The London Reviewer

Sunday Times round-up (26/10/08)
By: Alexa Williamson

Only a few bits and pieces this week as the global recession and US politics are the ‘same old’… and I’m not interested in the sensationalism of the ‘Foxy Knoxy’ murder case in Italy*.

• In the Money section, the charts at the back for best buy mortgages show that fixed rate deals are slowly getting following the BOE base rate cut of .5% at the beginning of the month. This week HSBC has a good deal of a 5.44% fixed-rate for two years with a fee of £999 – better than a few months ago. Britannia also now offers the same rate for three years with the same fee and Principality offers five-year fixed rate of 5.57% with a fee of £995.
• Culture highlights Oedipus, starring Ralph Fiennes, at the National Theatre (Olivier) as a ‘Theatre Pick’ worth seeing.
• Style Guide has some interesting pieces at first glance including the shoe feature on page 32 (including a guide on how to walk in mega high heels), p 18 – Is size zero over?, an interview with Grace Jones p 10, a piece on contraceptive pills p 49 and Totty de Bouvier’s column (which is like free Plum Sykes every Sunday) and Mrs Mills are also amusing this week.

Further information:
The Sunday Times (official site)

* Although thankfully, speaking of sensationalism, the ST did NOT go on about Madonna and Guy’s pending divorce. However, also speaking of trashy reporting, they did jump on the ‘let’s report on sex addiction bandwagon’ in The Style Guide – which was ‘been there, done’ that a few weeks ago – not impressive as usually the Style Guide is more ingenious than that.

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Stories I found interesting and wanted to highlight this week… not too many as most of the news is the ‘same old’ about the world recession and the US election.

Theatre reviews: the double review of Alan Ayckbourn’s three short plays at the Old Vic – The Norman Conquests (received 5 out of 5 stars) and No Man’s Land by Harold Pinter (only got 2 out of 5 stars).

The best hotels for Christmas – highlights of some really good places from posh and cozy hotels to youth hostels offering low-price yule getaways in striking locations such as the Peak District and Lake District.

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