British Library

This fascinating exhibition explores five centuries of British news coverage: from the Great Fire of London to #BlackLivesMatter, via Jack the Ripper, the Profumo Affair and the Grenfell Tower fire. The aim is to ‘challenge and change’ how we think about news by posing probing questions about what – and what doesn’t – get covered, and to what end. It’s definitely one to approach with an open mind.

These days, writing in gold is as easy as popping into Paperchase and buying a glitter pen. But in the years before Paperchase (BP), writing with gold actually meant something – it carried a heavy symbolic weight. To prove it, the basement of the British Library has been filled with gold-drenched manuscripts from around the world, in multiple languages, telling countless stories: a huge, elegantly simple Qur’an from 1304, a glistening bit of Buddhist scripture from 1836, royal Ottoman seals, biblical scenes and Persian poetry, all quietly shimmering with gold, and totally stunning.The gold here serves multiple symbolic purposes. Golden lines from the Qur’an show how important the words are, golden royal seals show how important a sultan is. Gold – so valuable, so fiddly – elevates the subjects, it makes the holy more holy, the powerful more powerful. It’s also a symbol of wealth, obviously. Lots of these manuscripts are showy, ostentatious statements of the commissioners’ fortunes. The staggering letter from King James II to the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman empire is only as lavish as it is because old Jim is sending a message. He’s saying he’s powerful, important and very, very rich. Message received. There’s a bewildering variety of uses of gold here. There are solid strips of it emblazoned with Buddhist chants, a huge sheet of it for a Mughal royal decree, a glowing image of St Mark, a perfectly intricate Spanish Haggadah, a gorgeously lush depiction of the lives of the Bud