and on my father's side they were painters. when she wasn't riding horses or playing with her dogs, babette cole wrote and illustrated books that, like her, were funny and rather subversive. princess smarty pants was her feminist take on stories about fairy tale princesses. princes queue up to marry smarty pants but when she kisses one he turns into a toad. and they all have second thoughts. many of her books were educational. dr dog aimed to teach children about dirt and disease. mummy laid an egg talked about sex. mummy laid an egg was sort of a really ground—breaking book because nobody had done a sex education book for children in that way. turning it around, so it's actually the children that are teaching the parents, which is what made it so interesting and so acceptable. she produced books about slime and smells, about puberty, about coping with divorce, about handling troublesome family members. there were more than 70 titles in all. children liked the whimsical pictures, they liked her often

anarchic stories and the way she saw the world from a child's point of view. but as she once said, she never really grew up herself. the children's author babette cole who's died aged 67. time for me to remind you newsnight is about to begin on bbc two. here's evan. tonight we will try to make sense of what we know about the big brexit speech tomorrow. closer to a full english than a continental brexit, we think. we will hear from michael gove and labour's brexit secretary kier starmer as well. join me now on bbc two. that's newsnight with evan. hello and welcome to sportsday, i'm john watson. coming up this evening: some murray magic in melbourne takes andy into the second round of the australian open. can johanna konta join him. big boots to fill — bottas replaces rosberg at mercedes. and injury forces rory mcilroy out of the abu dhabi championship.

hello and welcome. in around an hour and a half, johanna konta plays herfirst match at the australian open. fresh from victory at the sydney international, she takes on kirsten flipkens of belgium hoping to book her place in the second round. you can follow it all over on radio 5 live sports extra, there's full commentary from melbourne. andy murray is already through to the second round of this, his first grand slam as world number one. he got his campaign off to a winning start, beating ukraine's illya marchenko. as nick parrott reports. will this be the year andy murray

finally stepped out of the shadows of the australian open? he has reached five finals, but has yet to win it. top seed for the first time at the grand slam and on the other side of the net was world number five, illya marchenko. if anyone thought this would be a big introduction to the tournament at the beginning of the year, this was wrong. andy murray was made to sweat for almost an hour before he could ta ke for almost an hour before he could take the first set. the ukrainian was determined not to give the world number one an easy ride, breaking at the first opportunity in the second. the britain needed a tie—break to ove i’co m e the britain needed a tie—break to overcome his opponent's stubborn resistance. but after that it was how many would have expected it to be from the start, comfortable. murray rattled through the third. it was not the best performance, but to bea was not the best performance, but to be a champion you have to win when

you are not at your best. he played well and he was very aggressive and that made it hard. he was playing very fast out there. the ball was very fast out there. the ball was very lively, which it has not been in the practice week. i found very lively, which it has not been in the practice week. ifound it hard, but i managed to get through. ifound it hard, but i managed to get through. the british number three dan evans is also through to the second round. he beat argentina's facundo bagnis in straight sets, but he faces a tough second round match, as he comes up against the former us open champion and seventh seed marin cilic. it is good to feel accepted a bit more in these tournaments. obviously last week helped and to come out today and get a good straight sets victory is always good for me. making a return to competitive tennis for the first time in six months was roger federer. after missing the second half of 2016 because of injury, the 17 time major winner reached the second round, beating jurgen melzer in four sets. the 35—year—old admitted his comeback was harder than he expected. his compatriot stan wawrinka is also

through, but he did it the hard way. he needed five sets to come past slovakia's martin klizen. the fourth seed was a set and a break down in the decider, before taking the last three games to go through. and the women's defending champion and world number one angelique kerber was also taken to a deciding set, before beating lesia surenko of ukraine. the finnish driver valtteri bottas will partner lewis hamilton at mercedes for the new formula one season. bottas has moved from williams to fill the seat left vacant when nico rosberg retired, after winning the world title. felipe massa returns to williams to replace bottas, who's excited about teaming up with hamilton. we have been racing many years together and we have had a chat, but

iam together and we have had a chat, but i am still getting better. if you think along the driving side and working as a team, i see it can be very good. he obviously has more experience than me, but i see us as a good pairfor the team. experience than me, but i see us as a good pairforthe team. i experience than me, but i see us as a good pairfor the team. i am sure we can work well together and share a lot of things and hopefully push each other forward and that way it will be good for the team. let's bring you some of the day's football stories — west ham have rejected a second bid from marseille for striker dimitri payet. the french side have reportedly added another million pounds to their initial i9—million offer. but west ham are still refusing to sell, despite the fact that he's not currently playing or training with the first team. west brom have made a io—million pound bid for hull city's jake livermore. head coach tony pulis is a long—time admirer of the midfielder, having tried to sign him when he was crystal palace manager. pulis is still looking to strengthen his squad, after missing out

on morgan schneiderlin whojoined everton. diego costa trained alone at chelsea's base in surrey for a second day today, after missing his side's win at leicester on saturday. manager antonio conte says the player's suffering with a back injury but there's been huge speculation that his absence was to do with a possible big—money move to the chinese super league. goalkeeper karen bardsley has withdrawn from the england women's squad for their friendlies against norway and sweden this month. she has a thigh injury. birmingham city's sophie baggaley has been called up as a replacement. it's a blow for manager mark sampson, although his side is unbeaten in ten matches, he says they still have a lot of work to do, in order to reach the right level for the european championship this summer. ending the year ten unbeaten was a good stat for us and we wanted that year to be a winning year and we focused a lot on results and we

found ways to win. but 2017 changes. we have got to be a better team and we are nowhere near the team we want to be and we have got a lot to do and hard work to get through, but the team are looking forward to that and it starts injanuary. rory mcilroy has pulled out of golf's abu dhabi championship after scans today showed he has a fractured rib. he picked up the problem in south africa last week, but played on believing it to be fatigue. he just lost out to graeme storm in a play—off yesterday. mcilroy said he was bitterly disappointed to miss the event in abu dhabi, where he's finished as a runner—up four times. ireland hooker sean cronin has been ruled out of rugby union's six nations championship. he was expected to be rory best's deputy for the tournament but he tore a hamstring while playing for leinster at the weekend, and he's likely to be out for ten weeks. northern ireland's mark allen has knocked out former world champion john higgins at the masters snooker. it was a dramatic deciding frame, allen beating the world number three 6—5 at alexandra palace in london. it's the third time higgins has lost

to allen in the first round of the masters. and another former world champion has been sent packing — stuart bingham thrashed 6—1 byjoe perry, who plays ding junhui next. four—time olympic champion laura kenny could miss the world track cycling championships in hong kong in april. she's pulled out of this month's british championships in manchester with a hamstring injury. kenny hadn't yet decided whether to compete at the worlds. commonwealth swimming champion fran halsall has announced her retirement from the sport. halsall made her olympic debut at beijing 2008 and narrowly missed out on medals at both london 2012 and last year in rio. she won over 30 medals at world, european and commonwealth level. she said stepping away from the pool was "quite a scary decision", but she's ready for a new chapter in her life. the british sailor alex thomson has set a new world record for the longest distance sailed solo

in 2a hours, in the non stop race around the world, the vendee globe. thompson covered over 536 miles, which averages out atjust over 25 miles per hour. and having reduced the gap on the leader, thompson could become the first briton to win the race, which he's expected to finish later this week.