Best beach reads July 22, 2009 MY SOUL TO TAKE by Yrsa SigurdardottirHodder, £11.99This Icelandic thriller is cooler than most from the get go. Where else could you find a ballsy Reykjavik lawyer with little time for nonsense called upon to investigate a haunting at a plush but doomed new age hotel on the wild Icelandic coast? A gruesome murder kicks [...]
In a bubbly mood July 22, 2009 BAB – short for “bonuses are back” – has replaced “doh” as the word on the City’s streets, following revelations that bankers raked in end-of-year payouts like the credit crunch was all just a bad dream. But whatever the reality for those outside the gilded top offices of the Square Mile and Canary Wharf, there [...]
WHERE TO DRINK CHAMPAGNE IN THE CITY July 22, 2009 VERTIGOTower 42, EC2NShowy and high glam, this is a devoted champagne bar with the best views in town – perched right at the top of Tower 42 (pictured right). There is a fantastic choice of bubbly, including Veuve Delaroy Brut (£46), Georges Vesselle Bouzy Grand Cru (£66), two Bollies, a Krug (£385) and several Laurent [...]
Falling for a Romeo July 21, 2009 HAVE YOU ever seen anything so beautiful you could cry? For me, it’s this object before me, Alfa’s drop-dead gorgeous 8C Spider. So here I am, at Balocco circuit, Alfa Romeo’s private test facility between Milan and Turin. It’s 35 degrees. Test tracks, no matter where they are in the world, are not known for [...]
Looking sharp: how to sizzle by the sea July 20, 2009 LOOKING hot on the beach isn’t just about sweating in your nice new swimsuit. It’s about a look that’s full of glow and colour; strong lashes, peachy, pinky tones and lashings of fruit. Of course, what you bring to the beach or poolside has to be tough enough to stay the course through splashes and [...]
Latest Conran opening brings hip, tasty French food to Fleet Street July 20, 2009 LUTYENS85 FLEET STREET, EC4Y 1AETEL: 020 7583 8385www.lutyens-restaurant.com Cost per person without wine: £40 FROM its name you’d think it was English – Edward Lutyens was a brilliant Victorian architect known chiefly for his country houses. Indeed, Lutyens the restaurant, in the old Reuters building, is an elegant construction, a sleek refuge inside a typically [...]
OTHER FRENCH RESTAURANTS NEAR THE CITY July 20, 2009 BLEEDING HEARTHidden away in the famous Bleeding Heart Yard near Hatton Garden, this is an atmospheric warren of candle-lit dining rooms, with superb French food, a wine-list to match, and a nice al-fresco space for summer dining. Bleeding Heart Yard, Greville Street, EC1N 8SJ. www.bleedingheart.co.uk CLUB GASCONA real humdinger of a restaurant that brings lashings [...]
Oh I do like to be beside the seaside (with billionaires) July 19, 2009 IT’S mid-morning, and having got a crack-of-dawn BA flight from London City Airport, I am now in a helicopter flying from Nice to Monte Carlo. Out of the window, the warm sunshine and blue sea provide a stunning backdrop to the hotels and villas carved out of the white rocks. As a helicopter virgin I [...]
Hogwarts? It’s Hollyoaks with broomsticks July 16, 2009 FilmHARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCECert: 12A AT THE START of the Harry Potter franchise, the films were fun. They were joyful affairs, full of the sweetness of JK Rowling’s imagination and the spirit of inventiveness that seemed to suffuse everything, from quidditch games to Diagon Alley. Even with Death Eaters, basilisks and dark lords [...]
OUT THIS WEEKEND PREVIEWS July 16, 2009 FILMTHE INFORMERS Adaptation of Brett Easton Ellis’s novel, with Mickey Rourke and Rhys Ifans. FROZEN RIVER Strong US drama about illegal immigration, with Melissa Leo on Oscar-nominated form. KISSES Charming Irish indie film about a pair of runaways up to no good in Dublin. DVDTHE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT Ghoulish supernatural goings on, supposedly based on [...]
