Hotel La Tour Birmingham
I last visited Birmingham for a piece back in the mists of time (well, 2009). It was a city on the cusp of something…’ Alex Larman checks in to the city’s luxury newcomer.
Author Alex Larman
Mallory Court
I occasionally wonder whether Shakespeare was the first writer to have enjoyed the services of a PR. At the time, that is; the subsequent foundation of the RSC, amidst much related Bardolatry, has seen to it that Big Bill remains top literary dog in the English language…
Hamlet at the RSC
23rd April marked Shakespeare’s 449th birthday, and this anniversary seemed a good opportunity to revisit…
Tullamore Dew: An Irish Odyssey
“Picture the following scene. I’m standing in the top room of a Dublin pub, late on a Thursday night. Nothing that unusual about that, but there’s a coffin in front of me.”
Quartermaine’s Terms
“Rowan Atkinson’s return to drama on the West End stage for the first time since the 1980s was keenly anticipated, though many might have wondered why he chose the role of St John Quartermaine in Simon Gray’s drama.”
The Pig in the Wall
“What good things spring to mind when you think of Southampton? The Titanic, up to a point. Some fine medieval buildings. And, perhaps, the Spitfire, which was first designed here.”
The Magistrate: You Be the Judge
The playwright Arthur Wing Pinero (and, yes, Wing really was his middle name, as opposed…
The Grand Hotel, Eastbourne
The English coast might not be the ideal destination for a weekend in November but it does have the odd draw, particularly if you’re inclined to step back into another age. Alex Larman goes Edwardian in Eastbourne…
Uncle Vanya at the Vaudeville
In what appears to be a season of Chekhov fluttering through London’s West End, the latest production boasts an impressive cast on stage…and in the stalls, it would seem…
Don Giovanni at the ENO
“I saw a man synonymous with the blackest of black arts. A charmer, of course, and charismatic with it, but a figure so mired in treachery and deceit that one’s blood runs cold to see this shameless exhibitionist let loose upon the world.”
Mari Vanna
“There have been several Russian restaurants opening in the capital over the past few years, the latest and most elaborate of which is Mari Vanna, named after a legendary wise woman…” Larman, Larry and Jonesy seek wisdom from a corner of Mother Russia now residing in Knightsbridge…
The Crown Amersham
“Having had a simply ghastly European trip a couple of weeks ago, which made us feel that we and ‘abroad’ were destined to be strangers for the near future, we fancied somewhere quintessentially English, but with a twist.”