Last updated on March 3rd, 2021My little nook of Irish paradise is in Castletownshend, West Cork, an hour and a half west of Cork airport and close to the picturesque market town of Skibbereen. It’s a tiny fishing village and it’s been my holiday home for the last 28 years. There are two things of…
The London Blog
Follow me and my London Blog for a capital round-up of London's historical, quirky and unusual places. Visit some of city's best museums and galleries, get a supreme peek at Royal London, and grab a seat next to me as I eat my way around London's restaurants.
Art Review: Imagine Moscow
Last updated on March 14th, 2018If you’re a fan of Fritz Lang’s futuristic Bauhaus-inspired science fiction film Metropolis, then you’ll be a fan of Imagine Moscow: Architecture, Propaganda, Revolution which opens today at the Design Museum in London. Imagine this: a Moscow city centre which rivals Manhattan and which includes a network of horizontal skyscrapers and…
FILM REVIEW: Viceroy’s House
Last updated on October 22nd, 2020Gurinder Chadha is dressed up to the nines and a little breathless: she’s just arrived from an audience with HM the Queen at Buckingham Palace. She’s at the Curzon Mayfair to talk about her new film, Viceroy’s House, which has been two generations and seven years in the making. Her…
REVIEW: Mother Africa at The Peacock
Last updated on March 14th, 2018Wednesday evening was one of firsts for me: I heard an audience groan when the interval lights came on instead of scurrying to the bar or loo; I sat through a circus without a clown in sight (thank you); and I went to the Peacock Theatre in Holborn, baby sister…
In the Rude
Last updated on June 2nd, 2021I’m not sure what the Scrooge equivalent is for Valentine’s Day, but I am it. I do feel sorry for those singletons who are reminded in every one of London’s nooks and crannies that they are flying solo on February 14th. And it’s the general forced cheesiness of it all…
A Blazing Beauty: Kipling’s India
Last updated on October 22nd, 2020I could have easily given up all my worldly rupees and even a piece of my soul for some of the artwork on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition, “Lockwood Kipling: Arts and Crafts in the Punjab and London.” There were no magic carpets here, but it certainly…
Review: Dirty Great Love Story
Last updated on March 9th, 2019Dirty Great Love Story was just the tonic I needed after an extraordinarily peculiar week on the world stage. It’s a one-man and one-woman romp directed by Pia Furtado and with some energetic performances by Felix Scott and Ayesha Antoine, executed mostly in rhyme. Originally a 10-minute award-winning Edinburgh Fringe…
Queen Bees
Last updated on March 14th, 2018It may have rained on Donald’s parade on Friday, but the sun beamed out in full force yesterday for the Women’s March in London. Come rain or shine, my daughters and I were determined we were going to head down to Grosvenor Square for this historical rally. We thought 20,000 might…
Midnight in London
Last updated on June 2nd, 2021Come with me on a flight of fancy just for a moment. Imagine that the film director Woody Allen had set his film “Midnight in Paris” in London. In which period of British history would Allen have time-travelled: what moment in time represents London as its most nostalgic? I thought…
Hello, Goodbye
Last updated on June 2nd, 2021My beautiful daughter Clarissa was born on New Year’s Day, the first of 1990. My little bundle of mayhem came into my world when I was only 21 and she’s kept me on my toes ever since. She helped me breathe life into Diary of a Londoness, a project close…