KCW Today September 2016 by Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster

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September April/May 2016 2011

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Editor: Kate Hawthorne Art Director & Director Tim Epps Deputy Editor & Head of Business Development Dr Emma Trehane Business Development: Caroline Daggett, Niki Devereux, Antoinette Kovatchka, Architecture: Emma Flynn Art & Culture Editors: Don Grant, Marian Maitland Astronomy: Scott Beadle FRAS Ballet/Dance Andrew Ward Bridge: Andrew Robson Business: Gina Miller, Douglas Shanks, Jim Slattery Chess: Barry Martin Contributing Editors: Marius Brill, Peter Burden Jim Slattery, Derek Wyatt Classical Music: James Douglas Crossword: Wolfe The Dandy: John Springs Dining Out: David Hughes Editorial: Polly Allen, Ione Bingley, Natanael Mota, Fahad Redha Events: Leila Kooros, Fahad Redha Fashion: Polly Allen, Lynne McGowan Feldman Reviews: Max Feldman Food & Flowers: Limpet Barron Health & Beauty: Jayne Beaumont Horology: Jonathan Macnabb I wish I had written that: Dudley Sutton Motoring: Don Grant, David Hughes, Fahad Redha Music: James Douglas News, Online Editor & Arts Correspondent: Max Feldman Poetry & Literary Editor: Emma Trehane MA Ph.D Political Editor: Derek Wyatt Science & Technology: Ione Bingley, Natanael Mota Sub-Editor: Leila Kooros Sporting Calendar Compiled by Fahad Redha Travel: Cynthia Pickard

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The UK should take the lead and propose a World Sports Governance Body

Prince Charles plants 90th Coronation Meadow in Green Park By Ione Bingley

By Derek Wyatt

hat is it about our world sporting leaders? What disease do they have which gives them the right to siphon £millions and £millions and £millions to their private bank accounts at a click of a mouse? What is it about a nation like Russia which thinks it is okay to reinvent its drug abuse on an industrial scale almost an exact replica of what the USSR (and East Germany) did between 1952 and 1978? Wait a minute. A large number of these sporting organisations are headquartered in Europe and come under the toughest finance regulations anywhere in the world. Except. Except if they are housed in Switzerland (IOC and FIFA) or Monaco (IAAF/Track & Field). In Switzerland part of the gift of the Cantons and part of its attraction to sporting bodies is that normal rules have been suspended or so it seems. Yet these organisations also have boards of trustees or boards. But it clear that there has been a failure of regulation and a failure of governance. The problem is there is no world body which could become the ‘checking’ organisation. You would not want it to be the UNO or the WTO and the IMF and World Bank do not fit the job description. There is a Court of Arbitration based in Lausanne which has recently dealt with the banning of some Russian athletes at Rio. There is the World Anti-Doping Agency but as it says on the tin this regulates (or makes an attempt to) the use of banned substances. The time is right for the UK to take the lead and to propose a World Sports Governance body. It would be headquartered here and come under UK law. It would be open and transparent an unusual quality in most international sporting bodies.

Above: ©Phoebe Halstead. Below left: ©Amy Wolfe. Below right: ©Hannah Simpson. https://m.facebook.com/firsthandcollective

Illustrators visit Calais Jungle By Ione Bingley

Reportage artists from the First Hand Collective visited and illustrated their experience in the vast migrant camp known as the Calais Jungle to raise funds for the charity Calais Kitchens. The charity works from a large warehouse providing food to the refugee camp that is now home to over 10,000 people with the number increasing by around 1000 people a month. The Kitchens supplies bulk food packages to cooking points and other community kitchens within the camp using a ticketing system that aims to preserve the dignity of the recipients by avoiding long queues. The food supplied is through monetary donations and food donations that are collected from points in the UK and France, sorted, packaged and then delivered by van to designated shelters and tents within the camp. They also work alongside Calais Woodyard to provide firewood for cooking. The First Hand artists that visited the warehouse have been using their take on the experience to raise awareness about the work of Calais Kitchens through the revival of reportage illustration in photosensitive areas. “I found it really disorientating coming home after having visited the camp,” said leader of the project and member of the First Hand Collective,

Hannah Simpson. “I just started drawing to process the experience and I thought, this is a really appropriate way of telling stories from the camp and from the organizations that work there because photography is a very sensitive subject.” “We can’t have photographs of the front of our warehouse because we are subjected to threats from far-right groups. It’s a bit of a minefield, but drawing finds a way through that. It’s a sensitive way of recording the situation where a camera might be too intrusive”. The Calais refugee camp is located next to the Channel Tunnel with many of the migrants hoping to seek asylum in the UK. Simpson, who spawned the idea, was the first of the illustrators to visit the Calais Kitchen warehouse and has since returned to volunteer. “It’s so, so close, it took me three hours to get there door-to-door, from my house and to see people living in such difficult conditions, it was profoundly dislocating,” said Simpson. “But, although it was really sad to go into the camp and see people living like that, it was also great to see these innovative systems being developed and amazing people trying to do what they can to make it better.” Eight artists from the First Hand Collective visited the Jungle including Amy Wolfe, Phoebe Halstead and Hannah Simpson. Information for online donations and food collection points in the UK and France is available at calaiskitchens.net Make a donation bit.ly/calaisfood.

Prince Charles is a patron of the conservation charity Plantlife that has been raising awareness about the loss of wildflower meadows in the UK since the Queen’s coronation in 1953. In 2013 the Coronation Meadow project was started by Prince Charles to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s Coronation. Over 97 percent of the UK’s meadows have disappeared since the Second World War, impacting the health of pollinators like bees that benefit from a diverse flower diet. Only tiny fragments of these ancient meadows remain, but the seeds sown in the Coronation Meadows come from these fragments. “Across the UK conservation organisations, landowners and volunteers have been answering the Prince’s clarion call to help reverse the loss of meadows from our countryside and The Royal Parks have now joined that list with what will be an inspiring example of a thriving meadow in the very heart of London,” said Coronation Meadows Project Manager, Dan Merrett. Since the Coronation Meadows project began, 90 new wildflower meadows spanning 1000 acres have been created across the UK. The new Coronation Meadow in The Green Park, one of London’s eight Royal Parks, employed a traditional land preparation method using Shire horses to pull a harrow to scratch the ground before planting. “Meadows are host to a large range of wildflower and grass species, and in turn provide nectar and food source for invertebrates,” said Assistant Park Manager of Green Park and St James’s Park, Mike Turner. “As outlined in The Royal Parks pollinator strategy, the creation of meadows is one of our key objectives so we are both delighted and honoured to have The Queen’s Meadow here in The Green Park. The project is a partnership between Plantlife, the Wildflower Trusts and the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. Plantlife

September April/May 2016 2011

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London will open the doors to some of its most charismatic buildings for free this 17-18 of September. The public will get to explore typically closed-access venues of all types and periods on the Open House London weekend this September. More than 750 buikdings will welcome visitors this year-round. Participating architecture and spaces will have four functional themes: living, London’s infrastructure, parks and lowcarbon, sustainable edifices. It will be a chance to see how great architecture looks from the inside and rouse the budding architect in children of all ages with planned family activities. Some of architects themselves gave 1600 tours in 2015. 100 buildings feature tours by professionals this year. Four locations will also include narrated tours: The Royal College of General Practitioners (NW1 2FB), 1 Angel Lane (EC4R 3AB), the Royal National Theatre (SE1 9PX) and 2 Temple Place (WC2R 3BD). Temple Church and the Olympic Park are great examples of several designs close together in the same location and both will host special tours and activities. Open House began in 1992 in London. It has helped expand public awareness of the capital and now has spread to more than 30 other cities. “We saw this as a way of helping the wider community to become more knowledgeable, engage in dialogue and make informed judgements on architecture.”, the Open House London team said. “Buildings surround us in a city but the one thing we do not learn about in schools is the fabric of a place, such as the structure, framework or composition. The urban fabric of our community has such a strong impact on us on an everyday basis.” You can see the all the buildings on show here: listings.openhouselondon.org.uk

to be tested in orbit By Natanael Mota

A cone shaped chamber driven only by microwaves bouncing inside it is being launched for a 6 month space mission by private company Cannae LLC in Pennsylvania. After a string of jittery test results for the controversial design created by garage scientists, university academics and Eagleworks group working with NASA, this will be the best chance to test the Cannae/EM Drive. Whilst physicists are sceptical of the idea of action with no reaction, businessmen are thrilled at the thought of deep space missions without fuel. Today's space rockets started as humble fireworks. It is still the only way out of Earth's gravity into space. Each kilo sent into space can cost $4,000 to $10,000. Cargo, including fuel, is very precious and part of the equation for every space mission. Once there though, small, light thrusters are widely used for manoeuvering and stabilising stations, shuttles and satellites. NASA and Roscosmos have been using electric thrusters for 40 years. Friction is microscopic in space, so a push equal to the weight of 10 to 60 sheets of paper can go a long way. Electric ion thrusters don't burn fuel like rockets - they use an effect similar to neon lights to excite a noble gas and quickly push it out in the same way magnets repel each other. Cannae is launching a Cubesat - a small, research purpose DIY satellite estimated at $100,000 to test the concept. Every satellite has an expiration date. Satellites eventually fall back to earth, burning to dust before touching ground. When exactly this occurs depends on how much fuel they have left to stay afloat, and even a small increase in fuel freedom could save the industry millions. If the Cannae Cubesat stays afloat longer than expected, it would mean the engine, hoped to push even less than ion thrusters but with no fuel, would be a success. The science community is torn, but more importantly, curious to see if this technology passes the test.

Shepherd’s Bush Market traders celebrate victory

By Natanael Mota

Sadiq Khan has announced the launch of the ‘hopper’ bus fare. The new fare costing £1.50 for two bus rides in one hour commences Monday September 12th The change will be automatic for Oyster and contactless payments. Fares are planned to allow unlimited transfers by 2018 following a ticketing technology upgrade by TfL. “My dad drove the number 44 bus, and transport in London has always been a big part of my life.”, said the mayor. The fare will also work with tram-bus transfers. A single ticket costs £1.50 on its own. Underground travel fares are calculated from zone distances, which some say is a fairer deal. “The Hopper fare will make life cheaper and easier for millions of Londoners, and will help ensure that everyone will be able to afford to travel around the city.” “The cost of a fare in London has risen for eight years in a row and now that I’m Mayor I am determined to prevent the cost of travel from becoming a barrier to work”. Caroline Pidgeon from the Liberal Democrats party campaigned for it since 2009, and the practise is not new in the US. Khan also said he had “a commitment to freeze TfL fares for four years”. The new one hour ticket is estimated to cost the TfL £50 million.

as £150m flats plan is cancelled. By Max Feldman Photograph © HCUK

By Natanael Mota

New one hour bus ticket

Photograph © Access for London

The glass panels in a number of BT phone boxes in South Kensington have been frosted in response to a request by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to help combat prostitute carding. The Council, BT and local residents have been working together to look at what can be done for over a year and their efforts, which include regular monitoring of phone boxes and cleaning, have already resulted in a dramatic reduction in the amount of cards in phone boxes. The Kensington and Chelsea Community Policing Team has undertaken a number of enforcement operations targeting carders. During the most recent operation in July seven arrests were made and the most prolific carders subjected to Criminal Behaviour Orders, which prohibit them from placing cards in phone boxes for five years. Brothels have also been raided and searches carried out for people trafficking. A total of 20 phone boxes in the SW7 area have been frosted, these are the ones most affected by prostitute cards in the borough. Cllr Gerard Hargreaves, Cabinet Member for Civil Society, said: “Residents have rightly complained about the impact carding in phone boxes has on the area in which they live in. We have been working closely with BT, the police and residents to identify the mostaffected boxes and look at what can be done to deter this practice. “The work has already had a real impact: the message is out that we are actively tackling this problem, that carders and brothels are being targeted and this can end in court. The frosting of these phone boxes is the next step in our campaign and I hope we will soon see an end to this problem.” Anyone who spots prostitute cards in a phone box should not remove them but let the Council know by using the app RBKC Local, emailing streetline@rbkc. gov.uk or calling 020 7361 3001 or the police on 101.

Open House Fuel-less electric 17-18 September engine

Photograph © Cannae llc, Pennsylvania

helping combat prostitute card problem By Max Feldman

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Ultra

Frosted phone boxes

September 2016

raders at Shepherd’s Bush Market have managed to overturn controversial plans to ‘modernise’ the market. The 102year old market, which is famed for its fabrics has informed its traders that the £150 million pound scheme has been mothballed. The developers Orion Land & Leisure had planned to construct over 200 flats in neighbouring Goldhawk Road and funnel the profits into an overhaul of the more rundown part of the market. This plan was met with fierce opposition from stall owners who claimed that the proposals (which gained planning permission from the previous Conservative-led regime at Hammersmith and Fulham council in 2014) did not provide appropriate safeguards for the traders’ future. The decision to abandon the plan comes as a further defeat for Orion who faced a Court of Appeal ruling earlier this year which mandated that they were obligated to make the redevelopment viable. In addition Orion have agreed to hand over the day-to-day running of the market to property regeneration company U+1, its joint venture partners. A U+I spokesman has stated that the company would enter new talks with both traders and the present Labour-run council to find a new direction for the market. James Horada, chairman of the Shepherd’s Bush Market Tenants’ Association said: “There’s been a lot of wrongs caused over the past two and a half years. We are now looking to the company U+I to right all these wrongs. The proposals were to the detriment of the tenants, that’s the real crux of the matter. Hopefully sensible proposals can now be brought forwards to help the existing businesses.”

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Innovative free dementia workshops to be held at the British Museum

Family, friends and community volunteers in London who provide caring support to people living with dementia in the area, are being given the opportunity to sign up for free workshops to provide help with dementia care and useful skills and resources to support carers. The House of Memories dementia awareness for family carers workshops are being held at The British Museum on Thursday 1 December. Run by National Museums Liverpool and commissioned by the Department of Health, workshops will take place twice-daily from 9:30am – 12:30pm and 1:30pm – 4:30pm. Free places can be booked by emailing learning@liverpoolmuseums. org.uk or calling 0151 478 4240. The workshops include high-quality character-based video stories to help participants understand the experience of living with dementia and being a carer. People can also try out the awardwinning My House of Memories app, and take part in dementia-friendly activities

Last act for Odeon

Kensington High Street Cinema By Natanael Mota

Kensington High Street Cinema faces impending demolition by real estate developers Minerva-Delancey. The community has been struggling to save it for over 10 years but the time to convince Kensington and Chelsea Council is running out. The Great Gatsby style 1920s Art Deco building got more than 20,000 physical and 27,000 online signatures in support over the years. It is older than the Odeon Company itself, founded in 1930. Names include big screen staples Ian McKellen, Benedict Cumberbatch and his actor parents and Jimmy Page.

at the British Museum, showing how cultural venues can be fantastic resources at helping unlock memories, improve communication and understanding, and enrich the lives of those living with dementia. National Museums Liverpool has been providing dementia awareness training at the Museum of Liverpool since 2012. It has been taken all over the UK, and last year it was specially developed to provide support and resources to carers looking after close friends or family. Carol Rogers, Executive Director of Education and Visitors at National Museums Liverpool, said: “We have trained more than 10,000 carers across the UK, and set up our first workshops for family carers in Liverpool last year, to provide them with new ideas and perspectives on caring for their loved They remember the history of the cinema and the number of premieres, including Hitchcock’s work, that it has hosted in its own right. Now online reviews mention uncomfortable seating, aging sound and screening systems, clogged toilets, and even pickpocketing. It was officially closed on 31 August 2015. Kensington and Chelsea retracted their refusal to allow works earlier in February this year. They are now considering the second Asset of Community Value nomination meant to protect the venue sent by the Friends of the Kensington Odeon. The answer will only come by October first, whilst a leaflet sent by the developers was advertising the start of demolition this September 5th. Minerva is looking to build over 60 luxury and 20 affordable flats alongside a new cinema, offices and shopping space. Friends of the Kensington Odeon founder Guy Oliver said: “We are in a bit of limbo at the moment.” “We are confident we will get asset of community value status because we have provided everything that the council asked of us.” Curzon Chelsea cinema was at risk back in 2014 when Cadogan Group developers wanted a shopping centre built in its place. It would still have a cinema, but with only half the 710 seat capacity of the Curzon.

ones. Person-centre care is at the heart of our workshops, and acknowledges that an individual’s personal history and memory is of huge importance. “We know that dementia is an emotional subject to talk about, particularly if it affects a person you love. When you’re caring for someone on a daily basis, it can be hard to see past the every day tasks. We have received some incredible feedback from previous workshops, and we hope people will take the opportunity to join us so we can steer them in a positive direction, and help improve the lives of those they care for who are living with dementia.” The Department of Health has commissioned National Museums Liverpool’s House of Memories programme, to develop a national programme for family carers and community volunteers in three regions across England, as part of the Prime Minister’s Challenge on Dementia 2020. Other workshops will take place at: New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester, 2 November 2016 Salford Museum and Art Gallery, 14 November 2016 Museum of Liverpool, 25 November 2016 For more information, please visit: www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ houseofmemories @house_memories www.facebook.com/ thehouseofmemories

Photograph © Sam Benn

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Photograph © Claridges

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By Max Feldman

he famous hotel Claridge's, has submitted plans to build a massive 'iceberg' basement which would include a swimming pool, wine cellar and in-house chocolatier. The fivestar Mayfair venue, popular with the rich and famous, has lodged its plans with Westminster City Council for a fivestorey 1,800sq m extension. This is equivalent to about 20 houses; the average UK home being 85sq m (925 sq ft). The news comes as ministers have been told to crack

Chelsea Swimming Members protest Dear Editor, The Council ignores the residents of Chelsea by going ahead with its uniformly unpopular ‘Unisex’ changing facilities in Chelsea Leisure Centre GLL Chelsea swimming pool, despite strong and varied objections. Besides the understandable dislike of changing and showering amongst the opposite sex, there is dismay and a very real concern for safety. Women and girls continue to experience being groped, hassled and gawped at by men and/or boys in and around the pool. This will worsen in a unisex changing environment as indicated by members who have left other Greenwich Leisure Centres, who work in partnership with the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, to use our non-unisex facilities. GLL insiders tell us harassment is worse at other pools. In the proposed plans, the benches (both essential and practical) will be

down on the construction of super-rich luxury basements to stop the 'horrific' disturbance they cause neighbourhoods. They are referred to as 'iceberg' basements because such a large portion of the house is sited underground. Documents reveal that Claridge's, part of the Maybourne Group, wants to add the basements beneath the Art Deco wing of the Grade II-listed building. The hotel, situated on the corner of Davies Street and Brook Street in central London, maintains that the addition of the facilities, which would also include an in-house laundry and spa, are 'musthaves' for a modern hotel, according to The Times. This would reduce the number of delivery vans needed by the hotel, causing less disturbance and noise in the area, the group added. Last month, Westminster council, which receives around 150 basement applications a year, banned the construction of multi-storey basements under houses. removed, forcing us into confining cubicles and destroying our historical, cherished camaraderie. Worse still is the lack of regard for the elderly and the vulnerable and also younger members with learning difficulties, who are much safer in separate sex changing room environments. The quoted figures of school pupils versus individual members who swim daily are misleading. Any schoolchild visits the pool at most once a week given term time is 6-7 months of the year. They are not at all the 'majority' incorrectly portrayed by GLL and Council. Many members have used the pool for decades. Their children learned to swim there and they now bring grandchildren. Unisex family cubicles don’t work. Excessive demand leaves accompanying adults to change in cubicles far from showers, lockers and often far from the children they are accompanying. One hopes the Council and GLL will take heed and modify the scheme for the benefit of all users. Yours sincerely, The Chelsea Swimming Members

Design Museum

Photograph © Design Museum

Claridge’s unveils plans for Britain’s biggest megabasement

Announces Shortlist for Designs of the Year Award 2016 By Polly Allen

11 month’s subscription £ 38.00 (Tick box) The Design Museum may currently be closed, awaiting its 24th November reopening in Kensington, but the organisation continues to champion all aspects of design in everyday life. Its 2016 Beazley Designs of the Year Award shortlist, spread across six categories (architecture, digital, fashion, graphics, product and transport), highlights 70 groundbreaking projects. These range from the acclaimed Milan-based Fondazione Prada, designed by Rem Koolhaas, to accessible graphics such as the text-based Samaritans’ We Listen campaign, by MullenLowe London, and the incredibly stylish reinvention of Norwegian passports, by Neue Design Studio. Here are some of the strongest contenders on the list. Better Shelter creates revolutionary refugee accommodation, giving displaced people the dignity of four walls, albeit temporary ones, rather than the makeshift tented communities captured on news footage. The flatpack system (unsurprisingly designed with the Ikea foundation) makes it easy to transport, assemble and reassemble each 17.5m² emergency shelter where it’s needed: most recently in Greece, Iraq and Nepal. Since 2015, Better Shelter has worked with the UNHCR to provide temporary homes, but also medical facilities and other buildings needed in refugee camps or disaster zones. With the global refugee crisis still at the forefront of our minds, this project is continually relevant. London-based knitwear company Unmade (formerly known as Knyttan) allows shoppers to design their own clothing at the click and drag of a mouse, with customisable patterns from the likes of Christopher Raeburn. It’s the brainchild of Ben Alun-Jones, Hal Watts and Kirsty Emery, three Royal College of Art graduates. Each bespoke Unmade piece is knitted to order at their Somerset

House studio, using the customer's choice of merino, cashmere or cotton. With no pre-existing stock to sell, purely operating on customer demand, Unmade is a sustainable and innovative alternative to fast fashion. OpenSurgery, developed by Frank Kolkman and the Design Interactions department at the Royal College of Art, employs DIY surgical robots, much like commonplace laparoscopic surgery but with smaller tools and a reduced risk of complications. With normal robotic surgery proving expensive, the team was inspired by the maverick (and totally unsafe) DIY health procedure videos broadcast on YouTube. Using 3D printers and common software, the so far academic-only prototype hints at the future of affordable medical practice. 2016 is the ninth edition of Designs of the Year, and the first edition to be sponsored by specialist insurers Beazley. Previous winners include Shepard Fairey’s iconic Barack Obama poster (2009), the Plumen lightbulb (2011) and the London 2012 Olympic torch (2012). The new Design Museum will be based in the former Commonwealth Institute building on Kensington High Street, with three times the space of its former location and three galleries for visitors. The Grade II listed building has been redesigned by John Pawson. A Crowdsourced Wall will display consumer items selected by public vote, and a permanent collection area will be free to visit. The Beazley Designs of the Year will be exhibited at the Design Museum, 224-238 Kensington High Street (www.designmuseum.org) from 24th November 2016-19th February 2017, from 10:00-17:45 daily, with last admission 17:00. Tickets (£10 adults, £7.50 students and concessions) go on sale from 19th September.

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News North Korea bans Coffee could be extinct by 2080 sarcasm in a political masterstroke By Max Feldman

due to climate change By Ione Bingley

Photograph © Denis Schneider

orth Korea has forbidden people from making sarcastic comments about Kim Jong-un or his totalitarian regime in their everyday conversations. Even indirect criticism of the authoritarian government has been banned, Asian media reported. Residents were warned against citicising the state in a series of mass meetings held by functionaries across the country. “One state security official personally organised a meeting to alert local residents to potential ‘hostile actions’ by internal rebellious elements,” a source in Jagang Province told Radio Free Asia’s Korean Service. “The main point of the lecture was ‘Keep your mouths shut.’” The caution was also issued in neighbouring Yangang Province, sources revealed. Officials told people that sarcastic expressions such as “This is all America’s fault” would constitute unacceptable criticism of the regime. “This habit of the central authorities of blaming the wrong country when a problem’s cause obviously lies elsewhere has led citizens to mock the party,” an anonymous source said. Another mocking expression, “A fool who cannot see the outside world,” was also said to be circulating in the totalitarian state, referring to the country’s notoriously isolationist leader. The phrase was apparently conceived when officials voiced shock that Mr Kim did not attend celebrations held in Russia and China to mark the end of the Second World War. Regional media have reported an increase in public acts of dissent in the country of late. Graffiti mocking the government and its leader have appeared twice in recent weeks. North Korea has taken part in multiple weapons tests recently, in displays of force intended to demonstrate the country’s developing nuclear capabilities.

The effects of climate change on coffee growing regions could render the plant extinct by 2080, according to researchers from The Climate Institute. Reportedly, climate change is already putting pressure on production from regions along the ‘bean belt’ as the global demand grows. Temperature rise and the increase of extreme weather events is projected to cut the growable area by 50 percent, erode coffee quality and increase prices for consumers. “Companies such as Starbucks and Lavazza, as well as the International Coffee Organisation, have already publicly acknowledged the severity of climate risks,” said CEO of The Climate Institute, John Connor. “Consumers are likely to face supply shortages, impacts on flavour and aromas, and rising prices.” Global coffee production has trebled in the last 50 years, but between 80 and 90 percent of the supply comes from coffee farming smallholders in countries that are among the most vulnerable to climate change, such as Ethiopia and Indonesia. “Over 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed around the world every day,” said Connor. “Yet coffee is just one of a multitude of things increasingly subject to negative climate impacts, and its negative flow-on effects.” Increases in temperature and rainfall in the vulnerable nations has already increased the incidence of disease and pests having a negative affect on yield and quality. “Without strong climate action, the areas suitable for growing coffee could halve in a few decades, pushing production upslope, away from the equator and into conflict with other land uses, such as nature conservation and forestry,” said Connor. “By 2080 wild coffee, an important genetic resource for farmers, could be extinct.”

First commercial Millennials flights from the choose spending over saving US to Cuba By Natanael Mota

By Max Feldman

Commercial flights from the US to Cuba have resumed as of the 1st of September as the Obama administration lifts embargo. Around 7 airlines have been authorised to run commercial routes from the US to Cuba. Low cost JetBlue started flights from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Santa Clara, Camaguey, and Holguin from September 1st US-Cuban relations have notably improved since president Obama’s announcement of the effort on his visit to Cuba on December 17, 2014. There are no flights to Havana yet. Airline companies requested nearly triple the 20 daily flights made available by new US-Cuba agreements and the American Department of Transport (DOT) is analysing the situation. Direct tourism remains disallowed, with some Americans for example, still flying to Canada or Mexico first in order to reach the Caribbean island. The current deal allows travel in twelve authorized categories, which include family visits, education, art, business and humanitarian aid. US travellers will be able to import $400 of goods, and no more than $100 of alcohol or tobacco products such as Cuba’s rum and cigars. Potential fliers welcome these changes as an alternative to expensive chartered flights that by-passed the law in flying US passengers to Cuba. “We are proud to be the first U.S. airline to serve Cuba”,said Robin Hayes, president and chief executive officer of JetBlue. It was also the first time an American carrier operated a jetliner from the US to Cuba, since the 1960’s when US airlines only flew propeller-powered aircraft.

A quarter of Brits aged 18-30 are getting by on a “live now pay later” motto according to new research. 26 percent of the age group do not save or invest in anything, choosing instead to spend their money on takeaways, clothes and coffee. Over half admitted prioritising spending money on going out and other luxuries over saving money, while 62 percent confessed to being clueless about savings and investment options. The research came from peer-to-peer lending platform RateSetter in a poll of 2000 adults. The top five regular expenditure for under 30s were takeaways (47 percent), meals out (45 percent), fashion (27 percent), TV streaming services (23 percent) and coffee shop coffees (22 percent). “With interest rates languishing at historical lows for several years and recently cut even closer to zero,” Rhydian Lewis, founder and chief executive of RateSetter, said, “it is all the more important for young people to ensure that they get on top of their finances and not put their heads in the sand. Putting money to work now could help turn dreams for the future into reality.”

London Home Football September 13 Fulham v Burton Albion 19:45 September 13 QPR v Newcastle 19:45 September 16 Chelsea v Liverpool 20:00 September 24 Arsenal v Chelsea 17:30 September 24 Fulham v Bristol City 15:00 September 24 QPR v Birmingham 15:00 October 1 Fulham v QPR 12:45 Compiled by Fahad Redha

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US presidential race on the last lap

Firefly allows 5 year olds to drive

By Natanael Mota

Election day in the USA is on the 8th of November, less than two months away. Before that, three nationally televised presidential debates will be aired on Monday September 26, Sunday October 9 and Wednesday October 19. These debates are the ‘Super Bowl finals’ of US politics. Televised debates have shaped election history every since September 26, 1960, when Kennedy faced off Nixon. Radio listeners heard a stronger Nixon but Kennedy took full advantage of the cameras to arrest the support of the public. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will not come unprepared. One is a seasoned showman from The Apprentice, the other is a hardened career politician. They will debate live on major US channels like ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and CNN to an audience of up to 70 million. Debates air from 9pm to 10:30 ET, which is 2:00am to 3:30am in Britain. A debate for vice-president contenders will also be held on Tuesday, 4th of October. Hillary Clinton has been consistently ahead of Donald Trump in the opinion polls, if only slightly at times. Both are tied at the time of writing. Trump promises tougher immigration laws, trade deals and ending Obamacare. He wants to break the status quo and a lot Americans have listened to his brash

rhetoric. Hillary comes from the current Obama team and will work for similar goals. She splits from Obama in wanting more American influence abroad to keep problems like ISIS in check. Between mishandling official government emails without a secure .gov account and questions about her campaign funding, Hillary’s campaign is not perfect either. Hillary lost her last chance to claim the top spot in her contest with Obama for Democrat leadership eight years ago. Now back at it, backed by Obama, Beyonce, Warren Buffet and more, Hillary’s chances have never been higher. Online gamblers favour Hillary to be the first female president of the United States. Odds of her winning the overall election increased from 33% to 40% since last week beginning 29 of August. Beating the odds is Trump’s speciality, however. The media recently failed to capture the complete picture of voters (or voters who are not vocal in social media), as seen in the British general elections of 2010 and more recently, the Referendum vote. Trump has successfully fended off 16 rivals on his way to be the Republican nominee, and supporters now believe it is only a short walk from there to the White House. These debates may be the defining stage where either Trump wrests control or Hillary finally cements her advantage.

By Fahad Redha

The first car designed for 5-10 year olds has been unveiled. The Firefly is the brainchild of Young Driver which provides driving lessons for under-17s. The Firefly was designed because “it became clear that there was currently nothing suitable for those aged under 10 to drive.” The company says that only ‘toys’ were available, typically for under-fives. The company brought a team of automotive experts to develop such a car, including Chris Johnson who has over 30 years’ experience

in design, having worked for Rover, Jaguar, Ford and Volvo. The two-seater is powered by twin electric motors and has a restricted top speed of 10mph. It can be set to Experienced or Junior mode which limits the speed to 5mph and turns on automatic sensors to stop the car. In addition to that, it can be controlled remotely, enabling adults, including parents, to stop the car in case of an emergency. Inside, the Firefly features adjustable driver’s seats that allows most youngsters to reach the pedals. A 6ft tall adult can also drive or be a passenger. The dash features an electronic tablet, mimicking many modern car interiors. While it was developed for Young Driver, it will be available from 2017 to for the general public for £5,750 + VAT. “We know that youngsters will enjoy driving it,” Kim Stanton, Young Driver head, said, “and that through this they will learn about road safety, finding out about the basics of driving and gaining a better understanding of how it feels to be behind the wheel. That can only be of benefit when it comes to them being pedestrians, cyclists and future motorists out there on the roads Lessons in a Firefly will be available in select locations in the UK in Autumn. A 20 minute lesson, including a 5 minute briefing, will be £19.95.

FRD E-Touring Car Racing By Fahad Redha

The success of Formula E has ensured that we haven’t seen the last of electric racing. The past two years have seen EVs dominate the Pikes Peak Hill Climb in Colorado and now, it seems, we will have electric touring cars. On the 8th and 9th of October, to coincide with the third season of Formula E in Hong Kong, electric VW e-Golfs will go head to head in a race that will no doubt mirror the BTCC. The cars will be in full racing spec, featuring roll cages, racing seats with six-point harnesses and on-board fire extinguishers, while the aerodynamics,

suspension, brakes and wheels will be upgraded. The Hong Kong circuit, where the ‘e-Touring’ cars will debut, uses existing roads much like the Monaco Grand Prix. Tickets to the ‘eprix’ Formula E race have sold out prompting the organisers to triple the grandstand seating. Prior to Formula E, Hong Kong hadn’t hosted motorsport for over 30 years. Formula Racing Development (FRD), the China-based organiser of the Hong Kong race, hopes that the event helps in the development of motorsport in Hong Kong.

Photograph © Young Driver Motorcars

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Not so fleeting: the secret history of Fleet Street By Max Feldman

t might have been Sweeny Todd who first gave the area a cut throat reputation but it’s journalism that Fleet Street will eternally be associated with. From the ‘journalists’ church’ of St Brides being the inspiration for the shape of wedding cakes, drunken authors writing their favourite locals into classic works of literature and sinister gangs of aristocrats assaulting anyone in their path, the bustling district has a history almost as long and tangled as the street itself. The area shows evidence of habitation dating all the way back to Roman London (in the form of the remains of an amphitheatre discovered near Ludgate) but Fleet Street as we now think of it began to take shape in the 13th Century when it was known as Fleet Bridge Street. Initially the future home of law and journalism was a motley warren of taverns, tanneries and brothels, which stretched across the River Fleet via a small island at present-day Ludgate Circus. Considering that good sanitation was practically a contradiction in terms at this point in history, the River Fleet swiftly devolved into an open sewer (a fact that many who were skewered by the newspapers who would set up shop there

September 2016

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Photographs © Puttnam

probably argue never stopped being the case). Fleet Street’s association with printing began in 1500 with the faintly unbelievably named pioneer Wynkyn de Worde, who produced nearly 800 books from his offices near Shoe Lane, while at around the same time Richard Pynson set up as publisher and printer next to St Dunstan’s Church. More printers and publishers followed, mainly supplying the legal trade in the four Inns of Court around the area, but also publishing books and plays. By the 16th century, Fleet Street, along with much of the City, was chronically overcrowded, and a Royal proclamation was issued in 1580 banned any further building on the street. This had little practical effect on profit crazed landlords, and construction

continued rapaciously, with most of the cramped dwellings constructed from timber. The rapid expansion came to a predictable conclusion when the Great Fire of 1666 destroyed the majority of the western side of the street. Whilst the printing industry had been steadily growing throughout Fleet Street since de Worde first set up shop, it was only in 1702 that the first weekly newspaper (The Daily Courant) opened its doors on the street. At this time Fleet Street was a frantically busy part of the connecting route between the twin centres of London. It was referred to at the time as ‘a double street’ because there tended to be as much going on in its alleys and passageways as on Fleet Street itself. It was this vitality that made Fleet Street such an ideal home for the nascent media, the honeycomb of coffee shops and taverns that glued the area together were obvious places for journalists to pick up gossip and rumours (along with a few pints) in the days before news agencies and ticker tape. The popularity of newspapers was restricted at first. Various taxes werre levied during the early 19th century, particularly paper duty, which was eventually abolished due to the actions of the crusading Society

for Repealing the Paper Duty. Along with the repeal of the newspaper tax in 1855, this led to a dramatic explosion in newspaper production in Fleet Street. The “penny press” (newspapers costing one penny) became popular during the 1880s and the initial huge number of titles had consolidated into a few nationally important ones Since its earliest days Fleet Street’s existence had long been characterised by the almost superhuman willingness of its residents to risk serious liver damage in the pursuit of strong drink: Geoffrey Chaucer was fined two shillings on the street for drunkenly assaulting a friar, pubs like the Cheshire Cheese worked their way into Dickens novels based on the amount of time the author spent propping up the bar and on special occasions such as the coronation of Anne Boleyn, the conduit which supplied water for the street would pour wine rather than water (which had a predictable effect on civic order.) In a rather more sinister continuation of the tradition of heavy drinking, was the fact that in the 18th Century, Fleet Street was the home of the Mohocks: A well-bred street gang of dissolute upper class types who were the Georgian answer to A Clockwork Orange, prowling the alleyways around Fleet Street and attacking both men and women purely for thrills (no money was ever taken from their victims). Residents of Fleet Street were aware of the need to keep their wits about them. When the famous wordsmith Dr. Samuel Johnson, returning to his home in Gough Square (where he compiled the first comprehensive English dictionary) at night after a meeting of his club at the Turk’s Head tavern, “carried a big stick which he could wield to good purpose.” precisely to offset this kind of danger By the early 19th century Fleet Street’s newspapers had achieved massive circulations among both the working and middle classes. Publications ranged from scandal sheets like John Bull, through William Cobbett’s polemical Political Register to The Times, which increased its size to eight pages in 1827. The Daily Telegraph arrived late on the scene in 1855 but soon outsold The Times and The Evening Standard evolved out of its daily counterpart in 1860. The press drove out most of Fleet Street’s other businesses, especially after regional newspapers like the Yorkshire Post and Manchester Guardian began to open London offices here and soon Fleet Street was almost exclusively comprised of journalists and the pubs they drank in. This centralisation of the profession continued until 1986 when Rupert Murdoch was the first to break ranks by moving The Times and The Sun to Wapping in pursuit of a better bottom line. This controversial move broke the hold that Fleet Street held over British journalism and led to a mass exodus, though the spirit of the street in its heyday unarguably still helps define the profession.

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A city for people:

Photographs © Rob Green

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Public space in the City of London By Emma Flynn

ore than 390,000 people arrive in the City of London for work every morning. When the first Crossrail train runs through central London in late 2018, 1.5 million more people will be brought within a 45 minutes commute of the existing major employment centres of the West End, the City and Canary Wharf. This will result in an estimated 63,000 additional jobs in the City and the Isle of Dogs by 2023. As the third busiest interchange on the London Underground Network,

Bank and Monument are already undergoing substantial upgrade to increase the capacity of the stations. The City must plan for growth, but this must be above ground as well as below the surface. At Bank narrow pavements and railings accentuate rush hour congestion. The urban character of the area is highly valued, but the dense urban grain has left little space for public and green spaces. Most that do exist are hidden in back streets and alleys, and are small and dispersed. With a number of new developments planned for the area, demand on this already oversubscribed public realm is set to increase considerably. In response to this challenge, the City of London Corporation along with public realm consultancy, Publica, have developed a single vision for the streets and spaces of the Bank area. Suggesting positive ways in which the “public realm could be improved and upgraded to accommodate anticipated future growth, the strategies focus on improving the pedestrian environment and reducing

conflict between different modes of transport”. Cleverly the ideas capitalise on the area’s historic alleys and lanes, proposing alternative routes for pedestrians and cyclists during peak hours and quieter rest spaces at other times. Key to the proposal is a larger-scale intervention, which is set to ban all motor vehicles except buses from the notoriously busy and dangerous Bank junction, starting late this year. Chairman of Planning and Transportation, Michael Welbank described this complex of crossroads as “dysfunctional, dangerous, dirty, congested and polluting” and “completely inappropriate to form the heart of a modern city.” The Corporation plans to trial this for a 12-month period in the same way that Mayor Bloomberg did with the New York’s Times Square. If it works, it will be made permanent, and could set a standard for the rest of London to follow. Cross-rail is providing a catalyst to reassess the public realm on the surface of the city. By recognising transport’s crucial enabling role a number of beneficial urban projects are being developed around London. Last month our new mayor, Sadiq Kahn, announced

that Oxford Street will be pedestrianised by 2020. Cars are already banned on most of Oxford Street between 7am and 7pm on every day apart from Sunday, but it remains a major thoroughfare for buses and taxis. Planned to coincide with the launch of Crossrail, the project will contribute to the mayor’s aim of improving air quality and make Oxford Street “a far safer and more pleasant place to visit”. These are radical moves for the City, but London is far behind the trend globally. Today there is vision of cities in which residents rely on public transport and bikes, rather than cars, efficiently enabled through the ubiquitous smart phone. The goal of this vision is beyond simply transforming public transport but aims to rebalance the public space and create a city for people. In 2004, Jan Gehl, renowned Danish architect and urban designer was commissioned to write a report intended to “act as a catalyst for change, demonstrating to key decision makers how London’s public space could be transformed.” Entitled Towards a fine City for People Jan Gehl challenged London’s planners to become more like New York, Melbourne or Copenhagen and to become more pedestrian-focused as well as liveable.

Over ten years later, London might finally be listening. In the past there have been a number of radical ideas to improve public spaces in the City. The City of London Pedway Scheme was a plan to transform traffic flows in the City of London by using elevated walkways to separate pedestrians from street level traffic. Devised in response to the devastation following World War II, it was implemented in areas of the City from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. Eventually abandoned by the 1980s, it resulted in a bizarre series of disconnected pathways and dead-end bridges hidden within the Square Mile. Today traces of this network can be found most extensively at the Barbican Estate and surrounding streets; the main entrance to the Museum of London is, to this day, at first-floor level. More recently, former Mayor Boris Johnson proposed a London Rivers Action Plan, which aimed to reinstate subterranean streams and waterways and create new parks and recreational places. The River Fleet now buried below modern-day Fleet Street was redesigned by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London as a Venetian-style canal, but was later filled in. In this plan it would have been opened up below street level, with footpaths either side. The latest plans for the City might be more subtle, but they are marked step forward towards a people friendly city. They are an example of what is happening across London to provide a more equitable distribution of road space for pedestrians and cyclists. These spaces are being designed not only to function effectively as transport interchanges but also as pleasant spaces to be in, as well as move through. Most significantly, these plans seek to ensure that ‘the benefits do not stop at the station entrance’ but stimulate wider local regeneration through the quality of the public space.

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Blue Plaque Sir Bobby Moore

Covent Garden

nglish Heritage honoured Robert Frederick Chelsea Moore with a Blue Plaque on 26th July at his childhood home, 43 Waverley Gardens, East Barking. He was known as Bobby Moore. This is the first Blue Plaque to be awarded to a footballer and the first to be erected in Barking. The house is now a centre for disabled children. Bobby Moore’s daughter, Roberta unveiled the Plaque. She recalled a picture in the drawing room of her father holding the World Cup and expressed her delight at the wonderful honour of her father’s career being commemorated in the small semi detached house. She remarked that it all began there with her father kicking a ball about with friends in the street. Bobby Moore’s cousin, Graham Hardwick, remembered Bobby Moore’s mother being too nervous to watch the World Cup game on TV and she went out and mowed the lawn. It must have been the only lawn mowed that day! She did, however, watch her son on TV being presented with the World Cup (also known as the Jules Rimet Trophy ) by Her Majesty, the Queen at Wembley. The year was 1966. Greg Dyke, the outgoing FA Chairman and Blue Panel Member, and present at the unveiling, described Bobby Moore as one of the greatest players this country has ever produced. Harry Redknapp, friend and team mate at West Ham United, also present, expressed his pleasure at the honour. Bobby Moore stands out in the

STATUES history of football for captaining the English team to victory in the World Cup Match in 1966 against West Germany at Wembley. This was English football’s finest hour. It was achieved by Bobby Moore’s brilliant decision to pass the ball to Sir Geoffrey Hurst who scored a hatrick enabling the English team to beat West Germany with a score of 4-2. A special event was held in July 2016 at Wembley to commemorate this victory. It was attended by Sir Geoffrey Hurst, Sir Bobby Charlton and FIFA President Gianni Infantino and 10,000 supporters. Bobby Moore was born in Upney Hospital, Barking. He attended Westbury Primary School and Tom Hood School, Leytonstone. He played football for both schools, often practising with his father and uncle. At the age of 16 years he was signed up for West Ham United and advanced through their youth setup. He forged a brilliant career and at 22 years old became the youngest person ever to wear the captain’s armband for England. He remains the only ever English captain to lift the World Cup. His first game was against Manchester United in 1958 and he became a regular. He was a gifted and composed defender, he could read the game and predict the opposition’s moves. During the 60s and 70s he achieved many victories at home and abroad. He was awarded the final English cap in 1973 reaching 108 performances. He retired that year as England’s most capped player. He was awarded BBC Sports Personality of the year. After retiring Bobby Moore enjoyed a career in the media as a leads sport columnist for Sunday Sport and was a football analyst for Capital Radio Gold. He also held managerial roles in various businesses, including a sports shop. He was married twice, firstly to Stephanie Parlance from 1991 to 1993 and secondly, to Tina. They had two children, Roberta and Dean. Bobby Moore, a much loved icon and hero of English football died of cancer in Putney, aged only 51 years. His funeral was held at Putney Vale and his ashes are interred in the City of London Cemetery and Crematorium. He rests in peace with his parents Robert Edward Moore and Doris Joyce Moore. A Memorial Service was held at Westminster Abbey on 28 June 1993 which was attended by all members of the 1966 World Cup Team. The Dean of Westminster praised Bobby Moore for his ninety appearances as captain of England. Marian Maitland

which provided Westminster Abbey with its foodstuffs before the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1540? In 1670, King Charles II issued a grant to the 4th Earl of Bedford, to hold a market in the Piazza ‘on every day of the year except Sundays and Christmas Day, for buying and selling all manner of fruit, flowers, roots and herbs’. The 6th Duke secured Parliamentary powers to reconstruct the flower market and to build market buildings around the Piazza, which was was laid out in 1631 by Inigo Jones and bounded by his ‘portico houses’. The estate remained in the family until the end of the First World War

Fruit Porter Bronze

Glynis Owen BA, ATC, FRBS Southampton Street, WC2

y brother Gregor was articled to a firm of solicitors in Henrietta Street and got to know Covent Garden pretty well, including the fact that, along with Billingsgate fish market and Smithfield meat market, one could get a drink in the pubs around Covent Garden, open 24 hours a day, for the workers, which proved a useful ploy after all the other boozers had said ‘Time, gentlemen, please!’ One of the pubs was The Globe in Bow Street, which was used in the deeply distasteful Hitckcock film, Frenzy, with Barry Foster as the creepy ‘necktie’ murderer. He also used the exterior of No. 3 Henrietta Street, a couple of doors up from where my bro worked. Hitchcock’s father was a fruit ‘n’ veg importer working in Covent Garden, which may have given him the idea of using it as a location in the first place. Dropped aitches would be common currency amongst the porters, but what happened to the dropped ‘n’ from Convent Garden,

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art, culture and music, but now mainly shopping, to be had here.

The Worshipful Company of Fruiterers commissioned this large-scale, 4m. x 2m. bronze bas-relief sculpture to commemorate the bustling fruit and vegetable market that operated in Covent Garden from 1670 to 1974, when it moved south of the river to Nine Elms in Vauxhall. It comprises a market porter with baskets of fruit balanced on his head, and a smaller basket in his hand. Behind him, another diamond geezer has a box of onions on his head. Down each side are small compartments containing a variety of fruit, vegetables and nuts, such as carrots, coffee beans and potatoes. In addition to the livery men and their forebears who worked in the market, the National Federation of Fruit and Potato Trades, New Covent Garden Market Authority and Covent Garden Area Trust are also commemorated. The plaque was commissioned by the Trust, The Woburn Trust and The Jubilee Market Traders. It was unveiled in October 2006 by the Mayor of Westminster. The sculpture was cast in 2006 by Glynis Owen, who is a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors and a member of the Printmakers Council. She also works in stone, glass and metal, and has work in public, and private, collections all over the country, including a powerful concertina basrelief in a mall in Stafford town centre entitled Stafford Faces. In 1999, Lord Putnam commissioned her to design a Teaching Awards Trophy, which had an art deco feel to it. The Covent Garden piece has strength in its composition and execution, as well as a sense of vitality and light humour. Don Grant

A snippet of history.

The Earl of Bedford had the Covent Garden Piazza built in the 1630s. He was allowed to build on this land, originally belonging to Westminster Abbey, on the condition that he worked to the designs of Inigo Jones, King Charles the First’s architect. So the Piazza was an early example of state regulated and controlled town planning. The market at its centre thrived. The best and the worst in the land flocked here. Often they were the same people. Nell Gwynne set the social tone. But these people were stylish, one presumes; they were cultured, and whether opera, claret, whores or fine art was being offered to them, it was usually first rate. The flowers, fruit and veg that the central market supplied to the highest and lowest in the land were high quality too.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow? With silver bells, and cockle shells, And Capco guards all in a row…

moved to London from Brighton in 1980, to Brixton, and then to the sunny uplands of Islington, just in time to avoid the Brixton Riots. This introduction to London shook me out of the ‘soft underbelly of the South’ mentality that I’d developed in Brighton during the 70s. I was soon up to my neck in the uneasy and rampant development of yuppiefying 80s London.

Paul Smith the joker.

I laughed a lot in summer 1981.The reason? Paul Smith and his shenanigans outside the White Lion pub in Covent Garden on most weekdays after 6.00pm. Sir Paul Smith, design genius, is one of the funniest men I’ve ever met; and I mean knockout, fall-over, gasping-for-air funny. Others on Floral Street could spin a yarn outside the pub too, but with Paul in full flow they were usually as helpless with laughter as myself. Paul had just one London shop at the time. His neighbour Edward Toteh ran an art gallery, and another neighbour, Ian Shipley, had a well-stocked art bookshop. I was working in advertising as the editor of the Creative Handbook on St Martin’s Lane. We were all pioneers, I guess. The newly-reprieved Covent Garden Market was boarded up and empty, and there were just a few New Romantic clubs and shops opening up, with a couple of other fashion people around the place. Those were the days. But a lot has happened since then. Covent Garden must now be one of best-patronised

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By Jim Slattery Photograph © Don Grant

Photograph © Eric Koch

Statue & Blue Plaque

September 2016

and most expansive shopping areas in the world. But, on the down side, I’ve never seen such a proliferation of private security guards roaming the streets anywhere else in London, including the privately owned Canary Wharf. Capco’s coppers are now everywhere you look.

Classic, but with a twist.

As I write in August 2016, the Long Acre end of nicely cobbled and proportioned Floral Street, home of Paul’s ‘classics with a twist’, is being flattened, bisected, and rebuilt in dismal ‘modern retail’ fashion by Capco. Elegant King Street, one side of the rectangle of grand residences around the central market Piazza (Apple’s store is there), is currently a no-go zone because of the trucks, cranes and builders knocking up Capco’s new, ‘exciting’ Floral Street retail concept, designed, one of the specialist traders on Floral Street told me, to be the ‘new Bond Street.’ But I haven’t seen private police forces similar to Capco’s patrolling Bond Street just yet…

The Capos di Capco hit the scene.

The riches of Covent Garden.

Covent Garden used to be one of the richest and poorest areas of central London, all at the same time. Rich in its selection of the best of Britain’s opera, theatre, musicals, ballet, clubs, restaurants, tailors, dressmakers, hatters and, at one time, fruit and veg wholesalers and clubs, plus male and female brothels. Poor in its appalling slums, the area around Seven Dials was once one of the worst urban rookeries in the world. But it’s been transformed, and is still being transformed. Wellington Street, Maiden Lane, Garrick Street, Long Acre, Bedford Street, James Street, King Street, Bedfordbury, Chandos Place… you name the street, there’ll be the best in

But times change. Since 2007, Capco have owned the Covent Garden Piazza central fruit and veg market, reprieved from demolition in 1979 due to the Covent Garden Community Association among others. This handsome, sturdy building and its surrounding Piazza is now replete with swish shops, street performers, ‘tasteful’ fast-food outlets, ersatz London boozers, antique and clothes stalls, and what feels like a million tourists every day, rather than London’s fruit and veg traders. But the surrounding streets, particularly near the Royal Opera House, are where the important retail action is now really taking place. Some of the world’s premier fashion and high-end consumer names are being tempted in by Capco’s ‘vision’. But it’s a far cry from the old echoing streets and atmosphere of the 1980s; the quiet innovation that used to give Covent Garden a hidden ‘creative heart of London’ warmth and feeling. The guards don’t help. ‘‘Good day, sir’’ has now become “Move on” and I for one might well do that soon…please give us all a break from your security guards, Capco…

Photographs © Abi Hedderwick

September April/May 2016 2011

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International

By Ione Bingley

nly when the ground began to shake with mortars and the rumble of passing tanks did they realise that the situation outside their compound had become critical. Crowded in one room for four days with thirty people and armed helicopters circling overhead, they were left to imagine the destruction going on outside their flimsy gates, wondering just how long it would be until their walls were breached. They would only find out how lucky their escape was after they had managed to catch a charter flight out of the South Sudanese capital, Juba. Their compound was protected by private security guards that had stayed strong and loyal, their friends in the Terrain hotel complex were not so lucky. Since its optimistic creation in 2011 South Sudan has been racked with violence and civil war between two rival ethnic groups, the Dinka people, represented by President Salva Kiir, and the Nuer people, represented by VicePresident Riek Machar. The violence broke out this time after the signing of an uneasy peace deal between the two parties, encouraged by the international community. Open fire erupted outside the state house between the two sides and civil war ensued. Machar fled the country. “Once the ceasefire had been announced, then the looting began and the soldiers went on a rampage, going round Juba for the next few weeks raping and robbing people,” a survivor told KCW Today, anonymous because assassination is the penalty for speaking out against the government. “We had heard that something was happening in Terrain, we didn’t sleep that

September 2016

International Colombia to end Latin America’s longest civil war

Surviving the South Sudanese Civil War

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night, we were terrified that it was going to happen to us. We heard that Terrain had been looted and that the soldiers had been robbing things, but we had no idea the severity of it.” Government soldiers had managed to gain access to a residential compound called Terrain that housed many foreigners, international aid workers and NGO employees. They shot dead a local journalist who bore the marks of the opposition tribe before separating the women and men. They then proceeded to rape the women and brutally beat the men before a private security firm was able to rescue all but 3 western women and 16 Terrain staff. Residents from the Terrain compound had managed to send pleas for help to the U.N. peacekeeping force situated less than a mile away just minutes after the compound was breached, but their calls went unanswered. UN president Ban Ki Moon has now launched an investigation into why the peacekeepers were not able or unwilling to uphold their core mandate of protecting civilians, but a month on and a conclusion is yet to be reached. "We are deeply concerned that United Nations’ peacekeepers were apparently either incapable of or unwilling to respond to calls for help. We have requested and are awaiting the outcome of an investigation by the United Nations and demand swift corrective action in the event that these allegations are substantiated," U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said in a statement. The UN Security Council has now received consent from South Sudanese government to allow 4000 additional UN Peacekeepers to be posted in Juba. “Look at Terrain, the response from the U.N. and the embassies was just nil, so you’re on your own, if something does go wrong and the U.N. don’t even protect you, it’s just not very reassuring,” said the survivor who is scared to go back. There are claims that the Ex VicePresident Riek Machar is in Sudan receiving medical attention, but he has not been seen in public since the clashes in July.

After nearly four years of talks in Havana, the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba (FARC) have agreed to sign a historic peace agreement later this month. Colombia’s bloody civil war, that lasted over half a century, is responsible for the deaths of 220,000 people and the displacement of six million people. Under the terms of the pact, FARC will be recognised as a mainstream political party following the disarmament of its 7,500 fighting members. “Peace opens the door to a more inclusive society, in which no one will be afraid of their security as a consequence of their political ideas,” said the Head of the Colombian Government delegation, Humberto de la Calle. “We should not just celebrate the silence of guns, but the opportunity of a new path.” FARC was founded in 1964 by small farmers and land workers who banded together to fight against the high levels of economic inequality present in Colombia at the time. They formed the armed wing of the communist party as a rural guerrilla organisation at a time when there was brutal repression of any action considered subversive.

“We have the conviction that we have accurately interpreted the feeling of our comrades of arms and ideas, who always fought in the belief of a political solution to the conflict and the construction of a just country,” said the head of the FARC Peace Delegation, Iván Márquez. The peace agreement, however, has attracted considerable criticism from the public and right-wing politicians, including the former president Álvaro Uribe, who believes that the terms are far too lenient considering the brutality of the crimes committed by FARC that look to go unpunished. With close ties to the illegal Colombian cocaine trade, the organisation is controversial and is reported to have funded itself over the years from drug trafficking and the levying on those that do. In particular Uribe objects to the term that former guerrillas who confess their crimes to a special tribunal will be spared a prison sentence. “Unpunished, they choose, they do not ask for forgiveness, they do not apologise, they make fun of Colombians who tell them to apologise, there is no justice without justice, in place of promoting forgiveness, it promotes resentment,” said Uribe. The government must now secure public approval for the agreement through a plebiscite that Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has suggested will take place on October 2. “There is a majority and overwhelming support and you will see that in the vote,” said Santos. “They may not like the president, or the government, but there is a big majority that supports peace.”

What next?

Could France be facing a civil war? By Jonathan Miller

hree huge terror attacks in a year would be enough to challenge the spirit of any country. As if the Charlie Hebdo massacre in January 2015 and the Paris attacks in November were not enough, a third episode of carnage in Nice on Bastille Day, July 14, followed by the murder of an 84-year-old priest celebrating mass near Rouen on July 26, has shaken France to the brink of a terrifying escalation. For those who love France, this is deeply depressing. Not least because the French themselves seem clueless how to deal with what has become a seemingly endless cycle of violence. An isolated immigrant population and a strident right-wing political faction in a country awash with guns has created a toxic and explosive mixture. President François Hollande has declared the nation at war. His rival, former president Nicolas Sarkozy has called for a ‘pitiless’ response. Could France, a nation long considered a beacon of liberty and stability, be on the edge of something resembling a civil war. I wish I could say this was just hysterical exaggeration. But the evidence does not support complacency. Just down the road from me on the outskirts of Montpellier on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, there’s long been a gun club where enthusiastic game hunters can polish their skills during the off-season. Unlike Britain, it is perfectly legal for members of such clubs to own pistols and semi-automatic rifles. In the last few months, since the wave of terrorism has intensified, the membership of the gun club has quadrupled, from 200 to 800 members. The new members are not all motivated by the love of shooting sports. Pascal, a local farmer who owns more than a dozen rifles, pistols and shotguns, as well as an AK-47 assault rifle, admitted to me this weekend something much darker. “They’re getting ready for a war,” he said. This sounds crazy, but last week, even before the latest atrocity in Nice, it was revealed, a senior French intelligence official, had told a parliamentary committee that one more incident could provoke a bloody civil conflict in this country. Marine Le Pen, leader of the antiimmigrant National Front, does nothing to calm these fears. “The war against Islamic fundamentalism has not yet begun. Now it is necessary to urgently declare it,” she said last week. As a Brit who has lived in France for 15 years, I like to think I know my neighbours. I’ve pretty well mastered the

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online: www.KCWToday.co.uk language, and have even been elected to the local council. So my observations are not a tourist’s snapshot. I talk to a lot of people at every level of French society and I am detecting a change of mood. And the mood is turning nasty. Normally, it takes quite a bit to excite my neighbors under the languid southern sun, but as one horror has followed another, I am no longer taking for granted that they will put up with this much longer. In March 2012, in Toulouse, a large city not far from here, three gun attacks targeted French soldiers outside their barracks, and a Jewish school. Seven people were killed, including 3 children. Since then, there have been 14 further attacks with more than 250 people killed and 600 injured. In the ancient city of Beziers, 20 minutes from Montpellier, voters recently elected a mayor, Robert Menard, a former journalist, who is in open sympathy with the right-wing National Front. In my own village, at the last regional elections, more than half our citizens cast ballots for the extreme right. Are they neo-fascists? Not really. They are frightened. Traditional politicians are failing France’s citizens. The president, Francois Hollande, has so far responded feebly to this. After the massacre at Charlie Hebdo magazine, he suggested that radicalism could be avoided by making school children recite a pledge of allegiance to the French state. Manuel Valls, the prime minister, further infuriated my neighbors by suggesting that they should just “learn to live” with terrorism. No wonder the extreme nationalist politicians are gaining ground. France has become a pressure cooker of resentments, yet day to day, the Muslim population is arguably suffering more than anyone, suffering from the worst housing, the most inadequate education and the highest unemployment. Neither Hollande nor his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, have done anything substantial to address the chronic unemployment of young French Muslims, said to be over 50 percent; nothing to reprimand right-wing mayors who refuse to offer alternatives to pork in school cafeterias; nothing to curb the casual racism shown to young people of North African origin by the overwhelmingly white police. Indeed, they have made it worse, even forbidding Muslim women from wearing face covering clothing in public. And none of those maneuvering to replace Hollande in next year’s presidential elections have yet shown they have a clue what to do, either. Whether the latest atrocity in Nice was organized by the so-called Islamic State or was just another horrible expression of rage and frustration by a man of North African origin hardly matters. The mood in France is turning from resignation to anger.

After repeated failures to prevent attacks, confidence in the intelligence services is close to zero. It could be only a matter of time before liberty, equality and fraternity turns into something much nastier. France is a schizophrenic nation, at once declaring itself revolutionary yet with a horror of change. Its ability to make peace with its excluded immigrant community by opening its economy and creating opportunities for young, disenfranchised men, must be doubted. I fear we have not seen the last of these horrors and as violence begets violence, and a sclerotic state continues to fail to offer solutions, the forecast is grim.

Photograph © Gibson Square Books

Jonathan Miller is an elected city councillor in southern France, and the author of France, a Nation on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Available from all good bookstores bit.ly/franceontheverge

Wild dog meat should be on Asian menus,

says Australian researcher By Natanael Mota

Dr Ben Allen defends the fact that -wild dog cross breeds’ carcasses could be sold for food instead of going to waste. Feral wild dogs disrupt cattle and sheep farming and can also kill farm dogs. “We’ve got no idea how many wild dogs are in Australia, but there’s something in the order of 10,000 to 15,000 scalps a year handed in to local governments for bounty payment.”, Ben Allen said. The Australian government issues bounties up to £60 per scalp of wild dog, depending on the state. The dogs are trapped, poisoned with ‘supertoxin’ named ‘1080’ or shot. Freelancer hunters can be paid more to expedite a job. Ben Allen is a researcher at the University of Southern Queensland and is the vice-president of the Australasian Wildlife Management Society (AWMS). Ben said: “I met someone who works a fair bit in Asia. I mentioned that I work with dingoes, and they said “Oh, I've

always wondered if tinned dingo meat would go well there”... “When I drive along the road in western Queensland and I see a bunch of wild dogs hanging off a fence I think ‘what a waste’.” “There’s probably more people in the world who find cows sacred than eat cow.” Dr Ernest Healy with the National Dingo Preservation and Recovery program ranks among concerned animal activist groups who disagree with Ben Allen. They have petitioned the University of Southern Queensland to have Allen’s talk pulled. “Once extreme points of view like that are put on the table for serious discussion then a whole other number of proposals for exploitation of nature then begin to appear more moderate”, Healy said on an interview for ABC radio. Meanwhile, Kim Jong Un’s North Korea continues to promote dog meat as “stamina food” , called “dangogi”, through state media and culinary competitions.

September April/May 2016 2011

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Meme: . An element of a culture or system of behaviour passed from one individual to another...

End of Daze

or exacerbated by the same coherent philosophy; a philosophy that has, or had, a name. What greater power can there be than to operate namelessly? “So pervasive has neoliberalism become that we seldom even recognise it as an ideology. We appear to accept the proposition that this utopian, millenarian faith describes a neutral force; a kind of biological law, like Darwin’s theory of evolution. But the philosophy arose as a conscious attempt to reshape human life and shift the locus of power.” But this all seems a little convenient. Have the good honest working class of this country really stood up to end something which nobody has heard of ? Or has an evil doppelganger of liberalism just been created so we don’t have to question the efficacy of the real thing? Not that Neoliberalism is brand new, but certainly obscure and now seems somewhat after the fact. Neoliberalism was, apparently, the philosophy guiding Thatcher and Reagan and every western leader since, even if few of them would have heard of it. I mean liberalism is about liberty and against regulation so deregulating the financial markets was definitely kind of liberal… but that all turned tits up so let’s call it Neoliberalism and we can cheer seeing the back of it. I’m a liberal with a small ‘L’ (I try not to advertise my other small bits). I love the ideas that liberalism champions. It’s something I’d fight for. But I am starting to fear it’s too weak, too ethereal, too nice to survive against the omnipotence of angry gods and the raging impotence of global poverty. To scapegoat “Neoliberalism” is to tilt at windmills and fight with shadows. It is a chimera to help avoid the truth: that we have been living in a self-satisfied fog of our own “enlightenment”, languishing in a stupor of privilege that can afford rights and humanity, a dizzying mist which has blinded many of us to the rising tide of dissatisfaction and the thrilling potency of hatred. What we’re really ending, is this daze.

which films get banned, in particular supernatural content as the censorship guidelines prohibit films that “promote By Max Feldman cults or superstition”. This led to the new Ghostbusters being banned (even though Sony went to the effort of renaming it Super Power Dare-to-Die Team which miraculously failed to do the trick). Exceptions are made for ghost stories based on Chinese mythology or films in which the supernatural is explained by a Historically, when it comes to realistic rationale. Among the films that exporting American culture across have fallen foul of the ruling in the past is the world, Hollywood has been not Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man’s Chest so much the thin end of the wedge and Crimson Peak, Guillermo del Toro’s as a dynamite-loaded battering ram. gothic horror starring Tom Hiddleston. Barring independent cinema and It isn’t just a matter of ‘win some, lose regional exceptions such as Bollywood, some’ for the Hollywood studios either, Hollywood has a century old stranglehold considering they have to work with the on the world’s collective cinematic Chinese quota on foreign films in mind. unconsciousness, a fact that might have The quota is a successful effort rather a lot to do with the so-called by China’s film bureau to boost local ‘Americanisation’ of the rest of the productions, ensuring that homeland western world. However faced with films have the space to earn billions the cold realities of declining cinema without being flushed out by Hollywood attendance (to say literally nothing of blockbusters. The quota limits foreign entirely absent DVD sales) enabled by releases in China to 34 a year, predictably the internet’s instantly available pirated favouring 3D blockbusters that don’t irk content, the American box office itself the sensitive censors. As a result these has slumped into a shell of its former 34 films have to be guaranteed money shadow. Considering that the film makers, which once again is a dangling industry’s closest parallel in the animal carrot (and punishing stick) for film kingdom would probably be a shoal executives feverishly chasing dollar signs. of starving rabid sharks, Hollywood There is a way around the quota which is predictably hasn’t exactly reacted with becoming increasingly common, however long term planning, preferring instead to it’s likely to turbocharge pandering to the throw its weight behind mindless special Chinese market. effect extravaganzas produced on spec by If a film receives one-third of its the most gormless committees they can financing from a Chinese company and find. As a direct result five Transformers features a similar proportion of Chinese films exist; a sobering reality. stars in its main cast, it qualifies as a Reassuringly for one’s faith in co-production. That means the movie humanity, often these orgies of CGI could get around the quota system, spattered sound and fury don’t actually since it is no longer deemed a foreign do that well at the western box office, product. The co-production status also perhaps because these days you can means the American distributor will watch cities burn amidst shocking receive a much bigger stake in China’s violence by simply switching on to the box office receipts (approximately 45% news. However, regardless of this fact, versus 15%). 2009’s sci-fi Looper tried this these behemoth sized turkeys almost out, partnering with Chinese company invariably are earmarked for sequels. The DMG Entertainment to finance the reason for this is that such films do well film and changing a key location in the in China, because explosions and giant script from Paris to Shanghai, with the monsters don’t tend to need all that much appropriate casting to accommodate dubbing. At the time of writing China the new locale. As a result, Looper was is the second largest movie market in allowed to get around the quota system the world and by 2017 is poised to make and open in China on a weekend that Bald Eagles weep by overtaking America is usually deemed a blackout period for to become the biggest. This is not just a foreign product. Whilst Looper was one problem for time travelling devotees of of the first, it will be far from the last American Exceptionalism though, China and the conditions placed on movies has the kind of censors that would make produced through this method have Mary Whitehouse salivate and with the scaled up, with Iron Man 3 crowbarring Chinese market heralded as the new in unrelated scenes starring popular El Dorado, the film industry is all too Chinese celebrities whilst rumours willing to pick up the scissors themselves. abound that the controversial decision to The usual suspects of violence, change the villain’s ethnicity from Asian sex and substance abuse are all out, to Caucasian was also a part of the deal. There is obviously nothing wrong but in addition the censor’s views with Hollywood finally stepping outside on homosexuality could politely be of its white western bubble (indeed described as ‘unreconstructed’ and more it’s long overdue) but the stringent impolitely as ‘Alabama’. Most films that conditions of Chinese censorship, qualify as an 18 need not apply and coupled with the fact that Hollywood any implied or shown criticism of the seems to think that artistic integrity is a Chinese government is the equivalent kind of cocktail, means that whilst the of covering your film with petrol and lighting a match. Beyond the predictable future might prove to be unexpectedly bright for big movie studios, it’s all ‘sedition and sex’ hot buttons, there are sound and fury, signifying nothing but broader (and to western eyes, much Transformers. stranger) cultural mores that dictate

Distant Drums the rise and fall of the popular press By Peter Burden

N Illustration by Alice Stallard. www.alicestallard.com

MEMEING OF LIFE ’ve got ninety-nine problems and the fact that I’m so obsessive I actually count them is definitely one of them. Another, more pressing one, is this permanent sense of an ending that I cannot shake, it sticks like kindling. Political correctness may not be over until the fat lady sings, but the familiar leftright equilibrium of post-Marxist political ideologies, the cornerstone of government for so long, and the lives we’ve built around it, seems to be in its death throes. Far more than the hand wringing after the financial crash or the fatalism of the millennial bug, a sense of “end of days” is pervading. If I had a pound for every time a politician used the phrase, “a time of uncertainty” since the Brexit vote I’d be a millionaire or, if you like, the proud owner of the equivalent of 3 euros. It is all uncertainty because we voted against something, not for anything else. No one painted our future, we just scribbled a great big “Could do better” over our past. In the void, the abstract of Brexit and the messianic rise of Trump are being hailed as precursors of a new world order. The ever victimised sub-prime proletariat will finally rise up and put the world to rights. With appalling table manners, they’ll eat the “elite”, even if there really aren’t enough to go around, before being subjugated under the jackboot of Trumputin. The one percent definitely need to get tooled up for the coming Aßrmageddon. But luckily it is not the end of the liberal ideology and all its jolly nice tolerant, equality, vicar-round-for-tea, social consciousness. What apparently is really over, according to a number of intellectuals and Guardian writers (not that they are entirely mutually exclusive), is Neoliberalism. Really. Neither had I. Luckily a chap who definitely keeps smarties in his pants, Guardian writer George Monbiot, explained why. “Its anonymity is both a symptom and cause of its power. It has played a major role in … the financial meltdown of 2007‑8, the offshoring of wealth and power, … the slow collapse of public health and education, resurgent child poverty, the epidemic of loneliness, the collapse of ecosystems, the rise of Donald Trump. But we respond to these crises as if they emerge in isolation, apparently unaware that they have all been either catalysed

Opinion & Comment Chinese Burns

MARIUS BRILL’S

September 2016

ews is one of the most fundamental needs of mankind; for individual survival and for the evolution of the species. It ranks in importance alongside air, water, sex and food. Up-to-date information on factors that will, or might, impinge on their lives is a core requirement for adult human beings anywhere in the world. The first human beings became homo sapiens only when they’d learned to speak, to communicate with their own kind. And the earliest use of communication was the propagation of information, at first from one to one, then, inexorably, as fast and as widely as possible. Smoke signals seen across forty miles of North American prairie, earbusting drums beating out information in code over the canopy of the African jungle or Roman beacons lit on a nighttime hilltop could herald the arrival of invaders. With the invention of script and papyrus, pen and paper, news bulletins were despatched by courier, on foot or by mounted relay, while over the centuries new ways of sending information constantly evolved, using anything from pigeons to semaphore and heliograph, all systems for conveying news created by the overwhelming human urge to disseminate and receive information, and when one of these evolved into what we would now recognise as newspapers, handwritten and publicly posted in 1st century Rome and 16th century Venice, they became tools for governments and armies for spreading propaganda, and a way for commercial publishers to make money. In Britain by the 18th century the publishing and the habit of reading newspapers was firmly established, burgeoned and persists even today. But in the second half of the 20th century competition from new technology and the publishers’ own mistakes have led towards a gradual dwindling of newspaper circulation, apart from a few innovative publications that offer a fresh take on the genre, like the ‘i’, and of course, your own Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today. In the field of mass market newspapers, it’s worth examining the demise of the News of the World, into whose life (and subsequent death) I looked in some detail while I was writing a book about it in 2008. The News of the World offers a clear paradigm for the declining standards and fortunes of the British Press, especially over the last fifty years as they have tried to compete first with television and more recently with online media for readers and advertising.

In 1843, the News of the World was born, with the stated maxim that ‘Our motto is the truth; our practice is the fearless advocacy of the truth.’ It was to become one of the longest lived and the world’s most widely read popular newspaper. By the turn of the century the then editor, Emsley Carr, had established what was to be the main editorial thrust of the paper, headlining and commenting with pursed lips on sexual shenanigans and general misbehaviour, preferably of the rich and famous, or, failing that, of anyone who ought to have known better. This tendency toward prurience disguised as morality had deep roots in the culture of the British popular Sunday press, as characterised as early as 1785 by the commentator George Crabbe, following the launch of the Sunday Monitor, with its disingenuous exterior... Then lo, the sainted Monitor is born, Whose pious face some scared texts adorn As artful sinners cloak the secret sin, To veil with seeming grace the guile within So moral essays on his front appear But all is carnal business in the rear. After the Great War, the News of the World ’s ‘moral essays’ remained only as short, bland pep-talks, and the ‘carnal business’ was promoted from the rear to the front page. Nevertheless, despite a seemingly infinite supply of lurid tales of human failing, the paper still insisted it was a ‘family’ paper and retained for many decades the use of mealymouthed euphemisms to describe rape and sexual misdemeanour; clothes were ‘disarranged’, ladies were ‘molested’. By the time Emsley Carr died in 1941, the circulation had risen from 40,000 to 4.4 million. Ten years later it was 8.4 million per week, making it the dominant popular newspaper in Britain, and, indeed, the most successful in the free world. As the 50s unfolded and Britain crept from under a blanket of austerity, a little more glamour seeped into the pages of the News of the World with stories of stars like Diana Dors, as well as mink&-yacht folk, Sir Bernard and Lady Docker, until one of the biggest scandals of the last fifty years broke in the early 60s. The story of Christine Keeler and Cabinet Minister John Profumo fed Fleet Street’s smut-lust for many ecstatic months and beyond, loosening many of the traditional constraints in time for the sexual free-for-all which followed in the latter half of the 60s. And with the bar now raised so high on public shockability, the muck-raking had to be intensified and handled ever more creatively. Rupert Murdoch bought the News of the World in 1969. Once he had reneged on all his promises to the Carr family from whom he’d bought it and had control of the paper he appointed a series of like-minded, though able and

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online: www.KCWToday.co.uk well-respected newspapermen as editors and over the first 25 years, the News of the World was edited in a more or less traditional manner. However, in the mid90s Murdoch took a significant change of direction. He had observed the growing market for ‘gossip’, as delivered by Heat and OK, and recognised that celebrity gossip had become, like gold, an internationally tradable commodity, and he had several hundred newspaper titles around the world that consumed it. It was time to set up his own gold mining operation. Having appointed as editor Piers Morgan, a journalist who knew little about anything, besides gossip, he directed the staff of his tabloids to go all out in extracting this gold by whatever means it took, an instruction which led to carefully structured entrapment of victims, phone hacking, vicious abuse of privacy, hounding of the royal family, email hacking and ultimately hundreds of millions of pounds being paid in legal costs and compensation, until after the grim revelations over their handling of the Milly Dowler story in 2011, the

News of the World closed, 168 years after its first issue had been published. After this there was a justifiable hope among the discerning British public that the shock waves this had caused and the subsequent establishment of the Leveson Inquiry would lead to firm, independent regulation of the press. Regrettably, the weakness and self-interest of too many politicians precluded this, and it is only a matter of time before the tabloid press is scraping the bottom of the gossip barrel as vigorously as they ever have. Peter Burden is the author of News of the world? Fake Sheikhs & Royal Trappings.

DUDLEY SUTTON’S I WISH I HAD WRITTEN THAT THE LINEN INDUSTRY by Michael Longley Pulling up flax after the blue flowers have fallen And laying our handfuls in the peaty water To rot those grasses to the bone, or building stooks That recall the skirts of an invisible dancer, We become a part of the linen industry And follow its processes to the grubby town Where fields are compacted into window-boxes And there is little room among the big machines. But even in our attic under the skylight We make love on a bleach green, the whole meadow Draped with material turning white in the sun As though snow waiting to melt were our attire. What’s passion but a battering of stubborn stalks, Then a gentle combing out of fibres like hair And a weaving of these into christening robes, Into garments for a marriage or a funeral? Since it’s like a bereavement once the labour’s done To find ourselves last workers in a dying trade, Let flax be our matchmaker, our undertaker, The provider of sheets for whatever the bed And be shy of your breasts in the presence of death, Say that you look more beautiful in linen Wearing white petticoats, the bow on your bodice A butterfly attending the embroidered flowers.

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Business

What a Difference a Day Makes

Buy-to-let surges in post Brexit bounce

By Derek Wyatt

went to a neighbour's party on Brexit night in Pimlico confident that the dysfunctional Remain campaign had done enough to win. I left after the Sunderland vote wondering if I had experienced a nightmare. I drifted in and out of sleep in front of HMTV and was awoken by my son in NY at four in the morning. “Dad what the hell is going on?” as if I knew “what should I do?” he added. I said he should take American citizenship as soon as and that this was the worst night in British history since Chamberlain had come from back Berlin with a note from Hitler saying “Peace in our time” or something vaguely similar. The next day when the reality dawned that aside from our major international cities, London and Edinburgh (and Bristol and Bath), the country had by 4% voted Leave I was in denial. It was beyond anything I had ever experienced. I simply could not believe the nation had fallen for the lies and duplicity of the Leave campaign. I walked about my house wondering whether to sell up, move to Sydney or walk off a cliff. It was beyond my comprehension. It was a very sad next day for David

A Landmark Case By Gina Miller

Cameron and George Osborne. Within 12 hours they were history. Politics can be pretty brutal at times. Cameron braved the right wing element of his party and the threat of UKIP to promise a referendum and Osborne supported him. They were dust. Forever remembered, unfairly, for bowing to the appalling right wingers (a minority) in their party. What a difference a day makes. Others members of their party behaved beyond the pale especially Johnson, Gove, Duncan-Smith, Fox and Davis, whilst Jeremy Corbyn won a gold medal for not campaigning, a first for any leader of the Labour party. Ten weeks on not much has changed. Except. Except, my sense is that France and Germany know the game is up.

Without Britain they have been holed below the line Of course, they will continue the smokescreen about wanting a federal Europe but it is the beginning of the end. Hollande and Merkel will not be re-elected. Change is in the air. A right wing government in Germany will want to withdraw from the euro. Without Germany, Europe disintegrates. Meanwhile, back in Blighty, Mrs May is our new Prime Minister. They say she is a technocrat and a safe pair of hands whatever that actually means. I knew her as a fair minded, sensible and thoughtful politician. If she fails to halt immigration as she did when Home Secretary her party will rail against her. They will also rail against whatever Brexit delivers.

Article 50 without an Act of Parliament authorising it. This position is consistent with the rule of law and sovereignty of Parliament, which are the principles on which the UK’s system of government rests.

purely a matter of domestic law for that Member State.

What Does Article 50 Say?

As the lead claimant in a judicial claim against the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, there has been much supposition and little substance about me and my case. I have been accused of trying to stop Brexit by the backdoor, but as those who know me will tell you, I am not a backdoor type of lady. I take issues head on and speak my mind when my conscience and principles simply leave me no other choice. The claim I launched on the 29th July is not a campaign; it is a legal case. It is about ensuring the correct process for triggering Article 50 in accordance with the UK’s constitution, by seeking clarification from the court as to the constitutional process that must be followed by the Government vis-a-vis withdrawing from the EU. It is my, and my legal teams’, contention that the Government cannot trigger

Article 50 reads as follows: • Any Member State may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements. • A Member State which decides to withdraw shall notify the European Council of its intention…. • The Treaties shall cease to apply to the State in question from the date of entry agreement or, failing that, two years after the notification referred to in paragraph 2, unless the European Council, in agreement with the Member State concerned, unanimously decides to extend this period. What is worth noting is that Article 50 is a one-way street; once it is invoked there is no procedural route for going back. In addition, if an agreement is not reached and an extension of time not given, then the UK will exit the European Union two years from the date of notification of intention to exit. As the article was drafted by those who never anticipated it being invoked, there is no real process prescribed on behalf of the withdrawing Member State, save “…in accordance with its own constitutional requirements”, implying the process is

Why is the claim important?

The claim is a matter of national and constitutional importance as the UK has an unwritten constitution, which means much of our constitutional law is not written down in one place, but derives from a combination of statute, convention and case law/precedent. If we do not have clarity over the legal way to trigger Article 50, there is a dangerous possibility that there would be a resultant legal dispute over the validity of the notification, which could see the EU refuse to negotiate with the UK. This would create a huge amount of uncertainty and dispute in the UK. To say that this would be an incredibly damaging situation for the UK is an understatement. Without a clear and certain approach, how can we ensure the UK gets the best possible exit deal? What is the government’s position? The Government is defending the claim and argues that the Prime Minister has the power to trigger Article 50 independently of Parliament, under the Royal Prerogative. To my mind, this could take the UK back to a 19th Century view of the world, where a Government can exercise the Prerogative without Parliamentary consent, resulting in a diminishing or removal of citizens’ rights. Against a backdrop of risking triggering a full-

Strenuous efforts are made by Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today newspaper to ensure that the content and information is correct. Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today newspaper reserves the right to report unsolicited material being sent through to the publication. Personal views expressed in this newspaper are solely those of the respective contributors and do not reflect those of the publishers or its agents. All materials sent to Kensington Chelsea & Westminster Today are at the suppliers’ risk. Reproduction in whole or in part of this publication is strictly prohibited without prior consent. The appearance of advertising in this newspaper, including inserts or supplements, does not constitute endorsement by Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today of the products or services advertised. blown constitutional crisis, I believe my case is imperative, both as a matter of constitutional law and established constitutional practice. My claim is therefore seeking constitutional certainty over the correct procedure for triggering Article 50. It is about process, not politics.

What happens next?

The Government provided its response to the claim on the 2nd September and all parties will now prepare for a hearing in mid-October. The Court has already indicated that, given the constitutional importance of the claim, it may be suitable for a ‘leapfrog’ appeal straight to the Supreme Court following October's hearing; which is likely to be heard in December. Gina Miller Business Women & Philanthropist

Illustration © Tim Epps

Opinion

Buy-to-let activity surged 12.7% in August as the sector successfully absorbed the Government’s 2015 policy changes and enjoyed a post Brexit bounce, according to research from Connells Survey and Valuation. Changes to the tax treatment of the buy-to-let sector looked to be choking off activity in 2015 and early 2016. Although the restriction of tax relief on mortgage finance costs to basic rate tax only, the removal of 10% ‘wear and tear’ allowance, and the introduction of additional 3% stamp duty surcharge hit the sector following the 2015 budget and the last Autumn statement, the August rebound suggests the Government’s changes are set to have been a short term problem for the sector. John Bagshaw, corporate services director of Connells Survey & Valuation, comments: “Now the effects of the Government’s legislation have been digested by lenders and investors alike, buy-to-let activity has increased sharply. The market’s fears over the impact of Brexit are calming, too and the Bank of

London’s status as global leader in foreign exchange threatened by EU exit By Max Feldman

The City of London looks set to lose its position as the world’s pre-eminent foreign exchange centre once the UK officially leaves the EU, warns a former Bank of England deputy governor. Sir Charlie Bean, who served as member of the Bank’s rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee for 14 years (2000-2014), claimed that he had “absolutely no doubt at all” that London would be stripped of right to act as a ‘clearing centre’ for eurodenominated items. London currently handles 37% of the daily $5 trillion global foreignexchange market (a bigger share than any country in the world), with a majority of euro-denominated products being traded in the United Kingdom. However this position is under threat from the European Central Bank who, backed by a number of European politicians such as Francois Hollande, intend to centralise the buying and selling of euros within the Eurozone, in clearing centres such as

September 2016

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online: www.KCWToday.co.uk England’s decision to cut the base rate last month for the first time in seven years may also have a psychological impact on property investors. The rebound in buy-to-let investment reflects developments in the wider economy where an immediate and detrimental impact on consumer confidence post Brexit has not materialised as predicted. The UK’s services sector saw a record rise in August with the purchasing managers’ index showing activity in UK services recorded the biggest monthon-month rise in the survey’s history. UK retail sales figures rose in July while consumer confidence rose in August. First-time buyer activity has seen the strongest overall increase in valuations and has driven August’s housing market, with valuations up by 6.8% on July and by 19.6% on an annual basis. Remortgaging activity has also seen an increase in valuations on both a monthly and an annual basis. On a monthly basis, remortgaging valuations saw a growth of 4.2% and a 1.5% increase year on year to August 2016. John Bagshaw continues: “First-time buyers have Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt. George Osborne had managed to side-line a prior plan to seize control of the trading by European officials, but only on the ground that such a plan would discriminate against the UK. However with Article 50 looming in Britain’s future, Bean argues that the EU will certainly revive the plans and legally force investment banks and traders who deal in euros to move to the continent. Such a move would be a significant dent in London’s current prized status as the global foreign exchange market. Bean told the House of Lords EU Economic Affairs Committee the UK had not “shrugged off the Brexit result” yet.

enjoyed a month of growth and the sector is continuing to thrive following a strong July, given first time buyers are the engine of the property market, this is very significant. August has also seen a surge in activity in the remortgaging sector, partially fueled by the interest rate.” Those further up the property ladder looking to sell their home felt an increase in activity by 2.6% compared to July.

Across all sections of the housing market, overall valuation activity has risen by 5.1% on a monthly basis, between July and August. On an annual basis, there was also a slight increase of 0.2% more valuations carried out than in August 2015. John Bagshaw concludes: “Overall market activity remains steady and fears of a post-Brexit slump has failed to emerge. Illustration © LSE

September April/May 2016 2011

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‘Rooting out’ tax avoidance?

not be the answer, but it’s tempting. The fact that we have a slipshod attitude to legislation that allows a concept of “that’s not what we intended” is a constitutional absurdity. Simon Gompertz’s comments keep digging. He refers to “tax breaks for putting money in pensions”. Oh, come off it. How can he even mention pensions and ignore the way the Gordon Brown in particular lacerated private sector retirement planning?

By Douglas Shanks

aybe Parliament is no longer fit for purpose. The mother of them all’s primordial origins coalesced with the de Montfort Parliament of 1265; so whatever way you look at it, it’s three quarters of a millennium and rising.

From a higher view, Parliament has been suborned for years by presidential prime ministers, most blatantly Blair and Thatcher. More recent fissures have been the whole Brexit fiasco, with a plebiscite telling our legislative where to go, with no idea of the route, or even what the destination looks like. Perhaps more worrying is Corbyn’s successful flouting of convention. Two generations ago the hard left, epitomised by Foot and Benn, commanded strong parliamentary support alongside grass roots’ messianic status. It’s hard to see how a Corbyn government could even pay lip-service to parliamentary democracy. The one truth every tax payer knew (well two, if you count “death and taxes”) is that evasion is illegal and avoidance isn’t. Revisionary arguments are becoming reasonably well rehearsed. Broadly speaking they concern a subset of avoidance: vanilla planning, such as ISAs; and unethical avoidance which is legal, but goes against the spirit Parliament intended. When we ask how an intelligent population handed over the legislature to the Nazis, can they not see that what we’ve done is take, albeit a small one, but nevertheless a step on that road? To give the executive the power to say “that’s not what our lawmakers intended” is not only dangerous, it’s unconstitutional, and a philosophical paradox. Why not bin the bloody thing, appoint elective dictatorships every five years, and have done with it? The problem with the “EU is run by bastards” argument is our bastards are worse than theirs. When I write about the ingenuous dirty tricks campaign conducted by the sordid sweaty parasitic establishment we choose to allow to govern us, you’d be forgiven for thinking my firm specialises in tax avoidance. Actually, we do very little. We’re a defendant practice. Our clients have been doing a little bit too much avoidance. It’s a practising professional’s view what’s right and wrong. The electorate is deluded if it thinks leaving the EU undermines the European Court of Justice (thank

Brexit, Corbyn, fiscal terrorism: you’re getting what you asked for, or in my case didn’t do enough to stop. Douglas Shanks is DSC Metropolitan llp Chartered Accountants’ semideranged with fury partner goodness), and that cutting immigration will do our economy any good. The jobs won’t become available for “ordinary decent people”; they won’t be there at all. Similarly, we’ve seen the withdrawal of the immunity from prosecution clauses from the various disclosure facilities. Good pragmatic liberal policies, reminiscent of the Elizabethan dawn of modern Britain, have been binned, to be replaced by “hang ’em and flog ’em”. The liberal policies will collect far more tax (as we saw with Thatcher’s ever-rising take). The politicians think that bowing to the penal mob will bring more votes; frankly I doubt it, but in the aftermath of the Brexit disaster, I have little faith in our electorate shooting to miss its foot. I hate the state; and I hate my own collusion. When I talk about dirty tricks, I do so with passion and venom. The state declared war on the accountancy profession under 9-11’s cover. With the upping of the ante, accountants asked for the same right of audience (essentially confidentiality) as lawyers, but were denied. When I keep a client’s secrets, I’m committing a criminal offence, whereas a lawyer isn’t. The layman may think, well that’s a technicality: get a lawyer involved. That misses the point. Just because a lawyer’s involved doesn’t mean I don’t have to report. That matters in the UK because tax advice has tended to migrate to accountants rather than lawyers. Essentially the state has denied its citizens their natural first port of call. The latest trading of blows has been well trailed. They’ve been announced under the guise of a consultation document, and are draconian. I don’t know whether the BBC is a good thing or the devil not particularly well disguised. Take the opening line of the announcement taken from the BBC website (17 August 2016): Accountants or advisers who help people bend the rules to gain a tax advantage never intended face tougher fines under new penalties proposed by the Treasury. It amazes me that the BBC is prepared to publish this without comment. The state will always find a mouthpiece so scrapping the BBC might

Any reduction in fund charges would be a bonus… By Jim Slattery

Bonus culture has permeated the UK financial services industry to an unprecedented extent. Salaried employees in banks, insurance companies and investment companies suffer no personal financial risk through the products they sell. Investors in these products, on the other hand, constantly risk their money as every financial ad. reminds us. This fact alone renders the claims of financial service companies’ employees for ‘performance bonuses’ absurd. So anyone who invests in funds should generally applaud the growing number of asset management firms who are planning to stop paying bonuses to their fund managers. Among the many investment company principals contemplating this move, former star Invesco fund manager Neil Woodford stands out. He has announced his intention to reward the fund managers in his new company, Woodford Investment Management, through fixed salaries rather than the performance-related pay they have perhaps become used to elsewhere. There is general relief among investors at the news. Everyone has had a bellyful of the City’s high-bonus culture, particularly since the 2008 financial crisis. People are also fed up because generous performance bonuses for fund managers eat into investors’ returns due to the high fees levied on ‘actively managed’ funds. The fund managers and companies

concerned, when they charge these fees, are to all intents and purposes ‘skimming’ the return on other people’s increased financial risk. But there’s even more to this general inclination to put a halt to bonuses and simply pay fund managers a decent salary. The promise of a bonus can lead to investment decisions that might be profitable for individual fund managers in the short term, but herald poor results for investors in the long run. So far, so good. But a high-pay culture can also cause conflicts of interest. For example, Cass Business School found evidence last year that asset managers are intensely relaxed about exorbitant salaries when they invest in the shares of other asset management companies.* US asset managers, the study found, were 50 per cent less likely to vote against salary proposals at the annual meeting of a fellow fund manager than at other corporate AGMs. A similar attitude possibly underlies the reluctance among well-paid fund managers to protest against high pay for chief executives at other, unrelated companies in which they invest your money. It’s high time for asset management companies, particularly those with effective corporate governance units, to do a much better job of putting a brake on runaway executive pay, especially when it is so often combined with mediocre performance. Fund managers should also be very aware of the size and impact of their own fees and pay, never mind ‘foregoing’ bonuses. After all, they get their salaries paid whether investors win or lose. It might also encourage shareholders to invest more if they feel that their fund managers can, and will, hold the management of the companies that they invest in to account. This is essential for ‘active’ fund managers if they are to withstand the growing dominance of cheap, passive funds, particularly those from the US. And it could also help stop the current headlong rush into anything other than the stock market (particularly into buyto-let property) by savers and investors. Something needs to happen because of the closure of company and institutional final salary pension schemes, as well as a rather cavalier government pensions policy and the failure of the savings system through near-zero central bank interest rates. These are all factors forcing us to become more and more dependent on stock market returns for our future income. And who do most of us rely on to access those returns? Fund management companies. * http://www.cassknowledge.com/ research/article/frenemies-howimpartial-shareholder-voting-betweenfinance-organisations

Image © Gresham College

Business Image © NPG

Business

September 2016

Sir Thomas Gresham:

Businessman, Financier, Adventurer

ir Thomas Gresham (1519-79), founder of Gresham College in the City of London was descended from an old Norfolk family and studied at Cambridge before developing a career as one of the most powerful and influential (not to mention richest) men of his age. He began his career in the cloth trade, but soon diversified his activities. Based mainly in Antwerp, he served as financial agent and adviser to four main Tudor monarchs, serving Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary Tudor and, most importantly, Elizabeth I. Maintaining a low profile over several decades, he seems to have kept his head down during these dangerous and troubled times, and thereby kept it on! He enabled the different monarchs to manage their finances, as he rescued the pound from its debasement, facilitated international borrowing at a good negotiated rate, and paid off the national debt. Founder of the Royal Exchange, and attributed with the so-called ‘Gresham’s Law’ on coinage, he was an energetic and highly competent man; a public benefactor whose legacy is still very much with us today. His heraldic device of a grasshopper became wellknown Sadly, Sir Thomas’s only son and legitimate heir died young, so he specified in his Will (1575), that his fortune should instead be used to found Gresham College, the very first institution of higher education in London. Following the original appointments (in subjects like Divinity, Astronomy, Music and Law), Gresham Professors have given free public lectures in the City of London for more than

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online: www.KCWToday.co.uk 400 years. A Chair of Commerce, focussing on Business and Economics was added in 1985, and newer professorships cover Environmental issues and IT. Over the centuries, the College has had various ‘homes’ in the City and is currently based at the fifteenth-century Barnard’s Inn Hall in Holborn, although larger venues such as the Museum of London and the Guildhall are also frequently used. The Gresham lectures are free and open to the public to attend on a ‘first come first served’ basis. Lectures are recorded and over 2000 past lectures are available on the College website, where further details are provided. The current Gresham Professor of Commerce and Business is Professor Jagjit Chadha, Director of the National Institute of Economic & Social Research (NIESR). His main interests lie in macroeconomics, with a particular focus on monetary issues. Professor Chadha’s series for 2016-17 is entitled Where are

we after the Storm? The UK Economy in the Aftermath of Financial Crisis and his first lecture of the new academic year, entitled Recession and Recovery, will consider economic performance and productivity growth, prior to and following the recession (29 September 2016, 6 pm, Barnard’s Inn Hall, Holborn). Environmental issues and their impact are dealt with by Professor Carolyn Roberts, whose series on A Bigger Picture: Global Scale Environmental Challenges will focus on the environmental impact of people at planetary scale, and the role of human ingenuity in finding solutions. Her first lecture of the year is entitled Scratching the Surface? Looking from Space at Human Impact on Earth (Thursday 13 October 2016, 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall). For further information: www.gresham.ac.uk or contact: Gresham College, Barnard’s Inn Hall, Holborn, EC1N 2HH. T: 020 7831 0575 email: enquiries@gresham.ac.uk

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Science & Technology

By Natanael Mota

wo neuroanatomists from the University of Washington have redrawn the map of the brain in a new study focusing on brain surface and activity.

Photograph © Vanessan-Glasser

The US, UK and Netherlands team headed by Matthew F. Glasser and David C. Van Essen brought 97 new areas to the table, adding on to the existing 83 reported over the last 100 years. Their paper, “A multi-modal parcellation of the human cerebral cortex” was published in Nature earlier this July 2016. Nature is a British journal which has the highest impact in science worldwide, with an estimated online readership of 3 million per month. Only 800 out of the 10000 submited worldclass papers are published in Nature every year. An accurate map of the brain has been a target of the neuroscience community for a long time. German neurologist Korbinian Brodmann made the first map in 1909 with just 52 regions. The map will largely improve precision for studies of the structure and task locations of the brain, its changes across individuals and in growing, aging and disease. Robotics and computing will also benefit from better distinguishing of language, emotional and memory areas, for example. Equipped with high quality scanners, over 100 years of research and pattern matching computers, the team set its sights on a new standard for brain maps. Emma Robinson from Imperial College London helped to provide imaging and the code in this study for a ‘fingerprint’ area classifier algorithm used

to check the results. “Matthew and David … looked for a match where different tasks and different behaviours caused the same activity across a large number of subjects - and were able to identify these regions”. “They did this using MRI data, combining their expert neuroanatomical knowledge with multimodal imaging data. That is, some data corresponding to brain function and other data corresponding to brain structure”. Every brain is unique; the vessel of your soul, some argue. Glasser and Van Essen’s team found above 96.6% matching between the proposed map and more than 200 human brains, showing a fascinating similarity. Additionally, the ‘fingerprint’ area classifier even correctly located areas in individuals with unusual brain area structure. The group works as part of a wider project for digitizing the brain called the Human Connectome Project (HCP), which has provided the brain imaging data for this project. Only adult brains were studied, and efforts are being made to focus more on developing brains. Emma Robinson said, “the HCP is currently seeking healthy pregnant participants for their neonatal data scans”, which she has participated in herself. “It’s going to be a hugely powerful resource to try and understand the way in which the brain develops. In the neonatal brain so much is changing that we can observe that change at the millimeter scale.” MRI scans are safe for mothers and their baby, with no known side effects. More information is at www. developingconnectome.org. Neonatal scans help us peer at times where the brain develops the fastest, when the baby grows, and Emma actively works in this area at the moment. You may follow up Imperial College’s Emma Robinson’s interview with KCW Today online at: www.kcwtoday.co.uk/2016/09/interviewemma-robinson/

Science & Technology RESEARCH NEWS ESO: M. Kornmesser

New, sharper brain map revealed

September 2016

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online: www.KCWToday.co.uk

The man singlehandedly taking on Zambia’s big issue: Energy

Geothermal energy harnesses the heat held within the Earth’s crust by pumping that hot water out and using it either directly, as hot water for homes and industry, or indirectly, to power turbines to create electricity. The water is then pumped back into the ground under the same pressure so there is no risk of tremors or sinkholes. (seismic activity) At the moment, 96 percent of Zambia’s power comes from hydroelectric energy and with climate change causing lower water levels and a heightened risk of drought, supply is struggling to meet demand and is at risk of destabilising the economy if key mining investors take their business elsewhere. With 60 percent of the total energy

produced by the dam being sapped by the mines and a quarter going to agriculture and to neighbouring countries, the people are left to fight over just 25 percent of it. “Every single day there’s no power for 5, 6 sometimes 8 hours. There isn’t enough electricity to go round so they’ll shutdown one area for a while and then they’ll shut down the next area so what power there is, is spread out. It ‘s called load shedding and it doesn’t happen in Europe but it does happen in Africa and that ‘s simply because there isn’t enough capacity,” explains Vivian-Neal. Due to the lack of electricity, the people have turned to the biodiversityrich and ecologically important forests for charcoal to make cooking fires. The charcoal is openly sold all along the roads and is neither illegal nor officially legal, it is merely tolerated, and has greatly accelerated the rate of deforestation. Many of the Zambian people rely heavily on the forest ecosystem for their livelihood, but according to leading environmental knowledge hub REDD, Zambia has the second worst deforestation rate in Africa. Zambia is also home to 12,505 species in 14 different ecosystems including 85 species found on the IUCN Red List including the African elephant, the pangolin and the white rhino. With geothermal plants already providing, what they claim to be, nearly 50 percent of their total energy requirements in Kenya. True or not, it is a success story giving hope to the Kalahari GeoEnergy team. And while Vivian-Neal believes Zambia’s energy crisis is so huge that “no one is going to solve it single handedly”, he is confident that he will be adding his new power to the mix very soon.

it in an appealing app e.g., a game or a flashlight.” “In our research we show that an app in fact does not need your GPS or Wi-Fi to track you,” says Noubir. “Just using these sensors, which do not require permissions, we can infer where you live, where you have been, where you are

going.” Three years ago a torch app was banned by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for consumer deception because it was secretly passing the users’ location and device information on to third parties. While Google is already doing some policing and users are able to report malicious apps, Noubin thinks more must be done. “It is also a responsibility of the research community to develop methods and tools to detect and mitigate such attacks,” said Noubin. “One might say, let’s also request permissions for these sensors (gyroscope, accelerometer, compass). However, a large number of legitimate apps, such as games, need these sensors. Therefore, this won’t solve the problem.” “You should not install apps that are not familiar to you—ones that you have not investigated,” warns Noubin. “Be sure that your apps are not still running in the background when you’re not using them.

By Ione Bingley

C An artist’s impression of the surface of Proxima B, a potentially earth-like planet that circles the nearest star to the sun

Astronomers have found a habitable, Earth-like planet just four light-years away orbiting our closest star, Proxima Centauri. The rocky exoplanet, Proxima b, orbits its red dwarf, parent star every 11 days and has a surface temperature suitable for liquid water. Nature Microscopic analysis reveals that duck-billed dinosaurs (hadrosaurs) had 300 teeth packed into their mouths. Hadrosaurs, that lived between 65 and 90 million years ago sported a complex and dynamic dental arrangement with parallel stacks of 6 or more teeth a piece with the newest stacks constantly being pushed to the front of the mouth. BMC Evolutionary Biology Male honeybees are being sterilised by an inadvertent side effect of two neonicotinoid insecticides that reduce both the lifespan and the number of living sperm, potentially causing the collapse of the whole colony. Neonicotinoid insecticides are on a two-year trial ban in the EU that is to be reviewed this month R. Soc. B. Carbon dioxide has been recycled back into storable fuel using a technique powered by renewable energy. Researchers converted carbon dioxide from the air into carbon monoxide, a useful building block for carbon-based fuels such as diesel. Nature Owning a bicycle makes a Londoner more likely to get in 30 minutes of travel by foot or bike a day, even if you never use it. Conversely owning a car makes you up to three times less likely to travel actively. Journal of Transport & Health A 300-million-year-old shark, which looked like a modern-day bull shark, cannibalized its own babies when food was scarce. The evidence comes from the presence of tiny juvenile teeth in the shark’s fossilised dung. Palaeontology Learning foreign languages sharpens our brains by improving our ability to process information. Electrodes placed on the heads of students revealed that the brain’s activity, when presented with new words, was higher in the students that spoke more foreign languages allowing them to process the new words faster. Scientific Reports ‘Green’ biofuels have been shown to release more carbon dioxide emissions when burned than they absorb when growing. Biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel extracted from crops such as oilseed rape, corn and wheat, have a net increase of carbon emissions making them worse for the environment than petrol. Climate Change

onstant power cuts are stifling economic growth in Zambia and the pressure is on to find a new energy source to match its booming mining industry and growing middle class. CEO of Kalahari GeoEnergy, Peter Vivian-Neal is on a mission to tackle the energy crisis with, arguably, the most mysterious form of renewable energy: Geothermal. A mining man originally, Vivian-Neal moved to mineral-rich Zambia because, in the words of city gold mogul Algy Cluff, “there’s no gold in the Surrey hills”. When his mining company was bought out in 2010 he found himself casting around for a reason to stay. Watching an egg being boiled in a puddle on safari, he began to ponder the geological reasons behind Zambia’s hot springs and decided to figure it out for himself, two years on and he was deep into geothermal. “I discovered, having looked at the whole country, by myself, and on nobody else’s money, that there were some geological scenarios where geothermal could work here and we went from there.”

Most renewable options require a backup energy source because their power output is affected by inconsistencies in the power supply, like the wind or the sun. If there is a storm or no wind then energy will not be generated and may fail to match the demand. Geothermal energy is special because the heat from the ground is constant, totally reliable, totally green and totally abundant. “If only 1% of the thermal energy contained in the uppermost 10km of our planet could be tapped, this amount would be 500 times that contained in all oil and gas resources of the world,” states the US geological survey 2003. Large pools deep underground hold ancient water that is very hot.

Android apps could be secretly tracking your every move By Ione Bingley

Professor Guevara Noubir and his team from Northeastern University, Boston have shown just how easy it is to create a totally legal and downloadable app that secretly tracks your whereabouts and is able to guess the location of your home and work. Without needing any permission to use an android’s compass, gyroscope and accelerometer, their app can guess where you live and work, the route that you take to get there, and even if you carried your smartphone in your pocket or a handbag. With smartphones already listening to our conversations to personalise the

advertising on our browsers, questions are being raised as to what a malicious developer could do with this sensitive information. “For $25, anyone can put an app on Google Play, the store for android apps,” says Noubir. “A malicious entity could develop a similar app code and embed

Photograph © Peter Vivian-Neil

September April/May 2016 2011

Photograph © Vladimir Shiovili

September April/May 2016 2011

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Education

ven if your school days are well and truly in the past, there’s still a ‘back to school’ feeling in the air when September arrives, so why not use this month to learn a new skill? From one-day masterclasses to weekly sessions, it’s easy to fit these intriguing courses into your schedule. Let us know when you’ve enrolled by tweeting @ kcwtoday. Unless specified, courses must be pre-booked, are suitable for beginners, and all prices include materials.

London School of Philosophy at Conway Hall

www.conwayhall.org.uk Contact via: https://conwayhall.org.uk/ about/contact-us T: 020 7405 1818 Conway Hall Red Lion Square London WC1R 4RL

Be inspired by the current Great Fire exhibition: apply modern arson investigation techniques to the events of 1666. 20th September 19:00-22:00 Location: Museum of London Cost: £36.00

Close to the Bone: Bone Analysis Workshop

The Forensics Outreach team explore bone analysis, which can determine the age, sex and health of people who lived in London centuries ago. 30th September 19:00-22:00 Location: Museum of London Cost: £36.00

Quill London

www.quilllondon.com Email: workshops@quilllondon.com T: 020 7833 8562 37 Amwell Street London EC1R 1UR

Beginners Modern Calligraphy

Develop your writing style and master letter forms from the beginning at this workshop. 23rd, 25th or 30th September 18:30-21:00 (23rd or 30th), 10:30-13:00 or 14:00:16:30 (25th) Cost: £54

Philosophy of Love

Exploring the nature of love and its relevance to anthropology, literature and neuroscience. With Jane O’Grady. 3rd October (10 week course, held every Wednesday) 13:00-15:00 Cost: £120 Concession: £90

Museum of London

Contact via: http://www. museumoflondon.org.uk/contact-us T: 020 7001 9844 150 London Wall London EC2Y 5HN

Fire Forensics Workshop

T: 020 7300 8090 Burlington House Piccadilly London W1J 0BD

Light and Shadow: Chiaroscuro Taster Course

Learn to apply dramatic light and shadow effects to your artwork in these two workshops. 21st September (Light, with male model) 28th September (Shadow, with female model) Location: The Life Room, Royal Academy Schools 18:00-21:00 Instructor: Andy Pankhurst Cost: £80 per session or £150 for both.

The School of Life

www.theschooloflife.com Email: classroom@theschooloflife.com T: 020 7833 1010 70 Marchmont Street London WC1N 1AB

Overcoming Impostor Syndrome Dissect your own impostor syndrome and challenge it with self-esteem exercises. Led by broadcaster, reporter and coach Tazeen Ahmad. 20th September 19:40-21:00 Cost: £45

Turning your passion into a career Travel blogger and digital guru Julie Falconer helps you create a business model or career plan based on your passion. 29th September 14:10-16:30 Cost: £45

Resilience one day workshop

A boot camp based on the four key skills to improve resilience, led by expert Chris Johnstone. Lunch is provided. 1st October 10:00-17:00 Cost: £195

University of the Arts London

www.arts.ac.uk Contact via: www.enquiries.arts.ac.uk/ ShortCourseGenericEnquiryForm T: 020 7514 7552 London College of Fashion 20 John Prince’s Street London W1G 0BJ

Introduction to Fashion Design

Tutors Eunju MacMahon and Eve Lin introduce the fundamentals of design, from initial research to using different media and developing sketches. Some materials required (see website). 29th September (8 weeks, every

International Catholic Day and Boarding School for Girls aged 11 – 18

Suitable for anyone who’s confident in pointed pen letterforms and joining letters but would like to expand their skills. 24th September 17:00-19:30 Cost: £54

Brush Lettering

Designer, blogger and illustrator Teri Muncey teaches the fashionable art of brush lettering. 29th September 18:30-20:30 Cost: £54

Royal Academy

www.royalacademy.org.uk Contact via: www.royalacademy.org.uk/ contact-us

Thursday) 18:00-21:00 Location: London College of Fashion 20 John Prince’s Street Cost: £450

Social Media for Fashion

Learn to curate a social media presence that will enhance any brand, whether personal or professional, with fashion filmmaker David McGovern. 29th September (5 weeks, every Monday) 18:30-21:00 Location: London College of Fashion 20 John Prince’s Street Cost: £250

Fashion Trend Forecasting (Online Course) Louise Stuart Trainor covers the creative and analytical side of trends with weekly real-time chat sessions and assignments. Some materials required (see website). 29th September (7 weeks, every Thursday) 18:30-19:30 Location: online- complete at home Cost: £500

University of Westminster

www.westminster.ac.uk Email: eveninglanguagecourse@ westminster.ac.uk T: 020 3506 9900 309 Regent Street London W1B 2HW

Chinese (Mandarin), for Beginners Start to communicate in Mandarin with verbal and written exercises. Successful learners can progress to term 2 and 3 of the course, with additional payments. 26th September (10 weeks, every Tuesday) 28th September (10 weeks, every Thursday) 18:30-20:30 Cost: £225

Danish, for Beginners

• • • • • • • •

Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

online: www.KCWToday.co.uk

Short Online Courses • Apply Now • www.conted.ox.ac.uk/on51

Improvers Calligraphy Clinic

Philosophy and Film

Mark Fielding teaches you to examine the socio-political and cultural importance of film. 3rd October (10 week course, held every Monday) 11:00-13:00 Tutor: Cost: £120 Concession: £90

September 2016

Education

Short Online Courses • Apply Now • www.conted.ox.ac.uk/on51

SeptemberOctober Education Listings

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Experience teaching the IB Diploma for more than 35 years! Exclusive pre-IB Middle Years Programme Nurture and support: girls gain excellent results Places achieved at top Universities worldwide Scholarships and bursaries available Multilingualism: up to 9 languages taught Internationalism: over 40 nationalities, yet one shared mission All faiths welcome

Please contact: admissions@marymountlondon.com www.marymountlondon.com Tel: 020 8949 0571 George Road, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT2 7PE.

Embrace your love of all things Scandi with this introduction to the Danish language. Further terms of study are available at extra cost. 28th September (10 weeks, every Wednesday) 18:30-20:30 Cost: £225

Victoria & Albert Museum www.vam.ac.uk Email: contact@vam.ac.uk T: 020 7942 2211 Victoria and Albert Museum Cromwell Road London SW7 2RL

London Life and Times:

Medieval to Modern, 1066-1666

Birkbeck tutor Mike Berlin discusses London’s evolution as a city. Further modules are available, covering 16662000, at additional cost. 21st September (12 week course, every Wednesday) 11:10-15:30 Location: Seminar Room 3 Cost: £825 or £640 concessions; alternatively, £73 per session or £57 concessions

Introduction to Corsetry

A practical workshop with costume designer Brigid Strowbridge, applying the boning and stretch techniques of corsetry. 1st-2nd October (two day workshop) 10:30-16:30 Location: Art Studio Cost: £184 Concessions: £147.20

British Theatre, an Overview

Theatre critic Matt Wolf lectures on the past year of British stagecraft, accompanied by special guests. 2nd October (8 weeks, every Sunday, until 27th November, with Half Term break) 11:00-13:00 Location: Seminar Room 3 Cost: £365 Concessions: £325

Pilates

Learn the basic principles of Pilates in this practical course which focuses on breathing techniques, posture and building core strength. Autumn (10 weeks) 18:00-19:00 Cost: £99

Design skills for leather work

Westminster Adult Education Service

Astronomy: a gentle introduction

www.waes.ac.uk Email: info@waes.ac.uk T: 020 7297 7297 Pimlico Centre Lupus St SW1V 3AT

Course date: Saturday 24 - Sunday 25 September Course Time: 10:30 - 16:30 Location: Keeley Street Price: £129 (same for seniors and concession) Course date: Sunday 25 September Course Time: 10:30 - 16:30 Location: Keeley Street Price: £49 (seniors: £39 concession: £25)

Build a website in a day with Wordpress

Flowers for Beginners

Discover how to use fresh plants and flowers to create classic and contemporary arrangements, including button holes, bouquets and table arrangements. Tuesdays, starting in September (5 weeks) 18:00-20:30 Cost: £130, not including flowers.

City Lit

1-10 Keeley Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2B 4BA

Course date: Sunday 18 September Course Time: 10:30 - 17:00 Location: Keeley Street Price: £99 (seniors: £79 concession: £50)

Deconstruct, reconstruct jewellery from ready-mades Course date: Sunday 25 September Course Time: 10:15 - 16:30 Location: Keeley Street Price: £199 (seniors: £159 concession: £121) Compiled by Polly Allen

Workshop Coffee

Email: sam.brown@workshopcoffee.com T: 020 7251 6501 Holborn Coffeebar 60A Holborn Viaduct London EC1A 2FD

Home Brewing Workshop

A hands-on masterclass for coffee lovers looking to buy better beans and brew better coffee. 17th or 24th September, or 1st October 10:00-12:30 Tutors: Katie Simkins and Veronika Kuzelova Cost: £45

City of Westminster College www.cwc.ac.uk Email: rosa.maugerwc.ac.uk T: 020 7258 7253 25 Paddington Green London W2 1NB

Beginners Photography

A beginner’s course in learning the basics of photography, including composition, lighting and how to use the settings on your camera. Thursdays, September (6 weeks) 18:30- 21:00 Cost: £180

Speak the Truth • Live Generously • Aim for the Best

Open Events 2016 Sixth Form Open Evening Wednesday 5th October Open Morning Saturday 8th October Open Evening Thursday 13th October School in Action Thursday 3rd November

5.15pm – 7.30pm 9.30am – 12.15pm 4.30pm – 6.30pm 9.00am – 10.45am

To book: 020 7348 1748 | admissions@sjsg.org.uk www.stjamesgirls.co.uk Earsby Street | London W14 8SH

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September April/May 2016 2011

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Education

By Rhiannon Jones-Hopkins

ondon needs no introduction. Having lived in and loved London all my life, it seemed intuitive to apply to at least one London institution. I would remain close to friends and family, I could study whilst living in one of the most desirable cities in the world and gain a degree that is internationally recognised. It seemed like a no brainer, and although I applied for campuses across the country, when my London choice accepted me I knew I would spend the next three years in the capital. The best of London is impenetrable to students unless your income is more HRH and less SFE (Student Finance England) and nobody expects to live like Carrie Bradshaw whilst at university, but it is equally unexpected to have to miss out on friendships and opportunities because one lives in the Big Smoke. It is no surprise that London has on average the most expensive rent and living expenses for students in the UK.

Compare an average month’s rent for one room in London (£552) to Belfast (£184) or Cardiff (£282) and it becomes clear how tight student living in our capital can be. The advantage of living in the largest graduate employer pool is undermined by the fact that in order to gain experience, one has to apply for internships, often unpaid. This means that many students turn down internships in London that would boost their career prospects because they need an income to see them through the summer months. 77% of London students say they need to work through the summer months, and over a quarter of those say it’s necessary just to afford everyday

Take a journey into the world of wine

Over the last 120 years, what started as a small Parisian cooking school has transformed into an international network of culinary arts and hospitality institutes providing prestigious courses to aspiring chefs and hospitality professionals. Le Cordon Bleu is famously known for its culinary courses with their diplomas being internationally recognised as a mark of excellence. The world leading school also offers a professional selection of wine courses, delivering the same high standards of teaching and expertise. The Diploma in Wine, Gastronomy and Management is one of these courses. The programme which has been developed by renowned wine professionals and a Master Sommelier, explores the theory of wine knowledge and places a strong emphasis on practical learning. Students visit renowned wineries, breweries and distilleries whilst

living expenses. A further 17% say they need to save for the next academic year in order to make ends meet. This reveals the trend that London students have long known to be true: to survive this city as an average student, it means sacrificing the time you are meant to have to decompress post exams in order to save for the upcoming term. There are few idle students basking in the summer sun in London and far more sweating away in shops and soul destroying call centres just to call London their home. The ‘free’ side of London is harked on about, but one can only visit the British Museum and Hyde Park so many times until you long for a decent seat inside a pub with friends to unwind from studying and working, but this, of course, means paying (through the nose) for the privilege. This makes it easier now to understand the sullen appearance of forlorn looking students on the tube. There is a well-kept secret only whispered in Wetherspoons and acknowledged rarely outside of eyewateringly expensive shared houses: the fact is that London student life can be isolating, overwhelming and sometimes impossible. The sheer size and population of London, especially for those living here far from home, means becoming almost invisible and dealing with the loss of any sense of community. There are few

student-friendly spaces in London that aren’t humourless and desperately lacking atmosphere. The ones that do exist are filled with first-years hanging off each other in a vodka-induced haze. The independence and anonymity that London encourages will no doubt suit some, but it can become a lonely landscape you are expected to live in without a solid support network. The main problem with London universities is that the campuses are spread out all across the city. The campus universities in the UK such as Oxford, Exeter, and Manchester have whole areas that are populated almost exclusively by students. Manchester is in fact the largest single-site university in the country and there, one can walk from the student’s front door for ten minutes and see only other students. There is community and camaraderie in their shared experience and their facilities and nightlife are all condensed into a miniature student city. London cannot compete in this area, those studying in the capital are scattered across the boroughs like lost marbles with nothing anchoring them together. The truth is, London can be breathtaking and beautiful, a glittering metropolis winking coquettishly at young students to come and broaden their horizons and soak up its history. However once the glitter fades, it can become as grey and daunting as the river that runs through it, and some students end up drowning.

Leading Culinary Arts, Wine and Management School

ARE YOU A WINE ENTHUSIAST LOOKING FOR YOUR NEXT STEP? a focus is also placed on the management skills needed to succeed in a commercial environment. Previous graduates have gone on to become wine advisors and sommeliers at Michelin-starred establishments whilst others have opted for alternative roles within the industry such as marketing assistants and international sales executives for wine producers and importers. Le Cordon Bleu also offers a variety of short courses which are aimed at wine amateurs and enthusiasts looking to turn their hobby into a career, or simply wanting to gain an in-depth understanding of wine and the industry. So if you are a wine enthusiast looking for your next step, take a course at Le Cordon Bleu and embark on a journey into the world of wine.

So you want to make a Podcast? By Jordan Kawachi

Computer: Before you can get started you’ll need a computer. Good news is

that you probably already have one. Any computer from the last few years will do, so long as it’s running normally and has some memory available. Headphones: An item many might overlook is the kind of headphones you use. While any pair can work, the better quality of the headphones the more you’ll be able to hear. Microphone(s): For a podcast any microphone will work, so if you have a gaming headset or even the microphone built into your laptop you could use either. However the quality of your microphone will result in the quality of your audio. If you are fine with those options then feel free to move on. If you want to look into new microphones you need to consider whether you want a USB or XLR microphone. USB connects directly to your computer, but XLR’s audio is superior. However XLRs require extra equipment to work. For those that choose the XLR microphone, you’ll need either a Portable XLR Recorder or an Audio Interface. You could always get a mixer but those are a little more complex and can be expensive. The Portable XLR Recorder allows multiple channels and also some basic audio adjusting at a moment's notice, these can be found anywhere between £100 and £500. Or you can go for the Audio Interface, which allows you to connect directly to your computer similar to the USB Microphone. These can be found anywhere from £30 to £300 depending on brand and quality.

The Fencing School Making Fencing More Accessible to Children

Classes for Beginners For Children

cordonbleu.edu/london

Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

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he decision to take on the challenge of a podcast isn’t one that should be made lightly. You need to consider the fact that most podcasts need to be updated weekly if not daily in order to keep their audience hooked. They also need to have a focus, one that’s not too broad but also not too narrow that you run out of talking points. If you have an idea already in mind, and know that you’ve got the time to truly commit to the project then that’s great, if not I urge you to continue thinking about whether or not you are ready to get started. Once you’ve taken some time to truly consider what you’re about to take on, your next step will be getting your hands on some equipment. The chances are that if you are looking to start your own podcast you already have some of the necessary tools that you will need. However there is also a chance that you might need to spend a little cash to truly get started. This in itself can seem a little bit stressful, but have no fear as we have put together a comprehensive list of must have items in a range of prices that could fit anyone’s budget.

Photograph © Le Cordon Bleu

What nobody tells you about student life in London

Photograph © Digital Agency London

Education

September 2016

Optional Hardware: While on the topic of microphones, you may want to consider a stand. While some deals may include a stand for your mic, others fall short in this category. Furthermore a Pop Filter is extremely helpful in reducing pick up of plosives. You can find Pop Filters for as low as £10 or even make your own at home with a tissue and some pieces of paper. Editing Software: When it comes time to edit your podcast there are dozens of software to choose from. If you have a Mac product then you already have access to Garageband. If you don’t there is always Audacity, which is a little more complex than Garageband, but is completely free. However if you don’t mind spending the cash you can always opt to go for Adobe Audition or Avid Pro Tools 12. Both are subscription based and range from £20 to £30 per month. Once equipment is in hand you can begin tracking and editing your podcast. If the editing software you are using is new to you we strongly suggest taking a look at some tutorials on YouTube. With your podcast finished, your final hurdle will be where to host your show. Thankfully there are dozens of sites where you can host your podcast; these include SoundCloud, Podomatic, PodBean and Buzzsprout. While some are free, others may cost a monthly payment. The decision is yours, though as no two sites are exactly alike, be sure to look around and figure out what the best fit for you is going to be. Equipment Toolbox (type the short goo.gl link on your web browser):

Headphones: Sony Monitoring Headphone with Reversible Ear Cups – White, Price: £13.41 : goo.gl/4TpwJV SONY PRO MDR7506 Headphones Pro closed, Price: £105.99: goo.gl/0FwCnK Microphones: USB Microphone, FifineTM, Price: £23.99: goo.gl/8O0Fa8 USB Audio-Technica ATR2100- Price: £178.48 goo.gl/EjB8hr Recorders: Olympus LS-14 4GB Linear PCM Recorder, Price: £137.95: goo.gl/VnL8pl Roland R-05 Studio WAVE/MP3 Recorder, Price: £155.00 goo.gl/9HTeI0 TASCAM DR-100mkII Portable Digital Recorder, Price: £228.33: goo.gl/h0dDNs Editing Software: Audacity, Price: £0 : http://www. audacityteam.org Adobe Audition, Price: £17.15/month: https://www.adobe.com/uk/products/ audition.html Avid Pro Tools 12 Subscription, Price $24.92/month: http://www.avid.com/protools Both Adobe and Avid offer cheaper student/teacher subscriptions.

Gold Medal London U12’s & Interna4onal Selec4ons World Cup U20

Aged: 7-9, 9-11 & 11-13 Wed or Sat: 5pm or Sun: 11am £8 All equipment included Email: contact@thefencingschool.com

For more information visit: www.thefencingschool.com/community

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September April/May 2016 2011

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One year before ‘explosion’ in demand for secondary school places By Max Feldman

London boroughs are in a race against time to create more secondary school places as a new report shows that demand is set to explode across the capital. London Councils’ Do The Maths report, published on September 8th , shows that secondary pupil growth is accelerating and will overtake primary growth for the first time in 2017/18. By the end of the decade there will be 71,580 more secondary pupils attending school in London. Despite the fact that London has the highest level of demand for school places in the country, London’s slice of the central government funding pot dedicated to creating new school places has fallen in recent years and will reach a low of 14 per cent in 2018/19. Diverting funding from other sources helps boroughs to plug the funding gap, but this is not sustainable long-term. Cllr Peter John OBE, London Councils Executive member for children, skills and employment, said: “The number of secondary school pupils in London is growing, which is a real challenge for boroughs because each new secondary school place costs around £6,000 more to create, on average, than a primary place. The clock is ticking. By 2021/22 London will need more than 47,000 additional secondary places.”

Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

online: www.KCWToday.co.uk

WYMONDHAM COLLEGE

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WESTMINSTER SCHOOL

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16+ ENTRY FOR GIRLS AND BOYS 2017 Online registration closes on October 5.

COURSE INFO: 020 757 3533

t was over 60 years ago that W H Auden declared it was the ‘Age of Anxiety’, with his six part poem. The poem explored man’s yearning for meaning and identity in the newly industrialised age and there is, perhaps, no more common time to yearn for meaning than the time one spends as a student. Grappling with new ideas and identities, students, so often scoffed at as spoilt and lazy, are burdened with anxiety in ever increasing numbers. Statistically at least 20% of students report mental health problems whilst at university, with a high proportion of them suffering from anxiety and depression. 1 in 8 university students have suicidal thoughts during their time studying for their degree, with actual suicide rates amongst students at their highest point since 2007. Daunted by the prospect of new courses, people or cities, with which to become familiar, there is undoubtedly enormous social and academic pressure on young people starting university during this autumnal month. For those more seasoned students, entering the final stages of their courses, the time has come to acknowledge the enormous debt most will have, to think about entering the fatigued job market along with the extreme graduate scheme competition; not to mention beginning the most academically demanding months of study. Anxiety is a great motivator, and in healthy amounts can push us to perform at our best. A healthy level of anxiety in a student should show that the courses and environment they are in are demanding and academically challenging come exam time. It should be proportional and fleeting, as nature intended, an adrenal push to help us combat difficult situations. Unfortunately, the pathological and pervasive anxiety that some students face will lead to a paralyzing, stress induced, meltdown, robbing them of the ability to flourish within the academic environment, producing results that aren’t representative of their intelligence or potential or in the worst case scenario, forcing them to drop out altogether. The barrage of physical maladies that accompany severe anxiety are a worrying read, with headaches, nausea, back pain, digestive issues, sleep disruption and appetite changes all common with anxiety sufferers. Not to mention that it

By Rhiannon Jones-Hopkins

is so often a pathway to depression and phobic disorders. Rising tuition fees, grants being scrapped, elite entry requirements and the loss of job security in a globalised market are but a few issues students now face that their parents probably didn’t. Maddy Kirkman, NUS Disabled Students’ Officer comments on the need for a robust system to help students cope with these difficulties, saying: “As well as ensuring the appropriate support exists for students and that it is truly accessible and well sign-posted, we also need to question whether some of the practices in our universities and colleges in fact exacerbate mental health issues.” Currently anxiety, stress and depression cost the UK economy between £70-100 billion per year, with 70 million sick days taken annually. It is obvious that ignoring these issues during university could leave the UK with a mentally impoverished workforce. Is that a future we can afford? It is a great shame that a time traditionally concerned with exploring oneself, broadening the mind and, like Auden said, yearning for meaning, is now becoming a time of stress, panic, and growing hopelessness for some students.

Academic anxiety

September 2016

Education T S APIENTIA

Education

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IN THE HEART OF LONDON

13+ BOYS ENTRY Registration for entry in 2019 closes September 30. To request a prospectus or find out about Open Days, please call 020 7963 1003 or email registrar@westminster.org.uk For information about entry to Westminster Under School at 7+, 8+ or 11+ please call 020 7821 5788. Westminster School is a charity (No. 312728) established to provide education. TAP3249_KCWTodayAd_126mmWx154mmH_V1.indd 1

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September April/May 2016 2011

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Education Why the media has let young people down By B. Barratt

tanding in a circle in a stark and overly air conditioned classroom in South London, several young teachers cross proverbial swords; parrying with words as they debate the earth shattering question; who has better hair: Boris Johnson or Donald Trump? This is obviously a subject of great importance and things are getting heated as two secondary English teachers go head to head over whose golden crop incites the most confidence in their political abilities. Even though this might, understandably, seem like a completely arbitrary argument, there is method in the madness of Emily Evans’ oversubscribed workshop, “Pupil engagement in current affairs and thinking skills”. Discussing topics that seem nonsensical or that are already saturated with highly contrasting opinion is Evans’ way of easing into more serious debates. This works by challenging those involved to take a stance that doesn’t necessarily come naturally to them, thus encouraging them to use their “critical thinking skills” and open their minds to new ideas. Evans is the enthusiastic founder of The Economist’s Burnet News Club, an initiative that works in schools to allow children and teens to access news and form their own opinions on what is going on in the world around them. Founded in 2014, the club has access to the works of some of The Economist’s top journalists, which ensures that the news available to the students is high quality. The network visits schools, giving teachers training in the form of workshops, resources and support to set up and run news clubs for their own pupils; something that many educators believe is absolutely necessary in today’s political climate. This initiative seems perfectly timed. More than ever before, young people want to engage in current affairs as they become increasingly aware of the effects decisions made today will have on their later lives. Whilst this may come across as something of a sweeping statement, evidence of this can be seen in the number of 18-25 voters, which, according to Sky News, has increased by 20% over the last two general elections. Additionally, strategic insight agency Opinium found that 64% of 18-24 year olds voted in the EU Referendum. The notion that politics is just for the middle-

020 7738 2348

September 2016

Education aged and middle class is now an old one as a growing number of young people want to have a say in their own future. But what of the youths that are not yet old enough to vote? This is something of an untapped market for the main political parties who are yet to enchant the future generation of voters, many of whom are either suspicious or bored of politicians and their media-trained ways (the 2015 photograph of David Cameron trying to read to a completely disenchanted six-year-old as she rested her head on a desk springs to mind here). Evans set up the Burnet News Club to target this disinterestedness: “Unfortunately, good quality news for a young audience is limited. Too often what’s available is insufficiently challenging, lacks depth, or fails to cover the important issues. When we know that young people can and want to engage with real issues, this is baffling and a huge shame.” In a fascinating survey on millennials’ engagement in politics conducted by market research firm, Survation, results showed that the only institution young people trusted less than the government was the mass media. An executive head-teacher of a secondary school in Shropshire seemed unsurprised by these findings: “Current affairs, as reported, are either social slanging matches, acts of terrorism or grim news about the economy” leading students to believe we live in “an embittered, cruel world where there are few prospects”. It is becoming increasingly clear that young people want to be exposed to news, but need to be inspired to believe that they can make a difference, not just left feeling encumbered and burdened by a messy and broken world inherited from their predecessors. The big push for the elusive “youth vote” in the lead up to the EU Referendum, with slogans such as “chillin, meetin, tourin, #votin [sic]” and celebrity endorsements from the likes of David Beckham and Daniel Craig, did little to assuage the growing distrust of today’s youth in the sincerity and integrity of the people running and reporting on the country. Josh, a 19 year old student from Bristol, effectively epitomises this scepticism: “[The news] is not interesting because it isn’t marketed in a way that young people can relate to. It’s basically pompous people trying to enforce their own ideals onto the future generations for their own personal gain. News is never impartial.” It is difficult to argue with such a stance, particularly as most of the British press is owned by media moguls and corporations. The crux of the problem is clearly that the majority of the media is more interested in influencing people than informing and educating them. This is why it is so important that

enterprises such as the Burnet News Club are available to young people: to encourage them to not only engage with current affairs, but to challenge and form opinions on them. “It’s an interesting creative challenge to put together content that presents complex issues in an accessible and inspiring way for beginners without dumbing things down. That’s part of what we do [here] and we’re always excited when we come across other people or organisations doing the same.” As Generations Y and Z will one day be in charge of looking after the elderly Generation X and the youth of tomorrow, it is not merely important, but necessary, that they are well enough informed and educated on the issues surrounding them now to make better choices in the future. For, as the Spanish philosopher, George Santayana,(1863-1952) once so eloquently said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.

Chelsea Nanny September

merican Mom arrives back in Chelsea with the Brats two days before the new school term begins. They stayed with friends in Dorset while Notting Hill Carnival was on. American Mom hates it despite not living in Notting Hill and having never been. She was especially keen to remove the Brats from the Greater London area this year as the Eldest watched some videos of last year’s Carnival on Youtube. Seeing a policeman get twerked on by a bejewelled parade member piqued a hitherto unexpressed interest in attending. ‘What’s twerking?’ asks the Small One. Nobody answers him. The family re-enter Central London after every speck of glitter and piece of plumage has been safely swept from the streets. Unfortunately for me, this means having only one day in which to take the Brats to buy three new pairs of school shoes, trainers and other endless items of unnecessary uniform, as well as pencil cases, of course. I pretend the visit to

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Adult learning in the heart of Westminster the stationery shop is a chore but am relieved that at least one element of the school days I remember with nostalgia remains unchanged. The initial excitement of being back at school quickly wears off. ‘Wasn’t it nice to catch up with all your friends?’ I ask the Brats while they scoff kale and quinoa salad with impressive enthusiasm (American Mom’s supper instructions). ‘Catch up?’ the Eldest looks puzzled. ‘You know - hear all their news?’ His phone dings and he snatches it up. It dawns on me that there wouldn’t have been anything for him to catch up on – being as he is in constant communication. A day of lessons with no access to his phone was probably the longest period of time he hadn’t been in some sort of virtual conversation with his peers for the last two months. ‘Arabella went to Papua New Guinea,’ says the Middle One. ‘She couldn’t FaceTime or anything.’ Her eyes are wide. I don’t know whether it’s wonder or horror. The prospect of having to look after all of her children simultaneously for an entire Saturday is, understandably, overwhelming for American Mom. The Small One has somehow discovered that a festival is taking place on the Thames and his current best friend Aeneas lives on a houseboat on Chelsea Embankment. American Mom has a lie-in while I take the Brats to watch a regatta from Aeneas’ deck. I’m expecting a quaint little barge. Instead we are ushered down a gangplank onto a vessel that resembles a cruise ship. Aeneas’ father loudly informs me that he owns the four neighbouring boats. ‘Mummy says only hippies live on the river,’ says the Middle One with genuine innocence. ‘Not any more, thank God!’ comes the reply. I spend the rest of the afternoon waiting for him to stand close enough to the edge so that I can accidentally trip and knock him in. It’s a long afternoon on the water.

New c shor reative a t cou r rses ts for 2016 ! WAES is Westminster’s adult college, offering full-time and part-time study in the daytime, evenings and at weekends. We offer a wide range of qualifications and short courses specifically for adult learners wanting to study in a friendly and supportive environment. Visit www.waes.ac.uk, call 020 7297 7297 or drop in to a WAES centre to enrol this September. We’re enrolling Monday to Thursday 10am - 7pm, Fridays and Saturdays 10am - 4pm at our Lisson Grove Centre, 219 Lisson Grove NW8 8LW, and at our Pimlico Centre, Lupus Street SW1V 3AT. Accounting - Apprenticeships - Business - Ceramics - Childcare - Cookery English - ESOL Fashion - Fine art - Floristry - Glass-making - Graphic design Hairdressing - Health and social care - ICT - Make-up - Maths - Photography

Visit us during open enrolment, 1st –15th and Saturday 17th September! KCWSep16.indd 1

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September April/May 2016 2011

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GEMS Hampshire School is the perfect ‘nest’ for excellence By Ione Bingley

alking into, what used to be, a large public library off the King’s Road, Chelsea, I am met by a tall man with a thatch of wavy black hair and kind eyes. He ushers me into his office with a soft, cooing Irish lilt and settles me in an armchair opposite his desk. Term starts next week and things must be racing behind the scenes, but Donal Brennan’s calm countenance remains untroubled. He tells me about his bucolic upbringing in County Kerry, Ireland, as one of six brothers and a sister growing up on his father’s farm. It seems far removed from where he sits now as headmaster of The Hampshire School with the swoosh of traffic passing by on a wet King’s Road outside. The school was originally founded in 1944 by a dance teacher called Mrs June Hampshire for her daughter, the acclaimed British actress Susan Hampshire who was dyslexic and told she would never read, the message remains the same to this day; work hard

Education and you will achieve so much. Selected as Headmaster two and a half years ago, a true believer in hard work and a keen Irish dancer, Brennan was the perfect choice. He reflects on the grind that his father went through to raise him and his brothers, tears come to his eyes and the strength of his conviction is immediately apparent. “I always find it so moving because in my childhood, my father, he worked so hard which ensured that all seven of us living on this tiny farm could go to university and do what we do today.” He is an ardent supporter of the ‘can do’ attitude and he really believes that the children of The Hampshire School ‘will do’ if they are supported, encouraged to speak out and perform, to consider and to take into account others’ ideas. Brennan believes that children should be provided with the opportunity to find and develop their talents. By removing the gender bias from activities, he has seen increasing numbers of girls enjoying football and boys receiving distinctions in their ballet exams. “There isn’t any gender bias towards what you do it’s all about what do you want to do,” he says. At The Hampshire School, academia, creativity and sports are equally respected. By exploring all the possibilities, the children are able to figure out who they are and who they want to be and, through doing so, parents can then choose the right secondary school for them, based not only on academia, but on creativity and sports as well. “Having guided children into

schools for over 25 years, I know it’s so important to get it right. It’s not just the grades, you got to feel that as a teenager in these schools what you feel is right in life clicks with the other people in the school,” explains Brennan. The original library with its dark wood, marble columns and stacks of books remains at the centre of the school as a constant reminder of the history and origins of learning. Brennan believes that with the old library comes a responsibility and he works to open it up to children from the neighbourhood with concepts such as Chelsea Young Writers where, two evenings a week, a creative writing class, open to children from the school and the neighbourhood, is taught by established authors.

While Brennan is liberal-minded and forward thinking in his schooling policies, like the library he is a grounding force at the centre of the school. Complete with state-of-theart interactive whiteboards and ipad teaching aids, he recognises that some children work better from books and on paper and others from screens, “it’s different platforms for different children”, “Technology is a wonderful tool,” but all children are taught first “how you sit, how you write, how you hold a pencil”. As an English teacher, Brennan believes in the critical importance of the unchanging foundations of language, “it’s about what you write”. “I say that you can only fly high if you’ve had a really, really good nest at the beginning. If the nest is well built, you have been provided with nourishing food and you grow, then you are going to learn to fly, but someone’s got to be there to hold you, ” says Brennan. “We must provide a path along which our children can learn to travel on their own.” “Sorry have I been waffling?” says Brennan as we prepared to part ways. I assure him he absolutely has not, but what he has managed to do is convince me to work hard enough to send my children to The Hampshire School.

“people love things engineers build, like cars, television and computers, but controversial things like nuclear bombs and nuclear stations, those are built by physicists.” “Of course... the physical laws that govern all those were discovered by Physicists.” The computer is the Physicist’s most

powerful tool. The Internet was pioneered at the European Center for Nuclear Research: CERN. Physicists can code for fun as much as for work. Every single one of the top 10 supercomputers (room filled with computers working in parallel) in the world is being used right now in part or totally in Physics research. When you tap into its flexibility, a Physics degree can be full of surprises. You could work with the community representing a tech giant like Google, or even do your master's thesis on a CERN project. As they say, anything is science as long as you take notes. Marvel comics’ Tony Stark, the Iron

Man, studied Physics at MIT. Dr Ted Slaght, his physics professor, is hard to forget and really helped Tony during some hard times in his life. It still is one of the most intelligently written story arcs of the armoured avenger. Even if you don’t know what you want to do right now, a science degree can give you just the flexibility you need. Look at me, I’m writing this article for you right now! Still, Feynman said: “Tell your child to stop trying to fill your head with science; for to fill your heart with love is enough!” Think about it. Or rather, don’t! Feeling a burning passion to study something is definitely a qualifying trait of a great scientist. Useful information: The UK has a deep shortage of programmers and engineers. The government keeps an online list, which you can view at www.goo.gl/Ej4eRx. Other useful sites: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careersadvice/what-can-i-do-with-my-degree/ physics http://www.iop.org/careers/i-am-atschool-college/ https://www.ted.com/talks/murray_gell_ mann_on_beauty_and_truth_in_physics

Prospects for school students

thinking of going into Science By Natanael Mora If you are back at college, you might wonder about what to do next. The A-level system works as a guide to decide on a University degree. That can be of little comfort though. It may take a long time to realise what you really want to do. Working in Physics gives you the chance to solve unique issues. Energy, time and space. That is all you need to describe an atom, your breathing, or the color of the sky. It is beautiful, simple, powerful. This bottom-up approach is why Physics has no clear limits, or depth. Every day you confront different choices; whether to work withwith neurosurgeons, economists, audio engineers, roboticists, florists... Ever since we gazed at our first star, humans and Physics have struggled and grown. Quoting my old university professor,

Photographs © GEMS

Education

September 2016

Telling Tales

Preview 13 October, 6-8pm Exhibition 14 October- 15 Feb 2018 Collyer Bristow Gallery, 4 Bedford Row, London WC1R 4TF www.collyerbristow.com

Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

online: www.KCWToday.co.uk Stella Kajombo’s work is a performance piece (photographically documented by fellow student Srirat Jongsanguandi) in which she traces the stories of skin; touching upon historical links to slavery and caste systems as well as African ritual and history, classical and contemporary notions of beauty and the heritage of African music in 21st century culture. The performance documents her painting her skin white and then back to black as she reinvents and re-presents herself, depicting a powerful sense of celebration and empowerment drawn from her own evolving story of skin and identity. Stella Kajombo (b.1996, Malawi) recently graduated from the Foundation Course at Kensington and Chelsea College where she won the Peter Stanley Prize and was selected for ‘Origins’ (at the Menier Gallery); a UAL exhibition that showcases students from foundation courses from across the country. Kajombo is about to start her first year of a BA (Hons) in Fine Art at the Arts University Bournemouth.

Whitgift. One of Britain’s finest independent day and boarding schools for boys aged 10-18

Exhibition details:

Stella Kajombo

Kensington and Chelsea College are delighted that recent graduate Stella Kajombo (of the Level 4 Foundation course) has had her graduation exhibition spotted by Contemporary Art Curator Rosalind Davis. On the strength of this work Davis has invited Kajombo to exhibit in a dynamic exhibition in a Central London Gallery; Collyer Bristow in Holborn. The exhibition ‘Telling Tales’ opening in October 2016 includes major established artistsGraham Crowley, Richard Galpin, Emma Talbot and Gordon Cheung. Telling Tales shows the work of a spectrum of contemporary artists from the ages of 19-84 years old. An even greater compliment is that amongst this stellar company of established artists Davis has chosen Stella’s work as the main press image for the exhibition (see above). KCC Foundation Course Director Justin Hibbs says “this is a huge achievement for any student at this level and we are very proud of Stella who has created a stunning and richly layered body of work. This also reflects the great standard of teaching and level of student achievement at KCC on the foundation course.”

Telling Tales Preview 13 October, 6-8pm Exhibition 14 October- 15 Feb 2018 Collyer Bristow Gallery, 4 Bedford Row, London WC1R 4TF www.collyerbristow.com. Twitter: @CBGallery1 Instagram: @collyer_bristow_ gallery #tellingtales

‘Second Skin’ by Stella Kajombo, photo credit Srirat Jongsanguandi. 2016

Artists:

Sue Williams ACourt, Iain Andrews, Helen Bermingham, Su Blackwell, Gordon Cheung, Ami Clarke, Graham Crowley, Ben Coode-Adams, Peter Davis, Adam Dix, Annabel Dover, Tom Down, Richard Galpin John Greenwood, Monica Ursina Jager, Evy Jokhova, Stella Kajombo, Sandra Lane, Simon LeahyClark, EJ Major, Eleanor Moreton, Tim Shepard, Lex Thomas and Emma Talbot ‘now here was I, new-awakened, with my hand stretching out and touching the unknown, the real unknown, the unknown unknown.’ DH Lawrence. Telling Tales is an exhibition rooted in fiction, where worlds, truths and realities are created, dismantled and questioned. Examining ideas of belief, the nature of reality and the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of our existence. The exhibition traces the fragile lines between utopian fantasy and its dissolution into dystopian realities. The artists here are testing alternate narratives and blueprints, examining life stories and unravelling (other)worldly designs…. http://www.collyerbristow.com/artgallery/

‘Superb cosmopolitan boys school, with outstanding facilities and a strong academic reputation – an example of what education is really about’ Good Schools Guide

OPEN MORNING | SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2016 OPEN EVENING | TUESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2016 SIXTH FORM/SECTION FRANÇAISE/ RUTA HISPANA | WEDNESDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2016 BOARDING | BY APPOINTMENT admissions@whitgift.co.uk +44 (0)20 8633 9935 www.whitgift.co.uk/opendays Haling Park, South Croydon, CR2 6YT, United Kingdom

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Poetry

Continuing KCWToday’s Fleet Street theme

this month, Max Feldman gets the scoop on Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop

ut of all of Evelyn Waugh’s novels Scoop feels like it should have dated the most. Considering that it’s primarily concerned with colonial imperialism and the machinations of the Fleet street of old, both of which have long-since been discarded onto the scrap heap of history. However there’s something about Waugh’s “novel about journalists” that remains evergreen; even as the world of blogging has rendered the ink stained world of the jobbing hacks who populate the novel as remote as the colonial era itself. The correspondents’ merciless pursuit of good copy, totally untroubled by piffling notions like ethical conduct (or indeed whether said copy is even true), in the shadow of an all-powerful, fickle and petty media magnate feels possibly even more relevant in the post News of the World world.

Scoop concerns itself with a classic comedy of errors, when war breaks out in the fictional East African republic of Ishmaelia, the redoubtable Fleet Street institution The Daily Beast (no prizes for guessing the inspiration) sends the deeply fashionable travel writer John Courtney Boot to serve as a war correspondent. Or at least that was the idea, but human error, plus the fact that questioning the orders The Beast’s editor Lord Copper would be akin to loudly picking holes in Torquemada’s theology whilst surrounded by unsympathetic inquisitors clutching knives, leads the paper to accidentally send William Boot, the paper’s nature writer instead. Sheltered and uninterested in the

world beyond “the questing vole”, Boot is forced to Ishmaelia via the kind of bureaucracy that Kafka would click his tongue at. On arriving in the miserable, rain soaked nation he discovers a political situation so complex that even the principal movers and shakers have absolutely no idea what’s going on. This isn’t exactly an issue for the journalistic corps who stalk the sodden hotels like a pack of hyenas. Their only concern is wrenching any fact into a unique ‘scoop’ they can use to get a leg up on their fellows. Information is chewed up and wrangled with no regard for what the actual truth of the matter might be. Boot’s successes come exclusively from his total lack of interest and the Ian McEwan’s currently unreleased new novel Nutshell is already causing a stir, based on the fact that its narrator is a baby, still killing time in the amniotic halfway house of the womb. Nutshell’s conceit is that said unborn baby is able to overhear its mother and her lover plotting the death of his father and embarks on a gonzo quest to save (or at least avenge) him, all the while trapped inside one of the erstwhile conspirator’s body. Whilst this buzz is certainly understandable (it’s certainly a more interesting approach than your average crime procedural) and KCWToday has assembled a list of some of the more outré narrators in literary history.

Perspective Shift By Max Feldman

Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis: Less of a novel than a whirring literary vortex, Time’s Arrow puts you inside the mind of a secondary personality watching a man’s life play out in reverse whilst trapped inside his head. That might make it sound like the kind of impenetrable nightmares that only stoned English students would dare to approach, but Amis instead succeeds in creating a highly readable and funny narrative that first satirises the banalities of life via this strange prism before, unexpectedly and shatteringly, casting an unflinching eye on one of the greatest crimes in human history.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak:

war’s intricacies seem to owe more to Lord Copper’s assessment of it as “a promising little war” than anything else. Journalism may have left Fleet Street, but the grubby spirit of endlessly chasing profitable shadows whilst never looking at what they stem from seems truly alive and well. Reality itself is wont to bend before the will of the press does, as Scoop illustrates with an anecdote about Jakes, one of the top war correspondents: “Why, once Jakes went out to cover a revolution in one of the Balkan capitals. He overslept in his carriage, woke up at the wrong station, didn’t know any different, got out, went straight to a hotel, and cabled off a thousand-word story about barricades in the streets, flaming churches, machine guns answering the rattle of his typewriter as he wrote. Well they were pretty surprised at his office, getting a story like that from the wrong country, but they trusted Jakes and splashed it in six national newspapers. That day every special in Europe got orders to rush to the new revolution. Everything seemed quiet enough, but it was as much their jobs were worth to say so, with Jakes filing a thousand words of blood and thunder a day. So they chimed in too. Government stocks dropped, financial panic, state of emergency declared, army mobilized, famine, mutiny; and in less than a week there was an honest to god revolution under way, just as Jakes had said. There’s the power of the press for you.”

Photograph © Pettnam

Literature

September 2016

Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

online: www.KCWToday.co.uk

HEN EMBARKING on a career in poetry the search to discover one’s unique voice is a long and gruelling journey. It takes a certain kind of temperament to endure the knocks and rejections. However, the end result, as in any profession, is immensely satisfying. In some cases there are moments of self-doubt and having to deal with the uncertainty of one’s own thoughts. On the other hand, moments when the hungry young ego trusts itself all too well, only to discover the cruel reality that absolute beliefs are just imaginings of the mind; illusions. What is refreshing about many young writers is the willingness to put themselves in critical harms way for the greater end; to learn, to grow and to evolve into enquiring wordsmiths, seeking truth through language and experience. Harry Cluff is no stranger to uncertainty or the labour that goes into writing a good piece. “When one has something to say it’s wonderfully easy.” He claims “the hard part comes when one has to refine the original thought into something comprehensible.” Cluff ’s hard efforts have paid off and we are delighted to include two extracts from his latest collection of poems A Book of Pagan Hymns Vol II in this month’s poetry page. On leaving school Cluff took up Philosophy but soon came to the conclusion that this discipline was a cold and measured alternative to Poetry. In writing poetry there is room to explore abstract concepts and ideas, while the study of Philosophy seemed, in his opinion, less giving in this respect. Yet, despite choosing poetry as his preferred medium, Cluff also asserts that “all poets secretly want to be philosophers or composers, poetry is the medium the dispossessed settle on.’ Descent is a dense poem about the loss of innocence and corrosive nature of time. The opening line “The seraph man came not to question” gives birth to the notion man’s natural state is pure and unfettered. The poem however proposes that as man begins ‘questioning’, greed and ambition lurk close behind to undo the pure of heart.

There are many allusions to the night in classical poetry and in To A Mere Acquaintance Cluff draws on this poetic tradition to court “the possibility of two people meeting who share a singular imagination from which a romantic relationship can spring.” Influenced in part by Wallace Stevens, T.S. Eliot and William Shakespeare, he employs images of the moon and nocturnal happenings to explore ideas of the imagination unifying two hearts and minds. There is a serenity and grace within To A Mere Acquaintance and it is a testimony to Cluff ’s relationship to a wider literary tradition and ability to experiment with a variety of literary tropes. A Book of Pagan Hymns Vol 1 is available at The Society Club, Shoreditch, and Cluff ’s latest volume A Book of Pagan Hymns Vol 11 will be out Mid-September.

Whilst death may or may not be the end, it’s rare that we are given a chance to look through its eyes (Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series notwithstanding), Markus Zusak gives us a glimpse through the eye sockets of a heartrendingly human reaper as it tries to make sense of the rare glimpses of humanity to be found in the Second World War through deeply inhuman eyes. The idea could have been gimmicky or even offensive in the hands of a lesser writer but Zusak creates a work that is both deeply personal and wide-ranging cradled by the cold hands of death.

To A Mere Acquaintance

Filth by Irvine Welsh:

Rather appropriately, the narrator of Filth, Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson is not a very nice man. A corrupt, drug and alcohol addict who doesn’t so much ‘investigate’ as ‘rampage’, we’re given an insight into the past events that made him the monster he is, via the (literally) interior monologue of a tapeworm in his gut. About a quarter of the way through the narrative strange worm like bubbles begin appearing over the text itself filled with words like “EAT”. Steadily these sections become longer and longer, overwhelming whole pages of narrative and as the tapeworm grows its dialogue becomes more sophisticated as it puzzles over the nature of its own existence alongside the sad history of its host.

Descent

With drowsy wonder he came To view the mighty moons midnight Coronation and laud lasciviously The blue-black circumference in Which all dreams revolve.

The seraph man came not to question, To note the many shades of sun; To score the salt of lifeless ponds Or verify the meagre-mad suspicions Broad enough to build a second world

Before descent, the starry train, When done with planetary stops, Never burnt his eye or curled His tongue, to say: this overhanging Firmament is too much To wear upon a Persian rug.

Nor did he come to conquer, To lend the shore a crimson tinge, To raise pugnacious pyramids Or stand supreme in state and stature; God’s anointed Rex Imperator

The transformation eldritch Accounts for no single day But by degrees ever creeps Towards devastation’s mark. The shrinking confines of

A prospering soul ceases To conduct ancient elements, But rather figures a claustrophobic Cage causing brash denouncements Of Father Time’s atonal composition And Mother Nature’s needless narrative. Though gold in matter, bronze in Form, though silver in substance The look of lead leads the eye to Cast this sad assemblage as nothing Exceeding a phantasm of its former self. The willow still remains a blessed Sanctuary, The sea a soothing nurse, The wind a necessary sonata, Resurrecting the first image On which a private myth was born.

There is a you, a you beyond the you of day; By necessity tempered by nightfall And the call of owls to reflect upon The untreated course of scattered hours. Does she like those poets who now Explore the extent of sky and sea, Mend the broken formation of stars To forge a fiery phalanx or bid the billows Still to stroll towards where salt and water Signify Luna? I ask with hope that we might meet, As the Syrian sun sets, by the balustrade Of a marble terrace overlooking The grand domain of Frankish Palestine. The line of holy men practicing their Faith may mellow the rage of blood We share for paladins pursuing A silk train over the desert dunes. I would not let you sing alone, When the weary sentry Keeping god’s peace Smiles quietly at whatever Series of gold flashes above. If the water gardens of Cordoba Reflect dead moons in your eye I will glide towards the same bath House expecting the fat faced Proprietor to accommodate us both. Compiled & edited by Emma Trehane MA, PhD.

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Dining Out

Discover unusual oyster pairings from Outlaw’s at the Capital

Feeling good!

Cottons Caribbean Restaurant and Salon de Rhum By Cynthia Pickard

his September the Michelin starred seafood restaurant at The Capital Hotel, Knightsbridge is launching a new monthly oyster masterclass with Head Chef, and resident oyster expert, Tom Brown. Held on the second Wednesday of each month and limited to 12 persons, this promises to be a unique and fun way to learn more about these native delicacies for both the oyster novice and connoisseur. Five different oysters will be served with drinks paired by Outlaw’s sommelier Damon Little, while chef Tom explains the different varieties and cooking methods. Oysters and Champagne may be the traditional pairing but how does a Cider Pickled Maldon Oyster served with Shallot, Caper and Apple Relish paired with an Urban Orchard Medium Dry Cider sound? Or a Grilled Dorset Oyster served with a Smoked Hollandaise, paired with a Smoked Vodka Cocktail? Before taking over as Head Chef at Outlaw’s at The Capital in January 2016, Tom Brown worked with Nathan Outlaw at Outlaw’s at the St Enodoc Hotel in Rock, Cornwall as Head Chef. Prior to this, he worked at other prestigious restaurants in Cornwall, including Rick Stein’s Seafood Bar in Falmouth, and the St Kew Inn near Bodmin. He is looking forward to teaching The Capital’s guests all there is to know about oysters: “Oysters are such a versatile product, I’m really looking forward to showing them off and teaching our guests how well they go with different, and unusual drinks, as well as the traditional Champagne”. Priced at £60 per person and places can be booked by calling 020 7591 1202. Outlaw’s at The Capital, which opened in October 2012, is Nathan Outlaw’s only restaurant outside Cornwall, and was awarded its first Michelin star in 2013. In 2015 The Capital won the award of ‘Best Culinary Hotel in The World’ at the World Boutique Hotel Awards. It boasts an ever changing array of unique dishes created using the freshest and best seafood from fishermen in Cornwall and the West Country. The ingredients take centre stage and menus showcase an array of original and creative seafood dishes. Opened 45 years ago by David Levin, The Capital is still family run to this day with his daughter Kate as General Manager. As well as the restaurant and hotel, which offers 49 individually decorated bedrooms with an emphasis on classic English design, The Capital Bar is well regarded for its extensive whisky collection.

C Seafood chef Nathan Outlaw’s only London restaurant in the heart of Knightsbridge.

ottons’ intention is to keep everyone happy, and they are set up to succeed in many different ways, 300 different rums, some very rare, are on offer for a start. My happiness is initially fulfilled by the Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri which starts off both by looking beautiful and tasting perfect. Compared with some other precious cocktails that one can be served around town, (one gulp and they’ve evaporated), this one is generous in quantity, no shortchanging of the alcoholic content and hasn’t been swamped by sugary syrup. The Mai Tai is a winner too, it feels like drinking alcoholic marmalade! The staff are attentive and friendly, happy to explain the culinary terms on the menu or stop for a chat. The menu does offer as sharing plates the wellknown West Indian favourites such as Jerk Chicken, Callaloo or Ackee and Saltfish, but this recently opened branch of Cottons is being promoted as ‘the couture sister’ of the existing 30-yearold Camden branch and the street food version in Boxpark Shoreditch.

September 2016

Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

online: www.KCWToday.co.uk We therefore decide to select from the wide choice on the exciting upmarket menu. My companion starts with the Scallop Ceviche with green mango, scotch bonnet and tiger’s milk, fresh, spicy, sweet and prettily decorated. A word about scotch bonnet, this is the hottest of the peppers and extreme caution is advised. I go for the Mezze Platter, two plump Creole shrimps accompanied by perfect teeny weeny tastes of Accra, Aubergine Choka and Pholourie. I am still not certain which is which, however fresh coconut and flavour bursts result. My main is the Spiced Coconut Bouillabaisse with perfect pieces of red mullet, baby squid and clams. I go easy on the scotch bonnet rouille to suit my taste. I’m afraid the Guyanese 48 hour slow cooked Beef Pepper Pot proves a pepper pot too hot and tough for my friend, even with a side dish of rice and peas to quench it. We take a couple of orders of cooling smoked beetroot and fried plantain, the latter not quite as sweet as expected. The décor is eager to please, too, with a schizophrenic mix of typical bold tropical murals contrasting with the refined antique bird prints and the vintage chandelier hanging over the dining area. I quizzed some other diners on their chosen dishes; ‘best Jerk Chicken I’ve ever tasted’ and ‘the fish soup I could have gone on eating all night’. As for us, on to the desserts, a pastel pink strawberry mousse with sorrel gel and basil curd, and iced peanut butter parfait with coconut marshmallow, more happiness all round. This is the place to come for a sophisticated take on Caribbean food, with the promise of many other tempting dishes to try next time. Weekend brunches, afternoon teas and private dining are available too. Cottons Caribbean Restaurant and Salon de Rhum 157-159 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 Monday to Friday 12-11pm Weekends 10am -11pm www.cottons-restaurant.co.uk

Captivating scents: fresh floral fœtid

Michelin starred seafood, delivered daily from Cornwall. Caught by fishermen the team know well.

Events & Tours • Award-winning Café • Shop

at London’s Secret Garden Visit our scented outdoor exhibition and workshops. Pick up the scent trail which will lead you around the scented displays in the Garden. Discover displays showcasing the plants used in aromatherapy and perfumery. If you’re feeling brave visit the Abhorrent Arbour which features some of the worlds stinkiest plants!

Set lunch menu 2/3 courses £24/£29 BYO Thursdays A la carte menu £45/£55/£75 Whisky & cheese pairing classes 2 private dining rooms

66 Royal Hospital Road, London SW3 4HS

Lunch 12:00-2:30 Dinner 6:30-10:00pm. Closed on Sundays

22-24 Basil Street Knightsbridge, SW3 1AT

020 7591 1202 capitalhotel.co.uk

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Photograph © Cottons

September April/May 2016 2011

Photograph © Cynthia Pickard

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In conversation with Lucy Choi By Bianca Barratt

or women’s shoe designer, Lucy Choi, the notion of a “collection” has a very different meaning. Walking around her new Spring/ Summer ’16 line, it is clear to see that eclecticism is the dominant force behind her work. There is such a mixture of colours, textures and designs that it’s hard to imagine what the anchor holding it all together is. “It’s about [being] playful. It’s about fun. I feel that for the past few seasons people have been very safe: there are a lot of beige and black colours and for me, as a consumer [as well as a designer] I wanted something fun and vibrant”. ‘Fun’ is a word that definitely springs to mind when in the presence of Lucy’s designs. Every shoe has its own personality: a combination of colours and designs that can’t help but catch the eye. Synonymous with the style is the brand’s theme, ‘Rock and Royal’: a mixture of Kate Moss and Kate Middleton’s styles. This mixture of demure and edgy can be seen in every pair. In fact, the style that Lucy is wearing is beige and black (rather royal) but also covered with studs (rather

rock). As the niece of shoe designing legend, Jimmy Choo, the obvious conclusion would be that Lucy is working for his brand. Indeed, her sister is now the executive designer at the label and clearly the creation of footwear is something that runs in the family. ‘Uncle Jimmy taught me so much in terms of the design part. If you’re selling shoes to your customers they must be comfortable and not cheaply made. He taught me that whatever you promise you must deliver.’ This craftsmanship is the driving force behind Lucy’s designs. The materials are selected carefully from sources in Asia and Europe and range from buttery leather to plush suede and delicate lace. The development is rigorous: ideas are conceptualised, materials are chosen and shoe heights are carefully thought out. Despite the

The Ultimate Guide to London Fashion Week

Essential Information

• London Fashion Week (LFW) runs from 16th-20th September. • Venues include Soho’s Brewer Street Car Park, the Freemasons’ Hall and the Topshop Show Space at Old Spitalfields Market. Hover nearby to spot fashion royalty. • Many shows are streamed live online at www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/live.aspx.

September or Spring? The LFW Schedule Shift Explained

Designers have long shown their readyto-wear collections a season ahead, so

collection being vast (around 60 pairs of shoes in total) the whole process is completed from start to finish in 7 days. I only have 7 days so I have to stay focused. Each shoe is tried and tested and sometimes it can take up to 10 different fittings to make sure that they are comfortable and that they fit perfectly. I try on every pair and will actually wear them out as well to see if people get the fever and say, ‘oh I like those’.’ Once Lucy has designed each shoe, she likes to give it a name. “It’s like naming a baby” she laughs. “I look at the shoe and then give it a name”. These monikers are easily recognisable; often paying homage to celebrities or high profile people, as well as iconic streets of London. Think navy glitter and black patent leather stilettos for ‘Bowie’, or mustard snakeskin flats for ‘Twiggy’”. Between running the business, designing the collection and naming each shoe, it’s hard to believe that Lucy is able to balance that whilst also being the mother to two young boys. “It’s a struggle’ seems something of an understatement, but Lucy elaborates more: “Every minute you have to be on it. My grandmother had 8 children and had her own businesses, and in those days you had to wash your own nappies! But I think nowadays people expect too much and everything has to be perfect, so it’s

Where to Be Seen During LFW

By Polly Allen

London Fashion Week will set the capital alight again this month. Here’s what the fuss is about.

Gentlemans’ Fashion

J. JS Lee A/W 2016. © London Fashion Weekend

buyers and press can prepare; clothing displayed in September would be in stores by spring and summer. However, the immediacy of social media caused panic about customers’ attention spans. Burberry caused controversy in February when its Bloomsbury Set-inspired collection was available straight after the show. Some items can be purchased off the catwalk at Makers House, 1 Manette Street, Soho, on 19th September. Visit Makers House from 21st-27th September to see artisans drawing inspiration from the new collection. Owing to this shake-up, LFW Spring/ Summer 2017 is now called September 2016, despite most brands designing for next year, not this month. It remains to be seen how many designers will follow Burberry's lead in the seasons to come.

• The May Fair Bar, a favourite of fashion industry insiders, serves up a range of LFW cocktails. • The Berkeley toasts the 10th anniversary of its fashion-themed Prêt a Porter afternoon tea

with a celebratory book. • Carnaby Street has glasses workshops at Cubitts (17th September, book via events@cubitts.co.uk) and a DJ set and drinks at Paul Smith (12pm-3pm, 17th September). Watch live streamed LFW shows by Peter Pilotto and Roksanda, plus enjoy 20% off at Office and Sweaty Betty (16th-20th September). • Regent Street has dubbed September Fashion and Design Month. The Royal Institute of British Architects will collaborate on window displays (until 25th September): look out for Kate Spade with Design Haus Liberty. The Do It All Denim event (24th September), brings designer-led customisation stations and consultations to Tommy Hilfiger, Guess and more. • The RR Gallery, at St. Peter’s Church,

hard.” “At weekends I turn off my phone and have time with the family. I try to meditate every day now to clear my mind, whether that’s walking to Waitrose to do the shopping for the kids, or just taking a minute to clear my mind and breathe.” It’s true; the expectation of oneself to ‘have it all’ and be the best at everything is a difficult pressure to ignore. But despite the juggling, Lucy Choi London is going from strength to strength: besides the flagship store on Connaught Street, the shoes are stocked in Harvey Nicholls, Fenwick and Matches Fashion, to name a few. Before the end of our conversation, I was curious to know one more thing. I wanted to know, if she had to pick just one, which pair of shoes would Lucy choose? “Definitely Dormer” Lucy answers straight away, and I have to agree: the black and white striped court shoes with the floral toe have a part of the collection since the company’s infancy, catching my eye as soon as I saw them. They are the perfect embodiment of the Lucy Choi brand. Rock, with a little bit of royal thrown in. Lucy Choi London’s Autumn/ Winter 2016 collection. www.shoplucychoilondon.com Kensington Park Road, previews De Masi London’s new collection (16th20th September), alongside fashion exhibits.

Dress Like a LFW Attendee

• Powerful fashion editors favour minimalist looks, mixing designer with navy or black staples from COS, Whistles and Zara. • Trends to embrace include velvet, puffed sleeves, militaria and leopard print. • Reference Gucci’s Autumn/Winter 2016 collection with eyewear from Opera Opera (20 Percy Street). • Try Dior’s embellished calfskin slippers, or a masculine loafer in autumnal colours (burgundy, burnt orange or gold). Accessorise with a Sophie Hulme bag.

London Fashion Weekend

The Saatchi Gallery hosts the public London Fashion Weekend from 22nd25th September (tickets from £20: visit www.londonfashionweekend.co.uk). • Spot the signature canvas totes, featuring a tropical print by shoe designer Sophia Webster. • New to the catwalk this season is J. JS Lee. • Premium Luxury tickets, £200, offer front row catwalk seats, Luxe Lounge access, a designer interview, and a drinks reception with British Fashion Council CEO Caroline Rush.

Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

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Dandy About Town

Photograph © Lucy Choi

Fashion & Lifestyle

September 2016

Illustration © John Springs

Dandy at the Wheel By John Springs

n American tourist writes about his experiences of driving around London; “ …the drive to Hampton Court Palace, about twelve or fifteen miles from the city….the streets were packed with traffic…..huge buses tearing towards us….cyclists…when we finally got back to the hotel, covering less than twenty five miles had taken us over four and a half hours, and the nervous strain….”; he goes on bemoaning the presence of police speed traps, erratic drivers, tailbacks and vows to avoid driving in London ever again. Not much of an account, by any means, but interesting in that Thomas Murphy wrote it in 1909 in the opening paragraphs of his British Highways and Byways From A Motor-Car. After a slightly disheartening beginning in the Capitol, and armed with a letter of introduction from the American Motor Association to be presented to the Secretary of the Motor Union of Great Britain and Ireland, no doubt over a pink gin in the Smoking Room, things soon improve as he sets off by motor car across the country, much the most sensible choice over “…unreliable and expensive railway trains where he often finds himself crowded into a small compartment with people….he has nothing in common…”, but still, a rather reluctant petrolhead he seems to be as he charges about crashing the non-synchromesh cogs and heaving a barrel-sized wooden steering wheel, covering, he claims, sixty miles in just over three hours nipping from church to Cathedral in soft innocence.What make of car, horsepower, overall performance, seconds from nought to sixty etc. he doesn’t say; it’s just a vehicle for a nosy antiquarian to get about in to champion all things quaint and write a very dull book. As loud controlled explosive devices clattered about the countryside, it had already attracted the scorn of the environmentalists and it was common for the local villagers to hold their noses and waft a hand theatrically at the fumes as a motor machine trundled by, but in fact, especially in the cities, the motor car did much to clean the air. In the late 19th Century, New York’s Sanitation Department scooped up over 15,000 dead horses a year as well as 1,300,000 pounds of manure every day. In London the “anticipatory stench” around cab stands, mud, manure, flies and maggots brought disease, dread and a orangey tincture to

ceilings of drawing rooms; leather shoes were eaten away by the acid in the rivers of horse pee; an office worker would need to carry at least two spare detachable collars if he headed into town. The first integrated motor houses, or ‘garages’ were built attached to villas in Moseley, outside Birmingham in about 1905 and the surviving examples are big enough for a Chelsea Tractor, it takes one boom period to accommodate another. Austerity built 50s and 60s garages are coyly scaled down to nestle an Austin A4 quite comfortably, thank you, usually in pretty breeze blocks. There was a wonderful old New Yorker cartoon that shows a punter trying out a convertible in a car showroom, the salesman adjusting the full length mirrors so that he can admire himself from all angles. This was from the late fifties; a car had to be admired as a thing of beauty and resource. The Cadillac Brougham of the period came with steel magnetic cocktail beakers and an entire beauty kit including eau de cologne and lipstick. How many modern vehicles today have a parquet floor, which I remember well in a Rolls Royce Silver Wraith in the 1960s? In fact, why are modern car designs so deliberately ugly? A car retailer friend of mine explained that there is a crafty business reason for this. Unlike years past, the choice of family vehicle is decided upon, more often than not, by the female of the household and sleek, beautiful Italian lines on a car is, for some reason, associated with unreliability. If it looks like a deformed tadpole on steroids, it HAS to be dependable. Perhaps,then, the perfect car for the Dandy

about Town would have to be the great re-born Morgan 3 Wheeler, not a mere convertible at all, it simply has nothing between you and the cumulus clouds, and only two seats to boot. There is nowhere as awful as sitting in the back of an open convertible. True to its original 1930s form, the bull-nose front tapering away to the beetle back, the styling is delightfully compact but impudent enough and sets an enticing challenge for a adventurous driver to take her on an intrepid expedition. It’s a grounded WW1 flyer, more of a Sopwith Camel than a Fokker Eindecker, and each is as unique as a Savile Row suit and gives as much pleasure. Naturally, another part of the fun is dressing accordingly. Greycar (www.greycar.com) provides the perfect linen flying helmet of the type worn by the great German dandy and Land Speed Record holder of the 1930s, Berndt Rosemeyer, and they can also provide you with linen overalls that typify the same period. On warm days Rosemeyer drove his powerful Auto Union streamliner, easily achieving 268 mph, in shorts, knee-length white socks and sandals, probably the only man who could make this combination look cool. Naturally, as these cars were complete death traps, rigid helmets and modern type safety garb were not even considered. They would have been useless in the event of a spill; a linen helmet keeps the wind off your face and keeps the hair looking less ridiculous and that’s about it. During the 1950s manufactured racing helmets hardly existed, so Grand Prix drivers went to Herbert Johnson, the St James hatters and were kitted out in what seemed like sturdy ‘skid lids’ but which

were actually modified polo helmets strengthened with a shellac and linen combination that dried hard and shiny. Scant protection but they looked damned pretty. For driving footwear Car Shoe of Milan (www.carshoe.com) have some lovely loafer styles; my favourite of all is the camouflage printed soft suede, but you can buy them in almost any colour very reasonably for about £280. Finally, get a pair of soft leather British driving gloves from William and Son, for around £105 (www.williamandson. com) and you’re ready to lift the safety catch from the ‘bomb release’ starter of the Morgan 3 Wheeler. A good place to start would be to mosey on down to London Morgan’s charming premises at 6 Astwood Mews in South Kensington. (www. londonmorgan.com). But not all British car manufactuers achieved lasting success with small and innovative designs. In the 1920s Armstrong-Siddeley motors came up with a tiny 9 horse power Stoneleigh utility car, with a centred driver’s seat like an armchair in the Athenaeum Club and a wrap-around rear shelf for two people. The catalogue stated, “In this way the driver’s attention will not be distracted by nervous or talkative passengers.” This was, of course, years ahead of the seating layout of the fabled McLaren F1 which happened to be exactly the same. Alas, it was perhaps too much ahead of its time, the car was a failure and J.D.Siddeley became known as the “Man who made walking a pleasure…”

September April/May 2016 2011

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Ends September 10, 13, 15, 16, 17 Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Sadler’s Wells Rosebery Avenue EC1R 4TN 020 7863 8000 September 16 Reunion Pleasance Theatre A celebration of Tribal, Fusion, Belly Dance featuring Masmoudi Dance Company, Nomad Dance Project, Firewater, Rachel Brice, Mardi Love and many others. North Road Islington N7 9EF 020 76091800 September 17 8.00pm September 18 1.00am Juke Joint ‘Jump’ Rivoli Ballroom Swing and old-fashioned rhythm and blues plus a beginner’s jive dance class at 8.30 to 9pm in this Grade II listed venue preserved with its chandeliers, plush velvet furnishings and original flock wall paper and music of the 1940s. The dancers are a mixture of young and old, black and white, Asian, Oriental, and it signals the return of partner dancing like tea dancing. 350 Brockley Road SE4 2BY 020 8692 5130 September 19 & 20 Vicki Igbokwe/ Uchenna Dance The Place Three witty, clever and fierce females take us through stories of heritage, friendship and womanship. The choreography blends various styles like House, Waacking, and Vogue fused with African and Contemporary. 17 Duke’s Road WC1H 9PY 020 7121 1100 September 19 & 20 L-E-V - OCD Love Sadler’s Wells A chance to discover the work of Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar, Israel’s stars, in this piece about love ‘through the lens of obsessive-compulsive disorder’. Rosebery Avenue EC1R 4TN 020 7863 8000 September 20-October 8 Cirque Eloize Peacock Theatre More circus than dance as the title indicates, the show blends daring acrobatic skills with breakdance making the evening alive with infectious energy. Portugal Street Holborn WC2A 2HT 020 7863 8222 September 24 Home Turf Sadler’s Wells A collaboration between West Ham United Foundation, Company of Elders and alumni of the National Youth Dance

Company with a team of international choreographers which produces a piece of dance theatre that explores the highs and lows of football and life itself.’ Rosebery Avenue EC1R 020 7863 8000

17 September – 16 October With Maddy Hill as Imogen Directed by Matthew Dunster

September 27 - October 1 Natalia Osipova Sadler’s Wells The famous ballerina returns by popular demand and she is joined by Sergei Polunin in a programme featuring new work, her own. Rosebery Avenue EC1R 020 7863 8000 September 27, 30 October 5, 6, 10, 13, 15, 18, 21, 22 La Fille Mal Gardée Royal Opera House Frederick Ashton’s popular pastoral comedy, designed by Osbert Lancaster, with music by Ferdinand Herold based on a 1789 ballet. Virtuoso classical dance with elements from British folk and music hall traditions with a comic clog dance, dancing chickens and a Maypole dance. Bow Street WC2E 9DD 020 7304 4004 September 28 - October 15 Fagin’s Twist: Avant Garde Dance Company The Place The ‘untold story of a notorious, complex and perhaps misunderstood villain’. Tony Adigun’s Company in this adaptation of the classic Dickens novel from an unusual perspective: evening of pure dance. 17 Duke’s Road WC1H 9PY 020 7121 1100 October 3Carlos Acosta - The Classical Farewell Royal Albert Hall Acosta is preparing to retire and for this special occasion he will perform with some of his closest contemporaries from the Royal Ballet. Kensington Gore SW7 2AP 020 786 38000 October 9 Together for Dance Novello Theatre A one-off fundraising gala in support of One Dance UK. Artists include BalletBoyz, English National Ballet, Jaivant Patel Dance and many others. 5 Aldwych WC2B 4LD 0844 482 5115 DRAMA

#ImogenReclaimed

shakespearesglobe.com/imogen Ends September 17 Breakfast at Tiffany’s Theatre Royal A stage adaptation of Truman Capote’s novella, probably better known as the film starring Audrey Hepburn whose gamin frail beauty worked well in the part of the heroine Holly Golightly. The lead role is now played by the pop star Pixie Lott. Haymarket SW1Y 4HT 020 7930 8800 Ends October 1 The Alchemist The Barbican The RSC brings Shakespeare’s famous contemporary Ben Jonson’s savage satire to the stage which reveals the foolishness, greed and vanity of the human race. Directed by Polly Findley. Silk Street EC2Y 8DS 010 7638 8891 theatre@barbican.org.uk Ends October 1 Macbeth The Globe Directed by Iqbal Khan, Ray Fearon in the title role with Tara Fitzgerald as his accomplice. 21 New Globe Walk Bankside SE1 9DT. 020 7902 1400 Ends October 1 Doctor Faustus The Barbican Another RSC production of this classic play by another contemporary of Shakespeare about a doctor’s pact with

the Devil: his soul for knowledge. Sandy Grierson and Oliver Ryan are the two actors who take turns in the two leading roles. Silk Street EC2Y 8DS 020 7382 7211 Ends October1 How the Other Half Loves Duke of York ’s Theatre Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy of marital misunderstandings; his first play to open on Broadway, directed by Alan Strachen, it is a classic comedy of errors involving two separate dinner parties where two couples are confusingly engaged in affairs which neither knows about. St Martin’s Lane WC2N 4BG 0844 871 762 Ends October 8 Unfaithful Found III A sharp comedy about marital breakdown written by Owen McCafferty with Sean Campion, Niamh Cusack, Rita Gedmintas and Mathew Lewis. 7.45-10.00pm Charing Cross Road WC2H 0DT 020 747 80100 Ends November 26 Oil Almeida Theatre Written by Ella Hickson and directed by Carrie Cracknell, the subject of this world premiere is yes, Oil, which is due to run out at some future point. The play follows the lives of a woman and her daughter when empire, history and family collide. Almeida Street Islington N1 1TA 020 7359 4404

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Ends December 17 No Man’s Land Wyndham’s Theatre ‘Harold Pinter’s masterpiece is back in a glowing revival’ raved Time Out about this production in New York. Now in London an opportunity to see Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart unite again after their Waiting for Godot; directed by Sean Mathias. Charing Cross Road WC2H 0DA 020 7400 1257

September 27 & 28 Ballet Black’s Triple Bill Featuring Storyville set in 1920s New Orleans, to the music of Kurt Weill, a country girl falls prey to manipulative characters and ‘worldly desires.’ Millfield Theatre Silver Street Edmonton N18 1PJ 020 8807 6680

September 2016

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September 22-December 3 The Libertine Theatre Royal Dominic Cooper is the perfect lead as the Earl of Rochester in this revival of a Restoration play directed by Terry Johnson with sets and costume designed by Tim Shortall. 18 Suffolk Street SW1Y 4HT 020 7930 8800 September 22 - November 19 Travesties Menier Chocolate Factory A revival of one of Tom Stoppard’s most entertaining plays, set in Zurich in 1917 with a cast that includes Lenin, James Joyce and the Dadaist Tristan Tzara; all revolutionaries in their own way. Patrick Marber directs Tom Hollander, Freddie Fox and Amy Morgan. 53 Southwark Street SE1 1RU 020 7400 1257 October 12 - January 14 The Dresser Duke of York’s Theatre Olivier Award-winning Sean Foley’s revival of Ronald Hardwood’s play concerning an ageing actor and his long-suffering dresser with Ken Stott with Reece Shearsmith. Previews start on October 5. St Martin’s Lane WC2N 4BG 0844 871 7627 Ends October 22 The Plough and the Stars National Theatre Sean O’Casey’s 1926 classic about the Easter Rising in Dublin 1916; ordinary life trying to continue against a dark background of a virtual war. O’Casey’s text is elegant, witty and deeply moving. Lyttleton Southbank Street SE1 9PX 020 7452 3000 EXHIBITIONS 4 October 2016 Christie’s Lates: The Contemporary Collector Join us on Tuesday 4 October for an evening dedicated to the experience of collecting contemporary art, design and furniture. Renowned dealer Gordon Watson, whose eclectic collection will be offered at South Kensington on 13 October, will participate in a panel discussion with designer Paul Belvoir. Guests can enter our Antiques Challenge for the chance to win a prize, and enjoy talks by Christie’s specialists. Highlights

from our upcoming sales of Japanese art, post-war and contemporary art, prints and multiples and bande dessinée & illustration will also be on view. Christie’s South Kensington, 85 Old Brompton Road, London SW7 3LD Free entry 6:00pm – 8:30pm Ends September 18 Winifred Knights (1899-1947) Dulwich Picture Gallery An exhibition devoted to one of the great ‘lost’ artists of the 20th century whose The Deluge was hailed as a ‘work of genius’. Gallery Road Southwark SE21 7AD 020 8693 5254 Ends September 25 Painting with Light: Art and Photography from the Pre-Raphaelites to the Modern Age Tate Britain The exhibition celebrates the visual links between early photography and British art using vintage photos and pre-Raphaelite, aesthetic and impressionist works. Milbank SW1P 4RG 020 7887 8888 Ends September 25 The City Garden City Centre Artist Rebecca Louise Law’s installation for the new Guildhall Gallery 80 Basinghall Street EC2V 5AR Ends September 30 Thames Drawings: Ros Burgin Devon House A series of drawings by the artist based on the River in which he explores its nature which is not only a home to people, but also a place of work, leisure and competitive sport, not forgetting a domicile to many species of fish and bird. 58 St. Katherine Docks E1W 1LB September 15 - January 15 2017 Bedlam: The Asylum and Beyond Wellcome Collection This exhibition explores the diverse and often contradictory ideas surrounding mental illness. 183 Euston Road NW1 2B 020 7611 2222 September 21 - November 11 Reclaiming Asylum Bethlem Museum of the Mind Artworks by invited artists who have a connection with the gallery that includes current and former patients and artists. Monks Orchard Road Beckenham BR3 3BX 020 3228 6000 September 28 - October 8 Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition 2016 Mall Galleries Over 400 works by some of the most celebrated marine artists at work today The Mall SW1 020 7930 6844 Ends October 2

Beyond the main stage at the Royal Albert Hall

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Ongoing 20:50 A site specific oil installation by sculptor Richard Wilson created over 20 years ago. Duke of York’s HQ SW3 4RY 020 7811 3091 Ends October 2 David Hockney RA: 82 Portraits and 1 Still Life Royal Academy A new body of work from the artist focusing on portraits which offers a snapshot of the LA art world. Burlington House Piccadilly W1J 0BD 020 7300 8090 Ends October 2 Peter Cook RA: Floating Ideas Royal Academy The architect and educator’s installation in the Architecture Space evoking a world of architectural possibilities through 60 drawings submitted to the Summer Exhibition from the mid 1960s to the present day. Burlington House Piccadilly W1J OBD 020 7300 8090 Ends October 7 Flowing Lines of Grace Royal Academy Drawing drapery in the late Nineteenth Century, On October 8 & 9 the artist Tanya Wood will lead an exclusive workshop inspired and informed by traditional drawing skills, works in the RA collection, contemporary artists and her own practice of meticulous realist pencil drawings. For more information www,royal academy. org.uk/contact-us Burlington House Piccadilly W1J OBD Ends October 16 States of Mind: Tracing the Edges of Consciousness Wellcome Collection An exploration of our understanding of the conscious experience from different perspectives. 183 Euston Road NW1 2BE 020 7611 2222

Natalia Osipova

Ends October 30 My Back to Nature: George Shaw National Gallery Shaw, nominated for the Turner Prize in 2011 is known for his detailed approach to his subject matter which features suburbia and woodlands. Unusually he uses Humbrol enamel paints which are usually used to paint model trains and aeroplanes. Trafalgar Square WC2N 5DN 020 7747 2885 Ends October 30 Georgia O’Keefe Tate Modern A major exhibition with over 100 remarkable works from one of the founding figures of American modernism. Bankside SE1 9TG 020 7887 8888

27 Sep - 1 Oct

October 10 - 22 Hamish Mackie: Life in Bronze Mall Galleries Internationally acclaimed wildlife sculptor will exhibit over 40 new works including a life-sized Andalusian horse. The Mall SW1 Artist’s phone 01608 737 859

Carlos Acosta The Classical Farewell

150 garments including sportswear, printed day dresses, beaded evening wear, velvet capes and silk PJs. Illustrations by Gordon Conway and photographs by Beaton, Man Ray and Baron de Meyer. 83 Bermondsey Street SE1 3XF 020 7407 8664 September 29 - January 8 2017 The Gulch: Bedwyr Williams The Barbican-The Curve “Enter the weird and wonderful mind of Welsh artist” as he searches The Gulch. Go on a journey in a succession of surreal staged scenes in this fantastical installation: ‘Minute observations are elevated to a monumental scale and compelling scenarios come to the fore on this intriguing and immersive journey.’ One will have to see what all that means. Silk Street EC2Y 8BS 020 7638 8891 October 12 - January 15 2017 Beyond Caravaggio National Gallery The exhibition of about 50 paintings looks at this artist’s influence on his followers Orazio Gentileschi, Valnetin de Boulogne and Gerrit van Honthorst who all absorbed something different. Trafalgar Square WC2N 5DN 0800 912 6958

“Carlos Acosta is the great male ballet dancer of his generation”

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RHS London Shades of Autumn Show Fri 28–Sat 29 October

Royal Horticultural Halls St James’s Park London Victoria Public entry £6 in advance, £9 on the door, RHS Members free

rhs.org.uk/londonshows #RHSLondon

October 12 - January 15 2017 Adriaen van de Velde: Dutch Master of Landscape Dulwich Picture Gallery The first ever major show with over 60 paintings and preparatory drawings by this prolific but short-lived artist (1636-1672) who was a great landscape painter and one of the best draughtsmen of the Dutch Golden Age. Gallery Road Southwark SE21 7AD 020 8693 5254

November 3 - March 31 2017 Emma Hamilton: Seduction and Celebrity National Maritime Museum Emma is rescued from ‘myth and misrepresentation’ in this exhibition which reveals her to be not merely Lord Nelson’s mistress, but also an influential historical figure in her own right. Greenwich SE10 9NF 020 8312 6565

See the world famous dancer perform the classics for the final time

Tickets available from

Tue 4 October RHS London Harvest Festival Late

October 26 -April 16 2017 The Fantastic Barbican World The Barbican A celebration in the foyer of this famous modernist architecture and design which explores Chamberlin, Powell and Bon’s effort to ‘combine spaciousness with high density development’. Silk Street EC2Y 8DS 020 7638 8891

Daily Telegraph

Mon 3 - Fri 7 Oct AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL

SHOWS

RHS London Harvest Festival Show Tue 4–Wed 5 October

KC W To d a y Q u a r t e r P a g e

Co-produced by Sadler’s Wells and Valid Productions. In association with Como No.

Ends November 20 The Maudsley at War Royal College of Psychiatrists Just before its official opening in 1916 as a centre for the treatment, teaching and research of psychiatric disorders, ithe building was requisitioned by the Army and during WWI it treated thousands of soldiers suffering from shell shock and other war neuroses. 21 Prescot Street E1 8BB

Ends January 15 2018 Wounded: Conflict, Casualties and Care Science Museum An exhibition that commemorates the centenary of the Battle of the Somme

September 16-February 12 2017 Scots Jew: Belonging and the Future Jewish Museum Through the lens of the photographer Judah Passow, who explores Scotland’s diverse Jewish community which dates back to the 1700s at least, and is the largest non-Christian community in the country. In 80 photographs the story of the community and how it has maintained its traditions while embracing Scottish culture. Raymond Burton House 129-131 Albert Street NW1 7NB 020 7284 7384 September 23-January 15 2017 1920s Jazz Age Fashion and Photographs Fashion and Textile Museum A glittering exhibition of ready-to-wear Kensington, Westminster Today from 1919 to andChelsea hauteand couture fashion 126w x 154h 1029 the decade after the WWI offered Deadline 24th June 2106 women a whole new way of dressing. Over

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui Russell Maliphant Arthur Pita

Ends November 6 Bhupen Khakhar: You Can’t Please All Tate Modern The artist (1934-2003) was a key figure in modern Indian art with his extraordinary paintings containing acute observations of class and sexuality. This exhibition showcases this accountant-turned-artist’s canvases, watercolours and experimental ceramics. Bankside SE1 9TG 020 7887 8888

Ends December 11 Black Chronicles: Photographic Portraits 1862 - 1948 National Portrait Gallery Over 40 photographs of black lives and experiences indicating a complex black presence in Britain before 1948 and the watershed moment when the Empire Windrush brought the first group of Caribbean immigrants to the UK. St Martin’s Place WC2H 0HE 020 7907 7079

in WWI and draws on the Museum’s extensive WWI’s medical collections as well as the words of the wounded and their carers “to explore the remarkable medical responses and innovations catalysed by this conflict.” Exhibition Road South Kensington SW7 2DD 020 7942 5000

Sadler’s Wells Theatre sadlerswells.com 020 7863 8000 Angel

Photo: Johan Persson

October 1 -29 Champagne Life Saatchi Gallery New work by by an international group of emerging women artists. October 4 - 31 The first UK exhibition of work by the French-born artist Henri Barande whose work explores the dialogue between life and death.

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LONDON

Punk 1976-78 British Library The Exhibition celebrates the 40th anniversary of this unique musical phenomenon. 96 Euston Road NW1 2DB 01937 546546

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FILM & PHOTOGRAPHY Ends September 17 An Ideal for Living

Beetle + Huxley Gallery Photographing Class, Culture, and Identity in Modern Britain, using photography from the 1920s to the present day, drawing on the works of 20 photographers as diverse as Neil Libbert, Bill Brandt, and Cartier-Bresson. 2-5 Swallow Street W1B 4DE 020 7434 4319 Ends September 18 Battle of Britain 75th Anniversary Mosaic Royal Air Force Museum The Mosaic is an iconic photograph of Hurricane and Spitfire fighters in close formation which encapsulates the spirit of the Battle of Britain. Grahame Park Way Colindale Barnet NW9 5LL +44 208 205 2266 Ends September 24 Clarisse D’Arcimole’s: Forgotten Tale at the Photographers’ Gallery The artist has recreated a scene from a FOUND photograph of an East End slum which she found at Bishopsgate Institute. 16-18 Ramillies Street W1F 7LW 0845 262 1618 Ends November 11 Firepower Royal Artillery Museum An exhibition devoted to the artillerymen of different nations “in their own words” during the Great War using photographs, letters home and diaries. Artillery Place No 1 Street Woolwich SE18 6ST 020 8312 7125

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September 2016

Charity Variety Evening

3 October 2016 • Cadogan Hall, London SW1X 9DQ

An inspirational evening of music, magic & mayhem Derek Paravicini is an

Eddie the Eagle

Q&A session with the infamous Olympian behind the film Eddie the Eagle. In the words of the president of the 1988 Winter Olympics: “some competitors have won gold, some have broken records and one has even flown like an eagle”.

Richard Essien

aka Magical Bones is one of the most exciting talents to have emerged from the magic industry. An exceptional breakdancer and gifted showman, who combines innovative magician and illusionist with a passion for hiphop.

extraordinarily talented pianist, despite being blind with severe learning difficulties. He plays entirely by ear and has performed at major venues across Europe and the US. His abilities define Derek as a musical enigma and super human.

Harry Yeff aka Reeps One A global award winning musician and artist who takes beatboxing to new dimensions.

The NHS Choir is made

up of NHS staff from across the workforce. Their first UK single made it to the Christmas number one spot last year and the choir will soon be releasing an album Something Inside So Strong to celebrate the NHS and its unsung heroes.

om the Plus stunning acts fr orted charities being supp

Don’t miss out - book now at www.cadoganhall.com or call the booking line on 020 7730 4500

Ends December 16 2016 Capturing the City Bank of England Museum Using the photos from the Bank’s own collection which through artworks and artefacts explore the history of the bank from the building and its staff in Victorian times to the present day. Bartholomew Lane EC2R 8AH 020 7601 5545 Ends December 31 A Family in Wartime Imperial War Museum Photographs, testimonies, posters, film and paintings explore how one ordinary family faced the challenge of living in London during WWII. Lambeth Road London SE1 6HZ 020 7416 5000 Ends January 8 Reel to Reel: A Century of War Movies Imperial War Museum To mark the 100th anniversary of the original Battle of the Somme, an exploration of how the film-makers translated the stories of fear, love, triumph and tragedy. See the sets and scripts from such classics as Dam Busters, Apocalypse Now, Das Boot, Battle of Britain, and many others. Lambeth Road SE1 6HZ 020 7416 5000 September 17 2016 - June 30 2017 Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year Royal Observatory Wonderful images of the solar system by the winning photographers and the runner-ups of the annual competition in the nine categories: aurorae, skyscaapes, people and space, our sun, our moon, galaxies, stars and nebulae, as well as planets, comets and asteroids. Greenwich Park Greenwich, SE10 9NF 020 8312 6565 October 5 - 16 BFI Film Festival The ‘Year of the Strong Woman’, the Pedro Almovador Season, Punk London, part Two of the TV and films of director Jack Gold, and View From the Ground which are films made by those that lived through WWI and much more. South Bank Belvedere Road SE1 8XT 020 7928 3232 Consult whatson.bfi.org.uk FAIRS & FESTIVALS

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September 21-October 2 Talking Peace Festival and 30th anniversary celebrations House of Vans, To coincide with UN International Peace Day (21 September) and to mark its 30th anniversary, leading peacebuilding organisation International Alert will hold its third annual Talking Peace Festival. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, patron of International Alert, said: “Always building, always challenging, always inspiring. For

30 years. I am very proud to be associated with International Alert’s history”. Arches, 228-232 Station Approach Road, Waterloo London SE1 8SW houseofvanslondon.com Ends September 30 Totally Thames A month’s celebration of London’s river which spans 42 miles with arts, culture and river events. Last year’s festival featured over 150 events with something for everyone from installations to river races, foreshore walks, live events in unusual spaces, archaeology and regattas. For more information TotallyThames website September 10 Brazil Day Trafalgar Square A celebration of the Olympic Games and Brazilian Culture : attractions will include live Brazilian music like the Samba and Bossa Nova, DJs, interactive games, food stalls with Brazilian street food and highlights from the Olympics will be shown on the big Screen. 12.00pm7.00pm September 10 & 11 The London Acoustics Show Olympia Conference Centre A chance to see all the latest products and gear from the big name brands such as Taylor guitars RS! and Cole Clark. Master classes by the likes of Chris Woods. Exciting headline acts include Clive Carroll, Preston Reed, Stuart Ryan and Turin Brakes. Hammersmith Road Kensington W14 8UX 020 7385 1200 September 10 & 11 Legends of Gaming Alexandra Palace London’s biggest YouTube gaming event returns even more awesome than before. Legends of Gaming is the place for you to meet You Tubers and watch them battle it out live on stage, preview games and take part in tournaments for big prizes. This event is dedicated to the very best in gaming across all formats. The Great Hall via the Palm Court Entrance Alexandra Palace Way Wood Green N22 7AY 020 8365 2121 September 11-13 The British Craft Trade Fair The Old Truman Brewery. F block The largest and most selective range of handmade British products to be found in any trade fair in the UK. 91 Brick Lane Shoreditch E1 6QL 01444246446 September 16 - 18 French Property Exhibition Olympia Central If you’ve always wanted a home in France, this exhibition is the place to come with thousands of properties on the market. Specialised agents with homes near the sea

or the mountains. Removal companies and one-to -one legal advice and all under one roof… Hammersmith Road Kensington W14 8UX 020 7385 1200

economy, shape our culture and improve our lives. For more info and to buy tickets please visit newscientistlive.com 1 Western Gateway Royal Victoria Dock E16 1XL

September 17 & 18 Tequila & Mezcal Fest The Boiler House The first and only festival dedicated to the Mexican beverage, food and culture. Cocktail master classes, seminar and master classes by industry experts, live entertainment, live music with Mariachi, Mexican art, photography exhibition, travel. The Old Truman Brewery 91 Brick Lane E1 6QL 0790 685 9048

September 23 - 25 The National Wedding Show Party Olympia National Try, buy, hire everything you might need for the wedding day for the whole bridal party. Buy the dream wedding dress at a discount. Romance. Hire your venue, and order the cake. Book a photographer, choose the wedding invitations. Save a lot of time. Hammersmith Road Kensington W14 8UX

September 22 - 25 London Design Fair Old Truman Brewery 200 global brands, 450 exhibitors from 29 countries, 25,000 visitors including retail buyers, interior architects, designers, manufacturers. 91 Brick Lane Shoreditch E1 6QL 020 7739 5561 September 22 - 25 New Scientist Live: A Festival of Ideas & Discovery Excel The team behind the world’s most popular science weekly is responsible for this show which will cover four immersive zones of Brain & Body, Technology, Earth and The Cosmos to showcase how science, technology and engineering drive the

Hospitality in the Park Finsbury Park N4 2DE UK’s first outdoor event that brings together things drum and bass in one place in a celebration of dance music’s most diverse and exciting genre. Across multiple stages will be drum & bass’s finest DJs and live talent from across the world. For fuel, street food will be supplied September 24 AfroPunk Fest - Power to the Party Alexandra Palace A musical Afropunk feast with a mass of artists, designers, creatives, exhibitions and food vendors.Attendees are encouraged to join in and become part of the AfroPunk community through on-site pop-ups, art and stalls. Visit afropunkfest.com/london/ for more information.

AUTUMN PROGRAMME 06/09/16 THE SOMME: CONTROVERSIES AND CONFLICTS | JEREMY MINDELL | TAX DIRECTOR 15/09/16 HEAVY METAL – INVESTING IN THE CLASSIC CAR MARKET | MAX WAKEFIELD | CEO CHILLINGHAM CLASSICS 20/09/16 MILLENNIALS AND OPERA: A LOST GENERATION? | HARRY HICKMORE | CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT, ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA 27/09/16 YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION | ELISA BAILEY | ASSISTANT CURATOR, V & A MUSEUM 06/10/16 DIABETES - EAT YOUR WAY TO AMAZING RESULTS | ELAINE WILSON | AUTHOR, NUTRITIONAL THERAPIST, ACUPUNCTURIST 13/10/16 VANISHING POINTS – THE ORIGINS OF PERSPECTIVE IN RENAISSANCE ART | ANDREW SPIRA | COURSE DIRECTOR AT CHRISTIES EDUCATION, LONDON 19/10/16 MAKING MONEY IN A MAD WORLD | JUSTIN URQUHART STEWART | CO-FOUNDER & HEAD OF CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT ALL LECTURES - 6:30pm- 8:30pm V E N U E : 9 I LC H E ST E R PL AC E , LO N D O N W 1 4 8 AA LECTURES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE. PLEASE CHECK THE LATEST SCHEDULE ON WWW.THELECTURECLUB.COM FOLLOW US ON TWITTER

September April/May 2016 2011

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Alexandra Palace Way Wood Green N22 7AY September 25 Pearly Kings and Queens Harvest Festival Guildhall Yard Celebrate 140 years of nature’s bounty with Morris dancing, and a Maypole, marching bands and drummers. Gresham Street EC2V 5AE September 27 - October 2 The Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fair Battersea Evolution Scandinavian is the theme of the Fair this autumn with a sale of 18th and 19th century styles of furniture from Scandinavia. 150 exhibitors from with a selection of British pottery from 1890 1930. Antique and decorative carpets and rugs, ancient and medieval antiquities from prehistoric times to 1600, vintage posters and vintage film posters, rare books and manuscript. Antique glass, paintings, meteorites. Battersea Park SW11 4NJ 020 761 9327 September 25 onwards Bangla Music Festival Rich Mix This two month long festival returns to

various venues in London (Keats House, Royal Albert Hall, Nehru Centre) and it showcases the beauty of Bangla Music. T.M. Ahmed Kaysher will curate and give a brief introduction on the history and the background. Rich Mix is proud to host the evolution of this music which covers the spectrum of different genres since it all began in 730 AC. 35-47 Bethnal Green Road E1 6LA 020 7828 190551 October 1 Her Event Olympia Conference Centre Understand what it is like to be suddenly single, learn about mindfulness, and hear from a range of speakers including the author Jo Read and lecturer Julie Lake. Browse among all the different brands which will be showcasing boutique clothing. Hammersmith Road Kensington W14 8UX October 1 & 2 London Record Fair The Old Truman Brewery Record Fair with dealers from all over the World with rare and exclusive vinyl in the UK for one weekend only. The Boiler House 91 Brick Lane Shoreditch E1 6QL

October 1 & 2 The Family Travel Show Olympia Central Whether the family wants a beach holiday or an inspiring old city experience, an exotic jungle trek or a tropical rain forest you can find them all here. Full of impartial advice the show alone offers an enjoyable day out where one can enjoy photography workshops, make use of a crèche and climb walls. Hammersmith Road Kensington W14 8UX October 7 – 9 Other Art Fair 2016 @ARTBLOCK F Block T1 + T4 The UK’s leading art fair, which offers art lovers the unique opportunity to buy directly from the 130 best emerging artists before they get gallery representation. With work from £50 for paintings, sculpture and photography: a perfect place to start. The Old Truman Brewery 91 Brick Lane Shoreditch E1 6QL 020 3805 6670 October 14 - 16 The Chocolate Show Olympia National The exhibition brings together British and International brands as well as renowned artisan chefs and cocoa experts. Last year demonstrators included Atul Kochhar and Great British Bake Off John Whaite and Edd Kimber with top chocolatier Will Torrent and pastry chefs from The Fat Duck, and The Berkeley. Live

demonstrations and chocolate cookery classes, attend pastry workshops and the pairing of fashion designers with chocolatiers who create outfits entirely made with chocolate. Hammersmith Road Kensington W14 8UX October 14 A showing of Hitchcock’s early silent film The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, about a serial killer (based on Jack the Ripper) stalking the foggy streets of nightime London. Ivor Novello plays the leading role. 8pm-9.30pm. Landsdowne Crescent, Notting Hill, London W11 2NN 020 7727 4262 stjohnsorganproject.com MUSIC September 12, 16, 20, 23. 26 October 1, 4, 8 Norma Royal Opera House A new production of Bellini’s masterpiece directed by Alex Olle, last seen in 1987 on the Covent Garden stage, is regarded as the pinnacle of bel canto opera with some of the most difficult vocal demands. Anna Netrebko will be in the title role with Joseph Calleja singing, Pollione the enemy of Norma’s people but her secret lover who betrays her. Antonio Pappano conducts. In Italian with English subtitles. Bow Street WC2E 9DD 020 7304 4004 September 13, 15, 17, 21, 23, 28, October

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1, 8, &11 The Barber of Seville Royal Opera House The successful production by the directorial duo Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier, of Rossini’s comic masterpiece returns in a fourth revival. It is based on a classic play of the 18th century by Beaumarchais and is the prequel to his revolutionary comedy The Marriage of Figaro. Henrik Nanasi conducts and the young Argentine mezzo Daniela Mack is Rosina and the rising Mexican tenor Javier Camarena is Count Almaviva. Performed in Italian with English Subtitles. Bow Street WC2E 9DD 020 7304 4004 September 14 La Serenissima: The Grand Tour St John’s Adrian Chandler plays Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. 1.05pm Smith Square SW1P 3HA 020 7222 1061 September 17 Open House & Music Marathon St John’s 24 hours of non-stop performance, open rehearsal, workshops and more from 10.00am on Saturday until 10.00am Sunday September 18.

For further details download the registration form. openhouselondon.org.uk Smith Square SW1P 3HA 020 7222 1061

5, Sloane Terrace London SW1X 9DQ www.cadoganhall.com 0207 730 4500

September 20 Classic FM Live Royal Albert Hall Features Maxim Vengerov, Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Wayne Marshall, Laura Wright, Aquarelle Guitar Quartet, John Suchet and Margherita Taylor. Kensington Gore SW7 2AP 020 7589 8212

October 30th 7.30pm “Celebration!” with special guests from Russia

Knowledge is of no value,

you put it

(Illustrating garments) © Anders Birger

practice www.londonrussianballetschool.com

London Russian Ballet School 42 Clapham Manor Street, London SW4 6DZ Tel. 00 +44 (0)207 498 0498 www.londonrussianballetschool.com Enquiries/Auditions/Financial assistance information email: info@lr-bs.com

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EDWARD STOURTON AUTUMN 2016: To Book (free): www.westminster-abbey.org/institute

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September 21 Martino Tirimo: Great Piano Quintets St John’s The pianist with the Fitzwilliam Quartet in a programme which includes Chopins Piano Concerto in F minor, Shostakovich’ String Quartet No 4 and Piano Quintet in G Minor. 7.30 pm Smith Square SW1P 3HA 020 7222 1061

into

FIND OUT MORE vam.ac.uk/workshops Victoria and Albert Museum

EVANS

HASAN STRAW HELEN BOADEN

September 20 Shakespeare in Music St John’s A cast of special guest actors with the Southbank Sinfonia produce the music written by noted British composers for classic productions by the Royal Shakespeare Company which until now have remained unperformed beyond the Stratford-upon-Avon stage. The composers Vaughn Williams, Berkeley, Jonathan Dove, Williamson and Wooldridge are all represented. A talk will precede the concert at 6.30pm Smith Square SW1P 3HA 020 7222 1061

unless

JONATHAN

USAMA JACK JULIA NEUBERGER

September 30th 7.30pm Cadogan Hall

Make Something Beautiful Audio Interventions Narrative Ceramics Making Lasercut Mobiles Woven E-textiles Data Talismans: Making Meaningful Jewellery with Data Opus Anglicanum: Gold and Silk Embroidery Photographic Encounters Illustrating Garments

EMMA STEPHEN CREWE LAMPORT

Photo: Natalie Carter in Siberian Tales

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Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

September 22 Jennifer Bate: Organ Series St John’s The organist is in the top rank of internationalists and she is one of the world’s authorities on the organ works of Olivier Messiaen. Smith Square SW1P 3HA 020 7222 1061 September 19, 22, 24, 29 October 3, 7, 12, 14, 17, 19 Cosi Fan Tutte Royal Opera House A new production of Mozart’s complex and subtle comedy, a most ambivalent comedy conducted by Semyon Bychkov. Don Alfonso is sung by leading German baritone, Johannes Martin Kranzle, with American soprano Corinne Winters as Fiordiligi, Italian baritone Alesso Arduini, German tenor Daniel Behle and Spanish soprano Sabina Puertolas; this cast is made up of rising stars. Bow Street WC2E 9DD 020 7304 4000 September 22

Bitch ’N’ Monk’s Album Launch Rich Mix Singing guitarist Heidi Heidelberg and flautist Mauricio Velasierra perform tracks from their new album; We are Peering Over. “you’ll spend a while pondering how to classify them- prog folk? Operatic postpunk? Gothic reggae? but they know how to write melodies.” The Guardian 8.00pm 35-47 Bethnal Green Road E1 6LA 020 7613 7490 September 23 Bach the Art of the Fugue St John’s The pianist Kimiko Ishizaka takes on Bach’s final masterpiece. At 6.30 there is a pre-concert talk by Robert Hugh. 7.30pm Smith Square SW1P 3HA 020 7222 1061 September 22 RCM Professors’ Concert: Mozart and Brahms Royal College of Music Director Professor Colin Lawson joins RCM string professors for a free lunchtime concert featuring Mozart’s Allegro K516c and Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet in B minor. Royal College of Music, SW7 2BS 020 7591 4314 September 29 RCM Orchestral Masterworks Internationally renowned conductor Martyn Brabbins leads talented Royal College of Music performers in a rushhour concert of Brahms’ Symphony no 4 and Beethoven’s Egmont Overture. Royal College of Music, SW7 2BS 020 7591 4314

September April/May 2016 2011

September 25 Bangla Music Festival Rich Mix Saudha, society of Poetry and Indian music present an evening of this melodious music; the festival returns for the fourth time featuring the evolution of the music from 730 AC through to all its genres to the present day with a relevant introduction and translation where necessary. 6pm 35-4 Bethnal Green Road E1 6LA 020 7613 7498 September 26, 27, and 28 Complete Cycle of Prokofiev Symphonies Cadogan Hall In celebration of the 125th anniversary of the Composer’s birth, Valery Gergiev conducts the Mariinsky Orchestra with Kristof Barati on the violin in Prokofiev’s Seven symphonies. Sloane Terrace SW1X 9DQ 020 7730 4500 September 29 Stephane Deneve: Beethoven’s Symphony No 6 ‘Pastoral’ Cadogan Hall The conductor leads the Brussels Philharmonic not only in the Beethoven work, but also explores the works of the French composer Guillaume Connesson who is recognised as one of the youngest

Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

and most gifted contemporary composers. Sloane Terrace SW1X 9DQ 020 7730 4500 September 28 ‘Beyond The Battlefield’ the Duke and his Musicians Apsley House In 1825 the Duke of Wellington brought operatic stars from all over Europe to perform at a private concert in this venue; Opera Prelude’s finest young artists will recreate that unique moment in musical history with an exclusive Champagne Recital which includes live performances of the Rossini arias sung at the Duke’s original Concert. 7.00-9.00pm 149 Piccadilly Hyde Park Corner W1J 7NT 0370 333 1181 September 30 - October 26 Don Giovanni The Coliseum Mark Wigglesworth conducts the perennial favourite by Mozart for the ENO with Mary Bevan as Zerlina, Christine Rice as Elvira, Christopher Purves as the Spanish seducer and Clive Bayley as his clever servant Leporello. St Martin’s Lane WC2N 4ES 020 7845 9300

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October 2 & November 6 The Revolutionary Drawing Room St John’s The Quartet play Haydn and Beethoven String Quartets composed for Prince Lobkowitz; Adrian Butterfield and Kathryn Parr on the violins, Rachell Stott on the viola and Ruth Alford on the cello. With the two Beethoven Quartets, they embark on a complete cycle of Beethoven’s String Quartets. 3.00pm Smith Square SW1P 3HA 020 7222 1061

020 7409 2992

Gresham College Barnard’s Inn Hall 6.00pm 020 7831 0575 September 16 Portraits: Tacita Dean in Conversation with Tim Marlow Royal Academy The artist discusses her portrait films with Tim Marlow including her new 16mm Portraits which concerns David Hockney in L.A. Burlington House Piccadilly W1J 0BD 020 7300 8090

October 4 Spanish Symphony Orchestra Cadogan Hall Grzegorz Nowak conducts with one of the most exciting of recorded guitarists, Craig Ogden. The programme includes works by Gimenez, Rodrigo, Falla and Mendelssohn. Sloane Terrace SW1X 9DQ 020 7730 4500 October 4 Opera - An Exotic and Irrational Entertainment Cadogan Hall A countertenor masterclass and morning discussion of with Michael Chance and Ben Williamson. 10.30-12.30 pm 5 Sloane Terrace SW1X 9DQ 020 7730 4500 October 4 Benjamin Grovesnor St John’s Part of Southbank Centre’s International Piano series; Benjamin Grosvenor has had brilliant revues. The programme includes Sonatas by Mozart, Chopin, Scriabin and Granados. 7.30pm Smith Square SW1P 3HA 020 7222 1061 October 7- 9 Vaughn Williams and Friends Festival St John’s A weekend of music and talks with six different concerts which are a fascinating exploration of the composer and his contemporaries. They feature his masterpieces including On Wenlock Edge, Songs of Travel, Four Hymns, Piano Quintet, Mass in G Minor. Smith Square SW1P 3HA 020 7222 1061

REAL LIFE

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October 9 After Cable Street: Grand Union Orchestra presents RichMix This spectacular show commemorates Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists on October 4 1936 trying and failing to march through the streets of East London. Dozens of musicians and singers -professional, amateur, student community performers. Dramatic music, songs, exhilarating choral singing, great jazz soloists, non-European instruments, singers from every tradition worldwide, marching bands and wind ensembles. 7.00pm 35-47 Bethnal Green Road E1 6LA 020 7613 7498 October 10 The Fairy Queen Barbican Hall For one evening only the Academy of

Ancient Music give a concert version of Purcell’s ravishing music-drama with a cast that includes Timothy West, Sarah Tynan and Iestyn Davies Silk Street EC2Y 8DS 020 7638 8891 October 10 The Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra: Vladimir Fedoseyev Cadogan Hall The conductor leads the orchestra in a performance of Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances and Vaughn Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and the rising star Pavel Kolesnikov joins the orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1; the concert concludes with the composer’s final Symphony No 6 (Pathetique) which the composer reportedly thought was his best. Sloane Terrace SW1X 9DQ 020 7730 4500 SPOKEN WORD & POETRY October 12 The Rhythm of Life: The Beat and Dance of the Heart Professor Martin Elliot 6.00pm Museum of London 150 London Wall Barbican EC2Y 5HN 020 7001 9844 September 14 From the Shadows: The Architecture and Afterlife of Nicholas Hawksmoor Conway Hall Owen Hopkins explores how and why a mythology has grown up around that architect and his work and how it relates to the real historical figure. 25 Red Lion Square WC1R 4RL 020 7405 1818 September 15 1666: The World of the Great Fire of London The British Museum Room 45 A Gallery talk by Henry Williams 13.15 Great Russell Street WC1B 3DG 020 7323 8000 September 15 The Zika Virus, Dengue and the Yellow Fever Mosquito Professor Francis Cox DSc and Professor Chris Whitty

September 17 The Poetry Book Fair: Free Verse Conway Hall All day poetry bazaar with 80+ publishers, free readings and discussions and a competition. 25 Red Lion Square WC1R 4RL For more info: poetrybookfair@gmail.com September 20 The Forward Prizes for Poetry Royal Festival Hall The most prestigious poetry prizes awarded live on stage with readings between the presentations. 7.00pm Southbank Belvedere Road SE1 8XX 0844 875 0073

September 26 Aurora: In Search of the Northern Lights: Dr Melanie Windridge Royal Geographical Society 1 Kensington Gore SW7 2AR 020 7591 3000 September 28 Engineering the World V & A the Gorvy Lecture Theatre 13.00 -13.45 The Lunchtime Lecture Join curators Maria Nicanor and Zofia Trafas White for an introduction to the exhibition Engineering the World: Ove Arup and the Philosophy of Total Design. Cromwell Road SW7 2RL 020 7942 2000 September 30 Understanding Japanese Buddhist Art The British Museum Room 92 A Gallery talk by Freddie Matthews Great Russell Street WC1B 3DG 020 7323 8000 October 3 Einstein’s Greatest Mistake Royal Institute David Bodanis explores the genius and hubris of Albert Einstein. 7.00-8.30 21 Albemarle Street W1S 4BS

October 3 Oceans of Plastic: Dr Erik van Sebille Royal Geographical Society Too much plastic in the oceans, much of it as microscopic particles. Where does it come from? Where does it do most harm? What can we do about it? 6.30 1 Kensington Gore SW7 2AR 020 7591 3000 October 6 Margaret Atwood discusses her new novel Hag-Seed: a reworking of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. 7.30-9pm Royal Festival Hall Southbank Centre Belvedere Road SE1 8XX 020 7960 4200 October 5 - 16 London Literature Festival Returning for its tenth year, the theme of this year is Living in Future Times which celebrates the writers of Science Fiction, and opens with a celebration of HG Wells and a reading of his classic The Time Machine. Another highlight is an exploration of David Bowie’s life and legacy. Southbank Centre Belvedere Road SE1 8XX 020 7960 3000 October 11 The DNA Revolution: Can we predict people’s chance of getting cancer? Should We? Royal Institute

Vivienne Parry chairs a panel of cancer experts for Biology Week 2016 7.00-8.30 21 Albemarle Street W1S 4BS 020 7409 2992 LECTURES September 22 Derby Gate Library ‘Mr Barry’s War’: An evening with author Caroline Shenton When the brilliant architect Charles Barry won the competition to build a new Houses of Parliament in London he thought it was the chance of a lifetime. It swiftly turned into the most nightmarish building programme of the 19th century. Tickets for this event must be booked in advance. Derby Gate Library, 1 Parliament Street, London SW1A 2NE Doors open 6pm. Event 6:30pm to 8pm T: 020 7219 4114 http://www.parliament.uk/visiting/visitingparliament-news/mr-barrys-war-carolineshenton-evening-22-september/

Compiled and edited by Leila Kooros with assistance from Fahad Redha

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Arts & Culture

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Arts & Culture

Image © Frank Cohen Collection

Wood took a train to Le Havre from Paris, with two suitcases, a bundle of paintings, a revolver and his opium pipe.

Colour and Vision: Through the Eyes of Nature

The Natural History Museum. Cromwell Road. London. SW7. 5BD Until 6th November 2016

Christopher Wood: Sophisticated Primitive Pallant House Gallery Until 2 October 2016 Admission £9 wwww.pallant.org.uk

it Wood certainly had one of the most colourful, and painfully short, careers of any British artist, and he managed to cram more into his short life than many others who lived out their four score years and ten and beyond. He was patently a very attractive, and gifted, young man, who was thrust into the Parisian beau monde in the early twenties as an innocent abroad, and it seems that he cultivated a youthful naivety in the face of this decadent, and predominantly homosexual, society. Anthony Powell wrote, ‘He was the only English artist found acceptable in the Paris monde of Picasso and Cocteau, a convenient bisexuality being no handicap in that particular sphere’. His smudged sexuality did not preclude relationships with women, including Jeanne Bourgoint and Meraud Guinness, whom he considered marrying, were it not for the small matter of her family’s disapproval. He had a long relationship with a married and mysterious Russian émigrée named Frosca Munster, who upset the equilibrium he had in his cosy friendship with Ben and Winifred Nicholson. Wood’s arrival in Paris in 1921

coincided with the fashion for artefacts from the Far East and Africa, through its reference in Cubist and Fauvist art, as well as ‘primitive’ painters such as Henri Rousseau, van Gogh, and, to some extent, Paul Gauguin, who were strongly influenced by ‘savage’ communities. He fell in with Picasso and the painter-poet Jean Cocteau, and his sponge-like ability to soak up other painters’ styles, led him to a self-consciously naive figurative style, exemplified in his large, striking Selfportrait, wearing a distinctive diamondpatterned jumper, which references Picasso’s famous Harlequin character. He adopted the Spaniard’s chunky, neoclassical figurative manner of painting in The Blue Necklace and Beach Scene with Bathers, just as he borrowed drawing techniques from Cocteau, while his Nude with Tulips resonates with Modigliani. This ‘magpie approach’ of liberating selected elements from other painters extended to the works of Cézanne, in the case of his still lifes, as in Lemons in a Blue Basket and group paintings, like The Card Players. Derain, Utrillo, Marquet and Vlaminck were influential in his Fauvist cityscapes, painted in Paris and the surrounding suburbs of Neuilly, Passy and St Cloud. He began to see the world through the lens of Primitivism and van Gogh, himself strongly indebted to traditional Japanese ukiyo-e prints, was a major contributor as to how Wood saw, say, a vase of flowers, or Landscape at Vence. There, he sought refuge and tried to emulate the Dutchman’s approach to art and life, in terms of a Spartan rural existence and the simplicity of his paintings. He wrote incessantly to his mother whilst in Paris, saying in one letter, ‘Dearest mother, you ask me what I am going to do: I have decided to try and be the greatest painter that has ever lived’. He was certainly mixing with some of the ‘greats’ in the avant-garde

September 2016

in Paris, and, unusually for him, Picasso was most helpful and instructive to the younger man, and an Englishman at that. However, Wood was soon ambivalent towards the older artist, as he later explained in a letter to Winifred Nicholson, ‘He is a devil and his devilry comes out in everything he does and says but a great devil all the same’. José Gandarillas, a wealthy Chilean diplomat and socialite, introduced him to opium, something that very quickly took hold of the young, impressionable painter. In the decade before his untimely death, Wood managed to travel extensively in Europe and North Africa with Gandarillas, visiting the South of France, to take in the casinos of Monte Carlo, Marseilles, Brussels, Ghent, the Netherlands, Athens, Sicily, Malta, Constantinople, Rome, Germany and then to London, where Wood’s mother met Gandarillas for the first time. Jean Cocteau featured heavily in Wood’s life, and, after meeting him in Villefranche, Gandarillas and he drove back with him to London, where they saw the Serge Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe production of Le Train Bleu, for which Cocteau was the librettist. On the strength of this, Wood began making designs for the Ballet Russe’s production of English Country Life, which he devised, and then Romeo and Juliet, to be composed by Constant Lambert, whose portrait he painted in Paris. Wood felt thwarted when Diaghilev gave the design work to the two Surrealists, Joan Miró and Max Ernst, although he was the designer for another Ballet Russe production, Luna Park, after the Russian impresario died. Three years earlier, he met the Nicholsons in London, and went to stay with them in their farmhouse in Cumbria, and Feock in Cornwall, where they ‘discovered’ the outsider artist Alfred Wallis, who arguably had the greatest

influence on his style of painting. Apart from the Cornish fishing boats in St Ives, he travelled to Tréboul, another Celtic fishing village, but this time in Brittany. He was most prolific in Northern France, and, on the strength of his paintings, he was offered a show with Ben Nicholson in Paris by the gallerist George Bernheim, where he sold 10 pictures. On his return to Tréboul, he produced a further 40 paintings. Having poo-pooed the Surrealists after the Ballet Russe disappointment, he produced two Surrealist paintings himself, Zebra and Parachute and Tiger and Arc de Triomphe. These sit uncomfortably amongst the Cornish and Breton scenes of everyday life, which include churches and Catholic symbolism, boat-building, dancing sailors, fishing boats, lighthouses and harbours. As is well-documented, although still an unresolved mystery, Wood took a train to Le Havre from Paris, with two suitcases, a bundle of paintings, a revolver and his opium pipe. From there he went to Southampton, and caught a ferry to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight, where he booked into The Pier Hotel. After downing several whiskies and soda, he spent the night and took the ferry back to the mainland where he met his mother and sister for lunch in Salisbury, before going up to London. They dropped him off at the station, where he bought a book from a book stall and sat down on a bench to read it. At 2.10pm, just as the Atlantic Coast Express was pulling into the station, Wood threw himself onto the tracks in front of it, where he died instantly. Who knows what would have become of this deeply talented painter? He would probably not have followed Ben Nicholson into the clinical world of abstraction leading to Modernism, and perhaps the Zebra painting, his last, with more than a Surreal whiff of de Chirico, offers us a clue? Don Grant

his intriguing Exhibition reveals the differing mechanics of the vision of various species. It describes the 565 million years journey of the evolution of vision, uncovering perception and interpretation. The Exhibition is quite an extravaganza, but also very informative, with plenty of reading material on the walls. It draws our attention to the importance of colour in nature and how that influences our art, design and innovation. Colour is very significant in the use of camouflage in nature. Iridescence is well explained by showing how light reveals thousands of tiny structures in skin and feathers. This is illustrated in the shining, two tone effect seen in the five gleaming starlings displayed in a row.

There are over 350 rarely seen specimens on view from birds to the earliest fossils of organisms which had eyes. A display of splendid Victorian specimens is on show and is arranged in an octagonal structure revealing the glorious colours of nature. The Exhibition tells how, originally, early jelly like creatures, living in a predator free environment, had no vision. Vision developed with the appearance of the carnivore, which had a primitive form of vision. Colour was used for camouflage to enable survival from such predators. Regarding our own vision, which is trichromatic, meaning we see the world in mixtures of blue, green and red, it has been developed for practical purposes, namely to alert us to danger, help us identify our food and leading us to attract the opposite sex, all necessary for survival. We are sophisticated enough to interpret what we see and give it meaning. All vertebrates receive light through a small opening and their perception of colour is developed according to what they need. The now stuffed seal on view would have seen in black and white as there was not much colour around in the dark waters where he once lived. A snail’s vision is similar to ours but he sees in black and white and his vision is blurry. The dragonfly has tetrachromatic vision and lives in a world of orange skies where muddy brown appears as ultramarine.

Artists of the Colony Room Club Hooray! No need to travel to Chichester. If you never seem to make it, Bonhams is putting on a terrific show from the magnificent Pallant House Galleries in its Bond St galleries during Frieze week. This is a very special collection from an important time of 20th Century British art. Post War, it was, when so much about art was being revaluated, stretched and reinvented; most of this occurred through conversation and those conversations between this group of artists happened at their adopted club, and hangout The Colony Room Club, in Dean Street, Soho. Starting in 1948, it continued for 60 years, Post-war Soho was a very different place, it had the taste of danger and the smell of sex around every street corner. It was a howling screech away from the smart, clean and comfortable tourist centre it has evolved into, full of media members’ clubs. The Colony, run by the out spoken, witty and barbed tongue owner Muriel Belcher and her barman Ian Board drew in first of all Francis

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The exhibition features interactive facilities; the visitor can click onto images comparing the colour vision of dogs to that of fish. They can also put colour coded cards on a map of human qualities which shows how we associate certain colours with certain emotional states. I did not find this particularly rewarding. However, there is also an excellent film explaining the numerous ways we perceive and interpret colour. Dr. Greg Edgecombe, Vision Evolutionary Researcher, said. “ Only six branches of the Tree of Life contain species with eyes that form Left: Francis Bacon and Dalwood Below: Lucian Freud, self portrait

The Dark Art of Soho By Sophie Parkin

Bacon, who was paid in 1949 £10 a week to bring in rich and influential customers (this just about covered his bar bill), but as a charismatic and leading artist of the day he also attracted his fellow artists; amongst them Lucien Freud, Frank Auerbach, John Minton, John Craxton, the two Roberts, Colquhoun

Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

Image © Atlantic Productions

Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

images, but they include 96% of all species.......” Pippa Nissen is the Exhibition Designer. Fiona Cole-Hamilton helped craft the Exhibition and Liz West’s light installation is both attractive and appropriate. This unusual Exhibition is well worth a visit and appeals to a wide audience. There is a great awareness of nature in modern society and this exhibition enhances our knowledge. Marian Maitland Information: 020 7942 5000 and MacBryde, Richard Hamilton, Peter Blake, RB Kitaj shown in this show, reflects a certain time, but the Colony went on until 2008 and became the breeding ground for so much more, including the YBA movement of the 1990s. The Colony Room wasn’t singularly an artists club, otherwise how could it survive? Somebody has to buy the drinks! What made it so special was the rare mix of intellectuals, lords, ladies, musicians and poets and somebody to conduct and orchestrate a room full of people against the moral conventions of the day; Muriel Belcher. Francis Bacon summed it up as,’ “an oasis where the inhibitions of sex and class are dissolved... and you can be yourself ”. And who doesn’t want to be that? The exhibition will be in the main saleroom of Bonhams, 101 New Bond Street, London W1, from Sunday 2 October to Tuesday 11 October. Opening hours are 9.30am -4.30pm. Closed on Saturdays and Sunday 9 October. Admission free. Sophie Parkin is the author of The Colony Room Club 1948-2008- A history of Bohemian Soho published by Palmtree Publishers £35. 277pp. ISBN 978-0-9574354-1-4. She has an East End Arts Club www.Vout-O-Reenees.com

Image © The Estate of Michael Andrews

September April/May 2016 2011

Image © The Lucian Freud Archive

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September 2016

Fashioning a Reign: 90 years of style from the Queen’s wardrobe.

BRICKS AND BRICKBATS BY EMMA FLYNN

RIBA Stirling Prize 2016 Shortlist

his Exhibition, set in the glorious, historic State Rooms, brings 90 years of royal fashion out of the shadows of yesteryear into the light of today. The many creations by inspired designers evoke the splendour of great occasions at home and overseas. The long history of Her Majesty, the Queen’s long reign unfolds through exhibits of fashion she has worn from her Christening to her 90th Birthday Celebrations. Whilst carrying out her many duties, she defined her public appearances through a diplomatic choice of fashion. Overseas visits need understanding of the climate, the exact nature of the engagement, elements of diplomacy and respect for the religion and customs of the country concerned. Her many roles, e.g. Head of the Armed Forces, Head of Chivalry and Head of the Commonwealth all need to be considered. The Queen has always patronised British Designers, especially Sir Norman Hartnell, Hardy Amies and Ian Thomas. In the post war years, Christian Dior, the Parisian designer, created the ‘New Look’ with its luxurious feminine shape in gowns which was embraced worldwide. The influence can be seen in Norman Hartnell’s black velvet and silk ball gown of 1948 which is on view. It is typical of the style. This largest ever Exhibition of the Queen’s fashion encompasses many themes and some exhibits are being displayed for the first time; the crystal and lace peach beaded cocktail dress for the Opening of the London Olympic Games in 2012 and the vivid green wool-crepe and silk dress and coat for the Official 90th Birthday Celebrations in 2016. The Queen was christened in the Private Chapel at Buckingham Palace in 1926 wearing a dress commissioned by Queen Victoria for her first child in 1841. It was white lace and silk satin and worn by royal babies up to 2004. For the first time, the Queen’s Wedding and Coronation dresses are displayed together. Caroline De Guitaut, the Curator, explained how the Wedding Dress had to be designed to combine

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Summer Opening of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace. Until 2nd October. 2016

Arts & Culture

Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

September April/May 2016 2011

Far Left: Wedding Dress by Sir Norman Hartnell Left: Her Majesty the Queen by Cecil Beaton Above: A display across the years, from the exhibition

personal qualities in a dress suitable for a Public occasion. Sir Norman Hartnell was chosen as the Designer. His beautiful creation was inspired by Botticelli’s Primavera. It enthralls the viewer with its ivory silk decorated with crystals and 10,000 seed pearls. Notice the embroidered foliage and flowers of entrancing loveliness hailing the new post war age and the joyous Wedding Celebrations of the beautiful young Princess. At the time of the Coronation in 1953, Britain was leading in fashion, design and Architecture. The Coronation Dress needed to reflect this spirit and it had to be suitable for the TV broadcast across the world for the first time.

Norman Hartnell designed the Dress in the finest white, duchesse satin. Notice the criss-cross embroidery showing emblems of the UK and Commonwealth Countries embellished with crystal and seed pearls. Unbeknown to the Queen, Norman Hartnell added a four leaf shamrock for good luck on the skirt where she rested her left hand. The Summer Opening of the State Rooms should not be missed and this year a visit is enhanced by the splendid Exhibition, Fashioning a Reign which displays the great creations which adorned the Queen as she tirelessly performed her many duties. It is pleasing to know that one image of the Queen’s great grandson, Prince

George can sell out an entire range of clothing for children in a day! The people have always looked to the Royals to guide them in fashion. It is pleasant to rest awhile in the attractive cafe which has excellent refreshments for sale. It has perfect views of the gardens. The shop further down the garden has some attractive goods, especially those celebrating the Queen’s 90th Birthday. The jewellery by Alex Monroe is impressive too. I liked the gold-pendants of a corgi! Marian Maitland Advance tickets and information: www.royalcollection.org.uk T: +44 (0)30 3123 7300

he Royal Institute of British Architects has revealed the shortlist for this year’s Stirling Prize, which includes Damien Hirst’s London gallery, two Oxford university buildings and a partly-subterranean home for artists. Six shortlisted projects will now go head-to-head to be named the UK’s best new building. One of the highest accolades in architecture, the Stirling Prize is awarded by the RIBA in recognition of the building that has made the greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year. The chosen six are: Blavatnik School of Government by Herzog & de Meuron; City of Glasgow College by Michael Laird Architects, and Reiach and Hall Architects; Newport Street Gallery by Caruso St John Architects; Outhouse by Loyn & Co Architects; Trafalgar Place by dRMM Architects and Weston Library by WilkinsonEyre. Half of the shortlist are education buildings, two of the projects are residential, a private house and a high-density housing development, and there is an art gallery. “Every one of the six buildings shortlisted today illustrates the huge benefit that well-designed buildings can bring to people’s lives,” said RIBA

president Jane Duncan. “The shortlisted projects are each fantastic new additions to their individual locations, on an urban street, a city riverside, an estate regeneration, an historic city centre and a hidden part of the countryside, but their stand-out common quality is

the inspiration they will bring to those who study, live, visit and pass by them, for generations to come… To me, this shortlist reflects everything that is great about UK architecture, a blend of experimental, artistic vision and a commitment to changing people’s lives

for the better.” Wilkinson Eyre Architects have been shortlisted for what could be a record breaking third Stirling prize. They have previously won for the Magna Centre in Yorkshire and the Gateshead Millennium Bridge. This year their entry, Weston Library, is a significant restoration and reinvigoration of a Grade II listed building that is home to one of the world’s greatest research libraries. The only other previous winner, Herzog & de Meuron, who received the award for the Laban Dance Centre, are also nominated for a project by the same client. Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government, presents a radical new landmark university building, reflecting a healthy budget from its oligarch funder. Outhouse by Loyn & Co is the first private house to feature on the RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist for 15 years, and the first time the practice has been shortlisted. Both Caruso St John and dRMM have been shortlisted before, but never won. This could be their lucky year. Caruso St John’s Newport Street Gallery in Vauxhall is a delightful conversion of an entire street of listed industrial buildings into a free public gallery for artist Damien Hirst’s private collection. Trafalgar Place by dRMM, is a flagship high-density housing development that is the first result of the wholescale redevelopment of Elephant and Castle’s 1970s Heygate Estate. A panel of judges including Zaha Hadid Architects director Patrik Schumacher, artist Rachel Whiteread, AHMM co-founder Paul Monaghan and Heneghan Peng architect Roisin Heneghan will now visit all six projects before selecting a winner. This will be announced on Thursday 6 October 2016.

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Arts & Culture

BY JAMES DOUGLAS

Barry Humphries’ Weimar Cabaret Meow Meow; Australian Chamber Orchestra Cadogan Hall 29 July 2016 Photograph © Cadogan Hall

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Arts & Culture in the song and dance routines reveals his superstar provenance. While I didn’t expect it to be so highbrow, perhaps something a little more Goodbye To Berlin, Barry Humphries’ Weimar Cabaret sits well with what seems to be the Cadogan Hall’s own brand of highquality darker allegorical glamour, which naturally leads to …..

Lesley Garrett; Ruthie Henshall; Michael Xavier; Gary Wilmot Richard Balcombe conductor Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra ArtsEd Ensemble Cadogan Hall 18 August 2016 While the pun doesn’t quite work, the effort is irresistible: Some Enchanted Evening showcases Richard Rodgers’ musicals without showboating. While the politics behind Weimar Cabaret made indelible by Cabaret, were integral to the performance, referenced throughout by Humphries’ compelling narration, the

in Wandsworth Road. It was a 600 mile day trip, as I thought the Gower was the one just beyond Bristol. Well it is, by Concorde. All this is by way of self-indulgent introduction. Pamela had a spare ticket to Barry Humphries’ Weimar Cabaret and invited me along. I don’t know what the history of the production is, but it seems to be have been around a while. World-famous cellist Steven Isserlis’ presence seemed to cast a glow. Whether or not it’s a slow burner, this elegant and sophisticated thinking-persons’ Chicago, or even Cabaret, will be hit, and very much like the latter with Ute Lemper and Ruthie Henshall, try and see it with the original stars. The Humphries or Meow Meow duo carry real authenticity, brought into perspective by the showstealing Satu Vänskä, who morphs from ACO violinists into vocalist, performing a stunning lesbian duet with Meow Meow, in a perfect evocation of the era’s class, style, and diversity. The conceit, that the music was acquired by Barry Humphries as part of a job lot from an antiquarian bookseller is presumably true, or at least we’re made to feel it is. Humphries’ own presentation of the story is understated, but when engaged

from The Sound of Music. The encore perhaps inevitably was You’ll Never Walk Alone bringing a tear to the eye of the generation that had seen Liverpool FC’s hegemony ending on the playing fields of Heysel, and more positively to this Glaswegian, christened in Liverpool, that night the Celtic fans in spontaneous fraternity sang the anthem to Liverpool’s players.

John Joubert, Jane Eyre, Kenneth Woods

English Symphony Orchestra World premiere 25 October 2016 Ruddock Performing Arts Centre in Birmingham. Pretty much certainly ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪

Richard Rodgers’ evening had echoes of Zero Mostel, McCarthyism and America in the 50s, providing further context for those of us fortunate enough to see both. Being a cheapskate, I took advantage of the generous offer of press tickets to reciprocate, taking Pamela to this celebration of the life and work of Richard Rodgers. Interestingly enough it was Ruthie Henshall’s name that caught my eye, but the stars were equally billed, and the performance consistently excellent in depth. The show moves inexorably and chronologically to its natural denouement, a rousing medley

Get On With It: A Memoir

From its first publication in 1847, Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece Jane Eyre has inspired innumerable theatrical interpretations for both stage and screen. To mark the 200th anniversary of Brontë’s birth in 2016, and in anticipation of British composer John Joubert’s 90th birthday in 2017, Kenneth Woods and the English Symphony Orchestra will premiere Joubert’s opera based on Brontë’s first and most popular novel. Jane Eyre will receive its world premiere in a concert performance on 25 October 2016, at the Ruddock Performing Arts Centre in Birmingham. The SOMM label will be on hand to capture a live recording which is scheduled to be released in March 2017 to coincide with Joubert’s birthday. Full details can be found on the KCW Today website (www.kcwtoday.co.uk). KCW Today is delighted to have been invited to join this exciting journey, and to be extending its burgeoning relationship with the charismatic Kenneth Woods. Watch this space for the full story as it unfolds.

Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

By Joseph Palasz

By Algy Cluff Cluff & Sons £15. 196 pp. Illustrated. ISBN: 978-1-5262-0150-8

hat one really wants from a memoir/autobiography is a concise, witty, charming account of a man’s life and times. What one gets from Algy Cluff ’s book is all the above, but with a strong following breeze. Lightly scribed, with a sprinkling of gossip, he tells his own story with a colossal sense of style but tinged with modesty, even though his achievements are manifold and his business acumen legendary. He was christened John, but there was something about Oscar Wilde’s spoiled man-about-town Algernon Moncrieff from The Importance of being Earnest, that was spotted by his school friends and described as ‘a hedonist who does more or less what he likes, more or less all the time’. To others he was a crosspollination of James Bond and Indiana Jones, with an eye for adventure and a real talent for entrepreneurship. After a stint in the Grenadier Guards, where he was sent to the British Cameroons and then to Cyprus and Borneo, in Africa he was billeted in a hill station Jakiri, where he encountered ‘The Fon of Banso’, the Chief of the area, who, when he left, threw a wild party with a large number of gyrating girls, all naked and nubile. The Fon then produced the ‘biggest woman I had seen in Africa, the Fon’s notion of absolute beauty’. Cluff complained of a shocking headache, made his excuses and left, alone. In Indonesia, he was advised by Henry Keswick to invest in the rubber and palm oil companies as their British-controlled boards had underestimated their true worth, particularly in terms of real estate. He passed the information on to his father, who invested heavily and made a shrewd killing, the profits from the deals being paid into Algy’s bank account. This swelling of his coffers enabled the young Algy to indulge in a pretty loose and socially mobile life-style, that took him into all sorts of louche and grand places. He joined the St James’s Club in Piccadilly, the first of many clubs he joined, where he often shared the dining room with Osbert Sitwell and Evelyn Waugh, complete with ear trumpet. A glance at the index denotes the kind of friends he made, the society in which he was circulating and the sort of businessmen and politicians he encountered along the way. He is quite waspish about the membership; ‘the most unpleasant member was Laurance Gresley who issued a stream of abuse about his fellow members . . . declaiming about his sex life to anyone who would listen. We doubted whether, in fact, he had any sex life at all, although there was a Yugoslavian lady with a basement flat in Eaton Square known as the Balkan Mattress; she was very popular with some of the members.’ Cluff ’s fortunes changed when he went into banking and then invested in North Sea oil with a consortium comprising many of his ex-Guards cronies. Very quickly

they discovered enormous oil deposits in their allotted blocks and they started to make shed-loads of money. One field he named Buchan, and not just because it was the nearest landfall to the rig, but because, along with Dornford Yates and Sapper, John Buchan was his favourite author as a child. Cluff teamed up with David Tang and embarked on mining projects in Zimbabwe, Chile, China and Australia. One day in1980 he was lunching in John Aspinall’s new gaming club off Sloane Street with his old chum Henry Keswick from Hong Kong when the sale of the Spectator was raised. Keswick had bought it five years previously from ‘a bounderish character’ Harry Creighton, and Cluff paid £160,000 in Cluff Oil stock. Five years later, with a healthy circulation and a great team of writers on board, he was approached by Malcolm Turnbull, a clever Australian lawyer and now their Prime Minister, on behalf of Kerry Packer, to sell it to him, a man about whom he said as an aside, ‘I never liked him anyway.’ Instead he sold it to some other Aussies, the Fairfax family, but was kept on as chairman. One final episode as proprietor was a libel case brought against the Spectator for some choice words written by Taki, their High Life scribe, who laid into an Argentinian socialite called Mrs Marcie-Rivière, describing her ‘a geriatric Circe with a face like a collapsed cake.’ Cluff observed that ‘half the jurors were women, all of whom sported faces that looked to me like collapsed cakes.’ He lost the case and a great deal of money. He went on to buy the Literary Review with Naim Attallah, with Auberon Waugh as Editor, who had previously been the wine correspondent of the Spectator. He recalls one review of a red burgundy as tasting ‘. . . like dead chrysanthemums on the grave of a stillborn West Indian child.’ Nothing if not colourful. Don Grant

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Free Audiobooks

Richard Rodgers Some Enchanted Evening

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shifted sideways, or backwards, from music editor to classical music correspondent, when I woke up one morning in a cold sweat frightened that I’d find myself on my deathbed not having heard enough Bach. When I come to review my life, the spine of the story will be told in KCWToday articles. I will smile at the outrageous memories of The Dentist, immortalised in these pages during a swaggering summer of red wine, invitations to cover The Human League, the musical zenith that was Red Barrett, her divinely manic performance at the Fetes Champetre. When she stunned us both by marrying someone else, it came as a huge relief. The Dentist is a proper princess, well above my pay-grade. The Lawyer is off-games due to bereavement, so I’ve taken a variety of other plus ones: Rockpool Robin, Home House Robin, Editor-Kate, Plus One Colin, Chain Gang Ian, amongst others. My brother stood me up for the Otway gig at the Edinburgh Fringe. He’d had a bad day, and I bit my lip at the £300 in rail fairs, the liaising with Otway to make sure my brother got a good welcome backstage, and the three days’ holiday it had taken. So I took our mother, to whom Otway was charm itself. The

(CLASSICAL) MUSIC

award for most entertaining summer 2016 consort to the music correspondent at KCW Today goes to Pamela Price, legendary Clapham caterer and Margate art gallery owner. Twenty years ago I was her husband John Blackwell’s accountant (in fact, referred to me by Pamela through the Wandsworth Chamber). Turned out, small world, John had been my university professor Malcolm Bradbury’s editor. Tragically for Pamela and John, John died shortly afterwards, and I had the unpleasant experience of reading about the loss of a new friend, and indeed a bad debt, in the obituary columns. What would I do to have an editor of Blackwell’s status on my books right now? (No offence to Tim Epps, doing a sterling job on my third novel A House For Sale.) Bumped into Pamela at a chamber do about six months ago, and that led to a magical mystery tour to the Gower Peninsular, to catch up with mutual friend Janey Evers, who years ago used to run the Tea Rooms Des Artistes

September 2016

Unconstrained by the tight format and slick production requirements of radio broadcasting, free podcasts have burst into our media habits. Often made by amateurs, and free at the point of use, podcasts can provide insightful dialogues on a wealth of subjects: from politics to Hollywood to gaming, garnering thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of weekly listeners. Their success lies in their convenience; we can listen while on the commute or while falling asleep or doing household chores. This has got some wondering: can the success of podcasts be translated into the world of audiobooks? Within a few clicks, on devices we carry around in our pockets, we have access to a huge library of books, free in the public domain. Yet few of us have the attention span, or time, to sit down and read through this library. Enter LibriVox, a volunteer run producer and distributer of free audiobooks. A true child of the internet, the devoted community of Librivox organises themselves on the website’s forum. There they propose projects, edit and help each other manage LibriVox online library of over 8,660 audiobooks. Contributors record themselves reading a part of a book, or even the whole thing, before uploading it onto the site for the worldwide public to listen to. The results are marvellously inconsistent. The recordings range “from fantastic to extremely bad,” in the words of Freddie Rowe, audio production expert and owner of The Copyright Group. I spoke to Freddie to analyse the brave new world of free audiobooks. He tells me: “A few years ago audiobooks were the next big thing.” Publishers saw the audiobook as a great publicity tool for selling books in print. However, costs such as hiring a recording studio, a suitable voice artist, producer, sound engineer, editor, on top of publishing and distribution, especially in the days of

CDs and cassettes, conspired to constrain audiobooks to the big names: “Harry Potter being read by Stephen Fry”. Now in the digital age, things are better. Audiobooks can be recorded and distributed far quicker, for far less, on services like Audible, a subscription market place of audiobooks run by Amazon. However the relatively high production cost of audiobooks is still a barrier to their production. “A book which costs £7.00 in print might cost £25.00 in audiobook.” Time poor consumers might think: “is £25.00 for 16 hours really worth it?” This has led to a “move toward crowd-sourcing services, like LibriVox.” “This is,” Freddie continues, “a fantastic idea in some respects.” Books that would never have been economical to produce in audio format before can now be recorded. “Books that may have been forgotten about can be brought back.” The nature of LibriVox lends itself to obscure or cult works with little to no commercial appeal, ignored by the professional producers. For instance while the nineteenth century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche has only 2 books available on Audible, he has a whopping 26 recordings on LibriVox. Freddie notes there is often a wide chasm between what an audience may expect and what a service like LibriVox can produce. “People think they will sound like Orson Welles but in reality they don’t. Give it a go yourself. You’ll soon find how hard it is. Making an audiobook is much harder than simply reading the words aloud.” The low quality of LibriVox means, “unless they are really into the book, the listener will become weary of the experience.” “LibriVox opens the door to some but also risks closing the door on others. If an audiobook is boring, or really bad, it will turn people off.” Noting that an audiobook can never, in a deep sense, replace the experience of reading a book, a good audiobook, professionally made, is designed to overcome some of the challenges of the medium. Editors are employed to abridge books, saving on costs and retaining the experience of the book for the time-poor listener. Professional productions also take the time to find the right voice for the right book; a brilliant voice artist can “bring you into the world of the book.” He gives the example of poetry. “People generally study poetry at school and may be turned off by the experience.” But a great audio recording of a poetry reading, with proper depth and understanding, as his company is doing at the moment, has the possibility of turning people back on. While the internet revolution has promise, certainly, it has its limits. Nevertheless, with the charmingly amateur nature of the LibriVox recordings, one cannot help but get the feeling we are living through a kind of golden age of amateur audio production.

September April/May 2016 2011

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Arts & Culture

Feldman MAX

REVIEWS

War Dogs

Director: Todd Phillips Running Time: 114 minutes

hen Edwin Starr famously insisted that war was good for “absolutely nothing! (say it again!)” he clearly hadn’t considered the obscene amount of money it generates for arms’ dealers. Whilst most films about arms’ dealers usually concerns the illegal side of the industry (as corporate suits signing contracts isn’t really all that sexy) War Dogs blurs that line a little, coming down closer to The Wolf of Wall Street than Office Space. War Dogs has an advantage in that it takes place in the early 2000s, following a scandal where the Bush administration was caught red-handed awarding no-bid defence contracts to corporate behemoths like Halliburton and Lockheed Martin in what appeared to be a case of the military industrial complex giving itself an obscenely lucrative reach-around. To kill the allegations of corruption, the Pentagon allowed any Tom, Dick and Harry not on a terrorist watch list

to openly bid on every single weapons contract offered by the US military. This enabled an entire new class of bottom feeders to emerge who sheltered beneath the monstrous bulk of the military acquisitions like remoras under a bloated shark. We are introduced to our bottom feeder du jour as he’s having a gun stuck in his face in Albania. David Packhouz (Miles Teller) is a baby-faced ex-massage therapist whose Scorsese-like narration quickly makes it clear that he is about as qualified to run guns as he is to perform open heart surgery. Flashing back to his former non-having-a-gun-stuckin-his-face life reveals a lost and bored

twenty-something trying desperately to make ends meet (while also taking any opportunity to get stoned that presents itself ) who fortune throws something between a bone and a hand-grenade when he has a chance run-in with his childhood best friend Efraim Diveroli ( Jonah Hill), a barely licensed arms dealer who operates out of a boxy office mostly occupied with a gigantic Scarface mural. Hill’s Diveroli is the film’s not-so secret weapon, all dead eyes and bullfrog jowls, he rampages through the film; even his performance in The Wolf of Wall Street wasn’t quite this bravura. Whilst crude and perhaps sociopathic, Diveroli

is intensely charming and magnetic. You can clearly see why anyone would be happily swept up by his particular brand of bullshit and the film comes to life whenever he’s in it. Soon Packhouz is serving as his pocket company’s number two, and things lock into the standard ‘rise’ narrative of any rise/fall crime drama worth its salt as the two young hustlers lie and cheat themselves to bigger and bigger deals. What stands out about War Dogs however (and perhaps something that the film could have dwelt on more) is that far from being criminal, all of this was completely legal and that this cut-throat mania was downright encouraged by the way that the arms industry was set up. Not everything in the film works, Packhouz’s girlfriend Iz (Ana de Armas) seems to exist purely to be a nagging voice of conscience without any other distinct character traits (unless you count ‘pregnant’) and the film temporarily runs out of steam in its final act before coming together again for an ambiguous ending. The soundtrack is also an unapologetic victory lap of classic seventies rock that has all been featured in a million other movies; for me this worked well with the bombastic tone of the film, but if the idea of a last second rescue by army helicopters scored to CCR’s Fortunate Son makes you roll your eyes then perhaps this isn’t the picture for you.There are, however, plenty of moments where the film comes

Dinosaur Jr. Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not Label: Jagjaguwar Price: £9.99

At this point Dinosaur Jr have matured so thoroughly into the role of indie elder-statesmen that it’s quite hard to imagine them as the grungy young upstarts brought the guitar solo back to the avant garde in the 80s (perhaps a name change from ‘Jr’ to ‘Sr’ would be appropriate one of these days?). After one of the more acrimonious breakups of the 90s (to the point where the last song they recorded consists of bassist Lou Barlow howling “why don’t you like me?!” at the guitarist over and over) there were plenty who rolled their eyes at their 2007 reunion, predicting a godawful new album followed by constant interminable money spinning tours. However Dinosaur Jr. have proved to be a fantastic outlier to clichés about reunited bands, rocking as hard as ever on tour whilst releasing three great records with an almost metronomic precision. The newly

Arts & Culture

released (and awkwardly titled) Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not continues this tradition handily with another solid entry that should have cooler-than-thou indie kids jumping around like over 7 year olds dizzy on Ribena. Dinosaur Jr’s stock in trade as ever are savage guitar heroics married to

September 2016

sweetly stoned guitar lines that almost physically demand the listener humming along paired with guitarist and singer J Mascis’s Neil Young-esque yowl that avoids the gnarled crotchetiness of Mr Young himself in favour of a more relaxed slacker approach. Whilst the band certainly sound like a product

of their time, that’s more due to how heavily their sound was ripped off by their peers rather than a comment on their music being dated. The album kicks off with the force of a bull smashing through a china shop that’s already on fire. The track positively gallops with chugging, crunching-but-hummable

together with style and purpose: An admittedly invented high speed chase through ‘the triangle of death’ in Iraq gives the film a much needed kickstart and every time the reptilian and frankly unnerving gun runner Henry Girard (Bradley Cooper, wraparound glasses magnifying bloodshot eyes) the film offers an icy glimpse of what lurks in the darker depths of the world in which its two young idiots are paddling. Much like The Wolf of Wall Street, War Dogs offers little or no judgement on its protagonists which may annoy some viewers, but ultimately strengthens the film and saves it from the third act preachiness of similar films like Lord Of War. Todd Phillips made his name as a director with the notably meanspirited Hangover trilogy, a fairly dark bro-comedy series that had completely outstayed its welcome by the second film. With War Dogs he finds himself in far more fertile territory, putting the kinetic pace of his comedy work to good use by telling a true story that sets out to be The Big Short of arms dealing. It’s not nearly as clever or original a film as the one it’s emulating and shamelessly apes Scorsese for everything it’s worth but Dogs manages to strike a deeply entertaining balance whilst telling a truly bizarre story in a regrettably straight down the line way. Not every film can move the cinematic goal posts, but this one colours inside its rather rigid lines with some notable style. riffs and with a nice bow-tying solo. It’s immediately followed up by the one-two punch of Tiny which positively quivers with ironically gargantuan riffs, at only 3:12 lasting not a second longer than it needs to. With the exception of two Barlow penned tunes (Love Is… and album closer Left/Right) the album doesn’t exactly try to reinvent the wheel. Whilst Barlow and drummer Murph keep up a rollicking rhythm section (with particular praise due to Barlow’s savagely low end bass playing) the main attraction will always remain Mascis’s unapologetic shredding. Few figures in the indie scene (or indeed the present day rock scene) play with so much rough-hewn virtuosity marred by so little pretension. Even on the few tracks that threaten to be overwhelmed by staid grunge clichés (I Walk for Miles take your bow!) the sheer power of the man’s feedback drenched solos can’t help but overwhelm any attendant sludginess. If guitar doesn’t do it for you, then this record isn’t going to meet you even a third of the way (let alone half ), but there is something tremendously relaxing about the record, the sound of a great band blasting through familiar territory for the sheer pleasure of it. Whilst Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not is unlikely to inspire any (sigh) J-Mascian conversions, sometimes it’s great to check out a Dinosaur that refuses to go extinct.

Swiss Army Man Director: Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert Run time: 97 minutes

“Caught in a storm,” reads the SOS note, bobbing in a sea of perfect blue. On an island too small for one man, one man (Paul Dano, in a Robinson Crusoe beard) tightens a noose around his neck. But he soon has company, washed in by the waves: a man with pallid skin, unblinking eyes, and a mouth frozen in a perpetual grimace. Five minutes is about all it takes for Swiss Army Man to establish its premise, its characters, its single setting. It’s also the amount of time the movie needs to announce itself as the most berserk American comedy of the year. That lifeless body on the beach bears the unmistakable appearance of Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe. And before long, the music rises, the opening credits dramatically roll, and suicidal survivor Hank (Dano) is riding his new friend across the water like a jet ski, propelled by his posthumous flatulence. As meetcutes go, it’s memorable. The easy elevator pitch on Swiss Army Man is that it’s Cast Away meets Weekend At Bernie’s. Weird as that movie may sound, it’s not nearly as weird as the one actually cooked up by “Daniels,” a.k.a. Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the branded directing duo making its feature-length debut. No simple logline can account for the rubbery slapstick, like something out of a morbid Stephen Chow movie; the body horror played for insane laughs; or the existential despair that invades the film like a thief in the night. At its world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Swiss Army Man provoked waves of walkouts, presumably from folks who couldn’t stomach the sight of Radcliffe barfing out drinking water like one of the puppets from Team America. But alienating viewers is a badge of honour for a movie this singularly, sometimes uproariously, strange. For a while, it seems as though Radcliffe has been hired to simply play dead, or even just to lend his likeness to an unblinking, unspeaking dummy; a sick joke on any Potter fan buying a ticket only for him. But eventually Manny, as Hank dubs the stiff he’s ridden to a larger and less secluded wilderness, begins to creak to life, like Pinocchio or a hapless, childlike zombie. Manny can’t remember anything about his life, or indeed about life in general, but he’s not without his uses: Per the title, this talking corpse becomes an undead tool kit— his erratic erection functioning like a

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online: www.KCWToday.co.uk compass, his mouth and lungs a projectile device, his stiff limbs handily springloaded through rigor mortis. More than that, though, Manny becomes an allpurpose companion: a child for Hank to teach, a partner in adolescent mischief, a loyal confidant, even a soul mate and potential love interest. Add “complicated buddy picture” to the IMDB keywords. Swiss Army Man benefits immensely from the involvement of its two stars, both of whom fully commit to this gonzo scenario. Exploiting his character’s limited range of motion for some inspired physical comedy, Radcliffe has the showier of the two roles. But the sneaky pathos rests largely on Dano; especially once his bizarre bromance begins to look like an elaborate form

in their attempt to reconstruct the civilization they’ve lost, begin creating a dollhouse jungle society, like something out of a Michel Gondry wet dream. But the madness of the myopic POV rescues Swiss Army Man from its own preciousness; this is the hipster odyssey of healing gone completely unglued, as though Hank were remaking some Focus Feature in his severely damaged head. The music hilariously knocks that point home, with the Daniels practically spoofing the schoolyard jangle of Karen O’s Where The Wild Things Are score, while collaging in half-remembered lyrics from Cotton Eye Joe and snippets of the score from Jurassic Park. The fact that it’s often Dano and Radcliffe themselves humming and

of therapy, with the movie using daft conversation (topics include masturbation and Netflix) and wordless flashbacks to fill in Hank’s backstory. For everything else it is, Swiss Army Man is also a stealth lonely-dude indie, filtering the usual self-pity of that genre through the lens of desert-island madness. There’s even an object of desire, a dream girl played in pictures and nearly subliminal flashes by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, though the Daniels shrewdly subvert that cliché by emphasizing its creepy, unflattering one-sidedness. At times, Swiss Army Man feels like an experiment in audience engagement: Can we push past the absurdity of the premise and the gross-out humor it facilitates to get emotionally invested? To that end, the Daniels flirt a little too hard with going full indie-movie maudlin on our asses, the whimsy reaching critical levels when Hank and Manny,

singing and triumphantly chanting on the soundtrack only reinforces the sense that we’re stuck, in literary terms,with an unreliable narrator. From its songs to its arts-and-crafts art direction to its largely practical effects, the film feels hand-made, the better to emphasize that everything happening on screen is unfolding from one very warped perspective. Swiss Army Man pulls right up to the edge of its own reality, threatening to draw a line between what’s “actually” happening and what isn’t. Instead, it turns and plunges right back into the choppy fray. To say that this is a film not to every taste is putting it mildly; for every viewer repelled by the boner and fart jokes, there will be another uninterested in having their heartstrings tenderly plucked. But the title is apropos for a curiosity so multifaceted. It’s a bit of a Swiss Army movie, too.

September April/May 2016 2011

Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

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By Cynthia Pickard

thought we’d take the long straight Watling Street route from Londinium to Verulamium and have a look at Roman life. Alternatively one could take the train from the saintly station of St Pancras in 20 minutes, to the town, now named St Albans after the third century saint. We have arrived in Hertfordshire where the very names of Watford and Potters Bar, Welwyn Garden City and Hemel Hempstead, have the ring

of a John Betjeman poem. Between the towns is gentle countryside dotted with old villages. I wanted to view the ancient artefacts, from tiny animal brooches and glass containers to skeletons in lead coffins and the notable mosaics at St Albans’ award winning Verulamium Museum, also the impressive amphitheatre, the remains of the Roman wall, the site of a Roman Villa, and its hypocaust; the Roman equivalent of under-floor heating. Verulamium was once the third largest city in England. We are at Sopwell House Hotel, an extended 18th Century Georgian manor house, where we are not actually staying in the main hotel but in one of the sixteen recently refurbished selfcontained Mews Suites created from an old stable block in what their architect/ designers, Sparcstudio, describe as ‘glamorous country style.’ This is a brilliant idea, it’s really relaxing to spend time in your own secluded living space, some with

kitchenette, fireplaces for winter evenings and each with its own private courtyard, (ours with hot tub,) while retaining access to all the luxurious facilities of the hotel, the restaurants, bars, pool, gym and spa. The gated Mews are set in a stunning modern garden designed by Chelsea Flower Show gold medallist, award winning designer, TV presenter and author, Anne-Marie Powell. The tranquil garden features pleached hornbeams and onion-shaped topiaried yew bushes; in the middle is a heated hydrotherapy pool. I’m pleased to see that the influence of the Romans is still in evidence in the bathroom’s under-floor heating system! Failing to locate any Roman baths in St Albans, I decided to visit the Hotel’s beautiful Spa. After managing a few lengths of the large pool, spending some time in the Jacuzzi and sauna and a few moments in the steam room, I opted for the wonderfully relaxing ESPA re-energising aromatherapy massage, choosing from a wide-ranging selection of treatments. Then back to our private retreat before re-emerging for cocktails and a three-course dinner from a menu that offers something to suit all tastes. The hotel is hung with a variety of eclectic artworks, old photos and framed antique magazine covers. There are 12 acres of stylishly planted grounds, generous facilities for celebrations, weddings and conferences. Within easy reach of Wembley, it’s not surprising

Holiday ideas for all the family

Cruise The Norwegian Coast Hurtigruten

South African Safari

Zambezi Safari & Travel Company Kruger and Sabi Sands Private Reserves A great family safari option, this 6 night Kruger safari focuses on two private unfenced game reserves west of Kruger National Park. The area is one of South Africa’s best places for leopard viewing and encounters with elephants, lions, rhinos, and buffalos pretty much guarantees the full Big Five experience. Two game drives daily in an open Land Rover and daily guided safari walks under the close supervision of experienced rangers and trackers will guarantee exceptional wildlife experiences.

Volunteering in Thailand Go Differently

Working with elephants At the project that Go Differently

supports in southern Thailand, each volunteer (including kids if they’re up to it – and most of them are!) is allocated to work with their “own” elephant and mahout for the duration of their stay so they can get to know them and even build up a rapport. During their stay, they’ll learn how to wash and generally care for their elephant, as well as riding bareback and giving simple voice commands. When it gets too hot in the afternoon, head to the beach or explore the local area. And of course, there’s also plenty of cultural interaction with both the mahouts and their families, and lovely local co-ordinators who host the

volunteers in their comfortable, airconditioned homes.

Grand Canyon Adventure Tauck

Red Rocks And Painted Canyons Share the wonders of nature’s handiwork with your family on Tauck’s popular Utah, Nevada and Arizona holiday. See the sun rise over the Grand Canyon with a stay at an inside-the-park lodge right on the rim, and walk along the South Rim with an instructor from the Grand Canyon Field Institute. Discover classic Western towns like red-rock Sedona, Arizona and Kanab, Utah (‘Little

Flamenco, alive and kicking in Andalusia By Lynne McGowan

ast the crooked almond trees and rows of silvery olive sits Granada shimmering in the August heat, surrounded by the blue Sierras. As the heat of the day is exchanged for the coolness of an Arabian night high up among the spires of fragrant cypress, a stage is set for magic, a Flamenco spectacular. Inspired by the City’s poet Lorca and a tribute to his muse, a famous flamenca called La Argentinita, the show captures the proud Andalusian spirit with virtuosic displays of song and dance. To watch real flamenco in action is a thrilling assault on the senses, those staccato rhythms from the handclapping, palmeros and the frenzied tap dancing, zapateado to the twirling and flicking ruffles of the unwieldy traje de gitana or flamenco dress. The guitar, toque meanwhile thrashing rapid riffs, descended from the lute, these lighter and smaller stringed instruments emerged in the 15th Century made from Spanish cypress or spruce offering a sharper sound honed for the flamenco strumming technique. And then there is the singing, cante. Traditionally, flamenco was all about the singing. Cante Jondo or deep song is the true essence of flamenco, a raw, primitive wail as parched as the arid tierra and wrenched forth from the heart.

Individual suites start from £244 per night including breakfast for two people. The Mews at Sopwell House, Cottonmill Lane, St Albans AL1 2HQ T: 01727 864477 www.sopwellhouse. co.uk/rooms-suites/mews-suite/

Hollywood’). Head off into the Sedona hill country on an optional guided Pink Jeep off-road excursion or float along the Colorado River on a raft... fly over Rainbow Bridge... take a private lake cruise and guided tour to view colourful slot canyons in the Navajo Nation... view Bryce Canyon’s famous hoodoos and ride a horse or mule along its scenic trails with a cowboy... and take a private tram tour at Zion National Park!

Did your children get the grades they expected this Summer? Why not reward the whole family with a trip to a new corner of the world? Here are a few places you might want to think about for next vacation:

Cuban heels and castanets

that the hotel has a history of being the chosen venue for football teams such as Watford to come for bonding sessions; the England team also stayed here for their pre-match briefings and I’m told that Pele was a recent guest. St Albans is an attractive and historic town whose streets, old coaching inns, abbey and ecclesiastical buildings have served as backdrops for many films and TV series including Morse and Foyle’s War. Nearby there are several golf courses or if you’re into Harry Potter, you can take the Warner Brothers Studio Tour. The Verulamium Museum demonstrates how sophisticated the Romans were; I think they would definitely have appreciated the lifestyle on offer at the Mews at Sopwell House.

Young Explorers’ Programme in Norway On sailings along the Norwegian coast, kids aged 7-13 can partake in the complimentary Young Explorers’ Programme from 1 April 2017. It is designed for children travelling with adults to magnificent destinations where the focus is on education, fun, and participation. Participating in the Young Explorers Programme is free of charge for all kids on board, and will be available on Hurtigruten’s Norwegian coastal sailings with MS Finnmarken, MS Midnatsol and MS Trollfjord. On these journeys the kids will stay active and curious, get a deeper understanding of nature, climate and culture, and be introduced to topics related to wildlife, local food, environmental protection and famous explorers. This programme truly gives the kids a sense of what it is like to be a real explorer in beautiful and untouched surroundings!

The Mews at Sopwell House

Travel

September 2016

Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

online: www.KCWToday.co.uk Passionately written ballads reflecting the life and customs of the gitanos singing of love, loss and struggle, pain and sorrow. All these elements fill the stage and open air with a singular look and sound that stimulate and excite, the challenge being to conjure the force of duende, the true, illusive spirit of the earth surging up through the throat or the drilling heels. The arrival of duende is met with exuberant cries of Allah! so strikingly similar to the Ole! of the bull fight and followed by deep tender sighs of gratitude in Viva Dios! Indian Roma gypsies brought their powerful song and dance to Andalusia between the 9th and 14th century when the Moors ruled the region. A century later with Sephardic Jews and Moriscos, they were harangued and persecuted by Catholic zealots and driven up into the rugged mountains. The likeness between the dexterous hand movements of Indian dancers and flamenco is stark and the wooden castanets from Rajasthan continue. However, way before them around the 7th Century after the conquering Greeks, Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Romans, the Visigoths ruled with their own Mozarabic chants. Out of reach in the hills a new exotic musical genre slowly evolved from an interweaving of cultures and creativity. Tonight, the men are the brilliant stars of the show, their soaring voices penetrate whilst sinewy male dancers strut and pirouette in graceful arcs, once again a reminder of the balletic moves of the matador. Some might say too much machismo but to me it is a vibrant display capturing frustration with defiance and dignity in the face of an ultimately tragic fate. www.lorcaygranada.es

September April/May 2016 2011

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Travel

he intricately layered cities of Tallinn and Tartu prove that Estonia should be on your travel

used in guitar pickups. Public phones could be repaired several times a day due to light-fingered musicians; I told you Estonians are creative. Throughout foreign invasions, some icons survived. The Bastion Tunnels (Komandandi 2), hidden under 4-10 metres of solid defensive walls, found a new purpose with every phase of history: WWII bomb shelter, nuclear hideout, then a place of respite for punks and the homeless. Join a guided tour to see inside. Next, explore the artisan stores around Müürivahe, St. Catherine’s Passage and Master’s Courtyard (or Meistrite Hoov). Many young designers use natural or recycled materials to create unique pieces of jewellery and homeware. Some industrial sites have also been repurposed, continuing the recycling theme, such as the newly opened Korsten restaurant (Põhja puiestee 27a), in a former power station. Their Tiramisu is to die for. After a well-earned rest, start your second day early at Estonia Piano Factory (Kungla 41). Visits, whilst free, are by appointment only, so plan ahead. The company, founded in 1893, is currently owned by Juilliard graduate Dr. Indrek Laul and his parents. They oversee a team of craftsmen, including a deaf piano tuner, making bespoke pianos worth £22,000-100,000, played by the likes of Dave Brubeck and Oscar Peterson. It’s a far cry from the factory’s Iron Curtain days, when the

state demanded cheap mass-produced instruments. Today the Estonia Piano Factory is the prime source for any self-respecting millionaire or billionaire seeking a statement piano. Travel east from the city centre and you’ll soon reach Kadriorg Park, fringed by streets of modern apartments and trendy restaurants like Salt. Kadriorg Palace, a Baroque masterpiece commissioned by Peter the Great, sits at the heart of this green expanse. Buy a combined ticket to cover the palace and its art museum, together with the city’s other art museum branches, and enjoy a spectrum of artistic talent through the ages. The ultra-modern KUMU art museum (Valge 1) is a short walk away and carries both traditional and conceptual work. Current exhibitions include Victorian fashion pieces collected by fashion historian and designer Andrei Vassiliev. It’s also interesting to contrast KUMU with the smaller Adamson-Eric Museum, in a 16th century townhouse beneath Toompea Hill (Lühike jalg 3). Adamson-Eric was one of many Estonian artists who worked and exhibited in Paris. Toast your visit with refreshments and live jazz music at Clazz (Vana turg 2). And so onto Tartu, another one of the country’s largest cities, best known for its academic and literary scene; you won’t find any of Tallinn’s British stag parties here. The journey from Tallinn showcases Estonia’s landscape, of which

Travel Information Fly direct to Estonia from London Gatwick Airport with easyJet (easyjet.com); indirect flights, via Riga, are available with airBaltic (airbaltic.com). Recommended Tallinn hotels include the Telegraaf, the Three Sisters and Radisson Blu Olumpia. In Tartu, try the Antonius Hotel or the Art Hotel Pallas. Not all attractions are accessible for people with mobility issues: please check before travelling. Time: GMT+2 Currency: Euro Whilst you can’t knock the cruise ship tourists’ enthusiasm, Estonia is worth so much more than a brief stop on a busy itinerary. Tallinn and Tartu form an enlightening dual city break that celebrates freedom and culture in equal measure.

By Cynthia Pickard

he words, ‘Golden Road to Samarkand’ conjure up the ultimate romantic idea, the focus of the Silk Road, a trade route since ancient times, a centre of culture and learning. Even Alexander the Great in 329BC found Samarkand more beautiful than he could have imagined. As exciting are the cities of Bukhara and Khiva and the names of historic conquerors from Alexander, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane to Lenin. 7th century murals in the Afrosiab Museum in Samarkand display a feast of details of a bustling golden era, scenes of leopard hunts, jewelled princesses and swans, ambassadors bearing gifts and richly dressed merchants from China, Korea and Turkey arriving on camels and elephants. Uzbekistan is full of amazing architecture; mosques and madrasas, minarets and palaces. Viewed from the Ulug Beg Observatory on the hills above Samarkand, turquoise domes as well as the roofs of modern hotels push up through what appears to be a flat wooded landscape, streets hidden by trees planted against the searing summer heat, (the best time to visit is Autumn or Spring.) The massive Bibi Khanoum Mosque overshadows the hustle and colour of the central bazaar with its dazzling selection of dried and fresh fruits. The imposing grandeur of the Registan, a vast square with madrasas on three sides has been compared to that of the Taj Mahal. President Islam Karimov who died recently has been buried in the Shah-i-Zinda, a complex of stunning tile encrusted mausolea, a visual feast just round the corner from the Gur Emir, Tamerlane’s mausoleum.Khiva is a treasure of UNESCO restored architecture, Tashkent a modern Soviet built city and in the fertile Fergana valley, silk worms munch their way through mulberry trees, to provide the wherewithal for colourful cloth weaving. In between sight-seeing it’s a good idea to stop at one of the peaceful tea houses, chai-khanas, perhaps beside a

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Delights of Uzbekistan

Photographs by Cynthia Pickard

By Polly Allen

50% is forest; roads cleave a path through seemingly endless lines of trees, dotted with the occasional field or village. Tartu’s pearl is its 17th century university, whose alumni include astronomer Ernst Öpik, as well as 100% of Estonian judges and 60% of government ministers. A short university tour reveals the attic room where misbehaving students were held as punishment. With a fairly relaxed regime in place, it became a badge of honour to serve time, and the graffiti decorating the walls is testament to the inmates’ wit. The art museum downstairs also appeals, with an Egyptian mummy and Immanuel Kant’s death mask on display. Afterwards, pop into the nearby Cafe Werner (Ülikooli 11), a favourite haunt of lecturers and the literati. Enjoy a leisurely coffee break before you head to the Estonian Literary Museum (Vanemuise 42), and don’t forget to give Oscar Wilde and Eduard Vilde a nod as you pass their whimsical joint statue on the way. The KGB Cells Museum (Riia 15), about 10 minutes’ walk from the city centre, stands in dramatic contrast to these lofty intellectual attractions. Items made in prison camps, now on show, include a complete translation of Charles Darwin’s autobiography. For light-hearted relief, finish with a brewery tour at A. Le Coq (Laulupeo puiestee 15, Thursdays and Saturdays only). Albert Le Coq originally sold Russian Imperial Stout from London and St. Petersburg in 1807, before moving operations to Tartu. A. Le Coq is now the bestknown Estonian beer. Follow your tasting session with a meal at criticallyacclaimed Polpo (Rüütli 9).

Why Estonia is so much more than a cruise ship destination

radar. The cruise ships docking in Tallinn’s port, dutifully vomiting their bevy of tourists clad in socks-and-sandals to clog up the viewing points on Toompea Hill, can’t show you the real Estonia. However, that doesn’t deter them. Estonia is a cruise favourite, tempting visitors with the chance to parade on the cobbles and take selfies in the main square. It’s all charmingly cosy, but you can’t grasp hard-won Estonian freedom or the inspiring entrepreneurial scene courtesy of an umbrella-wielding guide. In 2018 Estonia will celebrate 100 years since declaring independence: a considerable achievement following centuries of turbulent rule by the Danes, Swedes, Germans and Russians. However, the Russians and Germans soon struck again, and true independence was only restored in 1991. If you think this suddenly sounds unbearably bleak for city break fodder, you’d be wrong. Tallinn holds traces of all those invaders, from the Danes’ renovations at Toompea Castle, to the intimidating Soviet architecture looming behind the miraculously preserved Old Town, but it also has a strong national character. Sights like the Song Festival Grounds and hipster shopping and food mecca Telliskivi demonstrate its creative heart. Furthermore, Estonia’s ‘second city’, Tartu, has always been an intellectual haven. Estonia’s remarkable Tiger Leap programme in the mid-to-late 90s saw this adaptable country become one huge technology hub, nurturing start-up businesses and embracing the internet. It will even host the EU Presidency six months early in 2017 (a little incident called Brexit prevented Britain taking up the Presidency as planned). This blend of old wounds and modern innovation make Estonia more accessible than its Eastern European neighbours, with a free Wi-Fi connection around every corner as you explore historical sites. The Museum of Occupations (Toompea tänav 8), detailing life under the Russians and Germans, is your starting point. Examine artefacts like the old telephone that amateur guitarists ransacked for its receiver magnet, to be

September 2016

limpid pool. Foodwise, in Uzbekistan wok-cooked Plov has to be experienced, it is the national rice dish for which there are over sixty different recipes. Traditional round loaves of Uzbek bread called non are a must too. Before someone sets out on a journey they must eat a small piece of a loaf that is preserved until they return safely. To confirm and celebrate a marriage engagement, bread is broken not cut, as it is felt that the knife may hurt the bread. Before Tamerlane’s scintillating blue and turquoise tiles became the pervading decorative language, architecture depended on the creative use of geometric patterning with bricks the colour of the deserts that surround the jewel-like cities, particularly seen in some of Bukhara’s older buildings. The most impressive is the 10th century cuboid Ismael Samani Mausoleum where different patterns emerge with changes in the light. The 48 metre high Kalon Minaret, another triumph of monochrome pattern-making, served various of Bukhara’s cruel rulers as a tower from which to throw wrong-doers to their death in sacks. One can lose oneself in the past in Bukhara’s winding backstreets mingling with old men in their traditional robes and skullcaps. The individual domed bazaars of the jewellers, cap makers and moneychangers, though no longer serving those functions, cling to the magic of their names. Metal workers still create samovars, pipes and dangerous looking knives. In Uzbekistan a charmed evening can be spent in the romantic setting of a courtyard watching traditional music and dance while dining at low tables, as doves, their wings lit by the last gold of the setting sun, flutter above to settle on the niches and ledges of the country’s wonderful ornate architecture.

September April/May 2016 2011

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September 2016

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Health & Beauty

online: www.KCWToday.co.uk

The Gel

…..…an essential for everyone’s Health and Beauty by Jayne Beaumont

online: www.KCWToday.co.uk

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Beth combined these findings with traditional homeopathy to make his discovery even more powerful and The Gel was developed. After testing it on family and friends, she began recommending it to her clients with skin problems and to combat skin ageing with increasing success. In the mid 80s, she moved to London and soon after Leslie Kenton, the then Beauty Editor of Harpers Queen and latterly a Health guru and writer, discovered The Gel and spread the word through her column and her connections. Thirty years later and continuing

recommendations, it has a long and devoted client list including many wellknown personalities here and around the world. There are extraordinary testimonials on the Gagnon Essentials’ website illustrating The Gel’s effectiveness written by individual users as well as doctors and other health practitioners. In a nutshell, The Gel greatly speeds up the healing of the skin’s problems caused by accidents such as burns and falls, and scarring from operations. It also rejuvenates the skin when used daily. It is safe to apply to a baby’s skin as all the ingredients are natural and it has been known to help the healing of animals even if they lick it off ! I have been using this product for years as well as sharing it with my friends and family and can personally vouch for its healing properties and its ability to restore a glow to the skin. Along with many other users, I think The Gel should be in every household’s medical cabinet and amongst the daily creams of everyone who cares about their skin. I’m delighted it has now become available to purchase online so it can help more people and be appreciated more extensively. The Gel comes in two sizes: a 60ml glass jar for £32 and a 125ml plastic bottle for £64 plus postage. From: www.gagnonessentials.com or 020 7224 2332 to place an order.

BEAUTY TIP from the Beauty Editor How to make your Pedicure last! • It takes up to 12 hours for polish to harden properly so avoid water or exposure to moisture during this period as the polish can lift and the life of your ‘pedi’ can really be shortened. • Initially (and obviously) wear open toe shoes for the same reason but alternate with closed toe shoes later as too much exposure to the elements causes polish to fade faster. • Top up your topcoat every 2 days to keep the shine and don’t forget to brush along the edges to seal them in as this is where chips tend to start! • Daily apply a couple of drops of cuticle oil to your toes. This will prevent hangnails and dry cuticles both of which cause polish to peel. • Moisturise your toes regularly but avoid heavily scented lotions as synthetic scents can warp the polish and cause it to crack!

September April/May 2016 2011

Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

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Physiotherapy top tips

arm rests adjust them to maintain this position. • Support your back You should have a chair that can be easily adjusted to change the height, back position and tilt in order to support your lower back.

uring the summer months, it seems easier to keep active; instead of talking the bus, people enjoy a walk on a warm evening, and at lunch time the parks are full of office workers talking a stroll or doing some yoga! It’s really important to incorporate some gentle exercise into your daily routine. It can have huge benefits for your physical and mental wellbeing, especially when people are spending longer at their desks, as well as working on their phones or laptops. It’s no surprise that there's been an increase in health conditions like repetitive strain injury, carpal tunnel and, at the top of the list, back pain. If you’re suffering from any of these, whether it’s a minor niggle or an ongoing issue that’s really impacting on your quality of life, our Physiotherapy Team has some top tips to get you back on track

• Feet on the floor There should be enough space under your desk to allow your hips and knees to remain at right angles while you sit, your feet should be comfortably on the floor. You may need a foot stool to achieve this position.

• Keep moving Don’t sit for long periods; make a conscious effort to get up every 20-30 minutes. Take a walk around the office, or instead of calling or emailing, why not visit a colleague on a different floor? Don’t wait to feel discomfort before you move - prevention is the key! • Start ‘desk-exercising’ Doing simple exercises throughout the day can help keep you limber and minimise any aches and pain. Why not try doing some shoulder shrugs and neck rotations in between checking your emails.

Helping you take care of yourself

• Are you sitting comfortably? It’s really important to make sure your work station is set up properly so that you are not overstretching or slumping at your desk: • Eye level screen To avoid potentially uncomfortable neck positions. You may need a stand for your monitor to maintain this. • Adjust your chair Your chair height should be adjusted to allow your elbows to remain at a right angle while you can easily reach your keyboard and mouse. If you have

• Take a break Make sure you take your full lunch break. A change of scene will help reboot your mind, and taking a stroll around a local park or even to the shops will help keep you active throughout the working day.

If you have any aches and pains that need addressing, you can book an appointment with the Therapy Team by calling 020 7460 5749.

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Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

Health & Beauty

September 2016

The Consultant Surgeon led team at Cosmetech has perfected the art of the non-surgical facelift. Here Consultant Surgeon Mr Ashok Songra talks about the perceptions of beauty and why he refuses to go beyond what looks natural.

The Cosmetech team have a reputation for creating some of the most naturallooking cosmetic work in the business. With a loyal following of people at their Holywood and Chelsea Private Clinics who discreetly maintain their youthful looks. Their signature work is ‘the natural look’ ; the treatment results are so good that people know you look good but they don’t know why! Their dislike of expressionless, overplumped faces has shaped the signature style. “The techniques we use are more advanced and focus on preventing the signs of ageing by maintaining the skin and supporting the underlying structures of the face,” says Mr Songra. “We can now delay the ageing process and preserve a face as it is for the next 10 years. “With so much awareness of cosmetic treatments, clients now come to us with a better understanding of cosmetic treatments than ever before. They don’t always want to go under the knife for many reasons; health, fear or simply social pressure. With such a variety of non-invasive treatments available today, we’re now able to achieve an excellent natural-looking face-lift without surgery and have developed a combined therapy face-lift. Symmetry and proportion are key to a natural attractive look, because as we age we lose natural volume in the face. Hyaluronic acid dermal fillers from a substance that occurs naturally in the body gently replaces what the skin has lost, lifting deep folds and halting the

effects of ageing. For the best results, treat the face as a whole, lifting mid-face areas, then lifting the lower face and jaw line for a fresher and plumper look.” The Cosmetech, Chelsea Private Clinic is a Consultant Surgeon-led clinic which specialises in non-surgical antiageing solutions, health and wellbeing. Their experience within the NHS and private sector includes managing facial trauma, facial deformity, cosmetic dermatology and scar revisions. Mr Songra Consultant Surgeon in head, neck and facial surgery, is on the UK’s anti-wrinkle validator panel, which assesses safety and the ability of practitioners in administering antiwrinkle injections for cosmetic purposes. Q. What can anti-wrinkle injections do? A. They can maintain the brow position and prevent the ingraining of lines. Advanced anti- wrinkle injections also help prevent lower jowls developing. Combined with dermal fillers they can prevent the need for surgery in later life. Q. How do they work? A. Anti-wrinkle injections are a purified protein that’s injected in tiny quantities into face muscles to soften lines and wrinkles. You’ll see improvement three days to two weeks after treatment. It usually wears off in 3-4 months. Q. Are anti-wrinkle injections safe? A. Yes. They’re licenced for ages two and over. We have over 30 years of clinical data proving their safety.

Receive 10% off with this voucher.

off your first non- surgical treatment with Mr Ashok Songra. This voucher expires on the 1st October 2016 please call 020 7565 0333 for bookings. * terms and conditions apply

Q. What is a hyaluronic acid dermal filler? A. The acid occurs naturally in the body and helps to hydrate and add volume to skin. Q. What do dermal fillers do? A.They replace facial volume, smooth lines and restore skin elasticity and tone. Services available at the clinic include: Anti- wrinkle injection / Dermal Fillers, PDO Thread Lifts, Colonic Hydrotherapy, Manual Lymphatic Drainage Massage, Acupuncture, Cryolipolysis, Hair Styling and Colouring technician, Skin Rejuvenation, Nutritional Consultations, Osteopathy, Cosmetic Skin Tag and Mole Removal.

Chelsea Private Clinic The Courtyard, 250 Kings Rd London SW3 5UE T: 020 7565 0333 www.chelseaprivateclinic.co.uk frontdesk@chelseaprivateclinic.com

September April/May 2016 2011

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Motoring

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September 2016

Motoring

From the Back Seat

online: www.KCWToday.co.uk

LONDON’S ROLLS-ROYCE & BENTLEY SPECIALIST established 1977

Part 35 By Don Grant

y competing in rallies, hill-climbs and trials, dad was able to cover these events literally from the front seat. Trials used to be the rage in post-war Britain, as it was a relatively cheap form of motor sport. Enthusiasts would turn up with their own hand-built specials, based on Fords, MGs or Austins, and they were invariably open-topped, with a driver and a ‘bouncer’, often a portly gentleman, although girl-friends and wives were also encouraged to bounce up and down, to try to get more traction on the steep and mostly muddy off-road climbs. The RAC brought in a Trials’ formula, which limited how far the engine could be moved back: the distance between the front axle and the leading spark-plug should be no more than one fifth of the wheelbase, and the backrests of the seats must not be beyond the rear axle. Needless to say, limited-slip diffs, knobbly tyres and chains were barred, but ‘fiddle brakes’ were permitted, which enabled each rear wheel to be locked independently, allowing the driver to perform spin turns and control the wheels from spinning with delicate pressure on the separate brake levers. It was an incredibly popular sport for spectators in the winter months, with thousands turning out to see the great trial drivers like Rex Chappell, and his wife Renée, and Eric Jackson, and Grand Prix drivers like Stirling Moss, Ken Wharton and Graham Hill all had a go at one point in their careers. Some hills looked impossible to climb from the bottom, and even tricky to walk up, but with ingenuity and colossal skill, these little, light cars would snake and scramble up the incline, inching their way to the top, with a lot of ‘fiddle and bounce’ from her indoors. Dad’s technical editor, John Bolster, was a great hill-climber, both before and after the war, in his extraordinary ‘Shelsley special’ Bloody Mary, which was built by himself and his brother Richard when they were schoolboys in 1929, with an ash-wood chassis made using a handdrill and powered by two JAP v-twin engines through a chain-drive. He used to drive BM to and from meetings, with torches wired to the mudguards. Richard had his own 1100cc GN-powered special, but they never attended the same meetings ‘…as, no doubt owing to some oversight on the part of the licensing authorities, both cars had the same registration number,’ recalled John. He started to build a new car with no fewer

Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

Rolls-Royce GT1 diagnostics for Rolls-Royce Phantom and Ghost. Full body off restoration.

G Grant in his Singer Le Mans getting a helping hand or two during The Winter Half Day Trial of the Scottish Sporting Car Club at Fintry in Stirlingshire

than four v-twin engines, but it proved very tricky to control and was able to reach 100mph in under 10 seconds. His motor racing days came to an end when he crashed heavily in a borrowed ERA during the 1949 British Grand Prix, and that was when dad went to visit him in hospital and told him about starting a magazine called Autosport the following year, and would he like to be his technical and road-testing editor? After they had consumed a bottle of rum dad had thoughtfully brought to his bedside, the heavily bandaged patient agreed. He recalls that dad’s method of working revolved around the theory that if you are going to do a job, you might as well have fun while you are doing it. ‘As a philosophy of life, it takes a lot of beating.’ Dad, Bolster and the Continental Editor, Gerard ‘Jabby’ Crombac, all got up to no good when they visited Paris, usually starting off at a bar for the racing fraternity called L’Action Automobile in Avenue d’Iena, which was owned by the Franco-American Grand Prix driver Harry Schell, who tragically died in 1960 while testing a Cooper at Silverstone. They then might dine at one of Bolster’s favourite restaurants, Roger la Grenouille in the Rue des Grands Augustins, where Bolster was known as ‘Major Thompson’, after an eccentric English character in the books of Pierre Danimos, whose brother Jean designed and produced the luxury cars Facel Vega. Strangely, Bolster never made the connection, although he test drove and was gushingly appreciative of these elegant French cars. They would invariably end up at Fred Payne’s Bar in

Rue Pigalle, also known as the Artists’ Bar, or ‘Freddie’s’, as Henry Miller called it in the opening of his short story, Burlesque. Bolster thought Paris had two inestimable advantages, the first being that the water was undrinkable, and the second that the telephone service was atrocious, which meant that meals were partaken uninterrupted by a string of calls. Since the early 1950s, dad had competed in rallies, either as a private entrant, or, later, as a works’ driver. He did innumerable Monte Carlo Rallies in a variety of cars, including MGs and Sunbeam Rapiers and Alpines. In 1952 dad co-drove with Stirling Moss in his Jaguar XK120 in the Lyon-Charbonniere Rally, the only British entrants, where they finished second in their class. The Tulip Rally sounds a bit fey, but it was anything but, the competitors started from various points around Europe, including London, The Hague, Paris, Munich and Brussels, and then a giant 2,100 mile loop across France via the Nurburgring, where competitors had to do a lap anti- clockwise in under 20 minutes. The crews headed for Ballon d’Alsace, where there was a speed hillclimb, a speed downhill-climb, if that is not an oxymoron, and a downhill acceleration-braking affair. They went through the Alps, the Haut-Jura via St. Pierre d’Entremont, Grenoble, Liège, Bourg and then back to Noordwijk on the Dutch seaboard. After three days and three nights, the crews had a day off to go visit the Keukenhof to see the world’s finest tulip display, before they took part in a series of 10-lap races around

Zandvoort, again anti-clockwise. In 1954, he was part of the Triumph works team, and he, with Stan Asbury as co-driver, finished second in their class behind a Ferrari, and seventeenth overall. Dad came back with a good haul of silverware, including the Auto Revue Trophy for the Highest-placed Journalist! Apart from numerous Tulips and Lyon-Charbonniere Rallies, he also competed in the RAC Rally of Great Britain in MGs and in Theodore Roosevelt’s Fiat-Abarth with Brian Melia, the Daily Express Rally in Cliff Davis’s beautiful little open-topped Cooper-MG with a Ferrari Barchetta body in 1952, the Safari Rally with Eric Jackson in a works Ford Zephyr in 1962, the Acropolis Rally, and he twice competed in the legendary Mille Miglia, including the last one ever run in 1957, about which I wrote in a recent From the Back Seat. A friend of mine, Tim Dann, was taken to the classic Le Mans this year by a bunch of rich dudes in swanky cars, and he was watching millions of pounds of machinery being hammered round the circuit by enthusiasts and anciens pilotes, when he noted one particular car. It was a Triumph TR2 in British Racing Green with a yellow radiator cowl and the number plate was PKV 693. That was dad’s car! He did the 1955 Tulip Rally in it, although ‘pranged the motor’, as Bolster would say. It has obviously been lovingly restored and was being driven by Neil Fender, who has since sold it to another enthusiast for goodness knows how much, but at least it is still being raced, which is what it was designed to do.

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September April/May 2016 2011

Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

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Sport

Motoring By Fahad Redha

homage to many past models including the 405 and 406, while the grille takes inspiration from aircraft. It also bears an Italian like shape, particularly from behind; Autocar likens it to Zagato and Bertone. “This unique speedster sets the tone for the future of Bristol Cars, with a focus on luxury, performance and elegance,” General Manager Julian Ramshaw said. “The discovery of the prototype at the factory provided us with the perfect way to celebrate this incredible marque’s 70th anniversary. “Open top, highly luxurious, lightweight and full of torque, it really is the ultimate driver’s car.”

Czech this out By Fahad Redha

A cold-war era manufacturer is back to take on the Vespa. Cezeta built the 501, 502 and 505 scooters from 1957 to 1964. While it did not last long, it gained a cult following due to its unique design, having the fuel tank above the front wheel. This made it more practical, giving room for luggage above the ‘bonnet.’ The 501 and 502 were powered by single cylinder two stroke engines allowing them to top out at 55mph. But the new 506 will be motivated by an 11kw (15hp) electric motor. This allows

By Derek Wyatt

London Home Football

was concussed twice as a rugby player. The first time I was knocked out by an opponent. I was carried off to the changing rooms where extraordinarily I undressed and then put on my blazer and slacks. But instead of heading for the bar, I must have thought it was a good idea to have a bath because when the players came in from playing I was still in the bath with all my clothes on. The second time I was tackled and my head hit the

This is possibly going to be the last Bristol to use a naturally aspirated V8. A luxury grand tourer, likely to be a plug-in-hybrid is expected to kick-off a lineup of hybrids and pure electric cars.

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ground (it was September) and when I came round I had no idea where I was and why I was wearing my rugby jersey. I have recently been scanned and I am happy to report I have no brain injury. But that will not be the case for many other sportsmen and women. The burden of care on the NHS for those with dementia arising out of their playing days will be enormous. Today, concussion is on every front and back page. The NFL is all over the place with its strategy and allowing players to wear helmets which damage an opponent’s head is simply not on. The UK Army has reacted slowly to the number of soldiers who have been so seriously injured by the impact on their heads of the power of IEDs which explode under their feet or close by. Boxers, polo players, rugby and soccer participants need to start to think about what is happening to their head now, not in forty years’ time. This is why with Dr Mark Wilson, a consultant in Neurosurgery and pre-hospital care at Imperial NHS, I have been trying to raise the discussion about brain injuries in the NHS, with the Government and with leading global sports bodies. We want to create the first world Brain Injury Charity which deals with Education, Policy, Leadership and Research. It would have as its focus the Armed Services, Sport and Civilian (e.g. car crashes and stabbings) injuries. Do contact me on derekwyatt@aol.com if you would like to support us.

Summer Sports Round up

On a lighter note what a summer of sports we have had. Another amazing Olympics and Paralympics, wonderful cricket with the county championship finally rising to the boil, England beating the Wallabies down under and Wales making the semi-finals in the European soccer championship, well done them.

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It’s time for the world’s Sports first brain injury Charity fixtures

it to reach speeds of up to 68mph. The company claims up to 125 miles of range from the battery and a 4.5-hour charging time. The prototype was made in Prague in 2012, but the scooter is now close to production, with some subtle redesigns. It will also be connected to an app that allows the owner to reprogram its speed and acceleration, find a charging station, and listen to music via built in Bluetooth speakers. What’s the catch? There is currently only one place on earth where you can test ride it and that’s in Prague. According to Scooter Lab, production will not start until it receives 800 pre-orders. Cezeta is hoping to start production in December at a rate of 80 bikes a month for a price of €8,000. Photograph © UC International

Bullet heralds Bristol’s comeback

ristol Cars has unveiled the £250,000 Bullet, the company’s first new car since the Fighter was launched in 2004 and discontinued in 2011. Power comes from the same 4.8 litre BMW V8 that propels the Morgan Aero 8 and the Weismann MF4. That means 370bhp and 370lb-ft of torque. We also know that it will have a lightweight carbon-fibre chassis instead of aluminium used in previous Bristols. This means that the Bullet tips the scales at only 1,100kg. All of that means the Bullet will accelerate from 0-62mph in just 3.8 seconds before reaching its limited 155mph top speed. 70 Bullets will be produced in early 2017 to celebrate the firm’s 70th anniversary in the car industry, having previously built aircraft. The company claims that a “significant number” are spoken for. The design of the Bullet is an

May April/May 2016 2011

September 10 Arsenal v Southampton 15:00 September 10 Fulham v Birmingham 15:00 September 10 QPR v Blackburn 15:00 September 13 Fulham v Burton Albion 19:45 September 13 QPR v Newcastle 19:45 September 16 Chelsea v Liverpool 20:00 September 24 Arsenal v Chelsea 17:30 September 24 Fulham v Bristol City 15:00 September 24 QPR v Birmingham 15:00 October 1 Fulham v QPR 12:45

October 15-16 Las Vegas

Lord’s Cricket

September 4 Davidstow National Village Cup Final September 6 MCC Schools v Esca September 17 Royal London One-Day Cup September 20-23 Middlesex v Yorkshire Specsavers County Championship

Golf in September

Courtesy of BBC Sport 1-4 LPGA Tour: Manulife LPGA Classic, Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. 1-4 European Tour: Omega European Masters, Crans-sur-Sierre GC, Crans Montana, Switzerland. 2-4 Travis Perkins Masters, Duke’s Course, Woburn GC, Woburn, England. 8-11 Ladies European Tour: ISPS HANDA Ladies European Masters, Golf Club Hubbelrath,

Evian Championship, Evian Golf Club, Evian Les Bains, France. 22-25 European Tour: Porsche European Open, Golf Resort Bad Griesbach, Bad Griesbach, Germany.

Tennis

Courtesy of BBC Sport May 19-25 ATP Moselle Open, Metz, France.

Horse Racing

Ascot September 30, October 1 Autumn Racing Weekend and Ascot Bear Festival Kempton Park September 12,19 Afternoon Flats September 21,28 AWT-Twilight Newmarket September 17 Newmarket Open Day September 22-24 The Cambridgeshire Meeting October 1 Sun Chariot Day Sandown September 14 Afternoon Raceday Windsor September 5 Monday Afternoon Racing

Marathons in the UK

Motorsport

September 3 6 Hours of Mexico September 4 Italian Grand Prix September 8 WRC China September 10 Singapore Grand Prix September 11 WRC China October 2 WRC France October 9 Japanese Grand Prix Red Bull Air Race September 3-4 Lausitzring October 1-2 Indianapolis

Dusseldorf, Germany. 8-11 European Tour: KLM Open, The Dutch, Spijk, Netherlands. 8-11 9-11 French Senior Open, Le Golf National, Paris, France. 14-18 LPGA Tour: The Evian Championship, Evian Les Bains, France. 15-18 European Tour: Italian Open, Golf Club Milano, Parco Reale di Monza, Italy. 15-18 Ladies European Tour:

September 17 Scottish Half Marathon Edinburgh September 18 Purbeck Marathon Swanage,

Dorset September 18 Richmond RUNFEST Marathon Richmond, Surrey September 25 Loch Ness Marathon Inverness September 25 Robin Hood Marathon Nottingham September 25 Windsor Half Marathon Windsor October 1 North York Moors Coastal Marathon Ravenscar, Yorkshire October 2 Bournemouth Marathon Bournemouth October 2

Chester Marathon Chester October 2 Clarendon Marathon Winchester, Hampshire October 2 Glasgow Half Marathon Glasgow October 2 Glencoe Marathon Glencoe October 2 Jersey Marathon Jersey, Channel Islands October 2 Kielder Marathon Kielder Water, Northumberland October 2 Mablethorpe Marathon Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire October 2 Sussex Marathon Heathfield, East Sussex October 8 RunWimbledon Marathon Wimbledon October 9 Isle of Wight Marathon Ryde, Isle of Wight marathonrunnersdiary.com September 7-18 Rio 2016 Paralympic Games

Rowing

September 10 Bradford Autumn Regatta Worcester Autumn Regatta September 11 Cambridge Autumn Regatta Upton Beginners Regatta September 17 York Autumn Sculls Severn Mile Head September 24 Durham Autumn Sprint Wallingford Long Distance Sculls September 25 Chester Long Distance Sculls Monmouth Autumn Head Courtesy of britishrowing.org

Swimming

February 3 2017 British National Diving Cup 2017 Plymouth Life Centre April 9 2017 British Elite Junior Diving Championships 2017 Plymouth Life Centre April 18 British Swimming Championships 2017 Ponds Forge International Sports Centre

Compiled by Fahad Redha

Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

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Crossword & Bridge This is the forty ninth Wolfe Cryptic Crossword

rian Usher by email was last month’s winner, congratulations. I hope you enjoyed last month’s edition. Please let me have any comments or suggestions you may have. Remember, even if you haven’t totally finished the whole crossword still send in your grids either by post to Wolfe, at Kensington,Chelsea & Westminster Today, 80100 Gwynne Road London SW11 3UW, or scan it in and send by email to wolfe@kcwtoday. co.uk. as the first correct or substantially correct answer picked at random will win a prize of a bottle of Champagne kindly donated by: Lea and Sandeman. www.leaandsandeman.co.uk/Fine-Wine. 106 Kensington Church St, London, W8 4BH. T: 020 7221 1982. Contact Sandor. 1

W E

G O O

E 13

P A

P O

L I

I R

O G

E A

N K

T E

G O E

N 22

N O

N T

C O

I A

W A

O N

N A

E 15

9 10

M A

T I

H E

D O

G R

O M N

P L

T T

Across 1 Pompous no storage before italian sparkler in biro maker (9) 6 Amy refused to go here; No, No, No ! (5) 9 Confusing sun over trepidation. (7) 10 Nasty stinger losing its tail becomes a water sign. (7) 11 Intellectual instructor makes fire die. (7) 12 Baled to appear like rounded projections. (7) 13 Melodic phrase heard to be not heavy before the reason why. (9) 15 Rooster with unknown way that is decidedly cheeky. (5) 16 Drunk and mean. (5) 19 Clothing Morse would abide to at Ascot for example. (5,4) 22 Royal aide that used to look after the nags. (7) 23 Confuse a Tart at rapid knocking on the door. (3-1-3) 25 Material bid in the past round mythical bird. (7) 26 System of ventilation slits sound as if they belong to a French museum, (7) 27 Burton headed a bunch of these waterfowl in Africa. (5) 28 Laid out to greet communist runner. (3,6)

♠ ♥ ♦ ♣

Q98 J95 KJ97 KJ8

Neither Side Vulnerable

♠ ♥ ♦ ♣

N S

AK72 3 A5432 A96

♠ ♥ ♦ ♣

10 4 AQ642 Q 10 8 Q32

West

North

East

Pass 2♥ 3♥ All pass

Pass 2♠ Pass

1 ♥1 Pass Pass

Preparedness for the Challenge Ahead

Roosevelts indulgence. (5,4) 17 Lettuce in adhesive provides energy. (7) 18 Copy through paper about Queen, she’d unlikely be living in one. (7) 20 Took exam having us up before mother bore fruit. (7) 21 Visible formation suggesting you may do better than your neighbouring farmer. (7) 23 Got angry when idler was about. (5) 24 Transvestite solidified the box. (2,3)

South 1♦ 1♠ Pass 3♠

(1) Ill-advised with just two small spades. Swap his majors and bidding 1♠ would be clear-cut.

A 1♦ contract by South would not have fared well, probably ending up down one. But East protected with 1♥ and North-South’s spade fit was unearthed. Despite West boldly pushing his opponents to 3♠, the contract could not be beaten. West led ♥5 to ♥7, ♥Q and ♥3. East switched accurately to ♠4 and declarer won ♠K. He cashed ♦A, trumped ♦2 with ♠5, crossed to ♣A, trumped ♦3 with ♠6, trumped ♥8 with ♠2, trumped ♦4 with ♠J, trumped ♥10 with ♠7, cashed ♠A, and conceded the last three tricks. He had scored no less than seven trump tricks, to go with the minor suit aces. Part Score made And before you say “big deal, just a part-score swing”, such swings really are important at all forms of Bridge; not merely Duplicate (even though they are especially vital there). ANDREW’S TIP: When the high cards are evenly split, the highest-ranked suit tends to win the bidding battle. So be wary of letting the opponents uncover a spade fit; adopt cautious part-score tactics with short spades.

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CLASSIFIED ADS

When the opponents stop bidding at the One-Level, you should be loath to let them play undisturbed. They would have kept bidding if their hands were strong, so your partnership must hold almost half the high cards or more. You should generally attempt to find a playable contract or at least push the opponents a level or two higher. But a word of warning, the part-score battle is likely to be won by the side holding the highest ranking suit, spades (the high cards being evenly spread). If you are short in that particular suit, beware! J653 K 10 8 7 6 10 7 5 4

4 Shocking stare coppers weapon (5) 5 A live sect becomes whatever, so it goes. (4,2,3) 6 Rich mob took shape like a diamond. (7) 7 Starts healthy eating perhaps as Down treatment in case of liver complaint. 1 Drink a lot in pub in German festival. (7) (5) 8 Celebrate first kill and sort one of 2 House bird I join to get a drink. (7) eight oxygen carriers. (5,4) 3 The alphabets first thirteen is “M” makes one believe in very small pieces 13 Big turtle threw rubbish about. (9) 14 Redeyed bat maybe created after (7)

with Andrew Robson

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September 2016

Chess

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n article recently published in The Times newspaper revealed Mark Hall’s, (curator Perth Museum), excitement at the large amounts of recently discovered board games found in Viking warriors’ graves at several recently exhumed sites, on Rousay Isle in the Orkneys, and at Sanday nearby. The board game pieces, 25 at the former, and 22 playing pieces at the latter, date from the 9th. century, and pre-date the Isle of Lewis chess men found near Uig, Hebrides, dated 11501200, most of which can be seen at the British Museum, by at least 3 centuries! Mr. Hall said, “Strategy and the skill of board games were clearly linked to the warrior status of the dead. Placing the gaming kit in the grave served to remember or commemorate that status and skill, and to make it available for the deceased in the afterlife’. He also went onto say that success on the gaming board,’...needed strategic thinking as well as fighting ability, confirming the status of an accomplished warrior!” The inclusion of board games in the warrior’s last resting place signified his success in life and ‘preparedness for the challenge ahead’. Preparedness for the challenge ahead is certainly in the air as the season for the World Chess Championship has been stoked into sight, as November in New York is the confirmed month and site for this world title fight. Agon, the commercial management arm for FIDE has racked up our expectancy for the event with loud glowing proclamations such as those from IIya Merenzon, its chief executive,“We are thrilled to hold the Championship in such a fantastic venue, a location that befits the status of chess as one of the world’s fastest growing sports, both in terms of participation and commercial appeal”. She went on to say, “This is going to be the first championship match contested by two Grandmasters of the smartphone generation, a battle of two of the finest minds on the planet, and witnessed and enjoyed by the countless chess fans who play the game online everyday!” This last comment is certainly generic to the way we live now, and set my mind wondering, what would Magnus Carlsen, being a descendant of the Scandinavian Viking fighting tradition, across the board of course, take with him as one of the ‘smartphone generation’ into the afterlife? Perhaps a sort of Vahalla box of 21st. century goodies? Certainly electronic

Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

online: www.KCWToday.co.uk wizardry, and sharp cutting edge clothes and very upmarket motor cars, I suspect. Probably not a wooden chess board and wooden pieces! The problem as I see it is where will the electric plug be to charge up the various gizmos? It certainly raises interesting questions about what former world champions may have wished to take with them on their hallowed journeys? The Americans had hoped that Brooklyn raised Fabiano Caruana, the USA’s Italian-American star, or Hikaru Nakamura would be facing Carlsen this time round, but both were surprised when Sergey Karjakin overtook both to become the contender, However, Karjakin in readying himself for this pyramidal-top encounter, stood down from the Grand Chess Tour fixtures at very short notice, but did allow himself to take part in the Bilbao Masters Tournament, 13-23rd July, in which Carlsen was participating. He, Karjakin, may have wished he hadn’t, since his game with the latter was a rather one-sided affair, and he was duly ‘smashed’ ! Carlsen took the sole lead with this win in round three of this 6 player tournament, and Karjakin found himself at the bottom of the table. After 10 rounds the tournament ended and he managed to lift himself to second from the bottom, with Carlsen winning the event with a round to spare! This certainly was a morale booster for Carlsen, as this was the last time they would play against each other before their World Championship encounter, which is a 12 round match for 11th.30th. November, in New York, at the Fulton Market Building, in Manhattan’s Seaport District, near to the Brooklyn Bridge. It will be the youngest world title fight in chess history with Carlsen 25, and Karjakin 26 years old. It will be the first World Championship Match played in New York since 1995, when Kasparov played Anand, and the $1 million dollars will be split into 60% and 40% prize respectively. The players will compete in a sound proof glass box in front of 300 spectators, plus VIP’s in their lounge area, with at least a billion fans watching and listening via the internet! Andrew Murray Watson, Agon’s spokesman, “We are building up the championship for the smartphone generation that play and absorb chess through their tablets and laptops, and the backdrop of New York is all going to add to the sense that the sleeping giant of chess is slowly waking!” Integral to its commercial success is their hope to attract high profile celebrity fans including the likes of Jay Z, Kevin Spacey, Jude Law, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Gates. The 2014 WCC tourny held in Sochi, Russia, where Carlsen successfully defended his title, saw President Putin making the customary first move. Agon in New York is aiming to line up celebrities, politicians and local charities, amongst others to make the first move in each of the individual games. “The match will be a test drive for the VIP chess market”,

Agon said. Good luck! Back down on earth congratulations to Michael Adams on winning for the 5th time, the British Open 103rd Chess Championship, held in Bournemouth, 23rd.July-6th. August, He was a clear winner with 10/11 pts.,with David Howell and Gawain Jones in second and 3rd places, with 8.5/11 and 8/11 pts. respectively. The following puzzle is taken from the Sinquefield Cup, St. Louis 2016, the third leg of the Grand Chess Tour. Wesley So took top place with Giri finishing last from a 10 player tournament. Wesley So v Hikaru

Nakamura. Black has just played his c-pawn 20.....c5, and White doubled up with his rook, 21.Rd1,.. threatening to take Black’s knight on d7, supported only by its Queen. Black’s Knight needed to move and provocatively went 21....Ktf6, inviting White to swap Queens with the following possibility, 22.Qd8+,QxQ.23. RxQ+,Kh7., and now Black’s knight covers e4 and prevents White’s Bishop from checking the Black King. However, White didn’t take that option on move 22...and played a safety move that foresaw a future Black advance. What was it? Answer upside down below. Portrait of Michael Adams, Grandmaster, from Grandmaster Portraits, by Barry Martin.

September April/May 2016 2011

22.Kf1!,Kh7.23.Qc2,Kg8.24. Qd2,Kh7,at this point Black thought he could play for a draw with a threefold repetition but white was having none of that! 25.Qd8,Qxd8.26. Rxd8,c3, threatening the pawn advance on the Queen side.27.Ke1,and now the White King continues to cross the board to cover Black’s pawn advance,27....Bc4, his advanced c-pawn giving Black’s Bishop a space to occupy and also preventing White’s Rook going to d2 attacking White’s a-pawn.28.Kd1,Bxa2.29.Kc2,Bc4.30. e3,b5.31.Kxc3,a6.32.Ra8,Ktd5+.33. Bxd5,ed.34.a5,b4+. and White’s King has to move carefully with a Black pawn-swarm and Bishop in support!35. Kd2, not b2 when Black’s b pawn will advance with the c-pawn to follow,35... Bf1, allowing c4! 36.Rc8,c4.37. Rb8,b3.38.kc3, blocking any further advance. 1-0.

September April/May 2016 2011

Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today

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