SwayBlog

Other livesTelevisionObituaryBob Goody obituaryMy friend and erstwhile writing partner Bob Goody, who has died of cancer aged 71, was an immensely gifted, charismatic actor, writer and poet. While training at Rada in London in the early 1970s, he met a young, unknown theatre director called Mel Smith. With Bob being long and thin and Mel maybe not so much, it was suggested they should “do” something together. Along with the musician Peter Brewis, they wrote and performed a series of two-man black comedy theatre shows - Ave You ‘Eard the One About Joey Baker?

Solange Knowles This article is more than 6 years oldEvening Standard sorry for airbrushing out Solange Knowles' braidsThis article is more than 6 years oldCrown of braids was digitally removed from cover of magazine in which singer discusses cultural legacy of braiding The London Evening Standard has apologised to Solange Knowles for airbrushing her crown of braids from an image on the cover of its magazine. The singer, whose songs include Don’t Touch My Hair, was featured in the magazine discussing her upcoming album, as well as the “art form” and cultural legacy for black women of braiding their hair.

Jane Eisner is the editor of the Forward, the US Jewish national weekly newspaper. Before she joined the Forward in 2008, Jane worked for 25 years at the Philadelphia Inquirer. In 2009, she became a fellow in the Punch Sulzberger executive news media leadership programme at the Columbia School of Journalism, and in 2010, she was the Koeppel fellow in journalism at Wesleyan University in 2010, where she taught journalism and non-fiction writing.

PunkJohn Cooper Clarke: 'It's diabolical how poor I am'He was a seminal influence on punk, a ferociously funny performance poet. Over martinis, John Cooper Clarke tells Simon Hattenstone why he's backJohn Cooper Clarke is pleading with the photographer. Not outside, please. It's windy and the great punk poet is worried about his barnet. "I'm 63 and need all the help I can get. It's not that I think I'm some matinee idol.

Great explorers you’ve probably never heard ofAdventure travelThe aristocrat abandoned her privileged background for a life of Middle East adventure, dressing as a man, visiting harems and leading archaeological digs Passport details Lady Hester Stanhope, AKA The Queen of the Desert or Queen Hester. Born 12 March 1776, Queen Anne Street, Marylebone, London. Claim to fame The big puzzle about Hester Stanhope is how we’ve reached 2020 without a massive Netflix drama ever having been made about her fascinating life.

Folk musicObituaryNanci Griffith obituaryAmerican folk-country singer and songwriter best known for Love at the Five and Dime and her album Other Voices, Other RoomsGreatly admired by her fellow artists and a devoted army of fans, Nanci Griffith, who has died aged 68, exemplified a style of musical storytelling with a literary flavour, focusing on the small details of the lives of her characters. Songs such as Love at the Five and Dime and Gulf Coast Highway have become permanent fixtures in the folk-country canon (Griffith described her music as “folkabilly”), and the Grammy award she won for her album Other Voices, Other Rooms in 1994 seemed a long overdue reward for her carefully crafted body of work.

James JoyceReviewKathryn Hughes delights in a stream of missives from the 'midwife of literary modernism'Sylvia Beach, sometimes called "the midwife of literary modernism", wrote the kind of letters that any of us might produce if we were running an under-capitalised cottage industry while simultaneously trying to be nice to James Joyce. In other words, the stream-of-paper communication which issued forth most days from the Shakespeare & Company bookshop in Paris during the interwar years is chock-full of worries about recalcitrant radiators, searing headaches and whether or not it might be possible to smuggle banned copies of Ulysses into the US by way of the Canadian border.

Ron Jeremy at an awards ceremony in 1989 in Porn King: The Rise & Fall of Ron Jeremy, Channel 4. Photograph: Titus Moody/Channel 4Ron Jeremy at an awards ceremony in 1989 in Porn King: The Rise & Fall of Ron Jeremy, Channel 4. Photograph: Titus Moody/Channel 4TV tonightTelevisionFemale porn stars speak out against the adult film actor Ron Jeremy in Channel 4’s Porn King. Plus: teenage horror up on the moors in Red Rose.

Haiti's isolated and forgotten village – in pictures Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email Near the bottom of the island of Hispaniola in south-east Haiti is a forgotten village, cut off from its own country, and slowly emptying as its residents leave. As well as health services or electricity, Boucan Ferdinand also lost its only road to the nearest town, Bois Negresse, in devastating floods in 2004.