Summer, our fickle friend – are you going to cooperate with us now? No more depriving us of our fun in the sun, our picnics, our tans, our leisurely strolls through parks and convivial afternoons spent barbequing? Because if not, look at all the other lovely things we have to keep us busy. Like books. Books don’t require that every time we go out, we bring both hot- and cold-weather clothing, both umbrella and......

Diaries out, bibliophiles. Festival season is almost upon us. No, not the festival season that will have you rolling around in mud or throwing your pants at the stage (well, you could throw your pants at the stage, and we’d certainly provide moral support for that endeavour). We’re talking literary festival season – Christmas in July for the book geeks among us. Let’s start with the little guy first. London Lit Plus launched just......

Although the London-centric questions of tomorrow's Ultimate London Pub Quiz are bound to be fun and jolly (after all, the first round is set by members of the Londonist team), film trivia may be more your kind of thing. So, to offer you the fullest of post-work options in London town, we are pleased to tell you that our friends at the You're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat Film Quiz are back at the......

While we're probing your Londonist knowledge and preferences in the reader survey, we're also wanting to test your general London knowledge in a special pub quiz this Thursday. We will be the question setting team for one of the rounds in a jolly knees-up at the Museum of London that sounds like quite a night out. In The Ultimate London Pub Quiz, competition is high and positively encouraged: in traditional pub quiz structure there's......

It’s March already and the daffodils are blooming and we’re feeling all full of the joys of spring. So, of course, we’ll be settling in on the couch to watch some telly. But in a spring-like frame of mind, naturally. On TV, Londonist likes: Monday 3 March Withnail & I (Film4, 21:00-23:05) Enjoy the squalor of 1960s London in this classic film, which is one of our favourites featuring our fair city. Camden’s never......

It's that time of year again. Time for Christmas shopping, panto and end-of-year pub quizzes. Ah, December. In their last film pub quiz spectacular or the year, the You're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat team has pulled out all the stops, and you'd best brush up on your film trivia. If you've not been to one of these amazingly fun nights before, and have an otherwise boring Wednesday night lying in front of you,......

Do you enjoy filling in questionnaires and sipping drinks in pint measures? Are you aware of how British you are? Would you like to go to the pub to do a quiz that won't ask tricky questions about football in the 1960s but instead tax you on how much tax you should pay if you're self-employed and working from home, after deductions but before taking into consideration any savings you may have equal to,......

It might be September, but it’s looking like this week will be summery and gorgeous, which should let us all forget about a dismal August. However, if you don’t fancy nights in a beer garden in the warm weather, here are a few things to check out at home. On TV, Londonist likes: Monday, 10 September Dispatches: The Olympics Cash Machine (Channel 4, 20:00-21:00) Interested in learning how much the Olympics is really going......

London Lights, by James Hamilton Londonist, as you know, can be as erudite as the next person when it suits, and so it has given us great pleasure in the last week to wade through James Hamilton’s splendid new oeuvre, LONDON LIGHTS. This book is a great little number for anyone who is suffering from urban angst, or who has forgotten why they love London so. It perfectly encapsulates one of the most industrious and......

It's summer! Shouldn't you be outside enjoying the sunshine? That is, assuming we actually get any. If you don't fancy making the most of the weather, here are a few choices for a night in. On TV, Londonist likes: Tuesday, 21 August Secret Life of the Motorway (BBC4, 21:00-22:00) What screams "summer holidays" more than being stuck on the motorway on your way to or from somewhere fabulous? You'll be sure to love this......

While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan's cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a......

Londonist doesn't like to blow it's own trumpet, but by golly we throw a darn good pub quiz. No less than 11 teams (comprising 62.5 people) were pitted against each other in a battle of London knowledge that could, frankly, have rivalled Going for Gold. Maybe even the Krypton Factor. Congratulations to the winning team, who went by the less-than-tasteful name 'The Marchioness'. There they are, to the right, waving their arms like gibbons.......

Hey, check me out - I've got my own account for the Londonist blogging software! Look, my name's at the bottom and everything! This level of trust is genuinely almost too much for me to handle. What if I accidentally reveal that the editor's a shoplifter, or I write something that offends all our readers with big, big chins? Also, I'm used to blogging using LiveJournal, a website renowned for angst and misery. So......

Last night Londonist put together another team for You're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat in Highgate. By 11pm we had confirmed two things. 1. We are not as smart as we thought we were, and 2. This is the best pub quiz we've ever been to. You can tell it's a bit special from the intro: This was our second outing and while again we managed to finish respectably enough in the top ten,......

Something which we were unable to post on yesterday (we were at a pub quiz,more of which later) was the arrest of 'two youths' over the shooting last week of two teenage boys in a McDonald's in Brixton: A police spokesman has said that "Both males are currently in custody at separate south London police stations," but the appeal for witnesses is still going out: "The information they provide will be treated confidentially and professionally......

We've always had somewhat of an big girly crush on Simon Pegg. We loved Shaun of the Dead, and we think we've nearly worn out our Spaced DVDs. He makes us so weak at the knees, that when we once saw him at a Charlotte Hatherley gig at ULU, we were starstruck and unable to move, never mind attempt to say hello. So, it's with great excitement that today we read that he's finally......

A while ago we decided we were going to tackle the problem of pub quizzes. Some are great, some are rubbish and some just are never advertised. So, we reviewed the Bedford in Balham and The Railway in West Hampstead and then, promptly forgot about the idea. But today the hankerchiefs can go away, don't fear Pub Quiz Patrol fans, for we are back! Hurrah! And the dubious honour of review number 3 goes......

This day in London’s History Bit of a Royal anniversary, today. The little-celebrated Queen Anne (look, there she is to the right. Isn't she gorgeous?) was born in St James Palace on this day in 1665. The poor lass became pregnant at least 18 times, but never spawned anything that lived beyond childhood. We also celebrate a royal death today. Charles II died of kidney ailments on February 6th 1685, in Whitehall. (It really......

The other day in the Londonist offices we sat down over a cup of tea and a couple of biscuits and realised that we were neglecting an important element of the fabric of the capital: the pub quiz. Everyone loves a pub quiz. It's like an IQ test with booze. So it makes sense that Londonist should start to document some of the finest pub quiz experiences to be had in the city...plus it......