FluxDash

Top 10sFictionFrom Kit de Waal’s precocious caregiver, to Liz Nugent’s ugly rivalry, to Colson Whitehead’s juvie ordeal, writers are often drawn to a bond that can (almost) never be broken I’ve always been drawn to books about families and all of the tension, drama, and betrayal that can come with them. But books focusing on brothers provide a different dynamic, where emotions are intensified – love, jealousy, rage, all those shared memories, those unbreakable bonds, a genetic pull that can never quite be escaped.

US news'Pregnant man' goes on Oprah Winfrey showAn American man who claims he is six months pregnant said it was a "miracle" in his first TV interview. Thomas Beatie, 34, of Bend, Oregon, used to be a woman before undergoing gender reassignment surgery. He first claimed he was pregnant in an article headlined "Labour of love" in a gay magazine, the Advocate, last month. Many were sceptical, particularly after Beatie said he would not give any interviews until April Fools' Day.

BrexitFrench woman ‘heartbroken’ after losing job in UK after Brexit speaks out‘I’ve been in love with the UK since I was a little girl’ says woman dismissed after missing official deadline A French woman has spoken about how she lost her job in Shropshire and was left “heartbroken” about life in the UK because of a mix-up over the immigration process for EU citizens launched after Brexit. Sophie, who is married to a British man, was in the UK for five years before Brexit but went back to France in 2020 for 18 months after a family tragedy.

FictionObituaryKate Saunders obituaryPrize-winning novelist who won the Costa award for Five Children on the Western Front and whose Belfry Witches stories were adapted for TVKate Saunders, who has died aged 62, was a prize-winning novelist, journalist and critic whose many achievements emerged despite a life of suffering and loss. Kate initially worked as an actor, joining the National Theatre in 1983, an experience that inspired her second novel, Storm in the Citadel (1989), and the third of her detective novels, The Mystery of the Sorrowful Maiden (2021).

Stonehenge This article is more than 10 years oldThis article is more than 10 years oldEnglish Heritage unveils long-awaited, £27m 'fit for purpose' building, located 1.5 miles from stones, to explain site's historyWhen the longest awaited visitor centre in the history of heritage tourism finally opens its doors on Wednesday, people will come face to face with a tall, slim man who has been at Stonehenge for a very long time.

Italy This article is more than 6 months oldPompeii fresco find possibly depicts 2,000-year-old form of pizza This article is more than 6 months oldAncient painting includes fruit that looks like a pineapple – although it is almost certainly something else A striking still life fresco resembling a pizza has been found among the ruins of ancient Pompeii, although the dish seems to lack two essential ingredients – tomato and mozzarella – and includes an item that looks suspiciously like a pineapple.

Book of the weekBiography booksReviewSex and madness: the troubled playwright who released US theatre from its puritanical straitjacket When Tennessee Williams declared “Life is cannibalistic” he was also speaking of art: he had a tendency to equate the two. As John Lahr notes in his mammoth new biography, Williams was “the most autobiographical of American playwrights”, using the raw material of his troubled youth to fuel his art. Like any good cannibal, Williams understood the symbolic power that consuming your enemy confers.

FictionReviewA richly stylised novel about rural life in 1830The year is 1830. Fifteen-year-old Mary lives a life of toil and cheerlessness on her father's farm. Outspoken, witty and bold, she has one bad leg and white hair "the colour of milk", a phrase used as a refrain throughout, along with: "this is my book and I am writing it by my own hand." Mary's father is a vicious bully, her mother an emotionless drudge given to such reflections as "

Tech and the cityCitiesSanta Maria Tonantzintla was set to be one of Mexico’s first smart cities – but residents saw it as an attempt to westernise their town and leave tradition behind Lupita Tecual Porquillo had heard a rumour that the plaza was going to be “remodelled”. The 51-year-old grocery store owner lives around the corner from the centre of Santa Maria Tonantzintla, a sleepy town in the state of Puebla, about three hours from Mexico City.