The Weekend Opener
from Andrew Tuck
Want to improve your quality of life? Live in a sunny city that allows its residents time to linger
1.The fading of April and easing into May has seen London basking in temperatures that a Brit associates with full-on summer. By Thursday the weather app confirmed that we had hit 27C – not…
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Perfect Zen
After filing last week’s column from Tokyo, I still had a whole weekend in the city up my sleeve before I would have to return to base camp. You don’t mind joining me for…
From Tokyo with Lovots
1Last weekend we went to stay with friends of decades’ standing in deepest Wiltshire, a bucolic part of England that’s as beautiful as the Cotswolds but without the coach tours. They live in a…
Sitting pretty
It was 18 years ago that we went to the B&B Italia store on the Brompton Road in Knightsbridge and bought a sofa: a “Harry”. We had it covered in a dark-grey fabric to…
Hair of the dog
1In the normal routine after The Monocle Quality of Life Conference finishes, the team disperse and, as the adrenalin fades, a silence sets in. After the Athens edition, a few of us went to…
Insights from Istanbul
The Monocle team has been in Istanbul this week for our annual Quality of Life Conference. The city has provided the perfect backdrop for conversations on topics ranging from global security to how Turkey…
Abroad church
1After Monocle’s 2025 planning session in Zürich this past week, I exited stage left and, instead of returning to London, went back to Palma de Mallorca. In Europe at this time of year, flying…
Proof positive
The thing about paper and ink is that there’s no going back. Digital publishing is a relationship without commitment – if you don’t like something on your website you can just take it down.…
London’s never-ending story
1Would we like to have lunch? Two people I know through Monocle, and who have become friends, were in London for a few days before heading on to Milan for the shows. Hanna and…
Recovery positions
1A choice: we could allow the cancer to spread and prepare for a few weeks, at most, of palliative care or we could put Macy, our fox terrier, through a gruelling operation that would…
Font of ideas
1Tyler invited the art-and-design team to spend two days in Paris. The plan was for everyone to visit the new offices and the site of an epic project that we will be unveiling at…
