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BIZARRE: 5 | Mind Blowing Facts

John Grisham’s The Widow: a legal mystery that asks if a sleazy lawyer can ever be seen as a ‘good’ victim

Is there such a thing as the “perfect victim”? Is it an old lady who is suddenly mugged on the street? And where does a greedy lawyer, eager to profit from an elderly widow’s demise, fit in? Would we have sympathy if he was manipulated and wrongly accused of her…

The Conversation

A brief history of the haunted house in western cinema and literature

A door creaks shut, unexpectedly; a footstep is heard on the stair; a face seen at the window. The haunted house is a staple of gothic writing, television and film, but what is it about this humble setting that holds such a fascination?

The Conversation

Scary stories for kids: these tales of terror made me a hit at sleepovers as a pre-teen

Seeing the cover of Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (1981) has a powerfully Proustian effect on me: my stomach drops a little bit and a shiver of twinned fear and delight runs down my spine, even now, some 35 or so years after I first encountered…

The Conversation

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Monsters, menopause and bold women – what to see, read and visit this week

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has long served as a parable – a warning against the hubris of playing God, the dangers of motherless creation, reckless parenthood and unchecked scientific ambition. It’s a story that continues to resonate, revealing how little human ego and error have changed over time.

The Conversation

Scary stories for kids: Watership Down made me aware of my mortality at age four

When I think of my first encounter with horror, I don’t think of a vampire, a witch, or even a possessed girl’s head spinning round (I saw The Exorcist at the age of seven). I think of a Sun God, I think of teeth and claws slicked with blood, I…

The Conversation

The Life of Violet: three unearthed early stories where Virginia Woolf’s genius first sparks to life

Few feelings are more thrilling for a literature scholar than unearthing an archival gem. Urmila Seshagiri, professor of English at the University of Tennessee, got to experience such a jolt when she was told about previously unseen typescripts of three short stories by Virginia Woolf.

The Conversation

Revenge quitting: is it ever a good idea to leave your job in anger?

Many of us will have experienced the rage that comes with being badly treated at work – and maybe even felt the instinct to pack up and leave. Bad bosses, belittling treatment or poor pay could be behind these kneejerk emotions. But, while most employees swallow their anger and get…

The Conversation

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Criminal psychologists are profiling a different kind of killer – environmental offenders

After years of trying to understand the minds of people who hurt others, I have recently turned my attention as a criminal psychologist from violent crimes to the less well-known world of green crime.

The Conversation

Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses uses critical dystopia to challenge us to build a better future

Between 2013 and 2015, Malorie Blackman was Britain’s first black children’s laureate. Her young adult series Noughts and Crosses (2001-21) at once challenges and plays with the prevailing racial ordering of western life and thought.

The Conversation

Reform and Green party members the most ideologically removed from the average voter

Against the backdrop of a fragmenting political system, the 2025 party conference season in the UK has been an unusual one. The Greens and Reform, having secured strong results in the 2024 election, enjoyed an unprecedented level of interest in their events. Members were interviewed in the media and party…

The Conversation

Starmer overlooks the negativity bias that makes Farage’s tactics so potent

Keir Starmer’s legacy in British politics is already assured. No one in modern British history had managed to come to power with a massive majority and then become the least popular prime minister on record in just over a year.

The Conversation

Often overlooked, Tudor art richly reflected a turbulent century of growth and change

It can sometimes seem like the Tudors are everywhere, at least in Britain: on television, in bookshops and in historic houses and galleries across the country. Yet within the discipline of art history, appreciation for pictures and objects produced in England between 1485 and 1603 has been slow to take…

The Conversation

Caravaggio’s Medusa: why we need to look the Gorgon in the eye

The image is stark and shocking. A decapitated head, her eyes open, her mouth agape in a silent scream, her hair a nest of still-hissing snakes. Blood pours out from her severed neck. She is not quite alive, but she is not yet dead either.

The Conversation

‘A tool in the fight against Amazon’: independent bookshops to begin selling ebooks

A new platform will be an alternative to Kindle, and bookshops will earn 100% of the profit from sales

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The Conversation

A contemporary history of Britain’s far right – and how it helps explain why so many people went to the Unite the Kingdom rally in London

The recent “Unite the Kingdom” rally in London shows how easy it is for the radical right to mobilise a mass protest by repackaging a perennial issue as a moral panic. It did so by fusing together fears of migration and crime with a rising distrust in government.

The Conversation

Twilight at 20: how Stephenie Meyer’s vampire saga changed young adult fiction forever

Stephenie Meyer’s debut novel, Twilight, was published in 2005 – the first in a series that went on to sell over 100 million copies worldwide. Twenty years, six novels and five movie adaptations later, it is clear that Twilight has permanently changed the shape of young adult (YA) fiction.

The Conversation

Shakespeare for children: an expert’s top ten books to spark their imagination

As pupils head back to school, they may well encounter Shakespeare’s plays and poems – perhaps for the first time.

The Conversation

I’ve researched the politics of flags in Northern Ireland for decades – here’s what England needs to understand

Flags – particularly the union flag and the St George’s Cross – continue to appear in towns and cities in England, at times in response to the housing of migrants and asylum seekers in the local area.

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The Conversation

How to help trigger positive tipping points – and speed up climate action

The collapse of a major system of ocean currents, the meltdown of major ice sheets or the dieback of the Amazon rainforest are all examples of negative climate tipping points. These are the big risks associated with a changing climate, where harmful change becomes self-propelling. Each could cause environmental disasters…

The Conversation

Reform v the Nottingham Post: why local media is crucial to democracy

The proposed reorganisation of council boundaries was probably not the issue which prompted British voters to elect hundreds of Reform councillors at May’s local elections.

The Conversation

The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom – a deep and nuanced analysis of a complex monarch

The reign of Æthelstan (924 to 939) has excited a significant amount of study in recent years. In 2004 there was The Age of Athelstan, by Paul Hill. In 2011, Sarah Foot published Æthelstan: The First King of England, and in 2018, Tom Holland released Athelstan: The Making of England.…

The Conversation

Honoré de Balzac’s La Comédie Humaine is a Hindu mandala

The 19th-century novelist Honoré de Balzac was Catholic, French to the core and obsessed with the material details of French society. Yet there is something profoundly Hindu in the way he sought to understand the world.

The Conversation

What was Jane Austen’s best novel? These experts think they know

To mark the 250th anniversary of her birth, we’re pitting Jane Austen’s much-loved novels against each other in a battle of wit, charm and romance. Six leading Austen experts have made their case for her ultimate novel, but the winner is down to you. Cast your vote in the poll…

The Conversation

Why I had to become a murder detective for my book about an 18th-century Jewish pedlar

This article contains details of antisemitism and violence that some readers may find upsetting.

The Conversation

William Blake’s painting The Ghost of a Flea speaks to processing childhood trauma

In William Blake’s painting The Ghost of a Flea (1820) a huge muscled figure fills the frame. He steps forward, the left side of his body towards the viewer. In one outstretched hand he holds a bleeding bowl (used to catch the blood released during bloodletting) made from an acorn.…

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