Today’s queues may be digital, but the fight to secure that must-have present and avoid small, disappointed faces is timeless. Tom Howells looks at the toys topping recent (and less recent) Christmas wish lists

Amazing answers to your curious questions

Goethe’s achievement as artist, scientist and statesman

The imagination muscle WOULD you move ...

Our round-up of the funny, fascinating and unusual stories this fortnight

He spent the best part of 30 years trying to make racing cars go faster, then the next quarter of a century striving to make them safer. But Peter Wright, who died in November aged 79, was an understa