Sorry, Baby to Earl Sweatshirt: the week in rave reviews
A deft drama about the aftermath of a sexual assault and glitchy dispatches from hip-hop’s ‘otherground’. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews
John and Paul by Ian Leslie audiobook review – the bromance behind the band
Actor Chris Addison narrates a deep dive into the creative partnership of Lennon and McCartney
‘The King Lear in I Am the Walrus? That came from John Cage’: Paul McCartney on the Beatles’ debt to great avant-garde composers
In the mid-60s, the Beatles tuned in to the world’s most audacious experimental musicians. Paul McCartney reveals how many of the Fab Four’s ‘far-out’ masterpieces were inspired by their sonic breakthroughs
‘Who was going to carry Elvis’s drugs and guns?’ How Colonel Tom Parker always looked out for the King
For decades, Presley’s manager has been vilified as a money-grabbing huckster. But compelling new evidence suggests the colonel was actually devoted to the star
Diana McVeagh obituary
Biographer of Gerald Finzi and Edward Elgar who was on the editorial board of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
The Assassin to Tyler, the Creator: the week in rave reviews
Keeley Hawes is hitwoman on a rampage, while the hip-hop polymath is back with one eye firmly on the dancefloor. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews
Nick Cave fans swarm charity bookshop in UK after musician donates thousands of books
‘It’s an incredibly varied donation. He clearly held on to his books, some of them are quite old,’ says bookshop worker
The Guide #200: Get Out, Breaking Bad and the pop culture that defined the 21st century so far
In this week’s newsletter: To celebrate our 200th edition, we look back at the films, shows, albums and more that mattered most over the last 25 years
‘That’s where I found my family’: dancefloor devotees on hedonistic moves and healing grooves
A new season at London’s Southbank Centre is inspired by Emma Warren’s book Dance Your Way Home, about the potency of communal movement. She and other artists involved explain why the dancefloor is their happy place
Bless Me Father by Kevin Rowland review – the Dexys Midnight Runners frontman tells all
A picaresque story of massive success and deep despair that Rowland narrates with an impressive lack of self-pity
Michael Morpurgo to recite Vivaldi-inspired poetry at inaugural Cornwall festival
Author wants to take arts to ‘middle of wonderful nowhere’ in far south-west, often missed by people heading for coast
From Madonna to New Order and Oasis, one man’s odyssey to make an ‘atlas of album cover maps’
Damien Saunder set out to survey the cartographic influence on album sleeve design. Four years and 400-plus records later, he’s created the coffee table book music fans and map lovers never knew they needed
Street-Level Superstar: A Year With Lawrence by Will Hodgkinson audiobook review – indie pop’s ultimate underdog
This warm, funny account of a mercurial talent gone to waste teems with love for its subject
Under Milk Wood invites us to laugh at ourselves – I wanted my music to do the same
Dylan Thomas’s evocative radio play has been adapted into films, a ballet, even a jazz suite. From its drunkards and nosey-parkers, to its ghosts and dreamers, Ninfea Crutwell-Reade’s new reimagining connects it back to its origins
Simon Majaro obituary
Other lives: Management consultant, author and patron of chamber music