Innholdsfortegnelse for V. 1088 i The Week

What happened A Games to remember The Rio 2016 Olympic Games ended with a carnival-inspired closing ceremony on Sunday night, bringing to a close 16 days of competition, featuring 11,303 athletes from 206 nations, along with a refugee team. A total of 306 gold medals were doled out in a Games that cost the host nation £8.8bn. Team GB finished second in the medal table, below the US and above China, with 27 golds and 67 medals in all – bettering its haul of 65 at London 2012. In the later stages of the Games, Nick Skelton won a showjumping gold at the age of 58, while brothers Alistair and Jonny Brownlee took the gold and silver in the triathlon. The women’s hockey team beat the favourites Netherlands in a…

The Hague, Netherlands Jihadi repents: A Malian jihadi has become the first person to be convicted of war crimes for destroying cultural artefacts. A former member of the Ansar Dine group, Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi entered a guilty plea at the International Criminal Court on Monday. He admitted to ordering the destruction of nine shrines and a mosque in the ancient Malian city of Timbuktu after it was captured by Islamists in 2012, and destroying several artefacts himself, using iron bars and a pickaxe. In court, al-Mahdi (pictured) begged the Malian people for forgiveness, described the jihadis’ actions as “evil”, and urged other Muslims not to “get involved in the kind of acts I got involved in”. Paris Race hots up: President Hollande’s former economy minister, Arnaud Montebourg, has announced that…

Prepare for the sexist backlash Michelle Cottle The Atlantic “Get ready for the era of The Bitch,” says Michelle Cottle. Make no mistake: if Hillary Clinton wins the White House in November, becoming America’s first-ever woman president, it will usher in years of “down-and-dirty public misogyny”. Just as Barack Obama’s election “did not herald a shiny, new post-racial America”, so Clinton’s election won’t deliver one of gender equality. Sexist insults slamming her as a “menopausal nutjob” are already rife. At the recent Republican convention, vendors did a fast trade in badges emblazoned with slogans such as “Life’s a Bitch – don’t vote for one” and “KFC Hillary Special: Two fat thighs, two small breasts... left wing”. At GOP rallies, it’s common to see T-shirts reading: “Trump that Bitch!” And one…

When footage emerged of Jeremy Corbyn sitting on the floor of a “ram-packed” train last week, the Labour leader was praised for refusing to upgrade to first class. But now Virgin Trains has released CCTV footage which seems to show that Corbyn and his team walked through two carriages with plenty of empty seats, before settling on the floor to make the video, in which he called for the renationalisation of the railways. Virgin Trains claims that, moments after he stopped filming, Corbyn sat down in one of many free seats, where he remained for the rest of the journey from London to Newcastle. Ian McKellen turned down a $1.5m offer to officiate at a billionaire’s wedding – dressed as Gandalf. The venerable British actor was asked to conduct the…

“Don’t let off your celebratory party poppers just yet,” said Emma Webb in The Spectator. Anjem Choudary, the notorious hate preacher convicted last week of inviting support for Islamic State, may be heading for jail at last – but that doesn’t mean “his radicalising will stop”. In fact, Choudary’s recruiting talents (he is known to have had a personal connection with one in ten of all convicted Islamist terrorists in the UK) may prove even more effective in jail. In some prisons, 20% of inmates are Muslim; many are vulnerable and searching for a new identity. By locking up Choudary, we may be “letting a wolf loose among captive sheep”. Terrorists always make troublesome prisoners, said The Guardian. The “classic dilemma” is whether to disperse them through the prison system…

Track and field: three great Olympians “Mo Farah has joined the immortals,” said Oliver Brown in The Sunday Telegraph. Last Saturday, he became the second long-distance runner in history to secure a “double-double”, winning his second successive gold medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m. His “exquisitely judged” victory in the 5,000m followed “the conventional narrative of Farah dominance”: the cagey start, the surge to the front, “the signature last-lap pounce”. The 33-year-old is undoubtedly the “outstanding” long-distance runner of this era: he has now won nine successive titles at major championships – no one else has managed more than five in a row. Farah has the ideal physique for endurance racing, said David Walsh in The Sunday Times: the long limbs and stride, the lightness on his feet. His bullishness…

Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion by Gareth Stedman Jones Allen Lane 768pp £35 The Week Bookshop £30 (incl. p&p) When Karl Marx died in 1883, only 11 people attended his funeral, said Dominic Sandbrook in The Sunday Times. Outside a “tiny circle of left-wing radicals”, nobody took his ideas seriously. Yet by the 1920s, they’d helped inspire revolutions around the world and millions saw him as the “secular equivalent of a God”. In Karl Marx, Gareth Stedman Jones attempts to rescue the man from the “myth-making of the 20th century”. While the Marx invoked by communist revolutionaries was a thinker of “merciless consistency”, the man himself was an “anxious, sickly, flawed human being” who frequently changed his mind and never even finished his masterpiece, Das Kapital. “Dauntingly impressive” and “relentlessly…

Musical Groundhog Day Music and lyrics: Tim Minchin Book: Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis Director: Matthew Warchus The Old Vic, The Cut, London SE1 (0844-871 7628) Until 17 September Running time: 2hrs 35mins (including interval) “Something extraordinary has happened at The Old Vic,” said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. A much-loved, funny and clever Hollywood film has been triumphantly reinvented as a musical. Composer Tim Minchin and director Matthew Warchus – the team behind the smash-hit musical Matilda – have pulled it off with such flair, the result looks “equal to, and perhaps better than, the movie”. For those unacquainted with the film, said Paul Taylor in The Independent, its plot is a Scrooge-like fable involving a cynical TV weatherman called Phil (played in the 1993 movie by Bill…

“They are among the world’s most famous paintings and sell for tens of millions of pounds each,” says Richard Brooks in The Sunday Times. But a new biography of Claude Monet reveals that the artist destroyed about 200 of his water-lily paintings, “after being savaged by critics and racked with self-doubt”. Monet was a perfectionist, and slashed hundreds of paintings as he sought perfection. And evidence unearthed by biographer Ross King shows that these destructive outbursts worsened during the last 20 years of his life, when, with his eyesight failing, he painted huge canvases of the lily ponds of his garden in Giverny in Normandy. They were derided by critics and the public, who preferred his earlier work. Georges Clemenceau, the former French prime minister and a close friend, said…

Brazil’s wine industry is dwarfed by those of its fellow South American nations Chile and Argentina, but its sales quadrupled after the football World Cup in 2014, says Jane MacQuitty in The Times. Now its producers are hoping for a similar post-Olympics boost – especially in the UK, which accounts for almost 40% of its exports. The pick of Brazilian whites is Waitrose’s 2015 Brazil Chardonnay (on offer at £4.94), from the prime Serra Gaúcha region, which bursts with zingy apple and melon fruit. Or – ideal for drinking with churrasco, Brazil-style barbecued steak – go for M&S’s terrific, roasted black fruit and prune-spiced 2014 Intenso Teroldego red (on offer at £8). If you fancy something stronger, why not try Brazil’s national spirit, cachaça, distilled from fermented sugar cane. Of…

andBeyond Benguerra Island, Mozambique With golden sands and easy access to amazing snorkelling and diving in the Mozambique Channel, the Bazaruto Archipelago is “paradise” – and this resort is a great place from which to enjoy it, says Tatler. Revamped last year by the safari operator andBeyond, it has 12 thatched casinhas (“little houses”), with private pools, hanging daybeds and “exquisitely tiled” outdoor showers. Decor is in the local style, with dark-wood shutters, canopied beds and “tribally inspired” textiles. There’s a bar carved out of a dhow beside the thatched main lodge, and many other distractions, including horse riding and trips to nearby islands. From $765pp, full board. +27 11 809 4300, www.andbeyond.com.…

The corrupt Brazilian who transformed world football João Havelange 1916-2016 “I have come to change entirely the way Fifa works,” João Havelange declared on being elected Fifa president in 1974. “I have come to sell a product called football.” The tall, charismatic Brazilian – a former Olympic athlete and the head of Brazil’s Sports Confederation – was given to audacious claims. Yet he was as good as his word, said The Guardian. During his 24 years at the helm of football’s global governing body, he transformed the “beautiful game” into a multibillion-dollar industry. But to his critics it was a triumph achieved at the cost of football’s soul: he seemed to care less about the sport than its commercialisation and expansion. And as his career came to an end, his…

One of the most prominent figures in the City has taken “the unprecedented step” of abolishing all staff bonuses at his firm, arguing that they do little to boost performance, said Patrick Hosking in The Times. “Star stock-picker” Neil Woodford has instead put all 35 employees of his fund boutique, Woodford Investment Management (WIM), on a fixed salary. “The radical shift in policy is unheard of in the City where discretionary bonuses have traditionally been seen as necessary to drive performance.” But, according to Woodford and co-founder Craig Newman, the payouts “can distort behaviour, encouraging misconduct, recklessness and short-termism”. The firm has increased its employees’ fixed salaries to compensate for the loss. “The view from the moral high ground is fantastic,” said Jonathan Guthrie in the FT. Woodford’s ethical position,…

“If you’re a woman, you will earn less than a man,” observed Theresa May in her first statement as Prime Minister. Sadly, she is right, said Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, in The Times. “The gap between men and women’s wages is one of the most persistent features of the labour market” – as new research from the IFS demonstrates. True, some progress has been made: the difference between the average hourly pay of men and women fell from 28% in 1993 to 18% last year. But during those two decades, the gap between men and women with higher qualifications hasn’t closed at all. Women with degrees still earn 20% less per hour than men, while those with A-levels earn 25% less. The biggest losers are…

Harrowing pictures of a dazed and bloodcovered Syrian boy rescued from his bombed home in Aleppo last week provoked international outrage. Video footage showed five-year-old Omran Daqneesh in the back of an ambulance just minutes after he had been pulled from the rubble of an apartment building destroyed by an air strike on the rebel-held east of the city. Released by opposition activists, the pictures were immediately shared on social media across the world. Five other members of Omran’s family were pulled out alive, but his ten-yearold brother later died in hospital. The attack was widely blamed on Russian warplanes supporting the army of President Assad, which is attempting to encircle the city. To deflect international criticism, Moscow agreed to support a 48-hour truce to allow humanitarian relief into the…

Shishmaref, Alaska Climate refugees: The residents of a village on a tiny low-lying island off the coast of Alaska have voted to abandon their homes to the rising seas, and relocate en masse to the mainland. Shishmaref (population 580) lies on a slither of land north of the Bering Strait which has been losing 10ft a year to coastal erosion for several years. A number of houses have already crumbled into the sea, and the Inupiat Eskimo villagers have been warned that unless more is done to protect the island, their whole settlement could be under water by the middle of the century. The cost of the necessary sea defences has been put at $110m; relocating the village could cost $180m. Dozens of coastal villages in the US are similarly…

The gross exploitation of hotel staff Yvonne Roberts The Observer Robert De Niro is about to join the ranks of Britain’s fourthbiggest employer, says Yvonne Roberts – the hotel and tourism industry. The actor and his two US billionaire business partners are opening a luxury boutique hotel in Covent Garden, no doubt one of those chic places where a glass of water costs the same as the London living wage (£9.40). It’s a wage most hotel workers – 70% of whom are immigrants – can but dream of. As Unethical London, a report by Unite’s Hotel Workers branch, makes all too clear, global hotel chains in London do all they can to hobble collective action. Those showing an interest in unionising are assigned extra rooms to clean or get shift…

Why tall means Tory Scientists have discovered that being tall increases a person’s likelihood of voting Conservative – especially if they’re a man. Each additional inch of height raised a man’s chances of supporting the Tories by 0.8%, the Ohio State University researchers found; for women, the equivalent spike was 0.4%. The team used data from the 2006 British Household Panel Study, which includes information on the height and political beliefs of around 10,000 adults. Professor Sara Watson, co-author of the study, which was published in the British Journal of Political Science, said the results weren’t as strange as they initially seemed: other studies have suggested that tall people generally earn more than short people, and that income plays a part in shaping political beliefs – with people’s views becoming…

It’s a measure of how far Labour has travelled that last week Jeremy Corbyn casually abandoned a security policy that has been followed by every British government since 1949, said Oliver Kamm in The Times. Asked on the leadership hustings how he would react if a Nato ally was attacked by Russia, Corbyn said he would “avoid getting us involved militarily”, adding vaguely: “I don’t wish to go to war. What I want to do is achieve a world where we don’t need to go to war.” He appeared to suggest that, under his leadership, Britain would abandon Nato – since its rationale is collective selfdefence. “He implied that Britain’s central [military] alliance is not an alliance, that Britain’s word was not its bond,” said Simon Jenkins in The Guardian.…

In 2003 – before he came up with Facebook – Mark Zuckerberg launched Facemash. It featured photos of Harvard students side by side, and invited users to vote on which was the more attractive. The site was swiftly closed down by college authorities, said Amelia Tait in the New Statesman, and Zuckerberg later admitted he’d been a “jerk” for starting it – but it wasn’t an original idea. RateMyFace.com had launched in 1999; it was followed by Hot or Not, and Fitsort. It still goes on, but today’s teenagers don’t have to visit a specialist website to find out what people think of their looks: it’s all over social media. It seems that ten to 14-year-olds in particular are obsessed with posting selfies on Facebook and Instagram, and seeing how…

It was harder in 1972 To The Times Looking back through my papers from the 1972 Munich Olympics, when Britain won only 18 medals (four gold, five silver and nine bronze), reminded me of the very different amateur rules that the underfinanced GB teams of the past worked under. To be eligible to compete we had to “have always participated without any remuneration”, our “livelihood must not be derived from sport”, and we had to be “engaged in a basic occupation” to “provide for our present and future”. The rules also stated that the “recognised period of full training... must not normally exceed an aggregate of 30 days and in no case exceed 60 in one calendar year”. Communist bloc countries flouted these rules and, aided by drugs, were dominant.…

by Clive James Yale University Press 216pp £14.99 The Week Bookshop £11.99 Clive James “might as well have invented” the TV critic’s job, said A.A. Gill in The Sunday Times. Before him, it was a “grudging, unconsidered cul-de-sac”, usually given to washed-up hacks “too long-serving to fire” or celebrity writers who “despised the box”. But James, the Observer’s TV columnist from 1972 to 1982, treated TV “seriously” while also being “very funny about it”. Now, after a “generational interregnum”, he has returned to writing about TV with Play All, a book about box sets. Since being diagnosed with terminal leukaemia several years ago, James has enthusiastically watched shows such as The Wire, The Sopranos and Mad Men, often accompanied by members of his family. Such shows, he acknowledges, have replaced…

The Childhood of a Leader Dir: Brady Corbet 1hr 55mins (12A) Disturbing allegory of the rise of fascism Loosely based on Jean-Paul Sartre’s short story about a troubled boy seduced by fascism, The Childhood of a Leader is set in France in 1919, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph. “But its electrifying, almost clairvoyant relevance to the immediate present touches you like an icy finger on the back of your neck.” The “tyrant in waiting” in actor Brady Corbet’s stunning directorial debut is Prescott (Tom Sweet), a young American boy whose angelic looks belie his monstrous character. Prescott’s father (Liam Cunningham) is a member of the US delegation seeking to impose a peace deal on the vanquished Germans during negotiations at Versailles; and all the adults around the child…

Toby drops round for lunch with Pip. But when she steps out to take a call from her ex, Matthew, he loses his cool. They have a row and Toby storms off. Ursula and Rob discuss the statement Rob is planning to give at the custody hearing. She reminds him of Helen’s lapses of judgement and says she’s sure the court will rule in Rob’s favour. Justin Elliot offers Rob a job running Damara’s estates; Rob asks for the weekend to think about it. George is obsessed with Roald Dahl’s Danny the Champion of the World. Clarrie asks Joe and Eddie to stop talking to young George about poaching as if it weren’t a crime. Joe puffs on his pipe and pontificates about the deep bond between man and the…

Bronte 1-3 The Strand, London WC2 (020-7930 8855) What’s this? A swaggeringly luxurious restaurant on the edge of Trafalgar Square named after the literary sisters from the edge of the Pennines? No, says Emma Henderson in The Independent. This extraordinary place – “like walking into a colonial dream, but with a punch of modernism” – takes its name from the column-topping chap you can see from the restaurant’s terrace: Admiral Nelson, the 1st Duke of Bronte. Designer Tom Dixon’s theme is global exploration. There’s a vast Buddha head and an oversized white plastic boat. There are huge palm trees, arched glass doors and a colonnade tiled terrace. And there’s a vast dusty-pink concrete bar, and glass cabinets full of minerals and fossils. In a place like this, the food is…

New cars: what the critics say Auto Express The i3 has “always been one of our favourite electric cars”. Since its launch two years ago, it has impressed with its “excellent” performance and low running costs. Now, BMW has upgraded the car’s batteries, giving it a bigger range: it officially does 195 miles off a charge (double its predecessor), but the real-world figure is more like 124 miles – far enough to alleviate most owners’ “range anxiety”. The Daily Telegraph This is “a striking vehicle, if not a beautiful one”. It doesn’t resemble other BMWs – instead, it looks like something Dyson might produce. And the cabin also looks “different from the standard BMW”: steam-bent wood veneers give it the appearance of a modern coffee shop. The front seats are…

A fairy-tale beach break With its enormous Baltic seascapes and lightly populated hinterland, the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is like a more exotic Norfolk, says John Gimlette in The Daily Telegraph – a great place for a family holiday. Pretty resorts such as Boltenhagen and Binz have popular, sandy beaches, while on Rügen island there are little-visited coves backed by wild woodlands. The medieval ports of Wismar and Stralsund are entrancing for children – like towns for “elves and shoemakers”, with their crow-stepped gables, brightly coloured façades and clustering spires. There are “brilliant” museums, including the phanTECHNIKUM (full of “curiosities and gadgets”), and the Ozeaneum, a huge, dazzling aquarium. And it’s worth driving inland, too, for wild forests, swimmable lakes and romantic old castle hotels (try Ulrichshusen or Gutshaus Ludorf).…

Asda/Walmart: return of price wars? When the US supermarket giant Walmart bought Asda 17 years ago, the move “sent shock waves” through Britain’s grocery sector, said Deirdre Hipwell in The Times. But the combo “has never quite lived up to the hype”, and last week saw a new low when Asda reported its “worst sales fall on record”. Like-for-like sales in the second quarter fell by 7.5% – an even more dire performance than “an already bearish market had expected” following a 5.7% fall the previous quarter. The new boss, Sean Clarke, has a big challenge ahead of him, said Jon Yeomans in The Daily Telegraph. Walmart, which said it was addressing Asda’s slump as a matter of “urgency”, has signalled a return to “retail basics”. But “such a precipitous…

A dangerous time for global trade Dan Roberts and Ryan Felton The Observer “Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton don’t agree on much,” say Dan Roberts and Ryan Felton. But they have formed “an unlikely alliance” over trade. “Never before have both main presidential candidates broken with the orthodoxy that says globalisation is always good for Americans.” Last week, Clinton, once a supporter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (the proposed giant deal with Asia) reaffirmed her opposition to it – breaking faith with a tradition of multilateral deals led by the US for more than 70 years. The TPP has become “a lightning rod for disagreement over whether continued trade liberalisation is good for the US economy”. Many companies find “the lack of political support for trade” perplexing. Yet crucial sectors –…

Who’s tipping what The week’s best buys Admiral Group The Times Shares in the insurance group have fallen despite “good enough” half-year figures and rising premiums. Admiral’s low cost-base should help it weather volatility, and worries about the solvency ratio look overstated. Buy. £21.22. Air Partner The Mail on Sunday Air Partner’s main business is chartering commercial, private and freight jets – and business is brisk thanks to growing global demand. Successful moves into brokering aircraft sales and air safety bode well. Undervalued. Buy. 377.5p. Games Workshop The Daily Telegraph After going through difficult times in 2015, shares in the table-top games-maker have now recovered and are offering good value – with strong cash generation and healthy overseas sales. Buy. 535p. Ithaca Energy The Daily Telegraph Despite suffering deep losses…

“Why are you looking so grumpy?” That’s what my kids asked me when I got home last Wednesday night, said Jamie Oliver in The Times. I had to explain to them I was angry because “the Prime Minister had let British children down”. Last week Theresa May flunked her first big test as PM. She had a golden opportunity to show she was serious about tackling the scourge of obesity, by fulfilling the promise that Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt made last year to take “draconian” action to force food companies to change their ways. But when the Government unveiled its long-awaited obesity strategy, it proved utterly feeble. “Everything about it stinks of ‘we don’t care’.” It certainly looks as if May has put the interests of business before those of…

Why Farage can’t forgive Nigel Farage is thoroughly enjoying his retirement from politics. “The pressure is off, and it is wonderful,” he told James Lyons in The Sunday Times. Having stepped down as leader of UKIP after the Brexit vote, he hopes to forge a new career as a talk radio host, here and in the US. “The English accent is really quite an advantage there, it really is. I mean, James Corden and what he is doing out there – it is amazing.” Farage feels only sympathy towards his main Brexit opponent, David Cameron. “I thought to myself that morning when he walked out that the only thing I’m going to say is something nice, because on a human level I always feel a bit sorry for him.” The…

Indian surgeons who opened up a patient with abdominal pains were astonished to discover 40 knives lodged in his stomach. The 42-year-old man, who underwent emergency treatment after an ultrasound scan showed a cancer-like mass in his body, later told doctors that he had eaten the blades over a threemonth period, because he liked their taste. One of the surgeons described it as the most horrifying surgery he had ever performed in 20 years of practice. Life-size statues of Donald Trump naked have been popping up in cities across the US. The artworks (pictured) are large, imposing and unflattering: the presidential candidate is depicted with his arms folded across a bulging belly, and is lacking testicles. An accompanying engraving reads: The Emperor Has No Balls. In New York, one appeared…

POLAND Don’t criminalise ignorance Polityka (Warsaw) When Barack Obama uttered the phrase “Polish death camps” in a 2012 speech, Polish nationalists hit the roof, says Krzysztof Burnetko. The correct description is “Nazi death camps”, they fumed: to call them “Polish” implies that Poles themselves had a hand in the Holocaust. Now ministers from the ruling right-wing Law and Justice party say it’s time to get tough; phrases like this, which “falsify Polish history”, will soon be a criminal offence, punishable by fines and up to three years in prison. Can they be serious? Are they going to criminalise ignorance, and punish foreign politicians who make ill-considered statements? The plan also carries huge risks for Polish society: it could suffocate free debate about the War. A “zealous” prosecutor could go after…

A Greenland shark accidentally killed by fishermen was nearly four centuries old, scientists believe, making it easily the world’s longestliving vertebrate. The female was one of 28 sharks analysed by researchers after being collected as “by-catch” between 2010 and 2013. Until now, scientists haven’t had a way of calculating the age of Greenland sharks, despite suspecting them of being abnormally ancient. But the team devised an unusual method that involved taking tissue from the shark’s eye lenses and estimating its age using radiocarbon dating. Because the technique isn’t perfect, they built a large margin of error into the calculations: the oldest shark in the study, measuring just over 5m, was judged to be between 272 and 512 – although her “most likely” age was 392. However, even at its most…

Soaring unemployment; boarded up high streets; tumbling financial markets. That was the dystopian future we were told to expect, not only in the run up to the EU referendum, but also in its immediate aftermath, as disappointed Remainers comforted themselves with the thought that the Leavers would soon be overcome by an acute case of buyer’s remorse. But it hasn’t worked out that way, said Larry Elliott in The Guardian. Retail sales defied predictions by jumping 1.4% in July, and the number of people claiming jobless benefits fell. “The financial markets are serene.” Share prices are close to a record high. And Project Fear is over. Fearing that their doom-mongering might spark a recession, officials effected an abrupt U-turn on 24 June, and began seeking to reassure the voters they’d…

“The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels.” H.L. Mencken, quoted on Spiked “There is nothing more agreeable in life than to make peace with the establishment – and nothing more corrupting.” A.J.P. Taylor, quoted in The Spectator “Shyness is the overtly selfconscious thinking that you are the only person in the world; that how you look and what you do is of any importance.” Charles Schulz, quoted in The Guardian “A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It’s where the rich use public transportation.” Enrique Peñdosa, former mayor of Bogotá, quoted in The Times “An id with hair.” Hillary Clinton on Donald Trump, quoted on Politico “Social ease can and should be faked.” Alan Bennett,…

To The Guardian I’m a pale person and I spent my formative years turning red on the beach and laying the groundwork for an impressive selection of brown blotches and spots that could easily turn nasty at some point. I could have done with a tiny burkini to keep my skin safe from the sun’s burning rays. My teenage years were riven with angst and embarrassment as I sought to hide my imperfections from public gaze. How I would have welcomed a swimsuit that could have shielded my pale, skinny frame from the eyes of the world instead of having to suffer the worst of British design that incorporated armoured bra cups which soared skywards when I lay on my back. A trip to hotter climes saw me swathed head…

The Knives by Richard T. Kelly Faber 496pp £14.99 The Week Bookshop £11.99 Richard T. Kelly’s new novel offers a welcome redress to the idea that politics has to be sleazy to be interesting, said Nick Cohen in The Guardian. The story of an essentially “honest” Tory home secretary dragged down by a combination of political machination and personal weakness, it displays a refreshing willingness to break liberal taboos. Kelly’s Tories aren’t “collectively wicked” but are “varied individuals” capable of good and bad. The work of a “deft storyteller”, this is “the best novel about modern politics I have read in years”. A couple of months ago, The Knives would have had the “unmistakable tang of topicality”, said Andrew Holgate in The Sunday Times. Kelly’s home secretary, though a man,…

Zsofia Schweger at Griffin Gallery Hungarian artist Zsofia Schweger’s deceptively quiet paintings of interiors bring to mind any number of 20th century art references; one moment, she appears to be in hock to the eerie symbolism of Craigie Aitchison, the next the clean lines and defined shapes of Patrick Caulfield. But the 27-yearold Schweger is very much her own artist, and the harder one looks at these unpeopled interiors, the more this becomes clear. On learning that all of these paintings are based on the rooms of the house where she grew up, it’s hard not to impose a Freudian reading onto them. The brushstrokes are frenetic, scrappy, entirely at odds with the gentle palette and apparently mundane subject matter: one can’t help but wonder what the artist is implying.…

Beowulf 800-1100 AD, translated and read by Seamus Heaney (Faber £8.95). That rare thing: a translation of a masterpiece that is also a masterpiece. After listening to it for the first time I decided to listen to it all over again, not least because Heaney’s voice is a thing of wonder. Paradise Lost by John Milton, 1667, read by Anton Lesser, Laura Paton and Chris Larkin (Naxos £13.99). I was driving regularly between Oxford and London when I listened to this. Those long Latinate sentences with their knotty syntax and subclauses like Russian dolls require concentration. At times I emerged from the poem to find myself driving at 70mph on a busy motorway. Glorious. Emma by Jane Austen, 1815, read by Juliet Stevenson (Naxos £29). Emma Woodhouse is one of…

Programmes New York: America’s Busiest City The first in this three-part series about the Big Apple homes in on Grand Central Terminal, the world’s largest railway station. Tue 30 Aug, BBC2 9pm (60mins). Stacey Dooley Investigates: Sex in Strange Places – Turkey Turkey is the first destination for presenter Stacey Dooley in this investigative series about the global sex industry. Tue 30 Aug, BBC1 10.45pm (55mins). Young Hyacinth Comedy prequel to the droll sitcom Keeping Up Appearances, in which Kerry Howard plays the youthful but already ragingly snobbish heroine. Fri 2 Sept, BBC1 9.30pm (30mins). Janis Joplin: Little Girl Blue Another chance to see this acclaimed documentary about the talented but selfdestructive rock singer. Fri 2 Sept, BBC4 10.30pm (90mins). Films Despicable Me (2010) Ingeniously entertaining animated feature about a…

Avocado gazpacho Serves 2-4 600g tinned plum tomatoes, roughly chopped ½ cucumber, peeled and roughly chopped ½ red (bell) pepper, chopped 1 avocado, peeled and stoned 1 tsp lemon juice ½ tsp apple cider vinegar 1 garlic clove, roughly chopped 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tsp chilli flakes (red pepper flakes) sea salt and black pepper • Put all the ingredients, except for the olive oil, chilli flakes and one half of the avocado, in a food processor or blender. Add 40ml (2½ tbsp) water. • Blend until fairly smooth and then add the olive oil. • Blend again until totally smooth. Season to taste. • Serve cold in bowls, with the remaining avocado chopped and sprinkled on top, along with the chilli flakes, or in slices on the side.…

India’s Golden Triangle Enjoy a 5-night India trip offering the highlights of the classic Golden Triangle tour. From £1,049pp, incl. Heathrow flights. 01293-762456, www.hayesandjarvis.co.uk. Depart 19 October. September in Devon Extend your summer with a 1-week stay at River Cottage, Lynmouth, a riverside house sleeping 6 – arrivals on 10 or 17 September cost £624. 01271-813777, www.marsdens.co.uk. Utah fly-drive Hit the road with an 8-night trip to the Beehive State, home to five national parks, from £1,355pp room only, incl. flights and car hire. 0800-316 0194, www.bon-voyage.co.uk. Travel in October. Italy’s Unesco caves The new Ben-Hur film features Matera’s sassi: stay 7 nights at the town’s Sextantio Le Grotte Della Civita from £1,374pp b&b, incl. flights. 01425-480400, www.prestigeholidays.co.uk. Departs 1 Sept.…

The world’s central bankers met in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, amid speculation about whether the US would raise interest rates next month following further evidence of a strengthening US economy. Futures markets were pricing in a 28% chance of a hike. The oil price hit a two-month high, breaking through $50/barrel, after Opec hinted at a production freeze. Moody’s predicted Britain would avoid a recession, with the lower pound helping to support growth. It forecasts 1.5% growth this year and 1.2% in 2017, some way above BoE forecasts. The agency reported that growth globally is “stabilising”. The TUC said Britain is facing a debt time bomb, with more than 1.5 million households barely able to cover the interest payments on personal loans. Shares in WPP, the world’s largest advertising group, hit…

● Savings stinker It’s been a terrible summer for savers. The Bank of England’s rate cut to 0.25% has triggered a slide in interest-rate cuts across hundreds of accounts. Arguably the worst affected, said Anna Mikhailova in The Sunday Times, are the 3.6 million Britons who hold their cash in Santander’s instant access 123 account, which currently pays 3% on balances between £3,000 and £20,000. That rate will be slashed to 1.5% in November, removing “one of the few remaining options for savers looking for a decent return on their cash”. ● Stand-out appeal It was probably only a matter of time before Santander succumbed, said Andrew Hagger of the consumer advice site MoneyComms. “Paying 3% with instant access was probably too good to be true in the current depressed…

Roger Jenkins The former Barclays banker, credited with “saving” the bank during the crash by bringing on board Middle Eastern investors, hopes to become “America’s new cannabis king”, says the Daily Mail. The muscular Scot – nicknamed “Roger the Dodger” for his expertise in tax avoidance – is backing a fund that aims to farm in California, months before the state votes on whether to allow “recreational” use. If the measure is approved, the market for legal cannabis in the state is expected to grow from $2.7bn today (medical use is already permitted) to $6.6bn by 2020. Jenkins, who once dated supermodel Elle Macpherson and “happily” awarded his ex-wife a £150m divorce settlement, was once the City’s best-paid banker. Time will tell if the “green rush” proves as lucrative. Philip…

This week’s crossword winner will receive an Ettinger (www.ettinger.co.uk) Bridle Hide Red Travel Pass Holder, which retails at £95, and two Connell Guides (www.connellguides.com). ACROSS 1 Not all there in British race started properly (7-7) 8 Introduce lager back at home (4,2) 9 Nonsense about delays regularly for poor country folk (8) 10 Reading skill not stodgy and risque (8) 11 Singular cut demonstrated once (6) 12 Drink brewed by teenager (5,3) 15 Run fast behind old US airport (1’4) 17 More cutting after leaving court (5) 18 Popular position, for example (8) 20 Crime writer’s sinister? The opposite (6) 22 What’s left on highway and as well on roundabout (4,4) 24 Slash delicate material price (8) 25 Father Ted recalled in US state capital (6) 26 Product of light…