Ed Sheeran’s new songs hint at cracks in his seemingly perfect, previously ultra-private marriage, while Jessie J has had to set the record straight on her breakup with Channing Tatum. So just how literally should we take pop stars’ lyrics? Also this week, we’re diving into the BBC’s Gossip Girl-style mother-daughter thriller Wild Cherry, the so-called “female Adolescence", David Szalay’s Booker Prize-winning novel Flesh and 2025’s Word of the Year. Plus, the surprising news that we’re technically teenagers until 32, reports of wild parties from the set of Rivals, and, finally, our (spoiler-free) review of Wicked 2!

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Recs/reviews:

• Wild Cherry, BBC iPlayer
• Flesh by David Szalay 
• Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart
• Ignore the pessimists – we are living through a literary golden age, New Statesman
• How to Stop Time, Matt Haig
• Threw it Away, Jessie J
• Play, Ed Sheeran
• Straight Up behind the music miniseries ep with Ed Sheeran’s manager Stuart Camp
• Adolescence lasts into your 30s, major new study on brain development finds, The Independent
• Wicked: For Good, in cinemas now

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