Features

Drink, drugs and casual sex – and on weeknights too: This Life turns 30

It was the Nineties cult TV drama that explored living and working in London while contemplating turning 30 as your social life, love life and career plans all felt precarious. Now This Life itself has turned 30. First broadcast in March 1996, this...

How a £7m egg brought down the ‘British Fabergé’

The secret life and hidden millions of the man outed as Banksy

Now you see me: Gwyneth Paltrow’s naked ambition

If there were an Oscar for scene stealer, it should unquestionably go to Gwyneth Paltrow’s glutes. Dressed in what looked like a boring, shiny towel from the front – the sort of thing a Miami matron might wear after a long day of sun and vodka at...

‘DRILL, BABY, DRILL’

Michael Wolff: Everyone is missing the real story on Epstein

Michael Wolff has known Donald Trump since they came up together in New York in the 1980s and has spent more time than most trying to understand his thinking. Wolff, now 72, was the irascible Vanity Fair columnist, Trump the omnipresent property...

Britain spends billions more than France on defence, so why is French military kit superior?

The nanny who shaped the King

‘I spent a long time getting it wrong on the red carpet’

On patrol with Britain’s deer hunter-in-chief

How the Royal Navy became a national embarrassment

Britain’s postwar fleet boasted hundreds of warships. Now our one destroyer earmarked for Cyprus is stuck in dock with the welders on board

Martin Clunes: Labour doesn’t understand the rural economy

“We have a Government that doesn’t appear to know anything about the countryside or the rural economy, and certainly doesn’t show any interest in it,” says Martin Clunes, whose latest role finds him at the emotional core of a new British film, Mother’s...

My daughter’s girls school accepted a trans pupil – and refused to admit it

My daughter’s school – my alma mater – states proudly that it is an all-girls institution. But last year, I discovered that it can no longer make the claim to be single-sex. It admitted a biological male. It was quite by accident that I heard my...

I carry anxiety about the outcome and where we landed

The battle for control of Warner Bros Discovery is over. In one of the biggest entertainment deals in history, the maker of the Harry Potter franchise and every extraordinary HBO drama series from The Sopranos to Succession, was sold at auction last...

BEST SUPPORTING ACTS

Selfies but no Spice: my wild night with Cruz Beckham

“Wait, did you say a cruise,” a passing Irishman asked, glancing perplexedly at the queue. He was only looking for a drinking spot, he said, and he seemed to have found a few already this evening. “A Beckham … cruise?” Eddying slightly, he screwed up...

Wave goodbye to gnarled hands and wrinkly fingers

The best proof that face creams work? Look at the difference in skin quality between an assiduously cared for face and largely ignored hands as they slide into middle age. Crepiness, brown spots, popping veins and – as spotted on Nicole Kidman, 56, as...

I stayed at the £75K-a-week clinic where Fergie took refuge

Amid the effluvia of Mountbatten-Windsor-related yarns spilling out from the Epstein sewer, one has really caught my attention. The news that Fergie had “secretly taken refuge” from the scandal at the Paracelsus Recovery Clinic in Zurich, Switzerland,...

Kirk Jones: I quit Hollywood to make I Swear

When I met Kirk Jones, the writer and director of Tourette’s biopic I Swear, a week before Sunday’s Bafta ceremony, he hoped that Robert Aramayo might defy seemingly insurmountable odds in the best actor race. “I would love Rob to pick up best actor,...

‘Everyone in fashion is afraid of taking risks’: Browns founder Joan Burstein at 100

Joan Burstein’s Studio 54 days may be behind her, but her 100th birthday last Saturday was not planned as a quiet affair. “Ibiza, a full orchestra, dancing…” she tells me. The queen – or is it empress? – of fashion retail sold Browns, the emporium she...

The lofty reason Jacob Elordi is wrong for Bond

Jacob Elordi as James Bond? Chop half a foot off him, then we’ll talk. The 28-year-old Australian star of Euphoria, Saltburn, Frankenstein and the current box-office smash Wuthering Heights is suddenly in the frame, albeit with his head poking...

Topshop is back – but pick your pieces carefully

It feels sacrilegious to say, but the return of Topshop might have been somewhat overstated. After an initial flurry of excitement about the comeback of the high street favourite earlier last year, there was an uninspiring catwalk show last September...

Why are hotels now putting loos on view?

I am lying on the bed with a favourite book, glass of champagne beside me, surveying the glorious view from the balcony of the uber-luxury new W hotel in Edinburgh. I have been mildly discomfited on arrival, in the king-size deluxe room (£315 per...

Why a sauna can be as good for you as a workout

How Margot Robbie became the most powerful woman in Hollywood

Why Gen Z are too stupid to read Wuthering Heights

The hotly anticipated film adaptation of Wuthering Heights, starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, has led to a surge in sales of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel. Bookshops shifted more than five times more copies last month (10,670) compared with January...

What to wear on Valentine’s Day, however you spend it

When it comes to dressing for Valentine’s Day, you could go literal. Hearts on everything, red top-to-toe, regardless of the setting. Alas, that’s not our style. On The Telegraph fashion desk, we’re favouring a more muted approach. Think artfully...

'My husband left me and has never told me why'

How the capital lost its allure for young professionals

Is your crockery killing you?

Why Twiggy is still our greatest supermodel

There is no point saying, “Twiggy is back” – because the truth is that she never went away. This week, however, Burberry’s new campaign reminded us of something Britain has always known: that Dame Lesley Lawson, with the haircut that launched a...

I tried Britain’s biggest breakfast sandwich

“I’ve got a buttered breadcake, two pieces of steak Canadian, three pieces of fried Spam, grated cheddar cheese and a giant hash brown in the centre, then four rashers of well-done griddled back bacon, a bit of HP,” says Joz Wootton as he assembles a...

Allison Pearson: When I met Mandelson I thought he was the devil incarnate

There is a word for receiving favours in return for divulging the secrets of the Crown; it begins with a T and ends in the Tower of London. I met Peter Mandelson only twice, on each occasion at a social event. Had I been a hedgehog, my spines would...

CLASS ACT

The pop industry is now a battle between old-fashioned stars who just want to sing and those willing to be as brash, in-your-face and controversial as possible to grab attention. Unsurprisingly, in today’s self-obsessed world, the latter camp have been...

I lost 3st on fat jabs - and had to learn how to dress again

Jimmy Tarbuck: ‘I’m the last of an era, I’m Lucky Jim’

Jimmy Tarbuck, who is 85 and throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s was one of the most popular entertainers on TV, lives in a large mock Georgian house on a private estate backing on to a golf course in Surrey – a setting which perfectly maps with the Venn...

The plot to crush capitalism one Waitrose at a time

First, there was Extinction Rebellion. Then appeared Just Stop Oil, which was, in turn, followed by Palestine Action. Now it’s Take Back Power – the latest anti-capitalist group intent on subjecting Britain to a crime wave to achieve their radical...

Stylish wet-weather outfits for the dog days of winter

With two dogs that need to be walked twice a day, every day, getting dressed at this time of year can be a challenge. We live on the Isle of Wight, and a walk on the beach often means a strong headwind (goodbye, blow-dry), while if the tide is in, I...

Why Labour’s NEC now runs Britain

The demise of England’s great cathedral schools

The killer primary teacher damned by her own words

If Labour thinks Reform is ‘fascist’, what to call a party that cancels elections?

Would you like Nigel Farage to be prime minister? If so, a senior Labour minister has a terrifying warning for you. During an interview with Sky News on Sunday, Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, was asked whether it was true that she thinks a Reform...

Five great road trips to banish the winter blues

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The city in a flap over pigeons

Ben Fogle: ‘I’ve spent 25 years trying to prove I’m more than just a posh boy’

Ben Fogle is about to arrive and I’m worried. Nothing sinister; it’s just that he’s a self-confessed hugger and I’m not. I know this because every episode of his long-running series Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild begins with him striding into shot,...

The actor, his wife, the mother of his child and her lover

Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner are the new Burton and Taylor

Timothée Chalamet reigns supreme in Hollywood. The 30-year-old actor won the award for best actor in a musical or comedy at the Golden Globes thanks to his tour-de-force in the adrenalin-fuelled ping-pong film Marty Supreme. The smart money is on him...

Ripping out historic lamp-posts is a sign of Britain’s social decay

In Pound Lane, Canterbury, there is a new display sign, proudly boasting to have been “Funded by UK Government”, which tells visitors they are in the heart of a “Unesco World Heritage Site” that is the “perfect blend of old world charm and cosmopolitan...

How to dress for the big freeze

Why your diet isn’t working

Having a doctor and scientist rifle through your kitchen and tell you all the ways you’re eating wrong is an intimidating scenario – but four families have willingly put themselves through it, and the results are fascinating. In What Not to Eat, a new...

Why fashion’s going back to the future in 2026

Life is a long game that ideally requires a long-life wardrobe. Whether you’re a millionaire or a pauper, it’s really not cool to buy new stuff simply for the sake of it anymore. In these cash-strapped, environmentally conscious times, most of us try...

Kemi's comeback

As Tory MPs settled into their seats for the final PMQs of 2025, they issued a rumble of approval that carried Kemi Badenoch into the chamber and grew as she walked down the front bench. The Tory side was buzzing, which has not always been the case...

Composed, confident and regal: Kate’s key new looks

When the Princess of Wales resumed royal duties after cancer treatment at the beginning of last year, there appeared to be a marked change in how she felt about her reputation as one of the most stylish women in Britain. A Kensington Palace source...

Taking it in their stride

The Royal family’s Christmas Day walk at Sandringham, as usual, offered a few choice vignettes. A triumphant Prince Louis was given a ball of chocolate as big as his head. The Prince of Wales called over to his daughter to check “Charlotte? You OK?”...

Sophie Ellis-Bextor: ‘I’ve had too many children to be a strict parent’

It’s 9.30am on a grey December morning when I chat to glittery pop legend Sophie Ellis-Bextor. We’re meant to be discussing everything upbeat and party-tastic as she’s hosting her renowned Kitchen Disco on Radio 2 this New Year’s Eve. Music, she...

Tales of a tour guide: what I’ve learnt about how the world sees us

After almost three decades as a travel writer, this was the year I branched out. After an intensive two-year training course and 12 exams, I qualified as a Blue Badge Tourist Guide in London. Since I began showing visitors around the capital, I’ve...

The hustling life of the real ‘Marty Supreme’

Nicknamed “The Needle” owing to his spindly physique, table tennis prodigy Marty Reisman weighed 135lb when he disembarked the aeroplane in Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Airport in 1956. When he got back on the plane an hour later, he weighed 156lb. It was the...

What Britain’s most stylish women wear on Christmas Day

When it comes to Christmas Day dressing, people tend to fall into one of two camps. Some favour Sunday best – Sandringham style – to set a celebratory festive tone. Others value comfort on this most indulgent of days, whether that means luxe...

How to avoid a family ding-dong this festive season

It’s the most wonderful time of the year… oh, come on. Christmas, in all its glory, often veers towards the intense. The endless prep, the escalating cost, the presents that won’t wrap themselves. Plus, there’s the whiff of perfection. Everything must...

Prince George – a king one day, but an ordinary schoolboy first

Message to ministers: leave our boys alone

The Government has finally unveiled its long overdue plan for tackling violence against women And girls (VAWG), which seeks to address misogyny and abuse by “disrupting dangerous attitudes and stopping harmful behaviours escalating”. Proposed measures...

Your 12-page Sport section

The materialistic Gen Zers ruining the spirit of Christmas

On an early December morning, James Mroczynski was in his living room in west London, when his phone pinged. It was a message from his 28-year-old daughter, Lydia, sending a decree delivered to the family’s WhatsApp group: “We’re doing Christmas mood...

The battle for Biggin Hill

A Mulberry handbag blew up my marriage

The signs were there long before the concrete evidence: longer work hours, staying overnight “at colleagues”, the fact my partner was constantly on his phone. His mistress’s name even popped up unapologetically on our television, thanks to their linked...

BRITAIN’S FIRST BILLIONAIRE KING?

BILLIONAIRE BRITAIN’S FIRST KING?

When Farage is prime minister and I am French president, we will fix the migrant crisis together

‘I wasn’t in the jungle to boost my career – it’s almost over’

The hit-and-run tourists ‘ruining’ the Cotswolds

The 80s pop star on her unlikely revival

In the autumn of 1987, Tiffany Darwish became an overnight star aged 15 when her single, I Think We’re Alone Now, knocked Michael Jackson off the top of the US charts. Now, at 54, she is reliving that crazy period in her life with the help of the...

The hospital that has banned washing your hands

Intensive care unit consultant Dr Karim Fouad Alber had a few questions when he and his colleagues were asked by his hospital to start washing their hands less. “Multiple,” he acknowledges, politely. The first sounds pretty reasonable. “Whether [not...

The Yorkshire town stepping up to fix broken Britain

Gleaming enamel signs advertise butchers, cafés and traditional chippies; Boy Scouts paint street railings to earn badges; a volunteer in a tabard delivers cups of tea to traders in the marketplace. It’s a scene reminiscent of a cosy 1950s historical...

BRICKLAYER’S ALMS

Among the many videos doing the rounds on social media after last week’s Budget, Don Daniels’s struck home harder than most. Daniels, 36, a bricklayer who lives in Leeds but is originally from Sheffield, posted a short clip of himself on a snowy...

The fascinating untold story of Fred Astaire’s pre-fame career

As the star of cherished Hollywood song-and-dance movies such as Top Hat and The Band Wagon, Fred Astaire appeared to live in a beautiful dream world. But the actor also had a complex private life, from his eccentric health obsessions to the abrupt end...

The Kennedy clan war transfixing America