9 d. ago The North Road by Rob Cowen review – the poetry and pain of Britain’s backbone

A beautifully written study of our longest numbered route, the A1, is full of rich asides and haunting explorations, conjuring the visual pleasure of a road movieMost people know the North Road of this book’s title as the London-to-Edinburgh A1. But, as Rob Cowen writes, A1 is a cipher for a 400-mile multiplicity of roads – a historically diverse bundle that includes ancient trackways, a Roman road, the “Old North Road” and the “Great North Road” (the name generally applied to what became the A1 in the road-numbering scheme of the 1920s). This collective forms, as Cowen has it, our primary road – the “backbone” of Britain.As a frequent shuttler between north and south, I prefer the North Road to its rival, the bland, homogenous M1. It has verges and laybys, eccentric pit-stops where the coffee is not necessarily Costa, and a scruffy, improvised air, suggesting something organically arisen from the landscape. But whereas I have merely driven along the road, Cowen has communed with it...

Politics

1 week ago EastEnders fans emotional over Dot Cotton's 'cameo' three years after death

As Sonia Fowler actress Natalie Cassidy bowed out of EastEnders on Thursday night, the BBC soap aired a special monologue scene with the voice of the late Dot Cotton, played by June Brown

Events

1 week ago Arsenal: Special night at the Bernabeu shows Mikel Arteta's dream can become a reality

Dismantling of Real Madrid underlines why Arsenal can win the Champions League

Politics

1 week ago MP slams ‘incongruous’ fire brigade decision to ban book swaps on London Underground

Blackhorse Road station lost its community bookcase amid a fire safety reading row

Events

1 week ago Declan Rice makes Champions League vow after Arsenal’s ‘special night’

Rice produced a supreme performance in midfield as Arsenal beat Real Madrid at the Bernabeu

Sport

1 week ago Real Madrid send ominous warning to Arsenal as UEFA grant special request for Champions League clash

The holders require another special night to reach the Champions League semi-final

Sport

2 w. ago Manchester United announce 'tifo' banner plan to enhance Old Trafford atmosphere vs Lyon

Man United have confirmed plans to try and create a special atmosphere for Thursday night's Europa League clash with Lyon at Old Trafford.

Events

2 w. ago Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis crushes Eimantas Stanionis to unify welterweight titles

Ennis unifies IBF, WBA titles with sixth-round TKOPhiladelphian improves to 34-0 with 30 knockoutsJaron Ennis needed that special moment. On Saturday night in Atlantic City, he seized it with both fists.The 27-year-old welterweight from Philadelphia, nicknamed Boots, systematically broke down Eimantas Stanionis with precision and force en route to a sixth-round TKO that unified the IBF and WBA titles and jolted the welterweight division back to life. In a weight class left unmoored after Terence Crawford’s dismantling of Errol Spence Jr nearly two years ago, this was its most significant fight since – and perhaps the first true spark of a new era. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Jeremy Clarkson slammed by charity for serving controversial animal to diners at his pub

The Clarkson's Farm star puts on special night with weird food - much to the disgust of animal rights activists

Politics

2 w. ago Butland and Dessers axed as suspended duo dilemma solved – the Rangers changes fans demand for Bilbao blockbuster

It's Europa League Thursday and Rangers are hoping for another special night under the Ibrox lights

Politics

3 w. ago Book London Theatre Tickets To The Best True Crime Drama Productions, Live On Stage In London

Book London Theatre Tickets To The Best True Crime Drama Productions, Live On Stage In London  openPR.com

Events

3 w. ago Rare London Book Dealer Starts New Chapter On Upper East Side: Report

Rare London Book Dealer Starts New Chapter On Upper East Side: Report  Patch

Economics

3 w. ago Jason Atherton’s London: Where to Book for a Special Night Out

Jason Atherton’s London: Where to Book for a Special Night Out  MICHELIN Guide

Politics

3 w. ago Accenture Song Doubles Down on Droga5 and Appoints New Leadership in London

Accenture Song Doubles Down on Droga5 and Appoints New Leadership in London  Little Black Book | LBBOnline

Politics

4 w. ago WWE Monday Night Raw: UK special start time, live stream and confirmed match card tonight

A huge WWE Championship match plus appearances from John Cena, Cody Rhodes and Logan Paul have been confirmed for Monday Night Raw

Politics

4 w. ago ‘Society SUCKS!’ The fanatical diary of a teen scribbler who threw herself into punk

Don’t live like everyone else! Angela Jaeger met every act going in punk, in New York and London – and had crushes on them all. Now 65, she talks us through her thrill-filled diariesThere is nothing new to discover, surely, about the birth of punk. But perhaps it depends where you look. Written between 1977 and 1981, the teenage diaries of Angela Jaeger crackle with life. Published as the book I Feel Famous, the New York and London punk scenester’s writing gives us a real-time immersion, with zero revisionism, into not only what happened and who was there, but how it felt to a musically fanatical teenage girl.Diary entry for 9 May, 1977, about a Bryan Ferry/Talking Heads gig being sold out: “Shit, damn, piss forever!! What can you do but kick and curse cause you CAN’T GO! It shits bricks solid!!” By 27 June, she’s a dedicated anglophile, a Sex Pistols and Clash obsessive, searching for an identity and asking the big questions: “Why should we be expected to live like everyone else do...

Politics

last month ‘Woodstock for elder millennials’: the Garden State soundtrack anniversary concert

The music from Zach Braff’s seminal comedy drama took centre stage for one special night bringing back artists from Imogen Heap to The ShinsIt’s been two decades since the release of Garden State, Zach Braff’s film about an alienated young actor’s struggle to find meaning in life. But while the movie itself became a cult classic, perhaps its biggest legacy is its soundtrack, which went platinum, won a Grammy and became a cultural touchstone among a certain subset of the American population.So it was no surprise that, when Braff announced a 20th-anniversary concert celebrating the album, at which each of its dozen or so artists would perform, tickets were going for hundreds of dollars. This was Woodstock for elder millennials – at least a certain swath of us who, when the soundtrack came out in 2004, found an outlet for our big teenage feelings in bands like the Shins, Frou Frou and Iron and Wine. All three were among the performers at Los Angeles’s Greek Theater on Saturday evening ...

Politics

last month The Sleep Room by Jon Stock review – haunting accounts of horrific medical abuse

A book about psychiatrist William Sargant’s unethical treatments at a London hospital in the 1960s is all the more powerful for its vivid patient testimoniesA child of 14 is forced to walk on to a stage and strip to her underwear. Tiny and mute beneath the stacked rows of medical students, she is paraded for their benefit by a consultant psychiatrist some 44 years her senior. It is 1966 – the peak of Swinging 60s’ hedonism, liberalism and youthful counterculture – but in a locked psychiatric ward in London’s Royal Waterloo hospital, unspeakable violations are being inflicted upon patients.The perpetrator-in-chief, William Sargant, is the subject of thriller writer Jon Stock’s first nonfiction book, The Sleep Room: A Very British Medical Scandal. One of the most notorious figures in British psychiatry, Sargant initially wished to be a physician. He pivoted to psychiatry after one of his earliest pieces of research met with a humiliating reception at the Royal College of Physicia...

Events