In search of lost times

When the brilliant Renaissance scholar Sir John Hale had a stroke at the age of 69 he was written off by doctors as a hopeless case. His wife, Sheila Hale, refused to give up. In an extract from her moving new book, she recounts her painful battles with the NHS and her search to rediscover the husband she once knew.

If you have ears…

In Equals, Adam Phillips explores one of the greatest and most fundamental gifts man has - the ability to listen and be listened to

Life with a basin of gravy

The Truth About Babies is a beautiful and welcome book that reveals just what your baby will do to you

Please yourself – and everyone else

Our culture may be obsessed with sex but that still doesn't mean we're any good at it. The latest how-to guide takes up several refreshing new positions.

Sorry, but your soul just died

A decade ago Francis Fukuyama shook the world of ideas with his assertion that we had reached the end of history. Now he has looked into the future and doesn't like what he sees. In these exclusive extracts from his eagerly anticipated new book he argues that science runs the risk of destroying humanity as we know it.

Darkness visible

Nicholas Lezard on depression's definitive text, The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon