Spectator Life

Spectator Life

An intelligent mix of culture, style, travel, food and property, as well as where to go and what to see.

10 ways to keep fit at home

If you’re avoiding the gym because of coronavirus and you want to shake up your exercise routine then it’s easy enough to work up a sweat and torch those calories, either in a park or in your garden. Some of these exercises can even be done inside. Team Be Military Fit have created the ultimate

Lara Prendergast

10 of the best florists that deliver

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is on this week. The gardens are impressive, but my favourite part of the show has always been the enormous tent in the middle of it all, in which flowers from all round the British Isles are displayed. Radiant pots of daffodils sit alongside obscene-looking collections of orchids – and

7 reasons a no-deal Brexit will be good for Millennials

The end of March is nigh, and thanks to the EU’s latest pronouncements, a no-deal Brexit is still a very real possibility. The idea of No Deal causes most millennials to quake in their Balenciaga boots. But there’s nothing like a bit of positive thinking to get you through a crisis, right? Here are 7

Sex and Relationships: the seven sexual ages of men

In As You Like It, Shakespeare suggested that there were seven ages of man. Sadly, he himself didn’t experience all of them; he shuffled off this mortal coil at the age of only 52, precisely 400 years ago. You could also say that the human male has seven sexual ages, marked by a gradual decline

Ten underrated thrillers

As we are now well into the unwanted Lockdown sequel and winter approaches, time perhaps to enjoy an enforced home cinema experience with a selection of movie thrillers that you may have missed the first time round. Titles range from big budget star vehicles to smaller scale pictures that introduced us to some of the

The best Scandi Noir to watch this winter

With the dark evenings rolling in and the headlines sounding gloomier than ever, what better way to enter winter than by getting stuck into a good Scandi noir? Once the preserve of late nights on BBC Four, the genre has become a bankable success for streaming services – and a source of friendly(ish) competition between

What to eat at Diwali

Diwali, which falls this year on November 14th, is a festival of family, fireworks and food. Here are the dishes to try to keep the Diwali flame alive in a Covid winter. Covid has already put paid to regular Diwali celebrations. It was inevitable: eight people around the table to tuck into a Christmas turkey

Olivia Potts

Chicken forestière: a simple yet sophisticated stew

I have always been a bit of a stew-pusher; it tends to be my answer to any of life’s dilemmas, culinary or otherwise. Friends coming round? Stew. Cold and dark outside? Stew. Feeling sad? Stew. To be honest, it doesn’t matter whether or not the weather demands it, I am always in the mood for

12 items to stockpile for a No-Deal Brexit

When you hear the word ‘stockpiling’, the first thought that pops into your head is probably the image of forest-dwelling folk in remote reaches of the US, usually bearded, always armed, with hunting vests, baseball caps, a few tonnes of canned food buried beneath their shack and enough kerosene to defrost Svalbard. Yet with the

The rise of the luxury camper van

Anyone who has recently tried to buy a second-hand van will know that they have become difficult to find at sensible money – so much so, in fact, that a leading British broadsheet recently felt moved to report on the boom in sales, citing one of the major ‘drivers’ being the increase in people turning

Is it time to say adieu to avocado toast?

Oh the avo. The fruit that launched a thousand tweets. This millennial Holy Grail has done more to divide generations than anything save perhaps Brexit. It has been three years since Australian property developer Tim Gurner became a hate figure for suggesting in a TV interview that it was not economic difficulty that was keeping

What to watch on Netflix this Autumn

Even with filming and production stalled, Netflix is set to deliver an impressive slate of new content this autumn. From the return of Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown to new work from Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher, here’s our guide to what’s coming up. The Crown (Season four), 15 November To

The best Michelin star restaurants outside of London

Foodies traditionally flock to London to check out the best new chefs and restaurateurs. But by doing so they’re missing a trick. The number of Michelin-starred establishments outside the capital has been growing rapidly and there are now 97 restaurants holding the coveted accolade dotted around the country – two of which have been awarded

Six spy films to watch this weekend

As Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending, time-travelling espionage extravaganza Tenet finally makes it to British cinemas (America, amusingly, has to wait a while longer) and with the much-delayed release of the new James Bond film No Time To Die apparently just a few months away now, big-budget films dealing with glossy espionage in all its forms are

Six sequels that outdo the original film

‘Sequels are whores’ movies’, the great screenwriter William Goldman once opined. As with so much that Goldman said, it’s pithy, witty and often accurate. All of us have been lured into cinemas with the promise of the continuation of a great film, only to be sorely disappointed by the cynicism of a lazy cash-in. Several

What to watch on Amazon Prime this Autumn

Whether you’re stuck at home in quarantine or just looking to spice up those weekday evenings, there’s plenty coming to Amazon Prime over the autumn. Here’s our round-up of the shows and films you don’t want to miss: The Boys (Season Two), 4 September Set in a parallel universe in which superheroes are real –

The reinvention of Robert Pattinson

Britain is about to have a new leading man. Robert Pattinson, who made his name more than a decade ago in the UK in the Harry Potter films, and then in the US in the Twilight films, has finally emerged as a bona fide, grown-up film star. Following hot on the heels of his starring

I love my Le Creuset dish – and I’m not alone

If you’re trying to determine someone’s class and the accent is hard to place, you could do worse than check the brand of their pans. Le Creuset has been a staple of upper-middle class British kitchens for years – the sort of Eurocentric brand that contains just a hint of francophile exoticism whilst conjuring up

Joanna Rossiter

8 crowd-free day trips for the bank holiday weekend

Worbarrow Bay, Dorset In December 1943, just a few weeks before Christmas, the residents of this remote coastal village were told to pack up their belongings and leave their homes so that they could be requisitioned by the army for training in the run up to D Day. The villagers left a note on the

8 things you didn’t know about Rishi Sunak

It wasn’t the easiest news to have to break, but he delivered it with the kindness and compassion of a favourite uncle explaining to his nephew that his hamster has passed away. Afterwards, we were left thinking, “Well, what is a 20.4 per cent slump in the economy between friends, anyway?” Even the announcement that

10 myths about moving to the country

Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.— Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson made this remark in 1777 to one of his friends who lived

The best cycling accessories for your new commute

As the Prime Minister announces a new scheme where GPs can prescribe bikes to help combat obesity, there’s never been a better time to saddle up and cycle to work. Biking to the office avoids the need to compete for a metre-plus-squared of space filled with with Joe public’s recirculated air – a boon in

Charcoal vs gas: which is better for BBQs?

Long before we pick up the tongs and crack open the first of seventeen-or-so stubby beers we have to ask the big question; charcoal or gas? The debate over which fuel is best can take on almost tribal dimensions, fraught with foodie orthodoxy. In truth, both camps have their good points and choosing between them

A guide to Greek eats – from souvlaki to spanakopita

The legacy of Greek antiquity extends to the country’s cuisine. One eats there as the Ancients would have done—Greek yoghurt and honey for breakfast, simply-cooked fish and cold wine for lunch and supper—as one reclines languidly on the klinai couch, grapes dangling from the mouth, like Dionysius and Adephagia. Greek food can sometimes be disparaged