Review: Cartier, ‘the Jeweller of Kings’, has Come to the National Gallery of Victoria in a Dazzling New Exhibition

Cartier's legendary 'Tutti Frutti' necklace, a riot of carved emeralds, rubies and sapphires, that captured the French house's bold interwar imagination in 1936  and a new modern elegance. Cartier Collection. Photograph: Vincet Wulveryck. Cover picture of Hermes AW26 by Max Farago,

By Sasha Grishin

Harper's Bazaar editor and Parisian

socialite, Daisy Fellowes, wearing

the 'Tutti Frutti' Hindou necklace

in its original form, in 1937.

Photograph: Cecil Beaton

Founded in Paris 179 years ago, Cartier has fostered a legendary reputation as the creator of luxury goods for royalty, the aristocracy, film stars, and the generally wealthy. The English king Edward VII famously referred to Cartier as “the jeweller of kings and the king of jewellers”.

The glittering magnificence of the Cartier style through the ages has been brought together in a major exhibition by London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, now being presented at the National Gallery of Victoria.

An Instant Hit 

Curated over almost a decade by the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Helen Molesworth, the Cartier show opened in London last year for a seven-month season and promptly sold out.

With almost 350 items on display, it was celebrated by many as one of the best shows of 2025. However, one criticism was the exhibition was too cramped, and the inevitable small scale of most of the objects resulted in a crowd crush within darkened spaces.

King Edward VII famously referred to Cartier as “the jeweller of kings and the king of jewellers”

Director of the Cartier Collection, 

Pascale Lepeu, at the new exhibition

Melbourne, at the NGV International.

The NGV iteration of the exhibition, with almost 400 items, presents a number of alterations to the checklist of exhibits, such as the inclusion of necklaces and bodice ornaments owned by Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba. Melba was an early client of the brand, with Pierre Cartier among her fans.

More significantly, the NGV has collaborated with internationally renowned designers to reimagine the exhibition, following in a tradition it has established for itself over several years.

The gallery has collaborated with Studio Sabine Marcelis and CLOUD, two multidisciplinary design practices based in Rotterdam, in The Netherlands.

Marcelis evokes the Cartier colour palette in her design, while CLOUD has built on the Cartier geometric forms to create light-filled architectural structures that are involved in a creative dialogue with the jewellery.

It was Alfred’s three sons who made Cartier into a powerhouse of fashion design, with offices in Paris, London, New York and St Petersburg

Alfred Cartier (second from right) with his three sons

Pierre, Louis and Jacques, 1922. Cartier Collection

Photograph: Vincent Wulveryck.

A Thumbnail Sketch of the Cartier Style

The thumbnail sketch of the development of the Cartier style is mandatory for understanding the exhibition. 

Louis-François Cartier founded the firm in Paris in 1847, and in 1874 passed it to his son Alfred. 

It was Alfred’s three sons – Louis, Pierre and Jacques – who internationalised the brand and made it into a powerhouse of fashion design, with offices in Paris, London, New York and St Petersburg.

Louis embraced orientalist Art Deco designs and colourful “Tutti Frutti” jewel combinations. 

He also pioneered wristwatch designs and exploited platinum as a structural base for elaborate diamond and gemstone settings in the jewellery.

Cartier continues to resonate with its audiences by tapping into ancient cultures and traditions, making them modern and relevant

Splendid Cartier Paris necklace from 1947.

Cartier Collection. Photograph: Nils Hermann.

Pierre extended operations to New York, while Jacques developed operations in New Bond Street in London.

It is difficult to define the Cartier design, yet relatively simple to recognise it when you encounter it.

Writing in the NGV Cartier catalogue, Vivienne Becker, a prolific London-based jewellery historian, arrives at a convincing characterisation. She writes that the style:

is underpinned by culture, by an ever-evolving quest to infuse jewellery design with originality, artistic integrity and cultural richness.

As one makes their way around the exhibition, there is constant encounter with styles from the past – including Egyptian, Chinese, Japanese, Iranian and Islamic elements – informing the use of diamonds and other precious materials. 

The tiaras have been worn by celebrities, from Clementine Churchill at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II to the singer Rihanna

A scintillating tiara, made by Cartier 

Londonin 1937. Cartier Collection.

Photograph: Vincent Wulveryck

A Who's-Who List of Clients

Cartier also has its repertoire of signature motifs, such as the iconic Panthère, which may appear as a panther clip brooch, or snakes and crocodiles that can take the forms of necklaces and bracelets.

As jewellers and watchmakers, Cartier was known as the “watchmaker of shapes” – exploiting squares, rectangles and octagons, rather than the traditional circle.

While celebrating a supreme elegance, most of the items on display have the power to surprise, such as a spectacular scarab brooch, or a 1933 brooch with a giant floating amethyst set against sapphires, diamonds and platinum.

A highlight of the exhibition is the display of more than 20 stunning tiaras. These are symbols of royalty and glamour, with connotations of celestial halos, laurel wreaths and garlands.

These tiaras have been worn by a who’s who of celebrities. For instance, one scroll tiara (1902) was worn by Clementine Churchill at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, and again in 2016 by the singer Rihanna, on the cover of W magazine.

Household names who have worn the Cartier jewellery in this exhibition include Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly and Dame Nellie Melba

Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor,

in Cartier jewels, 1939. Conde Nast

Photograph: Cecil Beaton Archive

There is also the Sun tiara of 1907, with a 32-carat cognac-yellow diamond at its core, and the Art Deco diamond and platinum Halo tiara of 1934, which was inspired by ancient Egypt and owned by Begum Aga Khan III.

Household names who have worn the Cartier jewellery present in this exhibition include Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, Rihanna, Princess Margaret, The Duchess of Windsor, Dame Nellie Melba, the Maharaja of Patiala, Begum Aga Khan III and American heiress Barbara Hutton. These will prove a selfie magnet for many visitors.

While this is not the first major Cartier exhibition in Australia (there was a big show in Canberra in 2018), it is the largest, containing almost 300 items never previously seen in Australia. It is also the most innovative in its display.

Cartier continues to resonate with its audiences by going beyond mere displays of ostentatious wealth; it taps into ancient cultures and traditions, making them modern and relevant to contemporary audiences.

Cartier is showing at the National Gallery of Victoria from June 12 to October 4.

Sasha Grishin, Adjunct Professor of Art History, Australian National University

Bangarra’s Sheltering is a Powerful Showcase of First Nations Dance and Creativity, Opening at the Sydney Opera House

Dancer Donta Whitham is part of the triple bill 'Sheltering'. Photograph (above) by Daniel Boud. Cover picture of Hermes AW26 collection in Los Angeles by Max Farago.

By Erin Brannigan

Frances Rings’ artistic directorship of Bangarra Dance Theatre’s shines through the company’s new triple-bill production, Sheltering. She demonstrates a commitment to uplifting company members and First Nations creatives, with a coherent curatorial vision that shows care for diverse audiences.

This triple-bill is a beautiful sampler of what this important company has to offer to the cultural, political and creative facets of our nation.

A nurturing home for First Nations creatives

Sheltering comprises three individual choreographic works: Keeping Grounded, Brown Boys, and Sheoak.

Sheoak is a 2015 work by Rings herself, commissioned by then Artistic Director Stephen Page.

Keeping Grounded (2023) is choreographed by Indjalandji-Dhidhanu and Alyawarre woman Glory Tuohy-Daniell, with a cast of eight company dancers.

Keeping Grounded is performed by eight company dancers. Daniel Boud

The most recent work is a short dance film called Brown Boys (2024). It was directed by Cass Mortimer Eipper and Daniel Mateo, a Bangarra company member and Gomeroi and Mari Ma’ufanga, Tongatapu (Tonga) man.

Both Brown Boys and Keeping Grounded were first presented in Bangarra’s emerging artist showcase, Dance Clan, and supported from there onto the mainstage program. Creators Tuohy-Daniell and Mateo trained at NAISDA, Australia’s National Indigenous Dance College, and joined Bangarra through its Russell Page Graduate Program, which provides training and mentorship for new company dancers.

Keeping Grounded

Keeping Grounded opens onto an enormous and heavy rope net designed by Dyarubbin woman, Shana O’Brien. Under it, figures twitch and roll like a catch of fish.

The set features a large heavy rope net designed by Dyarubbin woman Shana O’Brien. Daniel Boud

Karen Norris’ textured lighting supports the impression of a coastal setting, and “sets the scene” across the work as it shifts from an evocation of Country to a more technologically-mediated aesthetic.

In an interview with Glory Tuohy-Daniell, the choreographer describes how the work invites viewers “to consider how small, almost forgotten actions keep us grounded […] a step barefoot, a moment of stillness, a return”.

Tuohy-Daniell’s movement vocabulary is striking for its literal groundedness, reflecting the central theme highlighted in the work’s title.

The first sections see the dancers bound to the floor with a variation on the typical angular, rolling, swooping and sharply delineated shapes of Bangarra’s Indigenous contemporary style – here purposefully fractured.

Set to a score by Brendon Boney, the movement in this section is broken into one movement per beat, a staccato rhythm that suggests a disconnect from the flow of nature. This “pixellated” quality makes familiar forms new in an exciting way.

Brown Boys

Six-minute dance film Brown Boys is a meditation on the experience of young First Nations men. Daniel Mateo, the writer, choreographer and performer, has a cultural background spanning northern New South Wales and Tonga.

The program notes describe Brown Boys as a total work of art involving poetry, choreography, cinematography, sound and dramaturgy.

Adding to this is the central role of sculpture. Set and costume designer Elizabeth Gadsby has worked with traditional forms to establish a culturally informed aesthetic. This includes a fale (pronouned “fah-lay”), which is a traditional Tongan shelter made of grass matting. This structure frames Mateo’s body inside the film frame.

A fale is a kind of traditional Tongan shelter. Cass Eipper

Ochres, minerals and soils are other material elements featured in the design and choreography. The striking final image shows Mateo literally grounded by a soil mound that takes the silhouette of a 19th century crinoline skirt.

Mateo’s text and performance are extraordinary. His direct and settled gaze to camera, gentle unfolding movements, and spoken word poem, give visibility, dignity and complexity to the figure of the young Indigenous man. That he has “always been beautiful” could not be more persuasively portrayed.

Sheoak

Rings’ mastery of group choreography was recently showcased in her commissioned work for the Australian Ballet, Flora. Having delivered another major work for Vivid 2025, this was likely the right time to revive one of her classics.

The opening image of Sheoak showcases both Rings’ choreographic skill and Jennifer Irwin’s amazing legacy as a costume designer. The dancers wear shirts with black on white streaks – skeletal puzzle pieces that join together to form larger human sculptures.

Sheoak gives palpable form to the exhaustion and frustration experienced by First Nations peoples. Daniel Boud

The theme of this work is cultural strength, resilience and adaptability, with the sheoak tree as the central metaphor. Dancer Chantelle Lee Lockhart is captivating in the role of this “Grandmother tree”, as it’s known to the Dharawal people.

The choreography weaves around Jacob Nash’s set design, featuring seven two-metre-long branches. The passing of branches signals the struggle to pass on cultural responsibility and knowledge from generation to generation.

The company of technically virtuosic dancers seems right at home in each of the three diverse works of Sheltering. The program particularly underscores Tuohy-Daniell’s potential as a new leading light in Australian choreography

Sheltering as a whole is dedicated to the late David “Dubboo” Page, brother of former Artistic Director Stephen Page. David’s work as composer, singer and musician was central to establishing the Bangarra aesthetic. His music also features in Rings’ Sheoak.

Sheltering is on now at the Sydney Opera House until June 13. The production will show at the Arts Centre Melbourne from June 18 to 27, and at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre from July 9 to 18.

Erin Brannigan, Associate Professor, Theatre and Performance, UNSW Sydney

Hermès Finds a New Rhythm Beneath the California Sky in Los Angeles

Karen Olsen strikes a pose on the specially built Hermes pavilion for the Autumn/Winter 2026 second chapter by artistic director Nadège Vanhée. Photograph (above) and cover picture by Max Farago.

As the sun slipped behind the hills of Bel Air, Hermès transformed a secluded Los Angeles hillside into a stage for a captivating fashion moment. For the latest chapter of its Autumn/Winter 2026 womenswear collection, artistic director Nadège Vanhée looked beyond the house's equestrian roots, embracing the grace of dance, the glow of California light and a new vision of luxury, reports Antonio Visconti

The architectural installation created 

for the Hermes show at dusk in LA.

HIGH above Los Angeles, where the city dissolves into winding hills, Hermès unveiled a collection that felt less like a fashion presentation and more like a meditation on movement, light and freedom. 

For the French house's latest travelling chapter of its Autumn/Winter 2026 womenswear collection, artistic director Nadège Vanhée turned her gaze westward, drawing inspiration from the unique atmosphere of Southern California and the poetry of a body in motion.

Guests arrived at a purpose-built pavilion perched looking across Bel Air, a striking architectural installation glowing in shades of soft gold as dusk settled across the landscape. The setting captured the essence of the collection itself: expansive, optimistic and suspended somewhere between reality and dream.

While Hermès is often celebrated for its mastery of leather craftsmanship and equestrian heritage, this season Vanhée explored a different narrative. Dance became the collection's guiding spirit, influencing silhouettes that moved with remarkable fluidity. The designer imagined a woman stepping beyond the studio, carrying the elegance and discipline of performance into everyday life.

Artistic director Nadège Vanhée turned her gaze westward, drawing inspiration from the unique atmosphere of Southern California and the poetry of a body in motion

The designer embraced the luminous hues of 

California with rich reds and warm yellows. 

The result was a collection that balanced structure with ease. Sculptural dresses referenced the tension and artistry found in ballet costumes, while flowing skirts and draped garments seemed to float around the body. Fabrics shifted and responded to movement, creating an almost cinematic effect as models navigated the curving runway.

Colour played an equally important role. Rather than the muted palettes often associated with European winters, Vanhée embraced the luminous tones of California. Vivid reds, sunny yellows and sea-hued blues appeared throughout the collection, reflecting the distinctive quality of Los Angeles light. This daylight vibrancy was paired with deep blacks and midnight shades that evoked the city's transformation after sunset.

Leather, naturally, remained central to the Hermès identity. Supple jackets, refined outerwear and impeccably crafted separates anchored the collection, offering a sense of strength beneath the softness. Yet even these pieces felt lighter than previous seasons, revealing a designer increasingly interested in fluidity rather than rigidity.

Sculptural dresses referenced the tension and artistry found in ballet costumes, while flowing skirts and draped garments seemed to float around the body.

Miley Cyrus wore a sleek, black

leather mini-dress to the show. 

The front row reflected the global reach of the house, bringing together clients, artists and a select group of celebrities, including Miley Cyrus, Kerry Washington and Keke Palmer. Their presence underscored Hermès' growing connection to Hollywood while maintaining its singular identity that has mostly eschewed celebrity ambassadors, unlike many other storied French fashion houses. 

What made the evening particularly compelling, however, was not the star spectacle but the confidence of the clothes themselves. Vanhée appears to be entering a new creative phase, one that broadens the visual language of Hermès while remaining faithful to its traditions of craftsmanship and refinement.

The collection also hinted at what lies ahead. As anticipation builds around Hermès' upcoming couture collection, this show suggested a designer increasingly comfortable exploring volume, drape and emotion on a grander scale.

Against the backdrop of a fading Californian sunset, Hermès offered a vision of contemporary luxury that felt remarkably fresh: sophisticated yet effortless, disciplined yet free, grounded in heritage while looking toward new horizons.

See highlights from the Hermes Autumn/Winter 2026 collection in Los Angeles

From Fossicking for Fossils to a Champion for Life on Earth: Sir David Attenborough at 100

Sir David Attenborough on location filming the BBC documentary series 'The Private Life of Plants' at Cape Point in South Africa. He is pictured in the fynbos, a unique shrubland biome alongside a Protea plant. Photograph: Neil Nightingale.

By Euan Ritchie

Sir David Attenborough has turned 100. Very few people have the good fortune to live for a century. Fewer still achieve so much and touch so many lives. Across his seven decade career with the BBC, Attenborough ushered in the transition from black and white to colour television. He gave the now legendary comedy troupe Monty Python their lucky break, greenlighting their Flying Circus. His keen eye and care for viewers is in part why tennis balls are yellow, not white – they’re much easier to see on screen.

But Attenborough is, of course, most famous for his nature documentaries. For decades, he has fronted the camera to educate, entertain and inspire billions of people about the complexity, wonder and majesty of the natural world, and the many threats it faces. It wasn’t a given – Attenborough was told early in his career his teeth were too big for television!

For ecologists like myself, Attenborough’s work has been a source of deep inspiration. It was instrumental in my decision to pursue a life and a career dedicated to understanding, caring and fighting for the protection of nature. For this gift, I am eternally grateful.

A career driven by curiosity

Attenborough’s connection with nature came early, forged in no small part through an insatiable fascination with fossils – including his childhood joy at discovering an ammonite in the Leicestershire countryside.

He went on to study geology and zoology at Cambridge University, graduating in 1947. He served in the navy and worked in an educational publishing house. Notably, the BBC rejected his first job application as a radio producer in 1950. But he tried again, and joined the BBC as a trainee producer in 1952.

His career in nature documentaries began to bud almost immediately, with his Zoo Quest series beginning in 1954. But it burst into full bloom with the landmark Life on Earth series in 1979, which brought distant locations, extraordinary wildlife and evolution and ecology to TV. It instilled a sense of wonder and awe in audiences, while maintaining and respecting scientific accuracy.

Early in his career, Attenborough (right) interviewed Edmund Hillary. Wikimedia, CC BY-NC-ND

The master storyteller

One reason Attenborough has had such success as a communicator is his understated, calm but authoritative demeanour. When you sit down to watch an Attenborough documentary, you feel in safe hands.

His approach isn’t the norm. In other nature documentaries, wildlife can often seem secondary, as props for the presenter.

Some of Sir David’s documentaries didn’t always go to script.

In series such as The Living Planet, The Trials of Life, The Blue Planet, The Planet Earth, and scores of others, Attenborough took us across the globe, revealing nature’s beauty, oddities and extraordinary complexity, as well as its macabre and brutal aspects. The habitats home to the world’s species are brought to life in extraordinary detail. We watch with laughter, trepidation, sadness, anger, excitement and awe, ebbing and flowing as nature’s stories unfold.

Who can forget the first time they saw and heard the extraordinary vocal repertoire and mimicry of a lyrebird, or a curious mountain gorilla’s desire to connect with a fellow great ape? The epic battle for survival between a hatchling iguana and hungry hordes of racer snakes? Or the breathtaking explosion of colour and complexity of a coral reef? Each of these was captured by master cinematographers and the story told to us by Attenborough.

The broadcaster pictured with a rainbow-billed toucan.

Over his long career, Attenborough has become an icon. He was voted the UK’s best TV presenter of all time. But his prodigious output has come at a personal cost too. One of his regrets is how much time he has spent away from his family.

He is also not off limits to criticism. For a long time, Attenborough focused on the glory of nature, largely omitting the damage humans do through overfishing, deforestation, pollution, spreading exotic species, and other threats. He has also shied away from assigning blame to those most responsible for the harms inflicted on nature.

In 2018, he said too much focus on why so much wildlife is threatened was a “turn-off” for some viewers. Ecologists and conservation scientists can sympathise. We know bombarding people with doom and gloom invites apathy and despair, not a desire to act. It’s a hard line to walk between harsh realities and hope.

To his credit, Attenborough has belatedly focused on these issues in recent years. Footage of plastic pollution in Blue Planet II and the ravages of industrial fishing in Ocean have brought a sharp focus on these issues.

In 2020, he released A Life On Our Planet, which he describes as a “witness statement” to the startling losses of biodiversity he has seen over his lifetime. Rather than just spell out the problems, Attenborough laid out how to solve them – and the role we can all play in fixing the two biggest and deeply interwoven problems nature faces: climate change and biodiversity declines and extinctions.

While Attenborough’s earlier work largely avoided these difficult conversations, they succeeded in bringing nature’s wonder to millions of people. This shouldn’t be overlooked. At a time when more and more of us are cut off from nature, Attenborough’s documentaries forged a new connection. For people to care about losing nature, they first have to know and love it.

Conservation relies on stories

Scientific research rarely leads to the behavioural changes we might hope for. Accumulating facts and evidence is vital. But it’s not enough. What humans respond to is stories.

Alongside other globally renowned voices such as the late, great Jane Goodall, Attenborough’s work telling the stories of nature has shaped public opinion. In turn, it has galvanised conservation efforts such as the push to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030.

As he celebrates his centenary, it’s encouraging to see a new generation and diversity of voices in the media and science communication, advocacy, and scientific community. They speak and share their messages with great clarity, confidence, and passion.

Attenborough is just one person. He can’t replace the vital role of scientists, community leaders, conservationists and policymakers in conserving nature. But no one will ever replace David’s distinctive voice. As he has said:

it seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living

Euan Ritchie, Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin University

Agatha Christie: What Made the World’s Bestselling Author so Successful? Here’s a Clue

What made Agatha Christie transcend her times and her competitors? Photograph: S.J Bright/ Shutterstock

By Gill Plain

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Agatha Christie (1890-1976). The event itself, on January 12, was marked by a flurry of media coverage across the world, and academic experts were sought for comment. The chief question being: why is Christie the bestselling author of all time?

Agatha Christie as a young woman. 

Photograph:Christie Archive Trust. 

Christie’s success is a conundrum, not a self-evident manifestation of incontrovertible genius – and this is what makes it so fascinating. Christie was a talented writer, but the same could easily be said of many 20th-century authors.

Known as the “queen of crime”, she was a prolific bestselling author – but so were her fellow mass-producing crime writers, Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) and John Creasey (1908-1973). They didn’t go on to have phenomenal literary afterlives.

Christie, by contrast, became a synonym for a whole genre of writing, and her characters became some of the most beloved figures in global popular culture. How did this happen? What made Christie transcend her times and her competitors?

Terror, tension, suspense

One of the solutions commonly proposed for the secret of Christie’s success is her plotting. She is the doyenne of the “clue-puzzle” mystery, with an unparalleled ability to generate clever plots that surprise, delight and even shock her readers.

This reputation is in large part the legacy of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), itself celebrating its centenary this year. The book was a career breakthrough, prompting just acknowledgement of a trick well played. I won’t reveal the killer plot twist, but careful readers returning to the book for a second encounter can take pleasure in seeing inside the machine, spotting the omissions and misdirections through which they were so skilfully deceived.

Ackroyd isn’t Christie’s only plotting masterclass, but it – and all it stands for – also isn’t an adequate answer to the mystery of Christie’s global success. For all her ability to mislead readers, she wrote some prosaic, daft and far-from-convincing puzzles over the course of her 55-year publishing career.

So, if it’s not just Christie’s plotting that accounts for her success, what else might it be? An obvious and compelling answer is that she also created two brilliant examples of the underestimated outsider detective: Hercule Poirot, the comical cosmopolitan foreigner, and Miss Jane Marple, the village spinster.

Characters and suspects dismiss them because of prejudice – against age, gender and nationality – and there is huge pleasure in watching these underestimated figures turn the tables on murderers, bullies and abusers.

Yet once again, Christie’s success cannot solely be attributed to the familiar comforts of Poirot and Marple. Some of her finest – and most successful – novels are standalone fictions that mobilise terror, psychological tension, anxiety, suspense and the brutal manipulation of the reader.

And Then There Were None (1939) – the tale of ten strangers invited to an island to be murdered – is the bestseller among her bestsellers, while the late thriller Endless Night (1967) astonished reviewers with its capacity to capture psychopathy.

A French adaptation of Christie’s And Then There Were None, part of Channel 4’s Walter Presents series.

Also, those books which do feature the familiar detectives do not necessarily rely upon them. The Poirot novels increasingly come to be fronted by other characters – detective surrogates like Mrs Ariadne Oliver, or figures who are themselves implicated in the crime.

Taken at the Flood (1948) is typical here. It is technically a Poirot novel, in that he appears at the beginning and the end. But the reader follows the concerns of the village community under investigation through a series of effectively realised post-wartime characters.

The reader might come for Poirot but they stay for something else: a nuanced examination of the resentments, anxieties and tensions that distorted British society in the aftermath of war.

It seems then, that solving the Christie conundrum requires the embracing of more unexpected possibilities: her style, wit and psychological insight. Her books are easy and pleasurable to read (which contributes to their success in translation), and they are also often funny.

Sharp, witty, observant

Alongside the serious business of murder, Christie writes sharply observed social comedy, much of the impact of which comes from her characters. Early commentators on the genre dismissed Christie’s characterisation as two-dimensional, but there is consummate skill in her ability to deftly sketch recognisable figures.

It doesn’t matter whether her books are set in the 1920s or the 1950s, we all know what a pompous self-made man is like, or a religious hypocrite, or a put-upon housewife. It reminds us that people are most commonly killed by those closest to them, and the reasons for those murders have changed little in the past half-century.

Be it jealousy, greed, ambition, hatred, resentment or desire, Christie was good at judging just how much it would take to push a character over the edge of reason.

The puzzle of “why Christie?”, then, demands recognition of a range of less familiar Christies. There was noir Christie, a writer of disturbing, manipulative psychological fiction; comic Christie, a sharp and witty deconstructor of social mores; and uncanny Christie – a crime writer whose familiar voice has a curious knack of making the reader feel at home, while pulling the rug from under them.

This final Christie has in part been recognised, most notably by crime writer Robert Barnard – one of the first critics to attempt to solve the Christie conundrum. He writes of her capacity to generate a mood of “trustful mistrust”. Readers have confidence in Christie to deceive them in an appropriate and respectful fashion.

This can be supplemented, I would argue, with something more disturbing. In Christie’s fiction, time and again, nice Dr Jekyll turns into murderous Mr Hyde, and no one – as Christie’s characters are fond of saying – is safe.

Perhaps, then, Christie’s longevity and success might perversely be attributable to her capacity, repeatedly, to rewrite Robert Louis Stevenson as light comedy. In an astonishing high-wire act of authorship, she exposes the profound darkness of human nature through the prism of the prosaic and the comforts of the mundane.

Gill Plain, Professor of English Literature and Popular Culture, University of St Andrews

Why Warmer UK Summers Could Make Beach Staycations a Smart Choice for the British

Likened to the Caribbean, Porthminster Beach in St Ives, Cornwall is known for its azure waters, golden sand and microclimate that creates a tropical atmosphere with palm trees, yet you are in England.

By Narmin Nahidi

For decades, the British summer holiday has carried one basic assumption: if you want reliable sun, you leave the UK. Spain, Greece, Turkey, Portugal and Italy have offered what Britain could not always guarantee: warmth, blue skies and the feeling of a proper summer break.

But climate change is beginning to alter the financial logic of that decision. This does not mean the UK should celebrate warmer summers. Heat brings serious risks: drought, wildfire, water stress, pressure on health services and damage to infrastructure.

Yet for households facing higher living costs, expensive travel and growing awareness of carbon emissions, the summer holiday is becoming more than a lifestyle choice. It is becoming a household finance decision, a regional economic decision and a climate-risk decision.

The warning signs are now difficult to ignore. The Met Office confirmed that summer 2025 was the UK’s warmest on record, with a mean temperature of 16.10°C between June and August. It is also estimated that a summer as hot or hotter than 2025 is now around 70 times more likely because of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. This does not mean every British summer will be hot or dry. But it does mean that warm-weather tourism at home is becoming more plausible than it was for previous generations.

The spectacular natural limestone arch at Durdle Door on the Jurassic coast near West Lulworth in Dorset, England.

The financial scale of outbound tourism is substantial. According to the Office for National Statistics, UK residents made an estimated 94.6 million visits abroad in 2024 and spent about £78.6 billion overseas. Spain alone received an estimated 17.8 million visits from residents of Great Britain in 2024, followed by France and Italy. These figures show how deeply foreign summer travel is embedded in our lifestyles and the wider leisure economy.

International travel clearly has personal and cultural value. People travel to see family, experience different cultures, rest, celebrate and escape routine. But from a household finance perspective, foreign holidays also involve costs that are often underestimated: flights, luggage charges, airport parking, transfers, travel insurance, exchange-rate costs, mobile roaming, higher peak-season accommodation prices and the financial risk of disruption.

Climate change adds another layer of uncertainty. Heatwaves, wildfires, floods and airport disruption can quickly turn a holiday into a financial loss. A family may budget for flights and hotels, but not for cancelled excursions, delayed returns, medical expenses in extreme heat, or additional accommodation if travel plans are disrupted. Climate risk is therefore no longer only a concern for governments, insurers or infrastructure investors. It is entering ordinary household decisions, including where families spend their summer break.

Sustainable staycations

The crystal-clear turquoise waters and fine white sand of the Pedn Vounder Beach on the south coast of Penwith Peninsula, in West Cornwall, England. 

This is where the UK staycation becomes more important. Staying in Britain is not automatically cheap and it is not automatically sustainable. In popular destinations such as Cornwall, Devon or the Lake District, a peak-season cottage can cost well over £1,000 for a week, depending on location, property size and school-holiday timing. A long car journey is not necessarily low carbon. Popular coastal towns can become overcrowded, placing pressure on housing, water, waste, roads and local services. But a well-planned domestic holiday can reduce several financial and environmental costs at once.

First, it can reduce exposure to volatile travel costs. Families may avoid airfare inflation, exchange-rate uncertainty and some of the expenses linked to overseas travel. They may also have more flexibility to travel outside the most expensive weeks, take shorter breaks, or adjust plans if weather conditions change.

Second, domestic tourism keeps more spending inside the UK economy. Money spent in local guesthouses, restaurants, cafes, farm shops, museums and small attractions circulates through regional economies. This matters especially for coastal and rural areas where seasonal tourism supports employment and small businesses.

VisitBritain’s 2024 domestic overnight tourism data shows that British residents took 106 million overnight trips in Britain, although trip volume fell compared with 2023. Spending, adjusted for inflation, increased by 3% in Britain, partly reflecting higher costs per trip. This is important: domestic tourism has economic value, but affordability is already a constraint.

Third, staying closer to home can reduce the carbon cost of leisure. Aviation’s climate impact is not limited to carbon dioxide. Aviation accounts for about 2.5% of human-made global CO₂ emissions, but its climate impact also includes non-CO₂ effects such as contrails and nitrogen oxides. Replacing a short-haul flight with rail, coach, or a shorter domestic journey will not solve climate change, but it can reduce the footprint of a decision made by millions of households every year.

Britain cannot simply wait for warmer summers and call it an opportunity. If domestic tourism grows without planning, it could create new costs: overcrowded beaches, higher local rents, water shortages, waste pressures and congestion. A sustainable staycation economy needs investment in public transport, affordable accommodation, shaded public spaces, water refill points, wildfire awareness, coastal protection and better visitor management.

There is also a fairness issue. If domestic holidays become fashionable but unaffordable, the benefits will be uneven. The goal should not be luxury staycations for wealthier households. It should be a broader model of climate-conscious leisure that allows more families to rest and travel without excessive financial strain or environmental cost.

The message to households should be practical rather than judgemental. A foreign holiday is not wrong. People travel abroad for many good reasons, including family, culture, rest and escape. But the old idea that a summer holiday requires a flight is becoming less convincing. As UK summers become warmer and overseas travel becomes more exposed to climate and cost shocks, staying in Britain may increasingly make financial and environmental sense.

A warmer UK summer is not good news in itself. It is a warning. But it also forces a practical question: if sunshine is becoming more available at home, can Britain build a tourism model that keeps more money in local economies, reduces emissions, and protects households from the rising financial risks of climate change?

Narmin Nahidi, Assistant Professor in Finance, University of Exeter

Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Made Her a Myth – She Spent Her Life Resisting It

Marilyn Monroe photographed on the patio of her apartment at 882 North Doheny Drive in West Hollywood, by the father of photojournalism Alfred Einsentaedt using a small, 35mm Leica rangefinder camera, when she was 26 years old in 1953, for Life magazine. Cover picture of Stephane Rolland Haute Couture AW25/26 by Jay Zoo in Paris for DAM.

By Fiona Handyside

“I can be smart when it matters, but most men don’t like it,” says Lorelei Lee in the 1953 comedy musical, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.This famous quip from Howard Hawks’ film sums up for us the fate of the star who uttered it. Marilyn Monroe confronted the pitilessness of the 1950s Hollywood studio system during her short career as an actor (1946-1962). Today she is primarily remembered for her highly sexualised glamorous star image rather than her intelligence, skill and political acumen.

Another relaxed shot of Monroe from the

photoshoot with Alfred Eisenstaedt, as 

she was becoming a global star after 

her role in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Monroe crystallised a certain vision of 1950s femininity that chimed with the decade’s ambivalent attitude towards female independence – fascinated by but also wary of women’s increasingly public displays of sexuality.

At the centenary of Monroe’s birth, the image that endures in the public imagination has been largely stripped of voice and agency. What remains are images. There are the iconic moments from her films – most famously the white skirt billowing above a subway grate in The Seven Year Itch (1955). There are the photographs captured by celebrated figures such as Richard Avedon and Eve Arnold, and the artworks she inspired by equally iconic artists like Andy Warhol.

Her most recognisable moments have been repeatedly appropriated and reinterpreted by later celebrities, including Madonna, Kim Kardashian and Ryan Gosling.

Even when Monroe was alive, people close to her frequently claimed that there was no artistry behind her cinematic roles, rather that she was simply “playing herself”. The director Fritz Lang remarked that she simply knew what effect she was having on men, nothing more. And playwright Arthur Miller, her third husband, said that “in everything she did, she was herself”.

Joshua Logan, the director of her 1956 film Bus Stop, admired her comic timing, but she longed to play serious roles too.

Monroe herself both accepted and rebelled against her sex symbol image, understanding the power it gave her but rejecting its dehumanising qualities. “That’s the trouble, a sex symbol becomes a thing,” she stated. “I just hate being a thing. But if I’m going to be a symbol of something I’d rather have it be sex than some other things we’ve got symbols of.”

Fighting the power

In 1946, becoming a pin-up enabled Norma Jean Baker (Monroe’s birth name) to escape a working-class existence and pull herself up into a different world. She knew that her stardom was largely as a result of her appeal to young servicemen conscripted into war in Korea, including African-Americans. She used her star power to fight the racism, classism and sexism of the structures she worked within.

Monroe speaking about her love for Ella Fitzgerald.

In 1954 she forced the owners of Hollywood nightclub Mocambo to honour a contract with singer Ella Fitzgerald they threatened to break. In a 1972 interview with Ms.Magazine, Fitzgerald explained:

I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt. It was because of her that I played the Mocambo, a very popular nightclub in the ’50s. She personally called the owner of the Mocambo, Charlie Morrison, and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night. She told him – and it was true, due to Marilyn’s superstar status – that the press would go wild. The owner said yes, and Marilyn was there, front table, every night. The press went overboard … After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again.

In 1956, Monroe supported her then-husband, Miller, in his refusal to name names to the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities headed up by the notorious Senator Joseph McCarthy in the attempt to remove perceived Communist influence in Hollywood. In 1960, she wrote to New York Times editor Lester Markel, a friend of hers, expressing her support of Fidel Castro in Cuba.

Monroe also rebelled as soon as she could against being typecast as a dumb blonde. When executives at 20th Century Fox, the studio to which she was under contract, refused to cast her in dramatic roles, even after her brilliant performance in The Seven Year Itch, she announced the formation of her own production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions, in January 1955. She was president and her friend and photographer Milton Greene was the vice-president. Fox sued her for breach of contract.

Monroe speaking about her reputation as a ‘dumb blonde’.

Monroe and Fox finally settled on a non exclusive-deal that compensated Monroe for her past earnings and gave her control over future projects. Although Monroe herself did not survive long enough for her production company to make a significant cultural impact, her move paved the way for future female stars, such as Margot Robbie and Reese Witherspoon, to control their careers and the roles they are offered through founding production companies.

Monroe died before the flourishing of civil rights movements and women’s liberation in America. But in her actions, she anticipated their promotion of a fairer and more equal society. She is one of the 20th century’s most enduring icons. However, while she is remembered for her wiggling walk, childlike voice and pouty lips, behind this glamorous facade lay a hardworking, politically engaged woman who recognised and struggled against the inequities of the American society that both adored and denigrated her.

Fiona Handyside is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies, University of Exeter