19th century gothic architecture at its best January 24, 2013 ACHARMING Grade II listed Victorian gothic lodge, located at the entrance of a 24-acre north London park and cemetery, has become available to rent this week. East Lodge, which was built in 1855 on Willesden Lane at the entrance of Paddington Old Cemetery, was sold at auction by Brent Council in July and acquired by [...]
Lincoln is no ordinary biopic January 24, 2013 FILM LINCOLN Cert 12A **** Entitled simply “Lincoln”, directed by Steven Spielberg and with a score by John Williams, you could be forgiven for expecting a slick, grandiose epic. A small town mid-Westerner who educated himself, struck out on his own, became a lawyer and eventually President, Abraham Lincoln’s life is tailor made for the [...]
Zero Dark Thirty surpasses even Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker January 24, 2013 FILM ZERO DARK THIRTY Cert 12A **** Zero Dark Thirty is military jargon for the precise time, 12.30am, when US Navy SEALs first set foot in Usama bin Laden’s (“UBL”) hideout. It is also the name of director Kathryn Bigelow’s latest collaboration with screenwriter Mark Boal (they are the Oscar winning duo of Hurt Locker [...]
A darkly comic take on Kafka January 24, 2013 THEATRE THE METAMORPHOSIS Hammersmith Lyric **** FRANZ KAFKA’s The Metamorphosis, in which protagonist Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to discover he has turned into an “Ungeziefer” (usually translated as “beetle”) has variously been interpreted as the most harrowing of autobiographies, a comment on the alienation of modernity and, perhaps most profoundly, the best literary [...]
Belgian FA slam Hazard for ball boy altercation January 24, 2013 CHELSEA star Eden Hazard was accused of shaming Belgium and faced the renewed threat of police action last night for appearing to kick a ball boy in Wednesday’s Capital One Cup exit at Swansea. Football Association chiefs, however, were still deciding whether the £32m midfielder’s actions warrant increasing the three-match ban automatically triggered by his [...]
United spend £15m on Palace forward Zaha January 24, 2013 CRYSTAL Palace and England forward Wilfried Zaha is poised to seal a dream £15m transfer to Manchester United, but will remain in south London until the summer to help the Eagles bid for promotion. The Ivory Coast-born 20-year-old, who was handed his first international cap by Roy Hodgson in last year’s friendly defeat in Sweden, [...]
Schalke reject Tottenham bid to accelerate Holtby transfer January 24, 2013 TOTTENHAM have failed in their latest attempt to persuade Schalke to let Germany midfielder Lewis Holtby join them and ease their midfield injury concerns. Spurs have a deal in place for Holtby, who has an English father, to join them in the summer on a free transfer when his contract expires. But an injury to [...]
Haidara and Sissoko sign up for Newcastle’s French revolution January 24, 2013 NEWCASTLE continued their Francophile January spending last night by signing left-back Massadio Haidara and closing in on a deal for midfielder Moussa Sissoko. Haidara, 20, joins from Nancy on a five-and-a-half-year contract and will provide competition for Davide Santon, who has been linked with a move back to his native Italy. Sissoko is set to [...]
Track date for Olympic Park January 24, 2013 THE OLYMPIC Stadium will mark the anniversary of last year’s Games opening ceremony by hosting the London Grand Prix athletics meeting later this year. The event, which has been moved from its traditional home of Crystal Palace, is set to take place on the weekend of 27 July – a year after London 2012 got [...]
Momentum behind Murray as Brit aims to end Federer curse January 24, 2013 STATISTICS, it is said, can be used to justify any argument, but the weight of data in Andy Murray’s favour ahead of the Briton’s Australian Open semi-final against Roger Federer today is compelling. The US Open champion has enjoyed the better of their 19 encounters and won nine of their 17 meetings on hard courts, [...]
