August 2014
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
Est. 1976
®
read more at ... www.theamerican.co.uk
Jessye Norman
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772045 596503
Chats to The American Our guide to UK schools and prepping for Uni WIN Beers from home & tix for YeeHaw Festival
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WHAT’S ON AMERICAN SPORTS POLITICS • ARTS • EATING OUT REVIEWS
The American ®
Issue 735 August 2014 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
©2014 Blue Edge Publishing Ltd. Printed by Advent Colour Ltd., www.advent-colour.co.uk ISSN 2045-5968 Main Cover: Jessye Norman, photo © Carol Friedman; Circular Inset: Ward Thomas, courtesy YeeHaw; Square Inset: photo ©Octavio Santos Neto
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nteract with us! The American is at the heart of the American community over here and we want to hear from you. Write to us - or for us! What are your experiences as an expat or visitor? What do you like best about Britain? Or least? What do you miss about the States? Tell us - and other Americans - about the events your organization’s planning or has just had. Send us your photos. Enter our competitions - somebody has to win, it could be you! Pick up a regular copy... see the list of locations on the website’s PICK UP A COPY page. Or you can read the digital ‘flip mag’ edition, wherever you are. We’re on Twitter and Facebook too. Join the party! If you’re an expat, you’ve probably heard of FATCA, the law that, starting July 1, 2014, requires foreign banks to report your accounts to the IRS. If you need advice, check out our A-List directory, page 63, and ads in this issue for companies that may be able to help with your financial and tax planning. Enjoy your magazine,
Michael Burland, Content Director michael@theamerican.co.uk
Among this month’s contributors
Alan Miller is Director of The NY Salon in NYC, co-founder of London’s Truman Brewery and The Vibe Bar and sits on England’s Arts Council.
Jay Webster is a sports journalist and former senior editor for ESPN America. Based in Dublin, Ireland, he brings an international eye to sports writing.
Bianca Bagatourian is a playwright whose plays have been performed worldwide, and is a graduate of the MFA playwriting program at Brooklyn College.
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.
August 2014 1
The American • Issue 735 • August 2014
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PHOTO © GRAHAM LACDAO
In This Issue... Regulars 4 News 6 Diary Dates Edinburgh Festival Special 22 Wining & Dining 32 Arts Choice 34 Coffee Break 36 Reviews 46 Politics 48 Sports 55 American Organizations 63 The A-List: American Products & Services
PHOTO ©ADAM PRETTY/GETTY IMAGES FOR SONY
48
Features 8 Edinburgh Festival
An American playwright brings her show to the Fringe
10 COMPETITION
Ales by Mail - win a subscription and get regular supplies of American craft beers
24 Jessye Norman
If you’re going to be called a diva, you’d better be one of the greats. Meet the truly great Miss Jessye Norman
30 Music Albums (remember them?) of the month. And a look back at Latitude
11 Peggy Lee Loves London
34 Coffee Break
T he cool poodle gets down at the Notting Hill Carnival
Feet up, brain in gear, it’s quiz, cartoon and coffee time
12 St Paul’s Cathedral
36 Reviews
T ake a trip round one of London’s most iconic and loved buidlings
14 Sir Henry Wellcome The wealthy British knight and medical
philanthropist began as a Wild Westerner
16 Your Right to Re-enter
Flying between the US & UK? Read this cautionary tale.
19 Spending the summer
S ome advice for getting those Juniors prepped for easy uni entry
20 The UK School System
Making sense of an education system that’s surprisingly different to the US’s
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Curious Incident..., The Crucible, The Colby Sisters..., Great Britain, Amadeus, Miss Julie & Black Comedy, Forbidden Broadway, A Dream Turns Sour
45 Competition
Yeehaw Festival tickets
46 Politics
The argument in favor of discrimination
48 American Sports
NBA Draft analysis, the future for US Soccer and Golf Majors
53 Profile
American Citizens Abroad’s man in London
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The American
NEWS Pilots Not Responsible For Pave Hawk Crash
U
S Air Force officials have released the results of the investigation into the crash on January 7 of an HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter near Cley next the Sea, Norfolk, England. The four crew members on board were all killed in the crash in which the helicopter was destroyed. There were no civilian injuries or fatalities. The board reported that there was clear and convincing evidence that multiple bird strikes caused the mishap. The aircraft, from the 56th Rescue Squadron operating out of RAF Lakenheath, was on a training mission, simulating a nighttime rescue of a downed F-16 pilot. Their flight path went over Cley Marshes. A flock of geese, startled by the noise, struck the helicopter. At least three penetrated the windscreen, knocking the pilot, co-pilot and aerial gunner unconscious. At least one more goose hit the Pave Hawk’s nose, disabling the trim and flight path stabilization systems without which the aircraft banked sharply, lost its vertical lift and crashed three seconds after the bird strike.
USAF Pave Hawks from RAF Lakenheath
4 August 2014
Juan Luquin with Andrea Cockrum, formerly from the Fulfillment Fund
Good-Bye To All That
A
teenager from the ‘mean streets’ of Los Angeles, who won the chance to study at a top independent school in the UK, is heading home after completing his A Levels. Juan Luquin, 18, who wrote about his experiences in The American in January, was selected from hundreds of hopefuls from a charter school in LA to receive a two-year scholarship to Taunton School, Somerset. He is the son of Mexican immigrants who live with his two brothers in a one-bedroom apartment in gang-ridden West LA. His parents are awaiting US citizenship. The youngster, who has an unconditional offer to study computer science and maths at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, says he’s sad to be leaving his beloved England: “The last couple of years have been amazing and I have enjoyed every single minute. It’s an experience I will never forget and the friendships I have made here will remain with me all my life. Since coming here I’ve changed completely as a person – mentally and physically. I got a new haircut, dress a bit more British, listen to different music and even picked up an English accent! I love it all.” Dr John Newton, head master of Taunton School, described Juan
as ‘a born leader’. “He has personality, great man management skills, public speaking ability and ferocious ambition. He is a young man of whom we are hugely proud, and I sense our pride in him will simply grow as we hear of how he uses the experiences he has had at Taunton School in the future,” he said. Juan found the academic side the toughest part of his stay: “The curriculum was much more difficult and intense compared to back home; the class sizes were much smaller; the homework more challenging, but I got great support and everything fell into place. The school also puts a lot of effort into channelling students towards the right career and helped me concentrate on the areas of study that will lead me towards an engineering path.” Juan’s scholarship was funded by Taunton alumni Bob Peirce and Alan Morris and the Fulfillment Fund, an LA charity that helps deprived students to achieve a college degree, with a contribution from Taunton School. He said, “I would also like to say a huge thank you to Andrea Cockrum at New Designs Charter Schools. She was the previous president of the Fulfillment Fund and played a huge role in making this scholarship happen.”
The American
Henry ‘Hank’ Hartsfield
Obituaries Chester Nez
Chester Nez was the last survivor of the Navajo Code Talkers, the American Indians who used their complicated language to devise a code during World War II that the Japanese could not break. They worked together to invent ciphers and new terms: their term for Adolf Hitler was ‘Moustache Smeller’. They served in all the major engagements in the South Pacific theater and Nez himself at Guadalcanal, Guam, Bougainville and Peleliu. A Marine officer said, “Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima.” It was a vindication of their culture, which the US establishment and education system had tried to destroy, banning their use of the language and religious customs. From a poor family, Nez was recruited by the Marines straight from his school for his secret assignment. After the war the code talkers were sworn to secrecy and given no reward or recognition in case their skills were needed again, which they were in Korea and Vietnam.
Chester Nez, Navajo code talker
Robert ‘Bob’ Sewell
Bob Sewell, who has died aged 84, was well known among the American expatriate community as the chairman of the thriving City of Westminster Branch of The Royal Society of St. George - a non-political society for people who share a love of England and Englishness - which he formed in 1988 with ten like-minded people. Every monarch since Queen Victoria has been the RSSG’s patron. Anyone who met him knows that he was an ebullient and entertaining character with a love of life and of Englishness. The Society was founded in 1894, inspired by the Societies of St. George which were formed in America to aid British immigrants to their new country, the earliest branch in New York in 1770. Bob played a very active role within the society despite suffering cancer over the past 12 years. Friends say he treated his problems as though they were nothing more than “a bout of ‘flu”. A memorial service will be held at The Royal Hospital, Chelsea, on October 16.
Birmingham, Alabama-born Henry ‘Hank’ Hartsfield, who has died aged 80, was the space shuttle astronaut who piloted the final test flight of Columbia, flew Challenger on the voyage before its last doomed flight, and commanded Discovery. He said he had been lucky: on his missions, he encountered a fire on the launch pad and icicles forming on the spacecraft. A physics degree at Auburn U. (chemistry was dropped after “I was always blowing up things and catching things afire”) led to employment at Duke and the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, then service as a pilot in the US Air Force. After his space flights Hartsfield continued to work for NASA and helped plan the International Space Station. Known for his right-wing political views, he is survived by his wife Judy Massey and a daughter.
Lettice Curtis
The English pilot, who died in July aged 99, ferried aircraft to frontline squadrons in England for the Air Transport Auxiliary during World War II. She flew Spitfires, Hurricanes, light bombers and became the first woman to fly four-engine bombers. In October 1942, Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt and Mrs Clementine Churchill met Lettice Curtis under the wing of a Halifax bomber in the pouring rain, an event which made the national press. After the war she worked at the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment, then Fairey Aviation. She raced aircraft, including a Spitfire belonging to the American civil air attaché in London. She continued to fly for many years, gaining her helicopter licence aged 77.
August 2014 5
The American
Your Guide To The Month Ahead
See our full events listings online at www.theamerican.co.uk List your event in The American – email editor@theamerican.co.uk or call us on +44 (0)1747 830520
PHOTO: S PAKHRIN
Notting Hill Carnival 2014 Notting Hill, West London W11 www.thelondonnottinghillcarnival.com August 24 to 25 Held on the streets of West London each August Bank Holiday since 1966 (after several years of indoor West Indian concerts including the first visit to England by Mighty Sparrow, the most celebrated calypso singer), Notting Hill Carnival is the largest festival celebration of its kind in Europe. Every year the streets of West London come alive, with the sounds and smells of Europe’s biggest street festival. Twenty miles of vibrant colorful costumes surround over 40 static sound systems, hundreds of Caribbean food stalls, over 40,000 volunteers and over 1 million Notting Hill carnival revellers enjoying calypso, soca, reggae and hiphop music.
66 August August 2014 2013
Iford Arts Festival August Proms Iford Manor, nr Bath BA15 2BA www.ifordarts.org.uk July 26 to August 9 Picnic proms: Monteverdi’s The Return of Ulysses (BBC ’s No. 1 Unmissable Event), Latin Cabaret, ‘sci-fi folk pop’, Celtic roots and gypsy jazz. Royal Edinburgh Tattoo Castle Esplanade, Edinburgh EH1 2NG www.edintattoo.co.uk August 1 to 23 A great excuse to visit Scotland, a spectacle unlike any other, featuring incredible variety against the famous backdrop of Edinburgh Castle. Kids Week in The West End Various, London www.kidsweek.co.uk August 1 to 31 Kids aged 16 or under can see a fantastic selection of shows for free when accompanied by a paying adult. Wilderness Festival Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire OX7 3DG August 7 to 10 Music, theater, food and family fun in a beautiful setting near Oxford, celebrating the great outdoors.
Chilli Fiesta West Dean, West Sussex PO18 0QZ www.westdean.org.uk August 8 to 10 Three days of chilli madness, now with camping. Chillis to eat and buy, music, entertainment and activities for all the family. Wilton Classic and Supercar Wilton House, Wilton, Salisbury SP2 0BJ www.wiltonclassicandsupercars.co.uk August 10 Highlights include the Head to Head, where classic cars are pitched against their modern counterparts, acrobatic helicopter displays, Segways and simulators. Canary Wharf Jazz Festival Canada Square Park, London E14 www.canarywharf.com August 15 to 17 3 days of free world class live jazz music . Anything Goes Cadogan Hall, 5 Sloane Terrace, London SW1X 9DQ www.cadoganhall.com August 20 - 23 A very special 5oth anniversary celebration of Cole Porter’s music featuring the best from his classic shows, such as Anything Goes, Kiss Me Kate, High Society, and many more. Cowal Highland Gathering Dunoon, Argyll, Scotland www.cowalgathering.com August 28 to 30 The world’s largest, most spectacular Highland Games started in 1894 and attracts more than 3500 competitors and Scottish communities-in-exile as far flung as the USA, Canada and New Zealand.
Edinburgh
The American
Are You Better Than an American? asks an interactive comedy show directed by Greg Mihalik, where audience members challenge two All-American hosts who are out to prove their national supremacy. Made in China: native New-Yorker Des Bishop went to China to learn enough Chinese to do stand up in Mandarin and re-tells his experiences. Hi, Hitler, Lucie Pohl’s ‘Heil-arious’ autobiographical solo comedy about a young German-Jewish immigrant girl who is fascinated by Der Fuhrer. Michael Franco’s The Interview centers around the extraordinary rendition of an American citizen, an absurd torture farce which gets progressively stranger and more sinister. In Divallusion, singer Christina Bianco and cabaret star Velma Celli present a wickedly funny and accurate selection of your favorite pop divas in 60 minutes. Years to the Day is LA Based writer/ director Allen Barton’s biting comedy. Bruce A Kraemer’s What do you mean provides a hysterical look at how plays are created for festivals, while Party In The USA is a high-octane comedy about the financial and moral ruin which accompanied the 2008 Great Recession through the eyes a Deutsche Bank temp whose journey is fuelled by psychedelic drugs, a degree in Russian Literature and a bottle of Bud Light. US comedian Miles Allen’s acclaimed One Man Breaking Bad is a compelling 60 minute journey through all six seasons of the hit US TV show. There are two other one-man takes on American classics at the festival, with One Man Star Wars and One Man Lord of the Rings also on the ticket. Californian Jessica Sherr reveals that Bette Davis Ain’t for Sissies as she unearths a previously unseen side of the Hollywood icon, while Jeanette Bonner’s Love. Guts. High School takes on teenage dating, love, identity and the loss of innocence. From Annapolis, Maryland, actress and writer Heather
Your Guide To The Festival
Our roundup of American acts at the world’s biggest arts festival Bagnall brings her one woman show SINGLEMARRIEDGIRL, answering the question “What do you do when you’re ‘happily’ married and yet completely alone? Anything you can think of!” Mary Lou Quinlan’s New York Times Bestseller story, The God Box, explores the author’s true story of losing her mother, while Riding the Midnight Express with Billy Hayes reveals the incredible true story which inspired the Oscar-winning film Midnight Express. Naked in Alaska: The True Story of Stripping in the Last Frontier, written and performed by Valerie Hager, draws on her own experiences as an exotic dancer across America. Angry Young Women in Low Rise Jeans with High Class Issues is a combination of stand-up, sketch, theater and music tackling issues regarding men, women, life, love, getting naked and getting laid. Austin-based multimedia dance company ARCOS make their Edinburgh Fringe debut with The Warriors: A Love Story, combining cutting edge choreography with sound, interactive video and theater to tell a story inspired by Director Elliot Gray Fisher’s grandparents, a World War II Veteran and a German survivor of the 1945 Allied bombing of Dresden. Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story is a musical representing the shocking true story of two Chicago law students who, in the 1920s, kidnapped and murdered a 14 year old boy in their desire to commit the perfect crime while The Trial of Jane Fonda asks if Fonda’s
controversial effort to end the Vietnam War made her a peace activist or a traitor. Black is the Color Of My Voice, a onewoman show inspired by singing legend Nina Simone, written and performed by American actress/singer Apphia Campbell. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas arrives in Edinburgh with a funny, and dark, journey to the heart of the ‘American Dream’, a hallucinogenic roller-coaster ride with Hunter S Thompson and his alter ego Raoul Duke. The Post Show, by The Beserker Residents, is a post-play discussion for a play that the audience never saw. The alternative comedy has been in development since 2012, and offers an honest, hilarious and penetrating look into the creative process. Last but not least, don’t forget to see Lynn Ruth Miller, the 80 year old American standup who’s raising the roof as well as a few eyebrows.
Christina Bianco stars in Divallusion
August 2014 7
The American
The Time of Our Lies Playwright Bianca Bagatourian is bringing her play The Time of Our Lies, about the life and times of Howard Zinn (directed/composed by Josh Chambers) to Edinburgh. She tells The American how it happened. Howard Zinn, England, 1945
H
oward Zinn: "People do have common sense when they are taken away briefly from the hysteria created in a time of war.” Renowned US historian, educator and activist Howard Zinn was very quotable. You can Google ‘Zinn quotes’ and come up with a hundred or more great ones. He was also author of the bestselling and highly influential book, A People's History of the United States, which sold over two million copies and continues to revolutionize the way American history is taught and remembered, chronicling history from the bottom up. The play, The Time of Our Lies, is a provocative and heartbreaking performance that tells the story of our tragic hero, Howard Zinn as a young bombardier stationed in World War II. This spectacle in miniature - tightly choreographed, deftly scored, and viscerally performed by some of the most talented and acclaimed young performers in the USA, focuses on what is lost in war versus what is gained. A highly polarizing and breathtakingly cathartic piece of theater –
8 August 2014
“The Time Of Our Lies” reaches through the fourth wall to your ears, your eyes, your heart and mouth, demanding an answer. “It’s exactly when you’re in the midst of a war or about to go into a war that you need your freedom of speech.” Howard Zinn When I first met Howard, I said to him that I found so much of our news today was presented like entertainment - what if we turned entertainment into news? He smiled his gentle smile, shook my hand and said, “let’s do it!” So for the next year, through interviews conducted at Zinn’s home prior to his passing, we went back and forth, discussing his work, his life and his most important discoveries throughout. “First and foremost, I am a historian. If you don't know history, it is as if you were born yesterday. And if you were born yesterday, anybody up there in a position of power can tell you anything, and you have no way of checking up on it.” Howard’s words continue to be like
a breath of fresh air that cuts through the political jargon that dominates our airwaves. They open new dialogues and make way for critical thinking. His direct way of addressing the people found entire new audiences in the minority groups that make up a big part of America. I hope through the dramatization of his life story, I can continue to spread the importance of his message. Howard always said, "Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people can transform the world." This is my small act.
Playwright Bianca Bagatourian’s work, often centering around human rights and social justice, has been performed worldwide. She is a graduate of the MFA playwriting program at Brooklyn College under Mac Wellman. THE TIME OF OUR LIES, A Play About the Life and Times of Howard Zinn is at the Gilded Balloon from July 30 August 25 www.gildedballoon.co.uk
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM IN BRITAIN Housed in Georgian splendor, co-founded by an American, the museum showcases America’s decorative arts. Exhibitions, workshps, Quilt collection. 01225 460503 www.americanmuseum.org
GARY POWELL’S LONDON WALKS American Walk - London’s US connections new for 2014 John Wesley’s London - Methodist Movement Founder www.garypowellauthor.co.uk +44 (0)7738 426017 powellgary_54@yahoo.co.uk
UNIQUE BRITISH TOURS Specialises in 17 Unusual Theme Tours such as The American Connection, Crimes, Curiosities & Eccentrics and Ghosts, Witches and Legends. +44 (0)1293 823566 enquiries@uniquebritishtours.co.uk www.uniquebritishtours.co.uk
GREENWICH ROYAL TOURS Fun and informative walking tours of historic Greenwich, London’s secret gardens, Law in London, and new for 2014, Shakespeare tours. www.greenwichroyaltours.com UK: 0800 542 1200 bookings@greenwichroyaltours.com
BERKELEY CASTLE (Gloucestershire) Visit the oldest castle lived in by the original family. American, Royalty and Shakespeare connections. Special events throughout the year. www.berkeley-castle.com +44 (0)1453 810 303 david.exworth@berkeley-castle.com
OLD COUNTRY MILITARY & HISTORY TOURS INC. UK, Europe, USA : Military, Kings & Queens, homes & gardens, art & architecture, genealogy. Relaxing, informative personalised tours.
THE MAYFLOWER (Rotherhithe) The co-owner of this stunning ancient pub captained The Mayflower, which set off from here in 1620. Decked jetty & upstairs candle-lit restaurant. Open 11am - 11pm Mon-Sun. Booking advisable.
SOUTHWARK CATHEDRAL A priory established in 1106, parish church from 1540, now a South London cathedral, with strong American connections. +44 (0) 20 7367 6734 cathedraltours@southwark.anglican.org
0207 237 4088 info@mayflowerrotherhithe.com
+44 (0) 1747 828719 www.oldcountrytours.com
A TASTE OF HOME - Join the new ‘US 52 WEEK BEER CLUB’ Leading mail order beer company, Ales by Mail, has launched the ‘US 52 week beer club’, a new exclusive subscription beer club, limited to 100 members, where you’ll receive a different bottle of fantastic US craft beer for every week of the year, including many beers that have never been seen in the UK before. To celebrate this they’re offering one lucky reader the chance to win a year’s subscription:
WIN!
A SUBSCRIPTION WORTH £235.98
Q: What State does the Left Hand Brewing Co. come from?* There’ll be Pale Ales, Porters, IPA’s, Double IPA’s, Imperial Stouts, and special Seasonal beers, from great breweries like Colorado’s Left Hand Brewing and Fireman’s Brew from California, and some beers never seen before in the UK; all especially imported by Ales by Mail and kept superfresh, by keeping them chilled from the moment they are collected from the brewery right to them arriving in their warehouse in the UK. The first instalment will include: Fireman’s Brew Blonde & Redhead, Surf Brewery Oil Piers & Mondo’s Blonde Ale, Strand Brewing Beach House & 24th Street, Cismontane Brewing Citizen & Coulter, Tap It Brewing Camino & IPA, Central Coast Brewing Catch 23 & Stenner Creek Stout, The Dudes Brewing Grandma’s Pecan.
*Email your answer with your name,
address and daytime ‘phone number to theamerican@blueedge.co.uk with US 52 in the subject line; or send a postcard to US 52, The American, Old Byre House, Millbrook Lane, East Knoyle, Salisbury SP3 6AW, UK; to arrive by mid-day August 31, 2014. *You must be 18 years old or over to enter this competition. Only one entry per person per draw. The prize is not transferable. The editor’s decision is final. No cash alternative.
With only 100 subscription places available, to avoid disappointment you may want to subscribe now. For £229.99 (+ a one off shipping charge of £5.99), you’ll receive a different bottle of US craft beer for every week of the year: every quarter you’ll receive 13 interesting and eclectic US beers, including tasting notes to help your appreciation of the taste from home. Call 01277 523003 or see website for details. www.alesbymail.co.uk/shop/beer-clubs/mybrewerytap-us-52-week-beer-club-uk-residents
The American
The American’s expatriate canine UK correspondent gets saucy
I could see Levi Wasn’t taking my idea of a joint partnership Very seriously
Notting Hill Carnival Notting Hill, London W11
www.thelondonnottinghillcarnival.com O Latimer Road, Notting Hill Gate, Westbourne Park Buses: 27, 28, 31, 328, 452, 52, 7, 70
I
t started off in 1964 as a street festival organised by the West Indian community in Notting Hill and now it’s celebrated every August bank holiday. It’s become a huge Caribbean carnival, which attracts over a million Londoners and tourists and, after Rio, is the largest street festival in the world. Traditionally
steel bands, calypso and soca music were the sounds of the carnival. But now it’s more mixed with reggae, ska, drum & bass, hip-hop, and house music from about 40 static sound systems and live stages featuring local bands and international artists. Then there are the parades with dancers and floats with steel drum bands, and dozens of West Indian food stalls cooking jerk chicken and rice and peas. Levi Roots’ ‘Reggae Reggae’ Sauce, made to his grandmother’s secret recipe, has been a Carnival success for years, and has now gone global since his appearance on the TV show, Dragons’ Den.
PHOTO © KATRINA LESKANICH
BUY THE BOOK: Extract from the book Peggy Lee Loves London, available on Amazon. Signed copies can be ordered from Katrina’s website www.katrinasweb.com/shop
August 2014 11
The American
Near Right: Nave of St Paul’s Cathedral with visitors Middle Right: West Front Far Right: Crypt, Nelson Chamber ALL PHOTOS ©GRAHAM LACDAO
St Paul’s Cathedral
– An American Experience Every year around Thanksgiving Day there is a very special Service for Americans in St. Pauls, open to all. Gary Powell explores the connection and this magnificent cathedral
W
hen Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723) built St Paul’s Cathedral he not only created a building that would dominate the London skyline for centuries to come but also a focus for a nation’s people. A building that has seen the joy of a royal wedding, defied Nazi Germany, but most importantly provided a place of Christian prayer; indeed there has been a place of Christian worship on this site for the past 1,400 years. The current St Paul’s rose from the ashes of the medieval cathedral burnt to the ground during the Great Fire of London in September 1666. Wren was eventually, after several rejected designs, given the go ahead, in 1675, to begin the construction of England’s first purpose built Protestant cathedral. The cathedral took just thirty-five years to complete although not officially opened until Christmas Eve 1711. There are aspects of the cathedral that visitors will find breathtaking: the dome, the geometric staircase, the galleries and the mosaics to name but a few. The cathedral not only commemorates the lives of British subjects but also other world figures, in the form of burial ledgers, memorials and statues – none more so than the United States of America. An American visitor to the cathedral will, no doubt,
12 August 2014
experience an emotional rollercoaster of national pride as they discover the close ties between the cathedral, the British people and themselves. They may feel the presence of Martin Luther King who enthralled a full cathedral in 1964; or visit the grave of American artist and second President of the Royal Academy of Arts – Benjamin West; the only American to be buried in the cathedral. Discover memorials to Henry Wellcome, John Singer Sergeant and a bust of George Washington presented to the cathedral by the 29th American president Warren G. Harding in 1921, or contemporary work such as the popular Bill Viola exhibition – Martyrs – which will, for the foreseeable future, evoke comment and strong opinion.
American Memorial Chapel
The focal point of a visit to St Paul’s for any American may well be the American Memorial Chapel, situated at the cathedral’s east end behind the high altar. Following extensive damage to this area by enemy action during The Blitz in 1940, restoration work began in 1948. On its completion in 1958 an ornate baldacchino covered the marble altar; a feature that Wren was in favour of, but not allowed, as it was deemed too Catholic. The United States made a request to the British government for a lasting memorial
site in order to remember the 28,000 American military personnel who died during the Second World War whilst stationed in Great Britain. The area behind the new high altar, previously known as the Jesus Chapel, was identified for this purpose. A five-hundred page Roll of Honour was presented to the cathedral by General Eisenhower (who himself spent much of the war in London) in 1951 containing the names of the 28,000 fallen. The chapel was designed by Stephen Dykes Bower and Godfrey Allen the Surveyor to the fabric of St Paul’s and funded by the British people. The funds were raised by collections on the streets, in cinemas, theatres and at sporting events around the United Kingdom. Contributions were donated from the average man and woman on the street; every penny counted, including those given by children in orphanages; the appeal raised £57,000. There was a pride and a determination by the British people that this chapel would be built as a lasting thank you to the people of America for their sacrifice. The memorial was completed in 1958 and dedicated on 26th November – Thanksgiving Day – in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and American vice-president Richard Nixon; the twelve chapel stalls were occupied by the next of kin of American servicemen recorded in the Roll of Right: Under the Dome PHOTO ©PETER SMITH
Honour. The Roll of Honour is encased in a glass cabinet, a page is turned every day of the year (visitors can refer to a copy of the Roll of Honour, kept nearby, on request). The chapel is adorned with wood, metalwork and stained-glass. The intricate wood carvings depict the flora and fauna of America; together with a rocket recognising America’s space programme. The altar rail displays dates relevant to both the cathedral and the American nation including: 1607 the first British colony – Jamestown, Virginia; 1666 the Great Fire of London and 1776 the Declaration of American Independence. An effigy of the burning bush commemorates American servicemen of the Jewish faith who lost their lives
and the wording of the First commandment ‘Thou shalt have no other Gods but me’. Above the altar are three stained-glass memorial windows representing Service, Sacrifice and Resurrection depicting the crests of the fifty states of America along with those of the American army and navy, the district of Washington and the foreign territory of Puerto Rico. Any visitors to St Paul’s will be reminded that the cathedral is a working place of Christian worship with services conducted throughout the day including a Eucharist at 12.30pm and Evensong, with prayers and blessings on the hour. The entrance fee (essential for the upkeep of the cathedral as St Paul’s receives no
government funding) will give access to all areas of the church, galleries and crypt; an audio guide is available, or an informative human guided tour that lasts for 1hour 30minutes. The galleries are a must if physically possible; the Whispering Gallery is 257 steps, for the more determined a climb to the outside Stone and Golden Galleries (530 steps) are worth the effort and one is rewarded with the fantastic views of London they provide. The cathedral is open for sightseeing between 8.30am and 4.00pm Monday to Saturday. Group tours can be arranged through the website: www.stpauls.co.uk
The American
Henry Wellcome, 1890
PHOTO COURTESY WELLCOME LIBRARY, LONDON PHOTO BELOW COURTESY GARY POWELL
Americans in Britain:
Henry Solomon Wellcome
Founder in 1936 of the eponymous charitable foundation, Gary Powell tells us more
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s a guide at St Paul’s Cathedral I often direct American visitors to the Henry Wellcome memorial, positioned on the crypt wall in the Medical Corner. This normally engenders a blank, unknowing gaze, turning to surprise and scepticism when qualified with a tale of a man who travelled a path from America’s Wild West, across the Atlantic, and died a wealthy British citizen and a Knight of the British Realm.
cise dosage. Wellcome and Burroughs, who were blessed with remarkable marketing skills, promoted their new medicines by supplying portable medicine chests (a fore-runner to the first aid kit) to important members of Victorian society including missionaries and explorers, politicians and royalty, thus ensuring their products travelled the world. Much of the business profits were ploughed back into medical research and a medical collection that would Wisconsin-born Henry Solomon Wellcome graduated from Philadelphia’s exceed a million artefacts. Wellcome’s first research laboratories were estabCollege of Pharmacy. As a travelling lished in 1894 a year before Burroughs’ salesman he touted his medicines death. In 1901 Wellcome married Syrie, through America’s most hostile territories. In 1880, aged twenty-seven, he trav- the daughter of child welfare reformer elled to England and with fellow Ameri- Dr Barnardo, and became a British citizen in 1910. The marriage suffered can, Silas Burroughs (1846-1895), set because of Wellcome’s obsessive focus up a business that would develop into the world’s biggest pharmaceutical and on his work – they were divorced fifteen years later. All aspects of the medical research organisation. Within business including the library and four years, the company, Burroughs, the medical museum were consoliWellcome & Co., promoted a product, the compressed pill, that revolutionised dated into the Wellcome Foundation in 1924. The family home had been the way the world’s population would No.6 Gloucester Gate, NW1 on the carry and ingest medicines far into the edge of London’s Regents Park, which future. Wellcome and Burroughs protected the product and its name tabloid Wellcome called home until his death in 1936. He was knighted for his contri(later shortened to tablet) by patent. bution to medical science in 1932. An The tabloid ensured quality and a pre-
14 August 2014
English Heritage blue plaque, affixed to the address in 1989, commemorates his life and achievements The foundation moved into its permanent home at 183 Euston Road, London, in 1932. Following his death in his early eighties Wellcome bequeathed his fortune to ‘the advancement of medical and scientific research to improve mankind’s wellbeing’. The foundation became the Wellcome Trust in the 1950s. In 2007 the building was transformed into a facility fit for the 21st century, including upgrades to the magnificent museum and a research library. The Wellcome Collection of curious artefacts is open most days and free, and well worth a visit. Today it is estimated that the Wellcome Trust funds in excess of £600 million of biochemical research, every year, throughout the world. Gary Powell is a retired London detective; he is the author of Square London, a social history of the London square. His latest book Death in Disguise is published in October 2014 (History Press). He also conducts several walks around the darker side of London. garypowellauthor.co.uk
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23/05/2014 14:49
The American
Your Right to Re–enter Do NOT return to the UK without checking your right to re–enter, advises Carol Gould, after her friend’s recent horrific experience
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his story should serve as a warning to any American who does not understand the gravity of being refused an extension on the right to remain in the United Kingdom. I am not an immigration lawyer but I am a journalist who is shocked by the treatment I am told was accorded an American friend at Heathrow airport over two days a couple of weeks ago. Let’s call her Sam. I had met her on Thanksgiving Day in 2010 at St Paul’s Cathedral after the service given every year for American expatriates. We became fast friends and this year she completed her film studies degree; I attended the screening of her production. A few weeks ago she was told her right to remain in the UK would not be renewed so she held a poignant going away party; her regret at having to leave London was palpable, none more so than to me whom she considered one of her most profound and enduring
16 August 2014
friendships. Her British boyfriend was, of course, heartbroken to see her go. She spent a few weeks back in the United States but her longing to return to Great Britain was so great that she decided to come back. When I heard this alarm bells rang in my head but before I could send her a warning not to come back she had begun her return journey. What ensued was an ordeal at Heathrow Airport that lasted twenty four hours and resulted in Sam being unceremoniously put on a flight back to the USA. From what I can glean from her boyfriend she was subjected to hours of verbal abuse about America and Americans. Evidently she was denied access to her luggage and was given glutinous bread despite telling the immigration officers she had a gluten intolerance. She was, I am told, informed that ‘Americans have no rights.’ When she was offered sleep
A Boeing 777 arrives PHOTO ©DMIRTY A. MOTTL PASSPORT PHOTO ©DCGREER
she was not allowed earplugs; she was forced to listen to screaming next door as another visitor was interrogated. What has shocked her boyfriend and me most is the fact that British taxpayer money is spent on a group of immigration officers who berate a sixty–ish American grandmother of British descent as if she were a terrorist and offer her nothing but cruelty. And yes, I do know that British visitors to the United States are subjected to harsh grillings by Homeland Security, established after 9/11; frankly, I wish we could find a way to stop this animosity between two steadfast allies. What Sam went through is the antithesis of a ‘special relationship.’ As I write this I have had an update on Sam’s state of mind back in the USA. My understanding is that her ordeal was brutal. (I do recall the occasion of an American friend who had lived here for twenty–eight years being stopped
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The American
UK Border Control, Heathrow
at Heathrow after a visit to the USA and being told her right to remain here was not renewable. She got hysterical at Heathrow, crying about her beloved cat being in a cattery and she was allowed in for a month. She had to close down her apartment and adopt her cat to a new home. She had paid VAT and council tax for twenty–eight years and never claimed a penny from the British state. She went back, vowing with bitterness never to return to the UK). Sam writes: “They kept me in a criminal holding/detention area for over 24 hours with only two hours sleep. I could hear the guy in the detention office outside my room making fun of the American and gloating over my situation. I find it incomprehensible that they would put me in the same detention area
18 August 2014
as those suspected of criminal intent and (therefore) treat me the same as those suspected criminals. “They took my private diary, journal and note pad where I had written out possible options of where I should go next and possible consequences of each choice, something I do to help me in the decision– making process (certainly for my eyes only). They used statements in my diary (such as “I could run out of funds in this scenario”) against me, claiming I didn’t have enough money/resources to stay in the UK. They also used the $26 in my purse against me as evidence that I didn’t have funds – but who would take a lot of American cash to the UK? “My passport was stamped with ‘leave to remain until 1 October’ but the official at Terminal 4 said “that doesn’t mean you can re–enter this
country.” I have since found out from an immigration lawyer that her assertion was not correct.” In Sam’s case let this be a warning to Americans who are refused an extension to their right to remain not to attempt to return to the United Kingdom until they have clarified Stateside, BEFORE setting foot on an aircraft, what the consequences would be were they to return.
Carol Gould has written for The Guardian, The Jewish Chronicle and The Daily Telegraph; she is the author of Spitfire Girls and Don’t Tread on Me - Anti-Americanism Abroad and has appeared on BBC Any Questions? and many other UK broadcasts. Carbeth@go53.freeserve.co.uk
The American
Spending Your Child’s Summer Months Wisely
The Bridge-U software preparation and application software
Lucy Stonehill of BridgeU shares how to help your child build a case for that eventual US University application, and details on a nifty program to help them get there
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ith the competitiveness of U.S. universities increasing each year, students are concerned with the growing challenge of distinguishing themselves from other applicants. And parents are concocting more exotic and adventurous summer plans for their children in an attempt to help their kids appear impressive and unique in the eyes of admissions officers. But fear not, contrary to popular belief, a student need not skydive off a lava-filled volcano to get into their dream university. BridgeU’s team of international education professionals has distilled a list of attributes, what they call “Strategy factors”, that will help you plan your child’s summer in such a way that allows them to enjoy their summer whilst also building a strong case to U.S. universities.
Breadth & Depth
U.S universities want to see both breadth and depth of experiences. This means that the first two years of high school are a good time for young teens to experiment with activities and involvements, camps, courses and leagues that interest them. Those first two summers should be largely guided by
the passions and hobbies of the student, allowing him or her to develop as an individual and understand his or her strengths, and interests. During the last two summers of high school (entering sixth form), students should hone the depth of their commitments and focus on a few interests, involvements or work experiences which can become narrative threads throughout the story that they tell as applicants.
Global Citizenship & Leadership In an increasingly globalized world, U.S. universities are seeking to attract students who have encountered diversity in the people they’ve interacted with and in the places they’ve visited. Participating in language immersion, study abroad or community service programs demonstrates an independence of spirit on the student’s behalf, and an ability to interact with people from other cultures. Top U.S. universities today are trying to identify and build the future leaders of tomorrow. Whether they’re to be musicians, politicians, artists, or lawyers, they need to be students who can demonstrate leadership by mentoring, serving as a camp counselors, or
otherwise assuming a leadership role during the summer.
Entrepreneurship & Initiative
In the past couple of years, U.S. universities have been looking for students to demonstrate an entrepreneurial flair in their involvements out of school. Students can show initiative-taking by starting an online business, building something impressive, or by establishing a group or a club with friends to rally behind a cause. However your child spends his or her summer, make sure it is pursuing something that they’re passionate about. Genuine commitment will show through when they tell the story of first encountering the view from the Great Wall of China, or recalling the experience of building that model-plane in their garden.
For more information about good US university application strategy, check out www.bridge-u.com, a preparation and application platform for globally mobile students. The software matches students with the best universities for them, positions them to maximize their chances of success and manages the application process on their behalf.
August 2014 19
The American
Making Sense of The UK School system An overview for those coming from the States to live and study in the UK, by educationalist Matthew Cook. Here he looks at State Education. England and Wales
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n England and Wales, children are required by law to start school in the term after their fifth birthday but most children join the Reception class at age four. In England young people must be in full time education until they are 18 years of age. (In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland the age is 16).
Primary Education
Primary education covers the period from age 4/5 through to age 11 – (Reception/Years 1-6 or KG-Grade 5). Generally, children will attend their local Community Primary School. Sometimes these are subdivided into an infant school for ages 4/5-7 years of age and then a junior school from 7 to 11 years of age. Children at primary school will be taught according to the relevant National Curriculum. Even though these schools are for local children and are non-selective, you still have to apply for a place through your Local Authority and there are admissions criteria. Each school has its own ‘catchment area’ – the geographical area from which it draws the majority of its children but
20 August 2014
this is by no means the only criteria governing admissions. More recently some Community Primary Schools have converted to Academies (see later in the article).
Secondary Education
Secondary education covers the age range from 11 to 18 years of age (Years 7 – 13 or Grade 6-12). It is not unusual for students to stay at the same school for the full 7 years of secondary education, so this is quite a departure from the Middle School or Junior High, and High School model in the States. There are many examinations that students can sit and academic and vocational courses that they can follow during secondary education, but the two best known are GCSE’s (General Certificate of Secondary Education – taken at the end of Year 11/age 16 yrs) and A-Levels (Advanced Levels taken at age 18).
Community Secondary Schools
These are the secondary schools in England and Wales that provide a comprehensive, non-selective, education to students aged 11-18 years. Children will move from their local community primary schools to the local secondary school for the start of Year 7 (Grade 6). Several primary schools will be feeder schools for the larger, second-
ary schools. Increasingly these types of school are converting to academy status (see below).
Grammar Schools
In some areas/local authorities such as Buckinghamshire the Grammar school model still persists. Entry to grammar schools is selective (applicants have to take the 11+ examination) and many of them compete with private schools in terms of performance in exams, university destinations of their leavers and other activities such as sports. Unsurprisingly grammar school places are often highly sought after, as they fall within the state system and therefore are free to attend. Some grammar schools are also single sex schools, for example the Royal Grammar School High Wycombe is an all-boys school.
Academies
Originally the setting up of academies was a policy under which underperforming community secondary schools, often in economically deprived areas, were re-branded, with a change of school leadership, a refurbishment or rebuilding of the school campus and sponsorship by a third party such as a commercial business, a religious group, a charity or an education group. The aim of the process was
to raise expectations, standards, and performance. Since the coming to power of the Coalition government in 2010 highly successful (Outstanding) secondary and primary schools have been encouraged to convert to academy status. The main advantages to these schools has been that becoming an academy has given them more control over their budgets, teachers’ pay, length of the school terms and to an extent, the curriculum that they follow.
Free Schools
To those from the United States, the nearest comparison to make would be with Charter Schools. In general they have been established by groups of teachers, parents, charities, faith groups, universities and businesses. They have greater control over how they operate and also what they teach, in a similar way to Academies. One of the best-known examples is West London Free School, which is oversubscribed and offers a Classical Liberal Education, via a more knowledge based curriculum.
Studio Schools
Studio schools are generally for students aged 14-19 years of age and they focus upon providing a broader mix of vocational and academic
courses. Usually Studio Schools will link with several local businesses and students will spend some time in class and some days at a place of work gaining valuable ‘on the job’ training. Southampton Studio School is linked to ABP, the port authority in Southampton, one of the UK’s major ports.m.
Universtity Technical Colleges
At present University Technical Colleges (UTCs) are only found in England, but as the name suggests, these schools are linked to/sponsored by universities. The aim is to provide specialized teaching in specific areas, such as science and technology. The Silverstone UTC located at Silverstone racetrack has a focus upon high performance engineering, business and technical events management.
N. Ireland and Scotland Northern Ireland’s education system is quite similar to that of England and Wales, though NI schools do operate a different curriculum and have a slightly different Year group system. In Scotland, the curriculum, qualifications (Standards at 15yrs and Highers at 17yrs) and year group system are all different.
PHOTO ©OCTAVIO SANTOS NETO
Matthew Cook is the Managing Director of Castle Education Consultancy, an independent education consultancy that works with families on school and university search. Matthew was educated at Bedford School, read Modern History at St. Andrews University and holds a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from the University of Oxford. He has almost 15 years experience in education, having taught at Kimbolton School, an independent day-boarding school near Cambridge, and also led the History department and been College Counsellor at the British School of Washington DC. Matthew has lived and worked in education, in the Middle East and also recruited Headteachers whilst at the Times Educational Supplement. His last role was as Director of Marketing and Admissions at a top London international school. If you have further questions related to education in the UK or would like advice please feel free to contact Matthew – matthew@ castleeducationconsultancy.co.uk
August 2014 21
The American
ROTUNDA Bar & Restaurant
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his place is buzzing! Walking in felt like entering the party of the year. The din was incredible. Fortunately, the noise subsides when entering the dining area. The floor to ceiling windows overlook the new Secret Garden, a fabulous terrace on the canal. Of course it was raining when I was there. Quelle surprise! I will look forward to an evening on the terrace another time. And yes, there will be another time. All the way through the meal, the service was fantastic. Friendly, attentive, knowledgeable and above all, passionate. Everyone cares about what they are doing. It shows. It starts with the bar. Hats off to the bar manager, Sebastian Slapinski. 5 infused gins were on offer! Thrilling news for me. I was weaned on it! I chose the Miller’s, infused with strawberry and black peppercorn and served with tonic and lime. This was the best cocktail I have had in a decade! The strawberry hit my palate at once and the peppercorn made an astonishing finish. If I hadn’t been working I would have had at least 3 more. This job is so difficult sometimes!
22 August 2014
Nowadays everyone in the restaurant biz talks about sourcing. Rotunda doesn’t have to. They have their own farm. One of the very few that do. All the beef and lamb is free range and grass fed on naturally fertilized land. The meat is then brought to Rotunda where it is cured for a minimum of 28 days in their own meat locker which everyone is welcome to see. There are of course other items on the menu which are ethically sourced elsewhere. My advice however is, go for the meat. It is amazing. We were served some bread which looked and smelled wonderful but was sadly undercooked and doughy. The starters made up for it though. They were heavenly. South coast sea trout, lime marinated fennel, Avruga caviar and cream cheese (£8.50) was a work of art and tasted even better than it looked. The cured trout was perfect. The consistency of smoked salmon, but more delicate and just lightly salted. The special of the day was Cornwall Crab, removed, cleaned, stuffed back in the shell and served with an exceptional mayo. Gorgeous. (£13.50) For a main we had the roast rosemary and garlic infused lamb
Kings Place 90 York Way London N1 9AG 020 7014 2840 www.rotundabarandrestaurant.co.uk Reviewed by Michael M Sandwick shoulder with broccoli, mint and potted potatoes (£35 for 2). The meat was sensational. Shoulder is a fatty cut of meat. Chef Ian Green prepares it so the fat is burned off and caramelized on the top while the meat remains succulent and tender as can be. The potatoes however, were so overcooked as to be inedible. It was such a contrast. Meat: 10. Potatoes: 1. Fortunately the portion of lamb was so huge we had no need of spuds. Salt caramel and banana mousse, coco nibs and lime marshmallow (£7) was a bit bland, partially because it was served with a dark chocolate ice cream which was fabulous, but overpowering. Banana and salt caramel is an amazing combination. I just wanted more of it. Summer pudding, Cornish clotted cream, strawberry and mint salsa (£6) was lovely. Intense berry flavor with all the right trimmings. Both desserts seemed to be having a Kodak moment. Stunning. I hope my criticism has the intended effect. I loved the place. I just think it has the potential to be perfect. If everything comes up to the quality of the infused gin and the meat, it will be.
The American
77 King’s Road London SW3 4NX 020 7376 7799 www.benihana.co.uk Reviewed by Michael M Sandwick
BENIHANA Above: the interior at Benihana Chelsea Right: A mouthwatering selection
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ifty and still going strong. The first Benihana opened in 1964 on West 56th Street in NYC at a cost of $10,000. Now, half a century later, there are well over 100 restaurants around the world, including three in London. Chelsea, Piccadilly and St. Paul’s. Pretty impressive for an immigrant who started out selling ice cream! The original concept of Benihana is still the reason to go there today. Food as entertainment. To be sure, one can simply enjoy a traditional Japanese meal in the glam setting with excellent service. But the founder, Hiroaki Aoki wanted his guests to have fun while they ate so he built his restaurant around the art of teppanyaki. A teppan is a hot griddle on which food can be grilled (yaki). The patrons sit around the teppans and watch as the chefs do their thing. And what they can do is astonishing. They are skilled, playful, entertaining and hilarious all at the
same time. And they feed you while they are doing it! They slice and chop at an absolutely mad pace, juggle, tell jokes and flip prawns into your mouth. It’s like dining in a three ring circus! Have a plum wine cocktail followed by a couple of hot sakes and you can’t help but enjoy yourself. For those who prefer, there is also an extensive a la carte menu including sushi and sashimi. There are good deals to be had at lunch time at the Chelsea branch. Otherwise lunches run from £9.75– £28. Traditional dinners cost £23.50 – £68 for wagyu beef and specialty dinners £36 – £59 for scallops, lobster tail and chateaubriand. All dinners include soup, salad, appetizer, rice and veg. For their 50th, there are a few special menus on offer. At 50, Benihana isn’t exactly the new kid on the block. But there is a reason it has lasted this long. It’s fun!
Jessye Norman The American
Jessye Norman is indisputably one of the top opera singers of our times, but she’s equally well known for her forthright, strong opinions and her ability to put them cohesively and powerfully into words. These two defining aspects of her life are interwoven throughout her memoir, Stand Up Straight And Sing! (now published in the UK by Robson Press), as she tells The American. Reading your memoir, I was sure that it is written in your own words - you’re not the kind of celebrity who knocks out a book with the aid of a hired hand? No, I don’t have ghost writer or anything like that. I’ve been typing away! Each chapter of the book begins with the lyrics to a spiritual, and ends with a classical song in its original language with an English translation. It’s effective, bracketing your life experiences with the music that has informed and defined them. I wanted something at the beginning of each chapter that was part of my own heritage, and at the end something that I perform - something from my professional life that I have learned to do. It was a way of incorporating the music into each chapter, even though it is not sung. It’s easy to find the music, and when I do the audio book, which we’re planning, I hope we will have me singing the music as part if it. The title also refers to two parts of your life. You’ve consistently
24 August 2014
stood up straight, for yourself and for others, against injustice and prejudice, as well as the more literal meaning. Originally it came from my mother who, when I was very young, would whisper in my ear as I went on stage to sing “Stand up straight, darling.” And it is also about standing up for yourself when obstacles arise. Not only for me, but for all of us. Would either of these aspects have been as successful without the other? I’m glad I haven’t had to choose. If I hadn’t studied singing, just sung as I did as a child, could I have done it professionally? I haven’t given much thought to it. From the beginning of my singing life the understanding was that the training was paramount to the long life of a singer. You have to learn to take care of your voice and yourself to withstand the rigors of the profession. If I had not studied singing I’m sure I would have gone into medicine. When I was a teenager it seemed a good thing to do to earn a living, and it wasn’t a very clear
path, when I was a child, to becoming a professional singer. There were no professional musicians around in your childhood, but music was all around you. We had a piano and all my siblings and I studied it. My grandmother was a wonderful singer, as was my mother and her sisters - they used to have a little group and sing in various places. My grandparents had a harmonium in their home and I used to crouch down below and pump the pedals so my brothers could play it. Of course when it was my turn to play, and theirs to pump, they always had something else they just had to do! Perhaps that was an early indication to you that life can be unfair? That, and the occasions at school when the teacher made the girls sew, and cook for the boys, when you would rather have learned to make a table? I just thought that would have been a more interesting thing to do. As a child, seeing your mother and aunts cooking and sewing, you think you’ll pick that up as you go
PHOTO © CAROL FRIEDMAN. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
along. But I was told, in no uncertain terms, that ‘Girls don’t take cabinetmaking!’ In a phrase that sums up the book you say, “I am blessed not to have had a thought of allowing myself to be held back, no matter my color or gender.” ... That is absolutely true, and remains so to this day. I got the strength to do it through my family. Every day our parents reinforced our worth, our need for self-awareness, and always to do the best we could, whether it was school preparation or learning to recite a poem for the church. We needed to show ourselves as being willing to do the work, and be part of the community, as our parents were.
In the book you describe the racism and sexism that you suffered. If you happen to be female and of a minority race, there are obstacles put in your way not only because of your gender but because of the color of your skin. Neither makes any sense at all, but it exists in our world. It was something we were made to understand as children, but also that we were loved and cared for and supported, and that we were as good as any other of God’s creation. It was important that we really understood this. You started piano lessons at an early age, but say that you were lucky not to have had voice training as a child... why lucky?
My parents felt that if I studied singing too early I might not like it as much later - it might become a chore. And it is extremely important, especially for women, that we do not study singing voice before the muscles that support our voices are strong enough. Those muscles are below your belt, so until a girl has reached puberty the idea of studying singing is simply wrong. I try so hard to allow my teenage friends to strengthen their bodies through gymnastics and dance, so when they are old enough for vocal training their bodies are ready. Voice training too early can ruin a voice. Our ligaments do not work the same way as muscles. You can beat up a muscle, sprain it and strain it, then relax it and take
August 2014 25
The American
Opera singer Jessye Norman sings, ‘He’s Got the Whole World in His Hand’ at Statuary Hall, US Capitol, July 31, 2013, as part of the 50th anniversary commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington. This song was performed by Marian Anderson at the March. PHOTO BY HEATHER REED, OFFICIAL SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPH
care of it and it will more than likely go back to the same shape it was before. But if you stretch a ligament, it won’t bounce back like a rubber band. And vocal chords work more like ligaments than muscles. Despite the lack of formal training, serious music came early: you first heard opera, on the radio, at the age of nine. What was it that hit you? That’s easy! I had a radio in my own room and I could listen to whatever I wanted. One Saturday, by accident, I came across the Metropolitan Opera broadcast, live. There was a wonderful man, Milton Cross, who would tell you the story, so although I didn’t understand the words, I understood the meaning.
26 August 2014
I was not at all intimidated by the fact I didn’t speak German or Italian or Russian, in which the opera was being sung. He explained what everything looked like, what the singers were wearing. And no-one had told me that this was difficult, or something for which I needed a special education to understand. I just loved it. Who inspired you first? To begin with it was American singers: Roberta Peters, Mattiwilda Dobbs, Leontyne Price of course. And later, Joan Sutherland. I remember those singers from a very long time ago. [Her voice softens as she reminisces.] Listening to those very differ-
ent singers led to an education in music, culminating in various competition wins and awards. You graduated with a degree in music in 1967, took graduatelevel studies at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore then earned a Masters Degree at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Jumping forward, you then went to Europe? In 1969 I won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. I was sent there by the United States Information Agency. Their aim was to send Americans abroad to see how our education system measured up against that of people of the same age studying the same thing. It was a wonderful surprise when, with over 80 singers
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in the competition, I was able to win it. It was then that I began to think that performing was something I could do for a profession. You won a three-year contract with the Deutsche Oper Berlin and made your operatic début there in Tannhäuser, one of Wagner’s great works. In the book you say there was an ‘unwritten rule’ that African American female opera singers should concentrate on works by Italian composers, not French or German. Why was that? I cannot say. Perhaps people felt that their voices suited those roles. And with Martina Arroyo, Shirley Verrett, Grace Bumbry and Leontyne Price singing these roles in their repertoires it seemed a wonderful but crowded field. I was very fortunate to be able to choose a different path. Wagner has unfortunate connotations of the Third Reich to some people. Was there a problem for an African American female opera singer coming to Germany to sing his work? No. It was a courageous thing for Professor Egon Seefehlner, the General Manager of the Opera House in Berlin, to invite me to sing Elizabeth, the quintessential German character, as pure as the driven snow instead of the temptress Venus - something Grace Bumbry had done several years previously at Bayreuth. It showed he wasn’t interested in anything prejudiced or intolerant. It was marvelous for me to have that support, and I had no problems at all with audiences. There are always some elements in society that are prejudiced. One has to acknowledge that they exist, but
not allow them to influence one in any way. Let’s not pretend, there are still people around who feel that way. One has to allow them to be, just as we want them to allow us to be.
They’re completely different places and I think it’s wonderful not to have to choose. The great cities, Paris, London, Rome, New York, all have something quite different to offer, and quite different atmospheres. It’s marvelous to experience the different cultures, while seeing how very much we all have in common.
“if that 11 or 12 year old girl can do this, it must be possible for me”
Perhaps one of the things that has brought people together recently was the service unveiling the Tribute in Light at the site of the World Trade Center after 9/11, on March 11, 2002. You performed ‘America the Beautiful’. That must have been as moving for you as for the audience? It was, and I really needed to gather myself together in order to do that. But one of the things that gave me great courage was that the light switch that was going to turn on the marvelous columns of light that were to replace the demolished Twin Towers was going to be flipped by a child whose father had perished on that day. I thought, if that 11 or 12 year old girl can do this, it must be possible for me to do my job. I actually sang that song for that little girl.
What was it like as an expat in Europe in the 1970s? I never considered myself an expatriate. I’m an American, I live in America, and I work all over the world. I continued to vote in the States and considered myself part of what was happening there both politically and socially. I went to Germany having studied conversational German for five months, although I came across people who spoke English perfectly, I hadn’t known I would, and I wanted to communicate with them in their language. When I arrived I made a point of speaking with people who only spoke German. It’s funny, when I’m there now, people can always tell from my colloquialisms that I learned to speak it in Berlin. What do you like about staying in Europe, and what do you miss about the States when you’re away?
Another occasion at which you sang was President Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration. As an African American, a nuclear disarmament activist and a Democrat, he wasn’t your kind of politician. Did you wonder if you should accept? I did discuss it with my family and friends. I decided I would sing for the Presidency, rather than that particular President, and I sang ‘Simple Gifts’. But I made it plain that I wanted a forum to state my
August 2014 27
The American Jessye Norman is winner and recipient of multi Grammy awards, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Legion d’Honneur, and the US National Medal of Arts, amongst a host of honors. On March 11, 2002, Miss Norman performed ‘America the Beautiful’ at a service unveiling two monumental columns of light at the site of the former World Trade Center, as a memorial for the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City. She serves on the Boards of Directors for Carnegie Hall, the New York Public Library, the New York Botanical Garden, City-Meals-on-Wheels in New York City, Dance Theatre of Harlem, National Music Foundation, and Elton John AIDS Foundation. She is a member of the board as well as a National spokesperson for the SLE Lupus Foundation, and spokesperson for Partnership for the Homeless. Norman serves on the Board of Trustees of Paine College and the Augusta Opera Association PHOTO COURTESY UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP
own political views - I don’t want people to think I was being given an honor as a closet Republican - and I was very pleased to be given a full page in USA Today, which was new then, to speak about about my own political beliefs.
Duke Ellington and Cole Porter songs in concert? I’ve always loved these songs, and sung them at home and for benefits, but it’s wonderful to be able to do a whole program. I’m having great fun with them.
Latterly you’ve chosen to concentrate on recitals and concerts, dropping full ensemble operas. I take it that’s not for an easy life? Far from it. I’ve always done recitals and concerts. Opera has always been a part of my performing life, but not the major focus. Lately the operas I have been doing are one-person operas, which has been a great joy even though it’s a tremendous challenge. To be alone on stage doing two very different operas on the same night - Schoenberg’s Erwartung and La Voix Humaine by Francis Poulenc - I think I’m the only person crazy enough to try that! But I don’t think easy is interesting. Challenges are much more interesting.
Does your technique change? One is conscious of the style, but style changes in the brain. It’s something one thinks about. I wouldn’t approach a Cole Porter song in the same way I would Isolde. One has to understand the song and give oneself over to those needs. Stravinsky is different to Mozart, Brahms is different to Schubert who is different again to Schumann.
college. They come from economic situations where they would not be able to study the arts privately, and as in England, we’re allowing arts education to fall away from the curricula in public schools when all the educators that have studied this say that no matter the socio-economic standing of the child’s family, they will benefit from the study of the arts as part of their general education. It’s marvelous to see them change and grow so quickly when they discover other children who also love singing, or painting, writing or acting or working at a pottery wheel. When they become comfortable in themselves and realize they have something to offer.
I wondered what you wished to pass on to the next generation of singers, then realized you are already passing things on through The Jessye Norman School of the Arts in Augusta, Georgia? My school! It’s incredible to me, but we’re in our eleventh academic year. We have these marvelous children who have come through our program and some are going off to
Finally, what is the best thing about being Jessye Norman? The best thing about being Jessye Norman? Now that is a very interesting question. One of the best things has to do with my being able to travel the world, and to encounter people around the world, to come to know them and understand their interests and see them as individuals. That is a great privilege.
With your skills, you could have been a jazz singer, and you’re now doing George Gershwin,
28 August 2014
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MUSIC ALBUMS THEOF MONTH Dolly Parton
Blue Smoke (and Greatest Hits) Sony Music
You can’t have been on the same planet as the rest of us if you have missed the impact this Queen of Country has had in the last few months, especially in the United Kingdom. Her latest tour, another sell out, and appearance at Glastonbury has elevated her to another level, just when you didn’t think it was possible. And it’s not just old-timers. Youngsters love Dolly too. Dolly’s 42nd album (3 years since her last) showcases her many talents and those of the musicians with whom she surrounds herself. Each track is excellent, hitting the right tone for the song and genre be it pop, pure country, rock or gospel. There are seven songs from her pen; several first released on other artists’ albums, and 5 covers from Bon Jovi’s ‘Lay Your Hands On Me’ to her version of the traditional ‘Banks of the Ohio.’ The issue however, is that there is too much of a range of styles for the album to have cohesion or flow. The listener is taken from high production level gospel to hard rock and on to schmaltzy old style country in a disjointed flow making for an ultimately unsatisfactory whole. A fantastic bonus with the UK released album is a Best of Dolly Parton compilation with a wonderful collection of everyone’s favorite Dolly titles. Standout track: ‘You Can’t Make Old Friends’ (duet with Kenny Rogers),
30 August 2014
The Ghost Wolves
Man, Woman, Beast Off The Kerb Productions A duo featuring bluesy, distorted guitar and drums. So what’s differentiating them from the White Stripes and Black Keys of this world? A non-colorized name, for one thing, and an at-first-hearing cutesy female vocal carrying the sometimes vicious lyrics for another. Add a great, fat, dirty sound, recorded in the Austin, TX, Arlyn Studios (which SRV and Willie Nelson both used) and mastered by soundguru Howie Weinberg (Nirvana’s Nevermind, Jeff Buckley’s Grace, Aerosmith and Beastie Boys records and more). Great name and image too - Carley and Jonathan Wolf are married, and Carley was brought up on a ranch surrounded by hybrid wolves, the story goes. Standout track: ‘Shotgun Pistol Grip’.
Hank Wangford & The Lost Cowboys Save Me the Waltz $incere $ounds
For years the British country music scene was kept alive by the wonderfully named - and generally wonderful - Hank Wangford. The alternative was a bunch of wannabe Nashvillians who wore the clothes but couldn’t cut the mustard when it came to the music. And that’s where Wangford scored. The eccentric singer, songwriter (and erstwhile gynecologist) kept the faith through the magic of a stage show that lovingly spoofed the trappings of country music with a ‘$incere Products’ merchandise booth, a fiddle player who looked like Clark Gable while singing like Bing Crosby and a backing singer named Sissy Footwear, while making music that was classic ‘Hank I’ golden-era country. One of Hank W’s favorite aspects of the music he loves is the waltz. Now he’s made a whole double album of songs in that special 3/4 time signature. He’s fascinated by the waltz - when it first arrived in England it was regarded as a dangerous innovation. Why, the man and woman face each other and press their loins together. Scandalous! Hank says the waltz is the difference between rock & roll and country music. Country is full of them, and its saddest songs are often in 3/4 time, but waltzes are almost non-existent in Rock. Now you can enjoy a whole double album of them. Standout track: ‘Save Me The Waltz’.
The American
BOOKER T JONES PHOTO BY SIDNEY BERNSTEIN. LATITUDE SIGN PHOTOS BY BELLA BURLAND SULLY
LATITUDE FESTIVAL 2014 L atitude has quietly built a double reputation as one of the most family/kids-friendly festivals and also one of the most artistically diverse. There are hundreds of festivals in the UK each summer, from the juggernaut that is Glastonbury down to myriad local events that focus on one sort of music or another - or poetry, theater, literature, comedy, dance, art, storytelling... you get the picture. The American arranged a family trip to see what makes Latitude different. What’s different is that is has the lot. Latitude is located at Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk (part of East Anglia, also home to many USAF servicepeople and their families). The beautiful English countryside comes complete with a lake and sheep (multicolored for the festival’s duration) along with 35,000 punters. The daytime weather was gloriously and unusually hot (normally what you’ve heard about English summers is true!) and the thunder and lightning kept themselves to the small hours. As a confirmed music fan I anticipated my time would be split between the main Obelisk Stage, the indy-oriented BBC Radio 6 Music Stage, and occasional forays to the Lake Stage. Who needs comedy,
cabaret, poetry, literature, dance, voodoo-in-the-woods and all the other distractions at a music festival, fercrissake? Well me, as it turned out. The music was as good as hoped, with headliners Lily Allen [dazzlingly deputing at a few hours’ notice for the indisposed Two Door Cinema Club], Damon Albarn and festival band-du-jour The Black Keys being supported by a cleverly chosen, varied line-up. Highlights? Kelis’ brand of updated ‘70s soul. First Aid Kit - two Swedish sisters reinventing country duetting for the 21st century. Booker T Jones’ set of tight blues on guitar mixed with his organ-fuelled MGs classics. Tuareg tribesmen Tinariwen, employing hypnotic feel-goodmusic instead of Kalashnikovs to further their cause. Haim, Chrissie Hynde, and the Jayhawks lending a distinct American feel to Sunday afternoon. And that’s just the main stage. New artists Hozier, James Vincent McMorrow and George Ezra attracted big numbers to the ‘6’ stage, as did Goat’s Scandinavian-Afrobeat boogie, but the surprising biggest draws were the veteran Daryl Hall & John Oates. I was dragged by the kids to the comedy tent where Dara Ó Briain headlined and Seann Walsh, Josh
LIVE Widdicombe, Doc Brown and Aisling Bea shone among other comic luminaries. Student comedians from the Chortle Student Comedy Awards, were hit and miss, but Jamali Maddix is one to watch - the edgy Londoner could headline next year. In The Alcove, a separate tent over the lake, Tony [Lily’s Dad] Allen ran a subversive nightly cabaret, the Establishment Club, that blended cocktails, humor, music and politics. A cousin decided poetry was the thing... and it was! Poets ranged from the famous (Roger McGeoch, Ben Okri, Scroobius Pip) to the unknown, and from the light-hearted to the confessional. Nailing the ambience was Dorset-resident Scottish satiristin-verse Elvis McGonagall who raised the canvas roof. I was hooked, and explored the rest of the festival without prodding. Despite the plethora of alternative festivals, Latitude is already in The American’s diary for 2015. A limited number of Early Bird Tickets are on sale on SEETICKETS and TICKETMASTER from August 1 until September 30, 2014, when 2015 tickets will be on sale at this year’s prices. Latitude 2015 dates are July 16 to 19. It will be the Festival’s 10th Anniversary, so they say you should expect some special surprises!
August 2014 31
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from Brora to the Isle of Harris by contemporary photographer Glyn Satterley and aerial shots by artist and aviator Patricia Macdonald bring the exhibition up to date.
First Sight: Recent Acquisitions of Prints and Drawings to October 2
Also at the Scottish National Gallery, thirty drawings, watercolors and prints, ranging from large-scale exhibition watercolors to small working sketches, from Rembrandt in the 17th century to Paul Cézanne in the late 19th century.
Ryan Gander: Make every show like it’s your last Charles Lees, The Golfers, 1847, Oil on canvas, 131x 214 cm. (Purchased with the assistance of the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Art Fund and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club 2002)
The Art of Golf: The Story of Scotland’s National Sport
Scottish National Gallery, The Mound, Edinburgh EH2 2EL July 12 to October 26 Golf has been played in Scotland since at least the fifteenth century. Whilst its origins are obscure, it is undoubtedly close to the Netherlandish game of ‘colf’, which was played over rough ground or on frozen waterways, and involved hitting a ball to a target stick fixed in the ground or the ice. In Scotland the game is often played over ‘links’ courses, originally rough common ground where the land meets the sea. The majority of Scotland’s famous old courses, such as St Andrews or North Berwick, are links courses. In Edinburgh, the early links courses of Bruntsfield, Leith and Musselburgh are shown in
32 August 2014
COURTESY NATIONAL GALLERIES OF SCOTLAND
works by Sandby and Raeburn. This exhibition brings together around 60 paintings and photographs - as well as a selection of historic golfing equipment - with works by artists such as Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823), Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634) and Paul Sandby (1731-1809) illustrating the origins of the game. Other highlights will include Sir John Lavery’s (1856-1951) beautiful 1920s paintings of the North Berwick golf course just outside Edinburgh, and colorful railway posters for popular destinations such as Gleneagles, which illustrate the boom in golfing tourism in the inter-war years. Stunning images of golf courses Ryan Gander, Magnus Opus, 2013, ©RYAN GANDER
Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley St, Manchester M2 3JL July 3 to September 14
A major exhibition of work by this renowned British conceptual artist. This show, part of an international tour programme, will take on a new form when it is staged in Manchester, where Gander studied. He will be illustrating his close connection to the city through new work created exclusively for Manchester Art Gallery. The exhibition explores two recent themes in Gander’s work; the ‘Imagineering’ and the ‘Culturefield.’ Bringing together various media to highlight the artist’s playful wit, it explores the relationships between author, work and viewer where the rules are constantly redefined.
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DON’T MISS ... Jimi Hendrix by Donald Silverstein
John Ruskin: Artist and Observer Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 1 Queen Street, Edinburgh EH2 1JD to September 28
Champion of the Pre-Raphaelites and JMW Turner, leading art critic of his day, prominent social thinker and philanthropist, John Ruskin (1819 - 1900) was also a prolific artist (who famously fell out with the American artist, James McNeill Whistler). This is the only chance in the UK to see this collaboration with the National Gallery of Canada, which brings together 130 drawings and watercolors of Ruskin’s own art, representing his entire 60-year career, on loan from important private and public collections in the UK, Canada and the USA, including the Morgan Library, New York; the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut; the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Emma Thomson’s upcoming film Effie, has as its subject the interesting life of Ruskin’s wife, Euphemia Gray.
Trevor Paglen, An English Landscape (American Surveillance Base near Harrogate, Yorkshire), at Gloucester Road Tube, 2014 Photographic print, 62 metres
Snap Galleries, 12 Piccadilly Arcade London SW1Y 6NH www.snapgalleries.com to August 23
PHOTO COURTESY TRANSPORT FOR LONDON
Art on the Underground: An English Landscape (American Surveillance Base near Harrogate, Yorkshire) Gloucester Road Tube Station, London SW7 to June 2015
A new commission from internationally reknowned US photographer Trevor Paglen, this 62 meter panoramic photograph is a trompe-l’oeil behind the 19 brick arches that run the length of a disused station platform at Gloucester Road. It depicts the US reconnaissance base at Menwith Hill, North Yorkshire: a bucolic North Yorkshire landscape, punctuated with the distinctive white geodesic domes used by the United States in military communications and intelligence gathering operations. It can be seen by all passengers traveling from, to or through the station. Paglen says “This work situates itself in a tradition of artworks made in response to the British landscape. Looking back at figures such as Constable, Turner and Gainsborough, my intention is to make a contemporary version of what they saw.” John Ruskin, Study of a Velvet Crab, 1870(?) Bodycolor over graphite on blue wove paper, 31.5 x 24.5 cm. Presented by John Ruskin to the Ruskin Drawing School ©ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM,UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Donald Silverstein, Jimi Hendrix, London 1967 © DONALD SILVERSTEIN
You may recognise this iconic image of Jimi Hendrix, but most of Donald Silverstein’s Hendrix archive from his 1967 photo session for the Electric Ladyland album is previously unseen. A gifted photographer, Silverstein was given a Rolleiflex camera by his mother at the age of 12; by 19 he was photographing for Glamour magazine in the US and at 20 was sent to London then Paris for English then French Vogue. He loved Europe and ended up returning to be at the heart of ‘Swinging London’. Once considered up there alongside Bailey, Donovan and Duffy as one of the great photographers of his age, he died tragically early at 42, in 1974. This show should help reinstate him. The exhibition will include the sale of a range of limited edition photographs, along with a new limited edition book.
August 2014 33
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Coffee Break GENERAL QUIZ ➊ By area, Alaska is the largest US state. Which is the second largest?
➋ What is Donald Duck’s middle name? a) Hamish b) Fortescue c) Fauntleroy
➌ Which of these US Presidents was born first:
John F Kennedy, Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan?
➍ What was the name of Hopalong Cassidy’s horse? a) Fiver b) Topper c) Champion
➎ Which musical note is most commonly used for an orchestra to tune to?
➏ Which is the only US state to begin with the letter ‘P’? ➐ How many people play on an ice hockey team? ➑ Name two countries which border Poland? ➒ What was the name of John F Kennedy Airport before it was re-named?
➓
What organization was given the only Nobel Peace Prize awarded during WW1?
⓫
How would a funambulist entertain you?
⓬ What is the world’s most expensive spice? Quiz answers and Sudoku solution on page 64.
34 August 2014
7 1 6 8 1 2 8 9 9 1 2 6 7 4 8 9 3 5 7 8 2 1 3 4 1 5 1 6 5 3 It happened 50 years ago...
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August 1, 1964: Which British hit reached no.1 in the US Billboard charts? Name the band and song.
It happened 100 years ago...
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August 22, 1914: The first shots of WWI were fired near Mons, Belgium. How far from this spot is the memorial for the last shot?
It happened 200 years ago...
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August 24, 1814: The British invade Washington and burn down The White House. What color was it before it caught fire?
Unleash your true potential What would it be like if you could ... Really understand what make you and others tick? Actually achieve the goals you have set? Rid yourself of those negative emotions that hold you back from reaching your dreams?
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Max Weber Dancing Figures Pastel & chalk University of Reading Art Collection © Estate of Max Weber
FREE ENTRY Ben Uri 108a Boundary Road (off Abbey Road) St John’s Wood, London NW8 0RH 020 7604 3991 • www.benuri.org.uk
BU_Weber_American_70x100_Jul14.indd 1
20/06/2014 14:12
PHOTO ©MARK DOUET
Tricycle Theatre 269 Kilburn High Rd, London NW6 7JR 020 7328 1000 www.tricycle.co.uk Reviewed by Tim Baros
The Colby Sisters of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania F
ive sisters, all very beautiful women, some of them lead a charmed life, and a couple of them don’t. Coming from a wealthy and famous family (though we are not told how wealthy or why they’re famous), they all live on that island called Manhattan. Gemma (Charlotte Parry) is the wealthiest of the sisters, followed everywhere by her PA Heather (Ronke Adekoluejo). Willow (Claire Forlani) is the oldest of the sisters, grounded, smart, and easily likeable, with two sons. Unfortunately her husband is not working at the moment so she needs a handout from Gemma. Garden (Patricia Potter) is the unstable one who can’t accept the fact that her husband is having an affair and wonders what she could have done to keep him. India (Isabella Calthorpe) is in a very happy relationship with an artist, so she has no issues. And then there’s Mouse (Alice Sanders), the youngest of the bunch, a free spirit who will go with any man who simply smiles at her, she acts innocent and dumb, and is a bit adventurous. The show begins with the women putting on their upcoming
fundraising ball dresses, for a photo shoot. Willow agonizes about her financial situation, Garden agonizes about her cheating husband, and Mouse continues to rhapsodise about the many men that she meets. All the meanwhile, Gemma walks around with not a care in the world - with Heather always tagging along a few steps behind. The sets are very minimal, which matches the script. A living room, a ballroom, a closet, a tennis court (smartly done) and an almost bare stage backdropped by picture frames take us through 75 minutes of these women’s lives, and one event that should change them forever but doesn’t. The event (I won’t give away this key plot point) is meant to shock the audience and make the women pause to think about their own lives, but moments later they are back to wearing their beautiful dresses, sunglasses on, evading or catching the attention of the paparazzi. And that is pretty much the show. Sure, the acting is very good, especially from Forlani (Meet Joe Black, NCIS: Los Angeles) and Potter
(Holby Holby City City), however, the rest of the cast are playing caricatures of women we’ve seen portrayed on film and stage for many years; the socialite, the depressed wife, and the free spirit. And poor Adekoluejo. Not only is she relegated to playing the PA who has to fetch drinks for the woman, but in between scenes she is the one who moves stuff around on stage! US writer Adam Brock seems to have watched a lot of Sex and the City to find the personalities for these women, and some of the scenes don’t just come across as realistic. It would have made for a more complete story if we knew more about the women and how they got from Pittsburgh to Manhattan. But the set by Richard Kent will catch your eye as huge picture frames beautifully backdrop the show and, for a moment, one shows them as young girls, in happier times. This is the part of the show that stuck with me, and nothing else. At the end of the show Mouse says “Nobody knows us, they think they do, but they don’t.” Yes, Mouse, after seeing the show I still don’t know who the Colby Sisters are.
TKTS – FOR ALL YOUR THEATRE TICKET NEEDS We bet you know tkts in Times Square but did you know that the Society of London Theatre, the UK equivalent of the Theatre Development Fund, also runs a London booth? TKTS in Leicester Square offers tickets to the best shows in the West End with many at a discount. Come and see us today. www.TKTS.co.uk 36 August 2014
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time
The American
Book by Mark Haddon Stage adaptation by Simon Stephens Gielgud Theatre, Shaftesbury Ave, London W1D 6AR 0844 482 5130 Reviewed by Jan Hartley PHOTO ©BRINKHOFF MÖGENBURG
W
ell, I loved the book and I loved this National Theatre “Stage play” production. At first glance the set looks like it might prove to be a little disappointing? A giant Tron-like cube, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was one of the most versatile sets I’ve ever seen. Bunny Christie, the designer, managed to create an unbelievably imaginative space which morphed into every kind of area you can think of, including the mind. Marianne Elliott has been very clever in her direction, opting for a physical, yet abstract approach to the way the characters depict the story, gracefully moving through the scenes, which works well, without being “Arty F***y”. This play will really get you thinking about the way we interpret all the things around us, from the way we react to people and events, to the way we all use coping mechanisms to just get by in life. The focal character is Christopher, a 14 year old boy, who suffers from a myriad of “behavioral problems”, a term used by the author, instead of labeling Christopher as having Asperger Syndrome, which I thought very insightful of him. After all, we all have a few behavioral issues! We see how Christopher sees the world
and the people around him, as well as how the people in Christopher’s life see and deal with him. It really is a fascinating play and very true to the book. The cast is headed by Graham Butler as Christopher, who gives a magnificent performance, lending a great deal of warmth and understanding for the character. His main aim is to discover who killed Mrs Shears’ dog Wellington? The dog is found with a garden fork through its chest. Graham’s is an exhaustive and poignant performance, producing a beautifully executed characterization. All the performers are brilliantly cast. Sarah Woodward as Siobhan narrates the piece from time to time, while also playing Christopher’s teacher, giving a calm, poised performance with great depth. Nicholas Tennant plays Ed, Christopher’s father, he manages to create a sad, dissipated man, who just can’t really deal with what life has chucked at him. Emily Joyce plays Judy, Christopher’s mother, again a stunning performance of depth, pathos and desperation. Daniel Casey, of Midsomer Murders fame, played several parts including Mr
Shears, and showed great versatility and charisma. Victoria Willing plays Mrs Shears, a very unfriendly character, her other roles in the play include Mrs Gascoigne, the Head teacher, with some really laugh out loud moments. Paul Stoker is a thoroughly believable policeman. Gay Soper is perfect as the sweet, slightly baffled neighbor, who tries to befriend Christopher and inadvertently is the catalyst for all hell breaking loose. I just loved Gay in the role and I think she would make a fabulous Miss Marple one day! Other parts were played seamlessly by Tony Turner and Vivienne Acheampong. The Movement Directors, Scott Graham and Steve Hogget, wove their choreographic magic with the entire cast, as this is a very energetic play for all and the Sound and Technical departments really pulled out all the stops. To sum up, this is a real tour de force and there isn’t one weak link in the chain. Everybody works ridiculously hard to help achieve this glorious, poignant, disturbing, yet funny play. It had me chuckling all the way through. I have to travel quite a distance to get into London, but believe me, it was worth it.
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PHOTO © JOHAN PERSSON
The American
The Crucible The Old Vic, The Cut, London SE1 8NB www.oldvictheatre.com 0844 871 7628 Reviewed by Peter Lawler
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omeone needs to officially declare it edgy Arthur Miller season. First, an ambient, haunting, and gut-wrenching All My Sons in Regents Park, then Mark Strong’s barefoot, minimalist dockyard drama, View From the Bridge, and now, in The Old Vic we have a dark, brooding, and unrelentingly intense The Crucible with a dark, brooding, and unrelentingly intense Richard Armitage at its taught and anguished nexus as the tragic protagonist John Proctor in an utterly phenomenal theatrical experience. Director Yaël Farber has put the whole production in the round at The Old Vic, stripping away any semblance of a stage and making us feel much more as though we are the sitting congregation of a puritan meeting house as the characters walk among us and around us with the blurriest of lines defining a performance space in the middle of the audience, in close proximity, judging, accusing, declaiming, and keening. In a story predominantly concerned with truth and its distortion, much of the visual metaphor comes from the characters weaving in and out of the shadows and illuminating or obscuring the truth.
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Richard Armitage (John Proctor) and Natalie Gavin (Mary Warren)
I must admit, for this American, it jarred me at first that Farber has actively chosen not to have the actors in American accents, but to relocate vocal inflections, with admirable consistency to the North of England. I can speculate plausibly as to why she has made the choice. Many early colonials theoretically would have sounded English anyway, if there is anywhere appropriate to set a puritan tragedy, it is in the austere North, where Calvinism established its strongest historical grip on the nation and because Farber is arguably delocalizing the narrative, making this paranoiadriven story one of universal striving for truth, control, and meaning. But still, would it have killed them to sound like colonials? It didn’t take long to get over though, as an intense tension built up between the community’s spiritual leader, Reverend Parris, and his niece, Abigail Williams, accused of bewitching her bedridden, dumbstruck younger cousin Betty and possibly besmirching the reverend’s good name through wanton dancing and voodoo rituals in the woods at night. In a shrewd deflection, Abigail uses the charge
of witchcraft as a weapon against anyone who would suspect or question her, including the farmer with whom she has recently had an affair. Cue John Proctor. Suspicion and fear slice ribbons through the community, bringing Abigail and Proctor into a conflict that will see one of them undone. Performances are simply superb. It is possible that after Spooks and Thorin Oakenshield, Armitage doesn’t have to dig that deep to find his raspy, dark and deeply conflicted side, but oh how well he does it, and how well he wrenches the sympathy from us. Samantha Colley’s intensity and fearsomeness as Abigail is thrilling. But Adrian Schiller is the real revelation here as the Reverend Hale, the severe, preaching inquisitor brought in to investigate the town. Schiller captures Hale’s John-the-Baptist like journey to humility with compelling and unforgettable mastery. In an age of political turmoil and ever growing fear and suspicion of those in power, Arthur Miller’s allegory of Red Scare America has never been more relevant, and this intelligent interpretation is a tour de force.
Theatre Royal, Saw Close, Bath BA1 1ET Reviewed by Michael Burland
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warning to those with a nervous disposition or low stamina: Adrian Noble’s brilliant new production of Edward Albee’s emotional slugfest lasts three and a quarter hours and is almost as hard on the audience as it is for its protagonists. It’s the Thrilla in Manila crossed with a rickety rollercoaster ride - a long brutal battle that you’re not sure you’ll survive, but excites and entertains throughout. The play is a justified classic, the piece with which Albee established himself as one of the great American playwrights in the vein of - and with this play equaling - Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill. Written in 1962, it was his first full length play, and remains his best known. Albee’s masterstroke was to give his portrayal of a failing marriage, petty (and not so petty) rows, rivalries, vindictiveness and middle class failure, veins of wickedly witty dialog that are fantastically funny in their own right as well as highlighting the damage the protagonists are doing to each other. It makes it bearable, enjoyable, thrilling, as well
PHOTO ©NOBBY PHOTO ©NOBBY CLARKCLARK
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
as thought provoking. He once said his influences were “Sophocles and Noël Coward” and in ‘Virginia Woolf’ he proves it. In an out-of-the-way unnamed New England university, Martha (Clare Higgins) is the faded daughter of its President and the wife of George (Tim Pigott-Smith), a history lecturer with a great future behind him. Martha had big plans for George, grooming him to take over the college when Daddy retires, but George has been a big disappointment. Alcohol fills that void for Martha. It also fills his chasm of uselessness, for George. Late at night after a staff party a young couple, recently arrived at the college, have been invited for - you guessed it - more drinks at Martha and George’s split level ‘60s-modern home (exquisitely and evocatively designed by Mike Britton). Nick, played by Nathan Wiley, is uncomfortable and pompous, with a rising confidence that sees him vying with George to be alpha male, Iris Roberts’ Honey is prim and proper, a front for an emerging fragility. Both make of their parts
much more than a mere audience for the big event, as they can be in other, lesser productions. Martha and George play their well-rehearsed games of mutual abuse and humiliation and add new games of ‘get the guest’. As bourbon, brandy and gin are downed in heroic quantities the night spirals out of control, and the older couple take different forms of advantage of the younger, leading to more than one real tragedy being unveiled. Both Higgins and Pigott-Smith could have been born for these parts. She inhabits Martha’s frustrations in a way that Elizabeth Taylor never reached in the film adaptation. He (despite a few first-night prompt calls) is the best George I’ve seen as he slowly reveals his character’s real strength, cunning and ruthlessness. The genius of this production is that 195 minutes of domestic abuse (with two much-needed intervals) seems half that length and is as uplifting as it is grueling. If it is put on again - in the West End, on Broadway, wherever - try to get a ticket.
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The American
PHOTO © ALASTAIR MUIR
Conceived & written by Gerard Alessandrini Menier Chocolate Factory 53 Southwark Street, London SE1 1RU 020 7378 1713 www.menierchocolatefactory.com Reviewed by Jarlath O’Connell
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his is a revue-show that sharply spoofs show tunes, characters and plots of contemporary Broadway musicals. First conceived written and directed by Gerard Alessandrini in 1982 as a tiny off-broadway concoction, initially for the theater crowd, it has since spawned 25 editions, 12 cast albums and a 32 year run in New York. It has been staged in London a number of times and its latest incarnation is blessed with a quartet of incredibly versatile and talented West End pros who all are a “triple threat” – Anna-Jane Casey, Sophie-Louise Dann, Damien Humbley and Ben Lewis. Returning to the show, the joy is in anticipating how they’ll demolish the latest over-hyped West End behemoth. This time we get to see their devilish send ups of The Book of Mormon, Once and the revival of The Pajama Game for example. Sending up the legends is also their trade and here Hugh Jackman gets it. For once, it comes across as a cheap shot. The man is so multitalented and universally admired it’s not easy to take a shot at him without accusations of sour grapes. Like all reviews they fare best with the broad characters who can be easily lampooned. The show
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FORBIDDEN BROADWAY
retains classic numbers such as ‘Rita and Chita’, a side splittingly funny summation of the career paths and intense rivalries of Rita Moreno and Chita Rivera. Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin get similar treatment for their love-in tour. They’re best too in puncturing the pomposity of the more portentous shows like Phantom and Les Mis. A glorious addition here is the revival of Miss Saigon (“You sing cliché and I sing haiku”) and Cameron Mackintosh gets personally skewered in ‘The American Dream’ number (“The new Miss Saigon fulfils my passion for greed”). The show has always had a grander purpose in that it saw itself as a corrective against shoddy material, poor vocal technique (and the hiding of it), lazy concepts and fads such as exploiting kids (Matilda, Billy Elliot, Les Mis). The Les Mis sequence may be old but remains a gem and cuts to the heart of the megamusical problem ‘Ten Years More’. Casey’s hilarious “On My Phone” sung by an eternally bored Eponine loitering in the wings is also ingenious. Humbley too is majestic in “God it’s High” where he attempts to scale the heights of Colm Wilkinson (“This song’s too
high, pity me, change the key”). The raffish bravado of Revue is here in spades. Morgan Large and Alvin Colt’s costumes particularly for The Lion King sequence are wonderfully make-do and a joyous potpourri of everything from saucepans to chopsticks. 32 years ago the corporate take over of Broadway hadn’t yet happened and there was an innocence to these jibes. With shows now calculated to be critic proof, elephantine, fair ground attractions rather than musical comedies and budgeted to succeed, there is less to send up and although Alessandrini isn’t yet a grumpy old man he’s going that way. As a satire the show has to walk a fine line between tickling the funny bone of the cognoscenti and appealing to a wider audience, one for whom the comedy needs to be broader and the targets more familiar. The send ups of Once and its lack of an orchestra or Wicked and its ‘Defying Subtlety’ remain deliciously tart but, like Spitting Image, haven’t you lost the game when the subjects start lining up to join in the fun? More teeth and less playing safe might be the way forward for this, now middle-aged, act of rebellion.
Battersea Art Centre part of London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT) Lavender Hill, Battersea London SW11 5TN Reviewed by Jarlath O’Connell
PHOTO COURTESY THE TIGER LILLIES
A concert by The Tiger Lillies
A Dream Turns Sour L
IFT celebrated its 20th festival this year “connecting world theater to London” and because of the year that’s in it, responded to the long shadow cast by World War I in its programming. On the actual 100th anniversary of the events in Sarajevo, during the Festival’s final days one of its highlights was a new work by one of the world’s foremost avant-garde bands, The Tiger Lillies. Commissioned as part of the 14-18 Now project, A Dream Turns Sour, which they’ve already recorded, is their response to the centenary of WWI, where they’ve taken 15 poems by such ‘War Poets’ as Arthur West, John McCrae, Noel Hodgson and Wilfred Owen and turned them into a typically haunting, angry and lyrical song cycle. Premiering this work in the suitably imperial setting of the Grand Hall of the Battersea Arts Centre, The Tiger Lillies offered their trademark mix of gypsy swing music infused with everything from opera to soul. The challenge for the Lillies, also apparent here, is how to present their distinctive music within a fully-fledged theatrical context. With their huge international hit Shockheaded Peter (developed with Phelim McDermott and Julian
Crouch) they achieved that and the result was a masterpiece. Here however the songs stand alone and so have to do more work. Their lighting designer did however revel in the use of this glorious Victorian ballroom and the band performed in front of its imposing organ, with clever projections and lighting effects illuminating it all. The trio comprises Adrian Stout (on mainly double bass), Mick Pickering (drums and percussion) and the utterly unique Martyn Jacques, who not only plays a mean accordion, piano and guitar but also sings in the most haunting falsetto voice you’ve ever heard. That voice set against the often-jaunty swing rhythms is an eerie combination. With his signature whiteface make up, bowler hat and clipped tones, there is something of the quintessential English eccentric about him. The band’s vaudeville-influenced style with its deliciously twisted and dark humor is utterly theatrical and so they are prime candidates for theatrical collaboration. From the mournful sadness of ‘The Mouthless Dead’, the screeching anger of ‘God How I Hate You’, the withering bitterness of ‘Dead Man’s Dump’ to the tender melodies
of ‘Help Me’, this song cycle takes us through the whole gamut of emotions felt by the young men who found themselves thrown into that awful maelstrom. But it is not just the immediacy of Wilfred Owen’s great war poems which remind us of the sheer horror and pointlessness of it all, Jacques great achievement here is to frame these works for a modern audience using their own signature musical style. The aching beauty of Edward Thomas’s ‘Rain’ for example is given a mellifluous piano underscore and McCrae’s ‘Flanders Field’ is set to a doleful waltz-time. Jacques’ musical framing of these poems pays them a great compliment and the songs repay multiple hearings. The piece has French and Belgian co-producers and as the group has a significant international cult following, this will no doubt have a life beyond LIFT. For an encore they gave us a wonderfully dark and twisted take on that unremittingly cheerful ditty of the period ‘Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag’. This was even more potent when you consider that this venue had actually housed the trials of London’s conscientious objectors from 1916 onwards.
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The American
PHOTO ©MANUEL HARLAN
AMADEUS
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suitably saturnine Rupert Everett stars as Antonio Salieri, the ageing court composer to the Habsburgs, whose nose is distinctly put out of joint by the arrival of the giggling and petulant prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in this lavish revival, which marks the reopening of the main house at Chichester Festival Theatre. Everett certainly has the stage presence, but while he may be old enough for the part he hasn’t really attained the gravitas that the part demands. It is odd to see such a honeyed star effectively play second fiddle to the young Joshua McGuire, who steals the show as Shaffer’s conception of the precocious musical genius. Shaffer’s great study of consuming jealousy, originally seen at the National in 1979 with Paul Scofield, conquered the West End and Broadway and was of course made into a hugely successful Oscar winning film by Milos Forman. It’s been accused by many a music expert of playing too fast and loose with the facts but then again why should
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By Peter Shaffer Chichester Festival Theatre Oaklands Park, Chichester West Sussex PO19 6AP www.cft.org.uk Reviewed by Jarlath O’Connell
it not? It’s been called a character assassination of Salieri, who is damned here not only for being second-rate but also for his vindictive destruction of the great man who had thought he was a friend. The presentation of Mozart as potty mouthed makes great copy (and there is ample evidence for it in his private letters to his wife) but would not someone as familiar with court life as he was, be more circumspect and present a more civil tongue in public, whilst keeping the scatology for the bed chamber? Jonathan Church’s production really comes alive in those rambunctious domestic scenes, which have great comic verve. Jessie Buckley is wonderfully earthy and exciting as Constanze, even throwing in a Cockney “ooh ta”. You feel for her travails but also understand the close bond between these two extroverts. The pint-sized McGuire is truly astonishing as the cackling composer. An incorrigible child one minute and a precocious genius the next, we share his frustration at his lack of progress, as he struggles
against poverty and hunger, while observing the mediocre Salieri attain status, critical acclaim and public affirmation. Director Jonathan Church has secured a perfect supporting cast too, including the urbane John Standing (himself a baronet) as the leading courtier Count Orsini and Simon Jones providing delicious light relief as Emperor Joseph II, whose air of dry wit and culture worn-lightly recalls one or two of our own royals. This production marks the reopening of this great theater after a £22m refurb. The great thrust stage can now be better appreciated from seats that are re-upholstered and better raked and the foyers and (more importantly) the backstage areas are much less cramped. It’s a vote of confidence in a theater with a great track record. Here the design team Simon Higlett (sets), Fotini Dimou (costumes) and Tim Mitchell (lighting) relish the opportunity to recreate the rococo splendour of the Viennese Court but they do so with a simplicity and elegance, which never hobbles the action. A curious weak point in Church’s production is the failure to properly exploit the great music, which remains curiously muffled and underused in key dramatic moments, where it could have been transformative. Salieri’s central battle with God is also quite downplayed, which leaves Everett often reduced to appearing more like a narrator of the piece as opposed to the central driving force behind it.
and
by August Strindberg in a new version by Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Black Comedy by Peter Shaffer Minerva Theatre, Oaklands Park, Chichester PO19 6AP Reviewed by Jarlath O’Connell www.cft.org.uk
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t was Laurence Olivier, in Chichester in 1965, who first sanctioned the coupling of Strindberg’s dark tale of sexual politics in 19th century Sweden with Peter Shaffer’s sprightly one-act farce and this bracing revival by Jamie Glover confirms what an inspired idea that was. First you get the sturm und drang and is there any more perfect distillation of the great themes of modern drama than Strindberg’s revolutionary 1888 masterpiece, which is a lacerating attack on the shackles of class and gender on the society of his time? The shockwaves it must have sent can be felt immediately in this production, which has a gloriously sinewy translation by Rebecca Lenkiewicz. We witness the Count’s haughty daughter Miss Julie (Rosalie Craig) set about seducing her father’s valet, Jean (Shaun Evans) during one of those eternal Swedish summer nights. Andrew D Edwards’ beautifully naturalistic set for the kitchen of the great house is enhanced by Peter Rice’s evocative sound designs as throughout, we hear the wild cavortings of a midsummer’s all night party taking place off stage. Evans, who cuts a dashing figure as Jean, is burning with contradictions, all over-weening aspiration one minute and stoic subservience the next. The striking redhead Craig (who made such a stir in The Light Princess) has just the right air of spoilt hauteur as the slightly unhinged Julie. Both are trapped in a vortex of their own delusions
but we feel for them and the sexual chemistry between the two is electric. Emma Handy gives sterling support as the cook Kristin, Jean’s fiancée, who is steelier than she first appears. It is 75 minutes of pure theater which will have you riveted to your seat. After the interval we’re in complete darkness, literally. Shaffer’s great gimmick here, which amazingly nobody had thought of till then, was to switch light and darkness. As almost all the action is set during a power cut, at the beginning, when the lights are on, it is the audience who sit in total darkness but when the fuse box blows, the stage is suddenly bathed in brilliant light as we watch the characters groping their way round the room in the dark, walking into doors and bumping into the furniture. It’s an ingenious idea as the cover of darkness allows people to be both two faced and uninhibited. Paul Ready plays Brindsley, a young impoverished sculptor who, in trying to impress a millionaire German art dealer due for a visit to view his work, surreptitiously borrows for the evening some antique pieces of furniture off his precious gay neighbor Harold (Shaun Evans). Soon after the power goes out however, Harold returns early so they have to switch the furniture round in complete darkness without the guests noticing. Brindsley’s embittered former girlfriend Clea (Rosalie Craig) also suddenly appears on this evening, when he
PHOTOS © MANEL HARLAN
Miss Julie
is also trying to charm the father of his current fiancée Carol (Robyn Addison). He’s the bellowing and belligerent Colonel Melkett, perfectly incarnated by Jonathan Coy. To add to the mix another neighbor, a prissy middle-aged spinster Miss Furnival also seeks refuge in the darkness. As in the best farces Brindsley has to pile distraction upon deceit as the evening inevitably spirals out of his control. The cast are universally magnificent. Ready is a born farceur and Addison a total joy as the squeaky voiced debutante. Evans is supremely confident as the lovelorn gay neighbour and has that rare challenge for an actor, speaking pages of dialogue with nobody listening as the audience is in stitches watching the attempted furniture removals. Marcia Warren, as usual, commits grand comic larceny as the ditzy old dear. A piece likes this needs the precision of a Swiss watch and Glover’s pacing of it is simply exquisite. Andrew D Edwards recreation of the Spartan artist flat in ‘60s South Kensington also couldn’t be bettered. For a writer who can often appear portentous it is important to remember that with Black Comedy Shaffer crafted one of the most perfect farces ever written. It is hardly ever out of production and in the last five years alone it has had more than 30 professional revivals all over the world. It is long overdue in the West End and this production is simply sublime.
August 2014 43
PHOTO ©JOHAN PERSSON
GREAT BRITAIN National Theatre, South Bank, London, SE1 9PX 020 7452 3000 www.nationaltheatre.org.uk Reviewed by Jarlath O’Connell
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ushed plays like rushed legislation are always flawed and this is a perfect example of this. The Hacking scandal, which was not really about hacking at all, but rather the systemic corruption of our key institutions: the press, politicians and police, is perhaps the most important news story of the past few years and we’d expect something trenchant and illuminating on it from the National Theatre. Instead we get a farrago of flippancy, which is all too pleased with itself and about as radical as Private Eye. The NT made much of their covert rehearsals, the news blackout and the big announcement the day following the Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson verdicts. This achieved great PR but bad dramaturgy. No analysis, no insight, nothing more than the retelling of events as comedy, thus trivialising a story where lives were ruined, and all for a few cheap laughs. What is galling is how it plays fast and loose with the facts of the various hacking trials and the MP expenses scandal while at the same time riding on the coattails of being daringly topical. Here Paige Britain (Billie Piper), the Brooks character manqué, passes important information to the police whereas in real life this had been withheld. She does it because she is bonking the Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. Did playwright Richard Bean think this would make her more
44 August 2014
sympathetic and if so to what end? What’s worse, the play ends with her sailing off into the sunset and a Piers Morgan-like chat show in the US. She chides us that none of this really mattered and “if the twins had been found alive, I’d now be a heroine” (here the missing teenager Milly Dowler is replaced by missing twins). Aside from being very poor satire, this peddles the establishment lie that it was all a waste of money because we’re all basically out for ourselves and everything else is hypocrisy. Well, the answer to that is a firm No. With just 4 days to go before Jeremy Hunt would have totally capitulated to the Murdoch empire on media ownership and impartiality rules, someone at the Guardian called Nick Davies, who didn’t share this universal cynicism, broke the Milly Dowler story and the rest is history. As a production it’s as shiny as a Page Three Stunna. Each department delivers and the cast have great fun with their larger than life characters. Piper is developing into an actress of great range and presence and glories in the razor sharp mind and amoral attitudes of the power mad Paige. Hytner’s direction keeps it moving, albeit at the frenetic pace which is now de rigeur for all modern plays at the National. The bombardment of tiresomely re-imagined plot details from the real story (the Murdoch character is Irish etc. etc) all in a theater-in-edu-
cation style makes one wonder if this is for dim teenagers who don’t follow the news. They may have carefully shuffled plot points and renamed all the characters, but isn’t it screamingly obvious who they all are? This isn’t bravery from the National it’s jumping on a bandwagon. What was required here was a writer who could take a step back from all this and give some perspective and most importantly tell us something we didn’t already know. David Hare pulled this off brilliantly in his similarly instant play about the financial crisis, The Power of Yes, but sadly, Bean is nowhere in his league. Here the priority seems to be to entertainment but the constant barrage of crudity and cruelty has diminishing returns. It’s also a neat middle class delusion - make the audience cringe at the crudity of the barrow boys and think, if only ‘civilised’ people were in charge. But they were… If you really want to understand this issue read Nick Davies’ excellent summing up of the trials and their implications, Phone hacking trial was officially about crime; but in reality, it was about power”(Guardian, 25 June 2014). If instead you want a good laarf and a panto with knob jokes this is a safer bet. Needless to say it’s a huge success and is transferring to the Theatre Royal Haymarket from 10 September!
WIN TICKETS TO YEEHAW UK WITH THE AMERICAN The Yeehaw UK Country Music Festival is the family music experience which reclaims “Yeehaw” for the modern generation! Taking place on Friday 5th and Saturday 6th September 2014, artists will be performing on Friday night (acoustic) and on Saturday, with camping available. Promoting all aspects of country music, a mix of artists from across the globe will be performing including talent from America, Australia and the UK. Enjoy fantastic live music whilst also sampling genuine American themed food, drink and products by way of the Expo Ranch. There are also discounts on all tickets to current and previously serving members of the armed services. Courtesy of Yeehaw UK, you can win TWO tickets to attend Yeehaw UK 2014 on Saturday September 6th, where you can see artists including Penny Rae, M Callahan and Chase Allen, all hailing from Tennessee, Californian country girl Raihanna Estrada, Ward Thomas – the country/ Americana duo from Hampshire, UK – and many more. Just answer this question: M Callahan, one of the stars of Yeehaw UK 2014, calls which music city in the USA home? A) Nashville B) New Orleans C) Detroit HOW TO ENTER: For a chance of winning two tickets to attend Yeehaw UK Festival on Saturday September 6th, email your answer and your contact details (name, address and daytime telephone number) to theamerican@blueedge.co.uk with YEEHAW UK in the subject line; or send a postcard to: YEEHAW UK, The American, Old Byre House, Millbrook Lane, East Knoyle, Salisbury SP3 6AW, UK; to arrive by mid-day August 29, 2014. 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 Yeehaw UK Country Music Festival and are not transferable. You are responsible for any travel, accommodation or other expenses. Pictured left: M Callahan
The American
Far Right: Goethe by Stieler, 1828
BOOK REVIEWS BEING CULTURED: in defence of discrimination by Angus Kennedy Societas, £14.95 ISBN 1845405706
Reviewed by Alan Miller
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o make the argument in favor of discrimination would seem like not only a foolhardy mission but actually one that beggars belief in the world we live in. To defend discriminating? Against what? Challenging who exactly? As we know, discrimination is often seemingly associated with racism and seems to invoke stuffy old Imperialists, those ‘Dead White Males’ that raped and pillaged the world – which is how convention today would have it. Thus the task author Angus Kennedy sets himself is formidable. He tells us early on, though, that: “Without discrimination, we are all in culture and yet none of us is cultured.” (p 70) Hmm. Drawing on references from Plato and Aristotle onwards through Enlightenment thinkers, with Matthew Arnold’s presence ever close by, we are taken on an incredible journey. Susan Sontag’s essay Against Interpretation in 1964 tells us “the white race is the cancer of history” while fellow travelers Bourdieu, Derrida, Barthes and Zizek all reinforce the ‘taste is intolerance’ idea. Kennedy retorts that not to choose is cowardice. I am reminded here of MacIntyre’s After Virtue, although Kennedy strives to put courage back on the cultural as well as philosophical agenda. Courage to say ‘This is good because…’ and
46 August 2014
‘That is poor or shoddy because…’ That ‘this will stand the test of time’ because of a tradition, there is a Canon, where we have agreed what is of value, what is of beauty, what has meaning to us. That which will stand the test of time. Kennedy reminds us that Daniel Bell argued that pop represented a new hedonism as “traditional morality was replaced by psychology, guilt by anxiety”. One begins to look awkwardly again at Warhol’s ‘Art is what you can get away with’ although Kennedy’s cerebral knives (and these one understands would be of the best metaphorical silver) are drawn, rather, for the new elite practitioners: the current cultural gatekeepers and custodians at museums and galleries who narcissistically and intolerantly believe that (in the name of people they claim to speak for) “their vision of a multicultural, postmodern, diverse society is one shared by everyone of sound mind.” (p 86) Freedom is a recurring theme to which Kennedy keeps returning. Judging reflects humanity’s freedom. To not judge is to retreat in to a non-free place, where we are isolated and insular and not connected. The combo of what he calls ‘Total Culture’ (in which he argues that the instrumentalism and ‘outcomes’ we now see are more pervasive than anything dreamed up by
Stalin) and not judging, diminishes our freedom and humanity. He invites us via Goethe to make “reality more poetic” – encouraging us all to develop our tastes if we so wish but to not have it imposed upon us. It is a rare accomplishment, concisely argued, with numerous contemporary and historical examples which aim, it seems to me, to encourage whoever will listen to exercise their own Virtu(e), control over their selves, their lives and destiny. To develop taste, to admire and understand beauty and take Kant’s words to heart, quoted immediately after Mill’s, who beseeches us to make our own minds up, not take on board received wisdoms because, “the death of dogma is the birth of Morality.” (p 208) We are left with a challenge: Being Cultured argues for us all to take our freedom seriously, to judge and discriminate – yet simultaneously be more controlled and disciplined. Don’t let it all hang out. It isn’t all relative or cool. I can hear a ‘Fight The Power’ tune in my mind, but today that power is the suffocating one of platitudes, flattery and ‘relevance’. This book pierces many of the current false gods and instead provokes us to think about how we should shape our own destiny. Through being free.
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The American
The Future for US Soccer The USA’s World Cup ‘Group of Death’ performance was a good omen for the nations’s soccer prospects, writes Gary Jordan
W
hen Brazil fell to the eventual tournament winners Germany in a record breaking semi-final defeat, many thought the World Cup was over. It had lost its sparkle, without the hosts in the final it was just another football event. Nothing could have been further from the truth. The German team were undoubtedly the deserved winners and their fourth World Cup triumph has been heralded as their best ever, given that they are the first European nation to win on South American soil. And they had to do it the hard way - coming out of the fabled ‘Group of Death’. In this group was one of the nations that made this particular tournament one of the best ever. When the United States lost their final group game narrowly to the Germans it mattered little. Having won their opening match against Ghana they backed it up with a more than credible draw with Portugal. Indeed they were just seconds away from a famous win that would have eliminated Ronaldo’s men early. As it was, they had done
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enough to win over many fans and experts of the game and a place in the last 16. Such was their ‘all for one, and one for all’ approach; they were a breath of fresh air alongside others such as Costa Rica, Algeria, Chile and Colombia. New stars emerged like Kyle Beckerman, John Brooks and Jermaine Jones, alongside the veteran heroics of Tim Howard, Demarcus Beasley and Clint Dempsey, all under the guidance of Coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who had clearly brought some of his home nation’s work ethic to the table. This in turn rubbed off onto the fans. Their own ‘Believe’ campaign was exciting in itself. The fan parks that grew bigger around the USA were more frenzied, with a growing sense of pride and anticipation. When the team eventually bowed out to a Belgium team that for most underachieved, there was a feeling that the USA could have progressed further. However their progression during their two weeks in Brazil shows enough that over the next four years they could grow into a top ten team in the FIFA rankings
and indeed a force to be reckoned with in Russia 2018. Keeping the nucleus of the squad will be key, and having a strong, competitive MLS will help. The league is no longer reliant on imported stars - although they are welcome, they are seen as an addition rather than the marketing ploy that they once were. As the MLS heads deep into the second half of the season, the next time the national team get together will be for the friendly game against the Czech Republic in Prague on September 3rd. Windows of opportunity are few and far between, such is the lack of real competitive football outside of major tournament play. Qualifying for the next World Cup will not start until late summer 2016, then they have their 2013 Gold Cup win to replicate in July 2015. The United States has been selected to host a very special version of the Copa America. The South American nation’s tournament celebrates its 100th year and have made a special invitational tournament to celebrate this.
Top Right: United States supporters cheer prior to the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil Group G match between Ghana and the United States at Estadio das Dunas on June 16, 2014 in Natal, Brazil. PHOTO BY JAMIE
The American
MCDONALD/ GETTY IMAGES FOR SONY
Right: John Brooks of the United States scores his team’s second goal during the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil Group G match between Ghana and the United States at Estadio das Dunas on June 16, 2014 in Natal, Brazil.
PHOTO BY JAMIE MCDONALD/ GETTY IMAGES FOR SONY
Bottom Right: The United States supporters cheer prior to the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil Group G match between the United States and Portugal at Arena Amazonia on June 22, 2014 in Manaus, Brazil. PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER LEE/ GETTY IMAGES FOR SONY
The Pan-American Cup, or Copa Panamericana, will take place across seven cities between 3rd and 26th June, 2016. This will be a great showcase for the team and another chance to raise the bar before the next World Cup. The ten members of CONMEBOL will be in participation and USA and Mexico are automatically entered from the CONCACAF region, and four more will qualify through a series of games in the next couple of years. Following this will be the 2016 Olympics, and the focus goes back to Rio, Brazil. This will give the young emerging talent a chance to shine. Of course between now and then it is crucial that the men’s soccer team stays firmly in the spotlight and continues to gather pace with its fans whenever possible. This will help galvanise the players into more stirring efforts when they get to host some of the best players and teams in two years time. Support for the USMNT has never been so good, and after this summer’s exploits the future is certainly a bright one.
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The American
As the NBA World Turns Jay Webster ponders the draft, free agency and new players
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n some ways – the whole Donald Sterling drama notwithstanding – it has been more interesting around the NBA since the season ended than when they were actually playing basketball games. Considering how easily and thoroughly the Spurs dismantled the Heat to win their fifth title of the Tim Duncan/ Gregg Popovich era, the subsequent NBA Draft and free agent frenzy really made for much better TV viewing. Of course it all started in Miami in the wake of the Heat’s meltdown in the NBA Finals. The season’s end triggered opt-out clauses in the contracts of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. They all chose to excercise their options, which posed the question, would they stay or would they go? And if they went, where would they go? The pomp and circumstance of the NBA Draft followed, albeit in the shadow of “The Decision II”. While seeing the NBA’s future trotted out onstage under the bright lights in the Big Apple is always a key moment in the basketball calendar, the NBA’s present hinged primarily on where King James would take his talents this time around. Unless you are a hermit, or you really, really don’t care about bas-
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ketball, you know James decided to return to Cleveland and try to bring his hometown its first sports title of any kind since 1964. Once everyone exhaled after LeBron made his decision, Bosh and Wade decided to stay in South Beach. Carmelo Anthony took max money to stay in New York for the Phil Jackson experiment, Pau Gasol signed with the Bulls, Lance Stephenson went to Charlotte. Luol Deng signed with Miami. Paul Pierce went to Washington, replacing Trevor Ariza after he bolted to Houston, who lost Chandler Parsons to the Mavericks, who re-signed – to the surprise of absolutely no one – Dirk Nowitzki. Got all that? With all of the free agent news, it was almost easy to forget about all the new players coming into the league. So who made out and who lost out on draft night?
All about Cleveland
Before the Cavaliers even knew whether they had a whisper of a chance to win the LeBron sweepstakes for a second time, there was the matter of Cleveland’s No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft for the third time in four years. When new commissioner Adam Silver stepped to the podium on draft night for the first
time in his tenure, it was to read out the name of Andrew Wiggins of Kansas. The 6-8 forward is one of the most physically gifted players to emerge from the college ranks in some time, and one many could see someday becoming the same type of player next to LeBron that Scottie Pippin was to Michael Jordan for all those years (and championships). But is someday soon enough for LeBron and the city of Cleveland? At the time this was written, rumors were flying that Wiggins could be used to leverage Kevin Love away from Minnesota. The veteran Love would seem to give the Cavs a better chance of winning now. But what if Wiggins really is, or will soon be, a transcendent talent and a more complete player than Love will ever be? Whatever happens in the coming weeks and months, Cleveland will be the epicenter of the basketball world for the immediate future.
The Tank Game
In today’s NBA there is no ignominy in not trying very hard to win basketball games as long as you are in “rebuilding mode”. That means losing lots of games, as many as possible really, in order to better your draft position at the
The American Andrew Wiggins of Kansas. PHOTO ©JEFF JACOBSEN/KANSAS ATHLETICS
end of the season. Some people call it tanking. There were no shortage of such teams last season, but the king of the tankers played their home games in Philadelphia. The ploy paid off for the 76ers in the form of three first-round picks, including potentially the best player in this year’s draft with the No. 3 pick, Wiggins’ teammate at Kansas, Joel Embiid. The 7-footer from Cameroon has the raw attributes to develop into a Hakeem Olajuwon or Tim Duncan type franchise player, but a stress fracture in his foot will sideline him for most of the coming season. On top of point guard Elfrid Payton from LouisianaLafayette at No. 6, the Sixers also got a well-rounded 6-10 Croatian forward named Dario Saric with the 12th pick, but he will be playing in Turkey next season. The future isn’t now, and it looks like the fans in Philly won’t be getting out of the tank any time soon.
Highlights
Milwaukee’s new ownership nabbed Duke’s Jabari Parker with the No. 2 pick. With maturity and polish, despite only a year of college ball under his belt, the 6-8 forward looks ready to be the new face of an emerging franchise for years to come. The Jazz made Australia’s Dante Exum the fifth pick. The 6-6 point guard has great tools and extreme quickness, but has never played against top-flight competition. It will be interesting to see how he measures up and develops on the biggest basketball stage. With the Celtics taking Oklahoma State point guard Marcus Smart with the sixth pick, one can’t help wondering what the future
holds for Rajon Rondo in Boston. By selecting Kentucky’s Julius Randle with the No. 7 pick, the Lakers might have gotten the player most ready to make an immediate impact on an NBA team. The 6-9 power forward is a fierce competitor who adds toughness and scoring punch to a pretty soft front court. Last season Doug McDermott was lighting up scoreboards for a Cinderella Creighton team, averaging almost 27 ppg. Denver took the 6-8 forward at No. 11 and then sent him to the Bulls for the 16th and 19th picks. McDermott has out-ofthis-world range and should help spread the floor for the Bulls, which they need, but the NBA is a big step up from the Big East Conference. After two national championships at Connecticut, including hitting one clutch shot after another for the Huskies last season, point guard Shabazz Napier ended up in
Miami via Charlotte’s pick at No. 24, reportedly at the urging of LeBron before he bolted for Cleveland. Napier spent his college career proving doubters wrong, and now we shall see if he can make a bunch of other teams regret not taking him sooner in the first round.
New Chapter
With LeBron playing the prodigal son and being welcomed back home with open arms, the balance of power shifts in the Eastern Conference, if not the entire NBA. As a new season approaches, it’s time to look forward to the twists and turns which the NBA season will lead us down. We know King James will stand front and center, but we’ll watch closely to see which other characters – both new and old – will be able to play the biggest roles in the NBA drama, both in the coming season and beyond.
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The American
Eagle Eyed Darren Kilfara looks at the Major Leads in 2014
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arly in the fourth round of the third dull major championship of the year, Peter Alliss said something to Frank Nobilo in the BBC commentary box at the Open Championship which irked me greatly. Sergio Garcia had just holed a long birdie putt at the third hole to pull within six shots of runaway leader Rory McIlroy, and Alliss suggested the monstrous roar which greeted the birdie showed the crowd had turned against McIlroy, which to Alliss seemed a bit unfair. “They just want a contest, Peter,” replied Nobilo. “Oh shut up, Frank!” barked Alliss. “The people here don’t want a contest – they want to see Rory winning by 82 shots! Pull yourself together!” Alliss has finally jumped the shark and is ready for retirement: I’ve loved his meandering commentary for decades, but he has now passed from drollery to doddery. But this attempt at banter touched a raw nerve in me. How much truth is there in Alliss’ response? And why does it annoy me so much that the answer isn’t “none”? For me, drama is fundamental to great tournament golf. The 1986 Masters is my favorite ever tournament, partly for its dramatis personae but more for the narrative which Nicklaus, Norman, Kite, Ballesteros and others created: that final round was littered with attacks and counter-attacks, heroic birdies and desperate bogeys and the result remained in doubt until the 72nd hole. I’m not alone in wanting
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drama like this: NBC’s Sunday telecast at this year’s US Open, which Martin Kaymer won by eight shots, was probably the lowest-rated final round broadcast in US Open history. (Nielsen ratings were down by 46% relative to the 2013 finale.) But when Tiger Woods is involved, everything changes. The final round of the 1997 Masters, which Woods won by 12 shots, was watched by 1 out of every 7 households in America, a staggering figure for a golf tournament. And the 2000 US Open, which Woods won by 15 shots, received an 11% higher Sunday rating than the 1999 US Open, in which Payne Stewart holed a dramatic final putt to defeat Phil Mickelson. At his best, Woods sucked the drama out of Sundays, and I hated him for it: if I wanted to see a procession I’d watch a royal wedding, or the final Sunday of the Tour de France. But most people loved him for it. Which leads us back to young Rory, who is rapidly becoming a specialist in Sunday drama-sucking (major championship division). McIlroy’s eight-stroke US Open win of his own, in 2011, got a 35% higher Sunday rating than Kaymer’s win this year, and the Sunday galleries at Hoylake grew rowdy in Tiger-esque fashion, so clearly he has some star power. Maybe that’s my issue: how many golf fans crave celebrity more than golf itself? We knew Tiger transcended golf in ways a Martin Kaymer never will; are Rory’s promise and personality enough to keep
Rory McIlroy dealing with stardom PHOTO © WWW.TOURPROGOLFCLUBS.COM
the milling throngs transfixed? How many people at Hoylake wanted Rory to shatter the Open scoring record so they could say “I was there” decades from now, happy to have jumped on the McIlroy Bandwagon at an early station? And why did his mastery at the Open depress me so profoundly, to the point that I was cursing Royal Liverpool for its stupid flat greens and its stupid young spectators pleading for high-fives, desperate to touch their hero as he walked to each successive tee? Ultimately Rory is neither the fifth Beatle nor the second Tiger. He’s simply Rory McIlroy, a streakily excellent golfer with a youthful exuberance many people – myself often included – can find charming. I don’t hate him for winning so convincingly; if anything, I hate myself for rooting against any golfer just for the sake of narrative drama. After all, I don’t root for crashes in car races. But I do earnestly hope ‘the field’ puts on a better show at Valhalla in August, and at Augusta, Chambers Bay, St. Andrews and Whistling Straits in 2015. Major championships only come four times a year, and whether you crave celebrity or not, we all deserve more drama than we’ve had so far in 2014 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. His new book is a novel called Do You Want Total War?.
The American
PROFILE: JEFF HEDGES American Citizens Abroad’s new country contact in the UK is a long-term expat who has lived the problems and aims to make your expatriate life easier. We’ve chatted to him so you can get to know him
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ou could say that being helpful to his fellow Americans is a full time occupation for Jeffrey Hedges, in and out of work. Jeff ’s day job is an investment advisor to Americans who reside in the United Kingdom, working with Tanager Wealth Management LLP. And he’s now your point of contact for the ACA in this country. “I’ve lived outside the US on and off since 1979, and lived in Europe since 1991,” he explains. “I used to work in Frankfurt for the Bank of America and they transferred me to the UK. I expected to be here
for two or three years but then I became a local employee, in terms of compensation. My wife also had a good job with another bank and she was able to transfer over here, then we eventually had another child who’s going through A-Levels here in the UK right at the moment. I went into business for myself and I’m now involved with Tanager Wealth, so there was no reason to go back to the States. We spend a lot of time in the US - we have a place in North Carolina and three of our kids live on the West Coast so we do go back quite a bit. But I
would say Britain really is home. “All of us except one - including all my children - have dual nationality and it’s certainly helped them. For example one of my sons is the PA to a rather famous American movie star and they did a film in Paris a couple of years ago. There was a restriction on the number of American staff who could go, and he wouldn’t have been able to work in France except he had a British passport. It’s paid off in many ways over the years. “In the ‘70s, the ‘80s, even the ‘90s, Americans residing abroad had
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The American
to pay tax in both countries. Then 9/11 came and we had the Patriot Act. There was a lot of noise about that Act and how it might affect Americans but to be fair it took a number of years to filter through. It’s a shock when, all of a sudden, you receive a letter from your US bank saying ‘You’ve been a client for 25 years but because you’re residing in the UK we’re closing your account in the next three months’. “In the last three or four years the burden has been growing, with FATCA and the other requirements. You can see that from the increasing number of people who are expatriating - giving up your American nationality is a big step! There are a number of ‘accidental Americans’ who have discovered that they are liable for US taxes. Income level plays a part. Most people I know who have expatriated are not the wealthy: are you willing to pay a potentially large exit tax and still file US tax returns for a certain number of years to get out of being an American? It actually tends to be people with more modest means, and whose tax liability in most cases is small or non-existent because most countries in Europe tax at a higher rate than the US and it can be offset. They find the regulations confusing and onerous and they have to hire accountants. “Life has become a lot more complicated for Americans overseas over the last five years. The thing that surprises them is that it looks like the authorities back in the US
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have decided that people living overseas are doing it for nefarious reasons, which I don’t think anyone really does. When you look at the problems with Swiss banks, most of the clients who were involved were US resident, trying to put money out of the US tax net. It was more likely some guy living in Oklahoma City, someone told him if he has an account in Switzerland he’d never have to pay US tax again, not an expat living in another country trying to avoid US taxes. “There are a number of organizations that can help people in this situation. American Citizens Abroad (ACA) was founded in Geneva, and AARO, the Association of Americans Resident Overseas in Paris, in the 1970s. Women who had married foreigners were the drivers of both, and a major issue was how they could keep American citizenship for their children. The next issue became voting - if you didn’t live in the US you couldn’t vote in US elections. Now with FATCA and other issues, these organizations have a new life and they’re more realistic about what can be achieved. Getting mad at Congress doesn’t do you any good. There’s a couple Congressmen who are sympathetic to Americans abroad and that’s about it. You would think Obama, as someone who lived abroad and had a foreign parent, would be more interested, but he’s more ‘American’ than average in his attitude, I suspect. “ACA is getting larger and more
international, less Swiss oriented, and it’s got an Executive Director in a permanent office in Washington DC. We have a broad appeal, not representing just one or two issues, and not one party or another. We know the new regulations won’t go away, but we’re trying to take the sting out of them. One idea is to exempt your ‘home country’ financial and bank accounts, so if you live in the UK or France, you wouldn’t have to file those because that would be your country of residence. The thinking would be, if you want a French bank account, but don’t live there, you’d have to file that. It’s a more practical approach and there could be better outcomes. The law is the law, but its a question of how it’s applied. “We think of it as an antagonistic situation, us and them, but it isn’t always. One of our clients recently found that his British accountant hadn’t helped, but the IRS at the US Embassy in London were very helpful. “The US government and Congress are crazy not to realize you need people abroad representing American brands. You need a presence overseas to get your message across. Hopefully we will get that recognition soon.”
To contact ACA, email info@americansabroad.org or go to americansabroad.org
American ORGANIZATIONS
American Friends of Gladstone Library Britain’s only Prime Ministerial library. www.gladstoneslibrary-us.com annette.lewis@gladlib.org American Friends of the Jewish Museum London Stephen Goldman Tel. 020 7284 7363 stephen.goldman@jewishmuseum.org.uk www.jewishmuseum.org.uk/american-friends American Friends of the Lyric Theatre Ireland Crannóg House, 44 Stranmillis Embankment, Belfast, BT9 5FL, Northern Ireland Angela McCloskey info@americanfriendsofthelyric.com www.americanfriendsofthelyric.com/
An index of useful resources in the UK Is your group or organization fundraising or running an upcoming event you would like more people to know about? Does your free entry need amendments? Would you like a profile article about your organization? Let us know – we rely on you to keep us up to date! Telephone 01747 830520 or email sabrina@theamerican.co.uk.
ESSENTIAL CONTACTS EMERGENCIES Fire, Police, Ambulance
999 or 112 (NOT 911)
NON-EMERGENCY MEDICAL ADVICE NHS Choices Non-emergency telephone advice Wales only:
nhs.uk 111 0845 4647
TRANSPORTATION London Underground 020 7222 1234 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, Intermational International Directory Assistance Telephone Repair
001 100 155 153 151
For more details go to www.theamerican.co.uk and click on Life In The UK
CIVIC & SERVICES American Church in London Senior Pastor: Rev. John D’Elia. Sunday School 9.45am, Sunday Worship 11am, child care provided. 79a Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4TD Tel: 020 7580 2791/07771 642875 www.amchurch.co.uk churchsecretary@amchurch.co.uk
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.php
American Red Cross RAF Mildenhall 01638 542107, After Hours 07031 15 2334 red.crossv3@mildenhall.af.mil
American Friends of the Philharmonia Orchestra Jennifer Davies, Development Director jennifer.davies@philharmonia.co.uk www.philharmonia.co.uk/support/friends/afpo/
American Friends of Historic Royal Palaces Chris Martin and Harriet James 020 3166 6321, harriet.james@hrp.org.uk www.hrp.org.uk/supportus/donatingfromtheusa
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 020 7565 5060 gabystyles@royalcourttheatre.com or info@afrct.org
American Friends of the Almeida Theatre, Inc. USA: 950 Third Ave., 32nd Floor, New York, NY 10022 UK: Almeida Theatre, Almeida Street, London N1 1TA www.almeida.co.uk/supportus/individual-support/ american-friends American Friends of Chickenshed Theatre USA: c/o Chapel & York PMB293, 601 Penn Ave NW, Suite 900 S Bldg, Washington, DC 20004 UK: Chickenshed, Chase Side, Southgate, London N14 4PE www.chickenshed.org.uk
American Friends of Sadler’s Wells USA: 222 Park Avenue South, 10A, New York, NY 10003 +1.917.539.9021 americanfriends@sadlerswells.com www.sadlerswells.com/page/american-friends UK: 020 7863 8134 development@sadlerswells.com
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 Dulwich Picture Gallery 020 8299 8726, www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk American Friends of English National Opera (ENO) American Friends Coordinator London Coliseum, St. Martin’s Lane, London WC2N 4ES 0207 845 9331 Americanfriends@eno.org www.eno.org/support/individual/memberships
American Institute of Architects 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX 020 3318 5722 membership@aiauk.org, www.aiauk.org
American Friends of the British Museum The British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG. 020 7323 8590 www.britishmuseum.org
American Citizens Abroad (ACA) 5 Rue Liotard, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland +41.22.340.02.33 info.aca@gmail.com www.americansabroad.org
American Friends of the Donmar Inc. 020 7845 5810, sdittmer@donmarwarehouse.com www.donmarwarehouse.com/p46.html
American Friends of the Royal Institution of Great Britain U.S.: c/o Chapel & York Limited, PMB #293, South Building Washington, DC 20004 UK: The Development Office, Royal Institution of Great Britain, 21 Albemarle Street, London W1S 4BS 020 7670 2991 kdodd@ri.ac.uk www.rigb.org
American Friends of the 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
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The American
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
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
American Museum in Britain Director: Dr Richard Wendorf Claverton Manor, Bath BA2 7BD. 01225 460503. Fax 01225 469160 info@americanmuseum.org www.americanmuseum.org
Church of St. John the Evangelist Vicar: Reverend Stephen Mason. Hyde Park Crescent, London W2 2QD 020 7262 1732 parishadmin@stjohns-hydepark.com www.stjohnshydepark.com
American Women Lawyers in London www.awll.org.uk info@awll.org.uk The Anglo-American Charity Limited Jeffrey Hedges, Director. 07968 513 631 info@anglo-americancharity.org www.anglo-americancharity.org The Association of Americans Resident Overseas 34 avenue de New York, 75116 Paris, France + 33 1 47 20 24 15 www.aaro.org 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 to make a tax efficient gift to the RNLI, contact AFRAS. Mrs. Anne C. Kifer P.O. Box 565 Fish Creek, WI 54212, U.S.A. 00-1-920-743-5434 ackafras@aol.com Atlantic Council Director: Alan Lee Williams. 185 Tower Bridge Road, London SE1 2UF 0207 403 0640 or 0207 403 0740 acuk@atlantic-council.org.uk Bentwaters Cold War Museum Erroll Frost c/o Bentwaters Aviation Society, Building 134 Bentwaters Parks, Rendlesham, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 2TW 07588 877020 info@bcwm.org.uk Bethesda Baptist Church Kensington Place, London W8. 020 7221 7039 office@bethesdabaptist.org.uk http://bethesdabaptist.org.uk/ Boy Scouts of America Mayflower District Executive: Cristina Priddy The Old Coach House, 81A London Rd, Brandon, Suffolk IP270EL 075 9210 1013 crpriddy@bsamail.org British American 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
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Has your group done something you’re proud of? Tell us email sabrina@theamerican.co.uk
Circumcision Matters Problems arranging circumcision for your new-born? Call 020 7390 8433. www.circumcisionmatters.com Commonwealth Church Rev. Rod Anderson, PO Box 15027, London SE5 0YS www.savestmarks.com Democrats Abroad (UK) Box 65, 22 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 3JE Regular updates on events, chapters throughout the UK, DAUK newsletters: www.democratsabroad.org.uk 020 7724 9796 www.democratsabroad.org/group/united-kingdom Register to vote/ request Absentee Ballot: www.votefromabroad.org 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 Chicksands Priory (12th Century) Founded in 1975 by USAF personnel and British employees at RAF Chicksands Julie Benson 01525 860497 friendsofchicksands@gmail.com www.chicksandspriory.co.uk
International Community Church (Interdenominational) Pastor: Rev. Dr. Barry K. Gaeddert Sunday Worship: 10.30 am, 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. 020 7606 4986 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. 020 7222 8010, church@mchw.org.uk www.methodist-central-hall.org.uk North American Friends of Chawton House Library US Office: 824 Roosevelt Trail, #130, Windham, ME 04062 +1.207 892 4358 UK Office: Chawton House Library, Chawton, Alton, Hampshire GU34 1SJ 01420 541010 www.chawton.org/support/nafchl5.html
Friends of St Jude London Debbie Berger Tel. 07738 628126 debbie.berger@stjude.org www.friendsofstjude.org/london
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
Grampian Houston Association Secretary: Bill Neish 5 Cairncry Avenue, Aberdeen, AB16 5DS 01224-484720 wineish@sky.com
Republicans Abroad (UK) Chairman Dr. Thomas Grant chairman@republicansabroad-uk.org www.republicansabroad-uk.org
The American
Rotaract in Great Britain & Ireland For 18-30 year olds, an international membership www.rotaract.org.uk Rotary Club of London 6 York Gate, London NW1 4QG. Tel. 020 7487 5429 Rotary Great Britain and Ireland www.ribi.org
American Professional Women in London Rebecca Lammers, Flat 9 Hanover Court, 5 Stean Street, London, E8 4ED 075 3393 5064 abwinlondon@gmail.com @USAProWomenLDN www.facebook.com/groups/293890040710041 www.meetup.com/American-Business-Women-inLondon
Royal National Lifeboat Institution Head Office, West Quay Road, Poole BH15 1HZ 0845 045 6999 www.rnli.org.uk
American Society in London c/o The English Speaking Union 37 Charles Street, London W1J 5ED info@americansocietyuk.com 020 7539 3400
The Royal Oak Foundation Sean Sawyer, 35 West 35th Street #1200, New York NY 10001-2205, USA 212- 480-2889 or (800) 913-6565 ssawyer@royal-oak.org www.royal-oak.org
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
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
American Womens Association of Bristol 0800 0834804 awabristol_membership@fawco.org
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 normajean78@hotmail.com www.tracepw.org
American Women of Surrey PO Box 185, Cobham, Surrey KT11 3YJ. www.awsurrey.org
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 www.norags.com girlscouts@cmtymail.26asg.army.mil
SOCIAL American Club of Hertfordshire President: Lauryn Awbrey 63-65 New Road, Welwyn, Herts AL6 0AL 01582 624823 amclubherts@aol.com
AWBS International Women’s Club [formerly American Women of Berkshire & Surrey] PO Box 10, Virginia Water, Surrey GU25 4YP. www.awbs.org.uk info@awbs.org.uk
American Women’s Association of Yorkshire The Chalet, Scarcroft Grange, Wetherby Road, Scarcroft, Leeds LS14 3HJ. 01224 744 224 Contact: Carol Di Peri The American Women’s Club of Dublin P.O. Box 2545, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 IRELAND www.awcd.net info@awcd.net American Women’s Club of London 68 Old Brompton Road, London SW7 3LQ. 020 7589 8292 awc@awclondon.org www.awclondon.org American Women’s Club of Central Scotland P.O. Box 231, 44-46 Morningside Road, Edinburgh, EH10 4BF info@awccs.org www.awccs.org American Women of South Wales 07866 190838 awsouthwales@fawco.org Association of American Women in Ireland aawireland@fawco.org
American Expats of the Northwest of England The Ruskin Rooms, Drury Lane, Knutsford, Cheshire WA16 6HA. expatsnw@gmail.com
Association of American Women of Aberdeen PO Box 11952, Westhill, Aberdeen, AB13 0BW email via website www.awaaberdeen.org
American Friends of English Heritage US: 1307 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W. Washington DC 20036. 202-452-0928. UK: c/o English Heritage, Attn: Simon Bergin, Keysign House, 429 Oxford Street, London W1R 2HD. 020 7973 3423 www.english-heritage.org.uk
British Association of American Square Dance Clubs Patricia Connett-Woodcock 87 Brabazon Road, Heston, Middlesex TW5 9LL 020 8897 0723 tricia_baasdc@btinternet.com www.squaredancing.co.uk
Canadians & Americans in Southern England 023 9241 3881 contactcase@casecommunity.com Canadian Womens Club 1 Grosvenor Square, London W1K 4AB Tues – Thurs 10.30-3.30 0207 258 6344 info@canadianwomenlondon.org www.canadianwomenlondon.org Chilterns American Women’s Club PO Box 445, Gerrards Cross, Bucks, SL9 8YU membership@cawc.co.uk www.cawc.co.uk Colonial Dames of America Chapter XI London. President Anne K Brewster: AnneBrewster@hotmail.com Daughters of the American Revolution – St James’s Chapter Mrs Natalie Ward, 01379 871422 nattyward@aol.com or UKDARStJames@aol.com http://mysite.verizon.net/jean.sutton/main.htm Daughters of the American Revolution – Walter Hines Page Chapter Diana Frances Diggines, Regent dardiana@hotmail.co.uk www.dar.org Daughters of the American Revolution – Washington Old Hall Chapter, North Yorkshire Mrs. Gloria Hassall, 01845 523-830 The East Anglia American Club 49 Horsham Close, Haverhill, Suffolk CB9 7HN 01440 766 967 eaacexpats@karej.co.uk English-Speaking Union Director-General Peter Kyle Dartmouth House, 37 Charles Street, London W1J 5ED. Tel: 020 7529 1550 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 01638 715764 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
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Kensington & Chelsea Men’s Club Contact: John Rickus 70 Flood Street, Chelsea, London SW3 5TE. (home): 020 7349 0680 (office): 020 7753 2253 johnrickus@aol.com Kensington & Chelsea Women’s Club President: Susan Lenora. Tel. 0207 581 8261 president@kcwc.org.uk Membership: 0207 863 7562 (ans service). membership@kcwc.org.uk Knightsbridge Village Private invitation-only network for discerning mothers in Knightsbridge, Kensington and surrounding areas. For a limited period The American’s readers are invited to join online with this key: american2014. Membership is £10 per month. info@knightsbridge-village.com www.knightsbridge-village.com New Neighbors Diana Parker, Rosemary Cottage, Rookshill, Rickmansworth, Herts WD3 4HZ. 01923 772185 North American Connection (West Midlands) PO Box 10543, Knowle, Solihull, West Midlands. B93 8ZY 0870 720 0663 info@naconnect.com www.naconnect.com Northwood Area Women’s Club c/o St John’s UR Church, Hallowell Road, Northwood, Middlesex HA6 1DN 01932-830295 info@northwoodareawomensclub.co.uk www.northwoodareawomensclub.co.uk
St John’s Wood Women’s Club membership@sjwwc.org www.sjwwc.org Thames Valley American Women’s Club Membership: Claire Mangers-Page PO Box 1687, Maidenhead, Berkshire SL6 8XT. 01628 632683 membership@tvawc.com www.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
Women’s Writers Network Cathy Smith, 23 Prospect Rd, London, NW2 2JU. 020 7794 5861 info@womenwriters.org.uk www.womenwriters.org.uk
Friends of the Eighth Newsletter (FOTE News) Chairman: Mr. Ron Mackay. 39b Thorley Hill, Bishops Stortford, Herts CM23 3NE. 01279 658619
MILITARY
AFJROTC 073 Lakenheath High School. Tel: 01638 525603
Pilgrims of Great Britain Allington Castle, Maidstone, Kent M16 0NB. 01622 606404 sec@pilgrimsociety.org
Air Force Sergeants Association UK POC Timothy W. Litherland CMSgt, USAF (ret). Chapters at RAFs Alconbury, Croughton, Lakenheath, Menwith Hill and Mildenhall. timothy.litherland@outlook.com www.hqafsa.org
58 August 2014
Cambridge American Cemetery (WWII Cemetery) The American Battle Monuments Commission Superintendent: Bruce D Phelps Madingley Road, Coton, Cambridge CB23 7PH 01954-210-350 cambridge@abmc.gov www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/ca.php
W.E.B. DuBois Consistory #116 Northern Jurisdiction Valley of London, England, Orient of Europe Cell: 0776-873-8030 mjack36480@aol.com
Petroleum Women’s Club of Scotland pwcscotland@yahoo.co.uk www.pwcos.com
Stars of Great Britain Chapter #45 Washington Jurisdiction. Lakenheath, England sogb45@yahoo.com http://starsofgreatbritainchapter45.com
Brookwood American Cemetery The American Battle Monuments Commission Superintendant: Craig Rahanian Brookwood, Woking, Surrey GU24 0BL 01483 473237 www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/bk.php
Anglian Shrine Club Recorder/Secretary: Allan David Warnes “Koloma House”, Warren Avenue, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NP 01328 862001, 07860187333, VOIP 08714084364 Skype batman4499adw allan@allandavidwarnes.co.uk www.anglianshrineclub.co.uk
Petroleum Women’s Club Contact: Nancy Ayres, 01923 711720 nanayrs@btopenworld.com
Royal Society of St George Enterprise House, 10 Church Hill, Loughton, Essex IG10 1LA. +44 (0) 20 3225 5011 info@royalsocietyofstgeorge.com www.royalsocietyofstgeorge.com
British Patton Historical Society Kenn Oultram 01606 891303
UK Panhellenic Association Contact Susan Woolf, 10 Coniston Court, High St. Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex HA1 3LP. 020 8864 0294 susanrwoolf@hotmail.com
290 Foundation (UK Confederate Navy memorial) Ian Dewar, President, 2 Thompson Drive, Middleton on the Wolds, East Riding, Yorkshire YO25 9TX 01377 217 442 290admin@onetel.com sites.google.com/site/290foundation
Propeller Club of the United States – London, England propellerclubhq.com
Bentwaters/Woodbridge Retirees’ Association President: Wylie Moore. 2 Coldfair Close, Knodishall, Saxmundham, Suffolk, IP17 1UN. 01728 830281
American Legion London Post 1 Adjutant: Jim Pickett PO Box 5017, BATH, BA1 OPP 01225-426245 info@amlegionpost1london.org.uk www.amlegionpost1london.org.uk American Overseas Memorial Day Association Dedicated to remember and honor the memory of those who gave their lives in World War I and II, whose final resting places are in American Military Cemeteries or in isolated graves in Europe. info@aomda.com, aomda.com
Joint RAF Mildenhall/Lakenheath Retiree Affairs Office Co-Directors Dick Good & Jack Kramer Unit 8965, Box 30 RAF Mildenhall, Bury St. Edmonds, Suffolk, IP28 8NF 01638 542039 rao1@us.af.mil Marine Corps League Detachment 1088, London, England Commandant Mike Allen Creek Cottage, 2 Pednormead End, Old Chesham, Buckinghamshire HP5 2JS detachment1088@mcl-london-uk.org www.mcl-london-uk.org 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. Chapter Address: 513 MSSQ/SS, RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk.
The American
Society of American Military Engineers (UK) UK address: Box 763, USAFE Construction Directorate. 86 Blenheim Crescent, West Ruislip, Middlesex HA4 7HL
Western UK Retiree Association President: R. Jim Barber, MSgt (USAF), Ret 01280 708182
EDUCATIONAL
Reserve Officers Association London Col. B.V. Balch, USAR, 72 Westmoreland Road, Barnes, London SW13 9RY memberservices@roa.org www.roa.org
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
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.
American Institute for Foreign Study 37 Queensgate, London SW7 5HR 020 7581 7300 www.aifs.co.uk info@aifs.co.uk
US Army Reserve 2nd Hospital Center 7 Lynton Close, Ely, Cambs, CB6 1DJ. Tel: 01353 2168 Commander: Major Glenda Day.
American School in London 1 Waverley Place, London NW8 0NP 020 7449 1200, www.asl.org admissions@asl.org
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 RAO@Alconbury.af.mil Emergency Contact: 07986 887 905
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
2nd Air Division Memorial Library The Forum, Norwich, Norfolk, NR2 1AW 01603 774747 www.2ndair.org.uk 2admemorial.lib@norfolk.gov.uk
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
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 01280 708182 422abg.rao@croughton.af.mil
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
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
Central Bureau for Educational Visits Director: Peter Upton, The British Council , 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 www.ditchley.co.uk info@ditchley.co.uk Dwight School London Formerly North London International School Viviene Rose, Admissions Director 6 Friem Barnet Lane, London N11 3LX 020 8920 0600 vrose@dwightlondon.org www.dwightlondon.org European Council of International Schools Executive Director: Jean K Vahey Fourth Floor, 146 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 9TR Tel 020 7824 7040 www.ecis.org ecis@ecis.org European-Atlantic Group PO Box 37431, London N3 2XP 020 8632 9253 justinglass@btinternet.com www.eag.org.uk Florida State University London Study Centre Administrative Director: Kathleen Paul 99 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3LH. Tel 020 7813 3233 www.international.fsu.edu/london/ intprog1@admin.fsu.edu Fordham University London Centre Academic Coordinator: Sabina Antal 23 Kensington Square, London W8 5HQ 020 7937 5023 londoncentre@fordham.edu www.fordham.edu
Butler University, Institute for Study Abroad 21 Pembridge Gardens, London W2 4EB 020 7792 8751 www.ifsa-butler.org/england-overview.html
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
Centre Academy London 92 St John’s Hill, Battersea, London SW11 1SH Tel: 02077382344 , info@centreacademy.net www.centreacademy.net
Halcyon London International School Co-educational International Baccalaureate (IB). 33 Seymour Place, London W1H 5AU +44 (0)20 7258 1169 , hello@halcyonschool.com halcyonschool.com
Centre Academy East Anglia Church Rd, Brettenham, Ipswich, Suffolk IP7 7QR Tel: 01449736404 admin@centreacademy.net www.centreacademy.net
Harlaxton College UK Campus, University of Evansville Harlaxton Manor, Grantham, Lincolnshire NG32 1AG. Grantham 4541 4761 01476 403000 harlaxton.ac.uk.
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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 admin@isa.aberdeen.sch.uk www.isa.aberdeen.sch.uk International School of London 139 Gunnersbury Avenue, London W3 8LG. 020 8992 5823 www.islschools.org mail@ISLschools.org
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 admissions@southbank.org www.southbank.org Syracuse University London Program Faraday House, 48-51 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AE http://sulondon.syr.edu
International School of London in Surrey Old Woking Road, Woking GU22 8HY Tel +44 (0)1483 750409 www.islsurrey.com mail@islsurrey.com
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
Ithaca College London Centre 35 Harrington Gardens, London SW7. Tel. 020 7370 1166 www.ithaca.edu/london bsheasgreen@ithacalondon.co.uk
UKCISA - Council for International Education 9-17 St. Albans Place, London N1 0NX 020 7354 5210 www.ukcisa.org.uk
Marymount International School, London Headmistress: Ms Sarah Gallagher George Road, Kingston upon Thames, KT2 7PE 020 8949 0571 info@marymountlondon.com www.marymountlondon.com
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
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
Warnborough University International Office, Friars House, London SE1 8HB. Tel 020 7922 1200 www.warnborough.edu admin@warnborough.edu
Regent’s University London Inner Circle, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4NS. 020 7486 9605. www.regents.ac.uk exrel@regents.ac.uk
Webster Graduate Studies Center Regent’s College, Regent’s Park, Inner Circle, London NW1 4NS, UK. Tel: 020 7487 7505 www.webster.ac.uk webster@regents.ac.uk
Richmond, The American International University in London Richmond Hill Campus,Queen’s Road Richmond-upon Thames TW10 6JP Tel: +44 20 8332 9000 Fax: +44 20 8332 1596 enroll@richmond.ac.uk www.richmond.ac.uk
Wroxton College Study Abroad with Fairleigh Dickinson University, Wroxton, Nr. Banbury, Oxfordshire OX15 6PX 01295 730551, www.fdu.edu admin@wroxton-college.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
60 August 2014
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 chane@regents.ac.uk, www.alliant.edu
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), 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 berkeleyclublondon@gmail.com http://international.berkeley.edu/LondonClub Facebook: www.facebook.com groups/223876564344656/ Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/groups/Berkeley-ClubLondon-4186104 Boston College Alumni Club UK Craig Zematis, President +44 7717 878968 BCalumniclub@gmail.com www.alumniconnections.com/olc/pub/BTN/cpages/ chapters/home.jsp?chapter=41&org=BTN Boston University Alumni Association of the UK Will Straughn, Snr International Development Officer, University Development and Alumni Relations, 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. Communication: Patrick Attie Alumni Club & Liaison: Vanessa Van Hoof Brown Club UK, Box 57100, London, EC1P 1RB contact@brownuk.org www.brownuk.org Bryn Mawr Club Lady Quinton, President. Wendy Tiffin, Secretary/Treasurer, 52 Lansdowne Gardens, London SW8 2EF 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
The American
Columbia Business School Alumni Club of London 6 Petersham Mews, London SW7 5NR www.cbsclublondon.org londonadmin@gsb.columbia.edu
Indiana University Alumni club of England Anastasia Tonello, President 020 7253 4855 iuinlondon@yahoo.com www.alumni.indiana.edu/clubs/england
Columbia University Club of London Stephen Jansen, President london@alumniclubs.columbia.edu www.alumniclubs.columbia.edu/london
KKG London Alumnae Association emilymerrell@gmail.com
Cornell Club of London Natalie Teich, President nmt4@cornell.edu www.alumni.cornell.edu/orgs/int/London Dartmouth College Club of London Sanjay Gupta, Andrew Rotenberg sanjay.gupta.96@ alum.dartmouth.org andrew.l.rotenberg.92@alum.dartmouth.org www.dartmouth.org Delta Kappa Gamma Society International President: Diana Bell dbell_is@yahoo.co.uk www.dkggb.org.uk Delta Sigma Pi Business Fraternity London Alumni Chapter. Ashok Arora, P O Box 1110, London W3 7ZB. Tel: 020 8423 8231 bertela@yahoo.com www.dspnet.org Delta Zeta International Sorority Alumna Club Mrs Sunny Eades, The Old Hall, Mavesyn Ridware, Nr. Rugeley, Staffordshire, WSI5 3QE. 01543 490 312 SunnyEades@aol.com 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
The London Association of Phi Beta Kappa Lydia Dye-Stonebridge phibetakappalondon@gmail.com ww.linkedin.com/groups?gid=5117368 @phibetakappaldn www.pbkldn.org
LMU Alumni Club London (Loyola Marymount University) Kent Jancarik 07795 358 681 kent@jancarik.com
Princeton Association (UK) Carol Rahn, President Jon Reades, Young Alumni carol.rahn@orange-ftgroup.com jon@reades.com www.alumni.princeton.edu
Marymount University Alumni UK Chapter President: Mrs Suzanne Tapley, 35 Park Mansions, Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7QT. 020 7581 3742
Rice Alumni of London Kathy Wang 07912 560 177 kathyw@alumni.rice.edu
MIT Club of Great Britain Yiting Shen, Flat 8a, 36 Buckingham Gate, London SW1E 6PB 0789 179 3823 yshen@alum.mit.edu http://alumweb.mit.edu/clubs/uk/
Skidmore College Alumni Club, London Peggy Holden Briggs ‘84, co-ordinator 07817 203611 peggyhbriggs@gmail.com
Running something we should know about?
email sabrina@theamerican.co.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 frank@madant.demon.co.uk
Harvard Business School Club of London www.hbsa.org.uk
Penn Alumni Club of the UK David Lapter 07957 146 470 david.lapter@alumni.upenn.edu
Harvard Club of the United Kingdom Brandon Bradkin, President president@hcuk.org Verity Langley, Membership vll@me.com www.hcuk.org
Penn State Alumni Association Penn State Alumni Association Ron Nowicki 0207 226 7681 pennstatelondon@yahoo.co.uk www.alumni.psu.edu
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, robby@blueyonder.co.uk Lesley Anne Hunt, Events, 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 0778 660 7534 carrakane@alumni.utexas.net www.fornogoodreason.com/UKTEMain.htm Texas A&M Club London Co-Presidents Ashley Lilly, Devin Howard 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
August 2014 61
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Tufts - London Tufts Alliance Vikki Garth Londontuftsalliance@yahoo.com UK Dawgs of the University of Georgia Rangana Abdulla ukdawgs@hotmail.com UConn Alumni Association ucaa@uconnalumni.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 c/o Alumni Affairs and Development – Europe, University of Chicago Booth School of Business Woolgate Exchange, 25 Basinghall Street, London EC2V 5HA +44(0)20 7070 2245 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/
Details changed? Let us know email sabrina@theamerican.co.uk
University of Rochester/Simon School UK Alumni Association Ms. Julie Bonne, Co-President 0118-956-5052 julie_bonne@yahoo.com University of Southern California, Alumni Club of London Jennifer Ladwig, President, Chuck Cramer, Treasurer 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
62 August 2014
USNA Alumni Association, UK Chapter President: LCDR Greta Densham ‘00 (gretaj@mac.com) Vice President: 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 Farida El-Gammal ‘98, President www.wellesley.edu/alumnae/groups/clubs/intlclubs/ wellesley_uk_club WCLondon@alum.wellesley.edu Wharton Alumni Club of the UK Gina Mok, Pres., yi.mok.wh00@wharton.upenn.edu Yoav Kurtzbard, ykurtzbard@youngassoc.com 020-7447-8800 www.whartonclubuk.net 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 American Civil War Round Table (UK) Sandra Bishop, 5 Southdale, Chigwell, Essex IG7 5NN sandra-bishop@hotmail.com www.americancivilwar.org.uk Southern Skirmish Association (SoSkan) Membership Secretary, Bob Isaac, 3 Hilliards Road, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3TA membership@soskan.co.uk www.soskan.co.uk
ARTS American Actors UK Administrator: Kelly Harris, 07873 371 891 www.americanactorsuk.com
SPORTS 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 www.britishbaseball.org British Morgan Horse Society 01942 886141 admin@morganhorse.org.uk www.morganhorse.org.uk Eagles Golf Society Sharon Croley c/o Eventful Services, 49 Hastings Road, Croydon, Surrey CRO 6PH sharoncroley@blueyonder.co.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 CAC) Mondays 4.30 to 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. 077 9132 0115 http://londoninfinityelite.clubbz.com www.facebook.com/InfinityAllstars Herts Baseball Club Adult & Little League Baseball www.hertsbaseball.com Lakenheath Barracudas Swim Club Open to all military affiliated families. Charlie Midthun, Pres., laken.barracudas@yahoo.com; Head Coach, Dean Reed, smurfathome@earthlink.net www.barracudas.moonfruit.com LondonSports Instruction & competitive play in American flag football, baseball, basketball and soccer, boys/girls aged 4-15, newcomers or experienced players. Sports in a safe, fun environment for children of all nationalities. www.londonsports.com vll@me.com London Warriors American Football Club Kevin LoPrimo info@londonwarriorsafc.co.uk www.londonwarriorsafc.co.uk
Has your group done something you’re proud of? Tell us email sabrina@theamerican.co.uk
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
The American
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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
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
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Greenback Expat Tax Services
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
Expert preparation of US and UK taxes from our highly experienced CPAs, UK Chartered Accountant and IRS Enrolled Agents US Toll Free: +1 888-362-5032 www.greenbacktaxservices.com info@greenbacktaxservices.com www.facebook.com/greenbacktax www.youtube.com/GreenbackTaxServices
Anji Holland and Associates
Anji Holland and Associates NLP Coaching and Training. Unleash your true potential. Understand what make you and others tick. Achieve the goals you have set. Rid yourself of those negative emotions. London - Bath - Online 07944 647 978 www.anjiholland.com
EDUCATION Castle Education Consultancy Ltd
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COUNSELLING AND PSYCHOTHERAPY Transitions Therapy
Independent education consultancy that works with families on school and university search. 50 Scholars Drive, Penylan, Cardiff CF23 9FE 02920 214424 www.castleeducationconsultancy.co. uk Matthew@castleeducationconsultancy.co.uk
FINANCIAL ADVICE Tanager Wealth Management LLP
Jaffe & Co., incorp. American Tax International
JAFFE & CO LLP AMERICAN TAX INTERNATIONAL US Expatriate Tax Services
Comprehensive tax preparation and compliance service for US expatriates inbytheBruce UK and Europe. Established in 1981 and managed L Jaffe, BA JD, we provide a full range of US UK tax services for US America House, 54 and Hendon Lane, London N3expatriates 1TT residing in the UK and have over 55 years of cumulative 020 8346 5237 www.jaff eandco.com experience preparing tax returns for US taxpayers.
Psychotherapy & Counselling for Expatriate Individuals, Couples, Families & Adolescents. London, or via Skype. 07557 261432 transitions_therapy@hotmail.com www.transitionstherapy.co.uk
Integrated financial and investment advice for US expats living in the UK provided by US expats. Global account consolidation, UK/US savings and retirement planning together with investment advice. Contact us for a no obligation meeting or telephone conversation. 020 7871 8440 www.tanagerwealth.com contact@tanagerwealth.com @tanagerwealth
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August 2014 63
The American
Suppliers of quality products and services hand-picked for you INTERIOR DESIGN Rolando Luci
REAL ESTATE Luxury lighting, including American brands, some unique to the UK 01778 218121 www.rolandoluci.co.uk
LEGAL Chambers of Miss Kristin Heimark
WEDDING PLANNING
RE/MAX Property Group
Extraordinary Days Events
Notting Hill Gate Branch: 49 Cottesmore Court, Stanford Road, London W8 5QW 07511-895090 www.remax.co.uk
An American wedding planner in London creating elegant, sophisticated, and unique weddings in England. Bespoke services ranging from full service planning to day-of coordination. 020 7433 0300 www.extraordinarydaysevents.com
VISAS & IMMIGRATION Visalogic Limited
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Setfords Solicitors Family lawyers and mediators with particular experience in expatriate cases. 01483 408780 www.setfords.co.uk lthomas@setfords.co.uk
NOTARIES Edward Young LLP
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64 August 2014
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.
Coffee Break Answers
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1.Texas; 2. c) Fauntleroy; 3. Ronald Reagan, 1911 (Nixon was born in 1913 and Kennedy in 1917); 4. b) Topper; 5. A, (440 Hz for A above middle C) the oboe plays an “A” and the rest of the instruments tune to match that pitch; 6. Pennsylvania; 7. up to 20 players with an additional two goalkeepers making up the team, with only 6 on the ice at one time; 8. Any two of Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania or Russia; 9. Idlewild; 10. International Red Cross; 11. Tightrope walking; 12.Saffron (currently about $1,000 for 5 ounces); 13. The Beatles, ‘A Hard Day’s Night’; 14. just over 150 yards; 15.grey stone – it was whitewashed to cover the scorch marks.
Swiss movement, English heart
Swiss made / Self-winding automatic movement / 38 hr power reserve / Marine grade stainless steel case / Uni-directional bezel / 300m (1000ft) water resistance / 4.0mm Anti-reflective sapphire crystal / SuperLuminovaTM indexes, bezel marker and hands / High density rubber strap / Bracelet, NATO and leather versions also available / Diameter: 42mm / Calibre: Sellita SW200-1 / 5 year movement guarantee
Showroom at No.1 Park Street, Maidenhead. To arrange a personal appointment, call +44 (0)1628 763040