Esquire UK

Richard Ayoade is a writer and film director, and a Bafta-winning actor. His new book, The Unfinished Harauld Hughes, will be published in October. Stuart McGurk is a freelance writer for The New Statesman, The Guardian, and the Financial Times. Tim Lewis, an Esquire editor-at-large, is a features writer for The Observer and the author of the book Land of Second Chances: The Impossible Rise of Rwanda’s Cycling Team. Aaron Tilley is a photographer and art director specialising in still-life. His clients include Bose, Ford, Google and the V&A, and his work has appeared in Kinfolk magazine, Creative Review, The New York Times and British Vogue. Ellen E Jones is a writer and broad-caster. Her debut book, Screen Deep: How Film and TV Can Solve Racism and Save the World, came out earlier this…

Just got back A friend of mine has a name for those smug globe-trotters who are always keen to let you know that they are only ever in town briefly, having lately returned from somewhere much more glamorous. He calls them the Justgotbacks. Rufus Justgotback was in LA last week. He just got back. His wife Jemima Justgotback has been at a yoga retreat on Hydra. She just got back. They barely have time to repack before heading off to a wedding in Seville. By the time you read this, they’ll have just got back, before a quick turnaround and off to Heathrow again for a weekend’s hiking in the Dolomites. They are, to borrow a phrase from Nora Ephron, your basic nightmare. I’m afraid I’ve been a bit of an Alex…

Just south of Mexico City, on Federal Highway 95D, a white Mercedes minibus is careening down a mountain and towards an infamous bend. “It’s called La Pera because it’s shaped like a pear,” explains Santiago Lastra, award-winning chef and, for the past few days, de facto tour guide, as he grips the headrest in front of him. To the right, the bus passes an off-ramp that comes to an abrupt halt in mid-air. “You go up there if your brakes fail,” Lastra says, cheerfully. The road straightens, and a green valley appears below; within it is Lastra’s hometown, Cuernavaca, a popular getaway from the city, “where”, geo-grapher and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt wrote in 1810, “it is the reign of perpetual spring”. Today, the valley is swathed in a rising…

You may or may not have played your own version of a motorway-driving game called Guess Who’s Driving. Can you accurately profile the driver in front purely from the car brand and model, visible paraphernalia and observable driving habits? It requires a rudimentary understanding of car branding, socioeconomic behaviours and English social stereotypes, so it’s a step-up from I spy. On a good day, though, it can be performed with astonishing accuracy. That black Audi A5 with S-line trim and blacked-out windows that keeps changing lanes without indicating? An easy red herring to get started. Not a drug dealer or a League One footballer, but a harassed dad of two in his early forties, holding on to some hazy memory of youthful rebelliousness. The burgundy mark 3 Mazda MX-5 sitting happily in the…

When Dior’s perfume creation director Francis Kurkdjian is asked what the benefits were of making the new Sauvage Eau Forte scent alcohol-free, he suggests that it would be better to smell the difference than to explain it. He spritzes the latest scent, as well as the famed, highly profitable original, onto two separate fragrance blotters. First: Dior Sauvage. The citrus notes trigger memories of past boyfriends and boy friends who doused themselves in it religiously over the last nine years. But the new addition to the fragrance family is noticeably smoother, packed with spices that settle to reveal a trail of lavender. “The water base brings something that is impossible to create,” he adds. “It brings that lush effect. It’s a feeling. When the alcohol hits your nose, it’s not the same [scent]…

In lockdown, while the rest of us got to grips with 1,000-piece puzzles or sourdough starters, Jamie xx discovered an equally thrilling hobby: a regular routine. The DJ and producer, whose real name is Jamie Smith, woke up, did yoga with his friend who lived upstairs, sat in the garden, then made music until late. Sometimes he’d go for a walk around east London in the evenings. “I’ve been on tour for so much of my life,” the 35-year-old says, “and that chance to stop and reflect on it all really lent itself well to being able to make this record.” That album, In Waves, is due out next month. It’s the second solo effort from Smith, following 2015’s Grammy-nominated In Colour, an eclectic dance record that dipped into electronica and…