The Georgian House, Edinburgh
Drawing on private letters and contemporary criticism, Cora Bissett’s imaginative production offers a rounded picture of a complicated man with a colourful love life

We are sitting around a table in the sedate surroundings of the Georgian House , the Robert Adam-designed townhouse run by the National Trust for Scotland. James Clements, playing the part of Robert Burns, says something about the weather, and suddenly a streak of lightning cuts down the length of the table top. It has a gash down the middle for that very purpose.

It is a sign of the attention to detail in Cora Bissett’s excellent production. What could have been a by-the-numbers tribute to Scotland’s national poet is altogether more subtle, imaginative and contentious. The long, undulating table, designed by Jenny Booth and cleverly lit by Elle Taylor, continues to play an unexpected part: Clements appears from beneath a domed plate cover in a scene of hungover contrition, while a cutlery boat sets sail under its own steam towards the West Indies.

800 writers and publishing workers have signed a statement objecting to the LGBTQ+ book prize’s nomination of Boyne, who described himself as a ‘terf’

Ten authors nominated for this year’s Polari prizes, a set of UK awards celebrating LGBTQ+ literature, have withdrawn from the awards over the longlisting of John Boyne, who has described himself as a “Terf” – the acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist.

Two judges have also withdrawn from the prize process, and more than 800 writers and publishing industry workers have signed a statement calling on Polari to formally remove Boyne from the longlist. Boyne, who was longlisted for the main Polari book prize for his novella Earth, is best known for his 2006 novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.

Seán Hewitt, who introduces a new edition of the Scottish author’s final memoir, guides readers through his landmark works a year on from his death

John Burnside was one of those rare prolific writers whose quality and care was not diminished by the apparent ease with which words arrived. His life’s work is like a dark, glittering, ethereal yet earthy river of thought, full of angels, ghosts, nocturnes, animals. These are books as brimming with spirit and light as they are with eroticism and violence. If there is one word I would use to summarise Burnside’s work, it’s grace. He was a graceful writer, in terms of his elegance, but also one concerned with redemption and the moments of light that emerge from sorrow and great pain.

Burnside died in 2024 at the age of 69 , not long after being awarded the David Cohen prize for literature, an award that recognises a lifetime’s achievement. Before that, he had won just about every award going in the poetry world: the Forward prize, the TS Eliot prize and the Whitbread book award among them.

Esteemed foreign correspondent Jon Lee Anderson’s new book offers a full accounting of life in Afghanistan from before 9/11 to now

Jon Lee Anderson is “not done with Afghanistan”, despite having reported on it for more than 40 years, through invasions, occupations, the rise and fall of the Taliban and two great power retreats.

“I always want to go back,” said the New Yorker staff writer . “It gets into your skin. Afghanistan is an incredible place, an incredible society. It’s always like time travel to me, and I knew people there that are larger than life. They stay with you … I may return shortly.”

So many of the tributes of the late Blue Peter producer are synonyms for ‘scary’, which from the 60s to the 80s was what many people thought of professionals who happened to be women

David Attenborough’s description of Biddy Baxter, when he presented her in 2013 with a special Bafta for her 25 years’ work on Blue Peter, was easily the best: dedicated, passionate and pioneering. But since the producer has died , at 92, and other reminiscences have poured in, you can’t help but notice how many of them are synonyms for “scary”.

“Producer” and “creator” describe Baxter’s work on Blue Peter, but don’t convey how totally and utterly everything was her idea: from Tony Hart to the Blue Peter badges, from the golden retrievers to the Blue Peter garden, from “here’s one we made earlier” to the charity appeals, she conjured it all, to make a cultural artefact that left no child untouched. If you ever received a Blue Peter badge, it’s odds on you still have it – and, if it’s a gold one, that you still talk about it.

Agreement defies media reports that contract for Duke and Duchess of Sussex would not be renewed

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have signed a fresh multi-year film and television deal with Netflix, contradicting reports this year that the streaming company would not renew its contract with them.

Harry and Meghan, who struck a five-year deal in 2020 reportedly worth $100m (£78m) after stepping back from their duties as senior royals, have collaborated with Netflix on a number of projects, most recently the duchess’s lifestyle series With Love, Meghan.

Usher Hall, Edinburgh
With a luxury cast bringing anguish, believability and vocal perfection to Mozart’s opera of love and divided loyalty, this concert performance was flawless

The multi-skilling of Scottish Chamber Orchestra conductor Maxim Emelyanychev – cueing the singers, directing his musicians and providing virtuoso keyboard continuo – has been a chief joy of the SCO’s concert performances of Mozart operas at recent Edinburgh international festivals. This, likewise, was an utterly involving evening that captured the urgency of La Clemenza di Tito’s speedy composition.

US mezzo Angela Brower brought palpable anguish to the trouser role of Sesto, torn between loyalty to the too-good-to-be-true emperor (tenor Giovanni Sala) and love for the more imperious Vitellia (Tara Erraught). Tito’s search for a faithful consort who meets with the approval of Rome’s citizens, as reported to him by bass Peter Kálmán’s Publio or sung by the excellent SCO Chorus, is further complicated by Servilia (Hera Hyesang Park) already being in love with Annio (Maria Warenberg).

The festival’s best joke award may have been binned this year, but the one-liners keep coming. Here are our favourites

• 10 of the funniest jokes from the 2024 fringe

Olaf Falafel : We named our children War and Peace – it’s a long story.

Andrew Doherty : At my lowest, I was kicked out of the museum for being inappropriate with Michelangelo’s David. I’d hit rock bottom.

Royal Albert Hall, London
Star mezzo Aigul Akhmetshina shone in Ravel’s Shéhérazade, part of a vivid London Philharmonic programme of music evoking fairytales and far horizons

The London Philharmonic ’s single Prom this year was a concert to stir up wanderlust: four works all vividly evocative of far-flung places. Bookended by vivid depictions of the sea, it also brought the chance to hear a piece inspired by a very different body of water: The Rose Lake, Michael Tippett ’s swansong, completed by the 88-year-old composer in 1993.

The Rose Lake was written after Tippett visited Lake Retba in Senegal, where a particular kind of algae turns the water pink. Spare, translucent music links thickly textured episodes that evoke the idea of the lake itself singing through the day – a slow, expansive melody that changes yet remains essentially the same. It’s not often performed – partly because of the demands on the percussionists and the sheer amount of hardware it requires to create Tippett’s otherworldly soundscape. Ranged along the back of the Albert Hall stage, next to every other percussion instrument you can think of, was a long line of three dozen rototoms : tuned drums a bit like miniature timpani. Two of the LPO’s percussionists darted back and forth along this line, arms whirling and sticks flying, looking from a distance like panicked spiders but hitting their marks to weave gossamer melodic effects. Even if the piece itself has the occasional longueur, it sounded glorious here as conducted by Edward Gardner.