The American Issue 722 June 2013 by Blue Edge Publishing Ltd.

June 2013

THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE

Est. 1976

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

ERIC CHURCH

WIN! Tickets for the American SpeedFest and Strange Interlude

The new rocking country superstar

Maisie Dobbs author chats about her Transatlantic life Helaine Blumenfeld talks sculpture and spirituality PLUS: OUR EXCLUSIVE US/UK ORGANIZATIONS GUIDE

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JAFFE & CO LLP AMERICAN TAX INTERNATIONAL US Expatriate Tax Services Established in 1981 and managed by Bruce L Jaffe, BA JD, we provide a full range of US and UK tax services for US expatriates residing in the UK and have over 55 years of cumulative experience preparing tax returns for US taxpayers. Please contact us today to see how we can help you. 020 8346 5237 www.jaffeandco.com info@jaffeandco.com 54 Hendon Lane, London N3 1TT

The American ®

Issue 722 – June 2013 PUBLISHED BY SP MEDIA FOR

Blue Edge Publishing Ltd.

Old Byre House, East Knoyle, Salisbury SP3 6AW, UK Tel: +44 (0)1747 830520 Publisher and Editor in Chief: Michael Burland michael@theamerican.co.uk Editor: Richard L Gale editor@theamerican.co.uk Advertising & Promotions: Sabrina Sully, Commercial Director advertising@theamerican.co.uk Subscriptions: theamerican@blueedge.co.uk Editorial contacts: Virginia E Schultz, Food & Drink (USA) virginia@theamerican.co.uk Michael M Sandwick, Food mms@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

Please contact us with your news or article ideas ©2013 Blue Edge Publishing Ltd. Printed by Advent Colour Ltd., Portway Ind. Estate, Andover SP10 3LU www.advent-colour.co.uk ISSN 2045-5968 Main Cover Image: Eric Church; Circular Inset: Helaine Blumenfeld’s Mysteries at Salisbury Cathedral (photo: Ash Mills); Square Inset: Jacqueline Winspear

@TheAmericanMag

his month we’re taking a sideways look at Britain from an American perspective. There’s a feature on the extraordinary life and career of Jack Johnson, ‘The Galveston Giant’ who came to England and witnessed George V’s Coronation? And the sometimes overlooked area of North Wales that’s not only stunningly beautiful but has surprising connections with the USA? And our cover interview is with a rising country music superstar who’s just made his first appearance over here. We have some sad farewells to make, to giants of the American cultural scene. The American salutes Ray Harryhausen, the legend of stop-motion movie animation who has died at the age of 92. And George Jones, the country singer’s country singer of whom Waylon Jennings sang, “If we all could sound like we wanted to, we’d all sound like George Jones.” Finally, Deanna Durbin, the young Canadian who became America’s sweetheart in pre-war feelgood movies that saved Universal Studios. We remember them all fondly. As I write, it’s snowing in Devon! Let’s hope the British weather shows its good side this month so we can get out and enjoy the British countryside. Enjoy your magazine,

Michael Burland, Publisher michael@theamerican.co.uk

Among this month’s contributors

Dr. Alison Holmes, The American’s political ‘Transatlantic Columnist’, is an international relations scholar, and a lecturer on politics in American universities.

Jay B Webster is a professional sports journalist based in Dublin, Ireland. This month, he drops in on the Emerald Isle’s diamond league, Baseball Ireland

Baltimore-born and one time Washingtonian Kosha Engler is a theater, radio and film actress who now lives in London with her British husband, baby boy and two cats.

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.

June 2013 1

The American • Issue 722 • June 2013

In This Issue... Regular Sections 4 News 8 Diary Dates 22 Wining & Dining 25 Music 32 Arts Choice 37 Coffee Break

38 Theater Reviews 43 Book Reviews 48 DriveTime 49 Sports 57 American Organizations 65 The A-List

7 WIN TICKETS to the National Theatre’s Strange Interlude

in a pair of tickets to see Eugene O’Neill’s W award-winning play in the West End

16 Jack Johnson: The Rise of the Galveston Giant

P art one of our article on the boxing legend – and his very full and controversial life

18 Croeso i North Wales

S nowdonia, fabulous castles and surprising American connections

20 The Welsh Quilt Centre J en Jones introduces us to the Welsh Quilt Centre with a range of Transatlantic displays

27 WIN TICKETS for the American SpeedFest

A chance to see European NASCAR racing here, and Kasey Kahne’s 09 Dodge Charger

30 Interview: Eric Church

F rom brown bag bars to the Ryman Theater, country’s new star has paid his dues

42 Park Theatre Kosha Engler chats to Melli Bond, American Creative Director of London’s newest theater

Boston Ballet Executive Director Barry Hughson tells us how Boston is recovering

44 Interview: Maisie Dobbs writer Jacqueline Winspear The author discusses being a British expat in America, and writing her first book

46 McDonald U, MOOCs, or UnCollege?

A lison Holmes casts a skeptical eye over the future of education

49 Eagle Eyed

“The Boston Bombings were smaller than 9/11 but when it’s your community, it’s devastating”

D arren Kilfara breaks down the numbers on Adam Scott’s chances to maintain form

50 Tennis for a Tenner? International tennis is back in the UK

51 2013 NFL Draft Review We grade out the good, the bad and the ugly from the NFL’s annual talent-grab

54 All-American Dreams Marva Hall offers advice on how students in the UK can follow their US sporting dreams

18 Touring North Wales

55 Baseball Ireland Jay B Webster discovers a growing baseball scene between the Irish rain showers

The American

Stateside honor for Northumbria academic An American academic working at Northumbria University has been named a Distinguished Lecturer by the Organisation of American Historians (OAH). Randall Stephens, a Reader in American Studies and History did his PhD in History at the University of Florida. 44 US historians have been selected this year to give OAH lectures at colleges, universities, public schools, museums and libraries across North America. Randall is the only one based in the UK. Northumbria is one of only two institutions outside the US to boast OAH Distinguished Lecturers (the other is Oxford University), has one of the highest concentrations of American historians in the UK, and this year has a new American Studies BA course. Randall’s specialisms are religion and popular music in the US. He has previously offered courses on the American Civil Rights Movement, the South since 1865, the History of Rock Music, America in the 1960s, Historiography, and survey courses on American history since the colonial era. He said: “I’m delighted to have received this honor and to join such a prestigious group of scholars, one of which is our own Brian Ward in American Studies at Northumbria.”

4 June 2013

NEWS

Prince Harry endulges in a little trash talk before taking part in the sitting volleyball competition PHOTO: US MARINE CORP – SGT. TYLER L MAIN

Prince Harry Launches Warrior Games 2013

rince Harry helped launch the Warrior Games, the Paralympicstyle competition for injured American and allied servicemen and veterans, May 11. As a serving officer in the British Army, flying Apache attack helicopters in Afghanistan, he was a popular choice with the military personnel. His official title may be His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales, but to his service colleagues he is Big H, the Bullet Magnet or even Ugly – the call sign of Apache helicopters. US Marines named him Elvis after his nude pool-playing escapades in Las Vegas. The Prince completed the last leg of a brief torch relay with Olympic superstar swimmer Missy Franklin and US Navy Lieutenant Brad Snyder who was blinded by an improvised bomb in Afghanistan, before igniting the symbolic flame during the Games’ opening ceremony. He told the competitors and spectators, “You’ve got the Olympics, you’ve got the Paralympics and you’ve got the Warrior Games, there’s no reason why the Warrior

Games shouldn’t be recognised world wide, with the same amount of attention as the Olympics and Paralympics.” Several British competitors took part alongside their American opposite numbers, one of them in the Games’ first event, a hand-cycle race. As Prince Harry started the race he joked “Good luck guys, but if you see a union shirt coming from behind let him through.” Later he presented the medals to the winners of the women’s cycle races, kissing the recipients on both cheeks. Before the Warrior Games’ opening ceremony the Prince said: “I only hope in the future, the near future we can bring the Warrior Games to Britain and continue to enlarge this fantastic cause.” The irrepressible Prince then pointed at the media contingent and added, “You’ve got all these guys here – it’s not always great having them around – but today it’s fantastic to get the message across to every other country that has eyes on here at the moment.”

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Taunton University Fair Success

More than 45 of the world’s top educational institutions recently showcased their offering at Taunton School in Somerset when they attended the school’s second American Universities Fair. They included universities from the USA and also American-style colleges in Italy, the Netherlands, China and the UK. More than 250 students from over 50 schools across the South West joined them. Taunton School’s head of careers, David Hawkins, said, “In the past few years, the credit crunch and demographic shifts have seen Britain slip down the global league table while the rest of the world surges ahead. In the world of universities, a similar tidal wave has hit – tuition fees and the abolition of number controls have had a seismic effect on the UK’s educational landscape. Taunton School has brought some of the world’s finest universities together for the annual free fair. Over the past three years, Taunton students have gained offers to study at the world’s top universities including Oxford and Cambridge, Harvard, Chicago, Utrecht and Hamburg. This year’s Upper Sixth hold offers from universities across the US – Boston, Iowa, Connecticut, New York and Virginia. Taunton School’s students realise that the world is much bigger than Somerset, bigger than the UK.” To find out details about next year’s American Universities Fair at Taunton School, email david.hawkins@tauntonschool.co.uk

6 June 2013

EMBASSY NEWS

www.usembassy.org.uk

The Golden Questions

...or everything you wanted to know about Social Security but were afraid to ask

hen people think about Social Security and what it means to them, they usually have many different questions. The US Embassy in London has picked the most common ones that may help US citizens living abroad. Q. Do I have to pay tax on my Social Security? A. It depends. If you are a US citizen or a US permanent resident, you have to file a US tax return and you have to declare your Social Security benefits to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS). If you receive benefits in the United Kingdom, you must report these benefits to the UK Revenue and Customs. They will tell you if the income is taxable. Q. Can I work while I am collecting Social Security benefits? A. Yes and no! You can work as much as you want if you are over your full retirement age: 66 for people born between 1943 and 1954, between 66 and 67 if you were born between 1955 and 1959 and 67 if you were born after 1959. If you have claimed early retirement, your

work activity is severely restricted. If you live outside of the United States and if you are collecting benefits before reaching full retirement age, you cannot work more than 45 hours per calendar month. There are different rules for individuals receiving disability benefits. For more information contact the Federal Benefits Unit (FBU) at FBU. London@ssa.gov or go to www. socialsecurity.gov. Q. I claimed benefits early at age 62. Will they go up once I reach 66? A. No. Unfortunately, the benefits are permanently reduced. Of course there is normally a cost of living increase at the start of the year. Q. What is the maximum monthly benefit that a person can receive? A. In 2013 the maximum monthly benefit at full retirement age is $2,533 – this assumes that the person earned the maximum taxable income for every year since age 21. If you wait until you are 70 before you collect your retirement pension, you could collect as much as $3,343 per month.

The American

COMPETITION

Win a pair of tickets to

Strange Interlude at the National Theatre

National Theatre – Lyttelton Theatre Strange Interlude By Eugene O’Neill From May 28 Shattered when the love of her life is killed in the war and haunted by their unconsummated passion, Nina escapes her jealous Ivy League father and embarks on a series of tawdry sexual escapades until, cajoled by her appalled, longsuffering suitor Charles, she marries the amiable young Sam. But while pregnant, Nina learns a horrifying secret that precipitates a desperate, life-changing decision and propels her fatally into the arms of another. Following a family from the aftermath of World War One until the late 1940s, Eugene O’Neill’s audacious epic is one of the great masterpieces of American theater. Anne-Marie Duff, the National’s Saint Joan, plays Nina. For further information and to book tickets please call 020 7452 3000 or visit www.nationaltheatre.org.uk HOW TO ENTER: Email your answer and contact details (name, address, daytime telephone number) to theamerican@blueedge. co.uk with STRANGE COMPETITION in the subject line; or send a postcard to: STRANGE COMPETITION, The American, Old Byre House, Mill-

2 lucky readers will each receive a pair of tickets – for your chance to win, just answer the following question: Which major prize did Strange Interlude win in 1928? ANSWER A Laurence Olivier Award for Best Play B Tony Award for Best Non-Musical Play C Pulitzer Prize for Drama

brook Lane, East Knoyle, Salisbury SP3 6AW, UK; to arrive by mid-day June 28. You must be 18 years old or over to enter this competition. Only one entry per person per draw. The editor’s decision is final. Terms and conditions: Tickets valid for selected

performances (exclusions will apply). Subject to availability. No cash alternative. Non transferable. Additional expenses are the responsibility of the prize winner. Promoter reserves the right to exchange all or part of the prize to that of equal or greater value.

June 2013 7

The American

The traditional games including shin kicking and tug of war competitions return after celebrating their 400th Anniversary in 2012.

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 American Museum in Britain Claverton Manor, Bath BA2 7BD www.americanmuseum.org info@americanmuseum.org 01225 460503 to December 18

Sir Hugh Casson PRA: Making Friends The Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD www.royalacademy.org.uk May 31 to September 22

The only museum outside the US to showcase the US’s decorative arts features workshops, weekly Quilting Bees, kids’ activities, concerts and special events. This month: June 1st Doll Making; 8th Donut Day; 16th Music – Prairie Dog, folk, roots, and country; 22nd Singing Day – sing spirituals, gospel and folk songs, no experience required; 29th & 30th War of Independence Camp and Drill Displays – His Majesty’s Crown Forces’ special blend of military prowess and humor – kids can join a drill and see if they have what it takes!

Sir Hugh Casson established the American Associates of the Royal Academy Trust, cementing an important link between Americans and the Trust. In this exhibition, Casson’s role as an architect and artist are demonstrated through a display of his watercolors, and accompanied by walks around London exploring his impact on the capital.

Epsom Derby Epsom Downs Racecourse, Epsom Downs, Surrey KT18 5LQ www.epsomderby.co.uk May 31 to June 1

Bramham Horse Trials Bramham Park, Wetherby, West Yorkshire LS23 6ND www.bramham-horse.co.uk June 6 to 9

Dating back to the late 1700s, the Epsom Derby is amongst the premier horse racing events in Britain. Ladies Day takes place on May 31, while Derby Day falls on June 1.

One of the social and equine events of the summer, the Bramham Horse Trials celebrates its 40th birthday, with over 500 horses expected to take part in the iconic 4 day event.

8 June 2013

Robert Dover’s Cotswolds Olimpicks Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire www.olimpickgames.co.uk May 31

Eccles Centre: Obama’s Second Term: Power, Progress & the Partisan Divide Conference Centre, British Library, London NW1 2DB www.bl.uk/eccles May 31 An event co-sponsored by the American Women Lawyers in London, a panel of legal experts examine the issues facing Barack Obama in his second term as President.

The Perfect American London Coliseum, Saint Martin’s Lane, Charing Cross WC2N 4ES www.eno.org June 1 to 28 Written by Philip Glass and based on the novel by Peter Stephan Jungk, The Perfect American is an imagining of Walt Disney’s final years, starring John Easterlin, Zachary James, David Pittsinger, and British baritone Christopher Purves as Walt Disney.

Hadley Freeman Toppings Book Shop, Bath BA1 5LS www.toppingbooks.co.uk June 5

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The American

100 Years of Jazz Cadogan Hall, 5 Sloane Terrace, London SW1X 9DQ www.cadoganhall.com June 7 American Speedfest at Brands Hatch: NASCAR and more Brands Hatch Circuit, Fawkham, Longfield, Kent DA3 8NG www.speedfest.co.uk June 8 to 9 American Speedfest brings the Stars and Stripes to the Brands Hatch circuit. The Euro Racecar Nascar Series tops a packed bill of racing, which showcases American motors from Pickups to Mustangs, Falcons and Corvettes. Sprint Cup and Nationwide cars including Kasey Kahne’s Nationwide Dodge Charger will demonstrate the raw power and speed of America’s premier motorsport, and with Monster Trucks, Hollywood Stunts and American car displays, Speedfest will be a unique chance to experience the electrifying American motorsport scene over here.

Hadley Freeman is an American journalist based in the UK. In the intimate setting of Toppings Book Shop, she discusses her new book, Be Awesome.

Royal Cornwall Show 2013 The Royal Cornwall Showground, Wadebridge, Cornwall PL27 7JE www.royalcornwallshow.org June 6 to 8 A spectacular day out for the whole family, featuring animals, agriculture, food, flowers, motors and music. There are County Shows all over the UK so check your local area.

10 June 2013

100 Years of Jazz in 99 minutes is the bold aim of The Jazz Repertory Company, a red hot virtuoso ensemble who take us through the history of jazz from its beginnings in Ragtime up to the present day. An A to Z of jazz’s biggest names from Louis Armstrong to Joe Zawinul. The music is interspersed with fascinating stories from the music’s history as well as the inimitable humour of the band’s musical director Pete Long.

SoSkan – Hoburne Bashley Hoburne Bashley, Sway Road, New Milton, Hampshire BH25 5Q www.soskan.co.uk/index.html June 8 to 9 The Southern Skirmish Association – a group of American Civil War re-enactors – educate and inform, with live battle displays.

Man Versus Horse Marathon Llanwrtyd Wells, Powys LD5 www.green-events.co.uk June 8 2007 was the last year a human won the epic Man Versus Horse Marathon. This year the competition will be just as fierce, as riders and runners compete to decide which is faster on the day, human or horse.

World Toe Wrestling Championships Bentley Brook Inn, Fenny Bentley, Ashbourne, Derbyshire DE6 1LF www.bentleybrookinn.co.uk June 8 Since 2003, Bentley Brook Inn has been home to the World Toe

Wrestling Championships, as competitors literally wrestle with their feet.

House of Lords vs House of Commons Tug of War 2013 Westminster Abbey College Gardens, London SW1P 3PA www.macmillan.org.uk/tugofwar June 11 The Houses of Parliament have been synonymous with power struggles for centuries. The 26th annual Tug of War in Westminster College Gardens is a thrilling competition for members of the House of Commons to compete with members of the House of Lords to decide which Chamber is crowned Tug Champion for the year. Hosted by BBC’s Deputy Political Editor, James Landale, the event kicks off at 5:30pm in aid of Macmillan.

London International Antiquarian Book Fair Olympia, Hammersmith Road, Kensington, London W14 8UX www.olympiabookfair.com June 13 to 15 A treasure trove for collectors and enthusiasts of antique books, the fair is home to rare and unique items from maps and photographs to books and manuscripts. Look out for a number of exhibitors who work with American Literature.

Falmouth International Sea Shanty Festival Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 www.falmouthseashanty.co.uk June 14 to 16 The 10th Sea Shanty Festival combines maritime music with engaging sing-a-long events, all in aid of the RNLI.

May 2013 10

the good, the bad & the memorabilia america’s outlaw heroes from the david gainsborough roberts collection

23 March – 3 November

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Charles Dickens was a regular visitor to Broadstairs in the mid-19th century. The town now gathers annually to commemorate the great author, performing some of his best known tales and hosting Dickensian events throughout the week.

Trooping The Colour Horse Guards Parade, Whitehall, London SW1A 2AX www.royal.gov.uk June 15 Although the Queen’s birthday is actually April 21, since King Edward VII the monarch’s official birthday is celebrated in June in the hope of better weather. The tradition of Trooping the Colour dates back to the 18th century, and involves the reigning monarch inspecting the troops, who parade as only the British Army can. After the event, The Queen will head for Buckingham Palace, where she will join the Royal Family on the balcony to view a Flypast by the RAF.

Grand Medieval Joust Eltham Palace and Gardens, Courtyard, Eltham, Greenwich, London SE9 5QE www.english-heritage.org.uk June 15 to 16 Experience the thrill of the Grand Joust at Eltham Palace, and enjoy jesters, music, dance, falconry displays and even a ‘knight’s training school’ for children.

Broadstairs Dickens Festival Broadstairs, Kent CT10 www.broadstairsdickensfestival.co.uk June 15 to 21 12 June 2013

Custom & Hot Rod Festival Beaulieu, Brockenhurst, Hants. SO42 7ZN www.beaulieu.co.uk June 16 Bring your Hot Rod, Classic American, Chops or Bobber for the display, or simply turn up and enjoy the impressive collection of motors.

Edinburgh Film Festival Edinburgh EH3 www.edfilmfest.org.uk June 19 to 30 This Festival was established in 1947, and is now known for discovering the best in international cinema. Recent film premieres have included The Hurt Locker, An Inconvenient Truth and Little Miss Sunshine.

Gregynog Festival Gregynog Hall, Tregynon, Newton, Powys SY16 www.gregynogfestival.org June 20 to 30 This year’s focal point for the oldest classic musical festival in Wales is Benjamin Britten. Performances will highlight those who influenced him, teachers, collaborators and friends.

Foghorn Requiem Coast Road, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear SR6 7NH www.foghornrequiem.org June 22 A unique orchestra assembles as ships on the water, brass bands onshore,

and the Souter Lighthouse Foghorn perform an ambitious musical piece in requiem for the decommissioning of foghorns on the British coast.

City of London Festival 2013 www.colf.org June 23 to 26 This year’s festival covers everything from music and dance, walks and talks, lectures and poetry to a mobile orchard with real and manufactured trees. See website for more details.

West End Heroes Dominion Theatre, Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 7AQ www.westendheroes.com June 23 A gala concert in aid of the charity, Help for Heroes, celebrating the finest military musicians and great West End shows and songs.

The Mystery Plays of Chester Chester Cathedral, 12 Abbey Square, Chester Cheshire CH1 2HU www.chestermysteryplays.com June 26 to July 13 Mystery Plays have been performed across Europe from the 13th century, as a way of celebrating stories from The Bible. The Chester Mystery Plays were revived in 1951, and are now a much anticipated production in Chester’s calendar.

Swamp Soccer World Cup Blairmore, Argyll and Bute, Scotland PA23 www.swampsoccer.co.uk June 29 The seventh annual tournament returns to Argyll, where teams, often in fancy dress, brave swampy conditions to win the Swamp Soccer World Cup.

The American

Boston’s Healing B

arry Hughson is Executive Director of the Boston Ballet, in charge of over 700 employees, the Ballet, an Orchestra, the world’s largest ballet academy, exceptional community programming, and a $31Million turnover. We caught up with him while he was in the UK to dot the i’s and cross the t’s on the Ballet’s upcoming July London tour, to find out how the tragic marathon bombings affected Boston, and what we over here can do to help the affected families.

We believe our role in this is the elevation of the human spirit. That’s the power of the arts, to bring the community together and lift our spirits. Since that day we’ve been getting back to doing what we do, and celebrating what makes Boston great.

How did the bombings and the lockdown afterwards affect your area of Boston? The Boston Bombings happened only a few blocks from our Headquarters. It’s obviously on a much smaller scale than 9/11, but when it happens in your own community it’s devastating. It affected all of Boston. The city was completely shut down, and several neighboring communities. There was no vehicular traffic and everyone was asked to ‘shelter in place’, which means ‘stay where you are.’ People for the most part did not violate that order, and stayed inside until the all-clear was given. It’s the first time in history, I believe, that that’s ever occurred. Everyone wanted a resolution, for the perpetrators to be

We spoke to Mikko Nissinen, your Artistic Director, a while back, about the Boston Ballet’s tour to the London Coliseum on July 3 to 7. You’re here to work on that tour? Yes, I’m also meeting with our sponsor StateStreet, who are headquartered in Boston but have offices here, to discuss some special events.

captured, so there was a great deal of co-operation, but it was absolutely terrifying to not know what was happening. Boston is a world class city, but it’s also small, and we all know someone who was there that day. While the marathon is an international event, it’s also a community event. It’s also Patriot’s Day, a day off from school, and the community engages in it. All along the route, through many communities, people line the streets. There’s a great deal of festivity, at restaurants, parties and block parties. Everybody was about.

PHOTO: GENE SCHIAVONE

The artistic community is disproportionately large for the city – the Ballet is the fourth largest in the US – Will these events input into future creations within the artistic community?

You’ve been a professional Arts Administrator for over 20 years now, how did you get started, and what do you love about it and hate about it? I love it all!! I’ve been involved in the arts since childhood. I was a professional dancer and had a short but wonderful career. Coming out of that, I wanted to be involved on the management side and I spent eleven years running a 1600 seat performing arts center. That was a wonderful training ground, and after eleven years of growth I decided I wanted to bring what I had learnt back to the art form that I loved, dance. The arts in America, and around the world now, is a fragile ecosystem, the funding model is challenged. Our European counterparts have enjoyed significant Government subsidy over the years, which American companies have not had, and we’ve always been quite envious, but now that’s changing here too. We’re all facing the same kind of challenges.

June 2013 13

The American

You have to have a real passion for the arts and an understanding of its value, but it’s a wonderful battle to keep these organizations moving forward, to keep the art form relevant, and to keep people coming. My father told me once to find something that you love and find a way to keep doing it every day. I was fortunate in my life to be able to do that. You run a substantial company. How did the chaos of the bombing and its aftermath affect the business? Fortunately we did not have any formal performances scheduled. We did have our largest fundraiser of the year, a 500 person black tie event, scheduled for the Saturday following the marathon. We debated whether we should go forward, and agreed we would, but tone down the evening. When the Friday lockdown happened, it became a very different conversation, because there were no truck deliveries, no way to prepare for the event. We decided Friday afternoon that we had to postpone it. The food was donated to an organization called The Women’s Lunch Place [a shelter for homeless and poor women] – the following Monday they had the most fantastic lunch of filet mignon and lobster, one of the bright lights out of quite a bit of darkness.

14 June 2013

The event’s rescheduled, but both the Newtown schoolhouse shooting that H took place in December, not too far from us, and the marathon events have forced us to to look at security and emergency policies in our three locations in Boston, Newton, and a community called Marblehead. The reality is no matter how hard you plan to keep people safe, if there’s somebody out there who wants to do people harm, then they will be able to do harm. There’s no perfect solution, but we all have a responsibility to do those things that we can to keep our people safe. Has the marathon bombing affected the relationship between the Muslim community and the non-Muslim community in Boston? There’s a good-sized Muslim community in the Boston area. It is really a healthy community, a melting pot, and there aren’t dynamic tensions between different ethnic groups. There was a little part of me that was praying that there was not a Muslim connection to this event. Of course, there was, but as in all of these cases, it’s extremism, it’s not the Muslim faith – there are extremist Christians as well. In my view it’s more about radicalization. After 9/11 there were some incidents of brutality against Muslims, and that has not thankfully happened to date in Boston.

The Boston Ballet is selling a charity T-shirt, with all profits to The One Fund Boston. What is that? It’s has been created by the Mayor of Boston, Thomas Menino, and the Governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, in an effort to create a central philanthropic source for the families that have been affected by the tragedy. Many victims have had multiple limb amputations, and medical insurance will often cover a certain quality of prosthetic device but there are medical expenses, including more advanced prosthetics, outside of what insurance covers and this fund will help those families. We’re doing our part, in a modest way, to contribute to that fund. How can The American’s readers get hold of a Marathon Charity T-Shirt or donate to the One Fund? You can visit the Boston Ballet website at www.bostonballet. org (in the Ballet Shop). Our Tee is a heart made of two dancer’s bodies. It would be great if your readers could visit the One Fund website https:// secure.onefundboston.org/page/ contribute/default and either donate online or there’s an address for mailing a check. H Boston Ballet is at the London Coliseum, July 3 to 7. Tickets 0207 845 9300 or www.eno.org

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The Story of Jack Johnson:

Part 1: The Rise of the

GALVESTON GIANT

ack Johnson, the son of freed slaves, was cocky and confident, a lover of fast cars and faster women. A world-class boxer, there is no doubt that a racially motivated conviction in 1913 ruined his career. 100 years later, on April 17, 2013, the Senate voted to urge President Obama to pardon Jack Johnson. We look at his life. Johnson was born John Arthur Johnson on March 31, 1878, in Galveston, Texas, to slaves freed during the Civil War. Despite being poor, from childhood he was confident and driven. At 12, determined to leave Galveston for New York City, he was discovered, beaten and thrown off the freight train he jumped. Huckleberry Finn-

Jack Johnson fights Tommy Burns for the Heavyweight Championship of the World in Sydney, Australia, 1908 PHOTO: GARY PHILLIPS COLLECTION

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like, he jumped a boat headed for Key West and worked as a fisherman before working his passage as a cook on a freighter to New York. He returned home via Boston where he worked in a stable, becoming a longshoreman back in Galveston at aged 13. Most of the dockworkers fought, and it could earn extra money. After he beat the ‘toughest man in Galveston’ Johnston’s fighting reputation was established, as was his first nickname ‘Li’l Arthur’. He turned pro on November 1, 1897, winning the Texas State Middleweight title. In early 1901 Johnson fought Joe Choynski, an experienced but aging heavyweight, in Galveston. Choynski knocked Johnson out, but they were both arrested, prizefighting being illegal there at the time. Bail was set at an unaffordable $5,000 each, so the sheriff let both fighters to go home at night so long as they returned to spar in the jail cell. Large crowds gathered to watch the sessions. Choynski saw natural talent and determination in Johnson and taught him the nuances of defense, telling him “A man who can move like you should never have to take a punch”. After 23 days in jail, bail was

reduced to an affordable level and a grand jury refused to indict either man. The two would remain friends, and Johnson later claimed that his success in boxing came from the coaching he received during that jail time. At 6’2”, with a reach of 74”, Jack was making a name for himself on the black boxing circuit. In 1903, now nicknamed ‘The Galveston Giant’, he took the unofficial World Colored Heavyweight Championship, and by the end of 1906 had fought in 56 official fights, lost only two, and won the World Light Heavyweight Championship. His boxing style was distinctive, with a more patient approach than was customary, slowly building up over the rounds. He wanted to try for the World Heavyweight Title, held by white boxer Jim Jeffries. Jeffries refused to fight him - this was the Jim Crow era of segregation - and retired undefeated in 1904. Johnson went to Australia to goad Tommy Burns, the new champion, into fighting him. Finally in 1908 Burns was seduced with a huge $30,000 purse to fight Johnson in Sydney. Declared the winner of the World Heavyweight Championship, he was persona non grata in Australia, and as he found on his return, in America too. Even fellow blacks disapproved, as his behaviour both in and out of the ring had raised racial tension. A public outcry arose for a “great white hope” to defeat Johnson, and

The American

reclaim the title for white America. Many whites believed that Jeffries, despite a five year retirement, was the true world champion as he retired undefeated, and would easily beat the upstart Johnson. Racial tension rose further. The fight was the most anticipated, controversial, and talked-about sporting event in a generation. On Independence Day, 1910, in Reno, Johnson dominated the ex-champion nearly as one-sidedly as he had Burns, and was declared the winner in the 15th. Jeffries was humbled. “I could never have whipped Johnson at my best,” he said. “I couldn’t have hit him. No, I couldn’t have reached him in 1,000 years.” A feature-length documentary of the fight was made, called The Fight of the Century. It was distributed internationally and although extremely popular, it was banned in many US states and cities as well as parts of the British Empire, for fear it would encourage non-white people to rebel against white authority. In 1912 Congress even passed an act forbidding the interstate transfer of all boxing films, which wasn’t repealed until 1940. The bout earned Johnson $121,000 but many whites felt humiliated, while blacks celebrated what they saw as a racial victory. In more than 50 US cities police and angry white citizens tried to break up these celebrations, leaving more than a dozen men dead, and hundreds injured in what were branded ‘race riots’. Winning the most coveted sports title in the early 1900s made Johnson an international celebrity sportsman in the modern sense, earning

Jack Johnson in his boxing prime PHOTO: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

money through endorsements and public appearances as well as his sport. Visiting England in June 1911 in the midst of George V’s Coronation (Queen Elizabeth II’s grandfather) he was contracted to fight “Bombardier Billy” Wells, the British boxing champ, at Earls Court in the Fall. Johnson thought England a bastion of civilization that would welcome him, but the British clergy and newspapers led a campaign to have the prizefight stopped, the objections being interracial fighting and (how British!) fighting for money rather than fun or honor. Home Secretary Winston Churchill bowed to public pressure when he declared the Johnson-Wells fight illegal and “not in the best interests of the nation or empire.” Possibly they couldn’t risk a black man beating an English soldier in the heart of the British Empire. An angry Johnson spoke out and said that the British were hypocrites, no better than Americans. A lot of people were out to get

him. Chicago prosecutors sought to bring criminal charges against Johnson for his sexual relationships with white women. Johnson had been married to a black woman, but their marriage broke up, sending Johnson into a state of depression and, as he said in his autobiography, “led me to forswear colored women and to determine that my lot henceforth would be cast only with white women.” These white women were flaunted on his arm around the country. Three in particular, a Brooklyn socialite named Etta Duryea (the divorced wife of Charles Duryea, the first American gasoline-powered car manufacturer, whom he met at a car race) and two prostitutes, Hattie McClay and Belle Schreiber, were all referred to as ‘Mrs Jack Johnson’ by the champion in public, and sometimes he maintained simultaneous relationships with them. Etta was by far the most beautiful, educated and refined of the three, and the Heavyweight World Champion married her in 1911. H In next month’s issue we will follow Jack Johnson from the height of his success, as his perfect world starts to crumble. Alternatively you can read the whole story now at www.theamerican.co.uk Ken Burns’ acclaimed documentary Jack Johnson: Unforgivable Blackness is being broadcast in the UK on June 10 and 11 at 9pm on PBS America (Sky 166 and Virgin Media 243)

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NORTH WALES – Snowdonia, castles and surprising American connections The AmeriCymru Trail

Above: Fort Belan – the only purpose built fortress of the American Revolution on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Thomas Jefferson: Proud to be descended from Welsh stock Below: an interior from Plas Mawr © CROWN COPYRIGHT / VISIT WALES

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Americans who come to the UK often visit the sights of London, Stonehenge, Bath and Edinburgh, but miss out on some other special places. Have you thought of going to North Wales? It’s a place with not only many beautiful and dramatic sights but also some very interesting American connections. The sights include some of the most impressive – not to say intimidating – castles ever created, like Conwy and Caernarfon, marvelous country houses like Plas Mawr, Mount Snowdon (or Yr Wyddfa in Welsh) – and don’t forget the great golf courses too.

From the Founding Fathers to the present day, Wales has played a significant yet understated role in the history and development of the USA. Many of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence, together with prominent figures from the American Civil war, hailed from the Snowdonia region of North Wales. The ancestors of some of America’s most historically significant presidents came from the area, and it can be argued that North West Wales’s influence on American history is huge. Many places have interesting and direct links with the Americas. Visiting them will take you back in time to appreciate why your forefathers left the Motherland in order to

seek better lives in the New World by offering an insight into the way of life that existed at the time of the mass emigration.

importance of this strategic location at the entrance of the Menai Strait between the Welsh mainland and the Isle of Anglesey.

Fort Belan

President Thomas Jefferson

Notable for being the only purpose built fortress of the American Revolution on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. The fort with its spectacular views of Caernarfon Castle, Snowdonia Mountain Range and the Isle of Anglesey is sure to astound and fascinate guests. The history of the fort goes back to the period of the Napoleonic wars during the 18th century when the then ‘Constable of Caernarfon, Thomas Wynn’ recognised the threat of coastal invasion by the French and the hostility between America and the British Monarchy. It is strange for us today to imagine unfriendly American ships in British waters but the reality of the threat became obvious when American privateers captured several British ships, notably two Post Office ships which operated between Holyhead and Dublin. Wynn realised the vulnerability and

There is no doubt that President Thomas Jefferson was proud of his Welsh ancestry; the inscription Fy iaith, fy ngwlad, fy nghenedl Cymru – Cymru am byth (My language, my land, my nation of Wales – Wales for ever) can be seen on the steps of the Washington Monument. There is a commemoration plaque for Jefferson in the Welsh village of Llanberis at the foot of Mount Snowdon. Jefferson was not alone in his Welsh roots. President Abraham Lincoln’s great grandmother came from the village of Ysbyty Ifan.

18th century immigration

It would appear that the oldest slate quarries in the USA are those at Peach Bottom on the border between Maryland and Pennsylvania; it is here that two Welshmen, William and James Reese, started quarrying in 1734. Caernarfon Castle

The American

Croeso / Welcome Visit Wales and experience a 2 day ‘walk and ride’ quality guided tour Visit places with interesting and direct links with the Americas Enjoy dramatic scenery, wildlife, and discover the hidden treasures of Snowdonia and Anglesey. This tour has been created in conjunction with AmeriCymru – a social network for the Welsh, Welsh expats, persons of Welsh descent and cymruphiles. Visit AmeriCymru.net

01248 671234 • www.celticos.com

Llys Llewelyn

Croeso to our friendly and comfortable little guest house with its awe inspiring panoramic views of medieval Conwy Castle, the Conwy estuary and the town walls of our World Heritage Site town. Free WiFi. Private off road car parking. Ensuite rooms. +44 (0)1492 593 257 llewelynbandb@yahoo.co.uk www.llewelynbandb.co.uk

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19th century immigration

There is no doubt that it was the ‘hungry forties’ that gave the first great impetus to immigration from Snowdonia and Wales. A large number left Bethesda in 1852, and a year later twenty-eight men from Llanberis set sail from Menai Bridge in Anglesey to be followed by many more from the Dinorwic Quarry, which has spectacular views of Snowdonia. Visiting sites like these, and the National Slate Museum in Llanberis, enables you to experience the tough ‘way of life’ of the local inhabitants in the 18th and 19th centuries and gain an understanding of how men earned a living at Below: Conwy Castle

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the time through agriculture, granite, copper and slate mining, seafaring and fishing. The way of life for the gentry was in sharp contrast to the harsh life of the common man, as you can appreciate at National Trust sites like Plas Newydd and Penrhyn Castle which were the stately homes of the owners of the slate mines and farmland estates. Celticos AmeriCymru Trail is a guided bespoke two day tour which enables visitors to discover these hidden treasures of Snowdonia and Anglesey as well as opportunities to see well-known sites such as Conwy and Caernarfon Castles, Mount Snowdon and ‘RAF Valley’ where Prince William is based (you may even see the distinctive yellow Sea King helicopter flying over). The tour has been specifically prepared for North American visitors in association with the American based AmeriCymru organisation. For more information about visiting Wales from the USA go to americas.visitwales.com © CROWN COPYRIGHT / VISIT WALES

By 1848 many more Welsh quarrymen and their families had crossed the Atlantic to settle in the area and formed a nondenominational chapel ‘Capel Bangor’. Following the Great Exhibition of 1851 many experts regarded Peach Bottom slate as the best in the world.

The Welsh Q

uilting is the second largest leisure activity in America after golf. By the time this goes to press it might well be the largest! It is a billion dollar enterprise. Quilting shops, exhibitions, shows and competitions abound. Visitor numbers attending the daddy of all shows, which takes place in Houston annually, now exceed those of the rodeo which has always been Houston’s top draw. The love and respect for antique quilts coupled with the mania for modern quilting is a stateside phenomenon that has now crossed the Atlantic, where quilting events attract devotees not only from the States and Canada but from all over the world. Of course, everybody knows the American Museum in Britain outside Bath is renowned for its quilt collection – visitor numbers soar whenever quilts are featured. Last year they very kindly lent their wonderful Amish quilts to The Welsh Quilt Centre in West Wales for its fascinating comparative exhibition where the strong geometric patterns of both the Amish and the Welsh hung side by side and many links, both visual and sociological, between two quilting traditions were

The American

Quilt Centre By Jen Jones

examined, encouraging spectators to draw their own conclusions as to who influenced who and how. The Welsh Quilt Centre owns the largest and most comprehensive collection of Welsh quilts in the world and transformed the small market town of Lampeter in West Wales from a place to pass through into a destination. The spectrum within this now defunct quilting tradition is vast, and it is thrilling to see the growing interest in these splendid artefacts. Opening in 2009 the Centre has offered a major exhibition each year focusing on a different aspect of this diverse tradition. Transatlantic influence has featured in all of them, including surprising examples of quilts made by Welsh ladies who had emigrated to North America. Two quilts made by a Welsh lady from the South Wales Valleys who emigrated to Canada at the end of the 19th century feature redwork embroidery on white (a needlework skill often taught in schools throughout Canada) with the discernible quilting patterns of South Wales. One of these (below right) features a cheerful pussycat, another reads

Above: Regular readers should recognize the distinct handiwork of Kaffe Fassett. Right: Connecticut appliqué

‘1901 – A Present’. They were both sent to relatives in Llanelli, South Wales. Another (right) shows an appliqué pineapple quilt made in Connecticut in the late 19th century by a women from Aberaeron, Cardiganshire and brought home to family when she visited. Again the appliqué patterns are strongly influenced by American design whilst the quilting is pure Welsh. Incidentally the pineapple is the international symbol of friendship. For 2013, the Welsh Quilt Centre presents a sublime exemplification of Transatlantic collaboration. The gorgeous patterned, brilliant, bold, technicolor quilts of Kaffe Fassett (top of page) generously loaned to the Left: Amish and Welsh geometric patterns mix at the Welsh Quilt Centre

The Welsh Quilt Centre, Lampeter, Wales SA48 7BB Tel: 01570 422088 / 01570 480 610 www.welshquilts.com quilts@welshquilts.com Open Tues-Sat: 11.00-4.30 Admission Charges: £5 concessions £4, students £2.50 Quilt Centre by him are welcomed and encircled by single colored, intricately stitched Welsh wholecloth quilts. The ‘wow factor’ is indisputable. (Exhibition Kaffe Fassett Comes to Wales runs until November 2nd). H Further Reading: Amish Quilts and the Welsh Connection by Dorothy Osler published 2011 by Schiffer Publishing Ltd ISBN 978-0-7643-3916-5

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WINING & DINING

he St. James is a hotel of subtle opulence with a touch of whimsy. Silk, cashmere, leather and bold prints line the walls. The rooms are filled with sleek modern furniture, ultra modern light fixtures and a few carefully placed antiques. The quality is unmistakable but never obtrusive and often surprising. That description could just as easily be used for William Drabble’s Michelin star food. Our three course lunch was beautifully presented, complex without being fussy and yes, often surprising. Sea bream with chicory and orange was the best example. Three ingredients with three distinct flavors that balance perfectly. A glass of Graves Blanc added just the right classic touch. There’s nothing better than simple elegance and here, Chef Drabble got it just right. Saddle of lamb with wild garlic mousse, confit cherry tomatos and broad beans was also excellent. The lamb cut like butter, the mousse was delicate and the cherry tomatoes just knocked me out. Preserved in sugar, they were unexpected bursts of flavor. Sensational. Another little surprise was the garlic flowers, fried so delicately, they just disappeared in my mouth, leaving a hint of garlic on my tongue. Chianti Classico complimented all these flavors well. For starters we had perfectly seared scallops with celeriac purée

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Seven Park Place and bacon accompanied by a Colombard-Ugni blanc and a germini of lobster with potato, mint and peas. This soup was delicate to the point of being slightly disappointing. I found myself looking for an intensity that wasn’t there. As a result, the Riesling with which it was served seemed a bit overpowering. This was my only criticism of an otherwise superb lunch. Dessert was iced lemon chiboust (pastry cream) with poached rhubarb. It was served with rhubarb gelée, passion fruit purée and the most wonderful wafers of meringue. They gave a satisfying crunch before melting in my mouth and balancing the otherwise tart and creamy dessert. Paired with a glass of Muscat, this was a pudding I’d love to have again.The second dessert, raspberry soufflé with chocolate sauce was equally good. A cloudburst of raspberry countered with dark, intense chocolate and an amazing Grenache Noir, Maury, Mas

Reviewed by Michael M Sandwick Amiel, my favorite wine of the day. The intensity of port, without the sweetness; absolutely perfect with chocolate and berries. A treasure. For Michelin star food, the prices are moderate and fantastic value. As is usually the case, it is the wine that makes Seven Park Place pricey. 2 or 3 course lunch: £25.50 to £29.50, with wine, £40 to £51. The a la carte menu is £55 to £61 without wine and desserts are £7.25 to £11.25. There’s an amazing degustation menu for £72 or £123 with wine as well as a very moderately priced bistro menu in the bar lounge. The wine list is extensive, but on the expensive side. The service is every bit as good as the food. Friendly, discreet and always there before you need them. I was sorry not to meet Chef Drabble. If he is like his food, he would be a man of simple quality, but often surprising.

St. James Hotel and Club, 7-8 Park Place, London SW1A 1LS www.stjameshotelandclub.com/restaurant-piccadilly

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Chesterfield Reviewed by Michael Burland

ituated handily between the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square and Leconfield House, Curzon Street, the former home of the British Intelligence agency, The Chesterfield is a few minutes walk from each, a leg stretch from Parliament – and a short taxi hop from the Russian Embassy in Kensington Palace Gardens. By generally accepted protocol the hotel became neutral territory, the place where CIA, FBI, KGB and MI5 agents, double-agents and traitors could swap tales, girlfriends, boyfriends and sideways glances. And drink. Boy how they did drink. These days the nearest the hotel gets to spies is the James Bond Martini Cocktails served in the Terrace Bar. Or is it? Surely some of the other guests in the bar look a little... suspicious? Shaking my head to dislodge such notions, we went through to Butler’s Restaurant and chose from the Business Lunch menu. My starter, English asparagus, poached pheasant eggs and lemon hollandaise was light and delicately cooked. Neglecting the day’s special of salmon en croûte I plumped for hickory smoked rump steak, wild garlic mash, roast beetroot and morel cream – sumptuous and rich, an unusual but perfectly chosen taste palate. 2 courses cost just £19.50 and 3, £21.50 – bargain of the year so far. Following the lead of The American’s doyen of food writers, Virginia Schultz (now relocated back to the States) I intended to say no to that third course, but succumbed

and had Bea Tollman’s honeycomb ice-cream. Glad I did. The Chesterfield, part of Mrs Tollman’s eclectic Red Carnation collection of luxury boutique hotels claims impeccable service. Spot on. Friendly and intelligent, neither intrusive nor obsequious, in fact just right – and so easy to get wrong – it feels as if they not only care about the guests, they’re interested in them too. Perhaps that’s why so many Americans stay at The Chesterfield, and come back time and again. One reason to head Chesterfieldward is the hotel’s new Charlie & The Chocolate Factory afternoon tea which runs until September. For £32.50 a head you can celebrate the musical that

Chesterfield Mayfair, 35 Charles Street, Mayfair, London W1J 5EB Tel. +44 (0) 20 7491 2622 www.chesterfieldmayfair.com opens this month with a Fizzy Lifting drink, an Oompa Loompa Cupcake, Golden Egg, Fizzy Lifting Cake and of course a Wonka Bar before leaving with a Golden Ticket containing random special prizes from a glass of Champagne to a free stay at the hotel.

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he best thing about Naga is the presentation. The room itself feels like a starkly modern Asian atrium. Sitting at basement level looking up at the glass roof two floors above, we imagined having a long Singapore Sling lunch on a rainy afternoon. Besides the red silk uniforms of the attentive waitresses, the food itself provides the only adornment to the dining room. And quite successfully. Throughout our meal, there seemed to be an endless array of dishes: glass, pottery, wood, bamboo, all in various shapes and sizes, each apparently tailor-made for the colorful dish it was presenting. Pan Asian is perhaps too broad a term for Naga. The menu is largely Chinese with hints of Vietnamese, the two cuisines in which Chef Syarief excels. Though nowhere near as large a menu as one expects to find in Chinatown, there is enough of a selection to make choosing difficult. So we happily put ourselves in the competent hands of the manager who offered to choose for us. Spring rolls (£6), crispy chili salt

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NAGA

squid (£7.50) and pork and prawn dumplings were all classical Chinese, delicious but not out of the ordinary. The duck and watermelon salad was something else. Assorted greens mixed with crispy duck, watermelon and the most delicious tangy dressing made this the hands down highlight of the evening. Sweet, sour, salty, fresh and fruity, the epitome of pan Asian complexity. Naga black cod (£19.50) was favorite number 2. The miso glaze, with that wonderful combination of sweet and salt made the fish tender and succulent. Candied fish! Thit Bo Kho (£12) is Vietnamese dried beef in a mild curry. I suppose one must develop a taste for dried meat. Alas, I don’t think I’ll try. Garlic French beans (£7.50) seasoned with fish sauce, stir fried egg noodles with beans sprouts (£7.90) and egg fried rice (£6) were somewhat pricey accompaniments to an otherwise moderately priced menu. The not extensive wine list is also moderate. For dessert we had 2 brûlées. The first, ginger and lemon grass

Reviewed by Michael M Sandwick Naga, 2 Abingdon Road, London W8 6AF www.nagarestaurants.co.uk was excellent, but the ginger and lemongrass was all but non-existent. The second, Asian brûlée was flavored with pandan, a bright green leaf from southeast Asia. It made the pudding very sweet and the most extraordinary color green. I would happily return to Naga for another taste of that wonderful duck and watermelon salad. I’d be curious to see if Chef Syarief has other creations of that caliber on the menu. I bet he does. H

MUSIC

ast year was a watershed for festivals. For years music events rose rapidly in number and size, but the summer of 2012 saw quite a few being canceled due to low ticket sales. Many blame the weather (what summer?) but perhaps we’d reached massive-festival overload? For 2013, the ‘obvious’ ones include Glastonbury and Latitude, but we thought you might like to know about some alternative festivals that offer a diversity of music and a smaller, more friendly scale.

POP

Rewind: The 80s Festival Temple Island Meadows, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire August 16th to 18th Rewind includes a UK exclusive festival appearance from The B-52s and R&B pop divas The Pointer Sisters. The line-up also features Kim Wilde, ABC, Belinda Carlisle, Nik Kershaw, Blancmange, The Blow Monkeys, Heaven 17, The Sugarhill Gang, Then Jerico, Billy Ocean, Go West, Paul Carrack, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, The Flying Pickets, Aswad. Many of the artists are also at Let’s Rock Bristol!, Blaise Castle Estate, Bristol, June 8th. The B-52s are touring on August 12th at Glasgow ABC; 13th Manchester Academy; 15th Birmingham Academy; 16th London, Indigo2.

The Maverick Festival

LIVE AND KICKING A Summer of Alternative Festivals COUNTRY/AMERICANA

Americana International 2013 The County Showground, Newark, Nottinghamshire, July 11th to 15th The 33rd Americana International festival is a celebration of all things American. Legends and up-andcoming stars from the USA, UK and Europe include PJ Proby, Georgette Jones, Mandy Barnett, Carl Mann, Will Banister and Moe Bandy. Along with 5 stages, the show features American automobiles, hot rods and motorbikes, the 3rd American Fashion Show and much more for a fantastic family weekend. Maverick Festival Easton Farm Park, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 5th to 7th July Based in Suffolk (handy for East Anglian air force bases like Mildenhall and Lakenheath as well as London), Maverick is a real enthusiast’s festival that has grown to become an important Americana and Roots event Georgette Jones

with music, comedy, dance, film & workshops. This year it welcomes the legendary Gram Parsons/Flying Burrito Brothers bass player Ian Dunlop, who will be in conversation to discuss his life on the road with Gram and his book, Breakfast in Nudie Suits.

FOLK

WOMAD (Charlton Park, Malmesbury, Wiltshire, July 25th to 28th) and Cambridge Folk Festival (Cherry Hinton Hall, Cherry Hinton, Cambridgeshire, July 25th to 28th) are the biggies, but try these too: Warwick Folk Festival Warwick, July 25th to 28th Headliners include The Lock In (oldtime meets new dance), Dervish (hot Irish traditional band) and the Québécois Le Vent du Nord. Sidmouth Folk Festival Sidmouth, Devon, Aug. 2nd to 9th Folk megastars include Capercaillie, Maddy Prior, and recently rediscovered/recovered from injury Nic Jones. Wickham Festival Wickham, Hampshire, August 1st to 4th. Wickham adds pop groups Dexys, 10cc and The South to more traditional fare like The Waterboys, Eliza Carthy, Lau, Seth Lakeman, Show of Hands and, er, Rolf Harris.

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FREE FESTIVALS

Notting Hill Carnival, London, August 25th & 26th. One of the world’s largest street festivals, famous for vibrant costumes, Caribbean food stalls, and massive reggae sound systems; West End Live, Trafalgar Square, London, June 22nd & 23rd. Live performances from West End musicals and theater shows; Godiva Festival, War Memorial Park, Coventry, July 5th to 7th. Echo and the Bunnymen, Maximo Park, Amelia Lily and more, all free. London Mela, Gunnersbury Park, London, September 1st. An Asian flavored event with urban, classical and experimental music and DJs, with circus, dance, visual arts, comedy and a kids area; Brixton Splash, Brixton, London, August 4th. Celebrating the area’s diversity, progress, and the fusion of the ethnic groups that call Brixton home, the festival’s musical core mixes with arts and crafts, food, live music, theater, dance performances and sound systems celebrating local talent; Red Sails Festival, Portstewart, Northern Ireland, July 21st to 27th. Free music from local bands and orchestras, Irish dancing and a spectacular firework display (mostly free, some events may charge); Dundee Blues Bonanza, Dundee, Scotland, June 28th to 30th. Over 125 live performances featuring artists from across Europe plus Lurrie Bell, the guitarist raised in Chicago and the Mississippi Delta; South Tyneside Summer Festival, South Shields (North East England), June to August. Live music, brass bands, parades, parties and open-air concerts including free concerts with Toploader, The South, Rick Astley and The Christians; Monmouth Music Festival, Wales, July 26th to August 3rd. A diverse range of music including rock, classical, pop, folk, jazz, ska, punk and world plus a carnival day (July 28th).

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BOOK AHEAD Barry Gibb Mythology Tour The ‘B.G.’ in the Bee Gees heads for the UK this fall. Barry Gibb has designed this tour as a salute to his brothers, all deceased. It’s sure to be an emotional evening. The touring band includes Barry’s son Stephen on guitar and vocals, and Maurice’s daughter Samantha. The UK tour dates are: September 21st Birmingham LG Arena; 29th Manchester Arena; October 3rd London, The O2. Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac aren’t just touring the UK this Fall. According to their publicity, they’ll ‘grace British soil’ to play here following a 34-city US tour. It’s the first chance for a while to see original members Mick Fleetwood and John McVie play with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks who both recently completed solo tours. There may even be a slim chance to see ex-member Christine McVie – although Nicks says Christine ‘grew tired of life on the road’ and would never rejoin, Mick Fleetwood has said he’d spoken to the singer/pianist (bassist John’s ex) about her returning to tour. Believe it when you see it, Mac fans. UK dates: September 24th, 25th, 27th, London, The O2; 29th Birmingham Arena; October 1st Manchester Arena ; 3rd Glasgow Arena.

Barbra Streisand

PRAY FOR RETURNS! Barbra Streisand Babs has added a second London show at The O2 Arena on Monday 3rd June. A contender for ‘Hottest ticket of the year’ the concerts will be her first performance in London in six years. Barbra is the only artist in history to win an Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Directors Guild of America, Golden Globe, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, National Medal of Arts and Peabody Awards as well as France’s Legion d’Honneur, the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the Kennedy Center Honor. She’s sure to win your heart at her summer shows which feature a 60-piece orchestra. Special guests are: American trumpeter and composer Chris Botti, whose 2004 CD When I Fall In Love made him the largest selling instrumental artist in the US, crossing over from jazz to pop audiences; Jason Gould, Barbra’s son, an accomplished writer, director, and now singer, and Roslyn Kind, is a dynamic recording artist and a performer on Broadway, in concerts and nightclubs and on screen. Barbra’s European tour dates (hey Israel, that’s what it says on her website, don’t complain to us) are: June 1st & 3rd London, O2 Arena; June 6th & 10th Amsterdam, Netherlands, Ziggo Dome [NB The Paris, France concert is CANCELED]; 12th Cologne, Germany, Lanxess Arena; 15th Berlin, Germany, O2 World; 20th & 22nd Tel Aviv, Israel, Bloomfield Stadium.

WIN TICKETS for AMERICAN SPEEDFEST

he sights, sounds and smells of the USA come to Brands Hatch on Sunday June 9th for the inaugural American SpeedFest, as the Euro Racecar NASCAR Touring Series visits the Kent circuit for its only UK round. Genuine American NASCARs will also be performing demonstration laps during the day, providing fans of American motorsport a rare chance to see the cars that race at over 200mph on the American ovals up close. A Nationwide Series Dodge Charger raced by 14-time Sprint Cup race-winner Kasey Kahne and a Chevrolet Impala from the 2009 Sprint Cup season will bellow around the 1.2 miles of the Indy circuit. Bernie’s V8s’ big, bruising classic muscle cars, the Pickup Truck Racing Championship and the Legends Cars from the continent will all be joining the best NASCAR V8s outside of America on the packed racing bill. Entertainment away from the track is sure to be just as impressive. The Red Devils parachute display team will be dropping in, monster trucks will show off their immense crushing power and iconic cars from the silver screen will be on display alongside the best the UK’s American car clubs have to offer. An American-styled BBQ competition will add to the smell of burning rubber and the brave can take on their stomachs in hot dog and hot wing eating contests. With live music, rodeo bulls, trade stalls and much more, American SpeedFest is bringing the USA to the UK in style. HOW TO ENTER: Simply send your details (name, address, daytime telephone no.) to theamerican@ blueedge.co.uk with SPEEDFEST COMPETITION in the subject line, to arrive by mid-day June 5. You must be 18 years old or over to enter this competition. Only one entry per person per draw. The editor’s decision is final. Terms and conditions: No cash alternative. Non transferable. Additional expenses are the responsibility of the prize winner. Promoter reserves the right to exchange all or part of the prize to that of equal or greater value.

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ALBUM THEOF MONTH Joe Bonamassa & Beth Hart Seesaw Provogue Records

What kind of voice can hold up against the current king of blues rock guitar, a powerhouse big band and some of the classiest, sassiest songs in the soul canon? Step up, Beth Hart. She and Joe Bonamassa take a collection of disparate tunes and make them their own by sheer force and musicality. The album’s a killer from the opening bars of Them There Eyes, a 1930 standard performed by artists of the stature of Louis, Ella, Peggy and Sinatra to Diana Ross and Chaka Khan, but seldom with such punch. Close to My Fire follows, sexily slowing things down before the tempo pumps up again for Nutbush City Limits: expect no innovation here, just a guitarist, band and singer having a ball. Lucinda Williams’ Can’t Let You Go is reinvented as an R&B swinger, Joe’s guitar fencing with a Cajun accordion while Melody Gardot’s sultry If I Tell You I Love You becomes a vamped-up Addams Family theme tune played by rampant Gypsies. And so it goes on – the album dynamically seesaws until the surprising last number, a brave, downbeat rendition of Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit. Hart’s a belter, but with considerable style and wit, easily capable of handling songs from the likes of Etta James (A Sunday Kind of Love). If it sounds if I’ve forgotten Bonamassa, don’t worry. He’s masterful throughout, with the class, intelligence and sheer blues virtuosity to let his co-star shine too. Great on their own, superb together. – Michael Burland

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LIVE REVIEW Pink Martini in concert with guest Rufus Wainwright

ink Martini’s bandleader Thomas Lauderdale once said “if the United Nations had a house band in 1962, hopefully we’d be that band”. Their genius is that they defy categorisation – jazz, latin, classical, classic pop. ‘Dance band’ is too narrow a description, ‘orchestra’ too grand.They distil the essence of an often familiar old tune, take it out, dust it off, shine its shoes and make you realize what a gem it was in the first place. These aren’t covers, this is re-incarnation. Last time they played the Albert Hall, lead singer China Forbes was recovering from surgery on her vocal chords and this time her debut was made sweeter by also being on her birthday. With a crystalline voice and the instinctive musicality of an Ella Fitzgerald, she is a complete joy to listen to, and yet, despite her brilliance as a song stylist, she doesn’t outshine the band. They are a holistic unit. Their secret is that they’re great live and they know how to get a crowd going. They even had them up on stage dancing, much to the horror of the security staff. Here they justly delivered hit after hit – Amado Mio, Una notte a Napoli, Hey Eugene, and Hang On Little Tomato and of course Sympathique. They are eternal magpies. Their repertoire is gloriously eclectic and they don’t shirk from performing the songs in their original

languages be they Japanese, Turkish or Croatian. Here, they found four sweet Turkish people to come up on stage to join in Uska Dara (yes, that ole Eartha Kitt warhorse). In the interests of balance they then summoned a merry band of Greeks to help them out on Never on a Sunday. So, what was new? Apart from Uska Dara, their next album will include their version of Quizás, Quizás, Quizás (better known to Doris Day fans as Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps) and a great swing number Ich Liebe Dich, which Mamie Van Doren sang in a 1964 movie. As well as songs and pop culture ephemera they collect living legends to record with. The roster includes Jimmy Scott, Chavela Vargas and, coming up, Phyllis Diller; before she died last year they put down a new version of Charlie Chaplin’s Smile. The icing on the cake of their concerts in London and Brighton was a guest star turn by the suave and charismatic Rufus Wainwright. Rufus and Pink Martini are a perfect fit, as they proved when he sang the Judy part and China sang the Barbra part on a soaring rendition of that famous TV duet Happy Days Are Here Again/ Get Happy. The single Kitty Come Home with Rufus and The Von Trapps is out now and the new album, Get Happy, is out in September. – Jarlath O’Connell

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The organisers reserve the right to alter/cancel any part of the festival if the need arises without prior public notification. Also the right to refuse entry to any person(s) who are considered to be a threat to the general running of the festival and its patrons. PHOTO I.D IS REQUIRED AT THIS EVENT

The American

Eric Church has risen like a rocket from unknown songwriter to award-winning recording and performing star... but as you might have guessed there’s more to the story than that. In London for his British debut concert Eric told The American about it

“I

t all began in Granite Falls, North Carolina, a small furnituremaking town where everybody knows everybody”, Eric remembers: “A lot of that plays out in our music. The values that I have and the things I believe in were formed in Granite Falls. Things like honesty, hard work, putting in the effort - that’s how I ended up where I am now. I had a great childhood. My father worked his way up to being president of a furniture company. I was a sports guy at high school then when I got older I picked up a guitar and music became an important part of my life. I started playing clubs and bars wherever I could. “I was pretty eclectic growing up. I listened to everything - The Band and Little Feat are my favorite bands. When we started playing in bars and clubs we didn’t get paid, we were playing for tips. Whatever somebody requested I would play - if I didn’t know it I would learn it by the time I came back the following week. We learned a lot of blues, some rock & roll. We played some rough joints too. The worst were brown bag places, where people brought their own alcohol. There were a lot of fights. I remember my brother got into a fight in the middle of a song, went out into the parking lot, settled it, and was back on stage singing harmony and playing guitar before the end of the song. It’s part of who

30 June 2013

we were, part of paying your dues. I played every sewer, twice. Now I’ve played stages big and small and you feel like you should be standing there, like you’ve earned it.” Church was a bright kid - you don’t graduate from high school then get a degree in marketing from Appalachian State University without some smarts. But the corporate road that beckoned was not one that he followed. “It took me about six years to graduate college - because I was a musician,” he laughs. “I could have majored in history. I had a business opportunity. But I just wanted to play music.” A business career wasn’t the only thing that Church gave up by choosing music. He had been engaged, but the big musical decision led to his fiancée breaking it off. “I went off to chase the dream, you know? I could have stayed in the town I was from and got married and probably been a high school teacher or something. But I moved to Nashville and that all fell apart. Stuff like that is valuable, though. If you’re willing to give up everything for it, then you want it bad enough. I didn’t know anybody in Nashville, didn’t even know where Music Row was! I took a job working third shift from midnight to 8am, I’d write songs all day, go home, take a nap and go back to work. It was a dark time because nothing was happening and every-

body was telling me no, but it was an important time in crafting who I became. I was scared, but there;’s also an excitement in the unknown. It was exhilarating to be in Nashville, around all the creative minds there. And I was young, only 22 years old - there’s something to being that young, you’re fearless. If I’d been 32 I don’t know if I woulda done it! But being right out of college and having that sense of adventure added to the ability to succeed. At least I went there and put in the effort. A lot of people don’t ever take that big leap and it is a big leap.” Even allowing for dues having been paid back in Carolina, success came surprisingly quickly in Nashville. “I was very fortunate, a year after I’d been there I got a publishing deal [with Sony - Church co-wrote Terri Clark’s 2005 hit single The World Needs a Drink]. It was all I’d ever wanted. I never really wanted to be a recording artist, song writing was my passion. I’ve always loved to read too, and I’ve always been interested in the intellectual side of writing, not just songs but all writing.” Church has his blue-collar drinking tunes, but dig deeper and you’ll find songs like Lightning which is about the death penalty, or Two Pink Lines, about teenage pregnancy. Church agrees: “I love turning a phrase. I love the hook part of songwriting, where you say something in

The American

a way people haven’t heard before, twist a word here or there that makes it interesting.” Ironically, songwriting led Church into being signed as a recording artist. “I had all these songs I’d written for other people, but other artists and labels said, we love it but it really sounds like it’s his song. When that happened over and over, the publishing company suggested I try it. Capitol Records gave me a record deal and I thought, yeah, I’ve made it. I learned that the hard part’s still coming!” Capitol became interested after Church started working with producer Jay Joyce. “Jay added the uniqueness,” Church graciously admits. “I had some songs but I’d never really had a producer, I just recorded demos. With Jay it was like I was hearing the songs for the first time, even though they were mine. It took a little time for other people to get - the Chief album has been our most successful and a lot of the reason for that is that it’s different, sonically, and it wasn’t accepted early on.” That difference is Eric’s unique blend of rock and country. “I’ve been told so many times that I’m too rock for country, and too country for rock. But I’m proud to be a country artist,” he avers. Church’s fourth album is a seventeen-track live album, Caught In The Act (recorded at the Tivoli Theater in Chattanooga, TN). That’s the kind of record many artists would do after ten or twelve years. How come? “For a long time we didn’t have radio plays or television. The only exposure we had was playing a show in Some City, Some Place, and it was because the people in that crowd told other people about us that we’re where we are today. I didn’t want us to go

too far before we paid homage and captured that. The main thing we were trying to get was the energy exchange between the band and the crowd. We had a ball.” Springsteen is probably Church’s best-known song. He’s said that it is about “a love affair that takes place in an amphitheater between two people.” When he wrote it, was he thinking of himself as part of the audience or the guy on stage? “It was initially about me in the audience as a younger man, about 16. I was in an amphitheater and there was a point

in that show where I knew I would remember that night forever. There’s a line in the song about ‘a memory and a melody connecting with each other’. Now when I sing that song I see people out there having that same experience. I think everybody can relate to a time when music was more than just music.” H Read the expanded version of this interview online at www.theamerican.co.uk

June 2013 31

The American An early 18th century Italian Cittern from the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (part of Vermeer and Music) © THE ART ARCHIVE / ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, OXFORD

CHOICE Collecting Gauguin

The Courtauld Gallery Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN www.courtauld.ac.uk June 20 to September 8 Subtitled ‘Samuel Courtauld in the 1920s’ Collecting Gauguin is the first of a series of special summer displays to showcase The Courtauld Gallery’s permanent collection. The Gallery holds a significant collection of art by the French Post-Impressionist gathered together by Samuel Courtauld. The display will include major paintings and works on paper together with one of only two marble sculptures created by Gauguin. Additionally, the gallery has been loaned two important works formerly in the private collection: Martinique Landscape and Bathers at Tahiti.

Vermeer and Music

The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN www.nationalgallery.org.uk June 26 to September 8 Rare musical instruments including lutes, guitars and virginals (a type of harpsichord), songbooks, and the art of Vermeer and his contemporaries combine in an exhibition that will display together Vermeer masterpieces A Young Woman standing at a Virginal and A Young Woman seated at a Virginal with his Guitar Player for the first time. Music was a popular theme in Dutch painting, where an instrument or songbook might convey the education or social standing of the

sitter, or as a metaphor for harmony or transience. The theme of 17th century musical pastimes is enhanced Thursday to Saturday by live performances of music from the period by the Academy of Ancient Music.

Stradivarius

Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont St, Oxford OX1 2PH www.ashmolean.org June 13 to August 11

More rare musical instruments are to be discovered at the Ashmolean’s exhibition about composer and instrument maker Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737) with instruments dating from his ‘Golden Period’ (1700-1720), the height of his creative powers, including the ‘Viotti’ violin of 1709 and the ‘Batta-Piatigorsky’ cello of 1714. There will also be luthier workshops, performances and tours.

Above: Johannes Vermeer, The Guitar Player, c.1672, oil on canvas ON LOAN FROM ENGLISH HERITAGE, THE IVEAGH BEQUEST (KENWOOD) © ENGLISH HERITAGE

Left: Gauguin, Bathers at Tahiti, 1897, oil on sacking © THE TRUSTEES OF THE BARBER

INSTITUTE OF FINE ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

32 June 2013

The American

Robert Morris, Untitled (3 L’s), 1965, Installation view at Corcoran Gallery of Art, November 24 – December 28, 1969 LS Lowry, Industrial Landscape 1955

Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life

Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG www.tate.org.uk June 26 to October 20 LS Lowry exhibitions don’t come along as often as the British urban landscape painter’s popularity would suggest; Tate’s collection of his works has perhaps fallen between the established landscape artists of Tate Britain and the hip crowd over at Tate Modern, his style neither Impressionist nor Realist, simultaneously naive yet socially penetrating. Industrial landscapes and bustling street scenes of football matches, evictions and protest marches capture the working class heartland of Manchester and beyond. This summer, the 20th century British painter’s works are unleashed in a major show for the first time since his death in 1976. However, this exhibition also seeks to put Lowry into some elusive context of artistic movement, showing the relationship of his work to the French tradition, via eleven works by Vincent van Gogh, Camille Pissarro, Maurice Utrillo, Georges Seurat, and the ‘symbolist’ townscapes of his Frenchborn teacher Adolphe Valette.

Ellen Gallagher: AxME

Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG www.tate.org.uk To September 1 Providence-born artist Ellen Gallagher’s complex, imaginative works are enjoying their first major UK solo exhibition. Images of myth, nature, art and social history are represented in diverse media including painting, drawing, collage, print, sculpture and film, and here include her wig-map grid collages Double Natural, POMPBANG, and eXelento, examining ideals in black beauty, and Bird in Hand 2006, an intricate relief built from printed matter, plasticine, crystal, paint, gold leaf and salt to portray a mythical black Atlantis.

Hanging Soft, Standing Hard

drawings, films and texts, investigates the relationship between art, gesture and the body. The exhibition includes Morris’ Untitled (Three L’s) (1965).

Christ Rests in Peace

Sladmore Galleries: 32 Bruton Place, London, W1J 6NW & 57 Jermyn St, London SW1Y 6LX www.sladmore.com June 5 to July 26 Nic Fiddian-Green, known for his monumental and widely collected Neoclassical horse heads, has created Christ Rests in Peace, a new eight foot high work cast in lead, commissioned for Southwark Cathedral and shown in front of the High Altar during Lent and Holy Week this year. It will soon be appearing in the window of The Sladmore Gallery, Jermyn Street together with smaller studies of the Christ head, with new equine works at Sladmore’s Bruton Place Gallery.

Sprüth Magers, 7A Grafton Street, London W1S 4EJ www.spruethmagers.com To June 15

The first solo show in London of the work Kansas City-born artist Robert Morris is now underway. The exhibition focuses on Morris’ wide choice of media, from soft, hanging felt to rigid, standing plywood. Morris’ interdisciplinary work – sculptures,

June 2013 33

The American

Helaine Blumenfeld

The American chats with the New York-born sculptor as her Messenger of the Spirit monumental retrospective exhibition arrives in the grounds of – and within - Salisbury Cathedral

elaine Blumenfeld OBE is one of Britain’s most recognizable sculptors... despite being an American whose studio is in Italy! A magnificent retrospective of her monumental works has taken up residence (until September) in and around Salisbury Cathedral. They are mesmerizing pieces that flow and fold in and around themselves like fabric and elusive figurative form, confounding their materials, and echoing the spirituality of their setting. Accessible and touchable, Helaine’s pieces speak of the soul and human frailty. Helaine, once a philosophy student, found sculpture offered more direct expression. Her career began after her husband took a journalism job in Paris. “He asked me what I was going to do, and I immediately said ‘I want to be a sculptor.’ I sat in our kitchen and got some clay and made 5 or 6 pieces, which was the easiest thing I’d ever done, as if my hands bypassed my mind, going through my spirit.

34 June 2013

I brought them to two different art academies and pretended I’d always done this, and those were what I had with me. I was accepted and not very much after that [Ossip] Zadkine himself came by and said ‘I love the work of this young man’ – immediately thought it must be a man. The person who was teaching me didn’t say anything. He had this salon on Sundays, so I went, not knowing I was supposed to be a man! When I came in, he said ‘Who is that?’ Before I left he said ‘Would you like to work with me?’

I think he wasn’t interested at all in teaching, but in somebody to help him keep his hours; but what you learn with a great sculptor or artist is their passion, their commitment. Of communicating through sculpture Helaine says “If you have a dream and you try to tell it to someone, it becomes so banal, you realize it’s so far from what you experienced. I think that’s because verbal language isn’t large enough.” Helaine came to the UK after finding the ’70s New York arts scene confining. “It was already more about your personality than your work, almost. I was doing highly polished bronze pieces that everybody loved, and the next time I did a show, I didn’t want to do that any more. The gallery said ‘That’s what everybody loves, you can’t change your style this quickly’. So coming to England was just liberating.” Helaine Blumenfeld, Mysteries PHOTO: ASH MILLS

The American

Does Helaine think that the world of sculpture is more ‘without borders’ than painting? “What I do is unrelated to culture. It doesn’t require translation and in a sense talking about it – you don’t need to. The most exciting thing about this exhibition is how uninhibited people are in telling you about what they think and what they see. There’s none of this cultural reference or being afraid of saying what they think and that’s wonderful. People will look at a piece of mine which is quite abstract – though there are a lot of allusions to things that are spiritual – and they will say to the person with them, ‘Wow, you know what I see, that’s an angel.’ That discovery is so exciting and it’s very different than just seeing an angel where they didn’t discover it. Joseph Campbell, who I admired very much, said experiencing art is having a revelation: if you open yourself up to that experience. When people come into a cathedral that’s what they are, they’re open to experience.” What were Helaine’s first thoughts when she was given a space as large as Salisbury Cathedral? “I didn’t know until we installed it whether it would stand up in this environment, rise to it, because this space is voluminous, so lofty, and my work is about aspiration, transcendence, the importance of the spiritual, but will you see that or will it be hidden by the enormous overriding spirituality of the environment? We were so excited to see that it totally filled the space, that it looked large. There are ten or twelve pieces inside, but there are a number

Some of Helaine’s works to be found at Salisbury Cathedral this summer: Above: The Space Within; Left: Cleopatra; Right: Taking Risks PHOTOS: ASH MILLS

outside, and there I created most of those pieces for the space. I’d just had a very big retrospective exhibition in Pietrasanta [Italy], held in an old church in the center of the town. When you came into this building everybody had the same experience - tears and gasps, and that was not what we wanted in Salisbury. We wanted you to come in and only very gradually discover the work and feel that it had always been there, not to feel that ‘wow’ factor. And it’s quiet as you suddenly come on a piece, and maybe people put their hand on their heart, which is nice to see. “Salisbury appealed to me enormously, that sense of the pieces being in space. One of the big pieces in front is called The Space Within, the three figures which I want you to stand in the middle of and

move within. It was too crowded in Pietrasanta and didn’t get the sense of space and peace and tranquillity, and being in another place. We fill up our lives so much that we have no place for reflection. That ‘space within’ is the space within us that has to be empty where we’ve got to be able to vibrate within ourselves, not filled up with all the details of our lives. “I was brought up Jewish, so I was steeped in the Old Testament, and the title for this show comes from the Old Testament. ‘Messenger of the Spirit’ – Malakeh in Hebrew – was the closest humans could ever come to seeing God, and angels are in that sense the messengers of God. The danger is that we worship the messenger rather than the message. With each piece I’m trying to communicate not the form, but the message that the form is giving and a lot of my pieces are about spiritual messages.

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OUTDOOR SCULPTURE Sculpture By The Sea, Aarhus 2013 Aarhus, Denmark www.sculpturebythesea.dk June 1 to 30

Helaine with Esprit 2013 PHOTO: ASH MILLS

“I’m trying to describe the soul, which has no substance, through substance, and the substance to transform it so it doesn’t seem substantial. The marble doesn’t look like marble, you see through it, and I work it so thin that it’s dangerous. I was just totally seduced by the quality of marble, and I think my work changed as a result. I almost only use statuary marble which is translucent, so I feel the purity of marble best communicates the transcendent, spirituality, purity of what I’m trying to communicate. I like bronze as well – I’ve been discovering that if I use highly polished bronze it can give it that same sense of illumination.” How often does she visit the States? “One of our sons is in San Francisco. We haven’t gone enough, but I feel passionately American. I define myself as American, even though I live in Britain, was on the Arts Council, and prefer to show in Britain. But you are who you are and you don’t change.” www.salisburycathedral.org.uk For our full interview with Helaine Blumenfeld, visit www.theamerican.co.uk

36 June 2013

If you are headed to the continent, seek out Denmark’s biggest art event, held on the shores of Aarhus this month, with work by 64 sculptors from all over the globe . The biennial sculpture show is free to view any time of day or night, and HRH Crown Prince Frederik will be at the official opening, June 1.

Fresh Air 2013

Quenington Old Rectory, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 5BN www.freshair2013.com June 16 to July 7 The five-acre garden of a Gloucestershire rectory is the peaceful setting for one of the UK’s leading outdoor sculpture shows, with 91 international artists, and works for sale. New exhibitors include Tom Hackett, Shinichi Kaneko and Natalia Dias. Regular exhibitors include Mo Farquharson, Wendy Hoare, Carol Peace, Patricia Volk and Carole Waller. Natalie Dias, Thorn Tree, 500 individual porcelain thorns assembled on a tree © STEVE RUSSELL STUDIOS

Phil Price, Nucleus

PHOTO: ANDERS HEDE 2011

onform London

The Crypt Gallery, St Pancras Church, Euston Road, NW1 2BA www.onformsculpture.co.uk June 7 to 26 Well, this one isn’t open-air – quite the reverse in fact – but it is in a non-traditional location, the crypt of a Bloomsbury church. The only UK exhibition dedicated exclusively to stone sculture is held every other year at Asthall Manor in the Cotswolds, but this summer brings works abstract, nature-inspired, beautiful and witty to London for the first time, creating a metropolitan contrast to the onform exhibition’s usual rural setting. Left: Katusha Bull, Wing of Fire – part of onform London

The American

Coffee Break

The Venetian Causeway, Miami. But what’s the name of the bay?

QUIZ

PHOTO: MARC AVERETTE

1 I t is said that the month of June is

named after the goddess Juno. To which god was she married?

2 B ritish artist and sculptor Fred-

erick, Lord Leighton’s greatest work was (arguably) Flaming June. When it was auctioned in the 1960s, it failed to reach its reserve... of how much? a) $140 b) $14,000 c) $1.4m

SMU Mustangs football team, and former head coach of Hawaii is associated with which style of offense? a) Run and Gun b) Run and Shoot c) Run and Hide Robinson in the original TV version of Lost in Space?

8 J une 4. Suffragette Emily Davison

ran out in front of a horse owned by the King during the Epsom Derby. She died four days later. But who was the King?

9 J une 11: Coaching legend Vince

Lombardi was born. Which two sports did he coach at Fordham?

10 J une 11: The US Army was

involved in a victory at the Battle of Bud Bagsak. Over whom?

6 W hat are the June Bootids,

June Lyrids and Arietids types of?

7 W ho played the role of Benny in

(and unfinished) novel by Ralph Waldo Ellison. Name his first.

11 J une 12: The 2½-mile Collins

Bridge (later replaced and renamed the Venetian Causeway) was opened between Miami and Miami Beach. Over which bay does it stretch?

the 1993 film Benny and Joon?

6 4 2

9 3

It happened 50 years ago... 12 J une 6: The actor who would play

1 2

Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films was born. Name him.

13 J une 17: The computer character

7 7

6 5 7

It happened 100 years ago...

5 W hich actress played Maureen

3 J uneteenth was the second

5 3

4 J une Jones, head coach of the

9 5 2

4 9

8 5

Answers to Coffee Break Quiz & Sudoku on page 65

encoding scheme ASCII was approved by the American Standard Association. What does ASCII stand for? a) A merica Standard Code for Information Interchange b) A merican Standard Character (version) 2 c) Ah, So Clever, Isn’t It?

14 J une 26: “Ich bin ein Berliner” the

US President told the people of West Berlin. Which President?

June 2013 37

The American

Othello

By William Shakespeare • Olivier Theatre, National Theatre, Southbank, London SE1 9PX Reviewed by Jarlath O’Connell

38 June 2013

t was only a matter of time before Adrian Lester, one of Britain’s foremost black actors, was asked to play The Moor of Venice, and possessing as he does a natural nobility, the part fits him like a glove. Lester is partnered by the National’s current rising star, Rory Kinnear, who makes the cunning Iago very ordinary, but all the more believable for that. When off duty, dressed in geezer clothes and shod in DMs, this Iago is all beer and cigarettes and macho bonhomie down the pub, and so he anchors the character as a familiar bloke – albeit one hiding some seriously psychotic tendencies. Set in a modern military installation in Cyprus, the dynamics of a modern army are used to shed light on the play’s central problem: how can the apparently brilliant army officer be so gullible as to be duped by this wide boy? The argument advanced by director Nicholas Hytner is that within the code of military honor, Othello has every reason to trust him. Both, no doubt, have been in hair-raising scrapes in the past where their lives depended on each other and so their mutual trust is rock solid. It’s an interesting thesis but Othello’s sudden careering

THEATER REVIEWS

from confident commander to bouts of hysterical rage, overturning tables and punching holes in latrine walls, is still hard to swallow. Designer Vicki Mortimer creates huge gliding concrete barriers that splice across each other and hold perfectly detailed army shelters. With their harsh strip lighting and walls adorned with posters of Page 3 glamor models, they provide a perfect setting for khaki-clad squaddies to engage in drinking games, which inevitably descend into violence. Gareth Fry’s sound design of circling helicopters and throbbing rock music also enhances this air of aggression. The supporting roles are wonderfully played here, with Lyndsey Marshal particularly effective as the good friend Emilia, and Tom Robertson giving us a Hooray-Henry Rodrigo who could have stepped out of Made in Chelsea. In the always thankless role of Desdemona, Olivia Vinall brings a fragile femininity to the piece and manages to make the character affecting rather than merely pathetic. Of course the evidence of poor Desdemona’s infidelity hinges on a mislaid handkerchief (whereas today it would most likely be a stray text message) and this jars rather and demonstrates, yet again, how modern dress solutions often create as many problems as they solve. The presence of female squaddies (even Emilia is one) is also seriously

at odds with a text mired in the misogyny of the period, and as for racism, it would make Wagner blush – “The old black ram is tupping your ewe” is just for openers. A period setting always tempers these excesses whereas here they stick out like a sore thumb. I’ve also never bought the “relevance” argument about the fad for modern dress Shakespeare. Are audiences really that dim? The production will be another feather in the cap of Hytner before he departs the National but it again raises the issue of why there is such a blind spot in the mantra of color-blind casting when it comes to Othello. Isn’t it patronising that he must always be black? If it’s realism you’re after (and why would you) he would have to be from the Maghreb and not a black African at all, yet every British actor of African or African-American heritage worth his salt, is led down a path towards accepting this supposed gift of a part. I’ve never considered it much of a gift myself.

Once

Book by Enda Walsh, Music and lyrics by Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová Phoenix Theatre, Charing Cross Rd, London Reviewed by Jarlath O’Connell

nce upon a time there was a sweet boy-meets-girl movie called Once. Sweet, but with ‘nouvelle vague’ aspirations, it resembled early Godard, before he went obscure. The tiny budget for the Irish indie which wowed them at Sundance was no hindrance to its rather stifling focus on two young musical protagonists, as they found each other, found love and then parted. He’s a young Dublin busker and she’s a Czech émigré pianist, whose only musical outlet is some stolen time on a piano in the shop of an ardent old admirer. She tries to awaken the closed Irish man to his talent and get him to play for her and in the process he gets a much needed confidence boost. You couldn’t imagine a more unlikely prospect for a Broadway musical but this is what happened to it. Edgy Irish playwright Enda Walsh (Disco Pigs, Walworth Farce)

was hired to develop this sliver of a story for the stage and the original songs from the film were re-worked with gloriously simple arrangements by Martin Lowe. It all worked. The show conquered Broadway, won 8 Tonys and is now wooing audiences in the West End. Unlike the over-amped bombast of most modern musicals, they wisely opted here to keep it simple. Walsh has fleshed out the supporting characters, who barely register in the film, into a coterie of broad comic archetypes, but the clever idea was to have them all double up as the musicians. In addition, movement director Steven Hoggett has devised wonderful ways to turn them into dancers while they still hold every note. For a slight piece like this it was a perfect solution. Another inspired idea by John Tiffany (the Scottish director here, fresh from the huge success of The Black Watch) was to stage it on a single set with minimal use of props. Theater is an act of imagination, something often lost on designers of musicals with their huge flying sets. Bob Crowley’s set of a curving, nicotine-stained Dublin pub, circled with large foxed

PHOTO: MANUEL HARLAN

The American

PHOTO: MANUEL HARLAN

The American

THEATER PREVIEWS NATIONAL THEATRE PRODUCTIONS Southbank, London SE1 9PX www.nationaltheatre.org.uk www.theshedtheatre.co.uk

The Amen Corner Olivier Theatre – June 11 to August 14 mirrors is wonderfully evocative. It’s a functioning pub too, so if you arrive early you can partake of a pint and an on-stage hootenanny. The designer-stubbled, handsome, brooding busker is perfectly captured by Declan Bennett and his gauche Irish awkwardness is counterpointed by the cocky directness of the Czech ‘Girl’, played with great verve by a Croatian star Zrinka Cvitešić. A mix of Irish and English actors fills out the great supporting cast of actor-musicians. The director also hits on a clever way of using surtitles in Czech to show when the characters are conversing in their own language. The piece is an interesting reflection too on the loneliness of the emigrant, the Girl’s fear of intimacy with Guy driven by loyalty to a husband back home who has deserted her. His awkwardness is standard issue young Irish male. The thinness of the plot and the lack of dramatic heft in the music does at times let it down but then it is rescued by the simple beauty of insinuating melodies, with the second act a capella number The Moon an exquisite highlight. Falling Slowly, the song from the movie which won an Oscar, is, unusually, near the top, but is reprised at the end. It is gentle and moving but not a showstopper, but then, that’s not this show’s style. H

40 June 2013

Marianne Jean-Baptiste (NT’s The Way of the World and US TV’s Without a Trace) and Sharon D Clarke (Ghost and Chicago in the West End, UK TV’s Holby City) star in American author James Baldwin’s play of judgement, love and devotion played out amongst the congregation of a Harlem Church where its pastor, Sister Margaret will be tested by the behavior of her son and the return of her sinner husband.

Strange Interlude Lyttelton Theatre – From May 28 Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer-winning tale of a young widow and the complicated lovelife that follows the death of her first husband: turning away the love of novelist Charles

for a life of passion, Nina eventually settles for the amiable Sam only to discover a secret that will entangle her in an affair and secrets of her own. Stars Anne-Marie Duff (Oliviernominated: Saint Joan and Collected Stories) with Jason Watkins (Lark Rise to Candleford) and Charles Edwards (Downton Abbey, Evening Standard best actor nominations for This House, The King’s Speech, Much Ado About Nothing).

Mission Drift The Shed – June 5 to 28 The NT’s new venue The Shed opens with Mission Drift, a blues musical created by the TEAM, a Brooklynbased ensemble that focus on themes of modern America. An immortal Dutch couple set out across the USA in 1624, their story juxtaposed with that of a cocktail waitress and a cowboy struggling in recession torn Las Vegas in 2008, portraying both the dreams and broken dreams of capitalism. Director Rachel Chavkin is an Obie Award-winning director and founding Artistic Director of the TEAM. Music by Heather Christian.

The Cripple of Inishmaan Noël Coward Theatre, 85-88 St Martin’s Lane, London WC2N 4AU www.michaelgrandagecompany.com June 8 to August 31 The latest ‘Grandage’ at the Noël Coward Theatre is Martin McDonagh’s comic story of Cripple Billy, stuck on a remote Irish island and seeking escape from his humdrum existence through the Hollywood film shooting on a neighbouring island. Daniel Radcliffe (Equus, Harry Potter) plays the title role in the play’s first major London revival since its National Theatre premiere in 1996. As with all of this season of Michael Grandage productions, tickets start at a mere £10.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Fences

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London WC2B 5JF www.CharlieandtheChocolateFactory.com Opening night: June 25

Duchess Theatre, 3-5 Catherine Street, London WC2B 5LA www.nimaxtheatres.com June 19 to September 14

Directed by Academy Award winner Sam Mendes (American Beauty), with music and lyrics by Grammy winners Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman, Roald Dahl’s classic black comedy of honesty, excess and karmic punishment undergoes a new incarnation with an allnew book and songs. Stars Olivier and Tony-winning actor Douglas Hodge (La Cage Aux Folles) as Willy Wonka, Nigel Planer (The Young Ones, We Will Rock You) as Grandpa Joe and Iris Roberts (The Captain of Kopenick) as Mrs Teavee, with set and costume designs by Mark Thompson (One Man, Two Guvnors) and choreography by Peter Darling (Billy Elliot, Matilda). A world premiere.

Pride and Prejudice Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London NW1 4NU www.openairtheatre.com June 20 to July 20 Bring your best manners, morality, marriage prospects, and as many sisters as you can muster to Regent’s Park as Jane Austen’s social satire celebrates its 200th anniversary in the open air. The Bennet sisters haplessly search for love in Jane Austen’s ultimate romantic comedy, yet it is Mr Darcy who unwittingly finds his match. Adapted for the stage by Simon Reade. Cast to be announced.

August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize winning drama Fences, already seen on tour and at the Theatre Royal, Bath moves into the capital this month. Funnyman turned increasingly accomplished serious actor Lenny Henry plays the iconic role of Troy Maxson, a former athlete still bitter about his unfulfilled life, now living in 1950s Pittsburgh with his sportloving son and loyal wife. Director Paulette Randall was an Associate Director of the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony. Fences is her fifth August Wilson play.

Sweet Bird of Youth The Old Vic, The Cut, London SE1 8NB www.oldvictheatre.com June 1 to August 31 As you may have noticed, there’s no shortage of American playwrights in London this month and Tennessee Williams isn’t missing out. Taking up the role of fading Hollywood legend Princess Kosmonopolis/Alexandra Del Lago made famous on the London stage by Lauren Bacall, is NY-resident and Liverpool-born Kim Cattrall (Private Lives, TV’s Sex in the City). Seth Numrich (War Horse on Broadway) is drifter Chance Wayne, looking to hitch a ride to stardom just as Princess is seeking to escape from it. Directed by Olivier and Tony winner Marianne Elliott (War Horse).

The Night Alive Donmar Warehouse, 41 Earlham Street, Seven Dials, London WC2H 9LX www.donmarwarehouse.com June 13 to July 27

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Divorcee Tommy’s renting a rundown room in his uncle’s home, and lurching from one scheme to another when he encounters Aimee struggling through life the only way she knows how. Can they shrug off their old lives and enjoy a glimmer of hope? A new play by Conor McPherson (The Weir), starring a strong Irish cast including Michael McElhatton, Jim Norton, Ciarán Hinds, Caoilfhionn Dunne and Brian Gleeson.

A Mad World, My Masters Swan Theatre Stratfordupon-Avon, Warwickshire CV37 6BB www.rsc.org.uk June 6 to October 25 Another nephew with money woes: Thomas Middleton’s Jacobean satire is revived for a new sneer and laugh at city folk’s rivalries and debaucheries, the action transplanted to 1950s Soho, with Richard Goulding (King Lear, RSC 2007 and Almeida Theatre, 2012) as bachelor Richard Follywit, with John Hopkins (TV’s Midsomer Murders) as Penitent Brothel.

June 2013 41

The American

Park Theatre K

How did you become Creative Director of The Park Theatre? I’ve worked as an actress, workshop teacher, choreographer and director. I did my postgraduate in theater production and I even wrote about building a theater in my dissertation. I started this project with Jez Bond over four years ago. We looked for an area that didn’t have arts provision, so we could make a difference to a community. We want to have an international reputation and the best way to begin that is by getting people in the door. The building we discovered in Finsbury Park ticked those two key factors for us. We found it, gutted it, raised the money, set up as a charity, named it and branded it. It is our baby – and I feel like I’m giving birth to one hell of a large baby!

osha Engler recently caught up with fellow American actress Melli Bond to ask her about London’s new Park Theatre and her role as Creative Director. The playhouse, next to Finsbury Park tube station, is a twotheater complex and opened with the UK premiere of an American play. How did you end up in London and where did you train? I went to the University of South Carolina and the University of Hull – that’s how I ended up in the UK – and London is the natural place in the UK if you are in our industry. How have you found being an American actress in the UK? It certainly makes you different from other people. The career comes with lots of variety, just like being in LA or New York, you have to be able to do everything.

Yellow Face

PHOTO: CHARLIE WARD

Park Theatre, Clifton Terrace, Finsbury Park, London N4 3JP www.parktheatre.co.uk To June 16

42 June 2013

Inspired by the 1990 casting of Jonathan Pryce as a Eurasian for the Broadway production of Miss Saigon, the UK Premiere of Obie Award-winning play Yellow Face by David Henry Hwang looks at the East Asian experience in America, examining race, culture and belonging. Funny and poignant, the play questions what race really means, and who we really are. A great cast includes David Yip (TV’s The Chinese Detective), Gemma Chan (Sherlock, Doctor Who) and Davina Perera (Bombay Dreams).

Melli Bond, Creative Director of the Park Theatre

You raised over £100,000 at your star-studded gala at Shakespeare’s Globe in October, hosted by Sir Ian McKellen, on top of the £2.5m already raised. What do you think motivated people to donate so generously? This is an independent theater – not a council scheme and not government funded. We are dedicated to bringing wonderful theater to a very arty community that did not have a theater. Everyone at our gala understood how critical raising £100,000 was – without that we would not be able to offer a place for creative learning, R&D or rehearsal space. These keys things are fundamental to us – and people like Ian McKellen truly understand how vital this is. The Park Theatre’s first play is the UK premiere of These Shining Lives (to June 9) by American playwright Melanie Marnich. Is it important to you to include American works? Yes it is absolutely crucial. I found These Shining Lives in New York a few years ago. When we first got the building I went to NY immediately and met with the top literary agents to find great plays. We are committed to being seen and heard internationally. USA is the first stop but there will be many other stops along the way. This interview first appeared at http://blog.yankeeinlondon.net

The American

BOOK REVIEWS What the River Washed Away by Muriel Macleod Oneworld Publications, Trade Paperback, 288 pages, £12.99 ISBN: 978-1-78074-234-2 This is the story of a young black girl growing up in 1920s Louisiana, granddaughter of slaves and daughter of Mambo, the current local Voodoo leader, from a line stretching back to Africa. Arletta, an only child, adores Pappy, her grandfather, who built the isolated cabin where they live, and taught her to read and write. When the moon is dark, there are Voodoo meetings but Arletta doesn’t want to become the next Mambo, and her Pappy doesn’t want her to take after her mother. At eight, her life changes for the worse. Her Pappy dies and a white man starts to call when Mambo is out, and then he brings a friend. Sometimes she sees the white men walking down the track to her home, and knows to hide, but sometimes she’s too late. After several years she’s given the strength to fight back. Arletta now has her Pappy’s tin with his papers, pipe, some money and a terrible secret. We track Arletta’s life through school, work, and life for a poor black girl in a world full of lynchings, Madam’s and modernisation, to where her past meets her present. I still keep thinking about that small girl in the woods, which demonstrates how haunting this book is at evoking the deep South of that time. A wonderful first novel from Macleod, a distinguished artist and animation film producer (she worked on The Snowman). – Patricia Howard

The Whole World

Logobook

By Emily Winslow Allison & Busby, Paperback, 300 pages, £7.99 ISBN 978-0-749014001

By Ludovic Houplain Taschen, Flexiback, 776 pages, £45 ISBN 978-3-8365-34130

A young American narrator, Polly, tries to find her emotional feet in Cambridge, England, in a moment of confusion rejecting a young man who then vanishes. A university town setting for a crime novel may put readers in mind of Morse for a while, but this is a different beast, and when a body is discovered, it does so completely out of left-field. With narration switching every few chapters to a new voice, the safety of characters is never assured. This is a psychological tangle of relationships, credibly woven and far from predictable. There’s no country house formula to The Whole World, and while a British police detective is one of the narrators, he is far from the epicenter. Every character is wellrounded, their backstory not merely fleshed out, but essential to their purpose and fate. This is US-born Cambridge resident Emily Winslow’s debut novel, in paperback in the UK for the first time this month. With follow-up novel The Start of Everything released this month in hardback, complete with some returning characters, this is clearly a series to watch. – Elena Erickson

Maybe not one for the airport lounge, but if you work in design, marketing or serious business of any kind, you should have this book. Over 750 pages filled with major logos of the world, whether industrial, musical, sporting, in every conceivable field. Abba to Zurich, via Coca Cola, Google, Hoover, Lego and tens of thousands more. Perfectly rendered color, highest quality printing, thumb-hole A-Z and index. (But The American‘s logo not there? Boo. Maybe in volume 2.) – Richard Gale

[Catch next’s issue of The American for an interview with Emily – ed.]

Craft Beer World By Mark Dredge Dog’n’Bone Books, HB, 208 pages, £16.99 ISBN 978-0-957140-99-8 In a vaguely similar vein to the above (and maybe more fun), there’s this guide to 350 world beers (including many US beers I’d never heard of – ‘Yeastie Boys Digital IPA’). Filled with beautiful, ingenious and witty beer labels, fascinating beer science, and expert advice, it elevates craft beers (passionately-made and small-production) to the level of fine wines, with a glossary of terms, and a detailed flavor wheel, all wonderfully presented. I don’t even drink and I love this book! – Richard Gale

June 2013 43

The American

BOOK REVIEW Leaving Everything Most Loved By Jacqueline Winspear Allison & Busby, Hardback, £19.99 ISBN 9780749013547 Maisie Dobbs is a “psychologist and investigator” in post World War I London. When her mentor, accomplished detective Dr. Maurice Blanche retires, Maisie opens her own detective agency. In the tenth book in this series, set in 1933, Maisie is contacted by an Indian man intent on discovering his sister’s killer, as for the past two months Scotland Yard has drawn a blank. Then her friend, an Indian woman, is murdered just before an appointment with Maisie, complicating things, and another case demands her attention. There’s also a new development in Maisie’s personal life, with big decisions to be made. This book marks a crucial chapter in Maisie’s life. It explores the plight of the Indian women brought home as staff from the Raj and abandoned, not able to return home, something I’d not come across before. A good detective story that is more cerebral than gory, and could have been written contemporaneously, like all in the series. If you’re a fan of Maisie Dobbs, this will be required reading, if not, it works well as a stand-alone book, but I’d recommend you start with the first in the series, Maisie Dobbs, and have the pleasure of immersing yourself in these ten delightful books, and a London that has vanished, although perhaps you can glimpse its ghost as you explore a tiny alleyway or two in central London.

44 June 2013

IN CONVERSATION WITH

Jacqueline Winspear Jacqueline Winspear, author of the Maisie Dobbs series of books, chatted with The American about living as a British expat in America, and how she came to write her first book

s with many expatriate stories, serendipity played a large part in Jacqueline Winspear’s move. She had visited the States since she was 20, making friends along the way, then worked for an American company in the UK. She decided to go out for a few months and while staying with her brother in California she was offered a job. On a whim she said ‘yes’, expecting to stay for a couple of years. That became a couple more years, the job changed and the next thing she knew, 23 years later, she’s a confirmed North Californian complete with house, husband and dog. Unusually for a successful novelist, Jacqueline’s writing career started in academic pubishing. “I was a child when I decided that I wanted to be a writer. I was always writing, making up stories. Just after I went to America I thought ‘if you’re going to do something, it’s about time you got on with it’. So I had my day job and on the side I started writing nonfiction, then personal essays”. The Maisie Dobbs stories are, amazingly, Jacqueline’s first novels. How did they come to life? “A story literally came to me while I was stuck in traffic, in a moment that I’ve since referred to as a ‘moment of artistic grace.’ I don’t think those moments

happen in a vacuum. I have always been interested in the era about which I write, the aftermath of WWI. It was a particularly interesting period, especially in the UK, so many changes, particularly for women. “I had a very bad riding accident in spring 2001. I’d been working on the book but also working incredibly hard at my day job. It was clear for at least a while things weren’t going to be the same for me. One of my friends said ‘now’s the time to finish that novel’. I said ‘have you seen my right arm lately?’ and she said ‘well, you’ve got a left arm haven’t you?’ I finished the novel at the end of August 2001. I thought right, in three months I’m going to get the whole of the use of my arm back, and I want a novel sitting on the table. “When the book was published, I think it was sufficiently unusual that it really captured the imagination. I won the Agatha Award for best first novel and three other awards. It was also nominated for an Edgar Award in the category for best novel, not best first novel. That was the year Ian Rankin won, and of course he was going to win! I felt like a little tiny rowboat next to the QEII.” The Maisie books were early in having a mixture of the spiritual

The American

and the psychological. “Everything has its historical underpinning in terms of what was happening in Britain, and amongst certain types of people that Maisie would have come into contact with. People ask me about Maisie meditating. I have to explain that it really didn’t start in Los Angeles 20 years ago! Freud and Jung were doing their psychological experiments in the early part of the last century, and among what I call the chattering classes there was an interest in Eastern Philosophy. A lot of people had lived in India – there were cases of Army officers going AWOL to sit on a mountain top with a guru.” Although the books are set in England, Jacqueline writes them in California. “I come back to the UK a lot, so I do a lot of research while I’m here. I’ve spent a lot of time in the Imperial War Museum, and the places where I’ve set my novels. Living and writing in a completely different place is very helpful to me because I’m not distracted by everyday life in Britain as it is now. California is so obviously different from the place and time about which I write, and sometimes on very hot sunny days, I’ve closed my curtains, got the air conditioning on and kept cool, then gone outside and gone ‘oh my gosh it’s sunny!’ because I’ve been deep in London, on a cold day in 1933!” The American once met two ladies who’d lived in Paris for many years, and although they thought themselves English, they were neither French nor English anymore. England to them was the England they’d left before WWII, in aspic. How does Jacqueline feel about being an expat? “Bill Bryson said ‘we’re neither here nor there’ about being an American and living in Britain, and

sometimes I feel like that. My parents were a bit like that because they left London in about 1949, even though it was just to go down to Kent. They didn’t go back very often, they left a London that was full of bomb sites, where people were turned out of perfectly good houses to build tower blocks. My parents always said that the London County Council did more damage to London than the Luftwaffe. They held this old London in their heads. A few years ago I took them up to London. My father had not been back to Covent Garden since he was a boy when his father was a Costermonger (as is Maisie’s!) and he had not seen it as it is today. His memory was of the market traders running back and forth. Covent Garden stopped being a fruit market in 1976. I came back to London in the mid 1990s and I thought it was a dump, but a few years ago I thought it was much nicer.

“I think there were too many people with different ways, too much to be assimilated in one go. People have been creating enclaves just like they did in the early 1900s, when there was a huge influx from what we call Bohemia. They came in with their bright flouncy clothes and everything, hence ‘Bohemian’. London absorbs it in the end. There are a handful of cities in the world which can cope, London being one of them, New York another, places with a long history of immigration. For me there is that detachment from London, so I can write about it more easily.” Does she find it easier to achieve her dreams in America? “Maybe something happens to you when you go to a different country. You’re braver. There’s a great book published by Sara Wheeler, called ’O My America!’ [interviewed in The American, April 2013] that’s fascinating because it’s about British women who go to America and do things

June 2013 45

The American

they wouldn’t have done at home. There’s a sense of freedom abroad, a sense of anonymity, and you feel you can do anything and give it a go.” What does Jacqueline love most about America? “I was listening on NPR a while ago to an interview with the vocalist Dido. She said, “There was something about the openness of America that made me feel limitless,” meaning geographic openness. I can be somewhere hiking and I know I’m in a very big country, whereas if I was in Britain I’d know I was in a much smaller place. There’s a real different spatial sense, I think that’s why there are so many entrepreneurial people in America. There’s a sense of adventure, a sense of ‘you can do it.’ I love that about America: the openness, the drive, and the supportiveness in people. When I had my first ever bookstore event my friends sent the word around. One said ‘we’ll create a tipping point here’ and the place was absolutely packed, with people most of whom I didn’t know. The word of mouth about my books continues to spread, that’s the most powerful thing that sells them. “Now I am a full time writer, which is absolutely a dream come true, so America for me was truly the land of opportunity!” H Read the full interview including how Jacqueline wrote her first novel, and got it published, at www.theamerican.co.uk Jacqueline’s latest book Leaving Everything Most Loved, was released on May 27, and is a crucial chapter in the life and times of Maisie Dobbs.

46 June 2013

McDonalds U, MOOCs or UnCollege?

Alison Holmes, academic and The American’s transatlantic correspondent, casts a skeptical eye at the future of education

merica is a great place. The phenomenon I call ‘educational misrepresentation’ may be happening elsewhere in the world, and perhaps it is all the rage in China, yet, it seems somehow quintessentially American to twist the purpose of education from a noble endeavor and a belief that learning is a commitment to a better world – both inside and out – into something akin to a tawdry commercial transaction in which filthy lucre is exchanged for a sullied ‘guarantee’ of a ‘good’ job. The American essentialist aspect of this tale occurs when the economy hits a recession and (as in previous recessions) even the broken promise is ‘sold’, arguing: ‘College is a mistake. You can learn more on your own. Professors only fill your head with stuff and nonsense’. This anti-education mantra – or ‘UnCollege’ as one author terms it, though there are many hustlers out there with the same cheap Rolex – has become a craze; and the selling of disillusionment with education BIG business indeed. The problem is that all the things such hucksters suggest are wrong with higher education were created by the relentless pursuit of information (instead of knowledge

and self-awareness) that a previous group of salesmen used as the unique selling point of education. The irony is that the ‘new’ product or magic antidote – albeit slathered with personal PR – is, in fact, a good old fashioned liberal arts education. Talk about money for old rope.

Learning trades

Once upon a time, college was not the presumed path for every child. Some kids would grow up to be doctors and lawyers, and we needed those folks and philosophers and historians because they thought big thoughts, but most folks were just folks. They learned skills and trades and became journalists and plumbers and secretaries and electricians. A group George Bailey passionately defends in It’s a Wonderful Life, they grow up to do ‘most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community’ – in any community. Somewhere along the line it was decreed that more people should have a college education – and who can argue against that? The idea that people should have the opportunity to learn about their world and worlds beyond must, by definition, be a universal good. So we broad-

The American

ened the doors to higher education and sent (almost) all the little kiddies off to college. However, at the same time, we stopped believing in vocational colleges or training schools. Worse still, we pretended education is all the same in a re-naming frenzy. Enter institutions like ‘McDonald’s University’. With nine locations around the globe (one of the largest is in East Finchley in London, opened, appropriately enough, by the ‘great leveler’ – no pun intended – Margaret Thatcher), McDonald’s U receives over a million applications a year and accept one in fifteen. These are not your ‘typical’ university students and more akin to education’s ‘poor huddled masses’. The fact that McDonald’s takes them in and shapes each one into a solid business operator is a huge testament to their commitment. So why do we have this insatiable need to call it a university? Why is this not training – and a gold standard at that? Tuition costs are rising, jobs are scarce and yet the ‘go to college/ get a job’ fantasy persists. Enter online education and Massive Open Online Courses, known as MOOCs. If the New Yorker helped us laugh at the idea that no one knows if you’re a dog on the internet, the bigger laugh is surely that we have arrived at the point that we may never see a person’s face, yet defend the idea that we have engaged them in class, that they have had open and stimulating discussions with their peers, given presentations and done written work with our involved and active supervision. From the virtual world springs a real degree. Their little boot lands on ‘Go’ and we hand them two very real Benjamins. Apparently human interaction no longer needs humans at all.

When you think of university, do you think of McDonald’s? Over a million applicants a year apparently do. But why can’t we call it ‘training’?

Meanwhile, at standard universities, the idea that a better choice of career was essentially a by-product of exploring an interest or learning about a passion was turned on its head. Economics tells us that, as the value of a currency declines, inflation rises; and so it is with education. Work that once merited an F floated gently up until, at last, students arrived in their senior year without experiencing what it was like to be encouraged and nudged towards a goal they didn’t think they could achieve until someone nurtured their potential. Having never been challenged to push higher, or indeed trusted with honest criticism, many students are both presumptive and entitled – and, if they are at all self-aware, terrified because, in their hearts, they suspect there is a hole at the center of this logic. We are in danger of creating an educational toll road – open to anyone who pays – but with no destination. Enter the idea of ‘UnCollege’, or DIY education, or a number of similarly pithily-named buzzy concepts. Let’s be clear. An intentional educational journey is a good thing. The skills involved in the building of networks, finding mentors, reading widely and traveling both at home and abroad are vital, not only to being a ‘success’ in the world’s eyes, but to leading a fulfilled and satisfied life – regardless of eventual job or career. Thus far, these ideas are fine. What is not fine is that such notions are being sold on the back of disenchantment. This is not ‘UnCollege’, it’s

‘MeCollege’. Gone are all the exams and the pesky pressure of meeting a standard. I can skip all those ideas I am sure I am not interested in – though I know nothing about them; and who needs equipment or experience to study chemistry or archaeology? This is ‘college’ on grade school standards where everyone gets a Valentine and all the artwork is worthy of the refrigerator. It is a world without discipline or penalties. The goal of all human psychological evolution is meaning and selfactualization. Many people believe that ‘Modernity’ has robbed us of the opportunity to achieve these things, but this is a misreading of the situation. The crime is not outright theft, but fraud. The culprit is not Modernity, sitting above us, always slightly out of reach, but the Sirens on the rocks below who sing an enticing song of endless choices, few consequences and little effort. These are the pickpockets of the soul who steal away a young person’s agency and the sense of self-worth gained through real growth. Only education, in its most classic form, can offer protection against such self-deceits, but to do so, it must reassert standards and rediscover honesty. Education is the development of potential – of the mind as well as the heart and soul; it strengthens us and enables us to faithfully pursue Modernity’s often lonely sister, Progress. H

June 2013 47

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It’s June 1994 and Diana, Princess of Wales, with Princes Harry and William in back, leaves Chelsea Harbour, London in the Audi cabriolet that you could now own COURTESY REX FEATURES

Princess Diana’s Audi, Going Once... Diana, Princess of Wales, was frequently seen on the streets of London driving her Audi cabriolet 2.3 E. The Audi, her ‘family car’ in which Prince William and Prince Harry were photographed with their mother several times, is being auctioned by COYS at their traditional sale at Blenheim Palace on June 29. Chris Routledge, Managing Director of COYS, said “This is an extraordinary opportunity to own a piece of Royal history. We have put a guide price on the car of between £20,000 and £25,000 but we have no idea what it will go for. We have already had enquiries from around the world and particularly from America.” The car is in immaculate condition and has only 21,000 miles on the clock. It is on display at Grange St Paul’s Hotel, 10 Godliman Street, London EC4V 5AJ, a few yards from St Paul’s Cathedral which holds such an important place in the history of the British Royal family. Visitors to the Hotel can leave a sealed bid for the vehicle, which will then be given to the auctioneer at Blenheim. The lucky winner will be driven in the car at the Blenheim auction, entertained to lunch and then attend the auction.

48 June 2013

DRIVE TIME Neo-Classical Fun

he motoring fraternity worldwide has gone crazy for classic motorsports. Great venues from past and present are inundated with crowds anxious to see, not the latest machinery, but racing cars and bikes from yesterday. Mere nostalgia? For every dewey-eyed oldie reliving the glory days watching his heroes of yesteryear there’s a youngster ogling multi-liter beasts from the 1920s, monster Can-Am cars and Isle of Man TT bikes, and these priceless historic relics are not on display behind ropes in a museum, they’re being used as nature intended – fighting wheel to wheel. The name that comes first to most people’s minds is Goodwood. The stately home is host each July to the Festival of Speed, where racing cars and bikes of all kinds attack the timed hillclimb. Its September sibling, the Revival, held on Lord March’s own race circuit (every home should have one), is a race meet for the kind of cars and motorcycles that competed there in its heyday from 1948 to 1966. This year the Revival pays tribute to legendary Scottish racer Jim Clark on the 50th anniversary of his first Formula 1 World Championship, with track parades showing off some of his most famous cars. Clark was a winner in many classes during his tragically brief career: singleseaters, sports, GT, even rallying, and

Jim Clark’s Lotus 18 racing at Silverstone Classic. Inset: Clark collecting the trophy at the British Grand Prix, 1963

he was the first British driver to win the Indianapolis 500, in 1965. Clark will also be honored during a commemorative dinner at the Silverstone Classic in July. Members of the British Racing Drivers’ Club and Silverstone Classic competitors are invited, but mere mortals can buy tickets (£99) at www.silverstoneclassic.com/BRDCdinner and enjoy the rest of the weekend, including two evocative races – newly renamed the Jim Clark Trophy – for Pre-1966 Rear Engined Grand Prix Cars that will feature motors once raced by Clark. Further north, in June, the Cholmondeley Pageant of Power near Crewe, Cheshire, is ‘the UK’s biggest celebration of power and speed’. This year sees a celebration of Aston Martin’s centenary, a new Rally Village with demonstrations from famous WRC cars and drivers, and modern and classic cars aiming to top the lap record. For Americans it’s worth going just to learn how to pronounce the name – it’s ‘Chumley’ – and show off to your friends! H

The American PHOTO: CRAIG O’NEAL

Eagle Eyed

Great Scott? Darren Kilfara breaks down the numbers on Adam Scott’s chances of maintaining his major-winning form

t’s weird: I’m actually feeling sad for Adam Scott right now. Is that wrong? I know he just won his first major championship, but his amazing duel with Angel Cabrera – one of the best shot-for-shot finishes in Masters history – was overshadowed by the rules controversy surrounding Tiger Woods. And more importantly, if the history of other recent first-time major winners is at all relevant, Scott’s greatness may well prove fleeting. Since Tiger won the 1997 Masters, 34 other golfers have won their first major titles. Of them, only seven have won another major since, three of whom – Padraig Harrington, Angel Cabrera and Mark O’Meara – won additional majors but no other regular events on the US or European PGA tours. Eleven of the 34 haven’t won tournaments in the US or Europe since their major successes. Collectively, the 34 averaged 5.6 tour wins before major wins, and only 4.1 tour wins since; if you exclude Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen, the latter figure drops to only 2.3. Obviously, golfers like Scott, Rory McIlroy, Webb Simpson and Bubba Watson are capable of adding a more favorable gloss to those stats over time. But far more golfers than not seem to view major victories as the culmination of a journey instead of fuel to propel them higher. Of the 18 golfers among the 34 who had won at least four tour titles before their first major, arguably only Mickelson,

Singh and Goosen became demonstrably better after winning a major. Several others (David Toms, Jim Furyk and Davis Love) held steady and kept winning normal tour events, but many more (e.g., Harrington, Darren Clarke, Michael Campbell, Stewart Cink, Mike Weir, Trevor Immelman and David Duval) suffered alarming dips in form from which they may never fully recover. The two most similar players to Scott among the 34 represent opposite extremes of his potential future. Vijay Singh and David Duval had both won 12 previous tour events when they won their first majors at the ages of 35 and 29, respectively, and they were the only two players to wrest the top spot in the world rankings from Tiger during the peak years of his career. But while Singh’s personal drive and amazing work ethic spurred him on to win two more majors and 28 additional tour events, Duval lost his motivation amidst a series of injuries and personal problems and is now virtually out of golf; by the start of the 2009 US Open (which he somehow nearly won), Duval had fallen to no. 882 in the world. Scott is now 32 years old, his talent is limitless, and his caddie (Steve Williams) is probably the best in the business. However, the long putter which helped him – like Singh – conquer his demons on the greens is soon to be outlawed, and the distractions he now faces as a national hero

and global marketing icon must be very tempting. Will Scott win multiple majors in the future? I’d love to see it, but I’m saddened by how strongly the odds seem to be against him. H Darren Kilfara formerly worked for Golf Digest magazine and is the author of A Golfer’s Education, a memoir of his junior year abroad as a student-golfer at the University of St. Andrews. Career wins before and after the first major title (minimum 4 US/Euro Tour wins before first major*) Wins Before

Wins Since

Since 1st major: Won one or more majors Padraig Harrington (2008) Phil Mickelson (2004) Retief Goosen (2001) Vijay Singh (1998) Mark O’Meara (1998)

13 22 4 12 14

2 17 14 30 1

Since 1st major: Tour wins but no majors Charl Schwartzel (2011) Martin Kaymer (2010) Graeme McDowell (2010) Jim Furyk (2003) Mike Weir (2003) David Toms (2001) Davis Love (1997)

6 5 5 7 5 5 10

1 4 2 8 2 7 9

Since 1st major: No Tour wins at all Adam Scott (2013) Darren Clarke (2011) Stewart Cink (2009) Trevor Immelman (2008) Michael Campbell (2005) David Duval (2001)

16 13 5 4 6 12

0 0 0 0 0 0

*FOR FIRST-TIME MAJOR WINNERS SINCE 1997 MASTERS

June 2013 49

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nternational tennis is back in the UK this month, with every fit player focused on Wimbledon, and many headed to the support tournaments in Birmingham, London and Eastbourne. – and it needn’t cost you a fortune to see it. In fact, compared to most international sports, it’s a bargain! Day passes to the Aegon Classic in Birmingham start at £10, and you can catch the atmosphere of Wimbledon’s courts for £20 or less, with some big stars on Courts 1, 2 and 3 for £40 and less. And this year, you can see the qualifying action in Eastbourne for free, with unreserved access to Centre Court and No.1 on the first Saturday.

Aegon Classic, Birmingham

Ladies’ tournament, June 9-16 Location: Edgbaston Priory Club, Birmingham B15 2UZ Reigning Champ: Mel Oudin Confirmed: Laura Robson, Heather Watson, Marion Bartoli, Roberta Vinci, Francesca Schiavone, Tamira Paszek, Ekaterina Makarova, Melanie Oudin, Sabine Lisicki, Madison Keys Getting there: From M6, J6 for A38(M), then use the center lane through 3 tunnels and set of traffic lights; at the next lights turn right into Priory Road, and right after 50 meters. Tickets: £10 (Mon) to £30 per day

COURTESY AEGON / LTA

Tennis from a Tenner Aegon Championships, London

Men’s tournament, June 10-16 Location: Queen’s Club, London W14 9EQ Reigning Champ: Marin Cilic Confirmed: Andy Murray, Juan Martin Del Potro, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Lleyton Hewitt, Sam Querrey, Mardy Fish, Brian Baker, Marin Cilic Getting there: Public transport advisable: Baron’s Court tube or bus routes 9, 10, 27, 28, 74, 190, 295, or 391. Tickets: £18 (Mon-Fri) to £116 per day

Aegon International, Eastbourne

Combined tournament, June 15-22 Location: Devonshire Park, Eastbourne, Sussex BN21 4JJ Reigning Singles Champs: Tamira Paszek, Andy Roddick Confirmed: Sara Errani, Laura Robson Getting there: By car – A22 (London), A259 (Hastings) and A27 (Brighton); By train to Eastbourne Railway Station from London Victoria (80 mins). Tickets: Adults £14 (Mon) to £43 per day. Saturday June 15 free entry.

The Championships (Wimbledon)

Grand Slam Event Dates: June 24 to July 7 Location: London SW19 5AE Reigning Singles Champs: Serena Williams, Roger Federer Expected to attend: Everybody! Getting there: Parking costs in the region of £25, so public transport a must. District line (Underground) to Wimbledon Station; then use London General shuttle bus service to The Championships. Tickets: Center, and courts 1-3 (£37 to £130 depending on the day) extremely limited at the turnstiles. However, access to the grounds (and other courts) still costs downward of £20. H

Websites: www.lta.org.uk and www.wimbledon.org

The American

By Richard L Gale

he 2013 NFL Draft was big on tackles – three in the first four picks – but it will be remembered most for its sliders, with only one passer taken in the first round and no running backs until day two. Geno Smith, tagged by some as the top passer of the draft, slipped to round two along with Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o. The Honey Badger was redeemed (well, maybe) in round three. Pro-ready passers Matt Barkley of USC and Ryan Nassib of Syracuse fell to day three. So, everyone was a bargain and high grades all round, right? Not quite... Baltimore Ravens

Grade A

Gone: Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Dannell Ellerbe, Giovani Bernard, from the defense alone, but elite teams can pick last and still load up on talent. R1 S Matt Elam of Florida really hits, has presence. R2 ILB Arthur Brown has speed, has lateral movement, can tackle. They added DL depth. R4 FB Kyle Juszczyk may be the most complete fullback to enter the NFL in a long while.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Grade A

R1 Georgia LB Jarvis Jones is a monster pass rusher, should have been available pick 17. No RB fits the Steelers’ style better than Le’Veon Bell (1,793 yards in 2012), who can pass pro. Two massive needs matched. Next, WR: R3 Markus Wheaton has 4.45 speed, and put up big numbers his senior year. They also landed good mid-round DBs.

Arizona Cardinals

Grade A-

The Cards never had a shot at star OTs, so opted for QB-protecting OG Jonathan Cooper, busy underheight LB Kevin Minter, upside pass rusher Alex Okafor. Slot WR Ryan Swope, productive RB Stepfan Taylor were nice late rounders. If R3 DB Tyrann Mathieu, a big play force of nature on-field isn’t an off-field bust, this could be the best draft class here.

St Louis Rams

Grade A-

Seven picks and outta here – it’s hard not to like the Rams’ draft. Small (5-8 175) but superfast (4.3) uncoverable WR Tavon Austin and route runner Stedman Bailey (5-10 193 4.5) combined for 224 catches at WVU in 2012. Tackling safety TJ McDonald’s father was a 13-year NFLer. Second R1 was LB Alec Ogletree. With maturity he may be a Pro Bowler.

San Diego Chargers

Grade B+

R1 OT DJ Fluker is a massive slice of mankind, a sweet-footed Andre Smith with 36” arms, a gift for RB Ryan Mathews’ cursed clavicles. R3 WR Keenan Allen had two productive years until knee injury – precise routes, good hands. R2 Manti Te’o isn’t freakish, but he racked tackles like no Notre Damer before him, has ILB-OLB versatility.

Houston Texans

Grade B+

Maintained stock levels. Added R1 WR DeAndre Hopkins as second option, next generation to Andre Johnson; paired football-savvy R2 punishing safety DJ Swearinger to Ed Reed. After departure of Connor Barwin, added pass rushers with DE/OLBs Sam Montgomery and Trevardo Williams. Conducted a master class in signing top UDFAs.

Cincinnati Bengals

Grade B+

Andy Dalton has more targets. Tyler Eifert is a 6-5 TE with deceptive speed who caught 63 balls for Notre Dame in 2012. Cincy’s well placed for two-TE mismatches. R2 Giovani Bernard hasn’t been overworked as a runner, and he offers another target as does WR Cobi Hamilton. Note 6-8 275 DE Margus Hunt, an Estonian former shot putter with 4.5 speed.

New Orleans Saints

Grade B+

Focus: defense. R1 S Kenny Vaccaro (6-0, 214) starts. R3 NT John Jenkins is a 6-4 346 dancing mammoth. OLB Rufus Johnson is a small schooler who must learn. Notable UDFAs: ILB Kevin Reddick racked TFLs, Stanford SLB Chase Thomas was 2011 All-American; CB Rod Sweeting (GTech) has 4.4 speed. R2 OL Terron Armstead (AR.Pine-Bluff) aced the Shrine Game.

Wisconsin’s Montee Ball, the NCAA’s alltime leading touchdown scorer is headed for Denver PHOTO: DAVID STLUKA, UW ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS

Philadelphia Eagles

Grade B

Philly took the 3rd of the 3 star OTs, freakishly athletic 6-6 303 Lane Johnson (Okla.), ignored a burning need at CB to take an easy-separating R2 TE Zach Ertz. Day 3 was strong, including moving up to the top of R4 to secure QB Matt Barkley, a whole bunch of average, but pro-style and accurate for when (not if) Vick is hurt – and there were even UDFAs of note.

Minnesota Vikings

Grade B

Traded aggressively into R1 for a third pick. DT Sharrif Floyd’s gap-jumping inside-out skills suit – he was expected to go earlier; CB Xavier Rhodes has 4.43 speed with 6-1 210 size if a little wooden; WR Cordarrelle Patterson (4.42, 6-2 216) was the trade in choice. Has he the smarts to deliver consistently? If not, forgoing ILB (= Manti Te’o) looks less clever.

San Francisco 49ers

Grade B

More DEs for the rotation: R2 Tank Carradine was a sack menace second years at JuCo, FSU. R3 Corey Lemonier may be regarded as OLB/DE edge rusher. R4 WR Quinton Patton has subtle moves, body awareness, some KR. Eric Reid is a starter, a 6-1, 213lb 4.53s blend who is ready to go. R4 Marcus Lattimore would be top RB without knee injuries.

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Luke Joeckel’s arrival in Jacksonville should improve passer Blaine Gabbert’s protection

Buffalo Bills

Grade B

NFL-sized EJ Manuel was upside in a flood of imperfect passers. The Bills resigning themselves to a rebuild (contrast Jets) adding two WRs on Day 2 and a TE and kicker on Day 3. WR Robert Woods is USC’s career leader in receptions, a proven blend. WR Marquise Goodwin brings occasional big plays. K Dustin Hopkins is highest-scoring player in NCAA history.

PHOTO: GLEN JOHNSON / TAMU ATHLETICS

New York Giants

Grade B-

Big colleges, early DLs, nobody who excites. Justin Pugh might be the dullest 2013 1R, but he’ll do the job; 6-3 320lb R2 DT Johnathan Hankins won’t sack much, but he’ll give OLs headaches; R3 DE Damontre Moore is best on tape. QB Ryan Nassib’s perceived lack of upside dropped him to R4. NYG don’t get clever, but they do ride sure things to Super Bowls.

Green Bay Packers

Jacksonville Jaguars

Grade B

A new Jags brain trust means a decent haul, taking forceful run-blocker/pass pro OT Luke Joeckel. They didn’t draft a QB controversy, although UDFAs include Vanderbilt’s Jordan ‘brother-of-Aaron’ Rodgers and Arizona’s Matt Scott, with Denard Robinson of Michigan also present, though as a R5 WR/RB. They also selected WR Ace Sanders, a tiny (5-7 173) return specialist who’s even faster than the 4.4 Robinson at 4.38. They picked 5 defensive backs (they practically cleared house in the secondary – R2 S Johnathan Cyprien will be a presence in the centerfield for years to come, R3 corner Dwayne Gratz has good speed and probably works in the cover-2 scheme. Another UDFA of note if only for size: 6-6 369 TJ Barnes (Georgia Tech) a DT who was their only add at a need position. But aside from that, they found plenty they can use.

Carolina Panthers

Grade B

The Panthers’ objective: stop the run. Luke Kuechly needed help in front of him. Star Lotulelei (6-2, 311) is the run-absorber they sought, but active with good mobility and quickness (5.05 40-yard) for his size. KK Short, the other new DT, is just as fast and but a more consistent QB-basher. RB Kenjon Barner put up 2000 yards of offense last year.

52 June 2013

Grade B-

2012’s top GB picks totaled 4.5 sacks – R1 Datone Jones fits DE/OLB flexibility. The best of 11 picks: rotation DT Josh Boyd; underrated CB Micah Hyde; but big news is the Packers drafting a backfield, ‘Bama RB Eddie Lacy a slam dunk late R2 (1,322 yards, 17 TDs in ’13), plus R4 RB Johnathan Franklin, a good pass protector, receiver with top end speed.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Grade B-

Let’s count Darrelle Revis as the first pick of Tampa’s draft and congratulate them on selecting the best cover corner available (if the injury issues subside). However, they took 2012 Jim Thorpe award winner Johnathan Banks in R2 as well. Not so sure about tall (6-7) quiet QB Mike Glennon in R3. The next Flacco?, I’m not even sure he’s Brock Osweiler.

Atlanta Falcons

Grade B-

Corner was the obvious need, a 3R surrendered to trade up and take R1 CB Desmond Trufant. In R2 they took another, Robert Alford, and at the end of the draft, two safeties, with the next generation of DEs in the middle to add pressure at the other end. I’m not sure there’s great upside to Trufant and Alford, but there’s minimal bust factor. The time is now?

Washington Redskins

Grade B-

Trading up for RGIII last year cost them 2013 picks, so they didn’t wow and were still busy post-draft. They landed jack-o-trades TE Jordan Reed, gracefully fast but injury-clad R5 RB Chris Thompson, and gap-finding R7 RB Jawan Jamison. A bad pass D welcomes R1 CB David Amerson, who will be given every chance to start opposite DeAngelo Hall.

The American

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www.touchdownsports.co.uk Detroit Lions

Grade B-

The Lions rebuild at DE with Ziggy Ansah of BYU, an eye-swivellingly perfect edge rusher, and S.Caro’s tall (6-7) Devin Taylor to sit beside inside terrors Ndamukong Suh, Nick Fairley. R2 CB Darius Slay has obvious upside, speed (4.34), and hip swivel to stay with receivers one-on-one, but he started only one season at the top echelon of college ball.

Miami Dolphins

Grade B-

Miami traded up, passed on athletic LT Lane Johnson (hoping to deal for KC’s Branden Albert? They later inked Tyson Clabo) taking rangey (6-6 250) Dion Jordan, the draft’s top pass rusher... 4 of Miami’s top 5 picks were defense. But they did trade away WR Davone Bess for next to nothing – a little wasteful.

Tennessee Titans

Grade B-

The offseason story of the Titans is their line, veteran OTs joined by Bills escapee Andy Levitre, ex-Ram Rob Turner, and now run-dominating Chance Warmack from ‘Bama. Then they added Brian Schwenke in R4, a gritty, mean center. Willowy (6-4 196lb) WR Justin Hunter has deep speed (4.44) to stretch the field.

Denver Broncos

Welcome to our new improved store

www.ukamericansportsstore.co.uk Grade C+

R1 ‘Sly’ Williams is a right-now pick, focused, physical, resistant, probably the best NT Denver has had since Keith Traylor’s bulked-up second stint. Headliner is R2 RB Montee Ball, NCAA’s all-time TD scoring leader. After losing DJ Williams (free agency) and Elvis Dumervil (freak faxing incident), pass rush was a big need, but they waited ‘til R5 for ‘Q’ Smith.

Kansas City Chiefs

Grade C+

After sparking the offense by trading for QB Alex Smith, coach Andy Reid used that to set up KC with a manageable list of draft needs but after OT Eric Fisher (mad movement skills for zone blocking) and R4 pursuit ILB Nico Johnson, the rest read like depth. A lot more could have been accomplished.

Oakland Raiders

Grade C+

They darned-near paid attention to need, heading first for CB (albeit one with a serious medical red flag, DJ Hayden), then OT (albeit it one who started 11 games in Div.1, Menelik Watson). Watson’s runblocking is sublime. The surest thing here is a converted basketball player from Manchester.

Chicago Bears

Grade C+

Signing DJ Williams from Denver took pressure off ILB in the draft, allowing them to address OL, but is Kyle Long an OT or an overpriced OG? Why didn’t they take a corner? Their draft is defined by LBs, but they fit: Khaseem Greene a mid-round WLB, a sized-up DB with pass awareness, tackles, Bostic a known commodity, with nice lateral coverage.

Indianapolis Colts

Grade C

German R1 DE Björn Werner exhibits great understanding of the game. R3 Hugh Thornton is a fine LG, but tempered by off-field incidents, medical concerns. Run-soaking R5 DT Montori Hughes was dismissed from Tennessee. R6 S John Boyett had double knee surgery. I’d need crystal ball to grade this high.

New England Patriots

Grade C

The Patriots traded out of R1 pick, gaining three picks. In the intervening picks before WR Aaron Dobson, the Pats missed out on Cordarrelle Patterson, Justin Hunter, Robert Woods. R2 LB Jamie Collins brings flexibility to play inside or out and he has some pass rush, but this draft was humdrum.

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Mighty Menelik Watson, now an Oakland Raider, grew up in Manchester, England. Marva Hall of College Prospects of America offers advice on how students in the UK can follow their sporting dreams in the USA EJ Manuel, the first QB selected, and Menelik Watson... the first Brit PHOTO: MIKE OLIVELLA COURTESY OF FSU

Cleveland Browns

Grade C

LSU’s Barkevious Mingo was the first LB taken; knows how to use exceptional athleticism. R3 CB Leon McFadden will compete for a start role. I like R7 DE Armonty Bryant’s record for getting to the QB, but arrested (again) a week after the draft. I was just impressed they dodged this year’s QB crop.

Dallas Cowboys

Grade C

The Pokes settled too early for Badger center Travis Frederick, an unexceptional but sure solution to howling interior needs. They traded down from taking a safety they needed, gaining only a 3R. A two-TE package could arrive with R2 Gavin Escobar. A need at DT wasn’t even addressed in free agency.

Seattle Seahawks

Grade C

Fast, well-built (5-10 220, 4.47) R2 RB Christine Michael might have been R1 except for 2011 ACL tear, fumbleitis... also took similarly built RB Spencer Ware. He and R5 CB Tharold Simon were suspended during 2011. Added 3 DTs, one of which they’ll make an OG. Projects, converts, feeder-uppers, off-field issues: The Seahawks are giving themselves a lot of work. Are any of their 2013 picks actual starters?

New York Jets

Grade D

Desperately needing to jump start an inept offense, the Jets took CB Dee Milliner (only needed because they traded Darrelle Revis) and DT Sheldon Richardson in R1. Were they outpaced to WRs they wanted? In R2 Geno Smith (WVU) was added to the QB mess (Tim Tebow would be cut), but is his accuracy good enough to solve situation? OLB was ignored. More like a spilled jigsaw than any recognizable picture.H

14,000 Word Draft Dissertation! Catch more than capsules online at www.theamerican.co.uk

54 June 2013

All-American Dreams T

here are over 1,500 four-year colleges and universities and the majority play inter-collegiate sports in tennis, golf, soccer, track, swimming, field hockey, lacrosse, basketball, baseball/softball, football and more. Top players get good scholarships which can include tuition, fees, housing, food, books and all sports-related expenses. It could all work out cheaper than going to a British university, especially post2012 tuition increases. There are three sports governing bodies in American college sports: the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), each with their own rules. Qualification through British education: NCAA Divisions I and II require British students to obtain a minimum of five academic GCSE passes with an ‘E’ average or Standard Grade passes at ‘5’. These must include English, math, any science and any social studies (geography, history, economics, modern studies, sociology or psychology). Foreign languages, philosophy and nondoctrinal RE will be accepted as one of the five so long as the other four core areas are achieved. PE, media studies, ICT, D&T, music and art will not satisfy core requirements.

To stay eligible after GCSEs, a student will need to take a minimum of two AS levels, followed by two A2s OR a BTEC Extended Diploma. Subjects which a student takes after year 13 may not count towards satisfying core and will not be considered continuing education. Home schooling and distance learning are acceptable with the same minimum exam grades. Students who get ‘U’s will have their graduation backdated to their last year with passing grades. The NAIA and the NJCAA have more flexible admissions policies and less restrictive age limits, so are often of interest to students who cannot qualify for the NCAA. Qualification through US educational system: Americans and other students who are studying at US curriculum schools will need 16 core subjects including: • English: 4 years • Math: 3 years • Science: 2 years, including 1 lab science, if available • Social science: 2 years of history, geography, economics, psychology or sociology • Additional: 1 additional year of English, math or science; plus 4 years of any of the above and/or foreign languages, philosophy or non-doctrinal religious studies. • Total: 16 core courses

The American

America’s Game – Irish Style SAT/ACT. Everyone who hopes to attend a US college on a sports scholarship will need to take the SAT or the ACT. The SAT tests GCSE-standard English and math and is offered six times a year at UK locations. Details can be found at www.collegeboard.org. The ACT tests English, math and science and is recommended for people taking higher level sciences, but the number of venues is limited to greater London area and Aberdeen, Scotland, so this test may not be convenient for the majority of people living in the UK. Details of this test can be found at www.actstudent.org. Scholarships. Sports scholarships are not means-tested and are available to students of all nationalities at NCAA Divisions I and II, NAIA Divisions I and II and the NJCAA Divs I and II. Statefunded colleges and universities are not usually allowed to offer international grants, merit awards or academic scholarships to international students, but privately funded colleges and universities can. American citizens (and green card holders) may qualify for academic and other non-sports scholarships from both state and private schools. In addition, Americans may qualify for need-based monies. US students will need to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (www.fafsa. org). Even if parents are earning six-figure salaries, it is worth completing this form.

Jay B Webster catches the action at a Dublin diamond Above: World No.3 Luke Donald, a former CPOA student athlete © WWW.TOURPROGOLFCLUBS.COM

Over the last 20 years, College Prospects of America (CPOA) has helped over 2000 UK students find scholarships at American colleges and universities across a wide range of sports. The majority of their student-athletes choose a US university because they want to continue to play sport at the highest level possible and earn a degree, but an increasing number of students use sport to get their foot in the door so they can pursue academic excellence. For these students, the NCAA Div III often offers top academics, reasonable sporting options and may offer academic and other financial aid. A number of CPOA’s studentathletes have gone on to be successful pro athletes, such as golfer Luke Donald and British Open winner Karen Stupples while others have competed at the Olympic and Commonwealth Games. Many have gone on to be All-Americans. The majority of CPOA’s students earned their degrees as well as continuing to play their sports. H College Prospects offers a free evaluation to anyone aged 16-19 who completes the on-line assessment form at www.cpoauk.com.

steady April rain beats down on the windshields of the cars carrying the Belfast Northstars baseball team as they head down the M1 motorway toward Dublin. They have “A” and “B” Team games scheduled with the Dublin Black Sox, and it’s looking like a wet one. Hey, it’s baseball in Ireland – What do you expect? If you didn’t know that Ireland has a baseball league, you wouldn’t be alone. But, the fact is America’s pastime is alive and well on the Emerald Isle. Known as Baseball Ireland, the league was founded in 1994 by a rag-tag band of resident Americans and local Irish players with little more than beat-up equipment and a passion for the sport. “Most of the guys that started have played recreational softball,” says Mike Kindle, one of the self-proclaimed godfathers of the Irish baseball league. “We thought ‘this is fun’, but we wanted to push the competitive level a bit farther.” After a few years of erecting flimsy homemade backstops on rugby and soccer fields, it was decided that what the league really needed in order to properly grow the sport was its own ‘field of dreams’. With the

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The American

help of a $140,000 donation from former LA Dodgers and current San Diego Padres owner Peter O’Malley, the dream was made a reality, and the first purpose-built regulation baseball field in the country was dedicated on July 4, 1998, in Corkagh Park in Clondalkin, West Dublin. By 2010, a scaled down facility with backstop and pitching mound was completed in Shanganagh Park in the suburban village of Shankill. This is where the Black Sox play their home games, and it’s the Belfast team’s destination on this rainy Sunday morning. The Northstars were founded in 1996 and joined Baseball Ireland in 1997. Currently managed by Jon Carter, a former member of the British national baseball team, the team is a mix of Irish, English, American, Venezuelan and Welsh players. As Northern Ireland’s sole league representative, it means the team makes the 2½- hour trip each way over 10 times a season. But for general manager Neil Boyd, getting the word out locally that a baseball team actually exists in Belfast is more of a challenge than long drives. Whether it’s hitting social media, drumming up sponsorship with local businesses, getting into the schools, or convincing the local council to build a new diamond (ground was broken this spring), everything is geared towards “improving

The Belfast Northstars

56 June 2013

the Northstars’ product and helping encourage more people to try the sport,” says Boyd. After a recruitment push this year, the Northstars were able to field a “B” team for the first time in five years. “This helps with recruitment immensely,” explains Boyd, “as it gives new players a chance to try the sport in a slightly less formal environment.” The Black Sox are also familiar with the challenges of recruitment. They were founded in 2000 from the ashes of a team known as the DiMaggios, and acting GM Brendan Scott says word of mouth is an important recruiting tool. “Most every player in the league, including our own club, is very active in promoting baseball in Ireland,” he says, “from talking about it in work, to striking up a conversation with someone in the pub.” Like the Northstars, the Sox are a convivial mixture of Irish, Latinos and US expats. “We tend to have people who are just back from visiting or living in the States who got into watching baseball there and want to find a way to play in Ireland,” says Scott. “I love our diverse mixture of players. It creates a much more colorful baseball experience for our league.” Of course one of the biggest challenges for Baseball Ireland is “playing a fair-weather sport in a not-so-fairweather country,” as Scott puts it. Every player has their share of stories of gales, sideways rain and waterlogged fields. It seems fitting, then, that the attitude of the league seems to match that of the Irish in general when it comes to the weather, which is to just get on with it. Scott, a native Californian, says they play through a lot more than they would in the States, while Boyd reckons it’s all “part of the charm” of baseball in Ireland. But wouldn’t you know it, as the teams go through their pregame

The Black Sox on the mound

warm-ups, the clouds dissipate and the sun shines down. While the Black Sox jump out to an early lead in the “A” game, the Northstars come storming back for a 12-6 victory, then take the “B” game by a score of 10-8. What becomes clear is the sheer love of the game. The league is currently comprised of six teams: the Northstars, four squads based in the Dublin area – the Black Sox, Hurricanes, Spartans and Greystone Mariners – and the Munster Warriors from Cork. The “B” League also includes the Cavan Comets and West Clare Dolphins. With the rumblings of a team starting up in Derry and talk of a second Belfast team soon, Ireland’s rainy weather seems to be sprouting baseball in Ireland, rather than dousing its flames. If you are in Ireland and need a baseball fix this summer, Baseball Ireland, in conjunction with The Gathering – a year-long celebration of all things Irish – will be holding the inaugural Peter O’Malley International Invitational Baseball Tournament July 12-14 in Corkagh Park. Teams from Spain and the UK will be playing against the Irish national baseball team in what is sure to be a showcase for the sport in Ireland. And if you want to dust off the spikes and glove and play some baseball in Ireland, even better. You’ll be welcomed with open arms by any of the teams in the league, as long as you’re not afraid of a little Irish rain. H

The American

American ORGANIZATIONS

www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/support_us/ american_friends.aspx

An index of useful resources in the UK

ESSENTIAL CONTACTS Here are some crucial telephone numbers to know while you are in the UK. EMERGENCIES Fire, Police, Ambulance

999 or 112 (NOT 911)

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 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 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

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 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 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 Institute of Architects Benjamin Franklin House, 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX. Tel: 0203 318 5722 chapterexecutive@aiauk.org www.aiauk.org

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/

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/individual-support/ american-friends

MEDICAL ADVICE LINE NHS Direct delivers 24-hour telephone and e-health information services, direct to the public. www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk 0845 4647 and being phased in for non-emergencies: 111

CIVIC & SERVICES

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

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

001 100 155 153 151

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 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 www.sadlerswells.com/page/american-friends UK Office: 020 7863 8134 development@sadlerswells.com American Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery Kathleen Bice, Development Officer, Members and Patrons 020 8299 8726

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 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

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American Friends of the Royal Society http://royalsociety.org/Overseas-Donations 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 June 2013

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) Box 65, 22 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 3JE 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 Tel. 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. 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

The American

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, Flat 9 Hanover Court, 5 Stean Street, London, E8 4ED 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 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 Clubs Patricia Connett-Woodcock 87 Brabazon Road, Heston, Middlesex TW5 9LL 020 8897 0723 tricia_baasdc@btinternet.com www.squaredancing.co.uk 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

The American Women’s Club of Dublin P.O. Box 2545, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 IRELAND www.awcd.net info@awcd.net

Daughters of the American Revolution – Washington Old Hall Chapter, North Yorkshire Mrs. Gloria Hassall, 01845 523-830

American Women’s Club of London 68 Old Brompton Road, London SW7 3LQ. 020 7589 8292 awc@awclondon.org www.awclondon.org

Delta Kappa Gamma Society International Great Britain President: Mrs. Sheila Roberts, Morvan House, Shoreham Lane, St. Michaels, Tenterden, Kent TN30 6EG email: saroberts123@aol.com www.deltakappagamma.net

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

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

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

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

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 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 Hampstead Women’s Club President - Betsy Lynch. Tel: 020 7435 2226 email president@hwcinlondon.co.uk www.hwcinlondon.co.uk High Twelve International, Inc. Local Club Contact – Arnold Page High Twelve Club 298 Secretary, Darrell C. Russell, 1 Wellington Close, West Row, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, IP28 8PJ Tel. 01638 715764 email: russelld130@btinternet.com. International American Duplicate Bridge Club Contact: Mary Marshall, 18 Palace Gardens Terrace, London W8 4RP. 020 7221 3708 www.ycbc.co.uk/american.htm 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: Susan Lenora. Tel. 0207 581 8261 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 North American Connection (West Midlands) PO Box 10543, Knowle, Solihull, West Midlands. B93 8ZY T: 0870 720 0663 info@naconnect.com www.naconnect.com Northwood Area Women’s Club c/o St John’s UR Church, Hallowell Road, Northwood, Middlesex HA6 1DN 01932-830295 info@northwoodareawomensclub.co.uk www.northwoodareawomensclub.co.uk

60 June 2013

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 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

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

Royal Society of St George Enterprise House, 10 Church Hill, Loughton, Essex IG10 1LA. Tel.+44 (0) 20 3225 5011 info@royalsocietyofstgeorge.com www.royalsocietyofstgeorge.com

Bentwaters/Woodbridge Retirees’ Association President: Wylie Moore. 2 Coldfair Close, Knodishall, Saxmundham, Suffolk, IP17 1UN. 01728 830281

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

British Patton Historical Society Kenn Oultram 01606 891303

St John’s Wood Women’s Club Box 185, 176 Finchley Road, London NW3 6BT membership@sjwwc.org www.sjwwc.org

Brookwood American Cemetery (WW1) Brookwood, Woking, Surrey GU24 0BL 01483 473237 www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/bk.php

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

Cambridge American Cemetery (WWII Cemetary) Superintendent: Mr. Bobby Bell. Asst. Superintendent: Mr. Tony Barclay. Coton, Cambridge CB23 7PH. 01954 210350

UK Panhellenic Association Contact Susan Woolf, 10 Coniston Court, High St. Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex HA1 3LP. 020 8864 0294 susanrwoolf@hotmail.com

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).

United Kingdom Shrine Anglian Shrine Club (Master Masons) Secretary: Charles A. Aldrich, 6 Mill Road, Lakenheath, Suffolk, IP27 9DU 01842 860 650 caaldrich@btinternet.com

Eighth Air Force Historical Society UK Representative: Mr. Gordon Richards and Mrs Connie Richards 14 Pavenham Road, Oakley, Bedford MK43 7SY. 01234 823357.

W.E.B. DuBois Consistory #116 Northern Jurisdiction Valley of London, England, Orient of Europe Cell: 0776-873-8030 mjack36480@aol.com Women’s Writers Network Cathy Smith, 23 Prospect Rd, London, NW2 2JU. 020 7794 5861 www.womenwriters.org.uk info@womenwriters.org.uk

MILITARY AFJROTC 073 Lakenheath High School. Tel: 01638 525603

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

Friends of the Eighth Newsletter (FOTE News) Chairman: Mr. Ron Mackay. 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 Marine Corps League Detachment 1088, London, England

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Commandant Mike Allen Creek Cottage, 2 Pednormead End, Old Chesham, Buckinghamshire HP5 2JS detachment1088@mcl-london-uk.org www.mcl-london-uk.org

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

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

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

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

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.

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

EDUCATIONAL

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.

ACS International Schools ACS Cobham International School, Heywood, Portsmouth Road, Cobham, Surrey KT11 1BL 01932 867251 ACS Egham International School, Woodlee, London Road (A30), Egham, Surrey TW20 0HS. 01784 430800

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

US Merchant Marine Academy (Kings Point) UK Chapter President: Allison Bennett bennett.ac@gmail.com Facebook: Kings Point Alumni - London/United Kingdom

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 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

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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 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

62 June 2013

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 w ebster@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/BerkeleyClub-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 Boston University Alumni Association of the UK Will Straughn, Snr International Development Officer, University Development and Alumni Relations,

The American

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

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 07817 203611 peggyhbriggs@gmail.com

LMU Alumni Club London (Loyola Marymount University) Kent Jancarik 07795 358 681 kent@jancarik.com

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

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 NYU Alumni Club in London Jodi Ekelchik, President alumni.london@nyu.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 Texas A&M Club London Ashley Lilly, Co-President Devin Howard, Co-President london@aggienetwork.com http://clubs.aggienetwork.com/londonamc/

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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

US Merchant Marine Academy (Kings Point) UK Chapter President: Allison Bennett bennett.ac@gmail.com Facebook: Kings Point Alumni - London/United Kingdom 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

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

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

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/

Zeta Tau Alpha Alumnae Kristin Morgan. Tel: 07812 580949 kristinamorgan@gmail.com www.zetataualpha.org

University of Rochester/Simon School UK Alumni Association Ms. Julie Bonne, Co-President 0118-956-5052 julie_bonne@yahoo.com

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

CIVIL WAR SOCIETIES

University of Southern California, Alumni Club of London Jennifer Ladwig, President Chuck Cramer, Treasurer usclondon@gmail.com www.usclondonalumni.org

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

University of Virginia Alumni Club of London Kirsten Jellard, 020 7368 8473 londonuvaclub@yahoo.com http://members.aol.com/UKUVACLUB/UVA-london.htm

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

64 June 2013

SPORTS Eagles Golf Society Sharon Croley c/o Eventful Services, 49 Hastings Road, Croydon, Surrey CRO 6PH sharoncroley@blueyonder.co.uk English Lacrosse PO Box 116, Manchester M11 0AX 0843 658 5006 info@englishlacrosse.co.uk www.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 Infinity Elite Cheerleading (founded by C.A.C) Mondays 4.30-8.30 – Maiden Lane Comm. Centre, 156 St. Paul’s Crescent, London NW1 9XZ. Tumble: Thursdays 6-8 – Paget Centre,18-28 Randells Rd, Islington, London N1 0DH. Tel. 077 9132 0115 http://londoninfinityelite.clubbz.com www.facebook.com/InfinityAllstars Herts Baseball Club Adult & Little League Baseball www.hertsbaseball.com LondonSports Instruction & competitive play in baseball, basketball and soccer, boys/girls aged 4-15, newcomers or experienced players. 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 orgs@ theamerican.co.uk. We would be pleased to receive news or short articles about your organisation for possible publication in The American.

The American

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VIDEO / TELEVISION

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

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

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 020 8346 5237 www.jaffeandco.com

LEGAL

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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

DRIVING INSTRUCTION Alison Driving School A well established, well known International Driving Instructor covering the area south and west of London, ideal for new drivers and for Americans who want to drive in the UK. www.alison-driving-school.co.uk alisondrivingschool@yahoo.co.uk 01784 456 037, cell 07956 220389

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

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 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

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Coffee Break Answers

SOLUTION 7

1. Jupiter; 2. (a) $140 (equivalent to approx $850 today) – Victorian paintings were not fashionable in the 1960s; 3. The Invisible Man; 4. (b) Run and Shoot; 5. June Lockhart; 6. Meteor showers; 7. Aidan Quinn (if you said ‘Johnny Depp’, his character was named Sam); 8. King George V; 9. Football and basketball; 10. Filipino revolutionaries; 11. Biscayne Bay; 12. Hello to Jason Isaacs!; 13. (a) (United States of) America Standard Code for Information Interchange; 14. The 35th (alright, you get the point for saying John F Kennedy)

June 2013 65

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