Stuck in London for Christmas? Hole up in a luxury hotel December 20, 2009 OH dear. A bit of snow, as we had on Thursday, and London goes into panic mode. Flights are delayed, cancelled and rearranged, and with the threat of a BA strike only tenuously averted, getting out of London over the Christmas period seems anything but a sure bet. But look on the bright side. It’s [...]
Airline search schemes boosting security firms January 4, 2010 IT is probably fair to say that 2009 was a bad year for the airline industry. Afflicted by strikes, falling passenger numbers and fluctuating fuel prices, the year was topped off with a security alert onboard a Detroit bound Delta Airlines flight on Christmas Day. In the aftermath of another terrorist attempt, European and American [...]
Pressure from the bottom line will make firms female-friendly July 20, 2010 A COUPLE of weeks ago I was told a story about a law firm Christmas party. The senior partners took part in a game where pictures of their children were projected onto a screen, and they were asked to identify the cute faces. Presumably this was meant to show them to be rounded human beings, [...]
Debenhams kicks off retail price war November 16, 2009 Debenhams yesterday announced it will be slashing £250m off prices in a four-day sale this week, in a move which it predicts will spark a price war similar to the frenzied discounting seen last Christmas. Rival Marks & Spencer’s executive chairman Sir Stuart Rose, said earlier this month he did not expect a repeat of [...]
Brett Easton Ellis is back with a chilling seventh novel July 21, 2010 IMPERIAL BEDROOMS BY BRETT EASTON ELLIS PICADOR, £16.99 BY ZOE STRIMPEL ONCE part of the American literary brat pack of the 1980s that included Jay McInerney and Tama Janowitz, Ellis is in many ways the most intriguing and – thanks to his famed use of violence in 1991’s American Psycho, about Manhattan yuppie serial killer [...]
A champion of British grub May 20, 2010 FOUNDING a restaurant would test the nerves of even the most hardened entrepreneur. Ensuring the food and décor are both delicious and attractive is one thing, but in London a new restaurant can sink or swim based on a review. Iqbal Wahhab, founder of Borough Market’s Roast, which opened in October 2005, swam, but not [...]
A champion of British grub May 20, 2010 FOUNDING a restaurant would test the nerves of even the most hardened entrepreneur. Ensuring the food and décor are both delicious and attractive is one thing, but in London a new restaurant can sink or swim based on a review. Iqbal Wahhab, founder of Borough Market’s Roast, which opened in October 2005, swam, but not [...]
M&S staff to get £80m bonus pot after sales rise April 8, 2010 MARKS & SPENCER sales rose by 5.1 percent in the 13 weeks to 27. The hike was driven by sales of formalwear and knitwear and the figures outstripped analysts’ forecasts of a 1.7 per cent rise M&S said full-year pre-tax profit would be around £630m, in its trading statement. The first day of the Christmas [...]
TRAPPINGS OF SUCCESS COME IN ALL GUISES May 7, 2010 WELL, well; what a difference 24 hours can make. This time yesterday, we had a perma-grinning David Cameron hopping about the country like a kangaroo on speed, the impeccably-dressed Samantha at his side, while the blue camp awaited their chance at a Tory majority, hearts in mouths. We had Nick Clegg bouncing around like an [...]
A fraught journey through exile, family and religion May 12, 2010 NOMAD BY AYAAN HIRSI ALI Simon & Schuster, £12.99 **** AYAAN Hirsi Ali is one of the political world’s most direct speakers – if not its most direct. Even the most controversial commentators balk at using her kind of polarising terminology and crystalline rhetoric. In part this is because 40-year old Ali, who works at [...]