Tim Burton finds the dark side of Alice's Wonderland

There are many film adaptations of Lewis Carroll s classic but Tim Burton has put a new spin on it by featuring an adult Alice. He and wife Helena Bonham Carter, who stars in the film, talk to Marianne Gray There must be more than 20 film versions of Le... » MORE

The art of smoking survives at Manchester Street, Marylebone

Introduced to his first sophisticated smoke by writer Roald Dahl, Joseph Connolly rediscovers the pleasure at Marylebone s latest bijou hotel which boasts a splendid terrace specially dedicated to the art This, gosh, is my 50th restaurant review for the... » MORE

Restaurant review archive

Crash into the strange world of JC Ballard

The provocative, visionary writer JG Ballard claimed that he turned to science fiction in the 1950s because he didn t want to write the Hampstead novel. The great thing about science fiction was that nobody in it lived in Hampstead, he said. The Gagosi... » MORE

REVIEW: Ghosts, Duchess Theatre near Covent Garden

Two star rating To put Ibsen into the West End shows courage, especially when it s Ghosts – a play described on its first reception as an open sewer . Ibsen may not be seen as a perpetrator of filth, but those two double o words gloom and doom stick... » MORE

REVIEW: Crouch End Festival Chorus, Haydn s Creation, Barbican

For all that it sounds like something from a Monty Python sketch, the Crouch End Festival Chorus is the most accomplished of the large-scale outer London choirs and flourishing at the moment... » MORE

REVIEW: Ghosts, Duchess Theatre near Covent Garden

Two star rating To put Ibsen into the West End shows courage, especially when it s Ghosts – a play described on its first reception as an open sewer . Ibsen may not be seen as a perpetrator of filth, but those two double o words gloom and doom stick... » MORE

Alice, Alice - where the heck is Alice?

Alice in Wonderland 3D (PG) Director Tim Burton Starring Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover, Matt Lucas 108 mins Two star rating BY MICHAEL JOYCE Though he works in a rather a narrow range ( you can have it... » MORE

London Calling: the Beatles, The Stones and cooking hash badly

Barry Miles s colourful vignettes of post-war London when he mixed with the likes of Paul McCartney and Marianne Faithfull are a delight. Bridget Galton talks to him. THE old adage that if you can remember the 60s, you weren t there, doesn t apply to Bar... » MORE

Ancient Greece still lives on in lovely Thessaloniki

For a city break with a difference, why not explore one of Europe s oldest cities – Thessaloniki, writes Nadia Marks If you are looking for a city break with a difference, then look no further than the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki. This exciting p... » MORE