There is a bloody battle afoot in the world of crime fiction. Few would deny that the status quo in the fictional worlds of murder and detection these days is a grim and gritty one, with operatic levels of violence practically obligatory. And this isn't just the male practitioners of the genre; many female writers now cheerfully out-Herod Herod when it comes to upping the body count.

Children as young as four are acting out scenes from violent computer games in school playgrounds, headteachers have warned.

How does left-leaning playwright David Hare make a return to the stage with a play based on his days as a scholarship boy at public school? Michael Coveney asks him.

Anglican and Catholic churches have lost the right to police themselves, say victims

The Archbishop of Wales has publicly called on Anglicans to support gay civil marriages arguing that the church’s record on equality has made homosexual men and women often feel “unwanted, unloved and sinful”.

A temporary cathedral built partly of cardboard is to replace the 131-year-old Christchurch landmark left beyond repair by an earthquake in February 2011.

Christine Brooke-Rose was a richly innovative novelist and a formidable critic. She moved between languages, countries and identities without securing a fixed place in a literary canon or a national culture, but this mobility, combined with her inventiveness, humour and insight, madeher particularly well-equipped to grasp the contemporary world of signs and simulations.

A proposed pact aimed at healing rifts in the Anglican church over issues such as same sex unions and gay bishops is in danger of collapse.

History may well judge Dr Williams more kindly than either his country or some of his fellow clerics

The Primate's departure comes at a critical moment in the Church of England's history

With Rowan Williams set to step down as Archbishop of Canterbury after ten years in the job, attention is already turning to who might replace him as head of the 77 million-strong Anglican Communion – with Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York the early favourite.

John Sentamu says C of E rules define marriage as all churches declare opinions in the debate

The ex-PM, a Catholic convert who introduced same-sex civil unions, intervenes over issue that has split the church