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Picture book review: My Brother's Book, By Maurice Sendak

'Goodbye, my brother,' the old master said

Temptresses, decrepit hags and glamorous spell-casters: New Scottish art exhibition to reveal real faces of witchcraft

The dark history of European witchcraft will be explored in an exhibition opening at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art next July.

I Am Kloot

I Am Kloot, Islington Assembly Hall, London



"This song is about drinking... and disaster," frontman John Bramwell drily announces before launching into the astringent "To the Brink".

Loserville, Garrick Theatre, London

With the pioneering verbatim-based London Road at the National and the RSC's exuberant Matilda conquering the West End, the British musical has been showing signs of bold, fresh life in the past couple of years.

Album: Voces8, Choral Tapestry (Signum Classics)

Following their Bach Motets, choral octet Voces8 branch further afield with A Choral Tapestry, programming devotional material from across the spectrum.

Reuben, five, with his seven-week-old sister Floren

Twins? There's one born every five years

Jody and Simon Blake have spent the past couple of months showing off their twins, Reuben and Floren, to friends – and delighting in the looks of bemusement that greet them. Because while Reuben went back to school yesterday, his sister, Floren, will have to wait until 2017. The children were born five years apart, but technically they are twins because they were born from the same batch of embryos.

Peter Ackroyd: 'Rioting has been a London tradition for centuries'

The Monday Interview: The capital's greatest chronicler tells Andy McSmith why upsurges of violence are part of the city's texture

Album: Krystle Warren and the Facultya, Time To Keep: Love Songs EP (Parlour Door Music)

There are elements of Nina Simone and Joan Armatrading in folk-jazz singer Krystle Warren's voice, and even Dusty at her dustiest, on the five tracks which here serve as a taster for two albums' worth of material intended for release over the next year.

The Devil has the best lines: How Satan has informed much of our great art

Phil Boucher wonders if the greatest trick Lucifer ever pulled was to inspire such dangerous creativity

Mystery of lily's white delights unveiled at last

It has given its name to a hue of white that epitomises saintly purity. Now one of the great mysteries of the lily flower has been solved by scientists who have worked out precisely how it manages to bloom so spectacularly from its tightly enclosed bud.

Tom Sutcliffe: So you think you can shock me...

The week in culture

Writers' cemetery protected

The final resting place of some of the greatest names in English literature has been given Grade I status. Daniel Defoe, who wrote Robinson Crusoe, and John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim's Progress, are among those buried at Bunhill Fields Cemetery in central London.

Refreshing watercolours

Tate Britain's new exhibition seeks to shake off watercolour's fusty exterior and reveal the dynamic, contemporary medium beneath. But will it wash?
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Special report: How my father's face turned up in Robert Capa's lost suitcase

Special report: How my father's face turned up in Robert Capa's lost suitcase

The great war photographer was not one person but two. Their pictures of Spain's civil war, lost for decades, tell a heroic tale
The unmade speech: An alternative draft of history

The unmade speech: An alternative draft of history

Someone, somewhere has to write speeches for world leaders to deliver in the event of disaster. They offer a chilling hint at what could have been
Funny business: Meet the women running comedy

Funny business: Meet the women running comedy

Think comedy’s a man's world? You must be stuck in the 1980s, says Holly Williams
Wilko Johnson: 'You have to live for the minute you're in'

Wilko Johnson: 'You have to live for the minute you're in'

The Dr Feelgood guitarist talks frankly about his terminal illness
Lure of the jingle: Entrepreneurs are giving vintage ice-cream vans a new lease of life

Lure of the jingle

Entrepreneurs are giving vintage ice-cream vans a new lease of life
Who stole the people's own culture?

DJ Taylor: Who stole the people's own culture?

True popular art drives up from the streets, but the commercial world wastes no time in cashing in
Guest List: The IoS Literary Editor suggests some books for your summer holiday

Guest List: IoS Literary Editor suggests some books for your summer holiday

Before you stuff your luggage with this year's Man Booker longlist titles, the case for some varied poolside reading alternatives
What if Edward Snowden had stayed to fight his corner?

Rupert Cornwell: What if Edward Snowden had stayed to fight his corner?

The CIA whistleblower struck a blow for us all, but his 1970s predecessor showed how to win
'A man walks into a bar': Comedian Seann Walsh on the dangers of mixing alcohol and stand-up

Comedian Seann Walsh on alcohol and stand-up

Comedy and booze go together, says Walsh. The trouble is stopping at just the one. So when do the hangovers stop being funny?
From Edinburgh to Hollywood (via the Home Counties): 10 comedic talents blowing up big

Edinburgh to Hollywood: 10 comedic talents blowing up big

Hugh Montgomery profiles the faces to watch, from the sitcom star to the surrealist
'Hello. I have cancer': When comedian Tig Notaro discovered she had a tumour she decided the show must go on

Comedian Tig Notaro: 'Hello. I have cancer'

When Notaro discovered she had a tumour she decided the show must go on
They think it's all ova: Bill Granger's Asia-influenced egg recipes

Bill Granger's Asia-influenced egg recipes

Our chef made his name cooking eggs, but he’s never stopped looking for new ways to serve them
The world wakes up to golf's female big hitters

The world wakes up to golf's female big hitters

With its own Tiger Woods - South Korea's Inbee Park - the women's game has a growing audience
10 athletes ready to take the world by storm in Moscow next week

10 athletes ready to take the world by storm in Moscow next week

Here are the potential stars of the World Championships which begin on Saturday
The Last Word: Luis Suarez and Gareth Bale's art of manipulation

The Last Word: Luis Suarez and Gareth Bale's art of manipulation

Briefings are off the record leading to transfer speculation which is merely a means to an end