Why dining alone is the last taboo April 12, 2025 During a recent solo trip to a new wine and oyster bar, I was directed to a dim corner of the restaurant far away from other diners. It was as if the patrons needed to be protected from the sad, friendless clown doing a sudoku and enjoying an alcohol free beer. As the waiter came [...]
Jaecoo is the new SUV in town and it’s coming for Land Rover April 12, 2025 You’ve probably never heard of the car brand Jaecoo before, but you’re about to start seeing a lot of them. The Jaecoo 7 boasts the three things most motorists in the UK are looking for in a new set of wheels: It’s a mid-size SUV; it’s hybrid with fantastic fuel economy and all the latest [...]
Silence over lamb: The terrible politics of the dinner table April 12, 2025 Why is the dinner table the setting for so many epic family battles? Anna Wolfe explores the psychology of dining and asks if boomers and Gen-Z are destined to clash over roast potatoes Sunday lunch, a cherished ritual where families gather to share a meal, exchange pleasantries, and, more often than not, step into a conversational [...]
How the modern world is changing grave stone design forever April 10, 2025 Death is the only thing surer than taxes. But how we’re remembered is a strange and sometimes controversial business. Ralph Jones meets the people rewriting the rules, one grave stone at a time Stonemason Neil Luxton once agreed to use comic sans on a grave. Once was enough – he has refused ever since. Luxton, [...]
Life on the edge: A deep dive into the crazy world of Margate April 10, 2025 Five years ago, some dilapidated public urinals in a park in Margate were sold at auction by the council to a private bidder for £11,000. The shabby little structure is barely visible from the path, a graffitied block hidden behind shrubs with weeds winding through the roof and floor. The original glazed urinals are exposed [...]
It takes a village: Do we need to rethink our attitude to old age? April 10, 2025 We’re living for longer than ever but the boom in the elderly population is a social and political time-bomb. Could ‘later life’ communities like Auriens be the answer to the old age crisis, asks Steve Dinneen I enter a grand lobby, all lofty ceilings, marquetry floors and art deco fittings. An effusive concierge in a natty [...]
What does Raoul Moat play Manhunt say about men in 2025? April 9, 2025 Angry, isolated and dangerous men are very much in the cultural zeitgeist and, in Raoul Moat, visionary writer-director Robert Icke has chosen one of the angriest, most isolated and demonstrably dangerous men in recent memory as the subject of his new play. Manhunt – very loosely based on the 2016 true crime book You Could [...]
Aboard the real Orient Express train from Europe to the East April 9, 2025 It has always irked me that trains billed as the Orient Express, like the Venice-Simplon-Orient-Express, only go as far as Istanbul. Why evoke the romance of the Orient only to end the journey at the edge of Europe? It’s a disappointment, but more gallingly for anyone passionate about long-distance train travel, it’s also a missed [...]
The White Lotus Season 3 finale sucked: Here’s why April 8, 2025 The White Lotus Season 3 is over. In this spoiler-heavy take, Steve Dinneen laments an ending that went awry. The final episode of The White Lotus Season 3 pulled off the dubious trick of ending with both a bang and a whimper. It’s been a rollercoaster: the season opened to a fairly tepid reaction – [...]
I found my private pictures on a foot fetish website… And a theatre celeb’s April 7, 2025 Playwright Naomi Westerman found her private photos on a foot fetish website. Then she found pictures of the most powerful man in theatre… I have no idea how a celebrity foot fetish website found my personal Instagram. Somehow a bunch of random snapshots in which I happen to be shoeless did it for some people. Not [...]