In such skilled hands, intrigue in Stalinist Russia cannot fail to grip April 28, 2010 THE BETRAYAL BY HELEN DUNMORE Fig Tree, £18.99 Dunmore is one of the literary establishment’s most respected practitioners: she’s a poet and an Orange Prize short-listed author. Her work isn’t light reading, but fans call it some of the most rewarding on the shelves today. Following on from The Siege (short-listed for the Orange Prize [...]
OUT OF OFFICE April 28, 2010 SAMSONITE POP-UP AT HARRODS Call yourself a travel buff? Like a good suitcase as you swish through the business lounge at Heathrow? Then pop along to Harrods where this massive luggage brand is celebrating its centenary with a showcase of the brand’s evolution, from rare vintage cases, collectors’ items from the 20s and 30s through [...]
SUMMER SIZZLER April 28, 2010 AFTER a winter as long, cold and trying as the one we’ve just experienced, any excuse to wave it goodbye and welcome the arrival of warmer times should be celebrated – and there’s no better way of doing that than hauling the old barbecue out of the garden shed and firing it up. Offering a [...]
Here comes the night April 27, 2010 IF chrome was last year’s paint job of choice, then this year it’s matte black. It’s a look that’s being sported on cars owned by trendy design types, rappers and footballers alike. And it’s now available on the Mercedes-Benz SL350. Mercedes might not have the hippest reputation, but its SL350 Night Edition is a car [...]
Detox at your desk with the season’s hottest cleanses April 26, 2010 THE mercury seems to be rising once and for all as May hoves near, and you don’t want to be caught in short skirts, dresses and camisoles with flabby skin, extra pounds and a clogged-up winter feeling from too many meat stews and bottles of red. But most people are put off a spring detox [...]
Good food under the arches April 26, 2010 Platform 56-58 Tooley Street, SE1 2SZ Tel: 020 7403 6388 platformse1.co.uk FOOD SERVICE ATMOSPHERE Cost per person without wine: £25 RECLAIMING still another part of London Bridge’s arches (in a former strip club) are restaurateur Tony McKinlay and his farmer friend, Barnaby Butterfield, with a “gate to plate” concept venue that’s part bar and part [...]
One drunken night that I’m regretting now April 26, 2010 DEAR VEXED: I was at a conference last week and some of our clients stayed at the hotel. Well, after a bit too much to drink, I ended up in bed with one of them. We both agreed to never mention it again, but a colleague saw me doing the walk of shame. Nobody has [...]
FOOD & BOOZE NEWS April 26, 2010 SUNDAY LUNCH AT BOCCA DI LUPO Forget pub lunch on a Sunday. Head to Soho for Bocca di Lupo’s new “pasta al forno” menu, featuring authentic baked pasta dishes. Think lasagne bolognese, melanzane Parmigiana, pasta con lumache (pasta baked with snails and pecorino), scamorza and pesto lasagne and bavette with spider crab (baked together in [...]
THREE OTHER LONDON BRIDGE RESTAURANTS April 26, 2010 MAGDALENE This smart, popular restaurant is a lesson in gutsy modern European food. Have quince fizz and grilled chestnuts with butter to start with, then fried crispy pig’s head and gribiche, grilled calves’ kidneys, or smoked haddock choucroute: just the type of inventive dishes that have made this bistro one of London’s best. 152 Tooley [...]
Rejuvenation and wine in Lombardy April 25, 2010 PLINY the Younger wrote his Tragedia and Comedia in a villa on Lake Como and the lake has continued to attract the best and the richest of society, from Madonna and George Clooney to Gianni Versace, Ronaldinho and Sylvester Stallone. Indeed, the lakes of the northern Italian region of Lombardy – the most famous being [...]