What do Hilary, Maria, Rosie, Vernon, Chris and Michael all have in common with Monica, Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Joey and Phoebe? They should all stick by their Friends. With talk of a Shadow Cabinet reshuffle being planned in revenge on Labour frontbenchers who defied Jeremy Corbyn on the vote to bomb Syria, the likes of […]
There were more than 38 billion bottles of wine produced in 2013, the latest figures we have from the International Wine & Spirit Research group. I can’t promise to have tasted them all but at this time of year, when I am trawling through my tasting notes choosing which wines I am going to recommend […]
Accidence Will Happen: The Non-Pedantic Guide to the English Language. Oliver Kamm, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, RRP £9.99 Tim Harford, presenter of the Radio 4 programme More or Less, used the word “decimated” on-air a few weeks ago. He meant it in the sense of “destroyed in large part”. He sensed what was coming next, and […]
When George Galloway dropped his ban hammer it left me so badly shaken that my socks fell down. I’m not saying that it was George who blocked me from reading his Twitter feed and, in truth, the elastic had been going in my black Slazengers for quite some time. Yet the reality of the situation […]
Hyper Japan, Tobacco Dock, London Japan does have a national religion, the saying goes: it’s being Japanese. Strands of Shinto, Buddhism and Christianity might be respected and even practised, but fundamentally Japanese culture trumps everything else. There is something spiritual about the tea ceremony performed in Kyoto, drinking hot sake from a lacquered box is ritualistic, […]
The European Identity: Historical and Cultural Realities We Cannot Deny. Stephen Green, Haus Publishing, RRP £7.99 Stripped of its history, culture and achievements, how would Europe be viewed by the world? Had an Indian invented the steam engine or a Chinese sailor discovered the Americas, and therefore radically changed the course of economic history, how […]
America is belatedly waking up to the debilitating effects of the worm that is burrowing into her soul. Intolerant scenes of intimidation this Autumn at US universities, including UCLA, Wesleyan, Yale and, most notoriously, Missouri where students incited by academics combined to prevent free speech on campus have finally alerted Americans to the erosion of […]
This week we’re going to take a look at a pair of watches launched in 2015, but not just for their undoubted merits; we’re in pursuit of a wider point. What makes these two special is what they represent in terms of how the watch market is changing, what’s driving that change and what it […]
In London a decanter has just gone on sale for £1,300 ($1,945). Before you ask, no it’s not made out of crystal and no, it wasn’t used by Sir Francis Drake as he made his first voyage to the Americas. So why the hefty price tag? And let’s be honest, whichever way you square it, […]
Winston Churchill Reporting. Simon Read, Da Capo Press, RPR £17.99 ‘You could not stand for five minutes under a shed with that man while it rained but you must be convinced you had been standing with the greatest man you had ever seen.’ That was Johnson on Burke; it also applies to Churchill. Anyone with a […]
A couple of years ago New York Magazine did some work on the political orientation of Silicon Valley in which they reported the big news that some of the giants of the tech world were – shock! horror! – moving to the right, albeit very tentatively. The irony is that this should be newsworthy since […]
What are we to do with Wentworth Woodhouse, the biggest house in Britain? This eighteenth century colossus is in a valley outside Rotherham in South Yorkshire and the only private buyer – a Hong Kong investment fund – has pulled out claiming half the house is “falling into a hole”. The Government, in the form […]
Ken: The Ups and Downs of Ken Livingstone. Andrew Hosken, Arcadia Books, RPR £15.99 Jeremy Corbyn only appears once in the pages of ‘Ken’, and it is a bizarre cameo indeed. In 1994, Ken Livingstone announced that he was running against Tony Blair for Labour leader, with Corbyn as his deputy. The only problem was that […]
A short walk from Campo Santa Maria Formosa, one of the largest medieval squares in Venice, there is a narrow stone alleyway along which sits Enoiteca Mascareta, a cosy wine bar run by the jovial Mauro Lorenzon. For the wine lover this is one of the best pit stops in Venice. Here, over a plate […]
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