Voted the BBC's Sound of 2012, his breakthrough came with supporting Adele on tour. But the release of his first album is the real litmus test

The songwriter Ted Dicks wrote "Hole in the Ground" and "Right Said Fred", comic songs whose humour and vitality reflected his own personality and interests. He was a very pleasant and gregarious man with a passion for writing about the working man.

How did one man conquer the bargain-basement market? Mat Snow reports on a shopping sensation

... or rather watched, as the professionals stepped in. David Randall reports that bees are in trouble – but there is a way to help

For the past 100 years, artists and writers have launched manifestos to sell new ideas and kill the old. Did they change the world, or make a noise? Alex Danchev looks at the history of hectoring

In The Red

A Sainsbury's IT manager who stole millions of Nectar points after finding a "loophole" in the system was jailed for 20 months at the Old Bailey yesterday.

Every year it happens, with the utter predictability of my children saying no to the Christmas Day sprouts, and my father-in-law to the parsnips. Somewhere around 25 November my mind turns to Christmas cards, and in particular those destined for friends and relatives in the United States and Australia. This year, I assure myself, will be different. The cards travelling to distant lands, with a bespoke accompanying letter and perhaps a clutch of photographs, will be in the post by the beginning of December. And with that done, I will sit down with the dozens of cards meant for friends in the UK, and actually enjoy writing them, without the pressure of Royal Mail deadlines.

An unusual style of portraiture has been developed by British artist Rosalind Freeborn, who uses shreds of torn wallpaper, magazine pages, tissue and newspaper to make pictures of famous faces like actor Bob Hoskins (pictured).

A first time for everything: We all know that variety is the spice of life. But what happened when we challenged four writers to explore their untapped potential?

If you ask me, now the election has been called, it is time to throw my hat into the ring, which is harder than it looks, particularly as I don't have a hat, or a ring. Still, I did have an old pen to hand, which I threw at the window, so now I've thrown an old pen at a window, I would ask you to vote for me based on the following pledges:

Debt advice from the Kevin Boon of the Consumer Credit Counselling Service

Jamie Neale said thinking about his mother kept him going through the 12-day ordeal when he was lost in the bush.

Length-and-line, blokeish, Irish pop-rock, with a whiff of Muswell Hill in Mundy's use of language and melody.