CULTURE

The 25 best books of 2025

Stag Dance by Torrey Peters The follow-up to Torrey Peters’ critically acclaimed debut Detransition, Baby is a collection of tales,

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My two conversations with Sean Ono Lennon

Tom Brook was the first on the scene when the BBC reported on John Lennon’s death, later interviewing his widow,

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Seven of the greatest rivalries in art history

Born just a year apart (Turner in sooty London in 1775, Constable in a serene Suffolk village in 1776), the

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The ‘It Girl’ style wars of Renaissance Italy

Her married status didn’t stop brothers Giuliano and Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici fighting over her affections and she was

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Why this Indigenous winter scene is not what it seems

Curtis saw his mission as “documenting what he thought of as ‘a dying race’,” Cross tells the BBC. He cropped

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The Oscar-tipped Shakespeare drama is moving but ‘manipulative’

The Shakespeare drama starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley has a stellar cast but is “exploitative” and lacks subtlety –

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How the Cabbage Patch Kids caused a near-riot in the 1980s

The Little People concept had quickly attracted wider attention well beyond rural Georgia. Babyland even got a mention in the

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Hamnet and the 400-year-old mystery around Shakespeare’s wife and son

Oscar-tipped new film Hamnet imagines the home life of William and Agnes Shakespeare – and the “soul-crushing” loss of their

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This ’emotionally soaring’ sequel is ‘more captivating’ than the first film

Grande really gets her moments to shine in this instalment and makes the most of them. She was always ideal

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10 of the hottest tips for the 2026 Oscars race

Warner Bros Pictures(Credit: Warner Bros Pictures) One Battle After Another How could you not love a film that has Leonardo