Playwright Suzie Miller: ‘Everything I write has a touch ... The Olivier award-winning writer of Prima Facie and Inter Alia drew on her legal career to put female lawyers at the centre of her dramas. After tackling sexual assault and toxic masculinity, she reve...

Prima Facie’s Miller suspects (“Inter Alia”) that men don’t tell the truth to sons… Playwright Suzie Miller: ‘Everything I write has a touch of my lived life’ observer.co.uk/culture/inte...

Kanye West’s Wireless appearance courts controversy, and ... In London, a city rocked by antisemitic hate crimes, an artist with a history of praising Hitler has been chosen to perform at a summer music festival. Why?

Why it was all bound to kick off……:Kanye West’s Wireless appearance courts controversy, and for good reason observer.co.uk/culture/musi...

Is £3m up your street? The hunt is on for first UK ‘town ... A judging panel led by Phil Redmond will be looking for signs of a strong local identity and lots in the way of arts and heritage

Is £3m up your street? The hunt is on for first UK ‘town of culture’ observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

@jamestapper.bsky.social I want more news about peas

Scottish poet Kenneth White’s dying wish to be denied aft... White wanted his Brittany home turned into an artists’ residence. Now it may be sold on the open market

He thought poetry could help save us - now not even the fate of his home is secure…Scottish poet Kenneth White’s dying wish to be denied after clerical error observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Mr Benn changes into a movie star of 70s flashback cinema The bowler-hatted adventurer is heading for the big screen. Alfie and Dogger may follow. Why are our childhood heroes back in vogue?

Cinema knows all want to time travel now….. Mr Benn changes into a movie star of 70s flashback cinema observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Inside the mind of Paula Rego | The Observer The late, great Anglo-Portuguese artist’s son Nick Willing is preserving her legacy – and her cast of grotesques. He shows us his mother’s idiosyncratic studio

I travel inside the mind of Paula Rego and find out what is planned as her legacy….. Inside the mind of Paula Rego observer.co.uk/culture/art/...

The literary battle against AI is on: ‘Real words from re... Book lovers weren’t best pleased when The Observer presented them with a new debut novel created by ChatGPT at the Hay Festival this weekend

In the light of Hachette UK’s ruling on its suspected AI title Shy Girl this piece of mine from the last #HayFestival now looks rather quaint.

The literary battle against AI is on: ‘Real words from real people are so much better’ observer.co.uk/culture/book...

Art will imitate life behind bars in Ai Weiwei’s recreati... The dissident artist is to spend 24 hours in a life-sized replica of the space where he was detained for 81 days by the Chinese regime

Jail again for Ai WeiWei, the campaigning artist tells me…
Art will imitate life behind bars in Ai Weiwei’s recreation of his jail cell observer.co.uk/culture/art/...

After 150 years, John Stuart Mill’s wife gets credit for role in political opus It is ironic that it has taken more than 150 years for Harriet Taylor Mill to be credited, given that one of her husband’s most famous books is called The Subjection of Women

After 150 years, Mill’s wife gets credit for role in political opus observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

‘Victoria Wood was a trailblazer, but no one talked about... As a new musical adapting the comedian’s songs readies for its premiere in a theatre renamed in her honour, its writer Tom MacRae explains why she still captivates, a decade after her death

Hit musical creator Tom MacRae tells me why ‘Everybody is Talking About Victoria’
observer.co.uk/culture/thea...

Nicola Benedetti: the director of the Edinburgh Internati... Despite the festival’s American theme and the threat of protests over its continued controversial sponsorships, the virtuoso violinist in charge is defiant in saying the EIF will be “even more outstan...

Will the balloon go up in Edinburgh this summer? Benedetti argues the protests should be in the art not at it….Nicola Benedetti: the director of the Edinburgh International Festival braces for battle observer.co.uk/culture/the-...

Redacted emails raise questions over the BBC’s relationsh... Internal BBC emails show how a project that may have shed light on the broadcaster’s negotiations with the royal household was quietly shelved

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

The woman of the weekend…Olivia Dean: from north London to global stardom (via Croydon)

Marion Coutts: ‘I essentially think memory is made up’ The artist and writer on living through a ‘zombie state of grief’, and how the ocean inspired her new novel

It is NOT a sequel, Marion Coutts tells me observer.co.uk/culture/book...
Marion Coutts: ‘I essentially think memory is made up’

Shoshana Zuboff wants to abolish social media | The Observer The Harvard professor believes that Silicon Valley’s business model must be outlawed. Her new film about the tragic case of Molly Russell explains why

Shoshana Zuboff tells me she wants to abolish what drives social media and save democracy, as well as lives…observer.co.uk/culture/interviews/artic...

Why is just one candidate tipped for the troubled Tate’s ... Dwindling visitor numbers, an industrial dispute and a huge wage bill have put off applicants, say insiders

Whoi fancies taking the reins?

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Tom Kerridge is fighting for your pint | The Observer Despite his success in persuading the Treasury to cut business rates for pubs, the chef and campaigner is pessimistic about his industry’s future. Even so, he says, entering the cauldron of politics i...

A life raft for a sinking boat? Kerridge tells me about hospitality…
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Lost in translation at the Jaipur Literary Festival My first visit to the country prompted an unravelling of assumptions about a place I’d only encountered in books and films

observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Peter Capaldi: ‘I wouldn’t mind some of my ashes being sp... The Scottish actor and musician revisits the now gentrified streets of London’s Soho, recalling the sites that marked his youth hustling for jobs, first in studios, then on stage

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Allegations against predatory tutors reveal an ‘endemic’ ... Two claims of historic sexual misconduct at Guildhall are under investigation, but these could be merely the tip of the iceberg

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

A reckoning at the Guildhall school of music | The Observer

Elite music training has a historic legacy of unhappiness and shame
observer.co.uk/listen/the-s...

‘It’s like finding myself again’: Julian Lloyd Webber picks up his cello after 10 years | The Observer

A long pause between movements….
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Comedy or error: is Shakespeare actually funny? | The Observer

A jest or a pest? You, the jury, decide observer.co.uk/culture/thea...

Klimt’s $205m lifeline for the art world | The Observer

Defib for the art market: I hear views from the room where it happened

observer.co.uk/culture/art/...

Remembering Rachel Cooke | The Observer

Beautiful piece by @TimAdamsWrites on the brilliant Observer journalist Rachel Cooke who could write wonderfully about anything, has died tragically young and will be hugely, hugely missed by so many people.
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

BBC losing grip, warn staff after bias row | The Observer

Director General and BBC news chief resign after this string of bias claims…..observer.co.uk/news/national/article/bb...

Helen Garner: ‘Writers need to have their arse kicked around the block’ | The Observer

Garner on telling it straight and winning a big prize

observer.co.uk/culture/book...

The prizewinning author who almost lost his nerve This week the prestigious British Academy book prize went to The Burning Earth, a ‘magisterial’ study of mankind and its relationship with nature. Its au...

‘Over the last 150 years, human intervention has had a disproportionate influence on nature… The paradox is, though, that by causing planetary warming, in some ways we have unleashed the full power of nature.’
Sunil Amrith talks to @vanessathorpe.bsky.social
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Writer Hanif Kureishi mourns his loss of mobility by chor... The Buddha of Suburbia author broke his neck three years ago – and has filmed a dance to document the aftermath

Dance steps in …observer.co.uk/news/national/article/i-...