Abandoned babies, pink Barbie shoes and throat-slitting serial killers? This wedding horror from the makers of Stranger Things is so hellish I may never sleep again Personally, I have always broken off my engagements no more than halfway through a portent-filled night drive to meet my fiance’s parents for the first time in their sprawling, dark-corridor-laced ‘cabin’ in the woods. I might get thro...
Abandoned babies, pink Barbie shoes and throat-slitting serial killers? This wedding horror from the makers of Stranger Things is so hellish I may never sleep again Personally, I have always broken off my engagements no more than halfway through a portent-filled night drive to meet my fiance’s parents for the first time in their sprawling, dark-corridor-laced ‘cabin’ in the woods. I might get through the true-crime podcast about a local blood-letting serial killer. I might survive finding a maggoty dead fox in the smashed toilet of a rest stop on the way. But at the first sign of a mysteriously abandoned baby in a parking lot and long before I find myself standing in front of a shrineful of taxidermied family pets in the cabin’s entrance hall, I’m outta there. I’m gone. I commend you all to have such boundaries, but none more so than twenty-something semi-orphaned Oregonian Rachel (Camila Morrone), who finds herself doing precisely that in the eight-part horror series Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen. Continue reading...
Unfaithful lovers escape to an uncanny alternate world, in this compelling allegory for infidelity and desire Sophie Mackintosh has established a reputation for speculative literary fiction about young women’s desires and suffering at the hands of men. Her new novel, Permanence, is less plainly political than earlier work, concerned more with allegories of desire than oppression. The novel begins ...
Unfaithful lovers escape to an uncanny alternate world, in this compelling allegory for infidelity and desire Sophie Mackintosh has established a reputation for speculative literary fiction about young women’s desires and suffering at the hands of men. Her new novel, Permanence, is less plainly political than earlier work, concerned more with allegories of desire than oppression. The novel begins in an uncanny hotel, where Clara wakes beside her lover, Francis. Clara works desultorily in an art gallery and shares a flat with a friend. Francis is an academic, an art historian married to a lawyer, the father of a toddler, but on this day he and Clara find themselves in a parallel world in which adulterous couples live in what seems at first to be a permanent holiday. The realised fantasy is bourgeois, north European: a cobbled old city where the sun always shines and there are many restaurants with clean tablecloths and good wine. There are parks full of perpetually blooming flowers, old stone fountains; markets offering ripe tomatoes, olive oil and bread; scented soap in clean bathrooms, and nothing for Clara and Francis to do but make love, bathe, eat, drink and stroll the charming streets. Clara finds pretty dresses, girlish pale blue silk and yellow cotton, awaiting her in the wardrobe, her favourite books beside the bed. Continue reading...
The Which? travel editor on the unexpected joys and considerable savings of house swapping. Plus top tips on how to do it Imagine cutting the cost of accommodation on your next holiday to about £5 a day. You can have a whole house, rather than just a bedroom. And you can go almost anywhere in the world and stay as long as you like, within reason. Welcome to house swapping. You’re sceptical, I know...
The Which? travel editor on the unexpected joys and considerable savings of house swapping. Plus top tips on how to do it Imagine cutting the cost of accommodation on your next holiday to about £5 a day. You can have a whole house, rather than just a bedroom. And you can go almost anywhere in the world and stay as long as you like, within reason. Welcome to house swapping. You’re sceptical, I know. I was, too. Our terrace house was too small. Too overflowing with stuff. The 1980s kitchen was too old (and battered). We aren’t in a nice enough neighbourhood. Who would want to stay here? Lots of people, it turned out. Continue reading...
Raoul Peck’s film about the Nineteen Eighty-Four novelist makes a compelling case for its continuing relevance but could ask more searching questions about its author Raoul Peck’s documentary about George Orwell and his enduring relevance takes as its keynote the heretical masterpiece Nineteen Eighty-Four and its famous scene about the state compelling people to believe whatever it says is the tru...
Raoul Peck’s film about the Nineteen Eighty-Four novelist makes a compelling case for its continuing relevance but could ask more searching questions about its author Raoul Peck’s documentary about George Orwell and his enduring relevance takes as its keynote the heretical masterpiece Nineteen Eighty-Four and its famous scene about the state compelling people to believe whatever it says is the truth: that two and two make five. That Orwellian anti-arithmetic of tyranny has become a political meme often repeated in social media debates about gender politics, although these are not mentioned here, perhaps because they are not considered sufficiently important. This is a serious and worthwhile film, though one that tells you what you know already, and yet somehow perhaps doesn’t tell you enough. The simple experience of hearing Orwell’s prose, both from his published work and letters and diaries, read aloud by Damian Lewis, is invigorating and refreshing. There’s an interesting emphasis on Orwell’s physical frailty, with him effectively composing his masterwork in the shadow of death. It was written, as he put it, “under the influence of tuberculosis”. That such a fierce, muscular, assertive book should be conceived under this influence is a startling thought, and Peck amusingly juxtaposes Orwell’s sickness with Winston Smith being made to do exercises and the infatuation of tyrannical regimes with public displays of physical fitness. Perhaps it is truer to say that Nineteen Eighty-Four was written under the influence of cigarettes and their unregretted consequences. Continue reading...
As species vanish and the unique ecosystem radically changes, Ukrainian scientists can only wait until it is safe to properly assess the damage In the embattled harbours of Odesa, a scientific vessel lists in its mooring. No one has been able to take a look at the damage to the Boris Alexander from Russian drones and shelling that have hit the port city over the past four years of war in Ukraine. ...
As species vanish and the unique ecosystem radically changes, Ukrainian scientists can only wait until it is safe to properly assess the damage In the embattled harbours of Odesa, a scientific vessel lists in its mooring. No one has been able to take a look at the damage to the Boris Alexander from Russian drones and shelling that have hit the port city over the past four years of war in Ukraine. It is too dangerous, just as no one has been able to fully monitor the damage the war is doing to the Black Sea. “We can only wait,” says Dr Jaroslav Slobodnik, the director of the Environmental Institute, headquartered in the Slovak Republic. “The biodiversity landscape is completely altered. A number of species seem to have disappeared, but we need more data. Data which the war makes it impossible to collect.” Continue reading...
We need to start seeing Black contribution to Britain as foundational rather than merely influential. And that should extend way beyond music Kanya King is founder of the Mobo awards Last week, UK Music published the Black Music Means Business report, quantifying something many of us have always known instinctively. Over the past three decades, music originating from Black genres has generated £24...
We need to start seeing Black contribution to Britain as foundational rather than merely influential. And that should extend way beyond music Kanya King is founder of the Mobo awards Last week, UK Music published the Black Music Means Business report, quantifying something many of us have always known instinctively. Over the past three decades, music originating from Black genres has generated £24.5bn of the UK music industry’s £30bn recorded music market. As the Mobo (music of Black origin) organisation I founded approaches its 30th anniversary this week, I’ve found myself reflecting not just on how far we’ve come, but on how much further we still have to go. Continue reading...
Cambridge University historian uncovers letter to diarist who was a naval official in 1670s His journals would become famed for their vivid detail and candour. But now, almost exactly 360 years after diarist Samuel Pepys chronicled the Great Fire of London, new research has found that he “erased” and “curated” correspondence to conceal he had been offered an enslaved boy as a bribe. Cambridge Univ...
Cambridge University historian uncovers letter to diarist who was a naval official in 1670s His journals would become famed for their vivid detail and candour. But now, almost exactly 360 years after diarist Samuel Pepys chronicled the Great Fire of London, new research has found that he “erased” and “curated” correspondence to conceal he had been offered an enslaved boy as a bribe. Cambridge University historian Dr Michael Edwards consulted hundreds of records in The Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge; The National Archives; and the Bodleian Library in Oxford for the study “Samuel Pepys, the African Companies, and the Archives of Slavery, 1660–1689”. Continue reading...
Eddie Otchere spent 10 years photographing the New York hip-hop stars and other musicians. Here are the highlights of his thrilling new photozine Continue reading...
Eddie Otchere spent 10 years photographing the New York hip-hop stars and other musicians. Here are the highlights of his thrilling new photozine Continue reading...
China is urging companies to release their fertiliser reserves in time for the crucial spring planting season, as the US-Israel war on Iran strains supplies of key raw materials to the world’s largest grain producer. Beijing is also expected to keep export restrictions on some fertiliser ingredients in place beyond the spring, as it strives to ensure Chinese farmers retain uninterrupted access to ...
China is urging companies to release their fertiliser reserves in time for the crucial spring planting season, as the US-Israel war on Iran strains supplies of key raw materials to the world’s largest grain producer. Beijing is also expected to keep export restrictions on some fertiliser ingredients in place beyond the spring, as it strives to ensure Chinese farmers retain uninterrupted access to vital agrichemicals at reasonable prices despite the Middle East conflict. Tehran’s effective...
The U.S. isn't in a recession right now, but many investors are worried we're headed there. Goldman Sachs lifted its recession odds to 30% this week, up from its earlier estimate of 25%. Other economists are more pessimistic, with Moody's predicting a 49% chance the U.S. will enter a recession in the next 12 months. This uncertainty around the future is unnerving, but it can sometimes be helpful t...
The U.S. isn't in a recession right now, but many investors are worried we're headed there. Goldman Sachs lifted its recession odds to 30% this week, up from its earlier estimate of 25%. Other economists are more pessimistic, with Moody's predicting a 49% chance the U.S. will enter a recession in the next 12 months. This uncertainty around the future is unnerving, but it can sometimes be helpful to look to the experts for their strategies. And if there's one investor who has seen his fair share of recessions, it's Warren Buffett. Here's his golden piece of advice about investing when times are tough. Continue reading
In an era of globalization and corporate consolidation, the “pick-and-shovel” ripple spreads very differently. It’s testing assumptions about who actually benefits when a mega-project arrives in town.
In an era of globalization and corporate consolidation, the “pick-and-shovel” ripple spreads very differently. It’s testing assumptions about who actually benefits when a mega-project arrives in town.
The verdict in a landmark lawsuit over addictive social media design—and a wave of similar cases against Meta, YouTube, TikTok, and Snap—could force Silicon Valley to confront whether its most powerful and “sticky” products are behaving like hard-to-kick drugs.
The verdict in a landmark lawsuit over addictive social media design—and a wave of similar cases against Meta, YouTube, TikTok, and Snap—could force Silicon Valley to confront whether its most powerful and “sticky” products are behaving like hard-to-kick drugs.