Richard MacKichan finds Sir Paul Smith rockin’ around Claridge’s Christmas tree
Catriona Gray meets the movers and shakers of the capital’s art world
All you need to know this month in the capital
Caroline Moorehead’s favourite painting
The author selects a portrait that shows the ‘very essence of what it was to be Sicilian’
The world turned upside down
Carla Carlisle—wife of a farmer and a diversifier extraordinaire— offers an insider’s view on the Government’s ‘Great Betrayal’
What to look for in winter
Now is not the time to hibernate, suggests John Wright, as he encourages us to appreciate the countryside’s stark, intricate beauty in these colder months
Putting in a Good Word
Lucy Denton delves into the remarkable history of Stationers’ Hall, the central London home of the Worshipful Company of Stationers for the past 400 years
The legacy
Amie Elizabeth White hails Henry Cole, inventor of Christmas cards
The rocky-pool horror show
John Lewis-Stempel loves to be beside the seaside as he examines the enduring appeal of England’s glorious coastline
Bowler me over
Matthew Dennison tips his hat to the rural origins of the bowler as he celebrates its 175th birthday
A touch of frost
Beware an ill wind blowing us into 2025, warns Lia Leendertz
Piste de résistance
Joseph Phelan finds a business on an upslope when he visits the last ski-maker in Scotland
Eyes wide shut
Sleep in art is often drunken, deadly or the stuff of nightmares, but rarely is it peaceful, as Claudia Pritchard discovers
Size matters
Charles Quest-Ritson cranes his neck to take in the sheer scale of the specimens at West Sussex’s Architectural Plants
Kitchen garden cook
Melanie Johnson on sprouts
Travel
Life in Grenada quickly grows on Rosie Paterson
Catamarans and cabanas
Jamaica’s Blue Mountains are heaven for Steven King
THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR (December 2, 2024): The latest issue features ‘From Atop The Magic Mountain’ – One-Hundred years later, Thomas Mann’s epic remains as prophetic as ever.
Only rarely did the outside world intrude on an idyllic Connecticut childhood, but in the tumultuous 1960s, that intrusion included an encounter with evil
After spending years painting the media as the “enemy of the people,” Donald Trump is ready to intensify his battle against the journalists who cover him. By David Remnick
R.F.K., Jr., Wants to Eliminate Fluoridated Water. He Used to Bottle and Sell It
Donald Trump’s nominee to lead H.H.S. once started a bottled-water line, Keeper Springs. What was in it? By Charles Bethea
On the Block: Where Jerry Lewis and Buddy Hackett Once Schvitzed
The tummlers have moved on, but the distinctive Friars Club building, in midtown, is going to the highest bidder. By Bruce Handy
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (December 1, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Unfinished Business’ – “The City and Its Uncertain Walls features all of Haruki Murakami’s signature elements — and his singular voice — in a new version of an old story.
“The New India,” by Rahul Bhatia, combines personal history and investigative journalism to account for his country’s turn to militant Hindu nationalism.
The Guardian Weekly (November 28, 2024): The new issue features last week’s escalation of Nato ballistic missile activity, in which UK and US-made missiles were launched into Russia for the first time, brought a predictably cold response from Vladimir Putin – who loosened Moscow’s nuclear doctrines and promised more attacks with a new, experimental ballistic missile.
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Spotlight | Does lame duck Biden have time to Trump-proof democracy? The outgoing US president may only have weeks left in the White House, but activists say he can secure civil liberties, accelerate spending on climate and healthcare, and spare death row prisoners. David Smith reports
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Science | My weird, emotional week with an AI pet Casio says Moflin can develop its own personality and build a rapport with its owner – and it doesn’t need food, exercise or a litter tray. But is it essentially comforting or alienating? Justin McCurry finds out
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Feature | Are we right to strive to save the world’s tiniest babies? Doctors are pushing the limits of science and human biology to save more extremely premature babies than ever before. But when so few survive, are we putting them through needless suffering? By Sophie McBain
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Opinion | A social media ban is in everyone’s interests – not just kids under 16 Van Badham on why she resents being excluded from protection against monetised fear, anger and toxicity
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Culture | A road trip like no other: an epic drive on the Autobahn Fifty years after electronic pioneers Kraftwerk released a 23-minute song about a road – and changed pop music for ever – Tim Jonze hits the highways of Düsseldorf and Hamburg in search of its futuristic brilliance
Times Literary Supplement (November 27, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Mutti Knows Best?’ – Angela Merkel’s triumph and tragedy; Gaughin’s uncensored thoughts; Gladiator II; C.S. Lewis’s Oxford and “The Magic Mountain” at 100…