Books Afropean: Notes from Black Europe extract – ‘it really was another world’The Guardian - Johny PittsIn his new book, Sheffield-born writer Johny Pitts shows a side of Europe and its people that often goes unseen As the Eurostar pulled into the cavernous entrance of the Gare du Nord at dusk, I sat back
Jacob Rees-Mogg The Victorians by Jacob Rees-Mogg review – ponderings in plodding proseThe GuardianJacob Rees-Mogg is the stupid kind of Tory’s idea of what a clever kind of Tory ought to sound like. He knows a few long and obscure words. He can employ a smattering of the Latin phrases that he picked
Cyril Ramaphosa Cyril Ramaphosa is cautious, but he must waste no time reforming South AfricaThe Guardian - Jason BurkeIn his long career as an activist, businessman and politician, Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, has overcome many challenges. But few have been as daunting as those he will face when he sits
Eoin Morgan The making of Eoin Morgan: ‘You got a sense he was something special’The Guardian - Andy Bull“Here’s a story,” says Paul Farbrace. It is from a one-day game at Trent Bridge in 2015, when he was England’s stand-in head coach. “New Zealand had made 349. In the old days we’d have had no chance but
Books Johny Pitts: ‘I’m working towards a multiculturalism 2.0’The Guardian - Killian FoxJohny Pitts was born in Sheffield to an African American father and a white English mother. He has worked as a music journalist, a musician with Bare Knuckle Soul, a TV presenter and a photographer. In
Derby Day Telecaster must get Derby nod from Hughie Morrison in Epsom classicThe Guardian - Greg WoodIn the early decades of the 19th century, many tens of thousands of ordinary Londoners left before dawn on Derby day to walk the 20 or so miles to Epsom and then, after an afternoon of revelry on the walked
Jack Grealish Stiliyan Petrov: ‘I’m back to full fitness and would love to be a manager’The GuardianIt was 11 years ago but Stiliyan Petrov makes it sound like yesterday. He knows exactly how he positioned his body to get the technique right, remembers that lovely feeling after the inside of his left
University of Birmingham ‘We can’t give in’: the Birmingham school on the frontline of anti-LGBT protestsThe GuardianSarah Hewitt-Clarkson is crying. The headteacher at Anderton Park primary school in Birmingham has suffered eight weeks of protests outside her school gates over her decision to teach LGBT-inclusive content
Boris Johnson Michael Gove to challenge Johnson for Tory leadershipThe Guardian - Press AssociationThe environment secretary, Michael Gove, is set to enter the race to be next prime minister as the fight for the Conservative crown showed signs of turning increasingly bitter. It is understood Gove will
Kevin Pietersen The week in radio and podcasts: 13 Minutes to the Moon; Kevin Pietersen: Beast of ManThe Guardian - Miranda Sawyer13 Minutes to the Moon (World Service podcast) Kevin Pietersen: Beast of Man (5 Live podcast) Where This Service Will… (R4) | iPlayer Life, generally, and the British Podcast awards in particular, have
Play buttonMusic (UK) Faye Webster: Atlanta Millionaires Club review – a Georgia peach of an albumThe Guardian - Emily MackayIt’s an accidentally perfect moment for Faye Webster’s Georgia peach of a third album. Just weeks after Lil Nas X’s roots’n’rap chart-topper Old Town Road sparked a debate in the US music press about country
Play buttonMusic (UK) The Little Unsaid: Atomise review – bold and differentThe Guardian - Neil SpencerJohn Elliott, AKA the Little Unsaid, could as easily trade under the “rock” banner as that of folk, but being an acoustic-led singer-songwriter, Elliott comes under the F-word in the same way as Joni and
Play buttonMusic (UK) Youssou N’Dour: History review – the Senegalese superstar returnsThe Guardian - Neil SpencerAside from his sublime voice and onstage charisma, Senegal’s premier star has always been a musical innovator, fusing tradition and modernity. His early records mixed Cuban pop with Senegal’s mbalax heritage,
Keeley Hawes The week in TV: Hatton Garden, Summer of Rockets and more – reviewThe Guardian - Euan FergusonHatton Garden (ITV) | itv.com Summer of Rockets (BBC Two) | iPlayer Gentleman Jack (BBC One) | iPlayer Thatcher: A Very British Revolution (BBC Two) | iPlayer Game of Thrones (Sky Atlantic) | sky.com Garden
Leonardo Da Vinci Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing review – lines of beautyThe Guardian - Laura CummingConnections emerge between waves of water and hair, the seed and the foetus A stand of trees, deep and dense, shivers with daylight. The rising trunks are sap-full and potent, and every little leaf seems
Play buttonMusic (UK) Steve Lacy: Apollo XXI review – blissful LA funk and hip-hopThe Guardian - Kitty EmpireFuture-funk band the Internet are a thinly disguised talent incubator. After frontwoman Syd, their next breakout star is Steve Lacy, not yet 21 – a guitarist-cum-producer from Compton, California, who
Music (UK) Home listening: Vaughan Williams, Frank Martin and Kenneth LeightonThe Guardian - Fiona Maddocks• The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Andrew Manze’s Vaughan Williams symphony cycle (Onyx), promising from the outset, has sailed home in splendour. No 7 “Sinfonia Antartica” (1953)
Celebrity News Elton John: 'They wanted to tone down the sex and drugs. But I haven’t led a PG-13 life'The Guardian - Elton JohnIn some film scenes I’m disgusting and awful. But at my worst, I was It took a Herculean effort to get noticed for taking too much cocaine in 70s LA, but I was prepared to put the hours in I was in the
Play buttonPets The Secret Life of Pets 2 review – so-so sequelThe Guardian - Simran HansPatton Oswalt replaces Louis CK as the voice of neurotic jack russell terrier Max in this charming sequel to Illumination Entertainment’s animated comedy. When his human owner gives birth to a son, Max
Play buttonChelsea Manning XY Chelsea review – in search of the real Chelsea ManningThe Guardian - Simran HansThis documentary about the transgender whistleblower and former army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning takes its title from her Twitter handle, @xychelsea. “Where would you start the story – your story?”
The Theatre The week in theatre: Anna, Operation Mincemeat; Our Town; White Pearl – reviewThe Guardian - Susannah ClappWhat a whirligig week of new sounds, voices and approaches. First a rarity: a drama that foregrounds one of the most undersung aspects of theatre, sound design. In Natalie Abrahami’s production of Anna
The Theatre Pam Tanowitz Dance: Four Quartets – reviewThe Guardian - Sarah CromptonHer movements have the clarity and precision of archetypal carvings “We shall not cease from exploration,” wrote TS Eliot, towards the end of Four Quartets, his towering meditation on time, history and
Play buttonAladdin Aladdin review – can’t put the genie back in the bottleThe Guardian - Simran HansI understand why in 2019, Aladdin would seem ripe for a revival – in Disney’s 1992 animated musical, its heroine, Princess Jasmine, was a smart, selfless woman of the people, shackled and suppressed by
The Theatre The Duchess (of Malfi) review – critique without contextThe Guardian - Clare BrennanTom Piper’s design sets the keynote for the play: striking, efficient and almost featureless. Upstage, a white wall rises, pierced on high by oblong windows opening on to darkness. Similarly, Zinnie Harris’s
Play buttonElton John Rocketman review – Elton's sparkliest spectacle yetThe Guardian - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic“When are you going to hug me?” That question echoes around Dexter Fletcher’s dazzling rock opera – a fantastical account of the highs and lows of Elton John’s wild-ride rise, told in frenetically full-blooded
Film (UK) Booksmart director Olivia Wilde: ‘Being young is the most painful, most hilarious experience’The Guardian - Tim LewisOlivia Wilde’s directing debut, Booksmart, follows one chaotic day in the lives of Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever), two very smart girls who intensely love each other as best friends.
Brexit End game: the fall of Theresa MayThe Guardian - Toby Helm Observer political editorIt was so quiet in the chamber when she spoke. It was like the last rites. It's not normal for the House to be like that Former Tory minister After her emotional resignation statement on Friday morning,
World News Why I won’t be joining the queue at the top of EverestThe Guardian - Peter BeaumontFor Nepal the Everest season is a valuable source of foreign currency and there is little interest in limiting numbers Mountaineering is a physical pursuit demanding an affinity for suffering. Where it
Michael Johnson 'I replied to a genuine bank tweet and lost £9,200 to a fraudster'The Guardian - Anna TimsMichael Johnson* and his business partner had struggled for a month to open a new account with Metro Bank, despite the fact that he was already a customer. So it was a relief to receive a phone call apologising
Gordon Brown How Theresa May’s exit compares with other difficult departures from No 10The Guardian - Michael WhiteBoth Brexit camps claim Sir Robert Peel, the Tory moderniser whose 1846 resignation crisis most resembles May’s. But he had succeeded where she failed. Determined to cut food prices for industrial workers,
