Paul McDermott on blending the beautiful and sinister – and holding on to the inner child

McDermott’s imagination came, he says, as a side effect of poor eyesight. His new picture book, Ghostbear, blooms with sweetness, sadness and cosmic wonder

Yusef Salaam: ‘Trump would have had me hanging from a tree in Central Park’

Wrongly jailed for gang rape – a case which inspired Trump to call for the death penalty – Salaam has poured his experiences into a novel about hope, justice and race

Alice Roberts: ‘Atheism is defining yourself by an absence. Humanism is a positive choice’

The broadcaster and scientist talks about her new guide to humanism, her opposition to classroom prayers and the government’s handling of Covid-19

Andrew O’Hagan: ‘If you are honest, you never stop being who you were’

The writer’s new novel, Mayflies, is an elegy to a teenage friend. He talks about growing up in working-class Ayrshire, going against the grain and the spirit of 80s post-punk

Sandi Toksvig: ‘Sheila Hancock and I once nearly starved to death in a London restaurant’

The comedian and activist on the invisibility of women in the public sphere, homophobia and why it was time to leave Bake Off

Denise Mina: ‘I couldn’t read until I was about nine’

The acclaimed crime author on being a late bloomer, how we decide which victims to care about, and her affinity with Glasgow

Linn Ullmann on her father, Ingmar Bergman: ‘It was as if all the windows of his mind had opened’

The Norwegian author’s powerful new novel, Unquiet, grew out of a series of conversations she recorded with the film director not long before his death

Adam Buxton: ‘I used to think, “Why isn’t Dad more proud of me?” But he was’

The podcaster, comic and radio host has made a career out of his insecurities. But uncovering a family secret has helped him find peaceRead an exclusive extract

Emma Cline: ‘We are forced to imagine what’s going on in the minds of men’

The author of The Girls talks about Weinstein, weathering a plagiarism allegation and her new short story collection, Daddy

Laura Bates on the men who hate women: ‘They canonise and revere and idolise murderers’

For years, the founder of the Everyday Sexism project has had vile abuse heaped upon her. But that still didn’t prepare her for what she found in the toxic world of online misogyny

‘From the mundane to the sublime in a second’: Samantha Cristoforetti on life in space

Her 200 days in orbit turned the first Italian woman in space into a celebrity – and the model for a Barbie doll. Back on Earth, she says, it was hard to find authentic relationships

The cast of Young Wallander: ‘We try not to think of it as a tragedy – more as a puzzle’

Producer Berna Levin and actors Adam Pålsson and Ellise Chappell talk about taking on the origin story behind the troubled Swedish detective – with his late creator’s blessing

Alan Davies: ‘I’ve become a huge enemy of silence and secrecy’

The comedian and actor has written a raw and compelling book about his early life, including the abuse he suffered from his father

Hari Kunzru: ‘Privacy is under attack in a whole host of ways’

The novelist on creative spaces, the pernicious spread of surveillance and the power of protest

Robert Macfarlane: ‘Are we being good ancestors? Mostly, no’

The don of nature writing on the lure of the world underground, staycations with his family, and the planet’s prospects for the future