Gay superheroes soar into comic book battle
Marvel plans same-sex marriage while DC comics says established character is to come outComic book crime-fighters the X-Men are taking a break from saving the day in order to attend the first same-sex marriage in the superhero world, set for June.Publi...
Orange to withdraw sponsorship of women’s prize for fiction
Mobile services company will not be renewing its sponsorship of the book awards that have borne its name for 17 yearsIn one of the biggest upsets in literary prize history, the mobile services company Orange has announced this morning that it will not ...
Has the diamond jubilee increased the number of ‘royal’ books?
'Books like these are a very useful way to convey something of the optimism of the moment as well as picking out snippets of information about events'Has the Queen's diamond jubilee increased the number of books indulging fantasies about being royal or...
Poem of the week: City Boy by Peter Daniels
A young financier taking a drunken tumble might have been an easy target, but this gentle poem has no interest in blame gamesThis week's poem, City Boy, is by Peter Daniels and appears in his recently published first collection, Counting Eggs (Mulfran ...
Which superhero is about to come out as gay?
A DC Comics insider says an established character will be revealed as gay. Who could it be?The smart money is on Batman or Aquaman or Wonder Woman but, frankly, a case could be made for all or any of them: who is the comic book superhero who has been s...
Paperback Q&A: Ian Rankin on The Impossible Dead
The crime writer reveals the research underpinning his second Malcolm Fox novel – and the strict plan that yields a book a yearHow did you come to write The Impossible Dead?I was reading a newspaper and saw mention of a lawyer called William McRae. H...
Orange is not the only fruit: why book prizes, not sponsors, matter to writers
Orange's decision to withdraw its sponsorship of the women's prize for fiction is not the end of the world. What matters is not what the prize is called, but what it representsWaiting with the five other shortlisted novelists 12 years ago, as the chair...
Tales from India: Stories of Creation and the Cosmos by Jamila Gavin, illustrated by Amanda Hall – review
'I'm sure that as they grow up, my children will return to these stories'When we were growing up, my husband and I heard stories from the Indian myths and epics from our mothers and grandmothers, who in turn had heard them from their mothers and grandm...
Little Edale punches above its weight in the worlds of music and books
Singing, writing and all those walkers marching off up Grindsbrook Clough. Maybe the hamlet will produce a ballet next. Or a mural. Or an epic filmSmall but beautiful Edale in the Peak District is making its cultural mark, with successes in the worlds ...
Guardian first book award 2012: hunt for the 10th title
Do you know of a brilliant literary debut? As the deadline looms for entries to this year's first book award, we're launching the search for the 10th title for the longlistThere's just a week left for publishers to enter books for the 2012 Guardian fir...
