Stress awareness month: How can we reduce stress? March 31, 2020 | Sponsored When was the last time you felt stressed? Probably recently. According to a 2018 YouGov study, in the previous year, 74% of people felt so stressed they have been overwhelmed or unable to cope. The latest estimates from the Labour Force Survey show that the total number of cases of work-related stress, depression or anxiety [...]
Culture in quarantine: Which UK venues have gone virtual during the coronavirus crisis? March 29, 2020 Since Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week ramped up social distancing measures to tackle the coronavirus outbreak, thousands of cultural institutions across the UK have been forced to close their doors. However, as millions of Brits hunker down at home, a range of arts and culture venues have launched new digital initiatives to ensure exhibitions [...]
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 [...]
Animal Crossing: New Horizons review: Sedate island escapism never felt so necessary March 27, 2020 Having had the enviable job of writing about video games for most of my adult life, there’s still one question I struggle to articulate a satisfying answer to: what do you actually do in Animal Crossing? Nintendo’s sedate island life simulator doesn’t have a real objective. You have a mortgage to pay down but your [...]
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. [...]
Coronavirus: What to do if your house is on the market, and how prices might be affected March 27, 2020 The spread of Coronavirus has taken us all by surprise, with the unprecedented UK-wide lockdown posing a whole host of questions about how life’s milestones should be handled. Today, the government published guidance stating that people should avoid conducting viewings and delay moving house, even if the contracts have been exchanged. But what can you [...]
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; [...]