Le Journal

With the search for the country’s first town of culture under way, Guardian writers pick their favourite spots for art, architecture, food, festivals, music and celeb spottingWhy did Caesar, Saint Augustine, Hengist and Horsa make Ramsgate their first port of call on assorted crusading trips to England? Proximity to France? Easy landing beaches beneath the cliffs? The lively arts scene? Continue reading...

Oasis, Macca and Radiohead made Help a smash for War Child in 1995. A new reboot packs comparable star power – and was partially produced from a hospital bedWhen Kae Tempest was asked to contribute to a new track by Damon Albarn, which would also feature Fontaines DC frontman Grian Chatten, Tempest says he jumped at the chance. It wasn’t just the artists involved, nor the fact that it was for a new compilation benefiting War Child, called Help(2): a sequel to the charity’s hugely successful 1995 compilation Help. After seven solo albums, Tempest had begun thinking about working with others, and so the night before the recording session, he and Chatten repaired to Albarn’s studio and wrote their verses together, “responding to each other”. It seemed to work really well, he says: “A true collaboration.”Nevertheless, he concedes, the actual recording of Flags proved to be quite the baptism of fire. “Johnny Marr was on guitar, Femi [Koleoso] from Ezra Collective was drumming,” he laughs. “Plus, there was a children’s choir.” Continue reading...

Une certaine tristesse, de Mattis Savard-Verhoeven, paraît le 5 mars aux éditions La Peuplade et suit Noé, un enfant qui, après un exercice de simulation de fusillade dans son école, choisit de ne pas retourner en classe et de prendre la fuite pour écrire son histoire, celle d’un garçon marqué par la mort récente de sa grand-mère et hanté par une question simple et vertigineuse : comment faire pour ne pas disparaître.

La modification était prévisible : la revalorisation du SMIC, le 1er janvier dernier, entraine une nouvelle grille des salaires minimums de branche, pour la librairie. Les employés au niveau 1 de cette grille, faiblement rémunérés, verront leurs salaires augmenter légèrement.