Noirmoutier, my desert island paradise in the Vende
France holidaysAuthor Joanne Harris looks back at childhood holidays on France’s Atlantic coast where she would roam barefoot, swim and eat figs off the trees
I’ve always been drawn to islands. As a child, most of the games I played were on a castaway theme, and I listened to Desert Island Discs on the radio at my grandparents’ house with envy and a degree of scorn for some of the guests’ “luxury items”.
Tragic end of Clifford Roberts, the man who got the Masters going
Masters 2018Bobby Jones wanted to create a golf venue. Clifford Roberts facilitated the Augusta National in 1933 and was found dead from self-inflicted gunshot wounds there in 1977
Friday 30 September 1977. The Augusta Chronicle’s front-page headline is profound: “Roberts found dead; Masters co-founder”. As detail is subsequently relayed, that the 83-year-old chairman of Augusta National had been discovered on the property with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the widespread perception of Clifford Roberts is easy to detect.
Wonder by R. J. Palacio - review | Children's books
Children's booksChildren's booksWonder by R. J. Palacio - review'The positive feedback covering the inside pages and back cover of my copy could only begin to describe the great emotional journey that is Wonder'When I finally finished Wonder it was hard to stop thinking (not that I wanted to) about how it inspired and refreshed me. The positive feedback covering the inside pages and back cover of my copy could only begin to describe the great emotional journey that is Wonder.
'If I get corona, I get corona': the Americans who wish they'd taken Covid-19 seriously
Life and styleSome of the people who violated social distancing rules are having to learn their lesson the hard way
The past few weeks have brought considerable reason to question the purpose of human existence. Between the examples of influencers licking toilets during this pandemic and the people who think it’s funny to cough on food at the grocery store, are we seriously still supposed to believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution?
Alleged 'dentist of horror' goes on trial in France for mutilating mouths | France
France This article is more than 7 years oldAlleged 'dentist of horror' goes on trial in France for mutilating mouthsThis article is more than 7 years oldDozens of patients suffered broken jaws, abscesses and septicaemiaDutchman Jacobus van Nierop, 51, faces up to 10 years in prisonThe trial of a Dutch man dubbed the “dentist of horror” after allegedly mutilating the mouths of more than 100 patients in France is due to open on Tuesday.
Buteyko: the dangerous truth about the new celebrity breathing sensation
ShortcutsHealth & wellbeingAn Indonesian singer has posted pictures of herself and her family with tape over their mouths, in the cause of better breathing. The medical establishment is distinctly unimpressed
Name: Buteyko.
Age: Seventy-ish.
Ish? It was developed in the Soviet Union by Konstantin Buteyko in the 1940s and 50s.
Great. But what is it? A method of breath control. Dr Buteyko, an engineer turned medic, noticed that when people were ill their breathing rates increased and they started hyperventilating.
Detectorists: a sitcom about amateur archaeologists that's a bonafide heartwarming joy
Lance (Toby Jones), Andy (Mackenzie Crook) in Detectorists, a UK TV series singularly dedicated to making you feel good. Photograph: BBC/Channel X/Chris HarrisLance (Toby Jones), Andy (Mackenzie Crook) in Detectorists, a UK TV series singularly dedicated to making you feel good. Photograph: BBC/Channel X/Chris HarrisStream teamTV streamingReviewEach short episode of this charming series about a bumbling small-town metal-detecting club is a perfectly calibrated good mood
Who would have thought a sitcom about a metal-detecting club would be one of the most heartwarming shows on TV?
Every Studio Ghibli film ranked!
RankedAnimation in filmIn a bonus edition, we rank all the animated films – from Spirited Away to Ponyo – by the revered Japanese studio, most of which will be available on Netflix from February
22. Porco Rosso (1992)The first of Hayao Miyazaki’s aviation-themed films, it remains unclear why its pilot character is a pig (unfortunately, a sexist one). Set against the rising Italian fascist regime, this chirpy animation has an oddly noticeable gangster-film influence.
Filipe Lus: 'In training at Chelsea Salah was like Messi. Ask anyone' | Soccer
SoccerInterviewFilipe Luís: 'In training at Chelsea Salah was like Messi. Ask anyone'Sid LoweBefore the Brazilian’s former clubs Atlético Madrid and Chelsea clash he discusses Mourinho, Simeone and meeting Michael Caine
“It was the best thing I’d seen in my life.” Filipe Luís is not talking about the scenes when Atlético Madrid finally won a derby after 14 humiliating years, at last beating Real Madrid and in a cup final at the Bernabéu too.
He betrayed Wilde. But that wasn't the worst thing Bosie did
Biography booksReviewDouglas Murray's Bosie is a brave attempt at rehabilitation of a golden boy who played on his charm... until it ran out Bosie: A Biography of Lord Alfred Douglas
Douglas Murray
Hodder & Stoughton £20, pp374
In 1895, as the storm clouds gathered over the already tempestuous affair between Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, Bosie's intemperate and quite possibly insane father, the Marquess of Queensberry, voiced the opinion that his son ought to have 'the shit kicked out of him'.