Latest news with #Excalibur
Auto Express
2 hours ago
- Automotive
- Auto Express
Best car mats on sale 2025
One of the areas of your car that takes the most abuse is its floor, with driver and passengers climbing in and out, mucky shoes, shuffling feet and shopping bags all contributing to wear and tear. If you don't protect your car's carpets, then before you know it, you may find them stained, scuffed or holed. And on the basis that new carpets are an interior-out job, the cost of replacement can be huge. Advertisement - Article continues below That's why a set of floor mats is a sensible investment, but with a wide choice of aftermarket options available, which is best? Here, we've brought together a mixture of mats – universal and tailored, rubber and fabric – to see which are tougher than the rest and will provide the best protection. In each case, we ordered a set of four mats and looked at the overall quality and finish. With fabric ones, we looked at the depth of the pile and thickness of the stitching, while with rubber mats we were more concerned with the thickness and weight of the rubber. We also looked at how easy the mats were to install, and how much each set would cost. We also then conducted a safety test with each set of mats, which included a 15-minute test drive to check for movement, and shuffled our feet to see if the mat moved. Below we rank the best cars mats currently on sale... Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below View Puma ST View Puma View Tucson Quality was very much a key consideration in these tests and the Excalibur mats thoroughly impressed us. They feel very sturdy and have a wipe-clean rubber surface, but also have a carpeted heel pad for extra durability and more control if you have wet shoes. They didn't move around in our driving and foot-shuffling tests, while grooves in the upper surfaces of the mats work as guides, should you need to trim them to fit your car. Price: around £20 around £20 Fitting: Universal Universal Rating: 4.5 stars 4.5 stars Contact: Advertisement - Article continues below At £20, this set of heavy-duty rubber mats is great value. They are weighty and have a textured underside to stop them slipping around in the footwell, while guides on the upper surface make them easy to trim to fit your car. They feel extremely durable and are also nice and easy to keep clean, although the bare rubber top surface isn't as luxurious as some of the plusher carpet mat sets here. Buy now from Halfords Price: around £20 around £20 Fitting: Tailored Tailored Rating: 4.5 stars 4.5 stars Contact: DB Bespoke offers mats for cars going right back to the early nineties. We bought a set that had to be made to order, to test their customer service, and we received them within 72 hours. The mats come with a fitting kit so you can pin them in place in the driver's footwell, preventing any undue movement. The carpet fabric feels a little lightweight, but the mats look great and fit perfectly. Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below Buy now from Amazon Carsio says it can produce tailored rubber mats for most makes and models of car, so we put them to the test by ordering a set for a 30-year-old Alfa Romeo. They came up trumps, but it did take almost two weeks for the mats to arrive. Made from a flexible rubber, the mats drop into the footwell. There are also retaining pins if you wish to use them. They passed our safety tests with flying colours, with no movement. Price: around £16 around £16 Fitting: Universal Universal Rating: 3.5 stars 3.5 stars Contact: Advertisement - Article continues below This set of universal carpet mats from Halfords is available with a range of stitching options – as well as black, you can have red, white, blue, green or even pink. The mats feel fairly well made and are a simple, drop-in universal design, but we did find they moved around quite a bit in our foot-shuffling test, so would need to be adjusted regularly. But the quality felt the best of the carpeted mats on test. Buy now from Halfords Price: around £20 around £20 Fitting: Universal Universal Rating: 3 stars 3 stars Contact: This universal set of mats from looks smart and arrives in compact packaging. You need to unfurl them and let them flatten out before installing, though. We found this universal set wasn't ideal, because the fabric mats are light and prone to moving around the footwell quite a bit once in-situ. The company also does tailored mats, and we expect these would be a better option. Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below Buy now from Amazon Price: around £13 around £13 Fitting: Universal Universal Rating: 3 stars 3 stars Contact: There is a wide range of car mats on Temu, with some rather outlandish designs. We opted for one of the most sensible sets – a four-piece rubber kit that can be trimmed to fit. If you just want a set of budget mats, they'll do the job, but we found the rubber finish was quite hard and that the rubber had a very strong smell, which will hopefully dissipate with time. The mats feel sturdy though and don't move around in use. Price: around £12 around £12 Fitting: Universal Universal Rating: 2 stars 2 stars Contact: Retail-park chain B&M has a range of RAC-branded car accessories and tools, and some of them have impressed us in the past. But not this set of car mats. Not only does the quality feel cheap, with the heel pad in particular feeling thin, but when tested in use, they also moved around in the footwell to the extent that when we got to the end of our drive, they'd turned through almost 90 degrees. Simply Brands Excalibur Mats Halfords Rubber Car Mats DB Bespoke Tailored Mats If you want a high-quality, no-nonsense set of car mats, then the Simply Brands Excalibur ones are hard to beat – they feel well made and are heavy, which means they stay in place. The Halfords rubber mats are also good, but lack the carpeted heel pad and weightiness of the Simply set. The DB mats were our favourite tailored option. They're smart, look good, and fitted the footwell of our test vehicle perfectly. Want the latest car news in your inbox? Sign up to the free Auto Express email newsletter... Toyota GR Corolla hot hatch is on the way to the UK Toyota GR Corolla hot hatch is on the way to the UK The success of the GR Yaris has persuaded Toyota that there's room in its UK range for the high performance Corolla Citroen recall sees owners told to stop driving 'immediately' Citroen recall sees owners told to stop driving 'immediately' A 'Stop-drive' order has been issued by Citroen following a fatality that may have been caused by a faulty Takata airbag Car Deal of the Day: a potent 335bhp Volkswagen ID.7 GTX for a rock bottom price Car Deal of the Day: a potent 335bhp Volkswagen ID.7 GTX for a rock bottom price GTX Plus gives some extra punch to an already excellent electric saloon. It's our Deal of the Day for 20 June.
Los Angeles Times
02-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
New photo book by Metallica's Kirk Hammett highlights his ‘holy grail' of rare six-strings
For Metallica's Kirk Hammett, there is one electric guitar that stands above the rest in his arsenal for the metal band's ongoing M72 world tour. He thinks of it as his Excalibur, he says. It is a 1959 Gibson Les Paul once owned by the late Peter Green, founding guitarist of Fleetwood Mac, and a former member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. It later passed from Green to Gary Moore, who played it on Hammett's favorite Thin Lizzy album, 'Black Rose.' The golden instrument is now part of Hammett's vast collection of vintage and custom-made guitars, and even in that company, the guitar nicknamed 'Greeny' is special. The Metallica lead guitarist is often on YouTube searching for old videos of Green, Moore and others playing it live across the decades. 'That guitar's been through so much, and it's hurt so much and sang so much,' Hammett says. 'I just gotta try and keep it going in my own personal way.' The guitar now has a prominent place in a new book dedicated to the Metallica guitarist's stockpile of instruments, 'The Collection: Kirk Hammett,' a 400-page coffee-table book from Gibson Publishing. It includes interviews with the heavy metal player, histories of the guitars, with vivid photography by Ross Halfin. The book isn't a catalog of his entire collection, but goes deep on individual instruments. (The chapter devoted to 'Greeny' is 40 pages alone.) Hammett says he doesn't know how many guitars he owns, and he doesn't really want to know. Now on the road with Metallica in support of their '72 Seasons' album, Hammett plays several guitars a night, but his attention often remains on 'Greeny.' It's the one guitar he carries with him everywhere— to and from the shows, to the hotel room, onto the band's plane. 'I carry it with me, so I'm directly responsible for anything that happens to it,' he says. 'Where I'm sleeping, 'Greeny' is usually 10 feet away.' He's also made a point of handing the guitar to other players to try out. In the book are several portraits of guitar heroes posing with Greeny: Pete Townshend of the Who, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd and ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons. Green's former bandmate, drummer Mick Fleetwood, is also pictured cradling the guitar. So is Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler. All were part of a 2020 tribute to the late Fleetwood Mac co-founder at the London Palladium, and during that night Hammett played the solo on Green's 'The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown),' unfurling an elegant flow of blues melody very different from Metallica's angular roar. Afterward, Fleetwood stood up and yelled, 'Nailed it!' Hammett once handed the guitar to Jack White, who then played it for several songs during a concert. Melvins guitarist Buzz Osborne has also held it, and said in a podcast last year, 'There's so many other stupid things you could spend your money on, but that ... is almost like finding the Holy Grail or the Arc of the Covenant.' The new book is available on the Metallica website, at and at stops on Hammett's book tour, with upcoming appearances in Columbus, Ohio; Philadelphia; Tampa, Fla.; and Denver. It's part of another busy period for his band, with a remastered box set of 1996's 'Load' album coming in June. Metallica is also set to join Black Sabbath for its final concert on July 5 in Birmingham, England. In the book, one thing that is noticeable pretty quickly is that these are not museum pieces protected behind glass. They show the wear and tear of use in the studio and onstage, in many cases from generations of different players. Many are scuffed and scratched, chipped and stained. For Hammett, that's how it should be. 'I can't help but use them. I know people have to put on white gloves while you're handling a [collectible] guitar: 'Take off your belt, take off your leather jacket, no zippers.' I'm like, 'Huh?'' Hammett says, laughing. 'Literally, I take that guitar out of the case, I plug it in, I start playing it. I'm not precious with my guitars,' he adds, noting that an accidental nick to the surface of a pristine vintage instrument could instantly cost it thousands of dollars in value. 'I have some serious issues with that kind of thinking. I just want to play the guitars, and if there's a scratch or a bump, so what? I don't go in for mint instruments because mint instruments don't sound good. They have no soul, bro.' Hammett was approached about doing a book by the Gibson guitar company, which had begun a publishing project, starting with a volume documenting the guitars of Slash. The author of the text for both books is Chris Vinnicombe, editor in chief at Gibson. For 'Greeny' and other guitars, Hammett 'sees himself as the custodian' of these rare instruments, he says. 'He loves the rarity and the romance behind them,' says Vinnicombe. 'I don't think he's just trying to compile a kind of box-ticking collection of vintage classics just as an ownership project. He loves the chase and he loves the romance and the stories.' Hammett had already published a book from his collection of horror movie posters, 2017's 'It's Alive.' His devotion to collecting horror and sci-fi memorabilia and movie props is second only to guitars, and those interests sometimes overlap. He has several custom-made ESP guitars with horror themes, including the classic 1930s films 'Bride of Frankenstein,' 'The Mummy' and 'White Zombie.' And now that he's just purchased a Bela Lugosi cape used in 1948's 'Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein,' he's planning on a guitar with that theme as well. Next will be a book of his vintage surfboard collection, he predicts. One of those boards dates back to 1970, and is decorated with drawings of ocean waves and flying saucers. Hammett was told it was made for Jimi Hendrix while the guitar icon was in Maui, though he can't confirm it. 'It's still a cool story anyway,' he says with a laugh. In 'The Collection,' the metal guitarist goes deep into the history and sound of individual guitars. Sometimes the look of a guitar is as essential as the sound. 'The first time I saw an electric guitar as a teenager, it was love at first sight. I saw it from across the high school hallway,' Hammett recalls of his first in-person sighting of a guitar at about age 14. Some of the older kids at De Anza High School in Richmond, Calif., were holding a Fender Stratocaster, glowing with an orange sunburst design. 'It looked like a hot rod to me. It looked like a rocket. It looked like you could get on it and just take off somewhere else. 'Guitars for me have always had a really uplifting quality to them just by the way they look. For me, guitars look so incredibly cool. Everything about the guitars — the wood, the shiny metal, the strings, the sound — I love it. For me, it's the greatest American invention there ever was.' He grew up in a Bay Area household where the soundtrack tended to be a mix of jazz and opera, salsa and show tunes. His older brother sometimes brought home a record by the Beatles or Hendrix. And Hammett was soon playing air guitar with his brother's tennis racket. Hammett finally got his first electric guitar, a low-budget Montgomery Ward model he traded in exchange for $10 and a Kiss album. He was inspired by the rock music of his adolescence: Kiss, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin and UFO. 'That's what was fueling all of it,' he says, 'and a total dysfunctional childhood, and not knowing where to turn, not having any safe places to go, especially in San Francisco growing up. Music was an emotional, mental relief from all the crap that was going on around me as a kid.' In high school, he started a rock trio called Mesh, but Hammett and his friends could barely play. 'Some of the funniest stories you ever hear are musicians when they first started out and how crappy they are and how bad their band names are,' he says with a laugh. As his skills evolved, he formed a new band called Exodus, which would ultimately be an important player in the first wave of thrash metal in San Francisco. He eventually moved up to a Fender Stratocaster copy guitar. And as things got more serious, he saved money from his job at Burger King to buy a Gibson Flying V in 1979, a choice of weapon inspired by the example of guitarist Michael Schenker of UFO. The Scorpions and Accept also carried Flying V's. Paul Stanley from Kiss played one. 'That was a game changer for me,' he says now of getting his first significant guitar, and the model remains important to him. He's shown holding a Flying V on the front and back covers of his new book. Hammett joined Metallica in 1983, just before the band recorded its debut album, 'Kill 'Em All.' In hindsight, that was a wise and obvious career move, but at the time Exodus was as much of a viable young band with a following in the Bay Area. Even so, Exodus was at an impasse when Hammett got an unexpected call from Metallica. He packed up and drove east in time for the recording sessions in Rochester, N.Y. 'I can't remember why we went on hiatus, but during that hiatus a kind of split happened,' Hammett recalls of his final days with Exodus. 'I don't know how else to put it, but we started doing different drugs. All of a sudden, I felt alienated from the rest of the guys.' He points out that last month marked the 42nd anniversary of his first rehearsals as a member of Metallica. 'When I first saw Metallica, I thought to myself, 'Wow, these guys are great, but they'd be so much better with me in the band,'' Hammett says of his first time seeing the band. 'That was a very conscious thought while I was sitting in the back of the room watching them.' Together, Metallica led a thrash metal movement that began as an underground sensation but turned out to be more lasting than a lot of the more commercial metal then coming off the Sunset Strip. Decades later, and now one of the most successful rock bands ever, Metallica celebrated that revolutionary history with a series of 'Big 4' festivals in 2010 and 2011, as one of four leading forces in that original movement, alongside Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax. In 'The Collection' is a group portrait of Hammett and Metallica frontman James Hetfield posing with other guitarists from that tour: Slayer's Kerry King, Megadeth's Dave Mustaine and Anthrax's Scott Ian. 'We all heard the same sound in our heads. All us guitar players gravitated to those same new wave of British heavy metal bands — gravitated to that hyper-aggressive, energetic sound, because that's what our personalities kind of demanded,' Hammett explains of their shared movement, which collided the dual influences of U.K. heavy metal and punk rock. 'You have to be a little bit ornery, a little bit passive-aggressive, a little bit dysfunctional, a little predatory, to write and record and perform this music. So it was a lot of the right personality types and the right personality disorders, when it was needed.' In 2023, Metallica released '72 Seasons,' the third in a trilogy of albums that reached back to a modern take on that original sound. As they play the new songs in stadiums around the world, alongside career milestones like 'Enter Sandman' and 'Master of Puppets,' Hammett has many guitars at his disposal. And 'Greeny' is always there. 'None of us thought this would be the sound of the future for decades to come,' he says of the thrash movement. 'We thought we were all just outliers, having our little group of friends playing the music that we wanted to play and doing it because it was fun. We had no idea what it would become.'
Irish Daily Mirror
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
Helen Mirren issues four-word verdict on romance with Liam Neeson
Hollywood legend Helen Mirren, 77, has candidly reflected on her bygone romance with cinema heavyweight Liam Neeson, 70. The duo, who shared a four-year love story over three decades ago, have since acknowledged that their relationship was "not meant to be" even though Mirren fondly recalls Neeson as "amazing". While discussing her unique habit of crafting custom shirts for her beaus, Helen confessed: "I did make one for Liam, oddly enough. We loved each other. We were not meant to be together in that way, but we loved each other very, very much. "I love him deeply to this day. He's such an amazing guy," the distinguished actress divulged in a heartfelt chat with AARP The Magazine. The ex-lovers have openly spoken about their lasting connection, which was evident during a heartwarming get-together on The Graham Norton Show. Their 2018 appearance on the program saw them joyfully reflecting on their former flame. When the show's host, Graham, 59, inquired about their past liaison, Mirren didn't shy away from expressing how "lucky" she felt to have been involved with the Academy Award-nominated star, reports the Express. She gushed: "We didn't date, we lived together for four years. We were a serious item for a while. Lucky me!". Liam added his own charming anecdote: "Before I met her and we worked together I had read somewhere that if she fancied a guy she would imitate his walk behind his back and I turned around one day and she was doing that to me." The star of Taken opened up about being utterly enchanted by Helen Mirren from the moment they met on the set of the 1981 flick Excalibur. Liam nostalgically shared: "I remember being on the set and standing with Ciaran Hinds as Helen walked towards us dressed in her full Morgana Le Fey costume and we both went, 'Oh f**k' and I was smitten. I think Ciaran was too but I was very smitten!". Which prompted an entertaining comeback from Helen: "I never knew that. You've never told me that before, it's amazing." Yet fate had its own agenda for Helen, who ended up marrying American filmmaker Taylor Hackford in 1997. The two encountered each other shortly after Helen's breakthrough performance in The Long Good Friday, culminating in an audition with Hackford for his movie White Nights. The acclaimed actress, an Oscar winner for her role in The Queen, once amusingly pondered how playing this character may have influenced her nuptials. At the 2015 Gotham Awards where she received a lifetime achievement recognition, Helen captured everyone's attention with her speech. With her wit, she remarked: "I have to tell you a story about f------ the queen." During the Venice Film Festival showing of The Queen, Helen recounted: "When The Queen was first screened at Venice, I'd never seen it before, and neither had my husband Taylor. "In the first scene, I'm in full regalia, and I turn and look at the camera and there's silence in the cinema. And my husband lets out this huge laugh. So I lean over to him and say, 'Darling, do you think you'll ever f--k me again?'".
The Irish Sun
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
EastEnders' Adam Woodyatt pulls the plug on failed booze brand with ex wife amid mounting debts
EASTENDERS star Adam Woodyatt has pulled the plug on the failed booze brand he launched with his ex-wife. Adam, 56, set up Neat Distillery Ltd in August 2017 and introduced a range of trendy gins. Advertisement 4 Adam Woodyatt has pulled the plug on his failed booze brand Credit: Getty But just a couple of years later, production stopped and the brand's website was taken offline in a bid to cut costs. Now, official documents have been submitted to Companies House confirming that Adam and his former partner Beverley are applying to have the company struck off the register. The brand's digital presence has long been dormant - the website is no longer active, and its Facebook and Twitter accounts haven't been updated since 2019. Neat Distillery Ltd's last set of accounts revealed it was running a £13,000 deficit. Advertisement read more on Adam Woodyatt Adam and Beverley had joint control of the business, even while navigating what was described as a 'toxic split'. It was reported that he initially refused to offer her a fair settlement, although they eventually reached an amicable agreement. He had spent months perfecting the gin recipe, with a source saying at the time: 'This is something Adam really passionate about. 'He is planning to sell it online, along with merchandise he has lined up with the branding and recipes." Advertisement Most read in Soaps In a past interview, Adam also revealed: 'I had quite a diverse list of outlets and distribution from entertainment, bars, fine dining to music clubs,' naming chef Adam took a break from EastEnders in 2020 but returned in August 2023. EastEnders legend Michelle Collins opens up on fiery on set rows with Adam Woodyatt He has reportedly made big money for his TV gigs, including roughly £500,000 for his 2021 appearance on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here. The actor also earns a reported £250,000 per year for his EastEnders gig. Advertisement Adam, who officially divorced his wife Beverly in 2022 after 22 years of marriage put £245,763 into a new firm shortly after they first split in 2020. He had earned the cash through acting gigs and funnelled it into his company Caledfwlch — which is Welsh for King Arthur's sword Excalibur. He set it up ahead of his This week, Adam was spotted looking loved up with a mystery woman after hitting the gym in London. Advertisement He shared a kiss with the red-haired woman after a sweaty workout before driving off together. He played a major role in the BBC soap's 40th anniversary episodes when his wife Cindy's Christmas Day attacker was revealed. The Sun has contacted Adam's representatives for comment. Advertisement 4 He ran the company with his former partner Beverley Credit: Instagram 4 They set up Neat Distillery Ltd in August 2017 and introduced a range of trendy gins Credit: Instagram 4 Adam took a break from EastEnders in 2020 but returned in August 2023 Credit: BBC
Irish Post
30-05-2025
- Irish Post
Tall stories and tall ships in delightfully offbeat Cornwall
THE thing about Cornwall is its offbeat options. It doesn't take long to find secluded beaches, hidden coves and remote cliffs. Legends too — and from the very top drawer of mythology. Dozmary Pool on Bodmin Moor is the home of Excalibur – although one has to qualify the word legend here. The Bodmin story is all about magical powers being transferred to King Arthur. Legend has now been downgraded to unexpectedly arriving at the office with custard doughnuts for everybody. But laidback Cornwall is happy enough with that. Tall stories and tall ships form a wonderful alchemy, along with history, geological happenstance, popular culture, and cuisine. They seem to have thought of everything. And that includes the ancient port of Falmouth. Most British towns today come with a motto: 'York; so good they named it once', type of thing. Falmouth's kicker is: 'The spirit of the sea'. Although succinct and accurate, it's not the whole story. There's a boho buzz going on here too, and a burgeoning culinary scene. Falmouth in Cornwall has been at the centre of maritime affairs for centuries The sea, of course, is an ever-present backdrop — the town has been at the centre of maritime affairs since navigation began. Its deep natural harbour made it strategically important, particularly from the 17th century onwards. The town grew rapidly after the construction of Pendennis Castle by Henry VIII in the 1540s, which defended the estuary. By the 1680s, Falmouth had become a key packet station handling mail ships between Britain and its empire. The town flourished during the Napoleonic Wars — which helped reshape not just Falmouth, but the whole of Europe, toppling monarchies, and spurring nationalism. And in an 1805 newsfeed, the latest goings-on at Trafalgar arrived via the schooner Pickle. The good news? 'England won'. The bad? 'Nelson's as dead as the proverbial dodo'. You can visit the precise spot where this news was imparted. Pendennis Castle in Falmouth Ship happens, if you get my drift CHARLES Darwin's boat HMS Beagle docked here on the Fal River. Before landing at Falmouth, Darwin spent five years on board, puzzling over wildlife and fossils. The theory of natural selection was on its way. Darwin got paid just £180 for the publication of On The Origin of Species, but was lucky enough. A respected editor read it and urged Darwin to write a book about pigeons instead. 'Everyone is interested in pigeons,' he observed helpfully. Editors, eh? Our voyage round the harbour was on board Jonik, a 1930s motor cruiser with just room for eight passengers; a ticket for the boat also gets you inside the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. Eclectic is way too small a word for this place. Tucked away in Cornwall's charming harbour town, the museum is a delight for landlubbers and sea dogs alike. With boats hanging from the rafters — there's even a periscope poking above the roof — it's part museum, part nautical playground. Kids can hoist sails or climb aboard rescue craft, grown-ups can daydream about owning a yacht, and everyone learns something without even realising it. From voyages of exploration to tales to Cornish smugglers, it's a journey through seafaring history that doesn't take itself too seriously. Spanning five floors and housing 15 galleries, the museum also has its Tidal Zone for underwater views of the harbour and a 100-foot Look Out Tower for panoramic views of the harbour. The museum is currently hosting an exhibition on surfing. SURF! exhibition explores the history and cultural impact of surfing in Cornwall From vintage wave-chasers to modern-day surf heroes, an epic new exhibition SURF! surveys the last 100 years of the sport in Cornwall. Set against the backdrop of 422 miles of Atlantic-washed coastline, this, ahem, immersive journey uncovers how surfing shaped the region – and how Cornwall shaped global surf culture in return. From the 1920s pioneers paddling out on wooden bellyboards, to today's world-class athletes carving clean lines at Fistral, SURF! has the complete lowdown. Of course, you don't need a museum to appreciate matters nautical in Falmouth. Any stroll through the town will give you glimpses of the water through the opes – passageways with stone steps between buildings leading down to the water's edge. You'll see just about every type of craft here – yawls, ketches, sloops, gigs, pleasure cruises and working boats dredging for wild Fal oysters. This year sailing week is from Friday, August 8th - Sunday, August 17th. All manner of nautical matters will be taking place both on the water and the quayside, as well as a carnival on Saturday, August 9th. We wandered through the town on a spring day. The streets had a jaunty seaside air, with Falmouth's trademark fluttering bunting and a few murmurations of tourists here and there. Star quality shelter OUR destination and shelter for two days was the Star and Garter, a gastropub within a historic town house on Falmouth's high street. Outside, it looks like a classic smuggler's inn; inside are a handful of beautifully appointed apartments looking out across the Fal River. Here, I said to myself, is a place I'd like to relax in once in a while, maybe three or four times a week. There's a seriously good restaurant at the back of the ground-floor pub. The predictable nautical décor route of bits of boats everywhere has been eschewed in favour of leathery chairs, dark wood, candlelight, and mesmerising views across the harbour. If you have the great good fortune to be staying there, you only have to stumble up the stairs, after a memorably good dinner and cocktails, to your quarters – either the first-floor Starboard rooms, the second-floor Penthouse or the Crow's Nest in the attic. All have a kitchen, sofas and armchairs, views of the harbour and binoculars. There are also flat-screen tellies — I'm not sure if another type of television is available these days. But I suppose if you wanted one of those old televisions — huge box affairs with buttons saying odd things like 'vertical hold', the staff here are so helpful they'd probably see if they could get you one. The Star and Garter is a microcosm of Falmouth itself. It's a great place for dining, drinking, gazing at the sea, being happy. We'd go there as soon as possible, if we were you. Travel details Star and Garter, 52 High Street, Falmouth Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 3QY For booking Jonik: Further information: See More: Cornwall, Travel
