British GQ July 2018

‘[The Commons] can be tough for working-class kids’ One of the many things that politicians wrestle with is authenticity. Not just those who purport to be of humble origins, but every politician, whether they’re high born, bourgeois or working class. Authenticity is what usually gets them though the door, into the room and eventually into power. It’s the glue that binds the random ideologies and nervous tics together, the shine on the shoe, the hand on the shoulder. Before he started looking like a worn-out Bambi caught in the headlights of Fleet Street, forever smiling while his eyes looked scared, we all thought Tony Blair had authenticity. He was a bloody regular guy before bloody regular guys started outstaying their welcome. Alan Clark had authenticity, as does Boris Johnson. Alan Johnson had it,…

Jeff Goldblum’s drink of choice After you’ve enjoyed our cover interview with Jeff Goldblum, join GQ as the actor mixes us a Virgin Mary and shares his views on smoothies, the universe, life and everything. London Fashion Week Men’s Take a seat in the back of our London Fashion Week Men’s Mercedes, from where we post Instagram Stories (@BritishGQ) from the top menswear ambassadors. Alastair Campbell vs David Lammy We filmed the hour-long interview between Alastair Campbell and David Lammy. Head to the GQ YouTube channel to experience Campbell’s interrogation at full blast. Street style Our most popular digital fashion feature returns for Spring/Summer 2019. We dissect some of the major streetstyle trends worn by attendees of London Fashion Week Men’s. GQ Food & Drink Awards 2018 Find out how and why the judges chose the winners at this…

Doug INGLISH Show us a man who says he isn’t obsessed with Jeff Goldblum and we’ll show you a liar. To celebrate our cover star’s return to the franchise that introduced him to millennials, in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Doug Inglish photographed Goldblum in the Hollywood Hills while the star played the famous theme song on the piano. “I fell in love,” says Inglish. “He was the most charming man.” Lou STOPPARD This year on GQ.co.uk, Contributing Fashion Editor Lou Stoppard has written about everything from Mark Zuckerberg to restaurant etiquette via male misdemeanours. “It’s not been a great few months for men,” says Stoppard, whose column continues this month on the website. “A high point was writing about those whose masculinity is so weak they’ll only buy moisturiser that’s branded for men.” Charlie…

Those who can do; those who can’t spoof,” said an old colleague of mine back in the Eighties, but even she couldn’t have imagined just how much of an ironic world we would live in one day, some three decades later, a world diminished by memes, traduced by emojis. Just look at Instagram, a forum where irony and righteousness cohabit; or the microclimates of fashion, where irony has escalated so much that luxury brands now positively encourage the lampooning of their logos; or the art world, where imitation is no longer the sincerest form of flattery, but the most remunerative. Seriously (although not really), how many times can you bastardise a Warhol, use a children’s television theme tune in a hip hop anthem or wear meta double denim? Irony was purposefully…

When it comes to acting, there may be “no such thing as small parts”, but there is such a thing as small films. Not that Hannah John-Kamen has ever concerned herself with those trifles. The 28-year-old Brit has a filmography that consists entirely of blockbusters. The latest is Ant-Man And The Wasp, in which she plays Ghost opposite Paul Rudd. The first Ant-Man was warmly received by critics, but can we handle another Marvel film so soon after Avengers: Infinity War and Black Panther? “I don’t think you can ever have too much Marvel,” she says. “It’s not the Marvel Country or the Marvel World – it’s the Marvel Universe.” After a TV apprenticeship in Game Of Thrones and Black Mirror, John-Kamen scored credits in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Tomb…

#17 The Bright Mississippi Being just under the radar often pays dividends. It can certainly extend the career. I was first made aware of Allen Toussaint in 1977, soon after Glen Campbell had covered his song “Southern Nights” (Toussaint called himself the “Southern Knight”), which led to a circuitous and frequently interrupted journey of discovery that took me from “Fortune Teller” by The Rolling Stones (he wrote it) to “Lady Marmalade” by Labelle (he produced it) via The Band’s Rock Of Ages (he arranged it). Constant running between the control booth and the studio, and never comprehensively defining a career in either, was responsible for Toussaint’s cult status, but it also helped him become one of the most respected musicians of his time. The record he became best-known for this century is…