Sussex Style May 2015

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defined POLO MUM DJs GLAMPING MILITARY FITNESS

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contents

On the cover

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76 Grand gardens

David Bennun visits Sussex’s most exotic gardens

fashion & beauty

12 Editor’s letter 14 David “Kid” Jensen

We interview the top DJ ahead of his new show

19 School gate drama

The kid you dislike

20 Brighton Mums

Forget baking, these ladies are becoming top DJs

22 Susannah Waters

Alex Hopkins meets the former opera singer prior to a groundbreaking new show

28 Effortless cool

It’s all chic pastels and beautiful blues in our fashion shoot

36 Beauty notebook

T reat your feet

38 Brighton nails!

MatchNails, the luxury nail salon

40 Inger Moss

The style icon on elegant outdoor wear

42 Health and fitness

How Ann Widdecombe inspired our fitness editor

47 Polo

Sallie Anne Lent from Sussex Polo Club gives us her beginners’ guide

50 Outdoor fitness

Let a former Royal Marine put you through your paces

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food & drink 54 Food news

BBQs, cheese, wine and chocs

82 Outdoor living

Everything you need for the lush outdoor life

84 Sussex gentlemen Auctioneer Jonathan Pratt

56 Are vegetarians healthier?

86 Business profile

58 Delectable dips

91 Dan Raven

60 Glamping

92 Paul Burston

Jaimie Daniels of Co-ordination Catering Hire

Our food and drink editor Sam Bilton investigates

Gazpacho shots and Green Goddess Dips

Camping without sacrificing your creature comforts

home & garden 68 Buying a palace

Choosing the dream home

72 Waterside living

Is living by the seaside all it’s cracked up to be?

Why our columnist hates mobile phones

A curious character in a coffee shop

94 Book club

Perfect spring reads

96 Bookish Supper Society

ussex’s top literary S event

98 M inxy Mann Yeager

Go camping? You’re having a laugh!

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inside

Still a cool kid

This month DJ David “Kid” Jensen starts a series of summer shows with BBC Radio Sussex. Sarah Drew-Jones meets him to get the lowdown on his star studded career.

What was it like working with George Harrison and Michael Jackson and what challenges are ahead for him?

Royal Marine fitness

Sport of kings

Polo summons up images of royalty, champagne and beautiful women. Sallie Anne Lent of Sussex Polo Club gives us her beginners’ guide to this this beguiling sport. Now you too can get involved...

The training course for a Royal Marine is one of the toughest in the world. Liam Murphy survived it and went on to protect ships from pirates. He is now sharing his skills as part of his Outdoor Military Fitness (OMF) business. Sick of the gym? Let Liam put you through your paces.

In this issue...

Mother of all DJs

Forget your twenty-something DJs. What do they know about music? The mums at the school gate are taking over. We meet the women who would rather spin a hot tune than slave over a hot stove. Brace yourselves: here are the Brighton ladies to watch.

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Transforming opera

Effortless cool

There’s no denying it: spring is definitely here. Enjoy the balmy weather by slipping into something light and breezy.

Perfect pastels, beautiful blues and luxurious florals are the way to go. We give you the pick of the best.

Susannah Waters was one of the country’s leading opera stars, but she gave it all up to become a director and celebrated novelist. She’s now directing legendary soprano Alice Coote in a very different type of show at Brighton Festival.

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Get in touch!

We’d love to hear your comments, views and suggestions: alex@sussexstyle. co.uk

Welcome...

We’re nothing if not a team of incorrigible optimists at Sussex Style: we’ve had the first heat wave of the year and we’re all convincing ourselves that this stunning weather is going to continue. Nothing is going to stop us getting out and about and here we show you how to do it in style.

Where better to start than with ‘the sport of kings’ - Polo? Follow our advice and you’ll be cutting a dashing figure across the playing field in no time, but don’t forget the champers afterwards.

Bored of the gym? Try some military fitness - a former Royal Marine shows us how. For something a little more relaxed, we visited the county’s most exotic gardens. Our ultra-cool, pastel inspired fashion shoot offers you everything you need to float carefree around such idyllic spots.

But much as we all love the great outdoors we’re very keen on our home comforts at Sussex Style. Camping? Our glamorous columnist Minxy can’t think of anything more abhorrent. But perhaps there’s a compromise? We sent our deputy editor, David, off to sample a bit of ‘Glamping’.

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May’s a big month for the arts, with legendary DJ David ‘Kid’ Jensen kicking off a series of summer shows with BBC radio Sussex. He chats to us about his star-studded career. We also meet former opera singer Susannah Waters, who is bringing a rather daring show to the Brighton Festival.

All this plus delectable recipes, top health and beauty tips, and inimitable advice from your favourite columnists. So sit back, unwind and stay chic.

Alex Hopkins EDITOR IN CHIEF ALEX HOPKINS DEPUTY EDITOR DAVID BENNUN CREATIVE DIRECTOR BETH DONSON FOOD & DRINK EDITOR SAM BILTON HEALTH & FITNESS EDITOR BEN MARSHALL PUBLISHING DIRECTOR SEÁN KANE HEAD OF FINANCE RICHARD JUDD COMMERCIAL MANAGER JACQUELINE NICHOLSON ADVERTISING MICHELLE DE LA MOTTE-RICE, CHARLES WARD CONTRIBUTORS PAUL BURSTON, TARA DE LA MOTTE, CLAIRE JONES-HUGHES, SARAH DREW JONES, LAURA LOCKINGTON, SARAH MANN YEAGER, INGER MOSS, DANIEL RAVEN, JO WHITE PUBLISHED BY GREEN DUCK MEDIA LTD • SUSSEX STYLE™ • COPYRIGHT 2014-09 • ISSN 2049-6036 SECOND FLOOR, AFON BUILDING, WORTHING ROAD, HORSHAM, WEST SUSSEX, RH12 1TL T: 01403 801800 M: 07528 521988 SUSSEXSTYLE.COM FACEBOOK.COM/SUSSEXSTYLEMAGAZINE TWITTER.COM/SUSSEXSTYLEMAG

All rights reserved. except for normal review purposes, no part of this magazine may be reproduced without written permission of the publishers. No artwork or editorial content may be used in any other form or publication without the publisher’s consent. Every care is taken in the preparation of this magazine, but the contents are only meant as a guide to the readers. The proprietors of this publication ARE publishers, not agents or sub agents of those who advertise therein. They cannot be held liable for any loss suffered as a result of information gained from the publication. Copyright 2015 Green Duck Media Ltd - Sussex StyleTM

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interview

STILL A COOL Legendary DJ David ‘Kid’ Jensen has worked with the greats for nearly 50 years, from The Rolling Stones to Pet Shop Boys. As he launches a new show for BBC Radio Sussex, Sarah Drew Jones goes to meet the king of the decks

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IMAGE CREDIT: COURTESY OF THE WIRELESS FROM AGE UK

interview

hen you’ve played football with Mick Jagger, lunched with Stevie Wonder and hung out with George Harrison, you might wonder what’s left for to achieve as a radio DJ. But it’s the work that’s most important - so how about a summer of special Saturday shows for BBC Radio Sussex? From this month, that’s exactly what David ‘Kid’ Jensen is doing, back at the BBC where he reigned supreme during his stint at Radio 1 in the 1970s and 1980s.

Best known for his laidback presenting style, soft Canadian lilt and mop of blond hair, Jensen has long been a fixture on radio and TV, fronting Top of the Pops and partnering with John Peel to champion new bands, including Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Duran Duran and The Police.

In an exclusive interview with Sussex Style, David, 64, tells us about music, Michael Jackson’s hat, and why he’s no fan of The X Factor…

I was at Radio 1 during a golden era. It was such a special time and a highlight of my career. The proliferation of independent radio stations hadn’t happened yet and so the audience was huge. I was so glad to be part of the team then.

My radio career began in British Columbia when I was 16. I knew about music because I had been playing in a symphony orchestra and I was president of the student council and loved public speaking, so radio seemed to combine the two.

I was mad for The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Beach Boys and The Kinks, and I jumped at the chance to present a show called Teen Beat. It was the start of my association with chart shows: kids would listen to it when they got home from school. These days radio stations specialise in one sort of music but in those days you might be cheekby-jowl with big band music or sports, so it was a wide scope.

I was never going to make it as a professional musician, so I made radio my career. I’d always wanted to come to Britain because threequarters of my grandparents were British and I’d grown up with tales of the old country. Swinging London was happening and DJs from Radio Caroline were being fêted as if they were rock stars, despite having no discernible talent other than the ability to play records. It seemed so

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exciting, so I auditioned for Radio Luxembourg in 1968, and after that Radio 1, and it took off from there.

I survived going on tour with The Rolling Stones. In 1973 they invited me to join them on the Eastern Seaboard leg of their USA tour.

I remember Bill Wyman gave me an Access All Areas pass, and I joined the band on their private plane to fly from gig to gig. I got to stand at the side of the stage behind a stack of amps and feel for a moment like I was one of the Stones. We went around in motorcycle cavalcades and it was an incredible thing to get a glimpse of that life. There were surreal moments too. I remember late one night when the Stones’ plane was grounded in bad weather, the sax player suggested a kickabout so everyone trooped off and played football on the deserted runway.

They say ‘never meet your heroes’ but I’ve been lucky enough to have met an awful lot of mine. Stevie Wonder was one, the support act on that Stones tour. I was making a documentary and got to hang out with him backstage, and it’s strange but wonderful to have dinner with all these music idols. You have to be careful in that world, though: I avoided things that looked like Smarties but probably weren’t.

My years at BBC Radio 1 were really memorable. Michael Jackson once came into the studio wearing a pith helmet. I had no idea why, but it seemed rude to ask. The studio is where I feel at home. I love the interaction with the listeners and playing music that people haven’t heard before. That’s always been the appeal and it’s such a great life, much better than working.

Aspiring musicians used to hand us cassettes wherever we went. At a personal appearance or a gig you’d get handed a load of cassettes from bands looking for their big break. I’d have a bagful in the car and I’d listen to them on the journey home: I’d keep ones I liked on the front seat and chuck the rejects in the back! Then my BBC Radio 1 producer would contact them to see if they’d come and do a session on my show.

Some of the names from that time are Pet Shop Boys, The Pretenders, The Police, Howard Jones and Culture Club: talented people I had the opportunity to work with. But if it hadn’t been me it would have been someone else, their music was so great. You have to have the heartfelt belief that they’re going to make it in order to take the audience with you. Championing acts is rewarding. You could go from listening to their demo cassette to introducing them playing their first hit on Top of the Pops.

I’m known for music shows but I love current affairs and news just as much. I spent a couple of years in Atlanta in the States working on

IMAGE CREDITS: GEORGE HARRISON PICTURE FROM BBC ARCHIVE; IMAGE OF DAVID JENSEN COURTESY OF DAVID JENSEN

a news show at CNN. Now what I like to do is combine current affairs and speech radio with music, it’s good to have the mix.

Radio will always endure because it’s such a personal medium.

These days things are different because there’s so much choice of entertainment, and it’s spread across so many platforms, but radio hasn’t just survived - it has kept ahead because it’s constantly reinventing itself. And it’s not just a case of radio as a whole. It’s true of the presenters too: no one can afford to rest on their laurels, you have to evolve and it helps when you sound like you’re having a good time doing the show. It’s the accessibility and the personal touch that engenders such loyalty in listeners. The old saying is true that radio is about the listener inviting you into their home, and that means you have to be on your best behaviour.

I’m still a radio junkie. I listen to James Cannon on BBC Radio Surrey in the mornings, he’s great, and I love Talk Sport. I like Radio 4 at breakfast time. There are still programmes and people on radio that I aspire to be like, because they’re achieving a high level of entertainment, education and enlightenment. And great ratings! It’s good to have that kind of challenge to keep you sharp.

The music industry has changed so much. Life at the top level – and this hasn’t just happened in music; you find it goes for sport as well – has become much harder and so much more corporate. DJs, filmmakers and journalists just don’t get the same level of access to the big stars any more. Things are more financially-focused. It often feels as if the element of innocence has gone.

The rise of online music streaming is taking artists’ livelihoods away from them.

They can’t make money from recording now. The emphasis isn’t

“There’s so much choice of entertainment, but radio has kept ahead because it constantly reinvents itself.

That’s true of the presenters, too. No one can rest on their laurels. You have to evolve”

Michael Jackson and George Harrison join David in the BBC Radio 1 studio in 1979

on music sales any more, it’s on concerts and merchandising and the music they record is like a trailer for that. That’s OK if you’re a big artist who’s able to fill stadiums, but it’s not if you’re not yet established. For new artists it’s difficult: they need to work very hard, have a lot of luck and try to tour as much as possible, which isn’t always easy.

I play the music I want to play. I was lucky to have free choice at Radio 1, and now on my new shows at BBC Radio Sussex and BBC Radio Surrey, and not be tied to a playlist set by someone else. It’s important to play eclectic music, not something that just fits in with a particular view. Free choice doesn’t seem to exist so much anymore.

I’m not a fan of music talent shows on TV. They tend to be antiseptic, homogenised and bland. On radio it’s different, you can champion new music the way I used to with John Peel. I always enjoyed that part of my show, looking for the next big thing.

You have two different camps on radio: the entertainers who like to tell jokes or do prank phone calls and that kind of thing, and the presenters for whom music is the most important thing. But if you can combine both, even better.

I’m quite lazy about social media. I have an account on twitter (@davidkidjensen) and I like the discipline of the 140 characters but it’s so time-consuming. I should make more effort. I tweet a lot about football, because I’m such a fan of Crystal Palace.

I don’t really think about retiring. The atmosphere at the BBC is very different to a commercial radio station and the way the shows are run reminds me of the old days at Radio 1. So now I’m doing these new Summer Saturday shows playing some great music, interviewing celebrities and talking to the listeners. I’m also doing some chart shows for UTV Radio, based on the chart rundown shows I did in the ‘80s.

I love Sussex and know East Grinstead quite well. I used to visit with the Radio Luxembourg and Radio 1 DJs in the 1970s. We’d stay at the Felbridge Hotel which I believe is still there. I remember that it was one of the first hotels in the UK to invite DJs to do a set, which was a lot of fun. I go to the Goodwood Festival of Speed every year and I like Midhurst with the extraordinary yellow paintwork on Cowdray Park Estate houses. And now I find myself wishing I had some property in Crawley, since they struck oil there.

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01273 605577 - 16 Gardner St BN1

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school gate confidential

I like you but not your kid

IMAGE CREDIT: WAVEBREAKMEDIA/SHUTTERSTOCK

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eeting new mum-friends YOU FINALLY GET TALKING ideal school gate mum, only to discover her new is a bit like dating. You TO A FRIENDLY FACE IN THE chum’s child was barely tolerable. Both mums worked, and when they realised their seven-yearquiz them from the getSCHOOL GATE CROWD. old sons were friends they started to arrange go to ascertain as quickly SHE’S PLEASANT, FUNNY reciprocal play dates after school, which also as possible whether you AND INTELLIGENT. THEN helped with childcare. “The problem is, I find her are compatible. I started son the most sneaky tell-tale I have ever come “mum-dating” a friend when our kids were YOU REALISE SHE’S THE babies, but as they started to grow and develop MOTHER OF THAT KID – THE across,” she sighs. “He knows, as the guest in our house, he’ll get to choose first at snack and meal their personalities, I realised quickly I couldn’t ONE YOU DISLIKE times. But when my son blurts out his choice, stand being around her fussy, attention-seeking child. My friend would constantly stop converstions to satisfy the whims for example strawberry flavour yoghurt, the boy, about to reach out for of her child, who would shout, whine and burst into tears if she wasn’t raspberry, takes the strawberry instead. I can’t break our guest etiquette heard. To top that, I noticed her daughter’s behaviour was making my in front of my own children, so a meltdown ensues.” She’s trying hard to teach her son the art of reverse psychology but it’s taking time to sink in. daughter tense. It was a relief when they went to different schools.

“This boy is also consistently telling tales. He comes to me four or five Another mum, let’s call her “Sally”, befriended “Jane” at the school gate some years ago and they’ve really clicked. They go out regularly for times during every play date to give me the micro-details of unfairness a glass of wine. However, it’s recently come to light that Sally’s 11-year- from both my kids. Annoyingly he doesn’t even make concessions for old daughter is being bullied at school by Jane’s daughter, who belittles my son’s younger sister. I explain that she’s only four years old but he just Sally’s daughter in front of her classmates, but jealously wards off anyone doesn’t listen.” Exhausted by this behaviour, the mum has decided to who tries to befriend her. Sally’s daughter stopped walking to school with handle it as if he were one of her own children, telling him he shouldn’t Jane’s daughter and no longer associates with her at school. “There’s an be telling so many tales and that he should try resolving the dispute elephant in the room when I see Jane. Either she doesn’t know the girls himself. “If that risks the friendship, then so be it. I could sadly lose my are no longer spending time together or she’s avoiding the young girls’ only class-mum ally,” she concludes.

The school gate can be a lonely place for many parents. But pinning drama to retain the friendship,” Sally explains. “I can’t understand how your hopes on meshing with the parents of your children’s friends can be such a warm, funny and kind person can be raising a bully.”

When children start school it becomes almost impossible to avoid a disastrous waste of time. Better to take a step back, keep your options the “play date”. Another acquaintance met what she thought was her open, and play the field.

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brighton mums

To the nursery and beyond: for Lucy Smalls, picking up toys and cueing up decks are all part of the skill set

The mother of all DJs

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IMAGE CREDIT: SIMON HALL

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Before Lucy Smalls, aka DJ Elle J, became a mum she had established a career in London as righton has been a mecca for CLAIRE JONES-HUGHES a freelance music journalist. She then went on clubbing since the acid house OF BRIGHTONMUMS.COM to start a popular club night called Rio Rocks, and rave nights in legendary EXPLORES THE LATEST DJ with Brazilian underground DJ talent that the venues under the Kings Road SENSATIONS SWEEPING likes of Basement Jaxx came along to check out.

Arches in the 1980s. Today, THE CITY: MUMS BY DAY, “I lost a little confidence after having my two when you imagine a typical boys, so don’t think I could perform in London, Brighton club DJ, our mama spinners may not HIP CLUB DJS BY NIGHT but Brighton is much more open and accepting. be the first thing that comes to mind.

“I can’t believe you’re a mum!” people often exclaim to DJ Molly People don’t care that I’m not a fully capable mixer or scratch artist, they Pop. “DJs are the people who make the party, the party-heads, so a mum like the music I play,” she explains. Lucy prides herself on her ability to party-head is unusual,” says Molly Pop. Her impressive DJ CV includes read the crowd at Funk The Format and the popular Brighton festival, working in Soho with the likes of The Wiseguys in the late 90s. She Funk The Family: “I always get people dancing, that’s my mission.”

Juggling motherhood and evening work is no easy task, as Molly Pop now has regular nights at Bohemia, The Tempest, The Black Lion and will be playing the Spiegeltent during the Festival fringe. Remarkably, describes: “Mums are trained to wake up early, so I can get in at 3am on she balances the work with single parenthood, relying on help from her a Friday morning, wake up at 7am, do the school run and be ready to start work again later that night.” She has thought of a career change, as family and friends with childcare at weekends.

DJ duo Hannah Sherlock and Sorcha Bridge actually met at the her weekend routine means she doesn’t always engage in typical parent school gates. They call themselves the Instant Sisters, after their first activities such as trips to the country. “But I have to weigh it up. Lots of venture together before DJ-ing, a photography business named Instant people do night shift work, they make that sacrifice for their career. This Forever. They’ve recently snagged two monthly residencies at Hotel is my main job and at least I’m there during the week for my daughter, I Pelirocco and The Tempest, and are about to launch a radio show on the can do the school run.”

When I ask all the DJs if their children listen to the music their fledging station, 1 Brighton FM. “I spotted Sorcha on the school run, and I thought, I need to make friends with her. She had the best outfits mums play, the answers are similar. “They’re always asking why it has to be so loud,” says Sorcha. Molly concurs, adding that unlike her, her on the school run. She’s a ‘bird’,” says Hannah Sherlock.

Professional DJ-ing is not the most obvious career path for anyone, daughter is into rock music. Lucy Smalls’ two boys also like guitar-based let alone a mum. “If someone had told me 10 years ago, I’d be a music, which she also finds strange as neither she nor her partner like professional photographer and a professional DJ I wouldn’t have believed rock. Perhaps it’s some sort of rebellion, or the children trying to carve out their own music identity. After all music is a personal journey. them,” Hannah grins.

C o o l e r s , G l a s s R a n g e , P l a s ti c R a n g e

Susannah Waters

FROM STAGE TO PAGE This May former opera singer and Lewes resident Susannah Waters takes a very daring show to the Brighton Festival. Alex Hopkins uncovers her passions

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IMAGE CREDITS: TOP: ROBERT MCLEAN; MIDDLE: FEDERAY HOLMES; BOTTOM: ROBERT MCLEAN

culture

id you know, that recently the Swedish government instituted a neutral gender pronoun to save the problem of when you don’t know somebody’s gender?”

Susannah Waters asks me. “I mean, how wonderful is that?”

There’s real excitement – even delight – in the former operasinger-turned-director’s voice as she shares this information with me.

Preconceptions about sexuality and gender roles have always been important to Waters: her family is, in her own words, “very complex”: she has a female partner and the pair have five children, living in a beautiful Tudor house on the High Street in Lewes. Waters also has two teenage children. “It’s a very busy family-artistic-juggling life,” she laughs joyfully.

This May Waters will examine the use of gender in opera, as she directs world renowned mezzo-soprano Alice Coote in a onewoman show, Being Both, at the Brighton Festival. Coote will take a journey into Handel’s most sublime vocal music. This constitutes a particularly audacious journey, as the opera singer – celebrated for playing roles originally written for castrati – will be singing both the female and male parts.

Waters first got to know Coote when they both studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (Coote was three years below Waters), and despite Coote also living in East Sussex, the two women have never before worked together. The seeds of Being Both were sown two summers ago when there was a minor scandal at Glyndebourne, as critics were particularly vicious in their remarks about the woman playing Octavian – a trouser role – in Der Rosenkavalier.

“It was outrageous,” recalls Waters. “They were being really personal and talked about the woman in question being too ‘pudgy’ for the part. Alice made a very public statement – which went viral - condemning these reviews, pointing out that a boy does not have to have one particular body shape anyway, and rightly stating that she could never imagine those journalists criticising a male singer in the same way.”

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culture

Coote and Waters started talking. What would happen if opera roles were cast differently – in a way that was much more unisex and agender?

Handel’s work, in which female characters were originally written for castrati voices, became their focus. For Waters, it was an obvious choice.

“Handel’s operas are so wonderfully humane about the foibles of the heart, of unrequited love always expressed with such compassion for the characters. What I wanted to look at was how, instead of saying that this male character is being sung by a woman traditionally, how about saying it is a female character – what would that do to the way we perceive the character and the way we hear the music? So, in Being Both, we’re playing all the way through with this idea: if you up the masculine feel and physicality, what does that do to the way we understand the text?

“But what we’re very much not trying to do” – and here Waters is quick to emphasise – “is to make Alice into a man for some of the numbers and make her a woman for others. We’re working with the idea that in all of us we have the qualities of both male and female. It’s about playing with the volume and balance of these and exploring that through the music. If there’s a message we want to get out to the younger generation it’s that they can be both male and female: they can have both of those qualities and that is ok.”

In the often conservative world of opera this is quite bold, but Waters says she has had nothing but support from her contemporaries.

What does she think audiences will make of these changes?

“I really don’t think people will be too shocked by it. I feel I am catching a wave that is just cresting rather than being ahead of it,” she modestly laughs, telling me that a week previously she and Coote visited Selfridges, who have just started a new campaign called Agender. This involves the setting up of a temporary installation to clump all the male and female clothes together, creating a unisex area which experiments with gender boundaries. “It’s the way things are going,” adds Waters. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Selfridges decide to change the way they sell their clothes and no longer have one floor for men and another for women. It’s time to free up those barriers.

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“I love opera so much as an art form, but it can very much fall into traditional sexual roles and relationships. Being Both is a one-woman show, so obviously we can’t explore those relationships too much, but if I were casting a Handel opera, I’d be interested to play around with the roles: why not make a male character who is usually sung by a woman, a woman?

Then you’d have some relationships that were heterosexual and others that were same-sex. I think that would make it more relevant to today.”

Waters knows what works in opera.

She has had a long and illustrious career as an opera singer, performing principal roles in the world’s leading houses, including the Royal Opera House, the Welsh National Opera, LA Opera, Seattle Opera and the Royal Swedish Opera. She has also performed many times at the Glyndebourne Festival, which she repeatedly speaks of with great affection.

Being Both is the latest project from an independent, passionate and clearly determined woman who has consistently taken risks and pushed her own creativity. In 2000, at the height of her powers as an opera singer, Waters decided to leave the stage to take up writing and directing. Why?

IMAGES CREDITS: TOP: GARY SMITH; BOTTOM: ROBERT WORKMAN. MAIN IMAGE BY ROBERT MCLEAN

“I often say that singing was like squeezing a stone. I adored it, I did it for 10 years and had a great deal of success.

But I got frustrated with my particular paintbrush. A voice can only go so far”

“I often say that singing was like squeezing a stone. I adored it, did it for 10 years and had a great deal of success. But there came a point when I listened to the voices of famous colleagues and thought, ‘I will never have that voice.’ I got frustrated with my particular paintbrush – what I perceived were the limits of my voice. You can’t do anything with the paintbrush that you’re given. A voice can only go so far.”

It was, I remark, a brave decision: some other singers would perhaps have continued to the point when they became bitter.

“Well, yes…sometimes I do meet singers who are incredibly burnt out and, sadly, there is nothing else that they want to do, so they stay at it. It’s a shame. Fortunately, I always had an eye on the production and the direction. I loved the whole world of opera – not just the singing. I could see a future elsewhere.”

Waters went on to form her own production company, The Paddock, which produced theatre, opera and dance, frequently in unusual settings.

Then, in March 2013, she directed a new opera, Imago, by Orlando Gough and Stephen Plaice at Glyndebourne. In addition to these projects, she was also writing and mentoring writers: her first novel, Long Gone Anybody, was published by Transworld-Black Swan in 2004 and was followed by Cold Comfort (Transworld-Doubleday) in 2006.

But she never planned to become a writer.

“Both of my parents were English teachers, so I grew up around books. But nothing happened for me until I went to sing in Sante Fe one year. Let’s just say I was heartbroken. The first place I visited was a bookshop, where I picked out a book on writing. All summer, I’d set the clock for 25 minutes each day and write. My initial thought was that it

was just cathartic, but very quickly a story emerged and by the end of the summer I’d written a novella.”

Success followed: Waters was published very quickly. She, of all people, is most surprised – and, one senses, a little guilty - at how easy it was. There were no demoralising rejections. She currently has two further books in the wings, but is holding off submitting them because she says they don’t quite have “the texture” she wants. She relishes her new craft.

“I love the solitariness of writing, being a mistress of your own domain, but I also need the collaboration of directing. The two form a good balance for me.”

Does she ever look back and yearn for the applause and flowerstrewn stages of the world’s greatest opera houses?

“Oh, no! I am full of admiration for singers. I think they’re wonderful, but it’s a hell of a life. The pressure of it. What I hated most of all was the necessary rest that you had to take all the time. It’s like being an athlete.

And you’re always away from home; you have to get enough sleep; you have to rest your voice, and so on. That really doesn’t suit me. I like being busy all the time and having lots of things on the go.”

Her days flying around the world to perform as a singer may be over, but with plans to tour Being Both, one senses that Susannah Waters is unlikely to be sitting back and resting on her laurels anytime soon. Her curiosity for the world we live in and the limitations we set ourselves continues to spur her on. “Why Work?” she asks herself on her website.

The answer: “My dogged, deeply un-hip obsession with what happens on page and stage.” Or, to put it another way, as she tells me in a low but emphatic voice now: “I just love what I do.”

A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 25

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fashion & beauty

Fresh for spring: pastels, natural tones and floral patterns to greet the sunshine, the blue sky and the open air

A PRI MA Y L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E. E . CO M | 27

fashion

Effortless cool Now is the time to lounge outside in style - in chic pastels, beautiful floral prints and elegant blues

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Multi Anita Geo printed maxi kaftan beach dress £79, blue Trinidad necklace £25, blue belsize necklace £29, silver Silverdale H-Brand Trim sandal shoe £39, Monsoon/Accessorize, uk.monsoon.co.uk

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A PRI MA Y L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E. E . CO M | 29

fashion

This page: clockwise: Dunham Oxford shirt, Crew trouser, Classic brogue, Crew Clothing, crewclothing.co.uk; Bethany floral knit jumper £65, paired with Thea denim shorts - £45, phaseeight.com; Jacket £69, Trousers £30, Waist coat £35, Shirt £20, Tie £16, Tie bar £8, Pocket square £5, Shoes £48, Burton Menswear, burton.co.uk. Opposite page: Honeysuckle Trench £199, Perry Top £89, Colette Trousers £99, hobbs.co.uk

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fashion

Opposite page: Geo print shirt £25, Geo print shorts £28 Cross strap sandals £35, next.co.uk. This page: Clockwise: Dune Mens - Barbicane £89, Mens at Dune. dune.co.uk; Lola kimono dress £69 coupled with a Shona Stripe bag £55, phase-eight.com; Jumper £25, Jeans £25, Trainers £25, Burton Menswear, burton.co.uk

A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 33

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Model Amber-Rose May wears pieces from Tegen’s current collection, on Brighton sea front.

Photography by Simon Rascenet-Cole

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egen accessories, an independent boutique, located in the heart of Brighton’s beautiful Lanes, has everything you need to sparkle. No ensemble is complete without a stunning fascinator and we stock one of the largest ranges in Sussex. With around 400 different fascinators in a range of colours, sizes, styles and budgets, there’s something for everyone.

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19 Meeting House Lane, Brighton BN1 1HB T: 01273 730154 www.tegenaccessories.co.uk A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 35

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AT LAST THE WEATHER IS WARMING UP, AND WE CAN KICK OFF OUR WINTER BOOTS AND SPRING INTO OUTDOOR ACTION. SUSSEX STYLE HAS DONE ALL THE FOOTWORK, TRACKING DOWN FIVE PERFECT PEDI PRODUCTS TO MAKE YOUR CALLOUSES AND CORNS SANDALWORTHY

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ounded on a passionate belief in high quality treatments and impeccable customer service, our hand-picked team of expert therapists and medical practitioners are committed to providing both pampering and the latest in non-surgical aesthetic skin care.

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A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 39

inger moss

Get ready for Spring

“Layers accommodate to temperatures; peel off or pile on” 40 | S US S E X S T Y L E . C OM | MAY 2 0 1 5

IMAGE CREDIT: YULIYA YAFIMIK/SHUTTERSTOCK

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he spring/summer season has IT’S COLD, WARM, SUNNY, coat or jacket. Which style of coat or jacket to choose depends on several things: where you been on display in the shops RAINING AND ALMOST live, your daily lifestyle, and so forth. Be it a for over a month already. Pink, ALWAYS WINDY – ALL IN leather or suede jacket, denim, parka, trench or a citrus and bold flower prints ONE DAY. NO WONDER WE long chunky cardigan, all are highly fashionable adorn the window mannequins, and the magazines have started FIND THIS TIME OF THE YEAR at the moment in this season’s lighter colours HARD TO DRESS FOR, and textures. If you are out and about a lot, their articles on body and skin preps before you walking dogs or picking up your children, a display all the bits that have been comfortably SAYS INGER MOSS wind- and shower-proof parka might be the best hidden over the winter months. They all seem to be a bit far ahead to me. Mind you, my body never seems quite to investment. For work, a leather jacket can look just as chic worn inside catch up to bikini wear any longer. Yes, we have some lovely warm days, as outside - all you need to do is take off or put on the layers beneath. Or but from winter coat to flowy maxi dress just seems too sharp and sudden the all-rounder trench coat, which literally is an investment for life. I am a change. So how to go about this seasonal transition in an undramatic happy to put money on it never going out of fashion.

Remember, when you choose your layers underneath the coat or and not overly costly way? The good news is that there is no reason to jacket, to pick every item carefully. We have all sweated away in a warm dive into a complete wardrobe replacement.

I must admit that I am more than ready to ditch the boots and jumper that we absolutely could not take off because below it is the most winter coat; but other than that, this is the season for layering. Add comfortable, formerly white but now grey, washed shapeless t-shirt. lighter textures and a softer colour scheme, pastel colours, camel, grey Wear no outer garment you would not wear on its own.

Heavier boots can now make way for some tanned suede ankle and off-white, to navy or black jeans. Focus on accommodating yourself to changing temperatures during the day. You want to be able to peel off boots, espadrilles, Converse or wedged sandals. With a pair of pale wash boyfriend jeans, chinos or white jeans, the legs rolled up to dsiplay a bit or pile on accordingly.

The big, shapeless (but oh so warm) coat can now give way to a of ankle, the spring look is perfected.

All you need to top it off is a lightweight knit or woven scarf, another nice layering of several items. You start with light cotton or linen t-shirts in different shades of pastel or sandy, nude or greys. Then, again in a chance to add some colour or pattern, and an easy way to lift your outfit.

The bottom line is that whatever you wear, wear it with confidence. light colour, a soft mohair or cashmere jumper, topped with a seasonal

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health and fitness

Ann Widdecombe

AND GETTING YOUR PERFECT BEACH BODY IMAGE CREDIT: MAIN IMAGE: NETFALLS - REMY MUSSER/SHUTTERSTOCK ANNE:FEATUREFLA/SHSHUTTERSTOCK

Who would have thought that Tory stalwart Ann Widdecombe would unwittingly give Ben Marshall some of the finest fitness advice ever…?

M

any moons ago I interviewed the former Tory cabinet minister and bête noire of the Left, Ann Widdecombe.

Despite our many differences I liked her. She is an affable and funny woman. As the interview drew to a close I asked her why so many of my generation appeared unhappy and dissatisfied, whereas my grandfather’s and great-grandfather’s generation, many of whom had fought in World War II, and nearly all of whom had suffered the indignities of food rationing, were for the most part uncomplaining and content.

I expected some guff about the spirit of the Blitz. Instead I got one of the most considered and empathetic replies I have ever had from any interviewee. For Widdecombe, doyenne of the Tory Right, the problem was capitalism, or at any rate the lofty dreams capitalism rides on. My generation, and the generations that have followed, have been mercilessly flogged for perfection. According to Ann, there was no such thing as perfection. Reaching for it would always result in unhappiness. So having been promised the impossible we are then

offered quick solutions to complex problems.

Unhappy in your marriage/ Get a divorce.

Unwanted pregnancy? Abort. Got a headache?

Take a pill. Overweight? Crash diet. And when as often as not these quick and dirty solutions to complex problems don’t work out, we become even more unhappy, even less fulfilled, even further away from perfection.

Sure, a lot of this was standard bootstrap Thatcherism meets devout Catholicism, but her general points – striving for perfection is pointless and dangerous; quick solutions to complex problems are not solutions at all, but instead pave the way for future problems – struck me as interesting.

The fitness industry thrives on what Widdecombe warns against. It is rife. And never more so than at this time of the year.

Now that the sun is out there are any number of magazine articles promising you the perfect beach body in just two weeks, or telling you how to get rock hard abs with almost no effort. In the words of the old Tory, these people

are promising you a quick and painless route to perfection. They offer a simple solution to a complex problem. And they will end up making you unhappy.

An acquaintance of mine, let’s call him Wayne, with a beer belly the size of a Victorian bay window, recently asked me how long it would take him to get into shape. I replied that if he went to the gym three or four times a week, stopped drinking and started eating properly he would look feel better after two weeks, notice some pronounced changes in his body after three months and look fit and 15 years younger after about six months. “That’s way too long,” he snapped indignantly, apparently forgetting it had taken him more than 50 years to get into his present state. But people want things fast, very fast. As Ann said, good things only come to those who wait.

So here are a few home truths. Even those beautiful few who won nature’s lottery have to work hard at looking how they look.

A PRI MA Y L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E. E . CO M | 43

health and fitness

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on the booze and carbs. Try avoiding starchy carbs after midday, and drinking only vodka, preferably mixed into a pint of water. This will leave you feeling full, and also won’t allow you to get too drunk. If you want to go really crazy you can make it a pint of fizzy water.

Interval training is good because it exercises muscles and the respiratory system and has been proven far more effective than long runs. My preferred method is to divide my time into two minute rounds. Each of these is in turn divided into 15-second intervals followed by a 15-second break. I pick three exercises that work out the whole body. Press-ups (for chest and shoulders), burpees (for glutes, quads, hamstrings, calves) and bent-over rows (for back and shoulders).

Beginning with press-ups, you do as many as you can as fast as you can for 15 seconds. You then break for 15 seconds, and so on until you have completed a twominute round. At the end of the round take a one-minute break, then move on to your second exercise, then your third. Repeat this until you have done 12 rounds of each exercise.

At the end you will have been in the gym for a total of 36 minutes. However given that you are only working one minute for every two-minute round and taking a one-minute break between each round, you will actually only have done a total of 12 minutes exercise. Vary this routine, so that you are not perpetually putting the exact same strain on the exact same muscles every day.

The important thing is to pick three or four exercises that work together and work the whole body. Sprinting or squatting for fifteen seconds will work all the leg muscles, Pull-ups work the back. Dumbbell chest presses work the chest.

If you do this at your maximum intensity it will be the toughest 12 minutes of anything you have ever done. Do it six times a week and you will get leaner, stronger and more toned. And if you want to make it really hard, try singing as you do it. The reason the army makes its recruits sing as they train is to improve their lung capacity and circulation. You could try, ‘’I don’t know but I’ve been told / That Ann Widdecombe is bleedin’ bold”. Or, if you prefer, “Tory, fascist pig.” Whatever works for you.

HOW TO DO A PRESS UP When down on the ground, set your hands at a distance that is slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. * Your feet should be set up in a way that feels comfortable to you. * Think of your body as one giant straight line – from the top of your head down through your heels. * Push your body up and down.

HOW TO DO A BURPEE Begin in a standing position. * Drop into a squat position with your hands on the ground. * Kick your feet back, while keeping your arms extended. * Immediately return your feet to the squat position. * Jump up from the squat position and throw your hands in the air.

HOW TO DO A BENT OVER ROW Holding a barbell with a pronated grip (palms facing down), bend your knees slightly and bring your torso forward, by bending at the waist, while keeping the back straight until it is almost parallel to the floor. * Tip: Make sure that you keep the barebll head up. It should hang directly in front of you as your arms hang perpendicular to the floor. * While keeping the torso stationary, breathe out and lift the barbell to you. Keep the elbows close to the body. Use only the forearms to hold the weight. At the top contracted position, squeeze the back muscles and hold for a brief pause. * Then inhale and slowly lower the barbell back to the starting position.

Repeat for the recommended number of repetitions.

IMAGE CREDIT: LOLOSTOCK/SHUTTERSTOCK

And even when they look at their absolute, objective best, not one of them ever thinks they look perfect. It just does not happen – hence the neurotic lunacy of the already stunning going for tummy tucks and abdominal implants and, heaven forfend, plastic surgery to the vagina.

Renée Zellweger, a Hollywood beauty, is alleged to have spent a fortune trying to snip, nip and tuck her way to perfection. If Renée doesn’t feel perfect, what chance for rest of us mere mortals?

Of course this doesn’t mean you should, like Wayne, simply throw in the towel and decide that if you can’t reach some illusory best you shouldn’t bother reaching at all. What it does mean is working hard at your fitness regime.

Very hard. I know now that the sun is shining you probably assume you can get all the exercise you need by jogging around a park.

You may have even been promised by some magazine that this will work. It won’t. Using a park as a gym only ever works if you have already spent so much time in gyms you know how to use a tree branch as a pull up bar and a log as a weight for squatting with. Only Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky and professional soldiers work out this way. And none do so out of choice.

So it’s back in the gym with you, and it’s back in the gym NOW. Not tomorrow or next week, or three days before you leave for the Costa Del Sol. The number of personal trainers I encounter who patiently explain that arriving at the gym a fortnight before you plan to bare all on some sun kissed beach will achieve almost nothing.

All that said, there are ways to train that will maximize your time in a gym, and allow you to arrive at your goal (slightly) more quickly, if your goal is to be trim and toned for the summer. That means as trim as you can be, not as trim as Daniel Craig. The point is to arrive at your natural best and not compare yourself to someone else’s, especially when that someone is a Hollywood star or A-list singer with an army of personal trainers, a nutritionist, a personal chef and (inevitably) a very rich therapist.

You will need to work out a minimum of five times a week, preferably six times, and all your work-outs should involve interval training.

You will also need to cut out or at least cut back

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A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 45

likE drinking your firsT day of Holiday Tequila evangelist Cleo Rocos created AquaRiva® Premium Tequila and Organic Agave Syrup in 2011 after working with a Master Blender in Mexico for 10 months.

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sporting life

POLO

IMAGE CREDIT: CHRISTOPHER POLLARD @ CHRISTOPHER G PHOTOGRAPHY

a beginners’ guide

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It’s the ‘Game of Kings’, but how do you get involved in it?

Sallie Anne Lent of Sussex Polo Club spoke to us

he Game: Polo is recognised as the second-fastest ball game in existence, behind JaiAlai (or Pelota), and is played on horseback. Players work as a team to score goals, using their left hands to hold the reins and steer their horses whilst the right hand wields a mallet. Professional players can be moving at up to 38 miles an hour and this is a full contact sport. Polo is unique in that amateurs and professionals compete alongside each other in all but international or a handful of all-pro fixtures.

History: The first recorded polo match took place in 600 BC, making this the world’s oldest ball game. The game was played for the first time in the UK on Hounslow Heath in 1869 and in Argentina in 1875 – Argentina has enjoyed unchallenged supremacy in polo in recent years. Restrictions on the height of horses for polo were abolished after World War I. Prior to this, only animals below 14.2 hands were permitted, hence the appellation, “polo ponies.” Polo featured in the Olympics from 1900 until 1939.

Polo Today: The sport is played in 77 countries. Player numbers in Britain are around 2,500, spread amongst 68 outdoor and 20 arena polo clubs in the UK and Ireland. The highest concentration of polo clubs is in South-East England, but clubs are well established from Scotland to the West Country. Excepting 10 or so annual women’s polo tournaments, teams are mixed.

Season: In the Northern hemisphere, competitive grass polo is played from April until the end of September. Arena polo is played throughout the winter months, but reduced numbers of players participate. Many professional players also ‘follow the sun’ and play grass polo in the southern hemisphere from October until March.

Equipment: Players wear helmets of different design to normal riding hats, and some also wear protective faceguards. White jeans are worn with brown leather boots, kneepads and gloves. Players use mallets or sticks just over four feet in length, with mallet heads of around nine A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 47

sporting life

The Pitch: The outdoor polo field is 300 yards long by 220 wide, making it the largest field in organized sport. Goal posts at each end are 24 feet apart and a minimum 10 feet in height. Penalty lines are marked at 30 yards from the goal, 40 yards, 60 yards, and at midfield.

Chukkas A match is split into periods of play or chukkas, of seven-anda-half minutes in length. Matches comprise four, five or six chukkas, depending on the standard of play.

Players Four players make up a grass polo team. Numbers 1 and 2 are attackers, Number 3 is normally the Captain’s position and he or she is known as the “pivot” or “playmaker” while Number 4 is the “Back” or defender.

Handicap A polo player is rated from ‘S’ for starter up to 10 goals, with the latter handicap being applied to the world’s greatest.

Handicaps do not refer to the number of goals usually scored by an individual, but to their perceived value to the team.

Passionate about Polo

Ask any of the members how they got started in polo and the replies generally fall into one of two categories: Either they were given a voucher for an introduction to polo or they saw a polo match and were inspired to give it a go. The sheer passion of many polo players is epitomised by a famous verse inscribed on a stone tablet next to a polo ground in Gilgit, Pakistan: “Let others play at other things. The King of Games is still the game of kings.” (Anon) Polo is arguably the oldest recorded team sport in known history, with the first matches being played in Persia over 2500 years ago. Initially thought to have been created by competing tribes of Central Asia, and related to hockey, it was quickly taken up as a training method for the King’s elite cavalry.

The first recorded polo tournament was in 600 BC when the Turkomans beat the Persians in a public match. In the Middle Ages, the game was played from Constantinople to Japan - Tamerlane’s polo grounds can still be seen in Samarkand.

As mounted armies swept back and forth across this part of the world, conquering and re-conquering, polo was adopted as the most noble of pastimes by the Kings and Emperors, Shahs and Sultans, Khans and Caliphs of the ancient Persians, Arabs, Mughals, Mongols and Chinese. It was for this reason it became known across the lands as, “the Game of Kings,” although today it is one of the fastest growing sports for people from all walks of life.

One of the best ways to describe the unique game of polo would be to use the analogy of combining “rugby, hockey and chess at 40 miles an hour’”. It is a true team sport where men and women, old and young, professional and amateurs, can all participate against each other. The combination of this and the sheer adrenaline rush is the reason why players are so passionate about the sport. Polo represents the pinnacle of equestrian sport because of the special bond between horse and rider.

“The best way to describe the game of polo is to think of combining rugby, hockey and chess at 40 miles an hour”

Umpires A match is “policed” by two mounted umpires. The Referee or Third Man watches from the sidelines and will be called upon to arbitrate if the two umpires find they cannot agree.

Rules The rules of polo are mainly concerned with ensuring horse and rider safety. The most fundamental rules are based around the Line of the Ball and the Right of Way. A player travelling along hitting the ball forwards on his right has the same priority as a driver on the left hand side of the road, and forcing him to brake by cutting in front of him constitutes a foul. On occasion, opposing players may meet right hand 48 | S US S E X S T Y L E . C OM | MAY 2 0 1 5

to right hand on opposite sides of the “road”: for this reason, all players may only carry their mallets in their right hands.

IMAGE CREDIT: CHRISTOPHER POLLARD @ CHRISTOPHER G PHOTOGRAPHY

by two inches in size. Polo balls are three-and-a-half inches in diameter and are made of hard plastic. Polo saddles are flat and close-contact, to enable the player to be highly mobile. Bridles carry four reins, and are of stronger leather than normal.

Forthcoming Antiques & Interiors Auction 24th, 25th, 26th June Currently accepting consignments for forthcoming auctions We offer free valuations at our West Sussex Saleroom: Tuesdays and Thursdays 9.30am - 1pm & 2pm - 4.30pm Home valuation visits by appointment A 20th century wicker bound picnic basket, the cups and plates by Paragon. SOLD FOR £220

A silver model of a horse by Asprey London, London 1986.

SOLD FOR £500

A 19th century painted cast iron planter. SOLD FOR £650

A pair of Derby figures of bullfinches circa 1760-65.

SOLD FOR £1,800

A rare Meissen figure of a red squirrel, circa 1750, modelled by J.J.Kändler. SOLD FOR £6,200 A Continental flintlock hand mortar/ grenade launcher, 18th century.

SOLD FOR £3,300

A big game fishing reel stamped ‘Hardy Bros Ltd No 1536’, by ‘Alnwick England’. SOLD FOR £6,500

A diamond and carbuncle garnet set Russian brooch, designed as a stag beetle. SOLD FOR £520

www.bellmans.co.uk • enquiries@bellmans.co.uk • 01403 700858 Newpound, Wisborough Green, West Sussex, RH14 0AZ

A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 49

After seven years as a Royal Marine, Liam has made it his business to help those outside the forces become fighting fit and ready for action

Get fit with the

‘PIRATE FIGHTER’ Bored of the gym? Looking for a new way to get fit?

Let Liam Murphy, a former Royal Marine who protected ships from pirates, put you through your paces with his company Outdoor Military Fitness (OMF)

50 | S US S E X S T Y L E . C OM | MAY 2 0 1 5

fitness

So you were in the Royal Marines. How did this happen?

Yes, I was in the Royal Marines for seven years. I was what they call a “reservist”. Before I went into the forces I had a fairly decent sales career.

To go full-time in the Royal Marines would have been a big decision; it would have meant taking a massive pay cut and maybe selling my house, so I did the best of two worlds: I kept the job and trained as a Marine on a part-time basis.

IMAGE CREDIT: ANGELA MONAGHAN PHOTOGRAPHY

The training is notoriously tough, isn’t it?

I went through the full training – a couple of weekends a month and a week night each week – over the space of 16 months. You start off doing your field training and once you’ve learned how to look after yourself and keep yourself in top condition you then start to get a bit more technical and move into the patrolling and fighting side of things. I did harbour routines and drills. The final phase is the commando course.

The commando course is really intense. Among other things it involves navigating assault courses and mountain training. Great stuff! I passed out with my green beret in December 2008.

And then you went on to fight pirates!

Well, not exactly fight them [laughs]. I took a stint doing anti-piracy drills on ships that were transiting down the Red Sea and across the Arabian Sea. This involved 24-hour surveillance to protect from any attacks by pirates. Fortunately, none occurred, so I spent a lot of time training, sunbathing and reading books.

Did you dream of becoming a Marine when you were a child?

I went through the usual thing of playing with toy soldiers, placing them on the arm of a chair and pretending that they got knocked off by a bomb – that sort of thing. I think, deep down, there was always a passion for the forces, but then life takes over: work, women, that sort of thing. My college years were spent helping my parents, who worked in the catering industry. Then I found myself working in sales, so it all happened in a round-about way, but it worked out well in the end.

You set up your company Outdoor Military Fitness (OMF) in June 2013. What can you tell us about this?

The first class was in Grattons Park, Crawley. I invited local businesses down to sample it and it really took off from there. We’ve been going strong ever since. We don’t use equipment so it’s all about the natural function of the body. We’re talking press-ups, sit-ups, burpees, squat thrusts. You use your partners to aid the pull-ups and can recreate the equipment you get in the gym by using two people in the field. Levels of difficulty vary and we have a bib system which identifies clients’ abilities: yellow for beginners, orange for intermediates, green for advanced – or the “ninjas” as I call them. The whole programme is very cardio-intensive and we work through one muscle group at a time.

It certainly sounds more fun than the gym…

Yes, I think it is. We have a very social atmosphere and a real team ethos.

Interaction is encouraged. People bond and make friends and keep coming back to see them. We’re all about encouraging a troop mentality.

The thing with the gym is that no one really talks to each other; they’re all wandering around with their headphones on. You get personal trainers texting each other or checking when their next client is due rather than helping out people who aren’t using the machines properly. That’s not right. We’re constantly walking round monitoring people and if they’re doing something wrong we gently correct them, making sure that they’re working the right muscles and not risking any kind of injury.

It sounds great. But what sort of results can people expect?

The biggest one to date is a girl who lost four stone in ten months.

Generally speaking, I say to girls that they can expect to lose about a stone in six weeks. That’s realistic. You need to set yourself goals. If you want to lose two stone in three months to prepare for a wedding, then you should come along to military fitness three times a week; watch what you eat, cut out the bad stuff and the weight will fly off you. Most of what we do is toning and cardio work. That’s a great starting point.

OMF.fitness

A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 51

NOW OPEN at

RATHAM ESTATE Luxury touring park in the heart of West Sussex, minutes away from Goodwood, with the South Down National Park & award winning beaches right on your doorstep!

Come and join us for a unique experience at our exclusive park by visiting www.conciergecamping.co.uk or call us on 01243 573118 Ratham Lane, West Ashling, Chichester, West Sussex PO18 8DL

WARDROBE LIFESTYLE HOME Wardrobe from Equipment, By Malene Birger, Goat, J Brand, Current Elliott, James Perse, Rebecca Taylor, Penelope Chilvers, Ancient Greek Sandals, Birkenstock Yoga and Exercisewear from Weargrace, Asquith & Wellicious Jewellery from Maria Black, Alex Monroe & Chan Luu Beauty from Susanne Kaufmann, Ila-Spa, Ren, Aromatherapy Associates, Margaret Dabbs, John Masters Organics Home from Flamant, Andrew Martin, House Doctor, Heathfield, Dr Vranjes, Neom Organics, Ortigia

STIL

16 Hartfield Road, Forest Row, East Sussex, RH18 5DN Tel. 01342 822140 email:customercare@stilwellbeing.com www.stilwellbeing.com

52 | S US S E X S T Y L E . C OM | MAY 2 0 1 5

food & drink We go nuts in May about the great outdoors, featuring BBQs, wine and cheese, food festivals and dip recipes.

MAIN IMAGE BY YUKI SUGIURA

In association with Southdowns Water Co.

A PRI MA Y L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E. E . CO M | 53

food news

PITCH UP, EAT LOCAL

If camping is your thing you may want to take a look at this new book from Ali Ray. Ali spent five years travelling around the country in her camper van, ‘Custard’, meeting the UK’s most dedicated and enthusiastic local producers, including several in Sussex. Bringing locations to life with recipes and mouth-watering descriptions of regional food and its history, Pitch Up, Eat Local matches the country’s best producers, farmers’ markets, farm shops and pick-your-owns with some of the UK’s best campsites.

(AA Publishing, £16.99)

WHAT’S COOKING STAR RATING FOR SUSSEX VINEYARD

Ridgeview Wine Estate in Ditchling has been recognised as one of DEFRA’s Top 50 Food Stars. The awards recognise the revival of food and drink industries in the UK, and the contribution of food and drink entrepreneurs to the economy. “We are thrilled,” says Tamara Roberts, CEO of the family business. “This year marks Ridgeview’s 20th anniversary. In that time we have helped prove English sparkling wines can compete with the very best.” www.ridgeview.co.uk

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1

chee se s fo r spa rklin g wine 54 | S US S E X S T Y L E . C OM | MAY 2 0 1 5

2

WIN! We have one copy of Choccywoccydoodah: Chocolate, Cake

and Curses to give away to a lucky reader. Just email your name and address to comps@sussexstyle.co.uk with the subject title CHOCCY to be in with a chance of winning your guide to chocolate glory.

Food Festival Round-Up

Catch up with your favourite local producers and meet a few new ones at the county’s forthcoming food festivals.

02 - 04 May 03 - 04 May 24 May Brighton Foodies Sussex Food & The South of Festival, Folk Festival,The England Food & Hove Lawns Weald & Downland Drink Festival, foodiesfestival.com Open Air Museum, Ardingly Singleton Showground wealddown.co.uk foodrockssouth.co.uk

3

30 - 31 May Sussex & The World Weekend, Hove Lawns brightonfood festival.com

It’s English Wine Week at the end May. Why not try one of these cheeses with a glass of Sussex bubbly? 1. Golden Cross: Award winning goat’s cheese from Greenacres farm, Whitesmith, Lewes, perfect with a sparkling Brut. 2. Brie de Meaux AOC: Baron Edmound de Rothschild effervescent rosés are bold enough to stand up to this earthy tasting cheese. 3. Langres La Cave: The perfect match for a Sussex Blanc de Blancs. La Cave mature the cheese for an extra 12 days. (With thanks to la-cave.co.uk)

CHOCCYWOCCYDOODAH PHOTOGRAPH BY GARY MOYES

Portable BBQs, cheeses to go with wine and a festival roundup…Sam Bilton has it all covered

CHOCCY HEAVEN With a successful television series and celebrity fans, chocolatiers Choccywoccydoodah have come a long way since their humble beginnings in Brighton over 20 years ago. Their cookbook, Choccywoccydoodah: Chocolate, Cake and Curses, celebrates all that is chocolatey, and includes the stories behind their Rocky Road recipe and the Nuns’ Naughty Secrets. (Preface, £25)

EVEN THE DIRTY MARTINI IS SPOTLESS BAR & TERRACE

Relax in style in the Waterhouse Bar & Terrace, experience our hospitality and enjoy our ‘Perfect Pairings’.

The menu features locally sourced items for a real taste of Sussex, with Hailsham Lamb burger ‘Perfectly Paired, with a Sussex Mule or our decadent Tea by the Sea ‘Seaside Delights’ Afternoon Tea taken on the terrace.

With a car park on site, the Waterhouse Bar & Terrace is the perfect place to enjoy a family lunch with a difference, revel in a gathering of friends or savor any special occasion.

Open daily from 08:00am. For Afternoon Tea reservations please call 01273 775432 Hilton Brighton Metropole, Kings Road, Brighton, BN1 2FU

A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 55

food

AS NATIONAL VEGETARIAN WEEK APPROACHES SAM BILTON INVESTIGATES THE PROS AND CONS OF FOLLOWING A PLANT-BASED DIET.

Are vegetarians

HEALTHIER

than carnivores?

V

The Pros

The Vegetarian Society’s website makes some bold claims (supported by academic research) when it comes to the health benefits of following a vegetarian diet. The chief of these is the ability to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by some 32% compared to people who eat meat.

In addition a vegetarian diet is thought to help control cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of some types of cancer.

There is also the ecological argument that being a vegetarian can reduce your carbon footprint. Livestock farming is responsible for almost 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions from human-related activities, with cows and sheep producing 37% of the total methane generated.

Every day 2.5 million land animals are slaughtered in Britain.

Although there are strict animal welfare regulations in the UK, an ardent vegetarian will argue that no form of slaughter can ever be considered humane. Plus by eating a balanced vegetarian diet you are likely to exceed your recommended five portions of fruit and veg a day, so it’s a win-win for the animals and humans alike.

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The Cons

For omnivores, a vast proportion of their required protein, iron, zinc, vitamin B12 and vitamin D comes from meat and meat products. Nonmeat eaters and particularly vegans, who eschew dairy products as well as meat, may struggle to get enough of these nutrients. Vitamin B12, in particular, is only found in animal products and keeps the body’s nerve and blood cells healthy, as well as preventing anaemia.

Unless you are a vegan, the ecological argument for vegetarianism is somewhat diluted: those dairy cows will continue to fart.

Advocates of the ‘Caveman’ or Paleo diet (lots of meat but no dairy or grains) assert not eating meat goes against our very genetic make-up.

Undoubtedly, we should all eat less meat. The Vegetarian Society website states that individuals in the UK consume an average of 217g per day compared with the 70g per day recommended by the Department of Health. So perhaps introducing one meat-free day a week into our diet wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all.

National Vegetarian Week (18-24 May) nationalvegetarianweek.org

IMAGE CREDIT JKB STOCK & LISOVSKAYA NATALIA/SHUTTERSTOCK

Received wisdom dictates that people who munch their way through copious amounts of plants are going to be healthier than those of us who regularly tuck into a good steak. Between three and seven per cent of the adult population in the UK class themselves as vegetarians. Are these the enlightened few or a deluded group of tree-hugging, lentil sentimentalists?

WEDDINGS / RESTAURANT / BEDROOMS / MEETINGS

Dining at Pelham House ~ Delicious and seasonal Pelham House focuses on simple and delicious food, using good quality seasonal and locally sourced produce. We offer a variety of regularly changing menus.

The restaurant is the perfect setting for a special lunch or dinner. We also have several additional dining rooms which seat between 4 and 120 guests private dining.

Pelham House has a carefully selected list of wines and cocktails to complement our menus.

Diners can choose the historic Panelled Room, the charming Garden End Room or to dine alfresco on the stunning south facing Terrace.

Our Gallery menu is available from 10:00 until 22:00 for brunch, bar snacks, light meals and pre-dinner drinks and afternoon tea between 3pm and 5pm.

The Restaurant is open daily from 12:00 for lunch, and 18:00 for dinner.

To Book, or for any enquires please contact Pelham House: A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 57 p: 01273 488600 e: reception @pelhamhouse.com

Delectable dips YOUR PATIO IS IMMACULATELY SET, THE SUN IS SHINING AND YOUR FRIENDS ARE ON THEIR WAY. SAM BILTON GIVES HER PICK OF DIPS THAT ARE SURE TO IMPRESS

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food You can buy dips, of course, or use bought ones as a base, tarted up with extra herbs, spices, a little olive oil or a scattering of toasted pine nuts. Or you can make dips and sauces that aren’t available from the shops, such as the two given here. Both can be made the day before, and both are good as side dishes for barbecued fish or chicken, should the mood lean towards something more substantial.

Gazpacho Shots

Serve this refreshing chilled soup-cum-cocktail as an appetiser on a hot summer’s day. The tomatoes, peppers and onions we can buy in the UK are never going to have quite the same savour of those in Spain, but vine-ripened tomatoes are reasonably reliable. I’ve kept the amount of olive oil to a minimum, because in quantity it makes the drink filling.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY YUKI SUGIURA

Serves 4 400g of the best vine-ripened tomatoes you can find 1 red pepper, deseeded and cut into chunks ½ small cucumber, peeled and cut into rough chunks ½ red onion, roughly chopped 1 large garlic clove, roughly chopped ½ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon sherry vinegar 20ml very good quality extra virgin olive oil, or to taste To serve 2cm piece of cucumber 1 small-medium tomato a few chives cracked ice 100ml chilled vodka Cut out the slightly woody core from under the stem of each tomato (a corer makes this quicker), then slice the tomatoes. Put all the vegetables into a liquidiser and blend well. Then pass the blended mixture through a sieve or food mill, reserving the juice and discarding any solids left behind.

Add the salt, vinegar and olive oil to the juice, stirring well. Taste and check the seasoning. Chill well right up until serving.

To serve: peel the cucumber, remove the seeds and chop into tiny dice. Drop the tomato in boiling water, drain and remove the skin. Discard the seeds and cut the flesh into tiny dice like the cucumber. Snip the chives into short lengths. Add a few lumps of cracked ice to each of the four glasses and divide the vodka between them. Fill up the glasses with gazpacho and top each one with a little of the cucumber and tomato dice, and a few of the snipped chives. If necessary, prepare the garnish in advance and add it to the drinks at the picnic spot.

WIN! Green Goddess Dip

All recipes from The Picnic Cookbook by Laura Mason, published by National Trust Books £18.99

We have three copies of The Picnic Cookbook to give away to Sussex Style readers. Just email your name and address to comps@ sussexstyle.co.uk with the subject title PICNIC.

A recipe from the west coast of the USA, this dip has many variations: some use mayonnaise or soured cream, some omit the avocado and some add watercress or a little mint. The parsley, tarragon, basil and chives, garlic or shallot seem to be fairly constant and may be varied to taste.

Makes about 350g 1 large avocado 100ml buttermilk 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh chives 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh tarragon 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh basil fresh lemon juice to taste 1 small garlic clove, roughly chopped 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard ½ teaspoon finely grated lemon zest 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar a pinch of chilli powder ½ teaspoon salt 2 anchovy fillets or ½ teaspoon ground cumin Put all ingredients in a blender or food processor.

Blend well. Scrape out into a pretty serving bowl.

Chill until needed. (Both yourself, and the dip.)

A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 59

Do you love nature, but not so much that you don’t want to get away from it when the sun goes down? The glamping business has the answer for you

CARRY ON GLAMPING

Fancy enjoying the great outdoors, but not slumming it?

David Bennun traces the history of glamping – and looks at how to go about it in Sussex

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lifestyle

I

and “camping”, obviously. Which is apt, because it was in Africa that modern glamping, the word as yet uncoined, was devised as a leisure pursuit - longer ago than perhaps many people might guess.

It was on safari that glamping took form. In 1909 Theodore Roosevelt, then just departed from his second and final term in office as President of the United States, set out on a year-long expedition through East and North-East Africa, the ostensible purpose of which was to collect specimens for the Smithsonian Institute. This, of course, required him to shoot said specimens, turning the whole business into what must surely be the single most extravagant hunting holiday ever undertaken. By the time he was done, Roosevelt had bagged over a thousand animals.

Were he to undertake such an enterprise now, social media would surely be awash with photographs detailing his depredations and demanding action against his bloodthirsty ways. But those were

PHOTOGRAPHY BY L.TROTT/SHUTTERSTOCK.

t’s not often I’ve found myself ahead of the trend. But growing up in East Africa, I was unwittingly, let’s say, fashion forward.

My family spent a lot of time under canvas. When I was small, we tended to rough it. First in “pup tents” - the little triangular jobs still used by backpacking students and the like on their budget versions of what used to be known as The Grand Tour. Then in the larger, olive-green units fashioned from heavy canvas and favoured by the military and by quasi-military outfits such as the Scouts. As a member of the Cubs, I once spent a night in a large such tent, awaking in the morning to find myself flat-out, al fresco. I was persuaded that I must have restlessly rolled out from under its high open eaves. In hindsight, I suspect I was relocated by mischievous fellow troop members.

But all this was to end when my family became pioneers of what is now know as “glamping” - a portmanteau of “glamour”

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lifestyle

different times, and the event received huge and positive publicity.

Dozens of journalists and photographers followed his party, sending pictures and dispatches back to an eager public in the USA. Roosevelt was a rugged fellow; in 1912, having been shot in the chest, he would deliver a scheduled speech for an hour and a half, rather than going to hospital. But not so rugged that he was about to spend a year in the bush unencumbered by comfort. He and his party camped in palatial style, outfitted by a company called Newland And Tarlton (who would go on to become leaders in the luxury safari business and operate to this day), and accompanied by Roosevelt’s “Pigskin Library” - a trunkload of leather-bound volumes to ensure the great man kept up with his reading. Thus the glamping business was born.

In Kenya, my family had friends in the safari business, operating high-end camps for American clients who included James Stewart and Robert Redford. We picked up tips not only from these operators, but also from American expatriates, who brought with them a relatively high-tech style that suited the campsites of America. There - years before such things became commonplace here in the UK - holidaymakers could hook up Winnebagos to the mains electric supply, take hot showers, watch TV, and generally lead so agreeably domestic an existence that only the open sky offered any clue that they were away from home at all. British camping, by contrast, was best captured in Mike Leigh’s cruel, hilarious Nuts In May - tiny, cramped tents, awful toilet stalls, transistor radios, and surreptitious class warfare.

My family’s purpose in camping was to get as far away from the rest of the world as possible, out into the wild. We eventually had a set-up that centred on a giant tent - we called it “the circus tent”, because that’s

what it looked like, and a circus was what our travelling party tended to resemble before very long - with enclosed bedroom compartments in which we slept on air mattresses. We didn’t realise it, but we had a forerunner to what is now known as a “bell tent” - the glamping staple with a self-contained floor and an overlay to keep out the elements.

The popularity of glamping in the UK has been largely spurred by a different impulse: not to get away from everybody else, but to join in with them. The audience for pop music has grown up along with the music itself. Where earlier generations moved on in their habits and tastes, more recent ones have seen no reason why they should give up going to the festivals they attended as youngsters. What has changed is that they have acquired the habit of gracious living (and who can blame them? Who wouldn’t, given the chance?), not to mention children. So festivals have adapted to this new demographic, and driven by them, glamping has become a boom industry - to the extent that, quite aside from the summer festival circuit, many old-fashioned campsites have upgraded their facilities, and plenty of new ones have sprung up, particularly as farm owners diversify.

Glamping has now become a catch-all term for everything ranging from taking a nice tent on your travels to staying in a well-appointed yurt, hut or chalet established in countryside surroundings. But if one were to attempt a definition of glamping, it might run something like this: staying in the middle of nature, while comfortably separated from it. Which was really all my own family were attempting all those years ago. The good thing about doing it in Sussex is that your glamping trip is unlikely to be interrupted by an elephant incursion. Trust me, that’s a lot less fun than it sounds.

“The popularity of glamping has been largely spurred not by an impulse to get away from everybody else, but to join in with them”

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SUSSEX FESTIVALS

IMAGE CREDITS: OPPOSITE: BY CONCIERGE CAMPING WWW.CONCIERGECAMPING.CO.UK.TOP RIGHT: LOVEABELL

Music and arts festivals offering camping facilities scheduled to take place in Sussex this spring and summer include: Elderflower Fields - The Family Festival (22-25 May) near Uckfield, elderflowerfields.co.uk The real ale-themed Glastonwick (29-31 May) in Coombes, cask-ale.co.uk/beerfestival Blues On The Farm (18-21 June) in Chichester; Sussex Solstice (19-20 June) near Burwash, bluesonthefarm.co.uk The Love Supreme Jazz Festival (3-5 July) at Glynde Place, lovesupremefestival.com Lewes Live (10-11 July), whose location you might just be able to guess, leweslive.com The performing arts-oriented Brainchild Festival (10-12 July) at the Bentley Wildfowl and Motor Museum, Halland, brainchildfestival.co.uk Dance/R&B-themed Mutiny Festival (18-19 July), Fontwell, mutinyfestivals.co.uk Family-friendly event Chilled in a Field (31 July - 2 August) at the Bentley Wildfowl and Motor Museum, Halland, chilledinafield.net Tribal Earth Summer Gathering 2015 (20 - 23 August), near Lewes, tribalearth.co.uk Into The Wild Summer Festival (28-31 August) near Cowden, intothewildgathering.com The Big Green Cardigan, near Battle, (4-6 September), biggreencardigan.com

A far cry from the pup tents, portable gas stoves and primitive sanitary facilities we may remember from the campsites of our youth: glampers live in a grand style more reminiscent of the travelling dignataries of the past

THE TENT RENTAL

THE SHEPHERD’S HUT

Heading for a festival or a campsite with glamping facilities, and want to be in charge of your own accommodation? The first thing you’ll need is a tent. And while my family in Africa maintained a full safari set-up of our own, many people have neither the space nor the need for equipment of their own, and won’t see the point in spending big on a high-end item they don’t use all that much.

Loveabell, based in Brighton, furnish tents (bell tents, emperor tents and yurts) from individual rentals to take where you will, to entire “bell tent villages” should you be holding an event. And if you do decide to buy a bell tent after all, they can sell you one. loveabell.co.uk

No sheep required. Hand-built from “reclaimed, recycled and locally sourced materials wherever possible,” these are wellappointed variations on the old-style agricultural workers’ accommodation, located at Quarry Farm near the scenic village of Bodiam. The huts are all fitted with insulation, heating, doubleglazing, electric lighting and gas hobs. (In Africa, we’d have called these “Bandas”, and they would have been a lot more austere, but still more comfortable than canvas.). original-huts.co.uk

CONCIERGE CAMPING Nestled in the heart of West Ashling in West Sussex, Concierge Camping offers a luxury camping experience like no other.

Situated on the grounds of a Grade II listed property on Ratham Estate, guests can experience brand new state of the art facilities including a luxury toilet and shower block, secluded and spacious pitches; and if you’re lucky, a visit from the local peacocks. conciergecamping.co.uk

THE CAMPER VAN RENTAL The most versatile and mobile form of glamping, for anyone who wants to take their glampsite on tour. Four people can travel and sleep in a Volkswagen California, whose sleek design may lack the charm of the original VW camper, but makes up for it in comfort - an optional tent awning allows for extra sleepers. Based in Brighton, Active Kampers offer vans with a hob, a sink, a fridge, a heater, racks for sports equipment, and no limit on driving distance - so the glampsites of Europe are also at your disposal. activekampers.co.uk

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Picture the scene: the sun is blazing down on your patio; your table is beautifully set with the finest linen, cutlery and glassware; around it sit elegant and stylish chairs and, in the distance, the very latest in hi-tech lights wait to illuminate your event when the sun sets and the party really gets going.

Whatever your tastes – sophisticated, vintage or classic – and whatever the occasion, Co-ordination Catering Hire specialise in supplying all your catering equipment and furniture for your special day, helping you plan everything from colours and looks to themes. Entice those that matter as you entrust your dreams to us. www.co-ordination.net T: 01293 553040 E: info@co-ordination.net

Your LocaL Independent KItchen StudIo

the Kitchen people 61 the high Street, Lindfield West Sussex rh16 2hn tel: 01444 484 868 email: paul@kitchenpeople.co.uk 66 | S US S E X S T Y L E . C OM | MAY 2 0 1 5

www.facebook.com/kitchenpeople @kitchenpsarah

home & garden

MAIN IMAGE BY SARAH BRAY

Not your everyday home or garden: spring comes to the great gardens of Sussex

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property

Finding the keys to the county

How many properties should people view before coming to a decision on their ideal home?

And how many do they normally view?

As a rule: the more properties you view, the more experience you gain, and the better placed you will be to identify good value and make a confident decision . However, with the Internet, Google Earth, Google Maps, floor plans and online photographs, the number of properties people actually view before buying may be at an all-time low.

Some people will have the dream of moving into an authentic period property. What are the pros and cons of really old homes?

The pros: Generally speaking, older properties tend to offer a solid and strong build quality and are often full of character and original features: high ceilings, bigger windows, large gardens and generous bedroom sizes.

The cons: they can cost more to maintain and more to heat. Also it can be tricky to create or add any off-street parking.

And what are the advantages and disadvantages of buying a new home?

In my experience a buyer will pay more money per square foot for a new home than you would for a resale property. But you can walk in to your brand-new, clean and tidy home and put your suitcase down. If timed right, buyers can often pick fixtures and fittings, bathroom, kitchen and garden furnishing. They can have a property built to their own taste and specification.

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How important is it to have a clear idea of your total budget before you begin searching for your Sussex dream home? Do you find people look at properties which prove to be simply out of their reach?

Without any doubt, definitely speak to an independent financial advisor and your bank before you begin looking. You need to clearly establish the total costs involved in a purchase, and not to forget this includes: deposit, conveyancing, stamp duty, mortgage arrangement costs, moving costs, and so on. This can be incredibly difficult if you’ve think you’ve found a dream home, but don’t give in to emotions because you’ve seen your perfect property. Try to be logical in your approach. Overall, I think as a buyer you need to keep an eye on everything 10% above and below your ideal purchase price. This will help you to better understand and identify what is good value for money. Furthermore it will give you piece of mind when you do find the property you like; you can make an offer with confidence and clarity.

“It can be incredibly difficult to stick to your total budget, but don’t give in to emotions because you’ve seen your perfect property”

What are the odder things that have happened when you’re showing property to would be dream home buyers?

Not long ago I was conducting a viewing on a large property. The viewers wanted to test the shower pressure. So, “Mr” held the shower head and with his other hand turned on the water, not realising the shower was pointed directly at his crotch. He was wearing beige trousers. It turned out the water pressure was quite outstanding.

IMAGE CREDIT: ROBERT KNESCHKE AND MAGICINFOTO/SHUTTERSTOCK

YOU’VE DECIDED TO BUY YOUR DREAM HOME IN SUSSEX. BUT WHERE DO YOU START? WE TALK TO ROSS GARDNER, DIRECTOR AT HIGH-END ESTATE AGENTS KNIGHTS OF CRAWLEY, ABOUT WHAT TO LOOK FOR, WHAT TO AVOID AND WHICH QUESTIONS TO ASK.

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Situated on Sandy Lane, The Pines is in the ancient market town of East Grinstead in Sussex. Standing halfway between London and the South Coast makes the town extremely accessible by both road and rail with the added benefit of access to Gatwick Airport.

The Pines consists of two detached houses set in generous well screened mature plots.

• Double height tiled entrance hall with oak staircase • Spacious kitchen with all appliances • Three further reception rooms with generous ceiling heights • Master bedroom with Juliet balconies, dressing room and ensuite • Four further bedrooms and three bathrooms • Double garaging with automatic doors £1,195,000 For further information please contact Tel: 01932 837690 Email: info@tkei.co.uk

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lifestyle

The joys of waterside living

We all reach a point when we want to escape from the concrete jungle. But is waterside living really all it’s cracked up to be? David Bennun investigates

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A

mong the many curious facts revealed by the UK’s most recent census was this: people who live by the sea are on the whole happier than those who live inland. The trouble with such data is that it’s easy to jump to erroneous conclusions about cause and effect. It doesn’t necessarily show that they’re happier because they live near by the sea. It could be that property prices tend to be higher in coastal areas, so the people who live there are wealthier - and thus also, probably, healthier, and perhaps as a consequence of both, happier.

Then again - why do those property prices tend to be higher? Presumably because the property itself is more sought after.

Which in turn would suggest people believe they will prefer living there - that it will, in other words, make them happier than they otherwise would be.

So intrigued by this were a team of academics from the European Centre for Environment and Human Health, based at the University of Exeter Medical School, that they set up a study to look into the effects on mental and physical health of what they call “blue” environments - which are a lot more wholesome than that might sound. A “blue” environment is not simply one by the sea, but one by or around water, salt or fresh, river or inlet. By simulating such environments in the lab, and comparing them to recreations of city environments minus the “blue” space, they found that test subjects responded positively to the former - their mood was improved, and in turn they showed more willingness to exercise; a significant boost to health and happiness.

Waterside living comes with the promise of “blue” space; indeed, that is the whole point of it. And while data is always useful, most of us already know very well why we like to be beside the water, and why we seek it out on holiday: we feel more tranquil, relaxed, open to the world and to nature.

What if you decide that a holiday isn’t enough, and you want to be waterside permanently? Sussex, with its coastline, offers a wealth of options. The first that springs to mind is likely to be Brighton, also known as London-by-sea, due to the many former Londoners to whom it offers a relatively easy commuting option. Marina Village in Brighton especially suits those who are also looking to berth a boat. The marina offers 1,600 berths, and has been awarded 5 Gold Anchors status by The Yacht Harbours Association. Leaders Waterside (01273 622007), who cover Marina Village, say that one- and two-bed properties are much the most popular choice there, although most types and sizes are on offer.

Seventeen miles away in the more sedate environs of Eastbourne, you’ll find what you may be surprised to learn is the largest Marina complex in Northern Europe: Sovereign Harbour, upon which have

We do like to be beside the seaside: Brighton’s Marina Village offers properties large and small on the water, and berthing for every type of sea craft

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LEADERS WATERSIDE

“People who live by the sea are on the whole happier than those who live inland. A ‘blue’ space improves their mood”

been built a remarkable 3,000 properties, ranging from one to six bedrooms. And if the scale of that is daunting, perhaps look at West Sussex instead.

The town of Chichester, picturesque in itself, is nicely situated between the Downs and the Solent (the strait separating the mainland from the Isle of Wight, and a setting for every kind of fun and sport on the water), upon which lie smaller communities right by the harbour. Quieter still is the former oyster village of Emsworth, perfect for those with the wherewithal to combine country and waterside living, one on each side.

So what are the downsides? Weathering, for a start. Properties directly upon the sea, especially older ones, often require more - and more expensive - maintenance than those further inland; while the flooding and consequent insurance risks of some properties by rivers will be familiar to anyone who has followed the news in recent years. Thus legal searches are often far more complex, and estate agents who deal in waterside property will usually advise that you employ a solicitor who specialises in the particular intricacies involved. Something to bear in mind next time you see a horror story about somebody whose house has had a sea-cliff collapse beneath it.

The advantage of new developments is they will often be more sturdy and secure - and some are even built out on platforms directly over the briney. If to be surrounded by the sound of water is your idea of bluespace bliss, you can’t improve on that other by going out to sea.

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GRAND GARDENS OF SUSSEX David Bennun takes a look at the history of gardens and finds that Sussex has a wealth of exotic delights

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gardens

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARAH BRAY

I

f you take the long view of history, the garden is a relatively modern phenomenon - certainly in our country. The idea of cultivating plants for pleasure, for atmosphere and for aesthetics reached these islands with the Romans, vanished with them, and was not to reappear in any significant fashion until the Mediaeval era. In between occurred what are still popularly known as the Dark Ages, during which horticulture does not seem to have been a priority for either the nobility, who were chiefly concerned with making war, nor the populace, whose priority was grinding out an existence from a soil it cannot often have occurred to them to decorate with an herbaceous border.

The history of gardens is, until quite recently, largely the history of great gardens - for who else had the time, space or resources to design and propagate them but the wealthy and landed? And Sussex is well supplied with great gardens that illustrate each facet of that history. In Fishbourne, for instance, one may find a reconstructed garden at the Roman Palace there, notable for its angular geometry and low hedges.

The wealthy and the landed were not exclusively made up of the aristocracy, a fact worth pointing out here because it has considerable bearing on British gardening. In the Middle Ages, the monasteries were a power in the land (something subsequently not lost on Henry VIII, who found it politically expedient and financially rewarding to dissolve them and plunder their assets.)

The return of the garden was monastically driven, and practically inclined. The monasteries favoured smaller enclosed gardens - herb and kitchen gardens supplied medicine (or what passed for it) and food; as in the latter case, did orchards, and the fishponds which we would now consider ornamental. Perhaps the nearest thing one may find today are the recreated Mediaeval gardens at Michelham Priory, near Hailsham. These include a kitchen garden and a

“Physic garden”, an orchard - and a cloister garden, an uncommon representation of pleasure gardening in an era when gardens often favoured the functional.

Inevitably, we have a more familiar picture of the gardens of the Tudors, an era so much televised of late. Wolf Hall, with its painstaking verisimilitude, featured the careful, complex layouts of box hedges through which coursed pathways whereupon plotters and planners might walk together - or, as was surely more often the case, the privileged simply take their ease. Sussex holds particularly well-known Tudor-style gardens (it has to be Tudor-style; no actual Tudor gardens are thought to remain anywhere) at Herstmonceux Castle. Their grandest is the Elizabethan garden, and there are several smaller themed gardens within the grounds - the Shakespeare garden might be considered the most emblematically Tudor of them all, and features plants mentioned in his plays.

The 18th and 19th Centuries saw the rise to prominence of what we now think of as the classic (and indeed in some ways neoclassical) English landscape garden, where proportion and elegance were very much the order of the day. Among the most famous iterations of this style are the famous grounds of Goodwood, in Westhampnett. Yet for all its Italianate elegance, Goodwood was also a precursor to the next and perhaps most enthralling stage in the history of great gardens: that of abundant exotica. Charles, the second Duke of Richmond, and a fellow of both means and esoteric interests, built a menagerie there, housing great cats, ostriches, monkeys and bears in the wood behind the main house.

The coming of the late Victorian era, and the early 20th century, also favoured extravagant imports, but not from the animal kingdom. This was the era of the “wild” garden - which in hindsight seems an ineluctable progression from a number of high Victorian obsessions: global exploration and conquest; the A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 77

gardens

Herstmonceux Castle

Hailsham, East Sussex An extraordinary structure in itself, the castle is among the oldest surviving major brick constructions in Britain. This magnificently moated Tudor manor was both innovative and unusual in that it was designed for luxury rather than military strategy, and it was long the home of the Royal Observatory before that institution’s removal to Greenwich. It was once set amid a deer park of the type favoured by the Tudor nobility. Now, 300 acres of woodland surround it. Behind the castle, one finds a series of gardens through which one passes, either en route to a walk through the neatly managed woodland, or simply to dally for its own sake.

In addition to the splendid, expansive Elizabethan Garden and the Shakespeare Garden already mentioned, Herstmonceux features a manicured Rose Garden ornamented with sundials; a compact Butterfly Garden planted with the flowers loved by the delicate insects; an Azalea and Herb Garden in a quasi-Oriental style; and a “Magic Garden” designed to enchant small children with the promise of fairies - although more sceptical parents may prefer to concentrate their charges’ attention on its dragonflies.

Beyond the woodland walk is a folly, set beside a large pond and a cottage garden which, unlike the other gardens on the grounds, is left largely to its own devices, and changes with the seasons as its own plants and flowers determine.

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Borde Hill Garden

Haywards Heath, East Sussex If botanical exotica is your thing, Borde Hill is the place for you.

It is surrounded by parkland, should you fancy a ramble, but the garden itself is testimony to the work of the great plant hunters of the late Victorian age and the early 20th century, whose zeal reflected that questing, acquisitive era. For this you may thank Colonel Robert Stephenson Clarke, who bought the estate in 1893 and became its first owner to cultivate the grounds for pleasure.

The garden is set out in the “garden room” style of linked but separate and distinct sections. The main garden covers 17 acres, and provides access to the smaller “rooms”, which blaze with seasonal colour and interest. The Azalea Ring is best seen in spring and early summer, when it is also heavy with pink magnolia. In the Garden of Allah is to be found one the finest collection of “champion” trees in the country. The Old Rhodo Garden contains some of the earliest rhododendrons brought to the UK by the plant hunters. The Italian garden is set around a large, still pool, and is a haven of tranquility, with a terrace featuring rare or unusual shrubs. Even more exotic, although it may not sound it, is the Old Potting Shed, where imports from South America and Southern Africa are housed. The Rose Garden is opulent with flowers, and the Round Dell evokes the tropics with its palm and banana trees.

High Beeches

Handcross, West Sussex Often described as a “hidden gem”, High Beeches is the smallest and in some ways the wildest of our featured gardens. The house to which it was once attached burned down after an aeroplane crashed into it during the Second World War. Fortunately, little harm befell the grounds. The garden itself remains and thrives. It was developed upon the ideas set out by Irish gardener and writer William Robinson, the highly influential Victorian proponent of as his most famous book title has it - “The Wild Garden”.

High Beeches is planted with species brought to the UK in that era and later, and is very much a garden for walkers and wanderers, who may meander around its 27 acres at leisure. Keen botanists may want to know that some of its plants are very rare indeed, being hard to find even in their countries of origin, let alone West Sussex. Those who simply favour beauty over taxonomy will find it features not only the extravagantly splashed colour of its exotic flowers and shrubs, but also a water garden, woodland walks (it is described as a woodland garden, and one is also warned, Bob Jovi-style, that it is slippery when wet) and - of particular note - a wildflower meadow, uncultivated for the better part of a century, and ungrazed for nearly four decades.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARAH BRAY/BORDE HILL GARDEN/ALEX READ AT HERSTMONCEUX CASTLE

Arts and Crafts movement; the cult of the gentleman scientist and collector, whose miscellany cabinet might brim with, among other things, botany specimens retrieved from across the world; and a strange combination of the rational, the fantastical and the mystical. Thus Arthur Conan Doyle, a former doctor and the inventor of that hyper-rationalist character, Sherlock Holmes, was also one of the foremost advocates of the Spiritualist mediums so popular in the era - and if you wanted the world to believe you had fairies at the bottom of your garden, as did two young girls in Cottingley, Yorkshire, he would back you up.

It was in this era that a taste as yet undimmed among British garden lovers developed for sprawling colour, epitomised by the craze for rhododendrons, then deemed the height of exotica. We remain in many ways - not least culturally and aesthetically - a country in thrall to the Victorian era, and the great splashes of impressionist hues daubed across so many of the great gardens of Sussex testify to it. Gardening is now a pursuit of the people, but for most of us, that necessitates working in miniature, in the small patches afforded us by our homes. Across our counties, it’s the broad canvasses that continue to attract us, with the acres upon acres of space they offer for glorious designs painted large.

Herstmonceux Castle, Borde Hill and High Beeches are three of the many great gardens spread across Sussex which come into their own with the advent of Spring, and in which the numerous visitors who come to them weekly may lose themselves amid colour and tranquility.

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outdoor living

Creating a stylish outside space Tara De La Motte takes a look at everything you need to create the perfect outdoor space

Lounging

In the past outdoor furniture was made from heavy metal or natural wicker, which was not always practical. These days wicker is made of vinyl and resin, comes in a number of different weaves, and is uvprotected and very durable. There are very smart designs to suit every occasion.

Today there are several lightweight materials around that make furniture easy to stack and manoeuvre, in vinyl-coated fabrics that dry off quickly when wet, making the perfect poolside companion.

For the ultimate luxury invest in an outdoor sofa that will also double up as a daybed. This is great for socialising or just chilling in the garden on a summer afternoon. These sofas are comfortable as well as luxurious for any outdoor setting and they can also be left out all year round as they are designed using high quality material that can cope with all weather conditions.

Of course, nothing conjures up lazy summer days quite like a hammock. Add a few cushions and some soft throws then relax for the ultimate natural sleep.

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Barbecues - an outdoor feast

All outdoor gatherings just have to be accompanied by a barbecue!

Barbecuing is one of the simplest and friendliest ways to entertain. There are a wide variety of barbecues available depending on your cooking requirements, with the option to grill, roast or fry.

If the budget allows there are barbecues with interchangeable accessories including wok, sear grate, griddle, pizza stone or poultry roaster.

Today we have the option of buying barbecues that cook with gas burners, charcoal or even electric. Whichever barbecue you choose, purchase one that is quick to assemble and will cook great tasty food packed with barbecue taste.

For those spontaneous barbecues, a small portable barbecue is just perfect. They are great for small intimate gatherings and are inexpensive and easy to clean.

Eternal flame - fire pits

In the evenings when the temperatures drop it is nice to create a comfortable environment for your soirées, and to enjoy those long summer evenings - invest in an outdoor fire.

Fire pits are a great accessory for the garden and they will keep you warm, comfortable and create a great atmosphere. These will not only provide heat but can be a real centrepiece for the garden.

Some of these fire Pitts even come with a grill, tongs and other tools for impromptu barbecuing.

Wood or charcoal-burning fires are a traditional choice, but there are also contemporary fires that run on clean-burning fire gels or bio-ethanol fuels. These don’t give off smoke and are environmentally friendly.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY PLUSONE/SHUTTERSTOCK.

W

hen the temperature rises and the days lengthen - it’s time to step outside and embrace alfresco living. Enjoy lazy days and lighter evenings dining and relaxing by transforming your garden into a seamless extension of your home.

Dining alfresco is a reminder of being on holiday so when designing your garden, it is worth creating a dedicated space to entertain. Think about a space that is practical, contemporary and intimate - the perfect outdoor room.

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sussex gentlemen

THE AUCTIONEER JONATHAN PRATT IS MANAGING DIRECTOR OF BELLMANS, ONE OF THE SOUTH-EAST’S LEADING AUCTION HOUSES. HE TALKS US THROUGH THE HIGHLIGHTS OF A VERY GENTLEMANLY TRADE

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY BELLMANS AUCTIONEERS

How did you get into the auction world?

The school I went to was good at art, but not a lot else. It was when I first saw the TV series Lovejoy that I became fascinated with antiques.

Soon I was going to local fairs with my mother.

I did A-levels in Physics and Economics, then went to work for the Prudential. My father already worked for them. There I was, in an office with 100 people in one huge room. I absolutely hated it.

There’s something very unnatural about offices like that. I soon realised I couldn’t live my life that way.

I wrote to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors to find out what courses they did. I thought maybe I’d do land agency or something like that. They sent the prospectus back. I read through it and I noticed that the education side included the Society of Incorporated Valuers and Auctioneers. They had a diploma course in Fine Art and Chattels Valuation. My mother said, “You like antiques. Why don’t you do that?” At that moment, I thought it would be a rather a strange thing to do, and I couldn’t imagine making any money out of it. Still, I went ahead. After qualifying I moved to Edinburgh and then on to Guildford, moving around to try and get more experience. I was at Sothebys when the owner of Bellmans called and said he needed a managing director. That was 10 years ago now.

What’s the most fascinating aspect of your job?

I am a general valuer so I cover English furniture, general paintings and 18th to 19th Century silver and jewellery. I admit that I’m a bit mercenary about it now – I run a business so what sells is what excites me. You can go into a hundred houses and just see the same stuff: Victorian furniture, a bit of Chinese porcelain. Then you can find yourself somewhere, and see something, and it’s like, “Wow! Where did this come from?” To be fair, you’ve got to go through a lot of places to discover something very special. It’s about luck.

What’s one of the most surreal experiences you’ve had as a valuer and auctioneer?

I got a call from a lady who said she had a bit of furniture by “a chap called John Makepeace.” Well, Makepeace is one of the best known cabinet makers of the late 20th century. He had a school of furniture making in Beaminster, Dorset and I actually did my dissertation on him, among others. We went down to view it and found it hidden away in a small holding, surrounded by a lot of animals in the middle

Jonathan Pratt doing what he most enjoys: conducting an auction for Bellmans

“A good auctioneer really has to enjoy performing to people.

There’s an element of theatre about the whole affair. You need to find the right moment to make a joke now and then” of a field. There it was, on its side, in a chicken shed: a chest of drawers, light wood, with the bottom of each drawer a different colour of the rainbow. It had been sitting there for 10 years. There was quite a circus when it was sold, with lots of people bidding on it - including John Makepeace himself. It went for £8500. Quite amazing.

How do you make your mark as an auctioneer?

A good auctioneer will enjoy it and to enjoy it you’ve really got to enjoy performing to people. There’s an element of theatre about the whole affair. There are bad auctioneers who just recite the lot number and description. You need to have some banter. Make a little joke every now and again or make some interesting remark about the objects.

Finding the right moment to do this is essential. I’ve sat in sales with people sleeping – not a good look at all. When I started out I was very straight-laced: a pinstriped suit, an attaché case, that sort of thing. But then I started doing TV shows like Bargain Hunt and Antiques Road Trip. You have to let more of your personality escape for these. You mustn’t look too rigid, and must learn to have a laugh. I bring that into my own auction room and now I wear the same sort of clothes on TV as I do at Bellmans. You have to have fun.

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business profile

A FAMILY SUCCESS STORY

P

Jaimie Daniels has worked for her family’s business Co-ordination Catering Hire since she was a child. She explains why it’s something she’ll never tire of

eople think I’m odd when I say I love working with my parents,” laughs Jaimie Daniels, sales and marketing manager of Co-ordination Catering Hire, Sussex’s premier catering equipment hire business.

The company – which tailors its services to corporate and banquet catering, weddings, parties and any other special occasion you can think of – has always been a part of Jaimie’s life.

As a child she would help out on Saturdays for extra pocket money, along with her sister Jenna and brother James. She never begrudged the time, but relished the opportunity to get further involved in what has become her family’s passion: shaping people’s memories by creating truly magnificent events.

Jaimie, who trained as a hairdresser and beauty therapist, met her husband when she was 17. They got a home together and realising that she could not survive on a junior hairdresser’s salary, she began working for mother Elizabeth and her father, Gevin’s business. She clearly remembers the day in September 2001 when she began.

What has kept her there so long? Her voice is bursting with excitement as she tells me how her career has developed.

“I started off in the office, taking orders, answering the phones and then got involved in the accounts. I did a bit of debt collecting – not easy at first as I was quite a shy girl.”

She moved on to running the linen department. In 2004 she had her first child, Blayke, and after a six month break returned to the company, where she continued to build the linen department. This transformed the business and the company now stock a range of just over 30 colours.

“I adore colours and started bringing in different colours of linen,” she explains. “Up until then we had only used white. Now using a variety of colours has become a massive part of our business.”

Co-ordination Catering Hire pride themselves on exemplary customer service. Jaimie travels across the south-east meeting clients and listening to what they need. On the very rare occasions the company can’t provide

something, they will point them to a supplier who can.

Jaimie had her second child in 2006 and went back to work after six weeks. She married in August 2007. In May 2012 her husband and his cousin Daren started their family business Willow Construction Sussex Ltd, which Jaimie does all of the admin for.

“Getting to know the customer is paramount,” says Jaimie. “Weddings are a once in a lifetime event – the most important day of your life.

Everything has to be right. When you chat to someone you pick up on the different things they want and then find things that they perhaps hadn’t thought of doing. We also show them how the finished product will look by doing table set ups. We will do everything we can to make their day beautiful – and there is so much satisfaction in that.”

But, for Jaimie, one of the greatest joys of working for the company is the importance it places on equality and family.

Her brother James is 30 this year and started working full time for the company in 2005. Within four years he passed his HGV class 2 and by January 2012 he passed his certificate of professional competence in National Road Haulage. He now carries the companies O License.

“As a kid I was brought up to do whatever anyone else would do in the business,” she adds.

“Just because people are washing up doesn’t make them any different from those doing other jobs. We all pitch in and do whatever is needed to get things done.

“It’s like one big family. We have a very low staff turnover because everyone cares for one another. People want to stay with us.”

But are there really no awkward moments when you’re working with your parents?

“Oh no,” laughs Jaimie. “I’ll admit that my dad and I used to clash when I was younger, but that’s because we’re really alike. I think I’m one of the few people who really understands how he thinks. What we’ve got here isn’t just a business – it’s a home. And it works. I love passing on my inspiration to others and showing them what can be done.”

“It’s like one big family. We have a very low staff turnover because everyone cares for one another.

People want to stay with us”

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Jaimie Daniels with her husband Alan A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 87

finance

Sharing wealth with your grandchildren YOU’VE BUILT YOUR SAVINGS. NOW THE PLEASURABLE PART: BOOSTING YOUR GRANDCHILDREN’S FUTURES. IN THE FIRST OF A SERIES, JO WHITE FROM SPOFFORTHS LLP TALKS ABOUT PASSING ON REGULAR GIFTS OUT OF INCOME

I

t is possible to make substantial gifts and still benefit from an exemption from Inheritance Tax. Anyone who has ‘surplus income’ can arrange to make regular gifts out of that income. As long as the amount of the gift leaves sufficient income to enable the individual to maintain their normal standard of living, then these gifts are completely exempt from Inheritance Tax, irrespective of the amount of the gift and whether or not you live for a further seven years after the date of the gift.

The gifts must be part of a series of gifts and must be out of income and not capital. They must also be considered ‘normal’ expenditure by you. The word ‘normal’ in this context means habitual and therefore a regular pattern needs to be established to demonstrate this. The common methods of achieving a regular pattern include setting up a standing order to an individual. This could be for a lower sum initially and then “topped up” periodically. The intention to make regular payments also needs to be evident. Providing this is the case then even if only one payment is made before death then the initial payment should still fall under these rules.

Gifts out of income do not need to be made for any specific purpose, but can be made directly to an individual, so long as they meet the criteria set out above. You could choose to make payments into a pension, into a savings account, or into either for the purpose of the child’s school fees. However it is possible simply to make these payments for more general day-to-day living costs.

When reliance is being placed on claiming this exemption then it is important that clear documentation is made and maintained. Professional advice is therefore recommended to set this up, but it is possible that you may be able to manage any changes yourself as time passes.

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daniel raven

Decidedly immobile

IMAGE CREDIT: LDPROD/SHUTTERSTOCK

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It still is annoying to have to listen to someone n what is only the latest in a long line of REMEMBER WHEN WE outrages, Brighton ‘n’ Hove’s Green- LAUGHED AT PEOPLE WITH shouting their half of a tedious conversation in a public place. It still is absurd to believe that the controlled council has declared that it will MOBILE PHONES? NOW world will end if you cease to be contactable. It not be repairing or replacing any of the YOU CAN’T DO ANYTHING still is injurious to your human dignity to be so parking ticket machines in the city centre (many of which have already been tearfully WITHOUT ONE – NOT EVEN dependent on something – be it a drug, a car, or PARK YOUR CAR. AND a tiny hunk of plastic – that you break out in a reunited with their parking meter forebears in cold sweat at the mere thought of being without that great Restricted Zone in the sky). Instead, DAN RAVEN IS NOT HAPPY it. (They don’t call them cellphones for nothing.) people will be encouraged to pay with their mobile phones. Why the outrage, you may ask? After all, it’s a modern, And, frankly, you still look daft when you’re using one.

Remember those inane, tinny, single-track ringtones that supposedly forward-thinking approach, saves all that time fiddling with small change, etc. Well, for one thing, it doesn’t seem like a terribly Green thing to do: sounded like chart hits but more closely resembled The Yellow Rose of a typical mobile phone generates around 94 kg of CO2 emissions in the Texas? Can you imagine how you’d laugh now to see someone gawping course of its short life, which is equivalent to more than 700 kilometres of in slack-witted wonderment to hear those? That gawper was you, not so car travel. Brighton Council has done everything in its power over the last long since. (Probably. Unless you’re one of these “youths”). To me, that’s few years to discourage car use, but now it’s actively encouraging the use pretty much the same way you all look now, as you flap your arms about of something that’s clearly little better, and far more easily avoidable. And in search of “signal”, or argue with the thin air like some kind of actual this makes no sense at all, until you discover that everyone on the council mad person. Why, I’d almost pity you if you weren’t so damned absurd.

If I seem to be laughing a bit too heartily now, it’s only because I’m has a mobile and really likes using it. Guess what, though? I still don’t.

Don’t laugh – it’s a perfectly legitimate lifestyle choice. Remember painfully aware the last laugh will be on me. I just know that somewhere, how we used to laugh at those early mobile phones and the self-important somehow, sooner or later, I’m going to end up finding myself in a tight idiots who bought them, and how certain we all were that we’d never be spot of life-threatening proportions from which only a mobile phone so clownish ourselves. I was very much in the majority back then. But could have any chance of rescuing me, and I’ll die cursing my own the phones kept on getting smaller, cheaper and more reliable, and all of Luddite stubbornness with my last bitter breath...

“It doesn’t make sense,” the young policeman will say incredulously a sudden it seemed none of you could get down Carphone Warehouse fast enough. Which is fine, but you shouldn’t forget the objections we as they zip up the body bag. “Why didn’t he have a phone on him? Ah all had to mobiles in the first place were actually very bloody reasonable. well, let’s get this car towed away.”

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postcards from sussex

All about Steve

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IMAGE CREDIT GRESEI/SHUTTERSTOCK

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playing mind games with the police. Or maybe orning has broken over THE CONVERSATIONS AND he’s a serial killer and that briefcase contains a East Sussex and I’m waiting for a coffee shop CHARACTERS PAUL BURSTON meat cleaver, a hacksaw for cutting through in St Leonards-on-Sea ENCOUNTERS ON HIS TRIPS human bones, perhaps a grisly trophy or two.

I’m snapped out of my daydream by the to open. In front of TO COFFEE SHOPS ALWAYS perky blonde barista standing over my table. me is a tall man with a INTRIGUE HIM… “Shall I clear this away for you?’ she asks. bullet head and a trench coat, carrying A Very I smile and thank her as she takes away my Important Briefcase. I’m assuming it’s A Very Important Briefcase because the man is gripping the handle so tightly, empty coffee cup and approaches Steve’s table.

“You were late opening today,” Steve says. his knuckles are turning white. He’s also grinding his teeth and generally “No I wasn’t.” seems rather agitated – and he hasn’t yet had his morning caffeine fix.

“Yes you were. Usual opening time is seven o’clock. It was two What’s inside the brief case? This week’s million pound lottery win? A cure for cancer? Or maybe he’s just an estate agent with a lot of properties minutes past.”

Steve doesn’t smile as he says this, and for one awful moment I on his books.

At two minutes past seven, the doors open. We file up to the counter. picture him reaching into his briefcase and pulling out a meat cleaver.

“Morning, Steve. Usual?” asks the perky blonde woman at the counter. I wonder if either of the other customers will rush to the poor woman’s “Yes, thanks,” the bullet-headed man replies. “I’ll be at my usual table.” aid? Or maybe they’re all in this together. Maybe their job is to restrain Steve makes his way to one of twenty identical tables, all unoccupied. me while Steve dispatches his latest victim. I glance at the man with the walking stick. He doesn’t look much of a threat. But that’s what they Why this particular table? Does Steve know something I don’t?

Soon I’m nursing a large Americano and trying not to stare at Steve thought about Kevin Spacey in The Usual Suspects.

“Oh, Steve!” the barista says, tossing her blonde hair over one drinking his usual coffee at his usual table. I can sense my unacustomed presence here has disgruntled him somewhat. There are two other shoulder. “You’ll be the death of me one day.”

Don’t flirt with him, I think. And don’t allude to your own demise, customers – an older man with a walking stick and a woman with an ill-advised top knot which makes her head look like a pineapple. They even jokingly! We all know what happens to perky blondes who exchange small nods of recognition with Steve. I smile and offer a small underestimate surly men with poor social skills.

Then an extraordinary thing happens. Steve smiles. Granted, it’s nod of my own. Steve looks at me blankly. Embarrassed, I look away.

Maybe it’s the caffeine, but by the time I finish my Americano I’ve more of a grimace. But it’s a sign that beneath that grim exterior there’s a convinced myself that Steve isn’t a lottery winner or a man with the cure man who might just possibly have a sense of humour.

Relieved, I rise from my table and make myself a solemn promise. for cancer or even a very busy estate agent. He’s some sort of criminal. I think of the film The Usual Suspects and picture Steve as Kevin Spacey, The next time I’m queuing at the counter with Steve, I’ll ask for “Steve’s the lone survivor of a bloody massacre, sipping his usual coffee and usual” and see what happens.

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A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 93

book club

bo

ub l c k o

THE KING’S CURSE

by Philippa Gregory (Simon & Schuster) Gregory is the master of popular history. The details are immaculate and she creates a believable world that pulls you along, educating and filling the gaps. Lose yourself in this wonderful re-creation of a time long vanished but made real.

If you miss Wolf Hall on TV, this is the perfect book on the intrigues behind the Tudor throne. As an heir to the Plantagenets, the brave Margaret is seen by the King’s mother as a powerful threat. She is buried in marriage to a Tudor supporter - Sir Richard Pole, governor of Wales. She becomes lady-in-waiting at the young King’s court and watches the crumbling of the King’s marriage to his first wife, Spanish Queen Catherine. But she is destined for a far greater role in history than she could possibly have imagined. Great stuff.

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THREE VERY DIFFERENT, NAIL-BITING BOOKS, ON MARS, A DAILY COMMUTE, AND THE PLANTAGENETS. THE ONE THING THEY HAVE IN COMMON IS THEY ARE REAL PAGE-TURNERS, SAYS LAURA LOCKINGTON

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

by Paula Hawkins (Doubleday) If you commute by train from Sussex to London, you may often have peered into back gardens and houses, a glimpse into other lives.

Rachel takes the train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal every time. She’s even started to feel she knows the people in the house. She calls them “Jess and Jason”. They look happy.

If only she could be. One day, she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough for her to become part of their lives in a way that will damage a lot of people.

Rachel needs to be believed, and as she struggles with her personal demons, her past gradually unfolds The book cleverly makes us question who we can trust.

This is a clever and compelling novel, whose tension grows and grows. I found myself convinced that I’d uncovered the plot, only to be surprised again and again.

THE MARTIAN

by Andy Weir (Del Rey) This modern-day take on Robinson Crusoe is the stuff of nightmares.

Mark Watney should have died on Mars. Left behind after a freak accident, he would only ever have been in command of his mission were he its sole remaining member. Which he now is. We read his log book with an ever increasing sense of wonder at his ingenuity and resourcefulness. Despite the baffling acronyms (I now know that an MDV is a Mars Descent Vehicle) and a massive amount of techno-babble (for every kilogram of hydrogen that you take to Mars, you can make thirteen kilograms of fuel) this is a thrill ride of a book. It helps if you are at least familiar with the bridge of The SS Enterprise, but even if you’re not, it will have you gripped as you realise the truth of, “In space no one can hear you scream.”

A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 95

culture

T

Wine, cheese and literature - The Bookish Supper Society feeds mind, body and soul all in one enjoyable evening

he Bookish Supper Society has been described as a cross between a pop-up restaurant and a literary salon.

For Sussex, cognoscenti, it has become a must-attend event. It is hosted and run by the author and book reviewer Laura Lockington.

I have been to many, many literary events and I know what makes them work. For me, it’s about elbows on tables, a glass of wine and something good to eat. It’s also about creating a relaxed, friendly atmosphere. I wanted to produce something that people would feel comfortable going to by themselves. I have often been unable to find anyone who wanted to go to an event, so it was important that anyone would feel comfortable arriving solo. Of course, we do have groups of friends and couples too, but if you do rock up by yourself, I can pretty much guarantee that by the end of the evening you will have made some new friends. We’ve even seen the start of a romance at Bookish.

I’ve worked in publishing and been an author for many years, so I have some good contacts and great relationships with various publishers and authors and we’ve managed to entice some big literary names down to Brighton. I ask the authors to do a short reading, followed by a cheeky and irreverent interview with me. It’s a great chance to meet some top authors in an intimate setting.

This month, on May 20th, we see a really special Bookish as part of the Brighton Fringe Festival. It’s being held in the glorious Cave à

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Food for thought

Fromage here in Brighton with two amazing authors. Jonathan Kemp, who won the The Authors’ Club First Novel Award for his novel London Triptych, with his brand new book, Ghosting – it’s a terrific read and a sort of modern day Mrs Dalloway. It has everything that you’d like in a book: light and shade, compassion and beauty. Then we are lucky enough to have Emily Bullock and her new book, The Longest Fight.

Set in the 1950s, this is a compelling story of hopes and hard knocks in post-war London. Emily’s grandfather was a boxer, and the fight scenes and details make this book utterly convincing, with a raw passionate feel to them.

Then there’s the cheese. Cave à Fromage is famous for delicious and spectacular cheeseboards. They are all local cheeses, and truly wonderful.

(I was lucky enough to have a tasting session.) The Boxer (how apt) is a beer-washed cheese; Golden Cross, a goat’s cheese with a citrus nutty note served with fig and almond cake; Waterloo, a cow’s milk cheese with a hint of mushroom served with truffle honey; Lord of the Hundred, a delicate sweet cheese served with quince paste; Lancashire Bomb, a creamy tangy rich cheese; and Bath Blue a mellow creamy cheese that won the 2014 supreme champion at The World Cheese Awards. All served with relishes and chutneys and artisan bread and fantastic wine.

Wednesday May 20th 7pm. Tickets £27.50 (includes supper and a glass of wine) from Tabl.com

“It’s about elbows on tables, a glass of wine, something good to eat - I can guarantee that by the end of the evening you will have made some new friends”

I in 4 women WILL BE affected by domestic abuse at some point in their life.

(Council of Europe 2002)

You are not alone Call RISE 01273 622 822 www.riseuk.org.uk @riseuk Wraparound services for women, children and LGBT people affected by domestic abuse in Sussex.

Visit Domestic Abuse Surgery, Hove Town Hall, Wednesdays 9.00-12.00

Donate text RISE15 ÂŁ5 to70070 2012 3-year accreditation by

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R.I.S.E. (Refuge, Information, Support and Education) is a registered charity (No.1065846)

minxy mann yeager

In tents? Dislike

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IMAGE CREDIT ROBCARTORRES/SHUTTERSTOCK

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away and still have to cook, clean and make the icture the scene: I have just been MINXY MANN YEAGER IS in the Shed of Doom at school, CERTAINLY NO STRANGER beds for myself? I want the complete reverse: five-star unabashed luxury and glitz all the way; doing battle with the world’s TO CAMPING IT UP. BUT AS with sunshine, 24-hour room service, clean entire population of spiders. I FOR A CAMPING HOLIDAY, sheets every day, poolside WiFi and hot and cold have retrieved the Easter Bunny THAT’S NOT FOR running staff to do my bidding. I want to be baskets for what must be the pampered, served and fed thrice daily. Preparing eleventy-second cake sale of the year, when THIS GLAMOURPUSS for that kind of trip is part of the fun; switching who should come into view but Uber Mummy; my brain immediately into a more relaxed (if wafting equal amounts of glamour, delicious cakey smells and expensive scent around my somewhat disheveled and slightly manic) mode as I sift through swimwear, kaftans with varying degrees of spangle, and jeweled sandals; resort wear that looks a bit mad cobwebby self, now redolent of Eau de Mildew.

As we set up the stall with her organic vegan and gluten-free on home soil but perfect with a tan and a cold glass of sangria, and is cupcakes, the small talk turns to where we shall be holidaying during completely at odds with muddy bivouacs and outdoor privvies. The only the upcoming vacation. Uber Mummy tells me that rather than Ibiza, way I could countenance camping is a week on safari in the Serengeti Sardinia or Poldark-land, they are going camping...in a yurt...in Devon... followed up by 10 days at an ultra-luxe destination beachside hotel.

It is said that the Royal Family never travels without a full set of on a farm; and won’t it be lovely for little India and Cosmo to be at one mourning clothes, just in case someone carks it while they are abroad. with nature and all the skippy frisky little lambkins that will be born.

It’s not really camping she assures me, as there’s a wood-burning This informs my “everything but the kitchen sink” approach. My stove. And how fabulous it will be not to have to wear make-up, use a cosmetics case alone weighs the same as the complete travel allowance blowdryer or charge a laptop while cooking over a camp fire in a leafy on some airlines. I do not see the allowable weight as a limit, more as forest glade. Then she wafts off and I am left pondering other people’s a target. This catch-all method is hardly appropriate when bunking hideous holiday choices. The only camping I have ever been interested down under canvas, as there is no wardrobe for storage, no bathroom in is of the swinging my handbag up St James Street in Brighton variety. for beautification and nobody to see the last word in resort chic. I know The very thought of sleeping in a tent, outside, almost on the bare that camping has now been upgraded to “Glamping”, but dressing it up earth fills me with dread. If I wanted to feature in some Middle Earth by giving it a fancy name and installing a bathtub outside doesn’t make it any more appealing. As my American husband always says: ”You can bucolic nightmare I would have been a hobbit.

I suppose it all comes down to the concept of what constitutes put lipstick on a pig but it’s still just a pig.”

In short: the only time you’ll find this girl under canvas is when I a holiday. I know it is deeply subjective, but for me it should be the complete antithesis to daily life. Why on earth would I want to go shrug on this season’s Burberry Prosum mac.

Cooking up a storm at KingscoteVineyards

What more perfect setting than a vineyard in the heart of Sussex could you possibly imagine to find a new cookery school, a place where you come to learn from a team of professional chefs how to hone your own cooking skills? Kingscote Vineyards are proud to announce the arrival of Kitchen Academy offering: Day Courses in a variety of cuisines, Corporate Events, Chef’s Table Evenings and Family Cookery Classes. Kitchen Academy, situated in the stunning 15th century tithe

barn at the heart of the Kingscote Estate, is run by Jethro Carr who for over 13 years has been taking his cookery school around the country gaining an enviable reputation from prestigious locations like Blenheim Palace, Kew Gardens, Abergavenny Food Festival and BBC Good Food Shows. For ‘hands-on’ cookery classes for all ages and at all levels from beginners to experienced cooks looking to broaden their repertoires. Kitchem Academy at Kingscote has it all.

www.KingscoteEstate. com

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