Cover Stories: Hillary Clinton, Rod Liddle, Harry Potter and the Vatican

New York Senator and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has been meeting members of the British book trade in Washington DC to give them an insight into her memoirs, due for worldwide publication on 9 June. Her UK publisher, Headline, gushed that the Senator is "fabulous – charismatic and very friendly", and is writing a book about how women can achieve "to the highest levels professionally and still be a wife and mother". Clinton will also deal with what are euphemistically described as "the darker events" of Bill's presidency.

¿ Rod Liddle, who quit the editorship of Today after the BBC forced him to choose between it and his columns, has landed a contract with Century, part of Gail Rebuck's Random House empire. The six-figure deal covers two novels: the first, Speeding with Sophie, will be published this autumn. His editor, Mark Booth, believes that Liddle has a lot to say about emotions, "particularly about sexual feelings, which many of us secretly believe but none of us would dream of saying".

¿ Bloomsbury can rest easy. The Vatican has declared that Harry Potter is all right with them. It has decreed that the magic and witchcraft in J K Rowling's novels is not in conflict with Church teaching. Rev Don Fleetwood, a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture, commented that the books "help children see the difference between good and evil".