To state school alumni starting university, I say this: be proud of your background | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
Accusations of classism chime with my experience 20 years ago. So all hail the Bristol graduate awarding state schools red plaques“So, where did you go to school?” On the face of it, it doesn’t seem like a loaded question. I was mostly bemused when I…
WSL talking points: heat cranks up on Arsenal and Putellas and Diani shine
Pressure continues to build on the Gunners’ head coach, while powerful London City Lionesses demolished SpursTravelling Arsenal fans showed no animosity towards the head coach, Renée Slegers, despite their side’s run of one win in six games in all…
Is your partner on their phone and ignoring you? I’ve got a buzzword for that
From microcheating to quiet quitting to weaponised incompetence, new terms to describe relationship failings are abundant. But that doesn’t mean there’s not space for some more ...Are you committing “attention infidelity”? The New York Times alerted me…
The UK’s G20 presidency will push Andy Burnham to the centre of the global stage. What will he use it for? | Michael Jacobs
This is a chance for the PM to advance his progressive agenda and tackle urgent issues such as AI regulation and climate actionAmong the many crucial decisions Andy Burnham has to make over the next few weeks, one has gone almost completely unremarked:…
Forty years of the Phantom of the Opera – the show that wouldn’t die: ‘People come back to hear the impossible’
As Andrew Lloyd Webber’s enduring gothic melodrama celebrates its 40th birthday, producer Cameron Mackintosh and cast members from down the years recall what makes it so specialThere is something about Andrew Lloyd Webber’s masterly musical The Phantom…
My search for the perfect Italian aperitivo in Verona
The classic pre-dinner drink and snack combo varies depending where you are in Italy. In this fair city, it’s an institution that can even be enjoyed first thingI arrived in Verona, I admit, without a particularly clear idea of what aperitivo meant. In…
Holiday cottage company insisted on a death certificate to amend our break
Sykes Holiday Cottages showed no empathy and insisted on paperwork we didn’t have so soon after my husband’s deathWe booked a break with Sykes Holiday Cottages for 11 of us to celebrate my mum’s 80th birthday last February. The cost was £2,400, paid for…
Pasture lives: the rebel cheesemakers preserving an Alpine tradition
A story of storico ribelle, produced by a small group of mountain herders according to a traditional farming system based on seasonal and rotational grazingMy journey into the world of storico ribelle began with a shared passion for photography and the…
Sleeping Beauties by David Byrne review – a quirky journey through the afterlife of invention
The Talking Heads frontman considers dormant ideas that made a comeback – from Indian irrigation to KafkaThere’s barely been a moment in the last half-century when David Byrne hasn’t been zinging about, dancing forward, opting odd. The art-school…
‘I didn’t know what to do’: collapse of providers of high-end digs leaves students in shock
Cost of living crisis and drop in international students hits market for purpose-built accommodation“It was dead in the middle of summer, it was a shock,” says Nathalie Sriwiboonrattan. The fourth-year game design student at Abertay University was at…