A library building, first handed to the local community by Mark Twain more than one hundred years ago, will be put on the market after the council stripped the shelves of books in a dawn raid today.

Naoto Kan, the former Prime Minister, has admitted that his office was "overwhelmed" during the Fukushima nuclear meltdown last year, and he recommended that Japan scrap all its reactors to avoid a repeat.

Television histories don't usually spend a lot of time establishing their presenter's credentials. Unless they've really gone populist and handed the job over to Richard Hammond, we're supposed to take it for granted that the person on screen actually knows what he or she is talking about.

Literary festivals are supposed to broaden the mind, but Matthew Bell would rather stay at home with a good book

Featuring medieval vocal works themed around Jerusalem, the "Daughter of Zion", this album profits greatly from the beautiful acoustic characteristics of the Dome Church of St Nicholas in Haapsalu, which lends spine-tingling presence to the Estonian vocal ensemble Vox Clamantis, imparting a glowing, halo-like reverb particularly to the monophonic Gregorian chants.

Where are you now and what can you see?

David Bramhill, the oil executive who led Wessex Exploration on to the AIM, quit as chairman yesterday with immediate effect.

Your weekly guide to what's really going on inside the world of books

It's little wonder our cousins across the Channel are so much more au fait with vegetables – they learn all about cultivating them from such a young age...

The sequel to 'Wolf Hall' is a striking account of one of English history's most shocking episodes. But it can be hard to navigate such austere prose

It all went terribly wrong last time, but technology stocks are soaring again. Emma Dunkley has some words of caution

TV pick of the week

British Museum, London

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