George Osborne's closest political aide secretly gave News Corp information about the likely contents of the Government's first budget, it was revealed last night.

A chronically obese teenager cut free from her home by workmen after she grew too big to go outside remained in hospital today.

According to new research by discount website MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, people have been buying e-readers to disguise the embarrassing books they're reading. The poll of 1,863 e-reader owners found that 58 per cent had acquired the device partly so as to disguise their taste in erotic and/or children's fiction.

Does the announcement that Waterstones is to sell Amazon's Kindle mean that bookshops are giving up, asks John Walsh

Those keen to develop a natural gift for words can benefit from an MA in creative writing, says Russ Thorne

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

A contempt of court case taken against Labour MP Peter Hain over criticisms he made of a judge in Northern Ireland will not proceed, the High Court in Belfast ruled today.

More new homes must be built to tackle "the country's burgeoning housing crisis", a new report has said.

A bite-size guide to the week's gaming releases.

Anger over boardroom pay will explode again this week as further investor rebellions demonstrate the "shareholder spring" of unrest continues.

Anger over boardroom pay will explode again this week as further investor rebellions demonstrate the "shareholder spring" of unrest continues unabated.

Sometimes it seems that the more you produce and the better you write, the less you are likely to be remembered.

US Outlook One of the older and wiser writers on The Independent tells her young protégés that the first rule of column writing is: never make a prediction. I'm going to break her rule not once but twice in the next few lines.

Young historians are shunning academic works in the rush to convert their research into commercially successful books, according to the chief judge of a leading history writing prize.