The streaming era has produced its share of pathologies, including bloated running times and narratives padded with filler. The best dramas of 2025, though, are a reminder that television has become our predominant cultural medium.

‘Adolescence’

The life of the Miller family is overturned one morning when the police raid the house and arrest 13 year-old Jamie (Owen Cooper) for the murder of his classmate, Katie Leonard (Emilia Holliday). But this isn’t some by-the-numbers British procedural.

It doesn’t take long for footage to prove that Jamie did it, and the series instead explores the disturbing social milieu that made Jamie a murderer and the ways his sister, Lisa (Amélie Pease), and parents, Eddie (Stephen Graham) and Manda (Christine Tremarco), come to terms with what happened. Its four episodes are nightmare fuel for parents, each filmed in a single take, an approach that “contributes real-time immediacy to the story being told, as well as a certain astonishment at the methods, choreography and endurance of the cast,” said John Anderson at The Wall Street Journal. (Netflix)

‘The Bear’

After the long-awaited and largely negative review of the titular upscale Chicago restaurant finally comes out, co-owners Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and Syd (Ayo Edebiri) are given two months to turn it around before Uncle Cicero (Oliver Platt) cuts off the cash. While many see “The Bear” as an homage to the art of cooking for others, it is also a show about adrenaline junkies whose love-hate relationship with the restaurant business destroys their personal lives and ability to function.

It forces viewers to confront the wreckage that happens just offstage before they receive their amuse-bouche. In the fourth season of “The Bear,” the “chemistry and love for one another” of the ensemble explains “why we as an audience keep returning to one of the most stressful workplaces in television history,” and makes up for the inert, self-indulgent mess of season 3, said Alan Sepinwall at Rolling Stone. (Hulu)

‘The Diplomat’

If you can get past some of the silly and implausible plotting, “The Diplomat” is a marvelously acted, snappy and engrossing drama about married foreign service officers Hal (Rufus Sewell) and Kate (Keri Russell) Wyler. The pair is swept up in White House intrigue, propelled by a potboiler narrative about a terrorist attack on a British aircraft carrier.

If nothing else, the show is comfort food for anyone who misses policymakers and believes there is more to American foreign policy than cruelty and blunt military force. When season 3 begins, the president has died, making Grace Penn (Allison Janney) POTUS. Penn then unexpectedly picks Hal rather than Kate to serve as her veep, sending their marriage entertainingly sideways. The series is “as ridiculous as it is compelling” and “joins a lineup of shows that make little sense but are entertaining because of it,” said Saloni Gajjar at The AV Club. (Netflix)

‘Dying for Sex’

Adapted from the documentary podcast of the same name, “Dying for Sex” stars Michelle Williams as Molly, who leaves her husband and embarks on a riotous journey of erotic discovery after her cancer comes back, this time with a terminal diagnosis. Her best friend, Nikki (Jenny Slate), is so devoted to Molly and her determination to squeeze as many encounters as possible into her final months that it eventually takes its toll on Nikki’s own life and relationships.

The series explores death in ways that are almost unique to commercial television, without losing sight of the audience’s need not to be needlessly brutalized. It is “hilariously funny, guttingly sad and somehow also tingling with joy about the preciousness of life,” said Phillip Maciak at The New Republic. (Hulu)

‘Forever’

Adapted from Judy Bloom’s beloved novel, this is the rare series that can be enjoyed by both the YA demographic and adults. High school seniors Keisha (Lovie Simone) and Justin (Michael Cooper Jr.) have an off-again/on-again romance complicated by their wildly different social classes.

Wealthy Justin’s overbearing mother (Karen Pittman) doesn’t want anything to get in the way of a potential elite basketball scholarship. Keisha’s mom, Shelly (Xosha Roquemore), a single, overwhelmed nurse, pressures Keisha to stay with NBA-bound Christian (Xavier Mills), who unbeknownst to Shelly, ruined Keisha’s reputation by releasing a sex tape. A “charming slow burn,” it is “one of Netflix’s few shows to have a predominantly Black cast,” enabling it to be “specific in its exploration of the Black teen experience in America,” said Michel Ghanem at The Cut. (Netflix)

‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North’

Most winners of the heady Man Booker Prize, like Richard Flanagan’s moving and brutal 2014 novel, aren’t easy adaptations. But Prime hired Australian auteur Justin Kurzel (“The Order”) to direct, and the result is riveting.

The show is set in three timelines, and follows a medical student named Dorrigo Evans (Jacob Elordi), who marries Ella (Olivia DeJonge) but then has a destructive affair with his uncle’s wife, Amy (Odessa Young), before a harrowing stint in a Japanese POW camp in then-Indochina. Ciarán Hinds plays Evans as an older man in the late 1980s, when he is a renowned surgeon and still a womanizer. By depicting a group of people who “experience the war and come away with very little greater understanding of life,” the series is “gorgeous, ugly and stirring, with parts that seared themselves into my brain,” said Rebecca Onion at Slate. (Prime)

‘The Pitt’

After years of networks pouring resources into imitating cable and streamer prestige TV, HBO Max flipped the script with a throwback hospital procedural. “The Pitt” even borrows “ER” staple Noah Wyle as Dr. Michael Robinavitch, a grizzled emergency physician at struggling Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center.

Buoyed by an outstanding ensemble cast, the season cleverly depicts a single 15-hour shift of hospital mayhem, and its big heart and superb performances will win you over. It strikes a nerve not just with nostalgia but by serving as a searing indictment of the inequities, waste and greed that plague America’s medical system. The show “pinpoints the widespread feeling that everything now is sick and broken, from systems to people to social compacts,” said James Poniewozik at The New York Times. (HBO Max)

‘Pluribus’

Showrunner Vince Gilligan (“Breaking Bad”) takes a seemingly unlimited pile of Apple TV+ cash and turns it into the kind of talked-about event television that is so rare in today’s fragmented streaming landscape. Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn) is a successful but jaded “romantasy” writer who returns home to Albuquerque from a miserable book-signing tour just as a virus turns all of humanity into a blankly happy hive mind.

Carol is one of just a handful of people on the planet who are immune and retain their individuality. A show that “feels not just original but wholly surprising,” Gilligan’s mysterious series “wrestles with big philosophical questions of morality, contentment, purpose and meaning,” said Lacy Baugher Milas at Paste. (Apple TV+)

2025 marked another big step forward for the gaming industry. With a slew of big releases this year — and the world of video games set to expand further in 2026 — here are some of the most notable games released over the past 12 months.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Role-playing games have had a significant comeback over the past few years and may have reached peak status with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The game, which takes inspiration from a variety of historic RPGs like the Final Fantasy series, sees players dropped into an alternate French history where magical creatures exist. The player is then sent on a quest to defeat the world’s longstanding arch nemesis.

Clair Obscur features many classic elements of RPGs, such as skill trees and different character builds. The game was critically acclaimed when released. Its “creative turn-based combat system is brilliant,” said IGN, and while some portions of the storyline generated gripes, the “modern RPG classic” has an “earnestness to how it frames mortality, grief and the small moments of joy we find.” (Xbox Series X, Windows, PS5)

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

The video game Death Stranding received positive reviews on its 2019 release, and six years later, the sequel, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, garnered similar acclaim. The sequel shifts the setting from the U.S. to Australia, where players must learn to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. The game is “beautiful, horrific, nuanced and, crucially, a lot of fun,” said IGN.

Unlike many other video games, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach features an ensemble cast of Hollywood A-listers, with Norman Reedus, Léa Seydoux and Troy Baker reprising their roles from the first game. Joining them are Elle Fanning, George Miller, Guillermo del Toro and more. (PS5)

Ghost of Yotei

Ghost of Tsushima is widely considered one of the best video games of the decade, and fans rejoiced at the sequel’s release this year. Ghost of Yotei continues the story of Japan’s samurai, with some returning elements as well as some all-new features. The game is set more than 300 years after Tsushima and allows the player to control Atsu, a ronin who embarks on a quest for revenge against six samurai.

The free-roaming game allows players to don their katana again as a cunning warrior but also hide in the shadows for stealth gameplay. While generally considered not as good as the first installment, Ghost of Yotei “leans into its young protagonist’s thirst for bloody vengeance,” said The Guardian. (PS5)

Mario Kart World

Let’s a-go and hit the racetrack! Because the iconic Mario Kart franchise is back with its latest installment, Mario Kart World. As a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive — and a launch title for the console — the game is able to tap into all the Switch 2 offers, allowing players to enjoy Mario Kart on the road or at home on their television.

While the game has several notable upgrades, the most remarkable change is the adoption of an open world, which is “exactly like driving in a new country,” said Nintendo Life. Mario Kart World is not “quite a reinvention of Mario Kart or a completely new, innovative racing game. But the freedom, variety, and new modes” make it a worthwhile franchise entry. (Nintendo Switch 2)

Split Fiction

While most of the other games on this list are single-player, Split Fiction is designed as a multiplayer experience. It is best played with another person in the same room, as the game involves a split-screen experience where the players must work together to solve a variety of puzzles.

The game is set in a science fiction-fantasy world, and though Split Fiction is hardly the first multiplayer game, it received rave reviews for how its cooperative elements blend seamlessly. Split Fiction is the “most fun I’ve had with a video game in years,” gaming contributor Erik Kain said for Forbes, calling it a “game bursting with creativity and endless fun that’s at once technically impressive and astonishingly clever at every turn.” (Xbox Series X, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, Windows)

These are the top culinary reads of the year, from a celebration of Middle Eastern food to an immersive tour of Paris’s 20 arrondissements.

How I Cook by Ben Lippett

Ben Lippett – the author of this superbly practical cookbook – “reminds me of the early Nigel Slater”, said Rose Prince in The Spectator. His recipes sound simple – sausage and sage pappardelle, chocolate mousse – but they’re always clever and well explained. A food influencer, Lippett has a “blokeish gen-Z prose style”, said Bee Wilson in The Guardian. I wasn’t sure, at first, if I was the target audience. But as my copy, now covered in Post-it Notes, attests, I “became a true believer”.

Lugma by Noor Murad

This first solo book by a former member of the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen is a “vibrant, wholehearted celebration of the food of the Middle East” said Mark Diacono in Delicious. From coffee, cardamom and chipotle-rubbed lamb chops to burnt aubergines with fenugreek sauce, tahini and fried shallots, Murad’s recipes are highly appealing. With its title meaning bite or mouthful in Arabic, “Lugma” is “immersive and transporting”, said Chris Morocco on Bon Appétit.

All Consuming by Ruby Tandoh

This book is that rare thing, said Harriet Fitch Little in the Financial Times: a work that “pays serious attention to the pop-culture side of food”. In charmingly written essays, Tandoh explores how “the internet remade recipe writing”, and “why bubble tea went global”. Her writing blends an appealing “chumminess” with “intellectual acuity and cultural literacy”, said Sarah Moss in The Observer. The result is a “joyous blend of curiosity, intelligence and generosity”.

Moveable Feasts by Chris Newens

Winner of the Jane Grigson Trust Award for debut food writers, this book offers a culinary tour of Paris’s 20 arrondissements, said Harriet Fitch Little. Each chapter centres on a “representative dish” from one: “cordon bleu-style ratatouille in the 15th, Breton crêpes in the 14th, bánh mì in the 13th”. An ode to the city’s food and people, “Moveable Feasts” is “thoroughly entertaining (and seriously hunger-inducing)”, said Ceci Browning in The Times.

The Christmas Companion by Skye McAlpine

This “sumptuous” festive cookbook features lots of great treats the time-rich could make, but it’s “the vegetable section that stuns”, said Rose Prince. If you struggle to get beyond sprouts and red cabbage, McAlpine will inspire you with her beetroot, maple syrup, feta and walnut salad, or her savoy cabbage with pancetta, chestnuts and gorgonzola. “Think of it as a Delia-style bible”, said Tony Turnbull in The Times, “with extra party planning and more sparkle”.

Indian Kitchens by Roopa Gulati

Gulati’s books are always “rich and rewarding”, said Mark Diacono, “and her latest is no exception”. Based on her travels through six Indian regions, it contains more than 100 recipes, both her own and those of “12 home cooks” she encounters along the way. Gulati “conjures up a world in which people think nothing of rolling their own flatbreads and making their own yoghurt”, said Bee Wilson. The result is a “remarkable” portrait of the “reality of everyday kitchen life in India”.

Boustany by Sami Tamimi

A celebration of Palestinian food, by one of the founders of Ottolenghi, this book is full of inviting vegetarian recipes, said Mark Diacono – from red lentil, dried mint and lemon soup to pan-baked tahini, halva and coffee brownies. “Boustany” was “born out of the homesickness” Tamimi experienced during lockdown, said Tony Turnbull. Now, of course, the book has a “far greater resonance”. It’s a work of “soul and yearning” that’s also bursting with “delicious things to eat”.

Baking & the Meaning of Life by Helen Goh

This book, by psychologist-cum-baker Goh, is full of “precise yet creative recipes”, said Bee Wilson. “The Shoo Fly buns are the currant buns of dreams”; “I wanted to make the chocolate financiers with rosemary and hazelnuts so much that I bought a financier tin specially”. I’d go for the caramelised cinnamon doughnut cake or the “Lao Gan Ma” cheese biscuits, said Rose Prince: “both are amazingly good”.

Padella by Tim Siadatan

As the “perma-queues outside his restaurant in London, Padella, show only too well”, Tim Siadatan “knows what people want”, said Tony Turnbull. And in this superb book, the “master” pasta-maker reveals the tricks and techniques that make his dishes, such as tagliarini with crab and chilli, or lasagne made with slow-cooked veal shin, so irresistible. “I might skip the calf’s brain with morels and rosemary butter, but it shows what a completist Siadatan is.”

These restaurants know how to transport. Some bring the flavors of far-flung locales like the Caribbean and Indonesia; others welcome with homey dishes in nourishing settings. Here’s where to eat this winter.

Amba, Cleveland

A meal at Amba is a “feast for the senses, with low lighting, a lively soundtrack, and a menu built for sharing,” said Eater Chicago. The menu leans heavily on North Indian dishes, including local paneer with curry leaves and mustard seeds. But there’s wandering, too, as evidenced by Turkish fried eggs, wok-fried green beans with gai choy, and popcorn chicken with Thai basil.

Coquine, Portland, Oregon

“Coquine is the perfect little restaurant, unfailingly, 10 years running,” said Karen Brooks at Portland Monthly. The restaurant, with miraculous food from chef-owner Katy Millard, is somehow both precise and nonchalant. You could go all out with a five-course tasting menu, dine à la carte or pop next door to Katy Jane’s for a few rounds of oysters. Choosing your own adventure has never been more delicious.

Fallow Kin, Cambridge, Massachusetts

This brand-new restaurant has strong connections to both local farms and the community, showcasing a zero-waste menu section and donating a portion of its food to neighborhood food insecurity programs. Vegetables, such as parsnips with pickled pear and miso, as well as potatoes with bonito-flavored mayonnaise and trout roe, are the centerpiece of the menu at Fallow Kin but not its sole offering.

Kabawa, New York City

The Caribbean gets short shrift in fine-dining restaurants across the U.S. That has been shifting over the last few years, and Kabawa is a luminous addition to the sea change. Chef Paul Carmichael is at the helm, and he island-hops for inspiration, snatching influences from countries including Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad for Kabawa’s prix-fixe menu.

Duck sausage is “jerked” with Jamaican spicings. A fillet of black bass is sauced with a Trinidad-evoking curry. In keeping with the Caribbean spirit, a meal at Kabawa can be a rambunctious good time. You need only clue the staff into your readiness to have a whole lot of fun.

Lem’s, Chicago

“Once you have tried Lem’s, you can’t help but develop a particular craving for it whenever you want barbecue,” said Chicago magazine. “Because nowhere else in town does it quite as well.” The city’s oldest Black-owned barbecue business, Lem’s specializes in rib tips and hot links. Who said you need to be in the South to eat good ’cue?

Mabel Gray, Detroit

Long live the longstanding! Restaurant culture, by its nature, is obsessed with newness. Mabel Gray celebrated 10 years in September of this year, and the restaurant is a “look into the creative minds of people who have seen the world,” said Danny Palumbo at Hour Detroit. The menu changes constantly; you can experience it a la carte or as part of a $92 tasting menu. Recent dishes include fluke with whole-grain-mustard beurre blanc, dirty rice arancini, and wilted spinach with smoky whipped tofu. Mabel Gray is always evolving, forever sublime.

Rice and Sambal, Philadelphia

Put yourself in the kitchen’s hands at Rice and Sambal, and you will experience the wide-ranging flavors of great Indonesian cooking. Come for brunch on Sundays to have an omelet with shallot, tomato and sweet soy sauce, or the coconut jam-slicked srikaya toast topped with, yes, chocolate sprinkles. For dinner, the menu is set, at either five courses on Thursdays and Fridays or the blowout Liwetan feast served in a communal bamboo basket only on Saturdays.

Zao Bakery and Cafe, St. Paul, Minnesota

When the weather is outstandingly sharp, you want a bowl of ripping-hot soup. Or you want a fluffy pastry. Or, you simply want it all. Zao Bakery and Cafe is “built for everyday moments and everyday meals,” said Justine Jones at Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine, a place to “slip in weekly for a stomach and soul-warming lunch, a sweet pastry pick-me-up or a weeknight dinner.” For that bowl-connected need, it might be congee with ginger chicken or beef noodle soup. And the pastry selections, including taro twists and matcha custard buns, are near endless.

Good bars should impress. The best ones do it without batting an eyelash. Some of these bars have a laser focus on one style of drink; others are just welcoming locales with solid cocktails. Any of them will serve you well.

Daisy, Sherman Oaks, California

Almost any cocktail these days that has tequila, sweetener and lime juice dubs itself a margarita. Daisy, located just north of Los Angeles, aims to reclaim the classic drink’s soul. The bar’s beverage director, Max Reis, “treats the margarita as both template and playground,” said Punch, a drink magazine. So the standard iterations are sublime. But there is “ample room for customization,” too. Choose tequila or mezcal as the base. Make it regular or picante, up or on the rocks. You get the idea. Discipline and free will are good bedfellows.

Gilly’s House of Cocktails, San Diego

“One thing I’m really proud of is,” when Gilly’s House of Cocktails is packed, “no one is on their phone. You see strangers interacting with each other,” said Erick Castro, one of Gilly’s owners, to Imbibe magazine. “That’s something that’s missing right now in American society. We need to feel like we belong somewhere.” Gilly’s has been around since the 1960s. Castro and his crew bought it a few years ago. It’s now employee-owned, the cocktails are top-notch, but the laidback, community-minded vibe remains.

Loma, Providence, Rhode Island

Repeat after us: Latin American drinking is not a monolith. Loma, whose owners’ lineages trace to Puerto Rico and Guatemala, succeeds in proving the point — in the glass. You may find a singular rum from Michoacán, Mexico, used in a caipirinha or a Mexican mezcal stirred as the base of a martini. The food menu also flits from arroz y gandules (Puerto Rican rice and beans) to a local cheese plate. The hospitality welcomes, just as you hope it would.

Madeira Park, Atlanta

The newish wine bar from the crew behind beloved local institution Miller Union balances “historical appreciation and casual magnificence,” said Mike Jordan at Bon Appétit. The glass wine list centers on great styles and producers, like Domaine Fanny Sabre white Burgundy, tempranillo from Spain’s López de Heredia Rioja and, natch, a collection of vintage madeiras. Satterfield’s food menu at Madeira Park is, yes, grape-friendly: butter and anchovy tartine, a chicory salad with blue cheese and candied pecans, and steak au poivre with rutabaga.

None of the Above, St Louis

In agile hands, a speakeasy concept never grows tiresome. None of the Above sits below the events space City Foundry, hidden away as so many speakeasies are. But bar manager Fionna Gemzon has her sights looking up, up and away. There’s calamansi and red miso alongside black sesame-infused rye in the In the Mood for Love Cocktail. Gemzon’s “Filipino heritage inspires her tendency to lean on high-acid and sweet-sour flavors behind the bar,” said Imbibe magazine when selecting her as an Imbibe 75 Person to Watch.

Pretty Neat, Denver

No muss, no fuss, just friendly vibes and great cocktails. Pretty Neat stands by its name and mission. “It’s just a place to have good drinks and be comfortable,” said co-owner Xanthus Be Dell of his bar to Westword. The drinks move from deep classics, like the Amaretto Sour, to modern ones, including the Penicillin and Espresso Martini. And a bunch of Pretty Neat’s own inventions, such as Be Dell’s The Absinthe of the Fall, with vanilla-kissed rum, lime, pineapple, coconut puree and an absinthe rinse.

Providencia, Washington, D.C.

This wee bar in the nation’s capital is a group endeavor from bartenders Pedro Tobar and Danny Gonzalez with food from Erik Bruner-Yang and Paola Velez. Providencia is a “reflection of the quartet’s effort to seamlessly honor and remix shared and disparate influences,” said Elazar Sontag at Bon Appétit. It is, unabashedly, an immigrant–forward establishment.

So the Sabanetas cocktail with rum, blackberry and ginger is an explicit homage to Gonzalez’s mom’s blackberry agua fresca in Sabanetas, El Salvador. That same personal history runs across the rest of the menu. No hiding; only celebrating.

Winter requires the very most from your home cooking. Whether hosting a holiday hoo-ha or recovering from the gluttony of said gatherings, you are bound to eat a pendulum-swinging variety of dishes over the coming months. These recipes aim to solve your needs, from December through February.

Creamy Giardiniera Dip

Dips are the king, queen and court jester of any holiday gathering. They’re somehow both regal and cheeky crowd-pleasers. For this lush giardiniera dip, mix together sour cream, cream cheese, Parmesan and a bunch of chopped giardiniera, that jarred, zippy Italian pickle of cauliflower, celery and peppers. Bust out the chips, and keep the Champagne flowing.

Dutch Baby

There may be no more simple showstopper of a brunch dish than a proper Dutch baby. The way it puffs and burnishes as it bakes in the skillet. The way you garnish it as you like, then serve the entire thing in the same skillet you cooked it in. This recipe gilds the finished Dutch baby with powdered sugar and lemon — along with optional jam and walnuts. Choose your preferred fillip.

Hoppin’ John with Turnips and Turnip Greens

We all could use a little luck each New Year’s Day — even more so after 2025. Black-eyed peas and rice, aka hoppin’ John, is a New Year’s staple in some parts of the American South. Todd Richards’ version stars the obligatory ham hock but is loaded with so much flavor that the hock can be omitted without the dish missing a flavor beat.

Kimchi and Ketchup Fried Rice

Once you start being accustomed to cooking fried rice, there is a roteness to the move. You will generally reach for the same aromatics and additions, whether those be ginger and egg, or ham and green onions. It is then a treat to quiver the familiar, and this fried rice remains simple to execute. But the addition of both ketchup and kimchi takes the dish in a new direction. Unless, of course, you were always adding those all along.

Perfect Poached Eggs

So simple as to barely be a recipe, Mei Lin’s game-changing technique for poached eggs guarantees intact whites and runny yolks. You simply combine two parts water to one part vinegar. Then, about 30 minutes before you’re going to serve your eggs, crack however many eggs you are going to cook into the water-vinegar bath. The outside of the eggs essentially cure, tightening the whites. When you poach the eggs, the whites don’t spread into wandering filaments. Brunch, you’re welcome.

Totchos (Tater Tot Nachos)

Nachos are superb; totchos are just a whole other delight unto themselves. A simple made-from-scratch cheese sauce drapes the tots. Underneath and on top is a charred-tomato salsa, bits of chorizo and lots of green and red onion. Make it for a party or for a comforting night in.

Vegan Chili

During winter, there is reassurance in knowing there is a big pot of fortification waiting in the fridge whenever a need strikes. Chili is forever a correct answer, all the more when it is a meat-free variation loaded with kidney beans, the sweet musk of cumin and the hearty addition of bulgur.

In an era of limitless streamed “content”, it can be hard to settle on anything to watch. Here are nine shows worth trying.

Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes

Jeff Pope’s dramatisation of the events, in the febrile weeks after the 7/7 bombings, that led to the police shooting an innocent 27-year-old Brazilian electrician makes for gripping, harrowing viewing, said The New Statesman. It is not perfect: the depiction of Met Police commissioner Ian Blair as a “ridiculously camp” fool is misguided. But the account of how de Menezes came to be mistaken for an Ethiopian terrorist, and the lies told afterwards, is starkly told. This is a “J’accuse” that is “both subtle and grand”.
Disney +

Leonard and Hungry Paul

Rónán Hession’s debut novel, about two men still living at home in their early 30s, became a word-of-mouth hit – and was so loved by Julia Roberts that she agreed to narrate this TV adaptation. In this “droll Dublin dramedy” nothing happens, said The Irish Times, yet it is far from boring. Those totally allergic to whimsy may find it trying; for the rest, it amounts to a sweet, wry, “quietly uplifting” celebration of the “bittersweet banality” of ordinary life.
BBC iPlayer

Adolescence

A massive global hit, “Adolescence” is near-perfect TV, said The Guardian. Consisting of four episodes, each filmed in a single take, it begins with police bursting into an ordinary family home at dawn, to arrest a 13-year-old boy (Owen Cooper) on suspicion of murder, as his shell-shocked parents look on. Superbly acted and brilliantly written, this is not a police procedural, said The Telegraph. It is a devastating exploration of the pressures on boys today, including the malign influence of social media, and the nonsense peddled about what it means to be a man.
Netflix

The Great Art Fraud

In May 2022, the disgraced young art dealer Inigo Philbrick was sentenced to seven years in jail for defrauding collectors and investors out of $86 million (£63 million). This “riveting” two-part documentary looks at how he did it, with much of the story told by the former wunderkind himself, said the Financial Times. It does a great job in explaining how his fraud worked (broadly, he sold more shares than existed in the same valuable pieces), and sheds light on a little-regulated market, where relationships rely largely on trust.
BBC iPlayer

The Beast in Me

Watchable but silly thrillers come along all the time on Netflix – with “Sirens” among the better ones this year. “The Beast in Me” is also on Netflix, but this psychological thriller is a cut above, said The Guardian. Taut and convincingly scripted, it stars Claire Danes as a troubled writer, living alone in a big house in a wealthy exurb, and Matthew Rhys as the suspected wife-killer who moves in next door. They are both so good, you can hardly look away.
Netflix

Riot Women

In Sally Wainwright’s latest series, she pulls together a group of women who are feeling sidelined and invisible in middle age – and has them form a band. Set (like “Happy Valley”) in Hebden Bridge, this is an upbeat story painted in bold colours, said the FT, yet it goes into dark places. There are lots of twists, and it barrels along at a great pace. Some of the messaging about menopause is heavy-handed, said The Telegraph. Still, this is crowd-pleasing fare, and in the central role Joanna Scanlan is typically excellent.
BBC iPlayer

What It Feels Like for a Girl

An eight-part adaptation of Paris Lees’ often shattering memoir of her life as a trans teenager in Nottinghamshire, this show is not for everyone, said The Telegraph: it contains many disturbing sex scenes, and it strives a bit too hard for attention. But it brims with energy; Ellis Howard is “magnetic” in the central role; and though Lees’ story is “caked in the grime of life on the margins”, it also has “the sprinkled-in- stardust quality of a real-life fairy tale”.
BBC iPlayer

The Narrow Road to the Deep North

Richard Flanagan’s novel, about an elderly Australian haunted by memories of being a Japanese POW used as forced labour on the Death Railway in Burma, is a gruelling read. And this TV adaptation, starring Jacob Elordi and Ciarán Hinds, is no less shocking, said The Times. Many scenes in it are truly “soul sickening”. But the series is “terrific” – even “magnificent” at times.
BBC iPlayer

Amandaland

This enjoyable spinoff from the hit comedy “Motherland” is focused on snobby, glossy Amanda (Lucy Punch), the alpha female in the old gang, said The Guardian. Now a single mum, she has had to move to grotty South Harlesden (SoHar); and is trying to make it as a wellness influencer. Punch is brilliant in a show that is very funny, and also surprisingly “life affirming”, said The Times. And though we miss some of the old characters, there are welcome returns from Philippa Dunne as Anne, and Joanna Lumley as Amanda’s mother.
BBC iPlayer

This season’s collection of winter cocktails is hot, hot, hot! Whether you are eyeing a soothing nonalcoholic gut-filler or a sharp toddy variation with Irish whiskey and apple syrup, these warm drinks are the bouncy blanket for the months ahead.

Barraquito

The barraquito is a visual stunner, with layers of condensed milk, yellow Licor 43, frothed milk and espresso assembling into an striated, earthtoned sequence. The drink from Spain’s Canary Islands is a “midmorning pick-me-up, a post-meal ritual and an intergenerational tradition,” said the beverage publication Punch.

Francophile

Spices do wonders for wine during the coldest months. The Francophile’s way with mulled wine includes cinnamon simple syrup for sweetening and Calvados, the apple brandy, for a stout complement. An apple slice and cinnamon stick as garnishes remind you exactly what’s afoot in this gladdening cocktail.

Hot Tiger’s Milk

Like some hybrid of a hot buttered rum and a piña colada, Hot Tiger’s Milk is rich and coconutty. It’s an old recipe, dating back to the 1800s. You wouldn’t want more than one, what with its rich coconut cream base and addition of evaporated milk when you build the drink in your mug. But you are going to want to finish each drop of the one you do drink.

Moneygun Hot Toddy

Whiskey, step away from the toddy. Rum and cognac are stepping in for today’s performance. In the Moneygun Hot Toddy, named after the Chicago bar, a touch of fresh ginger, Darjeeling tea, cloves, lemon juice and honey are the supporting players that give this lively toddy a strong, welcoming point of view.

Peanut Atole

Atole is a hot, agreeable Mexican drink, nonalcoholic by nature. The base is nearly always made with corn. This variation employs that prototypical corn base but adds a slap of natural peanut butter for a welcome touch of richness. If Goldilocks really knew what was up, this would be her porridge of choice.

Queen of Cups

Hazelnut brown butter, spiced apple syrup, Irish whiskey: Thirsty yet? Not the kind of cocktail that one can throw together during a somnambulic moment, The Queen of Cups requires advance thinking to make the brown butter and apple syrup. Once those elements are prepared, though, you simply assemble. At that point, you can indeed make it in your sleep.

Verte Chaud

Hot chocolate is spiked with green Chartreuse in the simple, thrilling Verte Chaud. Imagine packing a thermos with this effortless cocktail. Anyone you share it with will thank you, profusely. Or just keep it all for yourself. You deserve it.

Winter marks the end of one video game season and the beginning of the next. These recent releases come just in time for either holiday gift purchases or as a way to kick off your gameplay wish list for the new year. Here is a list of highly anticipated video games coming out this winter.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion

Marvel Cosmic Invasion is poised to be the “best traditional beat ’em up of the year,” said Game Rant. Developer Tribute Games “achieved near perfection with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge,” and the upcoming release “looks set to build beautifully on that foundation.” The brand is drawing from Marvel’s trove of iconic heroes and villains, with Wolverine, Venom, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, She-Hulk and more as playable characters. (out now for Xbox Series X, PS5, Steam, Nintendo Switch 2)

She’s Leaving

A first-person survival-horror game “with a twist,” as you get to play “both the hunter and the hunted,” said Game Spot. Embodying forensic analyst Charles Dolan, you will explore the dimly lit halls of spooky House Haywood on your quest to solve the mystery of missing people. She’s Leaving is a “compact but engaging” horror game that “blends forensic investigation with tense, stalker-driven survival gameplay,” said Impulse Gamer.

The “atmosphere, smart pacing and surprisingly polished design” make the experience stand out. For its “low price and strong debut showing from a tiny team, it is an “easy recommendation for horror fans looking for a short, satisfying scare.” (out now for Xbox Series X, PS5, Steam)

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

December 2025’s biggest game and “by quite a margin,” said Game Spot. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond has walked a “long and winding road to completion,” a journey that included a change in developer and “a reinvention.”

The game is finally out of development hell, ready to meet to the standard set by the original trilogy, which “hold up as three of the greatest first-person Metroidvanias of all time,” the outlet added. Legendary bounty hunter Samus Aran’s latest adventure should be her “biggest, both in terms of size and ambition.” (out now for Nintendo Switch, Switch 2)

Code Violet

Another interesting mashup, Code Violet is a third-person shooter and horror hybrid that features dinosaurs. The game is a PS5-exclusive set in the future, where humanity has mastered time travel. Players take on the role of Violet Sinclair, a girl abducted from the past who must unravel the mysteries of the Aion Bioengineering Complex while avoiding, hiding from or fighting the prehistoric creatures overrunning it.

TeamKill Media has worked closely with Sony over the years, and all its games have been console exclusives. Code Violet should be the developers’ “biggest game yet,” and it will “hopefully also be the best,” said Game Spot. (Jan. 10 preorder for PS5)

High on Life 2

Squanch Games, the development studio founded by the controversial “Rick and Morty” creator Justin Roiland, returns with High on Life 2, the highly anticipated sequel to its sci-fi-based comedic adventure game. The game’s predecessor was a “rare example of a genuinely funny game,” and it “happened to be an excellent first-person shooter to boot,” said IGN. The talking alien guns are back, as well as a host of other chaotic weapons and truly hilarious dialogue. (Feb. 13 preorder for Xbox Series X, PS5, Steam)

Whether your dreams of escaping to an expanse of white powder feature snowy slopes or sandy beaches, we’ve got a winter getaway to suit you.

Snow: wild Canada

Battle Range, deep in the rugged wilderness of southeastern British Columbia, derives its name from a legendary battle in the 1890s between a grizzly bear and a prospector (who lived to tell the tale).

The range’s jagged peaks rise to above 3,000 metres, and in the whole of its eastern half – an area of more than 100 square miles – there is only one lodge, says Tom Robbins in the Financial Times. Perched on a mountainside at 2,200 metres, it is grandly named Battle Abbey, but was built in 1978 and is modest in proportion. Recently refurbished by new owners, the brothers Tessum and Nansen Weber, it has five bedrooms and feels like “a happy blend of mountain refuge and boutique hotel”. Water comes from a local stream, but it has fine food and wine, and a wood-fired sauna.

Guests are flown from the “hardscrabble” town of Golden by helicopter: this is the only way to reach the lodge. But this is not a heli-skiing destination. People come for the ski touring (climbing the mountains on skis with grips, and then skiing down them), a rather more affordable and climate-friendly pursuit, which is becoming increasingly popular in North America, though it is arduous. My fellow guests were former heli-skiers who said they now preferred ski touring, finding it a more peaceful and satisfying way to experience the mountains, and the Webers – who come from a family of polar adventurers – are true enthusiasts.

Merely being in the lodge, with its “jaw-dropping” views, is a joy. And the skiing is superb. There’s no end of “blissfully deep, light, powder snow”, and with four guides to 10 guests – double the usual ratio – the experience can be adapted to suit all moods and abilities.

Weber Powder (weberpowder.com) has a five-day trip from £2,940pp, full-board, excluding international flights.

Snow: a secret Swiss valley

With few ski slopes and no tourist crowds, the Lower Engadine valley in “remote” southeast Switzerland is the perfect place for a peaceful winter walking holiday, says Annabel Abbs in The Guardian.

The valley’s greatest treasure, the country’s only national park, is closed to visitors in winter, but you can still enjoy “icily beautiful” views across it. In Scuol, the largest village, there are “legendary” mineral baths with hot outdoor pools, and some pleasant hotels, including the Scuol Palace (where Paul Klee and Robert Musil stayed) and the Arnica (where I did). In other villages, you’ll find “gloriously painted” churches, “chic” bistros and good modern art galleries, such as Tarasp Castle and the “stunning” Muzeum Susch, dedicated to female artists.

There’s tobogganing and excellent skiing on offer – but nothing can beat the simple pleasure of walking the valley’s well-marked trails, which “wind deep into the unpeopled mountains” to frozen lakes, waterfalls and icy pinnacles where eagles “soar in the clear blue sky”. Few things clear the mind and lift the spirits like a wild landscape “glittering” in the snow.

Snow: skiing in Turkey

Plenty of Britons head to Bulgaria for “good-value” skiing, but though Turkey is also affordable, it has not yet been widely embraced, says Ben Clatworthy in The Sunday Times.

Among its 40 or so resorts, the largest is Erciyes, in the heart of the country, where the pistes – mostly “wide, cruisy blues and unthreatening reds” – sweep down the flanks of Mount Erciyes, a 3,917-metre dormant volcano with a “near-perfect” cone. The lifts are “astonishingly” cheap, at less than £1 per ride, and in good conditions the mountain’s gullies also fill up with wonderful powder snow.

In the Alps, this would be “tracked out in 30 minutes”. Here, signs deter most skiers from going off-piste, and so the powder lingers for days. Getting to Erciyes “can be a schlep”: the nearest airport at Kayseri is a 90-minute flight from Istanbul. But the bonuses include the lovely local food (specialities include manti, a sort of “garlicky” ravioli); and the magnificent places to visit nearby, notably Cappadocia, with its rock pinnacles and ancient underground cities – which is far less crowded in winter.

The Radisson Blu Mount Erciyes (radissonhotels.com) has half-board doubles from £320.

Sun: a surfers’ paradise in Bahia

The little Brazilian harbour town of Itacaré has been popular with surfers since the 1980s. It is a “far-flung, vibe-heavy” paradise of the kind they favour – but unlike many, it has yet to be spoiled by mass tourism, says David Amsden in Travel + Leisure. That’s partly because it’s so remote – a two-hour flight from Rio de Janeiro, then a one-hour drive along a wild coast fringed with “seemingly infinite stretches of golden white sand”.

This is Bahia state, where Afro-Brazilian traditions are strong: capoeira troops perform in the cobbled streets, samba bands play in bars, and restaurants serve moqueca, a fragrantly spicy seafood stew. There’s a lively party scene in the town, and some great artisanal chocolate producers in the area – along with roughly 20 beaches, some of which are reachable only by foot through the jungle, but all of which are “astonishing” in their beauty.

Hotels are mostly simple, but for something more upmarket there is the recently opened Barracuda, a luxury resort with “elegant” suites and friendly staff.

Specialist tour operators include Dehouche and Journey Brazil.

Sun: a magical family holiday in Antigua

Antigua is not the most spectacular of Caribbean islands, but with its “idyllic” beaches and coral reefs, it’s “an easy crowd-pleaser” – and I found it ideal for a holiday with young children, says Francesca Angelini in The Sunday Times.

It helped that we stayed at two hotels with good kids’ clubs. At “stylish” Carlisle Bay, in the south, our five-year-old and three-year-old spent hours bracelet-making and reggae-dancing with the friendly and “unflappable” staff. And at “glamorous” Blue Waters, in the south, they “buzzed about” on two trampolines out at sea, while I relished the peace and the “sea-adjacent” yoga sessions.

We all enjoyed a tour of Nelson’s Dockyard, the naval base where the admiral spent three years in the 1780s, and lunch at Catherine’s Café, a “chic yet relaxed” restaurant next to a fine beach. Best of all, though, were the boat trips, on which we swam with turtles, parrotfish and more – “heaven” for children, like ours, “in their ‘Octonauts’ phase of TV life”.

Kenwood Travel (kenwoodtravel.co.uk) has a seven-night trip from £1,999pp, including flights.

Sun: the wild outer islands of the Seychelles

The Seychelles are best known these days for their many luxury beach resorts. But these Indian Ocean hideaways are located on the archipelagic nation’s Inner Islands, where 98% of its population live. The Outer Islands – six dozen small atolls and cays lying up to 700 miles south of the capital, Mahé – are mostly uninhabited, says Stephanie Rafanelli in Condé Nast Traveler – and are among the wildest places on Earth.

On a 10-day voyage through them with Reefscape Travel, I journeyed by sea plane and speedboat, staying at small but luxurious lodges established by Blue Safari, an African “eco-safari” company founded in 2012.

On islands including Astove, Alphonse and Cosmoledo, I saw giant tortoises, hermit crabs, endemic birds with “operatic” voices, and some of the world’s biggest breeding colonies of seabirds. But most remarkable were the surrounding seas.

Our boat was accompanied at one point by a 50-strong “convoy” of spinner dolphins; and closer to shore, I snorkelled over coral reefs with a “staggering” abundance of colourful fish, as well as a “squadron” of manta rays “like a parade of giant kites”.

The trip costs from £15,940pp, including flights (reefscapetravel.com, bluesafari.com).

Winter is high cooking time. Some days, you will simply not want to leave the house while nonetheless craving, say, a steamy impromptu hot pot. Other days, you might ache to crank that oven dial and bake yourself a tray of brownies. These eight cookbooks are happy to help you on your wintry journeys.

‘All That Crumbs Allow’

Oh, the allure of a single-subject cookbook that’s fun and frugal. Authors Michelle Marek and Camilla Wynne have assembled an homage to economy and that most versatile of ingredients: breadcrumbs. Savory bread dumplings, two pastas made with breadcrumbs, a pumpernickel Black forest torte, a breadcrumb omelet, and a toast-and-jam semifreddo — this is thrift as joyful hedonism. (out now, $27.50, Kitchen Arts & Letters)

‘The King Cookbook’

Dining at King, a shimmering corner restaurant in Manhattan’s West Village, warps time and space, planting you firmly in some parallel-minded part of France or Italy. Now, with the publication of “The King Cookbook,” the restaurant’s owners, ​​Clare de Boer, Jess Shadbolt and Annie Shi, teach you how to emulate King’s breezy, precise cooking at home. Time to stock up on those salted Italian anchovies, high-quality olive oil, crème fraîche, preserved tomatoes, lemons, and so very many kinds of dried beans. (out now, $40, Macmillan, Amazon)

‘Wine Pairing for the People: The Communion of Wine, Food and Culture from Africa and Beyond’

Eurocentric, schmeurocentric. Cha McCoy is here to prove to you the obvious, and mercilessly overlooked, actuality that food from all across the globe can go well with wine. “Wine Pairing for the People” spans five regions of the world: Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, the U.S. and Asia. As McCoy bops from Turkey to Somalia to the Deep South, the land of barbecue and Creole cooking, the certified sommelier reveals all the ways that wine can complement so many kinds of foods prepared so many ways. Mexican tamales with Sardinian vermentino, anyone?(out now, $35, HarperCollins, Amazon)

‘The Nonalcoholic Bar: Classic and Creative Cocktails for Everyone’

Let’s begin with the seemingly impossible: a booze-free martini. Author John deBary sets the optimal tone straightaway with a refrigerator martini that combines nonalcoholic gin and vermouth with olive brine, hot sauce and orange bitters. It emulates rather than replicates that boozy version and does so with aplomb. That’s the entire vibe of “The Nonalcoholic Bar,” right down to a footloose simulacrum of a Ramos gin fizz, reconsidered with blood orange juice and Sanbittèr soda. (Jan. 6, $20, Union Square & Co., Amazon)

‘Everyone Hot Pot: Creating the Ultimate Meal for Gathering and Feasting’

Natasha Pickowicz, baker extraordinaire, taps into her Chinese heritage with her second cookbook. But this is no slavish homage to authentic hot pot. Sure, there’s mushroom dashi and appetite-whetting cucumber stumps slapped with rice wine vinegar and soy sauce. There is also a charred, candied orange sauce and a chapter on blowout seafood-feast hot pots. Pickowicz is always about bringing people together. This time, she’s doing it while hot to pot. (Jan. 27, $30, Artisan, Amazon)

‘Simply Donabe: Japanese One-Pot Recipes’

A donabe is a Japanese earthenware pot. It’s also the name of a style of one-pot dishes. Naoko Moore walks you through cooking an array of dishes in these beautiful, utilitarian vessels, including miso ramen, shabu shabu, crumbled tofu with carrots and edamame, and matcha tiramisu — one container, so many possibilities. (Feb. 10, $40, Amazon)

‘Bittersweet: The Five Tastes of Dessert and Beyond’

Sweetness without ballast fizzles. Thalia Ho knows this and has written a baking book that pinpoints the delicious interplay between sweet and the other five tastes. A few telling examples: miso in a caramel apple pie, soy sauce in ganache brownies, and torched sherbet meringues. Your sweet tooth will never know what hit it, nor will it want to go back to before “Bittersweet.” (Feb. 10, $35, Harvest, Amazon)

‘Obsessed with the Best: 100+ Methodically Perfected Recipes Based on 20+ Head-to-Head Tests’

First things first: The “best” doesn’t exist. Still, a recipe adventure seeking to compare, contrast and comprehend how to think about different iterations of the same dish is a noble endeavor. In “Obsessed with the Best,” Ella Quittner runs recipes like scrambled eggs, meatballs, latkes, fresh pasta, yellow cake and even whipped cream through trial-and-error experiments. You are sure to encounter solid results and a fun read, even if Quittner’s best is simply quantitative opinion. (Feb. 24, $40, HarperCollins, Amazon)

When one thinks of the Scottish capital, images of winding lanes, towering spires and snow-capped hills might come to mind. But after a wander round Edinburgh Castle, with its sweeping views and 900 years of history, you might find that you have become hungry – and this is where the real fun begins.

Edinburgh’s food scene is creative and dynamic, so don’t be shy, get stuck in and discover why it has become one to watch. Here’s some of the best the city has to offer.

Memorable fine dining

The Witchery

With its location right next to the castle, you might be afraid that this is a tourist trap – but don’t be. The building dates back to the 16th century, but the restaurant is from 1979, and feels like it has been around forever. The Medieval dining room glows in the dimmed light, as you enjoy a menu that is packed with favourites. This is classic cooking, from lobster bisque, to beef tartare, to some of the best haggis on the east coast. Food here is unctuous and indulgent – you will leave feeling spoiled.

thewitchery.com

Heron

Get out of the centre and head to the foodie hotspot of Leith to discover Heron. The brainchild of chef Sam Yorke, it was awarded its first Michelin star in 2023, and it has maintained this level of quality since. With a focus on local ingredients that are used with flair and creativity, it has been praised for its relaxed atmosphere and attention to detail. Don’t miss the sika deer with lingonberry and fig leaf, or the monkfish with black truffle. Wine pairings are perfectly matched, and the cocktail menu is innovative. This is a meal you won’t forget.

heron.scot

The Little Chartroom

Also in Leith, you will find a chic dining room that flickers in candlelight. Chef Roberta Hall-McCarron’s The Little Chartroom is a breath of fresh air, with truly excellent ingredients that showcase the best of Scotland’s larder. Treacle-cured chalk stream trout, Teasses Estate mallard, and locally caught plaice are among the delights you will be treated to on an invigorating menu that changes regularly. The service is relaxed, but oozes confidence.

thelittlechartroom.com

Gastropub favourites and stand-out seafood

The Captain Darling

A newcomer in a city that’s almost a millennium old, this gastropub is taking leafy Stockbridge by storm. This is a neighbourhood spot at heart, although the cuisine is a tad more elevated than that suggests. Chef Scott Smith has designed a menu of flavourful, seasonal dishes, including comforting pies, velvety cauliflower cheese, and crispy chicken schnitzel. It serves a cracker of a Sunday roast too.

thecaptaindarling.com

Tipo

Sometimes a big bowl of pasta is just the only thing that will do, so when that happens Tipo is the spot to run to. This is just one of chef Stuart Ralston’s restaurants, but it stands on its own two feet as a spot not to be missed. The creamy cacio e pepe with truffle will warm you up on a cold Scottish night, while the artichoke with endive and hazelnut side is a must.

tipoedinburgh.co.uk

Barry Fish

Another Leith establishment, the coastal town’s long fishing heritage inspired chef Barry Bryson to open a new seafood joint in 2025. And after earning a Michelin Guide recommendation just eight months after opening, its reputation is growing and growing. The menu is bright and exciting, with Mull cheddar beignets, halibut with mussels, and lobster with smoked fish agnolotti. Perfect for a sunny day by the water.

barryfish.co.uk

Scotch whiskies and small plates

Nishiki

The oft-overlooked area of Haymarket is worth heading to for some of the most authentic Japanese food in the city. Designed like a Tokyo izakaya, the vibe is casual, with an emphasis on fresh, fast flavours. Small plates include yakitori chicken, yakiniku beef, prawn katsu with cheese and avocado, and an impressive selection of sashimi. Don’t forget to sample the sake menu to feel like you really are on the other side of the world.

nishikiedinburgh.co.uk

Toscano

This Italian sandwich bar is a little outside the centre, but the picturesque stroll to leafy Bruntsfield district is worth it. It specialises in Tuscan schiacciata, a type of flatbread stuffed with authentic ingredients like deli meats and cheeses. The Il Toscano features prosciutto crudo, crema di parmigiano, rocket and balsamic glaze, and is a feast for the senses. This will keep you going all day.

toscanoedinburgh.com

Scotch Whisky Bar

You simply have to have some whisky while you’re here. Scotch, in the historic Balmoral Hotel, is one of the top places to explore our national tipple, and staff here make it their mission to find one that you will love. With an enormous selection behind the bar, they know a thing or two about the water of life, as it is known. Sláinte.

roccofortehotels.com/hotels-and-resorts/the-balmoral-hotel/dining/scotch/

Ardfern

Wine bars are having a moment, and Ardfern is certainly one of the best. This cafe, bar and bottle shop has a large selection to enjoy by the glass, as well as some really unusual wines by the bottle, that you can take home or have in store. Pair your choice with one of its bar snacks, such as sunflower seed hummus with chicory or oysters and chilli.

ardfern.uk

Vivien

It takes a second to adjust to the dark in this basement bar, but once you do you know you’re in for a treat. Sit in a cosy corner with friends, or at the bar where you can watch the team expertly prepare one of their unique concoctions. From the Essence de la nuit with calvados and lavender syrup, to the Poire au poivre, with Islay cask whisky and pink peppercorn.

vivienedinburgh.co.uk

Of course, no visit to the capital would be complete without exploring some of the city’s best pubs. The Guildford Arms, the Jolly Judge, the Blue Blazer, the Halfway House and the Sheep Heid Inn are all excellent examples of traditional watering holes.

Where to stay

W Edinburgh

Launched in 2023, the W Edinburgh has made its name as one of the most exciting properties in the city. It is situated in the St James’ Quarter in a purpose-built bronze, ribbon-shaped building, perfectly located for all the main sights. Its 244 rooms are designed with the W’s contemporary and disruptive style in mind, and are decorated in jewel tones, with stonework inspired by the Edinburgh landscape, and skyline-sweeping views. After a long day of sightseeing, you might also want to enjoy the Away Spa, with its private hot tub, experience shower and sauna space made for luxuriating in. Skilled therapists use products from Ishga, a Scottish brand that harnesses the power of Hebridean seaweed, for massages that refresh and revitalise.

Not to be missed is the W Deck rooftop bar, which has a 360-degree vantage point – surely the best hotel view in the city. The W Lounge on the floor below serves cocktails that you can enjoy beside floor-to-ceiling windows. This is also where you will find Scotland’s first branch of Sushisamba, the first branch in Scotland, where you can enjoy umami-rich dishes including lobster ceviche, sea bass with pickled chilli, and A5 wagyu beef on a hot stone.

Jaymi was a guest of the restaurants featured and the W Edinburgh

“Tea with Judi Dench” is “the most touching TV you’ll watch all Christmas”, said Stuart Heritage in The Guardian.

On the surface, it doesn’t sound that exciting. This is a show where “someone comes to visit Dench for a cup of tea and that’s literally it” – which could be “dispiriting” were it not so “relentlessly charming”.

Kenneth Branagh goes to see Dench at her home in Surrey, and the pair – who have been friends for almost 40 years – have a “lovely, easy, breezy relationship”. Over the next 45 minutes, the actors “natter away pleasantly with no real direction”.

“At one point, they potter over to Dench’s parrot, Sweetheart, in the hope that it will call Branagh a ‘slag’.” But mostly they “reminisce” about their stage careers and the people they’ve lost, and “quote Shakespeare to each other, at length”.

Blending “personal anecdotes” with “rarely seen archive material”, it’s an “unflinching” documentary that opens the doors to the Oscar-winning actor’s “stunning” country home, said Emma Guinness in the Daily Mail.

Dench gets “tearful” as she reflects on the loss of her late husband Michael Williams, who died of lung cancer in 2001. Elsewhere, we’re “treated to more lively conversation, humorous insights and moments of genuine candour and emotion”.

The parts that “interested me the most are when she talks of memory”, said A.N. Wilson in The Times. Like many nonagenarians, she explains how she often can’t remember what happened the day before – but the “consoling thing” is that her head is still filled with Shakespeare.

Dench is an “extraordinarily intent listener” and a “nimble” interviewer, said Heritage in The Guardian. She manages to tease out details from Branagh that might otherwise have been left unsaid. It’s a style that risks encouraging “indulgent waffle”, but for “Tea with Judi Dench”, an edited show about two very old, close friends, it’s “perfectly pitched”.

This year has brought its fair share of gloomy news headlines, so it’s no surprise that people might be needing a solid laugh. As the calendar transitions to 2026, you can check out some of the most popular comedians starring in a series of winter stand-up tours.

Nate Bargatze

Nate Bargatze started his career with gigs from Second City to Comedy Central but has had a stratospheric rise these past few years — so much that he is 2025’s highest-grossing comedian. The deadpan comedian will be embarking on his “Big Dumb Eyes” world tour starting in 2026. The tour will take him across the United States and Canada and showcase a “great storyteller and all-around nice guy,” said The Times. (through August 2026)

Hannah Berner

Hannah Berner is one of several comedians who transitioned from reality television to stand-up. The comedian, who got her start on the Bravo show “Summer House,” has become a recognizable name thanks to her “We Ride at Dawn” Netflix special and two popular podcasts.

Berner will be performing stand-up shows in the United States and Canada starting next year; her tour comes as she has “made herself ubiquitous in the internet ecosystem, disarming viewers with her unfiltered humor and confessions,” said The New York Times. (through March 2026)

Chelsea Handler

Chelsea Handler has been a mainstay on the comedy stage for years and has worn other hats as an actress, writer and onetime talk show host. People who want to catch her raunchy brand of humor can get tickets to her “High and Mighty” tour, which starts in February and crisscrosses the United States. The tour comes on the heels of Handler’s last stand-up special on Netflix, “Chelsea Handler: The Feeling,” which was described by Decider as “unlike anything else she’s done,” with “wild escapades involving booze, drugs and sexual encounters.” (through June 2026)

Josh Johnson

While Josh Johnson first made a name for himself as a staff writer on “The Daily Show,” his stand-up has established him as one of the best comedians working today. Johnson is mostly known for the YouTube recordings of his stand-up shows, which feature him putting a humorous twist on news that is often just days old.

His shows have been so well-received that he is now the “funniest guy on the internet,” said Wired. Johnson will be touring in several cities next year. (through May 2026)

Anjelah Johnson-Reyes

Anjelah Johnson-Reyes has had one of the more unconventional paths to comedy, getting her start as an NFL cheerleader before embarking on her stand-up career. But this was a wise choice, as Johnson-Reyes’ comedy is “nothing short of legendary and energetic, and she’s guaranteed to put on an amazing show,” said Vegas.com.

Johnson-Reyes often works her Latin American heritage into her stand-up but is just as recognizable for her roles on the sketch show “MadTV,” including as the rude fast food worker Bon Qui Qui. Johnson-Reyes will be touring across the U.S. soon. (through April 2026)

Carlos Mencia

If you were a fan of Comedy Central’s “Mind of Mencia,” then don’t miss your chance to catch the star of the show, Carlos Mencia, when he begins touring. Though the actor has had his fair share of controversial jokes, he remains a recognizable face in the stand-up comedy scene.

Mencia is “absolutely hilarious," said Boston Theater, with a “common-sense approach that makes his comedy incredibly relatable.” The comedian will be heading back on tour this month in cities across the United States. (through April 2026)

Nimish Patel

Nimish Patel made comedy history in 2017 when he became the first Indian American to be hired as a writer on “Saturday Night Live.” Despite working for the show for only one season, Patel made his mark and has appeared on nationally televised shows as well as written material for the 2017 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Over the last few years, Patel has become an up-and-coming name in the stand-up world, and he will be touring the U.S. starting next year. (through May 2026)

Katt Williams

This is a man who needs no introduction: Katt Williams has been entertaining people on- and off-screen for years. His film debut in the 2002 comedy “Friday After Next” endeared him to fans, and he could be seen as a recurring guest on the sketch comedy show “Wild ’N Out” for years.

But he has become just as famous for his stand-up comedy specials and his live performances. Williams will be hitting the road again for his “The Golden Age” tour. This comes just months after Williams finished his last “Heaven on Earth” tour in fall 2025. (through May 2026)

Night buses probably bring to mind “images of cramped seats and constant jolting”, said Time Out. But Twiliner’s new offering is far more “bougie”.

The Swiss operator has launched two overnight routes – Zurich-Basel-Luxembourg-Brussels-Rotterdam-Amsterdam and Zurich-Girona-Barcelona – and is already planning more stops across Europe. Each bus is kitted out with 21 reclining seats that double as beds, plenty of USB ports, and a sizable toilet and changing room. Tickets don’t come cheap, though, with prices starting at around £140 for each journey.

While sleeper buses are popular in Asia and South America, they have been “less successful” in Europe, said Rhiannon Batten in The Guardian. Twiliner is keen to change this by offering a service that is both “comfortable and sustainable”. The buses run mostly on hydrotreated vegetable oil fuel (also known as renewable diesel), and the company claims its journeys emit less than 10% of the carbon of a similar distance flight.

Aside from the “generous luggage allowance” and “efficiency” of travelling overnight, one of the biggest draws is the “comfort factor”. The “no-children-under-five” policy and “strict guidelines” on noise make for “calm travelling”: “by 10pm I’m fast asleep”. “There’s a magic to falling asleep in one country and waking in another.” Driving into Zurich on a chilly winter morning, “the city is streaked with silver and gold as it begins to stir”.

I tried out the service as part of a “no-fly London–Amsterdam–Basel cultural mini break”, said Rachel Ifans in The i Paper. Having arrived in Amsterdam via Eurostar, I boarded the bus for the 11-hour journey to Basel. It offered a “similar sleeping experience to business class on a long-haul flight – albeit with a bumpier ride”.

The night “whizzed by”, as I relaxed with a cup of peppermint tea and watched a film on my laptop “as the miles clicked by”. Arriving in Basel at 6.45am, I set off into the “unfamiliar city” in the sun, stopping off to explore the Kunstmuseum and traditional Christmas market in Cathedral Square. As the “backbone” of my trip, the Twiliner offered a “fuss-free, efficient journey – but I was looking forward to a quiet night in a hotel bed, with considerably fewer bumps in the night.”

From this vantage point, it is impossible to know how 2025 will be remembered. But it certainly seems like the very interesting times everyone is living through are reflected in a crop of films that tackle themes of democracy, rebellion, autocracy and madness.

‘Eddington’

Hollywood has largely assumed that still-traumatized audiences would prefer to keep the annus horribilis of 2020 in their memories and off their screens. Director Ari Aster (“Midsommar”) therefore took a huge risk by zeroing in on one New Mexico town during the summer of 2020, during which Covid guidance-following Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) faces off with Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix), who believes that masks and social distancing violate personal liberty.

Not content just to litigate still-simmering pandemic debates, Aster also tosses the George Floyd protests into the maelstrom when Ted’s son Eric (Matt Gomez Hidaka) joins the Black Lives Matter movement and offers a searing indictment of social media-driven polarization. “Eddington” is the “first truly great movie to deal explicitly with the unique madness and malice that the global pandemic revealed,” said Jason Gorber at Paste. (HBO Max)

‘A House of Dynamite’

Most people are largely unaware that we live in a world in which any nuclear-armed country can trigger the total destruction of human civilization in less than an hour. In director Kathryn Bigelow’s unsettling “A House of Dynamite,” an unattributed ballistic missile launch from the Pacific heads toward Chicago, and the film looks at the crucial 20-minute period between detection and impact from several different perspectives.

They include that of Captain Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson) a duty officer in the White House Situation Room, and the president (Idris Elba), who is well-intentioned but unprepared for a crisis of such magnitude. Despite an ambiguous ending that may frustrate some viewers, “A House of Dynamite” is a “movie of our time, worth watching, mulling, debating and asking officials why they are doing so little about everything,” said Fred Kaplan at Slate. (Netflix)

‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’

Rose Byrne, one of the most gifted comedic actresses of our era, breaks out her dramatic chops as Linda, a therapist confronting an absent husband, a collapsed ceiling in her Montauk apartment and a very sick daughter (Delaney Quinn). The film taps into an “enigmatic, fraught lineage interested in interrogating feminine emotional collapse with a surrealist bent” that should nevertheless resonate with anyone “struggling to balance selfhood and sanity in the face of substantial responsibility,” said Melanie Robinson at Flood Magazine.

The film is part of a growing library of art about parents overwhelmed by the demands of caring for children, including the TV series “Fleishman Is in Trouble,” and the 2024 film “Nightbitch,” about a mother whose struggles literally turn her into a werewolf. (Prime)

‘I’m Still Here’

It may be no accident that several of 2025’s standout films tackle themes of autocracy, especially given the ongoing global retreat of democracy. In 1971, Eunice Paiva (Fernanda Torres) seeks answers from Brazil’s military junta when the government disappears her journalist husband, Rubens (Selton Mello).

Eunice refuses to allow the regime make her husband vanish without a fight, engaging in a years-long battle to find out what happened. By “depicting how the dictatorship colored daily life,” director Walter Salles’ Oscar-winning film “conjures a pervasive atmosphere of anxiety” in a story that really belongs to Eunice and her “display of “unglamorous strength,” said John Powers at NPR. (Netflix)

‘It Was Just an Accident’

Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi) is traveling with his family when their car breaks down outside a factory after they strike and kill a dog. Inside the factory, one of the employees, Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), believes the driver of the car is his torturer from a years-ago stint in one of the Iranian regime’s notorious prisons. Vahid follows him and kidnaps him.

But soon, doubt sets in Vahid’s mind about whether he has the right guy. Director Jafar Panahi is a leading figure in the Iranian New Wave cinema movement that is shaped by — and exists in opposition to — the country’s sclerotic autocracy. In a film that is “actually surprisingly funny,” Panahi explores questions “about prisons, the ones time and memory make for us, and the hard-to-find psychological keys that’ll release us,” said Robert Daniels at Roger Ebert. (in theaters now)

‘One Battle After Another’

Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s thriller is set in an alternate version of the United States where a left-wing revolutionary movement, French 75, was brutally put down in the early 2000s and an autocratic police state now rules. More than a decade later, aging guerrilla Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio) lives in hiding with his teenage daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti), when they are pursued by Col Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn), Willa’s biological father, who needs to eliminate her to join a white nationalist secret society called the Christmas Adventurers Club.

From the cold open, when French 75 militants jailbreak an immigrant detention facility, it is clear that the themes “resonate agonizingly closely with the current mood.” It is an action movie that “brims with strategic ingenuity and daring, cinematic and political,” said Richard Brody at The New Yorker. (Prime)

‘Sentimental Value’

Danish-Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s first film since 2021’s superb “The Worst Person in the World” stars Stellan Skarsgard as Gustav Borg, an aging film director who is estranged from his daughters, Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas). Elle Fanning is Rachel Kemp, an American actress that Gustav has cast in an autobiographical comeback movie after failing to convince Nora to take the part.

But that plot is almost secondary to the moving exploration of the family’s past and present, including Gustav’s abandonment of the family during Agnes and Nora’s childhood. Strong performances from the cast highlight Trier’s “gorgeous, generous and gut-wrenching meditation about inherited familial suffering,” said Sophie Monks Kaufman at Sight and Sound. (in theaters now)

‘Sorry, Baby’

Released amid an ongoing national backlash to the “Me Too” movement, director Eva Victor’s intimate drama looks at the long aftermath of sexual violence through the eyes of one sardonic survivor. Victor herself stars as Agnes, a literature professor whose life and career was derailed after she was assaulted as a graduate student by her advisor, Preston Decker (Louis Cancelmi).

Cutting back and forth between a present-day visit from her best friend, Lydie (Naomi Ackie), and the assault and its immediate aftermath, the film explores the lingering impact of trauma and the ways that it can return, suddenly and unbidden, even years later. Centered around the “sort of multifaceted, beautifully drawn-out protagonist you rarely see in movies,” Victor’s film is a “truly astounding work of art, from start to finish,” said David Fear at Rolling Stone. (HBO Max)

Seoul is a fun and vibrant city in which towering skyscrapers and futuristic architecture coexist with quirky cafes, traditional food markets and incredible shopping. It’s fringed by breathtaking mountains, so you never feel stuck in a concrete metropolis. There are plenty of five-star hotels to choose from: Four Seasons Hotel Seoul has a prime position in the Gwanghwamun district, close to many of the main sights.

Why stay here?

After a relaxing flight via Helsinki on Finnair, on which I discovered a new love for blueberry juice, Karl Fazer chocolate and their specially designed Marimekko products, I was excited to arrive at Four Seasons Hotel Seoul. The rooms are beautifully decorated with a warm and tactile look; the furnishings are in neutral shades with splashes of colour. Dark mahogany cabinets are paired with light oak wardrobes. Traditional vases, ornate boxes, and books on Korean ceramics decorate the shelves. Sleeping in the huge bed was like sinking into the clouds. The sleek marble bathroom, which contains Diptyque toiletries, features a heated toilet which even flushes itself.

The floor-to-ceiling windows make the most of the view of the neon-streaked city outside, with mountains peaking over in the distance over the skyscrapers. There’s no need to switch on the TV – watching the non-stop flow of commuters and traffic down below is just as entertaining.

The hotel is close to Cheonggyecheon, a stream and public space that comes alive at night with people socialising, Myeong-dong with its delicious street food, and Bukchon Hanok Village with its quaint traditional houses. They’re all a short walk away. Four Seasons Hotel Seoul even has its own bus stop on the route from the airport.

Eating and drinking

There are several restaurants at Four Seasons Hotel Seoul offering different international cuisines. Boccalino serves polished Italian fare while Akira Back dishes up modern Japanese food with a Korean twist. I tried Yu Yuan, the hotel’s Michelin-starred Cantonese restaurant. The Essence Degustation tasting menu offered a delicious journey through the best of Chinese cooking with the crispiest Beijing duck wrapped in pancakes, a comforting soup with nutritious sea cucumbers, and sweet red beans served with refreshing coconut ice cream. Even the side dishes of spicy radishes and roast cashew were overflowing with flavour, while the chilli and XO sauces provided an umami explosion.

For breakfast, the Market Kitchen offers an international buffet with an overwhelming array of dishes. In the Korean section there are spicy padilla leaves, spinach banchan (side dish), several varieties of kimchi, and pork stew. A Korean street food section offers chewy tteokbokki (rice cakes), fried chicken, and Korean street toast (a salty sweet combo of egg, ham and a sprinkling of sugar). Also on offer are shrimp Chinese dumplings, tasty sushi, a pancake and waffle station, and the usual breakfast fare of eggs and cereal. Make sure to grab a table above the glass floor which shows the excavation site of some ancient ruins below. Here, you’ll also find robots whizzing by carrying used crockery for washing up. As I piled my plate high each morning, I found the setting an unexpectedly fascinating blend of old and new.

I also had breakfast at Maru in the stylish lounge area, and tried the Korean set menu which came with a very hearty portion of hair-tail fish with a citrus garnish, seaweed soup, silky steamed eggs with a plump prawn on the top, several banchans including earthy lotus root and two types of kimchi as well as a plate of fresh fruit. It was nutritious, delicious and extremely filling.

Confections by Four Seasons is a great place to indulge your sweet tooth with its mouthwatering cakes and tarts, and, like a lot of Korean treats, they’re not too heavy on the sugar. For drinks, Charles H. is the seriously sexy basement bar; the perfect place to unwind after a day’s sightseeing. It offers some fantastic mocktails – I tried one with pear, jasmine and tea, while feasting on a buttery lobster roll and crunchy fries.

Things to do

Saunas, known as jjimjilbangs, are an important part of Korean culture. Four Seasons Hotel Seoul has wet and dry sauna rooms along with cold, warm and hot baths to submerge yourself into once the steam gets too much. The hotel’s excellent spa offers an array of treatments – I had lymphatic drainage during which I was stroked gently with a brush to eliminate toxins. It’s supposed to be good for fatigue, and helped my jet-lagged stupor. There is also a golf simulator so you can polish your handicap virtually, and three pools for those who want to get their laps in.

The hotel is right next to Gyeongbokgung Palace, the first royal palace of the Joseon dynasty, and Changdeokgung Palace, a Unesco World Heritage site. You can rent a traditional hanbok (Korean garment) and waft around both palaces (and receive free entry if you do). The changing of the guards at Gyeongbokgung Palace is a colourful affair that takes place every day (apart from Tuesday) at 10am and 2pm. Be sure to reserve in advance for the secret garden tour at Changdeokgung Palace – it’s a beautiful and serene spot that explodes into a riot of colour in autumn. Jogyesa temple is a Buddhist temple adorned with flowers and lanterns that is a short walk away, and worth checking out.

The verdict

Four Seasons is a brand that has become synonymous with effortless luxury and the Seoul branch is no different. It’s a classy hotel that offers understated glamour with attentive staff, great restaurants and fantastic views overlooking Gyeongbokgung Palace. It’s the perfect escape for when you want a break from Seoul’s many alluring attractions.

Ann was a guest of Four Seasons Hotel Seoul. Finnair flies from London Heathrow to Seoul via Helsinki with return fares from £606 in economy class, £1,127 in premium economy and £1,832 in business class; finnair.com

Even if you haven’t got a open fire to roast them on, chestnuts are so versatile, they can add flavour all manner of dishes, savoury or sweet. And, at this time of year, “I urge you to seek them out”, said Felicity Cloake in The Guardian.

The Romans had “something of a penchant for sweet chestnut trees, spreading them across Europe” so they could use the “fast-growing timber” as a raw material in their empire’s expansion, said BBC Future. Many of the trees alive today “will be descendants” from those that “ancient Roman legionnaires and foresters brought with them” thousands of years ago. By the Middle Ages, chestnuts had become a “staple food in many parts of Europe”, ground down to make flour or boiled with sugar to make a purée.

Chestnuts “might not be the first treat you think of” during the Christmas season, but “they’re still deeply rooted in global festivities”, said Express Online. Jamie Oliver recommends preheating your oven to 200C, slicing a cross on top of the shells with a sharp knife, and putting them “cross-side up” on a tray in the oven for 25 to 30 mins. Once they are cooked, the tops will split open and, after they have cooled, the shells can be peeled away, leaving the roasted nut ready for eating.

Though delicious in their own right, chestnuts can also be the basis of the perfect vegan alternative to a traditional Christmas dinner. A buttery mushroom, chestnut and thyme wellington will knock your guests’ socks off, vegan cook and food writer Katy Beskow told Stylist. Easy to prepare, with only a handful of ingredients, it is a “failsafe for the big day”.

Chestnuts are equally good in sweet dishes. Nigella Lawson’s chestnutty twist on a classic pavlova is a real delight, said Food & Wine. “Crisp” meringue with a “soft, marshmallowy interior” is topped with a sweetened chestnut purée and then “swathes of softly whipped cream and splinters of bitter chocolate”. It's a “fabulously festive” treat.

Running between Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin in the far southwest of Australia, the Cape to Cape Track is one of the country’s loveliest coastal paths. It is 76 miles long, but largely flat, so walking it feels more like an extended “stroll” than a trek, said Jamie Lafferty in the Financial Times – and it is even easier if you join one of Walk into Luxury’s four-day group trips, as I did last November.

This local operator puts guests up at a single hotel and drives them to the most beautiful sections of the trail for daily walks, each up to six hours long, with knowledgeable guides. From surprise picnics to dinners in high-end restaurants, the food is wonderful – and so is the wine, all of which is locally produced. The path runs the length of the Margaret River wine region, where viticulture began in 1967. Today, the region produces 2% of Australia’s wines, but accounts for 20% of its premium market.

On Walk into Luxury’s trip, guests visit several wineries, including the oldest, Vasse Felix. I loved the lunch we had there (including an excellent toothfish and miso-aubergine dish), and the Tom Cullity wine, a cabernet sauvignon and malbec blend made from grapes descended from the area’s very first vines.

Our hotel, the Injidup Spa Retreat, was also good, with guest villas and their plunge pools perched on a cliff above an often deserted beach of “flawless” pale sand. In early November, the coastal plains were “ablaze” with spring flowers, and there were lots of birds to watch during our picnics, including cockatoos, wedge-tailed eagles and superb fairywrens – a tiny species that is “unfathomably blue”. We saw a pod of playful dolphins and a pair of humpback whales (mother and calf) close to shore, and also spotted – and avoided – a dugite (a large venomous snake) sunbathing on a rock. Most magical, however, was the final day, when we walked through an ancient forest of “titanic” karri trees, listening to the birdsong and the “gentle hushing” of the upper canopy.

The trip costs from £1,855pp, excluding flights (walkintoluxury.com).

It was a banner year for literature, with a plethora of intriguing and memorable releases. The publishing world delivered boundary-pushing fiction alongside heavily researched and introspective nonfiction in 2025. Here are the best books of the year — ones that stood out among a host of excellent tomes.

‘A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children’ by Haley Cohen Gilliland

Journalist Haley Cohen Gilliland’s debut tackles the story of Argentina’s Dirty War through the lens of the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, a “courageous group of women who, since 1977, have worked tirelessly to locate the country’s stolen children and grandchildren,” said Time. The book primarily focuses on one woman, Rosa Tarlovsky de Roisinblit, and her “unwavering fight to find her missing grandson.”

Her battle for justice alongside the other Abuelas would “put them at odds with Argentina’s government” and lead to the “emergence of important new DNA science, which would result in the identification of 140 children who were kidnapped by the state.” Exhilarating, “emotional and exhaustively researched,” Gilliland’s book is a “testament to those grandmothers who never gave up” and a “heart-wrenching reminder that their work is far from over.” ($30, Simon and Schuster, Amazon)

‘Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts’ by Margaret Atwood

The renowned author, best known for “The Handmaid’s Tale,” tells her life story in this “full, expansive and joyful” memoir, said The Washington Post. In it, Atwood describes her life as “radically unproscribed, prolific and hearty.” The book highlights the author’s “energy, generosity, focus and vigor,” as well as her “Canadian modesty, self-deprecation and good cheer.” Fans of hers will love the book, and for aspiring authors, it will “offer a model of productivity.” ($35, Penguin Random House, Amazon)

‘The Buffalo Hunter Hunter’ by Stephen Graham Jones

This horror and historical fiction mashup is a “weirdly satisfying and bloody reckoning with some of America’s most shameful history,” Kirkus Review. In this vampire western, Stephen Graham Jones weaves a “rich tapestry that winds around questions of identity, heritage and historical truth,” based on a “real historical atrocity,” the Marias Massacre, in which nearly 200 Native people were killed by the U.S. Army in 1870.

The pacing is surprisingly slow for a “tale with a truly visceral amount of carnage.” Nevertheless, “by the time the book winds back around,” it is as much an “autopsy of institutionalized treachery” as a “demonization of its tragic and terrifying ‘villain.’” ($30, Simon and Schuster, Amazon)

‘Fish Tales’ by Nettie Jones

Toni Morrison acquired and initially published this African American novelist’s manuscript in 1984. Once deemed a promising new author, Jones largely disappeared from the literary scene after releasing her second, and last, book in 1989.

This year, her debut was finally rereleased. "Fish Tales" is a “burst of authentic energy, a rush of life from start to finish,” said the Chicago Review of Books. The novel follows the protagonist, Lewis Jones, as she navigates 1970s New York and Detroit, in a tale marked by a string of lovers from her youth into her late thirties. Hers is a “unique adventure, unafraid to display the grittiness and brutal ecstasy of a life of fast liaisons.”

Though the book was dismissed initially as smut, the novel is “about far more than the enjoyment of sex;” it is about “sadness and pain that cannot be erased by bright city lights.” It is a story of “trauma, confusion, lost souls” and a “wrathful love that may never know peace.” ($27, Macmillan, Amazon)

‘Katabasis’ by R.F. Kuang

“Yellowface” author R.F. Kuang turns her critical eye from the publishing world to academia, with an added twist of fantasy in her latest novel. The story follows Alice Law as she journeys through hell to secure a recommendation from her fallen mentor, Cambridge professor Jacob Grimes, widely regarded as the greatest magician in the world.

That “Katabasis” is a “fun, engaging novel is clear from the start," said NPR. What makes this novel shine is “the way it is happy being goofy, playful and campy,” but then “doesn’t shy away from being deep, smart, well-researched, innovative and surefooted” as it “pulls readers into a new magic system.” Kuang is “in control at all times,” and the “ease with which she navigates between the silly and the sublime is just one of the reasons she is one of the biggest names in contemporary fiction.” ($36, HarperCollins, Amazon)

‘Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church’ by Kevin Sack

“Mother Emanuel” is a “masterpiece” that tells the story of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, which is sadly now best known as the site of a mass shooting by a white supremacist that killed nine congregants on June 17, 2015, said The New York Times. Former Times reporter Kevin Sack delivers a “dense, rich, captivating narrative,” featuring “vivid prose, prodigious research and a palpable emotional engagement that is disciplined by a meticulous attention to the facts.”

Over the course of a decade, he consulted a collection of scholarly sources and primary texts, and interviewed scores of Emanuel’s congregants, historians and theologians. The book’s pages “teem with information” often “eloquently conveyed,” leaving his readers “as enthralled as he is with his expansive, inspiring and hugely important subject.” ($35, Penguin Random House, Amazon)

‘Stone Yard Devotional’ by Charlotte Wood

This highly acclaimed book from Australian novelist Charlotte Wood was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize before making its stateside debut earlier this year. The story follows a burnt-out, unnamed narrator as she seeks refuge at a cloistered convent in rural Australia.

She is forced to reckon with her past through the lens of three key events: a mouse plague, the discovery of a nun's skeletal remains and a visit from a celebrity activist nun. The surrounding apocalypse is “not so much the plot of the book as its anchor,” grounding the novel’s “ruminations on forgiveness and regret, on how to live and die, if not virtuously, then as harmlessly as possible,” said The New York Times. Wood offers readers a “wise, consoling novel for disquieting times,” said Kirkus Review. ($19, Penguin Random House, Amazon)

‘What We Can Know’ by Ian McEwan

In his latest novel, Ian McEwan takes readers to the year 2119, where the “humanities are still in crisis,” said The New Yorker. The literary detective story combines science fiction with elements of a thriller as the protagonist, scholar Thomas Metcalfe, investigates a mysterious poem from 2014.

Much of the novel’s charm “lies in its re-creation of our era as seen from the future.” The book feels like “a direct descendant of ‘Atonement,’” McEwan’s “most beloved work.” The new book suggests that “human beings have always been declinist, underselling the riches of the present and romanticizing what earlier generations merely made do with.” ($30, Penguin Random House, Amazon)

The year is coming to an end, and it has seen some big-name artists drop new albums. From one of the biggest pop superstars of the 21st century to a familiar Beatles face, here are some of 2025’s best LPs.

Counting Crows, ‘Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!’

San Francisco rock band Counting Crows released its eighth studio album, “Butter Miracle, the Complete Sweets!,” marking the band’s first LP in more than ten years. The album is not totally new but an extension of the band’s 2021 EP, “Butter Miracle Suite One.” Four of that recording’s songs are included on the new album. One of the notable singles from the LP, “Spaceman in Tulsa,” is “about metamorphosis — the way music breaks down who we were and spins us into something new,” said frontman Adam Duritz in a statement.

Ed Sheeran, ‘Play’

Ed Sheeran took a break from his mathematical album titles with his latest LP, “Play,” marking his eighth studio album. Unlike his prior few LPs, in which the superstar took on a softer acoustic feel, “Play” represented a moment in which he was “getting back into big pop for the first time in a long time,” Sheeran told Variety. Sheeran isn’t slowing down with accompanying features either, as he also shot several music videos for various tracks on the album. The LP comes as Sheeran was also named one of Pollstar’s 25 most popular touring artists of the millennium.

FKA Twigs, ‘Eusexua’ and ’Eusexua Afterglow’

FKA Twigs has seen a stratospheric rise since her first album was released 11 years ago, and the British singer-dancer has kept her name on the map by releasing both her third and fourth studio albums this year: “Eusexua” and “Eusexua Afterglow,” the pair dropping ten months apart. The latter album was developed as a sequel to “Eusexua,” and like most of her other work, was critically acclaimed. Both LPs feature “glimmering moments of this carefree abandon and commitment to the bit” that has helped make FKA Twigs a household name, said Pitchfork.

Lady Gaga, ‘Mayhem’

Pop music fans have been going gaga for Lady Gaga for years, and the acclaimed artist released “Mayhem” as her sixth studio album. The LP is Gaga’s first solo studio album since 2020, and it also includes her award-winning duet with Bruno Mars, “Die with a Smile.” The album is a “return to those Gothic dreams” and allowed the singer to find her “peak confidence” in its production, Gaga said to Rolling Stone, which called the record “more than just a return to her pop roots” in its review.

The Lemonheads, ‘Love Chant’

After a six-year hiatus, the Lemonheads returned in 2025 with new music and dropped their 11th studio album, “Love Chant.” This is the band’s first LP since 2019 and only the third since 2009. But the last album of all-original material was in 2006, meaning “Love Chant” will be the band’s “first album of all-new original material in almost two decades,’ said Variety. Frontman Evan Dando, an on-and-off member of the band, is also featured here; the LP is a mash-up of “whip-smart, tongue-in-cheek, rollicking rock ‘n’ roll songs that were worth the long wait,” said The Indy Review.

Lorde, ‘Virgin’

In her smash-hit 2013 single “Royals,” Lorde calls herself Queen Bee, and many of her fans feel she has earned that title. The New Zealand pop star stayed in the limelight this year by releasing her fourth studio album, “Virgin.” The album is “like bathwater, windows, ice, spit. Full transparency. The language is plain,” Lorde said in the LP’s announcement, while also revealing that it was partially inspired by singer Charli XCX. The album received mass acclaim, and fans were outraged this year when the LP seemed to be snubbed for major awards by the Recording Academy.

Mac Miller, ‘Balloonerism’

Mac Miller died in 2018, but the celebrated rapper is still providing fans with new gifts. “Balloonerism,” the artist’s second posthumous LP, was recorded in 2014 but wasn’t released after he died. Now, with a number of unofficial versions circulating online, his family decided to release the LP in full. The album is a “project that was of great importance” to Miller, and it “showcases both the breadth of his musical talents and fearlessness as an artist,” Miller’s estate said on Instagram.

Mavis Staples, ‘Sad and Beautiful World’

Legendary singer and activist Mavis Staples is back with a new album, marking the latest entry in a historic career that has spanned seven decades. “Sad and Beautiful World” marked a blend of old and new songs, and “combines original material with covers of songs by Tom Waits, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Frank Ocean, Curtis Mayfield and Leonard Cohen, among others,” said Pitchfork. The album proved that the icon was “still setting the world to rights,” and her voice “continues to stir the soul with one of the best albums of her triumphant second act,” said Mojo magazine.

Ringo Starr, ‘Look Up’

Ringo Starr, the legendary drummer for the Beatles, is continuing to pump out music even at age 85 and released his 21st studio album, “Look Up,” in 2025. However, this album is a bit different than the Scouser’s normal rock classics, as “Look Up” is a country LP — with album art showing Starr dressed as a cowboy. While not normally associated with the genre, Starr is a longtime fan and has “always loved country music,” the drummer said in a press release. And for the avid listener, country influences can be heard in many of his prior songs.

Taylor Swift, ‘The Life of a Showgirl’

You can’t have a list of this year’s most notable albums without including the biggest one: Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” was released to a flurry of anticipation. Swift is at the height of her popularity and showing no signs of diminishing, as “The Life of a Showgirl” marked the singer’s fifth LP in five years (in addition to several rerecorded releases). However, despite Swift’s popularity, some felt that the album didn’t live up to her prior work; Business Insider ranked it her worst LP and said it was “more concerned with gloss than substance.”

As often happens at this time of year, “A Christmas Carol” has lately been “outdoing London buses”, said Ron Simpson on WhatsOnStage – with several great productions coming along at the same time. There are two in Yorkshire alone. At Leeds Playhouse (until 17 January), director Amy Leach has revived Deborah McAndrew’s vivid and assured adaptation, first staged in Hull, eight years ago. Back then, the setting was the Humber docks, where Ebenezer Scrooge worked as a trader and manufacturer.

For Leeds, Dickens’s old miser has been turned into a West Riding factory boss – once again rooting the story in 19th century industry – and “it works perfectly”. There’s a brass band, carols (of course), and leading the large cast of actors and musicians is Reece Dinsdale, who delivers a “tour de force” central performance. It’s a “wonderfully designed” and handsome show, said Matt Barton in The Stage, with a superb set that fills the stage with fiery factory chimneys.

The trick for any new version of this festive favourite is to “present it with the vitality that Dickens intended”, rather than with “deadening reverence”, said Mark Brown in The Telegraph. At Sheffield Crucible (until 10 January) adapter Aisha Khan and director Elin Schofield have done just that, to produce a “moving and ultimately joyous adaptation”. The show bristles with creative innovations, most notably the singing of traditional carols that are unique to Sheffield and South Yorkshire. “One can’t help but think that Dickens – whose readings took him to locations across Britain – would have approved of such a charming way of giving his story a local resonance.” The energetic and multitasking cast is impressive across the board. Ian Midlane delivers a self-doubting Scrooge, and brilliantly conveys the “ferocity of his breakdown and the giddy joy of his redemption”, said Ron Simpson on WhatsOnStage.

In London, Mark Gatiss’s highly praised, spooky and spinetingling adaptation has returned to the Alexandra Palace Theatre for the third year running (until 4 January). This year it stars Neil Morrissey as Marley’s ghost and Matthew Cottle as Scrooge. On the other side of the Thames, the Old Vic’s “carol-singing, deluxe mince pie” of “A Christmas Carol” (until 10 January) makes its north London rival look like a newcomer, as it is now in its ninth year, said Dominic Maxwell in The Times. Paul Hilton is not as famous as some of the actors who’ve played Scrooge at this theatre – but he delivers one of the best performances to date, bringing an edgy, “off-kilter charisma” to the role. The Old Vic’s has always been a traditional, comfort-and-joy-filled production, and it still makes for a “tremendous” evening.

Leeds Playhouse, Sheffield Crucible, London’s Alexandra Palace Theatre & The Old Vic

In the Young Vic’s big opening for December, the “talking ghost of a tiger haunts the streets of the battle-ravaged Iraqi capital while ruminating on the nature of existence”, said Dzifa Benson in The Telegraph. That sounds like a tough sell. And Rajiv Joseph’s Pulitzer-nominated play – originally staged on Broadway with Robin Williams as the tiger – has taken 14 years to cross the Atlantic.

But in the capable hands of director Omar Elerian, and featuring an astonishing central performance from Kathryn Hunter, this multi-layered and “engrossing” tragi-comedy about the absurdities of war proves to be “funny, profound, must-see theatre”.

Joseph’s “madly surreal” and “quietly humane” play is based on a real event, said Sarah Hemming in the Financial Times. In 2003, a starving Bengal tiger in Baghdad’s zoo was shot by an American soldier after it mauled his comrade’s hand. The playwright takes this as his jumping-off point for an incident-light drama in which the tiger prowls the burning city, haunting its killer and looking for God. The main (human) characters are Kev and Tom, the two US soldiers, and an Iraqi man, Musa, who used to work as a gardener for Saddam Hussein’s sadistic son, Uday – and who is now acting as an interpreter for the invading forces.

The play gets “over-entangled in its philosophising in places”. But Hunter, who stepped into the role at the last minute to replace the unwell David Threlfall, is “superb” – and Elerian’s production “spins on a dime between terrifying violence, quiet reflection and mordant humour”.

“This will undoubtedly be a Marmite show,” said Nick Curtis in The London Standard. I found it “wickedly funny”, and the boldness of its imagery made it possible for me to forgive its bagginess. Joseph, it is fair to say, “makes little concession to normal audience expectations of coherence. But for me this seems a work of massive swings, almost all of which connect with profound force.” I fell on the other side of the fence, said Dominic Maxwell in The Times. Hunter seizes her moment with the “aplomb of an acerbic stand-up comic”, and there are some “nice lines”. But “mostly, this is Beckettian milling about by desperate people in a ruined world. A strong theatrical flavour, in short, and not one for me.”

Young Vic, London SE1. Until 31 January

Contrary to speculation, the podcast industry is alive and brimming with thought-provoking content, as proven by this year’s new and returning releases. Here are some of the best entries of 2025, including some therapeutic sit-downs, thrilling biographies and a new scammer to obsess over.

Bad Therapist (Independent)

Therapyspeak has become so embedded in everyday language that it is nearly a cultural relic and has lost some of its professional nuance. The Bad Therapist podcast is a response to that shift, joining the ranks of other shows in the “classic conversational podcast format pegged to a specific line of deconstructive inquiry,” said Vulture. Hosted by psychotherapist Ash Compton and journalist Rachel Monroe, each episode sees the pair “interrogate different expressions of therapy gone wrong,” including “scammers, self-proclaimed gurus and conversion therapy.” (Apple Podcasts, Spotify)

Camp Swamp Road (The Wall Street Journal)

One of this year’s best crime podcasts put an interesting twist on the genre. The mystery behind Camp Swamp Road is “far from a whodunnit,” as the shooter admits to the killing and was even on the phone with a 911 dispatcher when he did it, said The New Yorker.

Instead, the show interrogates whether the fatal road-rage shooting of a man named Scott Spivey was justifiable under South Carolina’s Stand Your Ground law. The answer may seem straightforward, but “thanks to a trove of damning audio that details police corruption, the killer’s intent, and more, it turns out to be anything but.” (The Wall Street Journal, Apple Podcasts, Spotify)

Fela Kuti: Fear No Man (Higher Ground)

In the fall, Jad Abumrad, the creator of Radiolab and Dolly Parton’s America, released a biographical podcast about legendary Nigerian musician and Afrobeat pioneer, Fela Kuti. During the three years it took to make the show, Abumrad interviewed Kuti’s loved ones and admirers, such as former President Barack Obama and musician Flea, “digging up context about Nigerian art, politics and social history,” said The New Yorker.

The resulting show is “bursting with life, humor, pain, interesting ideas,” and laced with “sharp, catchy, hypnotic music.” One of the year’s standout podcasts that ended up being “both danceable and, by its end, profoundly heartbreaking.” (Apple Podcasts)

Final Thoughts: Jerry Springer (Audible)

Before his name became synonymous with an era of trash television. Jerry Springer began his career as an ambitious politician and was elected mayor of Cincinnati before setting his sights on the state of Ohio. In this nine-part series, Slow Burn’s Leon Neyfakh goes all the way back to Springer’s beginnings, “marrying excellent journalism with some unbelievable source material — not least when it comes to Springer’s 1970s sex scandal,” said The Guardian.

With his “usual knack for good storytelling and brilliantly constructed audio clips,” Neyfakh traces the history of the talk show genre alongside the “history of Springer’s own professional choices,” said The New Yorker. Listeners will come away “wondering what might have been, had Springer better deployed his gifts.” (Audible)

Heavyweight (Pushkin Industries)

This year marked the welcome return of Jonathan Goldstein’s Heavyweight, a podcast that has all the hallmarks of an older podcasting era. The show is “particularly noteworthy” because it embodies the “kind of risk largely absent from the medium these days,” especially as video chat shows continue to rise in popularity, said AV Club.

On his show, Goldstein helps guests resolve past issues, sometimes with unpredictable conclusions. A few of the standout stories are “those entirely without quick answers or easy resolutions.” The show is “distinctly audio-first” and proves the “notion that investing in podcast production as an artistic medium will always be more spiritually rewarding than that of mere content creation.” (Pushkin Industries, Apple Podcasts, Spotify)

Our Ancestors Were Messy (Coco Hill Productions)

This podcast spotlights Black history and puts a comical twist on headline-making gossip, scandals and pop culture from pre-Civil Rights Era America. Host Nichole Hill tells juicy true stories, including a “Victorian-era love triangle that hit D.C. elites” and a “mystery concerning a tabloid sensation in Harlem,” placing listeners “inside of a vintage scandal” while “fleshing out the characters involved with the skill of a novelist,” said Lifehacker. The host’s storytelling is “descriptive, funny, conversational and crisp,” and she uses “amazing sound production that pumps it all into life.” (Apple Podcasts, Spotify)

Suspicious Minds (Agoric Media)

As AI chatbots have become more sophisticated, the fears attached to the technology have evolved. Brothers Joel and Ian Gold, coauthors of the book “Suspicious Minds: How Culture Shapes Madness,” have created this documentary series that “tackles issues around AI-fueled delusions,” aiming to understand “where they fit into humanity’s history of delusional thinking in general,” said Lifehacker. Cohost Sean King O’Grady uses “real patients’ riveting stories,” plunging listeners “deep into their disturbed mental states” and following their “journeys toward managing the illness.” (Apple Podcasts, Spotify)

Unicorn Girl (Seven Hills Productions)

There is something deeply fascinating about people who can pull off a long con, which is likely why stories of scammers have become a constant fixture in podcasting. Unicorn Girl, from the creators of Scamanda, tells the tale of another scam artist and the web of deception she weaved.

The podcast uncovers how Candace Rivera, a Utah mom with a vivacious online personality, embezzled millions of dollars from friends and a nonprofit organization she cofounded to rescue human trafficking victims. Rarely has there been a more “vivid podcasting example of there being so much more to someone than on their social media,” said Podcast Review. (Apple Podcasts)

“The Salt Path Scandal” is filled with “tasty nuggets”, said Carol Midgley in The Times. Sky’s documentary follows journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou as she delves into the alleged lies and deceit behind the bestselling memoir “The Salt Path”. Those who read her investigation in The Observer last summer will be familiar with the “fascinatingly tawdry tale”.

Described by publisher Penguin as “unflinchingly honest”, Raynor Winn’s book charts her 630-mile journey along the South West Coast Path with her terminally ill husband, Moth, after losing their home in Wales. But Hadjimatheou’s “original scoop” revealed a series of damaging allegations, including claims she had defrauded her former employer.

Sky’s new film dives back into the “year’s biggest literary controversy”, said Anita Singh in The Telegraph. It’s an “excellent documentary for students of journalism”, as we learn Hadjimatheou’s exposé began with a tip-off “about a book she had never read” – an email that led to her beginning the painstaking process of “finding witnesses, checking sources and consulting experts”.

The gripping film includes a “wealth of new details”, weaving together a “complex story of alleged theft and deception dating back decades”, said Julia Raeside in The i Paper. “Handsome drone shots” transport viewers to the coast and “conjure the romance of Winn’s tale” – a “wholesome yarn spun perfectly into a tapestry of pure hope and triumph over adversity”. But over the next two hours, Hadjimatheou meets former friends and colleagues of the couple, who accuse them of leaving a “trail of emotional destruction”.

Among the biggest revelations is a letter purportedly written by Winn in which she admits to stealing money from her relatives. Raynor and Moth, whose real names are Sally and Tim Walker, declined to take part in the documentary and dismissed the allegations. “I did not steal from family, as others can confirm. Nor have I confessed to doing so and I did not write a letter suggesting that I did,” Raynor said in a statement, adding that the film was part of a “false narrative”.

“How much does any of this matter?” said Midgley in The Times. “If people enjoyed the book, why not let them be, you may say.” But it’s “galling” to see somebody painting themselves as the victim “when they face claims that they have created quite a few victims of their own”.

When Hadjimatheou’s investigation first broke, “The Salt Path” flew back to the top of the bestseller list. And it’s likely the same will happen following this blistering documentary. “Controversy sells.”

From Paris’ Gare de Lyon, hop on the train to Montreux, stopping at Fontainebleau. From there it is a half-hour walk into the town, through the grounds of the Chateau de Fontainebleau. The grand imperial palace is reminiscent of Versailles with its long, symmetrical avenue of trees, stripped bare when we visited in late November.

Fontainebleau has the feel of a chic university town that moves at its own pace. We walked slowly with our three-year-old daughter and her brown toy rabbit; we were not in a rush and nor was the town. Charming and elegant with a rich history, Fontainebleau is no Parisian suburb. This is a place with a distinctive identity – well worth the journey from the French capital.

Where to stay

We stayed at the Hotel de Cavoye, a 20-bedroom hotel a short walk from the town and chateau. It was clean and comfortable, with pared-back decor and a restaurant on site. The breakfast was hugely appealing to kids, if only for the novelty of having ham, cheese, croissants and cornflakes all in one sitting. There is a large and pleasant courtyard and some of the rooms have their own balconies, which I imagine would be lovely in the summer.

The Hotel de Londres is another charming and comfortable option. Founded in the mid-19th century, and overlooking the chateau, it has the literary claim of a visit from Marcel Proust, who sat in the dining room and wrote a few paragraphs of his great novel In Search of Lost Time. The same family have run the hotel for four generations, and have worked to maintain the feel of 19th-century Fontainebleau in the days of Proust and Napoleon.

Eating and drinking

The restaurants are fantastic, as French cooking always is. Lunch, I am told, should be a sit-down affair, with steak and, if you like, a glass of vin rouge. VivaVino is a small wine bar hidden down a side street near the centre. It specialises in natural wines, and there are just a couple of options by the glass each night. Likewise the menu stretches to a few delicious items, including the signature baked cheese with walnuts and honey, smoked trout and a very hearty dish of ricotta and spinach ravioli.

By day a butcher, by night a restaurant, Le Viand’Art steakhouse might be one of the best such places in Europe. Our little one enjoyed coquilletes (essentially macaroni cheese with ham) while we dined on all manner of meats cooked to perfection, with vegetables, salad, aligots, or frites cooked in beef dripping. The puddings are also excellent.

For a quick lunch option, I recommend queuing for a sandwich, cake, quiche or slice of pizza from Boulangerie Patisserie Dardonville, a tiny outlet whose produce is as heavenly as baked goods can be. It’s also just a stone’s throw from the best toy shop I have ever visited, Le Nénuphar, which seems to sell the most imaginative and beautiful objects that a small child (or their parent) could ever dream of.

Things to do

Having visited several chateaus with children, from Versailles to Reggia di Caserta in southern Italy, I found Fontainebleau the most impressive and interesting. It must have been spared such a looting in the revolution as Versailles, as its wonders date back to the 16th century in some rooms: friezes, frescos and tapestries created for Francis I.

The Napoleon apartments are fascinating and give visitors a palpable sense of the man who apparently identified as a bumblebee. A permanent exhibition shows Napoleon’s clothes, hat and weapons, as well as the cot commissioned for his son, who was crowned King of Rome before he was even conceived. The gardens and grounds are stunning, and you could easily spend a morning if not the whole day there.

A short Uber ride away is Barbizon, a small village where Impressionism emerged, with painters including Rousseau, Corot and Millet all coming to paint from nature in its surroundings. There is a wonderful forest to walk in and two good museums in the former houses and studios of Rousseau and Millet. Be sure to stop by at Le Gaulois for more steak and wine.

Back in Fontainebleau, the farmers’ market that takes place three times a week (Wednesday, Friday and Sunday) from 7am to 1pm, is unmissable. Unlike London’s farmers’ markets, this one seems to be supplied by actual farmers, selling fruit, veg, cheese, liqueurs, honey and spices at reasonable prices. It is where the locals do their weekly shop, and a great place to pick up something delicious to take home.

Flora was a guest at Hotel de Cavoye, hoteldecavoye.com

Whether you’re a bookworm or you just love beautiful buildings, there’s something special about libraries. The UK is home to plenty of these peaceful, book-lined sanctuaries, filled with cosy nooks for reading to your heart’s content and escaping the bustle of the outside world. These are our favourites.

John Rylands Library, Manchester

Opened to the public on Deansgate in 1900, this stunning library was founded by Enriqueta Rylands in memory of her late husband, the entrepreneur and philanthropist John Rylands. It became part of Manchester University in 1972, and is home to an array of rare books including the Gutenberg Bible and all four of Shakespeare’s Folios. The building itself is one of “neo-Gothic splendour”, said Countryfile, and the main reading room is dotted with tranquil “reading alcoves” and colourful stained glass windows.

The Bodleian, Oxford

“In terms of English libraries, this is the magnum opus,” said The Sunday Times. Founded in 1602 by diplomat and scholar Thomas Bodley, it’s one of the country’s oldest libraries and “feels like the library at Hogwarts: think domed reading rooms, gothic vaulting, stained glass and wooden shelves stuffed with books from floor to ceiling”. Consider booking a guided tour for access to the “normally off-limits” 15th-century Duke Humfrey’s Library and the Chancellor’s Court, “where students were tried for misdeeds”.

The Leeds Library

This historic spot has a “special claim to fame: it’s the oldest surviving lending library in the UK”, said The Sunday Times. Founded in 1768 by a “forward-thinking society of northern notables”, it’s a members-only library, but you can book to visit on Thursday evenings between 5 and 7pm. “Grade II listed and set around a glass-roofed atrium, framed by wooden balustrades and shelves, it’s a bookworm’s delight.”

National Poetry Library, London

Located on the fifth floor of the Royal Festival Hall, overlooking the Thames in London’s Southbank Centre, “you’ll find a warm yellow glow radiating from the doors of the National Poetry Library”, said Condé Nast Traveller. Founded by the Arts Council and opened in 1953 by TS Eliot and Herbert Read, the “cosy” space is home to more than 200,000 books, magazines and audio visual materials. Drop by to listen as poets read their work “in front of the huge, rainbow-coloured archives”, and take children to visit the Little Library, where they can “pore over picture books, play games and solve puzzles”.

Canada Water Library, London

Sitting next to the Canada Water basin, this striking library “resembles a concrete ship that’s run aground”, said Condé Nast Traveller. Designed by CZWG Architects, the aluminium-clad building was opened by Southwark Council in 2011, and won several prizes including a RIBA award. Now, it’s a community hub hosting reading clubs, writing groups and author events. “With checked carpets, sleek wood interiors and suspended giant orb lights, it’s a wonderful space to while away the day.”

Gladstone’s Library, Flintshire

This “literary oasis” in North Wales, founded by former prime minister William Gladstone in 1889, is the UK’s only residential library, said the BBC. Home to 26 bedrooms “just steps from the books”, it’s the perfect spot for “anyone who has ever dreamed of spending a cosy holiday reading, writing or focusing in silence”. The “imposing russet stone building” is home to a “150,000-tome-strong collection”, a handful of reading rooms, a wood-panelled dining room with “views over the manicured gardens”, and a “cosy study” with comfy chairs to “flop into” with a book.

Comedy writers had their work cut out for them in 2025, with the United States in political crisis and a mass culture that increasingly revolves around short-form video and manufactured outrage. It was also the year that studios tackled some of these problems directly, resulting in a crop of astute and sometimes discomfiting comedy offerings.

‘Adults,’ season 1

Anton (Owen Thiele), Billie (Lucy Freyer) and Issa (Amita Rao) are twenty-something friends living together in the Queens-based family home of Samir (Malik Elassal), all trying and failing to launch careers, relationships and even Zoom job interviews. An episode in which the helpless quartet attempts the seemingly simple task of roasting a chicken for a dinner party deliriously walks the line between critique and mean-spirited generational warfare.

With their brains “poisoned with all the anxieties of their internet-obsessed cohort,” the characters on FX’s Gen Z hang-out comedy connect most successfully when their antics are “just straight-up zany,” said Esther Zuckerman at The New York Times. (Hulu)

‘The Chair Company,’ season 1

Tim Robinson has cemented himself as an auteur of workplace cringe humor, In “The Chair Company,” Robinson plays Ron Trosper, a middle-aged mall designer for a firm called Fisher Robay whose wife, Barb (Lake Bell), and children, Natalie (Sophia Lillis) and Seth (Will Price), treat him with a mixture of bemusement and resignation.

At a presentation to unveil the firm’s newest shopping center, a desk chair collapses under him, sending Ron down a rabbit hole trying to figure out whether its shadowy manufacturer, Tecca, is the leading edge of a global conspiracy. A comedy about “man who will invent circles upon circles of spiraling conspiratorial lore to mask his inability to deal with the way his life has turned out,” it is ultimately a commentary on a world “designed to make it easy for you to go insane,” said Phillip Maciak at The New Republic. (HBO Max)

‘Deli Boys,’ season 1

Mir (Asif Ali) and Raj (Saagar Shaikh) are brothers who inherit what they believe to be a Philadelphia-based convenience store and retail empire when their father, Baba (Iqbal Theba), is killed in a golfing mishap. But Aunt Lucky (Poorna Jagannathan) is forced to share the bad news that the whole enterprise was a drug-running operation, and if they don’t right the ship quickly they’ll all be killed.

A lot of the laughs stem from the wildly mismatched brothers: Mir is an MBA-wielding straight man, while Raj is a brain-addled failson who spends most of his time curating his own drug experiences. Highlighted by the “genuine warmth of the relationships within this murderous crime family,” the Hulu comedy “balances bloody knuckles with a tender heart,” said Judy Berman at Time. (Hulu)

‘English Teacher,’ season 2

This uproarious ensemble comedy about a group of Austin, Texas, high school teachers went out with a bang with its second and final season after sexual assault allegations against creator and star Brian Jordan Alvarez (as well as an inability to find a larger audience) led FX to pull the plug. Alvarez is Evan, a gay English teacher delicately navigating various Trump-era fixations as the school’s principal, Grant (Enrico Colantoni), tries and usually fails to keep the school on the right side of whatever culture war has erupted most recently.

It’s mostly a buddy comedy, with fellow teachers Markie (Sean Patton) and Gwen (Stephanie Koenig) participating in hijinx or joining together to battle the students as in a memorable episode where the students launch an off-books, R-rated scavenger hunt at an overnight lock-in. A show whose “characters, comedy and rhythm seemed to come into the world fully formed,” its second season “continues to thrive in a comfortable groove,” said Ross McIndoe at Slant Magazine. (Hulu)

‘I Love LA,’ season 1

Another Gen Z hangout comedy that feels like a concerted effort to lure its target demographic away from their phones, “I Love LA” stars social media sensation Rachel Sennott as Maia, an office assistant at Alyssa 180, an eponymous talent agency overseen by a self-satisfied millennial boss (Leighton Meester) who refuses to give Maia a promotion.

When Maia’s best friend, Tallulah, an influencer perpetually riding the Hot Mess Express, returns to Los Angeles, she gives Maia a new career opportunity while also upsetting the delicate friendship dynamics of her band of hapless young narcissists. A show “populated by delusional strivers running on the fumes of substance-free hype,” it succeeds best as a “piece of sociology about the influencer era,” said Alison Herman at Variety. (HBO Max)

‘Mo,’ season 2

A comedy about a Palestinian refugee seeking immigration status in the United States couldn’t possibly have turned out to be more timely when its second season was released in January 2025. Comedian Mo Amer plays Mohammed “Mo” Najjar, a somewhat aimless Palestinian who was brought to the U.S. as a child.

In the second season he is marooned in Mexico City, performing in wrestling matches to get by, while his family fights to find him a legal pathway to residency in Houston. “Mo,” which concluded with this season, “excels in humanizing people of all stripes, and in being as sidesplittingly funny as it is unapologetically dark,” said Hannah J Davies at The Guardian. (Netflix)

‘Platonic,’ season 2

Friendship is the essence of virtually every project that Seth Rogan has ever been involved with and so it is fitting that he tackles the subject head-on in the underrated “Platonic.” Rogan is Will, a forty-something doofus who reconnects with his college buddy Sylvia (Rose Byrne at the top of her comedy game) after he gets divorced.

Sylvia is a stay-at-home mother of three married to a tightly-wrapped lawyer named Charlie (Luke Macfarlane). Season 2 picks up where the first left off, with Will set to marry straight-edge girlboss Jenna (Rachel Rosenbloom) and Sylvia agreeing to serve as the wedding planner. Anchored by leads “who excel at physical-comedy hijinks, electric banter and sincere conversations,” the Apple TV+ comedy is “rooted in laughs, crafting a chill, low-stakes story along the way,” said Saloni Gajjar at The AV Club. (Apple TV+)

‘The Studio,’ season 1

“The Studio” is both a showcase for Seth Rogan’s nervous, socially awkward talents and a love letter to a Hollywood striver whose creative integrity is being destroyed. Rogan plays Matt Remick, thrust into the role of chief executive at fictional Continental Studios, where he is immediately faced with a demand to turn “IP” into franchises, starting with the Kool-Aid Man.

Ike Barinholtz, Chase Sui Wonders and Kathryn Hahn steal scene after scene as his hapless underlings, with each episode centered around some massive screw-up, including Remick wrecking a delicate sunset shot for Sarah Polley, one of many stars who play versions of themselves in single-episode arcs. “The Studio” succeeds not just because of its ”attention to craft and its uniformly strong ensemble cast” but also because of its “unironic love for the medium of cinema,” said Dana Stevens at Slate. (Apple TV+)

There’s a fresh batch of shows cruising their way around the country. Some, like “Beauty and the Beast” and “Spamalot,” are reboots of Broadway musicals from a few decades past, and others are touring productions of new shows that were either just on Broadway or are currently running there.

‘Beauty and the Beast’

More than 30 years have passed since the stage adaptation of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” debuted on Broadway, where it ran for 13 years. A remounting was inevitable, and this Beauty, played by Kyra Belle Johnson, and Beast, embodied by Fergie L. Philippe, are now finding each other again night after night on a tour that is currently wandering the States. (through Sept. 6, 2026)

‘The Great Gatsby’

The design team for this musicalization of the iconic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel “pulled out all the stops,” achieving a kind of design “nearly unprecedented in terms of scale and quality,” said Christian Lewis at Variety. This “The Great Gatsby” leans heavy on the glitz of the Roaring Twenties: The production numbers are grand, and the performances rousing. (Jan. 31 through Oct. 18, 2026)

‘Hell’s Kitchen’

Alicia Keys took her hit songs and her life story and melded them into a vibrant musical, “Hell’s Kitchen.” Keys’ stand-in protagonist, Ali, is a 17-year-old growing up in the show’s namesake neighborhood on the west side of Manhattan. Expect to catch “No One,” “Fallin’” and “Empire State of Mind,” along with new songs written for the show. It’s “thrilling from beginning to end,” said Elisabeth Vincentelli at The New York Times. (through Sept. 13, 2026)

‘The Notebook’

The book-to-movie-to-musical pipeline hits its heartstring-tugging zenith with the Broadway-ification of “The Notebook.” In an attempt to breathe fresh life into the romantic tale of Allie and Noah, three pairs of actors play the characters across different time periods in their lives. The adjustment is novel, but the resulting version of the story hasn’t “lost its romantic magic,” said Gloria Oladipo at The Guardian. Brace yourself for Alysha Deslorieux’s barn-burning Act One number, “My Days,” as Middle Allie. (through Aug. 30, 2026)

‘The Outsiders’

S.E. Hinton’s beloved novel gets put to raucous, thoughtful song courtesy of the members of the band Jamestown Revival. With its tale of two sides of youth class warfare during the mid-1960s, the musical captures “insightful ruminations on brotherhood, identity and the cycles of grief and violence,” said Emlyn Travis at Entertainment Weekly. This “The Outsiders” staging is a marvel: The rainstorm rumble between the Greasers and the Socs will crack your jaw wide open. (through Sept. 27, 2026)

‘Spamalot’

Some of the creators of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” morphed their seminal 1975 cinematic romp into the early 2000s musical, and “Spamalot” has had audiences nearly rolling in the aisles since. The current touring production comes on the heels of a Broadway revival in 2023. “It’s its own dumb joke rollercoaster — everything and everyone is up for ribbing,” said Tim Teeman at The Daily Beast. (through Aug. 26, 2026)

‘Stereophonic’

The winner of Best Play at the 2024 Tony Awards, by David Adjmi, is an insider’s view of a band under duress. The entire show takes place in a recording studio during the mid-1970s, as the band’s members record an album and their personal relationships fray. Songs from Will Butler of Arcade Fire give “Stereophonic” a proper vibe of Fleetwood Mac recording their monster-hit album “Rumours.” So much so that a former Fleetwood Mac producer sued the creators of “Stereophonic” for copyright infringement. Get in on the rockin’ drama. (through May 10, 2026)

‘Suffs’

An original musical written by Shaina Taub, “Suffs” tells the story of the suffragette movement across the 20th century. It features players in the movement, including Alice Paul, Carrie Chapman Catt and Ida B. Wells. As a night of theater, the show is a “full-throated musical call to action, and its message is neither subtle nor ambivalent: It wants to light a fire under you,” said Regina Robbins at Time Out. (through Aug. 9, 2026)

Built in 1984 by a family of keen anglers from Chicago, Gangler’s is “one of the world’s finest fishing lodges”. But this outpost in the forests of Northern Manitoba offers far more than the chance to catch pike and trout, said Mike MacEacheran in The Telegraph.

Set beside the North Seal River, three hours by floatplane north of the provincial capital, Winnipeg, it is mind-bendingly remote – 230 miles from the nearest dirt road, in the heart of a wilderness that is bigger than Wales but has no other lodges. These days, many guests come simply to spot some of the area’s spectacular wildlife, including bears, wolves, moose and caribou; it is also among the best places in the world to see the northern lights. The lodge’s current owner, Ken Gangler, is an “avuncular” host who was once a touring rock musician, and despite its “modern frills” (such as Wi-Fi), the lodge itself has a homely and “nostalgic” air, with “taxidermy decor” and accommodation in waterfront cabins.

The surrounding landscape shows spectacular traces of the last ice age, including many lakes, huge “erratic” boulders, and North America’s largest concentration of eskers – deposits of sand and grit shaped as narrow ridges, up to 400ft high and 180 miles long. The eskers serve as migration routes for creatures including caribou, command panoramic views and offer good wildlife-spotting opportunities.

During my stay at the lodge earlier this year, I went on a floatplane trip to Blackfish Lake to track timber wolves up an esker, and enjoyed a thrillingly close encounter with a mother wolf and her two cubs. The area’s climatic conditions, including frequent clear skies, make it highly likely you’ll see the northern lights if you stay a few nights. The prime viewing season is in August and September, when I visited. Each evening, the sky exploded in “comet trails of red and green”, rising and dipping slowly, like “great godlike hands” clutching at the stars.

Canada As You Like It has a five-night stay from £5,420pp, including flights.

The new year is mere weeks away, and while the weather outside may be frightful, there is plenty of new music that isn’t. Check out some fresh albums from your favorite artists this winter.

Rosalía, ‘Lux’ 

Spanish singer Rosalía has made a name for herself by performing music in a variety of genres from pop to folk. Now the popular artist is back with her fourth studio album, “Lux,” marking her second LP in three years following the success of 2022’s highly acclaimed “Motomami.” The album features guest appearances from a number of notable artists including famed Icelandic singer Bjork. The new album is a “heartfelt offering of avant-garde classical pop that roars through genre, romance and religion,” said Pitchfork in its review. (out now)

Orville Peck, ‘Appaloosa’ 

Orville Peck is known for often wearing a mask in public, but his fans aren’t hiding their excitement about his new EP, “Appaloosa,” which comes a year after Peck released his third studio album, “Stampede.” The country rock singer, whose deep voice and booming vocals put him on the map, wants people to hear the “other side of country that is a more traditional, referenced type of country that’s more about the songwriting,” Peck told Billboard, saying it is “more open culturally to anyone who wants to express themselves in that.” (out now)

Jessie J, ‘Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time’

One of the most prominent English pop singers of the last 15 years, Jessie J is coming out of a health-related hiatus to release her sixth studio album, “Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time.” The album, Jessie J’s first since a Christmas LP released in 2018, was made “over five years as she worked through both the joy and pain in her life,” said Riff magazine. She “brought her sound back to basics, away from the pomp of past hits like ‘Bang Bang,’ reuniting with her original management team and opting to self-release her music.” (out now)

Jeremy Allen White, ‘Deliver Me From Nowhere (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)’

Critics were abuzz about Jeremy Allen White’s performance as the legendary Bruce Springsteen in 20th Century Studios’ “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.” The film depicts Springsteen’s struggles to pen his 1982 album “Nebraska” and features original covers from White. Now, fans of the film can grab the official soundtrack as an LP, which contains “12 new recordings by Jeremy Allen White and the cast of the critically acclaimed film,” said the official Bruce Springsteen website. This includes iconic Springsteen songs such as “Born in the USA,” “Atlantic City” and “Reason to Believe.” (out now)

Sam Fender, ‘People Watching (Deluxe Edition)’

Sam Fender’s third studio album, “People Watching,” was originally released in February 2025, but there is good news for fans: The English musician is releasing an updated version of the LP that includes eight new tracks. The new songs will include collaborations with another rising star, singer Olivia Dean, as well as a new single, “Talk to You,” which will feature the icon Elton John. These songs “weren’t included in the lineup of the first record but deserved to be out there,” Fender said on Instagram. (out now)

Pink Floyd, ‘Wish You Were Here 50’

Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” is often considered one of the greatest albums of all time, and it remains popular half a century after its release. Now, fans of the legendary group can revisit the LP with “Wish You Were Here 50,” which “gives fans an exciting new perspective into one of Pink Floyd’s most iconic and best-loved records,” said the band’s website. The 50th anniversary album “features the original album plus two discs of studio rarities, including previously unreleased alternate versions and demos presenting Pink Floyd’s eighth studio album in a brand-new way.” (out now)

Zach Bryan, ‘With Heaven on Top’

Country star Zach Bryan released a live album one year ago, and now he is following that up by dropping a new EP, “With Heaven on Top.” The offering is “expected to include previously hinted tracks like ‘In Dreams’ and ‘Plastic Cigarette,’” said Country Central. It also seems to mark a big moment in the singer’s career, as Bryan has “previously billed this project as his ‘final major label album.’” However, he has since renewed his most recent contract, meaning it “would seem that he still has a few more records left in him.” The project’s eponymous single is out now. (Jan. 9)

Geologist, ‘Can I Get a Pack of Camel Lights?’

Despite his name, Geologist doesn’t play rock music, but rather has become known as a member of the experimental pop group Animal Collective. Now, Geologist, whose real name is Brian Weitz, is getting ready to drop “Can I Get a Pack of Camel Lights?,” which is set to be his first solo LP. The studio album is the “first step into a rippling songscape in which his hurdy-gurdy gives and takes multiple forms, an epic electro-acoustic textile of many colors,” said the band’s website. A single from the album, “Tonic,” is out now. (Jan. 30)

Mandy, Indiana, ‘Urgh’

Head to the Hoosier State with Mandy, Indiana’s upcoming second studio album, “Urgh.” The English-French rock band, whose name is a play on the city of Gary, Indiana, is releasing this album three years after their debut LP, “I’ve Seen a Way,” burst onto the scene with positive reviews. The album will also feature a “primal, screaming call for retribution” from vocalist Valentine Caulfield about a prior sexual assault, part of an effort to “channel my anger into something productive,” Caulfield said in a statement. A single from the album, “Magazine,” is out now. (Feb. 6)

Charli XCX, ‘Wuthering Heights’

Charli XCX helped everyone have a Brat summer with her 2024 album, and now the pop superstar is getting ready to hit the music world again with her LP “Wuthering Heights.” The album is the official soundtrack for the upcoming film of the same name starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. The LP comes as Charli XCX has “been in a state of overwhelming creativity of late, so much so that I feel like I’m running on the spot in a dream,” the singer wrote on Substack. A single from the album, “Chains of Love,” is out now. (Feb. 13)

You want the recipes in a cookbook to work. All the more so in a baking cookbook. This is the obligatory minimum.

A proper cookbook should also swell your imagination and expand your kitchen confidence. Natasha Pickowicz’s “More Than Cake: 100 Recipes Built for Pleasure and Community” succeeds on all counts, supplying both inspiration and a grounding sense of the altruistic ways in which baking can bind.

Baking for good

Pickowicz is a longtime pastry chef turned writer who for years has harnessed her baking prowess and that of her restaurant-world pals to raise money for a variety of charitable organizations through bake sales. She takes the “for pleasure and community” part of the book’s subtitle seriously. “Creating recipes is a loving, community-based act in constant communion with our world,” she writes in the book’s introduction. “Baked goods are part of my commitment to community building.”

And so, for example, Pickowicz devotes an entire chapter to “modern layer cakes” — shareable creations to delight and encourage communing with either your loved ones or the people in your community at large. The chapter is formatted as a choose-your-own-adventure. Select a cake base, say, a black sesame chiffon cake. Then a soak for that base, like maple and vanilla milk. Fill it with, for example, sweet and spicy hazelnuts and frost it with Italian espresso buttercream. There are 21 of these base items, so the permutations are, well, you do the math: near-endless.

Flavor, considered

That wild menagerie of layer cake foundations is simply the door leading to a wonderland under the pastry-kitchen stairs. Pickowicz’s carrot cake is striated with coconut flakes; she tops her pine nut sablé cookies with a smear of funky Taleggio cheese; she transmutes miso soup into a danish; rose water and mezcal are conjoined in a deeply, darkly caramel flan.

Whether you’re baking a toasted vanilla bean pound cake for nibbling across a week yourself or blowing it out for a party with a caramel chocolate chip ice cream bombe, “More Than Cake” offers a solution for endless occasions. “Baking brings me closer to my parents, friends and my neighbors,” Pickowicz writes. “Baking is more than cake.” This book is ready to prove that to you, if you let it.

“Brave” is an overused word in film reviews, said Wendy Ide in The Observer – applied to anything from an actor’s weight gain for a role to “an unconventional editing decision”. But Iranian director Jafar Panahi really is brave. His films have been acclaimed abroad, but at home they have put him at odds with the authoritarian regime in Tehran: accused of being an anti-state “propagandist”, he has twice been jailed, and for a long time he was banned from making films.

Yet he continued to make movies in secret, and his latest – “It Was Just an Accident” – is a “direct attack on the regime”.

It tells the story of Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), a car mechanic who meets by chance a man he believes to be the sadistic guard who had previously tortured him in jail. Vahid was blindfolded during these ordeals, but he has recognised the squeaking sound made by his suspect’s prosthetic leg.

The next day, he abducts this man on the street, and drives him into the desert. His plan is to exact retribution by burying his prisoner alive, but the man insists he is not the guard, and Vahid starts to have doubts.

From here, things get complicated and surprisingly funny, said Manohla Dargis in The New York Times. Vahid puts his detainee back into his van, and goes off to find fellow torture victims, who he hopes will confirm his suspicions. But they’re also unsure about the man’s identity. So, with echoes of “Waiting for Godot”, they take a circuitous route back to the desert, bonding and sharing stories as they go, while also fretting about what to do next.

Real events have cast a shadow over this film, said Clarisse Loughrey in The Independent: while promoting it abroad, Panahi was sentenced to jail again, in absentia. The film, however, is a triumph – “striking”, “unexpected” and darkly humorous.

There is something of a “modern obsession with cynically adapting films for the theatre”, said Holly Williams in The Times. But when it comes to the Royal Exchange’s “gloriously cheering” new Christmas show, all is forgiven – and then some.

“Singin’ in the Rain” (1952) is a “simply perfect film, and with all its singin’ and dancin’ and showbiz glitz”, it’s a perfect fit for the stage. Raz Shaw directs with “visual panache and knowing wit”, and if the satire is broad, it’s also enormous fun. The cast is top notch: when they dance or sing, you “swoon with them”. And “while I’m a sucker for any tap-dancing sequence, there is something particularly thrilling about seeing Alistair David’s tightly drilled yet playful choreography performed in the round” at this circular venue. Forget the rain: this production is “pure bottled sunshine”.

“From the moment the band strikes up that unmistakable MGM shimmer, the production glides confidently between homage and reinvention,” said Amanda Dunlop on WhatsOnStage. For this much-loved tale – about the shift in Tinseltown from the silent movies to the talkies in the 1920s, and its impact on two established stars – the Exchange has been transformed into a “snow globe of tap shoes, twinkling lights and old-Hollywood glitz”.

In the Gene Kelly role, Louis Gaunt offers a “winning mix of matinee-idol swagger and self-mocking charm” in a performance “that would bring a Broadway audience to their feet”. And Danny Collins has “quicksilver energy” and “perfect comedic delivery” as his best friend, Cosmo Brown.

The women are equally fabulous, said Mark Brown in The Telegraph. Laura Baldwin is a “comic delight” as Lina Lamont, the egotistical silent movie star whose grating speaking voice (“Can’t a goil get a woid in edgeways?”) is threatening to kill her career, and Carly Mercedes Dyer shines as the aspiring actress who is hired to record over it secretly.

With relatively little in the way of set, this show is carried along by its terrific cast and its “high-energy” choreography, said Catherine Love in The Guardian. In a time of incessant “doom-scrolling”, this “Singin’ in the Rain” feels both “necessary and infectious. By the puddle-stomping finale, resistance is futile.”

Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. Until 25 January

If the Tudors “exercise a stronger hold on the public imagination than their Plantagenet precursors or Stuart successors”, it is largely “because we can all picture them so clearly”, said Peter Marshall in Literary Review. And that, in turn, is down to one man: the German artist Hans Holbein. Between the late 1520s and the early 1540s, Holbein lived mostly in England and produced an “extraordinary sequence of portraits and drawings” of Henry VIII, his wives and courtiers.

Today, as Elizabeth Goldring explains in her “superb and groundbreaking biography”, it is hard to “appreciate just how novel Holbein’s portraits appeared to the first people who saw them”.

Before he emerged, portraiture was a fairly underdeveloped art form in northern Europe. Yet suddenly, as Goldring puts it, here was a painter who made viewers feel that they’d been “granted access to the sitter’s inner thoughts and feelings”. No wonder that Holbein – a “workaholic” and also a “relentless pragmatist, willing at the drop of a brush to change artistic direction or abandon sinking patrons for rising ones” – thrived in the cut-throat Tudor world.

Holbein was born in Augsburg in 1497, the son of an artist, Hans Holbein the Elder, who specialised in altarpieces. He got his “big break” in 1523, when the humanist scholar Erasmus commissioned him to paint his portrait, said Alastair Sooke in The Telegraph. Erasmus introduced Holbein to Henry VIII’s courtier, Thomas More, who became his chief patron during an early stint in England in the late 1520s.

Returning a few years later, Holbein had to navigate More’s execution in 1535 – at which point he “shrewdly pivoted towards the new man Thomas Cromwell” – and then Cromwell’s downfall in 1540, said Kathryn Hughes in The Guardian.

Despite such ructions, Holbein remained in Henry’s favour until his death, from the plague, in 1543. Thanks to Goldring’s “careful analysis” of his work, aided by more than 250 high-quality reproductions, “Holbein the artist comes vividly to life”, said Katherine Harvey in The Times.

The man himself remains more elusive, but “there are glimpses of a less than exemplary private life”: Holbein effectively abandoned his wife, Elsbeth, and their children in Germany while he pursued success in England, and while here he “fathered at least two children”.

In both life and art, Holbein had a “talent for catching every rising tide”, said Mathew Lyons in The Spectator. Goldring’s “superbly scholarly biography” will surely prove the “definitive account” of this remarkable figure “for many years to come”.

How do you solve a problem like Maria? In this handsome and wonderfully sung Christmas production at Leicester’s Curve – a venue with a “truly impressive musical pedigree” – Molly Lynch solves it with “sass”, “girlish abandon” and “rockabilly vim”, said Clive Davis in The Times. Some Marias are too demure for their own good; here, though, it’s clear from the off why the Mother Abbess (Joanna Riding) thinks this young novice should spend some time out in the world.

Lynch is superb as Maria, “bringing warmth, charm, and vulnerability to the role with effortless grace”, agreed Amarjeet Singh on What’sOnStage. And hers is just one of several “stunning performances” in Nikolai Foster’s captivating and beautifully designed show – including from David Seadon-Young as Captain von Trapp, who is less of a martinet than usual, and more demonstrably grief-stricken.

You know what you’re getting from “The Sound of Music” (“nuns, Nazis, Do-Re-Mi”) – but this “richly entertaining revival honours its serious intent”, said David Jays in The Guardian. Of course, people love Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical for its “lashings of melody” and “prickle-eyed love story”. The tale, however, is also one of “personal loss, political integrity and the healing power of music”. This production “ripples with feeling, especially in the first half”, which boasts the musical’s biggest songs. And if the second half is busier with plot and reprises, Seadon-Young still “delivers ‘Edelweiss’ with a memorably forlorn defiance”.

I’d have liked more chemistry between the leads, said Holly Williams in The Daily Telegraph. But Lynch is “wonderful with the children, leading sing-alongs and skip-a-thons with a bell-clear, enjoyably old-fashioned-sounding voice and an enthusiasm warm enough to melt the most cynical heart”. Michael Taylor’s set is a stunning wintery Austria of silver birches and snowy peaks. And the Nazis’ simmering presence, which “creeps in around all the edges” of Foster’s production in a range of deft, well-thought-out touches, brings a usefully dark undertone to a show that can risk seeming twee. In sum: “festive bliss”.

Curve Theatre, Leicester. Until 17 January

Now aged 94, Bridget Riley has been remarkably “consistent” over her long career, but is often misunderstood, said Lily Le Brun in The Observer. Back in the 1960s, her “bold, geometric, abstract” monochrome paintings caused a sensation. To her fans and critics alike, they seemed to hint at “fashionable, cutting-edge concerns: new technologies, space, psychedelics”. Riley’s real inspiration, however, was “very different”. In 1939, when the artist was eight, her mother moved her to “a damp cottage on the Cornish coast to see out the War”, and her experiences of observing the sea have formed what she calls “the basis of my visual life”.

This show in Margate brings together 26 paintings that represent nearly every stage of Riley’s career, and it seeks to investigate how the artist has repeatedly returned to the subject in her work over the past 60 years – evoking the patterns of the waves not directly, but through basic shapes and geometry. Hung within view of the gallery’s “tripleheight windows”, perched on the harbour wall looking out onto the North Sea, can her work really “stand up” to its inspiration?

At her most successful, Riley’s paintings remind you “that sight is a physical sensation ... it’s something you actually feel”, said Eddy Frankel in The Times. They “make you look at the world again, rewired, reconfigured”; and the best do evoke the watery world just beyond the gallery walls. There are canvases filled with triangles that somehow recall “gentle waves lapping at the shore”; a number of “curving, wobbly paintings ... loom over you like big washes of marine turbulence”; one red, blue and green example from 1980 “looks like it’s about to bulge off the canvas”. “At her worst”, though, Riley merely offers “dull minimalism”. Some recent works, painted directly onto the walls, are “lifeless” arrangements of dots with “no visual hum, no eye-melting shock of colour and shape”. Some canvases are just arrangements of stripes in pastel colours; they’re “closer to home decor than anything else”.

“However analytical you might try to be”, Riley’s works keep doing things to you on a physical level, said Adrian Searle in The Guardian. She is asking us to consider the way we see things, inviting us to look closer and really scrutinise the dazzling patterns in her art. “The longer you look, the more they reveal and the more they seem to change.” One recent wall drawing, for instance, seems to change colour as you approach, first appearing dun-hued, then developing a “silvery penumbra” when you draw closer. Elsewhere, two separate paintings entitled “Late Morning” – one from 1967, the other from 1978 – both make you register “bulges and falterings where none exist”. Although Riley’s art is very familiar by now, this is “an invigorating and magical ensemble”. She “turns concentration into reverie and leaves me agape, wide open and surprised. I can’t stop looking.”

Turner Contemporary, Margate. Until 4 May

Hitting the panto headlines this year was former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s cameo role as the Wizard of Oz-lington in a mash-up of “Wicked” and “The Wizard of Oz” at a north London theatre, which also featured Sir Ian McKellen as Toto the Dog. But there are plenty of other pantos to catch up and down the UK, bringing laughs and dazzling performances until the festive season is “behind you”!

Mama Goose, Theatre Royal Stratford East, London

In 2025, we may be familiar with the sight of “Elon Musk as a pantomime villain”, but in what is perhaps a world-first, you have the pleasure of seeing a “panto villain as Elon Musk” at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, said The Guardian. “Mama Goose” takes wacky to the next level, and is chock-a-block with “afrobeat-tinged music”, an “AI love interest”, and “satirical sideswipes”. With “stellar performances” and a cast “clearly having a ball”, this is a “panto to cherish”.

Theatre Royal Stratford East, until 3 January

Jack and the Beanstalk, Bristol Hippodrome

“Live music, vibrant costumes, stunning sets and breathtaking special effects” sum up this fun take on the iconic panto show, said Radio Times. Will Young makes his panto debut as the magical Spirit of the Beans for this “unforgettable adventure”. Expect a lot of farce and silliness, with plenty of audience participation. It’s perfect for young children, and those under 18 months can sit on your lap for free.

Bristol Hippodrome, until 4 January

Cinderella: A Fairytale, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

Sally Cookson’s “celebrated adaptation” is guaranteed to “delight the whole family”, said Edinburgh News. Her modern take on the panto classic (still with the resplendent Queen’s Ball!) combines music and puppetry, promising a festive production that “adds a magical flutter of wings to happily ever after”.

Royal Lyceum Theatre, until 3 January

Robin Hood, Manchester Opera House

This Northern panto is steeped in tradition, with “all the bells and whistles” of a festive performance, said The Telegraph. Local hero and stand-up star Jason Manford joins the production for the fourth year in a row, this time starring as Robin Hood, following previous performances in “Cinderella”, “Jack and the Beanstalk”, and “Peter Pan”. At his side is comedian, impressionist and “Britain’s Got Talent” finalist Ben Nickless as one of his Merry Men. Strap in for a rollicking ride, full of laughter, slapstick and “surely the odd local Oasis gag”.

Manchester Opera House, until 4 January

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, Kent

“Miranda” and “Horrible Histories” favourite Sarah Hadland stars as the “dastardly” Wicked Queen in the classic panto tale, said Paul Vale in The Stage. Off the back of the “Strictly Come Dancing” final in 2024, you can expect some “wicked choreography” from her and all the cast. The Canterbury venue, which has had “regular wins at the UK Pantomime Awards”, promises “powerhouse vocals” and heaps of fun. Undoubtedly, this annual show is the “jewel” in their “crown”.

Marlowe Theatre, until 11 January

Sleeping Beauty, London Palladium

The Palladium panto is celebrating its tenth anniversary, “which is remarkable” as it “feels like London’s biggest festive show has been around forever”, said Time Out. The cast is dripping with talent, including audience-favourite Julian Clary, whose “every utterance is a virtuosically smutty innuendo that blessedly sails over the heads of primary-schoolers”. He plays King Julian, and is supported by comedy great Catherine Tate, as Carabosse the Wicked Fairy. Panto hall-of-famers Paul Zerdin and Nigel Havers complete the frontline cast: with that formula, it’s hard to see how it can be anything other than another “blockbuster” show.

London Palladium, until 11 January

From daring contemporary collections to the long-awaited definitive edition from one of the major poets of the 20th century, this is our pick of the best poetry books of the year. Whether you’re a budding poet or you’re looking for the perfect gift for the bookworm in your life, these are the releases worth reading from cover to cover.

The Book of Jonah, by Luke Kennard

Luke Kennard “daringly” remixes his “source material and inspirations” in his latest collection, said The Guardian. The acclaimed British poet moves Jonah, the “minor prophet out of the Bible into a world of arts conferences, where he is continually reminded that his presence everywhere is mostly futile”. Each section of the collection starts with a “lecture where this Jonah tries to justify his action, or lack thereof”, said The Telegraph. Poems that initially appear lengthy and opaque are “made welcoming with an irresistible energy”. At times, it feels like you’re being “regaled by a tipsy professor of theology in a pub, whose riffing gets wilder and wilder until they fall off their stool”. Filled with poems that will leave you “both smiling and wincing”, it’s a “brilliant” collection.

The Poems of Seamus Heaney

It’s been 12 years since Seamus Heaney died and the “project to produce a definitive collection of his poetry is complete”, said the Financial Times. The main draw is the “substantial amount of previously uncollected and unpublished work” which has been pulled together in chronological order. This will no doubt “sharpen our curiosity” about why these words by the great Irish poet were originally left out. “A treat for Heaney completists.”

Southernmost: Sonnets, by Leo Boix

“The sonnet sequence may seem as unlikely a 21st-century cultural force as the altarpiece triptych or the harpsichord concerto,” said The Telegraph. “But it’s alive and sparkling”. Argentinian-British poet Leo Boix’s second collection comprises 100 sonnets covering everything from “religion and upbringing” to “love and sexuality”. His latest book is “unflinching in its attention to Argentine history”; Boix includes “lively anecdotes” about his family, alongside a “reckoning with the long shadow of colonialism”. And his poems about his relationship with his husband, Pablo, are both “beautiful” and “unsentimental”, charting the “rhythms and negotiations of a real partnership”.

Chaotic Good, by Isabelle Baafi

This “playful and sharp” examination of escaping a toxic marriage is a must-read, said The Guardian. Delving into the erosion of identity and how we manage to find ourselves again, Isabelle Baafi’s collection is filled with poems that “absolutely know their power and revel in it”. Shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and winner of the Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection, it’s a piercing debut that will stay with you long after the final page.

The Empire of Forgetting, by John Burnside

The late John Burnside “conveyed an infectious love of the world”, which is “heightened” in his posthumous collection, said the Financial Times. “His laser-sharp eye for the beauty of nature, strands of memory both personal and literary, and an undeniable sense of an ending, together take on a spiritual dimension.” This is a moving, personal collection which confronts mortality, drawing on Burnside’s own health issues and brushes with death.

Lode, by Gillian Allnutt

“Gillian Allnutt may be the best living British poet you’ve never heard of,” said The Telegraph. Her work “dwells in the overlooked and the austere”, often examining her family connections and the lives of women throughout history. Her tenth collection opens with a reflection on her visit to Buckingham Palace, where she was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2016. Later, she “revisits the death of her mother’s brother”, an RAF navigator who was shot down in 1943, ending the poem with the line “‘You’d have liked him,’ she said to me / often. I think I would have done.” This is Allnutt at her best: “plain speech made devastating”.

When you make a purchase using links on our site, The Week may earn a commission. All reviews are written independently by our editorial team.

Stuck on what to get for that special person? Do they always say, “Don’t get me anything,” or do you think they already have everything? Fear not. This gift guide is built for even the hardest person to shop for.

For the homebody: Bearaby Pillow Boots

These super-soft boots are made from actual pillows, so every step feel like walking on air. They cushion and cradle the feet and are the “perfect” accessory to don when “lounging at home,” said Sunset. Colors include neutral Moonstone Grey, rich Hollyberry and Sweet Lavender, a pretty pastel. ($149, Bearaby)

For the entertainer: Boarderie Happy Holidays large cheese and charcuterie board

With its 15 artisan cheese, four meats and 19 accompaniments, like dried mango slices, candied butter pecans and cranberry cinnamon crackers, this board looks — and tastes — impressive. The “downright stunning” platter arrives fully assembled, said Taste of Home, and it takes less than 10 minutes to go from “plastic-wrapped to ready-to-serve.” It is enough to comfortably feed 10 people, and when the cheese and meats are gone the recipient will be left with a beautiful acacia serving board to use at future parties. ($249, Boarderie)

For the dog parent: Canelo & Co. custom pajamas

Sweet dreams start with these soft pajama bottoms, featuring images of their precious pup. Choose a cute pattern, like the woodsy Toile de Jouy or Gift & Bones, upload a few photos of their dog, then wait for the personalized PJs to arrive. Take this present to an even higher level by ordering the coordinating wrapping paper, also personalized with their pet’s face. ($60, Canelo & Co)

For the creative: Caran d’Ache custom pen

Design a pen that’s as one-of-a-kind as they are. With the customized Caran d’Ache + Me 849 ballpoint pen, you get to choose the colors and finishes of the body, clip, button and cartridge, plus add a custom message with emojis to the side of the pen and packaging. Caran d’Ache is known for using high-quality materials and creating instruments that are lightweight and write smoothly. (starting at $70, Caran d’Ache)

For the always-on-the-go person: Even Keel Days customized body care set

Self-care is important, and should be part of everyone’s routine. By putting together a custom set of Even Keel Days body care items for your loved one, it helps them slow down and focus on their well-being. Select an essential oil candle, biodegradable clay soap bar and two aromatherapy bath fizzy scents, and Even Keel Days will put it all together in a lovely package. All products are handcrafted in Brooklyn out of clean, sustainable ingredients and smell amazing. ($49, Even Keel Days)

For the warm-weather seeker: Glasshouse Fragrances Mocktail Meditation candle

This calming candle turns a cold, dreary winter day into a summery moment. Glasshouse Fragrances is known for offering intense, “unique and enchanting scents,” said Who What Wear (a sister publication of The Week), and Mocktail Meditation is a dreamy blend of salted cucamelon and starfruit. While the scent evokes beach memories, the candle’s adorable glass jar features frolicking monkeys, sloths and flowers. ($60, Glasshouse Fragrances)

For the art appreciator: Green Wolf Lighting handblown table light

Illuminate their life and add to their art collection at the same time. Green Wolf Lighting’s sculptural cordless lamps are made of glass handblown in Murano, Italy, then crafted in London. The result is a beautiful, rechargeable light that blends traditional glassblowing with contemporary style. This lamp, featuring a graceful cloud, is part of a limited edition series in collaboration with jewelry designer Solange Azagury Partridge, numbered to 1,000. ($865, Green Wolf Lighting)

For the flower enthusiast: Lasting Brilliance forever roses

Bouquets are beautiful, but fleeting. Lasting Brilliance arrangements are preserved in a non-toxic way so that the roses last for three years without water. They keep their shape and vibrant color and look striking when placed on a vanity, coffee table or desk. Choose your size (starting at 16 roses), color (the deep red and baby pink are top choices) and box type. ($149, Lasting Brilliance)

For the jewelry lover: Nadri Blue Lagoon bracelet

This delicate bracelet makes a statement without being over the top. Its glistening blue stones pop against the 18k-gold-plated links, and the adjustable clasp ensures a secure fit on the wrist. They could save it for special occasions, but this elegant piece also adds a touch of glamour to everyday wear. ($90, Nadri)

For the cook: Rubirosa pasta sampler and marinara sauce gift set

The classic popcorn tin gets an Italian makeover. This sampler from New York City’s Rubirosa Pizza & Ristorante includes packages of handmade lumache, casarecce and trottole pastas and three jars of marinara sauce. It’s perfect for “anyone who dreams in carbs,” said Oprah Daily, and they can follow Rubirosa’s recipes or create their own. ($88, Rubirosa)

For the puzzler: Sunday Club Holiday Gift Bundle

If their favorite thing to do on the weekend is finish the crossword puzzle, Sunday Club will be right up their alley. There are no headlines in this newspaper, just games, including sudoku, search & find, pictogram, word searches and, of course, a regular and mini crossword. Purchase an annual subscription or Holiday Gift Bundle, which comes with Sunday Club’s first three issues, postcards with original art, a pencil and sticker set, plus three more issues sent in January, February and March 2026. ($50, Sunday Club)

It’s the year’s last dying breath, which means holiday rush, travel stress, last-minute gift purchases, and award-worthy films. Two of the latter are appropriately inspired by the turmoil of real events: one, a historical fiction based on Shakespeare’s life, and the other, a fast-paced sports dramedy inspired by the career of an American table tennis player. And another offers a fantastical respite from reality with James Cameron’s return to the lush jungles of Pandora.

‘Hamnet’

No, this title isn’t a clever misspelling. The real William Shakespeare had a son named Hamnet, whose death at the age of 11 inspired the playwright’s masterpiece “Hamlet.” This film, directed by Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”), was adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 historical fiction novel of the same name and focuses on parental grief over the loss of a child and the transformation of tragedy into art.

It plays like a “more somber and realistic version of ‘Shakespeare in Love,’” said Justin Chang at NPR. “Call it ‘Shakespeare in Grief.’ The chief focus isn’t really Shakespeare at all, though he is sensitively played by Paul Mescal.” The “heart of the movie” is actually Agnes (also known as Anne Hathaway), Shakespeare’s wife, brought to life by the “extraordinary Jessie Buckley.” (in theaters now)

‘The Secret Agent’

Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent” is largely set in 1977 during his home country’s military dictatorship. Wagner Moura stars as Marcelo, a research scientist who plans to flee with his young son.

“Movies about resisting tyranny rarely inspire mirth,” said Manohla Dargis at The New York Times. But this one “embraces a freewheeling sensibility and finds laughter amid the terror.” It steers mostly “clear of the corridors of political power and instead takes place in the sun and on the ground, where people live in the here and the now.” Life under dictatorship is both brutal and bloody, but there is “also love, song, the hot sun, cold beer and, of course, carnival.” (in theaters now)

‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’

James Cameron’s third entry in the “Avatar” film series isn’t out yet, but it was already nominated for a Golden Globe in the category of cinematic and box office achievement. Although its theatrical release is imminent, the sequel’s projected box office performance is impressive: The original “Avatar” (2009) remains the highest-grossing film of all time, and the 2022 sequel is the third highest-grossing.

“Avatar: Fire and Ash” promises a return to the jungle planet of Pandora and will introduce the “Ash” people, or fire-themed Na’vi clan, who are more aggressive than the oceanic Metkayina clan that took center stage in “Avatar: The Way of Water.” (in theaters Dec. 19)

‘Breakdown: 1975’

1975 was a great year for movies: “Jaws,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Taxi Driver,” “Barry Lyndon.” The list goes on. In a new documentary essay film, Academy Award-winning director Morgan Neville (“Won’t You Be My Neighbor”) has gathered a list of talking head experts, including Martin Scorsese and Ellen Burstyn, to “track how the culture of the mid-’70s led to some of our best films,” said IndieWire. “As America faced social and political upheaval, filmmakers turned chaos into art,” the film’s logline adds. (Dec. 19 on Netflix)

‘Marty Supreme’

Director Josh Safdie is best known as one-half of a pair. He and younger brother Benny (aka the Safdie brothers) directed the much-lauded crime thrillers “Good Time” (2017) and “Uncut Gems” (2019). But last year, the two announced their decision to pursue solo careers.

“Marty Supreme,” Josh’s first film since the split, stars Timothée Chalamet as Marty Mauser, a character “loosely inspired by Marty ‘The Needle’ Reisman, a real-life U.S. table tennis champ from the 1950s” with an affinity for “betting, hustling and showmanship stunts,” said Peter Bradshaw at The Guardian. The resulting flick is, much like the brothers’ last two projects, a “farcical race against time,” a “marathon sprint of gonzo calamities and uproar,” and a “sociopath-screwball nightmare.” (in theaters Dec. 25)

Not everything can be taken at face value during the era of generative artificial intelligence. With AI video apps becoming more sophisticated, the internet is overflowing with hyper-realistic AI videos that can be indistinguishable from reality. Luckily, there are a few ways you can determine whether what you are looking at is real or an extremely convincing fake.

Check for watermarks

One of the easiest ways to spot AI-generated videos is by watermarks. Videos made with Sora, OpenAI’s video generator, include an “easy-to-spot watermark, usually at the bottom left,” said PC Mag. Unfortunately, not all AI video apps include watermarks, and there are multiple ways to remove them, including cropping them out of the videos. In that case, it is crucial to look closer. Some removal tools are “nearly perfect or imperceptible, especially if the video is very simple,” Jeremy Carrasco, the founder of Showtools.ai, said to Axios. Look for the “spongy block” where the watermark was removed.

Listen for garbled speech

There are “telltale signs” of how the “voices and sounds in an AI video can often reveal its synthetic origin,” said HuffPost. The natural rhythm of real speech means some words are said slower than others, but AI voices “often sound unnaturally rushed all the time.”

As people work out ways to spot AI-generated content, the em dash has become synonymous with ChatGPT-generated text. When asked about the equivalent in video, Bill Peebles, the head of Sora, said it was “this slightly wired speech pattern in Sora where it likes to say a lot of words quickly,” during an interview with video streaming show TBPN.

Because AI-generated speech has yet to master natural-sounding speaking rhythms, the voices generated by the apps often make “garbled sounds that appear to flatten out natural sound pitches,” said HuffPost. Human beings would never “produce that same kind of garbled quality, because, literally, we can’t,” Melissa Baese-Berk, a linguistics professor at the University of Chicago, said to the outlet. Our vocal track cannot “go from one sound to another” without some “blurring of the information between those two sounds.”

Check the metadata

It may seem tedious, but checking a video’s metadata will reveal its origins, and it is “easier to do than you think,” said CNET. Metadata is automatically attributed to content when it is created and can include the “type of camera used to take a photo, the location, date and time a video was captured, and the filename.” Every photo and video online has metadata, “no matter whether it was human- or AI-created.” Many AI-generated videos will also have “content credentials that denote its AI origins.”

Consider the content’s plausibility and source

One of the easiest ways to detect AI slop is to ask whether what you are seeing is even possible, Princeton University computer science professor Zhuang Liu said to Rolling Stone. If it is “not plausible in the real world, then it’s obviously AI-generated,” For example, a “horse on the moon or a chair made of avocado.” The impossibility means “these are obviously AI-generated,” he said. “That’s the easiest case.”

Next, check the source where you found the image. This does not “necessarily work for viral content,” especially since “they often come from previously unknown accounts,” but “seeing a video on a meme page could be a clue it’s not real,” said Rolling Stone.

Remain vigilant

Unfortunately, there is “no one foolproof method to accurately tell from a single glance if a video is real or AI,” CNET said. The best way to “prevent yourself from being duped” is to “not automatically, unquestioningly believe everything you see online.” Trust your gut instinct. If an item “feels unreal, it probably is.” In these “unprecedented, AI-slop-filled times,” your best bet is to “inspect the videos you’re watching more closely.”

Just because it’s December doesn’t mean you are required to watch holiday-themed television. Some of this month’s new releases are distinctly non-traditional, zagging where you expect them to zig. They include the second season of a dystopian video game adaptation, a behind-the-scenes look at history’s most profitable concert tour, and a hot love story between two hockey players.

‘Heated Rivalry’

It’s officially cold season, but if you’re craving content that will steam things up in a hurry, look no further than the aptly titled “Heated Rivalry.” Created by director Jacob Tierney for the Canadian streaming service Crave (but premiering on HBO Max), the series follows two male hockey rivals who are secretly hooking up off the ice.

“The story begins in 2008, before mainstream acceptance of queer relationships, and speeds through the years,” said Cat Zhang at The Cut. “Every so often, a match brings the nemeses to the same city, where they face off in the rink then disappear to a hotel room for kinky illicit sex.” (on HBO Max now)

‘Man vs. Baby’

British comic Rowan Atkinson, the man best known for playing the illustrious Mr. Bean, stars in this festive follow-up to 2022’s “Man vs. Bee.” The four-part show again tails Trevor Bingley, a character who has “left the stressful world of housesitting for the quieter life of a school caretaker,” said a plot synopsis.

The problem: “On the last day of term, when no one comes to collect the Baby Jesus from the school nativity, Trevor finds himself with another undersized and very unexpected companion.” Tune in for cozy sweaters, London lit up at Christmastime and Atkinson’s desperate attempts to wrangle a baby. (In the trailer, he pops a wine bottle cork in the tot’s mouth in place of a pacifier.) (Dec. 11 on Netflix)

‘Taylor Swift: The End Of An Era’

Taylor Swift’s “Eras” concert tour, which ran for an exhausting one year and nine months, broke all kinds of records and earned the distinction of being the highest-grossing tour of all time. Now the pop star is rewarding her fervid fans with a peek behind the curtain of her life as a showgirl: a six-episode docuseries that delves behind the scenes, showcasing everything from tour planning to rehearsals to Swift’s budding relationship with NFL player (and now fiancé) Travis Kelce. Alongside the series, Swift is releasing a separate film of her final “Eras” tour concert in Vancouver. (Dec. 12 on Disney+)

‘Fallout’

In its witty first season, Amazon’s “Fallout” transported viewers to a nuclear wasteland where survivors lived in underground bunkers. The series, “one of the most faithful — and best — video game adaptations,” said Ash Parrish at The Verge, is “ploughing further into its postapocalyptic mythology” in the second season, said Ben Travis at Empire. The show’s three central characters — “Ella Purnell’s Vault dweller Lucy, Aaron Moten’s mech-suited Maximus and Walton Goggins’ irradiated Ghoul” — are teaming up for a trip into “Sin City 2.0,” or New Vegas as it is now known, where Lucy will search for her father, Hank. (Dec. 17 on Prime)

‘The Copenhagen Test’

This stylish but secretive sci-fi thriller created by Thomas Brandon and blockbuster horror titan James Wan (“The Conjuring,” “Insidious”) promises a “sleek collision of psychological paranoia and high-tech espionage,” said The Playlist. “The Copenhagen Test” follows Alexander Hale (Simu Liu), an intelligence operative “who discovers his brain has been hacked, giving unseen operatives access to everything he sees and hears. Trapped between the intelligence agency he serves and the digital ghosts tracking his every move, Hale must perform his loyalty to both sides until he can expose who’s pulling the strings — before his thoughts stop being his own.” (Dec. 27 on Peacock)

The author of the global hit “Eat, Pray, Love” picks books about women overcoming difficulty. Her memoir, “All the Way to the River”, explores her relationship with a friend and lover who died in 2018.

The Summer Book

Tove Jansson, 1972

In this slim, magical novel, a wild young girl and her equally wild grandmother spend the summer on a remote Finnish island, using adventure and creativity to heal from loss. Never has childhood girl power been more eloquently expressed. I call this my favourite book nobody has ever read.

The Awakened Woman

Dr Tererai Trent, 2017

There is no easy pathway from rural African poverty, illiteracy and early marriage to a doctoral degree in America – but in this memoir, Trent shows how she created that path for herself, with relentless drive and the guidance of her ancestors. This is the heroic journey of a woman I admire more than anyone else I’ve met.

Matrix

Lauren Groff, 2021

Plenty of women in history have been sent to convents as punishment, but in Groff’s brilliant, muscular novel, the 12th century mystical poet Marie de France takes that banishment and turns it into might, becoming a leader who transforms her convent into a world of creativity, prosperity and autonomy for all women.

How to Say Babylon

Safiya Sinclair, 2023

Raised in the crushing patriarchy of contemporary Jamaica, Sinclair fought back against the limitations of her father and Rastafarian culture to become a magnificent poet, traveller and author. She wrote her way out of poverty and oppression, and the result, this gorgeous memoir, is pure fire.

Harley Loco

Rayya Elias, 2013

My new book tells the story of my friendship and love with Rayya Elias, but in this memoir, she tells her own harrowing story of immigration, alienation, drug addiction, music and recovery. Raw and unflinching, her voice continues to shine long after her death.

Titles in print are available from The Week Bookshop

Although they were born within little more than a year of each other, it’s difficult to think of two artists more “profoundly and incontrovertibly” different than J.M.W. Turner and John Constable, said Alastair Sooke in The Telegraph. The former was “a barber’s son who never lost his Cockney twang”; the latter came from a “genteel” Suffolk mill-owning family. Turner specialised in epic seascapes and Alpine vistas, always aspiring towards the sublime; Constable favoured the “down-to-earth”, painting rural scenes “invigorated with a novel dose of realism”.

Yet for all that separates them, they’re both renowned as our “greatest landscape painters” – and for good reason. Marking the 150th anniversary of their births, this “thrilling” show at Tate Britain brings together around 170 works by both, many of which haven’t been glimpsed on these shores for decades. The result could so easily have been “dutiful and boring”; instead, it’s a truly “absorbing” experience.

It’s an “epic confrontation”, agreed Mark Hudson in The Independent. Turner and Constable’s works are juxtaposed in a way that demands direct comparison – as often happened in their lifetime. Initially at least, Turner has the edge: his “Crossing the Brook” (1815) is a “magnificently atmospheric view” of the Tamar Valley that makes the latter’s “doggedly local” “Dedham Vale” (1828) look rather parochial. Turner’s dramatic seascapes – “Buttermere Lake” (c.1798), “Morning amongst the Coniston Fells” (c.1798) and “Fishermen at Sea” (1796) – place him in the same league as any of the European romantic artists. The locations are British, yet they still encapsulate all that is “awesome and terrifying in nature”. These would suggest that Turner’s was the “larger vision”.

Other juxtapositions, though, lead you to the opposite conclusion. “Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows”, “a great visionary evocation of England”, makes Turner’s “Caligula’s Palace and Bridge” – also from 1831 – look like a mere exercise in “special effects”. Either way, “you’ll want to make your own mind up. Because you absolutely must see this exhibition.”

Turner’s fixation on the “sublime” can look like a “predilection for drama and vaporous emptiness”, said Adrian Searle in The Guardian. Constable, meanwhile, “is always specific, grounded, even when he is just staring at the clouds or into the impenetrable dark on a heath, the Moon half seen emerging from behind a bush, in its pale bloom of scattered light”. His paintings are “filled with stuff” – locks, churches, carts, windmills – celebrating the everyday reality of a “now vanished world”. You can “almost smell the river” in his 1826 painting of a man opening a canal lock. His “small and almost casual” studies of clouds moved me more than anything else here. Both artists were brilliant – but I know who “touches me more”.

Tate Britain, London SW1. Until 12 April

When you make a purchase using links on our site, The Week may earn a commission. All reviews are written independently by our editorial team.

The end of the year brings the close of the 2025 publishing season, and there is plenty to look forward to. This December, readers will be gifted a few thought-provoking book releases, including adult royal romance, the biography of a literary giant and a collection of social justice-minded works.

‘The Heir Apparent’ by Rebecca Armitage

Tasmanian journalist Rebecca Armitage’s first novel delivers an adult spin on “The Princess Diaries.” In her “perceptive debut,” the British monarchy “navigates a crisis following the death of two heirs,” said Publishers Weekly. Lexi Villiers, previously the third in line for the crown, is whisked back to England to face her royal responsibilities after the death of her father and twin brother.

Armitage “convincingly renders Lexi’s inner turmoil as she weighs her sense of responsibility with a desire for freedom,” said Publishers Weekly. Her novel is a “standout portrayal of the royals and the tabloid culture surrounding them.” (out now, $29, Hachette Book Group, Amazon)

‘A Danger to the Minds of Young Girls: Margaret C. Anderson, Book Bans and the Fight to Modernize Literature’ by Adam Morgan

From the founder of the Chicago Review comes a comprehensive biography of Margaret C. Anderson, who founded the early 20th-century avant-garde magazine The Little Review in 1914. Initially intended as a monthly literary criticism magazine, the publication published some of the era’s most experimental writers, including Djuna Barnes, T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound.

An obscenity trial for serializing James Joyce’s “Ulysses” is the lens through which Adam Morgan tracks Margaret Anderson’s story. Still, Morgan manages to center Anderson’s “intriguing life story,” including “numerous creative and romantic relationships with women” and her “fascinatingly bizarre involvement with a commune,” said Publishers Weekly. Readers will “savor this enlightening depiction of a little-discussed but influential figure of both modernism and queer history.” (Dec. 9, $29, Simon & Schuster, Amazon)

‘Tailored Realities’ by Brandon Sanderson

A short story collection that both long-time fans and those curious about Brandon Sanderson’s sci-fi and fantasy novels will savor. This collection includes stories set solely outside the Cosmere, the shared universe in which all of Sanderson's adult fantasy books are set. In addition to the previously published stories from his career, there are a few brand new works, including a novella, “Moment Zero.” The book is “both a solid story collection for die-hard fans” and a “sort of retrospective look back on Sanderson's writing journey as a whole,” said Winter is Coming. (Dec. 9, $30, Tor Books, Amazon)

‘The Dark is Descending’ by Chloe C. Peñaranda

Buzz for the conclusion of Chloe C. Peñaranda’s “Nytefall Trilogy” has been building in BookTok circles, and the book has finally arrived with a deluxe edition featuring “celestial stenciled edges and gorgeous case art,” said Fan Bolt. The book wraps up the story of Star Maiden Astraea, who is racing against time to break the curse imprisoning her lover, Nyte. “Dragons, gods and the fate of the mortal world hang in the balance,” and fans of “star-crossed lovers facing impossible odds will find plenty of tension here.” (out now, $27, Macmillan Publishers, Amazon)

‘We Will Rise Again: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance and Hope’ by Malka Older (Editor)

An anthology inspired by the 2015 compendium “Octavia’s Brood,” in which Walidah Imarisha and Adrienne Maree Brown “examined the links between SFF short stories and movements for social change,” this new collection features both authors along with other essayists and writers, said Literary Hub. The “thought-provoking and inspiring collection” is “highly recommended for readers looking for visions that represent hope and change,” as well as “anyone who loves the work of Octavia Butler,” said Library Journal. (out now, $20, Simon & Schuster, Amazon)

Paddington has travelled a long way since Michael Bond created him in 1958, said Sarah Crompton on What’s on Stage. After the vast success of the three films, it was perhaps inevitable that a musical would be next. What wasn’t inevitable is that Tom Fletcher (music and lyrics) and Jessica Swale (book) would “fashion a show so emotionally and tonally perfect that the entire audience is enraptured from the moment the bear steps on stage – and keeps cooing and oohing, laughing and sobbing, until the very end”. State-of-the-art animatronics, a stunning set, fabulous performances and witty songs about marmalade – all combine in a show that will “fill you with joy and melt your heart”, said Arifa Akbar in The Guardian. “Paddington” is the “new ‘Mary Poppins’: a well-known story imaginatively staged, immaculately performed and utterly winning”.

The bear himself, designed by Tahra Zafar, is “a triumph”, said Sarah Hemming in the Financial Times. “Endearing but not too cute, he has the slightly lived-in look of every favourite soft toy”, and is brilliantly brought to life by the “wonderfully nimble” Arti Shah, who wears the bear suit onstage – and James Hameed, who speaks and sings from offstage, while remotely controlling his facial movements. The result is a bear who is “astonishingly expressive”, said David Benedict in Variety. Other highlights of this “completely beguiling” show include Luke Sheppard’s direction; Victoria Hamilton-Barritt’s high-camp turn as the “arch-villainess” taxidermist Millicent Clyde; and Amy Booth-Steel, who wrings “every conceivable laugh” from a string of minor parts.

I’ll admit to some “rumbling reservations”, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. It’s a little “overstuffed with songs”, and not as witty as the films. But the stronger second half convinced me that this “funny, feel-good, family-friendly musical” will “run and run”. Today’s West End is rammed with “ill-considered riffs on big-name franchises”, said Alice Saville in The Independent. But with “Paddington”, we’re finally getting a show “made with serious heart, dedication, and enough spectacular special effects to thrill its audiences”.

Savoy Theatre, London WC2. Until 25 October

Rian Johnson’s detective series “Knives Out” is one of “the most likeable cinematic developments of recent years”, said Patrick Cremona in Radio Times. This “excellent” third instalment sees Daniel Craig return as the brilliant Southern super-sleuth Benoit Blanc, tasked this time with cracking an “impossible crime” that has left local police baffled.

“Weirder”, “darker” and altogether more “unsettling” than its predecessors, it’s arguably the best one yet.

The action unfolds around a small Catholic church in upstate New York, where the “intimidating”, charismatic Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin) has developed a cultish following. His younger, more principled assistant priest, Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) can’t hide his distaste; and when Wicks is found knifed to death just seconds after delivering a “fire-and-brimstone” sermon, Duplenticy emerges as the main suspect. Blanc must discover not just who committed the murder, but how they were able to commit it.

“Under the cosy crime trappings, the default mood is riotous dark comedy,” said Danny Leigh in the Financial Times. The political satire is hard to miss, and at times the tone seems a little off: the gags and cartoonish details sit oddly with a serious subplot about faith, in which Craig cedes centre stage to O’Connor.

But the “delicacy and deftness” of O’Connor’s performance gives it “unexpected spiritual depth”, said Robbie Collin in The Telegraph. And he’s supported by “a juicy crew of Cluedo archetypes”, from Andrew Scott’s sci-fi novelist to Glenn Close’s scene-stealing sacristan. Johnson is a great “whodunitician”, and his “watertight” storytelling pays homage to everything from Agatha Christie to “Scooby Doo”. “Wake Up Dead Man” is “typically arch and witty” – and it’s a lot of fun.

It has taken nine years for Disney to follow up its animated blockbuster “Zootropolis”, said Helen O’Hara in Empire. Set in a metropolis populated exclusively by anthropomorphic animals, that film saw earnest rabbit cop Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) team up with sly fox con artist Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) to expose city-wide skullduggery.

This sequel has the same characters and the same rich detail as the original, but its story is all over the place: it “smacks less of fox-like cunning and more of rabbit in the headlights”.

In “Zootropolis 2”, the city is still “a multi-species paradise”; but we learn that reptiles have been banished from its limits for a century. When Hopps and Wilde – now recruited as a policeman – discover that one has infiltrated the metropolis, they set out to investigate.

Although the film is uneven, “the chases, sleuthing and action are all delightful”, and the city is well worth a return trip: “there are inspired visual gags in every other frame”.

What starts as “a standard buddy cop movie” becomes increasingly complicated, said Brandon Yu in The New York Times. On the hunt for a runaway snake named Gary (Ke Huy Quan), who has pickpocketed an aristocratic lynx, the pair start to unearth “an elaborate conspiracy” to do with “discriminatory city planning” and “fear-mongering toward minorities”. Together, they tumble “through an ark-load of action set pieces”, each one beautifully and expansively realised.

“It’s ambitious until it’s too much”: children will struggle to follow the plot, let alone the complex social allegories. It’s “a tad unsubtle”, said Ed Potton in The Times, but the tone remains “breezy” throughout. “Exuberantly animated and deliciously voiced”, it’s a “perky and amusing” movie.

Since his death, aged 44, in 1894, Robert Louis Stevenson has had a “distinctly mixed” literary reputation, said Andrew Motion in The New Statesman.

To many modernists, and especially the Bloomsbury Group, his adventure-filled novels – among them “Treasure Island”, “Kidnapped” and “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” – “looked old hat”. Like Kipling, he has sometimes seemed to be “on the wrong side of history”, and has been dismissed as a mere children’s writer. Yet he hasn’t lacked for heavyweight admirers – Jorge Luis Borges, Vladimir Nabokov, Hilary Mantel – and has remained popular with general readers.

In his “sensible, sympathetic and thorough” biography, the American scholar Leo Damrosch chronicles Stevenson’s “fascinating” life and offers “wise” judgements about his work. “Stevenson was a wonderful man and at his best a great writer”: this “valuable book” captures those qualities.

Born in Edinburgh in 1850, “Stevenson was not supposed to be a writer”, said Meghan Cox Gurdon in The Wall Street Journal. His grandfather and father were civil engineers, responsible for many of Scotland’s earliest lighthouses, and they expected him to enter the family business.

But the “sickly” young man – who was plagued all his life by “bad lungs” – was drawn instead to a bohemian milieu. A “stupendous conversationalist”, who wore “velvet jackets and flamboyant sashes”, Stevenson fitted in easily: he befriended writers such as Edmund Gosse and Henry James (as well as the one-legged poet and editor William Ernest Henley, who helped inspire Long John Silver) and began publishing essays and travel articles. “Much to the grief of his Presbyterian parents”, he also declared himself an atheist.

In 1876, while in France, Stevenson “fell completely” for Fanny Osbourne, an American 10 years his senior with an estranged husband back in California, said David Mills in The Sunday Times. He followed her to America (though the journey “nearly killed him”) and they married in 1880. They settled in Bournemouth, but later moved to America, and “ultimately on to Samoa where, in 1894, Stevenson died of a stroke”.

Although Stevenson is a riveting subject, Damrosch’s ignorance of Britain leads to some errors – as when he claims that “Cockfield in Sussex” lies “40 miles east of Cambridge”. But this is, overall, a “generous and capacious account”, marked by “satisfying touches of offhand laconic wit”, said Margaret Drabble in the TLS. As such, it’s a “fitting tribute” to a “master storyteller”.