DEBATE: Should Britain introduce taxes on meat and dairy to meet our climate goals? January 27, 2020 Should we consider introducing taxes on meat and dairy products to meet our climate goals? Leo Murray, director of innovation at the climate change charity Possible, says YES. “Nanny state!” That’s the shrill, familiar cry of the reactionary commentariat whenever a threat to “individual freedoms” is spotted on the horizon. But the climate crisis is [...]
Ikebana: We tried out the Japanese art of ‘mindful’ flower arranging January 24, 2020 As Londoners wholeheartedly embrace houseplants, you might be trying to keep alive forests of greenery. But what about flowers? In our mindful age, flower arranging has finally come out of the shadows of the WI. It allows us to slow down and consider the fragrance, touch, colour and form of each stem as we design [...]
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote review: Terry Gilliam goes balls-to-the-wall in this kaleidoscope of imagination January 24, 2020 Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote begins with a title card: “After 25 years in the making… And unmaking”. He’s not kidding – Gilliam started work on the film in 1989, it entered full production almost a decade later with Johnny Depp starring, only to see illness and floods destroy the work and [...]
Picasso and Paper at the Royal Academy review: A daft name adorns a roller-coaster of form and imagination January 24, 2020 With Picasso and Paper, the Royal Academy confirms what we have suspected all along: the diminutive Spaniard did, in fact, make use of the material we know as ‘paper’. Sometimes he drew on it, other times he cut it into funny shapes. You could never tell what he was going to do next, when it [...]
Property of the Week: A Wapping warehouse where WWI soldiers’ toothpaste was made January 24, 2020 Located halfway between Bank and Canary Wharf, Wapping’s waterside is a favourite location for the swanky riverside apartments of young financial services types. But dial back the clock a hundred years and it was a far grittier affair, the landscape dominated by bustling docks and factory chimneys. This penthouse that has just come on the [...]
You Stupid Darkness! at Southwark Playhouse review: a quietly life-affirming apocalypse comedy January 24, 2020 You Stupid Darkness! is a harrowing comedy about four volunteers, crammed into a dank call centre, filling the midnight to 4am slot on Wednesday mornings at Brightline; a dial-in emotional support service helping callers come to terms with the apocalypse. Things have been getting worse for a while now. The world isn’t ending with a [...]
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie musical review: Major changes revive this popular musical January 24, 2020 Popular musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is switching it up for 2020, with some major cast changes, including a new Jamie. Based on the 2011 documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is an inspirational coming of age tale about a young man taking his first high-heeled steps into the fantastical world [...]
The Personal History of David Copperfield review: A gentle period comedy that lacks Armando Iannucci’s signature bite January 24, 2020 Armando Iannucci’s filmography is a roll-call of some of the best satire of modern times, from his early days on The Day Today and Alan Partridge, right up to 2017’s deliciously dark The Death of Stalin. The common thread binding them together is a gleeful hostility. Iannucci clearly thinks politicians, on the whole, are a [...]
The Welkin at the National Theatre review: Hilarious, tragic and utterly harrowing January 24, 2020 Lucy Kirkwood’s new play at the National Theatre is a revelation: hilarious, tragic, harrowing and utterly compelling. Set in the mid-18th century, it confronts contemporary issues with a ballerina’s lightness of touch, without compromising its place as a period drama. It follows the case of a young woman who’s been found guilty of a terrible, [...]
Opinion: ‘Boris bounce’ made you want to sell your home? Do these three things first January 24, 2020 I view on average 500 properties per year, and have purchased homes for more than 300 clients. During the past 13 years I have seen some sellers get it right, and others pitch their homes horribly wrong. Sellers are feeling re-energised post-election, and with greater certainty around Brexit, we’ve seen a flurry of properties come [...]