Lucas Oakeley

1 week ago | toa.st | Lucas Oakeley

Henwen’s opened in Forest Hill the day before Halloween. Opening up in the run-up to Samhain might be considered bad luck by some, but for south London butcher shop Henwen’s, it was perfectly aligned with founder Charlie Smith and Sweyn Hall’s approach. When I visit on a Tuesday, one of the shop’s two days off, linocut paper hearts are festooned across the window. Bay leaves hang on the wall, fluttering in the wind like cherry blossoms whenever the door swings open.

1 month ago | gq-magazine.co.uk | Lucas Oakeley

Great burgers, it turns out, are simple creatures. In recent years, we’ve seen a shift away from the traditional thick hunk of beef with towering layers of onion rings, relish, and cheese, and in its place, the nimble smashburger has risen. These trimmer patties are made by crushing balls of ground beef into thin discs that form caramelised edges when cooked. Then the stacking begins. Two, three, four, or an ungodly five layers of crushed meat make for a protein lover’s dream.

1 month ago | bedfordsquarepublishers.co.uk | Profile Page |Lucas Oakeley

Joel Foster is a hapless twenty-something. His girlfriend, Beth Lewis, would likely have been a hapless twenty-something, too, had she not been obliterated by a very large cement truck. Some time after Beth’s tragic death, Joel is still trying to juggle grief with the world of modern dating. And while he still feels like a widower, he has to find a new love before three years is up. The catch? Just as Joel thinks he’s finally falling for someone, he starts getting haunted by Beth.

2 months ago | goal.com | Lucas Oakeley

Men making friends with other men is hard. It usually involves a weird bullfight stand-off where both of you try to feel each other out—shaking hands a little too firmly, unsure whether obscure references to late-nineties WWE storylines will go down a treat or crash the momentum of the friendship like a cement-filled zeppelin. It’s even harder to make friends with a man when you’re sleeping with their daughter. That tends to put up a bit of a barrier. It creates a splash of friction.

Dec 4, 2024 | service95.com | Lucas Oakeley

By Lucas OakeleyDec 05, 2024 Lucas Oakeley is a writer and journalist who has written for a range of publications including VOGUE, GQ, The Independent, National Geographic, The Guardian, The Economist, Esquire and Time Out. He loves long walks on the beach but hates getting sand in his shoes. His debut novel, Nearly Departed, will be published in summer 2025.