FineCity Magazine - March 2015 by Spider Creative Media

Issue 40 March 2015

Her Royal Highness

interview

Pete Goodram meets Linda Thursby, Director of Epic Studios

the Duchess of cambridge

visits Emma Bridgewater

exhibition

Tony Cooper views the Homage to Manet exhibition at the Castle

FINEplaces FINEpeople

PLUS

FINEarts

Richard Alston and English Touring Opera coming to the Theatre Royal this month

FINELIVING

NORWICH

Advice tailored for you Leathes Prior is one of East Anglia’s leading law firms providing a full range of services for corporate, public sector and individual clients.

‘Outstanding, ethical and excellent value for money’. Legal 500 2014 ‘Response times are the best and industry knowledge is first class’ Legal 500 2014

Wills and Estate Planning Business Regulation and Defence Dispute Resolution Personal Injury Employment Franchising Family Property Corporate Commercial Private Crime

info@leathesprior.co.uk | 01603 610911 www.leathesprior.co.uk | 74 The Close Norwich NR1 4DR

LeathesPrior1876 LeathesPrior

Issue 40 March 2015

Her Royal Highness

INTERVIEW

Pete Goodram meets Linda Thursby, Director of Epic Studios

THE DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGE

visits Emma Bridgewater

FINE places

FINE arts

FINEPLACES FINEPEOPLE

PLUS

FINEARTS

Richard Alston and English Touring Opera coming to the Theatre Royal this month

FINELIVING

FINE people

NORWICH

Issue 40

EXHIBITION

Tony Cooper views the Homage to Manet exhibition at the Castle

Your community magazine Cover image courtesy of Kirsty Mackenzie at Emma Bridgewater. FineCity Magazine would like to thank all those who have contributed to this issue. This includes but is not limited to: Pete Goodrum, Stephen Browning, Daniel Tink, Tony Cooper, Tom Stephenson, EACH

FINE living Editor Jonathan Horswell Jonathan@FineCity.co.uk Advertising Harry@FineCity.co.uk Editorial editorial@FineCity.co.uk Design design@FineCity.co.uk Facebook “f ” Logo

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special feature Collect your free copy of FineCity Magazine from any of our partner locations:

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Tel 01953 456789 Web www.FineCity.co.uk Address Queens House, Queens Square, Attleborough, Norfolk. NR17 2AE.

© FineCity Magazine Disclaimer: No part of this magazine may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means, either wholly or in part, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. The views expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the Publisher. Every effort is taken to ensure that the contents of this magazine are accurate, but the Publisher can not assume any responsibility for errors or omissions. Whilst reasonable care is taken when accepting advertisements the Publisher will not accept any resulting unsatisfactory transactions. They will, however, immediately investigate any written complaints. The Publishers reserve the right to amend such submissions and cannot accept responsibility for any loss.

2015 February | 03

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Join Our Team of Swimmers The Fire Fighters Charity is looking for swimmers of all abilities to join The Fire Fighters Charity Swimming Team The charity is helping to raise funds for injured Fire Service personnel by taking part in the Great East Swim on 20 June 2015 at Alton Water, Near Ipswich, Suffolk. The Great East Swim allows participants to select 1/2 mile, 1 mile, 2 mile or 5k distance events to challenge their swimming skills and enables those new to outdoor swimming to have a great introduction to the sport at this fantastic challenge event. We are looking for participants to join our team, to ensure we have a great presence on the day raising awareness of The Fire Fighters Charity, to help us continue to deliver our much needed services across the UK. Laura Harden, Regional Fundraising Officer said ‘All those participating will be raising

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funds for The Fire Fighters Charity, which supports injured firefighters and their families. Every year, thousands of firefighters are injured whilst protecting the public. The Fire Fighters Charity is here for firefighters during their times of need, and assists thousands of individuals every year, by providing pioneering treatment and support services.’

Dan’s story… Dan was a fire fighter for ten years before retiring. Due to on-going severe osteoarthritis, he underwent a shoulder joint replacement and subsequently suffered from the side effects. It is thanks to The Fire Fighters Charity that Dan now has full movement in his shoulder and is back to his usual self.

After the operation Dan was in a lot of pain and had restricted movement, resulting in sleeplessness. His consultant advised that he would never be able to lift his arm further than 90 degrees. It was only when Dan confided in a colleague that he found out about The Fire Fighters Charity. He was highly recommended the rehabilitation programme and, after contacting the Charity, a few weeks later he found himself at Jubilee House. Dan found the wide range of activities, expert advice and specific programme for him did wonders. “I couldn’t believe it, but for the first time in months my shoulder was actually feeling better! The staff really know their stuff and having individual, constant treatment

was so beneficial for me”. The sleepless nights had really been getting Dan down, but he felt that he benefitted not only from the physiotherapy programme, but from the advice sessions, in particular one about sleeplessness. “The advice I was given was invaluable and helped me enormously – being able to sleep was a relief but it also put me in a much better frame of mind”. For a free information pack about joining our team of swimmers at the Great East Swim, call Regional Fundraising Officer, Laura Harden on 07798 725560 or email lharden@firefighters charity.org.uk. Alternatively, find out more or register at: http://t.co/QcfyyAwC33.

2015 March | 05

Norfolk & Norwich Association for The Blind NNAB Charity events in 2015

Blind Dining Evening Brasteds Restaurant, Framlingham Pigot, Norwich. Friday 21st March 7pm-11pm A unique opportunity for you to enjoy this blindfolded sensory culinary experience at the award winning Norwich restaurant, Brasteds and re-evaluate your sense of taste and smell. Diners will wear blindfolds throughout the meal in order to experience the sort of problems that the blind face on a daily basis. The evening will begin with a drinks reception, followed by a fantastic 3 course meal and entertainment throughout the evening. Tickets are £40 available from Brasteds: 01508 491112.

Ladies Pamper Evening NNAB Bradbury Activity Centre, Norwich. Friday 10th April 6pm-9pm An evening of pampering and shopping. Treatments available: massage, nails, reiki, reflexology, hopi ear candling, hair, eyebrows, lash extensions and others. There will also be gift stalls to shop at. This is a great girly night out for very little cost. Entry is £3 and there will be homemade cakes, wine and other refreshments available.

hardworking jazz ensembles. The band brings together the best jazz musicians in East Anglia. Their talent, knowledge and enthusiasm for traditional jazz combines with ease to provide outstanding entertainment. With the emphasis always on first class music mixed with great humour, this band never fails to provide a top quality performance. The professional six piece band excel with slick arrangements of many jazz favourites. Their enthusiastic approach has helped the band gain national recognition, leading to a tour with Rod Stewart, TV appearances and multiple festival and theatre gigs. Tickets are £15 and available from The Little Gallery – 01362 690969

NNAB Zip Wire Challenge Saturday 16th May A team will be travelling to North Wales to do the longest, fastest Zip wire in Europe. We are inviting Norfolk people to join us on this adventure and at the same time raise money for charity. The zip wire challenge is being staged at the Penrhyn Quarry, at Bethesda on May 16th, we will then stay the night in the lovely town of Betws-Y-Coed and travel back on the Sunday. Minimum individual fundraising target of £500 is required to join us.

The DixieMix Jazz Band Friday 24th April 7pm Join us at the Dereham Memorial Hall for a quality night of live musical entertainment. The DixieMix Jazz Band, led by cornetist Simon Nelson has rapidly established itself as one of the UK’s most engaging and 06 | March 2015

that The NNAB has been named as the charity to benefit from fundraising at this year’s prestigious Norfolk Show Ball, one of the leading events of Norfolk’s social calendar. This much admired and celebrated event will be staged on the Royal Norfolk Showground and is expected to be attended by about 900 people. Tickets are £75 and available from Softley Events: 01603 757658.

Norfolk Show Summer Ball Friday 26th June 7pm until midnight It is with great delight and excitement for us to announce

Ditchingham Open Garden Day Ditchingham Estate Sunday 5th July The gardens will open at 2pm for members of the public to walk around and take in the amazing colours and scents from these immaculate gardens. Lord & Lady Ferrers only open their gates twice a year for charity as this private estate is a hidden treasure for people who enjoy peace and beautiful landscapes. The NNAB will have stalls selling crafts, cakes and plants, as well as giant games on the lawn and music in the walled garden. Tea on the terrace will be served until 4.30pm and the gates will close at 5pm. Entry is £4 on the gate (children are free). Please join us for this idyllic Sunday afternoon.

NNAB Charity Golf Day Sprowston Manor Hotel & Country Club Thursday 9th July The NNAB Annual Golf day will once again be held at Sprowston Manor, Norwich. Registration will take place in the Zest Café at

8.45am, followed by Bacon rolls and Coffee. Shotgun at 10am and after 18 holes of Golf there will be a 2 course lunch served at 3.30pm. To enter a team of 4 for £200 please contact Jeremy Goss on 01603 629558 or email: jeremygoss@nnab.org.uk

Verzasca Dam Bungee Jump September TBC Guaranteed to be both exhilarating and adrenalin-fuelled, this bungee jump is a must for all those who want to challenge themselves and at the same time experience something truly amazing. Take up this audacious challenge by bungee jumping from the 220 meter high Verzasca Dam in Switzerland – one of the seat-gripping highlights of Pierce Bronson’s GoldenEye Bond film. The jump is the highest in the world from a manmade structure, and more than twice the height of Norwich Cathedral’s spire. You will freefall for eight seconds at a speed of 75mph and the recoil alone will be over 100 meters. The NNAB are challenging other thrill-seekers to join us on this leap of faith to raise money for the Norfolk and Norwich Association for the Blind. Each person will need to raise £1400, of which £400 will cover costs, leaving £1000 to go to the NNAB so it can continue its work among Norfolk’s blind and partially sighted community. Maybe you or a family member can get a company to match fund your fundraising effort. Or if you would like to sponsor me rather than do the jump yourself, please email: jeremygoss@nnab.org.uk For more info on any of the above events please call Jeremy Goss and Donna Minto on 01603 629558 or e-mail: jeremygoss@nnab.org.uk or donnaminto@nnab.org.uk For more information go to our website www.nnab.org.uk www.finecity.co.uk

BURE VALLEY RAILWAY Steam Trains to the Norfolk Broads

R UNDE 5’S L E TRAVEE FR

TRAINS FROM AYLSHAM AND WROXHAM Family Fares - Whistlestop Cafe Model and Gift Shop - Railway Workshop

COMBINED TRAIN AND CRUISE

Norwich Road, Aylsham, Norfolk NR11 6BW - 01263 733858

www.bvrw.co.uk

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The Broadland Boat Train Enjoy a family day out aboard The Broadland Boat Train at the Bure Valley Railway. Starting from the historic market town of Aylsham, experience the magic of steam through nine miles of Norfolk countryside, following the picturesque Bure Valley, before arriving at the Broads town of Wroxham. Then take to the water and discover the beautiful Norfolk Broads with a leisurely hour and a half cruise with guided commentary. Facilities at the Bure Valley Railway include a café, a model, toy and gift shop and a railway workshop at Aylsham with a souvenir shop at Wroxham. The Whistlestop Café seats up to 80 people and can provide everything from a cup of tea to a full meal. There is free parking at both stations. The Broadland Boat Train operates on a daily basis from the beginning of April to the

end of October. Pre-booking is advisable during the school holidays. A discounted family ticket (2 adults and 2 children) is available at a cost of £59.00 and under 5’s travel free. For further information contact Susan Munday, Bure Valley Railway, Aylsham Station, Norwich Road, Aylsham, Norfolk, NR11 6BW, Tel: 01263 733858 Website: www.bvrw.co.uk Email: marketing@bvrw.co.uk

2015 March | 07

Make a Choice to Change if You Want a Better Life! Isn’t it great knowing that you are totally responsible for how you live your life. We are not animals that have keepers. Where you live, what you do, the money you earn, the job you have, the people you associate with, are all your choice and your doing. There are some things that are learned behaviours that perhaps we don’t like, but you have a choice to change that. Who called it a monthly income when it lasts just 2/3 weeks for most people? How about earning more than you can spend? Who said weekends had to be restricted to two days? Why can’t they be 3, 4 or 5 days? Who said you can only have two weeks holiday a year? Why can’t you have two weeks every month? If you’re happy existing, that’s great. If you’re not, you have to change something before it’s

08 | March 2015

too late, but firstly you have to choose to make that change. What I find fascinating is just how many people do choose… to do nothing! They just accept that ‘that’s the way it is, what’s my lot, these are the cards I have been dealt, I just have to accept this is the best it’s going to be.’ But why? Why don’t you choose to be better, earn more, spend more time with your family and friends, or whatever it is that makes you happy. Time is only a one time experience when it’s gone it’s gone forever. Be very careful how you either live or waste each day. If something is not quite right change it, even if it’s only a small thing. The first sign of insanity is

to do the same things every day and expect a different result. • If you choose to want more time freedom, you can have it. • If you choose to want to earn more money this year than last, you can have it. • If you choose to want to better your life, you can do it. • If you choose to want to make a difference, you can do it. You just have to choose to do it first, then you’re halfway there. So if you’ve made a choice that you want things to be different, what next? Well, I’m looking to expand my already successful network by working with a just a few key people who are looking

for change. Whilst no promises are made, because in the end your success depends on you, if you are in the market for an extra income, and you’re a person who wants development and wants a better life, then contact me. Ask yourself this: If you have no time now how is that going to improve? If you do not have enough money now how will that change? Here is the answer. Create a financial safety net for you and your family. Choose to beat the bills or become wealthy the choice is yours. So don’t delay. You will start the rest of your life one step at a time. Make sure you’re heading in the right direction. Call Jonathan 07802 690589

“If someone offers you an amazing opportunity and you’re not sure you can do it, say yes then learn how to do it later” Richard Branson

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Clapham & Collinge Norfolk law firm reaches 60 years and reclaims independence Clapham & Collinge, one of Norfolk’s oldest and best respected law firms, has announced that it has left national legal network QualitySolicitors after four years. The move to re-establish itself as a completely independent firm coincides with Clapham & Collinge’s 60th anniversary and is being marked with a fresh new visual identity. Clapham & Collinge has offices in Norwich and Sheringham and employs more than 50 people. The firm offers a wide range of services including conveyancing, family law, commercial and corporate matters and private client work. On Monday, 9th February, Clapham & Collinge officially reclaimed its independence. Clients and staff arriving at the firm’s city-centre offices were

it incredibly hard for smaller law firms to compete against commodity legal providers such as the large supermarket chains. We were determined to put ourselves in the best possible position to retain our market share and grow as a business. There was a good fit between Clapham & Collinge and QualitySolicitors and we were able to learn from each other and create a customerfocused brand that is now wellknown across the UK.” “We have enjoyed, and benefited from, being part of QualitySolicitors but, after a great deal of deliberation, the Clapham & Collinge partners decided that the time was right to start re-focusing on our own brand”, continues Hugh Berridge. “We have always been incredibly proud to be a Norfolk firm and, as we

that make it special and different from other parts of the UK”. “Respect is critical to the way we work as a firm”, adds Tammy Parnell. “We always try to make our clients feel relaxed when they come to see us; we are professional but avoid being stuffy or intimidating. Our aim is to build relationships with clients so that they think of Clapham & Collinge as their law firm; a team that is there whenever they need us.” As part of its commitment to being ‘the very best law firm for people in Norfolk’, Clapham & Collinge is actively involved in a range of local charities and community initiatives. As well as supporting charities such as Break, Will-Aid and the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, the firm develops and promotes its own events such as regular free advice coffee mornings, dementia awareness events and training sessions. “We are extremely excited about our future as an

independent local firm. Whilst our existing clients won’t notice any changes to the excellent service we provide, we hope that people who don’t already know us will be tempted to find out more about how we can help them. The move away from being part of a national network means that we can revert to making business decisions that are entirely focused on the needs of our business, our clients and our community”, concludes Hugh Berridge. Clapham & Collinge can offer free initial consultations and the firm is, in many cases, able to provide a ‘flat fee’ quote at the outset. This means clients know what bill to expect and can phone their solicitor for an update without worrying that a surprise invoice will follow. For more information about Clapham & Collinge call 01603 693500, email info@claphamcollinge.co.uk or visit www. clapham-collinge.co.uk

Norwich St Catherine’s House, All Saints GreenNR1 3GA Tel 01603 693 500 Fax 01603 693 501 Email info@clapham-collinge.co.uk Sheringham The Point, 1 Augusta Street NR26 8LA Tel 01263 823 398 Fax 01263 825 447 Email sherinfo@clapham-collinge.co.uk

CLAPHAM & COLLINGE

greeted by an elegant plum and pistachio brand-mark which has replaced the bright pink QualitySolicitors logo. Hugh Berridge is Senior Partner at Clapham & Collinge and has been with the firm for more than 35 years. “As a firm we have never been afraid of change, preferring to tackle challenges head on. Over the years we’ve adapted our services and approach to ensure we always offer what our clients need in a way that works best for them”, Hugh explains. “Becoming part of a large, national network was absolutely the right decision for us four years ago. At that time changes in legislation were making www.finecity.co.uk

develop the business, the county is where our commitment lies.” Clapham & Collinge will continue to deliver the same comprehensive range of legal services to their clients. Tammy Parnell is the Managing Partner of Clapham & Collinge. “Our mission as a business is very simple; every day we strive to be the very best law firm for people in Norfolk”, she explains. “From buying a first home to handling a painful divorce, supporting a local business with a management buyout or dealing with a complicated trust, we will fight tooth and nail for our clients. As a team we understand Norfolk and the things

I N D E P E N D E N T S O L I C I TO R S I N N O RW I C H Clapham & Collinge is a local, leading firm of expert solicitors based in Norfolk. With offices in Norwich and Sheringham, we provide a full range of legal services for businesses and individuals. Specialising in a wide range of private law services including property, conveyancing, divorce, wills and probate, we’re committed to delivering excellent client care; ensuring your legal matters are treated with the attention and efficiency we’re renowned for whilst keeping you informed every step of the way. For our business clients, we offer services including debt recovery, litigation and disputes, employment law, commercial property and bespoke law advice packages to support the needs of your business. Your very own legal department from as little as £100 per month. We offer free initial advice, fixed fees and we’re open six days a week. Contact us today to find out why our clients return to us time after time.

2015 March | 09

The Benjamin Foundation Volunteer recruitment drive for Mentoring for Independence service, set to launch in April, preventing youth homelessness in Norfolk Norfolk charity The Benjamin Foundation is calling for volunteer mentors for their new Mentoring for Independence service which will be run in partnership with local service provider, Your Own Place. Launching in April 2015, the overarching aim of the service will be to prevent youth homelessness in Norwich and throughout Norfolk. The role of the volunteer mentors will be to guide and help young people to make positive life choices, maintain tenancies in rented accommodation and prevent them from becoming homeless. Those being mentored will be over 16 years old and will have issues with substance or alcohol abuse.

Young people will be matched with a mentor before they move into their accommodation and will be encouraged to build a relationship together. The mentor will then be on hand to provide support as the young person settles in to their new home and for the first few months of the tenancy. Rebecca White is director of Your Own Place and has managed many successful mentoring projects; she will be responsible for training mentors. “Mentoring can be effective and powerful if done really well,” she explains. “The benefit of mentoring goes both ways; it can be hugely rewarding for mentors to support these young people who need guidance

through a time in their life to help positively set them in the right direction. The main aim of this service is to help young people to keep a roof over their heads, be safe and build a future for themselves. Our mentors will play a crucial role in this.” All mentors will be volunteers. Some will be young people themselves who will benefit from the training and support they will receive. Adult volunteers may want to give something back to their community or enhance their CV. All will be interviewed, DBS checked, trained and matched to mentees in their local area. “Our mentors will receive lots of training and support as we want them to get something out it as well as the mentees,” continues Rebecca White. “We’re so excited to be delivering this service in partnership with The Benjamin Foundation and looking forward to making a real difference to the lives of young people.”

Sarah Jones is deputy chief executive of The Benjamin Foundation. “We have been delivering services to help young people who are facing homelessness for 20 years. Working with Rebecca on the Mentoring for Independence project is all about supporting vulnerable young people who may struggle to keep their home without someone to help them. We’re hoping to train 35 mentors during the project, who will all have the potential to make a massive difference to a young person’s life.” The service is county-wide but will have an initial focus on Norwich and Great Yarmouth. For further information about becoming a mentor please email rebecca@yourownplace. org.uk or telephone 07530 028446 or visit www. benjaminfoundation.co.uk/ mentoring-for-independence.

Gina and YP

10 | March 2015

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Book Review Lost Legend of the Thryberg Hawk by Jack Holroyd, Pen and Sword Books, £19.99 This is an unusual book. It is probably best described as ‘faction’ as it carefully lays out the ground to be covered with colour plates, appendices and descriptions of the events and characters coming up. Then we are all set to dive into a very exciting and unusual tale. It is set in the 15th century and centres on one, Edmund Hawksworth – the ‘Thryberg Hawk’ of the title – as he progresses to the Battle of Towton and plays a decisive role in the outcome with his crossbow and band of crossbow mercenaries on Palm Sunday 1461. The men of Bishop’s Lynn – Kings Lynn today – Downham Market, Thetford, Swaffham, East Dereham and Norwich swing this, the bloodiest of www.finecity.co.uk

English battles with over 28,000 dead, by their timely arrival, helping to put a new king, Edward IV, on the throne of England. That it is narrated by Edmund’s brother, John, about to be executed – will he be or will something miraculous happen to save him? – adds a thrilling uncertainty and suspense to the tale and is a very clever device that Jack Holroyd uses to keep us additionally on the edge of our seats. This is a book that must not be hurried – the chores must be finished, the sofa cushions plumped up and the tea and biscuits laid out. We are then ready to enter another world in this exceptionally fine work. A great yarn for Springtime, full of menace, action, suspense and previously unheralded deeds by the men of Norfolk. Review by Stephen Browning www.facebook.com/ stevebrowningbooks 2015 March | 11

Rupert Brooke Stephen Browning looks back at the Great War poet, 100 years after his death Rupert Brooke died 100 years ago this Spring. He was staying at Cley on the Norfolk coast when he heard of the outbreak of the war. Frances Cornford, the granddaughter of Charles Darwin, who was with him, wrote: A young Apollo, golden-haired, Stands dreaming on the verge of strife, magnificently unprepared For the long littleness of life. He did not speak for a day until Frances Cornford asked: “But Rupert, you won’t have to fight?” to which he replied, “We shall all have to fight.” W.B Yeats called him ‘the handsomest man in England’, and he had an illustrious group of friends. He joined the Navy

and, following his death from septicaemia in April 1915 when his unit was sailing to Gallipoli, Winston Churchill wrote that he “was all that one would wish England’s noblest sons to be in the days when no sacrifice but the most precious is acceptable.” He was buried on April 23rd 1915 in an olive grove on the Greek island of Skyros where he died at 4.46 in the morning, ‘with the sun shining all round his cabin, and the cool sea-breeze blowing through the door,’ according to his friend, William Denis Browne, who sat with him to the last. Unlike his famous contemporaries, Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, Rupert Brooke saw no fighting and he epitomised for many the youthful idealism and devotion to country

felt during the first year of the war. In 1912 he had written The Old Vicarage, Granchester which ends with the famous words: oh! yet Stands the Church clock at ten to three? And is there honey still for tea?

There is more about Rupert Brooke along with writers and artists of the time in the upcoming book ‘Norwich in the Great War’ by Stephen Browning and to be published shortly by Pen and Sword Books at £9.99 www.facebook.com/ stevebrowningbooks

His patriotic sonnet, ‘The Soldier’ was read from the pulpit of St Paul’s Cathedral in April, 1915. It opens with the much-quoted lines: If I should die, think only this of me; That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is forever England Recently a bundle of papers has been opened by the British Library which detail his love affair with the poet Phyllis Gardner. There is a Rupert Brooke society based in Norwich www.rupertbrooke.com

For high quality handmade bespoke & unique jewellery, visit Sonkai for a free design and quote. Our on-site jewellers workshop and design team are like no other. A must-see gem of the award-winning Norwich Lanes. www.sonkai.co.uk | 01603 625533 | Sonkai, 14-16 Dove Street, Norwich, NR2 1DE

12 | March 2015

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Save Money, Make Money, Ask Me How! Just really quickly, there are two pieces of information I’d like to share with you; one is all about making extra money in your spare time, without it effecting what you are currently doing. The other is about saving money, on the bills you already pay. Making Money Would you like to earn extra money in your spare time working just a few extra hours each week? Well, with me with you every step of the way, I will show you AND help you earn upto £1,650.00 working just 1 extra hour a day for 1 month, that’s around £60.00 per hour! The following month ‘Residual Income’ kicks in, so you’ll then earn even more. I’ll explain how it works in detail when we get together. Grab yourself a copy of the ‘Your Opportunity’ booklet, and watch a 3 minute video www.finecity.co.uk

explaining how it works by going to www.AskMeHow.co.uk and pressing the ‘Make Money’ Button.

Saving Money

can have the same Gas, the same Electric, the same Home Phone line & number, and super quick unlimited Broadband all for less money every month guaranteed. And don’t worry about having to change anything, as that’s where I come in, I do all that for you. You don’t need to do anything, other than confirm to me you want to save money every month. Whichever you want to do, get in touch and let’s have a chat: Jonathan 07802 690589 or email me at Info@AskMeHow.co.uk or go online at AskMeHow.co.uk

“If someone offers you an amazing opportunity and you’re not sure you can do it, say yes then learn how to do it later” Richard Branson

If you’re not wanting to Earn Extra Money, at least do yourself a favour and reduce what you currently spend on the services you already have. Our price policy states; We guarantee our customers will save money when they switch all their services to us, or we will give them back ‘Double the Difference’. Why on earth would you want to pay more, when you 2015 March | 13

Tradition with a Twist Eric’s Fish & Chips set to open in Norfolk Eric Snaith, Chef Patron at Norfolk’s award-winning Titchwell Manor, will open a standalone fish and chips restaurant, Eric’s Fish & Chips, this April. Spritz a wedge of lemon and fill your lungs with fresh sea air as you tuck into a good ol’ fashioned fill of the daily catch. Sitting pretty along the picturesque Norfolk coast, Eric’s Fish & Chips harks back to the traditional British fish and chip restaurants of the past with a modern European influence on the menu, carried over from Eric’s three AA Rosette restaurant. Seaside favourites, freshness and simplicity are the focus at Eric’s Fish & Chips, which will open daily from 12pm to 9pm. Eric’s

14 | March 2015

concept will champion ‘best of British’ with local potatoes for the chips, cooked in beef dripping for maximum crunch and traditional taste, while only seasonal, sustainable MSC-certified fish will be served: beer-battered to ensure lightness, crunch and that iconic British flavour. Mains, all under £10, offer choices like mackerel with buttermilk, beetroot and sorrell; or halloumi and spinach arancini. Children’s portions will include chips with cod, haddock, scampi or battered Dingley Dell sausage. A selection of modern small plates, unique sides and traditional sauces will accompany, alongside a concise wine list

from long-running Titchwell Manor supplier Hallgarten Druit. A menu of homemade ice creams will also be on offer including flavours like baked white chocolate & honeycomb; and apple crumble – made from the local Drove Orchard apples. Whether you take them doused in salt and vinegar or mingling with mushy peas, tuck into the UK’s most classic double act at Eric’s Fish & Chips.

Eric’s Fish & Chips Drove Orchard, Thornham Road Thornham PE36 6LS www.ericsfishandchips.com info@ericsfishandchips.com Twitter @ericsFandC Facebook ericsfishandchips For more information please contact Fiona Feeney or Tom Stephenson on 020 7436 1111, or email firstname@rochecom.com

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EACH Announce Four Dates for Colour Dashes! 2015 is set to be a summer of colour thanks to East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH) as the charity announces four colour dash events across East Anglia. Colour dashes are the newest craze to hit the UK and see participants race around a 5km course as they are showered with clouds of coloured powder –

creating truly impressive results! Following on from the charity’s first colour dash in Ipswich last year, EACH are pleased to announce an impressive four dates for 2015:

• Sunday 3rd May Eaton Park, Norwich Online registration is open now! Early bird special available if you register before 28th February. Adult (£15) child (£7.50) Team (£150) Family (£40) • Sunday 7th June Christchurch Park, Ipswich Online registration is open now! Early bird special available if you register before 16th February. Adult (£15) child (£7.50) Team (£150) Family (£40). Event kindly sponsored by Pure Resourcing

•S unday 6th September Audley End Estate, Saffron Walden Register your interest online today! • Sunday 20th September Nowton Park, Bury St Edmunds Register your interest online today! Event kindly sponsored by Servest Patsy Cisse-Johnson, EACH Suffolk Fundraiser, commented: “We held our first EACH Colour Dash in Ipswich last year, and it was a huge success with more than 300 people taking part. Everyone really enjoyed the day, it’s such a fun event to be involved in. This year we’ve got more dates across East Anglia and expect the Ipswich event to be even bigger and better. We’ve got a great early bird offer so book now to avoid disappointment!” For more information on the all EACH Colour Dashes and to book your place, visit www.each.org.uk/colourdash or contact your local fundraising team.

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2015 March | 15

Full Steam Ahead for Easter Eggspress Hop on board the Easter Eggspress at the Bure Valley Railway Join us over the Easter weekend, 3rd to 6th April 2015, for an “eggciting” day out for all the family. Norfolk’s longest Narrow Gauge Steam Railway is giving a free Easter Egg to every child when accompanied by a fare-paying adult (maximum 2 children per adult). In addition, a colouring corner and a decorated Whistlestop Café add to the Easter themed event. Trains will be running from both Aylsham and Wroxham Stations.

Trains depart from Aylsham: 10:00, 11:30, 12:40, 14:20 and 15:30; Wroxham: 11:10, 12:40 and 14:00. No prior booking is required. Under 5’s travel free.

April 3rd - 6th

For further information contact Susan Munday, Bure Valley Railway, Aylsham Station, Norwich Road, Aylsham, Norfolk, NR11 6BW, Tel: 01263 733858 Website: www.bvrw.co.uk Email: marketing@bvrw.co.uk

let us clean your oven… so you don’t have to! h norwic

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A Spring Clean for Your Oven Your cooker transformed Have you ever looked at your oven and thought how on earth are you gong to get that clean? Started enthusiastically but after an hour had to admit defeat and leave it for another day? Well, the answer could be to give Oven Rescue a call. Steven Watling has the franchise for this well respected 16 | March 2015

oven valeting company covering Norwich and it’s surrounding towns and villages. He has had the franchise for the past 16 months after taking redundency when the printing company he worked for closed. Since completing his training Steven has steadily built up a trusted client base and has had

a lot of repeat business and very good reviews on Check-aTrade of which he is a member. (He will also be a member of Nofolk Trusted Trader shortly). Steven tells me that all the products used are environmentally friendly,non toxic and fume free and carries out the work with the minimum inconvience to the client. He cleans all types of domestic ovens,hobs,extractor hoods and even microwaves and barbecues! All trays and racks

are included in the fixed price and there are no hidden extras. Although the majority of his customers are in the domestic sector Steven can also cope with all types of commercial ovens as well. Steven told me that the look on his clients faces after he has finished makes it all worthwhile. Why not give him a call on 01603 280921 or 07780 468 604 or visit www.ovenrescue.co.uk/norwich www.finecity.co.uk

Norfolk Inventor Bids to Have the ‘Greenest Home’ in the County Inventor Alan Wright’s latest project A Norfolk-based inventor has risen to the challenge of eco-friendly living by planning to revamp his entire house in a bid to make it completely self-sufficient and the greenest property in Norfolk. Alan Wright, inventor of the Shower Power Booster (SPB) and local businessman, is on a mission to dust off many of his earlier inventions and transform his Thorpe St Andrew home. He also aims to make a profit too by selling the electricity generated back to the National Grid. Alan Wright, comments: “People have this misconception that to have an eco-friendly home it needs to have lots of hi-tech, modern features. I am on a mission

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to banish this stereotype by adapting my home and showing Norfolk homeowners just how much money they can save by helping the environment.” Five years ago Alan invented his very own solar thermal system which provides his family home with 99% of its hot water between the months of April and October. It stores hot water in an energy store which saves three days of hot water for when there is no sunshine, and gives instant hot water at taps without running cold water to waste. Alan has recently purchased the brand new VW e-Golf which is propelled by an electric motor and fed by a battery pack. This is due to be delivered in June when

he will also install a new energy store link to the car in the garage. “The batteries in electric vehicles are well aligned with the needs of energy suppliers. As electric vehicles proliferate, they could become more and more important to the power grid; both in terms of the amount of energy they draw, and the amount of energy they can store and potentially return to the grid,” continues Alan. Further developments are already in the pipeline to begin in May 2015 with Alan wanting to use his own roof to collect solar thermal water using reinstalled manufactured panels. The remaining area of the roof will be used for solar PV. “In the future I hope to sell solar thermal panels and solar PV cells together with my pumps in Australia as a new hybrid product using features of my current system and virtues of the SPB pump,” says Alan. Alan also plans to upgrade his existing rainwater recycling system

by using a borehole pump, which he invented in October 2014, for the toilets and garden. The new pump is 100 times smaller than traditional borehole pumps with the advantage of negative head functionality. “If just one in 50 homes has the facility to store electricity and return this to the grid then it will make such a significant difference in how we live sustainably,” concludes Alan. “There is lots of work to be done but the pump sells very well and allows me to continue developing new products which ultimately is what I love to do.” For more information about Alan Wright and Shower Power Booster visit www. ShowerPowerBooster.co.uk

2015 March | 17

Gorgeous Planters for the Spring! Spring at Posh Plants, with Sue Huckle There’s still a definite chill in the air. The elder in the house reminds me the easterly blast in 1947 that brought the country to a halt lasted until mid March! So, we’re not there yet, but the signs of spring are all around. Birds are pairing up and looking for good nesting sites, so, I have to keep a close eye on my large topiary plants as they seem to be the most prized of avian residential addresses. Not an easy task as, within the blink of an eye a pair of goldfinches can proudly take possession of a twisted stemmed bay. I even have a blue tit who has already had several viewings of a small cavity in the frame of my trailer. This is not helpful when the wedding season is fast approaching, meaning plants will be hired out and the trailer will

soon be dashing around Norfolk… hopefully without extra passengers! In the nursery there is much tidying and sorting out of plants as well as propagating, sowing seeds and planing new areas for growing cut flowers and vegetables. Great crested newts, frogs and toads are stirring under pots, but they don’t seem to be in such a deep slumber now. A mouse, or maybe its the pretty vole we disturbed a couple of weeks ago is seeking vengeance by working its way through pots of emerging tulips! Never a dull moment! As the weather warms up our thoughts turn to the garden. There’s always the temptation to rush outside armed with shiny new tools, seed packets and the latest gardening book. The sun

Posh Plants

topiary, plants, shrubs and trees to hire or buy

Sue Huckle is the inspiration behind many award winning gardens, offering a professional and creative approach to the art and science of garden design. At Seven Acres Nursery we have a range of lovely plants and containers for sale, as well as our beautiful collection of large topiary plants available to hire for weddings, parties and your workplace!

07703 347014 email: sue@poshplants.com website: www.poshplants.com

Posh Plants, Seven Acres Nursery, Common Road, East Tuddenham, NR20 3NF

18 | March 2015

may be out, but the ground is still very squelchy here, so try to refrain from working on the garden too much. Bulbs are emerging and perennials are starting to come up, so be aware that there’s a lot happening just under the soil that you can’t see and you certainly don’t want to destroy. There’s nothing worse than the sound and feel of treading on an unseen daffodil plant. Keep the green fingers busy by concentrating on some well placed planters to enjoy near the house. Fill some tasteful metal or ceramic pots with box balls, or a lovely yew cone. These sturdy

containers are strong enough to withstand blustery winds. It’s not too late to plant up some bulbs along with some spring flowering plants such as primulas and bellis, then trail some pretty ivy over the side. Pots of bulbs and plants as well as a good selection of pots and planters are available at the nursery, so choose your favourite ones and get creative! Sue Huckle, Posh Plants, Seven Acres Nursery, Common Road, East Tuddenham NR20 3NF email: sue@poshplants.com www.poshplants.com www.finecity.co.uk

SUPERMARKET VOUCHER

A Every month* in the

competition

With the funds in all of our wallets and purses running dangerously low, a little extra help can go a long way! We are running a monthly competition across all of our magazines where you could be in with a chance to win a ÂŁ50 voucher at a selection of major supermarkets. To enter, simply visit www.FineCity.co.uk and complete the entry form. The winner will be chosen at random on the 30th of each month and will be notified via email. Arrangements will be made for the posting or collection of the vouchers. Spider Creative Media, publishers of FineCity Magazine, reserve the right to cancel or change the competition at any time without prior notice. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose other than via FineCity Magazine. *Entry is for one months draw only. A separate entry would be required to enter each of the following months draws.

Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge, patron of East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices, visits the Emma Bridgewater factory to see the progress of their charity pottery project

20 | March 2015

taff from East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH) joined Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge, who is Patron of EACH, at a visit to the Emma Bridgewater factory in Stoke-on-Trent today (Weds 18th) to learn more about a special pottery project which will raise vital awareness and funds for the charity. EACH which provides care and support to life-threatened children, young people and their families across East Anglia, and Emma Bridgewater, the iconic pottery designer and manufacturer, teamed up last year to create two exclusive mugs to raise funds for the charity’s nook appeal which needs to raise £10 million to build and equip a new children’s hospice for Norfolk. The partnership was encouraged by The Duchess of Cambridge, and two exclusive ½ Pint Mugs ‘Insects & Flowers’ and ‘Ladybirds’ as well as a ‘Ladybirds Baby Mug’ have been designed. Emma Bridgewater attended the launch of the Nook Appeal at the Norfolk Showground on 25th November, 2014, to show supporters the new design. The mugs are available to pre-order from emmabridgewater. co.uk from today (18th February) and will be available from Emma Bridgewater shops and website from Monday 2nd March. They will also be sold at Jarrold in Norwich from Monday 2nd March. The visit was an opportunity to see the design and manufacture of the mug and to meet the staff producing it. The event was hosted by Emma Bridgewater and her husband and Managing www.finecity.co.uk

FINEspecial

Director Matthew Rice. Emma and Matthew used to live in Norfolk and are delighted to be able to support a Norfolk charity. Graham Butland, EACH Chief Executive, was at the event and met The Duchess of Cambridge. Graham said: The event was a great success. Everyone at Emma Bridgewater was so friendly and welcoming and there was a great atmosphere. “During the visit I met with The Duchess of Cambridge and she enquired about the nook appeal and how it was going. We also talked about how work started today Hummingbird House; a new children’s hospice in Queensland, Australia. EACH is supporting Hummingbird House in their development and The Duchess has previously met with Paul Quilliam, the General Manager of Hummingbird House, so it was a perfect talking point. “I also took the opportunity to thank The Duchess her for introducing us to Emma Bridgewater. “There were lots of media in attendance and the public came out to wave on her arrival – there was a great buzz. “I had a go at pottery making and it was really interesting to see all the processes of the mug from start to finish. I had a go at washing the pottery and decorating a mug. It’s going to be fired and sent down to me – so it’ll be a lovely memento from the day. “The mugs look spectacular and everyone at Emma Bridgewater is confident they’ll be really popular and sell well. Our staff and 

About Emma Bridgewater

Emma Bridgewater began in 1985, after Emma tried and failed to find a birthday present for her mum. “I was looking for a really special cup and saucer, but everything was either too formal or too clunky. That was my eureka moment. I realised there was a gap in the market for pottery that was beautiful and practical – pottery for a relaxed, colourful, mismatched life.” Today the company is run by Emma and her husband Matthew Rice, and our designs come from both of them. Most of the signature spongeware patterns, and the shape designs, are Emma’s, while Matthew is responsible for

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our timeless and much-loved Black Toast print, the cheerfully idiosyncratic Year in the Country range, and our Birds, Dogs and Animals mugs. We’re very much a family business, and a lot of our ideas come from Emma and Matthew’s everyday life with their four children – our Marmalade pattern, for example, was inspired by a family tradition of stocking the cupboards with home-made marmalade every February, and we made our lovely deep pasta bowls after Emma couldn’t find any that were big enough for the generous portions she likes to serve at home. We’re a thoroughly British company too – all our pottery is made in Stoke-on-Trent, the traditional

home of British pottery, and we’re proud to be one of the largest employers of potters in the area.

our products

At Emma Bridgewater, we like to make things that make everyday life a little bit nicer – things that are beautiful to look at but also a pleasure to use, like a lovely mug that cheers you up when you have your first cup of tea in the morning, or a bowl with a playful message that makes you smile when you use it. Emma and Matthew only design things that they love and want to use at home themselves, which gives our patterns a unique warmth that makes them instantly recognisable.

All our pottery is made from cream-coloured earthenware – a traditional Staffordshire product which we make in our own factory in Stoke-on-Trent, the home of British pottery. Most of the production work is still done by hand, and all the pieces are individually handdecorated, so every one is very slightly different – and our spongeware is always signed by the person who painted it. Pottery is at the heart of our company, but in recent years we’ve come out of the kitchen and used our patterns on a growing range of other products including glass, tins, picnicware, wallpaper and fabrics from Sanderson, and our own collection of home fragrances, and bath and bodycare.

2015 March | 21

FINEspecial supporters feel the same, and there’s been lots of social media interaction – with people asking when and where they can be bought. “As well as being an EACH patron, The Duchess is a strong supporter of children’s palliative care generally, and the time she spent with families from The Donna Louise children’s hospice today, yet again reinforces her empathy and understanding for the cause. “The nook appeal needs to raise £10 million, and the sale of these wonderful mugs will help us towards our target.” Staff and children from The Donna Louise Hospice in Stoke-on-Trent were at the event and took part in a pottery decorating session. Based in Staffordshire, the charity has close links with the Emma Bridgewater factory and its employees since being Emma Bridgewater’s Charity of the Year in 2011 when staff raised £10,000. Her Royal Highness also unveiled a ceramic plaque to commemorate the visit. ❏ The mugs will be available to pre-order from emmabridgewater. co.uk from 18th February and will be available from the Emma Bridgewater website, Emma Bridgewater shops and Jarrold in Norwich from Monday 2nd March. The prices are as follows: Ladybirds ½ Pint Mug £19.95 with a £5 donation, Ladybirds and Insects & Flowers boxed pair £39.95 with a £10 donation and Ladybirds Baby Mug £15.95 with a £5 donation.

Yes, I want to support the Nook Appeal

Please tick I enclose a donation of £.....................(please make cheques payable to EACH).

If you would like to donate by credit or debit card please call us on: 01953 666767

Title.................. First name.............................................................................. Surname............................................................................... Address....................................................................................................................................................... Postcode................................. Tel No......................................................... Email address............................................................................................................................ We are very grateful for your support, but to save vital funds we only acknowledge donations on request. Please tick if you would like an acknowledgement. Gift Aid Declaration Tick for Gift aid Please treat all donations I make in the future or have made to East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH) in the last 4 years (or from this date..........................) as gift aid donations. I will notify you if my details change. I confirm I have paid or will pay an amount of Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax in each tax year, that is at least equal to the tax that charities and CASCs I donate to will reclaim on my gifts. I understand that other taxes such as VAT and Council Tax do not qualify and that EACH will reclaim 25p of tax on every £1 that I give.

We would like to send you occasional updates about EACH. If you do not wish to receive this, please tick this box.

Please return this coupon to: EACH, Suite 5, The Old Dairy, Elm Farm Business Park, Norwich Common, Wymondham, Norfolk, NR18 0SW. Registered Charity No – 1069284 VAT No – 784 5717 85

22 | March 2015

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FINEspecial

The end of 2014 saw East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH) proudly welcome HRH The Duchess of Cambridge, as Royal Patron, to the launch of the charity’s £10 million fundraising appeal to build a new children’s hospice in the heart of Norfolk.

he nook appeal was officially launched on 25th November at the Norfolk Showground where hundreds of guests from across the county comprising individuals, businesses, charitable trusts, schools and community groups attended to hear the charity’s vision of a new hospice built on a five-acre woodland plot in Framingham Earl, south of Norwich.

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The purpose-built hospice, which will replace the charity’s current facility in Quidenham, will be named the nook and offer facilities such as a hydrotherapy pool, private areas for clinical care and dedicated rooms for therapies. The nook will be on an idyllic woodland plot, creating a wonderful tranquil setting for children, young people and families. It will also be better positioned in the county, within a thriving local community and won’t be isolated from services, hospitals and road networks. Quidenham hospice is one of the oldest in the UK and has been an incredible home-from-home to many families for more than 20 years. However, the hospice was converted from an old country house and is extremely restricted in its facilities and development. The demand on services continues to increase, and care for young people over the last decade has become far more complicated – the charity is rapidly outgrowing the constraints of the building. 2015 March | 23

FINEspecial “There are lots of ways that you can get involved and help us to build our new hospice”

“We’ve received a great response to our campaign so far, with so many pledges of support. There are lots of ways that you can get involved and help us to build our new hospice, so please do contact our fundraising team to discuss more and find out how you can help.” To achieve our vision for Norfolk we need to raise £10 million whilst still running our Quidenham hospice to it’s current high standards. We cannot do this without the support of everyone in the county. So we invite you, whether you are an individual, a company, a school or a community group, to become part of this very special project and we have a number of ways in which you can do this including becoming a friend of the nook or a member of the nook business network. ❏

Mark Loades, Appeal Fundraising Manager, explained: “We were thrilled with our launch event for the nook appeal and it was great to be able to share our vision publicly. Everyone at EACH was honoured and extremely proud to have HRH The Duchess of Cambridge as Royal Patron and delighted she was able to join us on the day.

To find out more about please contact the EACH Norfolk Fundraising team: EACH, Suite 5, The Old Dairy, Elm Farm Business Park, Wymondham, NR18 0SW. Tel: 01953 666767 Email: norfolk@each.org.uk Twitter: @EACH_norfolk Web: www.each.org.uk/the-nook

24 | March 2015

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THE FINEST SHOPPING IN NORWICH SINCE 1823 Jarrold stands proudly in the centre of the city A family run department store since 1823. Jarrolds reflects Norwich perfectly, combining a unique and contemporary shopping experience with a sense of heritage.

PERFUME FURNITURE BOOKS S TAT I O N E RY H O M E WA R E TOY S SHOES LINGERIE CHINA FA S H I O N DELI CAFÉ MENSWEAR LINENS

Coming soon... Specially commissioned mugs designed to raise funds for the EACH Nook Appeal. These exclusive pieces will be available from Monday 2 March. For every mug/set sold Jarrold will donate a minumum of £5 to the EACH Nook Appeal. Pre-orders can be taken, please call 01603 660661

IN STORE • ONLINE • MOBILE LONDON STREET, NORWICH 01603 660661 JARROLD.CO.UK

Golf at Barnham Broom Barnham Broom is home to two beautiful 18 hole Championship golf courses, The Hill and The Valley, and is set out across the River Yare Valley, within 300 mature acres. Considered one of the finest golf clubs in Norfolk, the courses provide golfers of all abilities with an exciting challenge.

ne of the most impressive golf clubs in Norfolk, Barnham Broom will not disappoint. The courses are complimented by superb practice facilities including three full length academy holes, a dedicated short game area and a five acre open air grass range. The courses are marshaled to ensure there’s no unnecessary slow play and there’s even a refreshment buggy on hand with drinks and snacks to make your round as enjoyable as possible. You can also book PGA Professional tuition and there’s a superbly-stocked golf shop with a great range of men’s and ladies’ golf wear, including Puma and Cobra ranges.

26 | March 2015

Barnham Broom is the perfect choice for a day’s golf, corporate entertaining or company golf days. As you’d expect from one of the best golf resorts, you can combine a round of golf with a superb meal in the awardwinning Brasserie, Sports Bar & Café or one of the function rooms. And, for an extra special occasion, why not combine a round or two of golf with a stay in one of their stylishly refurbished bedrooms. With an onsite hotel, The Edge health and fitness club and luxury Spa, Barnham Broom truly is one of East Anglia’s most popular destinations for golf and golf breaks.

JOIN the CLUB

If you’re looking to join a golf club in Norfolk - look no further. Only

9 miles north of Norwich it’s ideal. Offering a choice of membership options so that you can pick the one that’s right for you. There are no hidden costs, such as joining or admin fees, and members can enjoy a wide range of benefits. Golf membership benefits: • Two superb 18 hole Championship courses • Free use of the Academy Golf Course • Open-air Driving Range • Short Game Practice Area • Golf Tuition from one of the 4 Resident Pro’s • Members only tee times at weekends from 7am • Online tee time booking facility • Eligible to play in members tournaments • Marshaled courses to prevent slow play • Refreshment buggy • Discounted Buggy hire • Discounted driving range balls • Discounted fees for guests playing with a member • Refer a friend scheme • 10% discount on all treatments in the luxurious Spa • 10% discount on food and drinks in the Sports Bar

• 10% discount in the Golf Shop • Preferred rates for function room hire If you’re also looking to join a Health Club why not take advantage of the joint Golf & Health and Fitness membership which has all the benefits of golf membership plus use of their Health and Fitness Club – The Edge; including facilities such as Tennis and Squash as well as the indoor pool and fitness suite. Barnham Broom has a range of superb facilities from golf, health & fitness, Spa, Brasserie to luxury hotel bedrooms. They’ve a lot to offer - something for everyone! www.barnham-broom.co.uk/ joinourclub Membership Fees from only £59 per month

Lessons from A Professional

Head PGA golf professional, Alan Hemsley, has a wealth of knowledge and over 30 years experience in providing expert tuition. An AA PGA qualified professional and a European Seniors Tour player, he works www.finecity.co.uk

FINEPLACES

exclusively at Barnham Broom and his adaptable, flexible teaching style will benefit players of all levels. Whether you want to learn to play the game or just hone your golfing skills, Alan’s friendly, expert tuition will make sure you get the most from your lesson. Alan uses video analysis technology as he believes in visual coaching methods. It will enable you to watch your swing in slow motion and compare it with the world’s best. In addition to Alan’s expertise you’ll also benefit from the opportunity to practice on some of the best short game facilities in Norfolk, plus the three academy holes. You’ll also receive free custom-fit advice on your golf equipment.

One Day Beginner Golf School

An ideal way to be introduced to the sport of Golf. This beginners course will cover all aspects of the game, including sound fundamentals of the swing, putting and chipping. The aim is to give you an insight into the requirements needed to get out onto the golf course. This www.finecity.co.uk

will include understanding the mechanics of the game, course etiquette, basic rules, course management and card marking. 1 Day Beginners Golf School Itinerary. From £79 per person. 8.30am Enjoy Tea/Coffee and bacon rolls on arrival in the Sports Bar. Meet the PGA Professional to discuss your goals and ambitions. 9.30am The fundamentals of Putting and Chipping 10.30am Break 11:00am The fundamentals of the golf swing and practice 12.30pm Lunch is served in The Sports Bar 2:00pm Practice, followed by 3-holes on our academy course 6:00pm Enjoy a 2 course dinner in The Sports bar and a short debrief

THE GOLF COURSES

Valley Course The Valley Course with its abundant water features, blending into the delightful natural landscape was designed by Frank Pennink, one of Europe’s most prominent and respected golf course architects. The 72

par course opened in 1977 and within 7 years was staging European PGA Satellite Tour events. Now firmly established on the Norfolk Open rota, its credentials as a tournament course are firmly established. Hill Course The more forgiving 71 par Hill Course, designed by renowned golf architect Donald Steele, opened in 1989 and offers wider fairways with a real links flavour. As its name suggest, golfers can enjoy fine views over the surrounding countryside while at the same time facing the challenges posed by the strong breezes and carefully placed bunkers. In 2006 the course staged the Norfolk PGA Stroke Play championships. Corporate Golf Events Barnham Broom will tailor a number of packages to suit any corporate and society budget requirements. To arrange a full tour of the facilities incorporating the construction of your individual golf event, please do not hesitate to contact Greg Hacon, Golf & Fitness Business Development

Manager directly on: Tel 01603 759393 (ext 278), Mobile 07715 808766 or alternatively by email on ghacon@barnham-broom.co.uk Golf Society Packages from only £26 per person: • Tea, coffee and bacon rolls on arrival • 18 holes on our two championship courses • 1 course meal • Free nearest pin and longest drive markers • Free scorecard management • Free event organiser Offer available to a minimum of 12 players www.barnham-broom.co.uk Honingham Road, Norwich Norfolk NR9 4DD Call 01603 759393

Book your society event by the 31st March and the organiser will receive a special gift. New for 2015: Book your Tee-time online or via Golf Shop 01603 757505

2015 March | 27

FINEPLACES

Visit Norwich

New Look VisitNorwich destination guide set to draw more visitors to the region.

isitNorwich’s annual visitor guide - Norwich, Norfolk Broads and Countryside - hit the tourist information racks this week with a sleek, brand new look and feel for 2015. Norwich, Norfolk Broads and Countryside is a glossy guide to the city and beyond, packed full of recommendations for getting the most from a visit to our region. The free magazine is this year’s must-read for anyone considering Norwich and the surrounding area for their next day visit, city break or annual holiday. The guide demonstrates how Norwich is a thriving hub of activity, a buzzing, vibrant UK city destination and a gateway to the wider area where visitors can explore market towns, country parks, stately homes, trails, water ways and the coast. The magazine-style read, together with VisitNorwich’s first digital marketing campaign last year - Norwich, The City of Stories, uses original written content and experiential imagery to showcase the destination as cultural, stylish, exciting and – because of improvements to the A11 – easier than ever to reach. VisitNorwich has commissioned print of 35,000 guides for distribution at Tourist Information Centres across the country to highlight the Norwich area as a top destination for everyone from foodies to festival-goers and city-lovers to cultural luvvies. The countrywide distribution of Norwich, Norfolk Broads and Countryside aims to draw in visitors from Cornwall to Northumberland and showcase how much the city and surroundings have to offer families, single travellers, couples and groups. The guide covers everything from selecting accommodation to sampling the café culture, visiting the Broads National

28 | March 2015

Park, exploring the countryside and enjoying our top attractions. Nick Bond, Head of Tourism at VisitNorwich said: “Norwich, Norfolk Broads and Countryside is our chance to promote what a fantastic city we have here. Norwich is rich in culture and heritage and through this wide-reaching print campaign we can really shout about it and make sure it’s top of mind for people choosing their next destination, whether it’s for a day trip or their next holiday. “This new-look visitor guide has been created with original, experiential editorial to capture the interest of potential visitors to our region. The style and design builds on the success and engagement that we experienced with our digital campaign, ‘Norwich, the City of Stories’.” The VisitEngland Tourism Business Monitor survey revealed last month that looking ahead,

more tourism businesses feel confident about the period between now and Easter than at the same time last year. It also reported that nearly nine out of 10 (86 per cent) of accommodation providers said they were feeling confident about business this winter compared to last January. In the latest research from COOL Tourism, Norwich recorded 415,000 staying visitor trips and more than 10 million day visits in 2013, contributing to an annual visitor related spend in excess of £500m.* David McMaster is Chairman of Norwich Attractions and a passionate ambassador for Norfolk. He is looking forward to a busy year in tourism and sees the annual visitor guide as an important way to increase awareness of the city and all it has to offer. Mr McMaster said: “Norwich, Norfolk Broads and Countryside is a very useful guide for visitors to Norwich. It is full of information including where to stay, to visit, to shop, to eat and drink, forthcoming events and all about the surrounding areas. “The wide range of attractions are highlighted together so

visitors can quickly see the choice there is in Norwich, from the magnificent castle to a simple but unique Victorian Garden. We look forward to welcoming a rush of visitors in the coming months.” This year Norwich is hosting a variety of world-class art exhibitions including ‘Homage to Manet’ at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery (31 Jan – 19 Apr), the groundbreaking ‘Francis Bacon and the Masters’ at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (18 Apr – 26 Jul) and ‘Jeff Koons’ exhibition (9 May – 6 Sep), at the castle as part of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival. These sit alongside the broad range of festivals and events including the UEA Literary Festivals, Norwich Fashion Week, Radio 1’s Big Weekend, GOGODragons, the Shakespeare Festival and the Hostry Festival. ❏ View Norwich, Norfolk Broads and Countryside online at www.visitnorwich.co.uk/getto-know/tourist-information/ visitor-publications *COOL Tourism, Economic Impact of the Norfolk Visitor Economy 2013.

www.finecity.co.uk

Sprowston Manor, Norwich Saturday 23 May 2015, 7.30pm £37.50 per person or £375 for a table of ten

Price includes welcome drink, fantastic three-course menu, dancing to the Joe Ringer Swing Band and DJ. We will be hosting the ‘Silver Lining Awards’, celebrating some of the special people that help Break change young lives every day. Plus there will be a Fantastic prize raffle and auction and other special surprises!

Book now: Web: www.break-charity.org Email: sarah.bunn@break-charity.org Tel: 01603 670109 Sponsored by

FINEPLACES

A Gourmet Odyssey Stay at Titchwell Manor Explore Norfolk’s Natural Wonders

fan of the finer foods in life? Well pack your wellies and head to Norfolk’s picturesque north coast for an epicurean adventure with Titchwell Manor’s Gourmet Odyssey mini-break. Three exciting culinary packages will be on offer showcasing some of best of British wildlife from land, air and sea each including a relaxing two night stay at the renowned boutique hotel. Award-winning Titchwell Manor has partnered with some of Norfolk’s premium producers to provide guests with three unforgettable experiences. Visit one of three stunning locations to explore the finest local farms for oysters, quail or venison, each with a picnic lunch provided. Following the day’s exploration, gourmet enthusiasts will be treated to a five-course meal, showcasing the unforgettable flavours from the chosen package, cooked by Head Chef and rising culinary star, Eric Snaith. Gourmet Quail Odyssey Visit Great Ryburgh, the home of Norfolk Quail. Guests will be

30 | March 2015

guided around the family run farm lead by producers Ellie and John Savoury, learning about the keeping, breeding and raising of this fine bird, before watching the hatching of a baby quail. Following this, Eric with the help of guests, will showcase a couple of sumptuous quail dishes and provide recipe cards to take home. Then, take a leisurely walk along the stunning Norfolk coast, before sitting down to enjoy a stunning dinner featuring Norfolk Quail. Gourmet Venison Odyssey Explore the rolling woodland of Houghton Hall, home to a herd of over six hundred white fallow deer and some rarer species. Begin with a tour of the stunning hall and estate built in the 1720s by Great Britain’s first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole together with park manager, Julian Stoyel. For those wanting to learn the art of butchery, Julian will be sharing his wealth of knowledge and traditional skills with an in-depth demonstration before heading back to the hotel, where Eric will host a masterclass

creating two mouth-watering dishes using the cuts and serving a delectable banquet using Houghton Venison. Gourmet Oyster Odyssey If you’re not afraid to get your feet wet, then why not opt for the Oyster package. After breakfast at the Manor head to the quintessentially British, Brancaster Staithe Harbour to meet father and son team Ben and Cyril Southerland, who will guide guests down to the oyster beds, where they will both

demonstrate and explain the process of how these delicacies are farmed giving an insight into the business. Then, with the help of Eric at the hotel, create two stunning shellfish dishes before enjoying the five-course feast featuring Brancaster shellfish. Enjoy a gourmet stay at Titchwell Manor. Titchwell Manor, Titchwell, Nr Brancaster, Norfolk PE31 8BB 01485 210221 www.titchwellmanor.com @TitchwellManor www.finecity.co.uk

Flying from Norwich airport t t tt t t t t STAR HOTEL

Lakes & Mountains of

Escorted Excursions

Switzerland Departing Sunday 19 July 2015

Half Board Accommodation

Look what’s included......

8 days from

An unparalleled 4 star break among the chalets, flower valleys and snow-dusted giants of the Bernese Oberland, with half board and excursions to Lucerne, Gstaad and the Black Lake, chocolate-tasting at Maison Cailler and cheese-making at Gruyères. As different from the average break as… choc and cheese!

949pp

• Return flight from Norwich airport to Friedrichshafen† • Airport taxes and return transfer to the hotel • 7 nights stay at the 4 star Aeschi Park hotel - Aeschi bei Spiez with breakfast & dinner • Visit to the Gurnigel Pass and Schwarzsee • Full day excursion to Lucerne • Full day cheese and chocolate excursion to Maison Cailler and Gruyères • Free time in Gstaad • A local summer discount card for local attractions

The advertised price is correct as of 5 February 2015 and is based upon departure from Norwich airport on 19 July 2015.

Summer in the Austrian

Mountains

2 Full Day Escorted Excursions

tt tt t t t t STAR HOTEL Half Board Accommodation

Departing Sunday 19 July & 2 August 2015

8 days from

Mountain pine air you could bottle and sell, glacier fresh beer, scented meadows, a history of music and mad kings, houses painted as optical illusions – discover alpine Austria with this Omega 8 day break including flights and transfers, excursions and 4 star hotel with dinner and breakfast.

749pp

Look what’s included...... • Return flight from Norwich airport to Friedrichshafen† • Airport taxes and return transfer from the airport to your hotel • 7 nights half board at the 4 star Sport Hotel, St Anton am Arlberg • St. Anton Active summer card giving one day free use of cable cars • Excursions to Lindau and Lake Bodensee, Linderhof and Oberammergau

The advertised price is correct as of 5 February 2015 and is based upon departure from Norwich airport on 19 July & 2 August 2015.

The Black Forest

Explorer

Departing Sunday 2 August 2015 A veritable confection of thickly-wooded valleys, sparkling lakes, decoratively-painted houses and eponymous cuckoo clocks abound on this excursion-rich tour of the Black Forest and beyond, staying at a majestic hotel overlooking the Gutachtal Valley.

Look what’s included......

Escorted Excursions

8 days from

869

• Return flight from Norwich airport to Friedrichshafen† £ pp • Return transfer from the airport to your hotel • 7 nights stay at the 3 star Hotel Schloss Hornberg with breakfast and dinner • Excursions to: Furtwangen (admission to clock museum), Triberg waterfall, Donaueschingen (with guide), Strasbourg (guided tour and river cruise), Lake Constance (guided tours and ferry), Freiburg (guided tour), and Lake Titisee (lake cruise) • One piece of hold luggage (20kg limit)

The advertised price is correct as of 5 February 2015 and is based upon departure from Norwich airport on 2 August 2015.

Organised by Omega Holidays, ABTA V4782, ATOL Protected 6081. Single supplement applies. Subject to availability. †We have included a reasonable budget for your flights. Should the cost of these fall below or rise above this amount we will amend the holiday cost to reflect these changes and therefore the price may increase or decrease accordingly. The final price will be confirmed at the time of booking. Price excludes £10 adult Norwich Airport Development Fee which is payable at the airport.

01603 428700

For more information please call or visit our travel shop at the airport or Castle Mall, Norwich

Pick up your brochure today!

Interview: Pete Goodrum Photography: Alex Thursby

Linda Thursby Director of Epic Studios talks to Pete Goodrum about her life, her work and her epic journey!

32 | March 2015

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alex thursby

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feature by:

Pete Goodrum Writer, broadcaster @petegoodrum

e’re in the green room at Epic Studios. Stars wait here, before they hit the stage. In fact, I’m star struck, because one legend, of whom I’ve long been a fan, has sat in this very room. More of that later. Meantime we have Linda Thursby’s story to pursue. Linda Thursby was born in Londonderry. A simple statement, but not a simple story. Our conversation gets off at quite a pace as I learn about Linda’s early years. Her father, John, comes from Ireland, and worked his way up the ranks of Norwich Union (Yes. Norwich Union. It wasn’t Aviva then) from post boy to executive management positions. He was working for the company in Singapore when he met his wife, Marilyn who’d been born in Kuala Lumpur. Married, and with baby Linda due, the couple took some leave and were in Londonderry for her birth. Six weeks later they were gone, but Linda says ‘I’m proud of my Irish roots’. Back in Singapore, her brother John was born and the family settled in to what Linda describes as the ‘last days of colonial living’. In truth she has few memories of the period because she was only two and a half when the family moved again, to another outpost of the Norwich Union empire. There was some travelling first, taking in the Panama Canal and the Caribbean. Then it was Nairobi, and it’s here that her childhood memories started to form. ‘I’d have to be driven through safari parks to get to school. It was amazing. Weekends we’d be rushing around, often being taken by my father to watch the World Rally as it tore through Kenya’. Interestingly, she adds an almost confidential, still guiltily childlike aside. ‘Actually all we really saw were the dust trails as the cars shot by us’. Even more interestingly, especially as she doesn’t comment on it, the World Rally will reappear in her life later, in a very special way. It’s one of several threads that will intertwine in her story. www.finecity.co.uk

For now though she adopts a reflective stance. ‘A lot of what I saw in the Nairobi days I now realise I saw through a child’s eyes. I didn’t see the danger of the place, especially during the uprisings of the 1970s. And, although I knew I was ‘different’, and treated so, although not unkindly, it’s only in looking back that I see the truth. There simply weren’t very many blue eyed, white-blonde little girls like me around there’. Linda Thursby is good at looking at life. She has the ability to see things in perspective. And, as I will learn, she can almost always find something positive to learn from everything that happens. What happened next was that her father was posted to Paris. Initially her mother took Linda, and her brother to Northern Ireland. It was a culture shock. Linda’s mother had to deal with a new lifestyle. Suddenly the colonial existence that had included servants and staff was gone. ‘It wasn’t that we were rich; it was just the way it was there. And now it was totally different for her’. It was different for Linda too. ‘For the first time I became aware of the family. I had aunts and uncles who I could see and talk to’. For a six year old little girl it was a pleasant surprise. And it started another of those threads. We’ll pick it up, and weave it in, later. Eventually the family joined her father in Paris. Linda’s education recommenced, firstly at the English School. She wasn’t particularly happy there. An International School was next. ‘It was effectively a half French, half English education which was challenging but, looking back on it, useful’. There’s that finding the positive again. The next school was French, and it wasn’t the language that was the problem. ‘I was a Protestant in a Catholic school. I remember saying, so often, ‘But I’m not confirmed’.’ Now, if I’m going to develop my point that Linda Thursby is the kind of woman who can find the positive in situations and learn from them, the next development proves it beyond doubt. ‘I knew’, she says, ‘that I was struggling with my work. I found it hard to learn. And then they found out why. I was diagnosed as dyslexic’. 2015 March | 33

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Not great news for an eleven year old girl. Except this eleven year old girl is Linda Thursby. ‘I thought great! Now I know what the problem is. And it means I’m not thick!’. Want a lesson in positivity? Read that last paragraph again. Want a lesson in tenacity? Read this next paragraph. Firstly she considers going to university in the UK. With what were plainly the embryonic analytical skills that she would hone as she grew into the businesswoman of today, she worked out that to do so would need UK ‘A’ Levels. She asks (well, tells actually) her parents about going to boarding school to get them. There follows a string of interviews with educational psychologists, and some wholly inappropriate put downs for a young girl. ‘I was told I wasn’t suitable for ‘A’ Levels’ she tells me in a tone that, incredibly, displays no rancour. Another interview fixed her reading age at 9. And then, she lived with a teacher, as an au pair, and every day the teacher taught her something new. ‘What she did was revelatory. We worked our way through my mistakes. She’d say ‘that one was a dyslexic mistake. That one was a genuine mistake. That one was a stupid mistake’. I could see then what I needed to do.’ She was fifteen. And, at fifteen, this girl, with all of this going on around her, is flying from Paris, to London, to go to school, alone. See what I mean? There was a spell at a boarding school. ‘It was horrible. So horrible I won’t even tell you its name’, she says. Within three weeks her reading age went up to 13. My next school was amazing and supported me to ensure that my nature talents were nurtured, and this took the pressure off my education 34 | March 2015

She did ‘O’ Levels, and ‘A’ Levels. She pushed on to ‘AS’ Level’. Positivity and tenacity I think I’ve proved. But, I’ll return to her analytical approach. After all of that, it was her who decided that maybe university just wasn’t right for her. ‘I was just unsure that I’d fit somehow’. It was back to Paris. She joined Norwich Union. ‘It was an apprenticeship really, and I moved on, to work in an advertising agency. In fact they were looking after some of the Norwich Union work. It was a lowly position, but I loved it’. She was by now in love with advertising, and with her sights set on being an Account Executive she applied for and got a job at Saatchi and Saatchi, Paris. The problem was, as she prepared to give the family the good news, her father said he had some great news too. Deferring to the parent, she listened as he announced he had a new job with the company. In Norwich. Here comes one of those threads we can pick up. As tempting as a job with Saatchi, in 1980s Paris, for a nineteen year old young woman was, she didn’t take it. Her father, she freely admits, would have been happy for her to stay there. He offered to help arrange an apartment for her. He also offered some advice about French men, but we agreed we’d gloss over that. Linda Thursby decided to come to Norwich. And the reason was - family. The thread that had started in Ireland. To her, family is important, and she wasn’t about to see it split up again. And that’s why, in November 1986, she arrived here. Her first job in the fine city was with legendary Norwich retailer Wilkinsons. She loved working in the leather goods shop, and got on well with the manager who, in an odd coincidence, was French. www.finecity.co.uk

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“this girl, with all of this going on around her, is flying from Paris, to London, to go to school, alone” Next came a job, with Norwich Union. Her first role there? Proof reader. ‘I know’, she says, with disarming self-effacement. ‘A dyslexic proof reader!’ ‘You hadn’t mentioned that in your cv?’ I ask. ‘Of course not. Why would I?’ For the only time in our conversation she looks down. ‘There was something to be ashamed of about it’. It’s more a reflection of the times than a comment on her. And it didn’t stop her, because she’s good at turning weaknesses into strengths. Negatives into positives. ‘I could see patterns in a page of type. I could see errors, by logic’. That’s not to say that there weren’t problems. When a colleague picked up on errors she’d made in typing an e mail, she awarded www.finecity.co.uk

him a Kit-Kat ‘for spotting the deliberate mistake’. Negative. Into positive. It’s Linda. From proof reader she moved to the Technical Help Desk. Always an early adopter of technology she loved it. By now her father was also involved in the technology and computing innovations at Norwich Union. Family trait. Another thread. Next came Direct Sales, which involved opening new branches and saw her enter the property side of the business. ‘And then came 1995’. They’re her words. It sounds ominous and all I have to do is raise an eyebrow in a silent question. The answer? ‘1995. Redundant. Engaged. Married. Pregnant. Moved house’. Right. It was a big year then. Picking up on just one of those events, we talk of her husband, Jonathan. ‘We’d been together for nine years by then, and he’d been building a business. He’d been concerned about his ability to support a family on just his income, and now it all seemed to come together. We just did it – all at once. I was at home, married, let’s have a baby... it seems mad now but it all worked’. Jonathan’s business was film production. Starting when he left school he’d grown the company from wedding videos to specialising in ‘in-car’ cameras. He’d worked on The World Rally, which reappears here as the thread I’d promised, and Top Gear. He retired from TV and set up a business in cameras for the oil industry. It’s now a successful business, employing 250 people and providing amongst other things highly specialised filming for the oil industry. It’s not been without its ups and downs though, and Linda talks freely of the days when cash was short and food shopping was costed to the penny. There was something else impacting on life during this frankly turbulent period though. ‘Just before I was made redundant my mother was diagnosed with ME. We made it our business to learn about it, and learn about treating it’. Getting herself trained in the BodyTalk technique - whilst pregnant - she was able to help. And as a direct result of training she set up Barn Therapy. She trained in sports therapy too, and the business started to grow. I was beginning to get that ‘what could possibly go wrong?’ feeling when she tells me. ‘One morning in 2006 I woke up and simply could not lift my head off the pillow. I had no idea what was wrong. I had examinations, I begged for an x-ray, and I took pain killers. Lots of pain killers. It worried me how many I took’. Eventually she did get an x-ray. The results were nothing short of amazing. It revealed an ‘old’ fracture. ‘Frankly I didn’t believe it. I had no knowledge of it’. Thinking through everything that had happened to her she did remember. At fifteen she’d had a horse riding accident. ‘I just sort of got back on the horse, and got on with things’. She had suffered ‘some aches and pains over the years’, she tells me. Little wonder; she’d effectively broken her neck as a school girl and not known about it until years later! ‘The really odd thing though is that within a week, all the pain had gone’. Once she knew the diagnosis she could deal with it. Know the problem and you can solve it. Sounds familiar? Sounds like the dyslexia? Sounds like Linda Thursby. Pain free and networking ferociously she grew the Barn Therapy business. By now there were three children, Alex, Luke and Avalon and Jonathan was travelling a lot. ‘It was hectic. And I said before, of course there were some ups and downs. Some really big downs, but they were happy times. New Year’s Eve 2006 brought a happy end to a challenging year. ‘One phone call that night confirmed a major contract for Jonathan. It was one of those moments. Yesssss!’ And then comes EPIC. ‘Local TV production was changing, a major show had moved out, these premises in Magdalen Street were vacant. Jonathan expressed an interest early on but the Council took it over, doing pretty much 2015 March | 35

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what he’d planned. It didn’t work out for them, and we re-entered the frame. On the 4th of May 2012 we had the keys’. With an initial skeleton staff they set about delivering their vision. So many of those threads now intertwined. Norwich based meant close to family. Jonathan’s contacts and film production experience were invaluable. A high-tech concept channelled his, her, and her father’s genetically induced, early adoption of new technology. This would be a venue that allowed the highest quality recording, and filming, of what they staged, and the ability to stream it, worldwide. Unique is a dangerous word to use anywhere, but for EPIC STUDIOS I’ll risk it. It’s taken hard work to get EPIC STUDIOS established on the local scene; to make people aware of it as a place to go. A tipping point was John Peel’s widow being involved and The Fall, and The Undertones playing there. By 2012 it was, as Linda says, ‘serious’. Now, major bands aside, there are corporate bookings, wrestling and boxing, all staged there, to be streamed in high definition. The Norwich Fashion Week used EPIC STUDIOS. We digress slightly at this point to discuss some of the other recent gigs. We talk of Geno Washington. I told you I would return to the star I’ve admired for years. This mercurial performer set the Norwich scene alight in the 60s, becoming cooler than cool as the soul obsessed mod culture of London clubs took him to its heart. It’s fitting that he’s played EPIC STUDIOS. Still a vital performer, in such a vital venue. In Norwich.

Linda Thursby’s enthusiasm for what she does is palpable. You can feel it. She talks in an excited voice, laced with humour. In full flight there’s a glow about her. In fact there’s a permanent glow about her. She exudes good health and wellbeing. It’s not surprising when you hear about her regime. She trains at Boot Camp level three times a week, practises Yoga, and recently trained to match level in boxing. It was she says, ‘the hardest, scariest and best thing she’s ever done’. That’s her judgment. For me , terrifying though it sounds, it comes a second to overcoming dyslexia, getting on with life whilst suffering from a broken neck, running a therapy business, bringing up a family, caring for her mother and, on top of all that, developing EPIC STUDIOS into the fabulous force of technology and entertainment that it is. As I leave I realise that I have a spring in my step. It’s hard not to when you’ve been talking with Linda Thursby. You get the feeling that anything is possible. I’d asked her what her plans are for the future. She’d answered that it was about developing and growing EPIC STUDIOS. ‘More bands, filming here, tv shows – why not? Graham Norton piloted here, Loose Women piloted here. We can do big shows. And we can stream them worldwide’. EPIC STUDIOS is a fantastic achievement, and it’s here in Norwich. Already globally connected, its potential is what drives Linda and her husband. I’m putting words in her mouth, but I’m guessing that if she has a message to the rest of the world it can be summed up by a song Geno Washington has performed so excitingly – ‘Hold On – I’m Coming’. ❏

“it’s taken hard work to get epic studios established on the local scene; to make people aware of it”

36 | March 2015

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Celebrate Mother’s Day at Carrow Road Here at Norwich City Football Club we’ve got two very special events to choose from on Sunday 15th March

Celebrate Mother’s Day with the whole family at a special family carvery

Treat your Mum this Mother’s Day in Delia’s very own Restaurant

The best three-course carvery in Norwich. Enjoy a delicious three-course carvery lunch in the light and spacious surroundings of the Top of the Terrace restaurant, with it’s stunning views overlooking the Carrow Road pitch.

Exclusive to Norwich, Delia’s is opening especially on Mothering Sunday. You can treat your Mum to a meal in our beautiful, restaurant.

Fun Force will entertain the children whilst you sit back and relax. There are also free stadium tours, a chance to have a special message on the scoreboard, and a gift for Mum.

In the Top of the Terrace from midday Adults £29.50 | U10s £12.50

Enjoy a delicious three-course meal prepared to Delia’s exacting standards followed by coffee with homemade chocolates, and a gift for Mum.

In Delia’s Restaurant and Bar from midday £37 per person

Under 3yrs dine for free from our special menu

MILK CUP

30th ANNIVERSARY REUNION DINNER

Friday, March 13 2015

in association with Barnham Broom

TICKETS FROM JUST £49pp

CALL 01603 218704 Book online www.deliascanarycatering.com

FINEPeople Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

You Are Wonderful feature by:

Steve Browning Writer @returningperson

38 | March 2015

Self-confessed â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Sherlockianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Stephen Browning shares his enthusiasm for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as his strong and surprising connections to Norwich and Norfolk

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tephen Browning has been a great admirer, along with many millions all over the world, of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his immortal creation, Sherlock Holmes, since he was first given the books to read as a youngster. The remarkable thing is that, for people like him who call themselves ‘Sherlockians’, the enthusiasm has never dimmed even many decades later. Just why should this be? Who was this literary genius who may have based his stories in London but had some strong and surprising connections with Norwich and Norfolk?

The man The decent and wonderful Sir Arthur Conan Doyle I admit that hardly a day goes by that I do not think of one of the most decent, honourable and talented of my fellow Englishmen, Sir Arthur, who left us one sunny and cold morning in 7 July 1930. He was found clutching a single snowdrop to his chest in his garden at Windlesham, Sussex. His last words were for his wife. ‘You are wonderful’, he said. Sir Arthur did not consider himself at all wonderful. His

Sherlock Holmes by Sidney Paget, Strand Magazine

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life had not gone remotely as planned. His doctor’s practice had failed – thank goodness for us as he only dashed off the Sherlock Holmes tales because he had no-one coming into his very expensively-rented London surgery. He regarded the public appetite for Holmes as a curse: he had no idea that he was inventing a new form of literature, the detective story with two contrasting lead characters. Nor did he know that Holmes and Watson would reign supreme – sorry Lewis, Midsomer Murders, Whitechapel, Morse, Scott and Bailey and many others, all of which I admire - over 100 years later. Not many people know that he, officially at least, gained his knighthood from his report into the failings of the British Army during the Boer War. It was in 1902 that King Edward VII conferred the honour upon him but many think that the King was a secret Holmes admirer and hoped that he would be thus encouraged to write more stories. His personal life was often contrary and tragic. His beloved first wife, Touie, died and then he lost his son, Kingsley, in the First World War. At the end of

A Sidney Paget drawing from ‘The Blue Carbuncle’, Strand Magazine

his life he believed in fairies and spiritual beings which gave the mocking press a field day – was not this the man who created Sherlock Holmes, the ultimate rational, almost emotionless, thinking machine? Go away Holmes and let me write ‘greater’ literature! No, he wanted to be remembered for ‘greater literature’. His other writing is marvellous, but, really, the public was only interested in one man, Holmes. Sherlock came to eclipse him and is unique in that many people, both then and now, think Sherlock Holmes actually existed. The great Sherlockian, Christopher Morley, put it most beautifully when he said that this is a striking example of art’s supremacy over life. Letters still come into 221b Baker Street from all over the world asking for his help as some people think he is still with us - Sir Arthur never actually mentions his death but, of course he would have to be something like 165 years old now! Apparently, someone is employed to send replies and I can’t help thinking what a wonderful job that must be.

A classic Sherlock Holmes story Forever 1895 at 221b Baker Street A really satisfying Sherlock Holmes story should, ideally, have several key ingredients. Firstly, it will take place in the last decade of the 19th century or the first part of the 20th – I am talking ‘classically’ here as no-one is a greater fan than me of the new contemporary BBC version. As the famous poem by Vincent Starret has it: A yellow fog swirls past the window-pane As night descends upon this fabled street: A lonely hansom splashes through the rain, The ghostly gas lamps fail at twenty feet. Here, though the world explode, these two survive, And it is always eighteen ninety-five. It will begin with both Holmes and Watson sitting beside the fire in 221b Baker Street. It will be chilly outside with a cruel wind that shakes the window panes. Watson will get up  2015 March | 39

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Professor Moriarty by Sidney Paget, Strand Magazine

From The Adventure of Silver Blaze

and look out of the window where he will see the scene depicted in the poem above. He will sit down again and take up the Lancet. Holmes, who has been conducting some malodorous chemical experiments, will make some outrageous but accurate remark about Watson’s thoughts, such as ‘Yes, I agree – it was miraculous that Lord Roberts managed to clutch victory from the jaws of defeat in India in ’03!’ He will then explain to a perplexed Watson how he worked out what Watson was thinking. Watson will exclaim that, as it has now been successfully explained, the process was indeed child’s play. Holmes will be slightly miffed that he bothered to explain it at all. An interesting fact is that he never says, after such a demonstration of logic, ‘Elementary, Mr Dear Watson!’ Everyone thinks he did but nowhere in the books does he use this whole phrase: he says ‘Elementary’ and also ‘My Dear Watson’, but never together. Sherlockians know these things. Ah! Mrs Hudson! Mrs Hudson will appear with a very English breakfast or dinner (hardly ever lunch). If breakfast, 40 | March 2015

it will probably constitute boiled eggs, toast, butter and marmalade. If dinner, it will possibly be a mutton chop with peas and potatoes, maybe roast beef and all the trimmings or a steak and kidney pie. Like Charles Dickens before him, Conan Doyle knew the importance of engaging all of his readers’ senses, always letting us know, very casually, whether they might be eating cold chicken with a good white wine on the train or enjoying the very English ‘plain’ – Mrs Hudson did not go in for ‘fancy’ food feasts of his landlady. The peace is shattered After the meal, Holmes may make a remark about how the criminal classes have gone on holiday, leaving him very bored. He will gaze up at the 7 per cent solution and Watson will become concerned. But wait! There is an almighty clatter at the door! It may be that young Wiggins from the Baker Street Irregulars will lead his crew up the stairs and past a despairing Mrs Hudson. Mrs Hudson is often appalled by Holmes and his antics, especially when he put ‘V.R.’ into the sitting room wall using bullets, but is secretly very proud and fond of

him and so will restrain from any tut-tutting, so will just turn on her heel in protest. Holmes will not notice. Maybe the person entering is the Prime Minister himself or the Sultan of Amasonia. My favourite choice, though, is that it will be an anonymous punter, blustering and sweaty, who will crash into the room. His clothes are unkempt, of good quality but old, and he will have some strange-looking reddish mud on his left boot. His right heel will be excessively worn down. His eyes will be small, but shrewd, enveloped in folds of skin. He will look from Holmes to Watson and back again. ‘Forgive…who…do I have the honour…Mr Sherlock Holmes… Ahh!’ and he will faint. Watson will revive him with a glass – or two if very seriously perplexed – of

brandy. It is worth noting that there is always a good deal of brandy in 221b. ‘You see but you do not observe!’ Then, when composed and sitting in Watson’s seat alongside the roaring fire, Holmes will say something very clever: ‘Well, Mr Pembington, I am sorry that your journey from Sardinia, via Liverpool, was so fraught. I trust that the man who threatened you over the matter of the sale of your wife’s jewels has not followed you here. But tell me sir, in your own time, just how you came to flee your job as a righthanded lion-tamer in the circus and came to seek my help. I see you are partial to a good cigar – Turkish, of course – so please take one of mine. Let us see if www.finecity.co.uk

FINEPeople we can get to the bottom of this matter before it gets out of hand and threatens the good name of our own illustrious Queen herself.’ ‘That is all completely correct, Mr Holmes. I had heard of your skills but I think you must be the very devil himself. How on earth? …’ ‘It is my job, sir, to observe when others merely see and to know things others do not. Most people see but they do not observe. Please proceed.’ At this point a fascinating but perplexing tale will unfold. Mr Pemblington has possibly been to Scotland Yard but they were useless. ‘There is not a moment to lose!’ Once the punter has been dismissed, Watson will leave Holmes to smoke a few pipefuls of tobacco. He will go to bed. He

will be awoken by Holmes in the middle of the night. Holmes will say ‘Come, Watson, the Game is afoot!’ Hardened fans like me get an additional thrill if he also says: ‘…..and bring your army revolver’. The wonderful tale will probably take place at least partly in London. This will involve hansom carriages clattering along central London Streets – Baker Street, The Strand, Northumberland Avenue and Regent Street to name abut a few. If Holmes and Watson need to leave the capital, they will consult Bradshaws before departing from one on the capital’s main termini – Victoria, maybe or Charing Cross or Kings Cross. A genius for understanding people’s interactions As the tale proceeds, another essential feature in the incredibly fertile imagination of Conan Doyle will be that Scotland Yard will be seen to be the dolts that they are.

Watson will be a staunch ally but not the brightest light on the Christmas tree. There will come a point where Holmes will be on the verge of saying how much Watson means to him. This is pretty much all the reward that Watson wants but will probably be denied the next story will do….. Sir Arthur had a knack of painting relationships between Holmes and various characters that are familiar, exciting and completely believable. They are all deftly and economically presented. There is, of course, the main friendship between Holmes and Watson which has been portrayed as everything from that of a bright master and somewhat dense pupil to a fully modern bromance in the new BBC series with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. But there are several more, too, almost equally absorbing relationships – those

Norwich and Norfolk connections In real life, Sir Arthur had a good friend from university days who worked at the Mental Asylum in Norwich. His name was David Thomson. Once Sir Arthur asked him what he thought of Watson to which David replied that he seemed a bit of a dull fellow. ‘That is a shame’, replied Sir Arthur, ‘for I have based him on you’. The friendship obviously survived this exchange as we find the great writer playing for the Asylum cricket team against Lowestoft when, on 30 August 1894, the Eastern Daily Press reported that he made 65 runs and ‘gave the bowlers a very bad time.’ He also joined Sheringham Golf Club. Sherlock Holmes never plays golf at all but it is intriguing that a fellow member of this club was called Moriarty. An early Holmes mystery of 1893, The Gloria Scott, was based

“We find the great writer playing for the Asylum cricket team against Lowestoft... he made 65 runs”

Holmes in Meiringen, Switzerland – you can sit next to him for a picture

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between Holmes and, to name a few: Mrs Hudson; Inspector Lestrade; various other Scotland Yard officers, some jealous and some not so at all; Irene Adler (‘the woman’); the Baker Street Irregulars; his brother, Mycroft, a most satisfying tale of sibling rivalry; various underworld characters who mostly have great affection for him; and maybe one of the least convincing, Professor Moriarty, who seems to have been invented in a bit of a hurry. These relationships run through the stories and, as we are never sure of how they are going to work out this time, they both perk up and pull the story forward. At the end, Holmes will solve the case. His brother, Mycroft will patronize him and Holmes may refuse a Knighthood.

in Rollesby Broad, eight miles north west of Great Yarmouth. The Dancing Men, a story written in 1903, is apparently based on a secret writing system developed by the son of the owner of the Hill House Hotel in Happisburgh. Sir Arthur stopped over at this hotel on a motoring trip and was so taken with the idea that he wrote the story on the spot. Most famously of all, of course, is the Black Shuk of Cromer. It was while Sir Arthur was recuperating in the resort from the enteric fever that he had picked up whilst compiling his report into the Army in South Africa that he was told the tales of the throat-tearing hound. He transferred the action to Dartmoor and, in 1902, a  2015 March | 41

FINEPeople

“Has there been a better example of being a victim of your own success?” year after his stay in Cromer, The Hound of the Baskervilles was released and took the world by storm.

An unbelievable legacy Many different incarnations If you had told Sir Arthur of his undying legacy, I suspect he would not have believed one word of it. There have been more films about Holmes than any other literary character in history. James Bond? Eat your heart out at a mere 23 outings, soon to be 24! Holmes is a striking archetype but one that can be adapted to suit the mood of the times. He has been sombre; a perfect English gentleman – especially in the 1930s to 50s; an eccentric with more than a twitch of drug-inspired neurosis; a very annoying know-it-all; and, in the latest magnificent Benedict Cumberbatch incarnation for the BBC, a sex symbol for our times -‘brainy is the new sexy’. He has also travelled in flawless fashion from the gas-lit streets of late 19th century London to the new world of the Gherkin – surely he is also destined to fight Moriarty in a pod of the London Eye: ‘It is only right, Moriarty, that we get to tussle face to face at last as we slowly circle over this magnificent city!’, said Holmes. ‘Indeed, you meddling little know-it-all ’, replied the professor, ‘it is wonderful that the great Sherlock Holmes will come to his pathetic death whilst I look him in the eye on the Eye!’ Well, yes, we must get on… I hate you, my beloved Sir Arthur came to hate his greatest creation. He remarked that he had to kill him off at the Reichenbach Falls ‘or he would have killed me’. His own mother and countless members of the public were appalled. It is 42 | March 2015

reported that people went about their business in the city wearing black armbands after the deed was done. Has there ever been a better example of being a victim of your own success? Of course, he had to be brought back. Very luckily and apparently quite by accident, Conan Doyle had not reported any sightings of Holmes’ body. So he reappears to Watson in London and Watson….faints. This, to me is maybe charming but the weakest point of the stories. Surely his greatest fan would have killed him for the grief Holmes had caused? Why did not Watson threaten to beat Holmes to a pulp? A second exit could have been triggered with the words ‘ Well, you b----d, if you weren’t dead before, you sure are going to be now!’. It is interesting to me that this is actually exactly what is done in the latest Cumberbatch/ Freeman/Gatiss incarnation so I am in good company here. Yet he goes on Holmes proceeds for new generations. There have been hundreds of pastiches – new stories, some of them written by the finest of writers like Anthony Horrowitz - creator of Foyle’s War and much else -who have found world-wide success without him in the first place. It seems we just can’t do without him. He strikes a chord about greatness and fallibility, good and evil and especially loyalty and friendship. Sir Arthur hit the emotional bullseye but, to the end of his life, never realized what he had done. To quote his dying words to his adored wife, I, on behalf of countless millions of besotted fans around the world, would just like to say to Sir Arthur: ‘You are wonderful’. ❏ www.facebook.com/ stevebrowningbooks

The Reichenbach Falls where Holmes fought Moriarty and Sir Arthur ‘killed’ him off, only to bring him back in the face of public demand

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Sargent, The Black Brook

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Norwich-based arts writer Tony Cooper views the ‘Homage to Manet’ exhibition at Norwich Castle Museum

s I walk through the swing doors of the Norwich Union Gallery at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery, I’m met by a striking painting by the eminent Irish-born artist, William Orpen. His work Homage to Manet - a key painting in Norwich Castle’s latest show - also lends its name to this excellent loan exhibition which explores the legacy of one of the most important and controversial artists of the19th century highlighting Edouard Manet’s influence on British Impressionism depicting especially women in early 20th-century art. Completed nearly 30 years after Manet’s death, Orpen’s painting highlights Manet’s important influence on the artistic milieu of the time and shows how he was regarded as a keystone in the development of modern art in Britain. The work focuses on eminent critics, connoisseurs and artists of the Edwardian art world discussing Manet’s 1870 portrait of Eva Gonzalès hanging on the wall above them. Among the artists depicted are Philip Wilson Steer and Walter Sickert who were to immortalise East Anglia and London respectively through their vision of British Impressionism. But the undisputed ‘star’ of the show is undoubtedly Manet’s The Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus completed in 1868. And when you come face-to-face with Mademoiselle Claus she appears to be gazing straight at you. The painting depicts Fanny Claus, a friend of Manet’s wife Suzanne Leenhoff. Mademoiselle Claus worked as a professional concert violinist and in this delightful portrait she’s captured elegantly seated on a balcony wearing a long-flowing white dress but enter the canvas curiously and you’ll discover a sketchy tall figure holding a violin or viola. A fascinating work it stamps the hallmark of quality on this wonderful and entertaining exhibition running to 19th April. Manet, in fact, came to London in the same year and created a masterpiece Le Balcon (The Balcony) inspired by The Majas at the Balcony by Francisco Goya now in the collection of the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, while Le Balcon was used as a preparatory study for The Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus. After Manet’s death in 1883, Mademoiselle Claus was bought by John Singer Sargent and remained in his family until 2012. Recently, it was acquired for the nation by the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, purchased with heavy-duty support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and The Art Fund with a host of private individuals digging deep into their pockets too. The exhibition - which also Manet photograph by Wynfield includes work by Claude Monet, John Singer Sargent, Philip  www.finecity.co.uk

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Monet, Woman Seated

“the viewer can make comparisons between their respective depictions of female subjects” Wilson Steer, Walter Sickert, William Orpen, Alfred Munnings, Gwen John, Laura Knight and Vanessa Bell - presents a unique opportunity to look at Mademoiselle Claus within the context of related representations of women. Manet relished painting the female form and with this exhibition exploring the connections between Manet and Monet as well as the next generation of artists working in Britain notably Sargent, Steer and Sickert, the viewer can make comparisons between their respective depictions of female subjects. Moreover, the exhibition - which features approximately 60 works including oils, prints and drawings on loan from national collections such as The Tate, British Museum and National Portrait Gallery as well as from regional and private collections - looks at how Manet paved the way for professional female artists of the early 20th century to establish themselves. If Mademoiselle Claus represents Parisian high society, the barmaid (known as Mademoiselle Suzon) depicted in Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère represents the other side of Parisian life. Painted and exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1882, it turned out to be the artist’s last major work. Originally owned by the composer Emmanuel Chabrier the artist’s neighbour, it hung over his piano. Now this acclaimed masterpiece hangs at the Courtauld Gallery now housed in Somerset 46 | March 2015

gwen john, woman in a blue dress

House off The Strand in London but Norwich Castle’s exhibition boasts a lovely lithograph of the work that’s rich and flourishing in detail while providing a clue to the social class of the day. The barmaid - who actually posed for Manet in his studio - worked at the Folies-Bergère in the early 1880s. And by including a dish of oranges in the foreground Manet identifies the barmaid as a prostitute. He habitually associated oranges with prostitution and the barmaid is intended to represent one of the prostitutes for which the FoliesBergère was pretty well known. Other notable details include the pair of feet ‘hanging’ in the upper left-hand corner belonging to a trapeze artist. The beer bottles depicted are easily identified by the red triangle on the label as Bass pale ale and the conspicuous presence of this English brand instead of German beer has been widely interpreted as documentation of anti-German sentiment in France in the decade after the Franco-Prussian War. One of Manet’s leading disciples in France, who also was to become a major influence on the rising generation of British artists, was none other than Claude Monet. His painting Woman Seated on a Bench (c.1874) is hung close to the elegant and enigmatic painting by Sargent of his niece entitled The Black Brook (c.1908) in which the artist married Monet’s lighter palette and technique of painting outdoors with Manet’s preference for deep shadows, made achievable through working in the studio. In actual fact, Manet and Monet worked together en plein air at Argenteuil, a small town on a picturesque stretch of the Seine near Paris during 1874. Manet painted Monet’s family in their garden while Woman Seated on a Bench was once considered a portrait of Monet’s wife Camille but the sitter is more likely to have been a professional model. The dark-brimmed hat, for instance, resembles one similar worn by Manet’s model for his painting, Argenteuil, a work comprising rust-red boats painted in contrasting colours to the clear blue water and sky while green water plants are depicted surrounded by shimmering light, perhaps the true subject of the painting. In the 1870s Monet posed Camille dressed in white, standing outdoors and shaded beneath a parasol. After Camille’s death Monet’s stepdaughter Suzanne posed for these open-air studies, www.finecity.co.uk

Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

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Manet, Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus

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FINEARTS “like manet their work was deemed to be indecent” allowing him to explore the fleeting moment and the sensation of sunlight upon his female subjects. Handled with exceptional freedom this painting and The Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus clearly demonstrates Monet and Manet’s distinctive styles and techniques. Monet’s commitment to working en plein air could be compared to Manet’s preference for the studio. And as with Mademoiselle Claus, the women depicted by Monet and Sargent are also wearing light white summer dresses and portrayed seated outdoors. Other ‘stand-out’ paintings include Philip Wilson Steer’s Girls Running, Walberswick Pier and George Clausen’s Children and Roses, the latter-named in the collection of Norwich Castle. This grouping of similar subjects invites the consideration of interpretation, style and technique between these three great artists. The white dress - traditionally regarded as a symbol of purity and innocence - was in vogue in Paris during the 1860s-70s therefore it comes as no surprise to learn that Manet and other artists incorporated this latest fashion statement into their work as a mark of both modernity and also intrigue. Two decades after Manet scandalised the Paris art world with his provocative paintings of women, Sargent reignited scandal at the Paris Salon when he exhibited his stunning full-length painting of Madame X in a daring homage to Manet’s realism. Sargent’s wonderfully fluid studies for this seductively-suggestive

portrait are self-evident just as Manet questioned traditional depictions of women while avoiding obvious narrative. Steer and Sickert followed this example by painting female subjects in a similarly ambiguous fashion. And just like Manet their work was deemed to be socially indecent when judged against the moral code of the time. In accepting Manet’s language of modernity, Steer and Sickert’s female subjects also take us deep into the minds of the artist and his intentions as represented by Sickert’s Girl at a Window and Little Rachel. Manet’s legacy heralded the emergence of the modern age and a new chapter for women. This was embodied in the self-belief and talents of up-and-coming female artists such as Gwen John, Laura Knight and Vanessa Bell. Here the exhibition features a rarely-seen painting from Norwich Castle’s own collection, a charming work by John of Girl in a Blue Dress holding a Piece of Sewing (c.1914-15). This painting together with Knight’s Self-Portrait with the model Ella Louise Naper of 1913, epitomises the modern woman in this absolutely ‘mustsee’ show which also incorporates David Wilkie Wynfield’s compelling albumen-print portrait of Edouard Manet most probably made during the summer of 1868 when Manet was in London. His guide to the city was the painter Alphonse Legros and it was probably Legros who introduced Manet to the photographer Wynfield. Their meeting seems to have met with success for Manet notes in a letter to Henry FantinLatour (dated 5th August 1868) that he must write and thank Wynfield. The exhibition’s principal sponsor is Birketts Solicitors and the company’s chief executive, Jonathan Agar, enthused: ‘As passionate supporters of the Norfolk community, Birketts is proud to support Norwich Castle and the East Anglia Art Fund. With our roots in East Anglia stretching back to Edouard Manet’s lifetime we’re absolutely delighted to sponsor the ‘‘Homage to Manet’’ exhibition.’ ❏ www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk

Steer, Walberswick Pier

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Winners Announced in Major Poetry Competition Norwich based Café Writers announce the winners in national poetry competition

he results are in for the prestigious Café Writers poetry competition. Once again this important event has attracted work from all over the country. The winner of the £1000 prize for 2014 has been announced as Coventry poet Jonathan Davidson, for his poem ‘Brickwork’. Jonathan’s most recent collection is Early Train (Smith/ Doorstop, 2011). His pamphlet Humfrey Coningsby: Poems, Complaints, Explanations and Demands for Satisfaction is due from Valley Press in 2015. Seven of his radio plays have been produced by BBC Radio, with an eighth due for broadcast on BBC Radio Four in April 2015. He is also a theatre/ poetry performance producer working with Midland Creative Projects, most recently on The Hundred Years’ War – Verdun to Afghanistan. Sole judge for this year’s competition was award winning poet, critic and anthologist David Morley, whose best-selling textbook The Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing has been translated into many languages. His major poetry collections include Scientific Papers, The Invisible Kings, Enchantment and The Gypsy and the Poet. Speaking about the competition he said, ‘An open poetry competition such as this attracts as much innocence as it does experience in terms of 50 | March 2015

quality. There were 2047 entries. I tried to read as a reader, not as a writer; to approach the reading with few pre-conceptions of what a poem might perform…’ The second prize was won by Jo Bell, the UK’s Canal Laureate for the Poetry Society and a well-known advocate for poetry, for her poem, ‘A nightingale for Gilbert White April 5, 1768’ Cumbria based poet Polly Atkin took third prize. In other categories prolific and much published poet Geraldine Clarkson won Funniest Poem for ‘O Machynlleth’, and the Norfolk Prize went to Diane Jackman. Poets who were commended include Martyn Crucefix, Ailsa Holland, Zelda Chappel, Keri Finlayson, Lindsey Holland and Di Slaney. Martin Figura, of Café Writers said this week, ‘We’ve been amazed, as we always are, at the standard and quantity of entries from all over the world, underlining Norwich’s and Cafe Writers’ place on the literary map.’ ❏ All of the poems can be read on the Café Writers website at www.cafewriters.co.uk Café Writers presents monthly readings of poetry and prose of extremely high quality. ‘Open mic’ slots are a regular feature at the meetings which take place at Take 5, 17 Tombland, Norwich. Full details are also available on the website.

1st Prize Brickwork They use a Flemish bond, but set in it Sufficient blue-flared headers To make the lozenges Of language for an eye To read with ease a hundred years ahead. A brick arch frames a window for the light To be let in, and for a door, A lintel. All are laid Like script declaimed on Sundays At faces plain as chimneys on a roof. The building of a cottage, house or grange, That finds its height and stands Against the day, is song For hands that speak in courses, That harden as they weary of the work. And they are dumb or gone away or dead Who cut the sweet, pale clay Of sentences and fired them In common kilns to make The narratives that keep us home and dry. What we read now when walking through a place Is all that’s left of those Who squared the quiet day With chisel, hawk and bolster, Who held their tongues but spoke vernacular. Jonathan Davidson

2nd Prize A nightingale for Gilbert White April 5, 1768 Buds and shadows fatten, but the garden’s lean. A London smoke crawls west, and cucumbers are tortoising across the sweat-sweet dung. A nuthatch jars and clatters in the oak; rooks get cocky in the Selborne copse. At last the air is quick with bee-flies, kites and larks and April falls across the parish like stained glass, like rest for the broken-backed. The diarist dashes off one word to stand for spring – Luscinia! Colour blurs from every quickened hedge into the woodsmoke hours. The nightingale loops speechless syllables on every thorn. Attention, after all, is prayer. Nothing goes unseen. Jo Bell www.finecity.co.uk

FINEARTS 3rd Prize Tiny Glass Horses Half caught in the watery corner of one wandering eye. Feral. Prancing over the frozen field with a tinkling rattle of silver bells like dripping icicles dropping one after one from a cornice thick with late spring snow. Arpeggio of miniature hooves chipping music from the austere ground as if digging for food in an hunkering season. Chink chink. Are they dancing or harrowing? Now flaring their crystalline nostrils at vitreous sky, throwing their heads back chink thrashing manes smashed to clattering ice on their twisting necks. Chink chink. Pellucid bodies weighty as icebergs. Sailing through thick white sea. Chink. Terrible harmony. Trick of the screen. Clouds too breaking themselves on their own brittle flanks. Surely an error. Chink. Innumerable marble eyes staring straight into mine through the glass.

Funniest Poem O Machynlleth Machynlleth (oh), I knew when you turned up on the train how special you would be with your tricked-out streets and deep vowels and pretty black-haired Welsh girls, and I rejoiced over you only they quickly told me that Tesco had laid claim to you and I felt shame for you, wild bride, forced into some marriage of meat and milk. I mourned for you as a man bereft, full of hiraeth for something he has not quite possessed, which psychologists say is a harder loss, more unlikely to reconcile, or make right, or let be. Machines have feelings and I am a man with hubris and a heart which beat more quickly for you, ridden roughshod by counter-hoppers and fat-arsed shoppers loading up. Me leaden and histrionic for somewhere I hardly knew! Your daughters, their raven hair tamed in nets, at the cheese and fish counters, interrogated and put-upon by counter-hoppers and fat-arsed shoppers loading up. And me, no doubt, at some future date, a puce-faced counter-hopper and fat-arsed shopper loading up. Geraldine Clarkson

Polly Atkin

Norfolk Prize Margaret Paston marries the heir I have given my troth and am come inland to this red house – captured by the depths of love, locked four-square close within a silent moat. Only carp swim there which this and every night stare stiff from the platter. My docile mare, wedding gift from a loving husband, steps safely through the quiet woods beside the winding Wissey where pigeons moan in the trees and a kingfisher may light the willows. But when the north-easter howls at dawn and the wainscot shifts, I am a girl again, galloping Flint along the shore, wind whipping through his loosened mane, shingle hissing as the water slackens. Gulls swoop and scream and in the white-flecked sea seal-heads come and go in the breakers As the sun comes up I reach for my husband’s arms and am content with love’s captivity. D

Commended The toll cottage Dad and I are driving out of Trowbridge— he’s at the wheel having come up Timbrell Street along Islington with nothing amiss but as we turn to take the next incline up beyond the thatched toll cottage I glance to my right past his concentrating head and to my surprise see green space where there should be nothing but suburban brick— a green valley slipping down and away towards a distinct hill punctuated by dark trees and straight runs of hedges or perhaps at this distance they are impossible vines and my sole thought is to rationalise— my home-town landscape changing again but already we’re climbing past the toll at the top of the incline to hit the brow of the hill with that lightening that little hoopla stir in our bellies as the weight of our bodies continues to rise while the weight of the car hugs the earth and we lift in consequence from our seats only to be set down—now we’re rumbling along a grassy ridge and the road has vanished to open sky though there are signs still declaring Coventry or Daventry it’s impossible to make them out and Dad at the wheel has not missed a beat though it’s fifteen years since he was street-legal and in alarm I turn saying this is bad look this is really bad but he has dealt more easily than his son with our translation Martyn Crucefix

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FINEARTS Shore

Once upon a time the pebble was different and so the wave was different (from ‘The Sea’ by Semyon Izrailevitch Lipkin, trans. Yvonne Green) if the pebbles were plum purple and grass green the waves would be northern lights if the pebbles were blackened glass the waves would be funeral veils if the pebbles were red, wrapped in poppy petals, the sea might fall in love if they were barbed, the tide would purse its lips and wrinkle its brows and never come in if the pebbles were velvet, the waves would sigh to cover them, and refuse to ebb if the pebbles were bubbles and we could look through them to the centre of the earth we could pop them one by one, fall down, take the ocean with us, extinguish the fury with brine Ailsa Holland

Creaturely

Writing objects Tanizaki, comparing the writing brush to the fountain pen, argued that if the Japanese had invented the latter then it would have had a tufted end - like a bird An end, perhaps, like that of the Senkaku albatross, the bird that draws up phials of brine to ink out on islands across the East China Sea Though it was not a pen, but Hayakawa’s mechanical pencil that brought new shapes to the painted page a cuteness that carved gaps of thin white air between archipelagos of script It has been said that this very fineness encouraged the young to fill the void between their words with fat hearts and full faced smiles an adolescent plea perhaps to pebble those white and widening seas with the babbling signs of infancy

Maybe you’ll catch me thinking of all the colours we don’t have names for yet, that exist without us nonetheless. By their reckoning, it’s possible we have it wrong. I want to wear their eyes, see how the light falls differently for myself, decipher their calls while they make the shape of their own names, pretend to know. I wonder how we might make it up exchange concrete for moor, find night has colour we couldn’t have known, wonder what they’d make of heather. It’s a shame, there’s no way of knowing how their palette shifts between the neon lights and empty skies, what shades they make from sea, whether they know the cold of September’s steel, the burning of umbers all throughout November.

I think that white between our words, my love is death, and writing objects

Zelda Chappel

Keri Finlayson

And we are old and we should rest We should let the white sea spread, the black land retreat We should let the distance stay un-pebbled and we should let it be far We should let the one and only struggle take place in vast brininess and in metaphor Our last word a single, cloud crowned bird that might carry us from shore to shore

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Academy of St Thomas Norwich-based classical music aficionado Tony Cooper meets Sally Wortley of the AST and previews their new season

ounded in 1973, the Academy of St Thomas (AST) is one of the leading ensembles of its kind in the country and draws on the talents of teachers, professionally-trained musicians and performers from far and wide. The orchestra performs three concerts each season of which two (held in St Andrew’s Hall, Norwich) are under its principal guest conductor Christopher Adey whose wide and valuable experience create performances of exceptional quality. Under his direction the orchestra has been joined by many world-class soloists such as cellist Raphael Wallfisch, pianist Michael Roll and clarinettist Emma Johnson. Each season, too, the orchestra travels to the county for a midsummer night’s concert at Salle church (near Reepham) which always attracts a large and appreciative audience, many of whom gather to dine al fresco in the lush green environment which surrounds this beautiful 15th-century church dedicated to St Peter & St Paul. Maestro Adey, however, has been associated with AST for a long time and just completed 30 years’ service with the orchestra. ‘The relationship between conductor and players is second to none,’ enthused Sally Wortley, the orchestra’s fixer and general factotum. ‘Many of them have pursued a professional music path. Some trained as teachers and so forth while many have played professionally one way or the other. A core of them travel very long distances to work with Christopher and between them they create performances of exceptional quality comprising

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standard repertoire works while exploring less-familiar pieces such as Tippett’s Concerto for Double String Orchestra, Martinu’s Concerto for Piano, Timpani and Double String Orchestra and EJ Moeran’s Sinfonietta. And under Adey’s baton the orchestra has recorded two CDs which are available from Prelude Records in St Giles’ Street, Norwich, owned by Andrew Cane, a violist with the orchestra and son of Ivan Cane, who was the mastermind in getting the orchestra off the ground. Not only is Sally the orchestra’s hardworking administrator but she’s also a cellist in the band as well while her husband Jonathan keeps the books balanced as treasurer and is called upon from time to time for his keyboard skills. He’s a pianist and harpsichordist. The couple have been involved with AST for about four decades. Sally, in fact, played at the orchestra’s first concert in 1973 and is immensely proud of the fact that she’s a founder-member of an orchestra which has played (and continues to do so) a vital and integral part of the cultural life of city of Norwich. Running the orchestra has been a huge part of their lives in tandem with bringing up a family of three sons in the Golden Triangle area of the city. Sally, however, is not AST’s only long-serving member there are others too including Norwichborn violinist Paul Clarke who led the orchestra for 35 years while Ben Lowe - who worked as a professional violinist but now practises in Norwich as a lawyer took over from him in 2009. But central to the orchestra’s continued success is the financial support of over one hundred

patrons along with a number of generous corporate sponsors as well as those businesses that place advertisements in the concert programmes. With increasing costs, however, the orchestra - which is a selffinancing organisation with no public funding - has to find additional income to address this important matter and to help bring in the coffers a range of packages have been created to attract that extra support ranging from patron to partner to sponsor. Sally puts this scenario neatly into perspective. ‘We have launched a new gold and silver patrons category this season as well as trying to attract businesses who may like to be corporate partners in return for the relatively modest sum of £500 a year. For instance, in 1982 a concert would cost around £500 to promote nowadays it is well over £5000! With such a vibrant city full of attractions we have

replacements - based in London - were found much to my relief. I slept very well that night.’ Many of the soloists engaged for AST’s concerts work regularly with Adey and have been featured on more than one occasion over the years. ‘A favourite of mine,’ beamed Sally, ‘is the renowned French horn player Timothy Brown who happens to be soloist in our opening concert of the 2015 season. I felt privileged when he asked me if he could bring the entire horn section of the BBC Symphony Orchestra to Norwich to perform Schumann’s Konzertstück for Four Horns, a work noted for its expressive, lyrical quality and harmonic innovation. It was a red-letter day in AST’s illustrious history!’ Another high point was the orchestra’s wonderful 40th anniversary concert in October 2013 which featured Piers Lane as soloist in Grieg’s Piano

“AST is a familyorientated organisation with far-reaching friendships networking all over the world” to work very hard to sell tickets to fund our promotions.’ AST is run by the players as a cooperative and they perform simply for their love and dedication of music. All of the players are booked on a concert-by-concert basis and they rehearse only the weekend prior to a concert. But problems turn up as Sally justly explains. ‘It’s extremely rare for any member of the orchestra to fall ill but it happens now and then. For instance, last season two wind players found themselves in such a position just 48 hours before the concert. And that was after the whole programme had been rehearsed. That’s a nightmare scenario! I spent hours on the phone to agents and was up to nearly midnight sorting things out. Eventually, the necessary

Concerto in A minor composed in 1868 and the only concerto that the composer completed. It is one of his most popular works and among the most popular of all piano concerti and, therefore, ideal for a ‘celebratory’ performance. Sally also encourages locally-educated players, now working professionally, to return to Norwich as guests with the orchestra. For example, violinist Hannah Perowne (now co-leader of Berlin’s Die Komische Oper Orchestra) and cellist Martin Storey (currently principal cellist in the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra) have gladly returned while London-based violinist Lorraine McAslan - an old friend of the orchestra - stepped in at a moment’s notice when a soloist had problems making the Salle date a couple of years ago. www.finecity.co.uk

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‘We try to incorporate unusual works in our repertoire, too, so it’s always a shame if audiences are low due to less-familiar pieces being performed,’ expressed Sally. ‘Those who do attend, however, are often amazed and delighted to hear something new and different. With someone like Christopher, for instance, who knows the chamber orchestra repertoire inside out, he can suggest works that we would never think of and in our new season the opening concert will include Schoenberg’s short and lyrical second chamber symphony. ‘The most rewarding thing about running AST,’ Sally muses, ‘is the bringing together of musicians to give enjoyment and musical satisfaction for themselves as well as the audience. AST is a family-oriented organisation with far-reaching friendships www.finecity.co.uk

networking all over the world. Most concerts finish with a party at our house. Many of the players have roots in the Norfolk County Youth Orchestra of the 1970s. I was a member of that orchestra at the time Ivan Cane invited me to play in AST’s inaugural concert in September 1973 held at St Thomas’ Church, Earlham Road, Norwich. Not surprisingly, that’s where we get our name from. Coincidentally, in the very same month, Christopher Adey made his conducting début with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.’ The orchestra’s many supporters include Mrs Ruth Pearson who proudly said: ‘When my husband and I were newcomers to Norwich we were delighted to be introduced to the Academy by Professor Tim O’Riordan (AST’s long-serving

double-bass player and also its chairman). Everyone who supports the orchestra sings the praises of its great performances accompanied by conductors and soloists of an amazingly high standard with the clear enjoyment of all concerned. We go to London occasionally as the Festival Hall is my favourite venue but the Academy’s concerts have a special ingredient for us that no massive concert hall can offer - the feeling of being part of a “family” occasion run by a team of committed professionals.’ The 2015 season gets underway on Saturday 7th March (St Andrew’s Hall, 7.30pm) featuring the distinguished horn player Timothy Brown performing Richard Strauss’ Horn Concerto No 1. After over 20 years’ service with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Tim is now principal horn of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. He’ll also play Glazunov’s Idyll for Horn and Strings, a lovely and inspiring work, while the concert, conducted by Christopher Adey, offers a rare chance to hear Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No 2, a short and lyrical piece contrasted against Dvorák’s inventive Symphonic Variations. The work is among the most frequently played of all the sets of orchestral variations along with Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Haydn and Elgar’s Enigma Variations. The season continues with Matthew Andrews returning to Norfolk (Salle church, Saturday, 20th June, 7.30pm) to conduct two very famous symphonies: Mozart’s Symphony No 40 in G minor (sometimes referred to as the Great G minor symphony) and Haydn’s Symphony No 94 in G major (The Surprise). Leading European virtuoso clarinettist Matthew Hunt will step out front to play Weber’s popular Clarinet Concerto No 1 - widely considered a masterpiece of the classical era - while the concert concludes with the UK première of Traditional Klezmer Dances for Clarinet and Strings arranged by John Piper, a work promising an exhilarating, breathless and unusual finale. The Maggini String Quartet highly ranked among the UK’s

Become a Patron and support AST Gold Patrons 2015 Minimum payment of £50 per individual or couple Benefits • Buy one ticket get one free (up to two tickets) for St Andrew’s Hall concerts • Advance booking for all concerts, • £1 off the (full) ticket price for 2 tickets, • Reserved seats at Salle (maximum 4) • A free programme • Name listed in concert programmes if wished Silver Patrons 2015 Minimum payment of £25 per individual or couple Benefits • Advance booking for all concerts • £1 off the (full) ticket price for 2 tickets, • Reserved seats at Salle (maximum 4) • A free programme • Name listed in concert programmes if wished

leading string ensembles will join AST (St Andrew’s Hall, Saturday, 17th October, 7.30pm) for a collaborative concert which includes Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola but also sees a rare performance of Jacob’s challenging piece, Pro Corda Suite for Quartet and Strings. The programme’s completed by Prokofiev’s Sinfonietta and Arnold’s Serenade for Small Orchestra. ❏ Box office: Prelude Records, St Giles’ Street, Norwich. 01603 628319 For more information visit academyofstthomas.com or email Sally Wortley at astsally@lineone.net @ASTNorwich 2015 March | 55

William Knight

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Opera Company Returns with Italian Season English Touring Opera, March 23-24 at Norwich Theatre Royal

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William Knight

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Peter Brathwaite, Craig Smith, The Wild Man of the West Indies

welve young voices from a Norwich infants school will join English Touring Opera (ETO) on stage when the awardwinning company brings two Italian operas to the city. ETO will be performing a new season of fully-staged opera at Norwich Theatre Royal from March 23-25 when the Olivier Award winning company will present two performances of Puccini’s masterpiece La bohème, on March 23 and 24, and a rare Donizetti title, The Wild Man of the West Indies (Il furioso all’isola di San Domingo), on March 25. Performances start at 7.30pm with tickets ranging in price from £6.50 to £35. Both operas are sung in full costume, in Italian with English surtitles and accompanied by ETO’s chorus and 25-piece orchestra. La Bohème will feature a group of 12 young local singers from Arden Grove Infant School in Norwich, recruited especially www.finecity.co.uk

for ETO’s tour to sing a children’s chorus of street urchins. The opera, a story of young love, is one of the greatest and most moving operas of all time. It starts on Christmas Eve in a Parisian garret when lovers Mimi and Rodolfo draw close, but poverty and ill-health force them apart. Donizetti’s The Wild Man of the West Indies (Il furioso all’isola di San Domingo) was hugely successful when first performed in 1833, but then vanished until the late 20th century. The opera has never been staged in the UK and this is its first performance in Norwich. A love story of Shakespearean depth set on a Caribbean island, The Wild Man of the West Indies features beautiful arias in the Italian bel canto or ‘beautiful singing’ style, characterised by an elegant, highly melodic and refined sound. After his wife Eleonora is unfaithful, Cardenio flees for the island of San Domingo in the West Indies, where he loses his senses and his mind.

This new production is directed by Iqbal Khan, who has previously worked for the National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company, for which he will direct Othello later this year. James Conway, general director of ETO, said: “This spring, ETO’s opera productions are all Italian, and all sung in that beautiful language – even though not one is actually set in Italy!” He added: “La Bohème is the ideal first opera, and one to which everyone loves to return a nostalgic look at the pathos and folly of youth. The Wild Man of the West Indies is a remarkable Caribbean fantasy which recalls Shakespeare’s late plays. Musically and dramatically, it is a rare treat.” In addition, ETO’s season in Norwich also continues the company’s record of work for younger audiences, bringing two new productions which will tour out to four local schools. Shackleton’s Cat, designed for children aged 7-11, is based on

the true story of the tabby cat that accompanied Ernest Shackleton’s 1914-16 Antarctic expedition, and incorporates elements of the geography and history curriculum, while Waxwings is a new interactive opera for children who have severe special educational needs, and is based on the story of flight and the myth of Icarus. ❏ English Touring Opera runs from Monday 23-Wednesday 25 March at 7.30pm. Puccini’s La bohème (Mon 23 & Tues 24). Donizetti’s The Wild Man of the West Indies (Wed 25). Tickets £6.50-£35. Discounts for Friends, Corporate Club, Saver Scheme and Groups. Pre-performance talks (6.30pm) available. Order free tickets direct from Box Office when booking. BOX OFFICE 01603 630000. For more information or to book online visit www.theatreroyalnorwich.co.uk 2015 March | 57

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Sky Ingram & Nicholas Lester, La boheme

La Bohème

The most romantic night out in opera?

n April 2014, English Touring Opera won the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, beating competition from superstar singers Joyce DiDonato and Placido Domingo to scoop UK theatre’s biggest prize. It was a remarkable breakthrough for a company that has been visiting Norwich Theatre Royal since 2010, especially as the Olivier’s opera category is typically dominated by the big London opera houses. “It says the best opera isn’t just for London, it’s for outside London too,” believes ETO’s General Director, James Conway. This March, ETO returns to Norwich Theatre Royal with a stunning new production of Puccini’s La bohème (Mon 23 & Tue 24 March, 7.30pm). It’s an opportunity to see one of the best-loved and most wonderfully moving of all operas, with nothing to get in the way of the raw emotion and beauty of the music. James Conway, who is directing the opera, says, “It will

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reflect 19th century Paris, from the perspective of memory. We’ll tell this wonderful, touching story ‘straight’. I always think the person who cannot cry in La bohème is a person who has forgotten how to feel!” The story follows young people living in Paris’s bohemian Latin Quarter, famous for its artists, drifters, dreamers – and the chilly garrets where they all lived. Rodolfo, a starryeyed poet, meets Mimi, a poor dress-maker, and instantly they fall in love. At first the good times roll, but it quickly becomes clear that living the bohemian lifestyle comes at a price. For many, it’s the ultimate romantic story, epitomising the emotional highs that make opera special. But when it was first performed in Italy in 1896, it was actually famous for its realistic depiction of the lives of its protagonists – a sort of ‘Eastenders’ opera for its day. Either way, James believes, “La bohème is the ideal first

opera, and one to which everyone loves to return - a nostalgic look at the pathos and folly of youth”. A cast of brilliant young singers will help ETO capture the spirit of the age, and give the production an energetic youthful edge. David Butt Philip plays Rodolfo after singing the role for English National Opera recently, with the Guardian celebrating his “complete performance… a Rodolfo to treasure”. Australian soprano Sky Ingram, who plays Musetta, a singer and on-off lover of Rodolfo’s friend Marcello, is looking forward to her first tour with ETO. She says, “I’m very excited to take this opera to so many different cities, including Norwich. The tour will keep us on our toes, and keep the show fresh. And my costume is pretty fabulous too!” Meanwhile, a group of 12 children from Arden Grove Infant and Nursery School will perform in the opera’s street scene – as part of a programme which will give more than 200 young people the opportunity to perform on stage alongside professional singers across the country. If you can’t make La bohème, ETO is also bringing a much rarer

opera to Norwich on Wednesday 25 March. Donizetti’s The Wild Man of the West Indies was just as popular La bohème when it was first performed in 1833. However, it has never been performed in the UK before. “This one is both serious and comic – think Mozart’s Don Giovanni. It’s really great music, and a piece that nobody will get the chance to see in Norwich again,” explains James. Based on an episode in Cervantes’ Don Quixote, James was attracted to The Wild Man… by its sophisticated storyline. “The depth of character is unusual,” he explains. It tells the story of a man driven mad when he witnesses his wife’s infidelity, who then flees to a remote Caribbean island. “The Wild Man is a character of Shakespearean depth. When I first looked at it, I was struck by two scenes that could be right out of Shakespeare. A guy is so stricken with grief that he goes blind. It’s very moving.” Although Norwich Theatre Royal is one of the newer venues on ETO’s tour, it’s now a key venue for the company. “Norwich is one of the biggest and best theatres we visit and one of the most knowledgeable audiences. It’s clear that the theatre is well run and we fit into an interesting and diverse programme,” says James. “It’s become a highlight of the tour in the few seasons we’ve been coming, and we feel we’ve come to know the audience here very well in a short space of time.” ❏ English Touring Opera runs from Monday 23-Wednesday 25 March at 7.30pm. Puccini’s La bohème (Mon 23 & Tues 24). Donizetti’s The Wild Man of the West Indies (Wed 25). Tickets £6.50-£35. Discounts for Friends, Corporate Club, Saver Scheme and Groups. Pre-performance talks (6.30pm) available. Order free tickets direct from Box Office when booking. BOX OFFICE 01603 630000. For more information or to book online visit www.theatreroyalnorwich.co.uk www.finecity.co.uk

William Knight

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“La bohème is the ideal first opera, and one to which everyone loves to return - a nostalgic look at the pathos and folly of youth” www.finecity.co.uk

2015 March | 59

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Proudly celebrating its 20th anniversary, Richard Alston Dance Company returns to Norwich Theatre Royal on March 19 and 20 with a new programme showcasing the influential choreographer’s work.

roudly celebrating its 20th anniversary, Richard Alston Dance Company returns to Norwich Theatre Royal on March 19 and 20 with a new programme showcasing the influential choreographer’s work. Following a long spell with Ballet Rambert as resident choreographer and then artistic director, during which time he created 25 works for Rambert, Richard Alston launched his own dance company in November 1994 at The Place, the UK’s premier centre for contemporary dance in central London. Alston is renowned for having a very close relationship with

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his music, taking inspiration for his choreography directly from the music he uses, and the three pieces he brings to Norwich all demonstrate this. Fresh from two Sadler’s Wells performances and embarking on an anniversary tour of the UK, the company presents ten dancers in a mix of repertoire. On the Norwich stage,this will feature Nomadic and Burning, the latest works by Alston and his associate choreographer Martin Lawrance, alongside 2003’s Overdrive which is now on the GCSE syllabus. Alston continues to break new ground for himself with his new work Nomadic, having

invited young hip hop and contemporary choreographer/ performer Ajani Johnson-Goffe to collaborate with him - a first in his 45-year career. Exploring the meeting point between hip hop and world music, Nomadic, which is a Sadler’s Wells commission, is set to music by Ursari Gypsy band Shukar Collective who fuse Romany and electronic music to dark, sharp effect. Martin Lawrance’s latest work Burning premiered in Scotland in autumn 2014 to a standing ovation and rave reviews. Set to a live rendition of Lizst’s Dante Sonata, which is part of a programme of works inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy, Burning explores ‘Lisztomania’ and the composer’s relationship with the young, married Countess, Marie D’Agoult. The passion floods out of every pore in this frenetic and emotional piece. The third piece, Alston’s classic Overdrive, is an exhilarating blast

of non-stop dancing to the pulsating rhythms of Californian minimalist Terry Riley. The ten dancers ride seamlessly across the surging waves of Riley’s relentless patterning, in an intricate and mesmeric crescendo of movement and sound. Overdrive is one of 12 prescribed professional works for GCSE Dance on the AQA syllabus and Richard Alston Dance Company has produced a teacher’s resource pack to accompany it. ❏ Richard Alston Dance Company runs from Thursday 19-Friday 20 May at 7.30pm. Tickets £5.50-£20.50. Discounts for Under-25s and Groups. Pre-performance talk on March 19 at 6.30pm. Tickets FREE but must be booked in advance at Box Office. BOX OFFICE 01603 630000. For more info or to BOOK ONLINE www. theatreroyalnorwich.co.uk 2015 March | 61

FINEARTS darker music than I used in my earlier piece Gypsy Mixture (2004) Gypsy Mixture was quite optimistic, a lot of it is very cheerful, and the extra beats were added by DJs all over the world. There’s something extraordinarily tough about the music and something mournful, and very beautiful.

Q&a with Richard Alston, Artistic Director of Richard Alston Dance Company How did the idea for the Sadler’s’ Wells commissioned piece come about? I started thinking about how to involve choreographers who are working now, and came up with the idea of working with Ajani Johnson-Goffe. Since some choreographers go to Sadler’s Wells and make links with starry ballet dancers, I thought I’d rather make a link with something else that happens at Sadler’s Wells, namely Breakin’ Convention. So that’s what we are doing right now and it’s very difficult but I’m learning an amazing amount very quickly, about what I’d describe as the rigours of hip hop. It’s a very exact language and it’s very demanding. How did you choose the title for the new piece which goes out on tour after its premiere at Sadler’s Wells? The imagery behind the music and the imagery behind the title Nomadic is not narrative but it is definitely not abstract, it’s about a notion of travel. The music reflects people who travel, from one culture to another. The Roma culture in Romania is one that has many influences in it and you can hear that in the music. The music is by the Romanian Ursari Gypsy band Shukar Collective it’s much

Several of your more recent pieces to Britten have had a narrative to them, how different is it working with this choice of music? It’s my usual habit to leap from one kind of music to something very different, so the little extended Britten period was unusual for me. I was very happy to do it as I love his work, but I think it’s very liberating to suddenly be working with something completely different. What drew you to working with London Contemporary Dance School graduate Ajani on Nomadic? I saw Ajani’s choreography two years ago in Refresh, when he first came to the school and he made a wonderful piece. Then this summer when he was graduating, I chose him to be in my project with the graduating students and I really enjoyed working with him as dancer; he is absolutely, instinctively musical and that is a great bond between us despite our very different ages and very different backgrounds. He makes exact material and he moves with tremendous rhythmic clarity, so I’ve also put him into a section of the new piece. What does a typical day for you involve when you are making a new work with the company? I often stay at home in the morning and listen to music, or gather my energy just by being quiet. Now I‘m in the middle of making the piece it’s quite easy for me to come in and talk to you, but in the first days of rehearsal I would probably only come in just few minutes before the rehearsal, then go into the studio – ba-boom – something happens. I don’t know what it’s going to be, I don’t work long hours, I make movement very fast. I throw it at the dancers and see how they do it and then take off from what they do. Sometimes I give

About Richard Alston Dance Company

Richard Alston Dance Company celebrates its 20th anniversary this season. Based at The Place, a leading centre for dance development, it has grown into one of the UK’s most avidly followed contemporary dance companies, performing the work of its Artistic Director Richard Alston and Associate Choreographer Martin Lawrance. Richard Alston Dance Company’s high reputation on the British dance scene is now increasingly being matched overseas. In May 2004 the Company made its US debut with a week-long season at New York’s leading theatre for dance, the Joyce Theater. The Company returned to the US in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010 and

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2011, giving its third, critically acclaimed and sold-out New York season in January 2010. The Company continues to perform regularly in the US, including at New York City Center (as part of Fall For Dance Festival) in 2011 and 2013, Peak Performances at Montclair State University, New Jersey in 2012 and 2014 and the Virginia Arts Festival in spring 2014. Other foreign tours have included China, Holland, South East Asia, Greece and Russia where the Company represented Britain at Moscow’s first International Festival of Contemporary Dance. The Company performed as part of the Schrittmacher Festival in Aachen, Germany in 2012 and in both Aachen and Heerlen, Holland in spring 2014.

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FINEARTS myself an hour or hour and a half and start working on different little sections. I don’t work from beginning to end. I find a point where I think I might know what I want to do but I’m not quite sure, and think to myself “let’s see what happens”. Supporting young dancers and choreographers is something that you’ve been involved with throughout your career, and in last 20 years in particular, working with students at London Contemporary Dance School and through your work as Chair of Youth Dance England. What do you enjoy most about this aspect? With Youth Dance England I really love seeing very young choreographers and being absolutely gob-smacked by their courage. Maybe they are too young to have learnt to worry, I don’t know what it is, but they tackle very dark subjects and tackle them with great maturity and that’s what I find extraordinary. Youth Dance England’s Young Creatives Platform mentors young choreographers brilliantly. What’s the one piece of advice you would give to a young person who’s considering pursuing dance as a career? Be prepared for an uphill battle, it’s very tough for young people starting now. The kind of opportunities that The Place offers are amazing but there are not that many opportunities and it’s very hard for a young choreographer to get going these days. So you really have to believe in what you are doing. I think for me, the danger is that people feel like they have to grab whatever they are offered and grasp at success. Actually, when you are a young artist success shouldn’t be what you are thinking about. That’s very easy for me to say, because when I started in the 1960s it was a very, very different sort of world but I absolutely understand what happens now. I feel that young choreographers get pigeonholed and trapped, because the world wants choreographers and the world is used to having things very quickly now. But I think artists sometimes take ages to grow, and I think I was a very slow developer and was very lucky to have so many opportunities. I wonder where I’d be if I was 20 something now. I wonder how I’d get on, whether I’d survive. It’s very, difficult, very tough. ❏

In 2006 the Company performed the closing piece of Sadler’s Wells gala marking the retirement of Dance Umbrella’s founding director Artistic Director, Val Bourne. In January 2007, the Company was nominated for two South Bank Show awards. In October 2008, at Sadler’s Wells, the Company’s 60/40 season celebrated Alston’s 60th birthday and the 40th anniversary of his first piece of choreography. In 2011 Richard Alston Dance Company was nominated as Outstanding Company in the National Dance Awards, presented by the Critic’s Circle. Following its critically acclaimed performances for the Barbican Britten celebrations in autumn 2013, the company’s piece

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Phaedra was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production. Most recently, Alston’s Barbican Britten: Phaedra has received a 2014 National Dance Award nomination for best modern choreography. In building its repertoire, Richard Alston Dance Company focuses on Alston’s new choreography but combines this with the re-creation of seminal past works from Alston’s career. Music plays a vital part in the Company’s identity and since its inception Alston has used the work of a diverse range of composers including Brahms, Britten, Hoagy Carmichael, Heiner Goebbels, Scott Joplin, Astor Piazzolla, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Schumann, Shostakovich and Stravinsky.

about Richard Alston

Richard Alston choreographed his first work in 1968, as one of the twelve students of the newly formed London Contemporary Dance School. On leaving in 1972, he formed the UK’s first independent dance group Strider. In 1975 Alston went to New York to study at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio. On his return two years later he worked throughout the UK and Europe as an independent choreographer and teacher. In 1980 Alston became Resident Choreographer with Ballet Rambert and later was appointed Artistic Director, a position he held from 1986 to 1992. In his time there he created 25 dances for that company, and also was commissioned to create work for the Royal Danish Ballet (Kingdom of Pagodas 1982) and the Royal Ballet (Midsummer 1983). In 1992 Alston was invited to create a full evening of his own work, including Boulez’s Le Marteau Sans Maitre, for the Ballet Atlantique in France. He made another full evening for London Contemporary Dance Theatre at the 1994 Aldeburgh Festival going on to form his own company when he became Artistic Director of The Place in 1994. Richard Alston Dance Company started in the autumn of that year, and over the past 18 years Alston has made almost 40 dances for this company. Commissions from other companies have included Sheer Bravado for Ballet Theatre Munich (2006), Walk Through a Storm for Ballet Black (2008), and a version of Carmen for Scottish Ballet (2009). In 2011, he made A Rugged Flourish for New York Theatre Ballet and in 2012, Even Song for the Holland Dance Festival. Alston has just made All Alight for Phoenix Dance Theatre which premiered in February 2013 and has toured throughout the UK. Light Flooding Into Darkened Rooms has been remounted on New York Theatre Ballet and premiered in New York in February 2013. Alston is currently restaging his Carmen on Miami City Ballet, which will receive its premiere in February 2015. Alston is an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy (in Dance) at Surrey University, and received an Honorary MA from University College Chichester. In 1995 he was named Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France and in 2001 he received the CBE in the New Year Honours list. In 2008 he received, from the Critics Circle National Dance Awards, the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement. In 2009, he was appointed Chair of Youth Dance England. In 2012 Alston was presented with the Award for Excellence in International Dance by the International Theatre Institute. He is a Trustee of the Royal Ballet Benevolent Fund. 2015 March | 63

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Borodin Quartet 70th Anniversary Weekend

Borodin Quartet’s 70th Anniversary Visit The world famous Borodin String Quartet from Moscow are visiting Norwich at the end of April as part of their 70th anniversary celebrations to give two concerts for Norfolk & Norwich Chamber Music

hey made many friends in the city when they were here in 2004 and 2006 when they performed complete cycles of the Beethoven and Shostakovich quartets. The quartet was founded in Moscow in 1945 and were almost immediately recognized in Russia as being of world class. At that time Stalin banned musicians from travelling abroad so it was some years before anyone in the West heard them play, but word gradually filtered through about these phenomenal string players. When they were eventually allowed to travel world wide, after Stalin’s death they caused a sensation. When they last came to Norwich the legendary Valentin Berlinsky was the cellist. He sadly died in 2008 but his daughter, who is an international pianist, will be in Norwich as well and will perform www.finecity.co.uk

Shostakovich’s famous piano Quintet with them in the final concert. They will also be playing one of the pieces for which they are famous, Borodin’s second quartet with it’s stunningly beautiful Nocturne. Their visit is a very special occasion and Norwich should feel honoured that they have chosen to travel here in their 70th anniversary season – it promises to be a very special occasion. ❏ This is the final concert in the Norfolk & Norwich Chamber Music series which has been noted for it’s world class peroformances. Next season opens on 22nd September 2015 with a piano recital by Mitsuko Uchida – full details from Roger Rowe, 60 Park Lane, Norwich NR2 3EF Call 01603 621169 or email rrowe@paston.co.uk

Borodin Quartet & Ludmila Berlinskaia, piano Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th April, John Innes Centre Box Office Prelude Records, 25b St Giles, Norwich NR2 1JN 01603 628319 or online norwichchambermusic.co.uk • Shostakovich: Quartet No.2 in A major, Op.68 • Beethoven: Quartet in C sharp minor, Op.131 Sunday 26th April 3:00pm • Borodin Quartet with Ludmila Berlinskaia • Borodin: String Quartet No.2 in D major • Shostakovich: Quartet No.1 in C major, Op.49 • Shostakovich: Piano Quintet in G minor, Op.57 Borodin Quartet • Ruben Aharonian violin • Sergey Lomovsky violin • Igor Naidin viola • Vladimir Balshin cello

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FINEARTS

What’s on at Maddermarket Coming up this month at Maddermarket Theatre

The Cherry Orchard 7.30pm Thursday 5thSaturday 7th March Norwich Senior School Production By Anton Chekhov. English version by Tom Stoppard. 66 | March 2015

‘The whole of Russia is our orchard. The world is vast and there are many lovely places in it... The dead are looking at you and whispering to you from every tree in the cherry orchard, from every leaf and every branch.’ Tickets £8.00 (£4.00 concessions)

Theatre In Norwich 7.30pm Sunday 8th March Maddermarket Theatre friends event A talk by Barbara Miller exploring

the long and fascinating history of theatre in Norwich. Barbara Miller has been a Blue Badge Guide for the city for over 50 years and her close association with the Guild of Norwich Players goes back even further. Her enduring interest in the various aspects of the City’s history has led to taking many groups on walks around the City and to speaking to a wide variety of organisations in both City and county. This talk by a very popular www.finecity.co.uk

FINEARTS requirements of a Maddermarket Theatre production. An ideal introduction for those wishing to get involved with volunteering backstage at the venue. Run by the Theatre’s Technical Manager, the workshop will last 3hrs approximately with a break for coffee and tea. Visit our Volunteers Page to find out how you can volunteer backstage at the Theatre. Free entry, please book

speaker will be of great interest to any one who loves theatre and its place in Norwich from the first Theatre Royal in 1758 to the wide choice available to us now in the 21st century. Tickets £5.00 (discounts for maddermarket friends

Norwich Jazz Club 8.00pm-10.30pm Monday 9th March Open mic / jazz jam Join us in the Redwell Maddermarket Theatre Bar for our monthly jam session, where guest performers are invited to sit in with the house trio. Come on down and take part, or relax and listen to some of the City’s finest jazz talents! Bar Event Sponsored by Sonkai Jewellers www.norwichjazzclub.co.uk Tickets free to musicians participating, £5.00 to non-participants (payment on the door)

Scunsulata 7.30pm Sunday 15th March A cappella harmonies Join us for an inspiring evening of beautiful a cappella harmonies from the four corners of the world, superbly performed by a 14-strong vocal harmony ensemble, based in the Norfolk Broads. Scunsulata (meaning “inconsolable” in the Corsican language) repertoire – all performed a cappella – includes American ShapeNote and gospel music; British and European medieval and renaissance songs; English West Gallery music, folk songs and carols; Georgian and Corsican polyphony; and African songs and dance-songs. Performed in the Redwell Maddermarket Theatre Bar Bar Event Sponsored by Sonkai Jewellery Tickets £6.00 www.finecity.co.uk

Sweeney Todd The Ghost Train

Best Served Cold

7.30pm (2.30pm matinee on 28th March) Norwich Players By Arnold Ridley. “Suspense, mystery and murder?... The Ghost Train arrives at the Maddermarket Theatre, Spring 2015. Book your ticket, if you dare!” On a winter’s night 1945, a group of passengers becomes stranded at a remote railway station. This is the story of what took place that night. As good humour fades and tempers rise towards the station master’s warnings to leave at once, a distand locomotive is heard thundering towards our helpless heroes. The Ghost Train is about to return, only this time it’s even bigger, louder and altogether more terrifying to behold. Directed by Stash Kirkbride Tickets £8.00-£12.00 (student discount available)

1.10pm Monday 23rd MarchFriday 27th March Just Us Productions New writing by Elly Nannaleasy Do you know what your husband is up to every day of the week? Liz thinks she does; after all, his hobbies take up most of his spare time. Who would have thought brass rubbing could be so fascinating? When two of his mistresses turn up on her doorstep, Liz’s life changes completely and the fun begins as the three of them plot their revenge and give her husband the surprise of his life! Directed by Zanna Foley-Davies Presented in the Redwell Maddermarket Theatre Bar and Gallery All bar events are sponsored by Sonkai Jewellers Tickets £5.00

Box Office Our box office is situated in the foyer area, opposite the coffee shop. Box Office opening hours Normal Open Hours Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm Saturday 10am to 5pm.

The Ghost Train On Film! 1.10pm Saturday 21st March Film showing Enjoy a Saturday afternoon by watching this classic film version of The Ghost Train starring Arthur Askey. Welcome to the new Maddermarket Film Screening feature, yet another way to experience this unique theatre in the heart of Norwich. Book your tickets, buy the popcorn at our new theatre bar, and head into “fantasy on the big screen”. £5.00 (£4.00 concessions)

7.30pm Tuesday 31st March Mad Red Theatre School Written & Directed by Pip Sessions. London 1847. Tobias Ragg takes up an apprenticeship at Sweeney Todd’s Barber Shop on Fleet Street. When a young sailor goes missing after visiting the shop for a shave, Tobias becomes suspicious and his curiosity leads him to make a shocking discovery. This version of ‘Sweeney Todd’ is based on the original Victorian Penny Dreadful story ‘The String of Pearls: A Romance’ mad-red.co.uk Tickets £6.00 (£5.00 concessions)

Maddermarket Theatre Technical Workshop 7.00pm Monday 30th March Maddermarket Theatre Would you like to learn how to stage manage a show, rig and operate the lighting, record and play out the sound effects for a show? This workshop is designed to give you an overall understanding of the technical

On Show Days Monday to Saturday 10am to 7.30pm Sundays 5pm to 7.30pm Booking Tickets Tickets may be booked in person, over the telephone, online, via email or by post. Box Office 01603 620917 office@maddermarket.org www.maddermarket.co.uk

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Spiritual Flow Spiritual festival coming to St Andrews Hall, Norwich

ust when you need a spiritual boost the Mind Body Spirit team at Spiritual Flow Events pop up with what is to be a true feast of spiritual activity and wonderful heart-warming adventures. On 28th & 29th March, the festival will present a beautiful spiritual feast at ‘The Halls’, within the heart of Norwich City. The St Andrews Hall is a stunning medieval venue built over 600 years ago and steeped in Dominican or Black Friars history. It’s main halls, the crypt and cloisters will form the back drop for so many activities. The exhibitors represent some of the finest around, with a number of Clairvoyant Spiritual Mediums and Psychics including popular favourites such as Shirley Cimelli, Dave Summerton, Tara Mason, Alex Oakes, Laragh Spearman, Steven Gill and many more that can be seen on the website mentioned later on. The experienced Suki Pryce with her Palmistry plus Marilyn Fleischman and her delightful Psychic artistry, will be present. We also welcome back our very popular Suzanne Wickham with her Past Life Regression therapy. A number of healers and therapies including Spiritual Healing with ‘The Norfolk Healers’ 68 | March 2015

and the ever present Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre, with such therapies as Reflexology, Massage, Aromatherapy, Reiki, and so much more. The MS centre based over by the airport offers all number of therapies and activities, not just for MS sufferers but for all of us. The Mangreen Trust located in Swardeston will tell you about their wonderful centre, where they provide fabulous spiritual course facilities. There will be a fabulous display of spiritual gifts that will include Crystal pieces, Figurines, Singing bowls, Salt Lamps, Cards and Jewellery. During the two days there will be demonstration on the main stage, in the Crypt and the Cloisters starting at 10.30am and running throughout the two days. A full listing of all the times, locations and synopsis can be found by visiting www. spiritualflowevents.com and in the programme on the day. Here is a list of the demonstrators: Main Stage includes - Qigong with Ann Godfrey, Pilates with Nikki Horner, A Gong Bath with Steve Hudson, Laughter Yoga with Bill Pitwood. The Crypt includes – A Chakra Balancing workshop with the Chakra Project Team, Henna and tattoos workshop with

Harpreet Bassi, Emotional Mastery workshop with Wai Cheung, A Place to Meditate with Benny Henning and Keir Brisbane so just relax and chill, The Bio Magnetism discussion with Suzi Dior, The Angels Script with Theolyn Cortens. The Cloisters includes – A Clairvoyant demonstration of mediumship with Chris Jacobs, We hear you Angels with Jennifer Lynch, Clairvoyant demonstration with Ray Worthy, Colour workshop with Psychic Medium Bronia West, Clairvoyant demonstration with Sue Breen, A course in Miracles with Raveena Nash, Languages of Light with Theolyn Cortens. In an effort to be open hearted a new website www. themindbodyspiritdirectory.com has just been launched and will look to build up a comprehensive list of festivals, exhibitions, workshops and courses plus clairvoyant evenings, retreats and all things spiritual alongside comprehensive business listings not just in East Anglia but throughout the UK. The listings are Free and available to anyone and everyone looking to promote their spiritual activities within the holistic environment. Do enjoy your journey, wherever we meet. ❏ Steve Hudson www. spiritualflowevents.com

Mind Body Spirit Exhibitions & Festivals If you can’t make it to the Norwich Festival, perhaps one of the other Spiritual Flow Exhibitions in East Anglia will be more suitable and listed below are a few more that may whet your appetite • Sat 14th March Holt Community Centre • Sat 21st March Downham Market Town Hall • Sat 28th, Sun 29th March Norwich Festival at ‘The Halls’ • Sat 11th April Swaffham Assembly Rooms • Sat 18th April Dereham Memorial Hall • Sat 25th, Sun 26th April Hunstanton Town Hall • Sat 9th May Newmarket Memorial Hall • Sat 16th May Thetford Carnegie Rooms All this information and more can be found on our website.

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East Anglian Game and Country Fair The 2015 East Anglian Game & Country Fair will take place on Saturday the 25th & Sunday the 26th April, at The Norfolk Showground

here will be lots of new displays including The Essex Dog Display Team which is generally accepted as the premier and longest established dog display team in Great Britain and Europe. The team appeared at Crufts for a record breaking eleven years and they were also invited to display at the Five Nations Rugby Tournament at Twickenham for the Calcutta Cup, England – Scotland match. They are the only civilian dog display team ever to be selected to appear at The Royal Tournament in front of Her Majesty The Queen, Prince Phillip and the Royal Family. Working with many different breeds of dogs (the majority of which have been rescued); the team produce a professional highly entertaining, action packed and informative display. The central feature of the display is a 100ft long by 8ft high ramp, which the dogs negotiate at high speed through hoops of fire. There are excellent equestrian displays and workshops at the East Anglian Game & Country Fair. UK Horseboarding Arena Demos “somewhere between scurry racing and wake boarding” describes Arena Boarding. Teams take on the clock around a course of gates, set to challenge the best boarders and horse riders, from long straights into sweeping bends and ninety

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degree turns. In terms of motorsport it is more like rallying or Formula 1. Teams have to work together to achieve the right racing line to take the bends and complete the course. New board technology has meant that board riders can get more grips in the corners, but as the track gets scrubbed out, you will still see them power sliding round the bends kicking up dust like a rally car. This part of the sport has become so technical that board setup, and even tyre choice has become critical. The teams push their boards to the limit as they fight it out, trying to shave 100ths of a second off their times. As will always happen, when sportsmen push themselves and their equipment to the limit, sometimes they find the edge. Crashes are frequent, - with the teams’ motto seeming to be “we will not win by going slower.” An absolute must-see spectacle - you will not be able to take your eyes off it, as teams achieving already unbelievable speeds, get faster with each race. Richard Maxwell, our Horse behaviourist, was in the Household cavalry with “Monty Roberts” and he will be demonstrating twice daily in the round horse pen, where you will be able to see the special understanding and training techniques that Richard uses to help horses overcome some of their fears. This is a fantastic opportunity to see Richard using traditional and natural techniques on horses that have been brought to the game fair by their owners for Richard to work on and this will be the first time that Richard will have seen the horse he is going to be helping. N & J Heavy Horses is a family run business which has been running for around 10 years, performing horse drawn carriage work up and down the country, such as weddings, proms, fetes and carriage rides in the town of Southold. Their two Perchons aged 7, three Shires aged 9 to 11 and one Clydesdale aged 6 will be performing musical demonstrations which are fun for all ages with all different types of music; modern and oldies and is set to be enjoyed by all in both the Main and Countryside Arenas Pine Lodge School of Classical Equitation (Sat) present an invitation to see working equitation ridden by the riders who have represented Great Britain in the European and World Working Equitation Teams. These fine horses will demonstrate the grace needed to be at the top of their sport. The quest of lightness on

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FINELIVING their hooves, no involuntary movement, any direction easily and the art of doing nothing will all be demonstrated during their arena time. We have a fantastic line up of more free events to watch in the Main and Countryside Arenas. Ring displays also include 6 times FITASC Sporting World Champion, European Champion and English Open Champion John Bidwell performing his world famous off the hip trick shooting with an automatic and pump action shotgun shooting from the hip over his shoulders and from between his legs, this is a rare opportunity to see John’s display. West Norfolk Hunt will be taking the hounds for a parade of the ring, Bernese Mountain Dogs, Flight of the Falcons, Ferret Racing, Fly Fishing, Berkley Owls, Sheep Dog and Duck Display, Lurcher Displays, Gun Dog demonstrations and much more. The Mid-Norfolk Gundog Club has been providing its members with training and competitions for 30 years and this year the Club celebrates its 25th anniversary as a Kennel Club Registered Society. The Countryside Arena demonstrations illustrate the stages of training for spaniels and retrievers as they are prepared to become working gundogs. Trained gundogs have a vital role in any form of responsibly conducted game shooting. In the Main Ring, the roles and work of spaniels and retrievers are demonstrated in the context of the shooting field. Mid Norfolk Gun Dog Club will be running the Gun Dog Scurry competitions and a Team Gundog Working Test - a competition for trained gundogs that simulates the problems the dogs will encounter when working. The competition, introduced to the East Anglian Game and Country Fair last year, is an ‘Open’ standard competition for teams of three experienced dogs and handlers representing clubs and societies from across East Anglia and takes place over both days of the fair. Expect and enjoy first class work and a keen but friendly competition from some of the best gundogs and handlers in the region.

Whether you are a practicing falconer, nature enthusiast or not the falconry village is sure to keep you entertained. There will be mini events going on all day in the arena, lure swinging competitions, talks on hunting and a chance to practice you skills at catching a ‘wild injured owl’ plus several stands to browse along with expert advice from falconers. The Forestry Villages hosts The East of England Cutters & Climbers Competition and Pole Climbing Competitions. The forestry arena will be a buzz of activity with chainsaw carvings, felling demonstrations, tree climbing and pole climbing competitions. Tree workers from around the UK will be competing at this rare opportunity to see a working forestry village. If Bear Grills is your thing then Woodland Ways Bushcraft & Survival will be demonstrating their vast knowledge of bushcraft & survival techniques. There will be opportunities throughout the day to get ‘hands on’ and learn some skills for yourself. They will also be running ‘Pigeon Plucking’ competitions on their stand over the weekend. Find out how quickly you can prepare a pigeon for the table without using a knife. Norwich Vikings Trials Motorcycle Display will have a range of riders from those on modern bikes to those who prefer the classic bike and classes for all abilities. Riders will be taking their bikes around a purpose built obstacle course from old oil drums to large tree trunks. This will all take place within the forestry arena. Our game fair country kitchen has a great new line up with a variety of cookery workshops and demonstrations taking place over the weekend from a selection of local chefs, including Celebrity Chef Chris Coubrough, Roger Hickman, Andy Snowling, Eric Snaith and Na Hansell plus many more. The Cookery Theatre is housed in the centre of the busy food hall where you will find a wide variety of exhibitors from Norfolk and across the UK bringing unusual and

“If Bear Grills is your thing then Woodland Ways Bushcraft & Survival will be demonstrating their vast knowledge”

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FINELIVING “Children of all ages will be able to take part in countryside activities and meet animals” mouth watering food and drink to the show for our visitors to sample, enjoy and purchase. Fine & Country Educational Zone: A wide variety of some of the best Independent schools from across the region will be on view in the New Fine & Country educational zone. This large marquee gives all the visitors the opportunity to meet some of the staff and pupils from these schools and see some of the teaching and learning environments in a friendly environment. Come & join the Fine & Country team in the marquee for a complimentary hot drink. There are over 300 shopping stands with a wide variety of products from fashion and footwear to gun makers, eco products, fishing products and home improvements. Plus craft halls and gift marquees. The main bar will be serving a great selection of local beers and drinks over the weekend and the Sheringham shanty men will be performing during the day. We are delighted to announce that Norwich Antiques Market has again been added to the line up for this year’s show. Visit their stand on Avenue E for a great selection of stands selling antiques, collectables, vintage and retro goods. They are the oldest, biggest and best monthly antiques fair in Norwich. Children of all ages will be able to take part in countryside activities and meet several animals. Stands at the event for little ones include Red Barn Farm, Woodbine Alpacas, Scratby Donkey Rides and of course Heart Radio. Join in and ‘have a go’ at a range of country activities from clay shooting with John Bidwell’s High Lodge instructors or enter the 40-bird re-entry shooting competition for men, women and juniors.

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Fly fishing with the Salmon and Trout Association, ferret racing and archery to paintballing and crossbows. Take a helicopter pleasure flight over the showground, try the air rifle range, hold a bird of prey or take a ride in a Landrover on the off road 4x4 course. K9 Aqua Sports© will be holding its ‘K9 Jump Jet©’ Competition, which is the Long Jump for dogs into water, with Heats at 12.00pm (Midday) & 2:30pm on both days (Saturday & Sunday) of the show and the K9 Jump Jet© Finals will be held at 3.30pm on the last day (Sunday) of the show with the top Teams Dogs that have jumped the furthest distance within the 4 Heats Dogs, Fly ball Dogs, Gundogs, Obedience Dogs or even the Families Pet Dog are welcome, as long as they are over 6 months old and healthy. All K9 Jump Jet© Heat Participants will receive a Participant Rosette with Placement Rosettes for Top 6 Teams in each Heat. Enter your dog into the Dog Agility and Jumping competitions and ‘have a go’ arenas, the Pet Dog Show or even the popular Terrier & Lurcher Show which takes place on Sunday at 11am. This will be a qualifier for all major championships as well as the East Anglian Championship. Whether you want information about the Game Fair prior to buying tickets or want to know what is happening next in the Main Arena during the weekend or to save your car park location, the Game Fair app is your essential guide to a great day out for all the family, available to download FREE from ‘The App Store’. ❏

Ticket Information Advance discounted admission tickets are available now online at www.ukgamefair.co.uk or by calling the ticket hotline number 0871 230 1102 Calls cost 10p per minute from a BT landline plus standard network charges. Adult £13.00, Children (5-16 Yrs) £5.00 and Family (2 Adults & 3 Children) £36, (offer valid until midday 20/04/14 and a small booking fee applies). Under 5’s are Free and Car Parking is Free for all. On the gate prices: Adult £17.00, Children (5-16 Yrs) £6.00, Family (2 Adults & 3 Children) £46, under 5’s are Free and Free Car Parking for all. Become a member of the show. Priced at a very attractive £26 per adult, £11 per child (5-16 yrs) or £76 for a family (2 adults & 3 children) its great value! Beat the queues with prioritised car parking & admission to the show plus entry into the ringside Members’ enclosure with luxury loos! Membership tickets, gift packages, experience days and lunches are also available to book online at www.ukgamefair. co.uk or call 01263 735 828 for more information. Camping Weekend Tickets - Set in glorious parkland, The Norfolk Showground is a fantastic place to visit and camp for the weekend, conveniently situated just 5 miles from Norwich city centre. Just bring your Caravan, Camper or Tent and enjoy a fun filled short break in Norfolk with your friends and family! The Norfolk Showground provides excellent camping facilities plus you can enjoy two whole days at one of Norfolk’s most talked about family days out. Well behaved pets are most welcome too. Book early and save money on Camping weekend tickets visit www.ukgamefair.co.uk for prices and full details. Keep up to date with all the latest game fair news and offers at www.ukgamefair.co.uk Subscribe to our e-newsletter and join us on our social networking sites, or call 01263 735828 for more information.

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The Government is Urging you to Switch Your Energy Provider Dual-fuel customers of the big energy firms have missed big savings by not switching suppliers, early evidence from a competition inquiry suggests

he Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been investigating the energy market since last summer. It says that from 2012 to 2014, more than 95% of dual-fuel customers of the big firms would have saved money by switching tariffs or suppliers. The savings they missed ranged from £158 to £234 a year per customer. Richard Lloyd of consumers’ association Which? said the energy industry had failed its www.finecity.co.uk

customers and the regulator would have to be much tougher. “Politicians and regulators have put too much faith in competition driving prices for consumers - this simply hasn’t worked,” he said.

The ‘big six’ The investigation by the CMA was formally launched last July in response to an earlier referral from the energy regulator Ofgem. Ofgem had been concerned because of widespread disquiet at the dominance of the industry by just six big operators.

Currently the “big six” energy firms - SSE, Scottish Power, Centrica, Npower, E.On and EDF Energy - together account for about 92% of the UK’s energy supply market. Consumer groups and politicians have frequently accused the firms of using their position to raise customers’ prices swiftly when wholesale energy prices go up, but being slow to cut them when their costs have come down. Poor customer service by the big six firms is highlighted by the CMA. It says the number of complaints recorded against them rose fivefold between 2007 to 2013. These were mainly about problems concerning billing, customer service and payments.

Utility Warehouse If you are looking for an alternative supplier, you might like to consider Utility Warehouse – The Discount Club. Utility Warehouse Guarantee savings on your household bills via their unique Price Promise: They guarantee you’ll save money when you switch all your services to them, or they’ll give you back

‘Double the Difference’. Utility Warehouse provides over 600,000 customers throughout the UK with substantial savings on a range of utility services including landline phone, mobiles, broadband, gas and electricity. You may not have heard of the Utility Warehouse before; that’s because they don’t spend money on expensive advertising like other companies. This saves them millions of pounds a year — savings they pass on to you! They rely completely on recommendation from happy customers and a network of Distributors to spread the word about the great savings they offer compared to their competitors. Even if you haven’t heard of them before, you can be completely confident in their services. They are a Which? Recommended Provider and scored five out of five for customer service. If you’d like to save money, get in touch. I’ll explain how you can benefit. I look forward to talking to you. Jonathan: 07802 690589, please feel free to call me anytime! 2015 March | 73

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Photodynamic Therapy Insufficient funds invested into cancer research; Norfolk survey says

new survey has revealed that almost half of people in Norfolk (48.88%) do not feel enough money is invested in research into new cancer treatments. 84.5% would be prepared to try a ‘new to market’ treatment if they were diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. The survey, conducted by PDT Norfolk, a charity which is campaigning for cancer patients in Norfolk to have access to Photodynamic Therapy, also revealed that more than a third of those questioned (37.76%) did not believe that hospital consultants and specialists provide patients with access to information about the wide range of treatments that are available in the UK.

Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) is an effective, targeted method of treating certain cancerous tumours. The treatment combines the use of a photosensitive drug (a photosensitizer) with laser light and is both minimally invasive and minimally toxic. When the drug is exposed to a specific wavelength of light, a form of oxygen is produced that kills nearby cancer cells. nWhilst the treatment is currently being used for skin cancer in Norfolk, PDT Norfolk aims to raise awareness of Photodynamic Therapy, its possibilities and proven results, for other cancers too; particularly focusing on early stage lung cancer. 113 Norfolk people, aged 18 and over, responded to the online questionnaire. 41.75% of them said that someone in their family

had had cancer in the last five years and more than half (54.37%) said that a close friend had had cancer in the last five years. “The majority of people who responded to our survey have been affected by cancer in some way. Almost half (46.88%) said that they don’t feel enough money is invested in research into new cancer treatments,” said Daphne Sutton, chair of PDT Norfolk. “We know that there are limited funds to undertake research into new treatments, that’s why we are striving to raise £75,000 to fund research at the UEA. Professor David Russell, at the UEA School of Chemistry, has been working on Photodynamic Therapy since 1990, studying a variety of aspects of the treatment. Working with David and his team, our aim is to provide additional evidence that the technique is of real value in detecting and treating early stage lung cancer, complementing research that already exists.” Only one person surveyed said that they would definitely not be prepared to try a new cancer treatment. 41.84% said they would like to know about all treatments on offer and 27.55%

said they would be willing to trying anything to extend their life. “One interesting response was regarding different treatments available outside Norfolk,” continues Daphne Sutton. “More than 88% of the people who answered our survey said they would be prepared to travel outside Norfolk if they believed a better cancer treatment was available. There are specialist Photodynamic Therapy Centres in other parts of the UK using the treatment for a range of cancers, not just skin cancers. We want to ensure that people with cancer are aware that this treatment exists and to make it available for Norfolk people in their home county.” PDT Norfolk is aiming to have secured at least £25,000 in funding by April 2015 in order that the research student can be in post by October 2015. ❏ Anyone who wishes to donate to PDT Norfolk; get involved with fundraising or volunteering; or who would simply like to find out more about the charity can call 01263 824868, email info@pdtnorfolk.co.uk or visit www.pdtnorfolk.co.uk.

Ian Gibson, Daphne Sutton, Roger Green, three of the trustees of PDT Norfolk

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Nick Guy and Vicki Mileham of the Care Partnership

Care Partnership Norfolk care provider launches support services for people with learning disabilities

orfolk care provider, the Care Partnership, has launched a new range of services; providing bespoke support for children, young people and adults with learning disabilities. The business is also opening a second office in Brooke, near Norwich, so it can also expand the reach of its existing domiciliary care services for elderly people. The Care Partnership is managed by experienced nurse and care manager Vicki Mileham, supported by learning disabilities specialist Nick Guy. After working for different organisations for the past four years, Nick and Vicki are reforming a working relationship that has seen them become well respected and knowledgeable professionals within their sector. The new Brooke office means that the well-established care services that the Care Partnership provides to adults and elderly people needing extra support in their own homes will now be available to those living in and around Norwich. Support services for people with www.finecity.co.uk

learning disabilities will also be managed from the new office. Unlike many care providers the Care Partnership does not offer 15 minute appointments; 30 minute appointments are the minimum. “We have a genuine commitment to treating all clients, and their families, with compassion, kindness and respect; valuing each person’s dignity,” says Vicki Mileham. “Our domiciliary care visits are never less than 30 minutes because we simply don’t believe that care, in its proper sense, can be delivered in a 15 minute appointment. The quality of people we employ, the rates we pay and the time we devote to creating bespoke care packages combine to provide a service which has people at its heart. I left my previous role because I wanted to have enough time to care for people. Whether it’s domiciliary care or support for people with learning disabilities, at the Care Partnership I’m proud that we put quality of care over profit.” Nick Guy has worked within the specialist learning disability sector both as a support worker

and a manager, recently joining the Care Partnership. As well as support workers going into private homes, Nick plans to offer activities, trips and support groups for people with learning disabilities; providing opportunities for socialising and interaction out of the home environment. “I believe it’s critical that any manager in the care industry has worked ‘in the field’,” says Nick. “It’s only by working with people who have very specific, and often complicated, needs on a daily basis that you can understand the pressure and many rewards of a job in care. Over the past few years I’ve been in a very privileged position. I’ve seen the amazing difference that inspirational, caring and committed support workers can make to the life of a person with learning disabilities, and their family. “Our aim at the Care Partnership is to provide children and adults with learning disabilities, and any associated needs, with choices; creating a safe, encouraging and calm environment where they can

thrive, feel secure and be happy. In some cases we are also able to help our clients become more independent; working with them to develop life skills and confidence,” continues Nick. Negotiating funding entitlement and care provision can be a complicated matter. The Care Partnership feels that part of its role is to be a signposting organisation. “After 27 years in nursing and health care I know exactly how frightening and upsetting it can be to accept you or someone you love needs some extra help,” says Vicki. “Accessing the right information can be one of the most stressful parts of the process. That’s why we’re always happy to chat to people who have questions about domiciliary care or support for a family member with learning disabilities. We might not be the solution but we’ll take the time to listen and provide the information they need.” ❏ The new Care Partnership centre is based at Park Farm, High Green, Brooke, Norwich, NR15 1HR. People who would like to find out more about the services the company provides can call Vicki or Nick on 01508 558470, email enquiries@ carepartnership.co.uk or visit www.thecarepartnership.org. 2015 March | 75

Norfolk potatoes it wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be dinner without them from Buxton Potato Company, Norfolk

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re proud to support local farmers and growers, like Buxton Potato Company, through our award-winning Sourced Locally initiative

pop to the co-op www.eastofengland.coop

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For those looking for a stylish, luxurious and exclusive wedding venue, only a couple of hours away from the capital, Somerleyton Hall will be a joyous find

he historical English country estate boasting carefully manicured gardens and pleasantly charming halls offers an exclusive preview of what is on offer at their wedding show that is set to open its doors on Sunday, 29th March 2015. A recent visit to Somerleyton Hall revealed the results of the investment that Lord and Lady Somerleyton have made, turning their already opulent stately home into the most exclusive wedding venue in East Anglia. The result of redesign work is a series of unique spaces which combine contemporary charm with stunning original features. Hugh Somerleyton has worked closely with head gardener Anna Outlaw to create the new romantic white sunken bridal garden.

Work to restore the beautiful fountain on the main garden to its former glory has also been completed, providing the perfect backdrop for the most stunning wedding photos. You can even host a Champagne reception in the pagoda in the centre of one of Europe’s finest mazes. Just as much attention has been given to the quality of food and drink on offer. Somerleyton’s own Michelin Star-trained executive chef creates bespoke menus, often using produce that has been either grown or raised on the estate – such as Welsh black beef and Norfolk horn lamb. Working with fine wine merchants, virtually any wine can be supplied to suit your guests. An added feature for 2015 is the new bridal suite, which

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provides luxury accommodation in the old stable block. The new suite complements the rest of the boutique bedrooms within the main hall. However, the bedrooms are exclusively available for two-day party-style weddings, where guests can also use more of the hall’s reception rooms. Somerleyton Hall also has a new wedding manager Jude, who provides couples with a totally unique wedding experience. This exclusive wedding venue teamed up with Dalia Courridge of Norfolk Brides, which is a local wedding directory and is and a free to a Wedding magazine in Norfolk, to put on this extremely exciting wedding event at the estate. On Sunday, 29th March, the couples from across Norfolk, Suffolk and the rest of the UK will be greeted by the estate staff and will get a chance to enjoy their glass of bubbly or a cocktail made up at the bar; soak in the magnificent architecture and gorgeous plants and sculptures in the winter garden while getting a chance to meet and discuss their wedding plans with some of the most reputable wedding business owners across the East. With selection of wedding businesses offering everything form bridal gowns to wedding décor hire services, wedding flowers, cakes wedding catering, the couples will be spoilt for choice and will find all they may need for their big day at the show. The event will be free to attend and brides are urged to register their attendance on the day to get a free copy of the Norfolk Brides Magazine a show brochure listing all exhibitors. The registration entries will also be put in a fantastic prize draw to win a FREE wedding ceremony at Somerleyton Hall! This amazing prize will include a complimentary Somerleyton Hall hire for their wedding ceremony

accommodating up to 80 guests with a glass of bubbly for toast, wedding flowers provided by the estate florist and a wedding photography package covering bridal preparations, the ceremony and creative images following the wedding by Dazed Photography. The prize is worth over £5000 and will be drawn on the day of the show, with winners being contacted immediately after the event and announced on social media sites once the winners had claimed their prize. Show organisers are excited to be working on this exclusive event and are looking forward to meeting many brides and grooms who may be looking for some ideas and inspiration on Sunday, 29th March between 10am and 3pm at Somerleyton Hall. ❏

Show Facts Date Sunday, 29th March Time 10am-3pm, free entry & parking Goodies Complimentary glass of bubbly, show brochure and wedding magazine on arrival Competitions Free wedding worth over £5000 at Somerleyton Hall, photography package by Dazed Photography, number of special offers and discounts by exhibitors.

2015 March | 77

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Bespoke Interior Design About Salt Interior Design...

alt Interiors is a small, friendly design company established by Holly Pagani and based in Norfolk. Holly is an experienced Interior Designer having trained and worked in the London interior design scene for 3 years before moving to Norwich in 2003. She approaches each new project with a fresh mind and will bring versatility, passion and individuality to each one to ensure your interior design is just what you hoped for. Based in Norwich, Norfolk, Salt Interiors can offer a tailor made interior design service to meet your individual needs and

requirements, whether it is a single blind to a full design project. From traditional to contemporary style, family homes or commercial properties, Salt Interior Design can supply wallpapers, curtain poles and fabrics from leading suppliers, as well as offering a curtain and blind making service. She can also source and supply furniture and lighting to complement and advise on paint schemes. Holly works throughout Norfolk, Suffolk and beyond and is always happy to help and advise on your interior design project. “Holly’s Design ethos is one of attentiveness. She believes there is no need to be over the

For All Your Interior Design Needs Let Salt Interior Design Help You Create A Space To Love

email: info@saltinteriors.co.uk call: 07714 321987 www.saltinteriors.co.uk 78 | March 2015

top and self-indulgent in her designs, preferring instead to listen to the client and interpret their brief as closely as possible whilst introducing products and materials only available to designers” East Magazine

interior design

Each project is undertaken with a fresh approach because we know every client has a unique set of needs. We will work with you so that you can be confident that the finished project will truly show your own tastes and personality. A gorgeous home should be a reflection of your character. We will help you achieve this by assessing the space and listening to your requirements - our goal is to help you realise your dreams. You can be assured that each design project will be unique and personal to you. Previous projects have included interiors for country homes and London townhouses, Restaurants, Showhomes and a Boutique Hotel. We have access to some of the leading names in Interior Design such as Colefax & Fowler, Osborne & Little, Zoffany, Paint & Paper Library and GP&J Baker. Our services range from consultations for colour schemes to a full design service including dressing and accessorising a finished space. We work with a select list of trusted professionals and craftsmen to carry out that challenge. We also provide a comprehensive curtain and blind service with our vast library of fabrics and materials. Let Salt Interior Design help you create a space to love.

home staging

We are also able to help you prepare your home for selling. This involves an appraisal of the property which will help you highlight its best features and reorganise the areas which need change. It is so easy to get stuck in a rut when you are

living somewhere for a while and it often takes a fresh eye to see what can be changed. It may just be a case of de-cluttering or a simple rearrangement of furniture. Depending on your budget and needs,we will do our best to maximise its potential. We would advise you to do this prior to the Agents taking photos, but it is never too late to add selling appeal and increase the chances of a quick sale.

commercial

Our Commercial projects range from property development schemes, hotels, restaurants and bars to offices and reception areas. Our commitment is to creativity, quality and attention to detail, running projects efficiently and to budget. We can specify and supply the materials, furnishings, fixtures and fittings that are appropriate for your project design and budget. Transforming spaces into interiors that make a lasting impression to its users is our ultimate aim and one which we hope to provide using equal measures of creativity and technical excellence. A ‘hands on’ approach to each design ensures every project is as practical and cost effective as it is inspirational and individual. ❏ Contact Holly on 07714 321987 or email her on info@saltinteriors.co.uk www.finecity.co.uk

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