Improbable researchResearchClowns may be doing their thing for religion, but are they scaring the children?Angelika Richter and Lori Zonner have a funny way of captivating readers. In a study called Clowning – An Opportunity for Ministry they write: "Experiences over five years interacting with patients as the clown Jingles and the experiment and experience of one afternoon as the clown Hairie in a hospital led the authors to reflect on the deeper meaning of clowns .

The ObserverFiction in translationReviewA mother tries to understand why her daughter has cut off contact in the author’s mesmerising and disquieting English-language debut Hila Blum’s English-language debut opens with a scene of domestic harmony, as two young sisters and their parents sit down to dinner in a book-filled house in a Netherlands suburb. What changes everything is the fact that we’re viewing it through the eyes of a woman who is standing across the street, thousands of miles from home and hidden by darkness, glimpsing her grandchildren for the first time.

Dear MariellaRelationshipsTo make friends you need to be ready to display your vulnerabilities, says Mariella Frostrup The dilemma I’m 40 and a full-time working mother of two teenagers. I have zero friends and few acquaintances. Spending time with my husband and children used to quell any feelings of loneliness, but that’s no longer enough. My lack of friendships is making me feel inadequate. I want a group of girlfriends I can confide in and connect with – even a single friend would mean so much.

Art and designReviewDulwich Picture Gallery, London From nuns to nobles, the Flemish artist loved painting unclothed women. But, as this staggering exhibition reveals, there’s so much more to him than frolicking nudes Maria Serra Pallavicino is a queen. Technically she’s a Marchesa. But no one could look more monarchical here, in the painting by Peter Paul Rubens. She looks down imperiously from the throne where she sits swathed in silver, with an impossibly huge ruff collar of floating filigree lace tinged with gold.

The 10 best Fictional sleuths - in pictures Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes sequel arrives in cinemas this month. So we hunt down the most brilliant detective minds Euan Ferguson Sun 4 Dec 2011 00.05 GMT First published on Sun 4 Dec 2011 00.05 GMT Sherlock HolmesArthur Conan DoyleIt would be wilful not to make Holmes number one.