She scandalised the art world in the 1990s with her unmade bed, partied hard in the 2000s – then a brush with death turned the artist’s life upside down. Now she’s as frank as ever

There is a long buildup before I get to see Tracey Emin – her two cats, Teacup and Pancake, preceding her like a pair of slinky sentries as she walks into the white-painted basement kitchen of her huge Georgian house in Margate. The lengthy overture is because – though I’ve been invited for noon – Emin is a magnificently late riser. Her average working day, her studio manager Harry tells me, runs from about 6pm to 3am. And so, while the artist is gradually sorting herself out, Harry takes me on a tour through her home town in the January drizzle, the sea a sulky grey blur beyond the sands.

At last, Harry is ringing the doorbell, and Emin’s lovely housekeeper, Sam, is sitting me down in the kitchen, then finally here she is, dressed in loose dark trousers and top, with those faithful cats. Emin is recognisably the same as she’s ever been – the artist who scandalised and entranced the nation in the 1990s with her tent embroidered with the names of everyone she’d ever slept with; with her unmade bed and its rumpled sheets and detritus. She still has that sardonic lip, those arched brows, those flashing eyes. But these days she is surprisingly calm, slow moving, her greying hair swept back into a loose bun. This is the Emin who has worked hard, survived a great deal and, somewhat unpredictably, ended up a national treasure.

Line handily sums up people’s bewilderment at state of world, but it isn’t quite what the Marxist thinker wrote

At a time when geopolitical certainties of old are crumbling away, it has become the go-to quote to make sense of the current moment in all its seeming senselessness. “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters” is a line attributed to the former Italian Communist party leader Antonio Gramsci.

Over the last two months alone, it has been quoted – and often mangled – by a rightwing Belgian prime minister, a leftwing British political leader, an Irish central banker and in the title of the most recent BBC Reith lecture, given by the author Rutger Bregman.

Five women on both sides of the Atlantic reveal what it’s like trying to find a partner in your 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s

Stella Ralfini, 78-year-old beauty writer, London (pictured above)

The actor on a massive scam, the guilty pleasure of Judge Judy and why he’s never done a day’s work in his life

Born in Lancashire, Matthew Kelly, 75, studied drama at Manchester Polytechnic and acted at the Liverpool Everyman. He moved into TV, presenting Game for a Laugh in the 80s, You Bet! in the 90s and Stars in their Eyes from 1993 to 2004. Having returned to the stage, he received an Olivier award in 2004 for his role in Of Mice and Men in London’s West End. He stars in Waiting for Godot at Glasgow’s Citizens theatre from 20 February to 14 March, then takes the play to Liverpool and Bolton. He has two children and lives in London.

What is your greatest fear?
Not being able to work.

Which quiche egg-celled and which crumbled in the face of our rigorous taste test?

• The best supermarket extra-virgin olive oil

I learned to make quiche from one of the best chefs I know, Gill Meller, my old head chef at River Cottage HQ, about 20 years ago. His quiche is rich and creamy, with beautifully crumbly pastry, and my benchmark for these store-bought versions.

I tasted all of the quiches cooked according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Overall, the quality was lower than I’d hoped for, with many relying on ultra-processed ingredients, such as palm oil, emulsifiers and, often, caged-hen eggs. Free-range products didn’t always communicate this clearly on the packet, so it’s worth checking the ingredients list. Also, some described their pastry as “buttery” when they don’t contain any butter, and are instead made with vegetable shortening (palm and rapeseed oil). Encouragingly, however, a few gems emerged, with wonderfully simple ingredients, light and fluffy free-range custards, crisp all-butter pastry and generously filled.

Universities, builders and health trusts are feeling the squeeze, as thinktank says effect of zero net migration could be similar to Brexit

• ‘It’s been life-changing’: young Britons on why they left the UK

When Greenwich and Kent universities said this month they would merge to save money, the heart of their financial difficulties could be found in the UK government’s crackdown on immigration.

Tough restrictions on foreign students have sent the number of university applications from abroad plummeting, cutting lucrative tuition fees and leaving all universities facing the same squeeze.

Intelligence agencies say deadly toxin in skin of Ecuador dart frogs found in Navalny’s body and highly likely resulted in his death

• Munich Security Conference – live updates

Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, was killed by dart frog poison administered by the Russian state two years ago, a multi-intelligence agency inquiry has found, according to a statement released by five countries, the UK, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.

The US was not one of the intelligence agencies making the claim.

Mette Frederiksen tells Munich Security Conference that Denmark is willing to work with the US, but ‘there are, of course, things that you cannot compromise on’

Rubio insists that the US “do not seek to separate, but to revitalise an old friendship.”

He says “we do not want allies to rationalise the broken status quo rather than reckon with what is necessary to fix it.”

“We do not want our allies to be weak, because that makes us weaker.

We want allies who can defend themselves, so that no adversary will ever be tempted to test our collective strength. This is why we do not want our allies to be shackled by guilt and shame.

Co-author George Cottrell is close aide to party leader Nigel Farage and served several months in US prison

As a choice for a book title, How to Launder Money certainly caught the eye. But then again, its co-author George Cottrell claims to know what he’s talking about.

A close aide to Nigel Farage, Cottrell served several months in a US prison after being convicted there in 2017 for wire fraud – a chapter in his life he referred to at his book launch party on Thursday night.

Huda Ammori calls for proscription to be lifted after high court finds it to be very serious interference with protest rights

The co-founder of Palestine Action has said the ban on the group “massively backfired” and called for its proscription to be suspended after the high court found it to be unlawful.

Three senior judges ruled on Friday that the ban was disproportionate and constituted very serious interference with the rights to protest and free speech.