Willy Wonka

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Shaun Usher: “I became obsessed with the concept of letter-writing and how it was dying out.” Photograph: Colin McPherson/Corbis via Getty Images
Letters of Note: from bedroom operation to global sensation
  • Books
  • September 22, 2018, 06:00

When Shaun Usher started his website nine years ago, he didn’t have world domination on his mind. “I literally started the blog to pass the time in a(...)

Observers of Theresa May’s management of Brexit might raise some questions about the details and progress made. Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe/Pool/EPA
Some Brexit progress, but big questions remain in London

There is a scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the (original) movie adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic, where Wonka (Gene Wilder) demons(...)

In my day they’re what passed for tasty Christmas treats. We’d have sprouts for dessert covered in cream and they’d often come in selection boxes next to the Revels. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
‘I’m a cultural culchie, baptised in red lemonade and raised by bullocks’

It’s December, and thanks to “liberals” (sorry for whispering but I’m in The Irish Times office) there’s absolutely no sign of any celebration anywher(...)

Connie Doody, co-founder of Lir Chocolates, with her granddaughter Eimear Hehir (6) from Ballyea, Co Clare. Photograph: Andres Poveda
Lir Chocolates seeks to sweeten the bitter taste of Brexit

We’re sitting in Ann Murray’s office at the Lir Chocolates factory near Navan, Co Meath talking about Brexit. Or is it Lir’s expansion plans? Maybe we(...)

Halloween bounty: 45 chocolate bars, 10 packets of chocolate buttons, 17 packets of jellies . . . Photograph: Getty
Diarmaid Ferriter: Halloween’s sugar mountain part of a relentless cycle

The youngest tipped over the pillowcase. Time to count the bounty. Here we go: 45 chocolate bars, 10 packets of chocolate buttons, 17 packets of jelli(...)

Reece Morrison of Wilsons Auctions helps display hundreds of items of memorabilia which are to be auctioned at the firm’s showrooms in Mallusk, Co Antrim. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire
Criminal’s Hollywood memorabilia collection auctioned

The auction of a huge collection of movie and TV memorabilia seized from a criminal who turned a nuclear bunker into a drugs factory has generated int(...)

Jibes about arts degrees and low-paying jobs provide plenty of material for meme makers online. Many colleges are now reforming their courses to place a greater focus on boosting graduates’ employability
Arts degrees: Can universities save them?

They’ve always been an easy target. And nowadays, jibes about arts degrees and low-paying jobs provide plenty of material for meme-makers online. “Oh(...)

Portable garden options: tulips growing in galvanised steel dustbins.
Diarmuid Gavin goes to pot with concept of city gardens

A portable garden, filled with potted plants, is a wise way to grow, if you rent or plan to move house, says award-winning landscaper and Chelsea Flow(...)

Diarmuid Gavin in his ‘Garden of Pure Imagination’ at the Dundrum Shopping Centre. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
Diarmuid Gavin on being the Willy Wonka of gardening

Diarmuid Gavin is trying to explain how eccentric humour like that from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory inspired his garden display at Dundrum(...)

An array of colourful Lupins. Photograph: Richard Johnston
How to grow lovely lupins, cosmos and columbine for summer

If you’re a greedy gardener like I am, then few things can equal the magic of propagating new plants from seed. It’s the conjuror’s trick that I never(...)

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