Latest news with #DollyAlderton
Irish Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
After Dolly Alderton's party, I decided to ditch the impostor syndrome that's dogged me my whole life
Brace yourselves for some heavy duty name dropping. I promise it will be worth it. The other week I went to London for a party held in honour of my writer friend Dolly Alderton . Dolly has been writing in the Sunday Times Style magazine for a decade now. To mark this milestone the newspaper threw her a fabulous shindig, sponsored by Tiffany & Co, in a swanky Italian restaurant in Mayfair called Sparrow. The party was pure London glamour. There were flowers everywhere and an actual olive tree growing in the middle of the room. I watched the celebrity guests arrive, trying to bury my rising impostor syndrome and remain, as the kids say, nonchalant. 'Richard E Grant!' I whispered to myself non-nonchalantly as the star of Withnail & I walked in. 'Helen Fecking Fielding!' I muttered into my mocktail as the Bridget Jones creator entered the room. Also present: Emma Forrest, a writer I've admired for years; Caroline O'Donoghue, the best-selling Cork author; Self Esteem , the incomparable pop star; and Dawn O'Porter, the brilliant writer and television presenter. Another Cork author, Louise O'Neill, was also at the party, looking smoking hot in a little black dress. As we stood chatting, a handsome man approached us. He introduced himself as Nick Hornby. 'Can I talk to you two?' he asked. 'I don't know a sausage here'. (By sausage he meant people. It's a London thing.) READ MORE Now, I've interviewed Nick Hornby before and this charming man in the white jacket with pink streaks looked nothing like the author of High Fidelity and About A Boy. He looked about half Hornby's age for a start. Also, he said provocative things like 'I'm only interested in art and homosexuals,' which is fair enough but not a very Real Nick Hornby thing to say. Then he confessed to myself and Louise that he thought he might have been invited to the party by mistake, having as he did, the same name as the famous author. 'Now can you tell me about Dolly Alderton?' he asked, as we gasped. [ Róisín Ingle: Aggressive befriending is great. It's just led to the most amazing, vol-au-vent-including experience Opens in new window ] We recovered enough to tell him all about Dolly. About her former dating column and current Dear Dolly advice page in Style. About her late, lamented High Low podcast with Pandora Sykes and wonderful books including bestseller Everything I Know About Love. We told 'Nick Hornby' about Dolly's acclaimed novels Ghosts and Good Material and informed him that the New York Times had named Good Material one of their 10 best books of 2024. We explained that she was the writer of the upcoming Netflix adaptation of Pride and Prejudice starring Olivia Colman. Then we marvelled quietly at his chutzpah. I could write a whole other column about the Italian feast that was served that night: the sharing plates piled with salads and pasta and meatballs and arancini and veal and branzino and outsize chocolate truffles. There were fancy pens and notepaper on the tables and guests were encouraged to write a problem for Dolly to answer after dinner. Louise and I wondered which of our problems to write down. Then inspiration struck and I wrote this, pretending to be Other Nick Hornby: Dear Dolly, My name is Nick Hornby. (Not that Nick Hornby.) I think I may have been invited here by mistake. What should I do? Love and congrats, Nick Hornby (not that one) After dinner, Dolly stood up and read out some problems. When she got to the Nick Hornby one, Other Nick Hornby looked thrilled instead of mortified, which you'd imagine your average interloper might be. He laughed even when the person sitting opposite him complained that he'd brought three Actual Nick Hornby books to the party to be signed. Dolly was typically gracious and inclusive in her advice to Other Nick Hornby. 'Is there a chance you've been invited here by mistake, Other Nick Hornby? Yes! But I'm so glad you're here,' Dolly declared and we all cheered. I was so glad I was there. Glad that I had bonded with Dolly and her good friend Lauren at the Borris Festival of Writing and Ideas in Co Carlow all those years ago. I stayed until kicking-out time, chatting with Self Esteem about inequities in the music industry and with Emma Forrest about her amazing-sounding new novel and, best of all, with dear Dolly, one of the funniest, kindest, most talented people I have the pleasure to know. The final few stragglers went on to Tramp nightclub, and while I was tempted – I mean, Tramp nightclub! – I went off with Dolly to get a taxi. I thought about/googled Other Nick Hornby all the way back to my digs. It turns out he's a celebrated sculptor with a work on display in Westminster called Power Over Others Is Weakness Disguised as Strength. From one angle the sculpture looks like Richard I on horseback, from the other it looks like a metal squiggle, which all seemed very on brand for Other Nick Hornby. That night in the taxi, I decided to ditch the impostor syndrome that has dogged me my whole life. Other Nick Hornby, an actual impostor, displayed zero impostor syndrome and it worked out fine for him. Or maybe impostor syndrome is strength disguised as weakness. Either way, what a night.
Times
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Young adults embrace Jane Austen to ‘escape modern dating'
Gen Z and millennials are falling hard for Jane Austen as the 250th anniversary of the author's birth approaches. Since Netflix announced a new Pride and Prejudice adaptation in April, written by Dolly Alderton and starring Emma Corrin, Olivia Colman and Jack Lowden, Spotify reported a 75 per cent week-on-week spike in listens to the audiobook. Streams of the 1995 BBC adaptation's soundtrack have also jumped by 120 per cent, and Joe Wright's 2005 film version starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen returned to cinemas for its 20th anniversary. The Bath-based company, Strictly Jane Austen Tours, has seen a 50 per cent increase in bookings in the past six months, with growing demand from Gen Z and millennial travellers. 'I think there is a level
Buzz Feed
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
5 Books That Will Emotionally Wreck You (In The Best Way Possible)
1. Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors For fans of sisterhood, grief, and stunning prose. Coco Mellors delivers a gut-wrenching novel about four sisters reeling from the sudden loss of the fifth. This book will have you laughing on one page and sobbing on the next as it explores the raw, messy, and deeply complex relationships between siblings. If you loved Cleopatra and Frankenstein, prepare yourself—this one cuts even deeper. Emotional Damage Level: 💔💔💔💔💔 2. Good Material by Dolly Alderton For anyone who's ever overanalyzed a breakup (so, all of us). Dolly Alderton, queen of capturing modern relationships, gives us a painfully relatable deep dive into the mind of a heartbroken man. It's witty, sharp, and full of that specific kind of sadness that makes you feel both seen and slightly called out. Perfect if you're in the mood for something that will make you laugh while also crushing your soul. Emotional Damage Level: 💔💔💔💔 3. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn For lovers of dark psychological thrillers and messy female protagonists. Before Gone Girl, there was Sharp Objects, and it's arguably even more twisted. A deeply unsettling psychological thriller about a journalist returning to her hometown to cover a series of murders, this book is dripping with tension, trauma, and a slow-burn unraveling that will haunt you long after you finish. It's dark. It's disturbing. And it's impossible to put down. Emotional Damage Level: 💔💔💔💔💔 (plus a side of existential dread) 4. White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky For hopeless romantics who love poetic melancholy. Dostoyevsky takes us into the mind of a lonely dreamer who falls in love with a woman over the course of a few sleepless nights. This short but powerful novel is full of longing, bittersweet moments, and the kind of lyrical sadness that sticks with you. If you love classic literature that tugs at your heartstrings, this is a must-read. 5. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt For fans of sprawling literary epics and beautifully tragic characters. This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel follows Theo Decker, a boy whose life is upended after a tragic event. It's a beautifully written, deeply immersive journey through art, love, loss, and self-destruction. At nearly 800 pages, it's a commitment—but one that will stay with you forever.
The Independent
21-02-2025
- The Independent
A Derbyshire detox that lasts longer than the journey there
Dolly Alderton wrote a piece last September for The Sunday Times on her 58 rules for life; knowledge she'd amassed from four years as Style 's agony aunt – and being the best friend every girl wishes she had. Among advice on flossing, savouring the good times and solo pub trips was one tidbit that really stuck with me. 'You always need less rest than you think you do to completely recover. When you're burnt out, it feels like the only thing that will fix it is retiring, moving to New Zealand and turning off your phone for a year. Really, you need nine hours' sleep and a weekend with no plans.' Not only do I staunchly agree, but having experienced Wildhive's 24-hour reset package I'd argue that even less time is required to feel like yourself again. And I would also add rule 59 to the list of wisdom that the best meals can be relative – but more on that later. Their website claims that if you leave London around midday, you can be sipping on a glass of fizz in the midst of the Derbyshire Dales by 3pm. My shoddy understanding of geography, UK or otherwise, was immediately brought to light as I imagined the journey from the Big Smoke to the East Midlands would take a fair bit longer. Nope, you can get a train from King's Cross in a swift 90 minutes; the same time it can take to shlep from one end of London to the other. Once I'd arrived at Callow Hall, I immediately popped on a luxurious white robe and ran a bath in the freestanding tub located at the end of a ludicrously comfy bed. Looking out onto the green, foggy landscape with wintry wind and rain beating on the window felt so utterly idyllic I felt as though I'd fallen into a Jane Austen novel, except I had a glass of Pol Roger in hand and had angled the flat screen TV just right to be visible while submerged. If that hadn't been relaxing enough it was time for me to hop in a buggy to the Coach House for a spa treatment. You can pick from massages, facials and treatments as a part of the reset package and I opted for a pedi – immaculately done and it ended up lasting a solid six weeks. In addition to all the pampering, the stay includes dinner, breakfast and lunch before departure – all from their beautiful Garden Room. A huge, greenhouse-like space complete with lush living roof. It felt almost sinfully cosy to have Storm Darragh hammer on the floor-to-ceiling windows while sat at a candlelit table sipping on an expertly made margarita. And the food, well it's really nice – for the most part. A Welsh wagyu burger is tasty and well seasoned, just a little unwieldy with slabs of tomato and rings of red onion. I fear I've become a little spoilt with London's many smashburger offerings; this one still hits the spot, while the truffle and parmesan fries to accompany it are quite frankly sublime. My guest's pan-fried hake with oyster beignets sounds promising but the flavours were a bit off – but the Scottish king scallops with sausage and carrot puree were beautifully cooked and fabulous. Breakfast and lunch were more consistent with a warming, hearty fish hotpot and a pot-roasted chicken with liquorice braised garden leeks and a glossy sherry butter sauce – wafer thin, crisp skin encases a juicy breast, reminding me why there's nothing quite like a perfectly done roast chicken. In another setting, I might have been a tiny bit more underwhelmed by the food, but this isn't just another setting. It's a beautiful place with the sole purpose of relaxing and restoring you from the stresses of everyday life – everything tastes better when you feel good. Speaking to one of Wildhive's founders, Ed Burrows, it's not just about resetting from burnout, but about connecting, too, whether that's a family coming to spend some time together, a couple having a romantic escape or working on that all-important relationship with yourself. As well as 15 stylish rooms in the hall itself, there are two treehouses for families and 11 hives for couples that offer secluded woodland escapes. Think cabins, log burners, copper baths and wine on private balconies. And their package? Well, it definitely works. We left Callow Hall feeling zen, happy and content – ready to take on the intensity of city life with a refreshed outlook and new perspective. It lasted all of 24 hours thanks to the worst hangover ever courtesy of my 28th birthday – but for that, I have no one to blame but myself.
