Londoner’s Diary
Model, actor and activist Adwoa Aboah has added another string to her bow and started a luxury handbag brand, The Veil. She and co-founder Georgie Wright gathered pals including model Edie Campbell for a dinner to toast the debut collection at the Broadwick Soho hotel.
When art historian Katy Hessel had her last book launch in 2022, the evening was somewhat overshadowed by the news that the Queen had died. At the launch of her latest tome, How to Live an Artful Life, Hessel remarked, “There does seem to be some correlation with my book releases and royal exits.” Last time a Queen, this time a prince. Perhaps book three will usher in a republic. Model Laura Bailey, writers Yomi Adegoke and Emma Dabiri, and actors Russell Tovey and Omari Douglas were among guests at the National Portrait Gallery.
Elsewhere in artland, The Streets frontman Mike Skinner, model Yasmin Finney, and artist and Daniel Lismore were at the Saatchi Gallery for its 40th anniversary exhibition, The Long Now. Over the weekend there was a meeting of two great bakeries: Toklas in central London welcomed Mexico City’s Panaderia Rosetta for a pop-up to celebrate Day of the Dead. To kick things off, model Gabbriette hosted a party complete with Pan de Muerto (“bread of the dead” — more delicious than it sounds) and a cocktail she created with Don Julio.
The Baillie Gifford non-fiction prize went to Australian writer Helen Garner for How to End a Story. Garner was watching the ceremony via a Zoom link from Melbourne and seemed shocked to have won. “I wasn’t even hoping for a prize because it’s a diary. In a sense, I never really expected anyone else to read it,” she said.
It was all much smoother than last year, when winner Richard Flanagan refused the £50,000 prize because of Baillie Gifford’s ties to fossil fuels. But if not for BG’s magnanimous sponsorship, cautioned judge Robbie Millen, “this prize would probably be held at Wetherspoons — the horror!” Instead, it was in the illustrious ballroom of the British Medical Association.
Over at Theatre Royal Haymarket, Aidan Turner went to the opening night of a new Othello production which stars his wife Caitlin FitzGerald.
