Anne Theriault: 118 Books You Must Bring With You to a Desert Island

The funny thing is that you're very rarely enough of anything for anyone. When I write about radical-lady-type-stuff, I'm always too feminist for some people, and not feminist enough for others. When I get worked about something, I'm always too outspoken for some, and not outspoken enough for others. When I wrote a...

huffingtonpost.com (3 hours ago)

Diary: The Professor’s backing Bayern Munich to beat Borussia Dortmund (‘They’ll win 3-1,’ he says)

Bayern or Borussia? It’s time to take sides. Surely Gisela Stuart, the Bavaria-born Labour MP, can offer expert guidance on which team the neutrals should support in the all-German Champions League Final clash at Wembley.

independent.co.uk (6 hours ago)

Andy McSmith's Diary: The Professor’s backing Bayern Munich to beat Borussia Dortmund (‘They’ll...

Bayern or Borussia? It’s time to take sides. Surely Gisela Stuart, the Bavaria-born Labour MP, can offer expert guidance on which team the neutrals should support in the all-German Champions League Final clash at Wembley.

independent.co.uk (8 hours ago)

Country diary: Aberdaron: The headland is, as ever, spacious and bathed in that distinctive...

The once-quiet fishing cove of Porth Meudwy, west of Aberdaron and embarkation point for Ynys Enlli, is busy these days. Pyramids of lobster pots are piled high round the slipway, new twin-hulled boats drawn up on the pebbles. More working boats circle the bay, hauling their catch. The recently completed Wales...

guardian.co.uk (8 hours ago)

City Room: Metropolitan Diary: A Well-Stamped Passport

Metropolitan Diary: A security officer at Kennedy Airport’s passport control had an unexpected question for a much-traveled businessman.    

nytimes.com (16 hours ago)

Cannes film festival diary: day 10

When the Cannes logo swings into view at the morning screening, the delegates greet it with a warm round of applause. It could almost be the very first screening, two Wednesdays in the past, when hopes were high and the whole festival stretched out like some fresh new frontier. On that occasion the guests applauded...

guardian.co.uk (16 hours ago)

Photographer documents a year in the life of a tree on his iPhone

It was a sight so familiar it was almost beyond noticing: a bur oak – though an old and particularly gorgeous specimen – towering above the corn fields that Mark Hirsch drove past daily on the road into town. Then Hirsch, a photographer with a studio in Dubuque, Iowa, got his first iPhone. A friend challenged him to...

guardian.co.uk (16 hours ago)

City Diary: gallant knight brought down

Phillip Schofield appeared to be transfixed. Pippa Middleton listened intently. But, despite their attentions, Paloma Faith wasn’t happy that the...

thetimes.co.uk (20 hours ago)

City Diary: Ocado chief keeps chequebook closed for Waitrose's Mark Price

Was John Madejski still preoccupied by Reading FC's recent relegation to the Championship at the Waitrose summer party?    

telegraph.co.uk (22 hours ago)

Country diary: Allendale, Northumberland: Hedgehogs have everything they need in this garden

Honesty is flowering all around the dark pile of leaves. Hellebores, fading from burgundy to antique pink, are creating a screen. Under the leaves a hedgehog is sleeping out the daytime, here in the same place that it spent the winter. This is its hibernaculum made from leaves that I heaped on this border last...

guardian.co.uk (1 day ago)

The Cannes Festival Diary: Sex scenes getting real

independent.co.uk (1 day ago)

Andy McSmith's Diary: Woolwich Twitter witness, Boya Dee, refuses to sell story

The first that many people knew about the ghastly murder in Woolwich was from the Twitter feed of an eye witness, Boya Dee, a south London musician and filmmaker.

independent.co.uk (1 day ago)

Cannes film festival diary: day nine

Rumour has it that the jurors at this year's Cannes film festival occasionally bypass the official screenings, preferring instead to watch the films from the luxury of Steven Spielberg's yacht, with its infinity pool and state-of-the-art cinema. Obviously, there is no way of knowing if such gossip has any bearing on...

guardian.co.uk (1 day ago)

City Room: Metropolitan Diary: Brusque Manners in the Jewelry Department

Metropolitan Diary: A customer newly arrived from the Midwest discovered that a Macy’s jewelry repair clerk didn’t have time for her full name.    

nytimes.com (1 day ago)

City Diary: Slow going for Lord Browne of Madingley's Twitter debut

Ex-BP boss Lord Browne of Madingley is no Warren Buffett.    

telegraph.co.uk (1 day ago)

Sanjay Surana: A Ritual of Refreshing Restraint

I went to my first Japanese tea ceremony today. Actually, it was my first tea ceremony, period. Big whoop, you might think, except that six months ago I would have balked at such an opportunity. Before moving to Singapore last year, I was an avowed anti-tea-ite. I drank it perhaps a couple of times a year, usually...

huffingtonpost.com (2 days ago)

Country diary: Crook, County Durham: I've often seen bees infested with mites, but rarely one so...

Bumblebees still foraged on the blackcurrant blossom, even though the afterglow of sunset was beginning to fade. One, a queen Bombus pratorum, fell from a truss of flowers and landed almost at my feet, brushing her legs over her furry back as if to rid herself of some irritation. When I knelt to look closely I could...

guardian.co.uk (2 days ago)

City Diary: Horsemeat not on the menu

Bigwigs of the food and drink industries gathered at the Dorchester on Tuesday for their industry association’s annual dinner, but...

thetimes.co.uk (2 days ago)

Andy McSmith's Diary: Those hacked off Ukip councillors

After Ukip’s success in the local elections there has been growing interest in what sort of people the party attracts. In Lincolnshire, Chris Pain, leader of the 16 Ukip councillors who are now the main opposition on the county council, denies writing offensive comments posted under his name on Facebook. “My email...

independent.co.uk (2 days ago)

Piers Morgan Writing Book About Life At CNN

Piers Morgan is writing a book that he says will give a "warts and all" account of life at CNN. The book is tentatively titled "Shooting Straight: Guns, Gays, God, and George Clooney," and is slated for release in October. The deal was announced by his publisher Gallery, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, on...

huffingtonpost.com (2 days ago)

How Toys Are Preparing Kids For A Future With Robotic Friends

Introducing Generation Robot For Christmas in 1993, my father gave me a My Magic Diary, a children’s version of Casio’s digital organizer. From that point on, I always had some iteration of that device-whether a PalmPilot or the iPhone 5 I carry today. Like most others my age, I was raised around mobile devices, so...

popsci.com (2 days ago)

Cannes film festival diary: day eight

Inside the Lumière theatre, a spectator is coughing. The coughing on one side sparks a response in the other and before long everyone appears to be at it and the whole place sounds like New Year's Eve at the TB sanatorium. I seem to remember the same thing happening last year; it's like some weird Cannes tradition....

guardian.co.uk (2 days ago)

City Room: Metropolitan Diary: The Clothesline Towers of Bushwick

Metropolitan Diary: A woman recalled the sight of laundry hanging in many rows from clothesline towers in Brooklyn.    

nytimes.com (2 days ago)

City Diary: Spring is in the air for UK economy, says Pru chairman

Cheer up, Chancellor George. If the Chelsea Flower Show is the bellwether of the mood in the City, then the UK economy is finally coming back into bloom.    

telegraph.co.uk (2 days ago)

VINTAGE PHOTO: 15-Year-Old Kate Moss Is A Fresh-Faced Beauty

We love us some good vintage Kate Moss, whether it be a photo from the Johnny Depp era or an audition video from 1996. Thankfully LOVE magazine feels the same way, offering up a gift this morning in the form of a hazy photo of 15-year-old Kate. The snap was taken in the 1980s by Glen Luchford, one of LOVE's new...

huffingtonpost.com (3 days ago)

Country diary: Cotehele, Tamar Valley: Sid Coombe No 1 among this year's thick and gorgeous apple...

Branches of blossom peep above yew hedges that separate Cotehele's formal gardens from the old orchard. The apple is particularly thick and gorgeous this year. It obscures mistletoe, and clothes limbs that until a few weeks ago were bare apart from lichen and moss. Most spectacular is the luminous Sid Coombe No 1 –...

guardian.co.uk (3 days ago)

City Diary: Hong Kong Stock Exchange woos ladies

Hong Kong has long been home to a Ladies’ Market, a network of streets choked with vendors plying everything from...

thetimes.co.uk (3 days ago)

Andy McSmith's Diary: Listen children, the world really was created in seven days

A question thrown up while MPs were arguing over gay marriage is whether fundamentalist Christian teachers should have a legal right to propagate creationism in the classroom. This cropped up while opponents of gay marriage were fighting a rearguard action to ensure that any religious group or individual with a...

independent.co.uk (3 days ago)

Soulacoaster: The Diary Of Me by R. Kelly

There’s a scene early in Soulacoaster: The Diary Of Me, R. Kelly’s amusingly named memoir, which seems to anticipate the singer’s future.

pastemagazine.com (3 days ago)

Peter Graham: The Murder Of The Century (NEW BOOK)

On a sunny winter's afternoon, June 1954 in Christchurch New Zealand, two teenage girls, Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker, accompanied by Pauline's mother, Honorah Parker, went for a walk in Victoria Park. There the girls put into action their plan to murder Honorah. On a secluded path Juliet dropped a pink stone....

huffingtonpost.com (3 days ago)