West End hostage: Police arrest 39-year-old man after taking waitress, two diners hostage in Bella Italia, Leicester Square February 25, 2016 Police have arrested a man after a two-hour hostage standoff at a West End restaurant last night. Dozens of Met officers surrounded the Bella Italia on Irving Street, just off Leicester Square at around 8:50pm last night after a man took a waitress hostage. The suspect is believed to have armed himself with a knife from [...]
Long Weekend review: Le Pavillon des Lettres is Paris’ hideaway for linguists and bookworms May 20, 2016 THE WEEKEND: They may still deliver the wow factor but we’ve all done the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre more times than we can remember. For a trip to Paris with a difference, brush up on your rusty GCSE French and soak up the city’s vast cultural history while indulging in world famous patisserie, wine [...]
Why the exciting world of Shakespeare-branded products could be about to take the continent by storm April 22, 2016 A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse! — or a bar of soap, anyway… Yes, to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, the UK's export authority has pointed out that toiletries and home furnishings branded with the Bard’s name have a "huge opportunity for global promotion". The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is getting [...]
Investing beyond 100: How rising life expectancy will change everything July 14, 2016 A century is an important milestone worthy of celebration. We recently commemorated 100 years since the Battle of the Somme. Vogue made headlines in May for featuring a 100-year old model to celebrate the magazine’s centenary year. On your hundredth birthday, you can expect to receive a message from the Queen. But what happens when living [...]
Long Weekend: Healthouse Las Dunas in Marbella, the five star detox hotel with a menu created by a two-Michelin-starred chef May 16, 2016 The weekend: Smoke too much? Drink too much? Check into Healthouse Las Dunas, where they don’t let you do very much at all. Its detox programmes – lasting between two and 21 nights – use a blend of healthy fine-dining, medical consultations, cooking lessons and spa treatments to relax and re-educate its guests. Or just [...]
Focus On Bloomsbury: House prices are blooming marvellous in this intellectual corner of central London June 16, 2016 Bloomsbury conjures up images of fusty intellectuals like former residents Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, EM Forster and John Maynard Keynes. Home to austere, prestigious institutions like the British Museum, the Royal Portrait Gallery and University College London, it isn’t necessarily somewhere you’d think of moving to. But the recent clamour for central London property has [...]
Tom Hiddleston shines in High Rise, a stylish adaptation of JG Ballard’s architectural dystopia March 17, 2016 Dir. Ben Wheatley | ★★★★☆ "Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months.” The opening sentence of JG Ballard’s High Rise is up there with the English literary canon’s very best. It’s all [...]
Renters in London are having the hardest time of all, suffering the smallest pay rises in UK and soaring housing costs April 6, 2016 If you rent a house in London and work full-time, chances are the economic recovery has been something you read about in the newspapers but haven’t felt in your pocket. That’s because over the last three years, London has experienced the slowest growth in average wages of any part in the UK, but the fastest increases [...]
Dragon boats and running a firm: What business can learn from this unusual sport May 13, 2016 A dragon boat team has to work in the same direction. If the paddles don’t hit the water at the same time, they knock each other, creating inefficiency. If you don’t reach far enough with the paddles, they don’t deliver enough power and the boat goes slower. If not deep enough, then you are wasting [...]
Dreaming of Derby success: Bill Esdaile visits Newmarket ahead of this year’s Classic May 17, 2016 With this year’s Investec Derby just over two weeks away, Newmarket is a hive of activity as the world’s most prestigious flat race draws ever closer. While trainers finalise their preparations for Epsom, breeders in the same equine parish are plotting the creation of future contenders. Trainer John Gosden, who saddled last year’s winner Golden [...]