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Issue 15: Spring 2012

sordidus et olidus, sed etiam habet multas res smashingae Recession Special: Servicing your own Bentley, riding rather than flying, polishing your own shoes and eating less

Original artwork by Terry Gilliam

David Mingay on making A Bigger Splash

Ed Vaizey: A Minister Writes

Murder on the Orient Express, Oscar and Bafta winners, Cycling in Tweed, Peter Sellers, Richard Burton, Gstaad, Led Zeppelin and a nice bowl of hot soup

Courtesy of Mark Lloyd

Something Will Turn Up

It’s 2012 and, attempting to emulate the optimistic Mr Micawber and our very own Charles “Anything’s Possible” Finch, Nick Foulkes simply hopes for the best

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y Dear Copperfield You may possibly not be unprepared to receive the intimation that something has turned up. I may have mentioned to you on a former occasion that I was in expectation of such an event…

So writes Mr Micawber, in typically grandiloquent fashion, to the companion of his youth, young David Copperfield.

Wilkins Micawber is one of the greatest of Dickens’s supporting cast. I believe it is in the minor characters that Dickens’s true gifts really show themselves. He was perhaps constrained by the conventions of the time to create heroines of spotless virtue and blushing modesty, while his male protagonists tend to be paragons of uprightly manliness and morality. So it falls to the character actors to give the seasoning and piquancy that account for the unique flavour of his novels: the odious, oleaginous Pecksniff and the wily, Madoff-like Montague Tigg of Chuzzlewit; the flighty Harold Skimpole of Bleak House; the Fezziwigs, who are the embodiment of jolliness in A Christmas Carol; or the Terry-Thomas like Mr Mantalini with his mistresses, his whiskers and his wardrobe – one of the joys of Nicholas Nickleby.

And so I am delighted that Wilkins Micawber’s unique Weltanschauung finds itself engraved around the edge of the new British £2 coin in the year of Dickens’s bicentennial. It could be because out of all Dickens’s prolix works the Micawber motto “Something will turn up” is one of the shortest and most epigrammatic expressions. Or it could be, which I suspect to be closer to the truth, that with the financial armoury exhausted, the British Treasury is pinning its hopes on something turning up to rescue us all from the financial doom that has settled over us and seeped into every aspect of our lives – a chill fiscal fog that permeates everywhere, much like the real fog of the first chapter of Bleak House.

Dickens was no stranger to poverty. Even though

Spring 2012

he achieved riches and lasting fame, he never really seems to have escaped the penury of his youth; the child in his case really was father to the man, who found himself returning again and again to scenes of poverty: the homeless, the fraudulent financiers and so on (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?).

But there was levity too, and on this, the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens, my thoughts cannot help but turn to another much-cherished Charles: this paper’s eponym and proprietor, Charles Finch, who is himself something of a Micawber, and it is his optimism that I find so cheering. On the whole, Charles makes Micawber’s dreams and ambitions seem not just realistic but feasible. Where others build mere castles in the air, Charles constructs soaring pleasure palaces of the imagination. He has that greatest of all gifts: the gift of possibility.

In his company it is impossible not to believe that riches beyond the dreams of avarice are just around the corner; that the life-changing deal is just a phone call away. And, never mind however stubbornly Croesan wealth remains hidden round the corner or has its voicemail on when you call, like Micawber, Charles is utterly, unshakably assured of the imminent “turning up” of the next big thing and the certainty with which he will make his fortune with it. I like to think that I would make a good rich person, but in my heart I admit that Charles would be better at it – after all, he has spent most of his adult life practising.

And it is at times like this that we need all the optimism and bonhomie we can lay our hands on.

You know times are tough when they start making what in my day we used to call “hit records” about the economic downturn. When I was growing up, the Valentine Brothers made a record called Money’s Too Tight To Mention. It was a catchy tune with a memorable bit of saxophone and became a huge hit for Simply Red. It says something for mankind that we can make chart-topping tunes using words like “recession” and “depression”, and talking about the passage of bills on Capitol Hill and the policies of Reaganomics.

The recession record is, of course, back. For some time

now many of us have been humming Aloe Blacc’s jolly destitution ditty I Need a Dollar. It may lack the political insight of the Valentine Brothers; there are neither references to US fiscal policy nor to the actions of the American treasury department; nevertheless, it is a good singalong tune that captures the spirit of our times well enough.

Still, things could be worse: at least the “Hard Times” look has not yet come back. In the early Eighties we used to wear zoot suits, with key chains that looped from the high waists of our Cab Calloway-style trousers to below our knees and then, overnight, the zoot suit disappeared and was replaced by the “Hard Times” look. “Whatever Happened to the Zoot Suit?” screamed the front pages… oh, all right, then, one front page, that of The Face magazine, which was what young people read until the launch of Finch’s Quarterly Review. he “Hard Times” look was not, as I first hoped, an opportunity to wear top hats and frock coats evoking the style of the homonymous Charles Dickens novel of 1854. The “Hard Times” look comprised a lumberjack-style shirt and torn Levi 501s – the more, to quote William Shakespeare, “looped and windowed” in their “raggedness” the better. Of course, there were variations on this, and one of the most significant was pioneered by Dexys Midnight Runners, who favoured dungarees, plimsolls and little else – making characters from The Waltons look more Dallas or Dynasty.

Back in those days, I don’t think anyone had any money and, if memory serves, the ambition among many pupils at the rather esoteric boarding school I attended was to “sign on”. Benefit culture was king.

It would not suprise me in the least that some of my fellow scholars had found a way of signing on during the summer holidays and return to school at the beginning of the Michaelmas term talking of the glittering splendours of the local labour exchange and dole office. After all, who can blame them? Much in the way that everyone today wants to go to university, an entire generation aspired to the benefits culture and their dreams were given voice by that laureate of the dispossessed, George Michael:

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Hey, everybody take a look at me, I’ve got street credibility, I may not have a job, But I have a good time, With the boys that I meet “down on the line”.

I don’t need you So you don’t approve, Well, who asked you to?

Hey, jerk, you work This boy’s got better things to do Hell I ain’t never gonna work, get down in the dirt…

That times really were different back then became clear when I was seated next to a world-famous fashion stylist at a dinner at Mark’s Club. She informed me that she had just come from a shoot with Mario (I was tempted to ask “Mario who?” and what she thought of Sonic the Hedgehog, but thought better of it). Inevitably, talk turned to the economy and I mentioned that, like many young people of my generation, I used to squat – in an abandoned vicarage behind Olympia with my room at the front on the piano nobile. Whereupon she mentioned that she too had lived in a squat as, apparently, had Mario (although whether she meant the Italian-American video game plumber or the Peruvian photographer, I am not sure). Along with protesting against nuclear weapons and drinking cheap booze, it was what people did back then.

However, squatting did not work out for me, and I turned my back on that false prophet George Michael. Instead, I spent the intervening quarter of a century getting “down in the dirt” and working, getting to grips with the harsh realities of wristwatches, clothes and cigars. And yet, looking back a quarter of a century, the old vicarage behind Olympia remains by far the biggest house that I have ever called home during my adult life.

It is only the thought that something may turn up that keeps me going.

Nick Foulkes is the editorial director of the FQR Group of Publications and Editor in Chief of Finch’s Quarterly Review

www.finchsquarterly.com

FQR Oscar and Bafta Film Focus

By the final lap of awards season, it’s usually a two-horse race for best picture (The King’s Speech vs The Social Network, Avatar vs The Hurt Locker), with most of the acting awards already sewn up. Not this year. With many films and performances to like and admire, but perhaps few to love, the contest is still wide open across all the main categories. Only a fool would try to guess the outcome. So here goes. The following Bafta and Oscar predictions are my own personal picks.

Best Picture Will win: The Artist (Bafta and Oscar) Should win: The Tree of Life Michel Hazanavicius’ monochrome and mostly silent The Artist is a fabulously clever tour de force whose formal trickery is essential to the story it wants to tell.

The only French film by a French director previously nominated for a Best Picture Oscar was Jean Renoir’s La Grande Illusion in 1939. The Artist has managed to break through the language barrier by refusing, like its hero, to talk. That irony is written into the film’s subtext, a Gallic lament at how sound turned Hollywood into an Anglophone hegemony. Combining feelgood entertainment with real emotional depth, The Artist has a swell of support on both sides of the Atlantic, and will be a worthy winner.

But for me, it comes second to a film that takes even greater formal risks with sound and image. Terrence Malick’s Palme d’Or-winning The Tree of Life has barely more dialogue than The Artist. It probes the mysteries of the universe and the human heart with whispered voiceover, fragments of speech and thrilling cosmic imagery.

It will probably win for cinematography, but is too elliptical for the Best Picture kudos it deserves.

Outstanding Début

By A British Director, Writer Or Producer (Bafta) Will win: Paddy Considine Should win: Iain Morris and Damon Beesley A significant section of the British film industry still labours under the Loachian delusion that inflicting misery upon the audience is more artistically authentic than giving pleasure, so Paddy Considine, who won top prize for the grim Tyrannosaur at the British Independent Film Awards, looks favourite for Bafta’s Outstanding British Début Award. He certainly displays directing talent, and Olivia Colman’s heartrending performance deserved a Best Actress nod, but the film’s ugliness is contrived and clichéd.

A far more generous portrayal of real experience (in this case, the agonies of being a teenage boy) is found in The Inbetweeners Movie, co-written and produced by Iain Morris and Damon Beesley, which was completely ignored by the BIFAs and the Bafta’s despite its £45m UK gross.

Best Foreign Film Will win: The Skin I Live In (Bafta); A Separation (Oscar) Should win: A Separation Bafta voters didn’t receive DVD screeners of A Separation, which leaves the door open for Pedro Almodóvar’s more widely seen The Skin I Live In to take the British prize. But Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s remarkable account of a disintegrating marriage is the year’s standout, a gripping courtroom drama where a domestic power struggle has unexpectedly tragic consequences.

Will win: Gary Oldman (Bafta); Jean Dujardin (Oscar).

Should win: Ryan Gosling The hardest of all the major categories to call, with lots of worthy work but no outstanding candidate.

Pitt (Moneyball) and Clooney (The Descendants) have their backers, while Fassbender (Shame) must be a Bafta contender. But Oldman is overdue a Bafta for escaping the shadow of Alec Guinness in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and Dujardin looks favourite to sweep to the Oscar on a tide of love for The Artist. I’d buy any of the above, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Ryan Gosling in the turbo-charged Drive and even in the underpowered The Ides of March.

Best Actress Will win: Tilda Swinton (Bafta); Michelle Williams (Oscar) Should win: Tilda Swinton Ask Harvey Weinstein which of his two fillies, Meryl Streep or Michelle Williams, he would prefer to win the Oscar race, and he wouldn’t tell you. He might not even know. But the suspicion remains that Williams as the enchanting Marilyn has more va-va-voom to seduce Academy voters than Streep as the madeyed Mrs T. Neither of these showy performances, however, is fit to compare with Tilda Swinton’s barefaced minimalism as the bad mother in Lynne Ramsay’s parental horror We Need to Talk About Kevin. Swinton hates award ceremonies, though she’s a good sport about them. Bafta voters know how magnificent she is, and won’t let her off without a trip to the podium this year.

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Best Documentary Will win: Senna (Bafta); Pina (Oscar) Should win: TT3D: Closer to the Edge Who knows how Senna failed to make the Academy Award longlist? Best Documentary is one of those arcane Oscar categories decided by a small group of insiders, and predicting the winner requires a pin and a blindfold. Wim Wenders’ dance documentary Pina may score for originality. Bafta has introduced a doc award for the first time this year. With the winner chosen by the whole membership, director Asif Kapadia and writer Manish Pandey’s crowdpleasing account of the life and death of the Brazilian Formula One superstar will surely get its due. But the deserved acclaim for Senna has overshadowed an equally brilliant motorsport doc, TT3D: Closer to the Edge. This first feature by commercials director Richard De Aragues finds both comedy and tragedy at the Isle of Man’s lethal TT motorbike race, and somehow manages to balance the two in celebration of the urge to live life in the fast lane.

Outstanding British Film (Bafta) Will win: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Should win: Wuthering Heights We Need To Talk About Kevin, Shame, Senna, and My Week With Marilyn have their fans, but Tomas Alfredson’s romantic rereading of John le Carré’s Cold War classic has the right combination of quality and popular appeal to carry the award. My own preference would be for Andrea Arnold’s thrillingly austere and uncompromising Wuthering Heights. Even though Arnold won Baftas for Red Road and Fish Tank, her third and best film yet has barely figured in the awards conversation since it took a prize at Venice for Robbie Ryan’s gorgeous lensing of the Yorkshire Moors. But the way Arnold finds a bold cinematic language to express the passionate extremity of Emily Brontë’s deceptively knotty novel stands above any other British achievement this year.

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Best Actor

est pre r b e h t Osca ard for The aw t Bafta and to the shortlis ons goes awtrey i predict lished Adam D accomp

It’s been a strong year for British débuts, with plausible claims also from the other nominees: Ralph Fiennes for directing Coriolanus; Joe Cornish for writing and directing Attack the Block; Richard Ayoade for writing and directing Submarine; and Will Sharpe, Tom Kingsley and Sarah Brocklehurst for directing, writing and producing Black Pond. Credit is also due to Sean O’Connor for producing The Deep Blue Sea; Sarah Smith for co-writing and directing Arthur Christmas; Amanda Faber for producing, Owen Sheers for writing and Amit Gupta for directing Resistance; Carol Morley for writing and directing Dreams of a Life and John Michael McDonagh for directing The Guard.

Best Animation Will win: The Adventures of Tintin (Bafta); Rango (Oscar) Should win: Arthur Christmas Normally you can count on Pixar to win this, but Cars 2 leaves the field open for somebody else.

Rango, despite being a pastiche of many other movies, earns points for originality and weirdness, though it doesn’t exactly engage the heart. Tintin displays some bravura Spielberg set pieces, but the story itself is dull and the hero remains as blank as he is on the page, not aided by the blandness of motion capture. The British creative team – writers Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, actors Jamie Bell, Daniel Craig and Andy Serkis – may well sway Bafta’s vote over the greater warmth, sincerity and wit of the true local candidate, Aardman’s Arthur Christmas. But speaking as the father of a 10-yearold for whom Arthur Christmas reaffirmed his shaky belief in Santa Claus, and who’s seen it three times, my vote has to go with the Bristol crew.

Best Supporting Actor

Will win: Christopher Plummer (Bafta and Oscar) Should win: Alan Rickman Albert Brooks is terrific in the thrillingly stylish Drive, with an against-type performance as a villain.

Honourable mention also goes to the entire cast of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (impossible to pick out one), young Hunter McCracken in The Tree of Life, all three Kevins in We Need to Talk About Kevin and good old Ken Branagh in My Week With Marilyn. Bill Nighy’s Grandsanta in Arthur Christmas is a delight. But Christopher Plummer is this year’s hot veteran as a gay dad in Beginners, and is equally good in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, though he faces a challenge for Oscars geezer vote from Max Von Sydow in Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close. I also liked Stellan Skarsgård in Dragon Tattoo, and Niels Arestrup in War Horse.

Jonah Hill is a revelation in Moneyball, his first straight role. But my preference would have been to see Alan Rickman get his due for eight turns as the true hero of the Harry Potter saga, during which he squeezed the maximum out of very few lines, wore a black cloak with intent, and finally got a great death scene to sink his teeth into.

Best Supporting Actress Will win: Jessica Chastain (Bafta); Octavia Spencer (Oscar) Should win: Olivia Colman The Help is a crowd-pleaser that offers several worthy women, and I’m guessing Bafta will go to Chastain (influenced by her half-dozen other notable performances this year), while the more sentimental Oscars will plump for Spencer. However, if Sarina Farhadi as the daughter in A Separation can’t win, then I’d like to see Olivia Colman on the podium for the otherwise risible The Iron Lady – partly to make up for not winning best actress for Tyrannosaur, and partly because her touching subtlety as Carol Thatcher shows up the arch theatricality of Streep’s mimicry in the title role.

Adam Dawtrey is FQR’s Film Editor

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Proprietor’s Spouse: Sydney Ingle-Finch

Proprietor: Charles Finch Editor in Chief: Nick Foulkes Art Director: Tristram Fetherstonhaugh Contributing editors: Vicki Reeve, Simon de Pury, Tom Stubbs, Kevin Spacey, Emma Thompson, Saffron Aldridge, L’Wren Scott Features Editor: Emilia Hungerford Managing Editor: Tom Chamberlin Editor at Large: Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis Literary Editor: John Malkovich Aviation Editor: Annette Mason Photography Editor: Patrick Fetherstonhaugh Polo Editor: James McBride Chief Fashion Correspondent: Heather Kerzner Liberal at Large: Matthew Modine Film Editor: Adam Dawtrey Fine Arts Editor: Charles Saumarez Smith Cookery Editor: Maya Even Highland Editor (19th Century): Charlie Gladstone Entrepreneur at Large: James Caan Hunting Editor: Reza Rashidian Racing Editor: The Hon. Harry Herbert Travel Editor: Kate Lenahan PA to the Proprietor: Nova Ayrton-Wright The FQR Group of Publications including: FQR Art; FQR Style; FQR Living Well, FQR Big Game Hunter, Game Shot and Conservation; FQR Equestrian Life; FQR Ocean Wave incorporating Nautical Style; FQR Home and Hearth; FQR Paranormal; FQR Faith (Formerly FQR Monotheism in the Modern Age); www.finchsquarterly.com Chief Executive: Charles Finch Editorial Director: Nick Foulkes Creative Director: Tristram Fetherstonhaugh Commercial Director: Jonathan Sanders, Chief Financial Officer: Adam Bent Designed and produced by Fetherstonhaugh Associates www.fetherstonhaugh.com The views expressed in Finch’s Quarterly Review are not necessarily those of the editorial team.

The editorial team is not responsible or liable for text, pictures or illustrations, which remain the responsibility of the authors. Finch’s Quarterly Review is fully protected by copyright and nothing may be printed, translated or reproduced wholly or in part without written permission. Next issue: May 2012. All advertising and subscription enquiries should be sent for the attention of Tom Chamberlin: tom@finchsquarterly.com Tel: +44 (0)20 7851 7140.

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FQR Oscar and Bafta Film Focus

Courtesy of David Mingay

Jack Hazan filming David Hockney

David Mingay on the personalities, portraits and pools involved in the making of cult film A Bigger Splash

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he making of A Bigger Splash began in 1971 when I threw a catalogue of David Hockney’s Retrospective at the Hayward Gallery in front of my film partner, Jack Hazan, and said, “There is your next movie.” The long creative period and the distribution preparation were propelled by furious argument between Hazan, who directed and filmed with his 35mm camera, and me, the editor/writer who planned the shoot’s content and later went on location to integrate the relationship, which grew to be the touching lost romance of the story, a year and a half in the life of David Hockney.

Hazan and I had previously worked together on a short called Grant North, which juxtaposed the Lofoten Islands in Norway with the sculpture of Grant. Hockney later admitted that when he agreed to make a film, perhaps after his experience of Grant North, he’d expected one of those arty short films where paintings move around the screen to music by Bach.

In fact, the key effect realised in the filming was of the people juxtaposed with their Hockney portrait. Fashion designer Ossie Clark visits the Tate Gallery with his cat to look at his own image in the famous double portrait called Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy. Percy was the cat. In Hotel La Mamounia, Marrakech (1971), Peter Schlesinger sits with his back to the painter in a portrait of him from behind, looking out of the window when the friendship was strained. Paintings become like a hall of mirrors.

Critic and Metropolitan Museum curator Henry Geldzahler features with a friend, Christopher Scott, in a double portrait set in their flat in New York, seated on a sofa, smoking a cigar. Henry then visits the gallery, where he squints in a close-up shot looking at his face in the double portrait hanging in the show in New York where most of the pictures seen in progress during the film are now on the walls of an exhibition. Henry’s face has a remarkable likeness.

In the film, Henry had visited Hockney at his flat in Notting Hill, where he airs his claim that Hockney is now the painter of Los Angeles and the swimming pools and palm trees of the West Coast – recalling that it was Geldzahler who suggested to Warhol at the beginning that he should paint what he liked. When Warhol answered, “Money”, Geldzahler replied “Well, paint money then!” And this was the origin of the dollar-bill Warhols. They later have a memorable discussion, telling jokes in the bathroom where Henry is in the bath and Hockney is perched on the toilet seat. Hockney is also seen in the shower at his flat, a beautiful creation by their architect friend Tchaik Chassay featuring ultramarine blue fresco tiles, although the sequence also pays some homage to Hitchcock’s shower scene in Psycho. Most people admired the painter’s interior decoration, the result of endless discussion about colour co-ordination by the ex-art students in the Hockney coterie. Bradfordborn Hockney was one of the first pop artists to emerge from the Royal College of Art, to which Celia and Ossie had also gravitated from fashion courses at the Manchester Art School in the artistic migrations from the North of the Sixties, along with the Mersey Sound.

Were these events in the film ever challenged by the members of the Hockney set? Only one person did object mildly. Celia Birtwell appeared in a scene where she fails to answer the door because she is with 22-year-old Peter Schlesinger, who was now in standoff with

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Hockney. She protested she would never fail to welcome David Hockney to her Notting Hill flat.

She is also seen in discussions on Hockney’s apartment in trendy Powis Square, Notting Hill. She says that the drapes in the sitting room are too dark: “The drapes are depressing.” Hearing Celia pronounce the word “drapes” is a bit like hearing Elizabeth Taylor’s “What a dump” in the film of Edward Albee’s play Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? Celia Birtwell became a very close friend to Hockney in this period, and he painted and drew her many times. But there was always a worry about his drawing of her hands, which we heard first from Hockney himself, who was very self-critical, struggling his way through each painting and migrating his technique from acrylics to pencil and to oils.

As a fully dramatised feature-length film telling a hyper-real story of Hockney’s life in the period in quasi-documentary style, it was finally shown to Hockney, who could hardly complain of its frankness as it echoed his own witty portraits of life in the Hockney set. And the Sixties were all about the removal of censorship. The making of the film happened to coincide with the traumatic break-up of his relationship

real happenings provide a context of the early Seventies: a fashion show

by Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell, and a Miss World Competition party with Peter Schlesinger, whom he had met in California four years earlier.

The opening of the film tells of the devastation caused by this, and how Hockney plunges into working on large paintings, and his struggles with some of the acrylic canvases, including the on-screen destruction of one painting he judged a failure. His painting knife goes into the canvas and he tears off the strips of the painting as the audience thinks about the destruction of a valuable work.

The film focuses in on the progress of a painting begun in Hockney’s studio and finally repainted after a stills photographic session in the pool at Tony Richardson’s house in the South of France and a moody shoot in Kensington Gardens where Hockney photographs Schlesinger.

This became a moot point with Hockney, who was sensitive to the controversy about the use of photographs in painting, and a sequence where the photograph of Schlesinger is traced round by assistant Mo McDermott and projected onto the canvas has been remarked upon by critics. In the end, there was more debate about this use of photography by the artist than about the sexual scandal of the film. The film ends with this painting, Portrait of the Artist, a final creative outcome of all we have witnessed.

Dream sequences take the audience to Californian swimming pools including A Bigger Splash, which was adopted as the title of the film. It became a newspaper and magazine headline cliché, highlighted by the

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brilliant poster for the film.

The biopic was perhaps successful because it concentrated on a turbulent period in the life of its protagonist, and because real happenings provide a context of the early Seventies: events including a fashion show

by Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell, a Miss World Competition party and Hockney’s escape to the show in New York.

The film reflects the creative freedom of the time, and the style alternates between the gossip of Mo McDermott’s voiceover commentary and the thriller music score used for the impassive struggle with creation on the face of Hockney. His amused gaze and northern accent also provide an antidote. His charisma as a person, and his friendly demeanour with the dyed-blond hair and heavy black glasses were real celebrity stuff, before that became a word to use. Hockney just said, “Blondes have more fun.”

His day usually ended at Odin’s restaurant where he paid the bill in etchings for the walls, and where Royal Ballet dancer Wayne Sleep famously danced on the tables. Wayne was posing for a double portrait with his friend George Lawson, but the painting was another one to fail to meet the standard. The drapes (a red theatrical curtain out of which the figures emerge) did not pass muster. The painting was abandoned, notwithstanding the brilliant satirical figures in the theatrical setting. It would now be worth millions – a large 6ft x 4ft canvas.

The film did, however, lend a hand to the painter, who asked to use the film lights Hazan had carried up the stairs to the artist’s fourth-floor studio. So he left them for Hockney to be able to work in the evening as well. It was also useful for the film to be able to return regularly with the lights in place and so keep up to date with the progress of the painting without too much disturbance.

At the end of the film Hockney escapes to New York, ostensibly to hang and launch a show, where he ends up at a party with the New York poetess Susan Brustman, who reads her work to him about wanting to be free and beautiful. Hockney replies that he thinks that the people are most beautiful in Italy; the boys, on a scale of one to 10, are 10 compared to anywhere else. Then he seems to disappear into the Manhattan traffic.

He has left his friends behind, but the epilogue – in comedy style – sees him in a hotel with a new friend. s a cult film, A Bigger Splash has been both influential and entertaining. It was shown in the Big Apple at the New York Film Festival in 1974, and Scorsese writes about it: “We also studied Jack Hazan’s A Bigger Splash for the head-on framing such as the shot of the grocery store before Travis Bickle shoots the black guy.

Each sequence begins with a shot like that, so before any moves you’re presented with an image like a painting. The film took its name from the painting by David Hockney and is a kind of fantasy documentary on Hockney and his work and life. The film’s lush colour photography and precise, clean framing reflected the art works, which on occasion it reproduced exactly.” Woody Allen also saw the film, and some scenes in Manhattan (1979) reproduce references to A Bigger Splash especially Woody’s character being in pursuit of a muse and an object of desire in the form of Mariel Hemingway.

David Mingay was co-writer and editor of the award-winning independent British film “A Bigger Splash” featuring David Hockney (1974). He is currently editing a feature-length documentary on Adam Ant, to be released this year.

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FQR Oscar and Bafta Film Focus

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Courtesy of Philip Knatchbull

G N I H T E S O M T N E D I F D I F

Philip Knatchbull (staring up into the stars!) and his father with Bette Davis on the set of “Death on the Nile” circa 1977

Philip Knatchbull remembers his father, the late, great – but very modest – film producer, John Brabourne

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y father was the most unassuming man. He would shrink into the background. There was a time in the Seventies or Eighties when Puttnam, Attenborough and my father were the big three in the film industry. Everyone knew Puttnam and Attenborough but not my father. He was shy and didn’t want to be in the limelight. He didn’t have the self-confidence to put himself forward, but was highly effective behind the scenes. One on one with the actors, directors and producers he was just amazing. I asked my father one day what it was like being in film and being a lord and going to America. He said that everyone presumed he was stupid and by the time they realised he wasn’t it was too late and he’d got them.

When I was about 10 he had already made a number of well-known films but at that time he started working on one of his best known Murder on the Orient Express. It was a big-budget film with many wellknown film stars, which no one else had done in this way before. My father invited my class at school to Elstree Studios to watch the filming and I was suddenly the hero at school. I remember seeing all these famous film stars like Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman and Sean Connery, and these extraordinary film sets like the snow-bound train, with huge overhanging lights – it was all very exciting. From that point onwards, I knew this is what I wanted to do and what I wanted to be involved in.

For me, it was kind of an escapism and I think it was the same for my father. He very much felt like an outsider – an English aristocrat who didn’t fit in. He’d gone to Eton and hated it, with all the arrogance and snobbery. At the time, his peers really looked down on the industry, as film wasn’t considered a “proper” art form. My father just ignored them and said to me that when he was at Oxford, he used to see two films a day and three at the weekend. He used to take us all the time. I remember

Spring 2012

going to see a matinee in Leicester Square with him as a young man, and loving sitting there and just being with him.

He loved film almost to obsession and I remember him working constantly. He was always on the phone. We’d be on holiday in the wilds of Ireland or France and he’d be crammed into some telephone booth calling LA. He was also stressed a lot of the time. He used to get tense leading up to closing a film deal and tense during shooting, not knowing if it would get behind schedule or go over budget. However, he was also very much a family-oriented man, so at the end of the day he cut himself off from the film business, and would return home to our family.

My father didn’t really like socialising. He didn’t go to film parties

everyone presumed he was stupid and by the time they realised he wasn’t it was too late and he’d got them or endless premieres. One exception was the Oscars in 1984, which he invited me to. A Passage to India had a number of nominations, including Best Film – but he wasn’t very comfortable being there. We arrived at the Beverly Wilshire hotel. All the big stars and nominees had the large suites on each floor, paid for by the studios. My father’s suite was filled with flowers and notes. Notes from agents, studios and other producers, saying, “John, you’re the one for me. Signed, Whoever.” On the night of the Oscars we got into a limo and were driven to the ceremony and

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I remember him dipping his head as he walked down the red carpet. He wasn’t after the glamour or partying. He just really loved film.

My father died six years ago. At his memorial service there were three eulogies. Prince Charles gave one, the second one was by David Puttnam, and then I gave the third. It was such a proud moment for me to speak about my father in public like that, and in front of my siblings too. I was very close to him. I had never been very good at public speaking but at the memorial I realised that I could speak publicly – that when you feel something very strongly, the words come naturally.

There were many people who respected and adored my father. Perhaps one of his greatest assets was his kindness. He would go out of his way to help people. I remember when I was a child he had people come to his office all the time asking for help or advice. Charles Finch was one of them and my father introduced him to David Puttnam, who gave him his first job as a runner. One of the nicest letters I received after he died was from Charles, who had gone to Gordonstoun and first met my father there when he was governor. ne of the things I’m very proud of are the John Brabourne Film Awards, which the Cinema & Television Benevolent Fund created after he died. These are awards given to those trying to get into the industry who, for financial reasons, wouldn’t have a chance of even looking for a job in the business. This is something that my father would have loved, supported and also been very proud of.

Philip Knatchbull is the CEO of Curzon Artificial Eye, the UK’s leading independent film distributor and cinema operator. Curzon cinemas operate seven cinemas in London and Artificial Eye has over 300 films in its library.

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FQR Oscar and Bafta Film Focus

Keeping Britain In The Pictures Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, praises the achievements and diversity of the British film industry in 2011, and looks to its future

2011

was truly an incredible year for British film. A string of British-made and Britain-based films wowed and captivated cinema audiences both in the UK and abroad. Independent British films’ share of national box office takings grew through 2011, rising to 15 per cent by the end of October, the highest since records began. British films topped the charts for 20 weeks between January and October, with independent titles holding the number-one spot for 10 weeks.

The King’s Speech was a critical and box-office success as it became the highest-grossing independent British film of all time, as well as picking up four Oscars. Another triumph was The Inbetweeners Movie, which took £45m in the UK after making a brilliant leap from television to cinema screens.

The British film industry continues to defy any attempt to pigeon-hole it by producing an impressive array of films. From children’s film (Horrid Henry) to comedy horror (Attack the Block), gritty social drama (Neds) and fresh adaptations of literary classics (Jane Eyre), we produced films of great diversity.

We Need to Talk About Kevin, adapted and directed by Lynne Ramsay, premiered in the Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Released in October, it has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics around the globe and

resulted in a Golden Globe Best Actress nomination for Tilda Swinton.

The strength of UK talent, facilities, locations and post-production skills was also evident as US studios used the UK to make some of its biggest blockbusters. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is just one example of on-going collaborations between US studios and the UK. The next outing for one of Britain’s most iconic brands – James Bond – is currently being made here. I was lucky enough to join the Prime Minister at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire where Skyfall, the 23rd instalment of the Bond franchise, is currently in production.

It is vitally important that the incredible achievements of 2011 can be sustained and are not just a one-off. The Government is helping to continue the investment

in UK film by extending the film tax relief, which is the Treasury’s targeted tax break for British film. The latest figures show that since its inception, over 650 films have claimed the relief, which in turn resulted in an injection of almost £4bn into the UK economy.

But if the outstanding success is to continue into 2012 and beyond, there is a lot more to be done.

My priority now is to concentrate on removing any barriers that are restricting ambitious, independent British film production.

To tackle this, last year I appointed Lord Chris Smith to conduct a review of Government film policy.

With the help of an independent panel of eight industry experts, Lord Smith looked across the UK film industry, considering

film development and production, distribution and exhibition, inward investment, film export, education and skills. The review was published in January, and makes almost 60 recommendations aimed at building a stronger British film industry. It looks at how we can develop and retain UK talent – key factors in ensuring that the UK film industry maximises its contribution to economic growth.

A revolutionary new approach to film education in British schools, financial incentives to encourage collaborations between producers and distributors at the initial stages of financing a project, and moves to encourage all major broadcasters to increase current levels of support for British film are just some of the ideas put forward by the panel, who worked very closely with representatives from across the film industry.

The review also contains a number of challenges for the British Film Institute (BFI), the UK Government’s lead agency for film since assuming many of the UK Film Council’s activities. The BFI is due to publish a Forward Plan later this year, which I’m sure will incorporate many of the review’s recommendations.

We are committed to creating a more stable and successful film industry, and I will be responding to Chris Smith’s recommendations in more detail shortly. In the meantime, I wish the very best of luck to all the British films currently in the running for both Bafta and Academy Awards and would urge everyone to get out there and see some of the brilliant films that Britain is producing.

Ed Vaizey MP is the Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries. He was elected as the Conservative MP for Wantage and Didcot in 2005

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FQR Liberal at Large

We Can Be Heroes Matthew Modine applauds the controlled and dignified supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement

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t’s hard to see the forest for the trees. And it’s hard to see a movement when it is happening. It’s easier to look back in time and read about successful campaigns by individuals that changed the course of human history. There are parallels of purpose in the present Occupy movements and the Civil Rights Movement of the past. There are similarities of purpose: citizens peacefully demonstrating for rights and freedoms guaranteed in our Constitution.

The Occupy Wall Street movement doesn’t have a powerful, charismatic spokesperson that the Civil Rights movement had in Dr Martin Luther King, Jr – so far.

And it may not need one. OWS cannot see beyond the trees yet because it is deep in the woods and finding its way through the developing swirl of details: Young and old citizens being bullied, beaten and criticised while under the trees of Zuccotti Park.

With each arrest, use of force and abuse of justice, the country and the OWS movement is seeing a clear picture of the forest we live in.

I stepped back from the images of police brutality, violence and militant attacks upon my fellow citizens to try and “see” more clearly what is actually happening.

As an artist, looking at this situation reminded me of something Pablo Picasso is supposed to have said: “Are we to paint the face, what’s inside the face, or what’s behind it?”

In this case, what is behind the face is what is most important.

The foundation of the Occupy movement, its rancour, grows from a soil poisoned with political and economic lies.

I recently met Erri De Luca, a gentleman from Naples who has been called the Italian “writer of the decade” (by the “Corriere della Sera” literature critic Giorgio De Rienzo). Mr De Luca has written about Occupy. But not the Occupy we are living with at present. In the Seventies he was a member of the Lotta Continua (“continuous struggle”) group in Italy. Founded in 1969 by the student-worker movement in Turin, it spread across Italy to universities and factories. Its members’ struggle was similar to that of the Occupy movement in that they recognised that without a fight, those with economic power would always suppress the rights and freedoms of the working class

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and poor.

In Erri De Luca’s short story “Wind in Your Face”, I saw the image of an elderly woman being carried through the streets of Seattle, Washington.

Her face slathered with pepper spray. The 84-yearold woman, Dorli Rainey, is a

comes quickly, loyalty too, and destiny likewise.” One of De Luca’s characters says that the “difference between State violence and that of the people, is that one is abusive, the other not… it’s a street battle, to stay in the street even when it’s prohibited, to

As a nation, the US is

of the revolution, but because the right to demonstrate is the most basic emblem of democracy… In the fray you needed calm, not fire, someone with discipline, not a hero.” eople like De Luca and Dorli Rainey are heroes. They are calm and reasonable voices that speak truth to power and oppression. I find courage in their continued example of how to live with dignity and to not stay at home and watch the world through an electronic box, but to go to into the trees and be heard. in This New Year my thanks and prayers went to all the OWS supporters in 951 cities in 83 countries around the world. Because “the right to demonstrate is the most basic emblem of democracy”.

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experiencing collective shame,

a painful feeling of humiliation not be crushed, to not be arrested… we don’t liberate territory, we only grab the right to oppose established power… It’s our duty to act as if, as if revolution were indeed the next order of business – to be in the world as revolutionaries. Not because

and distress former schoolteacher and, like De Luca, has been active in politics since the Sixties. When she ran for mayor in 2009 she said, “I am old and should learn to be old, stay home, watch TV.” So why did she not learn?

Why would she join the Occupy Seattle movement at her age?

“Now you know something that you didn’t know then: some forms of courage spring up out of shame…” De Luca’s short story is a lesson in shame and shame as a blessing. We can be motivated into action out of personal shame.

As a nation, the US is experiencing collective shame, a painful feeling of humiliation and distress caused by the knowledge that, for years, we have acted out of greed, we’ve behaved with ignorance towards the environment, we’ve lived with economic denial and foolish behaviour. We feel shame because we allowed it to happen. We didn’t speak up when we needed to have our voices heard.

In De Luca’s short story you see how a young girl or boy from the Seventies could easily be a young boy or girl being beaten and pepper-sprayed at any one of the Occupy villages across the United States today, “The ones who don’t want to run are starting to meet. The stubborn are starting to form a line. They’re still far and few between, but they recognise each other… In the morning they let you out. You don’t go to the emergency room, but instead to a doctor who helps wounded demonstrators, he brings you to him, your friend for less than a day, someone you’d trust with both your eyes. Because these are the sort of days where trust

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Matthew Modine is FQR’s Liberal At Large

Spring 2012

FQR Rock Special

Led Zeppelin in New York in 1973. Not only was Swan Song Records’ UK vice-president Alan Callan there, he can also remember it…

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eath and taxes may be certainties, but working at what you truly enjoy is the greatest privilege and, for me personally, enjoying my work has been something that I am grateful for.

Back in the day, as is now said, arriving at the Plaza Hotel New York was always a significant moment.

Long before it became the permanent home of many of the world’s most discerning and successful global citizens, the allure of the Plaza embraced a rich history of mafia tales, Teamsters Union control and Walter Matthau in Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite movie/musical.

On the day this story begins, I had arrived to join what was the greatest rock’n’roll band in history, for whom I was privileged to work as vice-president of Swan Song Records, Led Zeppelin’s privately held record label.

Outside the hotel the fans had gathered. The first show was still a day away but to the diehard music lover, being part of the experience included waiting through weather of all types in the hope of seeing the band. The more adventurous amongst them would try to get into the hotel, sitting endlessly in the coffee shop, scoping the corridors, trying to find the band’s rooms. If the girls were cute enough, the road crew and/or security would offer to help them. Still, not all of them who set off with a guide found their way through the jungle!

At reception, while waiting to check in, I called Richard Cole, Zeppelin’s tour manager, who oversaw every detail of life on the road. He was one of those

people who, whatever it threw at him, would face life head on and deal with it. An organiser of excellence and sometimes drama too. A man capable of many faces but only one heart, he was loyal and true. Before Zep, he had worked with The Who and many others. He had also driven every road between every venue many times over. On those

journeys he met P e t e r Grant, the manager of Led Zeppelin, whose own strength of character, will and sheer determination had already changed the face of the music business. He had been the first to bring Chuck Berry to Britain, had been tour manager for Little Richard, had understood how the great British rock act could become successful in America and given Jeff Beck the opportunity for his band to become global superstars. In the end, it was with Jimmy Page that Peter found his foil. The two of them both drove change, both sought greatness in their footsteps and worked a double act that created its own legends.

Jimmy Page had been a powerful force in music for many years. A truly great guitarist, he had a talent for transforming musical ideas into something that reached out to audiences through records or radio and just grabbed you. His playing could make you dance or trance, move with the groove or just be mesmerised by his authority. Once he teamed up with John Paul Jones, the end result was probably always inevitable.

John Paul ( Jonesy) was one of the all-time heroes of the studio. He can play anything with strings, and probably more too. He can arrange orchestras, play gentle melodies to his children on piano and deliver the most robust bass lines rock music ever heard. He and Jimmy were an unstoppable tour de force. Once they decided to form a band, finding Robert Plant and John Bonham seemed a natural outcome. These four had a power that still staggers musicians and music lovers everywhere. Today, 44 years on from their first release, the band is still listed in the Record Industry of American Artists as the fourth-biggest selling artist in history. That is some achievement.

On the day of a show, every artist, crew member, manager and so on develops a routine that is geared towards that moment when the lights go down and the audience roars with excitement. It never failed to excite me, but I can’t imagine the stress of the band.

How these guys did this every night, year in year out, has to be admired. Artist/performer, whatever the right word is, it takes a lot of courage to stand up in front of 20/30/50/100,000 people.

Settled at the Plaza, I had a few hours to go and visit Ahmet Ertegün, the founder of Atlantic Records, to pay my respects, talk about our sales and add to the general atmosphere of excitement.

Being with Ahmet was always a blast. Here was a man whose body of work represents some of the

most magnificent moments in music in my lifetime.

Together with his brother Nesuhi, he had built Atlantic Records. The list of artists whose careers they had helped or launched was for every man – for me, it was a list led by Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin.

It later embraced The Rolling Stones, Bobby Darin and a thousand others. At that moment, Atlantic was our distributor and together we’d created one of the world’s most significant recording brands. Led Zeppelin were unstoppable, Bad Company with Paul Rodgers were enjoying success, and soon we were to launch Dave Edmunds, who today still says the best agreement in his life was signing to Swan Song. The catalogue of artists was driven by Zep’s own pursuit of excellence and everybody responded to that.

Back to the hotel. It’s now two hours to showtime and Richard Cole is bringing everyone to their mark.

Ahmet has left and will reappear at the theatre. I am with Peter and we are told, “Thirty minutes.” The atmosphere changes and the electrical charge begins to build. In what seems only a few short breaths since the phone call, security knocks at the door: “Time.”

Somehow, Richard gets everyone downstairs at the right time and in the right order.

The crowds outside have increased since the band arrived. Tonight there is a corridor through them created by security guards – professional, authoritative. The atmosphere is warm and friendly, the band’s appearance at the doorway is greeted with cheers and yells. A powerful family gathering.

There is a line of limousines, each one with a police motorcyclist. We are all guided by safe hands to the cars. First the band members, then Peter and, following on, me and my guests.

On Richard’s signal the sirens fire up and we move out, Peter in the first car, band members in each of their cars. Special guests have been taken to their respective vehicles 15 minutes earlier. This almost presidential cavalcade takes off through the streets towards the greatest of American venues, Madison Square Garden. Along the way, people stop and stare. This is a world without traffic lights, but also a world filled with insurance premiums. adison Square Garden has a motorpool entrance for equipment, artists, staff and backstage access. It is cavernous and, at what seems breakneck speed, the motorcade turns and disappears underground, waved on by policemen with whistles signalling direction and urgency.

The routine is on – Peter and Richard with the artists to the dressing rooms, guests to adjacent rooms. Pre-show nerves, expectation, excitement…

Then it’s a call: the band goes to the stage. Guests follow, depending on privilege, to the seats. Me, I wait at the side of the stage, looking at the audience. If only they knew they are about to have the greatest night of their lives – well, something they will talk about forever, at least.

Come the opening chords, I do what Peter calls a “schmitz” – a “guide”. I disappear to the sound tower in the middle of the auditorium and sit with the engineers.

The crowd is going wild, the band is magnificent, the playing the best there is – they are relentless. I love this show. I love this job. And today, 40-odd years later, I still love the music because I love music, and Led Zeppelin were, and are, the best at what they did.

Thank you.

Allan Callan is a buisnessman, record producer and music executive. He was UK vice-president of Swan Song Records between 1977 and 1983 and then went on to develop the international Media Company CPMA Group directing or promoting the European PGA Championship, The Scottish Open Golf Championship and the Rugby World Cup amongst others

This is a world without traffic lights, but also a world filled with insurance premiums

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from top: © Rex Features; Courtesy of Alan Callan

Stage-way To Heaven

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FQR Snow Focus

© Getty Images

Slope & Glory Gildo Zegna explains his company’s close, and his own very personal, links to Monte Rubello

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precision of execution. My passion for winter sports was almost obsessive, to the point that I convinced my father to let me spend one whole winter semester at the Bielmonte primary school so that I could be closer to the slopes. My father, the restless businessman untiringly travelling the world to meet clients and open new branches, was severe but understanding: education came first, but sport was an important extracurricular activity.

Our days ran on a precise schedule: school was followed by additional time with tutors so that we’d become fluent in English, French and German; Wednesday afternoons were sacred to skiing in Bielmonte, as were the weekends, and the day would always end with a thick hot chocolate and panettone. In those pre-global-warming days the winters were long with copious snowfalls and, as kids, our secret wish was for a Sunday storm to leave us “confined” in Bielmonte for a couple of extra days. But my father was also the strictest judge. It would be hard to forget my misery at the age of nine when I closed the first school trimester with a single bad mark and the punishment was to Courtesy of Gildo Zegna be forbidden to put on my skis for the entire season.

From time to time, I like to take my sons for cross-country skiing amongst the birch-tree woods of Oasi Zegna and tell them about those short, bumpy and narrow slopes – because whoever learned to ski in Bielmonte in those days could then ski in any circumstances.

Gildo Zegna is CEO of the eponymous apparel brand.

here are tasks that turn out to be very simple if you take the time to stop and reflect on their true essence. When asked for advice on giving a name to the newborn Ermenegildo Zegna Timepieces Collection, the choice of Monterubello was fairly rapid and natural. It is a name that encapsulates both my family heritage and my first and truest passions.

Monte Rubello is the mountain overlooking the wool mill founded by my grandfather Ermenegildo in Trivero, in the Italian Alps, and is also the title adopted by the family since Ermenegildo was elevated to Count of Monte Rubello by King Vittorio Emanuele III, for his entrepreneurial merits, in 1939. I have clear memories of my grandfather, and I can imagine him to be equally firm in choosing the mountain’s name to complete his honorary title, taking into account the historical relevance of the place for the local and national identity. In the early 14th century, Monte Rubello had been the scene of the long escape and violent ending of the heretic preacher Fra Dolcino by the hand of the Crusaders.

As a young man, I was fascinated by this controversial medieval story, being taken aback by the idea that history had spun one of its chapters almost on my doorstep, but I have to confess that, to me, Monte Rubello mostly represented the familiar landscape of the rocky peak where my father used to take my sisters and me for walks in the summer and snow-racket hiking in the winter. Throughout my childhood, seasons and their passage had always been very apparent, but I suppose this is a normal way to look at time when you live in such close contact with nature. Come the end of November, the mountainsides of Monte Rubello were my private barometer to calculate the colourful progress of the autumn and the so eagerly awaited arrival of the winter. There’s no need to say that my sisters, my cousins and I were almost born with skis under our feet!

Among my most cherished memories are my first skiing days, at the early age of three, under the expert guidance of my father, Angelo, on the slopes of Bielmonte, the ski resort that was inaugurated the year after I was born, on the mountainside facing Monte Rubello. Bielmonte, situated at the highest point of the Panoramica Zegna road built by my grandfather from the Thirties on to connect Trivero with the nearby villages and with the wild Sessera Valley, was the visionary dream of my father and his brother Aldo. In a short period of time they summoned the best architects and landscapers and succeeded in the construction of a modern winter resort that today still operates at the heart of Oasi Zegna. ut I’m jumping ahead of myself – those first ski runs could not be further away from the modern comforts. I distinctly recall my first equipment: wooden skis, leather ski boots that required very tight lacing, various wool layers and my unmistakable black-and-white leather helmet (a tribute to Juventus, my favourite soccer team). At that time, Bielmonte already had a chairlift and two ski lifts and we considered it our personal recreation ground.

Mario was the instructor who accompanied all of us from the basic rudiments to the first red slopes, and to snowplough with him was almost a family rite of passage.

I recall with excitement competitions with my cousin 3780 Gstaad - Switzerland Paolo, the pride of joining Phone: +41 33 748 50 00 - Fax: +41 33 748 50 01 info@palace.ch - www.palace.ch the Bielmonte Ski Club and the many races that shaped our characters, teaching us discipline in training and

I was fascinated by this controversial medieval story

Deal Or No Meal?

The two Marks, Lloyd and Birley, became good friends – but it took guts for Lloyd to ask Birley for a favour in the early days…

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ark Birley was widely known for his extraordinary eye and exquisite taste. However, there was much, much more to him than that, including a razor-sharp sense of humour, often accompanied by brilliant mimicry, which would have one rolling in the aisles. He was also the most generous friend.

There is an amusing tale that I can now tell since he is no longer with us. I first met Mark in 1979, when he had just opened Harry’s Bar. I was not a member at the time, but had rather grandly offered to take some visiting American ladies “anywhere they wanted to go to for lunch”. Hardly had my offer been sprung, when all five of them in unison said the only place they wanted to go to was Harry’s Bar. My heart sank. I knew Mark (just), as I was really a friend of his sons Robin and Rupert. In fact, back in those days, I found him a truly formidable and somewhat lugubrious figure.

So it took a huge amount of chutzpah on my part to request a meeting with him to try to persuade him not only to allow me to take my friends to this very private club, but furthermore to give me a “special deal” on the bill. You should have seen his face when the words “special deal” were mentioned. He sat back in his chair, took what seemed an interminable draw on his cigar and then just repeated my words back to me very slowly: “Special deal?? What exactly do you have in mind..?”

I told him frankly that my fear was that these five women might run amok on this hugely expensive menu and land me with a bill I just could not afford to pay. My idea was to fix a price now for a simple “table d’hôte” menu. To my amazement, he asked one of his army of secretaries to place a call to the manager of Harry’s Bar, who at the time was an Englishman called Michael. He told Michael that he had a Mr Lloyd with him who had requested, curling his lip as he spoke the words, a “special deal” and that perhaps my request should be accommodated. I could not believe my luck and was despatched there and then to go and see Michael at the Club.

He could not have been more friendly. He told me that as these were Americans, the chances were they would be delighted to have a light salad, followed by a simple risotto, no dessert and just coffee or a tisane to finish with.

He suggested a one-off payment of £100. Expensive as that was then, at least that was that.

The lunch went off extremely well, the ladies were thrilled, and I basked in what I thought was a huge success. However, even the best-laid plans can come unstuck.

One of the junior waiters, unaware of the special arrangement in place, decided to offer the whole table tartufo bianco to accompany their risottos. This white truffle is such a rare delicacy that it costs the equivalent in weight of platinum.

When all five women said yes with alacrity, my heart sank, as I had visions of washing up for Mark Birley for the rest of my life to pay this off. In fact, I went totally grey – so much so that Michael, seeing me looking miserable – actually came up to ask if everything was going well. I whispered in his ear what had just happened. He took one look round the table of the five women feasting on their risottos with gusto and said to me: “This is my fault. It’s on the house… Just never tell Mr Birley!”

Mark Lloyd is a yachtsman, traveller and bon viveur

s bar Courtesy of Harry’

You should have seen his face when the words “special deal” were mentioned

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Magic in the Mountains...

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Spring 2012

FQR Film Quarterly Report Special

Brigadoon of the Alps? and Roger Moore.

Around the same time, Gstaad began to host a festival to honour “Film Music”. It was the brainchild of Julie Andrews, and Grima was commissioned to design the awards. Unfortunately, they were so heavy (huge rough crystals with a gold base) that poor little Roman Polanski, who presented the prize every year, could never manage to lift them – this became a bit of a running joke! As the award ceremony was held in mid-March, winners such as John Barry and Quincy Jones came to stay with their families, and this late injection of glamour helped extend the winter season for a few more days.

Almost 20 years on and, inevitably, some of the places that and people who lent character to the resort have disappeared; we recently learned that the Chlösterli has closed; the once-elegant Alpina Hotel has been replaced by an enormous construction (rumour has it that this is soon to be the home of Mr Abramovich); the music festival and the Hollywood stars are long gone, but the money remains. And, sadly, it is money that has now become the only qualification for living in Gstaad, effecting a dramatic change in the fabric and life of the village in its wake.

The catalyst for this change began innocuously enough with the pedestrianisation of the main road that runs through the village. This made it easier to promenade the shops, bars and restaurants but also, over time, made the village more popular as a residential location. The resulting upward trend in property prices that once applied only to chalets near the Palace and Park hotels has spread to the village itself, making it unaffordable for the local population and forcing them to buy or rent property miles away.

The historic centre of the village is in great danger of losing its old Swiss charm. The chalets that once belonged to local people have changed hands and are now owned by foreign millionaires keen to buy up and

modernise any property they can.

The authorities banned construction on these old buildings for a time but the ban has now expired.

Many of the old chalets and shops that helped to preserve the charming, gemütlich feel of the village will be replaced by modern constructions, perhaps with only the façades remaining.

At the same time, the luxury brands have arrived en masse. This is great if all you want is the “sugar rush” of Bond Street shopping but as the season winds down and the brands and hotels shut up shop, Gstaad becomes a ghost town with practically zero local life.

Perhaps the biggest change of all is still in the offing.

Le Rosey School, which boasts a notable list of alumni including King Juan Carlos of Spain, the Aga Khan, Alexander Onassis and the Shah of Iran, now has plans to sell its Gstaad campus and relocate about five miles away down the valley. The old campus will be converted into luxury apartments.

Whatever one may think of a school with annual fees of over $100,000 – a former headmaster once famously remarked, “The only reason I always try to meet and know the parents better is because it helps me to forgive their children” – it was Le Rosey that first put Gstaad on the map, and from the moment it opened its winter campus in 1917, the school made a bigger impact on Gstaad life than any other institution. s the jet set makes way for the private jet set there are, fortunately, some institutions (the Palace, the Olden, the Chesery, the Sonnenhof) that remain and continue to provide the understated luxury, style and charm that first attracted the likes of David Niven, Peter Sellers and Elizabeth Taylor to own winter residences in Gstaad.

The famous Palace Hotel provided the setting

Whatever one may think of a school with annual fees of over $100,000 it was Le Rosey that first put Gstaad on the map

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for some of the most memorable scenes in Blake Edwards’ Return of the Pink Panther. Sellers and Edwards both had chalets in Gstaad and today the Palace continues to be the glamorous hub of all the action with its famous lobby attracting those who want to see and be seen.

Sadly, many of the famous personalities and characters who made Gstaad feel so glamorous, sophisticated and fun are no longer around. The new money has taken over, and it is evident the new intake does not have the class and taste of the old.

The season seems to get ever shorter and the hotels and restaurants – knowing that there is a diminishing window of opportunity – raise prices higher and higher, further excluding all but the deepest pockets and thus perpetuating the cycle (set dinner on New Year’s Eve costs over SFr500 per head without wine and an unfashionable hotel will set you back SFr700 a night during the season).

Much of Gstaad is still picture perfect, but only the über-rich can afford to spend more than a night there and it is on the way to becoming the Brigadoon of the Alps, or even worse –when the last food shop has closed – a sort of upmarket Pompeii, scattered with expensively coutured but painfully thin corpses, all clutching at half-eaten Birkins.

Jojo Grima, along with her daughter Francesca, designs and sells bespoke pieces of jewellery from the Grima shop in Gstaad and, from May this year, will be based at their showroom, first Floor, 16 Albemarle Street, London, W1. www. grimajewellery.com Court

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Courtesy of Gstaa

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pringtime in Gstaad, when the snow melts in the valley, is when the cows are taken down from their mountain sheds to the lower pastures.

Adorned in flowers and bells, they are driven through the village, clanging and mooing as they go. It is a quaint event that usually occurs without incident.

Last April, however, one of the cows managed to enter a very chichi children’s fashion boutique, Les Petits Anges, got caught short, and proceeded to urinate and defecate over the entire new season’s collection. The reaction to this episode was mixed: the shop’s clientele got a nasty shock; the billionairess owner said it was a good luck omen – “If a bird poos on your head, it is good luck, no? So a cow must be even luckier, dahling!” – but to many of the locals the cow was passing judgment.

I became one of the locals when we moved our business from Lugano to Gstaad in 1993. We chose Gstaad since we hoped to reconnect the Grima brand to a more sophisticated, international clientele such as we had in London when my husband Andrew was the “It” jeweller of the Sixties and Seventies. We found a great location for our boutique on the main shopping street with a spacious apartment above. The clincher was its proximity to the best restaurant in Gstaad, the Chesery. We constantly entertained in those days and, not being a cook, I was able to organise takeaway dinner parties for friends including Michel and Albert Roux without embarrassment.

Soon after arriving, we employed a charming Scottish secretary, Lesley Mullener, who had lived in Gstaad for many years. She and her husband Ruedy had owned the delightful, cosy Chlösterli Restaurant outside the village, which was patronised by all the great Hollywood stars with homes in the area. Ruedy was also the greatest ski instructor, and among his pupils were the Kennedy children

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Jojo Grima on the changing face of Gstaad – new warts ’n’ all

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Chilling His Boots When the chill sets in, Graeme Fidler slips into his brand-new Bally Curling boots

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ne of our goals during our visit to the Bally archive was to understand whether there were technical shoes for which Bally was well known – in particular, the place of these shoes in the company’s history and how they related to current design and production.

I was really intrigued when I discovered Bally’s rich history of creating shoes and boots for skiing and mountaineering, but of special interest was learning that Bally has been making a winter “Curling” boot for more than 60 years. The extremely popular boots were originally designed for curling and were quickly adopted by the Swiss Olympic team, who wore them during the 1948 St Moritz Games. Totally practical, the boots are still very much in demand, especially in Scandinavian countries.

Bally’s Curling boot has been reinterpreted in various ways over the decades, but it has maintained many of its technical attributes and continues to be well regarded for its winter durability and comfort. Until recently, our Curling boot was unisex, but for this season we have updated the entire look to create specific, separate categories for men and women.

The current design is always a “California” construction, featuring

shearling lining, a foot bed and sole made from special insulating materials that make it extremely resistant to cold and keep the feet perfectly warm and comfortable. The raw rubber sole, which becomes harder in cold temperatures, has a specially designed non‐slip 360° sole texture.

The overall look is a very stylish yet practical boot for men and women that captures an easy winter mood for kicking around in the snow or on a winter vacation.

Men can choose from two styles in suede with shearling liner for the ultimate in practical winter warmth. We like to think that our Curling boots are the perfect blend of winter functionality and easy luxury at its best.

Graeme Fidler is the Creative Director at Bally. www.bally.com

easy luxury at its best

Spring 2012

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www.finchsquarterly.com

Engineered for men who make the exception to physical rules.

Big Pilot’s Watch TOP GUN. Ref. 5019: Eagles can’t speak. And humans can’t fly. That’s how Nature intended it. But it still hasn’t prevented us from trying – and being successful into the bargain. Thanks to engineering and technology, we’ve managed to soar way above the clouds. And beyond our physical limitations. Here, the elite pilots on the Top Gun program in Nevada go one better. They carry out aerobatic manoeuvres that would cause any ordinary mortal to lose consciousness and perhaps even a few fillings in the process. Only elite pilots like them are entrusted with the most sophisticated jets in the world, each one a masterpiece of complex engineering. The Big Pilot TOP GUN is another example, measuring just 48 mm. It combines the classic functionality of a traditional pilot’s watch with state-of-the-art technology, high-tech materials and modern design elements. Even an eagle would be lost for words. IWC. Engineered for men.

IWC Schaffhausen Boutiques: Beverly Hills I Geneva I Hong Kong I Shanghai I Zurich I Las Vegas I Moscow I Singapore I Instanbul I Beijing

www.iwc.com

FQR Recession Buster Special - On Your Bike

Brand on the Run Courtesy of Belstaff

Belstaff jackets get better with age. This, explains Tommy Hilfiger, is just one of the reasons he chose to become involved with the brand

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ifteen years ago I wrote a book called All American. It was a sort of autobiography told through the objects and aspects of American culture that I love. Whether the faded indigo of a wellloved and well-worn pair of jeans, the classic music of Motown or the familiar silhouette of a bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup, I love looking at the way the objects, the sights and the sounds that surround us every day shape and reflect our lives. There are objects that transcend time and fashion to become almost eternal, and these objects and the cults that grow up around them fascinate me; I love their stories, and I suppose that is what drew me to becoming a clothing designer.

I still work as creative director of Tommy Hilfiger, and I feel an immense sense of pride when I walk past one of our stores but, since selling the business, I now

also have the freedom to look at other projects and involve myself in the stories told by other brands, and when I was asked to join the consortium that bought Belstaff I did not need to be asked twice. Talk about cults, Belstaff is not a brand – it is a way of life, and a legendary way of life at that.

I love the fact that Belstaff was born out of a need to protect motorbike riders against the weather.

Biker clothing has always been chic – you only have to look at the Schott Perfecto to recognise that. And like a classic Schott leather jacket, a Belstaff just gets better with age; it is a product that has been “built to last”, with weatherproofing as the guiding principle in making the quality paramount. The waxed cotton of the Belstaff is a signature in itself. The original design and quality was put together for a real

reason and that is still true today; the Belstaff jacket of today would be recognisable to British bikers of the middle of the 20th century when the Belstaff Black Prince was the bestselling waterproof jacket of all time.

Of course, I did not know this when I saw my first Belstaff, but I knew it was cool, purposeful and, although I am not that much good on a motorcycle, Belstaff is a brand I love and have a passion for. And if on occasion I have been inspired by Belstaff in some of my designs for Tommy Hilfiger, it is only out of admiration for an old-world, authentic, original heritage brand that is unique and utterly unassailable.

For me, Belstaff has that near-perfect balance between being utterly and completely utilitarian and totally escapist. After all, when a brand has been the choice of Lawrence of Arabia, Che Guevara and Steve McQueen, it cannot help having a bit of an aura. Put on a classic Roadmaster or Trialmaster, and a bit of the aura sticks to you, the mind begins to wander and, before you know it, you picture yourself in the country on a motorcycle with the wind coming at you as you tear along protected from the elements in oilcloth or leather.

I love the image of the motorcycles tooling around in London in the Thirties and Forties with the messengers wearing Belstaff. The brand became important again in the Nineties, when Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Angelina Jolie and George Clooney wore different models for influential films and when out and about in Hollywood. All of a sudden, very stylish people began wearing Belstaff, and it became almost a cult label. Motorcycle enthusiasts, rock stars such as Lenny Kravitz and Steven Tyler and others collect and simply adore the brand. And Ralph Lauren is perhaps the biggest collector of Belstaff v intage

jackets.

It gives you a sense of devilish freedom, and what I love about the brand in today’s world is its versatility. I have a number of old Belstaffs and I wear them in town, on planes (the pockets are perfect for travelling), and even when shooting in the country – while not quite like turning up to Royal Ascot in a leather jacket, it adds an edge to weekend tweeds and wellies, and I can’t help thinking that at least it makes me look sharper (even if I don’t shoot sharper) than the other guns in their baggy, shapeless shooting coats.

Fast-forward to today. Belstaff was recently acquired from an owner who headquartered the brand in Italy. And as soon as we took over, I was in no doubt that the vision is to “bring it home” to the United Kingdom, where the brand was born in 1924.

This repatriation of an English icon is essential, and a new store on Bond Street will open this autumn. It is an incredible building, which will be the “House of Belstaff ” where Belstaffians will find everything from the newly adjusted classics to exotic skins and many surprises. And in New York, a new Madison Avenue store will debut – also in the autumn.

In my opinion, the image and attitude of the brand is all about rock and royalty. It really has become a royal brand; I know Hollywood stars are sometimes considered royalty and, of course, the brand has been worn by Prince Harry.

The brand “has legs”, as we say in the business. It has such rich and authentic heritage as well as style and substance. It is sexy and rugged as well chic and cool. I am not only a fan but I like to think I know a thing or two about fine clothing, and I can honestly say there is nothing like this in the world. It is the real thing – often imitated, but never duplicated.

Tommy Hilfiger is the American fashion designer and founder of the brand Tommy Hilfiger

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Spokesmen of Style Guy Hills saddles up Dashing Tweeds has how e to relat tical menswear for prac rt, sma d develope riders of the modern-day trusty steed

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ow to travel swiftly and elegantly around town is a conundrum that faces many of us daily. Considering all the options – from se the chauffeur to saunter – the wise quickly choo is felt om freed of sense oric euph st almo bicycle. An ts the as soon one pushes off from the curb and moun ts ticke ng parki s, saddle. No more fears of traffic delay l. trave urban and the general frustrations of an To bike around town is to travel with on fresh wind with and, ose unstoppable purp le, I the face and time to smile at attractive peop t, erran ts often find my thoughts turning to knigh rd rewa a with astride a trusty steel-tubed steed ble of a decent lunch and the assurance of a suita what ever, How end. ey’s tethering post at the journ for to wear on such an urban mission is a real cause here; stops ly quick gy analo e equin The concern. nd although I have seen an elegant lady biking arou

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rn sportswear elements. fabric is increased idea was to combine mode stealth of the lly quite fragile but, actua are yarns technical by its camouflage on the moors. Wool Many were able to weave we , tation imen exper some has a great ability to accept many dye with l tive fibres with wool and create Lumatwil hues, and sporting tweeds are the reflec d twee the had tweed. In addition we traditional way for gentlemen to wear reflective d to aid the run-off of rain. We had now treate n Teflo are rs colour. In reality, the colou an ideal cycling fabric of reflective urban designed to blend with the country fashioned h we had woven in Scotland.

– and tweed, with its inherent tweed, whic ng details and suit design were the ailori waterproofing from natural lanolin next concern. The interesting thing about combined with the ability to dry menswear is that it is almost entirely fast and absorb sweat without led, and tailoring history is really a history retaining odour, has made it the function the of innovation and problem solving. Only since staple cloth of the country. many with nsed dispe has et mark is ready-to-wear Now to modern cycle sportswear. Here the focus riches expensive details have we forgotten about the rules, Lycra ility -visib entirely on performance. High which the tailoring tradition has to offer. but aerodynamic figure-hugging outfits – led a A delve into military-clothing history revea de are may shave a few seconds off for riders in the Tour ting shoo for lders ing wealth of ideas: action shou France – are not really relevant in town where stopp bars le hand over hing hunc to een a perfectly adapted at a traffic light would mean the difference betw including plus tive and there are all sorts of trouser cuts reflec and rs gold medal or retirement. Bright colou amed riding ed-se twist and urs jodhp , fours rawing twos and flashes are great for safety but the attention-d these and all breeches. We have borrowed from e. becomes an embarrassment when out of the saddl plus fours as worn be from created pleated trousers that can The ideal urban cycle suit should borrow jackets cycle d twee tive is just or full-length. We have reflec both these branches of sportswear. And this fitted a with ur armo horse ry n I based on 15th-centu e what we have done with Dashing Tweeds. Whe sleev -cut open and ls pane h stretc ge of body but using . met weaver Kirsty McDougall at her Royal Colle lation and venti tweed holes to allow maximum movement Art degree show, I suggested weaving an urban cycle amed At present we are working on a twisted-se based on the colours of London. le-yellow-lineas trouser with the checks of our doub I had my first cycle suit made in corduroy, twist. the on hed but inspired tweed perfectly matc country tweeds looked so out of place in town soughtlong the des provi now Dashing Tweeds began now, having met Kirsty, I enthusiastically clothes the and g, cyclin urban nt elega le- after answer for sampling the colours of London. Chips of doub rnity. mode and ion tradit of ce balan ct dye are a perfe ner yellow lines and Tarmac were sent up to the Photographer Guy Hills and Woven Textile Desig had we e befor long not was it houses in Scotland, and tweed a ds, Twee Kirsty McDougall founded Dashing an urban tweed in production. h mills textile and menswear company, which uses Britis ted We chose a medium-weight, finely twisted wors ories access s, tweed of range a ones of and workshops to create yarn rather than the traditional hairy woollen and s fabric ping develo ry, centu 21st the with and clothing for country tweeds. These have more in common e. lifetim a last will that o, they garments city suits and, being made from fine merin next www.dashingtweeds.co.uk The offer. to has wool have all the benefits that

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Mar yleb one g hat and ridin a in transfer usly serio ot cann jodhpurs, one . town to try directly from coun g The evolution of menswear takes us from ridin over red coats to hacking jackets, which were favou started longer frock coats, and then the modern suit me beco have s fabric to appear. Along the way, suit g ridin the until ish dimin ls increasingly finer – detai y rn-da mode The sses. regre suit capability of the ing cloth other re explo to has thus t urban cyclis s. phylogenies, and this is where the interest begin but r, swea The obvious place to look is sport the is there , hand at which branch? On the one , a other the on and, d traditional choice of twee made ions creat rn mode ed evolv plethora of highly mostly from petrochemical derivatives. of I have found all the options worthy ed focus keep consideration, but it is important to which on the primary purposes of urban cyclewear, s of term In bike. a on well is to look smart and work most the of one offer; to lot a has performance, wool cloth. overlooked aspects, I find, is the silence of the rious As country stalkers (as opposed to the less salub d is twee wool urban variety) well know, woven the ion, addit in and, ideal for creeping up on quarry

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Spring 2012

FQR Valentines Gift Special - Knickers, Perfume and Watches

Photograph by Regan Cameron

For the gent who wants to buy lingerie for the lady in his life, Elle Macpherson has the best advice

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here is nothing sexier than a guy who takes the time and has the courage to buy lingerie for a woman. And even before I started designing my own lingerie collection, I had worked out that, often, the lingerie he buys for the woman in his life is the most telling insight into the character of a man: men are not always articulate about what they like, who they like, what interests them or, of course, what their fantasies are. I always find it intriguing and revealing when a guy buys me lingerie.

It may sound strange – particularly as before I started Elle Macpherson Intimates, I worked as a model – but growing up in Australia I never had a passion for fashion. However, since I was little girl, I cared about knickers and bras, and ever since I was 13 I have wanted to wear matching sets. There was something about bathing suits and lingerie that worked with my personality. Maybe because I had this body to fit it on, I don’t know, but for as long as I can remember I have thought of lingerie as supremely important: it touches the most important parts of a woman’s body; it is last thing a woman takes off; the first thing she puts on; and it will be seen by the people who are, or should be, the most important in her life.

After all, when you approach the subject of lingerie you will inevitably be thinking about sex. So, in a physical and emotional sense, lingerie is incredibly intimate and when a man buys a woman lingerie it is as much about communication as it is bras and knickers. When it goes right it can be incredibly powerful as a man is in effect saying, “I will share with you who I am and I will listen to who you are” – this means that he should buy her something that he would like her to wear but also something that she would like to wear.

Of course, it is perfectly all right to be sexy. You can buy something that says “Nudge, nudge, wink, wink; let’s move in this direction”, but you also have to say, “I totally see who you are and respect who you are.” There is nothing worse than a guy giving a girl something that just objectifies her: if your wife is breastfeeding, a beautiful and comfortable bra can be more meaningful at a time when she does not feel her best. It doesn’t always have to be about buying stereotypical crotchless knickers (although I do make them). A man may think he is saying, “You are my sex goddess”, but all he is doing is making a woman feel insecure and, when she opens the lingerie box, the first thing that might go through her head is: “I’m not living up to your expectations.”

There is no absolute truth when it comes to lingerie, only a series of personal truths that change with the individuals involved. When I was single, one guy said to me, “I am going to take you to Paris and go lingerie shopping” and I was thinking, “I am so not going to do that.” Not long after, another said, “Babe, let’s go shopping for lingerie in New York” in my se er and I said, “Right on, honey!” Give or take rv pe ly ht slig sed of being ches with a time zone, it was the same suggestion, at w st ri w I’ve been accu l echanica in m e r ur fo at fe n just made by different men when I was in a l io ua unus predilect onds”, a very ally ec rm -s no ad a de different head space, so who knows? t, pu ng nical in “jumpi to pense and tech nd ex co t se ea But there are ways of minimising the gr om at fr , s which nd leap variants ping second ha e ar ee margin for error. If you want to buy a R w .

-s ch th at oo w sm artz at of a cheap qu the Fifties by Omega, woman lingerie, you first need to raid her second like th in small numbers also lives ea drawer and find out if she likes padded id e Th . were made in rs ong othe isam ço , an ex Fr ol R : bras, half cups or underwired. Then on d ch ristwat Doxa an ain e favourite w er im uv l-t So al the back of the bra, near the clasp, is the y on m ill Tourb inside perbly made urne’s su Jo . ’s te ne label that will tell you her size (most or ur M Jo e Paul Second Egalité avec the highd’ of ir women are 34C).

And while you are ct to du on ro em -p R t a by nds are almos his awardrooting around in her underwear you se gi er en jumping seco to ce he designed ’t so impossibly rare, should check if she likes G-strings or a precision devi en er y!

If they w da n. y llo er bi ev ur y, to full brief. da l winning P Journe al achronistic F b What I like is the transforming I’d wear the an r of Watch Clu un is the co-fo de s pi lla power of the right lingerie, and it is the ou K in Just .com ub cl ch perfect business during a recession, at .w w w w when people want to feel good about

After all, when you approach the subject of lingerie you will inevitably be thinking about sex

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Spring 2012

themselves but when a new dress, shoes or bag may not be economically possible.

If chosen properly, good lingerie can change the shape of your body. A good bra can make your waist look slimmer and change the way you look with clothes on and off. I always advise people to buy knickers and bras at the same time, since the proportion of fabric on knickers and bra will give a more balanced form: a bra that has more fabric on the top, a more generous cut, and then a smaller-cut bottom can make the hips look more narrow and the bust bigger. f a woman is very round she looks better with less knicker rather than more. The temptation is to think, “She is bigger, so I will buy bigger shapes”, but just think of Brazil – those girls have huge butts, and they wear G-strings and they look fabulous! The more Rubenesque a body, the more skimpy the underwear should be. The more fine and delicate a girl’s body is, the more fabric she can wear. When buying a bra, you have to think whether you want underwire, which has basically no form around the breast, or something with a more rigid contour; if she has heavier breasts then a padded cup or a contour bra may not be right as it adds bulk – larger breasts usually suit less padding.

This is the architecture of underwear, and is important to get it right before moving on to the look, which is where a man can put his views across and when he should ask himself some questions: “Do I like lace satin or cotton? Do I like some transparency? Do I like bows or something more streamlined?

What do I like for me?”

That is what I love when men choose lingerie – it becomes an opportunity for them to check in with themselves and say what they like. Buying lingerie is a chance to say, “I’d like to see a bit of change.” After a while, it comes naturally to a man, like choosing a new… car? Only a lot more fun.

Elle Macpherson is Creative Director of Elle Macpherson Intimates www.ellemacpherson.com

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just think of Brazil – those girls have huge butts, and they wear G-strings and they look fabulous

Hard Candy With the launch of Ormonde Jayne’s latest form of perfume, Linda Pilkington joins the so-solid crew

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ue e n Cleopatra, one of the first and most famous wearers of solid perfumes, understood the power of fragrance and was on a lifelong quest to embalm the purest perfume extracts. Cleopatra still inspires me for her inability to compromise on perfection and, 2,000 years later, Ancient Egypt’s luxury perfume industry still seems innovative to me. The solid perfume balm used in Cleopatra’s time was a masterpiece, using mindbogglingly advanced methods of distillation. Ormonde Jayne Perfumery has just taken it a few steps further and perfected the art of capturing a scent in balm with the launch of our new Sugar Butter Solid Perfume.

Using a base of natural sugars and polysaccharides, a high percentage of parfum extract has been used to create this skin-friendly solid perfume, ensuring a long-lasting and lingering scent. It is also alcoholfree. When you apply our solid perfume, the fragrance from it lifts out with the heat from your body and it slowly unfolds. The effect is more subtle and gentle than spraying an eau de parfum because the scent stays close to your skin, making it more intimate and seductive. Only those who get close enough can share!

I added a light opalescent shimmer, which gives it a picture-perfect finish so it looks pretty day or night. As our solid perfume comes in a small pot, you can take it

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without fear on aeroplanes and slip it into handbags. It also stands up to the test of heat – I used my Frangipani solid perfume recently on a trip to Vietnam, Florence and Dubai, where the temperatures were 40°, and I left it in the car one afternoon and it was still perfect on its return to London.

I selected the four Ormonde Jayne scents very carefully and crucially, ensuring that each solid perfume is utterly faithful to its own original fragrance. My favourite for this season is Tolu as, instead of waiting patiently for its magical drydown to reveal, you get instant gratification. The warm notes of amber, golden frankincense, orchid and tonka melt into your skin – a perfect antidote to the winds, and the ides, of March.

Linda Pilkington is the proprietor of Ormonde Jayne www.ormondejayne.com

Cleopatra still inspires me for her inability to compromise on perfection

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background image courtesy of Bentley

FQR Recession Buster Special - servicing your own Bentley

The Car That Makes The Horologist Tick Renowned watchmaker Stephen Forsey on how the legendary “Cricklewood Bentley” inspired him to make super-luxe timepieces

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orty years ago, a small boy sneaked into the garage beside his parents’ house looking for a gardening tool. Little did he realise that this first encounter with the great machine lurking within would determine his future career. There it was in resplendent green, with huge wire wheels and an enormous arched radiator towering like a great monument designed to forge a path along the highways.

That small boy was me, and that great green machine was my father’s prized 1926 3-litre Speed Model Bentley. It would take another four years before my mechanical apprenticeship would begin with my father in that same garage. In the meantime, my father gave me some dusty boxes from the attic containing myriad metal parts and my treasured new Meccano set was soon put to use investigating the basic principles of mechanics. It led slowly but surely to my becoming a mechanic and a watchmaker.

Among the many notable engineers of the 20th century, W O Bentley stands out. During World War I, he applied his skills to designing and developing his successful rotary aero engines BR1 and BR2

for the fledgling British air forces and, as soon as he was demobbed, he quickly focused his attention on designing his first motor car, the Three Litre. The first prototype was built in 1919 and the cars began to roll off the production line in 1921.

W O Bentley trained as a steam locomotive engineer. In this field, design and manufacture were measured in fractions of an inch. W O, however, decided to design his cars in millimetres, a daring step in Twenties Britain, where metric measurements were virtually unknown.

Having turned to the motor car, Bentley’s subsequent career proved him to be an outstanding technical designer and a supreme development engineer. The brief for his Three Litre model was to build a reliable sports car that was to be nothing less than the very best in its class. Every blueprinted component of those first “Cricklewood” models from Bentley Motors went far beyond its primary mechanical function for performance and reliability and exhibits deliberate concern for the aesthetic form. This refined approach to the engineering of these cars means that many are still in excellent condition and running well today. Even today, 90 years later, they still perform superbly, especially on modern Tarmac roads where they can easily reach speeds that could cause them to be photographed by blue-

uniformed admirers hiding by the roadside!

W O Bentley’s designs were based on quality and reliability and always contained built-in security so that they would not be working at the edge of their structural limits. Naturally, this improved reliability, and Bentleys soon began carrying off trophies, including five of the first eight legendary 24-hour Le Mans races during the Roaring Twenties.

The majestic engines of these Cricklewood cars (1919-1930) were not only technically superb, but were also very creatively designed and resembled standalone mechanical sculptures.

The “magic”, as it is known to those who have had their senses enhanced by a drive in a “vintage Bentley”, is comparable to the experience of a fine mechanical watch.

The 20th century was enriched by the advent of the motor car and, today, in the 21st, the challenges we face and meet at Greubel Forsey are similar to those faced and met by W O Bentley nearly 100 years ago, to ensure that our timepieces are not simply reinterpretations of what has gone before but, like the Cricklewood Bentleys, are revolutionary improvements that will stand the test of time.

Stephen Forsey is a watchmaker and co-founder of Greubel Forsey

Self Service Stephen Forsey’s top tips for servicing a W O Bentley motor car 1. The mechanics of the WOB are

essentially simple, and regular servicing can be effected in the comfort (or discomfort) of your own garage. Running repairs or impromptu servicing may also be carried out in hotel car parks, but this would usually be under cover of darkness so that you don’t reveal your technical prowess to casual onlookers.

2. Join a vintage-car enthusiasts’ club; the Bentley Drivers Club (BDC) will give you access to parts, archives and expertise, which will all be extremely useful – and the people are really nice too. The members in the different regions also know lots of great places to eat and refresh, which, at the very least, will allow you to defrost yourself if braving midwinter weather while enjoying a drive in your open tourer.

3. If you have recently acquired your vintage Bentley, congratulations! You may wish to give him/her a name, if one was not attributed by previous guardians, as you will become more intimate while either driving, restoring or servicing – and, if nothing else, it helps to while away the hours while you discuss your favourite subject with your new captive audience, who will usually agree (unless concerning matters of horsepower/torque, racing pedigree etc).

4. Concerning tools: if during the past eight or nine decades some scoundrel has lost the original tools, fear not – a standard range of spanners in BSF and BSW should cover most of the car. (BSF stands for British Standard Fine, as opposed to BSW, which is for the rather coarser Whitworth threads. These shouldn’t, of course, be confused with the BSP pipe threads, of which there are a few tucked away in inaccessible places on your WOB). Don’t forget those BA (British Association) sizes and the seemingly useless magneto spanners, which will save your bacon when faced with a loose contact breaker on a rainy dark night in a narrow country lane with a failing torch.

5. More special tools are usually required on a Sunday afternoon, but they can still be procured through other WOB owners, even at the most obscure hours, if you are on first-name terms. If you are on a different continent and wake your friend for advice on adjusting a clutch-stop at 3am, you had better open an express courier account to send a suitable gift to appease his dear lady wife (at least after the second or third time).

6. You might also spend many days bent double at autojumbles on either side of the Pond or across Europe in search of that elusive spanner size, only to find subsequently that your local motor spares shop has a metric equivalent for a fiver gathering dust on his shelf.

www.finchsquarterly.com

7. The toolkit for your motor car will be measured in weight (pounds, not kilograms, of course), but you will generally never have the right tool, at least not for the first few years or so. Don’t forget to include a meaty set of jump leads (these are for helping others; the battery on a WOB is sufficiently powerful that, unless you forget to switch off your electrics, you will be able to start pretty much anything else, demonstrating what a nice person you are in the process). Also useful are some wire, wire cutters and nails, which are probably not needed for your car, but if you are planning a Bond/Fleming-style adventure, these will certainly come in handy.

8. A Cricklewood WOB appreciates regular attention.

A weighty tome called The Technical Facts of the Vintage Bentley is a veritable bible – a loaded compendium of technical data and information, including everything from brakes to steering – which was compiled with the help of former Cricklewood “Bentley Boys”. Older copies will certainly have dark, oily fingerprints, probably obscuring some information, usually the critical word or figure to complete an adjustment or assembly.

9. Your first port of call must be the brakes. W O Bentley’s original braking system is a completely mechanical rod braking system mastered by a patented compensating security shaft, rather like dual circuit braking (if one brake failed, the compensator would come into play to maintain braking on the other three wheels). Once correctly set up and adjusted, these will provide superb braking, proportionately as good as your ability to press hard with your right foot (unless equipped with a servo device, which could be a bonus in modern traffic). Your Technical Facts has the whole procedure, but here the guidance of a seasoned specialist is strongly advised – they will check over the general condition of the brake linings and the set-up of the rod and lever assembly.

10. Greasing the chassis and running gear (a misnomer: you will need thick steam oil 240 grade, which resembles Golden Syrup or molasses, for best results). This simple procedure will ensure long life of all the running gear and keep you in trim as you manoeuvre yourself under your motor car (until you have either obtained a lift or dug an inspection

Courtesy of Stephen Forsey

pit). Beware, however: the lubrication points are strategically positioned to transfer excess oil to your trousers if you have been overzealous, but this usually only happens when the trousers are light-coloured and you are at least 100 miles from home. A trail of this treacly oil may also spatter your passenger under similar conditions.

11. Fitting (and removing) the knock-on wire wheels is a great job for building up those upperbody muscles, but, unless you are ambidextrous, you may find considerable muscle-build only to one side of the torso. To begin removal of a wheel in the traditional manner, use a hide- or copperfaced hammer and, facing the wheel, address the hub spinner ear, which points down the road forwards.

One will see that on the English offside of your car the thread is left-handed and so to the nearside it will be a right-handed thread. This requires some practice as a poor aim will damage wheel spokes – and your legs.

For a little peace of mind, a tool with the negative imprint of the spinner’s shape will extend the life of both legs and wheels.

Once the spinner is loosened, simply jack up the car. However, if you are replacing a blown-out or flat tyre by the roadside, this is the moment of truth, when you will find out if your jack is tall or short enough to enable lifting the car those critical few extra inches (obvious, really, but a flat tyre requires several inches more lift on a vintage Bentley, which can be a challenging moment).

12. Servicing can often be helped out by, for instance, befriending a local garage man. He will immediately be engaged and fascinated by your motor car and probably make available his workshop in the anticipation of going for a drive in your WOB. 13. Unlike other vintage motors with racing-car pedigree, it is not usually necessary to heat the garage to start your vintage B. Fuel and a good, powerful battery will suffice. Although the hardy and seasoned will (perhaps for a pint of ale) demonstrate starting her on the handle, beware: this seemingly innocuous practice is a relatively dark art when considering an engine of between three and eight litres capacity. A moment’s hesitation at the critical moment can easily result in a broken arm.

14. The majority of B components are engineered with plenty of life in reserve for reconditioning.

However, in the unlikely event of a B component needing replacement, thanks to the survival of the original drawings and the WOBMF and BDC spares scheme, almost any part can be replaced.

15. Tyres and similar consumables are not a problem to obtain, but the bad old days of putting them on yourself are best left in the past. You will need a tyre fitter with a big machine, though; if he specialises in Minis there will be

the lubrication points are strategically positioned to transfer excess oil to your trousers if you have been overzealous, but this usually only happens when the trousers are light-coloured and you are at least 100 miles from home

18

lots of grunts.

16. Simple tasks such as renewing the

coolant system with anti-freeze are easily accomplished as the majestic radiator is well situated, a good foot above ground, thus leaving plenty of space to place a pan underneath to catch the old liquid.

Unless your radiator still has a drain tap and not just a simple threaded plug, you will find that, as listed in your Technical Facts, the system holds a lot of liquid (a few imperial English gallons) and you will realise (probably too late) that it keeps coming out at a relentless rate as you struggle to remove the now full and hazardously unstable pan and simultaneously insert a fresh empty one while risking serious injury on the chassis suspension or starting handle.

17. A Cricklewood Bentley is, of course, what is regarded as a vintage car, that is, built between 1919 and 1931, which, as a friend kindly informed me some years ago, is always one step ahead. So, having acquired your VB, until you have checked every aspect in detail, be prepared. Begin with a sound check-over of brakes and tyres. Then the steering, fuel system and electrics, suspension is best checked also, but here a poor ride is usually due to the suspension being too soft. Your wallet will be lighter and a few additional grey hairs may have sprouted, but from here on you can look forward to many thousands of miles of immense pleasure with a characteristically huge grin across your face.

Com It’s the Austrian health clinic renowned for great results, particularly with weight loss. So did Kate Lenahan succeed in her diet, or did she go nuts in the Mayr and More?

I

packed optimistically smaller-size clothes for my weeklong visit to the renowned Austrian clinic FX Mayr & More as I had heard about really encouraging results from various friends and their friends after their visits. Had I been warned of what was going to be on my plate – or, rather, not on it – over the coming week, I would have known why it is one of the best places to go to for weight loss.

Originally built in 1936 as a hotel for prominent figures wishing to visit the very pretty setting on the south shore of Lake Wörthersee, the Mayr and More was converted into a medical health centre in 1976. The building itself, attached to woods and a golf course, is extremely modest and could be mistaken for Alan Partridge’s alternative motel residence.

Straight after check-in, I was seen by one of the clinic doctors who led me to the old-fashioned but nonetheless accurate scales, which read a double-digit number in kilos that will remain an eternally hidden secret, requiring me to be put on the Mayr and More Classic diet for six days. And so the fun – or, rather, not – began…

The clinic’s high success rate is not only in basic weight loss but in addressing the various complex issues relating to its guests’ relationships with eating, as well as dealing with food allergies, sleep problems, depression, stress etc. In the 21st century the clinic must have seen a higher turnover than ever as lifestyles take their toll on people’s health and they turn more and more to “back to basics” care with proven results.

All 47 rooms, and eight apartments with their own gardens, are very clean and comfortable. This is just as well, as one

Spring 2012

Pierre Corthay

1. Once you start to

feel the bumps on ground (small sto the nes etc), then it is time to resole your shoe s. Once there is a hole it is too late!

2. The only secret: one must alternat e one’s shoes.

We recommend that one wears a pair of Corthay shoes for no mor e than three cons ecutive days. This will ensure their longevity, preven t humidity and help keep their or iginal shape. Onc e a week is even better.

3. Leave your wet sh 4. At least once a we oes to dry without shoe trees. ek, clean leather shoes with damp cloth (for smooth leather ) or a dr y brush (fo e r ve th lv r et). Apply an adap ing Kiwi fo ted cleaning prod for smooth leathe 1. If you are us e already 10 steps uct rs (polish, cream u ar …), then -made ch gl shirt, before pointing at themselves and saying, “Me shine, then yo az en in Fr g w is t ith a dr y and soft clot best produc h. Polishing will use.

Jodhpur!” Sadly, that was about the limit of our effective after the behind… the be t the artisans ha w is shoes are dr y. is Th h. e lis th t po ou ax g w ability to converse. Tony, who runs the yard, was in 5. br I bees s tr us ay t w an al d recommend prod red polishes ucts from Saphir, e navy enormously encouraging and I loved showing off as they answer ev Lighter-colou for example, us r; he er y need and are at le e th m of iu es ed of very good in front of all the visiting owners. on m r rt qu ality. It is the only unde and tan (o brand used for Pi s, ur on burgundy lo d co re e Towards the end of training, as a thank-you, I k, th erre ac C n bl or thay products, be on ne dow they made to mea brown. To to rk da took anybody who wanted to on a helicopter on . or sure n) rs re ady to wear. brow er leathe from lishes on light rt hi flight. It felt good to be the admired pilot, po -s er T 6. rk on W da tt he e n it comes to wat us : a co erproofing, Pierre it complicated ptian rather than the clumsy amateur. My passengers Corthay shoes m 2. Don’t make need to apply the polish. Egy ade of leather with u yo enjoyed flying over Newbury Racecourse, and l a smooth aspect ar Primark is al e already protecte ve getting there in less than five minutes… And necessar y. d by the t – but you ha fin an ish rt po of th im e is su cotton is not rface. On the othe (or spit) – this er one, or r hand, it was the best time to the nubuck and ve 3. Wax ’n’ water you don’t use too much of eith lvet leathers need see all the crop circles at to th be re pr otected by the ap to make su plication of a k the leather. ing a oa ad -s re just before harvest. er by ov w t at ill er no w pr oofing product. Ag else you you learn, ain Pierre . Simply by r: this is how Having hired a Corthay recomm . Trial and erro planations or watching videos mistakes. ends Saphir prod 4 ur ucts. gorgeous hat – from ex 7. To maintain a pa e from yo million of thes ir of shoes, it is n, you’ ll learn y an ai bu ag st er ju , ov Lizzie’s Hat Hire, er d be th st to remove dirt an bo with a brush or a doing it over it, don’t even Richard’s daughter’s damp cloth, then good brush is key – without A is s. e oe nc ie sh at ur P apply the approp . yo 5 in ru d oe an sh riate the cleaning product. new hat company brush… and cleaning instant-shine ng, just buffing -o in ax 8. in – for the posh races w W e sh et r th le fo at by he nt r shoes should ne not mea e is created ver be dried next to a he that followed mine, I dirt. The shin n as bulling. ow ater. They may ha kn e from dust and is rw he ot rden s, an ke u d ro yo be was set. st come brittle. It is shine wax-off finger preferable e four-minute th at to th k le t in th I invited all my se em th dr y naturally and W hy do you e hour? Becau to insert newspaper to ab et only lasts on friends and family to sorb the moisture ! ff bu get on the stre st ju ey . th 9. h, If so desired, the polis Goodwood, and they le to patina of the shoe brushes don’t u should be ab Yo t. s can an be rt ch po an ged, but only for kindly came to watch. At 6. Touch is im g on your fingertips whether a darker colour.

10 .

To in el the slightly muddled start further protect tell by the fe the shoes and ce shine. prevent the wear e making a ni my horse jinxed a bit, and I k in m er from slipping, ly ab or not you ar er ef pr r, ne they io can be ordered w it lost a stirrup. Unable to get ith rubber soles 7. A good condportant as a good polish. an d a ste el plate. it back, I did the whole race oil, is just as im leather will ur yo , is th e Pi er us re Corthay is a lea with only one (I’ve just seen it If you don’t longer look ding shoes will no Parisian Bottier. on TV and it’s quite impressive!) crack and your be time to bin them. will www.corthay.com and I wasn’t even last, but sixth. n nice – then it e the laces whe ov m re s ay I’m stressing this because after the lw 8. A rtying else you risk di winning post, as I slowed, I slid off, polishing , or your so al t bu hands, hit my head on the side rail and was not only your axed laces ep your flat, w knocked out, ending up in hospital trousers. To ke m-iron them.

It’s a wise man who looks , stea with concussion. I gave my friends and family a horrible time, in good form tween a be ce en after er his shoes – polished shoes ff and was gaga all summer. You know it’s bad when you have all 9. There is a di h. A shine is very open door lis s to boardrooms and your clothes returned cut in half, even the bra… But I did raise shine and a po esn’t do much besides bedro oms do – so this is a simple list of d an £10,000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital. temporary more of a deep is h every day lis thing s to help you keep your po a ; Richard and his family took me in and made me feel like leather look good shoe at leaves your s looki th ng new: ge sa e as th m one of them, so I’m sad that on the day I let them all down a tissue better in 1. Olive oil – to apply to dull patents. d looks much bit and never got to wear the hat! rejuvenated, an Rub in and buff off with a soft cloth. ine in long run.

Talking to Richard recently, he called me a “tough old bird” artisan shoesh st be 2. e Old newspapers – for sodden shoes. th r fo ves & Finally, – praise indeed. Lord March sent me the loveliest letter, saying zpatrick at Gie it F Simp in ly scrun st ch up news pages and stuff!

Ju t si town, vi all the trainers couldn’t believe I was an amateur – yeeeeessss! vile Row! 3.

Sa Perm 1 anen o t black marker – to colour in N s, ke Haw s& I’m thrilled to say that I’ve been cleared to fly again, and CEO of Gieve scratches and scuffs on black shoes, then is n ni ur D hn Jo am taking full advantage of it. I think flying is dangerous but, polish over.

Hawkes. for me, horses are probably more so, given that none of us has kes.com w ha nd 4.

Oil pastels – to blend in scuffs on sa ve ie www.g much of a brain. So I think I’ll stick to flying. coloured shoes.

Annette Lynton-Mason, wife of Pink Floyd drummer Nick, is an 5. Sandpaper (240 or finer)– rub gently on actress, motor racer, biker (on a Suzuki Bandit), helicopter pilot, tired suede to revive. jockey, sculptor, mother, housewife – and writer 6. Thumb tacks – to protect worn heels or soles.

7. Sellotape – to secure worn lace ends.

8. Toothbrush – for getting the polish into the join between upper and welt.

FQR Recession Buster Special - polishing your own shoes, riding rather than flying and eating less

John Durnin

T

his may seem a departure from my usual aviation column but, actually, there is a fair amount of flying in it, in more ways than one. I had been doing my annual hill climb up past the house at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and, during dinner that night, Lord March asked me if I’d be willing to take part in The Magnolia Cup, a charity, celebrity, women-only horserace. I was thrilled, and jumped at the chance, as I love riding fast, but also because, being married to a rock god, I deserve to be a celebrity in my own right! This is since, having spent 20 years before marrying Nick as a working, but unlauded, actress, I still crave attention and adrenaline-fuelled activity. Nobody ever retires from acting; acting retires from you… well, unless you’re Greta Garbo. And the ability to make up lines when you’ve forgotten them on stage gets increasingly terrifying.

But I digress… I should have worked out that the reason Lord March asked me was because most real celebrities had probably turned him down.

I do ride a lot, but not racehorses; this was a whole new thing. I was told I’d be training at a racing yard, so, after doing a little research, I discovered that Richard Hannon was one of the best yards, and conveniently located nearby. Unbelievably, Richard agreed to let me train with him, and was happy to entrust me with his garden as my landing pad.

Clambering into our AS350 B3 helicopter in my riding kit, I felt incredibly cool, though understandably nervous, having never done any racing training before. I managed to land in the garden without scaring any jockeys on horseback into hurtling off into the distance. Eventually, however, the gardener became a bit demoralised after collecting up the cuttings for the umpteenth time, and I relocated to an adjoining field. This was roomier, but a little hairy as one end of the field is in a military danger area. (It’s also on high ground south-west of Newbury, so I frequently had adverse weather to contend with when coming in to land; but there are lots of easy fields – as long as you remember to avoid the horses!)

I had the most wonderful time and loved the horse I was training on. Unfortunately, it was quite highly rated, and in the end too high to compete in our race. You’d think a high rating meant fast but naughtier, the lower-rated one just felt naughty. I rode out three times a week with the work riders, who looked after me and teased me gently. They included many Indians, who stared at my Jodhpur-emblazoned

Courtesy of Annette Mason

Flying Without Wings

Annette Mason is always flying high – even when on horseback

Clambering into our AS350 B3 helicopter in my riding kit, I felt incredibly cool

Carréducker

me What Mayr tends to stay in one’s room rather a lot in the first few days of detoxing, lying on one’s bed feeling rather wimpy as the toxins depart, or hanging out in the bathroom hoping the results will be worth all the unattractive symptoms.

In addition to the helpful counselling on offer, the clinic has pilates, yoga, cross-country skiing and ice skating in winter, and swimming exercises, as well as gentle pedalo navigating in the rather chilly but fresh waters of the lake.

On the food front, the dining room has a deliberately hushed atmosphere as guests concentrate on eating at very set times of the day. In my case, this was a regime of sheep’s-milk yogurt and a soup for lunch and supper. Between 10am and 11am, a light broth is available, which provides an amusing rush to the dining room by ravenous bathrobe-wearing guests in a desperate quest to consume something with flavour in between meals. By day three I endeavoured, but failed, to use all my negotiating skills to coax the friendly but firm Tyrolean staff to sneak me a cracker or,

Spring 2012

Top tips on repairs: frankly, anything other than soup as the starvation pangs kicked 1. Replace the heel before you wear in. through the rubber piece.

To pass the time actively during the day – when one starts to 2. Have a toe plate fitted if you wear fore feel a little stronger (on day three, usually) – guests can go hiking polish be ly p hard at the toe. p a s y in the woods or “rest” in a tummy-grumbling haze by the beautiful 1. Alwa shoes. a 3. Regularly replace your shoelaces. n w o e s n e lake, trying very hard not to think of anything containing sugar and d sho wearing ther-sole t bed into a 4. Keep your shoes polished. le w e n generally bonding with fellow diet detainees. Visits to the doctors 2. Wear at little bits of gri tance in 5.

Have rubber stick-on soles if you is th s o re to monitor your programme are scheduled efficiently, and a series helps is dr y day s Th . wear le through the soles quickly. o of the s of lectures is also available – these intelligently communicate the nts. e the base m e v rn a tu p ith the Mayr and More philosophy that, essentially, the stomach does n you re contact w a brush over whe Tips to give your shoes a long life: m not have teeth and that one’s digestion is greatly aided if food is e . Give th 3 1.

Buy good-quality handsewn broken down by chewing at least 28 times per mouthful before ts le oe trees. shoe ome. h s when you can - they are worth is s h g th ; in g tt swallowing. earin od-fi the investment and will last 10 years Slip in go etween the next w and removes .

4 On our final day, like the inmates leaving the grounds shape day b and beyond if you treat them well.

5. Allow a ry back to the made in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a few of us excitedly d r e th Just a think, £250 per year and blissful le e th . ventured out to the scenic local town of Klagenfurt where, stains, owy days n lt s a . comf s r s ort t e or a decade of pinched o a s t a b e cre nw com I am ashamed to admit, I shot straight into the ice-cream ershoes o e leather v th o disco r . mfor lp s t? a e a e h re W a 6. p, to wet parlour for a forbidden Nutella double-scoop cone – oe is dam it on the 2. Spend as much money as you can 7. If the sh tato in half and rub t of hide food. much to my pious companions’ dismay. Wired by the ld o n o afford e p e on shoes. v cut a raw occasional treatm be used to remo sugar jag the ice cream gave me, I did a mad shop at e n 3. a Only th c buy shoes that fit you. r 8. Apply se and tar remove various souvenir boutiques, buying nothing of any value d 4. n Have a a toe plates put on any new shoes h re c g blea or merit, and then enjoyed watching local portly men in 9. Mel light will p. n u imm -u s ediat d ely t (eith il c er metal or rubber). e u b ir in d their lederhosen hanging around the beer tents swaying polish standing 5. ft Inves r . t in le e e comf ortab s th m le socks. e a ti o le h r side to side as a middle-aged band with interesting 10. S k ove y of 6. Use a good-quality, beeswax-based will shrin efit from a spra eck the r e th a le mullets struggled valiantly to cover various Seventies Ch the ben polish that is silicone-free. ore so. oes will soft-rock songs on their electric guitars and synthesisers.

11. All sh – suede shoes m 7.

Always use shoe trees – the hinged – r heat protecto Reader, on my return for the great weigh-in later that day, ar direct e n ones o are best. . s to n s o . shoe directi I had lost seven pounds despite falling at the last hurdle – so late freely le. lace wet u p c Jame t s ir Ducker and Deborah Carré are o c n n o a b c air fera 12. D take my word for it: the Mayr & More can stand by its wellbe where rubber sole is pre the to propr ietors of Carréducker, No1 r y r e T tt e r. b far twea ear, a deserved reputation.

Savile Row www.carreducker.com ountr y w ring of your foo ifferent c r o F .

3 1 d Kate Lenahan is FQR’s Travel Editor. www.mayrandmore. the wea irs, with 14. Rotate minimum of six pa com. Ryanair flies to Klagenfurt from London Stansted . to have a ifferent occasions mous d r ony p fo e s is le h sty nder of u fo is k o Eric Co oemaker bespoke sh

Eric Cook

19

www.finchsquarterly.com

FQR The Great Outdoors

C

elebrity wears many hats but rarely a bridle. At the 1977 Sports Personality of the Year Awards, three-time Grand National winner Red Rum dropped into the BBC studio and stole the show.

Today there’s another celebrity not consumed by his own importance and the gushing sycophancy of cheap-shot media, and who’s immune to phonehacking and careless of long-shot lenses. This celebrity is handsome, has presence and breeding and he’s doubly fortunate because he has much in common with his closest associate – except for the number of legs. The fortunes of Frankel, champion racehorse of the world (named after the late, legendary American trainer), are guided by the equally legendary British practitioner Sir Henry Cecil.

Cecil received his knighthood, in 2011’s Birthday Honours, for services to racing over a career spanning 42 years, and including four Derby winners and 10 trainers’ titles. The award put this natural patrician on a level with his great adversary, Sir Michael Stoute.

Frankel’s reward for remaining unbeaten through nine prime races, in all of which he has started favourite, is the undisputed title of best racehorse in the world.

The new life of Archives Nationales’ gardens, by Louis Benech

L

es Archives Nationales, right in the centre of Le Marais, two minutes away from le Centre Pompidou, was turned into that institution during the French Revolution. Bounded by four streets, it is composed of an assemblage of buildings starting with the postern of the Hôtel de Clisson (one of four remaining late-medieval, 14th-century buildings in Paris), through to the newest library Le Caran.

The Hôtel de Soubise and the Hôtel de Rohan are the most important buildings in the place. Louis Philippe started to add a wing in the main garden that linked the two magnificent buildings, then Napoleon III erected what was called the Grands Depots along the rue des Quatre Fils, and the state gradually added all the smaller “hotels” and their gardens along the rue des Francs-Bourgeois.

The French Ministry of Culture decided to open

Hamlet said, “There’s a divinity doth shape our ends, Rough-hew them how we may.” The genius of Cecil and Frankel certainly isn’t rough-hewn. Frankel is the son of Galileo, the pre-eminent stallion of our day, and of Kind, a mare who represents the best of owner Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farm’s exceptional bloodlines. And Cecil’s bloodlines trace back further yet, to the Earls of Exeter of the Civil War. But in the early years of this century Cecil’s string dropped from 200 to 30; he lost the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed in 1995; he’s been through two divorces; he went through cancer treatment in 2006/7; and his identical twin brother, David, died in 2000. What never deserted him, though, was his affinity with the thoroughbred racehorse.

“I do everything through instinct,” he says. “I have to protect Frankel (in danger of becoming ‘public property’).

Everyone said he should have gone to the Derby. There was no way he should have gone to the Derby.”

Pressed on the matter, Cecil would divulge

that doubts about Frankel’s stamina for the mile and a half of the classic distance are compounded by the barely contained fires that burn within him.

In 2012 the 10 furlongs of the Coral Eclipse (in July at Sandown) and the Juddmonte (at York in August) will lead Frankel and Cecil into fresh territory and, hopefully, even greater heights.

Frankel’s signature moments so far have been over eight furlongs. In the Qipco 2000 Guineas on Newmarket’s timehonoured Rowley Mile, the long-striding dark bay shot 10 lengths clear of his field at halfway.

Timeform (racing’s “bible”) rated him 142. Only three horses in racing history have rated higher – Brigadier Gerard, Tudor Minstrel and Sea Bird, the last-named topping the lot with 145 in 1962. The great observable fact about Frankel is that he is not yet done.

After the culmination of Frankel’s second season – a consummate victory in the Qipco Champions

It Takes Two

if Frankel does impress at stud his potential earnings are incalculable

these gardens to the public this year, and I was chosen, via a competition, to remodel them for their new public life.

On site, I discovered this most enjoyable heterogeneity: the remaining half of the garden of the Hôtel de Rohan was a restitution of post-André Le Nôtre conception, inspired by Robert de Cotte’s drawing; the Hôtel of Breteuil had this very charming “Monarchie de Juillet”-type provincial garden with the most beautiful Aesculus indica (Indian horse chestnut, rare in Parisian gardens compared to London

ones); and the Soubise yard was transformed into a formal garden with topiaries.

My first instinct was that those various atmospheres should be preserved and rejuvenated in their own style. I tried to make the Hôtel de Fontenay (which was composed in the classical neo-XVIIIth style that Henri and Achille Duchêne loved in their work around 1900) more joyful by transforming the lawn parterre into a “Mille fleurs” inspired by Cotelle’s gouache, following Dezallier d’Argenville’s way of planting. I played on both new openings and partitions, going back to an urbanism that is

Stake on Ascot’s Champions Day in October – Cecil confessed he was nervous but followed this with: “You’re going to see a better horse next year.” For the first time in public earshot he described Frankel as the “best I have trained”. rankel has been fêted with every award, topped by the Cartier. As far as we know, the gong meant no more to him than all the homage did to Red Rum. In the spring, when every hope is alive, one magical morning on Newmarket’s Racecourse side gallop I was privileged to cast eyes on a sight that Sir Henry enjoys every day at work. Brigadier Gerard, who won 16 of his 17 races, captured my youth; he was my first superstar racehorse. Harbinger took my breath away at Ascot a mere two years ago. Frankel may be something else.

Frankel can cover a furlong in a little over the time it takes Usain Bolt to run 100 metres. There is nothing that can guarantee that either Bolt’s or Frankel’s progeny will have anything like their speed, but if Frankel does impress at stud his potential earnings are incalculable – 100 times more than the £1.37m he has already won on the racecourse anyway. It will be harder to get your mare a visit to him than your child into the best public schools.

Harry Herbert is FQR’s Racing Correspondent

F

closer to what were initially the visual limits of each historical space. Finally, a formal “city meadow” and orchard will grow in what was the 17th-century garden of the Hôtel de Jaucourt.

But to celebrate the rebirth of these gardens and find the lightest connection, I had to find a coherent link in that disparity. I chose one tree that would grow in all those gardens like “Hop o’ My Thumb” seeds and transform the spine of the visit into a kind of Appian Way. The umbrella pines, which don’t really belong to the past Parisian way of gardening, will be the “fil d’Ariane” in that new promenade.

Louis Benech has been a garden designer since 1985. He is currently working on the gardens of Château La Coste near Aix en Provence and Château de Chaumont sur Loire, near Blois

Illustration by Louis Benech

Harry Herbert is in awe of the relationship between the legendary Sir Henry Cecil and his equally famous training partner, the apparently effortless racing horse Frankel

James McBride hails the power of the British brand of polo

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owards the end of last year, we had Edward Olver put on his British Polo Day in Singapore. It was an absolutely resounding success. Ed approached us about three months before with his concept of recreating a day at polo in England. The power of the “Empire” is alive and well: 1,000 people turned up, with lead sponsor Coutts supported by many other British bastion brands: Land Rover, Barbour, Hunter boots, Ettinger, Johnstons of Elgin and Hackett. The British Army Polo team defeated Singapore Polo Club 5-2 for the Land Rover Cup, and Harrow defeated Eton 4-2 in the opening match for the

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Pelham Bell Pottinger Trophy.

Guests of honour were HH the Sultan of Johor (years back a political incident was caused when TMJ landed his helicopter on Singapore Polo Club field without obtaining flight clearance – why not, who needs clearance?!) and His Excellency, Mr Antony Phillipson, the British High Commissioner. I attended a lovely brunch at Eden Hall, HE’s beautiful home the next day.

I love the history of Eden Hall, especially the story about the owner Vivian Bath who, when he decided to retire to Australia, sold Eden Hall to the British Government in 1957 for a nominal sum, with the stipulation that a

plaque be installed at the bottom of the flagpole, which reads “May the Union Jack fly here forever”.

And it is indeed still flying.

Sponsorship and the advent of polo in China is also taking on a British theme: British Polo Day in Beijing on September 17 was a huge success too, with a traditional British tea served to spectators. It paves the way for many future tournaments with British pomp and circumstance in China.

The Tianjin Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club will host Asia’s second Snow Polo tournament from 15 to 20 February 2012, which I look forward to attending with Bruce Colley FIP Ambassador,

May the Union Jack fly here forever

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who will be joining me from New York. This snow polo challenge will be a competition between six teams from leading polo nations: England, France, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and the host, China. Two matches will be played daily in a league format 14 goal open.

British polo also has its stamp on this: the professional management team is headed by Paul Stevens, former facilities manager of Guards, and John Fisher, who is running stable operations, is a former England player from Cowdray Park. The VIP pavilion will be modelled on The Royal Box at Guards Club. And, of course, the winners will take home a bespoke Asprey trophy.

James McBride is President of YTL Hotels, based in Singapore. www.ytlhotels.com

Spring 2012

Photograph by Oliver Doran

A Very British Invasion

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Spring 2012

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FQR International Culture ŠRex F ea tures

Great ExSpence Ion Trewin dives into a monumental new biography of Spencer Tracy and the follow-up to Stephen Sondheim’s Finishing the Hat

watched, observed. “Acting to me,� he once said, “is always reacting.�

Yet his private life – revealed in this new biography in greater detail than ever before – was complex, tortured and hard, demonstrating the truth in Hepburn’s aphorism. As a stage actor in the Twenties he had married his leading lady, but their relationship was skewed by the birth of a son who was profoundly deaf. In Hollywood Tracy was a womaniser; he also drank so heavily at times that films had to be shut down. And yet he invariably recovered and was always in demand. He always delivered.

Curtis’s doorstop of a biography owes much to Tracy’s daughter, Susie, who opened archives and allowed him the freedom to tell Tracy’s life as it was. What we need now is a retrospective of his films to remind us what was so special about one of the remarkable actors of Hollywood’s golden age.

A year ago in these pages I waxed lyrical about Stephen Sondheim’s Finishing the Hat, in which the part creator of some of the best and most imaginative musicals of the 20th century gave us many of his lyrics and explained how they came to be, how some worked, but many did not. The sequel, Look, I Made a Hat, is more of the same – and just as absorbing.

Starting in 1981 (and continuing until 2011), it demonstrates how a career founded on West Side Story, Gypsy and Follies moved more into the operatic with Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods and Passion.

Sondheim also wrote increasingly for the cinema, not least (appropriately, for this review) for Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy. As Sondheim comments, when Beatty hired Madonna to play the character Breathless he thought it might even give him a hit record. It didn’t, but he won an Academy Award. This remarkable book, as an insight into writing for the stage and the screen, certainly deserves one too.

Spencer Tracy: A Biography, by James Curtis (Hutchinson, ÂŁ25). Look, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics, 1981-2011, by Stephen Sondheim (Virgin, ÂŁ35).

Ion Trewin is the Literary Director of the Man Booker Prize and author of Alan Clark: The Biography.

Acting is not the noblest profession in the world, but there are things lower than acting – not many, mind you, but politicians give you something to look down on from time to time

ŠRex s Feature

Spring 2012

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ik v ro n u to D b A r ia n

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Music maestro Oliver Gilmour explains what attracted him to the beautiful city of Dubrovnik

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eorge Bernard Shaw, not known for his hyperbole, pitched Dubrovnik very high indeed: “If you are seeking paradise on earth, go to Dubrovnik.� Lord Byron described the city as “the pearl of the Adriatic�. In July 1987, when I first visited Dubrovnik to conduct at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, I bumped into Michael Foot in a Habsburg coffee house. The War of 1991 – when the Serbs bombed this wonderful city – interrupted visits of distinguished Englishmen, along with tourists from everywhere else.

From Bulgaria, in early November 1991, I flew to the Italian town of Bari, from where Staffan de Mistura, who was working for Unicef during the siege of Dubrovnik, intended to ferry me across the Adriatic “to rally the troops�, or at least to raise their morale. (Any help from outside to attract attention to the plight of the people of Dubrovnik was considered useful, particularly as on an international level help was non-existent.) This, alas, never happened as Staffan was worried he might have to evacuate from Dubrovnik. He would have ended up with considerable amounts of egg on his face – and very likely scrambled by Serb bullets – if unable to evacuate the mission owing to his hydrofoil coasting around Italy. I teamed up with Staffan, however, at a later date in a war-torn country when in 2008 I was the first foreigner since the outbreak of war to be invited to conduct the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra in Baghdad while he was head of the UN mission there. I arrived in a humvee and departed in a Black Hawk (hoping to be whisked off to watch Chelsea v Man Utd in the Champions League Final from Moscow, but instead to the dreary company of people who looked like retired American Generals watching baseball in a former palace of Saddam’s).

It is difficult to exaggerate the beauty of Dubrovnik.

Rebecca West has a quibble in her timeless book Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey through Yugoslavia, but is contradicted by her husband “for Dubrovnik is exquisite, perhaps the most exquisite town I have ever seenâ€?. Rebecca writes, “He was right indeed, for it is as precious as Venice, and deserves comparison with the Venice of Carpaccio and Bellini, though not of Titian and Tintoretto.â€? She continues, “It was a republic, not a protectorate‌ the only patch of territory on the whole Dalmatian coast that never fell under the

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ay the name Clark Gable and most of us think immediately of Gone with the Wind. His contemporary James Cagney will be first remembered for his gangster films such as Angels With Dirty Faces. In another era, mention Sean Connery and the association is invariably with James Bond. But Spencer Tracy? Did he have a defining role? Was it the priest in Men of Boys Town? Or the dad in the comedy Father of the Bride? But no: when we think of Tracy it is not for one movie or one type of role; rather, it is for his long-term relationship on and off screen with Katharine Hepburn.

Tracy and Hepburn made nine films together, starting with Woman of the Year in 1942. They went on to work together intermittently, but brilliantly, until the end of his life. Their last movie, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, was completed only weeks before he died, aged only 67, from lung congestion. He had not been well for some time, having suffered heart attacks. He was also a heavy drinker.

It is impossible to write a life of Tracy without devoting considerable space to Hepburn. As well as making an enthralling, mesmeric on-screen team, they were lovers for a quarter of a century, but never married. Tracy was a Roman Catholic so divorce from his wife, Louise, was out of the question. When he was nominated for a posthumous Oscar for his final film, she was in the audience ready to collect the award, but it went to Rod Steiger for In the Heat of the Night.

He had a record nine Academy Award nominations, and won twice.

Tracy came from an age when screen acting by many of the greats appeared to come naturally. According to Hepburn, “Acting was easy for him� but she went on to add – and this is the core of James Curtis’s exhaustive biography (more than 800 pages, excluding appendices, notes and index) – that for “Spence�, as he was known, “Living was hard.�

Tracy was, according to George M Cohan, “the best goddamned actor I’ve ever seenâ€?. Humphrey Bogart remarked that, in Tracy, “you didn’t see the mechanism working, the wheels turning‌ He never overacts or is hammy. He makes you believe what he is playing.â€?

Curtis quotes Tracy himself as once saying of acting: “I don’t like anything about it, but I did very well by it.

I learned the trade well. It’s never been very demanding. It doesn’t require much brainwork. Acting is not the noblest profession in the world, but there are things lower than acting – not many, mind you, but politicians give you something to look down on from time to time.�

His relationship with Hepburn both on and off screen would make an enthralling movie. As actors, they could hardly have been more different in approach. Hepburn, unlike Tracy, was not an instinctive actor. Curtis says she questioned everything, debated everything, and would happily have rehearsed the same scene all day if she could, relying on the director’s guidance to deliver her best work. Tracy merely

rule of either Hungary or Venice. It was a republic that was a miracle: on this tiny peninsula, which is perhaps half a mile across, was based a great economic power.� The main “miracle� of Dubrovnik was its ability to keep Turkey at bay, which regarded the port as the key to the Adriatic and the invasion of Italy. While managing to keep the Turks at arm’s length, the Grand Council also impressively banned slavery in 1417, “for it is base, wicked, and abominable, that the human form, made after the image and similitude of our Creator, should be turned to mercenary profit, and sold as if it were brute beast�.

Dubrovnik is almost an opera set in itself but, bizarrely, there has not been regular opera here for over 70 years. I want to change this and plan to open with CosĂŹ fan tutte in June. It will be staged on the island of Lokrum, a literal stone’s throw away: “the advance guard of Dubrovnik resembling a green seal in the middle of the seaâ€?. The island is draped in pine trees, includes a “Dead Seaâ€? around which we plan a production of Der FreischĂźtz for 2012, and is captivatingly magical for tourists and inhabitants alike. In 1859 the Archduke Maximilian, the future Emperor of Mexico, built his summer residence on the ruins of the Benedictine monastery, and the island – very rich in Mediterranean and subtropic vegetation – is now a National Park owing to “its extraordinary natural beautyâ€?. Our aim is then to add Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman in 2013, performed around the City Walls of Dubrovnik on Pile bay under Fort St Lawrence, where my friend and colleague Miso Mihocevic staged Hamlet with Daniel Day-Lewis and Judi Dench in 1989.

Miso (pronounced Misho) is a charismatic and colourful man of the theatre, as well as a hero of the besieged Dubrovnik. would go as far as saying that CosĂŹ fan tutte is the archetypal modern opera, and that it resonates more now in a postFreud and -Jungian era than it did in Mozart’s day. What is love? The opera’s subtitle is The School for Lovers. Love is all vanity, fantasy and illusion, and the lesson being taught here is “an illusionless, yet exciting loveâ€? (Edward Said: On Late Style).

It is sexy and very picturesque, the Bay of Dubrovnik standing in for the Bay of Naples as backdrop. The story derives from a real occasion in 1788 when, on the Adriatic coast in Istria (now northern Croatia!), two courtiers were escorting their girlfriends to a masked ball. They concocted a story whereby they were suddenly called up to fight the Turks and thus could no longer attend the ball, so that they could go in disguise instead to seduce the other’s partner. The disguise they adopt in CosÏ fan tutte is of exotic aristocrats from Albania, also just down the coast from Dubrovnik‌ Oliver Gilmour is a classical music conductor. His professional life has taken him around the world – from Europe to America to the Far East and even to Iraq in 2008 – conducting, recording, teaching and innovating

From Bulgaria I flew to the Italian town of Bari, from where Staffan de Mistura, who was working for Unicef during the siege of Dubrovnik, intended to ferry me across the Adriatic “to rally the troops�, or at least to raise their morale

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Great Endings & Expectations The Tribuna of the Uffiizi, 1772-7

Charles Saumarez Smith looks back on the art world’s winter highlights and forward to the Royal Academy’s next great exhibition

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he big event of the winter season was the National Gallery’s great Leonardo exhibition, with all the tickets booked out after less than a fortnight, queues stretching all the way across Trafalgar Square, and tickets offered on eBay for £400. I missed the opening party and snuck in one morning in late November.

I was impressed by the sense of earnest seriousness of the visitors, hundreds upon hundreds of them all paying detailed attention to every aspect of the exhibition, the drawings as well as the paintings, in an atmosphere of extreme, slightly reverential attention.

The Lady with an Ermine was much more spectacular than I had anticipated: what seemed hypnotic was the sheer scale of her right hand, far too large, lightly touching the neck of a devious and deeply sensuallooking stoat (calling it an ermine makes it sound more acceptable, and less verminous, than it actually looks); there is surely something deeply deliberate, as well as troubling, about the contrast between the extreme innocence of her expression, looking away from the viewer and out into the middle distance, and the sensuality – indeed, carnality – of the way in which she strokes the animal fur.

At the time that the exhibition was first proposed, the whole point was to provide a better understanding of the artistic context of the National Gallery’s own version of The Virgin of the Rocks, which was due to be conserved. I have been interested in how little discussion there has been of the contrast between the Louvre’s earlier version of the picture, which is so obviously unrestored, and the National Gallery’s, so pristine.

Perhaps this is why it was decided to hang the two versions at opposite ends of the same room, so that, slightly frustratingly, it was not possible to do a direct comparison between the much greater delicacy of the Louvre’s version, where the principal figures are dimensionally much smaller, and the startling difference in the balance of the composition by the omission of the pointing hand of the angel on the right of the National Gallery’s version.

Two of the works in the Leonardo exhibition had strong connections to the Royal Academy. The first is the great Leonardo Cartoon, which has been slightly dispossessed in recent years, having come out of the little shrine that was constructed for it at the top of the Sainsbury Wing stairs. It is described in the catalogue as The Burlington House Cartoon, as if it is still hankering after its previous home, which it left when it was sold by the Royal Academy in 1962. It first came to England in 1761, purchased by John Udny (or Udney), who was the British Consul in Venice and helped his brother, Robert Udny, acquire his collection of pictures, which were displayed in the gallery of his house in Teddington.

It is not known exactly how the Cartoon entered the collection of the Royal Academy, other than the fact that it is depicted, hung rather casually to the left of the door of the Antique School, in amongst a jumble of antique casts, in a drawing by Edward Burney in 1779. In 1802, Robert’s collection was offered to the Royal Academy to establish a National Gallery. It turned the offer down and the whole collection, including two Raphaels and Correggio’s Danaë, was consigned for sale by Christie’s.

The other picture that is still owned by the Royal Academy, but has recently been lent to Magdalen College, Oxford, is the early copy of The Last Supper, which is in an infinitely better state than the original and was used to help guide its recent restoration.

It was hung upstairs, separately from the rest of the exhibition. I wasn’t altogether surprised, as it’s a curiously unsatisfactory work. he other exhibition I really enjoyed last autumn – leaving aside, of course, the Royal Academy’s Degas and the Ballet – was the Palazzo Strozzi’s exhibition Money and Beauty: Bankers, Botticelli and the Bonfire of the Vanities. This was a welltimed moment to remind us that the Renaissance was not just about the pursuit of beauty and the rediscovery of the antique, but also about banking, money-lending, international trade and usury. In fact, many of the patrons of the great Renaissance artists were just trying to assuage their guilt from their money-making activities by supporting the artists of the time to paint for the church, so that there is an indissoluble connection between the two: guilt to gilt.

I was one of the people invited to attend an international symposium to consider the lessons that might be learned from the exhibition; that is, what were the sociocultural characteristics of 15th-century Florence that led to such an astonishing efflorescence of intellectual and cultural activity, and is it imaginable that they might be replicated in the modern world?

As is the way of such conferences, there was much bombast, but not so much in the way of calm analysis as to what were the particular characteristics of Florence that might hold lessons for the future.

One of the things that has long been known about the context of the Renaissance in Florence was the fierce competitive environment between rival city states in Italy for cultural prestige, such that the princes of Urbino and Mantua were keen to be as important artistically as Florence and Siena. I’m not convinced that Boris Johnson sees himself as a descendant of the Medici in trying to ensure that London retains its position of cultural hegemony over Berlin.

The other thing the exhibition demonstrated was that bankers wanted to demonstrate their trustworthiness and prestige in the international money markets through the intelligence of their choice of art. It was an international business, played out in Bruges and Ghent, as well as Florence and Genoa. They were showing off but, luckily, the choice of artists whose work they chose to show off with included Botticelli. eanwhile, the Royal Academy has been preparing for its Zoffany exhibition, which opened at the Yale Center for British Art at the end of October and transfers to the Royal Academy in March.

Zoffany is an odd artist, a bit of a chameleon. He was born in Frankfurt, the son of a cabinetmaker at the court of Alexander Ferdinand, Prince of Thurn and Taxis. Like so many of his generation, he trained in Rome, where he worked under Mengs and painted himself as the young David. From Rome, he was employed as court painter to the Elector of Trier, but, after marrying a rich wife, they moved to London. She hated it, returned to Germany, and left him to scratch a

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living painting rather wooden theatrical scenes, which were commissioned by the great actor David Garrick.

Luckily, Zoffany was rescued from a life of drudgery

by George III, who commissioned him to paint Queen Charlotte. He produced a most beautiful, immaculate portrait of her sitting in her dressing room with her two children, the Prince of Wales dressed as Telemachus and Prince Frederick, who was only aged one at the time, dressed up as a young Turk. In painting this picture, Zoffany seems to have found his métier, as, from this time onwards, he specialised in producing beautifully immaculate scenes of interiors, where individuals are shown surrounded by their belongings, including Sir A/W:Layout 1 18/1/12 12:35 Page 1 Lawrence Dundas, the colossally wealthy merchant contractor, who is depicted with his grandson in his

house in Arlington Street, Mayfair.

In the flesh, there is something faintly bloodless about these pictures: too polished; too concerned with the showing-off of worldly goods; too immaculate in their technique, as if he were depicting the perfect model train set, with none of the swish of his contemporary, Gainsborough, or the strong and intelligent characterisation of Reynolds. But it will still be a pleasure to see them, particularly since in London it will be possible to see his Tribuna, which was painted in the 1770s, belongs to the Royal Collection, and was not lent to Yale.

Charles Saumarez Smith CBE is FQR’s Fine Arts Editor and Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Arts

calling it an ermine makes it sound more acceptable, and less verminous, than it actually looks

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FQR Food and Drink

Souper Woman Maya Even’s onion soup runs rings round the rest

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ow, I don’t want to complicate your life.

Cooking already falls into the category of hateful tasks for too many people – if I add to the burden by making it complicated as well as hateful, you will no doubt use this article to clean up the dog mess or line Fluffy’s litter tray. That would help no one – well, no one except Fluffy – who might now have something entertaining to read on the loo. I digress.

Onion soup is perfectly simple to make, but not that simple to make perfectly, for two straightforward reasons. First, you must have a measure of patience, and this is an art many people have lost. You must find it again for this recipe. Next, you must have the right onions.

You cannot pick up any old muddle of onions from your local 24/7 convenience store that sells yellowing Brussels sprouts alongside Fluffy’s Go-Cat. Well, you can – and actually, the soup will probably taste pretty good… But to produce a magnificent – and I mean truly magnificent, along the lines of friends-ringing-up-thenext-day-and-begging-for-the-recipe magnificent – onion soup, you must find yourself an Onion Johnny. This is the complicated bit because, as far as I know, Onion Johnnies have completely disappeared from modern life. With berets and bicycles and tresses and tresses of rosy Roscoff onions, they would hawk their wares in London streets, having made the sometimes perilous journey by boat from Roscoff in Brittany to Plymouth and thence to the maw of the capital.

The Roscoff onion is distinguished by its faint pink tinge and crisp sweet flesh, nourished by the extraordinarily fertile seaweed-fed soil of the region.

For a proper confit, tarte or soup, it is an indispensable ingredient. Nowadays you will usually find the Roscoff at a good greengrocer, but it is a seasonal commodity – a rarity – so you may have to hunt around a bit or find an internet supplier who will deliver.

INGREDIENTS to serve 6 1kg pink Roscoff onions 60g butter 1 clove of garlic, peeled 30g plain flour 300ml white wine 3 tbsp marsala 1.5 litres chicken stock 250g Gruyère or Comté cheese, very finely grated 1 baguette Salt Pepper Olive oil EQUIPMENT a large, heavy soup pot, a medium pot, a small pot, a mandolin or very sharp knife, a whisk, a cheese grater, a baking tray METHOD eel the onions and, with a mandolin or very sharp knife, slice them very finely into rings. In a large, heavy pot, melt all the butter on a low heat. Add the onions and sauté initially on a mediumhigh heat for two minutes, stirring frequently and coating the onions with the butter thoroughly. Now reduce the temperature to the lowest flame possible, using a diffuser, if necessary, to ensure the onions cook slowly without burning. Cover the pot, but check every few minutes and give the contents a stir so that they don’t stick to the bottom.

After 20 minutes, uncover the pot, and raise the heat slightly to let the onions brown, again stirring fairly frequently to stop them from burning. At the slightest whiff of charred onion, reduce the heat.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F. Spread all the flour out on a sturdy baking sheet.

Keep an eye on the onions all the while to ensure they are deepening in colour without burning.

When the oven is preheated, toast the flour on a middle rack till just turning golden. This ought to

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take between seven and 10 minutes, depending on your oven, but check the flour after five minutes, just to make sure it is not turning too brown – if it burns it will taste bitter. Remove from the oven and tip the flour into a small bowl to stop it from browning any further.

In a separate medium pot, heat the stock till simmering.

The onions ought to be caramelising well by this time. Keep stirring them frequently so that they are cooking uniformly. What you want, ideally, is a mass of brown glistening strands – nearly but not quite collapsed in shape. After about 45 minutes they ought to have reached this point. Leaving the onions still sautéing, measure out the white wine into a separate small pot, bring to a boil and maintain it for 30 seconds to let some of the alcohol evaporate. Set aside.

Add the flour to the onions, stirring well to remove any lumps. Let it absorb completely. The mixture will continue to brown with the flour. After three minutes, whisk in the white wine till well combined, and then add one third of the simmering stock, stirring gently, and then adding the rest gradually. Simmer with the lid covering three-quarters of the pot for at least another 30 minutes, till the soup is the correct consistency and deep colour. Because of the flour and the softened onions, the liquid will be thickened, but not overly so. What it ought not to be is too watery. If this is the case, raise the heat slightly and with the lid off, simmer (rather than boil) the soup till it reduces.

You may choose to do this anyway to further intensify the flavour, but keep a beady eye on it or you might e n d up with onions and no soup.

Season with salt and a good grinding of pepper. Stir, leave for a few minutes and then taste. If you think the broth needs

Vine Of The Times For Jean-François Boras, Domaine de Bellevue in Bordeaux couldn’t be better named, for when he first saw the estate, he knew it could realise his dream of running a first-class vineyard

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have always had a passion for wine and alongside this was a dream to create my own world-class wines one day. Only over years of working in consulting in London and Paris did this dream materialise, when I found Domaine de Bellevue in Langoiran, which is at the heart of the world’s most famous wine region of Bordeaux. It has 3.3 hectares of vineyard, which were officially classified in 1647 and which sit on limestone and light clay soil – perfect for vines. The location also benefits from gentle prevailing winds carrying mildew, which help dry the earth in winter and spring. There is a château on the estate, which we have restored; it was built during the reign of Louis XV (1710-1774) by an officer in the French Navy, which explains Bellevue’s crossed-anchors coat of arms. Sandstone was quarried back in the 1600s, which means that there is a wonderful network of underground caves, perfect for making and ageing the wine. When I first visited Bellevue, I realised it was here that I would work to fulfil my passion of creating my own wine.

Before I bought it, Bellevue had been abandoned for 40 years. During that time the soil had been washed clean – no pesticides or fertilisers had been used – therefore, the land was incredibly biodiverse, with over 38 different plant species, and a huge variety of insects and animals.

This was very unique, and we decided to carry this on and to use natural cultivation methods and traditional winemaking techniques. It is known as biodynamic farming and is almost like homeopathy, using only natural chemicals to treat the land and the vines. he first harvest took place in 2005. The vineyards contain 65 per cent Merlot and 35 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, and harvesting is done by hand. It is essential that we pick the grapes at the right time for the right maturity.

We make the decision on a combination of chemical analysis and instinct. It is the most exciting time of year for me, but also the most stressful. Two or three days earlier or later can make a difference to the quality of the wine. After fermentation, the wine is then aged for two years in French oak barrels in the caves. We only produce a small amount of wine, around 7,000 bottles a year, but it is of top quality.

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Spring 2012

For three years I managed the property alone before realising that I needed a partner to help.

I placed a very small ad in the International Herald Tribune: “French proprietor seeking investor for making 90+ wine you know.”

I received a lot of calls from Italy, Mexico, Norway and Belgium – all international, because the idea was to share this wine and the production of it with people around the world. I then received a call from Tim Griffiths. He said, “I’m calling from London but I’m not English, I’m Welsh. I like rugby and I have a family.” I used to play rugby when I was young, had shares in rugby teams, and I have three boys. What Tim and I realised during our conversation is that we shared common values and, most importantly, a passion for wine.

Together we came up with an idea of creating an international club of wine lovers with whom we could share Bellevue. Le Grand Société du Château Bellevue was founded and created for people who have an elemental passion for wine, a fascination for its creation, craft and all the subtleties that bring it to life, and we restrict membership to those that share this passion. You buy membership for five years, and it entitles you to bottles of wine each year with a personalised seal, and we organise events such as visits to the domaine during grape harvest, wine tastings and dinners. We have a wine tasting in November and an En Primeur dinner in May in London and a harvest dinner at Bellevue in the caves in September. Last year, we had 60 people, mainly from London, and we are beginning to get members from New York and other parts of the world.

It is very magical to share these moments together drinking great wine with people who all share a common interest. The object is to create friendships; it’s not for business. I call it the civilisation of wine.

Jean-François Boras is the proprietor of Domaine de Bellevue. www.bellevue-cadillac.fr

more sweetness, add a few tablespoons of marsala.

Adjust the seasoning, if necessary, and keep the soup on a very low simmer with the lid almost completely on for another 10 minutes or until you are satisfied with the taste and texture. Then turn off the heat, and leave the pot partially covered.

Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F. Slice the baguette. I usually allow three slices of bread per bowl and some extra to hand round. You must ensure the slices are quite thin – less than a quarter of an inch. On a large oven tray, arrange the slices in one layer. Bake in the oven for about 10-15 minutes, till the bread is dried but not coloured. Remove. Cut the peeled garlic clove in half. With the cut side, rub the clove gently over each slice of baguette, taking care not to break the bread, which will be quite friable. Pour a little olive oil into a dish and, with a pastry brush or bit of paper towel, lightly paint each slice with a slick of oil. Take two-thirds of the grated cheese and heap each slice of bread with about one teaspoon of it. Leave the slices on the baking sheet in the same single layer until a minute or two before you are ready to serve the soup. When you have reheated the soup and adjusted the seasoning for the last time, turn on the oven grill and place the tray of cheese-covered baguette slices under the grill on a high shelf. Watch the tray like a hawk, as these slices will burn in a twinkling. The melting should not take more than 30 seconds, if that. Remove the slices from the oven. Line up individual bowls and place about a teaspoon of the remaining grated cheese on the bottom of each. Ladle the soup onto of these and then arrange the baguette slices on top. Place the leftover slices on a serving dish and hand them round with the soup.

Maya Even is FQR’s Cookery Editor

AD VE R TISING Tom C h Perignon amberlin pop The Fi s ’s 2003 v zz intage. the cork on 2003 is the yea Dom

Fact

FE A TURE

or r from Do maturity m Pérign in question for a n o this late n, Benedicti Champag d the low numb st creati ne monk the brand that b e ne har ve o n e a ga nd rose to st comm rs of remaining the drink grapes, th enced at become th n with a French 1822. s titan M its earlie e oët & Ch way that The grea s andon. O e prestige cuvée o t date sinc a brand o t le g f f a c e c o y u f w rse, there such heri o possibly ine trad w ta leave any e is tha f the champagn e and, in thing to c ge and reputatio as no French t each v range of c c n h deed, th leric – o ineyard, ance in c would hampagn r e re c a hâteau, th t a e ti le e s n . There is s celebratio a g e s t a fa th “ m c v o reek in o se th us n tage no n, revelr y or even ju doubt that in time ” the whim an ames – has learn at work on beha and turn to th lf of all d merc s of ed to st opp is sed So back uctive and bubbly ortunity, people circumstances ta y of the elements cope with being k to 2003. . tipple. at e Th th a ddition o e e (please ig My fathe f sugar, in simple fruit and y must under any r, who in nore the d to tu e liciousne rn it, wit bias) is o my mind connoiss h ss. “At no a product of infin n eurs an of giving moment ite comp out the d collec e of the great w Kingdom u in le p x . ti ity and In in m to s e e rs te wa , wh ad, we em by such e in the braced th s there any questi it is at lea o never touches c x U o e challen hampagn nited Dom P treme conditions st 10 yea ge presen n érignon rs o e “unless and seize was equa to te d d s th lly challe ld”, tells me that ig R e n this vin ichard G this year ngin eoffroy.

Champag tage,” sta opportunity for tes Cella ne regio g and important Th e g rap r Master for the n. After cold, dr y an ex healthy, a es har vested w and ere perfe nd comp of spring harsh winter, the ceptionally 19 arable to ctly matu 76 h initia pro those of re and 7-11 Apri ved deceptive. Th l warmth Péri ar vests, and on the 1947 W g l will alw , n e e 1 o d 9 n fr n 5 e o h 9 and s s o d ts s a ted y ays of in L Champag ondon, H five simultaneou 7 December, Do ne. On 1 be remembered m s o in in ng K 1 Ap ternation severe fr al events ost destr ril, a particularly launch its new 2 ong , Paris, New Y oyed up ork a 003 quarters be availab to three of le in the U vintage champag nd Tokyo to ne, whic K Chardon the Côte des m “ E a ver yon rket from nay cro Blancs Februar y h will filled and e was expecting 2012.

This unse p. a ver y p ra as owerful, for the c pidly maturing w followed onal spring was th su ine – a re reation o by a en inte al challen nf Dom P rpret it d Any grap summer heatwav é g ri e gnon. iffe e. bac es that m k of the rently. It was a ris I needed to iraculous sur vived k, a b ly rew th arded no oundaries, which pushingfrost an e springtime w may be .

M d hail th y Pérignon en had to remain wish is for Dom to cope C in the his with rele hampagn to ntless e as one heat as witnesse of the gre r y of Champag s o a f test th n e e 2003 vin experien Dom Pé tage.” ced rignon 2 it s 003 will hottest available summ be in for 53 y er good wine m the UK from ears. £ erchants (ARP 120).

Given th e Tom Chamberl in is FQR’s Managin g Editor

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www.finchsquarterly.com

FQR Art Exclusive

Hollywood Deal Courtesy of Terry Gilliam Dear Terry, Just a quick note of thanks from myself and the Team at FQR for the following: 1. Being Brilliant 2. Drawing this just for us 3. making Brazil and other films I love We look forward to honouring you in the Summer at the FQR Filmmakers Dinner in Cannes.

Yours, Charles

The Call of the Phone Duggie Fields credits his ever-present mobile phone with his rediscovery of photography – and his book of fascinating London images

E

arls Court, the area I’ve lived in for over 40 years, is poised between the super-rich and the plainly poor. Just around the corner one way are the multinational billionaires of The Boltons.

In another direction, now also mostly of immigrant origin, a multitude of 99p shops line the North End Road. In between, Brompton Cemetery – beautiful as a peaceful park full of wildlife and weathered sculpture. Close by, some of Kensington’s famed garden squares, alongside a myriad of cheap tourist hotels and hostels. An environment full of contrasts, and one whose streets I have walked countless times, for decades mostly camera-less.

The photographs in my book Just Around The Corner owe their genesis more to my love of the mobile phone than to any predetermined plan to document the area or my life in it. Their origins lie in the gadget in my pocket being there continuously in the way a camera never was. Back in the early Sixties I

www.finchsquarterly.com

was a student at Chelsea Art School, then just off the King’s Road. In the heady days of “Swinging” London and the “Beautiful People”, I had taken photography as part of my fine-art degree course, abandoning it after only a year over conflict with choice of subject matter, then seen as not sufficiently “real” enough.

Painting, my main occupation since adolescence, came into its own for me during this student period and stayed ever after. As much as I liked the darkroom, the camera in my hand was never as comfortable as the paintbrush. The selfconsciousness at putting this tool between my eyes and a subject eventually dissipated with the necessity for a viewfinder vanishing in the digital age. But even then, my attachment to taking pictures didn’t really come into its own until the need for a separate gadget disappeared.

Love of the mobile phone was pretty immediate and when I discovered one combined with a good camera, having it on me daily led to my taking photographs with increasing frequency. Their subjects mostly became views of favourite houses or plants that I would notice on my walks to and from the local shops.

Once on a computer screen, sometimes with digital enhancement, I then posted them on my Facebook page as somewhere simple to place them in a way that my website simply isn’t. For description I put them as “Just Around The Corner” and soon found followers from all over “liking” them, an encouragement to do more.

As the collection grew, so did the comments. The suggestion for a Blurb book came one Christmas, by which time I had hundreds of images ranging widely

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in subject and around corners across London, their subjects now becoming more intimately related to my paintings, and in turn influencing them. Having become digitised in the mid-Nineties, pictures – which for years had started off with studies on tracing paper over graph paper – followed a natural progression onto screen, where a grid with layers on top is basic in most visual software. Once I became comfortable drawing with a mouse as opposed to a pencil, I started off all my imagery this way – and have done so ever since, with some images progressing from the computer to canvas, and others staying as purely digital imagery, either remaining on screen or output through various media.

From painting to photography via computer screen, the virtual image interacts with the real and vice versa, all subject to the interference of the eye, mind, hand and tool – whether paintbrush or mouse. The picture transcends its origins and travels via technology in one form or another, through its essence, whatever that is, reflecting vision both internal and external, outwards from just around the corner to wherever.

Duggie Fields is a British artist www.duggiefields.com.

Just Around The Corner is published by Blurb

Spring 2012