43 h. ago ‘You are living with a difficult person who is waiting to die’: my harrowing time as Patricia Highsmith’s assistant

I worked for the author of The Talented Mr Ripley in her final months. She was so mean and secretive, I imagined she wanted to kill meI first read Patricia Highsmith’s novels in the autumn of 1994. I was 20 and living in a room in her house in Tegna, Switzerland, that was plastered with bookshelves full of her first editions, organised in chronological order. Pat was 73 and knew she was about to die; she had been, it was rumoured, diagnosed with cancer or some other terminal disease. I was trapped in her world with her, trembling. She had weeks left to live and had spent so much time writing about how to get away with murder. I fantasised that she might try to kill me.The story of how I ended up in that house begins a few months earlier, in Zurich, with me on a blue tram, on my way to dinner at the house of Anna and Daniel Keel, a couple I’d grown friendly with. Anna was a brilliant painter for whom I had been modelling since I was 17. Her studio smelled like oil paint, instant coff...

Events

6 d. ago ‘We promised change but people aren’t feeling it yet’: Labour rues poor first year

MPs, aides and other party figures reflect on what went wrong and how they could still turn things aroundIn a stiflingly hot room at a health centre in East London, as he announced the government’s 10-year plan for the NHS on Thursday, Keir Starmer was confronted with a brutal assessment of his first year in power.“You’ve U-turned on your reforms, your MPs don’t trust you, and markets worry that you’ve lost resolve on fiscal discipline. It’s the epitome, isn’t it, of sticking-plaster politics and chaos that you promised voters you would end?” a television journalist asked. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Longtime State Department spokesman, diplomat Richard Boucher, dies at 73

Richard Boucher, who served for more than a decade as spokesman for the State Department and assistant secretary of state for public affairs, has died at age 73

Events

2 w. ago Senedd denied veto over whether assisted dying becomes legal in Wales

The new bill would allow those aged over 18 and with less than six months to live to receive medical assistance to die

Events

3 w. ago MPs voting to legalise assisted dying is a momentous day for choice

The House of Commons decision to pass Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) bill marks a historic step towards giving people the right to make fundamental decisions about their own lives – as well as how to end them

Events

3 w. ago Tears and prayers as MPs reflect on the journey to a historic assisted dying vote

At the end there was high tension on both sides of a debate that for some was deeply personalAssisted dying set to become law in England and Wales after bill passed by MPsWhen Kim Leadbeater walked out of the chamber of the House of Commons into parliament’s central lobby, she was embraced by some campaigners who did not even know if they would be alive when the vote came.“Overwhelmingly the sense is relief,” she said. Her close colleague the Labour MP Lizzi Collinge was near to tears. For the Conservative Kit Malthouse, standing nearby, it was the culmination of a decade of campaigning within his own party. More than 20 of his colleagues – more than he expected – backed the bill. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Voices: My husband wanted to go to Dignitas: the new assisted dying bill wouldn’t have helped him

As the right-to-die legislation passes its final Commons hurdle, Mary Dejevsky explains how it falls far short of helping those who might have been pinning their hopes on it, namely people like her late partner with chronic progressive conditions such as Parkinson’s disease

Events

3 w. ago GMB's Kate Garraway makes heartbreaking admission about late husband Derek Draper

Kate Garraway has made a devastating confession about her late husband Derek Draper, who died in January 2024, as the GMB presenter discussed the Assisted Dying Bill

Events

4 w. ago Fay Ripley left 'faint' after hearing of her 'incredible history' on DNA Journey

Fay Ripley was left stunned as she was told about her famous ancestors' pasts

Politics

4 w. ago Assisted dying: UK doctor says helping patients die in Australia is a ‘privilege’

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

Events

last month Assisted dying: UK doctor says helping patients die in Australia is ‘privilege’

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is due to return to the House of Commons for debate and more votes on amendments on Friday.

Events