14 minute read
Cover Story By Robin Mills
Robin Mills met Wolfgang Grulke in Oborne, Dorset
© Wolfgang Grulke Photograph by Robin Mills
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Northern Germany just after WWII was a difficult place to grow up, and when I was a youngster my family moved to South Africa, where I first learned to speak English. I always had an interest in art, but that was not a subject taught at my school, so I ended up doing maths and physics at university—thankfully, I appeared to be quite good at those subjects. I was a passionate ’ collector of odd things even as a young boy.
For a while I was a DJ, and every few months I would fly to the UK to buy records (remember those?), which weren’t available locally.
The destination was always the iconic One Stop Records in London, often meeting the music stars of the day including Hendrix, Clapton etc. London just seemed to be the hub of everything in the late ‘60’s. I think that must have spawned my love for all things ‘UK’. I love the unique English sense of humour, and the way it explodes in all areas of life and work.
I worked for IBM in South Africa, and after a few years I was sent on an international assignment to the UK, in the early 70’s. Subsequently
I worked for them all over the world in research, marketing and management. But in the late 1980’s, at the height of apartheid, IBM were faced with an ultimatum from shareholders to leave South Africa. I joined a team responsible for negotiating the disinvestment of the IBM company from South Africa—we were given just a few weeks. This was ironic in many ways, as IBM had always been in the forefront of
Wolfgang Grulke
© Wolfgang Grulke Photograph by Robin Mills pushing against the apartheid regulations, with many black employees working in senior jobs that normally they would have been barred from.
We ended up buying the company. This was not a management buyout, it was an employee buyout. As a result, all of the more than 2000 employees were able to buy a part of the company—and they did. About 10 years later, after Nelson Mandela was released, we sold the company back to IBM at many times the price. Every employee benefitted from that strategy.
In the 1990s, I started a consulting network called FutureWorld. Over the next 20-something years this grew into a global team that helped senior executives in business and government to understand how the internet and advanced technologies were shaping the future. I spent most of my time travelling, in regular round-theworld tours, speaking at events and conferences, and writing books about the experience. The most successful of these, titled 10 Lessons from the Future, was translated into Spanish, Arabic and Chinese and became a staple at Business Schools.
The trouble with many businesses is that their perspective is so short-term—2 to 3 years max. To think further ahead you have to accept that there are very different alternative scenarios out there for you—and you have be prepared to believe that you always have a choice. That was our mantra. A US media company commissioned us in the early 2000s to help them understand ‘The Future of Television’. By then it had already become obvious to us that all broadcasting would eventually be digital and delivered via the internet to tablets and phones, but I don’t think that, at first, they really believed us. We took the job on the condition that no one could use the word ‘television’ in the project.
Being in charge of my own business gave me the freedom to choose what to do with my time, and the resources to become a serious collector. As a keen scuba diver I was always interested in shells and marine life. With shells, I soon realised that 90% of all the shells that have ever lived are extinct. That way I ended up interested in fossil shells and ammonites, and the fabled Nautilus.
Scuba diving took my wife Terri and I to some particularly remote places, such as the many islands of the Indian and South Pacific Oceans, where we met with a host of industrious and inspiring local tribes. I became fascinated by their art, and how they used materials like shells, teeth, feathers and beetle carapaces, to make spectacular adornments, currencies and charms. During lockdown, one of the projects I’ve been working on is a new book, Adorned by Nature, about their unique material culture. On one of our visits, Terri gave a local chief one of our airline ‘hospitality kits’—which included a razor, creams and cosmetics, comb and a ballpoint pen. He spread it out on the ground for the whole village to admire, and it turned out to be the most extraordinary thing he’d ever seen. In return, he gave us a 1 metre bunch of bananas plus a huge pottery head. Tragically, these were way too big for us to take back on the light aircraft we’d arrived on.
While my interests in marine life, fossils and deep time was developing, I realised that in the same way we think little about the future, we have very little perspective of the past either. As an example: “How long has life existed on our planet?” The answer is around 3.5 billion years, but the vast majority of senior school students answer between one thousand and one million years. The trouble is that the subject isn’t in any school curriculum, nor is the study of nature and its diversity. This is a complete change from Victorian times, when interest was astonishingly high. In some ways, my collection of fossils here is trying to recreate that Age, when curiosity thrived about nature and natural things. Everything seemed new and interesting.
Unending curiosity is something I have always had— things just intrigue me. It makes me sad to meet anyone without a sense of wonder, without a question or two. For example, the Nautilus has been around for almost 500 million years, is the precursor of all ammonites and is still thriving today. Look at a Nautilus fossil and it compares well with one living in the Pacific Ocean today. Nautilus has barely evolved at all. Why did an animal that didn’t evolve, outlive all those that did? What would Darwin have said about that? For me, asking “Why?” is the important bit. From intrigue to curiosity, to learning something new.
Fifteen years ago, my wife Terri and I took a week’s break in Lyme Regis. We had sort-of entertained the idea to settle in the UK, so we took the time to do some house-hunting. Our home in Oborne was the very first house we looked at, and Terri was saying we should buy it simply from looking at the brochure as we drove here from the coast. We knew nothing about this area’s fossil history, until our hosts in Lyme Regis exclaimed “You’ve bought where?! That’s amongst the most historic fossil collecting areas in the UK”. They talked about the Frogden Quarry and all the important ammonites that had been found there.
© Wolfgang Grulke Photograph by Robin Mills
Once we moved in we discovered that the locals didn’t know of this fossil history either. Now though they have joined us on several local digs and many have an ammonite on the mantelpiece, some even have their own collections. Our own fossil collection here consists of several thousand specimens, amassed over 20 years or so, of examples from round the world. It documents the story of the evolution of life over the last 500 million years—just think, without fossils we would know nothing of the history of life. The collection is housed in a converted barn, and we can host interested groups of around 10 people. We usually ask for a donation to our local village hall charity. Like all collectors, I enjoy showing, sharing the collection with enthusiasts and chatting about the myriad of questions that they raise. Academics, collectors and museums from all over the world have visited—including Sir David Attenborough. After his first visit he wrote in the visitors’ book: “I am, truly, lost for words”.
The collection is documented in my Deep Time Trilogy of books—Heteromorph, Nautilus, and Beyond Extinction—each book focused on different aspects of the story of life—with fresh perspectives on life’s amazing continuity. We were delighted when the trilogy won the Independent Publishers Award for Best NonFiction Book Series in 2020. Due to lockdown, Terri and I had the pleasure to attend the award ceremony in New York’s Times Square—via Zoom!
One day, hopefully the collection will be housed in a museum, perhaps even local. For me, the collection and study of these extraordinary creatures from deep time has always been a personal project, a labour of love, which, judging by the international attention, seems to
’have become quite ‘important’—although perhaps in the whole scheme of things, ‘interesting and curious’ might be more appropriate words.
There was a time when August felt like a quiet month because so many people went on holiday. But this year feels different. Despite reservations regarding large crowds and growing infection rates, there is a general feeling that it may be a busy month and there are many local events highlighted on these pages. Fingers crossed that what is scheduled is not derailed by more upheaval. As well as activities and entertainment in this issue, there are also many contributions that offer food for thought. In our cover story, Wolfgang Grulke mentions the fact that most of us have little perspective on how long there has been life on this planet. He says that many people guess at between one thousand and one million years, but the truth is it’s around 3.5 billion years! That’s an enormous figure to comprehend. Wolfgang talks about his fossil collection and how it is a result of his ‘unending curiosity’ and his constant wonder at the world around him. One imagines that he might have been that little boy in the back of the car who couldn’t stop asking ‘why?’—such fun in one of those traffic jams that Humphrey Walwyn talks about on page 27. But the end result is a fascination for all things, as well as an understanding that intrigue and curiosity are the drivers of learning. His is an inspiring story of an extraordinary capacity to consume information. That same drive to learn and to make a difference is what helped Clive Myrie into his role as a BBC TV News reporter and presenter. In an audio interview featured on our website and highlighted on page 10, Clive talks about the road that brought him from Westcountry reporting to asking the questions on Mastermind. Wildflowers are prominent this month also, with Philip Strange telling us about a wonderful walk around Powerstock Common, while Peter Vojak offers ideas on how to bring wildflowers closer to home. And on the wider question of environment, Andrew Carey highlights the work of Dorset CAN on page 37. We also feature the launch of Leonie Prater’s first album on page 44. So, whether it’s a quiet or a hectic month for you, there is certainly plenty to enjoy amongst these pages. 3 Cover Story By Robin Mills
12 An Early Summer’s Day at Powerstock Common
By Philip Strange
16 Past Present and Future - Clive Myrie 20 Event News and Courses 28 News & Views
29 Latterly Speaking By Humphrey Walwyn 30 Gypsy Petulengro By Cecil Amor
32 House & Garden
32 Vegetables in August By Ashley Wheeler 34 August in the Garden By Russell Jordan 36 From Lawn to Wildflower Garden By Peter Vojak 38 Property Round Up By Helen Fisher
39 What can we do about climate change
By Andrew Carey
40 Food & Dining
42 Fresh Baked Tomato Chutney By Lesley Waters 44 Lobster Macaroni Cheese By Mark Hix 45 Pigs and Fish By Nick Fisher
46 Arts & Entertainment
46 Metamorphosis By Fergus Byrne 49 Preview By Gay Pirrie Weir
53 Galleries
58 Young Lit Fix By Antonia Squire
58 Health & Beauty 59 Services & Classified
Fergus Byrne
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Contributors
Cecil Amor Andrew Carey Seth Dellow Helen Fisher Nick Fisher Richard Gahagan Mark Hix Russell Jordan Robin Mills Gay Pirrie Weir Antonia Squire Phillip Strange Peter Vojak Humphrey Walwyn Lesley Waters Ashley Wheeler
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ENCOURAGING a future in farming
ALTHOUGH the Melplash Agricultural Society’s flagship event, the Melplash Show, is cancelled for 2021, the Society is holding a special Discover Farming event aimed at under 12s at Vurlands Animal Farm, Swyre DT2 9DB in August by kind permission of the Ives family.
The Society believes passionately that it is vitally important for the ‘next generation’ to understand the role that farming and agriculture play in the local economy and environment. At a time of great technological change, the Society hopes to inspire the younger generation to take up careers in this exciting industry, not only in farming but also other rural industries.
Society Director George Streatfeild says: ‘We will be building on the success of the Melplash Show’s popular Discover Farming marquee—a must visit for all families who are interested in learning more about food production and farming. There will be lots of activities and interactive demonstrations where children of all ages can get hands on experience of a variety of ‘Farm to Food’ activities.’
Amongst the many activities on offer there will be: Driving a radio-controlled tractor around the farm; taking a virtual dairy farm tour; making and cooking pancakes; juicing apples and making smoothies as well as making butter, wool spinning and even calving a cow!
Discover Farming at Vurlands Animal Farm will take place on Thursday 26 August from 10am – 4pm. Admission is Free to all children under 16 years and £2 for adults (redeemable for those purchasing a ticket to visit Vurlands Animal Farm). Tickets MUST be booked prior to attending online at www.melplashshow.co.uk
Why not make a day of it and visit Vurlands Animal Farm? Spread over 20 acres the farm has a wonderful variety of animals, play areas for little ones (including soft play), a willow maze, the Egg Cup café and picnic area. For more information visit www.vurlandsanimalfarm.co.uk
