We stroll up to the front of the hotel, searching for a likely entrance. There’s nothing. We enter the hotel through the revolving door and search the foyer. Still nothing. We find a doorman and discreetly make enquiries about a ‘Luggage Room’. “Ah” he says, sizing us up. “Outside, look for the small, black door to your right – you need to knock”.
Tucked neatly away at the far end of a mews off Berkeley Square lies Bellamy’s Restaurant. I suspect there’s a strong argument to state that Bellamy’s might be the most civilised dining room in London.
“December is something of a minefield for most Londoners, a month to traverse with care rather than stumble through blindly. I’m afraid to say my minefield was particularly well laid with drinks, parties and lengthy dinners.”
“Our plane glides through heavy snow, drawing slowly closer to Luleå, Sweden’s second northern-most city. Luleå is a sprawling archipelago of islands that reach out into the freezing waters of the Baltic like wizened, arthritic fingers.”
The Four Seasons Sultanahmet is often described as the central pearl in the string of Four Seasons across Europe. That old ‘Istanbul Murderers Jail’ as it was once known has morphed quite astonishingly…
Red and white livery meets you as you approach the doormat, a discreet folding cardboard…
“As we soar over Northern England the plane starts to rock and sway; bad weather in the Scottish borders has led to the kind of turbulence that makes you close your eyes and grip the seat and pray for meteorological equilibrium.”
“There was a time when the corner of Bethnal Green Road was not the epicentre of distressed, broken down cool; a time when bags were cheap plastic, rather than vintage Chanel.”
“The Westbury is one of Mayfair’s more understated hotel addresses. Tucked away between the hedge funds and art galleries, away from the gaze of shoppers and tourists, it luxuriates gently, with a quiet confidence.”
“‘First catch your hare’ is the famous, apocryphal statement that is often misattributed to Hannah Glasse as the beginning of her recipe for Jugged Hare in her legendary 19th century text on gastronomy – The Art of Cookery.”
The rain hammers down in cruel sheets as I wander the cold, hard streets looking for the elusive dive bar. I’m using Googlemaps, but the technology seems to be playing wicked games
“The lobsters are the most generously proportioned I’ve ever seen. They sit in huge tanks in the centre of the restaurant, beautiful and languid and blissfully unaware that there’s a small Chinese man coming towards them with a portable net in his right hand…”