27 h. ago Mother Mary Comes To Me by Arundhati Roy review – brave and absorbing

In this remarkable memoir, the Booker-winning novelist looks back on her bittersweet relationship with her mercurial motherTwelve minutes into an interview with Allen Ginsberg for the BBC’s Face to Face, Jeremy Isaacs asks him about the extraordinary long poem he wrote about his mother: “In Kaddish, you mourn your mother. What was the effect on you of living with a mother who was mad?” Ginsberg’s answer, mildly inflected by a laugh, is: “It gave me a great sort of tolerance for eccentric behaviour.”Arundhati Roy, whose memoir is partly an account of her life with her mother Mary Roy, might recognise this insight. Arguably, all mothers appear to their children as mad: madness here meaning an unbounded force, at odds with what society imagines normal parenting to consist of. The manifestations of this madness are as disparate as those of love, and these two aspects – the abnormal, the overbearing, and the protective, the nurturing – can be, in our mothers, intimately intertwined (“She...

Politics

3 d. ago Minneapolis school shooter's devout mother struggled with killer's gender swap and behavior issues

Mary Grace Westman, the mother of shooter Robin Westman, 23, was said to have confided in teachers that she wasstruggling when the would-be killer came out as transgender around five years ago.

Events

4 d. ago Moment cops descend on condo of Minneapolis school shooter's mom after she refused to cooperate with investigation as eerie previous police visits to her home emerges

Federal agents descended on a Florida condo belonging to the mother of transgender school shooter Robin Westman on Thursday.

Events

4 d. ago Mother of Minneapolis shooter obtains lawyer in shock move after NOT speaking to police since school church massacre: 'completely distraught'

Mary Westman, the mother of shooting suspect Robin Westman, 23, was a former employee at the Annunciation Church where the horror unfolded on Wednesday morning.

Events

4 d. ago Florida monster who killed lover, her mother, and rival executed after decades on death row

Curtis Windom, 59, was sentenced to die for the Nov. 7, 1992, killings of girlfriend Valerie Davis, her mother Mary Lubin, and Johnnie Lee in the Orlando area

Events

4 d. ago Mystery over Minneapolis shooter's mother who has NOT spoken to police since school church massacre

Mary Westman, the mother of shooting suspect Robin Westman, 23, was a former employee at the Annunciation Church where the horror unfolded on Wednesday morning.

Events

5 d. ago Kirkus Prize finalists include Angela Flournoy, Kiran Desai and Megha Majumdar

Novels by Angela Flournoy, Kiran Desai and Megha Majumdar, along with a memoir by Arundhati Roy, are finalists for the Kirkus Prize

Politics

8 d. ago Arundhati Roy on her fugitive childhood: ‘My knees were full of scars and cuts – a sign of my wild, imperfect, fatherless life’

When war broke out between India and China, the author and her brother were taken by their mother on a chaotic journey from hill station squat to an eccentric household in Kerala. Would they ever find a safe space?A teacher was what my mother had always wanted to be, what she was qualified to be. During the years she was married and living with our father, who had a job as an assistant manager on a remote tea estate in Assam, the dream of pursuing a career of any kind atrophied and fell away. It was rekindled (as nightmare more than dream) when she realised that her husband, like many young men who worked on lonely tea estates, was hopelessly addicted to alcohol.When war broke out between India and China in October 1962, women and children were evacuated from border districts. We moved to Calcutta. Once we got there, my mother decided that she would not return to Assam. From Calcutta we travelled across the country, all the way south to Ootacamund – Ooty – a small hill station in th...

Politics

1 week ago What name is shared by members of the Famous Five and Secret Seven? The Saturday quiz

From Queen Mary and Welsh Harp to Caladrius and Garuda, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz1 Which sporting projectile has been recorded at 351mph?2 Which part of the atmosphere is named after an allotrope of oxygen?3 What name is shared by members of the Famous Five and Secret Seven?4 Which M6 service station invites visitors to “scrum on in”?5 Whose D’eux is the bestselling French language album ever?6 Ben Macdui is the highest peak in which national park?7 Which animals have aggressive episodes known as musth?8 In 1525, who wrote Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants?What links: 9 Cambodia genocide memorials; Carnac megaliths; Ludwig II of Bavaria’s palaces; Port Royal, Jamaica?10 Aelfgyva; Queen Edith; person fleeing a burning building?11 King George V; Queen Mary; Queen Mother; Welsh Harp; William Girling; Wraysbury?12 d’If; du Diable; Rikers; Robben; Solovetsky?13 Ouse tributary; Madagascar’s largest carnivore; links Exeter and Lincoln; Cabaret director?14 ...

Politics

3 w. ago India bans books and police raid bookstores in crackdown on ‘false narrative’ in Kashmir

Authorities threaten people with prison time for selling or owning works by authors like Booker winner Arundhati Roy and historians Victoria Schofield

Events

3 w. ago Indian authorities in Kashmir ban books by eminent writers and scholars

Indian authorities have banned 25 books in Kashmir, accusing them of promoting a "false narrative" and "secessionism."

Culture

3 w. ago Man shot mum and her son then tried to flee to Mexico leaving boy, 8, with bodies

The eight-year-old son of Mary Lindsay was found locked in his mother's bedroom in Flowery Branch, Georgia, and was completely unaware that his mum and brother had been killed two days earlier

Events