Why the poignant Kes is Britain’s greatest coming-of-age story
Alamy First released in November 1969, Ken Loach’s social-realist tale of a boy who adopts a kestrel still resonates and has become a timeless classic of British cinema. When director Ken Loach and producer Tony Garnett first screened Kes for British film executives in the autumn of 1969, they were confident that they’d created something […]
Capturing the secret animal reality show in your own back garden
Caitlyn Montgomery Growing up in Los Angeles, I mostly ignored nature. “I’m a city person” I’d say to anyone who tried to drag me on a hike. But during lockdown, I noticed finches nesting on my balcony. I hung bird feeders and downloaded an app to ID bird calls, hoping for something to keep me […]
Calne owl sculpture disappears weeks after being installed
Graham Derham The owl sculpture, weighing about 30kg, has disappeared from the stump it was attached to A sculpture of a family of owls has disappeared just four weeks after being installed outside a church. The work, which had been located in a small garden next to Calne Methodist Church in Wiltshire, was created for […]
Promising lung cancer vaccine trial starts in UK
PA Media Janusz Racz, 67, says he is “open to trying new things” A 67-year-old man has become the first person in the UK to try what doctors hope will be a revolutionary new treatment for lung cancer – a vaccine that tells the body how to fight and kill the disease. It uses the […]
Christy Brown book returned to Irish library after 53 years
Westmeath Libraries The book was returned to the library on Thursday – more than 50 years on A book found in a London flat has been returned to an Irish library more than 53 years after it was taken out. The copy of Christy Brown’s Down all the Days, borrowed from the Aidan Heavey Library […]
Why more music fans are tuning in
Alex Williams/Oasish Paul Higginson of Oasish, rocking it large at a fake music festival While music fans struggle to get tickets to the likes of Glastonbury, Reading and the Isle of Wight festivals, many are turning to so-called “fake” versions of these music events featuring tribute acts to get their live fix. Over the past […]
The many reasons why dogs love to roll in poo
Getty Images Sometimes our dogs will roll in something disgusting and there are a number of reasons for why they do this (Credit: Getty Images) Dogs have a baffling obsession with rolling in foul-smelling substances. It may be part of a form of communication we are only just starting to understand. It would happen whenever […]
Councils ‘not obliged’ to provide weekly bin collection
The government is to remove most of those powers from English councils but town halls will be able to issue fixed-penalty notices of between £75 and £100 to people who allow rubbish to pile up, or those who fly-tip. Ms Spelman said the government’s emphasis must be on ideas to enable households and businesses to […]
SZA was ‘scared and freaked out’ at Glastonbury
Getty Images SZA topped the bill on the last night of Glastonbury, earlier this year US singer-songwriter SZA says she was “scared” and “freaked out” during her headline set at Glastonbury festival in June. The star’s performance was beset by technical issues, which left her voice muffled and distorted for at least 30 minutes. She […]
Europe’s flying taxi dreams falter as cash runs short
Volocopter The VoloCity made demonstration flights in Paris over the summer One of the innovations at this year’s Paris Olympics was supposed to be an electric flying taxi service. Germany’s Volocopter promised its electric-powered, two-seater aircraft, the VoloCity, would be ferrying passengers around the city. It never happened. Instead the company ran demonstration flights. While […]