26.10.14
Autumn fashion Wrap up in style
INSIDE:
+ BESTSELLING WESTCOUNTRY AUTHORS + CREATING YOUR OWN KNITWEAR BUSINESS
WIN! + HAIRDRYER WORTH £120 + £100 FASHION + £99 WORTH OF BEAUTY TREATS
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Sun 9 Nov
Join CBeebies’ favourite double act as they bring songs, rhymes, comedy sketches and a whole lot of family fun
Box Office 01872 262466 hallforcornwall.co.uk
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[ welcome [ Has Christmas come already?
Tweet
of the week
@cabolitho My manly ‘Man Cake’ courtesy of the recipe by @kateshirazi in today’s @WMNWest [Claire Bolitho of Tavistock] CONTACT: westmag@westernmorningnews.co.uk Tel: 01392 442250 Twitter @wmnwest
Sorry to be mentioning the ‘C’ word in October, but we have so many presents to give away this week to our lucky readers that it feels like Santa has been dropping things off his sleigh here a little early. Turn to page 13 and you’ll find the chance to win £100 to spend anywhere in Plymouth’s gorgeous Drake Circus shopping centre, which is packed with fashion stores - or you could even spend it on a beauty treatment there or a meal in one of the restaurants. Then on page 30-31 we have not one but two fabulous prizes to win: beauty products worth £33 up for grabs AND a top-of-the-range hairdryer worth £120, guaranteed to leave hair silky-smooth.
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Aside from all the gifts, we are thinking more of Halloween and Bonfire Night than Christmas here at West this week. Kate Shirazi shows how to make fun spooky cupcakes for trick-andtreating on page 33 and we round up the best warm-but-wonderful outfits to wear to a Guy Fawkes party on page 34-35. On the subject of warm clothes, we’re definitely inspired by Shireen Cunliffe, the mum of two who turned her love for children’s hand-knitted jumpers into a thriving business based in north Cornwall. Find out how she did it on page 14. And talking of inspiration, we meet three best-selling children’s authors on page 18, all living right here in the South West. Well, it’s THE place to be, after all!
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We have so many presents to give away, it feels like Santa came early this week
Becky Sheaves, Editor
MEET THE TEAM Becky Sheaves, Editor
Gillian Molesworth
Kathryn Clarke-McLeod
Catherine Barnes
Phil Goodwin 3
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DISCOVER SECRET WESTCOUNTRY Hidden coves, local pubs, and more...
‘It is flattering to imagine I had been mistaken for a professional athlete. And delusional.’ Phil Goodwin on parenthood, page 46
[contents[
14 18
CLOSE KNIT Creating a family business in Cornwall
BABETTE COLE AND FRIENDS Meet some of the Westcountry’s top children’s authors
Inside this week... 6 THE WISHLIST What to buy, where to go
8 WHAT’S ON Our pick of the best events in the West
9 MODERN MANORS Kishand Fulford has too many tomatoes
13 WIN £100 SHOPPING! Gift card for Drake Circus up for grabs
14 CORNISH CHARM
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How a mum of two turned home-knitting into a successful business
18 HAPPILY EVER AFTER Top kids’ authors from the South West
24 INTERIORS Get inspired by a chic Westcountry home
31 WIN £120 HAIRDRYER
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GARDENING Plump pumpkins with Anne Swithinbank
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INTERIORS Get inspired by a beautiful Westcountry home
FASHION, DARLING How to dress like a true fashionista
Luxury kit to be won!
33 HALLOWEEN BAKING Kate Shirazi’s spooky cupcakes
34
FASHION Tricks and treats for chilly days
40 EATING OUT The best cafes in the West
42 INGREDIENT OF THE WEEK Tim Maddams on curds and whey
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BEER CHEER Ale news and new ales
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MAN & BOY My daddy plays for Liverpool... I think
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If you buy one thing this week... Keep kids cosy in these fun hooded bathtowels (£29.99) made in Nether Stowey, Somerset by Cuddledry. Remember mums Helen and Polly on TV’s Dragon’s Den launching this product back in 2007? Seven years on they are stocked in Boots, John Lewis and Mothercare or buy online: www.cuddledry.com
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COOK WITH LOVE Add some cheeriness to your winter kitchen with Sass & Belle’s set of four mix & match measuring Spoons, £14.99, www.mollieandfred.co.uk
Stitch in time Get going and this knit cushion will be ready for Christmas, £19.95, www.madinengland.com
The wish List West’s picks for the loveliest things to buy this week
VERY CUTE Exmouth on a teatowel from a drawing by the town’s artist Moose Allain, £9.99 from INC boutique, Exmouth
Pretty thing Butterfly matchbox and matches, £4.95, www.annabeljames.co.uk
Boutique of the Week INC, Exmouth
INC was set up by glassmaker Emma Houlding several years ago to champion the work of local artists and makers. The store also sells a carefully chosen selection of unusual gifts from elsewhere. The shop features the work of Exmouth artist Moose Alain, whose line drawings of characters in the seaside town feature on mugs and tea towels (see above). Find colourful cards, organic toiletries, quirky toys and limited edition prints: Emma makes the point
that handmade needn’t be expensive. Prices start at just £2. “I aim to find really unusual products, gifts that inspire a bit of creativity and things that make me smile,” she says. “I love it when customers say that there are things for sale in INC that they have never seen anywhere else - then I know I’m doing a good job.” INC, 17/18 The Strand, Exmouth, Devon EX8 1AF, www.inc-inc.co.uk
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Wishlist Best friends Designer Carola van Dyke loves dogs - can you tell? Mugs £8.50 each, www.magpieline.com
GHOULISH FUN Stack the Bones Game from the Natural History Museum, £25, www.nhmshop.co.uk
Snap it up Crocodile mini cushion, £23, from www.swankymaison.com
Made in Cornwall Organic Trevarno sweet orange bath & body oil £13.50
Happy days Handmade on Dartmoor, these purses feature details from vintage postcards, £13, www.graceandfavourhome.com 7
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Events
The hotlist: Discover the most fun and interesting events coming up soon in the Westcountry, from pumpkins to comedy clubs, and more...
Halloweden
October 25 - November 2
Ottery Tar Barrels November 5
If you live in the South West, you should see this extraordinary tradition in East Devon’s Ottery St Mary at least once. This year, as November 5 falls on a Wednesday, will be quieter than a weekend. Things will still get frantic as the night goes on but the children’s barrels (from 4pm onwards) are less crowded. Visit www.otterytarbarrels.co.uk for details.
Nordic Walking Workshop November 8
Learn the art of Nordic Walking at the National Trust’s Trelissick Gardens. It’s healthy, fun and very good exercise. From 9.30-11.30am, call 07540 478919 or visit www.walkkernow.co.uk to book.
This half term the Eden Project will be transformed into a wand-erful world of magic and mystery with Witch from children’s book Room on the Broom.The Wishcraft Tent will have pumpkin carving and spellbinding stories all week and on Friday October 31 the site will be open until 9pm for a Little Monsters Ball with face painting, food and dancing in the biomes. Visit www.edenproject.com
The Big Food Show Today (October 26)
Wondering what to do today? Go along to the fabulous Big Food Show at Exeter’s Westpoint and meet The Hairy Bikers. There are also lots of stalls, events and children’s activities on offer. Visit www.thebigfoodshow.com for details.
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My life
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MODERN MANORS
The glut
The summer was over and Kishanda Fulford thought her life was once more her own. But no...
kindly neighbour rang to tell me her ‘Early Rivers’ plum tree was bending at the boughs because it was so over laden with fruit. My husband, who could eat a pound of plums at a sitting, and my youngest son set off with me through the woods to take advantage of her offer. What is it about the juiciest, ripest fruit that it is always just out of reach? My son was duly sent up a ladder, which I held on to, chatting as one would, when the ladder slipped (surprise, surprise) and landed on my shoulder with my son still teetering on the rungs. A disaster was just about averted and it was decided that he would be safer if he was in the tree and up he went. When he came down, he looked as if someone had tried to garrotte him. A branch had ripped an ugly weal down one side of his neck but, as no blood was pouring from the wound, we all ignored it. We set off for home with about sixteen pounds of plums, eating them as we went, and spitting the pips out like Henry VIII. This was a very jolly expedition but I can’t believe that I am the only housewife whose heart sinks when she sees the plum, apple, pear and walnut trees bursting with an abundance of ripe fruit? Am I the only one who spends weeks fighting thorns foraging for blackberries or waiting for an unseen wasp to sting as you pick up windfall apples. We practically have to camp under our walnut tree to make sure we get the walnuts before the squirrels do. It is not just the harvesting, but the cooking of these fruits, and even choosing the recipes, that are also so time consuming. Will I go for the tried-and-tested old cook books - Constance Spry for example - or in the case of
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the plums, simply chuck the words ‘Plum Chutney’ into Google, and see which recipe has a ‘5 star’ rating? None of these recipes, though, say, ‘leave the stones in’, and that is the first problem. Stoning sixteen pounds of plums is not a ‘5 star’ occupation. As many a parent and wife will know, it takes much threatening and cajoling to get anyone to help split the plums and squish the stones out. And, who would actually offer to chop up the onions ? I was discussing this with my neighbour and
As for the smell of vinegar, I only hope the noxious fumes killed off anything unwelcome in the house
strong smell of vinegar, I can only hope the noxious fumes killed off anything unwelcome in the fabric of the house. I can hear you say why not make jam? It smells so much sweeter Well, there is such a palaver with the thermometer and everything and, if you boil it too vigorously, which I have done, the jam sets so hard it breaks spoons. The worst job is the walnuts and I think it is only greed that propels me to pickle them at all. However, this involves pricking the walnuts with a darning needle which is difficult with gloves on – so you end up with stained fingers for weeks. If I had my way, I would be in a spa in ‘glut’ season: preferably in a foreign country. I would be as far away from a Bramley apple tree or a hedgerow as I could possibly be. The glut could then just pass me by. As it is, I have been growing tomatoes since the middle of May, and I now have a crop that would feed 50 people as a main course in itself. But the tomatoes are all as green as the grass. And we all know what that means. So when your hostess has a pot of green tomato chutney on the table and invites you to take a tablespoon of it to cheer up the dull cold cuts she has laid in front of you, remember: do not ask her how she made the chutney. She might throw it at you.
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she told me she made damson gin. Do you have to stone the damsons, I asked? No was the answer. Hurrah! that is definitely on my list next year. In fact, I wonder if all fruit with stones could not merrily be chucked in to some vodka and left to get on with it? As for the chutney - I will not bore you with the boredom of watching and stirring plum chutney for an hour and a half. I will not bore you with the fact that there were of course some crucial ingredients missing from my larder. As for the
Kishanda Fulford lives in Great Fulford, Dunsford, Devon. The house dates back to Norman times and has been continuously occupied by the Fulford family for more than 800 years.
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Beautiful: Devon’sJoss Stone recording a new Poppy Appeal song with guitarist Jeff Beck
in pictures Tally Ho: East Cornwall Hunt met for a trail hunt
Blown away: It’s been windy on Plymouth Hoe
Blooming lovely: Making Cotehele’s Christmas garland near Saltash
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talking points Thrills
Chills Blithe spirits: 10 hotels available to book via hauntedrooms.co.uk
1 Churston Court Inn, Brixham 2 T he Black Swan, Devizes 3 L angtry Hotel, Bournemouth Ghost hunts: 10 spooky tours to take in the South West
1 B olt Head Bunker, Hope Cove (truthsearchersuk. org)
2 Totnes Museum (southwestparanormalinvestigations.co.uk)
3 Nothe Fort, Weymouth (truthsearchersuk.org)
4 O ld Forde House, Newton Abbot (hauntedrooms. co.uk)
5 Bodmin Jail (bodminjail.
4 A Bode Exeter (The Royal Clarence Hotel) 5 T he Molesworth Arms Hotel, Wadebridge 6 Jamaica Inn, Bodmin 7 T he Wellington Hotel, Boscastle 8 F isherman’s Cot, Tiverton 9 G rosvenor Hotel, Shaftsbury 10 Arnos Manor Hotel, Bristol
org)
6 P engersick Castle, Praa Sands (ghosthuntingcorn-
The happy list
wall.com)
7 Dartmouth Castle (prestigeparanormalevents.co.uk)
8 P endennis Castle, Falmouth (english-heritage. org.uk)
9 St Ives (lanternghoststorywalk.com)
10 Torre Abbey, Torquay (ispyghosts.com)
10 things to make you smile this week 1 2
Half term, yay! It’s international Mother-in-Law day time for warm feelings or at least defrosting
3 Cinder toffee old-school
seasonal treat
Spirits
4 A Totally Unreliable History of Tavistock - at the
Little people: Ten fairy folk from around Britain
5 This morning’s lie-in. The clocks went back, did you
1 Piskies (Cornwall) 2 Ghillie Dhu (Scotland) 3 Boggles (Cumbria) 4 Lantern Man (Norfolk)
Wharf Theatre tonight
remember?
6 Peanut butter from the jar So wrong, yet right 7 Grayson Perry Who Are
You? on Channel 4
5 Knockers (Cornwall)
8 Purple grapes on the vine
6 Pixies (Devon)
7 Black Annis (Leicestershire)
8 Boggarts (Lancashire)
in the garden
9 P aul Potts at Plymouth Pavilions His biopic, One Chance, is out now on DVD.
9 Hobs (North East)
10 Monster-sized mega marshmallows at
10 Urisks (Scotland)
Asda - get toasting!
Gillian Molesworth
Story of my life... Tuning in to a new purchase am disproportionately excited about a new and rather extravagant purchase I have just made: a top quality clock radio. It’s a stylish box of oak housing great speakers, with a sleek chrome handle on top. The handle doubles as the snooze bar, eminently whackable for ten more minutes of peace. anything new. And if you do I have wanted a good bedside happen to hear something new radio for, oh, about five years. I that you like and want to downlike to listen to classical music on load, by the time you’ve got out of Radio 3 in the mornings, and in the car or the shop or wherever, the evenings sometimes as well. you’ve forgotten what it is. Our current radio, small and plasAnd I am not sufficiently keen tic, makes the violins sound like to want to spend my free time noowasps in a can. dling around on the internet trying I was paralysed with indecision to hunt down one song, which I from the first moment I looked then have to pay to download. into my options. Did I want just As for waking up to your own a clock radio, of music, I’d have which there were no idea what to dozens of models choose. Picking a ranging from £5 musician to wake ‘It was so baffling to £300? Or while I up to feels oddly it made me want was spending the like inviting them to cry. Especially money, did I want to bed with you. a machine that was So I love the last thing at night also an iPod dock, radio. We get our when most of Bluetooth, DAB/ pop fix on Heart my comparison Internet radio, or Pirate FM in the with 20 pre-set stacar, I am a devotee shopping tions and multiof BBC6 for my-era happens’ function timer? rock and esoteric It was so baffling beats in the kitchit made me want to en, and in the bedcry. Especially last thing at night, room, it’s Radio 3. Sometimes I when most of my comparison like what they play, sometimes I shopping happens. don’t. Mostly I just like that someI’m slightly out of step with one else makes the decisions. this whole “my music” thing, the I’ve empowered myself to keep iPods and MP3 players. Like a duit simple. All I really want is a tiful sheep I bought one and upgood clock radio. And I’m not loaded the 25 CDs or so that repregoing to feel guilty that I’m rubsent my era of college purchases bish at iPods or that my machine and Christmas presents. And it is only does two things: play music nice to have them to hand, I guess, and wake me up. though I don’t carry the thing The point is, at the right time, around much. the radio will sound really good. The trouble is, you never hear And that makes me feel happy.
I
Gillian Molesworth is a journalist and mum-of-two who grew up in the USA and moved to north Cornwall when she met her husband 11
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FANTASTIC FASHION COMING SOON
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Shop Pink Soda parka BANK £70
Coat £89 Top £29.50 Dress £45 Bag £29.50 Shoes £25 All M&S
Pandora
Couture Lala by Juicy Couture The Perfume Shop
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EXPLORE
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Drake Circus
arty season is fast approaching, so for an uber-cool festive look, you need to put Drake Circus on your radar - the South-West’s ultimate destination for unique party looks and stylish outerwear. Plymouth’s glamorous shopping centre has everything under one roof. Its popular stores, Pandora and Monsoon, have both recently expanded, offering more choice and new collections. Drake Circus has also added a host of new brands set to make Christmas shopping sparkle this year. The Dragon’s Den entrepreneur Theo Paphites brought his new Boux Avenue lingerie store to Drake Circus earlier this week. There is also a new Jack Wills pop-up store which will be opening this November and offering their stunning winter collection of on-trend casual wear. For food, try a tasty snack from the new Mr
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Win
Joules wellies Sole Trader £39.99
Pretzels stand or go retro in the fabulous new Ed’s Easy Diner, offering classic American-style food in a fun setting. For little finishing touches, sparkle with a facial or glam up your manicure at local beauty salon Satori which will be open in time for Christmas. For the latest scents, visit The Perfume Shop. We love this Couture Lala perfume by Juicy Couture (pictured above). Fresh faced and smelling gorgeous, make sure you stand out from the crowd with a statement accessory this winter and pop into Pandora and the revamped Monsoon store - -which is now also home to Accessorize - to find your perfect party accompaniment. As ever, exciting new winter collections are hitting the shelves of Marks & Spencer, Next, Topshop, Sole Trader, Bank and FatFace – spot some of the highlights they have on offer on this page. For more details visit www.drakecircus.com or follow @drakecircusplym
£100 to spend at Drake Circus
We have a £100 gift card to give away! To win, send your name and contact details to: Drake Circus competition, westmag@westernmorningnews.co.uk to arrive by November 7. Normal terms apply.
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PICALOULOU
Close knit Gillian Molesworth meets the mum of two who has launched a successful Cornish childrenswear company
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Interview
hireen Cunliffe admits that she’s always cold in Cornwall. “I think it’s because I grew up in a hot country – I spent my childhood in Khartoum in Sudan,” she says, flashing one of her friendly smiles. “That must be why I love warm, cosy knitwear.” Shireen herself is wearing a periwinkle blue jumper decorated with a few appliqué flowers, when we meet for a coffee at Relish café in Wadebridge in north Cornwall. Her dark glossy hair is bobbed. I am subtly eyeing up her jumper, the way you do. I don’t recognise the stamp of any brand or label. It is pretty and understated and high quality, just like the Shireen’s own designs for her children’s knitwear brand, Picaloulou. Shireen is the third of four children – her father is Sudanese and her mother, English. Her childhood was spent enjoying the outdoors with her extended family in Sudan. When she was 13, her family moved to Morecambe in the Lake District, where she was sent to the local school. “That was certainly an eye-opener,” she recalls. “I’d come from a private schooling background up till then. I’d been brought up to see education as an honour – you take it very seriously. There was quite a different attitude in Morecambe!” Shireen studied International Business and French at Sheffield University. She started her
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working career as a model but found it unsatisfying – “too much waiting around between assignments,” she said. Next, she decided on public relations (PR) in the fashion industry, bagging a much sought-after position in the PR department at the top fashion brand Warehouse. “I printed my CV onto one of their tee shirts,” she remembers. “You have to do something to stand out.” Based in London, Shireen worked her way up to head of PR and Marketing at Warehouse. She met her husband Mark, who worked in television, through mutual friends. “Everything just clicked – we were married within 15 months,” she says. And this is where the Cornish connection comes in: “Mark’s mum is Cornish and he’s always been a surfer and windsurfer. We’d come down every weekend, renting different cottages – every Friday was the great escape. Then we’d get back in time for work on Monday. “When I got pregnant in 2003, Mark said: ‘I don’t want to live in London any more.’ We just couldn’t envision bringing up our children in the city – we wanted them to have freedom and to spend time outdoors. “Mark got a job with Falmouth College of Arts and we thought, let’s go for it.” After a few years in Falmouth the small family moved to north Cornwall, where Mark had set up 15
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a media business. They settled in Wadebridge and now have two children: Ella, 11, and Noah, five. “Mark has to travel a lot on assignments – he was most recently in Istanbul filming a TV commercial for a French fashion designer. “We get used to his going away – then we get used to his coming back.” Meanwhile, Shireen was busy too, starting Picaloulou in 2011. “We had just had two cold and snowy winters,” she recalls. “I couldn’t find anything that was made with warm, natural wool to fit my children. All the clothes seemed to be in man-made fabrics and splattered with logos. “I used to get my mum to knit things for me. I would design it and tell her the colour, and she’d knit it and send it back.” In Cornwall, Shireen had done freelance marketing work for companies such as Deborah Clark PR and for fashion brand Celtic Sheepskin. But her career was on hold after Noah was born
in 2009: “He is a whirlwind – a real bundle of energy,” said Shireen. “I’m not sure if it’s specifically him, or just the second child, but I found it very full on. “I wanted to do a work project for myself that would fit in around the children. I wasn’t sure what exactly to do. “When I couldn’t find the jumpers and was getting Mum to make them for me, I thought: this is it! Sadly, Mum refused to knit for me on a larger scale!” So Shireen went to Launceston to meet with Sue Blacker, whose enterprise The Natural Fibre Company specialises in small-scale manufacturing of natural wools. “I worked with Sue to match my yarns in materials that were really nice and soft, using a blend of natural materials like alpaca and merino wool. Then I designed the styles I wanted, and I advertised for knitters. “I have a small team of knitters who live around the UK, from Norfolk to Wales and fur-
ther north. Some are retired, some are still working. The younger ones are in their 30s, the older in their 70s. Right now we’re just selling online. They’re doing a brilliant job. “Creating clothes that are made in the UK is something I really believe in. Having worked in fashion for a long time, I know we’ve lost all our industry to overseas, and it needs to come back. “The idea behind the Picaloulou brand is that the clothes are made from lovely soft natural yarns that are warm and breathable, in a soft colour palette. They’re well made and stylish but not garish. They’re also eco-friendly. “I think it’s really healthy for kids to spend lots of time outside – with these jumpers they’ve got more freedom than with a bulky coat, and they’re warm as toast. “I watch my kids dressing themselves and they choose the jumpers without me telling them, so that’s when I know I’ve got it right.”
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Interview
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‘Now, I have a small team of knitters all over the UK. They’re doing a brilliant job’
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As with any business, Picaloulou has had its share of ups and downs – Shireen admits that business ownership has been a huge learning curve for her. “Cashflow is the lifeblood of all businesses, and it’s a nightmare if you don’t have it,” she said. “I’d designed a beautiful merino coat but I just couldn’t get it into production. I had someone who wanted to buy half my production run, but I had to come up with the money for the other half – about £1,100. “I thought, I’m going to try a crowdfunding company based in Cornwall. I sent them an email and they quickly rang me back. It was all completely new to me. “I had to get approved, and they took me through what I’m trying to achieve. You put the details of your project onto their website. You have to offer people different options to make it worth their while to invest in you – my top investors got a hand-knitted alpaca cardigan. “It was a really interesting exercise in marketing. Once it’s on the website you really have to get out there and sell, and tell people about your product. You use whatever means possible – Twitter, Instagram, Facebook – to drum up support. I learned that Twitter is really useful at about 8pm when most of the mums get on it, and I met a lot of parenting bloggers.”
Shireen did get the funding she needed, and the merino coat went into production this month. She is also launching a few hand-knit pieces for adults this winter, and plans to expand her range to fit up to the age of 12 years in 2015. She’s also looking for more UK stockists. “I do love Picaloulou, because it’s such a creative thing to do,” she says. “Yes, it’s hard to get it all squashed in with family life, but it’s worth it. I remember once Noah hit my computer screen and said: ‘I hate your ‘puter!’ “I do sometimes feel guilty that I’m not giving the business enough time, or the children, or the house. But we muddle through. It has been easier since Noah started school. “I’m up at 7am, getting everything ready and preparing food. Then I get the kids to school, throw a load of laundry on, get through as much work as I can, pick up the kids, mad dash for the post, clean a bit, cook a bit, help with homework, get everyone into bed. “I’ve become a master at very quick suppers. You learn where you can cut corners, and you do things quickly. “I’m so glad I’m trying to do this here in Cornwall. At weekends I can try things like surf lifesaving, or just play in our big garden. We have just bought a Cornish Lugger sailing boat, so we like to get out on the water when we can. It makes life so much more rewarding. “I always thought that living in Cornwall would be a much slower pace of life, but it’s not! But we have met so many people here that I really enjoy it. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.” Picaloulou’s range can be bought at www.picaloulou.com. Prices range from £18 for a baby hat to £62 for a child’s hand knit sweater 17
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People WRITING FOR CHILDREN
Starting them young Children’s literature festival Exetreme Imagination takes place in Exeter this half term. Catherine Barnes meet three Westcountry writers who have made a career creating books for young readers
he Exeter literary festival Exetreme Imagination features events next week with top children’s writers, including Horrid Henry’s creator Francesca Simon. Here, we meet three Westcountry writers who will be appearing too: visit www.exetreme.org for more details.
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Mal Peet Mal Peet won the Carnegie Medal in 2006 for his novel Tamar, about a dark family secret in occupied Holland during WWII. Mal lives in Exmouth with his wife, children’s author Elspeth Graham. His first book for adults, The Murdstone Trilogy, comes out on November 6 “I was a teenager in 1950s and 60s. There was no such thing as teenage literature then, you went from comics to Biggles and Raymond Chandler” says Exmouth’s Mal Peet, 67. His award-winning debut novel, Keeper, about a South American soccer star, was published in 2003. It has even, he says, sounding faintly astonished, been established on the school curriculum and made him an unlikely soccer pundit. His most recent children’s book, Life: An Exploded Diagram is set in Norfolk at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. “I was trying to build a bridge between the eager and adventurous 14 year-old reader and mainstream adult literature,” he says his place in the ‘young adult’ niche in the book world. Mal grew up in Norfolk and came to Exeter in his 20s to pursue a (never completed) phD. He married, divorced, taught, went off travelling and even had a spell as “a cowboy plumber.” “I spent 20 years in education, 20 years messing about and 20 years writing. That’s what it comes down to, a nice three-way slice,” he says. He and Elspeth married 25 years ago and began writing children’s books together, initially finding success penning educational books and teaching materials. “We were a me-
teoric failure for the first four years,” he adds cheerfully. Despite pressure from the industry to come up with the next hit genre (he reveals that in the wake of vampires, angels are being bandied about) he instead writes what he feels like – and hasn’t put a foot wrong, yet. “None of my books is the same and I haven’t got a prescribed fan base – I’m too easily bored,” he says. “There’s a lot about the teenage and young adult publishing business I’m pretty cynical about. As soon as something’s a hit, everyone wants to publish something on the same shelf. There are 100 different variations on The Hunger Games now. “What I absolutely do believe is that if your readership is younger, you owe them the best writing you can give them and to push at the boundaries of what they can read. With Tamar, the majority of characters are adult, but good young readers are very generous. “I truly don’t think that kids who like reading are concerned by the age of the author or character, so long as it’s realistic. If it’s about football, you don’t want a hero of 12 or 13 years old, it’s condescending – they don’t play premiership football. ” If you feel you have a book in you, Mal’s advice is to the point. “You’ll find it hard and probably won’t like doing it,” he warns. “But if you think you can, then just go away and write it.” Mal Peet will be chairing a debate, ‘The Red and the Black: Violence in contemporary teenage fiction’ at the Rougemont Room, Exeter Library on Wednesday October 29. His first novel for adults, The Murdstone Trilogy, will be published by David Fickling Books on November 6. Find out more at malpeet.com 19
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People
BABETTE COLE Dame Babette Cole has been writing and illustrating bestsellers for younger readers since 1976. Her hilarious facts-of-life book, Mummy Laid an Egg has sold more than a million copies. More recently she has launched a Wild West Country Tales series, the first of which is called James Rabbit and the Giggleberries. Babette lives near Crediton with her six horses and lodger James Gutans, who inspired her latest story. “Children always ask the same question – where do you get your ideas from? And I always say, if I knew that, I’d go and live there! I wrote my first book when I was seven – my memoirs. My mum found it years later, it had slipped down behind the washing machine. I do show it to kids, it gives them an incentive to write.” Full of mischief, irrepressible humour and colour, Babette’s books and distinctive illustrations have enchanted readers for almost three decades. She’s met thousands of young readers at book shop, library and school events over the years. “People do think writing’s easy, especially people who have children,” says Babette, 64, who lives near Crediton in Devon. She says she storyboards her own books, like a film plot. She was inspired as a child by the wonderful Tenniel-illustrated Alice in Wonderland and the books of Edward Lear. “Childhood was very different then,” adds Babette, who’s concerned about the decline in literacy skills among the pointand-click generation. “Digital books have so many clicks and bangs, but the child just plays the game.”
Picture books, she explains, have never translated well into e-books, but recently there’s been a revival in demand for traditionally-printed stories. Babette is also among the children’s authors to have teamed up with a new Dartmoor-based website, inkysprat.com, which aims to help youngsters improve their reading skills. Inkysprat sells picture books formatted to download on iPad, accompanied by the writer reading their stories aloud. “We have to keep abreast of what children are doing,” explains Babette. “The digital revolution isn’t going to go away.” Babette’s currently busier than ever with her writing. A new series about nursery-crime solving princesses is in the offing: “They’ve set up a detective agency in the palace and are masters of disguise - they’ve read too many Raymond Chandler books,” she reveals, bubbling with laughter. A wave-riding newt will be the hero of a new Wild West Country tale, Surf’s Up, Neville and she’s also planning a follow-up to Mummy Laid an Egg.“You can’t really say everything to a young child all in one book, so I want to explain what happens to the egg when it’s growing in mummy,” she says. “There isn’t anything that explains the process in simple and funny terms. It’s written in baby language with subtitles in grown-up.” Dame Babette Cole tells stories at ‘An Afternoon of Enchantment’, Exeter Cathedral, Tuesday October 28. Find out more at www.babette-cole.com 21
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People
BETH REEKLES Beth Reeks, who writes as Beth Reekles was offered a publishing deal aged 17 when her first book, The Kissing Booth, became an online sensation. Now 19, she grew up in Newport, South Wales and is in her second year studying physics at the University of Exeter. She was named one of Time magazine’s most influential teens in 2013 and published her third high school romance novel, Out of Tune, this year. “I wrote the Kissing Booth for fun,” says Beth “and I still don’t like to treat writing like work at all. When occasionally I do have to, I’ll reward myself with tea and biscuits, but I always try and make it fun.” Beth has set all of her novels in American high schools, with the first seeing the heroine, Rochelle fall for her best (male) friend’s older – and more experienced – brother. It created a sensation when she published it on wattpad, an online community where budding writers can upload and share their work. “I’d be writing when other people were play-
ing hockey,” says Beth. “I didn’t tell my parents I was writing, until I casually told them I’d posted a book online and it had 50,000 followers. They said is it safe? Then it grew to 300,000 and then five million – at which point they paid a bit more attention. They’re really proud. “I’d just applied to do a physics degree when someone at publisher Random House approached me with a book deal. I thought I’d have time to do both. I’ve always enjoyed learning about how the universe works. I was the only girl in my class doing A level physics and the writing was very separate. Writing’s a hobby for me and I want to keep it that way so I don’t stress out over it. But the university’s been very supportive about my having time out to do events and book signings.” Beth has readers ranging in age from their pre-teens to forties and beyond. “I think for most people, the ‘young adults’ [label] means the protagonist is a young person. It doesn’t mean and older person can’t enjoy it, too,” she says. “Right now, I’m happy with the age group I’m writing
[
about; there’s so much to explore and teenagers react more strongly than adults do.” When it comes to others who feel they have a book in them, Beth is full of encouragement. She knows just how special it is to be acknowledged by a favourite author and was overwhelmed when she met childhood hero Jacqueline Wilson, who name-checked her at a literary event. “It was so exciting, I was freaking out and actually thought I’d faint, especially when she mentioned me in her talk,” says Beth, who currently lives and writes in a house with seven other students. While she won’t reveal whether her writing royalties have cancelled out her students loans, she laughs: “My flatmates all joke about me being thrifty! I’m more of a saver than a spender, although I have bought a couple of outfits for events...and a lot of books.” Beth Reekles will holding a Q&A session and a writers’ workshop in two events at Exeter Library on Wednesday October 29. Visit www.bethreekles. co.uk and the festival at www.exetreme.org
‘I thought I’d faint when Jacqueline Wilson mentioned me in her talk’
[
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interiors
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food
style 34
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fashion
45
gadgets 22/10/2014 12:49:35
[
REAL HOMES
[
Light fantastic
Sarah Pitt takes a peek through the window into interior designer Kate Helston’s blissful family home in East Devon’s Blackdown Hills, created with help of husband Rex
hen she’s lying in bed drinking her tea of a morning, Kate Helston has a view of her apple trees which ordinarily would only be enjoyed by the birds. She and her husband Rex have created a bedroom with a low-level strip of windows, as part of an extension to their nineteenth century cottage in the Blackdown Hills in East Devon. “What we have got is a wall of windows at floor level that runs all the way around the room,” says Kate. “It means I can lie in bed and see the apple trees up close, and the big fat thrush pecking at my apples.” Rex, who makes his living as a furniture maker in a workshop in the grounds, created the bed especially to make the most of the view. “Rex made the bed lower so that we could look out across the garden and into the fields when we wake up,” says Kate. The room is painted white, set off with dashes of colour which Kate likes to change regularly, be it with a throw or a bunch of flowers from the garden. There are no curtains at the windows, apart from a light summery one at the French windows at the far end of the room. The idea is to enjoy looking out, taking advantage of both the stunning scenery and the fact that they have no near neighbours.
W
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Interiors
STYLE TIP: Seasonal flowers or a bright
throw add instant and easy shots of colour and variety to white and muted spaces
[[ ‘It’s about keeping things incredibly simple and letting in as much light as possible’
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Interiors
“It was designed so we could see the apple trees and the blossom and the birds,” says Kate. “I remember one time, it was like we had woken up in one of those snow scenes, the sort you shake. The snow was just falling down outside all the windows, and we were just two little people inside it.” The bathroom is also a room with a view. “I love lying in the bath and seeing the tops of the trees,” she says. The room has a very serene feel, with wooden floorboards painted white, skirting boards and a cupboard, salvaged by Kate from a skip, painted in subtle bluey-grey tones. The philosophy of keeping things simple is something which Kate adopts in her work as an interior designer and in decorating and furnishing her own home. The house is not a showcase for her work, though, she insists. “It’s a family home, and it has evolved over the years,” she says. The addition of a comfortable armchair, for instance, dates from when their three children were small. “We seemed to be spending a lot of time in the bathroom, and it meant that while one person was doing bath-time there was somewhere comfortable for another person to just sit, read the paper and chat. Lots of conversations have taken place there!” The house was originally a tiny one-bedroom cottage, with no bathroom and an outside loo. Over more than 20 years, the couple have added two gabled extensions, which partially wrap around the old house. There are two sitting rooms. One, with an inglenook fireplace and a woodburner, was formerly two rooms in the original cottage. “That has been our children’s playroom,” says Kate. “The newbuilt modern sitting room is slightly more grown up and we all congregate in the middle, in the kitchen! It has been a really great family home.” The kitchen is within the new part of the house but has a traditional feel with its Aga stove and
the family table, made by Rex from an oak tree which blew down in their field. The new sitting room, meanwhile, has quite a slick modern feel with big windows and minimalist furnishings, but has a woodburner and a floor made from reclaimed wood. “We use reclaimed boards because we wanted to marry the old with the new,” says Kate. “But to add a more contemporary note they have been slightly whitened with an oil. “I like to blend old and new,” she adds. “I think original features and newer elements can combine to make an interior work.” While the original cottage has smallish windows, the extension has large ones to make the most of the views of garden, orchard and the stunning countryside which, from this high point, stretches for miles around. “What we have tried to do is celebrate the countryside. That was our aim,” says Kate. “The new sitting room looks out over the garden, in the summer we can open the French windows, and it is wonderful in the winter, it is a really lovely warm room.” The house is decorated and furnished in quite muted colours with dashes of colour, whether a rug or a lamp or a bunch of flowers or foliage from the garden. “It is about keeping things incredibly simple and getting as much light as possible in and then having splashes of bright colours. I probably do it through flowers most of all,” she says. “I don’t tend to buy flowers, I will just use whatever is growing in the garden or from the hedgerows.” It is with some regret that the couple are on the move, but with their three children growing up, they are planning to move a little distance to the
STYLE TIP: You can
blend original features with newer elements to make an interior work
Dorset coast. “We have outgrown the space and it is time to move on,” says Kate. “We are hoping to go to Lyme Regis to be near the children’s schools and where they all sail. We have loved it here, though, so we will be sad to leave.” Little Hay at Stockland is on the market with Stags, Honiton at £600,000 (01404 45885). To find out more about Rex Helston’s furniture call 01404 881283.
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Shopping
GET THE
LOOK
Give your home the light and bright treatment with these design suggestions
Billy kitchen table, £695, www.loaf.com
Bossy chair, £250, www.loaf.com
Lampshade, £90, www.kathrynkingdesigns.co.uk
Amiri handmade sideboard, £750, www.oscarandeve.co.uk
Pavlova armchair, £795, www.loaf.com
Esse EC4i range stove, from Devon-based Rangemoors www.rangemoors.co.uk 01837 680068
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Gardens
Pumpkins [ [ ANNE SWITHINBANK
Devon’s Anne Swithinbank, panellist on Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time, is making room for her squash harvest he end of October brings with it Halloween, which for me, means celebrating pumpkins and other squashes which store so well for winter use. More than that, I’m also marking the end of the growing season. Anyone who lives an outdoor sort of life feels this turning of the year keenly. There’s a strong urge to start a nature table, light log fires and make arrangements of evergreens in vases. There are complaints that Halloween is an American import but it has strong echoes back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced Sowin) which in Cornwall is known as Allantide. In a time when there was no electricity, freezers or imported foods, winter had a massive impact on everyday life and the ability to grow, store, preserve and ration food was crucial to survival. Samhain marked the transition from summer to winter and was celebrated by bonfires lit like beacons on hillsides (strong links here to Bonfire Night on November 5). Embers were carried down to villages in hollowed-out turnips and used to kindle home fires. Eventually, in the 9th century, Samhain was replaced by the Roman Catholic
T
All Saint’s Day on November 1. As the old name for saint was ‘hallow’, October 31 became the eve of all hallows, or Hallowe’en. Of course we didn’t have pumpkins in Britain back then, as they wouldn’t be discovered by Columbus until 1492. They originate from the American continent, where they have a long history of cultivation (seeds dating back to 7000BC have been found in Mexican caves). Samhain was a strong tradition in Ireland and emigrants to America used pumpkins as lanterns instead of turnips. We grow a few pumpkins and squash here in our garden, which have been cut from their withering vines with a good piece of stalk attached to help prevent rotting from the top. They will sit in the sun until the weather turns frosty to help harden their skins for storage. After that, they are moved into a cool but frost
proof shed and kept safe from rodents (easier now we’ve been adopted by a cat). When making lanterns I don’t waste anything and use cut-out flesh for making soup (our favourite is a kind of chowder using onion or shallot, carrot, potato, milk, chicken stock, thyme and a little freshly grated nutmeg). Even the seeds aren’t wasted, as roasted in the oven (keep an eye on them, as they don’t take long) with a little oil and salt, they make a tasty snack. I crunch them up skins and all. This year we grew pumpkin ‘Charmant’ and pretty squash ‘Festival’ with handsome green and orange marblings over cream and I’m already thinking of growing more next year, including my favourite ‘Rouge vif d’Etamps’, a French variety with bright orange skin, tasty, dense orange flesh and a flattened shape just like Cinderella’s coach. All we need is another good summer to help them grow and ripen.
[[ Even the seeds aren’t wasted: roasted in the oven they make a tasty snack
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What pumpkins need: Anne’s tips for super squash Plenty of sunshine so make sure you prepare their bed in a spot which warms up quickly, receives full sun and keeps it late into autumn. They love a pumpkin ‘patch’ because the more you grow together (and that includes courgettes and marrows) the better they will pollinate each other for a good set.
Sow or plant out after all danger of frost in spring, keep well watered during dry spells and when they begin to flower and set, give a high potash tomato type of liquid feed every two to three weeks.
This week’s gardening tips Anne’s advice for your garden
Now’s the time to move barrel loads of well rotted compost or manure to next year’s bed for digging in or spreading on the surface. They really can’t have too much and even like to grow on top of manure and compost heaps.
• Rake fallen leaves from lawns and out of the fronts of borders away from small plants. Chop with a mower first if possible, then place in black polythene sack or in a chicken wire clamp to rot for leaf mould.
Pumpkins and squash need plenty of room, so give small varieties spacings of 1-1.2m/3-4ft, medium ones 1.5m/5ft and large 1.8m/6ft so they can enjoy plenty of water and nutrients.
• Take hardwood cuttings of gooseberries, black currants and other fruit bushes. Make them 23-30cm/912in long and insert them by two thirds, 15cm/6in apart in a trench
Question time with Anne
of good, welldrained soil. • Forgot to sow foxgloves back in June? Buy plants and set them in good woodland type soil now. They’ll flower next summer. • Rake to remove thatch from lawns full of moss or lichens. To alleviate compaction and improve drainage, spike using a fork or mechanised spiker on larger lawns and brush in top dressing.
Anne responds to West readers’ garden concerns and queries
Q
My Wollemi pine was badly affected by caterpillars last year. How can I stop this happening again?
Ah, the amazing Wollemia nobilis, known only as fossil records (going back 200 million years) until live trees were discovered in New South Wales Australia in 1994. Although called pine it is more closely related to monkey puzzle and has great character. They are also attractive to tortrix moth caterpillars which bind leaves together and feed. Outdoors, these appear in early summer and autumn. Hang up a pheromone trap to attract male moths (www.gardening-naturally.com 0845 680 0296). They are then unable to fertilize females, leading to fewer eggs and when you see them, give you fair warning to use a bio control, pesticide or hunt caterpillars out and squash them.
Q
My indoor bonsai (I think it is a Chinese elm) is very poorly with only a few leaves left. I’ve repotted it into garden soil.
Like most indoor bonsai, Chinese elm (Ulmus parvifolia) prefers cool, bright conditions to gloomy, warm ones. It’s almost hardy and when growing strongly, can be acclimatised to outdoors in a sheltered spot, where it will be deciduous. Indoors in a warmer place, it usually retains leaves. Dryness is the most common failing. Water almost daily in summer and in winter, when the surface dries out. In warm rooms, keep a little water in the drip tray for humidity but only if the pot is on legs as it must not sit in water. Garden soil is too claggy. Use special bonsai compost or a mix of soilless and John Innes no 2, with a little added grit. If roots won’t fit back in the cleaned pot, trim them rather than folding them in.
Dig over neglected borders or at least cover them with black polythene or landscape fabric weighted down with bricks so weeds can rot away prior to digging next spring.
Cut lawn edges back to where they should be, using a half moon edging iron or an old kitchen knife. Create neat edges along pathways and around borders for the winter. Compost cut away turf.
Send your questions to Anne at westmag@ westernmorningnews.co.uk 29
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Beauty
Tried
& tested
We present the beauty treats and cheats of the week, all trialled by West magazine’s Catherine Barnes, with help from daughter Tilly, 17.
Bags of fun
Makeup bag threatening to explode? Love Me Beauty has launched a new way to manage your cosmetics addiction and create your own personalised box of tricks. Sign up online and they’ll send you a monthly goody bag of five full and sample sized cosmetics, to suit your colouring and skin type. Brands include Percy & Reed, Anatomicals, Malin+Goetz, Murad and Model Co, with more to come. You can opt for one, three, six and 12 month subscriptions, so it’s a great gift idea, too. £11 per month at lovemebeauty.com
WIN!
fave!
We have three three-month Love Me Beauty subscriptions to give away to readers, each worth £33.
Email ‘lovemebeauty’ to westmag@westernmorningnews.co.uk by November 7 to enter the draw. Fingers crossed!
EYES RIGHT
Jam on top? Hooray! A cream tea that won’t pile on the pounds. Strawberry jam gel-wash, scone sponge and a pot of body cream … Beauty sticks its oar into the heated jam/cream first debate. £7.99 from www.madbeauty.com
Achieve statement lashes in a couple of sweeps with Palladio. This herbal mascara range is formulated to volumise, lengthen, curl or define according to your whim, with a designed-for-purpose wand to do the job. Lash-enhancing ingredients include bamboo, rice and olive wax.
£11 each at www.beautynaturals.com
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the review
Party shine
Shooting star: Blue Moon nail polish by Collection Galactica – out of this
world ( and in store at Superdrug) £3.19
This week we try:
The Diva Genesis Hairdryer Becky Sheaves tries the latest in haircare technology hairdryer is a hairdryer is a hairdryer, right? At least so I thought until I tried this little beauty. I’d had the same hairdryer myself since 1999, which – if I recall correctly – cost me £12.99. Then along came the new Genesis Dryer from Diva (£119.99) and basically blew my old gadget right out of the water. I’ve got frizzy hair, I freely admit it. Which is why you’ll always see me dodging the raindrops with hats, umbrellas or – failing all else – a newspaper over my head. At the slightest hint of humidity, my hair develops a most irritating 1970s fuzz. So my usual haircare regime at home is: wash hair using very pricey shampoo and conditioner, douse it in serums and oils, blast with a dryer, then apply various unguents in an attempt to get the old crowning glory to lie flat and shine. Otherwise, my upwardly-mobile locks channel the dancing teenagers from the audience of Top of the Pops circa 1974. Remember their dry, frizzy barnets back in those preserum days? It’s not a good look. I was excited, then, to try the Genesis Dryer, which is billed as the ‘pinnacle of hair care technology’. It uses ionic technology, meaning the hair is dried in a negatively charged ionic field to reduce static, promote shine and speed up drying. What’s more, the ceramic and tourmaline front grille is coated in macadamia oil, argan oil and keratin to give yet more shine. It also has a very groovy set of buttons
A
Winter wonder What Skin Needs has this new balm to soothe dry skin and dermal conditions made worse by winter weather or central heating. The products (available from November 17) contain extracts from a wild herb known as Old Man Weed, favoured by indigenous Australians for its medicinal properties. Its Skin Balm (£13.99 for 75ml) helps reduce irritation and revives stressed skin.
www.whatskinneeds.co.uk
Win
allowing you to raise and lower the speed and heat of the drying, as well as a ‘cool shot’ button for extra strong, yet cool blasts of air, so that you don’t fry your locks. Having said all that, I wasn’t expecting a miracle, and (truth be told) I thought my newly-dried hair would look exactly as normal – ie in dire need of straighteners, serums, etc. Then I looked in the mirror. Oh. Flowing, smooth, silky: was this my hair? It surely was. Yes, this hairdryer is pricey, but it really works. And if you’re anything like me, it will save you a fortune in expensive products.
We have a Diva Genesis Dryer (worth £119.99) to win
To enter, send your name, address and contact details in an email with “Genesis Dryer” in the subject field to westmag@westernmorningnews.co.uk to arrive by November 7. Normal terms apply. The Western Morning News will not share your contact details with any third party.
To buy the Diva Genesis online visit www.sallyexpress.co.uk 31
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Wellbeing
Look carefully A simple eye test could detect important - and treatable health conditions, finds Catherine Barnes ye complaints are on the increase, with a rise in the number of people diagnosed with conditions affecting their sight at a younger age, according to research among UK optometrists. Eye care specialists Spectrum Thea say that modern lifestyles may be to blame for common eye conditions including Dry Eye Syndrome and Blepharitis – a chronic inflammation of the eyelid – especially given the increased uses of screens and monitors these days. Top of the list for ensuring our peepers are in optimum condition is a regular eye test, says consultant ophthalmic and refractive surgeon, Khalid Ikram – whether or not we need (or don’t think we need) to wear specs. “An eye health check will help identify if you need glasses for the first time, or if you need to change your current glasses or lenses. But a good eye check can actually help detect a lot more than that,” he says. “The eyes are often referred to as a gateway to the rest of the body, which is an accurate description. A thorough eye examination will not only detect early signs of potentially serious eye conditions, but it can also detect signs of diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, which can lead to complications.” Opticians can also detect early warning signs of potentially serious eye conditions before symptoms are even presented. These include Macular Degener-
E
ation – the leading cause of blindness in the UK – glaucoma and signs of injury or abnormality. “Early detection and treatment can help reduce the risk of damage and help prevent permanent vision loss,” says Khalid. Concentrating and reading can reduce our blink rate by a third meaning that the natural oils and tears that keeps the eye surface lubricated are not being renewed. This can lead to conditions such as Blepharitis, which be effectively with the right treatment, but cause irritation, grittiness, eyelid cysts and eye infections if left undiagnosed. “While your GP may be able to run some tests on your eyes, they very rarely have the correct equipment on site to conduct the full check you’d have done at the optometrist,” says Khalid. “With Dry Eye for example, there can be several different causes, which can require a slightly different management plan from heated eye bags and massage to drops you should be using.” Even symptoms such as dry, itchy eyes warrant a professional opinion rather than an over-the-counter remedy. “Many eye care products also contain preservatives, the most common of which is BAK (benzalkonium chloride),” adds Khalid. “Research has shown that the long term use of this preservative can actually result in cell damage and inflammation so it’s really important to make sure anything you use is preservative free where possible.”
THE KEEP FIT COLUMN WHERE ONE WOMAN TRIES EVERYTHING:
DODGER
this week: FENCING
THE SOFA
Mum of three Sam Taylor, 35, from Cardinham near Bodmin is behind Sofa Dodger, the website with wealth of keep-fit activities at a place near you. This week she tries: Fencing. As an avid reader of history, especially The War of the Roses and Tudor times, the thought of doing something which has derived from sword fighting is right up my street. I donned an under protector over my shoulder and then, what can only be described as a Madonna-esque boob protector, then a protective jacket, a glove and then finally a mask. Fencing reminds me a little of boxing: it’s all about getting the footwork right, first. The
sword was then introduced and I moved forward a couple of paces and instructor Jon encouraged me to tap him on the head with the sword. The lesson culminated in a first-tofive- points fight, where I could put all of my learnings into a bout. To outside observers, it must have looked like a toddler clumsily attempting to swat a fly. It looks a lot easier in films: I really hadn’t expected it to be so physically demanding, although the lesson was extremely enjoyable.
GET INVOLVED: Find Truro Fencing Club and a host of keep fit activities to try near you at www.sofadodger.co.uk. 32
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Bake NEW!
cake of the week
Kate Shirazi bakes:
Spooky cup cakes Kate says: Halloween is just around the corner and if you’re wondering what to hand out to trick or treaters this year, why not try some spooky cupcakes? For me, they tick all the right boxes they are a) a weird colour, b) contain an element of surprise and c) taste delicious. Even better, if you have any little horrors at home, they can help make them, too. I’m using a red velvet cake mix, which is completely delicious and suitably vampire-esque in colour. Makes 12 muffin-sized cakes
You will need:
Method:
60g soft margarine (I find Stork is best) or butter
For the frosting:
150g caster sugar
50g unsalted butter
1 large free range egg
125g Quark or other cream cheese
25g cocoa powder red food colouring (I use paste)
300g icing sugar 2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp warm water
Food colouring paste
2 tsp vanilla extract
Your own hand-made icing decorations and/or as many edible eyeballs, bats, pumpkins, silver balls and other Halloween-themed sweets as you can lay your hands on.
120ml buttermilk 150g plain flour, sifted ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda 1 tsp red wine vinegar lime marmalade with green food colouring (for centres) blackcurrant jam (for centres)
1.
2.
3.
To make the cakes, line a 12-hole muffin tin with cases and preheat the oven to 170C (325F, gas mark 3). Cream together the margarine and sugar until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Then beat in the egg. In a separate bowl mix together the cocoa and vanilla and a big wodge of red food colouring. Add enough warm water to make a paste thin enough to pour like very thick cream. Add this mixture to the butter and sugar mix and beat together really well, making sure that everything is incorporated.
4. Add the buttermilk and beat this in, followed by the flour. Keep beating and give the bowl a good scrape to make sure everything is mixed really well.
5.
Finally add the bicarbonate of soda and vinegar and give it all a final beat.
6. Pop the mixture (it is a thin batter – don’t panic) into the cases. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until firm and springy to the touch and a skewer inserted comes out cleanly. Leave to cool on a wire rack. Make up the frosting as described above and have fun decorating your cupcakes. You can also scoop out the centre of the cupcake and add in green or purple slime using marmalade and jam.
Kate Shirazi runs Cakeadoodledo shop and cafe on Exeter’s Cathedral Green (www.cakedoodledo.co.uk) and bakes cakes of all kinds to order and send by post. Find many more great recipes in Kate’s beautiful books Cake Magic and Baking Magic (£11.99 each, Pavilion Books) 33
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Fashion
Keep warm, look cool With Bonfire Night and trick-or-treating on the menu in the next few weeks, here’s our guide to looking gorgeous on chilly days
hee, bang, whizz… the temperature is dropping, the nights are drawing in, and the clocks go back today. But there’s no need to get too gloomy about long winter evenings just yet, because Bonfire Night is on the horizon, not to mention the fun of taking children trick-or-treating. It all adds up to the chance for an al fresco party for the chilly season, with sparklers and hot dogs. Not to mention a hot toddy or two around the fire - or in the pub. And while some might say any old jumper, pair of jeans and wellies will do, here at West we are not about to pass off any opportunity for clothes shopping for a party. Even a party in a muddy field. How about this fisherman’s rib jumper from White Stuff ? We also love these wonderfully warm and soft alpaca socks from Perilla in a cheery raspberry pink. They could be worn with cosy fur-lined boots from Cornwall’s own Celtic and Co. These sheepskin boots, made in Newquay, have been road-tested by the West team, who can vouch for their cosiness. You’ll want to accessorise all this with something fun, but practical. This rosette brooch is a fun creation made from scraps of fabric, available through Etsy, a website for crafty finds. And, for keeping your hands warm, these luxury cashmere gloves from Brora, are both practical and pretty. Have fun.
W
Alpaca socks Perilla, £28.60 www.perilla.co.uk
Brora cashmere gauzy poloneck, £298, and Fair Isle beanie, £115, www. brora.co.uk.jpg
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Cashmere gloves £52, Brora
Brooch, handmade by Victoria Myers Creations, £6, www.etsy.com
Cedar jumper, £59.95, White Stuff
Alpaca socks, Perilla £28.60, www.perilla.co.uk
fave!
Alpaca taupe and coral shawl, £79, Sophie Allport, www.sophieallport.com
Toscana calf boots £190 Celtic & Co, based in Newquay 35
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Trend
HOW TO WEAR IT:
London blogger City slicker style is where function and form meet discovers Kathryn Clarke-Mcleod called the Big Smoke your three key ‘areas’ top, bottom and home for four years. shoes, can be completely budget. After When I arrived there all, if you are wearing Calvin Klein as a wide-eyed twentyjeans and a Jil Sander sweater, you something from a small can get away with murder on your feet. South African town, the women I Pick the tackiest, most gem-encrusted encountered on the tube and moving pair of Primark pumps, and watch as swiftly along its glistening pavethey are transformed into diamond ments redefined my notion of ‘cool’. slippers, just by being in the presence I was mesmerised. of their more expensive peers. There was an unapologetic funcAlso, keep makeup to an artful minitionality in the way they dressed, and mal. This look is supposed to be the epityet they never sacrificed style. These ome of ‘I didn’t even try, nor do I care’. are the kind of women who blog about Even though you did, and you do. Simply fashion and coffee, wear red lipstick even out your complexion, use a sweep in the day, and Instagram absolutely of black liner and bang on a statement everything. lip in red or berry and you’re ready to go. I’ve been in the South Texture will give West for two years now. your look depth and For the first 18 months a feminine touchI was horribly smug ability, especially in This look is about my move, ‘best these autumn/winter supposed to be thing I ever did’ I would months. Think chunky tell anyone who would knits, hairy tweeds the epitome of ‘I listen, ‘the rat race was and sumptuous leathdidn’t even try, unbearable’. But suders. Prabal Gurung nor do I care’. denly, out of nowhere, I featured some textured find myself missing the knits in his AW14 shows Even though you morning rush, and my that would see you from did, and you do. seat on the Tube that Friday at the office to was even better than Boxing Day brunch. Elle magazine for the My quest led me array of outfits to spot. into Karen Millen (it There’s only one remedy for these was payday week, remember?) This blues: shopping. Inspired by my muses, sweater had me at hello. Midnight and enabled by the lure of payday I black, and cut flatteringly straight head to Princesshay. The beauty of across the shoulders. Described as this look is that you can be comfort‘coated’, it has a luxurious sheen, and able and stylish at the same time. a quirky stiffness to the wool that Think oversized sweaters, boyfriend goes beyond edgy. The check skirt jeans, flat Chelsea boots, and hair that is fun without being too frivolous. is either swept back or ‘straight out of Blighty’s worst couldn’t whip it up bed’ tousled. What will keep the overaround my neck, but the playful partall effect more designer than disheving keeps it light. elled? Quality pieces. The reason these Just the thing for my trip to London women get away with this look, is that this weekend. I’ll be visiting my friend the items are made of fantastic materiKerri. And yes, she has a (coffee) blog. als, cut perfectly and that fit just right. I hate to say it, but you may have to All fashion in these pictures is from splash out a little. Princesshay Shopping Centre, Exeter, There is wiggle room though. One of www.princesshay.com
MAIN PHOTO HAIR: SAKS, EXETER MAKEUP: CLARINS, DEBENHAMS (BOTH PRINCESSHAY) PHOTOGRAPHY: STEVE HAYWOOD STILL-LIFE PHOTOGRAPHS: PR SHOTS
I
Grey check mini skirt , Karen Millen, Princesshay, £99 Chunky coated sweatshirt , Karen Millen, Princesshay, £115 LTD edition luxury croc tote, Karen Millen, Princesshay, £299 Flat boots, Karen Millen, Princesshay, £199
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DEBENHAMS H! by Henry Holland check skirt £35 DEBENHAMS sH! by Henry Holland £85
GET THE
look KAREN MILLEN Croc tote £299
NEXT rucksack £75
NEW LOOK patent black ankle boot £24.99
NEXT textured cape £45 MISS SELFRIDGE burgundy leather crop top £75 37
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22/10/2014 09:44:34
Nanjizal
My Secret Westcountry
Matthew Thomson Matthew Thomson is chief executive of The Cornwall Food Foundation, the charity behind Watergate Bay’s Fifteen Cornwall restaurant and, along with Duchy College, a planned community farm project in Truro. Matthew lives in Falmouth with wife Fran and sons Ruan (7) and Bryn (5). My favourite... Pub: The Beerwolf in Falmouth. It’s a pub/ bookshop hybrid that sells great craft beer and cider made by small independent and local breweries with great music and special events. There’s a chilled atmosphere with a hipster vibe and it attracts a healthy mix of locals, university students, lecturers and tourists. You can bring your own food – yes really! – eat in, or have a takeaway delivered (I order pizza from.bellytimber.co). I take my boys in to eat their picnic while I have a small glass of rare beer. Its crowning glory is the fantastic range of books to browse or buy.
Cornish pasta
Beach: Nanjizal near Land’s End, but I’m
not saying exactly which bit! It lost a lot of sand during last winter’s storms, but it’s still a stunning beach. It’s got caves for thrills, rocks for climbing, river for messing, stunning green brown and purple seaweed forests, a lagoon-like sandbar half a mile out and, when the sand is on the shore, it’s white-gold and splendid.
Walk: Roseland, the peninsula across the estuary from Falmouth. All my favourite environments are there: deep green woods, high cliffs, sand pebble beaches and muddy estuaries. You can take a walk which lasts one mile, three miles, or ten and it’s hard to pick a single route when there are so many. All of them give you the chance to get lost,
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People
Fifteen Cornwall
Glendurgan Garden
[
[
‘Nanjizal has caves for thrills, rocks for climbing and white gold and splendid sands’
get found, watch birds, swim, climb trees and all manner of other adventures.
Port Eliot Festival
Event: The Port Eliot festival at St Germans – it’s small enough to be intimate, big enough to excite, varied enough to surprise and brings together a mixed-up bunch of mixed-up people for great music, food and spoken words. A mudfight frolic and one mile swim are festival rituals now, but what’s brilliant is that the kids’ area is so exciting and totally adult-friendly.
Shop: I’m not a great one for shopping, but it would probably be the Edge of the World bookshop in Penzance or one of the excellent Cornwall Hospice Care shops where you can find all sorts of interesting things.
Treat: It’s a busman’s holiday perhaps, but there’s is no greater treat in Cornwall than the Fifteen Feast - a seven-course option with wine matched course-by-course.
Venue: Can I time travel here? The (now gone) Cornwall Coliseum in St Austell which once
boasted ‘The Longest Bar in Britain’. I worked there in the 80s and we had some amazing gigs with pretty much everyone playing there.
Day out: The Eden Project. There are fantastic dahlias at the moment but there’s always something new there. I love walking into the tropical biome and smelling the smells and feeling the heat and humidity. My boys love it too (although they generally peel their shirts off !) and Eden’s baobab smoothie is a fixture. We’re blessed with world class gardens in Cornwall, so if it’s not Eden it’s Trengwainton, Glendurgan, Trebah or Heligan. And if it’s not a garden, it’s a great day sail out of Fowey or Falmouth. For more information visit www.fifteencornwall.co.uk 39
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[
Boston Tea party
By Becky Sheaves
have to say, parenthood gets (mostly) easier as the kids get older, albeit more expensive. I went into Exeter last weekend to get my hair done. And whereas there was a time when I would have had my hair cut with a toddler on my lap, on this occasion all I had to do was give my son Luke (12) and his friend George some money and let them loose on the city for a couple of hours. They returned having not spent the money on a hearty, healthy lunch (as requested). Instead, they had bought a rugby ball each and then spent their time hurling the balls to and fro in the pedestrian shopping area, making life awkward for passers-by. Great fun. So by the time we were reunited, they were starving. Luckily, my hairdresser is right by a café, called The Boston Tea Party. This is a small, family-owned chain (there are 15 branches, including Barnstaple and Honiton, including five
I
EATING OUT
in Bristol). I hadn’t eaten there for a while, and the boys were hungry – would the cafe measure up to the appetite of a 12 year old rugby player? The Exeter branch is in a lovely old Victorian building on Queen Street. When you go in, the downstairs is worryingly tiny – just a few chairs along a counter, dominated by the servery and (when we were there) a long, long queue. However, the queue moved along pretty briskly and soon enough we were ordering. It all looked, I have to say, very enticing – interesting dishes and an encouraging hippy/cool vibe with lots of home cooking. I picked up a pesto and mozzarella sandwich (£4.50) and a glass of homemade elderflower cordial (£1.50) from the serve-yourself fridge, then asked for a superfood salad billed as: ‘so full of superfoods we can’t list them here’ (£6.95). Luke picked up a Boston Tea Party iced tea (£2.25) - which was an unexpectedly purple colour - and George stuck to a bottle of coke. The boys were in full meat-eating mode. Luke wanted a cheeseburger and George ordered pulled chicken in a bun, both £8.50. Upstairs we went and there, above the tiny downstairs, is a
[
huge room with high ceilings and grand-scale 1800s architecture. “I wonder what this place used to be,” said the boys. “A court? Theatre? Market place maybe?” Today, it is stripped-back, with wooden floors, high Georgian windows and lots of scrubbed wood tables, mis-matched wooden chairs and sofas. Looking around, it was packed with the arty middle classes of Exeter – a good smattering of studenty yoga folk, with lots of families and kids. I’m taking a broad-brush approach, but you get the picture. There’s a book-swapping library, an art exhibition on the walls and a nice, laid-back feel to the place. Some people were contentedly eating alone, sharing the communal tables, often with laptops open. There is free wifi and it’s clearly a place where you can linger to do some work if you want to do so. Our meals came remarkably swiftly considering how busy the queue had been. The service was good, and I was impressed that the waitress found time to come back and ask us if the lunch was good, considering that it is such a large and bustling café. The main courses were served in what my granny would have called a pie dish – a
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4 of the best Cafes
1 Chapel Porth Beach Café, St Agnes
In the beach car park, this tiny eatery (pictured) has been dishing out croque monsieurs, flapjacks, hot drinks and ice cream to walkers, swimmers and surfers for many years now. The menu never changes: the locals wouldn’t have it any other way. Dish of the day: The Hedgehog, a vanilla icecream topped with clotted cream and hazelnuts Prices: Mains around £5 Contact: Closed some days in the low season– call first on 01872 552487
2 The Park Café, Lanhydrock
Newly opened in 2014, this café is part of the new cycle hire facilities at the National Trust grand house near Bodmin. Cafe-goers don’t have to pay entry to the house itself, and you can use the cycle trails through the woodland. There’s also a new adventure playground nearby. Dish of the day: Butternut squash and pearl barley risotto. Prices: Mains around £7 Contact: 01208 265950, www.nationaltrust.org.uk
3 Bob’s East End Café, Tavistock big open white enamel basin with a blue edge. Quirky. My salad was, indeed, packed with good stuff – I counted hazel nuts, quinoa, pumpkin seeds, spinach, pomegranate seeds, and lots more in a superb citrussy/sweet dressing. Excellent. The sandwich was lovely too, though could have done with a touch more pep from the pesto. Luke’s iced tea was berry-rich with a hit of apple juice and an after-kick of tea. He liked it a lot. He also scoffed down his home-made (and very good) burger and chips. I managed to persuade both boys to let me have a taste of their meals. George’s pulled chicken was dark, rich, sweet and very moreish: even better than the burger in my opinion. Neither one of them could be persuaded even to try the rustic-looking hearty coleslaw – I had some and it was excellent. What can you do? All in all, this is a lovely café and a real addition to Exeter’s social scene. It’s a shame (due to the constraints of the building) that the best bit of the cafe is up a long flight of stairs making it awkward for pushchairs and very difficult indeed for the disabled. But it is clearly, judging
by the happy customers I saw there, a really vibrant place. I’d certainly recommend it. Boston Tea Party, 84 Queen Street Exeter, 01392 201181, www.bostonteaparty.co.uk
A proper greasy-spoon, this is the place for a good, honest, Full English. It’s in the historic Pannier Market in the heart of Tavistock, and is rightly loved by the locals here. Also serves fish and chips, lasagne and omelettes. Dish of the Day: (It has to be) Bob’s Full English Breakfast Prices: Mains around £6 Contact: Just pop in!
4 Tea & Tittle-Tattle, Budleigh Salterton
How they scored... Food
Atmosphere
Service
Price
Lunch for three was £34.50
A family run tea shop and restaurant which prides itself on serving unpretentious home made food in generous portions. Near the sea in Budleigh Salterton, and so popular that booking is recommended. Dish of the Day: Full Devonshire cream tea Prices: Mains around £7 Contact: 01395 443 203 www.teaandtittletattle.co.uk
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Ingredient of the Week
Milk
with Tim Maddams ilk. It’s a funny thing when you think about it. We kind of take it as read these days that to have the mammary excretion of a large bovine readily and very cheaply available to us in our fridges, shops and supermarkets is normal. But when was the last time you actually thought about the process involved? Dairy products have become such a part of our way of life that we take them for granted. We’re lucky in the South West to have some of the finest dairy herds in the world, producing excellent milk for both the liquid milk market and the superb cheese-makers that abound in these parts. Now, when I buy my cheese, I’m always looking for local artisan producers. But when it comes to milk, we’re trapped in a strange generic world where milk is defined simply by its lid colour. These days even the milk sold in the supermarkets will be at least partly produced in the region - and that’s great. Yet when I drive the short distance from my home to the nearest shop I must pass at least three small dairy farms… so, where can I buy their milk? This question aside, apart from sloshing it over cornflakes or glugging it into our morning tea or coffee what do we actually use it for? In supermarket foods, milk is virtually everywhere you look. It’s put into things you may not even realise and if you don’t believe me, read the packet of the next few things you buy: they are very likely to have the ingredient whey powder on the
M
list somewhere. I have to say I don’t use milk too much in my cookery, as I like a less dairy-edged taste to my dishes. Some cooks favour the butter dish and milk churn a little too much for my taste. But I do use a lot of yoghurt: it’s good for you, almost never goes off and is far more tasty than cream. Every now and again though, I make a traditional white sauce and some good quality milk is the only way forward. I’m also fond of poaching things in milk - things like smoked fish, rabbit and pork to name but a few. I also like to make my own curds from time to time by warming the milk and adding rennet to split the curds from the more watery whey. One of my first loves as a child was good old Westcountry junket, which I still make from time to time as a dessert. These days, I give it a more sophisticated edge with some herb or another and most lately, it’s been woodruff. I know milk’s not really an ingredient of the season, given it’s now available all year round and for little cost. But try and imagine not using milk for a month. Would you appreciate it more afterwards? I suspect so! We use it all the time without truly realising we’re doing so, but it deserves our respect and appreciation as much as the rarest of treats. Oh, and one more thing: if you drink milk or eat cheese, consider eating British rose veal (ethically-produced, of course), because without calves being born there’d be no milk here at all.
Curd cheese.
This simple strained curd is delightful in its blandness and works very well in all sorts of dishes. I love to crumble it over pizza, pasta and into soups. Warm a couple of pints of milk to blood temperature in a perfectly clean pan. Ensure everything you use when making cheese is scrupulously clean, to avoid any risk of contamination. Add a few drops of rennet (make sure you buy cheese-making rennet and not junket rennet, as the latter’s sweetened and flavoured with almond essence). Remove from the heat and stir, but leave in a warm place and ignore it for about fifteen minutes. When you go back, it should have set, so now break up this junket by stirring it and passing it through a muslin. You’ll then have curds in the muslin and whey in a bowl. Don’t waste the whey: it makes excellent scones and pancakes. Tie your curds up in the muslin and hang this above a bowl for a few hours. The longer you hang, them the drier they’ll become, so if you want a moist soft curd, don’t leave it for ages. Once you’re happy with the consistency, remove the curds from the muslin and use for whatever you like. I often keep mine in a flavoured oil in a jar in the fridge. @TimGreenSauce
Tim Maddams is a Devon chef and writer who often appears on the River Cottage TV series 42
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Drink
Darren Norbury
talks beer s the clocks go back and the smell of open fires drifts through the air, it’s time to turn our attention from the golden, hoppy beers of summer and early autumn to the delicious dark brews which will sustain us through the winter. This is the season when malt starts to take centre stage. Barley is the most common grain used in British beer and a lot is grown in the south west, with breweries like St Austell and Skinner’s making a selling point of using only locally grown malt. Once it leaves the farm, the grain is taken to a maltings, such as Tuckers, in Newton Abbot, where it is spread across a huge floor and dried out. A soaking with water then tricks the grains into germinating and once this process begins that is the point at which they are roasted, or kilned. A fast kilning at a low temperature will give a light coloured, light flavoured malt, while the darker, more in-depth flavoured grains have a long heating at a low temperature, than have the heat turned up. The lighter malt can be a foil to a dry hop flavour in a golden beer, but it’s now that the darker malts come into their own, offering chocolate, bitter coffee, caramel, nuts and sometimes deep plummy fruit notes along their spectrum of flavours. To paraphrase Jeanette Winterson, barley is not the only malt, and grains such as wheat, rye and oats are increasingly being experimented with. Rye is particularly good in autumnal beers, adding a spicy warmth. Wheat will give, generally, a hazy, light coloured beer with clove, banana and vanilla flavours common. Earlier this year I particularly enjoyed a pint of Harbour Brewing Co’s Oatmeal Stout, from Cornwall, a delicious dark beer with the oats adding big body smoothness. With Bonfire Night coming up, a fruity, darker brown beer is just the job for supping by the flames, and will go well with a burger or hot dog. How about a Black Rock from Bude Brewery, an Autumn Glory from the Exe Valley Brewery, or for those who like a little more strength, the appropriately named Full Bore from Hunter’s? All excellent autumnal Westcountry brews that are perfect for Guy Fawkes night. And for Halloween, what could be more suit-
A
able than Bucket of Blood, St Austell’s annual seasonal, named after the pub of the same name at Phillack, near Hayle, where a grisly legend relates to a body at the bottom of a well? Head brewer Roger Ryman says: “This near blood red ale is full of biscuit malt flavours with a balanced bittersweet finish.” Darren Norbury is editor of beertoday.co.uk @beertoday
Beer of the week
That’s the spirit
Bath Ales has created an English malt spirit which starts life as wort, the liquid from the mashing that starts every brew of beer. Gem Aqua Vitae (42% proof) has been created in collaboration with the English Spirit Distillery.
I first got a taste for Tavy Ales during a mystery minibus tour from my local to the Peter Tavy Inn, near Tavistock. Their Best (4.3%) is a perfect bitter for this time of year, chestnut brown in colour and with hints of red berry fruit and nuts. Typical of the traditional Westcountry style of bitter.
American theme North Cornwall based Firebrand Brewing Co is opening an American style Bar and Restaurant in Launceston any time now (look for their Facebook page). Expect their own craft beers and real ales, plus American style dining, including burgers, dogs and the now compulsory pulled pork. 43
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Living For Generation Z, technology is a fact of life. Believe it or not, this photograph was taken by Ruby Anderton, aged 10
TECHNOLOGY
Generation Z How Westcountry youngsters today have the digital skills to forge ahead oung people in the South West today are making the most of digital technology to achieve their career goals - and older generations are envious of the so-called ‘Generation Z’. A survey among 16-24 year olds by Lucozade Energy found that almost three quarters of this age group consider themselves more career-fo-
Y
cused than previous generations, largely due to own games, apps and digital platforms. It uses their digital savvy and use of social media net- technology as a tool to bring learning alive and works. Among them is Bejay Mulenga, who is it even has eight-year-olds editing films on Final behind the Supa Academy, a digital platform that Cut Pro, a software used in the TV and film inhelps youngsters to run their dustry. Indeed, the photos of the own business. He set up his own academy used to illustrate this business as a 14-year old GCSE feature were taken by Ruby AnIts aim is for student, making £15,000 from a derton, age 10, who has revealed children to shop he established while studya talent for photography. ing business at school. Now in its second year, Exploharness what’s But an even younger generarium also has invention ‘labs’ already been tion is already snapping at Beand is planning to add social mejay’s heels. In Compton Dundon dia-based projects to the activideveloped near Glastonbury in Somerset, ties it offers. What’s more, it’s online, and also the not-for-profit digi academy also persuading girls to explore to code their Explorium is teaching youngtheir potential in a field that’s sters aged from six to 14 how been more of a draw for boys. own software to develop their digital literacy “There’s a huge gender gap in skills through exciting creative the tech industry, which is one projects. of the fastest-growing indusIts aim is for children to hartries worldwide,” says Exploriness what’s already been developed online, and um founder Julia Black. “It has a huge influence also to code their own software and create their on the way our world is shaping up, so it’s vital we
[[
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gadget notebook TECH TIPS: inventions
26 October 2014
Our pick of the best new kit on the market right now
Lap-tastic! Breakfast in bed with your iPad (find West mag online at www.westernmorningnews.co.uk). A notch in the tray keeps your tablet upright, while a micro-bead cushion melds to the contours of your lap. iBED, £12.50 www.maidenshop.com.
fave!
Old school is cool Build your own technology 1940s style: All you need is a screwdriver to assemble the Crystal Radio Receiver, which can pick up AM wavelength radio shows without electricity or batteries! £24.99 from www.thegiftoasis.com
Bejay Mulenga started a business at school that made £15,000, when he was only 14 years old
Bluetooth tracking get more girls and young women excited by this potential career path.” Among the Explorium regulars is eight year old Poppy, who has begun to explore coding and is developing the concept for a video game with her friend Flora. Her mum Theresa says: “Poppy comes home on an absolute high after Explorium. I’ve not seen her enjoy a club so much before.” The after-school scheme also includes Maths and English skills within its absorbing and child-centred approach to learning. Youngsters of all ages took part in a recent art project based upon complex mathematical parabolic curves. Julia says: “We are at a really exciting point in time, where imagination, creative thinking and technology have the potential to make anything possible.” Explorium is currently open Monday to Fridays, with a two-hour session costing £20. It’s also considering Digital Sundays for film-making and coding sessions, subject to demand.
Protect your treasured items from loss or theft with this nifty Bluetooth security tag. Attach to your handbag, keys or even toddler. A tracking feature will locate them in an instant and alert you via a free app on your phone. You can even choose your favourite i-tune to warn you when something goes missing. Nio Tag £49.95 www.red5.co.uk
charged!
This power bank keeps mobile devices charged for people on the go. It’s a palmsized portable battery in a lovely butter-soft leather case, with enough juice to fully recharge a range of phones and tablets twice… perfect for long car or train journeys. £89 from www.stowlondon.co.uk
More details at: www.explorium.co.uk
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My life
[
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MAN AND BOY
Yes, I’m the footballer
Phil Goodwin fails to live up to his son’s imagination - again o you’re the footballer,” says one of the school mums as we wait patiently for our children to emerge from class. The teacher has just spotted me among the parents and pointed young James in my direction. Her boy is next in the queue and also comes scampering across the playground, handing over his book bag, together with the latest bulletin from the school. It seems our sons are best friends - but we don’t know each other. And there is clearly a misunderstanding as to my profession. “A footballer?” I repeat, a bit gormless, wondering if I am missing a joke. But as I pronounced the word, I have to admit, this alternative career path sounded so good I was almost tempted to just go along with it. For a fleeting moment I drifted, Walter Mitty style, into the fantasy world of the Premier League and imagined whisking the lad home in the diamondencrusted Daimler before settling down in the white leather sofa to watch him larking about with my trophy wife in the indoor heated swimming pool. It is flattering to imagine I had been mistaken for a professional athlete. And delusional. I am a bit too long in the tooth to pass myself off as belonging even to the semi-professional ranks. It appears more likely some creative boasting is behind the misapprehension. “My son has told you this,” I guessed, almost correctly. James had in fact told her boy, who in turn had passed it on. She had not swallowed the story either and we had a laugh about it. During the chat, it emerged that the possibility may not have seemed that remote to her, as her grandfather had actually played for Arsenal. More than a hundred times! Moreover, he had scored in a Cup Final win over my team, Liverpool, way back in the black and white days.
S
You do wonder what kids talk about in class. Though, of course, they never tell you anything about their day. You practically need the anglepoise lamp, a darkened room and pliers just to extract the details of the lunch menu. On the way home, I asked James why he told the fib but all I got in response was a long and winding trip up the garden path before the nonsense story tailed off into a kind of sing-song incoherence. I just gave up.
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He had simply assumed that this was me, in the offical Liverpool football team photograph
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Of course, the facility of children to embarrass parents is apparently without bounds, as every mum and dad knows. The warning delivered by the police at arrest serves as a decent rule of thumb – anything you say may be taken down and used in evidence against you. I was impressed that he had so brazenly told a lie – albeit a harmless, white one – and more or less got away with it. Naturally, I encourage truthfulness at all times but creativity is a good thing. Who hasn’t embellished their achievements to get a job or gain a “competitive advantage”? The thing that puzzled me was why he had chosen football. I hardly play at all these days, so am never seen lugging around boots or kit or footballs. It turns out to be less a case of deception and more a mistaken assumption. Putting two and two together and coming up with five. This is how the logic went: I watch football on TV. I go to Anfield regularly, where Liverpool play. On the wall in the back room is a signed shirt and framed photo of me and club legend and player manager, Kenny Dalglish, holding a football. (No, it is not a “shrine”.) The picture came from a newspaper competition I won as a youngster and behind me and the King, a group of runners up are gathered. The boy had simply assumed, my wife informs me, that this is me in the Liverpool football team photo. If only it were true.
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Have you discovered the perfect
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New Years Eve Party Medieval Menu
Music by ’Mass-Affect’ with an amazing ‘Laser Light Show’ to take you through to 1am - Prizes for the best fancy-dress! Full tickets at £35pp - Door tickets only (with no food or table reservation) £10
Main Courses Traditional Roast Turkey
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Main Course Shepherd’s Lamb Shank Braised in Mead sauce
Home made Dessert Courses
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One & two course menus lunchtime only (12 – 4 pm) Full menu available all day (12 – 9 pm) Please remember to book and pre-order your meals Non-refundable deposit required: £5 for Main course & £10 for 2/3 course per person Gratuities not included. Special Dietary requirements catered for
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Preacher’s Lentil and vegetable Bake Served with Tarragon butter All main courses served with root vegetable pie and jacket potato
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ENS P O AY 7 D EEK AW
For everyone who lives and loves the country life Stocking everything for horse and rider, country clothing and footwear, pet food, treats and bedding, farm supplies and garden essentials.
TRURO Store GRAND opening with Farmer and TV Presenter
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Threemilestone Industrial Estate, Truro TR4 9LD | 01872 246123 | www.patchandacre.co.uk
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