[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-129842-en":3,"doc-seo-129842-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":92},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":27,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},129842,962085564807,"Aurelia","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8",10,"Lifestyle","The Guardian Saturday Magazine - Issue No249 - Fantasy Land","Saturday magazine issue centered on America at 250, presented through historical photo stories, cultural features, book coverage, and lifestyle reporting. Includes interviews and profiles ranging from a photographer’s intimate iPhone macro work to an Esther Freud conversation exploring fear, inspiration, and creative life. Fiction and nonfiction reviews address contemporary debates, including whether a machine could write the next great novel, while culture and science-of-the-everyday sections tackle DIY sleuthing and hormone myths.","PAGE 1 0  \nFANTASY LAND  \nThe story of America at 250 – aphotography special  \nIF YOU’RE DRINKING COFFEE WHILST READING THIS  \nCOV ER : A L LAN G RANT/ TH E L I F E P ICTURE COLLECTION/SHUTTERSTOCK  \nCONTENTS  04.07.26  ISSUE № 249   \n5  \nCUTTINGS  \nThe history of the  \nUnited States in pictures  \nFrom an Italian family arriving at Ellis Island toa man perched atop a mountain of bison skulls, from the moon mission to an upsidedown stars and stripes – the images that define the country on its 250th birthday  \nP10  \n‘He hadn’t been trying to scare us. He’d been trying to kill us’  \nThe stalkers who turned our dream home into a nightmare  \nP26  \nCULTURE  \nThe rise of DIY sleuths  \nYoung Sherlock and anew Poirot, Miss Marple and Elsbeth: our screens are filled with amateur detectives – but how realistic are they?  \nP33  \n\n| My cultural awakening...37\u003Cbr>Visual arts   38\u003Cbr>What to do this week   40\u003Cbr>Music   42\u003Cbr>BOOKS\u003Cbr>45 |\n| --- |\n| And the Booker goes to   AI!\u003Cbr>Could the next great novel really be written by a machine?\u003Cbr>P4 5\u003Cbr>Nonfiction reviews   48\u003Cbr>Fiction reviews   51\u003Cbr>On Being Ill – at 100......54\u003Cbr>The big idea   57\u003Cbr>LIFESTYLE\u003Cbr>59 |\n| Is it your hormones?\u003Cbr>Testosterone, puberty, HRT and more – we sort fact from fiction\u003Cbr>P59\u003Cbr>Blind date   62\u003Cbr>This is how we do it   63\u003Cbr>You be the judge   64\u003Cbr>Ask Annalisa   65\u003Cbr>Style & Body   66\u003Cbr>Gardens   69\u003Cbr>Tim Dowling   71\u003Cbr>Travel\u003Cbr>An epic voyage\u003Cbr>On Odysseus’s trail in Ithaca. Plus, following in the footsteps of Greek gods, heroes and monsters, and afoodie tour of Crete\u003Cbr>P72\u003Cbr>Puzzles   78\u003Cbr>SATURDAY The Guardian Kings Place\u003Cbr>90 York Way London N1 9GU\u003Cbr>—\u003Cbr>Byline illustrations: Delphine Lee |\n\nSmart shot  \nThe best pictures taken on phones  \nRashid Sheriff  \n\n| An Intimate Portrait of a Crowntail Betta, 2026\u003Cbr>Shot on iPhone 17\u003Cbr>Pro Max\u003Cbr>Rashid Sheriff’s fascination with photography and drawing originated in his school days, though “due to various limitations and circumstances, I couldn’t pursue those interests”, he says.\u003Cbr>For the past 18 years, Sheriff, whois from Kerala, in south-west India, has been working in Qatar as an auto electrician. Smartphones, however, have allowed him to return to his passions once again. | “I love to be close to nature, so I was always drawn to macro photography and animals and pets,”\u003Cbr>he says.“My phone allows me to capture beautiful, spontaneous moments with precision, even when they happen unexpectedly.”\u003Cbr>Sheriff took this photo on a trip back to his house in Kerala. He headed out on to his balcony to photograph one of his pet fish.\u003Cbr>“I filled a white ceramic bowl and carefully placed the fish inside,” he says.“This is a crowntail betta fish, named for its fins, which look like crowns, but |\n| --- | --- |\n\npeople often call it a fighter fish. I turned my phone upside down and submerged it in the water, and I used the zoom and macro mode to get all the details.  \n“I really like taking low-angle or eye-level shots of animals; it allows us to get to know them better.”Grace Holliday  \nSign up  \nfor our Inside Saturday newsletter  \nThe Guardian | 04.07.26 | SATURDAY | 3  \nA L AMY STOCK PHOTO/A L AMY L IV E NEWS  \nCUTTINGS  \nThe novelist on being a terrible liar, a favourite painting by herfather and wanting tojoin the circus  \nEsther  \nInterview: Rosanna Greenstreet  \nBorn in London, Esther Freud, 63,  \nis the daughter of Bernardine Coverley and Lucian Freud.  \nShe trained as an actor and, in 1992, released her debut novel, Hideous Kinky, which was made into a film starring Kate Winslet in 1998 . Freud’s work has been translated into 13  \nlanguages, and her 10th adult novel, My Sister and Other Lovers, is out in paperback. She has three children with the actor David Morrissey, and lives between Suffolk and London with her current partner.  \nWhat is your greatest fear?  \nDecline  \nWhat is your earliest memory?  \nMaking Fanta with seawater and sand on the beach at Formentera with my sister Bella. 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