Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel - review

 Posted on March 22, 2024  |  7 minutes  |  1430 words  |  Kary Bruening

Book of the weekBooksReviewThe downfall of Anne BoleynOh, those Tudors! We can't get enough of them. Whole bookshelves have been filled with them, acres of film consecrated to their antics. How badly behaved they were. What Machiavellian plottings and betrayals. Will we never tire of the imprisonments, torturings, entrail-windings, and burnings at the stake? Philippa Gregory has very successfully tackled the Boleyn girls, Mary the Mistress and Anne the Aggravating. Then there's The Tudors, the TV series, in which church geopolitics are ably dealt with, though some of the underwear is anachronistic and Henry VIII is a dark, brooding romantic who never gets fat. [Read More]

Doris Lessing: Her five best books | Doris Lessing

 Posted on March 22, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  603 words  |  Valentine Belue

Doris LessingDoris Lessing: Her five best booksFrom groundbreaking novels to memoir and science fiction, we pick five essential reads from Lessing's long and varied career. Share your favourites belowThe Grass is Singing (1950)Lessing arrived in London in the spring of 1949 with £20 and the manuscript of a novel drawing heavily on her life in Africa, exploring the power and fear at the heart of the colonial experience. When Mary Turner's husband becomes sick she takes over the running of their failing Rhodesian farm. [Read More]

Eddie Barlow | Cricket | The Guardian

 Posted on March 22, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  784 words  |  Aldo Pusey

CricketObituaryEddie BarlowGritty South African all-rounder whose great success came against AustraliaEddie Barlow, the former South African all-rounder, who has died aged 65 from a stroke following a long illness, personified those sportsmen who through willpower maximise their ability. There were more talented players than he in the superb South African sides of the late 1960s - Graeme Pollock, Barry Richards, Mike Procter among them - but none exceeded his desire to succeed. [Read More]

Former Australian spy Alisdair Putt dies during Worlds Toughest Row across the Atlantic | A

 Posted on March 22, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  593 words  |  Aldo Pusey

Alisdair Putt preparing for the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. Organisers have confirmed he died on 4 JanuaryAlisdair Putt preparing for the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. Organisers have confirmed he died on 4 JanuaryAustralia newsFormer Australian spy Alisdair Putt dies during ‘World’s Toughest Row’ across the AtlanticRace organisers say former war crimes investigator suffered a heart attack while skippering a boat from the Canary Islands to Antigua A former Australian spy and war crimes investigator has died skippering a rowing boat in a race across the Atlantic Ocean. [Read More]

Judgment at Nuremberg poetic justice for Holocaust perpetrators | Drama films

 Posted on March 22, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  760 words  |  Chauncey Koziol

Reel historyDrama filmsJudgment at Nuremberg – poetic justice for Holocaust perpetratorsIt may be guilty of a little make-believe, but Stanley Kramer's masterpiece does justice to the real-life Nazi judges' trialJudgment at Nuremberg (1961) Director: Stanley Kramer Entertainment grade: B+ History grade: A The Nuremberg trials were a series of military tribunals carried out by Allied forces against military and administrative officials and private contractors of Nazi Germany. They took place between 1945 and 1949. [Read More]

Loc Leferme | Sport | The Guardian

 Posted on March 22, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  640 words  |  Chauncey Koziol

SportObituaryLoïc LefermeFreediving champion who challenged the deep sea depthsThough the French former world record-holding freediver Loïc Leferme was renowned for his safe approach, it was a series of mechanical failures that led to his death by drowning at the age of 36. He was on the underwater sled that he used for deep breath-hold diving in the Mediterranean off Villefranche-sur-Mer, near Nice, but failed to return to the surface. After seeing his record broken, he had been in training to regain it. [Read More]

The bear truth: why happy pandas cant be bothered to find a partner

 Posted on March 22, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  503 words  |  Valentine Belue

Pass notesWildlifeResearchers now think pandas’ notoriously low libido is because they are too comfortable to make the effort to search for a mate Name: Panda sex. Age: 18m years old. Frequency: Famously rare. Yes, why is that? If I were a panda, I’d be at it all the time. I think from this we can determine two things: first that you are a pervert, and second that you are unhappy. [Read More]

Want to ensure your lemons survive the winter? Bring them indoors

 Posted on March 22, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  556 words  |  Aldo Pusey

Alys Fowler's gardening columnGardensIf you don’t have a greenhouse, put your lemons in the sunniest spot in your home – and you may even see them fruit In some other version of my life, I own a limonaia – a 17th-century Italian lemon house. I’m not greedy; I don’t need the mansion that goes with it. My lemon trees and I could live in the house together, bask in the floor-to-ceiling windows and never get seasonal affective disorder. [Read More]

Aid memoir

 Posted on March 21, 2024  |  7 minutes  |  1373 words  |  Aldo Pusey

BooksReviewJohn Ryle finds Paul Theroux's vision blurred by some dusty thinking on his African journey, Dark Star SafariDark Star Safari by Paul Theroux 495pp, Hamish Hamilton, £17.99 Half way into his journey through Africa, Paul Theroux is standing by the roadside in northern Kenya, looking, by his own account, a little down-at-heel. Pushing 60, he has a hole in his jacket and a tough journey through Ethiopia behind him. The truck he arrived on has a broken spring and isn't moving. [Read More]

Ballon dOr 2023: Lionel Messi and Aitana Bonmat named winners as it happened | Ballon d'Or

 Posted on March 21, 2024  |  18 minutes  |  3702 words  |  Kary Bruening

30 Oct 202318.29 EDTThat’s the end of the show, folks. Congratulations to Lionel Messi and Aitana Bonmatí, two of the most deserving and predictable winners of this prestigious trophy, who both led their nations to World Cup glory and deserve this moment in the sun. Thanks for reading and for your emails and tweets. Until next year! Ballon d’Or: Bonmatí and Messi get top accolades as Bellingham acclaimedRead more30 Oct 202318.21 EDTI’m not sure this Ballon d’Or is really the trophy that crowns Messi at the undisputed GOAT – there’s another golden trophy won last year that probably sealed it – but it certainly doesn’t hurt. [Read More]