In a spirit of stock-taking on the occasion of our fiftieth issue, we have asked writers to tell us what’s wrong with them: what they do that causes them dismay, or what they wish they could do but can’t. Ten rose to the challenge: Rachel Cusk, Geoff Dyer, Anne Enright, Richard Ford, Selina Guinness, Tessa Hadley, Neil Jordan, Robert Macfarlane, Joseph O’Neill and Ruth Padel.