How to infiltrate posh society: bang on about beauty and invest in some tweed
Alex Clark
As a young American chancer has shown, you can trick the rich into thinking you are one of them
February 2023
‘You can read it in the time it takes to have a one night stand’: authors on their favourite romcom books
Stanley Tucci, Jenny Colgan, David Nicholls and others reflect on their favourite romantic comedies, including Heartburn, A Room With a View and The Spanish Love Deception
December 2022
The Christmas present I’ll never forget
He gave me a battered copy of a book I already owned, and I felt I’d come home – the Christmas present I’ll never forget
Afters years of expectation, hope and disappointment, all it took was one simple, heartfelt gift to show me he was the one
March 2022
Books world auction for Ukraine offers more than 350 lots
With bidding still open, fundraiser whose lots include the chance to appear in books by Lenny Henry and Peter James and lunch with Jeremy Bowen has raised £37,000
February 2022
Top 10s
Top 10 single mothers in fiction
They often get as rough a ride from books as they do from the world, but some writers, from Jane Austen to Sue Townsend, have given lone parents authentic life beyond the cliches
June 2021
The Guardian view on national identity: bravo Gareth Southgate
Editorial: From Nancy Mitford to Euro 2020, ‘Englishness’ can change – and for the better
May 2021
Hadley Freeman's Weekend column
There’s nothing guilty about the pleasure I get from TV shows by women, for women
Hadley Freeman
The week in TV: The Pursuit of Love; Fargo; Three Families; The Underground Railroad; Motherland
Feathers, organza and unironed pyjamas: why fashion can’t get enough of the Mitford mythology
TV review
The Pursuit of Love review – absolutely glorious
Notebook
Judith Kerr was right, time flies for adults, but childhood lasts half a lifetime
Tim Adams
‘It feels radical about women’: Nancy Mitford hits BBC One’s Sunday night slot
Observer New Review Q&A
Lily James: ‘All sorts of people can become great loves of your life’
April 2021
Books that made me
Edmund de Waal: ‘If I need to forget everything, I read Lee Child. Honestly’
The artist, potter and author on his middle-of-the-night anxiety reading, wanting to be a poet, and the Japanese classic he wishes he had read
February 2021
Gossip, sex and social climbing: the uncensored Chips Channon diaries
Sir Henry ‘Chips’ Channon’s diaries caused a stir in 1967. Now edited by Simon Heffer and published unredacted, they reveal even more about British high society
January 2021
Why does British comfort culture still revolve around the ruling class?
Emma Beddington
The Audio Long Read
How to be entitled: can Debrett’s help outsiders join Britain’s elite? – podcast
October 2020
Lily James: 'I got sucked into the vortex. I didn't know which way to turn'
She made her name playing sunny sweethearts, but now James is going gothic in a new Rebecca. She talks getting spooked on set, Covid bubbles and co-stars
May 2019
Book clinic
Book clinic: which books will make me laugh out loud?
From Martin Amis to Robert Robinson, our expert recommends the writers who provide a funny respite from real life
March 2018
Top 10s
Top 10 runaway mothers in fiction
From Nancy Mitford’s ‘the Bolter’ – so named for her serial monogamy – to the mother of Kramer vs Kramer, here are the best mums on the run
