Flower power: 2021 RHS Botanical Art & Photography Show at the Saatchi Gallery September 18, 2021 Botanical illustrations have a somewhat unfair association with geriatric pastimes and biology textbooks. In a new exhibition at Chelsea’s Saatchi Gallery, the Royal Horticultural Society brings a fresh spin on the form by grouping a 200-strong selection of paintings, drawings, and photographs that showcase the diversity of flora. The product of an open call, works [...]
Is God Is at The Royal Court: A fireball of rage and guilt September 17, 2021 A fireball of rage and guilt, Aleshea Harris’ Is God Is is a modern-day biblical epic on a small scale. It’s a play that actively shirks categorisation, inviting comparisons to both the Old Testament and the trappings of Jacobean drama, but also to Spaghetti Westerns, Afropunk, and hip-hop. The play begins with fire, both literally, [...]
The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2021 is the best in years September 17, 2021 British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare, coordinator of the 253rd Royal Academy Summer Exhibition has managed something extraordinary: he’s created a show that actually makes sense. Where the Summer Exhibition – once again shunted to the autumn thanks to Covid – is usually a maddening, overwhelming jumble of artworks, this year there’s a thread of urgency and [...]
Try fine German wine at fabulous Somerset House September 16, 2021 Eva Fricke’s wines are much sought-after, often going for as much as £3,000 per half-bottle at auction. Her Lorcher Krone Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese 2019 is the first wine to score 100 points from the respected American publication The Wine Advocate. Only eighteen bottles are in existence. Now you can sample some of her wares alongside those [...]
Going grey gracefully: How to make silver hair work for you September 16, 2021 Last week, I wrote about the trauma I endure when going to the hairdresser. However, there was an upside. As the barber’s scissors danced around my head, he remarked that I had thick hair. I agreed, without wanting to seem boastful of something utterly outwith my control. But I ventured the opinion that, while I [...]
Tudor-inspired gin Six Wives is gin fit for a king September 15, 2021 Six Wives is a small-batch, hand-crafted gin inspired by traditional botanicals. It is the brainchild of Simon Marjoram, a marketing director, who had the idea while walking his two Schnauzers down the towpath towards Hampton Court. Its bottle is a nod to the fate of Henry’s spouses – divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. And [...]
GTO Engineering California Spyder review: Hollywood glamour, Italian soul September 15, 2021 The latest car from GTO Engineering is a recreation of the classic Ferrari 250 SWB California Spyder. It’s as glorious as it looks.
Prisoners of The Ghostland – more Nicolas Cage madness September 15, 2021 The poster for Prisoners of The Ghostland features a surprising quote – not from a critic or an enthusiastic viewer, but from the star Nicolas Cage himself, who calls it “The Wildest Movie I’ve Ever Made”. When you consider some of the offbeat choices the Oscar winner has made, that’s a powerful claim. He plays [...]
Rose Plays Julie review: A tense exploration of trauma September 14, 2021 Many films are about delving into the deep, murky lake of a character’s past, but few do it as intensely, or as uniquely, as this week’s Rose Plays Julie. Directed Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, collectively known as the creative partnership Desperate Optimists, Anne Skelly plays Rose, a young Irish woman training to be a [...]
Booze like Bond at this immersive dining experience September 14, 2021 Monte Carlo, the French Riviera, New Orleans, the Caribbean: these are the places we associate with James Bond. Portobello Road, not so much. But this stands to change, for over the next few weeks the bohemian enclave of Notting Hill will be aswarm with Sunspel polo shirts, Persol eyewear, Goodyear-welted Crockett and Jones Norwich boots, [...]
