Last updated on February 18th, 2021Grab your ruffs, London! The site of Shakespeare’s first London playhouse, The Theatre, is soon to become a permanent exhibition space. Ahead of its opening in March 2020, the Theatre Courtyard Gallery is hosting Shake it Up! A Shakespeare Festival for Shoreditch. The series of events celebrating the Bard and…
Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre pops up at Blenheim Palace
Last updated on May 17th, 2020Be still my beating heart! Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre, last seen in its playful glory in early seventeenth century Bankside, has come to life in a theatrical pop-up in the glorious gardens of Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. And what a sight it is to behold. Complete with bustling Elizabethan village with…
Costumes from The Favourite at Hampton Court
Move over Henry VIII: you’ve had your day. There’s a new dawn at Hampton Court Palace, and it’s Queen Anne’s turn to be in the limelight. Thanks to Yorgos Lanthimos’s baroque tour de force: The Favourite, Queen Anne is finally, and deservedly, taking centre stage in British history. Winner of seven Baftas, a Golden Globe…
15 reasons to visit Bankside
Last updated on September 22nd, 2022Bankside was once a cacophonous pleasure zone with brothels, bear-baiting, gaming dens and four Tudor theatres: The Globe, The Rose, the Swan and the Hope. Shakespeare and Dickens lived here. Samuel Pepys watched the Great Fire light up the London sky from here in 1666. So, if you’re visiting London,…
Review: othellomacbeth at Lyric Hammersmith
Last updated on January 7th, 2019Yes, you read that title correctly. I’ve just been to see a mash-up of two of Shakespeare’s plays into one and its name is othellomacbeth. When you think about it, Othello and Macbeth have at their core similar DNA: power, greed and green-eyed monsters capable of turning gullible men into…
A London Literary tour for Kids
Last updated on February 27th, 2023It’s time to hop into your winged slippers and take a trip round a magical London – one where childhood dreams never end. These London tales tell of a honey-loving bear from Harrods, an eccentric detective, boys with magic powers, giants and a Gothic vampire. So, without further ado, let’s…
My top once in a lifetime experiences
This month’s travel link up is all about those once in a lifetime experiences. My intrepid exploration list includes navigating the underbelly of Paris, watching Pink Floyd in the world’s most beautiful palace, listening to the thunderous roar of waterfalls, having lunch in the Côte d’Azur rain (twice) and treading the boards of La Scala…
The Real Ladies of London
Last updated on April 23rd, 2023What does a real Londoness like to do in the world’s greatest city? Discover what it’s like to really live and love London: from magical walks and secret gardens, to food markets, theatre, museums, afternoon tea, local restaurants and bars…come and enjoy a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious day with the Real Ladies of London!…
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…
London for the Little Darlings
Last updated on April 24th, 2022Oh dear, it’s the summer holidays which means one thing: M and M, or Madness and Mayhem. Your little ones are catapulted from the school classroom back into your living space for a full six weeks of delightful chaos. This is my first July in London for fifteen years. I’m lucky…