Krapp’s Last Tape review: Stephen Rea is sublime May 6, 2025 Krapp’s Last Tape | Barbican | ★★★★☆ Should you have been waiting in earnest for Krapp to show up – not unlike a character in a different Samuel Beckett play – this is your week. At the York Royal Theatre, Gary Oldman takes on the role of the ageing Krapp, reminiscing over audio diaries he [...]
The Vineyard in Berkshire is the perfect pre-summer holiday May 6, 2025 With the weather improving but summer holidays still a way off, it’s the perfect time to cast around for mini-break options closer to home. The UK’s luxury spa market has recovered strongly from the hospitality-wide hit at the beginning of the decade, but how to distinguish between the many options? The Vineyard in Berkshire has [...]
Giant play review: Roald Dahl show is great but not perfect May 3, 2025 Giant play review and star rating: ★★★★ Roald Dahl defied the image we cherish in our minds. He was charismatic, but in a way that masqueraded his poisonous views. He was also an anti-Semite, writing in the New Statesman in 1983 that “there is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe [...]
Paradise ploughed: Laferm Coco is a pastoral oasis in Mauritius April 29, 2025 Wandering through Laferm Coco, you pass through neat little fields packed with guava and papaya and bananas and coconuts and turmeric, all hemmed in by jagged volcanic mountains, the splashes of colour from the produce impossibly saturated beneath a clear blue sky. Elsewhere farmyard animals flap and graze and squabble. There’s a duck pond that [...]
Maradiva: Mauritius in five-star style April 29, 2025 It is rare that I feel an urge to return to a hotel – part of the joy of travel is to experience a place for the first time, after all. But I’ll make an exception for Maradiva, the five star resort in Mauritius where your dreams of borderline-pornographic beachfront perfection are dragged, startled and [...]
Deliveroo suspends share buyback programme amid Doordash offer April 28, 2025 Deliveroo has suspended its £100m share buyback programme after receiving a proposal from US-rival Doordash. The takeaway giant had unveiled the programme, which would have brought its shareholder returns to £550m since 2023, in its March full-year results. Deliveroo said it could recommence the programme at a later date. On April 25 the company confirmed [...]
Libby’s Naked Wines Diary: How to celebrate Steak Day right April 24, 2025 Steak. Our nation loves it. So much so that Tesco reported searches for ‘Wagyu” have gone up 87 per cent since last year on tesco.com. With its prestige and price, when it comes to cuts of meat, this is essentially the Grand Cru of beef. Taking this as a call to action, Tesco has launched [...]
Rules to keep children safe online finalised by Ofcom April 24, 2025 Ofcom has issued the final safety codes requiring online platforms to implement over 40 protective measures for users under the age of 18 by July. These include tools to verify user age, block underage access to adult content, and remove harmful material linked to self harm, suicide, and eating disorders. Platforms that fail to comply [...]
Domino’s: Pizza chain reports order growth and expects ‘minimal’ tariff impact April 24, 2025 Domino’s has reported order growth ahead of the market and said it does not expect Trump tariffs to impact the business. Its share price dipped by just over one per cent in early trades. Total sales rose 2.1 per cent to £393.3m in the first quarter of 2025, from £385.2m in 2024, while total orders [...]
The Notebook: Investors should look to Ukraine April 22, 2025 European capital is flowing into Ukraine’s recovery — and early investors willing to navigate the risks stand to reap the rewards, says Michael Martins I was in Brussels a little over a week ago for the European and Ukrainian business summit, supporting clients exploring investment opportunities in Ukraine. I frankly did not know what to [...]