Jon Ronson on 'mutual grooming'

Silk, sass and shimmer: William Banks-Blaney on Coco Chanel

Courrèges of his convictions: William Banks-Blaney on the French Space Age designer

Halcyon Halston days: William Banks-Blaney on the first super-designer

Frank Cottrell Boyce's first day at school

Sandi Toksvig on the great women of history

Alan Bennett: The poor don't get much of a look in

Andrew O'Hagan reads a passage about a firefight in Helmand Province

Alex Salmond on joining the SNP while at university

Celia Imrie on the importance of being bored

Sandi Toksvig on the need for equal representation for women

Tom Holland: The challenge of writing about periods before the modern novel

Jon Ronson on the Stanford prison experiment

Germaine Greer: If the English are sane it's because their national playwright is Shakespeare