Who are you calling mad?

Lisa Appignanesi's richly researched Mad, Bad and Sad asks why women are perceived as being more prone to mental illness than men, says Viv Groskop

Anatomy of melancholy

Darian Leader's The New Black and Sally Brampton's Shoot the Damn Dog suggest we have got depression all wrong, says Hilary Mantel

In remembrance

Giles Foden admires Memory, a collection of writing about memory, edited by Harriet Harvey Wood and AS Byatt

‘I just didn’t feel in control’

Olympic gold-winning heptathlete Denise Lewis was once the epitome of fitness. Then she retired, had two children and rediscovered junk food ... She tells Kira Cochrane how she got things back on track

A new plague facing women

Three graphic new books about depression by women writers will cast new light on Britain's hidden epidemic. Stephanie Merritt, herself a sufferer, recalls her own experience and argues for greater openness about a subject that still remains largely taboo

Desert child

A successful model in the Eighties, Waris Dirie is now far more distinguished by her work on eliminating female circumcision or, as she less euphemistically terms it, female genital mutilation

Is it worth it?

Monica Waitzfelder's investigation into her mother's claim that 'L'Oreal took my home', reveals the links between the Vichy government, fascist terrorists and the world's most powerful cosmetics firm. But was it worth it? asks James Purdon

Over the counter once more

Ian Pindar is glad that James McConnachie's tome of good conduct for men, The Book of Love, has been rescued