There is no need to cram yourself into a tasting room in Napa or Burgundy like a wine-thirsty sardine. The globe is increasingly loaded with notable wine-making regions and traditions that offer boundless surprises: bottlings made from unique indigenous grapes, topographies you could never imagine that squeeze out wine, and calm, personalized vineyard tours. So put down the beefy cab sauv and start exploring.

Bolivia

Perhaps nowhere is as surprising a wine destination as this landlocked South American country. It has “grapes that shouldn’t grow” and a “rocky, punishing terrain,” said The New York Times. There are both 500-year-old forest vineyards in the Cinti Valley and Tarija’s “mountainous vines,” which are “among the highest elevation vineyards in all of the Americas” and produce 90% of the country’s wine, said Wine Enthusiast. Many of the grapes grown here, like negra criolla and tannat, have a European legacy, understandable being that Spain colonized the area.

The country’s wine-making boom has coincided, intentionally, with a tourism push, one that birthed the Ruta del Vino Bolivia. It is a “relatively under-the-radar” wine trail, said Wine Enthusiast. Travelers can expect “authentic, uncrowded experiences” that include half-day winery tours and a multiday tour that takes you to six wineries and a variety of local attractions. It’s all to experience a region that’s “both closer to the heavens and deeply connected to its roots,” said the Times.

China

There are many Chinas, with the country being 3.7 million square miles. Likewise, China’s wine boom comprises many styles across a “dozen distinct wine regions,” said Wine Enthusiast, including north-central “Ningxia, where vines are buried in the winter to stave off the extreme cold, to more temperate coastal and southern regions, such as Shandong and Yunnan.” Ningxia, by volume, is the winemaking hub: In less than 30 years, the region went from 200 hectares of vines to almost 39,000 hectares, an “area comparable to the entire vineyard surface of New Zealand,” said the drinks publication SevenFifty Daily.

Ningxia is known as the Bordeaux of China, so it tracks that some of the notable grape varieties grown in the area are famous grapes of Bordeaux, like cabernet sauvignon and merlot. Still, Ningxia is carving a wine space of its own, too, with grapes like aging-friendly marselan (a cross between cabernet sauvignon and grenache) and soft-edged cabernet gernischt. Treat a visit to Ningxia like you would a trip to Napa or, yes, Bordeaux: Make winery visits the centerpiece of the experience. They tend to be grand encounters in the wine-making heart of China.

Essex, England

At the International Wine Challenge in May, English wines won 25 awards, 15 more than the country won in 2025. One of the areas on the rise is Essex’s Crouch Valley, a region that was “identified by researchers as a location that could soon bear even sweeter fruit for wine producers” courtesy of a warming planet, said The Guardian.

England was once known only for its capabilities with sparkling wine. Essex has shown its particular suitability for “ripening Burgundy’s hallmark grapes chardonnay and pinot noir,” said Elite Traveler. So much so that winemakers from Burgundy are “scoping out plans to buy land in the valley,” said The Guardian.

While you’re in the area, explore how “gold-green fields roll to stone churches with lopsided Norman towers” and the coast is “fretworked with cockle-shell beaches, salt marshes and mudflats that trill with migratory birds,” said The Telegraph. Quaint villages, sublime restaurants, hidden fossils — Essex is primed for all kinds of jaunts.

Morocco

The most popular areas of this North African country, like Marrakesh and Casablanca, can be overrun with tourists. Not so with Morocco’s wine-making regions, like Meknes and Essaouira. A wine-centric trip can be a respite from big-city medina mayhem.

Native grapes, like the “crisp and floral Faranah,” said Wine Enthusiast, are inching their way back into production. There is also the local favorite vin gris, a “pale rosé made from minimal skin contact.” But the bulk of the country’s wine is currently made from European grapes. “The Syrah grape variety is, I think, very well adapted to our terroir, our climate and our way of doing things,” said winemaker Stephane Marriot to Grape Collective.

In the city of Meknes itself, you can marvel at the splendid Bab El Mansour gate and tune into the history of “diverse” Moroccan music at the National Museum of Music, said Lonely Planet. Or head to Essaouira for a sharp 180-degree flip. The coastal city is a liberal town with a surfer mentality, a city that “doesn’t take itself too seriously,” said Afar.

North Carolina

A lot can happen in two decades. In about 20 years, the Tar Heel State went from having a few dozen wineries to now boasting more than 200. The state’s first American Viticultural Area (AVA), the Yadkin Valley, was created in 2003. These days, the AVA “includes more than 45 wineries within 45 minutes of Winston-Salem,” said Food & Wine.

The state’s varied topography has birthed three growing regions: the Blue Ridge Mountains, the central Piedmont and the Coastal Plan near the Atlantic. “Wines are made in every style,” said Wine Enthusiast. Out west is optimal for European grapes like cabernet franc, and sauvignon blanc. The surprise is the way the coastal region handles the sweet, thick-skinned native grape, the muscadine. The best of the area’s cutting-edge wines harness the “musky aroma of muscadine wines without the treacly taste,” said Food & Wine.

Choose your travel destination based on your weather wants, alongside your drinking preferences. Asheville in the western mountains, Raleigh in the Piedmont or Wilmington and its environs for an ocean, muscadine breeze.

Slovenia

Slovenia has “long been a secret whispered among wine lovers,” said the wine publication Winera. But now the good word is out about the eastern European country. Slovenia, however, still hums barely audibly among the wine-tourism blips and pings that zero in on places like Tuscany and the Napa Valley.

The wines in Slovenia taste like they could be made nowhere else, even though they are influenced by the country’s neighbors, Italy and Austria. The diversity of winemaking is startling. The Vipava Valley is the “perfect place” to encounter the native grapes zelen and pinela, said Winera. Stajerska’s “rolling” hills are home to “expressive” sauvignon blancs and sparkling wines that “rival Champagne.” Brda, a municipality in the country’s west, is sometimes called the Tuscany of Slovenia and bottles “full-bodied wines from indigenous varieties like Rebula.”

The Vipava Valley sits a short drive from the capital, Ljubljana, and boasts a “magical combination” of “dramatic” karst landscapes and “medieval castles towering over pretty villages,” said CNN. If it is summertime, go for a hike. If it is wintertime, consider it the ideal excuse to hunker down and be subsumed by the top-tier eating and drinking.

The 1990s were a period of transition for the film industry, seeing the rise of both smaller, independent studios and the spectacular growth of home movie-watching. Despite this tumult, the decade produced countless films of enduring artistic and commercial significance, including these eight memorable classics.

‘The Silence of the Lambs’ (1991)

Both Anthony Hopkins as the cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter and Jodie Foster as FBI trainee Clarice Starling turn in iconic performances in Jonathan Demme’s downbeat procedural. She is tasked with interviewing Lecter, imprisoned in an asylum for the criminally insane and one of the few characters in the film who doesn’t treat her with knee-jerk misogyny, who may have insights that could help catch “Buffalo Bill,” an active serial killer.

The film’s bleak aesthetic shaped a generation of noir-ish procedurals on the big and small screens. It endures as a classic because it is a “multifaceted interwork of classical storytelling, horror conventions and procedural standards, together reshaped into both a feminist landmark and a powerful study of transformation and identity,” said Brian Eggert at Deep Focus Review. (MGM+)

‘Boyz n the Hood’ (1991)

The late director John Singleton’s drama follows three childhood friends, Tre (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), Doughboy (Ice Cube) and Ricky (Morris Chestnut), first briefly as children and then as teenagers struggling to navigate the endemic violence and poverty of South Central Los Angeles. As one of the first mainstream films to depict the plight of urban neighborhoods with sympathy, humanity and nuance, it stands as a true cinematic landmark. A film that “showed how white supremacy set the conditions that ended in neighborhoods devastated by crime and, ultimately, violence,” it depicts an almost “post-apocalyptic world,” in which “what was destroying their landscape wasn’t an alien invasion or a virus” but racism, said Lawrence Ware at The New York Times. (Starz)

‘Groundhog Day’ (1993)

While time loops are a now-familiar part of the sci-fi landscape, director Harold Ramis’ “Groundhog Day” is the first English-language feature film to highlight the concept. Bill Murray plays Phil Connors, an irritable, cynical weatherman sent to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to report a story about the town’s quaint groundhog ceremony.

Trapped there by a massive snow storm, he realizes he is living the same day over and over again. After fruitlessly trying to kill himself in increasingly clever fashion, he gradually falls for his producer, Rita (Andie MacDowell). By avoiding “sentimentality and smalltown stereotypes in favor of one genuinely hysterical set-piece after another,” it is “not only one of the finest comedies of the 90s, but actually remains fresh, funny and original after repeated viewings,” said Caroline Westbrook at Empire. (Prime Video)

‘Pulp Fiction’ (1994)

Director Quentin Tarantino’s era-defining, endlessly quotable and propulsive thriller popularized the use of nonlinear narratives in mainstream filmmaking. The impossible-to-summarize plot follows multiple sets of characters over the course of three (very, very eventful) days.

Tarantino uses a “chapter” structure to tell the loosely intersecting tales, including one about philosophizing hit men Vincent (John Travolta) and Jules (Samuel L. Jackson), sent on a job for their boss, Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), that goes hilariously awry. Uma Thurman’s career-making turn as Marsellus’ wife, Mia, is just one of many heart-stopping performances in a movie that is simultaneously ultraviolent and side-splittingly funny. An “absolute classic,” it is a project that “set the bar for cinema cool and redefined independent filmmaking,” and in the process “forever changed Hollywood,” said Jordan Crucchiola at Wired. (Paramount+)

‘Big Night’ (1996)

Tony Shalhoub and Stanley Tucci are brothers Primo and Secundo, immigrants operating a failing Jersey Shore restaurant during the 1950s. Primo is the stubbornly perfectionist gourmet chef, a character who prefigures the 2000s-era celebrity chef boom, and Secondo is the slick businessman who regards the popular Olive Garden-esque restaurant up the road, run by Pascal (Ian Holm), with envy while carrying on a secret affair with Pascal’s wife, Gabriella (Isabella Rossellini).

Pascal, who covets Primo’s culinary genius, tells Secundo he can get jazz great Louis Prima to make an appearance at their restaurant, and the brothers plot one last big, extravagant dinner to save the business. A film of “great wisdom and delight,” it is “about food not as a subject but as a language — the language by which one can speak to gods, can create, can seduce, can aspire to perfection,” said Roger Ebert at the time. (Paramount+)

‘Breaking the Waves’ (1996)

A film that was a kind of spiritual precursor to the aesthetically austere and hugely influential Dogme 95 film movement, Danish director Lars von Trier’s haunting masterpiece also shaped a generation of independent filmmakers. When oil-rig worker Jan (Stellan Skarsgard) is paralyzed in a work injury, he encourages his new wife, Bess (Emily Watson), to sleep with other men and tell him about it.

Believing this to be a kind of divine mission, she presses on with her struggle despite hostility from church elders and her sister-in-law, Dodo (Katrin Cartlidge), until a truly unforgettable ending leaves viewers stunned. A “raw, crazy tour-de-force,” it dares to “fuse true love with lurid exploitation and pure religious faith,” said Janet Maslin at The New York Times. (Mubi)

‘The Big Lebowski’ (1998)

Joel and Ethan Coen made several 1990s classics, including “Fargo.” But it is “The Big Lebowski” that remains the enduring cultural touchstone. Jeff Bridges is Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski, a middle-aged burnout whose apartment is ransacked by nihilist enforcers who are actually after a different person with the same name.

When The Dude tries to get reimbursed for the damage from the intended Jeffrey Lebowski (David Huddleston), he gets caught up in a lurid slacker-noir kidnapping caper, encountering a series of memorable goofballs including Lebowski’s daughter, Maude (Julianne Moore). A film that “warns us from the start not to expect any of its narrative threads to lead anywhere,” it takes the audience on a “labyrinthine route followed solely for the diversions encountered along the way,” said Jonathan Romney at Sight and Sound. (Netflix)

‘The Matrix’ (1999)

The brilliance of directors Lilly and Lana Wachowski’s “The Matrix” has been diluted over time by its inferior sequels and many imitators, but its inventively choreographed action sequences and dystopian narrative endure. Keanu Reeves plays Neo, a computer hacker who discovers that his reality is an illusion maintained by rogue AI overlords who keep humans in a state of permanent suspended animation while harvesting them for resources.

Neo joins a rebellion led by Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) while evading Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving). The movie is also the source of the concept of “red-pilling” that plays such a prominent role in contemporary cultural discourse. “The Matrix” is a film of “immense scale and complexity” that “understood where things were headed far better than any film did at the time,” said Scott Tobias at The Guardian. (Peacock)

Nostalgia for trifle has led to a “sudden resurgence” in sales of the classic British dessert, said The Times. Made with layers of “sherry-soaked sponge, fruit, custard, whipped cream and jelly”, the traditional pudding is even popping up on the menus of fancy restaurants.

The origins of the dish go back to the late Tudor period but the cake base layer was only added to the recipe in the mid-18th century. Today, the dessert is no longer “just a festive centrepiece” but instead the “ultimate nostalgic crowd-pleaser” embraced “all-year-round”, Charmaine Katz, chef tutor at Waitrose said in The Times. Its popularity comes down to how “versatile” the dessert is: recipes can be either “quick and easy” or “dramatic and technical”.

Chefs are finding ways to put innovative spins on the traditional dish. At Restaurant Roots in Bournemouth, for example, the “bitter chocolate millionaire’s trifle” is “laced with Rémy Martin cognac”. Nowhere is “seemingly too posh for a trifle” as five-star hotels and restaurants, including The Ritz, have found their own “twists for a modern palate”.

Want to try making one yourself? Nigella Lawson’s showstopping “Anglo-Italian” trifle recipe is a “delightful summer pudding” perfect for “garden gatherings”, said WalesOnline. The recipe calls for soaking trifle sponges in limoncello then layering – the “shiny black of the berries” and “soft whiteness of the mascarpone”, topped with the “golden toastiness of the almonds” making it look ”beautiful”.

For a “gloriously pink” version, try Georgina Hayden’s “twist on the traditional Greek dessert ekmek” on the BBC. Swap sponges for “crisp, buttery kataifi” as your base, then drizzle over rhubarb syrup and top with custard and whipped cream.

A good trifle, however you make or eat it, is a “self-indulgent concoction” that will have you “sink into a pleasurable, full-sated stupor”, said Rowan Pelling in The Telegraph. “It’s the food stuff of hedonists: innocent-looking, nostalgic, yet laden with booze, not to be underestimated or (forgive me) trifled with. Edible heaven.”

“The klop, klop of water under the bows of a small boat will cure most troubles in this world,” wrote Arthur Ransome in his 1934 novel “Coot Club” – and, after my recent solo sailing trip in the Norfolk Broads, I have to agree with him, said James Stewart in the Financial Times.

Ransome’s book is set in this network of tidal rivers and shallow lakes, which “cumulatively snake” for 125 miles through the east of Norfolk. The lakes are medieval peat diggings that were flooded by rising seas in the 14th century, and long plied by cargo boats known as wherries.

The Victorians “reimagined” the area as a holiday destination, and operators began renting small yachts to visitors. Motorboats are now far more numerous, but sailing boats are still available to charter. Founded in 1932, Hunter’s Yard in Ludham has a fleet of yachts from “the golden age of Broads cruising”, some with cabins sleeping two to four. Renters must know how to sail, but novices can sign up for a “Learn to Sail” week.

The 90-year-old yacht I chartered, Hustler, was like “an Edwardian gentlemen’s club shrunk to a Wendy house”, with “lustrous” mahogany panelling and a Royal Doulton sink. And it had a “secret weapon”. Most motorboats won’t fit beneath the medieval bridge at Potter Heigham, and so are restricted to the southern Broads. But yachts can lower their masts to squeeze through, into a world where “the throb of boat engines” is replaced “by birdsong in sibilant reeds”.

I found the Broads “surprisingly social”. Dog walkers and fishermen waved, and a canoeist kept pace for a chat. The birds were wonderful, too, from kingfishers to marsh harriers and cranes “like dowager flamingos”. But mostly there was just me, the sound of creaking ropes, and the “low bosky horizons” stretching “beneath heroic skies”.

This was “landscape as serenity”, particularly in the dusk at Horsey Mere, reminding me “how sailing could still be” – “an interlude in which everything else can fall away, a momentary back eddy in the restless tide of the world”.

A southwards-pointing peninsula in the northern Adriatic, Istria lies mostly in Croatia today, but Slovenia also has a small chunk of it – which provides the entirety of that country’s 29-mile coastline. It is a lovely area, said Laura Coffey in The Guardian, with green hills, pretty villages and “colourful” seaside towns.

The largest and most “beautiful” of these, 25 miles south of the Italian city of Trieste, is Piran, known for its medieval Venetian architecture. Nearby lies the Strunjan Landscape Park, with a gorgeous beach, Moon Bay, and Izola, another “vibrant” historic harbour town. I can recommend the DeGrassi hotel there (“supremely comfortable”), as well as Kmetija Medljan, a simple farm stay in the hills. And I enjoyed visiting some artisanal wineries and food producers, including Korenika & Moškon, where the belica olive oil has a “powerful kick”.

Hiking the ‘Great Wall’ of Seoul

Hiking is South Korea’s most popular sporting activity – and thanks to the forested hills that reach far into the city, you can even do it in Seoul, said Oliver Berry in National Geographic Traveller.

Trails rise to 836 metres in the Bukhansan National Park, a little way out of town, but there are smaller peaks next to Seoul’s historic centre, traversed by the city’s medieval battlements (“Seoul’s answer to China’s Great Wall”). I walked along the wall’s northern section, passing three of the original city gates and climbing the “dome-shaped” summit of Inwangsan, which is only 338 metres high, but “punishingly steep”. The path was fragrant with juniper and mountain pine, and shaded here and there by cherry and maple trees – and there were “sweeping” views across downtown Seoul.

Doing Route 66 by train

It’s 100 years since the opening of Route 66, the “legendary” highway between Chicago and LA. Plenty of people are celebrating the centenary by driving it, but I made the 2,000-mile journey west by train instead, said Adrian Bridge in The Telegraph – which allowed for “leisurely contemplation” of America’s “stunning” landscapes, as well as plenty of “convivial” dining-car conversation.

A sleeper train, the Southwest Chief, does the route in 45 hours – or you can break up the journey, as I did. Among the highlights were St Louis (“the city of Miles Davis and the Blues”), Kansas City (where the Beaux Arts railway station is “an absolute gem”), and Flagstaff, Arizona (a “key” Route 66 staging post, full of “1950s-style diners”). But nothing could beat sunset at the Grand Canyon.

A great vacation doesn’t have to break the bank. Stretch your vacation dollars at these seven budget-friendly destinations where affordable food, attractions and accommodations can be found around every corner.

Albania

Albania’s coastline is its “main event,” with Sarande, Vlore and Himare all known for “stunning seaside scenery,” said Time Out. Hikers can hit several trails in the Albanian Alps, like the popular Blue Eye Trail through rugged terrain, while those seeking a more cosmopolitan experience make the trek to the “lively” capital, Tirana, a “vibrant whirl of traffic, consumerism and unfettered fun,” Lonely Planet said. A highlight is Bunk’Art, a Cold War bunker turned contemporary art museum that shares the modern history of Albania.

Dominican Republic

Close your eyes, think of the Dominican Republic, and “delightfully tropical” white sand beaches and “lush” rainforests will likely come to mind, said Fodor’s. The island offers more than a beachy escape, with ample opportunities for activities like horseback riding, ziplining and exploring historic areas like the Zona Colonial in Santo Domingo.

Because there has been such heavy investment in tourism, the Dominican Republic’s infrastructure is “designed to accommodate large volumes of visitors.” So, hotels and all-inclusive resorts “compete aggressively on price” to fill their rooms year-round, Travel and Leisure said.

Estonia

The same culture and stunning scenery you’ll find in more expensive locales like Prague or Stockholm are also in “under-the-radar” Estonia, said The Washington Post. Tallinn, the country’s “storybook” capital, is filled with cobblestone streets, medieval walls, palaces and castles and trendy restaurants and shopping.

The city is a few hours away from “national parks, seaside villages and peaceful islands,” including Saaremaa on the Baltic. Book a day at one of the many affordable spas and enjoy saunas, indoor and outdoor pools, mud baths and body treatments.

Kenya

The “geographic diversity” of Kenya means visitors could be “admiring rhinos one day and lounging on an Indian Ocean beach the next,” said Travel and Leisure. It also means your “safari dreams can come true” because visitors can book trips inside Nairobi National Park, an affordable alternative to visiting remote reserves for multiple days. For the best prices, go during the off-season November through March, when the weather is dry and warm.

Malaysia

You’ll want to see all of the sights in Malaysia, but the hands-down best way to “dive into the culture and history” is by eating your way around the country, said Lonely Planet. Malaysia is at the “crossroads of China, India and dozens of Southeast Asian maritime kingdoms.”

The melting pot cuisine — tender beef rendang, rich nasi lemak, crisp roti canai and steaming bowls of laksa noodle soup — is “budget-friendly, plentiful and delicious.” By visiting local establishments and hawker stalls, steering clear of tourist traps and skipping alcohol, it’s likely you could eat for under $20 a day.

Poland

Sticking to Poland’s smaller cities and more rural areas offers visitors a “fabulous value,” said Time Out. Once an industrial center, Katowice is now one of the country’s most “innovative” cities, known for its festivals and vibrant musical scene, and “gorgeous” Poznan, Wroclaw and Lublin are home to an “arresting” mix of Art Nouveau, Gothic and Renaissance architecture. Bring your appetite to Gdansk, where you can “fuel up” on pierogi and zapiekanka, the Polish take on pizza, and relax on the “sandy sweep” of Brzezno Beach, said National Geographic Traveler.

Vietnam

There are opportunities for multiple types of trips during one visit to Vietnam. Head to the country’s eastern side for “palm-lined beaches and islands,” then go to “bustling” Ho Chi Minh City for cultural activities like water puppet performances and architectural tours, said Afar.

The central and southern countryside is “impossibly beautiful,” with “rice paddies extending in every direction” and highlands shrouded in mist. Train service is “dependable” and a wallet-friendly way to get across the country, and because of the “relative cheapness” of taxis, that transit method is optimal while in bigger cities.

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is exciting, eccentric and entirely bonkers. The energy that takes over the Scottish capital every August is utterly infectious, from street performers plying their trade to newbie comedians promoting their first shows. There is a reason why around three million people hit the Scottish capital for the festival every year.

But this popularity brings its own challenges. The Old Town’s famous lanes are packed with impenetrable crowds, prices shoot up to crazy levels, and it can all become a little overwhelming. But don’t worry, Edinburgh is a city of multitudes, and there are plenty of places to catch your breath.

Leith

The setting for Danny Boyle’s “Trainspotting”, now 30 years old, Leith has seen a transformation over the past decades and become a real foodie hub. This port district has no fewer than three Michelin-starred restaurants alongside others serving food of the highest quality. The recently opened Browns of Leith is a former engineering works that is now home to several eating and drinking options. The Royal Yacht Britannia is moored here, offering refreshments in the Royal Deck Tearoom or for something stronger, grab a cocktail or two on the riverside in The Shore area. Check out my favourite eaterie Eleanore, whose head chef Roberta Hall-McCarron is known locally for her bold flavours and inventive menus.

It is connected to the centre by the 1.2km Leith Walk, a lovely softly descending stroll on a sunny day and the perfect place for a pub crawl or spot of shopping in the one-off boutiques.

Portobello

There’s nothing more peaceful than a day at the seaside, and the Victorian town of Portobello – a 25-minute bus ride – offers two miles of golden sands and the perfect escape from the city. Take a dip with views of the Firth of Forth (check Sepa's water-quality index after heavy rains), grab an ice cream from award-winning Oscar’s Gelato, or enjoy a walk in nearby Figgate Park. The Portobello Bookshop is a lovely community-owned spot, and The Velvet Easel Gallery hosts contemporary Scottish artists.

Morningside

This suburb to the south of Edinburgh is packed with quirky things to see. Try to find the hidden Wild West lane, an alleyway decorated for an advert by a cowboy enthusiast some 30 years ago, which has stayed unchanged. The Dominion is a 1938 Art Deco cinema, a good spot when it's raining, and for walks, Corbie’s Crag is one of the lesser-known spots with sweeping views over the city. The nearby Royal Observatory Edinburgh also hosts talks on selected Tuesdays between November and March.

Stockbridge

This leafy, affluent neighbourhood is the kind you might look at in an estate agent’s window, picturing a new life. It has long been the bohemian village within the city, and there’s lots to see. You can easily spend a few hours discovering the delights of the Royal Botanic Gardens, founded in 1670, and housing one of the largest plant collections in the world. Or head to Raeburn Place, where you will find independent bookshops and cute little cafes, and if you're visiting on a Sunday load up on local produce at Stockbridge Farmer’s Market.

Cardinal, from chef patron Tomás Gormley, is making waves in the area with its divine tasting menu and fabulous, unpretentious service. Finish up with a walk along the Waters of Leith towards our next stop…

Dean Village

Just half a mile away is historic Dean Village, an adorable neighbourhood that was once home to 11 working mills. Sights include the arts and crafts Well Court, built in the 1880s, and a great spot to take some snaps, and St Bernard’s Well, which was built in the 1700s when locals believed the waters of the natural spring had medicinal healing properties. Dean Cemetery is beautiful when the leaves turn amber, so grab a hot drink from The Dean Coffee Shop and wrap up warm. Nearby is The National Galleries: Modern One, an impressive contemporary art museum.

Bruntsfield

Golf-lovers don’t have to go too far from the city centre to find a truly historic course. The Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society, founded in 1761 is the fourth oldest links in the world, and considered one of the best kept in the area. You can expect beautiful parkland and glorious views. The district is also known for its independent shops, such as Gulliver’s Toys and the dreamy stationery shop The Bay Tree Company. Grab a sandwich the size of your head at Italian eatery Toscano.

Jaymi was a guest at Cardinal and Eleanore

In the wrong hands, a salad is a vapid strategy for healthful eating. In Hetty McKinnon’s hands, a salad is a gallivanting exploration of flavor, place and texture.

“Neighborhood: Hearty Salads and Plant-Based Recipes from Home and Abroad” is McKinnon’s second cookbook. “Twice every week,” beginning in 2011, she writes, “I would cook healthy and hearty plant-based salad boxes, stack them into my bicycle basket” and deliver them to locals in her then-home of Sydney. She and her family moved to Brooklyn, New York, in 2015, and McKinnon published “Neighborhood” in 2017. Lucky for roughage lovers, McKinnon’s salad daring also made the transcontinental move.

Hearty economy

At the book’s outset, McKinnon banishes the notion that salads are consumptive meals: frail assemblages that keen and collapse if you look at them sideways. No, salads can — and should — be both sound and protean.

Her four-point approach to using leftover salad is alone worth the book’s price of entry: 1) “put an egg on it”: self-explanatory; 2) “blend it into a soup”: blender, salad, plop, broth, whirr; 3) “make a grilled cheese”: melty vegetable crunch, yes; 4) “go kuku!”: beat a bunch of eggs, add the leftover salad, bake into the Iranian version of a frittata. Salad as adaptable bedrock. Who would have imagined?

Vegetable traipsings

The salad-making blueprint of “Neighborhood” comprises six chapters, taking the reader from McKinnon’s current home in the United States back to Australia, with stops in France, the Mediterranean and Asia. The recipes strive for inspiration not purity.

Chili is molly-whopped into a substantive dish of various beans, bell peppers and tomatoes served with a vibrant sauce of yogurt, avocado, cucumber and lime. A salade niçoise becomes greenified, with fried green beans, oozy steamed eggs, lentils and caper mayonnaise. A dressing of honey, fresh ginger and toasted sesame oil napes quinoa, edamame and sautéed bok choy. The salad, in McKinnon’s kitchen, wonders and wanders, and the author heeds its inquisitiveness.

A bonus chapter stars dessert recipes, like a three-ingredient raspberry mousse and rice pudding with caramelized pears, from some of McKinnon’s friends. “Neighborhood” stands without a coda. McKinnon cannot help herself, though. She, like so many of the best cooks and recipe developers, is a giver.

“Someone give Tom Holland a holiday,” said Kevin Maher in The Times. Not only did he just give “The Odyssey” its “beating heart”, the 30-year-old Londoner has also been tasked with rescuing the “ailing superhero genre”. The latest – 38th! – instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe opens not with the usual montage of Avengers clips but with images from Holland’s hugely successful appearances as Spider-Man.

After a series of expensive misfires for the most commercially successful film franchise of all time, the message is clear: “Marvel is now the house that Tom built.” “Brand New Day”, Holland’s fourth outing in the role, picks up where 2021’s “No Way Home” left off, with mild-mannered Peter Parker having arranged for the world to forget that he ever existed.

So we find him back at square one, living in a scuzzy New York apartment, “lost and broken” – not least because his sweetheart MJ (Holland’s real-life wife Zendaya) and his best buddy Ned (Jacob Batalon) have been “cruelly memory-wiped out of his life”.

Those opening 20 minutes are “the strongest of the film”, said John Nugent in Empire. Holland is “brilliant” as the once puppyish Peter, “bruised by grief and solitude”. But what rescues the film is Zendaya’s performance, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. Playing a non-superhero, she is able to bring a grown-up acting presence to the fore to cut against the silliness.

In other respects, it is the same old Spideyworld, with lots of swinging between skyscrapers and leading, as in all MCU films, to “apocalyptic but weirdly temporary destruction in the digitally confected big city”. It makes for an “entertaining spectacle” – but we could have done with “a more radical reboot”.

Matthew Bourne’s “steamy, sweaty, lust-drenched thriller” of a dance show is perfect for this long, hot summer, said Marianka Swain in The Telegraph.

Inspired by Georges Bizet’s opera “Carmen” and with the “pulp-noir aesthetic” of films like “The Postman Always Rings Twice”, this “devilishly entertaining” dance production was first staged in 2000 and is now back on tour.

In the tiny, fictional Midwestern town of Harmony, we meet the “beautiful young” Lana, who is unhappily married to “boorish” garage owner Dino. When “hunky stranger” Luca “swaggers into town”, he manages to seduce both Lana and the “sensitive” Angelo, who works at Dino’s garage. Things soon unfurl into a “combustible blend of desire, revenge, jealousy and murder”: it’s a “blistering summer scorcher of a show”.

More than 25 years have passed since “The Car Man” made its debut, but it still feels “fresh”, said Rachel Agyekum on WhatsOnStage. Harrison Dowzell is “magnetic” as Luca, moving with a confidence that makes it “impossible to look away”. His chemistry with Lana (Cordelia Braithwaite) and fellow mechanic Angelo (Leonardo McCorkindale) is “undeniable”.

Bourne’s “witty, raunchy choreography” has echoes of “West Side Story” shot through with the “dramatic tension of pure theatre”, said Debra Craine in The Times. Terry Davies’ “pumped score” is played live by the New Adventures orchestra and the “iconic melodies” feel as if they were “custom built for dance”. But we could “do without” the cabaret act at the beginning of the second half.

Still, it’s a “thrillingly charged” show, said Siobhan Murphy on The Stage. Lez Brotherston’s “ingenious” set design moves seamlessly from a “scuzzy garage” to a “forbidding prison”, and the cast tackle their “robust dance roles with aplomb”. Bourne throws in some “suitably melodramatic Shakespearean touches” and a fair bit of “wry humour” as the production flies towards its “inevitable tragic ending”. This is the choreographer “firing on all cylinders”.

Sadler’s Wells until 29 August, then touring the UK until 21 November

August might be a time to say goodbye to the slow-paced days of summer and get the kids ready to return to school. But it is also when viewers will get to say hello to some intriguing new and returning TV shows.

‘Ted Lasso’ season 4

The return of the heartwarming Apple TV+ dramedy was unexpected, as the third season felt like its last. In season 4, the titular American dispenser of folksy wisdom, played by Jason Sudeikis, who had returned stateside at the end of season 3, heads back to the U.K., not to helm the Premier League’s fictional AFC Richmond but to coach a women’s professional soccer club. It “promises fan-pleasing reunions,” as well as a “compelling new squad to cheer for from the stands (well, sofaplexes),” said Jordan King at Empire. (Aug. 5 on Apple TV+)

‘Sterling Point’

Following this year’s breakout “Off Campus,” Prime Video looks to further corner the market for YA streaming and Gen Z eyeballs with a new drama. When Annie (Ella Rubin) and her twin brother, Connor (Keen Ruffalo, yes Mark Ruffalo’s son), inherit a remote Canadian island from their grandfather, they are shocked to discover Ramona (Amélie Hoeferle), a sister she didn’t know existed, also laying claim to the property. Writer-director Megan Park’s (“My Old Ass”) series “promises a healthy dose of steamy summer love to go with its side of mystery, as romance blooms between different pairs of characters,” said Maggie Harriman at TV Fanatic. (Aug. 5 on Prime Video)

‘Lanterns’

HBO Max continues to double down on its IP-driven creative strategy with “Lanterns,” a new series set in the DC Universe. Kyle Chandler (“Friday Night Lights) and Aaron Pierre (“Rebel Ridge”) star as Green Lanterns, intergalactic peacekeepers investigating a murder in rural Nebraska they believe is connected to a broader alien conspiracy. If superhero stories aren’t your thing, the tale is reportedly modeled on the intricate narrative structure of “True Detective.” It “offers the perfect blend of murder mystery and cosmic power elements tied to Green Lantern lore,” said Aeron Mer Eclarinal at The Direct. (Aug. 16 on HBO Max)

‘Adults’ season 2

The first season of “Adults,” which premiered in 2025, stood out among a slew of Gen Z hangout series that seemed stewed in the same lab. The first season followed the misadventures of 20-something pals Billie (Lucy Freyer), Paul Baker (Jack Innanen), Issa (Amita Rao), and Anton (Owen Thiele), living together in the childhood home of Samir (Malik Elassal). A late season episode where the misfits try and fail to roast a dinner party chicken is one of the single best episodes of any TV show last year.

The new series will see the group trying to stick together despite the development of a messy love triangle between Issa, Paul Baker and Anton. The series continues to entertainingly put a “generational lens on the wins, losses and humiliations of being in your twenties,” said Denise Petski at Deadline. (Aug. 27 on Hulu)

‘Dark Matter’ season 2

Season one of the Chicago-set “Dark Matter,” based on Blake Crouch’s bestselling thriller, was one of the unheralded triumphs of 2024. Joel Edgerton (“Train Dreams”) plays Jason Dessen, a physicist who worked on and then abandoned a box that can transport people between subtly (or sometimes radically) different versions of their universe.

Kidnapped by a childless version of himself that created the box and transported to a world where he never had kids, he spends the season trying to get back to the placid life he led with his wife, Daniela (Jennifer Connelly), and son, Charlie (Oakes Fegley), only to find that he has competition from a seemingly unending parade of multiverse Jasons. A sweet and thrilling parable about parenthood and the choices we make, it is anchored by Edgerton’s all-in performance as Jason. The series, having exhausted Crouch’s original source material, “will move from themes of regret and reunion to survival and fulfillment,” said Michael Ahr at Den of Geek. (Aug. 28 on Apple TV+)

Rachel Cusk is no stranger to controversy. Her candid memoirs on the perils of motherhood and her messy divorce drew a particularly hostile reaction, and her latest book – “Life of M” – has sent the rumour mill into overdrive that a character is based on Natalie Portman. But the British novelist has also transformed autofiction and scooped multiple literary awards for her icy dissections of human behaviour. Here we take a look at some of her best books.

A Life’s Work: On Becoming a Mother (2001)

Cusk’s “brutally honest and somewhat confronting” memoir about motherhood sparked an almighty backlash and accusations of child-hating, said Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett in The Guardian. But it’s also “bitterly funny about the culture and institutions of motherhood”, and over two decades later remains “one of the best, and least sentimental”, accounts of pregnancy, childbirth and caring for a newborn.

Outline (2014)

The first book in Cusk’s “groundbreaking” trilogy of the same name is a “fitting entry point” to her work, said The Guardian. It follows “divorced novelist and mother-of-two” Faye on her journey to Athens to teach a writing course, and unfolds through a series of conversations with people she “meets along the way”. Conventional plot is “practically non-existent” here which turns out to be “revelatory”. “Really, it’s a masterpiece.”

Coventry (2019)

In her first book of essays, Cusk proves her non-fiction can be as “coolly glittering” as her novels, said Dwight Garner in The New York Times. Tackling themes she’s known for – “her obligations as mother, daughter, citizen, artist and breadwinner” – she writes with “candour”, “seriousness”, and a “subtle” touch. These are “first-rate” essays, well worth reading.

Second Place (2021)

This “feverish” novel follows a woman named ‘M’ who invites a “visionary painter” to spend the summer at her remote coastal home, said Emily Watkins in The i Paper. Written as a series in “confessional letter form” to someone called Jeffers, it’s a “delicious” read that’s best devoured in one sitting.

Parade (2024)

Cusk writes about several different artists – each referred to only as ‘G’ – in this “masterful exploration of art and identity”, said Buzz Magazine. This isn’t a new topic for the writer but her language is “always fresh and ambitious”, and her prose is “ablaze with wit”, making it worth “the time it might take to settle in” to this experimental novel.

It is that time of year again, when the smell of fried food fills the air, farmers bring out their biggest livestock to be judged and bakers display their ribbon-winning pies. Almost every state has its own official state fair during the summer or fall, but these eight stand out with their funky foods, hefty produce and adorable animal exhibits.

Alaska

The Last Frontier’s state fair takes place in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, where the “rich” soil and “legendary” 19 hours of daily summer sun produce vegetables of “almost unbelievable size,” said Travel and Leisure. You’ll likely see cabbages weighing more than 100 pounds, broccoli heads big enough to feed a family for a week and sunflowers that “stand taller than most houses.” Massive veggies aren’t the only draw; there’s a midway, lots of food vendors and Alaska Native crafts and cultural demos, which “genuinely reflect” the community. Aug. 21-Sept. 7, 2026

Arizona

The Arizona State Fair is all about the thrills. Head to the Grandstand Arena for heart-pumping monster truck jams and dirt track racing, hit the midway for spins on the coasters and massive ferris wheel and spend the night at Veterans Memorial Coliseum taking in electrifying performances by artists like Public Enemy, The Offspring, Becky G and All Time Low.

While organizers keep the food list under wraps until closer to the fair, previous indulgences have included two ice cream cones joined together and double-dipped in chocolate; candy-stuffed pickles and a cake batter shake topped with a mountain of sprinkles and full-size cupcake. Oct. 1-Nov. 1, 2026

Iowa

When you hear the words “state fair,” Iowa’s event is the one “people picture,” said Travel and Leisure. It’s one of the country’s largest livestock shows, with sheep, cattle, pig, poultry and rabbit exhibitions, draft horse pulling competitions and an Animal Learning Center where babies are born nearly every day.

There’s a “genuine reverence for the farming heritage that built the Midwest,” said Travel and Leisure, and that’s shown through crop displays and the beloved butter cow, a fair staple since 1911. A creamy new bovine is carved every year, and despite the line, “it is always worth it.” If you go during an election year, prepare to see at least one presidential hopeful; this fair is often a campaign stop for Democrats and Republicans. Aug. 13-23, 2026

Kentucky

Come August, equestrians descend on the Kentucky State Fair, a fete that’s “part world-class horse show, part agricultural exhibition,” said Fodor’s. Many of the “top horses and riders” from across the U.S. come to show their stuff and compete in the World’s Championship Horse Show, held in conjunction with the fair.

After horsing around, peruse the quilt displays, agriculture exhibits and arts-and-crafts competitions. On the food side, the fare is “heavily influenced” by Southern and Appalachian cuisine, and “just about everything” is bourbon-infused. Aug. 20-30, 2026

Minnesota

This is more than a fair. Residents call it the “Great Minnesota Get-Together,” and the event — which draws nearly 2 million people a year — feels like a “deeply rooted cultural reunion of the state,” said Fodor’s.

You can listen to live music and hop on rides, but the heart of the fair is “home-grown fun,” like the quirky 4-H Llama-Alpaca Costume Contest, seed and crop art displays and live butter carvings of Princess Kay and her royal court. That creativity extends to the food offerings, with more than 500 vendors bringing their A game. New items this year include pickle pies, apple donut ham grinders, mango sticky rice refreshers and longanisa cheese curd lumpia. Aug. 27-Sept. 7, 2026

New York

Over the last 185 years, New York has perfected the state fair. The festivities started in 1841, and today’s visitors enjoy some of the same activities, like animal exhibitions and farm product demonstrations.

More modern pursuits include catching a concert — this summer’s musical lineup includes Flo Rida, Melissa Etheridge, Third Eye Blind, Quiet Riot, Air Supply and Ashanti — watching corgi races and the Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show, and snacking on chocolate-covered bacon and deep-fried alligator. Swing by the Taste NY Market for a souvenir like locally made cheese, jarred vegetables or olive oil. Aug. 26-Sept. 7, 2026

Texas

Everything’s bigger in Texas, and that includes the state fair. More than 2 million people attend every year and are greeted by Big Tex, the iconic 55-foot cowboy mascot. Across the fairgrounds’ sprawling 277 acres, visitors can experience livestock shows and rodeos, watch a parade and football, pick out their dream car at the Texas Auto Show, devour funnel cakes and go for a ride on the Texas Star ferris wheel.

Concerts are included in the price of admission, with singers and bands performing on three stages. This year’s resident artist is jazz musician Ken Ebo. Sept. 25-Oct. 18, 2026

Wisconsin

Caramel apple cheese curd tacos, egg rolls à la mode, hot honey chicken lemonade and Hawaiian pizza slushes are a mere taste of the intriguing new food and drinks available at the Wisconsin State Fair in 2026. This “inventive” spirit dates back to the earliest days of the fair, and old favorites like the Original Cream Puffs’ namesake confection, introduced in 1924, will also be available, said Time Out.

After filling up on fried and cheesy delicacies, check out the horticulture and art exhibitions, enjoy a show (John Mulaney, The All-American Rejects, Nelly, The Isley Brothers and The Commodores are all performing) and watch Saz’s Famous Racing Pigs to “cheer on your favorite swine,” said Time Out. Aug. 6-16, 2026

While on vacation, eating a comforting hotel breakfast helps start your day off right. Plates of house-made pastries, lavish egg dishes and pancake stacks and a tall glass of freshly-squeezed juice will fuel you for hours of sightseeing, shopping or hanging out at the pool. A breakfast worth getting out of bed for awaits at these 10 properties.

Casa Angelina, Praiano, Italy

When it comes to breakfast with a view, Casa Angelina takes it to the “next level,” said Forbes Travel Guide. This stunning Amalfi Coast boutique hotel overlooks the Tyrrhenian Sea, and guests can enjoy their complimentary meal on a serene terrace. Expect a full spread of homemade breads, tarts and cakes, smoked salmon, charcuterie, salads, fruit and coffee freshly brewed and prepared by a master barista.

Copacabana Palace, Rio de Janeiro

This celebrated resort strikes the perfect balance between being “undeniably grand” and “supremely relaxed,” said Condé Nast Traveler. Breakfast is served in the colorful Pérgula, one of the hotel’s three restaurants. The flavors of Rio shine through every dish, with guests feasting on “everything from turkey-filled tapioca crepes and açaí topped with grated coconut to omelettes and pastries.” Pérgula is just steps from the “irresistible” half-size Olympic pool.

The Federal Inn, Maumee, Ohio

Breakfasts at The Federal Inn are as eclectic as this charming B&B’s decor. No two meals are the same; each morning’s plate depends on what is fresh and at its seasonal peak.

Eggs might be served with homemade brioche and bacon hot from a cast-iron pan, or as part of a breakfast pizza crowned with Boursin cheese and edible flowers straight from the garden. Guests who check in on Friday and Saturday also rave about the flaky pastries baked every weekend. After breakfast, pick up a book from the inn’s library, or choose a record from its curated collection to spin.

Hotel Nesslerhof, Grossarl, Austria

Breakfast by Ness is a signature amenity at the luxe Hotel Nesslerhof, a meal that showcases the regional specialties of this gorgeous stretch of the Austrian Alps. At the buffet, fill your plate with local cheeses, breads, muesli and cured meats like Schopfspeck prepared by the on-site butcher, or order from the à la carte menu and watch as the chefs prepare each dish in the open kitchen. The hotel has a Happiness Concierge Team to ensure you’re delighted with the food and every other aspect of your stay.

Ibiza Gran Hotel, Ibiza, Spain 

You’ve never experienced a morning meal like the one at Ibiza Gran Hotel. The Grand Breakfast buffet is a “thing of Ibiza legend,” with more than 350 items to try, said The Telegraph. Take your pick from a “multitude of stations” serving made-to-order eggs, crepes, churros, cured meats like Ibizan sobrasada, artisan cheeses, freshly shucked oysters and cakes.

Sit in the garden, and flag down the roaming mimosa and caviar carts. It would be easy to “spend all morning here,” if not for the “unfortunate concept of getting full.”

JW Marriott Mumbai Juhu, Mumbai, India

If you want it, they’ve got it at the JW Marriott Mumbai Juhu’s expansive breakfast buffet. The Lotus Cafe’s Sunday Brunch is known around the area for its impressive spread and exceptional service, but the hotel goes all out during weekdays too.

While it specializes in the flavors of India, there is also a substantial Western section, and it’s not unusual to see plates piled high with stuffed parathas, idli, dosa, sausage, bacon and eggs Benedict. Fruit, pastries, meat and cheese platters, cereals and a fresh juice bar complement the hot offerings.

Le Meurice, Paris

At the opulent Le Meurice, a “deliciously, indulgently Parisian” breakfast is served every morning in a “gilded” salon inspired by Versailles, said Condé Nast Traveler. Piping hot coffee is delivered to your table in a silver pot by a bow-tied waiter, pairing perfectly with chef Cédric Grolet’s “eye-rollingly divine” croissants and pain au chocolat. Round out your meal by ordering toast with knobs of French butter, berries and “cloud-fluffy” scrambled eggs.

Prince Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawai‘i

It doesn’t get fresher than this. 100 Sails Restaurant & Bar at Prince Waikiki works with fishers, farmers and other purveyors from across Hawai‘i to present diners with just-caught seafood and produce picked hours ago. The breakfast buffet features Japanese items like vegetable curry, onsen eggs, natto and miso soup, along with fluffy taro pancakes topped with coconut or guava syrup, quiches and local fruits. À la carte options are also available, like a made-to-order omelette and açaí bowl. Snag a table outside to enjoy views of the Pacific Ocean and Ala Wai Yacht Harbor.

Southall Farm & Inn, Franklin, Tennessee

The breakfast menu at Southall Farm & Inn depends on what’s being harvested that day. There is a working farm on the property, and a “majority of ingredients on the plate are grown on premises,” said Condé Nast Traveler. Heirloom produce, honey and eggs are picked and collected right outside your window and become part of the buttermilk biscuits with house honey butter, brisket hash with jalapeño hollandaise and greenhouse lettuce scrambles. At the center of Southall is The Jammery, a zero-waste preservation kitchen where guests can enjoy weekend breakfast and learn more about canning, pickling, curing and fermentation.

Yukairo Kikuya, Izu, Japan

Whether you choose Yukairo Kikuya’s traditional Japanese breakfast or the Western option, it’s going to be a winner. Both come with an outstanding assortment of dishes, tailored to the time of year. The menu often changes, but the Japanese breakfast might include tuna sashimi, fried fish, pickled vegetables, soup and a steaming mug of green tea, with the Western meal featuring a fried egg, sausage, cooked salmon, salad and a croissant. After eating, take a walk around the nearby bamboo forest path, then return for time in the onsen.

The Okavango to Tsodilo Ultra-Trail run, through the wilderness of Botswana, is billed as a great adventure for visitors who “don’t just want to see” this part of Africa, but to “feel it underfoot”, said Simon Mills in The Times. Organised by the safari company Desert & Delta, and now taking place every April, the 60-mile route links two Unesco World Heritage Sites – the Okavango Delta and the ancient Tsodilo Hills. It takes three days and four nights (spent in lodges and camps), and I found the pace pretty “easygoing” (this isn’t a race), leaving time to take in the surroundings. A support vehicle was quickly on site to rescue me when an elephant came alarmingly close. And we ran alongside local people, which made for a deeper sense of connection with Botswana, as did the chance to see the amazing cave art in Tsodilo.

Ancient and new attractions on Lewis

There’s no more impressive sight on the Isle of Lewis than Calanais, said Helen Ochyra in The Times. This neolithic stone circle is a mighty thing, with menhirs up to 4.8m tall, and though it’s smaller than Stonehenge, it’s rather more atmospheric thanks to its setting – all “emerald and russet moorland, glassy lochs and vast hill-rumpled horizons”. Yet it’s far from the only reason to visit the northernmost island in the Outer Hebrides, which has seen several appealing developments since my last visit a decade ago. Among them are new art galleries, restaurants and “cool” cafés in Harris; a new visitor centre at Calanais, with plenty of things for children to do; and Uig Sands, a restaurant with rooms beside the beach of the same name, which is one of the most magnificent in the world.

Inspiring design in the Arizona desert

Built in a piecemeal, “experimental” fashion from 1937 as his winter home and studio, Taliesin West is one of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpieces, said Jonathan Thompson in The Telegraph – an object lesson in the power of design to make us feel “happier” and “more creative”. A low-slung complex set in the desert outside Phoenix, Arizona, it seems to melt into the “rust-coloured” mountains behind it, and its “dramatic” sunlit rooms all feel connected to their natural surroundings. From “ingenious” geometric furniture to acrylic roofs that work as “giant light diffusers”, and “tight” hallways leading into grand open spaces, the “design tricks” Wright used are fascinating. I particularly loved the building’s “prow”, a triangular vantage point that extends over the desert. I left feeling “joyful” and inspired.

In the 1970s, the Costa Brava was “a bright and breezy British holiday favourite”, a package tour favourite that was often confused with the Costas Blanca and del Sol, said Paul Richardson in Condé Nast Traveller. Yet most of Catalonia’s “Wild Coast” has never conformed to this “manufactured” sun, sea and sangria image. Stretching from Blanes, an hour north of Barcelona, to the French border, it’s a “complex jigsaw” of “craggy headlands” and “jewel-like coves”, much of which is too “rugged” for “wholesale tourist development”. It has a history of attracting “artists, actors and bohemians”. And recently, it has seen another “vibe shift”, with a new wave of stylish restaurants and hotels.

Lloret de Mar, in the south, is “the Benidorm of Catalonia”, with its “great sweep of urban beach”, but the further north you go, the wilder – and less built-up – the coast becomes. There are “pleasant” harbour towns such as Palamós and Palafrugell, and then comes the great Bay of Roses, “like a vision of the Mediterranean in its pristine, pre-touristic state”. Beyond that lie lovely Cadaqués and Portlligat (where Salvador and Gala Dalí converted a fisherman’s house in 1930 “to live out their bonkers lifestyle”), and yet more “perfect” little bays, all with sandy beaches and “cerulean” waters. It’s well worth heading inland, too. This region – the Empordà – is known as “the Spanish Tuscany” for the “luxuriant beauty” of its landscape. Set among its olive groves and cork-oak forests are “somnolent” medieval hamlets, such as pretty Madremanya – and also, of course, the “delightful” city of Girona.

The region is known for its “experimental modern cuisine”, and has 15 Michelin-starred restaurants including El Celler de Can Roca, a “world-beating gastro temple” in Girona. Its owners, the Roca brothers, have also opened an “extraordinary” hotel, Esperit Roca, in a fortress nearby. And there are plenty of other pleasant hotels besides, including Palau Fugit, in Girona, and the “glorious” Hostal de la Gavina, in S’Agaró.

When you make a purchase using links on our site, The Week may earn a commission. All reviews are written independently by our editorial team.

Summer is simmering to its end soon, but we still have all of August — and much of September — to tackle that summer reading. No matter what kind of book you’re looking for, this month has a lot to offer, including a sequel that will form the basis of an upcoming season of an HBO series and a Korean coming-of-age story about an immigrant in 1970s New York City.

‘Etna’ by Paul Yoon

Yoon’s story of a former military dog “attempting a treacherous journey home” during the aftermath of a war “rarely moves in expected ways,” said Library Journal. The novel’s narrative structure is an “amalgam of ‘The Odyssey’ and ‘Au Hasard Balthazar,’” portraying Etna as a “heroic figure who bears witness to humanity’s best and worst.” The author’s “fabulist shading” positions the story at a “nexus of grim reality and hopeful fairy tale, enlivening and devastating readers in equal measure” as they watch the dog “reckon with the all-too-human conclusion that one can’t go home again.” (Aug. 4, $28, Simon and Schuster, Amazon)

‘Take What You Can’ by Naima Coster

This touching story about the lifelong friendship between Val and Milly follows the pair from when they met in 2004 as the only Black students in a French study-abroad program, to a decade later when they are both mothers. In this “delicious page-turner,” set in such “alluring locales” as Paris, Provence and Park Slope, Coster brings us “two fascinating, fallible, and sometimes frustrating characters” who are learning to “balance freedom and responsibility — to themselves and their families, both biological and chosen,” said Kirkus Reviews. Writing with “sensitivity, candor and insight,” Coster “compellingly tracks the ups and downs of longstanding friendship, motherhood and daughterhood, marriage and career.” (Aug. 4, $30, Pamela Dorman Books, Amazon)

‘A Tender Age’ by Chang-Rae Lee

In Chang-Rae Lee’s seventh novel, a man “looks back on the small wounds and larger traumas of his youth,” said Kirkus Reviews. Jeon-Gi, the narrator, recalls life as a 10-year-old boy in 1976, a “pivotal time for this son of Korean immigrants.”

In the New York City apartment complex that his family relocates to, the “children’s identities” are based on “racial and ethnic groups, as well as their capacity and willingness to dominate others.” “A Tender Age” is a “melancholy, emotionally rich story of preadolescent struggles.” (Aug. 11, $30, Riverhead Books, Amazon)

‘The Secrets We Hide’ by Karin Slaughter

Slaughter’s “satisfying sequel” to “We Are All Guilty Here” sees Georgia sheriff Emmy Clifton investigate a “complex murder case with the help of her estranged sister,” said Publishers Weekly. Slaughter remains as “skilled as ever at probing the darker side of life in Georgia.” This “bodes well for the future of the series.”

“The Secrets We Hide” demonstrates Slaughter’s “effortless primacy,” said the Financial Times. The latest entry in her North Falls series “deals provocatively with the fallout from a blood-spattered murder involving child abuse and exploitation.” (Aug. 11, $32, Harper Collins Publishers, Amazon)

‘Big Little Truths’ by Liane Moriarty

In this sequel to the bestseller “Big Little Lies,” a decade has passed and the main characters, Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata and Bonnie, are “navigating mothering teenagers,” said Booklist Queen. In the first book, the group of women “bonded as they became embroiled in a homicide investigation,” said Variety.

“Big Little Truths” will be the basis for season three of the HBO series based on the books. Moriarty isn’t “particularly hands-on with the show.” Still, while the series team “didn’t have any input on the plot of the new book,” they did “inspire some of her writing.” (Aug. 25, $34, Crown, Amazon)

The psychotherapist and author of "Grief Works" picks books that changed how she understands dying and grief. She will be speaking at the inaugural Big Brue festival of ideas in Bruton, Somerset, 19-20 September.

Grief Counselling and Grief Therapy

J. William Worden, 1982

This is a book for therapists, but valuable to anyone. Worden’s four tasks of mourning helped us move away from the rigid idea that grief follows fixed stages. We cannot control the loss, but we can engage with the work of adapting to it. That idea offers agency when life feels helpless.

With the End in Mind

Kathryn Mannix, 2017

Drawing on decades in palliative medicine, Mannix tells stories of ordinary people as they approach death. She writes with such compassion and clarity that the frightening becomes more knowable. It’s a book that helps us prepare for the deaths of those we love and have the conversations we often avoid.

The Grieving Brain

Mary-Frances O’Connor, 2022

A neuroscientist, O’Connor explains that grief is a form of learning. After someone dies, the brain must slowly update its understanding of the world. She helps explain the yearning, confusion and repetition of grief, while offering the deeply reassuring knowledge that adaptation takes time.

Continuing Bonds

Dennis Klass, Phyllis R. Silverman and Steven L. Nickman, 1996

This collection challenges the old belief that we should detach from the person who died – forget and move on. Instead, it shows that the relationship carries on, in a changed form. Death ends a life, but the love never dies.

The Year of Magical Thinking

Joan Didion, 2005

Didion’s account of her husband’s sudden death captures the strange logic of grief with great precision. She shows how the mind knows someone has died while another part still expects them to return. It is fiercely personal, yet almost every bereaved reader will recognise something of themselves within it.

The life of the artist Richard Dadd “makes for quite a story”, said Mark Hudson in The Independent. Dadd (1817-86) was a talented painter who began to display signs of schizophrenia during a tour of the Near East.

Then in 1843, he murdered his father during a “psychotic episode”, believing him to be a devil. He spent the rest of his life incarcerated in Bethlem Hospital (Bedlam) and Broadmoor, where he continued to paint; the bustling fairy scenes he created are some of the “most haunting” images in the history of British art. He was almost forgotten until the 1960s, when his exquisitely precise, visionary works became popular in the hippy era. Dadd has remained a cult figure ever since, but in an era of greater mental health awareness, it feels timely that the Royal Academy (where he trained as a young man) is revisiting his art with unprecedented sensitivity. The first major exhibition devoted to this archetypal “outsider” in more than 50 years, it surveys his entire career and poses the question: how did mental illness affect Dadd’s paintings?

The show encourages us to see Dadd as more than a “mad” artist, said Jonathan Jones in The Guardian. And it’s true that he was already “remarkable” before his incarceration. Fairies – a common subject in the Victorian era – were his “hit theme”: not “Disneyfied fairies”, but the “sinister and destructive” beings seen in Shakespeare. His Puck, for instance, is “personified as a giant baby irradiated by lunar light”, perched on a toadstool. Dadd’s paintings from Bedlam, however, are “brutally different”.

His “masterpiece”, “The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke”, painted over nine years from 1855, represents a total break with existing pictorial convention: between tall, magnified strands of grass and vegetation you can make out “a detailed portrayal of fairy society”. The “tiny folk” are not beautiful, but often malformed – as if he were showing us “natural history specimens observed through a microscope”. In the end, “you can’t get away from it. Dadd was an interesting artist before Bedlam but became a great one in it.”

Dadd wasn’t a true outsider artist, said Alastair Sooke in The Daily Telegraph. He was “trained as well as talented”, as the “dull”, conventional opening room shows. Even in the asylum, he remained “in sync with mainstream Victorian art”: there are costumes, Orientalist themes, pre-Raphaelite touches. Yet the “originality of his vision” is never in doubt – Dadd’s art was singular, hallucinatory, and enlivened by an “ironic wit”. Even his conventional travel scenes have strange, surrealist-like touches: “The Artist’s Halt in the Desert” (c.1845) shows the Moon skewered by a lance, “like a marshmallow on a stick”. Dadd gave form to “those shadowy, sometimes bedevilling thoughts that dwell in the hinterland of consciousness” – and this is a weird but “compelling” exhibition.

Royal Academy, London W1. Until 25 October

As wildfires and record-breaking heat ravage the planet, movie theaters offer the promise of a blessedly dark, air-conditioned escape from reality. And with audiences flocking back to the theaters in numbers not seen since 2019, they have plenty to choose from this month.

‘One Night Only’

“One Night Only” is set in an alternate reality New York where unmarried people can only get it on one night a year. Cue the meet-cute between Allie (Monica Barbaro) and Owen (Callum Turner), both of whom had expected to be spending the night with others.

Despite the dystopian premise, director Will Gluck (“Easy A”) keeps the proceedings firmly in rom-com territory, letting the chemistry between Barbaro (“A Complete Unknown”) and Turner (“Masters of the Air”) crackle. The film features “all the raunchy trimmings of a traditional sex comedy but veers towards more heartfelt territory,” said Shania Russell at Entertainment Weekly. (in theaters Aug. 7)

‘The End of Oak Street’

What if your neighborhood became “Jurassic Park”? That’s the delightfully goofy premise director David Robert Mitchell (“It Follows”) leans into. The Platts look on with astonishment when their idyllic 1970s neighborhood appears to be transported way back in time.

Greg (Ewan McGregor) and Denise (Anne Hathaway) must work with their neighbors to save their kids, Audrey (Maisy Stella) and Brian (Christian Convery), and themselves, fending off dinosaurs and trying to figure out what the heck happened. A “throwback in the best way,” Mitchell’s Spielbergian film delivers a “truly unique premise in a fashion that's warmly recognizable,” said Bill Bria at SlashFilm. (in theaters Aug. 14)

‘The Wrong Girls’

In director Dylan Meyer’s “The Wrong Girls,” Kristen Stewart (“Twilight”) and Alia Shawkat (“Search Party”) star as Frankie and Molly, respectively, a “Broad City”-esque pair of screw-up potheads who are late on their rent. When they take a new designer drug, it gives them the ability to communicate telepathically, including with a cat named Dio, voiced by Seth Rogan. It “looks like classic stoner stuff,” said Travis Hopson at Punch Drunk Critics, including “psychedelic mind trips, talking animals, goofy villains and enough bong hits to make Cheech & Chong jealous.” (in theaters Aug. 14)

‘It Ends’

Horror is all the rage with Gen Z, and movies featuring characters trapped in liminal spaces, like “Backrooms,” are also having a moment. Akira Jackson (“Against the Spread”) is Day, one of four college friends who head out for food and find themselves trapped on an endless road.

As they ponder their bizarre fate, they rationalize, philosophize and work through longstanding issues. A “hangout horror movie rife with existential anxieties,” this “brilliant” film serves as a “stark reflection of what it feels like to peek beneath the surface of one’s being,” said Siddhant Adlakha at Variety. (in theaters Aug. 21)

‘The Dog Stars’

Director Ridley Scott tackles Peter Heller’s best-selling post-apocalyptic novel, set years after a virus wipes out most of humanity. Hig (Jacob Elordi) is a pilot holed up in a Colorado airport hangar with his dog, Jasper, and an ex-Marine named Bangley (Josh Brolin).

Hig spends his days tooling around in an old Cessna, looking for supplies, survivors or signs of life, trying to stay ahead of scavengers known as Reapers, when he is drawn outside the perimeter and finds Cima (Margaret Qualley). Heller’s elegiac novel is an “ideal fit” for Scott and his “blockbuster sensibilities and stories of underdog heroes,” said Ben Travis at Empire. (in theaters Aug. 28)

‘The Sun Never Sets’

Mumblecore auteur Joe Swanberg (“Easy”) returns with this Alaska-set romantic drama. Twenty-something Wendy (Dakota Fanning) is dating Jack (Jake Johnson), an older father of two who loves her but isn’t interested in having any more kids.

Jack encourages her to take a summer to reflect, when she unexpectedly reconnects with her ex, Chuck (Cory Michael Smith). Swanberg has painted a “masterful portrait of humanity’s inability to figure out what we actually want,” said Christian Zilko at IndieWire. (in theaters Aug. 28)

Written and directed by Warrington-born Helen Walsh, “On the Sea” is a “yearningly tender” drama about sex and love set in a small fishing community in north Wales, said David Sexton in The New Statesman. Jack (Barry Ward) is a careworn middle-aged man who has spent his whole life here, working for the family mussel-farming business, and the film opens with a “lovely, rhythmic sequence” – showing the work of gathering and cleaning mussels – which “masterfully” establishes the world he inhabits. Jack is married to his teenage sweetheart Maggie (Liz White), with whom he has a wayward son, and has never acknowledged that he is gay. Then he meets Daniel (Lorne MacFadyen), “a hunky young itinerant deckhand” who “has no such qualms about his sexuality”. Soon, they are going out fishing together, and on the sea, they gradually “find a world of their own”.

Shades of “God’s Own Country” and “Brokeback Mountain” “hover above this thoughtful” tale of forbidden love in a tough community, said Kevin Maher in The Times. You might wonder how long we can keep producing dramas that depend for their tension on a level of “foam-flecked homophobia” more redolent of 1960s Wyoming than the UK in 2026. Still, “gay panic” persists in this village, and “On the Sea” amounts to a carefully observed study of “masculinity under pressure”, as Jack must try to “juggle his multiple fragile identities”. There are some pacing issues, said Alex Davidson in Sight and Sound: too much time is devoted to Jack’s relationships with secondary characters. But the connection between the two men is “sensitively portrayed”, the performances are strong, and the film makes excellent use of its Anglesey locations.

“E. Jean Carroll has had quite a life,” said Alissa Wilkinson in The New York Times. She made her name as a gonzo journalist, writing first-person features for Esquire and Playboy, before becoming an advice columnist at Elle magazine: her long-running “Ask E. Jean” column became so popular that it was turned into a chat show.

Then, in 2019, she made international news headlines when she accused President Trump of having raped her in a department store changing room in the mid-1990s. Trump branded her a liar, insisting she was not his “type”. Carroll sued him for sexual abuse and defamation, leading to two civil court trials, which she won. Trump recently paid her $5.6 million (£4.1 million) in damages over one; he has yet to pay a penny for the other.

In this documentary, Carroll guides viewers through her career, her decision to break her silence about Trump’s abuse, and the “harrowing experience of going up against one of the most powerful men in the world – twice”.

This is a “solid, unshowy” film, said Wendy Ide in The Observer, which contains some extremely powerful moments, including a present-day conversation in which Carroll talks to her best friend about how she felt immediately after the attack, and her decision not to report it. Yet we learn that, back in the 1990s, she advised abused women to “always press charges” – which creates a “jarring dissonance”.

Still, the documentary is sympathetic to its subject, who comes across as unexpectedly “magnetic” – “curious, mischievous and candid”, said Angie Han in The Hollywood Reporter. In the public imagination, Carroll, now 82, has been defined by someone else’s crime; the film paints a broad portrait of “a figure far more interesting than the bad thing that happened to her”.

For more than 50 years, David Thomson has been “watching and writing about movies and hanging out with movie people”, said Ed Potton in The Times. The author of more than 40 books, including the highly influential “The New Biographical Dictionary of Film” (1975), he is “unique in his field”, being “intellectual, opinionated, informed and funny”. Now, at the age of 85, Thomson has written a book “billed as the capstone of his career”. A history of the movies, “from the Lumière brothers to the Coen brothers”, from “Psycho” to “Pretty Woman” to Jean-Luc Godard, it also covers much else besides: “we get detours to John Keats, Gustav Mahler, Werner Heisenberg and Tracey Emin, none of which feels dilettantish”. Thomson also celebrates the “written word”, and suggests that novels are in many ways superior to films. Written in a style that “veers between conspiratorial and donnish”, this book has the “learning of an encyclopaedia, the wisdom of a novel and the zingers of a screwball comedy”.

While he remains as obsessed by film as ever, Thomson is increasingly fearful that “movies may be bad for us”, said Mark Glancy in Literary Review. There is, of course, nothing new about claims that they shorten attention spans and flatten our sense of evil. But Thomson suggests such anxieties have been “given new weight and immediacy by the rise of Donald Trump, with his constant demand for our attention and his indifference to morality”. It’s an argument which seems, alas, a bit of a “rabbit hole”. Fortunately, such “wintry and sombre ponderings” don’t take up too much space, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. For the most part, this book is a “straightforwardly rapturous, rhapsodic celebration of the extraordinary adventure of cinema”, written by an author who, despite his advanced age, is as “eccentric, exasperating and absorbing as ever”.

Get the kids out of the house and keep them entertained this summer with these fun, memorable activities around the UK.

Bat punting, Cambridge

Although bats are associated with Halloween, the best time to see the nocturnal creatures “fluttering around” is actually in the summertime, said The Guardian. One of the “most atmospheric ways” to see bats is on the Bat Safari Punting tour along the River Cam. Catch a trip with a local wildlife guide on a Friday or Saturday evening until the end of September for a chance to hear the “clicks and squeaks” of the pipistrelle and Daubenton’s bats. In late July and August, you might even spot “mothers and pups in tandem flight in the night sky”.

Family tickets from £63 (50% of ticket sales goes to the local Wildlife Trust)

Dolphin watching, Moray Firth, Scotland

For marine life lovers, the Scottish Dolphin Centre in Spey Bay is a great place to spot the “hardy bunch” of bottlenose dolphins who live in the waters north of Inverness, said The Guardian. In the summer months you are more likely to spot them “throwing fish and leaping from the water”. The centre, a former fishing station, is also a “hub of marine learning” offering tours of the old ice house, an interactive exhibition, summer “river rambles” and “nature-themed holiday clubs”.

Entry is free

Winnie the Pooh celebration at Tatton Park, Cheshire

This summer, Tatton Park is celebrating 100 years of the “whimsical world of Pooh and friends”, said The Telegraph. Visitors of all ages will be “charmed” by the garden story trail and the accompanying exhibit. Look for Christopher Robin in the maze before popping into the secondhand bookshop.

Tickets from £12 for children aged four-15; £20 for adults

West Midlands Safari Park, Worcester

If you’re looking to push the boat out with an overnight trip, consider staying in the “stunning” lodges at West Midlands Safari Park, said Stylist. A night here is “unfiltered magic” that “layers nostalgia with science” and “theatre with husbandry”, said The Standard. You can still see rhinos, meerkats, elephants, and more at the park even if you just decide to visit for the day.

Day tickets, £17.40; lodges from £500 per night

World of Beatrix Potter museum, Cumbria

For anyone who read Beatrix Potter’s beautifully illustrated books as a child, or who reads them to their own children or grandchildren now, this museum brings “Peter Rabbit’s world to life”, said The Telegraph. The attraction also offers themed afternoon tea and live shows.

Summer saver tickets from £6.83 for children aged three-16; £11.03 for adults

Crabbing, Cromer, Norfolk

For a “quintessentially British day out” go crabbing at the “gorgeous” Cromer beach in Norfolk, said Stylist. There's no better place to “pull up a chair and sink your bait” than the “home to the world championships of crabbing”. For even more fun try visiting in August to catch the Cromer Carnival that’s “old-school bucket-and-spade fun”, said The Telegraph. It’s a “gloriously traditional seaside” event with a “funfair” atmosphere. The best part? Taking part is free.

When you make a purchase using links on our site, The Week may earn a commission. All reviews are written independently by our editorial team.

There is no paucity in veganism. Plant-based eating — phenomenally delicious plant-based eating, that is — has long existed in many of the world’s great cuisines. As with any kind of cooking, how a dish tastes is all in how it is cooked. Cook it poorly, with mediocre ingredients, and you get an insipid meal. Prepare it with care, smart technique and sublime ingredients? Welcome to the world of top-tier vegan cooking. These six cookbooks all show you how to achieve that goal, from six different angles.

‘Cool Beans: The Ultimate Guide to Cooking With the World’s Most Versatile Plant-Based Protein, With 125 Recipes’ by Joe Yonan

An adeptness, a fluidity, a knowingness with beans is a godsend when cooking vegan. It is akin to learning a new alphabet, then hurtling toward fluency using that new language’s architecture. With “Cool Beans,” the author, Joe Yonan, convinces you to “handily add beans to your cooking arsenal,” said Eater. Over the course of the book, he “evokes the incredible versatility of the bean,” said Daniel Modlin at The Daily Beast, with recipes like Nigerian Stewed Black Eyed Peas with fried plantains, Tunisian Chickpea Stew that “will change your winter” and Cuban Style Black Beans that will have you gladly not “make any other kind of black beans” again. ($33, Ten Speed Press, Amazon)

‘The Korean Vegan Cookbook: Reflections and Recipes from Omma’s Kitchen’ by Joanne Lee Molinaro

If you pay the slightest attention to food or cooking on social media, you may already know Joanne Lee Molinaro, aka The Korean Vegan. Her lush videos lure and enjoin viewers to try their hand at her style of vegan cooking.

Molinaro, in her debut, namesake book, “masterfully intertwines delicious recipes with intimate moments from her life, sharing how her Asian American identity has been shaped by her family’s cooking,” said Julia Duarte at Bon Appétit. Americans might think of Korean food as meat-centric, but Molinaro learns from a Korean monk that “Korean plant-based eating is not a new idea. Korean temple food, the cuisine prepared by Korean Buddhist monks, has been around for a thousand years, predating Korean BBQ and bibimbap.” Korean vegan food being novel or a bastardization? As if. ($37, Avery, Amazon)

‘Provecho: 100 Vegan Mexican Recipes to Celebrate Culture and Community’ by Edgar Castrejón

Let us begin with aguachile. Bright, supple and plucky, it is a staple seafood treatment in some coastal regions of Mexico. Author Edgar Castrejón, when he decided to no longer consume animal products, realized an apt substitute for fish, shrimp and their kin is young coconut. The same slip and bite, nary an animal employed.

Such is the galvanizing approach that anchors “Provecho,” a book that proclaims the monumental possibility of Mexican veganism. There are jackfruit tacos, cauliflower roasted in the semi-style of carne asada, pozole rojo loaded with mushrooms. These are “quick, relatively straightforward recipes,” said Library Journal, that are a “solid starting point” for people who want to play in a vegan remodel of the Mexican-cooking playground. ($35, Ten Speed Press, Amazon)

‘Superiority Burger Cookbook: The Vegetarian Hamburger Is Now Delicious’ by Brooks Headley

Come for the recipe for the New York City restaurant’s legendary vegetable burger, stay for the monstrously delicious dishes that orbit that burger’s well-deserved fame. What with a battery of ingredients, making the burger is an ordeal of sorts, but the result is a paragon of the genre: “crisp outside and a soft but not-boring inside that’s lightly spiced and spicy, with plenty of vegetables and meat-free umami,” said Josephine Scott at Edible Manhattan.

Not every recipe in the text is vegan, but most are — or can be made so. Dishes like burnt broccoli salad, salt-and-vinegar string beans and BBQ carrots with cashew cream and corn chips are “infinitely craveable, combining textures and flavors in unexpected ways,” said Library Journal. 224 pages of incontrovertible evidence that vegan cooking can electrify. ($30, Norton, Amazon)

‘The Vegan Chinese Kitchen: Recipes and Modern Stories From a Thousand-Year-Old Tradition’ by Hannah Che

Hannah Che discovered that her present-day vegan approach to eating has a centuries-old history in China. The book she created as she pulled the thread from her present to her ancestral past is “as much a cookbook as it is a historical document and educational resource to turn to time and again,” said Dayna Evans at Eater.

There is, of course, a chapter on tofu that shows readers how to treat it like both a hearty stew and an invigorating salad, among endless other treatments including an additional chapter on tofu skin. Bonus: “Many of the dishes are served room temperature or cold — which means that not only are they great for do-ahead entertaining, but also that they’re great for summer picnics and potlucks,” said Leslie Brenner at Cooks Without Borders. ($35, Clarkson Potter, Amazon)

‘Vegetable Kingdom: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes’ by Bryant Terry

In “Vegetable Kingdom,” Bryant Terry, a food justice advocate and author, skips across the Black and African diaspora, pulling inspiration from boundless sources. Spinach salad with blackened chickpeas, a panko-crusted cauliflower take on the Kenyan chicken and coconut curry called kuku paka, jerk tofu enveloped in collards — this is a book for “anyone who wants to expand their vegan cooking repertoire and make their beans and greens more exciting,” said Bettina Makalintal at Bon Appétit.

For people with children, know this: Terry wrote “Vegetable Kingdom” in part to show kids, including his own, how thrilling vegetables can be. The book is a tool to “provide a few recipes for vegetables — something that’s simple and easy — that might be a way to sneak a vegetable in as an initial contact” for picky kids, he said to The Kitchn. ($30, Ten Speed Press, Amazon)

The school holidays are here, marking the start of the Summer Reading Challenge for four- to 11-year-olds. Kids up and down the country are being encouraged to sign up online or visit their local library to get involved. For every book they read, they’ll be rewarded with stickers and character cards, and if they tick off six titles they can expect a certificate and medal.

Whether your little one has signed up for the challenge, or you’re looking for the perfect present for your niece or nephew, here are some fun, absorbing books to help spark a love of reading.

Dogs and bears by Max Porter, ages 3-6

“KRUMP! POFF! The dogs and the bears are brawling again,” said Imogen Russell Williams in The Guardian. “What will it take to cool off their combat?” Dorotheé de Monfreid’s “vigorous” illustrations combine perfectly with Porter’s “wittily portentous text” in this “highly original” book about squabbling animals.

Who Says Moo? by Axel Scheffler, ages 3-6

The latest board book from Scheffler, illustrator of “The Gruffalo”, will instantly draw in younger children, said Emily Bearn in The Telegraph. Follow Little Calf as she meets different animals on the farm: will she ever learn to say “moo”? Scheffler’s sheep, ducks, pigs and cockerels are “expressive and instantly legible, inviting even the youngest children to point, name and imitate”.

Monsieur Mustard by Charley Rabbit, ages 5-9

When Fabio Fangtooth goes missing from his restaurant, it’s up to the “charming mouse detective”, Monsieur Mustard, to figure out what happened, said Anna Bonet in The i Paper. But he soon gets “tangled in an even bigger mystery”. Bringing together “graphic novel elements with classic detective storytelling”, this beautifully illustrated book is a “witty and inventive” read.

Detective Thingy Majiggy by Cecelia Ahern, ages 7+

The bestselling author of “PS, I Love You” has written her first book for children. It's about “a 10-year-old girl who can hold conversations with inanimate objects”, said Bearn in The Telegraph. When Mia is accused of starting a fire at her school, can a “broken toaster” help to “prove her innocence”? The “chatty, accessible” narration will help Ahern’s book find “wide appeal”.

The Common Criminals’ Club: Death Before Detention by Alison Weatherby, ages 9+

This cosy murder mystery is set in a rural Irish Catholic boarding school. When a dead body is discovered in the kitchen, “Mae and her friends are determined to solve the mystery”, said Russell Williams in The Guardian. “Funny” and “twisty”, with an “irresistible heroine and a fantastically distinctive voice”, Weatherby’s book is perfect for fans of bestselling children's author Robin Stevens.

The Not-So Great Escape by Emma Green, ages 9+

When tragedy strikes, “risk-averse” 12-year-old Hedley finds himself on a road trip adventure with his younger sister Lilly, “troublemaker” Aiden and a “stolen alpaca”, said James Lovegrove in the Financial Times. “Silly” and fun with a “heart-rending twist” at the end, it’s a gripping read.

Look closely and you’ll notice a tiny imperfection inside the freshly refurbished Oliver Messel Suite at The Dorchester, on London’s Park Lane. A hairline crack, less than an inch long, is just perceptible in the corner of a mirrored door leading through to the drawing room. But that isn’t because the five-star hotel has scrimped on the restoration work – far from it.

Dreamt up by master theatre designer, Oliver Messel, in 1953, the breathtaking suite is Grade II listed, which means nothing can ever change. Specialist decorators have spent thousands of hours painstakingly refreshing the paintwork, reupholstering the furnishings, and replacing the silk wall-hangings with fabric that matches the designs from over seven decades earlier.

Tearing out an entire mirror, however, isn’t possible. So you’re left to ponder which of the suite’s famous guests could be responsible for this miniature flaw… could it have been Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton during a fiery outburst? Or did Kate Moss knock against the door during a wild party in the 1990s?

Whoever it was, it’s a charming reminder of how time has stood still here. And really, that’s the suite’s key draw: whether you’re getting ready for the evening in the gilded bathroom or lying in bed staring up at the yellow canopy, you can’t help but feel like a Hollywood star.

Messel’s playful design details

You know you’re staying somewhere exclusive when all of the other rooms on the floor are numbered, but your door is embossed with gold lettering proudly announcing The Oliver Messel Terrace Suite. But the most memorable moment comes as you step inside for the first time and catch a glimpse of the Regency-era inspired reception room with its thick red carpet and floral chairs. Beyond it, the long white corridor beckons and you wonder: how big is this place?

Enormous, it turns out. Exploring our lodgings in amazement (I brought my mum along with me), we discover the corridor leads to a bright, spacious drawing room. Decorated in shades of green, yellow and pink to mimic an English garden, there are gold details at every turn, an imposing marble fireplace and freshly cut roses in a vase on the mahogany dining table.

Everything has been carefully curated by Messel himself, from his own 18th-century-style landscape paintings that decorate the walls to the playful shelf of leatherbound book spines that turn out to be a mirrored cabinet filled with glassware for entertaining. There are subtle modern additions too, including a flatscreen TV hidden beneath one of the paintings.

The drama doesn’t end there. Curved French doors open onto your own private terrace (curated by English designer Luke Edward Hall) that wraps around the suite and looks out over the city’s rooftops. Up on the seventh floor of the hotel, it’s so peaceful and quiet that it’s hard to believe the busy thoroughfare of Park Lane is just below. My favourite detail of the space, dotted with pots of flowers, shrubs and garden furniture, is the reclining green wicker chair topped with yellow cushions: you can imagine Marlene Dietrich lounging in the sun here with a whiskey sour.

Hollywood glamour in spades

A knock on the door turns out to be our butler, Richard. Anywhere else this would be completely surreal but here, in this lavish setting, it almost feels as if you’ve been expecting him.

Charming and fun, he instantly puts us at ease, telling us about the suite’s distinguished guests (Whitney Houston, Diana Ross and Prince, to name a few), sharing fascinating historical titbits, and even helping us to open one of the windows. “Every last detail is exactly the same as it was all those years ago,” he says with a grin, and then he leaves as discreetly as he arrived, telling us his team of butlers is at our disposal any time day or night.

By the time we venture into the bedroom, we’re both at a loss for words. Dreamlike and cosy, almost everything in sight is a warm, golden yellow, from the curtain tassels to the imperial yellow Ottoman silk canopy above the enormous (and very comfortable) king-size bed. Framed costume designs by Messel line the walls, and the skirted dressing table is topped with a vintage perfume atomiser with a puffy spray bulb and, of course, a bowl of yellow roses.

The Hollywood glamour spills into the bathroom next door where you’ll find a bathtub with gold-plated taps in the shape of a stylised dolphin, a green marble shower, and a dizzying infinity mirror. You can feel how much fun Messel had here. His trademark mischievous touches are everywhere: the gold Rococo toilet seat shaped like a giant scallop shell is sure to raise a few eyebrows – which is exactly the point.

London is filled with luxury hotels. But this felt different: spending the night in the Oliver Messel Suite isn’t just about extravagance (which it is – very much so!). This is a rare opportunity to step back in time and escape, just for a few hours, into the whimsical world of a stage designer. There is nothing else quite like it.

Irenie was a guest of The Dorchester; dorchestercollection.com

If you have watched Christopher Nolan's adaptation of “The Odyssey” and feel inspired to embark on an epic journey of your own, consider visiting these stunning locations where key scenes of the movie were filmed. The director and his crew shot in six countries to bring Odysseus’ voyage to life, from the sand dunes of Morocco to the rugged cliffs of Scotland.

Italy

Begin your journey where it started for Odysseus, at his home, Ithaca. Instead of filming on the actual Greek island in the Ionian Sea, Nolan chose to shoot the scenes on Favignana, off the coast of Sicily. Known as the “butterfly island” because of its shape it’s an “easy” ferry ride from Sicily’s Trapani port, said Wanderlust.

The 15th-century “ruined fortress” on the top of the hill “made for the perfect stand-in” for Odysseus’ palace. It had the “most epic landscape” where you could “see the water everywhere you were and the ships [used for filming] could pull up”, said the film’s production designer, Ruth De Jong, for Condé Nast Traveler. However, getting these shots of the water and ships required a 30-minute hike. Despite the “daily challenge”, the crew soon “got into it”. The actual interior for the film’s palace was a set in Los Angeles.

Greece

If you’re reliving a Greek epic, a visit to Greece is, of course, a must. For those feeling brave, visit Nestor’s Cave in the Peloponnese region, which was the filming site for the Cyclops sequence. The crew had to “haul a 60-foot animatronic monster” up to the cave every day because of Nolan’s “aversion” to using green screen, said Wanderlust.

The homecoming of King Agamemnon was filmed in areas outside Messenia and near Athens where the windiness “worked well” with all the flags and the banners in the sequence, De Jong told Condé Nast Traveler. The area gives visitors a holiday that “blends history, mythology, nature and luxury”, with “dramatic beaches” and “ancient palaces”, said Travel and Tour World.

Morocco

Next stop were the “undulating sand dunes” and “mud-brick buildings” of Morocco, said British Vogue. The country brought an “authentically ancient atmosphere” to the film, with the Unesco-listed village of Aït Benhaddou, used as the city of Troy. The group of “earthen buildings surrounded by high walls” has been a “desirable” filming location for many other historical blockbusters including “Gladiator” and “Lawrence of Arabia”.

Scotland

Even though Odysseus “would never have gone to Scotland”, the location “just happened to have the look that we liked”, De Jong told Condé Nast Traveler. The “craggy rocks” and verdant cliffside just outside Cullen in the Highlands, were the perfect place for the witch Circe’s home. And the “atmospheric ruins” of the Findlater Castle, by the Moray Firth, became the backdrop for one of the “most unnerving scenes” of the film when Circe “turns Odysseus’ crew into gluttonous pigs”, said Wanderlust. Visitors can see the site by walking the Moray Coastal Trail. Consider heading west to the sprawling Culbin Forest, too. Although you won’t encounter Laestrygonian giants, you can still enjoy the “wonderful views” and “biodiversity”.

Iceland

This was the one country Nolan knew he wanted to “shoot in from the jump”, said Condé Nast Traveler. The “black sands” and caves of the Hjörleifshöfði mountain were perfect for the “remote” and “otherworldly scene” where Odysseus “journeys to the underworld to consult with the blind Theban prophet, Tiresias”, said British Vogue.

When you make a purchase using links on our site, The Week may earn a commission. All reviews are written independently by our editorial team.

A good coffee table book can spark infinite conversations, and this is especially true when the focus is on travel. Guests connect over destinations they’ve visited or dream of seeing, sharing memories and tips, and the spectacular photography might also encourage them to pick up a camera and better document their future trips. Stack these books in your living room, and see how they inspire.

‘African Adventures: The Greatest Safari on Earth’ by Aline Coquelle

Let photographer Aline Coquelle show you Africa through her eyes. The book is split into four experiences: seeing Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, the Okavango Delta in Botswana, the Great Migration in Kenya and the silverback mountain gorillas in Rwanda.

“African Adventures” features “epic” wildlife photos of baby elephants learning to walk and protective lionesses with their cubs along with snaps of the “most beautiful” boutique lodges, said Condé Nast Traveler. Coquelle’s “stunning” photography also offers a “deeper exploration” of each area’s “talented contemporary artists, artisans and conservationists.” ($120, Assouline)

‘Destinations of a Lifetime: 225 of the World’s Most Amazing Places’ by National Geographic

“Destinations of a Lifetime” combines the breathtaking photography National Geographic is known for with helpful insider information on how to visit like a local and the histories of each spot. Chapters include “Sea and Shore,” “Mountain Majesty” and “Town & Country,” showcasing different locales and pulling together itineraries that allow you to see as many of these connected places as possible. If you’re stuck on the next country or city you want to visit, flip through “Destinations of a Lifetime,” pick any page and you’ll be booking a plane ticket in no time. ($21, Amazon)

‘Dream Trips of the World’ by Lonely Planet

This comprehensive guide explores 100 spectacular travel opportunities, including witnessing the Northern Lights in Norway, cruising down the Nile River and visiting Bhutan’s monasteries. Each trip featured is accompanied by a detailed itinerary on where to go and what to see, tips on places to eat and how to pack, beautiful photography, and comments from local residents and travel experts on ways to best approach the destination. ($45, Lonely Planet)

‘Gray Malin: Dogs’ by Gray Malin

Welcome to the whimsical world of fine-art photographer Gray Malin and his model pups. Malin took his canine muses on his travels, capturing the dogs as they relaxed poolside at the Beverly Hills Hotel, took a ski lift in Aspen and explored the streets of London. Use this as inspiration for places to go with your own pooch. ($50, Barnes & Noble)

‘Great Maps: The World’s Masterpieces Explored and Explained’ by Jerry Brotton

This collection of 64 highly detailed maps spanning “continents and centuries” is a “pleasure to peruse,” said Reader’s Digest. Historian Jerry Brotton digs deep, explaining why each map was created and who its audience was. The two-page spreads bring the illustrations to life, and anyone who enjoys “maps, data, visualization and history” will spend hours poring over the book. ($21, Amazon)

‘100 Hikes of a Lifetime U.S.A.: The Country’s Ultimate Scenic Trails’ by Stephanie Pearson

When choosing which quests to feature in her book, Stephanie Pearson selected some challenging ones that will test your mettle. She also included “incredible” opportunities that “aren’t necessarily long and difficult,” letting hikers of all abilities “see migrating birds, walk in the footsteps of ancient humans” or learn a “little-known slice of American history,” she told Outside. You’ll find extreme adventures, like the 6,800-mile American Discovery Trail from California to Delaware, alongside day hikes families can accomplish together. ($29, Amazon)

‘Slim Aarons: The Essential Collection’ by Slim Aarons and Shawn Waldron

After spending World War II as a U.S. Army photographer, Slim Aarons vowed to only take photos of “attractive people who were doing attractive things in attractive places.” He stayed true to his word, famously shooting the “playgrounds of Gstaad and Mallorca, Bali and Beverly Hills,” said Vanity Fair. “Slim Aarons: The Essential Collection” features hundreds of his renowned portraits of “socialites and literary lights, royals and moguls, ingenues and artists,” and his focus on “tiny design elements” give “each frame an extra layer of texture, color and nuance.” ($121, Amazon)

‘There and Back: Photographs from the Edge’ by Jimmy Chin

Mountaineer and “Free Solo” director Jimmy Chin doesn’t shy from extremes, and “There and Back” is filled with “jaw-dropping imagery” from his adventures around the globe, said Condé Nast Traveler. The “soaring formations” of the Ennedi Desert in Chad and “frozen expanses” of Antarctica’s Queen Maud Land are some of the “thrilling” natural wonders featured in the book, which is “sure to inspire” the “adventurer in your life.” ($21, Amazon)

‘Treasured Lands: A Photographic Odyssey Through America’s National Parks’ by QT Luong

Every U.S. National Park shines in “Treasured Lands.” More than 600 vivid images show off the beauty of each spot, from the tight Slot Canyons of Zion to the jagged Grand Teton peaks reflected in the Schwabacher Landing pond. Photographer QT Luong took the pictures during all four seasons and in all kinds of weather, and explains in captions how and when each stunning visual was captured. ($90, Amazon)

‘Walk With Me: New York’ by Susan Kaufman

Everyone knows what the Empire State Building and Brooklyn Bridge look like. In “Walk With Me: New York,” photographer Susan Kaufman captures a side of the city that postcards miss, turning her camera toward colorful stoops, charming park corners and quaint storefronts. It’s a fresh look at one of the world’s most photographed places. ($26, Amazon)

“This place literally changed the world,” says guide Zach Ozburn as we tour Sun Studio, standing on the spot where Elvis Presley was discovered, where Johnny Cash recorded “I Walk the Line”, where B. B. King recorded “3 O’Clock Blues”, and where a collection of other globally influential artists made some of their earliest recordings in the 1950s (among them Ike Turner, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins). “Together, these artists transformed music – in less than 10 years.”

Elvis recorded his first hit single, “That’s All Right (Mama)”, here in 1954, Ozburn tells us. “It was so popular, notorious DJ Dewey Phillips played it on his radio station more than 10 times in one session,” he says. “Elvis was signed to a three-year contract, then sold to RCA Records for $35,000 (£26,000) 17 months later.”

Under the helm of record producer Sam Phillips, this now-legendary studio got itself a name as the “birthplace of rock ’n’ roll”, the first home of Elvis and a pioneer in blues, gospel, country music and beyond.

Today you can see the original microphone many of its artists recorded on, browse memorabilia from its 1950s heyday, and hear the tracks recorded in the building, and it’s genuinely fascinating. But it’s just one of the many sites I discovered during an eye-opening trip to Memphis, Tennessee, “home of the blues”, where history and heritage sit on literally every corner.

The Elvis effect

Elvis moved to Memphis with his family when he was 13, and traces of “the King” are still found across the city. On a visit to Graceland, I explore the mansion he lived in for 20 years after buying it in 1957. It houses a string of eclectic rooms – among them “the den”, decked out in a whimsical jungle theme, and a downstairs bar and lounge area where bright yellow and navy tones shimmer beneath a mirrored ceiling.

Elsewhere, elaborate chandeliers dangle above palatial furnishings, while an adjoining museum showcases many of Elvis’s once-worn costumes – from his renowned gold lamé jacket to the American eagle jumpsuit he wore at his Hawaii concert – alongside his suite of giant cars and motorbikes, not least the famous pink Cadillac.

Beyond Graceland, there are plenty more reminders of Elvis’ legacy. At the historic, diner-style Arcade Restaurant downtown, I tuck into stacked-high pancakes in the booth he reportedly used to sit at (“near the back, so he could come in the back entrance and escape if fans started to go wild,” in the words of my waitress).

On a music-themed circuit of the city with Backbeat Tours, I visit Overton Park Shell, the outdoor amphitheatre where the star had his first big public performance during a concert in 1954. (“His knees were shaking from nervousness and he thought the crowd was booing, when they were actually screaming”, our local musician-guide, Davy Ray Bennett, tells us, as he regales us with humorous tales.)

Later in the tour, we pass the home Elvis and his family lived in before he became famous – a small apartment in a modest block – and the high school Priscilla went to after moving here.

Beale Street blues

It was Beale Street, of course, that gave “the King” much of his inspiration. Running through the heart of downtown Memphis, this is where artists including Louis Armstrong, Muddy Waters and B. B. King performed in late-night bars during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, developing the Memphis blues sound that was first pioneered here by musician W. C. Handy.

The street fell into disrepair and was largely abandoned in the late 1960s and 1970s, but it was revived in the 1980s; today, it’s the historic hub of the city and a major tourist hotspot, with neon-lit bars and blues clubs once again lining the strip, live bands playing in almost every venue from the afternoon through to the early hours.

Back in the day, Beale Street wasn’t just a spot for music, though; on a guided history tour of the city’s African American culture with local company A Tour of Possibilities (ATOP), I learn more about the street’s significance in the first half of the 20th century.

“This was known as the country’s main street for African Americans,” says our guide, Devon. “It was a pro-Black street during the era of segregation, where African Americans could enter through the front door, not the back door, with Black-owned shops, clubs, restaurants and businesses forming a vibrant hub.” It was also the home of Ida B. Wells’ anti-segregationist newspaper, Free Speech, housed in a church built for the community.

A complex history

But beyond the more positive stories, Beale Street has a complex history. I learn this is where sanitation workers marched on 28 March 1968, led by Martin Luther King Jr, in the fight for better wages and working conditions. When a group of participants began looting, violence erupted as police attacked with tear gas and shot and killed a 16 year-old amid hundreds of arrests.

King returned to Memphis six days later on 3 April to lead a second, non-violent march, delivering the famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech that was to be his last. The following day, he was shot from the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, where he was staying.

The National Civil Rights Museum now stands on the spot where King was assassinated, and traces the history of the civil rights movement – from slavery through to the civil war, abolition and the ensuing Jim Crow laws that enforced segregation in the Southern states.

Its displays provide in-depth context to the music and culture that developed in a cotton-rich city which was at the heart of the slave trade during the mid-1800s – when enslaved people were freely bought and sold on its streets, travelling along the Mississippi River – and it’s a moving, eye-opening portrayal of the country’s struggle for equality which is, in many ways, still ongoing.

But it’s also a reminder of the power of art and music in uniting. “Music kind of transcends everything,” said Ozburn on my tour of Sun Studio, and he wasn’t wrong. Memphis’ music scene broke down racial barriers at a time of extreme division in the wider American South, integrating Black and white artists and audiences in a way that many argue was epitomised by Elvis – who took Beale Street blues for his inspiration – and also by WDIA, the radio station started by white founders for an African American audience (and drawing a mix of both Black and white listeners).

The Stax story

Perhaps nowhere was this unification better showcased, though, than at Stax Records, the storied studio that empowered Black and white artists to write and record together during the 1960s and 1970s.

Established in 1957 by founders Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton in a predominately African American neighbourhood, unity and inclusion were the ethos here; house band Booker T. & the M. G.’s brought together black and white musicians, while songwriting duo Isaac Hayes and David Porter also bridged the racial divide, composing around 200 songs here together (among them Sam & Dave’s iconic “Soul Man”).

While Stax is no longer an active recording studio, it’s now the site of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music – an ode to the label’s history, complete with an exact replica of the original studio and control room where the likes of Otis Redding, Rufus Thomas, Wilson Pickett, Eddie Floyd and Carla Thomas all once recorded. (Redding recorded “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” here just a few days before his sudden death in a plane crash.)

Wandering around, I have Ozburn’s words in my head about how Sun Studio “changed the world”, but it wasn’t only at Sun. Across the city, stars broke down barriers and left their mark. The struggles continued, but musicians found a parallel, underground world that didn’t differentiate, and they gained a global audience in the process.

To visit now is to walk in the footsteps of those who shaped the face of modern music and challenged the status quo on a grassroots level. This is a fascinating, many-layered city that definitely deserves your time, not only to trace the legends of the musical greats, but also to learn how their art intertwined with the battle for civil rights in a complex story that still resonates today.

Where to eat

Beyond the music and civil rights history, Memphis is home to a thriving culinary scene; here are some of our favourite dining spots if you’re heading to the city.

The city is world-renowned for its barbecue – specifically pork, slow-smoked over hickory wood and dry-rubbed with spices or doused in a tangy-sweet, tomato-based sauce. For a casual, unpretentious spot where you queue at the counter to order, head to Central BBQ downtown and try the acclaimed pulled pork sandwich, served with classic sides that range from BBQ beans to mac ’n’ cheese.

Once a 1950s salon where Priscilla Presley used to get her hair done, The Beauty Shop is well worth a visit – expect a quirky, modern-meets-retro vibe where the likes of sugar & spice duck with roasted black grapes, pork & pickled peach with mustard fennel dust, and honeynut pumpkin with salsa macha are served at booths set beneath old-school, Belvedere hooded hair dryers.

Memphis has a generous handful of fine-dining restaurants and among the stand-outs for me was Amelia Gene’s, where I tucked into asparagus panzanella with morel mushroom, a rich, buttery bucatini with salt & pepper sauce, and scallops with grits and bacon. Elsewhere, Michelin-recommended Felicia Suzanne’s was also a standout, offering a high-end twist on Southern classics (from short ribs to fried green tomatoes and shrimp and grits) and scarlet chairs and chequered floors for décor.

Where to stay

Set in the heart of downtown and a 10-minute walk from Beale Street, Arrive Memphis is a vibrant hub with an eclectic design – think exposed brick walls, jazzy black-and-white patterned bathrooms and chic light fixtures. There’s a bakery and bar in the lobby, while live music bar Earnestine & Hazel’s, the spot where Aretha Franklin, B. B. King, Tina Turner and Ray Charles all used to hang out, in classic Memphis style, is a two-minute walk away.

Laura French was a guest of memphistravel.com

From the moment you come through the gates of La Bastide, you know you’re in for a treat. Set in extensive gardens 10 miles south of St-Rémy-de-Provence, this striking old French country house is the location for one of Stirred Travels’ extraordinary culinary adventures – a fantastic luxury holiday where you can master the art of cooking simple, delicious French food with a renowned chef.

On arrival we were greeted with the warmest of welcomes with drinks and canapés – a chilled glass of champagne, homemade parmesan shortbread and tapenade crostini, an amuse-bouche of what was to come – on the charming terrace, under the shade of the huge, ancient plane trees.

We were introduced to our fellow guests, who had come from far and wide – Australia, Hong Kong, Ireland and Britain – a fascinating and eclectic mix of people, all with a shared passion for food; and of course the charismatic chef, Neil Borthwick, of The French House in Soho, who would be sharing his extensive knowledge with us during the week.

To whet our appetites, we were given a bound recipe book of the dishes we would be helping to prepare, plus the itinerary for the week, which struck the perfect balance between hands-on cooking and restorative down time, interspersed with interesting trips to local markets and the best restaurants and artisan producers in the area.

The location

With thick stone walls which keep it cool, the house has 11 en-suite rooms, all air-conditioned, and original stone staircases and fireplaces. There are numerous places to sit and read a book, or compare tasting notes with fellow Stirred travellers.

Outside, you can relax on a sun lounger by the pool, borrow a hat from a basket under the pergola next to it and take a stroll around the lovely gardens, or have a glass of wine in the dappled shade of the wide terrace, which is bordered by a flowerbed filled with spectacular hydrangeas with flowerheads the size of bowling balls.

Patrick Obert, who co-founded Stirred Travel in 2016, seeks out extraordinary European locations for the company’s unique culinary escapes, matching acclaimed chefs with exceptional regional food, in a relaxed house-party atmosphere. Between 12 and 16 weeks a year are hosted in luxury properties in Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, with a selection of notable chefs including Spanish chef and restaurateur José Pizarro, Jeremy Lee from Quo Vadis and Jake Simpson, former head chef of Bocca di Lupo.

The cooking

Our fabulous chef Neil, who is married to the Michelin-starred celebrity chef Angela Hartnett of Murano, was a brilliant teacher, ably assisted by fellow chef Carolyn, creating delicious French food using simple ingredients, cooked well. Despite being a protégé of Gordon Ramsay, Neil is patient, calm and relaxed, and was happy to let us crack on with his recipes, each guest tackling a different part of the menu for one of the following meals, with a little gentle, positive guidance along the way.

There is no pressure; guests can do as much or as little as they want, but Neil’s passion for food is infectious, as is his respect for the ingredients. Time flew by as we chopped and stirred, listening to entertaining anecdotes of his life in busy kitchens with an array of different chefs. Every dish has a history, where he learnt to cook it, the mistakes he made along the way, which all adds to the flavour.

There is a real sense of achievement as you sit down to lunch at the long table outside the kitchen after a morning cooking, and tuck into the most wonderful baked sea bass en papillote with artichoke barigoule, a traditional Provençal recipe cooked in stock, followed by a light but chewy pavlova, which we all had a hand in preparing.

Following a relaxed afternoon by the pool and a siesta, we were invited to sit at the long bar in the open kitchen in the evening and watch, or help, Neil make dinner, a drink in hand courtesy of charming Finn, who looked after all the guests so well. He told us that a fabulous wine we enjoyed with dinner one night was made by a former fireman who learnt viticulture by watching videos on YouTube.

Every meal was delicious, without exception, and despite wolfing down everything from an incredible lobster salad or rabbit with mustard sauce to steak tartare on crostini (which I was dubious about but actually thoroughly enjoyed), thanks to some clever alchemy from Neil, you never felt uncomfortably full.

Like the holiday, the menu was perfectly balanced, with so many wonderful vegetables, beautifully cooked to bring out their full flavour; I discovered that traditional French food needn’t be rich and heavy, it can be clean and light, too.

We also learnt how to make bread, pissaladière – a fabulous caramelised onion tart – chicken liver parfait and gazpacho. Puddings were a real highlight: we made choux pastry for Paris-Brest, brioche, savarin soaked in cassis, and lemon tart. I can’t wait to recreate all the dishes at home for family and friends.

Out and about

It’s not all about the cooking though. The itinerary is carefully planned with excursions to villages such as Eygalières and Ménerbes, local artisan producers and the best eateries, including the famous Le Bistrot du Paradou.

We also went to the bustling market in the pretty town of St-Rémy, which sold an array of goodies from linen clothes and block-printed tablecloths, olive-wood bowls and lavender to fantastic fruit and vegetables, truffles, jewellery and pottery. There was enough time to peruse the vibrant stalls, have a coffee and watch the world go by, before visiting a local goat farm, where we met the cheeky livestock, learned about the family-run business and sampled amazing fresh goat’s cheese.

En route to a lovely lunch at the popular Edú restaurant in St-Rémy, our knowledgeable local guide told us about the legend of the mistral in Provence – the strong winds that follow the rain and are key to agricultural productivity as they prevent mould forming on crops. The mistral is reflected in everything from the landscape (with cypress trees planted as windbreaks) to the architecture (the houses face south with no windows on the wind-facing north side) – and even the art, as depicted in Van Gogh’s swirling clouds and wind-bent trees in works such as “Starry Night”.

The verdict

Several of the guests were solo travellers, and many were return customers. I can see why. Stirred Travel has perfected the recipe for culinary holidays: a decent dollop of cooking, a sprinkling of relaxation, a handful of conviviality, a slice of luxury and a spoonful of charm. Whether you’re a serious foodie, or just keen to brush up on your cooking skills in a relaxed and spoiling environment, with great, like-minded company, Stirred Travel’s culinary breaks will leave you hungry for more.

Xandie Nutting was a guest of Stirred Travel; stirredtravel.com

Politics is the art of human beings solving problems without killing each other. Sometimes those efforts fail, never more memorably than in these classic political thrillers. They run the gamut from true storytelling about presidential corruption and the rescue of American diplomats in Iran to entirely fictional yet still believable stories about predatory drug companies and communist surveillance operations.

‘Foreign Correspondent’ (1940)

Hotshot New York Globe crime reporter John Jones (Joel McCrea) is dispatched by his editor, Mr. Powers (Harry Davenport), to Europe on the precipice of WWII to figure out what is about to envelop the continent in director Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller. There Jones discovers an espionage ring bent on selling out the U.K. and the Netherlands to their adversaries.

While the movie functions superbly as a “bold call to action to stop the looming threat of Nazism in Europe,” it also “boasts some of Hitchcock’s most memorable sequences and technical tricks, making for one set piece after another of formal virtuosity” despite the era’s technical limitations, said Brian Eggert at Deep Focus Review. (HBO Max)

‘The Conversation’ (1974)

Arriving the same year that a wiretapping scandal brought down the administration of President Richard Nixon, director Francis Ford Coppola’s quietly devastating thriller follows Harry N. Caul (Gene Hackman), a surveillance wizard hired to record a conversation between Ann (Cindy Williams) and Mark (Frederic Forrest) at the behest of the shadowy Director (Robert Duvall). Harry’s growing suspicion that the young couple is in danger fuels a twisty narrative that keeps both him and the audience guessing and appraising their relationship with technology. A film that is more than just a “product of its Watergate-era anxieties,” Coppola’s haunting masterpiece is a “chillingly prescient and masterfully crafted character study with themes that echo louder than ever in our hyper-surveilled world,” said Andy Punter at InSession Film. (Prime Video)

‘All the President’s Men’ (1976)

While it may seem quaint by today’s standards, the Watergate scandal consumed American politics for more than a year, ended Richard Nixon’s presidency and permanently decreased the public’s level of trust in the government. Director Alan J. Pakula’s film recreates the sleuthing of Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) that blew the conspiracy wide open.

“All the President’s Men” mesmerizes by faithfully depicting the banal proceduralism of good journalism. A film that “intentionally underplays the enormity of the central conspiracy and eludes any histrionic moralizing,” this “subversive detective story” brilliantly “rejects mythologizing the pivotal history behind it,” said Wes Greene at Slant Magazine. (Prime Video)

‘The Official Story’ (1985)

Alicia (Norma Aleandro) and Roberto (Héctor Alterio) are middle-class Argentines with connections in government and business and an adopted daughter, Gaby (Analia Castro), that they adore. But Alicia soon begins to suspect that her daughter is one of the children grotesquely stolen from the desaparecidos, dissidents disappeared by the country’s authoritarian junta, and that her husband might be in on the repugnant scheme.

Director Luis Puenzo has made a “must-see film that, in light of the real events, paints a haunting picture of the cruelty humans inflict on one another” and also delicately “honors the memory of those affected by the tragedy that unfolded in Argentina,” said Matthew Jones at Philosophy in Film. (Tubi)

‘The Constant Gardener’ (2005)

“The Constant Gardener” is the first great paranoid thriller of the 21st century. When his wife, Tessa (Rachel Weisz), dies mysteriously, British diplomat Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) gradually discovers layers about who she really was, first suspecting her of being unfaithful and then unraveling a conspiracy to test a new drug on unwitting African patients. Helmed by the great Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles (“City of God”), it is a “brainy thriller” whose “visuals create an overwhelming sense of the world gone mad, the world falling down around the hero just as he's beginning to understand the way it works,” said Tim Brayton at Alternate Ending. (Prime Video)

‘The Lives of Others’ (2006)

At once both chilling and moving, director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck has created what may stand as the most enduring indictment of the 20th century authoritarian surveillance state. Set in East Germany near the end of its communist regime, it is about Stasi officer Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe), who begins surveilling a prominent playwright, Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), and his mistress, Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck).

The monastic Wiesler eventually comes to believe Dreyman is harmless and in the process doubts the very foundations of autocracy itself. A film that is “alert to the Kafkaesque absurdity of everyday life” in communist regimes, it “has a maturity and breadth of vision rarely found in a debut feature,” said Geoffrey Macnam at Sight and Sound. (Prime Video)

‘Argo’ (2012)

Ben Affleck directs and stars in this zippy thriller about the clandestine efforts to exfiltrate six American diplomats who managed to escape before they became hostages at the U.S. embassy during the Iranian Revolution. Affleck stars as CIA officer Tony Mendez, who concocts a creative cover story about how the diplomats are in Iran working on a Canadian science-fiction film. Affleck “displays a fearlessness when it comes to mixing genre” in this “part-comic, part-thriller narrative” whose mostly-but-not-entirely-true twists and turns “ensure your nails are down to the quick by the end credits,” said Amber Wilkinson at Eye for Film. (Prime Video)

‘Manuscripts Don’t Burn’ (2013)

Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof’s haunting “Manuscripts Don’t Burn” had to be smuggled into the Cannes Film Festival to protect its cast and crew, who remain anonymous to this day. It follows two government assassins, Khosrow and Morteza, who are tasked with tracking down, torturing and killing a group of dissidents suspected of distributing a manuscript.

That document pertains to what became known in Iran as the “Chain Murders,” a series of assassinations of intellectuals and dissidents in the 1990s. A “harrowing masterpiece,” it is an “unflinching look at creative oppression” that stands as an “entirely singular film experience,” said Joshua Brunsting at CriterionCast. (Prime Video)

‘Official Secrets’ (2019)

The combination of arrogance and doctored intelligence that led the United States and its allies into the 2003 Iraq War is almost made for Hollywood. In “Official Secrets,” real-life British intelligence officer Katharine Gun (Keira Knightley) uncovers evidence of a joint British-American conspiracy to spy on and then pressure diplomats from countries on the U.N. Security Council to secure their votes for a resolution authorizing the war.

Martin Bright (Matt Smith) and Peter Beaumont (Matthew Goode) are journalists at The Observer who wrestle with the implications of publishing the story. The film turns a “historical footnote with potent resonance” into a “compelling tale of injustice on an individual and global level,” said Peter Travers at Rolling Stone. (Netflix)

South Korea has some wondrous ancient sites, and none are more important than those around Gyeongju, says Oliver Berry in National Geographic Traveller. Set among forested hills a couple of hours by high-speed train from Seoul, this historic town is a lovely place to wander, with its leafy avenues and traditional hanok houses and gardens.

But the height of its glory came more than 1,000 years ago: from 57BC until AD935 it was the capital of the kingdom of Silla, and for some time, one of the largest cities on Earth. The “most obvious legacy” of that time are the royal tombs “dotted around” the town – more than 100 mounds like giant “molehills”. Several of these have yielded extraordinary treasures, many of which are on display at the town’s dazzling National Museum.

Alongside Baekje and Goguryeo, Silla was one of three kingdoms that ruled the Korean peninsula together for hundreds of years, until the late 7th century when, with the help of Tang Chinese forces, it defeated the others. Many of Gyeongju’s treasures date from before that victory – including the 11,000 items found in the Cheonmachong (or “heavenly horse”) tomb, believed to have been created in the 5th or 6th century.

Today, visitors can enter the mound itself, where golden crowns, jewelled caps, suits of armour and gilt-bronze sandals sit under spotlights in the “inky” darkness. The most famous item is a birch-bark saddle emblazoned with a prancing horse – the design from which the tomb takes its modern name.

Several other sites around town also have roots in the Silla period, including the Woljeonggyo Bridge, a recent reconstruction of a structure built in AD760. Flanked by “ornate” gatehouses, and spanning 60m, it is the country’s largest wooden bridge. Grander still is Bulguksa Temple, set on the slopes of Mount Tohan, nine miles from Gyeongju. Although restored and altered many times over the years, the temple retains various treasures from the 8th and 9th centuries, including stone pagodas, and gilt-bronze statues of the seated Buddha.

Built to celebrate Škoda’s 130th birthday, the Fabia 130 is a sporty hatchback – a souped-up version of the top-tier Monte Carlo trim, and the fastest Fabia yet. With a top speed of 141mph, it does 0-62mph in 7.4secs; and bhp is up from 148 to 175 thanks to a beefy 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine, paired with the seven-speed automatic gearbox. Tweaks have been made to the suspension, throttle control, traction and steering, said The Telegraph.

According to Autocar, the 130 is a “warm hatch”, not “hot enough” to earn Škoda’s sporty vRS badge – but some proper hardware engineering has gone into it. It’s “satisfying to drive quickly”: an entertaining but comfortable ride. The chassis is “nicely judged”, the 18-inch alloy wheels have good grip, but the steering lacks feel, and it’s a shame there’s no option for a manual gearbox.

Inside the Fabia 130 it’s like going back to the mid-2010s – which is great for usability, with lots of physical buttons, knobs and dials, but “old and a bit dull” to look at, said Car Magazine. All in all, the 130 is a pleasantly “warmed-over version of this middle-aged small car”. It’ll cost you around £30,000, and for that you could get a faster Mini Cooper S; but the Fabia offers better value: it’s a superior ride and is a more practical all-rounder.

“And why do you think you are sick?”

I knew why I was sick. I was sick because I had a cold. And I had a cold because I have a toddler. And toddlers are, as far as I can tell, living, breathing vectors of disease.

But when I gave that answer to Dr Melanie Gatt, pithily I might add, on my first proper morning at Mayrlife, she looked at me with the patient expression, ironically, of someone explaining something to a toddler.

Because at Mayrlife, it turns out there is much more to every sickness. Here, in a pristine clinic on the banks of an even more pristine glacial Austrian lake, illness is not simply bad luck that happens to you. It is a signal. And almost every signal, according to the Mayr method on which the whole place is built, traces back in some way to the gut.

It is fair to say that when I arrived at Mayrlife, and having read some of the reviews, I was a tad sceptical and a bit more than a tad apprehensive. No alcohol I could just about do, but no caffeine? And no sugar? Well that sounded like no fun at all. I was fully braced for days of being upsold pseudoscience by people in white linen. But I left, to my considerable and ongoing surprise, a convert. Not to a diet, but to an entire way of thinking about what it takes to live a good, healthy life.

Why stay here?

Mayrlife is tucked away on the banks of Lake Altaussee, a glacial jewel hidden in the mountains of the Salzkammergut, roughly two hours from Salzburg. Austria is not a country that does things by halves and if you come to Mayrlife solely for the views, you will not be disappointed. Throughout my stay I felt connected with nature in a way that is a lot harder to achieve in a city in the UK. In fact the spa town has a history of salt mining that stretches back centuries and some of Mayrlife’s treatments involve that very salt.

The medical methodology underpinning everything here was developed by Dr Franz Xaver Mayr, a 19th-century Austrian physician who became convinced that the health of the digestive system was the key to overall wellbeing. In essence, it was Mayr’s view that an unhappy or inflamed gut undermines the immune system and that a great many of the ailments we treat as separate misfortunes, such as my cold, are in fact the same story told in different symptoms. This was the crux of Dr Gatt’s question and it is the philosophical backbone of what is now called Modern Mayr Medicine. It is a fundamentally holistic way of treating ailments through a personalised nutritional plan and medical treatments.

If that sounds like a lot of hard work for a holiday, CEO Dr Dieter Resch and his medical team deliver the whole experience with the elegance and class of a five-star hotel as well as the rigour and scientific knowledge of a private health clinic. It was clear from my very first day at Mayrlife that these were not people gesturing vaguely at science. They were doing the actual thing.

Mayrlife has 64 rooms, ranging from comfortable doubles to suites, penthouses and even private residences. The park residences are Mayrlife’s most generous offering. Containing a loft-style living area with kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a sweeping balcony with lake views, they also come with a private spa replete with steam bath and sauna.

While those are for the rich and famous (of which Mayrlife counts many as clientele, discreetly of course) even the rooms for us mere mortals are perfectly appointed. Every room in the building has a view of either the lake, the Dachstein Glacier or the village below. The interiors are warm and soft, while the beds are undoubtedly the most comfortable I’ve ever slept in. In fact, much of the experience of being in the room is very similar to that of a high-end hotel. Just with more materials offering you ultrasounds and IVs. And, of course, no chocolates on the pillow.

Eating and drinking

Food at Mayrlife is both a form of therapy and a learning exercise. The kitchen uses regional and organic ingredients to produce menus built around the principles of gut regeneration. They are also calibrated precisely to each individual’s diagnostics. Those initial assessments with Dr Gatt, tested through a muscle-response exercise, what your body is and is not tolerating when it comes to a number of food groups. That test, along with blood analysis, forms the foundation for a custom nutrition plan that evolves throughout the stay.

It is worth saying the meals you get at Mayrlife are not like the meals you’ve had at a hotel. They are broth heavy, smaller in volume than a typical hotel dinner and guests are encouraged to chew at least 40 times before they swallow. All of the meals I had at Mayrlife were delicious, but more importantly they felt nourishing. If the treatment at Mayrlife is holistic, that shines through in the food. The plate is put together as a whole, with no one aspect a star, rather the ingredients sing in unison. That is not to say I wasn’t dreaming of chocolate Hobnobs by day three. But they make it a lot easier to follow the plan by making the meals themselves so delicious.

Somewhere around day three I was handed a single sheet of paper headed “10 Ingredients for Your Well-Being”. It is a mantra for eating and one that on the face of it I knew but I very rarely did.

For example, begin the day with warm water and herbal tea rather than coffee. Eat raw food only before four in the afternoon, because raw vegetables in the evening sit and ferment in the gut rather than doing anyone any good. Try to leave four or five hours between meals so the digestive system can finish what the sheet euphemistically called its “clean-up”, like “a kitchen after cooking”. Use cold-pressed oils and keep them in the fridge. Everyone should have a good breakfast, a hearty lunch and a light dinner. Chew properly. Taste things. In fact, the most radical instruction on the entire page was to pay attention to what you were eating while you were eating it. That means no phones in the dining room and no chatting too. They place a real emphasis on mindful eating.

None of this is revolutionary, and that is precisely the point. What Mayrlife does is take a set of principles you already basically know to be true and remove every obstacle to actually following them. This means that after a few days the new rhythm stops feeling like a regime and starts feeling like the obvious way to do things. By the end of the week, I could see the error of my ways. Not only did I sleep better than I had done since my toddler was born, but the idea of stuffing myself full with pasta and then immediately going to sleep no longer appealed. It was fundamentally a change of mindset.

What distinguishes Mayrlife from the more spartan end of the detox resort market is the cooking school. Guests don’t just eat differently for a week, they can learn how to replicate it. The class uses everyday kitchen equipment and demonstrations showing how to put the dishes together, equipping guests for when they return home. The genius of it is in that implication. This is not a week you survive and then leave behind, but a way of doing things for the rest of your life.

Things to do

A typical Mayrlife day arrives, printed and personalised in your room. The diagnostics that underpin all of this, be it the blood analysis, tolerance testing, a 3D body scan, the myodiagnostic, are of a level usually associated with elite sport or at least very specialist private medicine. But it was Dr Gatt’s calm, evidence-led way of explaining the results that made me excited to see and feel their effects. The list of treatments Mayrlife offer feels limitless and they can range from psychotherapies to IVs to ultrasounds. What Willy Wonka was to chocolate factories, Mayrlife is to medical treatments.

My treatments ranged from the restorative to the genuinely bracing. Cryotherapy takes place in a chamber at minus 110C. This is a temperature the body treats as a full-blown emergency and responds to accordingly, accelerating recovery and dampening inflammation. The IHHT hypoxytraining alternates the oxygen you breathe to mimic high altitude and stimulate the body’s cellular machinery. Water plasma therapy and water shiatsu take place in a highly concentrated saltwater pool. There is a Swiss stone pine sauna, multiple infrared cabins, and a beauty concept developed alongside Dr Barbara Sturm, the skincare physician whose anti-inflammatory approach has acquired something of a cult following among skincare aficionados. The idea, consistent with everything else at Mayrlife, is to work from the inside out.

It is hard to say exactly what benefit each treatment brought me, given I had never had very many of them before. But I certainly felt rejuvenated and restored after the treatments and my fitness watch notified me of an improvement in my recovery times after exercise and my sleep scores. Data begets data but it’s hard to argue with the numbers.

For those who wish to venture out of the resort, the surrounding landscape is spectacular. There are guided hikes and mountain bike tours as well as tennis and a nine-hole golf course in the immediate vicinity. The lake itself is perfect for a dip – although I was warned off that because of my cold – and it is hard not to lose yourself in the magnificence of your surroundings, even if it’s just for a little walk to start your day.

The verdict

It is hard to compare the experience in Mayrlife. The comparison to make is less with other hotels than with places where you can get private diagnostic medicine and a week of serious clinical intervention. It is worth noting as well that the support does not stop when your stay does: Mayrlife’s medical team continues to guide you once you are home. In fact the number of repeat visitors is testament to the fact that their programme works for a large number of guests.

It is far more than a wellbeing reset, and far more than just a beautiful setting. The benefit of being shown that every choice you make when it comes to food and your gut can make a massive difference. And that there are better choices available.

So why was I sick? Well I still blame my toddler. But I am still following some of the Mayr method at home. I’m practising mindful eating and taking the supplements I was prescribed. But more than the effect on my day to day has been an effect on the way I view eating and the choices I make about what I put in my gut. Did I wolf down the free chocolate Hobnobs on the flight home? Yes. But as Frank Sinatra would have said if he’d been to Altaussee, I did it (the) Mayr way.

Mayrlife Medical Health Resort, Altaussee, Austria. Programmes from €2,990 (7 nights, all treatments and food included). Rooms from €460/night. mayrlife.com

Ana Mendieta “made art from blood, feathers, flowers and sand and in such fresh ways, you’d think these primeval substances were new inventions”, said Jonathan Jones in The Guardian.

“She literally played with fire, drawing a human figure with gunpowder on the ground or on the trunk of a tree, then setting it alight”; the resulting scorched shadows bring to mind the victims of a nuclear bomb or the dead of Pompeii.

Mendieta was born in Cuba in 1948, and when the revolution came, she was sent to the US, where she always felt like an outsider. “Home, for her, was the past”, and she made it her mission to “excavate the very origins of art and mythology”.

Mendieta worked in many disciplines: painting, film, photography, performance, sculpture. She used “organic matter”: a human silhouette made of flowers; a hand imprint in a muddy wasteland; a fertility goddess figure carved in limestone. Her art is “irresistible”, and creates “a personal mythology … as weirdly coherent as William Blake’s”.

If she had lived, Mendieta would have been “at the forefront of the art of this century”. But in 1985, aged only 36, she died – falling from the balcony of her 34th-floor apartment in New York, in suspicious circumstances. The artist Carl Andre, her husband, was tried for murder, and acquitted.

The show is packed with “raw, timely works”, said Chloë Ashby in The Independent. They “compel us to pay attention to the natural world”. Scattered throughout are pieces from her Silueta Series, begun in 1973. Many of these are photographs, documenting the artist’s practice of stamping human silhouettes into mud and observing as “weeds and brambles” or other growths rendered them invisible.

Elsewhere, a famous video sees the artist next to a stream, “pouring a pail of cow’s blood over her body”. Blood spilling from her limbs, she lies down in “a mass of soft white chicken feathers”. When she stands, she is “a woman transformed, part-human, part-bird, bizarrely and brilliantly engaged with nature”.

Many of Mendieta’s concerns – “feminism, environmentalism, anti-colonialism” – resonate today, said Alastair Sooke in The Telegraph. Yet this is not a show about “identity politics”. It is, rather, “filled with a rich visual poetry” that is “both forceful and fragile”.

One photograph from the Silueta Series, for instance, sees a human outline half buried on a hillside, “arms clamped by its sides in the manner of an Egyptian mummy”. Another sees Mendieta herself deep in a rocky cavity, as if consumed by the wildflowers sprouting around her.

The exhibition doesn’t make a martyr of her: Andre is barely mentioned, and this is for the best. Staged with “flair” and “sensitivity”, it crackles with “a sense of pagan magic” – and it’s by far the best show Tate Modern has mounted this summer.

Tate Modern, London SE1. Until 17 January

Interest in majoring in history may have declined over the course of the 21st century, but the field remains a powerful engine for streaming television content. Audiences are still flocking to true stories as well as fictional narratives set in an authentic past. Even in a landscape full of painstakingly rendered period dramas, these eight superb series stand out from the historical crowd.

‘Roots’ (1977)

“Roots” is the story of Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton), seized from what is now The Gambia by slave trader Captain Davies (Edward Asner) in 1767 and then sold to the family of John Reynolds (Lorne Greene) in colonial Maryland. The story spans generations, with the narrative following Kunta’s daughter, Kizzy (Leslie Uggams), and grandson, Chicken George (Ben Vereen), who finally tastes freedom after the Civil War.

Unsparing in its depiction of slavery’s bottomless brutality and shocking cruelty, the series, which debuted just six months after the U.S. bicentennial celebrations, became a ratings sensation. A series whose “very existence seems remarkable” given the “overall whiteness of popular culture at that time,” it is the “most important scripted program in broadcast network history,” said Matt Zoller Seitz at Vulture. (Prime Video)

‘Pride and Prejudice’ (1995)

One of the most frequently adapted works of literature, Jane Austen’s 1813 novel, “Pride and Prejudice,” shines as never before or since in director Simon Langton’s celebrated, six-part limited series, which made Colin Firth a star. Firth plays Mr. Darcy, a wealthy aristocrat who first repels and then falls for Elizabeth Bennet (Jennifer Ehle), one of the struggling Mrs. Bennet’s five daughters and a razor-sharp wit.

Ehle and Firth have spectacular chemistry, and the runway of a limited series allows the creators space to fully explore the depth of Austen’s narrative. The BBC’s masterpiece is a “rare instance in which the screen adaptation of a novel serves as an equally worthy companion piece to the written source material,” said Tanya Pai at Vox. (Peacock)

‘Downton Abbey’ (2010-2015)

While it lends itself to easy parody, creator Julian Fellowes’ “Downton Abbey” is an ongoing global sensation, including three feature-length movies — all for good reason. Set on a crumbling English estate, the narrative begins before the First World War, as a family of aristocrats headed by Robert (Hugh Bonneville) and Cora Crawley (Elizabeth McGovern) and their three daughters navigate the social, political and economic changes sweeping the country.

The truest stroke of genius, though, was dividing the narrative between these often clueless elites and the cooks, servants and other employees of the estate, whose dramas are rendered with convincing detail and given voice by a superb ensemble over the course of six seasons. The series succeeds with “addictively gossipy tales of relationships and rivalries” as well as “longer arcs of social change and historical unravelling,” said Adam Sweeting at The Arts Desk. (Peacock)

‘The Last Kingdom’ (2015-2022)

Despite the inevitable comparisons to the fictional universe in “Game of Thrones,” the action in “The Last Kingdom” is grounded in history. The fictional character of Uhtred (Alexander Dreymon), a wealthy nobleman raised as a boy by invading Vikings, works with the real historical figure of King Alfred (David Dawson) to unify the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and fend off the Great Heathen Army sent by Danish invaders.

Adapted from Bernard Cornwell’s popular “Saxon Stories” series of novels about the birth of England, the BBC Two production, which later moved to Netflix, outclasses a number of similar projects. The dedication to character development “turns every single small, seemingly innocuous moment on this show into a moment of insight and significance,” adding “richness and depth” to its “captivating” storytelling, said Kyle Fowle at The A.V. Club. (Netflix)

‘The Crown’ (2016-2023)

One of the more ambitious and successful productions undertaken in the streaming era, “The Crown” follows the life of Queen Elizabeth II from when she was a young woman thrust unexpectedly into power until the death of Princess Diana and her son Charles’ remarriage to Camilla Bowles. The principal characters, including Queen Elizabeth, are played by three different sets of actors for two seasons each.

The lavish production, which totaled $648 million, landed A-list actors like Dominic West as middle-aged Prince Charles and Olivia Colman as the Queen circa the 1970s, and humanized the royal family without whitewashing their selfishness and privilege. It is a triumph not just because of its “fair-minded characterizations of the Royal Family and the visual extravagances of one of the most expensive shows ever made but also in the deft incorporation of events that shaped U.K. politics, culture and national identity,” said Inkoo Kang at The New Yorker. (Netflix)

‘Alias Grace’ (2017)

“Alias Grace,” one of those shows that likely suffered from the Netflix model of dumping all of its episodes at once, stars Sarah Gadon (“Wayward”) as Grace Marks, a maid convicted of murdering her wealthy employer, Thomas Kinnear (Paul Gross) and his housekeeper, Nancy (Anna Paquin). Based on Margaret Atwood’s 1996 novel, itself a fictionalized account of a true story, the six-part limited series proceeds along two timelines, with Grace narrating the events of the past to a psychiatrist, Dr. Simon Jordan (Edward Holcroft), who becomes infatuated with her. The show, which meticulously recreates the milieu of 19th-century Canada, is “nothing short of a triumph,” said Rebecca Lea at Den of Geek, bolstered by a “fascinating, intelligent performance” from Cadon as the mysterious, unreliable narrator. (Netflix)

‘It’s a Sin’ (2021)

In 1981 London, three flatmates, Ritchie (Olly Alexander), Colin (Callum Scott Howells) and Roscoe (Omari Douglas) arrive in the big city to chase their dreams. They do so amidst the burgeoning HIV/AIDS crisis that begins as a seemingly distant rumor but eventually consumes many of the characters.

A uniformly excellent ensemble succeeds in depicting this historical tragedy over the ensuing decade by giving its characters authentic, convincing inner lives and never allowing them to lose their sense of joy and purpose amid the suffering that surrounds them. It is a “propulsive, galvanizing, even joyous” series that also serves as a “stirring requiem for the dead, shot through with defiant life,” said James Poniewozik at The New York Times. (HBO Max)

‘Pachinko’ (2022-2024)

Apple TV+ can frustrate with its disinterest in marketing some of its most lush productions, none more so than the gorgeous “Pachinko,” a multilingual historical epic set in Korea and Japan. It is a two-timeline series, following Sunja (Kim Min-ha) in early 20th century Korea and her emigration to Osaka, Japan in 1931 after marrying a Christian minister named Baek Isak (Noh Sang-hyun), and moves back and forth to the 1980s, where an elderly Sunja sees her grandson, Solomon Baek (Jin Ha), trying to succeed in business while navigating lingering discrimination against Koreans.

The series offers viewers insight into a setting — interwar Asia — and themes that should be novel to all but the most ardent historians. The show “ranks among the finest original series Apple has produced,” one whose plot mechanics “illustrate the cyclical nature of generational trauma,” said Alison Herman at Variety. (Apple TV+)

In 2023, the South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh was convicted of murdering his wife, Maggie, and 22-year-old son Paul. The pair had been shot at the family’s hunting estate; Murdaugh claimed to have discovered the bodies after returning from a visit to his mother.

It’s not hard to see why the case “gripped America”, said Robbie Millen in The Times. It involved the “privileged and powerful” – the Murdaughs were big cheeses in the South Carolina Lowcountry – and the man himself, known as “Big Red”, didn’t seem the murdering type: he appeared to be a “loving husband and doting father” with a charming “down-home manner”.

Yet as the novelist James Lasdun shows in this “elegant and intelligent” book, Murdaugh was in fact a fraudster who swindled millions out of clients and law firm colleagues, and was addicted to opioid painkillers. In “Family Man”, Lasdun does a “skilful job of juggling all the elements of the story, which takes some dark and ludicrous turns”.

Prosecutors claimed Murdaugh was driven to murder because his financial deceptions were about to be revealed, said Kathryn Hughes in The Guardian. They said he believed that no one would launch proceedings against him while he was dealing with a “tragedy of such biblical proportions”.

At first, Lasdun was sceptical of this theory, refusing to believe that a man with no history of domestic violence could “bring himself to shoot loved ones merely to delay his own imminent financial exposure”. Yet in his “meticulous” retelling – the “prose is pure pleasure” – Lasdun comes to accept that “Big Red” was probably guilty, despite never reaching an “iron-clad conclusion”.

“More than 10 books about the Murdaughs have been published to date”, and HBO and Netflix have both released miniseries about the killings, said Orlando Whitfield in The New York Times. Lasdun “does not pretend to reveal new evidence about the murders”; instead, he relays the tale of the “fall of the house of Murdaugh” in often “staggering” detail.

While at times this threatens to become overwhelming, his approach does “illuminate, to devastating effect”, how the case encompassed many of the “direst aspects of contemporary American life: opioid addiction, litigiousness, brazen mendacity”. And the final chapters are “stunning”. Even now, “there’s more to come”, said Millen in The Times. This May, Murdaugh’s conviction was overturned on appeal, owing to jury interference. A retrial is expected. “I can’t wait to read Lasdun’s musings in an updated paperback.”

In his new role as artistic director of Birmingham Rep, Joe Murphy has got off to a flier, said Alison Brinkworth on WhatsOnStage. Having given us a “sparkling” “Midsummer Night’s Dream” for his main stage debut, we now have this production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”, and it is “dazzling” – superbly designed, thrillingly cast and “sure to bring goosebumps of excitement”.

Murphy has deployed a fairly small company, accompanied by a superb seven-piece live orchestra, but as every performance is a head-turner, the evening feels “epic”.

Sondheim’s 1979 musical – about the late 18th-century London barber whose quest for vengeance on the corrupt judge who raped his wife, had him banished and stole his infant daughter leads him into multiple gruesome murders – is given a “grandly monumental staging” that suits the story’s “operatic sweep”, while releasing the musical from any “Victoriana clutter”, said Holly Williams in The Stage.

Fittingly for a tale about how violence corrupts, a vast angel of justice hangs between two staircases, while soot spreads up pale walls and white costumes like a “creeping moral stain”.

Ramin Karimloo brings a “fabulously demonic darkness to his portrayal of Sweeney”, a man who clutches his “personal pain like a knife”, said Rachel Halliburton in The Times. And his performance is more than matched by that of the cabaret star Meow Meow, who makes for a “rip-roaringly Hogarthian” Mrs Lovett, the yellow-clad accomplice who bakes the demon barber’s victims into pies (here, revenge is a dish served hot). But in this production there isn’t a single weak link, “vocally or dramatically”.

In a staging notable for its clarity, visually and otherwise, the singers’ diction is as sharp as a scalpel cutting through ice – “not one sliver of Sondheim’s spikily subtle wit goes missing”; and Leo Munby’s musical direction “brilliantly captures the tale’s jagged emotions”. All told, it’s a deliciously blood-curdling production that “goes for the jugular but ultimately captures your heart”.

The House, Birmingham Rep. Until 15 August.

Christopher Nolan is “hardly a stranger to ambition”, said John Nugent on Empire. His first major film, “Memento”, told its story in two sequences – one that moved forward in time, the other backwards. Since then he has tackled wars, “dreams, wormholes, the nuclear apocalypse and Victorian teleportation machines”. But his adaptation of Homer’s “Odyssey” – the 8th-century BC Greek poem that is the definition of epic – may be his most ambitious yet.

The first feature to be shot entirely on giant Imax 70mm cameras, it is “jaw-detaching” in its scope and scale. Plunging the viewer into a world of both “divine fantasy and grounded realism”, this is filmmaking “at a magnitude” few directors could imagine, let alone execute.

Nolan has produced a “mythic spectacle” that honours its ancient source material, “while also addressing more topical themes of exile, war trauma and survivor’s guilt”, said Wendy Ide in The Observer.

Like the poem, the film unfolds in multiple timelines. The present-day framing takes place on the island where an exhausted Odysseus (Matt Damon) washed up 10 years after the Battle of Troy, and is now held captive by the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron).

In the same time frame, we meet his sad queen Penelope (Anne Hathaway) who – back in Ithaca – is being besieged by “power-hungry suitors”, including Antinous (a marvellously venomous Robert Pattinson), while her restless son Telemachus (Tom Holland) waits for the return of the father he has never known. Incidents from the previous decade are then woven in as Odysseus recovers his battered memory – the deception at Troy, and his adventures in the years after that, including an encounter with the enchantress Circe (Samantha Morton), and a diversion through Hades.

Nolan has conjured some “tremendous” scenes, said Deborah Ross in The Spectator, some of which would not be out of place in a horror film (the cyclops is “truly terrifying”). I had my doubts about Damon’s casting, but in the end he does make you care about the man broken by the years he has lost. And though some may find the modern speech jarring, what’s the alternative? We’d struggle if they spoke in ancient Greek.

But for two hours the film is just set-piece after set-piece, backed by a deafening score, which becomes rather wearying. Yes, it’s short on jokes, said Kevin Maher in The Times; but “The Odyssey” – with its extraordinary cinematography and big ideas “about the impossibility of home” and “the absurdity of heroic individualism in a boundless universe” – is a masterpiece nonetheless.

“It is still one of the great bargains in British culture,” said The Times. An on-the-day Promming ticket at the Albert Hall is just £8 – and the wide variety of “world-class talent you can catch for under a tenner is remarkable”.

Running until 12 September, the “world’s biggest classical music festival” features a jam-packed schedule of 86 concerts, said The Telegraph. Most are in London, but other venues across the UK will also be hosting events in locations including Gateshead, Bristol and Sunderland. It’s a “truly spectacular” line-up.

Edward Gardner and An Alpine Symphony

“Some works are just made to soar at the Royal Albert Hall and Strauss’ widescreen tone poem is one of them,” said The Times. Conductor Edward Gardner will be your “sherpa on this journey up and down the mountain” with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Expect dazzling vocals from soprano Louise Alder, who will be singing Joseph Canteloube’s celebrated orchestral “Songs of the Auvergne”.

Royal Albert Hall, 27 July

Kafka Fragments

Finnish soprano Anu Komsi and her husband Sakari Oramo perform this hauntingly beautiful recital as part of celebrations to mark György Kurtág’s 100th birthday. It’s a “very different, vanishingly delicate side” to the Hungarian composer’s music, filled with “faint echoes” of Bach, Schumann and Bartók, said The Telegraph.

Bristol Beacon, 9 August

Berlioz’s Requiem

The “biggest beast” is Hector Berlioz’s “Requiem”, written to commemorate the French soldiers in the revolution of July 1830, said The Guardian. Antonio Pappano conducts the “humungous” London Symphony Orchestra plus “extra brass choirs dotted around the Albert Hall”.

Royal Albert Hall, 15 August

Amériques

“Someone at the Proms deserves a pat on the back for including Edgard Varèse’s bracingly vivid ‘Amériques’”, in a season that marks the 250th birthday of the USA, said The Times. The French-born composer wrote this “homage to urban chaos” shortly after he “decamped to New York”. It’s performed together with Dvořák’s “Cello Concerto”.

Royal Albert Hall, 23 August

Martha Argerich

Argerich is 84 years old but the Argentinian pianist’s “astoundingly athletic artistry” is “undimmed”, said The Telegraph. She will be returning to the Proms with the Munich Philharmonic for Beethoven’s “2nd Piano Concerto”, and the concert also contains an overture by “feisty” Parisian composer Louise Farranc.

Royal Albert Hall, 5 September

Your eyes do not deceive you. These colossal hotel swimming pools are as gigantic as they look. They are each property’s main attraction, letting swimmers, divers and paddleboarders live out their aquatic fantasies. Some are historic, and some are modern wonders, but all are architectural marvels.

The Biltmore, Coral Gables, Florida

Guests have been diving into The Biltmore’s massive pool — it covers 23,000 square feet and holds 600,000 gallons of water — since 1926. Surrounded by “grand Mediterranean architecture and classical statues,” the pool is an opulent spot for “doing laps or having a leisurely float,” said Secret Miami. Esther Williams once used it as her stage, putting on aquatic shows before starstruck crowds, and Tarzan himself, Johnny Weissmuller, spent time here as a swimming instructor.

Diamante Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Spanning 10 acres, the saltwater Crystal Lagoons pool offers something for everyone. Guests can go swimming, sailing, kayaking and paddleboarding, stopping whenever they’d like for a refreshing drink at the swim-up bar. While lounging poolside, you can soak up views of the Pacific Ocean and the sand dunes of the Diamante Golf Club, ranked by Golf Digest as the top course in Mexico.

Fontainebleau Las Vegas, Nevada

Fontainebleau Las Vegas’ six-acre Oasis Pool Deck fits right in with the city’s “glitz and glamour,” said Time Out. Take your pick from seven different pool experiences, like hanging out at the “high-energy” LIV Beach day club or relaxing in the blissful La Mer enclave.

On certain nights, the Oasis Pool Deck turns into an outdoor theater, with “Black Panther,” “The Secret Life of Pets” and other popular movies screened poolside. Swimming is not only allowed during the movies but encouraged.

Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

Think of Singapore, and its distinctive Marina Bay Sands hotel will likely come to mind. The property — three towers with a rooftop infinity pool “balanced” across the 57th floors — is a “fixture of every postcard rack and travel brochure,” said Travel and Leisure.

The swimming pool is part of Marina Bay Sands’ claim to fame: At 492-feet long, it’s the world’s largest infinity pool. Only open to hotel guests, the views from the deck are phenomenal, and it’s “obligatory” to take a selfie with the skyscrapers behind you.

The Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur, India

At the “glamorous” Oberoi Udaivilas, the long pool that stretches past its suites is an “architectural work of wonder,” said Condé Nast Traveler. Guests can slip into the water from their patios or relax on a lounger, gazing out at the pool “sandwiched between views of the garden and ocean.” For the ultimate stay, book one of the extravagant accommodations that comes with its own private pool.

Perfect Day at CocoCay, Bahamas

There’s only one way to get to Oasis Lagoon, the Caribbean’s largest freshwater pool, and that’s by Royal Caribbean ship. Oasis Lagoon is located on a private island used exclusively by the cruise line and caters to all interests.

Families usually stay in the far end of the pool, with its “sloping entry and gentle fountains,” while adults in party mode assemble by the swim-up bar, said The Points Guy. There are “numerous little nooks” where you can find “in-the-water seats” and “undulating loungers in the shallows.”

San Alfonso del Mar, Algarrobo, Chile

To see San Alfonso del Mar’s “jaw-dropping” swimming pool is to believe it, said Islands. The 3,000-foot-long pool holds 66 million gallons of water and is a “breathtaking feat of craftsmanship.”

When the property opened in 2006, it earned the Guinness World Record title for largest swimming pool on Earth, overshadowing even its closest competition. Today, it’s the “perfect” playground for sailors and kayakers, with a sustainable filtration system that “minimizes energy use” while ensuring water remains in “crystal-clear condition.”

Robot carers sound grim but Diane Morgan and her co-writer Sarah Kendall offer another, more “intriguing perspective” in their new BBC comedy, said Hannah J Davies in The Guardian. What if they were “incompetent and socially inept” but “also considerate, compassionate and lovable”?

This “wonderfully fresh and funny” show follows Sue (Sue Johnston), an elderly widow whose “whiny” son Michael (Paul Ready) has bought her a second-hand robot carer called Linda. It’s “not much of a spoiler” to reveal that Sue develops an “unlikely bond” with Linda (played by Morgan with a “perfect level of unblinking stiffness”).

Cleverly, “Ann Droid” is set in an “entirely normal suburban Britain”, where robots just happen to be helping out with the gardening or the supermarket shop, said Anita Singh in The Telegraph. “They don’t feel out of place.” As Sue’s friendship with Linda blossoms, the show unfurls into an “unexpectedly poignant sitcom” that looks at “the challenges of growing old”.

In its more “slapstick moments”, there are echoes of Morgan’s earlier show, “Mandy”, about a jobless woman’s bizarre money-making schemes, said Rebecca Nicholson in the Financial Times. Both shows revel in the “offbeat and surreal” but this one is “softer, less outrageous, more observational”.

Linda’s “bluntness” prevents the show from slipping into “sentimentality”. When she realises Sue is grieving her late husband, the robot must “research why it is that humans feel sad when someone dies” but her findings are “lightened” by the fact she can only call Sue’s partner “Dead David”. “This is a sly sitcom, then: silly on the outside but, when you look closer, smart and heartfelt.”

With her “terrible wig” and “strange head tilts”, Morgan plays Linda “uncannily well”, said Carol Midgley in The Times. Not much about the concept is new but, at its core, the show “isn’t really about robots”. Often more of a “sadcom than a sitcom”, it delves into the “profundity of grief”. But there are “plenty of funny moments”, too, as Linda “proves her worth” through a series of “escapades” that suggest having a robot carer might not be such a bad thing. “It is daft, but deceptively deep.”

When you make a purchase using links on our site, The Week may earn a commission. All reviews are written independently by our editorial team.

The heat is very on, but that doesn’t mean you have to sweat it out. When you don’t have an air conditioner or the temperature is so high that AC isn’t enough, turn to these items to reinvigorate yourself.

Avène thermal spring water

One spray of this “soothing” mist on a hot day gives you a “quick refresh,” said Glamour. The pure thermal spring water contains postbiotic microflora, which can calm the skin and reduce redness. It’s also free of fragrance, paraben, alcohol, silicone, mineral oil, aluminum and sulfate, a mist ideal for most skin types and safe for use throughout the day. ($15, Ulta)

Cozy Earth bamboo sheet set

These sheets are made from 100% bamboo viscose, which is temperature-regulating and “next-level soft,” said Architectural Digest. Snoozing on the fabric feels like being “draped in a luxuriously lightweight silk,” and because it is thin, air passes “easily through the layer,” keeping you cool and comfortable overnight. Choose from more than a dozen solid colors and limited edition patterns, from twin/twin XL to split king. (starting at $258, Cozy Earth)

Green Pet Shop cool pet pad

As soon as your dog or cat sits on this pressure-activated gel mat, they’ll feel instant relief. It stays cool for up to three hours and recharges on its own after 20 minutes of nonuse, without the need for water or electricity. Mats come in five sizes (extra small to extra large) and are portable for travel. Tip: Putting a mat inside the refrigerator first will “make it even more refreshing,” said Forbes. (starting at $25, Amazon)

Harbor House cooling reversible Tencel comforter blanket

If you need a blanket to sleep even on the hottest nights, this one’s for you. Harbor House’s comforter is filled with sustainable, eucalyptus-based Tencel fibers that are breathable and moisture-wicking. It adapts to your body temperature, helping to reduce overheating and ease you into a good night’s sleep. (starting at $160, Harbor House)

Hydro Flask 24 oz Wide Mouth with Flex Chug Cap

During a heat wave, staying hydrated should be at the top of your to-do list. Having a water bottle within arm’s reach is a “helpful reminder to keep on chugging,” and Hydro Flask’s Wide Mouth with Flex Chug Cap allows for “spill-free sipping,” said Wirecutter. Its double-wall vacuum insulation makes this bottle “particularly adept” at keeping water cold for 24 hours, and the “slim spout” ensures a controlled flow. ($40, Amazon)

Pure & Gentle Arctic Wave cooling body bar

Turn your shower into a frosty retreat with this cooling body bar. Refreshing ingredients like eucalyptus and hydrating spearmint wake up the skin, while coconut oil softens it. The bar is plant-based and cruelty-free, and one is the equivalent of 16 12-ounce bottles of liquid body wash. ($10, Pure & Gentle)

Purple DreamLayer pillow

The foam inside this supportive pillow is “firm, yet squishy enough” to mold to and cradle your head, said Real Simple. An outer gel grid layer promotes “great” airflow, so you won’t “wake up feeling sweaty.” You can also add or remove foam to “easily” adjust the pillow’s height. The price makes it “definitely a splurge,” but it’s a “worthy investment.” (starting at $209, Amazon)

Torras Coolify 2S neck air conditioner

This “easy to use” neck air conditioner delivers an arctic blast whenever you need it, said Wirecutter. A “decadent” array of advanced semiconductor plates lines the device, and when pressed against your skin feel like a refreshingly “cold can of soda.”

The Coolify has a dual-axis hinge design, expanding to accommodate most neck sizes. Don’t pack it up when summer’s over. The thermal chips can be used as heaters. ($199, Amazon)

The romance of Prague is enthralling, from its pretty winding lanes to its skyline of rising spires. Over the past few decades it has become one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe, with more than eight million visitors a year, and with its history and heritage it is easy to see why.

But at the same time, the Czech capital has grown into a sophisticated and refined luxury option for the discerning traveller, with world-class galleries and a dynamic food scene. Michelin recognised this with the Czech Republic’s first national guide in December 2025, including five Prague restaurants that have earned stars.

Things to do

The Prague Visitor Pass makes things easy, offering access to most of the city’s big sights as well as public transport (including a vintage tram). I started with a morning at Prague Castle, the largest castle complex in Europe, where you could probably spend days exploring.

After that head down the hill a little to the Baroque terraced Vrtba Garden, an oasis in the heart of the tourist area, or head further west to the Eiffel-inspired Petrin Tower, built in 1891, where you will find some of the best views of the city.

Of course, everyone wants to see the renowned Astronomical Clock of the Old Town Hall, but the crowds really are changing the experience. Head inside to the Old Town Hall Museum for a different perspective on it, but a great tip is to try the new Mozart Museum directly opposite. It not only has a fascinating interactive display on the composer and his connection to Prague, but also the best views of the clock.

The National Gallery is spread over several locations in the city, but my favourite was the Trade Fair Palace, which has a spectacular collection of works from Picasso, Monet and Van Gogh. Head to the Kunsthalle, which opened in 2022, or Dox, with its eyecatching airship shape, which hosts art, literature, performance and architecture.

Get on the water and explore the River Vltava with a boat trip. With Prague Boats, a two-hour trip takes you out into the suburbs for a leisurely journey through a different side of Prague. If time is tighter, the Prague Venice River Cruise lasts 45 minutes and takes you off the river and into the canals. It is also connected to the small but interesting Charles Bridge Museum.

Eating and drinking

If you’re going to splash out on one Michelin meal while you’re there then make it La Degustation Bohême Bourgeoise. This fine dining restaurant is a little out of the centre and takes you away from the crowds. You can expect a seasonal multi-course tasting menu inspired by Czech cuisine and made with local ingredients.

The Vietnamese community is one of the largest immigrant populations in the Czech Republic, and therefore you can find some of the best pho this far west of Hanoi. But at Taro, a pair of first-generation Vietnamese-Czech brothers are taking things a step further with a tasting menu that merges the two cultures beautifully. Nothing feels expected, but you will leave with a smile on your face.

Hidden behind the tourist options across from the Astronomical Clock is Restaurant 420, a bright welcoming space that is packed with locals, with products are made in the basement bakery and butchery. Expect elevated Czech and central European classics like pork with Szegedin sauce or veal schnitzel.

Bjukitchen is a chic little cafe that’s a perfect stop on a busy day. Start the morning with a hearty brunch, like the scrambled eggs with pecorino, black pepper, and chives on freshly baked sourdough, or a grilled cheese with roasted pepper pesto, sun-dried tomatoes and basil pesto. Definitely don’t miss their home-made soft-serve ice cream.

Myšák is a pastry shop that dates back to 1911, and is still one of Prague’s favourites. Check out the original shop on Vodičkova Street, or one of the newer branches. The sweet buns with vanilla custard are a particular speciality, and the ice cream sundae has been a local staple for 80 years.

Le Petit Beefbar au Grand Cafe, in the W Hotel, serves some of the city’s best steaks in the timeless art nouveau setting of the former Grand Café. The fillet steak and the namesake Beefbar signature sauce were utterly divine.

Forbina, across from the National Theatre, offers delicious crafted cocktails inspired by its neighbour’s theatre productions. Bokovka has a wonderful courtyard to pause for a glass of wine, and U Kunštátů serves a wide selection of craft beers.

Where to stay

Following a stunning renovation, W Prague opened in December 2024 to much fanfare. It is a glorious example of how classic Prague Secession architecture can be modernised sympathetically and stylishly, and you can expect the signature W attention to detail throughout. There are 161 guestrooms and suites, some overlooking Wenceslas Square in the heart of the city, while the Above Rooftop has panoramic views and a menu that changes seasonally.

The Away Spa offers an escape from the urban bustle with a series of pools, jacuzzis, saunas and steam rooms. Try the all-season water journey, which takes you through warm and cold experiences and ends with a refreshing snow shower, or indulge in a treatment customised to your needs. I left feeling like a new woman.

Jaymi McCann was a guest of Czech Tourism, Prague City Tourism and W Prague

The Lake District has so much to offer beyond its “spectacular panoramic views”, said Condé Nast Traveller. Famed for its impressive lakes and rugged mountains, the Unesco World Heritage site also has a “fantastic culinary scene” and “activities galore” to keep the whole family entertained, come rain or shine.

Things to do

For some historical sightseeing, visit the “turreted grey knuckle” of Wray Castle, a masterclass in Victorian Gothic Revival architecture built in 1840, said Condé Nast Traveller. It is also worth visiting 17th-century Holker Hall, where the gardens are a mix of “manicured borders and lawns” and “untamed areas of wildflowers and woodlands”.

“William Wordsworth is the Lake District’s ‘literary leviathan’”, said Sean Newsom in The Times. He “transformed our appreciation of the natural world” with his poems, and by visiting his old home, Dove Cottage, you’ll “get a thrilling sense of his early, heroic years”. Next door, the Wordsworth Museum has handwritten journals and letters on display.

For a mix of history and nature, take a boat tour with Ullswater Steamers, which have been operating for over 160 years. Ullswater, England’s second-largest lake, is a must-see with a landscape of “rolling green hills”, “ancient woodland”, and “plunging crags”.

Thrill-seekers can try ghyll scrambling – a ghyll is a “short, sharp mountain gully cut by a thundering stream”. At Stoneycroft Ghyll, put on a wetsuit while you “scramble upstream”, then “abseil back down”, and then jump into the “deeps beneath the waterfalls”.

Eating and drinking

In the Lake District, it is “hard to go wrong with food”, said Condé Nast Traveller. Try the “deservedly famous” sticky toffee pudding in Cartmel or enjoy “seasonal deliciousness” with “exceptional views of Skiddaw” at Lingholm Kitchen in Keswick.

Cranstons Cumbrian Food Hall is a recently renovated butchery that is great for picking up a “huge variety” of locally sourced produce or enjoying sausage rolls, pies, meal boxes, and salad at the hot-food counter. The Lake District also has a number of Michelin-starred dining options including The Cottage in The Wood, above Keswick, and Forest Side in Grasmere, said The Telegraph.

Where to stay

If you want “indulgence with a capital I”, stay at the Gilpin Hotel & Lake House, just 10 minutes from Lake Windermere’s shore, said Helen Pickles in The Independent. This “modern country-house hotel” has a variety of room styles that ranges from the “lavishly cossetting” to stand-alone chalets with personal spas.

For a more family-friendly option, The Swan Hotel & Spa, at Windermere’s southern tip, is “away from the crowds” in a lovely “riverside setting”. It “ticks plenty of boxes” with a range of amenities including a spa, pool, gym, and adventure playground. The place “goes big on colour” with public areas decorated in “clashing pinks and hot oranges” or “dazzling floral wallpapers”.

Creole and Cajun food both hail from Louisiana, but only one was born in New Orleans. Rich and soulful, Creole cuisine emerged from the city’s kitchens during the 1700s, influenced by French, African, Indigenous, Spanish and Caribbean cooking styles.

Tomatoes, roux and the Holy Trinity of diced onions, celery and green bell peppers are the foundation for many a Creole dish. When you then add shrimp, crab, oysters, sausage and okra, the magic commences, and classics local dishes like gumbo, crawfish étouffée and red beans and rice spring to life. Ready for a taste? In New Orleans, no one does authentic Creole better than these eight treasured spots.

Clancy’s

Clancy’s is the “paradigmatic” Uptown New Orleans bistro, where the menu is “Paris-at-the-mouth-of-the-Mississippi,” said The New York Times. This was the “life project” of waiter turned longtime owner Brad Hollingsworth, who died in 2024, and is still owned by his wife and stepson. Executive Chef Jerry Harkins Jr. and his team have “mastered” both the French-Creole standards of turtle soup and shrimp remoulade and “idiosyncratic” specialties like fried oysters covered in melted Brie and Clancy’s smoked duck with dirty rice.

Dooky Chase’s Restaurant

Dooky Chase is not just a restaurant. A Tremé institution for more than 80 years, it opened during segregation and gave Black diners with few options a place to convene over a warm and comforting bowl of gumbo or crawfish étouffée.

Over time, Dooky Chase — and its talented late co-owner and chef, Leah Chase — gained a reputation for “specializing in the seasoned flavors of Black Creole culture,” said New Orleans Magazine. During the 1950s and ’60s, civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Thurgood Marshall sat down and strategized over the same dishes that Dooky Chase still serves today — shrimp Clemenceau, red beans and rice, oyster po’boys and Creole-seasoned fried chicken.

Galatoire’s 

At Galatoire’s, jackets are required, tank tops and flip flops are verboten and you must order an “impeccable Sazerac, soufflé potatoes and shrimp remoulade for the table,” said Bon Appétit. Founded in 1905, Galatoire’s is one of the most “elegant” restaurants in the country, with “tuxedoed waiters” who present with a flourish plates of shrimp Creole, crab ravigote and trout meunière amandine. End your meal in true New Orleans fashion with a cup of café brûlot, a spicy, alcoholic beverage that is — whoosh! — flambéed tableside.

Guy’s Po-Boys

New Orleans and po’boys “go hand in hand,” said Southern Living. The “simple, hearty” sandwich was created in the 1920s for striking railroad workers (“poor boys”) and requires bread with a crusty exterior and pillowy interior that can handle a protein like roast beef and fried oysters, plus all the fixins.

Guy’s excels at crafting the “classics,” such as golden fried shrimp and blackened catfish, as well as its own creations, like The Bomb, said Tasting Table. This “eclectic” po’boy brings together the shrimp and catfish that put Guy’s “on the map” along with melted Swiss and cheddar cheeses.

Li’l Dizzy’s Cafe

Plan accordingly for a visit to Li’l Dizzy’s Cafe. Only open for lunch, diners line up early for a seat at this “cherished” Tremé restaurant that’s “keeping Creole soul food alive,” said Mashed. The “deliciously juicy” fried chicken is regularly heralded as the best in New Orleans, and the gumbo is thick and luscious.

If you find yourself at Li’l Dizzy’s on a Friday, you’re in luck: The day’s special, catfish jourdain — fried catfish topped with shrimp and crabmeat in a lemon butter sauce — is a local favorite. You don’t have to be from the neighborhood to feel the love. The cafe’s owners “welcome everyone as if they’re family.”

Neyow’s Creole Cafe

Tanya Dubuclet was her grandmother’s faithful sidekick in the kitchen, and now those “secret recipes” she learned growing up are staples on the menu at Neyow’s Creole Cafe, said Essence. Favorites like the rich filé gumbo, crawfish balls, chargrilled oysters and carrot soufflé are all “cooked with love” and keep Dubuclet’s late grandmother’s “memory alive.” For a taste of pretty much everything, order the Neyow’s Extravaganza Dinner for two, featuring gumbo, stuffed crab, stuffed shrimp, steak, fish, two sides and two desserts.

Vaucresson’s Creole Café

When the steaming bowls of gumbo and plates of savory yakamein start coming out of the kitchen at Vaucresson’s Creole Café, “heads turn,” said NOLA.com. That’s because Chef Bunny Young’s style of “New Orleans home cooking” is “increasingly rare” to find at restaurants and always a welcome sight.

Vaucresson’s started decades ago as a butcher stall, evolving into a butcher shop and restaurant now operated by third-generation owner Vance Vaucresson and Julie Frederick Vaucresson. Try one of the restaurant’s famous sausages in a po’boy or the smothered okra plate, which is “every bit as much about the Creole sausage, crab and shrimp as the namesake vegetable.”

Vyoone’s

The “gratifying” French-Creole fare at Vyoone’s — escargot in bone marrow, “delicate” duck l’orange with mushroom bread pudding, les galettes de crabes — matches the cafe’s “warm ambiance,” said Resy. The French onion soup is “excellent,” as are the crawfish beignets and crevettes et gruau, a generous helping of large barbecue shrimp over grits, topped with bacon and smoked gouda. Vyoone’s, named after its founder Vyoone Segué, has an inviting indoor space, but dinner tastes even better when eaten outside in the “marvelous” courtyard.

By African standards, Malawi is a small country (a bit smaller than England, in fact), but with its diverse landscapes and vast lakes, it can offer a wide variety of experiences in a single safari holiday, says Ben Lerwill in National Geographic Traveller. For a gentle start, head to the Shire Highlands, in the southeast, where forested hills rise above 2,000 metres, and tea plantations have flourished for more than a century.

Among these estates is Satemwa, which was founded in 1923 and later became the first in Malawi to be Fairtrade-certified. Guests stay in a 1930s bungalow, Huntingdon House, with “roaring” log fires, clawed bathtubs, antique furniture and “luxuriant” plants in silver vases. Satemwa’s 3,700 acres are interspersed with swathes of mahogany woods that shelter creatures including antelopes, porcupines and more than 600 avian species, some of them spectacular, making birdwatching trips “a joy”. Coffee is also grown on the estate, but tea tastings are particularly delightful, with black, green, oolong and white varieties to sample, some of which are served at Claridge’s.

Next, you might visit Liwonde National Park, a 212-square-mile expanse of mopane woodland three hours to the north. Poaching once devastated the park, but in the past decade, 40,000 wire snares have been removed, and black rhinos, cheetahs, lions and wild dogs have been reintroduced. I stayed at Mvuu – one of just a few lodges here, with “spacious” tented chalets and “excellent” food – and went on wonderful game drives and walking safaris, spotting lions, elephants, hippos and other species.

The country’s true “marvel”, however, is Lake Malawi – one of the world’s largest and deepest lakes, home to at least 1,000 freshwater fish species (more than Europe and North America combined). I stayed at Pumulani Lodge, which has steps down to a beach. Kayaking along the wooded shore, I spotted fish eagles and hamerkops, and the snorkelling was dazzling.

With its “sorbet-coloured” hillside towns, the Amalfi Coast is one of Italy’s most beautiful places – but its high prices and traffic-clogged roads can be a pain. If you visit in the high season, you might do better to stay in Salerno, says Jessica Furseth in The Guardian, the “relaxed” port city just to its east. Restaurants and hotels there are much cheaper, there are regular ferries to places such as the town of Amalfi, and the city has attractions of its own, including a lively seaside promenade and an old town with an impressive medieval cathedral. It also sits on a main coastal rail line from Naples, offering quick, easy access to Pompeii (back towards Naples) and to Paestum (further south), with its ancient Greek tomb frescoes and temples of “golden” stone (“inexpressibly grand”, according to Shelley).

An idyllic escape from Melbourne

Set in the “gentle” hills of the Macedon Ranges, a 90-minute drive north of Melbourne, the little Australian town of Daylesford is “a hotbed of farm-led fabulousness”, much like the village in the Cotswolds after which it was named in the mid-19th century, says Sarah Turner in The Sunday Times. Daylesford has a great Sunday market and some “posh” boutiques, but is best known for Lake House, a hotel and restaurant that has driven the town’s evolution from “hippyish” to (appealingly) “haute” in recent decades. Run by Alla WolfTasker – now one of Australia’s most “revered” chefs – and her husband Allan, it offers wonderful five-course tasting menus for £130, which is a “fine-dining bargain” by Cotswolds standards. Stay if you can in one of its 33 hotel rooms, or at the “very luxurious” six-suite lodge set on its own farm, where kookaburras and cockatoos flit about the mineral-water-fed swimming pool.

A charming Victorian seaside resort

“The sweet, sensible sister of brassy Scarborough”, the Yorkshire seaside resort of Filey is “almost absurdly nice”, says Helen Pickles in The Daily Telegraph. Home to just 7,000 people, the town is “elegant” and quite unspoiled, with just one amusement arcade, a small “child-friendly” funfair, and no “flashy attractions” – and the five-mile beach it sits on is “gorgeous”. Recent years have seen the opening of a small gin distillery and the launch of a spring literary festival, but most of Filey’s shops and cafés are long-established. For instance, Sterchi’s Chocolatiers opened in 1916. Wherever you stay (the White Lodge Hotel is “the place for treats and celebrations”), don’t miss the town’s pretty boating lake, the Sunday concerts at the bandstand, or the RSPB’s Bempton Cliffs reserve, which is home to spectacular seabirds.

Pulling up at Son Xotano, after driving to the centre of rural Mallorca, feels a bit like arriving at a friend’s big place in the country that you have always been a little jealous of.

At the heart of this 12-century estate is a honey-hued manor, with pastel-blue wooden shutters and a sun-drenched terrace. A grand Mediterranean finca, it invites exploration.

In the grounds, a large pool is framed by striped sunloungers, cabanas and daybeds. The message to spend as much time as possible horizontal is a splendid idea. This is not a hotel for energetic daytime activities or rowdy nights at the bar. It is a place of calm, next to vineyards within a rural landscape where guests are encouraged to find a quiet corner, perhaps among the cypress trees or lavender, and slow right down.

Why stay here?

Son Xotano is one of the newest additions to the Annua Signature Hotels group founded by brothers Álvaro and Iñaki Sasiambarrena. Their philosophy is to create design-forward retreats across the Mediterranean, combining the natural surroundings and heritage of each property with high-end service and amenities.

It was on show from the start as we strolled up the path to check in to be greeted by a mass flutter of butterflies dancing around our ankles.

When choosing a place to stay, it is tempting to head to Mallorca’s dinking coastline, but head inland and the gentler pace is beguiling. And if you crave the beach or Palma’s twisty shopping streets, they are just a short, 25-minute drive away.

There are 22 rooms here, a variety of suites and doubles, with views of the gardens or countryside in the distance. Some come with their own private terrace or garden. There is no beige or grey palette here. Instead, our room was a delightful mix of soft creams and pastels, and on the wall behind the bed some specially commissioned artwork – a giant mural depicting trees and peacocks in vivid blues and greens.

All rooms come with air conditioning, coffee machine, safe, Wi-Fi, robes, slippers, Aesop products and a minibar. I needed to ask for a kettle and teabags, and there is no TV – but one can be wheeled in on request.

The shower was enormous. I popped my head into one of the bigger suites that had a free-standing bath, but one of the many delights of staying in such a unique building is that no two rooms are the same. All have the particular quirks – wooden beams or quaint tiny windows – of a centuries-old property.

Eating and drinking

Situated next to the pool and providing sustenance from early morning to late at night is the Son Xotano restaurant. Under the shade of olive and cypress trees, we started the day with breakfast – a huge buffet supplemented by table service. The fruit platters were a thing of beauty. As guests flop after a swim, lunch – from small plates to classics like salads and hamburgers – can be brought over.

In the evening the restaurant becomes the focal point of the hotel. As the sun sets tables are laid out on a terrace, or you can do as we did and choose a romantic table set apart among the trees. The menu features local, seasonal ingredients and is Mediterranean and Mallorcan with a contemporary approach. The porc negre loin had the crispiest skin and was delicious. Order a bottle of César wine – a lively dry white produced for the sister hotel in Lanzarote and only available through this collection of hotels.

Things to do

Yoga, massages, horse-riding and much more can all be arranged if you can drag yourself away from the pool. A car is definitely a good idea so you can explore nearby towns and beaches.

In Palma, wander the cobbled lanes of the Old Town and call in at the wondrous gothic cathedral. The island’s finest beaches are also within easy reach, from the sweeping white sands of Playa de Muro to the tranquil coves of Cala Tuent and Cala Deià, while the nearby Serra de Tramuntana offers some of Mallorca’s most scenic drives and hilltop villages, including Valldemossa and Deià.

Closer to the hotel, don’t miss the charming market town of Sineu or a wine tasting at one of the vineyards around Binissalem, Mallorca’s best-known wine region.

The verdict

If you are looking for an alternative to the coast and want to truly unwind, Son Xotano is a gem. Don’t expect a packed programme of activities – there isn’t even a gym.

You will, however, come away feeling relaxed and refreshed.

Jonathan was a guest of Son Xotano Hotel; annuahotels.com