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The Guardian •

‘Funny, sexy and a bit weird’: inside the new wave of literary parties

On a Saturday evening in London’s Notting Hill, a large crowd of moderately tipsy young people are spilling into a tailor’s shop on Portobello Road. A passerby could easily assume they were walking past a fashion pop-up attracting a stylish herd of fanatics. But they’d be wrong. The buzzing crowd is here for a live reading event, and they’re eager with energy and anticipation.Soho Reading Series began in the summer of 2023 and was founded by Tom Willis, a writer and PhD student. He wanted to mak...
Dazed •

Youth Demand, the movement taking on the British government

Last month, 10 protesters were arrested on ‘suspicion of conspiracy to cause public nuisance’ outside the opening of Parliament. The protestors – most of them under the age of 25 – were captured by an air drone camera as they donned keffiyehs and held placards with the words “Stop Israel’s Gaza Genocide”, encircled by a ring of Metropolitan Police officers glowing in fluorescent hi-vis. 
Those involved are part of a new organisation called Youth Demand - a youth-led, umbrella activist group whic...
Financial Times •

When Women Ran Fifth Avenue — the queens of 20th-century US retail

If ever there was a place where the impetus behind American consumerism and wealth in the 20th century could be located, it would be Fifth Avenue. Its glittering image as New York’s most lavish thoroughfare is often characterised by female shoppers surrounded by towering edifices named after retail giants.

Yet in our era of shopping malls and online conglomerates, the department store has largely ceased to exist. Today, the likes of Saks and Bergdorf Goodman — which still occupy prime real esta...
Financial Times Property Listings •

Fantasy home: a blueprint for switching off in Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days

I wouldn’t consider myself much of a homebody. I live in London — a city whose sprawling demands — be they work, leisure or a commute time of 40 minutes — mean I spend more time outside the confines of my home than I do inside it. But as much as I willingly succumb to the frenetic pace of city life, I often yearn to escape the chaos.

When watching Wim Wenders’ latest feature Perfect Days, I was struck by the refined living space of Hirayama — a toilet cleaner who spends his days driving in his
Dazed •

Why are so many of us ditching the pill?

The contraceptive pill was the harbinger of the sexual revolution – but now women are growing increasingly sceptical of

Since launching as a consumer drug in the UK in 1961, the pill has earned a reputation among feminist historians as one of the driving forces behind the sexual revolution. For generations now, the circular wheel on the green tinfoil package has been recognised as a rite-of-passage drug for those seeking sexual freedom without the risk of pregnancy. Today, it’s estimated that 1

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The Guardian •

Misper review – mystery, melancholy and murder in a faded seaside town

Here is a solid first feature debut from director Harry Sherriff, an atmospheric crime drama set in a gloomy, decaying seaside town, with an eerie depiction of grief experienced by those who exist within the margins of the life of a murdered girl.The film follows Leonard (Samuel Blenkin), a meek hotel concierge who has a boyish crush on his charming 25-year-old colleague Elle (Emily Carey). Dressed in a red raincoat with short dark hair and a wry smile, Elle’s character is very much reminiscent...
The Guardian •

Why are London schools outperforming the rest of England?

This year, A-level results in England reached a record high outside the pandemic era, However, the stark regional divide between London and the rest of the UK, particularly the north-east and East Midlands, has widened. But why are London schools outperforming all other regions?Here are some reasons:1. The London Challenge In 2003, the Blair government launched an initiative to transform schools in the capital. At the time, London schools were perceived to be some of the worst in the country. At...
The Guardian •

Chris Ofili painting Blossom expected to fetch up to £1.5m at auction

A key work by the Turner prize-winning British artist Chris Ofili featuring his signature use of elephant dung is to be put up for auction for the first time at Christie’s in October.Blossom (1997), a portrait created a year before Ofili became the first black artist to win the Turner prize in 1998, is estimated to sell for £1m to £1.5m. The piece blends sacred iconography with popular culture and African symbolism, using Ofili’s signature materials of glitter, resin and elephant dung.Tessa Lord...
The Guardian •

‘I don’t touch my phone. At home, I’d be scrolling’: why young people are flocking to independent cinemas

A new generation of film lovers is helping to drive an increase in cinema attendance across the UK. As the industry slowly recovers from the decline of audiences during the pandemic – there were 126.5m admissions in 2024 compared with 176.1m in 2019, the rise in younger people returning to cinema may be due to a newfound love for film developed during the lockdown years. Although figures are yet to be restored to pre-pandemic levels, admission rates are continuing to increase, and it is younger...
The Guardian •

Antarctic glacier melt reveals remains of Briton who died in 1959 accident

The remains of a British man who died in an accident in Antarctica 66 years ago have been discovered in a melting glacier alongside ski poles, a pipe and a watch.Dennis “Tink” Bell fell into a crev­asse in 1959 while working for the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (Fids), now the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), a few weeks after his 25th birthday. His body was not discovered until January, when a Polish team found bones near their base.More than 200 personal effects were also found nearby,...
The Guardian •

Irish Museum of Modern Art rejects censorship claims after Derek Jarman film cancellation

The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) has rejected accusations of censorship after suspending screenings of a Derek Jarman film following a complaint against the showing of a gay kiss.In a statement, the museum’s director Annie Fletcher said: “We at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) are dismayed at the current supposition that we would actively censor the work of Derek Jarman and /or any artist from the LGBTQ+ community.”The museum cancelled screenings of Jarman’s experimental 1985 film The...
The Guardian •

What we’re reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in April

Even though it came out only last year, I was so impressed with Álvaro Enrigue’s You Dreamed of Empires that I am on my second reread. As all around me institutions fall and norms fail, I feel the moment requires audacious re-imaginings of history or possibilities of thought, and on both a political and imaginative level, Enrigue delivers with his wild telling of the meeting between Hernán Cortés and Moctezuma.I’d be remiss not to shout out the Australian essayist Vivian Blaxell’s sharp and amus...
The Guardian •

Gillian Anderson announces ‘even more daring’ follow-up to bestselling book of sexual fantasies

Gillian Anderson has announced a follow-up to her bestselling anthology of female sexual fantasies, Want, with the hope that it will be “more international, and even more daring”.The original book “gave thousands of women the freedom to talk about sex without shame or judgment; to see themselves in the words of strangers, and reflect on their own desires – some for the very first time,” Anderson said. “But Want unlocked so much more for so many and felt like just the beginning of a deeper conver...
The Guardian •

‘Funny, sexy and a bit weird’: inside the new wave of literary parties

On a Saturday evening in London’s Notting Hill, a large crowd of moderately tipsy young people are spilling into a tailor’s shop on Portobello Road. A passerby could easily assume they were walking past a fashion pop-up attracting a stylish herd of fanatics. But they’d be wrong. The buzzing crowd is here for a live reading event, and they’re eager with energy and anticipation.Soho Reading Series began in the summer of 2023 and was founded by Tom Willis, a writer and PhD student. He wanted to mak...
The Guardian •

Banned DDT discovered in Canadian trout decades after use, research finds

Residues of the insecticide DDT have been found to persist at “alarming rates” in trout even after nearly six decades, potentially posing a significant danger to humans and wildlife that eat the fish, research has found.Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, known as DDT, was used on forested land in New Brunswick, Canada, from 1952 to 1968. The researchers found traces of it remained in brook trout in some lakes, often at levels 10 times higher than the recommended safety threshold for wildlife.Josh...
The Guardian •

From butterflies to wind turbines, project preserves world’s sonic heritage

The sounds of wind turbines, rare whales and the Amazonian dawn chorus are among the noises being preserved as part of an exhibition of soundscapes found in world heritage sites.The Sonic Heritage project is a collection of 270 sounds from 68 countries, including from famous Unesco-designated sites such as Machu Picchu and the Taj Mahal, as well as natural landscapes such as the monarch butterfly sanctuary in El Rosario, Mexico and the Colombian Amazon.“When you think of world heritage sites, yo...
The Guardian •

About 15% of world’s cropland polluted with toxic metals, say researchers

About one sixth of global cropland is contaminated by toxic heavy metals, researchers have estimated, with as many as 1.4 billion people living in high-risk areas worldwide.Approximately 14 to 17% of cropland globally – roughly 242m hectares – is contaminated by at least one toxic metal such as arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, nickel or lead, at levels that exceed agricultural and human health safety thresholds.The analysis, which was conducted by the American Association for the Adva...
The Guardian •

About 15% of world’s cropland polluted with toxic metals, say researchers

About one sixth of global cropland is contaminated by toxic heavy metals, researchers have estimated, with as many as 1.4 billion people living in high-risk areas worldwide.Approximately 14 to 17% of cropland globally – roughly 242m hectares – is contaminated by at least one toxic metal such as arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, nickel or lead, at levels that exceed agricultural and human health safety thresholds.The analysis, which was conducted by the American Association for the Adva...
Dazed •

Youth Demand, the movement taking on the British government

Last month, 10 protesters were arrested on ‘suspicion of conspiracy to cause public nuisance’ outside the opening of Parliament. The protestors – most of them under the age of 25 – were captured by an air drone camera as they donned keffiyehs and held placards with the words “Stop Israel’s Gaza Genocide”, encircled by a ring of Metropolitan Police officers glowing in fluorescent hi-vis. 
Those involved are part of a new organisation called Youth Demand - a youth-led, umbrella activist group whic...
Financial Times •

When Women Ran Fifth Avenue — the queens of 20th-century US retail

If ever there was a place where the impetus behind American consumerism and wealth in the 20th century could be located, it would be Fifth Avenue. Its glittering image as New York’s most lavish thoroughfare is often characterised by female shoppers surrounded by towering edifices named after retail giants.

Yet in our era of shopping malls and online conglomerates, the department store has largely ceased to exist. Today, the likes of Saks and Bergdorf Goodman — which still occupy prime real esta...
Financial Times Property Listings •

Fantasy home: a blueprint for switching off in Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days

I wouldn’t consider myself much of a homebody. I live in London — a city whose sprawling demands — be they work, leisure or a commute time of 40 minutes — mean I spend more time outside the confines of my home than I do inside it. But as much as I willingly succumb to the frenetic pace of city life, I often yearn to escape the chaos.

When watching Wim Wenders’ latest feature Perfect Days, I was struck by the refined living space of Hirayama — a toilet cleaner who spends his days driving in his
Dazed •

Why are so many of us ditching the pill?

The contraceptive pill was the harbinger of the sexual revolution – but now women are growing increasingly sceptical of

Since launching as a consumer drug in the UK in 1961, the pill has earned a reputation among feminist historians as one of the driving forces behind the sexual revolution. For generations now, the circular wheel on the green tinfoil package has been recognised as a rite-of-passage drug for those seeking sexual freedom without the risk of pregnancy. Today, it’s estimated that 1
Roman Road LDN •

The mother and daughter leading a bilingual poetry collective — Roman Road LDN

Bengali-born Bow residents, Shamim and Eeshita Azad are cultivating cross-cultural and inter-generational collaboration through language and words.

Upon meeting Shamim Azad at the SoBo housing complex on Mostyn Grove, she handed me a badge of a red and green flower fastened to a safety pin. It’s a ‘Bijoy Phool’ she told me, a symbol worn to commemorate the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh.

In English, the name translates to ‘victory flower’, and is worn throughout December, similar to that of
Roman Road LDN •

Where to celebrate 2023 New Year's Eve in East London

It’s that time already! Wave farewell to 2023 and sing, eat, dance and laugh yourself into 2024 with this round-up of the best NYE events in East London.

Out with the old and in with the new, 2023 has flown by in a flash and it’s hard to believe that 2024 is approaching us already. The New Year can seem daunting but it’s also an opportunity for change and fresh beginnings. A glass of bubbly and a rendition of Auld Lang Syne is a well-loved tradition but this NYE it might be time to experience s
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