‘Fela Kuti was always in his pants’: legendary music photographer Val Wilmer’s greatest shoots

She ate fried chicken with BB King, gave Jimi Hendrix a lift home from a gig and accidentally worked for MI6. The pioneer recalls her favourite subjects – and the ones like Miles Davis she’d rather forget

Newly discovered string quartet by Clockwork Orange author Anthony Burgess to have premiere

The Manchester-born author was a frustrated composer who often wrote about music. Now his previously unknown work for strings will find an audience

‘They’ll see she was extraordinary’: Callas centenary inspires new generation to find the real Maria

Films, shows and a new museum seek to capture the charisma of the great soprano

My Name Is Barbra review – Streisand’s story: mystical, messy, bawdy and funny

Barbra Streisand’s eloquent and commanding memoir reveals her insecurities along with a hunger for fame and complete control

Karma by Boy George review – loud, vainglorious and very funny

Relentless rants, endless score-settling and a stint in prison – the singer’s (latest) memoir recounts a life lived at a higher frequency

Listen: On Music, Sound and Us by Michel Faber review – bum notes

The author of Under the Skin’s eccentric take on music fails to reverberate

Manchester Unspun: How a City Got High on Music by Andy Spinoza – from Cottonopolis to Manc-hattan

A hugely entertaining account of the city’s resurrection over four decades, relayed by a well-connected former journalist, focuses on the catalytic role of Factory Records and the Haçienda

The Time Traveller’s Wife review – eternal romance is a bumpy ride

Joss Stone and Dave Stewart’s strangely forgettable score does little to lift this musical but there are some wonderful set pieces

Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again) by Sly Stone review – funk, fame and addiction

The genre-bending musician has an astonishing story to tell – but wrestling it into a conventional narrative doesn’t quite work

Caroline Gilfillan obituary

Other lives: Poet and writer who explored feminist themes, including with the all-female 1970s band the Stepney Sisters

Rock biographer Philip Norman: ‘It took me years to understand the paradox of George Harrison’

After books on Lennon and McCartney, the author turns to the contradictory ‘quiet Beatle’ – whose acid tongue and sexual buccaneering coexisted with mantras and prayer wheels

In brief: Listen; The Temple of Fortuna; Poor Things – review

Novelist Michel Faber turns his hand to a captivating study of music; a thrilling conclusion to a historical fiction trilogy set in Rome; and a timely reissue of Alasdair Gray’s classic

On my radar: Carlo Rovelli’s cultural highlights

The physicist and philosopher of science on the lessons the Roman empire holds for us today, the mystery of black holes, and his favourite beat poet

Gloriously unfiltered and unfocused, Britney Spears’s memoir made me believe she’s finally free

The actions taken by Spears in response to the madness around her were, in the circumstances, only proof of her sanity, says Guardian columnist Emma Brockes

‘I felt like I was being ritually tortured’: the most shocking moments in Britney Spears’ memoir

The Woman in Me shows how imprisoned Spears has felt since childhood – feelings that worsened under a conservatorship and the glare of the media