Category

Culture

The latest published reporting in this category.

Entertainment

Was one of the great novels of the Enlightenment written by a man who thought he was a werewolf?

Surreal, mysterious and with an outlandish origin story, Jan Potocki’s The Manuscript Found in Saragossa has amassed a cult following that includes Salman Rushdie and Jerry Garcia. But it’s the book’s global humanism makes it relevant now, say the curators of a new exhibition A young Walloon officer called Alphonse van Worden travels through the Sierra Morena on his way to Madrid to join the Spanish army. Along the way he has an erotic encounter with two demonic Moorish sisters, falls foul of shape-shifting apparitions and is tested by a Jewish Kabbalist attempting to use mystical formulas to

The Guardian
Read more
Entertainment

Black Doves review – Ben Whishaw, Keira Knightley and Sarah Lancashire are spine-tinglingly good

Series two of this rambunctiously entertaining espionage drama might be implausible. But it’s a magnetically acted tale of friendship, with moments of genuine poignance Is Helen Webb Britain’s busiest mum? Or Britain’s least busy mum? On the one hand, she’s got two kids, is the wife of the recently promoted prime minister and also a deep cover spy, who spends her days passing information about her husband’s work to a shady intelligence organisation and her nights on covert missions which often involve acts of bloody slaughter. Yet the reason she can do all this is that nobody expects her to do

The Guardian
Read more
Entertainment

Norman conquest castle and Dickens chalet among sites added to heritage at risk register

William the Conqueror-built Hastings Castle and Swiss-style writing retreat in Kent two of nearly 200 additions to list A castle built by William the Conqueror, a Swiss-style chalet where Charles Dickens wrote and a swathe of fire-blasted moorland are among sites that have been added to Historic England’s heritage at risk register. Almost 200 historic places have been added to the already extensive list, including Hastings Castle in East Sussex, Dickens’ wooden writing retreat in Kent and Fylingdales Moor in North Yorkshire, which was devastated by a wildfire in the summer. Continue reading...

The Guardian
Read more
Entertainment

‘I was given the big picture early’: Rory Kinnear on love, drama – and how his father’s death changed his life

When Kinnear was 10, his beloved father Roy died in an on-set accident. This affected how he now approaches his work as an actor, and also his understanding of life’s most important questions At first glance, Rory Kinnear is Mr Normal. Bald head, nice face, wholly unremarkable. As an actor, he’s not one for flashy tricks – no dramatic weight loss or gain, rarely disguising himself with prosthetics or CGI. Yet, somehow, whatever role Kinnear plays, he’s totally different. So here I am in his dressing room at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London, face to face with the man I’ve just seen on stag

The Guardian
Read more
Entertainment

‘Turner prize for dance’ winner Christos Papadopoulos: failure, friction and my forgotten youthquake

Amid galloping global crises, the Greek choreographer has returned to his revolutionary ideals. He explains how asking the near-impossible of dancers brings a shared joy Christos Papadopoulos is talking about how to spend £40,000. Specifically the winnings he scooped from the first ever Rose international prize for choreography in 2025 – the dance world’s equivalent of the Turner and the Booker. The Greek choreographer came out top of four finalists, picked by a judging panel including Arlene Phillips and PJ Harvey, for his piece Larsen C, a shadowy, trance-like and glacially paced crescendo o

The Guardian
Read more
Entertainment

What did the Romans ever give Scotland? Heated floors, flashy sandals, sun gods – and a lot of nails

From steamy bathhouses to altars to Sol the sun god and leather shoes that still survive to this day, an eye-opening new exhibition chronicles Scotland under the Romans (before they fled) Inveresk is a handsome village near Edinburgh that sits above a curve of the little river Esk, not far from the mighty Firth of Forth. It is full of elegant 18th-century houses and an attractive kirk, dated 1805. To the casual observer, there is absolutely nothing Roman about it. And yet, in 2010, when the local cricket pavilion was being rebuilt, an extraordinary find was made – two altars made of local sand

The Guardian
Read more
Entertainment

The Pitt and ER are similar enough for Michael Crichton’s widow’s lawsuit to proceed, court rules

Court finds ‘clear and numerous similarities’ between two medical dramas, allowing lawsuit by ER creator’s widow Sherri to go to jury trial in 2027 The Pitt is similar enough to ER to allow Michael Crichton’s widow to pursue a long-running lawsuit over the award-winning medical drama, a US appeals court has ruled. In a unanimous opinion filed on Wednesday, a three-judge panel denied an appeal from Warner Bros Television (WBTV), which has argued for two years that the shows are unrelated. Continue reading...

The Guardian
Read more
Entertainment

‘Blockbuster’ history of Alexander the Great wins £50,000 Baillie Gifford prize

Alexander: God, King, Man by Edmund Richardson becomes the first ancient history title to win the prestigious nonfiction award • Alexander: God, King, Man by Edmund Richardson review – a dazzling, dizzying adventure Edmund Richardson has won the 2026 Baillie Gifford prize for nonfiction for Alexander: God, King, Man, his account of the life of Alexander the Great, becoming the first writer to win the prize for an ancient history book. Richardson was awarded the £50,000 prize at a ceremony in London on Wednesday evening, beating a six-strong shortlist that included former winner Patrick Radden

The Guardian
Read more
Entertainment

‘He was destined for this award’: China Miéville wins Goldsmiths prize for 1,200-page novel

The Rouse, which took its author two decades to complete, was praised by judges as ‘exuberant, overflowing’ China Miéville has won the £10,000 Goldsmiths prize for The Rouse, a 1,264-page epic that is part paranormal thriller, part historical saga moving through decades of British imperial and cold war history. The win, announced at a ceremony in London on Wednesday, makes The Rouse the longest novel to take the prize since it was launched in 2013 to reward fiction that “breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form”. Continue reading...

The Guardian
Read more
Entertainment

Herbert Blomstedt, renowned conductor with a seven-decade career, dies aged 99

The much loved Swedish-American musician, particularly known for his work with the San Francisco Symphony and Leipzig Gewandhaus, continued performing until earlier this year The conductor Herbert Blomstedt has died aged 99. His career stretched over an extraordinary seven decades and he continued to conduct and tour into his late 90s; his final concert was earlier this year, aged 98. Born in Massachusetts, US, in July 1927 to Swedish parents, the musician grew up in Sweden and Finland. His conducting tutors included Igor Markevitch, Jean Morel and Leonard Bernstein. Continue reading...

The Guardian
Read more
Entertainment

‘Jimi Horsedrix brought me so much joy’: the comic drawing a horse a day – and day 69’s is unsuitable for children

On day 58, he did a boxing Ali horse. On day 67, he did a howling horse. So what made Andy Field suddenly decide to draw 100 equines? And what made day 48’s so phallic? Andy Field was midway through his standup run at this year’s Edinburgh fringe when he was struck by an unusual urge – the urge to draw a horse. “I hadn’t sat down to draw anything since I was at school,” says the 34-year-old comedian. “Drawing was a skill I didn’t have.” He’s not lying. The subsequent horse Field posted to TikTok and Instagram was rather naive, with its four identical straight legs and cartoon eyeball. But the

The Guardian
Read more