13 h. ago From Otis Redding to Booker T, Steve Cropper was a strong yet subtle force that shaped so many soul classics

The guitarist for Booker T & the MGs defined the sound of original R&B, co-creating soul anthems and proving himself one of the most influential musicians of the 60sSteve Cropper, legendary guitarist for Booker T & the MGs, dies aged 84Steve Cropper stood at the side of musical legends and toiled in the shadows of the studio, never a star. But his work with his fellow musicians and singers at Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, established him as one of the most creative and influential musicians of the 1960s.Actually, pretty much every rock icon of that fabled decade looked up to Cropper, who has died aged 84. The Beatles seriously considered recording at Stax, and the Stones covered songs he played on and emulated his crisp rhythm and lead guitar playing. As a jobbing musician in 1964, Jimi Hendrix drove from Nashville to Memphis to meet Cropper (they chatted about guitars and jammed), while Janis Joplin insisted her new band play Stax’s Christmas party so as to rub sh...

Politics

7 d. ago 'World's Strongest Woman' stripped of title after saucy snaps proved she was 'born man'

Jammie Booker, who was crowned the World’s Strongest Woman 2025, has been stripped of her title after explicit images from her past life as an adult film star surfaced

Politics

9 d. ago Fury as ‘trans athlete’ Jammie Booker WINS World’s Strongest Woman final beating UK athlete who fumed ‘this is bulls**t’

THE World’s Strongest Woman final descended into chaos after a suspected trans athlete took gold over a Brit competitor. Outrage erupted after “biological male” American Jammie Booker scooped the 2025 title in Arlington, Texas - only for it to later be sensationally removed by the committee. Athletes and coaches flew into a rage and runner-up,...

Politics

2 w. ago Not OK? Booker winner Flesh ignites debate about state of masculinity

Toxic male behaviour of David Szalay’s protagonist reflects real-world concerns about a ‘crisis of masculinity’In the immediate aftermath of David Szalay’s book Flesh winning the Booker prize, one feature of the novel stood out: how often the protagonist utters the word “OK”.The 500 times István grunts out the response is part of a sparse prose style through which the British-Hungarian Szalay gives the reader few insights into the inner workings of a man whose fortunes rise and fall. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Celebrating literature is good – but I’m running out of patience with celebrity book clubs | Emma Brockes

Sarah Jessica Parker swept all before her at the Booker prize ceremony, but is fame the best way to encourage reading?In these turbulent times, we take small joys where we can find them. And this week we’ll take this: the spectacle of various literary people at the Booker prize award ceremony jamming themselves into photos alongside Sarah Jessica Parker. The actor – if you missed the long piece about it in the New York Times, or the many social media posts promoting Parker’s involvement – served as a judge for the Booker this year, a process that required her to read 153 books, some of them on the New York subway while being followed by a film crew. “Oh let me try!!!!” Parker had posted to Booker organisers last year, and for reasons that became obvious this week, they did.I know what you are going to say; that anything short of full-throated support for Parker’s adorable engagement with books in general and the Booker prize in particular is just unacceptable snobbery. There is noth...

Culture

3 w. ago Should I care what Sarah Jessica Parker thinks about books? | Emma Brockes

She swept all before her at the Booker prize ceremony, but I’m running out of patience with celebrity influence in publishingIn these turbulent times, we take small joys where we can find them. And this week we’ll take this: the spectacle of various literary people at the Booker prize award ceremony jamming themselves into photos alongside Sarah Jessica Parker. The actor – if you missed the long piece about it in the New York Times, or the many social media posts promoting Parker’s involvement – served as a judge for the Booker this year, a process that required her to read 153 books, some of them on the New York subway while being followed by a film crew. “Oh let me try!!!!” Parker had posted to Booker organisers last year, and for reasons that became obvious this week, they did.I know what you are going to say; that anything short of full-throated support for Parker’s adorable engagement with books in general and the Booker prize in particular is just unacceptable snobbery. There ...

Politics

3 w. ago One of my favourite books of the year just won the Booker Prize – and it’s 22% off on Amazon

Judge Sarah Jessica Parker described whittling down the list as “real agony”

Politics

3 w. ago The risky strategy of Booker winner Flesh pays off | Justine Jordan

The protagonist’s inner life is hidden from the reader in this highly original novelDavid Szalay wins 2025 Booker prize for ‘dark’ FleshReflecting on the Booker judging process, chair Roddy Doyle stressed the “singularity” of Flesh, the most unusual novel on the shortlist. In his sixth book, Hungarian-British writer David Szalay takes a classic story arc – one man’s journey through life, from childhood to old age – and presents it in a radically new and challenging way, scooping out the interiority that usually powers the novel form.We meet his protagonist, István, as a bored 15-year-old in a Hungarian backwater. He is seduced by a middle-aged neighbour into a relationship suffused with shame and disgust; a confused act of violence knocks his life off course; he joins the military and is stationed in Kuwait; he moves to London and works as a bouncer before the rising tides of global capital carry him, for a while, into the monied elite. And all the while, we are cut off from his tho...

Events

3 w. ago Andrew Miller is bookies’ favourite to win 2025 Booker prize

The Land in Winter has shortest odds of victory, ahead of Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and SunnyAndrew Miller is the bookmakers’ favourite to win the 2025 Booker prize, which will be announced on Monday evening in London.The English author tops the William Hill odds at 6/4 for The Land in Winter, a novel set in 1960s England which follows two marriages struggling under the weight of postwar class divisions, professional dislocation and emotional estrangement. Miller was previously shortlisted for the Booker in 2001 for his novel Oxygen. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Two authors named as favourites to win 2025 Booker Prize for fiction

British novelist Andrew Miller and Indian author Kiran Desai are the favourites to win the award at a ceremony in London on Monday

Culture

3 w. ago ‘I had a year to write it from scratch’: the 2025 Booker finalists on the stories behind their novels

A newspaper report about a missing girl, the memory of a midwinter emergency Susan Choi, Andrew Miller, David Szalay and others on what inspired their shortlisted books The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny Continue reading...

Culture