An intelligent mix of culture, style, travel, food and property, as well as where to go and what to see.
The electoral college has confirmed it: the US will have its 46th president on 21 January next year – Joseph R Biden Jnr. While Scranton Joe might not have much in common with his predecessor in many departments, there are (some) similarities when it comes to their personal lives. As grandfathers in their 70s, both
Did anyone get their predictions for the 2020 property market right? I suspect not. We’d barely heard of Covid back in January last year and, if we had, we would have probably written off the housing market for half a decade. But look at property now. Prices are up 5 per cent on average and
When I was 11, Iraqi scud missiles exploded next to our home, collapsing part of our roof while I huddled together with my younger siblings on my parents’ bed wearing gas masks. This was in 1991, during the Gulf War when Israel was under attacks for the better part of January and February. I lived
New Year’s Eve is bound to be less brash this year – some would ever say melancholic. Strangely many classic New Year movies tend to bend towards a sense of melancholy amid the celebrations, most memorably Billy Wilder’s classic comedy-drama The Apartment (1960). That film at least has a hopeful ending. Unlike say Sunset Boulevard
Christmas is probably the only time I bother with appetisers or canapés proper; usually I am quite content to stick a bowl of fancy crisps on the dining table, and let my husband make sure everyone’s drinks are topped up. But Christmas is different. Christmas demands canapés. And, given the Vintage Chef moniker, I tend
The traditional Christmas meal takes on different guises around the globe. Our festive table groaning under turkey and all the trimmings would look quite unrecognisable to many. For Jewish people living in the US the tradition at Christmas is to eat Chinese food. And in Japan come Christmas you’ll find everyone eating KFC. Seriously—you have
‘What’s that earthy flavour in the sauce?’ ‘It’s a black Himalayan moss which monkeys find an aphrodisiac.’ If 2020 has been the weirdest year the modern world has known, that was well and truly reflected in Masterchef, The Professionals. Because this year’s series, the 13th annual, dispensed with its own unwritten rules. For years the
You really don’t want to know about my coughs and sneezes, particularly during the festive season, but bear with me because this it isn’t really about my sniffles. My argument applies to everyone, and it’s cheerful. All of us have a lifetime of experience of seasonal colds and flu, starting with the fact that they
First things first, I should issue a disclaimer: I’m not a fan of bikes that have apps. It’s always struck me as odd that a lot of electric bike manufacturers make a big deal about making bikes more friendly for riders – and yet so many insist on adding additional tech that your average cyclist
Looking for something new to watch on Amazon Prime this Christmas? Here’s our guide to the best shows and films arriving over the winter season: Tenet, 15 December (to rent or buy) Christopher Nolan’s time-bending venture – which revolves around the concept of bullets fired backwards in time – may have failed to reverse the
With the sad news of John le Carré’s (1931-2020) passing this weekend, a retrospective of some of the finest screen adaptations in the writer’s canon. For many aficionados of the genre, le Carré was the unrivalled king of the spy novel, who maintained a remarkably consistent output – his final novel (the satire Agent Running
It remains the case that for most people free NHS tests are only available for those taking part in pilot schemes, who have been asked to have one by health professionals, or in people or families showing symptoms of the virus. This means that some people are now looking to private providers to get tested
The name ‘toad-in-the-hole’ suggests something a little more whimsical (or saucy) than its reality. The origins of the name are spurious and, to be honest, a little tenuous: I’ve seen theories that the hole is a hungry stomach and the toad a ‘substantial meal’, another that suggests the dish resembles the way toads peep their
Fancy buying half a flat, paying 100 per cent of the maintenance and the cost of putting right a developer’s shoddy work? Therein lies the great scandal at the heart of shared ownership, the government scheme which BBC Panorama exposed last week but which I others were writing about over a decade ago. Shared ownership
First-time visitors to the Isles of Scilly are hard to find. Once you discover this spell-bindingly beautiful archipelago twenty eight miles off the Cornish coast you quickly become part of its fiercely loyal legion of fans. Indeed, it’s almost impossible to resist the urge for a return visit. It came as no surprise, then, to
Hurrah! At last the UK government has lifted quarantine restrictions for the Canary Islands, meaning British visitors no longer have to spend a fortnight in isolation when they get back to Blighty. Spanish authorities simply require you to take a rapid-result Covid test upon arrival. For sun-starved Britons, this is great news. Warm and sunny
Braising isn’t a terribly glamorous way of cooking: you’re not flipping steaks over an open fire, flambéeing alcohol, or shucking oysters. No one is going to gasp at your cheffy technique if you plump for braising. And when you pull the dish from the oven, it may not look any more exciting: no soaring soufflés,
An Apology An apology is a series of words strung together to absolve one of sins committed in private or in one’s professional life, usually uncovered by a newspaper, which allows one to carry on one’s duties as if nothing had happened, and very often to repeat the sins for which one has apologised. It
I’ve never worked out why anyone would want to buy an outfit over the internet without first seeing it in the flesh and trying it on. I know my wife does it all the time — although the constant piles of parcels by the door, full of stuff waiting to be sent back whence it
One of the first films ever produced, 1903’s The Great Train Robbery, revolved around a robbery of a steam locomotive train, and ever since then the genre has continued to be one of the most enduring in cinema. It isn’t hard to see why. The core elements of the heist film are some of the
With the November shutdown and talk of Christmas restrictions, you could be forgiven for wanting a good dose of escapism right now. If that’s you, here’s our guide to the best films to watch when you’re feeling fed up and want a break from it all: North by Northwest (1959) Preserved by the United States
If this year you hear the distant rumble of dusty games’ compendia being brought down out of attics, it’s safe to say you can blame Netflix’s latest smash hit series The Queen’s Gambit, which seems to be convincing everyone that chess can be cool. App stores are reporting a surge of searches for a game
The text below is the basis of a talk given by Christopher Snowdon, head of lifestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs, at the Spectator annual health debate 2016. The debate was entitled: ‘Can we trust health advice?’ Before answering the question of whether we can trust health advice we must first ask: ‘Which
If you’re avoiding the gym because of coronavirus and you want to shake up your exercise routine then it’s easy enough to work up a sweat and torch those calories, either in a park or in your garden. Some of these exercises can even be done inside. Team Be Military Fit have created the ultimate
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is on this week. The gardens are impressive, but my favourite part of the show has always been the enormous tent in the middle of it all, in which flowers from all round the British Isles are displayed. Radiant pots of daffodils sit alongside obscene-looking collections of orchids – and
The end of March is nigh, and thanks to the EU’s latest pronouncements, a no-deal Brexit is still a very real possibility. The idea of No Deal causes most millennials to quake in their Balenciaga boots. But there’s nothing like a bit of positive thinking to get you through a crisis, right? Here are 7
In As You Like It, Shakespeare suggested that there were seven ages of man. Sadly, he himself didn’t experience all of them; he shuffled off this mortal coil at the age of only 52, precisely 400 years ago. You could also say that the human male has seven sexual ages, marked by a gradual decline
As we are now well into the unwanted Lockdown sequel and winter approaches, time perhaps to enjoy an enforced home cinema experience with a selection of movie thrillers that you may have missed the first time round. Titles range from big budget star vehicles to smaller scale pictures that introduced us to some of the
With the dark evenings rolling in and the headlines sounding gloomier than ever, what better way to enter winter than by getting stuck into a good Scandi noir? Once the preserve of late nights on BBC Four, the genre has become a bankable success for streaming services – and a source of friendly(ish) competition between