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,

Lives and how to live them

2025 has been a breakthrough year for soul gospel sensations ANNIE & THE CALDWELLS . A major new album, the patronage of David Byrne and ecstatic live shows have expanded their base beyond West Point, Mississippi to the global stage. Catching up with the Southern matriarch, her husband, daughters and goddaughter in Nashville, Stephen Deusner hears how their mission to spread joy to their audiences is the culmination of a lifelong dream. “I have to smile and tell God thank you because He could have chosen anybody to do this.”

IN AN EARLY SCENE IN LYNNE Ramsay’s brutal, beautiful Die My Love, we see Jennifer Lawrence crawling through a sunny, grassy field on all fours, low to the ground like a sultry panther, as we hear a b

IN the rear of her stationary motor-taxi, a young milliner reached up a careful gloved hand to pat her black-felt cloche, snug on her smart, fair curls. Constance Smart had been sitting patiently for

In a candid chat ahead of the release of his memoir We Did OK, Kid , actor, artist and composer Sir Anthony Hopkins reveals how his tough childhood and long battle with alcoholism formed the contented, joyful man he is today