The brainiest Brit in Hollywood March 24, 2010 JASON Isaacs likes to say that he travels by Tube to film premieres, where he goes undetected until he arrives. That’s when the fans – many of them female – explode in excited frenzy. For Isaacs treads that odd line between A-list celebrity, a face that a critical mass knows and cares about viscerally, and, [...]
The bankers who saw the crash coming, and bet on it March 24, 2010 THE BIG SHORT BY MICHAEL LEWIS Allen Lane, £25 by Zoe Strimpel THE Big Short comes late in the day, at least in terms of the publishing frenzy that (inevitably) followed the financial crisis. Indeed you might have an impulse to roll your eyes and say: “not again” – not another book whose theme is [...]
Comfort & Class March 23, 2010 SOMEHOW the Passat CC had passed me by, until I overtook one on the motorway recently and found myself doing a double take on what must surely be one of the most surprisingly stylish cars for sale in the UK. Fast forward to this test drive. Firstly, despite its CC name, a Coupé Convertible it [...]
I can see clearly now – thanks to ten minutes with a laser surgeon March 22, 2010 ASK around, and you’ll suddenly find that everyone you know either knows someone who has just had laser eye surgery, or they’re about to have it done themselves. It’s like with pop star Lily Allen – she had a big online presence for ages, but nobody one knew had ever actually heard of her. Until [...]
The stunning spectacles of 2010 March 22, 2010 AFTER what seems like the most drawn-out and oppressive winter in living memory, even the briefest chink of Spring sunlight can be enough to have one blinking as though into a bright new dawn. Well, good – all the more excuse to indulge in those most seasonal of fashion accessories, smart sunnies. Whether you’re whisking [...]
OUT OF OFFICE March 22, 2010 THE WHITE GUARD Following the success at the National Theatre of last year’s tales of communist Russia, Burnt by the Sun and Tom Stoppard’s Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, comes Mikhail Bulgakov’s The White Guard. A lesser-known work by the Master and Marguerita author, adapted by Andrew Upton, it’s a story of the madness of [...]
City favourite banking on a revamp March 22, 2010 IT’S hardly as if the City’s been short of “sign of the times” changes, but another came late last year when Prism, the Harvey Nichols outpost that was one of the Square Mile’s grandest and most lauded fine-dining restaurants, was reborn as a brasserie and bar. That meant a back-to-basics menu emphasising cosy ingredients including [...]
THREE OTHER RESTAURANTS IN FORMER BANKS March 22, 2010 1 LOMBARD STREET You could argue that 1 Lombard, with its palladian entrance opposite the Bank of England, has the most desirable restaurant location in the City, and it also has some of the best food. Under a fabulous neoclassical dome you can enjoy some serious haute cuisine from chef patron Herbert Berger. 1 Lombard [...]
FOOD & BOOZE NEWS March 22, 2010 THAI NEW YEAR AT MANGO TREE Belgravia’s smart Thai eatery, Mango Tree on Grosvenor Square, is holding a Thai New Year Party on 14 April. The celebration of the Songkran festival will feature a show of traditional dances, while diners can enjoy a special tasting plate of delicacies from across Thailand – including hormok (fish [...]
The chicest way to buy and sell March 21, 2010 TARA Nash-King does something most women would find difficult at best, and impossible at worst. She lives in a showroom, and the cascades of bags, shoes and clothes that greet you on entering her mews house in Westbourne Park are not her own. They are the perfectly placed, impeccably hung and ubiquitously photographed desiger items she [...]