Year in review: Is that all there is?

Rebekah Gregoriades

For once, I didn’t start the year off with a list of resolutions. This, I must say, took the guilt factor out of the equation and I actually enjoyed what I did get done. I got more tattoos – which would not have been on my list, but I thoroughly enjoy them on a daily basis – and I did read more than the previous year, so I can pat myself on the back for that.

READING: As a person who can read a book in an afternoon, you’d think I’d be reading piles and piles of them. I don’t. Hurray to the couple of hours before school drop-off and the start of my shift, as I managed to devour no less than 38 books in 2025. Those that left an impression were the ones that made me laugh out loud and got me a few odd looks.

I found a book that had been knocking about in my car boot for a couple of years – Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins. Philosophy shrouded in paralogia and wheeze-worthy humour. Also immensely funny were Edward Trencom’s Nose: A Novel of History, Dark Intrigue, and Cheese by Giles Milton, a bizarre and comical mystery, and Enter the Aardvark by Jessica Anthony, a hilarious political satire.

I must thank A Royal Cookbook: Seasonal Recipes from Buckingham Palace by Mark Flanagan and Edward Griffiths for the decadent no-bake chocolate biscuit cake, apparently one of the late Queen Elizabeth’s favourites. Make. Admire. Eat in one sitting. Repeat.

WATCHING: TV was limited to Netflix this year, as the call of the laundry was louder. When I did get round to it, I watched a couple of films and series – albeit the limited ones, so I wouldn’t have to commit.

Dept. Q stood out for its humour being as dry as an English biscuit. I also enjoyed both seasons of Serres, a Greek series about the hilarious antics of a dysfunctional family, where the black sheep gets put in the spotlight.

Having spent a decade progressively feasting on Lightning McQueen and Angry Birds to superheroes and multiverses, I’m now able to watch what I like and I’m lost for choice. Fingers crossed, there will be a good movie on at the cinema for a 13-year-old to take his mum to.

LISTENING: Punk, goth, metal and a dash of 80s alternative. In the car. Windows up. Loud. Nuff said.

Theo Panayides

READING: For a while, it felt like the books I was reading were becoming indistinguishable from reality in 2025.

Omar El Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, with its heartbreaking title, was of course about Gaza – a disbelieving, calmly furious meditation from a softly-spoken Egyptian-American author – even as Gaza was being pounded on the nightly news. Then came Paul Lynch’s Booker Prize-winning Prophet Song, a novel (?) about fascism coming to the West (specifically Ireland). It was all a bit much.

I needed a reset – and found it in Correction by Thomas Bernhard, a 1975 German novel that feels like it’s set entirely in the recesses of someone’s head. The whole 260-page book is two chapters, each one composed of a single rambling, stream-of-consciousness paragraph. It’s bizarre, and untethered to any known reality.  

WATCHING: Dipped my toe again in the world of film festivals, after not having gone since 2019 (Covid derailed me, then I lost the habit). Just a couple of films at the London fest, but they included Dry Leaf – which may be the most festival-ish film ever, insofar as it’s (a) three hours long, (b) in Georgian, (c) largely plotless, mostly footage of fields and football pitches in rural Georgia, and (d) shot on an ancient Sony Ericsson phone camera, meaning all the footage is deliberately fuzzy. It’s pretty good! 

Brilliant oldies seen for the first time included Fassbinder’s Katzelmacher (1969) and a too-little-known Italian banger called Bandits of Orgosolo (1961). Meanwhile, in new films, One Battle After Another spoke to the times, but Sirat had the biggest ‘Did that really just happen???’ shock in many years.   

LISTENING: “I like a dopamine hit more than a fat kid loves cake,” sang Lola Young in ‘I’m Not Like That Anymore’ – which yes, sure, precisely.

In that vein, ‘Trinidad’ by critics’ darling Geese clattered like a harder alt-J, ‘Clean Heart’ by Perfume Genius was beguilingly fey even on umpteenth listen, while Divorce in ‘Hangman’ described a situation I feel we can all relate to: “I didn’t bring my armbands, I didn’t call ahead / I made lunch for seven people, seven people want me dead”.

Thanks to my colleague Johanna for recommending Algerian songbird Souad Massi, with her plangent earworm ‘Ghir Enta’. Thanks to the movie La Chimera for reminding me of Kraftwerk’s ‘Spacelab’ from the late 70s, which I played over and over in 2025; if you listen from the beginning, what happens at 1:31 always strikes me as extremely sad, in an ‘All hope extinguished’ kind of way. Only music can do this.

James Morphakis

READING: I spent the year oscillating in my reading habits between the challenging and the familiar, often returning to writers I have previously consulted.

Jorge Luis Borges’ Labyrinths remains one of my dearest compendiums, each story a narrative within itself. His work is quietly devastating, refusing to offer any certainty regardless of how desperately we may seek it.

Ethan Rutherford’s acclaimed debut North Sun, or, the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther proved sharper than expected, deeply austere and unsentimental in its subject.

Lastly, David Szalay’s All That Man Is, is a masterpiece in its succinct dissection of ambition, drift and self-doubt. It has aged alarmingly well and has all the trappings of a modern classic.

WATCHING: Severance stands among some of the finest television I have seen in recent memory, its esoteric, conspiratorial undertones amid the beige despair of corporate life.

Patricia Arquette’s Harmony Cobel is a grand performance, and she proves gloriously terrifying as a zealously devoted middle manager, uncannily reminiscent of one of my former employers.

Andor remains the most serious political commentary to emerge from the major networks.

Stellan Skarsgård carries the show with a raw, weary determination in his resistance to the regime, while Denise Gough’s ruthless climb through Imperial ranks illustrates how easily bureaucracy permits the banality of evil. Ben Mendelsohn’s return as bombastic Director Krennic is a true pleasure, brimming with melodrama and vain glory.

LISTENING: Music was an eclectic, if slightly consolatory, affair.

Spotify Wrapped condemned my taste as that of a 68-year-old, an accusation I shall wear proudly.

Nation of Language’s Dance Called Memory was excellent, though their earlier A Way Forward (2021) remains their finest statement. Mk.gee’s Two Star & the Dream Police, steeped in frustrated yearning, and Camera Obscura’s cultivated melancholy on My Maudlin Career were both on heavy rotation.

Tame Impala, an artist whose charms had faded for me of late, pulled me back in with the commendable Deadbeat, ‘My Old Ways’ being a particular highlight.

Sam Fender continues as Springsteen’s heir apparent, and his collaboration with Olivia Dean on ‘Rein Me In’ combines lyrical intelligence with a sense of deep longing.

To finish the year, Peggy Lee’s ‘Is That All There Is?’ proved an elegant, cynical and oddly fitting remark for a year that never quite delivered as much as it promised.

Then again, don’t they all?

Georgiana Sofroniou

2025 – at the risk of sounding dystopian – was the year when I set out to consume more of everything. More music, more cinema and finishing as many books as possible, as this was my first year after moving away (or should I say ‘moving on’?) from education.

I was only successful in one category: my music, which has always been my medium of preference, as Spotify kindly let me know. Apparently, a month and a half of my year was spent listening to music.

READING: I started my year off trying to make up for my current lack of university classes by reading all the books I forgot about while completing my dissertation. Like a true GenZer, I finally managed to finish a book recommended to me by BookTok back in 2023. The Secret History is Donna Tartt’s whodunnit murder mystery and, although it took two and a half years to finish, it was dark and moody and without a doubt worth going back to.

My most recent read was The 13th Pan Book of Horror Stories, selected by Herbert Van Thal. It’s a selection of short horror stories from 1978, the perfect fit for my decreasing attention span.

WATCHING: In 2025 I tried to watch as many Studio Ghibli movies as possible, since I had unknowingly committed the crime of having never watched one. Obviously Spirited Away was slightly eerie but mind-blowing. My main highlight was Grave of the Fireflies which depicts the fight for survival of two siblings after an American firebombing during WWII separates them from their parents. Safe to say I cried on a flight watching this.

Then came Arcane, the League of Legends adaptation: its artistry is unlike anything I’d seen before. Dark and alluring, it’s the kind of show where the creators’ passion shines through every frame.

LISTENING: As an album listener to the core, this was the year I delved into so-called ‘dad songs’ with Deftones’ new album Private Music, which was angst, perfectly balanced with atmospheric ambience.

Then came Wisp’s If Not Winter album. It played non-stop both in my car and in my headphones, with shoegazy lighter-than-air vocals and harsh guitars. Kendrick Lamar’s GNX was also gritty and intense, ideal for a workout.

When it comes to songs, I dedicated exactly 332 minutes of this year listening to ‘Jenny Was a Friend of Mine’ by The Killers. Bear in mind that the song runs about four minutes.

Leo Leonidou

READING: I saw my first pair of Nikes as a teenage boy in London in the 80s, sparking a life-long love affair with the American brand.

Shoe Dog is a memoir by the creator of Nike, with Phil Knight taking us back to the Big Bang of the Swoosh. It’s “a refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like. It’s an amazing tale,” says Bill Gates.

From its humble origins in Portland, Oregon to today’s fashion and cultural icon, the Swoosh has turned into more than a brand and is one of the world’s most recognised logos.

It is a Christmas tradition of mine to read Stephen King during the festive season, and I am currently well into the ‘Master of Horror’s’ latest short story collection You Like It Darker. King immediately transports the reader to worlds of wonder and shock, and his latest offering hits hard.

WATCHING: We are spoilt for choice in what has been described as TV’s ‘golden age’.

I could have gone with several of my personal favourites here including Severance, Slow Horses, The Last of Us, Yellowstone, Dexter: Resurrection and Andor. But my overall pick is The White Lotus, the HBO smash-hit dark comedy drama.

Season 3 swaps Sicily for Thailand but the formula remains the same – a satirical look at wealth and social dynamics through the exploits of guests and employees at a fictional luxury resort chain.

As in the previous two seasons, it was funny, savage and looked gorgeous.

LISTENING: Nearly 30 years after making his debut, Eminem is still going strong with his 12th studio album, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace).

The overall concept is built around a battle between Eminem himself and his Slim Shady alter ego. The album incorporates hardcore, satirical and conscious hip-hop and features guest appearances from established musicians and up-and-coming new stars.

As always, the wordplay is beyond brilliant and often left me amazed. There are references to real-life events, such as the P Diddy sex-trafficking trial and the Alec Baldwin shooting on the set of Rust, all delivered in his unique style.

Based on combined album/single sales and streaming data, Eminem is the best-selling artist of the 21st century, and for long-term fans like myself it’s easy to see why.

Today’s music scene doesn’t offer me much, so I’ll regularly listen to tracks from the 80s/90s from artists such as Madonna, Prince, Whitney Houston, U2 and the Wu-Tang Clan.