Viognier once dwindled to just eight acres of vines; thankfully now this varied wine is getting the props it deserves August 2, 2016 Viognier is one of my favourite summer whites and one that grows on me with every bottle. It has a complexity, a range of floral scents and flavours and even a slight muskiness that demands attention. It’s a sobering thought that we almost lost this harlequin grape completely. Viognier is a pain to grow, prone [...]
Opinion: Why more transparency is needed on letting fees to make sure both landlords and tenants are getting a good deal August 1, 2016 There has been much debate in the press and both Houses of Parliament regarding the subject of letting agents’ fees and whether these are fair or reasonable. Unfortunately as far as I am concerned, they are neither. The all-too-common practice of asking tenants to pay exorbitant administration charges, and a host of other overheads, to [...]
New homes on sale in London: from apartments on London City Island to family homes in Edgware August 1, 2016 London City Island From £405,000 A summer party heralded the sale of 100 new homes on the enormous London City Island complex on Saturday. Developer EcoWorld Ballymore offered champagne ice pops, a BBQ and a DJ to entice prospective buyers to look at the studio to four bedroom apartments on the Leamouth Peninsula. There will be [...]
Maserati Levante review: The Italian carmaker goes off-road with its first ever SUV August 1, 2016 M aserati. Such a cool name to say out loud, isn’t it? Tell your friends you drive one and your cool factor instantly swells. Soak up the kudos from becoming a suave, stylish Italianate and observe how they suddenly start to slightly resent the fact they chose a Porsche. Maserati’s traditional approach has been making [...]
Deerland Safari is an incredibly secluded luxury getaway that will change how you feel about glamping forever, unless you feel positively about it already, in which case your mind will be unchanged July 29, 2016 Get away from it all – the city, your job, that strange dog that follows you around – by trekking into the darkest depths of Dorset, a place so remote that sometimes you can’t even load tweets. The word “glamping” might evoke a mental image of Kate Moss standing in a ditch trying to light [...]
A Royal Marine is transforming abandoned Welsh mining quarries into adventure themeparks for grown-ups July 29, 2016 A t the end of the nineteenth century, Penrhyn Slate Quarry in North Wales was the largest of its kind in the world. A mile long and 1,200ft deep, more than 3,000 quarrymen toiled in its depths. The number of miners in Wales went on to peak at over 270,000 in 1920, with prosperous coal, [...]
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child review at the Palace Theatre: A sappy script but possibly one of the best staged plays the West End has ever seen July 28, 2016 JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series stood apart from the canon of children’s literature by allowing its characters to grow up. Peter Pan famously never aged and Just William was 11-years-old for about 50 years. Harry, Ron and Hermione, on the other hand, were in their late 30s by the end of the seventh book, sending [...]
Now We Are Here at the Young Vic gets to the human stories behind the refugee crisis July 28, 2016 This latest play in the Young Vic’s refugee season was written by refugees themselves, in collaboration with local writers. In the first half, three actors take it in turns to tell the stories of Desmond, Mir and Michael (played with real charm by Gary Beadle, Manish Gandhi and Jonathan Livingstone). They sit on chairs and [...]
The Plough and the Stars at National Theatre’s Lyttelton: an emotional haymaker about the 1916 Easter Rising July 28, 2016 There’s a tried and tested formula to Sean O’Casey’s 1926 play The Plough and the Stars: he makes us care for his cast of quick-talking, hard-drinking Irish men and women, and then he makes us watch as their lives fall irrevocably apart. The sense of inevitability doesn’t make it any easier. The play caused riots [...]
Jason Bourne review: Matt Damon returns to the Paul Greengrass-directed franchise, but finds himself in surprisingly shallow waters July 27, 2016 Paul Greengrass returns to direct this fourth instalment of the Bourne franchise, with a plot cobbled thinly together from the previous three. Bourne (Matt Damon) is brought back from the cold when villainous Agency head honcho Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones) starts a covert intelligence program – Ironhand – operating beyond the radar of the [...]
