The judges who selected the Man Booker Prize 2018 shortlist yesterday have spoken out about a lack of thorough editing on some of the books submitted for the £50,000 award. The Guardian has its own take on the question of whether it’s a good thing that books are trending longer.

How to write a great sentence: in the Guardian, Joe Moran analyses what we can learn from celebrated authors on the art of writing well.

Stylist reports on everything we know about Malorie Blackman’s new Noughts & Crosses novel.

The Guardian rounds up the best recent crime novels.

Writers at The Pool report on what they’re reading this week, among them the novel that two of them disagree on, a photo documentary of British society and an unforgettable memoir for when life seems to be falling apart.

In this week’s Bookseller pictures roundup, Pan Macmillan celebrates its 175th anniversary while June Sarpong scoops the inaugural London Big Read Award.

Abir Mukherjee has won the 2018 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize with his second novel, A Necessary Evil.

Publishers have reported buoyant trading on the international stage ahead of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, though many are unsettled by the political backdrop, with the UK government sparring with the European Union to avoid a “no-deal” Brexit come March 2019.

Patrick DeWitt spoke to the Guardian about the books that made him.