The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild review – Nintendo’s latest is the greatest game they’ve made since 1990-something March 8, 2017 A very long time ago indeed, in the ancient year of 1986, there existed a NES game called The Legend of Zelda. It was like nothing else at the time, a sprawling and freeform fantasy adventure that thrust you into an open world with little guidance, and left you to figure out how everything worked. [...]
Mnky Hse review: This Latin American restaurant in Mayfair makes up for its missing vowels with sparky flavours March 7, 2017 A darkly gaudy Latin American restaurant and bar spread over two floors in the heart of Mayfair. Generous sharing plates, piled high with spicy meats and citrus sauces, are theatrically placed on bark and earthenware pots. Dimly lit with a bassy soundtrack, Mnky Hse is an expansive watering hole behind a discreet facade, and takes [...]
Mark Hix says you should borrow some sugar beet from a friendly farmer March 7, 2017 Why don't we regard sugar beet as a vegetable like swede or turnips or parsnips or even its close relative the beetroot? It is commonly grown as a rotation crop in conjunction with wheat, barley and pulses, used to return organic matter into the soil and prevent the build-up of disease. It’s grown in some [...]
Most entertainment is consumed online through access services and is not owned outright March 7, 2017 Britons now spend almost 80 per cent of their total expenditure on entertainment online and are increasingly consuming it via access services such as Spotify and mobile apps like Pokemon Go. Data from the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA), which represents retailers and digital services offering music, video and games, shows that 27.6 per cent of [...]
Land Rover Discovery review: The king of SUVs is back and it’s better than ever March 6, 2017 Land Rover started the current SUV craze. Back in 1989, it launched a model that was more road-oriented than the Sherpa-like Defender, and more affordable than the old-money Range Rover. The Discovery was born and the world was stopped in its muddy tracks. Typically, Land Rover then rested on its laurels. Since that original, there’s [...]
The world-famous ski resorts of Vail and Breckenridge are enjoying huge investment. We head up into the Rockies to investigate March 3, 2017 So famous are the Back Bowls of Vail in the skiing world that, this being America, you would expect them to be trademarked. To anyone who loves the rush of downhill skiing, these giant geological saucers 3.5 kilometres up the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, are the Holy Grail of winter sports. In size and scale [...]
Property of the week: Ovington Square proves that vendors are looking for flexible solutions to sell their homes in an uncertain market March 3, 2017 It’s no secret that property prices in prime central London are starting to plateau and, in some cases, fall. We’re all aware of the problems – overzealous estate agents, Stamp Duty increases, Brexit – but how can you make the best of it if you’re selling your house? Prime estate agency Russell Simpson thinks it’s [...]
Focus On Queen’s Park: Good schools, shops and value lure families to north west London March 3, 2017 Garden towns and villages have made a surprising comeback of late, largely as a by-product of our desperate search for a solution to the housing crisis. The government announced at the start of the year that it intended to build three new towns of 10,000 houses each, in a bid to reach a target of [...]
New homes: Properties going on sale this weekend in a regenerated part of Greenwich, in Hackney and in Croydon March 3, 2017 Kidbrooke Village, Blackheath From £450,000 Live at the centre of a new neighbourhood with one of these new apartments going on sale tomorrow. Birch House is in the Village Centre of Kidbrooke Village, a £1bn regeneration project by Berkeley Homes that will create 4,800 new homes and new parks across 136 acres south of the river. [...]
A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Young Vic review: A dispiriting slog through the mud March 3, 2017 A perennial favourite, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is traditionally presented as a magical, romantic comedy. However, Joe Hill-Gibbins’ conspicuously dismal production at the Young Vic cares little for such frivolities. The treatment of the text is fairly conservative, but there’s a subtle change in tone that refocuses the audiences’ attention on the play’s murky [...]