Is that wedding bells we hear?

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Rebecca Tyrrel: 'Since early adulthood, Fergie has never set eyes on an Eccles cake without emitting a yelp'

Who knew that Fergie always screams on sighting a cake? This is not the Fergie who manages Manchester United, and it is said screams at his players regardless of whether any patisserie products are present. Nor is it the Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas, although Will.i.am's sidekick is eccentric enough to scream at anything at all for no good reason.

Gary Neville is all too well aware of the pressures of playing for England

England was the itch Neville couldn't ignore

Hodgson's assistant says chance was too good to miss and is sure he can combine it with TV work

Sarah Ferguson with her daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, in Istanbul for the documentary

The Duchess and her diplomatic difficulty

Sarah Ferguson went to Turkey to film cruelty to orphans. Now she's been asked back – to jail

Super satire: The art of Private Eye

Sharp, funny and often cruel, over 50 years Private Eye has perfected the art of the satirical picture caption, says John Walsh

Charlie Sheen to appear on Celebrity Big Brother

Charlie Sheen has signed up to appear on 'Celebrity Big Brother'.

Tabloid signs off with a sting in the tail for Rebekah Brooks

The tone of the 8,674th and final edition of the News of the World (NOTW) was one of defiance.

A Day That Shook The World: Royal Family in crisis

On 15 June 1992, a scandalous book about life inside the Royal Family was released - firing the starter pistol on a series of unprecedented criticism of the institution of the monarchy.

Wedding snub 'so difficult' says Duchess of York

The Duchess of York said not being invited to Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding was "so difficult" for her to cope with.

Sarah Sands: Nothing eases a mother's grief – least of all, more death

The laying of a wreath by President Obama at Ground Zero, New York, last week, after American marines had despatched the diabolical visionary behind the 11 September bombings, was described by commentators as "seeking closure". After an apocalyptic act of violence, and a decade-long pursuit of the perpetrator, here was a moment of silent reflection. Let the victims of unquiet deaths, finally rest in peace.

Royal revenge: 'We had to draw the line somewhere'

The Queen doesn't like him, so he wasn't invited. But the snub to Tony Blair makes a nonsense of claims that Friday's wedding has modernised a fundamentally Conservative institution

Julie Burchill: Something's wrong when it's only men who take out gagging orders

They say that no man is a hero to his valet, but in recent years the rise of the super-injunction has attempted to build a phoney shield of decency around selected celebrity sleazes rich enough to afford one. Though injunctions are modern inventions, their intention is as old as Adam; they seek to return relations between the sexes to the level of those idealised in Downton Abbey and shown in surprisingly harsh reality in the earlier and far superior Upstairs, Downstairs, when rich men could do exactly as they pleased to parlour maids, prostitutes and showgirls and get away with it.

Julie Burchill: Celebrity redemption is even more sickening than celebrity excess

I've been thinking about Reformed Characters this week, as Russell Brand and the Duchess of York – and their little Venn baby, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson – all variously parade their guilt and redemption as though they were the latest designer lust-haves. Frankly I wouldn't know guilt and redemption even if I had a threesome with them and they showed me a playback of it the next day, but it's certainly a very popular pose right now – even more so with the falling away of faith in this country. Which goes to prove that clever old GK Chesterton got it right when he said: "When a man ceases to believe in God he does not believe in nothing, he believes in anything."

Philip Hensher: Are we finally growing out of the whole lunacy of royal weddings?

Perhaps we have got to the point where deference and admiration are offered to people who have actually earned them
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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