The Transmitter Issue 11 by Transmission Publications Ltd

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ISSUE 11

A SOUTH EAST LONDON MAGAZINE

GUIDE TO LOCAL GREEN SPACES CRYSTAL PALACE FOOTBALL CLUB SHORT STORY FULL ENGLISH: A ST GEORGE'S DAY GUIDE NADIA SAWALHA PAUL NASH EXHIBITION Plus

FOOD

FASHION

SPRING IN SYDENHAM MUSIC

BOOKS

GARDENING

The Daisy Doo Bag a Liso N VaN D eR L aND e

40 Westow street se19 3ah

WELCOME April 2010 issue Editor

Andy Pontin

Editorial Team Jonathan Main Hannah McEwen Annette Prosser

Regulars

Justine Crow Michael Eyre Howard Male Nadia Sawalha Sue Williams

Printing

The Marstan Press Ltd

Contact

editor@thetransmitter.co.uk 020 8771 5543

The Transmitter is published by

Transmission Publications Ltd Registered in England 6594132 PO Box 53556, London SE19 2TL

Cover

Felicity jumps a stream in Sydenham Wells Park

Photography Andy Pontin

The daffodils are out, the recession is over and life is great up here in the Great North Wood. Now that this tardy spring has finally reported for duty – what a long cold winter it seems to have been – it’s a good time to get out of the house, take a couple of deep breaths and explore some of the many wide (and not so wide) open spaces on our doorstep. From long walks in ancient woodland, a bird sanctuary, a golf course within chipping distance, boating lakes and tennis courts, to the odd medicinal spring and the patch of football ground that is Selhurst Park, this issue is chock-full of fascinating greenery, most of it with an interesting story to tell. Indeed a very interesting story to tell if reports that P Diddy is about to buy Crystal Palace Football Club should ever prove to be true (which they must, because it was in the Daily Mail and so it must be true, right?) On the other hand maybe former footballer Gordon Ramsay can find a few quid for his new local team. If, like Nadia Sawalha, you are engaged in exhausting preparations for this year’s London Marathon (page 42) you will need to keep up your calorie intake. We can help you there because we celebrate St. George's Day by eating our way round the local cafés in true English style (page 24). Plus we have the music and the books and the fashion and the wine and all the stuff we hope you like to read about (do tell us, we have a letters page you know). Finally, can we say that although we would love to drop a copy of The Transmitter on every single one of your deserving doorsteps, the fact is we can’t. So, if you don’t get a copy through your door, it isn’t because we don’t love you, it’s simply because we’re working on our advertising sales (growing steadily, thanks to many supportive businesses). Feel free to mention us to your favourite local retailers, services and eateries to keep the magazine growing. On the plus side, The Transmitter is as free as the sea breezes up here in the fresh air suburb, and there’ll be even more issues available in your local shops and cafés. If you want to be sure to secure a copy, subscription is available: a guarantee that every issue will be delivered to you personally (see details on page 23). Enjoy!

CONTENTS it's a green thing

FEATURES

A trAnsmitter guide to oPen sPACes

We all know that Crystal Palace Park and Dulwich Park are great spaces for all kinds of reasons... but have you explored some of the other local parks and green spaces in the area? You might be suprised...

HOWARD MALE ON THE TIMELESS WORK OF PAUL NASH oor Mummy’s gone mad. Look what she’s brought back,’ Princess Margaret remembers saying when the Queen Mother purchased Paul Nash’s late masterpiece Landscape of the Vernal Equinox (1943) in the mid1940s. But we can’t blame her for being so incredulous. The greatness of this 20th-century master’s work doesn’t lie in brash pizzazz – as did many other modernist works of his time – but in understatement and nuance.

So where the young Princess Margaret saw only a rather cluttered, confusing landscape, overseen by both icy moon and blood-red sun, anyone who considers both Nash’s life and his influences should see so much more. Not only did Nash serve in the First World War, he was also a war artist in the Second World War, shortly after which he died. So this was a man who must have always been haunted by either the ghost of war past or the spectre of war future.

Like two of his British contemporaries, Ben Nicholson and Graham Sutherland, Nash has a muted colour pallete, and he has no interest in merely making pretty pictures to go with some affluent patron’s curtains. Nash wanted some of his very essence, his experiences, his pain, to be somehow encoded into the very fabric of his paintings.

What might come as a surprise to anyone who visits this Dulwich Picture Gallery exhibition, is how infrequently war is actually depicted.Yes, there’s his most famous painting Totes Meer (1940-41) in which an ocean of wrecked German war planes glints mutely in the moonlight. But even here we are not seeing the work of a mere propagandist.

If anything this image seems to mourn the dead crews of these mangled wrecks rather than celebrate any kind of hollow victory. And then there are exquisite images such as Pillar and Moon (1932-1942) in which Nash translates his understanding of surrealists such as Rene Magritte into a piece of surreal lyricism more subtle than Magritte ever produced. It’s the invisible electricity that connects the prosaic stone sphere on the top of the pillar with its unlikely equivalent in the far, far distance – the dimly shining moon – that lends an atmosphere of subtle mystery and indefinable expectation. But there’s something else you may notice as you walk around this thoughtfully organised exhibition: how rarely these coolly evocative landscapes

2. The timeless body of work Nash ended up producing during his relatively short life (he died of pneumonia in 1946 aged only 57) is a unique evocation of what seems both strangely familiar and unfamiliarly strange. And it still speaks to us today of a man who endeavoured to lose himself in painting, and in landscape, in order to both exorcise and share his ghosts, and make us aware of a country and countryside we could so easily have lost. Howard Male

are inhabited by either man or beast. Yes, in Nash’s rather awkward, more illustrative early works there is an occasional fey human presence, either pointing stiffly at some feature in the landscape, or disappearing into the distance. But they never look particularly convincing or necessary, and I suspect Nash eventually realised he could better create a world of metaphysical unease if he dispensed with them. I think you will agree, when you’ve spent sufficient time contemplating Nash’s parallel universe, that like many of his greatest influences (Samuel Palmer, De Chirico, Max Ernst) he could evoke the presence of people without depicting them. So that a hilltop copse, a gnarled old tree trunk, or a monolithic chunk of stone seems to stand guard over his undulating hills, or look to the horizon, beyond which gunfire still rattles. Because having witnessed, first-hand, what devastation we higher primates can visit upon each other and our fragile planet, Nash must have felt perfectly comfortable leaving us out of his troubled visions.

Howard Male unsHeatHes His trusty knife and takes on tHe full englisH Breakfast

hat is it with us Brits? Our self-deprecating sense of humour has become nationdeprecating. We prosaically rename one of our most graceful and original buildings of the past decade … The Gherkin. But even worse, we have lumbered those noble and resilient cafés which – through thick and thin (and the invasion then retreat of McDonald’s) – have given us our Full English Breakfasts … Greasy Spoons. Greasy Spoons, I ask you! What an appetite-nullifying name. So I thought I’d better try to make amends by informing you of just how good some of our local cafés are at not only serving up this epic fry-up, but also, in the case of one particular establishment, giving it an imaginative twist or two.

floors, walls) Paradou opposite the Crystal Palace bus station. I was quite surprised to see the Full English chalked-up on the blackboard outside here, as I’d always – for obvious reasons – associated the place with concentrating on the continental side of things. After all, regulars seem to sit outside in all weathers, sipping coffee, smoking heroically, and presumably imagining that the Crystal Palace transmitter in their peripheral vision is in

The basics of the Full English Breakfast is of course any combination of the following: eggs, beans, tomatoes, bacon, sausage, toast, chips, black pudding, mushrooms, hash browns

But saving the best until last, we come to the cute but tiny Blue Belle Café in Penge. As I sip a surprisingly good coffee (surprisingly good because it’s included in the £5 price) Leonard Cohen croons away in the background (rather than the usual tinnitus-inducing Capital FM) and all is well with the world. But all suddenly becomes even better with the world, as my breakfast

fork) and shamefully leave some isolated clusters of mushrooms and beans, plus a triangle of toast, behind. After a few days off resting my weary belly, days in which I couldn’t even look sideways at a sausage – or even walk down the aisles in Sainsbury’s where the baked beans lurked in their millions – it was time to lay to waste (or should that be waist?) another monumental breakfast.

So, after a February of FEBs I didn’t even come across a DNA strand of Spam. Humour is a powerful weapon as well as a self-deprecating one, so perhaps Python’s Spam sketch made every café in the land realise they could no longer serve this once popular processed meat product without being ridiculed by obsessive Python fans, screeching in high voices, “Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam; spam bacon sausage and spam; spam egg spam spam bacon and spam; spam sausage spam spam bacon spam tomato and spam…”

The Bookseller name ‘the African Mahler’. He died aged 37 of pneumonia and is buried at Bandon Hill cemetery in Beddington. Author charles elford tells his story in the very readable Black Mahler (Grosvenor House Publishing £8.99). A couple of issues back I wrote about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his time in South Norwood. In The Norwood Author (MX Publishing £9.99) by local author alistair duncan, these years from 1891-1894 are covered in definitive and fascinating detail, including for instance his membership of the Norwood Cricket Club (complete with stats) and the Upper Norwood Literary and Scientific Society. I wish, too, that we still had an Upper Norwood Literary and Scientific Society. James broughton was an American poet, experimental filmmaker and a major character in the San Francisco beat scene. He wrote 23 books

"In truth the film is very silly..." and made 23 films and lived most of his life in California teaching at the San Francisco Art Institute. In 1953 he made a film The Pleasure Garden (BFI DVD £15.99) in Crystal Palace Park that was nominated for a BAFTA and won the Prix de Fantaisie Poetique at Cannes 1954, an honour he received from Jean Cocteau. In truth the film is very silly but it is of interest for more than one reason. First it stars a young (and much thinner) Hattie Jacques and her husband John Le Mesurier as well as the famous British filmmaker Lindsay Anderson. Secondly, and more importantly, it features large parts of the park, the Crystal Colonnade and the bandstand that were later demolished, the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Memorial and much of the statuary that was later auctioned off in 1957. It is rightly described as a time capsule. Newly issued for the first time on DVD it is paired with another film The Phoenix Tower. This is a documentary from 1957 featuring the building of the BBC Transmission Tower that was one of a number of short subject colour films to be shown on BBC2 as a ‘test trade transmission’. Again it features many long lost views of the park. And whilst on the subject of not books we have also recently taken another shipment of the 1000 piece jigsaw of the Crystal Palace taken from a painting by James Duffield Harding (Pomegranate £9.99) that took at least one enthusiast five days to do.

CPFC - THE LATEST SCORE

ELEMENTAL: PAUL NASH EXHIBITION

THE FULL ENGLISH

A Transmitter guide to green spaces Jonathan Main looks at where our local club can go from here Howard Male visits the Dulwich Picture Gallery

Howard Male celebrates St George's Day with a big breakfast or seven

REGULARS

GARDENING: PALACE PATCH

FASHION: SYDENHAM WELLIES PARK

COOKING: NADIA SAWALHA

WINE: KENT FLAVOURS

MUSIC:THERE'S A WORLD OUT THERE

BOOKS:THE BOOKSELLER

WHAT'S ON

Sue Williams has trouble with milky fluid when pruning her stems Felicity is Springing In The Rain

Nadia Sawalha's marathon attempt...with pancakes

Jonathan main has found us a heady mix of silly films and spicy books

orn in Holborn in1875 to an English mother and a Sierra Leonean Creole father, the composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was brought up and lived in various houses on the South Norwood/ Croydon borders . He studied violin at the Royal College of Music and later taught and conducted at the Croydon Conservatoire and was professor at the Crystal Palace School of Music and Art (I wish we still had a Crystal Palace School of Music and Art and, imagine, a Croydon Conservatoire). His most famous piece of music, Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, rivalled Handel’s Messiah in popularity and was championed after his death by Sir Malcolm Sargent who conducted ten seasons of a costume ballet version at the Royal Albert Hall between 1928 and 1939. He visited America three times to great acclaim; a 200-voice African-American choir was founded in Washington DC and named in his honour and the musicians in New York gave him the

IT'S A GREEN THING

Howard Male

A ghostly short story by Justine Crow set in Sydenham Wells Park

..my breakfast is lowered by crane on to my table

As I near the finishing line, I’m relieved that the little Palace Café is only 50 yards from my front door. Unusually and refreshingly for venues such as this, I am welcomed with a smile and a menu as soon as I step through the door. But I resist a culinary digression, and once again a vast plate of the usual is put before me, with a cute little traditional brown teapot of tea by its side. The whole button mushrooms were a plump and juicy highlight but I did notice – unlike with all the other

But like that old dragon-culling Roman, St George, I like a good feast. So without further ado I began my noble quest for cholesterol of the highest order at the all-brown (tables, chairs,

1. Paul Nash,Totes Meer,1940-1,Oil on canvas, Tate, London. 2. Paul Nash, Landscape of the Vernal Equinox, 1943, Oil on canvas,The Royal Collection. © 2009, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 3. Paul Nash, Pillar and Moon, 1932-1942, Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 76.2cm,Tate London. © Tate, London, 2009

cafés – they only serve one rasher of bacon. But who’s counting? (Well, actually I am. But given the agreeable service, standard price, and pleasant atmosphere, you may be more forgiving.)

However, it was at the Crystal Pantry Café on Church Road that this St George met his dragon. The usual suspects of two toast, two rashers, mushrooms, sausage etc were, to my horror, all trying to get out from under a veritable avalanche of chips. And I had to eventually admit defeat, down my trusty sword (sorry, I mean knife and

After two days on a strict diet of raw bean sprouts and water, my next pork of call (sorry about that one, pun haters) was alistairs on Westow Street. While there weren’t as many individual components to my FEB here (no mushrooms, tomato or toast) what there was came in generous portions. Although my wife was somewhat mystified as to why her cheese and ham omelette and baked beans came with a large slice of lemon, Alistairs gets the coveted Best Chips Award for their large, chunky homemade efforts. And the herby sausage wasn’t half bad either.

Paul Nash:The Elements continues at the Dulwich Picture Gallery until 9 May.

A FULL ENGLISH

EVERGREEN

south norwood Country Park

elemenTAL

‘P

Back to books. Recent favourites include Just Kids by patti smith (Bloomsbury £18.99) which chronicles the artist, poet and rock singer’s early years in New York living with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe: a time of squalid conditions, often keeping the lice at bay and pissing in a bucket. Whilst Smith can never be accused of not taking herself seriously, this is a fascinating depiction of an emerging New York art scene. When I was much younger I read a book called In Praise of Older Women by stephen Vizinczey, a Hungarian who had taken part in the Revolution of 1956 and then later moved to Canada where he had taught himself English by writing

Spicy too, the Mexican dishes we have been cooking for Sunday lunch from Mexican Food Made Simple by thomasina miers (Hodder £20.00). Simple vibrant food easily put together; the family recommend the smoked mackerel tostadas and the smoky peppers stuffed with mango and feta cheese.Yum.

Jonathan Main 51

Transmitter wino Michael Eyre is totally bonkers (about local wine) ...And Howard Male has found it for us again

Jonathan Main is praising older women - they might even reciprocate A tragic attempt to inform you about local cultural highlights....

NEWS AND EVENTS LOCAL NEWS, EVENTS OR STORIES? EMAIL COMMUNITY@THETRANSMITTER.CO.UK

SPA HILL ALLOTMENT

BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS

If you need a bit of help finding your way around a planting patch, then the Spa Hill Organic Allotment & Garden Training Day could be just the thing for you. On Sunday 18 April they will be covering bulbs, sowing and planting out, with tuition from some experienced garden instructors. Booking is essential – for more information call Tim on 07879 007156 or email training@spahill.org www.spahill.org.uk

The Upper Norwood Joint Library is celebrating its 110th anniversary by asking local residents to vote for their best book of all time. Once the results have been counted, the library will be creating a souvenir reader's guide to the top 30 books of all time later in the year. And as an extra treat, there will be prizes for three lucky voters drawn at random at their Writer's Day event in June. So pick up a form from the library and get voting. And on Saturday 3 April from 11am to 4.30pm, the library will be having a sale of new Usborne books. The more books that are sold and ordered, the more free books the library will get to go on the shelves, so go along and treat a young reader.

MUSIC FESTIVAL The Sydenham International Music Festival 2010 opens on 23 May, and runs through to 27 June. The event will play host to a series of classical concerts in Sydenham, including an appearance by international opera star, Susan Bullock, and a children’s concert. For more information and booking details visit www.sydenhammusic.net

Crystal Palace is home to one of the oldest scout groups in the world. The 2nd Croydon, 1st Crystal Palace Patrol is celebrating its 102nd anniversary, and is still going strong. The group has come a long way since its first meeting under a lamppost in Cintra Park in Crystal Palace, and today the scout group now has Beaver Scouts, Cub Scouts and Scouts – boys and girls from 5½ to 14. The Crystal Palace Scout Group is always looking for new members. If you know any kids aged from 5½ to 14 who may like to give scouting a go, then get in touch with the Club Leader, Liam Campbell, on 07904 734115.

FRIENDS OF WESTOW PARK

NORWOOD SOCIETY CELEBRATIONS

There are a few events on in Westow Park, so now that spring is on the way go along and get your hands mucky... First off, Sunday Gardening in the Park takes place on the last Sunday of every month for an hour's gardening between 11am and 12noon, come rain or shine. Bring your gardening tools if you have any. Then on Sunday 9 May the Wildlife Playday and Picnic is a chance to celebrate the new wildlife area in the park between 12noon and 4pm. They will be erecting the bug towers that local children built last August and running a series of activities for kids of all ages. Bring your own picnic and enjoy.

The Norwood Society was established to represent the interests of the people who live or work in Norwood, and this year it celebrates its 50th anniversary. The event was marked with some entertainment from the Bromley Concert Band, who played songs from the shows as well as some classical numbers. The concert took place at All Saints Junior School, Upper Beulah Hill, where the society was first formed. The anniversary was also marked with a photographic exhibition at Kingswood House in Dulwich.

For more information on both events go to http://friendsofwestowpark.ning. com/events

CRYSTAL PALACE SCOUTS

To find out more about the society visit www.norwoodsociety.co.uk.

DULWICH FESTIVAL

The Dulwich Festival is back for its eighteenth year from 7-16 May, with 'poetry, comedy, music, speakers, bracing walks and even dancing for the more energetic among you.' (blimey! bracing walks and dancing? I'm knackered just thinking about it - Ed) 'Radio 4 regular, Ian McMillan, will be appearing on 13 May with a band of lively musicians poised with fiddles, accordions, whistles and hurdy-gurdy for an evening of music and verse. Dulwich Artists are again opening their doors for the Artists' Open House and a series of new short plays will be showing at the Crown and Greyhound. ' If that's not already way too much excitement for you, Patrick Holden, Director of the Soil Association, will be taking part in the Dulwich Going Greener debate. visit www.dulwichfestival.co.uk

CRYSTAL PALACE CINEMA CAMPAIGN UPDATE After such an exciting climax to 2009, when Bromley Council’s planning committee refused Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC) change of use of the bingo hall at 25, Church Road from D2 leisure to D1 Place of Worship, the Picture Palace Campaign (PPC) has begun 2010 by fundraising in earnest in anticipation of an appeal by the KICC. This was magnificently kick-started by The Bigger Picture Gallery, which very generously held an online silent auction for Big Yellow Field - an original painting by Bigger Picture artist Angelique Hartigan. A cheque for over £200 - 50% of the auction proceeds was passed to the PPC. Swiftly followed by mother and local entrepreneur Rachel d’Cruze of Mother L-R Mark Dunford, (PPC - they got

and baby fairs Sell It Mama announcing that a proportion of the proceeds for all 2010 events are being donated to PPC. With a further £200 being raised by an impressive turn out at The Grape and Grain pub on a cold February evening for a film and local history quiz night and Bafta sweepstake. As well as fundraising, key members of the Crystal Palace Triangle Planning Group (CPTPG) and the campaign have held separate meetings with both independent cinema operator City Screen who run Picturehouses and the MP for Croydon North - Malcolm Wicks, to discuss the next phase of the campaign. Both City Screen and Malcolm are very supportive and a number of key actions have been agreed to be taken forward to support the next phase of the campaign to bring a cinema back to Church Road.

half the dosh), Angelique Hartigan (she painted it) and Tony Chapman (he bought it)

photo: Nigel Barklie

For campaign updates please check out: www.picture-palace.org

Make le Rialto a Realityo!

ART & crafT NEWS GLASS AND CERAMICS FAIR

STITCH 'N' BITCH

The Bigger Picture artists have now moved into their big new gallery space (formerly the SG Smith car showroom top of Anerley Hill)

The first Glass and Ceramics Fair will be taking place in Dulwich. There will be a mix of collectable, contemporary and antique glass from all periods, with exhibitors from across the country. If you fancy popping along, the event takes place from 10am to 4pm on 28 March at Dulwich College, Dulwich Common, London SE21 7LD. Entry is ÂŁ5 for adults and free for children under 16. Have a cracking time. If knitting is your thing, or you would like to get started, then the White Hart on Church Road is hosting a regular knitting evening. It doesn't matter if you are a complete beginner, an experienced knitter who would like to share your expertise, or somewhere in-between, bring some wool and needles along and get stitching. The next evening will be Tuesday 6 April, and fortnightly thereafter â&#x20AC;&#x201C; just turn up from 7pm. For more information contact Rosie at thewhitehartcrystalpalace@gmail.com or on 020 8771 9389. Photo: Circaglass

ART MARKET On Saturday 3 April a group of South London artists will be setting up their stalls in Haynes Lane, Crystal Palace. It will be an opportunity to view new works and meet the people who created them. Organiser Timothy Sutton said 'Crystal Palace has strong artistic connections...There is going to be a broad variety of work including print, paint, mixed media and even some graffiti, so we're now keeping our fingers crossed for some good weather!'

THE BIGGER PICTURE

To launch this great new space, and to celebrate their first birthday, the Bigger Picture's Summer Exhibition 2010 will host an open-submission contemporary art exhibition displaying a wide variety of work by both established and emerging local artists in all media including painting, printmaking, photography, and sculpture. The exhibition will run from 5 June-30 August. There will be lots more information available on the Bigger Picture Gallery website (and the June issue of The Transmitter will feature interviews with some of the artists). Vienna Kelly, of the Bigger Picture Gallery said ''We are delighted by the scope of creativity we have uncovered in the Crystal Palace area. Our move to new, larger premises means we can showcase many artists who want to display their work locally and gives the wider community the chance to enjoy and own original and affordable art. We hope everyone will find inspiration in the range of works on display''. For more info and to download an Artist entry form please visit www.biggerpicturegallery.co.uk

HAYNES LANE

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Register at www.localskillswap.com Add your skills to your profile – choose from over 900 skills Select your proficiency e.g., hobby gardener, trained chef Browse other members and see what they have to offer Ask and answer local knowledge questions Post requests for skills on the home page Swap skills with other local members to get things done for nothing Dozens of skills on offer from dog walking to design, life coaching to letter writing

Our Crystal Palace & Dulwich group covers East Dulwich, Penge, Anerley & Sydenham There are also 5 other South London groups Think about what you have to offer and join forces with other local members at www.localskillswap.com

SINGING CLASSES In Crystal Palace

Singing For Beginners A six week course beginning on Thurs 22nd April 10:30 - 11:30am at Antenna Studios £60 per person Performance Workshop Sat 24th April 2 - 4:30pm at Antenna Studios £25 for singers, £10 for listeners Pilates Workshop for Singers with Suzanne Wooder Sat 15th May 2 - 3:30pm at The Salvation Army £20 per person To find out more or to book a place visit www.kateproudlove.co.uk email kate@kateproudlove.co.uk or telephone 07931 543650

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Bespoke, sumptuous dresses that are as special as the celebration… • Classic cocktail frocks for all occasions • Wedding dresses in glorious colours that will be long remembered Call Catherine Shaw The Overspill 4 cOOpers yard crysTal palace lOndOn se19 1Tn Tel: 07764 196 284

www.allboneandtrimit.co.uk

SPORTs NEWS WHEELS TURNING

'ULLO JOHN GOT AN OLD MOTOR?

Friday 2 April will host the Good Friday meeting at the Herne Hill velodrome. Italian sprint star Roberto Chiappa will be returning to ride in the International Sprint, which he won on his last visit in 2001. Information and tickets: www.bristowevents.co.uk

Back in the day, races were originally run around the perimeter of the park on a purpose-built track created in 1937. Although a new track layout will be in place for the event, it will incorporate some of the features of the original circuit, including the Pond Hairpin, the Terrace Straight and the North Tower Crescent. Spectators will be able to roam around the paddock and see the cars up close, chat to the drivers and watch the mechanics at work. And we think that sounds like a pretty exciting prospect. The event will also be supporting both St Christopher’s Hospice and the Royal London Society for the Blind, with competitors donating a minimum of £10 in support of the charities.

THE LONDON CLASSIC

And if that is not enough lycra for one month, The London Classic will be taking place on Sunday 11 April.

The glory days of motorsport racing will be returning to Crystal Palace on 30 and 31 May.

As featured in the last issue of The Transmitter, it will be starting and finishing at The Alma on Church Road with around 200 cyclists making a 40mile loop into London town and back to the Palace. And for those of you who don't appreciate a two-wheeled journey, we are confident that your moral support will be appreciated – especially if you have a cold pint waiting at the bar

Crystal Palace Park was home to one of the first purpose-built race tracks, which in its time was frequented by motor-racing stars – with Jim Clarke, Stirling Moss, Jackie Stewart and even Nigel Mansell competing for success. Sadly the sound of racing cars hasn't been heard there since 1972 (aside from the screeching of doughnuts in the car park on a Sunday night, and apparently that doesn't count). Now thanks to the efforts of the Sevenoaks and District Motor Club and the Ancaster Group as sponsor, the twoday bank holiday event will provide a unique opportunity to revisit those halcyon days with classic cars racing alongside some more modern machines.

So how about spending a bank holiday experiencing the sights, sounds and smells of classic cars back on a legendary circuit right on your doorstep? For more information and tickets go to www.motorsportatthepalace.co.uk

STOP PRESS Roary the Racing Car is to make a guest appearance at Motorsport at the Palace on Sunday 30 May. Roary the Racing Car has shot into pole position as the hottest children’s television character of recent years and Roary’s appearance, alongside his mechanic Big Chris, is great news for younger guests, who’ll be able to meet animated TV’s equivalent of Jenson Button.

CELEBRITY CHEF NEws

Posh-o-meter alert!

A PROPER COOK BOOK AT LAST...

ost of us will, I imagine, at one time or another have bought a cookbook by one celebrity chef or another only to read it and then never cook a damn thing from it because the recipes were too complicated, too fiddly and made no allowance for an everyday kitchen and a normal family life.Yes Gordon Ramsay, and you Heston, I’m looking at you. Stuffed Vine Leaves Saved my Life (Doubleday £20.00) by Celebrity MasterChef winner, actress, television presenter and perhaps most importantly, Transmitter magazine columnist, Nadia Sawalha is not one of those books. Inspired by her extended family, their Middle-Eastern roots and the wise words of her father, Good food, cooked with love feeds the soul as well as the body, the book is a joyful, noisy testament to a life well-lived by one extraordinary south east London family - frankly my dear, I still have a hangover from the description of her wedding.

WE STILL LOVE YOU, nadia...

The book not only includes a recipe for the SpagBol that cures all said hangovers, instructions for stuffing any number of vegetables, and a delicious sounding Spiced Lamb and Date Tagine, but also a recipe for her uncle Nabil’s Desert-baked Whole Lamb, that begins – and here I may be contradicting myself just a tad - In your backyard first dig a pit about 1 metre deep. Alternatively you could buy a piece of lamb no larger than your oven.

adia had better watch out the big guns are muscling in on her patch. No, we don't mean that bloke who is one of the current series finalists in MasterChef that has been spotted wandering around CP triangle - although he did seem to be very good.

No matter, it also includes the culinary masterpiece that is the cheese, coleslaw and crisp sandwich, a number that surely deserves its own Facebook page even though they won’t be serving at the Fat Duck anytime soon. It was, we learn, one of a number of varieties of, sometimes homebaked, bread based comestibles that the author, during her lean, ‘resting’ years, once sold out of a basket at a bus stop, dahn the hill in Streatham. Perhaps you bought one once.

Seemingly tired of Wandsworth, we hear that El Gordinator has upped sticks and moved to...Dulwich, to live with his wife, kids, pigs, sheep, TV crews etc. etc.

Signed copies are available from The Bookseller Crow.

No, we mean, da, da, da....El Gordo himself, Yes, The Gordinator...Gordon bloody Ramsay for chrissake!

OMG, just imagine if he takes over Beauberry House and turns it into a proper restaurant! OMG Michelin Stars staggering distance from Crystal Palace! OMG...my poshometer just exploded! To help Gordon settle into his new quiet life, please send all the pap pics you can grab on your phones to: gordonpapzone@thetransmitter.co.uk

SYDENHAM HIGH FASHION

Matilda leads the Romantic collection in a design by Amreen

Original student designs and the latest fashions provided by some of South London’s premier designers were on the catwalk at Sydenham High School on 23 February, in aid of a girls’ school in Tanzania. The event, Climbing in Heels, followed a fundraising climb of Mount Kilimanjaro by maths teacher Claire Daley. Nearly £7,000 has been raised which will be used to provide a purpose-built computer room for Rugambwa School in Bukoba which teaches some of the brightest girls in North Africa. Sydenham High School donated Rugambwa School’s first computer five years ago.

There were four collections in the show; Romantic, Gothic, Future and International. Fashion designers included mother and daughter designer team Gisella who brought red carpet glamour to the International and Future collections. Eclipse in Dulwich provided a contemporary look for the Romantic collection and Fairies and Floozies provided magical outfits with a twist for the Gothic collection. Gisella’s Jan Asante is an old girl of Sydenham High School. The show’s producer,Year 12 student Poppy Tongeman was supported by Sophie Lancaster and together they co-ordinated twenty student designers, forty models and the huge backstage team that were involved in the event’s production.

Gabrielle and Hannah designed evening dress for Elinor

‘High profile projects like these give our girls real life experience of working collaboratively, organising projects and turning ideas into reality. These sorts of life skills can’t just be taught in the classroom, they have to be experienced first hand. I’m always thrilled at the professionalism and polish of these student-led events’ commented Kathryn Pullen, Headteacher.

LETTERS

westowrants

We want your letters! Please send them to editor@thetransmitter.co.uk or to The Editor, The Transmitter, PO Box 53556, London SE19 2TL.

Dear Editor, I was intrigued to read about the muntjac deer discovered in Beaulieu Heights, because late last summer I came across one on South Norwood Common, close to the children's play area (by the Maberley Road entrance). I thought I must be mistaking it for a dog, but now I know I was not. I rather like the idea of herds of wild muntjac drifting over the playing fields of Norwood grazing in the dusky evening light of a summer's evening or a misty autumn morning. They could be Upper Norwood's equivalent of Richmond Park deer. Adrian Moore, Upper Norwood

Thanks for the report Adrian. It is very comforting, as here at The Transmitter we are more used to seeing wildlife of the human kind in the locality at dusk and dawn. Calling all eager-eyed readers – do you have any interesting wildlife sightings? Let us know.We could get Bill Oddie up here before you can say "white-rumped sandpiper." - Ed

Dear Editor, I was born in 1920 in the house where I still live in Hamlet Road, Upper Norwood. Apart from army service, including a few years serving in Poona, I have lived all my life in this delightful part of south-east London. During that time I have seen many changes. Any vehicle such as yours which contributes to the cultural life of the area and promotes a sense of community is to be welcomed. However I do feel it is designed to appeal to the so-called trendy young professionals. I believe in the modern parlance your publication

would be referred to as ‘wicked’. However I would like to put in a plea for articles that reflect the interests of the longer standing and more mature residents of Upper Norwood rather than the influx of Johnny-come-lately marketing and media types whom all the local watering holes now seem to attract. My fellow soldiers and I fought a war for these people. Is it too much to expect something in return? Your obedient servant Col Edmund Clark (ret’d), Upper Norwood Indeed it is not too much to expect, Edmund (if we may venture to call you by your first name).We are delighted that you think that the publication is suitable for trendy young professionals. Although we like to think of ourselves as rather hip and happening, that is not always a notion that is shared by those who know us. However, we can see now that it may have been to the detriment of respectable, upstanding readers such as you.Thank you for bringing this to our attention - Ed.

For those of you who like a bit of spice in your life, you now have a couple more choices on the Triangle. Crystal Palace Tandoori has opened on Westow Hill, and all the dishes on the menu are made with free-range meat, eggs and organic fish.There is also organic wine, but we can't promise it won't give you a hangover. Just around the corner Rose Villa has opened on Central Hill, and on 28 April Elvis tribute artist Sal will be entertaining diners. So whether it's free-range or Elvis that tickles your fancy then take your pick – or just try both! Further along Westow Hill it's all happening eaterie-wise. Ponte Nuovo has a lovely new frontage and looks worth a try, even if it turns out to be pretty similar to Ponte Vecchio. Next door, the newly opened Fresco looks cool and close by the Braziliana Cafe

looks as though it might be finally re-opening.

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There's more to spring than daffodils says Sue Williams

othing is so beautiful as Spring When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush; ......What is all this juice and all this joy? A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning In Eden garden. - Have, get, before it cloy, Before it cloud... Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). Poems. 1918.

t's been a long and busy winter for the Norwood gardener , with the relentless rain and heavy snowfall leaving the ground cold and sodden. There's not been much opportunity to spend time in the garden – even compost-spreading has ended up creating wellies like moon boots – but those first warm dry days which anticipate the advent of spring are just around the corner. The main interest in the borders at this time of year are flowers grown from bulbs. Hyacinths and narcissus are all very well – nothing recalls the spring like a 'host of golden daffodils' – but there are some unusual plants to be found in this genre which can liven things up a bit.

Fritillaria imperialis, or more commonly Crown Imperial, originates from Turkey and is a magnificent bulbous perennial growing up to 4 feet tall. It flowers mid to late spring and has a spiky crown of light green foliage from which hang long bellshaped orangey red flowers. These are produced at amazing speed – sometimes within a week of the first shoots appearing – and although the plant has a touch of the exotic about it Fritillaria imperialis is actually fairly hardy. Dry bulbs should be planted in the autumn in light well-drained soil (beware the rather unpleasant foxy odour which emanates from these!) but pot-grown plants can be purchased now and planted straight into the border. It's worth covering the bulbs with a generous layer of compost in the winter to ensure protection from frost.

There are several varieties of this plant. “Rubra Maxima” has fantastic deep red flowers while “The Premier” produces very large, showy orange ones. I like to grow these Fritillaria in a clump as a feature plant in the border but they will do equally well in pots. A marvellous burst of exotic colour in the early days of spring. Leucojum aestivum or Loddon Lily is not dissimilar to the spring snowdrop in appearance, but it is much larger and more showy and flowers mid to late spring rather than at the very beginning of the season. Sometimes called Summer Snowflakes, they grow up to 2 feet tall with bell-shaped white flowers hanging from stiff, upright stems. The leaves are narrow, lance-shaped and sea-green and grow up to a foot in

A marvellous burst of exotic colour in the early days of spring. length. They don’t mind shade at all so look very effective around the base of trees and standard shrubs. Again dry bulbs need to go in during the autumn but pot-grown specimens can go in now. It's obviously much cheaper to plan ahead and order dry bulbs but sometimes in the heady rush of summer this forward planning is neglected – well, if you're anything like me that is.

A larger variety of Leucojum is the Gravetye Giant which performs impressively in the spring bed while Leucojum vernum is half the size but flowers in the later months of winter when there is very little interest in the garden – the Loddon Lily doesn't like root disturbance so once planted it is best left to its own devices. Away from bulbs and on to that mainstay of any garden – the evergreen perennial and in particular the Euphorbia characias (sounds like something from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) known, rather less impressively, as the Spurge. I love Euphorbia, especially when planted in large groups where they really show off to an advantage. There has been a great swathe of different varieties planted in Crystal Palace Park – behind the stadium stand – and they look fantastic in spring. You will need a bit of space for this plant as they have a 3-feet height and spread. Small bell-shaped flowers of lime green centred with brown protrude on short stalks in a large candyfloss-shaped mass from tall upright stems. The leaves are long and thin and create a grey-green 'jungle' under the flower heads. They like light and shade and acidy soil and, although hardy, they may suffer during long, cold winters. One problem of the plant is the milky fluid which is produced when the stems are pruned and this can irritate the skin. Also Euphorbia are best not eaten - although they're not a popular dish. Every five or six years it is a good idea to cut the Spurge down to ground level to allow it to recuperate as they can have a tendency to straggle when they get older. A very similar Euphorbia for spring flowering is Euphorbia robbiae, named after a Mrs Mary Robb who cultivated this variety in the late 1900s. This Mrs Robb’s Bonnet is shorter at 18in and produces yellow flowers with dark olive green leaves which are shaded purple. This gem’s a bit invasive so is ideal for woodlandstyle planting under trees. Happy Gardening.

Sue Williams

Euphorbia characias in Crystal Palace Park

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EVERGREEN A SHORT STORY BY JUSTINE CROW

reya pulled up against the kerb with a scuff of the wheel; she had been in the car too long but she had made the decision to bury the rest of the morning’s work to walk in Wells Park instead. After all, it had been monumentally dumb to offer to drive her aunt back to Purley during the morning rush hour and now her thoughts had been atrophied by the tock of the wipers and the characteristic combative perkiness of dear Irene – things were so much better during the war, them flying bombs brought out the best in us. ‘How can anybody do that for a living?’ thinking of the bus driver whose hardened eye she caught at Thornton Heath. He let her in though. Then, she’d double-backed in the monotonous suburbs but thanks to the one-ways ended up even further behind in the traffic. Worse, the prospect of being suspended in the narrow beam of a computer screen afterwards, the scrolling images making no more of an intellectual impact than Irene’s Daily Murder, seemed to slow her reflexes. She needed scouring with cold air.

the world beyond the drowsy fug of breakfast radio and the blowers, but Freya set off towards the gateway hidden along the ribbon of railings between cushions of overgrown privet, her mood thrust deep in her pockets. She was startled by a scrape and a thump in the hedge but kept her gaze down. Now it came rhythmically as she turned in and nearly collided with a park ranger in a corporation fleece bumping his spade on the path. She clapped her surprise back into her mouth while the man regarded her with mistrust before pretending to fiddle with the padlock on the gate. What had she expected? A ghost wreathed in clanking chains? Who else was likely to be out in a park on such a cold grey day?

Before she got out, she looked up through the windscreen to gauge the sky and saw a song thrush plumped up by the breeze, stoically riding the naked branch of the wintry tree, under which she’d parked so haphazardly because the fight had gone out of her.

The ranger dragged his shovel up the path behind her in the direction of the toddler playground. She knew this park well but had always come in the cleavage of early summer, when all the trees were all dressed up, overlaying the views of Kent beyond. Today she had been anticipating stark black spikes and quivering desolation but instead, alongside the yews and holly, fir trees greeted her with arms open wide like capes and this was the first time she had noticed was how many evergreen trees there were on the slopes. Had people been secretly abandoning their Christmas trees here like tipping unwanted exotic fish into a pond?

The thrush was silent, probably concentrating too hard on staying on, but a crow barracked in the distance. The street, lined by birch and assorted park-side architecture linked by a lone telegraph pole bald as the trees, was also quiet. It was indeed brisk out in

Evidently, someone had once planted the place with love born of knowledge but she had no idea about the correct botanical names herself. Spruce? Conifer? How can you tell the difference? The trees moved down the damp gradient like crinolines towards

the lower dip where she’d played in the old pools as a child, now renovated with rubber floored fountains and climbing equipment stranded in bark. How many trees had given their lives so that our children might play safely? Hmm, she’d been with Irene for too long. As she exhaled to empty her head of questions, she was aware of an old fashioned picture postcard scene developing, the kind that Irene recalled – a snapshot of bonnets and a baby carriage, a toy yacht tugging the surface of a lake level with the path, a black and white plate splashed with watercolours pierced by the purity of steeples, no high-rises and no transmitter. But she heard a modern siren, or perhaps the echo of one, fading and then the scene was washed away – apparently her weary gloom couldn’t sustain the daydream with its sunshine like a welcome rash on the back of bare legs. She found a bench that encircled the base of a shy sapling. Perhaps that thrush had taken refuge on the outside because there was an intimidating gang of crows roaming the incline between the witch hat trees, pecking and bouncing, fussing upwards before touching down lopsidedly to continue their opportunistic loitering. Hah, the avian equivalent of steaming, Irene? Bet even the birds were better behaved in the old days. She followed their antics as they strutted off to her right where a backdrop of unkempt woodland was upstaged by a couple of dignified cedars aristocratically surveying the limited landscape. Then some thing or some sound suddenly unsettled the shifty crowd of birds and they lifted

Christ, he’s wearing uniform. It’s a bloody soldier. Body bent as a suicide, face down, the back of his head encased in leather, there was shattered glass on the grass. An airman. His blue coat was hazy with smoke; shoulder open, left arm thrown out to reveal a palm full of blood. His right leg was still in a boot. Over her shoulder, towards the dip, the boating lake toyed with the toy yacht again. But the baby carriage had been hurriedly retrieved. He was still breathing. Freya stood over him, her fright tamped down. On the right side of his coat was a metal badge, an insignia, a grey eagle. Luftwaffe. What she was witnessing wasn’t part of her timeline; he had corkscrewed out of the sky, out of an accidental aperture. Somewhere sixty years ago there would be wreckage and even a dozing bomb and soon there would be a small mob forging through the gate in the dip.

untidily, scattering themselves with a barrage of complaints. Freya meanwhile, experienced a dizzy corkscrewing from above. She scrunched her eyes in case this was a migraine that needed staving off but the effect was still there when she opened them again, caught in a flapping vortex. Something slotted at speed into the trees. She lurched upright off the bench when she saw it: a wing. A large blue wing, as big as a car door, and a shoulder, languishing in the benevolent spread of the farthest cedar, folding and flexing in the branches. Quickly she strode towards the tree and its enormous captive, looking back for the ranger should she need help. Scant chance – the park was empty and even the crows

had scarpered. The cold air was silent. The giant bird fluttered and rested, wedged in the bottle-green boughs. As she approached, Freya looked for the sideways glance of a vast head and curious eye. Instead, as she drew up beneath the canopy, she realised too late that this thing was not feathered. As her fear began to rouse itself, a single black boot dropped from the foliage to her feet. She heard a groan, a male sound, and her eyes followed the phantom trail left by the boot back up into the branches. Then, god, worse, the tree began to shed its load amidst a rising splinter and tear, wooden stitches ripping, and with an explosion of twigs the cedar tree spat the man out on to the ground.

Above her, trapped in that dignified evergreen, she knew intuitively there was silk and cords like skin on hot milk that bound this man and his story to this place. She turned and jogged back to the bench and climbed up to see if she could spot the parachute. Below, the colours were glisteningly fresh, the green paint on the railings, the blue of the water, the whitewashed cottages, brassy sunlight breaking out of a starched cloud. Then, the exhilarating trapdoor began closing, snuffing the brightness and spiriting away the story. As she stood on the bench, she watched the German airman that bailed in Wells Park on that busy January morning in 2010 dissolve, his upright dropped boot the last to disappear. Then down the hill came the ranger, flapping madly, his cold breath parping: ‘Oi! Get down off there!’ he yelled. ‘What the hell do you think you are doing?’ Freya jumped down back into a slippery grey winter and hurriedly took to the path. Ducking through an incongruous vestibule of bamboo that shook lyrically in the breeze, one thought occurred to her and she laughed for the first time in ages. ‘I can’t wait to tell Irene..’

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THE MAGAZINE FOR SE LONDON

ISSUE 4 FEB 2009

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South Norwood Country Park

FAR TREK SUE WILLIAMS AND BOB THE DOG GO BOLDLY

South Norwood Country Park T

Bob (the Dog) Williams

Dulwich Woods F

ollow the road to the left immediately before the toll-gate, past the allotments, and you'll arrive at the last vestige of the Great North Wood. It's a great walk with the kiddies – we used to pretend they were the giant's woods as, amongst the trees, there are scattered ruins of garden follies and the like. Also the train from East Dulwich to Crystal Palace ran through the heart of these woods and a very impressive tunnel can be found – albeit boarded up – cutting into the hill side. Up until recently the tunnel was opened a couple of times a year for stalwart historians to walk the mile or so to the Parade where remains of the tunnel’s other end can be seen behind Victorian railings. There are great views of London over the Dulwich golf course – much loved by Denis Thatcher in his day – and a great suspended walkway at the Lordship Lane end of the woods. A marvellous local space.

he bottom end of Portland Road is not often viewed as a rural idyll but turn left down any of the side roads and a huge expanse of green and water awaits at the South Norwood Country Park. There's a car park, a pitch and putt course and even a tram stop – if only Boris had kept to his word we could have trammed it down there from the Palace. A huge lake forms the centrepiece of this park and boardwalks allow for duck feeding and the like. There's a massive playing field and even a smaller hill for the children to climb and run down (and a fantastic imaginative playground knocking spots off Dulwich Park). It has a bit of run-down feel and isn’t scrupulously kept like some, but it has a charm nonetheless and is really worth a visit.

Addington Hills T

ravel further south from the Country Park for another six or seven minutes towards the Shirley Hills Road. At the top of the hill turn right at the car park next to the Chinese Restaurant.Voila. 130 acres of woodland, valleys, gorse and even a granite viewpoint looking back over glorious South London and its two iconic transmitters. This is a wonderful walk as numerous tracks weave up hill and down dale through different types of woodland. Again the woods can be accessed from a tram stop – Coombe Road this time – and the Hills remain gloriously under-used for those delighting in a quiet undisturbed walk.

Selsdon Woods Nature Reserve V

enture even further away from the Triangle and true delight awaits just the other side of Croydon's sprawling suburbia. This is a 25-minute run in the car but it will not disappoint. Selsdon Wood Nature Reserve (or the 'Bird Sanctuary' as it is locally known) is a National Trust gem at the very edge of the metropolis. Purchased by the Trust in 1936 to preserve the ancient woodland from the alarming spread of 30's ribbon housing development, Selsdon Nature Reserve is 200 acres of dog-walking heaven. Five large meadows form the beginning of the Reserve from the car park situated left off Old Farleigh Road in Selsdon. Wild flowers grow knee high during mid-summer and the fields brim with butterflies and grass hoppers. The woods are home to myriad birds and badgers and it's not uncommon to chance upon the deer that live there. Weekends are busy but during the week and early in the morning you can walk without seeing a soul for half an hour or more – a welcome hiatus in our busy Norwood lives.

Sue Williams

NEARest & DEAREST? JUSTINE CROW VISITS SOME MORE LOCAL SPACES

outh London gives good grand park, no doubt about it. For most though, the exhilaration of a grand park has become something of an unlikely luxury, and while the day-trip destinations like Crystal Palace and Greenwich sometimes remain out of reach for practical reasons, what of the less bestowed places, those second division parks? So here we go – a Transmitter foray into a few of those medium little spaces, those remnants of ancient common land not yet sacrificed to brick. First, I walked the perimeter of

Alexandra Recreation Ground by Penge East railway station and took in the looping path that was to be my guide in this unfamiliar oasis. I discovered it has a surprise bowlinggreen waiting patiently behind a hedgerow, plus a paddling pool faded by a thousand baby feet and among the rosehip beds an unfeasibly shiny though broken, composite marble drinking

fountain inscribed ‘Re-erected in these grounds 1871.’ Re-erected? People had been stopping by for a breather here for more than a hundred years. I felt their thirsty ghosts everywhere. Continuing to pay homage to as many of these 'lower league' spaces as possible, I discover Mayow Park on the escape lane from Sydenham’s permanent traffic jam. It is another space often glimpsed and never tasted, its vital ingredients of swarming ivy, bored gulls, brave daffodils, fox reek, roguish tree roots spring-loaded for unwary joggers and hunched climbing apparatus all earnestly expectant. The finest of the lower division parks was once a big player. South Norwood Lake sounds like a geographical wonder. I’d seen it referenced as a desirable location in estate agency puff, and I’d sometimes parked there in the dark for midweek

games at Selhurst. When I finally visit properly, I discover a shimmering versatile beauty that it almost pains me to reveal for fear that it will be overrun. In truth it was once a very, very busy amenity. The ghosts at Norwood Lake are forever ice-skating and boating and bathing and casting for chub, roach and pike as prescribed by the painted inventory at the entrance gates next to the blue and white pavilion, where the row of vacant anti-macassars on the chairbacks are testament to the pleasure once derived from merely watching the myriad activities here. Apparently it once boasted fifty-four tennis courts. Fifty four! Best of all the park has retained its elegant circular refreshment cabin, open even on Christmas Day.

South Norwood Lake - OK it's not green.

Watched over by the ‘other’ tower, the clinking dinghy masts and upturned hulls are assured a place in the history books due to the park’s link with the now defunct, save for the bubbling lock’s length at Betts Park, another dramatic yet no less vital spot for a stretch, then smack of a ball and a moment without conversation, Croydon canal. Once upon a time you could have gone to the match by coal barge. Maybe it was too much fresh air but places to stop were popping up everywhere like green hernias bulging out of a grey map. Ashburton Park regards the queues on Long Lane with disdain; Wells Park is stunningly planted; Grangewood Park with its haunting beeches and compelling views is a constant distraction rendering some of us a ruddy caution to other drivers; Westow Park is a sight for sore shoppers’ ankles; Norwood Park, another sweeping relief from the travails of the hauling traffic.

ut what about those even lesser islands we pass on the commute over speed bumps? The green stepping stones that don’t show on the A to Z, the ones without names except for those lucky enough to be neighbours or squirrels. Is there a finer arrogance of trees than those on the magnificent roundabout slap bang in the middle of that rat-runner’s delight, Lawrie Park Avenue? To say they are huddled is to imply they are helpless on a receding shore. Those trees are defiant. And resting on the necklace of seats, I spy the handsome parish church of St Bartholomew’s, Sydenham. Sinner that I am, I have been blown down Westwood Hill by the devil a hundred times and never once noticed it. Have you?

24 Metres from Chulsa (estate)

I'll be your roundabout

.. But what about those even lesser islands we pass on the commute over speed bumps? At the foot of Belvedere Road, where it briefly meets Fox Hill, there is a glorious square no bigger than the turning circle of a Sainsbury’s lorry and as I walked I counted no less than twelve mature trees and nearly as many teenaged ones, the ground spiked with shooting bulbs. It was here where the flora conspires to remind us who is in charge regardless of architectural intent and the oaks go hand in gnarled hand with garden centre dilettantes to prove that the forest is always going to fight back, I found my very favourite minor, minor village league space. As you climb Fox Hill, just the one pair of goalposts waits as eagerly as a wagging dog for someone to come and score. As I sat on one of the two hopeful benches beside the penalty spot, it occurred to me that as insignificant and fleeting as these verdant islands are, they necessarily provide the playing space, the walkies, the forest elbow, the short cut, the refreshment, the respite that relieves all that seething urban pressure percolating in the surrounding streets as well as an opportunity to snatch a reflection

of a bigger sky in the fractured path. I have visited twenty such spaces in three postcodes in less than as many days and feel like I’m holding a bunch of green balloons, the strings being the roads that tether them. And now I can’t let them go.

Justine Crow

Anyone for 'three and in'?

Sydenham Wells Park,

a stunningly planted local gem, takes its name from the medicinal springs which were discovered in Sydenham in the mid-seventeenth century. Several of the 12 former wells lie within the grounds of the park, and are still active today.

SYDENHAM WELLIES PARK There's something magical about the light through the weeping willows of Wells Park Model Felicity Kinsella Hair and Make-up by Willie Smarts Photographs by Andy Pontin

Umbrella £30 by Isabelle Meyrignac www.hybridillustration.com, Coco dress by Eucalyptus £65, leather purple satchel by Cambridge Satchel Company £60 all from Smash Bang Wallop, 40 Westow Street, SE19 3AH 020 8771 5517 www.smashbangwallop.co.uk

Umbrella £30, Marnie dress by Eucalyptus £65 from Smash Bang Wallop Hunter Original Tall Boots £60 from Merlin Shoes 44 Westow Street, Crystal Palace SE19 3AH 020 8771 5194

1 WESTOW HILL SE19 1TQ 020 8670 9798 OPEN WED-FRI 11-8 SAT 10-6 occasionally sunday

Open Thursday-Sunday 12-6pm (Fridays 12-8pm) The White Hart, 96 Church Road, Crystal Palace, SE19 2EZ Annette 07949 552926 | Dawn 07982 184657

Spring

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40 Westow Street SE19 3AH 020 8771 5517 www.smashbangwallop.co.uk

cpfc - THE latest score JONATHAN MAIN LOOKS AT RECENT EVENTS THAT PUT CRYSTAL PALACE FOOTBALL CLUB IN ADMINISTRATION

rystal Palace Football Club had their season turned upside down on 27 January when, in a move that apparently surprised and dismayed owner Simon Jordan, they were forced into administration by hedge fund company Agilo, to whom they are thought to have owed £4.1 million out of an overall debt (much of it owed to Jordan himself) purportedly in the region of £30 million. Not to make light of this debt but, to put it into some sort of perspective, it might help to consider that the combined debts of Manchester United and Liverpool football clubs amount to £1 billion.

The following day the club were due in court to face a winding up order from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs over unpaid tax and it is thought that Agilo (which describes itself as specialising in distressed assets and special situations and who are known to charge up to 25% interest on loans to businesses) called in the debt over concerns that it would not get paid. Administration is a bitter blow for a club that had not been profligate in recent times, instead selling or moving out the majority of their highest earning players and relying on a handful

of talented youngsters from their impressive academy to fill the team. They hit an impressive run of form, losing only twice in their previous 15 games, and put themselves on course for a play-off place and a chance for promotion to the Premiership. These ambitions were quickly kicked into touch when the Football League docked the club 10 points (one of the conditions of administration) which sent them tumbling down the league to fight a relegation battle and to face the very real possibility of life next season in Division One.

eleven pub quiz CPFC facts 1. Worse was to come. Manager Neil Warnock (who arrived at the club via an unlikely friendship with Simon Jordan and who had been given an unenthusiastic welcome, but who, given the progress of the team under his leadership, was now considered by the majority of fans as a saviour of sorts) jumped ship to Queens Park Rangers. He offered any number of reasons for doing so, but one thing is certain, he and Simon Jordan are no longer friends. Within a day the experienced Paul Hart arrived at the club bringing with him two former Palace players: John Pemberton as his first team coach and, as his assistant manager, one of the most popular players ever to wear the red and blue, Dougie Freedman. It is possibly inspired casting, only time will tell. They began their first match against Sheffield United with a 1-0 win, but followed it up three days later with a 0-1 loss at home to Bristol City, leaving them one place above the relegation zone on goal difference alone. At the time of writing the administrator was indicating that there was one buyer showing interest above all other parties, but he has yet to put his head above ground. In spite of the huge catchment area that it has to draw on, our local team has never been the best supported of clubs, which has always been part of the problem when it comes to money in the bank. So if you are remotely interested in football (and even if you aren’t) or if you’ve never paid a visit to Selhurst Park before, now might be the time to do it. Who knows, it’s quite possible that if you leave it until next season it may well be too late.

The first Crystal Palace Football Club was formed in 1861 and consisted of exhibition staff from the palace itself and local people from Penge and Sydenham To all intents and purposes the Football League (as we know it today) began life in 1863 when 12 clubs from the London area met at the Freemasons Tavern in Long Acre, Covent Garden. Crystal Palace was one of those 12 clubs Initially they went by the nickname the Groundkeepers. That club was wound up in 1876 A newly-formed team began life in1905 with the nickname the Crystals. Before their first season was out they had been renamed the Glaziers The club played at the Crystal Palace (at the ground that also hosted the FA Cup final) until the outbreak of the First World War when the Admiralty requisitioned the site. In 1973, under the management of Malcolm Allison, it was decided to change the club crest and name to the Eagles (although the designers of the crest insisted that the ‘eagle’ should have some resemblance to a phoenix) In 1977 Terry Venables, later manager of England and all points West, took the Eagles to promotion from Division Three at his first attempt. It was his first managerial job and by 1979 he had guided them to the First Division

Ian Wright, later of Arsenal and England and now television presenter, began his professional career with Crystal Palace in 1985 at the late age of 22, making 225 appearances for the club and scoring 90 goals 9. An audience estimated at between 500 million and 1 billion watched Fan Zhiyi (captain of the Chinese national team) become the first Chinese national ever to play for a British club when he made his debut for Crystal Palace on 27 September 1998 10. In the 1999 -2000 season England and Chelsea star Ashley Cole played 14 games for Crystal Palace on loan from Arsenal. He scored one goal and Palace tried to buy him for £1 million 11. England starlet Victor Moses, recently sold to premiership Wigan Athletic for £2.5 million by the administrators, attended Stanley Technical High School after moving to England at the age of 11 following the murder of his parents in Nigeria. Crystal Palace paid for him to go to Whitgift School where he was coached by former player and manager Steve Kember. Aged 14 he scored 50 goals in a season for the junior side and helped Whitgift win the national cup, scoring all five goals in the final.

Some of these facts were taken from Crystal Palace Miscellany by Neil McSteen. Published by Pitch Publishing £9.99

elemenTAL

HOWARD MALE ON THE TIMELESS WORK OF PAUL NASH

‘P

oor Mummy’s gone mad. Look what she’s brought back,’ Princess Margaret remembers saying when the Queen Mother purchased Paul Nash’s late masterpiece Landscape of the Vernal Equinox (1943) in the mid1940s. But we can’t blame her for being so incredulous. The greatness of this 20th-century master’s work doesn’t lie in brash pizzazz – as did many other modernist works of his time – but in understatement and nuance.

2. are inhabited by either man or beast. Yes, in Nash’s rather awkward, more illustrative early works there is an occasional fey human presence, either pointing stiffly at some feature in the landscape, or disappearing into the distance. But they never look particularly convincing or necessary, and I suspect Nash eventually realised he could better create a world of metaphysical unease if he dispensed with them. I think you will agree, when you’ve spent sufficient time contemplating Nash’s parallel universe, that like many of his greatest influences (Samuel Palmer, De Chirico, Max Ernst) he could evoke the presence of people without depicting them. So that a hilltop copse, a gnarled old tree trunk, or a monolithic chunk of stone seems to stand guard over his undulating hills, or look to the horizon, beyond which gunfire still rattles. Because having witnessed, first-hand, what devastation we higher primates can visit upon each other and our fragile planet, Nash must have felt perfectly comfortable leaving us out of his troubled visions.

The timeless body of work Nash ended up producing during his relatively short life (he died of pneumonia in 1946 aged only 57) is a unique evocation of what seems both strangely familiar and unfamiliarly strange. And it still speaks to us today of a man who endeavoured to lose himself in painting, and in landscape, in order to both exorcise and share his ghosts, and make us aware of a country and countryside we could so easily have lost. Howard Male

Paul Nash:The Elements continues at the Dulwich Picture Gallery until 9 May.

There's Been a SHOOTING! WE STALK LOCAL FILMMAKERS AND GET THEM TO TALK TO US

BULLIES

t’s getting silly round here' said Chris Shepherd, a Crystal Palace filmmaker, as he walked past me on Bedwardine Road, SE19. His comment was prompted by my photographing a film crew working on location only two streets away from where his crew had recently been doing exactly the same thing (see Transmitter issue 10). I was actually waiting to interview Gershon Hinkson, an American filmmaker who has been living amongst us in Crystal Palace for nearly two years - nipping back every now and again to film in his native Brooklyn NYC and to do his ‘day job’ of working as assistant editor on very slightly bigger budget movies - like Spiderman 2 and Jumper. Gershon is making a film about bullying, which he has financed himself through his company, Igneous Features. While waiting to talk to Gershon I was kept company by the instantly recognisable Paul Barber (famous for roles in Only Fools and Horses and The Full Monty),. Paul, a Scouser turned South Londoner (Clapham), plays the bullied boy’s father, and is himself the product of a difficult early upbringing as an orphan in 1950's suburban Liverpool. Every couple of minutes a local ‘wag’ would shout ‘Alright Denzil!’ as they passed. Each time he responded with a friendly smile and gave no indication that hearing this about ten thousand times a year, as he must do, was in any way annoying him. After a fascinating hour or so watching the cast and film crew all going about their various duties I managed to grab a few minutes of Gershon’s time in a break between scenes.

So why is he making a short film about bullying? I asked. Gershon’s daughter was being bullied at school and, coincidentally, while attending parenting classes, he happened to get to know the young man who was causing his daughter's problem. Learning something about the background in this case led Gershon to see how his talents as a filmmaker could be used to help illuminate this difficult but ever present issue for young people. ‘Bullies are often looking for attention because, perhaps, they are not getting the attention they need at home.’ He told me. ‘In this case, the young man came around.’ An outcome that was not, I suspect, entirely unrelated to the intervention of Gershon himself, who impressed me with his ‘Zen’ ambience despite only talking to him very briefly. Or was that just some kind of Hollywood effect he was exuding?

Gershon Hinkson directs

What was it like working under all the Hollywood pressure on such big budget projects? I asked him ‘Lots of people are looking for you to eliminate yourself’ He told me, ominously. ‘It’s not enough to be merely good….’ Those Hollywood types sound like bullies if you ask me. Which he didn't. Gershon Hinkson’s new Crystal Palace based short film about bullying will be doing the rounds at film festivals during 2010 and 2011 and we will keep Transmitter readers informed how they can get hold of a copy. In the meantime, you can see Gershon’s Seven Breaths short feature at: www.igneousfeatures.com

Paul Barber waits

LS_Dec Bennett Welch 2.qxp

26/11/2008

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Mr and Mrs Love the new short feature from local filmmaker Rob Hurtt, is a modern, urban remix of Hansel and Gretel and Great Expectations and has been described by Ken Loach's longtime Producer, Rebecca O'Brien as ‘A nice wee tale.’ Alison Garland (Mike Leigh's 'All Or Nothing') plays the cruel Mrs Love brilliantly and there are also magnificent performances from Paul Kelleher, Alastair Kleboe and Uccella Kahn-Thomas. Mr and Mrs Love is made by Ubik Kollective Films and will be shown at the next Transmitter Short Film Night and will be doing the rounds of local film clubs and festivals. www.ubik-kollective.com

At Bennett Welch Solicitors we have extensive experience of advising on the termination of employment, including redundancy, and on Compromise Agreements, whether simple or complex. We provide a fast and efficient service and can normally see you within 24 hours of receiving your call. If you cannot attend our offices, we can advise by telephone and email. Your employer normally contributes towards your legal costs so you may not have to pay any costs at all. We act for and advise employees and employers on all aspects of the employment relationship, including: - Dismissals - Discrimination - Contracts - Maternity & Paternity - Equal Pay Call Daniel Muckle on 020 8670 6141 if you think we can help you.

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www.bennettwelch.com 41

The HungrY-ness of the Long Distance Chef

NADIA SAWALHA ON A DOUBLE CREAM AND SYRUP REGIME FOR THE MARATHON

decided on HIS stripe colour whilst I'm still fretting. Believe me, before I was bitten by this insanity I couldn't even run for a bus without doing myself an injury. Making breakfast left me breathless, and hoovering would leave me in need of a stiff drink and a lie down in a dark room with ear plugs and sunglasses on. Six months ago I made the (some may say insane) decision to run the London Marathon. Since then me and my utterly brilliant personal trainer (hark at me!) Julia McCabe, have been pounding the streets of Crystal Palace, Streatham and Upper Norwood in an attempt to get me fit enough to cross the finishing line without the need for a resuscitation unit. I might add that most of our conversation and chit chat as we run hither and thither crisscrossing SE19, revolves around food and wine (I told you she was a brilliant trainer!) Conversation in my house, on the other hand, is mostly about timings, training patterns, running strategies, optimum daily distances, not to mention existential debates on whether it is nobler running for time or running for distance, through to the slightly more frivolous (though much more fun) business of whether I should have a pink or a purple stripe down the sides of my running pants. Before you ask, my husband Mark hasn’t threatened to leave me yet for being the most boring woman on earth. Rather cleverly he has gone for the ‘if you can’t beat 'em join 'em’ philosophy, and is now running the marathon too, though, unlike me, he has already

But…..that was the bad old days. Now I am a fully paid up exercise freak. Whilst other mere mortals lounge in bed on a Sunday morning cuddling up to their loved ones and munching on croissants and perusing the Sunday papers, I choose (wind, rain or flaming hail), to pull on my battered trainers and haul my reluctant, though positively shrinking, body out on to the beautiful streets of South London. Now, without showing off, I must impress upon you that this is NOT the kind of leisurely Sunday jog most of us are familiar with. Oh, no. With just five weeks to go until the big day (my stomach just flipped with terror as I wrote that) my training programme demands that I ‘deposit many many miles into my marathon mileage account’; ten miles, fifteen, and this coming Sunday, a mind blowing TWENTY miles. As the starting line gets closer by the minute, I am so determined to achieve my goal that there is now no such thing as ‘downtime’. I can’t simply boil a kettle anymore. Instead, no sooner has Mark asked for a cuppa, than I fill the kettle, flick the switch, and suddenly hurl myself into a set of quite dramatic thigh lunges. ‘It's very aggressive isn't it?’ Mark often remarks.

A night in front of the telly is, these days, a perfect opportunity to work my abdominals. And, who needs a delivery curry when one can in fact run there to pick it up, and have it on the table before it’s cold? As I write I remember how, in the bad old days, I'd have read something like this and felt genuine pity for the person writing it. ‘What a nutter’ I'd have thought, or ‘What a saddo! Rather her than me’, and many other couch-potato put-downs would have passed through my mind. But, what I've always been totally oblivious to about ‘getting fit’, is the amount one can actually EAT, when you run and run and run!! You see, having been a foodie all my life has generally meant that I've always been something of a porker (say it as it is Nadia!).You know what it’s like; ‘low fat diets depress me whereas butter and sugar make me happy!’ Simple as that! But no.The biggest revelation about training for the marathon, is that I can eat much more than I ever thought I'd be allowed to, and it doesn't result in me getting any bigger - at all! All of which leads me seamlessly to this heavenly recipe for Kateaf: fabulously decadent Arabic pancakes served warm, with a rose scented syrup, sweet nuts, and clouds of cream. Enjoy, but if you ain’t running fifteen miles, maybe just have the one. In fact I'm thinking of getting my mother to hold a plate full of these delightful desserts for when I cross the finishing line ...

Nadia Sawalha

INGREDIENTS

METHOD

Makes 15 to 20

To make the syrup, pour the water, sugar and lemon juice into a heavy based pan. Bring it up to the bubble, then turn down the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the rosewater and then pop into the fridge till later.

For the rose scented syrup • 400ml water • 550g caster sugar • 1 tbsp lemon juice • 2 tbsp rosewater For the batter • 2 tsp dried yeast • 4 tbsp warm water • 3 tsp caster sugar • 250g plain flour • 3 tsp baking powder • 500ml water • 1 tsp rosewater For the sweet nuts • 280g shelled walnuts (organic tastes best) • 4 tbsp icing sugar • 4 tsp cinnamon (more if you want) To cook and serve • veg oil • double cream (or, even naughtier, clotted cream)

For the batter, put the yeast and warm water into a bowl, stir in the sugar and leave in a warm place until it bubbles. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl, and then gradually add the yeast and water mixture. Keep mixing, no lumps wanted here! Add the rosewater. Now cover the mixture and leave to rise, about an hour and a half. For the sweet nuts, simply chop the walnuts roughly and stir in the icing sugar and cinnamon. When the batter has risen, grease a non-stick frying pan with a very thin layer of oil (you will need to do this for each pancake). Heat it over a medium

heat until it’s very hot, and then bring the heat down a bit. Pour a large spoonful of the batter into the pan and tilt it to spread it out a bit (but only a little bit, you want the thickness to be a bit like an American pancake). Once the pancake starts to bubble, flip it over. To serve, sprinkle a spoonful of nuts on each qatayef, with a dollop of cream and swirl of syrup. Divine! Nadia and her husband Mark are now, sadly, addicted to running for charity. Please help them by donating funds to some people who can help them. Action on Addiction also help much more worthy cases, and if you support their marathon run by donating you will be doing a very good thing indeed. www.justgiving.com/nadia-sawalhamark-adderley

A FULL ENGLISH HOWARD MALE UNSHEATHES HIS TRUSTY KNIFE AND TAKES ON THE FULL ENGLISH BREAKFAST

and… dare I say it… Spam. Although for the sake of my arteries I’ll be avoiding this particular childhood ‘delicacy’ (which has become a collective noun for junk email thanks to an ancient Monty Python sketch.) After all, Spam is just Spam. And I doubt very much if even the best cook in the land could put a spin on Spam (although my mum used to make a mean Spam fritter.) But like that old dragon-culling Roman, St George, I like a good feast. So without further ado I began my noble quest for cholesterol of the highest order at the all-brown (tables, chairs,

fact the Eiffel Tower. But the sausage, two rashers, beans, hash browns, mushrooms, one slice of toasted Mothers Pride, and lone egg, all look authentic enough. As does the PG tip of the teabag that’s just breaking the surface of my grey-brown tea like a mini iceberg. But still, tea included, my breakfast was only £5.50. However, it was at the Crystal Pantry Café on Church Road that this St George met his dragon. The usual suspects of two toast, two rashers, mushrooms, sausage etc were, to my horror, all trying to get out from under a veritable avalanche of chips. And I had to eventually admit defeat, down my trusty sword (sorry, I mean knife and

cafés – they only serve one rasher of bacon. But who’s counting? (Well, actually I am. But given the agreeable service, standard price, and pleasant atmosphere, you may be more forgiving.) But saving the best until last, we come to the cute but tiny Blue Belle Café in Penge. As I sip a surprisingly good coffee (surprisingly good because it’s included in the £5 price) Leonard Cohen croons away in the background (rather than the usual tinnitus-inducing Capital FM) and all is well with the world. But all suddenly becomes even better with the world, as my breakfast

..my breakfast is lowered by crane on to my table fork) and shamefully leave some isolated clusters of mushrooms and beans, plus a triangle of toast, behind. After a few days off resting my weary belly, days in which I couldn’t even look sideways at a sausage – or even walk down the aisles in Sainsbury’s where the baked beans lurked in their millions – it was time to lay to waste (or should that be waist?) another monumental breakfast. After two days on a strict diet of raw bean sprouts and water, my next pork of call (sorry about that one, pun haters) was Alistairs on Westow Street. While there weren’t as many individual components to my FEB here (no mushrooms, tomato or toast) what there was came in generous portions. Although my wife was somewhat mystified as to why her cheese and ham omelette and baked beans came with a large slice of lemon, Alistairs gets the coveted Best Chips Award for their large, chunky homemade efforts. And the herby sausage wasn’t half bad either.

As I near the finishing line, I’m relieved that the Little Palace Café is only 50 yards from my front door. Unusually and refreshingly for venues such as this, I am welcomed with a smile and a menu as soon as I step through the door. But I resist a culinary digression, and once again a vast plate of the usual is put before me, with a cute little traditional brown teapot of tea by its side. The whole button mushrooms were a plump and juicy highlight but I did notice – unlike with all the other

is lowered by crane on to my table. It consists of two rounds of buttered brown toast, a stuffed tomato, two beautifully poached eggs, two rashers of bacon, a sausage (Cumberland, no less) baked beans (presumably Heinz), and a portion of fried potatoes and spinach which might best be described as an English take on Sag Aloo. And did I mention the orange juice? And did I mention that it has cheerfully bright blue walls festooned with art works, including a tasteful mosaic of children at play? And did I mention that the café’s owner, Erica, was charming without being over ingratiating? So, Erica. If anyone ever dares to call the Blue Belle Café a greasy spoon I’ll personally come round and sort them out for you. So, after a February of FEBs I didn’t even come across a DNA strand of Spam. Humour is a powerful weapon as well as a self-deprecating one, so perhaps Python’s Spam sketch made every café in the land realise they could no longer serve this once popular processed meat product without being ridiculed by obsessive Python fans, screeching in high voices, “Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam; spam bacon sausage and spam; spam egg spam spam bacon and spam; spam sausage spam spam bacon spam tomato and spam…”

Howard Male 45

From The Garden that’s of England. MICHAEL EYRE GOES ON A TRIP ROUND KENT (WHICH EXPLAINS IT - ED).

‘S

pring is sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where dem boidies is? The little boids is on da wing, ain’t that absoid? Da little wing is on da boids.’ (anon) With that delightful little ditty in mind we are going to take a small journey through the wonders that are ‘The Wines of England’. Primarily Kent. An area littered with ace wineries both large and small. (Their cider isn’t too bad either but that’s another story, o best beloved.) I’ve got two fizzes (one pink, one white), a table white and a little sweetie. So, to start. Chapel Down Vintage Reserve Brut. 12% £16.95 A beautiful light straw colour shot with a tinge of apple green is the first thing you notice. A vibrant but not too aggressive mousse helps complete the visual picture. The nose is slightly floral with a mixture of hedgerow, woods and toast. Slipping into a palate of light soft summer fruits, a touch of citrus with mildly yeasty overtones. A medium finish, not in a bad way, leaving you ready to have another glug at the first opportunity. An excellent piece of work to see in the new spring season. Perfect with all the usual, smoked salmon, shellfish et al.

Chapel Down Vintage Reserve Rose Brut. 12% £21.95 Starting off with a most attractive, delicate ‘naturally smoked salmon’ pink there is no turning back. A mousse of elegant distinction, opening up into a nose comprising of the very essence of all that is bright and beautiful. Summer sun, fruit orchards in full blossom. Tops. The palate continues the sumptuously decadent theme with strong notes of wild strawberries and cream delivered up on a beautiful, buttery bed of roses. In short, I’ve ‘ad worse. The finish goes on as long you do, so why stop? This can go with anything you like, anytime you like. Breakfast, lunch or tea. I know I have. Lamberhurst. Primrose Hill. Bacchus. 2007. 10.5% £12.95 Looking at the very pale green of this lovely little number, you know you are in for a treat. The nose presents you with a display of aromatically vibrant notes of gooseberry, new cut grass and elderflower. All very lovely and zingy. The palate picks this up with well balanced acidity, indicating a level of austerity bordering on flinty, exhibiting flavours of fresh citrus fruits and flowers rolling very neatly into a crisp, clean finish. Ace

slurping. This would not be out of place slicing through some succulent spring lamb or a couscous of some spice and weight. Chapel Down Nectar. 2007. 8.5% £10.95 50cl bottle. Here we have 50cl of home-grown heaven. The light lemony/lime glint that catches your eye is as good a start as you’re going to get. With a nose of succulent tropical fruit borne away on a palate of exquisitely classic English apples and pears with a mild undertow of elderflower. All held together with a bright crisp level of sweetness, which is in no way cloying, in fact it is remarkably refreshing. A stunning little tipple for any occasion, as an aperitif for example. Also a classic with lighter puddings such as fruit tarts, or sits very comfortably with various cheeses. Truly, a versatile wine of distinction. All of these can be found from both hither and thither. I got them this time from a newcomer called Magma Wines. See www.magmawines.co.uk Until then.

Michael

Clare Fletcher roCk ChiCk Presenter

I caught up with local girl Laura, whose band supported Marilyn Manson on his European tour. She nearly fell off of her chair when told her band had secured the support on the Marilyn Manson European tour. Laura Conway, a twenty year old from Penge, South East London, had been playing guitar for a number of years, but had only recently taken up the bass as ‘Esoterica’ were after a female bassist. She knew the band and passed the audition and after a fast moving and successful summer last year getting known on the rock music scene and playing festivals including, ‘Download’, it wasn’t long before the band started getting a large fan base and a strong reputation as the new hot band on the rock block. I caught up with Laura on the road as they were nearing the end of their European dates with Manson. I had a tour of the single decker bus which consisted of bunks, two seating areas and a kitchen unit and I wondered how Laura managed to stay comfortable and sane, with a band of five plus a heavy and rotund (yet charming and attractive) tour manager! There was little room for manoeuvre! As we sat in the compact and bijoux lounge area I asked Laura what it was like to be the only female on board for a month of touring. She said she enjoyed male company and was a bit of a tomboy. There was a lively and positive rapport with the band mates; all seemed to be on a high after the gig despite a six hour wait before their journey to the ferry port before heading off to Belgium. And what did she do to pass the time on the bus? She read fantasy books, ‘Twilight’ series, and played on the x-box with the drummer. Sounded like fun. When I asked what the best part of the tour was, she replied in jest; the catering! After hours of travel, the highlight was to arrive at the venue to be greeted with a hearty dish before the sound check. The band clarified that it was the rush of playing live and the feedback from the fans that gave them the buzz. They had gotten to know Mr Manson via backstage tomfoolery, and on one of the earlier dates in Germany; Marilyn had given Laura a piggy back

between the dressing Laura Conway; almost so famous she can’t show us her face! rooms. The initiation methinks! The word Photo by Kevin Scullion on the street is that he is not as scary in the off stage flesh, as his rock star image portrays. I watched their show from the side of the stage at a packed Nottingham Trent Arena and there was an energy and groove about their performance which made the crowd electric. Tobias, the singer, danced about the stage barefooted, jumping on the monitors and really connected with his audience. Barri the tall mohawked guitarist commanded his area of the stage playing the rhythm, along with fellow guitarist Matthew. Luke was elevated at the back on his drummer’s podium thrashing out his drum licks in style. This is a chronicle of a local girl who is making it big. Esoterica are gaining a large following with their alternative rock fans and an impressive 10,500 myspace friends. They have already featured on the cover CD in an edition of ‘Metal Hammer’, their video; ‘Tomorrow I won’t remember’ has played on ‘Scuzz’ and ‘Kerrang’ TV stations. They have secured top festivals with headline slots this summer and they have been put in the top ten of this years best up and coming bands in ‘Kerrang.’ When I asked Laura where she hopes to be in the next five years, she answered with a wry smile, “older!” I like a girl with a sense of humour! Clare Fletcher

Clare FletCher

THERE’S A WORLD OUT THERE! POST 9/11 AMERICA MAY SEEMS AN UNLIKELY PLACE TO FIND GREAT WORLD MUSIC, BUT YOU’D BE SURPRISED, SAYS HOWARD MALE

this wouldn’t be too surprising. But Vampire Weekend play African-inspired polyrhythmic pop of unusual complexity, and not since Paul Simon’s Graceland (a huge influence on the band) has anything quite this un-American topped the charts.

In recent years there have been a surprising number of world music bands coming out of a certain part of the world that had been becoming increasingly associated with its cultural insularity. But it’s not simply the fact of the existence of these bands that is so interesting, as much as the fact that Americans are embracing them with almost the same fervour as they embrace Beyonce or Springsteen. New York’s Vampire Weekend are the most recent and most successful example. They are also noteworthy for being the first band signed to a British indie label to make it to No.1 in the States for 19 years (the previous record being Paula Abdul’s Spellbound, trivia fans.) Now, if Contra (XL Records) happened to be an R&B-lite offering by some airbrushed would-be diva

But personally I find Vampire Weekend’s take on African music a little overproduced and sterile, and their debt to Paul Simon… well, let’s just say I could imagine it becoming fiscal if Mr Simon decided to take them to court. A far more interesting outfit are East Coast band Fool’s Gold (IAM Records) who have a livelier, rougher edge and more original sound. They too have tried to make African music their own, but rather than just gracelessly imitate Congolese and South African music, they have also stirred in Ethiopian funk and the desert blues sound of Tinariwen. The end result feels much less forced, and much more rooted in passion, than VW’s anaemic and cloyingly cheerful effort.

Israeli-born vocalist Luke Top sings many of the songs in Hebrew, and the oblique melodies he finds to croon can be reminiscent of Morrissey one minute, and David Byrne the next. Strongly and unreservedly recommended. But African music isn’t the only thing getting our friends across the pond excited enough to go and form multicultural bands. San Francisco’s Rupa & the April Fishes take their inspiration from all kinds of places. Rupa herself is half Indian, although, ironically,

there is very little Indian-influenced music on their recent second album Este Mundo (meaning This World). Instead you get Balkan brass, ska, dub reggae, French chanson, cumbia, and finally a bit of Tom Waitsian tarnished glitter sprinkled all over the end result in order to achieve that off-kilter carnival atmosphere so beloved of bands of this ilk. But my favourite American outfit dealing in global styles has to be DeVotchKa. I’ve mentioned them before in this column but there’s no harm in mentioning them again. Previously I talked about their latest (and arguably best) album A Faithful Telling. But you also won’t go far wrong with their previous release How it Ends or lead singer Nick Urata’s soundtrack to the classic cult movie Little Miss Sunshine. If you don’t recall what the music to that film was like, then I rest my case: the best movie soundtracks are the ones that you don’t notice. The ones that just tick away in the background, bringing a smile to your face one minute, making your pulse race the next, or bringing a tear to your eye when you least expect it. Urata’s music brims over with the kind of unspecified longings and non-specific joys that make for a great film soundtrack.Yes, I know, all those emotions can also be delivered to you by a good script, a competent director, and a bunch of sexy actors, but where would the Bond films have been without the music of John Barry?

Howard Male

The Bookseller

JONATHAN MAIN HAS FOUND US A HEADY MIX OF SILLY FILMS AND SPICY BOOKS

name ‘the African Mahler’. He died aged 37 of pneumonia and is buried at Bandon Hill cemetery in Beddington. Author Charles Elford tells his story in the very readable Black Mahler (Grosvenor House Publishing £8.99). A couple of issues back I wrote about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his time in South Norwood. In The Norwood Author (MX Publishing £9.99) by local author Alistair Duncan, these years from 1891-1894 are covered in definitive and fascinating detail, including for instance his membership of the Norwood Cricket Club (complete with stats) and the Upper Norwood Literary and Scientific Society. I wish, too, that we still had an Upper Norwood Literary and Scientific Society. James Broughton was an American poet, experimental filmmaker and a major character in the San Francisco beat scene. He wrote 23 books

Back to books. Recent favourites include Just Kids by Patti Smith (Bloomsbury £18.99) which chronicles the artist, poet and rock singer’s early years in New York living with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe: a time of squalid conditions, often keeping the lice at bay and pissing in a bucket. Whilst Smith can never be accused of not taking herself seriously, this is a fascinating depiction of an emerging New York art scene. When I was much younger I read a book called In Praise of Older Women by Stephen Vizinczey, a Hungarian who had taken part in the Revolution of 1956 and then later moved to Canada where he had taught himself English by writing

scripts for the Canadian National Film Board. He self-published the book in 1965 when it became the only such book to ever top the Canadian bestsellers’ list. Its publication a year later in Britain brought the book worldwide fame. Penguin have now re-issued it in their Modern Classics series (£9.99) with a very nice cover. Spicy too, the Mexican dishes we have been cooking for Sunday lunch from Mexican Food Made Simple by Thomasina Miers (Hodder £20.00). Simple vibrant food easily put together; the family recommend the smoked mackerel tostadas and the smoky peppers stuffed with mango and feta cheese.Yum.

Jonathan Main 51

WHAt's ON

Send your listings information to: listings@thetransmitter.co.uk

COMEDY Gipsy Hill Comedy Black Sheep Bar 23 Westow Hill, SE19 1TQ 07758 521 378 www.gipsyhillcomedy.co.uk

Friday 2 April Doors 8.30pm Tickets £7adv/£8 on door

ANDY ZALTZMAN “The best political comedian in the business. Breathtakingly good” Time Out. EDWARD ACZEL “Britain’s greatest entertainer…the future of comedy”Time Out. TERRY SAUNDERS

Thursday 15 April Celebrity Pub Quiz

A different comedian or actor as host each week Win cash prizes and drinks9pm. £2

Saturday 17 April STAND UP COMEDY

With Will Andrews mc, Matthew crosby, Henning Wehn and Jack Whitehall 9pm. £9/£6 concs Late bar

Monday 19nd April The All New Stand Up Show

Headline acts perform their new material hosted by Chris Neill 8pm. £3

The HOB Comedy

Thursday 22 April

opposite Forest Hill station 7 Devonshire Road Forest Hill, SE23 3HE 020 8855 0496

Celebrity Pub Quiz

Saturday 27 March STAND UP COMEDY

Chris Neill mc, Liam Mullone, Christian Ancliff, Mike McClean and John Mann followed by live music from The Hares 9pm. £9/£6 Bar until 2am

Monday 29 March The All New Stand Up Show

New acts open mic night hosted by Paddy Lennox 8pm. £3

Thursday 1 April Celebrity Pub Quiz

Comedian Paddy Bramwells as quizmaster. Win cash prizes and drinks 9pm. £2

Saturday 3 April STAND UP COMEDY

Mandy Muden mc, Simon Clayton, Carly Smallwood, Simon Fox and Holly Walsh 9pm. £9/£6 concs Late bar

Monday 5 April The All New Stand Up Show

Headline acts perform their new material 8pm. £3

Thursday 8 April Celebrity Pub Quiz

A different comedian or actor as host each week Win cash prizes and drinks 9pm. £2

Saturday 10 April STAND UP COMEDY

Mike Wozniak mc, Rhodri Rhys, Mickey Flanagan and Magnus Betner 9pm. £9/£6 concs Late bar

Monday 12th April The All New Stand Up Show

Open mic night for new acts 8pm. £3

Comedian Michael Legge as your quizmaster Win cash prizes and free drinks 9pm. £2

Saturday 24 April STAND UP COMEDY

Chambers & Nettleton, Robert White, Scott Capurro and guest compere 9pm. £9/£6concs

Monday 26th April The All New Stand Up Show

Headline acts perform their new material hosted by Quincy 8pm. £3

Thursday 29 April Celebrity Pub Quiz

Comedian Liam Mullone as quizmaster Win cash prizes and free drinks 9pm. £2

EXHIBITIONS Dulwich Picture Gallery Dulwich Picture Gallery Gallery Road, Dulwich SE21 7AD www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk Telephone 020 8693 5254

Open Tuesdays to Fridays 10am – 5pm Saturdays, Sundays & Bank Holiday Mondays 11 am – 5 pm Closed Mondays except Bank Holidays. Open on Good Friday.

Until 9 May 2010 Paul Nash, the Elements (SEE REVIEW IN THIS ISSUE!)

23 March - 4 July 2010 Horace Walpole at Dulwich Picture Gallery:Two Newly Restored Paintings from Strawberry Hill

Two paintings at Dulwich Picture Gallery - Charles Jervas's Portrait of Dorothy, Viscountess Townshend and Peter Lely's A Boy as a Shepherd - which were once displayed at Strawberry Hill, have been restored and will be exhibited together

Horniman Museum 100 London Road Forest Hill, SE23 3PQ 020 8699 1872 www.horniman.ac.uk

Until 5 Sept 2010 Myths and Monsters

Cyclops, unicorn, yeti, dragon, the chimera… are these creatures real or imagined? Take a journey into the strange world of Myths and Monsters and unravel the truth behind universal legends and myths. Discover the origin of the Cyclops, the links between dragons and the dinosaurs, and why the yeti is the monster most likely to be real. Adults £5, Concs £3, Children £2.50, Children under 3 FREE - Family ticket (2 adults and 2 children) £13 - Family season ticket £26

Until March 2011 Tuareg: People of the Veil

Tuareg: People of the Veil provides a fascinating insight into the culture of the Tuareg people of NorthWest Africa, through the exploration of Tuareg clothing and jewellery. Balcony Square Free admission

Sat 24 Apr – Sun 17 Oct 2010 Allotment Life

This exhibition combines indoor and outdoor elements to explore the allotment experience. In Gallery Square, photographs by artist Emma Wood capture the diversity of life on two local allotments. Outside, visit our food garden inspired by these communities. Gardens & Gallery Square Free admission

Until Sun 11 April 2010 Darwin200 Photographic Competition: Exploring and Investigating Nature

Nature lovers of all ages have been busy taking pictures of the creatures and plants around them and our top judges have selected the best of the best for this engaging exhibition. Gallery Square Free admission

Sat 15 May – Sun 14 Nov 2010 Coal, Frankincense and Myrrh – Yemen and British Yemenis

Until Sun 9 May 2009 Nature as Designer

Balcony Gallery Free admission

Thursday Lates Experience a different view of the Horniman with our programme of late-night cultural events, on the last Thursday of each month.

WHAt's ON FILM Crystal Palace Pictures

PHOTOGRAPHY Dulwich Upper Wood

ARTS LECTURES Dulwich Picture Gallery

Gypsy Hill Tavern 79 Gipsy Hill, SE19 1QH

Friday 2 April

Thursday 1 April

10.30am to 3.30pm

Dulwich Picture Gallery Gallery Road, Dulwich SE21 7AD 020 8299 8750

Looking For Eric

Dir. Ken Loach 2009 116 mins Starring: Steve Evets, Eric Cantona

Thursday 15 April The Apartment

Dir. Billy Wilder 1960 125 mins Starring:Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine

Thursday 29 April The Day The Earth Caught Fire

Dir.Val Guest 1961 98 mins Starring:Janet Munro, Leo McKern

Thursday 13 May Sounds Like Teen Spirit

Dir. Jamie J. Johnson 2009 100 mins

The HOB Film Club see comedy for venue details

Wednesday 31st March Nowhere Boy

Directed by Sam Taylor-Wood Running Time – 98 mins 8pm. £4. Debut feature of photographer Sam TaylorWood is the story of John Lennon’s childhood and you don't need to be a fan to appreciate this engagingly acted coming of age story.

Galleryfilm Dulwich Picture Gallery Gallery Road, Dulwich SE21 7AD

All films begin 7.45pm Bar from 7.15pm £8, £6 Friends All tickets available from the Friends Desk or phone 020 8299 8750. For information call 020 8299 8750 or e-mail friendsticketing@ dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk

Monday 19 April The Searchers

1956 Cert U 119 minutes Director John Ford, starring John Wayne, Classic western in which John Wayne's soldier, Ethan sets out on a perilous quest to find his brothers kidnapped daughter. It inspired Buddy Holly to write ‘That’ll be the day’ •

Including free themed wine and nibbles

Monday 17 May The Bicycle Thieves

1948 Cert U/90 minutes Director Vittorio de Sica, starring Enzo Staiola, Lamberto Maggiorani, Lianella Carell, Gino Saltamerenda,Vittorio Antonucci, Giulio Chiari

Nature Workshop

The Heritage Lottery Funded project Embrace Woodlands! The workshop will mainly look at simple photography tips and some editing digital photographs using computer software in the setting of Dulwich Upper Wood. Drinks and refreshments will be provided but please bring your own packed lunch, digital camera and wear suitable clothing for a woodland environment during winter. A £10 deposit payable by cheque (returnable if you attend the workshop) will be required to secure your place on this workshop. Book early to avoid disappointment. This 1 year project will be running free nature / photography / video activities through out the year. For more information about events, and booking details please phone 020 8670 1221, email john.c@myembrace.org or check out www.myembrace.org.

LOCAL WALKS Dulwich Picture Gallery Tickets available from the Friends Desk in the Gallery or call 020 8299 8750 Monday to Friday 9-11 am. Leave a message outside those hours or e-mail friendsticketing@dulwichpicturegallery. org.uk for further information. Book ahead to ensure a place. For local walks, it may be possible to pay on the day subject to availability.

Sunday 25 April Sydenham Hill to Crescent Wood Road 2:30-4.30pm. Meet on the corner of Sydenham Hill and Crystal Palace Parade, by the roundabout This walk will be on the level and will take us along the edge of the Estate at its highest point. Led by Steve Grindlay, archivist of the Sydenham Society, and Ian McInnes, from the Dulwich Society, it will look in detail at the range of C19 and C20 buildings and give an insight into the development pressures in the area over the last 200 years

Tuesday Evening Lecture Series: The Canvas Ceiling: Women Artists through the ages

7.45-9.15 pm in the Linbury Room Series of 6 lectures £50, £40 Friends Single lectures £10, £8 Friends Bar and book sales in the interval

Contextual Lecture Series That Was The Sixties That Was: 1957-1969

Please contact Sarah Atkinson on 020 8299 8732 or email s.atkinson@ dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk

Tuesday 13 April 10.30 – 11.30am The British in Spain 1957-1969 John K Walton, Department of Contemporary History, University of the Basque Country £10, £9 concessions and Friends

Tuesday 27 April 10.30 – 11.30am Code-breakers: the scientists who measured life in molecules Georgina Ferry, science writer, and author of biographies of the Nobel prize-winners Dorothy Hodgkin and Max Perutz £10, £9 concessions and Friends

Tuesday 11 May Morning tour: 9am – 12noon Afternoon tour: 1.30pm – 4.30pm On the Buses: The End of Austerity Routemaster Bus Trip Join us for a tour of iconic landmarks and key examples of architecture from the period 1957 - 1969 on board a London Transport Routemaster in its original condition With Joe Kerr, Head of Critical Studies & Historical Studies, Royal College of Art Booking essential £10, £9 Conc and Friends

Tuesday 25 May 10.30 – 11.30am Architecture & Community: British Architecture 1957 – 1969 Professor Hilary Grainger, architectural historian and Dean of the London College of Fashion at the University of the Arts, London £10, £9 concessions and Friends

£6:00, Friends £5:00

WHAt's ON MUSIC The Gipsy Hill Tavern Gypsy Hill Tavern 79 Gipsy Hill, SE19 1QH www.gipsyhilltavern.co.uk

Saturday 17 April 6:30pm The Peryls are proud to welcome you

aboard the maiden voyage of the magnificent HMS Extraordinarium. (see competition opp)

Dulwich Picture Gallery Dulwich Picture Gallery Gallery Road, Dulwich SE21 7AD 020 8299 8750

Michael Croft Theatre Alleyn’s School Townley Road, SE22

Saturday 24 April Bowjangles

The classically trained string quartet with a difference will be bringing their all-singing, all-dancing, dazzling stage show to Dulwich. Performance will start at 7.30 pm Tickets £15 (£12 concessions) available by sending a cheque (payable to “Dulwich Helpline”) and SAE, to Dulwich Helpline, Dulwich Community Hospital, East Dulwich Grove, London SE22 8PT. Simply astounding - David Suchet, Actor

St Barnabas Parish Hall

Thursday 22 April

St Barnabas Parish Hall, Dulwich Village

Italian Evening in the Cafe

Saturday 20 March

7.30 pm -11 pm. Enjoy an Italian themed evening in the cafe. With music from mandolin maestro Joel McDermot. Entrance £10. Dinner: two courses £14.75, three courses £16.95.

Wednesday 5 May The Italian Connection

7.30 pm/Gallery £22, £20 Friends Sounds Baroque, led by harpsichordist Julian Perkins and including the counter-tenor Andrew Radley, perform a programme featuring two composers with important anniversaries this year: Alessandro Scarlatti, the 'father of the cantata', and Thomas Arne. plus items by Handel, and, J.C. Smith.

The Grape & Grain Anerley Hill, Crystal Palace London SE19 2AA Tel: 0208 778 8211 info@thegrapeandgrainse19.co.uk

FREE JAZZ SUNDAYS 1.30pm - 4pm

The HOB Music see comedy for venue details Live Music every Friday, from 10pm bar til 2

2 April Stone Free

9 April 5th Element

16 April Electric Experience

23 April the FreeWheelers

30 April Professor NoHair and the WigLifters

Flamenco Music and Dance and Supper - 6.30 pm

Juan Ramirez and his troupe,Viva Flamenco, with food by Barcelona Tapas Tickets available from the Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery (for details see above) Enjoy a family evening of vibrant Flamenco music and dancing with Juan and his troupe thrilling you with their virtuosity Please bring your own wine or soft drink £17, £15 Friends, £10 under 16s Includes a glass of Amontillado sherry or juice

KIDS Dulwich Picture Gallery Dulwich Picture Gallery Gallery Road, Dulwich SE21 7AD 020 8299 8750

On the first and last Sunday of every month 2–3.30pm ARTPLAY

Adults and children are creative together at these drop-in workshops with a different art activity each session. Come and join in and make everything and anything from Silly Sock Puppets to African Masks and all things in between - Just drop in, no need to book. FREE for families with a Gallery ticket or £2 per child

Saturday 29 May Puppet Show for Children: Captain Grimey and The Three Pigs and the Wolf

10.30-11.45am with a break for fruit sales in the interval £5 per child Book early to avoid disappointment!

OPERA ODEON Beckenham High Street Beckenham BR3 1DY

Monday 26 April L’elisir d’amore

London Philiarmonic Orchestra The Glyndebourne Chorus ‘This was as heart-warming an eveningas any I have spent at Glyndebourne.’ -Spectator Magazine See Ticket Competition for more details

Monday 24 May The Tsarina's Slippers From The Royal Opera &The Royal Ballet 7pm Prompt Opera in two acts. Music Pyotr Llyich Tchaikovsky Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Conductor Alexander Polianichko Many Of Tchaikovsky’s stage works are unjustly neglected outside Russia. Now one of the most charming of all, Cherevichki (The Tsarina’s Slippers), comes to life under the baton of The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet join together in a special journey from a snowy Ukrainian picture-book village to the Imperial splendour of the court of Catherine the Great. Based on a Christmas tale by Gogol that mixes realistic village comedy with fairytale fantasy, the plot describes how Vakula, the blacksmith and son of the witch Solokha, attempts to woo and win the beautiful but fickle Oxana. It seems hopeless, but when the Devil, a witch, forest sprites and a host of colourful characters are involved, perhaps he could be lucky after all! Tchaikovsky’s music is packed with showpiece solos, dances and choruses: from grand polonaise to a haunting chorus of water sprites to rustic revels – and there’s a true Russian Flavour with Alexander Polianichko as conductor and several star Russian singers.

WIN FREE TICKETS! WIN FREE TICKETS! WE'VE GOT FREE TICKETS FOR THESE TWO FABULOUS MUSICAL EVENINGS.....

1 THE PERYLS HMS Extraordinarium The Gipsy Hill Tavern

LIVE OPERA L’elisir d’amore ODEON Beckenham

Gipsy Hill Tavern 79 Gipsy Hill, SE19 1QH www.gipsyhilltavern.co.uk

High Street Beckenham BR3 1DY www.odeon.co.uk

Saturday 17 April

Monday 26 April

Following on from the drunken roaring success that was The 2009 Christmas Extraordinarium at Antenna Studios, The Peryls are proud to welcome you aboard the maiden voyage of the magnificent HMS Extraordinarium… There will be music, entertainment and even a dash of burlesque, and since they’re outside coastal waters no-one can touch them for it. HMS Extraordinarium departs at 6:30pm sharp. Boarding passes cost four pounds, no shillings, and no pence, which includes a free cake, or a sick bag, if you are frail of the innards. Available now from www. wegottickets.com/event/74381

Opera in Two acts. (2 hours 10 minutes) 7pm prompt

London Philiarmonic Orchestra The Glyndebourne Chorus

Win Tickets to THE PERYLS HMS Extraordinarium

We have two boarding passes to give away for an evening of Extraordinary and magnificent fun at Gipsy Hill Tavern. QUESTION The Titanic, the Extraordinarium's sister ship (well, more of a niece really) famously struck an iceberg. In an effort to keep passengers calm, the eight-member band assembled in the first-class lounge and played to the end. Name one of the Titanic band members.

Music Gaetano Donizetti Conductor Maurizio Benini

Donizetti’s opera tells of the romantic rivalry between the penniless Nemorino and the bumptious Sergeant Belcore for the love of the beautiful, bookish Adina. Her reading of the tale of Tristan and Isolde makes poor love-sick Nemorino think that the wonder-working Dr Dulcamara might have just the potion his heart requires. Witty, charming and deeply touching, this is Italian opera at its intoxicating best. The Score bubbles over with high spirits, the action is genuinely funny and though, as in all the best comedies, the laughter is occasionally tinged with tears, true love eventually wins the day- all thanks to a bottle or two of Bordeaux. THIS SHOW IS BEAMED LIVE TO SCREEN

Brave but ill-fated musicians TIE-BREAKER QUESTION HMS Extraordinarium hits an iceberg and starts to sink rapidly. In no more than 20 words, why do YOU deserve a place on the lifeboat?

Win Tickets to THE OPERA L’elisir d’amore!

We have four, count them FOUR great seats to give away for a magical evening of live opera at Beckenham Odeon. QUESTION In this opera, one of the arias is "Udite, udite, o rustici", which means 'Listen up you peasants". As Transmitter readers are, I believe, mainly peasants. However, the most famous aria from this show is probably " Una furtiva lagrima", a recording of which by Enrico Caruso features prominently in a Woody Allen movie. Which one?

email answers to: competitions@thetransmitter.co.uk with an address we can send the tickets to.

La To place your advert email sales@thetransmitter.co.uk or call: 020 8771 5543

MEN’S HAIR SALON

62 Westow Hill, Crystal Palace, SE19 1RX

020 8761 5835

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To place your advert email sales@thetransmitter.co.uk or call: 020 8771 5543

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TO BOOK YOUR AD For June/July Issue Call or email us T: 020 8771 5543 e: sales@thetransmitter.co.uk

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Words & Pictures Ltd

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57 Transmitter listings ad.indd 1

25/2/10 07:42:13

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