Leon Chocolate Boots from Folk

No, it’s not a Hitman you can eat but a fantastically comfy pair of Autumn lace up suede and leather boots. Easy to get on and off, no biting around the ankle or lower shin, these feel like total luxury. The sheepskin lining allows you to keep wearing thinner socks so your feet don’t smell and feel like you’ve been hiking when you pull them off. Having said that we’ve hardly taken them off since we’ve bought them. Available in store at Folk Lambs Conduit St, London and online here.

The Selfish Giant

Two young teenagers go on a scrap metal collecting binge after being excluded from school in Bradford. Who wouldn’t? There’s cash, there’s a horse and cart, and there’s no-one telling you what to do. But there’s also a junkie brother, an axe in your mum’s front door and a dad selling his furniture from under his kids. It’s a million miles from the brand obsessed teens who hang around in Westfield shopping centre, and shows a life no-one really  wants to admit exists: kids with holes in their shoes, early morning traveller road races and gardens with gate posts and no fence. It’s a fantastic film played out over wasteland, railway tracks, rain sodden West Yorkshire roads and under beds. Directed by Clio Barnard who made the stunning The Arbor about teenage playwright Andrea Dunbar, this feels like the child of Rita, Sue and Bob Too.  Watch the trailer here.

More…

Favourite footwear XI
3 Ace Winter Coats From MA.Strum
5 Winter Bashing Jumpers From GANT

Elka Klitmoller Orange Jacket and St. James Cancale II Navy Sweater both from Content, Lambs Conduit Street

 

When you’ve been caught in the first freezing downpour of the season in a lightweight summer jacket and ended up over-run by a bug you’ve every right to go out and buy boots (above), a jumper that keeps you feeling warm and together with a lightweight but properly waterproof raincoat from Scandinavia, ‘”it’s windproof” according to the shopkeeper. The jumper is from St. James Normandy, a company which has been a specialist in producing the best jumpers for 150 years. As for what goes on top, it’s too early for coats that keep you warm at dawn but then prove hot and cumbersome when autumn afternoons decide to have a summer flashback. Of the various colours we had to go for RNLI orange. You’ll stand out in the blacks, greys and browns of the increasingly sodden rush hour. Here’s where to get the jacket, and if you fancy the jumper too, it’s available here.

Deep Sea And Foreign Going by Rose George

A fascinating read for anyone who’s ever watched a container ship sail by and wonder what is in it and where the hell it’s going. Rose sets off on a Scandinavian shipping vessel from the UK heading for the far easy via Le Havre, The Med, The Suez, through pirate waters and beyond. Along the way she tells the stories of the crews and industry that delivers pretty much everything we buy. Some startling facts - cheaper to send Scottish fish to China to be filleted than do it in Scotland - some great old sea anecdotes and a genuine insight into a world we can’t do without but probably never take the time of day to think about. Available to purchase below.