The singer, 51, on making memories, disliking therapy, and a terrifying meeting with Grace Jones

I used to ask my dad if I could marry him. He was my hero. My first memory is being devastated that he had to go to work, I couldn’t understand why he couldn’t stay at home with me. He wasn’t perfect. He made a mess of things in some ways. But he remained iconic to me, and showed me how to appreciate life. He made friends with everyone.

Dad died a few years ago and I was surprised. He once saved a monk falling down an escalator at Heathrow airport and they all blessed him afterwards. I thought it was impossible for him to die.

I always loved adults more than other kids. I grew up in a tribe of incredibly flawed people. People who made mistakes. But I could always see that they were amazing, too. I was patient with adults in a way that I wasn’t with other children, I think because I always had an interest in adult things.

My upbringing was cultured and exciting. I was surrounded by poetry and books and live music. One day, Dad came home with the cockpit of a Second World War bomber. It stayed in the living room for ages. That was my life growing up.

I’ve got a temper. I’m Irish. But it comes out much less than it used to. I guess that’s growing up. I’ve done therapy, it wasn’t great, it felt like a waste of time. I’m very good at talking people round to my side of things. The last therapist I had agreed with me too much. I put on a good show. I’m a performer.

I think our culture is too hedonistic. People really party now, it’s not like it was in the 90s, going out once in a while. The dance scene in the 80s and 90s was so wonderful, but I always thought that pure hedonism was a dead end. I was never interested in that. I was interested in adventure.

I mourn the passing of that time I knew. No phones, genuine freedom, actual connection with other people.

My biggest fear is losing my memory. Losing memories of the culture I grew up in. Losing history. I’m always trying to capture memories, to remember them. The fear is in me that I won’t be able to find them, I won’t remember these things any more.

The last time I cried was at Christmas. I was sick and coughing in the middle of the night and it wouldn’t go away. I didn’t have cancer, though, just a chest infection. I’m a bit of a hypochondriac. It’s a guilt thing. I think to myself, “You can’t be having this much fun and not pay some kind of price for it.”

I love Grace Jones, but I was petrified of meeting her. A few years back a friend and I went to see her in Florence. She’s one of my biggest influences and she was brilliant that night. We ended up back at the hotel she was staying in because we knew the gig promoter. She walked in, took one look at us, turned to her people, and said, “Get these people out of here.”

I like getting older. I hesitate to call it wisdom, because you can think you’re wise and then very quickly life can remind you that you’re not. But I’m proud of what I’ve done as an artist.

Hit Parade Remixes by Róisín Murphy is out now. Róisín plays London’s Love Motion festival on 26 July

Inside the north London house of the man who transformed British design

I had an idea of London inside my head from English films. Every film made in London was art, but from Hollywood it was junk. I was an arrogant teen!” says a smiling Ron Arad of his decision to leave Tel Aviv and move to London in 1973, at the age of 22.

Arad, who studied architecture, under pressure from his mother, at the Architectural Association school in London, is sporting his trademark round felt hat. He is sitting on a curvaceous Victoria & Albert crimson sofa, one of his own pieces, created for the Italian furniture brand Moroso, in the conservatory of his north London home. Along with his wife, Alma, who works as a psychologist, they have lived here for more than 30 years, raising their daughters, Lail and Dara, who both live nearby.

Friction in the fields is wreaking havoc in the bedroom for farmers and parents Rosie and Brian

How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

There is something hot about being a farmer, but working together is tricky – Brian can nitpick to a degree that doesn’t make a difference for the sheep

The gold medal-winner on getting a free pass from admiring schoolteachers and the day he could finally admit he was no longer an athlete

Born in Farnborough, Kent, in 1974, Iwan Thomas is a former British athlete and media personality. He began his sporting career when he was nine and became a world-class BMX rider at 14, before discovering his passion for sprinting. He was one of the world’s fastest men between 1995 and 1998, winning silver in the 4x400m at the 1996 Olympics, gold in the relay at the European Cup and gold, retrospectively, in the 4x400m at the world championships. He held the British 400m record for 25 years, with a time of 44.36 set in 1997. After a string of injuries, Thomas has since segued into broadcasting, regularly hosting The One Show and commentating for TV and radio. His memoir, Brutal, is out now.

This is me posing in my parents’ garden after coming back from the European championships in Holland. I had crashed in my BMX race, which was annoying as I probably should have won. I was so disappointed I said to Dad, “I’m going to race in cruisers instead.” It wasn’t my usual event – cruiser bikes are normally for the bigger boys or adults – but I wanted another chance. The risk paid off. I came fourth. A good result.

I was there through their infirmity, incontinence, our cohabitation - and suddenly I was fired

Like an organised criminal, my mother no longer communicates by phone. Visiting her can be convoluted, but it beats the days when I thought I might never get away. That’s what I tell myself, anyway. Her, I tell very little, until I arrive. Plans and possibilities weigh heavily on Mum’s mind, raising questions whose answers she cannot remember, stranding her in her own inquiries. Now I plot my appearances carefully with her live-in care worker so that everything deliberate can seem like a nice surprise.

When my father died in 2021 I thought my mother might thrive on her own. Instead, it was as though her concern for – and consternation with – him were the last thing on her mind’s to-do list before it tendered its own resignation. With a mild but manifest case of vascular dementia, Mum will hopefully turn 96 this year, though she now merits round-the-clock surveillance. A team of care workers ensure she is safe at home, an arrangement that releases me, my sister and brother into the ambivalent privilege of not being around.

The New Zealand-born photographer was planning to take a portrait of a farm owner when two animals caught his eye

For the last two years, Mark Aitken has been working on a photo series in Lapland. “It’s called Presence of Absence,” he says, “and it explores the liminal and sometimes uncanny boundaries between life and death experienced by people living in this extreme climate and landscape.”

Aitken, who was born in New Zealand, raised in South Africa and has lived in London for years, took this photo in spring of this year, on a sheep farm. “Kukkola is a borderland hamlet in Finnish Lapland on the River Tornio, near Sweden. The farm has been running for 20 years and this lamb is one of about 100 born in March and April,” he says.

The new buzzword in fashion is ‘excessories’ – accessories that have that little bit extra
• 51 brilliant summer accessories

Accessories is a silly word. Sounds like the kind of fripperies you might find in a dressing up box. Surplus-to-requirements bells and whistles, like fascinators and hair ribbons and floral corsages. But the best accessories are, actually, necessaries.

This is more true than ever in summer. It is not an exaggeration to say that the right accessories are essential for good times in the sunny months. You need shoes that you can walk on grass in without sinking. A basket big enough to sling in a water bottle and your sunscreen. Sunglasses so that you can take your lunch hour outside without squinting.

Limp salad, bad barbecues, jellyfish stings and chafing. Summer can be a tricky season – but our experts are on hand to help with your hot-weather headaches

Worrisome wasps
“If you eat near still water you’ll get a lot more insects than if you have a bit of a breeze,” says Ben Quinn, chef and founder of Woodfired Canteen. “But ultimately, if you go to mother nature’s dining room, there will be others at your table. Pack a few sacrifices to the god of the wasps in the form of diluted jam in a mug for them to focus on.” You’re better off firing up the barbecue, he adds: “The smoke annoys insects, so they avoid it.” Simon Stallard, chef and founder of the Hidden Hut cafe in Cornwall, says wait until the last second to open anything sugary: “Cakes, fizzy drinks, ketchup – that’s what they’re attracted to.”

Austria’s southernmost province has 200 pristine, swimmable lakes, adrenaline-fuelled activities – and saunas with a view

The lake was perfectly still, larch trees reflected in its glassy surface, hills folding into each other in the distance. I thought about swimming across it – a distance of about 1km – but once I was immersed in the cool, tranquil water, front-crawling through it with my head down lost its appeal. This was a moment to stop and take in the beauty of my surroundings.

Bordering Italy and Slovenia, Carinthia is Austria’s southernmost region, a sparsely populated land of gentle mountain peaks – the Nockberge. But its bigger claim to fame is its 1,200 lakes, of which 200 are swimmable. Each has its own highlight: Wörthersee – on which the regional capital, Klagenfurt, sits – is the largest, at 10 miles long, and known for the 100m-high Pyramidenkogel viewing platform; Klopeiner See is one of the warmest lakes in Europe; Faaker See is Austria’s answer to the Everglades, thanks to the reed beds visitors can glide through on Canadian canoes. But they all have one thing in common – clear, clean water that’s pure enough to drink. This alone is worth travelling for if you live in the UK, land of polluted rivers, lakes and sea, where even the tap water can make you sick.

From gullible to Gillespie Road and Gower Street, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 The monk Edward Grim was an eyewitness to whose murder?
2 Who wrote the 1856 essay Silly Novels by Lady Novelists?
3 Which band is named after the Danish word for moonlight?
4 Elbrus is the highest peak in what mountain range?
5 Where is the 1,100-room Palace of the Parliament?
6 Which football teams contest the Derby of the Lighthouse?
7 In 2012, which singer played seven concerts on seven days in seven countries?
8 Who said his epitaph should be “Here lies Joseph, who failed in everything he undertook”?
What links:
9 Addis Ababa; Asmara; Djibouti; Mogadishu (and Hargeisa)?
10 Laurentian Library; Medici Chapel; Porta Pia; St Peter’s Basilica?
11 Carlos Acosta; Ana de Armas; Gloria Estefan; Andy García?
12 Decadent; gullible; hawkish; manhunt; pretentious; world-famous?
13 City; Dover Street; Gillespie Road; Gower Street; Post Office?
14 Addiewell; Barlinnie; Castle Huntly; Glenochil; Shotts?
15 Jason; Jack and Jill; Willow; Kari and Oki; Socks; Cookie?

The stylish garment has been sported by Austin Butler in The Bikeriders, by Little Simz on stage and even by bicycle commuters

They rule the racing track but now motocross jackets are roaring up the style charts too. Featuring patchworked leather with colourful racing insignia, motocross jackets, more commonly known as biker jackets, have become a surprising summer hit, as likely to be spotted on Lime-biking commuters as on track riders.

Last weekend at Glastonbury, Little Simz took to the Pyramid Stage in a black, red and white biker jacket emblazoned with her name. Over the four-day festival, the crowd was divided between team denim jacket and team biker.

Nima (left), 27, works in fintech, and Maxim, 24, is a client success manager

What were you hoping for?
To meet someone interesting, with good chemistry, laughter and flowing conversation.

The standoff between the crow and our cat could have ended bloodily. Lucky I was there to stop it …

My wife comes downstairs in the morning to find me in the kitchen, reading the news on my laptop.

“I’m going out,” she says.

Hollywood’s great survivor discusses his band, politics, family, embracing change and learning selflessness; as pornography use soars, we meet the men who feel their behaviour is moving from a compulsion to an addiction; and, last week, a job advert emerged for a private tutor to an architecture student with potential earnings of more than £2m. One man who has worked with wealthy families describes what it takes.

Designer labels rejected in favour of crisp, flattering and functional outfits from British brand

Their predecessors wore Prada and Gucci. But as the Starmers entered 10 Downing Street on Friday, it was clear that there was a fashion policy change under way. The new British prime minister was less Savile Row and more everyman, sticking to his uniform of a crisp white shirt, natty woven tie and dark suit, the jacket worn purposely undone.

His wife, Victoria, wore a Labour party red midi dress featuring contrasting white stitching, costing £275 from British brand Me+Em. A spokesperson for Me+Em said traffic to that particular dress on its site was up by more than 300%.

Gut health has become something of a wellness buzzword – so we asked experts what the gut microbiome is and how it affects our health

Human bodies are mysterious. They are full of wonders (brains, kidneys) and horrors (earwax). We spend our entire lives in these flesh sacks, and yet we don’t fully know how they work, or how jeans will fit them from one day to the next

And the gut microbiome might be one of the most bewildering corners.

Aoi and Jiro have regular intercourse – so how did they buck what seems to be a national trend?

When I was growing up, there was no talk of sex or relationships at home. It was all very secret

We didn’t sleep together the first time we met: to have sex on the first date would have been highly unusual

The withholding of anything on purpose – sex, money, housework – is about control. Might your domestics reflect other underlying tensions?

• Every week Annalisa Barbieri addresses a problem sent in by a reader

My partner H and I have been together for almost five years, and have lived together for about a year. We have a strong and healthy relationship, and although we often light-heartedly bicker we make up quickly and rarely ever have serious arguments.

I do not claim to be a tidy housemate: I am terrible at leaving clothes, keys, shopping all over the place, and often will leave the washing up for a day or two. H is a fantastic cook and stays on top of the laundry, but for other chores – namely cleaning the kitchen, washing up and taking out the bins – he is useless. He puts off these chores to the point that it makes the house difficult to be in (no clean plates, stinking rubbish bin etc), and if I ask him to do it, he can quickly snap, or worse, shut me out and be in a mood for the rest of the day. He argues that he does things in his own time, but his “own time” can be days, often to the point where I give in and wash up or take the bin out myself, which just feels unfair.

Various models promise to tone down decibels or help you focus on a friend. But the experience may not suit you

When something is a must-have accessory for Taylor Swift fans, it’s faster to say everyone’s got some: within a certain age range, that is.

Loop earplugs, designed to protect the ears, came to market in 2016 and the company has tripled its revenue since, reaching €126m (£107m) in 2023. These aren’t any old foam earplugs, but little nifty silicone ones that come between the roar of the crowd and your two-in-a-lifetime eardrums.

Part-office, part-family home – this unique 19th‑century apartment is full of tenant-friendly interior design tweaks

The Olympic torch might be on its way to Paris, along with 15 million visitors, but, like thousands of their fellow Parisians, Anaïs Seguin, Alice Gras and their newborn daughter, Gisèle, won’t be around to greet them. “We will be on a beach in the south of France,” says Seguin. “It’s going to be crazy here.”

Until their summer sojourn, the family – including three-year-old silver tabby Billie – are happily in residence in the Haussmann apartment they started renting last year in the leafy, village-like 17th arrondissement.

Claudine says she needs a hand clearing their home. Rupert says it’s hard to start without a departure date. You decide who needs to get a move on?

Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

He seems to resent me for asking him to help me sort out the house, but I don’t have anyone else to ask

Mum hasn’t picked a move-out date so it’s impossible to know how urgent we need to be

Chicory produces bitter, tangy leaves – and is surprisingly easy to grow from seed

Now that we’re at the height of summer growing season, and tomatoes and courgettes are making their way from plot to dinner table, I’m reluctant to start thinking about the inexorable return of leaner months. Yet now is the time to sow radicchio and chicory seeds if we want their flavoursome leaves on our plates when the weather cools.

Last season – on the farm where I work – was the first time I’d truly experienced the glorious sight of these leaves growing through winter. If sown in trays around now and planted in the ground in a month or so, the crops will have plenty of time to develop a robust root system, a tight heart and a chubby head of greenery before the weather shifts and halts growth. The outer leaves are tough enough to endure a battering from harsher weather and they can develop a slimy exterior as they break down which, when peeled away, reveals the most divinely vibrant, crisp leaves that taste delectably bitter. The closer they are to the centre – where the sun’s light hasn’t reached – the gentler and sweeter their taste.

I didn’t hear the others screaming. I felt as if I was in a bubble

One weekend in June two years ago, my friends Le’Annka, Nia and I were set to fly from Nassau, the capital of The Bahamas, to Long Island, just over 200 miles away. But our reservation got cancelled. We rebooked – that was also cancelled. We then chose to charter a plane. I was apprehensive – those planes are small. But Le’Annka read positive reviews of the pilot, so we decided to take a chance.

The weather that morning was perfect. My friends and I were excited. I was struck by how small the plane was. It was a seven-seater; we all sat up close to one another. But there was nothing to worry about: we were in the air and smoothly making our way over. In no time, we were soaking up the sun.

I enjoy the challenge of squeezing my essentials into a polythene bag at security. Here’s how I do it

If you were excited about the planned relaxation of airport security around liquids in your hand luggage, it’s time to step away from those bumper sunscreen bottles and return to your airport-approved sandwich bags. UK airports have been granted an extension to the longstanding 100ml limit on liquids flyers can carry in their hand luggage after supply chain issues delayed the installation of new scanners, meaning this summer’s holidaymakers must abide by the old rules.

As someone who has to fly regularly with large-fill beauty samples, checking in luggage is a necessary inconvenience, but still I enjoy the challenge of squeezing my essentials into the polythene bag.

Dramatic scenery, gleaming lakes and unspoilt views take the fancy of our adventurous tipsters, from France to Albania

Alleghe in Belluno, 80 miles north of Venice, is a picturesque town by a stunning lake, framed by the majestic eastern Dolomites. We found the streets really charming, the local cuisine exceptional and enjoyed exhilarating hikes on which we barely encountered another soul. Alleghe was the perfect base for exploring one of Italy’s most enchanting and unspoiled regions.
Lorna Young

As Emma Raducanu and Jannik Sinner head to Centre Court, our styling editor suggests how to ace your viewing attire

Guardian readers have been sharing their pictures of dogs at polling stations. Here are some of them

• More pets at polling stations – video
• UK election live – latest updates
• When will we know who won? Hour-by-hour guide to election night
• Live tracker: UK general election results 2024

Wear your politics on your sleeve – and the rest of your body – as political parties and indie sellers offer up everything from Keir-branded flip-flops to a Margaret-themed mug

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You may have snapped up a Renaissance tour T-shirt when you went to see Beyoncé or display your loyalty to your local coffee shop by carrying around its branded reusable cup. But have you thought about buying a memento of the 2024 general election?

Political parties are betting on it (not just the Conservatives this time) as they continue to churn out election merch right up to polling day. The somewhat eclectic offerings are far from the days of a simple satin rosette or bumper sticker.

It’s a testament to your parenting that your daughter feels she can hide with you, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. While time helps to heal, seek out ways to share the load

• Find more Leading questions here

My daughter’s partner has left her and their seven-year-old. Since then she has wanted to be at our house every day as she cannot be alone. She often stays overnight. My husband and I are finding this exhausting, with no time to ourselves. We are in our late 60s.

We love our daughter and grandchild very much and want to support them as much as possible but the last time I spoke to my daughter about this she heard it as if we didn’t love her and we were rejecting her. Help!

Supermarket accused of targeting struggling industry as promotion states football hard to see on a pub TV screen

Publicans have called on the Co-op to pull a “disgraceful” TV advert that urges the supermarket’s customers to watch the Euro 2024 football tournament at home rather than going to the pub.

The Co-op Food ad says it is hard to see the TV screen in the pub and suggests customers instead “stay in” and take advantage of a beer and pizza deal the supermarket is promoting.

Frances and Laine, both 39, met while working at a primary school in New Jersey in 2009. They did not immediately hit it off

When Laine moved to New Jersey a few years after leaving college, she was looking for a new experience. “I’m from Nashville, but I had friends on the east coast,” she says. In 2009, she found a job as a school administrative assistant. “I’d just started dating my husband and was living with friends. It was a really fun time for me.”

Frances was working at the school as a teacher, but Laine didn’t warm to her at first. “She seemed more organised and grownup than me. We’re both strong-willed, and we butted heads,” she says. “She asked me for things that I felt were too demanding, although in hindsight I was being a bit lazy.”

They had different takes on immigration, the monarchy and Britain’s colonial past – how did they end up swapping numbers?

Emily, 37, Plymouth

Occupation Nurse

When he was a puppy, it was sweet and funny to hear him growl every time I held a broom. Four years later, I’m no longer laughing

My dog disappoints me. I don’t feel good about this. I am disappointed in myself for being disappointed in him. But I can’t help feeling that he should have wised up a bit by now. He is nearly four, after all, which in human years puts him in his mid-20s. I expect more from him.

An example: he growls at brooms. He has been growling at brooms ever since I first wielded one in his presence when he was a puppy. It was sweet then; how I laughed. Well, I am not laughing now. Because, having seen the broom in action most days of his life, and never once having been harmed by it, he ought to have cottoned on to the fact that brooms are fine. As are, among other things, vacuum cleaners, wheelbarrows and blokes wearing turbans – growls towards those in the third category being particularly embarrassing.

Shah has a strong claim to have appeared in more blockbuster movies than anyone else on Earth. He discusses upbraiding Brando, smoking with Christopher Reeve, slanging matches with James Cameron – and a shocking experience at a party with Freddie Mercury

It was 1976 when Kiran Shah saw the advert that would change his life. “It was a sci-fi film looking for a little guy,” he says. Shah turned up at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire and was introduced to a nervous young man named George Lucas. “He said: ‘Can you get in that dustbin thing?’ I was a bit too tall for it but I got in, they put the lid on, and he said: ‘Can you look left, look right?’” Shah didn’t realise he was auditioning for the role of R2-D2 in Star Wars. He didn’t get the job – it went to Kenny Baker – but Lucas’s casting director liked Shah, and got him an agent, which set him on the path of an almost 50-year career as “the world’s shortest stuntman”.

There are very few blockbusters Shah has not been in. You might not recognise him – he is often doubling for another character or he’s disguised under prosthetics as a mythical creature. But he has played more Star Wars characters than he can count, doubled for every hobbit in The Lord of the Rings movies, did Christopher Reeve’s stunts in the Superman movies, and played every single child in Titanic (which is even more impressive given that he can’t swim).

He has also worked with just about every blockbuster director out there: Lucas, James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Ridley Scott, Terry Gilliam, JJ Abrams. Shah’s stature (he is just under 4ft 2in, or 126cm, according to Guinness World Records), combined with his fearlessness, have helped him find a niche in cinema that has led to an absurdly storied career, not to mention an MBE last month for his services to the film industry.

From Aberdeen to St Ives, it seems nowhere is safe from supersized swooping scavengers. But you must not fight back

Name: XL gullies.

Age: First identified in March.

For eagle-eyed viewers, a clutch of cookbooks by Australian chefs and authors such as Peter Gilmore feature in the series – and one is selling for $900 online

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Ever since The Bear debuted in 2022, the show has induced a level of obsession from fans. Interest in Carmy’s patchwork jacket from season one led to the discontinued design being resurrected, and audiences struck by the Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross song from season three’s premiere sparked a streaming spike for an obscure Nine Inch Nails album.

Then there’s the food, which has seen fans attempt Sydney’s potato-chip omelette and Marcus’s chocolate cake. And for eagle-eyed viewers, there are the cookbooks that appear throughout the show: alongside influential titles by René Redzepi and Julia Child are a clutch of Australian cookbooks that have made their way into Carmy’s apartment and the shelves of his restaurant.

After being together for so many years, how do Natalia and Juan Luís negotiate the big differences in their sex drives?

He really tries to make me feel good and arouse me

Maybe I tire her out, because I try it on every day

Games allow players to rack up points for ‘Portillo moments’ and D:Ream plays as Labour landslide projected

Eyes down for a full house on Thursday night: a “Portillo moment” at this election could cause viewers across the country to leap out of their seats crying “Bingo!” as a range of games and wallcharts have been released designed to celebrate a potential Conservative wipeout.

Merchandise available on Etsy includes a Tory 2024 Meltdown Wallchart, which gives bonus points for any losing MP who has been previously made a sir or dame by their party. It has several lines of Conservative candidates ranked from “the inevitable”, including Jonathan Gullis, to “there is a God”, including Suella Braverman and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg.

They never know what they will find – from fleas to Picassos to Soviet missiles beneath the stairs. But what they do is crucial and cathartic

A soup of stuff sits on the desk in front of me: remote controls, spectacles, a fly swatter, a medication box, a pebble paperweight inscribed with the owner’s name. Even false teeth, lying where they were discarded. This is personal yet familiar clutter: we all have our own version.

I am in the front bedroom turned office and music studio of a stranger. Every conceivable object seems to have migrated here, creating shaky piles of paraphernalia that encapsulate a life’s passion. There is some impressive retro recording equipment, keyboards, a horn, all coated with a thick layer of dust.

Sexualising my lower digits was bad enough. To be given the equivalent of a pat on the head and told ‘nice try’ was an indignity too far

Like most people, I’ve never had a particularly intimate relationship with my feet. They get me places and occasionally give me blisters, and that’s about it. I regard them as roughly on a par with my elbows – un-glamorous but mainly functional. That is, until I discovered them on Wikifeet.

If you’re not already familiar with Wikifeet, think of it as an online directory of celebrity foot pictures, lovingly maintained by a volunteer army of foot fetishists. I stumbled across it in 2022 while trying to Google a photo that somebody had taken of me at a fashion industry event. There I was, or rather there were my feet: on a kink website that gets 20m views a month. I had naturally assumed that journalists were not the target focus of a celebrity fetish website, given that I have yet to star in a James Bond film or become an Estée Lauder brand ambassador. Unfortunately, it seems like anybody who does a mildly public-facing job is considered fair game, and a few podcasts and brief TV appearances were enough for me to qualify.

By 2021, women around the world were 6% angrier than men, a gap that widened during the pandemic. Dr Jennifer Cox says it is time to let it all out

“Oh my God, I love a scream,” says Dr Jennifer Cox, her face lighting up. “Screaming underwater, I recommend. It’s amazing. It’s so liberating and no one can hear.”

The same is true for standing on a motorway bridge and venting your pent-up rage and frustration into the roar of the traffic underneath. Or, at a pinch, for yelling under the noise of the shower, she says. “Women are like: ‘Oh, I can’t be seen to do this stuff.’ OK, don’t be seen. But let it out.”

If you’ve come to regret your past brow decisions, we would like to hear about it

Over the last couple of decades, brows have been big news the world of beauty – but shapes and styles have shifted dramatically. Now, TikTokkers are sharing throwback photos of what the internet has dubbed #eyebrowblindness – an apparent inability to see how terrible certain brow trends looked at the time.

Have you experienced so-called “eyebrow blindness”? Perhaps you over-plucked in the nineties, or opted for the super-heavy “slug” brows of the 2010’s? If you’ve come to regret your past brow decisions, we’d love to hear about it – and see your photos! – below.

Rise in sales of ranges in six to 10 suggests retailer has been successful in appealing to younger demographic

• M&S gets it right (finally) on AGMs. Others should make an effort

Marks & Spencer is increasing its stocks of smaller sizes in womenswear after a surge in demand left gaps on shelves.

Stuart Machin, the chief executive of the high street stalwart, said that three years ago about a fifth (21%) of the items sold from its main seasonal collection were size six to 10 and that had now risen to 35% as its “fashion and style ranges [were] resonating with a different customer group”.

Whether you prefer to pop the cork on prosecco, English fizz or alcohol-free, these sparkling wines should get your vote, says Sophia Longhi

If the polls are right, we’re (probably) about to see the end of 14 years of Tory rule – so it’s time to get the bubbly in for election night.

From cava to champagne, prosecco to English sparkling wine, here is a selection of the best fizz for every palate and budget. And if things don’t go your way on Thursday night, there’s always the England team to cheer on on Saturday. Bottoms up!

He has written hit films like 24 Hour Party People and cooked up the Queen’s Olympic skydive. But now, having been crowned Children’s Laureate, he’s on a mission to show kids that books will change their lives

Frank Cottrell-Boyce doesn’t believe in pessimism. Even being announced as the UK’s brand-new children’s laureate in the week when all eyes are focused on Westminster and the polling booths makes him hopeful that people will turn to a cheerier story in search of relief, meaning he can leap into the classic “and finally” spot on news bulletins. “I’m happy to be that skateboarding duck,” he grins as he chats over Zoom from his home on Merseyside.

But to be chipper is not merely a function of his temperament, as his speech at the acceptance of the title made clear. Quoting William Beveridge, whose groundbreaking report laid the foundations for the modern welfare state, Cottrell-Boyce insisted that “scratch a pessimist and you’ll find a defender of privilege”; and it’s his intention, during his two-year tenure, to demonstrate that making children’s lives better by increasing their access to books, reading and what he calls “the apparatus of happiness” is critical to the prospects of the generations to come – and that the cost of ignoring that is unthinkable.

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It takes time and attention to look after other people – and ourselves. And there are so many distractions to overcome

Years ago I was sitting in a cafe before work when an exhausted-looking man and his toddler son came in. A “One cappuccino and one babyccino please” later, they sat at the table next to mine. The boy was a bit snotty and whiny, and I could see his dad was working hard to keep him entertained, to give him the time and attention he needed. And then I saw the moment where that time and attention ran out. The man’s focus slipped away, his hand dropping down to his pocket, his tired eyes sliding across to the screen as he eased out his phone …

And then I saw the scream. I saw it before I heard it, because the very loud scream was preceded by a terrifying silent scream (my own child also does a very potent silent scream, so I recognise this retrospectively). The father realised at this point that the game was up, shoved his phone back in his pocket and, defeated, carried his child out of the cafe in one arm, his other hand steering the empty pushchair.