BlinkDash

Books blogFictionIs Amanda McKittrick Ros the worst novelist in history?There's a very strong case for the fruity prose of the 19th-century author who dreamed up Lord Raspberry and Lily LentilI've played Ex Libris – well, our own free version – with my family every Christmas for years. I hate it, because I feel I should be good at it, and still never win. My everlasting thanks, then, to GalleyCat , for pointing me towards the discovery of a new literary competition with which – if I practise regularly – I'm planning to wipe the floor with them come December.

WTA Finals This article is more than 2 months oldJessica Pegula upsets world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka at WTA FinalsThis article is more than 2 months oldAmerican beats top seed 6-4, 6-3 to reach semi-finalsElena Rybakina edges Maria Sakkari 6-0, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2)Jessica Pegula upset Aryna Sabalenka, the world No 1, 6-4, 6-3 to win her second group stage match at the WTA Finals in Cancún. She then advanced to the semi-finals after Elena Rybakina beat Maria Sakkari 6-0, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2).

Book of the dayIRAReviewThe gripping inside story of the 1984 Brighton bombing, its victims, and its unintended consequences “Today we were unlucky, but remember we have only to be lucky once, you will have to be lucky always.” The IRA’s statement after its bomb exploded in a bathroom on the sixth floor of the Grand Hotel, Brighton, in October 1984, was cleverly sinister but, with its repeated emphasis on luck, oddly airy.

The ObserverFilmAnna Calvi, Neil Tennant, Nadine Shah, Wayne Coyne, Nitin Sawhney and Anna Meredith pick their top five music moviesMovies about musicians, whether biopics, fictions or documentaries, are a fixture in cinema, but judging by the flurry of activity over the past 12 months – with acclaimed films about Aretha Franklin, Freddie Mercury and Elton John among others – we are in an uncommonly busy period, if not a flat-out golden age.

Seascape: the state of our oceansConservation and indigenous peopleScientists want to protect narwhals, but local people who hunt them say their traditions are being ignored Age Hammeken Danielsen has hunted narwhals since he was a child. He and his father would travel along Greenland’s fjords on a small motorboat, armed with rifles and harpoons and dressed in polar-bear fur trousers and sealskin boots to insulate them against the freezing weather.

The fight for democracyMaineInterview‘Designed to terrorize’: Maine official who removed Trump from ballot describes recent threatsSam Levine in New YorkShenna Bellows, the secretary of state, says her decision was based on her oath to the constitution and what the law required Maine’s secretary of state, Shenna Bellows, says the threats she has faced since determining Donald Trump is disqualified from appearing on the presidential ballot in her state are an effort to scare her and others.

Jon Savage on songPunkJon Savage on song: The Screamers – 122 Hours of FearThanks to YouTube, this 70s synth-punk band who never released a record have finally found an audienceThe clip begins with a frontal shot of a helicopter: the sound of its take-off bleeds into descending synthesiser notes. A caption comes up: "Screamers." The second image to be seen is out of focus, a pink/brown blur against a sea green background.

Macaulay Culkin: ‘The paps go after me because I don’t whore myself out.’ Photograph: YouTubeMacaulay Culkin: ‘The paps go after me because I don’t whore myself out.’ Photograph: YouTubeThe G2 interviewMoviesInterviewMacaulay Culkin: ‘No, I was not pounding six grand of heroin a month’Rhik SamadderThe Home Alone star talks about the drug rumours, dodging paparazzi and his cheese-flavoured Velvet Underground tribute act Of all modern myths, it is the fall of the child star that most compels us.

Art This article is more than 4 years oldMake it a double: Cabaret Fledermaus bar recreated for Barbican showThis article is more than 4 years oldCopy of short-lived Vienna venue is star of exhibition on artistic role of cafes and clubs For fun-loving aesthetes in early 20th-century Vienna it was the place to be, a venue for expressionist dance, absurdist puppetry and experimental theatre, perhaps enjoyed with a “cabaret smash” from the cocktail menu.