Diary: Backward step
Comedian Maureen Younger is unimpressed by the return of the rape joke
Culture
Makers by Cory Doctorow
Bill Thompson enjoys a sci-fi writer growing up
Terrible beauty
Why is religious art so blood-soaked and morbid asks Roger Davidson
Kissing cousins
Is marrying close relations harmful? Charles Darwin, anxious about his own family inbreeding, applied his scientific rigour to find out the truth. Adam Kuper reveals all
A paon in the arse
Laurie Taylor ruffles a few feathers
Film review: Inglourious Basterds
This World War Two revenge tale is lazy and idiotic, yet has moments of true brilliance. Could the real problem be Tarantino himself? asks Fred Rowson
Perfecting Sound Forever: The Story of Recorded Music by Greg Milner
Andrew Mueller appreciates a note-perfect history of recorded music
The Scourging Angel: The Black Death in the British Isles by Benedict Gummer
Louise Foxcroft is perplexed by a book that squeezes the life out of the Black Death
God’s Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science by James Hannam
Nina Power on a good Dark Ages argument made for the wrong reasons
The Fall of the Imam by Nawal El Saadawi
Philip Womack praises a formidable Egyptian novel