The majesty of the natural world and the incomprehensible vastness of space are almost infinitely rearrangeable variables for documentarians. We are lucky to have a long (and still-growing) library of superb television series that explore the landscapes, creatures and philosophical underpinnings of both the known and the unknown. Done right, the way these acclaimed series are, documentaries can be just as thrilling as any fictional narrative.

‘Cosmos’ (1980)

One of the most-watched documentary series in history, “Cosmos” leans heavily on the charisma and chops of its presenter, astronomer and public intellectual Carl Sagan. Its 13 episodes tackle everything from the Cambrian explosion to the nature of time and space.

It also presents a plea for people to take care of the planet while acknowledging our relative insignificance in the context of the universe. “There’s never a dull moment” in what emerges as a “complete science course, encompassing not just cosmology but also chemistry, physics, biology and the history of human discovery,” said James Kingsland at The Guardian. (Internet Archive)

‘The Blue Planet’ (2001)

A spiritual successor to “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau,” this BBC production outclasses its predecessors in every conceivable way. It introduces viewers to complex concepts like ocean currents and ecosystems like coral reefs, with narration from David Attenborough.

The 10 episodes took years to complete and, at the time, made up the most expensive nature documentary ever produced. The series is “unabashedly, poetically awestruck, yet unsentimental,” said Julie Salamon at The New York Times, featuring “images demonstrating the interconnectedness of life in the starkest terms.” A second season, “Blue Planet II” was released to great acclaim in 2017. (discovery+)

‘Planet Earth’ (2006)

The “11-part mother of all nature series” uses “helicopters, long lenses and all manner of cutting-edge film techniques to bring us the photographic spoils of a five-year global odyssey,” said Susan Stewart at The New York Times. It “often encourages you to root for the predator rather than the prey: fitting at a time when the planet itself seems as vulnerable as a newly hatched penguin.”

Rather than honing in on a particular animal or region, the series takes a kaleidoscopic look at life on Earth by visiting different ecosystem types, including plains, mountains, jungles, forests and the mysterious depths of the ocean. Collectively, the series leaves the viewer with a truly globe-spanning understanding of our home planet. It was followed by two additional series, “Planet Earth II” in 2016 and “Planet Earth III” in 2023. (HBO Max)

‘Frozen Planet’ (2011)

The forbidding landscapes and wildlife of the polar regions get the glowed-up documentary treatment in the BBC’s “Frozen Planet.” Attenborough narrates for the BBC, but the American version released on the Discovery Channel was recut with voice work by Alec Baldwin.

Episodes follow animals like polar bears through multiple climatic seasons, and the series is full of awe-inspiring observations about the critical importance of the region to the Earth’s general health, like the fact that a third of the trees on the entire planet exist in the circumpolar belt called the Taiga. “Frozen Planet” is “gorgeous to behold: lump-in-throat, tear-in-eye beautiful,” said Robert Lloyd at the Los Angeles Times, “made to reveal a world few people will ever see.” (HBO Max)

‘Wonders of the Universe’ (2011)

A series presented by the “incongruously boyish and immediately watchable Professor Brian Cox,” this BBC production is meant to show us “just how insignificant our little solar system is when presented with the enormity of space and time indefinite,” said Luke Holland at Den of Geek. Cox’s “deft ability to simplify a concept without patronizing an audience” results in a “profound triumph.”

The four-part series tackles the origins of the universe, the pivotal role of stardust in all living things, and the nature of space-time, among many other cosmic mysteries. Buoyed by sharp special effects and meditative insights, “Wonders of the Universe” is gripping television. (Prime)

‘Africa’ (2013)

This is yet another stellar series from the BBC, coproduced with the Discovery Channel and narrated by the extremely prolific Attenborough, who turns 100 on May 8 this year and is still working. The six episodes of “Africa” each look at one of the continent’s regions, starting with a tour of the forbidding Kalahari and Namib Deserts and traveling through the Congo Basin, the southern tip of the continent, and the savannahs of East Africa.

Forest Whitaker deftly presents the series in the U.S. market. The series “abounds in jaw-dropping visuals on a scale that, like the best fictional dramas, infuses the epic with the up-close-and-personal,” said Sheri Linden at The Hollywood Reporter. (HBO Max)

‘The Hunt’ (2015)

Viewers might want to steer little kids out of the room before pressing play on BBC’s “The Hunt,” which takes a long look at the dance between predator and prey in different kinds of environments, like grasslands and coasts. It’s not ideal for people who are sensitive to violence and gore, but it is riveting. Some cherished illusions will be shattered, including what chimpanzees eat, which is not exclusively fruit but sometimes other, weaker primates like red colobus monkeys.

If you can stomach it, “The Hunt” is full of such revelations, rendered lovingly and narrated by (who else?) Attenborough. “The footage is truly extraordinary and gorgeous and, for the most part, artfully edited,” said Ken Tucker at Yahoo Entertainment. (HBO Max)

‘Our Planet’ (2019-2023)

You will never guess who narrates this Netflix production about habitat loss and the consequences of human encroachment on the natural world. Attenborough, well into his 90s when the series was shot, did some of the best voiceover work of his long career here. The series’ 12 episodes across two seasons visit a dizzying array of locales, from the Congolese rainforest to the Arctic, where polar bears are struggling to adapt to climate change and the loss of their icy homes. A series that “plays notes of an elegy,” it also “contains the saddest scene perhaps ever shot in a nature documentary,” depicting an “enormous gathering of walruses that have been forced onto a tiny stretch of dry land due to the shrinking sea ice in the Arctic,” said Brian Resnick at Vox. (Netflix)

With its “green, rolling hills” and “patchwork of pinot noir and chardonnay vineyards”, Oregon’s Willamette Valley has been compared to Burgundy, said National Geographic.

The valley is home to 11 designated grape-growing regions with diverse terroirs, spanning all the way from Portland to Eugene. In recent years, the “cool nights and warm summer days” here have provided the perfect conditions for some “top-notch sparkling wines”. Grape varieties used in champagne like pinot meunier have been “thriving” here.

Method Oregon is a non-profit established by a coalition of producers to ensure high standards and help place their wines on the map. Bottles carrying the stamp must be “100% fermented, bottled, riddled, and disgorged in Oregon”, use the traditional method that requires sparkling wines to go through a “natural secondary fermentation in a bottle”, said National Geographic, and be aged for no less than 24 months en tirage (“the crucial stage where wines are aged on yeast”) to develop a complex flavour.

Gran Moraine’s sparkling brut rosé is “exquisite, rich and lovely”, said Clive Pursehouse on Decanter. The delicate wine spent six years en tirage and is bursting with “floral notes of apple blossom, sweet lemon cream, and ripe, fleshy pears”.

But chardonnay remains the “king of Oregon white wines”, said Mike Desimone on Robb Report. For a special occasion, consider splashing out on a bottle from Eyrie Vineyard where winemaker Jim Maresh makes “small-batch, high-quality wines from estate-grown grapes under his family label”.

Or, you can’t go wrong with a Résonance chardonnay, said Vine Pair. When renowned French winemakers come to Oregon “you know to pay attention”. That’s exactly what happened when Thibault Gagey and Jacques Lardière embarked on their “first project outside of Burgundy” in the Willamette Valley – and this bottle is an “excellent example” of how the chardonnay grape variety is flourishing in the cool climate. Expect refreshing mineral notes, hints of “ripe pear and crisp apples”, with a “wonderfully balanced” palate.

Dover, Vt.

Sleepy Bear Farm, a 2004 timber-frame five-bedroom home on more than 90 acres, features two rustic post-and-beam bunk rooms—one with six double beds. The great room has cathedral ceilings, a two-sided double-height hearth, and French doors to a stone patio.

A lower level has media and wine rooms. Close to Mount Snow, the property includes trails, a brook, fruit trees, and a swimming hole. $3,300,000. Story Jenks, LandVest/Christie’s International Real Estate, (802) 238-1332

Wilmington, N.C.

Built in 2010, this West Indies–inspired waterfront home includes a bunk room with four beds, built-in shelves, and shiplap walls. The five-bedroom
features coffered ceilings, walnut floors, a fireplace, French doors, and a kitchen with a stove nook, a pot filler, and a butler’s pantry.

Outside are an infinity pool, a spa, a fireplace, a putting green, and views of the Intracoastal Waterway and Atlantic Ocean. Downtown Wilmington
is about 20 minutes away. $8,000,000. Nick Phillips, Landmark
Sotheby’s International Realty, (910) 620-3370

Mabank, Texas

On Cedar Creek Lake, this 2019 contemporary has two double bunk rooms with water views and en suite baths. The four-bedroom includes rustic beams, wood floors, a chef’s kitchen, and a white stacked-stone fireplace.

The property spans more than three waterfront acres, with a patio, pool, boathouse, yards, and a deck. Community access to riding, pickleball, and trails is included; Dallas is about a 45-minute drive. $3,500,000. Debbie French, Ebby Halliday Realtors/Luxury Portfolio International, (903) 340-7747

Truckee, Calif.

Set in the Martis Camp community about 20 minutes from Lake Tahoe, this 2014 lodge-style five-bedroom includes a six-person bunk room, as well as hickory floors, vaulted ceilings, exposed trusses, and a kitchen with a SubZero fridge and Wolf range.

There’s also a media room and billiards table. The lot, at just over an acre, includes a firepit, a built-in grill, and access to a shared beach, tennis courts, a lodge, and golf. $8,695,000. Dominic Cristalli, Martis Camp Realty, (206) 412-2493

Montrose, Colo.

This seven-bedroom modern farmhouse on nearly 15 acres has an eight-bed bunk room with tongue-and-groove walls. The 2006 home features exposed metal trusses, a stone fireplace wall, a 16-seat bar, and a chef’s
kitchen with a walk-in pantry.

Surrounded by the Uncompahgre National Forest north of Telluride, the property has a patio with a fireplace, an alfresco dining area, a putting green, firepits, shuffleboard, and a hot tub. $8,250,000. Kevin Holbrook,
LIV Sotheby’s International Realty, (970) 729-1601

Minneapolis

In the North Loop’s 1922 Soho Lofts building, this rustic modern studio loft has two bunks with four double beds, clad in barn-style wood. The condo has exposed brick and ducts, high ceilings, a large window, a reading nook, an open kitchen with concrete counters and a beverage fridge, and in-unit laundry.

Parking and a storage locker are included. Coffee shops, dining, and green space are steps away. $299,900. Joe Grunnet, DRG, (612) 244-6613

Visiting a public garden is one of the best ways to get outside. You feel the sun’s warmth on your skin as you stroll by the trees and flowers in bloom, appreciating every leaf and petal. Give yourself the gift of fresh air and time well spent by taking a trip to one of these splendid gardens.

Edward James Sculpture Garden, Las Pozas, Mexico

During the 1960s, “eccentric” British poet and Surrealist art patron Edward James traveled to the Mexican rainforest and created this “otherworldly” sculpture garden, said The New York Times. More than 30 “elaborate” and often “nonsensical” statues and structures, with curious names like “The House of Three Stories That Could Be Five,” are scattered about, surrounded by massive ferns, orchids and waterfalls. Every area vies for your attention; exploring this topsy-turvy landscape feels like “stepping into a dream.”

Gardens by the Bay, Singapore

A 250-acre “fantasy land” of “space-age biodomes” and “whimsical sculptures,” Gardens by the Bay is known for its over-the-top features, said Lonely Planet. The “astonishing” Cloud Forest, with its 114-foot waterfall and aerial walkways through the trees, feels straight out of the tropics, while the Flower Dome “replicates the dry Mediterranean climates found across the world.” Once the sun sets, the giant trees of the Supertree Grove slowly illuminate for Garden Rhapsody, a nightly light and music show.

The High Line, New York City

Manhattan’s urban landscape is on “full display” at the High Line, said Condé Nast Traveler. This former freight rail turned “elevated, mixed-use public park” is a prime example of New York City “cleverly” turning “old spaces into exactly what you want them to be.” More than a dozen garden zones can be found along the 1.45-mile-long stretch, where perennials, grass, trees and shrubs come together in “perfect unkempt harmony.”

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, Cape Town, South Africa

This trailblazing botanical garden, established in 1913, was the first in the world to focus solely on indigenous plants. It sits in a lovely spot on the eastern slope of Table Mountain, and though the garden “showcases more than 7,000 species,” a “high priority” is given to plants in the fynbos biome, like “stiff, structured proteas” and “shaggy, flowering ericas,” said The New York Times. Get a bird’s-eye view by taking the Tree Canopy Walkway, a curved bridge that offers “mountain vistas and sweeping forest views.”

Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania

Conservatories, topiaries, aquatic plants, meadows, dazzling fountains and more await at the spectacular 1,100-acre Longwood Gardens. The collection of plants is “incredible,” as is the main conservatory filled with “lush” displays that change seasonally, said USA Today. Variety is key to Longwood Gardens’ success, as visitors have plenty of sections to wander, including the spacious new Orchid House, tranquil Bonsai Courtyard, verdant Waterlily Court and the modern Cascade Garden, designed by Roberto Burle Marx.

Marqueyssac Gardens, Vézac, France

Nearly four miles of pathways wind their way through this enchanting garden, where more than 150,000 boxwood trees are “meticulously laid and manicured” to “create mesmerizing patterns,” said Veranda. Marqueyssac sits on a cliff overlooking the Dordogne Valley and offers impressive views of the land and river below. Peacocks roam freely and are often spotted enjoying the garden’s beauty.

Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Pack a picnic, don comfortable walking shoes and prepare to spend all day at Australia’s oldest botanic garden. Spread across 74 acres, Royal Botanic Garden Sydney is home to more than 5,000 native and international species and “adorned with ornamental plants, rolling lawns and ancient trees,” said Condé Nast Traveler.

Highlights include the Cadi Jam Ora garden, which “shares native, Aboriginal plants and those brought from Europe by Britain’s First Fleet,” and The Calyx, a “living art gallery” and one of the largest green walls in the southern hemisphere. Leave enough time to see the ancient Wollemi pine, one of the rarest plants on Earth.

Wrest Park, Bedfordshire, England

The grand gardens at Wrest Park date back hundreds of years, giving visitors the chance to go on a “journey through three centuries of landscape design,” said The Times. The formal gardens showcase English, French, Dutch and Italian landscaping styles and “ornate” sculptures, but “venture beyond the pretty parterres and perfumed borders” and you’ll find far less manicured woodland trails. For fans of “Bridgerton,” if the grounds look familiar, that’s because scenes for season two and three were filmed on the property.

Recent violence in the Middle East had some of Dubai’s wealthy British expats rushing to bunkers, but in the longer term they might be seeking shelter in a famous Italian city.

Milan is becoming the preferred destination for the wealthy who are “abandoning” Dubai because of tensions and violence in the Gulf region, said British Asian newspaper Eastern Eye.

Restlessness and reinvention

Italy’s flat-tax regime means that foreign residents can pay €300,000 (£259,620) a year on all overseas income, which is “small change for the world’s wealthiest”, said The Guardian. Even prior to the fighting in Iran, interest in Italy took off after Britain scrapped its non-dom status and Portugal tightened its own rules.

But “tax policy alone does not explain the surge”, said the Economic Times. Italy’s “strong legal framework, EU membership, and relatively stable economy” make it a “compelling choice” for the privileged.

As wealthy families move to “safer European bases”, Milan is enjoying “historic spikes” in luxury real estate sales, from its “renovated palazzi to modern high-end apartments”. Property prices in Milan have risen by 38% over five years.

“Unlike more poetic cities like Rome or Venice”, Milan “actually works” and doesn’t have an issue with “overtourism”, said The Times. Its “strategic location” offers “easy access to the lakes, mountains and coast” and there’s a “restlessness” and an “obsession” with “reinvention”, meaning there’s “always something new to see or do”. It is home to the Borsa Italiana stock exchange, leading banks and global fashion houses.

A new “superfast” railway links the city centre and Linate airport, you can “whizz around the city quicker than ever” on the “tap-in tap-out” metro, and there are new hotels, restaurants, bars and private members’ clubs, which are “cranking up the standards of hospitality” from “perfectly good” to something closer to those of London or New York.

Tax dumping

Can Milan really dethrone Dubai in the affections of the “global elite”? That “remains to be seen”, said The Guardian. Armand Arton, who helps multimillionaire and billionaire families to relocate through investment citizenship schemes, said he’s “positive” that Dubai will “rebound from the current question of doubt around security”.

There are “still questions” about “how far Italy can push its advantage”, said the broadsheet, and the former French prime minister François Bayrou accused Italy of “tax dumping”, an allegation that Giorgia Meloni dismissed as “utterly baseless”.

Italy is not fully replacing Dubai, said Eastern Eye, but it has become a “strategic second home for global elites”. Experts believe the Italian city “offers a compelling alternative for those prioritising European stability”.

In a world full of influencers and trending aesthetics, figuring out your personal style has become both easier and overwhelming. While there is nothing wrong with taking inspiration from fashion icons, finding your signature aesthetic requires a touch of introspection. Here are some tips for navigating the personal journey toward landing on your own, very individual style.

Start with your closet

Your first thought may be to buy new clothes, but before you start refreshing your closet, take stock of what you already have. Begin from the “left side of your wardrobe and commit to wearing each item every day,” CNN said. Consider whether to “save it for evening wear or chuck it altogether.” This will give you a “clearer view of what does and doesn’t work, as well as what you’re missing.”

Everyone has a go-to outfit, “something you know works and makes you feel good,” Vitor Arruda, a personal stylist and content creator, said to The Guardian. Once you identify that outfit, “figure out what it is that makes you like it so much,” the outlet said. After you figure that out, you can search for “clothes that look or feel similar.”

Go window shopping

Shopping sprees can be fun, but they aren’t “always productive to finding your style,” said The Every Girl. There are “crowds and long lines for dressing rooms,” and sometimes the “chaos can make you pick up things you don’t actually love.”

Instead, spend your time “looking at clothes, not buying clothes.” Pick a day and “commit yourself to not swiping your credit card.” Instead, spend a “no-pressure day getting a better grasp of what you like.” You can also “test drive new pieces” by using a clothing rental service like Armoire, Nuuly and Rent the Runway. This way, you can “bring some of your style inspiration to life” without needing to “commit to new pieces that might not actually resonate with you in the long run."

Make a mood board

Mood boards and Pinterest are great ways to visualize your style ideas. If you’re a “tactile person,” you can “absolutely print and paste pictures, words, vibes together,” said The Good Trade. If you’re more tech-savvy, you can do this in Photoshop or Canva. Laying your inspirations out visually is a “great way to see commonalities in who and what you are drawn to.” Any kind of media or color swatches that catch your eye can be included. Once you put your vision board together, “you can see what aligns with what you already own and what feels far off.”

Don’t hyperfixate on your body

Many of us are conditioned to “believe that our body shape and size dictate what we wear,” said The Guardian. But this undermines the premise of personal style. Fashion advice devoted to dressing for your body type “creates a misconception that your body is wrong or that you have to hide certain parts,” Arruda said. When you do this, “you’re dressing with shame and fear,” which will “never allow you to be your true self and develop a style.”

It’s hard to “build perspective” when your “top concern is that every garment you wear makes it clear exactly how your waist is shaped,” or if you’re “worried about looking short in a long coat,” Lizzie Wheeler, a vintage expert, said to The Guardian. Don’t be afraid to experiment with shape, volume and proportion.

Learn to ride the wave

Personal style isn’t “something you find overnight,” Amanda Murray, a creative consultant, said to CNN. “It’s something you arrive at.” Over time, through “living, failing, heartbreak, love, wanting, shedding,” you will “understand what feels true on your body and what doesn’t.”

Your aesthetic is not just a reflection of your current life but “the life you’re aspiring to or think you deserve,” Jalil Johnson, writer of the fashion Substack Consider Yourself Cultured, said to CNN. Much like our “ever-evolving and changing lives,” our style “evolves too, and that evolution is not only natural but necessary.”

For a play that famously ends with the suicides of its two teenage protagonists, Robert Icke’s production of “Romeo & Juliet” feels “outlandishly joyful” and “profoundly alive”, said Alice Saville in The Independent.

Fuelled by fizzing performances from its “duo of stars”, Sadie Sink (from “Stranger Things”) and Noah Jupe (“Hamnet”), this is a “richly emotional, brilliantly intelligent take on a classic – one that’ll plunge a knife into your heart so skilfully that you hardly notice the pain”. Sink, already a Broadway veteran at 23, is “magnificent” – with a “steely passion”, quick wit and unguarded physical abandon, said Nick Curtis in London’s The Standard. And she’s well matched by Jupe, who makes a consummately assured stage debut as a boyish and impetuous Romeo.

The two leads are terrific, agreed Houman Barekat in The New York Times. So sincere and touching are their performances that we almost forgive the quirks that threaten to overbalance the play.

In “Romeo & Juliet”, “fate is a matter of bad timing”: the young lovers are confounded by bad luck as much as warring clans. “Urgent communications don’t get through; realisations come too late.” Icke draws attention to this with a giant digital clock, counting down the hours, that appears above the actors; at times it rewinds, and scenes replay with slight variations. It’s all rather “gimmicky”, generating only a “cheap, slightly hammy suspense”.

There are a lot of distractions in this modern-dress staging, agreed Clive Davis in The Times. It too often lapses into broad comedy; at times it seems as if we’ve stumbled into “an entirely new play called ‘Two Geezers of Verona’”. Kasper Hilton-Hille’s Mercutio “can’t stop baring his bottom”, and there’s “precious little sense of a city at war with itself”.

It would have made for a more elegant production had Icke not made so many directorial “interventions”, said Andrzej Lukowski in Time Out – but “auteurs are gonna auteur”. And the cast is truly excellent: from the leads to Clare Perkins’ Nurse, and Clark Gregg as Juliet’s father Capulet, through to the minor characters. Reined in a little bit, this could have been an all-time great “Romeo & Juliet”. Instead, “we’ll have to settle for one that’s merely very good”.

Harold Pinter Theatre, London SW1. Until 20 June.

“No other film this year will make you feel as uncomfortable as ‘The Drama’,” said Clarisse Loughrey in The Independent. It’s a “provocative and compulsively watchable” romcom – albeit one that “obliterates the very meaning of the word”.

Zendaya and Robert Pattinson star as Emma and Charlie, a pair of gorgeous young Bostonians who meet in a café, fall in love and are now in the run-up to their wedding. So far so good, until “an idle, drunken conversation” one night with their closest friends (Mamoudou Athie and Alana Haim) leads to a round of confessions about the worst thing they’ve ever done. It’s all laughed off – until Emma’s turn. Without giving away any spoilers, “what she says next immediately sucks the air from the room”.

People are going a “little cuckoo” over this movie, said David Fear in Rolling Stone. Emma’s bombshell is “the point of no return for the characters” – and, for some audiences, the moment “The Drama” “loses them”. It certainly walks “a thin line between thought-provoking and trolling”; you do wonder “if the sudden introduction of an issue much, much bigger than the film itself isn’t simply a shock value masquerading as shock therapy”.

The film is also tonally uneven, said Nicholas Barber on BBC Culture. Oddly, it devotes more energy to “awkward cringe comedy” than to the characters and their feelings; it’s hard to believe, for instance, that Emma and Charlie would only have “a few faltering chats” about her confession, rather than discussing it properly.

Still, ‘The Drama’ is “beautifully made”, and most people who see it “will end up having in-depth debates, even if the characters themselves don’t manage it. The first great cinematic conversation-starter of 2026 is here.”

Alan Bennett once said that “if you live to be 90 in England and can still eat a boiled egg, they think you deserve the Nobel Prize”. Well, here he is at 91, serving up “another volume of his punctiliously kept and endlessly diverting diaries”, said Nick Curtis in The Independent.

“Enough Said” covers the years 2016 to 2024: “the pandemic, the rise of populism, and the likely last spurt of his formidable creative output”, with the play “Allelujah!”, the film “The Choral” and the novella “Killing Time”.

The general theme is of loss and “diminution”, as deafness, lack of mobility, cataracts and other medical problems intrude.

The “dramatis personae of his life” are dying off: Maggie Smith, his “adored” friend and collaborator; Jonathan Miller, an old friend and rival from his “Beyond the Fringe” days; and Queen Elizabeth II, his subject in the play “A Question of Attribution”. Revolted by Brexit and Boris Johnson, Bennett feels that his version of England is dying too, “its libraries closing and its churches unappreciated”. But he and his partner Rupert Thomas “still rummage through junk shops”, “frequent out-of-the-way churches” and eat fish and chips.

More than once, Bennett “apologises to the reader for saying things he’s said many times before”, said Philip Hensher in The Spectator. And he certainly does often return “to his most treasured material – family, and his exemplary standing as the grammar school boy who brought off an Oxford first”. (“Does it mean you’ve come top?” his mother asked when the results arrived.)

His memories of his Yorkshire boyhood are “wonderfully evocative of a lost world”. Rather less rewarding “are his highly conventional opinions” on politics, which “are precisely the same” as those of every other millionaire Londoner “living between Primrose Hill and Hampstead Garden Suburb”.

But his “relish” for spoken language is still there. He notes a woman in a Yorkshire newsagent, seeing news of a lightning strike, admitting cheerfully: “I love it when they have it nasty down south.”

Even as a young man, Bennett was a bit of a fogey, said Johanna Thomas-Corr in The Sunday Times. Back in the 1980s, he wrote about the elderly “with piercing tenderness” in his “Talking Heads” series. “So old age feels like a homecoming, a phase for which he has been practising all of his life.” Yet he’s still suffering “adolescent doubts”. When he enters a room full of people, he feels about 16. He worries about whether he has made his mark; he fears being remembered as a “chronicler of the toasted teacake”. “In an age of curated self-belief, his vulnerabilities feel refreshing, his reticence almost radical.”

“Incel” is a portmanteau of “involuntary” and “celibate.” Over the past decade, the once-fringe community has gained prominence in popular culture, largely through the vector of online influencers like self-described incel and Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes. Incels are, typically, extremely online men who have given up on ever having sexual relationships with women and who have crafted an elaborate and insular worldview to justify and rationalize their lack of success or interest in dating.

Though some of these terms are used in other parts of the online “manosphere,” they go a long way toward helping understand the strange and toxic atmosphere of incel culture, which has been linked to acts of violence including the 2014 mass shooting perpetrated by Elliot Rodger.

Ascending

An incel who has “ascended” is someone who is able to “leave the bounds of inceldom and have sex with a woman (without payment being given),” said Safeguarding Network. Some incels use the term in a derogatory fashion, believing those who aspire to ascension are delusional.

Alpha and Beta

“Alpha,” or alpha male, is a term derived from discredited research about wolf packs by evolutionary biologists. An alpha is “in charge, has his pick of sexual partners and has ultimate control, both of themselves and others,” said The Conversation. A “beta” is “number 2 in the wolf pack or the baboon troop,” said The New York Times. An incel believes himself to be in the latter group, although some aspire to join the former.

Becky

A “Becky” is a comparatively plain or unglamorous woman, as compared to a “Stacy” who is more conventionally attractive and successful with men. “Incels feel they’re ‘owed’ sex and relationships from Beckys, as they’re seen as inferior” to higher-status women, said Education Against Hate.

Blackpilled and redpilled

This is the concept that forms the bedrock of the destructive incel ideology. It refers to a “nihilistic world view among incels that one’s romantic prospects are biologically determined; that inferior men have no chance of ever having sexual relationships with women,” said UN Women. The concept is akin to a gateway drug in terms of an individual’s descent into this community. Someone who is “blackpilled” accepts that they are hopelessly consigned to Beta status, as opposed to someone who is “redpilled” and merely recognizes the existence of these dynamics but believes that they can escape them by securing a higher status.

Chad

A “Chad” is someone who meets the standards of a prototypical alpha male. It refers to “​​muscular, popular men who are presumed to sleep with lots of women,” said Vox. If you consider yourself an incel, you definitely don’t think of yourself as a Chad. The term was appropriated from ’90s-era Chicago culture, where a “Chad” was a wealthy but basic North Sider who went to a Big Ten school and then worked in finance or law.

Foid

A combination of “female” and “humanoid,” the term “foid” is used by incels to degrade and debase women. The term is “derogatory and is used to reduce women to a subhuman group,” said the Anti-Defamation League. Another way of expressing this concept is to use the term “femoid.”

Gymcel

“An incel who is trying to ascend” and is doing so by “going to the gym as much as possible,” said Vice. Such a person is engaging in gymmaxxing and is thought to be redpilled rather than blackpilled, given their hope that transforming their body can allow them to join the Chads and Alphas on top of the social hierarchy.

Hypergamy

Another theory burbling around incel circles, “hypergamy” refers to the idea that “women are more sexually selective and will leave less suitable men for men who are more physically attractive and have a better socioeconomic standing,” said the Journal for Deradicalization and Democratic Culture. It is part of the community’s belief ecosystem and is meant to discourage its members from trying — and failing — to join or rejoin normie society.

Looksmaxxing

The phenomenon of looksmaxxing is brought to us by a “cohort of painfully online young men who obsess over physical self-improvement in the hope that it’ll improve their dating odds,” said GQ. Popularized by the racist, misogynist influencer Braden Peters, aka “Clavicular,” it refers to the idea of going to great lengths to look as perfect as possible. Looksmaxxers may use something called the PSL Scale, which “seeks to provide a supposedly empirical assessment of facial attractiveness,” said GQ.

Jestermaxxing

Another piece of incel jargon that has “broken containment to normies,” jestermaxxing is “being pushed by people who are chasing dollars, not just lols,” said Business Insider, including clippers who snip and caption existing videos for clicks and influence. It means “using humor to gain the attention of women,” said The Atlantic, and it is one of the many reasons that “we can shed the pretense that internet life is reasonable, level-headed or healthy.” The term is sometimes used interchangeably with “jestergooning.”

Mewing

Redpilled incels will sometimes engage in the practice of mewing, or “putting pressure on the roof of your mouth with your tongue to try and change the shape of your face,” said Vice, presumably to give yourself better or more chiseled cheek bone structure. To say that this idea is scientifically dubious is putting it lightly.

MGTOW

An acronym that means “Men Going Their Own Way,” it is an expression of a kind of male separatism and is representative of the hopeless nihilism of incel culture. It is an “online community of male supremacists who advocate self-empowerment by eschewing most relationships with women,” said the Southern Poverty Law Center. They “embrace a toxic form of traditional masculinity and define themselves by their lack of relationships and hatred of women.”

Mogging

A word that is sometimes attached as a suffix to others to create new jargon (like frame-mogging), “mogging” comes from the initialism AMOG, which means “alpha male of the group.” And to be “mogged is to be shown up by another more masculine male,” said NPR. Frame-mogging is a term associated with — who else? — Clavicular to describe being photographed with someone who is better looking than you.

Normie

“Normie” is not a term that is unique to incel culture, and it has a fairly well-established meaning in broader society. But for incels, it simply refers to someone outside of the community who lives a normal life as most people would understand it. Normies have not been blackpilled and are living a lie according to incel dogma.

Sexual Market Value (SMV)

Calculating your “Sexual Market Value” is a way of figuring out where you stand in what incels call the “sexual marketplace.” For incels, this is the “primary measure of an individual’s worth,” said the Journal for Deradicalization and Democratic Culture.

Soy boy

A “soy boy” is a man who subscribes to leftist or feminist beliefs about relations between men and women or lacks the qualities that incels ascribe to alpha males. “There is some reported connection” between the term and the scientifically dubious “idea that soy products increase men’s estrogen levels,” said The Independent. A similar idea is expressed by the term “simp.”

Stacy

The counterpart of a Chad, a “Stacy” is a woman deemed conventionally attractive in the warped worldview of incel culture. A “Stacy” is an “idealized, highly attractive woman that is considered unattainable,” by incels, said UN Women. In the original Chicago slang that produced Chad, the female counterpart was typically a Trixie rather than a Stacy.

Wagecuck

Wagecucks are men with conventional jobs and, presumably, conventional lifestyles and home lives. It refers to “someone who works for a living,” as opposed to the supposedly entrepreneurial influencer lifestyle promoted by people like Clavicular, said The New York Times. Removing oneself from the workforce is, however, unlikely to be a successful ascending strategy.

White knighting

An intellectual cousin of the idea of “virtue signalling,” another idea that migrated from far right to mainstream spaces, “white knighting” is an insult lobbed at men who defend women or espouse feminist or progressive ideas. Incels believe that “men who treat women more respectfully” are “putting on a mockable façade of chivalry,” said Jia Tolentino at The New Yorker

Nothing about these impeccably designed hotels is ordinary. With their architecture, decor and aesthetics, each property welcomes you into a thoughtfully curated world. Every detail tells a story and enhances your stay.

Ashford Castle, Cong, Ireland

Go back in time at Ashford Castle. Built in 1228, the estate was purchased by the Guinness family in the 1800s and used to “entertain guests — among them, George V — and display the family’s wealth and influence,” said Country Life. Now part of the Red Carnation Hotel Collection, Ashford Castle remains “luxury personified,” its common spaces filled with “rich fabrics” and “glittering chandeliers.” The 83 guest rooms each have their own individual designs. A standout is the King’s Room, featuring “plush” seating, a “sumptuous” velvet four-poster bed, dramatic floral wallpaper and a fireplace.

Hotel Château Du Grand-Lucé, Loire Valley, France

This “impressive” 18th-century chateau is a shining example of neoclassical architecture, where “grandeur is still the order of the day,” said the Michelin Guide. Think extravagant toile and damask wallpaper, limestone and French white oak flooring, crystal chandeliers and heavy curtains tied back with impressive tassels.

No two rooms are alike, with the Barron Suite being the crown jewel. It boasts 17-foot-tall ceilings, a private library filled with classic French literature and the marvelous Salon Chinois, a sitting room named in honor of the chinoiserie-style paintings by prominent French artist Jean-Baptiste Pillement that adorn the walls.

La Valise San Miguel, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Tucked away in a “vibrant” corner of San Miguel de Allende is La Valise San Miguel, a “surrealist sanctuary” designed to “pay tribute” to the city’s history of art and culture, said Condé Nast Traveler. The property’s bold blend of “psychedelic installations and famous furnishings” by Mexican artist Pedro Friedeberg mixes seamlessly with mid-century furniture and “rich textiles.” Guests have six “completely unique” suites to choose from, and each one has a “standout” design feature, like a domed shower or white-stucco fireplace “adorned with Aztec monkeys.”

L'oscar, London, England

With Oscar Wilde serving as his inspiration, French interior designer Jacques Garcia gave new life to an old Edwardian baroque-style church, turning it into an exquisite boutique hotel dripping in gilded decor and rich silk, damask and velvet fabrics. Both Wilde and Garcia are “known for decadence, in different ways,” and L’oscar is “nothing if not decadent,” said the Michelin Guide.

The 39 guest rooms and suites and common areas are decorated in “hyper-saturated jewel tones,” with objets d’art on every surface and gorgeous Lalique bird-shaped lights illuminating the corners. Some original details remain, like opulent plastered ceilings and terra-cotta panels.

Leela Palace Jaipur, Jaipur, India

The attention to detail at Leela Palace Jaipur is extraordinary. Inspired by “Indian royal heritage,” the property is all about “opulence,” with marble corridors, hand-painted ceilings, frescoes and “impressive” flower displays” in the rooms and common spaces, said The Independent.

Even dinner is an extravagant affair. Jamavar (formerly known as Mohan Mahal) is the hotel’s signature restaurant, filled with 3,500 hand-cut mirrors that make the candlelight dance. The menu focuses on traditional Rajasthani cuisine with a modern twist, and between the food and ambiance, dining here is a “truly spectacular experience.”

Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand

When you arrive at the Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, expect to “nearly strain your neck trying to take in all the splendor,” said Condé Nast Traveler. The hotel opened in 1876 as The Oriental, and over time the property has expanded while retaining much of its original charm.

The lobby alone is a dream, with its “lattice woodwork, cascading florals, giant birdcage-style chandeliers and printed sofas.” Inside the rooms, you’ll find a “British East Indies aesthetic” based on “Bermuda pink, sea green or creamy yellow,” along with teak and leather furnishings and fresh orchids.

Romeo Roma, Rome, Italy

Rome’s past and present blend together beautifully at Romeo Roma. Zaha Hadid Architects transformed the 16th-century patrician mansion into a “striking” hotel where materials include “polished Macassar ebony,” and steel and glass are “teased into a riot of swirling, curving and overlapping forms,” said The Telegraph.

Contemporary art work, frescoes and artifacts discovered during the property’s restoration, including a marble head of the Roman empress Livia Drusilla, are also on display. You can get a glimpse of ancient times in the pool — it has a transparent base so swimmers can look down at the archaeological remains of Ripetta port.

Royal Palms Resort and Spa, Phoenix, Arizona

Desert decadence looks different at Royal Palms Resort and Spa. The 1929 Spanish Colonial mansion anchoring the property “stands in sharp contrast” to the “bland, corporate architecture” of area chain hotels, said the Michelin Guide. Hand-painted tiles, antique furnishings and oriental rugs “defy the usual pastel Southwesternisms” and give the resort a “distinctly Mediterranean feeling.” The grounds are just as stunning, and even on the hottest summer day guests feel at ease walking through the lush, shaded gardens planted nearly 100 years ago.

Spier Hotel, Stellenbosch, South Africa

The recently renovated Spier Hotel puts a chic spin on farmhouse style. It’s clear the design “prioritizes comfort,” with “plush linens” and gas fireplaces in rooms plus a “curated selection of artworks” like “delicate botanical drawings” and “mosaic murals,” said Travel and Leisure. Nearly every item and material, down to the jacquard throws and table placemats, was made in — or sourced from — South Africa. Spier Hotel is part of the Spier Wine Farm, and check-in takes place in its wine bar.

‘Bully’ by Ye

★★

The artist formerly known as Kanye West is “probably the most contentious figure in all of popular music,” said Kelefa Sanneh in The New Yorker. So, after 2025’s flashes of blatant antisemitism and his more recent published apology, who is Ye now? “Listening to Bully, it can be hard to tell,” because on this 12th album from the 48-year-old hip-hop groundbreaker, “many of the tracks resemble fragments or sketches, with bits of singing and rapping that sound unusually tentative.” While several songs “seem designed to remind listeners of his older, less incendiary incarnations,” Ye seems “not quite sure how to give his listeners what they want.” In truth, “some of it still hits,” said Peter A. Berry in Complex. “‘All the Love’ sounds like Lion King in Space” and “‘Preacher Man’ features a nice blend of charisma and cinema.” Unfortunately, the album is “plagued by lethargic vocals, drab choruses, and trite lyricism.” You sense that Ye is unsure how to reattain excellence, and “the biggest tell” is how many songs evoke classic Kanye tracks without recapturing what worked. “Ultimately, Bully feels like Kanye searching through the crates for past glory.”

‘This Music May Contain Hope’ by Raye

★★★

“Our story begins at 2:27 a.m. on a rainy night in Paris. Cue the thunder!” That’s the British belter Raye, narrating the first few seconds of her latest album, “an epic autobiography of romantic despair,” said Rob Sheffield in Rolling Stone. Over arrangements packed with “show-tune razzle-dazzle, big-band swing frills, retro ’60s R&B, and the occasional club beat,” the 28-year-old Grammy nominee laments her serial heartbreaks with “mighty pipes” that are “as unstoppable as her flair for mascara-melting melodrama.” Whether she’s soothing herself with Edith Piaf records and chocolate cake or falling yet again for a disappointing Romeo, Raye conjures a limitless supply of “glamorously tragic scenarios.” Raye has been dogged by “endless Amy Winehouse comparisons,” said Will Hodgkinson in The Times (U.K.). But she’s “far more florid and theatrical, matching Shirley Bassey for searing drama and operatic bombast.” While her lyrics here can be “excessively on the nose,” Raye also shows ample ambition and welcome flashes of wit, and “the end result is unquestionably dynamic—the musical equivalent of seeing one’s life as a movie.”

‘Honora’ by Flea

★★★

The first bona fide solo album of Flea’s career “sounds nothing like the music that made him famous,” said Sadie Sartini Garner in Pitchfork. Anyone expecting the “screwball energy” of the bassist’s wildest Red Hot Chili Peppers contributions “may be disappointed.” Yet the 63-year-old’s idiosyncratic melodic sense informs the entire project, which features Flea on both bass and trumpet, an instrument he studied as a child. For an album whose six original compositions sound indebted to Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter, “jazz is as apt a descriptor as any.” The record also includes a wan instrumental interpretation of Frank Ocean’s “Thinkin Bout You” and a “strikingly beautiful” cover of Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain.” Even in the company of such L.A. jazz luminaries as guitarist Jeff Parker, Flea proves “capable of holding his own,” said Janne Oinonen in The Line of Best Fit. “Morning Cry,” the fifth track, “tips its hat to bebop” while “the 10-minute ‘Frailed’ pitches Flea’s atmospheric trumpet against a minimalist electronic pulse with hypnotic results.” At one point, Flea shouts, “This shit is real”—and “that could apply to the whole of this surprising debut.”

‘Judy Blume: A Life’ by Mark Oppenheimer

“Writing the first big biography of Judy Blume had to come with enormous pressure,” said Kate Tuttle in The Boston Globe. Blume is “a treasure, an icon”: Her books, mostly written for young adults, have sold 90 million copies and earned widespread adoration because, at a fortuitous time, she was “a wild and bold truth teller” about pivotal adolescent experiences that many adults didn’t like to talk about, including menstruation, sex, divorced parents, and loneliness. Mark Oppenheimer, a veteran journalist and author, confesses at the end of his new book that he fears he may have under-delivered. But “he is being too hard on himself.” He has written a “thoughtful, thorough” biography in which Blume comes across as a breakthrough cultural figure “firmly shaped by the time, place, and culture of her birth.”

Oppenheimer’s book is at its best in its “lucid, sensitive evocations of Blume’s suburban girlhood,” said Katy Waldman in The New Yorker. Born in 1938 to a middle-class Jewish family in New Jersey, Blume was encouraged by her parents to read broadly, exercise her creativity, and live without any shame about the human body. When she began writing after college, marriage, and early motherhood, those attitudes shaped her run of early blockbusters, beginning with 1970’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, but we benefit from also having learned of the conflicts and sorrows that shaped Blume’s coming of age. In describing Blume’s best work, Oppenheimer “can be overly besotted.” But he also includes biographical material “that Blume might have bristled at,” including the abortions she had at 39 and 41. It has been reported that Blume, now 88, stopped speaking to Oppenheimer when he was well into the project, but nothing in the book seems out of place in any serious biography.

The book is strong in its general insights as well, said Meghan C. Kruger in The Wall Street Journal. “Though Blume was gifted and prolific, Oppenheimer suggests that two revolutions enabled her superstardom.” First, her early books coincided with the rise of paperbacks and mall bookstores, allowing young readers to purchase a Blume novel for just $1.25 in 1972 (the equivalent of less than $10 today). Also, the cultural moment was right. Though there were always some objections to the explicitness of Blume’s novels for both teens and adults, parents of the ’70s were more open than their predecessors to messages about body positivity, and the era’s media was less likely than today’s to judge her marital infidelity and divorces as disqualifying for a public figure guiding teens’ life choices. In the end, “Blume might seem prickly,” but “she also comes across as witty, optimistic, devoted to her craft, and sincere in her desire to nurture relationships with readers.”

The TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” was so “relentlessly bleak”, I had to stop watching, said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian. Now, the showrunner behind the original series, Bruce Miller, has brought Atwood’s Booker-Prize-winning sequel to the small screen. “Brace yourselves.”

“The Testaments” picks up a few years after the events of the first book, when we meet the “next generation of Gilead women”. Agnes (Chase Infiniti) is the daughter of a Commander, attending an “elite preparatory school” run by the formidable Aunt Lydia. “Yes, that Aunt Lydia.” Ann Dowd resumes her role from “The Handmaid’s Tale” as a “genuinely savage Miss Trunchbull”.

Agnes is put in charge of new student Daisy (Lucy Halliday), a “Pearl Girl” brought to the school by Gilead missionaries and “generally suspected by the other pupils” of spying for the teachers. The two girls’ increasingly “close and complicated” relationship forms the “backbone” of the series.

Like its predecessor, “The Testaments” is a “disturbing” watch, said Aramide Tinubu in Variety. An “exemplary” follow-up to the original show, this is both a powerful tale of “girlhood, survival, rage and friendship”, and a “magnificent coming-of-age” story.

The teenagers are waiting for their first menstrual period, when they will become “officially eligible for the marriage market”, graduating from Plums to Greens and “eventually into the teal blue of the Gilead wives”. Despite the “palatial houses” and manicured gardens, “something horrific is always just within frame”.

Following her starring role in “One Battle After Another”, Infiniti brings “electric A-lister aura” to Agnes, said Ed Power in The Telegraph, while Aunt Lydia is the “same disturbing mix of contradictions” she always was. Despite its dark subject matter, there is “fun to be had watching young people navigate the trials of growing up”. The school might be “hell on earth, but it’s also ‘Mean Girls’ with a dystopian twist”.

“The Handmaid’s Tale” became “murky and frenetic” but this sequel “pops” with the pupil’s jewel-coloured robes, said Nick Hilton in The Independent. The tone is lighter and the pace quicker but it keeps intact the depiction of how a society can “backslide into regression and repression”. This is a “young adult epic for the ages”.

“There’s no case of sequel-itus here,” said Vicky Jessop in The Standard. “‘The Testaments’ feels just as urgent as its predecessor – and just as darkly enjoyable.”

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.

Spring is a time for renewal, and that includes refreshing your ‘to be read’ pile. This April, readers have plenty of new books to look forward to, including a metafictional exploration of memory, a look at the effects of family vlogging and a mysterious depiction of gentrification in Brooklyn.

‘The Witch’ by Marie NDiaye; translated by Jordan Stump

Translated to English for the first time since its publication in France in 1996, Marie NDiaye’s novel is “compact and surreal” while “unspooling more mysteries than it resolves,” said The New York Times. The book, “narrated by a down-on-her-luck sorceress stuck in a disintegrating marriage in a drab provincial town,” highlights the French author’s “recurring themes of domestic entanglement and betrayal.”

The book is “witty, dreamlike, unsettling and enchanting,” said The Booker Prizes. It “brings the mysteries of womanhood and motherhood into sharp relief” and leaves readers “teetering on the edge, unbalanced by questions as seemingly unbreakable relationships break down left and right.” (out now, $18, Penguin Random House, Amazon)

‘Like, Follow, Subscribe: Influencer Kids and the Cost of a Childhood Online’ by Fortesa Latifi

As courts grapple with the effects of addictive social media on young people, journalist Fortesa Latifi’s debut “scrutinizes the highly profitable world of family vloggers and momfluencers,” said Publishers Weekly. The book features interviews with influencers and their children, along with “nannies, psychologists and social media marketing managers.”

The author surveys various aspects of the industry, from “the odd preponderance of Mormon influencers” and the “discomfiting popularity of teen mom accounts” to the “over-the-top viciousness of anti-momfluencer forums.” Latifi observes how “understandable it is that parents are willing to swap their family’s privacy for financial stability, given the greater lack of structural support for families in the U.S,” the outlet said. It is a “perceptive, often stomach-churning exposé.” (out now, $30, Simon & Schuster, Amazon)

‘Transcription’ by Ben Lerner

Ben Lerner’s latest is a “deeply pleasurable, absorbing book” and a “metafictional meditation on memory and influence,” and the way “technology has changed our relationship to both,” said Literary Hub. It features a “series of moving portraits: the anxious interviewer, the aging genius, the reflective son.” Readers may get the sense that “what he’s doing really shouldn’t work” and that it wouldn’t if it were in anyone else’s hands. But it’s not, and “so it does,” the outlet said. “Thank goodness.” (out now $25, Macmillan, Amazon)

‘Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower’s Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded USAID’ by Nicholas Enrich

Former civil servant Nicholas Enrich, who worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development under four presidents, was optimistic about his agency’s future after Trump won a second term in 2024. “The authors of Project 2025 liked their work, as did the incoming secretary of state, Marco Rubio,” said the Times. Unfortunately, Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency “had other plans,” as the author shows in this “ground-level account — part memoir, part government tell-all — of the agency’s demise.” (April 14, $29, Simon & Schuster, Amazon)

‘Livonia Chow Mein’ by Abigail Savitch-Lew

This debut novel is a “vivid, savory blend of family saga, cultural history and detective story, rich with urban life and lore,” said Kirkus Reviews. The story follows activist Lina Rodriguez Armstrong and journalist Sadie Chin as they piece together the history of a section of Brownsville, Brooklyn, decades after a fire ravaged the neighborhood,

Savitch-Lew shows “prodigious narrative gifts” in her debut novel, weaving Sadie and Lina’s “tension-filled transactions in the present with the life stories of the Wong family,” as it makes its “uneasy and often heartbreaking way through a 20th century of world wars, economic upheaval and racism as it’s enforced by institutions and perpetrated between individuals.” (April 21, $29, Simon & Schuster, Amazon)

“February in Salinas is likely to be damp and cold and full of miseries.” So wrote John Steinbeck in “East of Eden”, describing how the weather patterns of Central California governed the agricultural land and the farmers who worked it.

Arriving in the same valley under unseasonably blue skies and warm winter sun, you might be tempted to think that Steinbeck’s California has vanished entirely. But travel through this stretch of the West Coast on the trail of the American writer and there are echoes of his world all around you.

Cannery Row and Pacific Grove

We stayed at the Spindrift Inn, right on Cannery Row itself, and having re-read the novel on the flight over, I was delighted to find myself dropped into the heart of its comic, ramshackle happenings.

The sardine canneries that once defined the strip are long gone – victims of overfishing in the 1940s and 50s – but the bones of the place remain. During an early morning stroll I found Doc’s Pacific Biological Laboratory, the original building still standing, a modest placard acknowledging the legend within. Doc was modelled on Ed Ricketts, Steinbeck’s closest friend and intellectual companion, whose passion for the bay’s marine life shaped Steinbeck's own philosophy throughout his writing.

Today, the bay holds some of the richest marine biodiversity on earth, a fact that would have delighted Ricketts and Steinbeck. From the near-panoramic window of our room at the Spindrift, we were greeted each morning by sea otters floating on their backs in the kelp beds, pods of dolphins arcing through the swell and the occasional seal hauled out on a nearby promontory.

A beautiful coastal walking path connects Cannery Row to Pacific Grove, the small town where Steinbeck lived for a time, and it’s worth the stroll. The architecture is predominantly grand Victorian villas in candy-box lilacs and creams, their aged wooden panels faintly reminiscent of a Norwegian coastal town.

We had lunch at the aptly named Aliotti’s Victorian Corner Restaurant, a charming throw-back, with healthy portions. Monterey town rewards an afternoon’s wandering before dinner; we ate at Stokes Adobe, a tastefully restored building whose Californian menu feels entirely in keeping with the town’s layered history.

Tracing Steinbeck’s steps in Salinas

Salinas sits inland, the undisputed centre of one of the most productive agricultural valleys on earth. Steinbeck grew up here, and his ambivalent relationship with the place – he was largely shunned by its conservative establishment after “The Grapes of Wrath” – is one of the more poignant stories in American literary history.

The California Welcome Center, housed in what was once the first railway station in the region, is an excellent scene-setter. It tells the story of Monterey County’s agricultural heritage with sweep and intelligence: from the Southern Pacific Company’s campaigns to attract settlers westward, to the valley’s evolution, to the family businesses that have grown into global leaders.

It makes clear something Steinbeck knew instinctively: California was built by migration. It was the Swiss who brought dairy expertise, the Italians who planted artichokes and the Chinese who constructed the railways. There were also the Japanese abalone fishermen, and the Mexican labourers whose descendants now make up the majority of the population and whose food, available all over town, is extraordinary.

We had coffee and cake at the Steinbeck House, the grand Victorian home where he was born. Now run as a restaurant by a non-profit, it’s an inspired solution to the challenge of preserving a literary heritage home: perpetually full of Steinbeck pilgrims comparing notes over homemade lunch. We received a brief tour of the downstairs floor by a volunteer, including the front room where Steinbeck was born.

The Californian landscape is a central character in Steinbeck’s fiction and in particular in the seminal “East of Eden”, where the Salinas Valley is rendered with a loving, geological intimacy.

A short drive from town into the valleys (along the rural River Road rather than the official John Steinbeck Highway) takes you through miles of vineyard and farmland, past dozens of family wineries. We visited Odonata Winery for a tasting: the valley’s cool winds and marine influence produce excellent chardonnays and pinot noirs, and the experience was unhurried and delicious.

Big Sur and the storied Highway 1

Steinbeck experienced Big Sur before Route 1 was even built, working as part of the first surveying crew in the area, pre-construction. The storied road had reopened just a month before our visit, following storm-induced landslides that had closed this notoriously fragile, distractingly beautiful, coast for months.

Steinbeck’s short story “Flight” is set along this stretch, tracing the primal, terrifying journey of a young man fleeing into the mountains after a killing, and as you edge into the cloak of the redwood forest, the violence buried in this landscape doesn’t feel far away.

We stayed for two nights in this area. First, at Glen Oaks Big Sur, a historic property that began as a 1950s motor lodge and has evolved into a rustic-modern retreat. We had dinner at Fernwood Resort, a short moonlit walk from our cabin, where we enjoyed burgers on a vast decking area surrounded by redwoods. The evening was elevated by live music from a local country band, complete with a pedal steel guitar, reminiscent of Lee Hazlewood.

The scale of this coastline only reveals itself on foot and we spent both days exploring spectacular, well-worn trails. We hiked in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park on a route that rises through redwoods and opens on to vertiginous coastal views, and ate a picnic on a clifftop watching two whales make their slow way across the bay. A morning hike up Buzzard’s Roost trail in Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park rewarded us with a panoramic view of the ocean below, before circling back to the Big Sur Lodge for a well-earned coffee in the stately lobby.

Lunch at the Post Ranch Inn was a world apart. We scrubbed off the morning’s soil, put on our best outfits and made our way up the miles-long winding road to a restaurant that is essentially one enormous sheet of glass looking over rolling hills that fall into the sea. The staff are extraordinarily attentive and the food spectacular. The day closed with a sunset drink at Nepenthe, the famous clifftop restaurant and terrace. It’s not to be missed; the entire mountain-range turns blood orange as the light floods in from the west.

We ended the trip at Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn, built by a Norwegian immigrant in the 1930s: a collection of hand-built cabins of great charm set in a redwood canyon above a creek. We dined at the restaurant for dinner and breakfast, the rooms were buzzing with hikers and locals and the food was deliciously decadent. The guest book in our room was a remarkable document; visitors write at length and with unusual honesty. One woman hailing from Massachusetts described her pull towards California in a register that was unmistakably Steinbeckian; proof that the passage from east to west on the tail of a dream endures.

More than a century on from the world Steinbeck documented, the migrations continue. The American dream persists. The land endures. Come for the charming towns, the diverse cuisine and the most dramatic coastline in America. Stay for what Steinbeck called “one of those pregnant places from which come wonders”, where history, landscape and the human story compress into a single, overwhelming present.

Alexandra was a guest of See Monterey; seemonterey.com

In a city with no shortage of swish five-star hotels, it’s hard to make an impact. Yet The Newman, which opened in February, has quickly become one of the most talked about spots in London, with its eclectic décor, subterranean spa and buzzy bar.

It’s the first hotel from British hospitality brand Kinsfolk & Co, a team of respected hoteliers and restaurateurs with years of experience at big names including The Beaumont and royal favourite The Goring.

Though The Newman is moments from Oxford Street, its trump card is its under-the-radar location in charming Fitzrovia, surrounded by tree-lined Georgian streets, quirky boutiques and independent restaurants, with the iconic BT Tower looming overhead.

Why stay here?

For big city thrills with a cool neighbourhood feel. The location is echoed by the hotel’s considered design. London-based studio Lind + Almond has used Fitzrovia’s bohemian past as inspiration for the interiors, displaying black-and-white photographs of modern-day residents and specially commissioned paintings of the area’s historical figures, including Virginia Woolf. Marble bathroom sinks are based on the balconies of a nearby art deco building, while even the distinctive bedposts are modelled on the chunky bangles worn by local writer and activist Nancy Cunard, heiress to the shipping empire.

There are 81 rooms in total, ranging from classic doubles to one-bedroom apartments, while the show-stopping penthouse suite has a dining table for eight, a dressing room and an enormous 130-square-metre rooftop terrace with a private sauna and cold plunge pool overlooking Fitzrovia. All are impossibly elegant, with a tasteful palette of chocolate brown, honey and oatmeal, geometric carpets, curved bronze furniture and leather-topped writing desks.

Bathrooms have underfloor heating, stone-carved vanity units, graphic tiling and oversized Anatomē products I couldn’t get enough of. Even the mini-bars have unexpected touches, including a coffee-flavoured mushroom drink, CBD sleep patches and essential oils alongside drinks by British brands. All guests can also access the Earth+Sky fitness app for on-demand workouts during their stay.

Eating and drinking

Brasserie Angelica is at the heart of the hotel, with all-day dining and tables lining the pavement outside. It has a lively but laid-back feel, with some staff recruited from the hotel’s innovative pop-up hospitality school that ran last summer to find team members from the local community.

The menu has a Scandi feel, with a trolley of open sandwiches served at lunchtime and a la carte dishes including gravadlax with pickled cucumber salad, Swedish west coast salad with prawns, mussels and crab, and lemon and blueberry custard tart. Meat dishes like my grass-fed 28-day dry-aged fillet steak are cooked over a woodfire – be sure to order the perfectly salty fries and deliciously rich bone-marrow gravy on the side.

Head downstairs afterwards to The Gambit, the hotel’s decadent art deco bar already loved by locals. Drinks include local craft beers, a large selection of zero-proof drinks and an unusual list of innovative cocktails such as “dazed and confused”, made with chilli-infused tequila, blood peach and açai. There’s plenty going on while you sup, from resident DJs and unplugged sessions from guest artists to regular chess evenings and nightly live music from the in-house band.

Just be sure to drag yourself out of bed the following morning for breakfast, also served in Angelica. Highlights include house pressed juices like the green detox elixir, ricotta hotcakes with caramelised apple, and homemade cardamom buns inspired by those served in Copenhagen’s Hart Bakery and made from offcuts of croissant pastry that would otherwise be wasted. They’re so good, I went back for a second and I’m still wishing I’d had a third.

Things to do

Every room includes free access to an entire floor devoted to wellness, including a large 24-hour gym and a studio offering yoga, Pilates and sound bath sessions for an extra cost. There’s a whole range of Hyperice gadgets available to tinker with, including Normatec compression boots and a Venom heat therapy belt. I was far lazier and spent an afternoon dipping between the glass-fronted Finnish sauna, ice lounge, hydrotherapy plunge pool and medical-grade salt room. All are only available to hotel guests so I was the only person there during my visit – a rare treat in a central London spa.

Soho is less than 10 minutes’ walk away for nights out, but Fitzrovia is a delight to wander, filled with dog walkers grabbing artisan coffees, historic pubs and shops you didn’t know you needed. The slick restaurants of Charlotte Street are on the doorstep while the elegant Fitzroy Square Garden is a prime picnic spot close to Virgina Woolf’s former home.

There are some surprise attractions too, from the Cartoon Museum, which documents the history of British cartoons, caricatures and comics, to the spectacular Byzantine-style Fitzrovia Chapel with its gold mosaic ceiling where King Charles recorded his Christmas broadcast in 2024.

The verdict

From the chatty staff to the speakeasy-style bar, The Newman already feels like a much-loved neighbourhood hangout you might drop by even if you aren’t staying over. It’s a far cry from a stuffy five-star-by-numbers, but is just what London’s booming hotel scene needed.

Siobhan was a guest of The Newman; thenewman.com

“Feeling stressed?” asked Suzanne Harrington in the Irish Independent. Then “find a forest and spend a few hours absorbing its quiet magic”.

That’s the essence of forest bathing or shinrin-yoku, a concept introduced in 1982 by director of the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Tomohide Akiyama. He believed spending time outdoors and purposefully reconnecting with nature could be the “antidote” to burnout from the fast-paced, tech-filled modern world.

The psychological benefits of forest bathing are well documented, said New Scientist. But as well as “reducing anxiety and stress”, a new study by researchers at Tokyo University of Agriculture found that a two-night trip to a forest with gentle hiking and a group mindfulness meditation session also boosted physical health by “lowering blood pressure and inflammation”.

Japan’s Yoshino forests have a “restorative, spiritual quality”, said Oliver Smith in National Geographic. Standing beneath the “towering cedar trees”, watching the sunlight stream through the branches and “listening to birdsong drift on the breeze”, it’s hard to feel anything but calm.

Exhausted workers from nearby Osaka “flock to this mountain idyll” to practise shinrin-yoku and unwind at the ryokans (traditional Japanese inns with tatami-matted floors). Days are easy to while away “gazing at the hypnotic textures in the wood”; while “idle” evenings can be spent soaking in an open-air hot spring bath.

But you don’t have to go far to try forest bathing. In fact, it’s as simple as finding a nearby forest and walk “slowly and mindfully”, said Harrington. Leave your mobile phone behind if you can and “allow plenty of time for silence”, engaging each of your senses by breathing deeply, listening to any sounds, touching branches and smelling the aromas of the forest.

I headed to Wiltshire to try out Bishopstrow Hotel and Spa’s forest bathing experience, said Shadé Owomoyela in Cosmopolitan, and “it might just have changed my life”. Holistic health practitioner Sue Judge ran the two-hour session, which included a leisurely stroll through the woods, poetry readings and a short meditation session. “When burnout inevitably creeps in again, I’ll know exactly how to ground myself.”

The Week is partnering with the Hay Festival. Use TWKHF2026 for your 10% discount on all tickets; hayfestival.org/hay-on-wye*

Every spring, thousands of bookworms flock to the Welsh market town of Hay-on-Wye for an 11-day extravaganza of talks, signings, workshops and panels with the planet’s leading thinkers and writers. The world-renowned Hay Festival is 39 this year, and the programme is as jam-packed as ever. It runs from 21-31 May 2026, and there are more than 600 events to choose from, including plenty to keep the whole family entertained. Tickets for talks with Emma Thompson, Gisèle Pelicot and Maggie O'Farrell have already sold out but here is our pick of the other highlights.

Star names and free films

On 23 May, Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo will be discussing her latest book, “Good Good Loving”, with novelist Yvvette Edwards. The talented authors will reflect on writing about multigenerational families and putting complex female characters at the heart of their books.

Other big names to look out for include Ian McEwan who will be talking about his new novel with chair of the Wellcome Trust Julia Gillard on 25 May; and queen of crime fiction Val McDermid will meet author Fflur Dafydd the following day to spill on her latest thriller, “Silent Bones”. On 27 May, Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout will be making an appearance, meeting The Guardian’s literary critic Chris Power to talk about her latest novel and her knack for writing relatable characters.

If politics is more your bag, on 22 May, activist Malala Yousafzai will discuss with BBC journalist Anna Foster how it felt to be thrust onto the public stage. And on 29 May, Decca Aitkenhead of The Sunday Times will have a candid conversation with former First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon about her recent memoir.

There will also be a selection of free, short films curated by MUBI shown from 10am-2pm on 23 May; be sure to pop in and check the schedule at the beginning of the day. And, every morning, early risers can kick off the day with a yoga and breathwork session at the Creative Hub.

Kid-friendly events

Theatr Cymru and poet Mererid Hopwood will be hosting a drama workshop on 23 May, giving kids the chance to devise their own magical story in the Family Garden Marquee. Also that morning little ones aged three to 11 can join Make & Take Crafting, getting their creative juices flowing with print-making and junk modelling from recycled materials. And for aspiring scientists, book tickets for the talk with space scientist Sheila Kanani at the Spring Stage.

All that fun and learning is hungry work: at the canteen, you’ll find child-sized portions and tasty snacks, or you could bring a picnic to enjoy in the gardens while you peruse your new books.

* Discount code is valid for 10% off Hay Festival 2026 event tickets until 23:59 on 20 May 2026, excludes E-gift cards, parking, lounge passes, books and general gift shop items. Cannot be used in conjunction with other discounts or offers.

‘The Drama’ 

Directed by Kristoffer Borgli (R)

★★★

“If The Drama is effectively a one-gag movie, there’s no denying that its gag is a good one,” said David Ehrlich in IndieWire. Days before the wedding of a gorgeous couple played by Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, the bride-to-be drops a bomb when banter between the couple and two friends raises the question, “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” The content of that secret proves to be “half the fun” here, and writer-director Kristoffer Borgli “milks it for all that it’s worth.” The movie also dramatizes the psychic distress of living in a country that’s in denial about its epidemic of gun violence, though the screenplay proves “too vague to fully make good on its best ideas.”

Beyond that, it’s never “entirely convincing” that Zendaya’s Emma would have undertaken the act she confesses to, said Owen Gleiberman in Variety. To a point, that doesn’t matter, because The Drama mostly focuses on the neurotic unraveling of Pattinson’s Charlie, and the actor is “certainly accomplished at moving from twitchy to twitchier.” Borgli wants us all feeling anxious, and “the way he gradually ups the cringe-comedy factor keeps us watching.” We just never fully believe in the root cause of Charlie’s crack-up.

In the end, the particular secret that Emma shares doesn’t even matter, said Richard Lawson in The Hollywood Reporter. Instead of developing into an edgy examination of gun violence, Borgli’s latest devolves into “a simple dramedy of pre-wedding jitters.” Given how perfunctory his treatment of the movie’s big social issue turns out to be, “I wish he’d chosen a totally different worst thing for Emma.”

‘Alpha’

Directed by Julia Ducournau (R)

★★

Julia Ducournau’s new film is “easily her least accomplished,” said Tim Grierson in the Los Angeles Times. Five years after winning the Palme d’Or for the body-horror shocker Titane, the French filmmaker has fashioned a melancholy AIDS parable that “rarely transcends its intellectual trappings.” In an unidentified French city, a 13-year-old named Alpha acquires a crude “A” tattoo during a night out, triggering her mother’s fears that the girl may have contracted a deadly blood disease through contact with an unclean needle. Soon, an addict uncle who’s been ravaged by the disease re-enters Alpha’s life, but all three of Ducournau’s main characters end up “overwhelmed by her grandiose ideas.”

To me, the film’s “stunning” cinematography and the work of its actors combine to achieve “a poignant emotional power,” said Jeannette Catsoulis in The New York Times. “Alpha is at times almost shockingly beautiful in its depiction of the sick as they slowly calcify, their glassy skin marbled with blue veins.”

But while Ducournau’s desire to confront the stigmas attached to disease is admirable, said Katie Rife in RogerEbert.com, “Alpha plays like a Cronenbergian after-school special,” filled with “tone-deaf” sequences that seem lifted from didactic films made decades ago. Odder still, its anti-bias messaging “isn’t aimed at contemporary young people” but at their 1980s counterparts, “creating the impression that Ducournau is nobly combating misinformation that few people believe in anymore.”

What happened

Pepsi on Sunday withdrew its sponsorship of a London music festival after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said it was “deeply concerning” that the headliner was Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, given his history of antisemitic and pro-Nazi comments. Pepsi, listed as the lead sponsor of July’s Wireless Festival, did not give a reason for its withdrawal.

Who said what

“Antisemitism in any form is abhorrent and must be confronted firmly wherever it appears,” Starmer told British newspaper The Sun in an article published on Sunday. “Everyone has a responsibility to ensure Britain is a place where Jewish people feel safe.” Ye “has been seeking to return to public view in ways that do not create controversy” since apologizing for his antisemitic statements in a full-page Wall Street Journal ad in January, The New York Times said. Starmer’s comments “suggested that the prime minister did not believe Ye’s latest apology was sincere.”

Ye was also blocked from entering Australia last year “after releasing a song titled ‘Heil Hitler,’ glorifying the Nazi leader,” and he has not yet applied to enter the U.K., the BBC said. Leaders from across Britain’s political spectrum joined Starmer in distancing themselves from the rapper, but “three songs from his latest album” are “in the U.K.’s top 100 singles chart.”

What next?

It is “not clear what Pepsi’s decision will mean for the festival,” which still lists other major sponsors, the Times said. But “pressure was mounting” for Ye to be “pulled from his headline role,” The Associated Press said.

Taylor Swift is the biggest name in music right now, and she is also one of the defining entertainers of the 21st century. No other pop star has captured the global zeitgeist quite like the Pennsylvania country singer-turned-pop superstar. Swift broke dozens of records in 2024 and has already been continuing her success in 2025, which isn't new for her; she has been breaking records since the time she first came on the scene in the early 2000s.

Swift's globetrotting "Eras" tour became its own cultural phenomenon and defined her status as perhaps the most dominating musician of her generation. It was the highest-grossing concert tour in history and the first to surpass $1 billion in sales. But this was only the latest in a string of record-breaking successes for Swift, who has been setting precedents in the music industry since practically her first song, making waves at record stores, movie theaters and more.

"The Tortured Poets Department," was released in 2024 following massive anticipation. Swift's popularity only grew when she announced her next album, "The Life of a Showgirl," which was released Oct. 3. The album is largely inspired by her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, whom Swift recently became engaged to.

First and only female artist to surpass 100 million RIAA album sales

It's no shocker that Swift's albums fly off the shelves, and she reached a major milestone in September 2025, becoming the first and only female artist to surpass 100 million certified album sales, as confirmed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The singer has currently sold 105 million RIAA-certified albums, according to the association's website. Her 2024 album "1989" was the one that "moved the most units with 14 million," said People.

Youngest artist to win Entertainer of the Year at the Country Music Association Awards

Swift "made history at 19 by becoming the youngest artist ever" to win the CMA's Entertainer of the Year accolade, said Prestige. This is one of several awards she garnered at the CMAs that year, including Female Vocalist of the Year and Music Video of the Year.

Most American Music Awards in history

With 40 awards, Swift has taken the lead as the artist with the most American Music Awards in history. She surpassed Michael Jackson, the male artist with the most awards at 26, and Whitney Houston, who has 22. She was also recognized with the AMA's "Artist of the Decade" award in 2019 and performed a medley of some of her most popular tunes at the ceremony that year.

Most weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for a solo artist

In January 2024, Swift saw her music reach the top of the Billboard 200 chart for the 68th week. This surpassed Elvis Presley's 67 weeks, giving Swift the most weeks at the top of the chart ever for a solo artist. While not consecutive, this means that Swift is behind only The Beatles, The Kingston Trio and the Rolling Stones to have the most No. 1 weeks, period.

First woman with 4 albums in Billboard chart top 10 simultaneously

When "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)" debuted in July 2023, it was Swift's fourth album to occupy the Billboard 200 chart's top 10 at the same time, alongside "Midnights," "Lover" and "Folklore." This made her the first woman to have four albums in the Billboard chart's top 10 simultaneously and only the second living artist to do so after Herb Alpert in 1966. Prince also previously achieved this after his death in 2016.

"It's a pretty amazing feat," Alpert said to The New York Times. "With the way radio is these days, and the way music is distributed, with streaming, I didn't think anyone in this era could do it."

Additionally, Swift set a record for most albums by a female artist to chart on the Billboard 200 in a single week with 11. According to Billboard, since 1963, Prince and The Beatles are the only other artists who charted more albums simultaneously.

Most No. 1 albums by a woman in history

Swift's re-recording of her album "Speak Now" debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart when it was released in July 2023. This was the singer's 12th album to debut at number one, breaking the record for most number one albums by a female artist in history. This record was previously held by Barbra Streisand.

Most Grammy nominations for Song of the Year

Swift is breaking records even with her nominations. The singer has earned eight Grammy nods for Song of the Year, the most in the history of the category. However, this marks one of the rare instances in which there is something she hasn't accomplished, as Swift has never actually won the award. Prior to 2024, she "shared the record with Paul McCartney and Lionel Richie, who have six nominations in the category," said Business Insider.

Longest song ever to reach No. 1

This may not be a record most people think of, but it stands nonetheless: Swift's "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)" is the longest song ever to top the Billboard charts at No 1. The song is slightly over 10 minutes long and beat out one of the most famous songs in history: Don MacLean's "American Pie," which is about eight minutes long.

First woman with new number one albums in five consecutive years

Swift is the only woman to chart a new number one album on the Billboard 200 in five consecutive calendar years with 2019's "Lover," 2020's "Folklore" and "Evermore," 2021's "Fearless (Taylor's Version)" and "Red (Taylor's Version)," 2022's "Midnights," and 2023's "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)," according to Billboard. The only other artists to achieve this feat are The Beatles, Drake, Jay-Z and Paul McCartney.

Swift also became the only act to have nine records sell half a million copies in one week in the U.S. since at least 1991, when Luminate started tracking the sales, per Billboard.

Second most Hot 100-charting songs ever

When "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)" dropped in 2023, all 22 songs from the album debuted on Billboard's Hot 100. This means Swift has released 212 Hot 100-charting songs in her career, the second most of all time after she surpassed the cast of "Glee," Billboard said. She's second only to Drake, making her number one for a female artist.

First woman to dethrone herself on Hot 100

Swift shook it off in 2014 when her song "Blank Space" debuted at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. The artist she was replacing: herself, as Swift's song "Shake It Off" had previously held the top spot on the list. This makes her the only female singer to dethrone herself on top of the list.

Only artist to win Album of the Year Grammy four times

Swift made history at the 2024 Grammy Awards when she took home the Album of the Year for "Midnights," becoming the first and only person to have won the award four times. She previously won AOTY for "Fearless" in 2010, "1989" in 2016, and "Folklore" in 2021. Her win for "Folklore," which she wrote and produced during the Covid-19 lockdown, made her the first woman to win AOTY three times.

Youngest artist to win Album of the Year

Not only has she won the award four times, but Swift also became the youngest person to win an Artist of the Year Grammy when she earned her "Fearless" award in 2010 at the age of 20. This is one of the few records Swift no longer holds, as Billie Eilish "won the Grammy for her debut album, 'When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?'" in 2020 at the age of 18, said Business Insider.

Most attended concert by a female artist in the U.S.

According to Capital FM, the opening night of Swift's Eras Tour in Glendale, Arizona, in March 2023, set a record for the most attended U.S. concert by a female artist with a crowd of 69,000. Madonna reportedly held this record since 1987.

Swift's tour went on to continue breaking numerous attendance records, including at Texas' AT&T Stadium, Tennessee's Nissan Stadium, and Pennsylvania's Acrisure Stadium. "Apparently, you have broken the attendance record for any event in Pittsburgh ever," Swift told the crowd at Acrisure Stadium, adding, "No group of people this big has ever gotten together for one thing in Pittsburgh ever."

First concert tour to gross $1 billion

One of Swift's biggest milestones was setting the record for the highest-grossing music tour ever after her "Eras" tour became the first to surpass $1 billion in revenue, according to the Guinness World Records. The international tour earned $1.04 billion as of the halfway point in December 2023, according to Pollstar. She broke the record set by Elton John with his "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" tour, which lasted from 2018 through 2023 and grossed $939 million. The tour, which ended in December 2024, generated over $2 billion total, which is "double the gross ticket sales of any other concert tour in history and an extraordinary new benchmark for a white-hot international concert business," said The New York Times.

Highest-earning female musician in the industry

In October 2023, Forbes reported that Swift became a billionaire, making her the highest-earning female musician in the industry, with an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion. She is also the first person to reach billionaire status with her music alone, driven in part by the success of her "Eras" tour.

Biggest vinyl sales week of modern times

Out of the 1.5 million copies in "Tortured Poets" first-week sales, 700,000 were vinyl records, breaking her record for the biggest sales week for an album on vinyl since Luminate began tracking data in 1991, Billboard said. Her latest album's sales beat the 693,000 sold by "1989 (Taylor’s Version)" in its first week in 2023.

One of the best-selling artists ever

Since the start of her career, Swift has sold an estimated 114 million albums worldwide, according to U.K. radio station Rayo. While the exact number is unclear, this makes her one of the best-selling artists of all time. She still has a long way to go to catch the number one act, The Beatles, who have reported sales of more than 230 million albums globally (though some reports say they've sold up to 600 million albums).

Most streams in a single day on Spotify

Spotify said "Tortured Poets" broke the record for most streams in a single day in the platform's history less than 12 hours after its release and was the first ever to amass over 300 million streams in a single day. The record was previously held by Beyoncé's "Cowboy Carter" album.

Relatedly, the opening song on the album, "Fortnight," broke Spotify’s record for the most streams ever gained by one song in a day.

Highest-grossing concert film of all time

Given the popularity of the Eras Tour, it shouldn't be surprising that the tour's movie became the highest-grossing theatrically released concert film ever. The film, shot during one of Swift's Los Angeles shows, reportedly "earned approximately $250 million in sales, making it the highest-grossing concert film of all time," said CBS News.

Historic Billboard 200 debut

The release week of "Tortured Poets" was a smashing success, with the album debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 chart in its first week. The album also "nabbed the record for largest streaming week ever for an album since the chart started measuring by units in December 2014," Billboard said. The first-week total reached 2.61 million units, with album sales accounting for 1.914 million. With this being her 14th chart-topper, Swift now ties with Jay-Z for most number one debuts among solo artists.

Most new albums to generate Hot 100 number ones

With "Fortnight" at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, Swift broke Rihanna's record for most albums with all-new material with at least one number-one hit on the chart, as "TTPD" brought her to eight. As her seventh song to debut at the top of the Hot 100, "Fortnight" helped Swift tie with Ariana Grande for most chart-toppers among women. Drake has the most overall, with nine, but "Fortnight" also ties Swift with him for the most Hot 100 number ones this decade, as both of them have seven.

Most views for a podcast on YouTube

Forget about music — Swift is busy breaking all kinds of records. She appeared on an episode of "New Heights," a podcast hosted by her fiancé Travis Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce, in August. The episode, during which Swift announced her 2025 album, earned the "most concurrent views for a podcast" on YouTube, said Guinness World Records, with 1.3 million people tuning in at once. The podcast episode has been viewed on the platform nearly 21 million times.

April’s slate of new and returning TV, befitting an era of increasing economic and existential anxiety, looks at some of the defining issues of our time. Economic inequality and the dominant role of social media in our lives are front and center in the month’s new releases.

‘The Testaments’

Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale”is now a cinematic universe with Hulu’s spinoff of the hit, six-season dystopian thriller. The series follows a new generation of forced surrogates in an American theocracy called Gilead as they are groomed to be shunted off to the autocracy’s all-male “Commanders.”

Fresh off her star-making turn in the Oscar heavyweight “One Battle After Another,” Chase Infiniti plays Agnes, the daughter of Offred (played by Elisabeth Moss in the original series), who along with other young women is being trained by Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), one of the few holdovers from the original series. The show will “arrive amid a continued assault on the rights of women, with bodily autonomy in particular remaining a hot topic of conversation,” said The Hollywood Reporter. (April 8 on Hulu)

‘Euphoria’ season 3

The critically acclaimed — and frequently disturbing — HBO Max drama returns after more than a four-year hiatus. Several members of the cast became even bigger stars in the interim, including Zendaya (who plays Rue), Jacob Elordi (Nate) and Sydney Sweeney (Cassie).

Showrunner Sam Levinson’s third season will feature a five-year time jump into adulthood for the characters. Rue, hiding out in Mexico, is tracked down by drug dealer Laurie (Martha Kelly) and forced to figure out how to pay off her debts, while Cassie and Nate have gotten married. Based on the trailer, the show “trades in dramatic ambiguity for a sharper, more dangerous vision that leans into old-Hollywood grandeur and dusty American Western iconography,” said Alison Foreman at IndieWire. (April 12 on HBO Max)

‘Margo’s Got Money Troubles’

Based on the bestselling, feel-good 2024 novel by Rufi Thorpe, “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” stars Elle Fanning as the titular Margo, who gets pregnant after an affair with her community college English professor and decides to raise the baby, Bodhi, on her own, much to the chagrin of her mother, Shyanne (Michelle Pfeiffer). Struggling to pay her bills and hosting her fresh-out-of-rehab ex-wrestler father, Jinx (Nick Offerman), Margo starts an OnlyFans account hoping to pull herself and her family out of poverty. “Its characters are memorable, sure, and their family relationships a bit unconventional,” said Angie Han at The Hollywood Reporter. But the story is “firmly grounded in the real world and all the more interesting for it.” (April 15 on Hulu)

‘Beef’ season 2

Showrunner Lee Sung Jin’s “Beef” was an enormous critical and commercial hit when it was released on Netflix in 2023. It was originally conceptualized as a limited series, making this star-studded, anthology-style second entry an unexpected gift.

Austin (Charles Melton) and Ashley (Cailee Spaeny) are a young, engaged couple who work at an upscale country club and accidentally interrupt an emotionally bruising fight between Joshua (Oscar Isaac) and his wife, Lindsay (Carey Mulligan), two members of the genteel establishment. “Through favors and coercion, both couples vie for the approval of the elitist club’s Korean billionaire owner, Chairwoman Park (Youn Yuh-jung),” said Glenn Garner at Deadline. (April 16 on Netflix)

‘Widow’s Bay’

If you can suss out exactly what this highly anticipated Apple TV+ series is going to be about, more power to you. All we have to go on so far are media notes and some deliberately vague and creepy trailers. In one trailer, Matthew Rhys (“The Beast in Me”) is a glum-looking single dad who is the mayor of a haunted, struggling New England tourist town and who scrambles out of his house while an air-raid siren blares.

It’s an interesting approach to marketing what is billed as a horror-comedy series created by “Parks and Recreation” writer-producer Katie Dippold. The show “sounds like what you might get if Stephen King wrote an episode of ‘Atlanta,’” said Jake Kleinman at Polygon. That sounds pretty great to us. (April 29 on Apple TV+)

Sedona, Ariz.

This 1995 contemporary sits along Oak Creek near Red Rock State Park. With wings jutting off a circular copper roof, the four-bedroom centers on a round living room with an up-lit octagonal wood ceiling, a wet bar, and a three-sided fireplace.

A spiral staircase outside leads to a roof deck, and a four-person tram heads down to the water. Also on the property are a fenced dog run, stone patio, pool and spa, and gas firepit. $3,500,000. Jerry Bergis, Coldwell Banker Realty, (928) 284-1595

Los Angeles

Architect Rudolph Schindler designed the 1946 modernist Kallis-Sharlin Residence in the Hollywood Hills. The restored four-bedroom is partly wrapped in grape-stake cladding, and interiors feature clerestory windows, mahogany and Douglas fir walls, angled nooks, four fireplaces, and expansive views of the city.

The lot includes a patio, pool, hot tub, and bocce court. Laurel Canyon and Universal Studios are about 10 minutes away. $6,350,000. Cooper Mount and Hanna Ginsberg, Carolwood Estates, (310) 351-9002

Santa Barbara, Calif.

Built in 2000 and renovated in 2021, this modern five-bedroom in Hope Ranch features curved roof lines and walls of glass with mountain views. The vaulted living room’s fireplace is clad in handmade tile, and the kitchen includes three islands. A wine cellar can hold 3,000 bottles.

Outside on the 2-plus acre lot are a pool, spa, roof deck, and art studio, and there’s community access to tennis courts and a beach. $9,250,000. Riskin Partners at Village Properties/Luxury Portfolio International, (805) 565-8600

Madison, Conn.

Designed by Robert Page, this shingled 2010 coastal contemporary is three houses from the water and has Hartford Avenue Beach rights. The three-bedroom’s walls and ceilings are lined in vertical grain Douglas fir paneling, and the vaulted great room has a library and office loft, and connects to a clean-lined, wood-clad kitchen with soapstone counters.

A goldfish pond, a fountain, mature trees, and three decks complete the property. $2,495,000. Margaret Muir, William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, (203) 415-9187

Whistler, British Columbia

Built in 2013 of ipe hardwood, the three-bedroom Hadaway House in Sunridge is a modern ski chalet in geometric angles. The sunken living room features a built-in sofa, a wall of glass that opens to a triangular deck, steps up to a dining area, and a glass-sided staircase.

A hot tub overlooks trees and mountains. The Whistler Blackcomb ski area is a five-minute drive. $7,194,465. John Ryan, Unison Real Estate Brokerages/Luxury Portfolio International, (604) 932-7670

Danville, Ky.

On the National Register of Historic Places, the Thomas Barbee House was built circa 1790. The furnished two-bedroom log cabin of white oak was recently renovated with modern interiors and amenities, including an open-plan main room with a gas fireplace and a kitchen with a French-door stainless fridge and eat-in peninsula.

Upstairs are a bedroom, bathroom, and laundry, plus an attic sleeping loft. Centre College is walkable. $324,900. Robert Bratton, Bluegrass Sotheby’s International Realty, (859) 536-8434

Spring was once the prelude to the summer blockbuster season, but studios are increasingly pushing out their films with less predictable patterns. This might explain why a classic summer action thriller and a buzzy vehicle for two young mega-stars are both dropping in April, along with these four other intriguing offerings.

‘The Drama’

Could anything be more of the moment than an edgy A24 offering starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson? In director Kristoffer Borgli’s blend of dark comedy and psychological thriller, the two play Emma and Charlie, respectively, a couple on the verge of marrying whose relationship is unmoored by Emma’s disturbing revelations during a game of “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?”

As the trailer makes clear, Charlie and the couple’s friends are so shocked by whatever it is Emma says that the reveal puts their future together in doubt. The film’s jaw-dropping twist, which we won’t reveal here, is already making waves. This “complex, incredibly stressful, provocative and uncomfortably funny” movie “unfolds like a dreadful, violent car wreck that keeps piling up,” said Matt Neglia of Next Best Picture at Letterboxd. (in theaters now)

‘Pizza Movie’

A stoner comedy for the age of edibles and ennui, ‘Pizza Movie’ follows the exploits of two college students, Jack (Gaten Matarazzo) and Montgomery (Sean Giambrone), after they take a mysterious, mind-bending drug. Based on a brief video about the ingested substance narrated by Sarah Sherman of “Saturday Night Live,” the pair believe that eating a pizza is the only way to save themselves from their increasingly bizarre trip, and so they must make their way downstairs through hallucinations, body swaps, exploding heads and a squad of hostile RAs.

First time directors Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney helm what looks like an uproarious mashup of “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” and “A Minecraft Movie.” An “uproariously unhinged” film, “Pizza Movie” is a “low-calorie guilty pleasure that offers just enough new ingredients to a meal you’ve had many times before,” said Zachary Lee at Roger Ebert. (on Hulu now)

‘The Stranger’

It’s hard to imagine a better pairing than decorated French director François Ozon and Albert Camus’ celebrated 1942 novel, “The Stranger.” The first cinematic adaptation of the book since 1967, the film is shot in a gorgeous, sun-drenched, black-and-white reminiscent of Netflix’s “Ripley.”

Benjamin Voisin is Meursault, an emotionally stunted French settler (pied-noir) in Algeria who, after his mother’s death, kills an Algerian man during an altercation and seems to feel nothing about it. The movie, like the novel, unfolds in two parts, following the events leading up to the murder, including Meursault’s relationship with Marie (Rebecca Marder) and friendship with Raymond (Pierre Lottin) and then depicting Meursault’s questioning and trial. It’s an “insightful rereading of Camus, vividly evocative of the world it depicts and irreducibly an Ozon film,” said Jonathan Romney at Sight and Sound. (in theaters now)

‘Marama’

An unsettling horror film that confronts the history of British colonialism in New Zealand, first-time director Taratoa Stappard’s “Marama” is set in 1859. A Maori woman known as Mary (Ariana Osborne) is summoned to an estate in Yorkshire, England, where she is promised information about her biological parents.

There she meets Nathanial Cole (Toby Stephens), who speaks Mary’s language and offers her a position as governess for his daughter, who he is oddly raising as Maori. But Mary, whose original name was Marama, soon discovers that his strange obsession with her culture is quite sinister. Then things get wild. The movie “does what horror movies do best, twisting film form into a tool for dissection” of the “society that produced such nightmares,” said Cláudio Alves at The Film Experience. (in theaters April 17)

‘Normal’

Bob Odenkirk may still be best known for his role as the slimy lawyer Saul Goodman on “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,’ but he’s also been busy reinventing himself as a late-middle-aged action star. In “Normal,” he plays Ulysses, a cop who takes a temporary gig as the sheriff in small-town Normal, Minnesota.

Unfortunately, he finds that behind the Minnesota Nice of people like Mayor Kibner (Henry Winkler) is a vast criminal conspiracy that has enlisted seemingly all of the town’s residents and is likely responsible for the sudden vacancy he’s filling. The film, which is well-timed given the centrality of Minnesota to recent U.S. political events, is alternately funny and shocking, as the quirky setup builds inexorably to a gonzo, set-piece shoot-out sequence. Director Ben Wheatley (“Kill List”) “takes real trends in American life — economic stagnation, rising tribalism, gun fetishism — and follows them to their corrupt, violent end points,” said Katie Rife at IndieWire. (in theaters April 17)

‘Fuze’

A throwback thriller from director David Mackenzie (“Hell or High Water”), Fuze is a heist movie with a particularly clever premise. A 1,000-pound WWII-era bomb is unearthed in London in a scenario clearly drawn from real-life events, after which a massive evacuation and defusing effort commences.

Major Will Tranter (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and a city police officer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) lead the bomb disposal operation, while a gang of criminals led by Karalis (Theo James) use the chaos of the bomb’s discovery as cover for a daring bank heist. Amid myriad double crosses and revelations, the various plot machinations converge in satisfying ways. Mackenzie’s lean thriller “prizes style but has no higher ambition than to entertain, with an economy of means and no fussy pretension,” said Richard Lawson at The Hollywood Reporter. (in theaters April 24)

Hurvin Anderson has earned a well-deserved reputation “as one of Britain’s most skilful and genuinely experimental painters”, said Mark Hudson in The Independent. Born to Jamaican parents in Handsworth, Birmingham, in 1965, Anderson “is big on artistic virtues we like to think of as typically British: emotional reticence and a doggedly patient focus on what’s in front of him”. He often returns to the same subjects: Black-owned barbershops, lush Caribbean forest-scapes, drab English suburbia.

Whatever he paints, it is always characterised by a certain sense of “detachment, even alienation”. People, if they figure at all, are generally “seen from a distance or behind or deliberately blurred”. The paintings are highly atmospheric, frequently radiating a sense of menace or melancholy – they have the air of fading memories. This “fascinating” retrospective at Tate Britain is Anderson’s biggest exhibition to date, bringing together around 80 paintings from every stage of his career. It is “an absorbing survey of an undoubtedly significant figure”. Anderson is a figurative painter in the great tradition of Bacon, Freud and Auerbach. “The linking factor is a commitment to developing his craft” that is “quite humbling”.

Anderson’s work is defined by tensions, said Laura Freeman in The Times. He constantly “pulls this way and that”, between realism and romanticism, between Britain and the Caribbean, between past and present. A major presence in these pictures is Jamaica itself: he didn’t visit until he was a teenager, and says he struggles with his “romantic” conceptions of his parents’ homeland. Yet the Jamaica we see in his paintings “isn’t the Sandals fantasy of holiday adverts”. Rather, it’s “a place of rank overabundance, hot soil and hotter concrete”. Somehow, Anderson manages to conjure the humidity of the place, hitting you “with the sinister oppression” of tropical heat. But he can be uneven, too: for every “stunner” like “Wait a Moment” (2019), a virtuosic treatment of “shifting shadows on white sand”, there’s a misfire. And too often, the Tate’s “cavernous” galleries seem to dwarf the hang.

“Quality control could have been tighter,” said Alastair Sooke in The Daily Telegraph. A number of Anderson’s best paintings have been omitted in favour of “sludgy, hesitant” smaller works. Even so, there’s no shortage of “striking compositions”: “Maracas III” (2004), for instance, sees “a hazy Caribbean vista”, painted as if it were “the crystallisation of a memory”, in which tiny figures “are dwarfed by sinuous palm trees”. His complex feelings about his heritage are clear in a series of Trinidadian landscapes interrupted by barriers “such as security grilles and wire fencing, so that the viewer feels excluded”. All in all, this is a “transfixing” show. I left it “enchanted by the pensive, yearning atmosphere that’s peculiar to Anderson’s art”.

Tate Britain, London SW1. Until 23 August

As the war in Iran drives gas prices skyward, some U.S. consumers are considering electric vehicles as a cost-saving measure. The national average gas price is now over $4 per gallon (and in some states over $5), according to AAA, which means many Americans are understandably looking for less expensive transportation modes. But not all experts believe this sudden spike in gas prices will automatically lead to a surge in the EV market.

What did the commentators say?

Many drivers look to electric vehicles because they “assume their electricity prices won’t be affected by the crises” around the world, said The Associated Press. The fickle nature of oil prices means consumers with gas-powered vehicles are “more vulnerable to fluctuating prices that result from global conflict than those who charge their cars.” Electricity prices are “regulated and much less volatile than gasoline prices,” said Erich Muehlegger, an economics professor at the University of California, Davis, to the AP.

And some may have already reached the point where they want to switch. According to a 2022 AAA survey, “$4 a gallon is the threshold at which a majority of Americans will make changes to their driving habits or lifestyles,” said Vox. This is especially true in California, where the $5-per-gallon gas price means the state has “already passed the point at which EVs are the cheaper option.”

Drivers who switch to EVs can save up to $2,000 per year on gas, while hybrid drivers still see savings of up to $1,500, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. And while Congress “eliminated a federal tax credit that could close the price gap between new electric vehicles and cars that run on gasoline,” there are still some states that “offer credits, rebates or other financial support for electric car buyers,” said The New York Times.

However, potential savings in gas could be offset by an increase in energy costs. Electricity prices have been “increasing nationally for a variety of reasons, including surging power demand from new data centers,“ said the AP. Increased natural gas prices can also “increase the cost of generating electricity,” though these costs “haven’t risen as quickly or as much as oil prices have recently.” And the upfront sticker cost of an EV is “still more than that of a gasoline-powered vehicle.”

What next?

Other factors could preclude a spike in electric vehicle sales. It’s “unclear how long high fuel prices will last,” because they are largely dependent on the war in Iran, said Vox. The limited “availability of chargers for electric vehicles is another barrier to adoption.” Rising gas prices and a general economic downswing can also “put a damper on consumer confidence more broadly.”

For now, the EV market seems to be swinging upward for many car companies. March was Subaru’s “best month ever for electric vehicle sales,” the automaker said in a press release. Toyota Motor North America, which runs the U.S. operations of Toyota and Lexus, saw EV sales in March “up 2.5% on a volume basis and up 6.6% on a daily selling rate basis,” said the company, representing more than half of its total sales volume.

Kimberly Belflower’s “John Proctor Is the Villain” was a hit on Broadway and received seven Tony nominations – and “it’s easy to see why”, said Sarah Crompton on WhatsOnStage.

This “exuberant, perceptive and absolutely essential” play is about a group of teenage girls studying “The Crucible” at the apex of the #MeToo movement in 2018. They’ve asked to set up a feminist society at their high school in conservative, small-town Georgia, and the authorities have reluctantly agreed – thanks to their charismatic male English teacher offering to be its sponsor.

As they dig into “The Crucible” with him, and one of their number (the “town slut”) returns from a mysterious, months-long absence, the play – like Arthur Miller’s witch-trial parable, featuring the adulterous John Proctor – becomes a study in “who is to be listened to; who has the right to have their word believed”. It amounts to a witty and convincing picture of “teenage girlhood, its brightness, hopes and fears”.

Belflower’s “punchy” if schematic riposte to Miller’s classic is a “terrific piece of provocative entertainment”, said Nick Curtis in London’s The Standard. The girls are high-school archetypes (“the nerd; the hot girl; the preacher’s daughter; the sophisticated blow-in from the big city”), while the two boys in the class are “lamebrain jocks”.

Yet in this recast London transfer, all these characters are brought to vivid life by superb young actors under the careful direction of Danya Taymor. The dialogue in Belflower’s study of sexual politics and victimhood “slips easily back and forth between teen anguish, dry humour and pop culture geekery”, said Clive Davis in The Times. It captures “the way classroom obsessions can so easily spiral out of control”, and reminds us that schools can be “every bit as claustrophobic as Miller’s 17th century Salem”.

It’s a shame, then, that in the closing scene, Belflower can’t resist forcing through her message as the truth about the teacher is revealed. Yes, “all nuance is lost in the final beats of the play, set to Lorde’s ‘Green Light’”, said Emily Lawford in The New Statesman. But this “thrilling” evening “still leaves you invigorated”.

Royal Court Theatre, London SW1. Until 25 April

“The medical drama that took its native US by storm last year has finally crossed the pond,” said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian, and it’s well worth the wait.

“The Pitt” is made by some of the same team that created the gritty Chicago-set drama “ER” – and it stars one of its biggest talents. Noah Wyle appeared in the pilot episode of “ER” as fresh-faced intern John Carter, in 1994, and bowed out in the season finale, in 2009.

Here he plays Dr Robby, a Carter-like senior physician working in an emergency room in Pittsburgh known to its staff as the Pitt. Each of the first season’s 15 episodes (on HBO Max) covers a single hour of a brutal 15-hour shift.

It takes “supreme confidence to drill down into this level of minutiae”, said Carol Midgley in The Times. “It could get boring, yet never does.” And I’m not surprised that the show has been praised for its accuracy, because as well as being thrillingly immersive, “The Pitt” is incredibly naturalistic. Watching it is like being dropped into “an emergency department in real time with all its blood, gore and chaotic urgency”.

As in “ER”, “there are moments that are heartbreaking, there are moments that are shocking, there are moments that are amusing”, said Nick Hilton in The Independent. (There are also dashes of heavy-handed social commentary.) In other words, it all feels designed “to hit its beats”. It is good TV. But I wouldn’t call it great.

Well, you’ll have to go a long way to find better, said India Block in London’s The Standard. Written and directed with aplomb, “The Pitt” is “prestige” drama for an audience not distracted by their phones. It deserves to be seen.

Enid Blyton’s “Magic Faraway Tree” stories have delighted successive generations, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail. And now, they have been adapted for the big screen by Simon Farnaby, whose credits include “Paddington 2”, and who is a master of the art of making films that tickle children and adults alike. And, happily, he and director Ben Gregor have done a “smashing job” – if you will forgive the Blyton-ese – not least by finding a “modern, relatable context” for stories published in the 1940s.

Claire Foy stars as Polly, an electronic engineer who quits her job rather than work on a smart fridge that gathers data on its owners. As a result, she and her affable husband Tim (Andrew Garfield) have to give up their device-filled modern home in the city and move to a ramshackle barn in the country with their three screen-addicted children. The older two initially resist their parents’ appeals to immerse themselves in nature, but the youngest, who is mute, explores the area and finds a magical tree inhabited by a group of extraordinary characters.

This is a “sweet-natured family fantasy”, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian, with lots of jokes and peril too, notably in the form of the evil Dame Snap (Rebecca Ferguson with a weird asymmetric hairdo).

I accept that Blyton – with her references to “swarthy foreigners” and the like – needed to be updated, said Kevin Maher in The Times, but Farnaby has created an over-complicated screenplay that strips the tale of its wonder. The children enjoy a few adventures that are “poorly realised” with “a DIY aesthetic”. Then we rush back to find out if Tim has fulfilled his dream of starting a pasta sauce business. Frequently collapsing into “skits” and “awkward flights of fancy”, the film is a “mess”.

“The 20th century was not short of famous people who led ludicrously unsustainable lives,” said Hadley Freeman in The Sunday Times. But there can’t be many “more ludicrous or unsustainable” lives than that of Liza Minnelli. The 80-year-old singer and actor, best known for playing the bowler hat-wearing Sally Bowles in “Cabaret”, received lessons in “how to be famous” from her mother, Judy Garland, who died from an overdose aged 47.

“Just as the MGM studio system robbed Mama of her childhood, she robbed me of mine,” she writes: her early life was spent negotiating Garland’s “mood swings and addictions”; she inherited a lifelong addiction to alcohol and drugs, and a tendency to fall for unsuitable men.

In her long-awaited memoir, Minnelli catalogues the highs and lows without ever sinking into self-pity. Full of sentences that verge on self-parody – “I was married to a gay man at the same time as I was engaged to two other men” – it is both “heart-rending” and hilarious. “If there’s a more enthralling celebrity memoir out this year, I’ll eat my bowler hat.”

The book’s “strongest section” is that detailing Minnelli’s “complicated childhood”, said Joanne Kaufman in The Wall Street Journal. Garland split from Liza’s father – the Italian film director Vincente Minnelli – in 1951. Soon after this, Garland attempted suicide for the first time, and Liza was forced to become “Mama’s mama” – or, as she puts it, her “nurse, doctor, pharmacologist and psychiatrist rolled into one”.

Once Minnelli embarked upon her own career, she also had to negotiate her mother’s tempestuous jealousy, said Tanya Gold in The Observer. Appearing with Garland at the London Palladium aged 18, Minnelli received a loud ovation only to hear her mother whisper to the producer: “Harold, get her off my f**king stage.”

Despite wanting to “grow up differently”, Minnelli couldn’t stop herself “repeating old patterns”, said Helen Brown in The Telegraph. She details her abuse of Valium and booze, and her often disastrous love life: married and divorced four times, she was also briefly engaged to Peter Sellers, and had an affair with Martin Scorsese.

While Minnelli isn’t afraid to call out bad behaviour – she describes her fourth husband, David Gest, as a “pasty-faced jerk with weird hair” – there are few traces of bitterness: Minnelli is a “funny and generous” narrator. Co-written by her friend Michael Feinstein in an “intimate, chatty style”, this is a “high-kicking hoofer of a book”.

Bluebells spring to life from late March to early May, carpeting Britain’s gardens and ancient woodland with their violet-hued flowers. And, this year, the mild, wet winter means some of the perennial bulbs are already in bloom: Hole Park in Kent had its earliest spring opening ever, welcoming visitors to its 200-acre grounds last weekend.

Over half of the world’s bluebells are found in the UK and there are plenty of places to spot them around the country. Here are some of our favourites.

Grass Wood Nature Reserve, North Yorkshire

Located a short walk up the valley from the village of Grassington, this sprawling nature reserve is “one of the largest areas of broad-leaved woodland in the Yorkshire Dales”, said The Times. Come spring, “the ground is awash with bluebells” and wildflowers including primroses, lily of the valley and wild basil. Ideal for twitchers who don’t mind an early start, it’s a prime location for hearing the “spectacular” dawn chorus and the “hooting call of a male tawny owl can often be heard”.

Glen Finglas, Stirlingshire

Nestled in the heart of the Trossachs National Park, this “vast estate” is the Woodland Trust’s largest site, home to “Scotland’s biggest collection of ancient trees”, said The Guardian. At this time of year, the ground turns into a “sea of bluebells” and there is plenty of wildlife to spot roaming through the glen. Look out for otters, pine martens and golden eagles. After a long, bracing walk, warm up with home-cooked vegetarian dishes at the nearby Brig o’Turk tearoom.

Langford Heathfield, Somerset

Somerset Wildlife Trust’s second biggest reserve is a “beautiful mixture of oak and ash woodland with sunny glades and vivid patches of bluebells”, said The Times. Mornings are a great time to visit (listen out for the “rare, booming call of the wood warbler”), while at dusk you’re likely to spot pipistrelle and noctule bats. As the days get warmer, lizards and common adders come out, too.

Winkworth Arboretum, Surrey

Arboretums are “all about the trees” but this spectacular woodland “comes alive with jewel-coloured flowers every spring too”, said Time Out. The Azalea Steps are a real draw: the stone staircase leading down to the lake is lined with “cascading flowers” in “vibrant” shades of pink, purple and red that “burst into beautiful colour” every year.

Ashridge Estate, Buckinghamshire

Dotted with “stunning clusters of bluebells” the winding woodland trail at Ashridge Estate is well worth a visit, said Country Life. Tucked into the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, the idyllic estate is perfect for a family day out. Keep your eyes peeled for the “huge variety of wildlife”; the estate is home to fallow deer, lesser-spotted woodpeckers and the rare Duke of Burgundy butterfly (look out for its chequered orange-and-brown wings).

Elephants are among the planet’s most majestic creatures, walking steadfastly through the savannas, forests and deserts of Africa and Asia. These gentle giants are also the largest living land mammals, and being able to see them in person is a sight to behold. You can enjoy this bucket-list experience during an ethical tour, hotel stay or park visit that puts the animals first.

Chobe National Park, Botswana

So many elephants live in Chobe National Park — about 120,000 call it home — that there’s a “good chance” you will spot a few “wherever you go,” said Thrillist. Botswana has the world’s highest elephant population and is a longtime “haven for the trunked pachyderms,” thanks to strong anti-poaching and conservation efforts.

Chobe has four geographical zones, and the best way to see elephants is by choosing a safari in the grasslands and riverfront area because “where there’s water, there’s elephants.” And you can expect to see a parade of other incredible wildlife, like lions, zebras, giraffes, water buffalo, hippos, crocodiles and hyenas.

Elephants & Opium tour, Thailand

On Red Savannah’s 11-day Elephants & Opium tour, travelers start in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand and end in Bangkok in the south. Along the route, you will stop at temples, ride bikes through the countryside, visit historic ruins and the Hall of Opium Museum, and take a private home cooking class, with the highlight being your time in the Golden Triangle. Guests stay at the Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort and interact with rescued elephants going along on their daily jungle walk.

Elephant Valley, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, California

At the immersive new Elephant Valley, visitors come face to face with a herd of eight elephants led by their matriarch, Swazi. The space was expanded to give the animals “more areas to roam, bathe and sleep” and additional “opportunities to keep them engaged,” said KPBS. It’s easy to spend hours watching the elephants play together with puzzle feeders and splash around in a 250,000-gallon pool, and you can snap stunning pictures and videos at several lookout points.

When hunger strikes, you don’t have to tear yourself away from the views. Enjoy a meal or snack at Mkutano House, Elephant Valley’s open-air dining experience during which snacks and meals come with a side of gorgeous panoramas of the pond and savanna.

&Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve, South Africa

&Beyond has six lodges on its 74,000-acre reserve, and each offers ample opportunities to coexist with elephants and other wildlife. Phinda Homestead is a private villa with a dedicated ranger, tracker, chef, butler and host, while Phinda Rock Lodge sits on a cliff face, giving guests dramatic views from their stone suites.

The “most unique” accommodation is the recently revamped Phinda Forest Lodge, said Condé Nast Traveler. Situated on one of Africa’s last sand forests, the “glass-encased” suites have a “treehouse-like” feel. Start your day with a game drive, keeping your eyes peeled for elephants, leopards and lions, then take a guided bush walk and “laze by the pool, where the animals swing by for an afternoon drink.”

Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home, Sri Lanka

The Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home is a “halfway house” for orphaned and injured elephants, giving them a safe place for rehabilitation before being returned to the wild, said Lonely Planet. Visitors are invited to observe the elephants from a viewing platform and watch as they eat and interact.

There are typically 40 juvenile elephants out and about, and while you do have to keep your distance, the experience is “still a lot of fun,” said Lonely Planet. Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home is a short drive from Udawalawe National Park, which has “famous elephant herds” best spotted from 6:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

‘Arirang’ by BTS

★★★

“Comebacks don’t get bigger than this one,” said Rob Sheffield in Rolling Stone. The world’s biggest band, after a hiatus during which all seven members fulfilled their mandatory South Korean military service obligation, has returned “stronger than ever” with the group’s first album since 2020. The record’s first half is “one up-tempo stomp after another, loaded with hip-hop braggadocio,” while the second half “stretches out in more interesting directions.” And though the lyrics mix Korean and English, the music repeatedly stresses BTS’s Korean roots. The album title is taken from a popular Korean folk song that’s also woven into the stadium-ready opening track, producing “a powerful collision of the ancient and the modern.” The entire album feels like a fulfillment of the band’s promise to be a bridge of South Korean culture to the rest of the world, said Sheldon Pearce in NPR.com. And while the “grungy pop” of “Like Animals” qualifies as a “quintessential” BTS song, that’s even more true of the rap songs, in part because rapper RM is the lead creative force. The band “has never felt more connected, inwardly or to its calling.”

‘The Way I Am’ by Luke Combs

★★★

Luke Combs’ new album “plays like an hour of prime contemporary
country radio,” said Stephen Thomas Erlewine in Pitchfork. Mixing ballads with “sports-bar anthems,” the 22-song set “hits the expected marks crisply, sometimes even memorably.” There’s talk of whiskey, Saturday nights, cowboys, and everlasting love. They’re “hand-me-down stories,” in other words, but “distinguished by an expert sense of craft.” The album proves careless only in its “rambling” length. Still, the “honeyed rasp” of Combs’ voice “commands attention,” and on weepers like “15 Minutes,” about a prison inmate, he remains “a storyteller who knows when to not telegraph a twist.” With this frequent Grammy nominee, “consistency is the name of the game,” said Ethan Beck in Paste. Throughout Combs’ catalog, “there are almost no terrible songs but only a few life-changing ones,” because he relies mostly on “well-deployed clichés” and “a blandly rocking atmosphere.” If he’d “get down in the weeds” and reveal more of his personal shortcomings, as rivals Morgan Wallen and Zach Bryan do, he’d “strike gold” more often.

‘Girlfriend’ by Grace Ives

★★★

Grace Ives’ latest tunes “bubble with detail,” said Laura Snapes in The
Guardian. The Brooklyn native, who earned her initial acclaim as a DIY
bedroom-pop artist, has expanded her sound for this third album, a record filled with “hyper-detailed songs that streak by like big-city streetlights and shimmer with cosmic awe.” Ives, 30, embraced sobriety just before starting work on the album, and she appears to be exorcising demons. With its collage-like assemblages of club beats, glitchy synths, and stabs of strings, Girlfriend evokes “the broken-mirror glitter” of Lorde’s Melodrama, distinguished by “off-the-cuff vocals” that “nudge melodies into earworms.” After making 2022’s acclaimed Janky Star, said Lindsay Zoladz in The New York Times, “Ives was often described as a kind of endearingly sloppy agent of Millennial-girl chaos.” The new album “finds her reckoning with the consequences of such behavior,” but it’s also “relentlessly catchy.” Her songs remain “cut through with her poetic sense of humor,” and they still have an intimacy that makes each sound “as if the listener is eavesdropping on the personal theme songs she hums to herself.”

‘Stay Alive: Berlin, 1939-1945’ by Ian Buruma

“Dictators thrive not on love but on indifference,” said Kevin Peraino in The New York Times. That’s the underlying message of Ian Buruma’s “crisply told and uncomfortably relevant” new history of wartime Berlin. The veteran author and journalist has pulled from letters, diaries, interviews with aging survivors, and many other sources to chart how life and behavior shifted in the German capital from 1939 to 1945. During most of those years, “Berliners turned looking away into an art form,” first by flocking to concerts and movies as if nothing had changed, later by ignoring the danger of Allied air raids while filling soccer stadiums. Jewish citizens had no such choice, of course, though not because their neighbors were all committed Nazis. Buruma’s book, by detailing the moral compromises they made, mounts “a passionate challenge to the corrosive power of indifference.”

The book’s diary-style structure “lets Buruma incorporate a wide variety of viewpoints,” said Elizabeth Kolbert in The New Yorker. “Students, Nazi maidens, and members of the resistance are all allowed to speak for themselves,” and we see both the hard choices some people had to make and how prone others are to evasions. British bombing of the city of 4.3 million began in August 1940. By that point, the 80,000 or so Jewish residents who hadn’t fled were being herded into segregated housing. A year later, deportations were escalating, and one elderly Jewish woman is quoted as saying that in every subsequent encounter with an acquaintance, the first question asked was “Are you going to commit suicide, or will you let them deport you?” By 1944, when much of the city lay in ruins, the terror spread. Nazi “snatch squads” began roaming the streets, shooting or hanging citizens deemed to be “defeatists.”

“Of course, no descent into moral darkness is total,” said Katja Hoyer
in the Financial Times. Buruma finds a few heroes, including a woman
who ran a resistance group and who spent the last days of the war roaming the streets surreptitiously scribbling “Nein”—“no” to Hitler’s
entire project—on walls and houses. More typical is Buruma’s own Dutch father, Leo, one of hundreds of thousands of citizens of nations occupied by Germany who were forced to work in Berlin. Twenty-year-old Leo didn’t support the Nazis, but he enjoyed the aspects of city life that he could, and was left burdened with guilt. Though the author is sympathetic, he admits that his father made compromises to survive. And though he calls his book a love letter to Berlin, “the depressing moral of Stay Alive is that most people don’t challenge the circumstances they find themselves in. They adapt to them.”

‘Adult Braces: Driving Myself Sane’ by Lindy West

“What Lindy West has signed up for with Adult Braces is a horror show,”
said Scaachi Koul in Slate. Among her many readers, there will be plenty telling her loudly, via Instagram or otherwise, that she is stupid or weak or tragic to have chosen to live with her husband in a throuple after discovering that he’d secretly acquired two girlfriends—one permanently.
Not that West’s decision is news to her fans, many who were following her online well before she scored a huge hit with her fat-and-proud-of-it 2016 memoir, Shrill. West, husband Aham, and their partner, Roya, announced the arrangement in a video in 2022. But Adult Braces, West’s fourth book, details how she moved from being angry to accepting a new living arrangement, and because it’s her most personal public self-examination, it’s “also the most brutal to bear witness to.”

West clearly wasn’t happy when she learned that Aham wanted a second woman in his life, said Tyler Austin Harper in The Atlantic. In fact, “most of Adult Braces is spent describing the road trip West took from Seattle to Florida and back again to process her devastation.” And although she insists she’s found contentment in the life the three now share, “what she tells us is often disconcerting.” Rather than being the caring person West says he is, Aham appears “manipulative and sleazy,” lying about his other relationships and then guilting West into polyamory by implying that she, as a white woman, might be less sensitive than he, as a Black man, is to the way monogamy acts as a form of slavery.

West’s book proves to be “a sightseeing guide for polyamorous red flags,” starting with Aham’s behavior, said Ashley Ray in Harper’s Bazaar. West also mistakenly believes that she is being more righteously progressive by agreeing to be part of a throuple. When West and Roya eventually strike up an amorous relationship, West makes sure we know that hot, skinny Roya developed a crush on her. Still, Adult Braces isn’t about the birth of an unusual admirable romantic relationship. “It’s about West’s difficult journey to put her life back together around the person who tore it apart in the first place.”

The Duffer brothers’ new Netflix horror series takes “pre-wedding jitters” and ramps them up to “supernatural extremes”, said Angie Han in The Hollywood Reporter. The result is a “surprisingly thoughtful, satisfyingly bloody take on the impossibility of absolute romantic certainty”.

Nervous bride-to-be Rachel (Camila Morrone) and Nicky Cunningham (Adam DiMarco) appear at first like a happy, “promising match”. The action begins five days before their wedding – an intimate affair set to take place at Nicky’s parents’ holiday cabin in the woods.

But Rachel soon begins to sense “something is not right”. Driving to the venue, “ill omens seem to abound”: the couple overhear “snatches of a disturbing conversation” and pass a car “scribbled with ‘just married’ in paint the colour of blood”.

“Wait until she gets there,” said Anita Singh in The Telegraph. The “creepy” cabin is decorated with “taxidermied Irish wolfhounds” which Rachel is told never to look directly in the eye, and each one of Nicky’s relatives is “awful, emotionally disturbed, or plain loony”. Disturbing tales of “evil” monsters lurking in the woods don’t help things. “Run, Rachel!”

“Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen” is a “macabre and unsettling” show filled with plenty of “blood and gore”. But the “real horror”, it transpires, would be “realising that you’ve married the wrong person”. As the “claustrophobia and hysteria build”, it is Morrone’s stand-out performance that “grounds everything in some sort of reality”.

I couldn’t help feeling “this would have worked better as a feature film”, said Louis Chilton in The Independent. At times the pacing dragged and some of the “tortuous plotting” felt like it was “simply stalling for time”. There were issues too with the lighting: many of the scenes were so “dark and colour-washed that it’s hard to tell what you’re even looking at”.

The poorly lit cabin does leave you wondering how the family are “reading cooking instructions”, said Rhik Samadder in The Guardian. But I found it “terrifying”. The show has “fun with the trappings of weddings from hell” and excels in its “limbo-like scenes suffused with dread”. Above all, “it gives a chilling new meaning to having cold feet”.

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.

Many of the most coveted beauty products come from South Korea, where innovative skin care using cutting-edge — and sometimes unconventional — ingredients is the norm. These nine standout items do more than just make your skin look good. They also help treat underlying issues and prevent new ones from starting.

Beauty of Joseon Red Bean Water Gel 

Let this one sink in. Gel moisturizers “hydrate without feeling heavy,” said Allure, and Red Bean Water Gel “in particular” is “chock-full of red bean extract” and peptides to “deliver moisture while also absorbing sebum.” It feels “cooling” and “refreshing” and layers “wonderfully” under other skin products and makeup. ($18, Beauty of Joseon)

CosRx Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence

The secret to having glowy “glass skin” is in this bottle, said Vogue. It’s made with 96% snail secretion filtrate (yep, a mucus snails produce). The filtrate can “help repair the skin barrier,” along with hyaluronic acid to hydrate and allantoin to soothe. While every skin type can benefit from using the essence, it does wonders for boosting dry skin. ($25, CosRx)

Etude SoonJung pH 6.5 Whip Cleanser

Etude’s skin care items are “excellent,” especially this “cloudlike” cleanser that “suits all skin types,” said Allure. Because of its low pH, the product is “less likely” to interfere with your skin’s “natural barrier function,” and it doesn’t have any “potential irritants” that could “trigger irritation or breakouts.” The cleanser does contain “soothing” ingredients like madecassoside and panthenol, so it “hydrates as it removes impurities.” ($16, Ulta)

Gemi Hand Sanitizer + Serum

This is not your typical hand sanitizer. Gemi reimagined what the formula should be, infusing the company’s take with premium, nourishing facial skin care ingredients like Centella asiatica extract and propanediol. Choose from five “top-notch” scents, including Elysium, a “luxuriously layered” vanilla, peony and amber fragrance, said Marie Claire (a sister site of The Week). Can’t pick just one? Get the full collection, and try them all. ($12 per bottle, $55 for the full collection, Gemi)

Medicube Zero Pore Pad

Zero Pore Pads are infused with salicylic acid, lactic acid and, it might seem, “magic,” said InStyle. That’s because the formula “not only hydrates but also calms and smooths” skin and can “drastically” improve acne scars. One side of the pad is textured, for exfoliating, and the other side is smooth for pore-tightening. ($21, Ulta)

Purito Centella unscented eye cream

A few dabs of Purito’s beloved eye cream is all you need. The “cult-classic” formula works “quickly” to depuff and “calm irritation,” said Harper’s Bazaar. It’s made with Centella asiatica and peptides and instantly “sinks into the under-eye area,” leaving the skin feeling “moisturized and soothed.” ($13, Amazon)

Round Lab 1025 Dokdo Toner

There’s a lot to love about this “gentle and lightweight” toner, said Glamour. It works on all skin types, including “sensitive and acne-prone” and contains “mineral-rich” seawater, panthenol and betaine to “deeply hydrate and support the skin barrier.” Use it after cleansing and prepare to be wowed by how smooth your skin feels. ($17, Ulta)

TimeSavvy Sealing in Moisture mask

Multitasking has never felt better. TimeSavvy’s Sealing in Moisture mask is designed to be used while on the move, with an upper and lower mask that “stay put,” said Elle. The creamy formula delivers on its promise not to slip or drip, and the “expert-approved” ingredients — niacinamide, adenosine and collagen — are a “triple threat,” helping firm, smooth and hydrate the skin. Keep the mask on for 15 minutes, then get ready to glow. ($12 per mask, $54 for a set of five, TimeSavvy)

Tocobo lip mask

Dry lips have met their match. Tocobo’s lip masks are made with antioxidant-rich plant oil blends and melt on contact, leaving your pout plump and refreshed. Pick from four masks, with each one offering its own benefit. Mint Cooling reinvigorates lips, Collagen Boosting reduces the look of fine lines, Vita Glazed moisturizes, and Lemon Sugar Scrub buffs away dead skin cells. ($19, Tocobo)

Even though relations between China and America remain tense, many young Americans’ perspectives seem to be shifting as they adopt Chinese cultural habits. The online trend, dubbed Chinamaxxing, has non-Chinese content creators singing the praises of their newfound Chinese identity. At the same time, the meme’s prevalence has prompted some members of the Chinese diaspora to push back.

‘China’s growing soft power’

For social media users, Chinamaxxing translates to acting increasingly more Chinese. The trend can include “drinking hot water instead of iced lattes, wearing house slippers indoors or embracing traditional Chinese skin care routines,” said NPR. TikTok and Instagram users have taken to saying they are entering a “very Chinese time” in their lives.

The trend has been “amplified by Chinese diaspora influencers” such as Sherry Zhu, who shares “herbal skin care recipes and advice on becoming a Chinese ‘baddie,’” said NPR. Though it began as “niche lifestyle content,” the trend has since “spilled into celebrity PR stunts by the likes of Timothée Chalamet playing ping-pong in Chengdu and mainstream cultural debates.”

It’s probably not an accident that Chinamaxxing has been popularized on TikTok, said Shaoyu Yuan, a scholar who studies Chinese soft power, to NPR. Soft power is the ability to influence international relations through attraction and persuasion rather than coercion. The social media app has an impact on multiple levels. One content stream weakens “American narrative authority by highlighting content that highlights U.S. dysfunction,” while another “makes China look more attractive.”

The meme is not “bound by nationality or ethnicity; anyone can be Chinese if they wish,” said The New York Times. “And right now, many do.” As Labubus and other “Chinese cultural exports” win over global audiences, experts say that the spread of “being Chinese” memes may “signal China’s growing soft power abroad.” For some American content creators, the memes are also a “wry expression of disillusionment with politics at home.”

It’s “partly meme logic,” but it’s also a “sign of growing cultural cachet,” said Yuan to the Times. The memes reflect a “broader shift, in which online audiences are developing a new level of familiarity with China as they engage with it through lifestyle trends and aesthetics” rather than as the “geopolitical rival and security threat it’s often portrayed as" in the U.S.

‘Orientalism by any other name’

The trend has sparked mixed reactions from the Chinese diaspora, with some “worried about the potential for cultural appropriation,” said The Guardian. Even Zhu is concerned about non-Chinese creators reducing traditional medicine to a wellness fad. “I don’t want people to forget the benefits that my culture is providing,” she said to NPR. It comes from China. It’s not “coming from somewhere else.”

Chinamaxxing seemed to reach its peak during Lunar New Year in February. Related advice from non-Chinese creators felt like a direct challenge to the identity of those within the diaspora, said Jenny Lau, the author of “An A-Z of Chinese Food (Recipes Not Included),” to The Guardian. Chinamaxxing is “Orientalism by any other name.”

In 2026, it’s “apparently cool to be Chinese,” said Cherie Wong, a Hong Kong Canadian activist, in an Instagram video. But before “white people claim they are drinking hot water” and in a “very Chinese time, I’mma need you to stop.” A very Chinese time in “my ancestry was my grandparents seeing all their schoolteachers get executed for being intellectuals.”

Chuck Norris knew exactly what his audience wanted. A six-time world karate champion, he also had black belts in tae kwon do, tang soo do, Brazilian jujitsu, and judo, and when he pivoted to films he chose warrior
roles. Showing up to save the day in movie after movie, he won millions
of fans, even if he never quite won over the critics. From the 1970s to 2000s, Norris was omnipresent in the action genre, starring in films like The Delta Force (1986) as well as three Missing in Action movies. From 1993 to 2001, he also starred on TV in the CBS hit Walker, Texas Ranger. At heart, every role he played was an American good guy, taking down the bad guys with necessary violence. His legions of fans loved it. “They want to believe in me,” he said, “just as I believed in John Wayne when I was a boy.”

Norris grew up poor in Oklahoma and Southern California, moving 13 times by age 15. He was “not notably athletic,” said The New York Times, and with his alcoholic father often absent, he turned to movie heroes like Wayne for lessons in manhood. After high school, he joined the Air Force in 1958 and discovered tae kwon do and tang soo do while stationed in South Korea. With his strength and agility compensating for his relatively slight frame, he soon earned black belts in many martial arts. In karate, he was an undisputed master, reigning as world middleweight champion
from 1968 to 1974. Still, the karate schools he owned in California went
under, and Steve McQueen, who’d been one of his students, told him,
“If you can’t do anything else, there’s always acting.” Another friend, Bruce Lee, got him his first big role, in The Way of the Dragon (1972). Unlike other action stars, he possessed “an air of humility, even serenity,” said The Guardian, and preferred roles that cast him as a defender, not an aggressor.

In later years, he was known “for his support of conservative causes such as gun rights,” said The Washington Post, supporting President Trump
in 2016 and becoming the face of Glock in 2019. In the mid-aughts he became “a cultural phenomenon,” when the Chuck Norris Facts meme took over the internet with gems like “Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.” Norris found it amusing. He said he didn’t mind being seen as just an action hero. “I never dreamed of being an ac-tor,” he said. “I do what I do.”

Cheering on your favorite sports team while watching games from the couch is fun. But everyone knows it’s even better to cheer the team on in person. In these sports-centric destinations, the thrills exist inside — and outside — the stadiums and arenas.

Arlington, Texas

You’ll want to play ball in Arlington. A 2026 World Cup host city, it’s also the home of the Dallas Cowboys and AT&T Stadium, one of the “most impressive dome stadiums in the NFL” with the “largest retractable roof” and “largest high-definition screen” in the league, said Fox Sports.

Visitors can go behind the scenes on a guided stadium tour, stepping into exclusive areas and learning more about the facility’s contemporary art museum. Round out your Arlington experience by hitting a Texas Rangers or Dallas Wings game, experiencing the immersive International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame, and enjoying an evening at the Texas Live! dining and entertainment complex.

Boston

With its “championship teams, iconic stadiums and passionate fan base,” Boston is tops for sports fans, said Travel and Leisure. Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox, is Major League Baseball’s oldest ballpark, dating back to 1912.

You can take an hour-long tour or the 75-minute version that brings you to the field level. For those on a time crunch, the park offers Fenway in Fifteen, a quick quarter-hour journey around the beloved stadium. All of Boston’s teams and their biggest stars are honored at TD Garden’s Sports Museum, featuring exhibitions on the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots and Red Sox, and sculptures of Larry Bird and Ted Williams.

Green Bay, Wisconsin

Football and Green Bay go hand in hand. The city has a “deep-rooted sports culture” that is “highlighted” by the Green Bay Packers, said WalletHub. Tickets to games at the “iconic” Lambeau Field are often a “reasonable” price because the team is a nonprofit franchise, and being surrounded by the Packers’ loyal and “enthusiastic” fans adds to the experience. Consider going all out and tailgate, or watch the game while enjoying cheese curds and wings at Stadium View Bar, bratwurst at Johnsonville Tailgate Village or bloody marys at Anduzzi’s Sports Club.

Kansas City, Missouri

In Kansas City, “new sports find a warm welcome” and “sports history has a place of honor,” said writer David Von Drehle at The Washington Post. The Kansas City Chiefs may have the most name recognition, but there’s also the Kansas City Current women’s soccer team and a “baseball team with a couple of World Series trophies,” aka the Kansas City Royals.

This summer, Kansas City will be a World Cup host city, but its “fingerprints” will be on the entire tournament; games are being played across the U.S. in “stadiums designed by architects from Kansas City, the world capital of sports stadium design.” No trip to the city is complete without a visit to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, which “delightfully” showcases how athletes serve as “engines of culture and social progress.”

Los Angeles

Yes, there are nearly a dozen major sports teams based in Los Angeles, including the storied Dodgers, Lakers and Kings, plus new powerhouses like Angel City FC. But LA and its environs are also known for pickup basketball games in the park, impromptu soccer matches in neighborhood fields and beach volleyball games that last for hours.

When you’re not at a match (or joining a game with locals), tour the historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, go surfing, hike the famous Runyon Canyon loop or show off your athletic prowess at Highland Park Bowl, a lovingly restored 1927 bowling alley where “old pinsetters serve as chandeliers,” said the Los Angeles Times.

Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota

When it comes to supporting women’s sports, the Twin Cities can’t be beat. Both the championship-winning WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx and PWHL’s Minnesota Frost draw enthusiastic crowds, and the University of Minnesota’s Golden Gophers women’s hockey team has “one of the best fan atmospheres anywhere,” said The Athletic. If you want to watch a game in a more intimate environment, head to A Bar of Their Own in Minneapolis, the first sports bar in the Twin Cities that shows only women’s sports.

Philadelphia

Whatever the game, you can find it in Philly. This is one of the “most impassioned sports cities in the country,” said Axios Philadelphia, and one of four locations in North America that is home to an MLB (Phillies), NFL (Eagles), NBA (76ers) and NHL (Flyers) team.

They all play at the Philadelphia Sports Complex, where nearly 400 events are held every year at the Xfinity Mobile Arena, Citizens Bank Park and Lincoln Financial Field facilities. Expect to get caught up in “contagious enthusiasm,” whether that’s at an Eagles game where fans “unitedly sing ‘Fly, Eagles, Fly’ after every win” or on the street, where you’ll likely run into people who “incessantly shout ‘Go Birds’ at passerby.” For the full experience, time your visit so you can attend an “epic” watch party or tailgate, where “everyone’s invited.”

From the outside, the Bvlgari Hotel Roma is all clean lines and quiet authority, a relic of the city’s fascist-era architecture. But step inside and the mood shifts entirely.

Directly opposite the Mausoleum of Augustus – currently emerging from a long-awaited restoration – the hotel is a confident homecoming for the Roman jewellery house that inspired it.

Opened in 2023, this is only the ninth outpost in the Bvlgari hotel portfolio, a brand that has always favoured considered expansion over ubiquity. The result? A stay that feels rarefied, polished and Roman.

Inside, a second-century marble statue commands the foyer with gravitas. It’s part of a rotating exhibition on loan from the illustrious Torlonia family collection, just one example of how the hotel blends heritage with high design. Beyond it, glass cases gleam with Bvlgari jewels, while the polished marble surfaces shimmer in the light. It’s less hotel lobby, more curated gallery of Roman splendour and a harbinger of the opulence to come.

Why stay here?

Upstairs, the atmosphere softens into something more intimate. The hotel’s 114 rooms and suites are spread across six floors, each one designed as a sumptuous cocoon away from the city’s lively streets.

Our Junior Suite was a study in balance: muted neutrals offset by jewel-toned accents, including a rich green headboard and coordinating rug. The living area, anchored by a cream sofa and a sculptural Arco lamp by Flos, felt both elegant and inviting. A marble coffee table, sleek minibar and leather armchair completed the picture.

The ceilings soared, giving the room a sense of grandeur, while tall windows – soon to overlook the restored mausoleum – were draped in billowing cream curtains. Service included thoughtful touches: plates of fresh fruit, delicate mini-cakes and a turndown service that included herbal tea served in flasks. It’s this attention to detail that elevates the experience from luxurious to genuinely indulgent.

But the bathroom stole the show. Ours was clad in blue-green Brazilian marble, streaked with deep rust veins – it was dramatic, unusual and mesmerising. Other suites feature equally striking palettes, including a rich Sudanese red. At its centre sat a deep porcelain tub, crowned by a celestial Bvlgari mosaic. Add a walk-in shower, double sinks lined with Bvlgari toiletries and a dressing room complete with vanity, Dyson hair dryer and generous storage, and you have a space designed for lingering.

Down below, the subterranean spa feels like a hidden world unto itself. Far from the modest wellness areas typical of city hotels, this is a vast, shimmering sanctuary. A 20-metre heated pool stretches out, its surface glinting with blue, green and gold mosaics inspired by Bvlgari’s signature design, the Divas’ Dream fan motif. Marble columns rise dramatically from the water, while a bubbling vitality pool and waterfall shower add to the sense of theatricality. It’s the kind of place where hours slip by unnoticed, especially when stretched out on one of the cloud-soft loungers.

Eating and drinking

Il Caffè on the ground floor is a bright, inviting space where marble and mirrors meet lush greenery. Breakfast here is an unhurried affair, with options ranging from continental classics to Chinese, Arabic and health-focused selections. Even the simplest dishes feel elevated: porridge arrives with an array of seven toppings, while avocado toast is generously layered with thick slices of smoked salmon. Everything is served on beautifully crafted Ginori porcelain for a final flourish.

As evening approaches, La Terrazza becomes the place to be. With panoramic views across Rome’s rooftops, it’s ideal for a pre-dinner aperitivo. The Bvlgari signature cocktail – a bright blend of gin, Aperol, citrus, and a delicate foam stamped with edible gold – captures the hotel’s spirit in a single glass and is served in all its bars worldwide.

The Bvlgari Bar is a destination in its own right. Its striking black marble counter, supported by Murano glass cones infused with gold dust, glows softly as the room fills with guests. There’s a lively and sophisticated energy here that contrasts with the calm of the hotel’s library lounge and chocolate boutique on the ground floor.

For something more formal, Il Ristorante – Niko Romito offers a refined take on Italian cuisine by the acclaimed chef. Here, traditional dishes are reimagined with precision and flair: think lasagne layered with pecorino and artichokes, or spaghetti vongole lifted with parsley pesto. A perfectly cooked turbot, paired with Sardinian vermentino, made for a standout main, while a chocolate mousse infused with Alchermes liqueur provided a fittingly indulgent finale.

Things to do

Step outside and Rome unfolds at your feet. The Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon and Piazza Navona are all within easy walking distance, while the boutiques of Via dei Condotti beckon just around the corner. Further afield, a short journey brings you to the grandeur of St Peter’s Basilica or the ancient drama of the Colosseum.

Yet Rome’s magic often lies in its quieter corners. A stroll through the leafy expanse of Villa Borghese offers a welcome escape from the crowds, while the Protestant Cemetery in Testaccio provides a moment of reflection. Here, among cypress trees and weathered stones, lie the graves of John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley, as well as the haunting “Angel of Grief” sculpture by William Wetmore Story.

The verdict

In a city overflowing with grandeur, Bvlgari Hotel Roma manages to carve out its own distinct identity. It’s not just a place to stay but a luxurious celebration of Roman craftsmanship, heritage and style. Once you’ve checked in, you may find it difficult to leave.

Vicki was a guest at Bvlgari Hotel Roma; bulgarihotels.com

Spanning 2,700 miles, the “gorgeous” new King Charles III Coastal Path will be the “longest managed coastal path in the entire world” when fully open, said Amy Houghton in Time Out.

The project was initiated in 2008 when Gordon Brown was prime minister. Now, almost two decades later, King Charles has finally inaugurated the footpath – 80% of which is open to the public, with the remainder set to be completed by the end of the year. Once finished, the trail will stretch around the entire coast of England, joining up with the existing 870-mile coastal path in Wales.

It’s a footpath of “spectacular beauty” that weaves along “cliff edges and across chalk downs, through dunes and around estuaries, linking castles, smugglers’ villages and seaside resorts”, said Andrew Eames in The Sunday Times.

Among the most “memorable” sections is the 14-mile stretch from Bamburgh Castle to Lindisfarne Causeway along Northumberland’s “jaw-dropping” shore, said Paul Bloomfield in The Telegraph. Along the way, you’ll pass “beach after beach as you skirt golden Budle Bay” with plenty of chances to spot seabirds, seals and dolphins.

Or, for a shorter route “ideal for the kids’ first taste of hiking”, set out from the Isle of Wight’s Compton Bay, keeping your “eyes peeled for dino footprints”. Once you reach Shippards Chine, climb the wooden steps and walk out on to the chalk downs heading westwards until you reach “the blustery viewpoint over the famous chalk stacks of The Needles”. The 7.4-mile walk concludes with a chairlift ride down to the “multicoloured sands” of Alum Bay.

As for thrill-seekers, the “adventurous stretch” between Hurlstone Point and North Hill in Somerset is well worth trying, said Jen and Sim Benson in The Times. Formerly a “little-used alternative to the main track”, the challenging eight-mile route is now a “fantastically undulating” part of the King Charles III Coastal Path, creating a “stunning circuit between the moor and the sea”.

Welcome to the icons-only edition of where to drink this spring. Half of the bars in this compilation are the kind of place where the drinking is simply a means to an end. The rest are bars where cocktail-making is revered. All have been around for a spell, achieving venerable notoriety in their respective cities. All hail the longtimers.

Barret Bar & Grill, Louisville

If the Barret Bar “were a person, it would be an old Hollywood character actor with stories about getting drunk with Errol Flynn and Betty Davis,” said the Louisville Courier Journal. Barret began its life as a shotgun bar in 1947 and has since expanded to three times the size with a handful of pool tables. The bar is no frills and all welcoming camaraderie. The “place has a heart and soul of its own,” said a former general manager, John Campbell, to the outlet.

Clermont Lounge, Atlanta

It is unjust to call the Clermont Lounge a strip club. Let’s call it a bar with strippers. Or a lounge, like its name connotes. A “core group of women” have worked there for more than 25 years, said Dana Hazels Seith in The Bitter Southerner. The Clermont, which debuted in 1965, is a rip-roaring good time; it is also a ravishing snapshot of what it means to be alive, to be human. “Every person who spent time there — from bartender to customer to dancer — told me the same thing,” said Seith. “You can be yourself at the Clermont Lounge.”

The Cloak Room, Austin

The Cloak Room’s location within spitting distance of the Texas capitol building might suggest there is some fanciness afoot here. Wrong! The lounge’s “lack of a hoity-toity menu” means that drinking here is “decidedly unfussy,” said Anthony Head at Austin Monthly about the bar that opened in 1979. You might encounter a politician taking a breather, sure. You will also assuredly find an “aged wooden countertop” and a “great neighborhood spot that prefers to fly a little under the radar.”

Cure, New Orleans

Cure, which opened in 2009, is both record-keeper and innovator, an admirable endeavor in a city that is the birthplace of the cocktail. Ask for any classic, and the bar will make it even if the drink is not listed on the regular menu. The bartenders are that adept. They are also ever-forward-thinking: Four times a year, the crew overhauls the seasonal drink menu. Fixed and fresh, Cure does it all.

Julius’, New York City

At once a raunchy dive bar and an LGBTQ+ icon, Julius’ has been open since the 1860s in Manhattan’s West Village neighborhood. And, yes, Julius’ is option D: all of the above. It is a place to meet the man of your dreams for a night, as well as one of the centerpieces of the queer civil rights movement. And as of 2022, Julius’ is an officially designated New York City landmark. For as long as there are people on planet Earth, may Julius’ reign.

The Normandie Club, Los Angeles

Whether you seek an “excellent first stop before a night out in Koreatown” or a “great nightcap destination after a dinner date,” The Normandie Club is an optimal choice, said The Infatuation. The swank, welcoming bar opened in 2015 and covers its bases. Margaritas, palomas and a whiskey-Aperol spritz are on draft for streamlined serving. On the flip side, the bar has reconsidered classic cocktails such as the gimlet and old-fashioned, the latter built with coconut-washed bourbon and spiced almond demerara syrup.

Smuggler’s Cove, San Francisco

The Tiki heyday, the story goes, occurred during the middle of the 20th century, with Americans pining for exotic locales and fruity cocktails. All true. You could instead argue, though, that the finest incarnation of Tiki-dom launched when Smuggler’s Cove opened in San Francisco in 2009. Fresh juices, quality rums, pristine drinkmaking technique — the Cove stupefied with its faultless approach. Yes, a Zombie from the Cove will render you lifeless. But it will taste so good before your demise begins.

Sweet Liberty Drinks & Supply Co., Miami

Sweet Liberty was a hit from the moment it opened in 2015. More than a decade on and endless accolades later, the “bar isn’t letting all that praise go to its head,” said Jennifer M. Wood at Condé Nast Traveler. Situated alongside the Bass Art Museum, Sweet Liberty is both a home base for locals and a destination for tourists. The cocktail list knows its mission: South Miami crowd-pleasers, thoughtfully considered, like a frothy Midori sour with green Chartreuse and an apple martini with apple brandy and dry vermouth.

Palm Springs, Calif.

This landmarked home is one of R. Lee Miller’s four Araby rock houses in the Colorado Desert’s Coachella Valley. The updated 1929 one-bedroom,
which blends into the surrounding stones, includes original carved doors, beams, ironwork, and two fireplaces, plus stone walls, cement floors, and a hidden room behind a bookcase.

The nearly half-acre lot includes professional desert landscaping, paths, and two studio casitas. $1,375,000. Jason Cochran and Craig Chorpenning, Desert Sotheby’s International Realty, (323) 243-6998

Marfa, Texas

On 10 acres in the Trans-Pecos region of the Chihuahuan Desert, this 2016 modern home is wrapped in clerestory windows, with glass walls overlooking xeriscaping.

The three-bedroom’s heated concrete floors flow through the open plan, which includes a high-end black kitchen, window-topped walls, and dramatic bedroom wallpaper murals. Sliders open to a shipping-container pool and spa, an arbor for alfresco dining, and a firepit. $2,495,000. Jeff Burke, Douglas Elliman Real Estate, (832) 256-7001

Ivins, Utah

In Sentierre, a resort community in the Mojave Desert, this 2018 home features views of Padre Canyon red rocks. The desert-modern five-bedroom has floor-to-ceiling windows, a kitchen with a waterfall island and Sub-Zero and Wolf appliances, and a red rock wall.

Outside are three patios, a pool, desert landscaping, and firepits. Snow Canyon State Park, dining, and shops are less than 10 minutes away. $3,399,000. Andy Levine, Engel & Völkers Park City, (435) 901-8190

Henderson, Nev.

Part of the gated Ascaya community, this 2025 four-bedroom is in the Mojave Desert about 25 minutes from Las Vegas. Wraparound windows frame canyon views, the living room is anchored by a rock feature wall, and a glass-sided staircase ascends to a second floor.

Motorized sliders open to a covered terrace, pool, and two-sided fireplace. Ownership includes access to pools, a gym, and tennis courts. $4,119,000. Taya Welte, Redeavor Sales for Ascaya, (702) 499-4086

Tucson

This 1963 Sonoran Desert home, designed and built by Lewis Hall, features an adobe exterior and Spanish colonial elements. The four-bedroom includes arched windows, brick walls, exposed beams, wood floors, and a rustic-modern eat-in chef’s kitchen.

Part of the Skyline Country Club and on more than 1 acre, the lot has cacti, a covered alfresco dining area, patios, and a roof deck with Catalina Mountain views. $2,150,000. Lawrence Grabell, Long Realty Company/Luxury Portfolio International, (520) 850-6494

Santa Fe

On 5-plus acres in the high desert, this 1980 home was completely renovated in 2023. The two-bedroom has an open plan, expansive desert views, wide-plank flooring, a butcher-block island, and stainless appliances.

The property has a new deck with glass railings and a hot tub, a patio with a fire-pit, and a history as a vacation rental. Downtown is about a 20-minute drive. $550,000. Julie Tokoroyama, Sotheby’s International Realty—Santa Fe, (505) 469-3893

Most tourists in Panama focus on its “storied” canal and resort towns such as Bocas del Toro. But this Central American country – a narrow isthmus stretching for 500 miles between Costa Rica (to the west) and Colombia (to the east) – offers far more to interest the curious traveller, said David Amsden in Condé Nast Traveller.

The canal, which was completed in 1914, bisects the country at its midpoint, where it is narrowest (at a mere 37 miles across). And set beside the Pacific coast at the great waterway’s southern end is Panama City, where its “sprawling” skyline of steel-and-glass skyscrapers trumpets the success of “Central America’s fastest-growing economy”. However, I stayed in the charming, pastel-hued old town, at the “excellent” Hotel La Compañía Casco Antiguo. From Panama City, I went on a “zigzagging” road trip, stopping first at Portobelo, a “drowsy” town with “candy-coloured” buildings on the Caribbean coast. It’s a place of “raw” beauty, with a “hushed, draughty” cathedral and an impressive Spanish fortress (in its early days, the town’s harbour was often raided by pirates).

It is also home to a large Afro-Panamanian community, the subject of “striking” photos by Sandra Eleta, a celebrated artist who runs an informal artists’ residency and hotel called La Morada de la Bruja, or The Witch’s Abode. An “eclectic compound” with breezy verandas and walls hung with “folkloric” murals and feathered masks, it is the best stay in town.

Next, I visited the Guna Yala islands, a “mesmerising” Caribbean archipelago that has been governed by the indigenous Guna people since 1925. Exploring it on a yacht chartered from San Blas Sailing, I enjoyed such “elemental” pleasures as snorkelling with stingrays and drinking rum cocktails on palm-fringed beaches.

My final stop was the undulating, big-skied Azuero Peninsula, on the Pacific coast, where I went riding and surfing, and also sailed alongside a pod of humpback whales.

Hot dogs are quintessentially American. Initially the food of immigrants, the humble combination of a frank wrapped in a bun became part of the country’s cultural fabric, a staple at picnics, baseball stadiums, barbecues and fairs. Regional styles vary — get yours topped with coleslaw in the Carolinas, cream cheese in Seattle and sauerkraut in Birmingham — but they all honor traditions while showcasing local flavors.

A quick history lesson

German immigrants who came to the United States during the mid-19th century brought along a love for sausages. During the 1860s, carts began to pop up in New York City, with peddlers selling bun-wrapped thin sausages that had a “special Old World snap,” said Smithsonian Magazine. They were both “portable and tantalizingly inexpensive,” and it wasn’t long before these “handy treats” made their way to Coney Island, where seaside revelers enjoyed them while strolling the boardwalk.

Millions more were introduced to the dish at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, when a pair of “entrepreneurial” Austrian Hungarian immigrants, brothers-in-law Emil Reichel and Samuel Ladany, set up a Vienna sausage stand in the Austrian Village section of the expo, said the Chicago History Museum. Their sausages, topped with mustard and onions, sold for 10 cents each and were such a hit that after the fair the pair opened Vienna Beef Inc., which remains “arguably the hot dog king of Chicago.”

By 1900, vendors were slinging sausages at race tracks and baseball fields, and people began referring to the portable meal as a hot dog. There are a few theories on how the name came to be, with some saying it’s because the meat was often called a “dachshund sausage” and others claiming a connection to the slang term “hot dog,” which meant a “swaggering young man who loitered with other flashy dandies,” said Smithsonian Magazine.

Chicago-style hot dog

What is it? An all-beef frankfurter in a poppy seed bun, topped with yellow mustard, relish, chopped onion, tomato slices, sport peppers, celery salt and a pickle spear.

This hot dog is all about the toppings, and “each component has a specific role to play,” said Mashed. Sport peppers bring the heat, pickles the brine and mustard the tang, which “balance the sweetness of the relish.” Various immigrants are responsible for these flavors, with the poppyseed bun “reflecting Eastern Europe” and the “elements that dragged the hot dog through the garden,” like onions, tomatoes and pickle, courtesy of Greeks and Italians, said WTTW.

There’s one condiment you won’t see on a Chicago-style dog: ketchup. That’s because during the early 1900s, ketchup was “used to cover up the flavor of poor-quality meat,” said NBC 5 Chicago. Not having to squirt any on your hot dog was a “source of pride” and “symbol of higher quality.” All these years later, the tradition still stands.

Where to try it: At Gene & Jude’s, the hot dogs are “expertly prepared” and have an “exceptional snap,” said Serious Eats. The stand, located outside of Chicago in River Grove, is “continuously packed,” but the dogs and “just-fried hand-cut fries” that come on the side are worth the wait.

Detroit-style Coney Dog

What is it? A beef frankfurter in a steamed bun, topped with meat chili, diced white onions and yellow mustard.

The Coney Dog, now ubiquitous in Detroit, was created more than 100 years ago by Greek immigrants. As the story goes, they “ventured first to Coney Island” in New York, where they tried the famous hot dogs at Nathan’s, then decided to sell their own version in the Motor City, said Detroit PBS. The secret ingredient in their chili is Greek spices and is an ode to the immigrants’ homeland.

One of the earliest hot dog joints to open in Detroit was American Coney Island, which brothers Constantine “Gust” Keros and Bill Keros opened in 1917. After a falling out, the two went their separate ways, and Bill opened his own shop, Lafayette Coney, next door. The feud is part of Detroit’s culinary history; both restaurants remain open today.

Where to try it: There is “no better spot to indulge” in a Detroit-style Coney than Duly’s Place, said Eater. Open for more than a century, the diner remains a “go-to” thanks to its “consistency” and “greasy-spoon environment.” The dogs here have a “satisfying snap” and come “slathered” in all the necessary toppings.

New York System hot wiener

What is it? A wiener made of pork, beef and veal in a steamed bun topped with celery salt, mustard, chopped onions and spiced meat sauce.

Rhode Island’s take on the hot dog, introduced in the 1920s, “began as a loose nod” to Coney Island-style, but its “identity” was soon “shaped” by Greek immigrant hands, “local tastes” and a “very specific spice profile” that made it stand on its own, said Tasting Table.

The wieners are “smaller than standard hot dogs,” and the meat sauce does not have the consistency or taste of chili. Rather, it’s a “finely textured, crumble-like mixture” seasoned with cinnamon, paprika, allspice, cumin and Worcestershire sauce.

Where to try it: Olneyville New York System in Providence has been serving hot wieners in the same spot since the early 1950s (there’s a sister location in Cranston). The operation is still family-run, and as such there’s a “‘Cheers’-style vibe where everybody knows your name,” said Tasting Table. Pair your dog with a coffee milk, Rhode Island’s state drink.

Puka dog 

What is it? A Polish sausage (or veggie dog) stuffed inside a Hawaiian sweet bread bun, topped with garlic lemon sauce, tropical fruit relish and Hawaiian mustard.

Poke, loco moco, kalua pig and huli huli chicken are all Hawaiian classics, but ignore the Puka Dog at your gustatory peril. The Hawaiian-style hot dog is a fusion of traditional ingredients with tropical accoutrements that give it a “vibrant flair,” said Chowhound.

These can be customized, with the relish alone covering “kaleidoscopic options, from star fruit to banana, coconut and more.” It was created in the early 2000s at the Puka Dog hut on Kauai, and while “spinoffs are widespread” across the Hawaiian islands, this is where the dish was perfected.

Where to try it: The place where it all began: Puka Dog. Ordering is a four-step process: meat or veggie dog, mild or spicy secret garlic lemon sauce, which tropical relish, and mustard or no mustard. The “patient” Puka Dog crew will help you “tweak” things if you “have any questions at crunch time,” said SF Gate.

Sonoran dog

What is it? A hot dog wrapped in bacon in a bolillo and topped with onion, tomato, mustard, salsa verde, pinto beans and mayonnaise.

The Sonoran dog is Arizona’s “most popular fusion of Mexican and American food” and over the last 30 years has “cemented itself itself as a cherished local tradition,” said the Arizona Republic. Its roots are in Hermosillo, the capital of the Mexican state of Sonora, where legend has it the flavorful dish got its start as a popular snack sold at baseball games during the 1940s. Benjamin Galaz of BK Carne Asada & Hot Dogs is credited as the leader of the pack in Tucson, opening the first Sonoran dog food cart on the city’s South Side in 1993.

Where to try it: Tucson has made it incredibly easy to find the best Sonoran dogs in town. The new Sonoran Dog Trail highlights 15 spots, from street cart vendors to old school establishments, and if you visit them all, you’ll receive a souvenir t-shirt. One of the stops, El Güero Canelo, is the “ultimate Sonoran dog spot,” said the Arizona Daily Star. Its hot dogs are “cooked well” and nestled in “nice and soft” buns, with toppings like cooked onions and mustard that add a “tanginess to all the savory flavors.”

With the launch of its much-anticipated Macbook Neo, Apple has rewritten “the budget laptop playbook”, said PC Mag. Priced at just £600, the 13-inch Neo squeezes many of the MacBook Air’s best features into a device that is far more affordable.

The laptop comes in a single configuration – 8GB of unified memory (RAM) – but there are two storage options: 256GB or 512GB, the latter of which costs an extra £100, and also comes with Touch ID. You can go for traditional silver, or opt for one of three “quirky” colours: indigo, blush and citrus (also known as dark blue, pink and a “sort of lime yellow-green”).

The Neo has a “stunning design”, said Stuff, with the same aluminium finish and weight (1.23kg) as the Air. It has two USB-C ports, and its trackpad is mechanical rather than haptic, meaning it produces not the simulation of a click, but an actual click. Still, it’s a shame there’s no Touch ID on the basic model, and the “meagre” 8GB of RAM might be tricky if you want to run lots of complex apps. Still, what’s on offer here is “an absolutely bargainous no-brainer” that should particularly suit the target audience of small-business owners and students (who benefit from £100 off).

This “sensational” machine is the first Mac laptop to be powered by an iPhone processor, said The Independent, but it’s still “fast and effective” for everyday use, with “exceptional build quality”. The new manufacturing process uses 50% less aluminium, 90% of which is recycled. Battery life, at 16 hours, is “easily good enough”, and the display “looks great”. It is “a dream to use”; add in the price tag and “it becomes irresistible”.

The ingredients themselves are the luminaries of spring. They are often verdant — peas, leeks, asparagus, spinach. A pink (rhubarb) or brown (lamb) jumps in too. These recipes center the season’s finest ingredients, using techniques and sauces to complement, not overwhelm, their pristine gestalt.

Asparagus Pakoras

A tender asparagus stalk is a perfect specimen. It needs little to twinkle. Then you go and coat it in a chile-spiked batter made from chickpea flour, fry it til it shatters, and dust it with salt, and suddenly the spear downright scintillates. Get the recipe.

Braised Leek with Chile Bean Sauce

Searing long leek halves turns them charred, sweet-bitter and melting. Braising then softens them into willing submission. They soon clamor for a finishing complement, which a frisky combination of Sichuan chile bean paste, soy sauce, garlic and black vinegar readily provides. Get the recipe.

Broccoli, Bacon and Boursin Quiche

Quiche is always the right idea. It’s all the better when loaded with smoky bacon, lush Boursin cheese and nubbins of Broccolini. Serve the entire entity for a brunch gathering, or parcel it into meals for days on end. Get the recipe.

Lowland Celery Salad

Celery, please step center stage and into the spotlight. No, more to the right and pick up some dates, toasted walnuts and extra-sharp cheddar. Close, but to the left a touch, that mustardy sherry vinaigrette can join you. There! You made it. Feeling the love and attention you have always merited? Get the recipe.

Rhubarb Crisp

A crumble topping is loaded with oats, pecans and Chinese five-spice powder. Rhubarb done two ways: unadulterated and treated with baking soda to shave away some of the plants’ sharp edge. A rhubarb crisp is classic springtime, and this variation nudges the dessert into the modern age. Get the recipe.

Sabzi

We are just on the other side of the spring equinox, but the hunger for an ongoing, explicit spring jubilee persists. Spinach has the tonic earthiness the season necessitates, and lamb is the holy protein of now. This Afghan braise stars not just spinach as the green blast but also a wallop of green onions and cilantro. Steadying and lush, sabzi is a spring headliner. Get the recipe.

Shakshuka

Shakshuka, that stewy egg dish, is everywhere. You may as well have a baseline recipe for your home kitchen. This one from chef Yotam Ottolenghi is basic with no frippery to speak of — just tomatoes, harissa, red peppers, cumin and final filip of yogurt. It’s an optimal diving board for shakshuka-fiddling. Get the recipe.

Spring Peas with Mint Butter

Nearly every possible kind of pea shows up here. Snow peas, English peas, snap peas have all come to play. That means frolicking, after a quick blanching, in a butter bath loaded with chives and mint. Use the best butter you can find, and finish with chopped toasted hazelnuts and flaky salt, just because. Get the recipe.

What happened

Stephen Colbert announced Wednesday that he is co-writing a new “Lord of the Rings” movie after CBS’s “The Late Show” ends in May. The new film, tentatively titled “The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past,” is set about 14 years after the end of “The Return of the King” and features Frodo Baggins’ hobbit friends, Colbert said in a video with director Peter Jackson. Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema are producing the movie, and Colbert will co-write it with his son, Peter McGee, and LOTR franchise veteran Philippa Boyens.

Who said what

For Colbert, adapting the next “Lord of the Rings” movie is “arguably his dream project,” Deadline said. “Along with being a pillar of late-night TV,” Colbert is one of author J.R.R. Tolkien’s “most dedicated and vocal fans,” The New York Times said. He has “spoken often about how the books guide his worldview” and is known to sprinkle “‘Lord of the Rings’ analysis into guest interviews.”

“You know what the books mean to me, and what your films mean to me,” Colbert told Jackson. “I found myself reading over and over” six early chapters of “The Fellowship of the Ring” and wanted to “make something that was completely faithful to the books while also being completely faithful to the movies that you guys had already made?” After discussing the idea with his son, Colbert shared the idea with Jackson two years ago, he said, and the project took off.

What next?

The final “Late Show” episode is set to air May 21, and “Shadow of the Past” will be released sometime after Andy Serkis’ “The Hunt for Gollum” hits theaters late next year.

In Robert Hastie’s “glorious revival” of Maxim Gorky’s tragi-comedy “Summerfolk”, the new regime at the National has its first “bona fide hit”, said Clive Davis in The Times.

Written in 1904, the play is a sprawling, plot-light affair with no fewer than 23 characters. In its approach and setting, it has echoes of Chekhov. But Gorky made his focus not the landed gentry on their estates, but the newly prosperous middle classes – “pre-revolutionary strivers” who are flirting and moping through a long summer in dachas that were built, perhaps, where the old cherry orchards had stood. And whereas the “good doctor” generated only “quizzical smiles”, Gorky delivers “earthy laughter” along with the pathos.

This production is “rich in period detail”, but the modern turns of phrase in Nina and Moses Raine’s adaptation “conjure up visions of 21st-century families bickering over what to watch on Netflix in a Tuscan Airbnb”.

The effect is “like Chekhov made explicit”, said Sarah Crompton on What’s on Stage. “All his references to sex, repression, the changing times, are here emphasised and elaborated as the characters fall in love, get bored, get angry, get drunk.” The play is “staggeringly wordy” (though this version is 40 minutes shorter than the last major staging in London in 1999), so the humour is welcome.

It takes a fine cast to make this work, and you won’t find a better one, said Dominic Maxwell in The Sunday Times. There is an “incredible” display of acting talent here. The sheer number of people wandering onto the stage does make the first half tricky: you wish they had name badges, the better to keep tabs on who is who; but the second half “finds the perfect fast-revolving pace of Chekhovian wit and wisdom, love and loss”.

Gorky’s critics complained that his characters lacked depth, said Dominic Cavendish in The Telegraph. These actors make us care, “in some cases sensationally so”. It is a “drawback” that the script is loaded with “distracting” modern vernacular and swearing. But go if you can. “Summerfolk” is so costly to stage, “it’ll be a generation before it’s back”.

Olivier, National Theatre, London SE1. Until 29 April