WMN on Sunday - West Magazine 12 October

12.10.14

Jo Pavey: supermum Meet Devon’s star athlete INSIDE: + RETRO FASHION BARGAINS + WINTER-PROOF YOUR HEALTH

DON’T MISS:

+ WIN TICKETS TO THE BIG FOOD SHOW

PLUS + GARDEN SCENTS + CAKE OF THE WEEK

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[ welcome [ Win, read and enjoy...

Tweet

of the week @wmnwest

#FF For all good things #Devon follow @DevonLife & @WMNWest Jolly good reads both #Recommended @PlymouthArtist

CONTACT: westmag@westernmorningnews.co.uk Tel: 01392 442250 Twitter @wmnwest

Hello and welcome to this week’s issue of West magazine. First things first, if you haven’t got your tickets yet to The Big Food Show in Exeter’s Westpoint from 24-26 October, then you really should have a think about it.

With The Hairy Bikers, MasterChef’s John Torode and much, much more it really is not to be missed. And if you fancy a flutter, we have three pairs of tickets to win (see page 8) each worth £28 - simply drop us an email to win (westmag@westernmorningnews.co.uk).

I can’t have been the only one whose jaw dropped to see our cover star, Devon runner Jo Pavey, win a gold medal at the European

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Championships in Zurich this summer. Pretty good going for any woman of 40, but one who’d given birth just 11 months before? Find out how she does it (clue: there’s one very supportive husband in the mix) on page 14.

Kishanda Fulford has been our fabulous columnist from the very start of West magazine, all the way back in June this year.

You may have noticed some hilarious-looking trails on BBC TV for a show called “Life is Toff” coming up soon.

Yes, that is her family: read Kishanda’s funny and all-too-frank account of hosting a teenage party in her 800-year-old Devon mansion on page 9 today. We think you’ll agree, she is a bit of a star in her own right, too. Happy reading!

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Pretty good going for any woman of 40, but one who’d given birth 11 months before?

Becky Sheaves, Editor

COVER IMAGE: Matt Austin

MEET THE TEAM Becky Sheaves, Editor

Gillian Molesworth

Kathryn Clarke-McLeod

Catherine Barnes

Phil Goodwin 3

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A WEEKEND IN: ILFRACOMBE Your guide to the best Westcountry mini breaks

‘’ My initiation into the horrors of teenage parties began when I weakly agreed to my 13 year old son having his class to stay for a sleepover’

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-Kishanda Fulford’s Modern Manors P9

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JO PAVEY Meet the Westcountry’s star athlete/supermum

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VINTAGE AUCTION The best retro bargains

INTERIORS Get inspired by this mill conversion in Kingsbridge

Inside this week...

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THE WISHLIST What to buy, where to go

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WHAT’S ON

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MODERN MANORS

Our pick of the best events in the West TV toffs the Fulford family have a party

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HOW TO WEAR...

Trend expert Kathryn on military style

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WINNING WOMAN Devon’s Jo Pavey on how to combine motherhood and medals

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VINTAGE AUCTION The Dorset mega-sale of retro bargains

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INTERIORS Converting a mill to a cosy family home

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GARDENING

WINTER MILITARY The latest trend, and how to wear it

Anne Swithinbank on winter fragrance

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DON’T BE S.A.D. Practical help for seasonal blues

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A WEEKEND IN...

Your guide to the best West mini breaks

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CAKE OF THE WEEK Kate Shirazi’s Battenburg cupcakes

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LET’S TALK BEER The newest beers, and the beer news

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ROAD TEST Our man in a Rolls Royce... in Plymouth

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MAN & BOY A bedtime story goes very wrong

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GARDENING Winter fragrance with Anne Swithinbank

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If you buy one thing this week...

It’s time to help our feathered friends through the cold months. But how about a change from the usual mini wooden houses? We love these cool bird feeders and homes, made by Green & Blue of Perranporth on the north Cornish coast.

The wish List Ball bird houses from £34.95 Seed feeders from £39.95 Fat ball holders from £19.95 www.greenandblue.co.uk 5

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Hot stuff Take the chilli peanut challenge £10 BHS

Funny fridges Magnet letters £7.99 www.themonsterfactory.com

DAIRY DIY Make your own butter, cream cheese or even mozzarella £17.95 www.cuckooland.com

The wish List West’s picks for spending your time and money this week

Shake it up We love this beautiful salt and pepper set, perfect for smartening up your fish n chip supper £145 www.amara.comcom

Boutique of the Week Poshtotti, Kingsbridge

Warm toes

Poshtotti is a great little clothes shop in Kingsbridge, south Devon. It is best known for colourful beachwear and sarong wraps, but for autumn they also stock a delectable mix of strokeable suedes and furs, ponchos, wrist cuffs, clothing and bling-tastic accessories.

Owner Amanda Burwell, who designs many of her own pieces, loves dressing women to the jazzy yet comfortable nines.

She caters for all sizes, from the skinny minnies to the rubenesques. You can also buy from her collection online.

Poshtotti, 75 Fore Street, Kingsbridge www.poshtotticlothing.co.uk

Great with jeans, furry ankle boots £79.99 www.lotus shoes.co.uk

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Wishlist Top cat Cat mittens £15.99 www.yumidirect.co.uk

Lamplight On sale in Rue des Fontenelles interiors shop, Moretonhampstead £85 www.ruedes fontenelles.co.uk

St Ives style This pretty necklace is made by beadmaker Lesley Silver in her West Cornwall studio £POA www.beadsashore.com

Honey honey Lovely beeswax candles from £4 www.wood-knit-bee.co.uk

s The whole story This print has the entire book of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on it. Groovy £29.50 www.homecandy.com

SPICY Mini Moroccan tagines £6, Sainsbury’s Home 7

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Events

The hotlist: Our pick of the most fun and interesting events coming up soon in the Westcountry, from food festivals to ice skating, and more...

Win The Big Food Show Autumn deer walks 18-19 October

Spot fallow deer at Castle Drogo, Dartmoor, with guided walks next weekend, followed by a full English breakfast in the castle café.

From 7.30am, £17.50, call 01647 433306 to book.

The Queen’s Knickers 14 October

This raucous 50-minute stage show is perfect for children aged 4+. A hilarious tale of missing underwear, adapted from the best-selling book by Westcountry author Babette Cole. Queens Theatre, Barnstaple, call 01271 324242 or visit www.northdevontheatres.org.uk

24-26 October

Great British Bake-Off star Glenn Cosby is cooking and compering at The Big Food Show at Exeter’s Westpoint, along with John Torode, Gino d’Acampo and The Hairy Bikers. We have three pairs of tickets to win, each worth £28, to win email westmag@westernmorningnews.co.uk

by October 16 2014.

Ice skating at Eden 18 October - March 1

The fabulous ice rink at the Eden Project near St Austell is back for the winter season, with regular skate sessions plus the chance to meet Father Christmas and some real-life reindeer.

Visit www.edenproject.com for details.

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My life

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MODERN MANORS

Teenage parties

Mother-of-four Kishanda Fulford tries not to panic

eenage parties are the pits. A friend of mine was in her kitchen and noticed water streaming down the walls. On investigating she found that someone had been sick in a shower and left it running. Another friend found sick up the walls of her upstairs passage. I too have had a ‘sick’ incident. After one party here I could not find the bedclothes of one of the spare room beds. I eventually found the whole lot wrapped untidily in a cupboard, full of – guess what?

All was forgiven when I received a very charming letter of apology from the perpetrator.

This reminds me of the story about a letter sent to a young guest - ‘Did you inadvertently take the sheets home with you?’.

The poor young man had not the nerve to tell his hostess that he’d never had sheets on his bed in the first place.

My initiation into the horrors of teenage parties began when I weakly agreed to my 13 year old son having his class to stay for a sleepover. It was hot and the children wanted to swim before lunch so I told the girls to change in my bedroom.

As I showed them the way there was a clash of glass as a case was put on the floor. What is in there I asked? Out of the bag came two cases of pop-sized ‘Bacardi Breezers’. There were two bottles missing out of the pack. I asked the twin girls, who owned the bag, where were the missing bottles? To be told by them, in unison, that their granny had had drunk them that morning.

I burst out laughing at the thought of their pintsized granny having knocked back a couple of Bacardi Breezers by midday. I actually thought though that my brains were going to fry as I tried to count twenty bobbing heads in our lake. When they all left the next morning I sat in a heap

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almost unable to move.

Perhaps the worst of parties is attending the same party as your children. On Friday night I did just that and, unknown to me, the younger guests had a ‘chill out tent’. I walked rather forlornly around a large marquee filled with people, tables and chairs looking for our daughter who was meant to come home to stay with her aunt.

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There was a clash of glass. Out of the bag came two cases of popsized Bacardi Breezers Unable to find her, we left her behind. She had a lovely time and went to bed at 5am. The next morning I rang her, and rang her. No answer. My sister-in-law told to me to stop being on ‘amber alert’ all the time. The time, she said, has come when my children would have to sort themselves out. My daughter did just that and hitched a lift to her second 21st in two days.

I only wish I had been given this sage piece of advice earlier in the year when I attended my youngest son’s leaver’s ball. After the party the children went to a field not far from the school to celebrate even more. I was given instructions as to how to find the field by the Head Boy, so we could pick our son up in the morning and go home. We could not find the field which the Head

Boy had told me could not be missed, as there would be an England flag marking the gateway.

This, during the World Cup… when lots of people had flags flying. Any conversation on the mobile was cut off at just the point where a left or right hand turn was crucial. I have never known my husband be so cross.

My son has just returned from another party.

His friend was meant to be picked up by a taxi at 6am in the morning, so that he could meet his parents en route to Gatwick airport. He woke up in a motor car (that’s where they all sleep now) and said, ‘What time is it?” “9.30”. This child, (should I write ‘child’ about someone who is 18?) is, as I write, on his way to Inverness by train.

His parents will have the joy of picking him up from the railway station at one in the morning.

As this story was being told to me one of my son’s friends exclaimed, ‘Oh no!’. There on ‘snapchat’ was a photograph of a car being hauled on the back on an AA truck. This was the car of another friend, who had also been at the same party, and who should have been on his way to university in Newcastle - until… he filled his diesel car with petrol.

I am so glad I am not his mother! But, there again, I am not on ‘amber’ any more.

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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Happy hogs: High welfare pigs make Pork Heaven from Devon’s sausages, which won Taste of the West Champion product 2014 Nice turban, m’lady: Julian ‘Downton Abbey’ Fellowes and wife Lady Emma present the Bath and West Show’s long service award to Michael Hurford, who has worked for the Hazel family’s farm in Somerset for 48 years

in pictures Strictly smiles: Audrey Masztalerz and Janet Peters get dancing at Selkirk House home for the elderly, Plymstock

That’s the way: Ryan, aged 15, learns bricklaying in a special Aspire careers event in Plymouth

Happy day: Henry Winkler, aka The Fonz, popped into several Cornish primary schools to promote literacy

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talking points When not in Rome

Ill feeling Ten historic ailments... and their modern diagnoses

1 Horrors (delirium tremens) 2 The grippe (influenza) 3 Lues (syphilis) 4 Lockjaw (tetanus) Ten Roman settlements in England - and their names today

1 Eboracum (York) 2 Luguvalium (Carlisle) 3 Venta Belgarum (Winchester)

4 Mamucium (Manchester) 5 Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter)

9 Deva (Chester) 10 Durnovaria (Dorchester)

6 Scrumpox (impetigo) 7 King’s Evil (tuberculosis of neck and lymph glands)

8 Jail fever (typhus) 9 Canker (mouth ulcer or cold sore)

10 Bone shave (sciatica)

The happy list

Guest stars

10 things to make you smile this week 1 Mowing the lawn pretty soon we won’t have to As themselves: 10 celebrities to have featured in The Simpsons

1 Ringo Starr 2 James Brown 3 Rupert Murdoch 4 Buzz Aldrin 5 Dolly Parton 6 Sting 7 Bette Midler 8 Elizabeth Taylor 9 Kim Basinger 10 Elton John

Story of my life...

The time has come for kids to teach parents

5 Mormal (gangrene )

6 A quae Sulis (Bath) 7 Verulanium (St Albans) 8 Caesaromagus (Colchester)

Gillian Molesworth

2 W arm gilets so slimming 3 Strictly’s viewer videos toddlers waltzing - aaah

4 Hairy Bikers at Exeter’s the Big Food Show (Oct 24-26)

5 Autumn Food Fayre at Fifteen Cornwall (Oct 18)

6 R ugby singing all together 7 Chimney sweeps it’s time 8 New wellies with fluffy socks inside

9 Roast chestnuts by the open fire: you know the drill

10 Half term plans time for a mini-break, we think

ou know you’ve reached a certain point in parenting when your kids start teaching you stuff. Well, I suppose that’s a fallacy – they teach you stuff from the second you get pregnant. But those lessons are mostly about life as a breeding human, which (whatever you read in books or see on TV), comes as a whole string of “Really?” I said. “Don’t you live surprises. Especially the first time. in fear that you’re going to put the What I mean, though, is the kids number in the wrong place?” start imparting real knowledge to “Not with box method,” said you. I remember the school year Sophie. when we tackled the dreaded I had never even heard of box subject of Long Multiplication. method. I watched in fascination Having learned our times tables, as Sophie demonstrated a comwe were moved on to larger numpletely new way to multiply. bers. We were taught the column We chose 395 times 64. Sophie method. I didn’t know it was called made a three by two grid. Above that at the time – as far as I knew the x axis went the larger number, (until recently), broken into compothere was only one nents (300, 90, and way to do long mul5) – and left of the You can imagine tiplication. Line the y axis, the other my surprise numbers up on the number (60 and 4). right and follow the Sophie mulwhen both my RULES. tiplied the two kids said that The column axes against each method has several other, one combithey actually UNBREAKABLE nation at a time, liked maths RULES. You HAVE putting a number to put everything in each box. Then in line. You HAVE she added all the to be neat. You HAVE to put each boxes together. I cross-checked it number in exactly the right place, with my own, apparently obsolete, or the whole thing goes wrong. It’s column method. Same answer. a challenge when your handwrit“That’s amazing,” I said, genuing is still wobbly. inely amazed. It was like a pub Multiplication became my trick. “Do you have to do them in a enemy. I remember crying bitter particular order? tears. “I hate you,” I would mutter “Nah, you can do them however to the numbers on the paper. you want, as long as you fill each Words were better than numbox,” said Sophie. bers. With words you had fluidity I liked this. My children had and choice. As long as you spelled some choice about numbers. They them right, there was no WRONG were made to feel less WRONG, with words. less paranoid about putting a You can imagine my surprise pencil point out of place. when both my kids expressed the Maybe they will feel as happy fact that they actually liked maths with numbers as I did with words.

– even long multiplication.

I call that progress.

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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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Trend

HOW TO WEAR IT:

Winter Military Kathryn Clarke-Mcleod gets a little feisty in this season’s latest look. Atten-shun! ave you seen Emma Watson’s United Nations speech? If not, google it, google it now.

In it, the Harry Potter actress turned UN Goodwill Ambassador for Women throws light on the prejudices and constraints facing women the world over. What struck me most was her saying that acts of strength and assertiveness have, on numerous occasions, earned her the label ‘bossy’.

All very well, I hear you say. But what does this have to do with your fashion column. My answer? Everything. How often have you shied away from buying something because you thought you might stand out just a little too far? Those heels that got left behind because you might tower over your male colleagues. The divine belted suit that seemed ‘a bit much’ in your current job? Want to know something?

I’d put money on the fact that even when you do land your dream job in management, you’ll still leave them both there, not wanting to be too ‘in your face’.

Enough. AW14 saw the military look make a comeback. Relax, I’m not advocating we don epaulettes and camouflage leggings for a charge against everyday sexism. But there is no doubt a jacket with just the right cut, or smart shoes worn with the right attitude send a powerful message.

Fashion is, after all, so much more than just a bunch of designers in a room somewhere deciding what will look good next season. Fashion is a language, and it helps us to communicate. I’m sure the military trend for womenswear this autumn is related

HAIR BY SAKS EXETER, MAKE-UP CLARINS, DEBENHAMS (BOTH PRINCESSHAY EXETER) PHOTOGRAPHY: STEVEN HAYWOOD

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to the struggle for empowerment of everyday women. Long story short, it is your duty, as a woman, to go shopping (see what I did there).

Luckily, we have good examples to follow. Carine Roitfeld (former editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris) moves effortlessly between pretty white Dolce & Gabbana broderie anglaise dresses, and full-strength army glamour, complete with thigh high lace-up boots. Something tells me she never worries about looking ‘bossy’ when she gets dressed in the morning.

Not quite ready for the thighhighs? I suggest a trip to the All Saints store. When I visited the one in Exeter’s Princesshay shopping centre, I was spoilt for choice for this new trend. In fact, there was an awkward moment where I tried to wear two military-style coats on top of each other. The effect was more mad dictator than woman in charge, so I quickly narrowed it down to just the one. The end result - pictured - was slightly androgynous, but I liked it.

It felt liberating. If you prefer to look a bit more feminine, just swap the utilitarian trousers for a tight leather pencil skirt. Instant va va voom.

You can scrape hair back into a fuss-free ponytail for effortless style, or soften the effect with bouncy curls. Your biggest accessory when adopting this trend? An unapologetic attitude. Yes, it’s a strong look. But you’re a strong woman. You’ve got important things to consider. You’re the boss, after all.

All fashion in these pictures is from Princesshay Shopping Centre, Exeter, www.princesshay.com

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ALL SAINTS Monalisa Boots £228

ALL SAINTS Lorie Coat £298 Elise Shirt £138 Anthracite Jeans £148

KAREN MILLEN Luxe long-line gilet £199

GET THE

look EAST boyfriend coat £110

OASIS military viscose shirt £35 LK BENNETT Tala patent boots £325

REISS Kalie textured ankle boots £195

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JO PAVEY

Winning woman Devon’s Jo Pavey won European gold for athletics this year, despite giving birth just 11 months earlier. She tells Becky Sheaves how she juggles medals and motherhood

don’t know what I was expecting when I went to meet Europe’s fastest woman (over 10k) at her home in a village in East Devon. But what I wasn’t anticipating was just how, well, normal she, husband Gavin and their two little children are. Jo makes a coffee for me with Emily, one, on her hip. Emily’s teething and Jo wonders whether she needs some Calpol. Gavin tells Jacob, five, that he can’t have another chocolate biscuit. Both of them explain that part of the kitchen floor has been taken up because of a water leak, sorry.

Jo’s wearing a pretty blue top and jeans, a smidge of make-up and is fretting because she put her wedding ring down and now can’t find it. “It’s here somewhere,” she says, making me a mug of instant. “In among the kids’ toys, probably!” If it weren’t for the fact that she is tiny and honed, like a whippet, I’d never guess I’m talking to the woman who is the European Gold Medal champion over 10,000 metres. Not to mention an inspiration to all women, everywhere, who are juggling ambition and motherhood.

The remarkable facts of Jo’s achievements speak for themselves. In September 2013, she gave birth to Emily. By April this year she was still breastfeeding. In May she was back on the race track, aged 40, running qualifying races for the national teams against women up to two decades younger than her. This summer she won a bronze medal at 5,000 metres in the Commonwealth Games, followed by winning a European Gold Medal in Zurich this August. This gold came just 11 months after Jo had given birth for the second time and a month shy of her 41st birthday. She is the oldest woman ever to win a gold medal in the European Championships.

PHOTOGRAPHS: MATT AUSTIN

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“Yes, it’s been an amazing year,” Jo tells me quietly over coffee at her comfortable but very un-starry house, tucked away down a lane in an East Devon village. “I actually think being a mum has helped me to achieve so much more with my running.” She has waited all her career for that elusive gold medal in a major race: “To achieve it at last, aged 41, with my husband and children in the stadium watching me – well, it doesn’t get much better than that.”

So how does she do it? She explains that she runs 100 miles a week, a mix of training at an athletics track in Exeter, plus some runs around the Devon lanes. “I’m so lucky to have Gavin as my coach,” she says. “That way we can be really flexible, take the kids with us to the track and fit in everything around them.”

The Paveys have no childcare, they’d rather not. “We don’t want to be parents who just feed and clothe our kids,” Jo explains. “I really want to be the one playing with them, talking to them, listening to them. The children are my number one priority, but I’m fortunate that I can do my running as well.”

In fact, Jo says, she finds the busy, slightly chaotic, atmosphere that two small children inevitably bring to a household has actually helped her running. “I used to eat, sleep and train. That was it,” she says. “Now, I have to fit running in around the kids. I don’t have time to stress over it. I just get on with it.”

Jo does two runs every day. One hard one – perhaps 20 repetitions of 400 metres, say. And then she does what she calls a “recovery run”. These are slotted in around taking Jacob to the local primary school, plus the playdates with Emily and other mum friends. “Until I got pregnant with Jacob, Gavin and I used to go to training camps 15

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all over the world – South Africa, Australia, you name it,” she says. “It was a real perk of the job, you could say. But now I find that staying at home and living a normal family life is by far the best training camp for me. I’m just so happy now. I love being a mum.”

And she is by no means finished with either her running or motherhood. She tells me that

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she is aiming “with determination” to get into the team for the 2016 Olympics. So it is crucial for her to hit the qualifying times in the trials next year. And after that, she’s by no means ruling out having another baby. “I haven’t given away any of the baby things once Emily grows out of them, I’m stashing them all away.” she admits. “It is definitely still on my mind.”

Jo’s story starts with a childhood in the small Devon village of Feniton, near Honiton. She was born in 1973 into a “completely non-sporty” family. It wasn’t until she went to the local comprehensive, The King’s School in Ottery St Mary, that a PE teacher spotted her potential in a longdistance race and recommended she joined the Exeter Harriers running club. There, her coach Tony White saw a spark of greatness and Jo started running seriously. To this day, Jo holds all the sports day records at The King’s School, where her Olympic running kit is framed and in pride of place in the school reception.

But life also carried on alongside her training.

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Jo Pavey: Westcountry supermum 2004 Olympic Games, Athens, 5th, 5000 metres 2006 Commonwealth Games Melbourne 2nd (silver medal) 5000 metres 2007 World Championships, Osaka Japan, 4th 10,000 metres 2009 Gave birth to son Jacob 2012 European Championships, Helsinki Finland, 2nd (silver medal) 10,000 metres 2012 Olympic Games, London, 7th in 5000 and 10,000 metre races 2013 Gave birth to daughter Emily 2014 Commonwealth Games, Glasgow, 3rd (bronze medal) 5000 metres 2014 European Championships, Zurich, 1st (gold medal) 10,000 metres

‘Having a normal family life is the best training camp for me.

I’m just so happy now. I love being a mum,’

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People

Jo got together with Gavin in 1990, when she was still in her teens. “He was a member of Exeter Harriers and we ran together,” she explains. She studied physiotherapy at university while Gavin trained to be a quantity surveyor.

After university, the pair worked, saved up and went on a six month trip backpacking around the world. This was, explains Jo, a pivotal moment in her career – and relationship. “We had a really fantastic trip, went everywhere, saw so much.

I arrived home and we decided together that I would go for it with my running.” Gavin was hugely supportive, knowing that Jo had that special something that could take her all the way to the top. “But Gavin has always trained and stayed fit, too. Men run faster than women so he has been my pacemaker over the years,” says Jo. In 1995 the couple got married and they lived in London for many years. Life was good, and sponsorship from Nike, who have supported Jo since the 1990s, plus some Lottery funding, made Jo’s career possible. But they always knew they’d move back to Devon: “It wasn’t a case of if, but when,” says Jo. “Devon is definitely home.”

Jo has run in every one of the past four Olympic Games, despite occasional injuries. But in 2009 she “took a risk” by having baby Jacob. The pull of motherhood had made her reassess “everything”, as she explains. “Some athletes agonise

OLDER AND WISER Jo says age has made running easier, rather than harder. “I think I’m able to listen to my body more,” she explains. “I’m more experienced and I know what training will work best for me.

“In the week before a race, I no longer push on regardless with a fixed training programme. I have more confidence in my instincts.”

And being a hands-on mum brings an extra benefit to races, she explains. “For a few days before each race, I get to stay in a hotel away from the kids and all the domestic chores. Like any mum

and others decide not to have children at all. But for me, it was overwhelming. I went into being a mum with my eyes open, I knew it could potentially be the end of my career, but that would have been OK with both me and Gavin. If we went back to Plan B, working in other jobs, we’d still be happy.”

Instead, as we know, having small children and a glittering career in athletics has proved to be surprisingly compatible for Jo. This she attributes firmly to Gavin’s support: “He works so

in the same situation, I feel completely revived by having a break from full-on family life. It really lifts me before a race.”

So would she like to see her children compete at a high level, as she has done? “I’d never push them,” she says. “You have to really want it for yourself. But I’d like them to know how much I love running and what it means to me. Having said that, there are times when I do have to explain I actually have to train. It is my job, so I am not just taking off for a run to get out of playing Lego with them!”

hard, planning my training and all the logistics of getting to race meets,” as well as the joy she has experienced through becoming a mum. “The kids give my life meaning, and fun and laughter. I enjoy them so much.”

Jo is often approached by younger athletes, wondering about starting a family. “I can’t decide for them, of course, and everyone’s circumstances are different. But I do tell them how special being a mum is. I wouldn’t have missed it for all the gold medals in the world.”

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VINTAGE FASHION

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The old ones are the best Duke’s Annual Vintage Clothing Auction in Dorset has become a don’tmiss calendar event for lovers of retro frocks, often at bargain prices, as Catherine Barnes discovers

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Events

1920’s white beaded dress,estimate £200-400 1920’s red silk flapper dress, estimate £50-100

“

uality is key - reproduction clothes are just never as well made as the originals,” says Phil Traves, manager and valuer at Duke’s, the Dorchester auction house which has become a place of annual pilgrimage for style lovers channelling their inner Lady Mary Crawley.

“Vintage clothing is very fitted and flattering; they really knew how to design for women back then - and for men, too. As a bloke, I can put on a well-cut three piece suit with a waistcoat and lose a stone.”

Duke’s has developed a reputation for unearthing good-as-new vintage frocks, suits and accessories hidden at the back of wardrobes for decades. Buyers are set to descend from all over the country upon its Gove Sale Rooms on Tuesday morning (October 14), when curator Deborah Doyle will be wielding the gavel. She put together Duke’s first vintage clothing sale in 2007, when local woman Beryl Cornish sold her vast collection of clothes, which spanned decades and included pieces by designers including Dior, Jean Muir, Biba and Westwood.

“That Beryl Cornish sale kick-started everything,” says the auction house’s head of jewellery Amy Brenan. “All sorts of people come to the sale, from those after a designer ball gown to women looking for a vintage wedding dress.

These days, we get a lot of mothers of the brides buying, too.”

Prices begin at between £20 and £30 for a frock in good condition and bidding can go up into the thousands of pounds for a classic couture piece, or a length of hand-made lace.

PHOTOGRAPHS: STEVEN HAYWOOD

Q

Auctioneer Phil Traves with model Andrea 19

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Andrea wears full length navy and white day dress, estimate £50-£100, evening bag, estimate £30-£50. Auctioneer Phil wears his own vintage suit. Dog, model’s own

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Events

Accessories are also sold in the auction

Lots for sale Biba 1960’s full length pale blue day dress with bell shaped sleeves and semi flared skirt.

Estimate £150-£250 1920’s white beadwork flapper dress decorated with beadwork flowers.

Estimate £200-£400 1920s black tulle and clear beadwork overdress with cream silk flowers and appliqué scrolls.

Estimate £150-£250 Cream empire-line embroidered tulle dress with short puff sleeves, circa 1830 Estimate £150-£300

Andrea wears red 1930’s crepe day dress, estimate £20-£40, with brown stole, estimate £20-£40 Maddi wears grey vintage dress, estimate £40-60, and Saks 5th Avenue cream cardigan, estimate £30-£60

1950’s full length floral tea dress with a train and bow decoration Estimate £50-£100 Full length light pink chemise with tie waistline decorated throughout with embossed playing cards, circa 1930’s Estimate £40-£80 Late 19th/early 20th century Chinese fan embroidered with fish and seaweed Estimate £200-£400 Vintage crocodile skin shoulder bag and one other snakeskin bag Estimate £20-£40

TV’s Downtown Abbey has created a huge appetite for the classic styles of the 1920s, says Phil, while the Goodwood Revival - September’s stylish classic car fest at the legendary West Sussex race track - has been at the vanguard of a revival in 40s, 50s and 60s chic. Among Goodwood’s doyennes is gorgeous brunette Andrea Cooke, who lives in Dorset and never fails to set the flash-bulbs winking, when she arrives glammed up for its annual Sunday Best day.

Together with model Maddi Puleston, Andrea shows just how to wear it for West in her beautiful Dorset home, Athelhampton House. “People love this auction, because it’s expensive to hire outfits for an event like Goodwood. They’d rather invest in something they can keep,” says Phil. “A 1920s beaded dress, for instance, can make around £400 to £600 - if it’s wearable.”

What makes an item wearable? The size rather than the condition of pieces, he explains. Most have been prized and lovingly stowed away so they

not only look fresh, but even smell remarkably un-fusty after a good old-fashioned airing in the outdoors, pre-sale. The key is, do they fit: many 60-year-old waistbands are strikingly small compared to today’s more generous sizes. “The waists are often tiny,” admits Amy, “But women back then wore girdles, which helped.”

“The 40s generation were – and still are – are the fittest that ever lived, as their diet was so healthy and they were so active during that period,” adds Phil.

Indeed, in her post-war style bible You and Your Looks, writer Ursula Bloom decreed that 33” 24” 36” were the ideal vital statistics for a woman 5’4” tall. That’s around a size eight to ten today, apart from the waistline, which is - gulp! two to three inches smaller than the average size ten in the shops.

Thankfully, vintage vogue has inspired the high street to reinvent foundation garments which can squeeze, lift and nip us into shape,

White metal mesh evening purse and large collection of similar purses Estimate £30-£60

[ [ TV’s Downton Abbey created a huge appetite for the classic styles of the 1920s

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Events Grey satin evening dress, estimate £40-80

while, adds Phil, most period pieces are well made enough to be easily altered to fit.

He himself recently shed a stone and a half - “on the 5:2 diet” - and is thrilled that he’ll be able to cut a dash at the auction in a tailored 1960s suit with slim-cut trousers that he bought almost two decades ago.

Phil says it’s unusual for men to be interested in vintage clothing. But women are far more likely to hold onto their garments of yesteryear, for which we can thank the cornucopia of immaculate vintage womenswear coming up for auction.

“Women will keep ‘one day’ things at the back of the wardrobe,” he explains. “But when men find something they like, they’ll buy the same

[

Maddi wears a vintage short evening dress, estimate £30-£50

[

designers and manufacturers. The latter seek out pieces which will help them to dream up new designs to put into production, according to Phil. And at one of the previous auctions, the English National Opera turned up in search of authentic period garments for their productions.

What’s also hot? Accessories and luggage, from classic leather handbags to the occasional Louis Vuitton suitcase.

“But not much of what comes to the sale is designer-label couture, as we would know it today,” says Phil. “In the past, people would have clothes made to fit, but the designer culture, where there are names or labels on everything has really only been around for 20 or 30 years.”

At a previous sale, the English National Opera turned up in search of costumes

item in the same colour and buy exactly the same thing when it wears out – or when their wife chucks it. So for every 100 lots of women’s clothing in our sale you’ll get only 10 pieces of menswear - and around one man to every 30 women bidding at the auction.”

Alongside the individual buyers making a day of it on Tuesday, you’ll also find wholesalers and vintage boutique owners bidding. The sale is also a source of inspiration for contemporary

Well-cut fur jackets are also making a bit of a comeback – provided that the garments date back far enough. “The philosophy appears to be that if it’s vintage, it’s acceptable to wear it,” adds Phil.

The auctioneers at Duke’s are always keen to hear from anyone wanting to part with their own vintage frocks. Or anyone prepared to concede that the likelihood of ever donning loon pants again is growing slimmer by the day.

So that old micro-mini or daring jump-suit could become someone else’s much-loved party outfit. And with fashion trends turning full circle these days, who knows what price it might fetch?

Duke’s Vintage Clothing Auction, 10.30am, The Grove Saleroom, Dorchester on Tuesday October 14. 01305 257544 or visit www.dukes-auctions.com

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style 45

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food 08/10/2014 13:23:14

REAL HOMES

A convert to style Becky Sheaves visits a former mill in the South Devon countryside that has been transformed into a light-filled and comfortable family home

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Interiors

W

hen Inger and Brian Reeve first saw George’s Mill near Kingsbridge, the property was just “four walls, a mud floor, no roof and a tree growing up inside,” as Inger remembers with

a chuckle.

Fast forward to today and the mill has been transformed into a comfortable and beautiful family home. It was a lot of hard work, as Inger explains, but worth it.

“We had to start pretty much from scratch,” she tells me. “When we first saw the mill in 2000, the walls were still standing but the beams had to be taken down and replaced. Cows had been using it as a field shelter and in one part was a huge old cider press.”

The first challenge was to get planning permission to convert the mill: no easy task. “Our friends had shown us the mill, and we fell in love with the idea of making it our home,” Inger explains. “It had been owned by the nearby farm for generations, but was gradually falling apart.”

Permission to convert the property, which is not listed, took a full 18 months to obtain, with “quite a lot” of to-ing and fro-ing with the planning authorities, says Inger. “The arrangement we came to with the farmer, who has become a good friend, is that we would carry out the planning process. He simply didn’t have the time.

STYLE TIP: The original beams were beyond

repair, but were replaced with characterful wood salvaged from Plymouth Docks

Then, when permission was obtained, we bought the mill from him to do the conversion.”

With three storeys, the first decision was where to have the main rooms. “We had completely free rein. But the decision was governed by the fact that we wanted to be able to walk out from both the kitchen and main living room onto sunny outdoor terraces,” Inger explains.

“So we arranged for both these rooms to open outdoors, on either side of the house. We have sun from 7am to about 4pm on the kitchen terrace, by which stage the sitting room terrace is catching the afternoon and evening sun.”

The mill had lots of windows and openings, so it is full of light, and came with 2/3 of an acre of land allowing the couple to create a garden right around the property. The leat that once brought water across a nearby field from the river had long since stopped working, so flooding is not an issue. “We’ve had no problems at all, not even in the last couple of very rainy winters,” says Inger.

A striking feature of the property is the impressive beams which run across all the ceilings.

Each is about a foot square and more than 20 feet long. They look so old and weathered, I wonder if they are the originals. “No, but they are very old,” says Inger. “They are the historic red pine beams that were taken out of the old Plymouth docks.

Getting them here and into the building was quite a job but they look fantastic. They are so weathered and authentic, we haven’t treated them in any way, as we love the way they are.”

Inger and Brian used the remnants of the original beams in the building as lintels, over fireplaces and window seats. They also re-used wood from the cider press inside the house and in the garden. “We’ve tried to honour and keep everything here that we possibly could,” says Inger.

The whole of the downstairs has underfloor heating, so the Reeves were able to lay a practical 25

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Interiors Downstairs, soft, gentle colours on the walls combine well with the painted floorboards

and beautiful slate floor in the kitchen without it being too cold. In the living room, the flooring is pine boards, which have been painted white. “I was a little concerned that the paint might scuff,” said Inger. “But we used special flooring paint from Farrow and Ball, and made sure we did it all properly, with the right undercoat and sealant on top. It took longer but has been completely hardwearing and looks as good as new today.”

On the walls, Farrow and Ball paint was also a must, for its soft, gentle shades. The living room is an “old-fashioned pink” says Inger, while the bedrooms are a lighter shade “like the inside of a shell”.

“We’ve gone for colour on the walls, which means that pale furniture looks better,” says Inger. “We found ourselves replacing our former dark sofas with a lighter suite from Laura Ashley and painting a lot of our furniture too. I’m Norwegian and so this look really chimes with my Scandinavian roots.”

And it is Inger’s Norwegian roots that are taking her away from her beloved home, she explains. “My husband and I have lived in Devon for decades, and took on this project once our children had grown up and left home,” she explains. “We adore this house and never would have foreseen that we would leave it. But both our sons have gone to live in Norway and have married and settled there. Now that they both have

children, we are feeling very torn, wanting to be nearer to our grandchildren.”

The end result has been that Inger and Brian are planning to spend most of the year in Norway, and to sell George’s Mill. “We’ll buy something a lot smaller in south Devon that is more easy to lock up and leave,” Inger explains.

“We’re very attached this area and will always want to spend time here, perhaps for a couple of months twice a year. It will be a huge wrench, though, because we love this house so much.”

George’s Mill is on the market with Marchand Petit, Kingsbridge (01548 857588, www.marchandpetit.co.uk) for £830,000

[

‘We wanted the main rooms to open onto terraces, so we have somewhere sunny to sit outdoors throughout the day’

[

STYLE TIP: Inger and Brian re-used the wood

from the mill’s old cider press to make lintels and windowsills throughout the house

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Interiors

GET THE

LOOK

Old buildings often have smaller windows: maximise the light with pale furnishings

Garden chair £495 Occa-Home

Throw Occa-Home £112

Moorish plate £8.95 dotcomgiftshop Sicily table lamp £69 M&S

Pink cushion £10 Tesco Direct

Wadebridge coffee table £349 Debenhams

Sofa £1,499 Furniture Village

3 baskets £20 Sainsbury’s

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Gardens

[

ANNE SWITHINBANK

[

Sweetly scented

Devon’s Anne Swithinbank, panellist on Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time, is on the search for fragrant plants for winter n a recent recording trip to Sparsholt College in Hampshire (home of our Gardeners’ Question Time potting shed), I was wandering through the grounds when a delicious perfume assailed my nostrils. Only certain plants could be pumping their perfumes so strongly at this time of the year and I was sure it wasn’t a honeysuckle, Elaeagnus x ebbingei or viburnum. My eyes fell on a tall, loosely-branched shrub sport-

O

ing many generous heads of small white flowers and a closer sniff had me swooning. I hadn’t a clue what the plant was, a predicament that could be excusable for most people but rather worrying for someone about to join a panel frequently described by its chairman as a ‘fount of horticultural knowledge’.

Our college contact knows her plants and informed me it was Heptacodium miconioides, a complete stranger to me. On investigation, it turns

out to be called the Seven Son Flower of Zhejiang, belongs to the honeysuckle family (Caprifoliaceae), is deciduous, hardy and comes from China.

Trying to identify mystery plants is a challenge and their botanical names are often a bonus because sometimes you can guess at a genus. By looking at the heptacodium I might have suspected it shared a plant family with honey-

[[ The secret with scented plants is to site them where their perfume can rise and linger, and not in windswept areas.

Witch hazel 28

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suckle (the scented flowers were a strong clue).

Having looked up Caprifoliaceae for a list of genera within it (like tribes within a family) I could have checked them out and hopefully stumbled across heptacodium, of which there is just this one, lone species. Playing plant detective is fun and one can spend many happy hours tracking a plant down.

Botanical names hide further secrets and heptacodium means ‘seven flowers’, a reference to the average numbers of scented white flowers per head and explains the rather lovely ‘seven son’ common name. The shrub reaches 6m/20ft, so could double as a small tree and in addition to its flowers (which attract butterflies and persist as colourful sepals after the petals have faded) there is peeling, light tan bark and purplish autumn leaf tints to enjoy. One might wonder why such a delightful shrub is not better known but it was only discovered in 1907 by the plant finder Ernest Henry “Chinese” Wilson, introduced to the USA, lost, found again and only became available in the UK about 20 years ago.

That makes me feel somewhat exonerated and I’ve a good mind to track one down for my own garden. Wild populations are becoming rare but the seven son flower is so ornamental its future as a garden plant is secure.

Scent is important to me and although the Viburnum farreri up by the house starts opening its clove-scented pink flowers now, we could do with wafts of perfume in the front garden. I also enjoy the tender ginger lily Hedychium gardenerianum whose white and yellow blooms always open in autumn and scent our porch with their almost overpowering aroma. Come January the witch hazel takes over, then Japanese paper

bush, Daphne odora and chocolate vine. The secret with scented plants is to site them where their perfume can rise and linger, and not in windswept areas.

All of the above have carrying perfumes but don’t forget to check every flower to see if there is a scent. Otherwise you’ll miss out on Gladiolus callianthus (flowering now) and plants like bearded iris in spring and summer, almost all of which have a sweet shop smell to them, rather like sticking your nose into the top of a newly unscrewed jar of pineapple chunks or cola drops.

But you have to inhale through the gap between a rising and falling petal to detect it. Even the huge, yellow flowers of courgettes and pumpkins are lightly scented especially first thing in the morning when they are newly opened and the petals turgid. Weirdly, I can’t stand most bottled perfumes (very economical for the husband) and I blame this on my nose being so finely tuned to the natural fragrances of flowers and leaves.

Track down unusual Heptacodium micanioides at Burncoose Nursery near Redruth (01209 860316 www.burncoose.co.uk)

Question time with Anne

This week’s gardening tips Anne’s advice for your garden

• Fix grease bands around the trunks of fruit trees to trap wingless female winter moths as they try to climb up. This stops them from breeding and minimises the number of caterpillars chomping leaves come spring.

• Move herbaceous plants and young shrubs growing in the wrong place or too close to each other as soon as the soil is moistened by rain.

They’ll settle in before winter and be ready to grow away in spring.

• Divide large clumps of herbaceous perennials before planting them back in the ground. Push forks in back to back and prise the clumps apart until they come down to a size where your hands meet around them.

Make generous groups of clumps set 45cm/18in apart from each other for maximum effect.

Anne responds to West readers’ garden concerns and queries Our asparagus bed has been producing fabulous, quality spears for many years but I’m worried about the berries that set on the fern. I’ve been told these should be removed - is that right?

Due to the good weather, our greenhouse tomatoes have gone on and on. We need to clear their bed for winter salads but want to enjoy as long a season of home-grown tomatoes as possible.

Asparagus plants are either male or female and, in recent years, there has been a leaning towards all-male varieties such as ‘Gijnlim’ or ‘Millennium’. They have an obvious advantage because they don’t produce seed. This means they push all their energy into vegetative growth and tend to give a more reliable harvest of spears. They also don’t drop seeds, which germinate in the bed and, if not weeded out, root deeply and cause problems. If you planted an older, open-pollinated variety like ‘Connovers Colossal’, there will be both male and female plants and hence seed. Reselected strains of this can be very productive and good. Removing the berries could be fiddly but either do this or be assiduous with your weeding. Sounds as though it is well worth the effort!

A: We’ve got the same problem, as our tomatoes have grown for longer, sending out more trusses. Unless we get a sudden cold snap I won’t be surprised if we end up eating home-grown toms for Christmas tea! I am calling a halt in one of our beds and cutting the vines off just above the open-bottomed pots they are growing in. These can be hung in a different position or draped over an empty piece of staging for remaining fruit to carry on ripening until the first frosts.

Fruits showing red can then stand at a window or go into a drawer with an apple or banana - try this, the ethylene gas emitted speeds ripening.

Q

Q

Send your questions to Anne at westmag@ westernmorningnews.co.uk

Lift Lift and divide congested clumps of lily of the valley, to spread the plants into larger colonies. They tend to like a well-drained, woodland type of soil.

Cover Cover ponds with netting to catch fallen leaves as they come down. Otherwise they silt up and freeze solid during winter, then turn into a bog the following summer.

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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.

Gently does it...

The Harley Medical Group’s Gentle Cleanser, fragranced with sweet orange oil, is suitable for all skin types. It gently removes excess oil and makeup while helping to balance the skin’s pH and moisture content. It’s rich in active anti-ageing ingredients including Retinyl Palmitate to promote cell regeneration, as well as Vitamin E.

SWEET ESSENTIALS This Sweet Orange Essential Oil has a zesty aroma and can be added to a base oil or blended with other essential oils to create your own signature bath drench or massage oil.

£2.99 www.hollandandbarret.com

£26, www.harleymedical.co.uk

Helping hands Not just for the green-fingered! Organic Surge’s Gardeners range works a treat on all hard-working hands.

Smooth roughened skin with this scrub containing plant extracts, olive seed and moisturising shea butter. Then finish with the fast-drying hand cream, which contains marine algae extract to soothe skin redness, nut butters, seed oils and aromatic lime, basil and rosemary oils. Both £7.99 each from www.organicsurge.com

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the review This week we try:

The latest kit for curl power Lisa Haynes gives her hair curve appeal with ghd’s new antistraightening wand

Need a little peace?

Shake off the day with Temple Spa Quietude Calming Mist, (£22), designed to be sprayed on your pulse points or pillow to induce a feeling of peace and calm. Orange, lemon, citronella, grapefruit and lavender oils can help to soothe nerves.

satiny smooth

www.harrods.com

Trilogy Vital Moisturising Cream is a versatile moisturiser for all skin types. It’s a lightweight, fast absorbing cream which hydrates and smoothes.

The satiny texture provides a perfect base for make-up application. Contains botanical extracts including marula, orange flower and evening primrose. £24,

www.debenhams.com

hen ghd, king of the straightening iron, launches a new Curve Collection for waving, the beauty world listens. There are four new wands available, all sleek and black and shiny. But while the two Tongs and Creative Curl Wand look similar to other tools I have in my curling kit, the Classic Wave Wand immediately stands out.

Firstly, it has an oval-shaped barrel, designed to create deep, glamorous waves that are virtually impossible to achieve with a home blow-dry. With Veronica Lake as my muse, I switch on the new ghd and am met with a satisfying trill and flash of white light around the power sign. There’s another sound seconds later, to inform me that the wand has reached optimum curling temperature, 185-degrees C. I hold my hair around This isn’t a curl, the smooth barrel for around eight seconds, or mere boho and slowly release to ‘texture’, it’s the unveil the most perfect, cascading wave. wave I have This isn’t a curl, or been trying to mere boho ‘texture’, it’s create for years the wave I have been trying to create for the last 10 years. What’s sador, gives me a model more, the tri-zone cedemo on how to create a ramic technology means lived-in wave, dubbed the there is no snagging or pulling. It’s basi‘run-wave’. By rolling the wand up and cally the Rolls-Royce of waving wands. down each section of hair, backwards and So it is small wonder that the Classic forwards, the ‘classic’ wave is instantly Wave Wand was being used backstage at transformed to mussed-up bends.

London Fashion Week for House of HolWith results this good, I may well be land’s show. I went along to find out more: waving goodbye to my straight hair forAdam Reed, ghd global brand ambas- ever more.

W

[[

ghd Curve Classic wave wand set, £110, www.ghdhair.com 31

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Wellbeing

Bring me sunshine Winter’s on its way but don’t let the short, dark days get you down. There are simple, practical things you can do to improve your mood and stay cheerful until spring

s

ome us love the change in the air that heralds the arrival of autumn and the onset of winter, but those longer hours of darkness can fill many us with a real sense of

dread.

If you’re among the latter then it could be that you’re prone to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

Our sense of wellbeing is heightened during the summer because, in response to more daylight, the brain produces more of the hormone serotonin. But as the days draw in and these serotonin levels are reduced, we can experience a kind of winter depression.

“We may feel our mood lowers a little, our energy levels drop and we need to sleep more,” says Emma Mansfield, the Cornwall-based author of The Little Book of the Mind. “In some cases it can be more extreme and we become very, very low.”

Although SAD is fairly common, in all cases of feeling depressed it’s important to go and see a doctor. But there are also lots of things we can do to keep our feel-good system in shape, according to Emma.

“At this time of year, we can start to plan ahead and set some activities and tasks that will help to lift our mood,” she says. “December to February are often the toughest times for SAD

sufferers, so applying a little mindfulness towards how we can take care of ourselves during that time will only help to improve things.

“When there were times that I experienced SAD, I’d write a list of all the things I wanted to do during the darker months, walks I wanted to take when the sun was out and places I wanted to visit that had nice gardens or views.

I set myself a few projects that would help my overall goals: including clearing out the loft and giving the house a really good clean to very loud and upbeat music. I even joined a choir one year and that was one of the best decision I ever made in getting through long Cornish winters!”

If you have a desk job, ensure you get out at lunchtime when the sun is shining and make the most of the limited rays at this time of year.

“Diet’s also key,” says Emma.

“While reducing caffeine and alcohol and eating a balanced diet is important whatever the

weather, some nutritional therapists recommend introducing foods like chicken, cottage cheese and turkey, which help the chemicals in our body that produce serotonin.”

Exercise is a great moodlifter: “Find a good fitness class, a running group, a yoga class – something that gets your blood pumping, your lungs working and encourages the body to release endorphins; the chemicals in our brain that are our natural painkillers and ultimately raise our mood,” says Emma.

“Team up with people. Make plans with your family and friends to get out and do stuff. Get a winter wish list together that gets you outside when it’s good, or inside doing something that’s good for you.”

Emma Mansfield is author of The Little Book of the Mind. www.thelittlebooksof.com

THE KEEP FIT COLUMN WHERE ONE WOMAN TRIES EVERYTHING:

DODGER

this week: PETANQUE

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: Petanque.

From my research on YouTube, I concluded a sports bra would be unnecessary for a game at Tregony Petanque Club, a Gallic form of bowls.

Graeme Kirkham and his wife Susan gave me a run through of the history and basics of the sport. Apparently it’s pronounced P-TONK and it hails from France, where it’s very popular.

The game’s played on a rectangular, gravel playing area, with playing circles marked out with a stick. Graeme took me through

the health and safety aspects of the sport, which basically comprise: not throwing a boule at somebody’s head. The idea is not to bowl underarm but to grip the ball with your fingers and flick it out of your hand, aiming for a little jack. A further eight people joined us and the game commenced. At this point, I was asked if I wanted a drink and couple of people then skipped off to the sports club bar, reappearing with several pints. The sport immediately jumped up in my rankings.

GET INVOLVED: Try something new or tell the world about your own keep fit class for free at www.sofadodger.co.uk 32

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Enjoy

[Ilfracombe[ A WEEKEND IN...

B

Stay: Zoe and Matt Brewer have owned The Elmfield (www.theelmfield.com) for seven years and have transformed it into a family-friendly boutique retreat with indoor swimming pool, in-room treatments and a babysitting service. At this time of year, prices start at just £75 per night for a standard double room. Alternatively, Sea Foam House on the harbour can accommodate up to eight guests for a three night stay in October/November from £546 (www.bluechipholidays.co.uk).

What to do: A network of tunnels were handcarved in Victorian times to give lady and gentlemen bathers discreet access to a series of ‘secret’ beaches and bathing pools (www.tunnelsbeaches. co.uk). Ifracombe’s aquarium is great value at £13.99 for a family visit. It’s a small but wonderful attraction showcasing marine life from local

streams, rivers and coastal waters. Prepare to be amazed at just how diverse it is! Love her or hate her, Damien Hirst’s statue Verity is a don’t-miss.

Exhibits at the quirky Ilfracombe Museum include drawers of curiosities for you to open, including one with slices of century-old wedding cakes. There’s also a cupboard full of pickled bats, a shrunken head and a four-legged hen. Under16s visit free, although the museum is restricted to weekday openings (except Mondays!) between November and March. Ilfracombe also has an arts centre, The Landmark Theatre. offering a half term ‘Spooks and Sparks’ art project for kids.

Where to shop: There are boutiques and souvenir shops by the seafront and harbour, with a mix of local and everyday essential stores on the high street. Award winning Walkers Chocolate Emporium (6 High St) is virtually impossible to resist and even has its own museum. Heather McNeilly makes and sells beautiful things at Shoreline Glass (86 High St) with workshops and courses.

The Cotton Tree (44 Fore Street) sells pretty clothes and toys for children aged six and under.

Where to eat: Photographer Jane Perrin’s vintagestyle Great British Tea Shop serves great coffee, and the most enormous slices of delicious homebaked cakes. Or try the Harbour Deli for excellent filled baguettes and salads. Booking’s essential at the popular La Gendarmerie on Fore Street, with a two course menu costing £24.90. Fare includes pollock roasted with truffle butter with a champagne, potato & mussel velouté. Damien Hirst owns The Quay restaurant and bar - dishes include shellfish bisque with homemade bread (£8.50).

The Great British Tea Shop The Elmfield Hotel

illed in the 1960s as the Honeymooner’s Paradise (before the continental package holiday took off) Ilfracombe’s life as a north Devon holiday resort dates all the way back to the 1800s. Back then, novelists Fanny Burney and George Eliot were among the visitors of note to have stayed here. It’s had its down times since then, but today Ilfracombe is on the up again. It is yet to be fully rediscovered by developers, and perhaps because of this it retains a somethingfor-everyone charm. Artist Damien Hirst lives nearby, and decisively put the town on the map when he unveiled his Verity statue on the harbour in 2012. TV Hotel Inspector Alex Polizzi’s also a fan, saying: “I know it as the kind of place where you can have those really traditional holidays.”

Dam ian Hirs t’s Ver ity

Planning a mini break? Here’s West magazine’s insider guide to the north Devon seaside town with lots to offer

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08/10/2014 14:25:15

Fashion

Top Shop pheasant brooch £7.50

Animal magic Hear the call of the wild when you go shopping this autumn hen it comes to picking an outfit (or two) for the new season, there is a tendency to go for items that are, well, a little sober. Boring, even. You know the sort of thing. A warm coat for winter in a neutral shade to match with everything.

Some practical knitwear. New opaque tights. We always need tights.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Yes, we’re no longer wearing bright summer dresses and breezy little tops. It’s too flipping chilly for that. We can, however, inject a little frivolity into our dress sense this season. A good place to start is the current trend for channelling the great British wildlife into fun fashion designs.

Foxes, pheasants, deer, rabbits, horses: they are all getting a look-in these days. And the rural-chic look works really well amid Westcountry stubble fields, country lanes and cosy pubs.

We love this pheasant brooch from Top Shop, ideal for adding sparkle to your tweed jacket lapel.

What do you mean, you’re not wearing a tweed jacket? Channel your inner equestrienne with this fabulous fitted number from Phase Eight and you’ll be galloping ahead in the style stakes. As for footwear, stick with the horsey trend and pick shiny leather boots in a riding style. So why is this lady from Long Tall Sally wearing ice skates? We’re sure it’s because she’s just heard that The Eden Project had re-opened its ice rink for the winter season.

W

Long Tall Sally £50 34

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Land’s End £24.95

he One for t Kids

M&S applique child’s skirt £16

Phase Eight checked Esther riding jacket £160

fave!

Deichmann riding boots £64.99

Fenella Smith £17.50 George Asda fox socks £6.50 35

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Fashion

The edit

Let us help with your style sums. Glittery sweater + skirt + loafers = outfit sorted

fave!

+

+ Monsoon £45

+

+

Miss Selfridge leather skirt £75

+ Dune loafers £75

Wallis £55

Simply Be £28

M & S £25

Boden Cambridge skirt £49.99

+ Next silver loafers £28

ravel loafers £50

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Bake

[[ Glacé is the simplest and most useful icing. Minimum ingredients and minimum fuss

NEW!

cake of the week

Kate Shirazi bakes:

Cupcakes à la Battenburg Kate says: I love the colour combination of Battenburg and toyed with the idea of wrapping the whole caboodle in marzipan, but I settled on this version. I like the tang of the apricot jam, but you could use any other flavour. You don’t have to stick to pink sponge, either.

Why not green and blue?

Serves 24

You will need: 220 g/8 oz/2 cups self-raising flour 220 g/8 oz/1 cup caster (superfine) sugar 220 g/8 oz/1 cup margarine, softened 2 tsp baking powder 4 large free-range eggs 2 tsp pure vanilla extract pink food colouring (preferably gel) apricot jam for spreading 1 quantity lemon glacé icing (see below) dolly mixture or other sprinkles, to decorate

Glacé icing doesn’t look very pink. Remove from the oven and turn both cakes onto wire racks to cool.

3.

Method: 1.

2.

Preheat oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas mark 3.

Grease two 20 cm/8 in square cake tins (pans), and line with baking parchment.

Sift the flour and sugar into a mixing bowl, food processor or food mixer. Add the margarine, baking powder, eggs and vanilla.

Beat until light and fluffy. Divide the mixture (batter) into two equal portions in separate bowls, and add a little bit of pink food colouring to one half. Pour each cake mixture into a separate tin, and bake in the oven for 20–25 minutes until firm to the touch and golden. Don’t worry that the pink cake

4.

Using a sharp knife, level the tops of the cakes so that the top and the bottom are completely flat. Spread a thin layer of apricot jam over the upper side of the pink layer. Place the plain cake on top so that the bottom side of the sponge faces upwards. Cut into 2 cm/3⁄4 in strips.

Now, pay attention. Lay one strip on its side so that you have a line of pink and a line of yellow. Spread a thin layer of jam over the top. Take another strip of cake and lay it on its side on top of the jammy strip, but reversed so that pale lies directly on top of pink and vice versa. Cut these strips into squares, and drizzle with the glacé icing. Let some of the icing dribble down the sides. Plop a dolly mixture (or alternative adornment) on top, and place in cupcake cases.

This is the simplest and most useful icing. Minimum ingredients and minimum fuss. Very easily correctible if you make it too thick or too thin.

You will need: Makes enough for 12 cupcakes 200 g/7 oz/11⁄4 cups icing (confectioners’) sugar, sifted juice of 1 large lemon OR 55 ml/2 fl oz boiling water gel food colouring of your choice

Method: 1.

Put the sifted icing sugar in a bowl. Add the liquid slowly, a little at a time, and stir until smooth. Stop adding liquid when you like the look of the consistency. It should be a smidgen thicker than double (whipping) cream.

2.

Add a tiny amount of colour – use a cocktail stick (toothpick) dipped into the colour. You can always add more if you want, but there is no way to undo a lurid amount of colour without making a super-huge batch of icing.

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. Look out for this recipe and many more in Kate’s beautiful book Cake Magic (£11.99, Pavilion Books)

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07/10/2014 17:42:12

By the Tamar in Calstock: James, Jodine and Charlotte Photo: Neil Adams

My Secret Westcountry

Jodine Boothby Mum of two Jodine Boothby created the Gummee Glove mitten for babies too young to hold traditional teething toys. The former factory worker had less than £1,000 in savings to spend on getting her invention off the ground in 2012. Her invention is now sold in 12 countries and set to launch in the USA. Jodine lives in Calstock, near Callington in Cornwall with her husband, Stephen and children, James, three, and Charlotte 20 months.

My favourite...

Pub: The Tamar Inn, Calstock. A beautiful, picturesque and very friendly local pub, situated right next to the River Tamar. I love it because it feels like home when I walk in.

It has plenty of nooks and crannies: I use it for informal business meetings as well as nights out and they have fantastic live bands. There’s always something going on, no matter what time of year.

Gummee glove

Walk: Lower Kelly, Calstock. This is a walk along the riverside and up into Cotehele woods, ending at the National Trust’s Cotehele House and Quay. It’s a stunning walk,

with nothing but breathtaking views along the way. We take buckets for the children to collect stones and then find a pretty spot next to the river where they like to throw their stones in.

Beach: Looe is a perfect beach for a small family. There is plenty of room, all amenities are close by and there are often other attractions such as fairground rides and bouncy castles situated just above the beach. We love rock pools and Looe beach has a plethora of them!

Event: Calstock Bike Show is a massive event every year in Calstock, it’s usually the

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People

Cotehele walks

Cotehele

East Looe

Treat: With a busy business and two small children my main treat is Ben & Jerry’s chocolate fudge brownie ice cream on the sofa!

But I do love evenings out with my husband, though they are rare at the moment. We are lucky to have The Boot pub and restaurant within walking distance, with an open fire and amazing food.

The Tamar Inn at Calstock first weekend of August. It very much has a ‘festival feel’ to it. This is a time of year that the Calstock community are out in force and faces old and new appear. There are stalls, live bands, food and various other entertainment and bike fanatics travel from all over Great Britain and abroad.

Shop: I really believe in buying gifts locally if possible and I love anything unusual or handmade. Limekiln Gallery in Calstock has some very unusual exhibits and pieces on display and it is a very friendly, welcoming place.

[ [ ‘We love to visit the Monkey Sanctuary in Looe. My children are absolutely fascinated by the animals and love the park there. I really admire all the work the sanctuary does for rescued animals’

Day out: We love to visit the Monkey Sanctuary in Looe. My children are absolutely fascinated by the animals and love the park there. I really admire all the work the sanctuary does for the rescued animals.

Venue: Calstock Arts Centre is a stunning venue in a converted chapel on the edge of the River Tamar. Although Calstock is relatively small, there’s an impressive range of events going on here from music and films to comedy nights and literary events.

For more information visit www.gummeeglove.co.uk

Wild futures: Looe Monkey Sanctuary

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PHOTOGRAPHS: GRW PHOTOGRAPHY

EATING OUT

The Halfway Inn

By Becky Sheaves

grew up in a Cornish village that was - and still is - blessed with five pubs, even though the population was only around 2,000 or so people.

You might say that explains a lot, and not in a good way. But my liver is fine, truly.

And to this day I still love nothing better than a good night in a pub. I love the way you never know who will come in, who you’ll end up talking to, and quite what will happen.

Sadly, I don’t get nearly enough evenings like that any more. The reason being that I now live in a Devon village with around the same population - 2,000 - and no pubs at all. Zero, zilch. It’s a great shame. So much so that I am almost tempted to start a pub up in my kitchen.

Though that might not be as much fun as I imagine. I did actually work in one of the five pubs in that aforementioned village when I was a student. And for every hilarious, fun night with all my friends, I do also remember the long, long dull Tuesday evenings behind the bar, accompanied only by the village alcoholic, eager to share his racist/sexist/just-plain-boring views with

I

[

me. Whether I liked it or not.

I was put in mind of this pub issue on a recent visit to the East Devon village of Aylesbeare, which has, just recently, lost its village centre pub. The Aylesbeare Inn struggled, changed hands, struggled some more and then shut.

Shame. Luckily, there is a pub that is less than a mile from the village, and is technically still in Aylesbeare. It’s called The Halfway Inn. It’s a funny name, but comes from the fact that the inn is on a busy A road and stands halfway

However, I hadn’t been in for a while. I was scared off a few years back when this pub went through a sort of convulsion and stopped being a swirly-carpets sort of place. Instead, it tried to reinvent itself as a fine dining destination.

We went at the time and found everything was too expensive for what it was, plus the service was average, at best. They’d even put in one of those windows into the kitchen so you can see the chefs creating “masterpieces”, which I think are a bit faddy.

Anyway, last week my husband John and I went to a drinks and nibbles party in Aylesbeare, at which the closure of the poor old Aylesbeare Inn was a major topic of conversation. As it was only 8.30pm and we had a babysitter, we decided to go for a meal afterwards.

I have to admit, we drove PAST The Halfway Inn to another pub a mile or two towards Exeter, parked, went inside and found it was absolutely packed. Not a table to be had.

“Oh dear. It will have to be The Halfway Inn,” I said. “Never mind.”

So in we went. But I have to say, it was OK. More than OK actually. We were met by smiley, efficient waiting staff. The place was busy, bustling even, with a nice dining room over a couple of levels, allowing for a bit of privacy, plus the more trad bar area for proper drinking on

[

‘The Halfway Inn? It’s rubbish, isn’t it?’ No, no, I said: it’s got a whole new menu between Exeter and Sidmouth. As such, it once had an important role to fill for thirsty travellers, probably on horseback in its earlier days.

Today, standing bang on a busy road is not the greatest of locations. But they have made the most of it, making the pub look pretty with lots of flourishing window baskets and signs advertising its offers. There is also a nice garden round the back with a good children’s play area and plenty of parking.

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4 of the best

Pubs that are on the up

1 St Mabyn Inn, St Mabyn

This historic village pub (pictured) gained new owners and a much-need renovation just over a year ago. Now there’s an area for drinking, plus a more restaurant-y zone. Locals in this north Cornwall village report good things.

Dish of the day: Mixed seafood grill Prices: Mains around £11 Contact: 01208 841266

2 The Salutation Inn, Topsham

belly, Brixham seafood platter) around the £15 price bracket. To play it safe, we ordered from the “Pub Classics” section, which is a great idea for a local pub - simple, hearty meals for about £10. I approve. John had chicken curry (£10.95) with rice and naan bread and I went for a fish pie, also £10.95.

And let me tell you, these dishes were good.

The curry was fresh-tasting and really delicious. Not over-burdened with lots of chicken but definitely tasty. The fish pie was also delicious. I’d certainly recommend both.

Due to the lateness of the hour and the number of canapes we’d eaten beforehand, we didn’t have a pud on this occasion time. But when, last weekend, we had a huge tribe of family come to visit for the weekend, I said: “I know, let’s go out for Sunday lunch”. (Spot the woman who had had enough of cooking meals for 12.) So we rang The Hare and Hounds in Ottery St Mary, which is where we always go for Sunday lunch. They didn’t have a table available. Panic. No way was I cooking another vast dinner. “I know, let’s try The Halfway Inn,” I said. “The Halfway Inn? It’s rubbish isn’t it?” chorused our ex-pat Devon relatives.

No no, I assured them. It’s got a whole new menu. We ate there the other day and it was really OK. Let’s risk it.

And you know what? The Sunday lunch was

superb. Crispy roast potatoes, perfect gravy, masses of decent local meat, generous portions of veg and all for only £10.95 a head. The table service was helpful, although there was a longish wait for our desserts (sticky toffee pudding) to arrive. In fairness the place was, once again, extremely busy.

All in all, I think next time we want a good pub meal, we might well try The Halfway Inn first, not second.

The Halfway Inn, Aylesbeare, 01395 232273, www.thehalfwayinnexeter.co.uk

How they scored...

Food

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Atmosphere

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Service

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Price

Mains £10-£16

The former coaching inn by the River Exe near Exeter has been completely refurbished. It’s gone from pub food to fine dining with chef Tom WilliamsHawkes, as well as offering boutique hotel accommodation and a café area (called The Glasshouse) for lighter meals.

Dish of the day: Roast turbot, salt baked celeriac, glazed chicken wing Prices: £37.50 for the five-course tasting menu Contact: 01392 873060 www. salutationtopsham.co.uk

3 The Tolcarne Inn, Newlyn

Star chef Ben Tunnicliffe attracted a keen following at The Abbey in Penzance. Now he is along the coast a little, cooking up a storm in the fishing port of Newlyn, often with locallylanded fish. He has breathed new life into this quaint old pub right by the fish market.

Dish of the day: Starter of fish soup, rouille and crostini Prices: Mains around £13 Contact: 01736 363074, www.tolcarneinn.co.uk

4 The Old Ale House, Truro

This city centre pub has had its ups and downs over the years but is now perking up thanks to beers from nearby Skinner’s Brewery and great pub food from the River Cottage team.

Dish of the day: Cornish mussels in Truro Lyonesse cider and cream Prices: Mains around £9 Contact: 01872 271122 www.old-ale-house.co.uk

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08/10/2014 10:30:55

Ingredient of the Week

Seabeet

with Tim Maddams espite the wonderful fine weather in a sort of stasis, fully foliaged, until it begins we have been having there is a defigrowing in earnest again in the spring. And that nite chill in the air. The garden veg means that, for the greedy cook, this salty, fresh patch has given up and the woods yet earthy and robust leafy green is there for the are full of mushrooms. Down by the taking most of the winter. That has to be better sea, the samphire has gone over and the boats are than gritty, miniature, imported spinach leaves landing beautiful iridescent line-caught black in a plastic bag, right? bream. The hedgerows are groaning under the And take it you should, for it is plentiful and weight of haws, sloes, hazelnuts, blackberries, easy to identify. Though I would urge you to rose hips and more, but if you wash it well as it often grows want some fresh greens I would along busy foot paths. Make sure take the opportunity to stop the you have permission to harvest In short, sea beet car at a beachside car park and if you’re not on public land and is free, tasty, spend two mins hyper-foraging. take care not to uproot the whole Wander about for a few minplant. Pick the leaves only about abundant and utes along the shore, well above a third of the way down the versatile.

What’s the high tide line and you should stem.I tend to use a knife as the not to like? start to see spinach-like clumps stems are rather fibrous. of vibrantly green leaves that You can cook sea beet just like seem to defy the season. Allow spinach, but be warned: unless me to introduce you to “beta vulgaris maritima” you blanch it in water that has some bicarboor sea beet to its friends. If you haven’t already nate of soda in it it will lose its wonderful green met. colour. Though this isn’t really a problem, it will Sea beet is the wild ancestor of spinach, beetstill taste the same. root, chard and other plants of that ilk. Because I love this plant dearly, partly because it’s it has to survive in the harsh, salty environsuch a quick win for the foraging cook but also ment of the windswept shore, or harbour wall, because it keeps so well. Washed and popped in or beach car park, it has wonderfully succulent a bag in a cold fridge it will stay fresh for a week leaves that, I think, must contain some sort of or even two but it will be losing some of its sweetnatural anti freeze as this plant is happy to linger ness so watch out. The best thing about this leafy

D

treat, though, is its versatility. Stir fry it with wild mushrooms and noodles, cream it as a side dish, shred and add to salads or even use its lightly-blanched leaves as the skins for ‘dolmades’ and it won’t let you down. In short, it’s free, tasty, abundant and versatile. What’s not to like? @TimGreenSauce

Seabeet frittata.

Get some chopped garlic and onion sizzling in a pan with a few chilli flakes and a little smoked paprika.

Add your seabeet and wilt it down, then add eggs and bake until set. Easy.

Penne pasta with seabeet and cockles.

Boil pasta, sweat some garlic and steam open your cockles in a little cider. Add cream, turn up the heat to reduce the mixture and add the pasta.

Season well but remember the salty contributions from the bivalves and the beet. Enjoy.

Tim Maddams is a Devon chef and writer who often appears on the River Cottage TV series 42

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07/10/2014 17:43:44

Drink

Darren Norbury

talks beer K HOO K

Curry Week.

One of the reasons for beer’s resurgence as our national drink is its wide range and versatility.

And although the wine guys have ruled the roost for years when it comes to matching drink with food, now it’s the beer crowd’s turn to have a go.

Beer with curry is nothing new. But it doesn’t have to be the Kingfisher or Tiger that most restaurants have in their chiller cabinets. For a poppadum starter, for instance, a golden beer like Badger’s Golden Glory has citrus notes to cut through any oliness and a good malt backbone to complement the crunch. For a strong flavoured curry like tandoori chicken, an India Pale Ale, appropriately enough, is big enough to cope, with fresh, resinous flavours standing up well against the smokiness from the tandoor oven. One of my favourites is Padstow Brewing Company’s IPA, which has a lovely tropical fruit bite as a foil to the spice.

When it comes to chocolate, beer is, quite simply, its best mate. I asked beer sommelier Marc Bishop, of the St Austell Brewery marketing team, for three good Westcountry matches, and he suggested Tintagel’s Brewery’s Cornwall Pride to drink with creamy milk chocolate. “The beer has a nice hint of fudgy caramel which complements the milk chocolate,” said Marc.

For a pistachio chocolate, he opted for Eddystone’s Brewery’s South Hams, the nutty sweetness of the former offset by the beer’s zesty notes.

And he couldn’t resist picking St Austell’s 1913 Stout as the perfect partner for dark bitter chocolate. “A nice smooth stout with hints of liquorice, coffee and dark chocolate, enhanced by the rich dark chocolate which, with its natural bitterness, provides the balance to a sweeter, fuller stout.”

Cast away that idea, too, that we’re talking pints here, like Peter Kay in the famous John Smith’s ad. With beer much more commonly drunk in half-pint and even third-pint measures now, and with elegant stemmed glasses, beer not only has the taste but also the looks to rival wine at the dinner table. Grab some bottles to share and mix and match with a selection of curries

and some chocolate desserts, perhaps.

Everyone’s palate is different, but start with some of the guidelines above and have fun exploring. Now, where are my knitting needles?

Darren Norbury is editor of beertoday. co.uk @beertoday

PHO TOG RAP H: NIC

A

s well as being National Knitting Week, Biology Week and Get Online Week, this coming week is, much more importantly, both National Chocolate Week and National

Beer of the week

In the red

Butcombe Brewery’s seasonal Crimson King, made in Somerset with rye malt for spicy, dry flavour, will be among 50 beers on offer at JD Wetherspoon’s national beer festival, which starts on Friday. The festival includes ten international beers as well as the best of British.

Barrel aged, with magic worked by wild yeast, Modus Operandi is made by the Wild Beer Co, of Evercreech in Somerset. It typifies the mindset of the modern craft brewer. This 7% ABV heavy hitter would, following this week’s theme, be perfect at the dinner table, with game or red meat. Wood flavours come through from the ageing, and there are bright red berry fruit notes.

by the book West Country writer Adrian Tierney-Jones, best known as the editor of 1,001 Beers to Try Before You Die, has a new book out on November 13. World Bottled Beers (Jacqui Small, £9.99) is a global tour of craft beers, from the traditional to the new kids on the block.

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08/10/2014 14:26:26

Living

ROAD TEST

Rolls-Royce Is it possible to write about the Rolls-Royce Wraith without using superlatives? Steve Grant takes up the challenge ver the past 30 years I’ve been lucky enough, in my role as motoring journalist, to drive many iconic cars - everything from a Jaguar E-Type to the latest F-Type. But nothing, absolutely nothing, prepared me for a week with the Rolls-Royce Wraith.

Forget Ferraris, put away your Porsches and banish the Bentleys. If you want to make an impact, this is the showstopper for you. I’ve never had to answer so many questions. Or seen so many envious glares.

Every time I parked up, wherever I parked up - a field at the Dorset Show, a marina in Plymouth, even outside my local - people pointed, took photos, wandered around and peered inside.

Rolls-Royce first used the name Wraith in 1938 but this 21st century model has the boldest design and the most dramatic performance of any that has ever carried the famous Spirit of Ecstasy.

It may be the most powerful Roller ever but more of that later. This is a Rolls-Royce, the world’s pinnacle luxury brand for the past 110 years so what does luxury, refinement and exclusivity actually look like?

The stainless steel handles open frameless extra-long coach doors and inside there’s a serene

O

space for four adults, surrounded - cocooned even - by the softest, most tactile leather. Even the carpet is deep and soft as the fluffiest snow. The rear-hinged doors - which close with the touch of a button - give a sense of theatre and occasion.

Though in a car park they’re not the most practical.

Panelling adorns the inside of the doors and the entire lower space is finished in either wood or leather. A very popular option is the “starlight headliner” which means your Wraith can have 1,340 tiny fibre optic lamps hand-woven into the roof lining.

The Wraith has its own ‘on-board valet’ with a one-touch call button. Located on the steering wheel, this allows navigation, telephone and other commands to be directed straight into the Wraith’s on-board computer. The car’s response is then displayed on a high definition screen located in the dashboard.

Finding a destination, for example, no longer requires manual input. A hungry driver could merely command the Wraith to “navigate to Gidleigh Park”. Or Downton Abbey.

The touch pad rotary controller comes complete with the Spirit of Ecstasy engraved on its crystal glass surface. Oh, and the Wraith’s valet

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gadget notebook 12 October 2014

tech tips: fun on wheels understands Latin, Arabic, and Mandarin.

So far, so special. But what else makes this worth at least £235,000 (“used” versions can cost many tens of thousands more, mostly because their owners have added so many extras)?

Well, as I said, this is the most powerful RollsRoyce ever made. Indeed, it is the closest the double R has ever come to producing a sports car. It is powered by a 624bhp 6.6-litre twin turbo V12 engine, combined with an eight-speed automatic transmission which will rocket this 17ft 3in 2,360kg behemoth from 0-60mph in just 4.4 seconds. That’s enough to leave all but the most powerful Porsches standing at the lights.

This blistering performance is hinted at in the Wraith’s sweeping fastback design. It exudes poise and the promise of dynamism. But this is no GT bruiser. Everything is done with the minimum of fuss. It is powerful but never brutal.

The Wraith also features ground-breaking technologies. I especially liked the Satellite Aided Transmission. This uses GPS data to predict the driver’s next move and automatically select the right gear for the road ahead.

Unneccessary gear changes are thus avoided, so aiding the car’s “waftability”. Corners, motorway junctions and roundabouts are all anticipated in advance. Following a sweeping bend, for example, the optimum gear is always pre-selected for effortless acceleration.

Small wonder Rolls-Royce describe the Wraith as the “ultimate gentleman’s gran turismo”. As long as you can afford the average 20.2mpg that is. And that’s pretty much what I achieved over a week.

The Wraith certainly is the “ultimate gentleman’s gran turismo” but I will not be surprised to see some successful game-breaking women driving this Roller. It really is that effortless.

And despite its size, and 41.7ft turning circle, parking is equally effortless because of its allround cameras and on-screen through reverse path prediction.

So, although the Rolls-Royce Wraith has Thorlike power, it is sumptuously comfortable and is as elegantly graceful and supple as a young Darcey Bussell.

Did I manage without the superlatives? Er no, but I certainly did enjoy driving this most wonderful of all modern cars on the market today. As I said, lucky me.

Rolls Royce Wraith Price: from £235,000 Engine: V12 6.6-litre Power: 624 bhp Max speed: limited to 155mph

0-60mph: 4.4 seconds Fuel: Urban - 13.3mpg Extra Urban - 28.8mpg Combined - 20.2mpg CO2: 327g/km

Our pick of the latest gadgets for getting around

Electric skateboard

Go-kart

Surf the streets on this brilliant board. But it’s not just for pavements: it can be used off-road too, with a top end of 20mph. It’s controlled with a handheld wireless controller. Guaranteed grin inducer. Electric Skateboard Street Surfer - from £649 see fiikelectricskateboards.co.uk

Despite its diminutive looking dimensions, we’ve seen plenty of adults squeeze themselves into one of these “designed for kids” electric rides. Top speed is 12mph. Very good fun, but unlikely to actually take you anywhere, except back to your childhood. Crazy Cart - £399.99 argos.co.uk

Step on board Climb on board, shift yourself forwards, backwards or side-to-side, and off you go. The easy-to-control Robstep can spin 360 degrees and take really tight turns, letting you nip and duck as needed. It tackles all manner of terrain and can take on distances of almost 12 miles between charges. Not cheap, but both functional and fun.

Robstep Robin M1 - £2,460 from robstep.co.uk

Cycling

with ease Yes, this electric cycle is pricey, and yes there are cheaper options on the market. But no, none will be as good as this one. At just 16KG you can motor along for up to 40 miles between charges, travelling just over 15mph top throttle. A built-in dash panel of LED lights indicates speeds and charge remaining, with an accompanying app offering all manner of additional information. Smart, stylish and a sure-fire favourite. GoCycle G2R plus £2,749 from johnlewis.com 45

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My life

[

MAN AND BOY

Bedtime stories

vividly recall the terror I felt as a youngster watching the final scenes of director Roger Corman’s Gothic horror flick, The Fall of the House of Usher. In the adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe short story, Vincent Price plays the crazed Roderick Usher, the last in a disreputable family line of slavers and criminals, who has buried alive his sister Madeleine somewhere in the bowels of the creepy castle. The maestro, Price, gives a virtuoso performance as a terrifying future brotherin-law for Madeleine’s young suitor, when he comes to visit. But it was the chilling thought of the young woman, trapped in her coffin and bricked up in the Usher tomb, that sent shivers down through my younger self. To this day, it remains the stuff of nightmares for me.

During the recent, night-time telling of a

I

Phil Goodwin picks the wrong book seemingly innocuous children’s story, I found myself wondering if the fear of being buried alive - taphophobia – could, like the awful Usher genes, be transmitted through the generations.

As usual, I lay beside young James to read his bed-time story. The latest, Beware of Boys, came courtesy of his Reception Class library and told of a young boy captured, after an ill-advised trip into the wild wood, by a wolf with a plan to turn the youngster into dinner. Nothing new there,

[

[

‘Don’t worry,’ I said, full of false jollity. ‘Wolves are very clever.

He will chip his way out.’

you might say. Fairy tales are chock full of gruesome, even cannibalistic storylines (Hansel and Gretel, Jack and the Beanstalk). And though parents would all undoubtedly run to the TV to switch off The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, we tend to see these macabre tales from the forest as being morally instructive and necessary to the evolution of young minds.

Anyway, as the story unfolded, the young protagonist proved too clever for the hungry wolf, who was sent on various fools errands to buy ingredients for Boy Soup, Boy Stew

[

and other recipes which never saw the light of day. Cleverly added into the shopping lists were building materials - sand, cement, bricks and the like – which the devious boy later used to brick up the wolf in his cave after the poor creature had collapsed in exhaustion. It was an unusual twist on a familiar tale, with echoes of the old, half-blind witch being pushed into the oven by Hansel and Gretel. To be honest, it seemed a bit harsh. After all, the wolf was out cold, so why didn’t the boy just leg it back to mummy?

As it often the case, I felt slightly cheated by the ending. Ok, humanity had outwitted nature again and escaped the ancient fear of being eaten by wild animals. But what was the wolf supposed to do – starve to death in a darkened prison?

I tried to gloss over the finale, snapping shut the book and reaching for something lighter to send the lad off to sleep. But James grabbed the cover and returned to the final image. The poor woolfie stood battered and bruised, a trowel at his feet, clutching a single candle and contemplating his plight.

“He has hurt his leg,” James told me, a worrying wobble in his voice. Indeed, the wolf had pitifully wound a bandage around his knee, which had been injured when he fell under the weight of masonry, now duly laid and sealing his fate.

“Don’t worry,” I said, full of false jollity and trying to turn the page, “Wolves are very clever. He will chip his way out.”

“No he won’t,” James replied. “It’s not fair.”

And now there were tears welling up in his eyes. Unable to control this surge of emotion, he kicked out, removing the duvet, fired an accusing look at me, told me to go away. And your humble narrator – a simple storyteller with a similar distaste for claustrophobic torture was duly banished, unfairly blamed for bringing the poor wolf to such an end. The boy and I seem to have more in common than I’d realised.

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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

Adam Henson Thursday 30th October from 11.30am

Threemilestone Industrial Estate, Truro TR4 9LD | 01872 246123 | www.patchandacre.co.uk

BackCover_Oct12.indd CF 11276 Patch&Acre 1Truro launch ad 280x230+bleed.indd 1

08/10/2014 10:50:08 30/09/2014 11:08