ONE OF THE MOST GRIMLY FUNNY POEMS OF the past century is Philip Larkin’s “This Be the Verse,” with its opening salvo about how our parents invariably mess us up. Larkin used a saltier word for “mess,

He might be best known for directing action-packed films– from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels to Sherlock Holmes –but, as Guy Ritchie tells Paula Minchin, he’s still chasing a boyhood dream of a life in the countryside

Spotlight on readers’ excellent images and how they captured them

Two photographers, two very different journeys. As Leica celebrates a century of image-making, the 2025 Oskar Barnack Awards honour Alejandro Cegarra’s searing study of migration and Serghei Duve’s intimate meditation on memory and identity. Peter Dench finds out more

December round-up Although he’s been writing and performing for many years, Donald WG Lindsay might come across as a bold new Scottish talent on Two Boats Under the Moon, his excellent two-disc debut

Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found Andrew Graham-Dixon ...