Basildon, Grimsby and Rotherham also make the 15-strong shortlist as well as Strabane.

After catching a chestnut of legendary proportions from a tree, a young botanist’s life is changed in unthinkable ways in The Witch, the Seed and the Scalpel by Scott O’Neill. Joseph Ware has grown up learning everything there is to know about plants from his parents, a famous duo with his father gathering samples from around the world to write about in their books while his mother paints the illustrations to accompany the entries.

‘Witchcraft,’ said Father. ‘It is said that should any person catch the falling chestnut before it touches the ground, the ghost of Margaret McKay will appear and bestow the catcher with abnormal stre...

– Before we get wired into this episode, I’m delighted to tell you that the podcast is coming to the Edinburgh Fringe this Summer! I’ll be at The Stand, which is a five minute walk from Waver…

On Thursday 20 March, The Atlantic broke the story of how Meta has used the Library Genesis (LIbGen) dataset, which is full of pirated material, to develop their AI systems.

The 'Glasgow Boys' author shares the books that make her feel fab

Australian prime minister surprised after remote external territories – including islands home to penguins – targeted by US president