My mother was shot by the police – and that bullet changed everything

Lee Lawrence was 11 when his mother, Cherry Groce, was paralysed during a botched police raid. It was the end of his childhood and the start of his fight for her life and legacy

The fanfiction written on a notes app that’s become a bestseller – with a seven-figure film deal

SenLinYu’s debut started life as Harry Potter fanfiction. The Alchemised author shares why they were drawn to a war-torn love story, how a conservative upbringing shaped their writing, and the snobbery around fanfiction

Drusilla Modjeska: ‘How easy it is that we can live in the sunshine and not see the shadow’

In her new book, the Australian author of Exiles at Home and Stravinsky’s Lunch returns to examine how female artists have fought for creative freedom

‘They were so feral’: Cillian Murphy, Tracey Ullman and cast on nose-breaking remand school drama Steve

In the acclaimed new film about boys written off by the system, Murphy draws on his own past as a troublesome schoolboy while Little Simz plays a teacher – and writes a 90s-style banger of a song

‘We’re exhausted – but not from doing too much’: can this woman help us survive the age of distraction?

With three jobs, three children and a labradoodle, the behavioural scientist Zelana Montminy knows a lot about being pulled in all directions. What can her new book about finding focus teach the rest of us?

Kiran Desai: ‘I never thought it would happen in the US’

Since winning the Booker prize, the Indian author has spent two decades writing a follow-up. She talks about being longlisted again — and the immigration raids creating fear in her New York neighbourhood

‘I don’t want to stop believing in humanity’: Matthew McConaughey on faith, fame and the shocking incident that defined him

He was once so stoned he missed his own birthday party, but the Oscar-winning actor has swapped pot for poetry. He reveals the trauma and triumph that taught him why it’s more important to be a good man than a nice guy

‘I tried to escape with drugs, pills and alcohol’: Björn Borg on his misery and mayhem after quitting tennis

The sporting superstar walked away from success and adulation at 26 – much to everyone’s bemusement. He opens up about his secret life and the depression, cocaine, overdoses and aggressive cancer that almost killed him

Jill Lepore on the US constitution, originalism … and Madison’s nose

The esteemed historian says her new book on the writing –and the attempts to amend – the constitution is in part ‘a deep historical critique of originalism’

‘I had to think about Andrew Tate. That was miserable’: 150 years of masculinity, all in one play

Revered for her work on Succession and Normal People, Alice Birch has now written an era-spanning play about men, novels and the manosphere. Give me a Brontë any day, she says

‘There’s a basic decency among British people’: Hope Not Hate’s Nick Lowles on how to defeat the far right

Lowles has spent his entire adult life organising against fascism, facing countless threats as a result. He discusses the street confrontations of the 80s, foiling a murder plot, Nazi satanists – and the urgent need for optimism and action

‘I was writing at my lowest ebb’: Scottish author Len Pennie on domestic abuse and the power of poetry

Len Pennie won praise and faced criticism for exploring domestic abuse in her award-winning debut. She talks about partying sober, writing in Scots, and why she’s rooting out stigma in her follow-up collection

‘I’ve seen so many people go down rabbit holes’: Patricia Lockwood on losing touch with reality

The Priestdaddy author on quitting social media, Maga conspiracies and how her second novel grew out of a period of post-Covid mania

Bunny author Mona Awad: ‘I’m a dark-minded soul’

The author’s surreal, satirical breakout novel won her awards and tattooed superfans. As she releases a follow-up, she talks about growing up as an outsider – and the best advice she received from Margaret Atwood

‘I never hold back’: Sally Mann on her controversial family photos and becoming a writer

The celebrated US photographer was catapulted into America’s culture wars with her photobook Immediate Family. Now she’s written a book of ‘how not-to’ advice for artists