Anna Leszkiewicz

Rachel Cooke, who died aged 56 after a short and brutal experience of cancer, is remembered as an exceptionally original and versatile writer. Her work for The Observer and the New Statesman ranged across books, art, food, interviews, reporting, personal columns and television criticism. She was praised for her wit, insight, distinctive voice and meticulous craftsmanship, maintaining exceptionally high standards throughout her career and refusing to succumb to self-pity during her illness.

Caroline Darian’s memoir I’ll Never Call Him Dad Again recounts the discovery that her father, Dominique Pelicot, drugged and raped her mother Gisèle for years and arranged assaults by numerous men. The review examines the family’s trauma, Gisèle’s decision to waive anonymity and pursue public justice, and Darian’s use of writing, naming and precise language to confront denial, misogyny and chemical submission. It argues that the Pelicot case exposes how social and legal language can obscure violence, particularly when perpetrators deny that sex with an unconscious woman constitutes rape.

Lili Anolik’s Didion & Babitz examines the contrasting public images, careers and fraught relationship of Joan Didion and Eve Babitz. Both women were shaped by photography and the mythology surrounding their literary personas, but Didion is presented as guarded, disciplined and more widely established, while Babitz is depicted as playful, provocative and embedded in Los Angeles’s rock and celebrity culture. Their relationship involved grudging mentorship, rivalry and simmering resentment, beginning when Babitz entered Didion’s Hollywood circle in the late 1960s.

In an interview about her novel Parade, Rachel Cusk discusses how the visual art of Georg Baselitz and Louise Bourgeois influenced her attempt to develop a more visual and spatial account of gender. She explains her interest in applying image-making techniques to language, embracing difficulty and challenging conventional ideas of narrative, selfhood and reality. Cusk argues that art resists the power of the group and that women writers have recently been writing more boldly and radically about female experience, although faux equality remains a problem. She also discusses Parade’s formal innovations, the relationship between literary and visual art, and the Goldsmiths Prize’s role in recognising creatively marginal work.

Laura Marling’s experience of becoming a mother profoundly changed her emotional and creative perspective. Her daughter’s birth inspired Patterns in Repeat, an intimate yet orchestral album shaped by the rhythms of family life and larger themes of female identity, inheritance, desire, ageing and mortality. The record represents a more open-hearted phase in Marling’s songwriting while continuing concerns developed throughout her career.

Liam Payne’s death is presented as the tragic culmination of a celebrity system that turned a teenager into a marketable pop pin-up and later subjected him to tabloid intrusion, online ridicule and fan objectification. The article argues that One Direction’s intense touring and recording schedule, isolation, and the pressures of fame contributed to Payne’s struggles with alcohol, substance abuse and mental health. It criticizes the music industry and the public for exploiting young performers while dismissing their vulnerability, concluding that the rush toward celebrity can also become a rush toward self-destruction.

Florence Welch and Florence + the Machine deliver a highly theatrical Prom built around Lungs, reimagined with Jules Buckley and his Orchestra. The two-hour performance combines orchestral strings, harps, choral arrangements, organ and heavy percussion to heighten the album’s movement between despair and joy. Welch’s commanding vocals and dramatic stage presence anchor the concert, while revised arrangements give even the album’s thinner tracks greater depth and intensity.

In 2011–12, girls at LeRoy High School in New York developed involuntary, Tourette’s-like symptoms that spread from cheerleaders to other students. State investigators diagnosed the outbreak as conversion disorder, or mass psychogenic illness, while media attention, public suspicion and fears of environmental contamination intensified the crisis. Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios’ podcast Hysterical revisits the episode through interviews with parents, doctors and affected women, emphasizing both the frightening physical symptoms and the distress caused by being told they were imagined.

At the 12 July British Summer Time festival in London, 76-year-old Stevie Nicks delivered a powerful performance despite remaining mostly still onstage. Her husky vocals shone on solo hits including “Wild Heart” and “Edge of Seventeen” and Fleetwood Mac classics such as “Dreams”, “Rhiannon” and “Gypsy”. Nicks also encouraged the audience to vote while introducing “For What It’s Worth”. Harry Styles joined her for “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” and a moving “Landslide” duet honoring the late Christine McVie.

Glastonbury 2024 is presented as a festival of sharp contrasts, combining glamour, disorder, political debate and a highly varied musical programme. Marina Abramović created a moment of collective silence, while Charli XCX’s overcrowded DJ set became the weekend’s most sought-after event. Little Simz was judged the standout performer, alongside strong sets from Dua Lipa and Shania Twain; Coldplay delivered familiar crowd-pleasers but were considered corny and uneven, while SZA offered a talented and stylistically ambitious but relatively under-attended headline performance. Political discussions focused on the limits of a prospective Labour government and the case for electoral reform, while several artists voiced support for Palestine.

Dua Lipa’s Friday-night headline set at Glastonbury transforms her polished pop songs with heavier drums, club remixes, bass, elaborate choreography and dramatic fireworks. The performance spans hits including “Levitating”, “New Rules”, “Don’t Start Now”, “Physical” and “Houdini”, while guest Kevin Parker joins her for “The Less I Know The Better”. The intense, confident staging counters her reputation for aloof or underpowered performances and convincingly establishes her as a deserving headliner.