‘Improv saved my life’: the comedy classes helping people with anxiety

Once the domain of aspiring performers, improv courses are increasingly being sought out by students experiencing mental health problems

‘We voice our concerns through a choir’: singing out about the UK housing crisis

Thousands of people are at the sharp end of the UK’s housing crisis. Sergio Figueroa has come up with one way to make a noise about it: singing

The 100 best nonfiction books: No 98 – The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton (1621)

This compelling and occasionally comic study of melancholy became cult reading in the 17th century and has inspired artists from Keats to Cy Twombly

Creation history: brilliant ideas build on the past

Creativity doesn’t come out of the blue, it starts by remodelling the past, say David Eagleman and Anthony Brandt

How architecture shapes our cities – and our lives

Communities which design their own buildings are more likely to be happy and healthy, says Lily Bernheimer

‘It’s something between compulsion and comfort’: the quiet therapy of counting

Our pop culture expert still recalls the number of steps from her childhood bedroom to the bathroom. Now, though, she’s counting down to Christmas

Prescribed reading: Five of the best books by doctors

As Adam Kay’s This Is Going to Hurt wins a readers’ choice award, we recommend five other author physicians. Please add to our notes

Comedy in a care home: the standups taking slapstick into new territory

The residents were expecting bingo. Instead they got lessons in strawberry spitting, a Railway Children spoof – and a stuntman stripping to his underpants

The spray’s the thing: how actors use perfumes to get into character

Playing Thatcher? Dab on Bluebell. Got a part in Hairspray? Reach for the Madame Rochas. We lift the lid on how actors use smells – from the finest fragrances to cheap tinned mackerel – to nail a role

How to Stay Alive by Bear Grylls – digested read

‘Nipping out for milk? Take a 12-inch knife, a defibrillator, three chicken tikka masalas and a solar-powered microwave oven’