62 minutes ago Look out kid: ecstatic reactions to Bob Dylan biopic mean Timothée Chalamet may break Oscars record

The actor gives ‘the performance of the year’ in A Complete Unknown according to one early reviewer. If Academy voters agree, he would be the youngest leading actor winner in Oscars historyA Complete Unknown, James Mangold’s biopic about Bob Dylan, finished filming five months ago. Shortly afterwards, the studio behind the film moved its release date forward to this Christmas – meaning it is in contention for next year’s awards.Such confidence looks to have been well placed as after an early screening of the film in Hollywood this week, it has won rave reviews on social media. “Timothée Chalamet slides into Bob Dylan with an effortless yet focused determination,” wrote Variety’s senior awards editor, Clayton Davis. “He is fearless in some hypnotic moments.” Continue reading...

Politics

4 hours ago Trump’s Pentagon pick Hegseth wrote of US military taking sides in ‘civil war’

Defense secretary pick said in 2020 that should Democrats win election the military ‘will be forced to make a choice’Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, has written in a book that he could imagine a scenario in which the US armed forces would be used violently in American domestic politics.Hegseth, a former elite soldier turned rightwing Fox television personality, is Trump’s choice to lead the Pentagon which controls the gigantic American military – by far the largest armed force in the world. Continue reading...

Events

5 hours ago Tracy Chevalier: ‘Woolf’s The Waves will be like medicine – I won’t like it, but it will do me good’

The novelist on the comfort of Dodie Smith, how Anne Tyler made her want to be a writer – and why she doesn’t reread booksMy earliest reading memoryMy parents read me most of the Dr Seuss books. My favourite was Ten Apples Up on Top, about a lion, a tiger and a dog counting apples. I can still conjure up the illustrations, including the last one where there’s an explosion of apples all over the page.My favourite book growing upThe Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I was riveted by her descriptions of pioneer life and all the how-to information: how to build a log cabin, plough a field, make a ball out of a pig’s bladder. I suspect those books affected my approach to my own writing of historical fiction. Also I related to Laura’s bad-tempered rebelliousness compared with her p...

Science

8 hours ago Barrowbeck by Andrew Michael Hurley review – folk horror spans the centuries

The chill of the supernatural pervades these unsettling tales, following a settlement’s history from the deep past to the near futureThe quintessential “bad place” is one of the staples of horror fiction. For Stephen King, the bad place – think the peculiar little town of Castle Rock or the Overlook Hotel in The Shining – most usually acts as a repository for a long-forgotten evil or injustice to resurface (often literally, like the dead cat from the desecrated Native American burial ground in Pet Sematary). For writers such as Robert Aickman, the nature of the bad place is more elusive, so deeply immured in time that its effects are felt more often than seen: a prickling at the back of the neck, a chilly intimation of doom that, when spoken aloud, is ignored or ridiculed...

Events

22 hours ago Best Black Friday 2024 travel deals: Offers from British Airways, easyJet, Booking.com and more

Wanderlust spiking? Soothe the itch this Black Friday: Abha Shah lights the way

Politics

24 hours ago Microsoft launches imprint that aims to be faster than traditional book publishing

Named after an Intel microprocessor, 8080 Books aims to ‘shorten the lag between the final manuscript and the book’s arrival in the marketplace’Microsoft has launched a new book imprint with the aim of printing faster than traditional publishers.Named after an Intel microprocessor, 8080 Books will publish titles focused on technology, science and business. Continue reading...

Politics

28 hours ago Augustus the Strong by Tim Blanning review – not just a boisterous bon vivant

The portrait of the 18th-century king of Poland as little more than a bruising socialite is only half the story, argues this vivacious new biographyHistory has been unkind to Augustus the Strong. Not exactly a household name even in historically minded households, the 18th-century elector of Saxony and sovereign of Poland is remembered, if at all, as a minor king of bling.And it’s true, he was known for living it up. As an impressionable teenager on the Grand Tour, he divided his time between balls, banquets and brothels. Versailles so impressed him that he made it his life’s mission to cosplay as Louis XIV. Accordingly, a cut-price version of the French palace was hastily assembled outside Dresden; these days, Moritzburg Castle is regarded, depending on taste, eithe...

Politics

35 hours ago Percival Everett wins National Book Award for fiction with retelling of Huckleberry Finn

Everett’s novel, James, which focuses on Twain's enslaved character Jim, won the $10,000 prizePercival Everett has won the $10,000 National Book Award for fiction, one of the US’s most prestigious literary prizes, for James, his acclaimed reimagining of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.The 67-year-old author was also shortlisted for this year’s Booker prize for James, which focuses on Huckleberry Finn’s enslaved character Jim. The Guardian’s Anthony Cummins called the book “gripping, painful, funny, horrifying” in his review. Continue reading...

Events

37 hours ago The secrets behind Jack Draper's rise to British No 1 and how Carlos Alcaraz is helping him conquer the world

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY MATTHEW LAMBERT: With the book closed on a transformational 2024 season, Trotman tells Mail Sport the story of how he has guided Draper to the No 15 player in the world.

Events