Andy Burnham has ruled out short-term cuts to the benefits budget as he hinted taxes would have to rise to pay for his lavish spending plans.

In his first broadcast interview since winning the Makerfield by-election, the prime minister-in-waiting ruled out ‘crude cuts’ to welfare.

Asked if he would stand by Labour‘s manifesto and its fiscal rules, he said yes but there is ‘some room within that manifesto for movement on tax’.

He told LBC’s Andrew Marr that he would tax warehouses more to enable him to cut rates for pubs, ‘bring life back to the High Street’ and help small businesses.

Defending himself against claims that he will raise taxes, he said he ‘not indisciplined’ when it came to the public finances and revealed that he had not yet chosen his future chancellor.

Asked about the hole in defence spending, Mr Burnham admitted he hadn’t had ‘all of the details’ about the costs following reports of up to a £15billion shortfall.

But he said the country had to ‘face up to it very seriously’ and that he would ‘take those responsibilities extremely seriously, no compromise on the security of the nation’.

The former mayor of Greater Manchester also said his generation of politicians had ‘failed’ as he said the country needed a ‘circuit breaker’.

He told LBC’s Andrew Marr that he would tax warehouses more to enable him to cut rates for pubs, ‘bring life back to the High Street’ and help small businesses

Asked about the hole in defence spending, Mr Burnham, pictured after his interview, admitted he hadn’t had ‘all of the details’ about the costs following reports of up to a £15billion shortfall

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Asked how he would tackle welfare spending, he said: ‘I’m not going to go with the crude cuts to benefit levels that then just put people who are struggling in even worse poverty, and that often creates the backlash, and understandably so.’

Instead, he said he would focus on reforming the education system, offering work placements to young people and building council homes to reduce the number of ‘neets’ – young people not in education, employment or training.

He admitted that his generation of politicians had ‘failed’ as he vowed to end the culture of political point scoring.

‘You can’t go around pointing fingers when you haven’t been good enough yourselves, and I would say that all politicians haven’t been good enough,’ he said.

‘My generation of politicians, I think, has failed in many ways in that the country isn’t where it should be right now. The country needs lifting up.’

Elsewhere, he said he would end the use of the whip to force MPs to fall into line and have different factions of the Labour party in his Cabinet.

He also vowed to work with other parties, repeated previous claims about nationalising utilities like water and energy and end ‘trickle down’ economics.

He vowed to base his ‘No 10 North’ at a new digital campus in Manchester Piccadilly and work from there.

Despite being regarded as the prime minister in waiting, Mr Burnham has kept a low profile since winning the Makerfield by-election.

He is widely expected to get the top job without having to go through a leadership contest and become prime minister as soon as July 20.

The former mayor gave a major speech earlier this week in which he refused to take questions from the media.

Burnham held a ‘Defence Management Plan’ in his hands

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He is yet to expand on any of his plans for government beyond saying he would set up a ‘No 10 North’ and further devolve power away from Whitehall.

Reporters were told beforehand that he wouldn’t be taking questions – a highly unusual move for a major political speech which prompted accusations that he was dodging scrutiny.

He also held a victory rally following his by-election win but was accused of running away from reporters who tried to ask him questions.

His last interview was with ITV and Channel 4 on June 9 nearly a month ago, though it was focused solely on his local campaign rather than the national picture.

As a result, it is not clear what the prospective prime minister’s plans for government look like.

This week, he tweeted in response to Kemi Badenoch who said Labour had ditched Sir Keir for a ‘pair of eyelashes and a black t-shirt’.

He also intervened on the case of the leader of the notorious Rochdale grooming gang Shabir Ahmed, 73, who was released from prison today.

He said that ‘nothing is off the table’ as he said he would ask senior ministers to ‘review all possible options’ after it emerged that the rapist could not be deported to Pakistan.

Speculation has raged about who he will appoint to his future cabinet, with suggestions that former health secretary Wes Streeting could become his chancellor.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has also been touted for the role, as has Shabana Mahmood – though more recent reports suggest she will stay in the Home Office.

Roles for other figures including former foreign secretary David Miliband, former transport secretary Lou Haigh and former housing minister Miatta Fahnbulleh are also possible.

However, there was a warning from MPs to Mr Burnham that he should not have more Milibands than women in top jobs.

Ready for a perfect summer day out?

Whether you are treating your partner to a day out or gathering the kids and grandkids for an outdoor adventure, this free National Trust pass is the perfect excuse to spend time together exploring blooming woodlands, wildlife, and historic gems.

^{Thanks to this incredible offer, you can enjoy a FREE visit to a National Trust property of your choice, worth up to £50.}

The pass allows entry for up to 2 adults and up to 3 children, or 1 adult and up to 4 children, giving you the perfect excuse to gather your loved ones and explore the great outdoors^.

This offer is valid at National Trust locations across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland until August 28, 2026, inclusive^.

Please note that some properties are excluded; click here to check participating places.

Spend your summer reconnecting with nature, exploring heritage and making unforgettable memories with family and friends^{. Don’t miss out on this wonderful opportunity to experience the beauty of National Trust properties – completely free!}

Simply pick up a copy of the Daily Mirror any day from Saturday, July 4 until Sunday, July 12, 2026. Inside, you will find your voucher to bring to a National Trust property of your choice.

For suggestions on where to go, click here and get ready for an unforgettable winter adventure with the National Trust!

For any queries relating to your day out please contact the National Trust on their website here or by emailing enquiries@nationaltrust.org.uk. For any queries relating to this promotion please contact nationaltrustpromo@reachplc.com

For full terms and conditions click here.

The programme is part of a two-year project between the National Trust and United Utilities, taking place across the Stubbins Estate in the Upper Irwell catchment, which lies directly below Holcombe Moor.

The project aims to slow the flow of rainwater from the hills into the River Irwell and its tributaries using natural flood management techniques.

Nik Taylor, area ranger at the National Trust, said: “The leaky dams form part of our wider work to mitigate climate change, reduce flooding, support farming and improve biodiversity and habitats across our moorland, farmland and woodland areas.

“Working in partnership with United Utilities, we’re sharing time and knowledge to make a difference for nature, downstream communities, businesses, tenant farmers and commoners.”

Four types of ‘leaky dams’ will be installed across moorland, farmland, and woodland areas to either hold back or slow rainwater.

This will reduce the volume flowing into the River Irwell and the sewer network during periods of heavy rainfall.

The dams are designed to encourage rainwater to soak into the ground or temporarily pool upstream.

This helps reduce the risk of flash flooding in nearby communities and eases pressure on sewer systems during storms.

The project also promises wider environmental benefits, including increased carbon capture, improved biodiversity and upland habitats, and greater resilience to wildfires.

Supported by the Environment Agency and Natural England, the scheme builds on earlier peatland restoration and flood management work at Holcombe Moor.

It is funded by United Utilities as part of its £280 million Rainwater Management Programme.

The programme combines nature-based solutions and smart engineering to create climate-resilient environments and reduce strain on sewage systems.

Marianne Ridley, insights manager for rainwater management at United Utilities, said: “These leaky dams will hold rainwater in the uplands for longer, allowing woodland and moorland to function more naturally like a sponge.

“Vitally, for us, slowing the flow of water reduces flood risk to the communities below and improves the resilience of United Utilities’ operational network.

“This project is a great example of the many benefits of working together and taking a whole-catchment approach.

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“We are excited to see how this will shape and drive future projects in upland catchments.”

Monitoring will be carried out before and after installation to assess the effectiveness of the dams.

The National Trust and United Utilities will be working with the University of Liverpool and the University of Manchester to track environmental changes over time.

With Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce‘s celebrity wedding of the century fast approaching, guests are feeling the magnitude of the couple’s big day. 

‘Everybody’s feeling good, but I think everybody’s ready for it to be over,’ one source candidly admitted to the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview.

According to the well-placed insider, part of the nerves stem from loved ones not wanting to slip and share too much information with the public or press, as every little detail from the highly anticipated nuptials is under a microscope. 

‘Nobody wants to be the one to divulge plans and get in trouble, so they’re on edge about that,’ the source added, without detailing what those repercussions may be.

We’re told it’s become the norm for ‘everyone to go along’ with what Swift wants.

The bride and groom have made serious attempts to keep their guests’ lips sealed.

‘Nobody wants to be the one to divulge plans and get in trouble, so they’re on edge about that,’ the insider further explained. Friends and family, some seen here, had to sign NDAs

The Daily Mail was first to report back in April that the couple sent out nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) along with their save-the-dates, and guests had to sign it in order to receive the actual wedding invitation.

Although we were told at the time that it is unlikely either Swift or Kelce, both 36, would ever take legal action against their family or friends, our first insider said guests have taken the agreement very seriously.

‘The NDA was a lot and I think everyone is scared of [Swift’s team],’ the source said.

Fear is not the only thing keeping wedding guests’ mouths shut, though. 

We hear the couple’s loved ones genuinely don’t want to spoil the pop superstar and NFL pro’s big day and, because they care about them, they don’t want to let them down.

‘More than anything, everyone is appreciative of everything that she and her team do. They just don’t want to disappoint,’ the insider added.

Multiple sources have told the Daily Mail for months that Swift and Kelce are keeping their loved ones on a ‘need-to-know basis’ to prevent leaks.

We hear Donna, 73, ‘likes it that way,’ adding: ‘Basically everything is going to be easy for her.’

The Daily Mail reported Wednesday that Swift’s longtime stylist Joseph Cassell Falconer helped create custom outfits for family members.

It appears Swift wants total control over her wedding – and what gets released. 

As the Daily Mail previously reported, there are rumblings that the nuptials ‘will be recorded’ for a possible wider release. A source told us in March that the Grammy winner wants to be able to share these special moments with her loyal fans.  

A second insider told the Daily Mail that Kelce’s mom, Donna Kelce, was left in the dark about many of the details but ‘she likes it that way’

‘More than anything, everyone is appreciative of everything that she and her team does. They just don’t want to disappoint,’ the first source said

Aside from the NDA, we’re told other extreme measures have been taken to keep everything under wraps in the days leading up to Swift walking down the aisle.

Earlier this week, another source told us that everyone who enters the reported wedding reception venue, Madison Square Garden, has their phones taken away.

Now, the Daily Mail has exclusively learned that on-site security has gone a step further by having everyone in the area wear a tracker on their wrists.

‘When they give you a wristband, they take your picture and the wristbands could be tracked everywhere in the building,’ the source explained of how the added security measure apparently works.

‘They can see where you are; must have an RFID [radio-frequency identification] or something,’ they added.

As of now, it’s unclear whether Swift and Kelce’s celebrity guests and relatives will also be required to don the tracker on their wedding day, but we’re told currently it is for ‘everyone that’s checking in.’

Swift and Kelce are set to celebrate their nuptials at Madison Square Garden, where we hear that visitors are being tracked by devices on their wrists and photographed upon entering

Swift and Kelce got engaged last August after dating for more than two years

Despite going to great lengths to control what leaks, it has become a nearly impossible feat for a reported guest list of 1,000 attendees on Friday.

Several of the celebrity pals who made the cut have already been spotted arriving at the Big Apple, including British talk show host Graham Norton and Ed Sheeran.

In the months leading up to the big day – and particularly this week – every detail from the hour-to-hour schedule to the dress codes have become public knowledge.

Not only are Swift and Kelce’s guests feeling the pressure, but the bride herself has allegedly lost sleep in anticipation of what’s to come. 

‘Taylor can perform in front of tens of thousands of fans in a stadium and feel confident and not at all nervous. It’s her stage and she owns it. But I’ve never seen her like she is now. She has pre-wedding jitters,’ a fourth source told us on Tuesday.

‘She’s going through a totally new experience in her life and it’s got her ruffled.’

Kelce, meanwhile, is calm, cool and collected, according to Daily Mail’s first insider.

‘Everybody keeps saying that they’ve never seen him so happy,’ the source added, pointing out he’s in very good spirits and excited to marry Swift.

The Kansas City Chiefs tight end proposed to the chart-topping songstress last August after dating for more than two years.

Swift then announced the happy engagement with a cheeky caption on Instagram that read: ‘Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.’

The Daily Mail has contacted reps for Swift and Kelce for comment.  

IF you really want to know how a show was, ask someone (carefully) in the next cubicle or at the next urinal afterwards. This was a taste from the Gents: “Incredible”. “The best fun you can have on a Tuesday” (the night your reviewer attended).

The Choir Of Man performance doesn’t start with the lifting of the curtain, but begins with cast and audience together on the stage decked out with a real working bar. This is the audience’s introduction to ‘The Jungle’: an idealised pub that feels familiar to anyone of a certain age. The sort of place where people talk, share, open up, drink, sing and don’t appear to worry too much about what comes next.

This is a show where everything is tilted to ensure you have a good time, and the performers look like they do too. There is a nod to a back story (based on the actor’s own) but their names, such as “Hardman” and “Maestro”, tell you all need to know.

But who really needs a reason to go to a bar? The emphasis is rightly on the songs, the musicianship and the nine voices. It’s a careening blast through some well-chosen songs from the 1980s onwards (and no room for Vera Lynn).

Choirs need voices that work together, not overwhelming the rest. On Tuesday’s opening performance, Sam Walter’s Romantic, Oluwalonimi ’Nimi’ Owoyemi’s Poet, Jack Skelton’s Handyman, Joshua Lloyd’s Barman, Gustav Melbardis’s Maestro, Levi Tyrell Johnson’s Hardman, Rob Godfrey’s Beast, Aaron Pottenger’s Bore and Ben Mabberley’s Joker all seemed to have come from some superhuman school of acting and music.

One where everyone can sing, play several instruments, dance when required and shake their thang with the best of them. Where do such people come from? Not likely headhunted from your average local.

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The set-up is simple. There are a few heartfelt words, albeit sometimes a little rushed from Nimi, our narrator, but what little story there is always serves the song, spanning 15 numbers and a reprise over two hours.

It is exactly the life-affirming, joy-giving experience you hope for, and it is easy to see why the show has gathered such plaudits over the past ten years. While a few liberties are taken with The Proclaimers’ I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles), the emotion is raw for Luther Vandross’s Dance With My Father.

You do have to set aside any scruples about celebrating alcohol, and if toilet humour isn’t your thing, then there’s one (actually very funny) scene when you might want to take a loo break. Spoiler (free beer!) for those in the stalls and a greater chance of being whisked on stage by a handsome man, but go with it and you’ll wake up without regret. There are lots of laughs, with Lloyd’s Barman gamely mining the most.

While the idea of this sort of bar may be fading into folk memory, people no longer routinely gather around the “old Joanna” to sing together, the community and belonging these spaces create, and places like them still engender, live and breathe on.

The musical highlights are the a cappella choir numbers. They steal the show from some of the bigger and better-known hits by Bon Jovi, Queen and even Eagle Eye Cherry’s Save Tonight.

The wonderful interplay of nine voices is sensational. For the finale, the cast is joined by 102 local choir members from Some Voices, Stamford Bridge Community Choir and Sing Space Musical Theatre for Sia’s Chandelier. The standing ovation that follows is thoroughly deserved.

Much is made of the show’s invitation to enjoy life while we can, to raise another glass. There is always that drinker’s tension, held in the balance in the glass, between one sip and the next, revelry or regret. Fortunately for us, this show truly does go on.

Give into your freewheeling side and “bring tomorrow on” while this lovely blast is in York.

The Choir Of Man, Grand Opera House, York, 7.30pm tonight; 4pm & 8pm tomorrow; 2.30pm & 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Rosie Hanson, 21, hits speeds of around 60mph in her VW Golf when she struck Ryan Phillips while on her way to deliver a pizza in Sheerness, Kent

A young driver who was speeding when she hit and killed a pedestrian on her way to deliver a pizza has avoided jail.

Rosie Hanson, 21, was handed a 16-month prison term, suspended for two years at Maidstone Crown Court on Thursday for causing the death by careless driving of Ryan Phillips on January 17 2024.

The 27-year-old was walking to a nearby restaurant with his girlfriend Sophie Rowe to celebrate passing his apprenticeship as an IT technician, the court heard.

But on their way, “chatting and laughing” while walking on the pavement at around 6.40pm, they were struck by Hanson’s VW Golf along Marine Parade in Sheerness, Kent.

Prosecutor Tom Nicholson told the court Ms Rowe was hit in her legs, before she ran over to Mr Phillips and saw blood coming from his mouth.

A post-mortem examination of Mr Phillips revealed a strike to his head on the windshield of the car, adding it was a “completely unsurviveable head injury from the outset”.

Hanson got out of her car and spoke to emergency services in a 999 call where she said she hit someone in her car delivering pizza, and had thought a cat ran out into the road “causing her to swerve up onto the curb”.

Mr Nicholson said that evidence from Hanson’s iPhone showed she was travelling in excess of the 40mph speed limit, reaching approximately 54 to 68mph in the moments before losing control.

He added her account of having seen an animal prompting her to steer right to avoid it was “difficult to confirm or negate”.

“At the speed Ms Hanson was travelling, combined with the abrupt steering response, led to the vehicle becoming unstable, and resulted in her overreacting to the situation, and instigating a clockwise rotation, crossing the opposing lane, mounting the pavement and colliding with Mr Phillips and Ms Rowe,” he said.

The court heard Hanson worked for her father in an admin job and then had a call from a pizza company she had been working for on an ad hoc basis.

Sentencing her, Judge Julian Smith found Hanson was driving at something like 60mph following expert analysis. “The reason for tragic loss is failure in Rosie Hanson’s driving,” he said.

“Speeding to get a job done to deliver pizzas is stupid, but it is not of itself malicious… it should not happen.”

Hanson was also sentenced to nine months’ concurrently for driving while uninsured as her cover did not include for business or professional use for her second job.

The judge emphasised her sentence is “no measure” of a man’s life but of her culpability in the offence, and adjusted her sentence to reflect her young age of 19 at the time. “There is to my mind a realistic prospect of rehabilitation. I accept she is a low risk of re-offending and is in no way a danger,” the judge added.

Judge Smith acknowledged the impact of Mr Phillips death is “extraordinary and ongoing”, with a statement from Ms Rowe painting a picture of a “warm, enthusiastic and generous man”.

“The time with Mr Phillips was precious indeed,” he said.

In victim impact statements read to court by Ms Rowe, she said the couple had been together for nearly four years and were planning to move in together – and Mr Phillips was “very, very excited” about his new dream job working in IT in a prison.

“The night before he passed away he said he planned to save for an engagement ring and this made me so happy,” she said. “We’d been waiting for that extra step in Ryan’s life, (he’d) finally achieved something he wanted to do.”

She described her partner as a “gentle giant who would do anything for anyone”, adding: “Losing Ryan has ruined my life. I intended to spend the rest of my life with him. I feel like I cannot do this anymore because he was everything to me.”

Mr Phillips’ mother Catherine Phillips said he was not just her son, but “best friend”, and one of the most “selfless people” you could ever meet. She described him as caring, thoughtful and “full of love for people around him” who was building a future for himself.

“All that future has been taken away in an instant,” she said. “My life has fallen apart. I struggle every day just to get through. Grief is constant and overwhelming, the silence he has left behind is unbearable”. She added: “I will carry this pain, this loss for the rest of my life.”

Ms Phillips added in a further statement how she struggled with how Hanson was allowed to go home the night Mr Phillips died rather than being arrested at the scene, and how she was charged by email.

She said as a grieving parent she was left with a feeling that the seriousness of the incident was not reflected in how the defendant was treated.

But Hanson’s lawyer, Allan Goh, said that Thursday’s sentencing was the first opportunity for Hanson to express her feelings towards Mr Phillips’ family and she indicates genuine remorse.

In a letter by Hanson read in court to the judge, she said: “I am writing you this letter to express my deepest apologies to you, Ryan’s family and friends.

“I can’t put it into words how sorry I am this ever happened and if I could go back and change it, I would in seconds. For what I have seen social media, Ryan you sounded like a lovely man which haunts me.”

The defendant, of Mimosa Avenue, Minster-on-Sea, Sheerness, had previously denied the offence of causing death by careless driving at a hearing in December last year, before changing her plea and admitting causing death while uninsured in May this year.

The judge also ordered her to complete 220 hours of unpaid work and disqualified her from driving for three years, subject to passing an extended driving test.

A 27-year-old man from south Wales was found dead in the back of a car after he was given a lift following an altercation with other men. Police and paramedics were called to the incident in Beddau in the early hours of Friday, June 26.

Josef Deniro Ward, 27, from Pontyclun, had been smoking crack cocaine when he fell asleep in the back of the vehicle. An inquest opening at Pontypridd Coroners’ Court on Thursday, July 2, heard that Josef Ward’s death was reported on June 26 by South Wales Police.

The court heard how on June 25 the 27-year-old had been out socialising and had smoked crack cocaine, and following an altercation with other males he was given a lift when he fell asleep in the rear passenger seat.

You can read the full inquest opening here

A star was born!

Long before skyrocketing to superstardom and becoming one of the most recognizable faces in the world, Taylor Swift was merely just a chubby-cheeked girl next door trying to make it in the cutthroat country music scene.

Now, as the 36-year-old prepares to take center stage yet again for her highly anticipated wedding to NFL star Travis Kelce, the Daily Mail can reveal a trove of lost photos that show just how she blossomed from a toothless platinum blonde into the global icon she is today.

The remarkable photo album offers a glimpse into the bride-to-be’s early years as a baby-faced youngster before she evolved into a guitar-stringing teen on the rise.

Celebrity portrait photographer Andrew Orth, an old friend who used to live next door to the Swift family, documented the transformation over the course of a decade.

‘Taylor was a very pretty little girl,’ Orth previously told the Daily Mail.

The remarkable photo album shows Swift’s evolution from a toddler to curly-haired singer trying to make a break into the country music scene 

The snaps were taken by celebrity portrait photographer Andrew Orth, an old friend who used to live next door to the Swift family

‘She had this white hair, crystal blue eyes, pale skin, and pouty lips. She was just something,’ he continued.

‘She had a way about her, she knew she was adorable and she really was the cutest thing in the world.’

He first snapped Swift when she was just four years old in her family’s barn in Reading, Pennsylvania, where the future star proudly showed off her toothless grin.

When the Swift clan eventually headed off for the bright lights of Nashville, Tennessee, Orth continued to shoot her sporadically as she sought to make a name for herself in country music.

In the cache of photos, Swift can be seen posing with her guitar, cowboy hats and her once-iconic curly tresses.

The selection of past snaps is a far cry from the countless red carpet and paparazzi images of the 14-time Grammy winner that now flood every stretch of the internet.

The celebrity portrait photographer first snapped Swift when she was just four years old in her family’s barn in Reading, Pennsylvania

A trove of lost photos show how Swift blossomed from a toothless platinum blonde youngster into global superstar

The album, which resurfaced just before her wedding this week, documented the superstar’s transformation over a decade-long stretch

In some of the first photos from the album, Swift proudly showed off her toothless smile

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When the Swift family eventually headed off for the bright lights of Nashville, Tennessee, the photographer continued to shoot her sporadically as she made her mark on the music scene

In the cache of photos, Swift can be seen sporting her once-iconic curly tresses

She posed with her guitar for the trove of photos as she was breaking into the country scene

The treasured shots resurfaced just as Swift and Kelce, also 36, prepare to tie the knot at New York City’s Madison Square Garden later this week. 

Remarkably, Orth anticipated in an interview more than a decade ago that the Grammy winner would likely find the one in her 30s.

‘Probably in her thirties she’ll find something more that’s significant… I think that she has no patience for them now,’ he said back in 2013 – long before her string of high-profile relationships – and breakups – dominated gossip headlines. 

‘She’s the kind of girl that when she finds the right guy, she’s going to stick with him.’

More than a decade on, the rumor mill has been kicked into overdrive as the Swift-Kelce wedding inches closer.

The pair started dating in 2023 – two years before Kelce got down on one knee with a diamond ring said to be ten carats.

The couple dropped news of their engagement in August last year with a flurry of photos on social media from the intimate proposal.

The cache of photos were taken over a decade until Swift was about 15 years old

‘Taylor was a very pretty little girl,’ Orth previously told the Daily Mail

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The photographer, who often shot children with talent agencies in Los Angeles, recalled Swift having ‘this white hair, crystal blue eyes, pale skin and pouty lips’

Some of the snaps were used to help boost Swift’s profile early on in her career 

Swift was ever the typical teenager when she posed for this photo in Nashville back in the day 

Now, after months of fevered will-she-won’t-she speculation, activity around MSG reached a fever pitch this week as a huge volume of delivery trucks arrived at the venue and workers fueled whispers that The Love Story hitmaker may be entering her ‘bridezilla’ era.

Adding to the growing sense of drama, it was also claimed that the couple were building a custom princess ‘castle’ inside the arena ahead of lavish celebrations that are expected to take place across Thursday and Friday.

There are even rumors that Swift has bought up every available calla lily in New York City. 

While the superstar couple have gone to extraordinary lengths to keep specific details of their wedding under wraps, the ceremony looks set to rival any one of Swift’s sold-out Eras Tour concerts. 

Speaking to his younger self, he continued: “I know you think you and Ant have left to go on a bit of an adventure for a few weeks, but you don’t realise it yet. You’ve both pretty much left home now, and your lives will never return to how they have been. But it turned out alright, guys.

The best summer companion is a good book. This year has already given us some truly brilliant ones making it really hard to whittle down the best. But no matter what your tastes are, we have you covered. These novels range from historical fiction to gripping crime drama. From 1800s Ireland, to 1930s Taiwan, to post revolution Iran, this international selection will take you to all sorts of places without ever having to leave your own home.

1. Land by Maggie O’Farrell

Maggie O’Farrell’s exquisite new novel, Land, is a haunting tale of loss, endurance and renewal. Spanning generations and continents, O’Farrell traces the fragile threads that connect people and place. Moving between intimacy and sweeping historical change, the novel reveals the land itself as a living archive of rupture, survival and belonging.

Land begins in 1860s Ireland, on an unnamed “windswept tongue of land” that branches out in the roiling, icy currents of the Atlantic. As a scholar of Ireland’s Great Famine, An Gorta Mór, I am aware of how devastating the 1840s were. One million lives were lost to starvation and disease and two million people emigrated in the immediate aftermath.

This is the context for O’Farrell’s novel: the land was changed utterly. A whole way of life was eroded, and Land imagines what it must have been like to walk among the ruins, to see an agrarian culture collapse, and, for those left behind, to forge a future from remnants.

David Nally, Professor of Historical Geography in the Department of Geography

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Land by Maggie O’Farrell is a haunting tale set in post-famine Ireland about history, map-making and memory

2. Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-zi, translated by Lin King

Set in 1930s Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule, this exquisitely layered novel follows Japanese writer Aoyama Chizuko and her Taiwanese interpreter Ông Tshian-ho’h through a culinary and emotional landscape seeded with deliberate breadcrumbs: details that only reveal their full significance upon return visits to the book.

Taiwan Travelogue’s meta-fictional architecture is quietly audacious. Yang frames the narrative through a fictional author, a fictional translator and their respective silences, making the unreliable narrator not merely a device but a structural argument about whose knowledge counts and whose remains obstructed.

What makes the book genuinely pleasurable, however, is its treatment of intimacy between the two women. The queer undertow is rendered through the minute economies of shared meals and unfinished sentences, through which Yang smuggles the most profound questions about desire, friendship and colonial entitlement into the everyday.

Eva Cheuk-Yin Li is a lecturer in screen industries

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Taiwan Travelogue wins 2026 International Booker – a deftly translated tale of food, love and history

John of John is about the secrets and lies that fester under an oppressive atmosphere that is thick with damp and shame.

Fifty pages into Douglas Stuart’s atmospheric third novel you can almost feel the cold, damp air of the fictional Hebridean village of Falabay, and come to recognise its brooding and eccentric inhabitants like old friends and neighbours. Through a microcosm of everyday island life, Stuart demonstrates his finely honed skill in exploring the fundamental tensions of the human condition that have preoccupied men and women for centuries.

An omniscient narrator presides over John of John as we follow John-Calum Macleod – Cal – returning home to the Isle of Harris after student life in Edinburgh. Recently graduated from art school, Cal has been studying fashion and textiles, in an echo of the author’s own history.

The drama and (sometimes verging on implausible) twists of this novel make it feel like a soap opera, in the traditional sense of the term: small, interconnected characters and high melodrama, with domestic spaces as scenes of desire, revelation and unpredictability.

But this is not a criticism. Stuart’s lyrical prose and atmospheric narrative elevate the genre – reimagining the domestic and familial tropes by focusing on the unrequited affections of the men in the story.

Stevie Marsden is a lecturer in publishing

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John of John: weaving an island tale of secrets that lie beneath repression and shame

4. Cathedrals by Claudia Piñeiro, translated by Frances Riddle

Cathedrals is the latest work by Argentinian crime writer Claudia Piñeiro. Here, the crime is the murder and dismemberment of 17-year-old Ana Sardá 30 years ago. Yet, as ever in Piñeiro’s work, nothing is quite what it seems.

Each section is written from the perspective of a key character, and the truth emerges gradually as the stories intertwine. The first section is narrated by Lía, Ana’s middle sister. Cathedrals opens with Lía’s loss of faith, confirmed 30 years earlier at Ana’s funeral. This sets up a core premise of the book: how can a barbaric act that takes a human life ever be rationalised as “God’s will”?

Cathedrals is crime fiction with social comment. The characters’ experiences are connected to the sociopolitical context in Argentina: the dictatorship is still fresh, and society has not broken free of its restrictions. Poverty is rising, and religious doctrine is a powerful means of keeping women in set roles, because in the Bible: “[N]o one cares about heroines, they care about mothers and wives.” Those who think for themselves or break with expectations are ostracised.

With her characteristic edge-of-the-seat storytelling, Piñeiro exposes not only the monsters we live among, but also the society that produces them.

Helen Vassallo is an associate professor of French and translation

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Cathedrals by Claudia Piñeiro is a gripping Argentinian crime story about gender violence and the weaponisation of religion

5. Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur, translated by Faridoun Farrokh

Published in 1989, Women Without Men was banned almost immediately and Shahrnush Parsipur was imprisoned twice for writing openly about women’s sexuality and autonomy – an act of artistic courage the Islamic Republic deemed intolerable. Despite the regime’s attempts to erase it, the novella endured. It moved through underground networks and crossed borders with quiet determination.

Women Without Men follows five women who flee violent marriages, stifling social expectations, and political chaos. Together, they build a sanctuary in a garden outside Iran’s capital, Tehran. The women’s retreat is not an escape, but a feminist rupture that marks a refusal to live within a world that insists on defining them. It is a choice to build, however precariously, a space where those rules collapse.

Through mysticism and magical realism, the women’s transformations gain political force. Each metamorphosis becomes an act of resistance: women reclaiming autonomy, dignity and possibility in a society intent on erasing them.

Parsipur’s novella exposed the brutality of Iranian patriarchy with rare clarity. It did so long before global audiences recognised that violence. The novella’s first English-language publication operates as a bridge between past and present. It makes visible how the structures that constrained women’s lives in the 1950s continue to shape Iran’s political realities today.

Hind Elhinnawy is senior lecturer in social science

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Women Without Men: the feminist book that Iran’s regime has failed to silence since the 80s

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