United Kingdom
Ramsay Short is an accomplished BSME-nominated editor, writer, journalist and creative content consultant with extensive experience working in print magazines and newspapers, digital journalism and social media, TV and radio, specialising in travel, politics, lifestyle and culture across Europe and the Middle East. Former and founding Editor-in-Chief of Time Out Beirut and Let's Go with Ryanair; Editorial Director of A Magazine and UltraVilla; Contributing Editor at 71% - The Superyacht Magazine; Editor at HikeToTheMoon.com.
MAGAZINES: Condé Nast Traveller US, Tank, Let's Go Magazine, Canvas, Bidoun, The Voice, Bespoke, A Mag, FT Magazine, Time Out, 71% The Superyacht Life Magazine, BA Highlife, Voyager, Impressions, J Magazine, American Way. NEWSPAPERS: The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, The IHT, The National, The Daily Star Beirut, Variety. BOOKS: The Hedonist's Guide Beirut CONSULTING: Gerson Lehman Group DIGITAL: UltraVilla.com, Hiketothemoon.com TELEVISION: No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain - Beirut (2006), No Reservationswith Anthony Bourdain - Back To Beirut (2010), Parts Unknown with Anthony Bourdain - Beirut (2015).
Click on the links above for my resumé and my LinkedIn profile.
Contact: [email protected]
The first hotel to open in the Qatari capital's new downtown cultural hub of Msheireb, Mandarin Oriental, Doha, is already a local landmark. The design language of the interiors draws heavily on the Emirate's seafaring history, referencing nautical elements throughout, from Arab dhows and Oriental junks to pearl diving.
Technology has changed everything. What was once merely possible in the realms of the human imagination is today a reality. ‘AI: More than Human’ at the Barbican in London takes you on a journey of this history in the making
Latest
Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan is at the height of her powers, with sold-out gigs across Europe and the US this summer and a new remix of her album Jamilat coming up
Anthony Bourdain’s unfiltered brand of journalism was witty, thought-provoking and refreshingly honest. Following his death in June, Ramsay Short, pays tribute to the chef, writer and TV presenter by recalling over a decade of friendship that started during a war in Lebanon in 2006
Brits love a curry more than they love their traditional fish and chips-it sells out the latter two-to-one in the U.K.-and Londoners are spoiled for choice when it comes to fine Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Indian, and Pakistani restaurants. These are our picks of London's best South Asian eateries.
It's July 2017 and I am sitting out on the Gänsehäufel, a pint of Otakringer in one hand and greasy Käsekrainer in the other, watching the sun go down behind the magical scenery of the DC Tower.
Our list of what to do in this U.K. powerhouse. If you're visiting London, your only problem is working out what you can afford to miss. Which incredible food market do you visit? Do you do St. Paul's Cathedral or Westminster Abbey?
London is so packed you could easily spend a lifetime exploring it-but just as the capital's denizens often feel an irresistible urge to get away, you will, too. Here are our top five easy escapes from the Big Smoke, from the beaches of Brighton and historical Bath and Canterbury, to the picturesque Cambridge and Oxford. We've got where to go, what to eat and do when you get to each, because sometimes the best bit of London is leaving it all behind.
Editorial Direction
Issue 84 of A Mag explores notions of identity through the people we meet, the artists, musicians, architects, designers, chefs and photographers; through fashion and travel and gender and art and film and creativity; through portraits and self-portraits. Issue 84 of A Mag gives you beautiful things and talented people. What you take from it and them is up to you… Ramsay Short @ramsayshort
Our summer issue of A Mag, relaunched and redesigned, celebrates youth, not just here but around the world. For if fashion is anything, it is (or at least it should be), individual. From our cover to our photo shoots to our interviews and stories we explore possibilities and meanings on what it is to be young, looking outwards from this complicated city.
From 2007 - 2015 I was the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher of travel magazine Let's Go for Europe's biggest low-cost airline Ryanair.
From Jan 2005 - Jan 2007 I launched, conceived and created the celebrated Time Out magazine online and in print back in 2006. The first quality English language journal in the city Time Out Beirut was filled with daring investigations, in-depth reviews and topical interviews that were not afraid to ask the difficult questions, it blazed onto the scene attracting a new readership and strong advertising, with increased circulation and sales mont-on-month.
People
Musician Faris Badwan is provocative, unconventional and marches to the beat of his own drum. Now, following the release of his band The Horror's fifth album, he’s on his way to becoming a household name.
Michael Nurbatlian, marketing director behind December’s Kata Rocks Superyacht Rendezvous – recalls what it was like the first time he stepped on a superyacht and explains why Phang Nga Bay is the perfect undiscovered superyacht destination in Thailand.
New concierge app Velocity Black promises to power the ultimate lifestyle. From yacht parties to submarine rides, it’s all at your fingertips in this members-only digital club.
Naturalist, photographer and expedition leader with EYOS Expeditions, Justin Hofman, reflects on his job, shooting images in the watery wilderness
"It would be relatively simple to remain in London, start an architecture practice and do private projects," says Iraqi-British architect Alia Dawood, perched on a couch in the entrance lounge of her Knightsbridge flat. "But for me, facing the challenges of public space and architecture in the Arab world has meaning."
Isaac Carew is handsome, easygoing and confident. Perhaps that’s why audiences are devouring everything he’s serving up.
Travel
When Julien Le Goff joined the kitchen of top chef Joël Guillet’s restaurant L’Olivier in 2008 as second-in-command, he had no idea he’d soon be in charge of the world’s most relaxed Michelin-starred restaurant. But then perhaps he knew just like his clientele, that once you’ve tasted the glitz of St Tropez, Cannes and Antibes and want to get back to Riviera basics – assuming those basics include impeccable service and gourmet cooking – L’Olivier is where you come. Four years later it was...
These are our 20 favorite places to eat in London. From baos in Soho, to cheese naan in Shoreditch, to innovative tasting menus you can't wait to revisit, this roundup has you covered.
When you've been travelling (and writing) as long as we have, often planning every trip well in advance, there comes a time when you realise that the only way to truly get under the skin of a destination is to throw away your map, your itinerary and get lost.
Vienna’s food scene is all the better for not having succumbed to the arrival of (too many) chains or fancy haute-cuisine eateries. Instead there are the many Würstlstände (sausage-stands), the city’s renowned café culture, a smattering of unpretentious beisl (bistros) serving schnitzel and tafelspitz (boiled beef) and some fine new-wave spots.
In our list of the 12 best things to do in London-what every visitor should do-we've built in tried-and-true itineraries and tips, like where to grab a pint before the Chelsea match, which food stalls to hit whether you're in Maltby Street Market or Borough Market, and how to explore Westminster as a traveler, not a tourist.
It’s hosted the World Cup, it’s hosted the Olympics, but to experience Brazil’s most famous city properly there’s only one proper way to do it: like a Carioca
A bronze statue of Jacques Cousteau clutches a diving mask and stares out to sea on the malecón, La Paz’s main promenade. It’s an indicator that even on dry land there’s no getting away from the Sea of Cortez – or as Cousteau famously called it, “the world’s aquarium.”
These are the best bars in London, from can't-miss hotel lobbies to hidden bars within a bar. They're the classics-or soon-to-be classics-and they all know how to pour a killer drink.
I recently discovered the joys of a new mobile telephone and what it doesn't do. The Punkt cellular phone makes calls and can send text messages. That's it. There's no Wi-Fi connection, touch screen or social media apps enabled. A smart phone it is not. Enabling me to spend more time doing things...
Primavera? So last year. Burning Man? Stopped being hip in the noughties. It’s the once seriously uncool, smaller and weirder niche affairs that are the fests to check out in 2017
Culture
The soldier jabbed his rifle at me as I descended the ramp stairs from the plane to the tarmac. "Your mother can't afford clothes for you?" he said grinning.
Rayess Bek has recently been signed to EMI Middle East - no small feat for an Arabic rapper who often ironically attacks injustice and whose 2003 self-released album "3am behkeh bil soukout," a mixture of serious rhyme and humorous piss-taking on Beirut society, sold well in local record stores.
This Brutal World is both an homage to Brutalism and a visual manifesto celebrating the most compelling of 20th century architectural styles – recently seen on the big screen in the movie version of J.G.Ballard’s dark novel High Rise.
Meet Beirut’s new generation of young creatives, shot up close and personal by one of their own brightest new talents
A red bullet shoots across a yellow-black background. The steel tip has a pair of wings upon it. The wings are striped in the Palestinian colors black, green and red. It's Fatah's bullet, on its way to Israel.
In the Arab world today you'd be hard-pressed to find a cartoonist with the stature, bravery, and skill of the late Naji al Ali. He is to the Arab political cartoon what Naguib Mahfouz is to Arab literature, and his work is as popular - and as relevant - as ever, 20 years after he was shot on a London street.
Nearly all of us who live in Lebanon have our favorite man'oushe joint and a tale to tell about it. Mine happens to be the Nazareth bakery on the corner where Monnot Street meets Sodeco Square in Achrafieh - and that's not a shameless plug.
It was the late, great Nigerian king of afro-beat Fela Kuti who said famously before his death that music is the weapon of the future. He meant that music was the one medium of expression with the power to cross all borders, speak the truth, be political and affect change in societies across the globe.
In a bedroom in an eighth-floor apartment in Hamra a man raps in Arabic. A woman overlaps, singing against electro-jazz funk beats. Across town in Gemaizeh in a makeshift basement studio you can hear the sound of a human beatbox. Three voices angrily rapping in Arabic.
Reporting
Since I have been back in Beirut - for five days now after a six-month absence - I have been travelling through the city, meeting people and talking to them about their hopes and fears, prior to the forthcoming presidential elections.
"Was 2005 real? Is 2006? Is this actually happening?" The words of 27-year-old Sandra Dagher, owner of contemporary Beirut art gallery Espace SD and one of thousands of Beirut's creative young population who were out in the streets in force during the 2005 protests against Syria's 30-year hegemony over Lebanon.
Since Israel began its campaign against Hizbollah two weeks ago the militant group has continued to fire a barrage of rockets, mainly Katyushas, against targets in northern Israeli towns reaching deeper south than it has before.
Fifteen-year-old Fatme wears a straw hat and smiles as she plucks grapes at the Ksara vineyard in the Bekaa valley, like thousands of Bedouin before her. It is her first time at the annual grape harvest, which began yesterday. But this was a harvest that almost didn't happen.
Voters have emphatically rejected Syria's hold over Lebanon by giving the anti-Syrian opposition a majority after the final election round. Official results released by the interior ministry yesterday confirmed that the National Unity Alliance led by Saad Hariri took all 28 seats in the fourth round of parliamentary voting in northern Lebanon on Sunday.
Books
The original irreverent, intelligent and inspired guidebook to the Middle East's most vibrant city
Ramsay started his journalistic career at London's Guardian newspaper and The Independent on Sunday before moving to Beirut in 2001. He became the Features Editor for Beirut's Daily Star broadsheet before joining The Daily Telegraph for three years as its Beirut correspondent in 2004. In 2005 he wrote Hg2 Beirut and in 2006 became the ...
Film Industry
Egyptian actor Yosra will head the jury at the second Doha Tribeca Film Festival, running Oct. 26-30 in Qatar. She replaces Hany Abu-Assad, who had to cancel due to delays on his pic, "The Courier," currently shooting in Louisiana. Joining her will be thesp Salma Hayek Pinault, Brit actor/director Nick Moran, Indian director Bhavna Talwar and Bosnian helmer-scribe Danis Tanovic.
Iraqi director Mohamed Al Daradji, Variety's Middle East Filmmaker of the Year honoree, is arguably the hardest-working filmmaker in the region.
Fest sets changes | Nurturing talent at the ADFF | Q&A: Mohamed Al Daradji | Circle Conference looks to future When it comes to nurturing new talent in the Middle East, the Abu Dhabi Film Festival and its close collaborator the Abu Dhabi Film Commission are leading the way.