Motoring review: Fiat 500 1.2 Pop Star September 7, 2015 IT’S s a city car, so you need to drive it in the City”, they said. Fair enough. So why am I aboard a boat, admiring the view of Tower Bridge exchanging small-talk with a fashion blogger while sipping a virgin cocktail? Well, I’m at the launch of the new Fiat 500, of course. By [...]
Motoring review: Fiat 500 1.2 Pop Star September 7, 2015 IT’S s a city car, so you need to drive it in the City”, they said. Fair enough. So why am I aboard a boat, admiring the view of Tower Bridge exchanging small-talk with a fashion blogger while sipping a virgin cocktail? Well, I’m at the launch of the new Fiat 500, of course. By [...]
Exploring Oman, the wild west of the east September 7, 2015 Camping always evokes familiar memories: pitching tents at night, muddy fields, the taste of a stodgy pasta meal cooked over a gas stove in the rain, and a chorus of sheep baa-ing at dawn like a congregation of tone-deaf pensioners at a Sunday service. At least it did for me until earlier this year when [...]
Film review: Me, Earl and the Dying Girl September 4, 2015 Cert 12A | ★★★★☆ Cancer weepies have a long lineage, from Love Story to last year’s The Fault in Our Stars. But rarely does a film try to marry leukaemia and laughs like Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, whose very title teases with its brazen tactlessness. That it succeeds is down to a cast [...]
Review: People, Places and Things September 4, 2015 Dorfman Theatre | ★★★★☆ A dazzling central performance ensures Duncan Macmillan’s new play about addiction isn’t drowned by the weight of its own ambition. People, Places and Things is a maelstrom of competing ideas, juggling a central story about a young actress going through the 12 Steps with tangents about identity and acting. Denise Gough plays [...]
Film review: American Ultra September 3, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★☆☆☆ Soon to appear in Batman v Superman, a film in which he’ll have no hair at all, here’s Jesse Eisenberg starring in a film in which he has lots of hair. And let me tell you, it’s lovely hair. Long and shiny. The kind you want to run your fingers through. [...]
Working Lunch: Pizzabuzz, EC2 September 2, 2015 Melissa York on the best places to eat during office hours in the City and Canary Wharf . WHAT? A build-your-own pizza restaurant, where you can pick everything from the bread to the sauce base. You add ingredients in steps as you move along the bar – think Subway, but with gourmet ingredients. Choose [...]
Lotus restaurant review: The food is fine, but it’s not fine dining September 2, 2015 Lotus 17 Charing Cross, WC2H 0EP Tel: 0207 839 8797 FOOD ★★★☆☆ VALUE ★★★☆☆ ATMOSPHERE ★☆☆☆☆ Cost for two with wine: £120 The last five years have seen every restaurant in the country renounce their tablecloths. They’ve ripped the plaster off the walls to expose the jagged, crumbling brickwork beneath, because brickwork is real and plaster is a [...]
Lessons in wine: discover the sweet magic of Sauternes September 1, 2015 Most of us would rank Bordeaux among the great red wine-making regions of the world and, with around 450m bottles produced there each year, we’re certainly not short of a drop. However, there is also a substantial following for White Bordeaux; Sauvignon Blanc fans would be advised to divert their attention from New Zealand for [...]
Does the Mazda MX-5 still deserve to be called a sports car? August 28, 2015 The Mazda MX-5 is the world’s bestselling sports car, but it’s never been the quickest. When it launched in the UK in 1990, it offered an enjoyable driving experience combined with top-down convertible thrills for the relatively inexpensive price of £14,500. But the MX-5 failed to move with the times. It cared more about being [...]