The Girl on the Train in Highgate, Claudia Roden in Hampstead Garden Suburb
Our round-up of some superb and stimulating entertainment this week
Features Editor Louisa Walters has been a lifestyle journalist for nearly 40 years with specific interest in food and travel with a Jewish angle. Her social media community The Restaurant Club is a hub for passionate foodies and Louisa has won many awards for her support of the independent restaurant industry.
THEATRE
John Krasinski is one of those is he or isn’t he Jewish actors. He isn’t, but with Polish parents he looks and sounds the part. Perhaps most famous for being married to Emily Blunt, famous for her role in the Devil Wears Prada and then the blockbuster film The Girl on the Train. This is a long-winded way of saying that a new stage production of The Girl on The Train has opened at Upstairs at The Gatehouse in Highgate. The intimacy of a small space adds to the suspense and tension of this cleverly woven tale, which is based on the bestselling novel by Paula Hawkins about commuter Rachel Watson, who longs for a different life. Her only escape from her reality is the perfect couple she watches through the train window every day – happy and in love, or so it seems.
The Girl on the Train is at Upstairs at the Gatehouse until 2 July.
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LITFEST
This weekend (25/26 June) the Proms at St Jude’s LitFest is on in Hampstead Garden Suburb (at Henrietta Barnett School) and there is lots of Jewish conversation taking place on Sunday.
Former BBC North America editor John Sopel will be chatting to Simon Lewis, former director of communications at 10 Downing Street, about his book UnPresidented – Politics, Pandemics and the Race that Trumped all Others, a diary of Donald Trump’s extraordinary 2020 US presidential campaign trail.
Charlotte Mendelson is in conversation with Ham & High features editor Bridget Galton about her new book The Exhibitionist, billed as a dazzling, hilarious, sad and sexy exploration of toxic marital and family dynamics, which explores art, vanity and stifled ambition.
Cookery writer Claudia Roden will tell BBC Food Programme presenter Dan Saladino about her new book, Med – a Cookbook.
What is a literary event without author Howard Jacobson? Not possible and he will chat to broadcast journalist Georgina Goodwin about his book, Mother’s Boy. Tickets for live events are £10; recordings will be available to watch online from 2 July for £5.
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