Fire weather  

by John Vaillant (Sceptre £25, 432pp)

With what sometimes seems like half of Europe and North America ablaze this summer, Fire Weather, the latest book by the Vancouver-based writer and journalist John Vaillant, could not be a more timely work. Climate change is unleashing the destructive power of fire in new ways.

As Vaillant highlights, we are seeing effects scientists have been predicting for decades. Nine of California‘s 20 largest wildfires have occurred since 2020.

Fire seasons around the world now seem relentless in their devastation. Vaillant quotes a senior officer in the Californian fire service who told him, ‘The fire season used to run from May to October. Over the last decade it’s changed to year-round.’

On a single day, July 7, 2017, the Canadian province of British Columbia saw 142 separate wildfires ignite.

High heat, drought conditions and wind combined to turn many of them into uncontrollable blazes. 

Until we radically curb our addiction to fossil fuels, Vaillant argues, these problems will only get worse.

The focus of his eloquent book is this century’s most intense urban fire, which engulfed the city of Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada in May 2016.

Often nicknamed ‘Fort McMoney’, the place has been described as ‘the ultimate boomtown’. In the previous 50 years, the town’s population had increased fiftyfold. Surrounded by forest, it is, in Vaillant’s words, ‘an island of industry in an ocean of trees’.

The reason for Fort McMurray’s success lies just below the forest floor. The Alberta tar sands is one of the biggest known petroleum reserves in the world, and the city grew rich from extracting and processing the bitumen deposits in which the oil is hidden.

It’s a huge operation and visible from space. From 6,000 miles above Earth, Fort McMurray’s bitumen mining and upgrading complex can just be seen.

Unfortunately, the oil boomtown is also sitting amidst one of the world’s wildfire centres. MWF-009 (McMurray Wildfire 009), as it was officially designated, ‘began as a random forest fire’. It was first spotted at 4pm on Sunday, May 1. In less than a day it had increased in size by 500 times and it was heading towards Fort McMurray.

At a Press conference on the Monday, one of the men in charge of the response to the fire said, ‘We’re blessed that we didn’t have 35km winds in the wrong direction.’ 

The following day they got precisely that. At that speed, equivalent to 22mph, a fire like 009 could travel a mile in a minute.

Yet the authorities seemed blind to the approaching catastrophe. ‘People should carry on their normal day, and also be prepared’ was the advice, given at the time the fire was spiralling out of control. 

On the morning of May 3, the 88,000 inhabitants of Fort McMurray were, as Vaillant writes, ‘living in a parallel reality, as oblivious to their environment as the passengers on the Titanic were to theirs’.

The fire had already jumped the Athabasca River, a third of a mile wide, and was threatening the city. It was rapidly becoming out of control.

A photo taken in the neighbouring province of Saskatchewan showed that MWF-009 was ‘plainly visible 80 miles away’. Residents were soon all too aware of the danger they were in.

‘We couldn’t see the sun any more,’ a local radio host reported. ‘There was ash raining down, and there was this red hue downtown.’

The city’s real estate was offering the fire new fuel. At the height of the blaze, a house could go from ‘fully there . . . to fully gone’ in five minutes.

Despite the heroics of the city’s firefighters, sending them to face the flames was, in Vaillant’s striking phrasing, ‘like sending plumbers to confront a bursting dam’.

Flight was now the only option. Tens of thousands of people exited Fort McMurray in cars and trucks. 

Throughout the afternoon of May 3, ‘cell phones and dashcams captured citizens cursing, praying and weeping as they tried to escape a suddenly annihilating world where fists of heat pounded on the windows, the sky rained fire, and the air came alive in roaring flame’.

Astonishingly, no one died in the Fort McMurray Fire, but thousands of houses and other buildings were destroyed or damaged.

Around the city, 2,300 square miles of forest burned. Some areas of the fire were not fully extinguished until August of the following year.

Fort McMurray is no longer a boomtown. Of those who fled, nearly a quarter — 20,000 people — chose not to return.

In addition to providing a clear-eyed portrait of its human cost, Fire Weather sets the Fort McMurray disaster in the wider context of the hotter world our actions have created.

‘This is not Planet Earth as we found it’, Vaillant writes and his powerful book is a must read for anyone interested in our collective future.

Frankie Bridge earned a thunderous reception as she took to the stage for a gala night performance of 2:22 A Ghost Story on Wednesday.

The singer, 34, took her bow alongside co-star Jaime Winstone to huge applause at The Apollo Theatre.

Frankie, who took over the role from Sophia Bush, will appear in the play alongside Jaime, who stars as Jenny, from August until the end of the run on 17 September. 

She donned a chic mustard suit for the role of Lauren after making her debut in the spooky play on Friday.

And while several stars were in attendance for the glitzy gala night, Frankie’s husband Wayne missed the show, and was instead seen heading to a Liam Gallagher gig in Camden Town.

After the show, both Frankie and Jaime changed into a glamorous looks for the play’s after party.

The Saturdays star donned a sleek black top with a dramatic black satin skirt as she posed for snaps with Jaime and co-stars Ricky Champ and Clifford Samuel.

Jaime also cut a glamorous figure in an eye-catching red bow jumpsuit as she headed to the post-show party.

Among those who attended the gala night was The Great British Bake Off star Candice Brown, who opted for a stylish frilled green dress.

The star was accompanied by her pal, Dancing On Ice professional Matt Evers.

Lisa Snowdon opted for a black satin blouse and flared trousers, accessorising with gold pointed-toe heels.

Frankie Bridge won praise from fans for her West End debut last week.

Following her first appearance, a fan took to Twitter to pen: ‘Saw 2:22 A Ghost Story last night and it was superb! I was gutted that Sophia Bush wasn’t in it because she was ill but Frankie Bridge was an excellent replacement. Highly recommended.’

Others lauded the ‘fantastic’ appearance, in which she plays haunted lead character Jenny’s pal Laura who attends a diner party at her house. 

A dedicated follower took to Instagram to pen: ‘Met Frankie after the show tonight. Frank did a fantastic job for her west end debut! I’ve been supporting since the S Club/The Saturdays days in the early 2000’s…

‘I am so proud of her and can’t wait to see the show some more times. I already have the last day booked for both shows. Thank you for stopping, and signing my programme. Go smash it, Frank!!’

Frankie replaced One Tree Hill actress Sophia in the role, after she was forced to cut short her scheduled stint, following a hospital stay. 

Sophia has been suffering with an illness since becoming unwell in June, and has jetted home to the USA for medical treatment, upon the advice of doctors.  

On joining the cast, Frankie shared the news to her Instagram, posting the promotional photographs as she gushed: ‘I’ve loved 2:22 A Ghost Story since I first saw it, so landing the role of Lauren is a total dream come true.

‘Never one to do things by halves, it’s an honour to be making my West End debut on such a clever, suspense-filled production and I couldn’t be more excited to join the cast who have already made me feel like a part of the family.’

She added in an official statement: ‘Lauren is a joy to play with so many layers and emotions to explore. I can’t wait for you to meet her!’

Last month, producers released a statement that said: ‘Due to illness, Sophia Bush has unfortunately had to withdraw from the production. We are delighted to welcome Frankie Bridge to the 2:22 family.

‘Our talented understudies Gemma Yates and Allie Dart have been covering the role of Lauren on rotation. We are hugely grateful to them for stepping up so brilliantly. They will continue until Frankie begins.’

Sophia added: ‘I am truly gutted that my time in 2:22 A Ghost Story has come to an unexpected and early end. I came down with a virus in June and have not been able to bring my body back to a baseline.

‘After weeks of being intermittently pulled off stage, visiting multiple doctors and spending a night in the Emergency Room, I’ve been advised by expert healthcare specialists that I needed to end my time on stage and be under the care of my doctors at home in the US.

‘I owe a debt of gratitude to my incredible cast mates and to every member of our extraordinary company, who became fast family. It means the world to me that so many fans traveled to London to see the show.

‘If you’re booked for future nights, please still go and support my brilliant costars. They will blow you away! And I know that Frankie Bridge will be astounding as she makes Lauren her own through the rest of this run.

‘There is no greater experience than the stage. I miss it madly. I love it deeply. And I cannot wait for the next one.’

2:22 A Ghost Story follows Jenny who believes her new home is haunted, but her husband Sam does not agree.

They argue with their first dinner guests, old friend Lauren and her new partner Ben. Belief and scepticism clash, so they agree to stay until 2.22am.

Frankie has transitioned from a pop star in S Club Juniors and The Saturdays to become an author and podcaster who joined the ITV’s Loose Women as a panellist in 2020.

She was a finalist in I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here and also danced her way to the semi-finals on Strictly Come Dancing in 2014.

The Glucose Goddess Method: Your Four-Week Guide to Cutting Cravings, Getting Your Energy Back, and Feeling Amazing

by Jessie Inchauspe (New River £22, 288pp)

Well, who wouldn’t want to feel amazing? Inchauspe is a French biochemist and author, and she certainly does look amazing. We all need blood sugar, but we need to manage it.

The folks who make sweets weren’t born yesterday, so managing our sugar is not as easy as it sounds. The core of this book is a four week, step-by-step plan to steady our blood sugar.

Inchauspe recommends a tablespoon of cider vinegar every day (for its blood-sugar levelling qualities) — any way you choose, but easiest stirred into a glass of water.

Then it should be: a savoury breakfast never a sweet one; a bowl of veggies before your main meal of the day, and make sure you move, for example by taking a ten-minute walk, afterwards. As an added bonus, there are more than 100 delicious looking recipes. Now where’s my cider vinegar?

Killing Thatcher

by Rory Carroll (Mudlark £25, 416pp)

Spoiler alert: the title’s wrong . . . the IRA never did kill Thatcher. But if you didn’t know that, this compelling book by the Guardian’s hugely respected Ireland correspondent might not be for you.

The IRA bomb, on a delayed timer, exploded in the middle of the night on October 12, 1984, at the Grand Hotel in Brighton. It was the last day of the Tory party conference. Rooms were destroyed, dozens of people injured and five killed.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was in her lounge when the explosion ripped through the hotel. Had she been just a few feet in another direction, she would have been cut to ribbons. As it was, she was unhurt. It was the most daring conspiracy since the Gunpowder Plot, and Carroll’s telling of it reads like a thriller: true crime is very big business these days, and you won’t find anything more gripping than this.

Outlive: the Science and Art of Longevity

by Dr Peter Attia with Bill Gifford (Vermilion £22, 496pp)

There’s no shortage of books these days encouraging us to live better, healthier and longer lives. And you will certainly need a long life for this humongous tome.

Peter Attia, a leading specialist in medicine and longevity, sets up this look at human health with the story of the hapless mythical Greek Tithonus, whose lover, the goddess Eos, asked Zeus to give him eternal life.

To his joy, his wish was granted but because Eos forgot to ask for eternal youth as well, his body continued to decay. Big problem.

What Dr Attia wants us to do is live a long, meaningful and fulfilling life based on physical, emotional and spiritual health. Ominously, it turns out that the blood and cholesterol tests we get from an annual health check may be ‘normal’, but we might still be unhealthy — because average is not the same as optimal. Above all, exercise is hugely beneficial: just a little bit of daily activity is better than nothing.

Going from zero exercise to just 90 minutes a week can reduce your risk of dying prematurely from all causes by 14 per cent. And as the author says — it’s very hard to find a drug that can do that. The book comes with a belting endorsement from actor Hugh Jackman — and he looks pretty good.

Selling Hitler: the Story of the Hitler Diaries

by Robert Harris (Penguin £10.99, 342pp)

Still as gripping as ever, even four decades after it was first published, this new edition, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the ‘Diaries’, also comes with a cleverly designed new cover suggesting an age-old forgery. Harris, one of Britain’s most successful novelists, is also a dab hand at non-fiction.

In April 1983, in a bank vault in Switzerland, the German magazine Stern offers to sell more than 50 volumes of Hitler’s secret diaries.

The price is £2.3 million. In Britain, the bidder was Rupert Murdoch’s Sunday Times. Behind the fraud are Gerd Heidemann a German journalist obsessed with collecting Nazi memorabilia (and not in a good way) and Konrad Kujau, a small-time forger of luncheon vouchers looking to, er, expand.

In the supporting cast are a collection of media magnates, editors, journalists, academics and experts — all unified by greed and gullibility, which blinded them to the obvious implausibilities of the banal collection. Specimens of Hitler’s handwriting were authenticated because they were compared to other examples of the forger’s work.

Hilarious and barely credible, it is still one of the best books you will ever read about British journalism.

I’m Not As Well As I Thought I Was

by Ruby Wax (Viking £18.99, 224pp)

She may be famously depressive, but Ruby can write about depression without ever being depressing. Far from it: this is a fabulously entertaining read, despite encompassing a nervous breakdown, arduous inpatient treatment at a mental hospital and her husband’s prostate cancer.

Ruby is one of the funniest women around and fearsomely honest. She started this book as an account of travelling the world; it ended up as something very different.

There are some scarringly frank verbatim accounts of sessions with her shrink, but also wildly funny comic setpieces: like the time when, working part-time on the door at a strip club, she persuaded the bored strippers to put on a performance of Chekhov. The punters, however, were not impressed. She also has fascinating memories of the stars she has interviewed from OJ Simpson to Carrie Fisher.

A delightful book, endearingly chaotic and deeply moving, too: it is like spending a wild weekend with one of the funniest, smartest and most interesting people you will ever meet.

Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food . . . and Why Can’t We Stop?

by Chris van Tulleken (Cornerstone £22, 384pp)

Not a book to make you feel happy about your three meals a day.

Over the past 100-odd years we have entered a new age of eating, where most of our calories come from an entirely new set of substances — all skilfully engineered to drive excess consumption, with ultra-processed food (UPF) making up 60 per cent of the average diet in this country and in the U.S.

They are now the leading cause of early death around the world, though quite how that fact is calculated is slightly beyond me. So what is UPF?

There’s a long scientific definition, but what it boils down to is this: if it’s wrapped in plastic and has at least one ingredient that you wouldn’t find in your kitchen, it’s UPF. It’s what an older generation would have called ‘junk food’.

Van Tulleken, a garlanded doctor, scientist and journalist, tells the story with great wit, and no little anger, focusing on the rapid increase in obesity since the 1980s, largely due to UPF.

The multinational food corporations know what they’re doing, and they aim to make sure you will want (and buy) more. Very disturbing . . . and make sure you check your kitchen cabinets.

Giles and Mary: Country Life — a Story of Peaks and Troughs

by Giles Wood and Mary Killen (Ebury Spotlight £17.99, 256pp)

Giles Wood and Mary Killen are the ultra-posh couple from Channel 4’s Gogglebox, who have seemingly been delighting fans of the show since 2015 as they burble away on television to each other about television.

Now they have parlayed this fame into this, their second book (their first was about marriage).

Giles is an artist and gardener, while Mary is a journalist: the Spectator’s agony aunt no less. They moved into their cottage, near Marlborough in Wiltshire, some 30 years ago, after buying it from one of Mary’s chums on Tatler magazine — and extremely cosy the place looks, too.

This book feels like sitting in an agreeable, upscale country pub, with a G&T, eavesdropping on the likeable-looking couple at the next table, while they bang on about the ups and downs of country life: dogs and vets, what the Common Agricultural Policy did to the countryside (not much good), septic tanks, vicars, edible flowers, pub closures and planning horrors. And the rest.

And, as Giles remarks of his friends in South London, if you are one of those people who has to spend most of your life in a traffic jam moving at the pace of a horse and cart, there’s plenty in this book to muse on.

Built to Move

by Kelly and Juliet Starrett (Orion £18.99, 336pp)

We take it for granted that our bodies will just keep on going in (reasonably) good condition. But would you buy a Maserati and leave it sitting out in all weathers for months on end and then expect it to carry on working properly? The Starretts introduce us to a series of physical work-outs to counteract the effects of our sedentary, technology-dependent way of living.

The most ferocious — and most vital — challenge is the Sit-and-Rise Test. You cross one foot in front of the other and sit down on the floor cross legged. Then rise up with your arms outstretched.

This test measures our wellbeing and flexibility. Though most of us will find it staggeringly hard. Oh well, keep at it. It’s got to be good for us.

Colditz, Prisoners of the Castle

by Ben Macintyre (Penguin, £10.99, 384pp)

The latest page-turner from the seemingly inexhaustible keyboard of Macintyre, one of the most captivating of all World War II historians, doesn’t disappoint.

Colditz was the forbidding Gothic castle in the heart of Nazi Germany, used to house the most troublesome captives of the Third Reich, Allied prisoners of war who the Germans reckoned were always going to try to escape. Well, surprise surprise, that’s exactly what they did.

Compulsively readable, and told in Macintyre’s inimitable wry, humorous prose, this is a remarkable tale of rip-roaring derring-do, courage and extraordinary resourcefulness. With knotted sheets, secret tunnels and elaborate disguises, there were more attempted escapes from Colditz than any other camp.

But this immaculately-researched book also reveals a close-knit world sealed behind the prison’s massive walls, a place which included communists and women, aesthetes and philistines, spies, poets and traitors.

Half the population of the castle were German, and Macintyre paints a remarkable portrait of this crew, too — many cultured and humane and far removed from the brutal Nazi stereotype.

Some well-known figures take a knock to their reputation: Douglas Bader, the legless air ace, for example, was not wholly likeable. He was, says Macintyre, a total hero and at times a ‘complete bastard’. A superb book.

Female crime story fan killed and dismembered South Korean woman ‘to see what it was like for real’ after becoming obsessed with murder

• Jung Yoo-jung, 23, confessed to the murder of an unnamed freelance tutor
• Authorities confirmed they were conducting psychopath tests on Jung Yoo-jung

By Christian Oliver

Published: 07:17 EDT, 2 June 2023 | Updated: 08:22 EDT, 2 June 2023

Rare photographs tell the fascinating untold story of the Flying Scotsman’s incredible tour of America and Canada in 1970 (which got underway once a ‘cowcatcher’ had been fitted)

By Ted Thornhill, Mailonline Travel Editor

Updated: 07:56 EDT, 29 May 2023

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Saturday Night Live personality Bowen Yang has shared a story about Succession star Jeremy Strong and his famous commitment to staying in character. 

The Brisbane, Australia-born entertainer, 32, opened up about seeing the 44-year-old actor, who plays Kendall Roy on the HBO hit, as he walked onto the set of the series Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens, remaining in character as the morose billionaire media heir.

The Saturday Night Live personality spoke about the encounter on his podcast Las Culturistas Wednesday, saying that Strong wandered onto the set of the show and into its production office, asking for directions to the restroom.

‘The most recent season of Nora From Queens shot at the same studio as this season of Succession,’ Yang, who plays the role of Edmund on the comedy. ‘The Nora From Queens production office was pretty close to the Succession stages and their production office, and as we famously know, Jeremy Strong is a Method actor.’

Yang said ‘at one point,’ Strong made his way into the office ‘and says, “Excuse me, do you know where the bathroom is?”

‘And then someone in the office is like, “Yeah, it’s just down the hall to the left.” He goes, “Thank you so much” and he leaves.’

Yang said that Strong subsequently left and 10 minutes later, a Succession production assistant entered the office and asked about the actor’s whereabouts.

The PA ‘goes, “Hi, was Jeremy just in here?”‘ Yang said. ‘And they were like, “Yeah he was – he went to the bathroom” and then this PA goes, “Did he ask where it was? Did he come here to ask you where the bathroom was?”

‘They were like, “Yeah, why?” and the PA says, “He has a scene today where he has to ask someone where the bathroom is.”‘

Yang said of the actor’s commitment to his roles: ‘I think that is Method to such a ridiculous degree that he must be in on the joke,’ adding that he subscribes to ‘the idea that Jeremy Strong has a sense of play and irony.’

Strong’s hyperfocused commitment to his craft has been well documented amid his success on the HBO drama the past five years.

In a key scene in the first season of Succession – in which his character is involved in a late night car wreck, in which the vehicle he was in careened into a lake – he had assistants drench him with ice water to amplify the reality of the morose situation.

The show’s executive producer/director Mark Mylod told IndieWire in 2018 that Strong had ice water bucked dumped atop his head during the already-grueling shoot.

‘I guess the great thing about a physical obstacle is that what you really have to do is put yourself in that situation, in those given circumstances, and then deal,’ Strong told the outlet.

The actor, who won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2020, continued: ‘So I had to get in a lake that was close to freezing cold temperatures in the middle of the winter and it is horrible as it would be.

‘Those things in a sense actually are easier than the, for lack of a better word, emotional work.’

He described the physical impact of the routine, saying, ‘Your head is burning and your limbs are numb, so you don’t have to act that basically.

‘That was very scary, just letting the air run out in my own lungs to the point where I felt just enough in jeopardy and in danger so that I was really in the situation and then trying to extract myself from it.’

Strong’s focus to his craft has occasionally garnered scrutiny from his costars on the HBO hit from creator Jesse Armstrong.

Brian Cox, who plays the role of media magnate Logan Roy on the series, dubbed Strong’s techniques as ‘f***ing annoying’ while speaking with Town & Country this past February.

‘Don’t get me going on it,’ Cox said, adding of the craft, ‘It’s just there and is accessible. It’s not a big f***ing religious experience.’

Cox made clear that he feels Strong has top notch acting skills, and doesn’t need to put himself through the ringer to achieve onscreen authenticity.

‘He’s still that guy, because he feels if he went somewhere else he’d lose it. But he won’t!’ Cox said. ‘Strong is talented. He’s f***ing gifted. When you’ve got the gift, celebrate the gift. Go back to your trailer and have a hit of marijuana, you know?’

In a publicized piece from The New Yorker that was published in December of 2021, Cox said he was concerned about how Strong’s dedication impacted him personally.

‘I just worry about what he does to himself,’ Cox said. ‘I worry about the crises he puts himself through in order to prepare.’

In the piece, Kieran Culkin said of Strong, who plays his older brother on the show: ‘It’s hard for me to actually describe his process, because I don’t really see it. He puts himself in a bubble.

‘The way Jeremy put it to me is that, like, you get in the ring, you do the scene, and at the end each actor goes to their corner. I’m like, “This isn’t a battle. This is a dance.”‘

Culkin, who has been feted for his portrayal of Roman Roy on the series, added, ‘That might be something that helps him. I can tell you that it doesn’t help me.’

The series finale of Succession airs Sunday on HBO/Max.