2 h. ago The story behind the character who inspired Taylor Swift’s latest track – and what it really tells us

Serena Trowbridge looks at the inspiration behind one of Swift’s latest tracks

Politics

9 h. ago The story behind the character who inspired Taylor Swift’s The Fate of Ophelia – and what it really tells us

As a professor of pre-Raphaelite studies, I was excited to see that the track list for Taylor Swift’s 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl includes a song called The Fate of Ophelia. Ahead of the album’s release, fans and art historians speculated that the inspiration could come from John Everett Millais’s painting Ophelia (1851-52), one of the most visited paintings at Tate Britain.

Politics

26 h. ago Taylor Swift fans go wild over brutal 'Joe Alwyn dig' in The Life of a Showgirl single The Fate of Ophelia

Fans have seized on her latest album's lead single, which about how she 'pledges allegiance to' a love interest who 'dug me out of my grave' and 'saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia.'

Politics

28 h. ago The showgirl aesthetic is set to be the hottest new fashion trend, all thanks to Taylor Swift

Scroll down to shop our favourite pieces inspired by Taylor's showgirl aesthetic.

Culture

36 h. ago All the clues Taylor Swift's new track is about her 'Cancelled' ex

There are several clues that Blake Lively was the inspiration behind Taylor Swift's new song Cancelled! off her 12th studio album The Life of a Showgirl, which dropped on Friday.

Politics

9 d. ago Cocaine Quarterback review – true crime shouldn’t be this entertaining

It’s right to be sceptical of college footballer turned drug kingpin Owen Hanson sharing his own story from prison. But huge characters join in to tell a wild, droll tale with the ultimate endingDressed in a khaki jumpsuit, his face red in a way that suggests recent tears, Owen Hanson describes his life behind bars. On his first day in prison, another inmate gave him a weapon – a “bonecrusher” – and told him to keep it on him at all times. “I’m some fucking surfer kid from Redondo Beach and you’re telling me I have to go to war?!” Hanson says, shakily.This is one of many moments in the first episode of Cocaine Quarterback that makes me deeply sceptical. The three-part docuseries – released under the Prime Video Sports umbrella – tells the story of a college footballer from California turned drug kingpin, but part one feels more like The Owen Hanson Story, as presented by Owen Hanson. Central to the tale is his father’s alcoholism, his parents’ divorce, and his first, faltering foray...

Events

3 w. ago No Friend to This House by Natalie Haynes review – a thrilling take on the Golden Fleece myth

Medea tells her side of the story in a reimagining of the ancient Greek stories that puts women centre stageThe women of myth have been talking – and they’re pointing the finger at us. Myths are “mirrors of us”, writes Natalie Haynes in Pandora’s Jar, her book of essays on the women of Greek mythology. “Which version of a story we choose to tell, which characters we place in the foreground, which ones we allow to fade into the shadows: these reflect both the teller and the reader, as much as they show the characters of the myth.”Considerations of culture and bias have been central to the recent wave of mythic retellings focused on women, from Madeline Miller’s Circe and Pat Barker’s Iliad trilogy to Haynes’s own triad of novels set within the classical Greek world (The Children of Jocasta, A Thousand Ships and Stone Blind). This latest is a reimagining of the myth of Jason and the Golden Fleece and, true to form, it centres the women. Continue reading...

Politics

last month EastEnders finally explains Zoe Slater past as Max Branning unexpected makes return

EastEnders fans were left thrilled as a huge twist in Zoe Slater's story was revealed, with the iconic character having a connection to Max Branning

Politics