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Nominees for this year’s Orange Prize – which goes to the best work of fiction by a woman writer – have been announced. “Carol Shields, who won the prize in 1998 with Larry’s Party, is chosen for Unless. The other frontrunners are Zadie Smith’s The Autograph Man, an examination of our modern obsession with celebrity and individualism which received mixed reviews; an Donna Tartt’s The Little Friend, about the aftermath of a murder in the deep south as seen through a child’s eyes. Also chosen are Alice Sebold’s US bestseller The Lovely Bones, narrated from heaven by a murdered girl; Siri Hustvedt’s complex saga of art and love, What I Loved; and Shena Mackay’s unshowy study of ageing Bohemians, Heligoland.”

Modern studies of the brain suggest that Shakespeare had an intuitive understanding of how the brain works. “Modern studies have shown the more a word is used in conversation, the less the brain responds to it. Our neurones get tired of hearing it. You can see this effect in the electrical activity of the brain’s word centres. They stop sparking so much. ‘Shakespeare knew that intuitively. Hence the rich variety of his vocabulary and his use of unexpected words or odd combinations of them – for instance, comparing mercy with rainfall to keep us on our toes and interested and involved in what he was saying. Other examples include the use of phrases such as ‘a muse of fire’ or ‘a quintessence of dust’. They are startling and unanticipated and keep us stimulated.”

When Book magazine made a deal with Barnes & Noble three years ago, its fortunes soared. “Over the next 18 months, circulation of Book rose to 1.2 million from 100,000.” Its ad rates tripled. But the cost of putting out the magazine outstripped its success, and B&N reconsidered the venture. Now the magazine will be relaunched as Barnes & Noble Presents Book and its circulation will be drastically cut to 150,000.