“Caroline Phillips is a tenacious and skilful writer with a flair for high quality interviewing and a knack for making things work.”
Chiva Som is known as a Club Med for Holistic Junkies, and we Brits love the place. There’s something about the routine and the rules which is school-day reassuring. Cameras and mobiles aren’t allowed in public, and there’s no alcohol befre 6pm. You can smoke, but only in the designated spot (a favourite with Kate Moss).
There are thought to be some 15,000 abandoned villages across Italy. Alberta Ferretti has bagged one; the Ferragamo family have snapped up two; Daniele “the Saviour of Santo Stefano” Kihlgren nine. A really des village res is one that’s fortified with ancient city walls.
‘Think organised. Think organised squared… and that’s Susanna Hammond. In the space of a day she can change your life for the better. Susanna should be available on the National Health.’ These are the words of Emma Burns, the talented director of interior design company Colefax and Fowler.
If you’re looking to lose weight, get fit, reboot or just get away from it all, let our spa guide lead you to a life of wellbeing and serenity.
I’m not ordinarily a fan of Bangkok – too much heat, too many knockoffs – but then there’s the Sukhotai hotel. Yes it’s surrounded by high-rise buildings in one of the noisiest and most traffic-choked cities in the world. But stop a while – inside, it’s pure orchid filled Zen and The Art of Hotel Living. Plus it offers something that’s as rare as a paragliding saffron-robed monk: it’s a resort hotel set calmly in the centre of the city.
The couple were cuddled up on a sofa, talking about their good fortune. “We lead such a charmed life,” James Collins told his wife, Sharmila Nikapota. The Cambridge-educated professionals enjoyed the theatre, dining out, romantic holidays. They had a lovely home and planned a family. “The world was our oyster,” Sharmila, now 43, says. James is a commercial barrister, recently made a QC. Sharmila used to be a vet. On July 15, 2002, their perfect world was shattered. Their first child, Sohana, was born with the genetic skin condition recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB).
A former Barclays Bank branch has been reborn as the Chuan Spa in the grand 19th-century Langham Hotel, London. Now that the money men have gone, the spa has settled prettily in a brilliant spot on Portland Place – directly opposite Broadcasting House, the iconic home of the BBC, and just a few Louboutin-shod steps from Bond Street and even more exclusive Mount Street.
When JG Ballard died, in April 2009, few people knew he had been planning a new work. The author of Crash and Empire of the Sun, celebrated for his bleak dystopian vision, had proposed a book co-written with his oncologist, Jonathan Waxman, to be called Conversations with my Physician: the Meaning, if Any, of Life.
The year may have been humbling for many of the hedge-fund industry’s biggest stars and other experienced investors and traders. Many have found it hard to cope with the effects of Japan’s disasters, uneven US and British economic recoveries, commodity price volatility and concerns about the solvency of Greece and other European nations. This is hardly the time, you would think, for the wives of hedgies to be demanding a new personal shopper, only the woman in question is devoted to rationalising your portfolio (of clothes) and helping you avoid a haircut (on ill-advised purchases).
Once the holiday preserve of toiling backpackers, Vietnam is now attracting a more grown-up breed of traveler, drawn by its unspoilt mix of natural and cultural treasures. Caroline Phillips takes a heady trip from the hectic streets of Hanoi’s French Quarter to a stylish eco-resort nestled on remote tropical shores.
French interior designer Jacques Grange is an industry legend whose latest project saw him completely revamp New York’s Mark Hotel. Caroline Phillips hops stateside to pay a visit and recommends how to get the look back home.
It used to be a man’s world. But since the credit crunch men have increasingly been turning to everything from make-up and cosmetic surgery to hormone replacement therapy. Now chaps are having to play a woman’s game. Men in high-powered jobs are expected to be eternally youthful, to display endless stamina and vigour. And, on top of this, increasingly, they’re judged on their looks.
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…