Volvo V40 Cross Country T5 review: A car that defies categorisation for motorists that defy categorisation December 19, 2016 We love to label things. “The tendency to classify and categorise objects is a deeply ingrained aspect of human nature,” Dr Scott Barry Kaufman once wrote in Psychology Today. Maybe you were the kind of person who took pleasure in arranging your CD collection in alphabetical order, or perhaps labelling people is the sort of [...]
Suited and booted in beautiful Vietnam: how to do Da Nang in style December 19, 2016 Vietnam is not the kind of place I expected to need a suit. Shorts, sunblock and mosquito spray, sure. But tailoring was not on my check-list. While Thailand, Malaysia and to an extent the Philippines all have an established super-luxe travel market, Vietnam – at least outside of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi – [...]
Christmas with JPMorgan: the bank picks books, sites and music for the holiday season December 16, 2016 There's still time to get a last minute gift for the banker in your life! JPMorgan's annual holiday reading list has been given an upgrade for 2016, and to mark the 10-year anniversary of the reading list, the US bank added on a few cultural and musical recommendations. The bank is actually calling the list #nextlist2017, and [...]
Star Wars: Rogue One review: A brilliantly gutsy, spectacular spinoff that could have been braver December 15, 2016 While it may not feature Jedis doing backflips or the Millennium Falcon tooling about space, Rogue One: A Star Wars story definitely feels like a Star Wars film. It has a heartbreaking family-based plot, a familiar struggle between the Empire (baddies) and the Rebellion (goodies, kind of) and all manner of weirdo aliens. There's even [...]
Government blocks sale of rare Wedgwood vase December 15, 2016 The culture minister has blocked a rare Josiah Wedgwood vase from leaving the country. The “Basaltes” vase was sold in July to an unnamed bidder for almost half a million pounds. However, it is hoped that an alternative buyer from the UK can raise an equivalent amount of £482,500 (plus £16,500 VAT) in order to [...]
Dreamgirls review: Glee star Amber Riley yells the house down in the first Dreamgirls production to come to London December 15, 2016 This is the first time Dreamgirls has been performed in the West End, and it’s a production that’s sure to echo down the years, purely for the diabolical racket it kicks up. The mics might have been turned up to 11 – not necessary in the tiny Savoy Theatre – but the primary source is [...]
Lingerie brand Bluebella secures £1m through crowdfunding for US expansion December 14, 2016 The British brand which created the official Fifty Shades of Grey lingerie has raised £1m – double its original target – in a crowdfunding campaign. Bluebella turned to its fans for help funding an expansion to the US, and reached a grand total of £1,088,700 by the time the campaign ended. Founder Emily Bendell said: [...]
Love at the National Theatre: an important play about welfare in Britain that’s appropriately unenjoyable December 14, 2016 Love, at the National Theatre, is not the poverty porn that so often clutters the London stage, but a powerful indictment of the shocking state of social housing, social care, and social welfare in Britain today. Writer-director Alexander Zeldin presents a group of disparate people forced to live side-by-side in emergency housing, and the grinding [...]
Hedda Gabler at the National Theatre review: Ruth Wilson is deliciously neurotic in this stylish retelling of Ibsen’s classic play December 14, 2016 It’s astonishing to think this painfully raw, searingly relevant play was first performed 125 years ago. There are moments in this symbolism-heavy production directed by Ivo van Hove that could have crawled from the mind of that enfant terrible of the 1990s Sarah Kane. The world gets older; Ibsen stays the same age. It’s one [...]
Here’s when and where the best 2016 Christmas TV programmes are being shown December 14, 2016 Gathering around the television with the family is now one of the great Christmas traditions. It's the perfect time of year to snuggle up with a mince pie or four and indulge in some of the best British TV. Use our list to plan your viewing. Our top picks: The Great British Bake-Off BBC1: Christmas [...]