The front runners are men, but could a woman born more than half a millennium ago hold the key to the French elections? asks Sally Feldman
Laurie Taylor flashes his inner muse
Karl Ove Knausgaard has been hailed as a new literary star, in his publisher's press release. Philip Womack is not convinced by his "monstrous ego trip"
Cartoons from New Humanist Jan & Feb 2012
Cartoons from the March & April issue of New Humanist magazine
Jonathan Rée is entertained, but unimpressed, by the PT Barnum of cultural psychology
Humans have invented an endless series of strategies to try and outwit the Grim Reaper. Stephen Cave explores our fascination with immortality
If the Lord moves in mysterious ways, then his son moves in downright weird ones. Jesus Christ’s inexplicable predilection for appearing in the snack foods of small-town America has become even more legendary than his early work in the Bible. It started small, toast mostly, the occasional taco or flatbread, but to get those column inches – and please the fans – one must up the ante. Christina Martin selects some of his greatest public appearances
In his uncategorisable writing and brilliant television essays Jonathan Meades is forever peering into the nooks and crannies of our absurd age. Matthew Adams runs him to ground in his modernist hideaway to poke into his private places
His posthumous memoir is just the last of the many disapointments of the great Gil Scott-Heron, says Caspar Melville