I think the best way to enjoy this list, which contains lots of predictable choices (made as it was by committee), is to find a book you like, click to see who voted for it, and then look at the voters' other top 10 choices. You might find something else you like that you haven't read.

Taking the racing line in IKEA

Can a fully African team really hope to race in the Tour de France Femmes within the next three years? That's Team Amani's ambition. Last week, the team had their European debut. Find out how they got on at @escapecollective.bsky.social escapecollective.com/team-amani-m...

Astonished not to have seen a Rivals/Labour leadership political cartoon yet

Memory of the Storm at Porthgain, painting by Sarah Evans, Welsh artist.

I used to blame Julia Child for the popularity of kitchen islands but after seeing a picture of Dick van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore, I wonder if theirs is the most influential kitchen of the last 60 years. open.substack.com/pub/lloydalt...

Have you ever seen anything in your life which more clearly says, “this person used to wear a beret, recreationally”

I was annoyed that I couldn't find a database of David Attenborough documentaries where I could search for a specific episode by topic. So I made it. attenborough-100.vercel.app

Choughs reappear at Tintagel Castle in Cornwall after decades of absence

any video game with any interface different from Crin's Castle is hot garbage and I'm tired of people pretending they don't know this

My husband, who works in politics, just came into the living room, looking at a message on his phone and went, “that’s it. He’s gone.”

✨Funded placement opportunity✨with @nationaltrust.org.uk and @britishlibrary.bsky.social! We're looking for a PhD student to work on the National Trust Sound Archive of oral history interviews. 3 months FT or 6 months PT from September. For more info, see www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/r...

The Odyssey (1987)

I spent way too long this weekend correlating 81 census variables with local election results, so you don't have to. Enjoy! datawrapper.dwcdn.net/QQQ3D/7/

The best three minutes in irish music history? Very possibly Reminder as a young hack going to cover SLF’s Patrick’s Day gig in the Ulster Hall in Belfast. When the opening bars of Alternative Ulster started whole place went *nuts* www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlGm...

This 1952 memo from the Pentagon UFO files is superb There is no point preparing for aliens ‘because no one of consequence is going to take this rubbish seriously unless it happens. At that point, our policy will be determined in the traditional manner of grand panic.’ 🤣 www.war.gov/medialink/uf...

Lord of the Flies could be the best television in a decade, and still all your coaching and special effects and perfect post-production wouldn’t match the dread and sorrow of this scene from the 1963 film, with the choir singing “Kyrie Eleison” on the beach www.youtube.com/watch?v=38d9...

It never ceases to amaze me how many election pundits don’t understand the dynamics of First Past the Post, and how vote-splitting works under the UK’s electoral system. John Curtice does. Listen to John Curtice.

Commiserations to Sir David Attenborough on his 100th birthday, as he is now too old to be allowed to play with LEGO.

Gustave Moreau • Study of Helen •

Ah that’s sad www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Dogs are everywhere in art, at the feet of scholars and St Jeromes, posing with their owners and striding through Paris. What can we learn about ourselves, Kirsten Tambling wonders, from the ways we depict our animal companions? literaryreview.co.uk/artists-best...

As has become traditional on polling day, here's my poem in the style of Philip Larkin on the small joys of UK democracy (and I know, I know, he might well have voted Reform)

“…what has become increasingly clear is that the council administering your local services can no longer be separated from your politics.” This is great by @anooshc.bsky.social www.newstatesman.com/politics/ele...

Rebranding lo-fi prototyping as ‘artisanal’ in the AI era

Don’t imagine they give out an award for best author speech at a book launch, but if they did, @4hundredblows.bsky.social would absolutely walk it

Best city. (And top husband.)

Weather Forecast: A cold day in hell www.nytimes.com/2026/05/04/w...

Aline Smithson

Okay time to pick a vibe for the evening

I’ve hosted in conversations with former heads of state, I’ve punctured riding a fully loaded bike down the side of a mountain, but nothing - nothing - compares with the pressure of waiting in pole position at the Sainsbury’s self-checkout

Oh for fu—

Around minute 94 of THE MUPPET MOVIE (1979), during the closing credits, we see Miss Piggy speaking briefly to Janice in the screening room, and the film finally passes the Bechdel Test.

What’s your favourite London cycle lane that’s ten times worse than being with the cars

Neighbours, Glasgow, 1993, watercolour by Avril Paton, Scottish artist.

Carrying an IKEA bag to IKEA. Same energy as buying a t-shirt at a gig and putting it straight on over your clothes

I'm reminded of that bit in Bill Bryson's "Notes From a Small island", about our really weird sense of geography.

May Day, 1935, painting by L.S. Lowry.

If you're ever feeling helpless with a few minutes to spare and are decent at reading old handwriting, may I suggest you channel your helpless feelings into indexing a few cards for this project making documents on the victims of Nazi persecution more accessible: arolsen-archives.org/en/participa...

Half The World Away (Rhinog Fach), Eryri/Snowdonia, north Wales, painting by Elaine Bisson, landscape artist and mountain runner.

Not 1 but 3 research jobs going at @resolutionfoundation.org - something for all levels of experience So whether you are a hardened economist or a young policy person looking to cut your teeth, have a click here www.resolutionfoundation.org/about-us/opp...

In 2020, occasionally someone would write that some bit of quackery to emerge from BLM would 'cause a racist backlash', and no, if you cannot hear a black person say something stupid without going 'huh, guess I gotta punish all black people', you were, in fact, already racist.

I wrote about Golders Green. And Kenton. And Finchley. And Hendon. Are you getting the picture yet? Because if not, I can draw you a map. www.newstatesman.com/politics/soc...

COMPETITION: Using your skill and judgment, place an X at the exact point you think the bank-holiday weekend starts on this weather chart.

Extremely pleased to hear this from Mark Rowley, much needed clarity when a community which has been repeatedly gaslit by senior figures about its own safety

trying to play peekaboo with my child but he's a European diplomat: me: where'd daddy go? baby: we must articulate a post-daddy vision of strategic autonomy me: peekaboo! baby: my historic relationship with my father is stable despite recent troubles

The FT @financialtimes.com is hiring a new data journalist to join our US data and visuals team in New York. Great job, great team, great place to work. Apply here 👉 job-boards.eu.greenhouse.io/financialtim...

very little of her post-Ronettes gospel work exists archivally, but play this in memory of the last surviving Ronette, whose legacy in pop music is eternal. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM-t...