CountryObituaryDon Williams obituary‘Gentle Giant’ who topped the US country singles charts 17 times and toured widelyBritish fans of country music have tended to favour the unassuming, less flamboyant male exponents of the genre such as Jim Reeves, George Hamilton IV and Don Williams. At the peak of his popularity in the late 1970s and 80s, Williams, who has died aged 78, headed the bill at the annual Wembley international festival of country music, toured Britain and mainland Europe, and sold LPs by the hundreds of thousands.
HMV This article is more than 11 years oldHMV to sell off historic Hammersmith ApolloThis article is more than 11 years oldCompany agrees to sell 9,000-seat, art deco venue, opened in 1932 as Gaumont Palace cinema, to Stage C for £32mThe Hammersmith Apollo, which has hosted The Beatles, Queen, and David Bowie has been sold by its owners HMV to an American-German joint venture.
HMV has agreed to sell the 9,000 capacity, art deco venue, which opened in 1932 as the Gaumont Palace cinema, to Stage C for £32m as part of a wider turnaround.
Lea Page on the last climb toward Monteriggioni, Tuscany. Photograph: Lea PageLea Page on the last climb toward Monteriggioni, Tuscany. Photograph: Lea PageWalking holidaysI take risks on solo hikes, navigating animal traps and dangerous terrain. But for a woman, men are the biggest threat. I do it to be more open to the world, in the hope it will be more open to me
The path, more of a faint depression in the field I had just crossed, disappeared into a wood: yes, I could see an opening in the vegetation.
Florida This article is more than 1 year oldMan dies searching for Frisbees in Florida lake amid alligator warningsThis article is more than 1 year oldOfficials say ‘gator was involved’ in death of man at disc golf course where people often seek Frisbees to sell
A man died searching for Frisbees in a lake at a disc golf course where people are warned by signs to beware of alligators, police in Florida have said.
FictionReviewTaking a Middle English classic as its inspiration, this is a novel about a lasting grief that echoes through time
The unidentified 14th-century “Pearl poet” left behind a single manuscript written in Cheshire dialect, containing Pearl, Gawain and the Green Knight and two other religious poems. The manuscript is among the most treasured salvagings of Middle English literature, a crucial part of our rich inheritance as readers of English poetry. While most readers are more likely to know Gawain, Pearl is an extraordinary work about love, grief and faith, strikingly filled with suicidal ideation.
Notes and queriesQueen VictoriaThe long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts
Why do Americans use the term “Victorian”? Victoria came to the British throne in 1837, more than 60 years after the US declared independence. Tim Howell, Newquay
Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com.
Readers replyOne answer is: they do and they don’t. American history that happened along the north Atlantic coast is commonly referred to as taking place “in Victorian times”, but any history that happened west of the Rockies is usually discussed as “in the old west”.
Hot off the press… clockwise from top left: Kirk Douglas in Ace in the Hole; Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan in She Said; Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday; Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in All the President's Men: ‘still the gold standard’. Shutterstock; Allstar; UniversalHot off the press… clockwise from top left: Kirk Douglas in Ace in the Hole; Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan in She Said; Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday; Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in All the President's Men: ‘still the gold standard’.
Poland This article is more than 3 months oldTwo of Poland’s top military commanders resign days before electionThis article is more than 3 months oldResignations of chief of general staff and operational commander are blow to PiS party
Europe live – latest updates Two of Poland’s top military commanders, including the chief of the general staff, have tendered their resignations just days before a crucial parliamentary election that will determine the future political course of the country.
Jeffrey EpsteinNo one beyond Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell is directly implicated in the sex-trafficking conspiracy – and that seems unlikely to change
From beyond the grave, the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein still has a sinister power to make headlines.
But despite scores of names of Hollywood stars, politicians and celebrities scattered across once-sealed documents released in New York this week, little new information has been added to the broad sex-trafficking conspiracy at the center of the Epstein story.
Mark Kermode's film of the weekBarbieReviewBarbie takes a ride from her dream house to reality as Little Women writer-director Greta Gerwig takes another cultural icon and lovingly subverts it
Writer-director Greta Gerwig’s cinematic reinvention of Mattel’s most (in)famous toy comes on like a sugar-rush mashup of Pixar’s Toy Story 2, Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio, the cult live-action feature Josie and the Pussycats and the Roger Ebert-scripted exploitation romp Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.