Team GB are on thin ice for medals, but it’s at the T20 World Cup where the big freeze is most likely

A much-loved forager of talent and fungi, he represented writers such as Beryl Bainbridge and Dick Francis

Key contests in rugby and cricket will heat up the rivalry, but there’s hope on the ice for Team GB golds

The iconoclastic historian recast Scott of the Antarctic as a tragic failure in the race to the South Pole

A black woman in a field of white men, the mathematician was finally recognised for her world-changing contributions towards the end of her life

At least we can watch England in daylight, while Champions League brings hope

From Australia to Norfolk via the US and Sheffield, it’s a varied TV week ahead in sport

Outspoken leader of Britain’s family courts made serving the most vulnerable a lifelong mission

While snooker’s elite are veterans, youth cricket offers hope after Ashes woes

Anne Frank’s shy childhood friend who survived the Holocaust and later ‘spoke for millions of victims of hate’

From Down Under to Macclesfield via the NFL, it’s a packed first week of 2026

Pioneering scientist who explored how plants and animals have responded to the changing climate

Irish abstract painter whose elegiac works explored grief, myth and human vulnerability

Gains for social change in tennis as unlikely as Britain’s success on ice

Eschewing ‘over-trained’ drama school students, she used her instinct to pick lesser known actors

Tune into some fictional games in the absence of the real stuff on Christmas Day

The Ashes is looking more one-sided than the frankly dangerous Paul v Joshua fight

Novelist who turned the everyday chaos of modern womanhood into bestselling, big-hearted comedy

‘Selfless’ lawyer and war veteran who broke new ground for women in the West Indies

Get your sprout and cranberry Yule log and bed down in front of the TV