Esther Addley

London

Senior News Writer at The Guardian

@Guardian

Articles

Worried about weed: should London follow New York and decriminalise cannabis?

6 days ago | theguardian.com | Esther Addley

The last time London dabbled in decriminalising cannabis, it brought one part of the capital to a brief but giddy high. In 2001, an enterprising Scotland Yard borough commander empowered his officers in Lambeth to caution rather than arrest those carrying small amounts of the drug for personal use – freeing them, according to the scheme’s proponents, to concentrate on more serious crimes.
The Olympics’ dirtiest race ever? - podcast

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Helen Pidd |Esther Addley |Alex Atack |Tony Onuchukwu |Homa Khaleeli |Elizabeth Cassin

“I felt very ready on the start line. I was like: ‘OK, this is it. This is what we’ve worked for.’”For the British Olympic athlete Lisa Dobriskey, reaching the women’s 1500m final at the London 2012 Games was a huge moment. She’d come fourth in Beijing four years earlier. This was her chance, in front of a home crowd. When the race began, Lisa remembers feeling alarmed at how slow it was because she knew at some point it was going to take off. And then it did.
Split payments and second jobs: how music festival fans afford soaring costs

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Esther Addley

From Monday to Friday, Jessica Heath works as a civil servant in central London – but when the weekend comes, it’s not time to relax. For the past two years, the 28-year-old has also worked evening shifts most Saturdays and Sundays at a nearby wine bar, with one clear aim – to save up for her summers. Heath has been a huge music festival fan since she first went to Leeds as a teenager and each year, including day events, she takes in at least seven, some as a volunteer.
Food and freedom: exhibition charts radical history of gardening in Britain

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Esther Addley

“Being able to grow your own food is one of the most radical ways that you can express your freedom, your sovereignty, your liberation,” says Valerie Goode, the founder and chief executive of the Coco Collective, a Black-led community gardening organisation in south London. “When you leave your food production in the hands of other people, you are leaving your health, your wellbeing, your sense of identity … in the hands of other people.
Cornish tin was sold all over Europe 3,000 years ago, say archaeologists

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Esther Addley

In about 1300BC, the major civilisations of the eastern Mediterranean made a cultural and technological leap forward when they began using bronze much more widely for weapons, tools and jewellery. While a form of the metal had previously been used in smaller quantities by the Mycenaeans and Egyptians among others, bronze was now abundant – but how?
‘My moment of glory’: Nicolas Cage lookalikes assemble in London

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Esther Addley

On a sunny, bustling late afternoon outside a cinema in Soho, central London, more than a hundred people have gathered, a number of whom sort of, if you squint, look a little bit like the actor Nicolas Cage. There is a Raising Arizona Cage, moustachioed and with a Hawaiian shirt. There are several Con Air Cages in white vests, one of whom has a toy bunny in a small cardboard box.
How to survive a power outage

1 month ago | aol.co.uk | Esther Addley

If the lights went out in your home or office, on your train home, or in your local supermarket – would you know what to do? That question became more urgent this week, after almost the entire Iberian peninsula suffered a mass electricity blackout, leaving tens of millions across Spain and Portugal without power.
Cash, emergency food and wind-up radios: How to survive a power outage

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Esther Addley

If the lights went out in your home or office, on your train home, or in your local supermarket – would you know what to do? That question became more urgent this week, after almost the entire Iberian peninsula suffered a mass electricity blackout, leaving tens of millions across Spain and Portugal without power.
Inside the dirtiest race in Olympic history: ‘It wasn’t fair. I wasn’t on a level playing field’

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Esther Addley

The tunnel in which athletes wait before they enter a stadium ahead of a major race is “by no means a friendly place to be”, says Lisa Dobriskey – and as a former Team GB athlete who won Commonwealth gold and world championship silver at 1500m, she has stood in enough of them to know. “Different people handle it differently,” she says. “Some people are really relaxed and friendly; other people just look right through you. It’s scary.
Arguing with your partner? Done the right way it can be a skill for couples, say therapists

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Esther Addley

Why can’t the dirty plates go straight into the dishwasher? Whose turn is it to pick up the kids? And why do you insist on doing that thing you do when you know how much it annoys me? No honestly, don’t worry, I’m fine. Perhaps – if you are part of a long-term couple – that kind of conversation sounds familiar. Or perhaps you are George and Amal Clooney, and you never, ever argue.