London
Cybersex is a dangerous world (especially for novelists)
Few first novels are as successful as S.J. Watson’s Before I Go to Sleep, which married a startling and unusual…
The Tooting poisoner and the relentless rise of the urban fox
In my London neighbourhood, an argument about urban foxes is turning very nasty indeed
Powers of persuasion: how Churchill brought America on side
In time for the 50th anniversary of Churchill’s death comes this pacy novel about his attempts to persuade the Americans…
Rivea: a London annexe to the world’s maddest expensive restaurant
Rivea (stupid name) is in the bowels of Bulgari in Knightsbridge, a hotel which looks like a vast Virgin Upper…
Quaglino’s, the vampire brasserie
Quaglino’s is an ancient subterranean brasserie in St James’s, a district clinging to the 18th century with cadaverous fingers. It…
How long will it be before the climate forces us to change?
As the climate changes, will we? The story of the little ice age suggests that adaptation will take years of suffering
David Sedaris was right: litter is a class issue
David Sedaris is my new hero. Not because he’s such a funny writer, but because he’s obsessed with litter. He…
Nicky Haslam’s diary: Marie-Anna Berta Felicie Johanna Ghislaine Theodora Huberta Georgina Helene Genoveva and other big names
I was once bundled into a police car in Palm Springs to explain why I didn’t have snow-tyres on my…
The deep instinct that Britain’s immigration debate still ignores
The deep instinct that the immigration debate still ignores
The real reason there’s a queue outside the Cereal Killer Café
The Cereal Killer Café is a temple to cereal on Brick Lane, east London. It serves only cereal — and also…
Twentysomethings: you won’t miss being poor. But you will miss not knowing what you’re doing
What I miss most about being very young is the cluelessness. It’s enormously liberating, cluelessness. The boundaries of life are…
Penelope Lively’s notebook: Coal holes and pub opera
I have been having my vault done over. Not, as you might think, the family strong room, but the place…
Edie Campbell’s catwalk notes: the joys of the hunt ball, and mystery of Grozny fashion week
It seems as though I have just been on some grand tour of the absurd. It helps that I work…
The most preposterous restaurant to have opened in London this year
Somerset House, a handsome Georgian palace on the Thames, was once the office of the Inland Revenue, and the courtyard was…
The hotels trying to turn Cornwall into Kensington
Mousehole is a charming name; it is almost a charming place. It is a fishing village on Mount’s Bay, Cornwall,…
London’s real Olympic legacy: paying to build the stadium twice
Giving London’s Olympic stadium a ‘legacy’ is proving to be a very costly business
The real French embassy is a restaurant
Semper eadem. There is some basement in a Mayfair street that is forever France. It is not far from the…
Say no to devolution without democracy
Imagine if, in one of her first acts as First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon announced that, in spite of…
Barry Humphries’s diary: The bookshop ruined by Harry Potter
Do fish have loins? Last Tuesday, in a pretentious restaurant, I ordered a ‘loin of sea trout’. It looked just…
Ukip is a party for people who hate London. That’s why Labour should be scared
It is interesting that neither Scotland nor Wales have been much bitten by the Ukip bug. The supposedly sensible view…
How Italy failed the stress test (and Emilio Botín didn’t)
Continuing last week’s theme, it was the Italian banks — with nine fails, four still requiring capital injections — that…
Want to shake hands with your dinner? Beast is your kind of restaurant
Beast is next to Debenhams on Oxford Street and it is not conventionally beast-like; rather it is monetised and bespoke…
Griff Rhys Jones’s diary: I am now less of a celebrity than my daughter’s dog
In order to promote the Dylan Thomas in Fitzrovia festival, I am trying to persuade Jason Morell, the director, that…
It’s time to shave that beard: the decade of the hipster is over
Take heart: the age of the stupid beard is coming to an end
Hello trees, hello sky, hello armoured riot police
What a beautiful day, I thought, as I nodded to the porter in the bowler hat and stepped out of…
