In a candid chat ahead of the release of his memoir We Did OK, Kid , actor, artist and composer Sir Anthony Hopkins reveals how his tough childhood and long battle with alcoholism formed the contented, joyful man he is today

He might be best known for directing action-packed films– from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels to Sherlock Holmes –but, as Guy Ritchie tells Paula Minchin, he’s still chasing a boyhood dream of a life in the countryside

From a milliner inspired by topiary to a model-turned-ecological gardener and a couple who swapped jobs in telecommunications for growing vegetables, Sir David Beckham’s rural heroes tell Julie Harding why craft and the countryside are key

ONE OF THE MOST GRIMLY FUNNY POEMS OF the past century is Philip Larkin’s “This Be the Verse,” with its opening salvo about how our parents invariably mess us up. Larkin used a saltier word for “mess,

I WAS lonely. Papa was a preacher and we lived and travelled in a painted wooden wagon, pulled by Jessie, a large and docile shire horse. We had few possessions; there was no room for what Papa called

Acting is a family business for the towering Swede, but his own path to the top has been anything but conventional