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German media firm, already owner of the giant Penguin Random House, says acquisition of another major publisher is ‘approvable’ within monopoly rules

German media group Bertelsmann is set to acquire publisher Simon & Schuster for $2.17bn, less than a year after it took control of Penguin Random House (PRH).

Bertelsmann outbid Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which owns publisher HarperCollins, in a contest for the company that is home to Dan Brown, Hillary Clinton and Stephen King. ViacomCBS put the company up for sale this year in order to refocus on its online and advertising operations.

Penguin Random House Canada’s plans to publish a new work by the ‘professor against political correctness’ has reportedly prompted numerous complaints

The announcement of a new book from Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, the self-styled “professor against political correctness”, has prompted dozens of complaints from staff at his publisher in Canada, according to a report.

Vice’s story on Tuesday said that the announcement of Peterson’s forthcoming Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life, a follow-up to his global bestseller 12 Rules for Life, prompted “several” staff at Penguin Random House Canada (PRH Canada) to confront management. Peterson’s views on subjects including transgender rights, gender and race have been controversial. Last year, Cambridge University rescinded its offer of a visiting fellowship to Peterson following criticism from faculty and students. Also in 2019, 12 Rules for Life was temporarily pulled from sale in a New Zealand book chain after the terrorist attack on a Christchurch mosque, over perceived links between Peterson’s fanbase and Islamophobia.

Related: Jordan Peterson: ‘The pursuit of happiness is a pointless goal’

The poet had been wrongly included among more than 300 figures whose collections were associated with wealth obtained from colonial violence

The British Library has apologised to Carol Hughes, the widow of the former poet laureate Ted Hughes, after it linked him to the slave trade through a distant ancestor.

Hughes’s name had been included on a spreadsheet from the library detailing more than 300 figures with “evidence of connections to slavery, profits from slavery or from colonialism”. Hughes’s link was through Nicholas Ferrar, who was born in 1592 and whose family was, the library said, “deeply involved” with the London Virginia Company, which was set up to colonise North America.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell author picked for Piranesi, alongside Denise Mina, Julian Barnes and the late Eavan Boland, in prizes for ‘enjoyable’ books

Sixteen years after she published her debut, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke has made the shortlist for the Costa book awards for her second novel, the long-awaited Piranesi.

The Costas recognise the “most enjoyable” books across five categories, with 708 books submitted this year. Piranesi, the fantastical story of a man who lives in a house in which an ocean is imprisoned, was described by the judges of the £5,000 Costa best novel award as “magnificently imagined”. Clarke, who was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome after publication of the bestselling fantasy Jonathan Strange, said she was “so pleased” to make the Costa lineup.

Related: Susanna Clarke: ‘I was cut off from the world, bound in one place by illness’

Related: ‘My mum was more than the woman shot by police’: read an extract from The Louder I Will Sing

Craig Brown wins prestigious award for nonfiction with book that judges say ‘has reinvented the art of biography’

Craig Brown has won the Baillie Gifford prize, the UK’s top award for nonfiction, for One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time, a take on the band that judges said had “reinvented the art of biography”.

A mix of history, diaries, autobiography, fan letters, interviews, lists and charts, Brown’s book tells the story of the group and those within their orbit. Chair of judges Martha Kearney called it “a joyous, irreverent, insightful celebration of the Beatles, a highly original take on familiar territory”.

Related: Road trips, yoga and LSD with the dentist: what the Beatles did next

Related: One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time by Craig Brown – review

Library staff believed manuscripts were ‘mis-shelved’ in 2000 but now think theft likely

Two Charles Darwin manuscripts have been reported as stolen from Cambridge University library two decades after they were last seen.

Staff believed the precious items had been “mis-shelved” within the vast archives late in 2000 and the matter was not reported to Cambridgeshire police until 20 October this year. The force said it has launched an investigation and notified Interpol.

Instead, the OED says ‘a year that has left us speechless’ is best reflected by expanding its annual selection to a whole list

For the first time, the Oxford English Dictionary has chosen not to name a word of the year, describing 2020 as “a year which cannot be neatly accommodated in one single word”. Instead, from “unmute” to “mail-in”, and from “coronavirus” to “lockdown”, the eminent reference work has announced its “words of an ‘unprecedented’ year”.

On Monday, the dictionary said that there were too many words to sum up the events of 2020. Tracking its vast corpus of more than 11bn words found in web-based news, blogs and other text sources, its lexicographers revealed what the dictionary described as “seismic shifts in language data and precipitous frequency rises in new coinage” over the past 12 months.

Georgian house where infamous French poets lodged was to become an arts centre – but its owner has had a change of heart

It was the London home of the 19th-century Decadent poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, two of France’s greatest literary heroes, whose tempestuous love affair ended with a shooting and prison. A Georgian building in Camden, where they rented lodgings in 1873, was to have become “a poetry house”, an arts and education centre in one of the capital’s most deprived areas, after a campaign involving some of Britain’s foremost arts figures.

But the arts charity behind the project has been dismayed to discover that Michael Corby, the benefactor who promised to bequeath the historic building to the charity a decade ago, has changed his mind without warning, deciding instead to sell it on the open market.

An injury set the England footballer on a mission to tackle inequalities he faced as a child

When Marcus Rashford injured his back after taking a heavy knock in Manchester United’s 1-0 FA Cup replay win against Wolverhampton in January, it was bad news for him and his club – but also the start of an incredible journey for the England striker.

The double stress fracture indicated he would be out of action for some time. Football had been his life, his routine, his discipline since joining the academy system at Manchester United at the age of seven.