32 h. ago The Next Day by Melinda French Gates review – Melinda on life, before and after Bill

The philanthropist offers sensible advice about moving on and ditching perfectionism, but you get the impression she is struggling to take it herselfMelinda French Gates is a woman who seemingly leaves little to chance. From girlhood she would write down goals for herself to reach, and she was just as driven at college and in her early career at Microsoft, where she famously met and married its billionaire co-founder Bill Gates. The couple divorced in 2021.There is a small, sad moment in her memoir The Next Day where she writes of happily gaining weight in pregnancy because it was the first time she’d felt so free “from perfectionism the crushing relentless societal pressure to look a certain way”. Only well into middle age, when a friend gently questions her constant self-improvement projects, does she wonder whether in her conscientiousness she had “missed opportunities to embrace spontaneity, lean into the unexpected”. Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago Name by Constance Debré review – a demolition of bourgeois life

The French author takes aim at marriage, childhood and her illustrious family name in the finale of a landmark autofictional trilogy“What is your name? My name is Nobody, a name is nothing, like family, like childhood, I don’t believe in it, I don’t want it.” Constance Debré has a grand name – her grandfather was the prime minister who drafted the French constitution – and she’s long been trying to disgrace it. She is driven by a mixture of petulant rebellion, existential longing for erasure and revolutionary anarchism. A decade ago she left behind her husband, job as a criminal defence lawyer, furniture and crockery to embark on a new life of casual sex with women and iconoclastic, fervent writing.Following Love Me Tender and Playboy, Name is the final instalment in the autofictional trilogy where, with fury, disdain and panache, Debré has recorded her revulsion at bourgeois life and at the legal system that allowed her ex-husband to remove their son because of her h...

Politics

7 d. ago Free by Amanda Knox review: life affirming memoir that is full of grace

Her second book is a moving account of striving to find purpose in the darkest of places

Politics

1 week ago Love and Fury: The Extraordinary Life, Death and Legacy of Joe Meek by Darryl W Bullock – review

This richly detailed and exhaustive biography of the maverick 60s British music producer reveals a sonic visionary whose brilliance concealed a tragically violent temperJoe Meek first tasted success as a record producer when he created the eerie backdrop for John Leyton’s gothic teen melodrama, Johnny Remember Me, which reached No 1 in the British pop charts in the summer of 1961. A mere six years later, on 3 February 1967, Meek’s name entered the mainstream consciousness in the most darkly dramatic way imaginable, when the news broke that he had killed his landlady, the elderly Violet Shenton, before turning the shotgun on himself.In the time between, as Darryl Bullock notes with characteristic understatement in his richly detailed biography Love and Fury, the producer’s chaotic, but hugely creative, life was “directed by his passions and obsessions”. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Harber London TotePack backpack review: Space miracle for everyday life with small flaws

Harber London TotePack backpack review: Space miracle for everyday life with small flaws  Macworld

Politics

3 w. ago The Life List review – overly neat Netflix weepie leaves dry eyes

Carry-On’s Sofia Carson is a young woman whose mother sends her messages beyond the grave in a mushy PS I Love You-esque dramaThere are big, all-consuming emotions contained within the cosy Netflix weepie The Life List, a film about grief, family, love, dreams, heartbreak and the courage to strive for the life you truly want rather than the one you’ve settled for. Based on the bestselling novel by Lori Nelson Spielman, it’s a proudly heart-over-head confection and given how the platform has become a reliable provider of movies and shows aimed at younger women who have been underserved elsewhere, it’ll probably find its audience.But writer-director Adam Brooks, who knows this world better than most, having been involved in sturdy star-led studio films such as Definitely, Maybe; Wimbledon; and the hugely underrated Meg Ryan romcom French Kiss, can’t quite squeeze the tears or cheers out of material that so desperately wants them. It’s a film about experiences many of us should be able...

Politics

3 w. ago Amanda Knox moans how her 'incredible fling' with Italian lover Raffaele Sollecito was 'very much cut short' by Meredith Kercher's murder

Knox lamented in an interview that it was 'tragic' that her romance with Raffaele Sollecito (left), her co-accused in Ms Kercher's (inset) murder, was 'very much cut short'.

Events

3 w. ago Your House review – scavenger hunt through a delightfully difficult puzzle

iOS, Android, Mac, PC (version played); Patrones & EsconditesInspired by a remarkable true story, this book-like journey through a deserted house filled with secret panels and hidden passages presents some ingenious conundrumsYour House is inspired by a remarkable true story. Back in the 2000s, a rich New York couple paid architect Eric Clough to renovate their new apartment, with the slightly odd request that a poem about their family should be hidden away in one of the walls, like a time capsule. Inspired by this, Clough took it upon himself to make a few unorthodox modifications to the dwelling without his clients’ knowledge.Just over a year after the couple and their children had moved in to their home, Clough sent them a cryptic note. This clue led them to a hidden panel, behind which was a book, which in turn led them on a scavenger hunt through their own apartment. Clough had crammed the rooms with hidden messages and complex puzzles that it took the family weeks to solve...

Politics

3 w. ago Amanda Knox: Complete timeline of her case and legal battles

Explore the key events in Amanda Knox’s case, from her arrest to acquittal, and the release of her 2025 memoir Free: My Search for Meaning

Events

3 w. ago Amanda Knox insists ‘I really honour Meredith’s memory’ as she defends memoir

Ms Knox was convicted but later cleared of sexually assaulting and murdering Meredith Kercher.

Politics

3 w. ago Amanda Knox shares why she feels ‘lucky’ as she opens up about life after prison

More than a decade has passed since Amanda Knox was cleared of her housemate’s murder. But public scrutiny has continued to follow her. Ahead of the release of her new memoir, Knox tells Andrea Cavallier how she has struggled to truly feel free and how she went from feeling utterly powerless to feeling like a superhero after forming an unlikely friendship with the man who put her in prison.

Events

3 w. ago Amanda Knox moans 'incredible fling' with Italian lover 'cut short' by Kercher murder

The American, who was famously wrongfully convicted of murdering her British exchange student housemate, gushed about her relationship with Raffaele Sollecito that was cut short

Events

3 w. ago Amanda Knox moans 'incredible fling' with Italian lover was 'cut short' by Meredith Kercher murder

In a new interview, the American gushed about her relationship with Raffaele Sollecito, who she was seeing at the time the couple were accused of killing the British exchange student

Events

3 w. ago Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition review: Cult classic gets new life on Switch

Xenoblade Chronicles X sees out the Switch generation in style, while pushing the 2017 system to new heights — read our full review of the Definitive Edition for more

Politics

3 w. ago Amanda Knox reveals how she survived four years in an Italian prison on murder charges

More than a decade has passed since Amanda Knox was freed from prison after serving time for the murder of her 21-year-old roommate Meredith Kercher while studying abroad in Italy. But what happened next? Knox’s new memoir Free: My Search for Meaning reveals the difficulty of reintegrating back into society. Ahead of the book’s release on March 25, Andrea Cavallier takes a look back at the high-profile case.

Events

3 w. ago Amanda Knox says Meredith Kercher is 'like a ghost on my shoulder'

Knox, now 37, wrongly spent four years in jail for the murder of Brit Meredith in Italy before being cleared, and says she is still haunted by what happened

Politics

3 w. ago Amanda Knox says Meredith Kercher haunts her 'as a ghost on my shoulder'

Knox, now 37, wrongly spent four years in jail for the murder of Brit Meredith in Italy before being cleared, and says she is still haunted by what happened

Politics

3 w. ago Amanda Knox 'stripped and groped in jail' before Meredith Kercher murder conviction

Amanda Knox was arrested over the the killing of British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, and claims that she was groped in jail by guards and had to strip for a male doctor

Events

3 w. ago Amanda Knox says she was 'groped' by a prison guard and forced to strip naked while she was held over British student Meredith Kercher's murder 

Amanda Knox claims she was groped by a prison guard while locked up over the killing of British student Meredith Kercher.

Events

3 w. ago Amanda Knox reveals why she has befriended the prosecutor who wrongly convicted her of murdering Meredith Kercher

Amanda Knox has opened up about the reason for her unlikely friendship with prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, the Italian lawyer who convicted her of murdering Meredith Kercher in 2007.

Events