“The problem had many different names and diagnoses. Some thought we were drowning in too much news; others feared we were in danger of becoming newsless. Some believed we had too much free news; others, that paid-for news was leaving behind it a long caravan of ignorance. On this most people could agree: we were now up to our necks in a seething, ever churning ocean of information, some of it true, much of it wrong… How did we get here? And how could we get back to where we once belonged?”

Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian from 1995–2015 – across the most profound, abrupt shift in the technology and business of news the industry has ever seen – writes about journalism, trust, the public interest and being questioned on his patriotism by a select committee, in this edited extract from Breaking News.

“In A Room of One’s Own, Woolf asks the reader to consider the following questions: why did men drink wine and women water? Why was one sex so prosperous and the other so poor? What effect has poverty on fiction? On poetry? What conditions are necessary for the creation of a work of art? She had already asked these questions in Orlando.”

Jeanette Winterson writing in the Guardian: “How Woolf’s Orlando became a trans triumph”.

‘We have a really shamefully horrid healthcare system, and I think that’s part of it. It’s much more convenient to think these people are just crazy, or it’s in their heads. It’s a very real thing; I don’t know of anyone who doubts it any more. Occasionally I encounter people that do. I’m astounded at their wilful ignorance; it’s not actual ignorance.’ Porochista Khakpour discusses living with chronic illness and her new book Sick with The Observer.

Thomas Page McBee talked to The Observer on his new book Amateur, covering transitioning, sexuality and the fight organised by Haymakers for Hope that altered his life.

“A revealing scene from her memoir narrates the time Khan-Cullors was invited to dinner at a white classmate’s house. She admires how the family sits down to eat together, discussing their aspirations – only to learn that the father, who is so gently encouraging, is the slumlord trying to evict her family from their home.”

Patrisse Khan-Cullors interviewed on the fifth anniversary of Black Lives Matter.

An early recommendation (from none other than Ian Rankin) for Ambrose Parry’s upcoming The Way of All Flesh.

The Independent on the rediscovery of the brilliant Eve Babitz, author of Sex & Rage:

“She’s a comic, a poet, and a rare writer who is capable of finding the universal in the unique.”

Matt Haig was interviewed in the Observer about his new book Notes on a Nervous Planet.

“Platforms like Twitter and Instagram try to get us as emotionally and psychologically invested in them as possible. And sometimes, if you just go on Twitter and passively scroll down your feed, it depends who you follow of course, it just seems like a fireball of anger. Wherever you are on the political spectrum, you can find something within five minutes to be really, really cross or anxious about. And there’s a psychological fall-out from all that.”

“This wonderful new book is the most comprehensive overview of the filmmaker’s life and career to date.”