New novels from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Ian McEwan, plus the return of Slow Horses and Margaret Atwood looks back … Guardian critics pick the must-read titles of 2025

The Guardian’s fiction editor picks the best of the year, from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dream Count to Thomas Pynchon’s return, David Szalay’s Booker winner and a remarkable collection of short stories.

It’s one thing facing a major diagnosis; it’s quite another dealing with your partner pulling away. But does the stereotype match the reality?

Jess never dreamed that she was going to get sick, nor did she consider what it would mean for her love life if she did. When she first started dating her boyfriend, they were both in their late 20s, living busy, active lives. “Sport was something we did a lot of and we did it together: we worked hard, played hard, we went for bike rides and went running and played golf together.”

But around a year into their relationship, all that stopped abruptly when Jess was diagnosed with long Covid, the poorly understood syndrome that in some people follows a Covid infection. For her, it meant “a general shutdown of my body: lungs, heart, stomach, really bad brain fog”. She went from being a sporty, independent 29-year-old with a successful career to sleeping all day and relying on her boyfriend for everything.

SuperLiz reboots herself inside a utility room, delivering nonsense so pure even her guests look trapped

We happy few. We unlucky few. In years to come when we are all still recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder, we will be able to say we were there. That we have seen things that cannot be unseen. The 8,000 of us who, through a mixture of curiosity and comedy, chose to watch Liz Truss commit a drive-by on herself. Though only a very few will have made it to the end.

Some won’t have even made it to the start. The show started an hour late because Liz forgot to put her watch back in October. Still, this was an award-winning YouTube TV show. Though not the awards anyone would want to collect.

He made buildings that looked like slouching drunks and quarrelling couples but it was the Spanish museum that secured his ‘starchitect’ status – a creation that became something of a curse

Frank Gehry once had a cameo in The Simpsons in which he designed buildings by scrunching up pieces of paper. There was a bit more to it than that, but from Prague to Panama City, his scrunched contours were instantly recognisable, expressed in an exuberant parade of buildings that cranked and slumped as if hit by a wrecking ball, or crashed and whirled like dervishes, defying laws of gravity and structural logic. Though Gehry, who has died aged 96, came of age in the era of modernism, it was as if he were physically incapable of drawing a straight line.

In his prime, Gehry’s architecture was a rebuff to modernist imperators such as Mies van der Rohe and his po-faced injunction, “less is more”. The American postmodern theorist and architect Robert Venturi turned it on its head, quipping “less is a bore”. It summed up the maximalist Gehry perfectly.

The Green party leader on his ‘floordrobe’, doomscrolling, and getting arrested on Waterloo Bridge

Born David Paulden in Greater Manchester, Zack Polanski, 43, changed his name at 18 to reflect his Jewish heritage. He studied acting at Aberystwyth University and worked in community theatre and as a hypnotherapist. In 2017, he joined the Greens. He was elected deputy leader in 2022 and leader in September. He lives in London with his partner.

When were you happiest?
Last summer with my boyfriend Richie. We had no plans – it was just wonderful.

The diminutive Derry Girls star isn’t afraid to speak her mind, even if it costs her fans and followers

Back in 2008, when Nicola Coughlan was at drama school, a guy in her class swaggered over and, with all the brimming confidence of young men in the noughties, asked her, “Do the Irish think the English are really cool?” Coughlan, born in Galway, mimes processing the question. “Well,” she said, “it’s quite complicated. Like, there’s a lot of history there, between the two countries. Like, there’s a lot going on.”

Today, people are more knowledgable about the history of the English in Ireland. Coughlan is happy about that. She’s also happy about the explosion of Irish storytelling in popular culture – Normal People, Trespasses, Small Things Like These, not to mention the series that made her name, Derry Girls. And she’s proud of young Irish actors – Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan and Lola Petticrew, to name a few. She listens to bands such as Fontaines DC, CMAT and Kneecap. “It’s such a small country and the amount of creativity that comes out of Ireland is really extraordinary.”

Neil Couling said failings by individual claimants ‘at the heart’ of crisis, despite a report finding DWP shortcomings ‘unacceptable’

One of the most senior civil servants in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has placed the blame for the carer’s allowance benefits crisis on victims, many of who have been left with life-changing debts.

In an internal blogpost written for Whitehall colleagues, Neil Couling, the director general of DWP services, said individual failings by carers were “at the heart” of the issue that has been likened to the Post Office Horizon scandal.

England claw back deficit so Australia will have to bat again
Day three report: sun setting on England’s Ashes dream
Ashes top 100 | Get the Spin newsletter | Email Geoff

“As I reach the end of another working week, I am once again reminded of the cruelty of cricketing disappointment. It’s hard enough being an Englishman living in Brisbane at the moment, but no cricket on my weekend seems excessively cruelty...”

There’s cricket on today, Phil Withington. It might not last very long, that’s all.

Fire broke out at midnight in Arpora, North Goa district, according to reports, with victims mostly kitchen workers according to chief minister

At least 25 people have been killed in a fire at a nightclub in Goa, an Indian state popular for its nightlife and tourism.

Several tourists were among the 25 dead in the fire, which broke out at about midnight at Birch by Romeo Lane, a popular restaurant, cocktail bar and club in Arpora, a district north Goa.

Farage is responsible for ‘dangerous’ culture shift, says broadcaster subject to alleged posts from Reform councillor

Nigel Farage is emboldening attacks on people of colour, according to a journalist allegedly subjected to racial slurs by a Reform UK council leader who the party has been forced to expel.

The broadcaster Sangita Myska, whose long career in British journalism has included presenting shows for the BBC and LBC Radio, said she was told by the former Staffordshire council leader Ian Cooper that she was English “only in your dreams”, because of her south Asian heritage.

• Forward launches astonishing attack on Arne Slot

• Salah benched at Leeds for third consecutive match

Mohamed Salah has accused Liverpool of throwing him “under the bus” after being left out of the starting lineup for the third game running as the champions drew at Leeds, saying he has been made a scapegoat for the poor start to the season and casting severe doubt on his future at the club.

“I can’t believe … I’m sitting on the bench for 90 minutes,” the Egypt international said. “The third time on the bench, I think for the first time in my career. I’m very, very disappointed. I have done so much for this club down the years and especially last season. Now I’m sitting on the bench and I don’t know why.

Mediators of delicate truce say troop removal and deployment of international force crucial to second phase

Qatar and Egypt, the guarantors of the Gaza ceasefire, called on Saturday for the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the deployment of an international stabilisation force as the necessary next steps in fully implementing the fragile agreement.

The measures were spelt out in the US- and UN-backed peace plan that has largely halted fighting, though the warring parties have yet to agree on how to move forward from the deal’s first phase.

The royal couple chose their 20th wedding anniversary portrait taken in Rome this year for their official holiday greeting card

King Charles and Queen Camilla have chosen their 20th wedding anniversary portrait for their official Christmas card this year.

Charles and Camilla are pictured standing side by side, with the queen’s arm linking the king’s, in the grounds of Villa Wolkonsky, the British ambassador’s residence in Rome, earlier this year.

Senior officer had told MPs some Jewish representatives did not want Maccabi Tel Aviv fans at Aston Villa game classified as high risk

A senior police officer has apologised to Birmingham’s Jewish residents after he told MPs that some had expressed support for the exclusion of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending last month’s match against Aston Villa.

The decision to ban supporters of the Israeli team from the Europa League game at Villa Park in Birmingham had triggered political uproar, including Keir Starmer saying he was “angered by the decision”.

Pentagon press passes once held by credentialed journalists are now in the hands of rightwing pundits and Trump allies

Being a member of the Pentagon press corps was once one of the more prestigious assignments in US journalism, a position reserved for heavy hitters from venerable newspapers and news channels, reporters at the peak of their powers.

Not any more. A press conference last week – held at a crucial time for a Pentagon embroiled in scandal – was instead attended by more than a dozen rightwing activists, with the government being held to account by a close ally of Donald Trump, an employee at Turning Point USA and someone from a pillow salesman’s nascent media company.

From his home town of Los Angeles, the architect designed a career around defying what was predictable

In Frank Gehry’s world, no building was left untilted, unexposed or untouched by unconventional material. The Canadian-American architect, who died in his Los Angeles home at 96, designed a career around defying what was predictable and pulling in materials that were uncommon and, as such, relatively inexpensive.

Gehry collaborated with artists to turn giant binoculars into an entryway of a commercial campus, and paid homage to a writer’s past as a lifeguard by creating a livable lifeguard tower. And while dreaming this up, he transformed American architecture along the way.

As the under-16s social media ban looms, Guardian Australia speaks to five 13 to 15-year-olds about what they will miss, and what government should be doing instead

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Australia’s world-first social media ban for under-16s will begin in just a few days. Malaysia, Denmark and Norway are to follow suit and the European Union last week passed a resolution to adopt similar restrictions. As the world watches on, millions of Australian adolescents and their parents are wondering just what will actually change come 10 December.

Concerns around the negative impact social media use can have on the wellbeing of young people have been around since the quaint days of Myspace – long before those to be affected by the ban were even born.

Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

Positive tone after Florida talks with Ukrainian president heading to London Street to see Starmer, Macron and Merz. What we know on day 1,383

Montmorency Bakehouse decided to tackle online abuse head-on, asking viewers to ‘please stop with the thirsty comments’

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Lawrence Du knew instinctively that his parents’ bakery had the potential to pop off on social media.

Shaun Du and Cindy Vuong opened Montmorency Bakehouse on the fringe of Melbourne’s east in 2003, after migrating to Australia from Vietnam. They started selling pillowy, coconut-dusted lamingtons, vanilla slices, chunky steak pies and crusty loaves of bread alongside crispy banh mi and rice paper rolls, creating a traditional country-style Australian bakery with a Vietnamese twist.

After meeting Miranda at a footy screening, Darcy Green found her a little terrifying. Months later, their feelings came pouring out

• Find more stories from the moment I knew series

In 2018 I moved from Sydney to Oxford to complete my masters. My mum was born in London, and I was raised on my gran’s stories about England, so moving to Oxford felt oddly like going home.

I was excited to get my degree, visit as many beautiful libraries as possible and play all the sports I could cram into my calendar. Falling in love wasn’t on my wishlist, but then I met Miranda.

Who better to sort the mush from the lush than our in-house perfectionist Felicity Cloake and our resident baker Benjamina Ebuehi?

• The best Christmas drinks, from gingerbread rum to mulled rose

According to an informal survey of my nearest and occasionally dearest, many younger Britons believe that they don’t like mince pies. It’s a claim that I always counter annoyingly with: “No, you just haven’t had a good one”, before forcing a homemade version, all crumbly, buttery pastry and plump currants, in their faces. To be fair to them, though, mince pies are baked so firmly into our festive tradition that some retailers seem to take sales for granted, and concentrate on price and shelf life rather than quality. (Which isn’t to say I won’t force down a fair few over the festive season.)

That, at least, is the only excuse for the pappy pastry and unpleasantly sour gloopy filling that has marred so many Christmases past for me, but I come into this taste test determined to see the positives, mostly because I don’t want my fellow taster, the deliciously upbeat professional baker Benjamina Ebuehi, to think I’m a grinch.

Sankeys will return in January 2026 in a city centre venue – and no phones will be allowed on the dancefloor

Queues ran down the street outside, condensation dripped off the walls inside, memories were made – and lost – and it all unfolded without a smartphone in sight. For those who remember the Manchester nightclub Sankeys in its heyday 30 years ago, the venue was a clubbing mecca.

“Sweat was dripping off the walls,” said Lee Spence, a promoter and resident DJ at the club from 2002 to 2012, who remembers once double booking Chase & Status and Carl Cox on the same night. “It was an atmosphere like nothing else I’d really seen.”

Amanda, 56, a performance assessor, meets Paul, 53, a networks manager

What were you hoping for?
An adventure, engaging company, good food.

Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days

Elizabeth Olsen examines her life choices in metaphysical romcom and the flamboyantly behatted sometime Space Cowboy returns

Eternity
Out now
Miles Teller and Elizabeth Olsen star, along with Callum Turner, in a quirky metaphysical romantic drama from A24, in which, upon arriving in the afterlife, everyone must decide where, and with whom, they would like to spend eternity. Should Olsen’s character pick the man she settled down with (Teller) or her first love (Turner)?

It Was Just an Accident
Out now
This Palme d’Or-winning feature from Iranian director Jafar Panahi blends social realism with political commentary, as a man (Ebrahim Azizi) and his pregnant wife (Afsaneh Najmabadi), travelling with their young daughter (Delmaz Najafi), are involved in a minor car crash.

Folktales
Out now
Documentary-makers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (Jesus Camp) follow a group of teens as they take a gap year at a traditional folk high school in Arctic Norway, where the emphasis is less on a traditional curriculum and more on dog sledding and survival skills.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2
Out now
Based on the second video game in the popular series, this sequel sees Josh Hutcherson reprising his role as night guard Mike Schmidt, and Jim Henson’s Creature Shop back on puppet duty, for this horror about animatronic critters possessed from within by unquiet souls. Catherine Bray

Here’s how to follow along with our coverage – the finest writing and up-to-the-minute reports

A documentary so damning it surely marks the end for Diddy, and grotesquery of a different kind in a Palme d’Or-winning film. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

Bowler’s creature comforts emblematic of a touring side seen as paying the price for taking a laid-back approach

There are often single images that come to sum up entire Ashes series and frequently they have been taken when no cricket was being played. Andrew Flintoff consoling Brett Lee; Shane Warne’s balcony dance; the sprinkler; Ian Botham celebrating a miracle win at Headingley, Ben Stokes doing the same; and all the way back to the Oval pitch invasion in 1926.

Maybe this year’s has been taken, with England’s campaign in danger of being summed up by the footage of Jofra Archer arriving here on Saturday clutching a pillow. The day Archer imagined and the one Australia subjected England to turned out to be very different.

• England to play Croatia at Dallas Cowboys’ stadium

• Scotland’s opener against Haiti starts 2am UK time

England will kick off their World Cup campaign against Croatia in Dallas at 9pm UK time on Wednesday 17 June. They will play at the Dallas Stadium, home of the NFL’s Cowboys, which has a retractable roof and air conditioning. That will mitigate the effects of a 4pm EST kick-off (3pm local time). The roof will be closed for the opener.

England learned the specifics of their group phase schedule at part two of the World Cup draw in Washington DC, on Saturday. Their second game, against Ghana, on 23 June, will be played in Foxborough, near Boston at 4pm EST. It is an open-air stadium. The average June daily temperate high there is 26C.

It was breathless, it was thrilling and it made very little sense.

Twice Liverpool seemed to have the game won but the ruthless competence of last season has gone. It seems almost incredible now that this was a club that won the league with a series of cold-eyed 2-0 victories. They led 2-0 here, and were 3-2 up four minutes into injury time, yet still couldn’t manage a win.

As this game ticked into the 95th minute, an enthralling contest had already lived up to its billing. And then mayhem unfolded inside the Arsenal 18-yard box and, subsequently, in the Villa Park stands, the 128-year foundations put to the test as Emiliano Buendía, enveloped by the rubble of splayed defenders and with virtually the last kick of the game, exhibited unthinkable composure to curl a first-time shot into the corner and seemingly blow the Premier League title race wide open.

Not for the first time, Aston Villa had been the architects of Arsenal’s downfall, though few envisioned a climax quite like this. David Raya blocked Youri Tielemans’s side-foot effort from inside the six-yard box and then Buendía saw his initial effort halted by a combination of Martín Zubimendi and Jurriën Timber before seizing on the loose ball. Buendía slipped as he shifted possession to Boubacar Kamara and Arsenal smelled danger, Ben White and Timber flinging themselves towards the ball.

• World championship rivals side by side at front of grid

• McLaren driver still well placed for the season finale

The world championship remains finely poised after the three contenders duked it out for pole position at the decisive season-finale Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Max Verstappen scored first blood with pole position in front of his rivals Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in second and third, but all three drivers know the title will be decided on Sunday and Norris still has the edge.

A competitive and tense qualifying was a perfect curtain-raiser for the race and sets up an unmissable and potentially dramatic opening as the three head into turn one together.

So long as the Premier League invests in its players and Fifa pays it lip service, the continent’s flagship tournament will always struggle to fit in

Perhaps attitudes are not quite as parochial as they once were, but it remains true that, in England at least, the Africa Cup of Nations is discussed less as a tournament in its own right than in terms of what it means for the Premier League.

There will be the usual harrumphing about why the tournament is played in the middle of our season, but the Confederation of African Football has tried to satisfy European clubs only to be thwarted by Fifa and the increasing demands of the calendar.

• Supporter had been taken ill during first half at Valley

• Clubs pay tribute after fan passes away in hospital

A Charlton supporter has died after being taken ill during the club’s abandoned Championship fixture against Portsmouth. The fan was treated by medical staff in the stands before being taken to hospital, but it was later confirmed the person had died.

The 12.30pm kick-off was paused in the 12th minute, when the score was goalless, after the referee Matthew Donohue was made aware of the severity of the incident in the lower tier of the Covered End by supporters who shouted to attract his attention. The match official then took the players off the pitch six minutes later. It was announced at 1.30pm that play would not resume.

• National League South side into third round for first time

• Cheltenham come from behind to beat Buxton 6-2

Louis Britton scored twice as Weston-super-Mare booked their spot in the third round of the FA Cup for the first time with a 2-0 win at fellow National League South side Chelmsford. To compound Chelmsford’s misery, Taylor Clark was given his marching orders late on, 12 minutes after coming off the bench, for a dangerous high tackle.

Cheltenham avoided a cup shock after twice coming from a goal behind before scoring four times in the final half-hour to see off non-league Buxton 6-2.

The basketball legend says Nascar gives teams too little power with too much risk. His lawsuit could force historic changes to how one of America’s biggest sports is run

Michael Jordan took the stand on Friday in his landmark antitrust fight against Nascar, a case that could reshape how one of America’s biggest sports is run. Jordan’s team, 23XI Racing, and Front Row Motorsports say Nascar holds so much control over everything, from the tracks to the money to the rulebook, that teams have no real bargaining power. Nascar denies that and says the lawsuit threatens to blow up a system that has held the sport together for decades.

The case has already pulled blunt internal messages into public view and laid bare long-running frustrations between teams and Nascar leadership. Denny Hamlin, Jordan’s co-owner, has said the trial will finally “hear the truth” about how the series “really operates”.

While the tension between meritocracy and ‘jobs for mates’ is always there, the best boards are more than the sum of their parts

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Many years ago, I was encouraged to put my name forward to chair a significant government board. It seemed like a long shot to me, I wasn’t in anyone’s club, but my supporters were insistent. I agreed to let my name go into the mix.

It was a surprise then when the chair of the selection committee called a few weeks later and said with an apologetic tone: “Sorry Julianne, it’s just not your turn.”

Julianne Schultz is deputy chair of the Sydney writers’ festival board

Some say it’s overdiagnosis, others say it’s greater recognition. But it’s clear we must think about how our society is impacting human development

• Gabor Maté is the author of The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture

Does the rise in diagnoses of ADHD mean that normal feelings are being “over-pathologised”? The UK’s health secretary, Wes Streeting, seems to suspect so. He is said to be so concerned about a sharp rise in the number of people claiming sickness benefits that he has ordered a clinical review of the diagnosis of mental health conditions, and autism and ADHD.

I was diagnosed with ADHD (ADD, as it was then most often called) decades ago, in my early 50s. As I wrote in my book on the subject, Scattered Minds, it “seemed to explain many of my behaviour patterns, thought processes, childish emotional reactions, my workaholism and other addictive tendencies, the sudden eruptions of bad temper and complete irrationality, the conflicts in my marriage and my Jekyll and Hyde ways of relating to my children … It also explained my propensity to bump into doorways, hit my head on shelves, drop objects, and brush close to people before I notice they are there.”

Gabor Maté is an international public speaker and retired physician. His most recent book is The Myth of Normal: Illness, Health and Healing in a Toxic Culture

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

The Duchess of Sussex is back and suddenly her show makes sense. It is cringingly ultra-extra, of course, but isn’t that what Christmas is all about?

No matter the time of year, ’tis always open season on the Duchess of Sussex’s televisual offering, With Love, Meghan. Critics, professional and armchair, have rarely been so united as when gleefully ripping series one and two of the lifestyle show to shreds. The consensus was that there has never been a greater royal outrage than when she took some pretzels out of a labelled bag, put them in a different bag, then labelled it. And she didn’t even attempt to explain herself to Emily Maitlis afterwards.

Now, like a merry renegade master, she is back once again with a “Holiday Celebration” (aka a Christmas special). But this time, it’s different. There are still the usual elements we’ve come to expect – psychobabble word salads, extreme hosting – but in the context of a yuletide episode, suddenly it all makes sense. The pieces have fallen into place; it’s a perfect snow storm.

Sometimes I feel like the world is more afraid of me as a Palestinian refugee than it is afraid of the genocide and wars that create refugees in the first place

The world is big, yet it is forever shrinking for Gazans. In fact, it is as small as 3% of the size of an ever-diminishing strip of land, where the rest of Gaza City is being forcibly displaced, bombed and starved. But our rejection doesn’t end at Gaza’s “borders”.

It follows us everywhere.

Plestia Alaqad is an award-winning journalist and author

The persecution of brown people and mass deportations will not create the white country of far-right fantasy

As Donald Trump deteriorates and his grasp on power fades, he has been lashing out furiously at female journalists and ethnic groups, most recently Somali Americans. His insults land because of their animosity and his power, not their accuracy. Likewise, his administration’s attacks on immigrants are sloppy and driven by lies. It’s strikingly clear that the target is not individuals with criminal records. It’s anyone and everyone guilty of being brown. Native Americans with tribal identification cards, US citizens, people doing crucial work from construction to nursing, military veterans, college students, people sleeping in their own beds, small children: all kinds of residents of this country are under attack.

“ICE raids are cruel, inhumane, and do nothing to serve public safety,” declares Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor-elect. Masked thugs smashing car windows and dragging parents away from their babies, terrorizing whole swathes of the population, and interfering with the ability of schools and businesses to function does the opposite. The rounds of targeted hatred by Trump and his minions – for people from Haiti during the 2024 campaign, for people from Venezuela this spring and summer, and most recently for people from Somalia – rely on defamatory lies and insults, because the facts about these groups don’t support the hate.

Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. She is the author of Orwell’s Roses and co-editor with Thelma Young Lutunatabua of the climate anthology

Obama, Trump, and Biden stood by their man in Tegucigalpa for the eight vicious, destructive years he was in power

Since President Trump first announced the pardon of former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández last Friday, the media has been wading through the long list of criminal acts that led to Hernández’s 2024 conviction for drug trafficking, money laundering and arms dealing. Trump’s outrageous pardon is being contrasted with his unlawful, aggressive attacks on boats allegedly trafficking drugs for the government of Venezuela. Missing from the narrative, though, are the other illegal acts committed by Hernández that weren’t about drug trafficking, and thus didn’t fall under the justice department’s anti-drug mandate when it charged and convicted him in the southern district of New York. Many are the crimes of Juan Orlando Hernández, and ruinous.

And long is the history of US support for him in full knowledge of those crimes. Presidents Obama, Trump and Biden all stood by their man in Honduras for the eight vicious, destructive years he was in power. They ignored his drug connections, supported the military and police that kept him in power through state terror, and countenanced his illegal re-elections. Hernández was only able to rise to power, and stay there, because of the United States government.

Dana Frank is research professor and professor emerita of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz and author of The Long Honduran Night: Resistance, Terror, and the United States in the Aftermath of the Coup

The Reform leader is exploiting growing resentment towards migrants and hosting a sold-out event - something unimaginable just a few years ago

• Dani Garavelli is a freelance journalist and columnist for the Herald

Almost 13 years ago, at a press briefing to launch Ukip’s first Scottish byelection campaign, Nigel Farage was run out of Edinburgh by jeering protesters. Back then, Ukip’s support was running at nearly 25% in the English local elections, and less than 1% in Scotland.

On Saturday, Farage will venture back across the border to host a sold-out Reform UK campaign event in Falkirk, a town which has recently seen angry demonstrations outside a hotel hosting asylum seekers.

Dani Garavelli is a freelance journalist and columnist for the Herald

The new strategy has gaps. But ministers have shown that they are serious and capable of listening

If the government’s long-awaited child poverty strategy, launched on Friday, was a bit of a damp squib, that is because the best bit had been absorbed by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in last month’s budget. The decision to remove the two-child limit, which prevented parents from claiming child-linked benefits for third or subsequent children, is expected to lift 550,000 children out of poverty by the end of this parliament. It is the best welfare decision taken by Labour since they were elected. Ms Reeves was correct to press the point that “potential suffocated by limited life chances” is a blight on society as well as on those who experience it directly.

No wonder that Labour ministers and MPs have sounded confident when talking about it. The Conservative decision to make larger families poorer was unjustifiable and damaging. Stories of children lacking the basics of sufficient food and secure housing have become shamefully common. With a record 4.5 million children in the UK in poverty, and 2 million in “deep material poverty” – in households that cannot afford the essentials of life – action was overdue. The Scottish government has already introduced new child payments, putting incomes there on a different trajectory.

An Asian Scrooge, a break-dancing Bob Cratchit and a musical bear – new versions of classics keep stories alive

Not even the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come could have foreseen a Bollywood-inspired film or a hip-hop fantasy performance of A Christmas Carol. But these are the latest takes on Dickens’s much-adapted classic: Christmas Karma from Gurinder Chadha, the Bend It Like Beckham director, brings us Mr Sood, a Ugandan Asian refugee (played by Kunal Nayyar), who came to Britain in 1972; Ebony Scrooge transforms the old miser into a Dominican fashion diva at the recently opened Sadler’s Wells East, London.

We may think of Scrooge McDuck and the Muppets, but there was deep moral seriousness behind A Christmas Carol. Dickens had intended to write a political pamphlet entitled An Appeal on Behalf of the Poor Man’s Child, but instead decided to bury “the ghost of an idea” in a festive story. A Christmas Carol was written in six weeks and published on 19 December 1843, when Dickens was just 31. By Christmas Eve it had sold all 6,000 copies. By February 1844 there had been eight stage adaptations.

Conflicting advice on whether all men should be tested – and around the test’s reliability – can have heartbreaking consequences, writes Pat Sharpe

My husband died of prostate cancer in August, and I read your coverage of the UK National Screening Committee’s recommendations with dread (Expert panel advises against prostate cancer screening for most men in UK, 28 November). I believe the mixed messages being delivered will be deadly for some, as they were for my husband. He delayed having a PSA blood test because he believed it was unreliable and could lead to damaging treatments. He found out too late that he had prostate cancer and that it had spread through his body. He died less than three years after diagnosis aged 68. How did the “harms outweigh the benefits”?

Your articles include a wealth of opinion and advice, much of it conflicting. Dr Jayne Spink of Prostate Cancer Research says: “Many men don’t come forward because prostate cancer often has no symptoms in the early stages, and some don’t realise they are at higher risk. This means that we are diagnosing far too many men when their cancer is already advanced and becomes incurable” (What is prostate cancer and should I be worried if I wee a lot at night? 28 November). She is a clear proponent of aiming for early diagnosis. Yet Cancer Research UK “supports” the conclusion that there isn’t enough evidence that screening would do more good than harm, and the chair of the Royal College of GPs is still keen on discussing with patients the “risks and benefits of conducting a PSA [prostate specific antigen] test”. My widow inner-voice asks: what risks and harm outweigh dying unnecessarily?

Domestic gas production must be incentivised if the UK is to avoid damaging shortages, writes Prof John Underhill

Nils Pratley is right to bring attention to the warning from the National Energy System Operator (Neso) about secure gas supplies (Report detailing risk to UK gas security was not one to bury on budget day, 2 December). Without secure supplies and adequate subsurface storage, the UK has come close to running out of gas, most notably in March 2013, when we were within hours of doing so.

Given that 85% of the roughly 30m homes in the UK currently rely on gas for heating and cooking, pivoting away from the energy source is not going to happen soon. Furthermore, gas provides more than half of our electricity base load on cold, windless and dark days, meaning it’s critical that we have supplies for national security.

Jim Dickson MP says much has been done since the death of Simone White, but a wider campaign is needed to educate tourists on the dangers of drinking spirits in countries where methanol-lacing occurs

With 14,600 deaths caused by suspected methanol poisoning incidents worldwide since 2015, much more needs to be done to prevent tragedies like the death of Simone White in Laos last year (Brain damage, blindness and death: the global trail of trauma left by methanol-laced alcohol, 29 November).

Following campaigning by bereaved families and supportive MPs, the UK government has included education about methanol dangers in the national curriculum and strengthened Foreign Office advice to travellers, extending the warning to more countries. We now need a wider national campaign involving travel companies, with a message that in countries such as Indonesia, which has the highest number of reported incidents of suspected methanol poisoning globally in the past 10 years, spirits should be avoided altogether.
Jim Dickson MP
Labour, Dartford

Dr Selby Whittingham considers the ill-treatment of Turner’s mother, while Paul Collins recalls taking one artist to see another’s work. Plus letters from Martin Argles and John Caperon

My answer to the pertinent question put by Helen James in her letter (Was JMW Turner’s mother really ‘mentally ill’?, 27 November) is that whatever illness Mary may have had would have been greatly increased by the frustration that she must have felt with her circumstances in the mean lodging in Covent Garden, which her husband lacked the ambition to better. These contrasted with the comfortable Islington home in which she grew up and with the even more prosperous circumstances of her relations. I have discussed those in the Genealogists’ Magazine, the British Art Journal and now in my publication for Turner 250: Happy Birthdays! JMW Turner and Prince George on Richmond Hill. Since I wrote the last, a plaque was erected on the site of the house of the uncle of Turner in Brentford, where he was sent to escape the bedlam at home and where, like Beethoven at a similar age at Bonn, he acquired lifelong cultured friends.
Dr Selby Whittingham
Secretary, the Independent Turner Society

• Regarding artistic rivalries, including that between JMW Turner and John Constable (28 November), in 1969 I met Francis Bacon at a health hydro in Surrey. He claimed to have been sent by his agent to dry out. His unaffected friendliness overcame my awe at encountering the great painter. In my first Mini, I drove him to see the Turners at Petworth House, where there happened to be a William Blake exhibition as well. He was dismissive of Blake as an artist, preferring the poetry. But the surprise was his little concern for the Petworth Turners, which he hadn’t seen before. I prefer Constable, he said. The following day he felt obliged to go to Guildford (by himself) for a glass of burgundy.
Paul Collins
Horton cum Studley, Oxfordshire

Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz will also be present for talks on guaranteeing Ukraine’s postwar security

Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Downing Street on Monday for an in-person meeting with Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz in a show of support for Ukraine.

Starmer will use the meeting with the leaders from Ukraine, France and Germany to discuss the continuing talks between US and Ukrainian officials aimed at finding an agreement on guaranteeing Ukraine’s postwar security.

British fertility clinics raise scientific and ethical objections over patients sending embryos’ genetic data abroad for analysis

• What is polygenic embryo screening in IVF and does it work?

Couples undergoing IVF in the UK are exploiting an apparent legal loophole to rank their embryos based on genetic predictions of IQ, height and health, the Guardian has learned.

The controversial screening technique, which scores embryos based on their DNA, is not permitted at UK fertility clinics and critics have raised scientific and ethical objections, saying the method is unproven. But under data protection laws, patients can – and in some cases have – demanded their embryos’ raw genetic data and sent it abroad for analysis in an effort to have smarter, healthier children.

Andrew Wolfe was shot in the head on 26 November, while Sarah Beckstrom died from her injuries

The West Virginia national guard soldier who was wounded in the 26 November shooting that killed a colleague of his in Washington DC is “slowly healing”, according to West Virginia’s governor.

Andrew Wolfe, 24, was shot alongside fellow West Virginia national guard soldier Sarah Beckstrom, 20, while they patrolled the US capital as part of the Trump administration’s push to deploy military members on to the city’s streets. Beckstrom died of her injuries the day after she was shot while Wolfe was hospitalized in critical condition.

Husam Zomlot says protest by activists waving Israeli flags and union jacks was ‘flagrant breach of diplomatic law’

The Palestinian ambassador to the UK has called for “comprehensive protection” after his embassy was targeted by masked men waving Israeli flags and union jacks.

Husam Zomlot made the call after the group posed at the entrance to the embassy, in Hammersmith, west London, last Saturday. The building was defaced with stickers such as “I love the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]”, according to images captured by security cameras.

Moscow ‘continuously reinforcing’ its presence in the region, says Swedish chief of operations Capt Marko Petkovic

The Swedish navy encounters Russian submarines in the Baltic Sea on an “almost weekly” basis, its chief of operations has said, and is preparing for a further increase in the event of ceasefire or armistice in the Ukraine war.

Capt Marko Petkovic said Moscow was “continuously reinforcing” its presence in the region, and sightings of its vessels were a regular part of life for the Swedish navy. Its “very common”, he said, adding that the number of sightings had increased in recent years.

Exclusive: ‘extremely unhelpful’ policy seen as deterrent to clearing thousands of dump sites across England

Millions of pounds in landfill tax owed to the government has to be paid by the Environment Agency (EA) if it clears any of the thousands of illegal waste dumps across the country.

Of the £15m that taxpayers are paying for the clearance of the only site the agency has committed to clearing up – a vast illegal dump at Hoad’s Wood in Kent – £4m is landfill tax.

Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk: I have memories of seeing them at night, on our pyjama-clad safaris round the farm, but they haven’t been here for a decade

There’s a shimmering in the sky and I can’t work it out. Driving, I can only snatch glimpses of flickering light. I pull into a lay-by near home. Now I can make out five or six broad-winged birds, flying in a loose flock. They are black and white and their motion reflects the low sun, flashing light and contrasting dark, like a disturbance in the force field.

Lapwings, or “peewits” as they are known for their call, are birds of my childhood. Every spring, they nested in the same field and, in winter, flocks gathered. I loved their crest and the way their petrol-sheened plumage changed with the light, from dark green to bronze or purple.

RSPB says growing trend for honouring species that are in decline is not matched by action on conservation

Britain’s street names are being inspired by skylarks, lapwings and starlings, even as bird populations decline.

According to a report by the RSPB, names such as Skylark Lane and Swift Avenue are increasingly common. Using OS Open Names data from 2004 to 2024, the conservation charity found that road names featuring bird species had risen by 350% for skylarks, 156% for starlings and 104% for lapwings, despite populations of these having fallen in the wild.

Conservationists say changes, coupled with underfunding, will curb take-up and leave less land protected for nature

• UK politics live – latest updates

An ambitious scheme to restore England’s nature over coming decades has been undermined after the government inserted a clause allowing it to terminate contracts with only a year’s notice, conservationists have said.

The project was designed to fund landscape-scale restoration over thousands of hectares, whether on large estates or across farms and nature reserves. The idea was to create huge reserves for rare species to thrive – projects promoted as decades-long commitments to securing habitat for wildlife well into the future.

Four people arrested after civil-resistance group Take Back Power protest against inequality in the UK

Part of the Tower of London was temporarily closed to visitors on Saturday after food was thrown at a display case containing the crown jewels in a protest against inequality in the UK.

Four people were arrested after the action, which was claimed by Take Back Power – a self-described, non-violent civil-resistance group. It said custard and apple crumble was flung at the case, which contained the imperial state crown.

The desperate search for economic growth is pushing the party to confront the issue that dare not speak its name

For much of the last week, Keir Starmer’s government has been suggesting that a closer relationship with Europe will be a more prominent part of his agenda in the future.

But it was a little-noted personnel change that might prove the most telling shift: Nick Thomas Symonds, the minister in charge of EU negotiations, was promoted to full cabinet rank.

All delegates will be able to attend fringe programme as party tries to find compromise while complying with supreme court ruling on gender

Trans women will be barred from the main part of Labour’s women’s conference next year, the party has said, with entrance to the main conference hall and voting rights denied.

All delegates will be allowed to attend a fringe programme, under the party’s plans as Labour seeks to find a compromise position it believes will comply with the supreme court’s ruling on gender – while also being inclusive to trans delegates.

Several additional people, including children, have severe liver damage amid 21 cases of amatoxin poisoning

California officials are warning foragers after an outbreak of poisoning linked to wild mushrooms that has killed one adult and caused severe liver damage in several patients, including children.

The state poison control system has identified 21 cases of amatoxin poisoning, likely caused by death cap mushrooms, the health department said Friday. The toxic wild mushrooms are often mistaken for edible ones because of their appearance and taste.

Police launch ‘manhunt’ after 25 people are shot in early morning in township attack west of Pretoria

Gunmen have stormed into a hostel in South Africa’s capital and killed at least 12 people, including a three-year-old child, and injured more than a dozen others.

Police said they had launched a “manhunt” for three people and were investigating whether the killings were linked to a bar within the hostel that may have been selling alcohol illegally.

Beijing security agency accuses international journalists of disregarding facts and smearing government

Beijing’s security agency in Hong Kong has summoned international journalists to inform them it will not tolerate “trouble-making”, following critical coverage of the deadly apartment complex fire that has left the territory reeling.

Senior reporters from several media outlets operating in the city were called to the Office for Safeguarding National Security (OSNS), which was set up by Beijing in 2020.

The former president gave a speech expressing support for LGBTQ+ rights at an LGBTQ+ leaders conference on Friday

Joe Biden has criticized Republicans for turning transgender rights into a “political football” in a speech that the former US president delivered at an LGBTQ+ event.

Speaking at the International LGBTQ+ Leaders Conference in Washington on Friday, Biden urged LGBTQ+ people to “get up and fight back” against Donald Trump’s second presidential administration.

AI research in question as author claims to have written over 100 papers on AI that one expert calls a ‘disaster’

A single person claims to have authored 113 academic papers on artificial intelligence this year, 89 of which will be presented this week at one of the world’s leading conference on AI and machine learning, which has raised questions among computer scientists about the state of AI research.

The author, Kevin Zhu, recently finished a bachelor’s degree in computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, and now runs Algoverse, an AI research and mentoring company for high schoolers – many of whom are his co-authors on the papers. Zhu himself graduated from high school in 2018.

David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros Discovery, promised ‘everyone’ would win by combining the storied Hollywood studios with his reality TV giant. Instead, many lost

It’s less than five years since David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros Discovery, negotiated what looked like the deal of his career. Now as Netflix plans a landscape-changing takeover of Warner Bros, he’s in the middle of an even bigger one.

Zaslav, or Zaz, is a hard-charging, well-connected executive who cut his teeth inside NBC, and ascended into New York’s media elite as he transformed Discovery Inc from a nature- and science-focused cable broadcaster into a reality TV giant.

Banks and specialist lenders will not pay tax on compensation payouts, sidestepping 2015 rule

Ministers are being urged to close a loophole that will allow UK banks and specialist lenders to avoid paying £2bn in tax on their payouts to motor finance scandal victims.

Under the current law, any operation that is not a bank can deduct compensation payments from their profits before calculating their corporation tax, reducing their bill.

Exclusive: Billionaire is claimed to be anonymous figure behind $70m of wins in US legal case. He denies betting on his own teams

Tony Bloom, the billionaire owner of Brighton & Hove Albion FC, is facing questions over claims he was an anonymous gambler behind $70m (£52m) in winnings – which allegedly included bets on his football teams.

Bloom – one of the world’s most successful professional gamblers – is claimed to be the “John Doe” referred to in a US legal case that tried to unmask who has benefited from the lucrative winning streak.

Following publication Bloom issued a statement through Brighton FC: “I can categorically assure our supporters that I have not placed bets on any Brighton & Hove Albion matches since becoming the owner of the club in 2009. In 2014, in addition to new rules on betting, The FA introduced a policy with quite onerous provisions for owners of football clubs with interests in betting. These provisions allow certain football club owners, including me, to continue to bet on football under strict conditions.In particular, the policy prevents me from betting on any match or competition that Brighton & Hove Albion is involved in. Since 2014, I have always fully complied with these conditions, and all of my bets on football are audited by one of the world’s leading accounting firms on an annual basis to ensure full compliance with The FA’s policy.”

Rose theatre, Kingston
Amid the noise and bustle there’s an affecting relationship struggling to emerge in Chris Bush and Roni Neale’s witty show

Cinderella will go to the ball – only first she’s got to help her horrible stepmum with a disgusting vegan dinner. Co-writers Chris Bush and Roni Neale have given Cinders a modern festive twist, complete with a magical microwave and a memorable costume change inside a fridge. As you’d expect from Bush, the script is witty and heartfelt, but it’s also overly complicated, caught somewhere between truthful play and slapdash pantomime.

The Rose is committed to giving young actors a real shot on the main stage and the cast is largely made up of members of the Rose Youth Theatre company, as well as six professional actors. The young performers are, on the whole, very good. A trio of cheese-obsessed mice rap, chatter and charm us all, and Jack Fernie is scene-stoppingly good as a deliciously camp and amazingly convincing cat, Mr Bingles.

The Sea Devils emerge from the ocean in this Earth invasion epic starring Russell Tovey. Plus: the tragic space story of Apollo 1. Here’s what to watch this evening

8.30pm, BBC One

Film-maker Marshall Curry pulls back the curtain on the beloved institution in a revealing and celebratory new film

When young film-makers ask Marshall Curry what makes a documentary idea, he tells them: “There are some stories that make great New Yorker articles, but they’re not movies.” It was only a matter of time before the director found himself testing his own wisdom with The New Yorker at 100, a new Netflix film about the magazine. “Somebody said to me that trying to make a 90-minute movie about the New Yorker was like trying to make a 90-minute movie about America. Ken Burns does that with one war.”

The film pulls back the curtain on the mystical media shop. Curry and his crew spent a year rummaging through the archives, listening in on production meetings, shadowing famous bylines – none more venerated in the industry than editor David Remnick, the magazine’s abiding leader. Curry had hoped to make a meal out of staffers pushing to meet the February 2025 publishing date, the magazine’s centennial anniversary issue, but the scenes he found didn’t quite approximate anything from the boiler room-centered dramas of film fiction or even The September Issue doc on Anna Wintour’s clannish Vogue operation. “I wanted to see people running around each other and saying, ‘We’ve got to get this thing done before the deadline!’” Curry says. “But they don’t do that.”

Irvine Welsh, Bella Freud and Florence Welch explore Cave’s intoxicating work. Plus: a charming Aardman animation about a little bird. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, Sky Arts

This documentary on the musician interviews everyone from Flea to … Rowan Williams. It’s a thoughtful take on his songs and Christianity

Devouring the new Nick Cave documentary on Sky, I am reminded how critics go wild for arty musicians who constantly change direction and dabble in everything. This is its own kind of myth. I know plenty of artists who keep moving – one week they’re sewing fish scales on to jackets, the next they’re painting mirrors or putting seahorses in samovars. The problem is, no one cares. If poet and ceramicist Nick Cave didn’t also write classic songs, he’d just be a local weirdo. I definitely wouldn’t buy a hardcover transcription of conversations he’d had with a mate about God. I’m glad I did, though.

The documentary, Nick Cave’s Veiled World (Saturday 6 December, 9pm, Sky Arts), is timed to promote the TV adaptation of his filthy novel The Death of Bunny Munro. It’s a glorious opportunity to revisit his early, intense masterpieces: electric chair confessionals, murderous duets with pop princesses, profane love songs. They’re still in my head, days later. It’s also a reminder that, in a joyfully perverse career, the assertion of his Christian faith has been his most divisive move. Audiences love biblical imagery in rock songs, provided the singer doesn’t actually believe.

Many users of the app were shocked, this week, by this addition to the Spotify Wrapped roundup – especially twentysomethings who were judged to be 100

“Age is just a number. So don’t take this personally.” Those words were the first inkling I had that I was about to receive some very bad news.

I woke up on Wednesday with a mild hangover after celebrating my 44th birthday. Unfortunately for me, this was the day Spotify released “Spotify Wrapped”, its analysis of (in my case) the 4,863 minutes I had spent listening to music on its platform over the past year. And this year, for the first time, they are calculating the “listening age” of all their users.

Connoisseurs of all things delicate and deeply felt will love the music put out by A Colourful Storm, the Melbourne-based DJ’s indie label

From Melbourne
Recommended if you like the C86 compilation, AU/NZ jangle-pop, Mess Esque
Up next Going Back to Sleep out now

Melbourne-based DJ Moopie, AKA Matthew Xue, is renowned for engrossing, wide-ranging sets that can run the gamut from gelid ambient music to churning drum’n’bass and beyond. He also runs A Colourful Storm – a fantastic indie label that massively punches above its weight when it comes to putting out charmingly moody experimental pop music, from artists as disparate as London-based percussionist Valentina Magaletti, dubby Hobart duo Troth, and renowned underground polymath Simon Fisher Turner.

In 2017, the label released I Won’t Have to Think About You, a compilation of winsome, C86-ish indie pop. Earlier this year, it put out Going Back to Sleep, a quasi-sequel to that record which also functions as a neatly drawn guide to some of the best twee-pop groups currently working. Sydney band Daily Toll, whose 2025 debut A Profound Non-Event is one of the year’s underrated gems, contribute Time, a seven-minute melodica-and-guitar reverie. Chateau, the duo of Al Montfort (Terry, Total Control) and Alex Macfarlane (the Stevens, Twerps), push into percussive, psychedelic lounge pop on How Long on the Platform, while Who Cares?, one of Melbourne’s best new bands, channel equal parts Hope Sandoval and Eartheater on Wax and Wane.

Elsewhere, Going Back to Sleep features tracks from San Francisco indie stalwarts the Reds, Pinks and Purples; minimalist Sydney group the Lewers; and sun-dappled folk-pop from Dutch duo the Hobknobs. It’s an unassuming compilation that’s almost certain to become well-loved and frequently referenced among connoisseurs of all things delicate and deeply felt. Shaad D’Souza

He’ll be forever known for his festive hit, but Wood was virtually the face of 70s glam rock – writing and performing stomping hits with the Move, ELO and Wizzard

Roy Wood occasionally wrote for others – psych fans should check the Acid Gallery’s splendid 1969 single Dance Round the Maypole – and the single he made with girlfriend Ayshea Brough, an early 70s TV presenter, exemplifies his idiosyncratic pop skills and his kitchen-sink approach to arrangement: kettle drums! More oboe!

(Domino)
Blooming strings, mellifluous guitars and airy vocals make Melody Prochet’s fourth album a calming place to visit – even if there’s a lack of standout tracks

French musician Melody Prochet, AKA Melody’s Echo Chamber, never struggles to find a supporting cast. Her self-titled 2012 debut was produced by Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker. On second album Bon Voyage (2018) she teamed up with Swedish psychedelic rock band Dungen, whose guitarist Reine Fiske popped up again on 2022’s Emotional Eternal and now features on Unclouded. Prochet’s fourth album is produced and partly co-written by composer Sven Wunder, and its dizzying array of contributors also includes Josefin Runsteen (opulent strings) and DJ Shadow collaborator Malcolm Catto (percussive fizz).

Still, somehow Prochet retains her own singular vision. Borrowing a title from a quote by Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki – “You must see with eyes unclouded by hate. See the good in that which is evil, and the evil in that which is good” – Unclouded takes her airy vocals and baroque dreampop into brighter terrain. Some tracks have a 90s vibe, reminiscent of Saint Etienne or Lush. Others have a feel that can only be accurately described in horticultural terms: the blooming strings of the really lovely Broken Roses, or the sprinkles of xylophones that make Burning Man sound like, well, a Japanese garden.

The Guardian’s fiction editor picks the best of the year, from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dream Count to Thomas Pynchon’s return, David Szalay’s Booker winner and a remarkable collection of short stories

There aren’t many giants of 20th-century literature still writing, but 2025 saw the first novel in 12 years from American great Thomas Pynchon, now in his late 80s: Shadow Ticket (Jonathan Cape) is a typically larky prohibition-era whodunnit, set against rising nazism and making sprawling connections with the spectre of fascism today. Other elder statesmen publishing this year included Salman Rushdie with The Eleventh Hour (Cape), a playful quintet of mortality-soaked short stories and his first fiction since the 2022 assault that blinded him in his right eye; while Ian McEwan was also considering endings and legacy in What We Can Know (Cape), in which a 22nd-century literature scholar looks back, from the other side of apocalypse, on a close-knit group of (mostly) fictional literary lions from our own era. In a time of climate terror, the novel is both a fascinating wrangle with the limits of what humans are able to care about – from bare survival, to passion and poetry, to the enormity of environmental disaster – and a poignant love letter to the vanishing past.

But perhaps the most eagerly awaited return this year was another global figure: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, whose first novel in more than a decade, Dream Count (4th Estate), follows the lives of four interconnected women between Nigeria and the US. Taking in love, motherhood and female solidarity as well as privilege, inequality and sexual violence, it’s a rich and beautifully composed compendium of women’s experience.

From an enraging indictment of Spotify to Del Amitri frontman Justin Currie’s account of Parkinson’s and a compelling biography of Tupac Shakur, here are five titles that strike a chord

Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist
Liz Pelly (Hodder & Stoughton)
Enraging, thoroughly depressing, but entirely necessary, Mood Music offers a timely, forensically researched demolition of Spotify. In Pelly’s account, the music streaming giant views music as a kind of nondescript sonic wallpaper, artists as an unnecessary encumbrance to the business of making more money and its target market not as music fans, but mindless drones who don’t really care what they’re listening to, ripe for manipulation by its algorithm. Sharp business practices and evidence of its deleterious effect on the quality and variety of new music abound: the worst thing is that Pelly can’t really come up with a viable alternative in a world where convenience trumps all.

Men of a Certain Age: My Encounters With Rock Royalty
Kate Mossman (Bonnier)
There’s no doubt that Men of a Certain Age is a hard sell, a semi-autobiographical book in which the New Statesman’s arts editor traces her obsession with often wildly unfashionable, ageing male artists – Queen’s Roger Taylor, Bruce Hornsby, Steve Perry of Journey, Jon Bon Jovi among them – through a series of interviews variously absurd, insightful, hair-raising and weirdly touching. But it’s elevated to unmissable status by Mossman’s writing, which is so sparkling, witty and shrewd that your personal feelings about her subjects are rendered irrelevant amid the cocktail of self-awareness, affection and sharp analysis she brings to every encounter. In a world of music books retelling tired legends, Men of a Certain Age offers that rare thing: an entirely original take on rock history.

An eco-masterpiece, icy intrigue, cyberpunkish cyborgs, memory-eating aliens and super-fast travel sends the world spinning out of control

Circular Motion
Alex Foster (Grove)
Alex Foster’s novel treats climate catastrophe through high-concept satire. A new technology of super-fast pods revolutionises travel: launched into low orbit from spring-loaded podiums, they fly west and land again in minutes, regardless of distance. Since every action has an equal and opposite reaction, our globe starts to spin faster. Days contract, first by seconds, then minutes, and eventually hours. It’s a gonzo conceit, and Foster spells out the consequences, his richly rendered characters caught up in their own lives as the world spirals out of control. As days become six hours long, circadian rhythms go out of the window and oceans start to bulge at the equator. The increasing whirligig of the many strands of storytelling converge on their inevitable conclusion, with Foster’s sparky writing, clever plotting and biting wit spinning an excellent tale.

When There Are Wolves Again
EJ Swift (Arcadia)
There are few more pressing issues with which fiction can engage than the climate crisis, and SF, with its capacity to extrapolate into possible futures and dramatise the realities, is particularly well placed to do so. Swift’s superb novel is an eco-masterpiece. Its near-future narrative of collapse and recovery takes us from the rewilding of Chornobyl and the return of wolves to Europe, through setback and challenge, to 2070, a story by turns tragic, alarming, uplifting, poetic and ultimately hopeful. Swift’s accomplished prose and vivid characterisation connect large questions of the planet’s destiny with human intimacy and experience, and she avoids either a too-easy doomsterism or a facile techno-optimism. We can bring the world back from the brink, but it will require honesty, commitment, hard work and a proper sense of stewardship.

Anthony Hopkins and Kathy Burke on acting, Jacinda Ardern and Nicola Sturgeon on politics, plus Margaret Atwood on a life well lived

Not all memoirists are keen to share their life stories. For Margaret Atwood, an author who has sold more than 40m books, the idea of writing about herself seemed “Dead boring. Who wants to read about someone sitting at a desk messing up blank sheets of paper?” Happily, she did it anyway. Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts (Chatto & Windus) is a 624-page doorstopper chronicling Atwood’s life and work, and a tremendous showcase for her wisdom and wit. Helen Garner’s similarly chunky, Baillie Gifford prize-winning How to End a Story (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) is a diary collection spanning 20 years and provides piquant and puckish snapshots of the author’s life, work and her unravelling marriages. Mixing everyday observation and gossipy asides with profound self-examination, it is spare in style and utterly moreish.

In Arundhati Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me (Hamish Hamilton) and Jung Chang’s Fly, Wild Swans (William Collins), formidable mothers get top billing. In the former, The God of Small Things author reveals how her mother, whose own father was a violent drunk, stood up to the patriarchy and campaigned for women’s rights, but was cruel to her daughter. Describing her as “my shelter and my storm”, Roy reflects on Mary’s contradictions with candour and compassion. Fly, Wild Swans is the sequel to Chang’s bestselling Wild Swans, picking up where its predecessor left off and reflecting how that book was only made possible by the author’s mother, who shared family stories and kept her London-dwelling daughter apprised of events in China.

Pulled by Steam and Epic Games Store, indie horror Horses shook up the industry before it was even released. Now it’s out, all the drama surrounding it seems superfluous

On 25 November, award-winning Italian developer Santa Ragione, responsible for acclaimed titles such as MirrorMoon EP and Saturnalia, revealed that its latest project, Horses, had been banned from Steam - the largest digital store for PC games. A week later, another popular storefront, Epic Games Store, also pulled Horses, right before its 2 December launch date. The game was also briefly removed from the Humble Store, but was reinstated a day later.

The controversy has helped the game rocket to the top of the digital stores that are selling it, namely itch.io and GOG. But the question remains – why was it banned? Horses certainly delves into some intensely controversial topics (a content warning at the start details, “physical violence, psychological abuse, gory imagery, depiction of slavery, physical and psychological torture, domestic abuse, sexual assault, suicide, and misogyny”) and is upsetting and unnerving.

As the Grand Theft Auto co-writer launches a new project, he reflects on his hugely successful open-world adventures and where game design might go next

• Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here

It is hard to think of a more modern entertainment format than the open-world video game. These sprawling technological endeavours, which mix narrative, social connectivity and the complete freedom to explore, are uniquely immersive and potentially endless. But do they represent a whole new idea of storytelling?

This week I met Dan Houser, the co-founder of Rockstar and lead writer on Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, who has been in London to talk about his new company, Absurd Ventures. He’s working on a range of intriguing projects, including the novel and podcast series A Better Paradise (about a vast online game that goes tragically wrong), and a comedy-adventure set in an online world named Absurdaverse. He told me that, 15 years ago, he was doing press interviews for the Grand Theft Auto IV expansion packs when he had something of a revelation about the series.

PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox; Eyes Out/Blumhouse Games
Psychedelic visuals and a promising premise are let down by tired game design in this first-person horror with an appearance from the synthpop pioneer

Video games have delivered a feast of singular and wondrous sights in 2025: ecological fantasias teeming with magical beasts; stunning, historically obsessive recreations of feudal Japan. But here is an end-of-year curio: psychological horror game Sleep Awake serves us synth-rock pioneer Gary Numan stepping into what is perhaps the schlockiest role of his life – a gigantic floating head named Hypnos.

This late-stage cameo is not quite indicative of the game as a whole; the handful of hours prior to Numan’s arrival are more mournful than madcap. Mostly, you explore the dilapidated, tumbledown streets of what is thought to be the last city on Earth. This setting is a magnificent work of imagination. You see it through the eyes of a young woman named Katja, who moves along rooftops, gazing out upon a barren, lifeless hinterland, into labyrinthine streets whose darkness and arcane logic recall the stirring subterranean etchings of Italian artist Piranesi.

Nintendo Switch/Switch 2 (version tested); Retro Studios/Nintendo
The bounty hunter – Nintendo’s most badass and most neglected hero – returns in an atmospheric throwback sci-fi adventure that’s entirely untroubled by the conventions of modern game design

In a frozen laboratory full of cryogenically suspended experimental life forms, metal boots disturb the frost. A lone bounty hunter in a familiar orange exosuit points her blaster ahead. Making my way towards the facility’s power generator, scanning doors and hunting for secret entrances, broken hatches and hidden keys, I suspect that I know exactly what’s going to happen when this place begins to thaw; every clank and creak sounds as if it could be a long-dormant beast busting out of one of those pods. And yet Samus Aran delves deeper, because she has never been afraid of anything.

This section of Prime 4 is classic Metroid: atmospheric, eerie, lonely, dangerous and cryptic. Samus, Nintendo’s coolest hero, is impeccably awesome, equipped here with new psychic powers that accent her suit with pulsing purple light. (I have taken many screenshots of her looking identically badass all over the game’s planet.) She is controlled with dual sticks, or – much better, much more intuitive – by pointing one of the Switch 2’s remotes at the screen to aim. Or even by using it as a mouse on a table or your knee, though this made my wrist hurt after a while. She transforms into a rolling ball, moves statues into place with her mind, and rides a futuristic shape-shifting motorcycle across lava and sand between this distant planet’s abandoned facilities, unlocking its dead civilisation’s lost knowledge.

James Graham’s play Punch touches on gang culture, restorative justice and masculinity in crisis, and for the playwright the true story was a privilege to tell

When thousands of schoolchildren came to see James Graham’s play Punch in the West End, the playwright, actors and producers were struck by one thing. Despite fears about social media eroding attention spans, the pupils were engrossed for two and a half hours and many stayed for Q&A sessions afterwards.

“They were the most remarkable atmospheres we’ve ever experienced,” Graham said. “Julie [Hesmondhalgh, one of the actors] said it was one of the highlights of her performing career. You always hear that theatre doesn’t fit the TikTok generation, but we could tell these young people were completely connected to the themes of what it’s like to grow up as a teenager, to struggle, survive and evolve.”

With Dog Man making his London theatre debut next summer, theatre makers explain how to make a successful jump from page to stage

From Paddington and the BFG to The Gruffalo’s Child, My Neighbour Totoro to The Tiger Who Came to Tea, there is no shortage of stage adaptations of children’s classics filling theatres at the moment.

This week it was announced that Dog Man, the half-canine crime fighter from Dav Pilkey’s bestselling graphic novels, will make his London theatre debut at the Southbank Centre next summer.

Old Fire Station, Oxford
Things get tense when a newcomer seems to know too much in Karim Khan’s absorbing play

Karim Khan’s absorbing Christmas play offers warmth, doubt, uncanny strangers and a generous handful of sweets from the Pic ’n’ Mix. It all makes for a smartly unexpected festive story. It’s 1999, ticking down to the millennium. At the Woolworths staff party in Oxford (paper hats, sensible shop-floor shoes), Zoya (Gurjot Dhaliwal) chirrups about the wonder of Woolies and her scathing colleague Iqra (Prabhleen Oberoi) scoffs that she has been radicalised. Both Pakistani-born – Iqra is a politics student, Zoya a young wife – they bop and plan their futures, until they are joined by Faiza (Hannah Khalique-Brown), a mysterious holiday temp who knows more about them than seems plausible.

Iqra initially describes the newcomer as “BBCD” (“British-born confused desi”). “British Pakistanis are fascinating specimens,” she sighs. But who is Faiza? A management stooge or spy for Zoya’s in-laws? Or something far stranger? Even as the friends share secrets of the Pic ’n’ Mix, simple questions open up a chasm of anxiety – on the tight square stage, the space between the three actors is tense and watchful. Secrets and surprises start to spill like a scatter of toffees.

Liverpool Playhouse
The story becomes less and less relevant as this slapstick monster pastiche leads to an irresistible sense of chaos

When a film as perfect as Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein exists, you might well be forgiven for asking what need is there for a live version? As the opening night of this production hysterically demonstrated, the possibility for chaos thanks to the ephemeral nature of live theatre is reason enough.

That ephemerality created a sequence of events that saw: a cast member (Simeon Truby as Inspector Kemp) join the audience to watch the show, a stage manager announce there would be a pause in the action – leaving Inspector Kemp ad-libbing for all he was worth – and then another member of stage management arrive to tell the audience, “just wait here and … entertain yourselves”. Someone did eventually remember a cast member had been left adrift and Truby was rescued. Then we were told that Inga (Julie Yammanee) had suffered an injury and that Jessica Wright, from the ensemble, would be stepping into Inga’s shoes. Within minutes she performed an astoundingly accomplished tap dance routine. What other medium gives you such moments?

The actor, who starred as a Marxist academic in the acclaimed 2006 play at the Royal Court, remembers an astonishing writer of ideas and elegance

By the time I was cast in Rock’n’Roll in 2006 I had been following Tom for years. I saw Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead when it came to London in 1967 with the wonderful Graham Crowden as the Player King. It was a big sensation. The Real Thing was a great play and Arcadia was extraordinary.

Rock’n’Roll was at the Royal Court in London, directed by Trevor Nunn, and starred Rufus Sewell as Jan, a Czech student who returns to Prague in 1968. I played Max, a Marxist academic. It was a fascinating experience, because there were two plays there: the play about Sappho, the Ancient Greek poet, and the play about the Soviet takeover in Czechoslovakia.

How the photographer captured this split image of sardine fishermen taken from above

Freelance photographer Ahmad Mansour was visiting Al Max, a fishing neighbourhood in Alexandria, Egypt, when he took this image on his mobile phone. Mansour was there with friends, documenting the area and the fishermen who resided there.

“The sun was bright and it was very loud; the water was running strongly and the men were shouting,” Mansour says. “I climbed a small building to reach this vantage point above the men with the sardines. I love the top view angle; I’d been inspired by another image that was split that way and it suited the colours to balance them like this, too.”

Watching the Broadway actor’s joyous energy, along with his calmness and openness, I was convinced that I could step out into the world and be myself

My first encounter with Broadway actor Jonathan Groff was innocuous. Stuck in the wilds of Donegal for two weeks as part of teacher training, I listened to Broadway musicals while the rest of the lads watched the Gaelic fixtures and got drunk. I stumbled upon the recent production of Merrily We Roll Along with Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe and like most of the internet, I became obsessed.

Afterwards, I went down a Groff rabbit hole tracking down interviews and cast recordings. I was drawn to how bubbly he was, how smiley he was. Groff had a joyous energy that was infectious. His voice was like melted chocolate. I both loved – and envied – his calmness and his openness to the world.

IP success stories such as Barbie and the DC Universe? That elusive best picture Oscar? Or perhaps the main goal is a good old-fashioned blockbuster

Corporate Hollywood has undergone huge upheavals in recent years – as consequential, perhaps, as the 1970s and 80s, when the studio marques that had made their names in the movies’ golden age were being bought up by international conglomerates. The acquisition of Warner Bros – legendary for crime pictures in the 40s and 50s, and Batman movies in the 90s and 00s – by a streaming service feels particularly significant, coming as it does on the back of the merger of Paramount with Skydance Media earlier this year and, in 2019, Disney’s purchase of fellow studio 21st Century Fox.

What is most evident in all these deals is how streaming services have changed the game. Disney’s buying spree – which had previously included Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar – in retrospect looks essentially like preparatory positioning to increase the marketability of their Disney+ player. It is significant that the new Paramount regime’s first move was to prise Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer away from Netflix. And Netflix, of course, have made their billions by upending the traditional pitch-session-to-cinema pipeline that had sustained the film industry for decades. They have signed up legions of the classiest directors, hogged nearly all the audience-friendly documentaries and premiered one water-cooler series after another.

Forget heels, flats are back – with a glam new look. From velvet mary janes to sequined ballerinas, here are our top picks for a blister-free festive season

Mariah is on loop in the supermarket and your local cafe is doing gingerbread lattes. It’s officially the silly season. High street windows are filled with ideas for party dressing. There are sequin dresses and strokable velvet suiting, but look down and you’ll spot something a little more unusual. Gone are the customary towering heels. In their place? Sensible flats.

Now, if you are someone who genuinely loves wearing high heels, fine, no judgement, you keep doing you. But if you are someone who feels they should wear heels, rather than actually likes to, then good news – that way of thinking is very much over.

’Tis the season for novelty crisps – from the delicious to the downright deranged. Crisp-addict Ravinder Bhogal crunched through the lot to find the festive flavours worth snacking on

• The best Christmas sandwiches in 2025

Christmas is a time to concentrate on what really matters – snacks – and in my house, it’s crisps that get top billing. They are a party in a bag, ideal paired with a glass of something sparkling or a cocktail, and wonderful swiped through a dip or topped with something bougie, such as caviar.

As a self-confessed crisp addict, and as someone who would sometimes swerve a gourmet dinner for the company of a bowl filled with fried potato pleasure, I jumped at the chance to taste-test festive flavours for the Filter, examining an ever-growing market in which crisp tycoons try to outdo each other with nostalgic flavours.

Whether it’s hair rollers, giant ice cubes or beer mats, your festive favourites make one thing clear: it’s party time

• The best Christmas gifts for 2025

Ever wish you could read people’s minds when giving them their Christmas presents?

Working for the Filter is like having that wish granted, only without the emotional fallout. You see, we get to find out which of our gift guide recommendations you’ve really loved – as opposed to the ones that make you say, “Oh, you really shouldn’t have.”

Sandwich messiah Max Halley sorts the merry from the meh in our taste test of supermarket and high-street festive butties

• The best Christmas drinks, from gingerbread rum to mulled rose

As the owner of a sandwich shop, I was delighted when the Filter asked me to taste and rate the best high-street Christmas sandwiches. I’ve been making sandwiches professionally for 11 years and (of course) at home for much longer. In my shop – Max’s Sandwich Shop in north London – we have a sandwich mantra: hot v cold, sweet v sour, crunchy v soft. The presence of these three core contrasts is, I believe, the key to a great sandwich. Also, I have a liberal attitude to mayonnaise.

To test Christmas sandwiches, I got stuck in – trying each one thoroughly rather than taking just one bite. It would be a tall order to expect a factory-made supermarket sandwich to perfect the contrasts laid out in my sandwich mantra, but I did look for them to be created with contrasts in mind.

From fondue sets to hot sauce, board games to stadium prints, our edit has presents for every budget – even for dads who swear they’ve got everything

• The best Christmas gifts for 2025

All dads want in life is a good book, comfy slippers and, if they’re parenting particularly young children, some peace and quiet (my daughter has just turned one and is learning what her voice is capable of).

We’ve rounded up a selection of gifts for all ages, tastes and interests (silence courtesy of some decibel-dampening earplugs), with enough options for there to be something here for even those impossible-to-buy-for fathers.

December can bring huge stress, as people struggle with budgetary pressures, organisation and what to give the person who has everything. Here’s a guide to getting it right, every time

The festive shopping season is upon us and there is usually someone who is hard to buy for on the list. How can you avoid the stress of last-minute panic buying? Personal shoppers share their tips on how to treat your loved ones to something that they will cherish.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe made clothes for her daughter while waiting for her eventual release. Now, the idea of creativity as a form of resistance is the theme of a new collaboration between London’s Imperial War Museum and the fabric department of Liberty.

When Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe returned home to London after six years of arbitrary detention in Iran, she brought back with her a small patchwork cushion. Pieced together from scrap material and made with the single sewing machine available in the prison, it was the product of a communal craft circle.

“It’s something very, very precious to me,” she said. So precious, in fact, that she has worked on a new collaboration between London’s Imperial War Museum (IWM) and the fabric department of Liberty, creating three new prints that explore experience as a prisoner.

When you try these festive, chewy German almond biscuits, you’ll see why people have kept making and gifting them at Christmas for more than 500 years

The thing I love most about these chewy, crisp, star-shaped, cinnamon-and-almond Christmas biscuits from Germany is that they date back to the 1500s. Which, much like spotting Mars in the night sky or visiting the pyramids of Egypt, makes me feel hugely insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but simultaneously awe-inspired by the power of a simple biscuit to provide joy and underpin celebrations across centuries. This particular recipe belongs to my friend Friede’s grandma, Hadmuth, and is worth continuing, I think, for at least another 500 years.

A spiced syrup to add festive aromas to a mezcal-laced take on the negroni and a spicy, tangy aromatic cider to match a whole host of mixers

Despite being known for shaking a cocktail on Instagram now and again, very little will induce me to last-minute cocktailery if I am entertaining a serious number of guests. However, a good drinks recipe that you can prep in advance is a lovely thing to dazzle your friends with and to gift over Christmas. With or without alcohol, this pair look good and taste delicious, and should help everyone ease into the December festivities.

Gin and Japanese vodka combine with jasmine tea in a martini-style pre-mix that you could even gift at Christmas

Store this batch cocktail in a glass bottle in the fridge, so it’s ice-cold and ready to go whenever the need arises over the festive period; alternatively, bottle and gift it to a loved one or friend. It’s a citrussy, martini-style union of sake from Peckham, Japanese vodka and London dry gin.

Aidan Monk, restaurant and beverage manager, Humble Chicken, London W1

Chewy, marshmallow-coated Rice Krispie baubles that are as fun to make as they are to gift

These edible baubles make a joyful addition to the Christmas table or tree. Soft, chewy, marshmallow-coated Rice Krispies are studded with pistachios and cranberries, chocolate and ginger, or peppermint candy cane; they’re as fun to make as they are to eat, and they make a perfect little gift. To add a ribbon for hanging, cut small lengths of ribbon, then loop and knot the ends. Push the knotted end gently into the top of each ball while it’s still pliable, then reshape around it, so it holds the knot securely as it sets. Alternatively, wrap each bauble in cellophane, then gather at the top and tie with a ribbon, leaving a long loop for hanging.

TikTokers say it will show the health of your relationship. Does it really show how we think about romance?

What would you say if your partner told you they saw a bird today? Would you mumble noncommittally, or ask a follow-up question?

You might be surprised to know that thousands of people on TikTok and Instagram would judge you if you chose the former.

When you make art proof of virtue, you can make it feel like a drag, advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith writes. Instead, encourage him to develop his own sensibility

• Read more Leading questions

My eight-and-a-half-year-old son is a voracious reader and budding writer. I am very happy that he enjoys reading and want to help him find the next good read. Unfortunately he’s extremely easily influenced by cover art. He will unwrap a gift book and immediately dismiss it and refuse to give it a go if he doesn’t like the cover. He doesn’t even read the blurb. When I was still reading to him, we had a pact that he had to listen to at least one page, and that’s how he was introduced to many of his favourite books despite initial reluctance. I completely understand the appeal of great illustration but, now that he reads chapter books, I wish he could get over the two least important pages. How can I help him not to judge a book by its cover?

Eleanor says: I totally appreciate the virtue of getting him to see beyond the cover but, on the other hand … could you just change the cover?

Whitney thinks Haile would be happier in a relationship. Haile says she’s fine by herself. You decide who’s being too single-minded
• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

I’m being treated like a sad case, but I am fine by myself. I’m not interested in dating at the moment

Haile’s happiest when she’s in love. I’m glad she’s found peace, but I worry she’s closing herself off

After my dad died, I tried to cope by keeping busy: a day job, a side hustle, socialising and working out. But I kept bursting into tears in public. At a Quaker meeting, it was as if someone had turned down the volume of the world

It was 2022, and my dad had just died from a rare blood disease. In the aftermath, I quit my PhD and moved back to London from Brighton. I coped by keeping incredibly busy. I regularly informed friends “I’m fine, actually”, as I threw myself into a new job in communications, went clubbing every weekend, picked up a side hustle selling secondhand clothes and got suspiciously invested in my gym routine. If I could just keep busy, I thought, perhaps I could drown out the growing tidal wave of grief.

And it worked, until it just didn’t any more. I began to burst into tears randomly – during a work meeting, at the gym, on my commute – and everyone around me would politely pretend they didn’t notice the 28-year-old man weeping on the tube at 8.30am. I tried to push through it, but my ability to keep up with my own life was faltering, and all of it – the clubs, the job, the gym – suddenly felt unbearably loud and overwhelming.

Millions of real trees are sold each year, and costs vary widely – we ask experts how to find good deals

For many Britons, putting up their tree is the ritual that marks the official start of Christmas, with the second week of December a popular time to deck the halls.

While surveys suggest that about two-thirds of the population will opt for an artificial tree, millions of real ones will be sold this month. As usual, the competition is fierce on the high street, with some supermarkets selling the most popular tree – the Nordmann fir – for under £15.

Crafters, artisans and others told to declare income if above £1,000 trading allowance in tax year

This is a busy time of year for the thousands of people who earn a bit of extra income from a festive side hustle such as running a stall at a Christmas market or selling items online.

The UK’s army of crafters, artisans and designers are being urged to check if they need to tell HM Revenue and Customs about their earnings.

From picking Royal Mail or a courier firm to avoiding post office queues, here’s how to have a stress-free experience

For Royal Mail parcels within the UK, these are: 17 December for second class and second-class signed for; 20 December for first class and first-class signed for; 19 December for Tracked 48; 22 December for Tracked 24; 23 December for special delivery guaranteed.

Major attractions often don’t take lone-parent families into account in their pricing structures, making days out more expensive

I’m frequently irked by family tickets – as a parent of an only child there’s rarely a deal to be had for my circumstances. But at least in my set-up there are two adults. In families with only one earner it must be especially frustrating to be charged as much as a family where there are two.

Vaila McClure from the charity Gingerbread, which campaigns for lone parents, says they are often low earners and have pressures on their finances. “So many single-parent families really struggle to afford to go out,” she says. “Single-parent families shouldn’t be overlooked – they are still part of society. Money shouldn’t be a barrier for them because of unfair ticket pricing.”

New York venues aren’t required to give out water – but nightlife workers say it could make the difference between a safe evening out and an ER visit

When the Brooklyn metal band Contract performs around New York, they expect a mosh pit: thrashing bodies shoving and jumping along to the music. They also want to make sure the amped-up, usually drunk crowd stays hydrated. Without water, a mosher might feel sick, faint or pass out. “You don’t want anyone to get injured or hurt,” frontman Pele Uriel said.

Most of the spaces Uriel plays or visits have water stations where customers can easily fill up. But some do not. The worst offenders sell bottles of water at astronomical prices, from $5 to $10. “There have been times when I asked for water, but they charged a lot, so I went to the store next door to buy some,” Uriel said.

Venues promoting destruction as stress relief are appearing around the UK but experts – and our correspondent – are unsure

If you find it hard to count to 10 when anger bubbles up, a new trend offers a more hands-on approach. Rage rooms are cropping up across the UK, allowing punters to smash seven bells out of old TVs, plates and furniture.

Such pay-to-destroy ventures are thought to have originated in Japan in 2008, but have since gone global. In the UK alone venues can be found in locations from Birmingham to Brighton, with many promoting destruction as a stress-relieving experience.

If you aren’t getting the quality time or intimacy you need, try these connection experiments to shake up interactions

Lately, life has felt like Groundhog Day: work, gym, sleep, repeat. Between a punishing work schedule, the grim weather and my desire to hibernate, my social life has suffered. I feel dissatisfied, restless and isolated. But I have plenty of friends and active group chats – I can’t be lonely, surely?

Wrong!

It used to be all boozy lunches and late-night carousing. Now it’s hyperbaric chambers and longevity chat. Andrew Carnie, CEO of the private club, explains how life and trends have changed since the Covid era

Friday night in the north of England. On the ninth floor of the old Granada Studios, a very chi-chi crowd is drinking tequila and eating crisps. Not Walkers out of the bag, mind, but canapes of individual crisps with creme fraiche and generous dollops of caviar. A young woman – leather shorts, chunky boots, neon lime nails, artfully messy bob – winks at me from the other side of the silver tray. “Ooh, caviar. Very posh for Manchester.”

Soho House’s 48th members’ club has caused quite the stir. Thirty years after Nick Jones opened the first club in Soho, London, the first north of England outpost of the empire is raising eyebrows. An exclusive club, in the city that AJP Taylor described as “the only place in England which escapes our characteristic vice of snobbery”. (The home, after all, of the Guardian.) An open-air rooftop pool, in the climate that fostered the textile industry because the rain created the perfect cool, damp conditions for spinning cotton. Will it work?

Want to look elegant despite the cold? All you need is lace, a cocktail coat and jewellery that glimmers in the candlelight

The many elegant South Korean brands dominated the year, but France’s faultless Mimétique and the reasonably priced The Ordinary also make the cut

One can’t reflect on this year’s best skincare without acknowledging the domination of South Korean brands. Collectively, Yepoda, TirTir, Anua, Aestura, KraveBeauty, Beauty of Joseon, Dr Althea, Innisfree, Laneige and Then I Met You – to name but 10 of dozens – have succeeded in tempting droves of British consumers away from traditional products and towards very hydrated, unagitated and glassy-looking skin.

Space forbids me from covering all their impressive product launches, and so I’ll pick out Beauty of Joseon’s Relief Sun Rice + Probiotics SPF50+ to wave the Korean flag on the nation’s behalf.

Amid all the fairy lights and tinsel, an understated getup can look a bit curmudgeonly – you need to add some fashion sparkle

Christmas has begun. Don’t come for me with your pedantry about partridges and pear trees. The lights are lit, the turkey sandwiches are in Pret: ’tis the season, already. For the next few weeks we will be in a bubble that has its own festive rules. This is an alternate universe in which it is perfectly acceptable to have Michael Bublé on your Spotify playlist and to drink at lunchtime (to be fair, it is almost dark by then) and non-negotiable to play parlour games.

Christmas also comes with its own set of fashion rules, some of which are set in stone, and others which are updated every year. So I thought it may be helpful to have a quick refresher on how to dress for Christmas. Not least because one of the ways in which this time of year is its own little world is that even people who don’t like parties go to parties.

Irish fashion designer whose linen dresses were a staple of Princess Diana’s wardrobe

Paul Costelloe had a very Irish career. He learned and practised fashion internationally as a migrant in Paris, Milan and New York, and designed for such British institutions as Diana, Princess of Wales, and British Airways at its 1990s zenith.

But he was rooted in the island of Ireland’s terroir, appreciating its fibres, wool and, especially, linen, by fingertip feel as much as eye. Fashion only rediscovered linen after synthetics lost appeal with the oil price shock of the mid 70s. For Ireland, and Costelloe, linen was always an essential resource.

In the snowy mountains of Grövelsjön, visitors can get a rare glimpse into a little-known traditional way of life – and sleep in a tipi under the stars

On the summit of a snow-covered hill, two men sit on a patch of lichen, their backs against their snowmobiles. They are wearing thick padded clothing and hats with ear covers. One is scanning the valley with binoculars, the other is checking their drone. “We’ve got a speaker on it to play various calls. Thermal imaging helps. The dogs do the rest.” The younger of the two men, Elvjin, pours out tots of strong coffee for everyone. “The main job at this time of year is to keep the herd up here where we can see them,” he says. “When they start calving, the danger from bears, wolverines and eagles increases. We need to see them.”

If I had a mental picture of reindeer herding before arriving here in the mountains of western Sweden, it certainly did not involve drones and thermal imaging. But that is the aim of this trip: to see an authentic and little-known European way of life, which for centuries suffered repression and abuse, only to be swiftly cannibalised into tourist-trap Santa experiences – all sleigh bells and traditional embroidery.

Wonderful art, amazing design and beautiful locations have drawn our tipsters to chapels, churches and cathedrals from Norway to Bulgaria

• Tell us about a great charity challenge you’ve taken part in – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

The Tromsøysund parish church, commonly called the Arctic Cathedral, in Tromsø is a modernist delight. The simple, elegant exterior that reflects the surrounding scenery and evokes traditional Sami dwellings is matched by an interior that has the most comfortable pews I have ever sat on. The stunning glass mosaic titled the Return of Christ at one end may not be to everyone’s taste, but to me had power and majesty. Exiting this magnificent building after an organ recital to be met by the northern lights flickering overhead was awe-inspiring.
Bruce Horton

A new overnight bus service in the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland offers comfort and sustainability

I feel my travel-scrunched spine start to straighten as I stretch out on the plump mattress, a quilted blanket wrapped around me and a pillow beneath my head. As bedtime routines go, however, this one involves a novel step – placing my lower legs in a mesh bag and clipping it into seatbelt-style buckles on either side; the bed will be travelling at around 50mph for the next 12 hours and there are safety regulations to consider.

Last month Swiss startup Twiliner launched a fleet of futuristic sleeper buses, and I’ve come to Amsterdam to try them out. Running three times a week between Amsterdam and Zurich (a 12-hour journey via Rotterdam, Brussels, Luxembourg and Basel), with a Zurich to Barcelona service (via Berne and Girona) launching on 4 December, the company’s flat-bed overnight sleeper buses are the first such service in Europe.

By avoiding the famous hotspots and travelling in December, we enjoy culinary delights and historic charms without the summer crowds

The copper pot is filled with a custard so golden it looks like liquid sunshine. Our waiter carefully ladles the sugary, egg-yolk elixir, zabaglione, into two bowls for dunking warm pansarole doughnuts. Our conversation stops, a silent competition to nab the last one. We are literally living la dolce vita.

This dessert is a tradition in Apricale, a fairytale-like village in Liguria, Italy’s crescent-shaped region that hugs the Mediterranean. It’s a far cry from crowded Cinque Terre and posh Portofino to the east. This western edge, on France’s south-eastern border, feels more authentic and calmer in the winter, with more local people than tourists. Unburdened from competing with others for reservations, you are free to live in the present. Let spontaneity be your guide – or, in my family’s case, our appetites.

The school has provided us with a whistle, which we can add to the long list of noises that the dog is afraid of

It’s dark by the time my wife and the dog return from dog school.

“How was it?” I say.

The 29-year-old star is getting his best reviews ever for the upcoming film Marty Supreme – but he’s also making waves with his idiosyncratic approach to celebrity and maintaining his status as the internet’s boyfriend

Everybody’s talking about Timothée! The gen-Z French-American heart-throb and original “internet boyfriend” is receiving the best reviews of his career for Josh Safdie’s frenetic ping-pong flick Marty Supreme, while also making waves for his idiosyncratic approach to celebrity in an age somewhat lacking in star power. He has even got Gwyneth Paltrow’s seal of approval. Here are seven reasons why “Chalamania” is back.

1. He seems a cert for an Oscar

From Cecil at Waitrose and Slinky at Tesco to an app designed to be deleted, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 In 1932, Australia declared war on which bird?
2 What became the world’s tallest church in October?
3 Matthew Streeton is the voice of which much-maligned rail announcement?
4 Which recent US president’s mother was called Stanley?
5 In which country has the TV crime drama Tatort run since 1970?
6 Which football club’s new stadium contributed to a loss of world heritage status?
7 Which app’s makers claim it is “designed to be deleted”?
8 Four-month-old Spencer Elden appeared on which album cover?
What links:
9 Amy Adams; Kate Bosworth; Rachel Brosnahan; Teri Hatcher; Margot Kidder?
10 Boardwalk; Rue de la Paix; Schlossallee; Shrewsbury Road?
11 Hasbani, Banias and Dan rivers; Sea of Galilee; Dead Sea?
12 Dian Fossey; Biruté Galdikas; Jane Goodall?
13 Christopher Wren; John Houblon; Matthew Boulton and James Watt; Alan Turing?
14 Cecil at Waitrose; Cuthbert at Aldi; Slinky at Tesco; Wiggles at Sainsbury’s?
15 King John (2); Henry VIII (3) and (2); John Mortimer (2); Ben Affleck (2)?

Cristina Dorador is on an urgent mission in the world’s driest desert, the Atacama in Chile. As the rise of drug-resistant superbugs kills millions per year, Cristina has made it her mission to uncover new, life-saving antibiotics in the stunning salt flats she has studied since she was 14. Against the magnificent backdrop of endless plains, microscopic discoveries lead her team of scientists to question how critically lithium mining is damaging the delicate ecosystem and impacting Indigenous communities

The term ceasefire ‘risks creating a dangerous illusion life is returning to normal’ for Palestinians squeezed into the remaining 42% of their land behind Israel’s ‘yellow line’

When Jumaa and Fadi Abu Assi went to look for firewood their parents thought they would be safe. They were just young boys, aged nine and 10 and, after all, a ceasefire had been declared in Gaza.

Their mother, Hala Abu Assi, was making tea in the family’s tent in Khan Younis when she heard an explosion, a missile fired by an Israeli drone. She ran to the scene – but it was too late.

Experts advise younger workers to practice phone calls with friends and embrace adventure of small talk

If you are a millennial, part of gen X or a boomer, you probably do not give a second thought to picking up the phone to talk to someone or chit-chatting beside the office water cooler. But for gen Z, those common workplace moments are a huge source of anxiety.

According to a study released this week, early mornings, working with older colleagues and making small talk are just some of the things employees born between 1997 and 2012 dread.

How elite gamblers buy betting accounts of losing punters to bamboozle bookmakers

The world of professional gambling is secretive by design.

Successful punters find an edge wherever possible and seldom show their hand to rivals when they spot an opportunity to make a killing.

If you had the chance to write just one last letter, to whom would you send it?

The Danish postal service will deliver its last letter at the end of this month to focus on packages, citing the “increasing digitalisation” of society.

While the public will still be able to send letters through the distributor DAO, it made us think about how we would use that last chance to send a letter.

Perhaps you started Christmas earlier or are making extra special efforts to enjoy the festive season

Are you leaning in to Christmas this year, determined to make the most of the festive season?

Perhaps you put your Christmas tree up earlier than usual? Or, for the first time in years? Maybe you’re embracing Christmas jumper wearing with unusual zeal? Or perhaps you’re listening to Christmas songs earlier than usual? Maybe you’re making more effort to enjoy time with friends and loved ones in the run-up to 25 December.

We want to hear from UK parents with experience in temporary accommodation about the impact on their lives, family and schooling

More than 172,000 children were living in temporary accommodation in England at the end of June, according to the latest quarterly official figures from October.

That represented an 8.2% rise on the same period last year. There are now more than 130,000 households households living in temporary accommodation in England, the figures showed.

We would like to hear from centenarians, their family and friends

The number of centenarians (aged 100 years and over) in the UK has doubled from 8,300 in 2004 to 16,600 in 2024, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Between 2004 and 2024, the number of male centenarians has tripled from 910 to 3,100. During the same period, the number of female centenarians almost doubled from 7,400 to 13,600.

Wake up to the top stories and what they mean – free to your inbox every weekday morning at 7am

Scroll less, understand more: sign up to receive our news email each weekday for clarity on the top stories in the UK and across the world.

Explore all our newsletters: whether you love film, football, fashion or food, we’ve got something for you

Get smart, sustainable shopping advice from the Filter team straight to your inbox, every Sunday

The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link.

A weekly email from our star chefs featuring the latest recipes and seasonal eating ideas

Each week we’ll send you an exclusive newsletter from our star food writers. We’ll also send you the latest recipes from our star chefs, stand-out food features and seasonal eating inspiration, plus restaurant reviews from Grace Dent.

Sign up below to start receiving the best of our culinary journalism in one mouth-watering weekly email.

The best new music, film, TV, podcasts and more direct to your inbox, plus hidden gems and reader recommendations

From Billie Eilish to Billie Piper, Succession to Spiderman and everything in between, subscribe and get exclusive arts journalism direct to your inbox. Gwilym Mumford provides an irreverent look at the goings on in pop culture every Friday, pointing you in the direction of the hot new releases and the best journalism from around the world.

Explore all our newsletters: whether you love film, football, fashion or food, we’ve got something for you

Russian airstrikes in Kyiv, floods in Colombo, the cold moon in Gaza and Trump at the World Cup draw: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists