The best of travel: Spending a week in an ‘apocalypse dome’ January 12, 2021 Throughout January we’re remembering better times and sunnier climes by reposting some of our favourite travel stories from the last decade. In the second instalment, our Life&Style editor Steve Dinneen retreats from civilization to live inside an artist’s “apocalypse dome”. Read more: Pink goes offline as Covid takes the shirt off its back The more we [...]
We travel to Europe’s first psychedelic mushroom retreat January 11, 2021 Lockdown has scuppered even the best laid plans. Far from going on holiday somewhere exotic, or embarking on an adventure of self discovery, we’re stuck in a country where walking in the park with a flask of tea may get you arrested. So as we dream of better times and sunnier climes, we’re starting a [...]
Lockdown making you hate your home? Try these eight trends from London Design Week December 31, 2020 Most of us are spending a lot more time at home thanks to the pandemic, throwing our bad decor decisions of the past into sharp relief. If you’re thinking of giving your home an overhaul, here are eight of the key trends from London Design Week to inspire you for the year to come. Exotic [...]
One Fine Dine brings haute cuisine to your living room March 31, 2020 It’s okay to grieve the small stuff. Just because there are bigger struggles, more tragic tragedies, doesn’t mean you can’t feel sad about the thousand little ways your life has changed over the last month. You can miss the days when you didn’t have to cut your own hair and still support front-line healthcare professionals. [...]
Hunters series review: Al Pacino hunting Nazis makes for gripping lockdown fodder March 27, 2020 If you’re looking for a nice, cuddly box set that you can watch half-comatose under your anxiety blanket as the world unravels around you, Amazon Prime’s latest big-budget series Hunters probably isn’t for you. It’s about Nazis, for one thing, and someone gets shot in the head approximately once every three minutes. Set predominantly in [...]
Cupboard Love: Our new daily column on isolation cooking – today, braised butter beans March 27, 2020 I remember being a kid, when my grandmother’s neighbour would give me M&S butter beans in a creamy sauce straight out of the can. It seemed like the height of sophistication to a young me, and I’d look forward to it all week. So here’s a quick recipe for you, which you can rustle up [...]
Dogs Don’t Wear Pants film review: Sex dungeon therapy in kinky indie flick March 27, 2020 Dogs Don’t Wear Pants is an excellent way of forgetting about the woes of self isolation, presenting you with a man whose life flies so spectacularly off the rails that a global pandemic and the meltdown of the world economy seem relatively manageable by comparison. It’s the story of a suicidal widower who falls down [...]
My Dark Vanessa book review: Lolita for the #MeToo generation is a brave debut March 27, 2020 Kate Elizabeth Russell’s much-hyped debut novel, hailed as Lolita for the #MeToo generation, is narrated entirely by the titular Vanessa and captivatingly crafted in two parallel timelines. In 2000, Vanessa is a 15-year-old student at a Maine boarding school, when she begins a relationship with her English literature teacher, Jacob Strane, thirty years her senior. [...]
Cupboard Love: Our new daily column on isolation cooking – today, chickpea curry March 26, 2020 Chickpeas are a mystery to science. At some indeterminate point in modern history, every household in the UK was issued with between one and six cans of chickpeas, which were arbitrarily distributed at the back of their cupboards. Nobody knows how they got there, and most people don’t even know they exist, but search your [...]
Acclaimed chef Virgilio Martinez and Explora Peru come together to showcase the unique culinary identity of the Sacred Valley March 25, 2020 When most people think of Peru, it’s the ancient citadel Machu Picchu that comes to mind. And when you mention the Sacred Valley, it’ll likely conjure up similar images of hiking through misty mountains to equally mystical Incan ruins. This is, in fact, exactly what I’m doing. But I’m not only here for the archaeology; [...]