American psyche

George Saunders: I've had it with the paparazzi. That's why I initiated my Harass-A-Paparazzi Programme

How to … be free

Guy Browning: We've had freedom so long in this country that, like antibiotics, the positive effects are wearing off

One drink and I’m dead

Experience: It was a good thing that I was already on my back in a hospital bed when the doctor told me I could never drink again, or her words would have knocked me flat

A tale of two mothers

Five months after Julia Hollander's daughter Imogen was born with severe cerebral palsy, she found herself at breaking point. But her painful decision to hand over her child to a foster carer led to the creation of an 'extraordinary extended family'

A deeper understanding

As an oncologist, Lynne Riley is used to dealing with other people's loss. But when her husband, Richard, died tragically, she had to learn to cope with her own grief, and that of her children

I have Alice In Wonderland syndrome

Experience: Walking down the road, parked cars appeared the size of Corgi models. At work my chair seemed enormous while I seemed to have shrunk