Welcome to our gifting issue. Read on and all of your most challenging Christmas gifting dilemmas will disappear in a puff of smoke. Our editors have chosen the cleverest presents for everyone in your life — plus the chicest taste makers, from Zac Posen to Mert Alas, have picked all the gifts they’d like to receive themselves. It’s quite the bonanza.
In this issue we also publish the shortlist for the 2025 Standard Theatre Awards. Founded in 1955, they are the oldest drama awards in the UK and have celebrated the finest actors, directors and writers across eight decades. Turn to page 20 to see who truly lit up the London stage this year, from Tom Hiddleston in Much Ado at Drury Lane to Cate Blanchett in The Seagull at the Barbican.
Elsewhere, don’t miss Ed West, one of my favourite writers, on page 22 on why he fears Gen Z, or Melanie McDonagh’s books of the year on page 42. Turn to page 60 for our business editor Jonathan Prynn’s take on Rachel Reeves’s Budget. (Spoiler: London’s the cash cow yet again.)
Plus, should we be building more data centres in space? Read Chris Stokel-Walker’s fascinating piece in Brave New World on page 45 and make up your own mind. I hope you enjoy the issue.
And as always, online and in print, we have so much more. Let me know what you think @annavanpraagh
The London Standard can be picked up for free across the city and is now available to buy for £2 in all large Tesco and Waitrose stores in the South-East.
