BlinkDash

Composite: Ian Tennyson/GNM Imaging/Getty Images Composite: Ian Tennyson/GNM Imaging/Getty ImagesMarine lifeHeading for the beach? So are huge blooms of jellyfish. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water... It was a blazing hot summer’s day in central Queensland when Rachael Shardlow’s family – her older brother Sam, their parents, Ruth Macklin and Geoff Shardlow, and their dogs – decided to head for the water. But which water: lake, river, ocean?

The series six Love Island lineup in South Africa. Photograph: Joel Anderson/ITV/Rex/ShutterstockThe series six Love Island lineup in South Africa. Photograph: Joel Anderson/ITV/Rex/ShutterstockReality TV This article is more than 2 years oldLove Island makers say LGBT contestants bring ‘logistical difficulties’ This article is more than 2 years oldITV producers say greater inclusivity is a goal for the reality TV hit, but that sexual diversity challenges the show’s format The makers of TV’s Love Island have said that there have been “logistical difficulties” with plans to include LGBT contestants.

RereadingSociety booksFifty years after John Howard Griffin darkened his skin and travelled through the segregated US south, his record of the fear and prejudice he experienced is still resonantOne day in 1964 John Howard Griffin, a 44-year-old Texan journalist and novelist, was standing by the side of the road in Mississippi with a flat tyre. He saw a group of men approaching him. Griffin assumed the men were heading over to assist him but instead they dragged him away from his car and proceeded to beat him violently with chains before leaving him for dead.

‘Brutish, menacing’: Dan Wyllie as defence minister Mal Paxton in Secret City. Photograph: Showcase‘Brutish, menacing’: Dan Wyllie as defence minister Mal Paxton in Secret City. Photograph: ShowcaseTelevisionReviewA journalist, a body and a secret. With Showcase’s new six-part series, does Australia have its own House of Cards? Political thrillers are rare on Australian television screens; networks favour tried and tested crime procedurals and family comedy-drama instead. The Code (2014) was the first show in recent memory that envisioned a local political landscape as dramatic and dangerous as Washington or 10 Downing Street are portrayed to be; mostly, our televisual takes on Canberra tend towards the satirical.

A 16th-century engraving of Constantinople. Photograph: Getty Images/DeAgostiniA 16th-century engraving of Constantinople. Photograph: Getty Images/DeAgostiniFiction in translationReviewAs a surveyor of east-west relations, the French novelist was drawn to the idea of a Renaissance artist taking an Islamic sabbatical - but the result is fiddly and unpersuasive When a novelist writing in a language other than English is discovered mid-career by Anglo-American readers, old books and new books take turns in tumbling forth.

John Lee, caning chairs as he was taught by his grandmother. Photograph: Tony TreeJohn Lee, caning chairs as he was taught by his grandmother. Photograph: Tony TreeFamilyInterviewThe Gypsy wedding that changed my lifeAs told to Angela WigglesworthJohn Lee’s mother was a Gypsy but his father was not – a pairing so forbidden he was raised by his grandparents. He was snubbed by his community – until he was made an unusal proposal