The magnificent seven

Many people resolve to read more at the turn of the year, so here are seven books from 2025 offering fascinating glimpses into other cultures and people’s lives.

Remembering Brigitte Bardot

From luminous actress to social activist Brigitte Bardot’s death at the age of 91, brings to a close one of the most extraordinary careers in post-war French cultural life.

5 from ’25

2025 won’t be remembered as a great year for film, but here are five movies you may enjoy if you see art as a means to make political points as well as entertain the public.

A brief history of angels

Angels are barely mentioned in the bible, but the public’s continued interest in them reveals the human desire for transcendence and even immortality.

In praise of libraries

Though always under-funded and continually under threat, public libraries remain vital centres of community life and individual well-being as well as safeguarding free access to precious culture, literature and art.

Celebrating Hanukkah

As we grieve for the victims of the Bondi shooting, Hanukkah calls on us to remember that “a little light drives out much darkness.” and ensure Jewish life is never extinguished.

The snag

In her memoir The Snag, Tessa McWatt takes on themes of personal and collective grief in the near-future context of the climate crisis and the solace and inspiration we can find in connecting with nature and each other.

The hollow men

T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men” disregarded many of the liberal shibboleths of its time to explore a new wave of populist, religio-nationalist thinking which seems all too relevant today.

The twin film phenomenon

A new book explores the curious case of twin films, where Hollywood’s uncanny doubles reveal the secrets behind cinema’s most intriguing coincidences and rivalries.

The aliens within

Although it deals with the consequence of alien infection, Vince Gilligan’s hit sci-fi series Plur1bus taps into our greatest fears about AI.

One story

In Pip Finkemeyer’s new novel a tech company’s meteoric rise leads to the devastating fall of its creator, Dot Van Jensen, but though the media paints her as a puppet-master who fractured democracy and paved the way for a darker future, is the truth as cut and dried as the headlines imply?

Art deco at 100

A century after its Parisian debut, the art deco movement continues to inspire with its modernity, elegance and freedom of form, creating a sense of nostalgia through juxtaposing perspectives from the past and present.