Sebastian Shakespeare on The Evening Standard

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Sebastian Shakespeare

Gossip: it’s a necessary evil — and such fun

Oscar Wilde said one should always have something sensational to read on the train. I suppose the next best thing is to sit next to Rebekah Brooks. Jack Straw told the Leveson Inquiry this week that he used to gossip with the then Sun editor on the train when he commuted to work. Talk about supping with the devil and consorting with the enemy.

18 May 2012 11:34 AM

Dole out Asbos to badly behaved theatregoers

Sebastian Shakespeare on the shocking behaviour of so-called educated punters of London's theatreland

11 May 2012 03:07 PM

Film: Dreams of a Life tells the story of Joyce Vincent, whose body lay in her flat for three years before it was discovered.

Would your boss care if you didn’t turn up to work?

Would your boss notice, or even care, if you didn’t turn up to work for seven days? The MI6 spy Gareth Williams was missing from work for a week before the security services alerted the police. Given his work as a spy, it does seem inconceivable that nobody bothered to raise the alarm. Inconceivable, insulting and not exactly confidence- inspiring.

04 May 2012 01:10 PM

Poll: Streatham High Road was voted the worst street in Britain.

Streatham is the grit in this city’s oyster

Some parts of London are necessary and others are contingent, said Dame Iris Murdoch. I’m not sure Streatham is a “shithole”, as Jo Brand described it on a recent edition of Have I Got News for You, but I would certainly describe it as contingent. I will not lose any sleep if I never visit the south London ’burb ever again.

27 April 2012 11:21 AM

Heyday: Johnny Rotten and Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols, 1978. Rotten refuses to endorse the re-release of God Save the Queen

All aboard the Queen’s jubilee bandwagon

On your marks, get set, go! No, I am not talking about the Olympics but preparations for the Diamond Jubilee. The nation cannot contain its excitement as June 3 looms with its myriad pageants, street parties, flotillas and concerts. It seems we are all monarchists now.

20 April 2012 12:36 PM

Consistency: the vicar is vaguer than his flock

Both wings of the church don’t want me

God help the next Archbishop of Canterbury. A Church of England vicar in Croydon this week persuaded half his congregation to join a Catholic order 500 yards up the road, explaining to his parishioners that the Anglican church was telling traditional worshippers to “bugger off”. What’s more, Anglicans were feeding congregations a diet of “pap and banality”.

13 April 2012 11:18 AM

Panic: Francis Maude is said to have fuelled the crisis

Keep calm and don’t carry on with jerry cans

Do not buy a jerry can — unless you want to resell it at a profit, in which case that’s capitalism, and fair enough.

30 March 2012 11:20 AM

Open all hours: Sundays have always been the dullest day of the week

Heavens above, just let us shop on Sundays

Is Sunday really sacred? There has been an Almighty hullabaloo following news that Sunday trading laws are to be suspended during the Olympics for eight weeks, enabling large shops to trade for more than six hours. Analysts say we will spend more than £200 million, with half that amount being spent in London. Surely that is good news for London and commerce? We live in a 24/7 world, and closing or limiting the hours that a shop can open on a Sunday does seem a quaint anachronism.

23 March 2012 11:28 AM

Dictators repel but we nurture their avarice

Nothing is more personal than a shopping basket. At the supermarket you can learn more about someone’s intimate habits than you might think: what brands they favour, how much alcohol they consume, even their choice of loo paper (quilted or bog standard). So President Assad must be feeling painfully exposed, having his shopping habits exposed to the world via a cache of leaked emails.

16 March 2012 11:21 AM

Beware: country life may not be the idyll you imagine

Steer clear of the countryside and stay hitched

If you are thinking of moving to the country, don’t do it. Or think before you leap into your Hunter wellies. Besides, Arcadia is not what it is cracked up to be. Not before time, Mavis Cheek is spearheading a new campaign, Over the Hill?, to alert people to the pitfalls of moving to the countryside.

09 March 2012 03:30 PM