The breakout success of her debut created a publishing scramble for Black writers, but has that appetite for diversity endured? Carty-Williams talks about wanting to quit the TV adaptation, why now is the perfect time for her sequel

One of the questions Candice Carty-Williams has spent the past few years batting away is whether she is Queenie. It is perhaps inevitable: her best­selling debut novel followed Queenie Jenkins, a twenty­something south London journalist navigating heartbreak, racism, terrible men and an escalating sense that her life was slipping beyond her control. Like Carty-Williams, Queenie is south London-born, Black and works in media.

It is a slightly predictable question, and one I avoid asking when we meet at her bright pink office in Peckham. But sitting opposite the 36-year-old, I can’t help but understand why it persists. Much like her most famous creation, she is instantly likable: warm, quick-witted and completely devoid of the self-seriousness that can sometimes come with literary success. She is disarmingly casual – her hair is wrapped up and under-eye patches are busy depuffing her face.

Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds are experiencing after-hours boom as a result of more lenient rules

London has the earliest council-mandated bedtime of any other city in the UK as a result of policies in nightlife districts that oppose any new bar or restaurant opening past 11pm.

These strict restrictions on pubs and bars are “killing off nightlife” in the capital, experts have said, while other cities including Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds are experiencing an after-hours boom because they have more lenient rules.

Having literally campaigned in poetry, the new Makerfield MP needs a summer of knuckling down to the small print

By the end, it had become less a byelection, more a mythical quest. Whoever could draw the sword from Makerfield’s stone – or more prosaically, beat Reform in a seat where it practically swept the board in last month’s local elections – would claim the divine right to rule the Labour party. And lo, on Friday morning, Andy Burnham became the chosen one.

He carries the magic shield of not being from Westminster – though that won’t last, obviously – plus the easy warmth with people that Keir Starmer lacks, and the rare ability to generate excitement in politics. Reform is beatable, and the sun shines brighter for knowing that. A third successive defeat for Nigel Farage in a winnable byelection, after losing Caerphilly to Plaid Cymru and Gorton and Denton to the Greens, suggests a trend, not a fluke.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

Alex, 45, a product lead in tech, meets Ellie, 35, a TV producer

What were you hoping for?
To meet someone kind and have an enjoyable evening with someone I maybe wouldn’t ordinarily choose for myself.

Serena Williams, Lewis Hamilton and Cristiano Ronaldo are among the stars benefiting from advances in sports science, equipment and facilities

When 40-year-old Luka Modrić lined up for Croatia against England on Wednesday evening, he embodied a growing trend in elite sport. A generation ago, a footballer competing at the highest level at 40 would have been a rarity, but the 2026 World Cup features a record eight players aged at least 40 – more than all previous tournaments combined.

It’s not just football. Lewis Hamilton is still competing in Formula One aged 41, while earlier this week Wimbledon granted Serena Williams, 44, and Venus Williams, 46, a wildcard into the women’s doubles draw.

What do the touchstones of the referendum debate tell us about the complex legacy of Britain leaving the EU?

Ten years ago the UK voted 52% to 48% to leave the European Union, triggering a long and tortuous political process.

It took until 1 January 2021 for the country to sever its links to the single market and customs union, but the fractures Brexit left in Britain’s body politic, international relations and economy remain.

Peer and former cabinet minister Charlie Falconer says PM could have ‘at most weeks to go’

• Cabinet loyalists tell Starmer he has the weekend to set out timetable for exit

Reform UK is examining whether sexist comments by its candidate in the Makerfield byelection may have harmed the party’s chances, after Nigel Farage accepted the result had disappointed him.

The party’s examination of its defeat comes after Andy Burnham won 55% of the vote share in a poll that Reform hoped would be a tightly fought battle between the Labour leadership hopeful and its own candidate, Robert Kenyon, a local plumber.

Teacher Brett Byatt was onboard train during incident that killed driver and left 33 people seriously injured

• Two trains collide near Bedford

A survivor of the Bedford train crash has told how bodies were flung across the carriages, leaving people with broken bones and deep wounds after the rush hour collision on Friday night.

Brett Byatt, a teacher from Bedford, was onboard the East Midlands Railway (EMR) service that rammed into another slower travelling train resulting in a crash which killed the driver, left 89 with injuries and 33 needing urgent hospital treatment.

New craft, called VC-25B Bridge, had provoked protest since $400m jet wildly exceeds limit on unsolicited gifts

Donald Trump unveiled the new, temporary Air Force One at a hangar at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Friday, a day after White House officials bid farewell to one of two Boeing 747s used to transport presidents for more than 30 years.

The new jet, designated VC-25B and decked out in a punchy red, white, dark blue and gold livery, was gifted to Trump by the Gulf emirate of Qatar, provoking howls of political protest since the $400m jet wildly exceeds the limit on unsolicited gifts of $50 in value in a single calendar year from the same source.

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On this day in World Cup Euros history: 1976 – Antonin Panenka won the final for Czechoslovakia with the most famous penalty of all time. And 50 years on, he sat down with Gavin Newsham for a good long chat:

Antonin Panenka laughs like a bear might, a low rumble, suggesting mischief among the memories. He is sat in an office at Bohemians football club in Prague, recounting the story of his impudent, revolutionary penalty that not only won the 1976 European Championship for Czechoslovakia against West Germany but soured his relationship with the goalkeeper his spot-kick humiliated, Sepp Maier. “He went 35 years without uttering a single word to me,” he smiles.

But the feud went much deeper. “I read some articles that he even had a shooting target in his garage with my face on it that he used to fire darts at. We get on well enough now though.”

I’m not a fan of the hydration breaks that have been introduced at this World Cup, but they’re here for now and it is fascinating from a coaching perspective because the momentum has swung straight after several hydration breaks. That could suggest coach involvement has helped teams to tweak things.

Turning the game into four quarters – it felt inevitable it was going to head in that direction, and I hope it doesn’t carry on going in that direction. I don’t like it, but let me also be clear – when it’s hot, you really need it, for health and safety. So put yourself in Fifa’s shoes. If you only have drinks breaks in the hot cities you could be accused of giving certain teams an advantage with a chance for a tactical discussion over, say, a team playing in Seattle, where it’s cooler. Imagine turning around and saying: “We’ll only have VAR in some of the stadiums, not all.” You’re either going to have it or you’re not going to have it.