Highlights
Art
‘Someone opened the door and we were in hell’: This is what it’s like to be caught in a wildfire
A photographer who survived Greece’s deadliest blaze has turned her trauma into testimony against neglect and cover-ups
The tiny dolls with souls at the heart of a museum repatriation debate
Made from shells in northern Australia and taken to Manchester, they’re now on show in Venice
David Wojnarowicz, the angry ghost on the White House lawn
A new exhibition celebrates the artist and activist forged by New York and Aids
Arnaldo Pomodoro built for eternity. Then history happened
His giant bronze sculptures were designed to endure – but in some cases, fate had other ideas
The bitter beauty of Paula Rego
The artist was hired to design a series of wine labels – and delivered dark visions of alcoholism
The National Gallery’s wrong-headed Gauguin warning label
Great art should be able to exist without modern moral judgment
Books
Peter Beard’s wild life
He was a playboy who rubbed shoulders with Warhol and Jagger – and a photographer who captured big beasts driven to the brink
Why did Britain forget how to build railways?
We used to love high-speed trains – before cowardice and waste took over
This is why women are obsessed with stories about women being murdered
It’s not the crimes themselves – it’s a way to confront the possibility that it could happen to us
What Philip Larkin taught Andy Burnham
The ‘laureate of ordinary people’ has informed the new PM’s concern for the ignored
Dave Eggers makes the case for optimism in a post-Trump world
The restless author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is back with a new novel – and he still believes in America and the power of writing
Jah Wobble on Lydon, Farage and why punk couldn’t happen now
The bass legend believes music is becoming a middle-class hobby
Music
The night Fela Kuti turned music into a weapon
The bandleader was drifting on a long US tour until he met an activist who redefined his purpose
Jah Wobble on Lydon, Farage and why punk couldn’t happen now
The bass legend believes music is becoming a middle-class hobby
Phyo Zeya Thaw, the MC who faced down Myanmar’s generals
The rapper turned politician gave young people a voice – so the military had to silence him
Why philosophers can’t explain the power of music
The Proms is a reminder that the stirring quality of organised sound defies all reason
Why Britain still doesn’t know how to treat George Michael
Biographer Sathnam Sanghera on our unresolved problems with the late singer
What happens when a rapper becomes a shit-posting prime minister?
The problem for the hip outsider is that, if you suddenly become the most powerful person in the country, your old ways don’t look the same any more
Film
Elon Musk’s The Odyssey: The Grok Imagine version is here, and it’s terrible
The far right trillionaire reckons his AI can do better than Christopher Nolan. It can’t
The unshakeable confidence of Julian Schnabel
The painter-turned-director’s In the Hand of Dante has divided critics. Luckily, he thinks it’s a masterpiece
My top ten hates about online journalism, ranked
Rants, spoilers, lazy lists like this one – the internet has wrecked film writing and infected other parts of the trade, too
Welcome to Hollywood’s new age of feminine nostalgia
Sequels for The Devil Wears Prada, Practical Magic, The Princess Diaries and Romy & Michele show the industry waking up to the idea that women go to films too
Four new films that show us the trouble with happy families
Unwanted guests, bossy mums and women on the edge make Fruit Gathering, The Guest, Olivia and A Happy Family worth your money
Have you got ‘Odyssey Derangement Syndrome’?
Christopher Nolan’s masterwork is a smash hit. It has also driven plenty of people mad
Theatre
Sandra Oh kills it in a West End show of rare power
A modern update of Molière’s The Misanthrope sees the Killing Eve star battling conformity and cancellation
Gary Oldman’s Beckett masterclass
The Slow Horses star follows Gambon and Hurt in Krapp’s Last Tape – and outshines them both
Was Andy Kaufman the most creative comedian of all time?
The Taxi star revelled in creating chaos and confusion
What if Thatcher had been assassinated?
A stage adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s book about an killer and the Tory PM questions both violent rhetoric and violence itself
Has Jacob Rees-Mogg really been banned from ‘woke’ theatres?
The former cabinet minster moans theatres won’t stage his one-man show because they’re woke. Might it be because they’d struggle to sell tickets?
The chaotic magic of Rebecca Lucy Taylor
The singer also known as Self Esteem is phenomenal as she follows revival in a revival of David Hare’s Teeth ’n’ Smiles
Great Lives
The night Fela Kuti turned music into a weapon
The bandleader was drifting on a long US tour until he met an activist who redefined his purpose
Phyo Zeya Thaw, the MC who faced down Myanmar’s generals
The rapper turned politician gave young people a voice – so the military had to silence him
Kevin Keegan was my babysitter
The former Liverpool hero and England manager, who has died, is remembered by The New World’s editor-in-chief
Inside the notebooks that built Bruce Lee
The martial arts star wrote down his philosophies and hopes as a means of enacting them
Sam Neill found a different way to be famous
He appeared in some of the biggest TV and movies of our time, but being a Kiwi, he became a quiet kind of megastar
The night New York discovered Frida Kahlo
How a small Manhattan exhibition in 1938 helped launch one of the most celebrated artists of the modern age