“Caroline Phillips is a tenacious and skilful writer with a flair for high quality interviewing and a knack for making things work.”
There’s something of the fairytale palace about this north London family home – something to do with the way it twinkles. There are crystals set in door handles, sparkling pieces in the legs of the bespoke dining table and glinting speckles inlaid in the rims of oversize doors. Even the decorative fruit is made of crystals.
There was that time my house was hit by a tornado when I was at home. And then there was my physically and emotionally abusive childhood, at the hands of my mentally ill mother. Yes, I’m a good subject for trauma therapy. But actually nearly everybody has suffered trauma. You don’t have to be a war veteran or a survivor of incest or of a car crash. Even seemingly benign experiences can be traumatic for some – it depends on your attitude – from that nasty knee surgery to root canal treatment at the dentist or a ride on a roller-coaster.
Don’t want to leave your hotel room? Want something special in your office? Or don’t want to have to drive home from the spa after a relaxing massage? Can’t be bothered to get your pedi done in the nail bar down the road? Like to do a his and hers spa chez vous? Then USPAAH is your new personal spa concierge, bringing a spa to your door. It’s a new app that offers high-end beauty treatments from ‘spaahristas’ – think tip-top mobile beauticians – who arrive Uber-style at a tap of your finger and within the hour.
Midgie Thompson ran her first marathon eleven months after being hit by glandular fever — call it mind over matter. And I entered my first triathlon, then age 48 and unfit, under her tutelage — and still made the finishing line. But she also helps everyone from students to perform well in exams to clients who need support in completing, say, a business project or healthy work/life balance. Or people who want to change job.
The impact of Indian fabric and jewellery design is ubiquitous. The reinterpretation of a paisley design in one of the suites at Cliveden. The heavy brocade in the drawing room at Chewton Glen. The emerald on one guest’s finger. The pashmina draped over another’s shoulders.
Tell people that you’re going to holiday in Sicily and you can see, on their faces, their imaginations conjuring up pictures of rolling hills, cypresses, red clay roof tiles baking in the sun, plump tomatoes bursting with flavour, cornfields, sheep and exotic, if benign, undercurrents of Godfather-related history. How satisfying, then, to realize that our family trip to SoloSicily‘s Fattoria Corleonese (near that Corleone, but more of that later) was to deliver on all of the above and more.
“Whaaa?”… “Huurgh?” The language barrier’s always one of the first obstacles to overcome on holiday in a foreign country. Even more challenging when the tongue you’re trying to understand is your teenager’s. As a starter, try practising your response to these common teenage phrases: “Dinna wanna come on this stoopid holiday inna firssplace!” or, and this is a biggy, “Wassha mean there’s no 4G/Sky TV in this stoopid villa!?”
If I’ve found my favorite little-known hotel, I shouldn’t be telling you. But then it cannot be such a big secret as Anthony Bourdain (chef, author and TV personality), John Madden (director of Shakespeare in Love and the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), and Josh Hartnett (actor, Pearl Harbor) have already plumped for its lava-filled bedrooms. This is Monaci delle Terra Nere, a new-ish (two years old) boutique hotel that’s off -the- beaten- lava track in the foothills of Mt Etna, Sicily.
The language barrier is always one of the first obstacles to overcome on holiday in a foreign country. Even more challenging when the tongue you’re trying to understand is your teenager’s: “Whaaa?”… “Huurgh?” Yet here I am: August, Sicily, at Casalnuovo – a beautiful villa with majestic 360-degree views and a massive pool – with six teens, two of them with my DNA.
Beauty starts from within – our round-up of experts is a good place to start on the road to wellbeing
‘I always dreamt of making an earthly paradise,’ reveals erstwhile engineer Guido Coffa. Mission accomplished. Working with his girlfriend Ada Calabrese – a passionate amateur interior decorator and an architect, Guido has created Monaci delle Terre Nere, the sort of boutique hotel that makes heaven look second rate. The property sits in 40 acres of organic farmland in the fertile foothills of Mount Etna, the volcano coughing angrily behind, the Mediterranean Sea beckoning serenely in front. The dusky-pink villa dates from 1800 – a noble family’s private home turned winery, then farm – and there are 19 bedrooms/suites, some in outbuildings on the estate. The refurbishment took five years and the result is the epitome of rural chic – where stylish-rustic meets cool-contemporary. ‘Having fallen in love with it instantly,’ he remembers. ‘I decided to devote my life and every drop of my energy to its resurrection.’
Did somebody say ‘time for a makeover’? We round up some of London’s best beautifiers
I am onstage in front of 65 strangers who think I’m a stand-up comedian. I’ve never done anything like this before. Why have I agreed…
I am lying on a wooden massage bed as two women rub my naked body with hot pouches of cooked rice, milk and medicinal herbs.…
As we stepped off the Dodekanisos Pride ferry onto the Greek island of Symi for our late August beach holiday, our thoughts were on sunbathing…