culture
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George RR Martin published the first in his bestselling series A Game of Thrones on this day in 1996. A 20 year old book in 20 questions – can you slay this quiz? Warning: watching the TV show may not help you...
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Clive James loves to read, but nothing beats a box set binge. He salutes his greatest passions
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He has found comedy in everything from knitwear to ready-to-eat apricots. But this son of Kettering’s apparently whimsical humour comes with hidden depths
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news
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The annual Stella Count, looking at the gender breakdown of authors and reviewers, ascribes imbalance to ‘ingrained, unconscious bias’
edinburgh festival 2016
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Liam Brennan gives a tender performance in this funny-sad reworking of the Gogol story, as a lowly Scot buffeted by the forces of globalisation
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We asked fringe star Josie Long to envision the festival of the future
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Done well, it tells fantastical and affecting stories; done badly it descends into syrupy schmaltz. Edinburgh’s mask-theatre companies discuss a delicate craft
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The TEAM and National Theatre of Scotland have joined forces for Anything That Gives Off Light, a whisky-soaked tale exploring the entwined histories of the Highlands and the American frontier
reviews
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In a bravura display, Piper lays bare the soul of a woman who is unable to have children – even if Simon Stone’s update is less powerful than Lorca’s original play
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What the critics thought of The Games: A Global History of the Olympics by David Goldblatt; Heroes of the Frontier by Dave Eggers; An Abbreviated Life by Ariel Leve
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Denmark approaches childhood, and society as a whole, very differently to Britain or the US, argue Jessica Joelle Alexander and Iben Dissing Sandahl
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Christopher Walken plays a ‘cat whisperer’ and Spacey stars in possibly the most spectacularly inept studio offering of the year
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This wildlife doc, with a soulful voiceover by Ewan McGregor, travels across some of the most remote parts of the UK – in all their violence and gorgeousness
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Roland Emmerich’s movie, now on VoD, prioritises one man’s struggles at the expense of historical accuracy
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Humour tempers Rachel Elliott’s sensitive handling of her troubled characters
people
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The actor and presenter on footballing heroes – and villains – Scottish legs and being a metrosexual
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The Man Booker winner on his early self-reproach and panic, his sudden immersion in writing, and catching up with Conrad and Eliot
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A new exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum sets out to separate the artist’s late work from the myths surrounding his ‘madness’. But does a clinical interpretation of his paintings miss the mystery of his vision?
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The former Doctor Who actor is now the pater familias of a family affected by autism on The A Word, and the luckless Rev Matt Jamison on The Leftovers
talking points
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While Tony Blair’s time in office coincided with the emergence of Britpop, Cameron’s cultural legacy will be a generation of Etonians
critics' picks
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From Stranger Things to Louis CK: your at-a-glance guide to the next seven days in culture across the UK
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VISIONS festival | Caught By The River Thames | Martha | BoomTown Fair | Dag Nasty
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| A Midsummer Night’s Dream | Manfred | BBC National Orchestra Of Wales
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Sculpture In The City | Ragnar Kjartansson | Olivia Webb | Painter’s Paintings | Graham Fagen
pictures & video
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How should you act when you come face-to-face with a potential partner? Make sure you’re brutally honest. Isy Suttie and Stephen Wight demonstrate six ways to check your compatibility
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A cast including Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh and Harry Styles head up the ambitious new film from director Christopher Nolan
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It’s time for the Rio Olympics and every day the Favela Brass project, created by Briton Tom Ashe, will play in various marginal neighbourhoods across the city. Photographer Barbara Walton catches up with them during rehearsals
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How Glyndebourne has tackled the Benjamin Britten opera, from Peter Hall’s 1981 production to the latest revival, which will debut on 11 August
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We asked you to share your art on the theme of illuminating. Public Relations and Marketing at the Gallery of Russian Art and Design, Ella Rothenstein, has selected her favourites
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Gazi Nafis Ahmed on capturing the joys and fears of the LGBT community in Bangladesh
Shakespeare Solos
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Joanna Lumley speaks Viola’s soliloquy from Twelfth Night in which, disguised as a page boy, she wonders whether Olivia has fallen in love with her
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David Threlfall speaks Prospero’s speech in which the sorcerer contemplates the end of life – and the playwright, perhaps, considers the end of his career
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Eileen Atkins speaks Emilia’s lines from Othello, act IV scene 3. Emilia, Iago’s wife and Desdemona’s maid, counsels Desdemona on marital fidelity
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Roger Allam performs a speech from the tragedy in which the ageing king curses the weather and his daughters
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Jaques’s speech about the seven ages of man from As You Like It is performed by Zawe Ashton
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Joanna Vanderham performs Juliet’s speech from the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet
lists & playlists
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Disco meets of hip-hop in Baz Luhrmann’s new venture on Netflix while Amazon chronicles the life of three generations of the Short clan
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Quentin Letts questions our national habits while Britpop’s finest get a retrospective tribute
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culture webchats
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Unmade beds, a tent naming everyone she’d slept with, neon references to anal sex... Tracey Emin is one of Britain’s most famous artists and she was with us to answer your questions
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Why is he so self-loathing? How does he style his hair? And what did his grandma think of Grandma’s House? Read the comedian’s answers to your questions now
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The Hollywood star, currently appearing in the play Bakersfield Mist in the West End, joined us live to talk about Ken Russell, King Lear and the joys of playing Chandler Bing's dad
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The author of Neuromancer and new novel The Peripheral answered readers’ questions – from AI to the influence of Blade Runner in our belief in the future to why he didn’t predict cellphones
you may have missed
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The actor best known as Parks and Recreation’s April Ludgate talks about her new film, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates – and the stroke she suffered aged 20
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With the R&B star’s new album finally about to land, we search for clues to its content in the mysterious live stream he posted
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Comedians from Al Murray to Bridget Christie explain why they tore up their planned sets after the Brexit vote
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The shock auteur is back in US cinemas with his second and arguably most extreme film. He shares his thoughts on Trump, Spring Breakers and fake vomit
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The musician talks about the five highlights of his career – from his first ever show opening for Coldplay at Madison Square Garden to working with David Lynch
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The author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun joined us to answer your questions – and opened up about her creative process, female sexuality and early failures
what we're reading
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Matt Damon and the middle-aged action hero
Henry BarnesHow (and how not) to age gracefully as a movie star -
Fences: A Brexit diary
Kate AbbottOne useful consequence of Brexit is to finally and openly reveal a deep fracture in British society that has been thirty years in the making. The gaps between north and south, between the social classes, between Londoners and everyone else, between rich Londoners and poor Londoners, and between white and brown and black are real and need to be confronted by all of us, not only those who voted Leave. -
The last journalists in a dictatorship
Lanre BakareAnjan Sundaram’s new book, Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship, takes aim at the vaunted position Rwanda enjoys in the western imagination. Far from being a success story of post-conflict … -
popular
the big picture
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Photographer Polly Braden spent two years with people with learning disabilities, and captured their breakthroughs – from quiet moments in a swimming pool to the joy of getting married
Sister act Female friendship from Woolf to Ferrante and Zadie Smith