Letter: London Book Fair is a chance to strengthen cultural links with China
The London Book Fair, together with the British Council, runs the event's market-focus cultural programme (Letters, 13 April). Any international institution working with books in China needs to liaise with the General Administration of Press and Public...
Letters: Chinese voices
It is extremely disappointing to learn that the organisers of the London Book Fair and the British Council have apparently acquiesced to pressure from the Chinese authorities and failed to invite dissident authors and poets to the event at Earls Court ...
Letters: Information that we want to be free
As the editor of an online journal, Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, now entering its fourth year with 1,100 registered readers, I was delighted to read such strong endorsement of open access publishing from the director of the Wellcome Trust, Mar...
Notes and queries: Why has Britain never had a revolution?
Plus: Zaleski – the greatest fictional detective? Why don't the French like vegetables?A Danish colleague asks me why, given the evident inequalities in Britain, has there never been a revolution? Mention of the civil war was clearly unsatisfact...
Letters: We welcome Israel’s national theatre
We are delighted to see the Globe theatre welcoming Israel's national theatre, Habima, to perform The Merchant of Venice in London (Letters, 4 April). Founded in the early 20th century in Moscow, Habima is one of the first Hebrew language theatres...
Letters: Young turks
Aditya Chakrabortty bemoans the lack of political fiction (The great Bengali thinker Rabindranath Tagore was a passionate political author. Why are English and American novels today so gutless?, G2, 10 April). He should take a look at young adult ficti...
Letters: Fiction and fact in the great book debate
Not really wishing to defend Amazon, I have to confess that, because I live in the country, my reading habits have been transformed by the online store (Letters, 9 April). Up until a few years ago, if I wanted to buy a book, I had to make a 20-mile rou...
Letter: Antonio Tabucchi was keen to expose the crookedness of politicians, particularly in Italy and Portugal
Philip Cooke's obituary of Antonio Tabucchi (4 April) rightly draws attention to Tabucchi's determination to remind us that "fascism is a great historical wound which is not yet healed". Tabucchi was equally determined to expose the crookedness of poli...
Letters: Israel, Günter Grass and the right to artistic licence
The occasion for Günter Grass's What Must Be Said is the sale to Israel by Germany of a submarine with the potential to carry nuclear weapons (With his last drop of ink, Grass's poem infuriates Israel, 6 April). It is a real issue amid many arms ...
Letters: Opening the books on Amazon’s tax
It is shocking that Amazon is paying no UK tax on the profits from its massive sales here (Report, 5 April). Many other retail companies also pay ludicrously low amounts of corporation tax. Retail operations can't move overseas, like manufacturing indu...
Notes and queries: Who is the greatest fictional detective?
Plus: Is the air fresher in a forest? Why do men bother shaving?Who is the greatest fictional detective? Holmes? Marlowe? Marple? Philip Marlowe didn't solve all his crimes; his main business was doing what his clients wanted and getting beaten up occa...
Letters: Support for libraries
Today hundreds of library users travel to Westminster to highlight the vital role of our libraries and library staff. They are speaking up for millions of people – young and old – who use public libraries for a myriad of reasons every day. At a tim...
