England books its place at number four in latest world reading rankings | Books | Entertainment

England has moved up to fourth place in global rankings for children’s reading. Previously, in 2016, the nation came joint eighth out of 50 countries. But it has improved despite disruption to education during the Covid pandemic, the latest Progress in International Reading Literacy Study reveals. The research takes place every five years and More...

Bloodied in the Mediterranean: New history shows how the SAS survived | Books | Entertainment
Allied troops going ashore to liberate Sicily in November 1942. (Image: Getty) The wartime SAS may be remembered primarily for its daring desert raids in North Africa, not least thanks to the BBC’s recent More...

Baking pans and broomsticks: Bake Off star on fighting stereotypes of witches | Books | Entertainment
Helena Garcia aims to change witches stereotype (Image: ) Appearing on The Great British Bake Off in 2019, Helena Garcia’s gothic-looking cakes were memorably described by judge Prue Leith as “sinister More...

Censoring novels almost comical political correctness Rushdie | Books | Entertainment
The author of The Satanic Verses has said publishers re-editing the James Bond spy stories for reasons of political correctness “in light of today’s attitudes” are acting in a “remarkably alarming” More...

Charles wouldn’t be King with Iron Throne law but Grace Kelly relative | Books | Entertainment
King Charles III will be crowned the British monarch this weekend at the first Coronation in 70 years at Westminster Abbey. Yet if the UK had succession laws that skipped females like the Iron Throne in Game More...

The Hawkhurst Gang – Tea tax fuelled original (British) Mafia | History | News
The stone stands next to a bus stop on the outskirts of Chichester. Today, post-war semi-detached houses, a community centre and a sense of Home Counties order prevails on Broyle Road in this anonymous corner More...

The Real Ted Hastings – A look at the man who inspired Line Of Duty | Books | Entertainment
Line of Duty: Adrian Dunbar on plans for a new season By the time an exasperated Met Commissioner Sir John Waldron asked Mark to do something about the breakdown in CID discipline, Scotland Yard was staggering More...

Will Dean: ‘My parents never read, I was the black sheep of the family’ | Books | Entertainment
Will Dean (Image: Handout) It is the ultimate locked room mystery. An edge-of-the-seat thriller set on a gigantic cruise ship where nobody can arrive and nobody can leave. But author Will Dean has given the More...

Could a little black box on a crashed Nazi bomber have saved Coventry? | History | News
A Heinkel 111 like the one hat crashed on Chesil Beach carrying secret German navigational aids (Image: GETTY) The Reverend Richard Howard looked across the roofscape of Coventry. It was the night of November More...

George RR Martin’s Winds of Winter latest after fan ‘anxiety attacks’ | Books | Entertainment
It’s been 12 years since George RR Martin last published a book in his A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series. Since Game of Thrones concluded four years ago, the 74-year-old has been reassuring his fans More...