We used to be bemused by the Booker, until we realised that the prize had nothing to do with the merits of fiction and everything to do with giving us something to argue about that didn’t involve referees or politicians. So in a spirit of gratitude we went to check out The Booker 40 at the V&A – lured by the irresistible combination of elegantly designed books, and the hope of a sneaky peek......

Fashion v Sport kicks off this week's cultural contributions, opening today at the V&A. Don your favourite shellsuit and examine the unique relationship between fashion and sport (is the missing link money?). Theatrically speaking, there's masses of exciting new stuff to choose from this week. Risk a dramatic shower tomorrow as Timon of Athens opens at the Globe, and the lovely Topol starts crooning his way through Gigi in Regent's Park. If you'd rather......

Love London as we do, we know that some of this city's tourist "attractions" don't exactly represent value for money. According to a survey by the Sunday Telegraph, London's fee-paying attractions are among the most expensive in the world. The newspaper compared the cost of visiting nine popular attractions in London and ten other cities across the world, and found that a sight-seeing trip here would trouble the family wallet by the sum of......

What do an ex-Python, Martha Stewart, and a woman in the running for first female poet laureate all have in common? Come on now, use your deductive reasoning skills. They all somehow feature in this week’s Book Grocer, of course! Monday: Novelist David Benioff has a few recognisable names on his CV – he’s both collaborated with Spike Lee and written the screenplay for The Kite Runner. Tonight Benioff is at Foyles to discuss......

Yikes, summer's here, and London's gone festival mad. We can hardly keep up… We're sorry we've only just got round to telling you about this year's Lift Festival, which started last week in Stratford, then moves to the Southbank Centre next Thursday, and on to Shoreditch from 16-24 August. Previously the London International Festival of Theatre, Lift has been bringing innovative world theatre to London for 25 years, usually in the last place you......

Happy Bloomsday, friends. If on this, the 104th anniversary of Leopold Bloom’s epic wanderings around Dublin, our column is even less coherent than usual, don’t blame us and our second-rate attempts to mimic the master. On the other hand, maybe you should. Do we contradict ourselves? Very well then, we contradict ourselves. Come, mess. Bloomsday: Alright, so perhaps you have no idea what we’re babbling on about because (GASP!) you’ve cracked the cover of......

The decor of hotels can be something of a mixed bag: It can be very elegant, it can be very tacky, and it generally has a store-bought look to it. But the generically named Guest Hotels group has found a way to dispense with all of these generalizations. Starting this summer, the five hotels will become galleries for contemporary artwork for guests to enjoy. Having recruited staff from the ICA and Design Museum to......

T.S. Eliot wrote that “April is the cruelest month,” but we're officially endorsing Birthday Boy Bard’s more optimistic quote instead: “April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.” Feel young and sprightly in the warmer weather as you sample the Shakespeare-themed week ahead in honor of his “official” 444th birthday (his actual date of birth remains a mystery). Monday: And wilt thou be the school where Lust shall learn? One of London’s best......

Here at Londonist, we aren't too shy to admit our love for sweets. But that love apparently doesn't hold a candle to the dedication of food artist Prudence Emma Staite. To celebrate the return of blue Smarties, Staite has re-imagined famous works of art with Smarties as her chosen medium. The collection, including Warhol's Marilyn Monroe, Seurat's Bathers, and Banksy's Chalk Farm Maid, is currently on display at the V&A Museum of Childhood in......

Rain, rain, go away…flirtatious spring-like temperatures and halcyon moments of direct sunlight belie this week’s forecast for April showers. At least that leaves plenty of time to soak up indoor activities on the cheap before we jet our wellies and get on with the picnic season. Monday: One of our favourite tucked-away speakeasy-esque bars is holding a book club tonight with the theme Dark Heroes. This ain’t no run-of-the-mill Richard & Judy-style book club:......

Three weeks into the New Year, probably one week until payday and telly's rubbish (except for new CSI), the weather's grey and the detox is wearing thin. Don't give in to those January blues! Here's what can get you out of the house for not a lot of wonga this week. Monday: This is the most depressing day of the year. We've said it before but we're going to say it again because we......