Film

I sold my house to Russians. They were a charming, erudite, stylish couple who overturned the received stereotype of shouty gold-laden gangsters and tarts. But, having visited Cyprus, an island decimated by the bad kind, where every other shop sells fur coats or is a lap-dancing club, I have a little sympathy with the town […]

The English middle classes are in love with France. They eat the food, buy the houses and live the French life, until they get wind of how much it’s costing them. I did, too – but shedding my French connections has been, to put in mildly, a pain in the bum. French bureaucracy makes the […]

The Guardian’s website has a simple but good piece today that furthers the discussion started below. John Naughton points out that a funny thing happened to us on the way to the future. The internet went from being something exotic to being a boring utility, like mains electricity or running water, and we never really […]

I’m chilling before heading off to a salt lake to see if there are still any migrating flamingos hanging about, and the most depressing reminder of Middle England I see before I leave is the Daily Mail lurking on my hotel breakfast table. ‘The Paper That Seeks To Blame’ is currently pointing its finger and […]

You know, the cheery, sweaty Greek stereotype serving the fat ginger British tourist sterotypes in Greece? And of course, here and from Goa to Ibiza you do find a certain kind of British tourist, the one in the photo (incredibly, proudly used as a role model for this shot from an ad for mustard), who […]

I braved the crowds at the Apple store, Regent Street, to fiddle about with a gadget today when I could have been at any one of a dozen or so new cultural events in London. Apart from the fact that the iPad is weirdly slippery and awkward to put on your lap, costs 600 quid […]