The big picture: another Christmas rolls around…
The most wonderful time of the year couldn’t be more manufactured in Al Barry’s amusing shot of Santa heads on a conveyer belt in 1955
Tintin and the terrific tomb: Essex heritage listing is thrill for Hergé fans
Rare stone chest linked to comic-book hero joins church above supermarket under Historic England’s protection
‘These are magic books’: bringing imaginary works of literature to life
A whimsical new exhibition assembles a range of books that don’t exist, from Byron’s destroyed memoirs to Shakespeare’s lost play
The best books to give as gifts this Christmas
From a radical retelling of Huckleberry Finn to Al Pacino’s autobiography, novelists and nonfiction writers reveal the books they will be giving as gifts – and the volumes they would love to find in their own stocking
The big picture: Tony Kearns captures stalled time at Camden Market
The photographer’s 1980s shot of a punter and his dog shows a London destination already in thrall to its storied past
The big picture: a lost office world of endless paper and big cigars
Lars Tunbjörk’s late-90s picture of a Manhattan legal firm recalls a time before modular sofas and mobile phones
On my radar: Nathan Stewart-Jarrett’s cultural highlights
The Culprits actor on his favourite film for Christmas, the humour and rebellion in the work of artist Mike Kelley, and an inspiring book about failure
‘Gentlemen shared their tattoos over dinner’: how our taste for tattoos started with the rich
Highly decorated skin is everywhere these days, but tattoos have a more elevated pedigree than you may think. A new book aims to make us think differently about Victorian aristocrats … and bank managers
‘I am nothing if not persistent’: Lesley Imgart, winner of our graphic short story prize 2024
It was fifth time lucky for Imgart in this year’s Observer/Faber award for emerging cartoonists, with her spellbinding tale about the life of a young witch
The big picture: earthbound reality at the International Space Station landing site in Kazakhstan
Andrew McConnell’s shot of a young scrap collector at the remote spot where astronauts return from space captures a curious juxtaposition
‘We live in a climate of fear’: graphic novelist’s Elon Musk book can’t find UK or US publisher
Darryl Cunningham blames fear of ‘legal consequences’ for reluctance to take on book, now only available in French
Pretentious, moi?: Josh Brolin’s poetry about Dune has landed, whether we like it or not
Brolin’s verses about Timothée Chalamet and Florence Pugh have now found their way into a London art gallery in the form of Dune: Exposures
A Short History of British Architecture by Simon Jenkins review – Doric columns and grand designs: the greatest hits
In a book of two halves, Jenkins seeks to educate readers in the ‘language’ of style as well as offer a polemic on the ravages visited upon our cities by modernist planners
A twisted tale of strange sisters: Hervé Guibert’s photographs of his reclusive great-aunts in 1970s Paris
The late French writer and artist convinced his eccentric relatives to star in a gothic photo novel which is finally being published in English following renewed interest in his work
Kate Hepburn obituary
Designer and artist who worked for Spare Rib, the Monty Python team and Pink Floyd