Where to eat, drink and sleep in Manchester this Tory conference October 2, 2021 Conservative Party Conference, which starts tomorrow, is a useful opportunity for the London bubble dwellers amongst us to be reminded of the promise beyond the M25. It sometimes feels as if Manchester is more familiar to football-crazy kids in the Far East than to denizens of this country’s capital city. So for out of the [...]
No Time To Die: Daniel Craig signs off in style October 1, 2021 Fifteen years after first donning the tuxedo, it’s time for Daniel Craig to take his final bow as James Bond. He arrives just as cinema is crying out for a hero: No Time To Die’s several delays (starting in March 2020) were a constant reminder of an industry still reeling from the last 18 months, [...]
A house in St John’s Wood with a garden to die for October 1, 2021 ‘Our England is a garden that is full of stately views, / Of borders, beds and shrubberies and lawns and avenues’ – so begins Rudyard Kipling’s 1911 poem, The Glory of the Garden. Over a century later, England’s towns and cities are not quite so green, and houses with decent-sized gardens are harder to come [...]
Your guide to the 2021 London Cocktail Month September 29, 2021 No longer content with a mere week, this year’s celebration of mixology has been rebranded London Cocktail Month. Featuring a packed schedule of events, from food pairings to hands-on masterclasses, the next four weeks are the perfect time for booze enthusiasts to indulge. With dozens of bartenders creating hundreds of special drinks for the occasion, [...]
007 verdict is in: No Time To Die is spectacular final outing for Daniel Craig’s James Bond September 29, 2021 The critics widely agree this morning that the pandemic-delayed film was well worth the wait, while Daniel Craig has described the final cinematic journey of his James Bond as “spectacular”. The blockbuster’s stars including Craig, Lea Seydoux and Lashana Lynch joined with a quartet of leading royals, celebrities such as Stormzy and young US Open [...]
Why aqvavit is moving from Scandinavia into your drinks cabinet September 28, 2021 Once believed capable of curing any illness known to man, aqvavit has gone from a drink rarely seen outside of its native Scandinavia to the connoisseur’s choice of spirit for London Cocktail Month. Danny Walker and Liam Hirt are a pair of British distillers who saw the potential in aqvavit. Working between their Psychopomp Distillery, based [...]
What If…? episode 7 review: Meet The Party Prince September 27, 2021 *** WARNING: contains spoilers for Marvel’s What If…? on Disney+ *** Three episodes to go, and while Marvel’s What If…? has got everyone talking, the episodes have been tough at times. This format has been used to explore darker timelines, and jokes about “The Many Deaths of Tony Stark” have already begun circulating online. However, [...]
The Many Saints of Newark – nostalgia masks so-so crime drama September 27, 2021 *** This review of The Many Saints of Newark contains spoilers for The Sopranos TV show *** It was 13 years ago that Tony Soprano looked over his shoulder in a diner to the strains of Don’t Stop Believin’ only for the screen to go black. It was a divisive end to one of the [...]
This is what it’s like to party on the new Virgin cruise ship Scarlet Lady September 25, 2021 At the London launch of Richard Branson’s new cruise line, Virgin Voyages, the British DJ and producer Mark Ronson played a raucous set. It was all very cool and glamorous, and promised a new hip addition to this most buoyant travel sector, with more than 100 cruise ships on the order books. So when the [...]
New-build barns: the property trend for 2022? September 24, 2021 There are old houses, and there are new houses – and then there are new houses built to look old, which is what The Maltings project is all about. Designed after traditional country barns, the development, situated on the outskirts of Biddenden, a picturesque village in the Kent countryside, could be cut straight from a [...]