The Bath Magazine November 2022

THE

HEALING LANDSCAPES

IDEAS

BREAKING THE DIVIDE

OF THE REVOLUTION

BEST THAI

SAXON BATH

Contents November 2022

5 THINGS

Great things to look forward to this month

CITYIST

We meet Martin Bysh, CEO and founder of Huboo

NOTES ON A SMALL CITY

You may have noticed that Richard Wyatt has been on an energy drive –well, he’s approving of Bath’s Christmas lights this year...

PLACE HEALERS

Emma Clegg talks to Andrew Grant, CEO and founder of Grant Associates as they celebrate their 25th anniversary

GET COSY

Save energy, wrap up and stay warm with these snuggly ideas

BOOKER BOOKS

The six prized reads of 2022, including the recently announced winner

JETHRO TULL

Richard Wyatt chats to Ian Anderson about standing on one leg in the Abbey while raising money at the same time

GOOD CONNECTIONS

Mark Farrelly’s solo show The Silence of Snow, soon to arrive at the Rondo breaks down the fourth wall, Daisy Game discovers

WHAT’S ON

Our monthly guide to all the things to enjoy in and around the city SAXONS IN THE CITY

Steve Pratt talks Jutes, Angles, Hwicce, Mercians, King Arthur, the Vikings and Sweyn Forkbeard

More

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REVOLUTION AND PROPAGNADA

Modern Chinese printmaking at the Museum of East Asian Art ARTS & EXHIBITIONS

Here’s our monthly round-up of artistic goings-on DRINK TO ME ONLY

Well no, it’s all about sharing it actually. We ask some local producers some serious questions about their specialist recommendations...

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Thai-mendous recipes from Giggling Squid and food news from Bath

SAVING THE RAINFOREST

Megan Witty explains how a local organisation can have a global impact, as a two-toed sloth hangs from a tree CITY NEWS

Business stories and updates

HEALTH AND BEAUTY

What’s going on locally and peruse some tempting products

WALK ON BY NEWTON ST LOE

Andrew Swift takes in beech woods and a riverside walk HOMES & INTERIORS

Art Deco history and contemporary styling

ON

Supertrees from Gardens by the Bay, Singapore, designed by Grant Associates. Photograph by Hari Saini

Follow

Iwish the world was twice as big – and half of it was still unexplored", said Sir David Attenborough. He is after all an explorer. But he was talking about how man has undermined the rawness and rich biodiversity of the natural world. In Planet Earth II in 2016, he spoke about how our ‘wildernesses’ have never before been so fragile and precious. And in the conclusion of the final episode, Cities, we saw the camera pan across an urban landscape in Bay South Garden, Singapore, featuring tree-like metal structures fitted with technologies that mimic the ecological function of trees, and full of animal, insect and bird life. I talked to founder and director of Bath-based landscape architects Grant Associates on page 18, who came up with this visionary urban garden. Andrew Grant describes their work as “reconnecting people with nature, at the same time addressing the global climate challenges.”

There are connections being made in Mark Farrelly’s solo show, The Silence of Snow at the Rondo, which explores the turbulent life of a novelist and playwright. Mark likes to find the truth in the life of others and one way he does that is by breaking the ‘fourth wall’ where the audience are released from their observationonly role, “creating a space in which we are allowed, and encouraged, to engage with one another.” Daisy Game talks to Mark on page 30.

Connections pop up again with the Museum of East Asian Art’s exhibition Revolution, Propaganda, Art, which explores artistic trends, political movements and technical developments in modern Chinese printmaking (see page 42).

There’s plenty more, with a Thai-antalising recipe from the Giggling Squid’s new book (see page 54), a Booker shortlist of tomes on page 26, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull playing the flute on one leg to raise funds for the Abbey (see page 28), and we explore the glamorous, luxurious world of Art Deco on page 80. Here’s another Attenborough quote: “Why are you here? How do you fit in? What’s it all about?” Go on, let’s keep exploring…

Blankets and throws to warm your toes

The heating is still not on in our house, so this bright cosy blanket from the Natural Blanket Company will come in very useful, thank you. The company will be at the Bath Christmas Market at the bottom of Milsom Street in their Christmas chalet with their Christmas blankets and throws from 24 November–11 December.

And if you’re looking for more snuggly ideas to keep the draughts out and the warmth in, then you need to feast your eyes on page 24.

The Natural Blanket Company: karen@thenaturalblanket.co.uk; 07702 362461

2 Princes Buildings, George Street, Bath BA1 2ED; 01225 424499 www.thebathmag.co.uk

Editor Emma Clegg 01225 424592 emma@thebathmagazine.co.uk

Financial Director Jane Miklos jane@thebathmagazine.co.uk

Assistant Editor/Web Editor Daisy Game daisy@thebathmagazine.co.uk

Production Manager Jeff Osborne production@thebathmagazine.co.uk

Advertising Sales Liz Grey liz@thebathmagazine.co.uk

To advertise tel: 01225 424499

Publisher Steve Miklos steve@thebathmagazine.co.uk

Contact us at thebathmag.co.uk Follow us on Twitter @thebathmagazine and Instagram @thebathmagazine

The Bath Magazine and The Bristol Magazine are published by MC Publishing Ltd. We are independent of all other local publications.

The Bath Magazine is delivered free, every month, to more than 15,000 residential addresses as well as businesses throughout Bath and the surrounding area. We also have special distribution units in many of Bath’s supermarkets

Disclaimer: Whilst every reasonable care is taken with all material submitted to The Bath Magazine, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for loss or damage to such material. Opinions expressed in articles are strictly those of the authors. This publication is copyright and may not be reproduced in any form either in part or whole without written permission from the publishers.

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Emma Clegg, Editor

© MC Publishing Ltd 2022

THINGS TO DO IN NOVEMBER

Tune in

Join Justin Webb, BBC presenter of Radio 4’s flagship current affairs programme Today, for a talk about his new book The Gift of a Radio: My Childhood and Other Train Wrecks. Webb has reported from around the world: as a war correspondent in the Gulf and in Bosnia and on the break-up of the former Soviet Union. He won the Political Journalist of the Year award for his coverage of the Obama presidential campaign. Webb’s talk will take place in the Stables at The American Museum and Gardens, November 17, 6.15pm. Tickets £10, available from americanmuseum.org

Celebrate cinema

Enjoy a showcase of 40 feature films, including exclusive preview screenings of new movies like Sam Mendes' Empire of Light, at this year’s FilmBath Festival. The festival features jawdropping documentaries, international cinema and a wealth of female talent, with over 50% of the programme directed by women. Plus, the new Pay-What-You-Can scheme makes FilmBath as accessible as possible to everyone in the community. 4–13 November; tickets at filmbath.org.uk

Embrace new ideas

Corsham’s Magic & Mayhem Festival is back! Escape from reality with your favourite artists in a festival like no other, where like-minded individuals gather and embrace new ideas, take risks and push boundaries. This year’s festival line up includes a performance of atmospheric folk songs from Welsh trio VRÏ, the return of writer Aida H Dee for her Drag Queen Story Hour, award-winning Dyad Productions’ spine tingling one woman show, Female Gothic –and so much more. Magic & Mayhem Festival will take place at The Pound Arts Centre, Corsham from 14–20 November. Tickets can be purchased in person at The Pound, from the box office on 01249 701 628, or online at magicandmayhem.org.uk

Be inspired

Since his breakout role in cult classic film Withnail and I in 1987, Richard E. Grant has become a much-loved fixture on our screens, starring in everything from Doctor Who to Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, Star Wars and Spice World, and Oscarnominated for his 2018 role in Can You Ever Forgive Me? Join the actor as he tells stories from his life, entwining tales from his extraordinary time in showbiz with uplifting reflections on love and loss, to celebrate the publication of his new book, A . Live on stage, Richard will consider the inspiration behind the book – how, when his beloved wife Joan died in 2021 after almost forty years together, she set him a challenge: to find a pocketful of happiness in every day. 4 November, The Forum Bath; tickets from £30, available from fane.co.uk

Listen up

Musical fireworks will take place inside Bath Abbey as Bath Bach Choir celebrates its 75th anniversary with a special performance of its signature work, J S Bach’s iconic Mass in B minor. Many consider it the Holy Grail of all choral works, and it was the piece performed at Bath Bach Choir’s inaugural concert in 1947. The evening will have added poignancy as it will be conductor Nigel Perrin’s final concert with Bath Bach Choir as he steps down after 33 transformative years as its Musical Director. 5 November, 6.30pm at Bath Abbey. Tickets £28/ £25/£22/£15/£10. bathbachchoir.org.uk

VRÏ

Anaïs in Love, also showing at the festival

The cityist

MY BATH

Martin Bysh

Martin Bysh is the CEO and co-founder of Huboo, a technology-based fulfillment provider for eCommerce businesses. An experienced technologist and entrepreneur, he spent the first part of his career as a coder developing a series of computer games. He then spent 20 years as a tech entrepreneur, with ventures ranging from one of the UK’s first successful online dating sites to the largest independent charity fundraising software company in Europe

How long have you lived in the city?

I’ve lived in Bath for the past 10 years. I left London, where I grew up, to live in Turkey for a few years and, when returning to the UK, wanted somewhere with fantastic amenities to raise a family.

Whereabouts do you live in Bath? We live around Green Park and love the buzz of that side of Bath. We did live in Bathwick for a while, but it just felt a bit too quiet for our busy family life.

What would you say is the most outstanding feature of the city?

It is that city buzz which still manages to retain a small town feel at the same time. It really is the best of both worlds.

What are some of the places where you like to socialise?

I love going to Henry’s Restaurant. It has stunning food, which is always seasonal and changing, while being nuanced, considered and tasty. I also enjoy a glass or two at the Beckford Bottle Shop, a wonderful wine merchant. The Royal Crescent Hotel offers breakfast in its country garden, perfect on a summer’s day. Dough is amazing for pizza and Kingsmead Square is spot on for pleasant cafés and entertaining buskers.

What are your favourite green areas of Bath? Sydney Gardens is my favourite green space. We lived in this area for four years before moving more recently to Green Park. It was a great place for my two boys to play, have picnics, visit the Holburne Museum or play a game of pétanque. Around Bath we often walk out to historic Sham Castle –stopping to pick wild garlic in the spring months –and make our way home while taking in the Bath Skyline trail.

You also have an association with Bristol –do the two cities complement one another? Though founded in Bath, where we still have offices, Huboo’s head office is located on Corn Street in Bristol, so I spend a lot of time there. The two cities contrast greatly. Bristol feels rawer and more cosmopolitan, while the cosiness and beauty of Bath and the surrounding towns and countryside are impossible to beat as a place to raise a family.

What do you do in your leisure time?

Like many entrepreneurs, I’m a natural workaholic, and historically work has been both my occupation and hobby. I’m getting better at carving out leisure time, mostly spent with my two boys, Fyodor, aged 13, Sinan, aged nine, and my wife Hulya, who is Turkish. This means that we spend a lot of time with my extended family in Turkey. I’m also taking more of an interest in rugby as we’re sponsoring Bath this year.

What book have you read recently?

I’ve just discovered German writer Hans Fallada and am working my way through his novels. Apparently, he was once as wellknown as Thomas Mann but fell out of favour. I highly recommend Alone in Berlin, a sad but compelling tale of futile German resistance against the Nazis during the Second World War.

What is your background?

I was a computer games coder for 15 years, running small teams of artists, musicians and coders which resulted in me publishing my first game at the age of 16, which was a European charts number two hit. In the late 1990s, I founded my first business, and then went on to build and exit several others. They included two of the UK’s first dating sites, such as Smooch.com, which was the fifth biggest of its kind in the UK when sold. Then there was a rapid market research SaaS business and survey platform Usurv.com, which was sold to a private equity firm after being backed by a buy-and-build strategy.

How did you become involved with eCommerce technology?

In the late 1990s, the games industrywas moving away from small independent teams toward huge games being built by vast teams. Accepting this, I ran a big team at a Canadian game developer just outside of Toronto, but I didn’t enjoy it. I quit and migrated my tech and coding skills into web technologies, first running a web development agency specialising in eCommerce, then into my own web-based businesses.

Tell us a bit about Huboo.

Huboo is a technology enabled eCommerce fulfilment solution for eCommerce sellers.

With our unique ‘hub model’ warehousing –devised by my business partner and CTO Paul Dodd –we provide industry-leading quality solutions, while uniquely creating great jobs for people in warehouses.

What are the challenges in achieving a successful eCommerce operation?

It’s vital to think big and plan ahead for every eventuality. There’s nothing worse than being under-prepared in a fast-moving space such as fulfilment. Many independent retailers are shifting their businesses into the digital domain to stay in touch with changing consumer preferences. Bearing this in mind, it’s important to acknowledge that diversification is essential for eCommerce success – in terms of both product range and supply chain. Firstly, if it’s possible for a retailer to diversify their range in line with seasonal buyer behaviour, they should do so quickly. It’s far easier stocking calendarappropriate products than it is coming up with innovative marketing campaigns for outof-season, out-of-mind goods. In addition to this, getting the balance right between cash in the bank and stock in the warehouse is crucial. In the online retail world, having readily accessible inventory is all-important. With long-term global supply chain disruption inevitable, you might benefit from having the extra inventory, even if it makes the business a little less nimble.

What are the qualities that have been most useful to you in your career?

The ability to inspire and maintain trust in great people and realise that you can’t do it alone! Also, resilience, as the road is rarely smooth. In addition, you need to have absolute, obsessional focus. This wasn’t always the case, and I spent quite a few of my early years as an entrepreneur chasing the next shiny idea at the expense of the current project.

What will you achieve by the end of 2022?

We will have completed the rollout of fulfilment centres across Europe – Germany, Netherlands, Spain and France – and sales offices around the world, including in the US, Turkey, China, Australia and South America. This is in preparation for another fundraise in 2023. ■ huboo.com

The cityist

Progress for new rugby stadium

The Supreme Court has refused an application seeking to appeal the ruling of the Court of Appeal of 4 February 2022, allowing Bath Rugby to proceed with its planned redevelopment of its facilities at The Rec.

This brings to an end to the long-running legal case and paves the way for Bath Rugby to bring forward its proposals for a new stadium.

Bath Rugby Chief Executive Tarquin McDonald said: “We are delighted with this outcome. We acknowledge that this has felt drawn out and at times frustrating for the club, our supporters and the city.

“Now that the Supreme Court has ruled, we finally have the certainty we need as a club to bring forward comprehensive proposals for a new stadium at our spiritual home, The Rec, located in the heart of Bath. The club will be re-engaging with stakeholders across the city regarding the development project, and intends to bring forward and share its plans with the city in due course. This will regenerate the riverside, and provide outstanding facilities for rugby and the wider community.

“We would very much like to thank our supporters and the wider city for all their support and patience throughout this complex and lengthy legal process.” bathrugby.com

Long-term plans for Fairfield House

Plans to protect the former home of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia have moved forward with a new lease on the historic Fairfield House to a not-for-profit Community Interest Company.

Fairfield House Bath CIC has been awarded a two-year lease by B&NES Council, enabling the site to continue being used as a community hub, day care centre for the elderly and heritage attraction. The CIC can now continue to deliver its business plan on a sound legal basis and work to secure further grants. The idea is to apply for community asset transfer or a longer lease in two years’ time. The site comprises two buildings: an ‘Italianate’ 19th-century, Grade II-listed villa at 2 Kelston Road and a post-war bungalow at 27 Burleigh Gardens. From 1936 to 1941 the villa was the residence of Haile Selassie I, who gifted the property to Bath Corporation (now B&NES Council) in 1959 as a home for the aged in gratitude for the warm welcome he received from the citizens of Bath. The bungalow was built to provide caretaker accommodation. Fairfield House was used as a residential care home until 1993. From then it has been used as a day centre by groups including the charity Bath Ethnic Minority Senior Citizens' Association. It is also a community hub and place of pilgrimage for local people of Bath, for Rastafari, Ethiopians, and the worldwide African diaspora. fairfieldhousebath.co.uk

Unsung hero’s aerial photography

Historic England’s Archive and the friends and colleagues of Harold Wingham (1924–2021) have come together to celebrate the work of the pioneering amateur aerial photographer.

The Harold Wingham Collection of almost 2,000 photographic negatives and corresponding prints has been made available online for the first time, in three new digital galleries, divided into 86 flights between April 1951 and July 1963. Wingham took flying lessons and learned photography so that he could take aerial images for archaeological purposes. He used hand-held aerial reconnaissance cameras, which produced images with excellent detail.

The collection is celebrated for its mix of architectural, archaeological and industrial subjects and views of villages and towns in the early post-war period, offering a unique insight into the changing landscape of the West and South West of England. The collection includes four images of Bath: the city centre; Kingswood School; the Ministry of Defence site in Foxhill, Combe Down; and Horstmann’s Newbridge Road Works.

Save the last suffragette tree in Bath

Those who live near the last surviving Suffragette tree in the grounds of Eagle House, near Bath, are asking for funds to ensure that the tree can continue as a living memorial to those women who, over 100 years ago, founded a movement that was to change the political, social and cultural situation of women in this country and the world.

This magnificent Austrian Pine is the sole survivor of Annie's Arboretum, a collection of trees planted in the grounds of Eagle House, near Bath, by suffragettes who stayed in the house, often to recuperate from imprisonment for their political actions. While it has been cared for solely by the house owners in whose modest garden it stands, it is now in desperate need of major and costly remedial work.

The tree was planted in 1909 by Rose Lamartine-Yates who was imprisoned after she and 28 other women marched on the Houses of Parliament. Rose went on to become a London County councillor and the first woman elected to the council of the Cycle Touring Club.

When restored, this tree which was planted as a sapling in celebration of the women who fought so hard for universal suffrage, will continue to inspire present and future generations of women and men to work for equality.

Donate by visiting the crowdfunding page on: bit.ly/3CPhQ15

Horstmann’s Newbridge Road works in Bath, in 1960. The company, which opened in 1915, manufactured products, including gardening tools, clocks and controls for street lighting and gas ignition

Pauline Swaby Wallace, Princess Esther Selassie Antohin, Professor Shawn Naphtali Sobers and Councillor Kevin Guy

The tree today (below left) and Rose Lamartine-Yates planting the tree in 1909 (below right)

NOTES ON A SMALL CITY

Richard Wyatt

Columnist Richard Wyatt, never himself short of energy, is keen to save it elsewhere. Fortunately it’s all in hand –because Bath’s festive lighting this year is designed to be less timeconsuming, less costly and low energy, but no less dramatic

Iremember a pre-Christmas visit to Iceland a few years ago when a weak and watery sun appeared around 11am and sank below the horizon around 4pm. Being just a few degrees south of the Artic Circle you’d expect the island’s winter months to be gloomy, but that part of the world is blessed with the Northern Lights to brighten their darkness.

Around Yuletide, we of lower latitudes have to rely on electrically powered street adornments to add a bit of festive sparkle to our major city and town streets. This year everyone’s having to be a bit more energy conscious, bearing in mind rising costs, so I was keen to see if this December’s local authority offering was going to be more ‘Bleak Midwinter’ than ‘Jingle Bells!’

I was getting a little fed-up with the ornamental ‘chandeliers’ that kept appearing above Milsom Street year after year. No amount of wind, rain, frost, fog or snow has battered them into obscurity, but it seems the economy has, because they won’t be casting a glow over Bath’s premiere shopping streets this year.

So it is with great personal delight that I bring you good news. B&NES have called in a big UK independent provider of festive lighting to give Bath a new look that is extremely energy conscious. They are also –with a little financial help from the city’s BID organisation –going to build a more modern and cost-effective way of adding some colour to our Noel nights.

Starting on the week beginning 14 November, Field and Lawn –a company well-used to working with BIDs, councils and shopping centres and who have lit up commercial streets from Edinburgh to London’s West End –will be providing ‘traditional’ Christmas lighting in Bath, Keynsham, Midsomer Norton and Radstock. All decorations used in the

new schemes will use the latest LED light technology, minimising energy consumption from their use. Even the lights on the Christmas tree in Abbey Church Yard will be draped in LEDs, which are very low-voltage.

In addition Fineline Lighting Ltd, who are based at Clevedon near Bristol, and have been one of Glastonbury Festival’s chosen suppliers for well over 25 years –has also been contracted to project animations on to some streets.

As well as illuminating historic buildings to show off Bath’s majestic architecture, this will also mean a reduction in both installation and energy costs, as well as emissions. Certainly from an energy perspective, using light which can be cast over a wider area should create more impact for less.

Lighting up buildings like the Abbey and the Milsom Street shop fronts is also a much more effective way of grabbing attention. In our Instagram world, far more ‘selfies’ will be taken against that sort of background and, when published, are more likely to bring others to Bath.

The city’s official ‘switch-on’ will happen in Milsom Street on 17 November. Bath BID is also working with Bath Carnival to create special lanterns and models which will be carried by local children and families.

It’s also good to know that the Christmas Market –with its ‘150 twinkling chalets’ –will be back from 24 November as a full-scale event celebrating 20 years of helping to enhance the city’s festive offering. Seeing those ‘sheds’ –oops! I mean chalets –nestled around our grand parish church reminds me of a festive ‘mother hen’ surrounded by her ‘brood.’ The market, something that’s always been a huge commercial draw to the city, will run through to 11 December.

More thought this year has also gone into ensuring central streets are not blocked so that people can circulate throughout the whole city centre.

Finally, just before I disappear up into our attic to see how tarnished last year’s tinsel is, can I just say there are two established and traditional additions to the Christmas scene I was hoping to see again this year. Both are colourful and obvious ‘selfie’ locations. I am sorry to say the ‘Snow Globe’, once an annual sight outside the Abbey Hotel, alongside Bog Island, won’t be coming back this year. For me, that’s a shame.

Better news concerns Bath Street where I am pleased to say the Victorian carousel –whose colourful horses will whisk you back to your childhood –will be lighting up the night from 15 December to New Year’s Eve. Just champion! n

Richard Wyatt runs the Bath Newseum: bathnewseum.com

Landscape healers

We can all strive to offset the environmental crisis and urban pollution in small ways. Some, however, such as Bath-based landscape architects Grant Associates, have a more measurable impact. The environments that they design and create are defined by sustainability, ecological diversity and a soaring imagination, and they recharge people’s connections with the spaces around them. Emma Clegg talks to founder and director Andrew Grant as the company celebrates 25 years

reclaimed from the ocean – we wanted to create structures that are mind-blowing in scale as well as a zero-carbon cooled glasshouse in the tropics, ideas that would work within the context of a future city. We took all those and put them in the melting pot.”

Andrew explains that Grant Associates like to use an underlying narrative so that they engage with and develop a concept, in the process creating personality and identity. The design of Gardens by the Bay carried the emblem of the orchid at its heart, the national flower of Singapore. The forms of the flower running through the exotic gardens and the physiology of the plant is reflected in the sophisticated infrastructure for managing energy, water and waste.

“The orchid is the most cosmopolitan of plants on the planet, and there are around 28,000 species. It’s beautiful but it survives in most situations and doesn’t always need soil – an epiphytic plant, it can just hang on to branches and has this amazing physiology that allows it to grow and survive in these conditions. That orchid analogy underpinned the idea of creating this beautiful place with this intelligent infrastructure. That was the creative starting point,” explains Andrew.

Never have our wildernesses been as fragile and as precious as they are today”, said David Attenborough in his introduction to the BBC documentary series Planet Earth II, released in November 2016, and watched by 12-million UK viewers. Each of the six episodes focused on an environmental context, the final one on Cities, and towards the end viewers were shown an exotic, visionary landscape within Gardens by the Bay, the nature park in Singapore. The film pans through a futuristic-looking urban landscape expanse in Bay South Garden, one of three waterfront gardens in the Bay, featuring eighteen 150ft-high Supertrees. These tree-like metal structures are in fact vertical gardens fitted with technologies that mimic the ecological function of trees, and are full of animal, insect and bird life.

What was seen on our screens stood out because it combined majestic theatre with urban environmental possibility, and in the concluding minutes of the series offered a highly ingenious and emotionally uplifting way of helping to turn around the issues humanity was facing. For a world audience troubled by climate change, pollution, environmental degradation and resource depletion, this was rousing and transformative.

The design of Bay South Garden and the Supertrees in Gardens by the Bay was the brainchild of Bath-based landscape architects Grant Associates, who are this year celebrating their 25th anniversary. The work of this pioneering landscape architecture practice is designed to reconnect people with nature in insightful and stimulating ways, at the same time addressing the global challenges of urbanisation, the climate crisis and biodiversity extinction. That’s a big brief.

Founder and director Andrew Grant explains how the Gardens by the Bay project came about. “It is a curious story because at the time (in 2006) we were a tiny little practice in George Street. I got a call from the National Parks Board of Singapore, saying they had got my name, they had a competition coming up and they wanted to meet me. They explained the project and encouraged me to put a team together. We were one of 74 teams who expressed interest and we were then put on shortlist of 10 to submit ideas.

“The creativity came at the competition stage, and for us it was the perfect opportunity to throw out some big ideas about an ecosystem for Gardens by the Bay, which was built on land that had been

“When Gardens by the Bay project director Dr Kiat Tan got us around the table in London and said, ‘well you’ve won the competition and we want to build it. Can we start straight away?’, it was a huge transformation for the company, from that moment.”

Andrew’s sustainable approach to Landscape Architecture was rooted in the influence of industry figures such as David Skinner who taught him as a student at Edinburgh College of Art. “David was based in Scotland, supporting the Scottish government in sorting out derelict coal mines, industrial devastation and planning some of the infrastructure. He had trained in America with Ian McHarg who famously published a book called Design with Nature, the first time that a landscape professional had talked about ecological systems and how to think about context and the interactions between different aspects of the world. David passed that on to us on his course – he had a strategic view about what landscape should be offering, and that was fortuitous for me.”

The changing face of the environment was an issue that Andrew had seen growing up on his family’s farm in east Yorkshire. “I remember this little farm as effectively medieval, because nothing had changed over the years – it had ridge and furrowed fields, an 18th-century tower in one of the fields, amazing old barns and it was full of wildlife. But agriculture was going through a massive change in the 1960s and 1970s, with the industrialisation of the landscape, hedgerows being

The ‘Superbloom’ is a floral display and thriving new natural landscape that encircles The Tower of London, 2022

Andrew Grant

The Supertrees in Bay South, Gardens by the Bay in Singapore, which was completed in 2012

ripped out, and more fertilisers, chemicals and big machines being used –I saw that happen in my own back garden.”

After graduating Andrew spent three years in Qatar working for the technical office of the Emir. “This was when Qatar was going through big changes, moving from a fishing port known for its pearl fishing and trading to becoming the second richest country in the world, building huge projects and new palaces, so it was an extraordinary explosion of those elements alongside new parks, promenades and playgrounds. This was so significant for somebody who had just graduated a year or so before, to be put into a place where I learnt so quickly how to get things built. That was a very interesting time.”

The interesting times continued, with Andrew taking on work for Peter Clegg of Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios –also based in Bath and known for their environmentally focused architecture – as well as for Richard Rogers Partnership in London, work that involved him in the world of high-end architectural planning and thinking and high-profile projects. “Between the work I did for Peter Clegg and Richard Rogers, I established the beginning of a reputation,” says Andrew.

The big break, says Andrew, came with Grant Associates’ commission for the Earth Centre Project in Doncaster – this was at a time when Andrew was working from an office in his dining room. This landmark millennium project opened in 1999, a visitor attraction and ecological parkland covering a former colliery site in South Yorkshire. It was based around the principles of energy efficiency, water conservation, recycling and the use of non-polluting materials to provide the basis for sustainable development, and included areas of productive woodland, ecological grasslands and wetlands arranged around a central area of innovative gardens. At this point, the company started to expand, and this was when current directors Peter Chmiel and Keith French joined the company.

Other notable projects (among many) are Sentosa, Singapore, a world-class leisure and tourist destination (opened in 2010) making use of the islands’ tropical landscape setting; Jaguar Land Rover’s 2019 Advanced Project Creation Centre in Gaydon, UK; The Tower of London ‘Superbloom’, a floral display and haven for wildlife and biodiversity surrounding the famous fortress, opened in 2022; and Paradise Birmingham (which is opening in phases up to 2025), a regeneration of the city’s streets and spaces (in collaboration with Glenn Howells

The Arc, a 22-storey, three-tiered tower which forms a statuesque new centre point for City Road in Shoreditch, London

Architects). Bristol has and is also benefitting from Grant Associates’ sustainable, forward-thinking approach, with the Bristol Harbourside waterfront generation in 2015 one of the company’s early projects, and currently the development of the University of Bristol library and its Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus Meads, in collaboration with Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, as well as the design of Bristol’s new Wild Place Zoo.

Ankarafa Field Station in Madagascar is another long-term project, started in 2018, where Grant Associates collaborated with other organisations to help develop the field research centre and eco-tourist camp in the Ankarafa Forest in the Radama National Park, a project to save the country’s critically endangered blue-eyed black lemur and its forest habitat.

In Bath too, Grant Associates make their presence felt –Andrew recently offered his help as a consultant for the Bathscape project, which is working to make the best use of the natural landscape surrounding the city of Bath. And in 2014 they co-conceived and designed the award-winning Forest of Imagination, a pop-up contemporary arts festival offering a place for art and participation (which has continued ever since and in 2023 will take place in and around the Assembly Rooms).

The company has been involved with more than 20 significant projects in Singapore. “What I find fascinating with Singapore,” says Andrew, “is that the identity of the city state has been structured around the landscape and its sense of idyllic tropical environment, as a city in nature. And it underpins so many of their decisions in terms of how they market themselves, how they planned the city, how they organised their funding, and what are its priorities. In fact Singapore has similar problems to Bath – it’s a landlocked state, and the land is either protected forest, or is too steep, too wet or in the sea, meaning they had to reclaim land to create space for Gardens by the Bay.”

Andrew is curiously modest about the impact that he and his company have had on recharging and transforming people’s experience of landscape within their living and working environments – after all, Grant Associates reinvent spaces where nature and wildlife are brought back (as they once were) centre stage, which in turn changes the observer’s mindset from the scarring impact of climate change and pollution towards innovative and welcome solutions to the pressures

Paradise Birmingham, a new urban neighbourhood in Birmingham’s civic and historic heart

that the world is operating under.

I see that this modesty comes from pragmatism, years of experience, and the knowledge that any project the company takes on is a small step in a much larger and longer battle. In Andrew’s words, “Our job at the moment is to try and put things right as best we can and to mitigate the worst impacts of what’s been going on in any new projects to make sure they don’t contribute to the climate and biodiversity challenges.”

There has been a constant rethinking of the way the company works in the face of extraordinary and ever-evolving environmental challenges. There’s also craft, intelligence, and, importantly, soul in every decision that is made: “Our work is about how you create places that people feel something for, and ultimately value. What we have learned is, yes, you can tick all the technical elements of a sustainable urban drainage system, a playground of a certain size that meets the regulations, a street that allows you to park your car in a certain way, but these ingredients need to be brought together to have identity, energy and purpose. In a way we are healers and we want to find a much more equitable balance between humans and the natural world.”

In the closing narrative of Planet Earth II, as the Cities episode came to a close, David Attenborough said, “Looking down on this great metropolis [London]... reminds me of just how easy it is for us to lose our connection with the natural world. Yet it’s on this connection that the future of both humanity and the natural world will depend. And surely, it is our responsibility to do everything within our power to create a planet that provides a home not just for us, but for all life on Earth.”

Nobody argues with Sir David, and especially not Grant Associates. We wish you a happy 25 years –and please continue the healing process for many, many more. n

Grant Associates are part of Bath Unlimited, a group of local world-class businesses; grant-associates.uk.com; bathunlimited.org

In a way we are healers and we want to find a much more equitable balance between humans and the natural world

Bath Ready to Welcome Back the Magic of Christmas

It’s been nearly three years since Christmas really felt like Christmas.

So for the first time since 2019, the city is preparing to welcome back the full festive experience in true Bath style.

The celebrations begin with the Christmas Light Trail launch event (Thursday 17th November, 5pm) bringing to life Bath’s Georgian splendour with magical illuminations across the city.

Bath Abbey will be glowing with its colourful projections for the season and also hosting Christmas carols and storytelling.

Like rediscovering a box of baubles in the attic, the return of Bath Christmas Market is guaranteed to get you firmly in the Christmas mood with a Yuletide atmosphere like no other.

The market opens on Thursday 24th November and will be in place until Sunday 11th December, giving residents and visitors plenty of opportunities for shopping, socialising and perhaps sipping a warming mulled wine.

For those wanting to visit outside of peak times, we recommend visiting early in the morning or midweek for easy access to the range of beautifully decorated chalets.

Of course, Bath’s eclectic range of independent shops, friendly cafes and restaurants, high street stores and cosy pubs and bars will be looking forward to welcoming residents and visitors throughout the season.

With a bit of local insider knowledge,

there are plenty of quieter spots to avoid to the hustle and bustle of the city centre, from the charming Margaret’s Buildings to the vibrant Walcot Street.

There’s no better place to avoid soulless, onscreen Christmas shopping than Bath.

You really will find something for everyone – the great aunt who visits once a year, the neighbour who looked after your cat, your difficult-to-buy-for brother-in-law. The range of independent boutiques adorning our side streets and the high street names throughout SouthGate and the main shopping area will offer you a fantastic gift buying experience.

All of our city’s restaurants are set for wonderful winter dining experiences, with delicious food and drink in a city with an atmosphere like no other. And please check out new arrivals The Architect at The Empire for fantastic fresh food and cask ales.

Bath on Ice at Victoria Park has become a mainstay of the festive period in the city, with people of all ages wrapping up in scarves and gloves to enjoy a wintery skate in the open air, before warming up with a festive drink and some delicious food in the adjoining chalet.

For younger residents excited about seeing the big guy in the red suit, we’ve had word

from the North Pole that Father Christmas WILL be in attendance at Bath’s Elves’ Swapshop which returns this year.

Children are invited along to meet Father Christmas and the elves, and swap an old toy for an upcycled toy of their choice using the fabulous Elf-O-Matic toy upcycler. It’s Christmas with sustainability at its heart.

Tickets for the Elves Swapshop cost £5 per child and are available from welcometobath.co.uk/christmas

For inspirational features showcasing Bath at Christmas, including a comprehensive list of events, things to do, where to eat, drink and stay, visitbath.co.uk/christmas has it all!

Find out more about what’s on in Bath this Christmas at welcometobath.co.uk n

Cosy comforts

As the temperatures drop, snuggle up warm or stride out protected against the elements with some of these fashionable keep-you-warmers...

Henriette Steffensen

Fleece Wrist Warmers, £35

• Blue, The Loft, 1–2 Bartlett Street, Bath; bluewomensclothing.co.uk

Chopard Heritage Stole, £398

• Mallory, 1–5 Bridge Street, Bath; mallory-jewellers.com

Borg Bucket Hat, Neutral, £79

• Whistles, 1 New Bond Street Buildings, Bath; whistles.com

Sheepskin Hot Water Bottle Cover, £56, Toast

• Toast, 7 Bartlett Street, Bath; www.toa.st

Men's Cashmere Lined Abraham Moon Tweed & Leather Gloves, Helmingham, £159

Beanie Hat Black, £15.99. Soft Knit Scarves, £17.99, Suave Owl menswear

• Suave Owl, 33 Milsom Street, Bath; suaveowl.co.uk

Oakford Knee High Boots in Dark Brown Leather, Duo Boots, £275

• Duo Boots; duoboots.com

Bly Funnel Neck Jumper, £110, Finisterre

• Finisterre, 27 High Street, finisterre.com

Booker smart

Authors on the Booker Prize shortlist for 2022 represented five different nationalities and four continents, with an equal split of men and women. Most of these were inspired by real events, ranging from the Sri Lankan Civil War to the murder of Emmett Till in the US. Here are all six books, including the recently announced winner.

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka Colombo, 1990. Maali Almeida, war photographer, gambler and closet gay, has woken up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. His dismembered body is sinking in the serene Beira Lake and he has no idea who killed him. The list of suspects is depressingly long, but even in the afterlife, time is running out for Maali. He has seven moons to try and contact the man and woman he loves most and lead them to a hidden cache of photos that will rock Sri Lanka. Ten years after his prizewinning novel Chinaman established him as one of Sri Lanka’s foremost authors, the Booker Prize 2022 has emphatically endorsed Shehan Karunatilaka and his rip-roaring epic, which is full of mordant wit and disturbing truths. Sort of Books, £16.99

The Trees by Percival Everett

This uncanny literary thriller addresses the painful legacy of lynching in the US. It opens with a series of brutal murders in a rural town in Mississippi. When a pair of detectives arrive, they meet expected resistance from the local sheriff, his deputy, the coroner, and racist White townsfolk. The murders present a puzzle, for at each crime scene there is a second dead body: that of a man who resembles Emmett Till.

The detectives suspect that these are killings of retribution, but soon discover that eerily similar murders are taking place all over the country. As the bodies pile up, the MBI detectives seek answers from a local root doctor who has been documenting every lynching in the country for years, uncovering a history that refuses to be buried. In this bold, provocative book, Everett takes direct aim at racism and police violence. Influx Press, £9.99

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Award-winning author Claire Keegan’s landmark new novel, IS a tale of one man’s courage and a remarkable portrait of love and family. It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church. A deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers. Faber & Faber, £10

Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout

Elizabeth Strout returns to her heroine Lucy Barton, a successful writer in New York navigating life as a recent widow and parent to two adult daughters. A surprise encounter leads her to William, her first husband –and longtime, on-again-off-again friend and confidante. Recalling their college years, the birth of their daughters, the painful dissolution of their marriage and the lives they built with other people, Strout weaves a portrait, stunning in its subtlety, of a tender, complex, decades-long partnership. Oh William! captures the joy and sorrow of watching children grow up; of discovering family secrets, late in life, that alter everything we think we know; and the way people live and love, against all odds. Penguin Books Ltd, £8.99

Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo

Glory sees a bold, vivid chorus of animal voices calling out the dangerous absurdity of contemporary global politics, and helping us see our human world more clearly. A long time ago, in a bountiful land, the animal denizens lived quite happily. Then the colonisers arrived. After nearly a hundred years, a bloody War of Liberation brought new hope for the animals, and a new leader. A charismatic horse who commanded the sun ruled for 40 years. But even the sticks and stones know there is no night that does not end with dawn. And so it did for the Old Horse, bringing a new regime, a new leader and once again, the animals were full of hope... Here is a story of a country seemingly trapped in a cycle as old as time. It reminds us that the glory of tyranny only lasts as long as its victims are willing to let it. History can be stopped in a moment. With the return of a long-lost daughter, a turning tide, even a single bullet. £18.99, Vintage Publishing

Treacle Walker by Alan Garner

An introspective young boy, Joseph Coppock squints at the world with his lazy eye. Living alone, he reads comics, collects birds’ eggs and plays with his marbles. When, one day, a ragand-bone man called Treacle Walker appears, exchanging an empty jar of a cure-all medicine and a donkey stone for a pair of Joseph’s pyjamas and a lamb’s shoulder blade, a mysterious friendship develops between them. A fusion of myth, magic and the stories we make for ourselves, Treacle Walker has been lauded as an extraordinary novel from one of our greatest living writers. £12.99, Fourth Estate n

Booker Prize winner 2022

Jethro Tull at the Abbey

Richard Wyatt talks to Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull –who is performing at Bath Abbey in December –about performing in churches, why he likes to give back, and if, at the age of 75, he is still managing to play the flute on one leg

On 12 December Bath Abbey will resonate with the music of Jethro Tull, the long-time progressive rock band fronted by multiinstrumentalist Ian Anderson. Formed in 1968, the band first focused on blues rock and jazz fusion, but later introduced English folk, hard rock, and classical music to create its own progressive rock sound. The band has sold an estimated 60-million albums worldwide, and loyalty remains strong, with tickets almost sold out.

One person who will be there is local journalist and long-time fan Richard Wyatt, who spoke to Ian Anderson recently about the upcoming performance. Richard was happy to share some excerpts from the interview with us.

How do you feel about performing in a religious space like Bath Abbey?

“The first time I performed in a church was for a multi-artist performance 20-25 years ago. The first time I performed in a church as a fundraiser was at the invitation of Greg Lake, the base player and singer of Emerson Lake and Palmer, who was performing songs at St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street, London.

“I do it because it is raising money for historic buildings. They have no support from the government – they depend entirely on public donation or, in the case of big cathedrals, an entrance fee. So it’s a question of keeping the roof on.”

How much of the concert proceeds go to Bath Abbey?

“I pay the guys in the band, I pay for the crew, the sound, the lights, the hotels and the transport, which you can imagine costs quite

Ian Anderson with his flute. Also appearing with Jethro Tull are Joe ParrishJames (guitar and vocals), Scott Hammond (drums), John O’Hara (keyboards and vocals) and David Goodier (bass guitar and vocals)

a few thousand pounds for a performance, but I fund all this so that 100% of the ticket money stays with the Abbey. It’s simpler, it’s more clear-cut and out of the profits that I hope to make from my other concerts during any calendar year, I can afford to give a little back –this is one of the charities that I choose to support.”

Will the Abbey play a part in the performance?

“We try to play a couple of pieces using the organ because they are one of the most expensive items to repair and service. When I played in Chester Cathedral a few years ago, all the money from ticket sales went to the restoration of the organ. I’m also trying to draw attention to the choral side of Cathedral life – it’s good to work with a choir, whether it’s a lay cathedral choir or the choristers.”

Tell us about the musical programme.

“The concert is designed for a place of worship, so respect is paid to the traditions of musical liturgy. It also features some of the more popular side of Christmas music, but two-thirds of it is material that is part of the Jethro Tull repertoire, which has a seasonal if not a Christian reference in the songs. I usually have one or two musical guests. Greg

Lake, for example, repaid the favour a couple of times – he came to perform on our show at Canterbury Cathedral. And he has a famous Christmas song called I Believe in Father Christmas, which I always thought was cheesy, but when I came to read the lyrics and study the song to perform it with him I realised that it was an erudite and clever piece of writing. I still perform it as a tribute to Greg, who passed away a few years ago.”

What does Christmas mean to you?

“Another day in the office mostly, because the phone doesn’t ring, I don’t get emails and I can get some work done. So it’s a good time for me to be working. Then on 1 January at 9am I start work on a new project. The new album I started in January this year is about two-thirds recorded and I’ll finish that in the next few weeks, ready for release next year.”

I saw you at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 and well remember it...

“I hope you kept your trousers on and away from all those nasty drugs! Memory can sometimes be a little too kind to those sort of events because they have a lot of associations that are not memorable for the right reasons. The 1970 IOW festival ended with some very bad behaviour, and was not a good example of the dying moments of the hippy era.”

Are you still standing on one leg?

“Well if the money is right, or the cause is good, yes –it’s good to have a little motif, a performance element that you can use. Pete Townsend had his flailing windmill arm, Jimi Hendrix pretended to play the guitar with his teeth, Chuck Berry had his duck walk, and I ended up standing on one leg to play the flute. Those are the things that people remember and I do it, partly just to prove that it’s not impossible for a 75-year old man to stand on one leg for a while. And it’s a tribute to the band, to the audience and the people who have been associated with us for so many years.” n

Ian Anderson presents the Christmas Jethro Tull Concert at Bath Abbey, 12 December, 7.30pm, £35; bathboxoffice.org.uk

Pete Townsend had his flailing windmill arm ... and I for some odd reason ended up standing on one leg to play the flute

Jethro

Tull American tour 2007.

Photograph by Craig ONeil

Photograph by Will Ireland

Only connect

Mark Farrelly’s solo show, The Silence of Snow: The Life of Patrick Hamilton explores Hamilton’s turbulent life as a novelist and playwright. Ahead of the show’s arrival at The Rondo later this month, Daisy Game chats to Mark about failure, therapy, and the fourth wall

What’s wrong with failure? What the hell is wrong with failure?” Mark Farrelly is a fan of getting things wrong – and of talking about it. If we’re going to have a conversation, the actor and playwright’s candid telephone manner seems to suggest, then it may as well be about something proper.

The Silence of Snow: The Life of Patrick Hamilton – Mark’s oneman show exploring the life (and failures) of inter-war novelist and playwright Patrick Hamilton (1904–1962) – is soon to make its onenight-stop at The Rondo. Snow will mark the actor’s fourth professional visit to the theatre.

“The Rondo has a really, really lovely atmosphere”, says Mark, explaining that it’s an excellent venue for what he describes as his “preferred brand of storytelling”: that is, storytelling that invites its audience deep into the theatrical fray.

“All of my plays are written to be spoken direct to the audience”, Mark tells me; “There’s no fourth wall – because I hate the fourth wall. The Rondo is particularly nice for that. You can get really close to the audience; you can walk in amongst them. You’re not up on a stage, and slightly removed.”

For those unfamiliar with the term, the ‘fourth wall’ is an invisible divide between auditorium and stage, which –in more ‘removed’ shows –remains intact: actor does not acknowledge audience. It’s a “we’re here, you’re there – we won’t be getting cosy” situation. In less removed shows, however, performers actively break this wall. They might share some chitchat with the front row, for example –or simply throw somebody sitting on it a grin. Think Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Fleabag – or indeed, Mark Farrelly and Snow, the latter of whom informs me that he is currently “waging a one man war against the fourth wall”.

“The kind of theatre we have now is very solemn, very serious, very white, very upper-middle-class; you have to go in there reverently and be very quiet”, Mark observes: “In many ways, we’ve gone down this terrible cul-desac with the fourth wall, whereby the actors stand at a 90-degree angle to the audience and talk to each other – to the other actors – and then two hours later they turn and bow to you. I’m not saying that doesn’t have its place, but I personally don’t like it. I don’t like sitting quietly in the dark like I’m a mourner at a funeral”, Mark says.

It’s a funeral-parlour to which he doesn’t intend on contributing: “When it came to writing my own stuff, I knew that I wanted to talk to the audience and get in amongst them. That’s why I do it – because we do live in a horribly distant and disconnected society…”

A disconnected society how, I wonder?“I think people are so terribly

‘distant’”, Mark expands: “In my life, there are so many relationships where people didn’t even say goodbye – they just vanished. In the dating world, it’s called ‘ghosting’ – lots of youngsters will be familiar with that! It’s like an epidemic…”

As one of the youngsters in question, I’ll testify to Mark’s observation. Smiling at strangers, saying thank you to bus drivers: it all seems to have fallen somewhat out of fashion. But I also think that people – young and old – crave connection more than they care to admit. Perhaps it’s simply a matter of giving one another permission to connect, I suggest – of creating a space in which we are allowed, and encouraged, to engage with one another. Mark is in agreement: “Why is it that very often live music and comedy sell better than theatre? Because in live music and comedy, the audience is engaged – they’re spoken to. They’re part of it. And that’s what people really love”.

That’s also, I’m told, what audience members used to get a lot more of: “If you look at a lot of Shakespeare plays, the characters talk to the audience […] Richard III comes on and says “Hey, I’ve got the dastardly plan – do you want to join me in it?”. You see more than a remnant of that in the pantomime tradition; so many theatres rely on Panto season to remain afloat financially – because Panto is really, really popular. Its popularity has a lot to do with engagement”.

Snow might not quite fit into the festive, “he’s behind you!” bracket, but Mark hopes that the play still gives the people what they want: “My shows are a little bit like speed dating: the moment I come on, the audience realise pretty quickly, “Oh, we can’t just sit here quietly in the dark – we’re in this”. And pretty quickly they decide to go with it […] You and the audience tell a story together”.

So, what story will audience members be helping to tell in the case of Snow? Set in a 1950s electro-therapy clinic, the show takes us on a 70-minute sweep through Hamilton’s life: from its bright-andshiny start –to its early finish. At the age of just 25, Hamilton’s play Rope became a Broadway and West End smash-hit, whilst critics and public alike piled praise onto his trio of novels, The Gorse Trilogy, and their slimy anti-hero Ernest Ralph Gorse

But Hamilton’s career – and personal life – was of the tickingtime-bomb variety. “Patrick Hamilton needs alcohol as a car needs petrol”, novelist J.B Priestly wryly commented: towards the end of his short life, Hamilton was knocking back three bottles of whisky a day. He died at the age of 58, leaving behind what Mark describes as a small – but precious – “treasure trove of writing”.

“What interested me specifically was seeing a lot of resonance between my own life and [Hamilton’s]”, Mark recalls: “A big and heady successful start to life – I went to Cambridge, played Hamlet on a tour of America… And then I slowly started to slip down as unemployment hit. I went through depression, I had a breakdown, I drank far too much – and I saw a lot of that in Patrick. Playing him is a really interesting way of looking at the way that not only my life, but anyone’s life, could go if you let them slip”.

Snow isn’t all doom and gloom, Mark hastens to add; there’s a

“You have to keep going, because you don’t know what might be around that corner. It might be something terrible –but at least you went round it...”

fair amount of humour in the show (albeit of the dark kind) but it “doesn’t shy away from the truth of his life”, the writer admits.

Mark is not only interested in finding truth in the lives of others, but in his own as well. Following the deterioration of a long-term relationship in his mid 30s, the actor spent two years in therapy: “I wrested myself to the floor and started to become who I think I really am, and always was. I just couldn’t see it”.

With Snow, Mark hopes to encourage audience members to start honest and open conversations about mental health; and to face, wrestle – and make friends with – their demons.

“There’s a message in a lot of my plays, and inadvertently in The Silence of Snow – which is ‘hang in there’. The temptations in our lives to self-abandon are many and various. You have to keep going, because you don’t know what might be around that corner. It might

be something terrible –but at least you went round it […] I think my plays are trying to have that conversation with the audience. It’s one of the things that theatre is for – if not, what on earth is it doing? If not, what’s the point of all these technicians, all of these lights, all of these posters, all this publicity, all of these – forgive me – all of these interviews? What is the point of all of that, if not to try and change things for the better? […] Hope is everything. It’s all we have.”

The Silence of Snow is dedicated to Mark’s friend Tim Welling, who took his own life in December 2012. Tim’s legacy is recognised through a charity collection in aid of MIND, taken at the close of each show.

The Silence of Snow will play at The Rondo, Bath on 30 November. Tickets (Full £16, concession £14) available from rondotheatre.co.uk

Mark Farrelly in The Silence of Snow | Image: Steve Ullathorne

“I’m waging a one man war against the fourth wall”

What’s on inNovember

MUSIC AT GREEN PARK BRASSERIE

n Green Park Brasserie, Green Park, Bath

Enjoy live jazz/funk/soul/swing at Green Park Brasserie on Weds and Thurs from 6.30–8.45pm and Fri and Sat from 6.30–9.45pm. Music includes dynamic duos, modern trios and a Hot Club style quintet. greenparkbrasserie.com

HATCHING THE PAST: AMERICAN DINOSAUR EXPLORERS

Until 31 December

n The American Museum & Gardens, Claverton Down

A look at the life of dinosaurs through their eggs, nests and embryos. Captivating for all ages, visitors are invited to touch real dinosaur bones and reconstructed nests, dig for eggs, and see animated videos. This multi-media experience gives credence to the theories that dinosaurs and birds are closely related. americanmuseum.org

WALCOT RFC BONFIRE AND FIREWORK DISPLAY

4 November, gates 6.45pm, display 8pm n Walcot RFC, Lansdown

Join Walcot RFC for a fantastic bonfire and fireworks display. There will be lots of food options this year (hog roast, burgers, hot dogs and pasta) from a variety of food outlets. Free Parking in Lansdown Park and Ride; entry £7 adults, £3 children (under 18); pay at gate, no tickets required: contactless and cash. walcotrugby.co.uk

THE QUEEN OF THE OCEAN 4–5 November, 7pm–10.30pm n The Civic Trowbridge, St Stephen’s Place, Trowbridge An immersive, poignant and unique experience, based on the final 24 hours of the RMS Titanic. Serving up a four-course meal which is based on the final meal served

on board on 1 April 1912, you will be taken on a journey through Ocean Class liners, a world of elegance and opulence, world-class cuisine, and a tragic and heartfelt tribute to the 1503 men women and children that lost their lives. £80. histoireproductions.com

THE ART SOCIETY BATH: NOVEMBER LECTURE 7 November, 11.30am n Widcombe Social Club / Live via Zoom The Art Society’s absorbing lecture, ‘Collecting the Grand Tour –The Englightenment of the English Gentleman’ charts the history of the Grand Tour through the lens of Antiques Roadshow expert Marc Allum. To book a place (£10 in venue, £7 on Zoom) contact the society on bath@theartssociety.org. theartsociety.org/bath

THE SEVENTH SEAL 11 November, 7.30pm n BRLSI 16-18 Queens Square, Bath

Sixteen years before battling Satan in The Exorcist, Max Von Sydow was taking on Death in a game of chess –one of the most striking images in the history of cinema. The Seventh Seal film announced the arrival of Bergman as a giant in the world of motion pictures. For tickets, contact the membership Secretary on mail@bathfilmsociety.org.uk

SEAN MCLOUGHLIN: SO BE IT 11 November, 8pm n Komedia, Westgate Street

International microstar Sean McLoughlin is back on the road with a scintillating new stand-up show. Widely acclaimed for his hilarious and incisive stand-up, Sean has recently supported Ricky Gervais in arenas across the globe having previously opened for Bill Burr at the Royal Albert Hall. Tickets £15 from komedia.co.uk

JOHN LITTLE:

GROWING A GREEN ROOF

14 November, 7.30pm–9pm

n University of Bath Gardening Club, Room 1 Level 1, East Building, East Car Park

University of Bath, Claverton Down

Find out how green roofs and brownfield sites can encourage biodiversity in the 21st century. John will show us how, with planning, unlikely places can support both flora and fauna. ubgc.org

BIG READ: THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES

16 November, 11am–12pm

n Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution

Join Peter Ford for a discussion on Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous novel, his third Sherlock Holmes mystery. Free for members, £4 non members. brlsi.org

EZIO

17 November, 8–10.30pm

n Chapel Arts Centre

Ezio are singer/songwriter Ezio Lunedei and guitarist and best friend Booga (Mark Fowell). The band have toured and performed around the globe gaining a reputation for dynamic and exciting performances delivered with energy, humour and emotional beauty. Tickets £17.50/£19. chapelarts.org

ISHKAR CHRISTMAS POP-UP

18–20 November

n Persephone Books

Shop hand-crafted gifts from jewellery to homeware made by master artisans in Afghanistan, Myanmar, Syria, and Pakistan.

On 18 November there is shopping from 10am–6pm, plus a party and late-night shopping 6pm–9pm; on 19 November there is shopping 11am–5pm, and a screening of Where The Light Shines at 6pm–9pm, and on 20 November shopping 11am–5pm.

ishkar.com

The Ishkar Christmas Pop-Up

Walcot RFC Firework Display

Max Von Sydow in The Seventh Seal

CAPPELLA NOVA: DONA NOBIS PACEM

19 November, 7.30pm

n St Alphege’s Church, Oldfield Lane, Bath Bath-based chamber choir Cappella Nova in a concert featuring William Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices. The concert takes its title from the final words of the Mass: Dona Nobis Pacem, ‘Grant us Peace’. Along with the Mass the choir will sing music by composers including Tallis, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Grieg. The performance is in aid of two local charities: Three Ways School in Odd Down, and St Alphege’s Church Fabric Fund. Tickets £12 from eventbrite.co.uk cappellanova.org.uk

INNOCENTVILLE

19 November

n The Egg Theatre, Monmouth Street Welcome to Innocentville. Where people have to make their own truth. Where you get to decide who’s innocent… or not. There’s been an incident and you have a vital perspective. In this workshop you will learn the skills to turn that perspective into a story. That story could unlock the truth and prove who’s innocent – including you. Tickets £10, available from theatreroyal.org.uk

WIDCOMBE CHRISTMAS MARKET

19–20 November, Saturday 10.30am–5pm, Sunday 10.30am-4pm

n At Widcombe Social Club, the Natural Theatre Company, and St Matthews Church Hall (Saturday only), all on Widcombe Hill

Around 40 exhibitors will be displaying their beautiful work, all of which will be for sale. You will find plenty to choose from including ceramics, jewellery, textiles, paintings, prints, cards, candles, mosaics, glass and enamel work. Refreshments available at St Matthews Church and the Social Club. Free entry. widcombechristmasmarket.com

HOMEBUILDING & RENOVATING SHOW

19–20 November

n Bath & West Showground

Building a house, or renovating your home, is both exciting and rewarding – yet it’s not without its challenges. At the Homebuilding

& Renovating Show, you can hear inspiring speakers live on stage, get tips and tricks in tailored seminars, take advantage of one-onone consultations with experts and see, touch and compare the latest products. somerset.homebuildingshow.co.uk

BATH CHRISTMAS MARKET

24 November–11 December

n Bath City Centre

With over 170 stalls to explore, The Bath Christmas Market 2022 is set to be one of the city’s biggest to date: pick up everything from shoes to sotch eggs whilst soaking up some of the festive atmosphere. Monuments including The Roman Baths, Bath Mineral Hospital, and of course Bath Abbey will also be lit up in a multitude of festive hues to add a wonderful ambience to the city. bathchristmasmarket.co.uk

THE RAILWAY CHILDREN

24–26 November, 7.30pm, and matinee 2pm on Saturday n Rondo Theatre, St Saviour’s Road, Bath The Rondo Theatre Company are excited to be staging E. Nesbit’s classic children’s tale, The Railway Children this November at the Rondo Theatre. Set in the golden age of steam, E. Nesbit’s much-loved classic novel has delighted generations of families since it was first published in 1906. Mike Kenny’s faithful adaptation played to critical acclaim at London’s Waterloo Station and the National Railway Museum in York. Tickets: £15/£12/£8. rondotheatre.co.uk

ENCHANTED CHRISTMAS AT WESTONBIRT

25 November –21 December, 4pm–9.30pm, and 4pm–9.30pm on Saturdays n Westonbirt, The National Arboretum, Tetbury GL8 8QS

Visitors will be taken on a journey through beautiful woodland, and transported into a magical world surrounded by colourful twinkling lights. Witness the wonder and general commotion that comes with playful elves creating Westonbirt’s spectacular illuminated trail this year. There will be special ‘relaxed sessions’ on Saturday 26 November and Saturday 3 December from

4pm–5pm, when the trail will be adapted to suit those with additional needs such as autism. For example, strong flashing lights, loud sound effects and smoke effects will be temporarily turned off. Tickets £19/£17/£11, age two and under free. Tickets available through advance booking only: forestryengland.uk/westonbirt/enchantedchristmas

LIVE ART EVENT

25 November, 5pm–9pm n Holburne Museum

Art as social activism! Take part in creating a large-scale mixed-media artwork inspired by Nalini Malani’s My Reality is Different

Respond to and reinterpret the Holburne’s 18th-century collection, challenging perceptions of gender, nationality, empire, and colonialism. Priyesh Mistry and Will Cooper, curators of the show, invite visitors to an informal walk through of the exhibition. Free, and all materials provided. Most suitable for ages 16+, but open to all. holburne.org

LIMBO

25 November, 7.30pm

n BRLSI 16-18 Queens Square, Bath

Limbo is a wry and poignant observation of the refugee experience, set on a fictional remote Scottish island where a group of new arrivals await the results of their asylum claims. It centres on Omar, a young Syrian musician who is burdened by his grandfather’s oud, which he has carried all the way from his homeland. To join the Bath Film Society, contact the membership Secretary on mail@bathfilmsociety.org.uk; bathfilmsociety.org.uk

LEIA ZHU & BATH PHILHARMONIA

29 November, 7.30pm n Bath Forum

A musical exploration of struggle, conflict and resolution across the decades including Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony and featuring British violinist Leia Zhu (one of Classic FM’s 30 brilliant musicians under 30) performing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. Tickets £35/£30/£25/£5, under 18s. bathphil.co.uk

Dutch Flowers Exhibition day trip –painting by Jan van Huysum, National Gallery, London

Widcombe Christmas Market, image by Charlotte Farmer

Enchanted Christmas at Westonbirt

DUTCH FLOWERS EXHIBITION AT COMPTON VERNEY

30 November, 9am–6.30pm n Holburne Museum

A day trip to see an exhibition tracing the development of Dutch flower painting from the early 17th century to the late 18th century. It features some of the finest examples of Dutch flower paintings from the National Gallery’s collection, including works by Rachel Ruysch and Jan van Huysum. Ticket includes return coach transport, arrival refreshments, private guided tour of the exhibition, lunch, and free time to explore the main collections. £75. holburne.org

LOOKING AHEAD

VOCAL WORKS GOSPEL CHOIR: FUNKY DIVAS

3 December, 7.30pm n Bath Pavilion

The amazing and dynamic vocalists from the Vocal Works Gospel Choir pay tribute to the Funky Divas of the soul and pop world –with a show bursting with inspiring and uplifting songs. VWGC will be giving classic songs the full on ‘gospel choir’ treatment together with their band –the VW Soul Collective. Expect incredible versions of hits from the best and funkiest divas, such as Diana Ross, Lizzo, Gloria Estefan, Beyonce and Mariah. Tickets £19, from bathboxoffice.org.uk

BATH MINERVA CHOIR: “ON EARTH, PEACE...”

3 December, 7.30pm

n St Swithin’s Church, The Paragon

Join Bath Minerva Choir for a heartwarming concert of beautiful Christmas music featuring Vaughan Williams and Gerald Finzi and including carols for audience participation. Tickets £15/£12, from bathboxoffice.org.uk

BEAR FLAT ARTISTS’ CHRISTMAS ART FAIR & MARKET

3 December, 10am–5pm

n Methodist Church Hall, off Wellsway, Bruton Avenue, Bear Flat Bear Flat Artists present a fair and market to showcase local creativity, with unique artwork and handmade gifts for sale including ceramics, painting, jewellery, sculpture, photography, printmaking, glass, illustration, cards, festive tree decorations and more. Buy direct from artists and makers and find out about the making processes. Free Entry, all welcome. bearflatartists.co.uk

BEAUTIFUL STAR: CHRISTMAS WITH THE HANDFUL

3 December, 7.30pm

n St Mary the Virgin, Bathwick, BA2 4EB

The Handful presents a festive programme that centres around two major works: four movements from Ringeltanze by Libby Larsen, written in 1983, and Quatre motets pour le temps de Noel written by Francis Poulenc in 1951–52. The concert will also feature choral favourites and new discoveries from the 16th century to the present day.The Handful will be joined by the talented music students of Prior Park College. Tickets £15 (£5 for under 25s, free for under 16s) bathboxoffice.org.uk

SWING INTO CHRISTMAS

7 December, 7.30am

n The Forum, Bath Celebrate the festive season in style with the vocalists and instrumentalists of the Down for the Count Orchestra, as they Swing Into Christmas! The orchestra will recreate the music of Nat ‘King’ Cole,

Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and more in a luscious 28-piece orchestral setting. Hear faithful recreations of the best swing era music including I’ve Got You Under My Skin and ‘S Wonderful, alongside jazz and festive classics including Winter Wonderland, and The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting). Tickets £25/£28/£30. downforthecount.co.uk

CAROLS AT THE REC

7 December, 6.30pm–7.30pm

n Bath Recreation Ground

With traditional carols, a live brass band, mince pies, mulled wine, family fun and a message about the reason for the season, there’ll be something for everyone in what’s set to be a merry and memorable occasion. Enjoy an evening of festive fun for the whole family at this year’s Carols at the Rec. carolsattherec.com

CITY OF BATH BRASS BAND: FAMILY CHRISTMAS CONCERT

9 December, 7.30pm

n St Michaels Without

Join the City’s Brass Band in it’s Centenary year with a festive concert of traditional and seasonal music. Join in with carols and listen to ever popular arrangements of popular tunes. Tickets £10 Adults; £5 under 16; family ticket £24 (two adults and three under 16), available from bathboxoffice.org

BATH PHILHARMONIA: THE SNOWMAN

10 December, 3.30pm

n The Forum, Bath Join Bath Philharmonia for its annual family-friendly Christmas show with orchestral music to delight every age. With Raymond Brigg’s charming and poignant animations projected on the big screen, the orchestra will play Howard Blake’s score live to the film. Adult tickets £18.50/ £12.50 (child 2–18), available from

Vocal Works Gospel Choir at Bath Pavilion

Winter Fox by Sammy Hawward, Bear Flat Artists’ Christmas Market

The Railway Children at The Rondo

The Saxons in Bath

Bath is a proud historic city, but, let’s face it, the Romans and the Georgians take all the credit. Mayor’s Guide Steve Pratt fills in some of the gaps by ruminating on what is known about the Saxons in the city from 410–1090. There are periods of scant information interspersed with periods of no information at all, but that makes it all the more intriguing, says Emma Clegg

Images from left: Sweyn Forkbeard, an engraving of King Alfred the Great by George Vertue for Rapin's History of England and Witan Hexateuch, who was the king's council in Anglo-Saxon England

T he history of Bath in Saxon times is “slippery”, says Mayor of Bath Guide Steve Pratt, due to a dearth of documentation. We can track and trace the history of the Romans and the Georgians in Bath with ease – even if we didn’t encounter it at every street corner – but when it comes to the Saxon period the records are scant and mysterious.

Steve, who describes himself as a ‘heritage interpreter’ rather than a historian is fascinated by the Saxon period, but says it’s frustrating because there are so many blanks. “I have a friend who is a historian and he gave up on the Saxon period strictly because there was nothing new to find – he said it was impossible to do any original research.”

Steve is made of sterner stuff, it seems, but I sense that he rather likes the brooding uncertainty of the Saxon period, punctuated by sporadic flashes of evidence: “It’s particularly dark in the 500s and 600s – no-one is really quite sure what was going on. Various historians have drawn maps of how it might look with the strange ruinous Roman buildings that would have been around. It’s rather fascinating to think of Bath as an almost ruined city. The city stayed inhabited just about all the way through this period, though, whereas London was completely deserted after the Romans left.”

“Bath in this period was under the influence of large tribal groupings such as the Hwicce who were based nearby. This tribe had a close relationship with the Mercians who were very powerful in the 600s. We actually think Bath was under the protection of the Mercian and the Wessex royal family very briefly.”

The Hwicce tribe had a kingdom, of origin unknown, but are associated with the West Saxon conquest of the Cotswold. The AngloSaxon Chronicl explains how the West Saxons took the regions of Gloucester, Cirencester and Bath from the Britons in 577, after the Battle of Dyrham. Then in 628 the Mercians defeated the West Saxons at the Battle of Cirencester and the Hwicce formed a province or underkingdom of Mercia. They were also closely involved with Bath and the founding of the Abbey.

Other groups within this fractured period were the Germanic tribes of Angles and the Jutes, who invaded Britain during the Roman occupation and again once it had ended –this was documented in The Ruin of Britain by a British monk called Gildas in the 540s.

Then were also the Romano Britons, Celtic Free Britons, the Mercians, Vikings, and the kings of Wessex. Finally Alfred the Great set up a number of protected cities after his triumph against the Vikings in the late 800s of which Bath was one. So thanks to Alfred, Bath’s old Roman walls were reinforced and a settlement was founded.

All clear? Well, perhaps not. Steve explains that historians question the use of the term ‘Saxon’ as a period, but says he uses it as a catch-all for 410 to 1090. For his talk at BRLSI on 10 November he divides the period into five chapters (divisions that apparently historians would also dispute). These are Aquae Sulis in Decline (to about 500, after the

departure of the Romans), The Poetic Ruin (a city abandoned after the Roman departure), The Start of the Monastery (675-850, from the founding of the nunnery in Bath), Problems of the Vikings, and Alfred the Great and the Royal City.

Now we’ve got categories, it’s all slotting into place (ish). What is clear is that this period in Bath still was defined by its hot springs, because that was its timeless value. The city had lots of names over these years, including Bathancaester ('the Baths'), Baðum (at the baths) and Hat Batha (‘Hot Baths’), all rooted in its roots as a city of water. The Venerable Bede – an English monk who wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731) – said that ‘Britain’ (clearly referring to Bath) had warm springs, and from them flow rivers which supply hot baths. In the same era, a Saxon poet described a city where “There stood courts of stone; where a stream gushed in hot rippling floods, a wall enfolding all its bright bosom; baths that heated themselves: how convenient!”

The city had lots of names over these years, including Bathancaester (‘the Baths’), Badum (at the Baths) and Hat Batha (‘Hot Baths)

There are some rousing, stand-out names of characters in this period. Take Sweyn Forkbeard, the Dane who came to Bath in 1014 where the western thegns (nobles) submitted to him and gave homage – this, Steve tells me, shows how important Bath was. Despite his memorable name, Sweyn didn’t stay long. “Sweyn Forkbeard only ruled England for five weeks, so it was a cameo appearance,” says Steve.

Even King Arthur is part of Bath’s history, relates Steve. “This was in the 500s when there was a siege of Mount Baden – there’s no certainty about the date or location, but it was around 500. But this is all myth and it’s only traced in written form four centuries later with a story of King Arthur in battle killing 960 men in a charge, or something ridiculous. But it might not even have been in Bath. Mount Baden might have been Solsbury Hill, but it might also might have been Bradbury Rings in Dorset.”

I can understand the frustration of this uncertainty, but there are enough tantalising strands to make you want to find out more, especially if you liked Sky Atlantic’s Britannia or the History Channel’s Vikings What we can be sure about is that the Saxon period in Bath was a rags to riches story, starting with an abandoned and ruined Roman city with diverse warring tribes and ending as a royal city with the Coronation of King Edgar at the Abbey in 973. Find out more on 10 November.

Iacas: Saxon Bath talk by Steve Pratt, 10 November, 7.30pm–9pm, BRLSI, 16-18 Queen Square, Bath; brlsi.org; bacas.org.uk

Revolution, propaganda, art

Printing is considered one of the Four Great Inventions of China (along with paper,

and the compass). A new exhibition at the Museum of East Asian Art looks at the trends and developments in modern Chinese printmaking and how this reflects the culture and society of the 20th and 21st centuries

The Museum of East Asian Art in Bath is hosting a new exhibition, Revolution, Propaganda, Art: Printmaking in Modern China. It showcases a series of prints selected from the Muban Educational Trust’s (MET) collection of over 6,000 prints and tells the story of China’s 20th-century wars, revolution and rejuvenation.

The exhibition, curated by Mary Ginsberg, explores artistic trends, political movements and technical developments in modern Chinese printmaking. The works presented mark several significant anniversaries in China’s modern history, including the May Fourth Movement (1919), the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (1921), and Lu Xun’s seminal printmaking class, which symbolises the origin of the Modern Woodcut Movement (1931).

Haiyao Zheng, the secretary of MET explains: “Woodblock printing is an ancient Chinese art form that goes back over 1500 years. The modern woodblock movement gave it a new lease of life and made it the Art of the Revolution. Inside the many plan chests in our tidy Putney office, lies the whole revolution and social history of 20th century China.”

The exhibition leads viewers on a journey of artistic discovery, inviting them to consider some fundamental issues of Chinese culture in the 20th and 21st centuries: nationalism and westernisation, tradition and modernisation, continuity and innovation. Curator Mary Ginsberg explains, “These tensions were apparent through all the periods and styles covered by the exhibition, whether the artists created prescribed propaganda or works of personal expression.”

The exhibition has four sections:

• Portraits and Stories: showcases a series of woodcut print portraits of Lu Xun (1881–1936), a popular subject with Chinese printmakers. The leading figure of modern Chinese literature, he was also responsible for reviving the art of woodblock printing and turning it into a weapon for social change and national resistance.

• Generations: showcase works by leading printmakers, showing the transformation of their styles with the times.

• New China: presents a summary of the styles and subject matter of Chinese printmaking since 1949, with themes of patriotism, personal expression, and revisiting history and traditional culture.

• Techniques and Regeneration: examines the evolution of major printmaking techniques associated with Lu Xun, as well as other popular techniques inIt aChina today. Also showcases the broad scope of Chinese printmaking, demonstrating the range and depth of technical and creative innovation in this field by young Chinese artists today.

shown in the UK, are eight prints and some blocks from a portfolio of 18 contemporary Chinese prints, commissioned by the MET from some of China’s most accomplished young printmakers today. These prints represent a milestone in the modern revival of the relief print in China and in the development of the nation’s contemporary printmaking practice. n

Revolution, Propaganda, Art: Printmaking in Modern China is at the Museum of East Asian Art until 3 June 2023; meaa.org.uk

ARTS AND EXHIBITIONS

Winter Exhibition Gallery Nine, 9B Margaret Buildings Bath BA1 2LP, 8 November –31 December

Artist and designer Katie Mawson returns to Gallery Nine with her collages using antique cloth-bound books. Ceramicist Anna Lambert makes handbuilt earthenware ceramics using various techniques including slab-building, modelling, and painted slips. Jeweller Duibhne Gough’s work is defined by simple forms, and jeweller Helen Noakes works in resin and silver with miniature figures incorporated into the designs. gallerynine.co.uk

Lydia Corbett & Pablo Picasso: Out of Vallauris

David Simon Contemporary 37 High Street, Castle Cary BA7 7AW, 5–28 November

A rare exhibition of paintings, works on paper and ceramics by Lydia Corbett and Pablo Picasso. Lydia Corbett, née Sylvette David, was the subject of more than 60 paintings and sculptures by Picasso, after they met in 1953. Now in her late eighties and with failing eyesight, she uses her ‘inner eye’ to work directly on to canvas and wooden panels, creating bold and powerful compositions in oils and watercolours. davidsimoncontemporary.com

LEFT: The Three Kings, Lydia Corbett, watercolour and ink on paper

RIGHT: Composition Après Pierrot et Arlequin, print, 1920, Pablo Picasso

Rodin –Degas: Impressionist Sculpture

Representations of the human body by Auguste Rodin and Edgar Degas, and their expression of its energy through both dynamic and static poses.

Elisabeth Frink: Strength and Sensuality

Featuring themes such as storytelling, animals, humour and violence, Strength and Sensuality shows a selection of Dame Elisabeth Frink’s bronzes and works on paper.

Nalini Malani: My Reality is Different

Malani has created over 60 new animations based on 25 paintings featuring famous paintings from the National Gallery and the Holburne.

Charles Minty: City of My Childhood, The Guildhall, Bath, 3 October until 18 November

Charles Minty’s first solo exhibition will showcase 20 of the plein air artist’s oil paintings of Bath and Wiltshire. The exhibition is a testament to the hundreds of hours Charles has spent outside in the past year to create these works –and to his love of Bath: “Bath is a city I love and find absolutely fascinating to paint. I always get so many people coming up to talk to me, to encourage me, when I am painting, which is wonderful”, the artist says.

cmintyart.co.uk

New work by Ruth Brownlee, Nick Mackman and Chris Keenan

Beaux Arts Bath, 12–13 York Street Bath, 14 November–23 December

This new exhibition features the work of three artists. One of Shetland’s best-known artists, Brownlee paints the island’s everchanging dramatic conditions, exploring the relationship with land, sea and sky; Mackman is a sculptor of one-off, Raku fired clay animal models; and Keenan works in hand thrown Limoges porcelain to create beakers, bowls, cups and more.

beauxartsbath.co.uk

holburne.org

Rodin, A Dancer, private collection, New Moon Photography Limited

Farnhill White Path Bowl and Grass Woods Jug by Anna Lambert

The Holburne Museum, Great Pulteney Street, Bath, all exhibitions run until 8 January

Nick Mackman

‘Goodbye Ma’am’, Queen Elizabeth II , 2022

Ruth Piper at Sandra Higgins Art

Sandra Higgins Art is delighted to exhibit new works by artist Ruth Piper. Ruth’s work is both romantic and enigmatic; inviting the observer into a world that is beautiful and brooding. Visit the online gallery to view Ruth’s latest work or contact Sandra to arrange a private visit to the artist's studio.

sandrahiggins.art sandra@sandrahiggins.com

Holly Brown: Life & Land 24–27 November, The Gallery at The Station, Station Approach, Frome

A solo show of a collection of contemporary landscape, seascape and still life oil paintings by Somerset artist Holly Brown. Private view Thursday 24 November, 6.30–9.30pm with low intervention, organic wine from More Wine. All paintings are individually hand framed and available to buy. Open daily 10am–4pm.

holly-brown.co.uk

Bath Contemporary Artists’ Fair, Sunday 13 November, 10am–5pm Green Park Station, Green Park Road, Bath

The award-winning monthly Bath Contemporary Artists’ Fair (BCAF) is back on Sunday 13 November. Committed to bringing the best of contemporary art from the city and beyond to the heart of Bath, the fair has created a regular space where artists can network, share ideas, connect with the public, and where the public can connect with art. Visitors can browse the works of local artists and admire fine art, photography, sculpture, textiles, ceramics and much more, all under the vaulted glass roof of Green Park Station. For updates and exhibiting artists visit the website.

bcaf.co.uk

David Ringsell: Contemporary Art Prints and Paintings of Classic Bath Architecture

“I aim to present a contemporary perspective on some familiar places. I often focus on the darker side of Bath architecture with peeling paint and stained stonework.”

David’s work is being exhibited at The Claremont Pub, 5 Claremont Road, Bath; and at The Old Crown, Weston, Bath. There is also a Meet the Artist event at The Old Crown with a free glass of prosecco on 17 November at 7.30pm. Discover the full story behind The Old Crown’s fabulous new art exhibition when artist David Ringsell will talk about his influences, struggles and inspirations as an artist. The exhibition runs throughout November. Custom prints are available online in a range of sizes – see the website: real-images.com

This exhibition features over 100 new oil paintings and prints by the ever-popular Bath-based artist, ‘Pete the Street’. The exhibits follow his footsteps through the streets and green places of Bath and Bristol, as well as places further afield and domestic scenes from his home. Having worked with the gallery on a number of occasions, Brown is perfectly suited to updating the tradition of visually recording life in Bath – a legacy well represented in the gallery’s permanent collection, encompassing Turner to Sickert.

victoriagal.org.uk

Image: Heaven and Earth, A2 framed giclée print by David Ringsell. A stained stone chimney stack contrasts with the distant St Michael’s Church.

The Road, Acrylic on Canvas, 90 x 90 cm

Painting by Teresa Poole

Figs by Holly Brown

Peter Brown: Bath, Bristol and Beyond Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, until 15 January 2023

Neil Ireson: New Gallery, 78 Walcot Street (1st Floor), Bath

Having studied Fine Art at Central St Martins in London, Neil now creates stainedglass features for residential and commercial markets. His new gallery will include one-off stained-glass pieces, in addition to paintings and prints to suit all budgets.

neilireson.com

Revolution, Propoganda, Art: Printmaking in Modern China, The Museum of East Asian Art, until 3 June 2023

This exhibition showcases a series of prints selected from Muban Educational Trust’s collection of over 6,000, and tells the story of China’s 20th-century wars, revolution and rejuvenation. Artistic trends, political movements and technical developments in modern Chinese printmaking are explored, and viewers will be invited to consider some fundamental issues of Chinese culture in the 20th and 21st centuries. meaa.org.uk

PhotoBath: Documentary, The Exhibition, 44AD Gallery, Abbey Street, Bath, 1–6 November

PhotoBath, a network of photographers, returns after a three year break with the exhibition, Documentary, featuring the work of ten photographers, including the awardwinning Chris Roche, Hannah Mentz, Chris Niedenthal and many more. Documentary is dedicated to the memory of two valued and much-missed former members – Gabriel Stillwater and David Kernek – who died earlier this year.

photobath.co.uk

Matt Stuart

Li Qun, Late Return in Early Spring , 1988. Image © Li Qun

Ma San Auction

SPECIALISTS IN ORIENTAL WORKS OF ART

A CHINESE CARVED ‘CHICKEN BLOOD’ SOAPSTONE SEAL ON STAND. Of rectangular form carved in relief with figures in a boat below mountains and pine trees with clouds. A Ming dynasty poem inscribed down one side dated in the Jiajing period (1522-66) signed 'San Qiao’, commonly known as Wen Peng (1498 to 1573), who was a maker of personal seals in the Ming dynasty. The seal with an intricately carved green lacquered stand depicting crashing waves. 13cm tall including stand.

Charles Minty

Would you give up an established career to paint outside in all weathers? That is what artist Charles Minty did a year ago – and it has paid off with his first solo exhibition at the Guildhall. Here Charles tells us about his plein air painting life

Art to focus instead upon my other subjects, which would lead me to study French at University and… History of Art! Nevertheless, I vowed to become a professional painter one day when the time was right – and continue with art in my free time.

The months of lockdown and a horrible winter in 2020 took their toll and I knew I needed to make changes. I packed my paints and brushes when I went on holiday to Cornwall and that’s when I knew it was time to make painting my career. It is important to say that this decision, while in many ways a risky one, has also been successful, as my paintings are selling – and I’m grateful to all of those people who have bought my work or commissioned me to do a painting for them.

I gave up my job in an engineering company a year ago to pursue a new career as a plein air painter. This meant no warm studio, no roof and four walls, and working on an easel, hour after hour, in rain, wind, or sunshine.

I don’t have any artistic training, but ever since painting a barn owl in flight on black paper – when I was about 6 –I have always loved art, and I would draw and paint in watercolours at home constantly. During A Levels, I was desperate to learn oil painting, but the school didn’t have the resources, so I grew frustrated and decided to quit A Level

One of the obvious challenges of being a plein air painter is the weather: I love to paint in the rain, pitting myself against the elements, but it’s not always plain sailing. I painted a large canvas of George Street earlier this year and I was checking the forecast every day, hoping for news of low pressure and black rainclouds, looking for atmosphere. I set up my equipment but the weather was so extreme with high winds that the signs outside the restaurants were falling from their fixings and the police ordered them to be removed, so I finally decided to admit defeat before my canvas went airborne. It was more fun in the summer, painting the rum bar on Trim Street into the long warm evenings –and being served a drink or two!

I love all times of year: the different colours, the long summer nights, as well as the cold, atmospheric winter evenings.

Immediately following the news of our late Queen’s passing, I began painting a very large black-and-white portrait of her in front of Bath Abbey, from one of the 1953 Coronation photos. Upon seeing the emotional reactions

from people passing by, but without knowing whether I would be allowed (by the dozen or so armed police on the entrance), I decided to take it to Windsor and painted through the night before the funeral, without any sleep, until morning came. Exhausted, I then moved on to start a new painting of the scene of the gathering crowd in front of Windsor. It was a very solemn and moving day and a wonderful send-off. As a painter, literally ‘in the thick of it’, this was the ultimate challenge –thousands of people stood elbow to elbow with me, watching my every brushstroke, as I was the only artist there on that historic day.

I was kindly invited by the Mayor of Bath, Rob Appleyard, to exhibit at the Guildhall. I often went to the city with my mother as a child and its beauty, history and architecture have always fascinated me. Now that I am a professional painter, I want to capture the beauty and feel of the city on canvas, which is the reason for the name of my first ever solo exhibition: City of my Childhood. Art in my view is about capturing a moment in time, and a feeling – it’s about our own humanity and interactions with others in the spaces we occupy together.

At my exhibition, people will see twenty of my oil paintings, all for sale, which were completed during the past year.

Charles Minty’s exhibition City of my Childhood is at the Guildhall in Bath until 18 November (free entry); cmintyart.com

Charles painting at the top of the Long Walk at Windsor the day of Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral

Snap up a Snaffles

Although his name remains largely unknown in urban homes, Snaffles’s prints are familiar furnishing fare amongst rural collectors. ‘Snaffles’, born Charlie Johnson Payne in 1884 specialised in watercolours, caricatures and – more commonly – the production of light-hearted colour prints that are now synonymous with post-Edwardian sporting joie de vivre. In the 1910-1950 period, such prints captured something vivacious and exuberant about the joys of hunting and, with a deftness that is rare amongst sporting artists, Snaffles blended such subjects with echoes of military life.

Any artist who sought to reproduce his or her work in mass-produced print form needed to be a superb draughtman and Snaffles’s style was dependably fluent, accomplished and well-composed. The gentle inflexions of humour and pathos have guaranteed an enduring appeal, even in an era where we now tend to look askance at blood sports in art. For the enthusiast who enjoys the hunting field, the race track or the respectful evocation of the spirit of the British serviceman, Snaffles’s prints capture a period from our past that suits our nostalgic yearnings. Over thirty of his works are on offer at Lawrences on November 25th with estimates from £50 to £200 apiece.

‘Blighty -

only five-and-twenty percent of the danger’

by hand, laid down onto support sheet, signed in

37.5 x 30.5cm. £100-200.

Lawrences

ASK THE DRINKS EXPERTS

That season where drinks start to flow is approaching, so we sent some very pertinent questions to three of our local producers, so you can start to plan those social gettogethers as well as stay-at-home refreshments

Hannah and Tori at Still Sisters

What makes Still Sisters’ gins so special?

That’s because we create an artisan spirits range of small batch gins using signature locally sourced botanicals –watercress from organic beds, roses grown in Chard, lavender from Warminster and Somerset cider apples from Perry’s orchard.

Do you have anything new in store for Christmas?

This Christmas we are showcasing our Christmas London Dry Gin, with its distinctively festive flavour of cinnamon and spices, and sweet notes from redcurrants. It is served perfectly with simple tonic, a stick of cinnamon and a slice of orange peel. This year it comes with edible 23-carat gold flakes in a star-shaped bottle, perfect for dressing the Christmas table.

Any other gintastic offerings?

We also produce a range of ginbased liqueurs –our bestselling Christmas Gin with added gold sparkle is set fly out this season.

This Chistmas the distillery is hosting a number of gin-tasting eves to sample and select from their award winning range. To find out more, call 01373 474647 or visit stillsisters.co.uk

Thatchers cidermakers

What are some of your cider bestsellers for seasonal festivities and party time?

Our best-selling Thatchers Gold is a winner all year round, and a definite favourite at party time. If you’re looking for something slightly different as a celebration drink, we love Thatchers Katy served in a champagne flute – it’s fantastic to accompany a meal too. Our limitededition ciders in our Cider Barn range are always a talking point too. We bring different styles out each year –look out for our brand new Spiced Apple, available in our Cider Shop and online.

What’s the latest kid on the block in the Thatchers cider world?

We launched our Blood Orange Cider earlier this year, and it’s really gone down a treat with cider lovers. Blood Orange is the flavour of the

year, and it’s a definite winner here, making a fruity, vibrant and refreshing cider.

Electric Bear Company brewers

Which of your beers are perfect for entertaining?

All of them! Depending on your preferred style, our mixed cases are perfect for sharing with friends or sampling solo at your leisure. With our Bear Box mixed beer case, you’ll receive a variety of styles in one easy order. Carefully curated by our brewers, this selection showcases the freshest and very best of what we have available and is truly eclectic for lovers of all beer styles.

What beers have you recently introduced?

After undergoing a huge re-brand, we have re-introduced the core range in its new look –two seasonal specials and a collaboration stout that we brewed with fellow indies, Girls Who Grind Coffee. We wanted to create a new visual identity to really capture who we are, both as a brewery and a brand. A lot of passion and personality goes into our beer and we wanted our new image to say just that. Put simply: Be free. Have fun. Make Great Beer.

Why might you choose highly hopped high-strength beers over easy-drinking ones?

It depends what kind of experience you are looking for. To take your taste buds on a trip; highly hopped, high-strength beers would be your jam. The modern IPA takes influences from the US with its loud flavours and carbonation, while still retaining that hoppy backbone. electricbearbrewing.com

Can you recommend a cider cocktail that will go down a storm?

Thatchers Toffee Apple Cider Cocktail is a great one for the autumn –it makes a beautifully warming cocktail for the colder evenings. (See cocktail to right.) thatcherscider.co.uk

Thatchers Toffee

Apple Cider Cocktail

Ingredients

25ml Jameson Whiskey

25ml Kracken Spiced Rum

25ml Tia Maria

25ml Cinnamon Syrup

25ml ginger beer

150ml Thatchers Gold

Thatchers Blood Orange cider, to top up

Method

Simply shake 25ml each of Jameson Whiskey, Kracken Spiced Rum, Tia Maria and Cinnamon Syrup over ice in a Boston Shaker. Strain the liquid into a glass over more ice. Then add 25ml ginger beer, and 150ml Thatchers Gold. Top up with Thatchers Blood Orange cider, and garnish with a slice of apple and a cinnamon stick.

The Value of Sentiment

DUNCAN CAMPBELL Antique silver specialist

Or the burden of inheritance

Afterthirty odd years in the antiques trade, the notion of a sentimental attachment to an object has become rather alien to me. I am not sure if this is a good thing or not.

Strip away the scholarship and historical research and the antiques trade is simply an efficient way of recycling the chattels of the deceased. The business of buying and selling antiques does not concern itself with sentiment. Rarity, provenance and age are all very relevant whereas personal attachments are not.

Sentimental value usually conflicts with commercial value because the world is so completely indifferent to what an item meant to our relatives.

The fun and games begin when an object of sentimental value also happens to have a significant commercial value. On Antiques Roadshow days I frequently hear owners declare that “we’d never sell it but would just like to know its value”, only to see the very item crop up at an auction a few weeks later. Pragmatism clearly plays a part in the formation of sentimental attachments.

Aside from financial circumstances, the other consideration as to how deep the attachment goes is space. The great stately homes of England are amply able to keep Great Uncle Mortimer’s collection of stuffed bear heads because there is always some room in the attic or the out buildings. Most of the population having no such storage have to make the hard decisions every generation.

The only family ‘treasure’ I have inherited is a pile of 300 year old paperwork that belonged to an ancient relative of my mother. I happen to know that in the 1920’s my grandfather wanted to help my great aunt out of a financial hole. He took the old velum to Christie’s in order to raise some cash and would have sold them there and then had Christie’s not said that they were worthless.

Why then should I attach sentimental value to something that, had it been worth any money, I would never even have known about? n beaunashbath.com; 01225 334234

Tantalising Thai

Let us introduce you to The Giggling Squid Cookbook, which is a celebration of Thai food from the much-loved restaurant in Saw Close, famous for its Thai tapas and beautifully designed bold and vibrant interiors. This recipe book takes you through the secrets of the restaurant’s classic dishes and allow you to cook up a sharing feast for friends and family, with recipes inspired by Thai legends as well as owner Pranee’s childhood food memories.

You’ll find out about the abundance of ingredients found across Thailand and encounter delectable favourites from the restaurant, with fish, meat, curry, noodle and rice dishes. The recipes, which have vegetarian and vegan options, include signature tapas dishes such as Candy Pork with Pineapple, Veggie Goodie Bowls, Vegan Pad Thai, and Thai classics with a twist such as Crying Beef, Pad Thai and Salmon Paneang. There are also breakfast, light meal and drink recipes –from spicy teas to zingy cocktails and mocktails – so you can enjoy the Thai cuisine at any time of day.

All the recipes are introduced by restaurant co-founder Pranee, who opened her first restaurant with husband Andy in a small fisherman’s cottage in Brighton 20 years ago. n

• The Giggling Squid Cookbook is published on 3 November by Ebury Press, £25. The recipe to the right is extracted from the book.

Rising Star Red Duck Curry

Ingredients (serves two)

2 duck breasts

30ml vegetable or rapeseed oil

500ml coconut milk

2 tsp salt

6 tbsp palm sugar (or soft brown sugar)

10 Thai basil leaves

10 pineapple chunks 6 green grapes 4 cherry tomatoes

For the curry paste

2 tsp diced red onion

¼ red chilli sliced

4 dried chillies

2 tsp crushed garlic

2 tsp sliced lemongrass

2 tbsp freshly chopped coriander

1 tsp cumin seeds

There’s real love and effort that goes into cooking this dish properly, but the flavour of the sauce, sweet and rich, works beautifully with the crispy-skinned duck, making it a long-time Giggling Squid customer favourite.

Method

1. Place the duck breasts, skin side down, on a griddle pan for six minutes to render the fat. Turn the duck breasts over and cook for a further four minutes. Remove from the pan and leave to rest for 10 minutes.

2. Put all the curry paste ingredients in a mortar and pound to a paste with the pestle. Alternatively, whizz together in a small food processor.

3. Pour the oil into a wok over a medium to high heat, add the curry paste and cook for two to three minutes until it releases the oil from the sides; this cooking method helps to remove the rawness of the curry paste and also releases the flavour of the herbs.

4. Add the coconut milk, salt, sugar and Thai basil and bring to a simmer until the sugar dissolves, then add the pineapple, green grapes and tomatoes and cook for a further minute.

5. Slick the duck breasts and divide between two plates, pour over the sauce to cover and serve with coconut rice.

Giggling Squid launches its brand-new cookbook this month, and we were able to take a sneak peek at some of the tantalising Thai recipes that await within its pages... and we treat you to one here. Photography by Haarala Hamilton

Giggling Squid Bath; Bluecoat House, Saw Close, Bath BA1 1EY

FOOD & DRINK NEWS

Seasonal menus

The Francis Hotel Bath has a character and style that exudes a warm welcome. The hotel has 98 sumptuous bedrooms with vibrant interiors that will transport you back to the Regency period.

This festive season, hotel guests can enjoy a seasonal menu of experiences to create memories that will stay with them forever. As well as festive roasts, there are luxurious afternoon teas with a seasonal tipple, five mouthwatering courses in the hotel’s restaurant on Christmas Day, and on that day children aged 3 and under can eat for free.

Francis Hotel, Queen Square, Bath; francishotel.com

Robun gets festive

With beautiful Japanese dishes and a selection of unique festive cocktails, Robun can deliver a Christmas celebration that will live long in the memory. Upstairs in the Kanagaki Suite, the restaurant can host parties up to 40 seated or 50 standing guests. Choose from the Japanese Sharing Plates buffet menu, the Three-Course Set Menu and the A Taste of Robun menu.

robun.co.uk

Sweet experiences for dessert lovers

International dessert franchise Heavenly Desserts has opened its new store in Bath so that local dessert connoisseurs have the chance to experience its exciting new menu in a new luxury establishment. Heavenly Desserts’ visitors can choose from an innovative new range of dishes, such as the exciting ‘Grow Up’ cheesecake Oreo pot, a selection of delicious non-alcoholic drinks, as well as signature waffles, croffles and cheesecakes in all-new flavours.

Following an exciting period of growth, the Bath store brings the brand to nearly 50 restaurants across the UK, with Heavenly Desserts’ first international store opening in Canada in October.

Yousif Aslam, co-founder and managing director at Heavenly Desserts, said: “We are so pleased to be launching Heavenly Desserts in the beautiful and historic city of Bath. The city’s British heritage and style matches the luxury nature of our brand and we to be able to showcase our brand-new menu to the city’s dessert lovers.”

The new store will be open from 12–11pm Monday to Thursday and 12pm–midnight Friday to Sunday.

Heavenly Desserts, Ground Floor 7–9 Lower Borough Walls, Bath.

heavenlydesserts.co.uk

Home-cooking to your door

All About The Cooks, an online marketplace which enables talented home cooks to sell their food to local people, is expanding into Bath. The start-up, founded by Bristol Food Connections chair Claire Ladkin, aims to provide authentic and wholesome food for family mealtimes, dinner parties and celebrations.

Claire explains “The idea is to connect with the person who prepares your food and get a real sense of belonging to your local community. It’s a sharp contrast to fast food takeaways and ‘one-tap’ apps that can feel faceless.”

Bath residents who would like to turn their passion for cooking into a side hustle are encouraged to register their interest on the All About the Cooks website, while those looking to try delicious home-cooked food can subscribe to their newsletter and get £15 off their first order when they launch.

allaboutthecooks.co.uk/bath/

Saffron Milk Cake from Heavenly Desserts

Saving tropical forests

A local organisation can have a global impact. That is the case with Bath-based Charity Rainforest Concern, whichprotects threatened natural habits, their biodiversity and those who depend on them for their survival. Words by Megan Witty.

Last year, the world lost 3.75 million hectares of tropical primary rainforests –areas of critical importance for carbon storage and biodiversity –equivalent to a rate of 10 football pitches a minute. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, over half of the world’s tropical forests have been destroyed since the 1960s and more than one hectare of tropical forests is destroyed or drastically degraded every second. At the current rate, rainforests could disappear within our lifetime. Collapsing ecosystems, forest fires, pandemics, increasingly severe weather events and the ever expanding human population are showing us that the destruction of the natural world is catastrophically impacting our planet and every aspect of our lives.

Compared to temperate forests, which may be dominated by half a dozen tree species, tropical rainforests can contain 480 tree species in a single hectare, attracting a greater diversity of wildlife. Some 1,300 species of butterfly have been documented in a single park in Peru, while the entire European continent is home to fewer than 400 species.

Rainforest Concern was established in 1993 to protect threatened natural habitats, their biodiversity, and the people who depend on them for survival. The Bath-based charity currently has 13 projects in nine countries and has helped to protect over 2.2 million hectares (5.4 million acres) of native forests.

Rainforest Concern manages conservation projects in Central and South America, India and Romania and for the last 25 years has protected threatened cloud forests in the Tropical Andes – one of the most biodiverse regions in the world and home to one-sixth of all plant life on the planet.

Rainforest Concern protects threatened natural habitats by direct conservation on the ground, including working with local NGOs and communities, securing registration of ancestral indigenous territories and occasionaL land purchase. They have an environmental education programme in the UK and overseas and facilitate research in its many project areas.

MEGAN WITTY

Current Rainforest Concern projects include the expansion of the Neblina Cloud Forest Reserve in NW Ecuador to create protected ecological corridors for threatened species, including spectacled bears, ocelot, and the endangered black-and-chestnut eagle, of which as few as 250 eagles remain globally. Other projects include conserving ancient araucaria (monkey puzzle tree) forest in Chile (home to the pudu – the world’s smallest deer), protecting threatened leatherback turtles in Costa Rica and training rural women to protect and propagate over 2,000 rare plant species in the Western Ghats in India.

People need to make changes to their daily lives and support conservation projects to help protect and restore precious natural habitats before they are gone forever. To support Rainforest Concern you could become an individual or corporate member or sponsor acres of rainforest, perhaps as a Christmas or birthday present.

Another idea is to organise some fundraising, make Rainforest Concern your charity of the year, become a corporate partner, run the Bath Half or London Marathon, or take part in the charity’s new ‘Forest Twinning’ project, launched at last month’s New Scientist Live Show, which invites landowners, including schools, sports clubs and businesses, to match their acreage with the sponsorship of an equivalent area of threatened rainforest. n

For further details see rainforestconcern.org and the How Can I Help webpage or email info@rainforestconcern.org. Rainforest Concern also has a number of corporate sponsors in Bath and would love to welcome new businesses.

We need to take urgent action to protect our forests and the plants, animals and people that depend on them for survival.

Long-tailed sylph ( Aglaiocercus kingii)

Ocelot ( Leopardus pardalis)

Photographs by Murray Cooper

Two-toed sloth ( Choloepus didactylus)

CITY NEWS

Men’s and women’s apparel

Cornish apparel brand Finisterre is opening its new Bath Store. Having ‘popped’ open to great success a few years ago, Finisterre has relocated to a permanent home in the High Street in the centre of Bath. The store will carry a select range of men’s and women’s apparel and accessories, from outdoor and ocean adventure gear to sustainably made clothing for the everyday. Finisterre founder Tom Kay says “Our stores sit at the heart of our community, and we look forward to connecting even more with the network of like-minded people and projects in and around Bath.” Finisterre Bath, 27 High Street; finisterre.com

New stained glass art gallery

Acclaimed stained glass artist Neil Ireson is opening a new gallery at 78 Walcot Street, Bath (1st Floor).

After studying Fine Art at Central St Martins in London, Neil has lived and worked in London and the Home Counties over the last 35 years, creating stained glass features for residential and commercial markets. Neil moved to Bath five years ago and currently lives and works in the centre of the city. Work on show will include one-off stained glass pieces, in addition to paintings and prints to suit all budgets. Primarily working to commission in residential and commercial interiors in both traditional and contemporary styles, Neil’s stained glass can be used to create a stunning feature in the form of a work of art, to enhance any environment. Contact Neil Ireson: 07793 085885; neilireson.com; info@neilireson.com

New appointment for RUH Trust Board

Bath-based Financial Planning firm Matheson Charles has recently celebrated its first birthday. Director and Financial Planner Jack Haskins said “Starting a business during a pandemic wasn’t the ideal start, however, we’ve been overjoyed with how the business has progressed.”

Matheson Charles provides a broad financial planning and advice service with particular emphasis on financial modelling to give clients clarity about their future Director and Chartered Financial Planner Toby Bain said “Core to our recent success has been our no-obligation promise for new clients. Working with a planner can be a long-term commitment and we want prospective clients to be able to make an informed and pressure-free decision. So far, clients have reacted really well to this offering” 01225 683156 mathesoncharles.com

Boutique hotelier award for Lucknam Park

Sakis Dinas, the General Manager of Lucknam Park, has been recognised as ‘General Manager of the Year’ in the Boutique Hotelier Awards 2022.

The Boutique Hotelier Awards acknowledges the excellence of hotels, the most innovative new products and marking the achievements of outstanding staff and employers in the hospitality sector. The General Manager of the Year award recognises outstanding commitment and performance, identifying a General Manager who goes above and beyond the call of duty, constantly inspiring and encouraging their team, while also remaining dedicated to commercial success and development.

The accolade comes at an exciting time for Lucknam Park, with Sakis having steered the hotel through a year of product expansions in the form of seven

luxuriously appointed cottages launching within the estate’s grounds (see image below). There have also been transformations at the hotel’s award-winning spa, which has newly partnered with globally renowned 111SKIN and Bath-based Natural Spa Factory. lucknampark.co.uk

Q&A

My parents have passed away and I am a Beneficiary of their estate. Does my ex-partner have any claim on any inheritance I receive?

Whilst lawyers have welcomed the introduction of the ‘no fault’ divorce procedure on 6th April 2022, there is also a concern that people who decide to initiate divorce themselves may not be aware of the need to agree the financial arrangements by way of a consent order, which is then approved by the court, before the divorce or dissolution is finalised.

If financial arrangements between spouses or civil partners are not formalised into a legally binding document, then this leaves potential future claims open to a former spouse or civil partner, including in relation to any inheritance received.

The benefit of having a clean break order in relation to the finances means that any financial ties between spouses and civil partners are severed, meaning that future inheritance is protected. Therefore, it is really important to seek legal advice regarding drawing up a consent order as part of the divorce, to ensure you are protected both now and in the future.

How does marriage/civil partnership affect my existing Will?

Generally, a Will that is made prior to entering into a marriage or civil partnership will automatically be revoked upon marriage or civil partnership. This essentially means your existing Will is cancelled.

However, this automatic revocation of an existing can be avoided if the existing Will is made ‘in contemplation of marriage’. This means that the Will must state that the testator expects to be married or form a civil partnership with a named person, and that they do not intend for their Will to be revoked by the marriage or civil partnership to that named person.

Therefore, it is important to check the position of any existing Will prior to marriage or civil partnership so the correct relevant provision can be put in place to prevent any existing Will being revoked on forming a marriage or civil partnership. Please do contact us if you would like any existing Will reviewed or would like us to prepare a Will for you in contemplation of any subsequent marriage or civil partnership.

If you have a question please get in touch with Gemma or Laura on 01225 750000 or email gemma.monaghan@mogersdrewett.com or laura.somoza@mogersdrewett.com

Gemma Monaghan from our private client team and Laura Somoza from our family team answer some of our most frequently asked questions.

Company loans

If you are a Director and borrow money from your company you may be personally taxed on a benefit in kind.Your company will also be required to pay Class 1A National Insurance for providing you with that benefit.

However, no taxable benefit will arise if you pay interest to the company at a minimum of HMRC’s official interest rate (currently 2%).

HMRC’s official interest rate can change from year to year so you could be paying the correct rate of interest one year and find a taxable benefit arises the next.

The rate has not changed since April 2021 but if it were to increase you would need to pay more interest to avoid a taxable benefit arising. This extra interest can be avoided however without any financial, tax or National Insurance implications.

If you fix the repayment period and the rate of interest on your borrowings from the company, increases in the official rate will not affect your tax position. This will be effective providing the official rate does not increase within the same tax year as the fixed term and rate loan is made.

For example, if in the year to 5th April 2023 (tax year 2022/23) you borrow £20,000 from your company on a fixed term and rate paying interest at 2%, no benefit in kind will arise. Should HMRC then increase the official rate of interest from 6th April 2023 (tax year 2023/24), you can continue to pay 2% with no taxable benefit arising even though the official rate has increased.

New loans from the company would require interest to be paid at the increased official rate.

Loans from the company below £10,000 are entirely exempt from this. Total borrowings below £10,000 do not attract tax on a benefit in kind, even if you do not pay the official rate of interes.

on 01225 445507

Keep Calm and Retire On

2022 has certainly been a testing year. Unfortunately, for those considering retirement, Natixis Investment Managers’ 2022 Global Retirement Index report, offers little relief. According to the report, this year could be one of the ‘worst in recent memory’ to retire. Interest rates, inflation and declining asset prices were cited as key factors.

So, what can be done? In difficult times, it is important to focus on what you can control and zone out the rest.

The starting point is inevitably having a clear plan for your future. A robust plan should factor varying market conditions, and it may be the case you are still on course to meet your goals. If not, don’t panic as there is a myriad of options which can be implemented.

Next, although our instincts urge us to take decisive action, it’s important to avoid behavioural errors which can have disproportionately negative impacts on your financial future. These could include locking in losses or abandoning your investment plan.

Finally, review your retirement investments. Recent volatility should have been a good test of their resilience. You might ask whether the portfolio has performed to expectations, is sufficiently diversified, is risk appropriate and whether there are unnecessary costs that could be mitigated.

Doing the above will improve your financial outlook and hopefully make sleep a little more forthcoming.

A pension is a long term investment. The fund value may fluctuate and can go down. Your eventual income may depend upon the size of the fund at retirement, future interest rates and tax legislation.

The value of units can fall as well as rise, and you may not get back all of your original investment.

info@mathesoncharles.com 01225 683 156 www.mathesoncharles.com 6/7 Trim Street, Bath, BA1 1HB

Registered in England & Wales.

Matheson Charles Ltd is an appointed representative of In Partnership the trading name of The

Partnership Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Matheson Charles Ltd FCA number:

No:

address:

Trim Street, Bath, Avon, United Kingdom,

Rocketmakers support socially beneficial tech

Rocketmakers, the award-winning digital and design development agency in Bath, celebrates its 15th birthday today by launching the new Rocketmakers Collaboratorium. Their 2,000 hours of development and design time per year, valued at £235,000, will be available to organisations using technology to have a beneficial impact on society and the environment.

Applications are open to any interested organisation in the UK. Rocketmakers is most interested in projects which support the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. These include the promotion of

Best-ever Legal 500 results for Stone King

Bath-headquartered law firm Stone King LLP has been named as a toptier and a leading firm by independent research guide The Legal 500

The guide analyses the legal sector by regions, with the top tier rankings awarded for the firm’s Education practice in both London and the South West, the firm’s Crime practice in the South West, Charities and not-for-profit in both the South West and Yorkshire areas, and Private Client: Contentious Trusts and Probate in the South West. The firm has also been recommended in a further 13 practice areas across its sectors of Charity, Education, Faith, Business and Social Enterprise and Private Client, as well as a total of 34 mentions for Stone King lawyers for their standout contribution to their practice. stoneking.co.uk

Donate a formal dress

Do you have any formal dresses or suits in your wardrobe gathering dust? Dress It Forward is a local charity that collects pre-loved dresses and suits and gives them for free to students in South Africa who would otherwise not have anything to wear to their own graduation ball.

In the townships of South Africa the graduation ball is a momentous occasion. So few actually graduate that those who do are treated like celebrities and attending the prom is a real sign of achievement. But for many – while they may have made it to the ball – their families are too poor to afford them a dress to wear. So donating free outfits to these students relieves their families of this financial burden.

Please send donations of good quality prom dresses and suits to: Dress It Forward, c/o The Royal High School, Lansdown, Bath, BA1 5SZ, or email on hello@dressitforward.net

good health and wellbeing, quality education, gender equality, public sanitation, or the reduction of hunger and poverty.

The Collaboratorium formalises a longstanding practice at Rocketmakers of providing pro bono development and design work to projects which have a positive impact on the world.

Organisations from across the UK can apply online to access Rocketmakers’ design and development help. New projects will be approved each June and December, for completion over a six month period.

rocketmakers.com

Mogers Drewett in Legal 500

Law firm Mogers Drewett has had a record number of its lawyers featured in the new Legal 500 UK 2023 Guide, for their standout contribution in their respective practices.

The law firm, which has offices in Bath, Frome, Sherborne, and Wells, has had the following individuals recognised: Tom Webb, David Hill, Maeve England, Frank Collins, Rebecca Beresford, Victoria Darvall, Cara Burr, Rory McFarlane; Anne-Marie Worth; Sarah Clacker, Emma Coate; Kat King; Hannah Welbourne and Emily Eccles, with Jonathan Cheal of the Agriculture team being named in the elite ‘Hall of Fame’ again this year.

mogersdrewett.com

Chris May among UK’s Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders

Chris May, Founding Director at Mayden, has been named as one of The LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders for 2022. The programme, supported by The Times and now in its fifth year, celebrates the inspiring leaders behind some of the UK’s most successful and fast-growing medium-sized firms.

A record number of 750 nominations were received, proving that ambition is alive and well despite the challenges faced by increasing economic uncertainty. The business leaders featured demonstrate resilience, strategic excellence and export success. They operate across a broad range of sectors and are driving growth in every corner of the UK. Collectively, they employ almost 9,500 people and turn over more than £1.2 billion.

Mayden is a health tech company based in Bath, whose life’s work is creating digital technology that changes what’s possible for clinicians and patients. mayden.co.uk

Ben Veal, he founding director of a specialist small PR consultancy based near Bath has been named ‘Independent PR Practitioner of the Year’ for the second consecutive time.

The annual Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) PRide Awards for the South of England and Channel Islands recognise the top campaigns and communicators across a wide regional base.

Chartered PR practitioner and founder of Second Mountain Comms, Veal, who is 38, has received a Gold PRide Award for two years running. He set up his own business during the first COVID-19 lockdown following redundancy from a senior PR agency role. Over the last two years, his focus has been on specialising in supporting purpose-led companies and charities; 20% of his agency’s time is committed to probono work each month, including aiding local charities People against Poverty and Wiltshire Youth for Christ in their ongoing communications activity. Veal is also committed to enhancing the strategic role that PR plays in organisations today; he currently serves as Chair for the CIPR South West region, and was also recently appointed to the national CIPR Council for 2023–24. secondmountaincomms.co.uk

PR Practitioner of the Year

EDUCATION NEWS

Mogers Drewett help to spread kindness

After St John’s Catholic Primary School in Bath won Mogers Drewett’s Design Some Bunting for the Jubilee Competition in June, the money had been spent on a ‘Buddy Bench’ initiated by the Kindness Krew at the school.

Mrs Harding, the school’s Kindness Krew lead, explains: “The Kindness Krew are a group of Year 6 children who work together to make playtimes happy for everyone. One of the things that they really wanted to do was to have a Buddy Bench. This is a bench in the playground where anyone who does not have a friend to play with can sit. The Kindness Krew keep an eye on the bench and will play with anyone sitting on it so that everyone has a friend to play with. The Krew also support those who might find playtimes tricky by solving problems.” mogersdrewett.com

Solar panels for schools

Royal High pupil raises money for Afghanaid

Over £1,680 has been raised for Afghanaid thanks to Natasha David, one of Royal High School Bath’s Year 12 students.

Bath and West Community Energy (BWCE) have helped five schools in B&NES this year by installing solar panels, including those shown above at Beechen Cliff School in Bath. There are more planned to be installed in other schools this autumn. These rooftop solar system installations are installed for free, so there is no upfront cost for the school; they are managed by BWCE, so there is less hassle for the school; and they help create lower energy bills for schools because the electricity generated is sold to them at a discount.

BWCE need more local people to invest through its Community Share Offer, to help raise £500,000 by Christmas and £1 million by April 2023. Find out more at: bwce.coop/invest

Moved by the atrocities in Afghanistan, Natasha resolved to take action. Working with Afghanaid, and making the most of her contacts, she organised for her father, bestselling author and historian Saul David, to give a talk about his latest book, SBS: Silent Warriors, the first authorised history of Britain’s SBS – or Special Boat Service – in the Second World War. All proceeds and book sales from the event are being donated to Afghanaid.

More than 50 people attended the talk at Royal High School Bath, leaving with far greater insight into the SBS, Britain’s original special forces. The event raised £840 and with match funding from the UK government, the total is £1,680. royalhighbath.gdst.net

Successful, well-established year-round language school in the centre of Bath requires

HOMESTAY HOSTS IN BATH

host both short-term and long-term students.

teach adults and teenagers, and need both single and twin-room accommodation.

For further details, including rates of payment, please contact our Student Services Manager:

Sarah Wringer

International Languages Bath, 5 Trim Street, Bath, BA1

Direct Line (01225)

Email: sarah.wringer@kaplan.com

Welcome to Eva Clinic Bath

From a new purpose-built new clinic in BA1, Ewelina offers a range of highly considered and effective Aesthetic and Medical beauty treatments.

After developing a successful aesthetic clinic in Highgate, London, Ewelina has, like many before her, fallen in love with Bath and recently made it her permanent home.

Consultative approach

Her approach to the business is founded on individual client consultation, treatment compatibility and effectiveness, all fully supported by the highest level of client aftercare.

Ewelina works closely with her clients, listening to their needs and only then advising and performing the most effective treatments.

With over 10 years of experience, Ewelina has always been at the forefront of developments in the Aesthetic & Medical Beauty business and has maintained an on ongoing investment program in both developing her skills and equipping the clinic with the very best technical equipment.

“For example we are one of very few clinics in the country who offer the full range of laser techniques, including - Q Switch, Diode, Nd;Yag, CPL and Fractional CO2 – so whether we are looking at laser hair removal or laser aesthetics, rather than applying a ‘one size fits all’ approach we have discovered that using a combination of techniques often yields the best results.“

Banish the tyranny of waxing

Whilst laser hair removal has been with us for years and there is much discussion over different techniques, Ewelina believes her approach has proven to be the most effective. “Right at the outset, I spent considerable time researching the laser market and whilst many rely upon IPL,

it is really just a home use product and not up to clinical standards. I chose to invest in the Xlase Plus Diode Laser from renowned Italian aesthetic technicians, Biotec which has won industry accolades for its exceptional results, minimal treatment time and painfree experience.”

So whether you are considering bikini line, legs, arms or even full body laser hair removal, there really is little excuse not to banish waxing for ever!

“As ever, treatment compatibility is uppermost and I always undertake a professional consultation and patch test before booking laser treatments. This consultation takes just 30 mins and the £30 patch test fee is refundable against your first laser booking.”

Injectables - the panacea?

Interestingly whilst Ewelina is highly experienced and qualified in applying fillers and botox, they are no longer the default solution and she has developed a range of less invasive treatments such as RF micro-needling, PRP (aka ‘Vampire Facelift’), Skin Boosters and Collagen Threads (or combinations thereof) which give comparable results “For every client there are different medical issues and subtly different aspirations and I am fortunate in being professionally qualified in a broad repertoire of treatments so I can genuinely tailor an individual treatment plan.”

Post-treatment aftercare is key Ewelina also stresses that a successful outcome to any treatment is just as dependent on how you look after your health outside of the clinic particularly in terms of moisturising and protecting

your skin. She follows up each treatment with a list of recommended ‘do’s and don’ts’ and has developed a range of tried and tested skincare products that enhance the treatment’s benefits whilst giving all important protection.

Sharing her passion

Ewelina’s level of skills and experience are recognised by her being a qualified VTCT Trainer and Exam Assessor where she enjoys running the Azalea Beauty Academy and sharing her passion and knowledge with her students.

The Clinic – perfectly located

Based on the edge of Batheaston just 5 minutes from the City Centre and 15 minutes from M4 Junction 18, the clinic enjoys total privacy, pastoral views and most important to those who know Bath, private off-street parking! Ewelina has certainly created a very calming, elegant environment with great attention to detail and doubtless a space that her clients will cherish.

“With my new clinic now officially open, I am looking forward to welcoming new clients and friends to Eva Clinic Bath and working with them in realising their aesthetic ambitions.”

notebookbeauty

Planet-conscious beauty products in Bath

BAED Natural Body Care is a small, Bath-based artisanal company creating unique luxury body care. The company was born after owner Helen made the decision to reduce the amount of plastic in her life. Learning to make soap was quickly followed by other cosmetic products.

Being passionate about wonderful fragrances, caring for your body and being conscious and responsible for the planet, Helen believes that indulgence doesn’t have to mean excess. This has led her to create a range of luxurious products unique to the city of Bath. Carefully selected essential oils have been hand blended to create a set of individual scents that are synonymous with different areas of the city.

Nature and nurture are at the heart of all the products, only using ingredients that are skin loving and beneficial. This minimal ethos is also reflected in the packaging.

baednatural.co.uk

Relaxing, indulgent Bath Soaks, available in 7 fragrances, BAED Natural Body Care, £17

Proven to be one of the best ways to restore body and mind, these bath salts relieve tension, soothe muscles, hydrate the skin and detoxify the body.

Lansdown Body Duo with Lavender & Orange, including a Body Oil and a Salt Soap, BAED Natural Body Care, £33

Let this incredible duo reviatlise your body care routine. The luxurious shower bar will cleanse and moisturise and then allow your skin to feel enrobed in the replenishing body oil.

Add shine and sparkle to your hair

New home for acclaimed Aesthetic Therapist

After building a successful aesthetic clinic in Highgate, London, Ewelina has, like many before her, fallen in love with the city of Bath and recently made it her permanent home.

Ewelina offers a range of highly considered and effective Aesthetic and Medical beauty treatments from her new, purpose-built clinic in BA1.

With over 10 years’ experience her approach to the business is founded on individual client consultation, treatment compatibility and effectiveness, all fully supported by the highest level of client aftercare.

As Ewelina says, “Clients often come with pre-conceptions about certain treatments and my job is to listen carefully, analyse their skin using clinical Digital Skin Analysis and my experience, and then determine a treatment plan that is individually tailored to ensure success and equally, on occasion, I actively advise against a particular treatment.”

The clinic’s focus treatments include: Medical & Aesthetic Laser, Injectables, PRP/IPRF, Collagen Threads, IV Vitamin Therapy and Laser Hair Removal and Tattoo Removal.

Ewelina looks forward to welcoming new clients to her clinic and can be contacted on 07507 420244; evaclinicbath.com

Little Gems Elasticizer DeepConditioning Treatment and Elasticizer Booster Restoring Conditioner, Philip Kingsley, £10 (reduced from £16.50)

Add shine and a touch of sparkle to your crown with these two products that will leave hair nourished and healthier.

Elasticizer was designed for Audrey Hepburn, to deep condition damaged hair and give her that movie star bounce and shine. Elasticizer Booster Conditioner is loaded with strengthening, nourishing ingredients to give your hair a little boost, in-between Elasticizer treatments.

philipkingsley.co.uk

Scents of the season from Jo Malone

London Midnight Musk and Amber Cologne, 100ml, and London Orange Bitters Cologne, 100ml, both £115

Jo Malone’s festive fragrances are back: Midnight Musk & Amber, ready to revel with sensual midnight musk and the glowing warmth of amber, and Orange Bitters, a tangy woody-citrus inspired by a delicious winter cocktail. jomalone.co.uk

FACIALS

EYE TREATMENTS

IPL PERMANENT HAIR REDUCTION TREATMENT

for

IPL SKIN REJUVENATION

HEALTH & FITNESS NEWS

Here are a selection of news stories, including health solutions such as advice sessions about men’s health, a counselling service for those with a cancer diagnosis and support with health and nutrition

Thinking about men’s health Talking about cancer

November is the month when attention turns to Men’s Health and in support of International Men’s Day on 19 November Bath Physiotherapy and Wellbeing clinic At the Core is welcoming visitors to hear advice from sports professionals, medical professionals and movement specialists on keeping fit and mobile through middle age and beyond.

Men face a number of health issues in the modern world –including specific forms of cancer and high male suicide rates, particularly amongst those aged 50–54. So go along and invest a couple of hours in yourself. You can enjoy some

free professional advice and get motivated to kickstart or upgrade your exercise regime. Learn how to treat your body at 50, 60 or 70 for a long and active life so that you can keep doing the things you enjoy for body and mind health.

Established in 2020 by owners Adey Saunderson and Julia Tisdale, At The Core is a Physiotherapy and Wellbeing clinic specialising in arthritis, rehabilitation and exercise.

Men’s Health Event, 17 November, 7pm–9pm, At The Core Bath, Beehive Yard, Walcot Street, Bath BA1 5BT; website: atthecore.health

Wondering how to deal with cancer? It is perfectly normal to experience a huge range of emotions after diagnosis: shock, numbness, anger, sadness, anxiety, even despair. And, of course, it affects all those around you too.

Local company Talkativity understands that a cancer diagnosis turns your life upside down. The company employs professional counsellors experienced in working with people affected by cancer who offer weekly one-to-one counselling sessions. These sessions will enable you to express your fears in a safe space, help you to come to terms with the emotional strain and face the changes in your life.

Talkativity’s service operates entirely online so they can offer expert support no matter where you are in the country and there is no time limit. Each session is 50 minutes and costs £55. You can contact Talkativity at whatever point you need support and keep talking to your counsellor for as long as you need.

Talkativity is a newlyestablished Community Interest Company that donates all its profits to local charity We Hear You – in order to help support their free cancer counselling sessions. talkativity.co.uk

Specialist health and nutrition advice

Tiina at Finwell is a certified Transformational Health Coach and a Nutrition Advisor. She offers her services as a supportive mentor for those who would like help in optimising their health and wellbeing, taking a holistic and bio-individual approach to each person’s individual circumstances.

As a health coach, Tiina

encourages her clients to build solid health foundations, identify obstacles and triggers, and discover ways around them. She will evaluate your food diary and her approach will also improve a client’s knowledge of stress management, sleep hygiene and the benefits of an active lifestyle.

Some of the issues Tiina can advise on are gut health to ensure healthy levels of good bacteria to aid digestion and support the immune system; optimised sleep because adequate sleep is crucial for our well-being; and stress management, exploring ways to reduce our long-term stress response.

finwell.fi

New appointment for RUH Trust Board

A former corporate lawyer, businessman and charity executive has been appointed as a new Non-Executive Director of the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust. Paul Fairhurst has enjoyed a diverse 25-year commercial career which has seen him take on leadership roles with world-leading companies in the legal services, hotels and beverage sectors. Paul also has four years’ senior executive experience in the non-profit sector. He has an extensive track record of leading large, culturally diverse teams to deliver stretching goals in highly complex circumstances.

Since 2020, Paul has been a trustee of national charity Designability, which is based at the RUH, and earlier this year he joined the trustee board of spinal injuries charity Back Up. Paul, who suffered life-changing injuries following a cycling accident in 2011, said: “ The accident changed my life and inspired me to do all I can to achieve exceptional things that can make a difference for others by creating opportunity, inspiring them or giving them hope.” ruh.nhs.uk

Pioneering hip and knee surgery leads to improved recovery

Thanksto pioneering technology, Sulis Hospital is at the forefront of hip and knee replacements with its addition of Mako® robotic-assisted surgeries described as ‘the gold standard’ of joint replacement surgery. Robotic surgery allows the surgeons to perform complex hip and knee surgeries with greater precision, flexibility and control than is possible with conventional techniques.

As a traditional surgery, hip or knee replacements are often performed based on what’s envisioned as the body’s alignment. These limitations have led to the design of Mako® which helps the surgeon both plan and execute the joint replacement with a greater degree of accuracy.

We hear from two Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeons from Sulis Hospital about how this pioneering technology enables better outcomes for patients.

Orthopaedic Consultant and Hip Specialist Matthew Burwell explains “Robotic-assisted surgery allows the experienced surgeon to be even better. The expectations of patients have changed dramatically in the last two decades. Patients don’t just want to be relieved of their pain; they want to return to unrestricted activities and feel as they did when they were younger. That puts the onus on us as surgeons to reproduce the natural joint.”

Why do so many people experience joint pain? Orthopaedic Consultant and Knee Specialist Neil Bradbury explains “A knee, like any joint, is really two bearing surfaces formed from the end of the thigh bone and the top of the shin bone and the surface is covered with articular cartilage. Over time, we wear that away and end up with bone rubbing on bone, this is osteoarthrosis, wear and tear and it's very painful.

Even today, joint surgery faces many obstacles: “It seems straightforward, but it’s actually quite challenging. Our goal is to recreate the patient's normal anatomy, in other words, how they were before they developed arthritis, so their leg is aligned or straight for them and the tension in the ligaments that hold the bones together stays the same.

“Until now, when trying to correct alignment in a joint, we have implanted joint replacements based on population averages. There are people, of course, who are outside that band of ‘normal,’ so bringing them back to where they should have been has been very challenging. This is because we don't have the capability of doing it with precision accuracy. So what we need is help to try and personalise the alignment for each patient and that's where the robot comes into its own.”

Matthew goes on to explain “The robotic-assisted technology personalises the joint replacement for the individual patient making the planning more bespoke. This means that each patient gets a personalised plan for their joint replacement which in turn improves recovery.”

There are a number of stages in the planning process, the first being the creation of a three-dimensional model of the patient’s joint using a specialist CT scan imported into the Mako® robot. The robot then assists

the surgeon during the operation in making very precise and extremely accurate cuts restoring the patient’s joint shape, alignment and tension between ligaments to within 2mm of accuracy.

Neil concluded by saying: “I think robotic surgery is the future. I think personalisation of surgery is where we need to be going and I’m absolutely certain that you will see a huge uptake of this technology in the future because for patients, to have a personalised knee replacement and great function is what we’re aiming for.”

Bath Magazine heard from Eddy Watts, a patient of Sulis Hospital. He described his experience: “I was very pleased with the operation to replace my left knee. I returned quickly to my normal life and have had no problem at all with the knee - walking, playing tennis, Pilates etc.”

Now a year later, Eddy is living life to the full and has even been able to go on a walking holiday to Hungary: Eddy adds “I walked a total of 220 miles including three days of 24 miles per day. I experience no problems whatsoever from my knee during or after walking.”

World-class Expertise

The Centre of Excellence for Joint Replacement at Sulis Hospital is recognised for its specialist expertise and high standards of care. The specialist centre brings together experienced Consultant Surgeons, dedicated rehabilitation therapists and nurses providing investigation, diagnosis, and treatment to get you back on your feet as quickly as possible.

Robotic surgery isn’t an option for everyone. Talk to your consultant about the benefits and risks of robotic surgery and how it compares with other types of minimally invasive surgery. Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeons at Sulis Hospital offering Mako® robotic-assisted surgery are; Mr James Berstock, Mr Neil Bradbury, Mr Matthew Burwell, Mr Sam Heaton, Mr Ben Lankester and Mr Paul Latimer.

A new way of thinking in healthcare

As a leading private hospital owned by an NHS Trust, Sulis Hospital reinvests additional revenues back into the NHS.

Looking for expert advice? Book an appointment at Sulis Hospital Bath. Call 01761 422288 or visit www.sulishospital.com to find out more.

Sulis Hospital

Foxcote Avenue, Peasedown St John, Bath BA2 8SQ

Mako® Robotic-assisted technology enables personalised joint replacement surgery

Hip and knee pain can be distressing and reduce your mobility, confidence and quality of life.

YOUR HEALTH MATTERS

Men have a poor reputation when it comes to looking after their own health. On average, they see a GP half as often as women do, but men in the UK are paying the price for neglecting their health, as more than 100,000 die prematurely every year. It’s important to be aware of changes to your health, and see your GP immediately if you notice something that’s not right.

Here are the top 5 things men need to look out for:

A lump on your testicle

Testicular cancer is unusual in the fact that it most commonly affects younger people, aged 15 to 44. Over 2,000 cases of testicular cancer are diagnosed each year in the UK, and regular self-examination is recommended. If you notice a lump or swelling in your testicles, or feel a heaviness or dull ache in your scrotum, see your GP. Most testicular lumps are not cancer, but it is essential to have any abnormalities checked. Early detection gives you a much higher chance of a positive outcome.

Moles

Check your moles regularly and be aware of any change in colour or shape, or if they start bleeding. Most changes are harmless and are due to a non-cancerous increase in pigment cells in the skin. See your GP if a mole looks unusual or becomes itchy. It can then be

checked and removed if necessary. To minimise your risk of skin cancer, during the summer months, avoid exposure to the sun between 11am and 3pm. Cover up and use sunscreen with a sun protection factor of at least 15 when you’re in the sun.

Feeling depressed

If you’re depressed, you may lose interest in things you used to enjoy. Depression is a real illness with real effects on your work, social and family life. Treatment usually involves a combination of self-help, talking therapies and medication. Depression is more common in women, but men are more likely to commit suicide. This may be because they are more reluctant to seek help. Financial stress, job insecurity and debt can all affect your mental wellbeing, but the simple act of talking to someone face-to-face about how you're feeling can be an enormous help.

Trouble urinating

When the prostate is enlarged, it can press on the tube that carries urine from the bladder. This can make it hard to pass urine, which can be a sign of prostate disease, including cancer. In the UK, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, with more than 30,000 diagnosed with it every year. Other symptoms include pain or burning when you pass urine and frequently waking up in the night to visit the bathroom. If you have any of these symptoms, see your GP. The prostate gland is

crucial to your sex life, so get to know your prostate and what can go wrong with it.

Impotence

Most men encounter problems getting or keeping an erection (impotence) at some point, but you should see your GP if your erection problems last for several weeks. It’s not just your sexual health that could be at risk. Impotence, also known as erectile dysfunction, can be a sign of more serious conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes or high blood pressure. Generally, lifestyle changes, such as losing weight and exercise, can correct the problem, although some men may need medication such as Sidenafil (more commonly known as Viagra).

If you’ve been experiencing any of these symptoms, the Consultant team at Nuffield Health Bristol Hospital includes Urologists, Dermatologists and Clinical Psychologists. If you would like to book an appointment, call 0117 911 5339, or visit our website.

Nuffield Health Bristol Hospital

3 Clifton Hill, Bristol BS8 1BN nuffieldhealth.com/hospitals/bristol

The annual Movember charity campaign highlights men's health awareness every November, so here, Nuffield Health Bristol Hospital breaks down the five key health issues and their symptoms which you simply can’t afford to ignore.

Newton St Loe and Corston walk

This month’s walk from Andrew Swift explores glorious but often overlooked countryside on the western edge of Bath, taking in beech woods, ancient villages and an idyllic riverside walk. There is also the opportunity to visit a landscape designed by Capability Brown – as well as a few other surprises

T he walk starts at Newbridge Park & Ride (BA1 3NB; ST718658), where, if you head to the far end of the west car park (Car Park A), you will see a gate adorned with oars.

Go past it and turn left along a path. After crossing an access road, go through a low tunnel under New Bridge and carry on along the riverside path, crossing a footbridge over the entrance to a marina.

After 1170m you come to Weston Lock, opened in 1727 when a new cut was built to bypass Twerton Weir, as part of a project to make the river navigable to Bath. A little further on, just past the Flying Pig Renovation Company, turn right across Bridge 206 (ST726648) and follow a path across Dutch Island, created when the New Cut was built and named after the Dutch metalworkers who came over to work in a brass mill on the island. The site is now occupied by a bus depot, on the far side of which a bridge leads onto the Lower Bristol Road.

Turn right along the road for a few metres, cross at the traffic island, go through a tunnel under the railway and climb a path. Cross a road at the top, turn right along the pavement, and after 225m turn second right along Walwyn Close. Go down a stepped path at the end into Carrs Wood and turn left at the bottom. A little way along, the railway line below you disappears into a castellated tunnel. There are two such

tunnels along this stretch of line. This one was built to hide the railway from the view of a mansion called Wood House. A few metres further on, if you look up to the left, you will see a flight of broken-down stone steps which led up to it. It was home to a local mill-owning family called the Carrs, after whom the wood is named, but in 1965, after the last of them had moved out, it was demolished.

Carry on along the path through the woods and go through a kissing gate (KG) at the end. Follow the faint track straight ahead alongside a line of trees. After 30m, just before a marker post, turn right along another track. After passing through the line of trees, turn left along a rough track leading to an information board above the entrance to the second tunnel (ST717652).

Carry on past the information board and turn right at a Circuit of Bath waymark to follow a track into the woods. Carry on along the main path (ignoring a narrow track heading up to the left), go through a KG at the end and turn right along a tarmac path. After a short distance, when the path bears left, turn right along a rough track, go through a KG in the hedge and head down through the woods. Cross a bridge over Newton Brook at the bottom and turn right to follow a footpath sign. Ahead of you lies Newton Mill, a former corn mill now incorporated into Bath

Between Newton Park and Corston

The view from Waltining Lane Route map

Mill Lodge Retreat (ST716648). Before you reach it, however, turn left to follow a footpath sign up a steep grassy path between hedges.

At the top, go through a KG and head along a green lane which linked Newton Mill with Newton St Loe and is shown as Waltining Lane on old maps. After 700m it crosses another green lane, called Stony Lane, beyond which it becomes much wider, with trimmed hedges and rutted by the wheels of farm vehicles. This stretch of the lane is also above the level of the surrounding land and the views are extensive. The best view of all comes just after the lane starts dropping downhill – a superb panorama westward along the Avon valley.

At the main road, cross with care and head up a green lane to the right of a tarmaced lane (ST705649). At the end, carry on up a lane and turn right at the top to walk along Newton St Loe’s main street. The school on the left dates from 1698, while Stonewalls opposite, with a large ammonite incorporated in its porch, bears the date 1715 on a sundial.

Carry on through the churchyard, go through a KG at the end and follow a fence down to another KG. Turn left down a lane and right at the T junction. Carry straight on as the lane dwindles to a tarmac path, and, after crossing the drive to Newton Park (now Bath Spa University), becomes a stony track.

125m along this stony track, you will see a KG on the left (ST695646). For an optional diversion – adding almost a mile to the walk, but well worth it – go through the KG to follow a permissive path past two lakes, with views up to 18th-century Newton Park and the 14th-century tower of the fortified manor that preceded it, before retracing your steps to continue the walk.

Carrying on along the stony track, go through a KG a few metres further on, turn right, and, after going through another KG, follow a track alongside the hedge. At the end, go through a five-bar gate and head down a rough lane which leads past the 17th-century magnificence of Corston Manor Farm.

At the main road, turn right, cross when you can see clearly in both directions and take the next turning left, following a sign for the post

FACT FILE

Starting point: Newbridge Park & Ride BA1 3NB; ST718658

(Note: Parking is currently free, but there are proposals to introduce charges)

Length of walk: 7 miles

Approximate time: 4 hours

Level of challenge: Some rough, steep and muddy paths; four busy road crossings; no stiles

Map: OS Explorer 155

office. Carry on through the village and after 500m, when you come to the main road, turn right, cross at the traffic island, carry on and, just beyond the bus stop, turn left through a handgate.

Follow a path leading under one of Brunel’s little-known gems, Stone Wharf Underbridge. Once through it, turn right alongside the riverside path (ST698660). After 330m, both path and railway cross the Corston Brook, flowing down from the lakes at Newton Park. The path now curves away from the Great Western Railway and after 375m goes under a bridge which once carried the Midland Railway but now carries the Bristol and Bath Railway Path.

Carry on along the riverside path for another 1400m and, when you reach New Bridge, climb steps to the road, cross the bridge (on a narrow pavement) and go down another flight of steps on the far side to return to the starting point. n

Many more walks can be found in Andrew Swift’s Country Walks from Bath, published by Akeman Press; akemanpress.com.

Art Deco decoded

Art Deco is almost a century old and yet its opulent, glamorous influence still holds a big design sway in modern interiors. Emma Clegg evaluates the history and asks local designers for their advice on how it works in contemporary spaces

The Art Deco style has been a consistent and influential thread in contemporary interior design in recent years, and its signature features are those that most of us will recognise around us, in architecture, furniture and interior elements. But what are the historical roots of Art Deco and what defines the style? And why does it have such a strong presence today?

Art Deco (1925–1940s) takes its name from the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris. This was the concept of the Société des Artistes Décorateurs (Society of Decorative Artists), a group founded by a group of artists in 1901. This established the influence of decorative artists who were designers of textiles, furniture, and other ornamentation. Previously considered as ordinary artisans, they were given a recognised status as specialists in ‘arts decoratifs’. The style, first publicly seen during the 1925 exhibition, was one that had gathered pace since the society’s formation in the early part of the century –in 1925 it was referred to as ‘New Moderne’ and it was not until later that the term Art Deco was adopted.

The 1925 exhibition highlighted the new

style of architecture, interior decoration, furniture, glass, jewellery and other decorative arts in Europe and throughout the world. The style – which grew out of the more organic, fluid and nature-based decorative designs and motifs of Art Nouveau (1890-1910) – was a backlash against the traditional designs popular at the time and against the past, seeking to embrace a new world that maintained decorative elements, but was defined by

sleeker, more urban references.

Art Deco is purely decorative, with no philosophical undertone, and was influenced by the geometric forms of Cubist art, the machine-style of Constructivism and Futurism, as well as Art Nouveau. It was also a response to the advances in modern technology of the 1920s, and this is expressed within its characteristic smooth lines, geometric shapes and streamlined forms. The style also has a glamorous, aspirational luxury, emanating from its typical materials of silver, crystal, ivory, jade and lacquer.

The geometric shapes of Art Deco reference Greco-Roman Classicism as well as the faceted forms of Babylon, Assyria, Ancient Egypt and Aztec Mexico. The trapezoidal, zigzagged and triangular shapes, chevron patterns, stepped forms, sweeping curves and sunburst motifs can be found in every form of Art Deco, from architecture to jewellery.

The work of many artists and designers defined and captured the Art Deco era, with names including René Lalique and his ornate, luxurious glass and jewellery, Jean Després and his geometric jewellery, ÉmileJacques Ruhlmann and his sleek furniture, illustrator and graphic artist René Vincent, and painter, sculptor and metal craftsman

An opulent interior with Eichholtz furniture and accessories (eichholtz.com/en/)

Burlington mirror (atkinandthyme.co.uk)

RIGHT: An Art Deco inspired open plan kitchendiner-lounge by Etons of Bath

Jean Dunand, known for his lacquered screens. Another big figure was architect Le Corbusier who built his Esprit Nouveau Pavilion for the 1925 Paris exhibition, a white box building in the middle of a forest which had a tree in the centre, emerging through a hole in the roof. While his architectural mindset was anti-decorative and anti-luxury, his modernist approach was integral to the movement.

These artists and others shaped the character of Art Deco, embodying the relaxation of traditional ideas with the optimistic espousal of fun and excess. as the world emerged from the hard times of the First World War. The movement dampened in the 1930s by the politically unstable times leading up to the Second World War in 1939. However the impact of the style was a dazzling beacon of light alongside the period of the Jazz age and the 1920s, and it’s one that is entrenched in history, and that still holds sway.

Clair Strong

Art Deco is a look that harks back to the ‘Roaring twenties’, a time of glamour and prosperity and, for me, it is a style that blends well with the simple lines of modernday homes. Art Deco’s calling cards are eye-catching geometric patterns and strong colours and these bold structured lines work particularly well in bathrooms.

For a classic Art Deco-inspired bathroom, you need to choose sanitary ware with the bold, angular shapes that were the hallmark of the period. Look for fluted bases and brass knobs and faucets which speak to the opulence of the 1920s. The Riviera Collection from Burlington Bathrooms

BELOW, FROM LEFT: Divine Savages Deco Martini wallpaper (divinesavages.com), Glacie Blue Scallop tiles from Mandarin Stone (mandarinstone.com), and Asperia Art Deco Wallpaper Emerald Green Gold (wallpapershop.co.uk)

celebrates Art Deco styling with subtle reinterpretations to work in today’s modern bathrooms.

In the 1920s, a staple of Art Deco design was the curvy, interlocking patterns of shells and this pattern looks wonderful as bathroom tiles. Mandarin Stone does a stylish Glacier Glass Scallop Mosaic tile, available in five chic shades in a sophisticated opaque finish. Alternatively, Fired Earth has a beautifully, elegant, cool grey-veined white marble scallop tile for a clean, classic nod to the Art Deco trend.

Classic Art Deco bathrooms combine luxurious materials and patterns, and wallpaper is a great way to add a touch of retro style. I have been using Deco Martini from Divine Savages, which is a bold graphic wallpaper which comes in an array of metallics as well as teal, blush, arsenic and powder blue. It’s a shining homage to 1920s decadence and adds instant glamour to any room, but particularly a bathroom where you can afford to go bold!

A show-stopping glamorous mirror is a must in any Art Deco-inspired bathroom –hexagonal shapes with elegant brass frames work well. Light fixtures in the 1920s were dramatic, elegant and futuristic looking and I like to use globe shaped wall sconces reminiscent of Parisian street lighting. Alternatively, a striking chandelier in a bold, geometric shape will finish off a room’s Art Deco appeal. clairstrong.co.uk

Woodhouse & Law

With the centenary of the birth of Art Deco soon upon us, it’s great to see that the movement has come full circle, finding a new sense of purpose and form in our homes today. This is a very different ‘Twenties’ this time round though; whereas the style initially heralded in a new wave of modernism, this time the trend goes handin-hand with a need for cosiness and comfort, a need born from a turbulent few years for all of us. This urge to cocoon

has been reflected by the arrival of some serious curve appeal. Whether in cabinetry, mirrors, or sofas, these curves, so synonymous with the Art Deco style, add a softness of touch that instantly makes a space feel relaxed and at ease with itself.

What makes Art Deco so enduring, however, is its flexible, undemanding air.

It doesn’t come with a defined colour palette, nor does it come with its own philosophy. Instead each piece is designed solely for its decorative, aesthetic appeal, allowing it to be integrated into contemporary schemes with a seamless ease. This is reflected by recent designs from some of Europe’s leading design names. Take for instance the Visione range recently launched by German fabric house Zimmer + Rohde, taking its inspiration from the architectural styles of the Golden Twenties. The striped pattern combines hand-stitched embroidery, subtle colour tones and a jacquard background to create a design that feels opulent, yet warm and inviting too; one comfortable within a contemporary setting just as much as that famed age of jazz, beads and bobbed hair.

Etons of Bath

Simply put, Art Deco interiors are all about the glamour and luxury often associated with the heyday of Hollywood. Its origins were also rooted in fine craftsmanship and the use of rich materials while its bold geometric forms and bright colours mean that the style can be recreated in even the most contemporary of interiors. At Etons of Bath we introduce touches of Art Deco into many of our Georgian and Regency projects for that glamorous edge. More fulsomely, we recently designed a stunning contemporary Art Deco kitchen-diner and pantry in the extension of a large country house. The brief was to design a kitchen that did not look like a kitchen. The materials used are a mix of rich woods and marbles, gold inlays and fluted wood, plaster and marble detailing. The tall run of units conceal a fridge, oven and counter top units. etonsofbath.com

Deco Martini wallpaper from Divine Savages, design Clair Strong

Wild for rewilding

Elly West looks at the benefits of rewilding to create mini-ecosystems that encourage wildlife and connect us with nature. It’s happening nationally and regionally, and we can do the same in our gardens to create biodiversity in our own spaces

A ll around us, the landscape is seeing subtle changes as rewilding takes a hold in both urban and rural locations. Driving around, I often notice verges left uncut that were previously tended, resulting in more wildflowers and meadow edging our roads, along with larger areas of grassland previously mown short. Rewilding as a concept entered the dictionary in 2011 and it’s become a worldwide movement involving both grassroots groups and major international conservation organisations.

The idea is basically that humans take a step back and leave land to nature, restoring natural processes and wilderness areas, and creating ecosystems that don’t need managing. This can be on a grand scale, for example, removing dams in North America and Europe, and restoring rainforest in Costa Rica, or at a more local level with something as simple as greening up the city.

Whatever the scale, it is hoped that significant rewilding could protect us from climate change, heatwaves, forest fire and flooding, while boosting wildlife and helping endangered species by creating safe habitats. It also, in some cases controversially, includes reintroducing native animals such as beavers, wolves, bears and lynx.

Bath and North East Somerset Council has a Neighbourhood Nature Areas scheme, offering people ideas for adding ecological value to small areas of land, such as road verges and small open spaces. The advice for such areas is to use plants that are good for

wildlife, including spring bulbs, herbaceous perennials and wildflowers. The Council is also creating new wildlife habitats in parks by planting new wildflower meadows, habitat grassland, and planting new trees. In order to create wildlife havens in such areas it’s important for them to avoid regular mowing and cut back to one or two cuts annually, and the same applies in our own gardens. Taller grasses will allow more plants to flower, providing a muchneeded source of nectar for struggling pollinators such as bees and butterflies. These relatively simple steps boost biodiversity and create habitats running right through our city and surrounding towns.

The rewilding agenda in Bath is reinforced by The National Trust which is in the process of creating a three-mile ‘Green Corridor’ in 40 hectares of land at Bathampton Meadows close to the River Avon. Designed to connect urban areas with green spaces, the improvement of the water meadows will benefit wildlife such as the greater horseshoe bat and wading birds, and increase the number of wildflowers to encourage more butterflies, such as the small blue.

Gardens can provide vital havens for wildlife, and can showcase rewilding, as proven at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, with the ‘Rewilding Britain Landscape’ garden winning the top accolade of a Gold Medal and Best in Show. Designed by Lulu Urquhart and Adam Hunt, who are based in Bruton, Somerset, it demonstrated a landscape in the south-west of England following the reintroduction

The Rewilding Britain Landscape garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May showcased the beauty of native plants and a back-to-nature approach

of beavers, and featured a flowing stream, complete with beaver dam. Native plants were used, including cow parsley, purple loosestrife, devil’s bit scabious, field maple and hazel. The overall effect was a beautiful and calming swathe of green speckled with whites, creams and the odd splashes of purple and yellow.

Although we probably wouldn’t want to rewild our entire garden – which, after all, would take away from the entire concept of a garden being a planned, tamed space for our enjoyment – we can certainly do our bit by leaving parts of the garden to nature and avoiding pesticides. I love including areas of meadow in the gardens that I design, either in a designated space, or bordering a lawn. Our gardens act as nature corridors, linking spaces for animals to hunt, live and breed, and the more we can encourage a mini-ecosystem of biodiversity, the more likely it is that natural predators will feed on pests, eliminating our need for chemicals.

A patch of nettles will act as a caterpillar nursery for butterflies, plus a quick search on the internet reveals you can harvest the nettles to make pesto, soup, tea and even beer! Don’t be in a rush to cut back dead plants and seed heads that might be providing food and shelter for beneficial creatures. Wait until spring when new growth starts to show again, so birds can feed and insects use them as overwintering sites. If we all do a little bit of rewilding, this adds up to a huge overall area for wildlife to find food and shelter.

Growing native plants is generally a good bet, as they are naturally adapted to our growing conditions, but with summers getting longer and hotter, think about choosing plants that are drought-tolerant as well, such as sea holly, sedum, lavender and grasses, and install a water butt under a downpipe to catch your roof water run-off. And if you’re rethinking your plot boundaries, now is also the perfect time to plant a wildlife-friendly hedge. n

• ellyswellies.co.uk

• beta.bathnes.gov.uk/neighbourhood-nature-areas

• rewildingbritain.org.uk/local-network/somerset-rewilding-network

Plant of the month: Sea Holly

Although these spiky thistle-like plants are beautiful in summer, with their blue, purple, or silvery bracts, they keep their value well into winter as the flowers fade to beautiful architectural seed heads, giving a skeletal structure to the faded border. Bees love the flowers and birds will enjoy the seeds, so don't cut them back until they go soggy. Sea hollies like dry, well-drained soil in full sun and hate winter wet, so incorporate some grit into the planting hole if you're gardening on clay, or grow them in pots or planters. From a design perspective, they are well suited to gravel gardens and rock gardens, and combine well with hardy geraniums, Verbena bonariensis and grasses. Sea hollies have a long taproot, so don't like to be disturbed once established, but they cope well with poor soil and drought.

Many varieties, including the popular bright-silver ‘Miss Willmott's Ghost’, are biennial, meaning they produce leaves in their first year and flower the following year. Plants will self-seed freely, but are easy to pull out if you end up with too many.

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Kingdom of Sweets

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Greystone Care Home

King Kong

Set in one of Bath’s most prominent locations with stunning south- westerly views, an immaculately presented Grade II listed period townhouse with accommodation set over 4 floors and a most attractive large terraced garden to the rear.

No. 19 is set off Widcombe Hill towards the top of this exceptional rank of Grade II listed Georgian properties set in an elevated position above the city. Macaulay Buildings is one of the most prominent and outstanding locations within the city of Bath, renowned for its exceptional views over the adjacent countryside, city of Bath and beyond towards Bristol.

The current owner has lived in the property for over 50 years, however, has maintained it in immaculate order throughout.

The accommodation is set over 4 levels with 3 principal reception rooms and 4 bedrooms, however, the accommodation could be utilised differently if so desired.

The large kitchen/breakfast room with an Aga is also at garden level adjacent to an attractive dining room having French doors opening out to a stunning good sized terrace garden, all benefiting from a south-westerly aspect.

Within the property are a number of notable period features, including the notable cantilevered stone central staircase, period fireplace surrounds and detailed cornicing. All the rooms are of generous proportions with a light and airy feel throughout.

Viewing is strongly recommended by the sole agents Cobb Farr Residential Cobb Farr, 35 Brock Street, The Circus, Bath; Tel: 01225 333332

Macaulay Buildings, Bath

bedrooms, 3 bathrooms

of period features

Views

II listed townhouse

terraced gardens

presented

after location

Why we value the story of your home

something will click, and whether that’s the moment the gate opens or as you step into the entrance hall, standing by the kitchen sink or enjoying the view from the bedroom window, suddenly it will hit you that you are home.

Before you view a home it is difficult to build an emotional connection. Of course you have the photographs and videos, but they tell you the facts about the house and its condition. These are the details for your head: does it have the right number of bedrooms and the outside space you seek. What this information doesn’t provide is the story of the home, what it is like to live there, how it feels and what lifestyle it can offer you.

This is why our sellers’ insights add another dimension to selling your home, and from the feedback from buyers and sellers alike, they are an element to our marketing that really brings a property to life. Our dedicated storyteller loves crafting these stories, interviewing the sellers to gain a detailed insight into their time there. Armed with a blank piece of paper, she listens and takes notes as our homeowners open up about how they fell in love with their home, some of their wonderful memories and their favourite places.

Storieshave been told for as long as time. It is one of the oldest arts; stories have been passed through generations, bringing to life ancestors we never knew. Stories have brought fictional characters to life and alien lands to our fingertips. We get to experience the past, present and future through the words on the page. Stories fill and excite our imaginations, they can influence our decisions but, most importantly, those truly amazing stories, those that you can’t put down or even forget, they wonderfully hold a precious and special place in our hearts.

‘If only the walls could talk’, how often do people recite those or similar words as they wander around a period home, fascinated about the property’s history, who could have lived there, what they did, and how this home has come to be as it is today. We often wish walls could talk, as we walk under hundreds-of-years old beams, glide across uneven floors, and smile at every squeaky door and unexpected nook.

When you consider where you live, it was a house before you moved in, but over the years, with your touches to the décor, the improvements you make, and the countless memories that it has brought you, the house you bought becomes your home. You, too, have become part of its history, your time there is another string of stories that are to become the rich tapestry of its walls. No matter why you have made the decision to leave, part of you will always be there and part of this beautiful home will always be with you, too.

People buy houses for many reasons but emotions of course play a part, whether you’re a lover of contemporary homes with their sleek lines and minimalist design, or prefer something full of character and quirky or original features. From the moment you view a property you are soaking everything in, your senses are ablaze with what is around you and your head battles to take charge. As you start to learn what the house has to offer

“Every seller loves their home for a different reason. Once they open up with their tales it is an honour and a pleasure to see their amazing home through their eyes. I discover things that they would never think would be of interest, and I never know where each conversation is going to take me. I only review the photographs beforehand so, like a buyer, I am in a way viewing as a blank canvas, I let the stories lead me to what to ask next.” states our bespoke storyteller.

Going through this process in a way is a goodbye by the sellers to their home. Many often state that after speaking to our storyteller they kind of fall in love with their house all over again. Yet move they must, and so their story is passed on to potential buyers, and it is often this part of our marketing that really grabs their heart and attention as they see the property in a different light. The power of storytelling is nothing new, so why not utilise an art form whose value has been known for centuries?

If you are thinking of selling your property in Bath or Bristol, we can’t wait to discover the story of your home.

Scan here and see what the market is like for your home

NEW INSTRUCTION

NEW INSTRUCTION

COMINGSOON

COMINGSOON

Grade

City

FORSALE

Sq.

FORSALE

garden

Sq.

Stunning

EPC D

NEW INSTRUCTION

Modern Build

Central location

Bike storage

EPC C rating

COMINGSOON

Two sizeable bedroom

Communal roof terrace

No onward chain

Approx. 631 Sq. Ft.

Lift access

Modern

garden/BBQ

EPC

Sq.

Georgian Crescent

Fabulous

Sought

Close to the City Centre

Beautifully

EPC C rating

FORSALE

Bright and spacious

Approx.

Sq.

Two double

C

access

Stunning

garden

City Centre

over

parking space and guest parking

Approx.

Sq.