Chestnut’s Best Pub Brand, Publican Award

WINNER OF BEST PUB BRAND

TEAM CHESTNUT LIVING THE BRAND

To win a national industry award is always humbling, but to win one for something so fundamentally personal and all-encapsulating is just the cherry on top of a very fabulous cake! Brand is the DNA that joins all parts of our hospitality business together, brand is our soul.

The beating heart of Chestnut is its people, from our chefs and central reservations team, to our housekeepers and operations team, to our guest facing team members, our finance and people team, to our managers and marketeers - all delivering our Chestnut brand to our guests, day in and day out.

This award is for you and we thank you.

Ralph’s progress

Suffolk born actor Ralph Fiennes has played an evil SS commandant, leads in Shakespeare, 007’s chief and latterly an archaeologist making an important discovery at Sutton Hoo. Here he talks about his love of Suffolk and taking inspiration from his mother

Versatility is at the heart of Ralph Fiennes’ pursuit of dramatic excellence.

Asked to play any type of character and this, the most versatile of players, will take to the task with grandiose aplomb. Just look at his body of work: for a frightening and amoral evil monster, his turn in Schindler’s List. A tragic character battling against the weight of life... The English Patient. A spot of comedic irreverence... In Bruges. Even a chapter in the greatest film franchise of them all, Bond, was accomplished when he played M in Skyfall, Spectre and No Time to Die.

By the time you’ve worked kid-themed projects, as Lord Voldemort, or across various animated voiceover projects (the Lego movie series), you know you are dealing with someone rather special.

It is perhaps no surprise that Fiennes – Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes to give him his full name – has proved to be an actor of such elevated ability. After all, he was born into a family that showcases almost indecent levels of talent. He is the eldest child of Mark Fiennes, a farmer and photographer, and writer Jennifer Lash. Fiennes counts among his siblings fellow actor Joseph, director Martha, composer Magnus and filmmaker Sophie, yet his talent eclipses all.

The actor was born in Ipswich, and although the family moved to Wiltshire during his childhood, and then on to Cork in Ireland, Fiennes has always retained a fondness for his the county of his birth. “I’ve always admired the wildness of East Anglia,” he begins. “There is a freedom, an energy, and so much oxygen. I don’t like being isolated, but I like the freedom to be alone at times; and at others to feel the warmth of people around me.

“People in Suffolk are that – warm; and there is a sense of history and legacy.

“While I don’t remember too much about growing up in Ipswich, I have returned many times. It’s one of those places where you can breathe in the atmosphere.”

Fiennes had the opportunity to revive the Suffolk accent when he took on the role of Basil Brown in the 2021 film, The Dig, which reimagined events of the 1939 excavation of Sutton Hoo.

“It was lovely to spend time in the area – the film held a special place for me, and I found the landscape and the big open skies stunning,” says Fiennes.

Perhaps it is the diversity of Fiennes’ work that defines him in an era when so many of our homegrown actors are fixed in the same roles and the same genres. He admits freeing himself from the pressure of others’ opinions was the first step on the road to a career in the spotlight that has yielded so much.

“I still believe if you’re too concerned with what people think about you then you’ll never be able to fully unleash yourself on a project,” he says. “It takes a really thick skin to be able to express completely what it is you’re reading or reciting or performing without that nagging feeling that someone is watching and laughing. I’m not sure any of us utterly accomplish that separation, but going towards it is certainly important.

“At school I decided that I didn’t want to live up to the fashions, and began to fall into a new social circle, and it was a really interesting experience. I discovered books and theatre and art; I discovered myself.”

Although art played a huge part in the Fiennes household, the actor is quick to blunt the perception of what might seem a slightly surreal home life of actors and performers to be.

“It was actually resoundingly normal,” he smiles. “Yes there was art, but there was humour, irreverence, downtime. It was normal.”

Most of his artistic pursuit he puts down to his mother. “I was very close to her; she was an enthusiast,” he says. “She encouraged us all to engage, to really go into whatever we were doing, not to skate on the surface… to become impassioned.

“She had an emotional fragility that we all felt strongly, but it inspired us all to do our best for her.”

Things really began to step up when, in 1993, after years of building himself into the archetypal

Ralph Fiennes starring alongside Carey Mulligan in the

film, The Dig