π Explore this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Television,Television & radio,Culture π‘ Key idea: Shetland9pm, BBC OneOne minute, you're complaining to your colleague about a trashy date, the next you're sifting through frozen fish for illicit drugs. It all happens in a day's work for DI Ruth Calder (Ashley Jensen) as the tenth series of this popular murder-solving drama begins. Her next case with DI Tosh McIntosh (Alison O'Donnell) is the horrific murder of a retired social worker in a remote village - and they learn that the community is not as cohesive as it…
π₯ Read this trending post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Fiction,Books,Culture β
Main takeaway: IIn this moment of cultural panic about the decline of reading, it takes an enviable confidence to hand over a volume like Tom's Crossing. Weighing more than 1,200 pages of closely printed text, the novel contains about half a million wordsβalmost two Ulysses novels. It is also, in this respect, twice as long as Danielowski's first novel, House of Leaves, which secured cult status for its author when it was published 25 years ago. Tom's Crossing is so big that when I showed…
β¨ Discover this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Television,John Lewis Christmas ad,Culture,Television & radio π‘ Main takeaway: TThe strange thing about traditions is that they tend to last longer than their usefulness. Bonfire Night, once a way for the government to remind the public of its ability to kill revolutionaries, has simply become an excuse to eat a potato in a field. Church bells still ring on Sunday mornings, when worshipers communicate via WhatsApp much faster and more considerate. And the John Lewis Christmas advert is still a thing.True, it wasn't long before the John…
β¨ Discover this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Film,Documentary films,Nagorno-Karabakh,Women,Azerbaijan,Armenia,Culture,Europe,Society,World news β
Hereβs what youβll learn: WWith a title taken from the traditional opening phrase of Armenian fairy tales, Emily Mkrtchyan's debut nods to the impermanence of life itself. Filmed in the now-defunct Republic of Artsakh, the film follows four extraordinary women who find their hopes and ambitions cruelly derailed by war. The breakaway state was formed in 1991, after decades of political discrimination under the Soviet Union and military conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. For the majority Armenian population here, their peace has always…
π₯ Discover this awesome post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Baillie Gifford prize for nonfiction,Helen Garner,Books,Culture,Awards and prizes β
Main takeaway: Australian author Helen Garner has won the 2025 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction for her book How to End a Story, becoming the first writer to win the prestigious award with a collection of memoirs.The Β£50,000 award was announced on Tuesday evening at a ceremony held in London. Robbie Milne, chair of the judging panel and literary editor of The Times, described Garner's collection as a "brilliant, addictive book" and said the decision had been made…
π Check out this awesome post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Radiohead,Music,Pop and rock,Culture π‘ Hereβs what youβll learn: AIt's been nearly 10 years since Radiohead released a new record, and more than seven years since we last saw them on stage. Living through that period was like moving faster and faster towards a future that their songs often seemed so anxious about. Animal-borne diseases and invading armies, shelters and endless rainstorms, falling skies, crumbling infrastructure β all of this is foreshadowed in the lyrics of the always troubled Thom Yorke.His reputation as a fortune teller may…
π₯ Discover this awesome post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Art and design,V&A,Culture,Museums π Main takeaway: WWhen Gus Casely-Hayford was a child, his sister Margaret took him to the British Museum. He didn't always enjoy museums: "As much as I was drawn to them, they weren't places I felt completely welcome in," he says, especially since they rarely told the stories of black Britons like his. But Margaret was determined. "She told me that these spaces belong to all of us. They may not be telling our stories, but she was telling me, 'This is something you…
π₯ Read this insightful post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Radiohead,Spain,Music,Thom Yorke,Jonny Greenwood,Culture,Europe,World news β
Hereβs what youβll learn: Radiohead chose Madrid as the location for their first concert since 2018, kicking off a 20-date European tour with a crowd-pleasing but unpredictable setlist inspired by almost all of their nine studio albums.If it weren't for Oasis, it might have been the most anticipated rock tour of the year. Radiohead haven't recorded a studio album since 2016, and each band member has been involved in other successful and creatively stimulating projects, so fans are beginning to wonder if…
π₯ Discover this awesome post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Metal,Pop and rock,Music,Culture β
Hereβs what youβll learn: WAlthough many rock singers have risen from high fantasy, few have truly gone down the road. Sure, they may adorn their album sleeves with ghouls, orcs, bound maidens, and powerful barbarians, but has a member of Cirith Ungol ever had to retrieve a lost unicorn horn from a snowy field in the depths of winter? Has Yngwie Malmsteen ever spent time staring at the back of a tour bus, fixing his email?Founded in Brooklyn in 2019, Castle Rat had…
π₯ Check out this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Documentary films,Film,Netflix,George Bush,Culture,Climate crisis,Environment β
Main takeaway: IIn 1988, the United States entered the worst drought since the Dust Bowl. Crops withered in fields across the country, part of damage estimated at $60 billion ($160 billion in 2025). Dust storms swept through the Midwest and northern Great Plains. Cities have imposed water restrictions. That summer, relentlessly high temperatures killed between 5,000 and 10,000 people, and Yellowstone National Park suffered one of the worst wildfires in its history.In the midst of the disaster, George H. W. Bush,…
