Alex Needham

JK Rowling on the first Harry Potter, Hilary Mantel on Wolf Hall: glimpse authors' musings on their first editions

guardian.co.uk — Amsterdam to Wolf Hall, Booker winners and bestsellers - authors including JK Rowling, Hilary Mantel, Philip Pullman, Nick Hornby and Ian McEwan annotate their own first editions. The books will be auctioned at Sotheby's next week in aid of English PEN

Lars von Trier used body doubles to shoot Nymphomaniac

guardian.co.uk — Charlotte Gainsbourg, Shia LaBeouf, Uma Thurman, Stellan Skarsgård and Christian Slater can all breathe a sigh of relief: they will not be required to have live sex on camera for Danish agent provocateur Lars von Trier's much-hyped new film Nymphomaniac.

Meet the Guardian's new fashion bloggers

guardian.co.uk — In late 2012, we put a call out to anyone wanting to join the Guardian's fashion bloggers network. As is often the case with these things, we weren't precise about exactly what we were looking for, but we knew it would be obvious once we found the right people.

You should have heard Jeremy Paxman grill Gandhi

guardian.co.uk — Tim Peake, the British astronaut who is due to spend six months on the Soyuz space station in 2015, became one of Jeremy Paxman's least likely victims in a combative interview on Newsnight in which the presenter suggested that space travel was merely a waste of taxpayers' money.

Russell Brand on Alex Ferguson: 'A unique figure in the football faith'

guardian.co.uk — It was not without significant tribal turbulence that I attended Manchester United's second leg quarterfinal Champion's League match against Real Madrid. Like a twerp I'd requested the tickets from former Hammer Rio Ferdinand (@rioferdy5) via Twitter, a lamentable exploitation of fame that elicited a red tide of justifiable online indignation.

Twelve things you don't need to pay for

guardian.co.uk — One of the best ways to save money is to never pay for anything you can get for free. Here are 11 things that you could end up paying for but don't need to. 1. Reclaiming PPI There are a multitude of companies offering to help you claim your money back if you have been a victim of payment protection insurance mis-selling.