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Summer H Howell wearing a prom dress and tiara in the Carrie TV series (Credit: Prime Video)
Television

Why a new TV version of Carrie is annoying people

By Neil Armstrong

Collage of Dakota Johnson in Persuasion, Daisy Edgar-Jones and George MacKay in Sense and Sensibility, and Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice (Credit: Universal/ Alamy)
Film

Four things Jane Austen adaptations get wrong

By Molly Gorman
A black-and-white photograph of JRR Tolkien smoking a pipe (Credit: Alamy)
In History

The 'most tragic moment' in The Lord of the Rings

By Fiona Macdonald
Barbara wears an all pink outfit and smiles at the camera while stood in front of a white car (Credit: Getty Images)
Books

The extraordinary story of author Barbara Cartland

By Clare Thorp
A composite of Natalie Portman and Rachel Cusk, with a repeated background pattern of the book cover of Life of M (Credit: Siemon Scamell-Katz/ Getty Images)
Book Buzz

The literary novel causing a Hollywood scandal

By Clare Thorp
(Credit: Macmillan/ Penguin Random House)
Best books

14 of the best books of 2026 so far

By Rebecca Laurence and Lindsay Baker
An illustration of Captain Ahab and his men attacking the whale Moby Dick in the ocean (Credit: Getty Images)
Books

Novel Moby Dick challenged our fear of the whale

By Elizabeth Sulis Kim
A drawing of Batman clenching his fists from the comic (Credit: DC Comics)
Books

How The Dark Knight Returns transformed Batman

By Nicholas Barber
Detail of Portrait of a Woman by Lucas Cranach the Elder showing a Tudor-era painting of a young nun in a habit (Credit: Getty Images)
History

The 'Holy Maid of Kent' who defied King Henry VIII

By Molly Gorman
A composite of Hannah Neeleman, Caro Claire Burke and Anne Hathaway, with the cover of Yesteryear repeated in the background (Credit: Getty Images/ Harper Collins)
Book Buzz

Why 2026's buzziest book is dividing readers

By Clare Thorp
A 1612 engraving depicting the vice of acedia, where a woman holds her head in her hand with her eyes closed Credit: Alamy)
History

What the Middle Ages can teach us about burnout

By David Robson
Ancient mosaic scene from Homer’s Odyssey, depicting Odysseus meeting with sirens (Credit: Alamy)
Poetry

The Odyssey: 'A story of sex, strategy and power'

By Daisy Dunn
A black and white portrait of John John le Carré sat in a living room, with a television behind him (Credit: Getty Images)
In History

Le Carré's novels were shaped by a con-man father

By Fiona Macdonald
A still showing a group of boys in the jungle looking dishevelled taken from Lord of the Flies (Credit: Netflix)
Television

Lord of The Flies has never been more relevant

By Caryn James
Mary Bennet (Ella Bruccoleri) in TV series The Other Bennet Sister (Credit: BBC)
Television

Why Mary Bennet is the Austen heroine for today

By Molly Gorman
A walkway in the library of Merton College Oxford, lined with rows of bookcases and a globe at the end (Credit: Courtesy of the Warden and Fellows of Merton College Oxford)
Books

The enchanting story of Oxford's medieval library

By Christian Kriticos