10 h. ago Could an electric blanket cut your heating bills? Experts reveal the real cost

How much do they cost to run, and how does this compare with central heating? We have the answers

Science

14 h. ago Glyph by Ali Smith review – bearing witness to the war in Gaza

This second novel in a sharp duology offers a powerful interrogation of language in the age of mechanical mass destructionNever knowingly unknowing, Ali Smith pre-empts the most likely criticism of her latest novel, Glyph, when a character says: “I’m just not sure that books that are novels and fiction and so on should be so close to real life or so politically blatant.”Glyph, which follows sisters Petra and Patch as they reflect on childhood attempts to grapple with the finality of death following the loss of their mother, goes further than any of Smith’s recent work in robustly answering this charge. While the Seasonal Quartet playfully anatomised the social fracture of post-Brexit Britain, and immediate predecessor Gliff dealt with the violence of the securitised state, Glyph, in its explicit engagement with the Israeli government’s apartheid and genocide in Palestine, raises the ethical stakes decisively. To engage in a Smithian pun – this is Art in the Age of Mechanical Ma...

Events

4 d. ago Nine bedrooms, seven untimely deaths: can ‘cursed’ Venice palace finally attract a buyer?

Palazzo Ca’ Dario, empty for years, has failed to find a new owner, with local legends suggesting it is jinxedIt ought to be an estate agent’s dream. Primely positioned on the banks of the Grand Canal in Venice, just steps away from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the storied Palazzo Ca’ Dario has shimmered on the water since the late 15th century, its elegant early Venetian Renaissance facade among the city’s most distinctive.Named after its first owner, Giovanni Dario, a diplomat hailed a hero after securing a peace treaty with the Ottoman empire, over the centuries the palazzo has been home to nobles, merchants and even British rock music royalty. In 1908, it was painted by Claude Monet during his trip to Venice and one year later was cited by Henry James in his travelogue Italian Hours. Continue reading...

Events

4 d. ago Ali Smith: ‘Henry James had me running down the garden path shouting out loud’

The Scottish author on a masterclass from Toni Morrison, the brilliance of Simone de Beauvoir and the trim novel by Tove Jansson containing everything that really mattersMy earliest reading memory Apparently I taught myself to read when I was three via the labels on the Beatles 45s we had: I remember the moment of recognising the words “I” and “Feel” and “Fine”. It took a bit longer to work out the word “Parlophone”.My favourite book growing up Sister Vincent taught primary six in St Joseph’s, Inverness, and was a discerning reader with very good taste, plus the kind of literary moral rectitude that meant she removed Enid Blyton from the class library because she believed Blyton’s books were written by a factory of writers. In 1972 she and I had a passionate argument when the class was choosing a book to be read out loud to us and I championed Charlotte’s Web by EB White, with which I was in love. Sister Vincent put her foot down. “No. Because animals speak in it, and in reality ani...

Politics

5 d. ago Could an electric blanket cut your heating bills? Experts reveal the numbers

How much do they cost to run, and how does this compare with central heating? We have the answers

Science

6 d. ago Glyph by Ali Smith review: 'full of chameleons and tricksters'

Rather than offering narrative resolution, in Glyph Ali Smith takes the harder path of saying there are some things we can just never know, writes Stuart Kelly

Politics

1 week ago The best literary fiction out now: GLYPH by Ali Smith, THE OLD FIRE by Elisa Shua Dusapin, TELEVISION by Lauren Rothery

Anthony Cummins reviews the best literary fiction out now

Events

1 week ago Pilates influencer wins heated battle with angry neighbours over £30,000 garden studio she built without planning permission

Megan Smith, 24, has been granted permission to keep running Luco Wellness from her grandparents' garden in Norfolk - despite noise complaints from residents.

Events

2 w. ago How much it really costs to run a dehumidifier, revealed by experts

These versatile machines can also dry laundry at a lower cost than a tumble dryer

Politics

2 w. ago Creepy footage shows masked pair on man's driveway in early hours

The clip shows the two figures, dressed in black, run up the driveway before allegedly stealing a garden hose from the East Lothian property.

Culture