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As a writer of modern literature, he himself is a modern classic. Since the 2001 release of Atonement, Ian McEwan’s international blockbuster, each new novel by the British author has gone on to become a bestseller. His latest work, Lessons, is being touted as his most comprehensive book to date. The autobiographically tinged novel tells of love, art, loss and reconciliation – against the backdrop of the crises that have kept the world in suspense over the past 60 years. Reader’s Digest met Ian McEwan in Munich, Germany. READER’S DIGEST: In your new novel, Lessons, you mixed autobiography and fiction for the first time. Why? IAN MCEWAN: For many years, I made up all my stories and novels. They sprang entirely from my imagination. In my mid-70s, it made much more sense to…

STAY: PARIS FRENCH TWIST Bubbe meets Madame du Barry at Le Grand Mazarin, opening June 15 in Paris’s Marais neighborhood. Designed by ELLE DECOR A-List ace Martin Brudnizki, the hotel nods to its setting in the historic Jewish quarter with its restaurant Boubalé—”my little darling” in Yiddish—while guest rooms feature such Versailles-like touches as custom tapestries. “It’s an homage to the sumptuous residences of the aristocratic era,” says Brudnizki. —Ingrid Abramovitch legrandmazarin.com EAT: SANTA MONICA COASTAL COOL Local landmark hotel the Georgian originally opened its Art Deco doors in 1933, housing the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Marilyn Monroe. The hotel was purchased in 2020 by Jon Blanchard and Nicolo Rusconi of BLVD Hospitality, the developers behind Ace Hotel DTLA. They brought on U.K.-based firm Fettle, responsible for London’s Marylebone Hotel and the Rome outpost…

KATIE ASKS… My 40th birthday is coming up, and I told my husband that my dream would be a tropical vacation with my sister, brother-in-law, and 3-year-old niece. He invited them and even offered to book a big house at no cost to them. They promptly declined without an explanation. I’m trying not to feel rejected and sad, but the truth is, it hurts. Should I bring it up to her or sweep it under the rug? Lawdy, lawdy, look who’s 40! Congratulations on your birthday and having enough money in the bank to make a trip happen! I’m going to be honest here: I have 4-year-old twins, and traveling with them is like all the seasons of The Amazing Race but with no prize at the end. I’m sure your family…

Brussels EU sues: The EU has launched legal action against the Anglo-Swedish firm AstraZeneca (AZ). Last August, AZ agreed to supply 300 million doses of its vaccine to the bloc by June. Owing to production problems, however, it had only delivered 30 million by the end of March – and may only have delivered 100 million by June. AZ says the case is “without merit”, and that it will defend itself in court (see page 41). Separately, the EC president Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc was poised to sign a deal for 1.8 billion doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab, for delivery by 2023. Brussels is hoping to have vaccinated 70% of adults by July. Paris A “civil war”: Twenty retired French generals have caused an uproar by warning that the country…

Barrisdale Bay can only be reached on foot or by sea. That’s possibly why it’s one of the most stunning beaches anywhere. A sandy bay of crushed oyster shells, backed by high mountains, opens out to the blueness of Loch Hourn beyond. We seem to have left the Torridonian sandstone behind and moved into quartz-strewn hillsides reflecting blue light back from sky and water. The tide is right out when we sit on a flat boulder. We’ve been on this trail for over three weeks, but it feels like days. We’re slipping into trail life, that other place where the boundaries of time begin to fade. We abandon our idea to walk the many miles inland to Sourlies Bothy, giving ourselves a chance of getting to Fort William before the…

Unlike the sort of elemental storm meteorologists can prepare us for, menopause arrived like an unforecast tsunami. Previously, life may not have always been a smooth ride but (if I can prolong the metaphor), although I may have driven erratically, at times, I had always maintained control of the wheel. Suddenly I was all at sea. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t think, I was awake in the small hours with a thumping heartbeat worrying about everything from what book to read next to the rising ocean levels. And that was way before my body began its slow betrayal. Physically, I was suddenly engaged in a war that I could never win. As the hormones that, fewer than four-decades previously, had kick-started my fertility began their lengthy decline, they seemed to…

IS IT TIME TO PUT THE BRAKES on the development of artificial intelligence (AI)? If you’ve quietly asked yourself that question, you’re not alone. In late March, a host of AI luminaries signed an open letter calling for a six-month pause on the development of more powerful models than GPT-4; European researchers called for tighter AI regulations; and long-time AI researcher and critic Eliezer Yudkowsky demanded a complete shutdown of AI development in the pages of TIME magazine. Meanwhile, the industry shows no sign of slowing down. In March, a senior AI executive at Microsoft reportedly spoke of “very, very high” pressure from chief executive Satya Nadella to get GPT-4 and other new models to the public “at a very high speed”. I worked at Google until 2020, when I left to study…

Part of the fun—and also part of the challenge—of being a quilter is seeing a quilt pattern you love and customizing it for your space. We may be attracted to a pattern for a variety of reasons: We love the block or setting, we love the colors or fabrics, or maybe it’s part of a quilt-along and we just want to join the fun! While we may occasionally want to make a quilt exactly as it’s shown in the pattern and at the exact same size, we frequently have a desire to switch things up to fit our specific needs and likes. Here are some simple ways you can make a pattern your own. SWAP COLORS Sometimes it’s impossible to match the exact fabrics when making a quilt pattern, either because the…

THE FASHION CAPITALS OF THE WORLD ARE WELL-KNOWN, WITH THE seasonal calendar revolving around New York, Paris, London and Milan. But every year, as if by magic, some mysterious pull draws the fashion crowd en masse to another ‘it’ destination: in 2018 it was Puglia, in 2019 it was Greece, 2020 and 2021 are best skipped swiftly over… and this year, it’s Ibiza. Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Paris Hilton have been die-hard regulars since the early Noughties, but as the Balearic isle began to whiff of heaving tourism, commercial nightclubs and non-stop ‘oontz-oontz’ music, the chic crowd stayed well away. One global health crisis and two largely locked-down years later, however, and Ibiza is firmly back on the fash pack’s map – and they’re ready to embrace its unique carefree…

MATERIALS FINISHED QUILT: 68½×88½" FINISHED BLOCKS: 4" square Yardages and cutting instructions are based on 42" of usable fabric width. To plan this quilt in a different colorway, use the Coloring Diagram on Pattern Sheet 2. ☐ 8 yards total assorted light prints and medium prints (A blocks, binding) ☐ 1 yard total assorted navy prints (B, C, D, and F blocks) ☐ ¾ yard total assorted bright pink prints and medium purple prints (B and D blocks) ☐ ¾ yard total assorted dark purple prints (B and F blocks) ☐ ⅞ yard total assorted black prints (C, D, and F blocks) ☐ ¾ yard total assorted bright blue prints (C and E blocks) ☐ ⅔ yard total assorted medium green prints (C blocks) ☐ ⅞ yard total assorted dark green prints (D blocks) ☐ ¾ yard total assorted red prints and red-orange…

Andy Reid is a speed-flying instructor with fifteen years’ service in the army, three of which were with special forces, two tours of Afghanistan and between 800 and 1,000 jumps as a skydive instructor. So, when he says “You’ll be fine,” as you slide headlong towards a sudden drop, hoping your speed wing inflates correctly, you should be able to believe him. But, what if you’re a fourteen-year-old student taking your first top-to-bottom flight? You’ve completed all the training up to this point and now comes the real test. For Phoebe-Mae Reid, the fourteen-year-old, soon-to-be BHPA qualified speed wing pilot from Brecon, Wales, that trust comes a little easier because the instructor is also your dad. Andy and Phoebe share a similar “go for it” attitude in their approach to the…

How we’ve been radicalised by the experts Josh Glancy The Times One curious aspect of this pandemic, says Josh Glancy, has been the rise of wild conspiracy theories. And not just among QAnon types or anti-vaxxers. An increasing number of my once liberal, sober-minded friends share similar beliefs – that the mainstream media is suppressing the truth about vaccine side effects; that the virus is a Chinese bio-weapon. What’s got into them? Doubtless social media is partly to blame for spreading crank theories, but there’s another factor fuelling this radicalism: the arrogance of the health experts who’ve held sway during the crisis. Consider all the blood-curdling warnings issued before the unlocking of England last month. Dr Mike Ryan of the WHO damned it as an act of “moral emptiness”; Professor Neil Ferguson said…

Barry Humphries 1934-2023 During an appearance on Desert Island Discs in 2009, Barry Humphries declared that he would be happy if his obituaries made no mention of Dame Edna Everage, the monstrous Melbourne housewife he had created half-a-century earlier. Some hope, said The Times. True, Dame Edna wasn’t his only alter ego: there was also Sir Les Patterson, the boorish Australian cultural attaché, with his filthy suits, nicotine-stained dentures and much discussed “trouser snake”, and the terminally dreary Sandy Stone. Nor were these satirical creations Humphries’ only achievements. He was also an accomplished writer and artist, and a bibliophile who counted John Betjeman among his friends. But the housewife superstar from Moonee Ponds – with her lilac bouffant hair, rhinestone cat-eye spectacles, outrageous frocks and “hello possums” greeting – had grown…

The neglect of Easter To The Observer Barbara Ellen contrasts the widespread popularity of Christmas with the lack of public impact of Easter. There are two reasons for this. Christmas was originally a midwinter festival of pagan revelry which was baptised into Christianity in the fourth century. In a secularised Britain, it happily reverts to its previous role of feasting and fun. Easter, on the other hand, proclaims a story that is so shocking and unsettling it cannot easily be placarded in public. That is why the early Church tried to shield this mystery from public view with its disciplina arcani. What happened on Good Friday and Easter Day is so threatening to how we think of ourselves, that the only way we can cope with it is to tame it into chocolate…

When you think of boarding school traditions, what comes to mind? Senior pranks, secret societies, and formal dinners, perhaps, but for students at Miss Porter’s School, in Farmington, Connecticut, there’s more than just ceremony, there’s evolution. In 1992, when I was a 16-year-old sophomore at the school, I protested alone against police brutality after the Rodney King incident. My demonstration attracted a crowd of peers and was featured on the front page of the Hartford Courant, but even as a teenager I did not feel quelled. Today student pushback is the norm; not only do high schoolers have more awareness in their worldviews, they’re unafraid to express their perspectives about their communities. From walkouts to student-created Instagram pages calling out concerns about being “Black at…” various top-tier schools, race and other…

When I was growing up, my Pakistani family never particularly celebrated Christmas. After I married, I thought it fairer to spend the holidays with my husband’s English family instead, for whom Christmas appeared more traditional. And so, we fell into a routine; Christmas week with my in-laws, then stopping at my mother’s for New Year. After our children were born, we pretended it wasn’t that hard to make the six-hour round trip to my in-laws’ rural cottage with a newborn and a toddler. We were bone-weary, but everyone expected us. Though it was always a joy to see them, the broken nights were more difficult away from home and it was harder to console our small children. By the time we reached my mother’s house, our sons were usually overtired and…

What does strength mean to you? Being ballsy? Taking no prisoners? Manning up? Success, at any cost? Probably not, because that aggressive and ruthless version of power now feels incredibly outdated. As well as being antiquated, it’s also pretty counterintutive to most of us as women, because it doesn’t play to our strengths, which also happen to be our superpowers. Being sensitive, vulnerable and emotional used to be viewed as weaknesses, but increasingly they’re being seen as the secret to resilience and, in turn, success. ‘Nowadays, more and more of us are willing to admit our vulnerabilities,’ says Anita Moorjani, author of the recently released Sensitive Is The New Strong, a game-changing manifesto for embracing the power of sensitivity. ‘We’re being more open about our mental health, more open about our…

the bliss factor The restful feel of a coastal palette doesn’t develop from the colors alone. Designer Jamie Krywicki Wilson used a blend of textures in tactile materials to evoke the beach’s calming hues—tawny sands, gray-white clouds, and Prussian blue waters—and to include more of the senses. The result is tranquility you can see, touch, and sink into. home should foster relaxation. Interior designer Jamie Krywicki Wilson says that for her family, the prompts come strongly from sand and surf. “I think the beach is probably the only place my husband and I actually feel relaxed,” she says. “It’s important for your home to make you feel that way.” Although her own home—a 1973 ranch house near Atlanta—is more than four hours’ drive from the Atlantic Ocean, the designer found her muse…

Not all of designer Nicole Yee’s clients are thrilled about a five-page questionnaire that asks them to measure all their small appliances and favorite olive oil bottle, but Danielle Hayes wholeheartedly embraced the process for the redesign of her 1927 Tudor in Oakland. As the head of operations at Blisshaus, a sustainable kitchen organizing business, Danielle knows how important it is to sweat the details. She and Yee renovated the home, including planning the kitchen down to the inch. “You don’t want to have to stick the rice cooker in the hall closet at the end of a renovation because it doesn’t fit,” Yee says. TUCK UNDER Nicole Yee designed the island with recesses on three sides to make room for five stools, one for each family member. “It’s nice because everybody…

THE SECRET TO FASTER-THAN-LIGHT physics could be to double down on the number of dimensions, according to research published last December in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity. Specifically, the solution may lie in three dimensions of time, with just one representing space. The key concept at play is the “superluminal observer,” a hypothetical thing that is looking at the universe while traveling faster than light. It’s you in your Star Trek warp-speed shuttle. Superluminal observers marry together two very different sides of physics: general relativity and quantum mechanics. General relativity is the work proposed by Albert Einstein; it governs how spacetime functions as bodies move around the universe at subluminal, or slower-than-light, speeds. Quantum mechanics explains how subatomic particles behave, or don’t behave, in very strange ways on the smallest of…

WHEN YOUR MOTHER ENTERS HER ninth decade, you make a point of being a little extra vigilant for any signs of decline – memory loss, bouts of repetition, a general acceleration of age-related deterioration. Thankfully, my mother has been blessed with good health, and her mental faculties seem to have remained largely intact. But when she got tattooed after turning 80 two years ago, I had to wonder. To celebrate Mum’s landmark birthday, we were planning a large party – but then, of course, everything had to be cancelled because of COV-ID-19. After all, her entire social circle is high risk, composed as it is of septuagenarian and octogenarian friends from her book (wine) club, her garden (wine) club, and her church. Instead, we arranged an outdoor family lunch at a nearby…

Bakhmut, Ukraine Wagner threat: The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, furiously accused Moscow’s Ministry of Defence last week of starving his forces of the ammunition needed to fully capture the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. In a gruesome video, he stood before rows of dead Wagner fighters, blaming their deaths on Russia’s top brass and threatening to pull out of the city. But this week Prigozhin wavered, saying that as the defence ministry had promised him the arms and assigned Gen Sergei Surovikin (the only Russian general who “knows how to fight”, he says) to work alongside him, his troops would likely now stay. Moscow has also stepped up drone attacks and air strikes on cities across Ukraine: unverified reports suggest that in its latest assault on Bakhmut, it has…

‘I can’t describe how grateful I am to Emily. It seems trite to try’ Siân, 54, works for British Red Cross, and is married to Ian, 58, a TV film editor. They live in west London with Molly and Trilby. I don’t recall the moment when I discovered I was pregnant. After five years of struggling to conceive, it was just another marker in a long series of highs and lows. I couldn’t let myself celebrate early. The moment I do remember, however, was just more than a year earlier and the feeling of euphoria when I discovered my friend Emily was serious about donating her eggs to me. When I met Ian, my now husband, I was 39. We were already trying for a family when we married two years later, not…

IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT AT Flipper’s Roller Boogie Palace in west London, and the rink is rocking. House music blares as a platoon of glamorously athletic twentysomethings – among them Lady Mary Charteris, Kesewa Aboah and the actress and model Zenobia Voegele-Downing – swirl, a parade of wheels, a circle of legs skating in unison. (Stare too long and you’ll get dizzy.) It’s fun and it’s hot right now, just as it was at the Camden Palais in 1977 or at the Embassy Club in Bond Street in 1978, where satin-shorted waiters skated hither and thither as loud disco music throbbed and le tout Londres misbehaved. Yes, the ’70s are back – along with the decade’s nostalgic trappings, skates included. Blame it on King Charles III, whose official coronation dish is the…

When Akio Toyoda took the reins as president of Toyota Motor Corporation in 2009, the company was not in a good place. Yes, it led global auto production with 7.2 million units, ahead of GM’s 6.5 mil. But Toyota, reeling from the global recession, had just reported its first financial loss in decades and was deep in the throes of its unintended-acceleration controversy, which would result in a $1.2 billion fine in the U.S. Then things got worse. In 2011, the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami devastated the east coast of Japan, destroying or damaging three of Toyota’s factories and knocking many suppliers offline. Touring the devastation soon after, Toyoda said it “totally dwarfed” every other challenge he’d yet faced. Toyota’s production stumbled that year, with the company falling to number…

KATY YOUNG: GOING FOR A CLASSIC I’VE WORN FOUNDATION EVERY DAY SINCE I WAS 16. THAT’S over 6,500 applications of the good, the bad and the ugly – and, let’s face it, the unnecessary, until I hit my thirties. It’s only since turning 40 – now that I really have exhaustion to hide, wrinkles to erase and luminosity to fake – that I have come to appreciate the true powers of foundation. But what better time than 2022? My favourite ranges are now in the business of mimicking real skin; using textures so fine and pigment particles so spherical that they encourage the light to refract off our faces to make it look like it’s our own inner glow (I won’t tell if you don’t). Some of the best in show (by…

looking good Dahlias With their bright colours lighting up the late-summer garden, dahlias are deservedly back in fashion. Buy potted dahlias now in full bloom, or look for packaged tubers in the shops during late winter and spring. Dahlias with single flowers are wonderful for attracting bees to their pollen-filled centres and, because the simple flowers aren’t too weighty, most won’t need staking. Pick blooms for indoors and the plants will go on producing flowers well into autumn. It’s time to... • Trim summer-blooming shrubs after their flowers have faded • Dig out and break up congested clumps of daffodils and jonquils before their bulbs start making new growth, then re-plant • Fertilise rose bushes with an organic-based rose food to promote a great autumn display • Pick up and bin diseased leaves from fungus-infected plants • Clip…

UPGRADE YOUR SHADE A palapa-style raffia umbrella whispers, “Chillax.” To make it totally tropical, slip the pole into a hollow stem of bamboo (available at garden centers) before staking out a spot. This rattan lounger is resort-worthy, too: It lets you recline while dangling your feet in the water (or stretching them out on the grass), then folds up flat. For sources, see opposite page. SERVE IN STYLE A rattan tray inspired by woven goods from the Philippines offers a hydration station, and then some: Just fill a seagrass-wrapped carafe with citrusy water and set out nibbles to keep your crew satiated between dips in the pool. Acrylic tumblers and (compostable) bamboo plates let you clink and snack safely. RAISE SOME CANES Nothing sounds nicer to us than swimming over to this pop-up pool cabana,…

Babies Ticket to Paradise actress Billie Lourd and her husband, actor Austen Rydell, both 30, welcomed their second child, daughter Jackson Joanne, on Dec. 12. The two are also parents to son Kingston Fisher, 2. • Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Diana Jenkins, 49, is expecting a baby with her musician fiancé, Asher Monroe, 34. “Diana and Asher are filled with joy,” a source told People. “What a wonderful time of year to get news like this!” The pair also share daughter Eliyanah, 2, and Jenkins is mom to son Innis, 22, and daughter Eneya, 19, with ex-husband Roger Jenkins, 67. • Pod Save America cohost Tommy Vietor, 42, and his wife, Hanna, 32, a client strategy manager, welcomed daughter Lisette Louise on Dec. 6, nearly one year after a…

THE BUSY SEASON ON St. Simons Island, Georgia, typically runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day. But 2020’s tourist boom lasted well into November. A short detour off I-95, about halfway between Savannah and Jacksonville, St. Simons Island is known for golf and saltwater-based leisure pursuits. On one clear and breezy late-fall afternoon, people seeking a reprieve from their couches cruised the palm-tree-lined high street on foot or bikes; others sat on benches licking soft serve while staring at the fishing trawlers and cargo ships in the distance. The lower the sun dipped on the horizon, the more people drifted to the pier in pursuit of the perfect sunset snap. And amid all the smiles and poses, no one seemed to mind the giant shipwreck lurking in the background. If…

Bolton Indian variant cases rise: Surge testing began in parts of Bolton last week, after the town was identified as a hotspot of the so-called Indian variant of coronavirus. With Bolton recording the second-highest infection rate in the country, public health officials also launched a new campaign to encourage people to be vaccinated against Covid-19. There were 89 recorded cases of Covid-19 for every 100,000 people in Bolton for the week ending 3 May, up 78% on the week before, and about four times the rate for the whole of England. Public Health England said that across the country, there were 520 cases of the Indian variant, B16172, which has now been labelled a “variant of concern” – up from 202 the week before. Most were in Bolton and London, and…

At the age of 30, the Duke of Edinburgh was a dynamic naval officer, enjoying what promised to be a long career in the services. Then in July 1951, with King George VI in poor health, he took leave to devote more time to royal duties; six months later, while he and Princess Elizabeth – his wife of five years – were on a tour of Kenya, he was given the news that the king had died of cancer, aged 56. “He looked as if you’d dropped half the world on him,” recalled his equerry, Mike Parker. Both men knew that in that moment, everything had changed. It fell to the Duke to break the news to his wife. The couple were then flown back to London. Elizabeth, 25, emerged…

1800 1800s Knock on wood Early cars (and before that, horse-drawn carts) slow down just as crudely as Dennis the Menace’s soapbox: using a block of wood and a lever. The harder you pull the lever, the quicker you slow down. As steel rims give way to pneumatic tyres, and vehicles get quicker, engineers turn their brains to making cars stop as well as they go. 1899 1899 Drums go solo Gottlieb Daimler is widely credited with much of the early donkey work in developing the drum concept at the turn of the 20th century, but it’s finely moustachioed Parisian Louis Renault (pictured) who refines and patents the idea in 1902. As years roll on, they become self-contained, debris-proof capsules, slowed by spring-loaded shoes pushing against them from within. 1953 1953 Discs win gold British automotive industry colossus…

When Winona Ryder was a kid, she daydreamed about movies—not starring in them, but watching and filming them. Her parents, who are both writers and editors, moved to a commune on the Northern California coast when she was seven, and though there were no TVs, her mother would put up a sheet on the side of a barn to show old movies. “I was in heaven,” Ryder says. After her family moved a few years later to Petaluma, a city in the San Francisco Bay Area, she would try to view the world through the camera’s lens. “There’s this bridge there. It looks so small now,” Ryder says. “But I used to put the strap of my book bag across my forehead. I’d sort of walk and force myself to…

COTONEASTER HORIZONTALIS The wall cotoneaster forms an upright fan when grown against a fence or wall, or a hummock that spreads across the ground and cascades over slopes. Its flowers attract pollinators, and birds love the berries. In winter, the leaves darken and drop, but even stripped of fruit the tracery of its branches remains an attractive feature. It is a listed, invasive non-native species, so is for garden cultivation only. Dispose of prunings responsibly and if you don’t already have it in your garden, try planting Cotoneaster conspicuus or C. amoenus instead. The days may be short and the light levels low, but that doesn’t mean the garden becomes a dull no-go area. Choose the right plants and you will want to venture outside, even if you are not doing much…

In the salon of his 17th-century palazzo in Valletta, designer Francis Sultana commissioned the French artist Daniel Buren to paint the beams in stripes. ‘I wanted the ceilings to have art – as they would have had when the house was built,’ Francis says. The striped fabric on the sofa adds to the effect – Dedar’s cotton satin ‘Tabulariga Grande’ in bianco/nero is similar. francissultana.com | dedar.com ‘I love stripes – they are classic and timeless,’ says Suzy Hoodless. For this London townhouse, she chose bespoke wallpaper from Adam Ellis Studio for the wall of the stairs leading down to the lower-ground floor. ‘The stripes create a sense of expectation and set the tone for a lively scheme.’ suzyhoodless.com | adamellis.com Ottoline de Vries used her own wallpaper design, ‘Composition number 4’,…

FANS OF THE OFFICE MAY BE SHOCKED to hear that it’s been nearly two decades since Mindy Kaling brought Kelly Kapoor—the shamelessly shallow and undeniably hilarious Dunder Mifflin customer service representative—into our lives. As a 24-year-old writer and actor on the show and an Indian American woman, she broke boundaries and established herself as a fresh new voice in American comedy. Since then, she’s used her success and her platform to shepherd female-driven stories by women of color from the page to the screen. In the years after The Office ended, Kaling has produced and starred in six seasons of The Mindy Project, created the Netflix hit Never Have I Ever based on her own teen years in the ’90s, voiced beloved animated characters, and written best-selling collections of autobiographical essays. Time…

I HAD ONE of those childhoods that seems cool to other writers, and surely some librarians and academics. One of the literary luminaries I grew up around was Gore Vidal, the famed cultural critic and political pundit. He was brilliant and acerbic and famous for many things, like running for Congress or debating William F. Buckley on television. Vidal understood the power of the medium better than most, and one quote of his still rings in my ears: “There are two things you never turn down: sex and appearing on television.” While I do, in fact, turn down the chance to have sex, perhaps because I’m married and boring, television is another story. Oh, CNN needs me to talk about Elon Musk on Christmas Day? No problem. MSNBC wants me to…

“IS THERE A DOCTOR ON BOARD?” No doctor wants to hear these words while flying, but this time I was already primed by the frantic sounds of a female passenger in distress. We were over the North Atlantic, and my husband and I were on our way home after a European holiday. The cabin was darkened for the inflight movies when pleas of “Wake up! Oh, help!” rang out. I was out of my seat, fast. The flight attendant and I arrived together to see a frightened elderly woman clutching the hand of her husband, who wasn’t responding to her. His head was back, mouth open. He may have been asleep, except that he couldn’t be roused. I did a quick examination: irregular but steady pulse, colour good, no evident pain, breathing regularly…

SHERI ASKS… Q We’ve received numerous high school graduation announcements. We don’t know some of the kids very well. How much money should we send? Also, do you give money to college graduates? OK, Sheri! Who are these people sending you high school graduation announcements when you don’t even know their kids that well? Honestly, you will not jeopardize your friendships if you don’t give gifts—especially in this economy, honey! If you feel like you really have to, a $50 bill or gift card is more than enough. There are other ways to be thoughtful, though. Instead of money, perhaps you could give a book you absolutely loved when you were that age. Or a book that might help the kids find direction—something a lot of grads are looking for! And to…

Amsterdam Suspect held: Peter R. de Vries, a high-profile Dutch journalist, remained in a critical condition in hospital after being shot five times on a busy street in central Amsterdam last week. Within hours of the shooting, Delano Geerman, a 21-year-old rapper, had been arrested. A second suspect, a Polish national, is also in custody. De Vries (pictured) came to prominence in the 1980s for his coverage of the abduction of the brewing magnate Freddy Heineken. He is known for investigating organised crime, and there is speculation that his attempted killing may be linked to his involvement in a high-profile gangland drug and murder case, known as the Marengo trial. Paris Covid surge: President Macron has announced plans to make coronavirus vaccinations compulsory for all health and care-home workers. France will also make…

1937 WALLIS SIMPSON & THE DUKE OF WINDSOR Château de Candé There were only 16 guests – and none from the groom’s side – at the Loire Valley ceremony. Being twice-divorced, the bride chose a signature shade of ‘Wallis blue’ for her simple silk crepe gown by the American designer Mainbocher, and paired the dress with a straw halo hat in a similar hue. 1945 BETTE DAVIS & WILLIAM GRANT SHERRY California In keeping with convention, Bette Davis did not wear white for her third marriage. Instead, the bride went with a plaid suitdress and a veiled hat. Brave for any era. 1995 JEMIMA GOLDSMITH & IMRAN KHAN London Jemima’s one and only marriage to date was to the Pakistani cricketer who would become his country’s 22nd prime minister. The 21-year-old heiress left the University of Bristol to wed her 42-year-old…

at the beginning of 2021, analysts predicted we’d be ending the year with a period of exuberance, glamour and frivolity akin to the last century’s Roaring Twenties. Those post-war years were defined by hedonism, pleasure and a keenness to celebrate life. Youth culture demanded new experiences, and the combination of women’s right to vote, the flourishing Jazz Age and technological advances certainly provided them. It marked the arrival of the independent, liberated flapper girls and the modern cosmetic industry as a new means of self-expression. Whether we’re on the verge of such a moment continues to be debated, but there is certainly optimism to be found in beauty’s current mood. Having pared back our make-up routines for the past year, this season’s collections are bright and bold, inspiring a painterly approach. Driven…

RESCUE & REVAMP Blooming Brilliant Papering over problems isn’t exactly Living photo director Ryan Mesina’s style. But when he spotted a worse-for-wear 1930s mahogany wardrobe on the side of the road, he knew some découpage could disguise its scratches and pockmarks. Our man with a DIY plan pulled his favorite photographs from a 1921 horticultural guidebook, Wildflowers of New York, by Homer D. House; arranged them in a grid over the doors; and adhered them with Mod Podge. The result stores barware, and speaks volumes about Ryan’s love of gardening and unerring eye for upcycling potential. 1. Clean Dab a cleaner/degreaser, such as Spray Nine, onto a sponge and scrub the wood thoroughly to remove dirt and wax. Wipe with a wet rag; let dry. On surfaces that won’t be découpaged, apply a scratch…

Every year at this time, we pull data collected from the PCMag Speed Test and crunch the numbers for download and upload throughput to determine which broadband internet service providers (ISPs) offer the best speed, period—both national and regional. Let’s see what surprises await in 2021. WINNERS: THE FASTEST ISPs IN THE UNITED STATES MAJOR ISPs Fios by Verizon Over the last decade, Verizon’s fiber-to-the-home service has won numerous PCMag Readers’ Choice awards from those who use it. And the results from our PCMag Speed Test demonstrate why Fios has also been one of our top fastest ISPs nine times in the last decade. This year, the only difference is that major cable providers are edging closer to the kind of speed only Fios once seemed capable of on such a massive scale. ALL ISPs Empire…

Debbie Reynolds always took movie nights very seriously. Twice a week, the Academy Award–nominated actress settled in with her kids, Carrie and Todd, for an evening of classic films and popcorn followed by a discussion. The movies they screened ranged from cinema greats like Citizen Kane and Now, Voyager to family favorites, including It’s a Wonderful Life. “We liked happy endings, since we never got to live them,” Todd explains to Closer. Discovered by a studio talent scout as a teenager, Debbie lived every girl’s dream by becoming a star in the 1952 musical Singin’ in the Rain, but her good fortune never followed into her love life. Abandoned by her first husband, betrayed by her second and financially ruined by her third, even Debbie had to admit she got love…

ONE OF THE hardest disciplines in business and in life is tearing down what you’ve built to build something better—and knowing when to do it, especially if everything is going well. At Qualtrics, the company my father, brother, a friend, and I founded in 2002, we’ve reinvented our business multiple times. At first we did it out of necessity. But we soon learned that it’s much easier to change from a position of strength than when your hand is forced by the market or your competition. No major bet or pivot was successful in less than three or four years, so we learned to change when times were good. Still, sometimes you have no choice but to rebuild in the middle of a crisis. Qualtrics started as a single-product survey company…

You’ve all heard the shaggy dog story that George Lucas’ pet hound, Indiana, was the inspiration behind Chewbacca. To quote Han Solo, “It’s true… all of it.” But while the Alaskan malamute did frequently sit in the passenger seat of Lucas’ car, much like the Wookiee co-pilot of the Millennium Falcon, his presence alone does not tell the whole story behind the creation of one of the saga’s most memorable characters. From brief notes in Lucas’ scripts to initial concept sketches, and the subsequent knotting of masses of yak hair, it took the talents of several artists, costumers, and a singular performer to bring the walking carpet to life in the first place. Decades later, yet more artisans brought the character back for Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005), and…

The Sun was still low in the sky on the spring morning last year when Martin Papworth, a National Trust archaeologist, arrived in the Dorset village of Cerne Abbas. Setting off along a wooded path at the foot of Giant Hill, he carried a bucket of excavation tools in each hand. Cerne Abbas is an ancient settlement. At one end of the village, beneath a meadow, lie the foundations of what was, a thousand years ago, a thriving abbey. Close by is a spring-fed well named for St. Augustine, the sixth-century monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. Atop Giant Hill lies an earthwork known as the Trendle, possibly an Iron Age temple or burial mound. The object of Papworth’s interest was another mysterious man-made part of the landscape:…

Jocelyn is a machine. Jocelyn gyrates like a Tilt-A-Whirl and favors spangled outfits that look like they’re held together by dental floss. Underboob, throngs of paparazzi, nightclubs, cocaine, and S&M feature prominently in her lifestyle, at least if the trailer for HBO’s upcoming blockbuster series The Idol is anything to go by. Jocelyn also couldn’t be further from the self-effacing woman I’m speaking to, who (a) apologizes for being a few minutes late to our interview because she’s dealing with a gastrointestinally challenged cat, and (b) goes on to note how important punctuality is to her. Later today, on set, she’ll transform back into the vampish pop star, but right now, at her mom’s place in Los Angeles, Lily-Rose Depp is dressed down in a plain black camisole, her shoulder-length hair…

Long before we met, I thought I knew who Selma Blair was. As a pop culture buff, I’d watched her work, and I believed I could surmise what her life was like through red carpet photos, magazine covers, and movie screens. I came of age, and Blair rose to stardom, in an era before social media, when fans put public figures on a pedestal and projected a grandeur onto their every moment. On a recent Saturday night Blair and I met over Zoom. She was perched in front of a blue wall in her Los Angeles home, wearing a dreamy sequined Molly Goddard dress, with one knee pulled to her chest. I was in a New York hotel room, wearing my best red lip and quickly learning how wrong I…

“There were so FEW THINGS I could CONTROL, so I GRASPED for WHATEVER I COULD.” CRYSTAL HANA KIM, author of IF YOU LEAVE ME In 2020, I was pregnant and living in Brooklyn. As the baby kicked inside me, I worried about having to labor alone, the health of my loved ones, our unraveling world. There were so few things I could control, so I grasped for whatever I could. My skin-care routine was one of those things. I searched for pregnancy-safe products to calm the angry pimples that formed on my chin and forehead. Burt’s Bees Deep Cleansing Cream was the winner. When I rubbed it on, the menthol made my skin tingle. I felt refreshed, comforted. Best of all, it kept my oiliness at bay. I’m still a skin-care enthusiast…

1 GOTHIC TEMPLE Buckinghamshire In the shadows of Scots pines and ancient oaks, the Gothic Temple is one of more than 40 majestic monuments dotted around the grounds of Stowe House. Commissioned by the Viscount Cobham in 1741, this was one of the last architectural additions to the gardens. Constructed in a triangular shape, with a turret and towers at each corner, the interior features a series of circular chambers giving way to a mosaic-painted dome. Restored to its former glory by The Landmark Trust, this spectacular sanctuary (with all mod cons) is now available for a whimsical weekend away. Sleeps four, from £804 for four, from £804 for four nights; landmarktrust.org.uk 2 THE WONDERFUL BARN County Kildare On the edge of the Castletown House Estate in County Kildare, a curious corkscrew-shaped structure spirals…

THE MOST IMPORTANT TAKES OF THE MONTH THERE ARE A FEW THINGS WE CAN expect from every awards season: beautiful celebrities, moderately interesting acceptance speeches, and head-scratching snubs. For every series that gets a nomination, there’s another that deserved it just as much (if not more). And with Emmy nominations approaching, we’re getting ahead of the game and naming a few shows and per-formances that deserve to be on the ballot. Superstore One last chance to recognize the era’s greatest broadcast comedy. NBC’s Superstore leveled up in its final season, tracking Cloud 9’s essential workers through COVID-19 right into the untimely death of brick-and-mortar retail. I challenge you to find any other sitcom with such a deep bench of hilarious supporting characters. The finale brought back America Ferrera for a wonderful farewell—a sharp…