Swimming star shares her tips with City A.M. May 7, 2012 FITNESS & DIET EXPERT With just over two months to go until the Olympics, team GB hopeful Keri-Anne Payne still found time to be an official ambassador for this year’s Swimathon (swimathon.org), an event that a whopping 26,078 swimmers across the UK took part in. I caught up with her to get her take on [...]
London’s contemporary design lustre is a reflection of its inspiring heritage June 7, 2012 THE Barbican’s new Bauhaus exhibition is full of ghosts. These early twentieth-century disciples of modernism are renowned for furniture as coolly perfect as an equation, but it is the human messiness of achievement that haunts every room. A chair that takes the breath away is posed between half-finished student exercises, invitations to parties and dozens [...]
Touch-down in Shanghai: getting ready for business June 24, 2012 MAKING my way across Shanghai following a 12 hour flight from London and a six hour flight from Boston left me urgently desirous of a tranquil bedroom, soft bed and a deep bath. As I was heading to the Four Seasons, I figured the only obstacle to achieving these would be traffic – an elegantly [...]
Lexus makes automotive alchemy June 19, 2012 Believe it or not, this is the fourth generation Lexus GS model, a car that has been in production since 1993, quietly going about the business of offering buyers a unique alternative to the more familiar premium saloons like the Audi A6, BMW 5 Series and Jaguar XF. Unique? Really? Well Lexus does things a [...]
Cosmopolis is flawed but compelling June 14, 2012 FILM COSMOPOLIS Cert 15 | By Steve Dinneen **** In the future, nobody will move their face. That is, at least, in David Cronenberg’s dystopian vision, adapted from Don DeLillo’s novel Cosmopolis. Through billionaire finance whiz-kid Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson), Cronenberg seems intent on building an American Psycho for the 21st century, with Pattinson essentially [...]
UK is wrong to have turned its back on individual freedom April 17, 2012 LIBERTY. Freedom. When did you last hear these two words in the UK political debate? Well, I certainly can’t remember. Our country is dominated by busybodies and collectivists who believe that they and the state have the right and duty to tell us all what to do, to spend our money for us and to [...]
UK is wrong to have turned its back on individual freedom April 16, 2012 LIBERTY. Freedom. When did you last hear these two words in the UK political debate? Well, I certainly can’t remember. Our country is dominated by busybodies and collectivists who believe that they and the state have the right and duty to tell us all what to do, to spend our money for us and to [...]
Stamford Bridge scores with Marco May 22, 2012 RESTAURANT MARCO Stamford Bridge, SW6 1HS FOOD ***** SERVICE **** ATMOSPHERE *** Cost per person without wine: £50 Here’s an odd one: a banker I know is a Gunner: an Arsenal supporter, that is. But, he confesses, he’s also a regular at Stamford Bridge. That’s enemy territory: home of my team, the Blues, Chelsea FC. [...]
Stamford Bridge scores with Marco May 22, 2012 RESTAURANT MARCO Stamford Bridge, SW6 1HS FOOD ***** SERVICE **** ATMOSPHERE *** Cost per person without wine: £50 Here’s an odd one: a banker I know is a Gunner: an Arsenal supporter, that is. But, he confesses, he’s also a regular at Stamford Bridge. That’s enemy territory: home of my team, the Blues, Chelsea FC. [...]
Fifty shades of blockbuster success June 7, 2012 BOOKS FIFTY SHADES OF GREY By EL James (Arrow) An urgent message reached me last week as I was heading to the airport for a Jubilee weekend trip to Israel: “Bring four copies of Fifty Shades of Grey pretty please.” It came from a 34 year old friend in Tel Aviv who, along with three [...]