November 2013
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
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ARTS CHOICE MUSIC • REVIEWS WHAT’S ON • NEWS EATING OUT • SPORT
JFK
50 years on
US playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney interviewed... ... win tickets in our TWO exclusive competitions PLUS: OUR EXCLUSIVE US/UK ORGANIZATIONS GUIDE
The American ®
Issue 727 – November 2013 PUBLISHED BY SP MEDIA FOR
Blue Edge Publishing Ltd. Old Byre House, East Knoyle, Salisbury SP3 6AW, UK Tel: +44 (0)1747 830520
Departments: News, Article ideas, Press releases: editor@theamerican.co.uk Advertising & Promotions: advertising@theamerican.co.uk Subscriptions: theamerican@blueedge.co.uk The team: Michael Burland, Content Director & Motors + Music michael@theamerican.co.uk Sabrina Sully, Content Director & Community Contact sabrina@theamerican.co.uk Daniel Byway, Content Executive dan@theamerican.co.uk Virginia E Schultz, Food & Drink (USA) virginia@theamerican.co.uk Michael M Sandwick, Food & Drink (UK) mms@theamerican.co.uk Mary Bailey, Social mary@theamerican.co.uk Alison Holmes, Politics alison@theamerican.co.uk Jarlath O’Connell, Theater jarlath@theamerican.co.uk Richard L Gale, Sports richard@theamerican.co.uk
©2013 Blue Edge Publishing Ltd. Printed by Advent Colour Ltd., www.advent-colour.co.uk ISSN 2045-5968 Main Cover Image: President Kennedy Circular Inset: Tarell Alvin Mc Craney photo Manuel Harlan Square Inset: photo Simon Annand
@TheAmericanMag
T
his month we’re taking a long look back at two events that had great consequence on both sides of the Atlantic. One had national and international ramifications, the other more personal and domestic. It’s half a century since the assassination of John F Kennedy and we have an extract from a fascinating new book that examines his presidency and his death, with unique replicas of important documents from the era. And there’s a great piece about the GI Brides, the British girls who fell in love with American soldiers, sailors and airmen during World War II and trepidatiously followed them to a new home in the States. We’re looking forward too, to a cultural feast in our Arts and Theater pages, and to Thanksgiving, which we’ll be sharing with our American and British friends. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved ones from all of us, and... Enjoy your magazine,
Michael Burland, Content Director michael@theamerican.co.uk
Among this month’s contributors
Carol Gould is a respected American journalist who has lived in the UK for many years, and tells us of the foods she misses from home
Gary Baker The American’s sports photographer has been busy at Wembley, see his great pictures from the Jax v 49ers and Steelers v Vikes games
Anna Farley is an artist who lives in London and Oxford, and is a new contributor to our Arts Section. We welcome her to The American team
Read The American online at 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.
November 2013 1
The American • Issue 727• November 2013
In This Issue... Regulars 4 News 9 Diary Dates 11 Features 24 Music 26 Arts Choice 29 Wining & Dining 33 Coffee Break 36 Theater 44 Books 46 Sports 56 American Organizations 65 The A-List
28 The Royal Academy Tracey Emin artwork lights the entrance to the new hangout for Royal Academicians... and you
7 COMPETITION WIN TICKETS to see USA Rugby play Russia 8 Peggy Lee Loves Cornwall
T he expat poodle ventures to the shores of the Atlantic and finds fish & chip heaven
11 Missing You Already
T he foods and treats that expats just can’t find - do they drive you to distraction too?
14 GI Brides
H unting in the UK is a little different to back home in the States, but it is possible. Find out how in our feature
20 JFK 50 Years On
H alf a century since the assassination we look back at the President’s last days
24 Cyril Neville
52 NFL at Wembley Wembley was alive to two full season NFL games, as you may have noticed
H e’s sung and played with The Meters, The Neville Brothers, The Uptown Allstars and currently Royal Southern Brotherhood. Somehow he’s fitted in a solo album
26 Arts
T he best shows, plus the best arty hangout in town - mix with Royal Academicians in their own club, bar and restaurant
T he American director tells us about working at the RSC, and his Haitian-Revolutionbased Antony and Cleopatra
41 COMPETITION
T he British women who fell in love with GIs during World War II
17 Huntin’ and Shootin’
34 Tarell Alvin McCraney
IN TICKETS to see James Earl Jones and W Vanessa Redgrave in Much Ado About Nothing
46 Talent Over Experience?
NCAA Basketball Preview
48 The Puck Drops Here Four narratives for the new NHL season
50 Those Wembley Games
V ikings and Steelers, 49ers and Jaguars get the experience from our great photos
53 SPECIAL OFFER
S ee the London Lions, London’s only pro basketball team, with The American
54 Sideline
N FL speculation and gossip from Sports Editor Richard L Gale
55 Eagle Eyed
2013’s golfing climbers and fallers
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The American
NEWS Marcella Hazan
April 24, 1924 to Sept. 29, 2013
C
ooking teacher, writer and TV chef Marcella Hazan, who has died in Florida, was a perfectionist. Friends who took her courses told me she did not suffer fools - ever! Born in northern Italy, Marcella moved to the US with her husband Victor. She was shocked to find American supermarkets selling Parmesan cheese in cans and balsamic vinegar completely unknown, basic ingredients she had grown up with. Although a biologist, she realized if she wanted the food she knew she’d have to supply the recipes and ingredients herself. Victor translated her early books and they were devotedly married 50 years. I met her once in a specialty food shop in New York and I had her first cookbook, Classic Italian Cooking, well-worn in my kitchen, the recipes known by heart. Marcella’s bias was, thankfully, for her native north Italy; unlike other areas it refused to change its cuisine to please tourists. Perhaps more than anyone, Marcella revolutionized the way Americans cooked Italian food. by Virginia Schultz
4 November 2013
Bereaved UK & US military families join in remembrance
O
ver 200 bereaved military families from both sides of the Atlantic gathered at the war memorial in Victoria Park, Glasgow September 28th to remember loved ones and provide mutual support. Organised by the UK’s Bereaved Families Support Group and military charity SSAFA, with the US charity TAPS, this was the first time American families were invited. TAPS was founded in 1994 by Bonnie Carroll, whose husband, Brig. Gen. Tom Carroll, died in an Army plane crash. Ms Carroll said: “We are all going through the same loss together as bereaved families, many of our loved ones even served alongside each other.” Among the Americans was Andy Weiss from Naperville, IL, whose son Danny, a 1st Lt. in the special ops 2nd Ranger Battalion, killed himself preparing for a fourth deployment to Afghanistan. “My life went into free fall, I was unable to comprehend what had happened”, said Mr Weiss. “TAPS showed me that we were not alone.” (Mr & Mrs Weiss are pictured above at left.) Also in the group was Debbie Beaupre from
Michigan. Her son, Dominic, was 19 when he was killed by an IED in Afghanistan. She said: “I had friends and family who were really supportive but over time that tapers off. People expect you to move on but that’s hard when you feel you’re the keeper of your son’s memory. Within TAPS we all share that experience.”
Civilians Invited To Marine Vet Charity Events The London Detachment of the Marine Corps League is inviting expats and their friends to take part in two special events to raise money for the charity’s Semper Fi Fund, which provides relief for soldiers injured in combat, and Toys for Tots. Generally, civilians are not allowed to attend the Marine Corps Ball at the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich but this is your chance. Tickets are limited and cost £250. You can also train like a Marine by abseiling from the top of The Stoop, Harlequins Rugby Stadium If you can’t make these events, the MCL happily accept your donation at www.mcl-london-uk.org
The American
NEWS Transatlantic Horticultural Fellowships The Garden Club of America and Britain’s Royal Horticultural Society are seeking college graduates to take part in their Interchange Fellowships scheme. Founded in 1948, the program fosters UK-US relations by interchanging graduate scholars studying horticulture and landscape architecture. The RHS Interchange Fellowship provides up to £12,000 for an American graduate aged up to 26, to spend ten months working and studying at leading horticultural and botanic centers in the UK such as the RHS, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Kew Gardens and the Eden Project. The GCA Fellowship provides a similar scheme for Britons to attend a graduate program at a US university. The deadline for US applicants is January 15, 2014, for the 2015 program. For information, or to apply, go to www2.gcamerica.org The Laboratory at the Royal Horticultural Society’s HQ, Wisley, Surrey
6 November September2013 2013
© RINGO STARR
Is this you in Ringo’s Photograph?
R
ingo Starr took this picture during The Beatles’ first visit to the USA as Beatlemania swept the States and an estimated 73 million people tuned in to see them play The Ed Sullivan Show. It is one of many previously unseen images in his new book, Photograph, a signed limited edition book of 2,500 copies, available from www.RingoPhotoBook. com, or phone +44 (0)1483 540 970. The price is £345/$550. “They’re looking at us, and I’m photographing them. The first cou-
ple of years, we saw a lot of places from the car because we couldn’t go out anywhere. We were just too big time. Everybody wanted a piece of us, so getting out was a big day,” says Ringo in the book. Are you one of the people in the picture, or do you know them? Do you know where this photograph might have been taken? Would you like to share your memories of The Beatles’ first visit to the USA? You can email your stories and reminiscences to sasha@genesis-publications.com
Peace Day project on D-Day beach
T
o mark Peace Day on September 21 (www.peaceoneday.org), two British artists and a team of volunteers created a vast sand art project on one of the D-Day beaches. 9,000 sand drawings represented the souls who lost their lives there during World War II. They included the civilians and the Allied and German forces who died at Arromanches, France, on June 6, 1944. The stencilled silhouettes were drawn on the beach at the rate at which they died, and were erased again by the incoming tide.
The American
Attention All US Citizens and Interested Parties
Town Hall Evening, London “Changes in the US Tax Laws: How they impact US Citizens Abroad” Wednesday, 27 November 2013, 18:30 to 21:30 Royal Overseas League, Park Place, St James’s Street, London SW1A 1LR, UK
1. What’s happening with new US and UK tax rules? How do these fit together? 2. What does FATCA mean for Americans living in the UK? 3. What are my options for “catching up” if I am out of compliance for income tax and FBAR reporting? 4. What is the short course in US and UK pension and estate planning for Americans living in the UK? The Moderator: Colleen Graffy, Chairman of SEAL, the Society of English & American Lawyers and associate professor of law at Pepperdine School of Law and Academic Director of their London campus and the former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy. The Speakers: Charles Bruce, international tax specialist, he is known for his work with compliance matters and FATCA. He is an American attorney with Bonnard Lawson-Geneva/Lausanne. Daniel Hyde, Chartered Tax Advisor and agent enrolled to practise before the IRS. He speaks frequently on US tax matters, particularly as they relate to US entrepreneurs and financial services. Dan is a founding partner at the firm of Westleton Drake, Tax Advisors, London. Daniel Freedman, Managing Director, London & Capital Daniel is a Cert PFS. His company is an independently-owned wealth management business established in London in 1986 with a global team of 90 individuals managing $3.7 bn of investments, known for its expertise in managing portfolios for Americans working outside the US and foreign nationals working in the US. Alex Jones, Director at Deloitte, US/UK High Net Worth, London, UK Alex is a Director in the US/UK High Net Worth group based in London, which delivers bespoke international tax planning solutions to CEOs, other high level executives and entrepreneurs. We kindly ask for a donation of £25 per person at the door to help support ACA. A cash bar for the drinks and snacks – thanks for your support of ACA. Disclaimer: ACA Inc. is not responsible for advice given by the speakers or sponsors of this event. Limited Seating: Please RSVP by email to info@americansabroad.org by 20 November 2013 Media Partners:
VS.
WIN TICKETS!
HURRY - ALL ENTRIES MUST BE RECEIVED BY NOVEMBER 11
The USA Eagles rugby team plays Russia at Allianz Park, London, on November 23. It’s a clash of two of the world’s best up and coming teams and The American has 3 pairs of tickets for lucky winners. For a chance of winning two tickets answer this question: Which of these Saracens players represents the USA team? a) Todd Clever b) Chris Wyles c) Colin Kaepernick HOW TO ENTER: Email your answer and contact details by mid-day Nov 11, 2013 to: theamerican@blueedge.co.uk. 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. No cash alternative. Tickets are for Nov 23 game and are not transferable. You are responsible for any travel, accommodation or other expenses. Information: www.saracens.com Tickets: www.saracens.com/russiavsusa
November 2013 7
The American
This month The American’s expatriate canine correspondent Peggy Lee heads to the far South West of England where she finds a dog-friendly hotel with a smuggling history, a microbrewery and a fish & chip shop by the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.
The Driftwood Spars
When they told me I was staying at The Driftwood Spars I thought I’d be relaxing in the jacuzzi but instead I’m chilling in their three bars and a brewery! PHOTO © KATRINA LESKANICH
A pub, a brewery, a cosy place to stay with a good restaurant, one of Cornwall’s most beautiful coves on your doorstep and a great fish and chip shop opposite. What more could you want? The Driftwood Spars has all the bases covered AND you can bring your dog! The Driftwood Spars is steeped in history – originally a tin mining warehouse, it was then a chandlery, sail making loft and then a fish cellar before being converted into a hotel in the early 1900s. The hotel’s name came from timber beams used in its construction, which were salvaged from ships that had been wrecked on the Cornish coast. But the Driftwood Spars is not resting on its smuggling and wreck-
ing laurels – far from it - they’ve established a micro brewery with no less than ten different beers brewed out of the back of their fish and chip shop (Lewsey Lou’s) opposite, including their most popular ale, Bawden Rocks. Lewsey Lou’s deserves a special mention as not only do they serve the best fish and chips, they’re not afraid of trying something different and when we visited they were trying out a panko breadcrumb coating. The Driftwood has three characterful bars with wood-burning stoves and a dining room with sea views. Their restaurant serves locally sourced breads, meat and fish. And if you’re really looking for something more than local food and drink, you only have to step outside and listen to the sound of the Atlantic Ocean.
Trevaunance Road, St Agnes, Cornwall TR5 0RT, 01872 552428 0203 011 5400 www.driftwoodspars.com
8 November 2013
BUY THE BOOKS: This review will be featured in the forthcoming book, Peggy Lee Loves Cornwall. The previous volume, Peggy Lee Loves London by Katrina Leskanich and Sher Harper is available from Katrina’s official site: www.katrinasweb.com, www.peggyleeloveslondon. co.uk and www.amazon.co.uk
The American
Your Guide To The Month Ahead See our full events listings online: www.theamerican.co.uk List your event FREE in The American – email editor@theamerican.co.uk or call us on +44 (0)1747 830520 The American Society in London Thanksgiving Dinner Dance The Saville Club, 69 Brook Street, London W1K 4ER www.americansocietyuk.com November 1 The American Society in London’s 118th annual evening Dance in celebration of Thanksgiving, and in honor of the UK & US military.
Eccles Centre Events Conference Centre, British Library, St Pancras, London NW1 2DB www.bl.uk/eccles November 4; 11 to 12
A conference on the presidency of JFK (Nov 4, reservation essential), and the annual US politics conference for anyone interested in US politics; speakers include former US Congressmen (Nov 11 to 12).
Guy Fawkes / Bonfire Night Across the UK November 5
Bonfires and fireworks commemorate the ‘Gunpowder Plot’ of 1605 when Catholic dissenters attempted to blow up Parliament and the King.
AWBS International Women’s Club Charity Holiday Craft and Gift Fayre The Main Hall, Ascot Racecourse, Berkshire SL5 7JX , www.awbs.org.uk November 8
Fabulous fashion; jewellery, vintage, home wares, art and craft, home baking, gourmet food, tea & coffee, entertainment and demonstrations. 100% of the Fayre’s profits and a % of your purchases benefit the American Women of Berkshire and Surrey’s local charities. 10.00am to 3.00pm.
Superpower 1950-2000
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Rd, London SE1 8XX www.southbankcentre.co.uk November 8 to 10
Music from 50 years that were of cultural significance for the US, with a host of interesting events.
Lord Mayor’s Show
City of London, www.lordmayorsshow.org November 9
In the 798 year old annual procession, the newly elected Lord Mayor of London travels to Westminster to swear loyalty to the Crown.
Veterans Day at Brookwood
Brookwood Cemetery. nr Woking, Surrey GU24 0BL www.brookwoodcemetery.com November 10 All are invited to this US military memorial service.
Boutique de Noel
Kensington Town Hall, Hornton Street, London W8 7NX, www.jll.org.uk/bdn November 15 to 16
USA vs Russia : International Rugby Allianz Park, Greenlands Lane, Hendon, London NW4 1RL www.saracens.com 0203 675 720 November 23, Kick off 15h00 Witness history as Allianz Park hosts its first ever international test match between two of the worlds biggest emerging rugby nations as USA and Russia lock horns in North London. It will be a colossal clash not to be missed as USA Eagles superstars Todd Clever, Samu Manoa and Takudzwa Ngwenya take to the field in this fierce rivalry. Not only will Allianz Park be hosting this hotly contested match on the field, off the field will be a carnival atmosphere celebrating American music, entertainment and the finest American food you can eat! Tickets start from only £10. Kick off 15h00.
October 2013 9
The American
Shop for a good cause with the Junior League of London. Nov 15, 6pm 10pm, a Premier Shopping Evening includes live, silent auctions, raffles, drinks and premier vendors. Nov 16 is Shopping Day, from 10am – 5pm.
University of California Student & Alumni Thanksgiving Dinner
Gibson Hall, Bishopsgate, London EC2N 3BA eapthanksgivingdinner.eventbrite.com November 16 Over 200 students on study-abroad experiences will be attending, and guests from the US Embassy.
AWS 23rd Annual Gift Fayre
ACS Cobham International School, Portsmouth Road, Cobham KT11 1BL www.awsurrey.org November 17 Thousands of gift ideas at the
American Women of Surrey’s Fayre: from clothing and accessories to pottery and more. Bring the family to see Santa’s Grotto and support the Surrey community, with this year’s beneficiaries including Transform Housing and Support, B@titude, and Momentum.
TVAWC Thanksgiving lunch
www.tvawc.com, trishtod@yahoo.com November 26
Join old and new friends in the club to celebrate Thanksgiving in a member’s home with a light Thanksgiving themed lunch. Pot luck, bring a light dish to share.
Thanksgiving Dinner
Butchers’ Hall, 87 Bartholomew Close,
London EC1A 7EB www.benjaminfranklinhouse.org
November 28
A Thanksgiving feast with all the trimmings at a beautiful, historic venue.
Fulbright Thanksgiving Festivities www.fulbright.org.uk November 28 to 30
Fulbright alumni host Thanksgiving dinners across the country. Check website for dates and venues.
American Museum in Britain Claverton Manor, Bath BA2 7BD www.americanmuseum.org
The museum’s annual exhibition closes in preparation for its Christmas festivities which start Nov 28, but there are still lots of activities and craft workshops incuding making moccasins, folk art Thanksgiving cards and Christmas decorations.
EXPAT NEED? CHECK ASSIGNEE SELECTED? CHECK TAX ADVISER? CHECK One of the less appealing things about sending your people overseas is that you, or they, suddenly have to become experts on the local tax system or risk falling foul of the law, incurring extra costs - or both. With BDO however, you and your people can can benefit from coordinated tax advice. Advance planning will save you time and money and our specialist tax advisers are well equipped to ease the burden. Through BDO, the world’s fifth largest accountancy network, our Expatriate teams can provide you with assistance all over the world. To find out more about the tax service that travels with you, please contact Andrew Bailey on Scott Wickham on+44 +44(0)20 (0)207893 78932946 2766 or andrew.bailey@bdo.co.uk scott.wickham@bdo.co.uk BDO’s Expatriate Tax service is run by our Human Capital team, which also provides a full range of expertise in employment tax, reward planning and pensions.
www.bdo.co.uk www.bdo.co.uk seperately authorised and BDO LLP and BDO Northern Ireland are both separately regulated by the Financial Services Authority to conduct investment business.
10 November September2013 2013
The American
Missing You Already At Thanksgiving, Carol Gould dreams of the treats that drive expat Americans to distraction
D
espite living in Britain for 37 years I still wake up missing Phillies games, the Mummers Parade and those gorgeous, bulging packets of fresh fruit – with free banana! – sold by Korean street traders on every pavement. Homesickness takes many forms, but the major manifestation for me, I must confess, is FOOD! Let’s start with chocolate sorbet. In 1976 when I arrived it was rare to find any kind of sorbet available in
restaurants. But by 1986 one would be offered ‘lemon, raspberry or blackcurrant.’ In 1996 the choice was ‘lemon, raspberry or blackcurrant.’ And in 2006... ‘lemon, raspberry or blackcurrant!’ Back home chocolate sorbet is plentiful and is even available in Häagen-Dazs tubs. When I asked for it at the Häagen-Dazs restaurant in Leicester Square they told me ‘there’s no call for it.’ (What exactly does that mean?) There is a legend –
perhaps an urban myth – that after World War I young widows would fill the seats of the Fountain restaurant at Fortnum and Mason’s, so the Italian chef decided to create a dish to cheer them up – chocolate sorbet! It was a sensation and appeared on the Fountain menu until the 1990s. So, it was invented here in England, but can you find it anywhere? Let’s go on to Yokan. My late mother used to ask me to go out and
November 2013 11
The American
get her a large box of Yokan as a special treat. It is a divine dessert available in every Japanese restaurant in the States, a small loaf of sweet red bean paste with chestnuts in the middle, cut into slices and eaten with a toothpick. It is available to buy at the Japanese sweet-market in Piccadilly but why is it never on the menu at any of the multitude of Japanese eateries in the UK? Who wants green tea ice cream? Who wants gooey cake? Just give me the Yokan I would get in New York, LA, DC or Philly.. Moving now to things that some will say are borderline absurd but which dominate my every waking thought three days a week. Because I know my home town best I will stick to local specialties: I yearn for a hot turkey sandwich drowning in giblet gravy with mashed potatoes and green beans accompanied by one of those tiny paper cups of cranberry sauce as served by the ancient waitresses at the Midtown Diner or Little Pete’s in Philly. I salivate as I write… Have you ever found a knish in the UK? If so I stand corrected but I have tried to find one for 37 years – even in Golders Green – without success. There used to be a knish place in DC and as soon as I dumped my suitcases I‘d head for it. Of course, if you come from Philly, you will yearn every day for a cheesesteak from Geno’s or Pat’s. And the steaks with sauce and onions at a childhood haunt called Rex Pizza were exquisite; why can one not find anything like this in London? Another thing I miss so much that it drives me to insanity is cherrystone clams. People here say 'But clams are clams!' However, if you have never tasted a New Jersey cherrystone with that gorgeous hot seafood sauce and oyster crackers you haven’t lived. Now to the silly stuff. My highly
12 November September2013 2013
The American
educated, erudite colleague at ITV, John Rosenberg, a native of Brooklyn, used to walk into my office each October holding out his palm and without any words being exchanged I knew what he wanted: candy corn, sent by my sister from home. Notwithstanding American-style venues like Subway offering a hoagie or submarine, there is nothing like a made-from-scratch one. Has anyone living here ever been able to find traditional griddle cakes? I’m afraid I threw a tantrum in Ed’s Easy Diner when I was given pre-packaged cold rubber things listed as 'pancakes'. Other goodies I yearn for: huge rare roast beef sandwiches on rye; New England and Manhattan Clam Chowder; grits; scrapple with hash browns and Hebrew National hot dogs. Finally, why do British Chinese restaurants discriminate against single people? If you want a set meal it’s 'minimum for 2'. Why does one have to ask three times for a glass of water? Why in a country surrounded by water is a lobster so damn expensive? ($20 in the USA, $70 here.) Let’s end on a laugh: in Mayfair there is a waffle restaurant. They serve hot dogs so I suggested they get French’s mustard, as American DNA is such that you just can’t eat a 'dog without French‘s. Next time I passed by they told me they had had a French’s crate in but had poured the mustard down the drain and put FRENCH mustard into the yellow tubs as the original stuff 'tasted horrible.' Go figure - maybe we are indeed separated by more than just an ocean! PHOTOS: GENO’S BY BRENDAN O’KANE (PREVIOUS PAGE) CHERRYSTONE CLAMS BY IBELIEVEICANFRY KNISH SHOP BY JOE SHLABOTNIK SORBET BY CALICO-13 YOKAN BY SANJO
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October 2013 13
The American
GIBrides Thousands of British women fell in love with, and married, American servicemen during World War II. Duncan Barrett tells some of their stories.
I
t was the largest migration of women in America’s history. In the years following the Second World War, hundreds of thousands of GI brides travelled to the United States to be reunited with the men they had married. They came from all over the world, but one of the largest groups – over 70,000 – was from Britain. The Americans had first arrived in the British Isles less than two months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and by D-Day, two and a half years later, there were two million of them in the country. For local girls – worn down by years of hardship and bombings, and with most marriageable British lads already fighting abroad – their appeal was undeniable. They wore smart, trim uniforms – much more stylish than the serge of the British Army – and they smelled of deodorant and aftershave, luxuries practically unknown in Britain at the time. At first, spotting an American was a source of excitement, but as the GIs were posted up and down the country it became more and more common. Some girls were invited to special dances laid on at Army bases, or in American Red
14 November 2013
British girl Lyn and American GI Ben Patrino’s wartime wedding
Cross clubs, while others met their future husbands thanks to chance encounters in the street. Compared to British men the GIs were quite forward – “they would walk up behind you and ask where you were going, and then they’d say, I’d like to come with you,” remembers Margaret Moody, who married a man from Georgia serving in the Army Air Corps. With their relatively high rates of pay (up to five times those of their British rank equivalents) the Americans could show a girl a good time. Sylvia O’Connor was volunteering at a Red Cross Club in the West End when she met her husband Bob, and has never forgotten her first experience of dating a GI. “He was buying everything and bringing me chocolates,” she recalls. “On the first date he bought me a bunch of flowers – and I’d never had flowers in my life!” Not all British girls were won over straight away, however. The Americans had acquired a reputation for being “overpaid, oversexed and over here” – and many parents did not want their daughters going near them. “We’d had the same thing from our mothers and fathers
and brothers,” recalls Rae Zurovcik, a former ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service) welder. “You don’t mess with Yanks. You know, the three O’s.” Despite their advice, Rae fell for a man from a small town outside Pittsburgh, and set off for a new life in America. While not all British girls were as suspicious of the “Yanks” as Rae was, many enjoyed giving them a hard time – so much so that the GIs nicknamed their campaign to woo local girls the Battle of Britain. When Vera Long’s future husband asked her to “daance” at a Red Cross club in Knightsbridge, she refused, insisting that he pronounce the word “darnce” before she would even consider it. But despite their reservations, many British women soon found themselves walking down the aisle to meet a man in US Army uniform. A wartime wedding was never an easy prospect – with food and dress material both rationed, many brides struggled to scrape together what they needed for a decent celebration – and once the American authorities were involved everything became a lot more complicated. The bride-to-be would was
subject to interview by a US Army chaplain, while her fiancé’s home situation was looked into to check he could afford to keep a wife – and that he didn’t already have one back home. Many girls were shocked at the way the Army treated them. Often officials were suspicious that they were using marriage as a ticket to a more prosperous country. Pamela Dellemann was asked in her interview why she wanted to marry an American. “Well for one thing we love each other,” she replied, and was told curtly, “That don’t mean a thing!” An application could take up to six months to be approved, but that wasn’t the longest wait the GI brides endured. After the war was over, the Army began repatriating the millions of American servicemen stationed overseas, but reuniting them with their spouses was not a priority. The “wallflower wives” – as the press began to call them – protested outside the US embassy in Grosvenor Square, waving banners reading ‘WE WANT SHIPS’, and even picketed the hotel of the recently widowed Eleanor Roosevelt when she visited, begging her to help. Eventually, their pleas were answered. On December 28, 1945, Congress passed Public Law 271, the War Brides Act, allowing nonquota immigrant status to the foreign-born wives of US servicemen, and began the massive operation of transporting the women to America at the Army’s expense. A fleet of ships was involved, including the requisitioned liners Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, still in their wartime grey and arranged for maximum passenger capacity rather than luxury. But before the brides could travel they
GI bride Margaret Boyle at US Army HQ, where she worked as a typist
would have to be processed. Many travelled to Tidworth, a British Army camp under American control, where they were subjected to yet more questioning. “You had to sign that you had not been a prostitute, you had not done drugs,” recalls GI bride Lyn Patrino, who had married a man from California. “That was when I wanted to go home – I thought, I can’t take this.” Once processed, the brides were taken to nearby Southampton, where they boarded the vessels that were to take them to America. Although conditions were cramped and the crossings were often stormy, they were well looked after on board, thanks to the American Red Cross, who provided a full schedule of activities. There were sing-alongs, card games, beauty pageants and knitting clubs, as well as lectures on American history and geography, and classes in how to salute the Stars and Stripes. Some brides were singled out for voluntary duties. “When I got on board the first thing they said was, ‘If you want to volunteer to do something, come and see me,’” recalls GI bride Beryl McDonald. “So
I went up to see the captain and he said, ‘Can you write?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ ‘Can you draw?’ ‘Yes.’ And he said, ‘Well, would you like to edit the ship’s newspaper?’ It was called the Porthole Peeper.” By the time they arrived in America, many brides had made new friends on the boats and felt sad that their new-found community was to be scattered to the four corners of the country. There was a final tearful sing-along on the last night of the voyage, before the women swapped addresses and retired to their cabins. Most boats arrived in New York in the early hours of the morning, and the brides gathered on deck for their first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. A source of wonder and excitement, it also offered surprises – having previously only seen it in black-and-white movies, many brides were shocked that it was green. The boats continued up the Hudson and docked at the piers of Manhattan, where some brides were finally reunited with their husbands. For those heading further, special trains had been laid on,
November 2013 15
Further Reading
T PHOTO-CENTRAL PRESS PHOTO, LONDON, FOR AMERICAN RED CROSS
GIs outside the American Red Cross Washington Club, Curzon Street, 1942.
again under Red Cross supervision. Either way, many took the opportunity to see the Big Apple before they left. Lyn Patrino headed straight for Saks on Fifth Avenue, while June Borgmeyer, from Birmingham, asked a taxi driver to show her the sights, telling him: “Don’t leave anything out”. She ended up with a tour that included the Empire State Building, Times Square, Central Park – and even Skid Row. While relieved to be with their husbands again, many brides found adapting to life in America harder than they expected. The shared language was fraught with misunderstandings – as Lyn discovered when she asked a train porter to “knock her up” in the morning, much to his amusement. Everyday life could prove puzzling, too. Pamela Delleman struggled with supermarkets, since she was used to buying from an assistant behind a counter. “I felt
16 November 2013
like a thief taking all these things off the shelf,” she recalls. One woman, meanwhile, was so confused when she first saw a shower that she sat down in the tray and tried to fill it with water to bathe in. Over time, the GI brides adjusted – and many even took up US citizenship. But while the homesickness of their early years slowly faded, they all kept a place in their heart for their homeland. To this day, many still get up in the early hours to watch the Queen’s jubilee or the royal wedding on television, and fly the Union Jack alongside the Stars and Stripes outside their houses. From her home in Florida, Peggy Hamrick avidly watched the London Olympics last year, her heart filled with nostalgia. She would never go back to live in England now, but like many GI brides she has grown used to feeling tugged in two directions. As she puts it, “It’s like sadness one end and happiness the other.”
he real-life stories of British girls in war torn Britain who meet American GIs, fall in love, marry and go with them to live in the US. This is a charming book that really conveys the drabness of British life during the war and how glamorous the polite GIs seemed that swept the girls off their feet. But it doesn’t hide the difficulty of making a marriage work with war-damaged men on the other side of the Atlantic. Once there, the women would have to adapt to a foreign culture and a new way of life thousands of miles away from family and friends, with a man they hardly knew out of uniform. Some struggled with the isolation of life in rural America, or found their heroic soldier was less appealing once he returned to Civvy Street. But most persevered, determined to turn their wartime romance into a lifelong love affair, and prove to those back home that it really was possible to have a Hollywood ending. A fascinating book, you’ll want to find out what happened to them, and admire them for their determination.
GI Brides: The Wartime Girls who Crossed the Atlantic for Love by Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi is published by Harper, £7.99. For more stories, pictures and audio visit www.gibrides.com
The American
Huntin’and Shootin’ Sabrina Sully explores the opportunities in the UK
A
t this time of year, what could be better than getting out into the countryside? Hunting may not be quite like back home, but you can do it here in the UK, despite the recent laws, (The Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002, and The Hunting Act 2004) which outlawed certain forms and changed others. It’s not just on the great estates in the Scottish highlands, and you don’t have to be a visitor to Downton Abbey. ‘Hunting’ here usually refers to hunting with packs of dogs (hounds or beagles). Fox hunting (on horseback, with hounds) is widespread, each Hunt run by its Master of Foxhounds, and there’s nothing quite like the classic sight of a Boxing Day hunt spread out across the landscape (there’s usually a large turnout) and anybody can watch. (This is now ‘trail hunting’ because of the new laws.) Organised Deer Stalking takes place in many counties, although they don’t often wear the deerstalker hats made famous by
Sherlock Holmes. Red Deer stalks, particularly in Scotland, are known far and wide, to take part check out CountrySportsScotland.com. Close and open seasons are scheduled with breeding cycles in mind, and vary depending on your location in the UK. The rest of hunting is called ‘Shooting’, and is divided into ‘game’ and ‘driven’, ‘rough’ and ‘clays’. The latter is what you’d call trapshooting, clay shots catapulted in the air to mimic the different flights of target birds, and is great for getting your eye in. It can be great fun, and is very informal, but if you’re asked to operate the trap, beware the kickback, which can break your arm if you’re not careful. Once while we were flying ‘high bird’ clays over a clearing a friend of mine fell out from high up in the tree from this (he said it was the shock that I’d just shot both clays at my first attempt with a borrowed ‘over and under’ shotgun, I just think it was the shock of a girl getting both, whereas all the guys had only got one at most).
PHOTO TWEED MEDIA
There are many Clay Pigeon Shooting clubs and shooting grounds to choose from, and many landowners and farmers have their own traps for some informal sport. Most game shooting in this country is done with a ‘side by side’ shotgun, i.e. the two barrels lie side by side, rather than on top of each other (‘over and under’). Somehow it is more manageable when you have to do a lot of walking, and its narrow gape provides faster loading and quicker handling qualities – it’s easier to ‘throw’ into your steadying hand at speed. But for clays the narrow line of sight of the ‘over and under’ and the stability under recoil of the heavier gun is superb, particularly for ‘high bird’ shooting. Walked-up, or rough shooting (or upland shooting in the States) is the most common and informal type of live quarry shooting available. Trained gun dogs flush game, such as rabbits or birds (pheasant, partridge, quail, pigeon, snipe, woodcock) from hedgerows, woods or other cover into the open for
November 2013 17
The American
their owners to shoot as they walk along. This is usually done at either end of the day. Driven game shoots are where large numbers of game birds are reared and driven over teams of Guns strategically placed to provide the most challenging and exciting sport. Unlike rough shooting, driven shoots involve more convention and tradition, and also a certain degree of etiquette. It’s worth asking your host for information on what is expected from a participant in driven shooting, to avoid accidentally drawing the ire of your companions. The quarry for driven shoots are mostly pheasants, but can also include partridge or grouse. ‘Beaters’ use sticks and other objects to drive the birds from places of cover, such as woodlands, into the air above the line of Guns (Guns referring to the participants of the shoot). Driven shoots involve a number of participants working as a group. There are some very elegant estates, particularly in Wales and the West of England, which can cater for both newcomers and experienced hands in driven shooting. Many also offer the full works during the day, with tea, snacks, lunch and even dinner and champagne. It’s amazing how the fresh air and exhilaration gives one a large appetite! Driven shooting is certainly a traditional British take on recreational shooting. You may even be lucky enough to be invited as a guest to a Syndicate shoot, or even approached to join one (note the word ‘invited’ - you can hint, but don’t ask, to join). Syndicates usually shoot pheasant or partridge, and the group between them own or pay for the shooting rights and to raise
'If a sportsman true you’d be Listen carefully to me: Never, never, let your gun Pointed be at anyone...' A Father’s Advice’ (Mark Hanbury Beaufoy 1902) and release the birds. For regular shooting that is less formal and more exclusive than larger shoots, this is one of my favorites. It usually ends in lunch at the local pub, with a good chat with good friends, or soon to become good friends! Do ask your host beforehand on the syndicate’s etiquette. I’ve never done Wildfowling, which is the pursuit of migratory geese and ducks, often on estuaries and coastal marshes. Dogs are essential for retrieval. Mostly a syndicate or club sport, it’s OK to make the first move with these syndicates, or approach and join a local club. I hear it’s not a sport for the faint hearted and requires
considerable stamina and patience because its usually done early in the morning during the winter months in wet, muddy and often cold conditions, which doesn’t really appeal to me. Not a solitary sport, it’s best to be with someone very familiar with the place otherwise you can get cut off by tides or stuck in the mud! Getting a Wildfowling permit is simple. You have to know which species you can shoot, but I guess the others can help you gen up on that. Wherever you are in the UK, there’s recreational shooting to be had. We might have to keep our guns in special cupboards, and have police licences but we still enjoy this sport for the fresh air, countryside, good company and downright challenge. Contact sporting agencies, Estate planners and friends, for a useful way to meet new people who have an interest in countryside life, and a breath of fresh air. See www.basc.org.uk/en/goshooting/ (The British Association for Shooting and Conservation) for details.
painting by Henry Alken, 1785-1851 November 2013 19
The American
JFK To mark fifty years since his assassination, Andre Deutsch is publishing John F. Kennedy - The Life, The Presidency, The Assassination by David Southwell and Ian Shircore. It comes with 170 photographs/illustrations and fifteen removable replicas of rare documents providing a personal insight into his life, including a top secret FBI memo describing the Soviet reaction to Kennedy’s death and a bloodstained sketch of Kennedy’s skull from the first autopsy following his assassination. This extract describes the strange final hours. Prelude to a Killing
E
very choice has invisible antecedents. The fall of dominos leading to J.F.K.’s assassination may have begun on June 5, 1963, when Kennedy met with his Texan Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and Texas Governor John Connally in El Paso, Texas. A fund-raising and support-boosting trip to Texas was agreed on ahead of the 1964 presidential election. Kennedy had barely won Texas in 1960 and hoped the visit would help him in the state. He also hoped to end the conflict between his ally Senator Ralph Yarborough and L.B.J. supporter Governor Connally. Kennedy may not have known he was heading to his death by agreeing to the trip, but others seemed to. On November 20, Rose Cheramie—a former stripper for Jack Ruby (the nightclub owner later convicted of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald)—was hit by a car on Highway 190 in Louisiana. She was taken to a private hospital, but as she was exhibiting signs of drug withdrawal, Lt. Francis Frugé of the Louisiana State Police was called.
20 November 2013
While Frugé was transporting Rose to another hospital, she told him she had been traveling to Galveston, Texas as a drug courier for Jack Ruby and that the two men she was traveling with were going to kill the President in Dallas in a few days. She repeated the claims to a hospital psychiatrist and nurses. Frugé originally thought her story was drug-withdrawal ramblings, but after the assassination he interviewed Rose. Finding
..the Secret Service actually reduced security.. the details of what she said to be factually accurate, Frugé’s boss rang Captain Will Fritz of the Dallas Police. Fritz was not interested. Rose Cheramie died in Texas in 1965 after being hit by a car on Highway 155. Eugene Dinkin was a U.S. army cryptographic operator based in Metz, France. On November 4, 1963, Dinkin went AWOL. Two days later he appeared in the press room of the UN in Geneva, telling reporters
of a plot against Kennedy and that “something would happen in Dallas.” On November 13, Dinkin was arrested and placed in a military psychiatric hospital. A comrade reported that he had told him the assassination would happen on November 22. Although the Warren Commission was aware of Dinkin’s allegations, they did not investigate. CIA documents on Dinkin submitted to them were classified and not available to the public, as were calls made to the U.S. Naval Attaché in Australia, Lt. Commander Piper, warning him of a plot to kill Kennedy ahead of the assassination.
Strange prophesies
Another individual with nearprophetic abilities was right-wing extremist Joseph Milteer. On November 10, 1963, Miami police provided a tape to the FBI and the Secret Service made by an informant who had infiltrated a far-right group. On it was a recording of Milteer saying that there was a plot to kill J.F.K. “From an office building with a high-powered rifle... They
Left: President Kennedy delivering his famous Moon speech at Rice University, Texas, September 12, 1962 Right: The first formal portrait of President Kennedy in the Oval Office, the day after his inauguration
will pick somebody up within hours afterwards... Just to throw the public off.” Despite this, the FBI and Secret Service did not interview Milteer, nor did they strengthen security for the President in Dallas. The decision of the Secret Service not to improve protection in Dallas seems even stranger given that American U.N. ambassador Adlai Stevenson was heckled, spat on, and physically attacked by right-wing activists while in Dallas on October 24. Stevenson feared Kennedy would face similar
“That son-of-bastard Yarborough and that god damn f***ing Irish Mafia bastard Kennedy will never embarrass me again.”
antagonism and warned him not to go to Dallas. After the attack on Stevenson, Dallas was officially declared a hostile city, but instead of following established protocols for such an environment, the Secret Service actually reduced security by taking off the limousine’s bubbletop, not riding on the back of the car, and allowing open windows along the route. The 112th Military
Blood-stained diagram from the first autopsy COURTESY, NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION, COLLEGE PARK, MD
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Intelligence Group at Fort Sam in Texas was ordered to stand down on presidential security despite the protests of the unit’s commander Colonel Reich. Lyndon B. Johnson’s mistress Madeleine Brown later alleged that on November 20 or 21, a meeting was held at the home of Texas oilman Clint Murchison. Supposedly among those in attendance were L.B.J., Richard Nixon, oilman H.L. Hunt, and banker and later Warren Commission member John McCloy. According to Brown, after the meeting L.B.J. emerged and told her: “That son-of-bastard Yarborough and that god damn f***ing Irish Mafia bastard Kennedy will never embarrass me again.” Whatever had caused L.B.J. to make such a statement, he was to give no indication of it as he, Connally, and Yarborough watched the President address a rally in Fort Worth on the morning of November 22. Despite rain, a crowd of several thousand responded positively to J.F.K.’s message of space exploration, American prosperity, and American strength. Then it was indoors to join up with Jackie for
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The American
Left: The infamous ‘Wanted for Treason’ handbill circulated in Dallas the day before the assassination. COURTESY, NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION, COLLEGE PARK, MD
JFK : A New Perspective
Forever enshrined in myth by an assassin’s bullet, John F. Kennedy’s presidency has often defied objective appraisal. PBS in the UK are screening their brand new four-part documentary which uses recently declassified archives to offer a fresh perspective on John Fitzgerald Kennedy, his strengths and weaknesses, his accomplishments and his unfulfilled promise as the youngest elected president in US history. It features interviews with Kennedy family members and historians including Robert Dallek, Robert Caro, Evan Thomas and Tim Naftali and traces his life from childhood to assassination. JFK : A New Perspective premieres daily at 9pm from November 12 on PBS America.
breakfast and some flattering remarks to a gathering of local business leaders in the Texas Hotel. As he drove to Carswell Air Force Base for the 13-minute flight to Dallas, he had no idea how words from his last speech—“This is a very dangerous and uncertain world”—were about to sound chillingly prescient. ITEM 12_TREASON POSTER.indd 1
What was Nixon Doing in Dallas?
As with 9/11 for a later generation, those Americans alive at the time can all remember where they were when they heard that J.F.K. had been killed. Everyone except Richard Nixon. He used to tell a strange white lie and say he was in
22 November 2013
a New York cab flagged down by a crying woman when he discovered the news. He wasn’t. Newspaper reports prove that he knew about the death when he got off a plane in New York that had just flown in from Dallas. He had been in the city between November 20 and 22, holding meetings. He may even have heard of J.F.K.’s death while attending a Pepsi-Cola conference in Dallas on November 22. Whether or not he was at the infamous Murchison meeting Nixon was with actress and Pepsi heiress Joan Crawford on November 21 in Dallas when she made oddly prophetic comments about them not needing security to visit the city, unlike J.F.K. 2/13/13 3:50:29 PM
John F. Kennedy - The Life, The Presidency, The Assassination by David Southwell and Ian Shircore. Andre Deutsche, Hardback, £30 ISBN 978 0 233 00397 9
PA R K L A N D The JFK assassination movie Reviewed by Tim Baros
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here were four days in November, 1963, that changed history - the day when President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas, Texas, and the days leading up to his funeral and including the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. This series of events is told in the new film Parkland. Parkland is based on the book Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F Kennedy, by Vincent Bugliosi, and is a historical drama of the events that happened on that day, November 22, 1963 – 50 years ago. It tells a story that perhaps not many people are aware of that both Kennedy and Oswald were taken to the same hospital, Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas, after they were shot. Parkland tells, to great dramatic effect, the stories of the key people who were involved on that day, including the hospital staff, Kennedy’s secret service detail, and Abraham Zapruder (played by Paul Giamatti), who took the famous footage of Kennedy getting shot in the back of his head in the motorcade. Both men went to, and died in, the same hospital, and director
and screenwriter Peter Landesman brilliantly tells this story. He interweaves new footage with footage shot on that day, including Zapruder’s film, to great dramatic effect, making Parkland feel more like a documentary than an actual movie. We see the Parkland hospital staff, headed by Dr. Charles James Carrico (Zac Efron) and Head Nurse Doris Nelson (Marcia Gay Harden). We follow the secret service, headed by Agent Forrest Sorrels (Billy Bob Thornton), as they scramble to find out who shot the President. We are shown, for perhaps the first time on screen, the story of the family of Oswald, his brother
Robert (James Badge Dale) and his eccentric mother Marguerite (Jacki Weaver), as they realize their lives will never be the same again. Also told is the story of FBI agent James P. Hosty (Ron Livingston), who perhaps could’ve prevented Kennedy’s assassination as he had been assigned to investigate Oswald after his return from Russia to the US in 1962. While Efron may not have been the best choice to play the one doctor instrumental in attending to Kennedy, the rest of the cast is stellar, especially Giamatti and Livingston. Parkland is an excellent retelling of a moment in American history that will never be forgotten.
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The American
Cyril Neville C
yril Neville has played a variety of musical styles down the years with The Meters, The Neville Brothers, The Uptown Allstars, and, right now, Royal Southern Brotherhood with whom he is currently on tour. Those styles – and more – are condensed in his solo album Magic Honey. Our online album review says it is “very tasty”. Why the food reference? Read on.
Magic Honey: The Album
“I tried to make a music gumbo that would satisfy music lovers everywhere. It has on it people and a producer [David Z] I wanted to work with for a long time. It is sonically one of the best records I’ve had the pleasure of being associated with. “I held up the session until I had ‘Mean’ Willie Green from the Uptown Allstars on drums. He’s a really good friend and he was with the Neville Brothers longer than any other musician. Cranston Clements is one of the best guitarists we’ve ever produced, though not that well known. He put together the stuff that needed to be done and he was the guy. “Everything is like a gumbo for me, get the rules of the gumbo right, add the extra ingredients – Allen Toussaint, Walter Trout, Mike Zito, etc. My wife Gaynielle, who has her own Sweet Soul band, and my son Omari were background singers and the majority of our stuff was original. “Omari, and his band Rejected Youth Nation, rehearsed a song by Rush called ‘Working Man’ and he told me, ‘It’s not us, it’s you’. My first
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reaction was, ‘I can’t sing that high!’, but the arrangement Omari had put together fit me. Passing down music father to son was taken to another level as he turned me on to it. “I put my heart and soul into every track of the record. I wanted it to be a throwback to growing up in New Orleans and to be futuristic at the same time. Everybody in our house and in the neighbourhood was musically inclined. Growing up, I listened to the radio a lot, in the kitchen watching the cooking going on, a reason why, on listening to the record, I make references to gumbo. I’m 65 years old and I’ll throw every brick I have on this. “There are double and triple entendre songs! I wanted to make music like my mom and aunts would dance to and that was the Blues. Blues and Gospel are the same thing, they move the soul. Blues is the gospel of the common man. I learnt the history of my family and my people from music. There’s R ‘n’ B and even a bit of Reggae in there. “‘Invisible’ is kind of rockish. ‘Magic Honey’ has a Chicago sound. One particular slow Blues is by the Gayle Bros., ‘Something’s Got A Hold On Me’. The band just took off on that one, from Blues to AC/DC and back to Blues, it was a joy to watch. “The title song was the last one. I didn’t have a lyric, but I walked in the woods thinking and it came into my head. It is about my wife, my greatest inspiration and love, who kept me alive. “I play percussion, bongos and
Darren Weale interviews New Orlean’s philosophersoulman conga drums. Drums? Mean Willie Green doesn’t need no help in that department. You don’t have to explain much, we have a coded New Orleans language that no one else can understand. It’s not about the notes you play, its about the notes you don’t play, where the spaces are. We approached the recording like a fun gig, every track was live, a first take. In two and a half days the gumbo was cooked. Stuff was supposed to be faded out, but Danny Z called me and said, ‘I can’t bring myself to fade it out.’ I said, ‘Hey man, leave it on that.’ He let the musicians have their way.
Royal Southern Brotherhood
“Royal Southern Brotherhood is a great blessing in my life, I was the youngest Neville brother, and now I’m the oldest guy! People are getting it as a group, but nothing is diluted and none of our individuality is compromised. We do our solo stuff too. One price for four or five bands on stage at one time! “The public reaction to Royal Southern Brotherhood is overwhelming. In some aspects it has been a long time coming, it’s like being born again. Really young kids want me to sign my new record. One had a copy of my first ever record, that’s over thirty years old, it was joyful news to them. A sign from the Great Spirit that you deserve this. A reward for all the hard work for all these years. I’m with young, energetic, powerful musicians, a good place to be at 65.
The American
Cyril Neville (center) with Royal Southern Brotherhood
The Neville Dynasty
“The Nevilles were one of the families passing down music in New Orleans. My brother Art had the Hawkettes band, they rehearsed in our living room, I was sitting right there. Musicians who came by included Allen Toussaint, James Booker, and Earl King. Little Richard, Fats Domino – Art was right in the mix when there was a change in the music landscape of America. He was the first guy who took me to gigs. He was the greatest inspiration and I learned from him. The first band I was in was Art’s band, that became The Meters, playing in the French quarter. Me and Aaron formed the Soul Machine in parallel. “Locally, there is a charity, 'Speaking Up For Children'. My wife and Rejected Youth Nation signed drum sleeves for an orphanage in Haiti, but there are so many distressed children in New Orleans we changed it to benefit all children. We try our best, with Damon Batiste’s after
school programme to keep music alive for our children. Allen Toussaint and others are products of our public school programmes.
The Business
“Record corporations? Some things change and some things don’t. What stays the same are business practices by big corporate entities. Independent labels made it possible for people to get in the industry and not wait for major labels to sign them. One in 100,000 have a chance, no matter how talented. “It’s about who gets exposed. My son and Cranston are, but Little Freddie King and Guitar Lightnin’ aren’t exposed enough. They dress the part, when you see them, you know they play the Blues! Guitar Lightnin’ is worthy of a record deal but he ain’t ever seen one. It is fortunate for the Blues that Gary Clarke Jr is coming through really strongly. As far as black guitar players are concerned, New Orleans is crawling with them.
The Blues
“The Blues is here to stay. It’s not going anywhere. It’s spiritual, it was in early stuff like Blues songs by Louis Armstrong. I’m thankful white guys like the Rolling Stones love the Blues enough to keep it alive. “Keith Richards in particular, he has one of the most extensive Blues collections I’ve seen in my life, he turned me on to people I never heard of. In my band there is Mike Zito, one of the best white Blues guitar players out there. “Whatever spirit moved Hubert Sumlin, Muddy Waters and BB King to England made a big difference. We’d maybe not be having this conversation if that hadn’t happened.”
For reviews of Magic Honey, and of The Royal Southern Brotherhood’s recent London concert, go to www.theamerican.co.uk
November 2013 25
The American
Australia
Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD to December 8th Painting addicts be patient at the start of this show, as you are greeted by a video by Shaun Gladwell of himself racing through the outback on a motorcycle. This becomes the show’s theme: a tour of the very different Australian landscapes with all the features of a modern art exhibition, eased into by historical references. RA exhibitions director Kathleen Soriano curates the works, guiding us through a chronology of Australian art, from Aboriginal works to current artists. At times the Aboriginal patterning seems more artifact than art, but the RA has accomplished its goal of ‘the most significant survey of Australian art ever mounted in the UK’ . The shame of it is, that we cannot change the destruction caused by the colonizing of Australia. If you are unfamiliar with Australian modern art, this is a perfect way to Sidney Nolan, Ned Kelly,1946, enamel on composition board, 90.8 x 121.5 cm. NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA
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experience some challenging and culturally charged work, even if it is ‘tokenistic’ at times. Highlights: Kathy Temin’s Tombstone Garden’s tactility is seductive, however remember that unlike the Tate, no rope doesn’t mean you can touch. Dennis Nona’s Mutuk, an etching printed in color, has to be seen up close, it’s Aboriginal art for the 22nd century, confident and assertive. Christian Thompson’s artist talk is recommended - this is the London debut of the UK based, Australian-born artist, whose ethereal and mysterious work, alluding to ideas of identity and mythology, can also be seen at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. In the States, The Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia is alone in its ‘dedication to the exhibition and study of Australian Aboriginal art’ and it’s worth visiting their website.
Elizabeth I & Her People
National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, London WC2H 0HE to January 5, 2014 After meticulously conserving a portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh and removing centuries of old overpaint, conservators at the National Portrait Gallery have uncovered a previously unnoticed small area of wavy blue water which reveals the strength of the explorer’s devotion to Queen Elizabeth. It lies just below a small crescent moon
[above] Sir Walter Raleigh by an unknown English artist, 1588 [below] Three unknown Elizabethan children by an unknown Anglo-Netherlandish artist, c.1580 © NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON
and indicates Raleigh’s willingness to be controlled by the Queen, as the moon controls the tides. There are several visual clues to Raleigh’s obsession: Elizabeth had previously been compared to the moon goddess Cynthia, and experts now believe the newly-revealed water represents the explorer himself, with water punningly referring to Walter. His clothes are black and white, the queen’s colors, and studded with pearls, which represented Elizabeth’s virginity. The exhibition has over 100 objects, including accessories, artifacts, costumes, coins, jewelry and crafts, as well as artworks - portraits of courtiers alongside intriguing lesser-known images of merchants,
Philip Jackson, Bomber Command Memorial, 2012, bronze, on site in Green Park
lawyers, goldsmiths, butchers, calligraphers, playwrights and artists, all of whom contributed to the making of a nation and a new world power. One painting of three Elizabethan children contains what may be the first portrait of a guinea pig, an exotic pet which had recently been introduced from South America by Spanish traders, The beige, brown and white creature is sitting on the lap of the little girl at the center of the group.
Philip Jackson: Bomber Command Memorial and other works Catto Gallery, 100 Heath Street, London NW3 1DP to November 14
A limited edition of 20 bronze maquettes based on the RAF Bomber Command Memorial, now in its permanent home in London’s Green Park, are available in a new exhibition at the Catto Gallery, the first time any works based on the popular sculpture have been on sale to the public. Philip Jackson’s poignant work was opened by the Queen in June 2012 and The Bomber Command Association, which commissioned the memorial, will receive a sizeable donation from the Jackson estate and the Catto Gallery for each maquette sold. Jackson is a master of public figurative sculptures and many of the works in this exhibition have never been seen before including Serenissima, a mysterious group of masked Venetian figures and Bowling with Boccherini, inspired by Jackson’s love of music and opera, will be available both as a large sculpture and maquette.
Daniel Arsham: Recollections
Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, 6 Heddon Street, London W1B 4BT to December 4 One space houses a series of paintings and another of sculptures, which combine to force us to consider the past and the future whilst stood in the present. The paintings include studies of a Penny, Quarters, a Dime, a Franc and a Nickel mangled by time, painted onto paper of disintegrating currency. With these discarded objects, Arsham sees himself as an ‘archaeologist of the future.’ I see the paintings as a foreword to the sculptures: cast padlocks, a microphone, radio, cameras, a 16mm film projector and a Mickey Mouse phone made of materials which contain a ‘geological time-frame’, crystals, volcanic ash, hydrostone, and shattered glass, down to staged erosion, which Arsham confirmed when asked about how these wounds on the sculptures were made. They derive from an experience on Easter Island two years previously, when Arsham witnessed a ‘dumping site’ of such objects. He has cast them in
opposition to the island’s famous stone sculptures which have a 1000 year heritage. The sculptures are presented in a far from current plinth setting, designed by the artist as half disintegrated shelving. There’s a sense of a museum of artifacts, a future unearthing of relics of American pop culture. This is not art with a hidden agenda, the agenda is clear and not dissimilar to a visually intense dream. Daniel Arsham, Shielded Figure, 2013, broken glass, resin, unique COURTESY PIPPY HOULDSWORTH GALLERY
November 2013 27
The American
The Royal Academy Anna Farley looks at the new places to hang at the Royal Academy, in the heart of Mayfair
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lubs. We all want to be in one. There’s something delicious about something exclusive, a quiet gem, a secret. What about a club which has all these features, but is for every Tom, Dick and Henrietta? That’s the Keeper’s House, the arts’ new hub created by the Royal Academy of Arts. It’s a far cry from the ‘before’ picture, facilities for the RA’s friends described by Stephen Fry as “resembling a 1970’s polytechnic common room...” You’ll find the Keeper’s House to the right hand side of the RA’s main entrance with a Tracy Emin RA artwork over the doorway, ‘Keep me safe’ glowing in a soft green light, an enticing welcome. Designed by Sydney Smirke RA in the 19th century, it was a London home for the Keeper of the Royal Academy. Now re-worked by a set of masters in their own fields, the outcome is nothing short of excellence. A long-established institution that has many important roles within art education and showcase, the RA is the oldest art school in Britain, and has held a fantastic summer show annually for the last 245 years. Elected by the Academicians, the Keeper oversees the stu-
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The Keeper’s House dents and the school. Eileen Cooper RA, has been Keeper since 2011, the first female to hold the post. Current president, Christopher Le Brun PRA, told me the extensive renovation is to provide better facilities for the 95,000 Friends of the RA as a ‘thank you’ for their support. As a registered charity with no government funding, it relies on the support of sponsors, donors, and the Friends (including the American Friends). But, it is in its inclusivity that the venue excels. You don’t have to be in Who’s Who or have disgusting amounts of talent to eat, drink, think, read or relax in the Keeper’s House alongside the 60-odd, active-working RA artists. Students, Academicians and Friends of the RA still have ownership of some of the spaces out of bounds to mere mortals, being gifted a new ‘common room,’ and they can visit as and when they please, and if you are a member of the public, the house is yours after 4pm until midnight. There’s a sense of passion from everyone involved in transforming the house. I was lucky enough to spend most of my visit with Rolfe Kentish, half of award-winning Architectural Practice, Long & Kentish. As we stepped down the stairs,
he remarked, “these were uncovered, we didn’t know they were here.” Kentish happily showed me original tiles full of beautiful, aged imperfections, steps imprinted with donor’s names (there are still 5 left!), and the re-use of discarded and disregarded artifacts long hidden in the basement of the unused offices that have now become the restaurant, downstairs bar and ladies toilets (which are incredible, sorry boys). At this point I nipped next door to see the RA’s latest exhibition, Australia, then had lunch in the restaurant. It’s a truly rounded experience. As you pass from the restaurant, through the red bar, at the opening of the garden you can see a colossal red fork resembling a figure, as though Direct Line is offering gardening insurance. It is a perfect placement of color and sculpture by Michael Craig-Martin, on a grassy plinth at the rear of the cozy space. Kentish pointed out to me that you get views of the sculpture from all over the building, through using modern large glass windows looking onto the garden, and an exposed lift bordering on kinetic art! David Chipperfield Architects are responsible for the tasteful, gorgeous and sensitive décor.
PHOTOS: TIM P. WHITBY/GETTY IMAGES FOR ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS
Royal Academicians including Michael Craig Martin, Christopher Le Brun and Eileen Cooper (1st, 2nd and 3rd from right) step up at The Keeper’s House.
The Restaurant & The Shenkman Bar
Although the structure and interiors are outstanding, it was the garden I fell in love with. Tom Stuart–Smith, the landscape designer, explained his perspective of what he has created as “a strange space, in the middle of London, carved out of all these buildings.” Exactly, it’s an oasis erupting from the brickwork, a feeling intensified by the evergreen Australian tree ferns standing like prehistoric figures that transform into sculptures. One of my favorite features was the wall, with oversized steps doubling up as benches, which Stuart-Smith hopes will encourage a casual, hang out feel. I tested it out, to his delight. It is perfectly ergonomic, but if you’re going in your favorite dress there are tables and chairs too. There is a deep complexity to the entire experience of visiting, and somehow it feels like home. This is a refuge, astonishingly quiet, despite its location, that naturally flows from zone to zone, with no gift shop in sight (thank goodness). I’m sure there are things that are not perfect, but I found finding faults difficult, and couldn’t help but be enamored by the place. Keeper’s House is invited to keep me any time.
odeled on benefactor William Shenkman’s favorite bar in New York City, the Shenkman Bar is a vibrant, inviting red. It also features more art on sale. Bespoke cocktails feature gooseberry, black sea salt, rosehip, lavender, vintage port, and gardenia green tea; eclectic and essentially British, with fusion twists. The places are few where crab apples sit alongside tequila, but restaurateur Oliver Peyton has successfully acquainted them, and at around a tenner they’re a bargain. The cocktails are really a starter to the restaurant, married to its contemporary British menu. Boy, does it taste like Grandma’s homemade dinners - if Grandma had been a directing chef from a well regarded London eatery like The Connaught. Mind you, Grandma’s house didn’t boast casts of carving done by RA students, on show for the first time. Peyton is no novice at providing high end cuisine for gallery geeks, having done similar ventures for The National Gallery, British Library and the restaurant in the RA’s own main building. His meals are about simple, characterful, healthy dishes and sensitive sourcing of produce - there’s a guarantee of the fish being less than 12 hours from sea to plate. Starters are around £10, Main’s
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£20ish, and Pud’s £10ish, not bad for a labor of gourmet love. My favorite was Roast Hare loin with trompettes, black cabbage and sour onion. Absolute yum, coming in at £19.50. As if that isn’t enough of a dining experience, you sit in a fascinating and intimate space viewing the beams that support the building, with no counters to the room, and palates of emerald green ‘harking back to the history of the RA club dining experience’ in which Peyton became very interested. He also decided to make the menus a collector’s item, with a different RA artist designing the border seasonally. If you’re in the mood to drop all formality there’s a place to just ‘be’, the comfy room dubbed ‘The Belle Shenkman Room’ across the hall, with large sash windows dropping onto the garden downstairs, full of warm Moorish colors of reds and purples, nothing loud. The keyword of the Keeper’s House is ‘art gallery honesty’, with artworks in the café, ‘The Sir Hugh Casson Room’, bar area and round the building, available for purchase over refreshments. Prints start at £400, and the refreshments come in mostly around the £5 mark with nothing over a tenner. You can grab a breakfast from 10am, and lunch from noon.
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The American 11 Cadogan Gardens London SW3 2RJ 0207 730 6383 www.tartufolondon.co.uk Reviewed by Michael M Sandwick Open 12pm-2pm & 7-10pm Tuesday to Saturday
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artufo is one of London’s lovely little secrets. You wouldn’t know it was there unless you just happened to stumble across it, which you probably wouldn’t. Just a few minutes from Sloane Square, it’s located in the basement of the small luxury hotel, No. 11 Cadogan Gardens. Cadogan Gardens however seems to run in every direction, so finding no. 11 is no easy feat. When we finally did, it was like finding the treasure at the end of the hunt. Victorian splendor! The main dining room is formal and classic, low to the ceiling, making it quite cosy. There are also a number of private dining rooms, both inside and out, all beautifully appointed. Elegant is the word that comes to mind, a word which I would also use to describe our waiter and indeed, the whole experience. “Simple and elegant” has always been my motto and it seems, Tartufo’s as well. Chef Manuel Oliveri has created a modern European menu, meaning Italian and French with, like the wine list, a smattering of other influences. Wines run from £22 – 180 per bottle and there is also a small selection available by the glass. We chose a Sancerre “les Vallées” 2011 which accompanied our meals very well. I decided on the tasting menu.
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TARTUFO A tribute to the summer truffle, 6 courses at £65. Grilled Scottish scallops with truffle dressing, summer truffle tortellini, wild sea trout with truffle infused fish jus reduction, roasted guinea fowl with truffle shavings, a selection of Italian cheeses (what, no truffles!!!) and a peach feuilleté with peach sorbet. A bit more than even I could manage comfortably. In fact, I felt like a truffle pig, but in the nicest possible way! The highlight of the meal was by far the summer truffle tortellini. Were I to dine here again, I would make a meal of it. Served in a delicate cream, perfumed with truffle, these little bites of heaven just explode in your mouth. Truly sublime. The scallops, sea trout and guinea fowl were also very good and chef Oliveri really showed his skill, treating the truffles differently in each dish, highlighting them, while still complimenting the other ingredients. The cheeses didn’t rock my boat however. Firstly, the portion was far too large for a tasting menu and secondly, I didn’t find the selection of smoked ricotta, parmesan and pecorino to be first rate. As well, the
peach feuilleté didn’t make the grade. The pastry was excellent, but the peaches tasted as though they had been poached in plain water, leaching them of flavor and the sorbet as well was very bland. My companion’s dessert however, was a triumph. Soft coconut cream with pistachio and coriander oil and raspberry granité. How Oliveri makes this perfect cream is a secret I would like to share. The delicate flavors fused together beautifully and then the granité just made my taste buds scream with delight. From the à la carte menu we also sampled grilled Scottish scallops with crunchy fennel and orange and Atlantic cod with aubergine and flower tempura. Both of these were very well done. The combination of scallop, fennel and orange was particularly tasty and one I will certainly remember. The menu is priced at £25 for 2 courses and £30 – 40 for 3 or 4.
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The American
Cellar Talk O
Recipe: Dolbury Pudding
By Virginia E. Schultz
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Have an ama-Zin Thanksgiving
ith the number of dishes on the table, selecting wines for Thanksgiving is always difficult. Someone who only drinks white wine will have even more of a problem. When that’s the case, I usually go for white wines with bright flavors which balance the various dishes. This is why I prefer an Alsace or Austrian Riesling with their lively peach and herbal flavors. Hugel et Fils 2005 ‘Hugel’ from Alsace, a blend of Gewurztraminer, Riesling, Pinot Gris, Muscat and Sylvaner ($12) was a real hit at a friend’s Thanksgiving dinner last year and I am now looking to find it for dinner in Miami with my son and family. A different choice might be Secco Italian Bubbles 2011 Rose from Veneto. It is a sweetish Italian bubbly that those who really don’t like wine or Champagne will enjoy. After all, it’s Thanksgiving and not the time to be snobbish about what we drink... What I shall be drinking, however, is Zin, America’s own wine as I call it. This bright, juicy wine was not known in 1621, but I have a feeling those Pilgrim Fathers and Moth-
ers would have much preferred it over the beer served with their wild turkey. For me, Zinfandel is what Malbec is to Argentina, Sauvignon Blanc to Chile, Riesling to Germany and Chianti to Italy. Many of our vineyards have Zinfandel roots that go back well over a hundred years. I also describe it as it a rather mixed breed kind of wine whose origins are uncertain. For a long time we believed the Italians brought it to the States, but now it is suggested it is from Croatia. Whether it’s white Zinfandel or red is not important. Buy what you like. Buyer beware, however, Zinfandel has a high alcohol level and you may not just get sleepy after dinner but actually fall asleep at the table. One of the best producers of Zinfandel is Seghesio Family Vineyards. Recently I tasted Seghesio Family Vineyards 2001, Old Vine from Sonoma which was lovely, although in the fifty dollar range rather pricey. Ridge Vineyards Zinfandel is another favorite. To be honest, I’ve tasted few Zinfandels I disliked. Happy Thanksgiving! PHOTO: CORKS AND CAFTANS
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ne of the things that British cuisine does best is puddings! This steamed pudding originates from Killerton, the National Trust’s 18th century house set in the East Devon countryside. The person who named it thought the pudding shape reminded them of Dolbury Hill, which rises behind the house. Serves 8-12: 220g Unsalted butter 50g Lard 300g Soft brown sugar 6 Eggs-beaten 400g Apples-weighed when peeled and chopped 400g Mincemeat 450g Self-raising flour-sieved A little milk if required
Grease 2 x 2 to 2 ½ pint pudding basins, or 12 individual ‘babies head’ pudding basins. Put a round of greased greaseproof paper in the base of each. Cream together the fats until pale and fluffy. Add the beaten eggs, a little at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the apples and mincemeat. Gently fold in the flour. If necessary add a little milk to the mixture to give a soft dropping consistency. The mixture should be moist. Spoon the mixture into the basins, filling each by two-thirds. Cover the basins loosely with a double layer of greaseproof paper or a piece of foil and secure with string. Steam for two hours. Turn out and serve with any sort of fruit sauce, custard or cream. Portions can be reheated in a microwave.
The American
Frances Brundage’s illustration (1913) but what did the Pilgrims eat at the first Thanksgiving?
Coffee Break QUIZ 1 When and with whom did the Pilgrims first celebrate
Thanksgiving?
2 What was missing from the Pilgrim’s plates?
a) Cranberry sauce b) Potatoes c) Pumpkin pie?
3 What was the name of the first Pilgrims’ ship? 4 Name any two foods that were served at that first
Thanksgiving.
5 In which city does Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade take
place, and when did it start?
6 Who was the first US President to declare a national
Thanksgiving Day?
It happened 150 years ago... 12 November 19: The Gettysburg address was given by
President Lincoln at the dedication of the Soldier’s National Cemetery in Gettysburg. How long did his speech supposedly last? Just over: a) 2 minutes b) 9 minutes c) 14 minutes
13 November 19: Still at the Gettysburg address, famed
orator, retired Senator and ex-Ambassador to the Court of St James, Edward Everett, gave the main address. How long did his speech last? Just over a) 1 hour b) 2 hours c) 3 hours
Quiz answers and Sudoku solution on page 65.
7 When do Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving? 8 Who was the first US President to declare Thanksgiv-
ing Day a national holiday?
3 7
9 In 1941 Congress moved Thanksgiving Day to the 4th
Thursday of the month, rather than the last. Why? a) The President had previously moved it to ‘the one before last’ b) The NFL asked them to c) To extend the Christmas shopping season
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hurricane force winds and waves over 35ft, was the deadliest and most destructive disaster to hit the Great Lakes Basin, killing more than 250 people. What is the name of the last great storm to hit there?
11 November 11: Paul Signac, a French painter was born.
What form of painting did he invent with George Seurat?
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It happened 100 years ago... 10 November 7–10: The Big Blow, a blizzard with
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9 November 2013 33
interview:
Tarell Alvin McCraney
He’s been called ‘the greatest new writer in American Theater at the height of his powers’. Tarell tells The American about his new staging of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra
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grew up in Miami, and did a lot of theater from a very young age. When I was about thirteen I joined a charity group called The Village Improv in a rehabilitation center, they wanted to teach theater to kids whose parents were in AA programs, so those kids could go out and give other students a preventative drugs message every day after school. The remit to do that was exciting but daunting. We weren’t allowed to do shows in regular schools, or with students who came from ‘normal’ homes. We had to go talk to kids like us, who had parents who’d been touched by addiction, whose homes had been destroyed by addiction and kids who were already in addiction or rehab programs themselves. That was formidable training. I was learning theater in high school as well, Chekov, Shakespeare and Stanislavski, but here I was learning a much more guerilla-style of theater, something much more immediate, and it had to be accessible, a different type of theater because I had to do something on stage to compel these people to listen to me for a while. Most of that came from writings that we the students had created ourselves. That was the early days of creating pieces for the stage, both in school and in the program, learning from Chekov and so on, but also applying
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other ideas of ‘empty space’ techniques in front of captive audiences. You had to be pertinent to that audience or you’d lost them. Sadly I don’t think that The Village Improv is still going, as funding for things like that tend to get cut first. I was here for three years when I was Playwright in Residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company, both in Stratford and in London, depending on where the company was at the time, what play we were working on and who’s rehearsal I was shadowing, or if I was in my own rehearsal. The highs of it were being around people reading and performing Shakespeare, and the many different projects that came out of it. In The Studio, artists who are working on Richard II, or King John might want to do a reworking of Romeo and Juliet. Watching those projects form was really interesting. And watching how people work, being a part of the advisory groups, and listening to the planning and programming meetings, was a sort of postgraduate education in how a large theater company works. I loved living in Britain, if I had a permanent job, I’d stay! I like the pace, it suits me better than some of the other larger cities I’ve lived in. I like the fact that trains go everywhere, although they break down sometimes! But all trains break down everywhere, here at least they
come! In New York you can wait on a platform for years. There’s enough of the inner city in London, but you can live in Zone 3 and feel that you’re part of things. I also love that London is so diverse, I can count how many languages I can hear on the train, people from everywhere. Sometimes I think I’m the only one in the carriage that only speaks one language. I missed 24-hour service when I was here, sometimes I’d get up at 3am in the morning and want a Starbucks and not be able to find one. I know that’s my American consumerism peeping through, and I would feel really ashamed of it but it’s true. I’d want to go eat dinner at midnight during the week, and that’s impossible. I don’t think it needs to change though, I think I just need to chill out and know that there are times to do things and times when you can’t. At the RSC I became immersed in how Shakespeare is a writer for the current day, even in his 400 year old language. The issues and the conversations are extraordinarily current and cosmopolitan, so relevant, so poignant. I try to ensure that when I’m working on Shakespeare I allow those issues to resound and play across the threshold. When approached to do Antony and Cleopatra, I wanted to talk about a relationship that was between two people of different
Left: Half the cast in rehearsals for Antony and Cleopatra
Right: Tarell Alvin McCraney in rehearsals
race, and how their worlds, both culturally and economically are tearing them apart. That kind of tragedy speaks to anyone, and speaks to us today. I wanted to allow the piece to sing, to awaken people’s ideas, from something that they think of as old, to bring it into a more modern history, so I set it in Haiti, on the eve of its Revolution. We could write a book about what’s not in school text books these days. What we leave out of the scope of history, especially of the New World, is kind of catastrophic! In Miami, where we’ll be doing this play again in January, there’s a large Haitian-American community, and they and the Caribbean community around them will be familiar with that time in history, the colonialism, how the beginning of the New World was built on the exploits of the Old World. The revolution, the fight to get that yoke from around the necks of people, will be apparent to them. The hope is not for people to sit down and pick out who is Toussaint and which is LeClerc. That is a part of it, but mostly, like in Shakespeare’s day, we want people to get a visceral understanding of it. In James Shapiro’s book, 1599: A Year in the Life of Shakespeare, he says that when people came to see Antony and Cleopatra they weren’t well versed in the empire building that Octavius Caesar was doing, but they did know and feel a kinship with the Roman way of thinking, of conquest, because it was happening all around them with Queen Elizabeth and then King James. That would be a part of their language, so also, especially with an American audience, the understanding of the New World, the slave trade and the colonisation will be in every-
body’s psyche and people will have a visceral response while they’re watching the play. There’s a cast of 44 characters in Antony and Cleopatra, and people say the smallest cast you can do it with is seventeen. I’ve pared it down to ten actors, and because this project is a co-production of three companies, two American and one British, we wanted to make sure it felt like a true joining of the minds so we cast five from the UK and five from the US. We had auditions on both sides and worked and ouijaboarded and thank God we found a way to make it work. It’s a mix-up of accents on both Antony and Cleopatra’s sides.
The American
ALL PHOTOS: MANUEL HARLAN
Haitians, Spanish, British and French were involved at the time. Where do they fit in your staging? We’ve set it at the eve of the Revolution, right at the moment where the French under Napoleon feel they need a stronger grip on the Haitian piece of their Empire, for financial reasons and strategically to have a stronghold in the New World. They don’t have as many entry points as others into the Caribbean. The Spanish to the South and East are constantly pirating Haiti, the US is growing and setting up colonies, the Dutch are taking up new colonies as well. The other countries are terrified because slavery has been abolished on the island, and they think that their slave nations will rebel as well, so Napoleon sends his brother-in-law, LeClerc, down to Haiti to figure all this out and win it back for France. That is where we’ve placed our production, right at that moment when LeClerc arrives, because Antony is Caesar’s brother-in-law too.
Antony and Cleopatra plays at RSC’s Swan Theatre, Stratford November 7th - 30th, then moves to my home town of Miami in January, and finishes at the Public Theater in New York in March. This is the third play I’ve had staged in Miami, and is part of a larger project, The Winter Shakespeare Festival, in Miami, which I’ve been running for three years. The first production was The Brothers Size, then the adaptation I did of Hamlet for the RSC, which we did for about 6,000 students, for free. When we bring Antony and Cleopatra it will be absolutely free for students. That’s a part of my remit, to introduce young people for free to Shakespeare, and show them that it is for them, by them, by people who are where they’re from.
November 2013 35
PHOTO ALASTAIR MUIR
The American
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Cockney summing up of this new, alleged, comedy would be “‘effin ‘n’ blindin’, that’s about it really”. Sheila Hancock at 80 is lithe, fit and glamorous like no other 80 year old has ever been and her exquisite comic timing is undimmed. Lee Evans is one of the most supremely gifted comic geniuses this country has produced and Keeley Hawes has talent to burn and the great shame is that they’ve ended up in this farrago. A creaky send up of the East End criminal diaspora in Essex, it resembles the worst kind of 1970s sitcom crossed with Quentin Tarantino. Curtain goes up on the most gloriously vulgar nouveau riche mansion and in comes the orangehued Chrissie (Hawes), a twisted Barbie, whose first words are “You c***”. She and her mother in law Emmie (Hancock) have blown three million quid, the ill-gotten gains of her psycho brother in law Archie, who is just about to be released from prison. The other son Darnley (Evans) is recovering from a whack to his family jewels after creating havoc
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on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. He isn’t the full shilling, as Emmie might put it. With the money gone the three decide to pack their bags and flee to Spain but are stopped in their tracks by posh Allegra (Montserrat Lombard), a barrister on Archie’s case and now his lover, who has come to pick up the keys to the safe deposit box. The menagerie is completed when Emmie calls her neighbor, a decrepit, hapless, Mafia hitman Rocco (Karl Johnson), to deal with “Algeria” but who ends up shooting himself in the process. Writer Exton made a name for himself writing TV chillers in the '60s and doing the adaptations of screenplays such as 10 Rillington Place. Ten lost years followed in Hollywood (wonder why!) and he returned to the UK, settling into a lucrative career of adapting Woodhouse and Christie for the small screen. This play was written in 2005, two years before his death, and the mystery of why it has been put on now would flummox even Hercule Poirot himself. If you are celebrating the linguistic bravado of this Essex subculture
Wyndhams Theatre, Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0DA By Clive Exton Reviewed by Jarlath O’Connell
you should at least get your c***s right. Hancock gets the biggest laugh of the night for one, which is completely misplaced and illogical. The malapropisms and misunderstandings might raise a momentary titter but they’re all essentially mean spirited. Lacking the suppleness of farce or the warmth of good sitcom Exton settles for cheap gags and clunky exposition. Each plot point is excruciatingly telegraphed then labored beyond endurance. The second act finds the crew holed up in a dingy flat in Luton where, having hit bad times, Emmie is working a check-out and Darnley is in a Mariachi troupe, no less. This gives Evans’ fans a chance to wallow in him doing his schtick to I Yi Yi Yi Yi (I Like You Very Much), but is so implausible as to beggar belief. The laziness of this set up gets to the heart of its failure. Setting out, with a middle class sneer, to mock these uncouth nouveau riche (this criminal underclass with millions appear to draw welfare, like they would have the time to bother), he can’t even get right what their favored entertainment might be: it certainly wouldn’t be Carmen Miranda. Simon Higlett’s OTT set, which got a round of applause, is a crude caricature when, with a bit more effort, it could be a hymn to bling and exemplify what Grayson Perry calls “the vanity of small differences”. It ends in a blood bath when it should have ended on the producer’s in-tray.
Much Ado About Nothing The Old Vic Theatre, London SE1 Reviewed by Jarlath O’Connell OT
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n the night of 30 January 1937, Michael Redgrave was on the Old Vic stage playing Laertes to Olivier’s Hamlet. As the curtain fell, Olivier walked to the footlights and said “Ladies and gentlemen, tonight a great actress has been born. Laertes has a daughter”. 76 years later that daughter is, amazingly, making her debut on that same stage, having conquered the worlds of stage and film in the interim. Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones last starred together in Driving Miss Daisy, and the ease between the duo inspired actor/director/ex Shakespeare’s Globe ‘supremo’ Mark Rylance to cast them as the sparring lovers, Beatrice and Benedick, in this unconventional take on Shakespeare’s beloved comedy. The piece is the template for all the ‘rom coms’ which followed, from Tracy & Hepburn to Crystal & Ryan, and the casting of Beatrice-Benedick now overrides any other aspects, although technically the ClaudioHero plot is the main one. Directors have always played fast and loose with it, setting it in almost every conceivable location and period. Here, Rylance sets it in rural war torn England of 1944, where the visiting soldiers are American GI’s, mostly black, who have brought with them the liberating rhythms of
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the latest music, jazz. Music director Clare van Kampen has suffused the piece with the golden nostalgia of 1940s popular music, so there’s some boogie-woogie and a great blues take on the air Sigh No More. This staging has riled the critical establishment but it’s a production more sinned against than sinning. Eschewing the usual, rather irritatingly winsome, take on this material, Rylance has given it an American voice, frankly a breath of fresh air. In terms of tone it is all over the place but then it’s a problem text. The notion of male honor and the gender politics of the play will never gel with any modern staging, so whatever solution a director comes up with, he will invariably create a new set of problems. Beatrice’s vengeful cry of “Kill Claudio” has raised a nervous laugh in productions as much as it has created a fearful chill. Ultz’s strikingly abstract set, an all-teak room dominated by a very high, flat-topped arch resembling a coffee table, doesn’t lend itself to the traditionalists who might prefer characters peering out from behind assorted bushes in front of painted backdrops of Messina, but it has its own beauty and it works in terms
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of providing cover for the endless eavesdropping. Just as in opera you suspend your disbelief about the romantic couplings (Pavarotti needing a regular sit down during L’Elisir d’Amore), here the age-blind casting of the leads is soon forgotten, especially Redgrave, radiant and youthful as she is. Supporting performances, all age appropriate, are strong with Peter Wight as Dogberry, Tim Barlow as Verges and Penelope Beaumont as Ursula particularly fine. With a convoluted plot to wade through, pacing is always a problem and matters are not helped by Jones’s somnolent energy levels. The American accompanying me found his diction and projection just perfect but Redgrave’s problematic, whereas I found the exact opposite. Just goes to show, it depends on what your ear has been attuned to. Productions of this play come along as often as buses, so traditionalists won’t have long to wait, but here Rylance has been daring and given us a chance to wallow again in the presence of these acting greats.
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The American Left and below: Henry Goodman as Arturo Ui
The Resistible Rise by Bertolt Brecht Duchess Theatre, Catherine St, London WC2B 5LA Reviewed by Jarlath O’Connell
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his transfer from last year’s Chichester Festival Theatre season gives London audiences a chance to enjoy yet another towering performance by the great Henry Goodman and a rare opportunity to see this great play on the commercial stage. It’s a new revision by present day satirist Alistair Beaton. Stylistically one of Brecht’s more accessible works, it has the energy of a piece written in anger as indeed it was. Having fled the Nazis, Brecht was holed up in Helsinki, awaiting his visa for entry to the US. It was not staged however until after his death in 1958. Brecht showed how someone who is on the surface quite unprepossessing, even comical, could rise to the top by using corruption in high places to gain leverage for his protection rackets and he showed how every political gangster started small. With a neat allegory he presents the rise of Hitler via a 1930’s Hollywood gangster movie. It chronicles the attempts by a petty despot to control the vegetable market (no less) in Chicago by ruthlessly disposing of his opposition, one by one. In the RL
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of Arturo Ui PHOTO MANUEL HARLAN
beginning we cannot believe how anyone could take this Ui guy seriously. In a mesmerising performance Goodman presents him as a little man, bunched up in his tight suits, with greased down hair. He’s a collection of tics and jerks and leers, with a thick Brooklyn twang, a Mr Nobody, eaten up by anger and frustration. It’s part Chaplin’s Great Dicatator, part Brando doing Mark Antony. Goodman then beautifully calibrates the evolution of this ogre into a polished political leader, one we might see today fronting a party political broadcast. Director Jonathan Church has most fun with what today would be called Ui’s media training. Employing a washed out old ham actor to “learn him” how to stand and walk and sit, Goodman’s comic invention is a joy to behold and Keith Baxter is in gloriously fruity form as The Actor. But Goodman makes us realise that beneath this hapless, accident prone, jittery exterior lies an intelligent mind and the soul of a shrewd manipulator. The surrounding cast are solid with Michael Feast frighteningly reptilian as Roma, Joe McGann as the thuggish right-hand
man Giri and David Sturzaker as the slippery Givola. All these characters have direct parallels to the group that surrounded Hitler, so if you know your Nazi history you can start filling in the blanks. The production is greatly enhanced by Simon Higlett’s spare but spot-on designs and Tim Mithell’s film noir lighting demonstrates just how effective it can be to merely shoot shards of light through a side-stage cooling fan. It’s Edward Hopper meets Humphrey Bogart. Having conquered Chicago Arturo sets his sights on the neighbouring town of Cicero (the Austrian anschluss). The convolutions of this take-over are laboriously played out such that the second act does sag. The play ends though with a breathtakingly effective coda when we see the triumphant Ui atop a huge podium bedecked with a fascist logo. Goodman comes out of character and in a Brechtian (why not?) coda, delivers the great lines “the monster is dead but the bitch that bore him is in heat again”. It makes one contemplate how easy it is for people to be easily seduced with empty phrases and lazy scapegoating. Golden Dawn for one. It’s a timeless piece and Goodman’s performance must be seen.
Left: Isla Blair (Rita) and Nicholas Day (Ben) Above: Tom Ellis (Curtis) PHOTOS NOBBY CLARK
The Lyons I
s it possible in these deathcalloused times, post-Dexter, in which we revere cancerous anti-heroes at the Emmy Awards, for a bleak tragicomedy to offer us anything new and refreshing on the stage? Through a combination of scalpel sharp dialogue and a delicate balance of high comedy and gut-wrenching pathos, the answer, at least in Nicky Silver’s The Lyons, currently at The Menier Chocolate Factory, is most definitely. A family drama reminiscent of O’Neill, this play uses death as a centripetal force to draw the Lyons together around their dying father, before all semblance of sombre deference to the moment is lost and old secrets are dragged out into the lights of the stage leaving individuals raw, vulnerable and changed. The main action begins and predominantly takes place in a hospital room, a thorough study in somewhat unsettling theatrical realism by set designer Jonathan Fensom.
Rita is passing the time with decorating magazines next to her dying husband Ben, deciding how to redecorate after he’s gone. So far, so no holds barred. The two have an entirely antagonistic relationship that quickly turns into vicious comic sparring that has the audience in stitches. Still, it all feels a bit death/sitcom, especially when Lisa, Ben and Rita’s daughter enters and the conversation unnaturally escalates to a fever pitch. It is a play that depends on what feels like a very New York Jewish rhythm of a rapid exchange of insults that rise into a concatenating cacophony and fall into utter despair in operatic waves. It comes into its own when the audience can see all four family members playing on each others’ insecurities. Consequently, the play allows the performances, which are truly riveting, to shine. Charlotte Randle’s Lisa is utterly compelling, using a jittery energy to convey the sense of a woman always on the precipice of a breakdown – battling
By Nicky Silver The Menier Chocolate Factory, 53 Southwark St, London SE1 1RU Reviewed by Peter Lawler alcoholism, neurosis and feelings for an abusive ex-partner – and yet so able to engender our complete sympathy. I was pleasantly surprised by how comfortably Tom Ellis seemed to slip lankily into the role of Curtis, Ben and Rita’s gay, short story writing, intellectual son, his native-sounding nasally Manhattanite strains drawing us in. But Nicholas Day was perhaps the most surprising in his ability to somehow sustain a cantankerous charm as the dying father who finds a sort of peace in one of the play’s few surreal moments. And although death gets treated casually, even dismissively, labeled as ‘not all that exciting’ at one point, it acts as a catalyst triggering revelations in the lives of all these complex characters, so that the real magic and beauty seems to happen when the characters stop turning on each other, and begin to take aim at themselves. It is then that the play, quite upliftingly, becomes less about death and more about life.
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The American
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers New Wimbledon Theatre The Broadway, London SW19 1Q Reviewed by Peter Lawler Book: Lawrence Kasha & David Landay. Music: Gene de Paul, Al Kasha & Joel Hirschhorn. Lyrics: Johnny Mercer, Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn
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s a stage musical cynic, I confess: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is good fun. Rollicking good fun, in fact. Raucous, grabyour-partner, good, country fun. I won’t say it is perfect or that it is PC, you’ll have to leave your political sensitivity at the doors, but for a real piece of Americana in London right now, head on down to Wimbledon for an aural and visual spectacle. For those who don’t know it, this stageshow has enjoyed a colorful history, first as an MGM movie musical, when that genre was in its heyday, before that a short story that was essentially an American West rewriting of the Roman Legend of The Sabine Women, and later to become one of the most popular and beloved film musicals of all time. And although it has been brought to the stage on the American side of the Atlantic, it seems to have enjoyed more success here. Probably for good reason. It presents us with a vibrant, larger than life, wholesome America, an ideal America, an America that is tinged with nostalgia, but possibly never existed, not in the glorious God-fearing way that it appears on stage in this story. For the British, it shows off the best of our American nature, the rugged individualist who is, at heart, a
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The Brides, finding something to do while waiting for the Brothers...
diamond in the rough, a charming individual with spunk and spirit. For us expats, it represents an ossified picture of ourselves from some bygone past that is pleasant to remember and think about, even if a little indulgent. And it is a portrait of joyous, buoyant Oregon, teeming with life and vitality, presented with gusto in this production. Don’t be fooled by the star billing. Sam Attwater, of Eastenders and Hollyoaks fame, is generally agreeable and seemed to be what a certain contingent of the audience was waiting for, but felt a bit more Ronan Keating than Gene Kelly and this show could use a little less nasal boyband star, a little more Broadway. Helena Blackman, of Lloyd Webber vehicle How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, was very good, excellent even, but not extraordinary. And by the second act, the story of the romance between Adam the frontiersman and Milly the sassy, barmaidturned-homemaker starts to wear and feel a bit wet. What truly made this show watchable and lifted it to new heights, propelling the momentum from their initial appearance on stage, were the other six Pontipee brothers. So gleefully infectious was their collective joie de vivre, so
PHOTO HELEN JONES
charming were their mischievous spirits that I found myself tapping away to Sobbin‘ Women’ in spite of myself shortly into the second act. The chemistry between the brothers and their objects of affection was pure magic. Deserving of special mention was Sam Stones as Frank (full name, Frankincense), the brashest, most uncouth of the brothers and therefore the one with the most rough edges left over after the influence of Milly has its effect. His adept and natural movement and precise comic timing give him a natural stage charisma that will stand him well in future. And it is their rhythm, their spellbinding dance routines, entirely dismissive of gravity, bursting into leaps, flips and lifts, and their native charm that had me looking forward to every scene with the brothers in a show that is surely made for these wonderfully rich, rafter-bursting ensemble pieces. The bad news is that accents are inconsistent – ranging unconvincingly from On The Waterfront to Of Mice and Men – and it’s unclear whether there is or is not a tacit endorsement of blatant chauvinism. But if you squint your eyes and don’t look too hard for authenticity, you’ll find some genuine warmth in this technicolor extravaganza.
oldvictheatre.com
Win a pair of tickets to Much Ado About Nothing at The Old Vic* Until 30 November To enter, simply answer this Question:
‘Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps’ Who is Artistic Director at The Old Vic? a) Kevin Bacon b) Kevin Kline c) Kevin Spacey
James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave play warring lovers Benedick and Beatrice in Shakespeare’s * Email entries timeless comedy Much Ado About Nothing,todirected Mark Rylance. to theamerican@blueedge.co.uk, arrive by by midday November 15. Valid for Monday to Thursday
17 to 28. You must be Winners 18 years over at torandom. enter. The editor’s decision is final. *Toperformances enter the prizefrom draw November email marketing@oldvictheatre.com. willold beor chosen Prize is non-transferable and Tickets are nontransferable, no cash alternative. You are responsible for travel, accommodation or other expenses. there is no cash alternative. Valid for Monday-Thursday performances from 17-28 November.
PHOTO © JANE HOBSON
The American
HORRIBLEHISTORIES Barmy Britain, Part Two! Garrick Theatre, London WC2H 0HH
had a Sociology lecturer who once said that kids’ shows aren’t really kids’ shows. They’re adults’ shows that we let kids watch. I think that idea applies pretty well to Horrible Histories: Barmy Britain – Part Two!, currently on at The Garrick Theatre in The West End. Violent, flatulent and silly, this show also has enough subtle humor and references on a number of levels to keep accompanying adults heartily guffawing as well. Terry Deary’s first Horrible Histories book was published in 1993 and his ever expanding empire of “eww!” has continued to grow into awardwinning television programmes, Nintendo Wii games, board games, all manner of merchandise and a strong online presence as well as a first successful Barmy Britain stage show last year, also at the Garrick, with at least half of the same double act, Lauryn Redding as Esmerelda. This show incorporates interactivity, contemporary references and styles
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and audience participation to guide us in a full throttle ride through two thousand years of Britain. There are parts of American history that are violent, but for some reason, perhaps our relative youth as a nation, we don’t seem to revel in the violent and morbid parts the way our Transatlantic cousins do. This crash course in history through pop culture featured the story of William Wallace and Edward Longshanks in the style of British dating show, Take Me Out complete with catchphrase, “no likey, no lighty!” Utilizing Dick Turpin’s county of origin, his story is told as an episode of The Only Way Is Essex (think Jersey Shore in Cockney). Particularly sensational though was the barnstorming, roof-raising Prince Albert and Queen Victoria rap taken from the idea of her majesty demanding her proper “re-spect!” Credit must be given to Deary and his co-writer, Neal Foster,
for these clever touches, such as unearthing the, well, frankly barmy (translation = nuts; crazy) facts of British history, such as the way that Turpin was only caught after shooting a chicken in York, or that Queen Elizabeth at least temporarily put an end to the practice of a monarch having a personal servant to ‘assist’ them in the toilet. It is these unique bits of history that will both lodge themselves in the memory of the younger audience members and encourage them to go the library or to Google the Tudors or highwaymen later. Do these shows, or the whole Horrible Histories brand, teach? Is this imparting knowledge? I didn’t quiz my six year old and his friend afterwards, but I wouldn’t say so. They did say that though they found some parts “scary” (there were lots of lights and dry ice), they also “really loved it!” What that does emphasise is a sense of joy, and if children associate that with history and it makes them want to go back to it for a little taste of fun, it is no bad thing.
Reviewed by Patricia Howard PHOTO RICHARD CAMPBELL
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his majestic sequel to Shakespeare’s Macbeth, written by the Scottish playwright David Greig, has just finished its current run at Theatre Royal, Bath. We can only hope that the National Theatre of Scotland and the RSC give it another outing, soon, preferably retaining Siobhan Redmond, who was born to play Gruach (Lady Macbeth), Jonny Phillips as the English commander Siward, the effective monolithic set and the evocative live music and songs in Scots Gaelic and English.
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The Light Princess Music and lyrics by Tori Amos Book and lyrics by Samuel Adamson
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he title character protests “I don’t fly, I float”, in this long awaited new musical from Tori Amos. A brand new musical at the National is a big deal and one by a star of Amos’ stature is an even bigger one. Sad to report though that this bird doesn’t fly, she merely hovers a little... then sinks. It has all the signs of a show that was four years in gestation (that’s three too many) as it is hindered by an uncertainty of tone. It takes on fairy tales but has absolutely no edge and, without exploring their darker recesses, as was done so expertly in Into the Woods or Shockheaded Peter, adults are left with nothing but an insipid romance and a piece which feels like a panto without the jokes. The most puzzling aspect of this is, who is it for? Not engaging enough to grab the kids, not dark enough for adults, not sexy enough for teenagers, it’s as confused as its unsympathetic heroine, the Julie Andrews-like Althea. Amos’s songs have had a witchy, post-Kate Bush, vibe and so she was a good fit for the material but like most pop singers she forgets that theater songs have to do so much more. Pop songs can overcome banal lyrics if the tune grabs your ear and the arrangements have a punch, but here the arrangements creak like an old Pianola and the lyrics are often prosaic beyond endurance. The key love duet runs out of steam even in its title: “You are….You are…”
You’d think with a pop artist they’d build on her strengths to craft a few stand-out numbers but, no, as is the current curse in musicals, they opt for a near sungthrough show. The music, however, just hasn’t the heft to carry recitative this clunky. Based on George McDonald’s 1864 fairy tale novel it has the familiar trope of bereaved children, these two from neighbouring warring kingdoms. Overcome with grief, Princess Althea of Lagobel (the good guys), floats in the air and her father King Darius (Clive Rowe), has her locked in a tower, whereas the object of her love, Prince Digby of Sealand (the bad guys), becomes unnaturally solemn. It is only through growing up and dealing with love and loss that the princess acquires the gravity she needs and he is able to relax. Samuel Adamson’s book is the main culprit, as he gives the characters no real emotional depth and in a narrative drowned with incident it has little emotional line going through it. Carelessly flippant dialogue like “Shove your crown up your yazoo” doesn’t help either in sustaining the tone. Neither, does a piece, which is po-faced to begin
PHOTO BRINKHOFF MOGENBURG
Lyttleton, National Theatre, South Bank, London SE1 9PX Reviewed by Jarlath O’Connell with, survive the labored attempts to inject it with contemporary relevance. We get bulimia, the global water crisis, child abuse and whatever else he could find in the headlines. The main compensation though is the flame haired Amos look-alike, Rosalie Craig, in the lead. Having to belt out songs, often hanging upside down, or being held aloft and manhandled by black-clad acrobats, is no mean feat and she gives an astonishingly physical and full-blooded performance. Clive Rowe (veteran of Hackney Empire pantos) is, as usual, in glorious voice but he battles with the material. Rae (War Horse) Smith’s designs, which are part Victorian toy theater, part Muppet Show, also echo the pantos but sadly the only wit in the earnestly dreary piece comes from water lilies whose stamens comprise the garishly stockinged protruding legs of some high kicking dancers.
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BOOK REVIEWS Repast: Dining out at the Dawn of the New American Century, 1900-1910 Michael Lesy and Lisa Stoffer W. W. Norton, hardcover, £16.00, 264 pages ISBN: 978-0393070675 Dining out in the States was far different before the 1900s. It wasn’t until the start of the 20th century that women were allowed to eat in restaurants without a family member accompanying them. The new century changed ingredients, their preparation, the way we were served, even the way we dine today. Production in factories, the telegraph, telephones, faster freight, passenger trains and the first automobiles sped up the pace of life. Wages increased an average 25 per cent, and the country’s gross domestic product by nearly 26 per cent, between 1900 to 1910. Factory workers who once brought their lunch to work now ate from lunch carts and saloons outside the factory gates. New York City’s Four Hundred joined their nouveau riche counterparts in hosting banquets and balls in public venues. Restaurants like Sherry’s held stag dinners offering lavish food, free-flowing liquor, and risqué entertainment. Each year between 1893 and1910 new luxury hotels such as the Waldorf, the Hotel Astor and the Knickerbockers opened their doors. Ranhofer, the acknowledged chef of chefs who headed the kitchen at Delmonico’s, wrote a book, The Epicurean, about table service with diagrams showing
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Reviews by Virginia E Schultz proper place settings. Repast has selections of menus from the 3,000 dinners and banquets and the staggering 3,715 recipes he created for Delmonico’s, which unlocked the secrets of fine cuisine for Americans. European visitors were fascinated by lavish entertaining which one English aristocrat said were “really only given to royalty” at home. Present day chefs are still influenced by the decade. In 1976, a young American chef who had studied in Europe sat in his tatty motel room in Berkeley, California thinking about his future. He was working in a restaurant that had gotten strong reviews in Gourmet magazine, and was questioning how it should be continued. Picking up a huge cookbook he had taken to Paris and back, he thumbed through the chapter on soups until he noted the title: Crème de mais verte a la Mendocino (Cream of Corn a la Mendocino)... The cookbook was Ranhofer’s, the restaurant Chez Panisse and the chef Jeremiah Tower. Illustrated with photographs from the New York’s Public Library’s fascinating Buttolph Menu Collection, this a fascinating record of the American palate which created the fine dining we know today.
True Crime Detective Magazines 1924-1969 Eric Godtland & Dian Hanson Taschen, £12.99, 336 pages ISBN: 978-3836534871 Before TV crime programs, people read True Crime Detective magazines. As this book says, the only things every good movie script must have are sex and violence. In the 18th and 19th centuries crime and passion led the illiterate to learn to read so they could read the newspapers. Detective magazines sensationalized these themes. This book is about the development of the magazines, which offered human vice without promoting it. The images were as fascinating as the text, the covers and interior images told what was happening almost as well as the articles influencing women to smoke, and tying their right to smoke to woman’s lib. Despite the lurid stories, the magazines mostly had a moral ending. Written in French, German and English, this is a fascinating look at what people enjoyed reading before TV took over and shows America’s attitude to sex, sin, crime and punishment for over five decades.
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ast year, Kentucky’s John Calipari scooped up the most talented recruits, put them out on the woodwork... and saw them massively underachieve. Instead of storming March Madness, the Wildcats went 21-12, missed the cut, and even crashed out of the NIT in the first round. Nerlens Noel and Archie Goodwin III were one-and-done, and the ‘Cats became proof that without chemistry, no amount of talent can be considered a sure thing. Right? Yet look below and isn’t that the same (meaning heavily restocked) Kentucky team heading up our preview? Is this the year we learn the lesson: you can’t beat experience? Maybe, but in terms of freshman talent, there may never have been a year like this one.
NCAA Basketball Preview
OVER
The Big Four Kentucky
The Kentucky Wildcats have bounced right back from NIT oblivion to being the oddsmakers’ darlings. So does raw talent rule in the NBA’s waiting room, asks Richard L Gale, or does March experience give some teams an edge? Alex Poythress, a notable sophomore amongst the freshmen of Kentucky PHOTO © UK ATHLETICS/ CHET WHITE
Fortunately, these Wildcats are more than floor-raw showreels. F Julius Randle has lottery-ready all-round game, and PG Andrew Harrison’s high school career is dripping in highlights, but with some of last year’s rookies now battle-hardened sophomores with something to prove rather than waiting around for everything to be delivered, freshman southpaw James Young may have to ride the bench. Willie CauleyStein will have to fight off freshman Dakari Johnson as starting center, and F Alex Poythress, something of a disappointment last season, may be forced into a leadership role.
Duke
It just could be Duke’s time. With a shade more consistency from sophomore G Rasheed Sulaimon, athletic F Rodney Hood eligible
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after a transfer sabbatical, PG Quinn Cook and possibly center Marshall (brother of Mason) Plumlee finally contributing as starters, and freshman forward Jabari Parker expected to blaze in and out of town in one season, there’s just the right mix of God-given talent and hard graft for Coach K to get the job done.
Louisville
Their football team may be making the noise right now, but not even in the year of the freshman am I going to ignore a basketball national champion with many stars back. Gorgui Dieng and Peyton Siva may be gone, but returning will be G Russ Smith and forwards Chane Behanan, Luke Hancock, and postseason breakout Montrezl Harrell.
North Carolina
We can grumble all we like about PJ Hairston’s offseason run-ins (plural) with the law, and whether he should be on the team at all, but here he is, and here too, stunningly, is forward James Michael McAdoo, who many expected to opt for the 2013 draft. 6-10 center Joel James could have a monster breakout.
The Next Four Kansas
Kansas snatched wing Andrew ‘best player since LeBron’ Wiggins away from Kentucky on the recruiting trail (and G Wayne Selden is no slouch), but before we get too carried away with Wiggins-mania, let’s remember that Kansas loses ALL of its starting five from a year ago. Forecasters may have the recall of an amnesiac goldfish when it comes to picking Kentucky no.1, but once bitten, twice shy when it comes to everybody changing such as here.
Ohio State
They lose scorer Deshaun Thomas, but Aaron Craft emerged (15ppg) as they reached the Elite Eight. They’ll be thereabouts again. If Sam Thompson and LaQuinton Ross take another step, the Final Four beckons.
Jerami Grant will supply a steadyto-constant supply of points as they build to the draft, but the key to March or even April will be Canadian PG Tyler Ennis, another of those freshmen. It won’t be all UNC and Duke in the ACC this year.
Michigan State
Colorado
Derrick Nix is gone, SG Gary Payne stayed at the last moment, and the rest of the scorers return. The Big Ten should be a dogfight between the Buckeyes and Spartans again.
Arizona
The Wildcats’ Sweet 16 run sets them apart from the chasers in the Pac-12. A lot of personnel departed. Veteran PG TJ McConnell, via Duquesne, should feature, while the best of the freshmen is 6-8 forward Aaron Gordon who instantly becomes one of the top talents in the Pac-12.
Sweet Seasons Ahead Oklahoma State
PG Marcus Smart was a surprise returnee, joining a large group of veterans that also includes F Markel Brown. Presumably, the thinking was that the Big 12 was theirs for the taking. Now they’ll have to upend Kansas and Andrew Wiggins.
Michigan
Finishing behind the Buckeyes and Spartans in the Big Ten last year, they lose Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. from a roster that was the national runner up come tourny time. Despite C Mitch McGary and F Glenn Robinson III among those returning, they could take a step back.
Syracuse
The ACC gets to meet Jim Boeheim’s zone for the first time, CJ Fair and
Every now and again, you have to cut against the grain, so we’ll take the Buffs to push Arizona in the Pac-12. Most of their top scorers are back, including Spencer Dinwiddie, (15.3ppg) and Askia Booker
Memphis
Tarik Black transfered to Kansas, but the returnees (including PG Joe Jackson) and a great recruiting class at forward means the Tigers will make some AAC noise in their first season out of C-USA.
UCLA
Sophomore guards Kyle Anderson and Jordan Adams represent the kind of talent championship-pedigree coach Steve Alford has been brought in to maximize. A round of 64 team last year, better is expected.
Wisconsin
F Sam Dekker returns for his sophomore campaign, and there’s a good number of other veterans (plus PG Josh Gasser, back from missing last year), but Wisconsin looks more steady than exciting. Steady can get you a long way, though.
Indiana
F Will Sheehey and PG Yogi Ferrell return for Indiana... and that’s pretty much it. However, freshmen including Noah Vonleh, and Arizona State transfer G Evan Gordon (brother of Eric) mean the Hoosiers should survive the exodus.
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Keep An Eye On... Florida
New faces include top PG Kasey Hill, but it isn’t all freshmen. As well as a smattering of vets, excellent F Dorian Finney-Smith arrives from Virginia Tech, and G Eli Carter escapes Rutgers. However, there’s ankle issues galore, and freshman forward Chris Walker won’t be eligible until around Christmas.
Marquette
With ‘Cuse, Pitt, Louisville, UConn and more following the siren song of football dollars, the Big East appears Marquette’s for the taking. Davante Gardner and Jamil Wilson return plus a host of 4-star recruits.
VCU & St Louis
VCU went 12-4 in its first A-10 season, made the round of 32, returns plenty of scorers and ex-FSU senior Terrance Shannon arrives. St Louis is the veteran-stocked conference foe they must conquer.
Taking it to 32...
UConn: back from a postseason ban. The roster’s back too: Shabazz Napier, Ryan Boatright, 7-1 C Enosch Wolf and George Washington transfer G Lasan Kromah ... Baylor: forwards Isaiah Austin and Cory Jefferson head the cast ... Georgetown won a share of the Big East title. Returnee D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera was on a tear late last year ... Iowa: NIT runner up returns the team’s core ... Tennessee: noteworthy returnees include PF Jarnell Stokes, SG Jordan McRae ... New Mexico: Steve Alford assistant Craig Neal assumes duties and a roster featuring C Alex Kirk ... UNLV, Notre Dame, Wichita St., Villanova, Gonzaga, & NC State.
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FOUR NARRATIVES TO FOLLOW IN THE NEW NHL SEASON By Jeremy Lanaway I t’s one week into the 2013-14 NHL season and storylines abound — those that were anticipated results of off-season happenings, and those that have emerged unexpectedly from the first week’s tilts. Even the most jaded hockey fan is sure to find amusement in the narratives unfolding around the league.
Realignment relief
The 2013-14 season has seen the implementation of the NHL’s muchhyped realignment scheme: the Atlantic and Metropolitan divisions in the Eastern Conference, and the Central and Pacific divisions in the Western Conference. Despite the mathematical imbalance – having eight teams per division in the East, and only seven teams per division in the West, which translates into a 50 and 57 percent chance of making the playoffs respectively – the new scheme should add some muchneeded logic to the league’s travel routine, shifting the Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Bluejackets to the Eastern Conference, and the Winnipeg Jets to the Western Conference. It remains to be seen which teams will make the most of the new configuration.
Coaching confidential
After amassing 49 points in last season’s lockout-shortened campaign, lacklustre enough to earn them twentieth overall, the Philadelphia Flyers came into this season looking for answers. Unfortunately,
through the first three games – all losses – head coach Peter Laviolette didn’t have the answers. His failure to right the ship resulted in one of the quickest bench boss firings in recent memory, leaving the position open to Craig ‘Chief’ Berube, who’d been biding his time with the Flyers’ farm team. The good news is that the Flyers responded to the change with a win over the Florida Panthers in their fourth start. The bad news is that the Flyers have made a habit of underachieving since making it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2010, thanks in part to their front-loaded roster, whose goal totals haven’t been enough to get the team on the right side of the goal differential. Other interesting storylines involving coaches include the you-take-my-coach-I’ll-take-yours scenario between the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks. Last summer, the Rangers fired head coach John Tortorella, who subsequently became the Canucks’ first American bench boss, and the fiery leader has managed to shake the team’s veterans out of their comfort zone, enabling the Canucks
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Olympic dreaming
It’s been four years since the NHL strutted its stuff at the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada, and the league has (wisely) decided to showcase its talent again on the world stage at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Any hockey poolster worth his salt loaded up on Russians, believing that the prospect of representing the Motherland on their own soil would provide the motivation needed for them to ascend the NHL’s scoring ranks, and the strategy has certainly paid off in the case of Washington Capitals superstar Alexander Ovechkin, who has exploded out of the gate with four goals and two assists in three games. Teammate Mikhail Grabovski must’ve also gotten the memo from Mother Russia, as he’s managed to tally three goals and two helpers. It’s unclear if the Russians will be able to maintain their frenetic pace until February, but one thing is certain – nobody will be able to question their readiness at the start of this season. to jump out to a 3-and-1 start, fourth best in the league. The Rangers’ hiring of former Canucks coach Alain Vigneault hasn’t panned out quite so well, as they’ve managed only one win and sit in 24th in league standings. Of course, the season is still young, but it will be interesting to see how the coach-swap works out on either coast. Last but certainly not least, rookie Colorado Avalanche coach Patrick Roy has already lived up to expectations by earning himself a $10,000 fine in his first game behind the bench. The hot-tempered French-Canadian, a Hall-of-Famer who won two Stanley Cups with the Avalanche and two with the Montreal Canadiens, knocked down a partition dividing his bench from that of Anaheim Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau to vent his fury for what he considered a dirty hit on rookie Nathan MacKinnon in a game that
the Avalanche had already put well out of reach. Roy claimed to be just sticking up for his player, old-time hockey-style, but the NHL decided to send him a message. Will it be enough to quell Roy’s famous temper when his team gets on a losing streak? (They currently have three wins and zero losses.) Probably not – which is sure to shift the entertainment from the ice to the bench.
The kids are all right
In an effort to pinch pennies and stay under the ceiling of this season’s lowered salary cap, many teams have opted to keep their kids on the roster, and they’re doing just fine, thank you. In fact, San Jose Sharks rookie Tomas Hertl currently sits atop the league’s scoring ladder with six goals and one assist in three games. The nineteen-year-old
Ovechkin appears to be playing at an Olympic level already PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WASHINGTON CAPITALS
centerman from the Czech Republic scored two goals in his first-ever NHL game, and then another four in the Sharks’ dismantling of the Rangers in his third start, becoming the youngest player to score four goals in a game since Jimmy Carson did it for the Los Angeles Kings back in 1988. His fourth goal – a flip shot released through his own legs – is going to be hard to beat for the goal-of-the-year honor at the season’s end. YouTube it and see for yourself.
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Left, top to bottom: The fancy dress potential of the Vikings was fully realized by the British crowd ... Blondes have more fun, the Vikings cheerleaders had plenty to celebrate ... Viktor the Viking donned British Guards garb at halftime ... The Towels were as Terrible as Ben Roethlisberger’s protection ... Gene Simmons delivers the US National Anthem
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ngland hadn’t seen a Viking incursion like this since the days of King Cnut (that’s Sweynsson, not Rockne). There was even a fabled leader bearing the suspiciously Nordic name of Peterson. And with British Vikings fans arriving like a great bearded army to support the home side, Steelers fans – seemingly in the majority outside Wembley – suddenly found themselves in a sea of purple inside the stadium. Local rapper Tinie Tempah belted out some pre-game hits, aided by speakers loud enough to send at least one of The American’s reporters scrambling for plexiglass-muffled cover, flame machines warmed the cheeks of the first two levels of the stadium, and Kiss founder Gene Simmons – no stranger to stage pyrotechnics – was on hand to sing the US National Anthem. The 7th International Series game to be held in London – and the first to feature either of the Steelers or Vikings
– was ready to supply the spectacle. As if having Big Ben Roethlisberger, Troy Polamalu, Jared Allen and rushing legend in the making Adrian Peterson visit wasn’t enough, the game also conspired to be a good one. Again, Wembley would provide one of the higher-scoring games of a Sunday afternoon. The quality of the finish wasn’t immediately apparent. With Steelers OG Ramon Foster injured during the game, a thin offensive line perforated and the Vikings defense took advantage, sacking Roethlisberger five times, half of those by Allen. The Vikings opened the scoring with a 54-yard fieldgoal, and after Matt Cassel (in for an injured Christian Ponder) tossed a 70-yard score to Greg Jennings, it was a relief when the Steelers mounted a touchdown drive, Le’Veon Bell capping it with an 8-yard scoring run. Nonetheless, Adrian Peterson’s 60-yard run and an exchange of fieldgoals left Pittsburgh behind at the half, 20-10. Bell’s second visit to the end zone
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Above: Le’Veon Bell to the right, and to the left, Roethlisberger passes, and tight end David Johnson makes an 8-yard catch against Minnesota’s defensive maven Chad Greenway and rightfully smiles after missing 2012 with an ACL tear. The Steelers weren’t lacking in offense, despite line woes, chalking up 434 yards to Minnesota’s 393, with 26 first downs to the Vikings 16. Right: Bell dives into the endzone.
was answered by Peterson, and after a Chad Greenway interception of Roethlisberger, Cassel hooked up with Jennings for a second score. The 34-17 lead at the end of the 3rd quarter seemed insurmountable with Roethlisberger under a constant pass rush, but a TD pass to Jerricho Cotchery, a Suisham field goal, and some defense, and the Steelers were driving for a tie inside two minutes. An edge-of-seat final act saw Roethlisberger sacked and stripped of the ball with seconds to go, recovered by Minnesota’s Kevin Williams. As a meeting of 0-3 teams goes, London couldn’t have asked for a better NFL showcase.
Box images, right, top to bottom: Adrian Peterson celebrates another touchdown ... and the first twenty rows break out the s’mores again ... Protecting Roethlisberger continued to be an uphill struggle ... Big Ben came up just short in an heroic comeback attempt.
Left: Adrian Peterson paced the Vikes... and is on pace for a 20 TD season, even if he may only manage 1,600 yards this season.
Photos © Gary Baker Words by Richard L Gale November 2013 51
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49ers v Jags at Wembley
Summing up a great night for San Francisco and a bad time for the home team, Jacksonville. Words by Josh Modaberi, Photos by Gary Baker.
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he Jacksonville Jaguars were caught in a Wembley storm as they were swept away by a rampant San Francisco 49ers 42-10. The Jaguars will be making Wembley their second home in the coming years with three more games to play in the English capital over the next few seasons. Jacksonville crossed the Atlantic with a losing record of 0-7 and things didn’t get any better on their first trip to London as their dismal streak continued. This was San Francisco’s second regular season game at Wembley Stadium after beating the Denver Broncos 16-24 in 2010. The 49ers got on the score board early on and by the end of the first quarter were 14-0 up, with touchdowns from Frank Gore and Colin Kaepernick. San Francisco continued to pile on the pressure in the second quarter and went into the halftime break leading 28-3, with Kaepernick scoring two more touchdowns. Jaguars did manage to get on the scoreboard before halftime with Josh Scobee converting a 38 yard field goal for three points. There looked to be more hope for Jacksonville as they came out for the the second half on the front foot and put the 49ers under pres-
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sure from the kick-off. The pressure paid off as the Jags scored their first touchdown of the night thanks to Mike Brown collecting a 29 yard pass from Chad Henne. The Jaguars’ joy didn’t last long though as the 49ers replied straight away with their fifth touchdown of the night and the second for Gore as they headed into the final quarter leading 35-10. San Francisco heaped more misery on the Jaguars as Dan Skuta added a sixth touchdown when he returned tight end Marcedes Lewis’ fumble for 47 yards. San Francisco have now won five games on the spin and have a record of 6-2 and are many peoples favourites to go all the way and win the Super Bowl in New Jersey on 2nd February at MetLife Stadium. Jacksonville are winless this season with a dismal record of 0-8, and they will be hoping for big improvements when they take on the Dallas Cowboys at Wembley Stadium next season.
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Speculation and gossip – the stuff that column inches are made of, writes Richard L Gale
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t could just be my age. There’s not an NFL roster that doesn’t feature a guy whose dad or uncle’s career I don’t loudly recall for the benefit of anyone who’ll listen. It’s much the same watching TV drama, which I now pepper with IMDB-like recounting of all the other things they’ve been in, and who they’re married to (#TurningIntoMyParents). Punctuating my sports viewing with ‘I’ve met him’ may be a weak boast, but its also a form of ‘somehow-connectivity’. Nobody in my house remotely cares that I chatted to someone who once dated a Kardashian, because nobody in my house cares what a Kardashian is (hoorah for that). Still, the further Reggie Bush is from his Kardashian days, the better he plays, with my opinion embroidered by that reality TV context. Last month, I spent a few Wembley minutes tilting press room Pepsis with NFL Rants & Raves’ Jeff Ellis and discussing Josh Freeman’s fate. Jeff mused that the ex-Buc might land in Jacksonville and soon show up in London. As it turned out, he signed for the Vikings the following week, just missing out on Wembley. Josh Freeman jumps ship from the Buccaneers to the Vikings PHOTO: GARY BAKER
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Jeff once spoke on his podcast of being stunned to incoherence by Commissioner Roger Goodell’s nodding recognition of him. Now, Goodell doesn’t recognize me from Adam, but I can at least claim to be on nodding terms with someone who’s on nodding terms with Goodell. I make this aside not just to herd myself and the Commish into the cramped, vicarious confines of the same sentence, but to illustrate that in the midst of this epic overseas clash of teams trying to salvage a season, we were instead discussing the tittle-tattle of Freeman’s future. Jeff, of course, is co-host for a highly entertaining, chatty podcast while I pen the lightweight ramble that is Sideline, so ‘a little off-topic’ is pretty much our ballpark. Elsewhere, opinions about Tom Coughlin’s sackability, Lane Kiffin’s coaching credibility and to what extent Jadeveon’s Heisman bid is Clown-ey are a seeming must for those contract-bound to deliver several blog entries a day. It would be a snip to knock out thousands of weekly words writing career obituaries for lukewarm NFL passers, taking aim at whoever lost a close one most recently: Tony Romo throws 500+ yards in a game and
he’s a bum; Philip Rivers is reborn/ regressing (flip a coin); and with WR Julio Jones now out for the year, Falcons QB Matt Ryan can expect his under-appreciation index to rocket through the domed roof as Atlanta implodes. We enjoy soap operas – ideally QB controversies – and closeups as soon as the strain shows. The NFL has its own reality TV with Hard Knocks. The league now says that if no team volunteers for it, it will select a team for the television peep show (the second visit to the Bengals exposed little OMG!-worthy), and one of the criteria for selection will be whether a team made the playoffs. Those that do, rather than moving up the list, are exempt. It isn’t success but human weakness that is the stuff of column inches and ratings alike. Bush+Kardashian is still search engine gold. Bush having a career year? Meh, apparently. Still, perhaps it’s reassuring to think pathos still triumphs over logos in the age of fantasy football and sabermetrics. If a little gossip is good for the soul, maybe that’s an upside to the prospect of the Jaguars, Raiders and now-floundering Falcons all hosting at Wembley in 2014. In any case, for UK fans, being able to one day tell the kids and grandkids ‘I remember seeing player X play at Wembley’ is a boast that may never wear thin. In this social networking era, feeling that real people are within reach and not merely in Madden or on TV is key to the NFL’s global appeal.
Eagle Eyed
This is the year that was! Darren Kilfara rings in golf’s new season with a look back at the climbers and fallers from 2013
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ow that the 2013 PGA Tour season is over, did you know that the 2013-14 PGA Tour season has already begun? Back in what I like to call the Tour’s Nabisco Era, the Tour Championship concluded the season in early November, but then God (aka commissioner Tim Finchem) created the FedEx Cup in 2007, shifting the Tour Championship to mid-September and christening the handful of second-class events thereafter as the “Fall Finish”. Then God had second thoughts and made those events an Autumn Activation of the new season, because of course that makes much more sense than things like the Gregorian calendar or narrative continuity. I never thought the international tennis calendar would seem more logical than the PGA Tour schedule, but here we are. Anyway, while I wait with bated breath for the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open and the McGladrey Classic, let’s quickly take stock of who did what in the 2013 season (end-2012 and current World Golf Rankings noted in parentheses):
Sunday heroics at Augusta and Muirfield confirming their superstar status.
UP
DOWN
Henrik Stenson (from 53 to 4): And he was no. 207 at the end of 2011 as well – two wins in September make him my Comeback Player of the Year. Adam Scott (5 to 2), Phil Mickelson (17 to 3): Two victories apiece, with
Jordan Spieth (809 to 30): One of the best rookie seasons ever – and still only 19 years old. Can he avoid a sophomore slump? Steve Stricker (18 to 7), Jim Furyk (27 to 13): No titles, but Stricker’s top-three FedEx Cup finish in only 13 events was astonishing, while Furyk’s 59 at the BMW was easily the round of the year. Matt Kuchar (21 to 8), Zach Johnson (25 to 12), Jason Day (37 to 16): Upwardly mobile without threatening dominance – yet. Billy Horschel (312 to 34), Kevin Streelman (225 to 37), Graham DeLaet (177 to 32): Welcome to the big-time – how badly do you want to kick on in 2014? Boo Weekley (299 to 48), Angel Cabrera (267 to 53): Thanks for coming – we missed you guys! Rory McIlroy (1 to 6): How is he still no. 6? Has any great player in his youthful prime ever looked more completely lost than Rory did in 2013? Bubba Watson (8 to 26), Webb Simpson (11 to 24): No wins and
Current no. 3 superstar, Phil Mickelson PHOTO ED BALAUN
only eight top 10s between them – heads still stuck in 2012, perhaps? Luke Donald (2 to 15), Lee Westwood (7 to 18): Increasingly likely nominees for the Colin Montgomerie memorial “Best Brit With No Majors” trophy. Louis Oosthuizen (6 to 28), Carl Pettersson (32 to 70), Padraig Harrington (59 to 95), Geoff Ogilvy (51 to 96), K.J. Choi (48 to 113): Non-American stars who failed to impress in the US.
SIDEWAYS
Justin Rose (4 to 5), Jason Dufner (9 to 10): Major steps forward at Merion and Oak Hill redeemed otherwise pedestrian seasons. Tiger Woods (3 to 1): Five wins and Player of the Year honors aren’t enough to satisfy him, so why should they satisfy us? 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.
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The American
American ORGANIZATIONS
American Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery Kathleen Bice, Development Officer, Members and Patrons 020 8299 8726 www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/support_us/ american_friends.aspx
An index of useful resources in the UK If your group or organization is fundraising, has upcoming events, or is running something you’d like more people to know about, get in touch with Sabrina at The American. If your entry needs amendments please let us know – we rely on you to keep us up to date! Telephone 01747 830520, Fax 01747 830691, sabrina@theamerican.co.uk. We would be pleased to receive profiles, news or short articles about your organization for possible publication in The American.
ESSENTIAL CONTACTS EMERGENCIES Fire, Police, Ambulance
999 or 112 (NOT 911)
001 100 155 153 151
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
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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 Red Cross RAF Mildenhall Tel: 01638 542107, After Hours 07031 15 2334 red.crossv3@mildenhall.af.mil
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
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 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 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
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 British Museum Mollie Norwich. The British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG. 020 7323 8590 www.britishmuseum.org
American Institute of Architects Mailing address: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX Tel: 0203 318 5722 chapterexecutive@aiauk.org membership@aiauk.org www.aiauk.org
Here are some crucial telephone numbers to know while you are in the UK.
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 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
The American
UK: The Development Office, Royal Institution of Great Britain, 21 Albemarle Street, London W1S 4BS 020 7670 2991 kdodd@ri.ac.uk www.rigb.org
American Friends of the Royal Society http://royalsociety.org/Overseas-Donations 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 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
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. Tel. 020 7290 9888 www.babinc.org ukinfo@babinc.org British American-Canadian Associates Contact via The English Speaking Union – esu@esu.org
Has your group done something you’re proud of? Tell us email sabrina@theamerican.co.uk
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 66-68 Exhibition Rd, 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 Circumcision Matters Problems arranging circumcision for your new-born boy? If so go to www.circumcisionmatters.com or call 020 7390 8433 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 Tel:+1.207 892 4358
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UK Office: Chawton House Library, Chawton, Alton, Hampshire GU34 1SJ Tel: 01420 541010 www.chawton.org/support/nafchl5.html
Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner 5th Floor, Counting House, 53 Tooley Street, London SE1 2QN 0207 211 1500 info@oisc.gov.uk www.oisc.gov.uk 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
58 November 2013
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-Women-inLondon/ 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
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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’s Club of London 68 Old Brompton Road, London SW7 3LQ. 020 7589 8292 awc@awclondon.org www.awclondon.org American Women’s Club of Central Scotland P.O. Box 231, 44-46 Morningside Road, Edinburgh, EH10 4BF info@awccs.org www.awccs.org American Women of South Wales 07866 190838 awsouthwales@fawco.org The Anglo-American Charity Limited Jeffrey Hedges, Director. 07968 513 631 info@anglo-americancharity.org Association of American Women in Ireland aawireland@fawco.org Association of American Women of Aberdeen PO Box 11952, Westhill, Aberdeen, AB13 0BW email via website www.awaaberdeen.org British Association of American Square Dance 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
American Women of Surrey PO Box 185, Cobham, Surrey KT11 3YJ. www.awsurrey.org
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
American Women’s Association of Yorkshire The Chalet, Scarcroft Grange, Wetherby Road, Scarcroft, Leeds LS14 3HJ. 01224 744 224 Contact: Carol Di Peri
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
The American
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 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 The East Anglia American Club 49 Horsham Close, Haverhill, Suffolk CB9 7HN Tel: 01440 766 967 Email: eaacexpats@karej.co.uk 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
West Midlands. B93 8ZY T: 0870 720 0663 info@naconnect.com www.naconnect.com
020 7794 5861 www.womenwriters.org.uk info@womenwriters.org.uk
MILITARY
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
AFJROTC 073 Lakenheath High School. Tel: 01638 525603 Air Force Sergeants Association European Division Timothy W. Litherland CMSgt, USAF (ret). Chapters at RAFs Alconbury, Croughton, Lakenheath, Menwith Hill and Mildenhall. tim_lith@msn.com www.afsadiv16.org
Petroleum Women’s Club Contact: Nancy Ayres. Tel: 01923 711720 nanayrs@btopenworld.com Petroleum Women’s Club of Scotland pwcscotland@yahoo.co.uk www.pwcos.com
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
Bentwaters/Woodbridge Retirees’ Association President: Wylie Moore. 2 Coldfair Close, Knodishall, Saxmundham, Suffolk, IP17 1UN. 01728 830281
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
British Patton Historical Society Kenn Oultram 01606 891303 Brookwood American Cemetery (WW1) Brookwood, Woking, Surrey GU24 0BL 01483 473237 www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/bk.php
Stars of Great Britain Chapter #45 Washington Jurisdiction. Lakenheath, England sogb45@yahoo.com http://starsofgreatbritainchapter45.com
Cambridge American Cemetery (WWII Cemetary) Superintendent: Mr. Bobby Bell. Asst. Superintendent: Mr. Tony Barclay. Coton, Cambridge CB23 7PH. 01954 210350 cemetery@abmc-er.org www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/ca.php
St John’s Wood Women’s Club Box 185, 176 Finchley Road, London NW3 6BT membership@sjwwc.org www.sjwwc.org Thames Valley American Women’s Club Membership: Marie Krag PO Box 1687, Maidenhead, Berks SL6 8XT. 01628 632683 www.tvawc.com membership@tvawc.com
Commander in Chief, US Naval Forces Europe US Naval Forces Europe-Africa - US Sixth Fleet www.c6f.navy.mil CNE-C6FPAO@eu.navy.mil Eighth Air Force Historical Society Gordon Richards/Michelle Strefford UK Office, The Croft, 26 Chapelwent Road, Haverhill, Suffolk CB9 9SD 01440 704014 www.8thafhs.org
UK Panhellenic Association Contact Susan Woolf, 10 Coniston Court, High St. Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex HA1 3LP. 020 8864 0294 susanrwoolf@hotmail.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
UK Anglian Shrine Club (Master Masons) Secretary: David A. Mostyn Long Furlong House, Holt, Norfolk NR25 7DD 01263 740223 davidmostyn@longfurlong.plus.com
New Neighbors Diana Parker, Rosemary Cottage, Rookshill, Rickmansworth, Herts WD3 4HZ. 01923 772185
W.E.B. DuBois Consistory #116 Northern Jurisdiction Valley of London, England, Orient of Europe Cell: 0776-873-8030 mjack36480@aol.com
North American Connection (West Midlands) PO Box 10543, Knowle, Solihull,
Women’s Writers Network Cathy Smith, 23 Prospect Rd, London, NW2 2JU.
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
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Detachment 1088, London, England Commandant Mike Allen Creek Cottage, 2 Pednormead End, Old Chesham, Buckinghamshire HP5 2JS detachment1088@mcl-london-uk.org www.mcl-london-uk.org
Military Officers’ Association of America www.moaa.org msc@moaa.org
Navy League of the United States, United Kingdom Council Council President: Steven G. Franck steven.franck@googlemail.com www.navyleague.org 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. Society of American Military Engineers (UK) UK address: Box 763, USAFE Construction Directorate. 86 Blenheim Crescent, West Ruislip, Middlesex HA4 7HL Reserve Officers Association London Col. B.V. Balch, USAR, 72 Westmoreland Road, Barnes, London SW13 9RY memberservices@roa.org www.roa.org Society of American Military Engineers (UK) UK address: Box 763, USAFE Construction Directorate. 86 Blenheim Crescent, West Ruislip, Middlesex HA4 7HL London Post. President: W. Allan Clarke. Secretary: Capt. Gary Chesley. Membership Chairman, Mr. Jim Bizier. US Army Reserve 2nd Hospital Center 7 Lynton Close, Ely, Cambs, CB6 1DJ. Tel: 01353 2168 Commander: Major Glenda Day. US Air Force Recruiting Office Bldg 239 Room 139 RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk IP28 8NF +44-1638-54-4942/1566 phillip.guffa@mildenhall.af.mil
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
60 November 2013
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 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 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 Western UK Retiree Association President: R. Jim Barber, MSgt (USAF), Ret Phone: 01280 708182
EDUCATIONAL ACS International Schools ACS Cobham International School, Heywood, www.acs-england.co.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 Butler University, Institute for Study Abroad 21 Pembridge Gardens, London W2 4EB 020 7792 8751 www.ifsa-butler.org/england-overview.html Centre Academy London 92 St John’s Hill, Battersea, London SW11 1SH Tel: 02077382344 Fax: 02077389862 info@centreacademy.net www.centreacademy.net Centre Academy East Anglia Church Rd, Brettenham, Ipswich, Suffolk IP7 7QR Tel: 01449736404 Fax: 01449737881 admin@centreacademy.net www.centreacademy.net 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
The American
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
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
Fordham University London Centre Academic Coordinator: Sabina Antal 23 Kensington Square, London W8 5HQ 020 7937 5023 londoncentre@fordham.edu www.fordham.edu
Regent’s University London Inner Circle, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4NS. 020 7486 9605. www.regents.ac.uk exrel@regents.ac.uk
Fulbright Commission (US-UK Educational Commission) Dir. of Advisory Service: Lauren Welch Battersea Power Station, 188 Kirtling Street, London SW8 5BN 020 7498 4010 www.fulbright.co.uk 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 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 Rd, 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
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 Schiller International, Wickham Court School Layhams Road, West Wickham, Kent BR4 9HW. Tel 0208 777 2942 Fax 0208 777 4276 Wickham@schillerintschool.com www.wickhamcourt.org.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 Syracuse University London Program Faraday House, 48-51 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AE http://sulondon.syr.edu 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 UKCISA - Council for International Education 9-17 St. Albans Place, London N1 0NX 020 7354 5210 www.ukcisa.org.uk University of Notre Dame London Program 1 Suffolk Street, London SW1Y 4HG 020 7484 7811 london@nd.edu www.nd.edu/~ndlondon/lup/future/
introduction.htm
Warnborough University International Office, Friars House, London SE1 8HB. Tel 020 7922 1200 Fax: 020 7922 1201 www.warnborough.edu admin@warnborough. edu Webster Graduate Studies Center Regent’s College, Regent’s Park, Inner Circle, London NW1 4NS, UK. Tel: 020 7487 7505 Fax: 020 7487 7425 www.webster.ac.uk webster@regents.ac.uk 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: www.facebook.com/ groups/223876564344656/ Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/groups/BerkeleyClub-London-4186104 Boston College Alumni Club UK Craig Zematis, President
November 2013 61
The American
+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, 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 Emirda. 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
62 November 2013
London Alumni Chapter. Ashok Arora, P O Box 1110, London W3 7ZB. Tel: 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 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 Georgetown Alumni Club Alexa Fernandez, President GeorgetownLondon@Yahoo.com Gettysburg College Britt-Karin Oliver brittkarin@aol.com Harvard Business School Club of London www.hbsa.org.uk
Details changed? Let us know email sabrina@theamerican.co.uk
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 KKG London Alumnae Association emilymerrell@gmail.com LMU Alumni Club London (Loyola Marymount University) Kent Jancarik 07795 358 681 kent@jancarik.com Marymount University Alumni UK Chapter President: Mrs Suzanne Tapley, 35 Park Mansions, Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7QT. Tel 020 7581 3742 MIT Club of Great Britain Yiting Shen, Flat 8a, 36 Buckingham Gate, London SW1E 6PB Tel: 0789 179 3823 yshen@alum.mit.edu http://alumweb.mit.edu/clubs/uk/ Mount Holyoke Club of Britain Rachel L. Elwes, President rlelwes@yahoo.com Karen K. Bullivant Vice-President kkbullivant@alumnae.mtholyoke.edu www.mtholyoke.co.uk
Notre Dame Club of London Hannah Gornik, Secretary: ND_Club_London@yahoo.co.uk NYU Alumni Club in London Jodi Ekelchik, President alumni.london@nyu.edu 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 Penn Alumni Club of the UK David Lapter Tel. 07957 146 470 david.lapter@alumni.upenn.edu Penn State Alumni Association Penn State Alumni Association Ron Nowicki - 0207 226 7681 pennstatelondon@yahoo.co.uk www.alumni.psu.edu Princeton Association (UK) Carol Rahn, President Jon Reades, Young Alumni carol.rahn@orange-ftgroup.com jon@reades.com www.alumni.princeton.edu Rice Alumni of London Kathy Wang Tel. 07912 560 177 kathyw@alumni.rice.edu Skidmore College Alumni Club, London Peggy Holden Briggs ‘84, co-ordinator 07817 203611 peggyhbriggs@gmail.com Smith College Club of London Kathleen Merrill, President smithclubgb@googlemail.com http://alumnae.smith.edu Stanford Business School Alumni Association (UK Chapter) Robby Arnold, President Lesley Anne Hunt, Events robby@blueyonder.co.uk lesley.hunt@blueyonder.co.uk www.stanfordalumni.org.uk Syracuse University Alumni UK Faraday House, 48-51 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AE SUalumniUK@syr.edu www.facebook.com/SUalumniUK 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
The American
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/ The John Adams Society Contact: Muddassar Ahmed c/o Unitas Communications, Palmerston House, 80-86 Old Street, London EC1V 9AZ 0203 308 2358 johnadamssociety@unitascommunications.com www.johnadamssociety.co.uk Tufts - London Tufts Alliance Vikki Garth Londontuftsalliance@yahoo.com UK Dawgs of the University of Georgia Rangana Abdulla ukdawgs@hotmail.com UMass Alumni Club UK Julie Encarnacao, President (0)20 7007 3869 julesje32@gmail.com University of California Matthew Daines (Program Director) 17 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3JA 020 7079 0567 matthewdaines@californiahouse.org.uk University of Chicago UK Alumni Association President c/o Alumni Affairs and Development – Europe University of Chicago Booth School of Business Woolgate Exchange, 25 Basinghall Street, London EC2V 5HA Tel +44(0)20 7070 2245 Fax +44(0)20 7070 2250 www.ChicagoBooth.edu University of Illinois Alumni Club of the UK Amy Barklam, President 07796 193 466 amybarklam@msn.com University of North Carolina Alumni Club Brad Matthews, Club Leader 2 The Orchards, Hill View Road, Woking GU22 7LS brad.matthews@alumni.unc.edu http://alumni.unc.edu University of Michigan Alumni Association Regional Contact: Jessica Cobb, BA ’97 +44 (0) 788-784-0941 jesscobb@yahoo.com http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/umich_uk_alumni/
usclondon@gmail.com www.usclondonalumni.org
University of Virginia Alumni Club of London Kirsten Jellard, 020 7368 8473 londonuvaclub@yahoo.com http://members.aol.com/UKUVACLUB/UVA-london.htm
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 www.wwaa.info admin@warnborough.edu Wellesley College Club Ana Ericksen, President. ana@ericksenuk.com Wharton Business School Club of the UK Yoav Kurtzbard, President Claire Watkins, Administrator 020-7447-8800 ykurtzbard@youngassoc.com cwatkins@youngassoc.com Williams Club of Great Britain Ethan Kline: ethankline@gmail.com Yale Club of London Joe Vittoria, President president@yale.org.uk Scott Fletcher, Events events@yale.org.uk Nick Baskey, Secretary secretary@yale.org.uk www.yale.org.uk Zeta Tau Alpha Alumnae Kristin Morgan. Tel: 07812 580949 kristinamorgan@gmail.com www.zetataualpha.org
CIVIL WAR SOCIETIES
University of Rochester/Simon School UK Alumni Association Ms. Julie Bonne, Co-President 0118-956-5052 julie_bonne@yahoo.com
American Civil War Round Table (UK) Sandra Bishop, 5 Southdale, Chigwell, Essex IG7 5NN sandra-bishop@hotmail.com www.americancivilwar.org.uk
University of Southern California, Alumni Club of London Jennifer Ladwig, President Chuck Cramer, Treasurer
Southern Skirmish Association (SoSkan) Membership Secretary, Bob Isaac, 3 Hilliards Road, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3TA membership@soskan.co.uk www.soskan.co.uk
ARTS American Actors UK Administrator: Kelly Harris, 07873 371 891 www.americanactorsuk.com
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. 01708 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
We rely on you to keep us informed. Every effort is made to ensure that these listings are correct but if your entry requires amendments please tell us. Send profiles, news or articles about your organization for possible publication in The American. email sabrina@theamerican.co.uk, tel +44(0)1747 830520, fax +44(0)1747 830691
November 2013 63
The American
Tail End Paw Talk, or My Life as a Dog in America, introducing Taittinger, the puppy.
I
think I gave The Blonde an idea for her blog, Over There to Here. I was contentedly lying on my back contemplating my navel when I let out a rippling squeeky sound which echoed across the room. Nip and Tuck, the twins, were sitting next to me and Nip cries out, “Tait let out a f...t.” I can’t use the actual word, although it’s one of the oldest ones
64 November 2013
in the English language and was commonly used in the Middle Ages. Tuck tightens her fingers around her nose and says, “Phew, Scout or Rebel would never do that.” Now don’t misunderstand me, Rebel and Scout were, I have no doubt, marvelous Westies, but I’m a male and they were female. Besides, I’m only a puppy and manners do take time to learn as I heard She Who Must be Obeyed Usually tell a friend. Lifting my white tail high, my little ears straight up, I walk onto the balcony and climb into my basket to think. But then, from above I hear a voice say, “Shame you’re not a cat. We don’t have flatulence.’’ Lifting my head I see The Calico Cat’s sitting on the fan above me, his bright green eyes glistening under the light of the overhead moon. I consider a number of things I’d like to say, but then I remember I’m a gentleman who was named after a Champagne and besides he’s three times my size.
“By the way, we haven’t formally met so perhaps we should introduce ourselves. I’m Taittinger who was named after a Champagne..” “Really,” he sniffs as he jumps from the fan to the window ledge. “My name is Mondavi and I was named after a famous American wine maker in California. However, most people call me Red because of my coloring.” Frankly, he looks more gold than red, but who am I to argue? “Are there many more cats like you around here?” He lifts a leg and stretches out his claws. “Only the black cat, but as he’s busy in October, you won’t see much of him until November.” “Busy? Doing what?” “Doing what black cats do in October. Look out the window tonight and you’ll understand.’’ Of course, it’s impossible, I tell myself later. Cats don’t fly on the back of brooms. It was that pumpkin pie I stole from the table and finished to the last bite. . . .
The American
The American
Suppliers of quality products and services hand-picked for you To find out whether you’re eligible to advertise your products and services here, and for rates, call Sabrina Sully on +44 (0)1747 830520. You’ll reach Americans living in and visiting the UK as well as Britons who like American culture and products.
ACCOUNTANCY & TAX BDO LLP The UK member firm of the world’s fifth largest accountancy organisation. 55 Baker Street, London W1U 7EU 020 7486 5888 info@bdo.co.uk www.bdo.uk.com Jaffe & Co., incorp. American Tax International Comprehensive tax preparation and compliance service for US expatriates in the UK and Europe. America House, 54 Hendon Lane, London N3 1TT 020 8346 5237 www.jaffeandco.com Tax & Accounting Hub Professional service at affordable prices. Fixed fee U.S. Expatriate tax preparation service in London. Federal/ State, Foreign bank account/IRS audits response +44 (0)20 3286 6445. M: +44 (0)79 1439 3183 152 Burford Wharf, 3 Cam Road, London, E15 2SS www.taxandaccountinghub.com Hayden T Joseph CPA, PA Honest fixed fee tax compliance for individuals and small businesses. US Expat Returns from £200. UK Tel:+447554905143 US Tel:+3056515580 Derren@HTJosephCPA.com www.htjosephcpa.com
ANTIQUES & COLLECTABLES Stephen T Taylor Your American stamp dealer in Britain since 1995. 5 Glenbuck Road, Surbiton, Surrey KT6 6BS 020 8390 9357 info@stephentaylor.co.uk www.stephentaylor.co.uk
EDUCATION
DRIVING INSTRUCTION
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
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
INTERIOR DESIGN
COUNSELLING AND PSYCHOTHERAPY Transitions Therapy Psychotherapy & Counselling for Expatriate Individuals, Couples, Families & Adolescents in the West End. London, England, United Kingdom 07557 261432 in the UK or 0044 7557 261432 from another country. Skype sessions available around the world. transitions_therapy@hotmail.com www.transitionstherapy.co.uk
Rolando Luci Luxury lighting, including American brands, some unique to the UK. 01778 218121 www.rolandoluci.co.uk
LEGAL Setfords Solicitors Family lawyers and mediators with particular experience in expatriate cases. 01483 408780 www.setfords.co.uk lthomas@setfords.co.uk
Coffee Break Answers
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1.1621, with the Wampanoag tribe; 2. All were missing a) first mentioned 1671 b) not introduced from S America yet c) no wheat flour or butter for the pastry; 3. The Mayflower; 4. Savory clam and oyster broth, wild turkeys stuffed with beechnuts, turnips and carrots, salad, hastypudding, bread or manchets, wild grapes; 5. New York (since 1924, giant balloons added 1927); 6. George Washington (1789); 7. The 2nd Monday of October (Columbus Day in the US); 8. Abraham Lincoln (1863); 9. a) 2 years before, FDR moved it to extend the Christmas shopping season as it fell on Nov 30 but it wasn’t popular, the 4th Thursday (rather than originally the last) was a compromise; 10. Superstorm Sandy (2010); 11. Pointillism; 12. a) 2 minutes; 13. b) 2 hours.
January 2013 3
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