By: Steve Dinneen

Life&Style Editor I'm the editor of City A.M. The Magazine, and editor of the daily newspaper's Life&Style section. We cover food, wine, going out, culture, technology and travel. I'm also the head judge of our Toast the City awards that celebrates hospitality in the Square Mile. Find me on X @steve_dinneen

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Nest Thermostat 3rd Generation review: An improvement on a winning formula

December 20, 2017

Every tech company wants to be “the Apple of X”. Nest – which was bought by Google in 2014 for $3.2bn – is the Apple of “really boring stuff ”. Smoke alarms. Doorbells. Thermostats. But in the same way Apple convinced millions of people that they really, really wanted to put their entire music [...]
Blue Satellite headphones review: Great sound, but these cans will leave you feeling Blue

December 20, 2017

Beginning life as a manufacturer of high-end equipment for audio professionals, Blue has been tentatively easing its way towards the lucrative consumer market for some time. Its new Satellite headphones are its most high street-friendly pair yet, but it still has some way to go to bridge the gap between studio and sidewalk. Compared [...]
Network at the National Theatre review: Bryan Cranston is electric in Ivo van Hove’s brilliant take on this Oscar-nominated movie

November 17, 2017

Dutch theatre director Ivo van Hove is nothing if not ambitious. This year alone he’s had Jude Law running on a treadmill as he delivered his lines in Obsession and filled the Barbican’s stage with water for his outstanding Persona. But Network, based on the 1976 satirical film of the same name, is on a [...]
iPhone X review: A decade after the release of the first phone, Apple hasn’t lost its Midas touch

November 16, 2017

The iPhone X is the biggest reinvention of the iPhone since… well, the iPhone. Apple is hardly shy when it comes to boasting about a new handset – every year Tim Cook takes to the stage and breathily exalts whatever happens to be in his hand as “the best phone we’ve ever made” – but [...]
Nest Protect review: A wantonly profligate but eminently stylish way to protect against smoke and fumes

November 16, 2017

It strikes to the core of everything that’s wrong with western civilization that a smoke alarm, perhaps the most baldly practical device ever invented, something whose sole purpose is to stop you from choking to death on sooty black clouds while you lie in your bed at night, can become a coveted piece of consumer [...]
Swim with the pigs in the Bahamas: How domestic swine became big business for the paradise islands

November 13, 2017

On 9 September the ocean around the Bahamas’ Long Island and the Exumas vanished. Where there should have been endless stretches of aquamarine, there was mile upon mile of muddy grey sand, flecked with seams of stringy kelp, all set against a foreboding backdrop of slate-grey cloud. Sandwiched between hurricanes Irma to the west and [...]
This is what it’s like to be a young chef in London, from Michelin trainees to pop-up proteges

November 2, 2017

Depending on who you speak to, young chefs are either the rock stars of the 21st century, or the last vestige of a Victorian-style workforce, toiling away in cramped conditions under tyrannical bosses for pay that makes nurses look like millionaires. What’s beyond question is that London is one of the most exciting culinary cities [...]
Saint George and the Dragon at the National Theatre: A fairytale for adults that’s not half as clever as it thinks it is

October 13, 2017

What a time to stage a proper state-of-the-nation play. With record inequality, rising nationalism and the prospect of limping from the EU without so much as a trade deal, this is the perfect time to mull over exactly what it means to be British. And for a while, Rory Mullarkey’s new play looks like it [...]
Loving Vincent film review: An astonishing artistic achievement that’s so overwhelming it borders on psychedelic

October 13, 2017

Van Gogh’s paintings have long served as inspiration for animators. I’ve wandered through virtual reality versions of his Paris bars, the lights glowing with distinctive halos, and various filmmakers have attempted to realise the movement implied by the painter’s brush strokes. But Loving Vincent does it on a whole other level. It’s a labour of [...]
John Akomfrah: Purple at the Barbican review: An astonishingly ambitious attempt to chart the anthropocene

October 6, 2017

The Barbican’s Curve gallery is essentially given over to a single, epic, six-screen video that attempts to chart the history of humanity from the turn of the last century, and show how we’ve impacted upon the world around us. This wildly ambitious project is undertaken by documentary-maker and artist John Akomfrah, whose resulting video montage [...]

Exclusive: Insurance giant warns clients to avoid Red Sea after tanker struck

Commonwealth Games: How ‘Commy G Lite’ is opportunity for smaller brands

Volkswagen California 2026 review: plenty of room at the Hotel California

By: Steve Dinneen

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