What We’re Looking Forward to in 2022: Part Two

On the 28th April, Jennifer Egan’s new book The Candy House is published.  Author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning Visit from the Goon Squad, this is definitely one of our must-reads.  Then in June, we are very curious about the Barbara Charone book: Access All Areas: A Backstage Pass Through 50 Years of Music. A journalist turned PR office for Madonna who we used to work with (she was extremely powerful and rather terrifying), this is being touted as a tell-all from inside the music industry. If you are one of the many avid readers of what is being called ‘cosy crime’ (think Richard Osman’s best selling The Thursday Murder Club), then you might want to try Reverend Richard Coles’s new novel Murder Before Evensong which is a murder-mystery set in the 1980s.  And we’re always happy to hear of another David Sedaris book.  Happy-Go-Lucky is a selection of his latest short stories. – bittersweet comic writing at it’s best.

And finally, The Diaries of Alan Rickman will be published 18th October. The actor wrote a diary beginning in the early 1990s until his death in 2016. In total there are 27 volumes, covering everything from Sense and Sensibility to Harry Potter.  Then in November Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami is published.  The Japanese author offers his thoughts on finding your own style, creating characters and the links between literature, music and art. 

The year has gotten off to a delicious start with the just-launched new Chelsea Ottolenghi deli on Pavilion Road behind Sloane Square. It’s their largest yet with all-day dining from morning to early evening. Another mouth-watering launch this year is pastry guru Cedric Grolet at The Berkeley Patisserie with his first launch outside of France.

Meanwhile, Nuno Mendes (of Viajante and Chiltern Firehouse fame) will be back this Spring with his new restaurant Lisboeta on Charlotte Street. A native of Lisbon, the new restaurant is a love-letter to the chef’s home city and will will feature both tapas-like petiscos and larger dishes to share family-style. The biggest launch of the year is the Raffles Group which set to open it’s first British outpost in the Grade II listed Old War office building (known as OWO) in Whitehall with a private members club, hotel, extensive spa and 11 different restaurants. Another big name is The Dorchester which will undergo a major renovation with Martin Brudnizki doing the hotel bar and good news, one of our favourites, Lina Stores, are opening an all day restaurant and deli in Marylebone.

This year in Theatre sees the return of some fantastic favourites and some familiar faces too – celebrity-led theatre is still very much dominant.  You can catch Toby Stephens and Paul McGann in Florian Zeller’s new play The Forest from 5th February. Taron Edgerton is in Mike Bartlott’s Cock at the Ambassador’s Theatre directed by Marianne Elliott from 5th March, Ralph Fiennes is in the new David Hare play, Straight Line Crazy, at the Bridge Theatre from 16th March; Ruth Wilson is in Ivo Van Hove’s The Human Voice from 17th March, Jodie Comer in Prima Facie at the Harold Pinter Theatre from 15th April and Amy Adams in The Glass Menagerie at the Duke of York Theatre from 22nd May.  Emilia Clarke stars in The Seagull at the Harold Pinter Theatre from 29th June and Alex Jennings in The Southbury Child at The Bridge Theatre from 1st July.

If you really want to be guaranteed a great night at the theatre, then our advice is to plump for one of these tried and tested performances or theatre companies. James McAvoy returns with his star turn in Cyrano de Bergerac from 3rd February at the Harold Pinter Theatre. The much-delayed To Kill A Mockingbird (transferred from it’s hit Broadway run) finally comes in March and PunchDrunk launches The Burnt City, their first major performance since 2014.  And last, but very much not least, Jez Butterworth’s brilliant Jerusalem with Mark Rylance and McKenzie Crook returns in April.  If you’ve never seen it, then book your tickets now.  It really is a tour-de-force.