Sprouts on Broadway
They’re green, children loathe them, and they give you gas. However, adulthood brings enjoyment of all kinds of weird things, and veganism even more so. Slow-roasted sprouts with kürbiskernöl are among my favourite things, as are sprouts on a stalk. Had I seen these as a child, my life might’ve been entirely different. For more...
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Swan, meditating, St James’s Park
This swan caught my eye one sunlit evening as I crossed the park. Although the image required a bit of retouching – removing debris from the surface of the water and upping the contrast to remove a green tinge from the lake, as far as’nature’shots go, it’s a relatively natural...
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High on Oxygène: Jean-Michel Jarre en Monaco
After a few days of scandal and wildfire gossip that saw William Hill “slashing” their odds against a cancellation, Charlene said “I do” and the celebrations kicked off. Rumours of extraordinary extravagance: €1500+ per-head dinners; tens of thousands of flowers and rivers of champagne are probably true – arriving at the concert last night with...
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Unlawful Killing: Gangsters in Tiaras and Shrinks in Armchairs
In short – “They murdered ‘er and then they covered it up.” You can bet that this phrase featured either in Private Eye’s ‘Great Bores of Today’ or ‘A Taxi Driver Writes’ and, if the latter, was followed by “I ‘ad that Mohamed Al Fayed in the back of my cab once”. Clearly, Al...
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We Have a Chest: Cheryl Cole hits Cannes
It’s true that you’ve never got your camera to hand when you really want one, and I kicked myself earlier in the week as I happened upon DeNiro, Jude Law and Linn Ullmann exiting the back of the Majestic Hotel, where the Festival Jury had been meeting. Ten minutes later, walking along the Croisette,...
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Fountains, frozen, the Louvre Paris
And not a drop to drink… This edit was inspired by an extremely severe bout of winter flu during which I lay parched and feverish with my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth, yet strangely nauseated by the taste of water. Hydrophobic, like a rabid dog. Although no dog has ever explained to...
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Love is…in the air
Moments before swooping to their roosts as the sun set on 2010, the last starling murmuration of 2010 formed a heart that beat twice before dispersing into the evening air. A number of theories attempt to explain the birds’ behaviour: the ‘safety in numbers’ principle (self explanatory); or that none of them wants to be...
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When the Moon Hits Your Eye
To mark the unusual (every half-century or so) occasion of a total eclipse falling on the Winter Solstice. The chances of your reading this and seeing another are relatively slim; the next will be in 2094. See Nasa’s lunar eclipse group on Flickr for related images, including one of the Washington Monument from a curiously...
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Full of … Grace
Grace Kelly – The Monaco Years, an exhibition marking the 25th anniversary of her death, eclipsed attempts by all others to do the same, which was of course the entire point. Her dresses were passed to London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, but Monaco’s most memorable and moving exhibits were letters that the then Princess Grace...
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A little drop…of belle epoque
Although the Carré d’Or lacks the almost medieval charm of Vieux Nice, its turn of the (19th) century architecture has its own appeal. At left, the Boulangerie Multari, a chain of bakeries selling extraordinarily delicious tartes and other farinacious...
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From Russia with Love
The domes of La Chiesa di Cristo Salvatore, Santa Caterina Martire e San Serafino di Sarov (Church of Christ the Savior, St. Catherine the Martyr and St. Serafin de Sarov) are its most beautiful and distinctive attributes. They featured fleetingly in the 2009 movie Io Sono L’amore (I am Love), whose heroine, Emma Recchi (Tilda...
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Fun-paqued cooking from the Middle Ages
The Échaudé takes its name from the French and means, literally, “scalded”. Hurled briefly into boiling water before being chucked into a hot oven, this Easter speciality (hence the awful pun) hales from the Middle Ages, in whose times unlucky humans were wont to suffer a similar fate. These were baked and photographed at La...
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