This Beautiful, Ridiculous City review – New York state of mind
Observer book of the week
Dare I Say It by Naomi Watts review – a Hollywood star’s hot years
Rachel Cooke on food
It’s time to give your favourite neighbourhood restaurant some love
Rachel Cooke
Observer New Review Q&A
Director Eline Arbo: ‘Theatre is very fake. You have grown up people pretending to die in front of you’
Notebook
Spare me the residential ‘reimagining’. A planter or two is hardly Haussmann’s Paris
Rachel Cooke
Medieval Women: In Their Own Words review – a bracing cold shower with Joan of Arc and co
Observer New Review Q&A
Simon Schama: ‘Britain is a much more tolerant place now. I’m Mr Sunshine on this’
Notebook
In life, David Lodge was surprisingly mirthless. Luckily, his wife was a hoot
Rachel Cooke
December 2024
2025 culture preview
Nonfiction to look out for in 2025
From a river voyage with Robert Macfarlane to Helen Garner’s candid tale of a broken marriage, via Ian Leslie’s analysis of Lennon and McCartney’s complicated kinship, here are the titles you can’t afford to miss
Rachel Cooke’s best graphic novels of 2024
From Aimée de Jongh’s contemporary reworking of a William Golding classic to an extraterrestrial tale from Charles Burns, here are the best titles of the year
Rachel Cooke on food
I’ve never been keen on turkey. Now my aversion is approaching outright loathing
Rachel Cooke
Notebook
Retro restaurant was note-perfect
Rachel Cooke
Graphic novel of the month
Madame Choi and the Monsters by Patrick Spät and Sheree Domingo review – the stuff of blockbusters
November 2024
Book of the day
Downfall by Nadine Dorries review – a grubby business
Observer/Faber graphic short story prize
‘I am nothing if not persistent’: Lesley Imgart, winner of our graphic short story prize 2024
Why it was such a joy to interview John Prescott and discover his sweet, sad soul
Rachel Cooke
‘I’m not saying I’m not scarred. But scars do fade’: Baroness Lola Young on her childhood in care
Observer book of the week
Didion & Babitz by Lili Anolik review –the seductress and the sphinx
Rachel Cooke on food
You say bap, I say bread cake, but do delivery apps mean regional food names are becoming a thing of the past?
Rachel Cooke
Her Lotus Year by Paul French review – Wallis Simpson’s Shanghai story
