Cars Fashion Farming Design Dogs Horses Vintage Tech Food
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Spring 2018
Who are you rooting for?
FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF LEGENDS. CONGRATULATIONS TO LEWIS ON WINNING THE CHAMPIONSHIP.
DRIVERS (LEFT TO RIGHT): RUDOLF CARRACCIOLA, MANFRED VON BRAUCHITSCH, HERMANN LANG, KARL KLING AND FORMULA ONE DRIVERS’ WORLD CHAMPION 2017 LEWIS HAMILTON.
Ingenieur Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month. Ref. 3817: IWC Schaffhausen is most in its element right at the top. Fortunately, there are men who help to put it there: men like Lewis Hamilton in this year’s FIA Formula One™ World Drivers’ Championship. As proud partner of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport Team, IWC Schaffhausen congratulates Lewis Hamilton on winning the FIA Formula One™ World Drivers’ Championship title as well as the entire team on winning the 2017 FIA Formula One™ World Drivers’ Championship. Just as with the Ingenieur Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month, triumph at this level comes only with the precise interaction of every single part and perfection from the first to the last second. Lewis left the competition behind and is now treading in the footsteps of the legends that went before him: great names like Rudolf Carracciola or Manfred von Brauchitsch. In the 1930s, they created the mythology surrounding the marque, which was later taken up by Hermann Lang and Karl Kling and has lasted to this day: the fascination that is the Silver Arrow. These legendary racing cars have held generations of motor sport enthusiasts under their spell. Small wonder that from the very beginning they’ve been where they belong: at the very top. Just like every watch from IWC. I WC . E N G I N E E R E D FO R M E N .
London Boutique · 138 New Bond Street · W1S 2TJ · +44 (0) 203 618 3900 · www.iwc.com
LETTER FROM THE DUKE OF RICHMOND
breaking new ground All around the motor circuit, the first daffodils are in flower. This can only mean one thing: spring – and with it, the start of the motor racing season. It’s a big year here at Goodwood: in July we celebrate the 25th anniversary of Festival of Speed, while in September it will be 20 years since our first Revival Meeting, the historic event that celebrates the golden age of motor racing. We are well-advanced with our plans to celebrate each in style. First, though, our calendar opens with the much-loved Members’ Meeting in March. This year the GRRC season-opener will once again play host to everything from classic tin-tops and GTs to motorcycles and open-wheeled Formula 3 and F1 machines. Catch up with House Captain Jochen Mass on p72. An exceptional racing driver, as well as one of the sport’s true gentlemen, he tells tales of an extraordinary life lived in racing cars. Looking forward to the sporting year ahead, we have also interviewed young racing star Max Verstappen (p14) ahead of his career-defining months. Away from the din of the engines, Patrick Barkham takes a look at the future of the rewilding movement on p64. Animals are an important part of what makes our countryside such a special place for many people and it’s fascinating to learn about how this might change. Of course, Goodwood’s famous dogs are an essential part of our history and very much here to stay. Read about their story on p58. The issue wouldn’t be complete without a nostalgic look backwards too – from an essay on the lingering scents of our best-loved cars (p42) to an artist who can turn your bashed-up vinyl records into very modern works of art (p16). On p112, singer-songwriter Gary Numan bemoans the loss of his old Harvard aircraft, which is now here with us at Goodwood. And finally, of course, we take a look at our – now famous – daffodils: why we have them, where they come from, what they symbolise, and when you can see them. We do hope you’ll make a trip to Goodwood this spring, and enjoy them at their finest.
Duke of Richmond
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Hermès Allegro jumping saddle flat seat
SUPER SOX, LILLIE KEENAN AND THEIR HERMÈS ALLEGRO SADDLE, THREE MAKE A PAIR.
CONTRIBUTORS
The front cover shows a daffodil in bloom. Last October, 500,000 daffodil bulbs were planted around the Goodwood Motor Circuit. Cover, Start and Finish photographed by Joel Stans.
Patrick Barkham
Eri Griffin
Patrick Barkham is an awardwinning author and Natural History Writer for The Guardian, who lives on the edge of the Broads in Norfolk. His first book, The Butterfly Isles, was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje prize. His latest, Islander, looks at the 6,289 small islands of the British archipelago.
Eri Griffin is a Japanese-born illustrator based in Edinburgh. She specialises in black-andwhite line drawings in ink, which combine Western sketching and Japanese calligraphy techniques (see her illustrations for our rewilding feature on p64). Most of her inspiration comes while out on walks with her pet pug, Gyoza.
Kate Finnigan
Philip Duncan
Kate Finnigan is a freelance fashion editor and consultant. Formerly at The Telegraph, she writes for FT How To Spend It and The Gentlewoman. She loves walking, Pilates and reading PG Wodehouse. Since the age of 11 she has always had at least one Jeeves and Wooster novel by her bed, in case of sense of humour failure.
Philip Duncan has been the Press Association’s Formula 1 Correspondent since 2015, and has interviewed such racing greats as Sir Stirling Moss, Sir Jackie Stewart, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. He clocked up over 110,000 air miles last year following the F1 circus around the globe.
Sam Armstrong
Tina Gaudoin
Dalston-based Sam Armstrong has been a photographer for 15 years, shooting for the likes of British Airways, Waitrose and Barclays. A still life specialist, he photographed our “Modern Heirlooms” on pages 21, 29 and 37. When he’s not working, Sam enjoys outdoor pursuits such as climbing and rambling.
Having worked on some of the world’s most fragrant glossy magazines, including Tatler, Harper’s Bazaar and WSJ, car enthusiast Tina Gaudoin is the perfect person to write about the potent memories invoked by the scent of our favourite motors. Read her olfactory journey down memory lane on p42.
Editorial director Gill Morgan
Art director Vanessa Arnaud
Picture director Lyndsey Price
Sub-editor Damon Syson
Editor Charlotte Hogarth-Jones
Publisher Crispin Jameson
Picture assistant Louisa Bryant
Style editor Rosie Boydell
Contributing editor James Collard
Project director Sarah Glyde
Design Luke Gould
For Goodwood Catherine Peel catherine.peel@goodwood.com.
Goodwood Magazine is published on behalf of The Goodwood Estate Company Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex PO18 0PX, by Brave New World Publishing, 6 Derby Street, London W1J 7AD. Tel:+44(0)20-3819-7520. For enquiries regarding Brave New World, contact Sarah Glyde: sarah@bravenewworld.co.
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©Copyright 2018 Brave New World Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior permission from the publisher. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for any errors it may contain.
CONTENTS
Shorts
32 Raising the steaks Why retired dairy cows are the new Wagyu
14 Max power F1’s hottest prospect, Max Verstappen 16 Spin painting Martin Grover’s vinyl-inspired artworks 22 To infinity... and beyond Jetpacks are no longer just for 007. But will they take off? 24 Mane line Jenny Mort and Michael Frith’s equineinspired fashion 26 Top marks Revving up for 50 years of the Ford Escort
34 Hell on wheels The tragic tale of a motorracing disaster, the BRM V16 38 It's oh so quiet Experiencing total silence – it’s harder than it sounds 41 Flying visit The revolutionary app linking pilots with passengers 42 Memory lane Tina Gaudoin’s olfactory trip through the cars of her life
BENJAMIN MADGWICK
START
30 The art of weaving The contemporary artists embracing tapestry as a creative medium
46 Bright and beautiful A brief history of spring’s cheeriest bloom, the daffodil
64 Where the wild
things are
BROOKLANDS MUSEUM
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Above: early motor-racing stars Doreen Evans and Kay Petre (p48). Top right: art meets fashion at Cass Sculpture Foundation (p76)
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Woof hall Dogs have always played a prominent role at Goodwood, as you can see from the Estate’s art collection
Captain Fantastic Jochen Mass, Captain of Darnley at this year’s Members’ Meeting, recalls the highs and lows of life as an F1 driver
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Modern muse
Cass Sculpture Foundation plays host to our edit of artinspired summer fashion
Features
48 Fast women We celebrate the fearless female drivers who blazed a trail in the early years of motorsport
Rewilding is a controversial topic. Should charismatic predators like the wolf and lynx be reintroduced to the British landscape?
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Pale and interesting Pastels are back in vogue, but for motoring enthusiasts these shades will always recall the classic cars of the 1950s
98 The race is on Vintage motorsport posters are all the rage for collectors, with home-grown examples making large sums at auction
106 Goodwood Your guide to Estate experiences and important dates for your diary 112 Lap of honour Pop legend and former stunt pilot Gary Numan on making music, giving up flying and marrying one of his fans
finish
Start
Goodwood’s daffodils are shrouded in mystery. A secret blend of bulbs from Holland, comprising early-, mid- and lateflowering varieties, is planted each year to ensure that the motor circuit is surrounded by a triumphant crop of these bright spring blooms, ready for the Members’ Meeting in March. Every October, supplier Michael Lubbe visits the Estate with his sons to plant the bulbs using a special machine, which means they can place them much closer together than by hand. In the past, they have worked overnight to minimise disruption to the trackside during the day. In previous years, 400,000 bulbs have been planted, but this spring, expect the circuit to look particularly spectacular: an extra 100,000 bulbs have been added to the crop.
SHORTS MAX VERSTAPPEN
He might only be 20 years old, but racing driver Max Verstappen’s career has already been marked by controversy. When it was announced that he would be racing in Formula 1 back in 2015, he made headlines across the world. How could someone so junior, too young to even obtain a road licence, be allowed to race the world’s fastest automobiles? So aghast were F1’s rulemakers that they subsequently raised the minimum age for a competitor to 18, but the law would be enforced too late to stop Verstappen, and aged just 17 years and 166 days, he became the youngest driver in nearly 70 years of grand prix history to compete in the season-opening race in Melbourne. The records would not stop there: the youngest driver to lead a race; the youngest driver to record a fastest lap; the youngest to score points; the youngest to secure a podium; the youngest to start from pole position; and the youngest winner in history, too. It’s hardly surprising, then, that there’s more buzz surrounding Verstappen today than any other young man on the circuit. How he performs this season will define his career – and there are plenty out there who believe he has what it takes to be the next great racing star. “We all know Max is an exceptional driver,” enthused Lewis Hamilton, fresh from sealing a fourth Formula 1 World Championship in Mexico last year. “He has a lot of raw talent and he is only going to get better with age. Red Bull have a World Champion in him, that’s for sure.” Verstappen may have competed in only three seasons, but he is already the obvious heir to Hamilton’s F1 throne. Fast, fearless, aggressive, confident – the sport has not seen the like of him since Hamilton himself first burst onto the scene back in 2007. Their upbringings, however, could not have been more different. Hamilton, who was raised in a modest Stevenage council flat, would see his father Anthony work around the clock to cobble together enough money to go racing. For Verstappen, motorsport was in the genes. His mother Sophie raced karts; his father Jos was best known for playing understudy to Michael Schumacher at Benetton, and for miraculously surviving a pitstop inferno at the 1994 German Grand Prix, when his car caught fire. The same couldn’t be said for his career. Jos was a journeyman F1 driver who started more than 100 grands prix, but would never trouble the top step of the podium. “My father has been very, very important for my career,” Max explains. “He has helped me, he has supported me, and he even stopped racing so he could teach me everything he knows. Without him I would not be in this position.” Verstappen’s early experiences on the track began with kart racing (his father had a team) from the age of four and a half, and he has a confidence that comes from winning consistently from a young age. “I was quite competitive from eight years old,” he said last year. “You could see it in the national races. Out of about 70 races, I won 68, so there wasn’t much competition. I wondered how it would be when I went international, but I was still having good results, so I thought, ‘OK, this doesn’t look too bad.’”
max POwER He’s a young man with lofty aspirations – and the raw talent to back them up. Meet Max Verstappen, the 20-year-old pretender to F1’s throne 14
Stopping school at 15, he admits, was a risk: “A lot of people in racing did the same. It didn’t work out and they had to go back to school and study again.” But for him, failure was never an option. “I didn’t want to go back to studying, so that was my motivation to do well.” Verstappen has gone on to ruffle the feathers of the established order with his thrill-a-minute driving, and has pushed the letter of the law like no other. So much so that Vettel drove calls for the governing body to clamp down on what he viewed as the Dutchman’s dangerous driving, and the so-called “Verstappen law” – which outlawed drivers from moving under braking – was introduced only to be swiftly abolished. There have been other controversies, too. Yet nothing has affected his following. An estimated 30,000 Dutch fans crossed the Belgian border last year to cheer on their hero, while the sport’s bosses are cashing in on his popularity by closing in on a deal to take F1 racing back to Holland for the first time in more than three decades. He has also won the journalist-voted FIA Personality of the Year award for the last three years. “It must be because I’m a great guy,” he says with a smile, never one to hide his light under a bushel. “I’m always straightforward and honest, and that’s very important.” Verstappen ended the 2017 campaign with a bang – securing two victories from the last six races – while also agreeing an impressive new Red Bull deal earning him in the region of £20 million a year. “I don’t know what challenges will face me this year – if I did I’d go on the stock market straight away,” he says. “But hopefully we can continue where we left off last season – that’s why I signed a new contract with Red Bull.” Can he take the challenge to Hamilton and add the title of the sport’s youngest World Champion to his record-busting resume? “Last year we had our difficult periods, but I saw how hard the team was working to improve, so it gives me a lot of confidence that we can achieve great things together,” Verstappen ominously replies. “I am positive – so let’s wait and see.” One thing’s for sure: Hamilton will be watching with intent.
Words by Philip Duncan
SHORTS RECORD ART
Spin Painting Artist Martin Grover recreates much-loved vinyl records in the form of paintings. Now the phrase “sleeve art” has a whole new meaning Words by Gill Morgan
When Martin Grover gave one of his early vinyl record paintings to some friends as a wedding present, he was faintly surprised not to hear from them. Then they rang two months later. “We thought you’d just shoved a single in a black frame,” his friend told him. “But it’s a painting… we love it!” Such is the precision and hyper-realism of Grover’s painstakingly crafted paintings of favourite vinyl records, battered sleeves and all. But it was this comment that made him think that maybe, when executed at actual size, his paintings were just a bit too good. The move to producing these capsules of pop culture on a huge scale was key to their success: lifelike, but transformed. Talking to Grover in his South London studio, his love of vinyl is clear to see. One wall is filled with a collection of battered but characterful singles and albums. He especially enjoys translating the former owners’ carefully inscribed signatures of precious ownership, the doodles and love hearts that adorn the sleeves – alongside the creases, rips and dog-ears of age – into the paintings. It’s what gives them their character and emotion. “I’m not a very technical person,” says Grover, “and I never took to CDs. So I kept all my records. I’ve always found vinyl magical.” When choosing records to paint, he’s attracted in equal measure by the title and message of the song and the design and typography of the record label and sleeve. Favourite labels include Decca, with its orange and white stripes, Tamla Motown with its distinctive lower-case type and colours, CBS and Phonogram. His personal preferences include northern soul and country music, but he’s shrewd enough to know which records are likely to find a ready market: “People often want them as gifts, so a song title with a positive or romantic message works best. And I always know that Bowie, the Kinks, Tamla Motown and the Rolling Stones will go down well.” There’s something soothingly old-fashioned about Grover’s tastes. Starting art school in the early 1980s, you’d have expected him to be swept along by the conceptual art juggernaut. But he went his own way, inspired by his artistic heroes, the American painters Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper. His work has echoes of the emotion and nostalgia of those great painters, along with their meticulous technique. When he studied painting at the Royal Academy for three years, Grover relished the labyrinthine basement studios, full of old books and glass-fronted cupboards laden with treasures, where the RA Schools are housed to this day. “It probably had more in common with the 19th century when I was there,” he recalls. The record paintings started as a sideline – his other work includes landscape scenes involving quirky narratives inspired by obscure news stories, and renditions of London bus stops with playfully amended placenames and instructions. But the sideline has become his most popular line of work, with a growing list of fans that unsurprisingly includes record company execs and people who want to enshrine a special musical message to their other half. He takes commissions (though he would always nudge people in the direction of lovingly bashed-up record sleeves – “they have soul” – rather than the pristine examples sometimes presented to him) and has also diversified into more modestly priced screen-print versions. “People just love the nostalgia,” he says, “and records are part of our emotional lives.” And some of us, it seems, want to wear our hearts on our record sleeves, preferably on the wall. martingrover.com
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Right: Martin Grover’s Roadhouse Blues, 2014, acrylic on canvas, 105cm × 105cm
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ALL ARTWORKS BY MARTIN GROVER
SHORTS RECORD ART
Clockwise from top left: Debris, acrylic on canvas, 105 × 105cm, 2017; Angel, acrylic on canvas, 105cm × 105cm, 2012; Keep On Searching, acrylic on canvas, 105cm × 105cm, 2013; Reach Out I’ll Be There, acrylic on canvas, 105cm × 105cm, 2017; Monday Monday, acrylic on canvas, 105cm × 105cm, 2012; I Say A Little Prayer, acrylic on canvas, 105cm × 105cm, 2011
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What if I live to 100? Should I make life simpler? Do I have the right financial plan?
Life in later years is changing. You may want to remain hands on. Take a step back. Or pursue other passions. As time goes by, you might need to reconsider your financial plan. Through careful investment strategies, we can work together to navigate whatever the future holds. Here’s to a long, healthy, and fulfilling life. For some of life’s questions, you’re not alone. Together we can find an answer.
The value of investments can go down as well as up. Your capital and income is at risk. In the UK, UBS AG is authorized by the Prudential Regulation Authority and subject to regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority and limited regulation by the Prudential Regulation Authority. © UBS 2018. All rights reserved.
www.ubs.com /live-to-100
PHOTOGRAPHER: SAM ARMSTRONG
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A design classic, the Hermès Kelly bag is a shrewd investment as well as an elegant style statement. Popularised by Princess Grace of Monaco (née Kelly), who used hers to hide her stomach from the paparazzi while pregnant, it was designed by Robert Dumas in 1935 – inspired by the working woman’s need for a larger bag – and officially named the “Kelly” in 1956 in honour of the princess. Today, Hermès produces over 32 different bag styles, but the Kelly remains its bestseller. Pictured is the Kelly Sellier 28 Kellygraphie in Epsom and Sombrero calfskin and Mysore goatskin. MODERN HEIRLOOM NO.1
Hermès Kelly
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JETPACK AVIATION
SHORTS JETPACK
to infinity... and beyond Jetpack technology has existed for a century, but now this sci-fi staple is being put forward as a potential replacement for buggies on the world’s most exclusive golf courses. The big question is, will it take off? Words by Rhiannon Williams
Jetpacks, along with flying cars, were once routinely touted as the future of transport. Visions of people shooting about the skies with rocket packs strapped to their backs were a sci-fi mainstay for decades, but unlike most fantasies of this ilk, the idea made it off the page and into the air. Russian inventor Aleksandr Fyodorovich Andreyev was the first to patent a jetpack design in 1919, powered by a mixture of oxygen and methane, with wings for controlled steering. Several other maverick designs followed in later years, including a “flying rucksack” in 1956 by Romanian inventor Justin Capră and the “jump belt”, created in 1958 by Garry Burdett and Alexander Bohr, which propelled the wearer 23ft into the air courtesy of nitrogen gas canisters. The following year, the US Army contracted aircraft manufacturer Bell Aerosystems to create a “Small Rocket Lift Device” to enable soldiers to leap higher, run faster and swiftly cross water. Unfortunately, its pressured nitrogen and hydrogen peroxide-powered Rocketbelt could only fly for 21 seconds at a time, and despite an impressive demonstration to President John F Kennedy in 1961, the military eventually lost interest.
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All major developments in the jetpack field in recent years have come from dedicated enthusiasts and specialised firms, with major players like Google admitting they found the devices’ fuel consumption and generated noise too excessive. Astronomical cost and safety concerns have also acted as major stumbling blocks to wider adoption. Yet in spite of the challenges, innovation is alive and well in the niche fringes. Eccentric golfer Bubba Watson made headlines in the summer of 2016 when he revealed his own jetpack, built by New Zealand-based research and development company Martin Aircraft, which he used to zip around the golf course. The Martin Jetpack, with its top speed of just under 50mph and maximum altitude of 3,000ft, has the potential to solve one of golf’s most persistent problems – navigating huge courses in low-powered carts. It also offers players what Bubba claims is “almost an unfair advantage”, thanks to the birds-eye view of the course it provides. The company claims to have created an “extremely stable aircraft that is safe for the pilot to fly” – with a $200,000 price tag. In the UK, meanwhile, US firm JetPack Aviation flew the turbine jet engine-powered JB-10 pack around London in October 2016 as the UK’s first ever jetpack flight, and recently showcased its latest prototype model, the JB-11, at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The UK has yet to formalise jetpack flying guidelines within aviation regulations, having turned its focus to drones in recent years, but for believers like JetPack Aviation co-founder and pilot David Mayman, the sky really is the limit.
Exhilaration, amplified. 570S Spider Sports Series
cars.mclaren.com Official fuel consumption figures in UK mpg (l/100km) for the McLaren 570S Spider (3,799 (cc) petrol, 7-speed Seamless Shift dual clutch Gearbox (SSG): urban 17.2 (16.5), extra urban 38.4 (7.4), combined 26.6 (10.7). Official combined CO2 emissions: 249g/km. The efficiency figures quoted are derived from official NEDC test results, are provided for comparability purposes only, and might not reflect actual driving experience.
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SHORTS HORSE
The world’s most prestigious luxury houses have always looked to the animal kingdom for creative inspiration. Cartier is famed for its panther jewellery, Lacoste is recognised by its crocodile logo and Gucci has showcased runway looks featuring creatures great and small over the years – from flies and bumblebees to tigers. The list goes on, but the most popular theme of all is the horse. This most noble of animals is prominent in the logos of Hermès, Ralph Lauren, and Burberry, while equestrian hardware such as horse bits, stirrups and tassels feature memorably on many of their most iconic pieces. One of the most striking examples of animal-inspired collections this season comes from Sussex-based Frith & Mort, a brand set up by the renowned Sunday Times portrait artist and illustrator Michael Frith and fashion designer Jenny Mort, both of whom have studios near the Goodwood Estate.
mane line The new equine-inspired fashion collaboration between Sussex-based designer Jenny Mort and artist Michael Frith is sure to have you champing at the bit Words by Rosie Boydell
Mort, who trained under fashion designer Jean Muir, owns her own label, Jenny M London, and supplies Browns department store in London. Previously she developed textile ranges for Harrods, Barney’s New York, The British Museum and The Royal Academy. It was when Frith gave Mort one of his striking horse paintings as a gift that the idea for an art/ fashion collaboration was born. She began to experiment with the watercolour image on her own designs, using classic clothing silhouettes as a base. Simply named HORSE, the debut collection now features numerous equine artworks of Frith’s, applied to both men’s and women’s clothing, in luxury silks, cottons and linens. “I have a real interest in French workwear and utility clothing – stuff that lasts,” says Mort, adding that she wanted to introduce the art subtly so it wasn’t overpowering. Functionality has also been key. “I want people to feel great in these clothes, so I’ve focused on the fit and the feel of the fabrics I’m using,” she says. “If I line a jacket, it’s got to be in something that feels great to put on.” It’s clear to see the influence of workwear in the utility-chic collection, which sees cross-back pinafores and four-pocket workmen jackets imagined in bleu de travail, grey and rust tones. Frith’s elegant watercolour horses, meanwhile, can be seen on the backs of classic white shirts and in the linings of straight-cut button-down jackets. A match made in heaven, it seems, and not just professionally. “We are partners in life and this is our first work together,” reveals Mort, adding that the duo are planning further creative collaborations. “Many different subjects will be explored,” she says, cryptically. Though, given the brand’s name, we assume horses will continue to play a starring role. Prices start from £65 for a t-shirt from the HORSE collection. For enquiries, contact the Frith & Mort studio on 01730 826600
Left: fashion designer Jenny Mort in her Sussex studio, with designs for her new collection, HORSE
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Official fuel consumption figures in mpg (l/100km) for the Ford Mustang range: urban 14.1-28.0 (20.1-10.1), extra urban 28.8-41.5 (9.8-6.8), combined 20.8-35.3 (13.6-8.0). Official CO 2 emissions 306-179g/km. The mpg figures quoted are sourced from official EU-regulated test results (EU Directive and Regulation 692/2008), are provided for comparability purposes and may not reflect your actual driving experience.
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SHORTS FORD ESCORT
Words by Alex Moore Fifty years ago this September, the first Ford Escort arrived in the UK, destined for vast sales, rally triumphs and a starring role in The Professionals. Small wonder it became the car of choice for boy racers everywhere
TOP MARKS
Picture the boy next door proudly hosing soap-suds off his car bonnet on a sunny Saturday morning in 1983 and your mind will almost certainly conjure up an image of the Ford Escort. The second-highestselling car in UK automotive history, Ford sold 4,105,192 units over the model’s 34-year lifespan – which first began 50 years ago – an achievement trumped only by its little sister, the Fiesta. Hark all the way back to September 1968 and the birth of the Escort, and you might recall the original TV advert featuring Ronnie Corbett haring around the streets in a Mark 1 Sport claiming to be “King of the road”. The ultra-modern replacement for the Ford Anglia was brilliantly designed and surprisingly quick for the era (it had a top speed of 78mph, creeping from 0-60mph in 22.3 seconds). Ford gave it the catchy tagline: “the fun car”. And fun it was, not least because of its unexpected success as a rally car. The MK1, and even more so the MK2 (built in conjunction with Ford of Germany from 1975 onwards), were the most prolific rally cars of their generations, making household names of Hannu Mikkola and Roger Clark, among others. This racing success also saw Raymond Doyle, one half of the nation’s favourite crime-busting duo The Professionals, adopt the Escort as his motor of choice. He drove an MK2 RS2000 during episodes filmed in 1978 and ’79, coincidentally around the same time the term “boy racer” was coined. Within a few years, the MK3 (1980) and MK4 (1986) had become the boy racer’s go-to mode of transport.
Young men around the country had a bit more disposable income and were keen to spend it on making their cars fast and noisy. From 1983 until ’95, the Escort was Britain’s most popular car – helped, perhaps, by its appearance on two notable driveways. David Beckham’s first car was famously an Escort MK5 – bought for £6,000 from his teammate Ryan Giggs – as was Alan Shearer’s. Sadly, by 1997 the car’s reputation was beginning to wane, not helped, perhaps, by a Leeds University study that identified a “boy-racer corridor” from Essex (Escorts were built in Dagenham) via north London to Milton Keynes. A year later, our automotive hero made a cameo appearance in Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels – but by now the writing was on the wall. Ford unveiled the Focus, and the Escort’s unceremonious demise was quick to follow. In 2002, much to the dismay of Escort fans around the country, Ford ceased production of its erstwhile stalwart. But the story doesn’t end there. Mint condition Escorts have since gained cult status, selling for exceptionally large sums at auction. In 2017, for example, a 1996 RS2000 went for over £91,000, while a 1980 Escort MK2 made just under £100,000 (£97,875). Even more impressively, an Escort MK1 once loaned to the Alan Mann Racing Team in 1968 was auctioned by Bonhams at the Goodwood Members’ Meeting sale last year and went under the hammer for a record-breaking £203,100. The Ford Escort may be gone, but it’s clearly not forgotten.
The 1971 Escort Mexico, complete with go-faster stripes. The owner could expect to be whisked from 0 to 60mph in 22 seconds
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CONNOLLYENGLAND.COM 4 CLIFFORD STREET, MAYFAIR , LONDON, W1S2LG Driving sweater now available in store.
PHOTOGRAPHER: SAM ARMSTRONG
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In 1925, Leica released the world’s first portable 35mm camera, becoming the brand of choice for the 20th century’s most iconic photojournalists. Since 1954, the likes of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Annie Leibovitz and Martin Parr have all championed Leica’s M series of rangefinder cameras and in 2006, the company released the M8, its first digital camera. The latest offering (pictured) is the M10, Leica’s slimmest and most accessible offering to date. A 24-million-pixel camera with a timeless design, its quality and portability make it perfect for budding Magnum photographers and keen amateurs alike.
MODERN HEIRLOOM NO.2
Leica Camera 29
SHORTS TAPESTRY
the art of weaving
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For centuries, tapestries have depicted epic tales and grand events in textile form. Now contemporary artists are embracing this ancient craft to tell their own, very modern, stories
© GRAYSON PERRY, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST, PARAGON/CONTEMPORARY EDITIONS LTD AND VICTORIA MIRO, LONDON/VENICE
Words by Oliver Bennett
Left: Grayson Perry’s 2015 tapestry, A Perfect Match
A fully rounded trip to Goodwood House should take in its artistic treasures, including masterpieces by Stubbs and Canaletto. But whatever you do, don’t forget the Tapestry Drawing Room. This neoclassical chamber is home to a remarkable set of Gobelins tapestries, commissioned by Louis XV, depicting Don Quixote. “They’re so important,” says James Peill, curator of Goodwood House. “They were part of a series of 30 made for the French king and given to the 3rd Duke when he was French ambassador.” These textile treasures are undeniably glorious, but as an art form, hasn’t tapestry had its day? Not a bit of it. The ultimate “slow art”, painstakingly woven and often recounting an epic tale, tapestry has made an enthusiastic return among today’s creative luminaries. “Artists’ and designers’ contemporary rugs have become very collectable in recent years,” confirms Christopher Sharp, CEO and co-founder of The Rug Company, which has made one-off tapestries designed by a number of highprofile names, including Kara Walker, Sir Peter Blake and Sir Paul Smith. One of the leading exponents of this newfound passion is Grayson Perry, whose four tapestries about fictional Essex everywoman Julie Cope’s Grand Tour were recently on show at Colchester’s Firstsite gallery. Perry is not alone in his love of warp and weft. Last year, Chris Ofili showed his tapestry The Caged Bird’s Song at National Gallery show Weaving Magic – a transposition of a tropical watercolour into tapestry form. And the tapestry trend continues elsewhere. Pae White’s Pomona, comprising three huge tapestries, decorates Bloomberg’s new City of London HQ, while celebrated South African artist William Kentridge’s tapestry Dare/Avere has just been unveiled at Ermenegildo Zegna’s London store. Gavin Turk, Tracey Emin and Martin Creed are among the other art-world stars who have recently embraced the woven medium. Why tapestry, and why now? One reason is the revival of interest in time-honoured craft techniques – what Matthew Bourne of Chelsea-based rug-master Christopher Farr attributes to “a search for new and durable art forms that are useful as well as beautiful”. Whatever, tapestry-making is back in the ascendant. The fabled Edinburgh tapestry workshop Dovecot reopened in 2001 after a period in the doldrums and is now riding high; it made Ofili’s tapestry and is currently showing Garry Fabian Miller’s Voyage into the deepest, darkest blue – a grand return for a company that commissioned David Hockney, Graham Sutherland and Frank Stella in the 20th century. Tapestries are also making waves in the saleroom. In 2012, Bonhams achieved £540,000 for Ghanaian artist El Anatsui’s New World Map, a tapestry made from flattened bottle tops and wire. A return, perhaps, to the art form’s Tudor heyday. “Tapestries back then were judged as a higher art than paintings and were more expensive,” says Bourne. “Henry VIII had a lot of his wealth wrapped up in them.” For some, tapestry’s resurgence isn’t just about the revival of old skills; it has a new relevance in the digital era. Garry Fabian Miller’s work draws an explicit link between digital photography and tapestry, as does William Kentridge, who likens tapestries to film projections. “You can fill a wall with a 3m x 4m tapestry,” he says. “They’re strangely contemporary, like a primitive digital form. On one hand they refer back to Gobelins; on another they’re like pixels, with 3,000 threads making up the image.” Woven artworks are regaining their old prestige. As art historian Thomas P Campbell has said, in the Middle Ages they were more expensive than paintings (Henry VIII owned 300 paintings but 2,500 tapestries) and were used as “portable propaganda” – diplomatic gifts par excellence – which loops us back to the Tapestry Drawing Room, host to many Royal Privy Council meetings overlooked by the Gobelins tapestries. Intriguingly, Campbell has also likened this historic “gamesmanship” to television hit Game of Thrones. Surely Henry VIII would enjoy the fact that a GoT tapestry has, since last autumn, adorned the Ulster Museum in Belfast. Full of fights, romances, valour and victories, it’s not that far removed from the Bayeux Tapestry, now set to visit the UK as part of a new entente cordiale between the UK and France, indicating tapestry’s enduring merit as an epic storytelling format – not to mention, as Peill puts it, “a very grand way of decorating a room”.
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SHORTS BEEF
raising the steaks Meat from retired dairy cows is taking the restaurant world by storm, with chefs arguing that cuts from longer-living British animals could rival Japanese Wagyu Words by Charlotte Hogarth-Jones
For years, highly sought-after Japanese Wagyu beef has been the mainstay of exclusive restaurant menus. Widely considered the most tender, flavoursome beef available, its popularity has endured despite its high price point. But now this could be about to change. Britain’s leading organic farmers are selling meat from retired dairy cows, claiming that its flavour is as intense and delicious, if not more so, than that from the Asian breeds. “It’s all to do with the marbling of the fat,” says Goodwood’s farmer Tim Hassell. “There’s a very high fat content on a dairy cow, and certain breeds are more suitable for this kind of meat than others – something like a Holstein, for example, isn’t as good as a Shorthorn, which carries much more fat.” Both Wagyu and dairy meat contain a high amount of marbling [fat found within a cut of meat], which melts as it cooks to create a rich taste with a tender, silky texture. Hassell speculates, moreover, that the Goodwood cows’ high-foraged, grass-fed diet might also contribute to the overall flavour. “Demand for this kind of meat is absolutely growing,” Dan Austin, MD of Lake District Farmers, which supplies the likes of Le Gavroche, The Ledbury and Aviary, told The Telegraph back in October. “The [retired-dairy] meat has a fantastic, strong, rich flavour. It’s probably the best beef we produce.” In fact, eating meat from animals that had lived long lives was common until relatively recently – it makes sense, given that the longer an animal lives, works, and fattens up, the more its flavour intensifies – but large supermarkets have driven demand for meat that’s intensively farmed, fattened quickly and slaughtered young – at around 30 months. Retired-dairy-meat sceptics need only look to the recent success of Galician and Basque beef, which is taken either from retired dairy cows or cows that have lived to around 17 years of age, and has met with approval in London restaurants such as Chiltern Firehouse, Barrafina and Kitty Fisher’s since around 2015. Chef Nigel Slater calls it “totally awesome”, while restaurant critic Jay Rayner went on a special quest in order to rediscover a steak he ate in the famously foodie Spanish town of San Sebastián. For now, you can purchase Basque beef and organic retireddairy beef from importers txuleta.co.uk, who also sell via turnerandgeorge.co.uk, while Coombe Farm Organic sells meat from its own dairy cows online at coombefarmorganic.co.uk. “There’s been a rumbling about meat from retired dairy cows for the last couple of years,” says Hassell. “Chef [Darron Bunn of Goodwood restaurant Farmer, Butcher Chef] and myself have been talking about it for a while, so we’re going to age a couple of sirloins and ribs and give it a go. Farmer, Butcher, Chef prides itself on serving interesting new cuts and different kinds of meat, so we’ll try it out and see what the results are like. I like the idea in theory because it shows a bit more respect for the animal’s life than processing it for cheaper cuts. And if the meat really does taste amazing, then why not?”
A Dairy Shorthorn cow from Goodwood’s Home Farm herd
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SHORTS BRM V16
Words by Andrew Frankel
hell on wheels 34
Described by Stirling Moss as “the worst car I ever drove”, the BRM V16 was supposed to show the world what British automotive design and engineering were capable of. Unfortunately, things didn’t go to plan...
SHORTS BRM V16
BRM ASSOCIATION
If a Martian fell to earth and asked the meaning of the phrase “better in theory than in practice”, you might never find a more appropriate illustration than the BRM V16. Conceived in the belief that Britain’s best minds could achieve anything, it was a car of not one or two but literally hundreds of parents, co-operating to produce what was intended to be the world’s fastest racing car. And it was doomed from the outset. It was the idea of Raymond Mays, who had enjoyed considerable success building and racing ERAs (English Racing Automobiles) before the war. He imagined a project where suppliers would come together in the national interest to build a unique racing car for a charitable trust known as British Racing Motors. There were over 300 of them. At its heart lay a 1.5-litre engine with no fewer than sixteen cylinders, boosted by a Rolls-Royce supercharger. Outlandishly powerful, ear-rentingly loud, to listen to one is to hear a sound you’ll never forget. In fact, you can even listen to its distinctive roar on vinyl, or via YouTube. But it came with two fundamental flaws. The first was that it was being asked to do things no racing engine had achieved before, like producing nearly 600bhp at no fewer than 12,000rpm. As a result, it was woefully unreliable. Secondly, instead of power initially rising then ebbing away as the revs increased, the engine would produce more and more power until it exploded. So the moment the car got any wheelspin, the revs would soar, supplying even more power to the wheels, which would spin even more. For the
driver, the only option was to lift off the accelerator – after which there was no power at all. Nor were these its only problems. The car’s driving position was terrible, its steering poor and its handling wayward. No wonder Stirling Moss described it as, “without doubt the worst car I ever drove”. Conceived in 1945, its development took so long it wouldn’t make its public debut until the summer of 1950 at Silverstone, where it broke down before covering a yard. Scornful spectators threw pennies into the driver’s seat as it was pushed away. A month later, it appeared to redeem itself by winning twice at Goodwood, but that was against inadequate, largely prewar, machinery, not the state-ofthe-art racers it was designed to beat. The only time the car ran reliably in a World Championship was at the 1951 British Grand Prix when two cars came fifth and seventh, which sounds respectable until you learn that the quicker car was lapped five times by the winning Ferrari. Then the rules of Formula 1 changed, consigning the BRMs to eke out the remainder of their existence competing in more minor races, which they did until 1955, when the obsolescence of a design that had been started fully 10 years earlier forced them into retirement. Today, seeing a BRM V16 run is the rarest of treats and, being kind, perhaps we can see now that its biggest problem was being too far ahead of its time. But it also stands as stark proof that without the ability to turn such theory into practice, even the best ideas will never deliver on their promise.
Clockwise, from far left: the BRM V16 in Goodwood’s Woodcote Trophy in 1952; upper and lower crankcase; timing/supercharger drive gears; a recording of the car’s distinctive roar
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PHOTOGRAPHER: SAM ARMSTRONG
XXX XXXXXXX
MODERN HEIRLOOM NO.3
AMG turntable
Tastes may change, but music never falls out of favour, and a beautiful turntable trumps digital players with its evergreen cool-factor. Pictured is AMG’s (Analog Manufaktur Germany) V12, a triumph of form and function. Designed with three principles in mind – simplicity, functionality and longevity – the quality of its craftsmanship can be felt at every turn, from the action of the tonearm to the weight of the base and glide of the platter. Designer Werner Röschlau was an industrial engineer, hence his use of aeronautical-grade aluminium and helicopter rotorhead bearings to make one of the finest record players on the market.
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SHORTS SILENCE HUNTERS
IT’S OH SO QUIET
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In a world of buzzing fridges and beeping phone alerts, a small band of sonic refuseniks are obsessed with the idea of experiencing total silence. But it’s not as easy as it sounds
Stepping into a small, dark, futuristic-looking room at the Sussex headquarters of speaker specialists Bowers & Wilkins, it’s hard not to feel intimidated. I’m standing on the threshold of an anechoic chamber, where irregular triangles of foam jut out from every surface in order to absorb reverberant sounds, meaning that you hear no background noise whatsoever. I’m told to grab hold of the pole i in the middle of the room before the door is shut tight – visitors often feel so disoriented, they fall off the listening plinth, and I’ve even heard tales of people going mad in these rooms if left for long enough. At Bowers & Wilkins they use it to test their top-of-the range speakers. But why am I here? Well, it’s all to do with silence. Silence, it seems, is a valuable commodity these days. For although it’s accepted that experiencing absolute quiet is impossible anywhere on earth, growing numbers of us are going to extreme lengths to get as close to it as possible, fuelling, among other things, an enthusiasm for wilderness travel. In a world where you’re never very far from the hum of a computer or fridge, the faint sound of traffic or planes above, a knock at the door, or even a ticking clock, it’s harder to achieve extreme quiet for a prolonged period of time than you might think. Take Sara Maitland, for example, the author of A Book of Silence, and one of the most notable silence-hunters around. As well as travelling everywhere f from the Sinai Desert to the Australian Bush in search of silence, she spent six whole weeks in a deserted part of the Isle of Skye, where the only sound she was r unable to block out was the lashing of the rain against her cottage windows. “I was falling in love with silence, and like most people with a new love, I became increasingly obsessed,” she says of her desire to make her experiment a reality. Towards the end she began to hear voices (a male voice choir to be exact) and hallucinate, and she became furious on the one occasion when another human, a shepherd searching for a stray, happened to cross her path. And yet, she says, the experience was ultimately a rewarding one. Her emotions became heightened, as did her sense of touch and heat, and strangely, she found that a later period of enforced silence when she became snowed into her house in Durham was far more alarming.
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Others have looked further afield, to Antarctica, for a similar experience. Explorer Erling Kagge became a silence hunter almost by accident. He was the first person in history to reach the “three poles” – North Pole, South Pole and the summit of Everest – and he once experienced 50 days alone in Antarctica when his radio n was broken. He released his book Silence: In The Age of Noise, last year, to apply what he had learnt about silence on his travels to moments in our hectic daily lives. He follows in the footsteps of Richard E Byrd, US admiral and polar explorer, who deliberately spent five months alone in the Antarctic back in the winter of 1936. “I wanted to go for experience’s sake,” he said of the journey. “It was one man’s desire to be by himself for a while, and to taste the peace and quiet and solitude long enough to find out how good they really are.” So, is the rise of these strange extremists a new phenomenon, you might ask. For as long as there has been silence, there have been monks, yogis, explorers and scientists seeking to experience it to its full. Perhaps for the first time, though, their tales are being devoured by an eager public. Kagge and Maitland aren’t the only ones to publish bestselling books off the back of their travels; author Amber Hatch released a book on The Art of Silence, detailing how we can use silence to improve our daily life, last autumn too. There’s been a documentary, In Pursuit of Silence, while silent retreats, once viewed perhaps as the preserve of hippies and holy men, have become a relatively common occurrence, with the likes of Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey and b Gisele all extolling their benefits in the past. Silent drop-in sessions in central London are frequented by high-flying CEOs. Making time for silence, it seems, is no longer seen as a luxury, but increasingly as a necessity, perhaps an inevitable reaction to the t growing invasion of noisy tech. So what was the anechoic chamber like? There were no visions, nor did I experience the blood-pumping, heart-racing sensations others have reported. An unnerving, distinctly strange lack of sound, yes – one that makes you hyper-aware of your own body, and makes you recoil at the din of real life when you finally emerge. But, oddly, such silence feels more artificial than the everyday man- and animal-made cacophony we are surrounded by. So for now, I’m sticking to a walk on the Downs as my retreat – complete with noisy birds, rustling leaves, and distant farmyard bleats. Maybe silence isn’t always golden.
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MIKE CALDWELL
Next time you’re heading up to Goodwood, why not catch a ride with the revolutionary new app that's linking would-be passengers with light-aircraft pilots. It’s like Uber with wings
flying visit Words by Alex Moore There are few better ways to arrive at Goodwood than by air. Wingly, a new platform that connects pilots of light aircraft with passengers looking for flights, is making flying a more convenient and low-cost option than ever before. Think of it as carpooling for planes. Wingly began as a way for private (amateur) pilots to make their expensive hobby more affordable. “Once you get your pilot’s licence, you need to fly a certain number of hours each year to keep it,” explains Emeric de Waziers, one of the company’s founders. “As a pilot, you always try to share the cost of flying with friends and family, but it’s hard to keep this going. That’s where the initial idea came from – to help pilots fly for less, and to allow them to share their passion with others. In doing so, we hope to dispel the cliché that private aviation is reserved for an elite.”
The Wingly platform launched in France in July 2015 before branching out into Germany and the UK. Pilots can offer three types of flight: the overnight excursion (London to Le Touquet on the north coast of France was 2017’s most popular trip), the A-B (either a one-way flight or a return), and local sightseeing flights. The new flight request function, meanwhile, allows passengers to ask for specific flights and pilots to respond accordingly. “We have a really simple rule, which states that open regulation pilots are not allowed to make money,” explains de Waziers. “They can’t make a profit from these flights, so for them it’s really a case of sharing the direct costs: fuel, parking, the landing field and, in certain instances, the price of renting the plane.” This means you can fly from London to Liverpool for just £63 each way, or from Goodwood to Alderney in the Channel Islands for £94 each way. Sadly, flights are limited to 700km, but for good reason. “These are small planes and the inside can be more like a car than an Airbus, which means there are no toilets on board,” says de Waziers. “Secondly, the weather can be a constraint: if conditions are really bad, the flight can be cancelled, and the longer a flight’s duration, the more chance there is of encountering bad weather.” In 2017, in the UK alone, Wingly went from having 3,000 to 50,000 online members. There are currently around 20,000 flights being offered – some every weekend, others more flexible. Private aviation, it seems, is at last open to everyone.
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SHORTS CAR SCENTS
memory Lane Wet dog, aged leather, a faint vestige of perfume – cars are a repository for odours, good and bad, that whisk our minds back in time. Tina Gaudoin, founder of luxury car fragrance brand Roadscents, takes an olfactory look back at her life on the road Illustration Peter Horvath
My favourite smell ever is a memory – I’ll spare you the Proustian analysis, but it is nonetheless encapsulated in the nostrils of my pre-teen self, seated in the passenger seat of a beaten-up bronze green Land Rover, pulling a rickety horsebox containing two ponies, one of which I would be riding in a local gymkhana. It was the summer of 1974; Rock The Boat by Hues Corporation was cranked up on the radio; hot dry air, fragranced with the high green hedgerows and infused with the dust of the Norfolk grain harvest, rushed at us through the open windows, mixing with the scent of ponies, diesel, saddle soap, Labradors and the vague tang of the driver’s Hermès Calèche. It was heaven. I was 12. Now that I think about it, it’s possible I’ve spent the rest of my life trying to re-connect with that moment – which was my first real taste of the feeling of freedom that driving can offer. More than the actual mechanics of the 4X4 itself though, it was the elation of that moment captured by my nose (and registered in my brain) which has stayed with me – and for which I yearn, in truth, almost every time I sit in a car. I should say at this point that ever since I can remember, I have displayed hyperosmic tendencies. In other words, I have an overactive sense of smell, which means “bad” smells are the equivalent of nails on a blackboard, and cars are, for me, often the ultimate torture chamber.
As a result, I can happily trace my adult life in cars via their fragrances. My first car – an ancient grey VW Beetle, which I happily drove around the lanes of Norfolk, singing loudly to Supertramp’s Breakfast in America, smelled of petrol (it was always leaking and breaking down), leather – from the shiny red, cracked hide seats – and the gauche perfume of my youth, Anaïs Anaïs, which I used to drip onto the grey woollen floor mats to improve the ambience. I knew I’d met a kindred spirit when a new friend, a sophisticated German, studying in Norwich for a couple of years, whipped out a bottle of Chanel Cristalle almost before she’d fastened her seatbelt and sprayed it wildly around my car. Upon reflection, perhaps she just didn’t like Anaïs Anaïs, but what she exclaimed as she released the jet of Chanel has always remained with me: “Why on earth don’t they make perfume for cars?” My university years were a bit of a let-down on the car front. My own car, a mustard-coloured Austin 1300 (worse than admitting to having a perm in one’s teens), always smelled, well, like an Austin 1300 – staid, stately and, frankly, deeply average. Were it not for the fact that I lived in a gamekeeper’s cottage on a country estate, miles from university, and I needed Austin, I would have parked him up and walked away from him forever, such was my indifference towards him and his fragrance (Austin was the only car I referred
to as “he”). I can never smell burning rubber (it’s a long story) without thinking for a moment of him. Some years later, the Porsche and the Saab Turbo should have been warning enough, not to mention the lingering scent in each of them of another woman’s fragrance, mixed with last night’s tennis kit and Sunday morning’s football boots. But, reader, I married him anyway. I didn’t get to drive either of the cars because the ex-girlfriend took the Porsche 928 as her own particular form of alimony and the Saab went back to “the company”. But never mind, because “the company” moved us to New York, where we owned a bright red Golf Rabbit (GTI) which smelled of Gitanes cigarettes and peanut butter. The Rabbit took numerous merciless beatings on the pot-holed Manhattan streets and highways. And it never seemed to mind being towed away by the NYPD, which it was, on countless occasions, since my ex never paid his parking tickets – right up to the day when we went to the car pound and the police refused to hand the car back unless he paid every overdue ticket. The cost – $2,500 – was more than Rabbit was worth. We waved goodbye to her through the wire fencing on the West Side Highway. Another leather-lined Saab Turbo convertible (this time in black metallic) came onto the scene. It was the early 1990s, New York was happening. Hell, we were happening. The Saab had the sweet
SHORTS CAR SCENTS
smell of success like no other car I’ve owned or driven since. It had a car-phone (our first) the size of a shoe-box, heated seats so hot they burned a hole in your Calvins, buttery cream leather that smelled like Paul Newman’s neck (or what I assumed Paul Newman’s neck would smell like) and it drove like a Derby winner. Except that in New York, there was nowhere to drive a racehorse like Saab – you certainly couldn’t on the world’s biggest parking lot, the Long Island Expressway, which we headed out on every weekend en route to The Hamptons. We persisted – driving through Central Park in the heat of the summer with the top down and Everything But The Girl blasting out of the sound system, speeding down Dune Road in Westhampton with our friends packed into the back on our way to drink tequila and dance until the early hours. Then we pushed our luck with Saab, by doing what every successful young couple living in Manhattan in the early Nineties did: we got a dog. Cream leather seats, a convertible roof and an excitable Vizsla puppy equals disaster. We conceded defeat and, on our way to being “in the family way”, bought a 4X4 – a brand new Jeep Cherokee in racing green with, ahem, cream leather seats (again); but at least it had a large boot and a dog guard. It was the scent of the Jeep that won me over immediately: it was Winalot meets Hermès leather meets new puppy, plus (and this, not so attractive) an indefinable but clearly discernible whiff of smug. Within a year or two, back in England, with the Jeep tagging along for the ride, there was new-born baby breath x2 to add to the mix, and after that my mucky riding boots and sticky Barbour to round it all off. I was approaching the nostril Nirvana of my teenage years. But then something went horribly wrong with the scent in my car and my life in general. The angelic “smalls” began
to grow into toddlers, with all the attendant itinerant mess and chaos that accompanied the process. The acrid sweet smell of sticky yoghurt cartons, apple cores, broken biscuits and sweaty socks began to permeate my four-wheeled sanctum. I searched feverishly for suitable fragrances to overcome the pong. A few squirts of Chanel would no longer cut the mustard. Car fragrances hadn’t improved since the days of the Feu Orange Traffic Light, which I remember begging my father not to purchase from our local garage, knowing only too well that it would bring on one of my teenage migraines. One day, in one of my favourite places, the Farmacia Santa Novella in Chelsea, I found myself earwigging on the conversation between a patrician older gentleman who had emerged from the vintage Rolls-Royce parked outside and his fur-swathed female companion. “You see,” he was saying, “I buy the potpourri from here, pierce the bag and place it under the seats of all my Rollers. It works for a while.” His glamorous female companion expressed vague interest. I was riveted. I left the store having bought two bags, vowing to give it a whirl. He was right: the delicious aroma the Jeep was bathed in overcame all else, and lasted… for about a week. Then I was back to square one and eau de toddler took over again. The toddlers turned into football-mad boys. Did I mention that synthetic footie kit stinks? To add to the pong, my eldest began swimming thrice weekly on a swim team, adding the stench of chlorine to the mix. It was at the point when I began burning joss sticks, while driving, to outpace the car stink, that I realised I needed to either create something myself or sell the Jeep (or the kids). A friend – a hospital consultant – suggested a surgical mask. I considered taking her up on the offer. Instead, I began to research car fragrances and to ask the question: why had no one ever come up with a valid alternative to Little Trees (billions of which have been sold around the world). The answer, I discovered, is that it’s almost impossible to persuade a luxury fragrance to remain in a car long enough to make an impact, but not such an impact that it becomes an imposition. Years of research followed, alongside a number of magazine-editing dayjobs. By the time I’d found what I thought was “the answer”, the boys were in senior schools, my husband was my ex – a Lexusdriving one at that – and I was, much to the chagrin of my longlegged teens, driving a Mini Countryman. How did I know my marriage was over? When I was able to wave goodbye to my exquisite convertible Beetle (a 10th-anniversary gift), with its delicious scent of newly tooled leather and box-fresh carpet, without so much as a backward glance. How did I know that Roadscents would work? When I travelled to Suffolk with my “GodSmell” dangling from the rear-view-mirror – the car stuffed to the gills with Dorrito-munching teenagers, two dogs, a couple of rose plants and a whole Brie cheese, without so much as needing to wind down the window.
roadscents.com
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GOODWOOD REVIVAL
al years” c i g a m 0 2 g n i at r b e l e “C
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bright and beautiful
Nothing announces the arrival of springtime more eloquently than a host of daffodils. Yet in many ways, this much-loved and familiar flower remains mysterious
Daffodils are intoxicating. A celebrity power flower that annually raises millions for cancer research, the daffodil is internationally adored as spring’s cheerful herald. Yet just a few centuries ago this plant was so unpopular, hardly anyone in England would even consider bringing one into their home. It’s the ultimate makeover: the dazzling, dancing blooms have gone from being shunned by all to entrancing poets, inspiring designers, captivating perfumers and fascinating scientists. This humble bulb now represents everything from hope, rebirth, eternal life and mystery to unrequited love. The daffodil’s remarkable tale began over 18 million years ago in southwest Europe’s Iberian Peninsular. This plant contains toxic alkaloids, and ancient cultures grew to fear it as a semisupernatural living link to the hereafter. One Greek myth associates daffodils with the tragic demise of the vain youth Narcissus (hence the plant’s Latin name), while another relates how these flowers lured the goddess Persephone to her Underworld doom. Roman soldiers are said to have carried daffodil bulbs as suicide pills, believing that they guaranteed wounded fighters a smooth passage to the spirit world beyond. Even so, early healers believed that, carefully used, the daffodil possessed medicinal qualities – a fact that medical researchers continue to explore to this day, working on the theory that compounds derived from certain varieties of the plant could be used to treat cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. The daffodil, it should be stressed, is not one flower but many. Botanists recognise 54 species plus various naturally occurring hybrids that bloom from early spring to autumn. Some can be described as nocturnal, releasing deep scents into the night air to entice pollinating moths. From these, enthusiasts have created over 30,000 different named daffodils – an impressive panoply that varies in size (from 5cm dwarfs to 50cm giants), shape (classic trumpets, twisted starbursts, flat-faced flowers, multi-headed blooms, to name a few) and colour (everything from ghostly whites through to oranges, yellows, reds, greens and even some with tinges of mauve). Each cultivar has a name – “Lucifer”, “Intrigue”, “Hanky Panky”, “Flirt”, “Foundling”, “Sulphur’s Flame” and many more – a story, and a dedicated breeder. The tales of so-called “daffodonians” attempting to engineer the exquisite are laced with drama, occasional danger and plenty of romance. The cult of the daffodil began in earnest in the 1800s and was largely pioneered by Scottish horticulturist Peter Barr, known to aficionados as the “Daffodil King”. Bulb prices exploded (fittingly, there’s a variety named “Fortune”) and daffodil devotees became so protective of their prize blooms, one even boobytrapped her garden with explosives to deter thieves. By the turn of the 21st century, daffodils had become ubiquitous, and yet there’s still so much more to learn about them: indeed, science has yet to fully fathom their basic structure. The more you look into this flower, the deeper the gold. Daffodil – Biography of a Flower by Helen O’Neill is published by HarperCollins, RRP £18.99
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JETPACK AVIATIJIM WEHTJE
Words by Helen O’Neill
INNOVATION NEVER STOPS Since the very first Ferrari emerged from the historic factory entrance on Via Abetone Inferiore in Maranello, to the latest V8 GT; the Ferrari Portofino, our designers and engineers have strived to push the boundaries of innovation and luxury. Your Official Ferrari Dealer invites you to visit its showroom and start your journey of the extraordinary.
Exeter Carrs
Belfast Charles Hurst
Swindon Dick Lovett Sporting Ltd
Solihull Graypaul Birmingham
Tel. 01392 822 080 exeter.ferraridealers.com
Tel. 0844 558 6663 belfast.ferraridealers.com
Tel. 01793 615 000 swindon.ferraridealers.com
Tel. 0121 701 2458 birmingham.ferraridealers.com
Edinburgh Graypaul Edinburgh
Nottingham Graypaul Nottingham
London H.R. Owen
Leeds JCT600 Brooklands
Tel. 0131 629 9146 edinburgh.ferraridealers.com
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Fast women
MOTORINAS
Modern motor racing is woefully male-dominated, but a century ago, women played a prominent role in the fledgling sport. Connie Ann Kirk looks back at the trailblazing female drivers of the era, affectionately known as “scorchers” and “motorinas”
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AT A TIME WHEN FEMALE HORSE-RIDERS, golf pros and athletes are common, the world of motor racing lags a long way behind. As recently as two years ago, Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone dismissed talk of female drivers in F1, saying that they would “not be taken seriously” and that they are “not physically” able to drive a car fast. Just try telling that to some of the first women in history who took to the roads and racetrack. For as long as there have been men dismissing the idea of women at the wheel, there have been strong, ambitious females fighting to get in the driver’s seat. Ecclestone went on to say that he believed an increasing number of women would take F1 chief executive positions in the future, but he was missing the point. The number of women in management, engineering and crew positions within professional motor racing has increased over time and it will continue to do so. It’s female drivers that are sorely lacking. It’s not 20th-century feminism or political correctness that brought women into competition with men on a racetrack either. They have been there quite a while – in much larger numbers at one time than some of us might know or remember today. The early female drivers in Europe, and racers of the Brooklands prewar era in particular, bear witness to a time when the novelty might have been, well, a bit less novel, even if, ironically, some of the women sound rather like fearless adventurers from epic tales spun by Greek poets. Many of the earliest female auto racers, for example,
were also trained and licensed aviators and motor boat racers; some were intelligence de-coders or ambulance drivers in the war; some were even reported to be spies. Women’s interest in driving goes all the way back to the first female driver on record – German Bertha Benz, wife of Karl Benz, inventor of the motor car as we know it today. One August morning in 1888, Bertha decided that she was going to drive her two children 111 miles from Mannheim to Pforzheim to visit their grandmother. They left without her husband’s knowledge; in fact, he was still asleep at the time. The (then) long journey was a race against darkness and vehicle reliability. Maintenance and quick repairs on the road included use of a hatpin, a garter, having a cobbler fix a leather drive-belt, and stopping at pharmacies along the way to refuel with petroleum ether. When the family finally reached its destination, they cabled the distraught inventor to let him know where they were and that they had arrived safely. Bertha’s adventure was certainly not the last time a wife overruled her husband’s wishes to just get on with it in terms of where she wanted to go in a motor car. If passing one’s driving test and acquiring a licence can represent freedom for young people, what could it have meant to the first woman on record to do so – Anne de Mortemart of France, Duchess of Uzès, age 51? One sign of the duchess’s exuberance after passing her test on April 23, 1888, was that on June 9, driving her car with her son on board in and among horse-drawn carriages, she cranked the machine up above
Opening page: Canadian-born racing driver Kay Petre at Brooklands in 1937. Despite her diminutive stature (4’ 10”) she was one of the circuit’s biggest stars. Previous page: drivers Eveline Gordon-Simpson (left) and Joan Richmond take a break in 1934
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PREVIOUS PAGES: GETTY IMAGES, SILODROME. THESE PAGES: BROOKLANDS MUSEUM
For as long as there have been men dismissing the idea of women at the wheel, there have been strong, ambitious females fighting to get in the driver’s seat
MOTORINAS
Opposite: Margaret Allan driving her 6.5-litre Bentley engined special at Brooklands in 1936. Above: Doreen Evans
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the 7.5mph posted speed limit. A policeman whistled at her to stop, and she was issued the maximum penalty of five francs for speeding – reportedly the first person ever to be issued a ticket. Mortemart may have been one of the first “scorchers,” later described in popular jargon of the era as women who enjoyed driving fast, beyond limits. Another popular term was “motorinas” (presumed from “ballerinas”) – women whose cars appeared to glide as they drove them. Of course, just like with men, it wasn’t long before women found that the elixir of speed could temporarily calm many ills, and that racing boosted the effects even more. The first female racing driver said to compete on a regular basis internationally was Camille du Gast of France. Though she started from the back, du Gast came in 33rd out of 122 competitors in the 1901 Paris-Berlin race. In 1903, while racing toward the front of a field of over 200 competitors on the dusty and dangerous roads of the Paris-Madrid race, she came upon a fellow driver who was trapped beneath his overturned car, and halted her own race to administer first aid, helping to save his life. When she was not allowed to compete the following year because she was a woman, du Gast turned instead to racing motor boats, which took on lots of water on choppy seas. She won. Britain’s first woman racing-driver climbed into a Napier as a publicity stunt at the request of her boss, Selwyn Edge. As director of the car company, Edge taught one of the secretaries, Dorothy Levitt, to drive, thinking that her good looks would draw attention and help sell cars. Levitt’s efforts, however, were more than cosmetic. In 1906, she broke the woman’s speed record, surpassing 96mph. She also excelled driving a large 80hp vehicle at the Brighton seashore. Levitt became a celebrity. She wrote a 1909 book for women motorists called The Woman and the Car, which offers encouragement and practical advice to motorinas. Levitt included a favourite photograph of herself in which, wearing a heavy fur coat and veil, she smiles conspiratorially from behind a large steering wheel. Certainly, one of the more concentrated locations where numbers of women raced regularly in the early days was the Brooklands motor circuit, near Weybridge in Surrey. Brooklands holds the distinction of being the first purpose-built automobile racetrack in the world and was active from 1907 to 1939. Suffering severe damage from bombing in World War II, the circuit never returned to its former glory. Unlike the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a testing and commercial enterprise that was built in the midwestern United States soon after Brooklands opened, the British circuit was a private track established by Hugh and Ethel Locke King, where they and their friends could hold social events as well as help support the growing British automobile industry. Hugh Locke King ran out of money when the construction went over budget, so Ethel bankrolled the job’s completion and is credited with saving the track. Ethel was also the first person to ceremoniously drive it, breaking in the new circuit at its inauguration in June 1907 with her husband seated beside her in the car.
Left: Doreen Evans takes over the sash during the Relay Race at Brooklands in 1931. Evans first raced at the circuit aged only 17 and went on to drive for the MG Works team
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resonates when one considers that this was on a track where cars raced for only 32 years and competition ended in 1939. Some of the women of Brooklands may have raced as a “lark”, as part of the high-profile, social elite scene of the day – a playful race, a dressy lunch, then a long chit-chat with friends while the men did the same or continued racing. However, speed clearly ignited an unquenchable fire in the hearts of several of these female drivers, especially given their quickness on track and the fact that many competed at other venues and types of racing, such as rallies, hill-climbs, and endurance events. Their efforts demonstrated an aptitude for racing and a competitive spirit. While most may not have raced for money, they clearly did not drive dangerously fast, putting their lives on the line, just to impress the men or to have something to do before lunch. A mere handful of the many names in the fabulous Brooklands group who earned respect from men and women alike for their speed and car control include Kay
PREVIOUS PAGES/RIGHT: SILODROME.
Called by the press the “motoring Ascot”, Brooklands continued the horse-racing metaphor by calling its car stalls “paddocks” and having drivers wear “silks” to identify themselves, like jockeys. Using the excuse that no jockeys were women at that time, Brooklands’ genteel male enthusiasts, the Brooklands Automobile Racing Club (BARC), did not at first allow women to race on its 2.75-mile oval, highly banked and bumpy cement surface. In 1908, women could race each other in a “Ladies’ Bracelet Handicap”, tying down their skirts at the ankles to avoid “scandal” and wearing coloured silk scarves that teammates could quickly swap over to each other. Finally, in 1932, BARC allowed women to race against men in the same contests. One sports scholar has identified 80 women who raced at Brooklands at least once in their careers, while a number of others are known to have worked on cars as mechanics. That number pales in comparison with the 1,000 male racers at Brooklands, but it still
BELOW: BROOKLANDS MUSEUM
MOTORINAS
MOTORINAS
One sports scholar has identified 80 women who raced at Brooklands at least once in their careers, while a number of others are known to have worked on cars as mechanics
Above (left to right): racing legends Gwenda Stewart-Hawkes, Doreen Evens, Kay Petre and Elsie “Bill” Wisdom photographed in 1935. Left: Jill Scott behind the wheel of a 7.2-litre Leyland-Thomas No 1 at Brooklands in 1929
Petre, Gwenda Stewart-Hawkes, Margaret Allan, Elsie “Bill” Wisdom, Jill Scott and Doreen Evans. Space allows only a few highlights about each of these marvellous drivers here. Kay Petre and Gwenda Stewart-Hawkes raced frequently and set speed records. Remembered partly for her small stature in contrast to the mammoth Delage that she frequently drove with an adapted seat and foot pedals, Canadian-born Petre was a regular and popular racer at Brooklands. She competed in at least 48 events there in addition to racing elsewhere, including three times at the Le Mans 24 Hours (placing 13th in 1934). She and Stewart-Hawkes passed each other back and forth in setting the final women’s speed record at Brooklands. The matter was finally settled in 1935 when Petre reached a speed of 134.24mph, but Stewart-Hawkes, a thrice-married former motorcycle racer who had honed her skills as an ambulance driver, deftly dodging shell craters during World War I, bettered Petre’s speed at 135.95mph.
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While the Brooklands era pre-dates Goodwood’s 1948-66 active period by nearly a decade, Goodwood saw further accomplishments by women at the wheel with wins and fastest laps from drivers such as Pat Moss, Hazel Dunham, Jean Bloxam, and Kathleen Howard. What these motorinas proved is that the women making inroads into motorsport today should not be treated as novelties. Ever since the early decades of the automobile, women have excelled in competitive driving – 2001’s Paris-Dakar winner Jutta Kleinschmidt is just one example, not to mention Danica Patrick and Susie Wolff, who both went on to achieve great feats outside F1. Yet so far the only woman to secure points (or, to be precise, half a point) in an F1 World Championship was Maria Grazia “Lella” Lombardi, who finished sixth in the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix. Perhaps now, with a growing number of female team leaders making decisions for professional racing organisations, we will finally see more female drivers once more on the track. A female victory is long overdue.
Below: Gwenda Stewart-Hawkes poses with her Derby racing car at Brooklands in 1935. The circuit’s fastest female driver, she took the Brooklands Ladies Outer Circuit lap record at 135.95mph
SILODROME
Margaret Allan’s adventures in life only seemed to begin at Brooklands. Born into a wealthy shipping family, the Scot learned to drive because her mother wanted her to be able to transport guests. At Brooklands she competed in 28 events, was awarded the 120mph badge, and went on to race for the MG Works team at Le Mans. During the war, Allan worked in the intelligence de-coding centre at Bletchley Park, then afterwards as a motoring journalist for Vogue magazine. Elsie “Bill” Wisdom was the only girl in a family of eight children. Her brothers nicknamed her “Bill”, and the name stuck. Among her achievements at Brooklands was being one of the first women to win a men’s and women’s combined race and setting a new lap record in 1932 in a 7.2-litre Leyland-Thomas single-seater, a car that men thought too unpredictable and dangerous for any woman to drive. She also earned the 120mph badge, one of only four women to do so at Brooklands. Jill Scott and Doreen Evans, like most of the Brooklands women, came to the track through men in their families. The Scotts bought property nearby, so both husband and wife got in plenty of track time. Jill earned the 120mph women’s badge, driving a speed of 120.88mph in September 1928, in the couple’s 2-litre Grand Prix Sunbeam. Evans had two brothers who raced at Brooklands, and she first did so herself aged just 17, shortly thereafter becoming a member of the MG Works team. She survived a fire in her MG at Brooklands in 1936, when she jumped clear just in time, suffering only bruising and minor burns to her legs.
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‘…a fantastic audio package.’ What Hi-Fi?
Woof Hall
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DOGS OF GOODWOOD
From pampered foxhounds to Britain’s first Pekingese, canine companions have always played a prominent role in Goodwood life – as you can see from their frequent appearances in the Estate’s art collection Words by James Collard
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DOGS OF GOODWOOD
Previous pages: The 3rd Duke of Richmond with the Charlton Hunt by George Stubbs, 1759-60. Above (left to right): Charles, 3rd Duke of Richmond, Lennox and Aubigny by Pompeo Batoni, Rome, 1755; Sheldon, a Chestnut Hunter by John Wootton, 1746; The Duchess of Richmond by Paul Brason, 2002
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THERE ARE ANCESTRAL PORTRAITS everywhere you look at Goodwood House; as in most country houses, the family tree is on the walls for all to see. And, alongside the ancestors are birds and animals: toucans on the Sèvres service, mythical beasts, like the stone sphinxes flanking Carne’s Seat, or Sheldon, a Chestnut Hunter, one of six paintings of hunters commissioned by the 2nd Duke from artist John Wootton. Critters everywhere, but most of all, dogs – an extraordinary variety of dogs, popping up like so many canine extras alongside whoever is meant to be the star of a portrait: the spaniels sprawled beside one of those hunters or cosying up to a Lennox family member, the Jack Russell perched on a house guest’s lap during Race Week, or the mysterious mutt (what is it – a corpulent greyhound, a giant bull terrier?) in Canaletto’s Allegorical Tomb of Archbishop Tillotson, commissioned by the 2nd Duke of Richmond. At Goodwood, however, dogs are seldom precisely an extra; they have a tendency to thrust themselves centre stage. True, the white German shepherd dozing behind The Duchess of Richmond (the Paul
ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF GOODWOOD
DOGS OF GOODWOOD
Brason portrait of Susan, Duchess of Richmond) might have the flimsiest of cameo roles. But just try telling the lurcher at her feet that his is just a bit part. But all this doggy pre-eminence is only right and fitting, given that but for foxhounds – and the foxes they pursued – Goodwood House might have remained simply a small estate and house, rather than the seat of a great dynasty. For it was this emerging sport, and the nearby Charlton Hunt, that brought Charles Lennox, the 1st Duke, to Goodwood, where he initially rented the house for the hunting season, then bought it outright in 1697. A love of dogs, sporting and otherwise, could be said to be in the 1st Duke’s DNA. His father was Charles II – a man who liked English toy
and Gordon Lennox family on their land at Goodwood and later in Scotland – with generation after generation of foxhounds and gun dogs a familiar presence in their lives. For centuries, the chase in England had generally meant the pursuit of deer, but in the 17th century, fox hunting emerged as an exhilarating alternative – and nowhere more so than at Charlton, just three miles from Goodwood itself. The hunt that first attracted the 1st Duke to the area was an elite, invitation-only affair – and thought to be the earliest documented. At one point its membership included half the knights of the Order of the Garter. Grandees such as the Duke of Devonshire and the Earl of Oxford kept hunting boxes in Charlton
spaniels so much, the breed was named after him. His mother was one of the King’s mistresses, Louise de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth. Louise’s portrait hangs in the ballroom at Goodwood – complete with pet spaniel, sniffing around in the shadows at the foot of the painting. The pursuits of hunting – and later shooting and fishing – were a key part of country life as enjoyed by generations of the Lennox
village and held a grand annual dinner there. The 2nd Duke turned out to be an even more enthusiastic huntsman than his father. In January 1738 he took up his diary to record “the greatest chase that ever was”, in which the hounds ran continuously for more than nine-and-a-half hours – covering some 57 miles of Sussex countryside over the course of one day. The Duke was one of only three riders to stay the distance.
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We know the foxhounds’ names from the Charlton Hunt’s ledgers: Pompey, the offspring of Comfort & Pompey; Kitty, of Comely & Ranker, and so on. But sadly the pack was dispersed in 1750 – when the 2nd Duke died suddenly. But just seven years later the 3rd Duke took up the sport in a big way, bringing back some of the bloodlines from the original pack and installing his hounds in the splendid new kennels he built at Goodwood, commissioned from architect James Wyatt. Along with Sir William Chambers’ splendid stable block, this gave rise to the running joke that at Goodwood, the animals always have the grandest homes – and true enough, the 3rd Duke’s hounds enjoyed an early form of central heating, an innovation that wouldn’t arrive at the main house for more than a century. The 3rd Duke’s soft heart when it came to dogs is also apparent in his portrait by Pompeo Batoni, in which his spaniel steals the show with that imploring paw placed on the Duke’s wide cuffs – in a gesture every spaniel owner would recognise – even as the Duke obligingly caresses his ear and scratches him, just where he likes, under the collar.
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We might think of the Duke as a grand seigneur and Enlightenment figure – a reader of Rousseau, man of science, Grand Tourist and collector of sculpture. But we see him here more as the originator of walks, of treats, and of downed birds, eagerly to be retrieved. What’s more, this is how the Duke commissioned this modish Roman artist to portray him while in the midst of that fashionable Grand Tour, and there’s even a companion picture of his much-loved brother, George, also with an adoring spaniel – suggesting that the Lennox boys took their favourite dogs with them on their travels. Some of the 3rd Duke’s foxhounds are immortalised in a painting he commissioned by George Stubbs, The 3rd Duke of Richmond with the Charlton Hunt, in which we know the hounds portrayed are accurate portraits of known dogs. Stubbs also painted an equestrian portrait, now in an American collection, of The Countess of Coningsby in the Costume of the Charlton Hunt – and trotting behind the Countess’s hunter, perilously close to its hind legs, we can see what might just be a red Pomeranian, which would make the fashionable
DOGS OF GOODWOOD
Lady Coningsby an “early adopter” of the breed, then only recently imported from Germany by Queen Charlotte. A century or so later, Goodwood was one of the first places where another exotic breed might be spotted – surely one of the strangest spoils of war ever. Today, Pekingese dogs are popular pets all over the world. But for centuries the breed was kept exclusively by members of the Chinese Imperial Court – and bred for courtly life. In 1860, during the 2nd Opium War, the Emperor fled his Summer Palace as a joint British and French force approached. One of his elderly aunts remained, however – only to commit suicide as the troops stormed the palace. Her five pet Pekingese were seized by English officers, with one given to Queen Victoria (who named it Looty), two presented to the Duchess of Wellington, and a further pair given to the Duchess of Richmond. It is from these two Pekingese, called Guh and Meh – and possibly Schloff, one of the pair presented to the Duchess of Wellington – that the famous Goodwood strain of Pekingese evolved. And once again, they pop up throughout family photographs, sitting at the feet of the future 7th and 8th Dukes, for example, at a shooting party at Gordon Castle – a living, yapping relic of imperial China transposed to the Scottish Highlands and Sussex Downs. The 7th Duke briefly reintroduced what was then called the Goodwood Hunt after a long hiatus in the 1880s. By then, Wyatt’s splendid Kennels were home to the Duke’s racing trainer, so the Duke housed his hounds just across the road at the newly built Hound Lodge. It lasted just 12 seasons and, but for the spectacular one-off meet of the Charlton Hunt held in 2016 to commemorate its former glories, that was the end of Goodwood’s long and close association with hunting (although the Chiddingfold, Leconfield and Cowdray Hunt still hunts on the old Charlton Hunt land). Today both The Kennels and Hound Lodge are key elements in hospitality at Goodwood and both, appropriately enough, are eminently dogfriendly. The Kennels are Goodwood’s private members’ club – complete with individual dog bowls for members’ pets in the hall, over which John Wootton’s portrait of the foxhound Tapster presides. And Tapster is very much the star of that painting. Across the road, canine guests of Hound Lodge get to decide between bedding down in the restored kennels outside in the garden or dozing in front of a log fire indoors. No contest, surely.
Five pet Pekingese were seized from the Chinese Imperial Court, with one given to Queen Victoria, who named it Looty... and two presented to the Duchess of Richmond
Opposite: The Kennels, with John Wootton’s portrait of the foxhound Tapster in pride of place. Left: the current Duke of Richmond’s working cocker spaniels, Ruby (right) and Leto
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REWILDING
Rewilding, an ambitious form of conservation that isn’t just trying to preserve what’s left but restore what’s lost, is a controversial topic. But on a number of large British estates, it’s already happening. So will parts of the country once again echo to the howl of wolves? Words by Patrick Barkham
Illustrations by Eri Griffin
IF YOU TAKE A WALK BEYOND DIAL POST, the classic rolling countryside of the Sussex Weald gives way to something more surprising. A neatly hedged patchwork of wheat and pasture is replaced by overgrown fields filled with hummocks of bramble and scrubby hawthorn. Roaming free among thickets of sallow and wildflowers are ginger-coloured Tamworth pigs, English Longhorn cattle, red and fallow deer and Exmoor ponies. It’s an exotic scene, and it sounds different too: there’s a cacophony of birdsong, from the soft tur-turring of the endangered turtle dove to the extravagant riffs of rare nightingales. This is the Knepp Castle Estate, which, over the last 18 years, has been transformed from conventional dairy and arable farm into a 1,400-hectare rewilding experiment. Knepp is filled with a wealth of nature, from little owls to purple emperor butterflies. But it provokes visceral reactions: some people are thrilled by the sight of nature running wild; others find the dereliction and weeds distressing. But what is rewilding? Why is it so controversial? And how could it change our much-loved countryside? Rewilding was coined in America to describe an ambitious form of conservation that isn’t just trying to preserve what’s left but restore what’s lost. Rewilders want
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to return natural ecological processes to large areas of landscape – allowing species other than humans to shape the environment. This might mean removing fences so animals roam free, or removing drains to allow rivers to meander along their natural course. And, most eye-catchingly of all, rewilding usually means reviving megafauna: bringing back charismatic predators or key species – wolves, lynx, or beavers – possessed with the power to change a landscape. In Britain, rewilding has been popularised by the environmentalist George Monbiot, whose 2013 book, Feral, is an eloquent call to rewild all aspects of life, including ourselves. But, as rewilding gains popularity, so it attracts criticism – and confusion. To which wild period should we return? As wild as 1800, 1066 or 10,000 years ago? Some advocates, such as Knepp’s owners, Sir Charles Burrell and Isabella Tree, prefer “wilding”, for we can never turn the countryside’s clock back to a precise moment. And how ancient or large should the megafauna be? Wild boar? Bears? Or even woolly mammoths? Is the influential predator known as Homo sapiens to be excluded from rewilded countryside? A classic example of rewilding is in Yellowstone National Park, which is as big as England’s largest county, North
REWILDING
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Just over a decade ago, the beautiful 17,000-hectare estate of Glenfeshie was purchased by Anders Holch Povlsen, a Danish billionaire, who has embraced a bold 200-year vision to “allow the land to move towards its full ecological potential”, as Thomas MacDonell, conservation director of Povlsen’s company, Wildland, puts it. The biggest revolution on the estate sounds uncontroversial: shooting deer. It’s what sporting estates do, but this has been a more drastic decade-long cull. In 2004, there were protests outside Glenfeshie’s estate office, not from animal rights groups but from the stalking industry. Neighbouring estates have been fiercely critical: estate values are linked to how many deer they can stalk. The cull has reduced Glenfeshie’s deer density from 40 deer per sq km to less than one deer per sq km. Without deer browsing green shoots, the glen is filled with young trees sprouting through the heather. “People talk about the forests creeping and crawling,” says MacDonell, “but the woodland in Glenfeshie is sprinting up the hill.” This burgeoning vegetation supports resurgent populations of predators and prey – tawny owls and field voles, pine martens and black grouse. Glenfeshie is in the Cairngorms, and within the UK’s largest National Park are several adjoining schemes to restore land with Caledonian pine forest, including
When beavers returned to Yellowstone – and began to dam streams and create new pools – so too did otters, muskrats, reptiles, fish, birds and insects
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Yorkshire. Yellowstone’s reintroduction of the grey wolf in 1995 caused a great chain of unanticipated consequences which benefitted other species and transformed this enormous wilderness. As wildlife biologist Doug Smith said: “It is like kicking a pebble down a mountain slope where conditions were just right that a falling pebble could trigger an avalanche of change.” In Yellowstone, the wolf’s return helped beavers bounce back: ecologists discovered that the wolves kept elk constantly moving throughout winter, preventing the elk from eating all the willow upon which the beavers depend. When the beavers returned to dam streams and create new pools, so too did otters, muskrats, reptiles, fish, birds and insects. Because wolves reduced coyote populations, and rabbits and mice increased, the red fox returned too, as did ravens, which fed on wolf kills. Rewilding on this scale will never happen in the humandominated English lowlands but rewilders are hopeful that tracts of land much larger than Knepp could be returned to nature in upland Britain. In the Scottish Highlands, rewilders challenge our view of what’s “natural”. They point out that this apparent wilderness, with its spectacular bare mountains, is a landscape mostly created by Victorians, and maintained by sheep and, more recently, deer for stalking. The Highlands were once dominated by Caledonian pine forest and some of it is being returned to this state.
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Abernethy Forest, an RSPB reserve. Wildland now owns 89,000 hectares in three parts of the Highlands and Povlsen hopes to build a rural economy on eco-tourism. Many conservationists in Scotland shy away from the term “rewilding” however, and wolves are still a long way off. Naturalists estimate that Yellowstone-style rewilding with wolves would require at least 100,000 hectares in one Highland area. While wolves are spreading across Europe – moving into Belgium this winter, and surviving in suburban areas of Germany – they attract fierce opposition from farmers and hunters. In Britain, proposals to reintroduce a small number of GPS-collared lynx into Northumberland have met with fierce local opposition. While the lynx is a shy wildcat that preys upon roe deer and is no threat to people, several lynx that recently escaped from wildlife parks and killed sheep haven’t enhanced their reputation. Rewilders may struggle to convert farmers to the wisdom of reintroducing large carnivores but many European rewilding projects are reviving less controversial wild herbivores – bison, Konik ponies and beavers. Frans Vera, an influential Dutch ecologist, believes old theories that Europe was once covered with dense “wildwood” are wrong, and in fact ancient forests would have had open glades created by the grazing of wild herbivores – a landscape not unlike a classic English country park. In Britain, the herbivorous beaver may prove to be our most influential rewilding candidate. The way it dams streams has been shown to hold back floodwater – a useful,
Proposals to introduce a small number of GPS-collared lynx into Northumberland have met with fierce local opposition 69
REWILDING
cheap and natural form of flood defence. Four centuries after being driven to extinction there, the beaver was recognised again as a native mammal in Scotland in 2016 after two reintroductions. In England, wild beavers have returned to the River Otter in Devon. The government has licensed two other schemes whereby beavers were placed in fenced areas in the Forest of Dean and Cornwall to alleviate flooding. The government’s new 25-year plan for the environment makes favourable references to beavers, which Knepp says will encourage the “dynamic management of nature” – not quite daring to mention “rewilding” but not far short of it. Rewilding still attracts controversy, however. Some say it will force local people – particularly farmers – out of rural areas. Others argue it might jeopardise the recovery of some species saved with traditional conservation, in which countryside is managed as it has been traditionally farmed over centuries. Perhaps the strongest argument against rewilding is that it takes farmland out of production. As the world’s population grows from seven to 10 billion by 2050, critics say we urgently need to grow as much food as possible. At Knepp, where heavy clay soils made conventional farming unprofitable by the 1990s, Isabella Tree argues that we can already feed 10 billion because around a third of our food is wasted each year, and we also use valuable agricultural land to grow biofuels. Besides, rewilded Knepp is still a “farm” – supplying high-quality organic meat from its free-ranging animals.
We may not always choose rewilding: stretches of our coast may be rewilded whether we like it or not. Scientists predict that last century’s 19cm rise in mean sea level will be followed by a global rise of more than 70cm this century. Britain’s coastline is longer than India’s; it would be impossible to swaddle it all in concrete. While cities like London or Hull will always be protected, in other areas it will be too expensive to do anything but retreat from rising seas. This is already happening on low-lying coastlines in Suffolk, Essex – and in West Sussex. The largest “managed realignment” scheme on the open coast in Europe was completed at Medmerry five years ago. To locals’ initial alarm, the Environment Agency punched a hole in sea defences and “let the sea go” into 183 hectares of land, which became a new wild, intertidal area. Such natural coastlines are surprisingly effective at dissipating wave energy. Four miles of new floodbanks were built further inland to protect homes, which now have flood defences calculated to be 100 times more effective. They were immediately tested by the storms of 2013/14 and proved successful. Rewilding purists are likely to be disappointed that Britain won’t echo to the howl of wolves any time soon, but a subtler form of rewilding, particularly to improve flood defences on coasts and rivers, is on its way. The countryside is set to become a more surprising place. Patrick Barkham is the author of Islander: A Journey Around Our Archipelago and The Butterfly Isles
Rewilding groups are focusing on a variety of animals including lynx, bison, beavers, little owls and Purple Emperor butterflies
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JOCHEN MASS
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Captain Fantastic
JOCHEN MASS
Words by Rob Widdows
He partnered James Hunt, mentored Michael Schumacher, and survived two horrendous crashes. Jochen Mass, Captain of Darnley at this year’s Members’ Meeting, looks back on the highs and lows of life in the fast lane
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“I WAS FLYING THROUGH THE AIR AND THEN I hit the ground violently and my car caught fire. I remember all these pictures of my life passing in slow motion… my little boys… it was beautiful. My wife was watching on TV at the time and the commentator said, ‘He’s dead. He couldn’t survive a crash like that. He was a nice guy…’ and all that.” But Jochen Mass did survive to tell the tale, many tales, of a career that brought victory in Formula 1 and at Le Mans, and a World Sportscar Championship. Now “Hermann the German”, as his mechanics at McLaren called him, has swapped his fireproofs for the blue and white striped blazer of a House Captain at the Goodwood Members’ Meeting. Jochen is Captain of Darnley, one of four “houses” that compete for points both on and off the circuit at Goodwood’s traditional spring meeting. In a pastiche of the English public school system, each house has a team of both drivers and spectators, who win points through race results and via an eclectic range of field sports as disparate as football and welly-boot throwing. Darnley has yet to win the coveted House Shield. “My role is to lead my team, to encourage them in their sports and then to try and win points for the house myself when I’m racing. I love the Members’ Meeting because the fans are at the very heart of it – there’s an intimacy that’s missing from most motor events these days. They want to be in the house with the best cars and drivers. They like to play the game. So while I do my best in the cars, I urge them on to win the tug-of-war, or the egg-and-spoon. It’s competitive, naturally, because all four captains are racing drivers, past or present.” Jochen had no big ambition to be a racing driver. As a boy, he dreamed of going to sea and joined the Merchant Navy. Coming ashore, he caught sight of a hillclimb near his home in Bavaria, and was captivated by the speed of the cars flashing through the forest. Sails were about to give way to wheels. “I had always loved sailing – being at one with the boat and the ocean – and when I got myself into a Grand Prix car I found it gave me a similar feeling. When you race you become one with the car, the instruments, the steering wheel and, just like sailing a boat, you’ve got to be in control of both yourself and the car too. You’re in your own world, at peace in a strange way…” Jochen’s career was a rollercoaster, filled with extreme highs and lows. At McLaren he partnered with James Hunt during a purple patch for the team, and the two of them played as hard as they raced. “James was a wild man and we did some crazy things together, but I never understood the superstar thing. He was a masterful driver, but I had the natural talent, and I knew I was as fast as him… so when he beat me I began to realise the team was favouring him with better equipment. Maybe I was too laid-back; I should have been a bit tougher.” It was with McLaren that Jochen took his only F1 victory, in Spain in 1975 – but his win was bittersweet. “It was such a very sad day. I won the Grand Prix but Rolf
“James [Hunt] was a wild man and we did some crazy things together, but I never understood the superstar thing... I had the natural talent”
Previous pages: Jochen Mass at the 1977 Argentine Grand Prix. Above: at the 1976 German Grand Prix
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PREVIOUS PAGES/LEFT: GETTY IMAGES; TOP: GOODWOOD; RIGHT: AMY SHORE
JOCHEN MASS
JOCHEN MASS
“I had been so damn lucky. I walked away from those big accidents unscathed. But it was time to get out” Stommelen was killed when his rear wing broke and his car went flying over the barriers, killing five spectators as well. The race was stopped. We had all been worried about track safety because the barriers had not been properly mounted the day before and we weren’t sure they had been fixed overnight. We threatened a boycott, but we raced, and then this tragedy happened. I didn’t want to win like that.” At that time, triumph and tragedy so often went hand in hand in a sport that was both glamorous and dangerous. In 1982 Jochen decided that he had had enough, having survived a horrendous crash in Belgium in which his friend Gilles Villeneuve lost his life. Then two months later in France, he had the miracle escape to which he refers at the beginning of our story.
“I had been so damn lucky. I walked away from those big accidents unscathed, but it was time to get out. There was nothing for me in Formula 1 any more.” Having stepped away, Jochen went on to forge a hugely successful career in sports cars. He won all the blue riband races at Daytona, Sebring, Spa, the fearsome Nürburgring and most famously the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the Sauber Mercedes team where he mentored a young man called Michael Schumacher. “I couldn’t teach him to go faster,” recalls Mass. “He was fast already. Sometimes I was quicker, and that really annoyed him, but it’s because I was stronger – the car was tough to steer sometimes, so you needed to have the muscles. That’s when he began the training regime that made him the fittest driver in Formula 1. He was a very special driver, meticulous, and hell-bent on getting the maximum out of the car. I would say, ‘Michael, the car is good. Leave it alone,’ but he’d always say that we could do more. It was obvious to me that he was someone very special.” Perhaps it might seem strange that in an interview about himself, Mass is far more comfortable discussing the lives of other racing greats than his own, but it’s what you might expect from this particularly modest man. Happiest on the deck of his wooden sailing boat, he has lived his racing dreams to the full, made his name in motorsport history, and today, the Captain of Darnley remains one of Goodwood’s best-loved racers. Goodwood Members’ Meeting takes place on March 17-18 2018. For information, visit Goodwood.com/ membersmeeting or call us on 01243 755055
Above: Mass at the wheel of a silver Mercedes at 2016’s Members’ Meeting. Left: a quiet moment at the 2014 Festival of Speed
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C A S S S C U L P T U R E F O U N D AT I O N I S T H E P E R F E C T C A N VA S F O R T H I S S E A S O N ’ S A R T- I N S P I R E D D E S I G N S
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Stylist Florrie Thomas
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PAGES 76-77 Alida crepe satin dress, £1,795, ROKSANDA, roksanda.com; Nini mule, £695, NICHOLAS KIRKWOOD, nicholaskirkwood.com; earrings in 18k gold-plated brass, £250, ANISSA KERMICHE x REJINA PYO, NET-A-PORTER.COM Left: “Shadow line”, 2001, bronze, £6,420, by ANN CHRISTOPHER Right: “Sleepwalk”, 2017, oil and spray on canvas, £6,400, by GABRIEL HARTLEY
PAGES 78-79 Silk halter-neck dress and scarf, £560, TORY BURCH, toryburch.co.uk; white leather slippers with clear/wooden ball heels, £395, NEOUS, NET-A-PORTER.COM; silver ball ring in rhodium-plated brass, £75, SORENNA ROSTAMPOUR, sorennarostampour.com Right, clockwise from top left: details of “Platforms”, 2017, foam, resin, pigment, £5,000, £3,800, £4,500, £4,500, by GABRIEL HARTLEY
PAGES 80-81 Silk spotted dress, £3,185, VALENTINO, valentino.com; white leather shoes with mirror heel, £460, NEOUS, harveynichols.com; sterling silver earrings, £305, MING YU WANG, mingyuwangnewyork.com; silver ball ring in rhodium-plated brass, £75, SORENNA ROSTAMPOUR, sorennarostmapour.com “Untitled (Cut Paper)”, 1967, framed photograph, £38,000, by FREDERICK SOMMER; “Kirkstall”, 2001, painted mild welded steel, £1,800, by PETER HIDE; “Platforms”, 2017, foam, resin and pigment, (various prices), by GABRIEL HARTLEY; “Jade”, 2016, enamel on bronze, £11,000, by EDDIE MARTINEZ, courtesy of Timothy Taylor London/New York; “Untitled”, 2016, enamel on oil paint on bronze, £11,000, by EDDIE MARTINEZ, courtesy of Timothy Taylor London/New York
PAGES 82-83 Optical striped top in cobalt silk and viscose waffle knit, £1,930, and high-waisted check trousers in cobalt silk marocain crepe, £4,260, both by HERMES, uk.hermes.com; gold-plated silver earrings, £220, BECCA JEWELLERY, beccajewellery.co.uk Above: “Untitled (U-Shape Maquette)”, 2017, honeycomb board, cardboard, pastel and graphite on paper, £1,800, by MICHAEL PAGE Opposite: “Interior”, 2017, oil on canvas, £7,000, by SEAN STEADMAN
PAGES 84-85 Flora bubble skirt, £1,100, MARY KATRANTZOU, marykatrantzou.com; cotton and linen blend white dress seen as a top, £835, STELLA MCCARTNEY, stellamccartney.com; beige slippers, price on request, MALONE SOULIERS x ROKSANDA, roksanda.com; sterling silver earrings, £305, MING YU WANG, mingyuwangnewyork.com Left: “Reading at the Wall”, 1944-55, pencil on paper, (not for sale) by PETER LASZLO PERI Centre: “HERE”, 2017, steel, frame glass, wood, fabric dye, (not for sale), by SARAH BRAMAN
PAGES 86-87 Red taffeta dress, £1,345, STELLA MCCARTNEY, stellamccartney.com; white leather mules with gold heels, £720, SALVATORE FERRAGAMO, ferragamo.com; gold-plated brass with semi-precious stone earring, £85 for single earring, SORENNA ROSTAMPOUR, sorennarostampour.com; yellow silk dress, £1,660, FENDI, fendi.com; blue leather and net stilettos, £675, MANOLO BLAHNIK, manoloblahnik.com Left: “Platforms”, 2017, foam, resin and pigment, (various prices), by GABRIEL HARTLEY Right: (above) “Platforms”, 2017, by GABRIEL HARTLEY; “Kirkstall”, 2001, painted mild welded steel, £1,800, BY PETER HIDE; “Untitled”, 2016, patina on bronze, £11,000, by EDDIE MARTINEZ courtesy of Timothy Taylor London/New York
PAGES 88-89 Silk colour-block long dress, £4,440, AKRIS, akris.com; kid suede black Raymond shoes, £550, LAURENCE DACADE, NET-A-PORTER.COM; gold-plated and enamel ring, £120, MISHO DESIGNS, mishodesigns.com; earring, 18k gold-plated brass with freshwater pearl, £295, ANISSA KERMICHE x REJINA PYO, harveynichols.com Left: “Interior”, 2017, oil on canvas, £7,000, by SEAN STEADMAN Right: “Untitled (Cut Paper)”, 1967, framed photograph, £38,000, by FREDERICK SOMMER
PAGES 90-91 Silk dress, £1,215, CHALAYAN, chalayan.com; white calf leather Posy mules, £480, CHLOE GOSSELIN, chloegosselin.com; earring, 18k gold-plated brass with freshwater pearl £295, ANISSA KERMICHE x REJINA PYO, harveynichols.com; gold-plated and enamel ring, £120, MISHO DESIGNS, mishodesigns.com “HERE”, 2017, steel, frame glass, wood, fabric dye, (not for sale), by SARAH BRAMAN
LIGHTING ASSISTANT: RICHARD BARTRAM / DIGITAL TECHNICIAN: ROLAND GOPAL-CHOWDHURY / STYLIST’S ASSISTANT: FILIPPA ENGVALL / HAIR: DAVID WADLOW AT PREMIER HAIR & MAKE-UP / MAKE-UP: SHAMA AT ONE REPRESENTS MODEL: MADDY T AT PREMIER MODEL MANAGEMENT SHOT ON LOCATION AT CASS SCULPTURE FOUNDATION ON THE GOODWOOD ESTATE
Pale
Clockwise from top left: Hermès Spring/Summer 2018; VW Beetle in Arctic Blue; 1958 Cadillac Series 62 Coupe deVille in Mountain Laurel; Versace Spring/Summer 2018
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Words by Kate Finnigan
Pastels are back on the fashion catwalks, but for car enthusiasts, those bright but delicate ice-cream shades will always call to mind the bodywork of classic 1950s automobiles
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: HERMES; GETTY; CADILLAC; VERSACE
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ICE-CREAM COLOURS
IT BEGAN IN MILAN AT MEN’S FASHION WEEK in June 2017, when Versace debuted a head-to-toe pastel look for Spring/Summer 2018. Then, in September, at the women’s fashion weeks, similar hues – pale strawberry, mint green and lilac – were dished out like confectionery by designers. Starting in New York, where Victoria Beckham and Tom Ford’s collections majored on the pastel palette, the trend carried on to London at Peter Pilotto, Preen By Thornton Bregazzi and Pringle of Scotland, before sweeping through Milan, with Versace’s head-to-toe blue and pink ensembles providing a stylish highlight. In Paris, even design heavyweights Céline and Hermès proved themselves not too grand for a lighter touch. To car connoisseurs, these sugared-almond shades strike an immediate aesthetic chord. For it’s the pastelcoloured Cadillacs, T-Birds and VW Beetles of the 1950s – along with everything from fitted kitchens and appliances to full-circle skirts – that defined the era. Such was their prominence that one could almost believe pastels were invented in that decade, although modernist designers in the 1930s and ’40s had certainly recognised the appeal of these lighter shades. But the big change in the 1950s – and why we so strongly associate pastels with Cadillacs and Capri pants – is that advances in technology meant that paint colours and colour treatments for products were suddenly available in any possible hue. American families were flocking to the suburbs, and as they found more time
It was the pastel-coloured Cadillacs, T-Birds and VW Beetles of the 1950s – along with everything from fitted kitchens to full-circle skirts – that truly defined the era
Left: the 1959 Fiat 500 Jolly, born of Fiat boss Gianni Agnelli’s desire for open transport from his yacht during port stops along the Mediterranean coast
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ICE-CREAM COLOURS
LEFT: BONHAMS. RIGHT: CADILLAC
for recreation, they also sought out a more fun, modern style of interior design for their spacious new pads. With the growth of advertising, there was also more scientific interest in colour and its benefits and appeal. Cars, almost more than any other consumer item in this most consumerist of eras – took particular advantage. Look through any 1950s car brochure and the pretty-asa-picture palette leaps out. If you’d ordered a Cadillac DeVille in 1956, for example, you could have selected from Dawn Gray mauve, minty Duchess Green, baby Sonic Blue or butter-yellow Cape Ivory (names that would give Farrow & Ball a run for its money). In fact, any commercially available paint colour could be specified via Cadillac’s Special Order service. The following year saw plenty more options too – your Ford Thunderbird could be Dusk Rose, a vanilla Sun Gold or Stormiest Blue. And it wasn’t just Americans who were getting in on the act. Volkswagen Beetles were Iris Blue or lilac (just like Palma Violets), while the first Fiat 500s in the late 1950s and early ’60s were available in beiges and creams, powder blue and mint. Quite a progression, when you consider Henry Ford’s much-quoted remark about the Model T on its release back in 1909: “Any customer can have a car painted any colour he wants so long as it is black.” No doubt he was biased, having discovered that of all the colours, black paint was the fastest to dry. Nevertheless, pastels won over in the end, with contrasting interiors that made the bodywork shades really pop. The fashion designers of the 1950s were in on the act too, dressing many of the decade’s most notable figures in sugary shades – most notably, Mamie Eisenhower. General Dwight D Eisenhower’s wife was a popular figure, whose outgoing character, overt femininity and love of dressing up endeared her to the public. She wore what became one of the most famous dresses in American fashion history to the 1953 Inaugural Ball – a pink peau de soie gown embroidered with more than 2,000 rhinestones, designed by Nettie Rosenstein. And she didn’t stop there. A woman who had carried around a colour card of her favourite shades to all the houses she’d moved into as the wife of a soldier, she decorated the White House with so much pink, it was known by the press as The Pink Palace. And her chosen shade of pastel, now firmly associated with 1950s decorating, became known as Mamie Pink.
Left: adverts for the 1954 Cadillac Series 60 Special and the 1954 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible epitomised the decade’s bright, optimistic outlook
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From palest pink to mint green and icy blue, these lively shades were wholeheartedly embraced after years of dreary wartime khaki and restriction. What’s more, they reflected the comfort and stability craved by families reuniting after the conflict. Pastels were reassuring, homely and warm. It’s striking, too, that this time around, the new season’s latest pastels crush comes in the wake of a long run of earthy, 1970s-style colours in fashion, which are often thought of as difficult: brown, ochres, vivid yellows and flashes of orange and scarlet. The comparative simplicity of pink, blue and lilac feels now – as then – something of a relief. For pastels have always evoked the same feelings – springtime, youthfulness, good weather, fun and a certain innocence – associations and sentiments which, like the colours, also go in and out of fashion according to the mood of our times. At various points, pastels will seem lame, girly or slightly embarrassing, or, as now, cool, refreshing, optimistic even. In times of political uncertainty, perhaps it’s not too far a stretch to suggest that this is the reason we’ve once again sought them out. A more cynical view might be that designers are only too aware how well eye-catching colour does online – the world in which we all now live and shop. From retail sales to likes on Instagram, colour works. And none more so than pink, which has certainly proven its mettle via the millennial demographic – to the point where the phrase “millennial pink” has entered the lexicon. Big brands are still desperate to romance millennials. If only they could expand that love of pink into an equal fondness for, say, lilac, baby blue, mint green or primrose yellow… Well, wouldn’t that be a pretty picture?
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GETTY IMAGES; CHANEL
Pastels were reassuring and warm... these lively shades were embraced after years of dreary wartime khaki and restriction
Top left: the interior of a 1962 Ford Thunderbird. Above: Chanel’s Spring/Summer 2018 runway show
Bonhams is delighted to announce the 25th annual auction at the world-renowned Goodwood Festival of Speed. Some of the world’s finest motor cars have been sold at the Bonhams Goodwood Festival of Speed Sale and this year will continue that tradition with this magnificent Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato. Further entries are now invited, to consign your motor car please contact the department. ENQUIRIES +44 (0) 20 7468 5801 ukcars@bonhams.com
Important Collectors’ Motor Cars and Automobilia 13 July 2018 Chichester, Sussex
‘2 VEV’ - the Essex Racing Stable ex-Le Mans, Goodwood TT, Jim Clark, present family ownership since 1971 1961 ASTON MARTIN DB4GT ZAGATO Chassis no. DB4GT/0183/R
ENTRIES NOW INVITED
bonhams.com/motorcars
MOTORSPORT POSTERS
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MOTORSPORT POSTERS
Race is On Words by Alex Moore
Vintage motor-racing posters don’t just look great, they’re a shrewd investment. And while the market once focused on Monaco and Le Mans, canny collectors are now looking closer to home 99
PREVIOUS PAGES/LEFT: BONHAMS (BONHAMS.COM)
MOTORSPORT POSTERS
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COURTESY OF WILL LANSBURY (THEARTOFSPEED.CO.UK)
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MOTORSPORT POSTERS
OVER THE PAST FEW DECADES, VINTAGE POSTERS have gone from being a niche interest to an auction-room staple. The market has seen a steady rise, and many now sell for prices that suggest collectors are treating them as bona fide works of art. Movie posters have always been the biggest earners; one of two surviving posters for the 1931 horror classic Dracula broke the record at the end of last year, selling for £375,500 at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas. Art nouveau posters also sell well – think Toulouse Lautrec’s work for Le Chat Noir or Leonetto Cappiello’s Cinzano lithographs – as do travel posters. And not just images of the picture-perfect French Riviera; the record in this department goes – somewhat surprisingly – to Man Ray’s surrealist Keeps London Going (1939), a comparatively stark poster for the London Underground, sold by Christie’s in 2007 for £50,400. But behind the scenes, vintage sporting posters are quietly creeping up in value – most notably those depicting the glamorous sports of golf, skiing and, in particular, motor racing. When you think of motor-racing posters, it’s often scenes from Monaco or Le Mans that spring to mind – two Bugattis, neck and neck around Monte Carlo’s Port Hercule. These art deco-inspired works by the likes of Georges Hamel and Michel Beligond can sell incredibly well at auction and often make thousands. A 1908 poster of the Grand Prix de L’ACF at Dieppe by French artist Georges Bric, for example, was sold by Bonhams in 2013 for £12,500. “A lot of the posters from Monaco and Le Mans are printed using the lithograph process with multiple colours, so you get very bright, evocative results, full of life and full of action,” says Toby Wilson, head of the automobilia department at Bonhams. “During the 1920s and ’30s, the poster artists were famous artists of the era, and so you get some superb images of cars racing out of tunnels, under palms trees – nice blocky, decorative illustrations, designed to catch the eye.” The same can’t quite be said for the British equivalents; their colours speak of overcast days, and there’s not a palm tree in sight. And yet they offer their own sense of drama, capturing the essence of each racetrack in a single image. There’s certainly a market for them (the 1907 inaugural Brooklands Motor Races is valued in excess of £15,000), especially those from Goodwood. “People in the UK have an affinity with their local races, but because of Revival and Festival of Speed, there’s been a resurgence in people from all over the country looking for historic Goodwood memorabilia,” says Wilson. “When I started in the business 35 years ago, you’d be lucky to get £20 for a Goodwood poster. Now, one that’s creased and not in particularly good order should fetch £200-£250, while better examples go for £1,000 plus.” Will Lansbury, one of London’s most prominent motorsport poster specialists, agrees: “There’s a hysteria surrounding all things Goodwood, and its posters sell for a lot more than those from other British circuits.” So what should you look out for? Historically, Goodwood’s endurance races that ran through the night have inspired exciting (and valuable) artwork, but Wilson believes the most sought-after posters are those from the first post-war race in September 1948. And posters from Goodwood’s very first motorsport event – a hillclimb for a small group of Lancia enthusiasts, 12 years earlier – are even rarer. Meanwhile, larger posters printed over two sheets tend to sell better, despite, or perhaps, because of the extensive wall space they take up. “Perhaps unsurprisingly, Goodwood Revival is the best place to find these posters,” says Lansbury. “You’ll find them unframed, but there are often some great originals, and they’re usually going for much less than at the auction houses.” As with any artistic medium, you can come across reprints and fakes, but these are often easily identified. “Back in the day, the posters weren’t designed to last,” says Wilson. “They were slapped on billboards and usually papered over the following week, so they’re normally on cheaper, thinner types of paper. You’ll find both the ink and the paper have very different textures on the reprints.” Lansbury concurs: “Ninety-eight per cent of the stuff on eBay is a knock-off. It’s easy to tell the real deal – you’re looking for a crisp, in focus ‘hot spot’ in the centre of the poster, and clean edges around the lettering – the fonts can bleed on the fakes.” So, if you’ve got a bit of wall space that needs filling, keep an eye out for an original Roy Nockolds (one of Goodwood and Aintree’s most prolific artists), or you could even delve into your attic for previously lost gems. At the Bonhams auction at this year’s Festival of Speed, which takes place on 13 July, you might even stumble across a rare F Andrieu. The way things are going, a vintage poster could turn out to be a great investment.
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HANDSOME PRINTS Above, clockwise from top left: 1955 Goodwood poster with artwork by Roy Nockolds, depicting Stirling Moss’ Maserati 250F leading Mike Hawthorn’s BRM P25; 1936 Brooklands poster with artwork by H J Moser, which sold for £2,500 through Bonhams; 1932 Brooklands poster depicting a driver preparing to race; 1957 Monaco Grand Prix poster by Jacques Ramel, showing the Lancia-Ferrari driven by Juan Manuel Fangio the previous year; 1936 Empire Trophy, showing an ERA. The race was won by Chichester-born Richard Seaman
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CALENDAR
saturday 5 may
OPENING SATURDAY Spring into the start of the horseracing season with our Opening Saturday raceday. It's a chance to celebrate the opening day of the “sport of kings” with some thrilling racing. – saturday 26 may FESTIVAL OF FOOD & RACING Our fabulous three-day May race meeting returns with an outstanding combination of award-winning food and high-quality racing. thursday 24
FRIDAY 1, 8 and 15 june
THREE FRIDAY NIGHTS An eclectic mix of dance anthems, pounding tunes and all-time classics returns to the South Coast for another year in the form of the ever-popular Three Friday Nights. sunday 10 june
FAMILY RACE DAY, IN ASSOCIATION WITH NSPCC As well as a fun afternoon of horseracing, this fixture features hands-on workshops, farrier demonstrations, a chance to walk the course, trips to the race start and a behind-the-scenes tour of the Racecourse.
May 5 – October 14
horseracing at goodwood – saturday 4 august QATAR GOODWOOD FESTIVAL With five days of dramatic action set against the magnificent backdrop of the rolling Sussex countryside, The Qatar Goodwood Festival, affectionately known as “Glorious Goodwood” is one of the highlights of the flat-racing season. tuesday 31 july
Above: Family Race Day, in association with NSPCC. Below: the Friday of our August Bank Holiday fixture
– sunday 26 august BANK HOLIDAY RACING Our enchanting August Bank Holiday weekend rekindles the nostalgic summer holidays of yesteryear to create the ultimate family day out. There’s a great choice of entertainment including live music and traditional fairground rides, as well as a spectacular fireworks display on the Friday night. friday 24
4 september and 26 september
MIDWEEK RACING Our two midweek meetings offer racegoers the perfect chance to enjoy the last of summer sun at a more relaxed pace than some of our other racedays. sunday 14 october
HARVEST, HOPS & HORSERACING Share in the celebrations as we say farewell to our season in true style at this traditional, rural-themed, end-of-year fixture. The Season Finale provides one final chance to experience racing at Goodwood in all its glory before the winter break.
Our August Bank Holiday weekend rekindles the nostalgic summer holidays of yesteryear to create the ultimate family day out 106
May 24 – 26 2018
Festival of Food & Racing
This year’s Festival of Food & Racing promises to be a foodie’s dream: a celebration of the Goodwood Estate’s own food heritage and ethos, as well as an opportunity to sample delicious treats from the best local artisan producers and suppliers. The team behind Goodwood’s Farmer, Butcher, Chef will give demonstrations and talks on Home Farm – one of the largest low-land organic farms in the UK, which has been nurtured by the family for over 300 years – and how its sustainable approach has shaped the dining experience in the restaurant and across the Estate. There will also be masterclasses on growing your own garden produce, bringing old recipes back to life and getting your children into cooking. A Farmers’ Market will give racegoers the chance to sample and shop from a range of locally sourced food and drink, as well as offering fun activities for the whole family. Regional wines, beers, cheeses, chutneys, chocolates, breads and baked goods will give a rich flavour of Sussex and the surrounding area. All this, combined with three afternoons of thrilling horseracing, set against the magnificent backdrop of the rolling South Downs.
Tickets can be purchased from only £12 in advance and children under 18 go free in all enclosures. Please call 01243 755055 or visit goodwood.com Follow us on Instagram @goodwood_races
Goodwood's Festival of Food & Racing combines gastronomic treats, like the Estate's very own Festival Lager (above), with exciting horseracing action
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The 2018 Festival of Speed theme will celebrate the event's 25th anniversary: Festival of Speed – The Silver Jubilee. The first Festival, in June 1993, redefined what a car event could be, and, in the years since, it has firmly established itself as the world's greatest celebration of motorsport and car culture. Festival of Speed – The Silver Jubilee will, of course, remain faithful to the event’s heritage by bringing together racers of all shapes and sizes – on the hill and forest rally stage – from more than 100 years of motorsport endeavour, but will feature extra dimensions that reflect the best moments from the past quarter of a century. The Duke of Richmond (formerly Lord March) will choose his 25 favourite moments from the first 25 events – personal highlights which, in very different ways, have been landmarks in the Festival's history. These moments, and the cars and drivers that created them, will be cornerstones of this year’s event, alongside the usual gathering of extraordinary vehicles from the dawn of motoring to the present day, and beyond. Detailed plans are already underway to take a deliberate and nostalgic journey back over the event’s past 25 years, charting its humble, single-day debut on June 20 1993, to the massive global televised phenomenon it has become.
July 12 – 15 2018
Festival of Speed – The Silver Jubilee
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July 31 – August 4
qatar goodwood festival
The Qatar Goodwood Festival is renowned as one of the world’s most prestigious race meetings
The Qatar Goodwood Festival offers a captivating racing schedule this year with some of the world’s greatest horses doing battle in front of the packed grandstands. Prize money is at its highest and totals £5.5 million, with three Group 1 races – the most prestigious type of race in the world – taking place over the first three days of the meeting. The race with the biggest prize money is the Qatar Sussex Stakes, with a total prize fund of £1 million. The Magnolia Cup is a charity ladies' race, run by women in support of women. Powerful, high-profile women dedicate months of intense training to ride in the Magnolia Cup and this year, with the 100th anniversary of the women’s right to vote, it will feature a celebration of the suffragette movement. Morvarid Sahafi, founder of the ethical fashion bran Morv London, will design the silks for all 12 of the jockeys. The silks will feature Morv’s Suffragette Print, inspired by the icons of the movement. They will ride in a sprint past the grandstands to raise money for charity. L’Ormarins will again host a best-dressed competition on Friday with its signature light-blueand-white theme. This hotly contested competition carries the prize of an all-expenses paid trip to South Africa to watch the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate.
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finish Why daffodils, you might ask? The ultimate symbol of spring, when the first buds start to peek open, it means it’s nearly time to take to the track for our annual Members’ Meeting in March. And it’s not just our Motor Circuit that gets the golden touch either – visit the Daffodil Enclosure during the event and you’ll find a further 30,000 flowers decorating the hay bales, pallet tables and tractor bar. And this year’s daffodils will be reincarnated for next year’s event, placed in cold containers over the winter and then warmed up so that they resprout once more. In a sense, there’s no “finish” for the Goodwood flowers – these cheery blooms return year after year.
LAP OF HONOUR
Gary Numan rocketed to fame in 1979 with pop hits like Cars and Are “Friends” Electric?. Since then he has flown World War II planes as a stunt pilot, moved to Los Angeles, and married a member of his fan club. He is now back with Savage, a new album, which reached Number Two in the UK charts
Gary Numan MAKING MUSIC GETS HARDER AND HARDER. Sure, I could go into the studio this afternoon and churn out a song or two, but doing something that’s better than what you’ve done before, and different… to say I feel no pressure would be an absolute lie. I’M NOT GOOD AT LIVING IN THE MOMENT. I’m a worrier, and I never allow myself to enjoy what’s good right now for long enough – it drives my wife mad. LA IS BECOMING HOME, and I don’t want it to. Living here used to feel like being on a ridiculous holiday and that’s beginning to wear off, which makes me sad. I want it to feel like an adventure forever. I USED TO BE AN AIR DISPLAY PILOT. Then I had children and I stopped flying – aerobatics is risky, and they don’t want to sit around airfields all weekend anyway. I’m not resentful about it but it does feel like a sacrifice. I used to fly a Harvard and now I have them flying above my house every weekend. I hope I’ll get back into it when the children are older. I DON’T HAVE MILLIONS IN THE BANK, and the way we earn money is chaotic. You have to plan ahead because in music, sometimes the money’s great, other times it’s non-existent.
I LOVE PLANES, HELICOPTERS AND RACING CARS, BUT IT’S NOT ABOUT SPEED. For me it’s totally the mechanics. To be able to control some amazing, powerful machine is the thrill – going fast is just a by-product. I USED TO PRACTISE EVERY ARM MOVEMENT OF A PERFORMANCE IN MY BEDROOM. Over time you feel completely at home in your own body and now I don’t have to think about it anymore. Extraordinary things have happened at my gigs but I don’t notice – I’m in my own little world. I CAN BE QUITE BLUNT. I’m on the autism spectrum and I can be difficult without meaning to be. When friends have emotional problems I get this huge feeling of dread – not because I don’t feel for them, but because I do, and I know that whatever I say will be wrong. MY WIFE WAS A HARDCORE GARY NUMAN FAN, but it doesn’t feel weird. Everyone’s a fan of someone. People say that I took the easy option but I think that’s a disgusting attitude – she’s still the most amazing person I’ve ever met. Besides, it’s much harder to impress a fan because you’re inherently a disappointment compared to your polished, manufactured image. Plus all the interesting anecdotes I was pouring out she already knew… MY IMAGE IS MORE CONTROLLED NOW. I wear make-up on stage and a little bit on TV, but when I’m out and about I don’t worry about any of that any more. It gets a bit stupid.
GARY NUMAN ALWAYS FELT LIKE A BOLTON EXTRA. It was the name I gave myself for performing – it wasn’t who I was. As I’ve got older, Gary Numan and Gary Webb have merged, so it’s not so much like flipping a switch now as ramping up one side of my personality. I don’t feel like I’m pretending to be Gary Numan anymore.
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ILLUSTRATION BY ELISABETH MOCH
I’VE ALWAYS FELT LIKE THE NEWBORN. I was the youngest in the band and the youngest at the record label too. People ask me for advice now and I suddenly realise, wow, I know a ton of stuff! When did that happen?
Jaw to the floor. Pedal to the metal. Priceless. ®
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