Mark Hix’s simple seasonal dinner party menu
One of my dad’s friends used to always tell me about his mother making Champagne rhubarb. It puzzled me for years what he meant as people never…
Are supermarket own-brands a better buy?
We are turning our backs on brands. As the nation collectively tightens its belt, we’re making the switch from the famous shelf staples to supermarkets’ own versions….
Conversations with Friends star Jemima Kirke: ‘I thought, this is marriage written by a 22-year-old’
Since she first hit the spotlight, Kirke has been branded a wild child by the media. While that may have been the case in earlier years, today…
How to buy good bottles of wine on a budget
Thermostats have been turned down and streaming services cancelled. I’m hearing vigorous debates over whether dishwashers use more energy than washing up in the sink. Short of…
5 reasons boomers will redefine old age
When my dad died, it was sudden. Heart attack. No warning. When time had passed and I was trying to fill Dad’s shoes, my beloved, heartbroken mum…
My generation knows how to age in style – we’d rather be flamboyant than invisible
When my dad died, it was sudden. Heart attack. No warning. When time had passed and I was trying to fill Dad’s shoes, my beloved, heartbroken mum…
The ultimate guide to barbecue charcoal
Barbecue days are here again. It’s time to drag it out of the shed, shake out the ash and locate the lost bracket that’s fallen off since…
‘I wish I’d asked him, are you suicidal?’ Clare Milford Haven on finding hope after her son’s death
James Wentworth-Stanley’s descent into suicidal thoughts was so rapid it is breathtaking. There were just 11 days between the catalyst – the operation on 4 December –…
Mark Hix’s three-course shellfish feast for Bank Holiday weekend
A plate of roasted shellfish is a great thing to put on the table in front of guests, and has a real wow factor. Sure, they’ll need…
An eccentric inventor, an ambitious CEO and the ‘nearly perfect’ British bike that changed the world
The skeleton of a Brompton bike has six components: the rear frame connects to the main frame; the main frame connects to the front frame; and the…
Trust me, this waistcoat is the versatile wardrobe hero you never knew you needed
I’m committing a commercial faux-pas here by sharing this. When I find myself day-dreaming about what I would create were I to have my own fashion line,…
Why Champagne’s sparkling year surprised everyone
We all know about the hemline index: the idea that skirt lengths rise and fall with the stock market. You’d imagine there might be a similar pattern…
Please save me from the Christmas-ification of Easter
Such a treat. Such a treasure. The much-anticipated chocolate Easter egg of my childhood. Covered in shiny foil. Falling cleanly in two halves. Hemispheres of heaven, filled…
Air fryers vs deep fat fryers — which are the best to buy?
Roast potatoes Cut floury potatoes into chunks and parboil then shake them; allow to dry and drizzle with a little oil. Air-fry for about 25 minutes on…
Does this man have Britain’s best job?
But right now the tern season is about to begin. It is the end of March and the birds are due to fly in from Africa next…
The Great British spring clean — how to declutter your home in 2022
Spring cleaning is a trend many of us jump on as we approach the warmer months – but there’s no denying it’s an effort. Who can tolerate…
Best air fryers 2022 — and are they better than deep fat fryers?
Roast potatoes Cut floury potatoes into chunks and parboil then shake them; allow to dry and drizzle with a little oil. Air-fry for about 25 minutes on…
Norman Tebbit: ‘Too many people in politics today are rather poor material’
‘We were semi-conscious, Margaret and I: there are those famous pictures of me being dug out. A bloke in the back of the ambulance with me, as…
Carine Roitfeld on why she doesn’t care about ageing: ‘I’m lucky, in France we never think this way’
‘I like that film,’ says Roitfeld, somewhat mischievously in her Clouseau-esque English when we meet in the fashionable London hotel where she’s staying. It’s in a part…
‘It was only after my mother’s death that I discovered she was a Resistance hero’
By April 1943, Sabine was being warned that the boss in the office where she worked could betray her. On 28 April 1943, she saw a military…
Is there any point to posh salt?
When did we all become salt snobs? In May, a lavish cookbook called Sea Salt will arrive, a celebration of what is, after all, a simple chemical…
Diana Henry’s best afternoon tea recipes
Even though I cook food from all over the world, there are dishes that take me back to a place that’s at my core. Chicken soup, champ – a Northern Irish dish of potato mashed…
Can the Oxford Union survive cancel culture?
In the week of the debate, Tryl received phone calls from MPs and life members of the Union, some advising him to cancel the debate, others to…
Why anti-vaxxers are starting new lives in exclusive tropical communes
Yeadon is one of many medics to have ridden the pandemic’s online counterculture wave to leverage himself to martyr status. Following his claims in 2020 that the…
Diana Henry’s best afternoon tea recipes for Mother’s Day 2022
Even though I cook food from all over the world, there are dishes that take me back to a place that’s at my core. Chicken soup, champ – a Northern Irish dish of potato mashed…