The many faces of Cate Blanchett – Electra/ Persona is theatre at its most deliciously disturbing
The Luxury Channel | 3 Sep 2026
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“Caroline Phillips is a tenacious and skilful writer with a flair for high quality interviewing and a knack for making things work.”
For ten days, from 16 to 26 July 2026, representatives from around the world have come together not simply to conduct meetings, but to enter a shared space of listening. They have travelled from different cultures, languages and experiences to one of the quieter corners of Indonesia, where rivers wind through ancient forests and the pace of life invites a different rhythm from the one most of us know.
Christchurch is still being rebuilt after the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes – the vast new stadium that now dominates the skyline only opened this year – but far from feeling like a city in recovery, it pulses with a vibrancy that belies its population of under half a million. Compact enough to explore on foot (a rarity worth celebrating), it packs in serious culture, the wild green expanse of Canterbury on its doorstep, and other must-see landscapes within an hour or two’s drive. Think of it as New Zealand’s great urban surprise.
Ronald Phillips never planned on dying, claiming he would live for ever. Even an Evening Standard cartoonist’s illustration of Ron (his preferred name) fishing an antique out of a swimming pool read “Ronald Phillips 5th February 1929 ad infinitum.” Now, if you walk down Mayfair’s Bruton Street, a photograph of Phillips — a man who used regularly to greet his own reflection in the mirror with, “By Jove, you’re good-looking” — sits in the window of his eponymous gallery.
Established in 1892, Osborn House is in the heart of Australia’s Southern Highlands, the Aussie version of the Cotswolds-gone-Scottish (with twee houses and homesteads). You’ll find the property between Morton National Park (with its fab Fitzroy Falls and even fabber walks) and Bundanoon village (go there for its och-aye feel – they even have a Highland Gathering – with historic sandstone buildings and country pubs). All under two hours’ drive from Sydney.
Sunday 14 December. It’s a perfect afternoon: sun, sand, surfers. I’m in Sydney visiting my two Londoner daughters who are here living the Australian dream. My 28-year-old, Ella, is at the beach with friends; her elder sister Anya, 30, is out with her boyfriend. So I go for a swim alone at the iconic oceanside pool, Icebergs. Afterwards I stroll along Bondi Beach photographing women celebrating Christmas around their tiny tree. Nearby, I hear firecrackers.
Go to Buenos Aires for its faded Paris-style chic, cobblestone streets, wide boulevards and endless architectural surprises. Its excellent restaurants, vinotecas (selling the country’s fine wines) and retro cafés. Also, for its countless ice-cream shops (the local obsession), bookstores everywhere plus welcoming, passionate people. And for its Latin American buzz, multiple flavours from waves of immigration, and its liberal vibe.
Some might turn to yoga or alcohol to cope with divorce. After 28 years of marriage, I booked a gap year. My first was in 1978, when I got spiritual with a backpack in India, then rattled over the Khyber Pass to Istanbul on a battered bus. Forty-seven years later, I was off again, this time to Argentina.
My life is currently as challenging as a long-haul budget flight full of stag-party revellers, hope mislaid like lost luggage. The reason? My marriage is over after nearly three decades. But I can’t move on because Mr Almost-Ex and I are stuck – emotionally jet-lagged – in life’s transit lounge, still under the same roof nearly two years after agreeing to divorce. Our house isn’t selling and neither of us wants to move out. What better time for some ‘wanderhealing?
Hurrah. Some new intimate wellness solutions for the sisterhood. Gentil focuses on pH balance, gut and skin microbiome, alongside urinary tract health.
Caroline Phillips rounds up the best treatments from the most qualified experts to have in the comfort of your own home
St Andrews, Fife, packs a punch with its history, scenic beauty, fresh seafood and student hijinks. It’s the home of golf, the English-speaking world’s third oldest university, a former ecclesiastical capital and once a pull for pilgrims visiting St Andrew’s relics. Go there too for Old Course Hotel, a 5-star luxury establishment that’s a magnet for golfers
For ten days, from 16 to 26 July 2026, representatives from around the world have come together not simply to conduct meetings, but to enter…
Christchurch is still being rebuilt after the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes – the vast new stadium that now dominates the skyline only opened this year…