Visage outside Blitz nightclub … Sheila Rock’s best photograph
‘Blitz was where all the New Romantics hung out. If you didn’t look good, you didn’t get in. Steve Strange is at the front of the shot – with big hair’
Stories draw us to the hero’s journey, but individual empathy doesn’t help us see the bigger picture
Traditional western storytelling conventions aren’t up to the task of understanding the enormity of the climate crisis or the pandemic
Where the wild things are: Alys Tomlinson’s portraits of island traditions
British photographer Alys Tomlinson explores faith and community in her austere and unsettling portraits of the ancient folk characters of Sicily and Sardinia
On my radar: Kayo Chingonyi’s cultural highlights
The award-winning poet on his favourite New York record store, the mindfulness of taking photos on film cameras, Ann Patchett’s captivating essays and the lyrical appeal of Medellín
‘You had to be quick!’: Henry Horenstein on his breathtaking Speedway pics
From stock car racing to country music stars, the US photographer is one of the great documenters of Americana. He talks about his life in the fast lane
Everyone’s a cynic! Film, TV, music, books and art about pessimism
From Wall Street savagery to withering R&B, choose art that shows humanity at its most misanthropic
On my radar: Vicky Featherstone’s cultural highlights
The Royal Court’s artistic director raves about a non-binary memoir, admires Gordon Brown’s stand on poverty and salutes Cornelia Parker’s proper mermaid
Cosey Fanni Tutti: ‘I was lucky I got thrown out of home. I see it as a gift’
The Throbbing Gristle co-founder and performance artist is seen as an elder stateswoman of the avant garde. She talks about legacy, and the liberation of revisiting her darkest experiences for a new memoir
Le Petit Nicolas illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé dies aged 89
Sempé co-created much-loved French children’s books that have sold more than 15m copies worldwide
Raymond Briggs remembered: ‘He made what he did look easy. Which is, of course, what geniuses do’
The beloved writer and illustrator of the Snowman and Father Christmas has died. Here, leading contemporaries pay tribute
Snowman author Raymond Briggs dies aged 88
Beloved creator of Fungus the Bogeyman and Father Christmas brought a distinctive strain of melancholy to the genre
Food for thought: film, music and art to help you through the cost of living crisis
From a 16th-century worker’s humble lunch to raging rap, our critics find the works that grapple with the challenges of hard times
On my radar: Claire-Louise Bennett’s cultural highlights
The award-winning writer on her favourite Amsterdam cafe, listening to strange music in the dark, swimming at the ladies’ beach in Galway and living the high life at a US cannabis shop
‘Boris was cartoon gold’: the UK’s top cartoonists on drawing Boris Johnson
Ten leading cartoonists revisit their most memorable sketch of the outgoing PM, and reveal what lies in store for his successor
Dine like Da Vinci, unleash your inner diva – 101 ways the arts can slightly improve your life
Follow the gospel of Larry David, go gaming on horseback, always carry a cushion, bin your cinema mates and learn Korean off the telly … Guardian writers present their best cultural life hacks