The antidote: your favourite reads beyond coronavirus
‘You think Trump will save you?’: my nine days detained by North Korea’s secret police
“As I followed the man and his companion out of the front door and turned the corner to the parking lot at the side, I saw the black Mercedes-Benz, which had a black plastic bag covering its licence plate. ‘Fuck, you’re in deep shit now,’ I thought to myself.”
‘I knew she was loved’: Nick Grimshaw on Caroline Flack, mental health and the paparazzi
“With Caroline, no one was reporting on facts. There’s this constant need to dig things out about people. It felt really unnecessary. It felt relentless. It’s really dark. It’s not a funny thing to cover. Someone’s life was on the line here. And their relationship, and their family’s lives.”
My favourite game: Graham Gooch v India, Lord’s 1990
“As he reached 250, collective ears pricked up. On he went, past Wally Hammond’s 251, Glenn Turner’s 259, through the 260s, overtaking Graeme Pollock and Zaheer Abbas on 274, past Compton, May, Richards IVA, and Bradman, again, to reach, after a hiccup of hesitation, a triple hundred, which brought with it the outrageous gesture of removing his helmet.”
My favourite film aged 12: Where Eagles Dare
“The dialogue is cursory (‘Some people have a sixth sense. He has a sixth, a seventh and an eighth. He’s our best agent’); poor Ingrid Pitt appears to have been cast as a pair of tits; it rather strains credulity that a group of men who, Eastwood apart, look more like a bank’s darts team than hardened killers have been sent to storm a Nazi fortress. But if you can’t suspend disbelief at the movies, where can you?”
The wondrous life and mysterious death of Golden Eagle 1703
“He dug 1703’s frozen carcass out from under the snow and gave it a once over in the wind-whipped field. Much to his surprise, there were no overt signs of trauma. The bird weighed more than 7lb and, aside from being dead, looked to be in good shape. Still, there was no telling what type of damage might be lurking under its plumage. Bare zipped 1703 into a small body bag and chewed over the possibilities on his drive back to the office.”
6. Like pouring tequila on your brain: why Tiger King is the most-watched show on Netflix
This documentary revels in humanity’s basest instincts – but don’t let that put you off
7. Canada shocked by double murder of Indigenous hunters
Two Métis men were found shot dead in rural Alberta after what police believe was an ambush
“My aunt, who has died of a brain aneurysm aged 64, worked in the examinations department at Newcastle University for 25 years.”
9. Hunting, meth and big cats: Tiger King’s rarely seen version of southern queerness
Who could have guessed that a mullet-wearing, polyamorous exotic animal owner would become TV’s most talked-about gay star?
10. Chuck D says Flavor Flav still in Public Enemy, and split was a hoax
Spat over Bernie Sanders rally announced as “catastrophe to wake people up”, as new track is launched featuring both rappers
