Lucy Brooks

With the prospect of a fellatio cafe, London gimmicks have gone far too far. From the ridiculous to the offensive, we decry the city's worst novelty restaurants. As proud Londoners will gladly tell you, we live in a city brimming with cultural diversity, world class talent and cutting edge innovation. It's what makes all the tube tutting, unclean air and alarming property prices worth it.Whether offering immersive adventures oddly erotic seafood or Michelin stars, London's foodie openings attract the discerning and hungry from far and wide. We might not have the abundance of fresh produce found on sunnier shores but we make up for it in imagination.But w

Something is rotten in the Houses of Parliament. Since last week's Brexit hullabaloo Westminster has become a stage, upon which a cast of increasingly flawed characters vie for the main part — with various shades of mewling, puking and whining.We, the public, are the bemused audience, eschewing fiction for the far more engrossing and dramatic events revealed with each breaking news story. 'Shakespeare' has been bandied around far more in the last seven days than during the big-budget nationwide c

Those who dismiss theatre as mere light entertainment would not last long against actor, writer and activist Charlene James. She's exposing one of contemporary society's most controversial issues in a new play that will be staged at the Young Vic, Royal Court, Yard Theatre and around the country. Having trained at first her local drama school in Birmingham then at the Steppenwolf acting school in Chicago, she

Maybe it’s our generation snowflake obsession with being special that makes Basic Bitch such a burn. But then where’s ‘Mundane Man’ or ‘Default Dude’? The cuss has been in the Urban Dictionary since 2009 and it still counts as throwing serious shade. Cause a catty way of undermining other females is just what womankind needs. Like most hip-n-happening bibliophiles, I feed on new slang terms. Language is fluid and playful and should be celebrated as such. If we t

Since Absolutely Fabulous left the small screen, noughties Britain has become increasingly abstemious. Coincidence? Sweetie, darling don't be silly. Gone are the halcyon '90s days of couture and champagne. In the 12 years since Eddy and Patsy graced our screens each week, even the fashion world has gone a bit sensible, a bit Saffron.Now we're limping towards full generation fogey, obsessed with clean-living, cultivating our personal brand via staged Instagram snaps and norm-coring it up in Nikes…

It’s easy to flirt with the one you don’t fancy… And other lessons learned trying to land my dream job. So far I have neatly sidestepped the soul-sapping nightmare that is trying to find a job in media. A useless and self-indulgent Masters in modern literature was a welcome delay, funded by pleasingly profitable foray into tutoring. While bracing myself for the carousel of inevitable unpaid internships that pave the way to a writing job, I began freelancing for a new online arts magazine. Gradu

OITNB is back and as arresting as ever. Here's everything you need to know about the Litchfield ladies before binge-watching series 4. How can you follow up that Great Escape? The inmates we have come to know and love over the last three seasons poured out of Litchfield Penitentiary through a hole in the fence and splashed their way to freedom in the adjoining lake.Orange is the New Black series three ended on a wave of rousing euphoria. Tensions, deprivation, heartbreak and violence flowed into the singular joy of temporary freedom.This is where we find the wom

INTERVIEW: "Oh, I don't like parties", declares Manolo Blahnik. Ensconced in the pristine, serene upstairs of his new Burlington Arcade shop , the 73-year-old designer peeps down at the glitzy opening-night party below and admits: "They frighten me". By the time we get to meet Manolo, he's been through two hours of photo-calls and interviews. To celebrate the opening of his first London shop since 1973, Burlington Arcade has been transformed from daytime bus

Swapping fairytales for Shakespeare, Lily James and Richard Madden play star-crossed lovers in Branagh's stylish, slick and frothy production of Romeo and Juliet… Take a Game of Thrones Prince Charming, a Cinderella whose beauty is emblazoned across Billboards and our foremost director of Shakespeare and what do you get? Kenneth Branagh’s production of Romeo and Juliet at the Garrick Theatre is easily the sexiest offering in a commemorative year packed with Shakespeare. With Lily James (

If you were in the throng of frustrated thousands who missed out on tickets the world’s most famous festival , maximise your chances the second time around with our tried and tested tips to getting Glastonbury tickets in the resale.It sold out at predictable computer-crashing speed, months before it was announced that Muse, Adele and Coldplay are headlining…But for those of you with all the good intentions to register for this year's Glastonbury, then none of the luck and nouse to actually nab t

New Globe artistic director Emma Rice begins with a bang: Beyonce, Bowie, Bollywood & cabaret make for a drastically different Midsummer Night's Dream. Bye bye breeches, hello Beyoncé: Shakespeare’s Globe has gone rogue with a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that tramples all over tradition with a tirade of pop culture, punchy comedy and cabaret. Incoming Globe artistic director Emma Rice promised 'wonder' for her inaugural season and there’s no doubt she delivers. Ethereal white orb

Rom-coms are for escapism not life lessons. So self-titled guide on How To Be Single starts with some questionable advice for getting over a break up. Alice (Dakota Johnson) wants to pause her perfect Meet Cute college romance so she can start adult life in New York City as an independent, single woman. Enter

Simon Callow’s fascination with Shakespeare began at the tender age of six.‘I was at school in the country. my mother was the school secretary… My education was in the hands of the head mistress’s wife, a very hirsute woman’.It was there, he explains, that he got his first taste of Shakespeare. Not in a diluted, child friendly production, but through the unadulterated drama and gore of Macbeth.Since then he has acted, directed and written his way to becoming a true authority on all things Shakes

Scottish writer Ali Smith has been collecting literary accolades since her fist collection of stories, Free Love, won won the Saltire First Book Award in 1995.We think her latest novel How to be Both is her best yet. And it seems the judging panel of the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction agree. Describing the winning novel chair of the judges Shami Chakrabarti says "ancient and modern meet and speak to each other in this tender, brilliant and witty novel

Annie Baker's polarising, Pulitzer-winning play The Flick is a long, slow slog that's utterly worth your patience. After winning cult cool status, column inches and a trio of trophies in New York, Annie Baker's play The Flick arrives at the Dorfman with the weight of expectation. It cemented Barker's reputation as one of America's hottest new talents with a gift for capturing the ordinary cadences of conversation. But for every exhilarated fan and five star review, there was an exasperated c

You can't fail to notice Vanessa Kirby's beauty. At a glance, you'd be forgiven for thinking she was a model. But you also can't ignore the 27-year-old actress' glittering career. Since leaving university with a First Class English degree in 2009 she has been acting continuously, ascending from regional theatre to the National and Young Vic, then BBC period dramas and now Hollywood. She's starring alongside Colin Firth and Jude Law as Zelda Fitzgerald in Michael Grandage's film Genius, going sci-f

Hester Collyer could do with a good slap – according to a review of Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea when it premiered in 1952. Hester has tried and failed to kill herself. She has left her affluent, high-achieving husband for a flighty former RAF pilot. And now she’s ‘caught between the devil and the deep blue sea’. Rattigan captures the struggle with aching tenderness, intricate ambivalence and infinite humanity – at a time when mental instability and scandal were dismissed as dista

The very best children's books of 2015 to teach little ones to love the written word and keep teens reading long after lights out Books that children's will love: best new kids' books 2015 Say goodbye to the grapple to get kids to read. Our favourite Children's books from 2015, tried, tested and loved by Culture Whisper's little critics, will dispel any ideas of reading as being a chore and make bedtime stories the best part of the day. More confident readers will find laughter and imagination

Looking for the next immersive experience or fresh pop up? London events and adventures that you have to keep shhhh about

Caryl Churchill's potent new play of parallel universes will make you laugh, gasp and leave you reeling… Four retired women sit on garden chairs chatting on a sunny afternoon. Topics span grandchildren, old friends, favourite TV programmes, sea birds, religion and murder. Churchill’s characteristic truncated dialogue captures the cadences of old friends talking idly and easily about past and present. It’s an utterly banal scenario, rarely seen on the stage, made vibrant with ripples of kn