37 m. ago Artists, Siblings, Visionaries by Judith Mackrell review – the remarkable lives of Gwen and Augustus John

Gwen’s talent vastly outshone her brother’s – but both are treated with subtlety in this outstanding dual biographyA young woman sits reading, a pot of tea to hand, her blue dress almost the only colour in a still, sandy room. Gwen John’s painting The Convalescent shows a subdued yet happy moment, for this woman is free to think and feel. That, we see in Judith Mackrell’s outstanding double biography of Gwen and her brother, was her ideal for living: to be at liberty even if that meant existing in deepest solitude.The quietness of a life spent largely alone in single rooms, reading, drawing, painting and occasionally having wild sex with the sculptor Rodin, is counterpointed in this epic narrative by the crowded, relentless, almost insanely overstimulated life of Augustus John. Lion of the arts in early 20th-century Britain, he was a bigamist, adulterer, father of so many children you lose track (so did he), and an utterly forgettable painter. Continue reading...

Politics

37 m. ago Art for Everybody review – the dark side of Thomas Kinkade, ‘painter of light’

The extraordinarily popular painter of kitsch American scenes struggled with addiction and depression, as this documentary with access to his previously unseen works showsYou won’t find the works of Thomas Kinkade lining the walls of the Museum of Modern Art, yet the painter, who died in 2012, is one of the best-selling artists in history and his paintings hang in tens of millions of American households. Kinkade’s typical subjects – rustic landscapes, sleepy cottages, quaint gazebos – bask in an idyllic calm, a luminous callback to a fabled simpler past. Turning to his unpublished archive, Miranda Yousef’s engrossing documentary portrait unveils the dark shadows that lurked within the self-titled “painter of light”.Through interviews with family members, close collaborators and critics, as well as Kinkade’s own words, the film traces his meteoric success in the 1980s and 90s. Shunned by the art world, he marketed his works through home-shopping television channels and a network of f...

Politics

38 m. ago 'I lost 80lbs on weight loss jabs there's one negative effect no one talks about'

One weight-loss injection user has revealed that although she has lost 80lbs since starting the jabs, there is one big downside that lots of people don't expect

Politics

70 m. ago One of Nicolas Cage's craziest ever movies is airing on TV tonight

The actor has appeared in over 100 movies over the course of his career

Culture

76 m. ago GMB doctor Hilary Jones says he would help people to end their lives

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will return to the House of Commons for debate on Friday

Society

98 m. ago Sex, grief and debauchery: Gráinne O’Hare on her blazing millennial novel Thirst Trap

As post-Sally Rooney Irish lit is booming, the 32-year-old writer talks to Ellie Harrison about her tale of a group of Belfast women stumbling through life and loss as they wave their twenties goodbye

Politics

98 m. ago Netflix’s Frankenstein might be the most urgent and timely blockbuster of 2025

Guillermo del Toro’s new adaptation of a 200-year-old book has uncanny relevance to our present day. And it’s a film that the acclaimed director of ‘The Shape of Water’ and ‘Hellboy’ has been rehearsing for his entire career, writes Xan Brooks

Politics

2 h. ago Jury in Harvey Weinstein’s sex crimes retrial is set to resume deliberations

The jury in Harvey Weinstein’s New York sex crimes retrial is set to resume deliberations

Events

2 h. ago Could an alliance of eight small countries turn out to be Europe’s anchor? | Paul Taylor

Amid geopolitical storms and the rise of populism, the ‘Nordic-Baltic eight’ is gaining clout as a bulwark of western resolveWith Europe’s political kaleidoscope spinning wildly in the populist winds, a group of northern countries is gaining weight as a geopolitical anchor. Known as the Nordic-Baltic eight (NB8 in diplomatic jargon), it brings together small northern European states that, individually, might have little clout in international security and politics. But since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, they have wielded growing influence as a pressure group for western resolve, offering an attractive blend of democratic security, defence integration and societal resilience.Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden established their regional cooperation format in 1992, after the end of the cold war, with regular meetings of prime ministers, parliamentary speakers, foreign and defence ministers and senior government officials. It beg...

Politics

2 h. ago Whatever happened to Billy Bibbit? The extraordinary life of actor Brad Dourif

He was Oscar-nominated for his unforgettable work alongside Jack Nicholson, in one of the greatest films of all time. It was the start of his career as the ultimate character actor. He discusses David Lynch, Ian McKellen and the joy of playing a murderous dollBrad Dourif knew it was time to retire from acting when he stopped feeling well, anything about the parts he was being offered. “I got to a place where if somebody offered me something, all I felt was an empty: oh.” It had started in 2013, after a production of Tennessee Williams’s The Two-Character Play. That had been an extraordinary experience, with his co-star Amanda Plummer “by far the best actor I’ve ever worked with”, but left him wondering if there was anything he still wanted to do professionally. Acting no longer got him excited; it just left him tired. “It became clear to me after a while that I just really didn’t want to work any more.”We speak over video call from his home in upstate New York, where he lives with C...

Politics

3 h. ago Diddy's lawyers push for mistrial after claims of false testimony and prosecutorial misconduct

Sean 'Diddy' Combs' legal team has requested a mistrial over "prosecutorial misconduct" after the third week of his trial in New York on charges including sex trafficking

Events

3 h. ago Oprah Winfrey is thinner than ever in black gown at Tony Awards after Ozempic makeover

The 71-year-old OWN CEO finally reached her 160lb goal weight in 2023 with help from an unnamed GLP-1 agonist drug after undergoing double-knee replacement surgery in 2021

Events

4 h. ago BBC star from 90s sitcom now unrecognisable 30 years later after leaving TV career

Scottish actress Daniela Nardini has stepped away from the spotlight after winning a BAFTA for her role as Anna Forbes in the hit BBC2 series This Life, which aired 30 years ago

Politics

5 h. ago ANDREW PIERCE: Celebrate Mrs T! Just what would grumpy Ted say?

What a nice surprise to learn that the Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation, set up to promote his memory, is to honour the Iron Lady.

Politics

5 h. ago Trump's bravado has totally backfired. China has the President right where it wants him

London will today be centre of attention, as representatives have flown in for negotiations to defuse the trade war between the world's two mightiest economic powers.

Politics

6 h. ago Gayle King flaunts her extremely thin frame in tight green gown on 2025 Tony Awards red carpet

The CBS Mornings host, 70, has continuously been displaying her slimmed down figure in recent months, sparking a slew of rumors that she's been using the popular weight loss jab Ozempic.

Events

6 h. ago Los Angeles erupts in anarchy as protesters storm major highway and clash with law enforcement

Horrifying scenes of violence have stretched into a third day and sparked a political war of words between Trump and California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Events

6 h. ago I ended up with irreversible brain damage and partial blindness after my gastric sleeve operation... but I don't regret a thing

After the birth of her first child Chelsea Connell, then 28, weighed 16 stone and was a size 20 but wanted to lose weight so in 2021 went under the knife at a private clinic in Manchester.

Events

7 h. ago TV doctor Hilary Jones says he would help terminally ill to die if law changed

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will return to the House of Commons for debate on Friday

Society

8 h. ago TV doctor Hilary Jones says he would help terminally ill die if End of Life law changed

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is scheduled to return to the House of Commons for debate this Friday

Society