Books

Peggy, the hedgehog (Image: ) It was my toddler grandson Billy who first spotted the hedgehog in the autumn of 2021, caught in a net we used to clear debris from our pond. We tried to shake it free but it gave only the slightest tremor. My husband, Kim, is …

After breaking Netflix records, hitting No 1 in 84 countries around the world, the One Piece live-action adaptation is getting a second series. Eiichiro Oda, author of the manga the show is based on, announced the news in a special video with his face covered by a fish drawing as …

Earlier this year Young Bond novel writer Charlier Higson published his first official adult 007 adventure. Set during King Charles III’s Coronation, On His Majesty’s Secret Service follows a James Bond who disapproves of anti-immigration talk and drinks kombucha. Recently the author has been engaging on social media with 007 …

Clive Myrie in Kyiv dodging Russian missile strikes (Image: BBC) It was TV presenter Alan Whicker who first inspired Clive Myrie to pursue a career in broadcasting. Growing up in Lancashire in the 1970s, his imagination was sparked by the long-running documentary series Whicker’s World. “Whicker would travel the globe …

Hampton Court, though no longer used as a royal residence, has seen centuries of regal drama (Image: Getty) Growing up at Hampton Court, young Prince George was utterly miserable. When his father died, he had become the charge of his grandfather, George II – a man of moderate intelligence, minimal …

Hollywood’s take on a megalodon on The Meg, (Image: ) Imagine an enormous shark weighing twice as much as a humpback whale. This giant predator is making its way through coastal waters off Africa: its body moving as if to the rhythm of a beating drum, its scythe-like fin, taller …

Chris Tarrant, a teacher-turned-TV-newsman (Image: Getty) The morning after the first episode of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? transmitted on 4th September 1998, a lorry-driver spotted Chris Tarrant walking through Wembley and cheerfully hollered, “Oi, Chris, phone a friend?” Twenty-five years later – and ten years after he stopped …

Child survivors at the Auschwitz death camp in Poland (Image: Getty) Imagine knowing your death is inevitable, and possibly imminent, only to be offered a lifeline so unlikely and unexpected it can only be described as a miracle. Yet such a miracle actually saved the lives of several thousand Jews …

Suchet at home, with his bookshelves fastidiously arranged by height. (Image: ) Why did the world fall so deeply in love with Sir David Suchet as Hercule Poirot? After all, the famous Belgian detective with whom he has become synonymous is a fastidious, pernickety and, whisper it, sometimes rather irritating …

Yesterday the long-awaited live-action adaptation of the world’s best-selling comic by volume landed on Netflix. One Piece, a swashbuckling fantasy about a young man’s quest to find a legendary treasure and become King of the Pirates, has been going as a Japanese manga since 1997. With over 1090 chapters to …