Country & Town House - February 2018

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

FEBRUARY 2018 £3.90

THE PURSUIT OF EMPTINESS

NORTHERN LIGHTS

Stephen Bayley on the death of ‘stuff’

Seeking Svalbard

BACK ON THE BENCH Why Ed Vaizey’s happy where he is

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Buckinghamshire A unique, architect-designed riverside property Marlow 4.3 miles, Beaconsfield 4.6 miles, Central London 30.9 miles A spectacular brand new house situated on the banks of the River Thames on Riversdale, a prestigious private road ideally located between Cookham and Bourne End. 6 bedrooms including former boathouse and annexe, 4 reception rooms, 6 bathrooms, double garage, secure enclosed landscaped gardens, private mooring. EPC: B. In all about 0.57 acre.

KnightFrank.co.uk/country edward.welton@knightfrank.com daisy.casement@knightfrank.com +44 20 7861 1114 KnightFrank.co.uk/henley matthew.mannall@knightfrank.com +44 1491 844900

@KnightFrank KnightFrank.co.uk

KnightFrank.co.uk/HOT170102

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Shipbourne, Kent A charming Grade II listed attached village house with delightful gardens Tonbridge 5.1 miles, Sevenoaks 7.3 miles, M25 junction 5 8.8 miles In a picturesque setting with an excellent self-contained studio/home office. 5 bedrooms, 4 reception rooms, 3 bath/shower rooms. Enchanting mature landscaped gardens. In all about 0.39 acre.

Freehold

Guide price: £1,275,000

KnightFrank.co.uk/sevenoaks george.berry@knightfrank.com +44 1732 744477

@KnightFrank KnightFrank.co.uk

KnightFrank.co.uk/SEV170175

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C&TH

C ON T E N T S F E B R U A R Y

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Columns 20 22

THE GOOD LIFE Alice B-B resolves to keep her resolutions THE RURBANIST Jason Atherton

Up Front 25 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40

ANYTHING GOES Mix and match it MATERIAL ASSETS Corduroy and velvet LUCIA LOVES Lucia van der Post toasts Château Margaux’s 2015 vintage THE GOLD DIGGER Jewellery news MY BEAUTIFUL LIFE James Read FINE AND DANDY Grooming for men BODY & SOUL Jasmine Hemsley comes over all ayurvedic WELL GROOMED Men’s style news SARTORIAL SOLUTIONS Get your 2018 wardrobe in check

The Guide 46 50 52 54 56 58 60

THE DIARY Royal fashion and the golden age of cruising ARTS AGENDA Leave the capital for a cultural hit this month WORDS & MEANINGS Books that celebrate the natural world THE OLYMPIAN Sebastian Coe kicks off with the first of his new sports column ROAD TEST The Range Rover Velar D240 is super stylish, finds Jeremy Taylor SEEDER’S DIGEST Saving species at Skibo CONVERSATIONS AT SCARFES BAR Former Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has no regrets about being back on the bench

Fashion & Features 64

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YOUNG DUDE Luke Treadaway is set to play a young David Bowie this spring.

Interview by Benji Wilson EMPTY CHAIRS & EMPTY TABLES Stephen Bayley on the modern day scourge of stuff MAD DOGS AND ENGLISHMEN Hugh Francis Anderson makes lifelong friendships under the heat of the Moroccan sun

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C ON T E N T S F E B R U A R Y

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ARIZONA MUSING Tim Lott keeps his head when all about him are losing theirs at Restival in the Arizona desert DRIVE ME TO THE MOON The best way to go to the Moon without leaving (or costing) the earth

The Insider 89 90 92 94 95

ANIMAL MAGNETISM Designer Emma J Shipley tries her hand at fabric LIVE LIFE TO THE MAX Minimalism is so over DESIGN NOTES News, views and inspiration by Carole Annett SLEEPING BEAUTIES Bewitching bedrooms Q&A Victor Sanz, creative director of Tumi

Food & Travel 97 100 101 102 106 107 108

CHASING DAEMONS Sam Kinchin-Smith heads to the Northern Lights THE HOTEL WIZARD Turkish delights THE WEEKENDER Copenhagen is seriously chic CAPITAL GAINS Adriaane Pielou takes a tour of cities beginning with B GASTRO GOSSIP Boost your breakfast SUNDAY BEST Rich Woods puts onion in a cocktail. You may well ask...

FORK AND FIELD Mexico’s Martha Ortiz arrives in W1

On The Move 111 112 114 115

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ON THE COVER Luke Treadaway wears suit by DSquared2, jumper by John Smedley and shoes by Russell & Bromley.

Art direction by Nicole Smallwood, photography by Joseph Sinclair, styling by Krishan Parmar and groomung by Paul Donovan @ CLM

PROPERTY OF THE MONTH WHY BUY IN... Paris MY HOUSE Sophie Conran FIVE OF THE BEST Penthouses

Regulars 10 12 42

EDITOR’S LETTER CONTRIBUTORS HIGH SOCIETY

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24 Albemarle Street, London, W1S 4HT www.garrard.com

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EDITOR’S LETTER 26

L EDITOR’S PICKS

WEAR Your heart not on your sleeve but on your chest with AMI Paris’ capsule collection for V-Day

JOIN GoodGym and get fit while helping your local community

BUY A cheering artwork by Tim Braden, exhibiting at Notting Hill’s Frestonian Gallery

CELEBRATE Girl power, as women’s suffrage marks its centenary this year

et’s make this a year of doing. And I don’t mean necessarily jumping on hashtag bandwagons and calling yourself a campaigner, as momentarily satisfying as that can be. Nor do I mean changing the world, although if you have ideas on that, form an orderly queue. I mean concentrating on the areas where you can affect change, whether it’s in your own behaviour, trying something you’ve never done before, or just improving things in and around your own life. Through nurturing your environment, it will inevitably ripple out towards others.

You could take a leaf out of Tim Lott or Hugh Francis Anderson’s book. Tim took himself off to Arizona for a deep cleanse of the spiritual kind in the desert (p81), while Hugh put his physical and psychological mettle to the test with IGO, a four-day endurance adventure under the heat of the Moroccan sun (p76). Both came away with far more than just a few holiday snaps.

The experiential it seems is also surpassing the physical. No longer are we worshipping at the altar of ‘things’ (for that, read products, design, art), but we seem satisfied with a culture of emptiness. At least this is what Stephen Bayley writes in his essay on the ‘death of

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stuff’ on page 71. The cause? That pesky smartphone in your pocket.

Thought-provoking stuff, indeed.

If you need to switch off, and who doesn’t, make a date with your sofa to see our cover star Luke Treadaway as a young David Bowie in Sky Arts’ film When Bowie Met Bolan this spring. Treadaway’s range of roles is impressive, but he’s probably best-known for his award-winning performance on stage in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Benji Wilson catches up with the Devon-born boy who cannot be type cast on page 64.

As the race to space hots up between Richard Branson and Elon Musk, Jeremy Taylor goes on an earthly mission to the Moon, taking a space-themed 2,000-mile road trip between the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida and a re-creation of the Sea of Tranquility in Flagstaff, Arizona. For other extra-terrestrial sightings, Sam Kinchin-Smith tries his luck finding the Northern Lights in Svalbard (p97).

What will you be doing in 2018?

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@countryandtown /countryandtownhousemagazine /countryandtownhouse

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CONTRIBUTORS

JASON ATHERTON

Person you’d most like to share a pint with… Trev Simpson, one of my best friends, who sadly passed away.

If you saw Donald Trump in the street you would…

Ask why his ego has to get in the way with the rights of the world.

Your desert island album would be… Oasis – Definitely Maybe.

Who should have been Time magazine’s person of the year? My wife Irha for putting up with me.

STEPHEN BAYLEY

MADE IN ENGLAND | SINCE 1879

ISLAY

in Dark Brown Scotch Grain

CROCKETTANDJONES.COM

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Person you’d most like to share a pint with… I don’t often drink beer, but I’d like to buy Princess Caroline of Monaco a glass of PulignyMontrachet.

If you saw Donald Trump in the street you would…

Grab him by the willy and ask him, ‘Will you show me your nuclear codes?’

Your desert island album would be… If ‘album’ suggests pop, none at all. Pop music depresses me. If album means music, it would be The Wesendonck Lieder: all of Wagner in less than half an hour.

Who should have been Time magazine’s person of the year? Me. If not now, when?

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CONTRIBUTORS

BENJI WILSON

Person you’d most like to share a pint with… My wife.

I don’t get to see her enough.

If you saw Donald Trump in the street you would…

Laugh, long and hard.

It’s the best way to undermine someone who craves approval more than most toddlers.

Your desert island album would be… Abbey Road. Because it can withstand repeat listening – I know, I’ve destruction-tested it.

Who should have been Time magazine’s person of the year? Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal. Icons for ageing men everywhere.

TIM LOTT

77 NEW BOND STREET LONDON W1S 1RY TEL: 0207 629 8983 CASHMERE & FINE WOOLLENS MADE IN SCOTLAND

JOHNSTONSCASHMERE.COM

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Person you’d most like to share a pint with… Philip Roth, the last living literary genius.

If you saw Donald Trump in the street you would…

Pretend to not know who he was. No better way of annoying him.

Your desert island album would be…

Time (The Revelator)

by Gillian Welch. It would stop me getting too cheerful.

Who should have been Time magazine’s person of the year? Donald Trump. Love him or hate him, he has been inescapable.

21/12/2017 11:14

HANDMADE IN ENGLAND E T T I N G E R .CO.U K +44 (0)20 8877 1616

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CO U NTRYA N DTOW N H O U S E .CO.U K

EDITOR Lucy Cleland EDITOR-AT-LARGE Alice B-B FASHION DIRECTOR Lucy Bond CONTRIBUTING FASHION EDITOR Nicole Smallwood FEATURES & FOOD EDITOR Anastasia Bernhardt LUXURY EDITOR Lucia van der Post INTERIORS EDITOR Carole Annett JEWELLERY EDITOR Annabel Davidson BEAUTY EDITOR Nathalie Eleni PROPERTY EDITOR Anna Tyzack ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Maya Monro-Somerville PROPERTY MARKETING MANAGER Gemma Cowley RETAIL EDITOR Rosalyn Wikeley SALES EXECUTIVE Olivia Milligan CREATIVE DIRECTION & PRODUCTION Parm Bhamra JUNIOR PRODUCTION DESIGNER Ioulia Zoukova PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Chloe Smith ONLINE EDITOR Rebecca Cox DIGITAL ASSISTANT Clementina Jackson TECHNICAL MANAGER Hannah Johnson TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Mark Pearson CREDIT CONTROLLER Penny Burles OPERATIONS & ACCOUNTS MANAGER Millie Mountain ACCOUNTS CONTROLLER Jane Todd FINANCE DIRECTOR Jill Newey PUBLISHER Julia Carrick MANAGING DIRECTOR Jeremy Isaac CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Stephen Bayley, Simon de Burton, Fiona Duncan, Daisy Finer, Lydia Gard, Avril Groom, Richard Hopton, Emma Love, Mary Lussiana, Anna Pasternak, Caroline Phillips, Charlotte Metcalf, Marcus Scriven THE EDITOR editorial@countryandtownhouse.co.uk FASHION fashion@countryandtownhouse.co.uk ADVERTISING advertising@countryandtownhouse.co.uk PROPERTY ADVERTISING property@countryandtownhouse.co.uk ACCOUNTS accounts@countryandtownhouse.co.uk SUBSCRIPTIONS subscribe@countryandtownhouse.co.uk COUNTRY & TOWN HOUSE is a monthly magazine distributed to AB homes in Barnes, Battersea, Bayswater, Belgravia, Brook Green, Chelsea, Chiswick, Clapham, Coombe, Fulham, Holland Park, Kensington, Knightsbridge, Marylebone, Mayfair, Notting Hill, Pimlico, South Kensington, Wandsworth and Wimbledon, as well as being available from leading country and London estate agents. It is also on sale at selected WHSmith, Waitrose, Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s stores and independent newsagents nationwide. It has an estimated readership of 150,000. It is available on subscription in the UK for £29.99 per annum. To subscribe online, iPad, iPhone and android all for only £24.99 visit: exacteditions. com/read/countrytownhouse. For subscription enquiries, please call 020 7384 9011 or email subscribe@countryandtownhouse.co.uk. It is published by Country & Town House Ltd, Studio 2, Chelsea Gate Studios, 115 Harwood Road, London SW6 4QL (tel: 020 7384 9011).

Registered number 576850 England and Wales. Printed in the UK by William Gibbons and Sons Ltd, West Midlands. Paper supplied by Gerald Judd. Distribution by Letterbox.

Out with the old & in with the new Treat yourself to some new kit this New Year

Copyright © 2018 Country & Town House Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. Materials are accepted on the understanding that no liability is incurred for safe custody. The publisher cannot be responsible for unsolicited material. All prices are correct at the time of going to press but are subject to change. Whilst every care is taken to ensure information is correct at time of going to press, it is subject to change, and C&TH Ltd. takes no responsibility for omissions or errors.

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COLUMN

THE GOOD LIFE Alice B-B has a resolution revolution

the baby’s bedroom ready or declutter your wardrobe and sell your old clothes.

With all this spit-spot efficiency planned for 2018, there’s no doubt my resolution list will now have the space to strike. And this year it won’t be trapped in a notebook, but laminated and proudly pinned to a spanking new board above my tidy desk.

IT’S THE RETURN OF THE TERRARIUM. I know! Feels like a blast from the naff ’70s past. But since I was given a tall glass jar, filled with tiny ferns, moss and ficus, I can’t take my eyes off it. It’s made by Emma Sibley, who started London Terrariums when she realised that waking at the crack of dawn to get to the flower market before her day job, then hiding crates of moss beneath her desk, meant her obsession needed to go next level. She quit her job, opened a shop in New Cross and hasn’t looked back. Now, when I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed, I stare at the magical microcosm growing utterly self-sufficiently (no watering needed) and imagine being tiny and scrabbling about HAPPENED UPON LAST YEAR’S inside. And then I wonder if this earth ‘RESOLUTIONS’ LIST. Written on the is maybe one big terrarium – a plaything first page of a brand new notebook, each for someone or something so much bigger. line spelling hopes and dreams for the And then I feel less overwhelmed; months to come. Then closed and everything is in perspective. posited on a shelf to gather dust.

PARING DOWN FEELS Obviously, less than half those RIGHT FOR RIGHT NOW. resolves have been actioned.

So I’m darn excited for Wardrobe So, this year, I’m aiming for NYC; a new anti-fast fashion label, a better strike rate. But to focus featuring collections of four or eight on what’s important, I need pieces for both men and women a blank canvas. For this, read created by brilliant stylist Christine tidying and chucking years of Obsessed with Centenera and her designer emotionally accumulated stuff.

Tata Harper’s 100 per cent partner Josh Goot. The chic My tidy hero, magazine editor natural Nourishing essentials are designed Kate Reardon, told me to call Polly Oil Cleanser. with just enough fashion Hadden-Paton, whose company is tataharperskin care.co.uk to make them exciting called You Need a PA. And I ruddy and are only sold direct well do. But I don’t need or want Having euphoric to consumer through the anyone full time. So Polly, or one recall – brand’s website, to keep of her gang, shows up at your house, dancing round prices sensible. These works at an hourly rate and with no the kitchen to Pete Tong’s fully are forever clothes, retainer. They’ll action lists, pay bills orchestrated created by high and arrange holidays, while putting Ibiza Classics. fashion folk that mean simple and efficient filing systems petetong.com for those times I need in place. Polly’s business partner’s Wishing for to look pulled together, company is called You Need a Solange Azagurynever again will I look Vicky. And, again, I ruddy well do!

Partridge’s new in my cupboard and Celebrity PA for over ten years, Supernature panic that I have Vicky Silverthorn does the physical collection. solange.co.uk nothing to wear. Phew. stuff; helping you move house, get

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LUXURY & NECESSITY IT’S ALL BLACK AND WHITE Get in my cupboard, now! wardrobe.nyc

HYPER HYDRATION For a thirsty face with mzskin.com

GREEN DREAM Mini magic with londonterrariums.com

THIS MONTH I’LL BE

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SPOUTING OFF Tea at The Wolseley… at home. thewolseley.com

PORTRAIT BY JANE MCLEISH-KELSEY

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PERSONAL SERVICE Oh yes I do! youneedapa.com

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INTERVIEW

THE RURBANIST

and box twice a day when I’m in London.

Post-Brexit Britain...

It’s hard to say seeing as no details have been revealed about how much Brexit will affect our industry.

I’m hoping everyone will work together to make it work.

Favourite game? Track & Field. I remember being in an arcade as a teenager watching a group of lads play from the money exchange area where I worked.

After they left, I put my 20 pence in and began. My score actually made the leaderboard!

Where do you go to escape the city? Cornwall is a beautiful place to visit and has some of the UK’s best restaurants, including Restaurant Nathan Outlaw and Paul Ainsworth at Number Six.

Where’s home to you? Balham in south London.

Most memorable night out? A couple of years ago

What are Saturday afternoons made for?

my wife Irha booked a private table for my birthday at Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester. Even though you’re in the middle of the room, it’s completely private. They did a beautiful tasting menu with wines to match. It was a wonderful experience, I’ll always treasure that memory.

Weekends are always family time. Most Saturday mornings we head to Milk in Balham for brunch and then into town for some shopping and perhaps a show. It has to be something upbeat (or I’ll fall asleep).

Best thing a cabbie has ever said to you?

‘I recognise you, you’re that chef, aren’t you?

Your name’s Jamie, right?’

Last thing you saw in the theatre? I took the family to see Aladdin at the Prince Edward Theatre. We’re good friends with Cameron Mackintosh so he sorted us out with seats – it was absolutely brilliant, the flying carpet wowed us all.

What would you do as mayor for the day?

I’m a bit obsessed with cleanliness, so I’d probably ensure that the streets and parks were kept immaculate.

Have you done something naughtier than run through a field of wheat?

Well, I once found a gentleman urinating on the front window of Pollen Street Social while people were dining, he was very drunk. I asked him to move but he wouldn’t, so my restaurant manager (who shall remain nameless) threw a cold bucket of water over him. A bit naughty, but the restaurant was full of guests looking to have a lovely evening.

Where do you go when you don’t want anyone to get hold of you? Probably the gym, it’s a great place to de-stress. I work out every day

Where was the last place you ‘discovered’?

We recently visited Modena in Italy to dine at Osteria Francescana – Massimo Bottura. When we arrived on the outskirts of the city, it felt very industrial and we wondered what we would do for two days, however, once we got to the historical centre, it was incredible. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Which historic country house would you like to snap up? Sharrow Bay on the shores of Ullswater in the Lake District.

What would you change about yourself? I should really stop talking so much.

Desert island essentials? A book I was recently given by a friend called Tribes, which is about leadership. The song would be anything by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

Who’s coming for dinner? My dream dinner party guest would be Margaret Thatcher. It’s a bit controversial because a lot of my family were miners, but she made Britain entrepreneurial.

The way she stuck to her guns and turned us around at that time was incredible. She was also a keen cook, so we’d probably have a fair bit to talk about – we’d have soft serve ice cream for dessert (which she helped develop when she was a food scientist at Oxford).

PHOTOS: REX FEATURES; GETTY IMAGES

Chef Jason Atherton would serve Margaret Thatcher the ice cream she helped to develop

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C&TH

U P F RON T STYLE · BEAUTY · JEWELLERY · WELLNESS

ANYTHING GOES

BY MARTHA WARD Checks, corduroy, stripes and tweeds, ’tis the season to mix ’n’ match. No finer combination than a herringbone oversized overcoat and striped scarf from the very finest, Connolly of Mayfair. connollyengland.com

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UP FRONT Ralph Lauren Purple Label ralphlauren.co.uk

STYLE

MATERIAL ASSETS Winter calls for velvet and corduroy, says Martha Ward

Sies Marjan Velvet-corduroy shirt, £490. matchesfashion.com

Brunello Cucinelli Corduroy trousers, £530. shop.brunello cucinelli.com

Carhartt Oakland trousers, £85. carhartt-wip.com

Sir Plus Nehru jacket, £265. sirplus.co.uk

Brooks Brothers Corduroy cap, £115. brooksbrothers.com

COUNTRY Scotch and Soda Velvet jumper, £110. scotch-soda.com

TOWN

Oliver Spencer Shearling trimmed corduroy jacket, £320. mrporter.com

Dunhill Double breasted velvet blazer, £990. mrporter.com

Cos Corduroy tie, £25. cosstores.com

Kent & Curwen Corduroy jacket, £475. kentandcurwen.com

Gucci Velvet bag, £1,790. mrporter.com Brooks Brothers Corduroy shirt, £115. brooksbrothers.com Prada Hooded cottoncorduroy field jacket, £1,805. matches fashion.com Givenchy Suede trainers, £395. brownsfashion.com

Herschel Supply Co Grove extra-small velvet backpack, £80. selfridges.com

Jimmy Choo Woven velvet slippers, £450. jimmychoo.com

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UP FRONT LUXURY

LUCIA LOVES

ADDED EXTRAS

WINING IN STYLE

T

here are few names that resonate as proudly in the world of fine wines as that of the Grand Vin of Château Margaux.

It is one of the precious clutch of vineyards in the Médoc, an area renowned for its terroir and is one of the glories of French viticulture.

Famously, it was one of just four wines to be given the status of Premier Cru in the 1855 Bordeaux classification of fine wines.

More recently, in 1977, it was bought by André Mentzelopoulos and since then the family (his daughter Corinne and granddaughter Alexandra) has continued to keep it right up there as one of the finest of the fine.

Apart from getting Lord Norman Foster to design a clutch of buildings, all devoted to oenology, but also carefully designed to link in with the historic character of the existing buildings, Corinne also had the extreme good sense to make Paul Pontallier the estate’s general manager, from 1989 to 2016, until he died of cancer at the shockingly young age of 59. It was clearly an

inspired choice (as Steven Spurrier, Decanter’s consultant editor, put it, their partnership was ‘something that has never been surpassed...

It is difficult to imagine Margaux without him’) as, between them, they set about creating one wonderful vintage after another.

All of which brings us to the special Grand Vin 2015 vintage.

It was the last to be made under the supervision of Pontallier and 2015 was clearly an exceptional year, having, as Corinne puts it, a combination of qualities that evoke earlier great vintages.

‘We can evoke a combination of the strength of 2005, the flesh of 2009, the subtlety of 2010, and the inimitable charm of Château Margaux.’

To celebrate all this, and in tribute to Paul Pontallier, the estate has come up with a specially designed bottle for its Grand Vin Château Margaux 2015. It is decorated with silk-screen printing which replaces the more usual label and it features the château and its cellars in grey and gold, while two lines at the bottom of the bottle pay tribute to Paul Pontallier.

For such deep pleasure you’ll have to pay around £1,000 a bottle.

FROM TOP: Château Margaux; Grand Vin Château Margaux 2015; Corinne and Alexandra PetitMentzelopoulos; the barrels

THE DECANTER Grand Vin Château Margaux 2015 deserves to be decanted but into the simplest and most elegant of decanters – to whit William Yeoward’s Nancy version. £210. william andson.com

THE GLASSES A fine wine needs the plainest but most beautifully thought out glasses – Riedel’s Vinum Bordeaux are perfect. £90 for six. theriedelshop. co.uk

THE CORKSCREW The Waiter’s Corkscrew has been tried and tested by generations of sommeliers.

It opens bottles easily, having a two-step design to give optimal leverage when removing corks. There’s also a foil cutter blade and a bottle opener. £32. lecreuset.co.uk

PHOTOS: SAISON D OR MATHIEU ANGLADA

Lucia van der Post raises a glass to the Château Margaux 2015 vintage

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Creators of exceptional leather luggage and bags, with artisanal craftsmanship invested in every stitch. www.tusting.co.uk +44 (0)1234 712266

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UP FRONT FROM LEFT: Record sales have been achieved at Bonhams New York with a natural pearl pendant, Fellows with a yellow diamond ring and Sotheby’s with this pair of diamond earrings

JEWELLERY

THE GOLD DIGGER

24-KARAT NEWS

The latest jewellery news and trends. By Annabel Davidson

RECORD BREAKERS

FLOWER POWER Since Dominic Jones took over as Astley Clarke’s creative director, the collections have added a modern edge to its signature femininity. The Victorian-inspired Floris collection sees precious hardstones set in floral millegrain surrounds, while the more geometric Aubar collection has a contemporary edge. astleyclarke.com

BELOW: Vhernier’s Caterpillar brooch

It seems hardly a month goes by that some record or other isn’t broken in the jewellery auction business – from rare pearls with provenance (nothing like a late Hollywood starlet’s estate to get bidders excited) to enormous, flawless diamonds, the jewellery auction market shows no signs of slowing down. Three big sales that garnered serious attention recently covered the gamut of goods, from vintage glamour to sheer extravagance. Sotheby’s broke multiple records last year, but my favourite has to be the perfectly matched diamond earrings – one a fancy vivid blue diamond of 14.54 carats, the other a fancy intense pink of 16 carats which sold to one buyer for $57.4m at Sotheby’s Geneva in May. Then there was the £1.3m obtained for a fancy intense yellow diamond ring at Birmingham auctioneers Fellows in December – the most expensive item sold in the company’s 141-year history. And finally to Bonhams, where a natural pearl pendant sold for $1.45m in its New York Fine Jewellery sale – the highest price paid for a natural pearl in the last six years. Kerching!

BUG’S LIFE

If you haven’t heard of Italian brand Vhernier, get down to Burlington Gardens, Mayfair, where the company has just opened its first London flagship. Founded in the 1980s, Vhernier is adored for its bold, smooth gold rings, cute animal brooches (a chameleon of jade, sugilite, opal, diamonds and rock crystal clinging to your lapel?

How chic!) and its genius Carré collection, which hides flashes of colour and gemstones in the hinges of articulated gold bracelets. vhernier.it

TIME FOR THE HEMSLEYS Bestselling cookbook authors, café-owners, presenters… and now watch designers?

It may not be the most obvious follow-up choice for foodie sisters Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley, but their collaboration with Swiss watch brand Oris is seriously tasty. oris.ch

TA K E T H R E E

NATURAL WONDERS BEE’S KNEES Diamond and sapphire bees sweetly nestle within their gold and citrine honeycomb in Delfina Delettrez’s new Bee Hive earrings from her Garden of Delight range. Sweet but not cloyingly so.

POA. doverstreet market.com

FINE VINE Parisian jeweller Elie Top’s single ‘grape’ earring in yellow gold, silver and amethyst is my favourite from his new Seasons collection.

POA. elietop. com

MYTH MAKER These Rainbow Unicorn earrings in gold, mammoth ivory, diamonds, pearls, sapphires, amethysts and tsavorites, by Venyx, are just too fantastical for words. £4,800. venyxworld.com

IN A WHIRL An electric blue paraiba tourmaline, a coloured diamond and a shimmering cabochon opal – all these stones are the stars of David Morris’ Maelstrom collection inspired by whirlpools. For the new year, they’ve added a Sri Lankan ruby version, surrounded by a swirl of smaller stones and set in yellow gold. It’s hypnotically beautiful. davidmorris.com

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UP FRONT BEAUT Y

MY BEAUTIFUL LIFE James Read, founder of his eponymous self-tan brand, shares his grooming secrets with Nathalie Eleni

What is your most memorable grooming fail? Over applying self-tan and not washing my hands after.

I woke up so orange and had to hide my hands behind my back for at least a week. Another bad mistake was getting my hair straightened (when I had hair).

Within one week it started to split and fall out.

What is your usual grooming routine? I exfoliate every other day and always moisturise twice daily.

I am a big fan Sisleÿum for men and 111 Skin.

How do you fake eight hours’ sleep? Self-tan, of course, I can’t do without it. I travel a lot, which means my sleep is always messed up but, thank goodness, I have self-tan to make me look healthy and rested. A few spritzes of my new my new Hydra Tan Mist for men gives a natural glow to skin, perfect for men who are new to self-tanning.

What is your favourite spa? I love Bliss Spa on Sloane Avenue, where I have been going for the last 15 years. My skin always looks amazing after a treatment.

How do you keep fit? I have a personal trainer as I am too lazy to do it on my own. I go four times a week as I find that it’s a good way to de-stress.

What aftershave do you wear? Bleu de Chanel, always.

What is your best grooming tip? Drink lots of water as this will help to make your skin look and feel healthy.

This then also helps self-tan to last longer.

What is your grooming indulgence? Facials and manicures, I go to Margaret Dabbs for manicures at Liberty which are always amazing. jamesreadtan.com

FIVE PRODUCTS FOR ...

A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP 1 AMLY BEAUTY SLEEP SILVER RICH FACE MIST Boost your collagen production while you sleep with this healing mist that contains the wonder ingredient snow algae that helps keep skin cells healthy. £52. amlybotanicals.com

Men’s Wellness Clinic at the Light Touch Clinic If you are feeling run down, lacking in energy, having problems sleeping or finding it hard to lose weight, the newly launched Men’s Wellness Clinic at the Light Touch Clinic can help you to achieve a healthy, fit and balanced lifestyle. Led by cosmetic doctor Natalie Blakely and men’s wellness consultant Carlos Santos, this customised and medically supervised programme includes bespoke hormone optimisation. This will definitely bring some oomph back to your system, Located in Weybridge, it’s only a 30-minute train ride from Waterloo or easily accessible just off Junction 11 of the M25. lighttouchclinic.co.uk

2 TROPIC SO SLEEPY PILLOW MIST Spritz this delicious blend of eucalyptus, rose geranium, frankincense, chamomile, rosewood, rosemary and lavender before bed to quieten your racing thoughts. £20. tropicskincare.com 3 ELEMIS LIFE ELIXIRS SLEEP BATH AND SHOWER OIL A relaxing essential oil proven to help you wind down. Use at night to get you in the mood for sleep. £55. elemis.com 4 DE MAMIEL SLEEP SERIES There are five formulations in Annee de Mamiel’s series that not only help promote sleep but address the causes of why you’re struggling in the first place. Use Settle when you can’t stop your head buzzing. £38. demamiel.com 5 BJÖRK & BERRIES FROM THE GARDEN BATH SALT These sleep promoting botanical bath salts made with hand-picked flowers and herbs will transfer you into a state of utter serenity. £27. cultbeauty.co.uk

PORTRAIT: PHOTOGRAPHY BY PIP

ME TIME

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UP FRONT

BEAUT Y

FINE AND DANDY Keep fashionably groomed this February, says Nathalie Eleni

1 Elemental Herbology Muscle Melt Balm Give instant relief to tired and aching muscles, while helping to increase blood circulation and encourage recovery. £25. elementalherbology.com 2 Vichy Mineral 89 Add hydration and freshness, this serum is great for pre and post shave or as a quick pick-me-up after a long day or session in the gym. £25. lookfantastic.com 3 Glo-Minerals Mattifying Primer Keep shiny T-zones at bay with this primer that is undetectable but will keep your skin oil free for hours. £31.50. glo-minerals.com 4 D.R. Harris Medicated Shampoo Now including ziziphus joazeiro bark extract, one of the best anti-dandruff ingredients, this gentle shampoo also contains eucalyptus and tea tree oil to keep a healthy scalp. £8.95. drharris.co.uk 5 Truefitt and Hill Styling Paste For easy style maintenance try this styling paste which creates touchable hold and texture with a natural sheen finish for healthy looking hair. £15. truefittandhill.co.uk 6 SkinCeuticals Phyto Corrective Gel Cooling and soothing, this gel formula is a real treat for stressed-out city skin. £52.50. skinceuticals.co.uk 7 Melo Labs Finger Toothbrush Pop one of these reusable finger toothbrushes in your gym or travel bag for brushing on the go – you don’t even need toothpaste or water. From £6. harveynichols.com 8 Amouage Beach Hut Combining mint, orange blossom and vetiver for a real head turner of a scent. £230. harrods.com 9 The Organic Pharmacy Deep Cleansing Face Wash Keep skin in tip top condition and oil-free with this deep cleansing wash that is also bursting with antioxidant protection. £29.95. theorganicpharmacy.com 10 WUNDERTOX from WUNDER2 A fast acting pore purifying mask for low maintenance skin enhancement, it also delivers an instant shot of oxygen. £19.95. wunder2.co.uk 34 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | February 2018

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skinade.com

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29/11/2016 15:56 20/12/2017 10:32

UP FRONT

UP WELLNESS

BODY & SOUL Life in balance,

by Camilla Hewitt

REDEMPTION BAR Serves up delicious vegan, sugar-free and wheat-free food

A RECIPE FOR WELLNESS

CROSSING CONTINENTS

With her new ayurvedic-inspired cookbook East

by West, Jasmine Hemsley explains how the Indian wellbeing system has helped her live a life in balance.

‘From researching the best way to look after myself during my modelling career, ayurveda kept coming up so I’ve been slowly incorporating small changes over the years. At first, it looked too complicated and foreign, but several things made complete sense: getting in line with the circadian rhythm of the earth, sleeping before 10pm, cooked food for easier digestion, lunch being the biggest meal of the day. Also being mindful in your actions, from limiting distractions when you’re eating to being really aware of the taste of your food. I’ve been incorporating it more and more into my life, including in my health and beauty routine.’

GOLDEN MILK Gorgeously bright, rich and caffeine-free, Golden Milk is the ultimate Ayurvedic recipe and can help improve digestion and circulation.

East by West: Simple Recipes for Ultimate Mind-Body Balance by Jasmine Hemsley is out now, published by Bluebird (£25)

HEALTH HOT LIST

Les Airelles, Courchevel This mountain retreat reopened in December after an extensive refurbishment, breathing new life into its fairytale setting and enchanting hospitality. Revered for its intricate alpine décor, its chalet-style design is full of elegant carvings and sumptuous spaces.

With just under 50 rooms and its warm and welcoming spirit, this intimate, ski-in ski-out hotel is a magical winter haven, offering every imaginable winter sport, in addition to an Hermès designed horsedrawn carriage. For those who prefer après-ski indulgences, Les Airelles houses the famed, two-Michelin starred, Pierre Gagnaire pour Les Airelles restaurant, and the brand new Crème de La Mer spa, specialising in Swiss anti-ageing treatments for men and women and also a cryotherapy room. From €1,100 p/n half-board. airellescollection.com

POTS & PANS GreenPan’s eco ones don’t release toxins when heated TERRIBLE TASTING TAP WATER Binchotan charcoal makes your tap water taste great PVC YOGA MATS Soul Mats are made from 100 per cent renewable rubber

DOWN

INSTAGRAM @CAMILLAHEWITT; PHOTOS: NICK HOPPER

METHOD Place the milk in a small pot or milk pan.

If you are using dairy milk, add 120ml of water. If you are using almond milk, add 60ml of water.

Add the remaining ingredients, apart from the jaggery, and gently simmer for 10–15 minutes. Add a splash more hot water if needed. Stir through the jaggery to taste, strain and serve.

FACEGYM JADE DERMA ROLLER Aids the body’s filtration organs to expel toxins

ESCAPE THE CITY

SERVES ONE INGREDIENTS » 175ml whole milk or 250ml almond milk » Water, for simmering » 3 cardamom pods, cracked » 1⁄2 tsp ground turmeric » 2.5cm piece of fresh ginger, grated or 1 tsp ground ginger » 1⁄2 tsp ground cinnamon » 1⁄4 tsp freshly ground black pepper » 1⁄2 tbsp jaggery

BIOPHILIC DESIGN Using natural materials can reduce stress and improve our wellbeing

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UP FRONT

MEN’S STYLE

WELL GROOMED Matt Thomas on posh undies and whimsical waistcoats

SHARP SHOOTER

A SHOE IN

When master watch and shoemakers join forces the results are guaranteed to be special. Hublot and Berluti’s elegant and unique timepiece, limited to 20 pieces, features patinated Venezia leather with Script decor and an aperture that reveals a specially developed tourbillon. Classic Fusion Tourbillon Berluti Script All Black, £66,000. hublot.com

Farlows has produced a dedicated shooting jacket in tweed made exclusively for the brand in a small mill in Howick that epitomises traditional British styling. Norfolk tweed shooting jacket, £695. farlows.co.uk

UBER UNDIES

Taking the modest undergarment to a luxurious new level, Hanro’s new range is made from Sea Island cotton cultivated exclusively in the British West Indies with an unmatched softness and silky texture.

From £52.50. hanro.co.uk

FLORAL FAVES Favourbrook’s new flagship store at 16 and 17 Pall Mall is the place to go for fancy floral wedding waistcoats to get you noticed. £320. favourbrook.com

HOUSE OF LINKS After over 230 years of designing and manufacturing the finest cufflinks and accessories, Deakin & Francis has just opened its first flagship in Piccadilly Arcade, showcasing for the first time the brand’s full collection, from vitreous enamel to an 18-karat gold collection. deakinandfrancis.co.uk

CHAIN REACTION French cycling brand Café Du Cycliste has landed in London at 32 Artillery Lane, E1 with a first UK bricks and mortar store, where you can snap up their gorgeous Gallic-chic gear. cafeducycliste.com

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UP FRONT

13

STYLE 9

SARTORIAL SOLUTIONS Organise your wardrobe early this year and you'll avoid a later style crisis, says Rosalyn Wikeley

5 1

6

10 14

15

2 11

7 3 8

16 12 4

THURSDAY NIGHT AT ANNABEL’S

CHELTENHAM RACES

WILDERNESS FESTIVAL

THE RAT RACE

1 Favourbrook’s velvet smoking jacket promises a suave evening and a warm one too, especially if you're heading for the smoking terrace. £890. favourbrook.com

5 Oliver Brown’s tweed waistcoat over a white or pale blue shirt is the usual form. £175. oliverbrown.org.uk

9 Moose Knuckles’ Saint-Lambert parka guarantees dry and stylish carousing come festival season. £1,039. mooseknucklescanada.com

13 Boardroom to bar, consider Huntsman’s twill weave wool suit your armour. RTW, from £2,200; bespoke, from £5,250. huntsmansavilerow.com

6 Thomas Pink’s Doulton cashmere shirt reminds everyone that this is a rather smart affair. £115. thomaspink.com

10 Le Chameau’s Vierzonord neoprene-lined boots are made for mud baths, country romps and the occasional crowd surf. Warm and toasty toes guaranteed. £170. lechameau.com

14 An outlet for expression amid a sea of corporate monotony.

Flash your personality in Pantherella’s Packington socks. £15. pantherella.com

2 Lanvin’s velvet bow tie deserves to bear witness to riotous fun and can be flung off when the dance floor gets too hot. £90. libertylondon.com 3 Don’t be dull. Liven up the crowd in New & Lingwood’s tartan trousers.

They will be a talking point if nothing else. £350. newandlingwood.com 4 Secure a lion’s share of the dance floor in one of the UK's oldest shoe brand – Trickers’ emblazoned velvet slippers. £205. trickers.com

7 And for the finishing touch, this Failsworth felt trilby suggests wisdom and a dry afternoon. £34. farlows.co.uk 8 Keep yourself in check in Richard Anderson’s house tweed. RTW from £2,016; bespoke from, £4,332. richardandersonltd.com

11 Sunspel X Iffley Road's Langley colourblock tee will suit those who loath the dress-up edict. £75. sunspel.com 12 No bucket hat? No festi! Cos has got it covered with this natty number. £35. cosstores.com

15 Those in the know choose Knomo because they factor in laptops and chiropractor bills when they design their bags. Genius. £229. knomo.com 16 March into battle with confidence in Edward Green’s Chelsea leather soles. And keep ’em polished. £900. edwardgreen.com

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SHOOTING WEEKEND

ON THE SLOPES

YACHT CLUB SUNDOWNERS

GLORIOUS GOODWOOD

17 Pair William & Son’s Kintbury breeks with some fancy tasselled socks and go out with a bang. £425. williamandson.com

21 Can’t see? Forget the blue run.

Salomon’s X-Max goggles are specially shaped for superior vertical and horizontal viewing. £160. mrporter.com

25 Master that maritime smooth in Brunello Cucinelli’s linen blazer. £1,870. brunellocucinelli.com

29 Old cars are never warm, nor is waiting around watching other people drive them. Wrap up in Motoluxe’s Teddy Bear coat. £1,950. masonandsons.com

18 Lucan is a new country-to-town brand with stylish ambitions. Its Norfolk jacket is exactly what you need with a 6am rise and howling winds. £895. houseoflucan.com

22 Don’t try and economise on your salopettes. This pair from Spyder Bormio will last you several seasons at least. £485. harrods.com

26 Hugo Boss’s slim-fit chinos are made with soft stretch cotton, saving room for tender hopping and indulgent lunching. £89. hugoboss.com

19 Cashmere is key to survival on a frosty morning. Opt for a green shade of Barrie’s cashmere crew necks. £170. houseofbruar.com

23 From the slopes to après, you’ll never fear the cold again in Canada Goose’s Chateau parka. £725. canadagoose.com

27 Mr Fish x Sinclair Barrel cuff shirts look smart and are soft enough to be worn casually, button undone, sleeves rolled up, rosé on ice. £125. masonandsons.com

20 And the finishing touch? Barbour X Land Rover Defender’s tartan scarf to beat the frost and last night’s vicious hangover. £40. johnlewis.com

24 Tusting’s giant Voyager leather holdall has a discreet telescopic handle and wheels (shhh!). £890. tusting.co.uk

28 Take Simon Carter’s shipwheel cufflinks as a stylish nod to your seafaring affections. £50. simoncarter.net

30 A fresh morning spin demands a vintage driving cap. Go the whole hog with Holland Cooper’s Baker Boy cap. £79. hollandcooper.com 31 Few people can pull off driving gloves. If you’re one of them, Connolly’s Road Rage versions are the just ticket. £295. connollyengland.com 32 Admire Crockett & Jones’ Sydney penny loafer from the accelerator pedal. £340. crockettandjones.com

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UP FRONT Victoria Pendleton and Laurent Feniou

Genevieve Gaunt

HOLD YOUR HORSES

You couldn’t move for fine fillies at The Dorchester, where horseracing heavyweights gathered from across Europe to celebrate the 27th Cartier Racing Awards. Enable won both Horse of the Year and the Three-Year-Old Filly awards, having won a clutch of races this year, including King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, while trainer Sir Michael Stoute pipped his twolegged peers to the post to take the Cartier Award of Merit.

Isabel Getty and Stephanie Rad

Catie Munnings

Frankie Herbet

Hum Fleming

Otis Ferry

SOCIAL SCENE

HIGH SOCIETY

Frankie and Catherine Dettori

People, parties, places

FIGHT CLUB

Susanna Warren and Carly Collins

Dame Natalie Massenet and Princess Beatrice

Lorraine Pascale

Heather Kerzner

Monica Lewinsky

Kim Hersov

IT’S COOL TO BE NICE

No matter your age, we could all do with being a little kinder. Especially online, where the veil of anonymity lets those cutting remarks slip out all too easily. As part of Anti-Bullying month the Be Cool Be Nice campaign launched a book against cyber bullying at the House of Lords. Part journal, part manual, they have partnered with Snapchat to create a lens for the campaign to encourage the use of social Baroness Amos media in a positive way.

The Ned had a fight on its hands as Fitzdares cheered on the boxing stars of tomorrow.

Hosted by boxing pundit Steve Bunce, talent included 2020 Olympic prospects from training gyms across the capital that were scoured by the bookmakers for the next wave of talent. Jack Johnstone, Charlie Wincott, Tosin Olalekan and Francis Storey are the names to know.

Ding ding ding!

James Troughton and

Clementine Nicholson

Ben Goldsmith

Mary-Clare and Ben Elliot

Zac and Alice Goldsmith

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The Watch Sale Tuesday 30th January at 11am Viewings days in both London & Birmingham

Omega Speedmaster ‘Ed White’ Reference ST 105 003-65 Contact watches@fellows.co.uk or call 0121 212 6304 to find out more

For more information regarding viewing days and how to bid online visit www.fellows.co.uk Head Office & Saleroom

| Augusta House | 19 Augusta Street | Birmingham B18 6JA | 0121 212 2131

London Office

| 3 Hill Street | Mayfair | London W1J 5LA | 020 7127 4198

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TIMELESS ELEGANCE www.henrypoole.com • T: 020 7734 5985 • E: office@henrypoole.com

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C&TH

THE GU IDE A R T · C U LT U R E · B O O K S · P E O P L E

SETSUKO ONO

PHOTO: SETSUKO ONO, DREAMS, 2012, STAINLESS STEEL © KEN SHIMIZU

Yoko isn’t the only Ono with a shining art career.

Her little sister, Setsuko, makes sculptures from sheets of cut-out steel – something she was encouraged to pursue by her Beatles brother-inlaw, having worked at the World Bank for 28 years.

She will exhibit her work in London for the very first time at Daiwa Foundation’s Japan House Gallery near Regent’s Park. 15 February to 9 March. dajf.org.uk

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THE GUIDE EVENTS

COUNTRY LIFE Organ music goes avant-garde

EXHIBITION

FASHION QUEENS

Although Meghan Markle is the latest royal style arbiter, Fashion Museum Bath turns its gaze to the previous generation of ‘the firm’. From Queen Alexandra (who set the trend for chokers) to Princess Margaret, who had a penchant for Christian Dior. 3 Feb to 28 April. fashionmuseum.co.uk

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but The Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft’s display of 100 classic Penguin covers might sway you. It runs in conjunction with an exhibition on typography designer Elizabeth Friedlander, who was championed by the publisher. Until 29 April. ditchlingmuseum artcraft.org.uk

Butterflies at Wisley

N AT U R E

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

Queen Alexandra’s Madame Elise dress and Princess Margaret’s Norman Hartnell number

Surrey’s RHS Wisley will unleash 50 exotic species into its glasshouse.

Pick up a spotter guide and see if you can identify them all. Keep an eye out for Graphium Doson and Papilio Paris, both new additions this year. 13 Jan to 4 March. rhs.org.uk

The Exodus (2015–2016)

by Sergey Ponomarev

MUSIC

ORGAN GRINDER

PHOTOGR APHY

CAUGHT ON CAMERA

The power of photography is not to be ignored. As part of its Syria: A Conflict Explored season, IWM North showcases work by Russian documentarian Sergey Ponomarev, who has recorded the human consequences of the Syrian civil war through his penetratingly perceptive lens. 16 February to 28 May. iwm.org.uk

BOOK NOW Or forever hold your peace

EXHIBITION Superstructures: the New Architecture at Norwich’s Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (24 March to 2 Sept)

What would it sound like to hear The Sky in a Room thrashed out over 3,000 times on a 1774 Sir Watkins WilliamsWynn organ in an art gallery?

Find out at Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson’s latest performance piece at National Museum Cardiff. 3 Feb to 11 March. museum.wales

BALLET Northern Ballet tours Jane Eyre (7 March to 9 June)

1774 Sir Watkins Williams-Wynn organ

INSTALLATION Chiharu Shiota at Yorkshire Sculpture Park (30 March to 2 Sept)

PHOTOS: © FASHION MUSEUM BATH; © SERGEY PONOMAREV FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES; © NATIONAL MUSEUM WALES; © RHS © LUKE MACGREGOR; © GUY FARROW; CHIHARU SHIOTA UNCERTAIN JOURNEY, 2016, PHOTO BY CHRISTIAN GLÄSER © VG BILD-KUNST, BONN, 2017 AND THE ARTIST; BEN JOHNSON THE CRESCENT WING 2009 © BEN JOHNSON, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DACS

DON’T MISS

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THE GUIDE EVENTS

TOWN LIFE

DON’T MISS

A titanic exhibition comes to town Marlene Dietrich wearing a day suit by Christian Dior on board the Queen Elizabeth arriving in New York in 1950

EXHIBITION

ALL ABOARD

Oh, to have cruised in the golden age of the ocean liner, epitomised by Marlene Dietrich dripping in Dior, and oceans apart from Olympicsized kiddie pools and afterdinner cabaret. The V&A has selected 250 objects from the period, from a wooden panel fragment from the Titanic to a Cartier tiara worn

by Lady Allan. Bon voyage!

3 Feb to 10 June. vam.ac.uk

As we reach the 100 years since the end of World War One, see over 50 wartime posters from Maurice Collins’ private collection at the London Art Antiques & Interiors Fair at the ExCel. The British collector will also speak on the importance of the written word in galvanising support and enlistments in the war effort. 12–14 Jan. artantiquesinteriorsfair.com

MUSIC

Roll up for the best one-woman show in town this year. In Sandemonium, Sandra Bernhard takes to the stage at Ronnie Scott’s, performing a set that’s somewhere between stand-up, political satire and cabaret, served up with a rock ’n’ roll attitude and a powerful soul sound. 22–23 Feb. ronniescotts.co.uk

Sadler’s Wells Sampled

Sandra Bernhard

Sankeien Wisteria by Ray Morimura

ART

SPEEDY EXIT

DANCE

FANCY FOOTWORK Don’t know your two-step from your tango? Sadler’s Wells Sampled presents performances from across the spectrum of dance, giving a taster of work by New York City Ballet, Russell Maliphant and Paco Peña Flamenco, among others. With tickets from £3, you won’t find a better value show this year. 2–3 Feb. sadlerswells.com

BOOK NOW

Rolled up and stowed in luggage in an instant, artworks on paper are terrible handy to transport in a crisis.

If the current political climate has left you feeling skittish, why not calm the nerves with this engraving by Ray Morimura, which is both serene and stashable. Available to buy at the Works on Paper Fair. 1–4 Feb. worksonpaperfair.com

PHOTOGRAPHY Victorian Giants at National Portrait Gallery (1 March to 2 May)

Or forever hold your peace

ART Picasso at Tate Modern (8 March to 9 Sept)

DANCE Sasha Waltz’s Körper at Sadler’s Wells (1–3 March)

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES; © JORDAN GRAHAM; © KAMAL BAKHSHI; © BERND UHLIG; TWO WAYS OF LIFE BY OSCAR REJLANDER, 1856-7; PABLO PICASSO, WOMAN ON THE BEACH, 1932, © SUCCESSION PICASSO/DACS LONDON, 2017

RIDING SOLO

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We believe in a different perspective.

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ARTS

ARTS AGENDA Three exhibitions worth leaving London for

John Martin, Sadak in Search of the Waters of Oblivion (1812)

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In Egypt: 1 Surrealism Art Et Liberté 1938–1948 Tate, Liverpool

Surrealism is associated with a distinctly European kind of rebellion. However, in the Thirties, Cairo was a fulcrum of the avantgarde where The Art and Liberty Group absorbed ideas from André Breton and Lee Miller to produce their own version of surrealism. Until 18 March. tate.org.uk

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FIVE M I N UTE S WITH

The Land We Live In – The Land We Left Behind

ANDREW NAIRNE

Hauser & Wirth, Somerset

A roster of artists will analyse our contradictory relationship with nature, spanning work from the medieval age to the present day. Goats will graze in the farmyard, and milking and cheese making workshops will run alongside Hayatsu Architects’ ‘Community Bread Oven’. 20 Jan to 7 May. hauserwirthsomerset.com

Director Of Kettle’s Yard Four years ago I found a letter from Naum Gabo. He talks about the role of art as a social and political force – that’s our focus.

Anna Brownsted’s Diplomat is the first work you see. She’s American and was shocked

by Donald Trump’s election, so filmed herself for eight hours repeatedly putting on a warped record of JF Kennedy’s speeches.

The Image Of The 3Actions.

World Can Be Different Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge

In 1957, former Tate curator Jim Ede opened his house so Cambridge gown and town could view his collection of artfully arranged pebbles and works by Miro and Moore. A decade later, Kettle’s Yard Trust built a gallery next door – now, after a twoyear re-design, it is to re-open with a dashing import of new art. 10 Feb. kettlesyard.co.uk

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Christopher Wood, Self-Portrait (1927)

We’re showing four pieces

by Khadija Saye, who died in the Grenfell Tower fire. They are brilliant black and white photos of her dressed up as a Victorian black woman. She was a very special person but I came across her work before I met her. This is her first really mature work and although there isn’t much of it, they are really good.

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PHOTOS: © C.LEBEDINSKY; COURTESY MICHAEL CRAIG-MARTIN AND THE ALAN CRISTEA GALLERY, LONDON; © KLAUS DILGER

Inji Efflatoun, Untitled (1942)

PHOTOS: IMAGE COURTESY COLLECTION OF SHEIKH HASSAN. M. A. AL THANI QATAR; COURTESY OF SOUTHAMPTON CITY ART GALLERY, HAMPSHIRE, UK / BRIDGEMAN IMAGES; © PHILIPPA GEDGE

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THE GUIDE

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

FIVE O F TH E B E ST

POETRY BOOKS FOR CHILDREN

Reviews, previews and pint-sized poetry

THE WAGGIEST TAILS: POEMS WRITTEN BY DOGS From ferocious guard dogs to dancing chihuahuas, this collection proves they all have a story to tell.

Out 1 Feb, Otter-Barry Books

CHARLIE AND ME: 421 MILES FROM HOME Encourages wanderlust as Charlie and his big brother bid Preston goodbye and set off for Cornwall.

Out 11 Jan, Templar Publishing PR E VI E W

TANZTHEATER WUPPERTAL PINA BAUSCH – VIKTOR, Sadler’s Wells, EC1 PHOTOS: © C.LEBEDINSKY; COURTESY MICHAEL CRAIG-MARTIN AND THE ALAN CRISTEA GALLERY, LONDON; © KLAUS DILGER

PHOTOS: IMAGE COURTESY COLLECTION OF SHEIKH HASSAN. M. A. AL THANI QATAR; COURTESY OF SOUTHAMPTON CITY ART GALLERY, HAMPSHIRE, UK / BRIDGEMAN IMAGES; © PHILIPPA GEDGE

THIS IMAGE: Jim Skull, Untitled (2009) BELOW LEFT: Michael Craig-Martin, …and a Cello (2002)

R E VI E W

NATURE MORTE Guildhall Art Gallery, EC2

In English, it’s ‘still life’. Over the channel, they say ‘nature morte’, which means ‘dead nature’. Curator Michael Petry has taken this translation literally as this celebration of the macabre proves. Paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries show where the fascination started, however it is the modern element of the exhibition that is most intriguing. Jim Skull’s beaded skull glistens peacock blue while Paul Hazelton’s Fright Wig – a skull made entirely of dust with a duster for hair – hangs ominously in the air. A taxidermied rabbit

by Nancy Fouts with hair rollers in its coiffed fur looks over the deathly scene. Delightfully ghoulish. Until 2 April. cityoflondon.gov.uk

Pina Bausch was a daring innovator, famous for her inclusive collaboration technique and uniquely abstract choreography. In Café Müller (1978), her blindfolded dancers stumbled into chairs and tables. Following her death in 2009, the company continued with her eclectic style. Viktor is intriguingly ghostly: a couple of dead souls found in a grave become a source of light and movement.

They will channel Russian folklore to Italian antiquity with musical themes from ancient times to the troubled Thirties. An iconic company at its best. 8–11 Feb. sadlerswells.com Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch brings Viktor to Sadler’s Wells

LIFE DOESN’T FRIGHTEN ME (25TH ANNIVERSARY) Basquiat’s images are enough to alarm any adult but amuse any child and Angelou’s poetry makes an inspirational pairing.

Out 9 Jan, Abrams

THE SAME INSIDE: POEMS ABOUT EMPATHY AND FRIENDSHIP Well known poets combine to present 50 poems about children’s feelings, inner life and unique sensibilities. Out 11 Jan, Pan Macmillan

CHICKEN ON THE ROOF School teacher and poet, Matt Goodfellow is an expert at inciting excitement. He takes readers across deserts and through caves as they look out for adventurous poultry. Out 1 Feb, Otter-Barry Books

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THE GUIDE THE SECRET LIFE OF THE OWL

BOOKS

WORDS & MEANINGS Richard Hopton reviews three books that spill secrets and one that touches on wood

WOODS: A CELEBRATION Robert Penn

Published to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Great Storm of October 1987, which blew down 15 million trees in Great Britain, Robert Penn’s new book is sumptuously illustrated and his prose stands up well to the glory of the photographs.

He leads the reader season by season through the woodland’s eternal cycle, noting that ‘the continual process of death and renewal is at the heart of our woodland story’.

Penn clearly has a deep affinity with woods and wood: he lives in a wooded valley in South Wales and helps out in a local woodland project. His last book, The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees, described the felling of an ash tree and its transformation into a host of objects from dominoes to kitchen worktops.

Woods is a potpourri of a book, taking in many aspects of the woodland. Penn understands the complex nature of our woodlands, their history and man’s relationship with them: an integral part of our landscape and an essential resource yet also a deeply embedded, mystical element of our national identity.

‘Woodlands,’ he says, echoing folk legends such as Robin Hood, ‘are the province of older beliefs, places of lawlessness and havens for the just.’ He invokes authors as varied as R.L. Stevenson and G.M. Hopkins, Louis MacNeice and Robert Burns to illustrate the hold of the British woodland on our imagination.

Nor does the book flinch from the science and ecology of woodlands; for example, Penn explains why leaves change colour in the autumn, how trees grow and criticises what he calls ‘the idiocy of 20th-century forestry policy’. The book explores the rich flora and fauna of our woodlands: the flowers, ferns, fungi, lichens and mosses, as well as the birdlife, mammals, insects, butterflies and beetles.

Woods is both a hymn to the beauty of our woodlands and a plea for their proper preservation and management. As Penn says, ‘The desire to appreciate and understand trees is part of what it is to be human.’ National Trust, £20

John Lewis-Stempel

This is a little jewel of a book, a cocktail of mythology and ornithology. The book begins and ends with vivid descriptions of the author’s own co-existence with the tawny owl – Old Brown – on his farm in the Welsh Marches. The book has a poetic quality about it, as if to reflect the mysterious nature of the owl and its nocturnal otherworldliness. Lewis-Stempel takes us through the varieties of owl which live in Britain, and their lifecycles, while pondering the bird’s reputation for wisdom and its longstanding association with death. Doubleday, £7.99

ROOMS WITH A VIEW: THE SECRET LIFE OF GRAND HOTELS Adrian Mourby

Rooms with a View is a potted history of 50 of the world’s best-known hotels, from London’s Savoy to Delhi’s Imperial via Venice’s Gritti Palace and Marrakech’s La Mamounia. The grand hotel is a 19thcentury concept which thrived in the early decades of the 20th and, surviving wars, depressions and the democratisation of travel, now flourishes as never before. Mourby tells the story of each hotel from its foundation alongside anecdotes about its famous guests: Hemingway weaves drunkenly through the book, Burton and Taylor scatter stardust, while Coward and Maugham sparkle and bitch. Icon Books, £12.99

THE COUNTRY HOUSE LIBRARY Mark Purcell

Libraries can stir long-buried yearnings for the contemplative life. This book, with its stunning photographs of many of Britain’s finest private libraries, adds a dash of old-world style and comfort to the mix. For a moment we can all sit at our own library table surrounded by elegant shelves of leather-bound volumes. Mark Purcell’s book is also a serious contribution to the history of the English country house, filling the gap left by architectural historians who concentrated on the libraries as building and decorative schemes rather than as collections of books. Yale, £45

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Limited to editions of 280, our newly-commissioned Art Deco posters feature glamorous holiday destinations around the world, ski resorts in the Austrian, French and Swiss Alps, and the world’s greatest historic automobiles. Over 100 designs to choose from, all printed on 100% cotton fine art paper, measuring 97 x 65 cms.

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THE GUIDE The London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony

In a nutshell, the ability to deliver 26 individual world championships in less than a fortnight, and when our teams were dropping from fatigue, then pretty much to do the same again for the Paralympic games, I added, possibly with a flourish, that no city under normal circumstances ever confronts the enormity and complexity of the project management that the delivery of a games requires.

He listened patiently as I set the scene and then slightly wearily cut to the chase.

‘Why are you so worried?’ he asked, and before I set about reinforcing my explanation, he continued, ‘You do this SPORTS stuff so well – you do great pageantry, my children can’t wait to go to London for your clubs and shows [one of them Sebastian Coe kicks off his new sporting column with a reflection was studying here] and when on the UK’s brilliance at staging world-class events it comes to sport, tell me any country that has events that challenge Wimbledon, the Grand National, Badminton y first words for this column are certainly not Horse Trials, Test matches, Cup Finals and the British revolutionary, and I doubt particularly revelatory.

BE A SPORT: Open. He knew his way around British sport. He was Put simply, the dispassionate eye – often from DIARY DATES also right. Here was someone from nine time zones a distance – is able to set into context those things away lauding this country’s ability to deliver events that that we are not always best placed to make judgments upon capture the hearts and minds of a large chunk of our from closer to home. Distance, they say, offers enchantment.

15-28 January Tennis: Australia populace, wherever we live and whatever we believe in; I think it also lends objectivity. A year before the London 2012 Open, Melbourne events that are the envy of the world. Yet only a few days Olympic and Paralympic Games, it fell to me as chair of the after this visit, I would be sitting in a town hall meeting organising committee to visit the big continental media hubs 3 Feb to 17 March Six Nations where local residents were complaining about their and set the scene for what over 200 nations could look forward inability for a few hours to park their car outside their to in the world’s biggest show in our capital city.

9–25 February Winter Olympics, house because we needed clear roads for the world’s I was born in London and I remain to this day a very Pyeongchang best cyclists to win an Olympic title. proud Londoner but as any organising committee a year So taking my leave from my Japanese friend, out from delivering an event to a global audience of over I want to dedicate future columns to those great four billion, and as an Olympian wanting to do right British sporting days out: by 10,500 other Olympians and over 4,000 Paralympians, on the courts, the pitches it is understandable that our teams, including me, realised and the tracks at some with some trepidation that we were fast approaching the of Britain’s most iconic moment of truth when the rubber would hit the road. and globally recognised One of those visits took me to Tokyo, where I met a group venues. And this year, as of athletes preparing for London at their national high every year, it’s business performance centre. It was a formidable facility – floor upon as usual. I might even floor of jaw-dropping training venues and sports science throw a spanner in the and medical research. At the end I sat quietly with an elder works and devote the statesman in Japanese sport who had been in the highest occasional column to echelons of government. ‘You look nervous,’ he courteously the odd contentious observed. I gently tried to put into context the enormity issue. We have a few of what was still left for us to do – all the test events including Six Nations returns this Feb of those in sport.

200,000 hours of stress testing around our IT systems.

THE OLYMPIAN

PHOTOS: REX FEATURES

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THE GUIDE

CARS

ROAD TEST Range Rover’s latest SUV, the Velar, is pure car couture, says Jeremy Taylor

TOWN

If the pretty Range Rover Evoque is the Gucci handbag of SUVs then the company’s new Velar is the Louis Vuitton suitcase. Big, bold and even more stylish, the Velar is set to be THE travel accessory of 2018.

With both Rolls-Royce and Lamborghini launching super SUVs over the next 12 months, all-wheel drive, luxury cars like the Velar are set to remain first choice for any well-heeled motorist. Velar slots in to the Range Rover line-up between the entry-level, compact Evoque and the rather bling Sport.

Expensive, smooth and simply gorgeous from any angle, Velar is a beauty queen in the everyday car park of BMW, Mercedes and Audi rivals. The steeply raked windscreen, low roofline and pert derrière are pure car couture. I found visibility a tad restricted around town through that narrow, rear screen but otherwise the interior is a revelation. Expect minimalist cool – with two control screens that sweep away an ugly rash of dials.

Just like the futuristic Tesla, Velar takes interior design to a whole new level. The steering wheel buttons are touch sensitive, the graphics oh-so sophisticated and the Meridian sound system is an ear-tingling joy.

Land Rover appears to have thought of everything with the multi-purpose Velar. Even vegetarians are catered for with optional, textured cloth upholstery that pretends to be leather. Mouthwatering indeed.

RATING: 4/5 handbags

LAND ROVER RANGE ROVER VELAR D240

Price £64,160 Engine 1999cc diesel Power 240bhp 0-60mph 6.8 seconds Economy 49.7mpg (combined)

COUNTRY

Velar was the code name given to the concept Range Rover back in the 1960s – so this new model has pedigree. Not that anybody would want to go mud flinging in a machine that costs upwards of £44,000 and that’s the entry-level price.

Of all the Range Rover models, this one is primarily designed for the road, with a range of eco-friendly petrol and diesel engines. No doubt a hybrid will be along soon.

Priced to fill the £30,000 gap between the Evoque and the Sport, Velar may be cute but it is still super capable on the rough stuff. Most versions feature air suspension, which allows the driver to adapt the Velar to suit the terrain – or it can manage the whole lot automatically.

High off the ground and rather chunky, I found the Velar didn’t handle with the pinpoint accuracy of a sportier BMW X5. A Porsche Macan is the best driver’s car.

It’s difficult not to fall for the Velar however, perhaps because it has the advantage of being the newest, most sought-after SUV available and looks like nothing else. German rivals do certain things better but as a beautiful package, the Land Rover is something of a head-turning tease. And you can’t really say that about any Audi, Mercedes or a BMW equivalent, can you?

RATING: 3/5 wellies

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THE GUIDE

GARDENING

SEEDER’S DIGEST

GOING POTTY

The Scottish castle saving endangered species

Planters for every style of garden

GARDEN OF THE MONTH

SKIBO CASTLE, Dornoch, Scotland

ABIGAIL AHERN Whitby tall planter, £40. abigailahern.com

Habitat degradation, climate change and over-exploitation of timber has rendered 34 per cent of the world’s conifer species threatened with distinction.

As part of a broader scheme to rehome 14,000 conifers, Skibo Castle has partnered with the Royal Horticultural Society and the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh to become a safe place for those species, including South America’s rare giant, the Chilean Patagonian Cypress. carnegieclub.co.uk

ORLA KIELY Ceramic plant pot with stand, £50. wildandwolf.com

GARDEN TRADING Latchmere raised planter, £120. gardentrading.co.uk

LIME LACE Wooden planter, £150. limelace.co.uk

FLOW ER O F TH E M O NTH

ORCHIDS

Having trained as a blacksmith in Cornwall, James Wild applies his mastery of traditional techniques with artistic flair to breathe life back into reclaimed metals. He has completed bespoke commissions of everything from boxing hares to pacing monkeys, but it’s this hackles-raised wolf that has really tapped into our primordial instincts. jameswildsculptures.co.uk

THIS MONTH

SNIP SNIP Prune shrubs, climbers and evergreen hedges while still dormant, ready for their spring growth spurt.

VEG PATCH Chit potato tubers. In layman’s terms – force old potatoes to sprout in a light and cool spot.

DON’T Be tricked into sowing too many seeds this early in the season – they will become leggy in low light levels.

LORFORDS Set of three Pic-Assiette Jardinieres, £395. lorfordsantiques.com

FERM LIVING Metal plant box, £59. trouva.com

BLOOMINGVILLE Stoneware flowerpot, £29. amara.com

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES

WILD THING

Kew Gardens looks East this year, taking a Thai twist on its annual Orchids Festival. Step inside the Princess of Wales Conservatory and leave winter at the door, for in the steamy glasshouse you will be greeted by tunnels of orchids, floating Thai umbrellas and a Bang Pa-In inspired orchid palace. Stick around for the street food and Thai massage. 10 February to 11 March. kew.org

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EXTERIORS

| INTERIORS | BIG SPACES

+44 (0) 1235 859300

David Harber.indd 1

www.davidharber.com

21/12/2017 11:57

THE GUIDE INTERVIEW

CONVERSATIONS AT SCARFES BAR

ED VAIZEY The former Tory Culture Minister had political ambition from a young age, says Charlotte Metcalf Portrait by ALEXANDRA DAO

E

on The Sunday Times and FT, so, from a young age, I’d been going d Vaizey, ex Culture Minister, is young (well – still under to galleries, theatres and the odd opera,’ says Ed. ‘It was my dream job.’

50), energetic, clever, funny, charming, cultured and Ed served as opposition culture spokesman from 2006 and then passionate about politics. So why isn’t he Tory leader? became the longest serving culture minister ever in 2010. ‘I’m most It’s a question he enjoys, given Theresa May sacked him in proud of taking culture from the fringes into the mainstream. The 2016, but he dismisses it cheerfully, claiming not to have the ambition British film industry has grown by 80 per cent in the last three years or character for the role. Yet he was raised in a political household. compared with just eight per cent in Europe. We achieved that through ‘Politics mattered at home and was always discussed,’ says Ed. tax breaks.’ He also pushed for coding in schools and put in place ‘the His father, John, was a Labour peer and Professor of Social Science most successful rural broadband programme anywhere in the world, at Brunel University but died of heart disease when Ed was just 16. reaching 4.5 million homes. You wouldn’t believe how many places ‘I often think about the arguments I’d have had with my dad if didn’t have broadband or good mobile coverage,’ he says. ‘It always he’d lived longer,’ says Ed. ‘I was a Tory from the get-go and thought amuses me that the day I was sacked by phone the PM had Thatcher was a radical, challenging the status quo. In a way, to wait 15 minutes to do it as she couldn’t get a signal.’ my father’s death set my politics in aspic.’

Ed is particularly proud of the Harmony Programme, Ed was educated at St Paul’s and Oxford and then went inspired by Julian Lloyd Webber, teaching children straight into Conservative Central Office as a researcher. in deprived areas to play an instrument in an orchestra.

‘It was an amazing job,’ he says. ‘I was writing speeches and ‘It was tears-to-the-eyes stuff seeing kids getting incredible going to meetings with cabinet ministers and MPs, who were confidence through this exercise,’ says Ed. ‘It’s expensive my equivalent of rock stars. What made it all extra special to do in every town but it’s so important that arts are was working with Ken Clarke, who was absolutely brilliant central in a school as they have such a knock-on effect.’ with wit and sparkle. It was all around the time Thatcher Wine or green tea? Green tea So what now? ‘I’m having a nice time decompressing resigned, so it was an extraordinary run of events.’ of course – I’m and spending time with my constituents,’ he says. ‘I’m an Thinking he should do a ‘proper job’ before trying almost 50.

Honorary Professor of Cultural Practice at King’s College to become an MP, Ed became a lawyer. ‘I did it all for the Cat or dog?

London, which is a real thrill, and I’m on the board of the wrong reasons and I found the Bar stultifying,’ he confesses.

I grew up with cats National Youth Theatre and BritDoc. I’m still passionate ‘I plodded along but really missed politics. Then I joined and we seem to have inherited one about culture and technology.’ the Public Policy Unit months before Labour won the from next door, He is a firm Remainer and admits he is ‘depressed’ greatest landslide since the war. I fell foul of them fast as but we’ve just got about the outcome of Brexit. ‘What makes me most no one wanted to hire a Tory researcher. So I went into PR.’ a new puppy. angry is the divisive nature of the government’s approach, Ed worked in PR until he stood as MP for Bristol Pub lunch or Michelin star? driven more by very hard ideology rather than a practical in 1997. ‘I turned a 5,000 Labour majority into a 17,000 Pub lunch, outcome that will help people with jobs and security,’ he one,’ he says, grinning ruefully. ‘When she won, the particularly The says. ‘Half the country wanted to remain and very little has incoming Labour MP, Jean Corston, looked at me and Star at Sparsholt near Wantage. been done to reassure people about the outcome.’ I persist said, “We’ve swept the scum from the streets!” I came in asking him about his long-term political ambitions again back to London on the back of a tow truck because Sharp suit or country tweeds? but he just chuckles cheerfully. ‘I just like doing things my car had blown up. It was pretty demoralising.’

I’d say a sharp suit I’m interested in and the only job I’ve ever really wanted Nevertheless, Ed made up his mind to try again after but I’ve stopped was to be Secretary of State for Culture. I’m perfectly the 2001 election, and eventually won the seat of Didcot and wearing them – I only wear clothes satisfied being on the back benches,’ he insists. ‘People Wantage in 2005. To this day, he remains MP there and has

by Sunspel. shouldn’t assume all ex ministers are bitter and twisted.’ increased the Tory share of the vote from 39 to 54 per cent.

Theatre or Ed may be content but there are, no doubt, several When David Cameron asked Ed to be his culture gardening? high ranking Tories who are quietly regretting the loss spokesman, he was delighted. ‘Normally people want a job Theatre. I’ve just of a clever, charismatic, popular and dedicated politician in the Treasury or something but I’d grown up around seen The Seagull at The Lyric. from the political front line. culture because my mother, Marina, was the art critic

IN BRIEF

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YOUNG DUDE

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Jacket, Valentino.

Jumper and trousers, both Tiger of Sweden

Luke Treadaway’s latest role is playing a young David Bowie.

BENJI WILSON meets the actor who really just wants to spread a little love Art Director NICOLE SMALLWOOD Photography JOSEPH SINCLAIR

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Jacket, Coach. T-shirt AMI Paris

L Treadaway is impeccably well mannered, good-natured and, in celebrity terms, very normal. The same can’t be said for some of the characters he has played – from a man accused of being a paedophile to his awardwinning performance in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

uke Treadaway is a little late for his interview and, as a result, slightly flustered. ‘I’m so sorry. There was an incident involving coffee and getting in to the car. It’s all okay now.’ As he takes me through what happened – he put his coffee down on the pavement as he got in to his car, a woman saw him and thought he was littering, she picked it up to give it back to him, the lid wasn’t on tightly enough, hot coffee spurted out all over her leather glove – he sounds aghast, as if he has just committed a major felony. I tell him not to be so hard on himself. ‘Well, you’ve got to try and be polite,’ he says. ‘And I would never litter.’

Treadaway, 33, is indeed impeccably well mannered, good-natured and, in celebrity terms, very normal.

The same can’t be said for some of the characters he has played – from a man accused of being a paedophile in last year’s Unspeakable on Channel 4, to his Olivieraward winning performance as Christopher in the National Theatre’s production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time in 2013. He broke on to the scene in the 2005 mockumentary Brothers of the Head, where he played conjoined twins with his own twin brother Harry. In his feature film lead in 2016, A Streetcat Named Bob, he was a homeless heroin addict with a co-star cat.

And now he’s playing David Bowie, the self-styled Cracked Actor whose whole career was a series of contradictory personae. Admittedly, in Sky Arts’ forthcoming When Bowie Meets Bolan, the Bowie Treadaway is playing is still Davy Jones, in the years before anyone had heard of him or his music.

It’s 1964 and a 17-year-old aspiring musician has been called in to his manager’s office and told that no one is buying his records. In order to stay on his books, a penniless Bowie – and this other no-hoper called Bolan – agree to paint the manager’s office.

‘It genuinely happened,’ says Treadaway. ‘It was in this office on Denmark Street in Soho and it was when Bowie and Bolan first met. So it’s basically an imagining of what the conversation might have been that afternoon, while they were... painting.’

Treadaway was in a band at school and still likes

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Suit, DSquared2.

Jumper, John Smedley. Shoes, Russell & Bromley.

Watch, Georg Jensen

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to dabble in music – he has a piano at his Highgate home – so playing one of his heroes was a daunting task. ‘There was no one like him. When I was researching the role I tried to stick to reading material that was only written about him up to that young age – and there’s not very much of it. He’s a young man into music, into clothes, who wants to be really successful but is a bit despondent that his single hasn’t sold. I was just trying to capture that young bloke wanting to get out into the world.’

Ten years out of drama school at LAMDA, Treadaway says he has also experienced both sides of the entertainment game. ‘There have been times along the way where I’ve thought, “That last job went pretty well, that was good, it felt like a step up.” And then you have six months of nearly getting things and end up wondering, “Where did that momentum go?” I remember the day of the premiere of the movie Attack the Block. At the time I just needed to make some money, so I went and helped a friend who was renovating a house. I was literally sanding floorboards that day until five o’clock and then ran back home to put on my borrowed Armani suit for the premiere. But whenever I’ve had a work drought I’ve always thought, “Well, I dress up and play make-believe for a living, so there’s a slight pay off for that...”’

Treadaway grew up in Devon, the son of an architect and a primary school teacher. Though he now lives in Highgate with his wife Ruta Gedmintas, also an actor, he still thinks of himself as a ‘country person’. ‘Because that’s where I grew up. I always think of getting out of London if I’m going to relax or go on holiday, visiting places which are dominated by nature and walking by rivers and woods.

I definitely still miss the countryside and find myself thinking maybe one day I might move there again.’

An inspiring secondary school teacher turned the country boy on to drama and that took him on to the National Youth Theatre and eventually LAMDA. And all of that meant a move to London was inevitable.

‘Leaving home when I was 18, I moved straight in to a flat in Brentford, just up past Kew, and I was getting the bus into Hammersmith every day and going to LAMDA there. It was very different to life in Devon, but when you’re 18 you’re pretty buzzing about the thought of coming up to London and meeting new people. I was suddenly at the drama

school I wanted to go to, and it was great.’

He has lived in London ever since, now settled in a home in Highgate. It’s near Hampstead Heath and that’s where he heads for a little bit of his precious countryside in the city. He and his wife have just finished renovating their new home. ‘It was just a gentle sprucing up but Ruta is probably much better at it – well, she’s the only one of us who would pin different photos and make a mood board. Which is great, because it means I can look at it and go, “Yeah, that’s good, let’s do that.”’

Luke was away most of the time the work was being done, he says, filming a second series of Fortitude and then promoting A Streetcat Named Bob in America.

It was during that tour that he got to see Donald Trump’s America first hand. He didn’t like what he saw.

‘My stomach turns just to think of him and people like him in the world. I think the one good thing about him is that it has forced us all to look at the ugliest side of humanity and have a conversation about that. Maybe we thought we’d solved some of these problems, but clearly that’s absolutely not true.’ In particular, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Treadaway is upset by Trump’s attitude to the arts. ‘I think society without culture and art would be a much poorer place but, likewise, culture and art can’t exist without society to bounce off and to create ideas from. But I absolutely think that whether it’s film, theatre or TV, art can have a profound impact on the conversation in society.’

From his own work, he points to how The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time promoted a greater understanding of autism among the many hundreds of thousands of people who saw it. ‘And I think those who saw Streetcat would come away from the film feeling like they understand what it’s like to be homeless or to suffer from addiction.’

Ever unassuming, he stops himself, keen to stress that he’s not trying to say you can save the world by acting.

But right now, he goes on, every little helps. ‘I think more than half of the world are good and caring about others and aren‘t just greedy and self-serving... but there are obviously people who are like that. Those of us who want to spread love and make the world a better place need to keep doing that more. Hopefully that will overcome.’ n

‘The one good thing about Donald Trump is that it has forced us all to look at the ugliest side of humanity.

Maybe we thought we’d solved some of these problems but it’s clearly not true’

Urban Myths: When Bowie Met Bolan will be released this spring on Sky Arts

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22/12/2017 10:52

EMPTY CHAIRS & EMPTY TABLES STEPHEN BAYLEY ponders the modern cultural phenomenon of why we’re worshipping at the altar of emptiness

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FROM TOP: The importance (and emptiness) of space: architect John Pawson designed the new-look Design Museum, formerly the Commonwealth Institute in Kensington

But Pawson was a curious choice as the designer of a museum since his aesthetic is all about getting rid of stuff, not putting it on display. When you can strip back no further, he is happy. Collections, however, disturb him.

I followed some tourists into the building and overheard, ‘Ees vair nice. But where ees museum?’ The Design Museum is empty. If some see this as a metaphor about design itself, then maybe some are very perceptive indeed.

Then there is Herzog & de Meuron’s Blavatnik Building extension of Tate Modern on Bankside, which opened in May last year. It is an irrational, fractalised look-at-me structure by a Swiss architectural pair whose

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PHOTOS: © GARETH GARDNER; © GRAVITY ROAD; © IWAN BAAN

‘W

hen you get there, there’s no there there.’ This was Gertrude Stein’s wittily damning indictment of California’s featureless Oakland, a city of 420,000 souls.

But the same judgement applies to two of London’s most recent and remarkable cultural attractions. The Design Museum opened in Kensington in 2016, in an ambitiously (some say overly so) re-purposed Commonwealth Institute, a fondly remembered fifties landmark fallen into desuetude and redundancy. Exhibitions about groundnut cultivation in Ghana did not long survive The Swinging Sixties.

Famous for its ambitious (but useless) hyperbolic paraboloid roof (which somehow conveyed the naïve optimism of its imperial day), the building has been extensively evacuated and buffed up by John Pawson, an architect rightly famous for his majestic treatment of light and space. A poet of emptiness, you might say.

Pawson was introduced to the Cistercian monasteries of the Var by the romantic traveller Bruce Chatwin and routinely pays tribute to their beautiful austerity, also admired by Le Corbusier. This ‘architecture of truth’ he has achieved in Kensington: out goes the clutter, in comes the space. The circulation of The Design Museum is elegantly conceived. Indeed, people gasp.

It is vaut le voyage, in itself.

TOP AND BOTTOM: Tate Modern’s Blavatnik Building encourages people to look out at the view not in at the art, thinks Stephen Bayley

As a consumer experience, it is one of detachment and conceptualisation rather than engagement and contact. This is the more significant as department stores and museums both emerged in the middle of the 19th century and with very similar purposes: the adoration of stuff. The only difference was in the one, the world was displayed for edification, in the other for consumption. But that was then and this is now.

The single greatest influence on the disappearance of stuff has been the smartphone. In the last decade, the know-all in your pocket has eliminated not only landlines, but hi-fi, encyclopaedias, still cameras, movie cameras, typewriters, radios and pornography, while its close relation – the tablet – has made television ‘sets’ all but redundant. Soon, smartphones will usurp many of the old-fashioned museum’s roles. What’s the Design Museum for when you can point your phone at an object and it will tell you what it is, what people think about it and where to buy it?

So remarkable is the disappearance of stuff, you could not make Mad Men today. Not just because the apex-predator adman with his martini thirst is extinct, but because the gorgeous furniture and accessories which made Matt Weiner’s

PHOTOS: © GARETH GARDNER; © GRAVITY ROAD; © IWAN BAAN

regulation black costumes are at odds with their glossy and coruscatingly stellar reputation. Visitors throng to the Blavatnik Building. They walk up and down the stairs, they breathe the air of art. Perhaps they are elevated by the experience.

But, most of all, they like going to the viewing gallery at the top of the building and taking in a vista of the City bracketed by Norman Foster’s hitherto wobbling bridge and Christopher Wren’s indestructibly secure cathedral. But they are looking out, not in. Tate Modern, you see, has no art worthy of the name to fill its new Blavatnik Building. But few visitors seem to care.

These two absurdities are eloquent of the changing nature of museums: people are less interested in looking at, examining and meditating on stuff. Instead, they are entirely happy with an undemanding (and literally vacuous) ‘visitor experience’ which ambitious, artbranded architecture provides. Culture (of a sort) may be acquired by visiting an empty space rather than by interrogating objects and images.

The elimination of stuff may be the most compelling psychological and philosophical reality of our historical moment. It goes beyond Kensington and Bankside.

Nordstrom is a Seattle-based department store with 349 luxury links in its chain, spreading across the United States. Recently, it opened its first shop with nothing at all inside it. Instead, shoppers arrive, chill out, order a drink and peruse an online catalogue, ordering up for home delivery. Nordstrom saves on the costs of managing inventory, while customers can go shopping in their head while enjoying a craft beer.

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day, the lawyers will decide, but even now we can see that the long day of the hot metal car as a phallophiliac status symbol is nearing its end.

As J.G.Ballard predicted, proper cars, the ones you might actually enjoy with loud exhausts and lascivious bodies, will soon be restricted to secure ‘motoring parks’ where ‘car enthusiasts’ can drive them under psychiatric supervision. The rest of us will be shuttled hither and yon in chaste, blameless, boring and almost invisible plastic pods.

But while the internet and automation are busy destroying the artefacts and institutions that gave modern life meaning, there are other factors involved in the disappearance of stuff, notably consumer fatigue. Many of us have had enough. Car makers no longer feature in those recurrent lists of Top 20 Cool Brands. Young people’s mobility is conceptual and internalised, not on wheels. Surveys often confirm that people would prefer to give up their car than their phone.

Global megabrands are becoming obsolete. series so meaningful and When Shoreditch intoxicatingly simply have and Brooklyn hipsters no equivalents today. disdain big brands (my In 1960 Don Draper son told me ‘there goes might have gone to bed, the neighbourhood’ when on the rare occasions J. Crew arrived on his it was empty, to dream street), this is just a of his next pink particular expression Cadillac. But today of a larger truth. More no one is going to and more consumption of bed dreaming lush manufactured goods will soon fantasies about digital seem as antique an economic encryption and search engine Who dreams of an model as the feudal system.

Apple Watch? optimisation. No one is even For so long in its history, design dreaming about an Apple Watch. was about change. Instead, it has And the annihilation of stuff become a process of repetition, not of continues. Talking macro, the internet as innovation. The latest iPhone may have functional a whole has also destroyed a lot of institutions. differences, but it is essentially the same object.

Books are marginalised, newspapers are dinosaurs But in this tale of destruction, annihilation five minutes before the asteroid struck, no one and loss, there is a stirringly positive message. builds libraries anymore. Deliveroo is forcing a The big creative challenge today is to appreciate reconstruction of the restaurant concept. Why have what we already have, not mindlessly to continue an expensive kitchen in a unique location? Why not acquiring more. Neophilia is old-fashioned. serve atomised customers from a centralised one?

Meanwhile, there are no great artists any more.

Meanwhile, most Manhattanites eat out most of the If there were, we would surely see them in Tate time. You would not want to be in the food-mixer or Modern’s Blavatnik Building. But we do not. kitchen knife retail business in the 10056 zip code.

In the fifties, Paris hosted a huge convention You want another symbol? Uber is a global transit of psychiatrists. In one of their sessions they system with no material assets. Airbnb is the world’s considered the question of art collecting... and biggest hospitality business and owns no hotels. decided it was a neurosis, possibly even a psychosis.

And we may be nearing the end of cars, at least Stuff betrays you. Stuff tells stories about you. Our as they were known to Don Draper. Autogeddon redundant machinery whispers disobliging things is imminent. It is true that the ethical aspects of the autonomous vehicle will slow its adoption: how about our cupidity and vanity. That abandoned does your robot pilot decide whether to save you, the deep-fat fryer is a memento mori.

You can live without it. n passenger, or plough into a crowded pavement? One You couldn’t make Mad Men today

NUNC DIMITTIS The smartphone has kicked these to the curb

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ENCLYOPAEDIA Googling has replaced these worthy leatherbound tomes

RADIO Worth keeping in case your network goes down, God forbid

TELEPHONE Who has a landline anymore?

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES; REX FEATURES

HI-FI With bluetooth and streaming services, the big black box is out

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20/12/2017 16:46

Mad dogs and ENGLISHMEN HUGH FRANCIS ANDERSON joins IGO Adventures to undertake a once-in-a-lifetime endurance test under the midday sun

I

t’s 40°C, the endless African sun beats down on my head, and the rocky surrounding wilderness has no end in sight. I’m in the Agafay Desert, Morocco, endlessly pounding at the pedals of my mountain bike on the first of four stages of the inaugural IGO Adventures NW05˚ Moroccan Challenge. I glance at my teammate; a wide smile is firmly etched on his face. The heat may be unbearable, our legs may be cramping and our finish line may be nowhere in sight, but we’re beyond happy; we’re in the wild.

Founded in 2015, IGO Adventures facilitates lifeaffirming journeys to some of the most spectacular corners of the globe. The first IGO Adventures event I participated in took place in Norway through the winter months.

It was there that I met my now-teammate for the first time, competing against one another. During those long cold hours, a friendship blossomed, and our mutual desire for physical and mental punishment brought us together to participate in another IGO Adventures event, this time as a team. And so, we packed our bags, boarded a flight to Marrakech and mentally prepared for what was to follow; a four-day quadrathlon through the Moroccan wilderness, from the depths of the desert to the heights of the Atlas Mountains, by bicycle, kayak and on foot.

‘At IGO, we aim to find stunning, remote locations around the world which we believe should be experienced,’ says founder Bobby Melville. ‘We are trying to create a series of annual global expedition challenges that cover every different type of terrain and environment on earth.’

Beginning from Terre des Etoiles, a luxurious desert oasis camp, the first stage brought us 50km through the scorching desert heat, where we cursed every climb and relished every decent. In 40°C heat, almost everything is

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FOUNDING FACES B O B BY M E LV I L L E & G E O R G E B U L L A R D

When Bobby Melville spent three months rowing across the Atlantic Ocean in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge in 2013, he knew that he wanted to offer the same sense of adventure to those who didn’t have a long period of time in which to do it, and so IGO Adventures was born.

It was only natural then that adventurer and explorer George Bullard joined the team shortly after. Having covered 2,000 miles on foot in polar regions, kayaked from Iceland to Scotland, and guided over 350 people on expeditions around the globe, George is a perfect fit for the company.

What is the ethos of IGO Adventures?

Bobby: To create life-changing moments within a short period of time. No one knows each other at the beginning, but they all leave as lifelong friends.

It’s about wilderness, challenge and camaraderie.

George: We live what we preach, therefore we try to take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but footprints behind. It is only when you truly expose yourself and open up to nature that you will be able to understand that what we are doing is so special.

How did the Moroccan IGO Adventure come to be?

George: Having driven a 4x4 around the entirety of northwest Africa in 2012, I knew that this part of the world was a great place for an unforgettable adventure.

The people are incredibly kind and the natural beauty and diversity lends itself perfectly to this.

What inspires the journeys you create?

Bobby: A mixture of things. In terms of geography, the ancient tales and stories from a location play a big part.

For example, travelling through the Atlas Mountains, where Berbers fought off the Roman hoards. George and I have distilled our experiences of adventure, along with many others, to create all the elements of an IGO. We create a platform to allow ordinary people to go through a journey of personal achievement and discovery in the most magical way possible, while trying to bring the entire group together for the feelings of team work and camaraderie.

Who is your typical IGOer? Bobby: Our demographic is quite mixed. Probably 30–50 years old. The typical participants would be a couple of friends, or a husband and wife who want to have a different type of shared experience and who want the mixture of travel and culture, with something physically demanding.

We have had a father and son (49 years old and 15 years old), team and single entries. Adventure is for everyone.

The next IGO Adventure NW05˚ Moroccan Challenge will take place from 30 September to 7 October 2018.

Prices start at £3,495. igoadventures.com The first stage of the four-day quadrathlon is a gruelling mountain bike ride

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a struggle. As we crossed the finish line on the first day, at the picturesque spot of Lake Lalla Takerkoust, in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains, we settled into our traditional Berber camp under stars and firelight. In such moments, you come to appreciate the wild; you come to appreciate life. Before long every participant is laughing and smiling, as if our first day has brought us all closer together.

Early the following morning, I wake to see the sun rise on a distant mountain peak; I know that today will see us kayak and orienteer high into the mountains.

As the horn blows for the second stage to begin, we career down to the lake and board our craft. Little over an hour later, and we’re back on dry land. We change into our running gear, pick up a map and a compass, and head off in the direction of the faraway mountains.

Before long the path becomes unclear, and we find ourselves with fellow participants.

The sense of camaraderie outweighs any competitive edge, and we spend the next nine hours together running along dried riverbeds, hurtling through thorn fields and climbing the ever-steepening foothills. When we do finally reach our second camp, it is with joyous relief. We made it, and we did it as a group, as friends and as teammates. After trekking through the foothills for almost 50km, we all head to bed in utter exhaustion, slowly falling asleep to the sound of a distant Arabic lute.

We awake early on the penultimate day.

From our elevation, the rising sun casts the basin around us in an awe-inspiring golden light. I may be tired, but I’m more eager to go than ever before. And so we clamber onto our mountain bikes once more, this time to cycle high into the Atlas Mountains. There will be no respite, only endless inclines. I notice how drastically the scenery has changed, just two days ago we were in the middle of the desert, with nothing but sand and rock, and now we’re cycling through the mountains, surrounded by vegetative plateaus and jagged peaks. I’m blown away. And so too is my body. Before the day is done I fall captive to heat exhaustion, and had it not been for my teammate and the other participants, I surely would never have made it. Once again, I’m astounded by the level of camaraderie shown by all.

The sound of the wind wakes me on our final day, and I emerge from my tent to the bitter chill of the mountain breeze. Today sees the long scramble to Oukaïmeden, Africa’s highest ski resort, some 2,600m above sealevel. Are we really in Morocco? It may only 78 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | February 2018

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: The lull of the lute playing aids a good night’s sleep; an uphill struggle; the finish line at last; camping out under the Moroccan skies; sheer exhaustion; a welcome descent

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be 15km in distance, but it’s going to hurt. So we set off at a light run, hoping to knock off some time on the plateau before the climbing begins. But alas, before long, the nearvertical mass of mountain erupts unceremoniously before us and we begin the scramble. After three hours, my legs burn, the lactic acid bites at my muscles, but I can see the finish line up ahead, and with a renewed energy my teammate and I sprint across the finish line. The sense of achievement is almost unfathomable. Those already through embrace us, and we all staunchly man the finish line to cheer on our fellow comrades.

As we settle down around a warming fire in our final camp, high up in the Atlas Mountains, I look at the glowing faces around. Four days ago, these people were strangers, but now there’s a familiarity in their eyes that will never wane. This is what IGO Adventures is really about. It’s about getting out into the wilderness, pushing yourself to the edge and making lifelong friends. As I board the plane back to London, my teammate glances quizzically at me, ‘You know there’s an IGO event in Montana next September?’ I roll my eyes, ‘OK, I’m in.’ n

NUTRITION Tribe Infinity Energy, £28. wearetribe.co

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21/12/2017 11:58

TOP: Clayson Benally, Navajo horse whisperer, dancer and musician BELOW: The Restival encampment

Arizona

MUSING TIM LOTT fails to find his desert-based digital detox transformational but he does have a high old time

I

have always been a bit of a sucker for wellness retreats – which, statistically at least, makes me quite unusual for a man. The overwhelming majority of those who take wellness holidays are women and the men who do go are often in tow with their partners.

I have been massaged, reiki-ied, acupunctured and yoga’d from Hoxton to the Himalayas and have been made countless promises about transformation, restoration, healing and spiritual cleansing.

Most of these promises have proved to be largely hollow, but this has not stopped me going on the retreats, simply because 1) I live in hope, and 2) I enjoy the extraordinary level of positivity and cheerfulness that these

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retreats always seem to generate. However, my trip to Restival in the Arizona desert was my first visit to a ‘wellness festival’ (a sort of al fresco retreat crossed with a hippy holiday camp).

Founded by the entrepreneur Caroline Jones a few years ago, Restival is a moveable feast of tranquility and rest.

Previously they held events in the Sahara desert – now it has relocated to a ranch a few miles outside Flagstaff, Arizona.

I was attracted to the idea only marginally by the wellness aspect – you don’t have to cross the Atlantic to get your aura tweaked – but more by the location in the heart of wilderness.

Then there is the possibility of immersing yourself in the native culture (in this case, Navajo), and the sheer relief of being away from the internet and satellite phone signals – the site was off-grid. And then there is the luxury tent, with double bed and private bathroom and shower (I’m getting a bit too old to do the Glastonbury camping in mud thing).

I missed the opening ceremony, but arrived on the second day of the five-day festival to hear the address given by presiding life coach Annie Loyd, who welcomes us with her confident proclamation – ‘transformation WILL happen’. I can’t remember much of the rest of her speech but it used a lot of the vocabulary that is customary within wellness culture – ‘flow’, ‘grounded’, ‘healing’, ‘space’, ‘clarity’ and, above all, dealing with ‘traumas, anxieties, griefs and past lives’.

My problem was really that I didn’t particularly have any problems, either spiritual or physical, that I thought I needed to deal with. Such ‘issues’ tend to be mandatory in these spaces – a lot of the people attending seemed to have suffered damage of some kind or another. ‘Relationship issues, loss of loved ones’ and ‘trauma’ were high on the advertised healing agenda; I didn’t tick any of the boxes.

But still, I was determined to enjoy myself, even if I didn’t expect to emerge onto a higher plane with all my psychic wounds – should I be able to locate them – cauterised.

The experience wasn’t always easy. Part of this was down to bad luck – a wind whipped up as soon as I arrived and didn’t abate for several days, which meant that not only was peace and quiet hard to come by, but using the purely outdoor common space could easily turn into a bit of an ordeal.

Sleeping could also be a problem for all the comfort of my

ABOVE: A musical interlude BELOW: Members of the Festival team decorate the shipping container they use as accommodation

tipi, since it got chilly at night and even the extra blanket didn’t really do the trick.

However the site itself is striking, even romantic. There is an open-sided tented area for communal eating (the food was outstanding, organic and, of course, catering for 21st-century allergies, intolerances and general allround veganism) and hanging around with other guests. Up on a hill there was a small temple made out of reclaimed materials with faux stained glass windows forged from keys, pebbles, mirrors and beads, and an exterior largely constructed from old hubcaps, the tops of oil cans and car number plates. Here you could do kundalini yoga and, at dawn, ‘sound immersions’ (i.e. recorded avant-garde music) to greet the sunrise.

There was a podgy little round Navajo traditional dwelling – a ‘hogan’ – where we gathered for meetings and lessons on native culture. Also, a Navajo sweat lodge (of which more later). And for the evening there was an open arena, enclosed within the skeleton of a geodesic dome, at the centre of which – at night – was a vast bonfire.

Pillars of fire also greeted you as you entered the arena after dark (the setup was taken from the Burning Man festival which takes place next door in Nevada). There is a Gaudì-esque consultation room – the ‘Gnome Dome’ – a number of bright painted shipping containers that host the staff and four individual spas in the only permanent buildings on site. There was also a psychedelic bus straight out of the ‘Electric Kool-Aid Acid Tests’.

The investment in the five-day break is largely justified by the location – in the black scrubby desert with a site

But still, I was determined to enjoy myself, even if I didn’t expect to emerge onto a higher plane with all my psychic wounds – should I be able to locate them – cauterised

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FROM TOP: One of the horses used in the horse whispering demonstrations; letting it all hangout; tasty organic platters were put on by the catering team; the geodesic dome: where the dancing and entertainment takes place at night, brought in from the Burning Man festival.

of distant mesas. It was a powerful kick to be under such a vista of stars – you don’t see constellations or horizons like that in north-west London (even though it was hard not to laugh at the vocal and excitable UFO spotters that were convinced Mars was a flying saucer).

The warmth and friendliness of everyone I met – you couldn’t really walk more than ten yards without being hugged – made a pleasant sociable and soothing background to the individual treatments and experiences that were laid on. Also it was small and intimate with only around 65 guests, so it was easy to make connections.

The treatments and practitioners varied in quality. I had a tarot reading that was so wildly and consistently inaccurate it reduced me to helpless giggles, which, to the great credit of the clairvoyant, she joined in with quite happily. One of the spa rooms could only be described as tawdry, with low ceilings and insufficient privacy (only a curtain separated me from the client being tortured – I mean treated – in the adjacent space).

The Navajo teachings of local tribesman Thomas Walker – and we were treated to a fair number of these – were very long on delivery and fairly short on content. Likewise the (equally overlong) talk from the Navajo NASA astronomer David Begay, which sent me into a relaxation mode so deep I fell asleep. And

a comedy routine from a ‘native mask maker’ was simply so embarrassing I had to escape back to my tent. The evening entertainment, incidentally, which includes music, talks and dancing is what distinguishes it from a retreat and edges it into the category of ‘festival’.

But there were some real high points.

I have never had the experience of a Navajo sweat lodge before, but it was basically a tent filled with burning logs, and six naked men. The temperature was at times unbearable, but there was genuine sharing among the men taking part, some of them breaking down into tears as they ‘spoke their truth’. It was, for me, one of the high points of the week.

The other zenith came on the final night. We had already met members of the Benally Navajo family – on the second night they gave a performance, while Clayson, the son, gave demonstrations of horse whispering during the week and his sister, Jeneda, practised Navajo bone setting, a procedure which she had practiced on me earlier in the week (not as painful as it sounds).

But then, at the end of the festival,the young and beautiful siblings joined with their nonagenarian father and did a sort of Navajo-cum-punk-band performance (with attendant fire dancers) that was so energetic, original and exciting – and surprising – it made it worth the price of the ticket alone. By the time the evening was over, I was genuinely transformed, at least until the next morning.

Admittedly by this time someone had (finally) passed me a funny smelling cigarette, which did seem to assist the transformative experience somewhat.

But the farewell concert – combined with a genuine heartfelt tribute to the muchloved founder, Caroline Jones – made it a night to remember. And did more than compensate for some of the experiences I would be happy enough to forget. n Five nights from £1,950 for a sharing Navajo tipi, all-inclusive, except for spa treatments. restivalglobal.com

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Drive me to

THE MOON The Moon will soon be the dream destination for wealthy travellers – how close can the rest of us get without paying the earth? JEREMY TAYLOR travels across America to find out

T

hey call it the new space race – a billion-dollar battle to send paying customers on a trip around the Moon. Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson and PayPal founder Elon Musk are both staking their reputations on commercial rockets that will eventually offer intergalactic tourism at down-to-earth prices.

Both claim their projects will boldly go skyward by the end of 2018. NASA is already working with Musk’s SpaceX team on a mission to send two unnamed civilians around the Moon.

The man behind electric car company Tesla wants to make space travel as easy as hopping on an aeroplane.

Meanwhile, Sir Richard has vowed to put passengers into space in the next 18 months aboard his Virgin Galactic programme, based in New Mexico. Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt are already signed up for the trip of a lifetime.

Despite their pioneering efforts to turn us all into space men and women, it could still be decades before space tourism doesn’t cost millions of dollars a ticket. So how can you have the space-themed holiday of a lifetime now – without actually leaving terra firma?

I’ve organised a 2,000-mile road trip across America that includes some of the best space-related tourist venues in the country. It begins at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida and will

FROM TOP: Man on the moon; Richard Branson is planning to send people into space within the next 18 months

cross seven states to Flagstaff, Arizona – where astronauts trained to drive the original lunar buggy back in the 1960s.

The concierge at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando is doing his best to explain how it feels to watch a rocket launch. He beats his chest with two fists and becomes more and more animated. ‘You can feel your heart pumping – the thrust from the engines vibrates through the landscape. There’s a flash of fire, the ground seems to move and then the flame soars into the sky.’

A rocket launch is visible from almost anywhere on the Florida peninsula. Some take their cars to New Smyrna Beach and soak up the atmosphere with a barbecue, others make their way to the Kennedy Space Centre Visitor Complex, the closest and busiest viewing spot.

I timed my space age trip to coincide with a rocket launch but the mission has been delayed. Instead, astronaut Sam Durrance tells me what lift off feels like from the inside.

PHOTO: REX FEATURES

Photography by JESSICA SAUNDERS

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PHOTO: REX FEATURES

‘It’s like hanging on to a runaway train at 17,000 mph. You can’t stop it – there’s no getting off.’

Lunch with An Astronaut is one of the most popular activities at Kennedy Space Centre. Durrance is an American scientist who spent 25 days in space on two missions to the International Space Station. He is still visibly moved by the experience during our conversation.

‘Space tourists will look back at our planet and see how fragile it is. Obviously there is nothing like it on Earth.

I’m too old to go back but what I experienced up there will live with me forever.’

Durrance has degrees in physics and astrogeophysics but what are the most common questions people ask at the dinner table? ‘They want to know how we go to the toilet in space – and what the food tastes like.

Neither answer is very edifying.’

From Orlando it’s a nine-hour drive to the John C Stennis Space Centre – a rocket base on the MississippiLouisiana border that was originally used as a test centre for the Apollo programme. En route is the Battle House hotel in Mobile, Alabama, where NASA engineers and those early astronauts would sometimes break their journey.

I’m at the wheel of a hired Lamborghini Huracán, the closest I could get to a road-going rocket ship.

It has air conditioning and cruise control, unlike the fast but uncomfortable Corvette Stingrays most astronauts were given to drive back in the 1960s.

Even so, the historic hotel can’t come soon enough, with temperatures touching 39°C on the road. There’s a colonial atmosphere, although the best place to get close to stars is Dauphin’s restaurant, on the 34th floor of the neighbouring Trustmark Building.

Nearby New Orleans is a good base from which to visit Stennis. It’s also home to the Michoud Assembly Facility, where the first stage engines of the Apollo rockets were built. Later, the enormous external fuel tanks for the Shuttle were constructed there too.

The next day, it takes less than an hour to reach Stennis. The Infinity Science Centre is the official visitor

FROM TOP: The huge rocket burners on a Saturn V rocket at Cape Canaveral; astronaut Sam Durrance; 1960s astronaut suit at Kennedy Space Centre; music fills the streets of New Orleans

complex and offers an educational approach, compared to the theme park razzmatazz of Kennedy. A guide confides that the best time to visit is when a rocket test is taking place, although it’s pot-luck choosing because there is no official schedule.

When I arrive in Houston five hours later, the Buffalo Bayou river has flooded. I’m staying at The Sam hotel in the city centre, unaware that, two weeks later, the entire area will be devastated by Hurricane Harvey.

The historic hotel survived and even managed to stay partly open through much of the disaster.

Johnson Space Centre, on the outskirts of the city, is where NASA’s mission control directed flights from the launch pad at Kennedy Space Centre. Its visitor complex – Space Centre Houston – has an overwhelming number of displays, all dwarfed by the 747 aircraft parked outside and the Shuttle replica loaded on top of it.

Driving west again through San Antonio and onwards along the Mexican border, even the scenery in this part of Texas seems a little space age. The huge skylines and lunarstyle desert have turned the sandscape into an other-worldly sort of place, where little seems to survive the extreme heat.

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FROM TOP: Road-going rocket – the Lamborghini Huracán ready for take-off at Kennedy Space Centre; the Gage hotel in Marathon, Texas, is an otherworldy place; Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon

a handful of the 12 men who walked on the surface are alive today – Armstrong himself died in 2012.

Seeing their original boot marks in the dust of the moon could be the highlight of future space tourism. And think of the Air Miles you could clock up on a 478,000-mile round trip... n Hayes & Jarvis offers a 13-night USA road trip from Orlando to Phoenix on a room-only basis from £2,195 per person. The offer includes ‘standard’ car hire and return international flights from Gatwick with British Airways (hayesandjarvis.co.uk). Hire a Lamborghini from £1,160 a day (orlandoexoticcarrentals.com).

PHOTO: REX FEATURES

appear over the desert in neighbouring town Marfa. Everybody seems to have an alien story to tell here. And as if to prove it, just across the border in New Mexico is the International UFO Museum.

The next day, en route to El Paso, I visit the McDonald Observatory, near Fort Davis. In the wilderness of Texas, the dome-like structures look like they could have descended from outer space. The weekly Star Parties aren’t a chance to enjoy cocktails with the Hollywood elite but an educational tour of space with a well-briefed boffin.

The final 800-mile drive west on the I-10 takes two days. In 40°C , the road often disappears in an illusory act caused by the heat haze.

My final destination is Arizona – and for good reason.

The rocky landscape outside my window at the luxurious Phoenician hotel near Phoenix is a clue. Just up the road from the Waldorf Astoria resort at Flagstaff is the spot where a dormant volcano was transformed into an astronaut training ground in 1967 to trial the original lunar rover.

Thousands of tonnes of explosives were used to recreate the craters of the Sea of Tranquillity, the site where Armstrong and Aldrin would make their historic landing two years later. NASA used detailed satellite photographs of the moon to get the terrain just right – although, as I stand next to the area today, a relentless wind has reduced the surface to flat desert again.

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C&TH

THE INSIDER INTERIORS · LIVING · DESIGN

ANIMAL MAGNETISM Having already caught the eye of the design cognoscenti – Sienna Miller has been snapped wearing one of her bracelet designs – this is Emma J Shipley’s first foray into fabrics and wallpapers, with a mystical animal print collection for Clarke and Clarke.

Welcome to the jungle. £49 p/m. clarke-clarke.co.uk

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THE INSIDER Jonathan Adler Jonathan Adler Haines emerald velvet armchairs, £1,595 each; Turner vitrine, £4,290; Electrum sconce, £695. uk.jonathanadler.com

TREND

LIVE LIFE TO THE MAX Down with minimalism, long live maximalism

Delcor Duke sofa in Kate Spade marble, £2,558. delcor.co.uk

Arteriors Home Aramis sconce, £1,472. arteriors home.com

Liberty Peacock velvet cushion, £110. liberty.co.uk

Bruce McLean x 1882 Ltd Platter, £600. vam.ac.uk/shop

Perch & Parrow Arun mirror, £34. perchandparrow.com

Asprey Campaign chest, £28,000. asprey.com

Francis Sultana Baku centre table, £32,000. francissultana.com

The Knot Collective Luke Insect rug, £375. knotcollective.com Top Floor by Esti FanFan rug, £1,140 per sq/m. topfloorrugs.com

Doshi Levien x John Lewis Nami high back armchair, £1,199. johnlewis.com

Scarlet Splendour Maldone coat hanger, £2,160. scarletsplendour.com Nina Campbell Beaufort sofa, £5,631. ninacampbell.com

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THE INSIDER

INTERIORS

DESIGN NOTES News and inspiration from the world of interiors.

By Carole Annett WELL CONNECTED I like the unexpected colour combination of mustard and pink in this cotton/polyester fabric, Twist. From the Talents collection at Zimmer + Rohde. £120p/m. zimmer-rohde.com

SMART MONOCHROME

A go-to smart monochrome fabric that would smarten up any interior.

Machine-embroidered fabric in black and white, £210 per/m or £150 as a 50 x 50cm cushion. vanderhurd.com

GIVE US A TWIRL

These door knobs remind me of a gentleman’s moustache. £384 per pair, in any standard finish. charlesedwards.com

SO FUR SO GOOD

Cleverly sewn together from off-cuts from the fashion industry, these luxurious shearling throws cost between £500 and £1,500, while the 50 x 50cm cushions with pad cost £70. batterbury.co.uk

LONG AND LEAN

Pile magazines or books next to a chaise longue as its languorous shape is designed for me-time. Hunstrete design in matt velvet mallard, £1,047. willowandhall.co.uk

WALL ART Make space for a beautiful wall-hung tapestry.

Early 18th century Aubusson verdure tapestry in wool and silk, 160 x 130cm, £7,000, from a selection at Julia Boston. juliaboston.com

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WISPY WATERCOLOUR A study of quills and feathers on cotton – lovely as curtains or made into cushions for a country cottage look. Quill natural, £59 per/m. designersguild.com

BURN BABY BURN A wood-burning stove creates a focal point as well as providing an excellent source of heat

CHIN CHIN

Up the ante when you’re entertaining with a drinks’ trolley – so welcoming whether you’re offering breakfast juice or an apéritif. Loulou bar trolley console, £299. atkinandthyme.co.uk

WEATHER WARNING

Abstract clouds inspired this Shale Storm design. Wool/silk, 2.44 x 3.04m, from the Stark Sapphire collection, £10,840. starkcarpet.co.uk

INTO THE ARK

A riot of colourful animals from the Hacienda collection at Andrew Martin. Tiki Tiki Carnival, cotton, £59.90 p/m. andrewmartin.co.uk 1 Anyone for mulled wine? The multifuel Stanford 80+ from Eurostove has a cooking plate. From £1,957. eurostove.co.uk 2 This neat design from Danish company Morsø has a flue at the back. £2,670. morso.co.uk 3 ACR’s Ashdale multi-fuel stove has a high heat output so is suitable for medium to large-sized rooms. £1,550. acrstoves.com 4 Mendip Stove’s Ashcott wood-burning stove needs only 150mm of space at the rear as all the heat is projected forward.

From £925. mendipstoves.co.uk 5 The Belgravia six-series multi-fuel stove in sage green costs £1,812 from Chesneys. chesneys.co.uk

LOOK BACK IN STYLE

Interior designer Francis Sultana’s Jordanna coffee table mixes precious bronze with simple straw in a lacquered marquetry design. Table, 40 x 120 x 120cm, £7,225 each or use in a sequence of four as here. francissultana.com February 2018 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 93

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THE INSIDER

FOCUS

SLEEPING BEAUTIES

1

2

3

4

1 Michaelis Boyd designed the interiors for this chic bedroom with a pop of floral frivolity on an upholstered chair in a contemporary new hotel, Kimpton de Witt, Amsterdam (michaelisboyd.com). 2 Keech Green embraces chintz in this heavenly bedroom scheme for an American client. It features Lewis & Wood’s Vauxhall Gardens wallpaper, Carsten Aqua Check from Brunschwig & Fils and Brittany stone-washed linen by Nicholas Haslam (keechgreen.com). 3 Nicola Harding’s homely bedroom for The Garden House at Beaverbrook, Surrey features walls painted in Dead Salmon by Farrow & Ball and patchwork cushions by Alex Adams for The Cloth Shop. The lamp is her own design (nicolaharding.com). 4 Interior designer Jo Hamilton was inspired by Vivienne Westwood’s Magnolia Ice rug for The Rug Company in this bedroom scheme, adding a blush bench from her own collection and pendant light by Lindsey Adelman (johamilton.co.uk).

PHOTO: JAMES MACDONALD PHOTOGRAPHY

The professionals show how to mix and match with colour and texture in these bedroom schemes

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THE INSIDER DESIGN Q&A

VICTOR SANZ

PACK LIKE A PRO Inside Victor’s case

The creative director of luggage brand Tumi blends art and design

TECH Leica TL2. us.leica-camera.com

Victor Sanz

to keep things out of landfill.

SHIRT Rag & Bone. rag-bone.com

Where do you find inspiration? I was sitting

ABOVE: Tumi Deonne Domed Satchel BELOW: Dara Carry-All and Super Leger International Carry-On, both by Tumi

What was your most recent find? The black trousers that I’m wearing. I found them a few days ago at Oak, a small Brooklyn-based company.

Favourite room in the house? My kitchen in the country in New Jersey. It centres on a massive island where we do everything from cooking to making art.

in Newark airport with a seven-hour layover and I was looking at the luggage I was travelling with and thought that it would be fantastic if I was instead looking at a piece of sculpture or art – and so we created the 19 Degree case.

What’s the last piece of art you bought? A pair of sneakers that were a collaboration between Nike and the artist Jordan Kaws. I think it’s amazing that artists are doing a lot with product these days. Those will sit on my shelf for a bit – they’re not going on my feet just yet.

What look are you hoping will fall out of favour?

Most extravagant thing you’ve bought for your home?

Fedoras. I just don’t know why they are still around.

I’m waiting for them to disappear.

A set of Magis Chair Ones that I’ve been waiting to buy since I started my design career. I loved them but they just didn’t work in the space – they were too heavy to move around. I waited 20 years to get them but now all I can do is sit there and stare at them in storage.

Unsung design hero? Creatives who bridge the gap between art and design. I met the designer Sebastian Errazuriz in New York recently who makes furniture that’s like art – it’s really dynamic and kinetic.

What should never have seen the light of day? We went through a period where people were just designing to design new things, instead of designing things that have longevity.

Designers have a responsibility

of her work but I would mostly love to know if her home reflected her work or a complete juxtaposition.

Which designers do you have your eye on? When I was coming up in the industry there was Marc Newson, who is still one of my favourites. He bridges the gap between fashion and design. Everything Frank Gehry touches turns to gold.

What do you collect? I’ve been adding to a collection of animal skulls ever since I started to study fine art. You can always find form in nature – Mother Nature has got it figured out.

How can we live more self-sufficiently? Making wiser choices when we purchase products by not buying into things that are disposable. Quality is luxury and luxury is longevity.

What’s always in your suitcase? My sketchbook and all my art tools, so that if an idea pops into my head I can get it down on paper. It would be the first thing I would grab before the boat went down.

SOCKS Paul Smith. paulsmith.com

GROOMING Malin+Goetz. malinandgoetz.co.uk

T-SHIRT Comme des Garçons. comme-desgarcons.com

Whose home would you most like to have a nose around? Zaha Hadid’s – I’m a really big admirer TRUNKS Orlebar Brown. orlebarbrown.com

SHOES Nike. nike.com

SUNGLASSES Barton Perreira. bartonperreira.com

February 2018 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 95

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C&TH

FOOD & TRAVEL E AT · D R I N K · E S C A P E

N O R WAY

CHASING DAEMONS Sam Kinchin-Smith braves arctic Svalbard to follow in the footsteps of Philip Pullman’s gutsy heroine

Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy put Svalbard in the spotlight

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I

haven’t been able to find out whether Philip Pullman ever visited Svalbard before he began writing the His Dark Materials trilogy in the mid-Nineties. In my experience, these novels represent the main reason why people in the UK have heard of the Norwegian archipelago – if they’re not one of his many readers who assume it’s a made-up place. Pullman recently told NPR that he doesn’t ‘like travel very much... I’d rather sit at home and make it up,’ so I guess not.

But if a certain amount of ‘making it up’ went into Pullman’s Svalbard – from the beautiful witches and the hideous ‘cliff-ghasts’ his protagonist Lyra encounters on her way there, to the polar bear palace where she’s briefly imprisoned – its fantasy turns out to be rooted in a remarkably close reading of the archipelago’s historical reality.

It’s not just mountains, mines and northern lights; one of the most dramatic chapters in the archipelago’s story, told by the Svalbard Museum, describes a race to the North Pole won by the airship Norge, which took off from Spitsbergen in 1926. So that’s why Pullman has Lyra get there in Lee Scoresby’s hot air balloon, pursued by Mrs Coulter’s zeppelin. And when I hear about Kristian Birkeland’s auroral experiments with a magnetosphere in the far north of Norway, during a boozily atmospheric slideshow at Hurtigruten Svalbard’s Camp Barentz, I recall the ending of the first book, Northern Lights, in a flash: the indelible image of Lord Asriel crouched in the snow with his dæmon and a sledge full of apparatus, tearing open the Aurora-painted sky...

I’ve come to Longyearbyen, the world’s northernmost small town, because Pullman has written another novel set in the parallel universe of His Dark Materials, the first for 17 years. And while none of the action of The Book of Dust takes place any further north than Uppsala, in Sweden, with Pullman the (golden) compass always points to places where it’s ‘cold and blank and wild’.

The Scandinavian travel industry is not unaware of his uniquely potent articulation of the particular charms of the far north, but Best Served Scandinavia take it further than most, offering a specific Philip Pullman itinerary. He’s everywhere in the brochure but nowhere once my surprisingly busy plane lands: nobody seems to have heard of the books, perhaps because British tourism is still pretty new for Svalbard.

No sign of the stars of Pullman’s show – that is to say, polar bears and the Aurora – either. As I’m driven the short distance between the airport and Longyearbyen, via the glittering entrance to the Global Seed Vault, the plant diversity stronghold to which the world will turn when the apocalypse comes, my brilliant guide Ida explains. While much is made of the ever-present risk of polar bear raids – nobody leaves the town without a high-powered rifle, many of them antiques from the Second World War, when the archipelago was a Nazi outpost (the soldiers stationed here were the last to find out that they’d lost) – a tourist’s chances of encountering one are vanishingly small.

As for the Northern Lights, a proper show requires such

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PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES; © SAM KINCHIN-SMITH

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Though they star in Pullman’s novels, polar bears failed to show this time; The ‘Polar Permaculture’ tent, which supplies Svalbard with fresh vegetables and herbs; try your hand at ‘mushing’ with huskies; Longyearbyen by the light of a supermoon; icebergs the size of houses

FOOD & TRAVEL

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES; © SAM KINCHIN-SMITH

Compensation arrives in the form of the last supermoon of the year, which illuminates Spitsbergen’s landscape of white peaks and dark seas with an enchanted clarity

a coincidence of factors – the position and intensity of the auroral oval, clear skies and a willingness to be outside in the (-15°C) cold, looking up at the right time – that Aurora hunting can be a frustrating business.

Your chances improve (but not much) during the polar night, between mid-November and late January, when the sun never rises and Pullman’s ‘great curtains of delicate light’ can be witnessed during the day.

This is what keeps the phenomenon phenomenal, of course, so no complaints, not least because spectacular compensation arrives in the form of the last supermoon of the year, which illuminates Spitsbergen’s landscape of white peaks and dark seas with an enchanted clarity that’s brightest at midnight. Set against this glow-in-the-dark backdrop, Longyearbyen’s many comforts feel like the stuff of magic.

Base camp for the weekend is the Radisson Blu Polar, the world’s northernmost full-service hotel, which started life as journos’ lodgings for the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, before being dismantled, packed onto boats and reconstructed at the top of the world.

It houses a pub selling pints of the island’s own microbrews, a restaurant offering a smörgåsbord of Norwegian Christmas fare and pickled seafood (including whale and treacly seal), hot tubs, generous suites and a 24-hour Aurora alert service. Other restaurants in town include Rabalder Café & Bakery for flat whites, cinnamon buns and nourishing soups, and Coal Miners’ Bar & Grill, a classy conversion of the mess hall where Longyearbyen’s miners used to eat, before they

were replaced with the town’s new generation of scientists and tour guides (a taxi driver I chat to mourns the departure of these men who ‘lived like there’s no tomorrow’).

Only one Norwegian mine remains active, ‘No 7’, which glows red and looms over the valley, 10km out of town, where much of Svalbard’s organised fun takes place. There’s a community of Russian and Ukrainian miners in Barentsburg, only accessible in the winter by boat or snowmobile. I don’t go that far on my own ski-doo adventure but I do spend a morning accelerating into the dark blue fog of the wilderness, skating past frozen lakes and buzzing through mountain passes.

It’s a hell of a trip, only surpassed by another journey straight out of Northern Lights, this time pulled by huskies. Green Dog Svalbard offers guided tours for wannabe mushers, and trusts me with my own team of heroic hounds shockingly quickly. As I slide away from the deafening racket into a sudden and complete silence, save for the padding of the dogs, for the first time I feel I understand why, for Lyra, the Arctic Circle feels like a homecoming; her ‘sleepy thrill of perfect happiness, to be speeding north under the Aurora’. n Best Served Scandinavia’s four-day Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights break, from £1,220 per person inc flights and three nights’ B&B at Radisson Blu Polar Hotel, a husky sledding excursion and Northern Lights evening at wilderness Camp Barentz inc transfers and dinner. 0207 664 2241; best-served.co.uk February 2018 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 99

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FOOD & TRAVEL Halycon sleeps ten

TEN REASONS WHY I LOVE

YOUNG TURK

T R AV E L N E W S

THE HOTEL WIZARD It’s all Turkish delight for Fiona Duncan

Accessible only by boat, a wooden shack perches above the rocky shore in Kalkan. The word ‘restaurant’ is crudely painted in red across a torn sheet that flaps in the breeze.

Known to insiders as the Fish Shack, it has no formal name. Chickens peck on the ground, the coffee is boiled on an open fire and guests help bring out the dishes of tomato salad, aubergine, cucumber and yoghurt, bunches of rocket and spring onion, chicken kebabs and grilled fish from the primitive kitchen. Sitting on comfy cushions at a low table, gazing at the sea view, reveling in the glorious weather, you know you are somewhere special.

This is the favourite restaurant of Robin and Judy Hutson, who have been coming here for 20 years. ‘Where do you think I got the idea for The Pigs?’ asks Robin.

ON THE TRAVEL RADAR Travel lovers, take note. The first UK exhibition of French artist Laurence de Vogüé, depicting vibrant city scenes across the world, has taken place at The Minster Gallery, Winchester, and her thrilling photographslike-paintings remain on sale in the gallery’s permanent collection. minstergallery.com.

Sophie Turnbull

You don’t have to head east to benefit from the skill of Sophie Turnbull who practices acupuncture, Tui Na (a brilliant alternative for those fearful of needles), Moxibustion, cupping and Gua Sha from her south London clinic. sophieturnbullacupuncture.com

1

The slice of steep, rugged coastline, taking in views of both town and the Mediterranean, that graphic designer Ipek Tolbas turned into a pieds dans l’eau paradise 30 years ago.

2

Breakfasting on a roof terrace high above the sea having walked up the 181-step ‘Stairway to Heaven’ after an early morning swim – you deserve to tuck in.

3

The hammocks and sunloungers on the decks and rocky platforms of the hotel’s private beach club…

4 5

... and the massage table that juts out over the water.

6 7 8

Freshly made lemonade in the straw-roofed sea-facing bar.

The Pool House suite, with its own divine crescent shaped infinity pool.

THE FISH SHACK

Back to basics at The Fish Shack

VILLA MAHAL, Kalkan, Turkey

Snap up Laurence de Vogüé’s city scenes at Winchester’s The Minster Gallery

Watching sea turtles swimming in the clear blue water below.

The ‘restaurant’, where candlelit tables laid for dinner and lapped by the waves replace sunloungers

9

The bedrooms: all white, with splashes of bright colour – turquoise, hot pink, lime green.

10

The peace, privacy and pampering, as unfussy and unpretentious as its possible to be.

Doubles from £170. +90 242 8443268; villamahal.com

PHOTOS: © EMMA CRIPWELL; © ATTILA HENNING; SIMPSON TRAVEL

Tas Bahçe sleeps four

For a more affordable, and flexible, option for accommodation in Kalkan than Villa Mahal, Korsan Kalkan, run by Turkish/British couple Uluc and Claire Bilgutay, offers a range of sophisticated villas, apartments and suites in and around town.

Bougainvillea-drenched Korsan Apartments (from £425 for a one-bed for a week) and Korsan Suites (from £600) both have their own communal pools and restaurants. Send them your shopping list and they will stock the kitchen for you. Among the villas, Halcyon (£3,500), sleeping ten, has a pretty cobbled courtyard, indoor/ outdoor living and to-die-for views, while Tas Bahçe (£2,500) is rustic chic, with an olive tree in the middle of the pretty pool. korsankalkan.com

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FOOD & TRAVEL Picture postcard Nyhavn

THE ESSENTIALS

STAY Hotel Sanders is three townhouses converted into one elegant gem of a hotel not far from picture-postcard Nyhavn. The atmosphere inside is warm and calm; the design a mix of Danish and Asian with rattan, bamboo, wood and earthy textures and colours. This hotel will be the hippest address in the city. Rooms from £200. hotelsanders.com

THE WEEKENDER

COPENHAGEN

The Little Mermaid is quite little indeed

Pack cashmere and credit cards for a coolly glamorous and green winter weekend, says Lucy Cleland

VISIT The Design Museum is a triumph of Scandi cool – its shop and café are worth it alone (designmuseum.dk/en).

For an out of town trip, take a train to Kronborg Castle to visit Hamlet’s mythical Elsinore (kongeligeslotte.dk).

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES

T

hose lucky Danes, apart from the weather (although when you’ve got sartorial layering down to a tee, what do you care) and the taxes, Copenhagen is a right-on city which intends to be carbon-neutral by 2025, with fabulous food and design at its coolly beating heart. The short hop from London and 15-minute train journey straight into the centre of town mean you can be sitting down to a seven-course tasting menu at Mielcke & Hurtigkarl in the beautiful Botanical Gardens, eyeing up the well-groomed Danes, even if you had to put in a full day at the office.

Just new to the hotel scene, which is oddly lacking in wowsy addresses, is Hotel Sanders, the 104-room place from the dishy, former prima ballerina, Alexander Kølpin. It’s the antithesis to the glitzy, old-money Hotel d’Angleterre and appeals to the inconspicuously wealthy who love a Soho House-type vibe. At the other end of the spectrum, you could easily hole up for a couple of nights in the Andersen, just a five-minute walk

EAT

from the station in Vesterbro, the trendy Meatpacking District (with its sex shops and fruitily named bars, you’re in no doubt that this was the former red light district); it’s no frills, but clean, quiet and comfortable with a free wine hour every evening. Whatever you do, jump on a bike (electric, if you don’t fancy the workout); it must be one of the safest cycling cities in the world and you really are king of the road.

Plus, you can visit all the places you need to get to in 48 hours with ease, from the selfie opportunity with the Little Mermaid perched on the water’s edge (smaller than you think but should be on your ticklist) to the second-oldest operating amusement park in the world, Tivoli Gardens for some retro thrills and spills.

From the street food market on Paper Island (every stall offers something mouthwatering) to a blow out at René Redzepi’s recently reopened Noma or Mielcke & Hurtigkarl (mhcph.com), where every beautiful dish is inspired by some element of the restaurant’s Botanical Garden location, you won’t put a foodie step wrong.

BUY Ganni knits from the outlet store on Christianshavn, Georg Jensen Torun bangles and if you really get into the whole biking thing, look up Jens Martin Skibsted’s company Biomega for the sleekest in bike and accessory design biomega.com

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Hungary’s parliament building in Budapest

ESCAPE

CAPITAL GAINS

Warm up in Budapest’s Széchenyi baths

Brrr…. baby, it’s cold outside, so Adriaane Pielou packs a bag and wraps up for Budapest, Beijing and Berlin

W

BUDAPEST

PERFECT WINTRY EXPERIENCE: Bubbling below Hungary lie 1,700 thermal springs, and nowhere else has the kind of open-air naturally hot pools you find in Budapest.

Extravagantly grand, their settings reflect the city’s late 19th-century glory days, when Budapest was joint capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After a day exploring, at dusk it’s delicious to sink up to your chin into 76˚C warm water at the opulent outdoor Széchenyi baths (built in 1913), as steam rises, blurring the sight of turrets and gaunt

The Opera House

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES; VISIT BERLIN

orldwide, wintry weather keeps most people at home – which is why these chilly months make the best time for a city break. Capitals crammed in summer tend to be enjoyably empty and at their most beautiful when blanketed by snow. They’re also less expensive – many hotel rates plummet along with the temperature. Stepping inside a restaurant, bar or café brings a welcome blast of warmth, plus there’s no problem finding a table. And it’s a joy to visit museums, concert halls and opera houses when you don’t have to battle crowds. So bundle up and bring on the bliss.

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FOOD & TRAVEL trees. Open daily until 10pm; just take swimsuit and towel. The ten-minute trip back into the city centre on the No.1 Metro line is a treat in itself, in a little wood-panelled carriage. Then you can cross the Danube and take the toytown-like funicular up to the medieval streets below the castle for supper in a cosy old restaurant such as Bistro Deryne, in business since 1914.

ENJOY WITHOUT THE CROWDS: An opera or concert: musical standards are high, seats start around £5, and Budapest has jewel-box 19th-century theatres. The glorious Hungarian State Opera House is closed for renovation, but the Budapest Operetta Theatre is all cherubs, chandeliers and red velvet, with champagne and canapés for under £10 at the interval.

WARM UP WITH A COFFEE: The communists who kept Hungary in their iron grip from 1947 to 1989 closed many of the grand 19th-century cafés, but some are once again flourishing: the sumptuously gilded New York Café, opened in 1894; high-ceilinged Café Gerbeaud; woodpanelled Opera Café; austere Central Café.

STAY: Drop-dead beautiful, very central, right by the Danube at Chain Bridge, the Four Seasons Gresham Palace has art nouveau interiors restored to museum standard. From £350 (fourseasons.com/budapest). Flights with BA from £84 (ba.com).

Reichstag building in Berlin-Tiergarten

BERLIN

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES; VISIT BERLIN

Take to the River Spree

The Hackesche Höfe courtyard

ABOVE & BELOW: The lap of luxury in the Four Seasons Budapest

PERFECT WINTRY EXPERIENCE: After a cultural day engrossed in the city’s museums, it is a joy to change your boots for dancing shoes, hail a taxi (Uber hasn’t really taken off in Berlin) and pile into the battered entrance of Clärchens Ballhaus (ballhaus.de). This dance hall and restaurant has been going since 1913 (closing only in the 1930s because of a Nazi dancing ban), and if walls could speak... frankly you’d be sitting there for days, which wouldn’t be too much of an ask at the candle-lit tables flanking the scuffed wood dancefloor. Lively but slightly sinister, it feels like a set from Cabaret. At weekends a live band plays and every weeknight has a different dance theme – swing is especially popular – with a dance teacher demonstrating steps and anyone and everyone free to join in. Hilarious good fun and as essential an old-Berlin destination as the louche Paris Bar restaurant (parisbar.net).

ENJOY WITHOUT THE CROWDS: The German Historical Museum has a deeply absorbing tale to tell. Berlin Story Museum could absorb anyone for hours. And no one would want to rush through the Topography of Terror museum, which unsparingly documents Germany’s Nazi era.

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FOOD & TRAVEL

A fine view from the Waldorf Astoria

WARM UP WITH A COFFEE: Café Einstein (einstein-udl.com) at 42 Unter den Linden is popular with politicians (Merkel included) and a convenient stop after a WWII/Cold War walking tour culminating at the site nearby – now a car-park – of Hitler’s bunker. It’s also a favourite of the best guide in the city, Insider Tour’s witty military historian, Major Nigel Dunkley (insidertour.com).

STAY: The 31-storey Waldorf Astoria looms over sedate Charlottenburg, with a superchic Guerlain spa and a train station directly opposite. From £219, including breakfast (waldorfastoria.hilton.com). Flights with BA from £76 (ba.com).

BEIJING

ABOVE & BELOW: The Great Wall of China at Mutianyu; French restaurant Jing at The Peninsula

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES

PERFECT WINTRY EXPERIENCE: The humongous capital – population over 21 million – of the most populous country on earth – 1.4 billion – is a total thrill to visit, even in bone-cold winter. Wrap up as the Chinese do, in padded everything, and you can enjoy the advantage of visiting the great sights without the company of thousands of others. Walking under the huge mural of Mao at the end of Tiananmen Square and into the Forbidden City as dusk is falling, you won’t find it hard to conjure up the ghosts of those paranoid emperors and empresses who lived out their entire lives within its walls. After that, immerse yourself in the Daguanlou Cinema on nearby Dashilan street, screening films since 1903.

Quite how this slice of old Beijing has survived the razing of most old buildings in the city is a mystery, but you can buy a ticket for about 30p.

ENJOY WITHOUT THE CROWDS: Even in winter, it’s worth going to the less-visited Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, about a 90-minute drive.

It’s steeper and rougher than you might expect, but tramping along with few others and looking at it snaking into the distance feels truly momentous.

WARM UP WITH A COFFEE: In cool modern business and nightlife district Sanlitun, The Bookworm bookshop café is a hub of literary activity among expats and locals and good for checking out local hipster publications (beijingbookworm.com).

STAY: The Peninsula is right in the centre in Dongcheng district, near the main shopping area, Wangfujing Street: deeply comfortable, all-suite, with a great spa and outstanding French restaurant Jing, now sourcing most ingredients from the little organic farms outside the city. Cox & Kings has BA flights plus three nights B&B, from £1,395pp with Cox & Kings (coxandkings.co.uk). n

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C&TH PROMOTION

LIFE’S A BEACH Award-winning five-star Sani Resort in Greece will have you back to yourself in no time at all

A

s February rolls around our thoughts turn to seeking some much-needed sunshine.

The Aegean coast is never one to disappoint, and when the palmfringed waters of Sani Resort’s private Bousoulas Beach resemble those of the Caribbean, the blissful lack of long haul is all the more satisfying.

Stunning beachscapes aside, we all know that it’s what’s on the inside that counts. Sani Club has a stunning new collection of spacious double rooms this year, with redesigned open-plan interiors and extra big bathrooms.

Sleeping up to three guests, each room has either an intimate private garden or balcony with knock-out views.

Also new this year are two fabulous restaurants, Pines and Cabana, which are best enjoyed with the resort’s new Sommelier Service. Wellness warriors will love Sani Dunes, which now offers a detox programme and the healthy Dunes restaurant, where low on

calories doesn’t mean low on taste.

If, however, guests do overindulge, they can knock a ball about at the new Chelsea FCF Academy, run by the current Premier League champions.

For the lycra lot there’s the new KTM bike club, which offers unique bike experiences, from Fat Bikes to mounted Go-Pro cameras.

Tradition is part of the culture at Sani Resort, which is why they welcome the return of the ever popular Sani Festival for music and the performing arts against the spectacular backdrop of Sani Hill. Another date for the diary should be Sani Gourmet, an annual gastronomic celebration that brings together some of the finest chefs from Greece and beyond, as well as identifying the rising stars. Michelinstarred chefs join the acclaimed line-up at Sani’s top restaurants to create contemporary dishes with pizazz. If that sounds good enough to eat, plan your trip for the week of 11–15 May 2018.

When holidays are made this stressfree, you can’t fail but to return home with a new lease of life.

Book before the 31st Jan to take advantage of Early Booking Discounts of up to 20%, as well as complimentary kids places and local airport transfers when booking online at: saniresort.com; 0800 949 6809

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FOOD & TRAVEL NEWS

GASTRO GOSSIP

THIS MONTH Tequila’s Highland fling

Pop art pirates and champagne-style scrumpy

WHAT’S THE STORY?

This is no ordinary scrumpy. Chef Tom Sellers developed his house cider specifically to pair with his iconic onion and lovage dish at restaurant Story, using the traditional champagne method. Just six to eight bottles are made every week by Chef de Cave, Owen Elias of Hush Heath cider house in Kent, and it’s now available to take home for the first time. £35. restaurantstory.co.uk

HOLY SMOKES

Its fertile valleys, fresh air and clear waters have made the Brecon Beacons a hotbed of superb produce, exemplified by local business Black Mountains Smokery. They have been making sustainable cured and smoked meat and fish for over 20 years, using traditional methods, custom-made kilns and oak chips. smoked-foods.co.uk

BRUNCH WITH BLAKE

Perhaps best known for his album artwork for The Beatles, if Peter Blake designed a restaurant it would look at lot like Darcie & May Green in Paddington Central.

And that would be because the artist did paint the pair of barges, serving up laid-back Aussie grub morning, noon and night. A dead cert for brunch. daisygreenfood.com

1 BUY Catch pesky pastry crumbs in Jessica Russell Flint’s trés jolie napkin. £95 for six. amara.com 2 READ Shake off the winter blues with something hearty from John Waite’s Comfort. £19.99 (Kyle Books) 3 DRINK Scotland has released its first tequila.

It is of course aged in Speyside whisky casks. £55. uwatequila.com 4 EAT West London butcher Parson’s Nose turns ten. Stick a candle in one of their roasted racks of lamb. parsonsnose.co.uk

USE YOUR NOODLE The age of avocado on toast is over. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so it ought to be a square meal. Make like Bloomberg’s employees and set yourself up with a steaming bowl of Koya Bar’s English Breakfast noodles (bacon, egg and shiitake mushroom in a broth) at its new site at the Bloomberg Arcade in the City. koya.co.uk

PHOTOS: © LEYLA KAZIM

DRAGON FUEL Asprey’s Dragon Brandy collection is the ultimate way to toast the Chinese New Year. Just hold fire on clinking glasses, they’re far too precious to risk getting chipped. £4,200. asprey.com

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FOOD & TRAVEL RECIPE

Q&A

SUNDAY BEST

RICH WOODS

Shake up your Sunday routine by serving Rich Woods’ roast in a glass

aka The Cocktail Guy

What ingredient do you like to use this time of year? I’m a huge fan of veg, and will only use what’s in season. I’ll head to my nearest farmers’ market and pick up whatever they have to experiment with.

Most surprising flavour combination? The ‘Acorn Aperitivo’.

Having never worked with acorns before, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I was blown away.

CARAMELISED RED ONION MANHATTAN

At first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking that I’ve lost my mind – ‘Onion! In a Manhattan?

He’s messed up a Gibson, surely’.

But this was no accident – happy or otherwise. The idea behind this was to create flavours similar to those enjoyed while eating a roast dinner. The sweetness of the caramelised onions, despite their sharp nature, adds a layer of complexity to this drink that melds with the flavour of sage to create something deliciously savoury and redolent of delicious sage and onion stuffing. Don’t be fooled though, if you’re too heavy handed with the onion it will overpower the drink. Balance is key.

INGREDIENTS

» » » »

CARAMELISED RED ONION REDUCTION (Makes around 250ml) 200g caster (superfine) sugar 15g food-grade red onion extract 200ml vodka A few sage leaves, torn FOR THE COCKTAIL

» 60ml bourbon » 25 ml sweet vermouth » 2 bar spoons caramelised

Secret weapon behind the bar?

Balance – although hardly a secret.

Balance is key in creativity and yet there are so many drinks that I have tasted that don’t feature it.

Who makes the best martini in London? A Dukes martini is a must but The Savoy also makes a spectacular one.

METHOD

To make the caramelised red onion reduction, place the sugar in a pan over a medium heat and cook until syrupy and golden, do not stir the sugar as this will cause it to crystallise. Add the red onion extract to the pan and stir to combine, then remove the pan from the heat and carefully pour in half the vodka.

Once cooled, add the remaining vodka, then strain the liquid through a muslin-lined sieve (strainer) or coffee filter into a non-reactive container with a lid. Reserve in the fridge until required. Return the pan to a low heat and add the sage leaves. Continue to heat, stirring occasionally, until the caramel has melted into the vodka, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

To make the cocktail, place all the ingredients in a shaker or mixing tin and fill with good quality cubed ice. Stir with a bar spoon until icy cold, then gently strain into a pre-chilled Martini glass. Garnish with a skewered pickled onion and sage leaf and serve.

red onion reduction

» Skewered pickle onion and sage leaf, to garnish

What cocktail should a novice bartender start with? Start with the classics, as they give you a great foundation to work from.

After all, they are classics for a reason. The level of sweetness, sourness and balance can all be appreciated from these and then you can start to build on your own personal favourites.

Where do you like to eat in London?

I work long hours so tend to eat out in east London as it’s closer to where I work. I’ve always had great meals at Taberna do Mercado.

Most memorable meal out?

Introducing my daughter to her first lobster, and another time taking her to Sushisamba. Both meals shared the same emotional connection: the excitement on her face will stay with me forever... as will her now unfortunate taste for expensive food.

Last time you sent something back to the kitchen? Not in a very long time. London is full of amazing restaurants – there is no excuse for having a bad meal.

Recipe extracted from The Cocktail Guy by Rich Woods (Pavilion Books, £16.99) February 2018 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 107

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FOOD & TRAVEL

R E S TA U R A N T R E V I E W S

FORK & FIELD Anastasia Bernhardt makes a pilgrimage to Powys

SHOW SOME RESPECT Restaurants that let the ingredients do the talking

TOWN

ELLA CANTA, W1

Think celebrity chef restaurant in the basement of a fivestar Park Lane hotel and ‘fun’ is not the first thing that springs to mind. But, then again, Mexico City’s Martha Ortiz is not your average celebrity chef, and her first London restaurant is a true reflection of her gravitational personality. Just as David Collins Studio has achieved the impossible task of making a hotel restaurant hum by referencing Ortiz’s favourite artists (the Frida Kahlo influence is palpable), the food offering is far from Old El Paso. The menu is tantalisingly cryptic, listing ‘main acts’ like ceviche ‘vampiro’ and ‘firedanced’ sea bass, dressed with as much colour as a Kahlo painting and salsa that bites back. The service is equally high octane, and easier to bear after a few calavera margaritas. Ask them if Maria has arrived – she is listed on the dessert menu but only shows up when she feels like it. Mains from £24. ellacanta.com

FRENCHIE, WC2 Having cooked at several English institutions before he opened his Parisian restaurant, Greg Marchand takes French techniques and applies them to ingredients and styles he discovered working across the world.

In his Covent Garden site you’ll find sea bream tartare with yuzu, pear and chestnut and sticky honey glazed duck served with miso aubergine.

Très bien. frenchiecoventgarden.com

COUNTRY

London Shell Co

THIS MONTH I’M… 1 Embarking on the only sunset Valentine’s day cruise I would be caught dead on. londonshellco.com 2 Getting my teeth around London’s juiciest burger at The Polo Bar. westburymayfair.com 3 Diving head first into the choccy mousse at the Thames Lido’s restaurant. thameslido.com

ROCHELLE CANTEEN, SW1 Margot Henderson and Melanie Arnold raise their cult Shoreditch canteen to the rafters of the Institute of Contemporary Arts. To say that this is the place to come for meat and two veg is not an insult in the slightest. They elevate a few simple ingredients to heady culinary heights simply by doing things properly. arnoldandhenderson.com

ANGLER, EC2 This glitzy little number is the place to come for lip-smackingly good sustainable seafood from British waters. Cornish mackerel, Newlyn cod and wild brill all sing under the guidance of Gary Foulkes, previously head chef at two-Michelin starred The Square. Don’t skip the Dorset crab ravioli. anglerrestaurant.com

PHOTOS: © FJONA BLACK; © KENSINGTON LEVERNE

YNYSHIR, Powys

Having not passed another car for an hour, you begin to wonder if you’re the only person on the A487. Certainly the last thing you expect to find round the next hairpin bend is a restaurant that looks stylistically like it could be in Copenhagen, and where the menu has more plot twists than the Trump administration, jumping from Welsh wagyu ribs and sweet and sour mackerel to a hearty saddle of lamb, and a steaming bowl of Welsh cawl. But that’s not to say it’s idiosyncratic. Fat is king here, and each dish drops its own distinctive umami flavour bomb. With just 26 covers they blur the line between kitchen and front of house, and the chefs get stuck in, serving dishes and spinning tales about their adventures scouring the local landscape for ingredients. A proper foodie pilgrimage worth the mileage. Tasting menu, £110. ynyshir.co.uk

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Pantone 5395

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Pantone 5395

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C&TH EDITED BY ANNA TYZACK

PROPERTY HOUSE OF THE MONTH What is unique about it? This is the only listed property on the Wentworth Estate.

While most of the houses there are either Arts and Crafts inspired ‘Tarrant’ houses, or newly built mock neo-classical homes, Cherry Hill stands apart as a unique example of British modernist architecture.

Any juicy history? The house was the former UK country estate of one of the most successful American ambassadors to Great Britain, John Hay Whitney, the scion of one of Boston’s oldest and wealthiest families.

Who would like living here? Those who favour a modern and architecturally significant home, but one that is also ‘liveable’ with an abundance of light and free-flowing spaces.

What is the garden like? The house sits in just over four acres of formal and woodland gardens, which incorporate a series of garden terraces, sweeping steps and water fountains.

Cherry Hill Wentworth, Surrey Price: £30m 6 bedrooms 6 bathrooms 15,021 sq/ft 4.1 acres

Best nearby shops? Nearby Sunningdale offers a range of cafés and shops. Best are Lewis Meat, the local butchers, Bird for gifts and cards, Mewes for gents clothing and Fego for brunch.

Any good schools in the area? There is a wealth of top-class schools, including Eton, Wellington College and ACS Egham, to name but a few.

What’s most notable about the local community? The Wentworth Estate is one of Europe’s premier residential areas and the community on the estate is truly international. It hosts the worldfamous PGA Championship too.

So, what’s the downside? Each room has been meticulously restored, so it would be hard for the new owner to put their own design stamp on the house.

The current owner says… ‘The process of restoring this property was a true labour of love. We went to extremes when reinstating the period features and finishes, for example, six months were spent on casting the door handles in the original design.’

020 7861 1065; knightfrank.com

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With Brexit looming, French expats and Brits are making the move to Paris

W H Y B U Y I N . ..

THE CITY OF LIGHTS

T

here was a time, two or three years ago, when the 16th and 17th arrondissements in Paris felt rather desolate. The French families who occupied this part of town, with its parks and spacious Haussmannian apartments, had moved to London or Brussels to enjoy more favourable tax regimes and job prospects. ‘François Hollande was bad news for investors, the economy and France itself,’ explains Roddy Aris of Knight Frank. ‘The regime was very aggressive towards anyone with money.’

Now, though, the French capital is experiencing an upturn in fortune thanks in part to its new, young president, Emmanuel Macron, hailed by many to be the next JFK, and Brexit prompting financial institutions and their employees to look to Paris. ‘We’re seeing the return of expat French from London and Brussels and further afield – it’s already one of the main European hubs and is likely to become a global centre,’ Aris continues.

The more positive outlook in Paris has already had a profound effect on the property market. Prices, which had fallen by as much as 25 per cent since 2012, rose 12 per cent in 2017 and are forecast to go up by a further nine this year. Research by Savills shows prices in the 1st, 4th and 5th arrondissements have already exceeded their 2012 peak.

‘The market is very dynamic,’ agrees Marie-Hélène Lundgreen, of Daniel Féau, an affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate.

‘There’s a new energy, yet there aren’t many properties on the market. Buyers are having to move quickly or they lose out.’

It’s not just returning French nationals who are competing over apartments in Paris (although they do make up 37 per cent). British

buyers, faced with a cooler market in London, are also seeing now as a good time to invest across the Channel. ‘The Americans have always loved owning property in Paris but, until now, we’ve never had huge amounts of Brits buying here,’ says Lundgreen. ‘But with the current political situation in Europe, it makes sense.

We’re under three hours from London by train, we have lower house prices and a new government with huge aspirations.’ Aris agrees that Paris is hot for investment. ‘The appetite is global.

Buyers from the middle East and America have always loved Paris but the rosier outlook has made them even keener on it.’

For Brits looking to invest in a pied-à-terre in the capital, somewhere to enjoy at weekends or for holidays, Aris recommends the streets around Bonne Nouvelle and Opéra, a triangle between the 2nd, 3rd and 9th arrondissements. ‘This is where the tech start ups and dotcoms are setting up offices and the hipsters, bohos and French expats are moving there too,’ he says. ‘It’s not for everyone, because it’s not the prettiest part of the city, but it’s likely to become more gentrified and thus more valuable.’

If money is no object, however, Lundgreen recommends the Golden Triangle, the 8th Arrondissement, a traditional upper-crust neighbourhood around the Champs-Élysées, the Avenue Montaigne and the Avenue George V. The apartment buildings here date from the 19th century and are built in the Haussmann style, and there is designer shopping to rival Bond Street in London. ‘You can expect to pay from €14,000 to €30,000 per sq/m but this is still much less than you’d spend in prime central London,’ she says.

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES

Thanks to Brexit, Paris is luring expats and Brits alike to hop over the Channel to invest in its beautiful Haussmannian apartments, says Anna Tyzack

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PROPERTY

A HOUSEHUNTING TRIP TO PARIS E AT L’Entente Oliver Woodhead’s new restaurant in the 2nd is a celebration of – wait for it – British cuisine. The cheek of it, you might ask, but it’s the hottest new opening this year and definitely worth a visit for the best shepherd’s pie in Paris. Open all day for brunch, lunch and dinner. lentente.paris DRINK Le Bar du Bristol The ideal spot for a cocktail after a shopping spree on Rue St Honoré or the Champs-Élysées.

Le Bristol itself is exquisitely beautiful and it’s home to one of Paris’s most sophisticated cocktail bars. oetkercollection.com S TAY The Mandarin Oriental Ideally located steps from the Louvre, the Mandarin Oriental is a perfect base for house hunting. It has large bedrooms plus a spa and a swimming pool to help you recharge after a day of trawling the city. mandarinoriental.com

The Marais, the traditional artists’ quarter comprising parts of the 3rd and 4th arrondissements, always has a romantic fascination for British buyers, she continues. Once down at heel – the aristocracy deserted it in the 18th century in favour of SaintGermain-des-Prés – this area is increasingly gentrified. ‘You will find all the designer shops – it’s changing so much,’ she says.

This is where Hannah Lewis and her husband, Benjamin, bought a studio flat last year. They hope to spend at least one weekend a month in Paris, learning French and getting to know the city, with the hope of moving there permanently in the future. ‘We were looking to buy in London but the market seems so uncertain, so we made the decision to buy in Paris instead,’ Lewis explains. ‘It’s a city we love exploring and, even if we don’t end up living here permanently, the studio will hopefully have been a shrewd investment.’

The Lewises were drawn to the boho feel of Le Marais with its narrow streets and independent shops but other buyers prefer to be on the Left Bank: the 5th and 6th arrondissements around Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the Panthéon. The 17th-century buildings in this part of town, now home to gourmet restaurants (including the iconic cafés, Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore) were inhabited by intellectuals and philosophers at the beginning of the 20th century and the area still has a sophisticated feel.

For those wanting more green space, Lundgreen suggests Buttes Chaumont, which has a large park, pretty houses, hip restaurants and a traditional feel. ‘It’s like the Notting Hill of Paris,’ she says. The 16th and 17th arrondissements are also highly desirable for families looking to make a longer term move to Paris, owing to the large properties and some of the best schools in France. Here, five-bedroom apartments cost from €10,000 per sq/ft – down from €16,000 when the property market was at its highest in 2011. ‘All the avenues that lead down to the Trocadéro are a good bet,’ Aris says. ‘They have large Haussmann apartments, built for French catholic families – who are now coming back.’

The only way to discover which area will suit you best is to spend time in Paris, Lewis says. It took them four separate trips before they decided on Le Marais. And the best part about owning a pied-à-terre in Paris? For Lewis, it’s the compact size of the city and the endless culture. ‘We walk or cycle everywhere and always find something new to see,’ she says.

‘And it’s a great place to hang out with my husband. There’s something so uniquely romantic about Paris.’

WE’LL ALWAYS HAVE PARIS

Saint-Germain-des-Prés A characterful one-bedroom pied-à-terre in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés set over two floors and looking out over a courtyard.

Exposed beams, wood floors and a spinning balcony on the second floor. €780,000.

020 7016 3740; savills.com

6th arrondissement A newly renovated pied-à-terre in a 19th century apartment building in St Sulpice with a balcony overlooking the Rue de Seine. There are two large suites with dressing rooms and bathrooms, an elegant living room and a sociable kitchen. €2.99m.

0207 016 3740; savills.com

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES

7th arrondissement Set in a magnificent 18th-century mansion in the heart of Paris, on the top floors with elevator access via the service entrance, this quiet duplex apartment looks over a garden and a courtyard and has spacious living accommodation and four bedrooms. €4.4m.

020 7861 1727; knightfrank.com The Champs-Élysées

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LIVE LIKE SOPHIE...

MY LIFE IN PROPERTY

SOPHIE CONRAN The designer, cook and author still lives in her first flat Where was your first home? Bayswater in London. My parents gave me some money to start a business or buy a flat and I bought a flat on a pretty garden square. I moved in on my 21st birthday.

Best thing about it? It has big rooms and is wonderfully light because it’s so high up the building.

Where do you live now? Still in the same flat. I’ve extended it quite a bit by buying up surrounding bed sits.

THE STARTER HOME

What is your property philosophy? Light, location

What do you love most about it? The kitchen.

and architecture. The bones of a house are so important.

It’s painted Dulux flamingo pink and it’s where we all congregate around the table.

Dulux Flamingo Pink

We own an amazing Georgian house near Marlborough in Wiltshire. It’s a crumbling wreck and will keep me busy for the rest of my life but it is gorgeous.

If you could buy a holiday home anywhere in the world? Rayol in the South of France. It’s a joyful place with amazing light and beautiful beaches.

Are you prepared to compromise when renting or buying a house?

Always. Our house in the country is perilously close to Swindon and the M4 but we wouldn’t have been able to afford it if it was even a mile closer to Marlborough.

What made you fall in love with it? The incredible

If money was no object, where would you live in London?

windows with open views through the countryside – and the gorgeous walks.

What has been your most extravagant home or interiors purchase? I’ve spent a fortune

THE COUNTRY HOUSE Melksham, Wiltshire, £3.25m An historic eight-bedroom house amid its own parkland, with views across the Vale of White Horse. The current owners have sympathetically transformed it into an imposing yet manageable family home. Aside from the main house, there is a two-bedroom cabin, swimming pool and tennis court. 01225 325999; knightfrank.com

Holland Park.

Sophie Conran bed linen

buying up three more flats and going up in to the loft. I probably paid over the odds at the time but it’s a real asset now.

Advice to a first-time buyer? Be patient and buy the house you fall in love with. Think of it as an investment in life.

Your interiors weakness? Bed linen.

Whose house would you most like to see inside? Leonardo da Vinci Holland Park

was such a maverick – I’d love to know how he lived. sophieconran.com

THE BANK BREAKER

Rayol, South of France, €3.95m Facing the Levant islands, this stunning six-bedroom villa has 180-degree sea views. There’s a large reception room, dining room, kitchen with cold store room, gym and an infinity pool. 020 7861 5034; knightfrank.com

PHOTOS: SOPHIECONRAN.COM

If you could have a second home, where would it be?

Bayswater, £1.2m This beautiful apartment on Kensington Gardens Square has high ceilings and access to a sought-after communal garden square. It has been smartly refurbished and has two spacious bedrooms and is close to the boutiques and eateries along Westbourne Grove and Hyde Park.

020 7727 5750; savills.com

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TOWER, 1 THE Chelsea Creek

This five-bedroom penthouse at the top of 25-storey The Tower in Chelsea Creek, overlooking the Thames, measures a gigantic 5,447 sq/ft, all styled by Lucarna Design. The pièce de résistance, however, is the 3,400 sq/ft private landscaped sky garden with 360-degree views across London, a cocktail bar, barbecue and a hot tub. Residents have exclusive use of an indoor pool, gym, concierge and parking. £16.95m.

020 3811 0546; knightfrank.co.uk

WHARF, Fulham 2 PALACE

FIVE OF THE BEST

PENTHOUSES Reach for the skies in these perfect London property pin-ups, says Anna Tyzack

The Port Penthouse is at the top of Palace Wharf, a former marble warehouse dating back to 1907, which has been converted into 16 apartments and five townhouses.

If the river views don’t sell it, the high spec accommodation will: there is a spacious kitchen and living room and three bedroom suites, with restored Crittall windows, comfort cooling and a Crestron automation system. £1,500 per week to rent.

020 8012 6055; bective.co.uk

BANK TOWER, APARTMENTS, Bayswater 3 SOUTH Southwark 4 BAYSWATER 5 THE VILLAGE, Battersea It would be tough to find a more luxurious address in central London than this duplex penthouse above the 41-storey South Bank Tower. From the 4,375 sq/ft doubleheight living space you can enjoy views of London’s best landmarks. The kitchen and bedrooms have floor-to-ceiling windows and there is an inside-outside water feature extending into the garden terrace, one of the highest in London. £25m. 020 3267 1048; southbanktower.com

This newly developed, Grade II-listed, stucco-fronted apartment block on Inverness Terrace was formerly a hostel, where guests paid £10 per night for a room. Now the top two floors have been transformed into a duplex apartment of nearly 2,000 sq/ft, with lift, private entrance hall, designer kitchen and dining room plus three hotel-style suites above. £4m.

Kay & Co, 020 7262 2030; kayandco.com and Knight Frank, 020 7871 5060; knightfrank.com

This characterful three-bedroom apartment on the top floor of a converted school has a 26ft decked roof terrace with views across Clapham. The rooms have vaulted ceilings and there’s a spacious kitchen and dining room with parquet flooring and a freestanding range cooker.

Spiral stairs lead from a second hallway to a snug on the mezzanine. The Village development is gated and set around a central courtyard with a full-time porter. £1.975m. 020 3402 1900; savills.com

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1 LUXURIOUS BESPOKE FAMILY HOME highlands road, reigate, surrey Drawing room ø dining room ø kitchen/family room ø study ø entertainment/games room ø master suite with 2 dressing rooms and luxury bathroom ø 7 further bedrooms ø 6 further bathrooms ø 4 car garage and secure gated parking ø EPC = C

Savills Reigate Phillip Stevens phillip.stevens@savills.com

0173 7230 202

Guide £2.7 million Freehold

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1 ELEGANT EDWARDIAN PROPERTY ON A PREMIER ROAD IN CAMBRIDGE latham road, cambridge An elegant Edwardian family home with around 3/4 of an acre of south facing gardens ø 3 reception rooms ø kitchen/breakfast room with Aga ø master bedroom suite with dressing room and bathroom ø 7 further bedrooms ø 3 bathrooms ø guest wing with flexible accommodation ø garaging ø landscaped south facing rear garden ø in all around 0.77 acres ø EPC = E

Savills Cambridge Ed Meyer emeyer@savills.com

01223 347261

Guide £5 million Freehold

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Rosaline Road, Fulham SW6 The perfect family home with exceptional living space A stunning three bedroom house which offers over 1,700 sq ft. The house has been meticulously maintained and provides excellent living space over the ground and lower ground floors. 3 bedrooms (1 en suite), further family bathroom, top floor terrace, double reception room, kitchen/breakfast room, lower ground floor media room with C. EPC: C. Approximately 15 sq m (1,708 sq ft).

Freehold

Guide price: £1,300,000

KnightFrank.co.uk/fulham fulham@knightfrank.com 020 3544 0635

@KnightFrank KnightFrank.co.uk

KnightFrank.co.uk/POD161126

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- Co u n try & To w n h o u se - F ebru ary 2018 i ssu e

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Boscobel Place, Belgravia SW1 emar able three or our bedroom me s house in the centre o

el ra ia

A beautifully designed freehold house with wonderful proportions and an abundance of light. 3 bedrooms with en suite bathrooms, bedroom 4/study, shower room, kitchen and dining room, reception room, guest cloakroom, winter garden, garage. EPC: E. Approximately 263.8 sq m (2,840 sq ft).

Freehold

Guide price: £8,500,000

KnightFrank.co.uk/belgravia belgravia@knightfrank.com 020 3641 5908

@KnightFrank KnightFrank.co.uk

KnightFrank.co.uk/BGV170094

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bel Place

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An immaculately presented three bedroom house The house has been stylishly refurbished by the current owners, with a beautiful double drawing room on the raised ground floor, with steps leading down to a bright conservatory overlooking the enchanting garden below.

3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, shower room, reception room, drawing room, kitchen/dining room, conservatory, 2 guest cloakrooms, utility room, garden. EPC: D. Approximately 204.2 sq m (2,1 8 sq ft).

Freehold

Guide price: £4,250,0200 KnightFrank.co.uk/N

Knight 16 4 Frank.indd K en si n g to3

KnightFrank.co.uk/nottinghill nottinghill@knightfrank.com 020 8166 5451

@KnightFrank KnightFrank.co.uk

17013

n Park R o ad - C&TH F eb 2018

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St. Marys Place, Kensington W8 A stunning five bedroom family home in Kensington Green This immaculately presented house is arranged over four floors and has been upgraded by the current owners to an exceptionally high finish.There is off street parking and a double garage to the front of the house and a landscaped garden to the rear. 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3 reception rooms, kitchen/breakfast room, utility room, garage, terraced garden, private parking, concierge, gym.

EPC: D. Approximately 328.6 sq m (3,537 sq ft).

Freehold

KnightFrank.co.uk/kensington kens@knightfrank.com 020 3589 2698

@KnightFrank KnightFrank.co.uk

KnightFrank.co.uk/KEN140088

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We advertise on all portals…

Rightmove is the 8th most used website in the UK with 85% of sellers ranking Rightmove as the 1st place that they would want their property advertised. With this in mind, at YOUhome we advertise all of our properties on Rightmove to make sure that your property has the largest audience.

With 78% of London adults knowing about Zoopla, we cannot miss out on this opportunity. All of our properties are listed on Zoopla as well as Prime Location. Both of these portals receive over 50 million views in just one month!

We keep you up to date…

PlatformYOU - We know you want to be informed and stay in control. We give you 24/7 direct access to marketing analytics, viewings, feedback, offers, sold prices, listing prices, price movements and sale progression updates. Our ‘eyes and ears’ on the property market shared openly with you.

We charge 1.25% for Sole Agency…

A commission fee that is fair and honest: We deliver a premium service at a fraction of the traditional fee. Sole agency 1.25% plus VAT or Multiple agency 2.5% plus VAT.

1.2 5% All data provided by Rightmove and ZPG.

Telephone: 020 7908 9280 Email: ldn@youhome.co.uk RBK&C Office: 121 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 3LB Westminster Office: 63 Jermyn Street, SW1Y 6LX

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Meet your YOUhome Property Gurus and Local Experts

Laurence Lai Property Guru & Head of London Sales Laurence first became an Estate Agent in 1990 and has spent most of his working life acting for clients in The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. He has successfully sold properties in Chelsea, Chiswick, Earls Court, Kensington, Mayfair, Notting Hill and South Kensington. He was previously a Partner and Office Head at Knight Frank and prior to this was a Board Director at Faron Sutaria.

Alexandra Mathew Property Guru for W8 & W14 Alex has over ten years’ experience as a top residential sales negotiator in Prime Central London, predominately in RBKC. She combines her passion for architecture and design, personal knowledge of the trials and tribulations of managing a listed home and her savvy business sense to provide a no nonsense approach to getting results for her clients.

Jerry Epton MRICS Property Guru for W11 Jerry started his property career with Knight Frank as a graduate where he qualified as a Chartered Surveyor and he then went on to be a property developer with The Raven Group. Jerry has lived in W11 for over 25 years and set up YOUhome’s London presence with the founder Adrian Black four years ago.

Anita Sanford Property Guru for SW3 & SW10 Anita has a wealth of property experience in Prime Central London having worked in Chelsea, Kensington, Knightsbridge and Belgravia for nearly 20 years and having lived in Chelsea for nearly 10 years of that. She has a proven track record for selling houses and flats whilst maintaining strong client and buyer relationships.

Davide Moi Property Guru for SW5 & SW7 Davide joined YOUhome having worked in the Prime Central London market, specifically in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea for nearly 15 years. He has a background in property, is native to Rome and therefore has a wealth of experience advising international clients. He is a long time Chelsea resident and has a true passion for the Royal Borough.

Anna Houlding Research & Marketing Guru Anna has recently completed her course at Quest Professional and has moved straight into the Property industry. She has always had a passion for property and is currently working on promoting the brand and her clients’ properties through many different marketing platforms.

Telephone: 020 7908 9280 Email: ldn@youhome.co.uk RBK&C Office: 121 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 3LB Westminster Office: 63 Jermyn Street, SW1Y 6LX

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CHESTER ROW, SW1W

ASHBURN PLACE, SW7

This classic Belgravia house has been recently refurbished to a high standard.

The drawing room, on the ground floor, has French windows overlooking a south facing, secluded garden. The kitchen is beautifully designed with a large dining area and double doors leading onto the garden.

A fabulous, recently renovated, ground and garden maisonette, which has been updated to a very high standard and is located moments from Gloucester Road underground and all the shops, restaurants and facilities of South Kensington. The property has a spacious and airy ground floor living room with an open plan, modern, white kitchen.

DRAWING ROOM - EAT-IN KITCHEN - MASTER BEDROOM EN-SUITE BATHROOM - THREE FURTHER BEDROOMS - FAMILY BATHROOM - SHOWER ROOM - UTILITY ROOM - PATIO GARDEN

TWO BEDROOMS - DOUBLE RECEPTION - OPEN PLAN KITCHEN EN SUITE BATHROOM - SHOWER ROOM - GUEST WC - PATIO

£2,800 per week

unfurnished

£950 per week

furnished

FLOOD STREET, SW3

CR ANMER COURT, SW3

This wonderfully light and bright second and third floor maisonette has a top floor open plan reception that leads onto a spacious roof terrace. The flat is neutrally decorated throughout with excellent storage and both double bedrooms have well designed ensuite bathrooms. Conveniently situated within easy reach of the Kings Road and Battersea Park.

Fabulous property located on the fifth floor of this popular block, close to Sloane Square and King’s Road. The property has well planned accommodation with fabulous south facing views and offers comfortable living space.

There is a good sized double reception room plus a study/third bedroom.

TWO DOUBLE BEDROOMS - TWO BATHROOMS (BOTH EN-SUITE) OPEN PLAN RECEPTION - GUEST CLOAKROOM - ROOF TERRACE

DOUBLE RECEPTION - MASTER BEDROOM SUITE - TWIN BEDROOM - STUDY/ THIRD BEDROOM - SHOWER ROOM - EAT-IN KITCHEN – LOBBY – PORTER - LIFT

£875 per week

furnished / unfurnished

£1,300 per week

furnished

117 Sydney Street London SW3 6NR Lettings: 0207 351 7822 or info@hlrlets.com

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• Ingatestone CM4 Fryerning Essex Station Lane

Guide Price Price £2,195,000 £3,850,000 Guide A striking five bedroom, four reception Grade II Constructed indouble circa 2003 this stunning and substantial listed period property tobedrooms, date back four 500 of years. family residence offers fithought ve double This charming residence is originally thought to with be 3 which are en-suite, four receptions, double garage cottages, now providing a fantastic flowfor ofainteresting artist’s studio above, planning permission substantial and extensive living space over twounique floors. The orangery to thefamily rear elevation and beautiful 7.5 acre plot comprises formaltogrounds mixedlake formal grounds stepping down a part owned sympathetically withisland. paddocks (benefitting from a with privately owned Ingatestone mainline railway secondisseparate access), ponds and a substantial station within a two minute walk (journey time into lake.

Numerous outbuildings, tennis court, Liverpool Street is 27 minutes).

EPC: D double garage and detached one bedroom annexe. Equestrian

Country & Village Office 01245 397475 potential. EPC Exempt

Country & Village Office 01245 397475

Fryerning Essex • Dunmow CM6 Great Easton Guide Price £3,850,000 Guide Price £1,595,000 A striking five double bedroom, reception Grade This historic Grade II Listed countryfour house, once part of II listed period of property thought backfive 500 years. the Countess Warwick estate, istoa date stunning double This charming is originally thought to besize 3 bedroom familyresidence residence benefi tting from four good cottages,rooms now providing a fantastic of interesting reception and a wealth of periodflow features.

The private and of extensive family living spacegardens, over two floors.swimming The plot 1.1 acres (stls) offers mature outdoor 7.5 acre comprises formala detached grounds mixed pool and plot outbuildings including two storey sympathetically with paddocks (benefitting from a pool house with shower, with potential to become ancillary second separate access), and a substantial lake. accommodation (stpp).

EPCponds Exempt.

Numerous outbuildings, tennis court, double garage

Country & Village Office annexe.

01245 Equestrian 397475 and detached one bedroom potential. EPC Exempt

Be part of our success in 2018 Country & Village Office 01245 397475

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Cookham, Berkshire

Riverdene is a highly attractive and elegant, landmark period property tucked away in a discreet location on the south side of the Thames. It is an exceedingly pretty eight-bedroom house, of elegant proportions with Georgian characteristics. The property is located in the Cookham Conservation Area and provides the best of both worlds; with stunning views along the river and easy access to the amenities the village has to offer. EPC: F

POA Freehold • • • • • •

8 bedrooms Wine cellar Gated entrance Swimming pool Walled gardens In all approx. 0.5 acres

Hamptons Maidenhead Sales. 01628 622 131 | Lettings. 01628 675 881

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REASON #04

Nursing a seller’s feathered tenant The difference between them and us, is us.

Robins are territorial things. If they live in your garden, they’re part of your home. One seller, with a nest of feathered tenants, asked us to keep an eye on them while they were away. The next week, we spotted one had fallen from the nest. Summoning all our googled vet skills, we nursed the little blighter back to health and, like the seller, they eventually flew the nest.

Sales. 01628 622 131. Lettings. 01628 675 881 hamptons.co.uk

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