Big names liven up the Royal Academy’s annual extravaganza, Durham digs into its past and Tate welcomes the Aids memorial quilt – all in your weekly dispatch

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
Tracey Emin unveils a stunning Crucifixion, while Cornelia Parker, Frank Bowling and George Shaw are also among the stars of this huge, often rewarding show.
• Royal Academy, London, 17 June to 17 August

The comedy legend is touring the UK in September, but before he arrives here’s a chance to ask him anything about Python, hosting SNL, Trump and looking on the bright side

What’s your enduring image of Eric Idle? Is it him cheerily singing Always Look on the Bright Side of Life from a crucifix? Nudge-nudge, wink-winking Terry Jones down the pub? Or struggling with his habit alongside Robbie Coltrane in Nuns on the Run?

Now 82, Idle is one of the most beloved comedians Britain has produced, an alumni of Cambridge Footlights, Monty Python and the Rutles, who became perhaps the most Americanised of the troupe after moving there permanently in the 1970s.

Awakened by Laura Elliott; Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by VE Schwab; Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang; Esperance by Adam Oyebanji; The Quiet by Barnaby Martin

Awakened by Laura Elliott (Angry Robot, £9.99)
A debut novel set in an apocalyptic 2055, following the development of a neural chip dispensing with the need for sleep. At first it seemed a blessing: it ramped up people’s metabolisms, made them stronger and more productive workers, but when they ignored the advice to turn it off and sleep for at least a few hours a week, they turned into ravenous monsters. Thea is one of a group of scientists who developed the chip and are now barricaded in the Tower of London, struggling to reverse the damage they have caused, when two survivors turn up seeking shelter: a silent, traumatised woman and her protector, a nameless man who shows signs of having once been Sleepless himself. Thea comes to question her own values and past actions in a dark and gripping gothic tale with echoes of Frankenstein and The Yellow Wallpaper.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by VE Schwab (Tor, £22)
The latest by the author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue spans centuries, and is focused on three women: Maria, born in 16th-century Spain; Charlotte, in Victorian England; and 21st-century Alice, who grew up in Scotland and is struggling to adapt to life as a university student in the US. All are sexually drawn to women and are isolated from their families. Other, darker connections are revealed as their separate stories become more closely interwoven. A fresh and addictively readable take on a much-loved horror/fantasy trope.

The hunt for the anthrax letter killer, the comedy genius of PG Wodehouse and real talk with Katherine Ryan – it’s the finest listens of the last six months!

• See more of the best culture of 2025 so far

Jeremiah Crowell’s CBC series transports listeners back to 2001, and the anthrax letter attacks that had much of the US gripped with panic in the wake of 9/11. If it all seems like a distant memory, Crowell’s meticulous narration of the events bring the frenzy and confusion of it all right back. From the underreported fatalities to the police’s painstaking investigation and the question of whether a government scientist could have been behind it, Crowell doesn’t skip over any of the details in a heavily researched series notable for its lack of sensationalism.

Worried that he didn’t understand the continent of his heritage, Femi Elufowoju Jr challenged himself to visit all 54 of its nations. His trip took him from bustling Ghana to the tranquility of Tanzania – and sparked the idea for his new play

At 53, I made myself a promise. Having built a reputation as the go-to authority on African culture in UK theatre, I realised with uncomfortable clarity that my knowledge barely scratched the surface of the continent’s vast complexity. What followed was an extraordinary seven-year quest to visit all 54 African nations before my 60th birthday – a journey that would ultimately transform into my ambitious new theatrical project, 54.60 Africa.

The catalyst came during a 2015 world tour with theatre company Complicité that took me to Cape Town. Standing in the shadow of Table Mountain, I confronted a paradox that had long troubled me: despite my Nigerian ancestry and theatrical expertise, my understanding of Africa remained frustratingly limited. Cape Town offered me an opportunity to begin addressing that knowledge gap, and one I was determined to seize.

Like bar-hopping, but for browsing books: this trend, popularised on TikTok, makes for a great day out – and can help you discover unique literary spots

We’ve all heard of bar crawls, but what about a bookshop crawl? The premise is essentially the same – you hop from venue to venue – but instead of drinking beers you browse books. Having begun as a trend among TikTok users, mainly in the US, the idea has begun to be adopted across the globe.

There are a few “official” ways to try it out for your yourself: Bookshop Crawl UK organises the London Bookshop Crawl, as well as crawls across the country, Bristol Walkfest has organised a walking tour of the city’s numerous indies, and in April, the Chicagoland Bookstore Crawl ran an event for Independent Bookstore Day which rewarded participants who visited 10 shops on the day with 10% discount on books for the rest of the year. And the Global Book Crawl runs an annual event with 17 participating countries, from Ireland to Fiji.

Tait posted on Instagram days ago that for 20 years he lived a ‘double life’ but is working on ‘repentance and healing’

The Christian music legend Michael Tait, whose hit song God’s Not Dead became an anthem for Donald Trump’s Maga movement, has been accused of sexually assaulting three men, two who believed they were drugged by the rock star in the early 2000s, according to a months-long Guardian investigation. Four other men have alleged that Tait, a founding member of DC Talk and later a frontman for the Newsboys, engaged in inappropriate behavior such as unwatched touching and sexual advances.

The Guardian is publishing these allegations days after Tait posted an extraordinary confession on his Instagram account, admitting that for 20 years he had been “leading a double life”, abusing alcohol and cocaine, “and, at times, touched men in an unwanted sensual way”, according to his statement.

The late Beach Boys musician created a sound that became synonymous with the state’s breezy, laidback vibe

• Whether wistful or euphoric, Brian Wilson made pop’s most overwhelmingly beautiful music

• Twelve of Brian Wilson’s greatest songs

In July 1963, Jan and Dean’s Surf City spent two weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the first surf rock song to top the charts. Co-written by Brian Wilson, the tune describes a halcyon place where there’s always a party brewing and the romantic odds are in the narrator’s favor – two girls for every boy!

In this rock’n’roll era just before the Beatles shook up the US, surf culture had gone mainstream via films (the Annette Funicello-Frankie Avalon vehicle Beach Party) and music (the ferocious guitarist Dick Dale, quirky hits like the Surfaris’ Wipe Out). Wilson’s own Beach Boys were arguably the driving force behind this movement, having debuted in late 1961 with Surfin’, a single that doubled as an early mission statement: “Surfin’ is the only life, the only way for me.” The fresh-faced band members struck wholesome poses in magazine ads, wearing matching plaid shirts while standing in a line clutching a surfboard, as they sang pristine, intricate harmonies that radiated warmth.

Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney star in a satisfying thriller from the writer of Mare of Easttown. Plus, the supervillain origin story turns into a full blown musical … thanks to Lady Gaga

Coming from the writer of Mare of Easttown, Brad Inglesby, it should be no surprise that this satisfying thriller has a strong middle-aged woman at its heart. Julianne Moore plays Kate, who runs a struggling horse-riding centre and is grieving her dead wife. Then her desperate junkie daughter Claire (Sydney Sweeney) turns up asking for money – again – and Kate is reluctantly drawn into a world of drug deals, double-crosses and death. Michael Pearce, director of the edgy Jessie Buckley mystery Beast , is great at withholding information for maximum dramatic effect while posing the moral question: how far would you go to protect your child? The fun here is working out your own answer.
Out now, Apple TV+