From Ali to Zadie: the best books of autumn 2016
John Le Carré reveals his official secrets, Zadie Smith gets swinging, Ali Smith eyes the seasons, and Alan Moore does a Ulysses
Divorce: ‘No one tells you about the dent on your wedding finger that doesn’t go’
Sara Davison is a divorce coach – she’s been through it herself and now helps others to come to terms with the loss of a long-term relationship.
Hands: What We Do with Them and Why by Darian Leader – how we keep our hands out of mischief
From flicking fans to swiping phones, humans have always loved to fiddle and fidget
Poster poems: fear
From the personal to the global, there is an uneasy abundance of things to be scared of at the moment. Dare you face up to some in verse?
Elizabeth Spillius obituary
Psychoanalyst who brought the ideas of Melanie Klein to a new generation of analysts, therapists, social workers and students
The Sex Lives of English Women review – turkish delight fantasies and great ‘organisms’
Being ravished on Question Time, enjoying bondage in the pub, a nun who wants a threesome … Wendy Jones has given women the space to talk, but could have done much more
Book reviews roundup: The Essex Serpent; The Muse; The Middlepause: On Turning 50
What the critics thought of The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry, The Muse by Jessie Burton and The Middlepause: On Turning 50 by Marina Benjamin
Tristimania by Jay Griffiths; Mad Girl by Bryony Gordon – review
Two depression memoirs aimed at different readerships both offer optimism and enlightenment
The Middlepause by Marina Benjamin and In My Own Times by Jane Miller – review
What does it mean to be middle-aged? Is 50 over the hill? An honest facing up to loss and sadness is an important theme in these valuable studies
Lean in 15: The Shape Plan by Joe Wicks – digested read
The fitness guru’s 15-minute healthy eating recipe plan is trimmed to shape in less than 800 words