Every picture tells a colourful story

Evening Standard | 11 Jun 2014

You get a good idea about freelance stylist Mary Fellowes just by looking at her walls. There’s a frmed obituary of her uncle – Hugh van Cutsem, erstwhile confidant of the Prince of Wales – and, nearby, there is another about her grandmother, Lady Margaret Fortescue, who inherited one of Britain’s largest land-holdings. There is also a Polaroid selfie of Fellowes with Paris Hilton – signed by the hotels heiress.

• Homes, Interiors & Property

Kensal Rise has risen

Evening Standard | 4 Jun 2014

Welcome to Brent — once called the drive-by-shooting capital of the UK. Before that it was the People’s Republic of Brent, ravaged by poverty and famed from the late Eighties for outspoken local MP “Red” Ken Livingstone, London’s first elected mayor.

When I moved to Kensal Rise in Brent, the place was derided. But “The Rise” has now risen, earning a reputation as a celebrity haunt-meets-Nappy Valley. Last year Brent experienced Britain’s fastest-rising house prices, outpacing even the oligarch hotspots of Kensington and Knightsbridge.

• Homes, Interiors & Property

Therapist watch: spiritual healer Katie Winterbourne

Queen of Retreats | 27 May 2014

Katie Winterbourne works with your energy, reading your unique energy ‘signature’ and using her intuition to give you a better understanding of your life – to deliver healing in whichever form her higher consciousness reckons is best. You can have a reading with her by Skype or over the phone, at a clinic on Wimple Street and or at Harrods Urban Retreat in London, or alternative locations by arrangement.

• Health, Beauty & Spa

Cliveden, the stately-home hotel is once again a top destination for the discerning traveller

Our Man on the Ground | 25 May 2014

Especially since the arrival there at the end of 2013 of an excellent eponymous restaurant by André Garrett (please click here for full review). Plus the hotel has become super-appealing with its just opened, newly refurbished East Wing – the first stage of restoration of the principal bedrooms. Even the staff seem different – gone is their stiffness, replaced by making the visitor feel like a treasured house guest.

• Travel: Europe/ Africa

So to Cliveden and its eponymous new restaurant by André Garrett, formerly head chef at Galvin at Windows.

Our Man on the Ground | 25 May 2014

Under the Livingstone brothers, the new owners, the dining space has been moved from its humiliating basement home to the ground floor overlooking the Parterre – traditional gardens with formal beds, box hedging and yew topiary. Beyond that, as far as the eye can see is an unadulterated 19th century country view, not a house in sight, and the distant mist rising from the Thames.

• Food

Cliveden – a luxury country house hotel

The Luxury Channel | 23 May 2014

After years of being so-so, Cliveden – the stateliest of stately home hotels – now deserves a trillion regal curtsies. Prepare ye for a (rare) eulogy – because the hotel’s new leaseholders, the Livingstone brothers, have been making changes with oodles of fairy dust, cash and sophisticated taste, and they have pulled not so much a rabbit out of a hat as a voluptuous grande dame dressed in fashionable finery.

• Travel: Europe/ Africa

Tatler Travel Guide 2014 – Gangtey Goenpa Lodge, Bhutan

Tatler | 14 May 2014

Only the most intrepid backpackers used to make it to this hidden valley, a three-hour drive by (windy, potholed) road from Punakha, passing wild marijuana and cascading forests. Then they grew up, stopped trying to smoke their roadside pickings and wanted a proper place to bed down.

• Travel: Asia/ Oceania

At home: your exclusive salon

High50 | 28 Apr 2014

It started with home shopping and home office. Now it’s home everything. You don’t have to schlepp anywhere nor waste time travelling. There’s no need to sit in waiting rooms, deal with receptionists or make small talk with salon assistants. Nor go food shopping, dirty so much as a saucepan or wash up after your dinner guests. 

• Health, Beauty & Spa

Tiny, mellow Monteverdi makes a grand break

Daily Mail | 23 Apr 2014

A skinny fellow with a ‘man bob’ and his attractive female companion are sipping prosecco and gazing at an extinct volcano in a valley that has scarcely changed in a century. Nearby, a woman from Cincinnati surveys a medieval building that is being turned into a tiny spa, while an impecunious musician eats a meal made by a chef who worked at one of Giorgio Locatelli’s restaurants.

• Travel: Europe/ Africa

The world’s best family hotels – Anassa, Cyprus

Condé Nast Traveller | 22 Apr 2014

Cyprus is gloriously hot at Easter and autumn half-term, but its trump card for those travelling with under fours is that it’s less than five hours on a plane from London, saving you the hell of long-haul. And luckily, the nannies from Scott Dunn (English-speaking, young, smiley) are on hand to absolve you of a moment’s guilt about disentangling yourself for a few hours (or 9.30am-5.30pm, if you prefer)

• Travel: Europe/ Africa

Beverly Hills Hotel’s Marilyn Monroe Inspired Suite

Adelto | 11 Apr 2014

The beautiful results of this grande Hollywood dame’s enhancement are seen in Suite 100. Its style is Marilyn Monroe – once a frequent hotel guest – meets Paul Williams, the original architect who designed the hotel’s ‘polo lounge’ and iconic pink-and-green colour scheme. The original palm-leaf wallpaper remains, as does the cheeky forties vibe – but the powder, bubble gum and candyfloss pink have been replaced with zingy citrus and furnishings in rich hues of green and blue. So much so that the new suite feels crisp, cool and de nos jours. It’s modern but still classic, with curved ceilings and walls, forests of black lacquer and about a zillion silk cushions. 

• Travel: Americas

Some like it hot!

Daily Mail | 9 Apr 2014

Coronado Island in Southern California is the island Disney would have made, had he created one. There’s something unreal in its perfection. It’s palm-fringed, between bay and ocean. And its streets are clean enough to eat off – there are $1,000 fines for littering.

• Travel: Americas