It’s a joy watching our favourite singers or actors, but though we might admire them and enjoy the happiness they bring, do we ever give a thought as to how precarious the world of entertainment actua

In 1976, the revolutionary singer-songwriter LAURA NYRO returned from self-imposed exile. But her comeback confounded expectations, shifting away from the impassioned intimacies of her early albums to embrace more radical perspectives. Fifty years on, Nyro’s collaborators revisit her striking second act. “She was a hip American from the Bronx,” one friend and producer tells Rob Hughes. “But her soul was old.”

BORN Edna Mae Durbin in 1921 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Deanna’s parents were British-born and moved to California when she was a child. A natural singer, she had a voice described as a “sweet sop

The platinum blonde in British history

Lee Miller’s artistic and historical sensibility

Each month ex-cop Nicky Alan teams up with her spirit guides to investigate an unsolved mystery. Here, she delves into what really happened when Queen of Crime Agatha Christie went missing for 11 days