BlinkDash

New year, same old youLife and styleWhether it’s taking fruit to work (and to the bedroom!), being polite to rude strangers or taking up skinny-dipping, here’s a century of ways to make life better, with little effort involved … 1 Exercise on a Monday night (nothing fun happens on a Monday night). 2 On the fence about a purchase? Wait 72 hours before you buy it. 3 Tip: the quickest supermarket queue is always behind the fullest trolley (greeting, paying and packing take longer than you think).

Kate MossAs Kate Moss turns 50, this is what I know – and it’s complicatedZoe WilliamsPeople worry about how they look and how to mark the event – it’s undeniable that half a century has a different kind of pull “There were a lot of times in the 90s,” Kate Moss said to Vogue last week, “when I was young, free, single, no responsibilities apart from getting to work … other than that, the world was my oyster.

Barbie’s $356m opening weekend was an unqualified success. Photograph: Pictorial Press Ltd/AlamyBarbie’s $356m opening weekend was an unqualified success. Photograph: Pictorial Press Ltd/AlamyBarbieInterviewHow did Barbie do it? Warner’s head of marketing on creating a ‘pink movement’Lois Beckett in Los AngelesGreta Gerwig’s smash summer hit took the doll where nobody expected it to go, and banked hundreds of millions in return From the first viral photos of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling roller-blading along Venice Beach as Barbie and Ken, it was clear that Greta Gerwig’s new Barbie movie was going to be a sensation.

Ravneet Gill’s poached apricots and almond cream. Photograph: Laura Edwards/The Guardian. Food styling: Benjamina Ebuehi. Prop styling: Anna Wilkins. Food assistant: Julia Aden.Ravneet Gill’s poached apricots and almond cream. Photograph: Laura Edwards/The Guardian. Food styling: Benjamina Ebuehi. Prop styling: Anna Wilkins. Food assistant: Julia Aden.The sweet spotFoodDelicate poached apricots with a thyme-scented set cream and toasted almonds When the first apricots come in, it’s a glorious indication of more to come.

TV reviewTelevisionReviewWatching starkers TV stars will always be very funny – especially this chaotic lot. But there’s also a deep sadness behind this strip show The annual spectacle, since 2017, of The Real Full Monty, presented by Loose Women’s Coleen Nolan and the Diversity creator Ashley Banjo, is the most British thing you will ever see. A jolly crew of celebrities get together to do the worst thing in the British world – strip off in front of a crowd – for a good cause, in this case raising awareness of cancer prevention, especially by checking your unmentionables.

RereadingMuriel SparkThe Comforters, Muriel Spark's first novel, was a brilliant blast against the realist fashion of its day. It treats madness and evil with the mirthful lightness that would become the hallmark of her fiction, writes Ali SmithIn 1957, the year of first publication of The Comforters, angry young men were all the rage in literary Britain. Writers such as John Wain, Colin Wilson, John Braine and John Osborne honed a documentary-realist art that, by its fusion of kitchen-sink realism, fury and mundanity, proclaimed itself authentic.

Book of the dayFictionReviewThis energetic historical fiction, featuring a folkloric jester in a violent, superstitious Europe, is the work of an immense talentThe hero of Daniel Kehlmann’s new novel is based on a character from German folklore, a subversive prankster who challenges the social order with filthy slapstick and fart jokes, like an X-rated Robin Hood. Tyll Ulenspiegel first crops up in a German jokebook – the gratifyingly evocative German word is Schwankbuch – from the early 16th century.

Pop and rockInterview'I believed love could cure cancer': how grief sent Steve Perry on a new JourneyMichael HannThe man behind Don’t Stop Believin’ had abandoned music – until he fell in love with a dying woman, who made him promise to return to performing Steve Perry is explaining all the ways in which Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ can hook a listener. “The quarters on the piano – that intro’s a hook.

Pass notesFoodWho doesn’t crave a pastry at 3am? But police have said that extending the opening hours of Greggs’ flagship store could lead to serious problems Name: Sausage rolls. Age: Like so many things, the sausage roll can be traced back to ancient Greece and Rome. Seriously? Well, they put meat into dough. The sausage roll that you might recognise today probably began in France at the beginning of the 19th century …