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'Europe is watching you' - Anke Engelke the only voice of criticism as Eurovision brushes aside human rights

Sun, 27 May 2012 15:26:49 GMT

Despite its long track record of human rights abuses there was barely a hint of condemnation during this weekend’s Eurovision final in Azerbaijan.

Eurovision just doesn't get The Hump

Sun, 27 May 2012 10:27:01 GMT

So, even enlisting the help of a singer who has sold more than 150 million records wasn't enough. Not even Engelbert Humperdinck, not even The Hump, could do it for us. Europe once again looked the other way last night as the United Kingdom's soul searching quest for a Eurovision Song Contest winner threatened to go on and on and on. Humperdinck, with the song "Love Will Set You Free", mustered just 12 points at the Crystal Hall in Baku – a solitary chip from Belgium, two from Latvia, four thrown our way from Ireland and a welcome five from Estonia.

Pop diva Lady Gaga cancels Indonesia show after threats

Sun, 27 May 2012 07:28:12 GMT

Pop diva Lady Gaga has cancelled her show in Indonesia amid threats from hardline Muslims.

Win a set of all the brilliant winners of the 2012 Fiction Uncovered prize

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:24 GMT

The Fiction Uncovered prize is an unusual one, in that it selects eight titles instead of one winner each year. Its remit is quite simple: to “uncover and celebrate our best British writers”.

King of the Badgers, By Philip Hensher [sic], By Joshua Cody By Nightfall, By Michael Cunningham Made in Britain: Why Our Economy is More Successful Than You Think, By Evan Davis Foreign Bodies, By Cynthia Ozick

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

King of the Badgers, By Philip Hensher

Fourth Estate, £8.99

****

Chariots of Fire, Hampstead Theatre, London Children's Children, Almeida, London In the Next Room (The Vibrator Play), Ustinov Studio, Bath

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Adapted from the award-winning film, Edward Hall's staging of Chariots of Fire is just out of the starting blocks at Hampstead. Yet this homage to Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell – Britain's triumphant Olympic sprinters of 1924 – already has a West End transfer confirmed for mid-June. Is Chariots merely hitching a ride on the London 2012 bandwagon? Is it a winner, theatrically?

Red or not, here they come: Artists reimagine the iconic telephone booth

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

They were originally painted that distinctive bold red in order to be eye-catching. In 1935, the architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott created the telephone box that we know and love, and – by 1940 – more than 15,000 had been installed around the country. Called the K6, the design was commissioned by the Post Office to commemorate the silver jubilee of King George V. Royal though its patronage may be, the phone box was democratic, making technology available to everyone, on the street, at any time. It went on to become a design classic, a veritable symbol of Britain.

Album: 2:54, 2:54 (Polydor/Fiction)

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

You couldn't move for bands like 2:54 in the early 1990s.

Fiction Uncovered: The writers prized after all others

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

To the great happiness of most British book lovers, the literary calendar seems full of prizes for almost every genre of book and writer.

The Islands, By Carlos Gamerro (trs Ian barnett)

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Set in Argentina 10 years after the Falklands War, and released in the UK to coincide with its 30th anniversary, this genre-mash of a novel blends the conventions of sci-fi, hard-boiled and drug fiction but is overwhelmingly a historical work. Bleak and uproarious, The Islands seems to want to break away from examining the legacy of the 1982 conflict and be a different novel altogether. But the bitterness of that defeat, and the international community's blasé attitude to Britain's imperialist stance, mean that history is not so easy to ignore.

Matthew Bourne's Early Adventures, Sadler's Wells, London; Ballo della Regina/La Sylphide, Royal Opera House, London

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

It's not just the humour of Matthew Bourne's early work that makes it so remarkable. It's also the gayness. Emerging from dance training in the late 1980s, Bourne set up his fledgling company in a world still sniggering behind its hand, pre-Section 28, at the notion of male love.

Album: Rumer, Boys Don't Cry (Atlantic)

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

The second album seems a little soon for Rumer to be pulling the covers over her head.

Hell-raising: A how-to guide with Anaïs Mitchell

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

'My mother gave a mighty shout, opened her legs and let me out." So begins the title track of Anaïs Mitchell's latest album, Young Man in America. Her name's pronounced An-AY-is, and, well spotted: she may be American but she's not a young man.

HHhH, By Laurent Binet (trs by Sam Taylor)

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Laurent Binet knew what he wanted to avoid when he embarked on his debut novel, which is about the assassination attempt in Prague in May 1942 of the head of the Gestapo, Reinhard Heydrich, by a Czech and a Slovak, Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik. Binet was adamant that he was not going to fictionalise real events to fill in any gaps in his knowledge.

Album: Scissor Sisters, Magic Hour (Polydor)

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Scissor Sisters burst on to the scene as the biggest, best queer-straight disco party on earth, an all-inclusive gathering of a global Rainbow Nation.

Selected Poems, By Don Paterson

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

In January 1994, the Poetry Society organised a promotion of the 20 so-called "New Gen" poets. An attention-grabbing subset – Don Paterson, Glyn Maxwell, Michael Donaghy, Mick Imlah and Simon Armitage – gave a whiff of blokeyness to the whole crew. And you couldn't get much more blokey than the titles of Paterson's first two collections, Nil Nil (1993) and God's Gift to Women (1997).

Seann Walsh: 'I don't really like jokes'

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

I wanted to be a comedian or actor from as far back as i can remember When I was 21, I started putting my name down for open-mic nights and kept on bottling it. All I wanted to do was try it once because I didn't want to die without having done stand-up. Obviously, now I've died loads of times.

The secret life of the red carpet

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

An unknown from Cheshire will be the centre of attention tonight as some of the nation's most famous faces from the small screen gather for the TV Baftas. The unassuming star is likely to get walked on by the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch, Emilia Fox, Miranda Hart and Dominic West. But that is as it should be because, you see, the focus of camera lenses at the British Academy Television Awards will be a 45-metre strip of red carpet from the Plantation Rug Company in Stockport. As has become obligatory for awards ceremonies, actors will parade down the scarlet sward ahead of the event at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

Guns N' Roses, Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle Sharon Van Etten, Komedia, Brighton

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

You can get away with almost anything in pop – that's kind of the point – but contempt for your fans is a cardinal sin. Asked for a reason for the insanely late hour at which Axl Rose and his "Guns N' Roses" (now featuring only long-serving keyboardist Dizzy Reed from the glory years) deign to take the stage, his PR people replied simply: "No statement I'm afraid."

The Balgger's Guide To: The Hay Festival

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

The Hay Festival kicks off on Thursday, and runs until 10 June. Now in its 25th year, Hay is to books what Glastonbury is to music: starting from humble origins, it has become the biggest festival of its kind. Anyone from Jimmy Carter to Nigella Lawson can be expected to turn up, as bigwigs from the worlds of literature, politics, and history descend on the Welsh borders to plug their books. As at Glasto, it usually rains.

Skios, By Michael Frayn

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Michael Frayn's play Noises Off is sometimes described as a farce about a farce. Well by that judgement, his new novel Skios is a step backwards. It's simply a farce. A rattling paced and amusing one, but a routine, identity-mistaking, bedroom-door-slamming, bed-hopper none the less.

Between the Covers 27/05/2012

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Will Self suffered a blow on Tuesday when part of his house collapsed.

Photography: Marilyn and Me, By Lawrence Schiller

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

In this "Memoir in Words and Pictures", the Life, Time and Newsweek photographer Lawrence Schiller recounts the two assignments that made his name: photographing Marilyn Monroe on set during the making of Let's Make Love, which was released in 1960, and Something's Got to Give, shown right, which was never completed.

DVD: Chronicle

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Chronicle is a superhero movie with a difference.

Invisible Ink: No 125 - Rachel Ferguson

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

What a grand time it must have been to be a wealthy modern girl! Born in 1892 in Hampton Wick – a terribly proper neighbourhood – Rachel Ethelreda Ferguson was a Treasury clerk's daughter, educated privately in Kensington and finished in Florence, emerging with an independent mind and spirit. At 16, she became a campaigner for women's rights, about which she said: "I was as militant as authority allowed me to be. I wanted to go to prison but was refused on the score of age." She went on to become a leading member of the Women's Social and Political Union, a society that was often accused of existing to serve the middle and upper classes. However, working-class members found it difficult to retain their jobs once they were exposed as campaigners for universal suffrage, and the war needed waging on all fronts.