Is old age necessarily degrading? Should we leave home in our final years? Is there ever a good time to go? Novelist, biographer and critic Dame Margaret Drabble, now aged 77, discusses the difficult questions that arise as we age—and recommends five books that examine them in depth.

Putting people and things into categories is something we all do. It’s a useful shortcut but reveals biases. And it plays a role in everything from ethnic violence to childhood development, as psychologist Susan Gelman explains.

The professor of perinatal psychobiology at Imperial College, London tells us how our understanding of foetal development and the importance of mother-child bonding has changed in recent decades

Author and psychology professor, Alison Gopnik, tells us what’s going on in children’s minds – and that it’s a lot more than we may think

Autism expert Simon Baron Cohen tells us about the links between empathy and language, and says our acts of cruelty to one another have at their root a failure to empathise.

Clinical psychologist, author and broadcaster discusses the stigmas attached to mental health problems, and asks whether, as a society, we are really doing what's best for our children

The Consultant Psychotherapist at The Tavistock Clinic explains the history of Child Psychotherapy and walks us through the five books that have influenced her most