Art review: RCA Secret March 13, 2015 Royal College of Art | ★★★★☆ Want to get your hands on a Grayson Perry for £55? Head down to RCA Secret, the annual exhibition of postcard-sized drawings, collages and photographs by the world’s leading artists. Now in its 21st year, the show is so-called because the 250 postcards are signed on the back, [...]
Film review: Suite Francaise March 13, 2015 Cert 12a | ★★★☆☆ Suite Francaise is a handsome adaptation of the Irène Némirovsky novel Dolce, written during the Second World War before she was murdered in Auschwitz in 1942. The unfinished work was eventually published by Némirovsky’s daughter in 2004, and became a critical and commercial phenomenon. While the film doesn’t live up to [...]
Savage Beauty: A triumphant celebration of Alexander McQueen’s life work March 13, 2015 Victoria and Albert Museum | ★★★★☆ First things first: right the wrong. New York may have held the first major posthumous Alexander McQueen exhibition, but London was the city whose rhythms and edges gave life to the designer’s clothing. Savage Beauty opens with a room entitled “London”, which reaffirms the UK capital as the “epicentre” [...]
Turning penthouse living inside out: Tara Bernerd on creating interiors that stand the test of time March 12, 2015 If you’re the sort of person who forks out on a luxury penthouse at the top of a London skyscraper, then it’s safe to say you’ve got a lot of cash to splash. It’s probably not your only home either, rather one of many, but etiquette dictates that you have to furnish it with a [...]
Theatre review: Clarence Darrow is Kevin Spacey’s triumphant farewell March 12, 2015 Old Vic | ★★★★★ Kevin Spacey’s eyes glisten as he delivers his valedictory line: “Mercy is the highest attribute of man.” Mine glistened, too. For a moment, the audience knew how a jury in a case presided over by Clarence Darrow must have felt: captivated, moved and above all, persuaded. From this curmudgeonly war horse [...]
Something for the weekend March 12, 2015 LEARN! FUTURE FEST This weekend will see a series of speeches and performances addressing the future and our place in it. The schedule will include talks from Edward Snowdon (via web-link, of course), Vivienne Westwood and Jon Ronson. Weekend tickets cost £80. futurefest.org WATCH! BACKYARD CINEMA Backyard cinema is literally going up in the world, [...]
Restaurant review: Typing Room is a local with verve March 10, 2015 On the ever-spinning carousel that is the London restaurant scene, there are inevitably winners and losers. When Nuno Mendes packed up Viajante to help create London’s most papped eatery, Chiltern Firehouse, it seemed Bethnal Green would be one of the losers. But the space he vacated – the old town hall off Cambridge Heath road, [...]
Spoil your mother with foodie treats March 10, 2015 Balthazar’s Mother’s Day Goodie Bag Forget flowers, send your mum a gourmet breakfast in bed instead. £30, 24-hour notice required, 020 3301 1155 British hero menu at Skylon Three courses of comforting classics at the Royal Festival Hall’s restaurant on Sunday. £45, skylon-restaurant.co.uk Jazz brunch at Northall Boogie down with mother this brunchtime at the [...]
Rib-thumpingly good beef: STK’s sticky shortrib March 10, 2015 Barry Vera on the rib dish that keeps his discerning STK customers coming back for more. Ribs were an obvious choice for STK because of the American influence, but I wanted us to create something a bit better than your standard sticky ribs that get all over your fingers. I wanted something that you could [...]
Car review: The Mercedes-AMG C 63S is a turbocharged blast from the past March 9, 2015 It’s the 1980s all over again; hemlines are up, stripes are in and the turbocharger is king. How you feel about the clothes is a matter of personal taste but the second coming of the turbo is good news. Unlike the fashion, the cars are a little more polished second time around. The AMG products [...]