Readers reply: Which works of fiction have an optimistic view of the future?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

Welcome to the new era of midlife lust! I need a lie down …

Anne Hathaway, Nicole Kidman and Miranda July are showing us middle age can be full of sexual energy. So why do I feel so fatigued, asks Emma Beddington

Maggie O’Farrell: ‘Having a stammer was instrumental in making me a writer’

The novelist, 52, talks about teenage affliction, the missing elements in stories and always loving Where the Wild Things Are

The big idea: how games can change your life

To get the most out of play, we should embrace it for what it is, not as a way to hone skills or train our brains

October design news: a teeny tiny toffee, rag rugs and $1 watches

Sculptors take part in the 10gram Challenge, arty Instagram and creative director Ramdane Touhami’s textiles

The stoicism secret: how Ryan Holiday became a Silicon Valley guru

He has sold 5m books about this ancient Greek approach to life – and been feted by sports teams and CEOs. What makes this former PR man so popular?

Horniness, hedonism and hope: why Rivals makes me surprisingly nostalgic

The TV drama doesn’t shy away from the worst aspects of the Thatcher era. But this version of Jilly Cooper’s bonkbuster also captures the lust, laughter and late-night parties

‘It’s quite galling’: children’s authors frustrated by rise in celebrity-penned titles

Keira Knightley is latest star to publish a children’s book, but some say trend pushes aside genuine writers and makes it harder to find great children’s fiction

‘It was to make bank managers less uptight’: the toy that put Newton’s law on executive desks

The eccentric British design firm behind Ballrace, the bestselling shiny 1970s Newton’s cradle, is celebrated in a new book

Three things with Sami Shah: ‘None of my watches tell me how many steps I’ve walked – I can imagine nothing more useless’

In Guardian Australia’s weekly interview about objects, the writer and comedian shares his top kitchen tool – and mourns his childhood comics trove

Guilt, worry, resentment: how the ‘club sandwich’ generation juggles caring for parents, children and grandparents

With people surviving longer and with greater infirmity, the pressures on adults living among three other generations are increasing

Three things with Gina Chick: ‘I have many blades of various shape, size and degrees of lethality’

In Guardian Australia’s weekly interview about objects, the Alone Australia survivalist tells us about her perfect knife – and a long-lost book of watercolours

Being a writer and opening a restaurant are total opposites…

But in the end, Simonetta Wenkert managed to combine her two vocations

‘Baby brain’? ‘Fussy eater’? By dispelling such myths, science is taking the shame out of parenting

Most childcare advice is simply opinion; research based on data and evidence is the liberation we need, says author Lucy Jones

Adrian Chiles: what I have learned from five years of oversharing

It is a privilege to be able to express random thoughts, and not one I take lightly. When my dad died, writing about the experience helped me to cope