Kate MossLettersKate Moss wasn’t just naturally slender, she wasn’t fed Natasha Loke draws attention to healthy BMIs and wider problems in the modelling industry The controversies and criticisms surrounding Kate Moss have often been unfair and highly contradictory (Take off your bra! Put on some weight! After decades of being talked down to, Kate Moss speaks out, 25 July). However, Zoe Williams’ assertion that Moss’s famously slender figure was “just the way she looks” is both inaccurate and unhelpful.

2023 in CultureBest booksFrom Anne Enright’s study of womanhood and youth to Rory Stewart’s insights into British politics, novelists and nonfiction writers reveal the books they will be giving as gifts – and the paperback they would love to find in their own stocking Rachel Cooke’s best graphic novels of 2023 Alison Flood’s best crime novels and thrillers of 2023 Kate Kellaway’s best poetry books of 2023 Ann PatchettAuthor of Tom Lake (Bloomsbury)

The ObserverUK newsVeil lifts on jungle mystery of the colonel who vanishedDid an erotic siren lure Percy Fawcett to his death as he searched for a lost city in the Amazon?It is an unsolved riddle which has inspired explorers and writers for nearly 80 years. Yet now, after a decade of research, one British writer and director has shed unexpected light on the murky fate of Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett and those who followed him deep into the Brazilian jungle.

Russia holidaysThis list of novels and novellas will help you explore Russia’s vast landscapes and complex history Add your favourites to the comments I spent several years wandering round Russia with books in my rucksack. And several more years reviewing Russian fiction and finding myself transported back, whether to a village with chickens pecking through orchards round a wooden church or to a drunken kitchen table debate in a high-rise overlooking the Moscow suburbs.

Bicycle of the weekLife and styleReviewNothing beats cruising round town in a BMW – but now you can do it on two wheels Peugeot, Skoda, Rover… there are lots of car manufacturers which first made their name as bike builders. But here is one going the other way. BMW’s Cruise bike is a distinctive update of the original Californian cruisers which launched the mountain bike craze back in the 80s.

TV reviewDoctor WhoReviewThis exhilaratingly fun adventure features CGI goblins and Davina McCall, but it’s the raw magnetism of the new Doctor that’s the real joy. He’s astoundingly, knee-weakeningly smooth The Doctor can be many things. They can change race, gender, age and even be from Salford, but one thing has to remain for each version to be convincing. They have to be so charismatic that their companion would undoubtedly leave their life behind to follow them through space and time.

The ObserverGabriel ByrneInterviewGabriel Byrne: ‘I was never not conscious of being Irish’Sean O’HaganThe actor discusses the stage adaptation of his memoir Walking With Ghosts, playing Samuel Beckett in a new film – and making peace with being an exile There is a short video on YouTube of Gabriel Byrne being interviewed by the Irish comedian and actor Tommy Tiernan. “Do you think you’re a strange man?” asks Tiernan. “I do think I’m a strange man, yes,” replies Byrne without hesitation.

Ask Annalisa BarbieriFamilyHe's a caring father, but it frustrates me that he does everything for his adult children. Also, we live in his former marital home and I fear that when it's sold I'll end up homelessI have been with my partner for almost five years. He is a kind, handsome, intelligent, caring, considerate man and we have a two-year-old daughter. He was married for 30 years and had four children before he and his wife divorced: she now lives alone and has little to do with their children.

Whisky This article is more than 2 months oldRare 1926 Macallan whisky becomes world’s most expensive bottle at £2.1mThis article is more than 2 months oldRecord smashed at auction of one of 40 bottles of oldest-ever Macallan vintage, described as ‘rich, rich dram’ The record for the world’s most expensive bottle of whisky has been broken after a bottle of Macallan 1926 went for £2.1m at a Sotheby’s auction in London.

MoviesMary Harron’s divisive adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel is a shrewd articulation of the source, with a star-making turn from Christian Bale Three years after the Bret Easton Ellis novel American Psycho finally got made into a movie, after a production odyssey nearly as tortured and calamitous as its publication as a book, a documentary called The Corporation caused a mild stir among arthouse viewers and political thinkers. Inspired by a 14th amendment detail that allowed companies to be seen as individuals, the film asked a simple question: if a corporation were a person, what type would he be?