The funeral will rival that of Pope John Paul II in 2005, which drew five kings, six queens and 70 presidents and prime ministers as well as 2 million faithful. The closest British equivalent may have been the 1965 state funeral of Winston Churchill. (Smith, 2013b).

The costumes look remarkably grand for home theatricals, the jewellery is startlingly convincing, and the band evidently comprises moonlighting members of the Royal Horse Guards. The principal boy's legs, in silk stockings, are absolutely tremendous. (Kennedy, 2013).

Pantomime and its cross-dressing traditions spring out of that long tradition of carnival and subversion; a time when eveything went topsy-turvy, people were able to mock their rulers, everything became anarchic. That's where it comes from. And interestingly, cross-dressing still has that potency. As a cross-dresser myself, I know it's a licence to cause mischief, and that's part of the role you take on. (Perry, 2013b).

A hijab-wearing rapper, Mahmoud has challenged some Egyptians' expectations of how women – and hijab wearers in particular – are meant to behave. Mahmoud, 18, is not Egypt's first veiled rapper, or even its most experienced. But through her appearances on Arabs Got Talent, a variety show that has become a primetime success across the Middle East, she is one of the few to attract something approaching mainstream attention. (Kingsley, 2013).

she says, she has noticed a rise in the number of straight girls coming on to her in the past year. "It seems like the wild thing to do because it's more talked about." She thinks it's partly about "women allowing one another to be sexual beings rather than seeing other women as a threat". In some ways, this is one of the unexpected boons to have come out of feminism. (Theobold, 2013).

Sure, Katniss is an idealised fantasy anti-authoriatarian heroine. She is also confused, stubborn and vulnerable. What she isn't is either "girly" or interested in riches. She makes her bow and arrows to bring down the system. Nothing is said about gender. She is taller than one of her partners and it's her physical and mental prowess that we root for. (Moore, 2013f).

Reeks is polishing her third book in between lectures. (Morris, 2013a).

Anna Home, a contemporary of Baxter's and a former head of the BBC children's television department, says few women at the time would have thought of men's behaviour as sexist. "We sort of expected it," she remembers. "At the time it was quite an achievement to get into university, not just the BBC." When Baxter went to Durham University only 6% of the students were women.

Yet Baxter insisted on the male presenters working with babies or doing cookery segments. "It would have been fatal if one of the girls had done it," she says, "because boys [viewing] would have switched off." (Martinson, 2013).

What is striking is that any attempt to give young people autonomy is always rubbished. We didn't have a proper debate about lowering the age of consent because – pass the smelling salts – there is too much sex on the internet. Other countries manage to have both lower teen pregnancy rates and lower ages of consent, but the British are actively hostile towards young people. (Moore, 2013e).

One of the leaders in medical humanities is Imperial College, London, which introduces poetry, music and art to medical students in the second and fourth years, with an option of studying for a BSc in medical humanities – a degree that looks at medicine as an art, rather than a science and incorportes visits to galleries, film viewings and allows students to create their own piece of performance or artwork.

Course director, Giskin Day, says she sees highly intelligent but very young students hiding behind a screen of professionalism, medical language, tests and scientific concepts, and afraid to address patients as individuals in case they are drawn into their lives, families and emotions. (Pugh, 2013).