Immerse yourself in this week's Life & Arts stories, and enrich your weekend with fresh perspectives and cultural discovery.

Appetites is your go-to hub for food and drink coverage, led by our all-star roster — including Tim Hayward, Jancis Robinson, Marina O'Loughlin, and Jay Rayner. Featuring recipes, destination dining and expert guides, explore the hub on FT.com or find the latest articles in Food & Drink on the FT app.

A weekend on whisky’s treasure island

Two new openings this year will mean little Islay has a dozen distilleries, where the once humble factory tour is being taken to new heights

Postcard from Italy: a trip to the outer limits of dining with the latex-clad chef

Rachel Reeves signals expansion of pubs tax U-turn to other businesses

Colombian ex-president Juan Manuel Santos: ‘Maduro didn’t have Chávez’s intelligence’

The Nobel laureate on negotiating an end to his country’s 50-year guerrilla war — and Trump’s 2017 proposal to invade Venezuela

Europe must turn the tables on Putin before talking

Eight tail risks for 2026

The best books of the week

Édouard Louis talks class, family and homophobia with Simon Kuper; how maps shape our worldview; George Saunders’ Faulkneresque new novel; Soviet life in the post-Stalin era; new novels by Nadia Davids and Rob Doyle; Wayne McGregor’s call to cultivate bodily intelligence; Alex Clark’s pick of audiobooks — plus seven titles to understand events in Iran

Cape Fever — a simmering battle of race and class

Nadia Davids skilfully hints at deeper forces in a tense, claustrophobic stand-off between a housemaid and her mistress