Bryan Cranston reveals he had COVID-19 and calls himself 'one of the lucky ones' after recovering

Bryan Cranston revealed Thursday that he'd been sickened with COVID-19 and had already recovered. The 64-year-old Breaking Bad star said he'd had the illness 'a little while ago' in a video shot outside a blood and plasma donation center. The actor filmed himself donating his antibody-containing plasma while urging his …...Read More

Steve Jobs' widow Laurene Powell Jobs enjoys a summer escape in the French Riviera

Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, has been spotted enjoying a summer holiday in the French Riviera aboard her $110 megayacht, Venus. Joined by friends and family aboard the 260-foot luxury yacht, Powell basked in the blazing hot Mediterranean sun off Cannes on Tuesday. The billionaire …...Read More

Confused about Britain's lockdown rules? Here's what you can and can't do now

IF YOU HAVE SYMPTOMS Anyone with coronavirus symptoms – a new persistent cough, fever or loss of sense of taste or smell – should self-isolate and order a test. If you test positive you must stay at home for at least 10 days. If you test negative you no longer …...Read More

CHILDREN'S

THE UNADOPTABLES by Hana Tooke (Puffin £12.99, 400 pp) THE UNADOPTABLES by Hana Tooke (Puffin £12.99, 400 pp) In the autumn of 1886, five babies are left in quick succession, each with an intriguing item, outside an Amsterdam orphanage run by the chilling Elinora Gassbeek. Twelve years later the children …...Read More

SHORT STORIES

SUPPORTING CAST by Kit de Waal (Penguin £8.99, 144 pp) SUPPORTING CAST by Kit de Waal (Penguin £8.99, 144 pp) The characters in Kit de Waal’s superb collection of short stories have appeared elsewhere in her writing, hanging out on the fringes of the story and then disappearing into the …...Read More

WHAT BOOK would author John Boyne take to a desert island?

. . . are you reading now? Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. I recently bought a beautiful illustrated edition, published by The Folio Society and translated by Adam Thorpe. It’s one of those novels that I’ve been meaning to read for decades but somehow never got around to. Right now, …...Read More

'Smells' book tells how filth once flowed through our streets

BOOK OF THE WEEK SMELLS by Robert Muchembled (Polity £17.99, 260 pp) We are fortunate to live in a deodorised age, benefiting from hot water, flush lavatories, plumbed-in bathrooms, power showers, washing machines, mains drainage systems, soap, detergent and shampoo. Always excepting the odd tramp and the recent fad for …...Read More

Author celebrates sharks and insists they aren't terrifying killers

NATURE EMPERORS OF THE DEEP by William McKeever (William Collins £20, 272 pp) Sharks are older than trees. The creatures first appeared 450 million years ago, way before those tall things with leaves. They’ve survived several extinction-level events, including the one that killed the dinosaurs. Yet now they face the …...Read More

I'll have a 99 with petrol sprinkles!

SCIENCE NATURAL by Alan Levinovitz (Profile £20, 272 pp) It’s a good word, natural. Natural birth, natural food, natural fibres: all are excellent, I think we’d agree. But Alan Levinovitz, an American professor of religion, has a more nuanced view of the subject. He feels that the worship of nature …...Read More

Author explains how he beat anxiety and learned to laugh

MEMOIR ANXIOUS MAN by Josh Roberts (Yellow Kite £14.99, 208 pp) One morning in 2016, Josh Roberts woke up with a hangover. Or so he thought. As the day wore on, however, the 26-year-old realised this was more than just a headache after too many beers. His heart was pounding, …...Read More