TV review: The Jonathan Ross Show

It was the chin that gave him away. Jonathan Ross, who since his departure from the BBC following the Sachsgate affair has been advertising his devil-may-care, unemployed status with flip-flops and a goatee, stepped on to the set fully shod and shorn of all facial hair.
Read more...

Book review: Black by Design: A 2-Tone Memoir, By Pauline Black

Pauline Black's earliest memory is of vomiting, at the age of four, on to a pile of sheets that had been cleaned, starched and ironed by her mother. "She was not amused but then again it was her own fault," says Black. "She shouldn't have told me I was adopted." Read more...

Book review: The Long Goodbye, by Meghan O'Rourke

The American poet Meghan O'Rourke's mother died on Christmas Day in 2008, two and a half years after being diagnosed with colorectal cancer. The family had known the end was coming, though nothing could prepare them for the crushing absence, the sense of a world that had lost its colour, which assaulted them after she had gone.
Read more...

Art of the west: See Devon through different eyes

'Art" reads a tiny signpost skewered into the hedge at the end of three miles of narrow, winding road. All is quiet here in Bantham, a remote seaside village in south Devon, save for the gentle whisper of the trees.
Read more...

Stay The Night: Earthship Perrine, Normandy

You can be sure of the green credentials of this zero-carbon gîte. But is it a comfortable place to stay? Fiona Sturges reports
Read more...

Exmoor: A walk in the wild West Country

In the first of a four-part series on our national parks, Fiona Sturges delves into Devon and Somerset
Read more...

Book review: Nicholas Ray, by Patrick McGilligan

Lights, camera...where's all the action? By Fiona Sturges
Read more...

Obituary: Amy Winehouse

Despite being as famous for her private life as her music, there is no disputing that Amy Winehouse was one of the finest singers of her generation. By Fiona Sturges
Read more...

Book review: No Off Switch, by Andy Kershaw

Many faces, but no time to look in the mirror.
Read more...

Johnny Vegas: 'I never liked being the centre of attention'

How has Johnny Vegas done it? By 'it', I mean transformed himself from a failed priest and potter to sought-after comic actor and much-loved household name. As he says himself, he's "no great shakes in the looks department" and first made his name as a stand-up who specialised in being bitter and drunk and bellowing insults at audiences.
Read more...

Fiona Sturges: If women are funny, it's the end of the world

The thing is – and this is patently obvious to around 49 per cent of the population – women cannot be and will never be funny. Why on earth would we be, with all these reproductive hormones pulsing around our systems and paralysing the parts of our brains that would otherwise allow us to deliver a stream of hilarious off-the-cuff gags that would have all you boys LOL-ing, ROFL-ing and other curious acronyms that denote the splitting of sides?
Read more...

Neil Diamond: 'I need a woman who understands my work ethic'

He's one of pop's biggest names – but when the lights go down, he speaks to his kids via Skype and plays cards with any 'friendly face' he can find. On the eve of a UK tour, Fiona Sturges meets Neil Diamond, the septuagenarian singer for whom the show really must go on
Read more...

Book review: Hope and Glory - The Days That Made Britain, by Stuart Maconie

There was a time when Stuart Maconie's work involved loitering on tour buses in assorted eastern European cities recording the drunken utterances of indie pop bands. These days, when not on the radio, he's more likely to be found clutching a thermos flask and cagoule on the TransPennine Express and gearing up for a bracing walk on the fells.
Read more...

KD Lang: 'In the end, I knew it would all come back to the music. And it did'

She has been a lesbian icon, party animal, and paparazzi favourite. But now, she tells Fiona Sturges, she's happy just to be singing
Read more...

Russia's got talent: Meet Emin, Moscow's answer to Michael Bublé

He's a property mogul, heir to family billions – and a pop sensation. Interview by Fiona Sturges
Read more...