The Weekend Opener
from Andrew Tuck
Good luck is underrated – but it certainly has a nice ring to it
I lose things. A lot. But I am delighted to say that these misplaced items usually find their way back to me. A wallet dropped in the park, a jacket left hanging in a…
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Don’t let the side down, be an ambassador for yourself by dressing the part
I don’t want to embarrass the gentlemen, so will obfuscate on the exact location of our rendezvous. The person in question is a senior diplomat, a British one, in a part of the world…
It’s not a good time to be an ‘Andrew’ but there’s always national pride to fall back on
It will be interesting to see whether the royal family’s latest bout of difficult news headlines further damages how proud people feel of being British.
Mind the age gap: 20 polite reminders that the doors are closing on your youth
“You will not, under any circumstances put this in your column,” said the other half as we exited the tube station at South Kensington, him still looking shocked, me barely able to contain my…
The best architecture is invisible. Dubai has signed up two of the world’s most famous practitioners to prove it
Monocle was on the road this week in Dubai at the World Governments Summit (WGS), where we built a Monocle Radio studio and an outpost of our café. The vast event comprises numerous auditoriums…
How do you make a great office? Step one, poison the pot plants
Have we reached peak pot plant? Over recent weeks, with my The Urbanist hard hat on, I have visited a lot of new office developments across London and in every lobby (or 3D render if the…
Why does life inside a mascot suit suddenly seem so appealing?
Amid the current geopolitical chaos, world leaders have turned to all sorts of guises as they try to navigate an uncertain world order. The uniform of choice for our editor in chief? It might…
Matcha might be catnip to the tech sector but poodles are the real urban litmus test
Savills, the international property-services company, puts out an annual Tech Cities report that ranks the 30 metropolises best at luring companies (which pay handsomely for real estate) in this sector. It’s a meaty piece…
Tread carefully: Why tyre trouble in the French countryside doesn’t mean the wheels have to come off
There’s an unspoken agreement on our epic Christmas drives from London to Palma. Wait, what am I on about, it’s very spoken. The other half makes it clear that he wants to do most…
In praise of keeping a diary – even if you can’t read your own handwriting
I source mine from The Monocle Shop in London’s Chiltern Street: bright-yellow A6 Leuchtturm1917 pocketbooks; hardcover, dot-grid paper. And I suggest that you do the same – or find your own paper-and-pen solution. Because…
Leaning into the end-of-year lull gives us a chance to relax and reflect
I like it here, this island of time between Christmas and New Year. While it might not be a tropical paradise, it is somewhere that you can regroup, shrug off the excesses of Christmas…
