If you truly want to know what scares us today, you only have to look to Hollywood's visions of tomorrow, says Francesca Steele

How to fix the world, by someone in the know

Cinematic dystopias are having a big year. The biggest, in fact, since 2009, when The Road and Terminator: Salvation both warned of a bad future. Now, we have The Hunger Games, which takes place in a US ravaged by some sort of (yes) "apocalyptic" event. Then there's the remake of Judge Dredd called Dredd. Finally, another dystopian remake, of Total Recall, set in a Fascist future where "Euroamerica" and "New Shanghai" vie for global superiority.

If the ultimate fate should befall Fabrice Muamba, the critically ill Bolton player who collapsed during Saturday's FA Cup match against Tottenham, his family might take the consolation described by my esteemed colleague Sam Wallace yesterday: "If there is such a thing as the English Dream, like the American one, Muamba has lived it." And if, as every right-thinking person in Britain hopes, the Kinshasa-born 23-year-old makes a full recovery, I hope that in this Olympic year he is held up not just as an example of sport's capacity for redemption, but as a personification of that much-maligned thing, the immigrant's tale.

All my life I’ve been obsessed with heroes.

The weekly of George Orwell and Michael Foot faces closure

Stop me when you've guessed what I'm describing. "The hooked nose, the thick lips, the swarthy complexion, the curly black hair, and piercing dark eyes..." Got it yet? I'll go on. "Every traditional feature of the Jewish face was there in most marked and pronounced character."

Stuart Kuttner, the latest in a line of News International executives to see the inside of a police interview room, can count on one man for a character reference: that old spoon-bender Uri Geller.

They might be known for their gothic romances, but the Brontë sisters also created some of the earliest examples of science fiction. When Charlotte, Emily, Anne and their brother Branwell were as young as 10, they wrote stories set in detailed, imaginary worlds. Now these little-known fantasy stories are being exhibited in the British Library's first sci-fi exhibition.

Hotels are not famed for their highbrow libraries; if you're lucky, you might just find the latest Jackie Collins blockbuster. But this is about to change at the new W London hotel in Leicester Square, where books have been recommended by famous authors, including Bret Easton Ellis.

Twenty thousand people handed out a record number of tomes across the country for the first World Book Night

Could a blueprint for a happier and more successful society come from someone outside politics? George Orwell's utopian vision has found an echo in a little-known French philosopher

A red-letter day for all Orwell fans