I was a virgin when I met my wife; she was sexually adventurous. How can I stop comparing myself to
Sexual healingLife and styleWe have never been wild in the bedroom and I can’t help feeling that I must not excite her the way previous lovers did
I’ve been with my wife for 10 years, and we have a great and loving relationship. She is a wonderful person and a great mum to our two young children. However, I was a virgin when we met in our mid-20s, whereas she had had a few partners and casually mentioned early on that a couple of her previous relationships involved doing things sexually that were wilder and more adventurous than anything we have ever done.
Joni Mitchell's albums ranked! | Joni Mitchell
Mitchell in 1968. Photograph: Jack Robinson/Getty ImagesOn the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, we celebrate the supernatural folk and bold jazz experimentation of the groundbreaking artist whose famous song captured the spirit of the festival – even though she didn’t go
by Kat Lister19. Dog Eat Dog (1985)Joni Mitchell is a non-conformer – which is why this is such an uncomfortable listen. She is virtually unrecognisable here, subsumed by a homogenised 80s sound that leaves you pining for the astral lifelines of her earlier work.
Love Island final: fan favourites Amber and Greg win as it happened | Love Island
29 Jul 201918.07 EDTTHAT'S ALL FOLKSThat’s it for Love Island 2019 (until the reunion show a week on Sunday, obvs) and adios from the liveblog. Keep on grafting and don’t be #chaldish, #isleneverforgetyou!
Updated at 18.07 EDT29 Jul 201917.53 EDT“Money Mae” is currently trending on Twitter in the UK, as fans imagine Molly-Mae’s devastation at not winning the £50k. How uncharitable - she was actually more excited about the prospect of being on This Morning.
Remembrance of things past: Marcel Proust on film | Film adaptations
Film adaptationsRemembrance of things past: Marcel Proust on filmIt's 100 years since the first volume of À La Recherche du Temps Perdu was published, but a definitive cinematisation of Proust's epic novel has so far proved elusiveThis year has been punctuated by a rash of anniversary-themed books and articles anticipating the first world war centenary, and indeed attempting snapshots of how Europe looked and felt in 1913, eerily poised on the precipice.
TV tonight: Paul Burrell and Sherrie Hewson strip off for charity
TV tonightTelevisionCelebrities raise cancer awareness in The Real Full Monty. Plus, Jamie Oliver sorts your Christmas. Here’s what to watch this evening
The Real Full Monty: Jingle Balls9pm, ITV1If you can make it past a closeup of Paul Burrell’s tattooed bottom within the opening minute (“If Diana was here, she’d get her binoculars out!”), this two-parter about a celebrity strip show is a surprisingly uplifting tearjerker – everyone involved has a personal link to cancer.
Zena Marshall | James Bond
James BondObituaryZena MarshallActor who played the exotic Miss Taro in the Bond film Dr NoZena Marshall, who has died aged 83, played a small but pivotal part in establishing the formula of the James Bond series. As the Eurasian secretary, Miss Taro, revealed to be working for the title character in the first Bond film, Dr No (1962), while dallying with 007 (Sean Connery), she was the first of those unscrupulous, exotic beauties who, in the service of the villain, would try but fail to entrap Bond.
AfghanistanAfghanistan helicopter crash kills 11Taliban claims it downed Black Hawk helicopter in Kandahar province, killing seven US troops and four AfghansA Black Hawk helicopter has crashed in a restive corner of southern Afghanistan, killing seven US soldiers and four Afghans, the Nato-led coalition said.
A Taliban spokesman said they had downed the helicopter over southern Kandahar province, using a rocket-propelled grenade.
Although the group are quick to claim crashes caused by mechanical problems as successful hits by their fighters, they have brought down some Nato helicopters, including one two months ago in eastern Ghazni province.
Pushkin's pride: how the Russian literary giant paid tribute to his African ancestry | Alexander Pus
Books blogAlexander PushkinPushkin's pride: how the Russian literary giant paid tribute to his African ancestryHis black great-grandfather was abducted as a child and raised in Peter the Great’s court. A new Pushkin translation includes the little-known history of Russia’s Shakespeare
For Russians, Alexander Pushkin inhabits a space beyond taste, where nationalism has given subjective art the patina of fact. He is the undisputed father of their literature in the way Shakespeare is for Brits.
Richard Madden: I dont like the look of me in the mirror | Richard Madden
Richard Madden: ‘Everything runs away with you.’ Photograph: Paul Farrell/The GuardianBodyguard made him a star – but he hasn’t always been comfortable as the lead. He talks about bullies, his inner ‘fat lad’ and new Elton John biopic Rocketman
by Miranda SawyerFor some lucky actors, there are moments when their career suddenly shifts into a higher gear. The right part comes along, the world notices, and boom! their whole life is different.
The 'gay diet' | Food
Word of Mouth blogFoodThe 'gay diet'If 'man food' is meat and 'girl food' is salad, what's 'gay food'?Simon Doonan has just written a new book called Gay Men Don't Get Fat. Doonan is less famous here than he is in the States: he's a Reading-born, highly successful window dresser for Barneys, a style columnist for the New York Post and elsewhere, and is married to the designer Jonathan Adler. His title alludes, of course, to the mid-noughties bestseller French Women Don't Get Fat, which did more to raise awareness of the French paradox among the general public than any book before it.