From Oprah Winfrey to Dua Lipa, there is no shortage of celebrity literary champions. But the former US leader is in a class of his own

At the Labour party conference Andy Burnham revealed that Hamlet, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Tony Harrison’s poem V are his favourite works of literature. The UK’s first prime minister with an English literature degree was not the only political figure sharing his book choices last week. Barack Obama, the US’s most literary president since Abraham Lincoln, launched a new podcast in which he discusses six books that shaped him with writer friends.

First up was the actor – and recently turned short story writer – Tom Hanks on Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead, a meditation on faith, fatherhood and forgiveness in the form of a letter written by a 76-year-old pastor to his son. It was an unabashedly highbrow start. With the exception of John le Carré’s cold war classic Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Mr Obama’s selections are American: Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses, James Baldwin’s essays The Fire Next Time and Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men. Questions of democracy, race, power and violence are all here.

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Authors, activists and admirers pay tribute to the feminist icon who died this week at the age of 92

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Dua Lipa, musician

Celebrities are hosting literary clubs and designers are launching products emblazoned with the classics – but does reading’s trendy turn have a darker side?

From celebrity book clubs to the revival of the edgy literary party, being a book lover is in. Dior has launched new versions of their Book Tote emblazoned with the covers of classics such as Ulysses and Dracula. Earlier this year, Coach collaborated with Penguin to produce miniature literary bag charms – fully readable micro-versions of books, from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings to Sense and Sensibility. Miu Miu hosts a Literary Club; Chanel its Rendez-vous littéraire.

Being bookish is now sexy, we’re told. i-D magazine recently ran a piece on the Whitney Review – a literary journal based in New York – proclaiming its team part of the “hot literati reshaping criticism”. The founder describes the Review as “sexy, surprising, stubborn”, and its contributors “curious and beautiful” (corroborated by an accompanying shoot in which the Whitney team look more like a bunch of models than anything else). But the piece raised eyebrows in the comments section of i-D’s Instagram page: “the definition of vacuous and vapid”, writes one user; “No room for ugly literati, only HOT”, says another. Should we be sceptical about reading’s voguish turn?

Pop star, whose parents are Kosovan Albanian, expresses admiration for demonstrations, which are entering their sixth week

Albania’s “flamingo revolution” has won its most prominent supporter yet after the pop star Dua Lipa expressed admiration for the protest movement against a Trump family-backed resort in the Balkan state.

As demonstrations against the €1.6bn (£1.36bn) real estate project entered a sixth week, the London-born singer, who was partially raised in Pristina, home to her Kosovan Albanian émigré parents, described the civic unrest as “inspiring”.

While some residents are proud to host celebrations, others lament road closures and city’s transformation into a ‘theme park’

Concetta Chillemi was chatting to friends outside her shop next to Palermo’s gallery for modern art housed in a sublime baroque church in the city’s historic centre. A few metres away, an Italian TV crew had its camera trained on the tiny square in front of the church where event staff in black T-shirts scurried around in the heat.

They were preparing for the arrival of the British singer Dua Lipa and the actor Callum Turner, who over the next two days are celebrating their wedding in the Sicilian capital after exchanging vows in London last weekend.

In 1971, Bianca Jagger entranced the fashion world with the skirt suit she wore to marry Mick Jagger. Now, in a nod to that style, Lipa is ushering in a new era of nonconformity

Fifty five years after Bianca Jagger shocked onlookers when she wore a Yves Saint Laurent skirt-suit to marry Mick Jagger, her alternative wedding look has become a firm favourite among a new generation of brides.

On Sunday, pop star Dua Lipa became the latest celebrity to endorse the trend when she married actor Callum Turner during an intimate ceremony in London. Photos of the couple on the steps of Old Marylebone town hall showed them grinning under a flurry of confetti, Turner in a navy suit, Lipa in an ivory skirt suit ripped straight from the pages of the Jagger stylebook complete with a wide-brimmed hat.

Dua Lipa got married this weekend in an outfit that appeared to pay homage to Bianca Jagger’s wedding to Mick Jagger. We’d like to hear whether you made a similar style choice at your wedding?

Dua Lipa got married this weekend in a beautiful outfit that appeared to pay homage to Bianca Jagger’s wedding to Mick Jagger.

The singer wore a Schiaparelli couture white skirt suit paired with a Stephen Jones hat as she tied the knot with actor Callum Turner at Old Marylebone Town Hall in London on Sunday. In 1971, Jagger married the Rolling Stones frontman in a Yves Saint Laurent Le Smoking jacket and bias-cut skirt, finishing off the look with a floppy hat and veil.

British singer claims electronics company ‘repeatedly refused’ to stop using a photo of her on its packaging

Dua Lipa is suing Samsung for at least $15m (£11m, A$20.6m), alleging that the electronics company used a photo of her to sell its TVs without financially compensating her or seeking her permission.

According to the legal complaint, filed in a US district court in California on Friday, Samsung began using an image of Lipa on an image of a TV screen printed on its cardboard packaging for “a significant portion” of its TVs sold in the US last year.

Fashion’s Oscars - aka the Met Gala - arrives this Monday. But before we see this year’s outfits, our writers revisit the looks that still spark debate, delight and the occasional meme

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The first Monday in May is fast approaching, which means the next iteration of the Met Gala – the biggest night in fashion – is on its way.

While we eagerly wait to see what co-chairs including Beyoncé (her first Met in a decade) wear, how Anna Wintour handles honorary chairs Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez on the steps (the couple have provided most of the funding for the gala and its exhibition), and how much impact the anti-Bezos protesters have, we thought it would be fun to hit pause on predictions and instead indulge in some Met Gala nostalgia.

Italian newspapers claim singer and actor, who is tipped to be next James Bond, are planning ‘wedding of the year’ in the city

Last July, Dua Lipa shared a series of photos on Instagram while on holiday in Palermo with Callum Turner, the British actor she had become engaged to weeks earlier. In these photos, the pair appeared radiantly in love with each other – and the Sicilian capital.

There were pictures of the couple strolling through the city’s vibrant baroque alleys, admiring the ceiling frescoes in its striking cathedral and enjoying sunset boat trips. In another, a smiling Turner is holding a pair of ricotta-filled cannoli, the Sicilian dessert. One photo even captured the word ‘“amore” scrawled on a wall.

The British pop star will lead the 2026 London literature festival in collaboration with her Service95 book club, as part of the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary celebrations

Brit award-winning pop star Dua Lipa is to curate this year’s London literature festival at the Southbank Centre, organisers have announced.

The festival, now in its 19th year, will run from 21 October to 1 November, with Lipa shaping a programme of events across the opening weekend and beyond in collaboration with her Service95 book club. The news comes as part of the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary programme and during the UK’s National Year of Reading.

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I grew up listening to the Mamas and the Papas’ hits but had never heard their albums before this year. I had no idea anything as creepy as Mansions lurked within their sunny oeuvre. Its sound is ominous, its mood one of stoned paranoia, its subject rich hippies sequestered in the titular luxury homes, haunted by the sensation that the flower-power dream is going wrong.

This year, the once-vanishing symbol of Las Vegas glamour was reborn in the wardrobes of Gen Z superstars

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After a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The show, known for its elaborate costumes created by the American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.

Now, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.