Global developmentHorrified by an official campaign to kill strays, Saeed al-Err has made it his life’s work to care for cats and dogs in the city
The dog lay in the middle of Shuhada Street in Gaza City. It had been hit by a car. It looked around, uncertain and terrified, but barked fiercely whenever anyone tried to pick it up.
After a phone call, a man in jeans and a hoodie arrived. Read More...
The ObserverFictionReviewA compelling atmosphere of 'amazed discovery' characterises Mary Renault's 1953 landmark of gay literature, now republished by ViragoNineteen fifty-three was a good year for fiction, bringing us Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, The Go-Between by LP Hartley, The Echoing Grove by Rosamond Lehmann and Hurry On Down by John Wain, a novel that would retrospectively be hailed as the Angry Young Men's first blast. The most controversial book of 1953, however, is somewhat less well known. Read More...
AlgarveWith talk of air bridges opening, the beaches, splendid seafood and ramshackle charms of Olhão will soon be within reach again
Vitálio, 72, tubby and talkative, brushed lustrous hair, opens his barber shop at dawn. There’s a flow of customers blown in on the early tide – their fruit and veg picked and dug, fish hooked and delivered to the market at the end of the alley – and a handful of older insomniacs, here just to hang. Read More...