The past lives on as Agatha Christie’s top hotel reopens October 17, 2010 ONCE you’ve been to Istanbul, Paris, Berlin and even London seem somehow paltry, a bit small-scale and even a touch banal. The enormity and seductiveness of the Bosphorous, especially at sunset, and the mesmeric mixture of ancient history, Ottoman splendour and Islamic architecture beguile every traveller. Its appeal was just as strong for the most [...]
FOCUS ON: BRENTWOOD, ESSEX October 14, 2010 CREST BASE Price: From £183,000 This new development in the heart of Brentwood has both one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments for sale. The living area is open-plan and each flat also has a bathroom and a kitchen. Depending on the stage of construction, you can personalise various aspects of the internal finish. For commuters it is [...]
Queen of cakes gives tea a twist October 4, 2010 I ACTUALLY wanted to be a musician,” says Claire Clark. Unfortunately, her flute and violin playing wasn’t up to scratch. Happily for us, it meant she became the world’s best female patissiere, soon to open up a decadent cake shop – think champagne and chaises longues – in London. “My mother cooked everything,” says Clark, [...]
Marylebone gets Euro-chic September 27, 2010 Café Luc 50 Marylebone High Street, W1U 5HN FOOD SERVICE ATMOSPHERE Cost per person without wine: £36 YOU might assume – I think I did – that Marylebone High Street is hardly in need of another place mixing dining and café culture. But the crowd packed into the recently opened, Belgian-owned Café Luc last Tuesday [...]
Chinese set to eat up United Biscuits deal September 26, 2010 MCVITIES manufacturer, United Biscuits (UB) is in talks with one of China’s largest food groups about a possible takeover that could value the British company at almost £2.5bn. The Shanghai-based foods group Bright Food yesterday confirmed that it was in talks with UB to pen a deal that would potentially hand the Chinese group a [...]
Off-piste: the pre-snow joys of Chamonix September 26, 2010 ASK MOST people what comes into their head when you mention Chamonix, and they’ll say skiing. But the mountain capital of the world has much more to offer, especially when the snow disappears from everywhere but the highest peaks. Home to over eighty nationalities – making it one of the most multicultural places in France [...]
HOLLYWOOD DIRECTOR HAS POP AT GOLDMAN September 22, 2010 HOLLYWOOD director Oliver Stone is clearly a very brave man, having taken a figurative pop at not one, but two of the world’s most successful businessmen in the past week. Just a few days ago, it emerged that Stone – currently on a publicity flash tour to coincide with the opening of his new film, [...]
Why go out for dinner when dinner could come to you? September 22, 2010 WHAT’S a hungry banker with a bonus burning in his back pocket to do? Ostentatious displays of wealth just aren’t the done thing anymore, unless you want to risk attracting the attention of marauding bands of bitter taxpayers. But just because a ten course blow-out at your favourite high-end restaurant might be off the menu [...]
Asda unveils £100m brand make-over September 21, 2010 THE unveiling of Asda’s Chosen By You range saw chief executive Andy Clarke take centre stage as he claimed the £100m project would be “game changing” because it was the first time a supermarket had put so much time and money into updating its mid-range products. More than 40,000 consumers across the UK took part [...]
CITY BOSS FINDS SLICE OF ARCTIC HISTORY September 20, 2010 REGULAR readers will remember Tim Levy, the bold chief executive of alternative investment firm Future Capital Partners, who last month set off on a gruelling expedition to the Arctic with one of his best mates, hare-brained TV adventurer Bear Grylls. Levy and Grylls – famed for his creepy crawly-eating escapades on Channel 4’s Born Survivor [...]