Alan Bennett at 90: ‘What will people think? I don’t care any more’

In his 10th decade The History Boys writer is as prolific as ever with a war film in the works and a new sex-fuelled novella set in a home for the elderly. He talks about mourning Maggie Smith, turning down a knighthood and what he makes of Donald Trump

‘You can’t shoot climate change’: Richard Seymour on how far right exploits environmental crisis

In his latest book, Disaster Nationalism, the Marxist thinker explores how extremist movements around the world seek to blame fictional enemies for real disasters

The stoicism secret: how Ryan Holiday became a Silicon Valley guru

He has sold 5m books about this ancient Greek approach to life – and been feted by sports teams and CEOs. What makes this former PR man so popular?

‘You get more confident as the parts run out’: Harriet Walter on her stage career, Succession and Shakespeare’s women

In her new book the acclaimed actor imagines what the Bard’s female characters might have said if they had had the chance

Humanist chaplain Greg Epstein: ‘Our bowed interactions with our phones look like worship’

The Harvard ethicist and author on the similarities between digital technology and religion, the value of scepticism, and how to develop a positive relationship with our devices

Eliza Clark: ‘I don’t think we respect female writers’

The British novelist on including content warnings in her first short story collection, why she struggles at book signings and the ‘flagrant sexism’ female authors are subjected to

Novelist Jonathan Coe: ‘Liz Truss was very unimpressed to meet me’

His new novel is set during the former PM’s brief premiership, so what happened when they had dinner? The author on politics, cosy crime and bingeing Friends

‘Art and music have always been like friends to me’: painter to the stars Jack Coulter

The Irish artist talks about his synaesthesia and being mutually inspired by musicians such as Elton John and Paul McCartney

‘I don’t have much hope for a Harris presidency’: Ta-Nehisi Coates on Israeli apartheid and what the media gets wrong about Palestine

One of the most penetrating critics of US racism discusses the reception to his new book and why talking about Palestine offered him a way to understand the world

‘I can do the same job as a man’: Ukraine’s first frontline female commander on war, grief – and her hope for the future

Yulia Mykytenko leads a platoon of men in a reconnaissance and attack unit – and has already lost her husband, father and many friends in the devastating war. In her memoir, she writes that she was always destined for combat

The secret life of a careworker – ‘I was blown away by how meaningful and interesting it is’

When anxiety forced Kathryn Faulke to give up her NHS job and become a care worker, she never thought she would enjoy it. Now, she has written a ‘love story’ of a book about the profession

My week at Kanye’s: John Safran on his time squatting in the rapper’s mansion

The Jewish Australian comedian-journalist spent a week living in one of West’s houses in Los Angeles. This is what he learned

Alex Van Halen on his brother Eddie: ‘I’m not done dealing with this yet’

In the new book Brothers, the drummer writes candidly about life in the spotlight alongside his late sibling and their many highs and lows

Sarah Perry: faith, telescopes and the perils of pigeon-holing writers

The Essex Serpent novelist discusses the connection between astrophysics and her religious upbringing … and over-doing all you can eat sushi

American author Joy Williams: ‘The comfy story has got to change’

The novelist and short story writer on her new book about Azrael, the angel of death, her encounters with Raymond Carver and Richard Yates, and why fiction should be uncanny