With thanks to Country and Town House, here are five things to do this week in London:
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Stylish chess sets to channel your inner Beth Harmon,
and shop for Christmas like the Duchess of Cambridge
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As lockdown lifts, will we
be unfurling ourselves, sloughing off the at-home ennui and heading
to the local for a singalong? No, probably not. While things may
relax a bit, caution should be our watchword – I mean, imagine giving
Christmas Covid to a relative. Two things caught my attention this
week: I read a survey that most billionaires in the world were
Librans and it sent me on a random, time-wasting wild Google chase to
find other zodiac quirky facts, and
– when watching episode 4 of The Undoing with Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman –
I was appalled at their lawyer’s tactic of digging up the personal
histories of the jurors by a ‘piggyback on the algorithms of Amazon
and Google’. She knew what they bought, what they searched and who
was having affairs. My advice? Install Duckduckgo.com on your
browser – it eliminates all chances of you being tracked. You’re
welcome.
Have a great week.
Lucy
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FIVE THINGS
YOU WON'T WANT TO MISS
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Christmas at Kew
A glimmer of hope at the
end of the dark tunnel that is 2020: Kew Gardens' winter light festival is
back and brighter than ever. New features for this year include a
glowing pink cherry blossom walkway, a singing rose garden and a
tunnel adorned with a canopy of starry lanterns.
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Borough Market's Festive
Kitchen
Gizzi Erskine chats
about her new book, Romy Gill answers all your Christmas cooking
queries, Edd Kimber leads a pastry class and much more at Borough Market’s Festive Kitchen,
a three-week digital pop-up dedicated to seasonal food and drink.
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Masterpieces from
Buckingham Palace
See artworks fit for
royalty in a new exhibition at The
Queen’s Gallery, which features 65 paintings that usually hang in the
Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace. The show includes masterpieces
from Titian, Van Dyck and Canaletto, as well as Rembrandt’s The
Shipbuilder and his Wife – long said to be the Queen’s favourite
painting. Image: Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth II 2020
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The Craft Council Gallery
On the hunt for
one-of-a-kind Christmas gifts? Check out The Craft Council Gallery,
a new space for showcasing contemporary craft in London’s Islington.
The gallery virtually opens its doors this week with an online
exhibition titled Future Edit, featuring 150 unique pieces available
to buy.
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The Creatures of Prometheus
Stephen Fry narrates Gerard
McBurney’s script in a new production of Beethoven’s The Creatures of Prometheus,
marking 250 years since the German composer’s birth. The online
performance will see Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting the full ballet
score as part of the final Philharmonia Session of the year.
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WHAT’S
KEEPING MY SPIRITS UP
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A CARDI FROM HERD
I’ve discovered yet another
sustainable English knitwear brand that eco-conscious shoppers should
have on their radar. Herd uses
the finest fleeces of 100 per cent Bluefaced Leicester sheep (English
breeds are oft neglected in favour of Australasian ones) from farms
in Lancashire and Yorkshire. The wool is then cleaned and spun with
no toxic inputs and, finally, knitted into the most gorgeous hats,
scarves, cardis and sweaters, all within 150 miles of the
farms. These brands ought to be championed and I’m proud to do
so.
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SUPPORTING BRITISH HOTELS
Let’s face it, these guys
have been dealt bludgeon after bludgeon and with things still looking
rocky until at least springtime, we can do our bit and support them
through buying presents from their online shops. They offer such a
beautiful curation of unique and original gifts that will feel so
much better than just filling your Amazon basket. Favourites for me
are the Fife Arms’ botanical bodycare range – I just love the
bottles so much. And Ashford Castle’s tweed blanket would
look mighty fine slung on my sofa. Click here for more ideas.
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GREEN SHOOTS
As the autumn leaves turn
to mush beneath my feet, I’m finding ways to keep green-fingered – or
at least to keep the greens coming, as not much skill is needed with
a AeroGrow Bounty
(£229.99), a clever little indoor system that allows you to grow up
to six herbs, veggies or flowers all year long with its fully
contained garden system. Such a great idea. For something even more
basic, pop an acorn or avocado stone into an Ilex vase
(from £25) and wait. There’s something decidedly Zen about waiting
for the shoots and roots to appear.
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WHAT
OUR EDITORS ARE UP TO
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Ed Vaizey and Charlotte Metcalf meet Gered Mankowitz,
the celebrated Rock ’n Roll photographer
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After a
brilliant four years, Dolly Alderton and Pandora Sykes bring their
smash-hit podcast The High Low to a
close this week. Catch the last ever show live on
8 Dec
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Jonathan Coe’s
latest novel since Middle England, Mr Wilder & Me,
sees the man whose book, What a Carve Up! gained huge plaudits
on the virtual stage, is back at the top of his game
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Adrian
Shergold's Cordelia is an intriguing and powerful
two-hander (basically) between a deeply traumatised girl and the
strange man downstairs. Streaming now
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PS: LOVE OUR
CONTENT?
FIND MORE HERE...
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WINTER COCKTAILS TO MAKE AT HOME
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CHRISTMAS LIGHTS IN LONDON
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THE MOST FESTIVE UK HOTELS TO VISIT THIS CHRISTMAS
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WHAT WILL BE ON THE DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGE'S
WISHLIST?
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