Canada is to scrap its pennies because they cost more to produce than the coins are worth.

Spring is finally on its way. The mercury is rising, the days are getting longer and the daffodils are peeking through. This is traditionally the season for giving your house a refresh – a big clean up and a budget-conscious interiors update will help banish the winter blues. It's time to mothball the woollen throws, winter bedding and heavy curtains and introduce some brighter fabrics and colours.

My earliest food memory...

The Royal Mint is being accused of exploiting the general public with overpriced commemorative coins that have minimal investment value.

Leading dealers say market is devalued by excessive number of commemorative issues

Can you invest ethically and still make decent returns? Of course. In fact if you invest in the right green shares or funds, you could even make more.

According to Arena: Dickens on Film, one source of the author's appeal to film-makers was his "constellation of unforgettable grotesques". They are, the narrator continued, "characters every actor wants to play, characters impossible to overact". To which one might reply that while the first clause might be true, the second certainly isn't, and that grotesquery can be one of Dickens' besetting problems on screen. Adaptations of his work often run into trouble with the Dickensian, that caricature view of the writing that you can see in the original illustrations (which, like film or television, necessarily favour the concrete facts of the prose over its flavour). The Mystery of Edwin Drood has one big advantage in this respect, which is that it isn't terribly well known. When he plays John Jasper, Matthew Rhys isn't taking on a distinguished line of predecessors (as anybody playing Micawber would be) and very few of us at home will be waiting to see whether a beloved scene is correctly done.

1. Reinventing the heel

£20, origins.co.uk

This intense moisturising cream works wonders on even the most dry and cracked heels. It's simple, effective and luxurious.

January is traditionally the month of deep self-loathing. Big bills and big bellies inevitably lead to thoughts of new beginnings, a chance to mend our ways, and start afresh. Turn on the television, open any newspaper or magazine and you can't ignore exercise DVDs and diet books. Davina McCall (slender mother of three) reigns supreme at the top of the bestsellers (again), and even the comical Towie mob is flogging a keep-fit routine, complete with extras such as "what to wear to work out in Essex". Ignore them. Here's how to deal with windy and grim January: eat the same food as in December. I've enjoyed macaroni cheese, fish and chips and fruit cake, done the same amount of walking, played the same amount of tennis. When appearing in public, I wear a pair of buttock-clenching pants.

Outlook Johnson County in Kansas is one of the wealthiest suburbs in all of America. Everything always works, everyone always smiles and it is nearly always sunny, even if it is freezing cold. You'd like it.

The average chap will shave 20,000 times in his lifetime, so keep skin soothed with one of these face-friendly buys

Serves 4

There was once this woman," the title story opens. "She was quite famous, in a way." Social smiling masks the private world. The smiling woman lives above an unspeakable abyss. Its looming presence in the round of Jenny Jamieson's day is signalled in the numb, glazed tone that characterises the fable.