London
Dining with death
Beast is next to Debenhams on Oxford Street and it is not conventionally beast-like; rather it is monetised and bespoke…
Diary
In order to promote the Dylan Thomas in Fitzrovia festival, I am trying to persuade Jason Morell, the director, that…
Death to hipsters
Take heart: the age of the stupid beard is coming to an end
Low life
What a beautiful day, I thought, as I nodded to the porter in the bowler hat and stepped out of…
Putting words on the map
I stopped using London buses when some coward put doors on them. Twenty years ago, you could board any bus…
Colonial cringe
Gymkhana is a fashionable Indian restaurant in Albemarle Street. It was, according to its natty website, ‘inspired by Colonial Indian…
Diary
It was quite fun being named as the new writer of 007 — although actually I’d make a lousy spy.…
Barometer
How to deal with a troll In Scandinavian mythology, trolls were shady creatures who lived below ground and varied in…
Ahead of the pack
A casino drama worthy of a Bond film arrives in the High Court
Diary
Last Tuesday I tried to sign up to a new life. My wife and I argued, slightly. ‘I don’t think…
Why my friends love the idea of a nasty, stupid mansion tax
I see all the flaws with a mansion tax, I really do. And yet some little piece of me, some…
Whose side are they on?
Qatari money has flooded into London – but also into much less savoury places
Letters
Breaking the unions Sir: By the time this letter appears we shall know whether the land of my birth has…
A Cubist in New York
The American Jewish artist Max Weber (1881–1961) was born in Belostok in Russia (now Bialystok in Poland), and although he…
My little plutocrat
Rextail is a restaurant for billionaire children, such as Richie Rich. Its owner, Arcady Novikov, has already opened a restaurant…
Applause for the Beeb’s new leading lady – but did the male runner-up deserve such a kicking?
Hats off to Rona Fairhead, the former Financial Times executive who will succeed Lord Patten as chairman of the BBC…
Vienna without the Austrians
Fischer’s is Austria made safe for liberals, gays, Jews and other Untermenschen riffraff, because it is a restaurant, not a…
A sense of injustice
Sister Christine Frost, who works on an east London estate, sees why young Muslim men are going to fight in Iraq and Syria
Diary
Like many inward-looking children, I always doodled stories and poems. Knowing one wanted to be a writer is a different…
Barometer
Tough at the top The clocks on Big Ben were cleaned by abseiling window-cleaners. Some other big cleaning/painting jobs: —…
The British beheaders
Why we lead the West in exporting jihad
Boris jumps in
The next Tory leadership battle has just begun
Rebooting the Snail
L’Escargot, or the Snail, is a famous restaurant on Greek Street, Soho, opposite the old Establishment club; the oldest French…
Squaring up
In Knightsbridge and Chelsea, tension simmers between Sloanes and super-rich Arabs
Welcome to the club
Writing frankly about Jamaica has made me nervous of invitations from strangers. How would this one turn out?
