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Culture

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Entertainment

‘Blockbuster’ history of Alexander the Great wins £50,000 Baillie Gifford prize

Alexander: God, King, Man by Edmund Richardson becomes the first ancient history title to win the prestigious nonfiction award • Alexander: God, King, Man by Edmund Richardson review – a dazzling, dizzying adventure Edmund Richardson has won the 2026 Baillie Gifford prize for nonfiction for Alexander: God, King, Man, his account of the life of Alexander the Great, becoming the first writer to win the prize for an ancient history book. Richardson was awarded the £50,000 prize at a ceremony in London on Wednesday evening, beating a six-strong shortlist that included former winner Patrick Radden

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‘He was destined for this award’: China Miéville wins Goldsmiths prize for 1,200-page novel

The Rouse, which took its author two decades to complete, was praised by judges as ‘exuberant, overflowing’ China Miéville has won the £10,000 Goldsmiths prize for The Rouse, a 1,264-page epic that is part paranormal thriller, part historical saga moving through decades of British imperial and cold war history. The win, announced at a ceremony in London on Wednesday, makes The Rouse the longest novel to take the prize since it was launched in 2013 to reward fiction that “breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form”. Continue reading...

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Herbert Blomstedt, renowned conductor with a seven-decade career, dies aged 99

The much loved Swedish-American musician, particularly known for his work with the San Francisco Symphony and Leipzig Gewandhaus, continued performing until earlier this year The conductor Herbert Blomstedt has died aged 99. His career stretched over an extraordinary seven decades and he continued to conduct and tour into his late 90s; his final concert was earlier this year, aged 98. Born in Massachusetts, US, in July 1927 to Swedish parents, the musician grew up in Sweden and Finland. His conducting tutors included Igor Markevitch, Jean Morel and Leonard Bernstein. Continue reading...

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‘Jimi Horsedrix brought me so much joy’: the comic drawing a horse a day – and day 69’s is unsuitable for children

On day 58, he did a boxing Ali horse. On day 67, he did a howling horse. So what made Andy Field suddenly decide to draw 100 equines? And what made day 48’s so phallic? Andy Field was midway through his standup run at this year’s Edinburgh fringe when he was struck by an unusual urge – the urge to draw a horse. “I hadn’t sat down to draw anything since I was at school,” says the 34-year-old comedian. “Drawing was a skill I didn’t have.” He’s not lying. The subsequent horse Field posted to TikTok and Instagram was rather naive, with its four identical straight legs and cartoon eyeball. But the

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Entertainment

‘I put a smoke bomb in a road cone and stuck it on my head’: Delton Barrett’s best photograph

‘It occurred to me that this image looked like someone losing their mind, going ballistic. I tried many shots and was getting tired. Looking back, it’s a wonder I survived’ I grew up on New Providence in the Bahamas, and still live on the south side of the island. After leaving school, I worked with my dad in construction, and that’s where I started taking photos. For the first couple of years, I used my flip phone, playing with images of nature and flowers on the sites we were working on, but in 2010 I bought my first DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera and started teaching myself about

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Brahms’ First is 150 years old today. Here’s how he grappled with ‘a giant on his back’ to write a masterpiece

Brahms’ first symphony was 21 years in the making. It was well worth the wait. Also, today, why Ivan Fischer and the Berlin Phil have parted company over a seating arrangement By any reckoning, 21 years is a very long gestation period. Beethoven wrote his first eight symphonies (and was stuck into the ninth) in less time. But it’s how long it took Brahms to complete his First Symphony. He initially sketched it in the mid-1850s, in his 20s, and he was 43 by the time it was premiered, exactly 150 years ago on 4 November 1876 in Karlsruhe. Earlier that summer had seen the premiere of Wagner’s Rin

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Entertainment

‘This is redemption time’: celebrities react to Democrats’ historic midterms sweep

After the party regained control of both houses of Congress, stars including Viola Davis, Bette Midler and John Cusack have been celebrating US midterms 2026 live – latest updates Track live results from all 50 states Tell us: what do you want to know about midterm results? Celebrities have been reacting to last night’s historic midterm victory for the Democrats after the party regained control of both the House and the Senate. The night saw a string of major victories for the party as voters expressed their disapproval of Donald Trump and his failing economy. Continue reading...

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Entertainment

Can you tell a real Warhol from a fake? Four art exhibitions to see for free

A show of smart forgeries by Sturtevant will test your critical eye. Elsewhere, there’s a chance to dissect America’s cultural corpse and enter a terrifying immersive painting of Mexico Cady Noland’s US is a violent, celebrity obsessed, consumerist police state. In this small show of big, stark, awkwardly cropped and blurry black and white images and minimal sculptures, the influential American iconoclast is dissecting her country’s cultural detritus, and leaving its splayed corpse on display. Continue reading...

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Phoebe Waller-Bridge donates flat to help early-career writers live in London

Fleabag creator joins stars signing up to scheme aimed at tackling class barriers in theatre Phoebe Waller-Bridge has donated a London flat so that early-career writers can afford to live in the capital. The creator of the hit show Fleabag bought the property specifically for Writers’ Block, a new scheme tackling class barriers in theatre. The flat will be offered to writers from disadvantaged backgrounds, who will pay only bills. Waller-Bridge has also made what the initiative described as a “generous financial contribution”. Continue reading...

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All’s Fair season two review – am I delirious … or is this getting good?

From Glenn Close in pleather to naughty rumours about Bruno Mars, this legal drama is still absolutely ludicrous. But squint hard enough and it has slightly improved since its zero-star debut On the one hand, Trump and the Maga movement have been routed in the midterms. On the other, the second season of All’s Fair is out. Truly, the lord giveth and the lord taketh away. For those of you who have blanked the first season from your mind, All’s Fair is the existentially terrible offering from Ryan Murphy’s increasingly manure-filled stable, starring Kim Kardashian, Naomi Watts, Niecy Nash-Betts

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Callum Turner emerges as James Bond favourite as Pierce Brosnan endorses actor: ‘He’s so strong’

Bookmakers’ odds have shortened to 8/13 for the British actor, seen sipping martinis with his wife Dua Lipa at the weekend Ten days after final screentests for the most coveted role in British cinema, one actor has emerged as a strong favourite to don the 007 tux for Denis Villeneuve’s forthcoming film. The bookmaker William Hill has cut the odds of Callum Turner being named as the next James Bond from 3/1 to 8/13, with previous favourite Jack Lowden now at 2/1. Josh O’Connor, who also auditioned recently, is now at 9/2, with Richard Madden, Robert Pattinson and Joe Alwyn at 16/1. Continue rea

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‘Frighteningly of the moment’: Steven Sater on his emperor Nero musical and turning JFK’s assassination into a Greek tragedy

It took the Tony winner 20 years to bring his ‘showman’ tyrant to London. He reflects on its Trumpian parallels, the death of Spring Awakening’s Duncan Sheik and the horrific accident that led him to ancient classics Before Spring Awakening won eight Tony awards in 2007, its dramatist and lyricist Steven Sater had “been struggling financially and professionally for quite a while,” he remembers. “Everyone said at the time: this is where it all starts!” Sater and composer Duncan Sheik thought their next success would be Nero, about the Roman emperor who murdered his mother among many others, whi

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