Putting our lives on the page
Alison Bechdel turned her relationship with her father into a bestselling memoir. Now it's her mother's turn. By Kira Cochrane
David Starkey: My family values
The historian talks about his family
Make way for the female comic geeks
Kapow! is a comic convention run by sisters – but will women ever be welcomed by the boys' club?
Where there’s muck there’s a class
Nick Duerden recalls his first – and best – school trip to a farm run by writer Michael Morpurgo and his wife, Clare, who have given thousands of inner-city children a taste of nature since the 1970s
In the company of women
Tim Lott ... lone man in a female household
A voyage round Agatha Christie
Joanna Moorhead meets Agatha Christie's grandson and finds there's more to the Queen of Crime than meets the eye ... her love of surfing, for example
Why is there so much misogyny online?
The conversation: Why do women face such misogyny in the media, particularly online? TV presenter Miriam O'Reilly and feminist writer Nina Power share their thoughts and experiences
A room of one’s own: why the Women’s Library should not be made history
Beatrix Campbell: We need to save this unique archive of women's movements and everyday lives that are not documented elsewhere
Women’s Library campaign boosted by celebrity support
Sandi Toksvig and Shirley Conran back renowned collection threatened with drastic cuts, and signatures mount on e-petition to Michael Gove
Digested read: Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James
Who could resist a thrashing from such a gorgeous and enigmatic man? Not my inner goddess, that's for sure
What is the worst of all words?
A survey by the New Yorker led to a ban on the word 'slacks' – but what is your most loathed lexeme?
Sweet Revenge: The Intimate Life of Simon Cowell by Tom Bower – review
He's been the linchpin of top-rating TV for a decade, but we still know little about Cowell the man. This book doesn't help much, says Marina Hyde
Fifty Shades of Grey thrusts erotica into the mainstream
Fastest-selling book of the year has publishers rushing to embrace erotic fiction, but is it really liberating women, asks Alison Flood
Six weeks to OMG: the diet that will make you disappear
Marianne Kirby: With its exhortation to 'get skinnier than all your friends', has a self-help book ever been as direct in its appeal to base instincts?
What I see in the mirror: Brooke Magnanti (aka Belle de Jour)
'When my identity became more widely known, people couldn't help their initial reactions; they were somehow surprised how I looked, as if they were expecting some 6ft model'
Tim Burgess: ‘I tried a lot of different drugs’
The Charlatans singer on Britpop, developing a breakfast cereal for Kellog's and a very odd experiment with cocaine
What did the Famous Five eat? A diet in data
Was it really just lashings of ginger beer? How one food writer turned all those hams, hard boiled eggs and jam tarts into a guide to a generation's eating habits
Who says you can’t write a good novel at 80? Cynthia Ozick has
Martin Amis dismissed octogenarian novelists. So did Simone de Beauvoir. But a writer should be judged on their work, not their age
Why the Famous Five had the perfect austerity diet
Enid Blyton's heroes, now 70 years old, had an approach to food that we could all learn from
Orange prize 2012 shortlist puts Ann Patchett in running for second victory
State of Wonder features on list of six contenders for women's fiction prize, with 84-year-old and Booker winner among rivals
Can We Still Be Friends? by Alexandra Shulman
"I'm finding it so hard to be accepted as a woman journo," Sal wept as she knocked off a bottle of vodka, snorted a gram of coke and had another one-night stand
Why audiobooks are the perfect running aid
Training for a marathon in Siberia is easy with a talking book, writes Lucy Ward
Did Solange take the pee out of The Great Gatsby?
The singer claims to have made use of a copy of F Scott Fitzgerald's novel when caught short in the desert
Fancy a doomsday date? If things get really bad, it may be your best bet
Alice Bell: If you find people on Soulmates are poorly prepared for disaster, try hooking up with those serious about surviving an apocalypse
Nice camel, Wayne, but what about the autobiography?
Wayne and Coleen Rooney can party with a camel, but not even that can make us forget that the footballer owes us several instalments of his much-touted multi-volume biography
New faces on Sgt Pepper album cover for artist Peter Blake’s 80th birthday
Amy Winehouse, JK Rowling, Noel Gallagher, Mick Jagger and the Monty Python foot to feature in update of 1967 original
A room of my own: Julian Clary
The comic and writer in the living room of his ancient Ashford house, which was once the home of Noël Coward
Never out of Vogue: Alexandra Shulman
Warm and approachable, Alexandra Shulman is the antithesis of a hard-boiled fashion queen. Elizabeth Day visits the long-serving Vogue editor
Tiger Woods’ hopes for comeback overshadowed by ex-coach’s memoir
Scandal-hit golfer is the favourite for the Masters in Augusta but a new book could put him off his stroke
Tim Lott: Did we damage each other?
Tim Lott wonders if a rough start in life harmed his relationship with his older brother – before it even started
What I see in the mirror: Mary Beard
'Some days the person I glimpse takes me back 40 years. It's the 17-year-old me in the glass, the kid with the dreamy smile who fancied she looked like a pre-Raphaelite damsel'
Cooking with Poo wins oddest book title prize
Recipe book derives its title from community chef and author Saiyuud Diwong's nickname, which is Thai for crab
The rise of ‘mommy porn’: UK writer lures Hollywood with bestselling erotic trilogy Fifty Shades
Major film deal in pipeline for EL James, whose trilogy began as fan fiction online
Zombies, Run! – review
Novelist Naomi Alderman has given her backing to this running aid/audio adventure app, writes Toby Moses