Rebecca Hall's author, Florence, is a supernatural sceptic who debunks supposedly ghostly happenings in 1921 Britain.

Violette Leduc, described as "France's greatest unknown writer", has been posthumously stalking me for nearly a decade now. In 2003, I was asked to write the introduction to a reprint of her bestselling autobiography, La Bâtarde, alongside the preface by Simone de Beauvoir who, for a while, was Leduc's mentor. What a "lucky strike" (as Freud remarked when he discovered the unconscious) it must have been for Leduc, who was broke, unknown and thought herself plain, to have France's most formidable female intellectual tell the world she had a great talent.

She's joined the scouts, drunk Dom Perignon, and bagged a prince. As the Duchess of Cambridge turns 30 tomorrow, Matthew Bell, who follows suit in August, finds out how many must-do-before-you're-30 achievements Kate Middleton can tick off, and compares notes. How many have you done?

Many charities struggle for volunteers for 11 months but are overwhelmed by offers at this time of year. The season of goodwill shouldn't end on the first of January, says Luke Blackall

The rapper has revealed she plans to "address the nation" in several new songs as the invented character, who she introduced to fans on 'Roman's Revenge', the opening track of her debut album 'Pink Friday' which was co-written by Eminem. 

Diana Lamplugh suffered any parent's worst nightmare: her beautiful, beloved and sparky daughter Suzy, a trainee estate agent, arranged to meet a client, a "Mr Kipper", at a house in Fulham, west London, on a July afternoon in 1986. She went off to the appointment and disappeared. What happened to Suzy is still not known 25 years later.

"I'm always having weird thoughts," 14-year-old Anna informs her priest.

Angelina Jolie is probably right in her assessment that the modern education system is not geared to catering for her children's needs. Her jetset lifestyle means she has the choice of enrolling her children at a private boarding school (state boarding provision is relatively limited throughout the world) or having them taught by tutors and teachers while the family is on the road. Boarding education is not suitable for every child, and not every parent wants to farm out their offspring to somebody else's care simply because they have a job which involves travelling.

It's unlikely that the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, who lent his name to the snack, ever went for the cucumber option. The Earl wanted something tidily substantial to refresh his efforts at the card table, not some prissy confection.

Children sent away to boarding school can suffer psychological damage akin to being taken into care, a leading psychotherapist warns. "Boarding School Syndrome" can leave adults struggling to form intimate relationships and unable to communicate emotions after being traumatised by forced separation from friends and family at a young age.

Jubilate (pronounced yoo-be-la-ta) is, according to Chambers' Dictionary, the Latin exhortation to rejoice or exult: the opening word of the 100th Psalm (in the Vulgate). According to Michael Arditti: "It just sounded like a good title for a pilgrimage". For a novelist born with Jewish origins and educated at a Methodist boarding school, there appears to be no compelling reason why Arditti should have chosen a Catholic crise de conscience as the subject of this holy visit to Lourdes. Or why he should have used a female narrative voice for the pilgrim, alternating with a (male) TV film director who is shooting a worthy God-slot from a strictly agnostic angle.