World’s Best Bar Awards 2015 winner: London’s Artesian at The Langham Hotel is officially the best bar in the world October 13, 2015 The best bar in the world is London's Artesian. At least, it is according to the authoritative annual World's Best Bar Awards. (Or, more precisely, the drink industry supremos that make up the award's academy.) But I look on bars as a parent looks upon their offspring, so I can't pick favourites. So here are [...]
Working Lunch: Brasserie Blanc, EC2 October 13, 2015 Melissa York on the best places to eat during office hours in the City and Canary Wharf WHAT? Raymond Blanc’s first City brasserie re-opened last month after a complete refurbishment. Gone are the fussy white tablecloths and pristine cutlery, in favour of rustic oak tables, thick ceramics, pendant light fixtures and vintage French mirrors. [...]
Why the Vuhl 05 is the most thrilling car you’ll drive this year October 12, 2015 You’ve finally got the dream job, with the dream financial package to match. Obviously you’re going to spend a chunk of it on a stand-out motorcar. But which one? What says, look at me, I’ve made it? Not an Audi or a BMW – you’d be better off with a Ford Mondeo around the City [...]
Cultures collide on the Jersey shore: The enduring UK weekend getaway October 9, 2015 I got into a taxi in Jersey and asked the driver to take me to The Horizon hotel. “You what?” he said. The Horizon hotel? “Don’t you mean l’oreezon, love?” he replied, breaking into a French patois, mid-sentence. It was then I realised I wasn’t in Blighty anymore. Things are different here; you can’t just [...]
Sebastian Faulks on life’s absurdities and what frightens people about fiction October 9, 2015 “I had the strong impression from your book,” says a character in Sebastian Faulks’ new novel, “that you think the twentieth century has been a catastrophe.” “Undoubtedly,” comes the reply, and what follows is a conversation about humanity’s flaws, the significance of individual life, and the normalisation of genocide that feels well-rehearsed. And [...]
Art review: Frank Auerbach, Tate Britain October 8, 2015 Walking through Frank Auerbach’s retrospective at Tate Britain is rather like flicking through a family photo album. It’s full of personal subjects that change incrementally over decades, of self-portraits, friends, his wife Julia and Mornington Crescent, where his studio has been since 1954. There’s also another reason to get up close and personal with [...]
Goya: The Portraits explores the legendarily dark artist’s less nightmarish output October 8, 2015 GOYA: THE PORTRAITS NATIONAL GALLERY RATING ★★★★☆ Goya is perhaps best known for his scary painting of a giant naked fella munching down on a little man, voraciously chomping his arm and head off with the wide-eyed expression of somebody who’s just remembered he left the patio door unlocked. It’s spooky business round Goya’s house, [...]
Suffragette movie review: Meryl Streep and Carey Mulligan star in this worthy tribute October 8, 2015 Cert 12A | ★★★★☆ “If we give women the vote, where will it end?” says a disgruntled Cabinet minister in Suffragette. “They’ll be wanting to be Members of Parliament next.” Well, here we are, not quite at the end, but closer to it than we were in 1912, when a faction of the women’s suffrage [...]
Medea, Almeida Theatre review: This tragedy will hit home, even if Euripides is all Greek to you October 8, 2015 The Almeida has saved the fiercest play in its ambitious Greek season for last. Medea – widely considered a proto-feminist text – was never going to be the hardest tragedy to drag into the 21st century. Even so, playwright Rachel Cusk’s modern re-telling is uncomfortably familiar. Her version of the titular Medea is a playwright [...]
Sicario movie review: Emily Blunt is embroiled in a brutally violent cartel drug war in this cloak and dagger thriller October 8, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★★★☆ Benicio Del Toro rocks some seriously distracting camel-toe in one harrowing scene, but that’s only the third or fourth most visceral image in Sicario. It’s a violent drug cartel thriller in which Emily Blunt plays Kate Macer, a steely FBI door-kicker who finds herself drafted into a highly secretive, off-the-books government [...]