What's on?

There's only really one thing to do this week and that is to go out and buy the book everyone is talking about. It is: Chris Mullin's second volume of his diaries entitled: Decline & Fall (of the Labour Government). His publishing house brought froward the publishing date to 31st August 2010 to pip the other book which is being trashed in almost every newspaper today but which is actually rather a good read. I finished Decline & Fall in two sittings but Blair's A Journey...

1. Try these two restaurants www.terriorswinebar.com located close to Charing Cross station with an eclectic menu including ideas from Italy, Spain and France – 020 7036 0660 www.gosagar.com where there are four southern Indian vegetarian restaurants to choose from but I tried the one closest to the Royal Opera House at 31 Catherine Street – 020 7836 6377. The other three are in Twickenham, Hammersmith and Tottenham Court Road.     2. Beat Monty to it Select your...

1. Watch any of the recently released French films Try Coco & Igor or Gainsbourg   2. Read a Michael Lewis book "The Future Has Just happened"; "The New New Thing"; "The Blind Side"; "Liar's Poker" or "The Big Short" - probably the best non-fiction writer either side of the Big Pond 3. Catch up on Facebook The ugly side of the origins of who created Facebook has already been covered off in Ben Mezrich's "The Accidental Billionaires - Sex, Money, Betrayal and...

1. South of the Border (Directed by Oliver Stone) A Stone love-in of the various democratically elected Presidents of South America (save Cuba) and the age old story of how the Pentagon and the CIA spills blood everywhere. Brilliant cutting between Fox News (marginally right of Genghis Khan) and events as they happened. Wonderful scene where Bush is not only upstaged but embarrassingly outplayed. But does anyone care about South America anymore, Brasil notwithstanding, as we look...

1. Asia House London's best kept secret: www.asiahouse.org 2. Listen to some new jazz fusions artists: Matana Roberts' The Chicago Project Jose James' Blackmagic and Esperanza by Esperanza Spalding 3. Watch England v Pakistan on Sky HDTV A great game unfolding 4. Catch up on your India reading: India: The Rise of an Asian Giant by Dietmar Rothermund Between The Assassinations by Aravind Adiga India's Unending Journey by Mark Tully and An Autobiography...

1. Lunch at Princi, 135 Wardour Street, London W1F OUT A great crack based on the Milanese smart-lunch concept where you can see almost everything cooked or prepared in front of your mouth-watering eyes. You queue briefly to choose and then sit and digest.......very reasonable prices too. 2. Enron This play about how Enron stole $trillions from your savings and pension accounts ten years ago is coming to an end in mid-August so catch it before it closes. The sets are imaginative,...

1. Try Patogh's at 8 Crawford Place for lunch or supper A very friendly Persian restaurant where the kitchen is in the bosom of the ground floor (you can eat upstairs if you want to). 2. Magnificent Maps at the British Library: ends 30th September, 2010 At last my chronic arthritis in my knees is responding to treatment and so I was able to visit the British Library to see their brilliant exhibition of the maps they hold in storage for the Nation. (You may remember they did a London Map...

Once again my arthritis has held up my writing this Blog.......apologies 1. Wimbledon A must even on BBC 2. L'Amici in Rochester Row, SW1 Try this Italian restaurant for lunch or supper; you'll not be disappointed 3. Book your Winter break before the taxes hit We tried Whistler two years ago and I made the mistake of seeking out the cheapest fares which meant going North West Airlines (simply the worst) via Seattle which was all very well until Seattle was closed for...

1. National Portrait Gallery BP Portrait Award 2010 - but try and avoid all the comments online about it being a slicker event this yeat et al. Daphne Todd's (the winner) moving portrait of her mother - Annie Mart Todd - has already gained much publicity. As always see it for yourself. 2. V&A Quilts finishes on 4th July so be quick to see this stunning exhibition and whilst there take in Grace kelly: Style Icon which runs until 26th September. 3. Altitude 360 Restaurant,...

1. Grace Kelly: Style Icon V&A, Cromwell Road, London SW7 Until 26th September, 2010 I never thought of Grace Kelly in the same way that I did Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Jackie Kennedy, Princess Diana but this beautiful exhibition has changed my mind; see it soon. 2. A Classy Spanish White Albarino Abadia de san Campio Bodegas Terras Gauda Rias Baixas Spain 2009 3. Noura, Mayfair 16 Curzon Street London W1 Lebanese food at its very best 4. FIFA Word Cup Already

1. Visit Somerset House (www.somersethouse.org.uk) See The Courtauld Collects and the Antwerp Avant-garde 2. Read up on the Recession before George Osborne dumps on all of us: Walter Bagehot's Lombard Street (1873) Liaquat Ahamed's Lords of Finance: 1929, the Great depression and the Bankers who broke the world (2009) Vicky Ward's The Devil's Casino: friendship, betrayal, and the high stakes games played inside Lehman Brothers (2010) Michael Lewis's The Big Short: Inside the

1. Spoil yourself and eat at Nobu, Berkeley Street; there is one special to die for - small pieces of cubed-shaped fried rice which you will taste for three or four days afterwards. Remember to take a mortgage out to pay. 2. Read and re-read Andrew Rawnsley's book The End of the Party - quite the best book to show how Labour lost the plot. 3. Become a member at the National Portrait Gallery - simply the best in the world. 4. Plan your Summer holiday - plenty of late

Spend a weekend in Cambridge Go see the Cannes Films:   Read: Lombard Street Play with your new iPad (iFad?) Taste a bottle of Pinot Gris from Argentina (I have been in Madrid for 3 days and will write this up as soon as possible)

Elephants Following on from the Cows exhibition 10 years or so ago, we now have a save the Indian Elephant campaign with large models of elephants designed by some of our most famour artists at random places across London - so far I have spotted them in Chelsea, Sloane Square, by the side of Parliament and Trafalgar Square..... Football Inter Milan v Bayern Munich in Madrid on Saturday night but just as easy to watch on television.. Breakfast Try Automat at 33 Dover...

1. The Printed Image in China: from the 8th to the 21st Centuries British Museum China gave printing to the world and because there is so much interest in her - 60th Anniversary of Mao's "succession", the Shanghai Expo, Google's problems, Banking crisis et al - the greatest museum in the world has put just some of its 2000+ Chinese print collection on show and has managed as always to beg and borrow one or two exquisite pieces from private collectors and other museums to fill...

Given the General Election today where I was out canvassing in Sittingbourne & Sheppey, my old seat, for Angela Harrison (she came second alas) and for Roger Truelove, for Swale BC, (he won by 30) this Blog is slight.......forgive...but here's five activities for the weekend: 1. Tate Modern Celebrating its tenth anniversary; it is already our most visited arts space and has been universally praised; does great lunches too! 2. The Habit of Art by Alan Bennett at the National...

Take 1: Take a Walk on the West Side. How well do you know London? Have you ever considered walking round Westminster and Victoria (SW1)? Why not take a few hours out to re-consider this improving neighbourhood?   At Adriano’s - 10 Regency Street - men can still have a haircut for a tenner and enjoy that rare luxury of a shave as well. If that doesn’t grab you, your other half can have her hair cut at any number of classy salons in Strutton Ground. Then, together you can queue at the...