Reader's Digest UK Aug 2014

‘i love being part of a team!’

features

14 Reas ons To be Chee R ful

James Brown gets an unlikely and welcome boost at a parents’ evening e ntertainment

22 Ri C k sT ein: “i R eme mbe R”

The celebrity chef talks about learning to cook, falling in love and the perils of opening a nightclub

Health

28 hea RT aTTaC k

Seven facts every women should know about the scourge that claims thousands of lives every year

38 7 mood lif T e R s

Banish the blues with these simple tips, guaranteed to bring a bounce to your day

Inspire

52 T he wa R-dead

de T e CT ives

A hundred years after the outbreak of the First World War, we meet the experts who are still giving names to unidentified soldiers

62 T he lion whispe R e R

Zoologoist Kevin Richardson

has become famous for his unique bond with lions, but can he use it to save them?

70 The baTTle foR s CR ap

How one chain of shops gave recycling a creative makeover

travel & a dventure

78 a wo R ld ou T of T ime

The quaint rural villages in Transylvania are the meeting point for many cultures

92 bu R ied in mud

When two families got caught in a flood, it nearly killed them. But their ordeal was only just beginning…

wiTh The CenTenaRy of Britain’s entry into the First World War

falling on August 4, our minds will be on the terrible sacrifice made by so many soldiers in that conflict. Even now, numerous young men remain unidentified—which makes the dedication of the “war-dead detectives” all the more impressive. You can read about their pioneering work on p52.

Elsewhere, on p22, we chat to the celebrated chef Rick Stein about his childhood in Cornwall and how he’s helped put the county on the map, thanks to his fabulous award-winning restaurants. And if you want your heartstrings plucked, turn to p62 for “The Lion Whisperer”, which tells the story of the African lion and one man’s conservation mission.

We’ve also added a host of new sections to the magazine this month, to ensure you have the widest range of material possible within our small covers. Whether you’re lounging on a beach, sitting on a train or relaxing at home, I hope you enjoy it!

tom Browne

theeditor@readersdigest.co.uk

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While exploring lesser-known kayaking routes around Hawaii, these men, braving heat and hellish fumes, got to within a few feet of the 700–1,100-degree molten lava spewing down into the Pacific Ocean from Kilauea, the islands’ most active volcano. “The seawater would burn your hand if you put it in there,” one of the men said. Another dipped his paddle into the lava and it promptly caught fire. ...differently

© Alex A ndre Socci – B A rcroft i ndi A . Previou S PA ge: recto - le monde en deux im A ge S

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Over to You

LETTERS ON THE JUNE ISSUE

✯ letter oF

tHe montH...

“After You’ve Gone” was a heartbreaking article. It’s too bad that only loss helps us appreciate things more, as we should learn to enjoy every little moment we can.

My grandpa passed away nearly 25 years ago. Every Sunday, my grandmother visits his grave and sits talking to him, laughing and singing. She believes it makes him happy, and it eases her pain too. My grandpa was her first and only man, and she’s still full of loyalty to him.

When I was reading your article to my gran, she was listening with a gentle smile on her face, nodding her head every now and then. Although she didn’t say much, I know she was deeply touched.

aGnETa alMOnD, London

a word oF warning

In your gardening column, you say, “For safety, use a circuit breaker or a residual current device (RCD) when operating an electric hedge trimmer from the mains.” As a professional design engineer, I have to take issue with this statement.

The two devices are entirely separate, with different purposes.

When using any electrical equipment, particularly outside, it’s essential that an RCD is used at the socket. This will cut out immediately when the operator provides a path to earth, ensuring that electrocution doesn’t take place. I wouldn’t use any domestic electrical appliance outside without the protection of an RCD.

DaviD MaTThEWs, Boston

on-call concerns

I read Max Pemberton’s Health article about hospital life with interest. I realise it was primarily to show that doctors’ lives can be stressful and that they spend long periods of time oncall, but I was more concerned with the mistakes made by nurses and the way these could affect patients. Max’s pager went off on two occasions because the nursing staff had made clerical errors. Luckily, neither of the patients suffered, but the results could have been much worse.

We hear in the press of hospital cover-ups, but how many mistakes go unnoticed and how vulnerable are patients to administrative errors?

PhiliP sTORER, Leicester

windswept memories

I was taken on a trip down memory lane when I saw “See the World Differently”, which displayed a photo of Maho beach on the island of St Maarten.

I worked for many years in the bar you can see at the end of the beach. Sunbathers were sometimes blown into the sea, but it was often more of a sandblasting! I once saw a jeep roll into the ocean as an Air France flight took off. Tourists often held onto the fence behind the plane

to see if their legs would blow out from underneath them, although health and safety has definitely ruled out this activity nowadays!

FiOna McGaRRy, Hampshire

mixed messages

I was concerned to read in “Burning Questions” that e-cigarettes are fuelling addiction instead of helping smokers to give up. E-cigarettes aren’t subject to the same advertising restrictions as cigarettes, and the images we saw in the 1950s—where cigarettes were marketed as being sexy—are now being repeated with the e-cigarette.

Nicotine is an addictive drug, and these devices should come with the same health warnings that we find on cigarette packets. They shouldn’t be available without restrictions—it gives out a mixed message.

kEvin bRiGGs, Shetland

rodent love

I never thought I would find a true story about a rat so interesting, but “Love Rat” proved me wrong!

Mr T was smart, friendly, social and active, as well as entertaining. It made me wonder if we should all try having pet rats!

ROxiE suMnER, London

We pay £50 for Letter of the Month and £30 for every other published letter

James Brown is all smiles after a swift turnaround at a parents’ evening

An Unexpected Moment Of Pride

James, founder of Loaded magazine, now edits Sabotage Times—an online magazine with the motto: “We can’t concentrate, why should you?”

in this column over the years, I’ve found reasons to be cheerful in a variety of places. But I never thought I’d be basing one around going to a parents’ evening.

My eldest son is 13, into his second year of comprehensive school—and, it’s fair to say, parents’ evenings haven’t been the greatest fun. They usually involve 12 teachers telling me, in no uncertain terms, that my son is often distracting, sometimes rude, does the minimum homework required and, despite being very bright, is frequently a bit of a pain to have in the class.

As I set off to the latest one, I wasn’t even thinking about whether all the measures we’ve undertaken to try and get him to not be like this had worked. I was trying to figure out how to manage my response to what was inevitably going to be said, so I didn’t get depressed and then pointlessly angry with him.

when i’ve told other adults who know him what he’s like at school, they’re shocked—they know him as a bright, polite, curious, clever kid. Unfortunately, I think that’s part of the issue. When his mum and I separated, he would spend

a lot of time around my friends, housemates and colleagues rather than kids his own age, so he doesn’t have that fear of arguing or discussing something with an adult—and he’s used to getting immediate and sole attention.

There’s also the small matter of nature versus nurture. Twelve months ago, after endless reports, exclusions, mentoring meetings, weekly calls from the school and another frustrating parents’ evening, I had to admit to his mum that I’d

been exactly the same at school. For her, as a teacher, his behaviour as a reflection of our parenting skills was particularly hard to take. Her only hope was that, as a summer baby, he still needed to mature to the level of other kids.

There are people who would blame the school, but his school feels like a fantastic place. It’s also in the top ten per cent for A-level results and has an array of former pupil success stories, from Oxbridge graduates to hit musicians and even a teenage Hollywood film star still in the sixth form. This is a state comprehensive school, and I don’t think you can get a better spread of examples of the different opportunities open in life. When I told the careers officer at my school that I wanted to be a music journalist, he pointed out that I hadn’t taken music O level and suggested I try printing instead. I chose not to remind them of this when I was voted The Editor’s Editor of The Year or sitting in Hollywood with the Beastie Boys.

When I told my own careers officer I wanted to be a music journalist, he suggested I try printing instead

people think and behave. You can only try and guide them. It’s also difficult not to worry that you might rub the edges off them. So many people I admire haven’t fitted into the education system. The challenge has been to make my son realise that the school could be a fantastic springboard to go off and do something where his personality would be an asset to the job.

As parents, we’d been through everything from being supportive and encouraging to being angry and punishing. Friends have told me not to worry or project my own highs or lows onto his life. So I took all of this with me to the parents’ evening.

The biggest frustration as you try and influence your child to be the way you and teachers want them to be—to fit in and do well—is that you can’t actually control the way other

but then something strange happened. One by one, his subject teachers started telling a different story. A few of the old niggles, but all in all they began to describe the kid I knew at home: funny, bright and intelligent. Hitting his grades, doing his homework, getting into the First XI, being helpful.

I began to wonder if a) there was some sort of conspiracy going on, or occasionally, b) if they were reading the right pupil’s notes. It

was like the past had been erased, which effectively it had. In the two lessons they’d threatened to exclude him from for good, he came top of one term test and the other teacher said, “He’s always asking questions that make me think about what I’m teaching,”

I had to stop myself crying at this comment. I’d never doubted that the teachers cared, but at last it felt like my son cared—and had been putting

the work in. Parents’ evening had never gone so quickly. As we left the building we bumped into the Deputy Head of Year, who had had my son on special report for months. We told him how well it had gone, I shook his hand and said thank you. I can’t tell you the relief I felt.

Now he’s just got to kick on—and maybe, as parents, we need more patience and less fear about what might happen ahead.

budding authors, take a bow!

This apocalyptic tale was one of thousands submitted to our 100-Word-Story Competition. We’ll be publishing a commended story every month.

that morning

That morning they found a radio and heard the news for the first time in days. Apparently food was even scarcer and people had begun to divide into two factions; those who would eat their fellow human beings and those who would not. In other words, those who lived and those who died.

Jim thought it was a pity Marjory had been a vegetarian throughout their 30-year marriage as he sharpened his knife. Marjory, hiding outside the back door, swung the axe with a practised hand and reflected that it was a good time to become an omnivore.

Corrina Toop, Buckinghamshire

Corrina says: “I’ve been writing creatively for about five years now and enjoy entering competitions whenever I can. My stories often have a dark twist to them, and I came up with the idea for this particular one a while ago when I was considering to what lengths a person might go in order to survive—and who they’d be prepared to sacrifice to do so!”

Corrina will receive a cheque for £50

What’s On in August

In Cinemas

Revenge is sweet: Scarlett Johansson as gun-toting Lucy

action: Lucy Kidnapped on a night out, Scarlett Johansson’s Lucy is forced to act as a drugs mule on a dark deal. As the drug takes hold, its unprecedented side-effects see Lucy’s brain capacity increase and, with it, her abilities. What better way to use her new superhuman skills than to reap revenge? Luc Besson’s summer action sci-fi explores the limits and potential of the human mind while also providing a chase-and-revenge story. Featuring a stellar cast, including Morgan Freeman as the brain specialist from whom Lucy seeks help.

Foreign language: two Days, one night (Deux jours, une nuit) We follow Sandra, portrayed by Oscar-winner Marion Collitard, as she’s forced to beg her colleagues to revise their vote to cut her job. This reflection on the desperation of economic downturn sees directors the Dardenne brothers doing what they do best—dramatic suspense.

British drama:

LiLting

Acclaimed British actor Ben Whishaw stars in this drama about grief, language and connection. Whishaw plays Richard, a man whose Chinese partner Kai has died unexpectedly and who wishes to reach out to Kai’s grieving mother, who’s unaware her son was gay. With no shared language between them, the two must piece together memories of the man they both loved dearly.

comedy: the granD seDuction

This warm-hearted comedy sees the inhabitants of a remote harbour desperately try to convince a young city doctor to stay in their town. With the residents’ future at stake, mayor Murray (Liam Gleeson) goes to great lengths to make him feel at home, resulting in some fantastically funny scenes.

TV Highlights

The highly anticipated eighth series of Doctor Who (BBC1) hits our screens, with Peter Capaldi at the helm.

Our Pick of the DVDs

locke

Tom Hardy captivates as Ivan Locke, a family man whose life begins to unravel during a series of unnerving phone calls on a solo night-time drive. Gripping stuff.

captain america: the winter soldier

Add to your Captain America collection with this big-budget all-action sequel to 2011’s The First Avenger, starring Chris Evans.

divergent

Based on the bestseller by Veronica Roth, this adventure sci-fi with Kate Winslet peers into a dystopian future of societal breakdown.

On Your Radar Ger O’Sullivan, retired public servant

Watching: Borgen (tg4)

This Danish drama about a female prime minister is a bit like House of Cards with subtitles.

Reading: the age of absurdity by michael Foley A microscope on the often elusive pursuit of happiness in the modern era, with some wickedly funny observations.

l

Online: irishtimes.com is great for news and analysis. And, in idle moments, there’s always Oxford city webcams at webcam.oii.ox.ac.uk

istening: sparks of ancient Light by al stewart One track features a strange episode in the life of Elvis Presley.

Rick Stein “I Remember”

…SITTING IN PUB CAR PARKS WHILE MY PARENTS ENJOYED A DRINK OR TWO. My younger sister Henrietta and I would wait in the back of my Dad’s pale blue Jaguar getting bored with our ginger beers and crisps. Or we’d lurk by the door until they came out and the exotic waft of beer and cigarette smoke would billow forth. My parents weren’t alcoholics; they just enjoyed the pub atmosphere. Those memories are one of the reasons I now own a pub myself, The Cornish Arms in St Merryn.

…GROWING UP IN OXFORDSHIRE. Last year I went back to the house where my four siblings and I were brought up. Amazingly, the layout of the house hadn’t changed. There was a

modern cooker where our old stove had been, but the kitchen table was in the same place and I was taken back to those childhood hours watching my mother Dorothy podding peas or peeling potatoes.

…LEARNING TO COOK. I picked it up from my mother. She used to make spaghetti bolognaise, which was pretty radical in those days. She did really nice puddings; apple charlotte and wonderful crumbles and bread-andbutter puddings. My parents were friends with the food writer Elizabeth David, and I remember first editions of her cookbooks lying around.

…HOLIDAYS IN CORNWALL. It was the best place on earth. We had a house on Trevose Head, about five miles from

Photo: © Ann A Mc cA rthy

The

Padstow. It had huge curved windows around the sitting room. There was a Cornish slate patio where we’d all lounge in the sunshine and enjoy the spectacular views over the Atlantic.

…FISHING WITH MY FATHER. He was bipolar and I was a bit scared of him; he found it hard to connect with people. But fishing was something we both enjoyed. I think boys and their fathers often find it easier to do some

activity together. Shortly before he died he was going to take me fly-fishing in Scotland and I was very excited. When he cancelled it—probably because he was too ill—I was terribly disappointed.

...BEING APPALLINGLY HOMESICK when my parents left me at boarding school aged nine. It was the most terrible sinking feeling as the blue Jag drove away and I realised I wasn’t going to see them for weeks.

stein

Stein family in Cornwall in the 1950s, with Rick holding the bucket

…MY FIRST SEXEDUCATION LESSON.

I was about 12 and things were stirring, but the information we got from library books was woefully inadequate. As a dare, a couple of friends and I went to our headmaster and asked him to explain what it was all about. We were stunned when he obliged and told us how babies were made. We missed a whole other lesson and had to explain to the teacher where we’d been. I said, “We’ve been to a lecture, sir,” and he asked, “What sort?” I said, “A sex lecture, sir,” and was overcome with embarrassment.

…OUR ECCENTRIC MUSIC TEACHER.

Mr Bean bore a striking resemblance to the Rowan Atkinson character of the same name. My dad had always played classical music at home, but having the music explained to me during my time at Uppingham School was revelatory. We’d listen to old gramophone records of Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi compositions.

Working as part of a trackmaintenance gang while in Australia

…GIVING

PARTIES.

My parents had moved from Trevose Head to a Victorian house called Redlands. It had an old slate barn and they let my friends and me give parties there. We were about 16 and 17 years old. Getting the barn ready for the first time was so exciting. We had to move the geese out, but I remember

Rick with his mother and sisters outside the pub he now owns

the thrill of putting up the light bulbs and the complexities of running the electric flex from the house. The parties became a fixture for many summers. I made lifelong friends at them.

…BECOMING A ROAD SWEEPER.

I hadn’t done well at school. I’d got a job as a management trainee in The Great Western Royal Hotel in London, but I had a few months to kill before it started. I was taken with George Orwell, particularly his book Down and Out In Paris and London, and I thought I should experience the real world. But I was disturbed by the odour of my fellow sweepers—stale alcohol and general unwashedness. And it was cold and rainy. I got a little depressed.

…BEING

Taking

TOLD MY FATHER HAD DIED. I was sweeping the road outside the Natural History Museum when my friend Tim Dale drove up and told me to get in. When something momentous happens, every part of your surroundings become etched in your memory. For me, the grey skies, the green seats of Tim’s Land Rover and the brown

raincoat I was wearing are as clear as the moment Tim said, “I’ve got something to tell you. Your father has died.” I didn’t know then that he’d committed suicide. Tim said that he’d been blown off the cliffs during a storm. Nothing was ever the same after that.

…MOVING TO AUSTRALIA. Maybe I was running away, maybe I just wanted to be somewhere sunny. But the two years I spent in Australia were lifechanging. I took a variety of jobs, including a stint as a fettler—someone who maintains the railway tracks— some 50 miles from Alice Springs. I

a windy walk with first wife Jill and sons Edward and Jack on Tregirls Beach, Padstow, in 1984

Rick’s dog Chalky became a TV celebrity in his own right: “He was a bit of a rascal and used to bite people”

worked for five months with a group of petty criminals and I loved it. One day there was a stand-off between myself and Billy. He was incredibly fit and had been in and out of prison for robbery and violence. We went outside to fight, but in the end neither of us made the first move! Billy was fiercely intelligent and we became unlikely friends.

…FALLING IN LOVE. I met Jill within days of coming back from Australia, but it was 18 months before we started dating. I was looking for a nice, pretty girlfriend and she was nice and very pretty. It’s been a long partnership and, although we’re no longer married, we have our three boys Edward, Jack and Charles, and still run the restaurant business together. I’m married to Sas now. She lives in Australia with my two stepchildren and we have a restaurant in New South Wales, so my life is spent flitting from one country to the other.

…BUYING A NIGHTCLUB in Padstow with my friend Johnny Walter. What were we thinking? In 1974, Padstow was a sleepy fishing port. Our customers were mainly locals who wanted to take advantage of our 1am license and get completely plastered. We were incapable of dealing with it, and I found myself in A&E a couple of times after some particularly nasty fights. When the police eventually closed us down, it was the best thing that could have happened—not least because we still retained a restaurant licence and The Seafood Restaurant was born.

…THE HARD WORK. The 1970s weren’t a bad time to open a restaurant —it’s much trickier now, when people’s expectations are so high. We had plentiful supplies of fresh fish and there were enough customers who enjoyed a simple grilled dover sole or a boiled lobster to keep us going.

We were open seven days a week, so Jill and I didn’t have time for anything but work. I still have a recurring dream about being in the kitchen with masses of orders building up, not being able to cook fast enough. But the one thing I can say about restaurants is that the sense of camaraderie is wonderful. It doesn’t matter what your background is, you’re all united in one common goal—feeding your customers.

…WINNING BEST RESTAURANT IN ENGLAND in 1984 and my first book English Seafood Cookery being voted

The Seafood Restaurant staff in the early 1990s

Glenfiddich Cook Book of the Year in 1989. Getting my OBE for Services to Tourism in Cornwall was great too, because of the years I’ve spent building up four restaurants in Padstow and the pub and restaurant in Falmouth.

…FILMING IN FRANCE AND INDIA.

I’ll never forget the BBC series French Odyssey. The crew and I all lived on a barge and we were drinking crazily because there wasn’t much to do in the evenings—we had permanent hangovers. And filming in India is really

tough. But I love the feeling of being part of a team; it feels like a family.

…ASKING MY SON JACK TO READ

my memoir Under a Mackerel Sky . I said to him, “It’d be nice if you would,” but he replied, “The thing is, I don’t want to read about my Dad having sex”. I suppose that’s fair enough. As told to Caroline Hutton

Under a Mackerel Sky is out this month in paperback, while rick’s new cookbook Rick Stein’s Fish and Shellfish is published on august 14.

pass the bowl

“Would the congregation please note that the bowl at the back of the church labelled ‘for the sick’ is for monetary donations only.” as seen in the ChurChtown parish magazine

Seven facts women need to know about

Heart Attack

by Ann E Mu LLE ns

One mOrning last nOvember, Ingalill Ekberg woke up with a strange numbness in both arms. Her husband was away and the 57-year-old company economist in Linköping, Sweden, had slept poorly. Standing in the bathroom, she was suddenly overwhelmed with nausea, dizziness and pressure in her chest. She began to sweat. Maybe it’s the flu, she thought, or maybe a reaction to her new high-blood-pressure medication. She called 1177, the 24-hour non-emergency line for health information in Sweden.

Ingalill Ekberg didn’t suspect that her flulike symptoms were the onset of a heart attack

The mother of three grown children had no idea she was having a heart attack—she wasn’t overweight or diabetic, never smoked, ate lots of fruit and vegetables and exercised regularly —“but when I described my symptoms, the nurse said, ‘I’m calling an ambulance right now.’ ”

She had no pain but was short of breath. The paramedics arrived in minutes and hooked her up to an ECG monitor. She was having a myocardial infarction, a heart attack caused by the blockage of a vessel to her heart. Within 45 minutes she was in nearby Linköping University Hospital, having a stent inserted to open up her blocked artery and restore blood flow to her heart.

2011 was sudden shortness of breath. She tried to walk her dog but couldn’t breathe. She spent 24 hours in hospital on a heart monitor, but was told they could see nothing wrong and sent home. When the big heart attack hit, it was discovered that her left coronary artery was blocked and she had already experienced two “silent” attacks in the weeks before.

Up to 50% of women show no blockages on standard angiograms

Her attack was serious, as were the side effects, and she has lasting repercussions. “I’m grateful to be alive, but I can’t work any more, and at the beginning of each week I fill up this box with pills to take each day. I have had to lose weight and no more salt or fat. I don’t have a lot of energy and need to rest often.”

Later, two cardiologists scanned her heart muscle looking for damage and were amazed—her care had been so fast that none had occurred. “How did you know so quickly you were having a heart attack?” they asked her. “I didn’t,” said Ekberg, who has now recovered. “But thank goodness the nurse did. I now feel better than I have in months.”

BUT OTHERS ARE NOT SO LUCKY. For Jany de Pijper, 59, of Strijen, Netherlands, her early warning two weeks before her heart attack in March

i N E URO p E E ACH YEAR , around 910,000 women die from coronary heart disease—that’s three women every two minutes. There are now 30,000 more deaths from coronary heart disease among women than among men each year, and some seven times more deaths annually from heart disease than from breast cancer. Nevertheless, according to the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), most women still consider cardiovascular disease a condition that mostly plagues men. “Women have more risk factors than men, but

many don’t know this,” says Professor Eva Swahn, a Swedish cardiologist and one of ESC’s leading spokespeople on women and heart disease.

Here are seven new facts about female heart attacks that every woman needs to know.

FACT 1

Early warning signs may appear months in advance

Studies in Norway, Canada and the US have all found that the majority of women report a number of key symptoms for sometimes as much as a year leading up to a heart attack. Most typically, these symptoms are unusual fatigue, sleep disturbances and shortness of breath. Others are anxiety, indigestion, periods of numbness in the arms and pain anywhere in the chest, jaw, back, arms or legs.

Unusual fatigue plagued Ekberg. “I hadn’t felt myself since the summer,” she recalls. Now she knows her fatigue was likely an early sign that blood flow to her heart was being restricted.

FACT 2

Standard tests may not detect a problem

Reduced blood flow to the heart, called ischemia, has long been ascribed to the build-up of distinct blockages of plaque in the larger vessels feeding the heart. That’s the cause of heart attacks in most men, and in women over the age of 75. But now it’s emerging that ischemia can have several causes,

particularly narrowed or stiff tiny blood vessels of the heart that restrict blood flow, called coronary microvascular disease. An important study of the past decade, the US Women’s Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation, found that up to 50 per cent of women with chest pain, shortness of breath and poor exercise stress tests showed no blockages on standard angiograms (pictures of their large arteries).

“We’re finding that women in middle age don’t have typical atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries) but they do have cardiac abnormalities,” says Dr Angela Maas, professor of women’s cardiac health at Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, Netherlands.

Dori Naerbo, of Sirevaag, Norway, in her 2013 book A Woman’s Heart Attack describes her three heart attacks within three months at the age of 47, in which no blockages could be found on her angiograms, but cardiac enzyme tests showed heart-muscle damage had occurred owing to lack of blood flow.

These emerging findings may help to explain why the diagnosis of some women undergoing heart attack may be missed by standard tests.

FACT 3

A tear or swelling in an artery can cut off blood flow

Rebecca Breslin, of Leicestershire, was just 34, fit and healthy, when she woke up in March 2012 feeling pressure on

Jany de Pijper is “glad to be alive” but she has lasting repercussions from her heart attack

her chest and struggling to catch her breath. The next time she woke she had intense pain in her left arm and in her jaw. Since Breslin ran clinical trials for heart medications, she recognised these were signs of a heart attack. But why was it happening to her?

Rushed to hospital, she was eventually diagnosed with a “spontaneous coronary artery dissection”, or SCAD, in which a tear or swelling in one of the coronary arteries cuts off blood flow.

Breslin spent 18 days in hospital until her condition stabilised.

On her release from hospital, Breslin was referred to a cardiac rehab programme.

with a similar study in the US by the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. “I think many women and men with SCAD are missed,” said Dr Adlam. “It’s only now that we’re starting to have the new technologies like Optical Coherence Tomography, a high-resolution imaging tool that can take more detailed pictures inside the arteries and visualise the condition.”

Women should focus on the factors they can control—diet, exercise and smoking

“I’m thankful that I was at a good hospital that provided that service. The focus was not to be lifting anything heavy and just take it easy, but get back into exercise by walking,” says Breslin. “My recovery has been really good. I’ve been very fortunate—I haven’t had any problems since.” Now she’s helping enroll SCAD patients into a study into the condition.

Seventy per cent of people with SCAD are women, with only 30 per cent men, and the condition usually occurs between the ages of 30 and 40.

Dr David Adlam of the Leicester Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit is leading the European arm of the investigation, in collaboration

FACT 4

Women have significant and unique risk factors

Key risk factors for women and men are the same, but smoking and diabetes carry twice the risks of heart attack for women than for men. And women have some significant risk factors that men don’t. Complications during pregnancy, particularly preeclampsia (high blood pressure and protein in the urine), substantially raise the risk of future heart disease. Other such risk factors are gestational diabetes and intrauterine growth restriction of the baby.

Female-only risk factors also include the early onset of menopause (under the age of 40) and menopausal symptoms lasting beyond 55, such as persistent hot flushes. “These all may be early indicators of underlying cardiovascular abnormalities,” says Dr Maas. A condition called polycystic

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ovary syndrome, which causes infertility, weight gain and irregular menstrual periods, also raises the risk of heart disease.

Women who have survived breast cancer are also at higher risk of future heart disease, notes Dr Maas. This is related both to some cancer treatments such as radiation and certain chemotherapies, and increasing evidence that the underlying BRCA gene may promote cardiac damage. Women should focus on the factors they can control, such as diet, smoking, weight and blood pressure, say Dr Maas and Professor Swahn.

FACT 5

identified in patients, and studies are underway worldwide, including at Imperial College in London, to find its underlying cause. Currently, the best advice is to treat patients with standard heart medications, including beta-blockers and ACE Inhibitors, and keep them in hospital for a week. The abnormalities usually clear up in one to four weeks, and most patients make a full recovery in two months.

Women need to take their risk and any possible symptoms seriously

Broken-heart syndrome can be life-threatening Japanese researchers in 1990 were first to identify a life-threatening but temporary heart condition, often brought on by extreme stress, grief or shock, that’s nine times more common in post-menopausal women than men. It is called “broken-heart syndrome” or takotsubo cardiomyopathy, after the telltale ballooning appearance of the left ventricle. This condition interferes with effective pumping of the heart and can cause heart-attack symptoms and ECG changes. But there’s no artery blockage.

The syndrome is being increasingly

FACT 6

Heart attacks are increasing in middleaged women

Because of the protective effect of oestrogen, women tend to develop heart attacks on average seven to ten years later than men, typically after menopause, with peak incidence after the age of 70. But studies show that in the last two decades, the number of attacks in middle-aged women (aged 35–54) has been increasing, while the number from similarly aged men has been on the decline.

This shift may be related to increased incidence in women with the key risk factors of heart attack: smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle. “Worse lifestyles for women translate into more heart attacks at younger ages,” says Dr Maas.

FaCt 7

Believe in your symptoms and be your own advocate

While understanding of women’s heart attacks has greatly improved in the last decade, both Professor Swahn and Dr Maas note that more research is needed, more women are needed to volunteer for research investigations, and women need to take their risks and any symptoms seriously. “Even

the more than 75 per cent of women who have the familiar symptom of chest pain as their most dominant feature still sometimes dismiss it because they assume it cannot be a heart attack”, says Professor Swahn.

“You must be your own best advocate,” urges Dr Maas, while Professor Swahn stresses, “You must believe in your symptoms and make others believe in them too.”

R et R ospe C tive misjudgements

They may be considered classics now, but at the time it was more pain than acclaim for these authors:

“The book is an emotional hodgepodge.”

The New York Times on Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, 1961

“How a human being could have attempted such a book as the present without committing suicide before he had finished a dozen chapters is a mystery.”

Graham’s Lady Magazine on Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, 1848

“An absurd story, whether considered as romance, melodrama, or plain record of New York high life.”

Saturday Review on The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald, 1925

“[A] pointless and confusing story.”

Publisher’s Weekly on Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, 1963

“This Salinger, he’s a short-story guy...This book, though, it’s too long.”

The New York Times on The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger, 1951

as seen at buzzFeed.Com

1Got the blues? Brighten your day with these insights from the science of happiness

7

Mood

lifters

By Les L ey y oung FROM BEST HEALTH

Don’t try too har D

Why do we sometimes feel so disappointed at our own birthday party? Research published in Perspectives on Psychological Science showed that putting too much stock into the pursuit of happiness for its own sake can backfire. The trouble is the expectation that, for example, the party itself will make us happy; that leads to too

much focus on the end point versus simply engaging in the activities that make us happy—in this case, socialising with friends and family in a pleasant atmosphere.

“When people have expectations, this can lead them to become disappointed when their current emotional state doesn’t match their happiness ideal,” says June Gruber, co-author of

2 set personal goals anD go aFter them

People who strive to reach personal goals engage in more purposeful leisure and are, therefore, happier, according to research by Bernardo J Carducci, director of the Shyness Research Institute at Indiana University. He says “purposeful leisure” is any activity that involves selfimprovement and reflects a sense of choice—for example, learning a language, pursuing a hobby or trying a new sport. “It may seem obvious, but happiness comes from acting towards those goals.”

3 Don’t unDerestimate your ability to bounce back

We find our way to happiness even when things aren’t working out the way we want, according to research by Karim Kassam, who’s done extensive research on the topic of happiness. “Our research shows that people tend to get over negative events much faster than they expect.” The theory is that we have an emotional immune system— much like our physiological one—that fends off negative emotions. But can we boost this emotional

immune response? The research has yet to provide a conclusive answer, Kassam says. One thing we do know, he adds, is that you get over negative emotions quicker when you’re in a situation that you can’t change.

4 nurture rel ationships with people you care about

One of the strongest determinants of happiness is enjoying meaningful relationships with friends and family. But how do you define “meaningful”? To begin with, it involves being with the actual person rather than just their online persona, says psychologist Randy Paterson. “Beyond this, a meaningful relationship with, say, a partner or a friend is one that’s authentic, where you set out to understand what the person is thinking and experiencing.”

Paterson adds that a meaningful social bond is one in which the goal is, at least in part, to benefit the other person rather than solely benefiting yourself (by being amused, by having loneliness held at bay or by gaining comfort).

5 Forget retail therapy

A study of high-school students published in Applied Research in Quality of Life supported something we probably already know intuitively: the desire for materialistic possessions—regardless of actually obtaining them—leads to the study. “It’s critically important to try to liberate oneself of psychological expectations, especially those focused on happiness, and instead foster greater acceptance of one’s current happiness state.”

lower life satisfaction. James Roberts, the study’s author, says, “Material possessions can’t deliver on their promise to make us happy. It’s how we feel about ourselves, our relationships with others and our involvement in the larger community that brings happiness and contentment.”

Based on his decade-long study of the psychology of consumer behaviour, Roberts contends that a love of material possessions can in fact undermine how we feel about ourselves, costing us personal relationships and, ultimately, our happiness. The key is to make choices that have us spending more time supporting the social relationships that are the sources of our happiness. This may include volunteer or charity work, which has been shown in many studies to boost personal happiness.

6

Focus on the gooD, not on getting over the baD

Research has shown that happier people tend to focus on the things that make them happy, whereas unhappy people tend to focus on trying not to think about negative things. The researchers at Indiana University

explain, “Happier people really do focus on the positive”—it’s the proverbial glass half full. “If we attend only to what we haven’t yet attained, we will inevitably experience disappointment.” One strategy to counter this is reallocating our attention. “If we make an effort to focus on what we’ve done, we’re more likely to see ourselves as making progress.”

7 be empathetic anD grateFul

Psychologist Paterson points out that in clinical psychology, “Tragedy and the misfortune of others can awaken our compassion for people, but also our appreciation of our own good fortune and its temporary nature.” He adds that the uncomfortable emotions haven’t been given their due. “It’s through them that we attain many of our greatest traits and skills: empathy, compassion, altruism, trust.”

We can cultivate a sense of gratitude by reminding ourselves of the positives in our own lives, Paterson adds. “We can also engage in mindfulness exercises to focus our attention on the world of the present, pulling back from our regrets about the past and our fears of a catastrophic future.”

punditry at its B est

“i think one of these teams could win this.”

Commentator Andy townsend before the Uefa super Cup final seen on the internet

Preparing For A Mass Medical Migration

By max pem B erton

Max is a hospital doctor and author. He’s also the resident doctor on ITV’s this morning

this month, junior doctors up and down the country move jobs. It’s a mass migration that goes unnoticed by the public. This is probably because we don’t get any time off to relocate, so this all happens after we’ve finished work, in the dead of night when sensible people are in bed. By late evening, the roads are packed with junior doctors—all their worldly possessions crammed into boxes, speeding their way to their new hospitals. If you were planning on having a crash, now would be a good time.

t his is the situation in which i found myself last August, with the prospect of driving to the other end of the country to relocate to a different hospital. I’d be starting work the next morning, tired, disoriented and with the faint smell of leather car seats and motorway service stations.

I finished work later than usual, but couldn’t bring myself to walk out without leaving some handover notes for the poor souls who’d be taking over my job in the morning. No consideration is given to junior doctors for the fact they’re starting work not knowing anything about the people whose care they’re supposed to be taking over. In most jobs, there’s

at least a bit of orientation, some slack given for the first week or so. But as a doctor, you’re expected to pick up seamlessly from where your predecessors left off. It occurred to me that what my successors really needed to know was how to avoid infuriating the consultants, but I stopped after it started to run to over four pages. They’ll soon find out for themselves.

I reluctantly left my pager on the desk in the doctor’s office—after six months of it dictating my life, I was free from this little black box and its incessant cries for attention. It’s like a newborn baby, but without all the cute photo opportunities. I said goodbye to some of the nurses and a few of the other doctors who were still in the office.

but there was one last person I had to say goodbye to. Mrs Chevoux has been in and out of my ward since I’d started work. She’s in her 70s. She’s got cancer that’s spread to her liver and the prognosis isn’t good. But despite this, she’s the funniest woman I’ve met and has had me in fits of giggles countless times.

“I’m off then,” I said, as I poked my head round the door.

“Good, never liked you anyway,” she beamed, and we both laughed.

As I wasn’t her doctor any more, I hugged her goodbye and left for the last time. Tomorrow, though, there would be a whole new set of junior doctors arriving to take over her care; tired, disoriented and with the faint smell of leather car seats and motorway service stations.

You Can Get Flu From A Flu Jab

WHat’S tHe trutH?

Real flu—as opposed to a bad cold that the more dramatic of us describe as flu—is a very unpleasant infection caused by the influenza virus. The good news is that the influenza vaccine offers protection against this. The vaccine is dead, so there’s absolutely no way it can cause influenza—that’s a complete lie. There’s a nasal spray that uses a live virus, but it’s been designed to not cause infection. It can never “revert” to the infectious type.

WHere did tHe mytH come from?

A very small number of people experience side effects from the vaccine—joint aches or a low-grade fever for a day or so. This isn’t flu, but it might have helped the myth along. It’s rare to have these side effects, but they soon pass. It’s also possible to have caught flu just before or just after getting the vaccine, and before it’s been able to protect you— so it can appear that the jab has caused it, when in fact it’s bad timing.

So tHere’S notHing to Worry aBout?

About 4,000 people a year in the UK die from flu, and the NHS currently recommends the flu vaccine every year for those over 65, health workers or those with chronic illnesses. Some people shouldn’t get the jabs: if you’re allergic to egg, or you already have a fever or moderate-to-severe infection. For everyone else, though, the flu jab provides great protection against this horrible infection and saves lives in doing so.

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The Tasty Tricks Of The Tomato

By sus A nn AH H ick L ing

Susannah is twice winner of the Guild of Health Writers

Best Consumer Magazine

Health Feature

tomatoes brighten up the dullest of plates but there are also some very good health reasons for tucking into this sumptuous summer fruit.

tomatoes can stave off depression. Eating tomatoes or tomato products two to six times a week can help older people avoid the blues, according to Japanese researchers. In fact, their risk of depression dropped by 46% compared with people who ate them once a week. they maintain your muscles. A large tomato has 9% of your daily potassium needs—important for heart function, digestion and muscle performance. toms (and soya) guard against prostate cancer. A recent study in Cancer Prevention Research showed that tomatoes and soya eaten together may be more effective in helping

Quack Q uestion

QAre placebo treatments a waste of time?

A No. Placebo treatments (when patients who believe they’re receiving a real therapy are in fact given a “pretend” treatment) can be surprisingly effective for some conditions, including depression

and irritable bowel syndrome. In some studies, where people in pain were told they would receive a pain reliever but were given a placebo, their bodies produced morphinelike compounds. In one, more than 70% of subjects said a placebo cream had reduced their pain.

prevent prostate cancer than when either is eaten alone.

■ They might stop you having a stroke. A Finnish study showed men with the highest blood levels of lycopene—a powerful antioxidant found in tomatoes—had a 59% lower risk of stroke caused by a blood clot,

and were 55% less likely to have any kind of stroke than those with low levels.

Top T ommy T ip: Never refrigerate tomatoes—this stops the ripening process and can destroy the texture, making them mushy and soft.

How many calories are you drinking?

Check out the calories in your summer booze intake and their rough equivalent in food terms—the figures are sobering.

Two bottles of beer (5%) = 284 calories = a sirloin steak

Large glass of wine (13%) = 228 calories = two fish fingers

Pint of cider (4.5%) = 216 calories = one ring doughnut

Pint of lager (4%) = 182 calories = one slice of pizza

Alcopop (4%) = 170 calories = one onion ring

Glass of champagne (12%) = 86 calories = one chocolate digestive Check

A Room With A View

“Green is good for you,” is the verdict of Rachel and Stephen Kaplan, psychologists from the University of Michigan. They found that office workers with a view of nature liked their jobs more, enjoyed better health and reported greater life satisfaction. Their study on the importance of nature for mental health has influenced how architects and planners design buildings.

Participants who spent 40 minutes walking in a nature reserve compared to an urban area, or sitting reading, did better in a proofreading task—and also reported more positive emotions and less anger.

That’s a great excuse for staring out of the window at work, but what if you don’t have a room with a view and you can’t nab the boss’s office? The obvious answer is to get out into the open air as often as you can. Make a habit of going for a lunchtime walk, preferably to a park or other green area, or cut through a park on the way to or from work—these places, the researchers says, are “restorative environments”.

If you’re stuck in the office though, why not invest in a few plants? Or— though this may be getting just a tad desperate—a screensaver showing a verdant country scene?

Men’s health

cover up

More men than women die of malignant melanoma, and more men are getting skin cancer than ever before. It could be down to genetic differences or because men wait longer before going to the doctor, by which time the cancer is more advanced. Research is trying to find out exactly why.

In the meantime, be aware of the risk factors: fair skin, lots of moles or freckles, a history of sunburn, red or fair hair, light-coloured eyes and a family history of skin cancer.

Wear sunscreen with a SPF of at least 15 and good UVa protection —don’t forget to apply it to your head if it’s balding or shaved. You should also keep an eye on your skin. If you see any changes—a mole that’s bigger than before, especially if it’s itchy, painful or an irregular shape, or a spot that bleeds or is slow to heal, or if a new skin blemish appears—go and see your GP. the earlier you get treatment for malignant melanoma, the better your chances of survival.

Wish you could shop for a new bladder?

If your days out are being ruined by too many visits to the toilet you may be su ering from an overactive bladder.

Over 7 million people in the UK su er too, so you’re not alone.

Luckily there are treatment options available including e ective medications from your doctor.

To find out more about overactive bladder and the help available visit

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Three Foods That Fight Sun Damage

1. Cherries

A great source of the antioxidant melatonin, which protects the skin against UV radiation and has been found to help repair sunburned skin by stimulating new cell growth.

2. Fatty Fish

The “good” omega-3 fatty acids in fish such as salmon protect against damaging inflammation caused by too many rays. But anything with fins is good—all fish contain selenium and protein, which are crucial for skin repair.

3. Green Tea

OK, green tea isn’t so much a food as a beverage, but scientists have discovered that an antioxidant in the drink, EGCG, fights inflammation in the skin.

To Ice or NoT To Ice?

should you apply heat or ice for sports and other injuries? it depends. our handy chart explains which should be used and when.

• Sprain

• Strain

• Swelling

• Inflammation

• Overexerted muscles from exercising

• Bruising

• Acute joint pain

• Over-use pain

• Repetitive tendon pain, before physical activity

• Tight or injured muscles, before exercise

• Repetitive strains

• Muscle spasms

• Muscle pain

• Chronic joint pain

• Sore muscles a day or two after exercise

Every Reader f or Great Books

Cost of Freedom

Tokiko Matsudaira

www.authorhouse.co.uk

978-1-4685-7863-8 | Paperback | £11.95

Following the kamikaze pilots to the nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Cost of Freedom showcases Japan’s involvement in modern day war with a brief sidestep in the world’s nancial markets and their involvement with the threat of nuclear war. dropped

Each Love Looks Like A Unique Finger Print For True Lovers

Astronavigational Immortal Cosmic Love Poems And Their Philosophic Comments

Prf. Dr. Love Master, Hug The Energy, Mesut Selvi

www.authorhouse.co.uk

978-1-4520-2341-0 | Paperback | £16.60

With the unique poems and comments/manifestos of this book, you will travel among loves, feelings, excitements and mixed sensations of lovers who you have seen, witnessed or heard around you or di erent parts of the world. This collection will also be a translator of your feelings and thoughts.

Kuchmagate

and collapse of the Orange idea

Volodymyr Tsvil

www.authorhouse.co.uk

978-1-4817-6869-6 | Hardback | £26.99

978-1-4817-6868-9 | Paperback | £15.95

Tsvil provides a unique insight into the events known in the West as “the Kucmagate ”, a scandal that implicated the then President of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, for allegedly taking part in organisation of murder of an independent journalist. This book is the only rst-hand account of the event that shook the foundations of modern Ukrainian democracy.

KASSEL

Tom Harrison

www.xlibris.com

978-1-4836-0245-5 | Hardback | £41.87

978-1-4836-0244-8 | Paperback | £39.06

978-1-4836-0246-2 | E-book | £2.49

“There were 35 B-24 Liberator heavy bombers which left the 445th Bomber Group home eld of Tibenham UK that fateful morning. Only four returned to their home base. Author Tom Harrison uncovers this ba ing and tragic event through the pages of Kassel .”

Airdrie’s Boys

Fostering as a Family Form

Airdrie Thompson-Guppy

www.iuniverse.com

978-1-4759-3050-4 | Hardback | £14.95

978-1-4759-3048-1 | Paperback | £7.95

978-1-4759-3049-8 | E-book | £2.55

Airdrie’s Boys o ers a 50-year perspective about ve high-risk adolescents who each follow a di erent path. The genuineness of the life paths described will speak to foster parents, foster children, anyone considering fostering, and anyone who cares about children.

The Gardener at Sea and Other Tales

Bob Battersby

www.xlibris.com

978-1-4836-6899-4 | Hardback | £15.62

978-1-4836-6898-7 | Paperback | £9.99

978-1-4836-6899-4 | E-book | £2.49

Bob Battersby’s gorgeous collection of short ction, The Gardener at Sea & Other Tales , is noble, wondrously funny, and philosophically diverse. Battersby is a craftsman hushing us into focus and belief in the natural magic his stories are constantly in search of.

The War-Dead

We meet the pioneering groups that are still identifying fallen soldiers 100 years after Britain’s entry into the First World War

By jo ca R low E

Detectives

in summer 1914, private William alfred singyard, aged 30, was among the first of the allied soldiers deployed to war. Within three months he was dead—gunned down in France and later listed on the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing, just one of 500,000 men lost in the First World War with no known grave.

And there, you’d think, the story would end. But 95 years later, the remains of Private Singyard and 14 comrades were discovered; most have now been identified. In October, they will be buried with full military honours—exactly 100 years from the day they fell.

Remarkably, this is not a one-off. To this day, expert researchers continue to seek missing service personnel from the First World War—some without a grave, some with unknown stories and others erroneously omitted from official records. With the centenary of Britain’s entry into the First World War marked this month, never have these “war-dead detectives” been more in demand.

The announcement of William Singyard’s death in 1914. His remains were found 95 years later

the burial of private singyard is all in a day’s work for the Commonwealth War Graves

Commission (CWGC).

Nic Andrews, responsible for “discovery of remains cases”, explains: “When we were formed in 1917, the challenges were to provide burial and commemoration. This is exactly the same thing, except it’s 100 years after the event.”

Typical cases are soldiers from the Western Front who get dug up years later by builders laying roads or farmers turning soil. Private Singyard and his comrades were discovered by construction workers on the outskirts of Beaucamps-Ligny in northern France in 2009. One soldier was still

clutching a pipe, while other artefacts included webbing from uniforms, leather from boots, metal water bottles and, crucially, metal buttons inscribed with the insignia of the York and Lancaster Regiment.

From these clues, Nic established that the men were professionals and reservists who formed part of an expeditionary force dispatched at the outset of war. They were killed between October 18-20, 1914, in a barrage of machine-gun fire as they attempted to enter the village.

Only a handful of men from the battalion were officially missing, few enough for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to decide it was worth seeking out relatives to swab for DNA. They traced the families through local media appeals and web searches—a task that took several years to complete.

Fascinated by this turn of events, Barry tracked down a photograph of William. “There was a strong family resemblance. The eyes and mouth were my father’s. It made it more emotional.”

On October 22 this year, William and his comrades (ten of whom have been identified) will be given a military funeral in France, close to where they died. Barry will attend. “It’s down to me to afford this chap some dignity and recognition.”

the families were traced through local media appeals and web searches. the task took several years

since setting up the professional research and advisory service Fourteen Eighteen, Chris Baker has helped thousands of families trace the fate of loved ones lost in the First World War.

When retired engineer Barry Singyard, 66, received a call from the army’s genealogist, he mistook the man for a salesman.

“It came out of the blue. When he asked if I’d provide a DNA sample, I agreed because it’s only right and proper. I was the only direct male link they could find for Private Singyard, my second cousin twice removed. I proved a perfect match.”

At the start, it was laborious work. Service records could only be obtained with agreement from the MOD, which meant waiting for permission letters. Eventually, army records were made available to the National Archives and Chris would spend hours “riffling through microfilms”. But the internet changed everything.

“It’s obviously harder to look for a John Smith than a man with a less common name, but digitalisation means you can do this quickly. It’s gone from being invisible—because

it’s in some Ministry of Defence archive—to being hard work, to being relatively easy.”

Chris receives 15–20 inquiries a week from people wishing to learn what “their soldier” did during the war. Investigations are typically completed within four weeks and the man is identified in 98 per cent of cases.

Chris starts by garnering as much information from the family as he can: the man’s regiment; number; where he was born; where he lived; next of kin; and any other details that can be checked against casualty lists, medal index cards, services records and more.

William Barrett was killed in 1916 and has no known grave; (right) William’s medal index card, an important identity document

the surprising discovery that his great-grandfather William Barrett, a glass-bottle blower from Bristol, had died in the First World War in Mesopotamia. William, it turned out, was initially posted to France, having volunteered for service in 1914. Chris suspects William was enticed by the “glamour of military adventure”. Injured in France, William came home to recuperate, but was redeployed to Mesopotamia where

“We try to deliver as complete a picture as possible—all the way from his enlistment and training to his move overseas and what he did in the theatre of war. In some instances, we’ve determined a man’s location when he was killed or wounded down to just a few tens of yards.”

New Zealand-based Chris Lowther contacted Chris Baker after making

besieged at Kut. There, he was fatally wounded in the Battle of Sannaiyat in April 1916. William is commemorated at the Basra memorial, but he has no known grave.

Learning more about his greatgrandfather has helped Chris Lowther to understand his own family better.

“It’s humbling to be able to appreciate what our relatives endured. William’s one child was my grandmother Florence. As kids, my sister and I were often annoyed by her ‘dottiness’. With better perspective, I realise that she lost her father in 1916 when she was just six. I wish I’d been more appreciative.”

Every person is fascinating in their own right, says Chris Baker. Highlights include the seemingly routine case of a man in the army service corps who not only turned out to be the personal driver of a British Spy but was also decorated for gallantry, having driven his car up a mountain to save people captured by bandits.

At the opposite extreme, Chris recalls the case of a London man, assigned the role of battalion cook. Ignoring instructions not to smoke, he dropped his pipe onto an ammunition store, killing himself and three comrades.

Chris provides his clients with full details, the good and the bad. “It’s life coming out in military stories. We find men put on all sorts of charges through to uncovering absolutely amazing tales of unreported bravery —stories lost over time that even the family doesn’t know about.”

the c Wg c commemor ates anyone who died “in service or of causes attributable to service”

between August 4, 1914 (the day we declared war), and August 31, 1921

(the day Parliament officially declared war over). But in reality, many are missing from the CWGC’s database, either because they died of warrelated illnesses or wounds after discharge (and no one informed the authorities), or due to bad paperwork. With so many deaths reported each day, it’s easy to imagine index cards slipping off tables or pages getting stuck together—clerical errors that have written thousands out of history.

Aware of this injustice, Terry

A headstone marking the resting place of an unknown soldier

FourteenEighteen aims to identify soldiers and bring their stories to life

Denham, an exhibition consultant, set up In From The Cold Project (IFCP), a voluntary organisation that aims to reinstate every man or woman missing from the CWGC’s official casualty list. Terry’s crusade began early in 2000, when he decided to look up the burial sites of the 60 men listed on his local village war memorial (an unofficial one erected in the 1920s).

“There was one name that wasn’t listed by the CWGC—Private Charlie Baxter, of Danehill, Sussex, was missing. I felt sorry for him. Everyone else had been commemorated, but he’d been left out.”

Terry did some digging around and found that Charlie had died in the

Australian army in 1915, while under training. “I built up a case, wrote it up and sent it to the CWGC. Eventually it was accepted and they raised a wargrave headstone over his previously unmarked grave.”

Terry mentioned the case to a local taxi driver, who recalled that his wife’s great uncle was also missing from official memorials. “So I followed him up. He died in Maidstone in the army but had been left off the list, probably for bureaucratic reasons. I thought, That’s two—are there any more?”

The General Register Office has a microfiche of every man who’s died overseas. Together with another enthusiast, John Hartley, Terry decided to cross-match this against

the CWGC’s official casualty list to see who was missing.

“We did the first couple of hundred each and decided it was feasible. John organised volunteers and we sent them batches of names to check.”

IFCP was born in 2006. Around 20 volunteers worldwide help—as well as service records, they check death notices, obituaries and even headstones, seeking anyone left out. So far, over 3,500 omitted names have been found, of which 1,900 have already been added to the CWGC database. Once accepted, the casualty is then listed on an official war memorial to the missing—or, if they have a known grave, given a war headstone.

The IFCP is so successful that, later this year, a brand new memorial to the missing will be put up in a British war cemetery on the Somme, France, commemorating several hundred men previously left out in the cold.

the imperial War muse um has recently launched Lives of the First World War, a digital memorial to the war dead that calls on the public to share their knowledge. The site currently lists 4.5 million men and just over 40,000 women who served in the war. You can type in a name and search official records to check a person’s regiment or other details, plus you can add personal or genealogical information to the site and upload photos. There’s also a facility to propose

missing people. So, for example, if your grandmother worked in a munitions factory during the war and you have some proof—perhaps a photo of her at work, a payslip or diary entry—you can propose her as a living life story. The moderators will check your evidence and add her to the site. By the end of the centenary, it’s hoped the site will include eight million people from Britain and Commonwealth countries who served in the First World War.

“When the museum was founded in 1917, it was designed to be a place where the sacrifice of everyone who contributed could be recorded,” explains Luke Smith, the museum’s Digital Lead for the Centenary. “But it wasn’t possible to create a hall of memories with everybody’s names, photos and details. We could never build a hall big enough—but, in the digital age, we can.”

to search for the name of a relative, or to propose a missing person, visit livesofthefirstworldwar.org

Adventurer Leon McCarron travels the world on bike, foot and boat, aiming to tell the stories of people and places that rarely get a platform

If I Ruled the World Leon McCarron

I’d redistribute wealth to ensure basic human rights for all. My first move would be a classic Robin Hood manoeuvre—take from the rich and give to the poor. On my travels, I’ve seen a lot of poverty in places such as Cambodia and also in Iran because of trade embargoes. When you put these restrictions on a country, it rarely affects the people at the top— it affects the people in the rural areas out in the mountains. I’d remove the governments and rebuild them from the ground up.

I’d revamp the traditional mentality of careers. I think the “go to school, go to university, get a job and work until your 65” concept is out of date. The whole system needs a shake-up. The world is very different to what it was 20–30 years ago. There are new ways to make a living and we have different needs. We need to take our focus away from chasing wealth and look at our skills and what we can do to make a positive change. Happiness is undervalued and I think it’s important to challenge ourselves and

illustrated by sam falconer

do something unpredictable. I had this dream that I wanted to cycle across the US and make a film about it, and the bravest thing I’ve done was leave a secure job at home and go and do it. I had £2–£3 a day to live on for 14 months, but it was the greatest decision I ever made.

I’d ban advertising. The older I get, the grumpier I become with endless ads on television forcing cars, soap and watches down my throat. When I walked through the Empty Quarter desert, the best times were those when I was surrounded by nothing and completely free from the manmade world. It’s a rare privilege.

I’d implement an adventure school. All the skills I have in life have been learned on adventures, from how to fix my bike to finding a bear outside my tent in the middle of the night. It taught me a lesson in complacency. Running, hiking, cycling and camping is great for the mind, body and soul. It forces us to face our fears and embrace them. As a final test, after adventure school, everyone would have to survive 48 hours on their own in the wilderness. Once you passed, you’d be released into the real world.

I’d get rid of coins. Coins really annoy me. They fill up my pockets and fall out when I sit down. I’d scrap all coins and stick to notes—or,

better still, plastic. Money is a great transporter of germs, so we’re better off phasing it out. I enjoy collecting notes from each country I visit, but I think I could make a compromise.

I’d abolish petrol-burning cars. Bikes are much more fun. Big cities in this day and age aren’t designed for navigation by people; they’re made for cars. This needs to change —bike lanes and footpaths should take precedence. I saw a lot of people travelling by camel on my adventures, but I’ve never really got on with camels—they’re too grumpy, they don’t listen and they spit at you. I think bicycles are the most efficient and most enjoyable method of transport ever invented.

I’d retire to a cave. People don’t know how to be on their own any more; they don’t know how to walk from one place to another or wait for a bus without checking their phone. I’m quite a sociable person, but I think there’s a lot of value in spending time alone—it gives us space to find out what we really think about things. We don’t have much opportunity to do that now because we have cut that thinking time out of our lives and spend it in front of screens instead. As told to Ruth Addicott

The Road Headed West by Leon McCarron (£9.99) is out now.

With the African lion endangered, zoologist Kevin Richardson is using his intimate understanding of the big cats to save them

THE LION WHISPERER

By R I cha R d Po P lak

When Kevin Richardson steps through the gate onto a stretch of pristine South African grassland, time appears to ripple. The disturbance causes a momentary abatement in the roar of the cicadas; the only sound is the crunch of dry grass under his boots. Then the air shivers, and half a metric ton of flesh and muscle bursts from the veld: an adult lion and lioness, their movements so fluid they seem poured from the bush. Before Richardson can prepare himself, the cats paw his head and bring him down.

“Bobcat! Gabby!” he coos. “Come here, my babies!”

The lions flop on top of him like kittens at play. Over the past 17 years, millions have watched similar encounters on TV: Richardson, wearing shorts and a T-shirt, attacked by several of the planet’s most fearsome predators. Just as viewers brace themselves for a bloodbath, a love-in ensues. But no amount of YouTube clips can rival a live performanc e. The animals smell like dust and death. They’re not tame; they’re untameable. Somehow, because of a skill or intuition he cannot name, Richardson appeals to the softer elements of their nature.

We’ve seen this before, and know how it ends. Steve Irwin, Grizzly Man, Siegfried and Roy—all killed or injured by animals they claimed kinship with. Richardson, who’s known these lions since they were babies, insists he’s different, but is aware of the risks. “If I told you there are no issues associated with what I do, I’d either be a liar or mentally unstable,” he says, as Bobcat nuzzles him.

No animal behaviourist has ever endorsed Richardson’s activities—the prevailing theory is that lions are too unpredictable to be trusted, no matter how docile they may appear. The more persistent criticisms come from park rangers who often face considerable danger from large carnivores while on patrol. Mosa Masupe, a 27-year-old ranger in Botswana’s Mashatu Game Reserve—which is home to several lion prides—has followed Richardson’s career ever since he first surfaced in the

media in 2000 as the “Lion Whisperer”. Like many rangers who hear about Richardson, Masupe believes a gruesome mauling is inevitable. “Those lions will kill him,” he says.

In 2001, a lion called Tsavo broke Richardson’s nose with a blow from its massive paw. His arms and legs are mapped with scars. Even a gentle love bite could nick a jugular, leaving Richardson to bleed out in the grass, alone. “I’m not really worried, because it’s all I know,” says Richardson’s wife Mandy, who’s been with him for over 13 years and helps bring up their two young kids. “He’s so passionate about his work, it’s contagious.”

“Have you seen any untoward movements from these lions?” Richardson asks. “There’s no reason for me to hit them or subdue them. They’re loveable, social cats, man.”

Perhaps, but does the word “loveable” apply to wild creatures whose consciousnesses we cannot fathom? Or is it a case, as the South African writer J M Coetzee once put it, of there being “no limit to the extent to which we can think ourselves into the being of another”? Clearly, Richardson believes that such empathy, at least when it comes to lions, knows no bounds.

Richardson has described himself as a self-taught zoologist, but he’s something deeper—a medium between the world of wild predators and those who present a threat to their survival. In the wild,

Photos by th E asso CI at ED

Richardson sprawls with adult brothers Tau and Napoleon in their enclosure

lions are menaced from three main sectors: the spread of agricultural land, in which 75 per cent of the animals’ natural habitat has been converted into grazing fields for cattle; wildlife clashes, where farmers kill hundreds of lions a year in retaliation for attacks on livestock; and endemic poaching by locals, who can make the equivalent of their annual incomes—about £3,500— by shooting a single lion and selling the meat and bones on the black market. (Lion bones are a substitute in Asian tiger-bone wine, said to boost virility. A case of the potion can fetch as much as £15,000 at auction.)

As a result, lion populations are

being decimated. In 1950, over 200,000 roamed Africa’s vast savannahs—recent estimates put the figure at 35,000. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature classifies the species as “vulnerable”. Stuart Pimm, a conservation biologist who studies present-day extinctions, calls it “a full-fledged crisis”. In addition to the ecological costs of knocking off an apex predator, Pimm describes the loss as an ethical defeat. “It’s a measure of the fact that we aren’t being good stewards. What sort of planet do we want to hand to our children and grandchildren?”

But as bad as things are for wild lions, notes Richardson, life is just as

tenuous for the 5,000-plus in captivity in South Africa, raised to be slaughtered like chickens. Most captive lions begin their careers as cubs on breeding farms, enjoying the attention of countless visitors. The cats will keep generating money until they’re six months old, at which point tourists will pay close to £500 for an experience called “walking with”, in which a handler and his guests stroll through a patch of veld with a lion. Twelve months later, no longer adorable, they become fodder for tourists in a practice known as “canned hunting”. In 2007 alone, 16,394 foreign hunters arrived to kill an estimated 46,000 animals, an industry the government considers “a sustainable utilisation of natural resources”.

In his videos, Richardson’s roughhousing showcases these “natural resources” as warm-blooded creatures to an international audience. As his YouTube views rack up, so too does his ability to publicise the plight of captive lions and, more broadly, the perils facing a shrinking wild population. But wrestling lions is the easy part—saving them is the real challenge.

While Richardson’s ruggedness suggests he was born in the bush, his clan hails from the Johannesburg suburb of Orange Grove, where citrus orchards long ago gave way to family homes.

When Richardson was three or four, his dad helped him rear a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest. Dazzled

by the experience, Richardson began to nurse other birds until, by the age of seven, he acquired his first moniker: The Bird Boy of Orange Grove. Broken birds by the dozen were brought by neighbours to the family’s home, and Richardson would add them to his growing aviary.

When Richardson was in his early teens, his dad died. Richardson started drinking heavily, stole cars, even rolled his sister’s vehicle in a crash. He began to lose interest in his birds and one day set the flock free. While he once hoped to study veterinary science, he was lucky to make it into university at all, and even luckier to escape with two years of zoology and a bachelor’s degree in physiology and anatomy. His work as a physical trainer eventually landed him a job at a Johannesburg facility called Lion Park. But Richardson was barely interested in his duties. He’d fallen in love with two lion cubs named Tau and Napoleon.

He doesn’t really understand why, on his first visit, he stepped inside the pen with the youngsters. Youthful machismo may have played a part, but, still grieving for his father, Richardson suspects he was driven by the need to master his fear of death. Regardless, the impulse was foolhardy. “At six months a lion cub is big,” he explains. “Check out his claws, his teeth—the thing can make a mess of you.”

No sane, unarmed wrangler will stay in an enclosure with a lion older than two, and certainly no older than four.

Like a reluctant superhero, Richardson believes he needs to stay in character as the Lion Whisperer or no one will pay heed to threats facing Africa’s big cats

Richardson ignored that policy and spent as much time with the brood as possible, bonding as they grew into sulky adolescents and then matured into strapping adults. He discovered that he had a sixth sense when it came to the cats. He could ask them to stroll alongside him, to roll on their backs to accept a tummy rub. He used no coercion—no sticks, no pepper spray. Lions, he learned, are hugely social, and if welcomed into the pride, he wasn’t just safe but loved.

And so a brand was born. At 22, Richardson became a star wrangler at Lion Park—his antics wowed guests eager to get a taste of the bush. But he realised that, by emphasising Tau and Napoleon’s cuteness, he was contributing to a trend that meant more cubs

doing “cub duty” in competing parks, and thus more lions disappearing when they became too old to manage. “You could say I was part of the problem,” says Richardson.

If he was to do right by the animals he loved, he needed both to stoke his celebrity and eliminate the need for it to exist. Richardson began thinking about moving away from Lion Park and acquiring a facility large enough to let his captive lions roam free for the rest of their lives.

Richardson pilots a four-by-four through the dirt tracks of Welgedacht Game Reserve, 30 miles north of the South African capital of Pretoria. A year ago, with the help of donors, the Kevin Richardson Wildlife

Sanctuary was established on a 1,200hectare plot of rolling grassland, 30 miles north of the South African capital of Pretoria. Thirteen electrified enclosures shelter Richardson’s 26 lions of various ages, many of which previously lived at Lion Park.

Richardson parks his vehicle and makes for one of the enclosures. Two lionesses, Meg and Amy, lope up, and he’s on the ground in seconds. Richardson has known them for 11 years,

with wildlife NGOs that have outreach programmes with landowners.

The fear is that the industry is too profitable to stop locally. Richardson’s hopes rest with the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s recent decision to look into whether the African lion requires protection under its Endangered Species Act, preventing hunters without permits from bringing lion trophies into the country. The one-year review of the classification would also likely

“Would you come and pet a lion

cub knoWing that, as an adult, he’s going to get slaughtered?”

but after he left Lion Park, they were sold to a breeder and joined a pride that was too large. Scared they were heading to a hunting shop, Richardson purchased the animals back.

Retrieving Meg and Amy emphasised the importance of being in control of his own facility. Outside the sanctuary, the pair would likely be pawns in a lucrative industry where hunters pay as much as £35,000 to gun down a fullgrown male and up to £6,000 for a female. It also inspired him to redouble his efforts at curtailing the canned hunt: joining conservation groups in directly lobbying the South African government; raising awareness; giving seminars about the more repugnant aspects of the killings; and working

influence whether the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) decides to lift African lions to a CITES 1 categorisation.

“

Lions are currently CITES 2,” says Richardson, “which means it’s totally legal with permits to hunt them and export the trophies.” CITES 1 categorisation would ban the exportation of heads, pelts, meat and bones to the US, as well as the other 178 countries that implement CITES. Considering that the US is by far the canned hunt’s largest customer base, “it would stop the industry in an instant”.

But the last thing Richardson wants is to end up with more lions in his sanctuary, a big reason his females are

on contraception. His aim is for the captive population to plummet, which means a nationwide moratorium on lion breeding—something advocated by many conservation groups.

Richardson leans back against a now supine Meg, ruffling her ears. “If only tourists did the maths and said, ‘Hey, where do all these cubs end up?’ ” he says. “Would you come and pet a cub knowing that, as an adult, he’s going to get slaughtered? Would you be happy?”

Aweek or so before Christmas last year, a lion called Thor was felled by a lightning strike. Thor was a white lion in Richardson’s sanctuary, named for the Norse god of war and thunder. The lion had starred in many videos and documentaries, most notably the epic White Lion , which turned him into a matinee idol. The circumstances of his death seemed like a tribute from above.

Richardson’s relationship with Thor wasn’t without its troubles. On a film

set five years ago, Richardson prompted Thor to attack an animatronic lion one time too many. With staggering speed, the 47-stone animal lunged and grabbed Richardson’s forearm in his jaws, employing just enough pressure to make his intentions plain.

Thor reminded Richardson that lions aren’t circus performers and that the intersection between friendship and exploitation had been crossed. Richardson was ashamed. It took three years for Thor to forgive him and invite the Lion Whisperer back into his social circle with a guttural grumble.

“When he died, I don’t think I’ve ever cried more,” says Richardson. The essential aspects of Thor’s character— his solitariness, but also his independence and pride—are why Richardson’s mission is to run Welgedacht as a game park without a captive lion population once his own brood dies off.

“I want no lions in enclosures,” he says. “If that happens, then I know we’re doing something right.” N

approximate: sort of a friend.

Brilliant: he isn’t a fish.

lavish: a bit like a toilet.

Nicotine: to arrest a youth.

triangle: have a go at fishing.

how one independent chain of shops has taken recycling to a whole new level

The Battle for Scrap

By ch RIS to P h ER m I ddl E to N

You know Y ou've arrived at the right place when Y ou see the tree. Instead of being the usual green-and-brown colour, this one is battleship grey. Look a bit closer and you see that, instead of being made of leaves and branches, it consists of a solid mass of rubbish.

There are buttons, bottle tops, balls of wool, misshapen lumps of plastic and polystyrene, plus thousands of pieces of jigsaw. It’s as if a squad of Wombles has scoured the local dustbins, spent hours sticking together everything they’ve found, then doused it with paint the colour of rhinoceros skin.

But that’s just the start of it. Walk past this scrap-sculpture and

through the door, and you enter another world. For this building, on the outskirts of Worcester, is one of the UK’s little-known chain of independent Scrapstores.

There are 78 of them altogether; most are hidden away on industrial estates and all are very different from the sort of shops we’re used to. Spread out through the Aladdin’s Cave of archways that make up the Worcestershire Resource Exchange (WRE), everything on display has been thrown away. If it weren’t here, it would either be lying in a skip or on its way to landfill.

Instead, these bits of 21st-century flotsam have not only been rescued from that fate, but given a completely new lease of life. The building is full of people stacking trolleys high with piles of cardboard, fabric, plastic

tubing, foam rubber, rope netting and offcuts of everything from T-shirts to curtain trim. What’s more, they’re not wheeling these misshapen items out of the door free of charge— they’re paying for them at the front desk

welcoMe to the creative world oF rec Ycling. Where a length of flimsy, discarded white material can become a ghostly spider’s web in a school play. Where a single shoe can be transformed— with a little imagination—into a pierrot’s face with pale white skin, masked eyes and ruby-red mouth.

Instead of shelling out top dollar for their materials, the clued-up people of Worcester gravitate to this atmospheric old warehouse just next to Shrub Hill Railway Station. There’s no question that shopping here is a bargain. You have to pay initially for membership (from £13.50 for two people, up to £55 for five), but once you’ve joined, you can pretty much plunder the place on a daily basis. Fill a basket with scrap and you pay just £4.50, while a trolleyload will only set you back £14.

It’s no wonder that members come from a range of organisations: youth groups, residential homes, day centres, churches, community associations, am-dram societies,

Children putting scrap to imaginative use; (left) Camilla Parker Bowles opens the Wiltshire branch

Scouts and Brownies—plus, of course, any number of schools. Today’s customers include teachers from nearby Honeybourne First School and Eldersfield Primary School, and a sprinkling of artists and locals with an eye for a bargain.

Take 41-year-old handyman Paul Hart, for example, whose haul today includes some pots of paint and a rather strange-looking machine with a plastic nozzle that he plans to use “as a fuel-transfer pump”.

“This is an amazing place,” says Paul when asked why he comes here. “I mean, where else could you get all this stuff for so little? It’s at least a quarter of the price it would be on the high street.”

The Scrapstore team share in the delight of their customers. “I well remember one teacher arriving at the checkout desk towards the end of the Christmas term,” says staff member Steven Ricketts. “She pointed at all the stuff in her trolley and said, with a big smile on her face, ‘That’s our Nativity play in there.’ ”

That said, of course, the scrap doesn’t get to the store by magic. “We go out in the van and collect all kinds of non-hazardous rubbish from within a radius of 25–30 miles”, says former civil servant Paul Beech, now a key member of the WRE admin operation. “Some of our firms are regulars—we’ve been collecting from them for ten years. Others are more

recent. But the one thing they all like is that we charge nothing to take what they throw away. It would cost up to £300 for a commercial firm to remove a full skip.”

In most cases, the donor companies are bowled over when they discover the new life of the rubbish they’ve discarded. For example, thin strips of vinyl and leatherette have beeen used to upholster the seats of a speedboat. In another instance, a mass of cast-off ribbons were used by a mother to decorate the trees and bushes where her son’s wedding party was being held. And how on earth do you come up with a function for a millions of tiny, white cardboard dots, punched out as part of a workaday industrial process? They ended up as bats’ eyes, stuck onto the bodies of vampires for a spooky Halloween display.

“we see whatever we collect not so much as a by-product than as a resource”

What’s more, she and her troops put their philosophy into practice by including seemingly dead-end items in special make-your-own resource packs, known as WRE-makes. In one corner of the workshop, helper Chris Draper is using a machine to cut out paper shapes of baby chicks, bright red hearts and spreading-winged dragonflies, while fellow volunteers Annette Smith and Vicky Mold are putting together the component parts (plastic straws, coloured paper, used bobbins plus instructions) for a range of self-assemble items. These have names such as Super Specs, Fish on a Stick and Musical Cone. Recommended retail prices are around £4.50, and if you ever wanted an illustration of the phrase “value-added”, this is undoubtedly it.

to the scrapstore teaM, it’s a cast-iron rule that no piece of scrap is so worthless that it can’t be made into something else. They even stock wooden doors and windows that are just a little too wonky to sell in a conventional shop.

“We see whatever we collect not so much as a by-product as a resource,” says acting co-ordinator Kate Brookes.

But it’s not just in terms of recycling and selling to the public that the WRE folk apply their ingenuity. Attached to the walls throughout the Scrapstore are some breathtaking examples of their work. In one corner stands a headless mannequin dressed in a ballooning ra-ra-skirt made entirely of empty bread-loaf wrappers, and on a wall above an old-fashioned fireplace made of cardboard hangs the mounted head of a pointy-horned

bull, also made with material rescued from a rubbish bin.

However, the wall displays are nothing compared to what’s for sale on the shop floor. In one corner, there are whole sheets of Ordnance Survey maps, along with aerial photo negatives that get reused as imitation stained-glass windows. There are also strips of artificial grass big enough to cover a small lawn or a tiny patch of patio, and inflatable black rubber balloons that are usually attached to hospital breathing apparatus.

As for those objects that don’t seem to have any obvious purpose, they are given their own names by the WRE members. Pointy plastic mouldings are known as “hamster swords”, green strips of dangling plastic are referred to as “seaweed”, while parallel strips

Throwaway fashion: a unique outfit made from packaging

of cord attached to the edges of curtain blinds have been christened “spider ladders”.

as with all uk scrapstores, money is tight, and opening days here are limited to three a week. That said, the Worcester operation is luckier than most—it’s part of the Duckworth Trust, set up in 1998 by Cecil Duckworth, the founder of Worcester Bosch boilers.

But what other UK scrapstores lack in terms of deep pockets, they more than make up for in terms of their make-do-and-mend mentality. This is evident in the names—Bits and Bobs in Cambridgeshire, Crafty Beggars in Swansea and Scrap Magic in Bradford. Geographically, they extend from Scotland to south Devon, from Colchester to Cardiff, and once a year they get together at a midpoint for a great big national scrapswap (two members of staff only, no running allowed).

There aren’t as many of these rubbish-rescuing organisations as there were some years ago—the total used to be 120—but the ones left are determined to stay put, rather than end up in the swing bin of history.

“This may be a throwaway society,” says Worcester's volunteer co-ordinator Anda Phillips, “but we aren’t going anywhere.”

to find a Scrapstore near you, visit scrapstoresuk.org

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Morning mist hangs over Biertan village and its fortified church; (right) old farming practices live on

Transylvania gives visitors a rare view of ancient rural life where Hungarians, Romanians and Germans have lived peaceably side by side

A World Out of Time

By l ia Grain G er

TTwo hours ou T side T he smoggy r omanian capi T al of BucharesT, the highway narrowed into a rough two-lane road and I was forced to slow and give way to men riding ancient bicycles stacked with firewood. Towns gave way to villages and, to my delight and wonder, the cars that shared the road became horse-drawn wooden carts, piled high with clover.

Suddenly, I found myself surrounded by a herd of Jersey cows, ambling down the road with herdsman in tow. As they passed each house, a single cow would veer off, heading home.

The animals finally cleared the car to reveal a carefully constructed mediaeval period piece—except it was real. Carts rolled down the village of Mălâncrav’s muddied road as children with bare arms skittered by. It was a warm late October evening and the air was thick with the scent of freshly cut hay. I spied two women greeting one another in the road.

“Guten Tag,” they said.

Yet as I peered out the car window, it was clear there was more to Transylvania than Dracula . In these villages, something rare persists that has been nearly obliterated elsewhere in Europe: a glimpse of ancient rural life, unchanged by the passage of time.

In villages mere miles apart, locals speak archaic dialects of German, Hungarian—and Luxembourgish

Transylvania has its share of castles and haunted manors, for this 92,043-square-mile region in the centre of Romania is best known as the land of Vlad the Impaler, the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula and a real-life 15th-century prince who ruthlessly did battle with the Ottoman Empire.

Transylvania sits squarely in the path of east-west trade routes and has long played host to German and Hungarian tradesmen, many of whom stayed. For centuries, the region was a part of the mighty Habsburg Empire and served as its eastern front against the Turks. This mountainous land officially joined Romania in 1920 with the Treaty of Trianon, but countrymen celebrate the union of Transylvania as having taken place on December 1, 1918, Romania’s National Day.

I’d been told that in villages mere miles apart I’d find locals who spoke archaic dialects of German, Hungarian and Luxembourgish. M ă lâncrav

was just such a village. Hearing German spoken was surprising at first, but the Saxons—as Germanic tribes were known—have actually inhabited Transylvania since the 12th century, when Hungarian King Géza coaxed them to come and defend the region’s eastern border. The offer of rich land proved enticing and the industrious Saxons built up some 250 villages in the region.

This village’s wide mediaeval road was lined with nearly identical dwellings, each with a brightly painted house with a timber-frame barn and farm plot at the back, and a central courtyard enclosing a hen coop and other animals. Each property was concealed behind a large wooden gate. I knocked on one and a serious-faced woman with cropped jet-black hair answered and waved me in.

“It’s the same life as it was before,” explained Katarina Krusch, a 55-yearold Saxon, gesturing at the chickens scurrying about. “Everyone has their own garden and animals. Nothing has changed—except that lots of Germans left for Germany.”

Though she mentioned it casually, the exodus of Saxons that occurred in the 1990s nearly decimated these communities. After enduring 24 years of brutal poverty under the communist dictatorship of Nicolae Ceauşescu, nearly all of the region’s Saxons fled to Germany the moment his reign ended.

ROMANIA TRANSYLVANIA REGION

Today, only 140 of M ă lâncrav’s 900 inhabitants are German—the rest are either Romanian or Roma.

Though the village receives occasional tourists—I stayed in a restored Saxon farmhouse cared for by a Romanian woman named Mihaela Neagu—I got the sense I was a novelty. Mihaela happily showed me her family’s buffalo, then led me into the cellar of her parents’ house, packed to the gills with potatoes, preserves and barrels of home-made wine.

The next morning I headed north. I was only 30 minutes out of Mălâncrav when the battered wooden road signs suddenly changed from Romanian and German to Romanian and Hungarian. This was Székely land.

Like the Saxons, the Székler Hungarians have long enjoyed considerable autonomy—for several hundred years as part of the Kingdom of Hungary and then under Habsburg rule. The region briefly became autonomous in the 1950s, only to lose this freedom under Ceauşescu.

Bucharest

Cluj-Napoca

A couple outside their decorated house; (right)

A hard-working donkey, pumpkins being prepared for food, and a village woman keeps an eye on her sheep

It was dark by the time I arrived in Corund, renowned in the area for its intricately painted pottery. I pulled up to the Arcso Pension, and found its large restaurant was so packed with boisterous Hungarian locals laughing over mugs of beer that I had to sip my own in the hallway.

“It was a big happening today,” explained Pal Zoltan. A Székler geography professor and director of local Corund guiding company Slow Tours Transylvania, Pal pointed out that

trees parted to reveal acres of immaculately tended farmland dotted with wooden barns and tidy houses, smoke spiraling from petite chimneys.

Rosalia Szasz, a smiling 53-year-old Székler farmer, greeted me outside her home. The land here sits atop a remote volcanic plain that Ceauşescu’s collectivisation never reached.

Neighbour-to-neighbour, Transylvanians of different ancestry get along and diversity is ubiquitous

earlier in the day, 120,000 Székler citizens had formed a human chain along 35 miles of highway to demonstrate their desire for autonomy within the country.

“Sending our taxes to Bucharest is a black hole,” said Pal with conviction. Then he softened, “The cultural part of things is actually OK.” School is taught in Hungarian, the primary language of the region. Many locals don’t even understand Romanian.

Pal Zoltan echoed what I’d heard everywhere I’d been: neighbour-toneighbour, Transylvanians of different ancestry get along and diversity is ubiquitous.

The next morning I set off early to explore one of the more untouched settlements in the region. Suddenly the

Rosalia led me inside her modest abode, where a spectacular breakfast spread was waiting, which included fresh and smoked cheese, salted pork fat, veal schnitzel and blueberry-plum brandy. Everything, she informed me, was home-made—either grown in the garden or the product of the animals wandering outside.

“Every day I prepare the daily portion of milk to make cheese,” explained Rosalia. “Some we’ll eat or barter with neighbours, and the rest will be sold.”

In the nearby town of Viscri, where I would spend the following day and night, visitors are far more common, thanks to one high-profile visitor —Prince Charles. Since 2002 he’s been retreating here regularly and lending his support to local restoration projects.

Unlike in M ă lâncrav, the postCeau ş escu exodus from Viscri to

Germany was almost complete: only 15 Saxons remain.

“It’s a new community here in Viscri,” said Caroline Fernolend as she led me into her kitchen. Instead of jumping ship when the borders opened, the 54-year-old stayed and became the director of the Mihai Eminescu Trust, working to preserve Saxon heritage in rural Transylvania.

She pulled some home-grown mint off a dried bunch and made me a cup of tea. As in most Saxon homes, the kitchen’s centrepiece was a white tile stove some six feet high, decorated by intricate glaze-work.

“When the Saxons left for Germany, the Roma moved in,” explained Caroline. They were offered abandoned Saxon houses if they agreed to restore them and to pay taxes. The Trust, she explained, trains locals in skills like plastering, masonry and carpentry.

One of the Trust’s initiatives has been the conversion of traditional Saxon homes into guest houses, and I was informed upon arrival that I would be sleeping in the same bed in which Prince Charles had slumbered. The bed was a Saxon antique,

a high wooden single with a second mattress that pulled out below like a giant drawer. I climbed in.

I awoke well rested the following morning and ambled up a wide cobbled road. Suddenly, I spotted Viscri’s spectacular 800-year-old fortified church. Towering and enclosed on all sides by massive walls, the church served as a place of both worship and as a refuge where the entire populace could retreat when under attack.

I climbed the tower and surveyed the village, pondering all I had experienced. Entire civilisations have passed through these lands and then departed, replaced by others. That which remains today is a true rarity: a vision of ancient rural life not long for this world.

I descended the tower and hopped in my car. The potholed road out of town was blocked with “traffic”—a dawdling horse-drawn cart. Suddenly, I experienced something I hadn’t in days: a sense of urgency. I sped past the obstruction and the pastoral scene receded in the rear-view mirror. I was bound for Bucharest, and it was getting late.

sounds entirely plausi B le… alternative answers to some of science’s big questions, as seen at sadanduseless.com:

Why do we have earwax? earwax protects dirty people from hearing what other people are saying about their hygiene.

Sho

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i-Shaver (white) (USB rechargeable)

A super slim compact shaver ensures a close, comfortable and clean shave anywhere, any time. Functions with a simple sliding on/o switch and a power indicator to show remaining battery life.

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Tra c Light Alcohol Tester

Easy Electric Tin Opener

Get the green light before you drive with the tra c light alcohol tester. This compact unit gives instant conformation of whether you are safe to drive or operate machinery, displayed using a foolproof tra c light system.

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Remove tin lids simply and safely with this clever mains operated kitchen gadget. It features an ergonomically shaped handle for ease and safety. At the press of a button the tin opener glides around the can to have the lid o in seconds. This practical and simple to use opener is ideal for those who have limited dexterity or mobility.

P10017 | 22L x 11D x 8W |

PhonePlus Telephone Amplifier

This battery-operated amplifier is discreet, stylish and easy to use to enhance the sound in your existing handset. All you need to do is connect the PhonePlus between the handset and the phone base and it automatically switches “on” when the handset is lifted, and switches “o ” when the handset is replaced. The tone of the caller’s voice can also be adjusted to allow you to hear them better – simply move the slide-switches to further amplify the caller’s voice.

P10114 | 10H x 6W x 3.5D | £29.99 £24.99

TravelTim Portable Alarm Clock

A compact, portable snooze alarm clock that looks good and is capable of waking you up whatever the degree of hearing loss you su er. With brightly coloured easy-set buttons, a stand and clip cord, this clock is the perfect travel companion. The alarm not only sounds a loud audible tone, with escalating volume, but also has the options to select a strong vibration and flashing LED light setting. Alarm duration of four minutes while the snooze allows an extra eight minutes in bed.

P10116 | 9.5H x 7.5W x 3D | £24.99 £19.99

If you want to avoid Delhi Belly or Montezuma’s Revenge on your travels here is the ideal gadget for you! This ingenious compact disinfection light uses Nano-UV light to sterilize water clean by inserting the lamp tube into the water bottle, cup or glass. Kills 99.99% of bacteria, virus and fungus within seconds.

By kate pettifer

My Great Escape: A Cowboy Canyon Ride

Reader Jim Slade from Gloucester recommends a mule trip in the Grand Canyon

Kate has driven huskies in the Arctic, sailed the Atlantic and swum with penguins in Devon.

Tell us about your favourite holiday (send a photo too) and if we include it on this page we’ll pay you £50. Go to readersdigest. co.uk/contact-us

my favourite holiday location is the American South West, with the Grand Canyon state of Arizona top of my list. I’ve visited the canyon several times—I’m still in the saddle at 84—but in 1998 I invited two friends to join me on the famous mule ride down to Phantom Ranch at the floor of the canyon.

In early March, the South Rim was covered in ten inches of powdery snow, turning the magnificent canyon into a winter wonderland. A large group of riders, wranglers and tourists gathered at the mule corral at 8am. Once safely aboard our mounts, we followed behind head guide Sherry, a young lady from Texas. There was silence all around, apart the sound of the mules’ hooves on the soft snow and the rustle of the breeze through the snow-boughed trees.

We broke for lunch halfway at the Indian Gardens, then it was back in the saddle. By now, we had left the snow of the higher valley behind. By late afternoon, our descent was complete. We unsaddled the mules, fed and watered them, then bathed our feet in the clear waters of Bright Angel Creek. There was just time for a hot shower, ready for a cowboy

The Grand Canyon; (below) Jim Slade and his friends

© Tom G R undy/Al A my

supper of steak, cornbread, apple pie and hot strong coffee.

Later, tucked up in our comfy cabin bunks, we were lulled to sleep by the babbling creek, occasionally punctuated by the crash of a falling boulder as it landed in the water to continue its journey down the mighty Colorado River.

The ride back up the next morning was via the South Kaibab trail. We rode through a heavy snowstorm, our faithful mounts carefully negotiating our path back to the South Rim. I felt sad saying goodbye to my mule Alice, but promised to return—which I did, two years later.

In my opinion, the descent to Phantom Ranch is an experience you remember for the rest of your life, and not just because the sure-footed mules walk so close to the edge! The wrangler guides were ever-vigilant, ensuring the safety of all riders; they’re knowledgeable about the canyon, its flora and fauna, and they’re friendly with great humour: “We ain’t never lost a dude yet,” always raised a smile.

postcard from… Loch m or L ich, s cot L and

Imagine canoeing on this freshwater loch, the dip of your paddle the only thing disturbing the water—and the silence. You’ll likely spot ducks darting around the shoreline, but only the luckiest will spy osprey overhead, on the hunt for fish. At one end of the water is a half-mile-long natural sandy beach, which has a watersports centre and is clean enough to have won a Blue Flag in 2009—the only inland loch in Scotland to hold this award. A carpet of forest surrounds the loch in the Glenmore Forest Park, and your backdrop is nothing less than the beautiful Cairngorm peaks.

■ Wilderness scotland (01479 420 020; wildernessscotland. com) has a six-day canoe trip in the Central Highlands, paddling rivers and lochs in Canadian canoes, from £895pp, including hotel, all transport and equipment.

Things to Do This Month

Go n ow

t here are a number of trips run by Saga Holidays just for singles throughout the year, from Peru to Portugal. One such this month is the amazing-sounding China: Land of the Dragon, an 11-day holiday visiting Beijing and Shanghai, including visits to the former Olympic Park, the Terracotta Warriors and more. From £2,599pp, including Heathrow flights, accommodation, most meals and services of a tour manager (0800 414 8986; saga.co.uk/holidays).

stay n ow this month brings a sprinkling of open-air productions to mark Shakespeare’s 450th birthday. See Henry IV until August 8 at Brownsea Island (from £21; nationaltrust.org. uk/brownseaisland) and The Tempest at the Lost Gardens of Heligan on August 20 (from £14; heligan.com). At Arundel Castle, August 21–23, choose between the Comedy of Errors and Macbeth (tickets from £26; gbtheatre company.com/arundelcastle.html).

book n ow

t he spanish cit y of jerez is celebrating its turn as European City of Wine, plus

750 years since its Castilian liberation. If you book now for September (9–14) you’ll catch the harvest festival, when the new grape crop is ceremoniously crushed and a series of celebrations ensues. Kirker (020 7593 1899; kirker holidays.com) has three nights’ b&b with return flights to Seville and car hire from £698pp.

website of the month

meetthesWedes.com This west-Sweden website allows the region’s residents to rent out lakeside cabins, woodland cottages and more, so you’ll gain insight into their lives and homes. Some properties are on-site, where the owners live, while some are tucked away. There’s even the occasional b&b, and you can search by location or activity. Not the most high-tech website, but a good way to find affordable accommodation in this beautiful area in summer.

A couple and their neighbours survived two days of raging floodwaters. But it was what came next that almost killed them by N ick h E i L

Buried

Debris

in mud

filled the bedroom of Eric Stevens and Michelle Wieber’s cottage after a mud slide

On a Wednesday evening last september, Michelle Grainger and her husband Steve Le Goff stood in a downpour in front of their two-story Victorian home. They wondered aloud how much worse the storm would get. It had been raining for three days, and Gold Run Creek, the normally placid stream that flowed 40 feet from their house, had become a raging torrent.

“I

think [the water] is going to reach the garage,” said Steve, 51. Still, the couple believed they were well prepared for the rising stream. Ever since the Four Mile Canyon Fire in 2010, which had wiped out most of the trees and much of the vegetation in the foothills around the tiny hamlet of Salina, Colorado, authorities had warned of possible catastrophic flash flooding.

Steve and Michelle, 52, had listened and had stacked 2,000 sandbags around their property. They’d strung safety line along the footpath zigzagging up the steep hill directly behind their house, in case they had to evacuate their home at night. Their backpacks were crammed with supplies. All they had to do was strap harnesses onto their two Rhodesian Ridgebacks, Lucy and Kayla, and put their two cats, Izzie and Sophie, into carriers, and they would be ready to bolt for high terrain.

By Wednesday night, authorities were urging residents to do just that. Sections of the only road into and out of the canyon were already underwater. If residents wanted to escape by car, this could be their last chance.

But Steve and Michelle hunkered down. They’d endured flooding in the narrow canyon before and expected to ride out this storm as well. It was one thing to prepare to leave and quite another to abandon your property and possessions.

They were worried, however, about their neighbours. Across the street, Russell Brockway, an 87-year-old with a pacemaker, was staying put in his 300-square-foot cabin. Kay Cook and Doug Burger, retired English teachers in their 70s who lived up the road, were doing the same. Eric Stevens, 48, and Michelle Wieber, 50, and their teenage sons Colton and Caleb lived next door. They’d spent years restoring their 1875 log cabin—one of Salina’s original homes—and wouldn’t leave it easily.

The creek continued to rise. By early afternoon, Steve The crashing sounds from outside were so loud that

The creek continued to rise. By the early afternoon, Steve and Michelle’s sandbag barricade was underwater. The rising tide carried logs and fridgesize boulders that clogged the drains and bridges. The crashing sounds from outside were so loud that the couple could hardly hear over them. They went outside once to try to trek up the hill to Cook and Burger’s house, but were cut off by dangerous waters.

Less than a half mile up the road, Brett Gibson, the fire chief, sat in Salina’s small fire station, on the phone with the emergency operations centre in Boulder, a few miles east. During the day, Gibson, along with the other fire chiefs around the county, had realised that this was no ordinary storm. Flooding was not unheard of in the Colorado Front Range, but bad weather typically blew through in a few hours. This system was still overhead.

Around 10pm, Gibson took a call from the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). “This is the real s***,” the dispatcher told him. “Tonight is going to be really, really bad.”

“Most of my communication with EOC is quite formal,” Gibson said later. “So I know when they start using profanity that we have a major situation on our hands.”

Gibson immediately broadcast the fire department’s most urgent warning to the locals, many of whom were equipped with weather radios: “Climb to higher ground immediately. Imminent threat to life and property. All residents should evacuate.”

Still, Steve and Michelle stayed put. When they ventured outside the house early Thursday morning, the storm seemed to be easing. The raging creek had subsided slightly. They were relieved to find their garage intact, though nearby bridges that connected residents to the main road had been destroyed. The power was out and the deafening noise from the creek still made communication difficult.

Steve and Michelle walked next door to the home of Eric and Michelle, and the families hatched a plan. Worstcase scenario, the six of them would take shelter in Eric and Michelle’s guest house, which was nestled in the woods behind, 20 feet above the main house. Neither couple believed that the flood could possibly swell to that height.

Satisfied with the plan, Steve and Michelle returned home and settled in with their dogs and cats, which they loved like family. Outside, the rain fell with steady, drenching force.

and Michelle’s sandbag barricade was underwater. the couple could hardly hear over them

Up at the fire station, during a call with EOC at about 8.30am, Gibson was informed that the weather lull was temporary. “All the data indicated that Thursday was going to be even worse,” Gibson said. The National Weather Service, which rarely veered from technical information in its statements, described the rainfall as “biblical”.

Gibson worked to orchestrate rescue efforts, but by now the full scope of the situation had been revealed: the flooding wasn’t limited to a few canyons; it was spread across 14 counties. In Boulder County, the worst hit, Sheriff Joe Pelle declared a disaster, establishing a command centre at Boulder airport and queuing up resources, including two Black Hawk helicopters, several swift-water rescue teams and dozens of search-and-rescue workers.

Steve and Michelle’s neighbour Russell Brockway had sat out the night in his tiny outhouse, perched 30 feet up the hill behind his cabin. That morning, a few emergency personnel had arrived to evacuate some of the Salina residents, including him.

By late Thursday morning, the rain had begun to accelerate and Gold Run Creek began to surge. What had moments earlier been heavy floodwaters now appeared to be a 20-foot-high wall of water, mud and debris, sluicing through the canyon.

The surge plowed down the canyon, through the heart of Salina, ripping huge propane tanks from their foundations. The unhitched containers spun and hissed violently, filling the canyon with a pungent white haze. Ancient trees snapped like toothpicks.

Farther down the canyon, Steve and Michelle, and Eric, Michelle, and the boys, resorted to their last-ditch plan: take refuge in Eric and Michelle’s guest house.

The two families piled into the small cottage that evening with another neighbour, Gurpreet Gil, and her cat. Steve, Michelle, Gurpreet and the dogs and cats settled in the living room. Eric and Michelle climbed into the iron bed in the back of the cottage. The kids went upstairs to a small loft. The group planned to hike out in the morning to find help.

Steve and Michelle made themselves comfortable with blankets on the floor, their animals next to them. Michelle slept in her hiking boots and her parka, in case of an emergency. Too nervous to sleep, Gurpreet stood in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room, monitoring the weather.

Around midnight, Steve heard “three loud crashes” and shot up. A massive mud slide had crushed the back wall of the cottage and was gushing into the

The mud and water picked Steve up and swept him on either side of the door frame and braced himself

bedroom where Eric and his wife slept. Steve heard screaming, but without power, during the howling storm, he didn’t know from where.

The mud and water ripped through an interior wall. It picked Steve up and swept him towards the front of the house. As he approached a wall, he jammed his feet on either side of the entrance’s door frame and braced himself while the mud, water, rocks and timber stacked up beneath him.

The mud slide then swept Michelle and Gurpreet and the five animals across the living room. The debris piled in the corner of the room before finally slamming out through the front wall of the house.

The animals were gone—buried, he assumed, in what was now four or five feet of mud inside the house. Apparently uninjured, Gurpreet stood in the kitchen. The boys had run halfway down the loft staircase and were shouting for their parents.

Water and mud continued to flow into the house, and Steve realised it had nowhere to go. He kicked at the front door until it burst open, providing some escape for the debris. Despite the chaos, a calm descended on him as he felt an extraordinary physical strength. Free and seemingly uninjured, he began clawing at the dirt encasing his wife beneath him. She was buried up

to her chest. “This isn’t how I want to die!” Michelle shouted.

“This isn’t how you’re going to die,” Steve shouted back. But the mud and debris might as well have been wet cement around the huge boulders. He sank his hands into the muck and tried to push away the debris. He had no sense of time. Finally, Steve was able to drag the stones off his wife, freeing her upper torso.

Then he noticed a dog’s leg sticking out of a pile of mud. He dug at the dirt and unearthed Kayla. Handing the dog over to his wife, Steve resumed digging around Michelle, who scooped mud out of Kayla’s mouth. On impulse, she pressed her mouth against Kayla’s and forced air into the dog’s lungs. Again. Kayla’s eyes flickered and opened. “She’s alive!” Michelle screamed.

“OK. Help me dig,” Steve said frantically. Michelle put Kayla down and started scraping at the mud that enclosed her legs. When she was free, she looked for Kayla, but the dog had disappeared.

In the bedroom, Eric had been buried up to his neck and entangled in the bed sheets. Muddy water flowed over him. As his wife held up his head to keep him from drowning, she shouted for the others.

Gurpreet had grabbed hold of various kitchen utensils to dig with and

towards the front of the house. He jammed his feet while the debris stacked up beneath him

“I was 30 seconds from losing my wife,” says Steve, with Michelle

passed them to Steve and Michelle. Many of them merely broke in half. Meanwhile, the piles of debris had left just a few feet in which to move. Fearing that the structure could collapse, Michelle Grainger took Colton and Caleb next door to Gurpreet’s house, breaking a window to get in. Gurpreet managed to reach the emergency services operator on her mobile phone. The dispatcher told her that no one could reach them until daylight.

At the Gold Hill command post, Brett Gibson received word about the mud slide, but there was nothing he could do. “That was one of the worst nights I’ve ever had,” he recalled. “These are my friends. But it would have been suicide to put a rescue team into those conditions.”

Michelle ran up the trail behind her

house and reached a neighbour’s home where other residents were taking shelter. Along the way, Kayla appeared, and then, amazingly, Lucy, covered in mud but very much alive.

Michelle told her neighbours of the others’ plight. One followed Michelle back to the cottage to help dig Eric out of the mud. After three hours, they finally managed to free him. Finally, at 3am, the ravaged survivors limped to the neighbour’s safe house, where they drank soup, shivering in their soaked clothing. Later, Michelle would learn that she’d suffered two broken ribs and a compression fracture in her back, the pain temporarily masked by the adrenalin coursing in her veins.

Between Wednesday and Thursday nights, nine inches of rain fell in and around Salina, twice the previous

record. The floods and mud slides resulted in billions of dollars’ worth of damage and claimed eight lives— incredibly, none of them in Salina. On Friday morning, the storm at last abating, rescue efforts began in full force, including those of six helicopters operating continuously for four days.

Later on Friday, shaken and sore, Steve and Michelle hiked back to their house, which had survived the worst. Muck and silt covered their garage, but their preparations had paid off. As they inspected the guest house where they’d almost lost their lives the night before, they found Sophie, her leg broken, under a pile of outdoor furniture. Only Izzie was still missing.

The next day, those remaining were

to fly from Salina to Boulder. Before leaving, Michelle and Steve made a last attempt to find Izzie. As they wandered into the woods behind the guest house, Michelle heard a faint meowing. As she called for Izzie, the meowing got louder. Finally, the cat burst from the woods and into Michelle’s arms.

A few hours later, the couple hiked to a clearing where a helicopter awaited. They rarely evacuate animals, but that day the crew made an exception. With Michelle, Steve, the dogs and the cats on board, the Black Hawk rose into the sky, torn clouds revealing the first peek of blue sky in more than a week. The chopper flew over the canyons, carrying the survivors to Boulder, where their long recovery could begin.

Tom served to protect us all. Now we need to be there for him.

The Royal Star & Garter Homes is a charity that provides brilliant care to disabled members of the military family with high care needs.

We are there for people like Tom, who was badly wounded at Monte Cassino in 1944 and had to have his left leg amputated. Like all of our residents, Tom receives specialist care from a team of supportive staff to help him live life to the full.

As a charity, we do not receive any direct government funding and rely on the generosity of our supporters to fund the high level of specialist care that we provide.

Please spare a thought for our residents and the sacrifices they made to protect us all.

Show your appreciation for Tom and others like him, today.

Make an instant donation to The Royal Star & Garter Homes:

Call 020 8481 7676 (Quoting AD14) or visit www.starandgarter.org

What Should You Do With A Windfall?

An unexpected cash sum could bring you financial freedom, but what are the best steps to take?

everyone dreams of getting a windfall, but many people who suddenly find themselves with a large gift of cash feel too panicked to do anything more than keep it in a savings account. So if you’ve just received a redundancy pay-off or inherited a sum of cash, here’s what to do.

buy freedom—pay off your debts

If you have any expensive debts such as loans, credit cards and store cards, you should pay these off in full before you do anything else. The only exceptions are debts with 0% interest

B Y jas M i NE B irtl E s

Jasmine is a personal finance writer and the founder of moneymagpie. com

“Thanks. Now, while I’m here, I’d like to pay off my mortgage…”

rtoon by steve w A y

rates, such as 0% balance transfer credit cards. You should pay off all your debts as soon as you can, even if you find that it uses up your entire windfall.

get rid of your mortgage

Once your expensive loans and cards have been paid off, think about your mortgage. Paying off your mortgage is one of the best and safest investments you can make. It’s tax-free and a safe bet—once you’ve paid it off, you’ve paid it off—and you’ll own your own home. However, if you’re on a fixed-rate mortgage you may not be allowed to pay off more than 10% a year without penalties. Work out which would be the best value to you: paying it off now and incurring a penalty, or just paying off an extra 10% each year until the fixed rate finishes and then paying the rest off.

set up a savings safety net

Everyone should have money set aside to cover their basic expenses for at least three months, ideally six—so work out how much you have to pay out every month for essentials (if you’ve paid off the mortgage you won’t need to factor this in), multiply it by three (or, better still, by six) and put that amount into a savings account that you don’t touch unless you hit hard times.

get your money working for you

If you have money left over after following the steps above, get your money working for you by investing it for the long term. You must remember

to spread your money across different asset classes (types of investments) and reduce your tax where possible.

You’re allowed to put up to £40,000 a year into pension products. Consider setting up a stakeholder pension or a SIPP (Self-Invested Personal Pension) and pay into one of those. Stakeholders are the easier option, so go for that if you’re a novice investor. However, SIPPs can be a great way of controlling your investments and getting the tax benefit of a pension wrapper at the same time.

Also, make sure as much of your money as possible is put in an ISA. You can save up to £15,000 in either cash or stocks-and-shares ISAs, or a mixture of the two.

You could also consider putting money into National Savings and Investments (NS&I) products, which are also tax-free. But again, most of them, even with the tax-break, don’t perform well enough to be really helpful in the long term.

give some away

If you have children or grandchildren, you could help them get onto the property ladder or pay their university fees with some of your windfall. Remember that they won’t have to pay inheritance tax on money you have given them if you survive for at least seven years after handing the money over. Not only that, but if you give it to them while you’re alive you’ll be around for them to say thank you!

Six Ways To Save Money At Airports

Going on holiday can be an expensive business, so the last thing you want to do is spend a fortune at the airport. Here are some ideas for saving money before you fly.

book a first-class lounge

It might sound counter-intuitive, but paying for a first-class lounge may well save you money in the long run. Prices vary between airports, but for adults it’s usually £20 or under, £15 or under for children, and free for infants. This covers the cost of a comfy room to wait in as well as food and drinks.

gosimply.com. Once you’ve got your quotes, check with baa.com, who provide the official airport parking at many of the UK’s biggest airports. Also visit justpark.com, where people who live near airports offer their driveways at low prices. This can work out much cheaper than the usual car parks, and many driveway owners offer a collect service as well.

If you were planning on eating at the airport anyway, this way could work out cheaper. Plus it keeps you away from the shops—so you’re not tempted to buy something that you don’t really want or need.

book ahead for parking

Turning up on the day to park will mean paying the maximum price. To save money, you should book well in advance and shop around to find the best price. Good websites include aph.com, holidayextras.co.uk and

take an empty water bottle

Fill it up at a water fountain in the airport—this will keep you hydrated without having splash out on overpriced drinks.

Water at airports in developed countries should be safe to drink, but if you’re going somewhere exotic, do a little research to make sure the water is safe when you arrive. You can get collapsible water bottles that can be used over and again, and that fit neatly in your bag at nigelsecostore.co.uk

© Keith Leighton / A LA my

take advantage of airport discount codes

Many airports have special offers and deals on products and meals, so remember to check the website of the airport you’re travelling from to see what’s available.

orientate yourself

If you’re going to a new airport, find out where everything is before you arrive. Look up your airport’s website and see what information they have about the buildings, shops, amenities and transport.

Book ahead for taxis if possible or, even better, see if you can find a coach that will take you where you need to go. Some airports run cheap or free shuttles in and out of town. The more prepared you are, the less likely you’ll need to spend money unnecessarily.

don’t use expresstrain services

Express-train services generally charge a lot more than the cost of a normal train, as they go straight to the station without calling points. It’s often worth just getting an ordinary train and saving yourself the extra money. This doesn’t always mean adding more time to your journey—in some cases, a regular train service may only add a few more minutes to your journey. You can compare fares and journey times on nationalrail.co.uk

ONE thiNg YOu Must dO this MONth

...is to make some money from your car. this month, blablacar.com is offering drivers a £25 fuel voucher if they do a long-distance trip with passengers at weekends. so you can go away for the weekend and have part of your costs paid for. women can opt for female-only passengers.

this MONth’s BargaiN

get up to 100 free minutes of calls on your mobile with a sim-skin from bibitel. visit bibitel.com/ readers.php to claim your free sim-skin, loaded with up to 100 free minutes to call around the world. one use per customer.

FasciNatiNg Fact

in one year, british Airways passengers consume 40.5 tons of chicken, six tons of caviar, 22 tons of smoked salmon, 557,507 boxes of chocolate and 90,000 nine-litre cases of sparkling wine.

jargONBustEr

self-invested Personal Pension:

A siPP is a pension “wrapper ” that holds investments until you retire and start to draw a pension. it’s a type of personal pension and works in a similar way to a standard personal pension. with a siPP you can run the fund yourself, deciding what to invest in and for how long.

Easy recipes you can cook in 30 minutes

Oriental Lamb Medallions

This TasT y T wisT on T radi T ional lamb is perfect for summer entertaining. The refreshing ginger enlivens the meat, while the greens provide a splash of colour and an added crunch.

SERVES 4

• 1cm piece fresh root ginger

• 125g broccoli florets

• 125g leek

• 125g watercress

• 125g mangetout

• 125g baby sweetcorn

• 500g lamb fillet, or 8 noisettes of lamb

• 1–2tbs olive oil

• Salt and black pepper

• 2tbs groundnut oil

• 3tbs lamb or chicken stock

• 1–2tbs light soy sauce

1. Peel and chop the ginger and set it aside. Rinse the vegetables. Cut the broccoli into slices and the leek

into matchstick-thin strips. Chop the watercress, top and tail the mangetout, leave the sweetcorn whole. Set them aside.

2. If using lamb fillet, cut it into eight 2.5cm-thick medallions. Brush with the olive oil and season.

3. Warm a frying pan over a moderate heat, add the lamb and dry-fry it for 2 minutes, or until browned underneath. Turn and fry for 3–4 minutes until cooked but slightly pink in the centre. Cover the pan and keep warm.

4. Meanwhile, heat the groundnut oil in a wok or large frying pan. Add the root ginger and the vegetables and stir-fr y them for 3–4 minutes until just tender.

5. Add the stock and soy sauce to the vegetables and season to taste, then cover and cook for a further 2 minutes, stirr ing occasionally.

6. Lay two lamb medallions on each plate and spoon the vegetables over and alongside them. Turn

photographed by fabfoodpix

Matching the Medallions

By r achel Walker

Rachel

Lamb is not the only meat

If you enjoy strongly flavoured meat, try using hogget instead of lamb. “Lamb” applies to anything under the age of one, while “hogget” refers to the meat from sheep aged one to two years. Mutton is anything older and can be tough, so is best slow-cooked.

Hogget, on the other hand, can be cooked in the same way as lamb—and the extra year spent grazing in pastures means that the meat is often more developed and flavoursome. Hogget is rarely sold in supermarkets, but ask at your high-street butcher or a farmers' market.

Ideal drinks for the dish

Meantime Pilsner

Ocado, £1.79 per 330ml bottle

Tesco

Vouvray

Tesco, £6.69

Maison

des Buillats

Regnie 2012 North and South Wines, £9.98

WheN iT cOmeS TO pairiNg

fOOd aNd driNk, a popular strategy is to turn to the county of origin: Malbec Argentinean steak, sherry with Jamón and so on. There’s a logic behind it, but it’s far from infallible.

The theory is especially throw n when it comes to S outh-East Asian, Chinese and Japanese cuisine. There are lots of local liquors that are increasingly available here—in particular Japanese whiskies, Sake and Shochu—but it

is a food writer and blogs at thefoodieat.org

might not be what you’re after to go with a quick, mid-week stir-fr y. More and more Asian beers are now available in super markets nationwide, like Thai Singha, Chinese Tsingtao and Japanese Asahi, but they tend to divide opinion among beer drinkers.

But there’s no need to restr ict yourself to Asia. It’s about matching flavours, not geographic regions. Meantime’s Pilsner, for example, is a great option. It’s clean and crisp, with enough hoppy sweetness to balance the soy.

Salty soy flavours are trickier to pair with wines. Tesco’s Vouvray is a good off-dry bottle, with just enough sweetness to offset the saltiness. A light, unoaked red is also a good option— something like Maison des Buillats Régnié, made by British makers who decamped to France to set up their own label. For a nonalcoholic option, try Luscombe Hot Ginger Beer (Abel & Cole, £5.99 per four 320ml bottles), which is hard to track down but always a treat. Or, alternatively, a good super marketbrand ginger beer with plenty of ice.

Neck a NegrONi

There’s something special about evenings this time of year. the light is golden, the air is warmer, and we’re determined to spend as much time outside as possible. an aperitivo is a tremendous way to kick-start such an evening. mixing up a classic g&t is the obvious choice, but if you’re looking to diversify, try the italian negroni. it’s a more complex and warming option. perhaps this is because—instead of mixing the gin with tonic—the gin is mixed with martini rosso (15%) and Campari (25%).

a negroni isn’t a drink to be wolfed down—it’s a burnedorange cocktail to sip at twilight, as the sun sinks in the sky.

hOW TO make a NegrONi

1 part gin

1 part martini rosso

1 part campari

pour the three spirits into a metal cocktail shaker. add a generous handful of ice cubes and shake until it’s getting unpleasantly cold to handle. into a glas and serve on the rocks.

The SKI trip that leaves a lasting legacy

The concept of inheritance has been long due a shake-up as people are living longer, healthier, more active lives. Gone are the days where you would inherit a property and live in it for life. Today, you are more likely to receive an inheritance as you are set to retire.

It’s no wonder that a new group has emerged with a trend that has seen them labeled ‘SKIers’ – Spending the Kid’s Inheritance. We are seeing more retirees letting off some steam to celebrate the end of a lifetime of work.

Though it’s not all about looking after number one. Many are choosing to give their loved ones an ‘early inheritance’. Life is expensive when you’re establishing yourself – training courses, university fees, property deposits, weddings and newborns.

For this generous group, leaving a legacy is not enough; they want to see their legacy in action.

This is why people are looking to their biggest asset, their property, to help fund lifestyle enhancements for the whole family.

Through a safe form of equity release called a lifetime mortgage, retirees are taking money out of their property and using it to help them and their families live a more fulfilled lifestyle.

To request your free copy call freephone on 0808 231 1968 or visit readersdigest.retiredom.com.

Reader’s Digest have launched a new equity release service to help you use your property to achieve your ambitions.

• Tax-free cash

• From your property

• To spend as you wish

I would like my free Reader’s Digest guide to equity release. To receive your free guide to releasing equity from your property ll in this coupon and send it to us FREEPOST RESPONSIBLE, NP16 5TZ.

Name: Address: Postcode: Telephone Number:

Email Address:

The service is provided by Retiredom, a trading style of Responsible Life Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

A lifetime mortgage may reduce the value of your estate and could a ect your entitlement to state benefits. To understand the features and risks ask for a personalised illustration.

Retiredom provides initial advice at no cost and no obligation. Only if you choose to proceed and your case completes, Retiredom charges a fee for advice: the precise amount will depend on individual circumstances but is estimated at 1.6% of the amount you release.

Controlling Plant Pests

QI don’t want to use insecticides in my greenhouse. Are there other options for controlling pests?

a

There are indeed. Start with some simple precautionary measures: keep the atmosphere humid to prevent red spider mites from spreading, and hang up sticky yellow cards. For infestations, you can use biological controls, which are effective all season. You simply need to introduce a specific parasite or predator for each pest. For example, the Aphidius parasite to tackle aphids and the Phytoseiulus parasite for the red spider mite. But don’t combine biological controls with conventional spraying—the biological controls will be killed with any insecticides.

Q I’d like to start collecting my own seeds to save money. How should this be done?

a You can start collecting the seeds of many flowers from midsummer. Collect from unusual

Pest protection: ladybirds and their larvae provide natural aphid control

annuals for sowing next season, but not from F1 hybrids, which rarely come true. You’ll need to gather the seed heads before they’re fully ripe and start shedding their seed. When the seed heads look dry or start to change colour, cut them carefully and invert them into paper bags. Tie the bags around the stems and hang them upside down in a dry, airy place to finish ripening. After a week or two, shake out the dry seeds, gently blow away the chaff and store them in labelled envelopes in an airtight tin away from extreme cold and heat.

QI’m rather proud of my new rambling rose, but I hear I should leave it alone in its first few years. Is this correct?

a You’re right about the first year—you shouldn’t prune them. However, from the second year onwards, remove two or three entire main stems every year. Cut back the remaining stems by about onequarter of their lengths and the sideshoots by two-thirds. The stems to be cut will be long and some ramblers bear particularly sharp thorns. You may find it easier, therefore, to cut out the chosen stems in small sections.

QI’m going on a long holiday this summer. What can I do to ensure my garden doesn’t suffer?

a First of all, arrange for a neighbour to come and water any containers, which you should group together in one spot—both out of sun and sheltered from the wind.

Plunge small pots into a bigger container filled with moist sand or potting compost. Incorporate waterretaining gel into the compost of thirsty summer bedding when planting or repotting. Cut off surplus growth—plants pruned hard require watering less frequently. Finally, pick off flowers and buds if they’re likely to flower while you’re away.

submit your gardening questions at readersdigest.co.uk/contact-us

Thin out the crowns of congested broad-leaved trees such as crab apples and acers that heavily shade plants beneath them.

Pot-up rooted cuttings taken in spring that are now well established Prune ramblers and weeping standards from late august onwards. Prepare ground for autumn planting of hardy climbers. dig the soil to two spade blades deep and incorporate plenty of well-rotted organic matter.

reader’s TiP

make holes in small yogurt drink bottles and plant in hanging baskets. When watered, the bottles will fill and distribute the water among the flowers.

many thanks to maria urquhart of County Cork for sending this in.

send us your gardening tips—with photos, if possible. Go to readers digest.co.uk/contact-us. We’ll pay £50 if we use them on this page.

auGusT

checklisT

Going Digital For A Smoother Drive

BY OLLY MANN

Olly is a technology expert, BBC5 Live presenter and Answer Me This! podcaster

JUSTDRIVE ADD-ON DIGITAL RADIO CAR KIT, £189.99

If you don’t have a new car with DAB radio, this tiny kit is a novel solution to costly retro-fitting.

Discreetly fitted in your boot, it transmits a signal picked up by your existing FM radio. The sound quality is only as good as your current radio, but with fewer interruptions. A clever workaround if you simply want to hear digital in your car, or finally rid your life of dreadful medium-wave signals.

LINDY USB MAINS PLUG TRAVEL ADAPTER, £14.95

Instead of picking up any old travel adapter at the airport, plan ahead and buy one of these. This compact square, with a simple flick of a switch, reveals

outputs for UK, US, Far Eastern and Continental sockets (all of which it can handle as inputs too). It also has two USB ports for charging your devices while you’re using a kettle or hairdryer.

BAR10DER, £29.99

Muddler, reamer, jigger and zester. These may sound like Batman villains, but they’re actually monikers for four of the ten cocktail-making implements included within this Swiss Army-style ten-in-one bartending tool. True cocktail purists will turn their noses up at its kitsch novelty, but if you only occasionally make yourself a mojito, this is a fun and functional item to keep in the kitchen drawer. That said, realistically, there are only two functions that you’ll use regularly—the bottle opener and corkscrew...

ANDROID APP OF THE MONTH: POCKETCASTS, £2.49

If you’re a podcast devotee who’s switched to android from iPhone, have no fear: in PocketCasts you’ll find a sharp and intuitive podcatcher that’s more cleanly designed and more feature-packed than Apple’s Podcasts app. It auto-downloads your favourite shows, syncs across multiple devices, and is controllable from your phone’s

IOS APP OF THE MONTH

PLATTER, FREE

The criticism levelled at social networks such as Twitter—that they’re full of people uploading “what they had for lunch”—is an apt description of Platter. This app enables foodies to share appetite-whetting images of their home-made cuisine—and I’ve found that discovering delicious dishes created by strangers has inspired me to raise my own game.

BY GEORGINA YATES

Georgina is a fashion and beauty editor for numerous travel titles and a blogger at cargocollective. com/withgeorgia

A Simple Guide To Beach Beauty

SUMMER’S HERE, which means it’s time to bare a little more skin. There’s often little time for body pampering, but fortunately there are some wonderfully effective quick-fix products on the market that will turn you into a beach goddess in no time!

“Back-of-the-leg-bumps” are first on the hit list. If you’re feeling flash, why not enjoy spa-standard treatments from Austrian skincare specialist Susanne Kaufmann. The Anti Cellulite Cream (£82, susannekaufmann. com) is imbued with active natural ingredients, designed to encourage

Miracle Buy: Brows

If your brows are like mine— weak and fading fast—shaping them is a nightmare.

Benefit’s Brow Zings (£24.50, benefitcosmetics. co.uk) is one of the UK’s best-selling brow-shaping

kits—and it really does help users to achieve the elusive “perfect brow”. The pallet is sold in three shades and comes with a tinted wax, powder, applicator brushes, mirror and tweezers.

the breakdown of fat cells.

Alternatively, Soap & Glory’s new Sit Tight Super-Intense

4D Serum (£18, soapandglory. com) is a more wallet-friendly thigh saver, and features a massaging applicator that helps stimulate circulation.

A good tan is hardly worth the damaging effects. Firm beauty favourite Clarins offer it in a bottle with the Radiance-Plus Golden Glow Booster (£18, clarins.co.uk). Add a few drops into your daily moisturiser to create an even, natural glow.

NEXT ON THE LIST is effective sun protection. High-factor sun creams can often be heavy and greasy on the skin. The answer is to avoid oil-based products. Clinique’s Sun With Solar Smart range provides a selection of 30–40SPF oil-free creams.

Last but not least, don’t forget to protect your hair; chlorine, sea salt and prolonged sun exposure are all damaging. For protected, glossy locks, apply a leave-in damagedefence spray—I recommend PhytoPlage L’originale Protective Sun Oil (£16, uk.spacenk.com).

Miracle Buy: Legs

Women worldwide are turning to leg make-up for an ultra-quick fix alternative to fake tan.

I love Sally Hansen’s Airbrush Legs Spray (£9.99, Boots). It’s fantastic on pale skin or to cover up veins and blemishes. Simply spritz a healthy dose into your hand and rub onto your legs, allowing 60 seconds for it to dry. Unlike fake tan, it’s easily removed with warm water and soap.

Style it

Coral is becoming a summer celebrity trademark with actresses such as Kristen Wiig, finishing off their redcarpet looks with a splash of coral lippy. It also complements sun-kissed skin, making it a 2014 beach-beauty must-have. I love Estée Lauder’s Pure Colour Envy lipstick in Defiant Coral (£24, esteelauder.com). Get nails to match with Revlon’s One Perfect Coral

Nail Ennamel (£6.49, Boots).

By Geor G ina yates

How The Sailors Got Their Stripes

stripes are ever-present in modern fashion. But the unisex print hasn’t always been around, and neither has the nautical style—Queen Victoria unwittingly sparked the trend in 1846 when she dressed four-year-old Prince Albert Edward in a sailor suit.

Fashion’s fixation with stripes finds its origin in the marinière or matelot shirt. This navy/white, wool or cotton sweater with 21 stripes (one for each of Napoleon’s victory) was issued as part of the French Navy’s uniform in 1858. Popular with the marine workers of Breton, the design earned the epithet “the Breton stripe”. Coco Chanel then introduced it to high fashion through a 1917 collection. Still

Anchors Away

a fter launching her debut collection last year, Central Saint Martins graduate Daisy Knights has quickly caught the attention of fashion’s big names and has been commissioned by ASOS and Net-a-Porter to design exclusive collections. Daisy is a master of the art of combining bohemian style with luxury. Shells, anchors and shark’s teeth are recurring motifs in her work. This edgy seaside aesthetic fits wonderfully with the nautical look. Visit daisyknights.com to check out her growing collection.

going strong today, the timeless nature of this unisex trend make it a perfect style for anyone seeking a classic summer look.

First on the shopping list is a traditional Breton stripe top. Try the Original Breton Shirt Company (bretonshirt.co.uk) or Joules (joules. com). Team your stripes with anklelength trousers—cream or white ones really convey the “sailor” theme. For a casual daytime look, wear with simple plimsolls or brown leather sandals. This outfit can easily be smartened up with a pair of statement fisherman yellow loafers or white brogues. For the evening, throw on a navy-blue blazer—or even a denim jacket. Finish with nautical accessories, such as a striped canvas tote bag, for a shipshape style.

sUits yoU

We’ve finally reached an age where swimming costumes are just as stylish and well designed as the bikini. What’s more, swimsuits come with additional tummy-tucking and support features than their more skimpy peers. Here’s my guide to taking advantage of these design perks.

■ small prints

Small patterns deflect the eye from any lumps and bumps. I love Laura Ashley’s floral patterned costumes.

■ tummy control

The tight fabric keeps you well supported, giving you a slimmer silhouette. This classic polka-dot tummycontrol one-piece from Marks & Spencer certainly does the trick.

■ extra support

This structured costume from Toast is fitted with great padding and support, without the shortcoming of underwiring and built-in cups.

Do You Have A Hearing Loss?

most people slowly lose their hearing as part of the natural ageing process—around 70% of people aged over 70 have some kind of hearing loss. As this happens over time, it may take a while to recognise the loss. More rarely, hearing loss develops quickly and is noticeable straight away.

If you answer yes to some of the following questions, you might have a hearing loss. Do you:

• ask people to repeat what they say?

• misunderstand what’s being said?

• have trouble hearing in groups?

• think others mumble?

• fail to hear others entering the room?

• have trouble hearing the doorbell or telephone ringing?

• have difficulty hearing over the telephone?

• get confused about which direction sound is coming from?

• turn up the volume of your TV or music when it’s fine for others?

• have others tell you that you’re not speaking clearly?

• dread going to pubs, parties and being in other noisy places?

Take a hearing check

It’s also worthwhile taking the free, quick and easy hearing check available through charity Action on Hearing Loss. This isn’t a full hearing test, but it’ll indicate whether your hearing is in normal range or if you should see your GP for tests.

If the Hearing Check suggests that you may have a hearing loss, Action on Hearing Loss will send you a statement of the results that you can take along to your GP— this may make it easier for you to get a referral to a hearing specialist for further tests.

You can take the Hearing Check online at actiononhearingloss.org.uk/ hearingcheck or over the phone on 0844 800 3838.

Different Types of Hearing Aid

1. Behind-the-ear (BTE)

BTE hearing aids rest behind your ear and send sound into your ear in one of three different ways, says Action on Hearing Loss:

1. Through a piece of clear, flexible tubing connected to an earmould, which fits inside your ear. Most people who get NHS hearing aids have this type.

2. Through very thin, clear tubing connected to a small, soft earpiece that sits inside your ear canal. This type is called an open ear fitting and can be less noticeable than an earmould. It can give you a very natural sound, but is only suitable if your hearing loss is mild or moderate. It’s unlikely to be suitable if you have frequent ear infections or find fiddly tasks awkward.

3. Through a clear tube with a wire inside, which runs from the hearing aid to a tiny loudspeaker held in the ear by a soft earpiece. There are many different terms to describe this type of aid—such as “receiver in the ear”, “receiver in the canal” and “loudspeaker in the ear”—but they’re all essentially the same thing and are

now available in some NHS services. Like open-ear BTEs, they may be unsuitable if you have sight loss and find fiddly tasks awkward, or if you have frequent ear infections.

see next month’s issue for information on in-the-ear hearing aids

How Best To Safeguard Your Sight

it might not come as a surprise to learn that sight is the sense that the majority of us fear losing the most. After all, we live in an increasingly visual world and it’s hard to imagine how we’d maintain our independence if we couldn’t see.

Yet worryingly, many people are still not looking after their eyes properly and adopt a casual “it won’t happen to me” attitude. But sight loss does happen to all sorts of people. In the UK, someone loses their sight every 15 minutes, and thanks to an ageing population the number of people affected by sight loss is expected to double to a huge four million by 2050.

Around half of all cases of sight loss can be prevented, and by looking after your eyes properly you can minimise the risk of losing your sight.

First and foremost, everyone should have their eyes checked at least every two years, even if there’s been no change in vision. For people who don’t need corrective lenses, it’s very easy to assume that your eyes are fine, but some conditions such as glaucoma have no symptoms and an eye examination is the only way they

can be identified. If you do experience any unusual symptoms, such as blurred vision or wavy lines, see your optician as soon as possible. They could be the sign of a condition such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which can cause sight loss in just a few months.

Eating healthily and maintaining a reasonable body weight can also help your eyes. A diet rich in leafy green vegetables could help reduce the chance of developing AMD or cataracts, and oranges, kiwis, nuts, seeds and oily fish can also prevent and slow down some eye conditions.

For more eye-health information and to find out more about the work of RNiB, visit rnib.org.uk or call the Helpline on 0303 123 9999.

Photo: © Wavebreak Media

Put Us In The Picture

in many poorer countries, people with disabilities represent some of the most excluded and hard-to-reach of all groups in their community. They are less likely to have access to healthcare and education, making it harder to escape poverty. The story of Martha (below) from Uganda is typical:

“I’m 16; I don’t go to school because I can’t see anything. I used to see very well, but it stopped—over two years it got worse. When the teacher was teaching, I asked her to repeat but she just continued and I had to copy from my friends.

“There were no facilities [for people with disabilities]. I was the only person, and the other pupils didn’t want to play with me because of my

problem. They used to isolate me. They used to call me names, and it hurt me a lot. Community members laughed at me and they still do, because I can’t see where I’m going and I bump into things.”

sightsaVers supports the Uganda Inclusive Education Programme which provides equipment, assistive devices, Braille machines as well as specialised training for teachers. They met Martha and were able to give her a Braille kit. This means she can learn at home, and if she reaches the level of Braille learning required to attend her free local school, she could go there without requiring a specially trained teacher.

“I feel very happy, because I’m going back to school,” says Martha.

sightsavers’ Put Us in the Picture campaign is calling on the uk government to ensure that people with disabilities are included in conversations around international development.

“again and again, people with disabilities in developing countries aren’t given the same opportunities as their peers,” says tV presenter Lorraine Kelly, one of the many celebrities backing the campaign. “Why shouldn’t a blind child go to school, or a disabled father be given the training to earn a living and support his family?”

sightsavers wants 20,000 signatures for its petition—to add your name, go to sightsavers.org/ our_campaign

Photo: sightsavers

A triumphant return for crime fiction’s first lady and an hilarious reflection on family life

August fiction

By J AME s WA lTON

James writes and presents the BBC Radio 4 literary quiz The Write Stuff

The Girl Next Door

by Ruth Rendell (Hutchinson, £18.99; ebook, £6.99)

Throughout her 50-year career, Ruth Rendell has regularly published crime novels in which the crime is essentially a catalyst—or just an excuse— for her to write about something else. And, as it soon turns out, The Girl Next Door is one of them.

By page five, we know who committed the central murders, which took place in 1944. The action then shifts to around 70 years later when a gruesome discovery reunites the people who used to play near the murder scene as children.

Rendell’s real interest—perhaps not surprisingly for an author of 84—is what it’s like to be old. The book notes with obvious indignation how often the main characters are patronised by those younger than them, with any unorthodox behaviour seen as a sign of Alzheimer’s. It’s equally sharp on the tricky business of finding yourself in a world where things that once seemed so permanent—rules of etiquette and even the words people use—have changed so utterly. And yet, as the reunion reveals, some emotions don’t change at all...

NAME THE AUTHOR

(Answer on p126)

Can you guess the writer from these clues (and, of course, the fewer you need the better)?

1. He’s the only person in history to

have won both the Nobel Prize for Literature and an Oscar.

2. The main characters in his plays include Cleopatra and Joan of Arc.

3. Another of his plays was turned into the musical My Fair Lady.

The result is a triumphant blend of the sinister, the bracingly cross and the touchingly regretful. It’s also Rendell’s best book for years.

What Would Mary Berry Do?

by Claire Sandy (Pan, £7.99; ebook, £5.99)

Claire Sandy’s starting point here can’t be said to be bursting with originality. Marie Dunwoody is a middle-aged wife and mother who worries about the size of her bottom, the messiness of her house and her inability to match her neighbour Lucy when it comes to baking and looking immaculate. Luckily, as formulaic novels go, this one soon proves hugely enjoyable and unusually accomplished.

For a start, Sandy juggles her several neat plotlines with pacy aplomb, before bringing them all together for the big finish. Better still, the generosity of her storytelling is matched by the generosity of her tone, which manages to be both shrewd and warm-hearted at the same time. Above all, though, she’s great at jokes. Almost every paragraph contains at least one properly funny and well-timed gag—with shamingly recognisable observations about family life a speciality. In short, this is a novel that you can expect to see plenty of people chuckling over on the beach this summer.

PAPERBAcks OUT NOW

The Little Captive by lise kristensen (Pan, £7.99)

Powerful and affecting memoir of the author’s two years in a Japanese prison camp as a girl.

Jeeves and the Wedding

Bells by sebastian Faulks (Arrow, £7.99) The author of Birdsong pays a winning tribute to P G Wodehouse in the first authorised Jeeves and Wooster novel since Wodehouse’s death.

Elizabeth of York by Alison Weir (Vintage, £9.99) The best-selling historian tackles the daughter, sister, niece, wife and mother of different English kings—who died on her 37th birthday in 1503.

The Love Object by Edna O’Brien (Faber, £9.99)

Spanning more than 50 years, a collection of some of the best short stories by one of the best Irish writers.

On the Road by Richard Hammond (Phoenix, £7.99)

Eight significant driving experiences that helped shape the Top Gear presenter’s early life, from first bike to first job.

RD’s REcOMMENDED READ

This exploration of psychology shows our brains are capable of fooling even the most rational among us

It’s All in the Mind

As s enior Lecturer in Psycho L ogy at the University of Liverpool, Ben Ambridge clearly knows what he’s talking about. Unlike some academics, though, he talks about it in a way that’s not only easy to comprehend, but often highly entertaining.

At the beginning of Psy-Q, Ambridge makes the ringing declaration that “psychology is everything”, which explains why the book ranges so widely, with its dozens of short, arresting chapters adding up to an impressively complete miscellany of how our minds operate. But he also emphasises that psychology is a science that proceeds like any other:

by the careful use of experiments, all of which he describes and many of which he encourages us to do on ourselves as we read. (His scorn for the non-scientific, meanwhile, extends from horoscopes to Freud’s interpretation of dreams.)

Psy-Q: Test Your Psychological Intelligence by Ben Ambridge is published by Profile on August 7 at £12.99 (ebook, £12.99)

The results throw up plenty of surprises. It transpires, for example, that most of the famous differences between men and women—maths ability, multitasking, spatial awareness and so on—are actually very small. In fact, one of the few areas where the sexes really do differ is in how far they can throw a ball, where the average man does better than 98 per cent of all women.

But of course what makes human psychology so interesting is not just how the brain works, but how it often doesn’t. As Ambridge points out, the genuinely weird thing about optical illusions is that they remain optical illusions even after the brain knows it’s being fooled. And then there are all the irrational decisions we make, either not caring or perhaps not noticing just how irrational they are —as in this section from a chapter entitled “That Sinking Feeling”:

Suppose you’ve bought a £300 ticket for a weekend trip to Italy. A few weeks later you buy a £150 ticket for a weekend trip to Spain. You think you’ll enjoy the Spain trip more. Later, looking at your calendar, you realise you’ve made a terrible mistake: the two tickets are for the same weekend. The tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable: you’ll have to go on one trip and not the other. Which one do you choose?

Answer: When presented with this scenario, more than half of people asked choose Italy.

From a purely rational economic perspective, the decision makes no sense. If you think you’ll enjoy Spain more, go to Spain. People’s tendency to make irrational decisions in these situations is known as the sunk cost fallacy. The more you’ve already

RD EXclUsiVE: BEN AMBRiDgE’s TOP 5 POPUlAR sciENcE BOOks

Bad Science by Ben goldacre (2008) If you’re in the mood for feeling some righteous indignation over the misuse of science, there’s no better book than this.

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (1976) Amazing how one small book—and one big idea—can explain, in the words of Douglas Adams, “Life, the Universe and Everything”.

The Language Instinct by steven Pinker (1994) Although I disagree with much of the content, you have to hand it to Pinker for pulling off the impossible: a stylish, readable popular-science book that’s also a serious piece of academic work.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (2003) Bryson is at his best as a tour guide to science.

Freakonomics by steven levitt and stephen J Dubner (2005) This book provided the template for the “tooincredible-to-be-true…or-is-it?” style now de rigueur for popular-science books. Often imitated, never bettered.

invested in something—whether in money, time or effort—the more reluctant you are to ‘waste’ that investment, even if doing so would ensure you a better outcome, such as going on the trip you’d prefer.

Could there be another explanation? Perhaps people think, Well, on reflection, the Spain trip can’t be that great if it costs half as much as Italy. Probably not.

other away. Which of the absolutely identical meals do you eat?

Come on, admit it: although you know there’s absolutely no reason to choose one over the other, you’re almost certain to eat the more expensive one.

Children aren’t capable of making these abstract rules—they simply choose the option they’d prefer

Researchers have used a number of clever scenarios to demonstrate that it really seems to be the sunk cost that’s important. Try this one: A friend is coming round for dinner and you buy two identical ready meals. One costs £5 while the other is reduced to £3. Otherwise, they’re identical in every way (including the use-by dates). You’ve just cooked both when your friend calls to say that he’s ill and can’t make it. This isn’t the sort of meal you can reheat later or freeze; you must eat one now and throw the

AND

THE NAME OF

THE AUTHOR is…

George Bernard shaw (Caesar and Cleopatra, Saint Joan and Pygmalion upon which My Fair Lady is based).

While these studies do provide good evidence that we fall for the sunk-cost fallacy every time, they don’t tell us why. The answer seems to be that we have a rule that ‘waste is a bad thing and should always be minimised’. In general, this is a good rule. In the vast majority of scenarios, the course of action that minimises waste is the best one or at least one that does you no harm. The problem is that we overgeneralise the rule to scenarios where it does do us harm: taking the trip to Italy when we would prefer Spain.

The evidence that the sunk-cost fallacy is caused by the overgeneralisation of a ‘waste not, want not’ rule comes from comparative studies with young children, who aren’t capable of creating these types of abstract rule and so don’t fall for the fallacy. When given similar scenarios (involving tickets for fairground rides rather than weekends away), children ignore sunk costs and simply choose the option they think they’d prefer.

Books

that C hanged my life

author susan lewis, who lost her mother to breast cancer aged nine, highlights the work of Breast Cancer Care in Never Say Goodbye, out in paperback this month. her 34th book Behind Closed Doors is also published this month.

Alice in Wonderland

by Lewis CarroLL

My father, a Welsh miner, was a born storyteller and brought characters to technicolour life. My memory tells me we actually used to dive down that rabbit hole to mingle with the magical characters in Alice. The beginning of the book has always stayed with me; Alice thinking, What’s the use of a book without pictures or conversation? I can’t use pictures in my books, but I do my best to keep Alice happy by writing as much conversation as possible.

All Georgette Heyer’s books

It’s impossible to choose one book by Georgette Heyer; they all changed my life. I was a rebellious teen and my father worried about me dreadfully. To be transported to the

world of Georgian England was an escape—and probably the only time I was behaving myself. I was enthralled by the humour, roguery and romance, and couldn’t put the books down. I reread them all when they were reissued and was as gripped as I’d been 40 years before.

Suite Française

by irène

némirovsky

This book has been an inspiration to me. I was very moved by the love story—the depth of attraction between the French woman and German officer is incredibly powerful. Némirovsky was arrested as a Jew and taken to Auschwitz. She never came back. The poignancy and connection between Némirovsky’s manuscript and her real life is heartbreaking. This is the only book I’ve ever finished and immediately turned back to the first page to begin again. As told to Caroline Hutton

Photo: © Colin t homas

You Couldn’t Make It Up

Win £50 for your true, funny stories! Go to readersdigest. co.uk/contact-us or facebook.com/readersdigestuk

We rented a cottaGe in the West Highlands where our son was to join us for a short holiday. I texted him to bring fuel for the fires, as the evenings were chilly.

A few days into our holiday, we had news that an elderly relative had died, and I texted our son with the funeral arrangements. Although the two messages were sent days apart, the intermittent mobilephone signal in that remote part of the country resulted in him receiving the text messages almost simultaneously—and in the reverse order of their dispatch.

They read: “Uncle’s funeral at crematorium 11.30 on Saturday… Bring logs for the fire!”

IaIn dUncan, Perth

I Was shoWInG oFF my draWInG skIlls to my four-year-old one day. I would draw different things and then ask him to recognise them. My boy was doing really well until I drew an angry face and he shouted, “It’s mummy!” My wife wasn’t amused.

abhIshek Verma, Cardiff

aFter We both read and enjoyed the book Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud, my 72-year-old mum joined the video club in our village. She intended to surprise me by renting out the film version, which had just come out.

My mum’s memory wasn’t brilliant, and after joining the video club she asked the assistant if he had “something kinky.” He was very dismissive and pointed to the top

Cartoon by Steve Way

shelf. My mum, not finding the film, went back to him and asked him again for “something kinky”.

“That’s all we have, love, on the top shelf,” the assistant said. Mum left the shop very disgruntled.

That night she told me what had happened and wondered why I found it so funny. She never went back to the shop after that!

sUsan tUrner, Merseyside

my FIVe-year old nepheW visited his grandma with me one warm summer’s day. As it was so balmy, she wasn’t wearing her normal thick stockings. The little boy was wide-eyed as he carefully examined the varicose veins threaded along her legs.

Looking concerned, he leaned forward and whispered, “You’ve been really naughty, nanna. Mummy will go mad when she sees what you’ve done with that felt-tip pen.”

marGaret FIelder, Yorkshire

at Work, We haVe cUstomers from all over the world who come to London to attend training courses. One particular class was made up of Chinese people and the instructor, filled with enthusiasm, often said, “How’s it going, chaps?” He could see the them looking more and more annoyed as the class progressed, but couldn’t understand what the problem was.

In the break, one of the attendees

approached his desk and asked, “Why do you keep calling us Japs?”

lUcy pesaro, London

I Was really pleased WIth my pUrchase of a new pair of shoes from a major high-street retailer. About a week later, on a rainy day, I was in a rush and quickly grabbed my shoes from the rack and made my way into town. To my horror, I felt a wet sensation inside my right shoe—it was leaking.

I returned to the shop to complain about the leaking right shoe. Arriving at customer service, the assistant looked at both shoes and said, “Yes, sir, you’re correct—the right shoe leaks, but unfortunately only the left shoe was bought from this store.”

My apology was as swift as my departure. phIlIp carroll, Surrey

haVInG FInIshed lUnch at an exclUsIVe hotel, I waited at the bar for my bill and noticed some delicious-looking bar nibbles in front of me. Tempted, I sampled the savoury crackers and noticed some pistachio nuts in another bowl. I reached out and slipped a nut into my hand, guiltily popping it into my mouth quickly as the barista returned.

It was then I realised that this was no pistachio: the bowl contained the stones discarded from olives a previous customer had eaten.

anGela le roUx, West Sussex

I KEEP ON WINNING!

Marianne Berry, 43, Bucks, couldn’t believe it when she won her third big jackpot with Reader’s Digest Bingo

I HAVE ALWAYS LOVED A GAME OF BINGO – the fun, laughs and the occasional win! And I found with Reader’s Digest Bingo, you could play at any time to suit you. I’ve been playing online bingo for years now, it has a great buzz, the games are fun, it’s sociable and I’ve even made some good friends over the years.

I have had some smaller wins, but couldn’t believe that in the last 16 months I’d also won an amazing £14,366 thanks to two big jackpots.

excited as the auto dabber marked off all my numbers as they were being called. It was all happening very quickly and even with three numbers to go, I wasn’t expecting to win as I had only been playing for a matter of minutes.

The evening I won my third big jackpot, I saw there was a bingo game about to start in the Sapphire room and thought I would buy a few tickets for the next game. I knew there was a £1,000 full house prize to be won on this game and begun to get

My total big wins on Reader’s Digest Bingo were now an amazing £15,366!

all my numbers as they were being called. It was all Digest Bingo were now

So when the screen started flashing to say ‘Congratulations Winner’ I stopped and stared. That can’t be, I thought.

I have decided to spend my latest win on a luxury family camping holiday in Holland this summer. I never dreamed I’d hit the jackpot once, never mind three times, but it happened to me and it could happen to you too!

it pays to increase your

Word Power

Before you start cramming your suitcase for that dream getaway, make sure you’ve got the travel lingo down. Take a tour of these terms, then jet to the next page for answers.

By Emily Cox & H E nry r at H von

1. aerotropolis (aer-oh-’trop-ah-lis)

n—A: on-board shopping mall.

B: combined airport and urban centre. C: cluster of skyscrapers

2. sojourn (‘soh-jern) v—

A: travel non-stop. B: take a guided tour. C: stay temporarily.

3. cosmopolitan (kohz-meh-’pohleh-tan) adj—A: between stops.

B: worldly-wise. C: of space travel.

4. prix fixe (‘pree feeks or fiks) n—

A: confirmed reservation. B: meal with a set price. C: race car.

5. couchette (koo-’shet) n—

A: round-trip ticket. B: French pastry.

C: train’s sleeping compartment.

6. funicular (fyu-’nih-kye-ler) n—

A: pleasure cruise. B: cable railway.

C: stretch limousine.

7. valise (vah-’lees) n—

A: car parker. B: small suitcase.

C: country cottage.

8. sabbatical (sah-’ba-ti-kul) n—

A: break from work. B: lodging overseas. C: seating upgrade.

9. ramada (rah-’mah-duh) n—

A: shelter with open sides.

B: converted cowshed.

C: in-house maid service.

10. coterminous (co-’ter-min-uhs) adj—A: sharing a boundary.

B: leaving as a group. C: waiting at arrivals.

11. incidental (in-seh-’den-tul) adj

A: waiting in a long line. B: minor.

C: causing a scandal.

12. transient (‘tran-zee-ent) adj—

A: going by rail. B: passing through.

C: on foot.

13. manifest (‘ma-neh-fest) n—

A: overnight flight. B: reservation.

C: passenger list.

14. rack rate (‘rak rayt) n—

A: overhead-luggage charge.

B: take-off speed. C: full-price for lodging.

15. peripatetic (per-uh-puh‘teh-tik) adj—A: being multilingual.

B: travelling from place to place.

C: crossing a border illegally.

answers

1. aerotropolis [B] combined airport and urban area. “Living in an aerotropolis means we’re never late for our flights.”

2. sojourn [C] stay temporarily. “ ‘Will you sojourn with us long?’ asked the receptionist as I reclined on a bench.”

3. cosmopolitan [B] worldly-wise. “Apparently, Sara wasn’t cosmopolitan enough for the maître d’ to seat her at any of the best tables.”

4. prix fixe [B] meal with a set price. “Alison knew it was a prix fixe, but naturally she tried to haggle with the waiter anyway.”

5. couchette [C] train’s sleeping compartment. “My couchette mates snored peacefully in their bunks.”

6. funicular [B] cable railway. “The funicular disappeared into the mist.”

7. valise [B] small suitcase. “Eric grew suspicious after finding someone else’s credentials in his valise.”

8. sabbatical [A] break from work. “ ‘I’m here on a sixmonth sabbatical,’ I explained to the customs officer.”

9. ramada [A] shelter with open sides. “My ideal holiday: sipping some colourful cocktail by the sea under a ramada.”

10. coterminous [A] sharing a boundary. “The two countries we’re visiting are coterminous.”

11. incidental [B] minor. “ ‘Incidental items can add weight very quickly, so pack wisely,’ my wife advised.”

12. transient [B] passing through. “Thankfully, the brute was a transient customer, not a permanent guest.”

13. manifest [C] passenger list. “I came from such a big family, we had to keep an official manifest for every trip.”

14. rack rate [C] full price for lodging. “Savvy travellers never settle for a hotel’s rack rate.”

rElaxation rEdEfinEd these days, our holidays come in myriad forms. a staycation is when you don’t go anywhere and just enjoy free time at or near home. a paycation is when you moonlight as you travel. a daycation is a 24-hour getaway. We’ve also heard of a praycation (a religious trip) and even a bakeation (a foodie’s holiday dedicated to sampling pastries).

15. peripatetic [B] travelling from place to place. “After two peripatetic years in Asia, Jason settled down.”

voCaBulary ratings

9 & below: economy

10–12: Business class

13–15: First class

You can see a selection of our gadgets, gifts and accessories within this issue of the magazine. Or, you can browse through all our o ers, including a full range of DVDs, CDs and books. shop.readersdigest.co.uk

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BrainTeasers

Challenge yourself by solving these puzzles and mind stretchers, then check your answers on page 137.

match-up is to is to... as

Balacing act

Given that scales A and B balance perfectly, how many stars are needed to balance scale C?

maZe

Don’t get lost in this maze as you try to make your way from left to right.

heaDs or tails

You must always move two touching coins without separating them. What’s the least number of moves you can make to leave all six coins below touching with alternate heads and tails?

* Entry is open only to residents of the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Republic of Ireland aged 18 or over. It is not open to employees of Vivat Direct Limited (t/a Reader’s Digest), its subsidiary companies and all other persons associated with the competition.

BrainTeasers: Answers

match-up

B. Triangles turn to circles and vice versa. Blue shapes turn to white and vice versa. Any triangles or circles outside the pentagon transfer to inside the pentagon and vice versa.

Balancing act

11. Three stars weigh as much as one sun, and three moons weigh as much as five stars. Thus, 11 stars are needed to balance scale C.

maZe

heaDs or tails

Three moves. Each pair of coins is turned 180 degrees when being moved.

answer published in the september issue answer to JulY’s priZe question

the first correct answer we pick on august 1 wins £50!* email excerpts@readersdigest.co.uk

anD the £50 goes to… Hina nirmal from southport

synopsis and sample chapters welcome, please send to:

CGC - 33 - 01, 25 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5LQ

0207 0388212

editors@austinmacauley.com

www.austinmacauley.com

To advertise on these pages please contact Nick Page

Laugh!

Win £50 for every reader’s joke we publish! Go to readersdigest. co.uk/contact-us or facebook.com/readersdigestuk

“You know, there may be a way to move that bizarre invention around without having to carry it”

“HeLLO?” said tHe smaLL GirL, picking up the phone.

“Hello, it’s daddy. Is mummy there?”

“No daddy, she’s upstairs in the bedroom with uncle Paul.”

“You don’t have an uncle Paul,” daddy says.

“Yes I do, he’s upstairs with mummy right now.”

Thinking, daddy says, “I want you to run upstairs, knock on the door and shout that daddy’s car has just pulled up.”

A few minutes later, the girl

comes back and picks up the phone.

“What happened, darling?”

“Well, mummy jumped out of bed naked, tripped on the rug, hit her head on the dresser and now she isn’t moving.”

“Oh my God! What about your uncle Paul?”

“He jumped out the back window into the pool and hit the bottom— I think he’s dead.”

“Swimming pool?” says daddy, “Is this 660 7975?”

“No,” the girl says, puzzled. “I think you have the wrong number.”

Lee HaLL, by email

a pOLiceman pULLed me Over Last niGHt.

He said, “You’ve got no tax, your rear tyre is completely flat, you’ve got a can of lager in your hand and you’re not wearing a seat belt!”

I said, “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked.

I said, “Hang on a minute, pal, I’m on the phone.”

seen On tHe internet

HOw many pOLiticians dOes it take tO cHanGe a LiGHt bULb?

It depends on how many it took under the previous government.

LOis JOnes, Clwyd

i’m aGainst picketinG, I just don’t know how to show it.

seen at reddit.cOm

HOrrOrscOpes

the planets have misaligned for this grumpy astrologer, via twitter feed @horrorscopes

#LIBRA: You get two Crunchies from a vending machine today. It’s all downhill from here.

#PISCES: Mercury moves into your third house. three houses?! What are you, a politician?!

#TAURUS: Look, we warned you it was a bad idea. Don’t give us that innocent look. You know what we’re talking about.

#CAPRICORN: You judge people well before you get to know them.

#CANCER: the usual.

#GEMINI: are you still here?

#SAGITTARIUS: really? those shoes? oK. as long as you think they look all right.

#LEO: You lie to a friend today about the cuteness of their ugly, ugly baby.

#SCORPIO: Your search history is intercepted by the police today and, in turn, links you with several unsolved murders.

a HUsband wHO Has six cHiLdren begins to call his wife “mother of six” rather than by her first name. The wife, amused at first, chuckles. But a few years down the road, she’s grown tired of this.

“Mother of six,” he would say, “what’s for dinner tonight?...Get me a beer!”

She gets very frustrated. Finally, while attending a party with her husband, he jokingly shouts out, “Mother of six, I think it’s time to go home!” She immediately shouts back, “I’ll be right with you, father of four!”

JUstin bUrtOn, Clwyd

a wOman is waLkinG aLOnG a beacH when she sees a man splashing around feverishly in the sea. “Help, shark! Help!” he cries.

The woman rolls her eyes and laughs—she knows the shark will never help that man.

“Before you take me away, I just want to update my profile picture”

other, then calls the boy over and asks, “Which do you want, son?”

The boy takes the coins and leaves.

“What did I tell you?” says the barber. “That kid never learns!”

seen at reddit.cOm

i’m tHinkinG OF becOminG a seLFie pHOtOGrapHer. I can just picture myself doing it.

seen On tHe internet

a yOUnG bOy enters a barber sHOp and the barber whispers to his customer, “This is the stupidest kid in the world. Let me prove it to you.”

The barber puts a £5 note in one hand and two 50p pieces in the

Later, when the customer leaves, he sees the same young boy coming out of the sweet shop.

“Hey, son! I have a question for you. Why did you take the coins instead of the note?”

Munching on his sweets, the boy replies, “Because the day I take the fiver, the game is over!”

seen On tHe internet

a HOteL minibar aLLOws yOU to see into the future and find out

what a can of Pepsi will cost in 2020.

cOmedian ricH HaLL

animaL pHOtObOmbs

Not content with others having their picture snapped, spot the animals claiming their piece of the limelight (as seen on the internet)

Beat the Cartoonist!

win £100 and a C artoon print

think of a witty caption for this picture and you could beat the experts at their own game. the three best suggestions will be posted on our website in midaugust alongside an anonymous caption from our cartoonist. Visitors can choose their favourite—if your entry gets the most votes, you’ll win £100 and a framed copy of the cartoon, with your caption added. Submit to captions@readersdigest.co.uk or readersdigest.co.uk/caption by august 8. Vote online at readersdigest. co.uk/caption we’ll announce the winner in our october issue.

The Return of the Passenger Pigeon?

Could this once-abundant bird, which died out 100 years ago, soon be resurrected?

June’s Winner

it seems like a long time since the professionals scored a victory, and their losing streak hasn’t been broken this month. Cartoonist paul wood came a solid second with “He’s back again, demanding royalties”, but reader adriana roderick’s caption—“He says he can give us a cheaper quote for our insurance”—was clearly preferred by our voters. How long can the rout continue? only time will tell…

Scoreboard reADers 23

CArtoonists 7

Plus

What Doctors tell their Friends About Vitamins

• best of british: rooftop restaurants

• Drama: Wrestling With a shark

WIN a Hornby Train Set

Exclusive to Reader’s Digest

Reader’s Digest has teamed up with Hornby Hobbies Ltd to offer one lucky reader the opportunity to win a ‘Flight of the Mallard’ Train Set (R1171). This 2013 celebratory set commemorates the 75th anniversary of ‘Mallard’ achieving the world speed record for steam locomotives in July 1938.

THIS STRIKING SET INCLUDES:

• LNER Class A4 4-6-2 ‘Mallard’ locomotive

• Three LNER teak effect coaches

• Large oval starter track with siding and buffer stop

• Power track

• Hornby MidiMat (1600 x 1180mm)

• Wall plug transformer.

To be in with a chance to win this incredible prize, plus a day out at the Hornby Visitor Centre, visit www.hornby.com/readersdigest and answer the simple question.

This competition closes on 29th August 2014 and the winner will be notified on 19th September 2014. Please note that you may only apply if you are aged over 18 and a resident in the UK. Terms and conditions apply - see website for further details.

ALSO INCLUDED within this prize are 2 Complimentary Tickets plus lunch at the Hornby Visitor Centre in Margate, Kent.

Hornby has a wide range of other products and models available across our brands - for more details and information please visit www.hornby.com or call us on 01843 233 519

quoting reference: READERSD (Telephone order lines are open 8am-5pm Monday to Friday)

WARNING: Not suitable for children under 36 months. It contains small parts which can present a choking hazard, and some components have functional sharp points and edges. Handle with care. Only use with the recommended transformer. Colour and contents may differ from those illustrated. Please refer to the Safety Notes in the main set instruction leaflet. Please retain these details and the address for future reference.