Six great reads: the folly of the Cybertruck, six conversations we need to have – and a gentleman crook
The Cybertruck answers a question no one in the auto industry even thought to ask: what if there was a truck that a Chechen warlord couldn't possibly pass up – a bulletproof, bioweapons-resistant, road rage-inducing street tank that's illegal to drive in most of the world?
With the backlash against Elon Musk's Tesla still in full flow around the world, Andrew Lawrence took a deep look at its most unique creation, which was launched as a purported 'Doomsday chariot' and is now the butt of thousands of memes.
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First published in 1982, Ishiguro's A Pale View of Hills is a charged family story that connects England with Japan and the present with the past. The story lightly excavates the Nobel-winning author's family history and his own hybrid identity as a child of Nagasaki, transplanted to the UK at the age of five. Ahead of a new film version, Ishiguro spoke to Xan Brooks about the complexities of blended heritage and his great love of cinema.
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In polarising times, when technology has too often made us even more isolated, opportunities for meaningful conversation can go unnoticed. But what are we really missing? What do we forgo when we don't take the chance to talk? And which conversations matter most? Here, experts told Deborah Linton the six conversations we should be having with one other, but aren't.
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'I'm engulfed in charcoal smoke. Through the fog I spy a countertop laden with slabs of raw meat – a leg of lamb here, a tomahawk steak there. And presiding over two enormous kamado grills is Tom Kerridge, 6ft 3in tall and with a meat cleaver in one hand and a butcher's saw in the other.'Michelin-starred chef Kerridge prides himself on his 'socialist' business empire. But the hospitality trade is struggling – and so are his staff. What would he change if he had the power? Tim Jonze headed to Marlow, Buckinghamshire, the base of Kerridge's gastro-empire to find out.
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In 1929, Edgar Feuchtwanger was five years old and living with his family in Munich when Adolf Hitler moved into a flat opposite. At first, his parents thought they were safe hiding in plain sight – until they weren't … Astrid Probst met the 100-year-old Feuchtwanger, perhaps the last living person to have met Hitler, at his home in England to share his story of living next to one of history's great monsters.
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With his brilliant mind and impeccable credentials, it's little wonder that wealthy clients trusted him with their fortunes. Then they started to get suspicious … this brilliant long read by Hettie O'Brien follows an extraordinary story of trust and financial crime that left a handful of clients millions of pounds out of pocket.
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Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Inside Diana's testy relationship with her mother who let down the Princess 'terribly' on her wedding day
It's 21 years today since Princess Diana 's mother Frances Shand Kydd was laid to rest following a long health battle against Parkinson's disease and brain cancer. She outlived her daughter by seven years and tragically Frances was not on speaking terms with Diana at the time of her sudden death. Indeed, it has been well documented that Diana and Frances had a testy relationship throughout their life with periods of reconciliation followed by long spells where the pair did not speak to one another. A particular sour point in their relationship started around the time of what should have been one of their happiest memories together - Diana's wedding to Prince Charles in July 1981. Writing in his bombshell autobiography about the late Princess of Wales - titled Diana: Her True Story - Andrew Morton revealed how Diana felt 'let down terribly' by Frances on her wedding day. 'She kept crying and being all valiant and saying that she couldn't cope with the pressure, I tended to think I was the one under pressure because I was the bride' Diana told Morton. Diana goes on to claim that her mother drove her 'mad' during her engagement and Frances was left 'hurt' when she was not included in preparations for the big day. She even makes the shocking allegation that the stress of the wedding led her mother to begin taking the anxiety medication valium which she was on 'ever since'. After the wedding, Diana said the pair didn't speak to each other for three to four years. Despite this, Frances was spotted at Mary's Hospital following the birth of Prince William in June 1982 with the new grandmother reportedly relieved that Diana would not have to endure the pressure of producing a male heir. Frances bitter split with Diana's father in 1969 had a profound on the future Princess. After the four children were left in the care of their father after a fierce custody battle when Diana was seven, Charles Spencer - Diana's younger brother - recalled that 'Diana used to wait on the doorstep for her, but she never came.' He said : 'While she was packing her stuff to leave, she promised Diana she'd come back to see her. 'Our father was a quiet, constant source of love, but our mother wasn't cut out for maternity... she couldn't do it. She was in love with someone else, infatuated really.' Despite her own troubled mother-daughter relationship, by all accounts Frances had a good relationship with her royal grandchildren. William and Harry reportedly enjoyed their visits to Frances home on the rugged and isolated Seil Island off the coast of Scotland which provided a welcome break from royal life for the young Princes. However, Diana's status as one of the most famous women in the world drew a further wedge between the mother and daughter. After divorcing John Spencer, Frances married wallpaper tycoon Peter Shand Kydd. By the late 1980s Frances' second marriage had began to deteriorate and she in part blamed Diana for the break up. Peter allegedly felt overshadowed by his more famous wife after Diana's skyrocketed the popularity of the Spencers. In thier obituary for Frances, The Guardian wrote about why Peter divorced her in 1990. 'I think the pressure of it all was overwhelming and, finally, impossible for Peter. They didn't want him. They wanted me. I became Diana's mum, and not his wife,' Frances is quoted as saying. After Diana separated from Charles in 1992, Frances is reported to have not approved of her later relationships. Diana's former butler - Paul Burrell - claimed that she voiced disapproval of Diana's relationships with heart surgeon Hasnat Khan and businessman Gulu Lalvani during a particularly tetchy phone call. 'It was the slurring voice of Mrs Frances Shand Kydd. What I heard was a torrent of abuse, swearing and upsetting innuendo towards the Princess and towards the male company she was keeping,' Paul said. He added that the call left Diana crumpled on the sitting room carpet, sobbing into her white bathrobe. Frances tendency to be loose looped with members of the press left a damning final legacy in her relationship with Diana. This came after Frances said in an interview months before her daughter's death that it was 'absolutely wonderful' she had been stripped of her HRH title after her divorce from the then Prince Charles, Diana never spoke to her again. Much of Frances' poor relationship with Diana and her other children, stems from her troubled marriage to John Spencer. At just 18 years old, Frances married 30-year-old Edward John Spencer at Westminster Abbey and was one of the youngest brides to wed at the venue, Tina Brown wrote in her 2022 book, The Palace Papers. It marked the beginning of a somewhat difficult chapter in Frances's adult life. Her husband, though polite and friendly on the surface, she soon discovered to be an abusive bully who drank, Ms Brown claimed. Frances and Diana at the Wimbledon Men's Tennis Final in 1993. Frances said in an interview months before her daughter's death that it was 'absolutely wonderful' she had been stripped of her HRH title after her divorce from the then Prince Charles, Diana never spoke to her again As the future heir to Althorp, 'Johnnie' needed a baby boy to continue the Spencer name and inherit the family fortune, though this proved to be a challenge to fulfil. Frances gave birth to her first child - Lady Sarah McCorquodale - in 1955 and went on to have another daughter, Lady Jane Fellowes, in 1957. 'In order to produce a male heir, he made Frances go through six pregnancies in nine years, of which only four were carried to term, and he resented her having any independent life,' Ms Brown wrote. Before Diana was born, Frances did give birth to a baby boy who sadly passed away several hours after birth. It was heart breaking for the couple and Ms Brown told how John refused to allow Frances to see the infant, also named John. She would only discover years later he was born with 'extensive malformation'. 'She struggled from the bed and banged frantically on the locked doors of the nursery to which he had been snatched away,' the former editor in chief of Tatler wrote. Frances recalled: 'My baby was snatched away from me and I never saw his face. Not in life. Not in death. No one ever mentioned what had happened.' Some 18 months later, Diana was born and weighed a healthy 7lb 12oz. Despite this, there was a great sense of disappointment in the Spencer family that 'the new arrival was not the longed-for male heir,' Andrew Morton wrote in his 1992 book, Diana: Her True Story - In Her Own Words. They hadn't even thought of a girl's name for the new arrival and it took the couple a week to settle on Diana. Eventually, Frances did give the Spencer family their much desired male heir and on May 20, 1964, Charles - now the ninth Earl Spencer - was born. Despite having the family they wanted, the couple's marriage broke down just five years later. When her second marriage ended in 1988 and she turned to religion, converting to Catholicism at the age of 58 and devoted the rest of her life to the Church.
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Hull youth centre reopens after £1.9m refurb
A youth project has officially reopened following a £1.9m Warren Youth Project in Hull provides support for young people including mental health counselling, creative arts programmes, and advice on housing and refurbishment of its base on Queens Dock Avenue was funded by the Youth Investment Fund and includes a fully equipped music recording studio, mental health and well-being zones, a youth theatre and dance space, kitchen facilities, and a rooftop terrace. Ryan Miller, 25, who uses the service, said: "Having a space like The Warren has legitimately saved my life on more than one occasion. It's a place where you can be unapologetically yourself." The Warren has been operating in Hull since 1983. In the past year alone, it supported more than 1,400 young people and delivered over 18,000 of its work is to support young people who struggle to thrive in traditional education settings or feel disconnected from mainstream society. The new features were proposed by the young people themselves to inspire creativity and help them pursue their Warren also provides free meals to anyone in Executive JJ Tatten told BBC Radio Humberside: "They tell us what they need – and we provide it. That means what we do is more likely to be successful and have a real impact, because it's what young people actually want."This is a space where young people can create for themselves." Cricket, 18, who uses the centre, said: "I've only been here a couple of months and it has already made a massive impact on my life."The centre is open Monday to Friday from 13:00 to 19:00 offering drop-in support, one-to-one mentoring and group workshops.A full programme of creative events is planned for the Tatten said: "The Warren brings people together. It brings people from different backgrounds and cultures into a non-judgemental space. There should be a charity like this in every city in the country." Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
Nazi-obsessed Mitford sisters ‘were modern and progressive'
The Mitford sisters have been described as 'modern and progressive women' by an actress playing one of them in an upcoming series. Bessie Carter, who has appeared in Bridgerton, plays Nancy, the eldest Mitford sister, in the historical drama Outrageous, which airs next week. She said the sisters – two of whom had a fascination with Nazism – 'refused to conform'. She told the Radio Times: 'They were definitely women who didn't want to just do the debutante balls. They wanted to work and to exercise their brains. 'The Mitfords were modern women, they were really progressive. They always asked, 'Why can't I do that?'' The six sisters – Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica and Deborah – were born to Lord and Lady Redesdale and experienced an upbringing steeped in eccentricity. They were constantly in the headlines, and Unity in particular scandalised British society by her closeness with Adolf Hitler. She was known as the 'English girlfriend' of the Fuhrer and fawned over the man who threatened her country's liberty. In January, the discovery of the 1930s socialite's long-lost diaries revealed the extent of her infatuation. The diaries appear to show that Unity, whose father was a first cousin of Sir Winston Churchill's wife Clementine, met Hitler almost 140 times – sometimes alone, raising the prospect of a sexual relationship between the pair. Diana also scandalised society when she left her husband, the Guinness heir, to marry Sir Oswald Mosley, the British fascist leader with whom she had been having an affair. Threat to national security She was imprisoned at Holloway prison during the Second World War for being considered a danger to national security. The family's exploits have inspired books and films and will now be depicted in Outrageous. Carter added of the six women who will be portrayed: 'What we do in the show is look at those early years when they're about to step out into the world and make their mark. 'They're refusing to conform to what was expected of them at the time, which was to be wives and mothers.' She explained: 'Outrageous is looking at these six sisters and wondering how long a family will hold together. And at what point do you have to confront hard truths and face your differences? 'That's relevant today, isn't it? We probably all have a family member who politically is in a different place. How do we deal with that?' Joanna Vanderham, who plays Diana in the new show, added: 'Nancy told on Diana. She informed Churchill that Diana was a threat to national security and had her imprisoned. Who does that to their own sister?' She said: 'The Mitfords were mad! I feel that people will go, 'That wouldn't have happened.' Then they'll Google it and realise it did. The Mitfords were outrageous. The title is absolutely justified.'
