“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.

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.”

“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.

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.

Be it as a coffee companion or a frozen yoghurt flavour, “small, gently spiced” Biscoff biscuits “appear to be everywhere this spring from Easter eggs to hot cross buns”, said Emine Saner in The Guardian.

Biscoff is a modern take on the “traditional Belgian speculoos”: a biscuit dating back to the 17th century made with the glut of spices brought to Europe by the Dutch East India Company. The individually wrapped biscuits have “nostalgic relevance”, Lisa Harris, co-founder of the food and drink consultancy Harris and Hayes, told the paper. The distinctive caramelised flavour is “quite old-fashioned”; it feels like the type of sweet treat that would be served “on the side with a cup of tea”. Crucially, Biscoff’s relatively affordable price means they are an “accessible indulgence”. In the midst of the cost of living crisis, “people are looking for simple ways to feel as if they’ve done something special”.

In recent years the sweet treat has become a “Gen Z obsession”, said The Times. Ice cream sellers now often offer to “roll your scoop in Biscoff crumbs”, while “armies” of social media influencers are cooking up viral recipes for everything from mousses to milkshakes.

The latest hype is “Japanese cheesecake”: a two-ingredient recipe that involves immersing layers of Biscoff biscuits in a pot of yoghurt and leaving it in the fridge to soak overnight. As a result of the viral TikTok trend, Biscoff sales “rocketed 30% year on year”, said The Grocer. Supermarkets also joined in as Morrisons posted their own version of the dessert and Sainsbury’s went so far as to give “various yoghurt and biscuit products their own dedicated landing page” on their online shop.

And in a move sure to “delight Dairy Milk enthusiasts” the confection giant Cadbury is launching an indulgent new chocolate bar featuring crumbled Biscoff biscuit pieces, said The Mirror. A hard one to dislike.

Located between Lisbon and the Algarve, the Alentejo is the largest and most sparsely populated region of Portugal. It receives relatively few foreign tourists, said Niki Blasina in the Financial Times, though it is beautiful, with its “savannah-like” landscape of olive groves, cork oaks and vineyards; and for oenophiles, it is a “revelation” – producing a distinctive range of excellent wines.

Interest, however, is now growing in the region. Baixo Alentejo (Lower Alentejo) was named this year’s European Wine City (despite not being a city). The historic town of Évora in Alentejo Central will be one of the EU’s two capitals of culture next year. And winemakers are helping to draw visitors with “destination restaurants and stylish hotels”. In the summer, the Alentejo becomes an arid “golden plain”. By contrast, when I was there, in late February, the orchards and almond groves were in blossom, and shoots were poking from “craggy” vines.

My suite at the Herdade da Malhadinha Nova hotel was “strikingly modern”, a concrete structure with glass walls, a plunge pool and a private terrace commanding views over fields where storks’ nests adorn the trees “like colossal Christmas decorations”. The hotel is on a 744-hectare estate that guests can explore on horseback, and there’s a winery and a restaurant overseen by Joachim Koerper of the Michelin-starred Eleven in Lisbon.

The wines are organic, and there are tastings to give visitors a sense of the unique appeal of the Alentejo, which has “dozens” of indigenous grape varieties that are unfamiliar to most outsiders. Among the region’s best wineries is Fitapreta, which occupies a 14th-century palace with “soaring” ceilings. I loved its white Paulistas (€50), with grapes from Chão dos Eremitas, a vineyard that dates back to the 14th century.

I also visited Herdade do Rocim, an estate known for producing wines in clay amphorae, just as the Romans did in the Alentejo. The results tend towards the “fresh” and “mineral” – and are perfect sipped “chilled on a warm day”.

I first ate this in Jerez in the south of Spain, and it’s now a regular on the menu at my restaurant Bar Lourinhã, says Matt McConnell. We haven’t messed around with it too much: it’s all about the classic flavours.

Ingredients (serves 6)

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 300g free-range, hand-picked chicken livers, cleaned
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 1 garlic clove, finely sliced
• 2 shallots, finely sliced
• 1 tbsp sherry vinegar
• 60ml dry sherry
• 125ml chicken stock
• 2 tbsp cold butter
• 10g flat-leaf parsley leaves, torn
• 30g flaked almonds, toasted, to garnish

Method

• Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan, then place the chicken livers face down in the pan. Cook over a high heat until brown, turning with tongs.
• Season the livers well before adding the bay leaf, garlic and shallot. Cook until the liver is well browned.
• Add the vinegar, sherry and chicken stock and cook until slightly thickened. Reduce the heat to low and add the butter and parsley, stirring until the butter has been incorporated into the sauce.
• When the livers begin to feel slightly firm – around 4-5 minutes – remove them from the pan and arrange on a serving dish. Cover with the sauce and garnish with the flaked almonds.

Taken from Lourinhã by Matt McConnell with Jo Gamvros

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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

Yorkshire: Cliff Street, Whitby

A coastal cottage with commanding views of Whitby Harbour and Abbey, as well as the 199 Steps. 2 beds, family bath, kitchen/dining room, recep, terrace. £399,950; Hope & Braim.

Northumberland: Belford Hall, Belford

Ground-floor flat in a Grade I Georgian house, in 28 acres of shared gardens. 2 beds, 2 baths, study, kitchen, 2 receps, parking. £325,000; Fine & Country.

Yorkshire: Sycarham House, Cloughton

A Grade II early 18th century farmhouse with superb sea views down the North Yorkshire coast, taking in Scarborough Castle and Filey Brigg. 5 beds (1 en suite), family bath, kitchen/breakfast room, 2 receps, 1-bed cottage, workshop, garage. £995,000; Cundalls.

Yorkshire: Church Street, Whitby

An elegant contemporary townhouse overlooking the harbour. 4 beds (2 en suite), family bath, kitchen/living room, garage. £550,000; Hope & Braim.

Yorkshire: Primrose Cottage, Robin Hood’s Bay

A Grade II cottage built in 1668 and located in one of the most photographed villages on the Yorkshire coast. Period features include exposed stonework and beamed ceilings. 3 beds, family bath, kitchen/dining room, recep, terrace. £425,000; Hope & Braim.

Northumberland: The Friars, Bamburgh

This fine Grade II Georgian house is located on the edge of a village within walking distance of the beach. The property, named after the 13th century Dominican friary which once stood here, has been sensitively restored. 5 suites, kitchen, 5 receps, 3-bed cottage, garden, paddock, parking. £2.95 million; Knight Frank.

Yorkshire: Roxby Cottage, Staithes

Delightful (pale blue) cottage in a superb setting on the harbourside of this old fishing village, just yards from the beach. 3 beds, family bath, kitchen, open-plan living/dining room. £369,950; Hope & Braim.

Yorkshire: Eight Bells, Staithes

A charming 19th century Grade II cottage tucked away at the top of Barras Square. 2 beds, family bath, open-plan kitchen/living room. £175,000; Hope & Braim.

Yorkshire: Ackworth House, Filey

Second-floor beachside flat in a former Victorian spa. 3 beds (2 en suite), family bath, kitchen/diner, recep, parking. OIEO £795,000; Hunters.

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.

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”.

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.”

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”.

Britain is a “dip-obsessed” nation, said The Guardian, and hummus is at the top of the list. The chickpea-based Middle Eastern dip first hit UK supermarket shelves in Waitrose in 1987 and has since become a “staple” of shopping baskets across the nation.

Social media has added fuel to the hummus craze in recent years thanks to TikTok’s “obsession with #grazingboards and #girldinners”. These trends focus on the massive appeal of finger foods. As for offline, bread and dips have become a “culinary calling card” at restaurants. A good dip makes sure meals “start on the right foot” and shows customers you’re “serious about detail and sourcing”, said restaurateur David Carter.

Being a “handy source of fibre and protein”, hummus’ growing popularity also reflects Britain’s “efforts to become a physically healthier nation”, said The Times. In a sign of its “importance in the national diet”, hummus was recently added to “that ultimate consumer accolade”: the Office for National Statistics’ virtual shopping basket of popular goods used to measure the cost of living in Britain.

With so many varieties to choose from, picking a pot of supermarket hummus can be a “minefield”, said Tomé Morrissy-Swan in The i Paper. Stand-out options include Waitrose’s No. 1 Extra Virgin Olive Oil Houmous, which has a “smooth, moussy” texture with a “strong but not bitter” tahini taste, and Sainsbury’s Organic Classic Houmous, which isn’t as smooth but has a “very strong, pleasing tahini flavour”. I could “happily eat the whole lot”.

But for those keen to avoid the “long list of unnecessary ingredients” sometimes found in store-bought tubs, it is fairly straightforward to make hummus at home, said Phoebe Cornish in the Daily Express.

If you’re looking to “forgo additives, preservatives, and added sugar”, Jamie Oliver’s 10-minute recipe is a good place to start. He uses just five ingredients. Drain and wash a 400g tin of chickpeas, and throw them into a food processor along with a small clove of garlic, a tablespoon of tahini, olive oil and a “generous squeeze” of lemon juice. Blitz until smooth, top with a “sprinkling of paprika” and “get dipping”.

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.

This method of cooking chicken breast is sure to become a favourite, said Ed Smith: it’s speedy, self-saucing and – perhaps surprisingly – succulent. Although sage is not typically involved in a piccata, I like the way it imparts its flavours into the cooking fats, and subsequently the pounded, dredged chicken. Typically, I’ll serve sautéed spinach and mashed potatoes with this. But it’s great with a lot of combinations of potato, green vegetable, leaves and/or bouncy bread for soaking up juices.

Ingredients

• 1 shallot, finely diced
• 4 garlic cloves, finely sliced
• 12 sage leaves
• 2 tbsp baby capers nonpareilles
• 100ml chicken stock or water or white wine
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 2 large skinless chicken breasts (370g-425g)
• 3 tbsp plain flour
• 2-3 tbsp neutral oil
• 40g butter, cubed
• flaky sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Method

• Before you start preparing and cooking the chicken, make sure any sides you plan to serve alongside are in hand. Dice and slice the shallot and garlic, pick the sage leaves, locate your capers and stock, and zest and juice the lemon.
• Butterfly the chicken breasts. Hold them flat on a board with one hand and use a sharp, long knife to cut them in half horizontally. Cut each breast in two and use a rolling pin or meat tenderiser to bash the thicker parts so it’s an even 1cm thick all over. Season all sides of the chicken very generously with salt and pepper.
• Spread the flour over a plate, then dredge the chicken pieces in it, dusting off any excess.
• Set a heavy-based skillet or frying pan over a medium-high heat. It probably won’t be big enough to hold all the chicken at once, so cook it in two batches. Add the oil, half of the butter and half of the sage leaves. Once the butter has melted and begins to foam, push the sage leaves to sizzle on one side and begin to fry the chicken for 1 1⁄2 minutes per side, plus another 30-60 seconds for luck. It really doesn’t take longer than 4 minutes in total. Transfer the chicken and sage leaves to a warm plate and repeat.
• Once the chicken is resting and the sage leaves are out, add the shallots to the fat that remains in the pan. Fry for 45 seconds, stirring occasionally, then add the garlic and lemon zest and cook for a minute more. Pour in the stock, bring to the boil, then simmer energetically for 2 minutes to deglaze the pan and reduce the liquid by a third. Whisk in the remaining butter, then add the capers and lemon juice. Pour over the chicken breasts and serve.

Taken from “Peckish: An Inspirational Collection of Winning Chicken Dinners” by Ed Smith

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Worcestershire: Apple Cross, Stoke Bliss

A handsome period farmhouse set in approx. 34 acres. Main suite, 6 further beds, 2 baths, 2 kitchen/breakfast rooms, 2 receps, 1-bed flat, brick stables, foaling box, barns, riding arena, garden, garage. OIEO £1.65m; Fox Grant.

Hampshire: Shirley House, Bransgore

Fine Grade II farmhouse dating back to the 14th century with an original chapel, set within 2.5 acres. 4 beds, 2 baths, kitchen/breakfast room, 4 receps, 3-bed cottage, stables, grazing paddocks, riding arena, garden, garage. £1.8m; Spencers.

Cornwall: Gwynne Moor, Wadebridge

Delightful period cottage set in approx. 9 acres of countryside. 2 beds, family bath, kitchen, 2 receps, stables, outbuildings, garden, parking. £695,000; John Bray Estates.

Somerset: Brook House, Stoney Stratton.

A splendid Grade II 17th century house boasting plenty of period features. 4 beds, 2 baths, kitchen, 2 receps, paddocks, stables, garden, parking. £740,000; Lodestone.

Cambridgeshire: The Old Rectory, Snailwell

Handsome Grade II* Georgian residence. 9 beds, 5 baths, kitchen, 4 receps, 4-bed cottage, 2-bed coach house, stables, paddocks, approx. 7.68 acres, parking. £2.5m; Savills.

Wiltshire: Roundway Farm House, Devizes

An impressive Grade II farmhouse dating back to the 16th century with commanding views over the Wiltshire Downs. 6 beds, 2 baths, 3 receps, kitchen/breakfast room, study, 2 cottages, stables, paddocks, tennis court, approx. 9.5 acres of land, garden, parking. £2.5m; Savills.

Lincolnshire: Smith’s Farm, Gedney Dyke

Traditional farmhouse in a tranquil setting of more than 4 acres. 4 beds, 3 baths, kitchen/breakfast room, 3 receps, brick stables, Olympic-size arena, barns, garden, parking. £675,000; Fine & Country.

Scottish Borders: Nether Horsburgh Farmhouse, Innerleithen

Charming B-listed country house set in approx. 5 acres in the heart of the Tweed Valley. 4 beds, 2 baths, kitchen, 3 receps, outbuilding, paddock, garden. OIEO £795,000; Rettie.

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”.

George Stubbs “made his name painting horses in anatomically accurate detail and with psychological depth”, said Apollo magazine. His best-known work, “Whistlejacket” (c.1762) now hangs in the National Gallery, where it is one of the highlights of the collection.

A “commanding”, almost life-sized portrait of a rearing Arabian chestnut stallion that belonged to the second Marquess of Rockingham, it stands apart from most of the artist’s work in displaying its subject against an empty background, “rather than a rural idyll”.

Around the same time, Stubbs (1724-1806) painted another horse, Scrub, also on commission from Rockingham: the animal is depicted in a similar pose, but this time set against a landscape. The marquess, however, decided not to buy the painting, which belongs to a private collection and, before now, has only ever been on public display once. In this free one-room exhibition at the National Gallery, “Scrub” is paired with “Whistlejacket”, alongside a number of smaller paintings and drawings. It’s an event that demonstrates “Stubbs’ mastery of equine painting”.

His art was based on close, painstaking study, said Laura Cumming in The Observer. In his early 30s, Stubbs spent 18 months “studying the anatomy of horses he had dissected”, sketching their “nostrils and limbs, depicting their muscles, arteries and pencil-sharp ankles”. That knowledge underpins both paintings, almost “like a form of homage” to the animals. Whistlejacket, famous for winning a 2,000-guinea race in 1759, seems to be ringed by a halo, with only faint traces of shadow around his two earth-bound hooves; he rises in “magnificent levade” without “rider, backdrop or saddle”, “a powerful, liberated force rising on hind legs”.

Whether the painting is unfinished – and if so, why – remains unclear, though there’s a “hoary old art story” that Whistlejacket tried to attack his own portrait because it looked so realistic – whereupon Rockingham told Stubbs to “put down his brushes”.

There is evidence that both horses were “originally supposed to have George III on their backs”, said Waldemar Januszczak in The Sunday Times – but that the marquess, a prominent Whig, fell out with the monarch, and George was thus “redacted”.

Whatever the truth, both works are “magnificent”. Seeing them together, though, “Scrub” strikes me as an even more impressive picture. Set against a landscape of “a misty English morning with a river flowing through it”, the horse has “a kingly demeanour” absent in the other portrait. He’s also “more accurately painted”, his “dark chestnut sides” bulging with muscles and veins.

The supporting pieces include some “spectacularly” precise horse drawings and several smaller paintings that show off Stubbs’ ability “to endow them with personalities”. It amounts to a small but “tasty display”.

National Gallery, London WC2. Until 31 May

The novelist, journalist and broadcaster picks five of his favourite books. His latest book, “The Quantity Theory of Morality”, is published by Grove Press at £18.99.

Memoirs from Beyond the Grave, 1768-1800

François-René de Chateaubriand

A revolutionary aristocrat’s memoir that doubles as one of literature’s deepest studies of the human soul. It imagines its author speaking from beyond death, addressing a future that cannot wound him.

Being and Time

Martin Heidegger, 1927; translated by Joan Stambaugh

I reread Heidegger while facing a stem-cell transplant whose odds resembled Russian roulette. Being and Time teaches the discipline of confronting one’s own finitude – death not as abstraction but as the horizon that makes life meaningful. Whatever Heidegger’s political sins, his philosophy restores a clarity our therapeutic culture fears.

Against Nature (À rebours)

J.K. Huysmans, 1884; translated by Robert Baldick

The great novel of cultivated withdrawal. Huysmans’ hero, des Esseintes, barricades himself indoors to pursue aesthetic excess and spiritual exhaustion. A handbook for decadent reclusion – and for anyone confronting illness, solitude or the suspicion that civilisation itself may be slightly unwell.

The Epistle to the Romans

Karl Barth, 1922; translated by E.C. Hoskyns

Barth detonated early 20th-century theology with this furious commentary on Paul. If Heidegger explores the structure of being, Barth reminds us that ethics concerns action. His theology drags metaphysics back into the moral arena.

Jackdaw Cake

Norman Lewis, 1985

Lewis’ memoir of growing up in 1920s Enfield is one of the few books to treat London suburbia as a genuine habitat rather than a cultural punchline. As I walk the city’s suburban margins, Lewis reminds me that these supposedly dull territories contain entire civilisations.

Titles available at The Week Bookshop

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

Directed by Gus Van Sant, this “no-frills” thriller tells the real-life story of an Indianapolis businessman called Tony Kiritsis who, in 1977, caused a media sensation by holding his mortgage broker hostage for 63 hours, said Wendy Ide in The Observer.

Played with “jittery, boggle-eyed intensity” by Bill Skarsgård, Kiritsis is convinced that the broker, Richard Hall (Dacre Montgomery), and the broker’s father (Al Pacino), have cheated him out of his dream of owning a shopping mall.

So Kiritsis loops a wire contraption around Hall’s neck – the “dead man’s wire” of the film’s title – which is designed to ensure that if police shoot Kiritsis, Hall will die too. He also demands a payment of $5 million (£3.7 million), and an apology from Hall’s father. The film “skimps slightly on characterisation”, but it’s “taut and enjoyable”, and it has a “soulful” soundtrack to match the era in which it is set.

Van Sant “orchestrates the tension extremely well”, said Jonathan Romney in the Financial Times, and he’s “just as interested in a time and place”, nailing in particular the “distinctive drabness” of a 1970s Indianapolis winter.

“Dead Man’s Wire” also benefits from a “terrific” cast – although Pacino rather lets the side down, appearing on screen “like a snorting bull in his own personal china shop”.

Van Sant (whose first film this is in eight years) has “experience in this sort of material”, said John Nugent in Empire: his “awards-hoovering” “Milk” (2008) “dealt with the political violence of the 1970s”, while 2003’s “Elephant” “probed the psychology of school shootings”. “Dead Man’s Wire” “doesn’t feel quite as essential” as those movies; nor is it as “emotionally complex”. Still, Skarsgård proves that he has a real talent for “crazed lunacy”, and the film is sure “to keep your heart rate up”.

This sci-fi film (from the team behind “The Lego Movie”) tugs at the heartstrings, while also delivering “galactic” levels of good cheer, said Jonathan Romney in the Financial Times.

Adapted from a novel by Andy Weir (who also wrote “The Martian”), it stars Ryan Gosling as Dr Ryland Grace, a molecular biologist turned schoolteacher who comes round from an induced coma to find himself stranded on a spaceship 15 light years from Earth, with no memory of how he got there.

Through a series of flashbacks, however, we gradually learn that he ended up on the Hail Mary mission after joining a taskforce to prevent the Sun from being destroyed by highly heat-resistant alien microbes. As Dr Grace battles to fulfil this mission to save life on Earth, he befriends a perky alien critter named Rocky.

The film isn’t wildly original, said Robbie Collin in The Telegraph: it’s “essentially ‘Interstellar’ recast as a buddy movie”. But it is gorgeous to look at, with wonderfully “tactile” visual effects, and the story is pretty involving.

It suffers from too many false endings, said Kevin Maher in The Times, but Gosling is on “charisma overdrive” and powers it “to the highest-possible entertainment orbit”.

I’m afraid I found it “a bore”, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail, not helped by the fact that it runs to a “bladder-challenging” two-and-a-half hours. The cutesy alien seems to have wandered in from another film (perhaps “Guardians of the Galaxy”), and essential elements just don’t ring true. For instance, we are told that Gosling’s character was selected for the mission because he had no friends or lover at home who’d miss him. Yet he is “affable and witty”, and he looks like Ryan Gosling. It makes no sense.

In a city as electrifying and overwhelming as Japan’s neon-hued capital, the new JW Marriott Tokyo serves as a perfect refuge from the crowds and clutter of city life. The luxury hotel brand’s first outpost in Tokyo only opened in autumn 2025, but its faultlessly helpful staff seem to have already accrued a generation’s worth of Japanese hospitality.

Situated on the topmost floors of the new Takanawa Gateway development in the city’s southern Minato ward, the elegant hotel offers guests an atmosphere of calm and comfort, if only they can first tear themselves away from the view.

Why stay here?

The first thing you notice (and indeed, will never fail to notice) are the floor-to-ceiling windows and the glittering, metropolitan panorama that stretches out below. Our southwest-facing room also rather generously provided a view towards Mount Fuji 60 miles away, all the more impressive when silhouetted against the blushing sunset. It’s breathtaking, restorative stuff.

Designed by interior gurus Yabu Pushelberg, the hotel’s 200 rooms are an authentically Japanese blend of contemporary design and Zen aesthetics, in pleasant contrast to the urban flurry beyond its walls. Natural tones and textures prevail, with panelled walls adding clean lines in charcoal and pale oak, and a glossy slab of olive green in the form of a window-length chaise longue from which to savour the view. The glass-fronted bathroom is a more showy affair, clad in honeyed marble with a walk-in waterfall shower, standalone bathtub and toiletries from UK wellness brand Aromatherapy Associates.

Also of note is the considerable size of the hotel’s rooms, with the standard ‘Deluxe King’ occupying an ample 460 sq ft, which seems positively palatial when compared to the dinky hotel rooms that are typical across much of Japan.

Elsewhere there’s a bright and well-furnished fitness centre, and a 25-metre indoor swimming pool and whirlpool with enticingly high-ceilinged views across the skyline towards Tokyo Tower. Underlining the hotel’s focus on wellness and mindfulness, there is a spa lounge with holistic treatments available including massages and therapy baths, and a relaxation space that brings to mind the sci-fi ambience of a futuristic starship.

While the hotel benefits from its proximity to Haneda Airport (25 minutes by rail) and Shinagawa Station (a bullet train hub), it’s worth noting the surrounding neighbourhood is primarily a business district with relatively few attractions beyond Takanawa Gateway’s boutiques and the modest Sengaku-ji temple. In a city as decentralised and as well-served by rail as Tokyo, however, this shouldn’t come as any kind of discouragement.

Eating and drinking

The JW Marriott Tokyo offers three on-site restaurants staffed by a coterie of Michelin-starred chefs, including Sefino and Saki, the former specialising in Mediterranean cuisine and the latter an intimate Japanese kappo experience. We dined at Kakō, a handsomely appointed space lined with wabi-sabi vases and another superb view, this time overlooking Tokyo Bay.

For dinner we enjoyed an eight-course tasting menu of traditional Japanese cuisine with an emphasis on seasonal fare, all impeccably presented. Dishes included tuna and sea bream sashimi, snow crab, and an intriguing pufferfish steamed custard that was perhaps a little too unusual for our palates. The star course was a rich fillet of grilled yellowtail fish, zhuzhed with a citrussy hit of kumquat and ginger.

Drinks range from wine to shochu, with a particular focus on sake, but after dinner the hotel’s JW Bar is everything you want from a nightcap in Tokyo: a chic lounge, sparkling city lights, and a glass of something feisty (the sakura-infused cocktail, in our case).

At breakfast, we opted for soufflé pancakes and croissants doused in honey and vanilla cream, but there is also a Japanese bento option as well as buffet items and various arrangements of pillowy eggs.

Things to do

If retail therapy is the kind of self-care you have in mind, Tokyo won’t disappoint. The ritzy Roppongi Hills complex houses a staggering array of luxury brand stores with a strong focus on fashion, alongside a modern art museum and smattering of clipped, green spaces. If you work up an appetite, indulge in afternoon tea at the much-loved French brasserie The Moon on the 52nd floor.

When you’re ready for some respite from the busy streets, Tokyo has no shortage of museums and galleries for you to enjoy a little culture at your own pace. The splendid Nezu Museum houses a collection of Asian art and antiquities ranging from paintings to samurai swords, with a traditional tea room and beautiful grounds to explore, too. Also nearby is the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, another excellent space with a rolling programme where recent exhibitions have included overviews of 1960s Japan and legendary photojournalist Robert Capa.

Less celebrated for its green spaces than Kyoto, Tokyo still has an impressive number of parks that are well worth visiting, many attached to venerable temples and shrines. Shinjuku Gyoen is a rambling blend of European and Japanese formal gardens that becomes a focal point of the cherry blossom season in late March. The densely forested grounds of Meiji Jingu Gyoen feel a touch wilder, ideal for a morning stroll, and give way to neighbouring Yoyogi Park, frequented on Sunday afternoons by troupes of denim-clad rockabilly dancers.

The verdict

The JW Marriott Tokyo confidently blends understated style with a sense of Japanese refinement, and the result is a tranquil, enchanting space in the beating heart of one of the world’s most intoxicating cities.

Stephen was a guest at JW Marriott Tokyo; marriott.com

Reading is often a cherished solo activity but attending a literary festival can be a great way to connect with other bookworms, meet your favourite authors and discover new books. Most UK cities host their own dedicated events, spanning everything from crime writing and historical fiction to poetry. These are some of our favourites.

Cambridge Literary Festival

This excellent event is a great excuse to plan a weekend trip to Cambridge. The five-day festival includes an eclectic mix of talks from leading writers, thinkers and speakers. Among the highlights this year is a talk by Frances Wilson about the enigma of Muriel Spark; a lecture from former leader of the Green Party Caroline Lucas about the state of the natural world; Alan Hollinghurst reflecting on the books that have inspired his work; and Zadie Smith discussing her exhilarating new essay collection “Dead and Alive”. On the final day of the festival, The Observer is hosting an event with debut novelists the paper considers to be rising stars of fiction.

22-26 April, cambridgeliteraryfestival.com

Bath Literature Festival

This year promises another stand-out line-up of speakers in the historic city of Bath. Look out for talks by Sarah Wynn-Williams on her bestselling memoir lifting the lid on her time at Facebook; Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall discussing his campaign to get people to eat more fibre; and Anthony Horowitz talking about his latest gripping thriller with author Joe Haddow. The festival is also hosting a series of guided walking tours, including a Jane Austen-themed event where visitors will be taken to explore locations featured in the celebrated author’s books. And there are some wonderful workshops on offer for budding writers too.

16-24 May, bathfestivals.org.uk

Stratford Literary Festival

As the birthplace of Shakespeare, Stratford-upon-Avon is the perfect setting for a literary extravaganza. Its spring iteration returns in May with an exciting calendar of events. Food writer Felicity Cloake is on the menu, discussing her first foray into fiction, while Tim Spectre has a new book on the power of fermented food. Former chancellor and home secretary Sajid Javid is appearing, having written a critically acclaimed memoir, and Blake Morrison will be reflecting on the art of life writing. There is also a range of special events for children including a vibrant production of “Rumpelstiltskin” and a writing masterclass with “Witch Light” author Zohra Nabi.

7-10 May, stratfordliteraryfestival.co.uk

Hay Festival

This popular literary event recently unveiled its star-studded line-up for this year, with Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Gisèle Pelicot and Emma Thompson among the headline names. The programme is bursting with fascinating conversations, including Ali Smith discussing her latest novel “Glyph” with filmmaker Sarah Wood; Yvette Edwards talking to Bernardine Evaristo about her book “Good Good Loving”; and crime queen Val McDermid joining author Fflur Dafydd to introduce her thriller “Silent Bones”. Other literary stars making an appearance include Ian McEwan, Maggie O’Farrell and Douglas Stuart. There will also be a jam-packed schedule of panels, genre-themed events and conversations about book-to-screen adaptations with the likes of Emerald Fennell discussing her take on “Wuthering Heights”. It’s not to be missed.

21-31 May, hayfestival.com

Bradford Literature Festival

Bradford was named the UK City of Culture for 2025 thanks in part to this stand-out literary festival. Dedicated to ensuring culture is accessible to all, the 10-day event offers a wide range of concession tickets. While the programme is yet to be announced, if 2025’s line-up is anything to go it’s one to watch. Last year the festival hosted more than 700 events with talks from the likes of Lemn Sissay, Grace Dent, Ash Sarkar and Celia Imrie.

3-12 July, bradfordlitfest.co.uk

Louis Theroux is back with a deep dive into the shadowy online world of the manosphere. His latest documentary, “Inside the Manosphere”, has been met by mixed reviews with some critics hailing it as among his most chilling and powerful works, while others question why he has given the misogynistic influencers exactly the platform they crave.

Whatever your opinion, Theroux has an impressive back catalogue of documentaries worth watching, each one tackling a thorny topic with his signature faux naivety and awkward charm. Here are some of the best.

When Louis Met Jimmy (2000)

A decade before Jimmy Savile died and investigations into his “sickening crimes” finally began, Theroux went to stay at the media personality’s house, said The Guardian. “Hints of a darker character, beyond his hammed-up eccentricities used for cover” emerge here, captured in “off-camera confessions of violence while Savile was still mic’d up”. Later, Theroux would be criticised for “failing to grill” the notorious paedophile properly. In 2016, he revisited the subject in “Savile” to “wrestle with his guilt”.

Watch on BBC iPlayer

The Most Hated Family in America (2007)

Before the explosion of “endless true crime and cult documentaries”, this “jaw-dropping” film about a “family church in Kansas who love to picket the funerals of dead soldiers” caused quite a stir, said The Guardian. In it, Theroux meets a family at the heart of the Westboro Baptist Church – a virulently homophobic group known for its hateful protests. “Frightening viewing, with incredible access and almost unbelievable characters, its success spawned two follow-up films.”

Watch on BBC iPlayer

Extreme Love: Dementia (2012)

This “heart-wrenching” documentary sees Theroux travel to Phoenix, Arizona to spend time at a residential institution for those suffering with dementia, said The Standard. During his visit, he meets both the patients and their families “coming to terms with losing one version of their loved ones, and getting used to another”. It’s one of his “sweetest” and most tender films, delving into the pain of the people whose lives are impacted by the cruel disease.

Watch on BBC iPlayer

Drinking to Oblivion (2016)

In this “staggeringly moving watch”, Theroux embeds himself in the specialist liver centre at King’s College Hospital, London, where he meets patients whose “alcoholism is so severe that it has put them at death’s door”, said The Independent. Among his interviewees is a “petrified” man who has been drinking two bottles of vodka a day and is “hardly able to stand” as he battles with withdrawal. It’s an “astonishing film that gives a face to an addiction suffered by half a million people in England”.

Forbidden America: Extreme and Online (2022)

Theroux travels to America to meet the “poster boys of the online alt-right” in this unsettling film, said The i Paper. Among his subjects is Nick Fuentes – a “Holocaust denier who believes women shouldn’t be allowed to vote”. Theroux’s “barely disguised disdain” for his interviewee’s “deeply disturbing beliefs” is on full display here and he does a solid job of challenging their hate-fuelled views.

Watch on BBC iPlayer

A leading publisher has cancelled the US publication of a horror novel after claims that generative AI was used in its writing.

In what “appears to be the first commercial novel from a major publishing house to be pulled over evidence of AI use”, Hachette has blocked the US publication of “Shy Girl” and its UK edition has been discontinued, said The New York Times.

The “stunning fact” that the book got this far shows how AI is “seeping into even traditionally published fiction” and “how unprepared many in the book world are” for the “dawn of an uncertain new era”.

‘Gaps in logic’

“Shy Girl” was originally self-published in February 2025, before being published in the UK in November. It was all set for a US release until The New York Times published claims of AI use.

Max Spero, founder of AI detection programme Pangram, ran a test that suggested 78% of the text was AI generated. The paper’s own analysis using several detection tools found “recurring patterns characteristic of AI generated text, like gaps in logic, excessive use of melodramatic adjectives and an over-reliance on the rule of three”.

Author Mia Ballard denies that she used AI and insists that an editor was responsible for the passages under scrutiny. “My name is ruined for something I didn’t even personally do,” she told The New York Times, while Hachette said it “remains committed to protecting original creative expression and storytelling”.

‘The plagiarism machine’

Everyone in publishing “knew a scandal like this would hit sooner or later” and “every editor I know has been crossing their fingers” that it wouldn’t be them, said author Lincoln Michel on his Counter Craft Substack. “More than a few” published books have been “partially or entirely written” by AI, but this fact has been “disclosed” and they used the technology in “thoughtful, artistic ways”.

The “layers of vetting and editing” used by traditional publishers are supposed to guarantee “a certain level of quality control” and “trust”, so they “may need to be a lot more careful now”. The episode may also make life harder for “emerging authors” because the “gatekeepers” of the industry will “have no choice but to figure out a way to drastically filter the flood” of AI, which might mean “leaning even more on connections” with established writers.

This “will not be the last time we see crap like this happen”, said Kayleigh Donaldson on political blog Pajiba. “More and more ‘authors’ will be exposed as users of the plagiarism machine”, but once a “big name writer” admits it there will be “no pushback” because they “make too much money”. Instead, there will be “smarmy think-pieces claiming that people are just jealous of AI and actually it’s sooo much better at writing than you are”.

A ski resort probably isn’t the first place that springs to mind when brainstorming ideas for your next summer holiday. But as the snow melts in these charming Alpine towns, the crowds thin out and the lush greenery bursts into life.

It turns out ski resorts have a surprising amount to offer off-season: balmy (but not too hot) temperatures, crystal-clear lakes and miles of sun-dappled hiking trails to explore. These are some of our favourite spots.

Engelberg, Switzerland

Lying at the foot of the “mighty Titlis mountain” in Switzerland, Engelberg promises “challenging skiing” over the winter months, said Gabriella Le Breton in The Telegraph. When summer rolls around, though, there are more than 300 miles of trails for hikers to enjoy. They range from “child-friendly nature strolls” to the multi-day Buiräbähnli Safari adventure, which includes overnight stays in “rustic farmsteads” and rides on eight Buiräbähnlis (cable cars once used by mountain farmers). “A far cry from the winter bustle of Engelberg’s modern rotating Titlis cablecar”, this vintage transportation system offers a “rare glimpse into the tranquil pastoral world of Switzerland’s high-Alpine farms”.

San Candido, Italy

With its “pretty sawtooth peaks” and growing collection of luxury hotels, “it’s little wonder the Dolomites in northeast Italy are having a moment,” said Mike MacEacheran in The Times. San Candido’s Leitlhof hotel – “a daydream of wood, soft textiles and natural light” – is a great base for exploring. The pared-back “eco vibe” helps keep distractions from getting out into the mountains to a minimum. “Be clear with yourself on this: regardless of your fitness (or how much ham you’ve snaffled), you’ll have to hike to the dragon’s-back-shaped Tre Cime di Lavaredo.”

Chamonix, France

Chamonix is a “mesmeric place”, said MacEacheran. “Mont Blanc’s glaciers flow down over wild cliffs” and paragliders “twirl” in the sky. There are lots of places for “hairy-chested climbers” to stay, but I like the “chic” La Folie Douce. The lively hotel is famed for its “uninhibited après-ski that marries cabaret with clubbing” – and the same kind of “high Alpine hedonism” exists in summer.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

This scenic Bavarian town hosted the 1936 Winter Olympics and is famed for its thrilling winter sports, said Vogue. Come summer there are “endless ways to immerse in nature here”, including hiking, biking and paragliding. “A dip in nearby crystal-clear Lake Eibsee, arguably one of the most beautiful in the country, is also not to be missed.”

Alpbach, Austria

Summer in Alpbach transforms the pistes into “blankets of pink blossoming mountain azaleas”, said Le Breton. This is the place to go for a family-friendly trip; it is easy to keep kids entertained, with trips to the mountain-top Lauserland adventure playground, Juppi’s enchanted forest and petting zoo. There’s also a wide variety of activities on offer from “herb foraging” to “visits to local beekeepers”.

It clearly tickled Donald Trump’s fancy. The debut episode of live sketch comedy “Saturday Night Live UK” went down so well with the US president, he treated his Truth Social followers to a clip mocking Keir Starmer for being scared to talk to him about the war in Iran.

But British reviewers were not so amused – and several were not afraid to find fault with the UK version of the long-running US show.

‘Tepid cosplay’

That “laughter-free yawn” was “not a patch” on the US original, said Deadline’s Baz Bamigboye. “What is it?! Painful, that’s what.”

“I do not want to condemn this whole endeavour outright,” said Charlotte Ivers in The Times. “But the spark is not there yet.” We and “our US cousins” have “wildly differing senses of humour”, and, watching this, you feel it “like a physical ache”.

No one “cried” or “fluffed their lines”, said Alison Rowat in The Herald, but “you could almost smell the tension in the studio”. There was “good” but also “bad” and “so-so”. Nothing was “hilarious”, but “some sketches raised a smile”, like the “movie junket interviewer who dares to tell stars their movie sucks”.

Saturday Night Live “represents the quintessence of the American comedic establishment” but its name doesn’t have “much Clapham omnibus cut-through here in Britain”, said Nick Hilton in The Independent. So “it’s a bit of a shame” that the team “plays it so safe” with the imported formula. It seemed like “tepid cosplay”.

British comedy shows used to be hammy and contrived like this, said Nicholas Harris in The New Statesman but they’ve become “more stylised, ironic”. I suspect the “failure” of “Saturday Night Live UK” has “more to do with the UK than ‘Saturday Night Live’”.

‘Stinging gags’

“It could have been a lot, lot worse”, said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian. And it’s likely to become “a lot, lot better” as it settles in over the coming weeks. It was “refreshing” that “an ambition/piece of madness like retooling a legacy US brand for this septic isle” was “even being attempted”, so “let’s hope it can build towards real success”.

The first episode was “competent, untroubled by either annoying American-isms or annoying Americans – and occasionally hilarious”, said Ed Power in The Telegraph. Guest host Tina Fey was “effortlessly commanding”, thanks to her “visible ease with the format” but the “real highlight was the Weekend Update section”, with its “stinging and completely non-woke gags” about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Trump and the Strait of Hormuz.

The schadenfreude with which social-media users were predicting it would “crash and burn” was “wide of the mark”. I’d say it “was off to a flying start”.

Supermarkets have long been obsessed with the “novelty” hot cross bun, filling shelves with takes “that skew from genuinely delicious to properly weird”, said Sadhbh O’Sullivan in The i Paper. This year’s “array”, including everything “from Cheddar and carrot cake to tiramisu, Neapolitan ice cream and Marmite”, simply brings on cravings for the traditional “lightly spiced, sweet bun, studded with currants and candied peel, and topped with a cross”. Here are our favourites.

Honey & Co. Hot Cross Buns

These “utterly delightful” buns are so good, all of them were “gone within half an hour”, said The i Paper’s O’Sullivan. They are flavoured with “deep and warming” spices and the “subtle nuttiness” of spelt. Dried fruits are “generously shared” and “the crumb is light and fluffy”. I scored it 10 out of 10.
From Honey & Co outlets in London or mail order at catering@honeyandco.co.uk

Aldi Specially Selected Luxury Fruited Hot Cross Buns

Aldi’s buns are “neat, fat” and “square”, said Xanthe Clay in The Telegraph. They have a “lovely chewy heft, delivering a heady mix of citrus and spicy flavours”. They’re the “perfect bun to scoff after a long country walk”.
aldi.co.uk

Costa Classic Hot Cross Bun

“When a hot cross bun craving strikes, make a beeline for Costa,” said Stacey Smith in Good Housekeeping. Our panel of experts crowned these the “tastiest classic”: the “cinnamon-spiked” dough is dotted with a “generous helping of juicy dried fruit” and candied lemon peel.
From Costa Coffee stores or costa.co.uk

Asda Exceptional Extra Fruity Hot Cross Buns

Asda’s buns had the “most appetising appearance” of all those we tasted, and the flavour, texture and amount of fruit were all “spot on”, said Brianna Watson in Which?. “Great flavour at a great price.”
asda.com

Gail’s Hot Cross Buns

Gail’s buns are “hard to beat”, said Alice Reynolds in The Independent. They are “stunning” on the eye, with a darker, heavier look than most supermarket offerings. The “artisanal” cross perches on a “crispy” shell of clove, star anise and nutmeg syrup “that’s oh so moreish”. The dough inside is “perfectly” spiced, with candied orange peel giving it a “complex citrus hit”. Stand-out buns that bring a “ray of sunshine on each bite”.
From Gail’s bakery outlets or gails.com

At the very top of the Spanish Steps, where the crowds thin and the city seems to exhale, Hotel de la Ville presides over Rome with quiet confidence.

This five-star address in the Centro Storico is spread across three 18th-century palazzi deftly brought together around a sun-splashed courtyard, creating a retreat that feels both intimate and unmistakably grand.

Since joining the Rocco Forte Hotels portfolio in 2019, the property has been reimagined by Olga Polizzi and architect Tommaso Ziffer as a love letter to the Grand Tour. Its rooms are layered with classical references, playful objets and a rich colour palette. The result is a hotel that doesn’t simply nod to Rome’s past but revels in it – while delivering the kind of polished service, destination dining and cocooning spa that makes stepping back outside entirely optional.

Why stay here?

Location is the obvious draw: you’re moments from the Spanish Steps. But the real seduction lies inside. Our Junior Suite Deluxe, on the fourth floor, opened on to a balcony overlooking the terracotta courtyard – striped parasols and potted greenery glowing even in the soft light of January. Interiors are gloriously free of safe neutrals. Instead, there’s a confident clash of colour and texture: a navy velvet headboard against duck-egg walls, olive drapes pooling beside antique desks topped with busts and art books. It feels curated rather than decorated, like a collector’s Roman apartment.

Bathrooms dial the drama back to pure white marble, with generous rainfall showers and Irene Forte’s Sicilian botanical products. The top-floor suites come with expansive terraces and knockout views across Rome’s domes and cupolas – the kind of panorama that turns a sunset into a private show.

Downstairs, the boutique spa is a welcome counterpoint to the city’s sensory overload. There’s a hydrotherapy pool for warming soaks, a thermal circuit with salt room, sauna and steam, and the bracing option of a cryotherapy chamber for the fearless. We opted for bubbles rather than sub-zero temperatures – a suitably indulgent Roman compromise.

Eating and drinking

In a city where eating well is practically guaranteed, Hotel de la Ville still manages to raise the bar. At Café Ginori – linked to the adjoining Ginori 1735 porcelain boutique – dinner arrives on the very plates you can later buy, a clever touch that blurs the line between meal and memento. Lasagnetta al ragù and fettuccine Alfredo are comfortingly classic, while dishes such as cod tempura add a contemporary flourish. Each course is matched with thoughtful Italian wines; a bright Orvieto with the fish was a particular highlight.

Breakfast and dinner are served at Mosaico, an elegant space that spills into the courtyard in warmer months. Indoors, black-and-white floors, columns and chandeliers set a theatrical tone for a dinner menu that travels beyond Italy, weaving in flavours from North Africa and the Middle East. Mornings bring an abundant spread of cheeses, charcuterie, fruit, pastries and eggs cooked to order – a filling start before a day of sight-seeing.

Later, the jewel-box Julep Bar beckons with its vivid yellow walls and velvet seating, perfect for an armagnac nightcap. In summer, cocktails migrate to the rooftop Cielo Bar, where Rome’s skyline becomes the ultimate backdrop.

Things to do

Step outside and the city’s greatest hits are within strolling distance: the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain and the elegant sweep of Piazza Navona. The green expanse of Villa Borghese is close enough for a morning wander, while the Colosseum and Forum are a short bus ride away.

If you’ve ticked off the icons before, Rome rewards deeper exploration. The Teatro di Marcello – a miniature precursor to the Colosseum – offers ancient grandeur without the queues. Art lovers can follow a self-guided Caravaggio trail through nearby churches, including San Luigi dei Francesi and Basilica di Sant'Agostino, dropping a coin into the light boxes to illuminate the paintings in situ – a quietly magical experience.

For retail therapy, the hotel is mere metres from Via dei Condotti, where designer flagships beckon customers craving haute couture, while Via del Corso offers a livelier, high-street passeggiata.

The verdict

Hotel de la Ville is more than a perfectly placed base; it’s a destination in its own right. Between the exuberant design, stylish rooms, accomplished dining and restorative spa, it offers a version of Rome that is as hedonistic as it is historic. Step outside and the Eternal City is at your feet; stay in, and you’re wrapped in a world of colour, craftsmanship and five-star ease. Either way, it’s la dolce vita distilled.

Vicki was a guest of Hotel de la Ville, a Rocco Forte Hotel; roccofortehotels.com

Visiting China these days, you can feel as if you are travelling two ways in time, said James Patterson in The Sunday Times: back into an “outlandish” past, and forward to a “strange” future.

The country is a place of “skyscrapers and temples, calligraphy and texting, AI and hand tools” and, on a recent trip to Shanghai and the nearby cities of Suzhou and Hangzhou, I got to see the best of this duality. In Shanghai, I stayed at the Amanyangyun hotel, where the guest villas are Ming- and Qing-dynasty houses, relocated – with some 10,000 camphor trees – from a village in Fujian province, some 400 miles away. And amid the modern luxuries, including a 20m lap pool, is a 17th-century school building offering calligraphy classes and music lessons on the seven-stringed guqin. The “hullaballoo of urban China” felt a long way away.

A 30-minute journey by bullet train took me to other “bucolic” Suzhou. This ancient city is known for its 60 or so “manicured” gardens (all of which have Unesco World Heritage status), including the Humble Administrator’s Garden, a watery maze of islands and elegant bridges. My hotel here, the Hanyu Garden Reserve, was redolent of the past, too, with its low pavilions and carved wood. I travelled to Hangzhou by taxi through the countryside, where women worked with mattocks in vegetable fields and, in the water towns of Lili and Nanxun, boatmen “propelled flat-bottomed skiffs along canals festooned with oblong lamps and willow trees”.

For the 13th-century explorer Marco Polo, Hangzhou was the “finest and noblest” city in the world, and it is still beautiful today. With its 10th-century pagoda and verdant setting, West Lake is “a vision from antiquity” and, in the spring, the forests in the surrounding hills are laden with peach and cherry blossom. I can also recommend the hotels where I stayed: the Muh Shoou Xixi and the Qiushui Villa, which can arrange trips to see the tea harvest around the village of Longjing.

Artificial intelligence has swept through the tech industry, video games included. While many industry heads are declaring AI the wave of the future, so far, integrating AI into gaming has had a rough start. And its presence is getting pushback from both developers and gaming enthusiasts.

‘RAMaggedon,’ job loss and stunted creativity

The video game industry reached unprecedented heights during the pandemic, but then “artificial intelligence crept up behind it,” said Wired. The industry proliferation of AI is “already accelerating job loss and cheapening the work of developers at studios.”

One of the largest problems gaming faces is the global shortage of random-access memory, a dearth referred to as “RAMaggedon.” The data centers’ need to run AI have “siphoned RAM from the industry,” said Wired. The costs of hardware required for consoles are augmented, leading to higher prices for existing systems and stalled releases of new ones. At-home PC-building, “once a rite of passage for entry-level gamers,” has become a luxury. Analysts warn that the shortage is “expected to last well into 2026 and potentially up to 2028,” said CNN.

Gaming is the “only mass media entertainment where the creative ceiling is limited by consumer hardware,” Washington Post game critic Gene Park said to Wired. If consumers can’t afford or access tech like sufficient RAM, “the innovation will slow down.” Developers could be forced to compromise stories, art, non-player characters, battles and world-building, “all of which are already at risk of being automated by new AI tools,” Wired said.

There is a fear among the staff of major gaming companies that “CEOs will continue to fall for the potential of AI rather than the reality and thus gut workplaces.” About 45,000 gaming employees were fired from 2022 to the end of 2025, with up to 10,000 layoffs forecasted for 2026. Layoffs and fewer job postings have disproportionately impacted junior staffers, and now “everyone is just having seniors do the work,” a veteran game developer at Xbox said to Wired. The work they do is often supplemented with AI.

Mixed feelings

Some gaming executives are pro-AI integration. It is shocking and “sad” that the industry, famous for pushing new technology forward, hasn’t embraced generative AI, said Moritz Baier-Lentz, the head of gaming at Lightspeed Venture Partners, during the recent Game Developers Conference, per PC Gamer. Anti-AI game developers are “demonizing” a “marvelous new technology.” The technology is “ultimately there to empower human creators to create stuff more efficiently,” not replace them, Tim Sweeney, the founder and CEO of Fortnite developer Epic Games, said to IGN. “I think that’s a good thing.”

Developers, unlike some executives, do not seem as sure about AI, though many of them are already using it. Overall, 36% of the game developers surveyed for the 2026 State of the Game Industry Report used generative AI, with business professionals and upper management more likely to use it than rank-and-file developers. 52% of developers think generative AI is having a negative impact on the game industry, up from 30% last year. Only 7% said it had a positive impact.

As more studios have released games with AI-generated art, characters and dialogue, a “growing number have later backtracked or sworn to limit their use of the technology,” said The Washington Post. The reversals have come after “aggressive pushback from gamers online.” Gamers are overwhelmingly worried that the technology will “reduce the work needed from artists and voice actors” or lead to low-quality games filled with AI-generated slop that “lacks a creative touch,” said the Post. How the video game industry navigates this issue could influence companies in other sectors, said Nicole Greene, an AI industry analyst to the Post. Gamers are a “passionate consumer group. They don’t want to go in and see cheap AI backgrounds because a company wanted to cut costs.”

After the boozy beverages of winter, spring requires, or at least requests, a lighter approach. So the coming months are a period for cocktails in bigger glasses that welcome more liquid for more leisurely sipping. Let’s get tall, baby!

Batanga

Blanco tequila, lime juice, cola and salt — welcome to the Batanga, a low-key icon of La Capilla, the “oldest cantina in the town of Tequila, Mexico,” said Imbibe magazine. There are easy drinks, but the Batanga is so effortless you could make it while horizontal in a hammock.

Caribeño

Take a daiquiri, and make it long and tall, and now you have yourself a Caribeño. The rum, lime juice and simple syrup are there, of course. Coconut water does the heavy work, creating a cocktail that will not knock you on your rear.

Champ-Ale

You can have your cocktail and beer, too. The Champ-Ale has you pour a light cream ale and sparkling wine into a big ol’ glass with ice and then shake it with sweet vermouth, lemon juice and cane syrup in a separate vessel. Pour the second mixture into the glass, stir and embrace the best of two booze worlds.

Earl Grey-Aquavit Spritz

Throw some Earl Grey tea leaves and a chunk of lemon peel in a bottle of aquavit, the caraway-seed-flavored spirit. Let infuse for 20 minutes or so, then combine with honey syrup, lemon juice and sparkling wine. Serve this plucky spritz to a crowd of pals.

Kombucha-Vodka Highball

The best of the basics, this highball combines vodka, ginger-flavored kombucha, lime juice, simple syrup and, oh yes, ice. Garnish with a lime wedge to prove you bothered a little.

Oita Chu-hi

A touch of future-thinking is required for this shochu-based highball. You will need to infuse a bag of barley tea in a bottle of shochu and blend sweet, herbal pandan leaves with coconut water, then carbonate the mix to make yourself a coconut soda. From there, it is all about assembling — a little rigmarole for much rejuvenescence.

Serpent-less Swizzle

A drink with ballast, the Irish whiskey base of the Serpent-less Swizzle is a hearty anchor. Sweet white vermouth, lemon juice and grenadine provide contrast and sharpness. Swizzles, a genre of cocktails served over crushed or pebbled ice, are meant for sipping. You may find yourself guzzling.

Watership Down

The “flavors make me think of fields,” said bartender Jeremy Oertel to Punch magazine about his Watership Down cocktail. Yes, its name is an homage to the classic leporine book, with grassy notes a rabbit might adore. Gin, dry vermouth, celery shrub and ginger syrup guarantee a balanced and refreshing drink.

Four years after its launch, the MG4 is still one of the best-value EVs out there, said Auto Express. But now we have the MG4 Urban, which is “so good” it makes the original, “which once seemed unbeatable value”, now seem rather “redundant”. Bigger and more practical than the MG4, and now with front-wheel drive, it’s nearly 4.4 metres long and has a “whopping” 557-litre boot. The kit list is impressive too, and it drives well.

MG’s “modern” family EV is great value, but there is stiff competition in the sub-£25,000 EV segment from Fiat’s new Grande Panda and Citroën’s C3 Aircross, said The Independent. The Urban is rather “old-school” on the road – the ride can feel “crashy” over uneven ground and there’s a bit of road noise. Overall, it’s “exactly what you expect it to be: a lot of car for the money”, and nothing to get wildly excited about.

Battery options are rather “small for a car of this size”, with the entry MG4 Urban carrying battery packs totalling 42.8kWh, which manages a range of just 201 miles, said Autocar. It’s not a quick car, taking about 9.5secs to reach 62mph, but that’s perfectly adequate “to dust off the occasional overtake”. Quality inside the cabin feels high, but there’s no escaping the “scratchy” plastic on the dashboard.

The leader of the Liberal Democrats picks books that explore human experience and interpersonal relationships. He will be talking about his own book, “Why I Care: and why care matters”, at the Oxford Literary Festival on Friday 27 March.

Middlemarch

George Eliot, 1871

Reading “Middlemarch” shifted my perspective on what it means to be “good”. Eliot shows that being a kind person isn’t about grand gestures. Instead, she writes about the importance of small, simple, everyday actions to remind the reader that they have the greatest impact on others.

Enduring Love

Ian McEwan, 1997

This was a humdinger. By turning a freak ballooning accident into a nightmare stalking situation, McEwan left me reflecting on the fragility of relationships and the unpredictability of the human mind.

Waterland

Graham Swift, 1983

This novel tells the story of two East Anglian families divided by class but connected by a dark secret. As a history lover, this was right up my alley. Swift shows how we are shaped by our past and can never truly escape where we come from.

There Are Rivers in the Sky

Elif Shafak, 2024

I loved the concept of following a single drop of water across centuries and cultures. It’s a beautiful way to reflect on our shared humanity and personalise the vastness of history.

The Name of the Rose

Umberto Eco, 1980

Set in a 14th-century Italian monastery, this is a wonderfully complex murder mystery. Eco challenges the reader to become a kind of detective, and leaves you questioning the nature of truth itself. The suspense feels dangerous and exciting.

Wild Swans

Jung Chang, 1991

This one is a total emotional roller-coaster that stays with you long after the final page. Chang takes the reader through a heart-breaking story of survival, focusing on three women. The sheer grit and strength of human spirit in this book is incredibly moving and gave me a new perspective on everyday challenges.