From her role as sleuth Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote to originating some of the most famous roles on the stage, Lansbury’s career was impressive and expansive.
Annie Ernaux is the first French woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Her autofiction masterpiece, The Years, has been called a modern In Search of Lost Time.
Despite portraying sex workers as agents of social change, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ presents sex workers as worthy victims because they didn’t choose their disreputable fates.
Siang Lu’s debut novel suggests whitewashing Asians for the screen is profitable. ‘People pay to see foreignness repackaged as stereotypes – and thus rendered virtually invisible.’
In his 1972 novel The Stepford Wives, Ira Levin powerfully dramatised women’s suburban alienation and men’s resistance to feminist change. Michelle Arrow traces its enduring influence.
In the latest ‘Thor’ movie, the character Jane Foster raises questions about the impact of cancer on ideas of worthiness, responsibility and power — and what it means to be a superhero.