The Guardian

The subversive work of Eliza Haywood, the feminist forerunner of the TV show’s gossip columnist, is about to be republished She is the real-life Lady Whistledown, an eyebrow-raising female writer who penned a salacious anonymous gossip sheet that skewered 18th-century London society. Like the fictional pamphlet from Netflix hit Bridgerton , which returned for a third series last week , Eliza Hayw…

Cannes film festival Eduard Limonov’s bizarre career, from rebel émigré writer in New York to leader of a fascistic, militaristic political group, is told with gusto by Kirill Serebrennikov Fascism, punk, euphoria and despair … it’s all here, or mostly, in this hilarious biopic of Eduard Limonov , the rock’n’roll émigré Russian writer and patriot-dissident who wound up poverty-stricken in New Yor…

The former New York Times journalist exposes the excesses of hyper-‘woke’ culture and the suffocating impact of groupthink in this enjoyable study of a topsy-turvy world M orning After the Revolution by the American journalist Nellie Bowles is a wickedly enjoyable book about the madness that seemingly began to inflame the brains of a certain cohort of the liberal intelligentsia about four years a…

Historians estimate a quarter of settlers of the US west were Black, moving cattle on horseback, settling towns and keeping the peace When Larry Callies went to the movies as a boy in Rosenberg, Texas, the heroes riding horses and wearing 10-gallon hats were all white men. But the real cowboys Callies knew were Black. His great-grandfather Lavel Callies was an enslaved cowboy who worked with hors…

Science Museum’s Secret Life of the Home collection, including tea-making machines, early microwave cookers, gramophones and the first flushing toilets will close on 2 June They changed our parents’ and grandparents’ lives by using technology to tackle the curse of household drudgery. Thanks to the vacuum cleaner, fridge, washing machine and microwave, the lives of householders were transformed i…

Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow Letting rip with that still thrilling and propulsive voice, the Iron Maiden frontman performs an all solo material set – keytars, bongos and demonic laughter included Bruce Dickinson, as is well known, is a qualified pilot – and there is something of the captain preparing for take-off in his interactions with the crowd. “In a moment,” he instructs Glasgow, “we will co…

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London The Revel Puck Circus big top rolls into town, featuring fantastic acrobatics, whimsical clowning and admirable ethics There’s a festival feel at a Revel Puck Circus show: the big top, the caravans and candyfloss, the sense of community. It’s like a gen Z version of a trad touring circus, with the young performers dressed in matching jazzy gender-neutral jumps…

Alexis Bloom’s documentary captures the sheer charisma of the actor, model and 60s rock survivor, though little of her background The terrifying magnetism of Anita Pallenberg – the German actor, model, style icon, muse and, according to some, murderer who dated two Rolling Stones and epitomised rock chick cool – is captured in Alexis Bloom’s suitably enigmatic documentary portrait. Composed of in…

Dali L Yang’s critique of China’s response in the early days of the Covid pandemic is thoroughgoing if academic, while poet Liao Yiwu’s account mixes fact and fiction to extraordinary effect Cast your mind back, if you will, to the beginning of the pandemic, before the World Health Organization had coined the term Covid-19. Back then, it was the “Wuhan virus”, a mysterious pathogen from a city th…

The novelist’s love triangle has its sights set on the elite insularity of the New York art world but its plot is programmatic I’ve always admired Hari Kunzru’s novels for their dense, satirical plunge into subcultures. His characters are nervy, laconic, forever looking for a chance to escape their domestic lives, brimming not so much with feelings as ideas. Mike Frame, the protagonist of My Revo…

Half a billion thrillers were bought in the UK in the past 10 years. Can a visit to the Bristol CrimeFest – this year featuring GT Karber, creator of the world-conquering whodunnit series Murdle – help pin down why the genre is booming? Sitting at the bar during a convention of crime writers at the Grand hotel in Bristol, nursing a pint, an exciting and inspired thought comes to mind: hey, wouldn…

On the eve of her UK retrospective Revelations, the veteran US feminist artist known for her large collaborative art installation pieces such as The Dinner Party – and for dividing the critics – is in celebratory mood On-screen interviews can be a bit low-key, the victim of time lags and muffled human connections. But not the one on which I’ve just embarked, an experience I can only describe as p…

The actor on playing a pushy mother in new Channel 4 drama The Gathering, keeping her Bafta well away from the loo and why she’s an indie girl now Actor Vinette Robinson, 42, is best known for playing chef Carly in the Boiling Point film and TV series, and civil rights campaigner Rosa Parks in Doctor Who . After growing up in Bradford and training at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, sh…

From The Office sidekick to standup legend and a serial killer, the multitalented Stephen Merchant is impossible to pin down. He talks about cancel culture, why pubs are more interesting than outer space and hanging out with Christopher Walken Stephen Merchant has always been obsessed by the idea of the ordinary man “thrust into extraordinary circumstance”. Since he was a kid in Bristol, the son …

The Furiosa, Mad Max and Happy Feet director talks tap dancing, life as a twin and what he’d tell his younger self Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email What is the best thing about being a twin? The shared experience. We spent the first 20 years of our lives together every day. We both have a similar curiosity about the world, and he practised as a doctor for 50 years. His take on human be…