London
High life
A recent column in the FT made me mad as hell. The writer, Simon Kuper, calls Vienna a backwater, which…
Boris’s London legacy
Jack Wakefield on the Mayor’s ambitious, not to say whimsical, vision for the Olympic Park
Sharing Caring
The Ivy Chelsea Garden is a restaurant inside an Edwardian house disguised as a Tudor house on the King’s Road;…
Diary
So far, what an infuriating election campaign. We have the most extraordinary array of digital, paper and broadcasting media at…
Cross rail
Conversations with a ticket inspector on the Norwich train
Wait until dark
James McConnachie discovers that some of the greatest English writers — Chaucer, Blake, Dickens, Wordsworth, Dr Johnson — drew inspiration and even comfort from walking around London late at night
Kitty corner with the PM
David Cameron is too cowardly, or too cynical, to debate with Ed ‘Two or Possibly Three Kitchens’ Miliband — which…
Going large on Park Lane
The Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, is a cake floating in space. All grand hotels create a parallel universe in which…
The war on rural England
The coalition is letting developers concrete over the countryside, but that won’t help young people buy houses
Put the water cannons on standby and your money on a swift Grexit
‘Will Greece exit the eurozone in 2015?’ Paddy Power was pricing ‘yes’ at 3-to-1 on Tuesday, with 5-to-2 on another…
Beyond the Wall’s
I think Rowley’s is the perfect restaurant; but I am really a gay man. Rowley’s is at 113 Jermyn Street…
Thatcher’s soap
How EastEnders became a positive reflection of Tory values
Addicted to trouble
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
In my London neighbourhood, an argument about urban foxes is turning very nasty indeed
Churchill’s charm offensive
In time for the 50th anniversary of Churchill’s death comes this pacy novel about his attempts to persuade the Americans…
Poor little rich meals
Rivea (stupid name) is in the bowels of Bulgari in Knightsbridge, a hotel which looks like a vast Virgin Upper…
In Dracula’s local
Quaglino’s is an ancient subterranean brasserie in St James’s, a district clinging to the 18th century with cadaverous fingers. It…
Between the floods
As the climate changes, will we? The story of the little ice age suggests that adaptation will take years of suffering
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…
Diary
I was once bundled into a police car in Palm Springs to explain why I didn’t have snow-tyres on my…
Lost soul
The deep instinct that the immigration debate still ignores
Sugar rush
The Cereal Killer Café is a temple to cereal on Brick Lane, east London. It serves only cereal — and also…
The good old days when I had no idea what I was doing
What I miss most about being very young is the cluelessness. It’s enormously liberating, cluelessness. The boundaries of life are…
A London Christmas
I have been having my vault done over. Not, as you might think, the family strong room, but the place…
Notes from the Catwalk
It seems as though I have just been on some grand tour of the absurd. It helps that I work…
