Iron-clad entertainment April 29, 2010 Film IRON MAN II Cert: 12A Compared to the brooding darkness of the Batman films or the commercial cynicism of the Transformers franchise, 2008’s Iron Man was a breezy joy of a blockbuster, and so is its sequel. It may lose the thread of its plot from time to time, and the final showdown is [...]
Preview: the City’s own music festival April 29, 2010 IAN RITCHIE FESTIVAL DIRECTOR Canada Festival sees the great and good of classical music join the avant-garde and the unusual each summer in the midst of the City. Concerts take place in all the Square Mile’s most beautiful – and often unknown or unused – historical buildings such as St Bartholemew the [...]
ON IN LONDON | SIX OF THE BEST April 29, 2010 ART: Fra Angelico to Leonardo: Italian Renaissance drawings Another corker of an exhibition at the British Museum, with scores of works by the likes of Titian, Michelangelo and Botticelli showing the importance of draftsmanship in Italy’s golden age. THEATRE: Willy Russell season at the Menier Chocolate Factory The Southwark hit-factory is currently staging terrific versions [...]
Ladies’ watches go sporty for summer April 29, 2010 THE boom-time days of watches looking more like rainbow-jewelled bling machines than time-pieces are over. At Basel this year, ladies’ watches had more focus and discipline, and tended to be either smaller and more feminine or more sporty, nautical and professional-looking than their sparkling, big-statement predecessors. As one industry expert puts it: “Women’s luxury sports/nautical-inspired [...]
DANGERS OF CASUAL-WEAR WORKPLACE April 29, 2010 Sara Hollamby Style Counsel THE term “business casual” is adopted by many large corporations in the City as a description of their dress code. Yet the “business” bit of the term often gets forgotten. So how do we keep our professionalism but still feel casual and comfortable? For men, the golden rule is to always [...]
In such skilled hands, intrigue in Stalinist Russia cannot fail to grip April 28, 2010 THE BETRAYAL BY HELEN DUNMORE Fig Tree, £18.99 Dunmore is one of the literary establishment’s most respected practitioners: she’s a poet and an Orange Prize short-listed author. Her work isn’t light reading, but fans call it some of the most rewarding on the shelves today. Following on from The Siege (short-listed for the Orange Prize [...]
OUT OF OFFICE April 28, 2010 SAMSONITE POP-UP AT HARRODS Call yourself a travel buff? Like a good suitcase as you swish through the business lounge at Heathrow? Then pop along to Harrods where this massive luggage brand is celebrating its centenary with a showcase of the brand’s evolution, from rare vintage cases, collectors’ items from the 20s and 30s through [...]
SUMMER SIZZLER April 28, 2010 AFTER a winter as long, cold and trying as the one we’ve just experienced, any excuse to wave it goodbye and welcome the arrival of warmer times should be celebrated – and there’s no better way of doing that than hauling the old barbecue out of the garden shed and firing it up. Offering a [...]
Here comes the night April 27, 2010 IF chrome was last year’s paint job of choice, then this year it’s matte black. It’s a look that’s being sported on cars owned by trendy design types, rappers and footballers alike. And it’s now available on the Mercedes-Benz SL350. Mercedes might not have the hippest reputation, but its SL350 Night Edition is a car [...]
