| | | | | Dear Reader, | I don't often talk about beauty, but this week I'm going to do a dump of my current favourite products – just because. Eco by Sonya's Face Tan Water is my first recommendation. I'm completely allergic to fake tan, it brings me out in a rash, so to find a no-nasties product that really makes a difference has been brilliant (£25, ecobysonyadriver.co.uk). For day-to-day coverage, I'm a stickler for Heliocare's 360 color gel oil-free sunscreen projector in beige. It's much lighter than a full-on foundation but hides a multitude of skin sins (£33, lookfantastic.com). For perfume, I'm literally obsessed with Matiere Premiere. I can't tell you how many times I get stopped in the street when wearing Radical Rose, and now I'm hooked on Neroli Oranger for summer vibes (£250, matiere-premiere.com). Finally, for shampoo and conditioner, it's Ouai (pronounced way) all the way (from £28, theouai.co.uk), with some Olaplex that I leave on overnight once a week for bonding. So a light tan, good face-smoothing coverage, a spritz and luxury hair, and I'm good to go. | | Lucy Cleland
Editorial Director | | | Staying In | LISTEN: Caroline Lucas’ Nature Series | | Goalhanger – the group behind The Rest Is Politics podcast – has launched a new investigative mini-series presented by former Green Party leader Caroline Lucas. This will delve into a suppressed government-commissioned report compiled by the Joint Intelligence Committee which warned that climate breakdown and ecosystem collapse must be treated as a national security threat. Across four episodes, Lucas will speak to voices from diplomacy, food systems, water, climate and geopolitics to explore what these warnings mean for Britain – and ask why they have been largely ignored in mainstream political debate. Launching today, with new episodes released weekly. | READ: The First House by Avni Doshi | | Avni Doshi, known for her Booker Prize-shortlisted debut Burnt Sugar, is back with her second novel. The First House begins with an unnamed woman’s husband walking into her bedroom and saying he wants a divorce – a huge shock to the narrator, who has always viewed their marriage as a happy one. But in the days and weeks that follow, she begins unravelling: sifting through their life together and noticing warning signs she’d previously ignored. A practising astrologist, she moves between realism, dreams and folklore, exploring how we make sense of real-world issues through mythical patterns and using the surreal and the cosmos to explore themes of motherhood, family and female autonomy. Out now (Hamish Hamilton) | GIVE: Your Home Some Sustainability Credentials | | The word ‘sustainability’ can be an off-putting one, conjuring images of an ascetic existence that is at odds with modern notions of desirability and luxury. It’s a narrative that needs up-ending, says C&TH’s Virgina Clarke. True environmental stewardship isn’t about giving things up, it’s about elevating how we live in such a way that we have a legacy to pass onto future generations. And fortunately, the interiors industry is undergoing a revolution – and designers and makers in the luxury sphere are now prioritising these ethics in a variety of ways. From non-toxic paints and reclaimed furniture to heat pumps and window glazing, these are the brands and designers leading the charge when it comes to living well and longevity. | | Going Out | SEE: The Odyssey In The Cinema | | It’s a tale as old as time – literally. Homer’s epic poem Odyssey is one of the world’s oldest surviving pieces of literature (along with his Iliad). And when British-American classicist Emily Wilson unveiled her major new translation into English in 2017, she inspired one of Hollywood’s most renowned filmmakers: Christopher Nolan. His fresh take on the tale lands in cinemas today, starring a whole host of familiar faces including (but by no means limited to) Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o and Charlize Theron. They inject the familiar tale of the Ithacan king stumbling across many blockades on his mammoth journey home from the Trojan War with a fresh modernity (including some controversially modern language and, whisper it, American accents). But as renowned historian/podcaster Tom Holland put it, much to the rage of Elon Musk, ‘it is by some way the best cinematic adaptation of a Greek myth I have ever seen. It honours Homer while simultaneously making something new of him’. Filmed entirely in IMAX, don’t wait to stream it in a few months: this is an epic worth venturing to the cinema for. Find your closest screening at flicks.co.uk | PLAY: Champagne Pong At The Goring | | Beer pong not your thing? What about if the beer was swapped for champagne? That’s what’s on offer at The Goring, which is launching a champagne-fuelled ping pong pop-up to celebrate 100 years of the sport. A ping pong table will appear in the hotel’s private garden, with guests invited to buy a bottle of Bollinger and try their hand at a game or two, bouncing the balls into coupes by hand or using a bat. Perhaps having that precious cargo to protect will make you a better player… thegoring.com | PLAN: A Bucket List Trip To Nepal’s Dolpo Wilderness | | In one of the most exclusive adventure travel experiences of 2025, Pelorus Travel is offering a small number of people rare access to Nepal’s remote Dolpo region – home to ancient cultures, fragile ecosystems and valleys deep in the Himalayas. The expedition begins in Kathmandu where travellers will meet a Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader before heading to Dolpo via helicopter. Expert guides will then lead you on a multi-day trek through some of the most untouched terrain in the Himalayas, coming home each evening to a fully-serviced private mobile camp. The trip will culminate in a visit to Shey Gompa: a Buddhist monastery considered to be the spiritual heart of western Nepal. Available from October 2026, from £120,000 based on four guests for 12 nights. pelorustravel.com | | C&TH Partnership | Subscribe To The Observer | | For more than two centuries, The Observer has been committed to fearless, independent journalism. | Now, The Observer is bringing the best of its reporting, ideas and culture to readers wherever they are. It’s a little bit of Sunday, every day. | The Observer is delighted to offer 50% off an annual digital subscription. | Your digital subscription gives you access to The Observer’s daily digital edition, the PDF edition of the paper every Sunday, early access and ad-free listening to podcasts, free tickets to events, exclusive access to newsletters and subscriber benefits designed to enrich your cultural life. | Visit observer.co.uk and enter code OBSERVERCAF50 at checkout to start your subscription. | | Share This Newsletter With A Friend | | | | Staying in Forever… | Property Of The Week | | An Italian palazzo in the middle of the Oxfordshire countryside, this historic home was designed by the husband of a homesick princess, longing for the palaces in her home town of Genoa. Modelled on the city’s Palazzo Pallavicini, this property has since laid witness to Roundhead plots and the making of My Cousin Rachel (2017). | On the market for £14,250,000, search.savills.com | | Competition Time | | | | Psssst… | A new design-led hotel is coming to London’s Lincoln Inn Fields this autumn, The Webster Covent Garden. Described as a ‘modern antidote to digital burnout’, the property will include analogue features like classic alarm clocks, hand-selected books and Jacob Jensen phones, with an Italian restaurant called Carmelina’s and a programme of events spanning book clubs and roving bar carts. This is the debut hotel for The Webster group, with a second due to follow in Times Square, New York. | | | Sign up for 12 print issues and instant access to every digital edition for only £39 |
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