What makes Jane Austen the ideal banknote candidate?

When Charles Darwin disappears off the back of the Bank of England's £10 note, Jane Austen is a candidate to replace him. It's exactly what was speculated yesterday.

Austen is likely to make a popular choice, but how might she have won over the Bank of England?

It's the bicentenary of Pride and Prejudice, arguably her best-known novel, so getting her on a note by the end of the year would be rather appropriate. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-23044009 

TIME Presents the 12 All-Time Great Summer Reads

To celebrate the beginning of a new season, TIME editors have compiled a list of our favorite summer reads from the past 40 years. What defines a summer read? To us, it’s the kind of buzzed-about book that seems to flourish in warmer months, equally ubiquitous on beaches and in subway cars. (Not all summer reads are mindless page-turners—one of our selected titles is a brainy mystery that touches on medieval studies and semiotics.) Once you’ve perused the list, take our poll and help us crown the All-Time, Ultimate Summer Read.

And we acknowledge that our list is by no means definitive—though we think it’s a darn good representation of 40 years of seasonal tomes. So we invite you to help fill in our gaps—to correct what you might think are our egregious oversights—by telling us which books should join our list. Tweet your picks—or share what you plan on reading this summer—using the hashtag #SummerBooks. We’ll post the winner of this poll alongside a collection of your suggestions next Friday, June 27.

And now, on to our list…

http://entertainment.time.com/2013/06/21/time-presents-the-12-all-time-great-summer-reads/ 

Will Power: 10 Great Shakespeare Movies

William Shakespeare wrote 38 plays — and perhaps a couple more for which there’s circumstantial historical evidence, but no surviving copies. The magnitude and influence of the Bard’s output, even if we leave aside the brilliance of his sonnets, cement his reputation as the single greatest writer the English-speaking world has produced. (Note to those who believe that Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe or other Elizabethan scribes penned some or all of the works: your arguments are compelling. 

http://entertainment.time.com/2013/06/10/will-power-10-great-shakespeare-movies/