The American Issue 716 December 2012 by Blue Edge Publishing Ltd.

December 2012

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EATING OUT • SPORT WHAT’S ON • POLITICS MUSIC • REVIEWS ARTS CHOICE

JOHN

LITHGOW

In interview and in The Magistrate

Escapes: Visit Minster Lovell, The Jewel of the Cotswolds Donny Osmond interview – bringing Vegas to the UK

Boisdale Music Management and The Jazz Repertory Company present a 75th Anniversary Celebration

THE BENNY GOODMAN orchestra’s as a’ famous 1938 carnegie hall concert PETE LONG AND HIS GOODMEN Programme to include Don't Be That Way, One O'Clock Jump, Blue Skies, Life Goes To A Party, Sing Sing Sing

Saturday January 12th at 7:30pm Cadogan Hall, Sloane Terrace, London SW1 www. cadoganhall.com

Box Office 020 7730 4500

Tickets £25, £18, £12 Boisdale Music Management - London’s Home Of Classic Jazz www.boisdale.co.uk

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Issue 716 – December 2012 PUBLISHED BY SP MEDIA FOR

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Old Byre House, East Knoyle, Salisbury SP3 6AW, UK Telephone all departments: +44 (0)1747 830520 Publisher and Editor in Chief: Michael Burland michael@theamerican.co.uk Editor: Richard L Gale editor@theamerican.co.uk Please contact us with your news or article ideas Advertising & Promotions: Sabrina Sully, Commercial Director advertising@theamerican.co.uk Subscriptions: theamerican@blueedge.co.uk

lot happened in US politics this year. The presidential election was a close run thing in terms of the popular vote, but as we all know (although some forgot at the time) it’s the electoral college that counts. For a look back at how the result was reached, read Sir Robert Worcester’s masterly analysis in this issue. But if you’re interested in throwing your hat into the ring in 2016 you’d better get started soon. Enough of the serious, this is the season of joy, fun and contemplation of the best in humanity, so The American team wishes you a ‘jolly good’ Holiday period. We can help with your plans – check the Diary Dates pages for our selection of the best days out in Britain this month, read our theater reviews, or choose a great restaurant or hotel to celebrate the season and... Enjoy your magazine,

Section Editors Virginia E Schultz, Food & Drink virginia@theamerican.co.uk Mary Bailey, Social mary@theamerican.co.uk Richard L Gale, Arts richard@theamerican.co.uk Alison Holmes, Politics alison@theamerican.co.uk Jarlath O’Connell, Theater jarlath@theamerican.co.uk

©2012 Blue Edge Publishing Ltd. Printed by Advent Colour Ltd., 19 East Portway Industrial Estate, Andover, SP10 3LU www.advent-colour.co.uk ISSN 2045-5968 Cover Main Image: John Lithgow (photo by Nigel Parry); Circular inset: Donny Osmond; Square inset: Minster Lovell

Michael Burland, Publisher michael@theamerican.co.uk

Among this month’s contributors

Transplanted from Virginia to Oxford, Kathleen Lawton-Trask is working on a dissertation in 18th century poetry for a D.Phil. in English Literature. It just looks a lot like knitting.

Sir Robert Worcester is a legend among political circles. We’ve been honored to have the Kansas City native and founder of MORI covering the election for us this year.

US-born Mitzi Szereto is an author and editor of multigenre fiction and non-fiction, runs writing workshops and has lectured in creative writing at several British universities.

@TheAmericanMag

Don’t forget The American online: www.theamerican.co.uk The entire contents of The American and www.theamerican.co.uk are protected by copyright and no part of it may be reproduced without written permission of the publishers. Whilst every effort is made to ensure that the information in The American is accurate, the editor and publishers cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions or any loss arising from reliance on it. The views and comments of contributors are not necessarily those of the publishers.

December 2012 1

The American The American • Issue 716 • December 2012

In This Issue... Regular Sections 4 News 8 Politics 20 Wining & Dining 28 Escapes 30 Arts Choice 32 Music

36 38 49 50 57 65

Coﬀee Break Theater and Book Reviews DriveTime Sports American Organizations The A-List

8 US Election Sir Robert Worcester breaks down where and who re-elected a black, liberal, intellectual, Barack Obama to a second term

13 Wildly Wrong about American Leaders Carol Gould takes aim at Daily Mail columnist Andrew Alexander’s ‘toxic legacy’ attack on ‘dynastic’ American politics

14 George McGovern Alison Holmes reﬂects on the politics legacy of the former US Representative, Senator, and presidential nominee

16 Knit up a Community You are invited to a yarn bombing! Kathleen Lawton-Trask explains how knitting is a great – and surprisingly active – way to get to know the locals

25 Cellar Talk Virginia E Schultz has advice on which bottles to bring to the festive table

28 The Hidden Jewel of The Cotswolds Explore Minster Lovell, a little-known gem in the heart of the English countryside. It has everything, beautiful landscapes, romantic ruins, a grisly history... and a great hotel

34 Interview: Donny Osmond Ever-young entertainers Donny and Marie Osmond are touring their Las Vegas show round the UK in January. The American catches a few minutes with Donny

42 Interview: John Lithgow At the National Theatre, playing the title role in Arthur Wing Pinero’s farce The Magistrate, the brilliant versatile actor takes time out to tell us what brings him back to London

45 Erotica – The New Black?

42 John Lithgow 2 December 2012

54 Diary Dates

50 Shades of Grey and its sequels were the publishing phenomenon of 2012. But why this and why now? wonders Mitzi Szereto

20 Wining&Dining 50 Heisman: Next Man Up? New month, new leader: the Heisman ﬁeld is getting narrow – and younger

51 Have a Heavyweight Holiday Boxing Day? How about MMA Day? Sit back, put your feet up and watch large men hitting each other, suggests Natimi Black-Heaven

52 Wembley 2012 The annual NFL pilgrimage to London is captured by the lens of Gary Baker

56 Carols by Candlelight There’s nothing as beautiful or moving as a candle-lit carol service, especially in a historic British church

The American

US Government Awards Anthrax Contract to Britain The US Government’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded a £4 million ($6.5m) contract to develop a next generation anthrax vaccine to the Health Protection Agency (HPA) based in Porton, Wiltshire, UK. The programme could be worth up to £14m ($24m) if all project milestones are met. The project’s aim is to combine the HPA’s expertise with anthrax vaccine antigens with US Company NanoBio Corporation’s adjuvant technology, which enhances the body’s immune response, so that an anthrax vaccine can be delivered in fewer doses than currently, using an intra-nasal spray instead of an injection. Anthrax, a potentially lethal bacterial infection, occurs mostly in animals in Asia, Africa, and parts of Europe. Humans are rarely infected, outside people working with imported animal hides or in abattoirs. The joint government project is believed to have wider importance as anthrax has been used in biological weapons. Anthrax spores were deliberately released via letters mailed in the USA in 2001 in a campaign known as Amerithrax after its FBI case name. 22 people were infected with the disease. Five of them died.

4 December 2012

NEWS

PHOTO: ANDY VOLLANS

Welsh Memorial to WWII US Forces Unveiled

n October 1943 the first of several thousand US GIs arrived in Newton, a quiet parish five miles near Swansea reports John Powell of Oystermouth Historical Association. The nearby beaches were ideal for training by American troops, including Engineer Combat Battalions who would be responsible for clearing obstructions at Omaha Beach during the invasion of Normandy. Many made lasting friendships with local people and 200 girls became GI Brides, some tragically widowed before they could cross the Atlantic. On November 2, a memorial to these young men, many of whom would never see their homes again was dedicated by the Bishop of Swansea and Brecon at Saint Peter’s Church, Newton. It was unveiled by the Lord Lieutenant of West Glamorgan, D Byron Lewis, and Cliff ‘Limey’ Guard, a Swansea boy who is also an American GI veteran (above). Cliff, now 89 years old, had gone to sea aged 14 and eventually joined the US Army, the 23rd Armoured Engineers in the 3rd Armoured Division, which arrived at Normandy soon after D Day. “I thought I would give the Yanks a hand”, he said with a wink. He was

wounded at Omaha Beach and later returned to his unit and took part in the equally ferocious Battle of the Bulge. He was serious as he said, “I saw sights which one would never see in photographs.”

Veterans Day at Brookwood A Veterans Day Ceremony (known as Remembrance Sunday in the UK) was held at Brookwood American Military Cemetery November 11. Organized by St. James Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, the moving event took place in Fall sunshine. Nicole Escue, Regent of the NSDAR Chapter, introduced the speakers, Brig. Gen. John Quintas, the US Defense Attaché and Supt. Craig Rahanian of the American Battle Monuments Commission. Floral wreaths and tributes were laid by seventeen organizations and two American Scouts played taps.

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The American

Obituary American Immigrant Wall of Honor

Francis Robert Kelly

PHOTO: ADAM FAGEN

May 1, 1927 – October 25, 2012

American Immigrant Wall of Honor Appeal

Former Chrysler boss Lee Iacocca is now the founding Chairman of The American Immigrant Wall of Honor (www.wallofhonor. org). As New York recovers from Hurricane Sandy, he reports that Liberty and Ellis Islands and his Foundation’s office building all sustained considerable damage, but that the Statue of Liberty, the Ellis Island Museum and the Wall of Honor itself remain substantially undamaged. “At times like this,” said Mr Iacocca, “we think about our ancestors, our families and you, our family of supporters. And as we turn our attention to this Holiday Season, the most meaningful gift you might give your family is an inscription on The American Immigrant Wall of Honor.” The permanent exhibit is a celebration of American immigration. Situated on Ellis Island, in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, it has been inscribed with over 700,000 names so far, from all periods of US history and representing all ethnicities including the earliest settlers, Native American Indians, all years of arrival, all points of entry, and all modes of travel into the States. It costs $150 to honor the name of a family or individual for future generations to read, alongside Rudolph Valentino, Al Jolson, Harry Houdini, the Pilgrim Fathers and ancestors of the Kennedy clan, George Washington and Paul Revere.

6 December September2012 2012

ondon-based American artist and author Francis Kelly has passed away in his ‘adopted hometown’. He was 85. Kelly was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, to Francis Kelly Sr., a barber, and Agnes Skosheim, a waitress. They lived in Chicago and Santa Monica. Kelly Jr. enlisted in the US Navy in 1944, becoming a signalman, and served in the Pacific until 1948. In 1946 he took part in Operation Crossroads, during which scientists studied the effects of two atomic bomb explosions on ships ringed around Bikini Atoll. In 1948 he met his wife-to-be, Gail, in Santa Monica. They married the following year and in 1951 traveled to Paris, where he received his Diploma from the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. He studied at the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, became assistant to noted printmaker John Paul Jones at UCLA and briefly worked as a commercial illustrator at Douglas Aircraft. Awarded a Fulbright Grant in 1955 he came to London’s Central School of Arts & Crafts (now University of the Arts, London) to earn his Diploma in Etching. His etchings

were exhibited at the St. George’s Gallery. He became increasingly fascinated with the play of shadow and light on the timeless rural lands and byways then unencroached by urbanisation. Summers on his uncle’s Minnesota farm gave Kelly great affinity with rural England, particularly in Devon where he frequently returned. His portrayals of the female figure caught the attention of Art Deco experts Victor and Gretha Arwas, who championed his works at Mayfair’s Editions Graphiques. In 1966 he organized the US Embassy’s “Festival of Arts in Humanities” and his paintings were shown in the exhibition Five American Artists in Britain. Kelly studied painting conservation at the Courtald Institute and in 1967 traveled to Florence to restore flood-damaged paintings, resulting in him writing the 1971 seminal book Art Restoration. Kelly based his home and studio in Bayswater next to Hyde Park, which he viewed as his garden. His love of the park, where he often worked, saw him join the historic open-air Serpentine Swimming Club. Dressed in distinctive Hawaiian surf clothes, Kelly was a regular Christmas Day and year-round swimmer, becoming the club’s first American president. He competed in 34 triathlons, even representing Britain as a veteran in the World Triathlon Championships in Florida in the 1980s. In more recent years Kelly’s attention turned to the reflective qualities of the canals of Venice, Italy, and the effect of weather on posters. Kelly died at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, from pneumonia after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease and Vascular Dementia. He is survived by his wife, Gail, and sons Sean, Duff and Jesse.

The American

Twinkies Under Threat as Hostess Closes Doors The production of iconic brands Twinkies, Wonder Bread, Ho Hos and Ding Dongs may cease after manufacturer Hostess Brands has announced that it is to close. Most of the 18,500 workers are expected to lose their jobs. Hostess intends to sell the brands, so it is likely that Twinkies and the rest will be made available by another manufacturer in time. But will it be American?

Copies of WW2 Icons Headline Auctions Don’t worry, the original’s still there...! A copy of Baltimore-born Lawrence Holofcener’s landmark bronze sculpture The Allies, portraying Sir Winston Churchill and President Franklin D Roosevelt sitting on a bench (between Old and New Bond Streets, London and pictured inset) sold at Bonhams London last month for £409,250 to an American buyer. Also, Bonhams is exhibiting the original Iwo Jima Monument by Felix de Weldon (a forerunner of the United States Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Va.), at The 590 Madison Avenue Sculpture Garden adjoining its New York auction galleries. It is being offered for private sale by Bonhams until its inclusion in the February 22 World War II: the Pacific Theater auction.

Asian Cities Chase London, NYC in Cities of Opportunity Report New York and London still lead the world’s cities in economic terms, but emerging cities are narrowing the gap, according to the fifth edition of the Cities of Opportunity report from PwC and the Partnership for New York City, NYC edges out London by one point across 10 economic indicators. London wins the “city gateway” indicator, introduced this year, which measures global interconnectedness and international attraction. But the Asian megacities are rising rapidly, Beijing and Shanghai (below) advancing to the top 5 in economic clout and city gateway. www.pwc. com/us/en/cities-of-opportunity

he Americans in Switzerland Working Group (AMISWG), a group of US citizen organizations, has sent a report to every member of Congress and the Administration highlighting how US Government policies are negatively affecting millions of US citizens who live abroad. The report is based on Town Hall Meetings held in five Swiss cities by American Citizens Abroad (ACA), the Overseas American Academy and the Swiss Democratic and Republican Abroad groups. Hundreds of Americans living in Switzerland attended. MaryLouise Serrato, Executive Director of ACA, explained, “Many of the attendees at the meetings are finding that banks overseas are applying FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) legislation in a way that makes life very difficult

for average, law-abiding American citizens who live and work overseas. Bi-national marriages overseas are coming under great stress because the non-American partner is understandably reluctant to share joint account information with the IRS.” Maya Samara, Chair of Democrats Abroad in Switzerland, added “Accidental Americans, those who were born in the United States to nonAmerican parents, are discovering the severe penalties they can incur because they didn’t know they had to file tax returns with the IRS”. The report proposes moving to a residence-based rather than citizenship-based tax system, direct representation for overseas citizens in Congress and an Ombudsman for Americans Abroad. For a copy of the report, visit www.amiswg.org

PHOTO: JORDI ANGRILL

Swiss Expats Badger Congress

December 2012 7

The American

US ELECTION 2012 The Final Numbers

Sir Robert Worcester breaks down where and who re-elected a black, liberal, intellectual, Barack Obama to a second term

year ago and more, I said ‘A week is a long time in politics’, quoting my first political client, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson. I began this series of articles in November 2011. Let me remind you what I said then: “There are a bunch of presidential trial heats and most lately, they make it a tie against Romney, a six point lead over Perry, nine over Kane, and fifteen over Gingrich, Palin or Bachmann. [Obama would] smash them, and with them, knock out several of the Republican candidates for Congress. “I’d put a bob or two if I had to now, a year out, on Obama. He’s a formidable campaigner, he’s already well on his way to a $100+ million war chest, he’s got a smashing wife who is game for the campaign trail with or without him, as she showed in the 2008 race, and he’ll have I was this close PHOTO © GAGE SKIDMORE

8 December 2012

many times more volunteers on the ground than any likely Republican challenger. “There are two principal reasons why, at this time, I am tipping an Obama win. First, in my view, the British media totally lost the plot in their reporting of last year’s Congressional election, describing it as a blow to President Obama. It was no such thing. For if there was now, and into the election, a Democratic White House, a Democratic Senate, and a Democratic House of Representatives, Obama would have nobody to blame for the poor economic situation next year. Now he does. And will. “Second, you can’t beat somebody with nobody. Somebody, like it or not, is Barack Obama. Nobody is the long list of Republican hopefuls. At last count, in early October, there were 52 front runners, possibilities, and no hopers (Bill Frist, Hagel, and the wonderfully named Thaddeus McCotter entering the lists at 1,000:1). “At that time, the front runner was former Governor Mitt Romney as the 2:1 favourite. Yet polls have shown that about one American voter in five say they would never vote for a Mormon. Still, early polls in the key early primary state, New Hampshire, show him leading the other Republicans being tested by a mile, so far. In

the trial heats, he’s leading Perry, or Paul, in one poll, by an average of 24 points over the past month. “At double Romney’s 2:1 odds is Governor Rick Perry in second place, at 4:1, with Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey, at 50:1 tied in 7th place. Now that he’s said ‘no way’, his ‘weight of money’ will dry up fast, and I’d guess he’ll have dropped to 200:1 by next month. Rising up the list is Herman Cain but at 18:1, Ron Paul who crashed and burned in 2008, now at 24:1 and then Sarah Palin, once a front runner, now withdrawn from the race ‘to her family first (after God)’, at 27:1. “Other names swirling around, seen often in New Hampshire, sniffing around in Iowa, the Carolinas and other early primary states such as Rick Santorum (300:1), drop out Tim Pawlenty (250:1), Jeb Bush (280:1) and Charlie Crist (550:1). Other names bob up occasionally, but are unlikely to get the traction between now and the turn of the year to be credible candidates in the early primaries, and so are unlikely to be in the frame next summer at the Republican Convention. But if a week in politics is a long time, a year is an eternity. Anything can happen in the 2012 American presidential election, and most likely will.” I went further in my first speech of the 2012 election, on January 11, at an Open Lecture at Warwick University. Then I put up on the screen the reasons I thought would be tested in the campaign to support

The American The Obamas and Bidens moments after election is called PHOTO COURTESY WHITE HOUSE / PETE SOUZA

my hypothesis that Obama would win. They were, from the slide I used on the night:  T  he election of the Republican

Congress in 2010

 T  he improving economy in

2011/12

 T  he Republicans are a divided

party

 T  here will be right-wing Republi-

cans who’ll stay home

 B  arack Obama is a formidable 

campaigner Michelle is as well

I won’t dwell on them here, but all were indeed questioned as we went along through the Republican primaries, the long summer up to the Conventions, and then Labour Day’s start of the ‘middle’ campaign, when the Romney surprise was sprung in the first presidential debate where, by two to one, the American public said he’d won it. Then the claw back in the second and third debates by Obama (who never recovered fully), and then the final intensive month of bombardment by the media and advertising, when billions were spent in the most marginal, battleground states. And at last that nail-biting final week with its quiet death knell for Romney, when politics was suspended due to the Northeast being hit by a tropical storm – he lost three days watching the President being transformed from struggling candidate to head of state. From the start, the President had the best of the bruised and already tired Mitt Romney, with a small lead in the national tracking polls, mainly Gallup, which proved to be erratic, and Rasmussen, which turned out

to have the three point bias to the Republicans, which I pointed out occasionally. Once or twice I was cautioned by BBC interviewers about commenting on my so-called ‘rivals’ for pointing out these warnings, but with so much being said on the media about how close the national ‘vote’ was, I felt I was on firm empirical ground to do so, and as it turned out, I was. Ipsos USA, our partners in the US, and YouGov’s American subsidiary, both used the Internet for their samples, and were among the most accurate that final week against the outcome, while both of the national telephone trackers were among the worst. What made me so sure Obama would win (I gave Lady Meyer, wife of the former British Ambassador to Washington, ten to one odds that Obama would win when she challenged me at the Tory Party Conference, and I collected) was that each of my hypotheses were sustained, although I did think that the President would run more strongly against the lack of cooperation from the Republican Congressional leadership.

The Tables

I needn’t say too much about the outcome, as the numbers, using the Swing Analysis, tell it (nearly) all. For those who find banks of numbers off-putting, let me then make some of the key points, while drawing everyone to that simple if magical, analytical tool, ‘swing’ columns on the right-hand of both tables:

States (Table 1, page 10) Exasperated by the media’s focus on the national polls to the exclusion of close examination of the swing states, especially Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Colorado, I said in my October article, “Watch the electors, not the horse race”, for if Romney didn’t win two of the first three, he’d lose. He lost all four. Just three states swung to Obama: Alaska, who didn’t have their former governor on the Republican ticket; Louisiana, on the rebound from stronger Republican support in 2008; and Mississippi, by only one person in 200. Romney’s best performances were in Mormon-strong Utah (but not in Nevada, which has the second largest Mormon population), December 2012 9

TABLE 1: STATE-BY-STATE SWING ANALYSIS (alphabetical) STATE Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Dist Columbia Turnout 131,079,270 125,134,730

10 December 2012

2008 USA Presidential Election Result McCain Obama Other ObLead % % % % 60 39 0 -21 59 38 2 -21 54 45 1 -9 59 39 2 -20 37 61 2 24 45 54 1 9 38 60 1 22 37 62 1 25 48 51 0 3 52 47 1 -5 27 72 1 45 62 36 3 -26 37 62 1 25 49 50 1 1 44 54 1 10 57 41 2 -16 57 41 1 -16 59 40 1 -19 40 58 1 18 36 62 1 26 36 62 2 26 41 57 2 16 43 54 3 11 56 43 1 -13 49 49 2 0 50 47 3 -3 57 42 1 -15 43 55 2 12 45 54 1 9 42 57 1 15 42 57 1 15 36 62 2 26 49 50 1 1 53 45 2 -8 47 52 1 5 66 34 0 -32 40 57 3 17 44 55 1 11 35 63 2 28 54 45 1 -9 53 45 2 -8 57 42 1 -15 55 44 1 -11 63 34 3 -29 30 67 3 37 46 53 1 7 42 58 0 16 56 43 1 -13 42 56 2 14 65 33 2 -32 7 92 1 85 46 53 1 7 45.7% 53.0% 1.3% 7.3% 59,934,814 69,456,897 1,687,559 8,645,538

2012 USA Presidential Election Result Romney Obama Other ObLead % % % % 61 38 1 -23 55 41 4 -14 54 44 2 -10 61 37 2 -24 38 60 2 22 46 51 3 5 40 58 2 18 40 59 1 19 49 50 1 1 53 46 1 -7 29 70 1 41 64 33 3 -31 41 57 2 16 54 44 2 -10 46 52 2 6 60 38 2 -22 60 38 2 -22 58 41 1 -17 41 56 3 15 36 61 3 25 38 61 1 23 45 54 1 9 45 53 2 8 56 44 0 -12 54 44 2 -10 55 42 3 -13 60 38 2 -22 46 52 2 6 46 52 2 6 41 58 1 17 43 53 4 10 36 63 1 27 51 48 1 -3 58 39 3 -19 48 50 2 2 67 33 0 -34 42 54 4 12 47 52 1 5 35 63 2 28 55 44 1 -11 58 40 2 -18 60 39 1 -21 57 41 2 -16 73 25 2 -48 31 67 2 36 47 51 2 4 42 56 2 14 62 36 2 -26 46 53 1 7 69 28 3 -41 7 91 2 84 48 51 1 3 47.7% 50.7% 1.6% 3.0% 59,634,222

63,448,632

2,051,876

Romney Swing % 1.0 -3.5 0.5 2.0 1.0 2.0 2.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 2.5 4.5 5.5 2.0 3.0 3.0 -1.0 1.5 0.5 1.5 3.5 1.5 -0.5 5.0 5.0 3.5 3.0 1.5 -1.0 2.5 -0.5 2.0 5.5 1.5 1.0 2.5 3.0 0.0 1.0 5.0 3.0 2.5 9.5 0.5 1.5 1.0 6.5 3.5 4.5 0.5 2.2 ÂŠ 18.11.12

3,814,410

SOURCE: SIR ROBERT WORCESTER, FOUNDER MORI, RMWORCESTER@YAHOO.COM

The American TABLE 2: DEMOGRAPHIC SWING ANALYSIS 2008 USA Presidential Election Result DEMOGRAPHICS

Gender

Age

Race

Income

Education

2012 USA Presidential Election Result Other

ObLead

Romney Swing

% 51

% 1

% 3

% 2.0

48 43

49 56

3 1

1 13

3.0 -1.0

-5.5

0.5

-4

-2.5

Voters

McCain

Obama

Other

ObLead

Voters

Romney Obama

All Voters

% 100

% 46

% 53

% 1

% 7

% 100

% 48

Men Women

47 53

45 44

52 55

3 1

7 11

47 53

18-29

30-44

45-64

65+

-12

-8

-2.0

White

-20

-12

-4.0

African - American

-2.0

Hispanic

4.0

Asian

0.0

Other

-7.5

Less than $50,000

0.0

$50,000-99,999

-6

-3.0 -5.0

$100,000+

-10

No High School

0.0

H.S. Graduate

-1.5

Some College

-1.5

College Graduate

-4

-3.0

Postgraduate

-2.5

Marital status

Married Unmarried

66 34

42 35

56 61

2 4

14 26

60 40

52 34

46 64

2 2

-6 30

10.0 -2.0

Are you gay, lesbian, bisexual?

Yes No

4 96

27 45

70 53

3 2

43 8

5 95

22 49

76 49

2 2

54 0

-5.5 4.0

Democrat

3.0

Party ID

Republican

-87

-81

-3.0

Independent

-1.5

Liberal

-2.0

Moderate

-3.0

Conservative

-65

-58

-3.5

Today

-1.0

Last Three Days

-5

-5.0

Last Week

-2 5.0

Ideology

When did you decide who to vote for?

Religion

In October

In September

-8

8.5

Before That

-1.0

Protestant

-15

-9

-3.0

Catholic

-3.5

Jewish

-9.0

Other

0.0

None

-4.0

White Evangelical Born Again

WEBA Christians All Others

78 37

21 60

1 3

-57 23

26 74

74 36

24 63

2 1

-50 27

-3.5 -2.0

Issues

Economy Health Care

44 37

53 60

3 3

9 23

59 18

51 24

47 75

2 1

-4 51

6.5 -14.0

* N.B. THESE FIGURES ARE APPROXIMATE, AS NOT ALL ABSENTEE BALLOTS HAVE BEEN COUNTED, NOT LEAST BECAUSE OVERSEAS AMERICANSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; BALLOTS HAVE NOT BEEN COUNTED. ANALYSIS BY SIR ROBERT WORCESTER AND TOM MLUDZINSKI, IPSOS MORI, LONDON: RMWORCESTER@YAHOO.COM

December 2012 11

The American

PHOTO: JAMES CURRIE

he’d recovered his composure and came out fighting, my best guess was 330, but the last week when Obama’s electoral college number was 303 I’d gone back to ‘just over 300’, taking some comfort that before winning Florida by just under 70,000 votes, I’d have been on the money if Romney had won Florida.

most of the Western states taking to Romney more than they did in 2008, but also in West Virginia. After DC, Hawaii is where Obama does best (obvious, but most audiences I speak to miss it). At the bottom of Table 1 are the turnout figures counted so far (Overseas American votes were not counted until 17 November, to give those posted back home time to arrive in the last state they lived in before moving overseas), but these figures report on some 99% of voters. They show a nearly four million vote margin for Obama over Romney, but that’s a drop of nearly five million voters between 2012 and 2008. Mitt Romney held close to the Republican vote for John McCain in 2008, only some 300,000 fewer, while the President attracted six million fewer supporters. Still, the win for Obama in the popular vote total, of 125+ million, was 3% ahead of Romney, not the level pegging reported right to the wire, and the 332 to 206 Electoral College vote wider than even I predicted towards the end. Early on (in January) I said ‘just over 300 for Obama’; after the third debate when

12 December 2012

Demographics (Table 2, page 11)

Starting on the left of Table 2, you’ll find the 2008 turnout by demographic classifications, and comparing that with the other column labelled ‘Voters’, overall Obama lost two voters out of 100 between his first and second elections. Much is made of the supposed huge turnout of young voters last time compared to the time before and this time. That’s a myth – didn’t happen then, and didn’t happen this time either. The same was true of another myth, that of a few commentators who argued the Republican cause saying that ‘Latinos don’t vote for blacks’, they certainly did in both 2008 and again this time. The Hispanic proportion of voters increased again, but not so much as between 2004 and 2008. And Hispanics did not increase their support for Obama at this election as most media reports would suggest; in fact, while their proportion of voters went up, the balance of their support went down. Four years ago, 71% of Hispanics voted for Obama; this fell to 67% this election. Strong, but not as strong as his first time round. With Asians, there was no change between the elections, with nearly three Asians in four voting Democratic then, and the same this time. Most people are solid supporters who’ve made up their minds long before the election is called or even

contemplated, with ‘yellow-dog Democrats’ (who are said to prefer to vote for a ‘yellow dog on the Democratic ticket than a Republican’) or ‘True-blue’ Republicans, which I confess I don’t understand since the Republican states are coloured red. Six in ten voters said they decided who they’d support before the ‘official’ election began on Labor Day, the first Monday in September. Around three people in four say they’ve decided by the end of September, but one in 25 still were wavering on election day, so they say. Three quarters of White evangelical born-again Christians, a quarter of all voters, voted for Romney. Just over half of all Protestants would have given Romney the White House with a very big electoral college majority, while if they’d stayed home, Obama would have probably carried the House of Representatives with him as well as the Senate. Finally, coming from Kansas City as I do, and he does, congratulations to former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, now Senator Kaine, who was so helpful to the British Committee several years ago when we were with the Queen and Prince Philip at Jamestown, celebrating the 400th anniversary of the founding of the first permanent English-speaking colony in the new world at Jamestown, Virginia. So, that’s it for this election. I do hope the Editor saves me the space in four year’s time for the next American Presidential Election, the best spectator sport I know, and I do like having a seat on the fifty-yard line! H No problem Bob! We’re grateful for your insight and expertise over the last year, and looking forward to next time round. Bring it on! – MB.

The American

Andrew Alexander is Wildly Wrong about American Leaders W

ith election day going by in the Unites States, I am moved to respond to one of a mountain of editorials to emerge from the British print media this autumn. Andrew Alexander’s column in The Daily Mail of 15 August entitled ‘From Dallas to dynasty, JFK’s toxic legacy’ elaborates on the concept of American family dynasties dominating the nation’s – and the world’s – destiny. In a bizarre juxtaposition of British royal families and American leaders, he attempts to draw an analogy between the Kennedys and the fifteenth century Yorkists and Lancastrians. He says ‘The three Yorkist brothers, Edward (later Edward IV), Clarence (later drowned in a vat of Malmsey wine) and Richard (later Richard III and slain at Bosworth) put one in mind of the Kennedy clan.’ Yes, it has been mooted that Joe Kennedy Sr ‘bought’ his sons’ seats in Congress and the White House, and alleged that Kennedy Sr manipulated voting to enhance his son’s chances of winning against ’common man’ Richard Nixon in November 1960. Yes, the Kennedy family had amassed a fortune by the time the sons were entering politics. But it must also be stressed that Joe Jr died for his country in the Second World War and that his surviving sons worked tirelessly to advance their liberal beliefs. Ted Kennedy fought for a British-style NHS all his political life and Bobby was the darling of the left until he was struck down by a Palestinian assassin’s bullet for saying he would support the aspirations of Israel.

Carol Gould takes aim at a Daily Mail columnist’s ‘toxic legacy’ attack on ‘dynastic’ American politics Alexander understands nothing of the trends in American politics. In 1960 the emerging electorate was beginning to reflect the post-war mentality. Young people born in 1939 were able to vote and even their parents, who had seen Dwight Eisenhower through eight years in the White House, wanted change. John Kennedy, born in 1917, was the man of their generation. He represented Democratic liberal views that had been eschewed by the electorate in 1952 and 1956 when Adlai Stevenson had been rejected at the polls. Alexander suggests that having generals as presidents is akin to voting in dictators but never was there a more benign president than the former general, Eisenhower. By the same token does Andrew Alexander not grasp that Americans wanted to show World War II hero Eisenhower their appreciation? Time and again ‘Ike’ made it clear that because he had seen war, he would do his utmost to avoid military entanglements. (It is lamentable that he refused to support France, Israel and Great Britain in the Suez Crisis but his

rejection of military action anywhere was one of his trademark policies.) Alexander suggests military leaders are not suitable to hold high public office but the most warlike presidents of recent memory were Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and George Bush 43. None had held military posts. (I hasten to mention that Lyndon Johnson, despite his atrocious record in the Vietnam war, did pursue with relentless fervour the Civil Rights Act, sacrificing the South to the Republican party in perpetuity but fulfilling his dream of signing the Act in 1964). Yes, George Bush Sr was the head of a political family but it was he who forced hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to come to the table in Madrid and start peace talks with the Arabs. Looking back at American history from its inception some of the greatest writers and orators emanated from high office. What country can boast of men of such sublime leadership, imagination, eloquence and vision as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John and Samuel Adams, Alexander Hamilton

December 2012 13

The American

and James Madison? These men did not spring from some malevolent family dynasty as Andrew Alexander would suggest. What would have become of African Americans without the leadership of Abraham Lincoln? Lincoln was not engendered by a dominating family enterprise but from humble roots. Woodrow Wilson, proponent of the League of Nations and to whom many ascribe the birth of the United Nations, was the son of a clergyman. Yes, Franklin Roosevelt was the product of an immensely wealthy, privileged family, but his patrician origins did not stop him from being accused of being a ’dangerous Socialist.’ In the end he saved Depression-era America from sinking into communism or fascism and was a tireless partner in Churchill’s battle against Nazism. Jimmy Carter, a peanut farmer, spearheaded the historic Sinai settlement between Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin. Bill Clinton came from an impoverished family background but rebuilt the American economy and facilitated eight years of overtures to peace in the Middle East, leading to peace agreements between Israel and Egypt, and Israel and Jordan. Has the United States ever produced a Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini or Pol Pot? No. It came close to tyranny during the hell of the McCarthy era and Watergate. Yes, lives were ruined but the Constitution worked and fascism was buried. The majority of presidents and Cabinet members came from lessthan-patrician backgrounds and the idea that America has been ruled by a string of family dynasties is not compatible with the broad sweep of the nation’s history. H

14 December 2012

George McGovern July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012

Alison Holmes reflects on the politics legacy of the former US Representative, Senator, and presidential nominee

t is strange the way politics seems to move in cycles – and not just the electoral kind. At the time of writing, the United States is going through the final throes of the election process. We have suffered through the long months of primaries in which the Republican Party moved, predictably, almost inevitably, to the right. They also, equally predictably, damaged their candidates in the process. It is an effect of the system that harms both parties equally; albeit with the damage inflicted being dependent on which party is the incumbent and which is the challenger. Then we had the debates: different moderators, different locations, and different styles. The President found it difficult to find his groove, but neither could Romney find any targets that made a difference. However, there is another cycle, an underlying movement of American politics that has also been recently revealed. On the eve of the final debate on foreign affairs, George McGovern peacefully passed away in a hospice in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Known for being a ‘loser’ in the biggest landslide away from a candidate to that point in his 1972 bid for the presidency, McGovern came to be numbered among the rare politicians able ultimately to move on from the loss and rise to his best self in the work he did later in life.

His legacy is interesting and, to some, may look reminiscent of Michael Foot’s Labour Party loss in 1983, in that McGovern was considered too left – too soft, too liberal. However, the similarities end there: unlike Foot, McGovern took his positions from hard-earned experience. The son of a coal miner, minor league baseball player come minister, McGovern spent much of his youth in near poverty. The Depression hit hard in the farming states and he saw first-hand the hunger he would later work so hard to eradicate. He was a shy, average student and he didn’t find a niche until he began debating in high school, only to have the world outside his quiet South Dakota home come crashing in. After Pearl Harbor, McGovern’s instant response was to enlist, but due to the shortage of airfields, he was not immediately required and instead started at a small Wesleyan college until his call came. His years as a B24 pilot over Europe were formative, but, in the way so many veterans of that war chose to remain silent about their experiences, it was not something McGovern used to sell himself in later years, even when it should have helped his cause. McGovern made First Lieutenant and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters, before returning to Wesleyan to finish his college education.

The American

Above: George McGovern in 2009 PHOTO SCOTT CLARKSON

George McGovern speaks to ILGWU supporters at open-air campaign rally October 1972 COURTESY CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Successes and defeat

He pursued higher education in history and politics, seemingly driven by the idea that a combination of knowledge of the past and a willingness to engage in the present was the only way his Wesleyan, Wilsonian convictions could be made reality. He was attracted to Adlai Stevenson and the Progressive Party. He was influenced by the China scholars of the day, becoming convinced that the US policy in South East Asia was not only wrong-headed, it was likely to create a backlash. His teaching career slowly morphed into one in politics, starting small; organizing and managing behind the scenes until the opportunity arose to step in front of the voters with his own voice. In 1956 he stood for the US House of Representatives. A low spender and an unlikely winner, he bucked the odds and came home in a late surge in his favour. However, the seeds were already being planted that his support for the Progressive party and his support for China joining the United Nations indicated a latent Communist tendency. Two terms later, he decided to raise his sights and run for Senate but lost

soundly. It was this first loss that began what some might call his ‘real’ career – although he didn’t see it himself for some time – in that he became President Kennedy’s special advisor for Food for Peace until the other senatorial seat arose and he became Senator McGovern in 1962. He continued to work on food issues, though the rising tensions in South East Asia became his primary focus. He was opposed to the war in Vietnam from the beginning and said so – regularly and with force. It was this issue perhaps most responsible for his move, in the eyes of many, from the classic moderate liberal to something further to the left. The death of Robert Kennedy galvanized him to stand for the presidential nomination in 1968, which he lost resoundingly, though he continued to fight from his position in the Senate. It was the 1972 presidential fight that most remember about McGovern. It is a classic campaigning cautionary tale in that he became associated with, and brought down by, a confluence of attitudes and issues that were not only inaccurate, but even tragic in the Greek sense. His reluctance to speak of his war record

allowed others to paint him as soft on security; his belief in openness and opposition to secrecy at the international level allowed his opponents to project him as ‘encouraging the enemy’; his attempts at reform of the Democratic Party created a party of factions that combined against him. He was beaten hollow, winning only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. Yet, as we look to the electoral scene as it stands today, there are a number of things for which we remain grateful to McGovern. His work on hunger and poverty above all, but also his creation of a grass roots campaign operation, often overlooked, but which forms the real basis of the style and form credited to the Obama campaign in 2008. His emphasis on food as part of an overall program of development and aid finds a voice today in Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s approach to diplomacy. Most hidden of all, the generation of people who worked on or were inspired by his doomed run for office reads like a roll call of the progressive voices in American political life. We could do no better than aspire to the record of such a ‘loser’. H

December 2012 15

The American

PHOTO LINDA POLLARD

Left: Yarn bombings Above: Stitch learners PHOTO © LAUREN O’FARRELL

PHOTO © LAUREN O’FARRELL

Knit Up A Community I

t never hurts to have a hobby, especially if you’re new in town. Expatriates know all about getting to know the locals by taking a class or joining a church group. Even better, if you’re a knitter, is to find others as passionate about the craft as you are. Matriculation Day at Oxford was packed. My husband and I had moved to England so recently that jet lag still had me in its grip. I slept through my alarm and had to dash for the ceremony in the Sheldonian Theatre. And from there for a three-day weekend in Wales with women from all over Great Britain and abroad. By the time I left Wales, I had plans for the following weekend – a birthday celebration in a London pub, meeting even more people. How did I get so connected when I’d just arrived? Easy: knitting. My move to England was preceded by two summers here, during which I explored the British knitting community. Just by attending workshops and participating in kooky projects like making tiny hats for juice bottles, I found people with whom I shared a passion and who

16 December 2012

were willing to talk to me about life in England. If you’re already a knitter, or willing to learn, the craft can be your entrée to new friends and a new understanding of British culture. As expat Alissa Goldman Ede explains, “what is especially great [about knitting groups] is meeting people from all walks of life who share a common interest.” Ede had used knitting groups through the American Clubs of Amsterdam and Hertfordshire as ways to meet people, but when she moved to the village of Saffron Walden, there were fewer Americans. She turned to the Internet: fiberphile social network Ravelry had just begun, so Ede created a group for knitters in her area. “When there was critical mass, we decided to meet in a pub.” Just a few years later, Ede is part of a posse of knitters in the village that participates in several knittingrelated events a year. There are two new yarn retailers in town, including one online store, Twist Yarns, that was founded by a member of the group. “It is lovely to have people come and go of all abilities and ages,” says Ede. “My favorite thing is having

By Kathleen Lawton-Trask

the opportunity to chat with people in different generations. Our group now is eclectic: it has mothers of small children, grandmothers, some men, and all ages. It’s really nice in that most of us don’t know each other outside of knitting, and it is knitting that brought us together.” Jan Hartwell of Sussex agrees, although she doesn’t rely solely on knitting groups – she gets to know people by knitting in public. “I knit on the train to work, in cafes in London, and anywhere else I go and it gives people the courage to approach me.” When she goes on vacation, Hartwell connects with knitters through a local yarn shop: “When I’m on holiday in Dorset, I go to two local yarn shops there, Bridport Yarn in Bridport and Nessie’s Yarn and Crafts in Beaminster. They greet me like a long-lost family member and I have a great time at their knit and natter groups.” Hartwell says that getting to know knitters has helped her with some of the more mysterious aspects of British culture. “When I started going to knitting group… I watched very carefully to see how they handled

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the tea. Boy have I learned! The pot, the tray, the cups and saucers, the biscuits, the whole nine yards.” So, how can knitting introduce you to a new side of Britain?

Go Online

Lots of knitting groups – from formal workshops to casual meet-ups – live online. www.ravelry.com should be your first stop when looking for a local group, but Twitter has its place, too. I found out about the retreat in Wales from a tweet, and I’ve met several local knitters that way, as well.

Shop Local

One of the first things I did when I found out I’d be spending time in Oxford was find a local yarn shop (known as an LYS among knitters). My experience of yarn shops here is that they’re smaller than those in the United States, but just as friendly. Oxford doesn’t have a true yarn shop, but my search for one led me to a group that meets weekly in a local pub to knit and chat.

Take A Class

Another way to get to know knitters is through classes: a beginner’s or advanced course through your local knitting shop, or one of several workshops, retreats, and conferences held annually in Britain. I attended Knit Nation my first summer here, and UK Knit Camp the second. Both offered opportunities to get to know both teachers and other knitters, but I really struck gold with the Welsh retreat. Plug & Play Pembrokeshire

18 December 2012

(www.facebook.com/P3alumni) is run by two of the greats of the knitting community, Amy Singer of online magazine Knitty (www.knitty. com) and Brenda Dayne of the CastOn podcast (http://cast-on.com), herself an American expat. I had been in the country just a few weeks when I went to Wales, and spending some time with like-minded Britons (and a few Americans) was just what I needed to feel like I belonged. Alternatively, try a group like Stitch London (www.stitchLDN.com), offering free knitting classes monthly. The organizers are encouraging the development of local offshoots, so now’s the perfect time to learn to knit or even volunteer to teach others. Plus, they arrange amazing yarn-bombings as well (more on those later).

Knit Your Bit

There are lots of charity knitting projects, from local groups knitting scarves for the needy to national programs like Innocent Drinks’ Big Knit (www.innocentdrinks. co.uk/bigknit) and The Big Issue’s Big Knitathon (www.bigissue.org.uk/ event/big-knitathon). Stitch London organizes several charity events each year. All are opportunities to help people and get to know the locals.

Go Crazy

In guerilla knitting (aka yarn bombing), in which individuals or groups create knitted items and install them

PHOTOS: HTTP://CHOPKINS2011.BLOGSPOT.COM/

in some public place (see photo, below), has cropped up all over the Commonwealth, especially around events like the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics. Last year, as part of the Saffron Walden Maze Festival, local knitters covered the town’s antique turf maze in knitted material (with permission, of course). The “knitted maze” celebrated both Saffron Walden’s knitting community and its two historic mazes. Projects like this are sometimes shrouded in mystery, but some groups publish plans for all to see – and are looking for help. I knitted several yards of material for the maze months before coming to England; the women I met through the maze gave me great advice on settling into Oxford. Stitch London is a great resource for yarn bombing opportunities and advice; subscribe to their newsletter to get started. Or if all this seems overwhelming, you might simply…

Hit the Pub (or Café, or Park)

In other words, knit in public. Worldwide Knit in Public Day (www. wwkipday.com) comes just once a year, but you can knit in your favorite public place any time. You’ll be sure to have people asking about your work, showing you theirs, or even pestering you for a lesson.  For Kathleen’s own knitting blog, visit www.knitlikeyoumeanit.com

The American

December 2012 19

The American

WINING & DINING Reviews by Virginia E Schultz

The DIAMOND JUBILEE TEA SALON at

FORTNUM &MASON M

y friend Louise was in London for only two days recently, and since there was no time for lunch or dinner, and she was staying at the Ritz Hotel, I suggested we have tea at nearby Fortnum & Mason. Recently opened by the Queen, the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duchess of

20 December 2012

Fortnum & Mason, 181 Piccadilly, London W1A 1ER Telephone: 0845 602 5694

Cambridge, the salon is located on the fourth floor in what was formerly the St. James Restaurant (opened in 1957, F&M’s 250th anniversary). The salon was designed by David Collins Studio in a Georgian manner, and the decor and table service are the familiar Fortnum’s duck-egg blue, with added touches of turquoise and pale green in the carpeting and upholstery. Perhaps it was the very Englishness of my surroundings, but I recalled reading recently that during the Roaring Twenties, the tradition of taking tea between lunch and dinner was considered a necessity by both English aristocrats and wealthy Americans in order to survive the cocktails and champagne they’d be downing later that evening.

Fortnum’s, the Queen’s grocer, has been serving tea since 1707, and sitting at the tables (which are discreetly positioned far enough apart so you can’t hear the conversation next to you), I was glad we dressed appropriately in Armani and Ralph Lauren – this is not a place I would have been comfortable wearing jeans and a T-shirt. The salon offers over 150 different kinds of tea, all of which are available on the shop floor. Sand timers are used with different coloured sands to match the tea you selected, and these run out when the tea is brewed. If you like tea and want to learn more about it, the salon encompasses not only a restaurant, but a tea tasting room as well.

The American

LANGAN’S BRASSERIE Stratton Street, London W1J 8LB Tel: 020 7491 8822

Afternoon tea serves the traditional sandwiches of smoked salmon, but we also tried three of the more exotic additions of Coronation chicken, Jersey Royals topped with a duck egg, and a blini with crème fraîche and caviar. Then came the cake stand, with chewy macaroons and scones that were so buttery and tasty one didn’t have to add the delicious strawberry jam and cream (...except how could we resist?). Resistance took a further dive as the marble cake trolley arrived with all kinds of sweet delicacies, including a cheese cake that was just about the best I ever tasted, and a pink icing angel cake that was as heavenly as its name. Everything, I was told, had been freshly made by Jane Smith, and if I don’t see her name on a cake mix box someday, I shall be surprised. Sipping my Earl Grey tea, I found myself recalling having tea with an elderly cousin of my grandfather whose wealth was lost during the depression, but who’d entertain my grandmother and I with tea poured from a cracked Royal Crown Derby teapot into delicate matching cups she bought on her honeymoon in Europe, before World War I. It is expensive, £80 per two, but if you’re in the mood to feel regal and be treated accordingly, this is the place to go. There are a series of special events offered during the year, and I plan when possible to visit the beehives on Fortnum’s roof from which all their delicious honey comes.

t was almost twenty years since Maxine Howe and I were in Langan’s on Stratton Street, but as we sat looking at what still seemed familiar surroundings it was as if we had been there a few weeks before. Paintings by well-known artists, including those who donated paintings in exchange for lunch and dinner during the sixties, seventies and eighties, line the cluttered walls. People seem to come and stay for hours, and it was definitely not eat and run. Many of the diners knew each other, stopping to chat before they went on to their tables, and by the time Maxine and I left five hours after arriving, we were calling the table of five next to us by their first names. There remains a kind of club atmosphere in Langan’s Brasserie that is missing in many restaurants today, which may not appeal to everyone, but Maxine and I liked it. In fact, I wouldn’t hesitate to eat there on my own. Langan’s was the creation of Peter Langan, often described as the original Gordon Ramsey.

It was an immediate success but, because of Peter’s inebriated antics the restaurant began to have problems until Richard Shepherd, then head chef at the Capital Hotel, was recruited. The Managing Directorship is now under the helm of the larger-than-life Brian Clivaz, formerly of the Arts Club, whom I met when I was a member a few years ago. With Richard no longer in the kitchen, the new menu will be overseen by Liam Smith-Laing, formerly of La Petite Maison and Petrus. Maxine and I arrived at one and didn’t leave until six. But then, looking around, we weren’t the only diners who stayed on and on. People kept coming and going, some, like the people next to us, enjoying dinner before going on to a concert at the Royal Albert Hall. There were no waiters hurrying you, even though every table was mostly occupied. Anything

December 2012 21

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in dress more or less goes, whether you’re wearing smart casual, tie and suit, an open shirt and jeans, or a black sheer outfit that showed off a figure I could only jealously envy.

22 December 2012

We started with Champagne and rolls that were so warm the butter deliciously melted when I bit into the rich and crunchy crust. Maxine had the Souﬄé aux Épinards (£11.50) with the most delicious anchovy sauce I’d ordinarily turn my nose up at instead of ‘borrowing’ and sprinkling on my Scotch scallops with chorizo and parsley (£14.50). I was unable to resist a bite of Maxine’s very good fish pie (£18.50), when she described it as the best fish pie she’d had anywhere. I couldn’t disagree. I debated having the Beef and fois gras burger with onion rings (£17.50), but having just got over the flu, decided on Grilled calves’ liver and bacon (£21), and it was as delicious as I had anywhere. Maxine had several glasses of Rhône, which I, of course, only sampled as I was driving. There were other favourites such as Muscadet

and Châteauneuf du Pape and New World wines from Australia, New Zealand, Spain, South Africa and California. There is a small selection of desserts. Maxine’s Brownie with vanilla ice cream and the most delicious thick and yummy warm chocolate sauce (£8.50) was definitely the winner, and I regretted having crème brûlée (£7.50). Crème brûlée is crème brûlée, what else can I say? After seeing they serve Omelette “Arnold Bennett” (£8.50) and Eggs “Benedict” (£9.50) at breakfast, we definitely plan to return in the very near future. Service was perfect and our waiter couldn’t have been more delightful or helpful. Prices aren’t cheap and adding a cover charge, no matter how small, rather annoys me, but then after the time we spent enjoying ourselves there I suppose I shouldn’t complain.

The Best Fine Dining Italian Restaurant in Surrey A warm welcome to La Capanna, The fine dining Italian Restaurant in Cobham, Surrey. La Capanna is the perfect lunch and dinner venue for romantic occasions, socialising with friends, Sunday lunches, family celebrations, parties, weddings and for business lunches and corporate events (Private Rooms and seating up to 120). Our chefs serve Italian regional cuisine with a contemporary twist. The food is freshly cooked to order, our wine list extensive and our staff take pride in taking great care of you and your guests.

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The Egerton House Hotel If you are cold, tea will warm you – If you are too heated, it will cool you – If you are depressed, it will cheer you – If you are excited, it will calm you.

ueen Victoria’s Prime Minister, William Gladstone, wrote the words above in 1865 and I thought of them while enjoying tea at The Egerton House Hotel recently. I adore coffee and I don’t know how I’d start my day without it, but come afternoon after a hectic day, there is nothing more relaxing than sitting down and enjoying a cup of tea. The history of tea crosses boundaries of culture and class and even started a war, as our own American history proves, when a group of patriots boarded an English ship and dumped hundreds of boxes of tea into the Boston Harbour. It was Thomas Lipton, during the Victorian age, who made “affordable” tea available in Britain. Tea’s popularity soon created a huge industry of tea-related paraphernalia from china to silver, linen to lace, to reflect the advantage of manufacturing. I have a collection of tea cups from the late 18th to the late 19th century and, as I serve tea to friends, I often think of

24 December 2012

the people who drank from them, whether they were celebrating a special occasion or even comforting a friend. Of course, none of that was going through my mind as I stopped for tea at The Egerton House. I first got to know this small hotel – part of the Red Carnation Hotels – when friends stayed there during the Chelsea Flower show and we had a special tea inspired by the event. But, with the holidays on us, and with its closeness to Harrods and Harvey Nichols, it’s a wonderful place to rest one’s weary feet and enjoy a proper tea poured from a lovely porcelain tea pot into a matching cup, as I discovered one very rainy afternoon. The freshest of finger sandwiches are served along with warm scones and as I sat there on my own, watching the rain beat at the window, I decided all was right with the world as long as I could have my afternoon cup of tea. If, however, you decide something

17 Egerton Terrace, London SW3 2BX Telephone 020 7589 2412 Opening Hours: Tea served from 3 to 6, Martinis whenever you like. alcoholic might be more relaxing, ask head barman, Antonio Pizzuto, to make you one of his Martinis that would please James Bond. Whether he shakes or stirs, I’m not certain, but they are about the best Martinis I’ve enjoyed in London. H

The American

Cellar Talk By Virginia E Schultz

Christmas Tipples

hen my children were very young, we stayed home at Christmas and on Boxing Day (the 26th December) would invite friends in for egg nog. This was a time when people weren’t conscious about their weight, and the egg nog my husband made was eggs, cream, milk and bourbon that had more calories per glass than most of us want to consume in one day. Because we had turkey at Thanksgiving, I usually made Coca Cola baked Virginia ham at Christmas. This was a southern recipe I learned to make when I lived in South Carolina and was a favorite of everyone. The next day I’d prepare boneless breast of chicken and serve it with the left over ham and Madeira sauce. Although I was starting to be interested in wine, I hadn’t reached the stage where I worried about what kind I had to serve at dinner. Because of the cost, Champagne was rarely offered and we usually drank it only on New Year’s Eve or on some special occasion. Other times it was either white or red wine and sometimes a sparkling New World wine. On New Year’s Day, I always served pork, sometimes with sauerkraut and other times with the pan juices made into gravy which my family preferred. With this meal, my husband had a beer while I drank whatever wine we happened to have in the cupboard, or, if none (horror), Coca Cola or water.

Nowadays, too often we find ourselves worrying as much about the wine that is to be served with Christmas dinner as the dinner itself. Which is a pity, because dinner is to be enjoyed with friends and family, and frankly, after all the richness and spiciness of the meal, the last thing one should be concerned about is serving a premier cru which even the most expert of wine connoiseurs can’t appreciate after eating cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli and cauliflower, to name three dishes often found on the holiday table. Sometimes I put two bottles on the table, a white, red or even rosé, letting my guests choose for themselves. Unless the meal is deliberately planned around the wine I’m not bothered if a friend brings a wine which they insist I must serve, and there are times I found to my surprise the unexpected and unwanted wine actually was as good as one I planned to offer. Of course, there were times it’s been the reverse. I’m not saying you should choose the cheapest wine on sale in the supermarket, but pick one you enjoy. I recently enjoyed Valdobbiadene Prosecco (£6.99) bought at Aldi and definitely plan to buy a few bottles to have over Christmas.

Frankly, I preferred this to some of the cheaper Champagnes I’ve been offered at double the price. There’s enough fuss being made on buying presents and cooking dinner without getting all shook up over what guests should be drinking with the dinner. Open two bottles, stick them in the middle of the table, and enjoy your friends and family. H

WINE OF THE MONTH Cuvée Royale Brut NV Crémant de Limoux (£10) Definitely lowbrow, a friend said while sipping this one evening as we dined on turkey salad with pecans and dried cranberries. With its hint of pear jam and cream soda, this blend of Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Pinot Noir may not be served at the Queen’s banquet but definitely will be on my table, especially at this price.

December 2012 25

The American

The

Old Swan & MINSTER MILL

he perfect place to stay in Minster Lovell is The Old Swan & Minster Mill, owned by American Lana de Savary. Staying here is like being a guest in a lovely old house that’s also the village pub, but with all the luxuries of a hotel, 65 acres of gardens, meadows and woodland to wander in, and the little touches and excellent service you’d expect from an American host. Prepare to be pampered. There are cosy sitting rooms and snugs to lounge in, the well thought out bedrooms have quality bed linen and towels, Wi-Fi and flat screen TVs, modern bathrooms, and little touches like fresh flowers, a small decanter of home-made sloe gin and a Spongebob Squarepants hot water bottle (also available to buy!) in case we needed it. We stayed in the Richard III suite, replete with a C15th ‘Sun in Splendour’ wall decoration (another favorite Richard III motif). With over 600 years of history, the 16 beamed guest rooms in

26 December 2012

Reviewed by Sabrina Sully the Old Swan are very romantic, and there are 46 country-contemporary style bedrooms, smaller in scale and budget in the Minster Mill next door. It was developed as a conference center by a previous owner and can still be used as such. Family rooms and some dog-friendly rooms are available. The superb food is prepared by Kenyan Head Chef David Mwiti and his team, using locally sourced fresh seasonal produce where possible. You can catch them harvesting many of the vegetables and herbs in the garden, or collect your own breakfast egg from the rescued battery hens who now have a lovely run with straw bales to jump on. We had dinner in the Lovell Room, the original, C15th oakbeamed dining hall, complete with large fireplace & log fire. Whilst we studied the menu we had a welcome glass of light and slightly nutty

The American

house Champagne, nibbling the home cooked rye bread and a really light, fresh tapenade that was delicious (we hope to persuade David to part with this recipe for you). As well as the á la carte menus, a daily changing Specials board brings more unusual ingredients to the table each day. The starter of Fresh Devon Crab and River Windrush Crayfish Cocktail, served with dressed leaves and Melba toast (£9.50) is a great marriage of the rich flavour of the crab combining with the chunkier texture of delicately flavored Crayfish that I shall try myself. The Old Swan Home Smoked Salmon (served warm) with chilli tomato and home-made dill salsa (£8.50) was definitely to write home about. A fresh, succulent fillet with a real smokey flavor, the sea salt crystals on the top gave it crunch, but perhaps a little too much saltiness. Our waitress assured us that it was relatively simple and quick to do, but David and his team are obviously masters. The Baked Gruyere Cheese & Baby Onion Tart with wild rocket and red chard salad (Vegetarian £8) was a gossamer delight of cheesy tang and caramelised onion sweetness in a crisp pastry case. We also tried the Seared Dry King Scallops with shaved fennel, sorrel salad and sauce vierge (£9) which were sweet delights, although we found the leaves and dressing a little bitter. There is a fresh ‘soup of the day’ every day, and another diner confirmed that it was superb.

For mains my partner chose the Grilled Wild Boar Haunch Steak with caramelised apples, caraway and cider jus (£22.95), served with small well-roasted carrots and beetroot, crisp, fresh broccoli, mange touts and mash. The boar was perfectly cooked, and the slight gaminess lifted it from ordinary pork, the sweetness of the carrots and beetroot contrasting with the clean freshness of the broccoli and mange touts. All served with a very good, unstrained gravy with baby onions in it. My Wychwood Forest Venison Haunch Steak with olive mash & juniper berry jus (£21.95) was tender, not overhung and cooked perfectly, with a ‘proper’ rich, meaty gravy flavored with juniper berries. On our second evening, the Chargrilled 28 day aged hung 8oz Oxfordshire Farm Sirloin Steak with roasted cherry vine tomatoes, wild Cotswold mushrooms and Old Swan peppercorn sauce (£22) tasted as good as it sounds. The steak was a perfect medium rare, the tender meat packed with flavor, the sauce robust enough to complement the meat perfectly. The accompanying vegetables were perfectly cooked, and there were triple-cooked chips! Heaven on a plate. Expect unu-

sual flavor pairings from David – I wouldn’t have thought to put fennel oil on the steak, but the slight aniseed worked perfectly. To accompany the mains we had a glass of Argentinian Anubis Mendoza Malbec (£38 a bottle), a soft, velvety wine, with a mouth of raspberry, blackcurrant, cherry and gentle vanilla, rounded with a follow-through of warm spice and chocolate, rich enough to complement the dishes. I will be getting some of this for my wine rack. All the portions were a good size, just what you want if you’ve been imbibing country air all day. We felt that we should sample the puddings, for the sake of this report in The American, and although tempted by the Traditional Eton Mess with seasonal berries and home-made berry coulis (£6.90), I eventually chose the Williams Pear and Almond Tart with Vanilla Ice Cream (£6.90). The ice was homemade (of course), the pear fragrant, lying on a frangipane bed in a crisp light pastry. My partner had the Old Swan Garden Rhubarb and Lemon Verbena Panna Cotta with home-made shortbread (£6.90). The shortbread was everything it should be, and the dessert was delightfully delicate. We also shared the Selection

December 2012 27

of Artisan West Country Cheese with celery, grapes, home-made chutney and crackers (£9.90), including the classic cheddar and a local blue cheese. The cheeses were well selected, the grapes and celery crisp, the home-made crackers excellent. But it doesn’t stop there! The extensive digestif list includes five of the Old Swan’s own whiskies, a great selection of bourbons, brandies, Calvados and port. I’m told by a whisky-loving Scot that the Old Swan Highland whisky is extremely good: smooth and deep. Gastro-Gusto Luxury Foodie Sampler: Until 31st March 2013, a Minster Mill Garden Room for two, complimentary decanter of sloe gin, full English or Continental breakfast and three course dinner each evening or alternatively, a picnic or packed lunch for two. Two nights Sunday to Thursday costs £450. Friday to Saturday is £495. A third night with dinner and breakfast can be added for only £195. Good value. Open 7 days a week, 365 days a year for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but do book in advance to avoid disappointment. Tip: It can get very busy in summer, so if you long for log fires, real ales, good wines and wintry walks, this is a perfect autumn/winter destination. www.oldswanandminstermill.com

28 December 2012

PHOTO: ERIC MEYER

The American

ESCAPES the

Hidden Jewelof the

Cotswolds S

tep into Inspector Morse country. Imagine a perfect weekend in the Cotswolds: after collecting your own eggs, eat a hearty breakfast then set out for a walk from the center of a tiny, picturesque village, a mill stream burbling beside the road. Amble through an old churchyard and discover romantic, picturesque ruins beside a lazy river, learning the place’s medieval history from a local enthusiast. Walk across fields where Romano British farmed, then back past pretty thatched cottages before retreating to a lovely old country pub, to sit before a roaring fire, chat and play board games. After that, a superb supper, and so to bed in a half-timbered room that dates to C15th, where Richard III may have stayed, or so the rumour goes. Next day amuse yourself with

The ancient Tithe Barn in Minster Lovell PHOTO: ERIC MEYER

fly and coarse fishing (learn how to catch brown trout), tennis, boules, croquet, badminton, horse-riding gym, a relaxing spa treatment, or just sit and listen to the gurgling river while you read the papers. Result: return home rested and refreshed. You’re in Minster Lovell, the perfect base to explore the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. Often described as ‘the hidden jewel of Oxfordshire’ it’s only 2½ miles from Witney, about eleven from Oxford (don’t miss the chance to visit the Ashmolean Museum and see the Minster Lovell Jewell discovered in the village and dating back to King Alfred’s time, C9th). It comprises three parts: Old Minster is the main village, separated from the small hamlet of Little Minster by the River Windrush, and New Minster, a ‘new’ Victorian development. It’s only 3 miles from RAF Brize Norton, an American base from 1945 to 1965, and (half-American) Winston Churchill’s birthplace and country seat Blenheim Palace isn’t far, nor are beautiful Cotswold towns like Burford. In Medieval times the Cotswolds’ wealth was built on wool. Mention nearby Witney (David Cameron’s consituency) to most Brits and they’ll say ‘blankets!’, a strange retort until you realise that since the Middle Ages Witney was synonymous with the best woolen blankets. The water

The American

chest), never to be found until it was too late. Another is purported to be Francis, Lord Lovell, Richard III’s childhood friend and staunch ally, one of the richest, most powerful men in England and the last Lovell. The famous couplet “The Catte, the Ratte and Lovell our dogge rulyth all Englande under a hogge” was pinned to St Paul’s Cathedral by a Tudor sympathiser, referring to Sir William Catesby (whose descendent Robert Catesby planned the Gunpowder Plot), Sir Richard Ratcliffe, and Lord Lovell, whose family crest was a dog – the hog being Richard III whose emblem was a white wild boar. After Richard III was killed in the War of the Roses at Bosworth Field in 1485, Lovell returned with an army intent upon ousting the Lancastrian (Tudor) Henry VII to replace him with the Yorkist pretender Lambert Simnel. The uprising ended in defeat at the battle of Stoke Field (Nottinghamshire) in 1487. It is said that Lovell, a fugitive, returned to Minster Lovell Hall and, with the help of his trusty servant, hid in a secret room within the walls. The servant suddenly died and Francis died of starvation. In 1708, some workmen found a secret chamber containing the skeleton of a man seated at a table, his dog at his feet. The skeleton is said to be that of Francis, but could have more to do with the Catholic troubles in later Tudor times. With the fall of the Yorkist throne and the Lovells, the manor and its lands were granted to Jasper Tudor, uncle of Henry VII. It was bought in 1603 by Sir Edward Coke, an influential judge whose statements were used to justify the right to silence in England and Wales – his ‘Statute of Monopolies’ was one of the first conflicts between Parliament and monarch that led to the English Civil

The Minster Lovel Jewel PHOTO COURTESY THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM PHOTO: ERIC MEYER

for the production of these blankets was drawn from the River Windrush, which was believed to be their secret, and why there are so many mills on the river. The Blanket Hall in Witney’s High Street was built in 1721 for weighing and measuring blankets, but sadly the last blanket maker closed in 2002. Although Minster Lovell is now a delightful backwater, the Roman Akeman Street ran through woodland along’s its northern boundary. It is a popular retreat. 1960s Prime Minister Harold Wilson spent his honeymoon at The Old Swan pub, two incumbents of the House of Lords have houses here, and you may catch a glimpse of a famous TV face while you’re out and about. You descend into the village down a narrow one-way road, crossing the Windrush (which, incidentally, gave its name to the ship which brought the first wave of Jamaicans to England in 1948) over an old bridge by the cricket field, before passing The Old Swan, a 15th coaching inn (see our review in this issue). The picture-perfect ruins of Minster Lovell Hall (pictured above left) are approached through the churchyard of St Kenelm’s church. There’s been a church here since the C9th, the current church built by the Lovells in 1450. The 15th century site comprises a fine hall, tower and complete dovecote, all designed as a symbol of great wealth. It’s open to the public and free, and local families come to walk, play and picnic on the grass. The village is named ‘Lovell’ for the wealthy family who lived here from the C13th. Said to be haunted, several legends are told of the ruins. One ghost is said to be that of a young bride who on her wedding day proposed a game of Hide & Seek, ran off and hid in a coffer (a large

War. In America, Coke’s decision in Dr. Bonham’s Case (‘when an Act of Parliament is against common right and reason, or repugnant, or impossible to be performed, the common law will control it, and adjudge such an Act to be void’) was used to justify the voiding of the Stamp Act in 1765, which led to the American War of Independence. Coke’s writings profoundly influenced the Third and Fourth amendments to the US Constitution while necessitating the Sixteenth. A later Coke, Thomas, was created Baron Lovel in 1728, then 1st Earl of Leicester. He lost a large part of his fortune in the South Sea Bubble financial crash (1720), so abandoned Minster Lovell Hall in 1747 as ‘too old fashioned and expensive to run’, partially dismantling it and taking the stone to north Norfolk to build the Palladian Holkham Hall. His loss, our gain as he left the most picturesque ruins for us to enjoy. H

December 2012 29

The American

CHOICE Jonathan Yeo: Some People Eleven 11 Eccleston Street, London, SW1W 9LX www.elevenfineart.com To December 8

Marcos Raya, Untitled (family portrait: grandma), 2005. Collage COURTESY THE ARTIST / THE RICHARD HARRIS COLLECTION

Japanese Ivory Okimono, c.1880 WELLCOME IMAGES, COURTESY THE RICHARD HARRIS COLLECTION

Death: The Richard Harris Collection Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, NW1 2BE www.wellcomecollection.org To February 24 ‘Tis the season to be jolly, but if the “fa-la-la”s come as naturally to you as Wednesday Addams, do not miss this phenomenal celebration of cultural representations of death, collected by Richard Harris (the Chicago art dealer, not the actor). Anatomical drawings, depictions of war, Incan skulls, and imagery, from the disturbing to the moving, are to be found alongside Rembrandt, Dürer, Goya, Warhol and Mapplethorpe.

30 December 2012

With the festive season upon us, there’s a forgivable ‘product’ angle to some of this month’s arts highlights, and Eleven’s ‘Some People’ coincides with Jonathan Yeo’s first portfolio of prints. The artist’s celebrity sitters makes him one of the world’s most prominent portrait artists, and he will also be featured in Michael Parkinson’s Masterclass on Sky Arts, December 11. The National Portrait Gallery will also be hosting a solo exhibition of his work in the coming year.

The Scottish Colourist Series: S.J. Peploe Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 2 73 Belford Road, Edinburgh EH4 3DS www.nationalgalleries.org To June 23

Jonathan Yeo, Nicole, 2012, archival ink jet print on Somerset Satin 330gsm paper, hand finished with acrylic paint IMAGE COURTESY OF ELEVEN, LONDON

If your perception of the Scottish demeanor is dourness and solemnity, acquaint yourself with the vibrancy of the Scottish Colourists. Taking their cues from both the Glasgow Boys and the French Impressionists, this Post-Impressionist movement (to this day – and certainly in their own – globally underrated), is most prominently represented by Samuel Peploe, who was influenced throughout his life by the bright light of perhaps sunnier climes.

Above: Mariko Mori, Transcircle 1.1, 2004, stone, corian, LED, control system. © MARIKO MORI STUDIO / PHOTO: OLE HEIN PEDERSEN

Left: Samuel John Peploe, Tulips and Fruit, c.1919, Oil on canvas. PRIVATE COLLECTION IMAGE COURTESY OF SCOTTISH NATIONAL GALLERY OF MODERN ART

The American

LAST CHANCE TO SEE...

Jo Taylor, Tempestuous Horse.

John Constable R.A., The Leaping Horse, 1825, Oil on canvas.

PHOTO: JOHN HAMMOND

Bowled over by War Horse? You may love this. If you don’t know Lancastrian Jo Taylor’s work and missed her solo exhibition at the Victoria Gallery, Liverpool at the start of the year, catch her increasingly lauded and collectable anatomical equestrian sketches in the horse racing environment of Newmarket, for a few days only.

Constable, Gainsborough, Turner and the making of Landscape The John Madejski Fine Rooms, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD www.royalacademy.org.uk December 8 to February 17 If English tradition is why you love it here, the former state rooms of Burlington House have English landscape painting’s finest – John Constable, Thomas Gainsborough, JMW Turner – central to a display of 150 works exploring the development of the British school of landscape painting during the 18th and 19th centuries...

Mariko Mori: Rebirth The Royal Academy of Arts, 6 Burlington Gardens, London W1S 3ET www.royalacademy.org.uk December 13 to February 17 ...while for something less English, the RA also offers the first major exhibition in London of NY-based Japanese artist Mariko Mori’s work for 14 years. Reflecting the past decade of her work, this exhibition examines themes of death (yes, more death) and rebirth in sound, sculpture, and contemplative installations.

Jo Taylor (Solo Exhibition) The Jockey Club Rooms, 101 High St., Newmarket, Suffolk CB8 8JL www.mcmastertims.co.uk December 1-4

Judy Chicago, The Crowning, 2009, lithograph IMAGE COURTESY OF DONALD WOODMAN

Judy Chicago Ben Uri, The London Jewish Museum of Art, 108a Boundary Road, London NW8 0RH. www.benuri.org.uk To March 10 This major exhibition of American contemporary and influential feminist artist Judy Chicago lends context to works by Louise Bourgeois, Helen Chadwick and Tracey Emin (also presented here), and includes 140 small drawings from her highly personal Autobiography of a Year, and the debut of print series Retrospective in a Box. For fans of Chicago, we also recommend the show’s heavilyillustrated 200 page hardback book, edited by Rachel Dickson, Head of Curatorial Services at Ben Uri.

On The Road: Jack Kerouac’s manuscript scroll

British Library, London NW1 2DB www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/kerouac To December 27 Maybe not strictly ‘art’, but this month is the last chance to catch, at the British Library, Jack Kerouac’s 1951 continuous-scroll manuscript for On The Road, typed on leaves of tracing paper taped together to avoid gaps in his creative flow – certainly an artifact of great note.

On the Road manuscript PHOTO COURTESY OF CHRISTIE’S, NEW YORK

December 2012 31

The American

Steve Cropper and The Animals & Friends Founder member of Booker T & The MG’s, The Mar-Keys and The Blues Brothers. Co-writer of (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay, Knock On Wood and In The Midnight Hour. In-demand session musician and producer. Steve Cropper is a legend. The tour’s a co-headliner with The Animals & Friends, the band famous for House Of The Rising Sun and We Gotta Get Out Of This Place. Original members John Steel and Mick Gallagher are joined by John E. Williamson and Peter Bart. The venues are intimate, so go see The Colonel close up: January 22nd, 2013, Nottingham, Rock City; 23rd Norwich, University of East Anglia LCR; 25th Milton Keynes, The Stables; 26th London, Islington Assembly Hall; 28th Glasgow, O2 ABC; 30th Wimborne, Tivoli Theatre; 31st Bilston, Robin 2; February 1st Holmfirth, Picturedrome; 5th Frome, Cheese & Grain; 6th Tonbridge, West Kent College; 11th Crewe, The Box; 12th Cardiff, The Globe; 13th Doncaster, Civic Theatre.

Madness

MUSIC

LIVE AND KICKING Madness

The ‘Nutty Boys’, the 1980s skarevival band that outlived their genre to become one of Britain’s great pop groups, are back, following the release of Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da, their 10th studio album. It features cover artwork by Sir Peter ‘Sergeant Pepper’ Blake of various rejected album titles including Doolally and Dial M for Madness. A perfect pre-Christmas jolly can be yours at the following gigs: November 30th, Cardiff, Motorpoint Arena (6pm); December 1st, Brighton Centre (two shows, 2:30pm & 7pm); 3rd Bournemouth BIC; 4th Plymouth Pavilions; 6th Nottingham Capital FM Arena; 7th Liverpool Echo Arena; 8th Newcastle Metro Radio Arena; 10th Glasgow SECC; 11th Sheffield, Motorpoint Arena; 13th Birmingham, LG Arena; 14th & 22nd London, O2 Arena.

Stone Sour

The Iowa rockers have announced a second London show to their December UK tour schedule due to public demand. Expect to hear music from their ambitious album project, House of Gold & Bones. The first part of the two-disk concept was

32 December 2012

released in October and part two will be out in the Spring. Front-man and lyricist Corey Taylor (a Sunday Times best-selling novelist with last year’s Seven Deadly Sins) wrote the lyrics for the House of Gold & Bones’ 24 tracks as a linear storyline, telling the tale of a character at a crossroads in his life. Special guests at the London shows only are the multi-platinum Papa Roach, who also released a new album, The Connection recently. December 10th & 11th London, O2 Brixton Academy; 13th Manchester Apollo; 14th Wolverhampton, Civic Hall; 15th Bournemouth, O2 Academy.

The Black Keys

The Black Keys’ live performances have been galvanized recently, with MTV saying that at the Global Festival the duo “tore through a set of searing, hard-riffing rock, one that had the 60,000 who packed Central Park’s Great Lawn losing their collective minds.” Will the reserved Brits go Keys crazy? Find out on December 7th Newcastle, Metro Radio Arena; 8th Glasgow, SECC; 9th Birmingham, NIA; 11th Manchester, Arena; 12th & 13th London, O2 Arena.

The American Roger Hodgson

2013 Tours to Book Ahead

the Long Way Home and Breakfast In America, says “Success in music to me is when I look out and I see a member of the audience crying or having ecstatic joy in their heart.” Be a part of that experience from May 24th to 30th. www.rogerhodgson.com

The Gaslight Anthem

The ever-growing indie leviathan heads UK-wards March 21st to 30th www.thegaslightanthem.com

Usher Now, 50 years on from when Francis and Alan first performed together as schoolboys, it is fitting that everything has come full circle for these unique one-off shows.” March 10th to 16th. www.statusquo.co.uk

Status Quo: the original line-up

The songwriter and vocalist is returning to the Royal Albert Hall in London and the Philharmonic in Liverpool as part of a short tour in May that also includes Stowe School. The voice of Supertramp, the band that brought prog to the pop charts with insanely catchy tunes and great musicianship on tunes like Dreamer, Give a Little Bit, The Logical Song, Take

Francis Rossi, Rick Parfitt, Alan Lancaster and John Coghlan were the original – and many would say the best – line-up of the mighty Quo. The boys are reforming for a one-off, (allegedly) never to be repeated short series of UK dates in March. Quo’s manager says “This is a real moment in the chequered history of Status Quo and it comes after almost 30 years of acrimony, and 10 years of law suits and court battles. Just 2 years ago the thought of the Frantic Four performing again was unthinkable. Status Quo

Roger Hodgson

the Usher Euphoria Tour in Europe has had to be rescheduled until fall of 2013 due to ‘professional and personal commitments’. Usher fans will get over being second-bested and keep a close eye on the website for the rearranged dates: www.usherworld.com

Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra Favorably reviewed everywhere including this very mag, Amanda Palmer is touring the UK from March 21st to 28th. Indie? Rawk? Theatre? Florence with balls? Palmer ticks many boxes, often within the same song. www.amandapalmer.net

Roger Waters – The Wall

Waters, the curmudgeonly captain of the Pink Floyd ship as it sailed through the traumatic, er, waters of the creation of The Wall is bringing his extraordinary stage performance to the UK for, it seems, a single night – September 14th at Wembley Stadium. Book now or be sorry – these are the hottest tickets of the day. www.RogerWaters.com

PHOTO: GABEMC

ome big tours have already been announced that are worth booking ahead for if you’re already in the UK or planning for. Dates may be added or amended, so here’s a list of the pick of the crop with the websites to check details and purchase tickets.

December 2012 33

The American

MUSIC INTERVIEW

Donny Osmond D

onny Osmond’s been singing, dancing and sending hearts a-flutter for a while now. Generations, in fact. Not that you’d guess to look at him. The last time I saw his son, Donny Jnr, he was doing his church mission. Donny Snr tells me Junior is awaiting a baby in January – incredibly, that’ll be Senior’s fifth grandchild. (Seriously folks, look at that photo over there – does that look like a grandfather to you?) I ask what Thanksgiving’s like at his house. “Not as bad as you think. Not crazy like it used to be with the whole family getting together”. I ask how many. “1400!” Is that more or less exhausting than a stage show? “Its a different kind of exhaustion”. I ask what we can expect from Donny & Marie’s new show, relocating from Vegas to ten UK locations during January. “Well, Marie and I won the ‘Best Show, Las Vegas’ award, and we’re actually adding more to the show. We’re going to be doing the old hits, but you can’t just be giving nostal-

Donny & Marie are bringing their Las Vegas show to London

34 December 2012

Ageless entertainers Donny and Marie Osmond are touring their Las Vegas show round the UK in January. The American catches a few minutes with Donny gia, you’ve got be giving updates to stuff too. It’s quite the variety show.” Is it at all similar to the TV variety show Donny and Marie used to host back in the ‘70s? “It’s more of a variety show than the TV show was. When we first launched in Las Vegas back in ’08, everybody asked that question, then when they saw the show, they realised it was so much more than that. Thank goodness we have this award, which basically says its the best show in Vegas – you can’t just do a little nostagic show and get that.” Is the show radically different from the show as it started at Vegas? “Big time – the show always evolved, because we were finding so many repeat and three-peat and four-peat business... plus it keeps it fresh for us.” As well as the ‘70s show, Donny and Marie collaborated on an Emmynomimated talk show. Aren’t brothers and sisters meant to fight? “That’s why God made siblings. We respect each other as professionals – yes, we are siblings, but when we hit the stage, we are two different artists coming together. I think that’s the way it works. Donny & Marie is a brand in and of itself, but there are these separate careers coming together.” Did Donny get sick of being a teen idol in the ‘70s?

“Absolutely. There comes a time when you want to move on and be considered a serious recording artist. But then something interesting happens: the older you get the more you look back with fondness. For instance, when I do Puppy Love, I dont make fun of it anymore. It’s legit.” Is that for the fans though, or did he rediscover that and say ‘Hang on, that was a good song’? “I think a little of both. It was when I was around 40 I looked back and really embraced it. But prior to that it was for the fans.” Will people looking for nostalgia be surprised? “It is a little bit of an eye opener, not so much any more for people who have seen the Vegas show, because the talk has gone around, but over here in England since we haven’t been as visible as in the States; people will come to the show not really knowing what to expect, but I think we’re going to see the same reaction from the UK audience that we get almost nightly in Las Vegas.” Is it true that during the 1980s, somebody suggested he fake a drugs bust just to seem cooler? “There really was a plan to do that. But I decided no, that’s not me.” I recall the ‘mystery artist’ reveal for Soldier of Love (1988).

The American

“Well that’s kind of what you get with this show,” Donny explains, “People realize ‘Well, there’s so much more depth than what I really thought’. Some people are still stuck in the Puppy Love era or maybe Crazy Horses era or Donny & Marie Show era, so this tour is going to be the whole thing.” Donny was once nominated for best game show host (Pyramid), he’s won Dancing With The Stars and he even has a syndicated UK radio show on Smooth Radio. Are these forms of reinvention to move with the times as far as the entertainment media is concerned? “You don’t want to use them just as tools for reinvention. You do it because you really want to. For instance, this tour. We don’t really have much time, but Marie and I saw this window of opportunity, and said we could be taking a holiday from the rigorous Vegas show, but no, let’s put together 11 or 12 days and let’s go do the UK... because we want to.” I ask if live shows are a bigger deal than ‘hit’ singles now. “No, it’s part and parcel. You always want to be able to have a hit record. But you can’t just depend on hit records because you never know – it’s such a gamble. You have to be such a multi-faceted entertainer. “I’m right now working on my 60th album. It’s going to take a little while to get that done because I want to do it right, not just slap an album together. Next year will be an earmarked year for me, my 50th year in showbusiness, I think its around the 40th anniversary of Puppy Love, so a lot of things coming together for next year.” After January, will he be back again in the next couple of years? “Sure, I’ll be back touring this 60th album!” H

December 2012 35

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Coﬀee Break QUIZ 1 Which element has the

7 Who was Jimmy Carter’s

2 Who is the leader of the

8 What is the best-selling

3 Who wrote the comic

9 Birds of a feather do

4 Which tunnel under the

10 From where can you

symbol Pb?

vice president?

evil Decepticons?

Swedish band of all time?

play Blithe Spirit?

what?

Hudson was opened in November 1927?

‘check out any time you like, but you can never leave’?

5 In what year was Elvis

11 Which cartoonist wrote

Presley born: 1930, 1935 or 1940 ?

The Far Side?

6 What’s the largest variety

12 What kind of hat do

of citrus?

5 3

Shriners often wear?

8 3 2 7

7 8

6 9

1 36 December 2012

1 7 4 8

crowned Holy Roman Emperor. But what was the name of his famous sword? 14 December 25, 1950 – The Stone of Scone, coronation stone of British monarchs is stolen from Westminster Abbey by Scottish Nationalists. Scone itself is located on the outskirts of which Scottish city? ‘Eggnog Riots’ conclude at the US Military Academy. Which future President of the Confederate States of America was amongst the participants? TV series The Twilight Zone is born. The show is one of only two TV shows to have won a Hugo Award three times. Which is the other? (Clue: it’s on TV this Christmas Day.)

5 2

8 5

13 December 25, 800AD – Charlemagne was

16 December 25, 1924 – Rod Serling, creator of

5 7

December 25th, tangentially speaking...

15 December 25, 1826 – The whiskey-related

7 9 9 1

An Eggnog Rioter? Who is this former President? (Careful, might be a trick question!)

17 December 25, 1776 – George Washington

3 9

crosses the Delaware River to attack Hessian mercenaries in Trenton, New Jersey. Where did the Hessians come from?

Answers to Coﬀee Break Quiz & Sudoku on page 65

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December 2012 37

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PHOTO: CLAIRE BILYARD

THEATER REVIEWS

Steel Pier Music by John Kander, Lyrics by Fred Ebb, Book by David Thompson The Union Theatre, Southwark, London SE1 • Reviewed by Jarlath O’Connell

ow come a musical by Kander and Ebb, which was nominated for eleven Tonys, has taken fifteen years to get here? No, it’s not a turkey, it’s a piece of real quality, but I guess if you fail there you don’t get much of a chance anywhere – it only ran two months on Broadway in 1997. Those who know their Kander and Ebb will be familiar with some of the songs such as Second Chance and the great naughty vaudeville turn Everybody’s Girl, which have been covered by a number of artists, but the revelation is the show itself. The piece revisits the territory of the great 1969 movie They Shoot Horses Don’t They?, and it shares with that film a bittersweet sadness at the plight of desperate young people in Depression-era America wooed into

38 December 2012

entering dance marathons, hoping that a win will be their ticket to fame or escape (think X-Factor). In the meantime they literally scrabble for coins thrown at them by the audience. If you want to get heavy, it’s a great metaphor for capitalism in the 1930s, when that was at its most raw. On the other hand, you might just prefer dancin’ girls, and it works at that level too. Director Paul Taylor Mills has brought together a really talented cast, and Aimie Atkinson in particular shines as the sassy showgirl wannabee Shelby Stevens, who steals the show in Everybody’s Girl. They’ve cast Americans in a number of the parts and Jay Rincon has the right Tom Cruise-like allure, which is perfect for the part of the stunt pilot hero Bill Kelly. He represents an escape for our heroine Rita Racine

(Sarah Galbraith), trapped as she is in a loveless marriage to Hamilton (Ian Knauer), the opportunistic emcee of the marathon who schemes to fix the competitions for their benefit. Thompson’s book introduces a disparate range of great supporting characters which, while not fully fleshed out here, could certainly be developed in a movie version. Set in Atlantic City of 1933, it recalls TV’s Boardwalk Empire. The challenge for the choreographer in this tiny space is great, and Richard Jones triumphs in re-staging Susan Stroman’s choreography, which embraces nightclub numbers, the dance marathons and great movement sequences, seamlessly integrated into the action. David Shields’ designs (a traverse stage with a silver laméd bandstage at one end) also fit perfectly into this, admittedly, down-at-heel-venue. By the end, Rita departs with a new sense of hope having been usurped by another girl, the grasping soprano Precious McGuire (LisaAnne Wood), and with Hamilton’s warning in her ears that she won’t make it on her own. Galbraith, who has Broadway credits under her belt, gives Rita a great maturity and has a fine voice. Like Kander & Ebb’s best work, Cabaret and Chicago, the piece combines grit and glitz, which is their singular skill. While the London Fringe displays its mettle by staging a piece like this to so high a standard with so little money, it cries out for a bigger production and in a West End littered with lazy jukebox shows, it’s a shame this hasn’t been given a “Second Chance” itself. H

Book by Blake Edwards, Music by Henry Mancini, Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse Southwark Playhouse, London SE1 Reviewed by Jarlath O’Connell

SE1

is the place for musicals in London these days. Both the Menier Chocolate Factory and The Union Theatre have distinguished track records with the genre, but Southwark Playhouse, located in a railway arch under London Bridge station, probably trumps them both, having had a great run recently with Parade, Floyd Collins and Mack and Mabel. Here a traverse stage transforms this dingy railway arch into a delightfully decadent nightclub with some of the audience seated at lamp lit club tables on the sides. Director Thom Southerland, who is one to watch, does wonders with unpromising material and delivers a show of great pizzazz, aided by a strong cast. Anna Francolini triumphs in the lead role bringing both vulnerability and chutzpah in equal

measure. She plays Victoria Grant, a rather prim English soprano in 1930s Paris, who ends up impersonating a female impersonator and becoming the toast of the town in the process. Penniless, she’s ended up in this bind after fleeing a lecherous landlord, wanting payment in kind for the rent, and striking up with a loveable, camp, rogue Toddy (Richard Dempsey). Seeing her change out of wet clothes and donning a man’s suit left behind by his lover, he realises the potential to make money out of her androgynous allure. Of course, audiences will remember fondly the original hit movie from 1982, which gave Julie Andrews’ career a much needed shot in the arm and had other glorious Oscar nominated turns from Robert Preston and Lesley Ann Warren. Blake Edwards later reworked the material for his wife for Broadway in 1995, and it was to flesh out that stage version that Frank Wildhorn was engaged to add some new songs, Henry Mancini having died by then. Those songs are for the most part undistinguished but the book is solid with a well woven sub plot featuring her burgeoning romance with a gangster from Chicago who is horrified at his growing attraction to ‘Victor’.

PHOTO: ANNABEL VERE

Victor/Victoria

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The club numbers fizz and as well as the famous Le Jazz Hot, the Sun King parody Louis Says is milked for all its comic potential. Why they cut The Shady Lady from Seville from the movie is a mystery. Joseph Atkins’ orchestrations are perfectly attuned to this nightclub milieu. This traverse staging gives the dancing even more momentum and the dancers are a standout. Lee Proud’s witty and razor-sharp choreography is a joy. The only weak point is the casting of far too young Dempsey as Toddy. I can’t believe they couldn’t find an ageing theatrical queen in all of London. Matthew Cutts is perfectly dashing and in great voice as the gangster King Marchand, and Kate Nelson has a ball as his vulgar “broad” Norma, a gem of a part. Michael Cotton, as King’s tough bodyguard Squash, is very touching in his scenes where he’s struggling with his own sexual identity. The number Living in the Shadows, which ends the piece, is of course a trifle dishonest (they’re not hiding their sexuality, they’re playing a game to get a job) and in the end the boy gets the girl and all is well with the world. Like La Cage aux Folles, from the same era, it plays with being daring but finally knows its place. Along the way, though, it is a supremely polished piece of entertainment and testament to what great work is being done with a tiny budget on the London Fringe. H

December 2012 39

PEOPLE

By Alan Bennett • National Theatre, Lyttelton, London • Reviewed by Jarlath O’Connell

new play by Alan Bennett is a major event and here he doesn’t disappoint with a witty and lively skewering of the heritage industry. It is funnier and has more interesting things to say than The History Boys, which of course conquered Broadway. He says (in an insightful programme note) that the play “started with an itch… a sense of unease when going round a National Trust house and being required to buy into the role of the reverential visitor”. Lady Dorothy Stacpoole (Frances de la Tour, dry as a martini) lives in freezing squalor with her companion, the crumbling Iris (the great Linda Bassett) in a decaying Yorkshire stately home. Bob Crowley’s majestic set is a highlight, particularly when we observe the glittering renovation. Clad in oddly assorted layers topped off with old furs, the women resemble Jackie Kennedy’s neglected cousins from

40 December 2012

Grey Gardens. The story is similar – bohemian aristos who can’t keep up the maintenance on the stately mansion but neither could they survive the death duties. In England, of course, the answer is to offer it to the National Trust, and this fits with the politics of younger sister June, who feels the family needs to “put something back”. She’s a gruff, businesslike, lesbian Archdeacon, who despairs of her older sister, and Bennett pokes gentle fun at both the Church of England and the National Trust and their similarly devoted legions. Lady Stacpoole, however, has been secretly considering other options, including from slippery auctioneer Bevan (Miles Jupp), whose angle is that he represents a shadowy consortium who would love to buy the house to keep the rabble out, but would prefer to move it to Dorset “where it’s warmer”. This is the dilemma of the play: whose “people”

PHOTO: CATHERINE ASHMORE

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is the house for, exactly. Nicholas Le Prevost, in a perfectly pitched performance, wonderfully inhabits the contradictions in the National Trust’s position. His devotion to the past sits happily side by side with a desire to make a quick buck and, if needs be, to pruriently exploit any family scandals to make the place a more viable visitor attraction. Bennett’s play is no reactionary whine about modernity, however, and nor does he ignore how these families accumulated their great wealth in the first place, but he finds a boyish delight in Dorothy’s later decision to hire the house to an old flame (Peter Egan in sparkling form) as a location for a porn film. The comic potential is quite obvious here, and you know that as soon as they shout ‘Action’, in will walk the Archdeacon accompanied by the local Bishop, who believes their excuse that it’s a photo shoot for a Women’s Institute calendar. The nub of the play is Dorothy’s complaint about why things can’t be allowed to decay and that taking stuff for granted is a sign of civilisation, whereas today everything is subject to the values of the market. “This is not Allegory House”, she proclaims, refusing to see it as a metaphor for England. The play is never serious but has serious things to say, and that is Bennett’s triumph. This vision of the stunted lives of a decaying upper class trapped in these grounds and being marketed to gawpers, is a wonderful counterpoint to Downton Abbey mania. “I have ended up like the house, pretending to be myself” is Dorothy’s poignant conclusion. H People will be broadcast live to 250 UK cinemas and many more worldwide on 21 March 2013. www.ntlive.com

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Daddy Long Legs B

ased on Jean Webster’s 1912 novel of the same name, Daddy Long Legs is the story of Jerusha Abbott, an orphan from the John Grier Home who is whisked away to college, funded by an anonymous benefactor. Jerusha dubs him ‘Daddy Long Legs’ after a glimpse of his tall, gangly shadow. The only proviso to her funding is that she write letters of her experiences to him. The intimacy which emanates from the correspondence forms the backbone of the tale. With a successful US tour on its résumé, it’s a real treat that Daddy Long Legs premières in London with its original American duo of Megan McGinnis as Jerusha and Robert Adelman Hancock as her benefactor. Their on-stage chemistry is flawless, and in an epistolary musical where the interaction between the two is limited, that chemistry is invaluable. It’s a connection that brings the correspondence to life, allowing the characters’ relationship to blossom despite the narrative restrictions. That connection is also accentuated through musical harmony. Whether individually or in unison, Hancock and McGinnis have pitch perfect voices, and their vocal abili-

ties ensure the soundtrack by itself is well worth a listen. The opening tunes, The Oldest Orphan in the John Grier Home and Who Is This Man?, set the tone for the musical’s high quality. It isn’t just about sounding the part, the music must also be a vessel for the story, and the lyrics aren’t constrained at all by the musical arrangements. That synergy between the music and its lyrics allows the performers to tease out every meaning and emotion from the words. After receiving a Tony Award for Best Original Score for Jane Eyre on Broadway, Paul Gordon has certainly worked his magic once again with Daddy Long Legs. Perhaps the only drawback is that the ingredients for the plot are quite familiar; there isn’t much here which you won’t have seen or read before in other romantic stories. But what impresses is the way in which the constituent parts are threaded

together to produce a highly polished and sensitive performance. The set is quaint, packing cases are used to good effect to develop scenes throughout, and both McGinnis and Hancock are at the top of their games, creating a fantastic feel-good factor. Daddy Long Legs has graced various mediums in its 100 years since the novel’s first publication; several big screen productions, including the 1955 Fred Astaire picture, and even a Japanese animé series. Whilst the musical form may not receive a huge amount of notoriety, it feels like the most faithful and sensitive to Webster’s original story, and for that it deserves a great deal of praise. The St James Theatre has brought a marvellous production to London, and if its opening season continues in this vein, it’s easy to see a bright future for this new Central London theater. H

PHOTO: JEANNE TANNER

Book By John Caird, Music & Lyrics by Paul Gordon St James Theatre, London SW1 Reviewed by Daniel Byway

December 2012 41

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John Lithgow

At the National Theatre, playing the title role in Arthur Wing Pinero’s farce The Magistrate, the brilliant versatile actor takes time out to tell The American what brings him back to London

ow is John Lithgow enjoying being back on the London stage? He’s having a simply fantastic time! It’s been a while, and in his own words, “there hasn’t been much of it, at that!” But it’s part of an extraordinary career, one that encompasses a huge variety of roles, from comedy to tragedy, TV sitcom to movie villains. I wondered if people come to Lithgow from different angles – knowing him, perhaps, from 3rd Rock from the Sun or Terms of Endearment, Arthur Miller on Broadway or Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon, without knowing the full range of his work?

42 December 2012

“Exactly,” he heartily agrees. But it was a career that Lithgow was born to. His father was, he says, “A unique theatrical producer in the US, a ‘rep’ producer in the English manner, but in the Midwest of the United States, putting on extraordinary Shakespeare festivals. Shakespeare was mother’s milk to me. He had a huge following in Ohio, and he started the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival 50 years ago” (still going strong, it’s now the Great Lakes Theater Festival). It was a peripatetic lifestyle. The young John lived in “eight or ten places” before he went to college. “I was always the new kid in town – difficult, but it was the making of me. With growing up in a theater family and reinventing myself every year at school, I became a very adaptable kid. But it was painful; I was always moving away just as I finally fit in. I finally came to rest in 11th Grade, in Princeton, New Jersey, for the last two years of high school. I was an expert at hitting the ground running and I was elected Student Council President, the big man on campus when I’d only just arrived.” Lithgow was a bright youngster too. After high school he progressed to Harvard where he graduated with magna cum laude in history and literature, leaving in 1967. The world was his oyster – surely he could have gone into politics, business or academia?

“Maybe, but as a scholar I was a very good actor!” he laughs. “What I was really interested in as a young kid was visual arts, painting and printmaking. That was my intention, until I got to college and fell in with the theatrical set. I was already a very experienced actor, in spite of myself. If you hear enough laughter and applause at a young enough age you’re going to be an actor whether you want to or not. I acted in my Dad’s plays all the time as one of those journeyman character men – Mustardseed, the Princes in the Tower, Nora’s children in A Doll’s House.” Lithgow’s British connections began after Harvard when, winning a Fulbright scholarship, he went to LAMDA (the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art, a top drama school) which had two places for Fulbright scholars in its ‘D Group’, a one-year course for foreign-born actors, 70% of whom were Americans. Another LAMDA alumni was Nancy Carroll, who now co-stars with Lithgow in The Magistrate. But why England – why not an American drama school? “Back in those days there was nothing like British drama training,” Lithgow says, “And besides, there was this conduit, this Fulbright grant. I was not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. And I’d never been to England – it was such an exciting time in London. I was here from ’67 to ’69. The Beatles were still here, for God’s sake! It was Swinging London. I looked ridiculous in my Carnaby Street clothes, an innocent abroad in London. And there were great things happening in theater. Trevor Nunn became the head of the RSC and Peter Brook had great productions on, Peter Hall was just about to take over the National, which was at

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“It’s a Christmas present of a production” the Old Vic. I loved living in London. I went to the theater all the time, and opera and ballet and music. I swallowed a London horse pill, taking everything I could get. Gielgud, Olivier and Richardson, I saw them all. And one of the things I saw was Alastair Sim in The Magistrate.” Which brings us neatly to his current tenure at the National. When Sir Nicholas Hytner, the National’s Director, emailed Lithgow to ask him if he knew the play, he mentioned that he’d seen the Sim production when he was 15 and it was hardest he’d ever laughed as a child. “I emailed back and said, did I ever! We might have been in the same audience! I’d always wanted to do a proper play at the National – I did my one man show here two successive Monday nights, but that was my entire history at the National. And Nick is a good friend – we worked together on Sweet Smell of Success, so it was a very easy sell. I just had to wriggle out of a few other things.” It’s a very British piece, so is he playing it in an English accent? “Oh yes,” he chortles, “They’re watching my vowels like a hawk! In fact we all have a voice coach, it’s like being back at drama school. But we’re all in the same boat so I feel perfectly at home. And I broke the ice a few years ago at the RSC playing Malvolio in Twelfth Night. But of all the things I’ve done recently, the spirit of 3rd Rock From The Sun is closest to the energy of our production of The Magistrate. The same rules apply to everything – you have to find the emotional truth of the material, even when it’s farce. You have to get inside a joke and play the reality

of it for it to be truly funny. You also have to cultivate your sense of timing and connect with the audience in a very particular way. Pinero is not one the best known British playwrights to Americans, so I wondered why our readers should come see the show. “It’s simply the most irresistible play,” Lithgow expostulates. “It’s so warm and wonderful. It’s very funny, but it’s also very sweet-natured. It’s a Christmas present of a production. The National’s thinking of it as its Christmas offering and there’s a straight run of it over the holiday period. Tim Sheader is directing it as a Victorian Christmas card to the audience. And the character of the Magistrate is so irresistible. He’s a comic innocent, a good and virtuous man full of rectitude. He’s too good-hearted to be a judge, he hates to levy fines or convict anyone, in fact he pays a lot of fines out of his own pocket and hires a lot of the people he convicts as his servants. And when you see a good man dragged through the gutter it’s very funny.” H

PHOTO: NIGEL PARRY

The Magistrate is on at the National Theatre until February 10, 2013 December 2012 43

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PHOTO: HUGO GLENDINNING

THEATER PREVIEWS Pantomime Season Various locations December until early January Men dressing as women, women dressing as boys, and sly winks abound. And, yes, it is a family show. A myriad of Cinderellas , Peter Pans and other fairy tales fill the theaters, with no shortage of British TV stars and borderline celebs, plus the occasional surprising American turn. Amongst the noteworthy shows: Snow White (New Wimbledon Theatre) starring Priscilla Presley, and Warwick Davis; Peter Pan (Opera House, Manchester) starring David Hasselhoff (below); Peter Pan (The Church Theatre, Bromley) starring Eastenders’ Ace Bhatti, CBBC’s Gemma Hunt and Balamory star Andrew Agnew; Lily Savage (Paul O’Grady) rides again in Aladdin at the O2, Greenwich; while the Hackney Empire goes for Dick Whittington and his Cat. See local press for a pantomime near you, or check www.bigpantoguide.co.uk & www.atgtickets.com/pantomimes

Christmas With The Supreme Fabulettes Leicester Square Theatre, 6 Leicester Place, London WC2H 7BX www.leicestersquaretheatre.com December 19 A one-night-only opportunity for a kitsch treat of Yuletide singalong harmonies. Hang on, those ‘women’... they’re not... are they? Again?!

Privates On Parade Noël Coward Theatre, 85-88 St Martins Lane, London, WC2N 4AU www.michaelgrandagecompany.com December 1 to March 2 More cross-dressing, but with Peter Nichols’ tragicomedic wartime twist, as British Captain Terri Denis (Simon Russell Beale CBE) brings his Marlene Dietrich and Carmen Miranda to the Malaysian campaign of the WW2. This is the first of the Michael Grandage Company’s season of five plays offering tickets for as little as £10 to see some of Britain’s greatest theater talents. Review next issue!

The Book Of Mormon Prince of Wales Theatre, Coventry Street, London W1D 6AS www.bookofmormonlondon.com From February 25 The Broadway hit musical is a religous satire about LDS missionaries in Uganda, from the creators of South

44 December 2012

Park ...all of which may tell you how likely you are to like it. Issues of taste and controversy aside, nine Tony Awards are not to be overlooked! It doesn’t start until February, but this may be as late as you dare wait if you want early tickets.

Almost certainly not wearing a dress: Gavin Creel as Elder Price in The Book of Mormon PHOTO BY JOAN MARCUS

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Erotica BOOKS

WURZELTOD / SUZANNE GERBER

...The New Black?

50 Shades of Grey and its sequels were the publishing phenomenon of 2012. By why this and why now? wonders Mitzi Szereto

rue or false: Erotic fiction (also known as “erotica”) was invented in 2012 by author E.L. James with the publication of 50 Shades of Grey? True, if you believe the hype and ignore literary history. False, if you’ve ever visited a bookshop or browsed the erotic fiction section at Amazon. Erotica books! Women reading erotica books! Sex! Kink! My countenance heightens at the mere thought of it! Surely it’s unheard of in our culture for a female author to write a book brimming with sex and kink and aim it toward (gasp) a readership of women! Hang on a minute. Has the reading public and the media suddenly lost their collective literary memories? To judge by the mass hysteria, you would assume 50 Shades of Grey is the first erotic novel in recorded history geared toward a readership of women – and Ms. James the first author in history engaging in such an innovative enterprise. I wonder then how we might explain several centuries’ worth of erotic novels, some of which were written by women. In fact, 50 Shades of Grey was already written in 1954 by Pauline Reage (The Story of O). Add in a massive assortment of other erotica titles with essentially the same plotline and you have to wonder why anyone has given 50 Shades the time of day.

It’s not as if other erotically themed books have been hiding their lights under a blushing bushel. Surely many readers are familiar (even if only by casual reference) with such literary classics as The Arabian Nights, The Perfumed Garden and Fanny Hill, not to mention all those sexually explicit Victorian novels penned by the ever-popular “Anonymous.” And let’s not forget the works of D.H. Lawrence, Anaïs Nin, Henry Miller and Anne Rice (notably her Sleeping Beauty Trilogy),

thanks to our distant ancestors, who likely possessed an appreciation for the, shall we say, steamier aspects of storytelling. In more recent memory, the Black Lace imprint of Virgin Books in the UK carved out a tidy niche for themselves by publishing erotic novels written by women for women beginning in the early 1990s – and with considerable worldwide success. And they weren’t the only publisher in the last few decades doing so. There have been niches within

It’s not as if other erotically themed books have been hiding their lights under a blushing bushel or the works of such literary masters as Gustav Flaubert (Madame Bovary) and Vladimir Nabokov (Lolita). There were even two highly publicized and law-changing court cases in the second half of the 20th Century involving charges of obscenity against specific novels: D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover in Britain and Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer in the United States – novels which are now considered serious works of literature as opposed to being “Mommy Porn.” Erotic works have been in existence dating back to antiquity and can even be found on the walls of caves

niches created – from lesbian erotica written by lesbians for lesbians to erotica written by women of colour for women of colour to everything else you can think of. There have been all manner of erotica books published and geared toward all manner of audiences, some of which might even be considered fringe. Authors with household names such as Jilly Cooper, Jackie Collins and Erica Jong have been writing explicitly about sex for decades, and romance authors have been incorporating steamy sex scenes into their novels for just as long.

December 2012 45

The American

Yet 50 Shades of Grey comes along and suddenly it’s wiping everyone else off the historical literary map. Many of us are asking why. And many of us cannot come up with a plausible explanation beyond that of a clever marketing ploy, the Twilight fan-fiction connection, a lot of luck, and maybe because Sex in the City is no longer being produced for television (and everyone’s already seen each episode a dozen times). Another possible reason for the mainstream (the key word being mainstream) success of 50 Shades might be that it boasts a book jacket that doesn’t look as if it belongs on the top shelf, unlike many we’ve seen in the erotica genre. 50 Shades of Grey comes in a user-friendly package. And if you think that doesn’t matter, explain why erotica sales seem to be significantly higher in e-book form rather than print. Speaking as an author, anthology editor and a creative writing teacher who has worked hard to elevate the genre into something more than a one-handed read, I don’t hold out much hope that this new craze will lift the genre to greater heights. If anything, I see it dragging it down further (and trust me, it didn’t need to be dragged down). We now have writers and would-be writers crawling out of the woodwork to (they hope) cash in on the phenomenon, not to mention every high street

and back-alley publisher doing likewise, churning out erotica titles as McDonald’s churns out burgers. Thanks to the advent of the e-book, it’s no longer that costly or risky a venture for publishers. With all these writers eager to jump on the bandwagon, there’s scant chance of running short of content. The fact that many of these books presently flooding the market are nothing but 50 Shades of Grey clones, replete with BDSM subject matter and the mature man/younger female theme that often seems to accompany it, makes it more apparent that no one is particularly bothered about such things as quality and originality. Do we really need more mass-produced erotica? Of course it’s possible that the market will reach a saturation point and go into retrograde. It’s also possible that an often disrespected and maligned genre of fiction will sink still deeper into the literary quagmire, taking everyone along with it, including writers who do not deserve to be included. Is this erotic book-writing craze raising the literary bar or lowering it? It’s all well and good to bring the genre more into the mainstream – something I’ve been advocating for years. But at what price? Indeed, perhaps quality and originality have now become the real dirty words.

US-born Mitzi Szereto is an author and anthology editor of multi-genre fiction and non-fiction. Her books include Thrones of Desire: Erotic Tales of Swords, Mist and Fire; In Sleeping Beauty’s Bed: Erotic Fairy Tales and Getting Even: Revenge Stories. She has pioneered erotic writing workshops in the UK and mainland Europe and lectured in creative writing at several British universities.

46 December 2012

BOOK REVIEWS 36 Hours: 150 Weekends in The USA & Canada / 125 Weekends in Europe Edited by Barbara Ireland (Taschen, Hardcover, £24.99) Here’s one that slipped the net early in the year, but being a gathering of ‘36 Hours’ travel guides from the popular New York Times column, we’ll forgive ourselves. Cloth bound with 750 pages packed with information on places to visit, dine and stay, maps and a quality of photography you’d expect from an NYT supplement, this contains itineraries for 150 weekends in the USA & Canada, 125 in Europe (organised by region), depending whether you’re buying a volume for yourself or an Anglo-American friend. These certainly aren’t pocket guides, but you’ll be tempted to plan with them. Weighing in like the complete works of Shakespeare, they represent fine value for money. – Richard L Gale

Who I Am Pete Townshend (Harper Collins, Hardcover £20) Pete Townshend is arguably the most honest songwriter in popular music, but not in a mawkish sense á la half of Laurel Canyon, nor the flag-waving of, say, a Sinead O’Connor. Townshend has been a victim – probably, he’s still trying to work it out of his subconscious memory – of childhood sexual and psychological abuse. Also of his own self-destructiveness. His recent child porn arrest and maltreatment by his grandmother share index-space with groupies, drugs and guitar wrecking. Woodstock and Tommy, debauchery on American tours and

The American

Alex Steinweiss. The Inventor of the Modern Album Cover (Taschen, Hardcover, £49.99)

Quadrophenia, they’re all here, but fundamentally this is not a rock & roll kiss & tell shocker. If it’s shocking, it’s Townshend’s soul-bearing and guilt that hit hard. The book is about his personal journey to understand himself through music, self-examination, the love of others and the teachings of Meher Baba. And The Who – I nearly reached the end of the review without mentioning them, but the story is here too of the great rock band that has also survived trauma to be with us still. – Michael Burland

America’s Gift to Golf – Herbert Warren Wind on The Masters Herbert Warren Wind Foreword by Ben Crenshaw (The American Golfer, hardcover, £24.99) America’s Gift to Golf is no pictorial celebration of the Masters – no photos, illustrations, or statistical appendices. But between the covers are some landmark articles from the pen of Herbert Warren Wind (1916-2005), sports writer for The New Yorker and Sports Illustrated from the 1949 to 1988 – it was Wind who coined the name ‘Amen Corner’ at Augusta. However, fourteen inches high with type suitable for a library’s large print section, I question the presentation – moderation could have made it a worthy stocking filler for the family golf nut. As it is, it may be for sports writing devotees only. – RG

Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels 1985-2010 Damien Broderick and Paul Di Filippo (Nonstop Press, Paperback, £12.50) Picking up where David Pringle’s 1985 guide Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels left off, Damien Broderick & Paul Di Filippo (with a foreword by Pringle) make a stab at the next 15 years. Each of the 101 entries is a tight two-page synopsis with cover illustration – and they are well-written: informed, academically erudite and succinct. Spoilers abound, of course, so it’s unclear whether the book is aimed at those who have read the featured novels or those seeking to read them. Most likely those working their way through the SF back catalogue, in which case, it does the job admirably. It also highlights that the Science Fiction genre didn’t begin with Frankenstein and end with the Foundation series. – RG

The Dark Heart of Hollywood

In the jungle of the music business, Alex Steinweiss was the undisputed king of album cover design. This 420 page monster shows exactly why. The text is by Kevin Reagan, with an introduction by Steven Heller, and autobiographical notes by Steinweiss himself including his explanation of why his covers looked unique. He used an unconventional production process, no color and few black and white photos, favoring large areas of bright colors, graphical shapes and bespoke typefaces, creating a poster-like effect that would stand out on record shop racks and attract buyers. The bulk of the book consists of reproductions of covers he designed for Columbia (and later for Decca, Coral and Everest) for 78rpm box sets and LPs, from Louis Armstrong to Aaron Copeland, The Crickets to Ethel Merman, Cole Porter to Allen Funt. A quote from the designer, spread over several pages or artworks, opens the book: “I love music so much ... and I had such ambition ...that I was willing to go way beyond ... what the hell they paid me for. I wanted people to look at the artwork ... and hear the music.” Mr Steinweiss, they did. – MB

By Douglas Thompson (Mainstream Publishing, Paperback and eBook, both £11.99) Déjà vu? Douglas Thompson, author of Shadowland: The Untold Story of The Mafia’s Global Gambling Conspiracy now brings us Glamour, Guns and Gambling – Inside the Mafia’s Global Empire. But whereas the earlier work focuses on London in the Swingin’

December 2012 47

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60s, we’re in British journalist Thompson’s home-from-home, California for this new spin on his specialist subject. He’s nothing if not thorough, over 350 pages with ‘Hollywood Dossier’ appendices. Where there’s money, there’s Mafia, and where there’s Mafia, there’s money, greasing the wheels of the Hollywood machine ...and beyond, as Thompson weaves a tapestry of legends and testimony to portray a world where organised crime, movie stars, casual vice, and even presidents are separated by a tissue-thin divide (...if at all). If you want all your suspicions confirmed, read this book. It’s easier on the palate than Scotty Bowers’ tawdry expose of Tinseltown’s sexual needs, Full Service, reviewed earlier in the year. – RG

Marilyn Monroe Bert Stern/Norman Mailer (Taschen, 276 pages, £44.99) This year marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Marilyn Monroe. “I knew I belonged to the world, not because I was talented, or even beautiful, but because I had never belonged to anything or anyone else” she sadly says in the frontispiece of this gorgeously presented large format celebration of one of the Marilyn in Bed, 1962. One of Bert Stern’s iconic images of Marilyn © BERT STERN

48 December 2012

most famous photo shoots in history. Top photographer Bert Stern had an idea, to photograph the actress, now developed into a mature beauty, for Vogue. The idea was to create artistic images, not just the promotional or gossip-rag shots that had portrayed Marilyn to that point. Surprisingly, she agreed. Amazingly, she agreed to be photographed near-nude - at least she did after her hairdresser declared it to be a ‘divine idea’. Stern took 2,500 pictures over two weekends, some of the most famous photos ever taken of Marilyn. Five weeks later she died alone in her bedroom, a scant few miles from the Hotel BelAir in which the photos were taken. This book interposes images from Stern’s shoots with extracts from Norman Mailer’s earlier work, Marilyn: A Biography. Mailer, like many men, had fallen under Monroe’s spell at a distance and wrote it without having met Marilyn. The project began as a 20,000 word essay to accompany a selection of photos of Monroe in a book planned by Lawrence Schiller. Mailer couldn’t help himself - he turned in over 100,000 words which became his own book. Now Mailer’s words and Stern’s pictures are united, alongside out-takes from the shoots and other contemporary images, including film posters, in this beautiful book. – MB

The Final Years of Marilyn Monroe – The Shocking True Story By Keith Badman (JR Books, Hardcover, £19.99) For those intrigued by the life and death of Marilyn Monroe, this is the perfect gift. This extraordinary book details the last two years of Marilyn’s life, dispelling myths, exposing lies, including Marilyn’s own untruths, and is probably the most accurate account of that time of her life. Fact-checking is Keith Badman’s forte, as is his ability to retell the story in a flowing way, yet include sources and debunk myths as he goes. After five years of research, uncovering long-lost or previously unseen or forgotten records, exclusive interviews and eye-witness accounts, he reveals precisely how she died and the cover-up that ensued, strategic delays on the night, the name of her real father, her rumoured remarriage to Joe DiMaggio, and ends forever the debates about her involvement with the Kennedys. Evocative of the period, all the cast of characters are here, from Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford, Bobby and JF Kennedy, and her husbands, plus not-so-famous people in her life too: actors, publicists, friends and family, with her dog Maf and her white piano. This vivid retelling is packed with detail that I didn’t know before, dispelled stories I’d heard in the past, and led me to a greater understanding of Marilyn’s character and her life. A good read. – Sabrina Sully

The American

Left: Chevrolet Camara Hot Wheels® Edition. Below: Specials and modified cars make up the majority of vehicles on display at SEMA. Some that caught The American’s eye were (clockwise from top): Budget fun – warpspeed Scion FR-S; SEMA girl, scary guy; bright orange Porsche Panamera – yep, they managed to make it look worse; Rolls Royce Phantom to frighten the golf club

DRIVETIME I

t’s a case of life imitating art, or rather real-life automobile imitating toy. Yep, Chevrolet have launched the firstever drivable Hot Wheels production car. Who didn’t grow up playing with Hot Wheels, dreaming that one day we’d drive the real version of those fancy motors? Now those dreams can come to life with the Camaro Hot Wheels® Edition, the first time a full-size production Hot Wheels car has been offered for sale by any manufacturer. The limited edition car debuted at SEMA, the Specialty Equipment Market Association Show in Las Vegas that’s the industry showcase for gofaster auto parts. It’s a 432 horsepower, 6.2 liter, V8 coupe with manual or automatic transmission, in Kinetic Blue and boasting unique graphics including (surprisingly subtle) Hot Wheels-style flame decals on the doors. Blister packaging and orange race track are not included with the car, which arrives at Chevrolet dealerships early next year. “It’s been nearly 20 years since I started designing cars for Hot Wheels and I have yet to drive one home,” said Felix Holst, vice president of creative for the Mattel Wheels Division. “Personally, I can’t wait to open the doors and see the Hot Wheels Camaro sitting in the garage.”

December 2012 49

COLLEGE SPORTS

Heisman: Next Man Up? New month, new leader: the Heisman field is getting narrow – and younger, writes Richard L Gale

PHOTO: K-STATE ATHLETICS COMMUNICATION

o you remember how the Heisman field looked back in September? Landry Jones, Matt Barkley, Montee Ball, Denard Robinson... a week is as short a time in college football as it is in politics. Just one month ago, WVU QB Geno Smith seemed a slam dunk before the Mountaineers lost, lost, and lost again – and just as a team’s fortunes go, so does a Heisman candidacy. The inside track for the award has always belonged to a winning quarterback with fleet feet, and sure enough, just as Smith’s votes slid over to Kansas State’s Collin Klein, so a couple of weeks later another running, gunning QB, Texas A&M freshman Johnny Manziel (‘Johnny Football’, temporary slayer of Alabama) jumped into contention. The race to be the dual-threat du jour was developing so fast, by mid-week following the Crimson Tide’s fall to Manziel, commentators were putting the statistical spin on Northern Illinois’ Jordan Lynch. Blame Tim Tebow... not as the definitive dual-threat QB – plenty of that breed preceded him – but for taking the lid off sophomores not winning the Heisman. After that, you practically had to be a sophomore – Sam Bradford, Mark Ingram... and then came Cam Newton, tearing up the unwritten rule that you had to wait in line for your Heisman, jumping from JuCo to runaway victor in a single bound. Last year’s charge by fourth-year player Robert Griffin III seems positively retro. Nowadays, everyone’s eligible. Thus, Collin Klein of unbeaten* national championship contender Kansas State, fends off an improvised Heisman campaign by a freshman from Texas A&M. If you need signs that times have changed, just read that last sentence over a couple of times. The attention span of football fans as excited by PS3 as RGIII must be catered for, and a media playing to the fantasy obsessions of Generation XBox is more inclined than ever to view college football through the prism of gaudy offensive statistics (which is how stingy unbeaten Notre Dame gets outpolled by a traditional afterthought with a marketable QB). If K-State trips late, Oregon has their own first-year QB, Marcus Mariota, to throw into the conversation, though, thanks to the media’s dizzying circle-buttoning between Mariota and Ducks RBs De’anthony Thomas and Kenjon Barner, a Heisman also-ran seems as likely. Klein was November’s chart-topper, but there’s never been an easier moment for a freshman quarterback to steal in. H *At press time – I’m not betting the house on it by publication time!

The American

Have a

HeavyweighT Holiday Boxing Day? How about MMA Day? This Holiday season, sit back put your feet up and watch large men hitting each other, suggests Natimi Black-Heaven

ixed Martial Arts (MMA), and more specifically the Ultimate Fighting Championship, is one of the fasting growing sports in the world, let alone the US. While America used to be a nation in love with boxing, the days of Tyson or Holyfield are over and until a Pacquiao and “Money” Mayweather fight actually happens we might as well convert to the action and thrills of the UFC. Since the dawn of man we’ve wanted to know who’s the strongest, the fastest or simply the best. The UFC has the answers. Put two guys in a cage, let them fight for 3x three minute rounds (5x three minute rounds for a championship fight) until an opponent gets knocked out, submits, or the judges declare a winner at the end by the “quality” of performance. With eight weight classes from flyweight (to 125Ibs) to heavyweight (205-265Ibs), you can never get bored by watching the same old names ...or the same old fighting styles. Each UFC event features a variety of athletes with differing fighting techniques. One bout might feature a rapid 5’5” Spaniard with a Taekwondo background, and the next a chiselled 6’5” American with a ‘striking’ background. Now, one of the most anticipated UFC events of the year is on the horizon. UFC 155: Dos Santos v Velasquez II will feature two of the most successful heavyweights in history. Cain Velasquez will challenge current champion Junior Dos

MIXED MARTIAL ARTS Santos for the title. Both men have fought before inside the Octagon cage, and it was Brazilian Dos Santos who took the title from Velasquez last year as Dos Santos took out his Mexican neighbour in 64 seconds. Although the two fighters have an incredible amount of respect for each other, there is certainly no love lost between the two machines. The championship battle takes place in the early hours of December 30. Catch it if you want to see some early New Year fireworks. H UFC events are carried live on ESPN in the UK.

LIVE upcoming UFC events: December 9, 01:00 Henderson v Diaz December 15, 02:00 Sotiropoulos v Pearson December 15, 02:00 (Prelims 01:00) The Ultimate Fighter, Series 16 December 30, 03:00 (Prelims 01:00) UFC 155: Dos Santos v Velasquez II ALL TIMES GMT

The American

Photos: Gary Baker Words: Richard L Gale

New England’s pin-up passer Tom Brady (left) beguiles the Trafalgar Square fan rally (below)

Below: Rampage, Robert Kraft, Pats legend John Smith, Rams legend Jackie Slater ...and a hat

WEMBLEY 2012

The weather was wet, the Patriots looked like a contender, and the Rams didn’t. London cheered regardless. Everything we might have predicted. We would have liked more of Steven Jackson, but we couldn’t have asked more from the Patriots: Brady threw for over 300 yards and four scores, Stevan Ridley rushed for 127, and the Gronk punished the endzone. If it wasn’t everything we hoped for, we couldn’t fault the Rams as guests: mediafriendly... kid-friendly... if only it hadn’t ended like that, with a Rams performance upstaged by their own fan rally. But it was great to see former Rams stars Jackie Slater, Marshall Faulk, and the more current legends from New England. There was even John Smith, former Patriots kicker, the British export who conquered the NFL before Wembley games were a dream. Seeing old friends – wasn’t that what it was all about, anyway? H

Above: Katherine Jenkins sang the UK National Anthem. Below: Some rare fight from the Rams

St Louis Rams 7 New England Patriots 45

After an opening strike from the Rams (opposite), St Louis could do little more than watch (above) as the Patriots ran rampant. By the fourth quarter, the Rams looked a little like dogs biting on truck tires as the Patriots rolled (inset).

Above: Gronk! Below: Jeff Fisher second-guesses his â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;lucky beardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; decision. Right: Another hat

The American

Your Guide To The Month Ahead

See our full events listing online at www.theamerican.co.uk Get your event listed in The American – call us on +44 (0)1747 830520 or email details to editor@theamerican.co.uk Christmas Markets Various, UK www.christmasmarkets.com to December 24, 2012 Christmas markets are fun and a great way to get all your festive requirements as well as presents. Among the best in Britain are in Bath, Bournemouth, Canterbury, Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland in London, Leeds, Portsmouth, York and Waterperry in Oxfordshire. Check the website for dates and details.

Panto! Across the UK www.bigpantoguide.co.uk to January 31, 2013 Pantomime is the traditional Winter family favorite, a theatrical extravaganza based on fairy stories and folk tales, often starring TV soap actors and comedians, with songs, slapstick, corny jokes and audience participation (It’s behind you... Oh no it isn’t... Oh yes it is!). See local theaters.

54 December 2012

The Mouse and His Child Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, CV37 6BB www.rsc.org.uk to January 12, 2013 The RSC's tradition of family plays continues with this heartfelt tale of discarded Christmas toys trying to return home to their toyshop.

Hyde Park Winter Wonderland Hyde Park, London W2 2UH www.hydeparkwinterwonderland.com to January 06, 2013

Room on the Broom Lyric Theatre, London W1D 7ES www.nimaxtheatres.com to January 13, 2013 The Holiday Season is a great time to introduce kids to theater. This adaptation of the book by Children's Laureate Julia Donaldson MBE offers a magical combination of sing-alongs, puppetry and fun for all the family.

Les Milles et Une Nuits (The Thousand & One Nights) Musée de l’Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris www.paris-museums.org to April 28, 2013 The Arabian Nights are an extraordinary collection of stories. This exhibition includes original manuscripts and other artifacts from the book's genesis to its first translation into a European language.

A Victorian Festival of Christmas Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, November 30 to December 2

Fairground rides, circus, Christmas market, Santa's grotto, ice rink, Bavarian village, carousel, a Winter favorite in London. Free entry, but rides cost. 10am to 10pm except Christmas Day.

The bicentenary of Charles Dickens' birth in Portsmouth sees the Historic Dockyard put on a Victorian Christmas experience, with traditional characters, reindeer, a market and, of course, Father Christmas.

Christmas Past The Geffrye Museum of the Home, Kingsland Road, London, E2 8EA www.geffrye-museum.org.uk to January 06, 2013

Advent, Christmas and Epiphany services at Salisbury Cathedral Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire SP1 2EJ www.salisburycathedral.org.uk November 30 to January 13, 2013

400 years of seasonal traditions from English homes are celebrated at The Geffrye. The Museum's period rooms will be transformed with authentic Holiday decorations and accompanied by many other festive events during the season.

The Advent Procession, ‘From Darkness to Light’, November 30, 31 and December 1, sees the spectacular Cathedral in darkness before the lighting of the Advent candle. Carol Services December 21 and 23. Epiphany Procession January 13.

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London Chess Classic Olympia, Kensington, London W14 8UX www.londonchessclassic.com December 1 to 10 Reigning US Champion, Hikaru Nakamura, is among the players confirmed for this year's contest.

Statoil Masters Tennis Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP www.atpchampionstour.com/london.html December 5 to 9 The ATP Champions tour’s longestrunning tournament attracts the biggest names and personalities. High-quality, entertaining tennis in a breathtaking setting.

Lorin Maazel and the Philharmonia Orchestra Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX www.southbankcentre.co.uk December 8 & 13 US conductor, Lorin Maazel oversees two all-Russian programmes with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Kew Gardens Winter Wonderland 26 W Park Rd, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DA www.kew.org December 8 to January 06, 2013 Father Christmas makes an appearance, late-night shopping, Winter Tours and a Vintage Carousel.

The Sixteen's Christmas Concert Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX www.southbankcentre.co.uk December 10 A seasonal concert by the magical choir, the best of British.

The American

Royal Institution Christmas Lectures Royal Institution, 21 Albermarle Street, London WIS 4BS www.rigb.org December 11 to 15 A Christmas stalwart, this three part series of lectures titled The Modern Alchemist and delivered by Cambridge chemist Dr Peter Wothers will be broadcast on the BBC.

Clive Francis' 'A Christmas Carol' St James Theatre, 12 Palace Street, London SW1E 5JA www.stjamestheatre.co.uk December 11 to 16 Clive Francis' one man adaptation of A Christmas Carol, a unique take on Charles Dicken's classic in the year of his bicentenary.

Christmas with the Stars Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP www.royalalberthall.com December 11 Celebrities from TV shows including Holby City, Emmerdale and Eastenders take to the stage in support of Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research.

The European-Atlantic Group Reception and Dinner-Debate: 'Delivering Security in an Age of Austerity' The Caledonian Club, 9a Halkin Street, London SW1X 7DR www.eag.org.uk/content/upcoming-events December 12 Speaker: Admiral First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff, the head of the Royal Navy. £55 members, £65 non-members. 7.30pm for 8.15pm to 10.30pm

In the Blood: Churchill’s American Heritage Chartwell, Westerham, TN16 1PS www.nationaltrust.org.uk to February 28, 2013 Was it his transatlantic genetic inheritance that created the great British wartime leader? Chartwell was Winston Churchill’s main residence and even though the house is closed for winter, this is a good reason to visit this special place. This fascinating exhibition explores Churchill’s transatlantic family heritage and how the two branches of his family – the Jeromes of New York and the Marlboroughs of Blenheim Palace – shaped him and his life, a compelling blend of British tradition and American enterprise and adventure. The story is told through a wide range of objects, borrowed from the house and private collections belonging to Churchill’s descendants. Half have never been on public display before and are together for this exhibition only, so don’t miss this special chance to see them. Highlights include: the duelling pistols of the first Duke of Marlborough; three rings given to Winston’s American mother, Jennie, by his father, Lord Randolph; a never-before-seen portrait of Churchill’s grandmother; locks of children’s hair taken from Churchill and his brother Jack. 11am to 4pm everyday (except December 24 and 25).

December 2012 55

The American

Meow Meow's Little Match Girl Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX southbankcentre.co.uk December 13 to 30

Carols by Candlelight Various, UK

There’s nothing as beautiful or moving as a Candle-lit Carol service, especially in a historic British church. It doesn’t matter what your religious affiliation, you should experience this gathering of the community at a very special time of year for all. There are too many to list here, but check our online What’s On guide at www.theamerican.co.uk for our selection, or check local media. Craigiebuckler Church, 185 Springfield Rd., Aberdeen AB15 8AA, in aid of UNICEF, December 2, 3pm, tickets £5, children £3 on the door. St Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge, 32a Wilton Place, London SW1X 8SH, for Breast Cancer Care, December 3, 7pm. Harewood House, Harewood, Leeds LS17 9LG, helping Harewood’s Educational Charitable Trust, December 6, 6.45pm, pre-booked tickets £5, under 4s free, tickets on the night £7 (subject to availability), 0113 218 1010, www.harewood.org Lower Shaw Farm, Old Shaw Lane, Shaw, Swindon, Wiltshire, SN5 5PJ, raising money for the homeless in Swindon at Christmas. Suitable for all ages, no need to book, dress up warm and bring a torch. December 8, 6pm, Adult £5, Child £2. Tel: 01793 771080 enquiries@lowershawfarm.co.uk The Spa Bridlington, South Marine Drive, Bridlington YO15 3JH, adults: £15 concessions: £12, December 9, 2pm, www.thespabridlington.com

56 December 2012

Glasgow Cathedral, Castle Street, G4 0QZ, NSPCC Scotland fundraiser, £10 adults, £4 children under 16, December 12, 7.30pm. Manchester Cathedral, Victoria Street, Manchester M3 1SX, Henshaw’s (local charity for the blind & impaired vision) annual fundraiser, December 12, 7.30pm, £10, £7. 0161 872 1234, fundraising@henshaws.org.uk. St James Priory, Whitson St., Bristol BS1 3NZ, in Bristol’s oldest building, £15 (£13 concessions, £5 students, £2 under 18s). 0117 927 6536, December 13, 7.30pm. The Pump Rooms, The Roman Baths, Stall Street, Bath BA1 1LZ, a highlight of the season in Bath, £20, £18, £16 Children under 16 £12, 01225 444477, December 19, 20 and 21, 7.30pm. York Minster, Precentor’s Court York YO1 7HH, featuring the Handbell Ringers of the Chapter House Choir, December 21, 7.30pm. The Collegiate Church of St Mary, Old Square, Warwick CV34 4RA, Armonico Consort’s choir, orchestra and opera company find new ways to bring classical music to modern audiences, December 22, 7:30 pm, £29.50 - £10, www.ticketmaster.com (search ‘Carols by Candlelight’) The Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP, with the elegant Mozart Festival Orchestra and Chorus, staged in full 18th Century costume, December 23, 8pm. 0845 401 5045 www.royalalberthall.com

The International cabaret sensation returns to the UK with a fantastical (and doubtless hilarious) take on Hans Christian Anderson’s tale.

Philip Glass at 75 Barbican Centre, Silk St., London, EC2Y 8DS www.barbican.org.uk December 14 to 15 A birthday celebration by the Barbican Centre to mark the 75th birthday of the American composer.

Tom Bawcock's Eve Mousehole, Cornwall www.information-britain.co.uk December 23 A festival held in celebration of the efforts of Tom Bawcock to lift a famine from the village. Star Gazy pie (a mixed fish, egg and potato pie with protruding fish heads) is traditionally eaten. Probably derived from a preChristian Midwinter festival.

The Kirkwall Ba' Game Kirkwall, Orkney Islands www.bagame.com December 25 & January 1 Every Christmas and New Year's Day shopkeepers barricade doors and windows in preparation for the traditional “Ba' game”, mass football played with a cork-filled leather ba'. 400 boys and men of the town are designated 'Uppies' and 'Doonies' and the aim is to carry the ba' to their own territories at the opposite ends of Kirkwall. Manic. Violent. Hilarious.

The American

American ORGANIZATIONS

American Friends of the British Museum Mollie Norwich. The British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG. 020 7323 8590 www.britishmuseum.org

An index of useful resources in the UK

ESSENTIAL CONTACTS EMERGENCIES Fire, Police, Ambulance

TRANSPORTATION London Underground 020 7222 1234 www.tfl.gov.uk National Rail Enquiries 08457 4849 50 www.nationalrail.co.uk National Bus Service 0990 808080 www.nationalexpress.com

American Friends of the National Portrait Gallery Stacey Ogg and Charlotte Savery, Individual Giving Managers 020 7312 2444 individualgiving@npg.org.uk www.npg.org.uk/support/individual/ americanfriends.php

American Friends of the Almeida Theatre, Inc. Kenneth David Burrows, 950 Third Avenue, 32nd Floor, New York, NY 10022, USA or Lizzie Stallybrass, Almeida Theatre, Almeida Street, London N1 1TA, UK www.almeida.co.uk/supportus/americansupport.aspx

001 100 155 153 151

American Friends of Chickenshed Theatre U.S. Office: c/o Chapel & York PMB293, 601 Penn Ave NW, Suite 900 S Bldg, Washington, DC 20004 UK Office: Chickenshed, Chase Side, Southgate, London N14 4PE 0208 351 6161 ext 240 AdamG@Chickenshed.org.uk http://www.chickenshed.org.uk/659/individual/ american-friends.html

For more details go to

www.theamerican.co.uk and click on Life In The UK

American Church in London Senior Pastor: Rev. John D’Elia. Music Director: Anthony Baldwin. Sunday School 9.45am Sunday Worship 11am, child care provided. 79a Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4TD (Goodge St. tube station) Tel: 020 7580 2791/07771 642875 churchsecretary@amchurch.co.uk www.amchurch.co.uk

American Friends of the Lyric Theatre Ireland Crannóg House, 44 Stranmillis Embankment, Belfast, BT9 5FL, Northern Ireland Angela McCloskey info@americanfriendsofthelyric.com www.americanfriendsofthelyric.com/ americanfriends.html

American Red Cross RAF Mildenhall Tel: 01638 542107, After Hours 07031 15 2334 red.crossv3@mildenhall.af.mil

MEDICAL ADVICE LINE NHS Direct delivers 24-hour telephone and e-health information services, direct to the public. www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk 0845 4647

CIVIC & SERVICES

American Friends of the Jewish Museum London Stephen Goldman Tel. 020 7284 7363 stephen.goldman@jewishmuseum.org.uk www.jewishmuseum.org.uk/american-friends

American Citizens Abroad (ACA) The Voice of Americans Overseas, 5 Rue Liotard, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland +41.22.340.02.33 info.aca@gmail.com www.americansabroad.org

999 or 112 (NOT 911)

TELEPHONES Direct Dial Code, US & Canada Operator Assistance, UK Operator Assistance, Int. International Directory Assistance Telephone Repair

American Friends of the Donmar Inc. Stephanie Dittmer, Deputy Director of Development 020 7845 5810 sdittmer@donmarwarehouse.com www.donmarwarehouse.com/p46.html

American Institute of Architects Benjamin Franklin House, 36 Craven Street, London WC2N 5NF. Tel: 020 7930 9124 chapterexecutive@aiauk.org www.aiauk.org

Here are some crucial telephone numbers to know while you are in the UK.

American Friends of Contemporary Dance & Sadler’s Wells U.S. Office: Celia Rodrigues, Chair 222 Park Avenue South, 10A, New York, NY 10003 +1.917.539.9021 americanfriends@sadlerswells.com UK Office: 020 7863 8134 development@sadlerswells.com. American Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery Kathleen Bice, Development Officer, Members and Patrons 020 8299 8726 www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/support_us/ american_friends.aspx

American Friends of ENO – English National Opera Denise Kaplan, American Friends Coordinator London Coliseum, St. Martin’s Lane, London WC2N 4ES 0207 845 9331 Americanfriends@eno.org www.eno.org/support-us/individual-giving/ american-friends/american-friends.php

American Friends of the Philharmonia Orchestra, Inc. Jennifer Davies, Development Director jennifer.davies@philharmonia.co.uk www.philharmonia.co.uk/support/friends/afpo/ American Friends of the Royal Court Theatre U.S.: Laurie Beckelman, Beckelman and Capalino +1.212.616.5822 laurie@beckcap.com UK: Gaby Styles, Head of Development, Royal Court Theatre 020 7565 5060 gabystyles@royalcourttheatre.com or info@afrct.org

American Friends of the Royal Institution of Great Britain U.S.: c/o Chapel & York Limited, PMB #293, South Building Washington, DC 20004 UK: The Development Office, Royal Institution of Great Britain, 21 Albemarle Street, London W1S 4BS 020 7670 2991 kdodd@ri.ac.uk www.rigb.org American Friends of the Royal Society http://royalsociety.org/Overseas-Donations

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American Friends of St. Bartholomew the Great U.S.: John Eagleson 2925 Briarpark, Suite 600, Houston, TX 77042 UK: 20 7606 5171 admin@greatstbarts.com

American Friends of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust U.S.: John Chwat, President 625 Slaters Lane, Suite 103, Alexandria, VA 22314 +1. 703.684.7703 info@americanfriendsofsbt.org www.americanfriendsofsbt.org American Friends of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Inc. U.S.: Diana Seaton, Executive Director 61 Londonderry Drive, Greenwich, CT 06830 +1.203.536.4328 diana.seaton@afvam.org www.afvam.org UK: 020 7942 2149 American Friends of Wigmore Hall U.S.: c/o Chapel and York, 1000 N West Street Suite 1200, Wilmington DE 19801 UK: 020 7258 8220 mhosterweil@wigmore-hall.org.uk American Museum in Britain Director: Dr Richard Wendorf Claverton Manor, Bath BA2 7BD. 01225 460503. Fax 01225 469160 info@americanmuseum.org www.americanmuseum.org American Women Lawyers in London www.awll.org.uk info@awll.org.uk American Women’s Health Centre 214 Great Portland Street, London W1W 5QN. Obstetric, gynecological & infertility service. 020 7390 8433 www.awhc.co.uk Anglo American Medical Society Hon. Sec.: Dr. Edward Henderson, The Mill House, Whatlington, E. Sussex, TN33 0ND. 01424 775130. ed@themillhouse.eclipse.co.uk Association for Rescue at Sea The UK’s Royal National Lifeboat Association does not have an American Branch but if you wish to make a tax-efficient gift to the RNLI, contact AFRAS. Secretary: Mrs. Anne C. Kifer P.O. Box 565 Fish Creek, WI 54212, U.S.A. 00-1-920-743-5434 fax 00-1-920-743-5434 email: ackafras@aol.com Atlantic Council Director: Alan Lee Williams. 185 Tower Bridge Road, London SE1 2UF 0207 403 0640 or 0207 403 0740. Fax: 0207 403 0901 acuk@atlantic-council.org.uk

58 December 2012

Bethesda Baptist Church Kensington Place, London W8. 020 7221 7039 office@bethesdabaptist.org.uk Boy Scouts of America Mayflower District Field Executive: Wayne Wilcox 26 Shortlands Road, Kingston, Surrey KT2 6HD 020 8274 1429, 07788 702328 wpwilcox@gmail.com BritishAmerican Business Inc. 75 Brook Street, London, W1K 4AD. 020 7290 9888 www.babinc.org ukinfo@babinc.org British American-Canadian Associates Contact via The English Speaking Union esu@esu.org CARE International UK 10-13 Rushworth Street, London, SE1 0RB 020 7934 9334 www.careinternational.org info@careinternational.org Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 66-68 Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London SW7 2PA 020 7584 7553 adcockmp@ldschurch.org https://lds.org.uk http://mormon.org Church of St. John the Evangelist Vicar: Reverend Stephen Mason. Assistant Priest: Reverend Mark Pudge. Assistant Curate: Reverend Deiniol Heywood. Hyde Park Crescent, London W2 2QD Tel: 020 7262 1732 www.stjohns-hydepark.com parishadmin@stjohns-hydepark.com Commonwealth Church Rev. Rod Anderson, PO Box 15027, London SE5 0YS www.savestmarks.com Democrats Abroad (UK) Marylebone Room, 229 Great Portland Street, International Student House, London W1W 5PN. Regular updates on events, chapters throughout the UK (and specific email addresses), and DAUK newsletters: www.democratsabroad.org.uk Register to vote and request an Absentee Ballot: www.votefromabroad.org Tel: 020 7724 9796 www.democratsabroad.org/group/united-kingdom Farm Street Church 114 Mount Street, Mayfair, London W1K 3AH Tel: 020 7493 7811 www.farmstreet.org.uk Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) Department of Defense, 1155 Defense Pentagon, Washington DC 20301-1155. Director: Ms. Polli K. Brunelli UK Toll Free Tel: 0800 028 8056

US Toll Free Tel:1-800-438- VOTE (8683). www.fvap.gov vote@fvap.ncr.gov

Friends of St Jude London Debbie Berger 07738 628126 debbie.berger@stjude.org www.friendsofstjude.org/london Grampian Houston Association Secretary: Bill Neish 5 Cairncry Avenue, Aberdeen, AB16 5DS 01224-484720 wineish@sky.com International Community Church (Interdenominational) Our Vision: “Everyone Mature in Christ” (Col. 1:28) Pastor: Rev. Dr. Barry K. Gaeddert Worship on Sundays: 10.30 am at Chertsey Hall, Heriot Road, Chertsey, Surrey KT16 9DR Active Youth programme. Church Office: 1st floor, Devonshire House, 60 Station Road, Addlestone, Surrey KT15 2AF. 01932 830295. churchoffice@icc-uk.org www.icc-uk.org Junior League of London President: Jennifer Crowl 9 Fitzmaurice Place, London W1J 5JD. Tel: 020 7499 8159 Fax: 020 7629 1996 jrleague@jll.org.uk www.jll.org.uk Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation 19 Angel Gate, City Road, London EC1V 2PT. Tel: 020 7713 2030. Fax: 020 7713 2031 info@jdrf.org.uk www.jdrf.org.uk Liberal Jewish Synagogue 28 St John’s Wood Road, London NW8 7HA Services 6.45pm Fridays and 11am on Saturdays except for first Friday each month when service is held at 7pm with a Chavurah Supper. Please bring non-meat food dish to share. 020 7286 5181 ljs@ljs.org Lions Club International Lakenheath & District 105EA, 15 Highfields Drive, Lakenheath, Suffolk IP27 9EH. Tel 01842 860752 www.lionsclubs.org Lutheran Services, St Anne’s Rev. Timothy Dearhamer. Lutheran Church, Gresham St, London EC2. Sun 11am-7pm. Tel. 020 7606 4986 Fax. 020 7600 8984 info@StAnnesLutheranChurch.org www.StAnnesLutheranChurch.org Methodist Central Hall Westminster, London SW1H 9NH Services every Sunday at 11am and 6.30pm.

The American

Bible study groups & Monday guilds also held. Tel: 020 7222 8010 www.methodist-central-hall.org.uk church@mchw.org.uk

North American Friends of Chawton House Library U.S. Office: 824 Roosevelt Trail, #130, Windham, ME 04062 +1.207 892 4358 UK Office: Chawton House Library, Chawton, Alton, Hampshire GU34 1SJ 01420 541010 www.chawton.org/support/nafchl5.html Republicans Abroad (UK) Chairman Dr. Thomas Grant chairman@republicansabroad-uk.org www.republicansabroad-uk.org Rotary Club of London 6 York Gate, London NW1 4QG. Tel. 020 7487 5429 Royal National Lifeboat Institution Head Office, West Quay Road, Poole BH15 1HZ 0845 045 6999 www.rnli.org.uk The Royal Oak Foundation Sean Sawyer, 35 West 35th Street #1200, New York NY 10001-2205, USA Tel 212- 480-2889 or (800) 913-6565 Fax (212)785-7234 ssawyer@royal-oak.org www.royal-oak.org St Andrew’s Lutheran Church Serving Americans since 1960. Whitby Road & Queens Walk, Ruislip, West London. (South Ruislip Tube Station). Services: 11 am 020 8845 4242 pastorvan43@hotmail.com www.standrewslutheran.co.uk Other Lutheran Churches in the UK www.lutheran.co.uk T.R.A.C.E. P.W. (The ‘original’ Transatlantic Children’s’ Enterprise reuniting children with G.I. father’s and their families) Membership Secretary: Norma Jean Clarke-McCloud 29 Connaught Avenue, Enfield EN1 3BE www.tracepw.org normajean78@hotmail.com United Nations Association, Westminster branch Chairman: David Wardrop 61 Sedlescombe Road, London SW6 1RE 0207 385 6738 info@unawestminster.org.uk www.unawestminster.org.uk www.wethepeoples.org.uk USA Girl Scouts Overseas – North Atlantic Stem Kaserne Bldg 1002, Postfach 610212 D-68232, Mannheim, Germany. +49 621 487 7025.

girlscouts@cmtymail.26asg.army.mil www.norags.com

SOCIAL American Club of Hertfordshire President: Lauryn Awbrey 63-65 New Road, Welwyn, Herts AL6 0AL 01582 624823 amclubherts@aol.com American Expats of the Northwest of England The Ruskin Rooms, Drury Lane, Knutsford, Cheshire WA16 6HA. expatsnw@gmail.com American Friends of English Heritage 1307 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W. Washington DC 20036. 202-452-0928. c/o English Heritage, Attn: Simon Bergin, Keysign House, 429 Oxford Street, London W1R 2HD. 020 7973 3423 www.english-heritage.org.uk American Professional Women in London Rebecca Lammers 58 Shacklewell Road, London, N16 7TU 075 3393 5064 abwinlondon@gmail.com www.meetup.com/American-Business-Womenin-London www.facebook.com/groups/293890040710041 Twitter: @USAProWomenLDN American Society in London c/o The English Speaking Union 37 Charles Street, London W1J 5ED info@americansocietyuk.com 020 7539 3400 American Stamp Club of Great Britain Chapter 67 of the American Philatelic Society. Hon. Publicity Secretary: Stephen T. Taylor 5 Glenbuck Road, Surbiton, Surrey KT6 6BS. 020 8390 9357 American Womens Association of Bristol awabristol_membership@fawco.org American Women of Berkshire & Surrey P. O. Box 10, Virginia Water, Surrey GU25 4YP. www.awbs.org.uk awbscommonground@yahoo.co.uk American Women of Surrey PO Box 185, Cobham, Surrey KT11 3YJ. www.awsurrey.org American Women’s Association of Yorkshire The Chalet, Scarcroft Grange, Wetherby Road, Scarcroft, Leeds LS14 3HJ. 01224 744 224 Contact: Carol Di Peri The American Women’s Club of Dublin P.O. Box 2545, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 IRELAND www.awcd.net info@awcd.net

American Women’s Club of London 68 Old Brompton Road, London SW7 3LQ. 020 7589 8292 awc@awclondon.org www.awclondon.org American Women’s Club of Central Scotland P.O. Box 231, 44-46 Morningside Road, Edinburgh, EH10 4BF info@awccs.org www.awccs.org American Women of South Wales 07866 190838 awsouthwales@fawco.org The Anglo-American Charity Limited Jeffrey Hedges, Director. 07968 513 631 info@anglo-americancharity.org Association of American Women in Ireland aawireland@fawco.org Association of American Women of Aberdeen PO Box 11952, Westhill, Aberdeen, AB13 0BW email via website www.awaaberdeen.org British Association of American Square Dance Zoe Bremer, 1 Burnwood Drive, Wollaton, Nottingham NG8 2DJ 0115 928 2896 rpmsquaredancing@aol.com www.uksquaredancing.com Canadians & Americans in Southern England 023 9241 3881 contactcase@casecommunity.com Canadian Womens Club 1 Grosvenor Square, London W1K 4AB Tues – Thurs 10.30-3.30 0207 258 6344 info@canadianwomenlondon.org www.canadianwomenlondon.org Chilterns American Women’s Club PO Box 445, Gerrards Cross, Bucks, SL9 8YU membership@cawc.co.uk www.cawc.co.uk Colonial Dames of America Chapter XI London. President Anne K Brewster: AnneBrewster@hotmail.com Daughters of the American Revolution – St James’s Chapter Mrs Natalie Ward, 01379 871422 nattyward@aol.com or UKDARStJames@aol.com http://mysite.verizon.net/jean.sutton/main.htm Daughters of the American Revolution – Walter Hines Page Chapter Diana Frances Diggines, Regent dardiana@hotmail.co.uk www.dar.org Daughters of the American Revolution – Washington Old Hall Chapter, North Yorkshire Mrs. Gloria Hassall, 01845 523-830

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Delta Kappa Gamma Society International Great Britain President: Mrs Sandra Blacker, 22 Manor Park, Tunbridge Wells www.deltakappagamma.net

North American Connection (West Midlands) PO Box 10543, Knowle, Solihull, West Midlands. B93 8ZY T: 0870 720 0663 info@naconnect.com www.naconnect.com

Delta Zeta International Sorority Alumna Club Mrs Sunny Eades, The Old Hall, Mavesyn Ridware, Nr. Rugeley, Staffordshire, WSI5 3QE. 01543 490 312 SunnyEades@aol.com

Kensington & Chelsea Men’s Club Contact: John Rickus 70 Flood Street, Chelsea, London SW3 5TE. (home): 020 7349 0680 (office): 020 7753 2253 johnrickus@aol.com Kensington & Chelsea Women’s Club President: Mary Narvell. Tel. 0142 693 3348 president@kcwc.org.uk Membership: 0207 863 7562 (ans service). membership@kcwc.org.uk New Neighbors Diana Parker, Rosemary Cottage, Rookshill, Rickmansworth, Herts WD3 4HZ. 01923 772185

60 December 2012

Air Force Sergeants Association European Division Timothy W. Litherland CMSgt, USAF (ret). Chapters at RAFs Alconbury, Croughton, Lakenheath, Menwith Hill and Mildenhall. tim_lith@msn.com www.afsadiv16.org

Petroleum Women’s Club Contact: Nancy Ayres. Tel: 01923 711720 nanayrs@btopenworld.com Petroleum Women’s Club of Scotland pwcscotland@yahoo.co.uk www.pwcos.com

Friends of Benjamin Franklin House Director: Dr. Márcia Balisciano Benjamin Franklin House, 36 Craven St, London WC2N 5NF 0207 839 2006 www.benjaminfranklinhouse.org info@benjaminfranklinhouse.org

International American Duplicate Bridge Club Contact: Mary Marshall, 18 Palace Gardens Terrace, London W8 4RP. 020 7221 3708 www.ycbc.co.uk/american.htm

AFJROTC 073 Lakenheath High School. Tel: 01638 525603

Stars of Great Britain Chapter #45 Washington Jurisdiction Lakenheath, England sogb45@yahoo.com http://starsofgreatbritainchapter45.com

English-Speaking Union Director-General Peter Kyle Dartmouth House, 37 Charles Street, London W1J 5ED. Tel: 020 7529 1550 Fax: 0207 495 6108 esu@esu.org

High Twelve International, Inc. Local Contact – Arnold Page High Twelve Club 298, Secretary, Darrell C. Russell; 1, Wellington Close, West Row, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, IP28 8PH Telephone: 01638 715764 email: russelld130@btinternet.com.

MILITARY

Northwood Area Women’s Club P.O. Box 46, Northwood, HA6 1XN 01932-830295 info@northwoodareawomensclub.co.uk www.northwoodareawomensclub.co.uk

The East Anglia American Club 49 Horsham Close Haverhill, Suffolk CB9 7HN Tel: 01440 766 967 Email: eaacexpats@karej.co.uk

Hampstead Women’s Club President - Betsy Lynch. Tel: 020 7435 2226 email president@hwcinlondon.co.uk www.hwcinlondon.co.uk

Women’s Writers Network Cathy Smith, 23 Prospect Rd, London, NW2 2JU. 020 7794 5861 www.womenwriters.org.uk info@womenwriters.org.uk

Pilgrims of Great Britain Allington Castle, Maidstone, Kent M16 0NB. Tel. 01622 606404 Fax. 01622 606402 sec@pilgrimsociety.org

Propeller Club of the United States – London, England propellerclubhq.com St John’s Wood Women’s Club Box 185, 176 Finchley Road, London NW3 6BT membership@sjwwc.org www.sjwwc.org Thames Valley American Women’s Club Contact: Miriam Brewster PO Box 1687, Maidenhead, Berks SL6 8XT. 0208 751 8941 www.tvawc.com membership@tvawc.com UK Panhellenic Association Contact Susan Woolf, 10 Coniston Court, High St. Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex HA1 3LP. 020 8864 0294 susanrwoolf@hotmail.com United Kingdom Shrine OASIS Anglian Shrine Club Secretary: Charles A. Aldrich, 11 Burrow Drive, Lakenheath, Suffolk IP27 9EY 01842 860 650 mailto:caaldrich@btinterner.com W.E.B. DuBois Consistory #116 Northern Jurisdiction Valley of London, England, Orient of Europe Cell: 0776-873-8030 mjack36480@aol.com

American Legion London Post 1 Adjutant: Jim Pickett PO Box 5017, BATH, BA1 OPP Tel: 01225-426245 www.amlegionpost1london.org.uk info@amlegionpost1london.org.uk

Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association London Chapter Secretary: CW04, A.H. Cox, USN, Navcommunit Box 44, 7 North Audley Street, London W1Y 1WJ. 020 7409 4519/4184 www.afcea.org.uk london.sec@afcea.org.uk Bentwaters/Woodbridge Retirees’ Association President: Wylie Moore. 2 Coldfair Close, Knodishall, Saxmundham, Suffolk, IP17 1UN. 01728 830281 British Patton Historical Society Kenn Oultram 01606 891303 Brookwood American Cemetery (WW1) Brookwood, Woking, Surrey GU24 0BL 01483 473237 www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/bk.php Cambridge American Cemetery (WWII Cemetary) Superintendent: Mr. Bobby Bell. Asst. Superintendent: Mr. Tony Barclay. Coton, Cambridge CB23 7PH. 01954 210350 Commander in Chief, US Naval Forces Europe Naval Reserve Detachment 130, Recruiting Officer: LCDR Thomas D. Hardin, USNR-R. 020 7409 4259 (days) 020 8960 7395 (evenings). Eighth Air Force Historical Society UK Representative: Mr. Gordon Richards and Mrs Connie Richards 14 Pavenham Road, Oakley, Bedford MK43 7SY. 01234 823357. Friends of the Eighth Newsletter (FOTE News) Chairman: Mr. Ron Mackay.

The American

2nd Air Division Memorial Library The Forum, Norwich, Norfolk, NR2 1AW 01603 774747 www.2ndair.org.uk 2admemorial.lib@norfolk.gov.uk

39b Thorley Hill, Bishops Stortford, Herts CM23 3NE. 01279 658619.

Joint RAF Mildenhall/Lakenheath Retiree Affairs Office Director: Col. John J. Valentine, USAF (Ret) Unit 8965, Box 30 RAF Mildenhall, Bury St. Edmonds, Suffolk, IP28 8NF Tel. (01638) 542039 rao@mildenhall.af.mil

USAF Retiree Activities Office Director: Paul G Gumbert, CMSgt (USAF), Ret 422 ABG/CVR Unit 5855, PSC 50, Box 3 RAF Croughton, Northants NN13 5XP Phone: 01280 708182 e-mail: 422abg.rao@croughton.af.mil

Marine Corps League Detachment 1088, London, England Commandant Mike Allen Creek Cottage, 2 Pednormead End, Old Chesham, Buckinghamshire HP5 2JS detachment1088@mcl-london-uk.org www.mcl-london-uk.org

USNA Alumni Association UK Chapter Pres: LCDR Tim Fox ’97, timfox97@hotmail.com Vice Pres: Miguel Sierra ’90, mrsierra@chevron.com Treas/Membership Coord: Bart O’Brien ’98, bartonobrien2@yahoo.com Secretary: Matt Horan ’87, matthoran@btinternet.com

Mildenhall Retirees Association President: Jack Kramer 6 Nunsgate, Thetford, Norfolk 1P24 3EL

Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States Commander: Ernest Paolucci 24, rue Gerbert, 75015 Paris, France 00 33 (0)1.42.50.96.34

Navy League of the United States, United Kingdom Council Council President: Steven G. Franck steven.franck@googlemail.com www.navyleague.org

Western UK Retiree Association President: R. Jim Barber, MSgt (USAF), Ret Phone: 01280 708182

Non-Commissioned Officers’ Association (NCOA) – The Heart of England Chapter Chairman: Ronald D.Welper. Pine Farm, Sharpe’s Corner, Lakenheath, Brandon, Suffolk 1P27 9LB. Thetford 861643. The Chapter Address: 513 MSSQ/SS, RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk.

EDUCATIONAL ACS International Schools ACS Cobham International School, Heywood, Portsmouth Road, Cobham, Surrey KT11 1BL 01932 867251

Society of American Military Engineers (UK) UK address: Box 763, USAFE Construction Directorate. 86 Blenheim Crescent, West Ruislip, Middlesex HA4 7HL London Post. President: W. Allan Clarke. Secretary: Capt. Gary Chesley. Membership Chairman, Mr. Jim Bizier. US Army Reserve 2nd Hospital Center 7 Lynton Close, Ely, Cambs, CB6 1DJ. Tel: 01353 2168 Commander: Major Glenda Day. US Air Force Recruiting Office RAF Mildenhall, 100 MSS/MSPRS, RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, 1P28 8NF. 01638 542290

Retired Affairs Office, RAF Alconbury Serving Central England POC: Rex Keegan Alt. POC: Mike Depasquale UK Postal Address: 423 SVS/RAO, Unit 5585, Box 100, RAF Alconbury, Huntingdon, Cambs PE28 4DA Office Hours: Tuesday and Friday, 10:30am–2:30pm 01480 84 3364/3557 Emergency Contact: 07986 887 905 RAO@Alconbury.af.mil

ACS Egham International School, Woodlee, London Road (A30), Egham, Surrey TW20 0HS. 01784 430800 ACS Hillingdon International School Hillingdon Court, 108 Vine Line, Hillingdon, Middlesex UB10 0BE. 01895 259771 www.acs-england.co.uk

AIU/London (formerly American College in London) 110 Marylebone High Street, London W1U 4RY. Tel 020 7467 5640 Fax 020 7935 8144 www.aiulondon.ac.ukadmissions@aiulondon.ac.uk Alconbury Middle/High School RAF Alconbury, Huntingdon, Cambs, PE17 1PJ, UK. www.alco-hs.eu.dodea.edu AlconburyHS.Principal@eu.dodea.edu American Institute for Foreign Study 37 Queensgate, London SW7 5HR 020 7581 7300 www.aifs.co.uk info@aifs.co.uk American School in London 1 Waverley Place, London NW8 0NP

Tel: 020 7449 1200 Fax: 020 7449 1350 www.asl.org admissions@asl.org

American School of Aberdeen Craigton Road, Cults, Aberdeen. 01224 861068 / 868927. Benjamin Franklin House 36 Craven Street, London WC2N 5NF. Tel 020 7839 2006 Fax 020 7930 9124 info@benjaminfranklinhouse.org

Boston University – London Graduate Programs Office 43 Harrington Gardens, London SW7 4JU. 020 7244 6255 www.bu.edu/london British American Educational Foundation Mrs. Carlton Colcord, 1 More’s Garden, 90 Cheyne Walk, London SW3. 020 7352 8288 www.baef.org anncolcord@compuserve.com BUNAC Student Exchange Employment Program Director: Callum Kennedy, 16 Bowling Green Lane, London EC1R 0QH. 020 7251 3472 www.bunac.org enquiries@bunac.org.uk Center Academy School Development Centre 92 St. John’s Hill, Battersea, London SW11 1SH. Tel 020 7738 2344 Fax 020 7738 9862 ukadmin@centeracademy.com Central Bureau for Educational Visits The British Council Director: Peter Upton 10 Spring Gardens, London SW1A 2BN 020 7389 4004 Wales 029 2039 7346, Scotland 0131 447 8024 centralbureau@britishcouncil.org Council on International Educational Exchange Dr. Michael Woolf, 52 Portland Street, London WIV 1JQ Tel 020 7478 2000 Fax 020 7734 7322 www.ciee.org contact@ciee.org Ditchley Foundation Ditchley Park, Enstone, Chipping Norton, Oxon OX7 4ER. Tel 01608 677346 Fax 1608 677399 www.ditchley.co.uk info@ditchley.co.uk European Council of International Schools Executive Director: Jean K Vahey Fourth Floor, 146 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 9TR Tel 020 7824 7040 www.ecis.org ecis@ecis.org European-Atlantic Group PO Box 37431, London N3 2XP 020 8632 9253 justinglass@btinternet.com www.eag.org.uk

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Florida State University London Study Centre Administrative Director: Kathleen Paul 99 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3LH. Tel 020 7813 3233 Fax 020 7813 3270 www.international.fsu.edu/london/ intprog1@admin.fsu.edu Fordham University London Centre Academic Coordinator: Sabina Antal 23 Kensington Square, London W8 5HQ 020 7937 5023 londoncentre@fordham.edu www.fordham.edu Harlaxton College UK Campus, University of Evansville Harlaxton Manor, Grantham, Lincolnshire NG32 1AG. Grantham 4541 4761. Tel 01476 403000 Fax 01476 403030 harlaxton.ac.uk. Huron University USA in London 46-47 Russell Square, Bloomsbury, London WC1B 4JP Tel +44 (0) 20 7636 5667 Fax+44 (0) 20 7299 3297 folu@huron.ac.uk www.huron.ac.uk Institute for Study Abroad Butler University, 21 Pembridge Gardens, London W2 4EB 020 7792 8751 http://www.ifsa-butler.org/england-overview.html Institute for the Study of the Americas Director: Professor James Dunkerley. Tel 020 7862 8879 Fax 020 7862 8886 americas@sas.ac.uk www.americas.sas.ac.uk International School of Aberdeen 296 North Deeside Road, Milltimber, Aberdeen, AB13 0AB 01224 732267 www.isa.aberdeen.sch.uk admin@isa.aberdeen.sch.uk International School of London 139 Gunnersbury Avenue, London W3 8LG. 020 8992 5823. www.islondon.com mail@ISLondon.com International School of London in Surrey Old Woking Road, Woking GU22 8HY Tel +44 (0)1483 750409 Fax +44 (0)1483 730962 www.islsurrey.com mail@islsurrey.com Ithaca College London Centre 35 Harrington Gardens, London SW7. Tel. 020 7370 1166 www.ithaca.edu/london bsheasgreen@ithacalondon.co.uk Marymount International School, London Headmistress: Ms Sarah Gallagher George Road, Kingston upon Thames, KT2 7PE Tel: 020 8949 0571 info@marymountlondon.com www.marymountlondon.com

62 December 2012

Missouri London Study Abroad Program 32 Harrington Gardens, London SW7 4JU. 020 7373 7953. www.umsl.edu/services/abroad/universities/ molondon.html web_office@umsl.edu Regents American College Inner Circle, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4NS. 020 7486 9605. www.regents.ac.uk exrel@regents.ac.uk Richmond, The American International University in London Richmond Hill Campus,Queen’s Road Richmond-upon Thames TW10 6JP Tel: +44 20 8332 9000 Fax: +44 20 8332 1596 enroll@richmond.ac.uk www.richmond.ac.uk Schiller International University Royal Waterloo House, 51-55 Waterloo Road, London SE1 8TX. Tel. 020 7928 1372 www.schillerlondon.ac.uk admissions@schillerlondon.ac.uk Sotheby’s Institute of Art Postgraduate Art studies, plus day /evening courses 30 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3EE Tel: 0207 462 3232 www.sothebysinstitute.com info@sothebysinstitute.com Southbank International Schools Kensington and Hampstead campuses for 3-11 year olds; Westminster campuses for 11-18 year olds. Director of Admissions: MargaretAnne Khoury Tel: 020 7243 3803 Fax: 020 7727 3290 admissions@southbank.org www.southbank.org TASIS England, American School Coldharbour Lane, Thorpe, Nr. Egham, Surrey TW20 8TE. Tel: 01932 565252 Fax: 01932 564644 http://england.tasis.com ukadmissions@tasisengland.org University of Notre Dame London Program 1 Suffolk Street, London SW1Y 4HG 020 7484 7811 london@nd.edu http://www.nd.edu/~ndlondon/lup/future/ introduction.htm US-UK Fulbright Commission Dir. of Advisory Service: Lauren Welch 020 7498 4010 Dir. of Awards: Michael Scott-Kline, 020 7498 4014 Battersea Power Station, 188 Kirtling Street, London SW8 5BN www.fulbright.co.uk Warnborough University International Office, Friars House, London SE1 8HB. Tel 020 7922 1200 Fax: 020 7922 1201 www.warnborough.edu admin@warnborough.edu Webster Graduate Studies Center Regent’s College, Regent’s Park,

Inner Circle, London NW1 4NS, UK. Tel: 020 7487 7505 Fax: 020 7487 7425 www.webster.ac.uk webster@regents.ac.uk

Wickham Court School, Schiller International Layhams Road, West Wickham, Kent BR4 9HW. Tel 0208 777 2942 Fax 0208 777 4276 Wickham@schillerintschool.com www.wickhamcourt.org.uk Wroxton College Fairleigh Dickinson Univ.,Wroxton, Nr. Banbury, Oxfordshire OX15 6PX. Tel. 01295 730551 http://view.fdu.edu/default.aspx?id=326 admin@wroxton-college.ac.uk

ALUMNI ASSOCIATIONS Alliant International University (formerly United States International University) England Chapter Alumni Association Chapter President: Eric CK Chan c/o Regents College London, Inner Circle, Regents Park, London, UK University: www.alliant.edu chane@regents.ac.uk Amherst College Bob Reichert RAreichert26b@aol.com Andover/Abbot Association of London Jeffrey Hedges ‘71, President 07968 513 631 hedgeslon@hotmail.com Association of MBAs Leo Stemp, Events Administrator Tel 020 7837 3375 (ext. 223) Fax 020-7278-3634 l.stemp@mba.org.uk Babson College Frank de Jongh Swemer, Correspondence W 020 7932 7514 babson.alumni@btinternet.com Barnard College Club Hiromi Stone, President. Tel. 0207 935 3981 barnardclubgb@yahoo.co.uk Berkeley Club of London Geoff Kertesz Email: berkeleyclublondon@gmail.com http://international.berkeley.edu/LondonClub Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ groups/223876564344656/ Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/ Berkeley-Club-London-4186104 Boston College Alumni Club UK Craig Zematis, President +44 7717 878968 BCalumniclub@gmail.com www.alumniconnections.com/olc/pub/BTN/cpages/ chapters/home.jsp?chapter=41&org=BTN

The American

Boston University Alumni Association of the UK Will Straughn, Snr International Development Officer, University Development and Alumni Relations, 43 Harrington Gardens, Kensington, London SW7 4JU 020 7244 2908 020 7373 7411 bstraugh@bu.edu Brandeis Alumni Club of Great Britain Joan Bovarnick, President http://alumni.brandeis.edu office@alumni.brandeis.edu Brown University Club of the United Kingdom President: Tugba Erem Vice President: Caroline Cook Secretary: Pinar Emirdag Treasurer: Mikus Kins Events: Ramya Moothathu Communication: Patrick Attie Alumni Club & Liaison: Vanessa Van Hoof Former President: Ed Giberti edgibertiwgcuk@aol.com. Brown Club UK, Box 57100, London, EC1P 1RB contact@brownuk.org www.brownuk.org Bryn Mawr Club President: Lady Quinton. c/o Wendy Tiffin, 52 Lansdowne Gardens, London SW8 2EF. Wendy Tiffin, Secretary/Treasurer wendytif@ukgateway.net Claremont Colleges Alumni in London Hadley Beeman hadley_beeman@alumni.cmc.edu Colgate Club of London Stephen W Solomon ‘76, President 0207 349 0738 swsolomon@hotmail.com Columbia University Club of London Stephen Jansen, President london@alumniclubs.columbia.edu www.alumniclubs.columbia.edu/london Cornell Club of London Natalie Teich, President nmt4@cornell.edu www.alumni.cornell.edu/orgs/int/London Dartmouth College Club of London Sanjay Gupta, Officer Andrew Rotenberg, Officer sanjay.gupta.96@ alum.dartmouth.org andrew.l.rotenberg.92@alum.dartmouth.org www.dartmouth.org Delta Kappa Gamma Society International For information about the Society in Great Britain go to our website www.deltakappagamma.org/GB. There are links to all the USA and other international members’ sites. Delta Sigma Pi Business Fraternity London Alumni Chapter. Ashok Arora,

P O Box 1110, London W3 7ZB. 020 8423 8231 bertela@yahoo.com www.dspnet.org

NYU Alumni Club in London Jodi Ekelchik, President alumni.london@nyu.edu

Duke University Club of England Ms Robin Buck buckrobin@yahoo.com Tim Warmath timwarmath@yahoo.com Kate Bennett jkbennett@btinternet.com www.dukealumni.com/england

NYU STERN UK Alumni Club Matthieu Gervis, President sternukalumniclub@hotmail.com Ohio University UK & Ireland Frank Madden, 1 Riverway, Barry Avenue, Windsor, Berks. SL4 5JA. Tel 01753 855 360 Fax 01753 868 855 frank@madant.demon.co.uk

Emory University Alumni Chapter of the UK Matthew Williams, Chapter Leader 079 8451 4119 matthew.eric.williams@gmail.com www.alumni.emory.edu/chapters-and-groups/ chapters/international.html

Penn Alumni Club of the UK David Lapter Tel. 07957 146 470 david.lapter@alumni.upenn.edu

Georgetown Alumni Club Alexa Fernandez, President GeorgetownLondon@Yahoo.com

Penn State Alumni Association Penn State Alumni Association Ron Nowicki 0207 226 7681 pennstatelondon@yahoo.co.uk www.alumni.psu.edu

Gettysburg College Britt-Karin Oliver brittkarin@aol.com Harvard Business School Club of London www.hbsa.org.uk

Princeton Association (UK) Carol Rahn, President Jon Reades, Young Alumni carol.rahn@orange-ftgroup.com jon@reades.com www.alumni.princeton.edu

Harvard Club of Great Britain Brandon Bradkin, President president@hcuk.org www.hcuk.org Indiana University Alumni club of England Anastasia Tonello, President 020 7253 4855 iuinlondon@yahoo.com www.alumni.indiana.edu/clubs/england

Rice Alumni of London Kathy Wang Tel. 07912 560 177 kathyw@alumni.rice.edu

KKG London Alumnae Association emilymerrell@gmail.com

Skidmore College Alumni Club, London Peggy Holden Briggs ‘84, co-ordinator peggyhbriggs@gmail.com 07817 203611

LMU Alumni Club London (Loyola Marymount University) Kent Jancarik 07795 358 681 kent@jancarik.com Marymount University Alumni UK Chapter President: Mrs Suzanne Tapley, 35 Park Mansions, Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7QT. Tel 020 7581 3742 MIT Club of Great Britain Yiting Shen Flat 8a, 36 Buckingham Gate, London SW1E 6PB Tel: 0789 179 3823 yshen@alum.mit.edu http://alumweb.mit.edu/clubs/uk/ Mount Holyoke Club of Britain Rachel L. Elwes, President rlelwes@yahoo.com Karen K. Bullivant Vice-President kkbullivant@alumnae.mtholyoke.edu www.mtholyoke.co.uk Notre Dame Club of London Hannah Gornik , Secretary ND_Club_London@yahoo.co.uk

Smith College Club of London Kathleen Merrill, President smithclubgb@googlemail.com http://alumnae.smith.edu

Stanford Business School Alumni Association (UK Chapter) Robby Arnold, President Lesley Anne Hunt, Events robby@blueyonder.co.uk lesley.hunt@blueyonder.co.uk www.stanfordalumni.org.uk Texas Tech Alumni Association – London Chapter David Mirmelli, Ferhat Guven, Bobby Brents president@texastechalumni.org.uk www.TexasTechAlumni.org.uk Texas Exes UK (UKTE) President: Carra Kane 7 Edith Road, Wimbledon, London SW19 8TW 0778 660 7534 carrakane@alumni.utexas.net www.fornogoodreason.com/UKTEMain.htm

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The American

Texas A&M Club London Ashley Lilly, Co-President Devin Howard, Co-President london@aggienetwork.com http://clubs.aggienetwork.com/londonamc/ The John Adams Society Contact: Muddassar Ahmed c/o Unitas Communications, Palmerston House, 80-86 Old Street, London EC1V 9AZ 0203 308 2358 johnadamssociety@unitascommunications.com www.johnadamssociety.co.uk Tufts - London Tufts Alliance Vikki Garth Londontuftsalliance@yahoo.com UK Dawgs of the University of Georgia Rangana Abdulla ukdawgs@hotmail.com UMass Alumni Club UK Julie Encarnacao, President (0)20 7007 3869 julesje32@gmail.com University of California Matthew Daines (Program Director) 17 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3JA 020 7079 0567 matthewdaines@californiahouse.org.uk University of Chicago UK Alumni Association President c/o Alumni Affairs and Development – Europe University of Chicago Booth School of Business Woolgate Exchange, 25 Basinghall Street, London EC2V 5HA Tel +44(0)20 7070 2245 Fax +44(0)20 7070 2250 www.ChicagoBooth.edu University of Illinois Alumni Club of the UK Amy Barklam, President 07796 193 466 amybarklam@msn.com University of North Carolina Alumni Club Brad Matthews, Club Leader 2 The Orchards, Hill View Road, Woking GU22 7LS brad.matthews@alumni.unc.edu http://alumni.unc.edu University of Michigan Alumni Association Regional Contact: Jessica Cobb, BA ’97 +44 (0) 788-784-0941 jesscobb@yahoo.com http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/umich_uk_alumni/

University of Rochester/Simon School UK Alumni Association Ms. Julie Bonne, Co-President 0118-956-5052 julie_bonne@yahoo.com University of Southern California, Alumni Club of London Jennifer Ladwig, President Chuck Cramer, Treasurer

64 December 2012

usclondon@gmail.com www.usclondonalumni.org

University of Virginia Alumni Club of London Kirsten Jellard, 020 7368 8473 londonuvaclub@yahoo.com http://members.aol.com/UKUVACLUB/UVA-london.htm USNA Alumni Association, UK Chapter President: LCDR Greta Densham ‘00 (gretaj@mac.com) Vice President/Treasurer: Tim Fox ‘97 (timfox97@ hotmail.com) Secretary: Mike Smith ‘84 (Mike.Smith@polycom.com) Facebook Group - USNA Alumni Association, UK Chapter Vassar College Club Sara Hebblethwaite, President 18 Redgrave Road, London, SW15 1PX +44 020 8788 6910 sara.hebblethwaite@virgin.net Warnborough Worldwide Alumni Association c/o International Office, Friars House, London SE1 8HB. Tel. 020 7922 1200 Fax. 020 7922 1201 http://www.wwaa.info/ admin@warnborough.edu Wellesley College Club Ana Ericksen, President. ana@ericksenuk.com Wharton Business School Club of the UK Yoav Kurtzbard, President Claire Watkins, Administrator 020-7447-8800 ykurtzbard@youngassoc.com cwatkins@youngassoc.com Williams Club of Great Britain Ethan Kline: ethankline@gmail.com Yale Club of London Joe Vittoria, President president@yale.org.uk Scott Fletcher, Events events@yale.org.uk Nick Baskey, Secretary secretary@yale.org.uk www.yale.org.uk Zeta Tau Alpha Alumnae Kristin Morgan. Tel: 07812 580949 kristinamorgan@gmail.com www.zetataualpha.org

ARTS North American Actors Association Chief Executive: Ms. Laurence Bouvard Americanactors@aol.com 07873 371 891

CIVIL WAR SOCIETIES American Civil War Round Table (UK) Sandra Bishop 5 Southdale, Chigwell, Essex IG7 5NN sandra-bishop@hotmail.com www.americancivilwar.org.uk

Southern Skirmish Association (SoSkan) Membership Secretary, Bob Isaac, 3 Hilliards Road, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3TA email membership@soskan.co.uk

SPORTS Eagles Golf Society Sharon Croley c/o Eventful Services, 49 Hastings Road, Croydon, Surrey CRO 6PH sharoncroley@blueyonder.co.uk English Lacrosse The Belle Vue Centre, Pink Bank Lane, Longsight, Manchester M12 5GL 0161.227.3626 www.englishlacrosse.co.uk info@englishlacrosse.co.uk British Baseball Federation/ BaseballSoftballUK 5th Floor, Ariel House, 74a Charlotte Street, London W1T 4QJ. 020 7453 7055 British Morgan Horse Society 01942 886141 www.morganhorse.org.uk admin@morganhorse.org.uk Ice Hockey UK 19 Heather Avenue, Rise Park, Romford RM1 4SL Tel. 07917 194 264 Fax. 1708 725241 www.icehockeyuk.co.uk ihukoffice@yahoo.co.uk Herts Baseball Club Adult & Little League Baseball www.hertsbaseball.com LondonSports Instruction and competitive play in baseball, basketball and football (soccer), for boys and girls aged 4-15, newcomers or experienced players. Learn about and play sports in a safe, fun environment. We welcome children of all nationalities. www.londonsports.com vll@me.com London Warriors American Football Club Contact: Kevin LoPrimo info@londonwarriorsafc.co.uk www.londonwarriorsafc.co.uk Mildenhall EELS Swim Team International and local competitions for ages 6-19. Contact Coach Robin flv4@hotmail.com

Every effort is made to ensure that listings in the information guide are correct and current. If your entry requires amendments please notify us immediately. We rely on you to keep us informed. Telephone 01747 830520, Fax 01747 830691 or email us at theamerican@blueedge.co.uk. We would be pleased to receive news or short articles about your organisation for possible publication in The American.

The American

RESTAURANTS

Suppliers of quality products and services hand-picked for you ACCOUNTANCY & TAX BDO LLP The UK member firm of the world’s fifth largest accountancy organisation. 55 Baker Street, London W1U 7EU 020 7486 5888 info@bdo.co.uk www.bdo.uk.com Jaffe & Co., incorp. American Tax International Comprehensive tax preparation and compliance service for US expatriates in the UK and Europe. America House, 54 Hendon Lane, London N3 1TT 0800 085 1537 or 020 8346 5237 www.americantaxonline.com Xerxes Associates LLP Fixed Fee US & UK Individual Tax Compliance, Consulting & Planning. Tel: +44(0)207 411 9026 Fax: +44(0)207 411 9051 www.xerxesllp.com

ANTIQUES & COLLECTABLES Stephen T Taylor Your American stamp dealer in Britain since 1995. 5 Glenbuck Road, Surbiton, Surrey KT6 6BS 020 8390 9357 info@stephentaylor.co.uk www.stephentaylor.co.uk

La Capanna The Finest Italian Food served in the loveliest of Surrey’s settings. 48 High Street, Cobham, Surrey KT11 3EF 01932 862 121 www.lacapanna.co.uk

GROCERY Lidgate Butchers Organic meats from a 150 year old business now run by the the fifth generation of the same family. 110 Holland Park Avenue, London W11 4UA Tel. 0207 727 8243 www.lidgates.com

LEGAL Kingsley Napley LLP Family lawyers with particular experience in dealing with cases involving Americans living here and abroad. 020 7814 1200 www.kingsleynapley.co.uk

MEDICAL & DENTAL

VIDEO / TELEVISION Jim Garnett - Cameraman 27 years’ experience in television, magazines and newspapers – Full professional gear in both NTSC [USA/Canada] and PAL formats. Used by ‘Entertainment Tonight’, CBC, CTV National, CTV Toronto, CTV Sports, Global TV and Channel Zero. Tel. 07930-100909 http://jimgarnettphotography.blogspot.co.uk

COUNSELLING AND PSYCHOTHERAPY Transitions Therapy Psychotherapy & Counselling for Expatriate Individuals, Couples, Families & Adolescents in the West End. London, England, United Kingdom 07557 261432 in the UK or 0044 7557 261432 from another country. Skype sessions available around the world. transitions_therapy@hotmail.com www.transitionstherapy.co.uk

The American Women’s Health Centre (AWHC) OB GYN Based in the West End of London, at the heart of medical excellence in Britain. Third Floor, 214 Great Portland Street, London W1W 5QN 020 7390 8433 info@AWHC.co.uk www.awhc.co.uk

To find out whether you’re eligible to advertise your products and services here, and for rates, call Sabrina Sully on +44 (0)1747 830520. You’ll reach Americans living in and visiting the UK as well as Britons who like American culture and products.

CLEANING SERVICES Shine Cleaning Inc. Ltd Successful for over 20 years in the US – now over here in Britain. All kinds of cleaning: Residential, Commercial, Medical, One-oﬀ or Contract. 0800 206 2212 or 078 2753 7215 www.shinecleaninginc.co.uk

EDUCATION Florida State University in UK Over 50 years of experience in international education. 99 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LA 020 7813 3223 www.international.fsu.edu

Coffee Break Answers

SOLUTION 6

1. Lead; 2. Megatron; 3. Nöel Coward; 4. The Holland Tunnel; 5. 1935 – he died in 1977, aged just 42; 6. Pomelo; 7. Walter Mondale; 8. Abba; 9. Flock together; 10. Hotel California, in The Eagles’ song; 11. Gary Larson; 12. A Fez; 13. Joyeuse; 14. Perth; 15. Jeﬀerson Davis, the only President of the Confederate States of America; 16. Doctor Who; 17. Hesse, Germany.

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