CATEGORIES

London in winter is a city of darkness, but you can still see light in the gloom

THE first line of the song Cities by Talking Heads is, \"Think of London, a small city/It's dark, dark in the daytime.\" That is an American perspective, but as Londoners travel to the station or bus stop and then from work to home again, it does feel like being in perpetual shadow. It has been a hard year, and the stress of living and working in London comes in many forms, so reflecting on the challenges of 2023 feels especially gloomy in a city of darkness. It's tempting to ask why we live here at all.

It's not just about fundraising, we're changing the capital too

IT'S astonishing what we take for granted. Back in early 2010, the most the Evening Standard had ever raised in a campaign was £250,000. That was considered a pretty good result back then for the paper's traditional annual Christmas drive, which typically solicited funds for a chosen charity. Today, a Standard campaign that raises anything short of £1 million can seem like a failure.

New Gaza ceasefire deal and hostage release might be possible, says US

THE United States today expressed hope that a new ceasefire deal in Gaza and the release of more hostages held by Hamas could be in the offing, as the death toll reported from Israel's offensive surpassed 20,000.

100 teenagers unlawfully convicted in secretive single justice system

CHILDREN have been unlawfully handed criminal convictions in a fast-track justice system in which magistrates sit behind closed doors, the Evening Standard can reveal.

Bargain Hunt star on assault charge over 'domestic abuse'

BARGAIN HUNT star Charles Hanson has been charged after a police probe into domestic abuse allegations.

Money, Money, Money! Abba effect brings £322m boost

THEY might only be digital dancing queens and kings - but the four holograms performing every night to sell-out audiences in east London are pumping serious Money, Money, Money into the capital's economy.

How stars aligned to help Londoners in distress

Campaigns Editor David Cohen chronicles the astonishing progress of our appeal this year - and how its big-name backers weighed in

My husband's mother would encourage him to hit me, now I'm free and getting stronger

Anna Davis visits a refuge backed by our appeal for women from abusive homes

You're a fighter: Rita's tidings of comfort and hope

As our appeal hits £2.4 million (including 3,500 individual donations from ordinary Londoners) the singer-songwriter pays a visit to one of the charities benefiting

Russell Norman changed the way that Londoners dine out forever

IT is difficult to overstate what Russell Norman, the restaurateur who died on November 23 aged 57, did for London dining - and in turn, for dining across Britain. The list isn't endless, but long enough.

Nico Ladenis, a self-taught star who only ever did things his way

TIME is a filter that warps. It's often repeated that the first British chef to win three Michelin stars was Marco Pierre White, but he didn't cross the finish line alone: in 1995, the guide that year awarded two restaurants run by Brits the highest accolade - one was White's, the other was Park Lane's Chez Nico, run by Nico Ladenis. Ladenis died on September 10, aged 89.

Oh Jamie, this is like a show with a star who can't sing

I don't want to name-drop,\" a pal said, as he finished a story about partying with will.i.am. \"But Andrew Lloyd Webber said to me last week, 'look, it's Jamie Oliver. He'll automatically get a spanking from the press. Be kind.\" Perhaps. As it is, Google News records 64 positive Oliver press stories from the past week which - call me a cynic - smacks of publicity bods flooding the internet in the hope of hiding bad reviews. Banning Turkey Twizzlers aside (worse than Maggie and the milk, I reckon), Oliver's been a target since the 2019 crumbling of his British restaurant empire, which left debts of £83 million and a reported 1,000 staff out of work. The chef himself was ruined.

Lifeless Korean sent to grave by insulting tips rule

EXCUSES. I suspect how easy they are to accept rather depends on how serious the crime. I remember my sister's godfather once refusing to head into a wedding until the taxi delivering his cigarettes turned up \"but it's three packs,\" he kept protesting - which might have been fine, if my sister hadn't already been waiting 15 minutes to walk down the aisle.

Camaraderie that helps turn lives around through a love of cooking

William Hosie joins Marchioness of Bath Emma Thynn at the Beyond Food Foundation in London Bridge

A Jenga tower of flavours - and the very best pudding

THE thing about immensely talented chefs is that they cannot help themselves. I am not talking, in this instance, about any accusations of off-duty misbehaviour that might give this newspaper's lawyers cause for concern.

Gothic Bar promises seduction - and drinks as lethal as Dracula

SUGGESTION is the thing, isn't it? So much more seductive than out-and-out saying something. A flash in the eyes, a tilt of the head. We're not talking ill-advised fire emojis here. Take the Gothic Bar, where opening hours are kept to \"till late\", and \"until a little later\". Granted, hardly the first to do it, but when a friend is fretting if there's time for another nightcap, it's an enjoyable thing to be able to say, \"well of course, tonight they're open a little later\".

My recipe for the perfect martini? Be really bloody careful who makes it

GIVEN that I suspect anyone searching for their personality in a newspaper column simply may not have one, I tend to avoid those occasional \"this is what your order says about you\" stories. But as I send back bad martinis, I do concede that some preferences matter.

Paris's best bistro... on Goodge Street

YOU can't have it all; not every dream is realised. Here's one I have: I'm walking in the Paris dusk and, as I do the Elvis in my leg to extinguish a cigarette dreamland, it is the city of d'you-havea-light? - I notice a bistro glowing in the gloom.

Forget my big mouth, this place speaks for itself

WELL this is exciting. In a sadistic, unflattering sort of way. We were not long settled into the chic, exposed-brick gloom of Akara - a new West African spot in the redeveloped outer rim of Borough Market - when our waitress's introductory spiel, about the restaurant's namesake black-eyed bean fritter, was interrupted by a voice that sounded alarmingly like my own.

Before the bill was even paid, I'd made plans to come back

THE promise of \"authentic Thai food\" has long been an especially elastic and problematic one; an ever-moving target shaped by time, context and whatever level of regional fidelity the cautious masses deem tolerable.

High camp and screaming, irrepressible brilliance

ONE of the things that restaurant owners invariably find most annoying about critics and we cannot do the full, unabridged list as we would literally be here all day - is that we visit too early. That, blinded by our manic desire to be first, we show up and paw at the glass like cats, desperate to be let in to pass judgment on something that isn't quite ready. My rejoinder to this has always been that it is really an issue about the ceding of control as much as journalistic impatience; that, really, the \"right time\" to visit for most chefs will be some amorphous, faraway point in the future that's specifically dictated by them.

Sound the alarm: This beauty is a grill on fire

I WAS about an hour into my lunch at Mountain-chef Tomos Parry's spanking new, instantly thronged successor to the Michelin-starred . Brat when something that sounded a lot like a fire alarm started to wail out over the hubbub of a bustling service.

Aroom of gutsy flavours and twinkling magic

MIDWAY through university, a mate and I spent a good chunk of our summer in the remote wilds of south-west France. Ostensibly there as live-in, temporary handymen at a vast, cobwebbed former schoolhouse, we painted shutters in the heat, went on a road trip to Perpignan, and generally lived out what felt like an especially uneventful arthouse film.

Raise a glass to best in class of 2023 (and a few we didn't love)

In a turbulent year, eating out meant uncomplicated familiarity. It was 12 months of soul-warming highs, says our chief restaurant critic, despite the odd disappointment

Havertz playing a key role for Arteta after finally finding his feet at Arsenal

WHEN Kai Havertz finally got back to the dressing room after his winning goal for Arsenal at Brentford last month, he was hit by a wave of noise.

On and off Johnson's 'moment' is coming, says Ange

BRENNAN JOHNSON returns to Nottingham Forest tonight still waiting for lift-off after his £47.5 million move to Tottenham on deadline day.

Dombrandt's charge to reclaim Test spot

Quins No8 has knuckled down after World Cup heartbreak

I’ve stopped partying to try to keep hold of this trophy... it belongs to me

THE name Michael Smith is etched into the plaque at the base of the giant World Darts Championship trophy — and the champion is staring at it in raptures.

Oh, brother... the Issas in £500bn accounting error

THE Issa brothers' debt levels have been a hot topic in the business press for some time. But Spy was taken aback to find out just how steep they are.

The hardest job in British theatre is in good hands

THEATRE  Indhu Rubasingham has been named as the new boss of the National, which is one hell of a task but all the signs are that she's got what it takes