WATCH NEWS IN BRIEF November 18, 2010 GRAND SEIKO COMES TO THE UK Japan’s Seiko is well known as more than a creator of quartz watches, but its highest-end pieces, the Grand Seiko range, have only ever been sold in Japan. After 50 years, they’re finally hitting the international market, and Mayfair’s Jura watches is selling them in the UK. For collectors, [...]
The darkest Harry Potter film yet November 18, 2010 Film HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 Cert: 12A It’s never easy preceding the headline act, but part one of the Deathly Hallows – JK Rowling’s final fat tome in the wizardly series that has been split into two films – is pretty engaging, while saving the big dramatics for next year’s finale. [...]
OUT THIS WEEKEND November 18, 2010 FILM PEEPING TOM Re-release of the classic 1950s psycho thriller. FATHERS OF GIRLS One man’s daughter is another man’s lover. DREAM HOME Gory Hong Kong horror flick. MUSIC TAKE THAT Progress features all five boys in a first since 1995. RIHANNA Rejoice: Rihanna is back with Loud, her fifth album. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Two discs with 21 [...]
In praise of French spirit November 17, 2010 HERE’S a strange thing: the French don’t like cognac. In fact, according to Patrice Pinet, master blender for Courvoisier, France imports more Scottish whisky than it makes cognac. Young people in France in particular, he laments, have given up on the drink, associating it with a naff, fusty past instead of a cool, cocktail-centric present. [...]
TASTING NOTES November 17, 2010 APPLETON’S LUXURY RUM Jamaican brand Appleton Estate is known for some very fine rums, but its latest trumps the bunch. The notably-dark 30 Year Old is about as expensive a rum as you will find, and as rare – only a few bottles exist. After three decades in tropical barrels, it’s been hand-blended for something [...]
Glamour is going west for the winter November 17, 2010 FOLLOWING the slew of recent East London launches, attention is shifting to the West where things are hotting up. After the summer additions of the Brompton Club and Beaufort House, the most exciting new club for some time is heading to Chelsea in the shape of Guy Pelly’s new offering, Public on the King’s Road. [...]
The world’s in peril…again November 17, 2010 ZERO HOUR BY ANDY MCNAB Bantam £18.99 More aggressively masculine thriller-writing is hard to come by – McNab’s Nick Stone is the toughest of the tough (of British men), and his partners in crime operate in a world of violent political espionage and the most blood-letting, explosive of special ops. With Zero Hour, the prolific [...]
COSTA BOOK AWARDS | ANALYSIS November 17, 2010 SECOND in command to the Booker Prize, the Costa Awards (formerly the Whitbreads), still matter. They still shift books on a large scale and the “winner” sticker still counts for something in the Waterstones customer’s consciousness. Lest anyone mistake them for the Bookers’ subservient echo, this year the prize will disprove such an assertion – [...]
VEXED IN THE CITY November 17, 2010 Those cursed royals could ruin my wedding DEAR VEXED: My fiancée and I have been engaged for over a year, and four months ago decided on a July wedding. I have a horrible feeling the weekend we’ve plumped for is the favourite for Wills and Kate. The whole thing is going to be overshadowed by [...]
The food entrepreneur who’s hitting the MARC November 16, 2010 MARLON Abela fits the international It-Boy bill perfectly. Born in Lebanon, he grew up among the rich and famous of London and the south of France, raised by a father who owned one of the world’s top institutional and airline catering businesses and a slew of four and five star hotels. Recently valued at £400m, [...]