Stretched to breaking point: how to survive Reformer Pilates

Involving a contraption inspired by postwar hospital beds, Reformer Pilates is an exercise regime designed to expose physical frailties. Could our resident fitness sceptic survive a session?

✍️ Yoel Noorali
https://bit.ly/4zqgNAy

Randa Abdel-Fattah: ‘The book couldn’t keep up with real life’

The author on finding a way to write about Gaza in her novel Discipline, and the controversy that led to the shutdown of a major literary festival

✍️ @ellencph.bsky.social
https://bit.ly/4j9eFbs

‘I try to generate wonder’: Simon Armitage on why nature poetry matters

The poet laureate on writing in an age of climate collapse, discovering nature with his late father, and his new translation of the epic poem Gilgamesh

✍️ @tomgatti.bsky.social
https://bit.ly/4ico9S9

The chicest digestif is hiding in your freezer

In Observer magazine: Why an ice-cold digestif is the ultimate post-meal treat, and the top five picks for the freezer treatment

✍️ Millie Milliken
https://bit.ly/4hBxFy6

Why great wine is worth waiting for

Wine lovers are finding it harder to source mature bottles, as the industry shifts focus to new releases. But some wines, if not all wines, only truly come alive with age

✍️ David Williams
https://bit.ly/47ajVEA

Hernan Diaz’s Dickensian dystopia

In his new novel Ply, the Pulitzer prize winner transports us to a steampunk city, where a ‘pincher’ steals power to survive

✍️ Catherine Taylor
https://observer.co.uk/culture/books/article/hernan-diazs-dickensian-dystopia

‘Napoleon’s orangutan had beautiful manners, but she was not made for Paris...’

In extracts of her new collection, Katherine Rundell celebrates the secret lives and powers of animals, from an emperor’s primate to the snake weighing two Mike Tysons

✍️ Katherine Rundell
https://bit.ly/3TT0Svc

In a League of her own – Cunningham looking to bow out in style

St Helens and England trailblazer Jodie Cunningham will retire at the end of 2026 – can she add a World Cup medal to her bulging trophy cabinet?

✍️ @lizbyrnes14.bsky.social
https://bit.ly/4e5gxhZ

Jason Cundy: the man behind the mask

The ‘devious’ talkSPORT whirlwind on his ADHD diagnosis, callers who don’t know what they’re talking about, and winding up co-host Jamie O’Hara

Interview by @georgesimms.bsky.social
https://bit.ly/4zppTxm

Struggling Quins must brace for more pain after bad results

The Londoners sit bottom of the Prem table following coaching upheaval and several key injuries

✍️ @bencoles.bsky.social
https://bit.ly/4yFAtjR

Zack Polanski lost. What now?

The Green leader is facing calls to resign after a ‘Zionism is racism’ motion was passed at party conference while he fought a losing battle to win the Holborn and St Pancras byelection

✍️ @catneilan.bsky.social
https://bit.ly/4yg1yJs

TH Huddleston’s 21st-century gothic in Observer New Review

In the author’s genre-savvy The Cracks, a widow is invited by friends to live at their decrepit mansion only for it to weave its insidious spell

https://bit.ly/4hPSMLZ

What are universities for? AI can help answer the question

A key report by MIT offers educational institutions advice on how to best use the technology to define their own purpose and benefit students

✍️ @jjn1.bsky.social
https://bit.ly/4s3J3GI

The 90s: Art and Fashion is an ode to joylessness

Tate Britain’s celebration of the decade, curated by former Vogue supremo Edward Enninful, is one long magazine spread after another. The 90s never looked so tired

✍️ @lauracummingart.bsky.social
https://bit.ly/4ya4WW0

Military experts helped build our ‘Iron Dome’ defence plan, insist Tories

A Conservative proposal for a scaled-back UK version of Israel’s missile system are no gimmick, says the shadow defence secretary

✍️ @catneilan.bsky.social
https://bit.ly/4AYTAXF

A naturalist in the age of extinction

Next week, at the latest UN conference on protecting biodiversity, Cop17, delegates will discuss again the goal of ‘halting nature loss by 2030’. Simon Barnes describes a lifelong passion for non-human life

✍️ Simon Barnes
https://bit.ly/3W0t5Rz

Anne Carson blew the doors off my mind. I can’t think of a more epic Nobel winner

The Swedish Academy praised the Canadian poet’s ‘playful dialogue with the classical tradition’ as it awarded her literature’s most prestigious prize, writes Erica Wagner
https://bit.ly/3UcoaMV

Francis Fukuyama: ‘A lot of our populist politics is driven by aspiration’

Walking along a London towpath, America’s best-known public intellectual talks about the end of Trump, becoming a global guru and why writing off his Harley didn’t stop him riding

✍️ Giles Whittell
https://bit.ly/4jdEJlS

Football has anger issues – it’s time for fans to put it to good use

What do supporters really want – beyond another new striker? If they want control of their clubs, the Manchester City mess presents a rare opportunity

✍️ @georgesimms.bsky.social
https://bit.ly/3VqBy0j

The ‘Kemistry’ might be good, but Tory maths just don’t add up

The battles raging within her party may be a bigger issue for Kemi Badenoch than her own popularity

✍️ @rachelsylvester.bsky.social
https://bit.ly/4AWHcHs