Sex will be had in a different city the next time around, if Mr Big gets his way. That’s because Chris Noth, the 53-year-old actor who played Sarah Jessica Parker’s long-time love interest-cum-sugar daddy in both the Sex and the City series and movie, would like to see the presumed sequel set in the greatest city in the world. What? We need be more explicit? Why, London, of course. Noth, who seems not to... [continue]

No, this isn’t another Sarah Palin story. In place of the pit-bull-in-lipstick, we bring you the decidedly nonpartisan Coal, the bulldog-with-a-prosthetic-leg (and if he has an opinion, he’s just not saying). Coal lost his left forepaw to cancer a year ago, and osteoarthritis in his other limbs left him too weak to stand. Faced with the proposition that the dog be put down, Coal’s owner, Reg Walker, chose instead to spend £10,000 on a... [continue]

The book grocer returns from August hiatus to find all kinds of lovely literary events with which to fill up our diary for September. And having remembered a lesson or two from primary school (beer before liquor, never sicker? No, not that one), we share them with you below. Tuesday: Want some explication of Red State America? Joe Bageant will be at the Southbank Centre to discuss his book, Deer Hunting with Jesus: Guns,... [continue]

Long summer days conjure up memories of the carefree days of our youth. And then we read this: 10-year-old boys attack a woman after she denies them a cigarette. Shouldn’t they be bumming candy or, we don’t know, splashing around in a lido instead? By now, you’ve no doubt heard about the emergency landing of Qantas Flight QF-30 from London to Melbourne. Causes unknown, but the theorising has begun. Plans for a new Holland... [continue]

There are sometimes always so many lovely events going on in this city that keeping tabs on all we want to do and promote can often seem a Herculean task. Case in point: we’ve just now spotted the excellent-looking 3:AM in Conversation with Chris Petit. Sponsored by 3:AM magazine and London Lit Plus, it features former Time Out film editor and director of the 1979 cult classic and anti-road movie Radio On, Chris Petit. We... [continue]

Summer, our fickle friend – are you going to cooperate with us now? No more depriving us of our fun in the sun, our picnics, our tans, our leisurely strolls through parks and convivial afternoons spent barbequing? Because if not, look at all the other lovely things we have to keep us busy. Like books. Books don’t require that every time we go out, we bring both hot- and cold-weather clothing, both umbrella and... [continue]

Head to the Southbank Centre for the London Literature Festival Fresh Off the Page series. Tonight’s event, These Streets Sound Like LDN City, showcases the talents of several young spoken word artists and musicians and is put together by young curators from the SOWF Street Genius programme under the mentorship of Southbank Centre Emerging Artist in Residence Yemisi Blake. Definitely worth checking out. Front room of Queen Elizabeth Hall, 7.30pm, free.... [continue]

B**K, an exhibition of book-inspired artworks, at the London Print Studio. See what happens when artists think outside the book: you get everything from tree-carved Log Books (pictured), to a pop-up jigsaw book accompanied by a herd of (we presume fake) sheep, to texts quite literally edited by hungry paper-eating snails. Will “the snail ate my books” become a popular excuse among the next generation of schoolchildren? Exhibit runs until 27 September. Gallery open... [continue]

First Kilo the Cat, now Diesel the Dog – call it animal cruelty, antipathy, or apathy, it all incenses us just the same. Below we mete out armchair justice (and reveal why our law career never got off the ground). The Facts: A June 22 fire in a flat above their home left the Driscoll family, including healthy 5-year-old golden retriever Diesel, without a place to live. Islington Council found the family emergency housing... [continue]

Festival season embeds itself in our social life this week and makes a mockery of our diary – it’s all illegible scribblings, strike-throughs, and exclamation points. Whilst we attempt to sort ourselves out, let’s see what sense we can make of the week ahead in literary London for you... Monday: Bebop hep-cats (that’s right, hep-cats) converge on the Troubadour tonight to celebrate the 1950s poetry scene (8pm, £6/£5 concessions); biographers Anne Sebba and Andrew... [continue]

We’re not going to lie: It was the panda and its gratuitous cuteness that drew us in. The curators of Endangered Wildlife Exposed were no doubt banking on that reaction when choosing an image to promote the Roger Hooper exhibit at Oxo Gallery. With their large heads, big bellies, the appearance of wide eyes, and their tendency to toddle about, pandas are said to bear (heh) enough similarities to human babies that our nurturing... [continue]

Where do Britons go when, in Christina Aguilera’s parlance, they want to get dirrty? (We’ll give you one guess.) Adding to its ever accumulating pile of accolades, London, according to a poll conducted by hotel site HRS.com, is the preferred destination for dirty weekends away. Libidinous London topped Blackpool and Newquay to, ahem, come first – nudge nudge, know what we mean, know what we mean? Yeah. You do.... [continue]

Mwhahaha. The Book Grocer rubs her hands together greedily as she contemplates the week ahead. Festival season kicks off this week, and its offerings may be summarised with one word: excellent. Tuesday: VS Naipaul fans will want to head to Daunt Books tonight to hear Patrick French and AN Wilson discuss French’s recent biography of the Nobel Prize-winning author, The World Is What It Is, heralded as a “magnificent achievement” (7pm, £5). Also on:... [continue]

What do an ex-Python, Martha Stewart, and a woman in the running for first female poet laureate all have in common? Come on now, use your deductive reasoning skills. They all somehow feature in this week’s Book Grocer, of course! Monday: Novelist David Benioff has a few recognisable names on his CV – he’s both collaborated with Spike Lee and written the screenplay for The Kite Runner. Tonight Benioff is at Foyles to discuss... [continue]

Diaries out, bibliophiles. Festival season is almost upon us. No, not the festival season that will have you rolling around in mud or throwing your pants at the stage (well, you could throw your pants at the stage, and we’d certainly provide moral support for that endeavour). We’re talking literary festival season – Christmas in July for the book geeks among us. Let’s start with the little guy first. London Lit Plus launched just... [continue]

Londonist asks that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break. Taqueria 139-143 Westbourne Grove, W11 2RS Nearest Tube: Notting Hill Gate 020 7229 4734 Mon–Thurs: 12:00pm–11:00pm; Fri: 12:00pm–11:30pm; Sat: 10:00am–11:30pm; Sun: 12:00pm–10:30pm Expect to Pay: £8–£12 Rating: 9 out of 10 Spring, and a young woman’s thoughts turn towards frozen fruity cocktails – margaritas in particular. But as we haven’t yet persuaded our editor to expand this column to... [continue]

Happy Bloomsday, friends. If on this, the 104th anniversary of Leopold Bloom’s epic wanderings around Dublin, our column is even less coherent than usual, don’t blame us and our second-rate attempts to mimic the master. On the other hand, maybe you should. Do we contradict ourselves? Very well then, we contradict ourselves. Come, mess. Bloomsday: Alright, so perhaps you have no idea what we’re babbling on about because (GASP!) you’ve cracked the cover of... [continue]

Pardon. The book grocer got some sun this weekend. We find that there’s an inverse relationship between our hours of sun exposure and our ability to talk books. Do you think the connection between weather and literary prowess could explain Britain’s many achievements in this field? Just wondering... Monday: The Bedford Park Festival kicked off a few days ago, and we’re liking its literary offerings. Tonight brings us Wilde at Heart, a two-act play... [continue]

Image courtesy of randydandy via the Londonist Flickr pool Right, so Gothamist isn’t returning our phone calls, and we can only assume that they’re not going to take us up on our Telectroscope dance challenge. Chickens. Dance-off or not, we wanted to check out the Telectroscope for ourselves. Would it be awkward to stand there gaping at people on the other end? Is it worth leaving behind the webcam and the comfort of our... [continue]

He’s back! Since we first heard the news that Paddington Bear would, after a 30-year sabbatical, shake off the dust of our bookshelves and embark on some fresh adventures, it’s been all we could do to contain our excitement – though stuffing ourselves with marmalade sandwiches certainly has helped. The wait is over. Paddington – or P.Bear, as we like to call him – is back in bookstores this week for his twelfth outing,... [continue]