvel sues to retain control of Avengers characters
The comics giant has issued lawsuits in a bid to hold on to the copyright of heroes including Spider-Man and Iron ManMarvel has filed a series of lawsuits in a bid to retain full control of characters including Spider-Man and Iron Man.The complaints, w…
Pennsylvania school district reverses ban on books by authors of colour
The Central York school board has gone back on its decision to bar a list of titles by or about people of colour from being used as educational resourcesA wide-ranging ban on books in a southern Pennsylvania school district has been reversed following …
Einstein’s handwritten calculations for theory of relativity to be auctioned for €3m
The rare document, which records attempts to explain an anomaly in the orbit of Mercury, is ‘a fascinating dive into the mind of the greatest scientist of the 20th century’A crucial series of Albert Einstein’s calculations, scrawled down as the physici…
Newly discovered Tennessee Williams story published for the first time
The 1952 work by the Streetcar Named Desire playwright was found in Yale University’s archivesAs soon as he crossed the border into Italy, Tennessee Williams found his health was “magically restored”. “There was the sun and there were the smiling Itali…