Highlights
Art
Who needs Madonna when we’ve got Tracey Emin?
The Queen of Pop has been spotted in Margate – but residents should be more excited about what the British artist is doing for our town
The very strange genius of Stanley Spencer
The painter brought Jesus to Berkshire, found sensuality in Wangford and planned a church based on his own life
How Van Gogh got yellow fever
A new exhibition explores why the colour inspires artists to create some of their greatest work
The shots and the shadows
The Netherlands’ massive new photographic museum showcases art and celebs – but it’s the images of occupation and hunger that won’t let you look away
The enduring influence of Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin: A Second Life establishes beyond doubt her significance in British artistic history
The Outsiders Arts Club
Do you secretly know very little about art? Are you interested in good stuff that doesn’t need a mortgage to buy it? Then this is the place for you
Books
Nawal El Saadawi, the rebel doctor who wrote the truth on prison toilet roll
With her distinctive bold colours, grey curls and bright scarves, Saadawi became a feminist icon. Margaret Atwood called her ‘one of the great radical voices of our time’
How Germany turned a bookshop prize into a culture war
Culture minister Wolfram Weimer has cancelled grants for three left-leaning stores
A Pale View of Hills is an exquisite ghost story with a twist
A haunting literary adaptation is laced with grief and guilt
John Lanchester on sex, death and revenge in Notting Hill
The author’s delicious dark comedy Look What You Made Me Do is a welcome return to form
Why New Labour was the last good government
Tarnished by Iraq and Mandelson – but two new books show they made millions of lives better
Outraged and outplayed: how we lost the Brexit wars
Morgan Jones’s new book unpicks the chaos of the campaign for a second referendum
Music
Why few dare speak the name of Mozart’s son
Franz Xaver Mozart is known as ‘FX’ – because English speakers are baffled by his middle name
Who needs Madonna when we’ve got Tracey Emin?
The Queen of Pop has been spotted in Margate – but residents should be more excited about what the British artist is doing for our town
AI actress Tilly is pointless and silly
Tilly Norwood, a much-derided AI-generated actress, is back as a singer. Real musicians don’t have much to worry about yet
Can folk music fend off the far right?
Traditional English music is booming again, but extremists are trying to jump on the bandwagon
In defence of U2
Their new EP shows the band can be hackneyed and tokenistic. But they’re on the right side.
Can a rapper save Nepal?
A royal massacre, a deadly quake and student protests have left a country in crisis
Film
Corpses, spacelabs and gravy: The utter disaster of Nicole Kidman’s Scarpetta
Patricia Cornwell’s stories about a medical examiner spent decades in development hell. Now they’ve delivered actual hell
A night when the Oscars almost mattered
Winners like Jessie Buckley, One Battle After Another and Sinners were predictable – but the fighting spirit of cinema offered a bit of hope
A Pale View of Hills is an exquisite ghost story with a twist
A haunting literary adaptation is laced with grief and guilt
Why is every big movie now so excessive and exhausting?
The Bride, Wuthering Heights, even One Battle After Another prioritise mayhem over coherence
Quentin Tarantino is back… sigh
The foul-mouthed vinyl-botherer is leaving cinema behind to bring a “swashbuckling comedy” to London’s West End
We’re addicted to apocalypse porn
The Walking Dead, 28 Days Later, Fallout… zombies, nuclear wastelands and ruined cities dominate our screens
Theatre
Quentin Tarantino is back… sigh
The foul-mouthed vinyl-botherer is leaving cinema behind to bring a “swashbuckling comedy” to London’s West End
“Bitches in stitches”
If you don’t think that a comedy club is a place to find talented actors up on stage then sorry but you’re a snob
Review: Hugh Bonneville gets back to basics
A new show in the west end examines the life of CS Lewis. But are most of the crowd simply there to see the Downton Abbey star in the flesh?
The brilliant afterlife of Tom Stoppard
The Old Vic’s elegant new production of Arcadia understands the power of the late playwright’s words
The Sopranos’ Michael Imperioli: ‘The guys in the mob are fans of Trump’
The actor talks gangsters from New Jersey to Washington DC – and why he feels ‘sick’ about the state of his country
In praise of stupid comedy
Oh, Mary!, the surprise West End hit about Mrs Abraham Lincoln, is a triumph of childish, profane pointlessness
Great Lives
Nawal El Saadawi, the rebel doctor who wrote the truth on prison toilet roll
With her distinctive bold colours, grey curls and bright scarves, Saadawi became a feminist icon. Margaret Atwood called her ‘one of the great radical voices of our time’
Lucie Aubrac, the pregnant spy who outwitted the Gestapo
Her remarkable wartime exploits – including a dramatic prison break – made her a legend of the French Resistance
Lou Ottens,the inventor who set music free
His invention of the cassette tape revolutionised the way people listened to music – but he never patented it.
21st June 1926 – 6th March 2021
Shane Warne, the drift, the turn, the legend
Flawed, flamboyant and freakishly gifted, Warne turned leg-spin into high art – and made every ball an event
Charles M Schulz, the cartoonist of melancholy
How the creator of Peanuts created humour from loneliness and sadness
Asma Jahangir, the woman who would not be silenced
Her confrontation with Pakistan’s military rulers was rooted in a lifetime of activism that began in childhood and never wavered