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Beyond Serge: Jane Birkin is back in Britain but Gainsbourg is never far away

Jane Birkin: 'I was no Lolita,' says Britain's Bardot

Reflecting on her role as muse for Serge Gainsbourg, the actress and singer is clearly still under his spell, writes Jonathan Owen

Are all beautiful women boring? Samantha Brick strikes again

As a recent study claimed that attractive people tend to conform, and hence are more likely to be boring, Samantha Brick has offered her beautiful opinion on the topic.

Andy Martin: Well - do you want a better brain or not?

A second language builds cognitive potential, not just linguistic ability

Autobiography, By Mary Quant

Nice clothes, but what's underneath?

Mother of dog attack victim hits out over Brigitte Bardot appeal

The mother of a four-year-old girl who was savaged by a pitbull terrier has hit out at the actress Brigitte Bardot, who has called for the dog's life to be saved.

The Ballet Pump: Sugar plum fairies

The ballet pump is a classic style that will see you from work to the barre, says Harriet Walker

Ready To Wear: Shalimar was once the most revolutionary of all scents

The reinvention of classics.

Doubles in the movies

As Dominic Cooper plays Uday Hussein and his hired lookalike in a new film, Geoffrey Macnab chronicles cinema's rich history of doppelgänger dramas

Fifties fever! Coming soon, 'The Hour'

A new BBC drama, already dubbed the British 'Mad Men', is set to change our view of the post-war era

Weddings and Movie Stars: a fairytale romance?

An new encyclopaedia of Hollywood nuptials could re-balance your view of the 'perfect wedding'

Gunter Sachs: Playboy and husband of Brigitte Bardot who helped put Saint-Tropez and St Moritz on the jet-set map

When the German multi-millionaire playboy Gunter Sachs began romancing the French screen idol Brigitte Bardot in May 1966, he didn't do things by halves. After he arranged for a helicopter to drop hundreds of red roses over La Madrague, her Côte d'Azur property, the then most desirable woman in the world certainly paid attention. "It's not every day a man drops a ton of roses in your backyard," Bardot later wrote in Initiales BB, her autobiography. Her sex kitten role in And God Created Woman, directed in 1956 by her first husband Roger Vadim, had already put Saint-Tropez on the map but her relationship with Sachs, covered in great detail by paparazzi and reporters, transformed what had been a sleepy Mediterranean fishing harbour into a must-visit destination for the jet set.

24-hour room service: Pavillon de la Reine, Paris

A chic, discreet address that's fit for a queen

Carola Long: 'Diana Vreeland’s deliciously decadent pronouncements turned her into a legendary fashion editor'

"Why don't you rinse your blond child's hair in dead champagne, to keep its gold, as they do in France?" It was this kind of deliciously decadent pronouncement that helped turn Diana Vreeland into a legendary fashion editor. The advice first appeared alongside other grand suggestions in her regular column called Why Don't You...? in US Harper's Bazaar where Vreeland was editor from the mid- Thirties through to1962, when she moved to US Vogue.

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Special report: How my father's face turned up in Robert Capa's lost suitcase

Special report: How my father's face turned up in Robert Capa's lost suitcase

The great war photographer was not one person but two. Their pictures of Spain's civil war, lost for decades, tell a heroic tale
The unmade speech: An alternative draft of history

The unmade speech: An alternative draft of history

Someone, somewhere has to write speeches for world leaders to deliver in the event of disaster. They offer a chilling hint at what could have been
Funny business: Meet the women running comedy

Funny business: Meet the women running comedy

Think comedy’s a man's world? You must be stuck in the 1980s, says Holly Williams
Wilko Johnson: 'You have to live for the minute you're in'

Wilko Johnson: 'You have to live for the minute you're in'

The Dr Feelgood guitarist talks frankly about his terminal illness
Lure of the jingle: Entrepreneurs are giving vintage ice-cream vans a new lease of life

Lure of the jingle

Entrepreneurs are giving vintage ice-cream vans a new lease of life
Who stole the people's own culture?

DJ Taylor: Who stole the people's own culture?

True popular art drives up from the streets, but the commercial world wastes no time in cashing in
Guest List: The IoS Literary Editor suggests some books for your summer holiday

Guest List: IoS Literary Editor suggests some books for your summer holiday

Before you stuff your luggage with this year's Man Booker longlist titles, the case for some varied poolside reading alternatives
What if Edward Snowden had stayed to fight his corner?

Rupert Cornwell: What if Edward Snowden had stayed to fight his corner?

The CIA whistleblower struck a blow for us all, but his 1970s predecessor showed how to win
'A man walks into a bar': Comedian Seann Walsh on the dangers of mixing alcohol and stand-up

Comedian Seann Walsh on alcohol and stand-up

Comedy and booze go together, says Walsh. The trouble is stopping at just the one. So when do the hangovers stop being funny?
From Edinburgh to Hollywood (via the Home Counties): 10 comedic talents blowing up big

Edinburgh to Hollywood: 10 comedic talents blowing up big

Hugh Montgomery profiles the faces to watch, from the sitcom star to the surrealist
'Hello. I have cancer': When comedian Tig Notaro discovered she had a tumour she decided the show must go on

Comedian Tig Notaro: 'Hello. I have cancer'

When Notaro discovered she had a tumour she decided the show must go on
They think it's all ova: Bill Granger's Asia-influenced egg recipes

Bill Granger's Asia-influenced egg recipes

Our chef made his name cooking eggs, but he’s never stopped looking for new ways to serve them
The world wakes up to golf's female big hitters

The world wakes up to golf's female big hitters

With its own Tiger Woods - South Korea's Inbee Park - the women's game has a growing audience
10 athletes ready to take the world by storm in Moscow next week

10 athletes ready to take the world by storm in Moscow next week

Here are the potential stars of the World Championships which begin on Saturday
The Last Word: Luis Suarez and Gareth Bale's art of manipulation

The Last Word: Luis Suarez and Gareth Bale's art of manipulation

Briefings are off the record leading to transfer speculation which is merely a means to an end