BMW has big ideas for new Mini May 5, 2014 Richard Aucock discovers the sophisticated side of the Cooper S on a test drive around Mallorca MINI, that most celebrated of British icons, played a blinder when it launched the /new model earlier this year. It held the event on Puerto Rico, a tiny Caribbean island hardly famed for its amazing driving routes. It then [...]
Not convinced? May 5, 2014 CHECK OUT THESE ALTERNATIVES… AUDI A1 1.4 TFSI 140 S LINE PRICE: £18,760 0-62MPH: 7.9 secs TOP SPEED: 132mph CO2 G/KM: 109g/km MPG COMBINED: 60.1mpg THE VERDICT: DESIGN Three Stars PERFORMANCE Three Stars PRACTICALITY Three Stars VALUE FOR MONEY Two Stars RENAULTSPORT CLIO 200 TURBO PRICE: £18,995 0-62MPH: 6.7 secs TOP SPEED: 143mph CO2 G/KM: [...]
A violent eruption of camp madness May 1, 2014 FILM POMPEII 3D Cert 12a Two Stars THE DESTRUCTION of Pompeii, the ancient Roman city buried under the ash of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, has long held a grip on the public imagination. Only eight months ago, tickets sold out in advance for the British Museum’s exhibition Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum, [...]
Baddiel: party like it isn’t 1999 May 1, 2014 COMEDY FAME: NOT THE MUSICAL Menier Chocolate Factory Four Stars REMEMBER David Baddiel? Of course you do. He did The Mary Whitehouse Experience, Fantasy Football League, Baddiel and Skinner, and the Euro96 anthem Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home). After a 15 year break, and aged almost 50, he is back with stand-up, reflections on fame [...]
An unnecessary, poorly-animated Tarzan adaptation May 1, 2014 FILM TARZAN 3D Cert PG Two Stars SINCE Edgar Rice Burroughs’ first Tarzan story in 1912, the character has been played or voiced by over 20 actors, including Herman Brix, Buster Carabbe and the late, great, five time Olympic gold medal winning Johnny Weissmüller who played the iconic jungle-dweller between the wars. To this illustrious [...]
Hernan Bas: the best young painter in the world? May 1, 2014 ART HERNAN BAS: MEMPHIS LIVING Victoria Miro Five Stars FLORIDIAN artist Hernan Bas’ early paintings were richly detailed and dimly lit with knotty vegetation and winding rivers, innocent adolescents in the foreground and erotic encounters in the shadows. They were his attempt to replicate the deep imaginative immersion of the novels and poems he fell [...]
Holborn Dining Room brings life to Midtown April 29, 2014 @steve_dinneen RESTAURANT HOLBORN DINING ROOM 252 High Holborn, WC1V 7EN Tel: 0203 747 8633 FOOD Four Stars VALUE Four Stars ATMOSPHERE Five Stars Cost for three with cocktails: £187 THERE’S NOT a lot going on in Holborn, or “Midtown” as nobody outside of an estate agent’s office has ever called it. In actual Midtown, exactly [...]
Mix it up: Call forth the summer with the basil and lemon daiquiri April 29, 2014 @philip_salter PEOPLE in all societies find meaning in rituals, and all rituals exist for a reason – even if that reason isn’t instantly obvious. The Native American practice of dancing about in feathers to try to convince the rain gods to let is almost certainly a waste of time, but at least it looks like [...]
Club Class: how to turn a Bordeaux backwater into wine April 29, 2014 [email protected] WE ALL know that most “wine clubs” are nothing of the kind – just a bloke in a call centre with a sales target and a script. But not all of them… I’ve written about one or two in previous columns and the other night I came across another that piqued my interest. About [...]
Greek food, but not as you know it April 29, 2014 Dish of the day Mazi’s Spinach I CAME up with the name Mazi – which means “together” in Greek – because it’s a sharing concept. We wanted to bring people together. We’re also trying to modernise traditional Greek recipes so it’s a combination of the old and the new. It’s also my grandmother’s name so [...]