The Brightening Air: Unbearably tense and brilliantly acted Life&Style After seeing The Brightening Air at the Old Vic, I left the theatre with the overwhelming urge to seize control of my own destiny. It follows an extended family as they prepare to meet after a long time apart. The occasion: the birthday of the blind ex-clergyman Father Pierre. It is a play in which [...]
Life on the edge: A deep dive into the crazy world of Margate Life&Style Five years ago, some dilapidated public urinals in a park in Margate were sold at auction by the council to a private bidder for £11,000. The shabby little structure is barely visible from the path, a graffitied block hidden behind shrubs with weeds winding through the roof and floor. The original glazed urinals are exposed [...]
The best books of 2024: From Sally Rooney to Boris Johnson Live! Okay, that headline is ever-so-slightly misleading – while many of the entries on this list are indeed among the best books of 2024, others earn their place by virtue of being emblematic of their time (Boris Unleashed), zeitgeist-capturing (Bad Girls of Ancient Greece) or simply so utterly bonkers we felt they earned a spot (The [...]
Social medium: Why Gen Z turned to Tiktok tarot readers December 2, 2024 My demographic – middle class, urban, Western Gen Zers – are the least likely of all generations to say they have a religion, according to a Policy Institute study in 2022 (though paradoxically they are also the most likely to say they believe in hell). So it is perhaps surprising that they are behind a [...]
The Apprentice: Is the Trump biopic fake news? October 24, 2024 The Apprentice, a film directed by Iranian-Danish Ali Abbasi out last week in the UK, constitutes a brutal character assassination against presidential candidate Donald Trump. Focusing on the years 1973 to the early 1980s, it tracks Trump’s rise from real estate mogul’s awkward son (he’s literally knocking on doors collecting rents) to the man liberals [...]
Craft beer: it got corrupted, now it’s being reclaimed October 23, 2024 I’ll have a craft beer, you might say, when your colleague proposes another round at the pub. Coming right up. But… what actually is a craft beer? Well, once upon a time (the 1970s) it reliably meant “made in an independent brewery”. Later on it got hipsterified, and in the 2000s and 2010s a choice [...]
Peckham Conker Championships: Inside the event that made conkers ‘cool’ October 16, 2024 Chaos and skullduggery at South East London's most charged conker club
The glaring flaws in The Lehman Trilogy October 11, 2024 Let's be honest, the Lehman Trilogy first performed in 2013 has run its course and is more than a little problematic
Craft beer fear: Who can save Britain’s breweries? October 9, 2024 Local brewers are shutting up shop. What will come of that local pint of craft ale?
The dirty, dangerous and ‘obsessive’ world of mudlarking October 8, 2024 Once the domain of Victorian street urchins, the art of mudlarking has gone mainstream. Lucy Kenningham investigates
