‘I have overwhelming impostor syndrome’: TV judge Rob Rinder on empathy, shame and survival

He grew up gay in a working-class community, before becoming a criminal barrister, then moving into television. Now he has written his first novel

Are you Daddy Pig or Logan Roy? A Father’s Day celebration of dads

The annual event has been hijacked by online stores flogging merchandise, but there’s more to being a dad than beer and hot sauce

Michael Caine’s novel will most likely be rubbish, but I’m glad he’s found his happy ending

Most actors make terrible novelists – but writing the ‘cracking thriller’ Deadly Game was life-affirming for the veteran star, so never mind the finished product

Anyone who’s lost a loved one knows the pressure to visit shrines to the past. But it doesn’t always help

Four years after my husband’s death, the question of where to locate my grief still isn’t easy to answer, says the writer Kat Lister

Overwhelmed in London, I moved to Berlin to save my sanity – and savour a new life

Irish author Naoise Dolan on taking refuge in the German capital

‘Post-marriage, I was a teenager again’: how I turned the page after getting divorced in my 30s

When Joanna Biggs split up with her husband, she stepped off a conventional path into what seemed like chaos. Could books and art guide her to an alternative happy ending?

The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan review – sharp-eyed follow-up to Exciting Times

Marriage is a dare and coupledom is complicated in this perceptive take on modern love

I waited tables for 13 years. Each unhappy customer is different and I learned from all of them

The waitress-customer dynamic is delicate. Naima Brown learned to parse entitlement without emotion – and seek revenge later, in fiction

Crossword book club: Michael Gilbert’s Close Quarters

A crossword is the key to identifying a murderer in a whodunnit unlike any other

‘Dealing with kidnappers is easy!’ A hostage negotiator reveals the secrets that can transform your life

After years in the police, Scott Walker became a ‘response consultant’, handling everything from abductions to piracy and cyber-attacks. The skills he used can help you get a pay rise, lower your rent, defuse a family crisis …

The moment I knew: I dreamed up a character to cure my writer’s block. He saved my marriage too

When Nina Wan found herself drifting apart from her husband, art came to imitate life – reminding her of what was real

Nazir Afzal: ‘Prosecutor by day, DJ by night. That was me in the early 90s’

The lawyer and author, 61, tells Michael Segalov about family tragedies, legal role models, bigoted cops and the Camden trance scene

A moment that changed me: a brutal attack ended my dreams of being a boxer – but I found a new passion

Happy in my life in the theatre, I sometimes wonder if that assault in the park was meant to be

‘I’d tell myself: you’re a loser, a failure, ugly …’ Matilda’s Mara Wilson on the price of fame

A star at nine, the actor was soon struggling with the death of her mother as well as nosy journalists and demanding fans. Angry, confused and thoroughly lost, how did she ever find her way back?

Being a teenage girl is only getting harder. Thank God they still have Judy Blume

Blume’s groundbreaking books shepherded me and millions of others through the trials of adolescence – and they’re still as relevant as ever, says writer Leila Latif