Private eye: Detectives in the movies
Photo: Rex Features This week’s best arts and culture reads, including sleuths in cinema, Jonathan Franzen v Oprah and an interview with America’s poet laureate, Charles Simic. Sanskrit and historical sense Aatish Taseer | Open | 13 August 2013 Indian writer educated in English learns Sanskrit. “In India, where history had heaped confusion upon confusion, […]
Watch industry’s glamour show opens amid sales recovery
Stefan Schmidlin Last year’s Baselworld attracted 135,000 visitors and 4,400 journalists We may live in increasingly digital times, but there is still a part of the globe where analogue rules. Welcome to Baselworld, the biggest watch and jewellery show on the planet. For the next six days, almost 800 exhibitors will be displaying their latest […]
Anne Frank and the cult of the diary
(Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy) From Samuel Pepys to Bridget Jones, the private journal combines the mundane with the confessional. Lucy Scholes reveals why the diary still fascinates readers. It’s a story so well-known it doesn’t need much elaboration. On 6 July 1942, just a month after Anne Frank received the diary that’s since become […]
Co-leader Sian Berry quits over transgender rights row
PA Media Green Party co-leader Sian Berry has announced she will stand down this autumn, blaming “inconsistency” among party figures over transgender rights. Ms Berry, who backs the party’s policy of “self-determination of gender”, said others had sent “mixed messages”. She joins Jonathan Bartley in choosing not to run again for co-leader. The Green Party […]
Huawei sees trouble ahead despite revenue rise
Getty Images Chinese telecoms firm Huawei saw a sharp jump in revenue in the first half of the year but warned of “difficulties ahead”. The US blacklisted the firm in May, restricting its ability to trade with US companies. Company revenue jumped 23% in the first half of the year versus a year ago, while […]
Clara Bow: The original ‘It Girl’
(Corbis) The 1920s actress became a new kind of down-to-earth Hollywood idol. Her film It established a female archetype that’s still with us, Nicholas Barber reports. What is an It Girl? According to the dictionary installed on a MacBook Pro, she is “a young woman who achieves celebrity because of her socialite lifestyle”. And it’s […]
Labour staff ‘gagged’ over sexual harassment claims
BBC Laura Murray described the alleged harassment as the “last straw” in an unsupportive work environment Two former Labour staff were asked to sign confidentiality agreements after making complaints of sexual harassment about a senior official. Documents show the women had reported the party official for “inappropriate” and “possessive” behaviour. It has emerged as the […]
Tory mayoral hopeful denies groping TV producer Daisy Goodwin
BBC Daniel Korski says he is still in the race to become the Tory mayoral candidate for London Ms Goodwin says Mr Korski sexually assaulted her in 2013 by putting his hand on her breast during a meeting at 10 Downing Street. Speaking to Talk TV, he said: “All I can say is that she […]
How humour became the new self-help
(NBC) The funny female memoir provides an alternative guide to womanhood that’s proving a popular alternative to the self-help book. Hephzibah Anderson investigates. “Fighting aging is like the War on Drugs. It’s expensive, does more harm than good, and has been proven to never end,” quips Amy Poehler in her forthcoming book, Yes Please. Billed […]
‘I was fair and I was honest’ as first minister
Carwyn Jones said he had “never shied away from difficult decisions or tried to conceal them in any way” as first minister Carwyn Jones has said he wants to be remembered as being a “fair and honest” first minister after almost a decade at the helm of Welsh politics. Mr Jones, 51, will step down […]