I occasionally wonder whether Shakespeare was the first writer to have enjoyed the services of a PR. At the time, that is; the subsequent foundation of the RSC, amidst much related Bardolatry, has seen to it that Big Bill remains top literary dog in the English language…
23rd April marked Shakespeare’s 449th birthday, and this anniversary seemed a good opportunity to revisit…
“Picture the following scene. I’m standing in the top room of a Dublin pub, late on a Thursday night. Nothing that unusual about that, but there’s a coffin in front of me.”
“Rowan Atkinson’s return to drama on the West End stage for the first time since the 1980s was keenly anticipated, though many might have wondered why he chose the role of St John Quartermaine in Simon Gray’s drama.”
“What good things spring to mind when you think of Southampton? The Titanic, up to a point. Some fine medieval buildings. And, perhaps, the Spitfire, which was first designed here.”
The playwright Arthur Wing Pinero (and, yes, Wing really was his middle name, as opposed…
The English coast might not be the ideal destination for a weekend in November but it does have the odd draw, particularly if you’re inclined to step back into another age. Alex Larman goes Edwardian in Eastbourne…
In what appears to be a season of Chekhov fluttering through London’s West End, the latest production boasts an impressive cast on stage…and in the stalls, it would seem…
“I saw a man synonymous with the blackest of black arts. A charmer, of course, and charismatic with it, but a figure so mired in treachery and deceit that one’s blood runs cold to see this shameless exhibitionist let loose upon the world.”
“There have been several Russian restaurants opening in the capital over the past few years, the latest and most elaborate of which is Mari Vanna, named after a legendary wise woman…” Larman, Larry and Jonesy seek wisdom from a corner of Mother Russia now residing in Knightsbridge…
“Having had a simply ghastly European trip a couple of weeks ago, which made us feel that we and ‘abroad’ were destined to be strangers for the near future, we fancied somewhere quintessentially English, but with a twist.”
One cannot fault Charlie McVeigh’s attitude towards beer, and the places that sell the fine hop-laden stuff. After associating himself with countless high-end venues, most notably Rowley Leigh’s Le Cafe Anglais, he has opened a trio of establishments in southwest London that aim to provide interesting and reasonably priced food with a staggeringly ambitious range of beers.