Scattered across southern Finland are “dozens” of lakeside hotels, many with saunas, self-catering cabins, and “gleaming” steps into the water.

On a four-night road trip from Helsinki to Lake Saimaa in September, I stayed at three, said Annabelle Thorpe in The Guardian – and found the region more beautiful, peaceful and “sunkissed” than I could have imagined.

First came the Radalla resort, with its “chic” cabins, and next, Sahanlahti, which has a “butterscotch yellow”, 18th century main house and an excellent restaurant. Between the two, I enjoyed a “hearty” bowl of elk soup and a tasting of berry wines at the Ollinmäki winery.

And last came Järvisydän – a 100-room resort with “starkly modern” glass-walled cabins – where I “whizzed out” in a motor boat to pick chanterelle mushrooms and look for rare ringed seals on Saimaa’s islands.
From £749pp, excluding flights, with Discover the World.

An enchanting town in the Tarn

With its charming medieval streets and “mighty” gothic cathedral – one of the world’s largest brick-built churches – the town of Albi in southern France makes for a lovely short break, said Jane Knight in The Times.

Set in the Tarn region, an hour’s drive north of Toulouse, it’s also known for its Toulouse-Lautrec museum, a big collection of works by the famously “diminutive” and dissolute painter, born here in 1864.

Visiting in June, I stayed at Villa Caroline, a pleasant hotel with four “rustic-chic” rooms, and I enjoyed a day’s e-biking from nearby Gaillac, which lends its name to the surrounding wine region, one of France’s oldest. At Domaine Gayrard, I tasted some organic wines made with rare local grape varieties, and visited Cordes-sur-Ciel, a fortified medieval town set high on a rocky hilltop with “sweeping” views.

A venerable paddle steamer turns 80

Launched in Glasgow in 1946, the PS Waverley is the last seagoing passenger-carrying paddle steamer in the world, and this year she celebrates her 80th anniversary.

With two red-and-black funnels and giant paddle wheels, she is a “glorious” sight, says Chris Moss in The Telegraph, and a “nostalgic” reminder of a more “sedate” era when Britain was home to hundreds of boats like this. Named after Sir Walter Scott’s novel, the Waverley was built to operate around Loch Long, replacing a vessel that was sunk by enemy fire during the evacuation of Dunkirk.

These days, however, she plies routes all around the UK. This month, she’ll be sailing mostly around London and the Southeast before returning to Glasgow for her final voyage of the season, on 18 October.
waverleyexcursions.co.uk

A vast “concrete jungle” with “notoriously awful” traffic, the Brazilian city of São Paulo does not attract many foreign tourists, said Tomé Morrissy-Swan in The Telegraph. They tend to opt instead for the “glamour and natural beauty” of Rio, or the “vivaciousness” of Salvador – and yet to skip it is to miss a “gem”.

Fifty miles across and home to some 21 million people, the urban area it dominates is the biggest in South America. Exploring it can be “tiring”, and the weather is often “grey and drizzly, even cold (by Brazilian standards)”. But the riches it harbours – artistic, architectural, musical, culinary – are “endless”, and many of its most tourist-friendly areas (such as “bohemian” Vila Madalena and “upmarket” Jardins) are walkable, and “relatively safe”.

In the mid-19th century, São Paulo was a “provincial backwater”, home to just 30,000 people. From the 1870s, however, a coffee-fuelled economic boom attracted huge numbers of immigrants, and the city soon overtook Rio as Brazil’s leading industrial and, later, financial centre.

Today, it is an art lover’s “paradise”, with hundreds of museums and galleries, such as the Pinacoteca (great for Brazilian art) and the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), an extraordinary modernist building on “giant” red stilts. Fans of modernist architecture will find much else to enjoy, too – not least in Ibirapuera Park, with its striking array of mid-century buildings by Oscar Niemeyer, including the pavilion that now houses the superb Museu Afro Brasil.

São Paulo is also a great city of music. For traditional samba, try late-night spots in Pinheiros (Ó do Borogodó, Julinho Clube); less “raucous” are Bona Casa de Música and the “stunning” Casa de Francisca.

The food is terrific here too. Thanks to its waves of immigration, there are lots of excellent Japanese, Italian and Middle Eastern restaurants, but there are also plenty of wonderful Brazilian places. Two of these – Tuju and Evvai – recently became the first restaurants in Latin America to win three Michelin stars.

Ask anyone from Stoke-on-Trent to recommend a local delicacy and they’ll almost always say oatcakes, said Thom Bateman. These savoury pancakes are served across the city from shops and hole-in-the-walls. Traditionally, they’re eaten for breakfast, though I enjoy them at any time of day.

Ingredients

• 140g fine oatmeal (or blitz rolled porridge oats)
• 120g wholemeal flour
• 7g dried active yeast
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 200ml whole milk
• 400ml room-temperature water
• a drizzle of vegetable oil, for frying
• Filling ideas: 50/50 grated mix of cheddar and cheshire cheese, cooked rashers of smoked back bacon, cooked pork sausages, brown sauce or ketchup
• Total time: 30 minutes, plus 2 hours proving time

Method

• Put the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir to combine, then add the milk and water and stir with a spatula until well combined. Cover and leave to rest at room temperature for 2 hours.
• Knock back the batter so that it’s smooth, giving it a good stir.
• Spread even, thin pancakes into a lightly oiled large frying pan over a high heat and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side, until golden. The batter will make 6-8 oatcakes.
• Top the oatcake with your fillings of choice (see ideas, above), fold and enjoy!

Taken from Home Made: Comfort food cooked better by Thom Bateman.

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Fall is when some of the country’s flashiest food publications name the year’s best new chefs and restaurants. Get in on the remarkable cooking happening at these standout spots.

Broken Spanish Comedor, Los Angeles

In the most welcome of homecomings, Ray Garcia, the chef of the cherished, shuttered Broken Spanish, is back with Broken Spanish Comedor. This “iteration feels more self-assured,” said Bon Appétit when it named the restaurant one of the Best New Restaurants for 2026. Garcia’s cooking in this latest phase is “punchy, bold and assertively spicy.” Angelenos and knowing visitors are thrilled he’s back.

Honeysuckle, Philadelphia

Omar Tate and Cybille St. Aude-Tate, the chef-owners of Honeysuckle, are “professional storytellers,” said Bon Appétit. Their background in visual arts and children’s books, respectively, is put to delicious use as the pair trumpets foods of the African diaspora in a “stylish living room” that feels like you are in the “midst of a great party.” The restaurant’s Money Burger says it all: two beef patties on Japanese milk bread napped with spunky cheddar and caviar remoulade.

John’s Food and Wine, Chicago

The wide-ranging menu, swerving from grilled cabbage salad with kimchi and candied sunflower seeds to branzino with cucumber and dill, is faultless. Yet the star of John’s Food and Wine, perhaps, is the business model, which “prioritizes paying every staff member a competitive wage and incentivizing them to stay and grow their career at the restaurant,” said Food & Wine magazine when it awarded the spot Restaurant of the Year last month.

The Paper Bridge, Portland, Oregon

You know your pho, so you may think you know the scope of Vietnamese food. The way pho is most often served in the U.S. is southern Viet-style, but that’s only one way to do it. The Paper Bridge, an homage to the cuisine of the country’s north, would like to take you on a palate-expanding journey. Nearly all rice noodles served at Viet restaurants in the States are dried, but the Paper Bridge has “perfected its fresh rice noodles,” said Food & Wine. And those specimens are everywhere on the revelatory menu.

Devon: Smugglers Cottage, Dittisham

This attractive Grade II 17th century cottage sits on a bank of the River Dart with direct access to the beach. 4 beds, 2 baths, kitchen, 3 receps, boathouse, large waterfront terrace. £1.5m; Inigo.

Wiltshire: Mill Barn, Bishopstrow

Delightful period house on the Wylye. 4 beds, 3 baths, kitchen/dining room, recep, study, utility, outbuildings, garden, parking. OIEO £1.285m; Strutt & Parker.

Devon: Eastney, Kingswear

A charming Victorian house with impressive views over the Dart Estuary. 5 beds, 4 baths, kitchen, 3 receps, sun room, workshop, garage. £2.5m; Jackson-Stops.

Hertfordshire: Lock 42, Bulbourne

Picturesque house in an idyllic location beside the Grand Union Canal. 4 beds, 3 baths, kitchen/ family room, 3 receps, utility, workshop, garden, parking. £950,000; Brions.

Buckinghamshire: Formosa, Lock Island, Marlow

This extraordinary flood-proof floating house was featured on Grand Designs. 4 beds, 3 baths, openplan kitchen/recep, games room, utility, garden. OIEO £2.25m; Hamptons.

Inverness-shire: Onich, Fort William

A magnificent Scottish baronial manor on the banks of Loch Linnhe. The property is set in approx. 4.71 acres of land. 8 beds, 7 baths, kitchen, 5 receps, spa, three fully-glazed pods, a detached studio, garden, parking. OIEO £1.3m; Strutt & Parker.

Hampshire: Longstock Mill, Stockbridge

Elegant Grade II house and mill set in approx. 2.4 acres on the River Test. 4 beds, family bath, kitchen/breakfast room, 2 receps, 1-bed annexe, 2-bed cottage, detached Grade II mill, outbuildings, garden, swimming pool, parking. £2.7m; Myddelton & Major.

Wiltshire: The Old Brewhouse, Quemerford

This handsome Grade II Bathstone house overlooks the River Marden and features a private island garden with its own summer house. 4 suites, kitchen, utility, 3 receps, wraparound courtyard gardens, parking. OIEO £600,000; Fine & Country.

For this eighth-generation ES, Lexus has “gone all-in” with only an electric version on offer in the UK, said Car. There’s also only a front-wheel drive, motor/battery combo; and the options are just trim and colour.

It has a 77kWh battery, paired with a 221bhp motor for a peak range of 361 miles. It can be fast-charged at 150kW. A smart, luxury four-door saloon, it’s “good; just not eye-catchingly special”.

BMW, Mercedes and Audi have cornered the “Large, Swanky Saloon” market and, with stiff competition from “posh SUVs”, the new ES is likely to be a “rare sight” in the UK, said The Telegraph. It’s “no tearaway” but can do 0-62mph in eight seconds, with a top speed of 99mph.

The ride is “soft and bouncy” in town but, on rural roads, there’s less body control and lots of roll in the corners. The steering is accurate and the brakes are “excellent”.

At 5.1 metres, the new ES is longer than the previous model, creating a “plush”, spacious cabin, said Auto Express. Typical for a Lexus, the quality of the interior is “superb”, with decent levels of standard kit.

The “crystal-clear” 14-inch infotainment system is quick to respond, and there’s a customisable display for the driver. But, while it’s one of the best in class for comfort, it can’t compete on charging, range and performance.

Following sold-out runs in New York and Los Angeles, “Table 17” – Douglas Lyons’ “heartfelt” and “hilarious” one-act play about a pair of ex-lovers reuniting for what might be a date – has arrived in the UK, said Isobel Lewis in Time Out.

Zipping back and forth in time to show us moments from the couple’s past relationship, this breezy piece constantly wrong foots the audience, flipping from “laugh-out-loud hilarity to genuine tragedy in minutes, changing costumes and switching timelines at equal pace”.

Directed by Tony-winner Zhailon Levingston, the production is a “stylish and exhilarating theatrical experience” that is driven by “powerful, emotive” performances. It also has a deft, confident humour that makes the play’s “emotional rug pulls all the more devastating”.

“As psychological enquiry, Lyons’ writing doesn’t cut particularly deep,” said Matt Wolf on London Theatre: his play sits on the “featherweight” end of the dramatic scale. What makes it work – here as in New York – is a top-flight cast “charging through the text’s cheesier moments”, and “roping the audience in from the start as ready participants in the fun”.

Musical theatre star Marisha Wallace turns in a typically “magnetic” performance as flight attendant Jada, said Arifa Akbar in The Guardian. Jamael Westman (London’s first Alexander Hamilton) makes her ex properly rounded by “sensitively balancing his ridiculousness with his depth of emotional injury”. And Michael Rishawn almost steals the show with his delicious comic turn as the restaurant host, as well as other ancillary characters.

For me the “real magic” lies in the way the Kiln Theatre’s small space has been transformed by Amy Jane Cook’s sleek, nightclub-meets-cabaret design, said Hang Yuen on What’s on Stage. A luminous tiled platform, a curved ribbed booth, and tiny amber table lamps put the audience inside an intimate late-night lounge, with a striking geometric ceiling, and excellent coloured lighting, completing the effect.

This is not a deep play, that is true, but it’s inventive and entertaining and also powerfully theatrical.

Kiln Theatre, London NW6. Until 24 October.

“Sometimes it feels as if all human life is contained in this deeply moving documentary from the veteran American filmmaker Ross McElwee,” said Kevin Maher in The Times. “Grief and loss, marriage and family, work, success, failure and fame are all embraced.”

McElwee started making the film in 2008 as a light-hearted personal piece about an attempt by Hollywood producers to turn his 1986 indie documentary “Sherman’s March” into a drama series for streaming.

That project stalled but, following the death of his 27-year-old son Adrian from a fentanyl overdose in 2016, he went back to the footage he had shot for it – and created this documentary. It also makes use of home-movie clips, previous documentaries that Adrian had appeared in, and Adrian’s own work as an aspiring filmmaker.

“Remake” serves as a eulogy for Adrian, but McElwee also asks whether, in constantly filming his son instead of interacting with him directly, he let him down as a parent.

This is “one of the most outstanding films of this year”, said Jonathan Romney in the Financial Times, and easily the “most unapologetically personal”. And while it seeks to celebrate Adrian’s life, it is desperately sad.

“Every shot of Adrian – a cute, chatty little kid, fishing off a pier, pretending to run a restaurant, and slowly getting older and bigger – becomes painfully charged,” said Leslie Felperin in The Guardian.

“It’s not just that the little kid is gone”; Adrian himself is gone. “Remake” slowly reveals what led to Adrian’s death. The result is a “profoundly moving work”, about parenting and about art, which “lingers in the mind long after the tears have dried”.

Chichester Festival Theatre has put an “ingenious spin” on “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by transporting the action to John Major’s Britain, said Fiona Mountford in The Telegraph.

It’s the summer of 1994 and the “frolics in the Athenian forest” have been transformed into an illegal rave on the South Downs. As the Conservative government of the time “struggles to reassert the supremacy of law and order” by introducing legislation to criminalise raves, the countryside is turned into a “place of freedom and self-expression away from the constraints of city life”.

In this riotously fun production, Theseus (Tom Kanji) – now “Theseus Howard, Member of Parliament for Chichester” – is preparing to marry Hippolyta (Celeste Dodwell). The “tangled quartet of young lovers” has also been updated: Hermia (Angela Sant’Albano) chooses to run away with a “gender-switched” Lysanda (Ellie Larkin) so she can escape the clutches of Demetrius (Kieran Taylor-Ford), who in turn is the source of the “unrequited affections” of Helena (Freya Parks). But the South Downs are being used to host an “all-night rave” filled with “mind-altering substances”.

The term “love juice” appears twice in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, which Justin Audibert and Hannah Joss have used as “textual justification” for staging their “lovingly juiced up” play around a “narcotic, orgiastic woodland party”, said Mark Lawson in The Guardian. Comedian Munya Chawawa makes his theatrical debut as a “bewitchingly played” Nick Bottom. His physically energetic performance filled with “slapstick gymnastics” paused the show with “earned applause”.

Neon lights and “post-psychedelic imagery” provide the bright, funky rave-inspired backdrop, said Neil Norman in The Stage, and the sets are cleverly put together. This is a “punchy, techno delight to revel in for two and a half hours”, said Theatre and Tonic, with stand-out performances, choreography and costume design. “You would be an absolute fool to miss it.”

Fall is when a new batch of shows take to the road. This year, you can live forever, see the future, island hop to Cuba or rewrite the 19th American century through guffaws. It’s going to be a good theatrical autumn.

‘Buena Vista Social Club’

A tale of four intertwined lives as much as it is a partial story of Cuban history from the 1950s through the 1990s, “Buena Vista Social Club” sings, strums and sways. The “interconnections between musicians, songs and a society have rarely been evoked as vividly, and as lovingly,” said The New York Times. The talent present is staggering: actors, singers and musicians, of course — many times all at once. But dancers take the stage too because when Cubans play music, there will assuredly be dancing. (through Sept. 12, 2027)

‘Death Becomes Her’

Yes, this musical adaptation is based on the 1992 movie. No, it aims not to mimic that cult classic, other than with a whole lot of how’d-they-do-it stage magic. This “Death Becomes Her” is a self-aware beast, mocking both itself and our culture’s obsession with staying forever young. You are guaranteed big production numbers and side-splitting comedy. (through Sept. 5, 2027)

‘Maybe Happy Ending’

“Maybe Happy Ending,” equal parts technical marvel and emotional heart-render, is a touch difficult to explain. It goes something like this: soon-to-be obsolete humanoid robot model of the future meets a newer humanoid robot model and the two embark on a transformative road trip. The musical is intimate, delicate, futuristic and profound. (through Aug. 29, 2027)

‘Oh, Mary!’

There are surprise hits, and then there is “Oh, Mary!.” The frazzled, smutty and extremely queer brainchild of Cole Escola began its life far from Broadway in 2024 and was an instant, titanic hit with in-the-know culture fiends. It moved to Broadway a few months later — and has been running since. A newly launched tour brings the very historically inaccurate tale of an alcoholic, wannabe cabaret-singer Mary Todd Lincoln to the nation’s theaters. Bring tissues for the guaranteed tears of laughter; do not, however, bring your children. (through May 16, 2027)

Forget “muddy trenches”, said Belen Edwards on Mashable. In Sky’s new legal drama, “War”, battles are fought in “elegant wood-panelled rooms or glassy offices perched high above London’s streets”.

But the “polished” setting doesn’t mean the fighting is clean – far from it. The lawyers at the rival firms locking horns in this high-profile divorce case are “itching to get absolutely filthy”.

The combative couple at the centre of the series are film star Carla Duval (Sienna Miller) and tech mogul Morgan Henderson (Dominic West). In the first of many “underhanded” chess moves, Carla enlists her friend to “honeytrap” her husband so she can kick-start divorce proceedings. It’s a “tantalisingly bitter amuse-bouche for all the delicious drama to come”.

Miller and West are “perfectly cast” in this “tasty divorce drama”, said Anita Singh in The Telegraph. Writer George Kay provides a “snappy script” that charts the couple’s descent into “rancour” and a “battle over Morgan’s fortune”. Carla’s team is led by a “plucky husband-and-wife team” played by James McArdle and Phoebe Fox, while Morgan opts for the “Machiavellian” St John Smallwood (“a classy Pip Torrens”).

Add to the mix a supporting cast that includes Celia Imrie, Nick Mohammed and “actor-of-the-moment” Aran Murphy (the “lookalike son” of Cillian), and the show has “a lot going for it”. But after the first “irresistible” episode, you do start longing for “fewer backroom legal meetings” and more scenes with the warring couple.

And while the “scheming” and betrayal can be “thrilling”, said Judy Berman in Time magazine, despite the persuasive acting, some of the characters feel “underdeveloped”. Kay invokes “big, timely issues” from “extreme wealth” to the dark side of social media “without finding much to say about them”.

Mostly, though, “War” is a “triumph”, said Gareth McLean in Radio Times. “Glossy, smart, very high-end and thoroughly entertaining”, it’s the kind of show that makes you “want to be a lawyer when you grow up – even if the way they operate is pretty appalling”.

It is quite fitting that Los Angeles’ new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art looks like a spaceship since it is the “colossal pet project” of the man behind the Star Wars franchise, George Lucas, said The Washington Post. Thought to cost an “eye-popping” $1 billion (£756 million), the art inside is a “dizzying mix” of Renaissance and baroque paintings, digital reproductions, a Naboo N-1 Starfighter and “great heaps of the finest dreck”.

At the museum’s official opening, Lucas’ co-founder and wife, Mellody Hobson, said the collection’s broad scope was intentional, as narrative art should be anything that “depicts the myths that anchor us, the stories that we believe in”. But, for many in the art world, such a statement subverts the traditional principles of art, and signals a worrying trend towards more superficial art curation.

‘Cinematic, commercial, kitsch’

“Lucas has built a temple to story,” said The Atlantic. The exhibits may sound “random” but that makes this collection “wildly democratic” and, like Star Wars, a “brilliant hodgepodge of influences”. Any “conceptual bagginess” in this “all-gatheringness” is a statement in itself: art is a “vehicle for the real story, which is imagination and connection, which is life”.

Unlike traditional art museums, Lucas’ displays are “heavy on character-building, storytelling and myth-making”, and are “largely untouched by abstraction and other innovations of modern art”, said The Art Newspaper. Beyond the expected Star Wars ephemera, there are a few nice surprises: works by street artists Banksy and JR, and a “first-rate selection” of children’s book illustrations. Granted, the mix is “profoundly weird” but, rather than trying to “fetishise” original objects, it speaks to a desire to view “every image as ripe for reproduction”.

“There is something so cinematic, commercial and kitsch” about it, it is definitely in the right city – “home of the Hollywood hills and tills”, said The Economist. There is a “certain scorning of traditional expertise”: very few exhibits display accompanying text to explain what they are and why they’re there. “Snooty critics may sneer” but Lucas wants people “looking at the image and not the history lesson”.

‘Anti-intellectual’

“To which group of people do these narrative artworks belong?” said Art Review. The Western Stories gallery, for example, consists of entirely “Wild West” imagery “from a genre that has enabled an insidious historical revision of the forced displacement of Indigenous people”. And the Work sections shows largely “white men engaged in the dignified labour of industrialisation”. Throughout, “gendered stereotypes and sexist visual conventions abound”; narratives are “shown from only one side – that of a dominant American ideology reflected in the country’s most commercialised artforms”.

Lucas has “brought the history of the Western art museum to its inevitable conclusion”, said The Washington Post. “Centuries of efforts to democratise the experience have come to fruition, in a gigantic, magnificent, messy, maddening absurdity.”

Disconnecting art from its history in this way “sidelines the moral, ethical and cultural content of the story”. It’s as though the museum is dedicated to “the anti-intellectual proposition that art is feeling and experiencing, not thinking”, by getting rid of “all the old hierarchies, categories and distinctions” and replacing them with “anything that feels cinematic”. It’s a “bewildering” but also “astonishing pantheon of disparate but recognisable images”. It will be “extraordinarily popular”.

My idea of Sweden was based entirely on Scandi-noir dramas, all bleak landscapes, depressed people and woolly jumpers. Driving from the airport in early December the grey skies and vast landscape of fallow fields and red farm buildings confirmed that impression, especially as the sun started to set at around 4pm. But alongside those dark skies and empty spaces there was already a feeling of calm as we whizzed along in our rental car, which was of course a Volvo.

At almost twice the size of the UK but with a population density 90% lower, Sweden is a land of open landscapes and wild coastline. We were touring a small part of West Sweden made up of three provinces: Bohuslän, Dalsland, Västergötland. Lakes, mountains, forests and the endless islands are all within a few hours of Gothenburg so even without a car everything is accessible using the excellent trains, buses and ferries.

A charming seaside village

We started in Lyckorna, a historic seaside resort founded in 1877 by Robert MacFie, the son of William Andrew MacFie (credited with introducing curling to Sweden in 1846) who established a spa and bathing resort on this forested ridge. Now a charming village, with its traditional church with prominent spire overlooking the town and the old clock tower converted into a wonderful mussel and fish restaurant.

We arrived in time for Lucia Day, an annual Christian festival celebrated throughout Sweden and as iconic as the midsummer crayfish parties. There was a procession to the church of white clad handmaidens (tärnor), star boys (stjärngossar) and gingerbread men (pepparkaksgubbar) with candle wreaths on the maidens’ heads – now battery powered rather than actual flames.

We were staying just up the hill at Villa Sjötorp, a classic summer house completed in 1901 by Carl Emil Haeger. The white clapboard exterior topped with typical Norse dragon heads was taken back into the family in 1995 by Haeger’s great great granddaughter Ellika Modenfelt, who painstakingly restored it to its former glory with the help of local craftsmen. The minute we entered we were greeted by glorious colour, festive winter decorations and happy people. Our bedroom overlooked the sea with a large ceramic-tiled chimney and a classic cast-iron bed. Here we found the genius Swedish invention of single duvets on the double bed. At first we were bemused by it but as we snuggled under our individual goose feather duvets we had a blissful night’s sleep without having to fight for the covers.

The living areas featured elegant rooms with gilded wooden carved ceilings, a welcome fireplace and a popular restaurant serving delicious food from local sustainable and organic producers. As we were there in December we got to experience a traditional Julbord, a magnificent spread with a heavy focus on pickled herring. Ellika talked us through how to approach a frankly intimidating volume of food starting with 10 varieties of pickled herring served alongside wholemeal crackers and dark bread, washed down with brännvin, the Swedish schnapps which comes with its own song. Next up was a variety of fish and salads before we moved onto the cured meats and, finally, the hot food including baked ham, meatballs, sausages and a potato and salt-fish casserole. We finished off with more cheese and bread, and a selection of sweets and desserts. The highlight was the herring of which the Swedish are rightly proud, and obsessed with. You can eat it fresh and it’s delicious simply grilled.

It was hard to crawl out of our comfy bed early but we were booked to go kayaking along the coast. Our lovely hosts had prepared a breakfast of breads, fruit, coffee and boiled eggs with tubes of Kalles Kaviar Original, a smoked cod’s roe paste that’s almost as much of a national obsession as the herring.

Ancient oyster beds and rocky islands

Perhaps the best way to experience West Sweden is on the water. Ingela and Marcus run Skärgårdsidyllen Kayak & Outdoor activities in the magnificent archipelago of Grönemad, Grebbestad. It had been many decades since I’d been kayaking so Ingela kindly offered to go in a tandem kayak with me as, despite the comprehensive safety instruction and dry suit, I didn’t fancy falling into the North Sea in winter. Under grey and sleeting skies we paddled out onto the water where we passed ancient oyster beds and rocky islands with traditional fisherman’s huts. Eider ducks and black guillemots kept us company as Marcus and Ingela talked about the history of the area including pointing out their house overlooking the sea. They also run guided kayaking tours in the national marine park of Kosterhavet, hiking, paddle boarding and yoga, fishing and food tours throughout the year. You couldn’t wish for better guides and their glowing good health is testament to the benefits of outdoor life.

If you have time it’s well worth exploring Grebbestad, a popular seaside town with excellent seafood options, but we had a boat to catch. About nine miles off the coast of Bohuslän you can find Väderöarnas Värdshus, an inn with 22 rooms. This rugged island has cliff paths leading to the old pilot lookout, and sheltered coves. Set within the Väderöarna marine nature reserve, in season you can fish for lobster and crayfish but in December the best thing to do was have a wood-fired sauna and hot tub, complete with cold plunges into the dark winter sea.

But the highlight was the warm, friendly people who are proud of their country. They were keen to explain the best ways to enjoy the visit, from the choice of drinks to have in the hot tub, to sauna etiquette and braving that night-time dip. The sea didn’t exactly look inviting but cheered on by the Swedes I made like the locals and took the plunge, although – full disclosure – it was teeth-achingly cold so I stayed in for just enough time to defend national pride before jumping back into the hot tub. At dinner our enthusiasm for herring shocked them as they were sure all English people hated them. When we assured them we thought they were delicious it sparked a discussion from all the guests over the best places to eat Julbord. No one could agree where that was but when I asked what made a great Julbord the geneßral consensus was the more herring the better. As we sat outside wrapped against the cold and stared up at the star-filled sky, only the gentle lapping of the sea and the happy sound of the drinking songs disturbed the silence of the wilderness. Those Scandi dramas might have depicted the landscape, but they failed to prepare us for the warmth of the people.

Natasha was a guest of Visit West Sweden; westsweden.com

To create the illusion of “movie magic”, cinema has always relied on “smoke, mirrors and sleight of hand”, said Evelyn Richards in National Geographic. With the help of cutting-edge technology and behind-the-scenes brilliance, “monsters tower over cities, broomsticks take flight and hand-drawn sketches become fantastical worlds”. The film industry spans all continents, which means there are many fascinating museums where you can learn all about what it takes to “make the impossible look real”. Here are some of the best.

Lumière Museum, Lyon, France

If you want to understand cinema, it “helps to visit where it all began”, said Richards in National Geographic. The Lumière family’s photographic plate factory is aptly located on the Rue du Premier-Film. This was the setting for “Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory”, filmed in 1895 by Louis Lumière, and “considered one of the world’s first real motion pictures”. In the “ornate art nouveau” Lumière family home, you can look at early cameras, objects and archive material that chart the moving-picture experiments the Lumière brothers conducted. And the “Hangar du Premier-Film, where that pioneering footage was filmed, fittingly houses a cinema today”.
institut-lumiere.org

Museo Nazionale del Cinema, Turin, Italy

The “vertical museum” in northern Italy “takes visitors on an elevator ride through cinema history”, said Chonx Tibajia in Tatler Asia. It is housed in the “striking” Mole Antonelliana, once the tallest masonry building in Europe. One of the museum’s main draws is its variety: “expect vintage cameras, interactive installations and rare stills, from Italian neorealism to spaghetti westerns”. And, once you’ve climbed 500ft to the top, you can sit back and enjoy an extraordinary, panoramic view – a “real-life establishing shot of the city”.
museocinema.it

Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, US

This new museum, created by Star Wars filmmaker George Lucas, gets “five out of five (death) stars from me”, said Kinvara Balfour in The Telegraph. Its “sleek and spaceship-like” design is “comfortable and spacious” both outside and in: “rather like an Apple headquarters on Mars, with a big garden and some Yoda statues on plinths”. There are more than 40,000 exhibits, including a digital Sistine Chapel, silent films, archive material and, of course, plenty of Star Wars and Indiana Jones costumes, props and vehicles. You can also venture beyond film to see art from Banksy, Norman Rockwell and Diego Rivera. It’s a “once-in-a-century kind of a public offering”.
lucasmuseum.org

Sound of Music Museum, Salzburg, Austria

For fans of the cult 1965 film who wish to “start at the very beginning”, this new Austrian museum “could be a very good place to start”, said Joshua Thurston in The Times. The exhibitions celebrate both the singalong classic and the story of the real-life Von Trapp family, who fled the Nazis in 1938. In the 17th-century Hellbrunn Palace, “where many scenes from the film were shot”, you can see “nearly 450 objects, including props, costumes and recordings of the music”. The highlight is a replica of the pavilion used as a backdrop when Liesl von Trapp and her suitor Rolf Gruber sing “Sixteen Going on Seventeen”.
salzburg.info

Ghibli Museum, Tokyo, Japan

Even if you haven’t seen “My Neighbour Totoro” or “Spirited Away”, a tour of this museum dedicated to Studio Ghibli’s work will leave you “mesmerised”, said Gregory Wakeman in Smithsonian Magazine. It’s a “children’s, technology and fine arts museum all rolled into one”, and a love letter to animation. The space is designed by Hayao Miyazaki, the studio’s co-founder, so that both adults and kids “can aimlessly walk around and get lost”. The architecture is “gorgeous”, with bridges, balconies, buildings and a rooftop garden. Superfans can also take a trip to Ghibli Park, four hours south of Tokyo, which “brings to life” many of the settings of Ghibli movies, including Mononoke Village from “Princess Mononoke” (1997) and Howl’s Castle from “Howl’s Moving Castle” (2004).
ghibli-museum.jp

A cow’s urgent mooooo pierced the stillness of the Irish countryside – and my daydream. I was standing in a field at Rigney’s Farm in County Limerick, imagining what it would be like to say goodbye to the city and move thousands of miles to start a new, simpler life on the other side of the Atlantic.

I wasn’t alone. This late morning visit to the farm was a stop on Abercrombie & Kent’s small group journey Ireland: Legends of the Emerald Island, and I was accompanied by eight other travellers and our expert guide, Barbara Hunter. We were almost at the end of our adventure, having started in Dublin, and my affection for the country only deepened as we made our way through lush green landscapes, explored tiny villages – and their pubs – and met traditional Irish musicians and storytellers who perfected the art of good craic (fun times and friendly conversation).

Exploring Ireland, one village at a time

This was my first visit to Ireland, and the nine-day itinerary was a flawless introduction to all things Éire. There were the sights and pursuits listed in the tour books –taking in the rugged coastline during a drive on the Ring of Kerry, standing on the windswept Cliffs of Moher, riding a horse-drawn jaunting car through Killarney National Park, viewing the ancient Book of Kells – along with activities in small villages that connected you with locals.

Those were the experiences I’ll never forget. Our first stop outside Dublin was at Malzard’s Pub in Stoneyford, County Kilkenny. Fifth-generation owner Fred Malzard greeted us with a smile and offer of any drink we’d like, and within minutes I was in a booth sipping a Rockshore cider, listening to a traditional Gaelic storyteller, or seanchaí, spin a yarn. He was accompanied by a nattily dressed musician who before long had us singing folk songs at the top of our lungs.

After a bowl of delicious lamb stew, we headed outside for a quick hurling lesson. Hurling is one of Ireland’s national sports, and involves moving a ball down the field, either by hitting it or carrying it for up to four steps. Fred showed us how to smack the ball with the hurley stick, and, spoiler alert: I don’t have a future in the game. I did walk away with a souvenir ball and newfound appreciation for the sport.

Our trek around the southern part of Ireland, then up to Newmarket-on-Fergus in County Clare, took us through tiny towns, and I loved seeing the countryside and its ancient stone ruins and castles unfold before me. It was in those villages that we were able to enjoy homemade sausage pies and learn how to hand-churn butter at Rigney’s Farm, take a ferry to Whiddy Island for lunch and storytelling with a longtime resident, and learn about sustainable oyster farming at Kelly Oysters in County Galway. We gathered on a pier above the Atlantic, where Michael Kelly shucked us oyster after oyster, each one deliciously plump with the right amount of saltiness. Adding a splash of gin and squeeze of lemon only enhanced the flavour.

Having the opportunity to chat with locals about everything and anything – their work, their culture, their unfiltered thoughts on the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship – made these stops feel more like social calls than planned excursions. Abercrombie & Kent crafted the itinerary to include several of these special, one-of-a-kind opportunities, which let us experience a side of Ireland most visitors don’t get to see.

A taste of Irish hospitality

Hospitality is ingrained in Irish culture, and we received a warm welcome and top-notch service at the four hotels we stayed at. In Dublin, we checked into the contemporary Anantara The Marker, in the Docklands, which had one of the best breakfast buffets I’ve seen; the local meat and cheeses were fantastic. In County Cork, we stayed at Castlemartyr Resort, a historic property with elegant rooms that looked out at the countryside and Castlemartyr Golf Course.

We ate a lovely dinner here one night in the modern Canopy Restaurant, and the next evening set off for an unforgettable meal at the famed Ballymaloe House. The vegetables, grown just steps away, were exquisite, and we all got excited when the dessert trolley rolled in. Everything was prepared in-house, based on the ingredients in season, and we indulged in fresh sorbet served in an ice bowl, chocolate torte, an incredible fruity meringue and Mrs Allen’s Carrageen moss pudding.

Sheen Falls Lodge in Kenmare looked like it was straight out of a movie. A rushing river cuts through the property, and while I usually enjoy settling into hotel rooms, I couldn’t stay inside. I spent as much time outside as possible, walking along the pathways, snapping photos of blooming geraniums and enjoying a drink on the bar’s stone patio.

Our final hotel was Dromoland Castle, and our arrival was as dramatic as the landscape itself. We were greeted at the gate by three galloping horses and over a dozen hounds, who gracefully led us to the castle, where we were met by the delightful staff. It felt like a scene from “Downton Abbey”. I could have spent a week here exploring every nook and cranny of the castle and its 450 acres. The little touches also stood out; turndown service included a gift each night with different Dr. Barbara Sturm skin products, a welcome sight after a long day.

A journey to remember

On our first night, our guide Barbara told us the trip would go by in a flash, and she was right. It felt as if one minute we were stepping onto the bus for the first time, headed to Trinity College and St Patrick’s Cathedral, and the next it was time to say goodbye after our final dinner at Dromoland Castle.

Sharp as a tack with wit to match, Barbara was a wonderful guide, answering every question with aplomb. She brought along items like Irish linen to show us examples of traditional wares, and a map to point out where we were and where we were headed next. Our intrepid driver, Dermot, ferried us safely from stop to stop, and we all had room to spread out on the large, comfortable coach.

As a solo traveller, I was slightly apprehensive before arrival, but my fears disappeared the minute we all met and introduced ourselves. My fellow travellers’ enthusiasm for travelling and trying new things inspired me to do the same, and I enjoyed their company. I was on the trip by myself, but was never alone.

Abercrombie & Kent arranged a journey that was smooth from start to finish, and I appreciated all of the small details that made a huge difference, such as having laundry done at the halfway point (not having to pack a ton of clothes meant more room for souvenirs). I didn’t have to worry about a thing; all of my focus was on taking in the sights and enjoying the ride.

I left Ireland knowing I would be back. The Emerald Isle is a special place, and now that I’ve had a taste of the gorgeous scenery and rich history, I need to dive deeper – there’s more dramatic coastline to explore, villages to traverse, traditions to witness and craic to be had.

Catherine Garcia was a guest of Abercrombie & Kent

With summer at its end, many people are thrilled with the arrival of cooler weather, warm-beverage season and changing leaves. But you can also ring in the onset of fall with a collection of new albums from big-name artists.

Mykki Blanco, ‘CAFE PARADISO’

Mykki Blanco is a singular individual in the music space, a rapper who rose from humble beginnings to collaborate with some of the industry’s biggest names. Now, he has released his fourth studio album, “CAFE PARADISO,” marking his first LP in four years.

Unlike his prior albums, “CAFE PARADISO” follows Blanco as he “emerges completely reborn, trading the persona-driven theatrics of previous releases for something more interior, sensual and exacting,” said Transgressive Records. The LP also pulls large amounts of symbolism from Blanco’s life on the road, having lived in New York City, Portugal, Chicago, Switzerland and more. (out now)

Leon Bridges, ‘Happiness Anytime’

Leon Bridges has become one of the most influential names in the soul and R&B genres. Coming off his successful country-inspired 2024 album “Leon,” Bridges is releasing his fifth LP, “Happiness Anytime.”

The album combines the “sonic warmth of his beloved 2015 debut ‘Coming Home’ with the adventurous groove of his Khruangbin collaborations,” said DIY Magazine. There is a “feeling that we have to fix the problems of the world; you feel inadequate or it can be debilitating. My role is to be light,” Bridges said in a release of the new music. (out now)

Orville Peck, ‘Mule’

Orville Peck’s popular country music, as well as his proclivity for not showing his face, make him another singular musician. Now the South Africa-born artist is back with his fourth studio album, “Mule,” his third LP in just six years.

The record is a “chronological account of the year I lost my way,” Peck said on Instagram. It represents a “candid account of his journey through addiction and sobriety and how he rebuilt his life,” said Music Row, describing the “divide between the larger-than-life persona of Orville Peck and the man behind the mask.” (out now)

Space Afrika, ‘Quiet Storm’

Electronic duo Space Afrika released their debut album in 2014, and since then have been steadily rising in the techno music space. Their fourth LP, “Quiet Storm,” expands on its “predecessor’s sound and scale in every direction as a sprawling, collaborative vision shaped with profound patience and intention,” said label Dais Records. The album’s songs “allude to spirituality and the human condition, the tension between boldness and softness, ambition and the inner demons that persist.” Numerous big names in the techno genre also contribute. (out now)

Pabllo Vittar, ‘Lost in Lust’

Pabllo Vittar leveraged a successful career as a drag queen to launch a musical platform, becoming an icon among Brazil’s LGBTQ+ community. Now the singer is back with her seventh LP, “Lost in Lust,” which will mark Vittar’s fifth studio album in just six years.

One notable song from the album, “Rockstar,” features Villano Antillano, who “made history as the first openly transgender and nonbinary artist to enter Spotify’s Global Top 50,” said The Line of Best Fit. The LP itself “pulls from pop, dance and electronic music while keeping Brazilian influences.” The single “Rockstar” is out now. (Oct. 1)

Greta Van Fleet, ‘Palace for the People’

Greta Van Fleet has been entertaining audiences for over a decade since its founding in Michigan, and the rock band’s forthcoming fifth studio album, “Palace for the People,” looks to continue a string of successes. The album sees the band “continue to explore themes of humanity, connection, resilience and transcendence — building a body of work that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant,” said Blabbermouth.

The LP itself was heavily inspired by the band’s 2022 world tour. A single from the album, “Saw You Stand,” is out now. (Oct. 9)

Geologist, ‘The Sirens’ 

Now you can dig in with Geologist, as the musician’s next outing, his fourth LP, “The Sirens,” is soon hitting the market. The Baltimore-born artist, who is also a member of the experimental pop band Animal Collective, “harnessed the power of the moon to record music,” said Pitchfork.

Geologist, working with visual artist Kyle Simon, accomplished this by fitting a telescope with optical lenses. When the telescope is pointed at the night sky, light from lunar objects is then “converted into an electrical signal via an analog amplifier.” The album’s first single is available now. (Oct. 16)

Anderson .Paak and Cordae, ‘Heavy is the Crown’

Anderson .Paak and Cordae are two of music’s most innovative artists, and fans of rap can rejoice at “Heavy is the Crown,” the pair’s first combined LP. The two rappers “go way back,” having “first linked on ‘RNP’ from Cordae’s 2019 debut ‘The Lost Boy,’ and have remained frequent collaborators,” said Pitchfork.

The two seem to have a close relationship, given the LP’s album art is a nod to the 2008 comedy film “Step Brothers.” No music from the album has been released as of yet. (Oct. 23)

La Roux, ‘Old Flames’

Elly Jackson maintained her La Roux persona after her collaborative producer left in 2012, and she has been on a roll ever since. She is now set to release her first album in six years, and her fourth overall, “Old Flames.”

The album’s songs address the English singer’s “breakdown of a 17-year relationship, addiction and dealing with identity,” said The Line of Best Fit. It “says things how they are: how I am and who I am. It’s been a process of admitting what I got wrong,” she told the outlet. A single from the LP, “Cabin Fever,” is out now. (Nov. 6)

Ane Brun, ‘I Thought We Were the Same’

Norwegian musician Ane Brun released two albums in 2020, then took a break from LP work. Now she’s back with a vengeance with “I Thought We Were the Same,” her 11th studio album.

The LP is “being promised as Brun’s most personal work yet,” said The Needle Drop. With her latest release, Brun “wanted to experiment with how far I could take my music into a clearer and more pop sound with distinct choruses and hooks without the music losing its nerve,” she said in a release. The lead single from the album, “Hold Me,” is out now. (Nov. 6)

‘Primetime’

Directed by Lance Oppenheim (R)

★★★

“I’ve admired Robert Pattinson for years,” said Bilge Ebiri in NYMag.com. Still, “nothing quite prepared me” for his maniacal turn as Chris Hansen, host of the notorious 2000s network reality show To Catch a Predator. In Primetime, a movie “shot to look like something between an unearthed videotape and a bad nightmare,” we see Pattinson’s Hansen become increasingly obsessed with using the promise of sex with minors to lure pedophiles into home settings where they could be confronted on camera. As the TV host unravels, Pattinson shows such “stunning” range that “you can’t imagine any other performer of his generation pulling it off.” At the same time, “it’s not exactly clear what Primetime is aiming for,” said Stephanie Zacharek in Time.

The despair conveyed by the actors who play the would-be sex offenders “underscores the show’s legally questionable entrapment methods,” but those characters are still terrible people, and the members of the TV team also come across as immoral and “all-round unpleasant.” Add in the film’s “grubby, grainy look,” and “you feel dirty watching it.” The screenplay’s omissions, inventions, and embellishments “might give viewers a misleading impression of what actually happened, and how,” said Matt Zoller Seitz in RogerEbert.com. But as director Lance Oppenheim advances toward a fatal climax, he’s “going for something stylized, bordering on operatic.” Meanwhile, as strong as Pattinson is, “the film’s secret engine is Skyler Gisondo,” portraying an unknown young actor enlisted to play one of the series’ underage decoys. We’re watching a nice young man lose his soul, and the experience “gets under your skin and stays there.

‘Heart of the Beast’

Directed by David Ayer (PG-13)

★★★

“Spoiler alert: The dog does not die,” said Ryan Lattanzio in IndieWire. Animal lovers will appreciate that David Ayer’s “nimbly directed” new survival drama opens by showing us that the canine co-lead, an Army-trained German shepherd named Odin, survives the multiday ordeal we’re about to witness. We’re left less sure about Odin’s owner, a taciturn special forces soldier played by Brad Pitt. But we’re soon immersed in a tale about the pair crossing 50 miles of Alaskan wilderness after their small seaplane goes down. Though their trying adventure sometimes plays like military agitprop, “you can also just enjoy Heart of the Beast as a nice story about a man and his very good dog.”

Pitt proves to be “the right guy in the right film,” said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. “His acting chops are tested” when, in one dramatic scene, “he has to sob and then laugh with joy.” But mostly he’s required to simply be “tough, self-reliant, and laconically good-humored” as he and Odin encounter perilous cliffs, treacherous rapids, and ferocious bears and wolves that, unlike Odin, are CGI animations. You might not expect a man-dog picture from the director of End of Watch and other studies in urban nihilism, said Owen Gleiberman in Variety. But Ayer has crafted a movie that’s stirring in its primality. Pitt, meanwhile, does something most actors can’t pull off in a wilderness drama: “He gives a true performance.”

‘Resident Evil’

Directed by Zach Cregger (R)

★★★

In a world littered with terrible video-game movies, “Zach Cregger has finally cracked the cheat code,” said Scott Tobias in The Reveal. Resident Evil, a 30-year-old horror game series, has previously spawned seven film adaptations, but it’s taken the director of Barbarian and Weapons to give us one that actually works. Cregger’s “first and best idea” is to make his movie an exercise in slapstick horror. Weapons’ Austin Abrams stars as Bryan, a slacker medical courier who’s working late one snowy night when he suddenly must contend with an outbreak of mutating, tentacle-laden, undead beasties. Bryan has “an affable, slow-on-the-uptake personality,” but he’s also just resourceful enough to survive.

“The film’s first act is its most satisfying,” said Jacob Oller in The A.V. Club. Bryan, tasked with delivering a high-priority package to a city hospital, runs into one nightmare scenario after another. But while “Abrams’ magnetism and Cregger’s cynical wit” never flag, the movie loses energy as the visual effects and story stakes grow. Still, this new Resident Evil feels like “the ideal midnight movie,” said Kyle Smith in The Wall Street Journal. It’s “an adroit balance of the funny and the macabre, the frightening and the ridiculous.” See it “with someone you enjoy scream-laughing with,” and be ready to give Cregger his flowers. He’s now “three for three.” These days, “no one is more consistently turning out first-rate horror movies.”

Bob Mackie never let practicality get in the way of glamour. Dubbed the Sultan of Sequins, the Rajah of Rhinestones, and the Guru of Glitter, he dressed stars as if costuming characters in a play, and the results were both provocative and witty. His creations were sparkly, beaded, feathered, and often sheer or midriff-baring. Over six decades, he clothed legends like Cher, Madonna, Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, and Dolly Parton, winning 10 Emmys and one Tony and picking up three Oscar nominations. In 1962, Marilyn Monroe serenaded President John F. Kennedy with “Happy Birthday” in a bodyskimming gown Mackie worked on when he was only 22, while just last year Taylor Swift wore one of his archival pieces on an album cover. “I want people to have fun,” he said in 1999. “I want people to say, ‘Wasn’t that interesting?’ or ‘Wasn’t that wild?’”

Born in the Los Angeles suburbs, Mackie grew up in love with Hollywood glamour. Largely raised by a strict grandmother after his parents divorced, he was lonely and took to sketching. He studied costume design but dropped out to work under designer Edith Head and began dressing Mitzi Gaynor. Then he headed to The Carol Burnett Show, designing over 17,000 pieces for all the characters on all 11 seasons—including the drapery dress, complete with curtain rod, that he created for Burnett’s Scarlett O’Hara parody; it now rests in the Smithsonian. After Cher guest-starred in 1967, she brought Mackie to The Sonny & Cher Show. “Soon the pair were egging each other on to design ever more extravagant outfits,” said The Times (U.K.). At the 1974 Met Gala, Cher wore a sheer gown that landed her on the cover of Time—one of many barely there “naked dresses” he created. He stuck by Cher for decades, designing for all her tours and public appearances.

Mackie “lived a life on his own glittering terms,” said Vanity Fair. He costumed Broadway shows, launched a retail line, and designed Barbies for Mattel. Yet he bemoaned the tired state of 21st-century fashion. “Naked dresses only got more popular,” said The Washington Post, “but Mackie later in life was unimpressed” with those who copied his breakthroughs. “It gets to be so vulgar, you don’t even want to look at it anymore,” he said. He preferred helping a star express something new. “When you give them a chance to spread out and be funny, or be sexier than usual,” he said last year, “it’s like magic.”

Annie Dillard was just 28 when she published a collection of spare, meditative essays drawn from a year’s worth of wandering and watching in the wilds of Virginia’s Roanoke Valley. “A meteorological journal of the mind,” she called the book, in which she ruminated on plants, muskrats, butterflies, and the essential paradox of a natural world defined by beauty “tangled in a rapture with violence.” The 1974 book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, was a sensation, winning Dillard a Pulitzer and a reputation as one of her generation’s top literary voices. Other best sellers included the autobiography An American Childhood and The Writing Life, a discourse on creativity. While the natural world was her abiding theme, she rejected the tag “nature writer,” calling herself instead a theologian pondering the mysteries of God. “I walk out,” she wrote, “I see some event that would otherwise be utterly missed and lost, or something sees me, some enormous power brushes me with its clean wing, and I resound like a beaten bell.”

Born Meta Ann Doak in Pittsburgh, she “grew up in affluent circumstances,” said The Washington Post. A devout reader, she was also “an admitted rebel,” suspended from her private school for smoking. To “smooth off her rough edges,” her parents sent her to what’s now Hollins University, a women’s college near Roanoke. There she married her creative-writing professor, and though the marriage would end, she kept his last name. She wrote a master’s thesis on Thoreau’s classic Walden, then began “exploring the nearby mountains and streams.” After Tinker’s success she was “overwhelmed” by attention, said The New York Times, some of it built on the allure of “a photogenic young woman” probing a subject previously the “province of men with beards.” Repelled, she fled to rural Washington state, then to Connecticut, where she spent 21 years teaching at Wesleyan University.

Over the years she became known “for her tremendous range,” said The Guardian, publishing poems, journalism, essays, and novels. In 2014, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal; soon after, she announced on her website that she could no longer travel and planned to “read and concentrate” at her home on Cape Cod. Her retreat was in line with a message she often told students: that the creative life was an all-or-nothing proposition. If you wish to be a writer, she said, “you can’t be anything else. You must go at your life with a broadax.

A fresh local cob, boiled, with butter, salt and cracked black pepper, is "too tempting to resist”, said Rosanna Dodds in the Financial Times. But the “golden vegetable” is cropping up everywhere, it seems, and in desserts too: from ice cream to lattes.

August and September are “peak” harvest months for sweetcorn and the UK’s “long summer days and sandy coastal soils” make it particularly good for growing the sweetest cobs.

But sweetcorn is a “global vegetable” and “comes in many guises”. From West Africa to China, the cob is a subject of “international adoration”.

Long used in “sandwich fillings and pizza toppings”, it has recently been “popping up on social media in sweet treat form”, said Alys Davies on the BBC. Using corn in desserts is part of a bigger trend of mixing unexpected sweet and savoury flavours, Shokofeh Hejazi, from food trends agency thefoodpeople, told the broadcaster. It has a creamy texture when blended, which is perfect for the “swavoury” movement.

Hejazi says experimental corn desserts have yet to become mainstream but there are some venues already embracing the trend. These include the peach and sweetcorn danish pastry available at the popular east London bakery Pophams and gelato store Snowflake’s sweetcorn-flavoured Snow Cob.

Sweetcorn drinks are also on the rise. Crystelle Pereira, a former “Great British Bake Off” finalist known for her “wacky flavour combinations”, has created a recipe for a sweetcorn latte, said Davies on the BBC. Inspired by a frappé she enjoyed on a trip to Thailand, she recommends using a blender to make corn milk from cooked sweetcorn, coconut milk, coconut cream, a squeeze of honey and vanilla bean paste. The milk is topped with a shot of espresso, whipped coconut cream and cornflakes.

If you prefer something savoury, try Felicity Cloake’s recipe for the perfect sweetcorn fritters in The Guardian. They taste best made with fresh corn but you can make “very decent” fritters with corn from a can too. Delicious served with a dollop of creme fraiche, they go with most things, “including a cold beer”.

Since its premiere on HBO Max in the US last year, the Canadian ice hockey drama “Heated Rivalry” has become a “cultural phenomenon”, spawning trivia nights, costume contests and “no fewer than four parody musicals”, said Sarah Bahr in The New York Times. It catapulted its actors to stardom and created another, more unlikely star too – the glamorous lakeside house where the male lovers “cosy up”.

In Canada, such holiday homes, no matter how grand, are called “cottages”, and spending the summer in “cottage country” – the wilderness of forests and lakes beyond Canada’s cities – is a long-standing tradition. To sample it, I headed to Muskoka, a glorious region with more than 1,600 “sparkling” lakes, where the cottage featured in the TV show lies.

A two-hour drive north of Toronto, Lake Muskoka and its neighbours have been attracting the rich and famous for 150 years. Today, the likes of Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg have cottages in the area – but despite high property prices, a holiday here can be relatively affordable, as the best experiences – “water- skiing shows, stunning hikes, weep-worthy sunsets” – are often free.

I stayed at a hotel in the small town of Gravenhurst, on Lake Muskoka itself, which has some decent restaurants and “charming” tea rooms, and is a good base for swimming, canoeing, sailing and hiking. I also stole a “distant glimpse” of the “Heated Rivalry” cottage, a “three-bedroom beauty with glass walls, floor-to-ceiling windows and a central granite fireplace” that was recently listed on Airbnb, starting at £1,625 per night.

I browsed farmers’ markets “brimming” with fresh local produce, and visited Bala – “Ontario’s cranberry capital” – where Muskoka Lakes Farm & Winery offers wine tastings and tours of its cranberry bog. I admired the “hulking” historic steamships that run sightseeing cruises from Gravenhurst. And I walked the Huckleberry Rock Lookout Trail – perhaps the region’s “prettiest” hike – up to a large “perch” of pink granite with sweeping views across the lake.

With its pale beaches and low-lying, forested interior, the Brazilian island of Boipeba is a slice of “heaven”, says Chris Haslam in The Sunday Times.

It lies in the tropical state of Bahia, 30 minutes by small plane (or a longer journey by boat and taxi) from the city of Salvador, and it gets busy from December to March. Even so, the absence of high-rise hotels and cars makes for a laid-back vibe, and at Easter, I found it “quiet”.

The weather was pleasant, too – not too hot at 28 degrees. A boat tour of the island’s mangroves and reefs was “like a promo reel for the Brazilian Tourist Board”; the food (including lots of spicy seafood stews with coconut milk) was wonderful; and I can recommend my hotel, the beachside Pousada Víla Sereía, which has lush gardens and just four cabins.

Poland’s lively capital of cinema

It lacks the charming medieval old town of Wrocław or Kraków, but the Polish city of Łódz (pronounced “wudj”) has two strengths of its own, says Kevin Rushby in The Guardian.

The first is its film industry. Poland’s best-known directors – Wajda, Polanski and Kieslowski – studied at its film school; more recent talents such as Paweł Pawlikowski have shot films here; and the city’s Museum of Cinematography is a “tour de force”.

The second is its industrial heritage. Łódz is chock-a-block with “handsome” Victorian-era textile factories – huge red-brick buildings that have been “beautifully” restored to house restaurants, bars, shops and more.

It’s a “stunning” example of urban regeneration underpinning a “vibrant” cultural life. Music and dance are “never far away” here, and there are some other first-rate attractions, including the “fascinating” Museum of the Factory, with working looms dating back to the 1880s.

The wondrousness of Great Orme

Extending for two miles northwest of Llandudno, the Great Orme peninsula makes up in “rugged” splendour what it lacks in size, says Kerry Walker in The Telegraph.

You can reach its 221-metre highest point on Britain’s only cable-hauled tramway, built in 1902, but it’s also worth walking the circular, four-mile Great Orme Nature Trail, which commands views back to Snowdonia. Rare wildflowers bloom in spring and summer, bringing “clouds” of butterflies, and the headland’s cliffs are home to “spectacular” colonies of seabirds.

Stay at the Lighthouse, a hotel in a Victorian lighthouse, or Lansdowne House (also charming), and look out for the peninsula’s long-horned goats. Descended from a pair given to Queen Victoria by the Shah of Persia in 1837, they found fame during Covid, when they “ran riot” in Llandudno’s deserted streets.

What surprised me, watching the documentary, “wasn’t the massive scale of the killing, or even the coldness of it, but the proficiency”, said Mahmoud Mushtaha in +972 Magazine (Tel Aviv). The 24 Israeli soldiers and intelligence officers interviewed for “NAZA”, a new film, coolly described destroying people’s lives as if they were discussing “a routine errand”; one likened it to a “video game”.

Their testimonies form the basis of the documentary, whose title comes from an Israeli military acronym for “collateral damage”; it is a term used to indicate how many civilians are likely to die in each air strike. The film shows that, guided by AI and automated surveillance, thousands of Palestinian civilians were knowingly killed during the war in Gaza.

‘Factory-scale’ killing

The film received a record 25-minute standing ovation at the recent Venice Film Festival, where it won a jury prize. And in Israel, it has whipped up a storm of outrage, said Michelle Goldberg in The New York Times. Miki Zohar, the culture minister, accused its directors, Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham, of “treason” and called for them to be stripped of their citizenship, a demand endorsed by PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

“After seeing it, I can understand why Israel finds it so threatening.” It describes “factory-scale”, AI-enabled targeting. Interviewees claim that “20 Naza” – 20 civilians killed for one Hamas member – is the basic benchmark. But to kill one Hamas fighter, one source claims, 500 civilian deaths were approved. (The Israel Defense Forces denies this.) The film shows how indifference to civilian death shades “into deliberate mass killing”.

The allegations warrant serious scrutiny, said Ariel Oseran on i24News (Tel Aviv). But the very fact that the IDF calculates “Naza” figures shows that it assessed, and tried to minimise, civilian fatalities while fighting the war in Gaza. Besides, some of the film’s claims seem very dubious. According to Hamas’ own figures, the largest single strike during the conflict killed 132 people – far below the 500-death figure claimed in the film.

Reality under attack

We need to examine “NAZA” carefully, said The Jerusalem Post. The interviewees speak anonymously; we don’t know their rank or their motivation for speaking out. Their testimony cannot be a “final judgement on Israeli conduct”. And “if ‘NAZA’’s case is flawed, the flaws should be demonstrated in public”. But attacking the filmmakers does not help. “It weakens Israel’s argument by replacing a factual dispute with a loyalty test.”

In Israel, the debate is being played out “purely on the basis of emotion”, said Eli W. Kowaz in Haaretz (Tel Aviv). No ministers have even watched the film, as it is yet to be released here. Nor have the public; yet there have been angry protests outside one of the filmmakers’ parents’ homes. It shows “how detached Israelis are from the global conversation about the Gaza war”.

While the world outside has seen reams of coverage of the war – and seems to have largely forgotten that it started with Hamas’ massacre of some 1,200 people – Israel’s media has mostly averted its eyes from the suffering in Gaza. Consequently, to many Israelis, the film feels like an attack on their country, and “an attack on their reality”.

This recipe is based on a traditional Scottish one that dates back to the 18th century, says Ali Stoner.

“Collop”, possibly derived from the French “escalope”, basically means a slice of meat. Collop Monday was the day prior to Shrove Tuesday and was celebrated as the last time to eat meat before the Lenten period.

Although that tradition has now fallen away, this dish shouldn’t be forgotten. It’s incredibly easy and super tasty – and makes an excellent supper.

Ingredients (serves 1)

• 140g venison fillet (lamb or beef can also be used)
• pinch of mustard powder
• beef dripping or tallow, for frying
• 20g unsalted butter, plus extra for spreading
• 4 mushrooms, sliced
• 2 shallots, finely sliced
• 25ml (1½ tbsp) whisky
• 125ml beef stock
• 1 slice of good sourdough bread
• splash of double cream
• 1 garlic clove, peeled
• salt and ground black pepper, to taste
• chopped flat-leaf parsley, to garnish
• salad or buttered greens, to serve (optional)

Method

• Cut the fillet into 4 pieces and beat out to about 1cm (½ inch) thick. Sprinkle some mustard powder onto each side and rub in, then do the same with salt and pepper.
• Heat a little beef dripping or tallow in a frying pan until very hot and quickly sear the meat. I like mine served pink, but do cook to your liking. Remove to a plate to rest.
• Add the butter to the same pan and fry the mushrooms and shallots until starting to brown and soften. Deglaze with the whisky and let it bubble and reduce, then add the beef stock. Simmer, stirring from time to time, while you toast your bread.
• Add a splash of double cream to the pan, stir through and, when it has reduced to a thick gravy, add the venison back to the pan. Turn the heat off and let it warm through.
• Rub your toast with the raw clove of garlic, then spoon over the meat with the sauce. A quick season, a sprinkle of parsley and you are done. Serve with a salad or some buttered greens, if you like, or it’s delicious just as it is.

Taken from Scran: Modern Scottish Food Inspired by Tradition by Ali Stoner.

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Bring on the burning stoves and the hot-air blast of a roaring oven. Autumn’s new cookbooks are an inspiriting combination of history, practicality, design and, of course, endless attractive recipes.

‘Boucherie’ by Chase Cormier

One-time butcher, now a scholar, Chase Cormier is an ideal documentarian of the indispensable south Louisiana culinary tradition known as boucherie. The term, deep in the rural stretches of the Pelican State, can signify the art of butchering; it can also denote the raucous gatherings in which a pig — or pigs — is slaughtered and its parts processed and preserved for future sustenance.

Cormier is “not sentimental,” said Kitchen Arts & Letters in an email review. Instead, he tells the story of how meat processing has changed over the centuries and how the idea of Cajun food has been “shaped, sold and reinvented.” Personal and regarded from a keen bird’s-eye view, “Boucherie” is a pocket-sized book that has a grand vision. (out now, $23, LSU Press, Amazon)

‘Cookbooking: A Fan’s Guide’ by Debbie Berne

Beauty is not strictly in a successful recipe but also in how the best cookbooks are presented. “Cookbooking,” by designer Debbie Berne who designed innumerable cookbooks and died last December, is a “savory tribute to cookbooks as aesthetic objects,” said Publisher’s Weekly.

The book’s range is astonishing. It touches on iconic tomes like “The Joy of Cooking,” dissects homespun community cookbooks often assembled by-hand and draws the thread from TV show-themed cookbooks to the current wash of food — and very much not-food — celebrity cookbooks. “Cookbooking” presents the finished product with a “lighthearted tone and loose structure,” a “colorful celebration” of a cookbook factor that the genre’s lovers sometimes take for granted. (out now, $30, Hardie Grant, Amazon)

‘Happy Snacking, Don’t Die!: Foraging and Vegan Recipes with Black Forager’ by Alexis Nikole Nelson with Jeanelle Hayner Olson

If you know the Black Forager on social media, you love her — or you should. Alexis Nikole Nelson, the freewheeling, insanely knowledgeable person beyond the handle, debuts her first cookbook, “Happy Snacking Don’t Die,” and as the title intimates, the book is a bounty of charming encouragement and cheeky asides. The “joy Nelson injects into the book makes foraging approachable,” said Emily Conover at ScienceNews.

You will learn that the fruits of the linden tree are akin to an earthier chocolate and that “practicality, safety and play” can coexist, said Bettina Makalintal at Eater. All this while you fumble your way into better trying understand and, yes, consume the plant world gloriously sprouting everywhere around you. (out now, $35, Simon & Schuster, Amazon)

‘Kincentricity: Connecting to Nature with American Indian Food Traditions’ by Enrique Salmón

Enrique Salmón, a Rarámuri (Tarahumara) scholar and professor in the San Francisco Bay Area, trumpets his book’s central tenet, “kincentricity,” as an “Indigenous worldview emphasizing the interconnectedness of all living beings and our responsibility to be good stewards of the planet we share,” said Jamie Feldmar at Saveur.

The book’s introduction, subtitled “Sharing Breath with Our Relatives,” takes the reader on a wander through the kincentricity’s complementary notion, iwigara, the “total interconnectedness and integration of all life in the Sierra Madre [Mountains], physical and spiritual.” You acquire, through Salmón’s clear sense of place, an ethnography of the people tied to this land and then glean, in the ensuing chapters on native foodstuffs like huckleberries, mesquite and stinging nettles, that no matter where you live, plucking the thread that links all life is a right and proper way to exist on this planet. (out now, $35, Rizzoli, Amazon)

‘No. 1 Best Indian Cookbook in the World’ by Meherwan Irani with Jamie Feldmar

Meherwan Irani, owner of a few Chai Pani restaurants in the southern United States along with the spice company Spicewalla, is one of a number of Indian American chefs who have noted the strong parallels between the cooking of the Indian subcontinent and that of the South. In Irani’s debut cookbook, “No. 1 Best Indian Cookbook in the World,” he drives the point home, with a “healthy mix of expected recipes and those likely new to most Americans, allowing readers to explore a wider variety of Indian cuisine,” said Aaron Pahl at Library Journal.

Collards, black-eyed peas and chiles are a few of the through lines between the cuisines. Irani sometimes rams them together in innovative ways. His Sloppy Jai is his adaptation of keema, a spiced ground meat dish, served like a Sloppy Joe as a thrilling, messy sandwich. Proof that “Indian cuisine is not only approachable, but that it’s not that different from what you’re already cooking and eating,” said Alana Al-Hatlani at Southern Living. (out now, $40, Ten Speed Press, Amazon)

‘Gather Around My Table: Simple, Flavorful Recipes from My Global Pantry’ by Kay Chun

Imagine, if you will, those translucent shrimp dumplings, har gow, you snag as a dim sum cart wheels past you. These, though, are dressed with butter and parmesan, like the liveliest comfort pasta you have ever eaten. Welcome to Kay Chun’s recipe-creating world, where you can use her book “Gather Around My Table” as your guide.

There is an effortlessness and an inevitability to how Chun creates dishes. She employs “low-lift but flavor-packed flourishes,” said Makalintal at Eater, to recipes like chicories in a caper-raisin vinaigrette and sticky date snacking cake with the addition of prunes for a double wallop of dried-fruit vigor. All the things you ever wanted to eat, in Chun’s capable hands, were there all along. (Oct. 6, $40, Knopf, Amazon)

‘Daily Dessert: Treats on Repeat’ by Caroline Schiff

Dessert-making need not always be like climbing Kilimanjaro. Sometimes it can be a stroll across a hillock, and celebrated New York City pastry chef Caroline Schiff has written a “book about making baking less annoying and more chill, a boon for anyone who would love baked goods more often but hates the thought of all the fuss,” said Makalintal at Eater.

One steady aspect of frippery-free baking is desserts that keep. Expect clementine snacking cake, granola treated with the flavors of halvah, malted milk chocolate truffles and rosemary-hazelnut shortbreads. A sweet treat should be both for now and later because, as Schiff wrote in the book’s introduction, “around the globe, dessert is, well, just that — daily. Many countries and cultures have joyfully and intentionally built the practice into their everyday lives,” Now it’s your turn. (Oct. 13, $35, Abrams, Amazon)

‘East to East: Recipes and Stories from Mumbai to New York’ by Rachel Gurjar

Forever toggling between the tastes of Mumbai and New York, the recipes of Gurjar, a former editor at Bon Appétit, are like skyscrapers: big-flavored with dependable foundations.

Burrata, served with pistachios and tamarind-glazed roasted grapes, yelps why it will forever be craveable. A chicken Caesar salad receives a deep plane facelift by treating the bird kebab-style. Yes, those are the invigorating spices of chai in that espresso martini and that taco bowl is loaded not with seasoning packet-laced ground beef but spunky lamb keema. The familiar has never been quite so promisingly electroshocked. (Oct. 13, $35, Chronicle Books, Amazon)

What happened

Macklemore on Thursday announced a Free Palestine concert tour, less than two weeks after the rapper was dropped from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour for making pro-Palestinian comments onstage and accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. All proceeds from the new tour will benefit Palestinian aid organizations, Macklemore and Live Nation said.

Who said what

After Macklemore was kicked off Sheeran’s tour, all the other supporting artists quit. The controversy “thrust the Israel-Hamas war into the pop music world,” The New York Times said. There’s been a “collective awakening around Palestinian liberation,” Macklemore said in a social media post announcing his tour. “When the billionaire class can decide which voices are allowed on stage and which ones are too dangerous to hear, everyone should be paying attention.”

At the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the allegation of Israeli genocide the “biggest lie of the century.” When “scores of delegates trooped out of the hall in protest” of his speech, The Associated Press said, Netanyahu called them “moral cowards.”

What next?

The Free Palestine Tour is scheduled to begin with three dates next month in Dublin, Paris and London. Announcements about the other artists on the tour, “as well as U.S. dates, are forthcoming,” said the AP.

Essex: Valentine’s, Arkesden

An arresting “upside-down” house nestled in landscaped grounds on the edge of one of northwest Essex’s most sought-after villages. 6 beds, 5 baths, kitchen, 2 receps, gym, garden, parking. £1.8 million; The Modern House.

Lancashire: The Orangery, Woodfold Park

A fine building with floor-to-ceiling windows built in 1820. 5 beds, 2 baths, kitchen/dining room, 3 receps, garden, parking. £1.5 million; Fine & Country.

Norfolk: Cley Windmill, Cley

This impressive Grade II* tower mill dates back to 1819 and boasts 360° views over the Glaven Valley. 10 beds, 9 baths, kitchen/breakfast room, 2 receps, garden with river frontage and a private jetty, outbuildings, parking. £2.65 million; Strutt & Parker.

Cornwall: The Stack, Trelyon

Striking Grade II former Cornish engine house with delightful country views. It generates approx. £90,000 gross annual income from lettings and weddings. 3 beds, family bath, kitchen, 3 receps, garden, parking. £895,000; Rohrs & Rowe.

London: The Circle, Bermondsey SE1

First floor flat in this iconic 1980s building by the architect Piers Gough on the banks of the Thames. 1 bed, family bath, open plan kitchen/living/dining room, communal gardens. £400,000; The Modern House.

Denbighshire: Eyarth Hall, Ruthin

A remarkable Grade II Elizabethan country house set in approx. 14 acres of gardens and woodland with views across the Vale of Clwyd. 6 beds, 3 baths, kitchen, 3 receps, paddocks, garden, parking. £1.15 million; Fisher German.

East Sussex: St Mary’s Terrace, Hastings

Charming double-fronted Georgian cottage in the artists’ quarter on West Hill, with farreaching views across to the English Channel and Beachy Head. 4 beds, 2 baths, kitchen/ breakfast room, 2 receps, study, garden. £685,000; Unique Property Company.

Essex: Badynghams, Great Waltham

A distinctive Grade II* timber-framed house dating back to 1371. The property has a wealth of period features, including oak staircases and an ingeniously created en suite within a chimney breast. 4 beds, 2 baths, kitchen, 3 receps, garden, parking. £950,000; Savills.

The arrival in the UK of the Bayeux Tapestry has caught the headlines in recent weeks, and for good reason. But London, and the rest of the country, has a wealth of high-quality exhibitions taking place over the coming months, which also demand attention.

The capital, Bath, Liverpool and Newcastle are all hosting some highly anticipated shows, ranging from studies of Korean culture, portraits of the 90s and the birth of oil painting among others. Here are some of our favourites.

Korea

British Museum, London WC1

If you can’t get tickets for the Bayeux Tapestry exhibit, the British Museum has much more in store. Its next big show is dedicated to Korea, and encompasses the past two millennia of that nation’s culture and history. Featuring paintings, sculptures and decorative pieces, as well as religious icons, it will recount the peninsula’s complex history in eye-catching detail. Many of the pieces have been borrowed from collections in Korea itself, and have never before been seen in the UK.
1 October-31 January 2027; britishmuseum.org

Ancient Landscape, Modern Times: Eric Ravilious and the Artists of the Chalk Downs

Holburne Museum, Bath

In the years between the world wars, a number of British painters adopted a style that embraced the new while also expressing a yearning for Britain’s mysterious past. Chief among them was Eric Ravilious (1903-1942), whose pictures present an uncanny synthesis of ancient and modern. At Bath’s Holburne Museum, his paintings of the South Downs will be shown with works by contemporaries such as William Nicholson, Paul Nash and Tirzah Garwood. For these artists, the view from the hills wasn’t just a picturesque vision; it was a means to explore questions of English identity and belonging.
3 October-10 January 2027; holburne.org

The 90s: Art and Fashion

Tate Britain, London

Curated by Edward Enninful, the former editor of Vogue, this celebration of a decade known for its bold creativity will feature art by the likes of Steve McQueen, Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas, photographs by Juergen Teller and David Sims, and fashion collections by Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen.
8 October-14 February 2027; tate.org.uk

Pre-Raphaelites: Art and Poetry

Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne

The Laing Gallery’s autumn exhibition joins the dots between the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelite “Brotherhood” and their literary fellow-travellers. Featuring major loans from collections across the UK, including works by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Edward Burne-Jones, it shows how the movement’s leading lights were inspired by poets such as Dante, Chaucer and Keats, as well as by their own contemporaries – and how the artists influenced later poets.
17 October-13 February 2027; northeastmuseums.org.uk/laing

Van Eyck: The Portraits

National Gallery, London WC2

Jan van Eyck has been described as the inventor of oil painting; and while this has since been disputed, there’s no doubting his status as a founding artist of the Western canon. Only around 20 paintings by van Eyck (1390-1441) are known to have survived, including nine portraits: of rich Flanders merchants, nobles – not least the deathless “Arnolfini Portrait” (1434) – and family members. For the first time, all nine will be united. Along with its forthcoming Renoir show, this National Gallery exhibition is sure to be a highlight of the coming months.
21 November-11 April 2027; nationalgallery.org.uk

Mary Magdalene: Woman and Myth

Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

The Walker’s next big show invites us to consider one of history’s most contentious yet frequently portrayed figures: Mary Magdalene. This exhibition tells her extraordinary story through early Renaissance panels by Carlo Crivelli, Annibale Carracci and Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo, and reinterprets it through baroque paintings and even works of conceptual art. The show will also tour to Sheffield and Bishop Auckland.
6 February 2027-23 May 2027; liverpoolmuseums.org.uk

Kia’s five-seater electric minibus is “practical, spacious and fun”, said The Telegraph, and about half the price of the cheapest version of the popular Volkswagen ID. Buzz.

At 4,695mm by 2,255mm, the PV5 is larger than it seems, with sliding rear side doors and a huge 1,330 litres of boot space (3,615 litres with the rear seats folded). Its interior is not nearly as “stylised” as the VW’s, but it is “no less useful”.

The “superb value” PV5 comes with a choice of two batteries, said Top Gear Magazine: 51.5kWh, good for 120bhp, or the 71kWh, good for 160bhp, with “impressively efficient” ranges of 183 and 256 miles respectively.

A “refined ride”, it drives “beautifully”, with “composed cornering”, good body control and super-light steering. It takes 10.6secs to get to 62mph, or a “plodding” 12.8secs in the standard-range car, but has “ample zip off the line”.

The PV5 is the first of a family of Kia vans, with a seven-seater due to follow soon, said Car Magazine. The vast interior is “a bit drab” but has potential, with a 12.9-inch touchscreen, plus a 7-inch driver’s display, and Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

The hard plastics are robust, the seats comfy and there’s loads of space. On offer are two trims, but Plus, which adds luxuries, only comes with the bigger battery.

Five years on from their excellent co-production of “Jitney”, the Headlong theatre company and Leeds Playhouse have returned to August Wilson’s “Pittsburgh Cycle” with a “striking” revival of “Fences”, said Catherine Love in The Guardian.

Wilson’s 1950s-set play, which won both a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award in 1987, is a “drama of family, masculinity and thwarted ambition”, which paints “national issues of race and inequality on a domestic canvas”.

The play’s focus is the Maxson family and its patriarch Troy, a one-time baseball player who was robbed of professional success owing to the colour of his skin, and who now works as a garbage man. “Ray Fearon is horribly compelling as this tragic figure, a man made monstrous by circumstance.”

It’s a tough play, in which “brutality and injustice” are “shot through with fleeting moments of possibility” – but director Daniel Bailey’s staging deftly blends “gritty realism” with “playful theatricality”.

Wilson is not known for his subtlety, said Matt Barton in The Stage. “Where most playwrights might allow themselves one big, blustery speech, that’s effectively [his] default mode.” Yet in this terrifically performed production, the speechifying lands as “muscular, rather than cumbrous” – and the set-piece confrontations are “phenomenally powerful”.

With slow-building intensity, the play eventually attains the “heart-aching weight of an Arthur Miller tragedy”, said Holly Williams in The Times. And Fearon’s “superb” performance is matched by those of Madeline Appiah as Troy’s wife Rose, and Michael Ahomka-Lindsay and Josh Tedeku as their two sons.

Appiah’s understated turn does much to leaven the play’s prolixity and heaviness, said Jim Keaveney on WhatsOnStage. Simon-Anthony Rhoden is also excellent as Troy’s brother Gabriel, who suffered a brain injury during wartime service that has “left him in childlike innocence. His appearances lift the play with warm humour and pathos in a role that could too easily be played for laughs.”

Oxford Playhouse until 3 October, then touring; headlong.co.uk

When it comes to “Britain’s greatest cultural export”, forget James Bond or Doctor Who, said John Nugent in Empire. The accolade surely belongs to Shaun the Sheep, the “claymation lamb with a heart of gold”, whose “silent-movie-esque antics” have made him a “hero in over 170 countries”.

This is Shaun’s third big-screen outing, spin-offs from the TV series he was awarded after making his debut in a supporting role in the 1995 Wallace and Gromit short “A Close Shave”.

In “The Beast of Mossy Bottom”, Shaun and his flock are desperate to make Jack-o’-Lanterns for Halloween. So when a freak accident knocks out their crop of prize pumpkins, Shaun decides to play mad scientist, and concocts a growth potion. Alas, it goes terribly wrong when his beloved Farmer (John Sparkes) accidentally drinks it and turns into a Bigfoot-like monster who terrorises the local village. Think “Frankenstein” crossed with “The Wolf Man”, “only with Plasticine farmyard animals”.

Aardman has delivered “another excellent family film”, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian – “crammed as ever with top visual gags” and blessed with a sparklingly fun screenplay. There are clever references here to everything from “Psycho” and “The Archers” to “The Simpsons”. Look out for a hairdressing salon called Barber Black Sheep and the Stephen King pun hanging outside the pub in Mossy Bottom.

It takes Aardman’s animators a whole day to make just two seconds of footage, said Hadley Freeman in The Sunday Times, but “you would never guess how painful the process is from the high-energy joyfulness of the result”. “I honestly can’t remember the last time I laughed more in a cinema, or wished more that I could stay for a second screening to enjoy it all again.”

Sharon Horgan’s sharp new comedy-drama “Youth” (HBO Max) “perfectly captures what it is to reach your 50s and find that it’s no walk in the park”, said Anita Singh in The Telegraph.

Horgan plays Alex, a member of “the sandwich generation”, caught between the demands of being a parent and looking after her own ageing parents. She has a job as a literary agent, “where the lows include Damian Lewis (playing himself, perfectly deadpan) coming into the office and solemnly announcing that he has written a social satire called ‘Dog Meat’”. She is also divorced and tentatively stepping back into the dating scene, now that her son Ruarí (Aran Murphy) is leaving for university.

If you’re in the market for comedies about women in their 50s, this one “rings hilariously, despairingly true”.

“Thank God for Sharon Horgan,” said Rhik Samadder in The Guardian, “chronicler of all our journeys.” The sex scenes here are “hilarious and penetratingly insightful”, while the show’s depictions of the “uninspiring, Sisyphean grind of caregiving” are good enough to carry the series alone. Murphy (son of Cillian), meanwhile, delivers a “beautifully unforced” performance as Ruarí.

Horgan has become “TV royalty”, said Nick Hilton in The Independent, with a “quartet of fine shows” – “Divorce”, “Motherland”, “Catastrophe” and “Bad Sisters” – to her name. She remains “charming company” on screen, but “Youth” is missing the “pathos” of “Catastrophe” and “the nastiness” of “Motherland”. Hogan’s writing is “as warm and human as ever”, but it lacks her trademark “spark”.

The acronym Mice (money, ideology, coercion, ego) is sometimes used to describe what motivates people to betray their countries, said Oliver Bullough in The Guardian. But in Ben Macintyre’s enthralling new “work of true-espionage”, a fresh motivation emerges: erectile dysfunction.

Vladimir Kuzichkin was a KGB agent stationed in Tehran in the aftermath of the 1979 revolution. With the West “on the back foot” there, the Soviets saw an “opportunity to spread their influence south, to a strategic and oil-rich country”.

Kuzichkin’s role was “to further this aim by distributing money, arms and encouragement” to Iran’s communist party. Yet it was a job he loathed. Stressed and under constant surveillance, he was also frustrated by the corruption and incompetence of his colleagues, who’d celebrate each tiny success with “vast quantities of vodka”. All this took a toll on his marriage (to Galina), including on his performance in the bedroom.

Convinced that his problems were caused by an “overly tight foreskin”, Kuzichkin resolved to be circumcised, said Joseph Finder in The New York Times. But to prevent his “impairment” becoming known to his colleagues, he wanted the operation performed in the West.

And so, in October 1981, he entered the British Embassy in Tehran, and offered to “spy for Britain” – thus becoming, as Macintyre notes, the “first spy in history to demand, as the price of defection, the removal of his foreskin”.

Trivial though his motivations seemed, Kuzichkin’s actions had profound consequences, said James Owen in The Times. The Soviets were planning to foment a communist “coup against the ayatollahs, backed up by an armed invasion”; had this come to fruition, the US might have responded with tactical nuclear weapons.

The intelligence Kuzichkin provided alerted the UK and the US to the Soviets’ plan; MI6 informed the ayatollahs, who savagely clamped down on Iran’s communist party, ending any possibility of a coup.

The victory, however, was double-edged, said Clare Mulley in The Spectator. For in administering the “coup de grâce to Soviet aspirations”, MI6 “bolstered a murderous, fundamentalist regime” – with consequences that are still playing out today.

Redwood – named after MI6’s inadvertently humorous codename for the tall Russian – is an “enjoyable caper”, full of “twists, turns, desires, betrayals and unexpected outcomes”. And it serves as a useful reminder that “history is not solely written by great powers”; in some cases, the “very personal choices, desires and decisions” of a flawed individual can be equally important.

As autumn begins, the countryside “puts on its brightest show”, said Helen Daly and Emma-Louise Pritchard in Country Living. Now is the time to experience the season “at its most colourful” as woodland paths wind through “gold, russet and crimson”. Here are some of our favourite spots for a wholesome day out in nature across the UK.

Cannock Chase, Staffordshire

The woodland of Cannock Chase is “worth visiting all through the year, but there is something particularly special” about autumn, said Daniel Graham on BBC Countryfile. The “former medieval royal hunting forest” is mainland England’s smallest Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and is also home to endangered species such as the nightjar and woodcock. October is the best time to catch glimpses of the male fallow deer rutting, or see muntjac and red deer searching for the rare Chase berry, a “blueberry-cowberry hybrid”. This 6.5-mile walk, of moderate difficulty, “explores all of these habitats and their wildlife”.

Abinger Roughs and Shere Woodlands, Surrey

The 300-year-old “ancient, gnarly oak trees” on Abinger Roughs are the perfect antidote to an “existential crisis”, said Alexandra Sims and Rhian Daly on Time Out. Just a 15-minute drive away are the Shere woodlands, which are equally tranquil. As autumn turns to winter, you begin to understand why the village of Shere made a cameo in the film “The Holiday”. But for the next few months, you’ll find yourself “amid beech, cypress, yew and dogwood trees”, in the kind of woodland which “feels like it should be much further away from a capital city than it is”.

Castle Ward, County Down

The 18th-century mansion on the shores of Strangford Lough draws visitors for its “mix of palladian and gothic architecture”, said Jen and Sim Benson in The Times. But its 800-acre estate holds many moments of excitement for autumn walkers. Stroll through the “leafy deciduous woodland and historic follies, tracing the water’s edge to the ruins of an old castle”, with only short but steep hills in the three-mile loop. “Look out for vast flocks of light-bellied brent geese arriving from the Arctic in autumn and grey seal pups, born in November.”

Teign Gorge, Devon

This stroll is “perhaps the most famous walk on Dartmoor”, said Helen Daly and Emma-Louise Pritchard in Country Living. You start off in the shadow of the “imposing bulk” of Castle Drogo – the last castle to be built in England – and move on though “areas rich in history, with incredible views and abundant wildlife”. Along the way you will reach Fingle Bridge, which dates back to the 13th century and is a “popular focal point for budding photographers”, as well as Poohsticks in the river Teign. On the way back along the river, the “dense oak woodland” is filled with “vibrant shades of yellow and orange” at this time of year.

Allen Banks, Northumberland

Allen Banks is “awesome in autumn”, said Sarah Baxter in The Telegraph. It cuts through “deepest Northumberland”, following the river in a “sheer-sided gorge”, “flanked by the most extensive area of ancient woodland in the county”. Keep an eye out for “scampering red squirrels” and little “ornamental features added by the Victorians”. Autumn brings “fiery beech and oak spilling down the valley”, and, as an added bonus, 180 different species of fungi to observe.

Booker Prize judge and Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker said it was a “surprise” that four novels written by men have ended up on this year’s shortlist of six – because, “generally speaking, the male-written books weren’t as good as the ones written by women”. The male authors still in the running for the prestigious 2026 literary award are those who are able to “rethink their roles”.

‘Masculine authority in crisis’

This year’s shortlisted authors span a “generational arc”, stretching from 40-year-old Rebecca Perry to the “81-year-old veteran of experimental speculative fiction” M. John Harrison, said Johanna Thomas-Corr in The Times. Men outnumber women but the “novels’ subject matter” is “more revealing” than any author’s “identity characteristics”. An “overarching theme” emerges: “masculine authority in crisis – and discomfort”. These are tales of fathers, sons and husbands who are “struggling to inhabit the roles, structures and stories that are supposed to contain them”.

Luke Kennard’s brilliantly funny campus novel, “Black Bag”, sees an out-of-work actor paid to lurk inside a “leather suit bag, as status and confidence evaporate”, while Douglas Stuart “examines the weight of male expectation” in “John of John”, a story about a young gay art student who returns to his repressive home in the Hebrides. In “The Disappearers”, Marlon James charts how masculinity is “brutally policed” in a murderous homophobic attack in 1980s Jamaica. And “The End of Everything", Harrison’s “unsettling” post-apocalyptic tale, “tests the masculine survivalist fantasy of practical competence”.

The female authors on the list also turn their lens on male characters: with “domestic precision”, Elizabeth Strout portrays an increasingly isolated husband in “The Things We Never Say”, while in “May We Feed the King”, Perry follows a “reluctant medieval monarch who inherits the ultimate ‘great man’ role without wanting it”.

None of the books fulfill expectations of what a “male” novel is meant to be. Instead, they reject the very things that male protagonists would once have taken “for granted”, from sexual legitimacy and paternal authority to economic security and “mastery of the world”.

‘Are men OK?’

Last year’s winner, David Szalay’s “Flesh”, a rags-to-riches story about a Hungarian man catapulted into the world of the super-wealthy, sparked much debate about “literary fiction’s renewed interest in masculinity”, said Anthony Cummins in The Observer. This year’s list will only intensify the discussion, “the theme of which might be summed up as: are men OK?”

Some of the writers are “playfully experimental” and I’m glad to see Kennard’s “howlingly funny” book made the cut. His is the “most purely enjoyable” read and contains the “single best scene of any of the novels on the list (if you’ve read it you’ll know the one I’m talking about)”. I found the politics in Strout’s book about a history teacher living through “the second coming” of Donald Trump “too unsubtle”, and Perry and Kennard, “the juniors in the pack”, have “better novels to come”. If “seduced by heft”, the judges might opt for James’ “gruelling saga” but “I suspect it’s the straightforward page-turning jeopardy” of Stuart’s “John of John” that will scoop the top prize.

I’m betting on “British oddball” Harrison, said Lucy Thynne in The Telegraph. This is the first time the octogenarian cult sci-fi writer has got “so much as a look-in” at the Booker, and, if he takes the gong, he’ll be the “oldest winner in its history”. His “stunningly weird vision of the collapse of England” is a “cut above” the other contenders. “I would love it to win”.

Aardman Animations is back with its third feature starring Shaun the Sheep, “the claymation lamb with a heart of gold”, said Empire. The latest, a Halloween-themed film – “The Beast of Mossy Bottom” – sees Shaun and his loyal flock accidentally turn their “beloved if ungainly farmer” into a “Bigfoot-like monster who terrorises the local village”.

It’s 50 years since Peter Lord and David Sproxton set up Aardman, but the stop-motion animation remains “as sharp as ever” and the “commitment to silliness is genuinely admirable”. Here are some of the studio’s other prime films.

Chicken Run (2000)

Like every Aardman film, the premise is straightforward – “The Great Escape” with chickens – but “such is the animators’ ability to humanise the birds’ plight that it turns into an improbably emotional epic”, said The Guardian. Julia Sawalha gives what is arguably her best performance as the “feisty” hen Ginger who “practically forces her dozy fellow chickens to save themselves” from the “dreaded pie machine”. An instant hit, the film proved Aardman could “hold its own” in Hollywood.

Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

The first full-length Wallace and Gromit film won Best Animated Feature at the 2006 Academy Awards. The action follows the best friends as they attempt to “subdue an enormous rabbit who terrorises Tottington Hall’s vegetable gardens in the nights leading up to their annual Giant Vegetable Competition”, said Vulture. With a star-studded cast of British actors including Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes, it’s packed with humour “teetering on the line between silly and absurd”.

Arthur Christmas (2011)

This festive film about Santa Claus’ clumsy son trying to deliver a misplaced present to a little girl is “impeccably put together and goes down a treat”, said The Guardian. Filled with “terrific action sequences” including a “legion of elf-ninjas slamming millions of presents across the planet on Christmas Eve”, the story is a “little more conventional” than other Aardman films but remains a pleasurable watch.

Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015)

Inspired by Aardman’s TV series about a “clever, enterprising” sheep, the film takes the show’s “bare-bones premise and runs wild with it”, said Vulture. Shaun and his flock must travel to the city to save their amnesiac farmer “before Animal Control nabs them all”. Featuring “kid-friendly sight gags” and “adult-friendly puns”, it’s a fun watch for the whole family. But its meditation “on urban alienation” also makes it potentially “the most emotionally mature film in Aardman’s catalogue”.

Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024)

The beloved man-and-dog pair returned for this “perfectly made” feature that sees their relationship start to strain when Wallace “begins relying too much on his robot garden gnome”, said IndieWire. Beyond its “glossy and gorgeous” claymation, what really makes the film stand out is the return of the “terrifyingly evil” Feathers McGraw – the criminal penguin from the greatest Wallace and Gromit short, “The Wrong Trousers”. It’s a must-watch.

“Britain is now a nation of ‘shoulder seasoners’,” said The Times. For the “uninitiated” that means more of us are choosing to travel in May or September to avoid the crowds and soaring temperatures associated with peak summer holiday months.

Most of Europe’s “classic beach destinations” are more affordable in September when the kids go back to school. “But beware the weather.” While places like Faro in Portugal’s Algarve are still warm come autumn, the Atlantic Ocean can be “bracing”. If it’s sun you’re after, the further south you go “the better”.

For “reliable” October half-term temperatures of around 26C during the day, consider booking a trip to the Canary Islands. H10 Costa Adeje Palace in southwest Tenerife is right next to La Enramada beach, from which it’s easy to set out on “nice walks that spiral around the coast”.

If you love history, consider a last-minute trip to Greece. There’s “more room to breathe”, shorter queues for top archaeological sites, and you’ll be able to “relish the hike up to the Parthenon without melting in the heat”, said Condé Nast Traveller. A road trip that “traces the coast of the rugged and mountainous Peloponnese peninsula” is a great way to explore – as long as you’re prepared that it might be too chilly to take a dip.

Puglia is another excellent option for shoulder-season travellers, said The Independent. Outdoor enthusiasts won’t go wrong with a five-day, self-guided walk with Ramble Worldwide. Soak up the “beauties” of the coast as you weave your way from Otranto to Lecce “stopping for refreshing swims” while your luggage is taken ahead to your accommodation.

Or, head to Slovenia for “Habsburg-related history” and “cool wine regions” at a fraction the cost of neighbouring Austria, said The Times. By October, “the treeline cuts a russet-and-copper swathe across the Slovenian countryside as it climbs towards the mountains”. Begin your trip in Ljubljana and end up in Bohinj at its beautiful spa hotel overlooking the Julian Alps. Bliss.

“The new business-casual aesthetic has permeated not just politics (where relatability is more important now than gravitas) but all modern professions,” said Joseph Bullmore in The Sunday Times. And the tie, “which has declined steadily in health and relevance over the past decade or more”, appears to be the “victim of changing formalities”.

Feigning maturity

“The tie used to be what the boss wore; the symbol of power”, said Bullmore, but now it’s “almost solely” a gesture of subservience or service: “the graduate at the job interview, feigning at maturity; the doting waiter at the Mayfair members’ club”. Meanwhile, a photo taken at the 2022 G7 summit showed the “collected leaders of the world” with “their collars gaping louchely open, like a parade of ushers come 10pm at a Surrey wedding”.

Sales of ties have decreased by 7.5% year-on-year over the past five years, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity. However, the picture is less bleak than it may appear: second-hand clothing platform Depop reported a 42% rise in searches for ties in the six months to February.

“I don’t think ties are completely dead, they’re just having a down moment,” Guy Hills, a fashion photographer and owner of London clothing shop Dashing Tweed, told The Guardian. For a younger generation “more interested in sustainability and proper clothing”, he said, the tie is ripe for a comeback.

Sign of rebellion

Indeed, successive obituaries for the necktie have proved “premature”, said The Art of Manliness: the necktie has “kept on beating the odds”.

A previous generation saw the tie as an “office relic” and traded it in for the freedom of “open collars and elevated loungewear”, but for younger people it has become “a sign of rebellion”, wrote Shane C. Kurup on Country & Town House.

Inspired by the experimental styles of celebrity aficionados like Harry Styles, ties with “regimental stripes, natty foulards and 80s abstract-print silks” are “being worn excessively long, a touch short, layered up, undone, tucked in or backwards”. Dior, Hermès, and Saint Laurent all featured neckties in their Spring 2026 collections.

Menswear “tends to move in cycles” and after “periods of looseness, where comfort becomes the dominant language of getting dressed”, there’s “a pull back toward structure”, wrote Ryan Fidell on the Vintage Tie Shop. After a decade that “leaned hard into casual”, the tie is “interesting again”.

Sonoma County has a reputation for outstanding wineries. Cool Pacific breezes and a variety of soils make this stretch of Northern California a perfect place to grow grapes. But there’s more to the region than its vineyards. These six refreshing options present Sonoma County in a different light, showcasing both nature and culture.

Take a walk on the wild side at Safari West

It’s easy to forget where you are during a visit to the wildlife preserve Safari West. Spread across 400 acres in the hills of Santa Rosa, Safari West is home to more than 900 animals, including giraffes, zebras, rhinos, flamingos, cape buffalo and impalas. As you make your way through the vast property on a guided open-air vehicle tour (sit on the roof for an extra thrill), it feels like you’re driving around the plains of Tanzania, waiting for the Great Migration to start.

Safari West was founded in 1993 by Nancy and Peter Lang as a wildlife conservation and education center. No two tours are alike; guides follow the animals’ lead and stay back, giving visitors the chance to appreciate the wildlife without encroaching. Along the way, guides share insights, and tours will stay in habitats longer when the animals are active and playing together or eating.

The fun doesn’t have to end once a tour is over. Guests can spend the night in one of Safari West’s custom-finished safari tents from Botswana. Each comes with a private bathroom, ceiling fan, space heater and viewing deck, and a continental breakfast. After dark, expect to hear the park’s nocturnal animals.

Stare up in awe at the Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve

For more than 1,000 years, the towering coastal redwoods at this natural reserve near Guerneville have stood tall, providing shade and tranquility. The wheelchair-accessible Pioneer Nature Trail passes by the Colonel Armstrong Tree, believed to be more than 1,400 years old and the oldest in the grove; the Icicle Tree, covered with substantial burl formations; and the Parson Jones Tree, the tallest in the park at more than 310 feet. The protected reserve covers 805 acres and is a reminder of what the landscape looked like before logging began in the 19th century.

Stop at downtown Guerneville for a heavenly buttermilk biscuit at Piknik Town Market. Order one with jam and butter, or go savory and get a biscuit topped with vegetarian gravy or stuffed with bacon, lettuce and tomato. While waiting for your breakfast, look around and shop for locally made shirts, hats, candles and tchotchkes. There are several stores along the main drag, including the whimsical Guerneville 5&10 filled with gifts, candy, greeting cards, art supplies and more.

Embrace a childhood favorite at the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center

The gang’s all here. Charlie Brown, Woodstock, Lucy, Linus and, of course, Snoopy are celebrated at the cheerful Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa.

“Peanuts” creator Schulz moved to Sonoma County in the late 1950s, and the museum is filled with his personal artifacts. They include mementos from his childhood and military service and murals he painted for his children’s bedrooms, plus original comic panels, a recreation of Schulz’s studio and an impressive tile piece made of more than 3,500 “Peanuts” strips. In the Education Room, visitors can be creative too, drawing characters and making animations for zoetropes.

Across the street is Snoopy’s Home Ice, an indoor skating rink Schulz built in 1969, where youe can “lace up your skates for public sessions and lessons” or “cheer on” the Santa Rosa Growlers hockey team, said Travel and Leisure. At The Warm Puppy Café, hot cocoa is a popular treat year-round, and Snoopy’s Gallery & Gift Shop offers “Peanuts” T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, magnets, stuffed animals and “all the other merch you could imagine.”

Float down the Russian River

During the summer, “dawdlers of all kinds” head to the Russian River with their “kayaks, canoes, inner tubes — just about anything that will float,” said the Los Angeles Times. Starting in Guerneville, revelers glide past redwoods, vineyards, beaches and other “scenery that might as well be a Northern California highlight reel.” This area is filled with small, “quirky” communities like Monte Rio and Forestville, where you can rent equipment.

Go for a swim at Francis Ford Coppola Winery

This isn’t your typical winery. Academy Award-winning filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola purchased this Geyserville property in 2006 and used it as another canvas for his storytelling.

While designing the estate, Coppola was inspired by Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens and classic amusement parks, and wanted the property to be a place where people could gather for activities beyond drinking wine — a “rarity among vineyards,” said Secret San Francisco. There is a “massive” pool surrounded by comfortable loungers, along with cabins that have a private shower and changing area, a bocce court and a movie gallery.

Visitors can take a self-guided audio tour through the curated gallery, which features memorabilia from Coppola’s films and life, including Don Corleone’s desk from “The Godfather,” surfboards from “Apocalypse Now,” a Tucker Torpedo car from 1948 and several Oscar statuettes. After your tour, lunch at Rustic is only a few steps away. Offering a “quintessential Sonoma Wine Country dining experience,” Rustic focuses on seasonal ingredients grown on property and traditional Italian dishes, said USA Today. Pastas are made in-house, the pizzas are wood-fired and a bag of delicious savory zeppole is presented at the start of every meal. Save room for dessert: The house-made sorbetto is fantastic.

Enjoy R&R at the retro cool Flamingo Resort & Spa

Flamingo Resort and Spa opened in Santa Rosa in 1957 and “wears its midcentury influence on its sleeve,” said The Michelin Guide. The 10-acre, pet-friendly property is anchored by a huge pool, where guests can splash away from morning until well into the night. Renovated rooms are “midcentury in inspiration and totally modern in their comforts,” with mini-refrigerators, coffee and tea stations and floor-to-ceiling windows with blackout curtains.

Guests have access to tennis and pickleball courts and a fitness center offering spin, yoga, a sauna and a steam room, and barre and aerobic classes. For a relaxing massage or facial, head to the spa, and for dinner, look no further than the Lazeaway Club. Sit outside on the patio overlooking the pool and enjoy the delicious Cal-Pacific cooking, like the bulgogi burger with umami fries, bibimbap bowl and seared salmon with shimeji mushrooms in a coconut-lemongrass broth. End the night at the Vintage Space for live music, dance parties and Thursday night stand-up shows with Don’t Tell Comedy.

Catherine Garcia was a guest of Sonoma County Tourism

“Strictly Come Dancing” returned on Saturday, bringing “plenty of promising twinkle” and “some inevitable nerves”, said Liz Edwards in The Sunday Times.

In the launch show, celebrity contestants including Dani Dyer and Sarah Storey were partnered up with their professional dancers in a “sequinned spectacle” ahead of the first live performances next week.

This year, the seasonal stalwart has undergone a “‘Doctor Who’-like regeneration”. The accomplished presenting duo of Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman departed after the last series, and have been replaced with seasoned TV host Emma Willis, former “Strictly” dancer Johannes Radebe and comedian Josh Widdicombe. After their debut show, the judges’ scores are in.

‘Played a blinder’

“There’s a lot riding on this new series”, the country’s final link “to a time when joy, sparkle and diversity brought the nation together”, said Emine Saner in The Guardian.

The new trio have nailed a “can’t-quite-believe-we-got-the-gig humility combined with superfan credentials, which is absolutely the right note”. Willis is a “class act” with bags of experience, Widdicombe is at his “best when he’s given the space to gently rib the contestants”, and Radebe’s “air of gentle benevolence” is “genuinely fresh”. “Maybe I just really want it to work”, but overall “the signs are good”.

“‘Strictly’ has played a blinder,” said Sarah Carson in The i Paper. There were fears the departure of Daly and Winkleman from the show “spelled its demise”, but “all it took was one dance” to put us at ease: a “sublimely thrilling, playful opener loaded with details for superfans”. There was much speculation about the new hosts, but frankly, “Pingu could have been presenting and it would still be the slickest programme on television”.

With Willis, we’re in “safe hands”, and Radebe’s experience in the studio makes him look “at home”, said Anita Singh in The Telegraph. But “schoolboy” Widdicombe “looks out of place alongside this glam duo”, turning it into an “awkward throuple”.

The “fluid” set-up, where the new hosts moved between the dancefloor and what was previously the “Clauditorium”, looked like “musical chairs”, said Frances Taylor in Radio Times. Overall, the trio “weren’t ah-may-zing… but they also weren’t a dis-ah-ster” either. The real test will be next week, when the show is live and there “really will be nowhere to hide”.

‘Worst’ celeb line-up yet

Other revamps are working well, said Edwards in The Sunday Times. There are five new professional dancers and a new way of announcing “celeb-pro” pairings, which gives proceedings a “hint of jeopardy”. Instead of pre-recorded announcements, and pairs walking down the stairs arm in arm, the partners were revealed “via a sort of pass-the-parcel dance routine, or spangly spin the bottle”. It was “chaotic, but it worked”.

Still, there are clouds surrounding the show, including some questioning whether it had become too repetitive and “lost its lustre for celebrity contestants”. Viewing figures have slumped, but even the current audience of around 7.8 million per episode is something that rival programmes would “give their eye teeth for”.

In recent years, the regularity of trying to figure out “who on earth the celebrities are” on “Strictly” is becoming as “steady as a rotating glitterball”, said Taylor in Radio Times. Without a doubt, the “calibre of star signings seems to dip every year” – “if you’ve heard of more than, say, five of the names taking part, give yourself a pat on the back”. Sadly, this line-up “really is the worst yet”.

The show has many flaws: the “D-listers, the judging, the pretence that half of these people haven’t had years of dance experience”, said Singh in The Telegraph. Yet every year millions flock to it and, ratings permitting, we are again set to fall in love with “contestants we hadn’t heard of a month before”.

The lunchbox that’s been “lurking” at the back of the cupboard for the last few years “may finally be heading back to work”, said Andrew Ellson in The Times. Fewer of us are popping into Pret a Manger for a sandwich as more office workers are “rediscovering the packed lunch”.

As prices at high street shops continue to soar, polling from Ocado has found that more than two thirds (69%) of professionals think buying lunch out is too expensive. Almost half (46%) of them have started to bring in lunch from home more often than they did a year ago.

But a packed lunch doesn’t have to mean soggy sandwiches or a “punishment tub of undressed baby spinach and slimy sweet potato chunks”, said Jimi Famurewa in The Guardian. Instead, you can get creative with “punchy, textural riots” like Rukmini Iyer’s tasty chapati omelette rolls or Rosie Birkett’s celeriac, apple and lentil salad “brightened by lemony mayonnaise and an enlivening lick of dijon mustard”. Or, if there’s a kettle nearby, consider making Tamal Ray’s “veg-filled, rainbow-hued riff on everyone’s favourite additive-stuffed hangover salve: the noodle pot”.

For something easy but “great for gut health”, try whipping up a batch of ancient grains (you can use a Merchant Gourmet pouch from the supermarket) with feta and avocado, said Xanthe Clay in The Telegraph. Pack in as many vegetables as you like and add pumpkin seeds for a tasty lunch that will “boost your diet diversity” and deliver slow-release energy.

If you prefer a hearty lunch that will warm you up as the weather cools down, consider making a homemade minestrone with parmesan meatballs. Ideal for cooking at the weekend and freezing in batches, it “always tastes better the next day”.

Another brilliant recipe to “add to your repertoire” is an “oh-so-comforting” vegan chickpea and cauliflower dahl, said Good Housekeeping. Filled with “fragrant” spices and plenty of vegetables, it’s perfect served with “cooling” yoghurt, steamed rice or naan bread.

A long walk in the wild east, a “remote” upland region of northern Portugal close to the Spanish border, the Côa Valley feels like “an enchanted, parallel world”, says Ben Buckland in The New York Times.

To explore it thoroughly, you could walk the 124-mile Côa Valley Grand Route, or GR45, which follows the Côa River northwards from its source to its confluence with the Douro. There are medieval castles along the way, and beautiful old villages with pleasant B&Bs, still thriving despite decades of rural flight.

Eagles and wolves roam the countryside, along with “sleek” grey Sorraia horses, reintroduced by the charity Rewilding Portugal. And near the trail’s northern end, there’s an even more extraordinary sight: thousands of “crisp” rock engravings of animals dating back up to 24,000 years, now protected as a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Britain’s new marine marvels

As climate change warms Britain’s coastal waters, there has been a “huge influx” of spectacular species from seas to the south.

Keen to see some of them, I took a wildlife-watching boat trip from Brixham Harbour in south Devon, says Mark Stratton in The Telegraph – a day-long outing with Captain Ross Parham on his 42ft catamaran Spot On.

The sightings were plentiful, beginning with a sunfish – a “bizarre leviathan” with no tail and a round body that grows up to 10ft long. Later came “entrancing” pods of common dolphins (which are increasingly numerous here), and several 12ft-long Risso dolphins (“truly impressive beasts” with “bulbous, wrecking-ball heads”), which were seen doing “arching backflips” with “great splash landings”. The birds were dazzling, too – especially the Balearic shearwaters. Our “exotic” show concluded with a sighting of a 30ft minke whale.

The trip costs £135pp (naturetrek.co.uk).

A 1970s time warp on the Med

It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’ve got a soft spot for 1970s urban planning, you might enjoy a trip to La Grande-Motte, says Mark C. O’Flaherty in The Guardian.

Conceived by the architect Jean Balladur, this “retro futurist folly of a resort town” lies on France’s south coast, 30 minutes’ drive from Montpellier. In the 1980s, it was seen as “gauche”, and later it gained a “trashy reputation”. But it seems to be undergoing a “renaissance”, and its “gleaming white” apartment blocks – like “Mesoamerican pyramids”, but with elegant balconies and lots of “intergalactic” curves – should please any “lover of postwar architourism”.

Stay at the three-star Hôtel Le Quetzal (refurbished, but still “fabulously vintage”), and make time for the more conventional sights nearby – notably the area’s salt marshes.

Travel is usually about “discovery”, but there’s also joy in introducing places you love to people you love. That was the idea behind the 15-night tour of China my husband and I took with our teenage daughters last Easter, says Helen Holmes in The Times – though, in fact, we found the country much changed since our last visit 18 years ago.

The biggest boon was its “gleaming” new network of high-speed railways, which cut once-epic journeys down to just a few hours. Be warned, though, the country’s increased prosperity has also created “hordes” of domestic tourists, which has contributed to over-tourism at some sites. It is a good idea, too, to research local payment apps which, once mastered, make life much simpler.

Buying train tickets is still complex, however, so we used an agency, China Highlights. Our trip was bookended by four-night stays in Hong Kong and Shanghai, and we spent time in two regions between the two. First came three nights in the “lush” southwestern province of Guangxi, with its “languorous” rivers, rice paddies and karst peaks – “the landscape of Chinese legend”.

In the historic town of Xingping (featured on the 20 yuan banknote), we stayed at the Giggling Tree, a guesthouse in a former farm where you can dine in the courtyard, “inhaling the fragrance of pomelo blossom” on the warm evening air. And we escaped the “selfie-seeking crowds” on a cycling trip along the “misty” Li River, returning downstream on bamboo rafts propelled by boatmen with poles.

We spent a further four nights in Hunan province, in central China, at the Forest Glass Inn, a stylishly converted Tujia minority compound in Zhangjiajie. The nearby Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, with its 3,000 “spiky” peaks topped with “improbable” mops of lush greenery, inspired the landscapes in the Avatar films. The park is simply “astonishing”, although exploring can be tiring owing to the “staggering” tourist crowds. Less stressful were our visits to the old towns of Fenghuang and Furong Zhen – both “delightful”.

With fall on the horizon, now is the perfect time to keep yourself warm by dancing the night away. Say hello to autumn with some big-name artists headlining tours across the country and the world.

Bryson Tiller

Rapper Bryson Tiller found mainstream success in 2015, and since then has become a star-powered name in the rap and R&B space. Fans can catch him live during the “Neo Trapsoul” tour.

The name of the tour is an homage to Bryson’s 2015 breakthrough studio album “Trapsoul” and runs across three continents. This will be a “celebration of more than a decade of music, giving fans a chance to experience the sound that put him on the map in a full live-show format,” said SeatGeek. One of Tiller’s “most ambitious headline runs to date.” (through January 2027)

Ella Langley

Country music singer Ella Langley had a massive Billboard hit with her April 2026 LP “Dandelion,” and the Alabama native is supporting the album’s success with her ongoing “The Dandelion” tour. The series takes Langley across the United States and marks her first-ever arena shows.

They will feature “90-minute sets packed with crowd singalongs, emotional storytelling and a closing moment” with Langley’s longtime collaborator Riley Green, said SeatGeek. People who see Langley live are “not just going to a concert — you’re witnessing a once-in-a-generation breakout while it’s still unfolding.” (through March 2027)

Karol G

Fewer names are bigger in reggaeton than Karol G, and the Colombian superstar is no stranger to world tours. Her latest, “Viajando Por El Mundo”, takes Karol G across three continents and began around the same time she released her latest studio album, “No Me Arrepiento de Sentir Tanto.”

The tour is a “celebration of not only Karol’s influence but cultura that binds millions,” said Rolling Stone. While “some transitions” in the show are a “bit clunky,” this is a performance that is “confident, strong, sexy, secure” and “full of heart.” (through July 2027)

Latto

Latto rose to prominence after a stint on a reality television show in 2016 and quickly rose through the ranks of the rap genre. Since then, she’s put out four albums, including one earlier this year, and is currently crisscrossing the United States and Canada supporting Doja Cat on the “Tour Ma Vie” tour.

While Doja Cat may be the concert’s star, Latto has a major supporting role, with her own unique style of rap. This is the latest of several collaborations between the two artists. (through December)

Lil Wayne

Few rappers have had a bigger career than Lil Wayne, and his six-set album series “Tha Carter” remains a rap tentpole. 22 years after the initial LP in the set was released, Lil Wayne is celebrating the albums with his “20 Years of Carter Classics” tour.

These concerts feature another major rap name: 2 Chainz is accompanying Lil Wayne for the majority of the stops. The tour is essentially an extension of Lil Wayne’s 2025 shows promoting the most recent “Tha Carter” album released last year. (through October)

Metallica

Legendary metal band Metallica wrapped their last tour only a few months ago but is back on stage again. Following the success of the band’s three-year “M72” world concerts, Metallica has landed in Las Vegas for a months-long residency at the Sphere.

The show, titled “Life Burns Faster,” features Metallica’s “entire catalog, enhanced by the venue’s immersive technologies that will allow you to experience the ’Tallica sound in new experiential dimensions,” said the band’s website. The Sphere shows “deliver a totally unique experience each and every night.” (through March 2027)

Olivia Rodrigo

Olivia Rodrigo has had a stratospheric rise since her start on the Disney Channel, transforming into one of the biggest pop stars in the world. Now Rodrigo’s fanbase can catch her latest globetrotting effort, “The Unraveled” tour.

The shows, which supports Rodrigo’s third LP, “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love,” span cities in North America and Europe. They also come on the heels of Rodrigo’s news-making performance at the Daisy Chain Fields Music Festival, where she was “sharing the stage with music legends Stevie Nicks, Sarah McLachlan and Alanis Morissette,” said USA Today. (through May 2027)

Ozuna

Ozuna has become one of Puerto Rico’s most famous singers and is known for blending a variety of Latin genres. He is back on the road with his “Una Aventura” tour, marking Ozuna’s first concert series in four years.

The international tour spans Europe and Latin America and “presents a show designed to revisit the most important moments of his musical journey,” said ColombiaOne. The show includes “some of the biggest hits that established him as one of the leading figures in Latin urban music.” (through November)

Tame Impala

For a unique concert experience and musical sound, check out Tame Impala’s latest outing, the “Deadbeat” tour. The shows, supporting the Australian electronic band’s 2025 studio album of the same name, highlight two songs that have made waves across the charts this year: “Dracula” and “Loser.”

The performance itself has received critical acclaim and is a “fully enveloping sensory experience” that goes “far beyond the expected ‘live concert,’” said Rock Cellar magazine. It includes Tame Impala performing on a “pulsating platform that resembles a “spacecraft about to take flight.” (through July 2027)

Teddy Swims

Teddy Swims is the answer, if you want another genre-blending artist to see live. Since his breakthrough in 2023, the Georgia-born artist has embarked on a slew of concerts, including his latest, the “Ugly” tour.

The show spans venues across the world and comes a year after Teddy Swims released his second LP, “I’ve Tried Everything but Therapy (Part 2).” Additional concert dates were recently announced for 2027, “following the singer performing a huge run of live shows this summer, including festival slots at Bonnaroo, Coachella, Isle Of Wight Festival, Mad Cool and more,” said NME. (through April 2027)

Served just warm with nutty brown rice, garlicky yoghurt and rocket salad on the side, this dish makes a lovely vegetarian supper. It also works well with grilled or barbecued lamb, wrote the late Skye Gyngell in her bestselling book “A Year in My Kitchen”, which has just been reissued in a 20th anniversary edition.

Ingredients (serves 4-6)

• 1.5kg aubergines, trimmed
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil, to shallow fry
• 50g unsalted butter
• 1kg ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
• 400ml crème fraîche
• 2 tbsp tarragon leaves, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp chopped flatleaf parsley, plus extra to finish
• ½ tbsp chopped thyme leaves (ideally lemon thyme), plus sprigs to garnish
• 1 tbsp finely chopped chives
• 50g parmesan, freshly grated
• extra-virgin olive oil, to drizzle

Method

• Slice the aubergines into 1cm rounds. Lay in a colander and sprinkle generously with salt. Leave to degorge the juices for about 30mins – beads of moisture will appear on the flesh. Before cooking, pat each slice dry with kitchen paper.
• Heat a 1cm depth of olive oil in a large, fairly deep frying pan over a medium-high heat. Fry the aubergine slices, a few at a time, until golden brown on one side, then turn and brown on the other side. Remove and drain on kitchen paper.
• Melt the butter in another saucepan. Add the chopped tomatoes and garlic and season with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Cook over a low heat for about 15mins until the tomatoes are soft.
• Meanwhile, put the crème fraîche into a small pan and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Allow to bubble until reduced by a third, then take off the heat and add the tarragon, parsley, thyme and chives. Add half of the parmesan and taste for seasoning.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line the bottom of a large, shallow ovenproof dish with a layer of aubergine slices. Follow with a thin coating of the tomato sauce and a sprinkling of parmesan. Continue layering, finishing with tomato sauce. Pour over the crème fraîche and sprinkle with the remaining parmesan. Leave to sit for a few minutes to allow the flavours to get acquainted.
• Place in the oven and bake for about 20-25mins until golden brown. Allow to stand for 5mins. Drizzle with a little extra-virgin olive oil and sprinkle with a pinch or two of salt. Scatter over some finely chopped parsley and thyme sprigs to garnish and serve... but not too hot!

Taken from A Year in My Kitchen by Skye Gyngell.

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“Launching an all-new coupé in 2026 is a brave move” given the dominance of SUVs, said Evo. But Honda isn’t expecting to sell a lot of these – 1,000 over the next two years, and it has few competitors.

The Prelude uses Honda’s “e:HEV powertrain” – a two-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine combined with twin electric motors, for an underwhelming 181bhp peak output and a 0-62mph time of 8.2 secs.

“A promising two-door coupé take on the hybrid sports car formula”, the Prelude strikes a “good balance between ride and handling”, said Auto Express. Sure, it lacks “gut-punching power”, but it’s well calibrated, with an “agile and responsive” chassis and plenty of grip.

The steering has decent weight; there’s a “sporty edge” to the acceleration. And the hybrid powertrain delivers “impressive efficiency” of 54.3mpg.

The Prelude will appeal to those who “love the sleek looks” of a sports car, but who don’t want to drive one, or sacrifice comfort, said The Telegraph. There’s just one model available, with high-spec advance trim and a “plush interior” with real leather upholstery.

The “snappy” touchscreen is simple to use and you get “proper buttons” too. But even children will feel cramped in the back, and the 284- litre boot is “pretty stingy”.

Europe’s art scene continues to be one of the richest and most diverse in the world. From Renaissance masterpieces, to innovative impressionism, the continent’s exhibitions have so much to offer this autumn. Explore some of the titans of industry in Dalí and Rembrandt, and discover lesser-known gems such as Mary Cassatt, for shows right up until April.

Willem de Kooning at Work

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Willem de Kooning (1904-97) was just 22 when he left Rotterdam for America. A stowaway on a freighter, he had no money and scarcely a word of English. Yet within 30 years, he was a titan of abstract expressionism. Marking the centenary of his departure, this exhibition explores one of the 20th century’s most revered painters.
9 October-17 January 2027

Bernini – Painter and Sculptor

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria

Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) was arguably the ultimate Renaissance man. He painted, sculpted and even planned cities; and, as an architect, he arguably invented the baroque style. Vienna’s art history museum is mounting an unprecedented display of the artist’s masterpieces.
2 December-4 April 2027

Hals-Rembrandt

Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands

Two giants of Dutch art are united here for a surefire blockbuster. Hals was lively and irreverent; Rembrandt dealt with subjects altogether more weighty. A shared sensibility as painters, however, shines through their respective bodies of work.
6 November-28 February 2027

Mary Cassatt: Being Independent

Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

The impressionist master Mary Cassatt finally gets the retrospective she deserves. Cassatt (1844-1926), who was born in America but worked in Paris, was every bit as inventive as her better-known male peers: her pictures of children are stupendous, less soppy than Renoir, more modern than Manet.
6 October-31 January 2027

The Freudian Universe of Dalí

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain

Surrealism was a movement inherently linked to Freudian psychoanalysis; this show features 62 works by Salvador Dalí, and explores his deeply odd beliefs from a therapist’s point of view. It will come as no surprise to learn there is a lot to unpick.
20 October-24 January 2027

Thanks to the smash hit success of “1536”, her “coruscating” play about three young women in Tudor England, the English writer Ava Pickett is flavour of the month, said Sarah Crompton on WhatsOnStage. Now, she has produced a new play – “Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy” – which is so powerful she might well prove to “be flavour of the year and of many years to come”. The drama, in which Helen (played with “high-wire intensity” by Michelle Dockery) is brought back to modern-day Essex after a civil war in England is “full of spit, fire and brilliance”. It’s like “Sarah Kane crossed with ‘The Only Way is Essex’ – devastatingly funny but utterly furious about the state of the world and the way that women within it are treated”.

Years ago, Helen left her husband Marcus (Menelaus) for a “foreigner”, prompting hordes of angry men to wreak havoc for a decade in her name, said Emma John in The Guardian. In a Towie-style home, her former close friend Cee, who is married to Marcus’s brother Mario (Agamemnon), hosts a tense event to mark her return – blood-spattered and still in shock. Given the recent scenes of masked men protesting in Dover and Portsmouth, Pickett’s dystopia feels “uncomfortably close, albeit infused with a Martin McDonagh-esque black wit”.

There are “tremendous” performances across the board, said Andrzej Lukowski on Time Out, and the pacey, emphatic direction from Lisa Spirling is “spot on”.

I was almost alone among critics in not taking to “1536”, said Clive Davis in The Times – and I didn’t much care for this play either. It’s “vivid”, and features “vivacious performances”. But its “erratic mix of myth and modern-day melodrama” leads from one “overwrought standoff to another” – while the characters “never come fully into focus”. It’s not a “perfect” play, said Sarah Hemming in the Financial Times, but it’s “bloody good”. It is true that the “bigger political picture remains peculiarly hazy for a country mired in civil war”. Even so, the “audacity of the narrative keeps you pinned to the action”. This is “bracing, provocative and scintillatingly written” drama, laced with “needle-sharp humour”.

stratfordeast.com Theatre Royal Stratford East, London E15. Until 10 October

“There’s no shortage of worthy films about D-Day,” said David Sexton in The New Statesman. To name just a few, there are “The Longest Day”, “Saving Private Ryan”, “Overlord”, “The Big Red One” – and, of course, we also have TV’s “Band of Brothers”. Yet “Pressure”, from the producers of “Darkest Hour” and based on a play by the actor and writer David Haig, “finds a niche not yet occupied”. Uniquely, the drama focuses on the days immediately before the Normandy landings of 6 June 1944, and the “momentous” weather forecasts made by Scottish meteorologist James Stagg. Eisenhower had decided Operation Overlord should go ahead on 5 June. Stagg, however, became convinced the day would be stormy – bringing swell and poor visibility that would spell disaster. But on 4 June, Stagg forecast a calm interlude for 6 June. In Pressure, Stagg, played by Andrew Scott (“the film’s main attraction”) must persuade Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser), the “irascible” General Bernard Montgomery (Damian Lewis), and Stagg’s US counterpart, Irving P. Krick (Chris Messina) to trust the data he has gathered, and delay the seaborne invasion by 24 hours.

“Dramatically speaking, this is all a bit more interesting in theory than in practice,” said Adam White in The Independent. The film is “largely confined to a series of identikit studies and war rooms”, and the eventual recreation of the landings sparks “unflattering comparisons to ‘Saving Private Ryan’, budget constraints on full display”. Thank goodness, then, for Scott, said Danny Leigh in the Financial Times, in whose “every pained expression, we see the gravity of the situation – and an allergic inability to simply smile and nod”. His performance “really is superb”.

Isle of Wight: Vine Cottage, Old Town, Cowes

This attractive, period cottage (pale blue) enjoys glimpses of the sea from the upper floors. With easy access to the high street. 4 beds, 2 baths, kitchen, 2 receps, garden. £545,000; Spence Willard.

Ceredigion: Brynymor House, Cardigan

A stunning Georgian house on the Teifi Estuary. Newly renovated, it boasts glorious views and direct access to the river. 8 beds, 2 baths, kitchen, 2 receps, outbuildings, garden, parking. OIEO £1.65 million; Country Living Group.

Essex: The Farmhouse at Coppingdown Farm, Castle Hedingham

A handsome house with fine rural views. 5 beds, 3 baths, kitchen, 5 receps, garden, parking. £995,000; David Burr.

Suffolk: Tipplers, Rickinghall

This striking and characterful Grade II listed thatched cottage sits at the heart of a highly sought-after village. 4 beds, 2 baths, kitchen/dining room, recep, garden, garage. OIEO £375,000; David Burr.

Wiltshire: Stoford House, Stoford

A fine Grade II Georgian house set in mature gardens of approx. 3⁄4 of an acre in the Wylye Valley. Main suite, 3 further beds, shower, kitchen, 3 receps, study, outbuilding, garden, parking. £895,000; Myddelton & Major.

Oxfordshire: Ossicles, Henley-on-Thames

This unique architect-designed contemporary property is set in mature gardens. The property features a limestone terrace running the length of the dining and reception area and a wall of glass that opens, giving the sense that the garden is an extension of the house. 5 beds, 4 baths, kitchen/breakfast room, 3 receps, garden, parking. £2.5 million; Knight Frank.

Kent: York House, Deal

A charming Georgian house, with a distinctive Dutch gable facade, in the heart of a conservation area close to the beach. The property includes a wooden-framed studio situated at the bottom of the garden. 3 beds, 2 baths, kitchen, 3 receps, studio, garden. £750,0000; Bright & Bright.

Shropshire: The Old School House, Bucknell

A delightful Grade II early 17th century timber-framed village house. Situated in a tranquil rural area, and set in mature gardens on the banks of the Redlake. 4 beds, 2 baths, kitchen/ breakfast room, 3 receps, garden, period barn, parking. £695,000; Knight Frank.