TRAVEL NOTES February 7, 2010 Top Diver at Amanyara Turks and Caicos’s sexiest resort will be adding sessions with the world’s best diver, Tanya Streeter, to its attractions. Streeter holds several world records and is considered the “perfect athlete.” She will be hosting free-diving sessions at the resort and -charmingly if slightly incongruously – giving talks about humpback whales during [...]
Grey suits dominate the City – but not grey hair February 7, 2010 WHEN Kate Moss appeared with grey locks last week, all hell – rather predictably – broke loose in fashion circles. Is the eternally gamine Moss ageing at last? But no, wily old Kate, who is approaching 40 (heaven forfend) had gone grey on purpose. And pundits observed that it exemplified with the icy look that [...]
It doesn’t get more prestigious than living on a square February 4, 2010 IF you really want prestige London living – and let’s face it, who doesn’t? – you simply can’t beat living on a historic town square. There are over 600 squares in London, from the famous, grand open spaces of Knightsbridge and Belgravia like Lowndes Square and Eaton Square, to the smaller, cosier cobbled versions hidden [...]
Q&A: BUYING February 4, 2010 Q.Dear Camilla, I am thinking about selling my home this year. But is it the right time given that there is both economic and political uncertainty at the moment? A.There has been a lot of positive press about property prices in recent weeks, which should support the UK housing market. For example, mortgage lender Nationwide [...]
FOCUS ON: BETHNAL GREEN, E2 February 4, 2010 HAGUE STREET, E2 6HN Price: £550,000 For its location – just one stop by Tube or 30 minutes walk to Liverpool Street – this three double-bedroom house offers good value for money. It is both spacious and airy and the living room benefits from windows to the front and back. The kitchen has room for [...]
Mandela blitzed by Hollywood hokum February 4, 2010 FILM Invictus Cert: 12A *** MORGAN Freeman has played the President of the United States, God and now at last he has graduated to Nelson Mandela. He is by far the best thing in this film, and plays South Africa’s first post-apartheid president as a sprightly father of the nation (“I have 42m children”), who [...]
ALSO OUT THIS WEEKEND February 4, 2010 FILM ASTRO BOY The long-running Japanese comics character gets an animated outing. MALICE IN WONDERLAND The fairytale gets transposed to the UK underworld, with Danny Dyer. OIL CITY CONFIDENTIAL Punk filmmaker Julian Temple’s documentary about 70s rockers Dr Feelgood. DVD THE INVENTION OF LYING Ricky Gervais stars and directs this romcom fantasy set in a [...]
The A-Team meets James Bond in this gung-ho mercenary adventure February 3, 2010 FIRE FORCE BY MATT LYNN Headline, £12.99 by Jeremy Hazlehurst YOU’VE got to hand it to Matt Lynn, he can certainly write a first line. “Until you’ve sat down to a game of poker inside Africa’s most brutal jail, you don’t really know what it’s like to sweat,” begins his second novel. No man, surely, [...]
OUT OF OFFICE February 3, 2010 THE POWER OF YES AT THE NATIONAL It’s been somewhat overshadowed by Enron, Lucy Prebble’s story of Enron’s collapse. But Hare’s breaking news-style drama is a brilliant, intense and eminently watchable explanation of the credit crunch’s origins. There’s a Hare character as narrator trying to make sense of things, with the help of a young [...]
Stylish Valentine’s wining and dining February 3, 2010 THE GREENHOUSE Chic but inviting, with a rustic touch and no expense spared on either the food or the opulent interior, and there’s an impressive wine selection – the owner has been collecting since he was a teenager. An ideal destination for the hardest-to-impress lover, and the Valentine’s menu cannot fail to thrill, either. Canapes [...]