Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days
Patrick Barkham writes about nature for the Guardian, and has evangelised for wild childhoods. But when his daughter Milly came down with a mystery illness, it never occurred to him that a long-forgotten tick bite could be the cause. He described his family’s long battle for a diagnosis.
This week marked the 50th anniversary of one of boxing’s greatest fights – a metaphorical struggle for the soul of the US in the 1970s. Muhammad Ali’s biographer Thomas Hauser recalled what it was like to rewatch the fight with Ali, and the terrible toll the bout took on him and his opponent, Joe Frazier.
The Florence + the Machine singer gave an emotional interview to Rebecca Nicholson about the terrifying health scare and devastating loss that shaped her new album – and her anger over the double standards that hold women in music back.
In January 2022, a volcano with the grand, rolling name of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai erupted off the coast of Tonga, ripping apart the undersea cables connecting its main island to the world. Samanth Subramanian’s long read on what happened next was a fascinating reminder of the fragility of 21st-century life.
