Why the Loire Valley is about so much more than fairytale castles August 8, 2026 Beyond the Loire Valley’s fairy-tale châteaux, a gentler side of this celebrated destination awaits. Lucy Daltroff dives in It takes just over an hour to fly from Stansted to Tours in the Loire Valley and soon I am eating a spectacular lunch and drinking local wine at the rooftop La Belle Vue Restaurant. Before me [...]
A tribute to wine legend Matthew Jukes by his friend Libby Brodie August 7, 2026 The wine writer and entrepreneur Matthew Jukes died suddenly this week aged just 58 years old. Our wine writer and his close friend Libby Brodie remembers a legend of the wine industry and beyond Matthew Jukes was one of the very best people I met in my career in wine. Scratch that, he was one [...]
Cats musical review, Regent’s Park: Purrrfectly exquisite nonsense August 7, 2026 Cats review and star rating: ★★★★ The unnervingly bad 2019 movie did nothing to dispel the creeping sense that perhaps Cats is a little too strange. We were willing to suspend our disbelief for all sorts of nonsense in the 1990s, including this, a musical with loose at best narrative direction that spends 80 per [...]
Rolls-Royce Spectre Series II review: Driving a Rolls on a racetrack – yes, really… August 6, 2026 Hang on, you are cordially inviting me to do what? I re-read the email to make sure, but it’s there in crisp Sans Serif font. It isn’t every day you get asked to drive a Rolls-Royce on a racetrack. Indeed, in 20 years as a motoring journalist, this is the first – and likely the [...]
Russian propaganda website hit with record ‘pink slime’ payout at High Court August 6, 2026 An Uzbek businessman has been awarded £105,000 in damages and £117,663.38 in legal costs after winning a defamation suit against a UK publishing network – the largest publicly reported payout in a so-called ‘pink slime’ case. A City AM investigation into British publisher 2Trom was presented as evidence in the High Court case after we [...]
What’s on in London August August 5, 2026 | Sponsored August in London offers countless ways to make the most of the city. It’s a great chance to experience workshops, join in on some sport activations, discover a new cuisine, use exclusive offers, and embrace all London has to offer. This guide highlights some of this month’s top picks, suitable for all ages. Activities and [...]
The forgotten masterpiece that helped shape the modern English language August 5, 2026 As our new Education Secretary rethinks how we learn about language, Eliot Wilson on one of the most forgotten and seminal English texts Five hundred years ago this year, the first copies of an English translation of the New Testament appeared in London. The brilliant young theologian and linguist William Tyndale, then studying in Germany, [...]
Dante Mayfair at Claridge’s review: How about a five-martini dinner? August 5, 2026 How many martinis is too many? Adam Bloodworth works that out over dinner at the new Claridge’s restaurant, Dante Mayfair An obvious question comes to mind when thinking about the new restaurant at Claridge’s: Why? Why has a quintessentially British hotel invited a restaurant from New York to open a permanent venue on their premises? [...]
Vauxhall Mokka GSE review: on-track in the most surprising car of 2026 August 4, 2026 The Vauxhall Mokka GSE marks the return of a classic performance nameplate – now applied to an electric crossover SUV. John Redfern finds out how this retro reboot fares on the road and track. Vauxhall has a lengthy back-catalogue of performance cars, ranging from hot hatchbacks and the formidable Lotus Carlton, through to Australian-built V8 [...]
Humble Grape is a wine bar like no other: Here’s its origin story August 4, 2026 Is a bar only as good as its origin story? The calibre of the drinks and service are of, of course, of vital importance but it’s the mythos of a place that gives it that je nais se quoi. Humble Grape, one of our Toast the City Awards 2026 Finalists, has one of the best [...]