Kate Atkinson: it's too late for me to read War and Peace
An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump by Joseph Wright of Derby. I like my paintings to tell a story. In this one, which is in the National Gallery, a group of people have gathered to witness a demonstration of the necessity of oxygen. The oxygen has already been removed from the air-pump and the bird in question — a white cockatoo — looks to be on the point of expiring. The date is 1768, a cataclysmic period of change is coming and science is about to take over from God, and we are in a rather lovely drawing room watching a bird being suffocated.
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The Independent
26 minutes ago
- The Independent
Football Manager 26 gets a reveal trailer – here's everything to know so far
Football Manager 26 has finally been teased by Sports Interactive after months of silence. The game returns after a shock hiatus, as Football Manager 25 was cancelled by the developer in February earlier this year due to development delays. However, the studio has since shared a 30-second video revealing the new game. – With commentary from Peter Drury, it offered a very first glimpse at the brand new in-game engine, now powered by Unity. On top of that, we got a look at the official Premier League license, included for the very first time in the series. That means all the official PL teams, players, kits and more will be available in the upcoming game. The video finishes with a message saying "guess who's back" along with a first look at the Football Manager 26 logo. A match day first look is coming soon, but for now, here's a look at everything we know so far about Football Manager 26. Football Manager 26 trailer The trailer has very little detail, but you can watch the first exciting glimpses of Premier League action below. Back. Better. Building for the season ahead. #FM26 Match Day First Look. Coming soon. — Football Manager (@FootballManager) August 13, 2025 What's new in Football Manager 26? For the uninitiated, the game - unsurprisingly - lets you become a football manager, taking minnows from the depths of the footballing pyramid to the Premier League and beyond. Details are thin on the ground, but Football Manager 26 will have all of the updated teams from the 2025/26 season in the leagues it covers around the world. The Premier League license is included in the game for the first time, meaning that all 20 of the official teams will be represented, including kits, logos, player photos and more. The game engine is moving to Unity, and delays in this move are why Football Manager 25 was cancelled back in February. The new match engine seems to offer the game's best-ever graphics. As in previous years, it's likely that Sports Interactive will add a handful of new teams, but this has not yet been confirmed. Can I pre-order Football Manager 26? Football Manager 26 is not yet available to pre-order. Availability usually coincides with the annoucment of a release date. Which platforms can I play Football Manager 26 on? Previous Football Manager titles have been playable across PC, Mac, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and mobile. The full, traditional game is usually available on PC and Mac. A console-optimised version is usually available on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, with Touch usually releasing on Nintendo Switch consoles, tablets and mobile. There's also a dedicated mobile game that requires a Netflix subscription to play. Details about Football Manager 26 Console, Touch and Mobile are not yet known. The release date for Football Manager 26 is currently unknown, but usually, the games release in October or November, with Football Manager 2024, the last entry, releasing in November 2023. Football Manager 2024 Can't wait that long? If you want to get up to speed before Football Manager 26 comes out, or just to check out a brilliant football sim, Football Manager 2024 included a whole range of new features at the time that will likely be present in Football Manager 26, including Japanese leagues, player development tweaks, set-piece coaches and plenty more.
Daily Mail
27 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
How did stars do in their A-Levels? As students celebrate and commiserate, a look at a qualification-free billionaire, the straight-A Harry Potter star and Jeremy Clarkson's annual boast
Pupils across the UK are celebrating an incredible year for A-level results - after scoring record top grades outside of the pandemic years. And while teens of today are boasting bumper grades, a slew of stars will no doubt feel reflective of the fruits of their labour many moons ago. Stars such as Emma Watson and Tinie Tempah have superb grades to their name, particuarly for the former who won a place at the Ivy League Brown University. For others however - megabucks and super stardom were not born of the marks on a paper as Richard Branson famously left school with 'no qualifications' yet still went on to become one of the UK's most iconic billionaires. No results day can go without Jeremy Clarkson, as the star has become renowned for his annual tweet in which he comforts students with the fact he received a C and two Us in and still has riches - this year boasting of his helicopter pad. Jeremy's tweet this year boasted of his helicopter pad Emma Watson Despite having to study for her exams while filming one of the biggest film series of all time, the Harry Potter star still managed to achieve excellent results. She shared that for her A-levels she got straight As in 2008 for English Literature, Geography and Art. The actress, best known for playing Hermione Granger, then went to study English Literature at the highly-acclaimed Brown University in America. Richard Branson One of the UK's most high profile billionaires, Sir Richard Branson, famously left school with 'no qualifications'. The Virgin founder and millionaire, who has dyslexia, dropped out of school aged 16 to start a magazine for students. On his last day of school, his headmaster allegedly told Richard he would either end up in prison or become a millionaire, according to the Telegraph. Richard often sends encouraging messages out to students via Twitter. Last year he wrote: 'Thinking of everyone receiving their a-levels results today. 'Remember that your grades don't define you, or what you can do in life. I dropped out of school, partly because I was struggling with dyslexia, but later realised it was my biggest strengths.' Jeremy Clarkson Jeremy has often opened up about receiving a C and two Us in his A-levels. The TV presenter tweets a supportive message every year, which always revolves around how he left school with disappointing grades and now has a lot of money. First starting in 2014, he tweeted: 'If your A level results aren't joyous take comfort from the fact I got a C and two Us. And I have a Mercedes Benz.' In 2013, he penned: 'It's not the end of the world if your A level results aren't what you'd hoped for. I got a C and 2 Us and here I am today with my own brewery.' This year's witty update saw the star pen: 'If your A level results are disappointing, don't worry. I got a C and two Us and here I am today, installing lights for a helicopter landing pad in my garden.' Geri Horner Ginger Spice scored an A in English Language at Camden School for Girls, but she didn't bother with university. Instead, Geri worked as a nightclub dancer in Majorca and became a glamour model at the age of 19. The singer then joined the Spice Girls as they went on to become the best-selling female group of all time. Simon Cowell The X Factor creator and music mogul left school earlier with three O-levels behind him, which is the equivalent to a GCSE The X Factor creator and music mogul left school earlier with three O-levels behind him, which is the equivalent to a GCSE. Although he has no A-levels, Simon got his first big break by working in the mailroom at his dad's record label, EMI, before being promoted to talent scout and crawling his way to the top. Simon went on to create some of the most successful singing competitions ever including The X Factor, Pop Idol, America and Britain's Got Talent. Tinie Tempah Before finding fame in the music industry, Tinie Tempah - real name Patrick Okogwu - studied media studies, religious studies and psychology and earned two Bs and a D. In 2020, he offered a cash prize to students who scored top grades in their A-Level results. The rapper wished school leavers luck on receiving their results, before offering £100 to those who got A grades or above if they sent him a photo of them with proof and the video for his song Whoppa in the background. He penned on Twitter: 'Good luck to everyone getting their A-level results today. If you didn't get the results you were expecting or into the uni you hoped don't sweat you can appeal if your mock results were better. 'If not, it's not the end of the world.' Lord Alan Sugar Results: The Apprentice's Lord Alan Sugar left with six GCSES, although he claims these qualifications were tougher than today's standard The Apprentice's Lord Alan Sugar famously didn't do well at school and dropped out aged 16. He left with six GCSES, although he claims these qualifications were tougher than today's standard. In 2019, he tweeted: 'Get you facts right I got 6 old fashioned GCE's which are 10 times harder than the multiple choice answer A levels of this day and age.' Lord Sugar then went on to set up his own business Amstrad at 21-years-old.
Daily Mail
27 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
I tried to take my own life TWICE after being driven to rock bottom by drugs sting - powerful people wanted to take me out and now I know why, claims Tulisa in unflinching This Morning interview
Tulisa opened up about how she tried to take her own life twice when she was driven to rock bottom after being involved in a drugs sting back in 2013. The 37 year old appeared on the latest instalment of ITV 's This Morning to chat to Emma Willis, 49, and Craig Doyle, 54, about her brand new book Tulisa: Judgement, Love, Trials and Tribulations. In the book she opens up about how she was arrested on suspicion of supplying class A drugs, after then-journalist Mazher Mahmood, also known as the Fake Sheik, tricked her into giving him a contact from which he bought £800 worth of cocaine. Craig pointed out: 'There is a really serious side too... This isn't just about reputation or losing work, or being publicly shamed, and all of those things that have come with this story, but you did attempt to take your own life.' Tulisa bravely said: 'I mean I look back on it now and I feel quite detached from it. Even when I read the book, it's like reading a story about someone else. 'But that is the point that it brought me to.' The 37-year-old appeared on the latest instalment of ITV's This Morning to chat to Emma Willis, 49, and Craig Doyle, 54, about her brand new book Tulisa: Judgement, Love Trials and Tribulations Tulisa (pictured) was a judge on The X Factor between for the eighth and the ninth series in 2011 and 2012 'Sitting in your bathroom with a bottle of vodka and a handful of pills,' Craig replies to her. Tulisa explained: 'So I talk about two attempts, the first attempt was quite light in a sense of I just grabbed a load of pill packets. 'I was very drunk, and what exactly they were going to do wasn't sure. Just go for it. I'd had enough. 'It was actually the second time, which was after the trial had finished. 'I then had the time to really process everything that had happened. 'That was the real kicker, and then surviving that... that was a miracle.' Tulisa claimed there were two main reasons the people who targeted her wanted to take her down a peg - classism and misogny. 'The whole thing was the most intense, chaotic, dramatic period of my entire life. But there's a lot of knowledge to be taken,' she went on. 'There was misogyny involved, I think there was a lot of classism involved. I think when I came into the industry, expecting as the Camden girl, to be up for and do a lot of things that I wouldn't. When it was discovered that I wouldn't play the game, I think I ruffled a lot of feathers of a lot of big wigs in the industry and they thought "We're going to take her out".' Tulisa is leaving no stone unturned in her upcoming autobiography, detailing her battle with addiction, two suicide attempts and her sex tape scandal. The singer vowed to be 'brutally honest' in the tome, titled Judgement: Love, Trials and Tribulations, and has stayed true to her word. According to The Mirror, the N-Dubz star charts her 'year from hell' amid her drug sting trial, which led to two suicide attempts. She penned of the day she found out she was going to be charged on suspicion of being involved with the supply of Class A drugs: 'Why is this happening to me? 'What's the point in being alive just to be miserable? 'How am I ever going to find happiness after this? 'Even if I'm found innocent, I'll be empty inside by the time I get to the end of it, and my life will be ruined.' Thankfully, she was found by former best friend Gareth Varey who called an ambulance after finding her in her bathroom surrounded by empty packets of sleeping pills. While Tulisa was revived, she made a second attempt on her life months later amid her trial, which resulted in her being hospitalised for three days. Throughout any challenging times, Tulisa would try and comfort herself by locking herself in the bathroom. She explained: 'When I was a child, the bathroom was the only room in my house with a lock. I had always locked myself in there in times of distress, whether it was because my parents were going at it like two bulls in a china shop again, or my mentally ill mother was going off the rails. It had always been my place of safety. 'And twenty years later, here I was: back lying on the bathroom floor. Deep-rooted issues, I suppose. When the sex tape had come out, I had slept on the bathroom floor for five days.' Tulisa's ex Justin Edwards - who she had broken up with in 2009 - released a sex tape of her in 2012 during the height of her fame. Revenge porn was not illegal at the time, meaning she only managed to get a court apology from him. Elsewhere in the book, Tulisa also revealed that while she suffered from depression she became addicted to sleeping tablets and benzodiazepines, a habit she broke free from last year after she 'found her peace and faith'. Tulisa's memoir documents her rise to prominence and subsequent fall from grace after being targeted by the disgraced 'Fake Sheikh', Mazher Mahmood. The singer later admitted her life 'fell apart' following an elaborate sting that resulted in her being arrested on suspicion of supplying Class A drugs, an accusation she vehemently denied. As the drama played out in court, Tulisa opted to keep a journal in which she detailed the toll her trial had taken on her personal life, and the devastating impact it had on her career. Released by Blink Publishing for Bonnier Books UK, Judgement is now available to purchase.
