The Better Half by Sharon Moalem review – on the genetic superiority of women
Women live longer than men. We know Covid-19 is killing more men than women. This book is an antidote to the myth of the ‘weaker sex’
Tiger King and a bloody mary: Hilary Mantel, Simon Armitage and other writers on lockdown life
Simon Armitage pogos to neo-punk, Anne Enright craves for Cary Grant, The Seventh Seal cheers up Julian Barnes, Diana Evans works out to hip-hop and Jeanette Winterson talks to herself … writers reveal how they’re surviving the corona crisis
This way for brain tingles: ASMR gets a shiver-inducing exhibition
From cucumber-crunchers to cranial exams, YouTube is full of ASMRtists provoking the strangely pleasurable autonomous sensory meridian response. Now they’ve got their own euphoric museum show
In brief: The Bass Rock; Radical Acts of Love; Letters of Note: Mothers – review
The subjugation of women throughout history, how to accept death without despair and a selection of letters about mothers
‘We are all Edward Hopper paintings now’: is he the artist of the coronavirus age?
With his deserted cityscapes and isolated figures, the US painter captured the loneliness and alienation of modern life. But the pandemic has given his work a terrifying new significance
From splendid to stressful: a short history of isolation
Not that long ago, the concept of isolation was seen as something of a luxury
Don’t panic: the best books to help us survive a crisis
Joe Moran looks at books on how to keep calm in times of adversity - and take joy where we find it
Top 10 novels and stories about shame
Anna Ahmatova, David Malouf, Yukio Mishima and more explore the emotion that tears us apart but leads us into compassion, writes Christos Tsiolkas
The Rules of Contagion by Adam Kucharski review – outbreaks of all kinds
Modellers have a saying: “If you’ve seen one pandemic, you’ve seen … one pandemic.” But patterns can be established to do with how things spread
Got 150 hours? Great audiobooks to listen to on lockdown
From Ian McKellen reading Homer to Bill Bryson on the body, these audiobooks can expand your horizons, even when you can’t go out