SwayBlog

FosteringOne month it's a lying, stealing teenager, the next a little boy afraid of crowds and tomatoes. How does it feel, not knowing which strangers' child will come through your door next?MarchRuby is heading into the great unknown world of the mother and baby unit. This is her last chance to prove herself an adequate mother, and she knows it. A huge responsibility to have on your shoulders when you are this young and when your family are seriously dysfunctional.

Art and design This article is more than 12 years oldAthena Tennis Girl makes cheeky comeback – in the name of artThis article is more than 12 years oldClassic poster will feature in Birmingham exhibition exploring lawn tennis as fine artAs an 18-year-old girl in the long hot summer of 1976 Fiona Walker, then Butler, cheerfully allowed her boyfriend, Martin Elliott, to photograph her knickerless, walking towards a tennis net. Elliott sold the image to Athena, and up it speedily went on the bedroom walls of boys everywhere, becoming one of the world's biggest-selling posters.

Boy George This article is more than 15 years oldBoy George is jailed for handcuffing and beating male escort in drug-fuelled rageThis article is more than 15 years old Former Culture Club singer given 15 months Treatment was callous and humiliating, says judgeCocaine addiction, a bout of unfettered paranoia and the "callous and humiliating" handcuffing of a Norwegian male escort saw Boy George jailed for 15 months today. It was the latest chapter in a saga that has seen the singer metamorphose from an exotic symbol of the 1980s with his group Culture Club into a troubled and enigmatic solo artist.

Categories Nooks and crannies Yesteryear Semantic enigmas The body beautiful Red tape, white lies Speculative science This sceptred isle Root of all evil Ethical conundrums This sporting life Stage and screen Birds and the bees SEMANTIC ENIGMASCan anyone explain the words from the song 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale' by Procol Harum?

August 1962: East German border soldiers carrying the body of Peter Fechter, who was shot dead attempting to cross the Berlin Wall. Photograph: DPA/EPA Photograph: DPA/EPAAugust 1962: East German border soldiers carrying the body of Peter Fechter, who was shot dead attempting to cross the Berlin Wall. Photograph: DPA/EPA Photograph: DPA/EPAFrom the Guardian archiveGermanyFrom the archive, 18 August 1962: Grim scenes at Berlin Wall as refugee left to diePeter Fechter, an 18-year-old bricklayer, was shot by East German guards as he attempted to cross the Berlin Wall a year after it was erected

Book of the dayWilliam BoydReviewThis audaciously unpredictable tale of passion and pianos in 1880s France and Russia is worthy of adulationIn his latest novel, Love Is Blind – his 15th – William Boyd has pulled off an audaciously cunning trick, a literary bait and switch that both delights and surprises. At first glance, this historical travelogue-cum-romance follows in the vein of Boyd’s earlier successes such as Any Human Heart and Waiting for Sunrise, being a beautifully written and deeply humane account of its protagonist’s journey through a specific historical period: in this case, fin-de-siècle Scotland, France and Russia.

Port ValeLettersRemember John Rudge, the unsung hero of Port ValeThe Port Vale Supporters’ Club hopes to erect a statue to the legendary manager in Burslem, writes Joan Walley Max Rushden’s article (Mark Bonner’s Cambridge exit reminds us of the strange existence for managers, 30 November) is a heartfelt remembrance of the tenure of a manager who kept the dream alive despite all the odds. Rushden’s timely reference to a last-minute goal scored at Vale Park is a golden opportunity for me to urge the Guardian to review the legendary Port Vale manager John Rudge’s book To Cap It All.

Horse racingObituaryRobert SangsterPools fortune heir whose investments in breeding transformed the world of horseracingThe international world of thoroughbred racing changed on the day that a flashy chestnut colt called The Minstrel, owned by Robert Sangster and partners, ridden by the champion jockey Lester Piggott and sired by Northern Dancer, won the 1977 Epsom Derby. It was the start of an incredible era that was to drive up international bloodstock prices to unforeseen heights, and attract into the sport the oil-rich sheiks of the Middle East.

Running with the bulls at San Fermín festival – in pictures Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email Revellers from around the world flock each year to Pamplona for the bullfights and the running of the bulls during the San Fermín festival. The annual ritual in the northern Spanish city was made famous by Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises