Autobiography and memoirReviewA quiet American in London tries to overcome her ‘neurosis’ in the latest account of shyness Are authors more likely to be introverts than the rest of the population? Recent publishing history suggests so. Joe Moran put his finger on it in Shrinking Violets, concluding: “Shyness turns you into an onlooker, a close reader of the signs and wonders of the social world.” Melissa Dahl, in Cringeworthy, took a scientific approach to understanding and overcoming awkwardness.

Saturday interviewFitness This article is more than 15 years oldTeeny, tiny body, anyone?This article is more than 15 years oldAs personal trainer to the stars, Tracy Anderson has transformed Madonna's body, and Gwyneth's. Now she has her eye on the rest of usIf anyone personifies svelte, it is Tracy Anderson. A close consort of Madonna ("the most amazing work ethic"), Stella McCartney ("hilarious") and Gwyneth Paltrow ("the most fun - and a great cook"

Book of the dayFiction in translationReviewThe beginning of a septet, this darkly ecstatic Norwegian story of art and God is relentlessly consuming“You don’t read my books for the plots,” the Norwegian writer Jon Fosse has said. Over the past two decades, Fosse, a playwright, poet, essayist and children’s author as well as a novelist, has won almost every award going in Norway, while his “slow prose” has gained him a cult following in English translation.

Pop and rockObituaryArt Laboe obituaryAmerican DJ and rock’n’roll promoter whose celebrated 1950s El Monte concerts broke down racial barriersThe American disc jockey Art Laboe, who has died aged 97, may have been the first person to recognise that a rock’n’roll song could enjoy a life beyond its few weeks in the charts. In 1959 he popularised the phrase “oldies but goodies” by using it as the title for an album he had compiled, consisting of hits, all barely a year or two old, by such artists as the Penguins, Etta James, the Five Satins and the Teen Queens.

SEMANTIC ENIGMASI've been trying for years to find out what the traditional birthday greeting: "Many Happy Returns" means exactly. Anybody know? Chris Prophet, Sweden It is short for "many happy returns of the day" and means that the person, who is speaking, is wishing that the person with the birthday will have many more of them, i.e. that their birthday will return many times more and that they will therefore live a long life.