I generally make a point of not featuring items that are behind paywalls, but this week I’m making an exception. Matter, a publishing project I’ve been supporting for a little while now, has finally launched.

Their first story is about body integrity identity disorder, and the ethics of cutting off healthy limbs. It’s written by Anil Ananthaswamy, who you might know as a New Scientist contributor or author of The Edge of Physics. Anyway, the story is a brilliant insightful piece, and well worth your attention and 99p.

If, however, I’ve failed to convince you… there’s also a free extract on The Guardian’s site. Normal service, without paywalls, will be back next Friday.

This Christmas will be the tenth for which Wendy and I have been together. For six of the past nine Christmases, I’ve made Wendy an advent calendar: I didn’t for our first two Christmases, and a couple of years ago – much to her disappointment – I just bought one from Hotel Chocolat.

I’ve done all sorts over the years, from a hamper of small gifts, to small gifts hanging on the tree, to stuffed “mini stockings” (aka trainer socks), to customised crackers. Oddly, I’ve noticed that several of those ideas are available in commercial packages this year… perhaps that’s been going on for a while, and I just haven’t noticed.

This year, I’ve prepared 24 mini gift-bags, all assembled on our mantelpiece. Frustratingly, 24 wouldn’t quite fit side-by-side, hence the two odd ones at the front… but I guess that problem will be solved by 2nd December anyway! I’d normally keep it all hidden until 30th November, but couldn’t find anywhere big enough to secrete it this year! And fear not – the rest of our decorations are most certainly not up yet!

This is a thoroughly enjoyable personal history of journalism, written by the then BBC Political Editor, and former editor of the Independent, Andrew Marr.

My Trade certainly delivers on its promise to provide ”A Short History of British Journalism”, but rather than delivering a dry journalistic history, Marr injects copious amounts of humour and panache. He provides many personal anecdotes – some longer and more developed than others, but all entertaining – and passes judgement on developments in the media world, rather than merely reporting their occurence. The personal touch makes the copy much more engaging, and prevents it descending into a super-extended newspaper feature, like so many other books by journalists.

Anybody interested in British journalism would be well advised to read a copy of this book. It provides much background on how newspapers are put together, and how this has changed over the years. It even provides some history on the rivalries between newspapers, looking at (as an example) how The Mirror’s sales declined at the hands of The Sun, and how Marr’s own Independent set out to be different from everyone else, but ended up being much the same.

This is not intended to be – and nor is it – a detailed history of the development of the British media. Instead, it’s an enjoyable romp through the subject, stopping off at points of interest – particularly recent ones, and many of which you’d have thought he may have liked to avoid. He goes into some detail about Hutton and the problems of modern journalism, making convincing arguments for his point of view – which is, in part, critical of his BBC paymaster. It’s very clear from his writing that he’s experienced as a journalist, not just because he lists his many and varied jobs, but also because of the detailed insight he is able to deliver, and the apparent wisdom of some of his comments.

Certainly, this is a very easy-going enjoyable read, from a political editor who comes across as an affable kind of chap, and a book which I must highly recommended.

My Trade is available now from amazon.co.uk in paperback and on Kindle.

This big wheel is next to Asda in South Shields. I guess it’s related to the remnants of St Hilda’s Colliery which are next to Asda, but whether it’s a bit of the colliery or some artistic interpretation I’m not entirely sure.

The colliery was active for 130 years, during which 118 miners were killed, many of whom were in their teens or early twenties. Some were as young as 9. Fifty-one miners died in a methane-fuelled explosion on 28th June 1839.

Next time someone complains about ‘elf ‘n’ safety, remind them that there are few workplaces these days with mortality figures quite like that.

This picture shows the Goldcraft jewellers, located within a Morrisons store near me. A jewellers in a supermarket seems a little odd to me – perhaps it did to others, too, explaining why its shutters were down today.

This is the Normand Installer, an offshore construction vessel moored at North Shields. It’s just six years old, and was built in Norway. The orange paintwork is certainly eye-catching, but perhaps it’s common for seafaring construction vehicles to have highly visible paintwork, like their land-based equivalent. I’ve really no idea whether that’s the case or not!

To my eye, this Christmas “tree” – one of several at the Metrocentre – is spectacularly ugly. It isn’t even festive!

It’s supposed to echo the artwork that you can just about see on the right of the photo. But, if anything, the juxtaposition just makes this particular decoration look even cheaper!

I wonder if anyone recognises where this is? It’s the panelling along a train platform. It’s uniform and superficially quite dull, but the angle of the lighting provides an unusual optical illusion in which it becomes difficult to determine whether the inset panel centres are indeed inset or outset.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t really come across terribly well in this photo!

This week’s recommendation is an article from the Wall Street Journal, in which Alexandra Berzon sets out the extraordinary story of Terrance Watanabe and his huge loss over the course of a year in Las Vegas. To me, it’s a shocking tale of corporate irresponsibility – but I’m quite sure others will see it differently.

We’ve all been there: you get to the airport, and with a jolt of horror realise that you’ve forgotten to buy a souvenir gift for your friend or loved one. What will you do? You panic, and then decide that you’ll have to pick something up at the airport.

Luckily, Heathrow has your back on this one…

Simply buy this life-size steel mesh sculpture of Tom Daley, a snip at just £18,000 and oh-so-easy to slip into your hand baggage.

I shouldn’t mock. Nikki Taylor is clearly a very talented artist, and it is sort of nice to see an airport trying something different. I guess the idea is that people might appreciate the art while trapped in an airport in a way that they may perhaps not at other times. But there’s something so amusingly incongruous about the experience that it’s hard not to smile.