We planned a foodie road trip around Wales that you can complete in four days November 27, 2018 It took me 30 years to get to Wales. I never had an aversion to it, it was just easier to get on a plane than it was to learn how to drive. As a lifelong Londoner with no family to visit regularly beyond the M25, there was no immediate reason to learn, so I [...]
Brompton Electric review: The iconic folding bike gains a motor, but loses some portability along the way September 27, 2018 The Brompton is a magical object. The most popular bike in Britain, it appears to defy several laws of physics when it folds in on itself, collapsing like a neutron star into the size of something approaching a sugar cube. The compact format of a Brompton means it can go places other bicycles aren’t allowed, [...]
Lewis Hamilton interview: How the most decorated British racing driver in history, may be about to swap the track for the runway July 5, 2018 I find Lewis Hamilton quietly thumbing through a sheaf of technical sketches. But he’s not in a pit garage or race car factory perusing the work of aerodynamicists – he’s in Tommy Hilfiger’s Knightsbridge studio, studying pictures of sneakers. Just as he gives his Mercedes crew feedback, demanding different damper settings or more wing, he’s [...]
It takes a village: How Simon Rogan transformed a Cumbrian town into an international culinary destination July 6, 2017 The village of Cartmel lies just beyond the boundaries of the Lake District. It’s quietly beautiful, with squat stone buildings, rows of shops selling postcards and tourist knick-knacks, and a 12th century priory that dominates the town square. You can find lazy, bucolic idylls like this dotted across this part of the world; it’s the [...]
Could the secret to a long and healthy life be hidden in a remote part of Costa Rica? We set out to meet the tribespeople who live beyond 100 years old September 5, 2017 The town hall in Nicoya, western Costa Rica, is one of the few colonial buildings left in the country. Given that the town was about to host a “congress of international centenarians”, it seemed like a good place to start my investigations into longevity. Unfortunately, no-one in the building seemed to know anything about it. [...]
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 [...]
Going off grid: How I spent a week living in an ‘apocalypse dome’ May 30, 2017 The more we learn about the effects of social media on the human psyche, the worse it seems to get. The planet is hooked on dopamine squirts triggered by clever algorithms developed by the world’s finest minds, for the sole purpose of keeping us scrolling. And scrolling, and scrolling. We’re connected to thousands of other humans from the second we wake to the [...]
The tech revolution – not Brexit – will reshape the face of London December 16, 2016 London's office market will change more in the next five years than in the 15 years since the 2001 dot-com crash, as a combination of factors much bigger than Britain’s exit from the EU come into play across the capital. While there has been so much discussion on the future of London’s banking cluster since [...]
We can’t trust Remainers to ensure that Brexit really does mean Brexit July 28, 2016 This has, so far, been the year of the underdog: Leicester won the Premiership, Hibernian the Scottish Cup, Portugal the European Football Championship, and the Leave camp the greatest bloodless political coup since the Glorious Revolution of 1688. This triumph of democracy has engendered a real sense of optimism and renewal. Unfortunately, things by their [...]
Darkhorse Stratford restaurant review: more nag than stallion January 20, 2016 I'm calling January 2016 as the moment the restaurant template that's dominated London for the last five years finally jumped the shark. Far too many new openings appear to have been cobbled together, Inception-style, from my memories of other restaurants, from the interior design to the locally sourced, modern European menus. There's a cynicism to the uniformity. It's a formula that [...]