My Top 5 Books of 2017

After my mammoth — but not always enjoyable during the home strait — effort to read 200 books last year, I decided not to strive for any particular total this year. Inevitably, though, as I neared the 150 mark, I did my best to reach this figure, although 'only' managed 148. Here are my five favourites, as well as five more that almost made my shortlist (some of these also featured in my summer reading list).

My Top 5 Movies of 2017

The flip side of all the travel I've been doing this year is that I've had only limited time (and money) to spend on movies. Some of long-haul flights I took did allow me to catch up on films that I wanted to see at the cinema this year, but I only managed 18 cinema visits, and saw a further 18 films (some of which were re-watches) at home or on planes or buses. 

I did my best to see as many of this year's major releases as I could and also caught a few indie films, especially when prompted my free (preview screening) or cheap (Peckhamplex) tickets. Next year, I'm going to try to do better.

1. Moonlight. I went to see Barry Jenkins' remarkable film — which chronicles in a clever triptych structure the youth of a gay, African-American male growing up in the projects in Miami — at New York's iconic Angelika Film Center not quite knowing what to expect. Or, rather, I thought I knew exactly what to expect, but Jenkins confounded my expectations with its beautiful, melancholy and utterly moving coming-of-age tale. 

The performances are powerful, the three distinct sections fit together perfectly and this genre-defying film stayed with me for days. By turns heart-breaking, uplifting, intimate and all-encompassing, Moonlight gripped me throughout its 1h50 running time and left me wanting to spend more time with the central character in Jenkins' harsh but sensual world.


2. Dunkirk. Like Moonlight, Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk is also a story in three parts, but this time they are intricately interwoven and — because this is Nolan — they also take place over different timescales that range from one hour to one week. The central story is the odds-defying evacuation of trapped Allied soldiers during the titular World War II battle. 

Owing in part to the fact that World War II was covered in neither my GCSE history nor A-level (early-modern) history syllabuses, it wasn't a story I knew much about before watching the film, but I think that made Nolan's storytelling even more dramatic. There are some fantastic performances, including from RAF pilot Tom Hardy's sole visible eye, shellshocked soldier Cillian Murphy and especially Mark Rylance who, as usual, steals every scene in the most understated of ways as the skipper of one of the hundreds of civilian boats that were crucial in the rescue operation. 

Visually stunning and with a haunting score from Hans Zimmer, Dunkirk was rather overwhelming and definitely the kind of film you should watch on as big a screen as possible (I saw it at the Gloucester Cinema in Massachusetts, a rather low-tech venue where I also happened to see Jurassic Park, some 24 years earlier).


3. Call Me By Your Name. I had hoped to watch Luca Guadagnino's Italy-based coming-of-age story at the London Film Festival, partly because I was so impressed with Armie Hammer's performances in the two films I saw him in during last year's festival, Free Fire and Nocturnal Animals but I couldn't get a ticket. Instead, I finally caught up last week at a packed screening at the Peckhamplex. 

In the film, 17-year-old Elio (Timothée Chalamet) is spending another summer with his academic parents at their villa in a small northern Italian town. Each summer, Elio's father (Michael Stuhlbarg) hosts a graduate student at the villa as a research assistant and this year, it is the turn of tall, handsome, confident Oliver (Hammer). Over the course of the summer, the friendship between Elio and Oliver grows, as does Elio's own confidence and sense of self, gently encouraged by his cultured, liberal parents. 

Call Me By Your Name is beautifully shot and perfectly captures those lazy dog day afternoons of the southern European summer. It's a slow-burner, for sure, but builds up momentum without you noticing, and by the time it reached its crushing conclusion, I was completely captivated. Both Hammer and Chalamet were very good, and there's a certain monologue during the final act that Stuhlbarg nails.

4. The Death of Stalin. Armando Iannucci's darkest of dark comedies, The Death of Stalin, was just what the world needed in 2017. The film offers a depiction of Stalin's final days and the chaotic aftermath of his death, as his advisors circle, posture, plot and betray. It is a funny film, and there is a cracking script that crackles with energy, as well as some top-notch performances (Isaacs and Buscemi were particularly good) from the ensemble cast, most of whom seem have impeccable comic timing. 

Of course, many of the laughs are more nervous chuckles at the absurdity of what is happening, and at times, you do wonder whether it's even appropriate for you to be laughing (which is precisely the point Iannucci is trying to make, I'm sure).

5. The Handmaiden. Not to be confused with The Handmaid's Tale, Chan-Wook Park's film The Handmaiden is based on a novel by Sarah Waters called Fingersmith, although I only found this out after watching the film. Park's most famous film Oldboy is an all-time favourite of mine and I also enjoyed his English-language film Stoker. Based on these past experiences, I was expecting The Handmaiden to be both twisty and violent and it certainly delivered. 

It's hard to say too much about the plot without spoiling the film, but it centres around two young women in 1930s Japan-occupied Korea. One woman is a wealthy heiress, who is kept in isolation by her uncle on her large estate. The other is hired as her handmaiden, but has other intentions and plans for the heiress too. At almost 2h30 long, The Handmaiden kept me gripped throughout with its clever, unexpected volte-faces, leaving the viewer in a constant state of uncertainty about whom to trust and with whom to sympathise. Park is a master storyteller and this film is well worth seeking out.

NB: I did later read Waters' novel, but enjoyed it somewhat less than the film — perhaps because I knew what was coming.

The complete list of films I watched this year is as follows (re-watches are in italics:

- Silence
- Children of Men (home)
- Sing Street (home)
- Hidden Figures
- Boys Don't Cry (TV)
- Lion
- Hacksaw Ridge
- State of Play (home)
- Jackie
- Hell or Highwater (plane)
- Florence Foster Jenkins (plane)
- Moonlight
- Elle
- Personal Shopper
- Fargo (home)
- The Handmaiden
- My Cousin Rachel
- Olympus Has Fallen (home)
- To the Bone (home)
- Inception (home)
- Loving (plane)
- Fences (plane)
- Dunkirk
- The Circle (home)
- A Ghost Story
- Mother!
- Breathe
- Battle of the Sexes
- Blade Runner 2049
- Baby Driver (plane)
- Hunt for the Wilder People (bus)
- Logan (plane)
- Bad Moms (plane)
- The Big Sick (plane)
- The Death of Stalin
- Call Me By Your Name

A Year in Leaps: 2017

2017 has been my busiest ever year for travel. I spent 84 days outside the UK on 12 foreign trips, some for business but most for pleasure. 30 of these days were spent on a sabbatical in Australia and New Zealand. I visited five new countries and ten countries in total: the Czech Republic (Prague); France (Paris and Cannes); Germany (Cologne); Italy (Padua); Norway (Oslo); Spain (Barcelona); the United States (New York, Boston, Cape Ann and Maine); Singapore; Australia; and New Zealand.

Bex's Food and Drink Awards: 2017 Edition

2017 has been a particularly fine year for coffee, food and cocktails for me, partly because I've travelled to diverse destinations with copious coffee and culinary delights. Remind me not to work on next year's list on an empty stomach: reviewing so many food and drink photos gave me quite the appetite!

The Caffeine Chronicles: Coal Rooms, Peckham (CLOSED)

Update: Coal Rooms is now permanently closed.

You might not want a lump of coal for Christmas but conversely, a lunch at the Coal Rooms (CLOSED) in Peckham is an infinitely more appealing proposition. Peckham's Old Spike Roastery has long been favourites of mine, but because I've been travelling so much this autumn, it's taken me a while to visit their newest sibling, which opened in August. 

Occupying the former ticket office in Peckham Rye station, Coal Rooms consists of a series of three rooms, moving from the bakery and take-out-coffee spot in the first chamber, to the stools at the sleek black marble bar overlooking the kitchen in the middle, and the bright, minimalist dining room at the back.

Some fellow south-east London friends and I visited for brunch at the weekend and really enjoyed it. We booked a table (which is always a pleasant novelty), although as we were there fairly early on a rainy, winter's day, we probably didn't need to. 

We had a great table in the corner of the main dining room, seated at the comfy teal benches that skirt the room. The room is light and sparsely, but attractively, decorated. Although I didn't take any photos, the bathrooms — located in the station's former public facilities and retaining most of the period features — are well worth a visit even if you don't need to spend a penny.

The Saturday brunch menu erred on the breakfast end of the spectrum, which is just as it should be. There were three brunch cocktails and I was tempted by the bloody Caesar but stuck to coffee, as I've been fending off a cold for the past fortnight. 

Coffee is from Old Spike, of course, and the menu simply proposed black (£2.25) or with milk (£2.65). Of course they serve espresso-based drinks but in the absence of a piccolo prompt on the menu and distracted by the food choices, I defaulted to ordering a black coffee, which turned out to be an americano. It was pretty nice but had I thought more carefully, I would have ordered an espresso or perhaps a piccolo. One of my friends ordered a flat white later on, which looked rather good.

Most of the brunch dishes sounded great — the hash brown with kimchi and kimchi mayo, and the bubble and squeak with smalec, fried egg and plum brown sauce, in particular — but I had heard such great things about Coal Rooms' bacon sandwiches (£5), with coffee-cured bacon and homemade ketchup or brown sauce in a custard bun, that I had to go for that. I went for streaky bacon and ketchup, and also ordered a fried egg on the side.

Now, they must have been out of custard buns, although no one said anything to us, because the sandwich came on two ginormous slices of sourdough bread. This was so little of a disappointment — I mean, it was a half-foot-tall sandwich! — that I didn't even notice until later. I would still like to try the custard bun another time, particularly after enjoying the Dutch crunch sandwich at Spike & Earl. The bacon was delicious and flavoursome and came in a very generous portion. 

Seriously, this was a very challenging dish to eat, but well worth the effort. I ended up using my knife and fork because I don't think it's physiologically possible to eat it by hand without unhinging your jaw. This bacon sandwich definitely merits its rankings among London's best bacon sarnies, and although I probably wouldn't have guessed that it was coffee-cured if I hadn't already known, the coffee did add a rich, full-bodied twist to the meat.

We did almost regret not ordering the full English for two (£30), which came served on a huge platter of deliciousness, but our 'modest' main course meant that we had room for a pudding. The pudding was a millionaire's shortbread (£6), with rich chocolate sauce, brown butter caramel, crumbled shortbread and 'waste barista milk ice cream' (yes, we are in Peckham). It came served in a cup with the logo of the premises' former occupants, Fat Boy, and once all the layers were mixed, it tasted heavenly.

On the way out, we paused in the café room to look at the Old Spike coffee (whose packaging remains one of London's most beautiful) and merchandise — the Old Spike socks, packaged in a tin, would make a particularly good gift for the hipster in your life. There are a few pastries and sweet treats on offer here, waiting patiently underneath the Christmas tree.

Coal Rooms. 11a Station Way, Peckham Rye Station, London, SE15 4RX (Peckham Rye Overground). CLOSED

A Winter's Day in Bath

As I mentioned in my recent Bath coffee guide, I've been wanting to return to the city for several years, but the expensive train fares (often over £75, even off-peak) from London — no matter how far in advance I tried to book — have always discouraged me. Finally, though, I secured a £29 day trip ticket and headed off on the Friday before last for a wintry day in the city.

Bath: A Specialty Coffee Tour

Other than school history and Latin trips, my only other visit to the city of Bath was in summer 2002, on a pre-university weekend trip with my then boyfriend. I was working in a sandwich/coffee shop at the time and had begun to get into good coffee, but no memories of Bath's coffee — good or bad — have stood the test of time. Fifteen years later and Bath has become quite the specialty coffee destination.

The Caffeine Chronicles: Over Under Coffee, Soho (CLOSED)

UPDATE (March 2019): This location of Over Under is now permanently closed, although you can still visit them in Earl's Court and Wandsworth.

Since talking to the good folks of Assembly Coffee at the London Coffee Festival in the spring, Over Under Coffee in Earl's Court has been on my coffee to-do list. I knew it would take me some time to find an opportunity to go that far west, so it was fortunate that Over Under opened a second, more central location instead. I've often used Ham Yard as a cut-through between Great Windmill and Denman Streets near Piccadilly Circus, and thanks to Over Under II, I now have an excuse to linger there instead of rushing through.

The Soho Over Under opened a few weeks ago while I was out of the country and it made the perfect pit-stop during my West End Christmas shopping on Saturday. As well as the Ham Yard Hotel, where I've been for a few meetings and events, there are some lovely shops in sleek, understated Ham Yard.  Over Under is on the right-hand side as you amble up from Denman Street.

The coffee shop is small inside, with just a dozen or so seats along a comfortable cushioned bench along one wall, and a couple of tables too cold to sit in on the day I visited. My eye was drawn immediately to the décor: the beautiful, beach prints took me right back to Sydney and Bondi and the Great Barrier Reef, where I was relaxing just over a month ago. I also loved the cheery pops of yellow behind the counter, on the bench and in the yellow cups sitting on top of the sleek Slayer machine.

The food also echoed my recent antipodean trip, with diverse breakfast bowls, toasts and sandwiches on offer. Another time, I'll have to come back to try the avocado toast, simply because I can't resist menu clickbait like "micro coriander". There are plenty of vegetarian, vegan and dairy- and gluten-free choices on the menu. I had already eaten but found room for two mini toffee cakes (£1 a pop), which were sweet and just indulgent enough.

And as for the coffee, it's from Assembly, of course, and tastes fantastic. The new Colombian espresso, which I'd sampled at Lumberjack the week before, wasn't in the hopper, but my piccolo (£2.40) was absolutely beautifully brewed, with a perfect swan floating elegantly on top. It tasted great too, and was complimented well by my toffee-pudding shooters.

With its friendly staff and laid-back, beautiful café, Over Under is relaxing spot for an excellent coffee away from the Soho crowds. I still plan to visit the Earl's Court original...it just might take a while.

Over Under Coffee. 4 Ham Yard Hotel, London, W1D 7DT (Tube: Piccadilly Circus).