The best new books for its anniversary
Early on Tuesday June 6 1944, an armada crossed the English Channel to deposit an army consisting almost entirely of Britons, Americans and Canadians on five beaches on the Normandy …
Culture Editor's Choice
Basil Fawlty would be bewildered by England today – and so am I
When I was growing up in the 1950s in Weston-super-Mare, England was largely a middle-class society. The values of the middle class were dictated from above and would work their …
How Disney+’s adaptation of CJ Sansom’s Shardlake is bringing the Tudors to life
Filming took place in Hungary, Austria and Romania. For the monastery, they used an amalgam of the gothic-style Hunedoara Castle, in Transylvania, and Kreuzenstein Castle, a medieval palace outside Vienna. …
A Very Private School by Charles Spencer, review: a horrifying tale
Charles Spencer’s A Very Private School begins with a dedication, “For Buzz”, and a quote from Hilary Mantel: “I am writing in order to take charge of my childhood.” It …
Stacey Solomon’s Crafty Christmas, BBC One, review: infectiously cheerful
Television natural, X Factor survivor and truth-teller on the otherwise wretched Loose Women, Stacey Solomon has found a fruitful outlet for her public-spirited effervescence in BBC One’s Sort Your Life …
Jamie’s Christmas Shortcuts, Channel 4, review: Oliver’s tried-and-tested tips
Hang on a minute. I’ve always thought “clementine” rhymed with “Valentine” but here is Jamie Oliver in Jamie’s Christmas Shortcuts (Channel 4) saying “clemen-teen” to rhyme with “seventeen”. Have I …
superb, heart-rending documentary humanises the assisted dying debate
A Time to Die, ITV1’s superb documentary film, began by noting that over 425 million people around the world now have the right to some form of medically assisted suicide. In …
‘I feel like I’m impersonating a chicken’
My everlasting memory of last Saturday will be the sight of my dance partner, Kai, wearing lederhosen made out of green floral curtain material – his knees peeking out between …