Tim Adams writes

Baxter Dury: ‘I attract the madness’ | The Observer The indie provocateur’s tales of menace and failed male ambition have been turned into an album of dancefloor bangers

Great interview …

“It’s so much more enjoyable when the audience are dancing and not thinking,” he says.

observer.co.uk/music/pop/ar...

Jennifer Dawson’s lost chronicle of a crack-up The Ha-Ha, a newly reissued 1961 novel about a young woman’s time in a mental hospital, is startlingly contemporary

'Startlingly contemporary . . . still burn[s] with a cool flame.'

Read Anna Leszkiewicz's write-up in the Observer for The Ha-Ha by Jennifer Dawson, originally published in 1961 and reissued this Thursday by Faber Editions.

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

What should we make of the HS2 fiasco? | The Observer Radio 4 airs an unmissable investigation of the high-speed rail network debacle – although ‘debacle’ seems too strong a word for the contained emotions i...

Lovely write up from @msmirandasawyer.bsky.social about the new @funkidslive.com show 360 Seconds.
observer.co.uk/culture/audi...

William Notman and the invention of Canada | The Observer The pioneering Scot documented the wildernesses of the young nation through the embryonic medium of photography. But it was in the studio that his true g...

Fascinating article on early photography practices observer.co.uk/culture/phot... William Notman and the invention of Canada @flakphoto.news

Never been a fan of heavy metal, but I do love the writing of Elif Shafak. Having read her tribute in @theobserveruk.bsky.social‬ to Ozzy Osbourne, I'm thinking maybe I need new ears:
observer.co.uk/news/opinion....

First few paragraphs of Leszkiewicz’s piece in the Observer today

Cover of Faber Editions reissue of The Ha-Ha

Good piece by @annaleszkie.bsky.social in today’s Observer (and online soon, I presume) about Jennifer Dawson’s 1961 novel The Ha-Ha, about a young woman’s time in and out of a mental institution—and the latest Faber Editions reissue.

‘My God, what have we done?’ | The Observer The words of the co-pilot who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima still echo 80 years on. Could the devastation it wrought ever be justified?

“Tragedy exerts its hold upon our imaginations because it reminds us that justice is an illusion. Hiroshima is the great tragedy of our age from which we continue to seek understanding and yet can never understand.”

observer.co.uk/style/featur...

Portraits of a one-track mind | The Observer What can and cannot be seen in a face is the crux of a singular show exploring obsession, revolving around a Géricault painting more mysterious than the ...

How a title can ruin a picture’s future. Obsessed with this portrait for decades, elated to see a whole ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️show centring upon it, curated by fellow obsessive Fiona Tan observer.co.uk/culture/art/...

Hi guyyyys! Just here to share my authentic self I was asked to ‘do more in the Instagram space’. Cue anger – and a stilted speech to camera

Excuse the endless self promotion, but I have a new book out. In fact, I wrote about self promotion for the Observer today….

observer.co.uk/news/columni...

The deep roots of paganism | The Observer A revelatory study shows how pagan traditions not only survived the spread of Christianity but also made its practices their own

‘[A] comprehensive, critically intelligent, challenging and original book, which genuinely breaks new ground in mapping the religious history of Europe.’ Thank you to Rowan Williams for his amazing review of ‘Silence of the Gods’ in @theobserveruk.bsky.social 📚 observer.co.uk/culture/book...

The Bond film that made me a writer | The Observer Jonathan Coe’s parents took him to see On Her Majesty’s Secret Service at the age of eight – and it has influenced his novels ever since. It just took a ...

Why do so many of my books have a similar ending? Maybe it was that film my parents took me to see when I was eight.

observer.co.uk/culture/film...

‘What did we do to make you want to leave?’ | The Observer Writer Kasim Ali is one of the few members of the community he grew up with in Birmingham’s Alum Rock to have left – and his family can’t understand why....

"My father saw his migration as necessary; he has only ever seen mine as narcissism"
Kasim Ali on family, place and migration
observer.co.uk/style/featur...

The 20 books to read this summer | The Observer From tales of teenage boyhood and female desire to Edwardian crime and the wonders of the brain, here is our essential holiday reading guide

This from @theobserveruk.bsky.social was a really nicely curated list; I immediately went and bought three books from it that I’d not heard of.
observer.co.uk/culture/book...

And Jesus said How likely would you be to recommend the kingdom of heaven to others where 5 is extremely likely and 1 is not likely at all

The Bond film that made me a writer | The Observer Jonathan Coe’s parents took him to see On Her Majesty’s Secret Service at the age of eight – and it has influenced his novels ever since. It just took a ...

observer.co.uk/culture/film... - I'm in a Coe-devouring phase, and will probably be re-reading all of Ian Fleming's Bond books again soon, so this is very apt. And this article is beautifully written and takes me back to watching the Bond films when I was a kid too. Lovely.

So grateful to @timadamswrites.bsky.social and the brilliant team @theobserveruk.bsky.social for giving such prominence to my piece on libraries in Trump’s America this weekend. Will never lose the thrill of seeing my work in print - especially with Lisa Sheehan’s amazing front cover art!

‘There is no political power without power over the archive’ Titles banned, data deleted, the nation’s librarians sacked without explanation – Donald Trump’s war on books is a threat to democracy across the world, ...

Important and moving - as well as disturbing

observer.co.uk/news/interna...

‘There is no political power without power over the archive’ Titles banned, data deleted, the nation’s librarians sacked without explanation – Donald Trump’s war on books is a threat to democracy across the world, ...

This article, by Oxford's @richove.bsky.social, may be the most important article you read about NARA, IMLS, LC, ...all of it.

observer.co.uk/news/interna...

A must-read from Richard Ovenden. Brace yourselves.

observer.co.uk/music/classi...

The hot commies are coming to save summer | The Observer Swap your bikini for a budenovka – collectivism is sexy again. And it’s all thanks to Zohran Mamdani

Give us the hot commie summer we deserve! Brilliant Roisin Lanigan observer.co.uk/news/columni...

The great masculinity con | The Observer An investigation into the manosphere finds a marketplace in which weirdos sell their toxic ideology to the young

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

Conor McPherson: I had to get into Bob Dylan’s soul With four of his plays dominating the London stage this year, the Irish playwright explains why he is endlessly searching for something transcendent

And spoke to Conor McPherson about Bob Dylan, The Hunger Games and The Weir

observer.co.uk/culture/thea...

Murderland by Caroline Fraser review – what was behind the 1970s serial killer epidemic? A compulsive new history suggests the crimes of Ted Bundy et al were – at least partly – down to the air they breathed

Reviewed Caroline Fraser’s enthralling American epic Murderland

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

Photo by Ella Marshall

Seamus Murphy's exhibition, Smoke and Mirrors, at the Bradford Literature Festival 2025, captures Nablus – the city at the heart of the film Paradise Now – revealing the ongoing reality of occupation and the enduring resonance of its themes 21 years later.

observer.co.uk/cultu...

The telescope that’s about to change astronomy for ever The Rubin Observatory in Chile is set to reveal unfathomable numbers of galaxies, asteroids, comets and more

Didn't pick up The Observer yesterday? I've got you covered - you can read my story on Rubin online, with a bit of detail on UK involvement that's not been widely reported. Enjoy!

observer.co.uk/news/science...

The telescope that’s about to change astronomy for ever The Rubin Observatory in Chile is set to reveal unfathomable numbers of galaxies, asteroids, comets and more

Nice write up about Rubin Observatory - it really is the telescope that’s about to change astronomy for ever observer.co.uk/news/science...

Just a couple of our Fringe pals in the @theguardian.com this week 🥰

Can you spot a few more of our legends in there too? 👀

observer.co.uk/culture/the-...

The women of Greek tragedy speak | The Observer In Mona Arshi’s third poetry collection, Mouth, the marginalised of mythology make a stand

Lovely piece on Mona Arshi's new collection by Jade Cuttle:
observer.co.uk/culture/book... #ukpoets

U-turn on welfare gives backbenchers a taste of the PM’s ... His most recent retreat will placate some rebel MPs, but the next time Sir Keir Starmer has a tough decision to push through, he’ll find it harder to be ...

Labour MPs get a taste of the prime minister’s blood
observer.co.uk/news/politic...