I’m a hopeless people pleaser. I tried saying ‘no’ for a week

‘Defiance isn’t a one-size-fits-all prescription,’ says psychologist Sunita Sah – here’s what happened when I gave it a whirl

‘Listen my soul to the glad refrain’: poetry prescriptions to beat the January blues

If the dark nights and bleak days are getting you down, Poetry Pharmacy founder Deborah Alma has treatments available from Philip Larkin, Imtiaz Dharker, Edward Thomas and more

The big idea: why it’s great to be an only child

The notion that it’s bad to be brought up without siblings should be banished for good

Away with Alison Lester: ‘I always ask a flight attendant if I can shift and sometimes they let me’

In Guardian Australia’s weekly series about travel, the children’s book author reveals her canniest long-haul flight hack and the holiday meals she’d rather forget

Learning to read in a foreign language has taught me to embrace ambiguity – one sentence at a time

In striving to understand Japanese books and comics, I’ve adopted the habits of a weightlifter: I find my comfort zone then push beyond it

‘It’s been life-changing’: meet the adults making big changes later in life

Some people never learn to read or swim or even cook as children - but with the right spirit there’s still time to make things right

Orhan Pamuk: ‘I have some fame, so I can say things others cannot’

The Turkish writer, 72, talks about his father’s artistic support and being a feminist in the Middle East, his love of Istanbul and fear of government repression

66 days to learn to love reading again: ‘Ten pages in and my brain is twitching with fatigue’

Once upon a time – before kids, social media and phones got in the way – Doosie Morris loved nothing more than reading books. Can she rekindle the habit in just over nine weeks?

The anxiety secret: how the world’s leading life coach stopped living in fear

Famous for her work with Oprah Winfrey, Martha Beck is a bestselling author and self-help superstar. But for 60 years she was anxious and terrified - until she found a simple, uplifting answer

The Bright Side by Sumit Paul-Choudhury review – harnessing the power of positive thinking

A witty and empathetic examination of the merits and limitations of optimism is a helpful guide with a hopeful message for uncertain times

From ‘gestation’ to ‘gentle’: across Europe, why do we talk about parenting in English?

I live in the Netherlands and speak several languages. But when I became a mother, I had to learn a whole new vocabulary, says writer and journalist Olga Mecking

‘Fairy porn’: is this booming erotica genre an insult to Wales?

Some of these raunchy fantasy novels borrow heavily from Welsh mythology - prompting concerns about misrepresentation

I was lost in the cesspit of social media. Then Jane Austen showed me the way out

Why spend every evening fighting trolls on X when you could be working your way through the greats of literature? No more online rage, recriminations, doom-scrolling …

I was snowed in at Barnsley library and a policeman came to fetch me. I told him I was already home

When I discovered books, I realised that home could be Narnia or Gormenghast – and that one small corner of the library was for ever mine, says writer Joanne Harris

Sunday with John Cooper Clarke: ‘My wife does a chicken with 60 cloves of garlic’

The poet talks about newspapers and television, coffee and strawberries, and how Monday’s gloomy presence hangs over every Sunday