British GQ April 2018

It was the early noughties when I first met Michael Wolff, at a Condé Nast conference in Venice. He was the star attraction, delivering a motivational (and rather inspirational) talk on the back of his successful 1998 book, Burn Rate, which was about his failed experiment as a digital entrepreneur. He was a terrific, if slightly laconic, speaker and I loved him. We stayed in touch and would see each other occasionally when one of us was in London or New York. He always made a point of visiting Savile Row to stock up his wardrobe and was always the bestdressed diner in Claridge’s. I was told not to trust him, not to tell him anything I wouldn’t want anyone else knowing and certainly never to hire him. So, obviously, I hired…

When Naomi met Skepta… Subscribe to our YouTube channel and see the sparks sizzle in our exclusive video footage of the pair’s cover interview, shot by the only videographer they allowed in the room. GQ Talks #Me Too Let’s talk some more This month’s #MeToo series began life as a digital editorial project, but the GQ team was so animated about the topic that it soon spread to the print magazine. Read more online now at GQ.co.uk. Style, food, drinks, travel Follow @BritishGQ on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep up to speed with our weekly pick of the best restaurants, hotels, culture, shopping, trends and more. Join the British GQ Book Club Like us on Facebook and join our new group for literary inspiration or conversation. Know a good book we should add to our list? We…

Olive POMETSEY In an arresting personal essay, 23-year-old writer Olive Pometsey explains how the string of sex pests recently outed in the press has affected her day-to-day life, from getting on the Tube to ordering drinks in bars. “Fear is the accidental side effect of #MeToo for both men and women,” she says. “It’s important that we confront this fear head-on.” Chris STOKEL-WALKER The Weinstein fallout is omnipresent in the London-based media, but what’s been the impact elsewhere? Journalist Chris Stokel-Walker took to the streets of Newcastle to discover what lies beyond the media bubble. “I found a real sense that things have changed,” he says. “Plus plenty of horrifying stories.” Eleanor HALLS GQ Staff Writer and Oxford alumnus Eleanor Halls, who also wrote this month’s cover feature, asks how her alma mater, which has…

There’s a great Saturday Night Live sketch, screened before the Harvey Weinstein allegations, early last year, in which a woman is alone at a bar, waiting for a friend. A guy turns up, asks if he can take the seat next to her, pre-empts her concern about it (“I’m not, like, a gross guy trying to hit on you or anything... I just can’t find a seat”) and, after she half-jokes that the whole world is full of gross guys, he makes a joke about Donald Trump (“I... think our president is one”) with the satisfied expression of someone who has just invented cheese. Soon enough, it turns out they’re both wearing the same feminist T-shirt and he asks her out, but she says no. “OK, bitch!” he shouts. “I wore this…

GoldLink still puts on two pairs of socks every morning, just as he did growing up broke in Washington, DC. With a Grammy nomination, sold-out tours in America and Europe and a critically acclaimed debut album, all in the last year, having to “double sock” to make ill-fitting shoes wearable should be a distant memory. But for the 24-year-old rapper (real name: D’Anthony Carlos), hometown habits die hard. His record, At What Cost, is an ode to his city. “I want people to understand me, that this is how I grew up,” says Carlos. “That turned into me glorifying [the city] from my perspective.” Carlos hasn’t always been so willing to share; the Soundcloud upstart is notoriously elusive. As early as 2013, his genre-bending blend of electronica, rap, R&B and house…

Maya Jama She may not be a singer, but Maya Jama is arguably the coolest woman on the British music scene right now. From red carpets to radio, the 23-year-old is, well, everywhere. Last year, MTV regular Jama made history as the youngest person to host the Mobos, presented her first primetime TV show and DJ’d for global brands. She’s also a major source of #couplegoals, having been in a relationship with rapper Stormzy for three years. But it’s her latest gig as a Radio 1 host that’s nailed Jama’s position as model millennial. Yet her status hasn’t come easy. The Bristolian was working three jobs when she moved to London at 16. Around that time, her then-boyfriend was shot dead. Prior to that, Jama would spend weekends visiting her…