This week’s miscellany brings together reflections on recent reading, a selection of engaging literary essays and criticism, a return to a couple of archive favourites, notes on literary and cultural anniversaries including Children’s Book Week, the Day of the Imprisoned Writer and the birthdays of Astrid Lindgren, Marianne Moore and J. G. Ballard, along with a curated assortment of online articles and features that proved too interesting to pass by.