Category Archives: Life and style

Unilever sets target of €1bn in annual sales of plant-based foods

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Multinational plans to cash in on consumer trend towards reducing meat and dairy intake

Unilever is setting a target of €1bn (£900m) in annual sales of its plant-based foods through some of its best-known brands, as it seeks to cash in on the growing number of consumers reducing their meat and dairy intake.

The estimated five-fold sales growth over the next five to seven years will be driven by new products from The Vegetarian Butcher meat-free label, and bolstered by expansion of dairy-free ice cream and mayonnaise ranges from Ben & Jerry’s, Hellmann’s, Magnum and Wall’s.

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Quiet please! How to exercise in an upstairs flat – without annoying your neighbours

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No one wants a noise complaint due to a vigorous home HIIT session. Here experts give their tips on how to proceed, from hula-hooping to brushing up on your yoga

With gyms in England closed for the second time this year, neighbourly relations may have been strained by YouTube workouts and online high-intensity interval training (HIIT) sessions. Is that thundering on the floor in the flat above ever going to stop, or is it just the short bit where your upstairs neighbour does a few burpees before collapsing (another thud) in a heap? If you are the one making the noise, does the weight of your guilt count as extra resistance? For the sake of indoor exercisers and flat-dwellers everywhere, here are some expert tips on keeping the noise down.

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Blinking hell: how to keep tired eyes healthy during a pandemic

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Are you worried your vision has grown worse this year? You’re definitely not alone. But from the 20-20-20 rule to changing the size of your text, there are simple ways to address it

In the pandemic, our eyes are working harder than ever. With the majority of our communication nonverbal, and all but the upper third of our faces covered by masks, we are more reliant on them to express tone, emotion and even individuality, with a recent explosion in online tutorials for “mask makeup looks” emphasising long lashes, bright eyeshadows and statement liner.

Yet as we rely on our eyes to do the talking, we may also be putting them under greater strain. In June, a survey by the College of Optometrists, the professional body in the UK, found that 22% of people polled believed their vision had worsened during lockdown. The reason why they might feel this way is obvious: when the mask comes off, most of the time our gaze is trained on a screen.

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Harry Styles wore a dress on the cover of Vogue – and US rightwingers lost it

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The magazine made history by featuring the musician as its first-ever male cover star – but prominent conservatives voiced disapproval over what he was wearing

On Friday, storied fashion publication US Vogue made history by featuring British pop singer (and former One Direction heartthrob) Harry Styles as its first-ever male cover star.

The cover immediately sparked passionate conversations around masculinity and gendered dressing: Styles dons a voluminous periwinkle blue gown paired with a black tuxedo jacket (both designed by Gucci).

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‘It was love at first sight’: readers on their new lockdown pets

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From a charming cockatiel to cuddly guinea pigs, here are some of the pets you welcomed into your homes during lockdown

My wife was firmly in the ‘cats, not dogs’ camp but our children wanted a dog. When lockdown came chinks appeared in my wife’s armour and I picked up Juno the goldador (a cross breed between a golden retriever and a labrador). It was love at first sight. My wife mocks my devotion. In particular, she laughs at the adoring gaze, once reserved for her, that she says crosses my face several times a day. I have already spent more time picking up poo than I had ever envisaged I might do in my life. But I rarely complain. Our lives were full of joy before Juno, now there’s just a little more around. Adam Montgomery, 54, leadership trainer and coach, Malvern

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How we met: ‘She was the love of my life – but she had to focus on getting sober’

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Brooks Almy, 70 and Maurizio Papalia, 67, met on a cruise ship in the 70s. After years apart, they reunited in 2008 and now live with their dog and cat in Italy

Brooks Almy joined a cruise ship in 1977 to work in theatre. She was introduced to Maurizio Papalia, an Italian nurse who had also taken a job onboard. “We had a really nice connection straight away,” she says. They spent the next four months as a couple, sailing around Mexico and the Caribbean. When Brooks’s contract came to an end, they tried to make it work. “I came back to shore every few weeks,” says Maurizio. “But two months later I had to go back to Italy. We were both upset, but decided to keep in touch.” Without email or affordable travel, it became difficult, so they agreed to start dating other people.

In 1978, Maurizio married an English woman and had a child, but by 1984 their relationship was over. By that time, Brooks had moved to New York to pursue a career on Broadway. “I went to see her and the connection was still there,” says Maurizio. The pair started dating again, but their happiness was short-lived. “I was a very heavy drinker at the time,” says Brooks. “I’ve been in addiction recovery for 35 years, but at the time I was crashing hard. I went to meet Maurizio in Italy in 1985, but I was in an extremely fragile state.”

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Rafaella Carrà: the Italian pop star who taught Europe the joy of sex

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A new jukebox musical of Carrà’s songs caps a 60-year career for a cultural icon who revolutionised Italian entertainment – and gave women agency in the bedroom

At the beginning of Explota Explota, a new Spanish-Italian jukebox musical comedy set at the tail end of the Franco dictatorship in 1970s Spain, airport employee Maria is making a delivery at a TV studio when she catches the attention of Chimo, the director of a variety show. When she tells him she’s not a dancer, he replies: “No dancer with blood flowing in their veins can resist this rhythm.”

He plays her Bailo Bailo, a hit by Italian pop star Raffaella Carrà, who, on top of becoming one of the best known personalities in her native Italy, ended up a sensation in the 20th-century Spanish-speaking world. Where Sweden had Abba, Italy had Carrà, who sold millions of records across Europe. Sure enough, Maria can’t resist Bailo Bailo, and Chimo hires her.

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Working from home made my descent into decrepitude harder to avoid | Elizabeth Quinn

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Confronted by my reflection at every turn, I armed myself with expensive beauty products

I have a theory – largely untested – that everyone is mentally “stuck” at a certain age: the one that best reflects their outlook. Mine is 17. At my core, I see myself as youthful, enthusiastic and not yet tainted by the bitterness of experience. I’m optimistic and forward-looking. A woman in my prime.

But increasingly, the face and form I see reflected back in the mirror are none of those things. At first I blame harsh lighting for my transformation. Then I realise it’s natural light coming in from the skylight, not the gentle artificial light of a boutique store change room. There is, quite simply, nowhere to hide.

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‘All I want is chocolate’: Jamie Oliver and other top chefs on their Christmas wish lists

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Tinned fish, ceramic tableware and cornettos – Santa’s sack is full of unusual treats for our chefs and food writers

Bread, cheese… and gin
Jamie Oliver, celebrity chef and author

A couple of loaves of Coombeshead Farm bread. The crust is exceptional, it’s nutty, chewy and malty. Toast it up with some good butter, it heats like a dream and will last for a week. Have it with some good cheese and a glass of wine or beer, it’s just heaven and a meal in itself.

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I feel bullied and hopeless. How can I find happiness? | Dear Mariella

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Go back to therapy and use the skills to better understand yourself and combat self loathing, says Mariella Frostrup

The dilemma I am a woman in my 30s. On paper I am bright – an Oxford graduate with a slew of prestigious qualifications, extracurricular achievements and a fairly successful career. The reality is I just feel pathetic, ignorant and gormless. I’ve got to where I am because I’m adept at analysing and memorising information, while clearly lacking other types of intelligence. I was bullied in school and continue to be bullied in adult life, which to me reinforces how pathetic I am.

I am very physically and socially clumsy, can’t understand body language, have trouble processing what people are saying and take things literally. This has led people to comment that I am autistic. I have never sought a formal diagnosis because I do not want to use it as an excuse or even a weapon, which I’ve seen other autistic women do.

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A bath with a view in an attic conversion

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Clay walls and calming garden vistas bring Japanese elegance to a London loft

Taking a bath properly requires being able to guiltlessly linger, hang out, and/or do nothing whatsoever.” So said Leonard Koren, the American design philosopher, who also holds the lofty-sounding title of “bathing expert” and who, in 1976, founded Wet magazine, a periodical dedicated to gourmet bathing.

There was no stipulation of a good view, but a bath with a view and space to linger in is precisely what architectural photographer Edmund Sumner and his wife, Yuki, an architectural writer, consultant and author created when they converted the attic of their Edwardian home in south London.

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When rearranging a drawer is restful: the magic of ‘pottering’

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How small tasks can benefit our state of mind

For Anna McGovern there is a satisfying, sensory pleasure to be had in rinsing milk bottles: “The very best thing about getting your milk delivered is ‘rinsing and returning’. Don’t cheat by putting your bottles in the dishwasher. Wash them, by hand. Put a small amount of water in the bottle, slosh the water around, put your hand over the top, shake it up and down, upturn the bottle, glugging the water out, then head for your doorstep and put out the bottle with a ‘plink’”.

This is one of many meandering, seemingly mundane tasks that McGovern delights in describing in her new book. Another is pegging out the washing (“Pull it out of the basket in a long, sweet-smelling, damp lump.”) In fact, when we speak about pottering, McGovern tells me she has done just that to “help order her thoughts”.

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Check her out: how Netflix hit The Queen’s Gambit thrills with fashion

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Stylish chess drama fills the hole left by period pieces such as Mad Men – and puts the clothes front and centre

In chess, the first move is everything. This is also true in TV – something The Queen’s Gambit, a seductive seven-part drama about a female chess prodigy in the American midwest, knows all too well.

In the first few moments, we meet our teenage hero, Beth Harman (Anya Taylor-Joy), asleep in a hotel bath wearing a burgundy Pierre Cardin shift dress from the night before. Moments later, she has changed into a Biba-inspired mint-green viscose one, which matches the tranquillisers she knocks back with a minibar vodka. Grabbing her shoes – black pointed flats, so this must be the 60s – she hurries downstairs to play the most important chess game of her career on the mother of all hangovers.

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Bye-Don: a farewell to the Trump aesthetic

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It’s time to reflect on the weaponising of a certain Fox News-adjacent look that dominated his four years in office

The age of Trump was an ugly one. An ugliness in profound and harrowing senses – racism, lies and callousness – extended into a literal ugliness that, while in no way as significant as the president’s actions, has often made the past four years feel like an assault on the senses. This administration has looked and sounded like no other, just as it has acted like no other. The nastiness of Trump’s pronouncements has many times been made more shocking by his language: the barked, capitalised tweets littered with errors and exclamation marks; the misogyny underscored by snickering profanity. Every unmasked public appearance has been a visceral reminder of a shirking of leadership and responsibility in the face of a public health crisis.

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‘My husband’s chewing makes me want to scream. I’m living with a horse. How do I navigate it?’

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In the past few months everyone has experienced something like this, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith – you have to tell him, but how you do it matters

My husband’s clicking jaw and loud chewing makes me want to scream. I’m living with a horse. Meal times are impossible. Pre-lockdown I only had to endure dinner at the end of a day. But now it’s three freaking meals and everything in between. In a small apartment I’m going mad. He is someone who does not take on board personal criticism. Self-improvement is not on the cards. I love him but how do I navigate this situation?

Eleanor says: There’s something David-and-Goliath-ish about the way that the biggest things can be undone by the smallest. Strong friendships worn down by perpetually tardy texts, a mother’s love tested by the thousandth time the chicken isn’t defrosted, a marriage made difficult by the equine grinding of a jaw.

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‘She made music jump into 3D’: Wendy Carlos, the reclusive synth genius

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She went platinum by plugging Bach into 20th-century machines, and was soon working with Stanley Kubrick. But prejudice around her gender transition pushed Wendy Carlos out of sight

This summer, an 80-year-old synthesiser pioneer suddenly appeared online. She had been silent for 11 years, but now something had appeared that she just wouldn’t tolerate. “Please be aware there’s a purported ‘biography’ on me just released,” wrote Wendy Carlos on the homepage of her 16-bit-friendly website, a Siamese cat and a synthesiser behind her portrait. “No one ever interviewed me [for it], nor anyone I know,” she went on. “Aren’t there new, more interesting targets?”

Given that Carlos is arguably the most important living figure in the history of electronic music, it’s remarkable that Amanda Sewell’s Wendy Carlos: A Biography is the first book about her. This is the musician who pushed Robert Moog to perfect his first analogue synthesiser, from which pop, prog, electronica and film music flourished. Her smash-hit 1968 album Switched-On Bach made the Moog internationally famous and became the second classical album ever to go platinum in the US. Then came her extraordinary soundtracks for A Clockwork Orange, The Shining and Tron. She made an ambient album five years before Brian Eno did, and jumped from analogue machines to do leading work in digital synthesis, but worried that her status as one of the first visible transgender artists in the US would overshadow it.

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Joan Armatrading: ‘I want to make a heavy metal album – with lots of guitar shredding’

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At the age of seven, she flew to Birmingham from Antigua on her own – and became the first globally successful British female singer-songwriter. As she wins the award she once gave to Margaret Thatcher, Joan Armatrading looks back

‘It’s very nice to be honoured,” says Joan Armatrading, down the phone from her home in Surrey. The 69-year-old is talking about receiving this year’s Women of the Year lifetime achievement award, which sees her honoured alongside the likes of child burns survivor Sylvia Mac and Adwoa Dickson, who set up a community choir for young women who survived trafficking. “Whether I measure up is another question.”

She’s joking, of course, but what does the continued existence of the award tell us about where the struggle for equality is in 2020? “It’s maybe not as relevant as it was in 1955,” she says, “when Tony Lothian set it up after being denied admission to a men-only meeting. But women are still doing incredible things in this society, so reward them.”

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Let there be light: 10 simple ways to brighten your home – from pale pink walls to changing bulbs

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We may be confined to home as the days draw in, but here’s an expert guide to maximising the winter light inside

Things are looking gloomy – seasonally speaking, if not also metaphorically. It was one thing to be locked down when the days were long and the heatwave heavy, but we’re facing a run of dark months, mostly indoors. Here are some expert tips on staying on the bright side, and maximising winter light.

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From pizzas to smoothies: 10 unexpected and delicious ways with brussels sprouts

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After years as pariahs, these little marvels are now the nation’s favourite green vegetable. Here are 10 imaginative ways to make the most of them – without waiting for Christmas

Proving once and for all that even the worst among us are capable of redemption, the brussels sprout has just been named the nation’s favourite green vegetable. For years, the sprout was little more than a waxy green pariah, bought out of duty once a year at Christmas and then ignored. But now, in what can only be described as an astonishing turnaround, a Waitrose survey revealed that people now prefer them even to the mighty broccoli.

This means it’s all systems go. Now that the nation is finally united by its love of sprouts, it’s time to get adventurous. Sure, they are nice with a bit of bacon, but serve any of the following recipes to friends next time you’re allowed, and they will fall to their knees and weep with gratitude.

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