Legends of schoolgirls tempting them through song? A new book transforms the way we think about arachnids. By Eleanor Morgan.

A poet with a keen eye for the quiet nuanced details of place. By Jack B. Bidell.

A landscape is never more quietly intimate with us than in the light-spell of winter fog. By Whitney Smith.

Wildly foreign "time shelters" might provide a livable alternative to ecological despair. By Judith Mueller.

A searing voice speaks about what it's like to be on the receiving end of sexual misconduct. By Jan Beatty.

One could liken the death penalty juror to the experiment subjects of Stanley Milgram, who famously shed light on the capacity of ordinary people to commit heinous crimes.

Ecstatic music/dance ritual for non-believers. By John Davis.

Seeing a metropolis from its 'peaks' Review by Andrew Herbert — with an excerpt by Tom Chivers.

How to cross a desert on foot as fast as possible. By Jonny Wright.

"A respect for places and people who have to survive up there . . ." A Canadian painter's empathy for the northern edge. By Chris Lowry.