A total lack of planning plus a poor choice of main course equals a Sri Lankan nightmare I’ve just finished the last mouthful of the most amazing breakfast I’ve ever eaten. Genuinely. Eggs Benedict, with a juicy tomato and rocket salad on the side, accompanied by the...
Former England rugby international James Forrester has bounced back from a career-ending injury to rebuild his life in Singapore. It’s 28 April 2007, and high-flying Gloucester is braced for a crucial showdown with big-spending rival Newcastle; victory would propel...
How former footballer PJ Roberts kicked testicular cancer into touch. Anyone who’s ever played team sports will understand that dressing room banter is an integral part of the bonding process. Sometimes it’s clever, sometimes childish. Sometimes the banter transcends...
The ‘Kamikaze Killer’ who made a fortune in mobile advertising before investing in an upmarket tailors. One of my first really vivid childhood memories was sitting in front of a blackboard with my primary school class and being asked what we wanted to be when we grew...
How three Singapore-based footballers launched a social media app. George de Mestral marches purposefully through the picturesque Alpine countryside on a bright summer’s afternoon, a freshly-polished shotgun under his arm and his faithful dog shadowing his every move....
How a family antique hunt in her home city of Istanbul inspired Begüm Kiroglu to launch her oriental influenced cufflink brand, Begüm Khan. RICHARD: You come from a family of art collectors. Did you not fancy following that same path? BEGUM: In a way I am following...
Master Perfumer Olivier Pescheux on being inspired by Paris, the joys of working with Oud, and the fragrant masterpiece that he would love to have created. In the past couple of decades, famed Master Perfumer, Olivier Pescheux, has been instrumental in creating some...
The career odyssey of a broadcaster, turned pilot, turned hypnotist. The 18th-century English poet William Cowper was a man regarded as a lyrical genius by his contemporaries. However, like many supremely gifted artists, Cowper flitted between periods of prolific...
Embracing the madness of the Calcio Storico. Three paramedics armed with a stretcher and medical kits are racing onto the sun-soaked arena in the shadow of Florence’s atmospheric Santa Croce church – the burial ground of a certain Michelangelo (the artist, not the...
Why YSL’s iconic Oud fragrance, M7, was way ahead of its time. Business history is rich with tales of pioneering companies that have remained at the very top of their particular sector after blazing that initial trail. For instance, the likes of Coca-Cola and Levi...
Former international cricketer Dion Nash has bounced back from a career-ending injury to launch a successful skincare company. If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But...
When it comes to celebrity endorsements, authenticity is key for the brand partnership to work. In 1763, Josiah Wedgwood – the founder of Wedgwood pottery and chinaware – presented King George III’s wife, Queen Charlotte, with his finest creamware breakfast set....
How the power of the internet has seen crowdfunding emerge as the investment platform for the social media generation. It was the little known blogger Michael Sullivan who first coined the term ‘crowdfunding’ back in 2006, yet, nearly a decade later, if you were to...
Executive Chef Peter Fiori’s vision has transformed a dank, concrete space in central London into a vibrant garden in the sky. Last April, when the BBC launched yet another reality TV show, The Big Allotment Challenge, they were expecting competitive horticulture to...
Sir Richard Branson has long championed the ethos of sustainable business and environmental responsibility. But critics of the Virgin chief believe that his altruistic image is undeserved. Back in May 1977, snarling Sex Pistols front man Johnny Rotten and future...
Singapore-based New Yorker Alan Barr reflects on his journey from the construction sites of Long Island to creating unique designs in Singapore The Academy Award-winning actor John Wayne once said, “If life isn’t always black and white, I say ‘why the hell not?’” It’s...
I’ve grown a beard. It feels good to finally peel back the layers of David Beckham-inspired metrosexuality and add a few layers of, err, David Beckham-inspired alpha manliness. Not that I’m a lemming to the stylistic whims of Sir David or anything. Actually, it was...
How I landed my big break in television It’s April 2002. I’m hitchhiking from Teshie-Nungua on the coast of Accra in Ghana to the border of Togo on a desolate, dusty road, and it’s hotter than Halle Berry in a pair of killer heels at a chilli-eating contest. The rusty...
Taking flight and doing wonderful things for charity… In early 2002, I packed my bags and headed to Ghana to work as a volunteer for a charity that helped thousands of underprivileged kids in West Africa. I’d agreed to teach English and help out at an orphanage in a...
David Moyes looks like a dead man walking at Manchester United, but are there any better candidates for the job? Of course there are. TOP 10 CANDIDATES TO REPLACE MOYES Laurent Blanc If and when Moyes leaves United, it’s almost certain that he’ll be replaced by the...
I’ve just completed my 13th consecutive Dry January. It’s a time of year I’ve come to enjoy – after a succession of over-indulgent Christmas shindigs, I genuinely look forward to a month of cleansing. However, not everyone approves of such wholesome living. I once...
We celebrated a close mate’s 30th last week. A beautiful sunny day, the finest cuts of meat on the barbecue and prodigious amounts of champagne quaffed while luxuriating in his new rooftop Jacuzzi. It’s fair to say that the young man has got it made. He’s worked his...
Before the start of this season, you could count on one hand the number of decent performances Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey had produced in the three-and-a-half years since suffering an horrific leg break against Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium. However,...
A whole host of big name stars will be making their Premier League debuts this weekend after last minute transfer window moves. However, will any of them be as memorable as these? TOP 10 MEMORABLE DEBUTS 10: ALEX DURIC SINGAPORE vs Tajikistan, 2007 At an age (37) when...
Transfer Deadline Day threw up the usual mayhem; from big money arrivals and shock signings to deals being scuppered at the 11th hour. Many weird and wonderful bits of business were done as frantic managers, owners and agents burned the midnight oil, but none of those...
In the wake of their dismal opening day defeat to Aston Villa, Arsenal fans are literally begging their notoriously frugal manager to crack open the safe at the Emirates and finally splash the cash. But is Arsene Wenger the right man to be spending the Gunners’...
At the age of 15, Jermaine Pennant had the world at his feet. A prodigiously talented winger blessed with electric pace, he’d just been snapped up by Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger for a massive £2m ($4m) - a record fee for a trainee at the time. However, Pennant...
Back in 2005, just a few short months after his grueling, career-high victory over world light-welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu at his spiritual home, Manchester’s M.E.N Arena, I enjoyed a pint or ten with Ricky Hatton at a bar in Eastbourne where he’d just...
He may not have been the greatest cricketer to have donned the whites of Sussex CCC, but the legendary C.B Fry’s status as the nation’s finest ever all-round sportsman is surely unrivalled. And when I say ‘all-round sportsman’, I’m not talking about Ian Botham bashing...
There are many tried and tested ways to get over a relationship break-up; go out every night and try and pull as many girls as you can is an obvious favourite; listen to Gabrielle records while gorging on tins of Quality Street is another, or a more radical choice may...