Arts and Culture

The former Arsenal midfielder made Serie A a refuge from the blood and thunder of English football.. even if he did snub Pavarotti.

This is how the world ends – not with a bang, but whimpering about “open” crumb by people with more time, less sense, and more money than they should

His zeal doused by public apathy and establishment ambivalence, Albert became gradually overwhelmed by disillusionment

This dish is comforting, resourceful cooking and a tremendous way to use up turkey not eaten on Christmas Day

There are many interpretations of its meaning. Are we witness to a dark memory, a sexual desire or a surrealist Pinocchio?

What draws Italy’s populist leader, along with a number of other far-right politicians, to the work of JRR Tolkien?

Each new performance is a comment on his genius.. and his vile antisemitism

On I’m a Celebrity, Farage failed to emulate the former shadow chancellor Ed Balls by reinventing himself as a cuddly media personality

A husband-and-wife team filmed a classic Polish novel, then made another film from paintings of it. Why?

The Americans have already had their big turkey meal of the year – and Thanksgiving owes a debt to Greece and to harvest festivals

How did the strange 1970s British film became a cult classic?

The late poet was a natural anarchist and a one-off whose like we will not see again

In terms of reflecting an idealised portrait of Britain, this year’s series has to have been, at best, troubling

The relentlessly prolific author of plays, poems, short stories and novels, Pirandello was always looking ahead

New England has many place names that must have been taken across the North Atlantic by homesick English people in the 1600s

A staunch and warm Christmas tradition for most is a yule log

The Labour leader’s love of EU anthem Ode to Joy has caused faux outrage.. and hopes that he might just be a Rejoiner after all

Tales of ice and lighthouses, the ghosts of Irish literary legends and the Iliad reborn: the books you should give this Christmas

Wim Wenders is back with two very different films... and harsh words for Brexit

The new Swedish series boasts a plot fuelled with murder, trials and reasons why women aren’t believed when they come forward

As Russia bombs Ukraine’s cultural sites, the powerful work in the capital’s Biennial is scattered across Europe

The withering contempt Christopher Eccleston's Scrooge has for the poor and homeless hits particularly hard this year

When I was a kid, allotments were a kind of cliche: strictly for old-mannish types to potter around in. Not any more

There was no other with his extraordinary improvising in the medium

Vast, desolate and magically odd – what is it about Iceland that makes musicians so desperate to record there?

In recent years we have been giving sprouts a bit more love

Dziga Vertov’s film changed cinema and outlasted the USSR – now it’s raising awareness of Ukraine’s fight

An anniversary year has featured as many scorching takedowns of Picasso’s character as it has paeans to his genius

The former Tory culture secretary and Boris Johnson superfan has written an astoundingly bad book

Small islands have evolved vocabularies based on topography – including one place where you can go ‘east’ while heading west

The first recorded purchase of Shakespeare’s collected works came 400 years ago – and the compendium soon crossed into Europe

A walk in the footsteps of Philip Kerr’s fictional detective, who cracked cases and heads in Nazi-era and cold war Berlin