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The moment our writer walked into the Bamboo Bar, the memories flooded back: a child sipping juice beside his father, listening to a Bacharach-ish pianist. Until then, nothing about Bangkok's Oriental Hotel had felt familiar.
To some, Beirut is rooftop bars and arak by the bucket; to others, a city rebuilding after decades of destruction. Now, thanks to Al-Hayat's chief diplomatic correspondent Raghida Dergham, it is about to assume a fresh role.
Conceived as a shell-like structure floating above the ground, this house redefines coexistence with the wild. Being in sync with nature, its architect argues, is not about yielding to it but about enduring alongside it.
When Mahmoud Said's 1929 painting The Whirling Dervishes fetched a record 2.5 million dollars at Christie's Dubai, eight times its estimate, it signalled an extraordinary new era for collecting Middle Eastern art.
The past decade has seen a perfect storm of art collectors in the Middle East, says Antonia Carver, director of Art Dubai. As London's salesrooms break records, boundaries are being redrawn in galleries and studios too.
There is, the argument runs, only one Louvre, and with the greatest respect it is not in Abu Dhabi. A provocative take on a global hub's costly bid to borrow cultural prestige.
A curated shelf of essential reading, from Mo Amelia Teitelbaum's portrait of the 1920s Paris stylemakers to Suraiya Faroqhi's study of the Ottoman artisans and Austin Kleon's witty guide to becoming more creative.
Libyan-born and Dubai-based, former Syrian banker Khaled Samawi shows what happens when graft, luck and a nose for opportunity meet a neglected nation's cultural assets. His operation now spans the Middle East, Europe and America.
As any reader of David Copperfield knows, even Charles Dickens could lose his audience after the halfway point. With the second instalment of its Phantom series, has Rolls-Royce done enough to escape the dreaded Second Act Syndrome?
Forever jetting between Hamburg and Dubai, Iranian-born collector Ramin Salsali ranks among the Middle Eastern art world's most influential figures. Dapper and exuberant, he mirrors Dubai's own drive, championing the region's most exciting artists for twenty-five years.
Artists should take risks, Shirin Neshat insists in her minimalist Soho studio. Restless and steely, the kohl-eyed artist leans forward with excitement to discuss her latest work, a feature-length film about the legendary Umm Kulthum.
Over white asparagus at a palazzo in Montegrappa, Giuseppe Aquila calls his firm a small family company that is also international. He neglects to add that it is among the world's foremost luxury penmakers.