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From Rock's BackpagesLauryn HillIt's 15 years since the release of landmark album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. A year after its release, she is passionate, funny and unguarded in this classic interview by Simon Witter from 1999 from Rock's BackpagesThings are not looking good. The 12th floor of the forbiddingly fashionable Metropolitan Hotel is awash with hangers-on and pan-European Sony personnel. The star at the centre of it all, woman-of-the-moment Lauryn Hill, is first 30 minutes late, then an hour and, when she does arrive, is surrounded by people ordering her food, tasting her food, combing her hair and generally getting in the way of any meaningful contact. [Read More]

‘Like butter on a crumpet’ – Len Goodman: a life in pictures Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email The genial ballroom dancer and former head judge of Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing With the Stars, Len Goodman, has died aged 78. Here are some of his star moments Pejman Faratin Main image: ‘Well pickle my walnuts’ … Len Goodman on Dancing With the Stars. [Read More]

Modern tribesLife and style‘Well, I find textiles extremely offensive, but I’m not telling you to take your cardigan off or I’ll call the police. Live and let live, I say’Excuse me, don’t scream – look, I’ll stand sideways on. No, I’m not the naked rambler, I’m from the bike ride; see, that’s my unicycle there, the chain went outside Budgens and I got left behind, so if you could point me towards the park and ride? [Read More]

PaintingObituaryRobert Natkin obituaryAmerican abstract artist who refused to kowtow to criticsThe American painter Robert Natkin was energetic, combative, talented and nobody else's fool but, in the long term, he was a fool to himself. He refused to butter up either critics or galleries or curators, and in his last years, sick of art politics, retreated from New York to a new home in Connecticut. When Hilton Kramer, variously editor of the Arts Magazine and critic of the Nation and the New York Times, wrote a disobliging review of his work, Natkin responded by turning Kramer's piece into a collage and exhibiting it. [Read More]

Australian food and drinkWith golden crumbs, smoked ham and melted mozzarella, the Australian food critic pays homage to the humble European schnitzel that migrated and morphed into an Aussie pub classic There is a stoush going on over the humble schnitty. Italy and Austria cannot seem to agree on who came up with the idea first. The fact that the name “schnitzel” comes from the German word for an escalope of meat seems like compelling evidence in Austria’s favour. [Read More]

Mark HaddonReviewA domestic drama from a master of the excruciating family set-pieceThe Red House is a closely observed domestic drama that gives the impression of being a random slice-of-life, but in which every character is coming to terms with something or experiencing a revelation. The action is subtle and often interior, and what really counts is not what happens so much as the sharp observations of how people behave and feel, and the gap between the two. [Read More]

Lost in showbizLife and styleDid Beyoncé not have any idea about who was paying for her services? None other than Hannibal Gaddafi, the out-of-control son of the Libyan leaderWe begin with Lost in Showbiz's favourite how-much-money-is-enough? story since gazillionaire JK Rowling accepted another wedge to greenlight a hideously infra dig Harry Potter theme park in Florida. To wit, the first diplomatic incident of 2010 involving Beyoncé. We lay our scene on New Year's Eve, in the Caribbean paradise of St Barts, which seems to have been an island of two parties. [Read More]

Observer book of the weekBiography booksReviewThe author of A Very English Scandal details the media tycoon’s bullying, lies and looting of pension funds in an absorbing profile of the war hero turned rogue The yacht that features on the front cover of Fall, John Preston’s very entertaining account of the extraordinary life and death of Robert Maxwell, is called the Lady Ghislaine. In February 1991 it docked in New York as a four-storey, floating symbol of its owner: outlandish, brash and attention-seeking. [Read More]

The ObserverHigher educationIvy League for the UKThe Russell Group is the equivalent of the American Ivy League of prestigious universities. It is a self-selected body representing Britain's foremost research-led universities, has its own executive committee, effectively a policy steering group, and is advertising for a chief executive. The group comprises: Cambridge University, Oxford University, Warwick University, Leeds University, Birmingham University, Manchester University, Edinburgh University, Bristol University, Southampton University, Sheffield University, Newcastle University, Nottingham University, Liverpool University, Glasgow University, Cardiff University, University College London, Imperial College London, King's College London and London School of Economics. [Read More]

Fiona Shaw in Machinal, Sophie Treadwell’s play inspired by the case of Ruth Snyder. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The GuardianFiona Shaw in Machinal, Sophie Treadwell’s play inspired by the case of Ruth Snyder. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The GuardianAlmeida theatreWhen Rebecca Hall read it she couldn’t breathe. After Fiona Shaw played the role she got letters full of loneliness. This is the true story behind Sophie Treadwell’s trailblazing play In 1927, Ruth Snyder dominated America’s headlines. [Read More]