Kevin Davies was kept in a locked garden shed by "friends" for nearly four months, fed scraps and tortured. His benefits were stolen. He died last September. His captors were jailed in July this year.

Steven Hoskin was made to wear a dog collar and lead and dragged around his own house. He was forced to call his "friends" "sir" and "madam". His benefits were also stolen. He was forced [...]

It was a rip-roaring speech calculated to warm old Labour hearts. At last autumn's party conference the Education Secretary, Ruth Kelly, told delegates bluntly that "the scandal of junk food served every day in school canteens must end". And she went further, promising: "Because children need healthy options throughout the school day, I can also announce that from next September no schools will be able to have vending machines selling [...]

Some black activists have dubbed it "stealing children" and "cultural genocide". Some adopted adults even call it "transracial abduction". Others reply that it betrays children, abandoning them to a life in short-term foster placements while social workers search for the "perfect match". The controversy over transracial adoption has raged for 30 years, and it is not over yet.

I have a personal interest: I was adopted transracially. In the 1960s, [...]

In just over a month's time, up to 200,000 people will converge on the G8 summit in Scotland for a rally organised by Make Poverty History. This will be one of the high points of the 2005 campaign to draw attention to the plight of Africa and to redraft the political agenda of the wealthy nations. Make Poverty History, a coalition of roughly 450 non-governmental organisations, has on one level [...]

Rather disconcertingly, this second novel has nothing to do with Cuba. Instead, it is a tense saga of love and betrayal set in the Basque country of northern Spain. Two sisters, Lola and Astrid, return to the region to await the release of Lola's lover, Mikel, a terrorist who has served 20 years in prison. The journey at the same time forces them to re-examine their claustrophobic love for each [...]

In Water Lily, Susanna Jones creates two central characters whose lives have been corroded by loneliness. Ralph is a businessman (and sex tourist) who has arrived in Japan to search for a bride. Runa is a Japanese high school teacher who fears that her relationship with a male pupil is about to be uncovered. Both desperate for friendship and love, they set sail on the same ship from Japan to [...]