The Jackal

A NEW MAGAZINE FOR STYLISH MINDS

Launch Issue

March/April 2017

All eyes on Luke One of Hollywood’s most bankable stars is about to have the year of his life. Is this the making of Luke Evans?

by ROBIN SWITHINBANK Luke Evans shot exclusively for The Jackal by SIMON LIPMAN

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THE READING LIST

David Baddiel Sharon Horgan Trump vs Lenin Thomas Heatherwick Mr Know-It-All Marcus Wareing Inside The Ned Barber’s Cut A New Politics? & The Jackal Watch and Style Edit

BAT H

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BIRMINGHAM

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CHESTER

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LIVERPOOL

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N o. 1 S AV I L E R O W

gievesandhawkes.com

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CONTENTS

Manifesto The Jackal’s take on what to wear, see, eat and explore this spring.

Read our experts’ opinions on the latest cars, tech, watches and style news – and on what it’s like to hunker down in a luxury nuclear bunker p.009—024

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Think Tank Our resident columnists take on Twitter spats, pretentious gymkit, America’s iPhone democracy and the West’s obsession with the rights of the individual p.029—032

Features p.034 Roll The Tape Our cover star Luke Evans on the roles defining his screen career p.044 A New Kind of Politics?

‘We’re a crowdfunded political body with no party bias,’ says More United p.050 Britain’s Most Brutal Sitcom Catastrophe creator Sharon Horgan on the joys of dysfunction p.054 Case Studies Good times for watch lovers at this year’s SIHH, as design falls into focus

The Finer Things Michelin-starred chef Marcus Wareing on the death of ‘fine dining’, doors open at The Ned in London, and our critic’s pick of upcoming exhibitions p.061—064

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On the Cover Luke Evans photographed

by Simon Lipman, styled by Gareth Scourfield at the Bulgari Hotel London Blue textured wool jacket, £1,500, by Chester Barrie (part of three piece suit).

Pale blue cotton shirt, £115, by Thomas Pink. Navy textured wool tie, £80, by Hardy Amies. Navy pleated linen trousers, £145, by Oliver Spencer. Chocolate leather brogues, £395, by O’Keeffe

Welcome to The Jackal, and to the first print edition of the magazine made for smartthinking, smart-dressing, smart-living people.

A magazine, if you will, ‘for stylish minds’.

In these pages, our aim is to stimulate and provoke, to make you think. Read on and you’ll find a mix of profiles, thought-pieces and reviews. The Jackal will be back in print on May 24, but you don’t have to wait that long for your next dose – find us at thejackalmagazine.com and @thejackalmag where we’ll be posting stylish, thoughtprovoking stories every day. Thank you for picking us up – I hope you enjoy Robin Swithinbank Editor-in-Chief reading and being part of The Jackal.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Robin Swithinbank CREATIVE DIRECTOR Daniel Tucker

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DEPUTY EDITOR Aleks Cvetkovic STYLE DIRECTOR Gareth Scourfield CHIEF COPY EDITOR Adam Thorn EDITOR-AT-LARGE Timothy Barber AUTOMOTIVE EDITOR Michael Harvey

— CONTRIBUTORS David Baddiel, Joseph Bullmore, Hetty Chidwick, Edward Davis, Henry Foy, Richard Holt, Jamie Jones, Rama Knight, Simon Lipman, Fred MacGregor, Jamie Malanowski, Jamie Millar, Benedict Morgan, Edwin Smith, Torri Taylor, Jonny Wan, Jeremy White — SPECIAL THANKS TO Pippa Beng, The Botanist, Bulgari Hotel London, L’Escargot, Nathan Fuller, Mount Gay, Katie Marshall, Remy Martin, Donna Mills, Rachel Swithinbank (for our name) and Emma Try Advertising enquiries advertising@fdrlondon.com Editorial enquiries editorial@fdrlondon.com Read The Jackal online thejackalmagazine.com Follow us @thejackalmag The Jackal is published by FDR London (fdrlondon.com). Registered address: 36a Church Street, Willingham, Cambridge CB24 5HT. FDR London cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited submissions, manuscripts and photographs. All prices and details are correct at time of going to press, but subject to change. FDR London takes no responsibility for omissions or errors. Printed in the UK by Westdale. Reproduction in whole or in part without the publisher’s written permission is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

www.zenith-watches.com

LEGENDS ARE FOREVER

19 Savile Row, London W1S 3PP +44 20 7734 4577 www.ChesterBarrie.co.uk

FOR STYLISH MINDS

MANIFESTO

What a time to be alive. No, really...

The world is going to hell in a handcart. Right? Five minutes on Twitter and you’d think so. But we’ve never had it so good, says The Jackal’s Editor-in-Chief, Robin Swithinbank

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At some point in the mid to late 1980s, when I was a boy of about eight, I drew a picture of my dream watch.

It had a screen for a TV, built-in extendable aerial and a speaker and microphone so you could make calls on it. Not long after, a friend of mine lent me his portable TV and I remember sitting in bed late at night watching Big Break (cross my heart) on its fuzzy black and white screen until I fell asleep. Despite not being the least bit technical, the concept of portable entertainment enthralled me.

No doubt that’s partly why I find this an extraordinary time to be alive. Today, in my kitchen, I have an Amazon Echo. When I talk at it (always in stern parent voice –

why?), it gives me the news headlines, plays me some music or adds dishwasher tabs to my shopping list. I don’t even have to say please. And there’s my phone. Which isn’t a phone at all. It’s a TV. And an encyclopedia. And a portal into the mind of the leader of the free world. Quite often I remember my aspirations of 30 years ago and wonder at how quickly and how substantially they’ve been exceeded.

Now, without wanting to appear so glib as to judge the quality of life today through the lens of my iPhone, it doesn’t feel unreasonable to use Steve Jobs’ gift to the world as a fair yardstick by which to measure what it’s like to be alive in 2017. Ask any sane historian, and March/April 2017

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Manifesto Mr. Know-It-All

“A pollster said to me, ‘Things are rarely as bad as people think they’re going to be’” ▶

they’ll tell you there’s never been a better time to be alive. I’m 37, and according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I should live until I’m 87. There’s a 1 in 10 chance I’ll live till I’m 102. Futurologists tell me that before then scientists will have found a cure for Alzheimer’s, leukemia and heart disease. And I already know that when my hair falls out, I can replace it.

But despite all this, boy, can we mope. Brexit. Trump.

The NHS. The third runway. The demise of the Labour party. Affordable housing. Cycle lanes. The plight of newts. There’s always something to get in a knot about.

A good friend of mine is a pollster. As he often says to me after I rail about something that has very little bearing on my life, ‘Things are rarely as bad as people think they’re going to be.’ I don’t know that he has a poll to back that up, but I can’t help thinking he’s right.

Things are rarely as good as we think they’re going to be either. I sincerely doubt I’m alone in saying I miss Obama like I miss the sun in winter, but the promise of his premiership was always absurd. Trump’s victory was inspired as much by disappointment as by populism.

But back to the good. If only we liked hearing about it. In January, the ONS released figures showing income inequality in the UK is at its lowest for 30 years. World food prices have fallen for a fifth straight year, which – as I understand it – means more people can afford to eat. That’s according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. Last year there were more first-time home buyers in the UK than in any year since 2007. So says the Halifax bank. And if you’re the nostalgic type, sales of vinyl hit a 25-year high in 2016, shifting 3.2m records, a 53 per cent spike on the previous year.

There are plenty of theories for the spirit of misery we like to peddle, many of us, like me all too often, via our Twitter feeds. One of those I find most compelling is that offered by the French aphorist François de La Rochefoucauld, who observed ‘We are all strong enough to bear the misfortunes of others.’

I find intense relief in remembering to view the world through the prism of perspective, although admittedly just as much irritation when others struggle to do the same. This isn’t to decry vigilance, protest or debate – far from it. Not everyone enjoys the same freedoms I do. But the hysterical response is not often the right one, particularly when it fans the flames of extremes we’re trying to extinguish. See list above. Theresa May is rarely credited with one of her greatest assets – stoicism.

To return to La Rochefoucauld, ‘Nothing is so contagious as example, and we never do very good deeds or very evil ones without producing imitations.’

So perhaps The Jackal might be an example – of calm, careful thinking and proportionate living as a means to appreciating life is pretty good, all things considered.

Not perfect, mind. I really am losing my hair.

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Mr. Know-It-All The insufferably well-connected Aleks Cvetkovic presents his edit of everything the stylish man need know this month

Accessories

Restaurants

Bennett Winch olive tote A chic canvas tote, this British-made design from Bennett Winch features padded phone and laptop compartments.

Perfect for everyday use. £300, bennettwinch.com

The Ivy Soho Brasserie True to form, the Ivy Collection’s latest opening offers a cosmopolitan, elegant and easy dining experience, strengthened by its modern British menu. theivysohobrasserie.com

Smythson Runway Notes Premier Notebook For the jet-setter in you. This pocket-book is the perfect travel companion; carry with your new Montblanc for maximum impact. £65, smysthon.com

Montblanc Bonheur fountain pen Rooted in the elegant styling of the 1920s, Montblanc’s Bonheur writing instrument offers a clean, sophisticated experience with luxurious platinum coated fittings. £550, montblanc.com

Kiln Also in Soho, recently opened Thai seafood, grill and clay-pots restaurant Kiln is as cool as it is a refreshing place to eat. kilnsoho.com

Aster From wine tastings to sensory five course suppers and Nordic afternoon teas, Aster in SW1’s fresh £248 million Nova Centre development is everything it’s cracked up to be. aster-restaurant.com

Manifesto

Culture

From Selfie To Self-Expression Half exhibition, half socialexperiment, the Saatchi Gallery’s forthcoming project explores the evolution of the selfportrait. Opens March 31. saatchigallery.com

Style

Books

Valstar for Drake’s Suede Bomber A collaboration between Drake’s and Italian heritage brand Valstar, this tan goatsuede jacket offers a quirky take on the classic bomber. £745, drakes.com

Tears We Cannot Stop A cutting analysis of the state of race-relations in modern day America penned

by Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson, this critique arrives at a particularly pertinent time. us.macmillan.com

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Money for nothing? ▶

Re-releases at the BFI In April, the BFI is rereleasing a selection of suspense classics, including One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. A rare big-screen opportunity. bfi.org.uk

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, The Donmar Warehouse Sir Lenny Henry stars in Brecht’s darkly satirical masterpiece, in an all-new translation by Pulitzer, Olivier and Tony Awardwinning playwright Bruce Norris. The play runs between April 20 and June 17. donmarwarehouse.com

Gieves & Hawkes navy cotton T-shirt Gieves & Hawkes isn’t just a tailor. This season the house’s casualwear is particularly eye-catching, built around staples such as this soft cotton T-shirt. £50, gievesandhawkes.com

Devil On The Cross Written on toilet paper while the author was in prison, this novel from Nobel Prize nominee Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o offers a powerful fictional indictment of capitalism. penguinrandomhouse.com

Turnbull & Asser olive cotton trousers Olive is very much the colour of the season, and these cotton trousers are perfect for the transition into spring. £175, turnbullandasser.co.uk

Exit West One of the most anticipated books of 2017, Exit West by Mohsin Hamid explores the forces that turn ordinary people into refugees, and the harrowing choices that inevitably follow. penguinrandomhouse.com

April 6 sees the arrival of one of George Osborne’s last pet projects as Chancellor.

The Lifetime ISA (or LISA) is a scheme targeted at 18-40 year olds, who under its terms can save up to £4,000 a year and have it topped up to the tune of 25 per cent until the age of 50.

That means 18-year-olds could theoretically help themselves to £32,000 worth of free cash that could be unlocked, tax free, on their 60th birthday. It sounds like a no-brainer, but economists are warning of the danger of neglecting the security of company pension schemes, with their employer contributions and tax relief. So is the LISA a gift-horse or a financial gamble? Time will tell.

March/April 2017

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Manifesto How it feels...

Taking shelter in a nuclear bunker doesn’t sound like the sort of thing you would do for fun. It conjures up visions of utilitarian bleakness, deprivation and hoping help arrives before you lose your minds and start eating each other. ▶

Launch pad The Survival Condo is built in one of the US Military’s Atlas F missile silo complexes, constructed in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Around 70 bases were built, each costing $15m, equivalent to $120m in today’s money

Going underground Take the ‘Full-Floor Condo Suite Package’, the facility’s priciest option at $3m, and you get a five-year per person food supply and a window in your unit that ‘simulates life-like outdoor views’. You’ll also get: ― An air cleaning system with nuclear, biological and chemical filtration run through a ‘command and control centre’ ― A water supply with a minimum reserve of 75,000 gallons ― Access to a private theatre, bar and lounge ― Indoor pool, spa and gym ― First aid medical centre 012

But in America, people are paying millions for a place in an underground shelter that is very far from bleak. The Survival Condo in Kansas was originally a 1960s storage facility for an intercontinental ballistic missile but has now been converted into a 180ft-deep apartment block, containing all the usual luxuries a buyer in this price bracket would expect, plus 9ft-thick concrete walls to protect you from any number of catastrophic events, including nuclear attack and global pandemic.

‘It’s very peaceful to sleep in here,’ says Larry Hall, the man behind the project. ‘The sense of security and lack of noise make it very comfortable. The facility has approximately 1,000ft2 of living space per person. It is easy to both be around other people or find privacy.’

There is military-grade armed protection, purified air and water, and electricity generated by wind turbines.

There are enough supplies to last more than five years underground, with food stocks boosted by hydroponic plant cultivation and tanks full of live fish.

‘We have plenty of activities to keep your mind busy, and all residents need to work a minimum four-hour day,’ adds Hall. ‘They perform a specific job for 30 days, such as taking care of the plants or the stores, then they rotate.’

The apartments are equipped with 50-inch LED televisions, Jacuzzis and, of course, that essential of modern living – the breakfast bar. There is also a gym, a bowling alley and even a shooting range. Because if world order collapses, a chap needs to be handy with a pistol.

Underground living is apparently so agreeable that some owners choose to go and stay there even in the absence of looming disasters (the work-rotation only applies when the facility is in lockdown).

One resident described it as a ‘second home in the country that also happens to be a nuclear-hardened bunker’. With a shelter like this, why bother waiting for the apocalypse? by Richard Holt

How it feels to live in a (luxury) nuclear bunker

Manifesto

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Manifesto Style

Splash out

It’s spring, so freshen up your wet weather wardrobe and invest in a stylish raincoat

Back in the driving seat

Clockwise from top: New & Lingwood Contrast Double-Face Raincoat, £795 Famed for its confident designs, New & Lingwood’s royal blue and lime green reversible cotton raincoat is bold – and beautiful. newandlingwood.com Private White V.C. Twin Track 2.0, £695 Private White V.C.’s twintrack enjoys cult-status among the sartorially savvy.

This option in grey dry waxed cotton is as sharp as ever. privatewhitevc.com Burberry Long Sandringham Trenchcoat, £1,395 Burberry’s Sandringham trenchcoat is nothing less than a modern rainwear icon. In navy gabardine, it offers a sophisticated alternative to the traditional beige. burberry.com

Connolly England once supplied Rolls Royce. After a brief hiatus, it’s now pushing the pace setters of luxury British fashion

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When Connolly’s London store closed nearly seven years ago, for many style-conscious men it was the end of an era. Opened in 1995, just off Belgrave Square, Connolly was chic and cosmopolitan in a way the London of the time really wasn’t. News that it would return to Mayfair’s Clifford Street last autumn was welcomed, if apprehensively.

But despite the break, Connolly – long-time leather supplier to Ferrari and Rolls Royce – has lost none of its ability to cast a spell. Its new collection, designed by Marc Audibet, is full of timeless British classics that benefit from a subtle injection of continental flair, and has had an immediate impact on British luxury fashion. From the very softest of suede driving jackets to refined double-breasted suits and buttersoft camel rollneck sweaters, everything is perfectly considered, understated and exquisitely made. Audibet’s designs are also androgynous: flattering to both men and women, with attention paid to silhouettes, cuts and colours that compliment either sex.

It’s a bold statement of intent and takes British heritage clothing into a more forwardthinking space. It’s like Connolly’s never been away. connollyengland.com AC

Grenfell Shooter Jacket, £550 Made in London in world-beating rainproof ‘Grenfell cloth’, this shortbelted shooter jacket is a sharp choice to counter unexpected spring showers. grenfell.com Jigsaw Technical Reversible Car Coat, £279 Jigsaw’s reversible car coat is sophisticated, practical and reasonably priced given its quality. Earthy khaki or timeless navy – wear as the mood takes you. jigsaw-online.com Photography by BENEDICT MORGAN

Navy cashmere doublebreasted peacoat This double-breasted peacoat has notched lapels, front-welt pockets and discreet zip-closure. £1,990, available from mrporter.com

Cream hand-knitted wool Aran sweater Hand-knitted in Scotland, this ageless cream Aran Wool sweater is chic and easy to wear. £395, available from mrporter.com

Road Rage leather driving gloves Connolly’s motoring past and personality live on in these perforated driving gloves with red forefingers. £295, available in store March/April 2017

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Manifesto Style

01

The rise of the haberdasher

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Far from antique, London’s traditional outfitters now dictate sartorial trends

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Two years ago, if the word ‘haberdashery’ or ‘outfitter’ came up in conversation, you would have been forgiven for conjuring-up mental images of dusty mannequins, dark panelling and ‘suits you sir’ side-parted staff wearing novelty neckties. Not any more. Contemporary men’s outfitting is resurgent, particularly in London, and haberdashers have a new role – that of tastemakers.

For example, Drake’s, once known for its handmade ties, has transformed itself into a go-to brand for the style-cognoscente, offering everything from the perfect denim shirt to relaxed tweed blazers or waxed cotton military field jackets. Elsewhere, E. Tautz on Duke Street curates a collection of progressive men’s staples, while Chiltern Street’s Trunk Clothiers offers everything from minimalist suede sneakers to Japanese workwear for those in search of up-and-coming labels with an edge.

Anderson & Sheppard, Turnbull & Asser and New & Lingwood have also all championed an expressive approach to heritage menswear. Wander into any of these and you’ll find tailored coats, easy-wearing chinos, chunky-knits and full complements of luxurious accessories – all beautifully made and anything but stuffy. Born of a very traditional approach to men’s dress, ironically it seems that London’s contemporary outfitters have become the most thought-provoking places to shop in the capital. AC

Meet the makers

01 Michael Hill, Creative Director, Drake’s ‘Haberdashers offer an experience that comes from somewhere, which always wins over something that’s newly invented. In today’s throwaway culture full of perpetual newness, it’s reassuring, and somehow personal, to find a great clothing edit with genuine provenance.’

02 Mats Klingberg, Founder and Managing Director, Trunk Clothiers ‘There’s a definite movement towards smaller, understated brands that

are built on some sort of uniqueness – haberdashers are doing a great job of putting the spotlight back on these. At Trunk we thrive on finding new and interesting things for our customers.’

03 Dean Gomilsek-Cole, Head of Design, Turnbull & Asser ‘Today, the haberdashery has become a trusted curator of things of quality. More than ever, men are looking for some guidance to understand the difference between products that are just expensive and those that are truly luxurious.’

04 Simon Maloney, Product & Marketing Director, New & Lingwood ‘We’ve never been afraid to stand for who we are; we provide a sense of style that is often lost with deference to craft and attention to detail. Outfitters like us have started to revive an etiquette in dressing standards, giving people a framework within which to express themselves.’

Elegance is an attitude Simon Baker

The Longines Master Collection

Manifesto Style

It’s time to hail Patek’s Aquanaut

The experimental little brother of the brand’s iconic Nautilus comes of age

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There are some who, not unreasonably, don’t consider themselves ready for a Patek Philippe. Many of the Geneva brand’s watches sit at the classical, if not grown-up, end of the spectrum. Not everyone can wear a yellow gold Calatrava with a white Roman numeral dial and a hobnail bezel and get away with it.

Because of that, younger – or less senior – buyers have typically looked to the Nautilus for their Patek fix. Originally penned in 1976 as a luxury steel sports watch by Gérald Genta (one of the alltime great watch designers and also begetter of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak), it’s still gloriously unconventional, and one of the coolest watches ever created. Collectors lust after early models.

In 1997, the Nautilus was followed by a second, more accessibly priced Patek steel sports watch, the Aquanaut. These last two decades, the Aquanaut has sailed along quietly in the wake of the Nautilus and is dubbed by watch connoisseurs – fairly or not – as the latter’s little brother.

At 20, the Aquanaut is moving into a critical period as a piece of design – and it’s starting to mellow nicely. Take last year’s Ref 5164R (pictured), a rose gold piece on a brown rubber strap. It has a second time zone that can be adjusted in one-hour jumps forwards or backwards using pushers on the side of the case, and neatly bridges the gap between youth and experience.

In typical Patek style, the marque has kept details of a 20th anniversary collection – and news of its release date – a closely guarded secret. No matter, it’s time to judge the Aquanaut on its own merits, and as a great piece of watch design. Patek Philippe Ref 5164R, £37,040, patek.com RS

Looking shady The Jackal’s spring sunglasses edit

Vilebrequin ‘Bond’ in bleu marine Riviera-inspired resortwear brand Vilebrequin has just taken the plunge into luxury glasses with a collection of handmade frames all featuring world-leading Zeiss lenses, Comotec precision sprung hinges and titanium nose-pads. We’re particular fans of the Bond in bleu marine (below, left), a timeless model in polished navy acetate with blue smoked mono lenses. £260, vilebrequin.com

Oliver Goldsmith ‘Gopas’ An adventurous dark tortoiseshell aviator, the Gopas was first released in 1972 and forms part of Oliver Goldsmith's enduring ‘Icons’ collection. £265, olivergoldsmith.com 018

Eyevan 7285 Model 802/3010 These club masters from cult glasses brand Eyevan 7285 are precision engineered in Japan, with a folding bridge and arms for maximum practicality. £300, eyevan7285.com

TOMS Matte Nude Traveler Neutral-coloured frames are on-trend this spring, and this confident ‘Traveler’ model from TOMS made in its signature Solaflex material is a sure-fire winner. £64.99, toms.co.uk

Photography by JEROME BURGERT

Manifesto

A change of step Banish the boots and usher in spring with these beautifully crafted English shoes

Clockwise from top:

Crockett & Jones Westfield Semi-Brogues In a confident shade of ocean blue, these versatile suede semi-brogues are just the shoes to brighten up your spring look. £390, crockettandjones.com

Gaziano & Girling Mayfair Double-Monk In polo-brown suede, these exquisite double-monk shoes from Savile Rowbased shoemaker Gaziano & Girling are a thing of simple beauty. From £815, gazianogirling.com

John Lobb Fore Oxfords These elegant black Derbies lend themselves to a clean look, cut in John Lobb’s signature Moorland Grain leather with natural welted soles. £940, johnlobb.com Loake Pimlico Chukka Boots Relaxed suede ankle boots are a seasonal go-to. This olive pair from Loake have a contemporary feel, finished with practical rubber Dainite soles. £195, loake.co.uk

Bodileys Ebury Penny Loafers Mid-brown penny loafers are a spring/summer classic.

This pair from Bodileys combines a sleek last with a delicate burnished furnish. £295, bodileys.com Photography by BENEDICT MORGAN

March/April 2017

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Manifesto Automotive

Motormouth

The Jackal’s automotive editor Michael Harvey puts his foot down

Power struggle McLaren and Ferrari were at it again at the Geneva motor show earlier this month: Ferrari showed off the 812 Superfast with 790bhp, its second generation, modificato F12; while McLaren presented the 720S, the third generation of its super-series car with an equally excessive output. I hope you don’t need me to tell you this arms race is out of control – there is no need for that amount of power in a road car, and arguably the focus on making a car ever more powerful makes it worse to drive.

Too many companies now talk routinely of blurring the boundaries between road and track.

My concern is that’s not only dangerous, but nonsense. Both companies make very exclusive, uncompromised ‘track cars’ and though neither have bothered the world championships for a while, they still have very little in common with their road-worthy counterparts.

A classic conundrum Granted, there’s a whiff of rip-off about it, but the Reborn Range Rover is a revelation

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There’s something a little arch to the price Land Rover has put on its run of ‘Reborn’ original 1970s Range Rovers. Certainly £135,000 is toppy for a ground-up, every-nut/ every-bolt restored Mk 1, however thoroughly done (and the factory restoration is indeed as beautiful as you might expect from a ‘works’ operation). But that’s not where the mischief lies. Land Rover Classic is a wholly owned subsidiary of Jaguar Land Rover, the same company that will sell you an absolute pinnacle new 2017 Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic for just a few pounds more than… £135,000.

I appreciate nobody will actually choose between 20th or 21st century technology (and please, if you are doing so, get in touch – I need to tell you just how awfully original Range Rovers drive), and that ‘Reborn’ owners will likely already have a brand new Range Rover in the garage. But I do wonder if the pricing is unintentionally rhetorical; it does, after all, make you question what it is you value?

And it’s a very modish question. It’s hard now not to think that the fascination around classic cars and their authenticity is driven by more than just the lure of capital gains-free investment and is – like books and vinyl records and magazines that cherish proper writing – part of the ‘hyper-analogue’ movement. A Dynamic is superior in all ways you can actually measure, but I would suggest the first ‘Reborn’ Range Rover, the 1978 Bahama Gold three-door, beats it in every one you can’t. landrover.co.uk

Fears for Faraday You may have read a little about the FF91 from allelectric upstart Faraday Future. You’ve probably read more about Faraday’s apparently worrying financial issues. That’s a shame – if it’s even half as clever as they claim, the FF91 prototype is the smartest car yet built. I hope it will prove to be more than a one-off, but I fear not.

TAG HEUER CARRERA CALIBRE HEUER 01

Chris Hemsworth works hard and chooses his roles carefully. He handles pressure by taming it, and turning it to his advantage. #DontCrackUnderPressure was coined with him in mind. www.tagheuer.com

Manifesto The Watch Edit

NOMOS Glashütte Club 38 Campus Nacht, £1,100 Unusually, NOMOS Glashütte claims to have subsidised its new graduation-themed Club Campus series. This model has a 38mm steel case and a hand-wound movement. Case back engraving is included. nomos-glashuette.com

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The best of Basel The Jackal selects its highlights from 2017’s biggest watch fair, from crowdsourced designs to re-issues

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Omega Speedmaster Master Chronometer, £6,250 If stories released in the run up to the Baselworld watch fair are anything to go by (it opens on March 23), design influences from the 1950s and 1960s have a big role to play in this year’s new watch collections. Omega’s lead offering is the Speedmaster Automatic (above), inspired by a model launched in 1968 – the year before the Speedmaster made its defining journey to the Moon on board Apollo 11.

Before it was the Moonwatch, the Speedmaster was a racing chronograph, hence the name and the sporty orange detailing here. As so often with contemporary revivals, the new version’s case has been enlarged to 44.25mm, while advances in the manufacturing of sapphire crystal mean it’s a mite thinner than most previous iterations.

Omega, as much as any of the big players in Swiss watchmaking, has vastly improved the technology in its watches in recent years. On the outside, that means this watch has a polished, scratch-resistant ceramic bezel with a tachymeter scale made of a military-grade material called Liquidmetal. Inside, it means the watch gets one of Omega’s ‘Master Chronometer’ calibres. The name signals that the watch has been independently verified to confirm its power reserve of 60 hours, waterresistance of 50 metres, accuracy of 0 to -5 seconds a day, and resistance to magnetic fields of 15,000 gauss. omegawatches.com RS

Breitling for Bentley Supersports B55, £6,725 Breitling is one of the few luxury Swiss watch brands making purpose-driven smartwatches. This titanium-cased piece sits in the Breitling for Bentley line, and houses the company’s B55 connected movement, tailored to include a number of automotive features, including a 30-stage rally chronograph. breitling.com

Junghans FORM A, £830 The influence of Bauhaus over Junghans watches stretches back to the Max Bill design of 1956. This year, the German watch company introduces FORM, a collection intended to align function and aesthetic as harmoniously as possible.

This 39mm steel automatic version is a lesson in balanced watch design, certainly. junghans.de

Manifesto Girl About Town

Hetty’s choice

Tuck into cicchetti at St James’ louche Italian diner Veneta, lunch at Brown’s on a tour of Mayfair’s art galleries and let Chopard steal your heart, says Hetty Chidwick

Zenith Heritage 146, £5,500 Zenith’s new 38mm chronograph picks up from one of the company’s 1960s designs, only now it’s powered by Zenith’s evergreen high-beat El Primero movement.

The ‘tropical brown’ dial and racing-style brown rubber-lined calfskin leather strap complete the picture. zenith-watches.com

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TAG Heuer Autavia 02 Chrono, £3,900 TAG Heuer crowdsourced the design for its revived Autavia. The new version is inspired by a 1963 model known as the ‘Jochen Rindt’ after the F1 driver. The case has been enlarged to 42mm, and holds TAG Heuer’s new in-house, 80-hour power reserve chronograph calibre. tagheuer.com

Oris Big Crown 1917 Limited Edition, £TBC Watch marques talk of faithful re-editions – Oris has gone the whole nine yards with the re-release of its first pilot’s wristwatch.

As well as its bubble crystal and vintage logo, it also has a button at 2 o’clock that has to be held down to adjust the watch, as per the original. Only 1,917 numbered pieces will be made. oris.ch Illustration by TORRI TAYLOR

Make the heart grow fonder

The road to a woman’s heart is very often smoother than it seems, and this Happy Hearts bangle from Chopard’s newest collection is just the ticket. The heart is a recurring theme for the Geneva-based jeweller and there are two here, one with a floating diamond, the other in vibrant green malachite. A ring, necklace and earrings make up the whole delightful set, should the moment take you. £2,400, chopard.com For art’s sake

Brown’s Hotel – one of my favourite Mayfair haunts – has a new acquisition, the esteemed gallery owner and curator Maeve Doyle, who has been tasked with running the hotel’s exclusive art tours.

The themed monthly events will give you VIP access to the finest galleries around Mayfair; you’ll meet the directors personally to learn about the current exhibitions; and then tour the prestigious art work at Brown’s itself. The morning will conclude with an indulgent lunch at HIX in Brown’s – look out for famous works

by Tracey Emin and Bridget Riley – and each month a special guest from the art world will join in to share their expertise. The next Brown’s Saturday Mayfair Art Tour is on April 22 and costs £65pp, including three courses and wine; roccofortehotels.com

The Italian job

Hetty Chidwick is Country Life’s Luxury Editor

After honing his skills in Venice, chef Jamie Thickett is heading up Veneta, based in the slick new development in St James’ Market, Piccadilly, and run

by Opera Tavern’s Salt Yard Group. Postwork cicchetti and pine negronis will likely lead into dinner (you have to try the kid goat ragu with fresh pappardelle), but I have a sneaky suspicion this will be popular as a fresh breakfast spot, if the delicious creamy polenta with muscovado is anything to go by.

Breakfast from 7am. Cicchetti between £3 to £4. Set menus from £42.50 per person; saltyardgroup.co.uk/veneta March/April 2017

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Manifesto Technology

This VR stuff just got real Forget the dodgy graphics and sickness, it’s time to take virtual reality seriously

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Those of us who remember the 1980s may be justifiably circumspect about 2017’s VR 2.0. Three decades ago, the few who dipped their toes into this digital new world soon found themselves feeling in one of three states: disappointed, ill or an unfortunate combination of the two.

Far from the promised visions seen in Lawnmower Man, 1980s’ VR was boring, blocky and, worst of all, suffered from ‘latency’, or lag. Now, this is where the issues with today’s tech dovetail with yesteryear’s efforts. It is precisely this lag that makes you feel seasick.

The key to making this new generation of VR hardware viable is to make sure the delay is as short as possible. Get it right and you’re immersed in the whole escapade with no queasiness; get it wrong and your brain can’t forget you look very silly with some contraption stuck over your head and, in worst-case scenarios, it’s headache central and severe nausea.

The good news is the best of these new devices have nailed the all-important issue of lag and finally offer a proper adventure. So much so, in fact, that VR has gone way beyond casual gamers in living rooms: the Norwegian army use it to train troops, architects to design buildings, and wannabe cyclists can even compete in a stage of the Tour de France. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg recognised its potential and paid $2bn for Oculus, one of the biggest players in the sector. And when the creators of the online world Second Life return with a VR domain, High Fidelity, everyone will be able to bend to their whim. Virtual reality may have had a laughing stock of a start in life, but those in the know are taking it very seriously now. by Jeremy White, Wired Product Editor

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Three of the best VR headsets

Budget - Google Daydream View

Google’s friendly, clothcovered VR headset is very nicely designed and at 220g, light, too.

It’s powered by Android Nougat, so you’ll need a compatible mobile phone to use it, but the included small touchpad remote is a great addition. £69, madebygoogle.com

High-end HTC Vive

The HTC Vive requires a pimped PC to run properly - but the pay-off is the best home VR experience going.

The big advantage is that the Vive’s sensor tech means you can walk around in the VR world just by, well, walking around (albeit in a defined area), as opposed to moving a joystick. £689, vive.com

Future Starbreeze StarVR Most virtual reality headsets have a field of view of around 100 degrees. StarVR, made by Starbreeze and Acer, has a thumping 210-degree field of view. The greater the view, the less you notice screen edges, and therefore the more immersive the VR trip. It’s that simple. £TBC, starvr.com

The neomatik series from NOMOS Glashßtte: Incredibly slender, highly precise, outstandingly elegant—these watches with the automatic movement of the next generation are available with selected retailers. Find out more about Metro neomatik and other NOMOS models at nomos-glashuette.com and nomos-store.com.

The superlative-charged chronograph. 50 mm case in BreitlightÂŽ. Exclusive Manufacture Breitling Caliber B12 with 24-hour military-style display. Officially chronometer-certified.

I T ’ S A M AT T E R O F O PI N I O N

T H I N K TA N K POLITICS

Trump’s rebellion has nothing on Lenin’s revolution

by HENRY FOY

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The establishment elite has been toppled.

A powerful, populist orator has stormed to power on a wave of anger. Institutions are in disarray, people are massing in the streets and the immature executive is ruling by decree. Law, justice and rights are in flux. The new ruling class promises to give the country ‘back to the people’.

The newly anointed leader pledges to bring greatness back to his country and positions himself as the leader of a new political approach that will sweep the West. The elite are fearful, and in shock.

One hundred years ago, Vladimir Lenin’s Russian Revolution altered the future of his homeland and the world. But his dream of a wave of socialist uprisings to topple the West’s established political hegemony failed to materialise.

Donald Trump’s Washington DC is not Lenin’s St Petersburg. His is not a revolution, but a rebellion. Yet his election, following a surge of political earthquakes, has liberals terrified.

Such fears may be overblown. For like Lenin, Trump has stormed to power on a particular cocktail of circumstance for which he provided a timely tonic. And

“Dig below the headlines, proclamations and doom-mongering, and a populist revolution is far from certain” Illustration by JAMIE JONES

like Lenin, he may find the rest of the world doesn’t follow America’s lead.

‘The UK was so smart in getting out,’ Trump said of Brexit, when comparing it to his own victory. ‘Others will leave.’

Indeed, populist, illiberal European politicians have seized upon Trump’s election as a sign of a new world order.

Some support his protectionist, antielitist, nationalist stance. Others just see political capital in equating Hillary Clinton with liberal orthodoxies in their own countries. Elections in 2017 mean many could follow Trump into power.

Marine Le Pen, the far-right, antiimmigration leader of the Front National, tops leadership polls ahead of France’s Presidential election in April.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s campaign for a fourth term in office must combat a surge in support for the rightwing Alternative für Deutschland.

In Holland Geert Wilders’ anti-Islamic Party for Freedom is set to win the most votes in March’s general election (at the time of going to press). Matteo Renzi, the centrist former Italian Premier, lost his job in December after losing a referendum to a populist uprising. In Poland and Hungary, nationalist parties are already in power, and have cheered Trump’s victory – and Britain’s vote to leave the EU – as a sign of the death of liberal politics.

But dig below the headlines, the proclamations and the doom-mongering of political analysts, and a populist revolution is far from certain. Merkel, Europe’s liberal champion, is in little danger of being toppled. Her ice-cool response to Trump’s first few chaotic weeks in office suggests a distinct lack of panic – and contrasts drastically with the cringeworthy attempts by Theresa May to curry favour with the new administration.

In France, Le Pen’s lead appears untenable in a certain run-off vote against either of her major challengers. The rise of centrist Emmanuel Macron to become her biggest challenger has shown support for liberals is still high. In Holland, a coalition to keep Wilders from power will make his a pyrrhic victory.

Moreover, it isn’t inconceivable for Renzi to find himself back in power in Rome if fresh elections are held soon.

Spain’s centre-left prime minister Mariano Rajoy has smothered a populist

assault from the far-left. Austria chose a Green party candidate over his far-right rival to be its president in December.

And even if they reach power, the populist movements will soon find they have little else in common than a distaste for their domestic establishments.

Many of Europe’s populists support Russian President Vladimir Putin. Others loathe him. Some want to destroy the EU, others defend the benefits their countries derive from it. The far-left and far-right may use similar emotional messages, but their politics are in direct opposition.

Trump’s rise has shocked liberals, and made them fear for a re-writing of the Western political narrative. Like Lenin 100 years before, the US President believes himself to be on the right side of history, and at the vanguard of a global rebellion against politics as usual.

But Lenin was proved wrong. Trump will find it harder than he thinks, too.

Henry Foy is a Foreign Correspondent for the Financial Times March/April 2017

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SOCIETY

OK, so you want your rights. But what about your responsibilities?

by EDWARD DAVIES

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In a glorious attempt to steer the public conversation away from Brexit for half an hour, the Prime Minister began the year with a speech on social policy. Somehow, more than one newspaper brought its coverage back to Europe, so the whole thing may have passed you by. It is, however, possible that something about a ‘shared society’ found its way into your consciousness – then moved swiftly on.

But Theresa May’s speeches are nothing if not carefully worded. And within this one, there was more than a clue to the kind of country she is hoping to build, Brexit aside, and a strong sense that it is not the one we have.

‘Our privileges can be no greater than our obligations,’ wrote John F Kennedy.

‘The protection of our rights can endure no longer than the performance of our responsibilities.’

It is a theme the PM is more than warm to. Her speech referred to the obligations placed on citizens more than a dozen times – responsibilities to families, communities, institutions and society at large – and their rights just once.

The language of rights has correctly dominated politics recently, and to our benefit: equality of race, gender, sexuality and religion have all flowered under it.

“We’re obsessed with asking ‘How should the world relate to me’, but not ‘How should I relate to the world’”

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But all policies have unintended consequences and so the conversation on rights has become one dominated by individualism and identity. Where once we had rights that aimed to elevate the disenfranchised, now the wellenfranchised can trade their rights off against each other. Courts are asked to play off the rights of religious cake bakers against those of gay customers, and ask whether the rights of the wheelchair trump those of the pushchair when vying for space on the Clapham omnibus.

We have become a society obsessed with writing our own autobiographies: asking how the world should relate to me, not how I should relate to the world.

Primary schools host stark examples of this, with many posting the children’s rights on the walls. It’s a well-intentioned move – documents such as those 54 articles listed in the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child are not to be argued with – but many schools now teach our kids of their ‘right to friends’ or ‘tidy classrooms’.

We do not build rights through an expectation that others should rally round me. Our social bonds are not created by the demands of what we feel owed. They are grown by the fundamental acknowledgement that we have obligations towards the flourishing and encouragement of our metaphorical, and often very literal, neighbour.

And so to the Prime Minister’s point.

What about the responsibility to be a friend or tidy the classroom? What would our courts look like if our first question was not our rights, but the responsibility we have towards others? And what would the envisaged redressing of the balance between rights and responsibilities mean for the social fabric of the UK? I’m hopeful. Amid the myriad rights campaigns on our streets and airwaves, the right that seems to get the least airtime is an equality of opportunity.

Poor children are underrepresented in our best schools, they are invisible in the top professions, and from welfare to healthcare their life chances lag.

Many can’t speak out, so it is through a focus on the responsibilities of you and me that society may speak for them.

The Prime Minister’s words may barely have made it out of the lecture theatre, let alone into the public consciousness, but they could mark a welcome shift in the way people behave towards each other.

Edward Davies is Policy Director at The Centre for Social Justice

MODERN LIFE

Put your handbags away Twitterati – losing doesn’t always mean you’re wrong

by DAVID BADDIEL

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We love a social media spat, don’t we? No matter how much one professes to be all about peace and love, it’s impossible not to enjoy two public figures exchanging bitter barbs on Twitter. February’s highlight was JK Rowling v Piers Morgan.

Piers, in his role as #TrumpyGuyUK, had gone on American TV and been told to go forth and multiply by Australian comic Jim Jefferies. JKR chose to unleash a few wizardly words on her Twitter feed.

Piers – would you believe it? – didn’t rise above this, and soon they were at each other’s Twitthroats. It was handbags – or Mail columns v wands – at dawn, as each tried to expelliarmus the other.

Perhaps you can guess which side

“No-one wants complexity anymore. They want simple answers, and no answer is more simple than ‘F**k off, I won’” I took. But I’d rather you didn’t. Because, for me, the key tweet in the spat was when Piers said, ‘So @jk_rowling loudly backed Ed Miliband, Remain & Hillary. Takes some wizardry to be so wrong so often’.

A fair amount – 7,600 – of #TeamPiers liked the suggestion that JK Rowling, in supporting positions that lost in democratic votes, was also wrong.

Yes, she was on the losing side, but that doesn’t make her wrong. This, though, is a distinction growing more blurry.

Brexiteers close down arguments against their agenda with ‘You lost, get over it’; and the champion of winning=right/ losing=wrong, obviously, is Donald Trump, for whom nothing else makes any Illustration by JAMIE JONES

sense. For him, the worst insult in the world is loser. He cannot refer to his critics in terms of their critique – he has to say that The New York Times (every bloody time) is failing, or that CNN is tanking.

His obsession with numbers – from inauguration crowds to Schwarzenegger’s ratings on The Apprentice – is because figures allow victory to be quantified, and therefore crowed about.

But actually, there is only one arena in life where winning does equal right, and losing wrong, and that is sport (alright, gambling, but that kind of is a sport). In politics, winners, whether democratically elected ones or dictators, tend not to be on the side of the angels. It’s possible, in fact, to suggest that the opposite is true: politics is a greasy pole, and truly good – truly right-thinking – men and women do not have the deviousness to climb it.

But really this is about something else. I only have one motto in life, which is: the truth is always complex. And it’s complexity that is being screwed over here. No-one wants complexity anymore.

They want simple answers, and no answer is more simple than ‘F**k off, I won’.

Twitter is partly to blame, because all statements on it are short, which doesn’t allow for nuance, and also because it’s a place of polarised argument: somewhere people can be burnt and where numbers are quantifiable in likes and retweets.

So here’s a little complexity to restore the balance. It’s worth remembering that losers are often winners, in the end. Van Gogh, Galileo, Jesus – what losers they were, in their time. I’m sure Jesus, while crying out ‘My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ had to put up with Roman centurions shouting up ‘You lost, get over it, snowflake.’ JK Rowling herself was a loser for many years, suffering 12 rejection letters for Harry Potter. But it turns out she was right. Even when she was losing, she was right.

Anyway, I try my best to stay out of Twitter spats. I did get involved in this one, briefly, by offering my opinion on Piers’ original tweet. I replied: ‘The idea that victory, in politics, equals “being right” is the category error of our time.’

And obviously, the last thing I’d like to do is point out that it got more likes and retweets than Piers’ one. And that therefore I won. And was right.

David Baddiel is a comedian, novelist, scriptwriter and broadcaster. His My Family Not the Sitcom is at London’s Playhouse Theatre March 28-June 3.

Visit davidbaddiel.com for more

OUR MAN IN AMERICA

Please don’t make us do democracy.

We’re perfectly happy on our iPhones

by JAMIE MALANOWSKI

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Politics has never been the prime interest of the American people. Oh, we like to gussy up the whole Revolutionary War thing with the ‘Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ mantra, but that was just something Thomas Jefferson spackled over what was basically a tax squabble. Let’s face it, whenever political matters oust Beyonce or the Kardashians or some equivalent circus from the top of the conversational charts, we start running into trouble. We’re a democracy, see, so whenever a political topic gets too big, everybody needs to chime in. Once that happens, the capacity of sensible people to say ‘enough is enough’ gets chucked out the window, and the thing rolls on and on until we’ve seen dead bodies at Gettysburg or the semen stain on Monica Lewinsky’s dress. Then people turn away, abashed at the spectacle.

So we avoid politics and just preside over the world. We’re happy everyone knows we have a great country, great God and are a well-liked global superpower.

Moreover, we have just the right number of minority groups and gay people and we don’t need more, thanks anyway. We don’t know why Muslims hate us, but when you get down to it, we don’t even know why Muslims want to be Muslims. We just want to drive our crossover SUVs, and be satisfied that nobody has it better than us.

Sadly, the Trump saga has squatted on the national agenda, and nothing seems to possess the potential to dislodge it.

Usually, a new president comes in, and no matter how many people loathed him previously, he would benefit from a temporary cordiality that would allow him to get organised. In return, he would spend time smiling, as though to reassure people he meant no harm. By the time his enemies were ready to resume their vituperative bombardment, he should have been able to reassure the remainder March/April 2017

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of the country that he was harmless, and they could safely return to their iPhones.

Obama was more lulling than usual. For eight years, he led a mellow government.

It was like Al Jarreau was president.

Obama could talk about anything – recession, automotive bankruptcy, cops shooting unnamed black men, Syria – and the country would walk out humming ‘We’re In This Love Together’.

Now he has given way to his polar opposite. Trump is like Ozzy Osbourne, screeching ‘Paranoid’ and eating bats.

He came into office as he campaigned, lying, banning Muslims and firing salvos of condemnation at Mexico, Australia, Germany, America’s own intelligence service, judges, the news media and Meryl Streep (though he did find time to praise Frederick Douglass, the very dead 19thcentury abolitionist whom Trump cited as ‘Somebody who’s done an amazing job and is being recognised more and more’).

Well, aux armes, citoyens, formez vos bataillons. In a flash, millions had taken to the streets, phones and other media of the moment to express their anger.

Another man might have been chastened, but Trump is a god, a Trinity, a threein-one: the Provocative Populist, with enough skill to win; the Bullshit Artist, who blusters his way through; and the Cry Baby, who can dish it out but can’t take it.

Who will wear out first? The Resistance, so far, seems relentless, inspired just as much by their setbacks as his. But Trump is wilting from long days and lack of adulation. He looks pale and reportedly spends nights alone in his bathrobe, tweeting, although, in response, his press secretary denied that Trump even owns a bathrobe. Something’s got to give.

I predict he’ll own a dressing gown by the end of the month.

Jamie Malanowski is a speechwriter for Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York

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STYLE

It’s about time we worked out the rules of what we wear to the gym

by JAMIE MILLAR

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A few years ago on holiday in New York, I was working out in the Soho outpost of upmarket sweatbox Equinox (I said ‘holiday’ not ‘rest week’). On the gym floor, I saw a gentleman who I presumed from his physique and preening selfregard was a model. What had me staring was not his ‘bare gains’ but his clothing: a beanie hat, vest, thermal long johns complete with Y-front and old army boots.

While ‘wellness’ has become well trendy, and most boutique fitness studios have sound systems, moody lighting and waiting lists to rival nightclubs, going to the gym is not a fashion show. Nor however is it slobbing out on your sofa.

Indeed, that’s kind of the point. (Even then, take your boots off.) You should, therefore, consider your appearance and the sensibilities of your fellow members.

An old band T-shirt is another duff note, even if you’re a midlife crisis-hit, newly puritanical member of said group.

(See Anthony Kiedis, Trent Reznor, all of

“However industrial the gym’s air con, headgear is unnecessary: if you’re really cold, consider warming up”

Metallica.) Speaking of faded glories, you should have graduated from university team ‘stash’ by now. With a spate of new athle-tailers such as The Active Man and Sporty Henri stocking fresh labels, there’s no excuse for excessively laundered or perforated attire that wasn’t designed to have holes. Replica kits are strictly for the playing or watching of that sport.

Go too far the other way, though, and you resemble some sort of space-age compression gimp. Huge box jumps have been made in sweat wicking technology, but humble cotton is perfectly fine for the average air-conditioned gym-goer’s needs. In fact, I’d recommend throwing a plain, retro T-shirt, hoodie or pair of shorts over your base layer (so they’re not even touching skin), or technical pieces that have that same old-school feel. The matte texture adds variation and refinement: too much shiny man-made material, and you’ll start a fire; too many logos and you’ll look sponsored.

However industrial the gym’s air con, headgear is unnecessary: if you’re really cold, try warming up. Sweatpants have become acceptable inside the gym and out, provided they’re neatly tapered and not baggy. Karl Lagerfeld called them ‘a sign of defeat’, which is perhaps a bit strong, but in the gym, they’ve always indicated to me a lack of effort or leg day attendance. They’re something you wear to travel there, over your shorts, which should finish above your knee to qualify.

(You’re not Fred Durst. Thankfully.)

Buying your workout gear in exclusively black, white and grey meanwhile not only looks more grown-up, but it all goes together, giving you one less excuse to skip the gym. Save the neon for nu-raves, and the massive headphones for a silent disco. As a rule, avoid oversized anything: if you’re overweight, you’ll look bigger, and if not, you’ll hide your hard work. Be equally wary though of showing too much.

I’ve yet to see someone wear a sleeveless top without looking like an exhibitionist.

Part of the appeal of tight sweatpants or leggings meanwhile is that they optically shrink your lower half, making your torso look bigger. Black tights and trainers together can get a bit Black Swan though.

(No white tights, ever.) And in case you’re wondering when it became acceptable to wear skin-tight tops or – shudder – leggings without anything over them, the answer is that it didn’t. There’s a reason they’re called base layers.

Jamie Millar is a fashion, fitness and feature writer Illustration Illustration by

by JAMIE JAMIE JONES JONES

Photography by

Styling by

SIMON LIPMAN

GARETH SCOURFIELD

Interview by R O B I N S W I T H I N B A N K

ROLL the

TAPE â–¼

During his relatively short screen career, Luke Evans has been in some of the highestgrossing films ever made. But the role that defines him is surely still to come 034

March/April 2017

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“I’m having experiences I never thought would be my experiences.

I thought they would be someone else’s”

‘Seven years – is that all?’ he says.

Success has come as quickly as it has late.

The is-this-really-happening-to-littleold-me shtick could come across as disingenuous, and it might grate on the page, but in person, it doesn’t. Memories of being an actor who couldn’t get a gig – ‘I had to take a job in PR, dealing with Z-list celebrities. God, they were awful people’ – aren’t old yet, and you can see it, although he says he now feels ‘very much in control’ of where his career is heading.

And where it’s heading looks starry.

Right now, he’s in Disney’s latest liveaction sing-along cinema-filler, Beauty and the Beast, playing the main villain, Gaston, alongside Emma Watson’s heroine Belle and Dan Stevens’ Beast, while the likes of Sir Ian McKellen, Stanley Tucci, Ewan McGregor and Here he is in a vast, absurdly opulent suite on the fifth floor of Emma Thompson voice the animated Knightsbridge’s Bulgari Hotel London, being offered whatever he roles around them. likes from the menu, while waiter, groomer, stylist, photographer, Then he’ll take the lead in what art director, agent and a showering of assistants – none of them his – might be the year’s most unlikely hover and try to look busy. He’s the centre of attention. biopic, Professor Marston & The Wonder ‘I’m having experiences and moments I never thought would be Woman, which plots the true story of my experiences,’ he admits. ‘I thought they would be somebody else’s 1940s polygraph inventor and Wonder or something I’d see on TV. The fact I’m having them and sharing them Woman creator William Marston and his with my family and friends, doing a photoshoot, wearing these amazing polyamorous relationship with his wife clothes and talking to somebody about my life...’ He leans forward, and their lover. (By happy coincidence, eyes widening. ‘Like somebody gives a f**k that much that they want Wonder Woman makes her feature-film to talk to me about my life?’ He settles back on the sofa laughing after debut this summer.)

I suggest we go for a beer sometime and talk about my – considerably Then comes a role opposite Michael more ordinary – life. ‘But it’s a lovely thing.’

Shannon in the art-house psychological The reason he has such a strong sense of watching his life of fame drama State Like Sleep in which he plays unfold as if it were happening to someone else is that it’s come late to a peroxide blonde club owner offering him. At 37, Luke Evans is only just finding his place among the stars. clues to a widow as she pieces together the A working-class son of a builder from the Welsh Valleys, he left home truth behind her husband’s suicide. at 16 for a life in musical theatre and only made his silver-screen debut He’s also slated to make his small seven years ago in Ian Dury biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll. screen return later in the year (his only previous outing was in 2013’s BAFTA-nominated drama The Great Train Robbery) facing off against Daniel Brühl in The Alienist, a crime drama he’ll shoot this summer for American channel TNT. And when we meet, he’s fresh off the set of 10x10, a film about a kidnap that he describes as ‘very violent and quite uncomfortable, quite often’.

OPENING SPREAD Looking at that eclectic line-up, this could be the year when Evans Grey/light blue linen jacket, £340, by Oliver Spencer. escapes the curse actors fear, that of being pigeonholed, emerging Light grey knit cotton polo, instead as one of the most versatile talents of his generation. £235, by Thom Sweeney.

Only a few years ago, a casting director dubbed him the ‘go-to period Navy wool trousers, £1,500,

by Chester Barrie (part action guy’ after he’d played Apollo, Aramis and Zeus in Clash of the of three piece suit). Octo Titans, The Three Musketeers and Immortals, respectively, and took a bitRoma watch with automatic mechanical manufacture part role in Russell Crowe’s easily forgotten Robin Hood. Then he was movement and steel bracelet, Bard the Bowman in parts two and three of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy, £5,300, by Bvlgari before getting up close and personal with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson LEFT and Vin Diesel as Owen Shaw in the sixth and seventh installments of Grey suede blazer, £3,700; the indefatigable Fast & Furious franchise (Furious 7, incidentally, is grey cotton and silk seersucker trousers, £400, currently ranked as the sixth highest-grossing film in history). In the box both by Giorgio Armani. office hit Dracula Untold, he led the line as Vlad the Impaler, morphing Grey knit long sleeve polo top, £115, by Hardy Amies into the blood-sucking count (‘I get Dracula all the time’). As Evans

Even now, all this clearly comes as a surprise to Luke Evans.

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knows, ‘go-to action guy’ comes with a none-too-distant sell-by date.

‘I want to be a chameleon,’ he says, using a term members of the acting fraternity are known to call on when typecasting looms. ‘I’m very happy to have been part of those and proud of the performances,’ he adds of his early work. ‘But then when you get a title like that, the challenge is to break it and to find new platforms and new identities.’

And break it he did. In Ben Wheatley’s intoxicating, intensely unsettling screen adaptation of JG Ballard’s 1970s dystopian novel High-Rise, he played Wilder, tearing through every scene first with a swaggering, mutton-chopped, denim-shirted masculinity, and then with a mesmerising mania that ends in a kaleidoscopic scene in which he’s stabbed to death by Jeremy Irons’ retinue of well-to-do women.

His turn earned him a best supporting actor nod at 2015’s British Independent Film Awards.

ABOVE, LEFT As he acknowledges, ‘certain roles get seen by more Sand perforated leather bomber jacket, £750, by people than others,’ and High-Rise hardly pulled in the Hackett. White cotton punters. But it gave him a chance to show what he can do. button down shirt, £125,

by Drake’s. Green check ‘Balancing the two [types of film] keeps me fit mentally,’ silk tie, £80, by Hardy he says. ‘Creatively it keeps me lucid and I like that. It’s Amies. Beige cotton why I’m in this business. I want a new skin to get under.’ chinos, £150, by Hackett You get the impression he’d rather the balance ABOVE, RIGHT swung towards the mainstream, though. ‘Wilder was Olive suede bomber jacket, £375, by Private an exhausting role to play,’ he admits. ‘I enjoyed it, but White VC. Sand merino I don’t think I could play somebody like that regularly. It wool short sleeve polo top, did leave its mark. It was Oliver Reed, that’s what it was. £235, by Thom Sweeney Watching it back, I really lost myself in the role. There are moments in that film I don’t even remember shooting.’

No matter the tenor of the film, Evans often picks the unlikeable, sometimes unhinged characters, which is at odds with the man himself, who during our shoot is polite, confident, funny, engaging and fully deserving of the ‘easy guy to work with’ tag he’s fast developing.

Why does a man who ‘grew up in a miner’s house in south Wales’ and who says ‘family makes me feel warmer ▶ than anything else that’s ever happened to me in my

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Luke Evans and Save the Children Living in a country with such a strong education system, it’s shocking to learn that in India 18 million children don’t have a school to go to. Save the Children runs hundreds of education projects in the country.

Last November, Evans, the charity’s ambassador, visited one of them in Pune, 150km south-east of Mumbai. ‘It was a life-changing experience,’ he says. ‘Save the Children is giving opportunities to kids who wouldn’t otherwise have them.’ Evans was introduced to the charity by Bulgari, one of its global partners. Already Bulgari-sponsored projects have reached 155,000 children in 245 schools, giving them access to quality education. Watch Luke Evans’s film at thejackalmagazine.com. Learn more about the charity’s work at savethechildren.org.uk

real watches for real people

Oris Divers Sixty-Five Automatic mechanical movement Unidirectional revolving bezel Top ring with black aluminium inlay Water resistant to 10 bar/100 m

www.oris.ch

Bulgari Hotel London The Bulgari Hotel London has put together a nattylooking package ahead of Father’s Day this June.

The Gentleman’s Cut, Shave and Smoke includes a hair cut and style, followed by a wet shave and consultation, finishing with a cigar recommended by the Habano Sommelier in the hotel’s Edward Sahakian Cigar Shop and Sampling Lounge, together with a drink of your choice from the Bespoke Gentlemen’s drinks menu.

The experience lasts 150 minutes, will be available throughout June and costs £220. bulgarihotels.com

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LEFT Brown and white linen stripe button down shirt, £480, by Brunello Cucinelli. Grey wool pleated trousers, £295, by Rubinacci at Mr Porter.

Wool textured tie, £120,

by Thom Sweeney THIS PAGE Blue brown check double breasted linen and silk jacket, £990, by Dunhill.

Pale blue cotton button down shirt, £185, by Turnbull & Asser.

Brown silk tie, £125, by Drake’s. Brown linen trousers, £2,740, by Brunello Cucinelli (part of suit). Octo Roma with automatic mechanical manufacture movement, £4,850,

by Bvlgari March/April 2017

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is Evans’s future. What does it look like? And where does he fit in among that mid-to-late 30s generation of British talent, compared to whom he’s still less well known, at least on this side of the Pond?

Judging him against his peers, he’s not as dangerous as Tom Hardy, nor as silver-tongued as James McAvoy. Despite his many admirers, he’s not as loincloth hot as Aidan Turner, and he’s certainly not as posh as Messrs Redmayne, Cumberbatch and Hiddleston.

But he is every bit as bankable. Among that British cohort, only Cumberbatch’s movies have raked in more – $4.4bn to Evans’ $3.4bn.

But if Beast crosses the increasingly less magical mark of $1bn – which seems inevitable given the first trailer has clocked up 30 million YouTube views – Evans’ career gross will put him on top of that particular pile.

Not bad for a Welsh lad who never thought he’d ‘get the opportunity to be seen in a film’ and has been ‘playing catch-up’ these last seven years.

Is this, therefore, the year that Luke Evans becomes one of Britain’s most famous movie stars? Will his name appear on the next round of nominations alongside those BAFTA darlings? Now there’s talk of him as the next Bond. Not long ago, he came top of a poll picking a successor to Daniel Craig, pushing Hiddlestone, Hardy, Turner and Idris Elba down the ranks. Could it happen? To Luke Evans? Let’s roll the tape and see.

Beauty and the Beast is in cinemas March 17; State Like Sleep and Professor Marston & the Wonder Women are due out later this year

life’ choose to play killers, kidnappers and knuckle-dusting hired hands? ‘It’s interesting to deliver a character the audience thinks is a bad guy, and then to force them to question whether they’re on the bad guy’s side, or whether he’s even a bad guy at all,’ he says. ‘It questions their morality and where they stand, and gets them to see there’s a human behind that character.’ That could be true of Beast’s clown-turned-monster Gaston, just as of the picture-perfect, but deeply flawed husband he played in last year’s The Girl on the Train.

How much of Luke Evans there is in the characters he plays is harder to judge.

He’s famously, compulsively private.

When I ask him about ‘the good team of people’ around him, he mentions only his agents, although clearly there are others he’s shielding. Family? Friends? Lovers?

Who knows. Dig around, and there’s very little on what he’s like when the cameras stop rolling. At 22, he came out as gay in an interview with The Advocate magazine, saying he had no need to hide it, which as a stage actor in the West End, he didn’t. Fast-forward 15 years and he’s a heartthrob, action hero and considerably quieter about his sexuality.

‘I try to keep my personal life and my private life separate,’ he says, his tone now more controlled, but not frosty. ‘Not for any reason other than there’s a clue in the title – it’s private. As an actor you have to keep some sort of enigma and mystery. There’s a dignity to keeping private. I’m trying to keep a bit of dignity to my private life and to protect the people in my life. Like my family. They don’t do press. They don’t do interviews.

I don’t get photographed with them. Although everyone knows they’re my mum and dad in the Valleys. It’s the choice I’ve made.’

Can Hollywood cope with the idea of a gay action hero? ‘That question is difficult to answer,’ he says. ‘I don’t know how “Hollywood” as you call it, thinks. I don’t think about it. I don’t feel they’re connected. Talent, success, what you do in your personal life – I don’t see how one should have an effect on the other. I don’t think I’d be in this business if I felt that I was not being employed because of who I am in my personal life.’

Perhaps because of his stance, he is one of the first openly gay actors not to be labelled as such. Or perhaps this is simply a sign that audiences have moved on. Either way, there’s a more pressing issue at hand, which

“As an actor you have to keep some sort of enigma and mystery.

There’s a dignity to keeping private”

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LEFT Blue textured wool jacket, £1,500, by Chester Barrie (Part of three piece suit). Pale blue cotton shirt, £115, by Thomas Pink. Navy textured wool tie, £80, by Hardy Amies THIS PAGE Camel wool & cashmere doublebreasted jacket, £3,745; pale grey cotton jersey shirt, £290, both

by Ralph Lauren Purple Label.

Olive silk knit tie, £95, by New & Lingwood. Beige cotton chinos, £150, by Hackett. Brown suede lace-ups, £205, by Grenson.

Octo Roma with automatic mechanical manufacture movement on brown alligator strap, £4,850, by Bvlgari Photo assistant Olivier Barjolle Digital operator Gemma Gravett Styling assistant Stephanie Crain Grooming Lee Machin at Caren using Tom Ford for men Shot on location at Bulgari Hotel London bulgarihotels.com

How do you feel about the prospect of a hard Brexit?

What about Jeremy Corbyn?

Theresa May? Donald Trump?

If none of them fill you with optimism or make you believe that a brighter future is just around the corner, then Bess Mayhew wants to talk to you...

Mayhew, 29, is the CEO and co-founder of ‘political start-up movement’ More United. The crowdfunded organisation has recruited high-profile supporters such as Martha Lane Fox, Simon Schama and Dan Snow and has already attracted more than 70,000 members (almost half the total membership of the Conservative Party) despite only being formed in the aftermath of the EU referendum. Its aim? To channel the disappointment and disquiet of moderate, liberal, internationally-minded people into a ‘progressive’ political force. But it isn’t a traditional Westminster party.

‘Party divides are so unattractive to most people,’ says Mayhew, who speaks quickly and confidently between the occasional burst of good-natured laughter. ‘You’re an oddball if you become involved in one of the political parties. And it’s a hard environment for new parties to start.’ While Mayhew doesn’t agree with the views of Momentum, the leftist grassroots movement that sprouted from Jeremy Corbyn’s first leadership campaign, she expresses some admiration for how it now commands influence within the party.

More United takes its name from a line in the maiden speech of Jo Cox, the Labour MP for Batley and Spen who was tragically murdered in the run-up to the EU referendum last summer: ‘We are far more united and have far more in common than things which divide us,’ said Cox. The sentiment is to be the organisation’s fundamental principle, which will be bolstered with a set of related ‘values’ that will be used to identify parliamentary candidates to receive support. For the time being these are vague – ‘opportunity, tolerance, democracy, environment, openness’ (see panel) – but they will form the basis of more specific policies that are to be decided by an online vote of members in the coming months.

Top Bess Mayhew, More United founder and CEO Above A protester at a London anti-Trump demonstration Right More United backed Lib Dem candidate Sarah Olney in December’s Richmond Park by-election – she won 046

Mayhew explains that her target is not to boost a particular party but, instead, to help get more of the right sort of people elected. ‘Jo Cox was obviously a very good MP,’ she says, ‘but no one had heard of her before she was murdered. If we can celebrate some of the MPs who stand up for values and don’t break their promises, then I hope large numbers of people will feel that politicians aren’t all that bad. If we can get some more of the good ones in Parliament, we’ll have done something.’

But More United may have already made a significant impact. For last December’s Richmond Park by-election, the organisation put some of the £274,000 raised from crowdfunding behind Sarah Olney, the Lib Dem candidate. She ran against Zac Goldsmith, who left the Tories in protest at the government’s stance on Heathrow expansion. According to Mayhew, More United members leafleted 27,000 people as Olney overturned Goldsmith’s 23,000 majority to win narrowly by 1,800 votes.

Was More United’s involvement decisive? ‘It’s so difficult to tell,’ says new MP Sarah Olney, speaking from her office in Westminster. ‘But I hope them saying “This is the candidate that will best represent progressive views in Parliament” pushed a few extra into my account.’

If further electoral successes follow, then so will scrutiny. Mayhew is adamant that United should be whiter than white and says that it will make detailed accounts publicly available and also report its finances to a more stringent standard than required by electoral commission rules. ‘It’s not an organisation that pretends

to be crowdfunded but then gets funded by an individual,’ she adds.

Donations of under £1,000 all go towards campaigning for candidates, whereas larger donations are used for running costs. When I ask how much has been raised through those larger donations, Mayhew is less clear but assures me the majority of More’s war chest has come from small amounts received during the crowdfunding campaign. Of those people to have donated over £1,000, Mayhew says none is a public figure.

Despite attracting so many members in such short time, More United is a small organisation. The only full-time members of staff are Mayhew, who is not drawing a salary, and an intern who is paid the living wage.

However, a fundraiser and a digital expert, both full-time, paid positions, will soon be added to the team, which also includes volunteers and several high-profile ‘convenors’. The week after Mayhew and I meet in the lobby of the co-working space in Oval that has been More’s de facto HQ, the organisation will take office space in Westminster, thanks to the generosity of a supporter who runs a property company.

It has been suggested that the organisation is ‘the Lib Dems in disguise’ – a charge that Mayhew initially puts down to the prominent role played by former party leader Paddy Ashdown and her own six-year stint working for the party. But there are other connections that wouldn’t be immediately obvious to someone perusing the More United website.

Along with Mayhew and Ashdown, the other members of the board are Maurice Biriotti, a businessman; Corinne Sawers, former McKinsey employee and daughter of a former head of MI6; and Austin Rathe,

All in favour?

If you want More United to back your campaign, you’ll need to sign up to its values

In their words: ‘Opportunity: We need an economy that bridges the gap between rich and poor Tolerance: We want to live in a free, diverse society where our differences are celebrated and respected Democracy: We want you to have real influence over politics Environment: We must do everything possible to tackle climate change and protect our environment

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Openness: We welcome immigration, but know it must work for everyone, and believe in bringing down international barriers, not raising them. We want a close relationship with the EU’

March/April 2017

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who also worked for the Lib Dems, between 2007 and 2015. In addition, Rathe’s brother is one of at least two other former Lib Dem employees who have played a prominent role for More United as volunteers.

‘The moment we support our first candidate from another party, that problem goes away,’ says Mayhew, who explains that the selection process for candidates does not take their party into account (later, More United members would vote to back Labour candidate Gareth Snell in February’s Stoke-on-Trent Central by-election, which he went on to win). ‘We’d support a Conservative candidate. Find me a UKIP candidate [who supports More’s values] if you like.’ Although she can’t help adding: ‘But you’re probably not going to. And the idea is stupid. If I wanted to make a massive impact in political life, I probably wouldn’t support the Lib Dems because, no offence to them, they’ve only got nine MPs.’ Even if Mayhew and co can convince people they aren’t just the Lib Dems by another name, there may be other slings and arrows to deal with. In its early days, More openly flirted with campaigning for a second EU referendum. Latterly it has encouraged members to join women’s marches around the country to protest against the democratically elected president of a foreign nation and has also publicised a scheme that invites non-Muslims to visit a local mosque. Of course, these are all perfectly defensible things to do but, to some people, they may suggest that Mayhew, who went to the £19,000-per-year Kent College school and read PPE at Oxford, and her collaborators are sticking their heads in the sand. By coalescing around the issues that liberal middle-class people care about, and apparently ignoring the concerns of other groups, does More United risk entrenching the very divide that it has set out to heal?

Andrew Bridgen, the pro-Brexit Tory MP for North West Leicestershire thinks so. ‘It is overwhelmingly the metropolitan moneyed elite wishing to impose their liberal values on the rest of the population,’ he says.

‘If they have their way, we’ll end up with a political elite even more detached from the views of the real people than we currently have.’

Above Dan Snow in Trafalgar Square addressing Pro-Union supporters opposing Scottish Independence, September 2014 048

“By backing liberal middle-class issues, does More United risk entrenching the very divide it has set out to heal?”

If you were going to pick someone to rebut this accusation, it might not be TV historian Dan Snow – an Oxford graduate, son of former Tomorrow’s World presenter Peter, first cousin once removed to Channel 4’s John and husband to the Duke of Westminster’s daughter. But when I ask whether More United has failed to acknowledge the legitimate concerns of large swathes of the voting public, he comes out fighting.

‘The idea that the whole world sucks and is really depressing and we’d be much better off draining the swamp and bringing about revolutionary change is incredibly dangerous and stupid,’ says Snow. ‘Of course, no one’s pretending the world’s perfect but, as a historian, let me tell you: if you had any choice about when in history you were born, it would be now.

‘So, if you’re in the liberal metropolitan elite you’ve got two choices: you can sit there and allow demagogues like Trump and Farage to beat you up and say it’s your fault for some reason, or you can hit them on the streets, take them on in public meetings, on Twitter and say: “You are pedalling falsehoods” and explain the reasons why.

You can be a strong voice for a world in which the liberal values that have delivered prosperity can be preserved.’

So, is More United the answer – a rallying point for people who want to do exactly that? ‘Perhaps,’ says Snow.

‘Start small and give it a go. At least you can tell your grandchildren, “When the rise of the new right came along, we f**king tried something.”’

LONDON 71-72 JERMYN STREET

4 DAVIES STREET

23 BURY STREET NEW YORK 50 EAST 57TH STREET

WORLD TRADE CENTER

“Lies are like a child, hiding in a cupboard.

You’re always going to find them – but if you wait too long, you might just find a little corpse.”

SHARON HORGAN ON BRITAIN'S MOST BRUTAL FAMILY SITCOM Interview by JOSEPH BULLMORE

Photography by FRED M ACGR EG OR

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This is the kind of insight the new series of Catastrophe (currently in mid-run on Channel 4) cooks up by the baking trayload – brutal, funny, and with the very real possibility that a child might end up dead.It’s also precisely the sort of mix of homeliness and horror that has made the show such a hit. The programme charts the lives of Rob and Sharon, a couple who decide to get married after a seven-night stand and an unexpected pregnancy, and proceeds to throw at them all the pitfalls and absurdities of modern life. It is the traditional family sitcom thrown into a NutriBullet – warts, lies, vaginal abnormalities and all. And it goes where others – almost all others – won’t.

‘We used to feel nervous,’ says Sharon Horgan, the programme’s writer, creator and eponymous lead, of her early writing sessions with co-star and creative partner Rob Delaney. ‘If you’re dealing with a sensitive topic such as dementia, the last thing you want to do is upset anyone who’s going through that terrible shit already. So Rob and I had a rule: if it was a topic we were nervous talking about, as long as it had a genuine truthfulness, we’d be OK with it.’

The first series won a BAFTA for comedy writing in 2016, while the second earned rave reviews Stateside when it was streamed by Amazon.

‘People I’ve never met write to me and say we must be eavesdropping or peep-tomming on their relationships,’ says Sharon. ‘They seem

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March/April 2017

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L’Escargot, Greek St Known for its serene atmosphere and fine French cuisine – the must-try snails are part of Soho lore – L’Escargot is, admittedly, not an obvious choice for shooting a subject whose work is defined by chaos. No matter, the 1741 Georgian town house, with its myriad themed rooms and art spanning Dali and Matisse to Grayson Perry and Andrew Logan, provided a magnificent backdrop for our shoot with Sharon.

Since opening in 1927 regulars have included Mick Jagger, Elton John, Judy Dench and Princess Diana.

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almost grateful someone’s saying this stuff out loud, you know? That they’re being represented and heard.’

Her family appreciates the sentiment. ‘My folks watch it with half a mind that they are Carol and Des [Sharon’s fictional parents]. Which they’re not, really.’ It’s more a case of annexing moments from real life and dropping them into a scene. An essence of her two brothers, for example, boiled down into the character of her on-screen sibling.

‘People never see themselves as other people see them. There’s some stuff in this series that really occurred, things my family did – and maybe they’ll recognise them.’ She flashes a disarming smile. ‘If they do, it doesn’t matter. And if they don’t... well it’s just therapy for me.’

Sharon Horgan lives in Hackney with her husband Jeremy and her two daughters. Not far, in fact, from the street where she was born. Her father, an Irishman by birth, moved the family back to County Meath, near Dublin, after a neighbour asked him to act as an alibi for a brutal murder. It wasn’t until she was in her twenties that Sharon returned to London to pursue her dream of becoming an actress. It didn’t start well.

‘I was floundering around telling people I was an actress, but I wasn’t actually doing any acting,’ she says. She’d all but given up hope when, at age 30, a chance pub encounter with a writer called Dennis Kelly led to her conceiving and starring in Pulling, a raucous, critically acclaimed comedy about the tortuous world of dating and relationships. Then came The Circuit, a comedy about the horrors of middle-aged dinner parties, before Catastrophe and finally Divorce, an acerbic take on the death of a relationship starring Sarah Jessica Parker that debuted last year and is due for a return later in 2017.

You’d be forgiven for noticing a theme developing in that CV. ‘I’m just drawn to dysfunctional relationships,’ says the 46-year-old. ‘I really wouldn’t know how to write about one that’s just plain sailing.’ She laughs. ‘I mean, I think sometimes those do exist, but I don’t trust them.

It’s way more honest to write about dysfunction.’

For all its pin-sharp dialogue, this series of Catastrophe might yet best be remembered as the final project Carrie Fisher put her name to. Fisher died unexpectedly in December, shortly after series three wrapped. In it, she returned as Sharon’s unforgettably caustic mother-inlaw Mia. ‘It was a joy and a revelation to work with Carrie,’ says Sharon. ‘It was unbelievable to have someone of that pedigree and talent in even a small part in our show. But what was almost more wonderful for me was that she was just so cool and lovely. She’d been famous for that long and yet she didn’t feel closed or wary to new people and new situations.’

Sharon’s impish smile falls for a moment. ‘We’re all devastated to not have her around any more.’

With Fisher’s last act playing out in the coming weeks, I ask Sharon whether she thinks her own work will ever be finished – whether one day she’ll put down the pen and feel like she’s said all she has to say? ‘No, never,’ she says, shaking her head defiantly. ‘Because that would mean my brain had stopped working and I’d run out of my imaginary inner life.’ And then that mischievous smile darts across her face again.

‘Then I’d just be left with me. And that would be absolutely terrible.’

Catastrophe is on Channel 4 on Tuesdays at 10pm.

Divorce returns later this year

Photo assistant Alberto Romano Hair Peter Lux Grooming Ellie Tobin using Bobbi Brown

“I’m just drawn to dysfunctional relationships. I really wouldn’t know how to write about one that’s just plain sailing"

Montblanc

TimeWalker Chronograph UTC The TimeWalker name has been around a while, but this year Montblanc has reinvented it as a muscular sports watch. The new series includes this 43mm black-DLC coated stainless steel model featuring both chronograph and second time zone functions. The thinking chimes with the shift in Swiss watch exports back West – where sports watches have always been popular. £4,290, montblanc.com

IWC

Da Vinci Chronograph Edition ‘Laureus Sport for Good Foundation’ IWC’s Da Vinci line was tonneau-, or barrel-shaped until this year. Now, it’s been overhauled and returned to the round case of the 1980s models that put the collection on the map. The new range covers ladies and high complications, but the pick is this blue-dialled and blue-strapped chronograph limited edition made in support of Laureus’ famous sporting foundation. £10,950, iwc.com

Cartier

Drive de Cartier Extra-Flat Cushion-shaped wristwatches have been around since the 1920s, but they’re still a rarity.

Cartier has adapted the form superbly in its Drive de Cartier, which debuted a year ago and has been given the skinny treatment for 2017.

The Extra-Flat model is just under 7mm thick, and in 39mm of pink gold is a wafer thin slice of horological perfection. £12,500, cartier.com 054

Photography by BENEDICT MORGAN Edited by ROBIN SWITHINBANK

The story at this year’s Geneva watch fair, La Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, was that no matter what’s inside a watch, its design is what makes time stand still

Case Studies March/April 2017

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Vacheron Constantin A. Lange & SÖhne 1815 Annual Calendar

Annual calendars only need adjusting once a year, at the end of February and this 1815 is only the second German watchmaker A. Lange & SÖhne has ever produced.

A hand-wound piece in pink gold that shows the day, date and month, its moonphase is so accurate it won’t need adjusting for 122.6 years.

Better still, it comes with a 72-hour power reserve. £30,800, alange-soehne.com

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Traditionnelle Chronograph Perpetual Calendar

Jaeger-LeCoultre

Vacheron Constantin’s ability to bring simplicity to the most complicated timepieces is one of its call signs. Here, the Geneva watchmaker has integrated a perpetual calendar that doesn’t need adjusting for month length, even in a leap year, with a chronograph.

Despite the wealth of information displayed, it remains beautifully understated. £107,000, vacheron-constantin.com

Steel sports watches are enjoying a renaissance this year. Jaeger-LeCoultre’s twist on the theme is the Master Chronograph, a 40mm piece that takes its design cues from one of the company’s 1950s wristwatches. The success of the design is in the gentle balancing of pale blue numerals against its silvered dial, and in the pure symmetry of the twin-subdial layout. £6,700, jaeger-lecoultre.com

Master Chronograph

Richard Mille

Audemars Piguet

The full name of Richard Mille’s latest hyperwatch is the RM 50-03 Tourbillon Split Seconds Chronograph Ultralight McLaren F1, a mouthful that tells most of, but not the whole story.

Thanks to extensive use of graphene-and-carbonbased Graph TPT, the watch weighs just 38g, making it the lightest split-seconds chronograph in the world.

Graphene is said to be six times lighter and 200 times stronger than steel.

POA, richardmille.com

Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak is one of the bona fide icons of watchmaking. Its introduction in 1972 spawned a generation of luxury steel sports watches. Because of that, Audemars Piguet doesn’t fiddle with it much, or often. So it’s spot the difference time with this year’s new chronographs.

The answers are in the twotone dials and the slightly larger counters at 3 and 9 o’clock. You don’t mess with perfection. £19,500, audemarspiguet.com

RM 50-03 McLaren F1

Royal Oak Chronograph

Piaget

Altiplano 60th Anniversary

Baume et Mercier This year is the 60th anniversary of Piaget’s Altiplano, a watch named after the lofty Bolivian plateau. The link is flatness, or in watchmaking terms, thinness, a specialty only a handful of elite watchmakers have mastered. Piaget is the undisputed king in the field, a claim backed by this 43mm white-gold watch’s impossibly thin automatic movement. Top to bottom, it measures just 2.35mm, thinner than the new £1 coin.

Only 360 will be made. £21,500, piaget.com

Classima

There’s no escaping the fact that Swiss Made watches have shot up in price over the last decade. One of the brands leading the fight to keep Swiss watchmaking accessible to mere mortals is Baume et Mercier, whose new Classima comes in under four figures. It’s quartz rather than mechanical, but a tasteful first watch that benefits from its simple, classic design. £820, baume-et-mercier.co.uk

Panerai

LAB-ID Luminor 1950 CarbotechTM 3 Days Mechanical watches are notoriously costly to service, which is why the industry is investing heavily in making movements more durable.

But to date, no brand has dared do what Panerai has done with its latest Luminor, which is to put a 50-year guarantee on it.

That unprecedented figure stems from the movement’s use of self-lubricating and dry-lubricating materials, such as a Tantalum-based ceramic and DLC-coated silicon. Only 50 will be made, but the promise is that the technology will filter down.

Not a moment too soon. ÂŁ41,600, panerai.com

March/April 2017

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The special one (27) created for a duke. 'orloff's special' went into the book. for 50 years it hid on page 127. released once more. in 1934 it was worn by a leader.

LIFE WELL LIVED

TH E FI N ER TH I NGS

TABLE MANNERS

How would you like your food cooked, sir?

Photography by RAMA KNIGHT

Marcus Wareing has cooked in sitting rooms all over the world.

But as he tells Aleks Cvetkovic, these days even a two-Michelinstar TV chef can’t say‘no’ to a customer

Marcus Wareing is a man who knows his own mind.

We’re prepping for his first shot in the kitchen of his eponymous restaurant in Knightsbridge’s Berkeley Hotel, and before we can sit down for a proper chat, we’ve raced through Brexit, Trump and London’s – touch wood – economic invincibility. And he keeps eyeballs, that signature sharp stare intact throughout. He’d make a great dinner party guest, if you were brave enough to cook for him, that is. While Marcus – first name terms, March/April 2017

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like on TV – knows his politics, he’s a food man first.

His CV now lists three critically acclaimed restaurants, two Michelin stars, a chef’s-hatful of awards, and MasterChef, the all-conquering BBC cookery series that has turned him into a household name. Not surprisingly, when it comes to food, he’s not short of something to say.

‘The words “fine dining” are disappearing,’ he says, out of nowhere. ‘In London in particular, there are more and more restaurateurs from a luxury background opening simple outlets – burger, sushi or pizza joints, for example – and they’re all good.

‘You’re getting decent food and service at sensible prices, and you can call that “fine dining”. I think we need to get rid of those words and acknowledge that what we really want to achieve is just bloody good cookery with bloody good service.’

The challenge today, he says, is to find ever more reactive ways of delivering that experience. Marcus makes it plain that diners demands have changed in the wake of this new relaxed foodie culture. ‘Customers are tired of the shouty chef. Kitchens have become far more open in restaurants, and are now part of the dining room in most places. Diners want to see a kitchen at any price point, to connect with where their food is coming from.’

Marcus’ take on the ‘shouty chef’ is a sign of the wholesale changes filtering through the industry.

‘Now, chefs are allowed to get excited in the kitchen,’ he elaborates, ‘but in the olden days, it was a case of “get miserable” and “this is what we’re doing so do it this way and don’t change”. Today, there’s a new generation of chefs that are great at communicating.

And technology has opened up new sources of inspiration, and better knowledge of produce and what other restaurants are doing via social media and so on.’

That goes both ways. With increased exposure, restaurateurs have to find ways to meet the demands of a customer whose tastes are constantly changing.

‘Customers are more aware of what’s in their food, of their health, diet and whatever turns them on foodwise,’ he continues. ‘They’ve been well educated; they want to read on menus what’s in a particular dish, whether it suits their dietary requirements, what the calorie count is.

‘Fifteen years ago, chefs would go crazy if they had to serve a vegetarian – now our vegetarian menus are as exciting, if not more so, than our others. There’s a lot of training around our dishes, and we offer the customer choice. If the customer wants ‘XYZ’ changed in a dish, we’ll do it. We have had to become more accessible.

There’s no “no” in my restaurants.’

YARDARM

Shaking up cocktail hour in St James’s 062

COCO No.3 Sofitel London St James The COCO No.3 combines No.3 London Dry Gin infused with jasmin, Earl Greyinfused raspberry shrub, Passoa liqueur, fresh lime juice, egg white and lavender bitters. Shaken and then strained, it yields a smooth and layered cocktail. £16

“If a customer wants a dish changed, we’ll do it. There’s no ‘no’ in my kitchen” Abolition of Syntax Veneta, St James’s Market Named for its punchy character, Abolition of Syntax combines Aquavit, Bordiga Rose Gin, fresh lemon juice, egg white, sugar syrup and rose water with lavender and rose bitters. It’s garnished with heather flowers for a delicate finish. £10

This ‘customer is king’ mantra is far from limited to the restaurant industry, but it’s notable that the culture has seeped into it. The days of that’s-how-the-chef-makesit are numbered. At least they are in Marcus’ kitchen.

‘We’re strong, we adapt, we change, we never give up and we’ll be here for the long haul,’ he says. ‘I’m responsive to change, but the final decision boils down to one thing – flavour.’ Flavour, and, one suspects, iron will.

Or as Marcus puts it, ‘bloody good cooking’.

Marcus at The Berkeley has two Michelin stars. Three courses from £85. marcusrestaurant.com

Beau’s Negroni 45 Jermyn Street A subtle nod to Jermyn Street’s ideological pin-up ‘Beau’ Brummell, this is a colourful combination of Hepple Gin, Cocchi di Torino, Mondino Amaro and fresh raspberry. It’s stirred over ice, strained and topped with a dash of champagne. £15

THE CRITIC

Barber’s Cut

The Jackal’s Editor-at-Large Timothy Barber picks the best of London’s upcoming exhibitions

OPEN SEASON

Head to The Ned The Soho House Group isn’t known for its love of the City – in fact, founder Nick Jones has previously avoided what he once called ‘packs of people in suits’. In that light, the opening of the group’s £200 million luxury City hotel-cum-members’club concept ‘The Ned’ is a dramatic volte face.

On paper, The Ned is a hotel, but add to its 252 rooms a private members’ club, ‘Ned’s Club’, and eight restaurants (including an outpost for Mayfair stalwart Cecconi’s), and something more ambitious emerges.

Located on Poultry, this is as much a hangout for well-heeled City folk as it is fresh linen for wealthy international businessmen and tourists flocking to London to take advantage of the feeble pound.

Soho House Group has collaborated with the Sydell Group (of New York’s NoMad) on the venture, which takes its name from architect Sir Edward ‘Ned’ Lutyens, who designed the

grand 1924 building. The neo-classical architecture of what was once the London Midland Bank has been restored to its former glory (it’s Grade I listed), with interiors inspired by transatlantic ocean liners from the 1920s and 1930s and designed by the trio Alice Lund, Adam Greco and Rebecca King.

The accommodation brings with it a touch of Soho House’s signature quirkiness, with compact ‘crash pads’ and indulgent ‘heritage’ or ‘duplex’ suites, which at 85m2 span two floors and have private terraces taking in views of the Bank of England.

Ned’s Club members will have access to a rooftop that overlooks St Paul’s, a pool, gym, spa and a late night lounge bar, as well as the run of the hotel.

The Ned looks a reliable addition to London’s canon of world-class hotels, if not a pioneer in the field of luxury hospitality. It opens its doors in April.

Rooms at The NED start from £250 per night.

For reservations and founder membership details, visit thened.com

Illustration by TORRI TAYLOR

Making American art great

Making American Art Great What would Andy Warhol have made of President Trump, the grotesque manifestation of the fame culture that fascinated him? The Donald annoyed Warhol in the 1980s by commissioning, but not buying, paintings of Trump Tower. Amusingly, after meeting him, Warhol described the tycoon as ‘sort of cheap’.

Warhol made clear his opinions of another ignoble White House occupant, Richard Nixon, in a 1972 screenprint, in which he rendered the President’s face in demonic green and blue and scrawled ‘Vote McGovern’ (Nixon’s rival) underneath. Nixon, of course, won by a landslide – the hopeless lost cause of Warhol’s print makes it all the more visceral and sinister now.

This image is on show as part of the British Museum’s The American Dream, a survey of US printmaking over the past 60 years. Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns are among 70 artists across 200 works featured, alongside other towering figures such as Ed Ruscha, Wayne Thiebaud and, of course, Warhol. Print was the pop-cultural art form of America’s age of influence, and the British Museum has been canny in building a great collection – and cannier still in the timing of its reveal.

The American Dream: Pop to the Present is at The British Museum until 18 June; americandreamexhibition.org

Japan’s home from home at the Barbican

The Barbican Centre should make for a compelling contrast to its intriguing new exhibition: The Japanese House, Architecture and Life after 1945. Japan’s postwar efforts to rebuild, and its subsequent progress from ruin and humiliation to economic superpower, gave rise to inventive, experimental takes on the single family house, as the show seeks to demonstrate. The work of more than 40 architects from many of Japan’s most groundbreaking projects is displayed through models, drawings, films and photography. Expect your perception of modern Japan, and what form a house can take, to be radically challenged.

The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945, Barbican Art Gallery, 23 March-25 June; barbican.org.uk

March/April 2017

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STAY AWAY

The world’s most spectacular new hotels

The Hotel Eden, Rome The Eden is the latest hotel in the Dorchester Collection to undergo a comprehensive renovation, ushering in 98 new rooms and a series of luxurious penthouse suites. The interior is modelled on a traditional Roman residence, while its two restaurants offer fresh, refined and creative Mediterranean cuisine.

It reopens on April 1. dorchestercollection.com 064

The Ruby Lissi, Vienna The Ruby Lissi is just the third hotel in the chic Ruby Hotels group’s portfolio. Originally a 13th-century monastery, the hotel has retained its medieval character, while successfully installing 107 comfortable rooms across four floors. Opening in April, it’s the perfect operations base for an elegant, yet affordable few days in Vienna. ruby-hotels.com

Five-star luxury isn’t enough these days.

The Jackal presents the new international retreats that take a more thoughtful approach to what a hotel can offer

The Kimpton De Witt, Amsterdam A thoroughly inventive city centre hotel, the Kimpton De Witt offers an authentic Amsterdam stay, built through parts of a 17thcentury poet’s home with local artwork, charmingly eccentric accommodation, and a gastropub and bar.

Opening a little later in the spring, the hotel is now taking reservations for June 2017. kimptonhotels.com

Few transformations this year are likely to be more radical than turning a defunct industrial grain plant in Cape Town into a five-star hotel. The Silo opened on March 1 after a three-year redevelopment and was masterminded by renowned British architect and designer Thomas Heatherwick. It joins an exclusive collection of acclaimed South African hotels operated by family chain The Royal Portfolio.

Located in the heart of Cape Town’s V&A waterfront, and occupying six floors above what will become the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) this September, the hotel is itself something of a cultural artefact, preserving what was once the tallest building in sub-Saharan Africa.

Heatherwick’s design is breathtaking. It centres on the former storage annex, comprising six rows of seven silos, each of which has been hollowed out and sculpted to create an extraordinary skyward reaching atrium.

His design also features a series of avant-garde pillowed glazing panels, which swell outward between each floor of the former elevator house as though cushioning the hotel, transforming it into a giant glowing harbour-side lantern during the evenings.

The hotel has 28 rooms, ranging from the entrylevel ‘Silo Rooms’ at £740 per night, to two Royal Suites (£2,500) and a monolithic top-floor 211m2 one-bedroom Penthouse (£4,600), facing Table Mountain with triple-aspect views over Cape Town. An example of contemporary design at its most thought-provoking and original, The Silo is as much a triumph of architecture as one of this year’s most attention-worthy luxury hotels. theroyalportfolio.com AC

A question of good form.

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A Thousand Words

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Inveraray, 1941 The story of ‘Mad Jack’

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There are hundreds of stark photographs from World War II: curious pictures, tragic pictures, terrifying pictures of troops mid-assault or under-fire, and in that sense there’s little that is unusual about this particular image. But look a little closer and at the figure leading the charge in the bottom right-hand corner, and you will notice a flash of steel at his side.

The man is Lieutenant-Colonel John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill, colloquially known as ‘Mad Jack’ because he fought with a basket-hilted broadsword. Tales of his exploits are legion, but perhaps the most notable was when he captured 42 German soldiers – complete with weapons and a mortar – armed only with his sword during the Salerno beach landings of 1943. Equally mythic was his propensity to fight with a longbow – in 1940 he made the only recorded killing of the war with an arrow – and his prowess on the bagpipes, which he would often play mid-combat.

This image, an official War Office photograph, is the only known picture to survive of ‘Mad Jack’ and his broadsword in action. It’s a training exercise at Inveraray and dates to 1941, but nonetheless it captures his fearless, if unconventional, approach to war. The photographer is unknown, but clearly the spectacle of the advancing soldier jumping ashore with sword drawn was an opportunity not to be missed, even if it looks as though Jack was almost too quick for him. AC

Image courtesy of IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUMS

T HE DAY WIL L COME (AGAIN)

24.05.17 Look out for the next print edition of The Jackal

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