Editors' picks
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Speech, speech
Essay: With The King's Speech tipped to triumph at the Oscars, Mary Beard examines public speaking from Demosthenes to Obama. What makes a 'great' speech and why are so few given by women? -
Libraries chief apologises to schoolgirl over cuts protest
News: Roy Clare has apologised to nine-year-old Jessica Trueman after criticising her campaign to save her local library -
Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar
Review: Absence and longing are powerfully depicted in Hisham Matar's novel, says Hermione Lee
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Memory and truth
Can writers ever grasp the truth? The biographer Anne Perkins delves into Barbara Castle's archives and Richard Lloyd Parry tells us about the difficulties in resolving the murder of Lucie Blackman -
Twelve of the best new novelists
To find the most promising new writers John Mullan and a panel of judges read piles of debut novels. What did they discover about the state of British literary fiction today? -
The 'situation' demands a creative response
In his acceptance speech for the Jerusalem prize, delivered in Israel last week, Ian McEwan argues that it's time creativity replaced nihilism in the troubled region -
More books news
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John le Carré gives his literary archive to Oxford's Bodleian library
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World Book Night to open with huge public reading
