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Jake Kerridge Chief Obituary Writer |
So many books, so little time. “Of making many books there is no end,” Solomon says wearily in the Book of Ecclesiastes, and there have been some 150 million more published since his day. How on earth do you pick out the book that might change your life from that mass of print?
Let me offer my pick of the 50 greatest books of all time – the half-century of fiction and non-fiction works that I think will enhance any reader’s life. Spanning the best part of three millennia, these are the works that have made me think something, or feel something, or laugh at something, in a way that no other books have.
Such lists are usually compiled by committees – this one is just the fruit of a single person’s lifetime of reading and individual (you may think highly questionable) taste.
However much you disagree with my inclusions and exclusions, I hope you enjoy reading the list – and, even more, that you might go on to enjoy any or all of my choices.
Continue reading➤ |
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Oliver Brown Chief Sports Writer |
For 16 months, Michael Johnson has stayed silent while his good name has been besmirched. His great dream to revolutionise athletics, to implant it more deeply in public consciousness outside the four-year hoopla of the Olympics, has curdled into a nightmare that threatened, at its nadir, to torch his reputation.
One of the greatest athletes of all time, and known to millions through his unmistakably forthright analysis on the BBC, he found his Grand Slam Track project sabotaged by a “catastrophic capital issue” when a key investor withdrew. Amid the ensuing nightmare, where he lacked the money even to pay the track and field stars who had signed up, he frequently found himself unable to sleep. “Are you stupid?” he would ask himself. “Why did you do this?”
This is Johnson’s first interview about the ordeal. When we meet in Santa Monica, not even the idyllic Californian sunshine can disguise the mental strain he has endured. Just 12 miles from here, in Malibu, he and wife Armine watched in horror last year as half their street burnt down, with the vast Palisades Fire destroying nearly 7,000 buildings in some of the most desirable postcodes on the planet. Even today they are still not back in their own home, having bounced between six different rental properties.
To navigate this stress, and the agony of Grand Slam Track unravelling in its first season, Johnson, once the world record-holder over 200 and 400 metres, explains that he has applied the same principles as when recovering from the stroke he suffered in 2018. “Getting myself back to a point where I could enjoy life as I did before required the absolute best version of myself,” he says. “It’s a lesson I’ve been able to call on again and again.”
For subscribers only ➤ |
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Jake Wallis Simons From talk of ‘traitors’ to calls for mass deportations, a strain of US-inspired ethnonationalism has arrived on our shores Continue reading ➤
Michael Deacon Is this Britain’s most ridiculous MP? Continue reading ➤
Heidi Alexander Better roads, reliable trains, family getaways – Labour has a plan Continue reading ➤ |
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Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Gulf’s energy producers cannot use the main shipping routes to export their barrels of oil and tanks of gas. Iran has blockaded the Strait of Hormuz in the wake of US-Israeli strikes while exports through Bab-el-Mandeb in the Red Sea face constant attack from Houthi rebels. Now, Israel and the region’s oil powers – who have been enemies for decades – are quietly drawing up plans to use an overland pipeline to break the impasse.
For subscribers only ➤ |
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Labour’s groundbreaking Renters’ Rights Act was designed to give power back to tenants. One hundred days after the law came into force, though, Britain’s buy-to-let market is in chaos. Rents are up, landlords are quitting, and many tenants feel worse off than before. With the legislation’s architect, Angela Rayner, back in the Cabinet, the situation for tenants and landlords threatens to get worse. Continue reading ➤ |
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Pedro Sánchez, the Left-wing Spanish prime minister, has provoked anger from his country’s international allies for his stances on Donald Trump’s war against Iran and Israel’s assault on Gaza. The sight of tens of thousands of people streaming across Europe’s only land border with Africa at Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in North Africa, prompted an extraordinary, critical response from 22 of the 27 EU member states. While Sánchez has improved Spain’s economy over the past five years, this committed Europhile now stands accused of turning his country into a Left-wing pariah. Continue reading ➤ |
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When my husband Tony died suddenly from a heart attack, I found myself alone at 63, writes Jacqueline May. The grieving process was brutal. He was my rock and a loving dad to our two daughters. After three years of solitary nights in a big, empty bed, however, I felt ready for love again. Dating apps led to nothing but disappointment, and six years later, I had all but given up hope – until a blind date cooked up by my daughter turned out to be the start of something special. Continue reading ➤ |
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In 2020, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), writes Emily Mead. By then, it was dominating my life. I couldn’t go anywhere that wasn’t within running distance of a toilet. After struggling with my symptoms for five years, with medication having little impact, I finally came across The Gut Coach, Chris Roberts, an IBD recovery specialist who had successfully managed his own UC through diet and lifestyle. Could his 21-day reset give me my life back?
Continue reading ➤
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Many a crestfallen passenger at a British airport has seen their expensive sprays or shampoos consigned to a bin by security staff. Twenty years ago, restrictions on liquids, aerosols and gels (LAGs) in hand luggage were brought in overnight in response to the 2006 liquid bomb plot.
Security officials settled on 100ml as the largest safe size for an individual container. Seven years ago, Boris Johnson promised that the rules would be lifted by 2022. Yet we are halfway through the summer of 2026 and only a handful of British airports have removed the LAGs rule. As Greg Dickinson, our Senior Travel Writer, and I discuss in The Travel Expert podcast, confusion remains rife – amid controversy about whether the limits do any good.
Liquid levels are also a concern for thousands of would-be river cruisers on the Rhine and Danube, many of whom have seen historically low water turn their voyages into coach holidays. In brighter news for airline passengers, Gatwick’s expansion is set to bring more choice and lower fares.
Listen to the full episode here ➤
Sign up for Travel with Simon Calder ➤
Plus, read about Simon’s latest adventures here ➤ |
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Nirmal Purja, who has died aged 43 in an avalanche in Pakistan, pushed the boundaries of high-altitude climbing and was a celebrated figure in Nepal and on social media, but his life was not without controversy, writes Andrew M Brown, Obituaries Editor.
In the space of six months and six days he climbed the 14 mountains in the world that are more than 8,000m high and at the time of his death was about to attempt his 58th ascent of an “8,000er”, without using supplementary oxygen.
Good-looking and dashing, Purja gained millions of followers on social media and was the subject of a Netflix documentary – quite something for a mountaineer from a poor farming background in Nepal, though purists criticised his somewhat buccaneering techniques.
He developed his climbing career while still a soldier in the Gurkhas, making back-to-back ascents of Mount Everest during the 2017 British Gurkha Everest Expedition. His Gurkha training never left him and he led expeditions to search for lost climbers.
In 2009, he became the first Gurkha to join the Special Boat Service.
Read his full obituary here ➤ |
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1902 | Edward VII is crowned King, succeeding his mother, Queen Victoria
1945 | US drops second atomic bomb, codenamed “Fat Man”, on Nagasaki, Japan, destroying part of the city
1974 | Richard Nixon resigns as US president and Gerald Ford, his vice-president, takes over (and our front page story the following day, seen below)
1988 | Just one day after 8/8/88, the number 888 is the winning lottery combination in New York
Birthdays: Vivek Ramaswamy (41), Gillian Anderson (58), Rod Laver (88)
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Find as many words as you can in today’s Panagram, including the nine-letter solution. Visit Telegraph Puzzles to play a range of head-scratching games, including The 1% Club, Cogs, and Quick, Mini or Cryptic Crosswords.
Yesterday’s Panagram was CONJOINED. Come back tomorrow for the solution to today’s puzzle. |
Thank you for reading. Allister Heath, Sunday Telegraph Editor
P.S. Please share your thoughts on the newsletter at fromtheeditor@telegraph.co.uk. |
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