Ghostbusters: Afterlife is a hit of nostalgia with a modern twist November 19, 2021 Like so many things in 2016, Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters drew people into unedifying online wars. The all-female reboot was far from spectacular, but neither was it the childhood-ruining disaster others claimed. The debate became toxic, the film tanked, but that didn’t stop a franchise-hungry studio from forging ahead. This week sees the release of Ghostbusters: [...]
Royal Court’s Rare Earth Mettle tarnished by antisemitism controversy November 19, 2021 There may be no such thing as bad publicity, but casually offending the Jewish community in a play that counts cultural sensitivity among its themes must come pretty close. Ambitious satire Rare Earth Mettle centres on the megalomaniac billionaire previously known as Hershel Fink, a man with no apparent ties to the Jewish community apart [...]
Property of the week: Country charm meets city pad November 18, 2021 If decamping to a country house sounds like the dream move for you and your family, but you don’t actually want to sever ties with the capital, then this could be the perfect solution – no compromise needed. Heathview Gardens sits over four floors and covers 8,584 sq ft. The clue to its desirability lies [...]
Everything you need to get your morning coffee fix, from bean to cup November 18, 2021 From subscription coffee delivey to grinding your beans and transporting your precious liquid, we have everything you need to stay alert and caffeinated. Pact coffee subscriptionFROM £6.95 A BAG, PACTCOFFEE.COMNever settle for stale, pre-ground supermarket coffee, which could have been sitting on a shelf or warehouse for weeks or months. A Pact subscription will deliver freshly [...]
Coffee and me: For the best black stuff, go back to basics November 18, 2021 Recently I mused to a friend that if pubs didn’t expand their non-alcoholic offerings, they ran the risk of losing a generation of potential consumers who don’t drink much and for whom the more natural social setting is the coffee shop. It’s not hard to see how this could happen: the bean temples of Starbucks, [...]
Wine diary: My lunch with the Tom Selleck of the wine world November 17, 2021 Celebration was in the air at the first Winemakers Lunch in over two years. Hosted by Top Selection director Akos Forczek, it took place at the oenophile haven that is 67 Pall Mall’s private dining room. The guest of honour was Peter Mondavi Jr who, baring some resemblance to an even-more-twinkly Tom Selleck, took us [...]
Celebrating the women in wine November 16, 2021 Only five per cent of the Chef de Caves in Champagne are women and Caroline Latrive of Champagne AYALA is one. Wanting to do something about this disparity, she partnered with SquareMeal to support the Female Chef Of The Year Award, a similar industry where male chefs outnumber women at a rate of over four [...]
The Lord Napier & Star is the best – and only – pub in Hackney Wick November 16, 2021 Twenty years ago The Lord Napier – the last, boarded-up pub of E9’s scrappy backyard, wedged between the River Lee Navigation and the A12’s spaghetti junction – was bought with an eye firmly on the area’s encroaching realty rush. “S**THOUSE TO PENTHOUSE” became the most iconic bit of its fully graffitied exterior, as planning disputes [...]
Little Scratch at Hampstead Theatre: A challenging adaptation November 15, 2021 The idea of the “unadaptable” novel has been repeatedly debunked, with film and theatre directors finding ways to bring works of impossible abstraction or density to the stage or screen. Fitting neatly into the category of “possibly unadaptable” was Little Scratch, the debut novel from Rebecca Watson, a free-flowing stream of consciousness that blurs the [...]
On board the first post-Covid BA flight to the US November 15, 2021 What is the collective noun for a group of journalists? Google suggests “pack”, “herd”, “scoop”, and “crowd”. But the word that sprung to my mind while on the BA 001 flight to JFK, fourth glass of champagne in hand, was frenzy. A palpable excitement swelled inside our cabin as the Airbus A350 took to the [...]