British playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard died at the age of 88 on Saturday. His plays often explored philosophy, history, identity and human relationships and even comedic flair.He was born in 1937 in Czechoslovakia (Now Czech Republic). He fled Nazi persecution as a child and eventually settled in Britain, where he adopted the name Tom Stoppard. His early life experiences, personal loss, and later discovering his Jewish heritage helped shape the themes and emotional core of many of his later works.In 2012, Stoppard attended the Jaipur Literature Festival, one of the largest literary gatherings in the world. During the festival, Stoppard spoke about the craft of playwriting, the interplay of history and philosophy in drama, and his personal journey from Czechoslovakia to Britain.Stoppard is survived by his family, children and grandchildren.

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In Hampshire, dog owners Dharminder, 43, and his wife Ramanpreet, 40, held a £2,500 send-off at a specialist pet crematorium for their dog Simba. They run a bespoke pet funeral firm just on the edge of London, and in the few years they have been running, they have seen everything the wacky world of bespoke pet funerals has to offer. They offer a range of services that pet owners are looking for and form a small part of the £110 million UK pet funeral services market. Across the planet pet funeral service providers offer up burial and cremation services, memorial products and even grief counselling. The directors of Cherished Hearts Cremations want pet owners to know that they can say goodbye however they see fit.

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The most inescapable travel trend of 2025 — online at least — must be airport theory. With winter city-break season in full swing and the intimidatingly enormous Grand Egyptian Museum, with its 100,000 artefacts, topping many bucket lists, let me take this opportunity to propose a new concept — “museum theory”. This is the practice of making your gallery visit as easy and efficient (and, unlike airport theory, stress-free) as possible. The first tenet of museum theory is that you should never visit more than one per day. It helps reduce stress on holiday rather than compound it, and there’s another advantage museum theory has on its airport equivalent.

Spoiler alert: spending a week riding Florida’s eastern coast ranks among the top travel experiences of a lifetime. My plan was to ride the whole coast, from Key West in the south to Jacksonville in the north. I could have done this all afternoon but had to push on to Key West, via the spectacular Seven Mile Bridge. This felt tremendously cool, even if it transpired I was too old for South Beach by at least 30 years. • 12 amazing hotels in MiamiAdvertisementAll of which could scarcely be more different from Daytona Beach, 250 miles north.

China’s London mega-embassy was bulletproofBy Matthew Brooker / Bloomberg OpinionThe end is in sight for the saga of China’s London “super embassy.” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government has let it be known that it would approve Europe’s largest diplomatic compound on the site of the former Royal Mint, jumping the gun ahead of a twice-delayed formal decision due next month. The Royal Mint controversy has opened Starmer’s government to charges of placing economic advantage ahead of national security. It is unfortunate that Royal Mint Court, centered on a 19th-century Georgian mansion and including the ruins of a 14th-century Cistercian abbey, was sold to China. The Royal Mint Court Residents Association has sought two opinions from planning lawyer Charles Banner and is preparing to lodge a judicial review. Few who remember the China’s unanimously rejected attempt to win local approval would lose sleep over that.

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Ahead of the Budget, warnings suggested that Rachel Reeves could face a fiscal gap of up to £20 billion in meeting her self-imposed rule of not borrowing for day-to-day spending. Ms Reeves said: “People often talk about what chancellors do in their budget, but sometimes what’s more important are the things you don’t do. However, the OBR suggested it had provided ministers with no new forecasting in November. At the Budget on Wednesday, Ms Reeves hiked taxes by £26 billion, including by freezing thresholds on income tax. Ms Reeves also used some of the tax take to build herself a bigger buffer against her borrowing rules.

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(Image credit: Manuel Harlan)The actor was born in 1966 in Sedgefield, the youngest of three children. (Image credit: Mark Gatiss)Mark as a young man. (Image credit: Mark Gatiss)Gardening was just one part of a countryside childhood. (Image credit: Mark Gatiss)Mark on the set of Sherlock with Andrew Scott. (Image credit: Mark Gatiss)The person that would play you in a film of your lifeI’d play me.

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Your wardrobe could always do with a few new pieces, so the Black Friday sale is a good opportunity to pad out your winterwear without overspending. A decent fragrance is expensive, so it's worth hanging around until Black Friday to get a killer new scent for a lot less. If you’ve ever had to invest in a new mattress, you’ll know it’s high-risk, high-reward. With Christmas creeping ever closer, Black Friday is well-positioned to help you complete your gifting list without blowing up your credit card. Best Black Friday gaming dealsDeals on consoles are live, and if you're into PC gaming, there are plenty of great sale items too, from monitors to colourful, click-y keyboards.