Notting Hill
Britain’s new role as a bastion of black culture
Two books take us from race riots and Teddy Boys to the current ‘Jamaicanisation’ of our cities – and the inflection now hip among white British teenagers
Familiar scenarios: Our Evenings, by Alan Hollinghurst, reviewed
There’s a certain pattern to an Alan Hollinghurst novel. A young gay man goes to Oxford. He’s middle class and…
How the Rillington Place murders turned Britain into a nation of ghouls
With titillating newspaper coverage making John Christie’s trial a hot ticket, everyone seemed to want to peep behind the curtains of the house of horror – or even break in
Calm down about the Notting Hill Carnival
There was recently a mass public party at which all sorts of offences were committed. As innocent attendees cut loose…
Tea and treachery: Sheep’s Clothing, by Celia Dale, reviewed
Posing as social services employees, two female ex-cons talk their way into the homes of elderly widows in order to drug them and steal their valuables
Drama gold or bullion dross?
Unlike with every other BBC period drama series these days, I didn’t have to sit through Small Axe: Mangrove grumbling…
Selves examined
Gwyneth Paltrow has a new neighbour. On the same block in Notting Hill as Gwynie’s Goop store, with its This…
The London I loved: nostalgia for a dirty old town
All cities are shapeshifters, but London is special. London is a palimpsest of places gone but not lost. Even as…
A princess of greasy spoons: Café Diana reviewed
Café Diana is a Princess Diana-themed greasy spoon in Notting Hill Gate. It is a mad place, but it is…
Social climbing through the basement
This book has brought out my inner Miliband. A punitive mansion tax on all properties with garden squares in Notting…
Your problems solved
Q. As a writer I find working at home too distracting. I am a longstanding member of the London Library…
A graceful writer and a graceful man
Tom Stoppard recalls bedsit days in Sixties London with his laconic friend Derek Marlowe, as they both embarked on a life of writing
Diary
A year or so ago I was asked to sit on a committee that advises the government on how to…
