More thoughtful than a card: 24 of the best letterbox gifts, from pub snacks to pamper kits

Whether it’s for a birthday, a pick-me-up or a last-minute surprise, these thoughtful letterbox gifts deliver good vibes with zero fuss

‘I tried to escape with drugs, pills and alcohol’: Björn Borg on his misery and mayhem after quitting tennis

The sporting superstar walked away from success and adulation at 26 – much to everyone’s bemusement. He opens up about his secret life and the depression, cocaine, overdoses and aggressive cancer that almost killed him

Six great reads: rebels in Nazi Germany, how creativity works and Europe’s biggest pornography conference

Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the past seven days

‘It was a fair shot’: Anna Wintour belatedly gives her verdict on The Devil Wears Prada

The formidable Vogue boss said Meryl Streep’s subtle performance as a fictional fashion editor ‘had a lot of wit’ – adding that she attended the premiere wearing Prada without knowing its theme

‘You’re either getting punched or going skinny dipping’: Swedish indie star Jens Lekman on playing 132 weddings of his fans

He once sang, ‘if you ever need a stranger to sing at your wedding ... then I am your man’. Couples took him at his word. Now, he’s turned the experience into an album and novel

I used to judge my mother’s gambling addiction. Now I think she was longing for a fairytale ending

My mother gambled fast, ferociously, without any sense of fun. It was as though she hated money and couldn’t wait to get rid of it

‘I felt like the walls were closing in. All I could see was Fred West’s face’: how one woman escaped Britain’s worst serial killers

When Kathleen Richards rented a room at 25 Cromwell Street, she quickly realised the couple who owned it had a dark side. But even after their arrest, there was something about her 15 months at the house that she could never tell anyone – until now

Digested week: new words, extrovert propaganda and a perfect train journey

Cambridge Dictionary’s annual release of its new entrants is a great measure of how functionally old you are

Chimamanda has returned to fiction after 12 years. But is the author stuck in the 2010s?

As a talent, the Dream Count writer remains confident and commanding – but as a social commentator, Adichie seems stranded

Andy Griffiths: ‘I think it’s a pity that reading is being lost through neglect’

The multimillion copy-selling children’s author on his freewheeling childhood, the joy of being unproductive and life after the Treehouse series

Helen Garner and Dua Lipa’s interview caused a personal crisis. How can I be ‘quietly intelligent’?

There’s a way of thinking about traits such as intelligence as gifts, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. The next step is figuring out how to share them

The kindness of strangers: out of the blue, an older woman handed me a well-thumbed book

I was excitedly telling a friend about my resolution to read more, and I didn’t think anyone was eavesdropping

Richard Fidler: ‘Love at first sight is profoundly shocking. You have this thought – oh, it’s you’

The longtime Conversations host on podcasts, the lure of history and being finally able to talk about his three-month disappearance from the airwaves

‘This truck is our home!’ How Bobby Bolton found love and purpose on a 42,000-mile road trip

No money, no flat, no fiancee: in 2022 Bolton lost almost everything that underpinned his life. Three years and 53 countries later, he has more than rebuilt it

More sex please, we’re bookish: the rise of the x-rated novel

From the Women’s prize to the bestseller lists, authors are pushing the boundaries of how explicit the novel can be – and readers can’t get enough