8 h. ago Kelsey Grammer, 70, welcomes baby number eight with wife Kayte

Grammer has four adult children from previous relationships and now four pre-teens with Walsh

Politics

12 h. ago The Eleventh Hour by Salman Rushdie – a haunting coda to a groundbreaking career

From an afterlife fantasy to a tale of loss in Mumbai, death is a recurring theme in this story collection – an echo of the novelist at his peakTowards the end of Knife, his 2024 book about the assault at a public event in upstate New York that blinded him in his right eye, Salman Rushdie offers a thought experiment:Imagine that you knew nothing about me, that you had arrived from another planet, perhaps, and had been given my books to read, and you had never heard my name or been told anything about my life or about the attack on The Satanic Verses in 1989. Then, if you read my books in chronological order, I don’t believe you would find yourself thinking, Something calamitous happened to this writer’s life in 1989. The books are their own journey. Continue reading...

Events

34 h. ago The Four Spent the Day Together by Chris Kraus review – a cult writer tries something new

The I Love Dick author combines autofiction with memoir and true crimeThe Four Spent the Day Together is full of people seeking fresh starts, attempting to give up drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus uses the phrase a lot, making it wilfully jaded in its repetitions. “He could make a fresh start.” “They decided to make a fresh start.” And all along, here she is, making her own fresh start, because this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as the old ones.Kraus is an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, comprised of letters to an unreceptive lover, turning confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She carried on writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy the letter form brought to the voic...

Politics

4 d. ago Tracey Beaker author Jacqueline Wilson, 79, swaps writing children's book for steamy novel with saucy sex scenes but admits worrying how her family will react

The former children's laureate, 79, who has penned Picture Imperfect, but admitted she is worried how her nearest and dearest will react to the saucy storyline.

Culture

4 d. ago Children and teens roundup – the best new picture books and novels

The healing power of gardens; celebrating an abolitionist; hope in the toughest times; a gladiator romantasy and moreThe Butterfly House by Harry Woodgate, Andersen, £12.99Miss Brown’s wild garden scares most people, but when Holly discovers her reclusive neighbour’s sadness, she decides to help turn the wilderness into a butterfly haven. A beautiful, moving picture book about the healing power of gardens and community.The History of We by Nikkolas Smith, Rock the Boat, £8.99Via rich, dynamic paintings and thoughtful pared-back text, Smith answers the question “What does the beginning look like?” with this powerful picture book, the shared story of humanity’s first ancestors in “the fertile cradle of Africa”. Continue reading...

Culture

4 d. ago The Librarian of Auschwitz dies aged 96: Holocaust survivor who endured unimaginable horrors but kept prisoners' hopes alive by curating 'library' of books before bestselling novel revealed her story

Dita Kraus died at her home in the Israeli city of Netanya surrounded by her beloved family. Her story of resilience amidst the horrors of the Nazi death machine inspired millions.

Events

4 d. ago Grooming gang survivors risk becoming pawns in a political game that is no place for vulnerable people | Gaby Hinsliff

The chaos surrounding the inquiry stands as a warning: this is what happens when collapsing trust in public institutions, combined with point scoring, leads to paralysisIn the early hours of the morning, the cars would pull up outside the Bradford children’s home where Fiona Goddard lived as a teenager.Staff were worried about the men coming to collect her – records show she was felt to be “at high level of risk from unknown males” – but the policy was not to go to the police unless a child’s behaviour became concerning or she was seen being actively “dragged into a car”.Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Events

5 d. ago Bestselling author Jodi Picoult pushes back after her musical is canceled by Indiana high school

Jodi Picoult faces bans on both her books and a musical based on her novel “Between the Lines.”

Culture

5 d. ago The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovits audiobook review – an American road trip with a twist

A law professor leaves his failing marriage and faltering career and hits the open road in this Booker-shortlisted novel of midlife turmoilAt the start of The Rest of Our Lives, we learn that Tom, a 55-year-old law professor from New York, plans to leave his wife just as soon as he has dropped their youngest child off at college. Tom and Amy have been together for 30 years. He believes theirs to be a “C-minus marriage” which was irreparably ruptured when Amy had an affair 12 years previously. And so, after leaving their daughter Miriam at college in Pittsburgh, he keeps on driving, revisiting old friends and places in search of his departed youth.Benjamin Markovits’s 12th novel – which has been shortlisted for this year’s Booker prize – could be seen as a companion piece to Miranda July’s celebrated All Fours in its exploration of the dissatisfaction of middle age. Tom is not a reliable narrator of his life, though he is nonetheless a compelling protagonist even in his flagrant mome...

Transport

7 d. ago Jamie Oliver’s wife Jools says it’s ‘brutal’ and ‘heartbreaking’ parenting their teenage daughter

‘My 16-year-old isn’t particularly warm to me at the moment,’ former model admits

Society

7 d. ago Beasts of the Sea: the tragic story of how the ‘gentle, lovable’ sea cow became the perfect victim

Iida Turpeinen’s novel has been a sensation in her native Finland. On the eve of its UK publication, she talks about her compulsion to tell of the sociable giant’s plightIida Turpeinen is the author of Beasts of the Sea, a Finnish novel tracing the fate of a now-extinct species: the sea cow. Similar to dugongs and manatees, the sea cow was only discovered in 1741 by the shipwrecked German-born naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller but by 1768 it had already become the first marine species to be eradicated by humans.Translated into 28 languages and shortlisted for the country’s most prestigious literary award, the Finlandia Prize, Beasts of the Sea was described by the Helsinki Literacy Agency as the most internationally successful Finnish debut novel ever. Turpeinen, 38, a PhD student of comparative literature, is now a resident novelist at Finland’s Natural History Museum. Her book will be published in the UK on 23 October. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago A prophetic 1933 novel has found a surprising second life – it holds lessons for us all | Charlotte Higgins

Sally Carson’s Crooked Cross was written and set during the rise of nazism. It shows both how extremism takes hold, and the moral certainty needed to resist itA few days ago I asked an American acquaintance – as one does these days – where he sees “it”, by which I meant the political situation, heading. He took a breath. “In my opinion, the US is in a very similar position to Germany in 1933-4,” he said. “And we have to ask, could 1936, 1937, 1938 have been avoided? That’s the point we are at. You can try to say fascism couldn’t happen in the US. But I think the jury’s out.”His words seemed especially resonant to me because I had just finished reading a remarkable novel precisely to do with Germany in 1933-4, a book written in the former year and published in the latter. Forgotten for decades, Sally Carson’s Bavaria-set Crooked Cross was republished in April by Persephone Books, which specialises in reviving neglected works. Since then, it has been a surprise hit, a word-of-mouth ja...

Politics

1 week ago A prophetic 1934 novel has found a surprising second life – it holds lessons for us all | Charlotte Higgins

Sally Carson’s Crooked Cross was written and set during the rise of nazism. It shows both how extremism takes hold, and the moral certainty needed to resist itA few days ago I asked an American acquaintance – as one does these days – where he sees “it”, by which I meant the political situation, heading. He took a breath. “In my opinion, the US is in a very similar position to Germany in 1933-4,” he said. “And we have to ask, could 1936, 1937, 1938 have been avoided? That’s the point we are at. You can try to say fascism couldn’t happen in the US. But I think the jury’s out.”His words seemed especially resonant to me because I had just finished reading a remarkable novel precisely to do with Germany in 1933-4, a book written in the former year and published in the latter. Forgotten for decades, Sally Carson’s Bavaria-set Crooked Cross was republished in April by Persephone Books, which specialises in reviving neglected works. Since then, it has been a surprise hit, a word-of-mouth ja...

Politics

2 w. ago Oprah Winfrey picks Megha Majumdar's 'A Guardian and a Thief' for book club

Megha Majumdar's novel “A Guardian and a Thief” is now Oprah Winfrey's book club pick

Politics

2 w. ago 'I'm charging family £250 each for Christmas dinner – including my teen kids'

Carla Bellucci, 44, is charging her family and friends £250 each to dine at hers on Christmas Day, with her working teenage children having to fork out for the festive fee too

Economics

2 w. ago The Intruder review – the daftest thriller of the entire year

The only thing that stops you counting the cliches in this French drama about a sinister au pair is the woefully dim lighting. It’s so obvious that it barely feels worth laughing at its stupidityYou wear a tightly belted beige trenchcoat and you live in a cavernous show-home bedecked with mid-century pine and fashionably inadequate lighting. You are French. You have two uncommonly beautiful teenage children and are preparing to return to your prestigious role at a maison de couture after the recent birth of your uncommonly beautiful baby. But mon Dieu, you are anxious! You fear your glamorous workload will interfere with your ability to care for l’enfant. The solution? You will hire an enigmatic au pair. Alas, you have never watched television and are thus unaware that this will expose faultlines in your marriage and lead to a series of increasingly terrifying events that will threaten the very fabric of your existence. You are Paula (Mélanie Doutey), the protagonist of four-part Fr...

Politics

2 w. ago Colm Tóibín: Why I set up a press to publish Nobel winner László Krasznahorkai

The Irish novelist discovered the Hungarian writer two decades ago, and was excited by the verbal pyrotechnics of a rule-breaking storytellerThat Christmas – it was almost 20 years ago – I came back from America with news. My friend Daniel Medin had recommended two books to me, both by the Hungarian novelist László Krasznahorkai, one called War and War and the other The Melancholy of Resistance. We had also watched some Béla Tarr films, whose screenplays had been written by Krasznahorkai. The sense of slow, seething menace in the film Werckmeister Harmonies, based on The Melancholy of Resistance, and the lack of easy psychology and obvious motive in the film, the camera moving like a cat, made it exciting, but not as exciting as the two novels.Krasznahorkai, I noticed, loved the snaking sentence, the high-wire act, mild panic steering towards a shivering fear felt by his characters, followed, in clause after clause, by fitful realisations and further reasons for gloom or alarm, and ...

Politics

2 w. ago Meet Anamanaguchi, the band behind the last Scott Pilgrim video game’s soundtrack – and the next one

Chiptune alt-rock band Anamanaguchi are having a bumper year, culminating in an opportunity to create the soundtrack they’ve always wanted to make – for a new Scott Pilgrim gameScott Pilgrim, the series of pop culture-saturated graphic novels by Canadian author and comic book artist Bryan Lee O’Malley, has become a timeless epic about teenage insecurity, love and redemption, and the intersection of arrogance and self-esteem – as well as a Canadian interpretation of emo, indie rock and shōnen-style comic books. It is a coming-of-age tale about an initially unlikable teenage boy growing up in the 00s, who matures through six graphic novels that deftly reference everything from Japanese manga to western superheroes, video games and Tintin. It is also, of course, a hit movie, a 2022 Netflix anime series, and a 2010 video game – the last two of which were soundtracked by New York City-based indie rock band Anamanaguchi.‘My favourite scene in the Scott Pilgrim anime is where Knives and Ki...

Culture

2 w. ago László Krasznahorkai wins the Nobel prize in literature 2025

The Hungarian novelist whose books ‘reaffirm the power of art’ was announced as winner at a ceremony in Stockholm• Nobel prize in literature 2025 live: László Krasznahorkai wins ‘for his compelling and visionary oeuvre’The Nobel prize in literature for 2025 has been awarded to Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, the Swedish Academy has announced.The Academy cited the 71-year-old’s “compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art”. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Jamaica imposes curfews after two deadly shootings rattle the island

Shootings left six people dead, including a four-year-old, and nine others injured amid suspected gang violenceAuthorities in Jamaica have imposed curfews after two recent shootings in which six people, including a four-year-old child, were killed and nine others injured as suspected gang violence rattles the Caribbean island.The most recent shooting took place on Tuesday night after unidentified gunmen drove past a group of people in the capital, Kingston, and opened fire. Six people, including two nine-year-old children and two teenagers, were shot, according to the Kingston Central police superintendent Beresford Williams. Continue reading...

Events