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TheatreHer military painting was such a sensation that it was bought by Queen Victoria. A new play explores Elizabeth Southerden Thompson’s trailblazing art, her privilege – and the prejudice she faced Elizabeth Southerden Thompson’s 1874 painting The Roll Call was a sensation in its day. People queued for hours to see her depiction of a line of wounded and fatigued soldiers during the Crimean war. The demand to see it was such that a police officer was deployed to hold back the crowds.

The 10 best ...CultureWith JK Rowling’s fictional Pagford about to appear on BBC1, Michael Hogan chooses his favourite screen villages, from disturbing Midwich to romantic Ballykissangel. Nominate your favourite village in the comments below and it could be featured in the alternative list next week. PagfordThe Casual Vacancy (2015) Michael Gambon and Julie McKenzie in The Casual Vacancy. Photograph: Steffan Hill/BBCThe setting for JK Rowling’s first non-Potter novel is pretty Pagford: a tranquil West Country village, complete with cobbled square and 12th-century abbey.

BooksDo disturbing novels reflect an extreme reality or are they just titillation? Hanya Yanagihara, Leïla Slimani and others on why they set out to shock us Bret Easton Ellis received 13 death threats before American Psycho was even published. He had to sign a declaration saying he had read them all. That way, if somebody did murder him, his parents couldn’t sue the publisher. This was in 1991. “I would not have the impulse to write that book again,” Ellis says now, during a visit to the Guardian.

Politics booksReviewThe Nobel-winning economist and New York Times columnist is at the top of his game in eviscerating those who have dragged America down The New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has four essential rules for successful punditry: Stay with the easy stuff Write in English Be honest about dishonesty Don’t be afraid to talk about motives Active Measures review: how Trump gave Russia its richest target yetRead moreThose maxims have consistently made Krugman the most intelligent and the most useful New York Times pundit, at least since Frank Rich wrote his final must-read column 11 years ago.

South Dakota‘Burn, beetle, burn’: South Dakotans torch an effigy of destructive bugHundreds of people set fire to a giant wooden beetle in the annual festival to raise awareness of the harmful pine beetle In what’s become an annual winter tradition: hundreds of people carrying torches set fire to a giant wooden beetle effigy in Custer, South Dakota, to raise awareness of the destructive impact of the mountain pine beetle on forest land in the Black Hills.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at West Yorkshire PlayhouseTennessee WilliamsCat on a Hot Tin Roof: Tennessee Williams's southern discomfortThe American playwright's masterpiece, an explosive story of sexual repression, has suffered at the hands of directors and censorsGiven that it is Tennessee Williams's best play, it is surprising how rarely we see Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Since its British premiere in 1958, it has had only three major London revivals.

Tennessee This article is more than 8 years oldChattanooga killings: four marines named as FBI investigates motiveThis article is more than 8 years oldPolice chief commends officers’ bravery during attack by suspected gunman Mohammed Youssef Abdulazeez, who died in the attack along with four others The Chattanooga police chief on Friday commended the bravery of the city’s officers who saved a wounded colleague as they exchanged fire with the gunman who had carried out an attack on two military sites that left four marines dead.

FictionReviewAn obsessive survivalist abducts his daughter in this gripping family dramaPost-apocalyptic scenarios of being the last person alive on Earth are standard fare for Young Adult literature, but that familiar trope is given a twist in a debut novel that brings to mind such unlikely bedfellows as Thoreau’s Walden and Emma Donoghue’s Room. In 1976, eight-year-old Peggy Hillcoat is the daughter of unconventional parents – concert pianist Ute and her young husband James, who spends his time with “retreater” friends, planning how they would survive come the inevitable nuclear war with the Soviets.

Spain This article is more than 2 months oldSpanish clergy sexually abused more than 200,000 children, inquiry estimatesThis article is more than 2 months oldOmbudsman says Catholic church’s response to cases ‘insufficient’ and calls for creation of a reparations fund More than 200,000 children are estimated to have been sexually abused in Spain by the Roman Catholic clergy since 1940, according to an independent commission. The report did not give a specific figure but it said that in a poll of more than 8,000 adults, 0.