Civilised but casual, often hilarious, Adelaide writers’ week is everything a festival should be – except this year | Tory Shepherd

The sun almost always shines on Adelaide writers’ week, held on Kaurna land each year at the tail end of summer.For those who start looking forward to it as soon as soon as the Christmas tree is packed away (or earlier, frankly) there’s a sense of loss, of betrayal, at the omnishambles that has led to its cancellation this year.We’re bereft, and angry – not least because some of the most vocal critics seem to have no idea what writers’ week actually is.During Adelaide’s Mad March, the city’s parklands are home to the festival fringe’s sprawling performance spaces, bars and restaurants. On a Sunday you might leave behind the carnival chaos of the Garden of Unearthly Delights

‘Soon I will die. And I will go with a great orgasm’: the last rites of Alejandro Jodorowsky

The Chilean film-maker’s psychedelic work earned him the title ‘king of the midnight movie’, and a fan in John Lennon. Now the 96-year-old is ready for the end – but first there is more living to doThe Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.There is an apocryphal story of an ageing Orson Welles introducing himself to the guests at a half-empty town hall

Call this social cohesion? The war of words that laid waste to the 2026 Adelaide writers’ festival

How a boardroom flare-up sparked an international boycott – and a looming defamation battleIt began as a quiet programming dispute in the genteel city of churches.But by Wednesday morning, a frantic, six-day war of words had culminated in the end of the 2026 Adelaide writers’ week and total institutional collapse.What started with the discreet exit of a business titan and arts board veteran spiralled into boardroom carnage last weekend, with mass resignations, lawyers’ letters of demands and allegations of racism and hypocrisy flung by all sides.By the time the writers’ week director, Louise Adler, walked, the boycott of writers, commentators and academics had gone global and the state’s premier cultural event had become a hollowed-out shell.The cancellation of AWW may only be the opening act

Seth Meyers on ICE: ‘An army of out-of-shape uncles’

Late-night hosts talked cratering public opinion on the Trump administration’s deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in US communities and the president’s apparent preference for whole milk.Seth Meyers opened Wednesday’s Late Night with a reminder to viewers about how Trump “sold his mass deportation program to voters during the campaign”.That would be by declaring some version of “We are going to start with violent criminals” again and again.“If you say you’re going to get violent criminals off the streets, of course people are going to be into that. But that was a lie,” Meyers noted

Ian McKellen to star as LS Lowry in documentary revealing trove of unheard tapes

Fifteen years ago, Sir Ian McKellen was among the leading arts figures who criticised the Tate for not showing its collection of paintings by LS Lowry in its London galleries and questioned whether the “matchstick men painter” had been sidelined as too northern and provincial.Now, 50 years after Lowry’s death, McKellen is to star in a BBC documentary that will reveal a trove of previously unheard audio tapes recorded with Lowry in the 1970s during his final four years of life.The interview is the longest the artist ever gave and was recorded in his living room, his “private sanctuary”. The tapes are said to reveal Lowry’s authentic voice, which McKellen will lip-sync on screen.The Lancashire-born actor described the role as a “unique privilege”

Has Joe Rogan fully soured on Trump’s presidency?

Joe Rogan’s comparison of US immigration raids to Gestapo operations, made during a podcast episode earlier this week, has sparked speculation about whether the wildly popular podcaster, who endorsed Donald Trump in 2024, has fully soured on Trump’s presidency – and what that might say of the millions of mainly young men who listen to Rogan’s show.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.Rogan’s views, as expressed in the podcast discussion, were more complicated than the Gestapo remark taken alone might make them seem