Reader's Digest UK Sep 2021

HEALTH • MONEY • TRAVEL • RECIPES • FASHION • TECHNOLOGY

SEPTEMBER 2021

MUSIC FROM THE VAULTS Meet The People Preserving Music For Posterity CATE BLANCHETT On Strength, Sexism And Social Media

8

MEDICAL MYTHS Debunked For Good

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SEPTEMBER 2021

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YOU WON’T WANT TO MISS A WORD. Tom – the Cat

Research Abuse

Elizabeth Reinach

Associate Professor Ralf Sundberg

The Life and Work of Tom Cat in Sonnets

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Tom – the Cat is about the life and dubious works of a large tabby tomcat, who lives with the narrator, an indulgent and adoring fi nance director.

Heirs of Deceits Elizabeth Reinach www.xlibrispublishing.co.uk Hardback | Paperback | E-book £23.99 | £13.99 | £2.99

How the Food and Drug Industries Pull the Wool Over Your Eyes

www.authorhouse.co.uk Hardback | Paperback | E-book £27.95 | £13.95 | £2.99

This book illuminates both the dark and light sides of medical progress, providing examples of intentional misrepresentation and abuse of results obtained through scientific research.

The Prison Planet Handbook Denis Goodwin www.xlibris.co.nz Hardback | Paperback E-book | Audiobook £38.95 | £28.95 | £4.95 | £7.95

A late Victorian period novel that concerns Sometimes, the reality prescribed to us doesn’t conflicts in attitude to social class, destitution explain what we experience. If you too know and religion. Murder and chaos will follow something isn’t right and want to see the caused by the past actions of a young politician. bigger picture, the bottom line is here.

13 Days Michael Robinson www.authorhouse.co.uk Hardback | Paperback | E-book £23.99 | £12.95 | £2.99

In his novel 13 days, author Michael Robinson takes readers on a roller coaster of human emotions and changing values, which will ultimately leave them with more questions than answers. It is a narrative of triumph and hope over stagnation and resentment.

Mouse and the Flood Marion Heffernan www.authorhouse.co.uk Paperback | E-book | Audiobook £9.95 | £2.99 | £9.99

As the rain pours, the water sweeps a little mouse’s coconut shell bed. Will his journey keep him safe? Will he return to the farm?

Travel with mouse on his adventurous journey.

Contents SEPTEMBER 2021

Features 16 IT’S A MANN’S WORLD

p20

This month, Olly Mann tackles the burning matter of why hot tubs are superior to saunas

ENTERTAINMENT

20 INTERVIEW:

p80

CATE BLANCHETT

The Australian film star shares her thoughts on sexism, strength and social media

28 “I REMEMBER”:

JARVIS COCKER

The Britpop icon looks back on his childhood dreams, time with Pulp and the infamous Brit Awards incident

INSPIRE

72

Meet the people preserving music recordings for posterity

HEALTH

36 CANINE

HEALTH HEROES

How dogs’ ability to detect cancer will revolutionise the world of medicine

80

Two men’s terrifying story of a death-defying encounter with killer bees cover illustration Eva Bee

SAVING NOTRE DAME How scientists are restoring the beloved French cathedral

DRAMA IN REAL LIFE

56 A THOUSAND STINGS

MUSIC ARCHIVING

TR AVEL

88

OUTBACK AUSTRALIA Discover the glorious landscapes and rich Aboriginal history of this remote Australian region SEPTEMBER 2021 • 1

Matt Church, Volunteer Crew Member, Penarth Lifeboat Station

Photo: RNLI/Nigel Millard, Huw Evans Agency

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Contents SEPTEMBER 2021

In every issue 8 12

Over to You See the World Differently

44 48

HEALTH Advice: Susannah Hickling Column: Dr Max Pemberton

68

INSPIRE If I Ruled the World: Jon Batiste

p105

96 98

TRAVEL & ADVENTURE My Great Escape Hidden Gems: Valletta

110 112

FASHION & BEAUTY Column: Bec Oakes’ Fashion Tips Beauty

100

MONEY Column: Andy Webb

114

ENTERTAINMENT September’s Cultural Highlights

104 106

FOOD & DRINK A Taste of Home World Kitchen: North Macedonia

108

DIY Column: Mike Aspinall

p125

120 125

BOOKS September Fiction: James Walton’s Recommended Reads Books That Changed My Life: Sarah, Duchess of York

126

TECHNOLOGY Column: James O’Malley

128 131 136 140 143 144

FUN & GAMES You Couldn’t Make It Up Word Power Brainteasers Laugh!

Beat the Cartoonist Good News

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EDITORS’ LET TERS

In This Issue…

You know that feeling when you discover something amazing, that’s been around for years but had somehow never crossed your path?

That’s the way I felt when I watched the new documentary, Oliver Sacks: His Own Life. Sure, I’ve heard the name many times before but never broadened my knowledge beyond “some famous neurologist”. And yet there was so much more to this extraordinary man: a talented writer, an astute listener, a witty raconteur, a an impish rascal, a perpetual student of the human condition. When he passed away in 2015, he left behind a wealth of crucial medical findings but, perhaps more importantly, a recipe for a full life, partially encapsulated in the new film, which we review on p116. Catch it in cinemas this September and let your serotonin receptors get flooded with warmth and positivity.

The end of a season marks new beginnings, and as the hot summer days draw to a close, and the trees begin to fill with the golden tones of autumn, the moment is ripe for reflection. At Reader’s Digest Towers, this is more true than ever as we rapidly approach our 100 year anniversary in February of next year.

As part of our celebrations for this milestone anniversary, we’re on the lookout for your memories of Reader’s Digest. When did you read your first issue? Do certain stories stand out in your mind? Perhaps you were first introduced to Reader’s Digest by a loved one? We’d be honoured if you’d take the time to share your memories with us ahead of our big birthday by emailing them to readersletters@readersdigest.co. uk. Our favourites will appear in our special birthday edition in February.

Eva

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SEPTEMBER 2021 • 7

Over To You LETTERS ON THE July ISSUE

We pay £50 for Letter of the Month and £30 for all others

LETTER OF THE MONTH

I was most interested in your feature “How We Solved COVID”.

The quickness in which a vaccine was found for COVID-19 makes you think. If such a large amount of money could help end the pandemic, could it eradicate other diseases? Could it provide universal healthcare and fund vaccine research for the future?

A trillion dollars is not that much in the grand scheme of things. It is, give or take, one per cent of world GDP. The US spend this every year and a half on military. If this money can be rustled up at short notice, then why can’t it for other vaccines?

FAMILY FIRST In “If I Ruled The World” Jimmy Brown suggests “we’d work to live not live to work”. I fully agree.

Many people devote most of their lives to their careers instead of spending precious time with their 8 • SEPTEMBER 2021

The world came together. It surely can again to end other deadly viruses and terminal illnesses too. My father died of Motor Neurone Disease—there’s currently no cure for that. I’ve two family members who have died of bone cancer—no cure for that either.

If scientists can work miracles like they have done finding the COVID vaccine in such a short time, maybe the reason they are not finding other cures is the lack of funding. It is something that needs addressing, and urgently.

— POPPY AITCHLEE, via email

families. They miss out on so much of their children’s early days instead of sharing and enjoying this special time. These years are tragically wasted. If there is one good thing that has become apparent from the COVID scourge, it has

shown that business can indeed be conducted from home and in the future this might easily be the way to go. Just think how much time could be saved without the commute.

— SHEILA CHISNALL,

Devon

IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS As my father’s main carer, I could really relate to Mads Mikkelsen’s philosophy in the July magazine interview of finding “the beauty of life” in the here and now. My father faces multiple challenges due to his relentless Parkinson’s disease and I am awed by his determination to make the most out of each day.

These days, I become chauffeur whenever my father can manage trips out. At a nearby estuary, we recently peered through our rain-spattered car windows at the boats jostling in the breeze, swans

huddled under trees and a splendid van offering al fresco dining.

We donned our macs and gorged on delicious bacon butties and steaming cups of tea while listening to the plop of fish as they surfaced to gulp at tasty morsels.

Years earlier, my father glimpsed his very first kingfisher here and we are always hopeful for another sighting. But even if we aren’t lucky enough to spot this halcyon bird again, we’ll savour some fabulous stepping-stone days along the way.

— MARY ROSS, Colchester

KNOW THE SIGNS “Dementia Warning Signs” covered a very important subject. We all need to watch out for dementia symptoms.

It is a cruel and unrelenting illness. It gradually strips people of their ability to function and there are no effective treatments to prevent, cure or slow the progression. Sometimes, people fail to recognise that these symptoms indicate that something is wrong. They mistakenly assume such behaviour is a normal part of the ageing process. And some people refuse to act, even when they know something is wrong. I went through your list of the common symptoms of dementia. If I or a person I know develops several of these signs, I will be sure to consult a doctor for a complete assessment.

— HAZEL BYRON, Merseyside

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! Send letters to readersletters@readersdigest.co.uk Include your full name, address, email and daytime phone number. We may edit letters and use them in all print and electronic media SEPTEMBER 2021 • 9

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SEE turn THEtheWORLD... page

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…DIFFERENTLY

Photo:© Zhou Changguo/VCG via Getty Images

To keep their feet dry, these farmhands float in large boat-like bowls while they harvest water chestnuts near Huai‘an, China. This method has proven the best way to pick the “nuts” which are actually the root of a type of aquatic tuber vegetable, that grow in marshes, ponds, or other shallow waters. Their sweet flavour makes them favourites for various desserts, but also prove quite tasty in fried, grilled or pickled form—above all augmenting a wellprepared Asian meal.

IT’S A MANN’S WORLD

Hot Tub Time We need to cut hot tubs some slack and appreciate them for what they are: heaven on earth

I

have always been a hot tub person. I’ve loved them since I was eight years old, when I first hopped into a hotel jacuzzi (which felt delightfxully transgressive, because there was a “16 & Over” sign, and my fellow bathers were a 30-something couple sipping Pina Coladas). I still recall the fragrance of the eucalyptus tree, sheltering us from the Sardinian sunshine. It was pure heaven.

I am always outraged if a posh hotel or spa fails to provide me with a hot tub. Indeed, if I worked for VisitBritain, I would automatically refuse five-star ratings to any Olly Mann presents Four Thought for BBC Radio 4, and the award-winning podcasts The Modern Mann and Answer Me This!

16 • SEPTEMBER 2021

establishment that lacks one. My favourite get-away ever was to an all-inclusive in Mexico, which had a hot tub in each bedroom. IN. EACH. BEDROOM. Who needs booze?

I know they’re "naff," but this strikes me as try-hard snobbery, like pretending to dislike Dairy Milk. Bubbles + heat = pleasure, simple as that, and it baffles me that saunas are considered to be serious and sexy and Swedish—whereas actually they’re stifling, shallowbreathing torture chambers—while hot tubs (champagne for the skin!) are derided as vulgar and gauche and obscene, as if somehow we’re all supposed to deny the pure truth that it feels awesome to be vibrated around in a whirlpool of warm soapy suds (so long as you can supress any suspicion you have about what else might be floating about in there…)

Despite my ardour, hot tubs have illustration by Dom McKenzie

17

IT’S A MANN’S WORLD

always seemed to me a strictly "holiday" phenomenon. It’s not that I wouldn’t want one at home, of course—it’s just that it’s not particularly practical at my property. I have fantasised about it, in the same way I’ve dreamed up a daily itinerary if I lived in a Marbella mansion: breakfasting on fresh fruit prepared for me by my personal chef on my sun terrace, followed by a massage in the afternoon, before a Spanish guitarist accompanies my pre-dinner cocktails… But all of that would feel faintly ridiculous at my three-bed semi in Hertsmere.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t made this last point plain to my closest friends, who recently all clubbed together for my 40th birthday to surprise buy me… a hot tub. This was presented as a fait accompli, at my birthday party—the tub having been chosen, ordered, and winging its way to me (it took six weeks to arrive. It’s amazing how popular hot tubs suddenly became in Lockdown #3.

I imagine this was a reaction to all that Joe Wicks stretching-on-the-sofa stuff in Lockdown #1).

I tried to appear gracious, but there were a couple of panicked thoughts darting around my head as soon as the gift was revealed. Firstly, price. It is of course theoretically delightful to get together and buy your mate a £350 gift rather than a 18 • SEPTEMBER 2021

load of £50 gifts, but the bottom line is the hot tub of my dreams is a £10k job, so in my heart I knew this wasn’t going to be it. This would be like drinking Aldi Baileys at Christmas.

Secondly, where would I put it?

I could well understand why my friends, who only visit my property occasionally, might have thought, he’s got a back garden, problem solved. But they wouldn’t have twigged that the garden is subtly sloped—hardly ideal for any bathingbased activity—and that all four corners of it are already allocated to something else: namely, an apple tree, garden shed, chicken hutch and patio seating area. It was hard

READER’S DIGEST

to imagine enjoying the full hot-tub experience with either a roasting hot BBQ leaning on it, or the smell of chicken faeces wafting by (no match, to be sure, for that Sardinian eucalyptus). We do have a front lawn, but even I—hot tub devotee that I am—would not want to greet the milkman in my Speedos.

My most pressing concern, though, was, how am I going to get this past my wife? Having a hot tub was MY dream, after all, not hers. She doesn’t especially like hot tubs. And she is notably nervous about the safety of our toddler son, Toby.

This last point turned out to be the clincher. When the hot tub arrived, we inflated it (yes, it was a blow-up one—what did you expect for £350?) and experimented with

the child-proof clasped lid included in the kit. And—well, it didn’t seem entirely child-proof. It was all too easy to imagine Toby (one of those kids who’s always sticking his hands into drawers, jumping on to tables and climbing into crannies) leaning on the side of the inflatable wall, getting underneath the lid and—not to put too fine a point on it—drowning.

So, the tub went up into the loft, where it will remain until Toby is four years old, and the summer weather is favourable, and/or we extend our garden considerably. When that happens, though, it will be EPIC. Despite everything, it was a really thoughtful gift from my friends, and I will, one day, invite them for a hottub party! Perhaps for my 50th? n

Quiz: Olympic Glory 1) Where was the first Olympics held?

2) What are the two official languages of the Olympics?

3) Which recent games marked the first time all countries had women competitors?

4) How many countries have hosted the Olympics?

5) What do the five rings of the Olympic symbol represent?

6) How many athletes have won medals in both the Winter and Summer Olympics?

Answers: 1) Olympia, Greece. 2) English and French. 3) The 2012 London Games 4) 23. 5) The five inhabited continents of the world. 6) Four.

SEPTEMBER 2021 • 19

ENTERTAINMENT

Cate Blanchett On Strength, Sexism And Social Media

By Paul Dargan

For years, Cate Blanchett has balanced a burgeoning acting career with activism. As she tells us, “You have to pick up the slack when you see others failing to”, it’s clear that using her voice to push for change is a responsibility she doesn’t take lightly

I

ntensity is a word that Cate Blanchett is happy to invite into her safe space. While many in the elite of the entertainment world substitute passion and power onscreen for a life of luxurious leisure off it, the 52-year-old actress appears happy to push to the extremities, debating and challenging at every point along the route.

It’s not that the fiery Australian has a particular axe to grind when it comes to politics, environmentalism, sustainability, equality, feminism or activism; it’s just that she can see a better place on the horizon.

“If I didn’t use my voice to try to 20 • SEPTEMBER 2021

make change or encourage others to, I think that would be really disingenuous,” she says.

“I hate that whole thing of famous people on their soapboxes—it’s not that; I just feel, sometimes, as a society, we are so much better than we make out!”

That stance—one that has permeated and grown through Blanchett’s time in the spotlight, which now dates back some three decades—makes her an appealing, yet at the same time intriguingly dangerous, interview subject.

In one exchange she can be a soft, even sombre global ambassador

21

I N T E R V I E W: C AT E B L A N C H E T T

The Aviator

who answers with gentle empathy at the irregularities and injustices of the industry.

In another, she is fierce and fiery— take, for example, the suggestion that Cate might be regarded as an exemplar, a role model, for an industry that many feel still fails to do enough to affect some real, positive change...

“I’m so sick of hearing, ‘You’re a strong woman, you are an inspiration in this, or that…’” she fires back, with almost alarming voracity.

“What exactly is the definition of that? What makes a woman strong, other than being able to lift a couple kilos? It’s a very glib, overused expression and I don’t really like it.”

The common denominator is that 22 • SEPTEMBER 2021

the bland virtue-signalling can be left for someone else; Cate Blanchett isn’t interested. Perhaps it was her four years working as Creative Director at the Sydney Theatre Company from 2008, bookending her two Oscars victories (for Best Actress in The Aviator (2005) and then Blue Jasmine (2014)).

“I think art can sometimes be a real distortion to real life, and that’s something we want—it’s an escape,” she says. “At other times, if you’re working on great texts with great people and great creative teams, you cannot help for the conversation and your understanding of the wider world to become elevated.”

“I’m immensely proud of the work that we produced there, but I’m

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Blue Jasmine

even more grateful to have opened up a lens to people inspired by the world around us—all those different passions and perspectives.”

Driving forward with a purpose away from film has therefore become second-nature to the actress, with female empowerment often in the ascendancy.

“I feel we are in an era where it’s very prominent; but always in the correct sense. And by that I mean genuine enablement not because it’s fashionable, or it’s a quota—but because this talent is being able to rise to the top and flourish.”

“As a global entity of citizens, male and female, we have probably never felt less repressed or stuck in a system; yet those are not reasons to

sit back and congratulate ourselves— to do that is to miss the point.”

In Blanchett’s defence, this was never someone who set out to be a campaigner, a voice. “One of those people,” she chimes in. “I just think that sometimes you have to stand up—you have to pick up the slack when you see others failing to.”

In reality, the actress shouldn’t be surprised at the position she finds herself in, however accidentally.

Since first edging onto the scene in a riveting breakthrough as Elizabeth over 20 years ago, earning her first Academy Award nomination, Blanchett has enjoyed a reputation for subverting expectation and ricocheting through the genres.

SEPTEMBER 2021 • 23

I N T E R V I E W: C AT E B L A N C H E T T

Starring in Elizabeth

From stylish noir The Talented Mr Ripley through to a powerful turn as tragic journalist Veronica Guerin in the eponymous 2003 biopic, across Hanna and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, to subsequent further bigticket nominations for Notes on a Scandal, I’m Not There, The Golden Age, Thor: Ragnarok and Ocean’s 8, Blanchett has been known to always push the envelope.

“When I came out of drama school, I didn’t think I’d ever make a film at all. I’d always hoped for a long career in theatre, and so anytime I make a film, it’s like a pleasant surprise, even now.

“So you can see why, when I get 24 • SEPTEMBER 2021

behind other initiatives, I take the same view. I never expected any of this to work, and in the same way now I feel I have nothing to lose from pushing on.”

Having the courage of her convictions has certainly stood Blanchett in good stead. She will always be an actress first and foremost, yet the plaudits that have emanated from her efforts have escalated her into a whole new realm of its own.

“There’s an inevitability that you end up accelerating yourself into becoming this beacon that people want to reach out to and be guided by,” she says. “My opinion on most

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that my children were going to be growing up in a world which just didn’t seem to care for their longterm welfare, and for me that was absolutely heart-breaking,” admits Blanchett, referencing Dashiell, 19, Roman, 17, Ignatius, 13, and little Edith, who she and husband In real terms, the star is one of the Andrew Upton adopted in 2015. movie industry’s best exemplars of “I try to teach my children about what she calls “personal change”. things they need to reflect on as While others may go no further they make their way in life. They than reeling off the staid mission do not have the statements of the same carefree attitude big global social “IT DAWNED to the world or the and environmental ON ME THAT environment that organisations, we were afforded Blanchett’s focus MY CHILDREN as kids—it’s not a is very much more WERE GOING privilege they’ll have. centred on what she TO BE GROWING “And sure, can affect every day, even in small ways, UP IN A WORLD sometimes the advice goes in, other times with sustainability at WHICH JUST it gets rejected out of the heart of it.

DIDN’T SEEM hand, but it’s there Many years ago, and it’s real.” she began to make TO CARE ” Blanchett also subtle changes to found herself a leading advocate home habits in order to reduce for LGBT rights when she made the greenhouse gas pollution. Initially that meant switching her household film Carol in 2015. “I look at the progress we made with that movie, power supply to an accredited the conversations that were started, company, GreenPower. She then and I’m very proud about how much began washing her clothes in cold good feeling came about.” water, invested in roof insulation, “At the same time I am astounded pledged to walk more and drive how much further society has come less, and even avoided unnecessary domestic air flights, insisting as well in those few years; and yet the rules over sexuality, gender and to purchase carbon offsets. acceptance seem infinitely more “Many of these changes came complicated now than ever before. about when it dawned on me things isn’t any more qualified than anyone else’s—but if it means others can come out of the darkness and have the confidence to speak forward too, then I guess I will say, ‘Why not?’”.

SEPTEMBER 2021 • 25

I N T E R V I E W: C AT E B L A N C H E T T

“And of course I’m lucky enough to be able to do that—it’s still the case in many industries, jobs, cities, towns and villages that your gender, your sexual persuasion, your colour, your race is the first thing that walks through the door.

“I would love to get to a point As for the conversations the where that isn’t what people see and actress’s upcoming projects feel, but I feel it’s some way off.” may provoke, there is Guillermo Blanchett is also keen to readjust del Torro’s psychological thriller the mindset that one person Nightmare Alley, based on William winning means Gresham’s 1946 another losing; novel. She then “MY FEAR although, ironically, joins an all-star cast, OF GETTING that is unequivocally including Timothée the case when it Chalamet, Leonardo STUCK DOING comes to being DiCaprio, Jennifer SOMETHING I cast in one of the Lawrence, Meryl REALLY DON’T actress’s Hollywood Streep and Jonah Hill blockbusters! for Don’t Look Up, LIKE, FOR A “I feel we need to a comedy about an LONG TIME, IS try to steer ourselves approaching comet VERY REAL” away from the idea that threatens the that we’re all in Earth’s inhabitants; direct competition with action adventure with each other. Take the sexism Borderlands, drama TÁR, and debate—I don’t believe equality for coming-of-age story Armageddon women means to denigrate from Time all slated for men in any way—I truly feel men next year. can benefit from it enormously.”

Once again, the recurring “I do think that many of the steps blueprint for the actress is diversity. forward we’ve made have been “For me, it has always been the case rescinded,” she says. “Conservatism that I need to keep changing, keep is affecting the way women perceive evolving and moving through a set who they are in the world. It’s going of different gears. to continue being a challenge going “My fear of getting stuck doing forward, but progress has been something I don’t like, for a long made… some progress.” time, is real,” she laughs.

“That can be frustrating—to see how far you’ve come, yet to realise the whole landscape is so much more complex these days. And yet, here we are talking about it, so it’s no bad thing.”

26 • SEPTEMBER 2021

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At the Venice International Film Festival,2020

And while Blanchett is not a huge fan of the digital age, she admits the tools we have at our disposal are far greater than any we had in the past.

“We’ve definitely got a better chance now to do something important than we did before,” she notes. “Social networks can be very useful on some occasions—they drive campaigns, build impact, scoop up awareness and connect amazing people.”

“I just wish that there was a way of cleansing what’s on there.

It’s the reason I stay away from Twitter and Facebook—I compare it to graffiti… you might read one or two things that are interesting but

most of the stuff that’s out there isn’t very useful. That’s the challenge we have as people speaking up for environmental and social change—it’s easy to become bored by what’s being said, and we have to keep the message entertaining and engaging.” If Blanchett’s level of output for global issues follows the same fullness and diversity as do her film choices, this is surely someone who will retain all the respect and relevance that’s made her such a focal figure in the entertainment world. She concludes, perfectly: “We’ve just got to keep turning the pages of the script.” n SEPTEMBER 2021 • 27

ENTERTAINMENT

28

Jarvis Cocker

I REMEMBER… Jarvis Cocker (57) is the singer, director and philosophical muse who helped propel a nation into and beyond Britpop. Here, he looks back on his childhood dreams, time with Pulp, and the infamous Brit Awards incident WE LIVED IN WHAT WAS ACTUALLY A CONVERTED STABLE IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF SHEFFIELD. The family were all close together—grandma and grandad next door, auntie across the garden. The kitchen was the heart of the house—as always. If something was going to happen it was going to happen in the kitchen. We had a big garden that was considered posh for the area. It was "home."

SOCIAL HOUSING DOMINATED WHERE WE LIVED in the south-east side of the city and out towards the west. We were lucky to have space to roam around in. You’d see these towering, hulking stacks out towards the horizon and I was always intrigued by the concept of community. The North has always been very community-led and I worry it has lost some of that in recent years with the diminishing of SEPTEMBER 2021 • 29

I REMEMBER…

industry and advent of the internet.

I think the sort of childhood I had is gone forever.

A LOT OF PEOPLE REGARDED LOWER-INCOME, INDUSTRIALISED COMMUNITIES AS UNINSPIRING but personally I found them fascinating. They gave me a lot of inspiration and there were a lot of good people. I’m not going to dress up my childhood as some sort of philosophical rite of passage, but it certainly wasn’t unpleasant. The Seventies and Eighties in Sheffield weren’t pretty but it didn’t matter to us.

30 • SEPTEMBER 2021

I HAD MENINGITIS WHEN I WAS ABOUT FIVE. I don’t remember much of it… being skinny, not being able to see.

But, as with other things, we just got on with it. It wasn’t an era where you sought out sympathy or wanted to especially change the world, and I much preferred that.

Even our parents knew no different—I think sometimes we can be overly sympathetic towards our children because we’re judging them on our own adult emotions and experiences.

MY GRANDAD WAS A COLLECTOR OF "THINGS" who would find rich value in a simple object. He was a person who could take anything and put a story behind it. I love that appreciation for the minutiae.

WHEN I WAS YOUNG I WANTED TO BE AN ASTRONAUT. The whole space race thing was very current and the scientists would have you

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believe the next generation were destined to make huge strides intergalactically.

Of course, that didn’t happen.

MY FAVOURITE MUSICIANS GROWING UP were the likes of Leonard Cohen—words, incredible song play, technique, honesty. Also The Stranglers, who were the first band I saw live. I also liked Scott Walker. My favourite DJ was John Peel.

The Sheffield scene didn’t do much for me—we had the Human League; Manchester had Joy Division.

I DON’T THINK I HAD A FULL AWARENESS OF THE DIVIDES IN CLASS AND SOCIETY UNTIL I WAS IN MY TEENS. When you’re a kid growing up, you’re living every day in the moment. It’s only when you get older do you understand your place in the whole system, and that can be slightly disconcerting… that moment you realise just how far away from the holy grail you are.

AT ONE POINT I WORKED ON A FISH STALL and a lot of the market humour, the sarcasm, ribbing, quipping and such, definitely rubbed off on me. You had to be quick and there was no hiding away, which I’d done a lot of before then.

PULP’S FIRST PROPER GIG WAS IN AUGUST 1980 AT THE LEADMILL IN SHEFFIELD. It was an all-day festival and we were on painfully early, but it was a raw experience that gave us the encouragement and impetus to carry on.

WE SIGNED OUR FIRST RECORD DEAL IN 1984. It was always somewhat comforting that it took us so long to make the breakthrough.

I couldn’t ever think of something any worse than being propelled into stardom from absolute obscurity.

WHEN I MOVED TO LONDON TO STUDY I played up to the working class thing a bit, but for the first time 32 • SEPTEMBER 2021

in my life it really became evident.

London is always the perfect city in which on every corner you have the opportunity to realise and reassess where you are in the big picture.

ATTENDING SAINT MARTIN’S COLLEGE WAS AN IMPORTANT TIME FOR ME; it was more valuable than a few lyrics [referring to the Pulp track "Common People"]. It was the world to me, huge fun, and

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With Blur's Damon Albarn at the Brit Awards

essentially brought me out of a shell.

It made me proud to be who I was.

FILM-MAKING WAS ALWAYS A BIG PASSION OF MINE. When music videos came along I worked with Martin Wallace—who I’d met at Saint Martin’s in 1988—on producing some cool stuff for electronic artists [such as Aphex Twin, Nightmares on Wax and LFO]. I never wanted to be tied to one type of art or creativity and have been lucky enough to side with people cleverer than me who have taken me along for the ride.

WHEN BRITPOP KICKED IN AROUND 1995 THERE WAS A SUDDEN INTENSITY TO WHAT

THE BAND WAS DOING. Musically we’d obviously had a long time developing our sound, but people were interested in us as people, which was bewildering, but exciting.

That’s why I’d never regard the frustrations of that first decade together as a waste—essentially it became some kind of schooling for what followed.

BRITPOP GAVE PULP A HUGE PUSH, AN ACCELERATION. We were already making decent strides, but suddenly got swept along by this huge thing that was going on. It was a stunning time—suddenly we were catapulted by this bullet that also had Oasis, Blur, Suede, Supergrass, SEPTEMBER 2021 • 33

Smoking with Oasis lead singer, Liam Gallagher

the Manics and a load of others sitting on it.

IT WASN’T A GENRE IN ITS OWN RIGHT, though that’s how it’s become regarded now. Musically, all the bands that got put into that bracket were making very different types of music—we were all almost centred by the whole thing, which was great for exposure but ultimately became more difficult to break away from. Once the Britpop ship sank, so too did a lot of the bands.

stage during Michael Jackson's performance of "Earth Song" and was subsequently arrested]. It was the most exciting thing in what is generally a turgid affair. People think I was making some big statement— maybe I was, maybe I was just bored.

I found the performance distasteful.

A LOT WAS MADE OF THE 1996 BRIT AWARDS THING, but it wasn’t really a big deal [Cocker crashed the

IN THE LATE NINETIES I SOMETIMES WRESTLED WITH THE RELEVANCE OF MY SONGS

34 • SEPTEMBER 2021

VERSUS THE LIFE I FOUND MYSELF LEADING. When you move away from a place that created you, do you lose the right to discuss it? I think there was a time when it felt like I should be writing about something different. Ultimately, I realised that most songs were about people, their emotions and experiences. When you think of it in those terms it doesn’t matter where you grew up or where you are now; we’re having those experiences every day.

I’VE ALWAYS LOVED THE BUZZ OF SHOWCASING THE WORK OF OTHERS and for seven years I presented a show on BBC 6 Music.

After so many years in the industry it was still a huge eye-opener.

I’VE BEEN THE ONLY CONSISTENT MEMBER OF PULP ACROSS THE BAND’S 40-YEAR TENURE. We’ve surfed various peaks and troughs of the music industry’s popularity curve, and I think that’s the way it should be. Life would be terribly boring if it was always full of highs, or if it was always dredging along on the lows.

As told to Richard Aldhous SEPTEMBER 2021 • 35

36 • SEPTEMBER 2021

HEALTH

THE NOSE KNOWS How dogs’ ability to detect disease will revolutionise medicine

BY Adam Piore

photographs by Jason Varney

SEPTEMBER 2021 • 37

THE NOSE KNOWS

O

sa, an athletic yet stubborn 62-pound German shepherd with a long fluffy tail and a fondness for red bandanas, seems an unlikely superhero. But the six-yearold pooch has mastered the art of sniffing out cancerous tumours and is key to a research project that has the potential to revolutionise oncology.

Despite the remarkable success of immunotherapy, CRISPR gene editing and other recent breakthrough treatments, oncologists’ inability to detect some cancers in their early stages remains one of the field’s most intractable—and fatal—shortcomings.

Case in point: an average of 75 Canadian women are diagnosed each day with breast cancer, a disease that is treatable when found early. Yet each day, some 14 Canadians die from breast cancer.

Osa might soon help improve those odds. She is part of an ambitious effort launched five years ago at the University of Pennsylvania that aims to reverse engineer one of the most powerful scent-detection machines in the world: the canine nose. Osa is able to distinguish between blood samples taken from cancer patients and their healthy peers simply by sniffing them.

In fact, she’s one of five cancerdetection dogs trained by Annemarie DeAngelo and her colleagues at the university’s Penn Vet Working Dog Centre, a non-profit X-Men academy of sorts that breeds and trains

38 • SEPTEMBER 2021

“detection dogs.” The ultimate goal is to develop an “electronic sniffer” that can approximate the cancer-sniffing superpowers of Osa and her pals. Such a machine could then be deployed to thousands of doctors’ offices and medical diagnostic facilities around the US. And cancer is only one possible target. This type of system could lead to similar devices for other major health issues too, such as bacterial infections, diabetes and epilepsy. Some dog trainers and university researchers have also set their sights on developing a method of detecting COVID-19 infections based on skin odour.

It all starts with the canine nose. Our own schnozz doesn’t even come close.

The average human is equipped with 6 million olfactory receptors, tiny proteins capable of detecting individual odour molecules. These receptors are clustered in a small area in the back of the human nasal cavity, meaning a scent must waft in and up the nostrils. In dogs, the internal surface area devoted to smell extends from the nostrils to the back of the throat and comprises an estimated 300 million olfactory receptors—50 times more than humans.

Dogs also devote considerably more neural real estate to processing and interpreting these signals than humans do—the part of the dog’s brain devoted to smelling is 40 times greater than ours. Add it all up, and the dog nose is

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Annemarie DeAngelo with her star pupil, Osa

about 10,000 to 100,000 times more sensitive than the human nose.

“Sniffing is how dogs see the world,” explains Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado Boulder. “That’s how they pick up information about who has been there, are they happy, are they sad, is the female in heat, are they feeling well or

not. Their nose leads the way—dogs sniff first and ask questions later.”

Humans have always appreciated the potential of the canine snout. In the Middle Ages, authorities in France and Scotland relied on the sniffing abilities of dogs to hunt down outlaws.

Search-and-rescue dogs emerged in the 18th century when the monks of the Great St Bernard Hospice in the SEPTEMBER 2021 • 39

THE NOSE KNOWS

Swiss Alps discovered that the canines they’d been breeding could lead them to victims buried beneath the snow from avalanches and snowstorms.

Despite this history, scientists hadn’t considered whether dogs could detect cancer until the late 1980s, after Hywel Williams, a 30-year-old medical resident at King’s College Hospital in London, stumbled upon scientific gold.

After arriving at King’s to begin his training as a dermatologist, Williams was tasked with reviewing every case of melanoma seen at the hospital over the previous 20 years. It was an eyeglazing assignment, recalls Williams.

But one afternoon, he came across a four-word notation in a file that caught his attention. It read simply: “Dog sniffed at lesion.” What did that mean?

Was it possible the dog actually smelled cancer?

“So I rang up the lady in the file,” Williams recalls. “And we had the most fascinating conversation!”

The patient, a 44-year-old woman, told Williams that Baby Boo, her border collie-Doberman mix, had become fixated on a curious mole on the woman’s left thigh, sniffing it often. The ritual continued every day for several months, with Baby Boo nuzzling the woman’s leg through her pants. Baby Boo finally tried to bite the lesion off, at which point she visited her doctor.

When doctors excised the mole, they found it was a malignant melanoma.

“Something about that lesion fascinated the dog,” Williams recalls.

40 • SEPTEMBER 2021

“And it literally saved this woman’s life.”

Williams and a colleague published their findings in The Lancet, one of the world’s most respected and widely read medical journals. Suddenly, dog lovers across the globe were reaching out to Williams and sharing similar experiences. There was the 66-year-old man who developed a patch of eczema on the outer side of his left thigh—a lesion that became the obsession of his Labrador retriever until he went to the doctor. It was found to be basal cell carcinoma. There was also George the schnauzer, trained by a Florida dermatologist. George “went crazy” when he sniffed out a suspicious mole on the leg of a patient. It turned out to be malignant.

In the years since, a growing body of evidence has emerged suggesting that dogs can sniff out bladder cancer, prostate cancer, diabetes and even malaria, among other conditions. But not just any chihuahua, corgi or beagle can do the job.

OSA ARRIVED AT THE Penn Vet Working Dog Centre from a breeder at two months of age. “We look at their genetics,” says DeAngelo. “We look at their work ability. They have to come from working lines, not show or pet lines, but one that has that hunt-prey drive.” Osa began taking obedience and agility training (walking a plank, climbing a ladder, gliding over a rubble pile) and quickly advanced to basic odour detection skill training.

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COURTESY PENN VET WORKING DOG CENTER

Dogs are taught to detect traces of ovarian cancer on a scent wheel

During these sessions, the dogs are introduced to a universal detector calibrant, a potent, distinct odour developed by a veterinary scientist to train dogs. The trainer places the calibrant—a powder contained within a Mylar bag with a tiny hole to let the odour out—on the floor or on a wall, or holds it in hand. As soon as the dog sniffs at the odour to investigate it, the trainer “marks” the smell by making a noise with a clicker or simply saying “Yes,” and then rewards the dog with a treat. This process is repeated until the dog has learned that when it finds this odour, it gets rewarded.

Next, the trainer begins offering the dog choices—for instance, placing two distinct odours in identical containers, only one of which produces a click and a treat when sniffed. Once that is mastered, the trainer begins withholding the treat until the dog

freezes in front of the container of choice and stares.

As the dogs undergo this foundational training, the trainers evaluate their skill sets and temperaments, and use the data to choose a particular area of specialisation. Dogs that demonstrate a passion for running on rubble enter search-and-rescue training. Those that don’t enjoy rubble but have strong noses might become narcotics or bomb dogs.

Penn’s medical-detection dogs are the ones with quirky personalities and an ability to narrow their focus.

Cynthia Otto, the founding director of the centre, calls them the centre’s “sensitive souls.” They dislike noisy and crowded environments like airports or disaster recovery sites. Osa is very suspicious of people she doesn’t know—so much so that SEPTEMBER 2021 • 41

THE NOSE KNOWS

nobody is allowed to approach DeAngelo’s house unannounced (to do so results in loud barking and pandemonium). Upon entering the home, visitor, host and dog must all proceed immediately outside to play ball to set Osa at ease before any business can be conducted. But with these neurotic traits also comes an uncommon focus.

“I often refer to our medicaldetection dogs as the CPAs,” Otto says.

“They would love to just look at the spreadsheets and find the one number that’s out of place. They really like having things very neat and controlled. They’re the detail dogs.”

While Osa had all the qualities that make up a great sniffer dog, that didn’t guarantee that she’d be able to master the most essential task of all. To find out if she could, DeAngelo and her team put Osa in front of a scent wheel, a stationary metal contraption with multiple arms, each one large enough to hold two separate containers—one containing plasma from a woman with metastatic ovarian cancer and the other with plasma from a healthy volunteer. When Osa stopped in front of the correct sample, pointed her nose at it and froze, DeAngelo and her colleagues hugged and cried.

“You don’t know if it’s going to work, so you train it, and you train it,” she says. “You’re actually now going to put the real cancer in the wheel, in the plasma, and see if the dogs can identify it and ignore the other 42 • SEPTEMBER 2021

samples. And it worked! The very first time! It was very emotional.”

And yet, that’s only half the challenge.

To transform Osa’s remarkable abilities into something replicable—an electronic nose—researchers have to figure out what it is precisely that Osa and her friends are reacting to.

DeAngelo says the blood samples she has trained her dogs with contain hundreds of different organic compounds, any one of which could be capturing the dog’s attention. And that is why the Penn team includes not just the physicists and engineers designing the instrumentation for their electronic nose but also chemists to help figure out what exactly that electronic nose needs to be calibrated to smell. The group has been breaking the cancer samples down into progressively smaller constituent parts and presenting them to the dogs, to winnow out which of the hundreds of potential aromatic chemical compounds (odorants) grabs their attention.

A similar approach is used to train the device. The engineers start with two separate samples consisting of many odorants mixed together and make sure the machine can distinguish between them. Then they remove individual odorants from each sample, training the machine to distinguish increasingly subtle differences that are more difficult to detect. The goal is to eventually place a vial of plasma inside a microwave-sized electronic sniffer

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that can analyse its odorants and provide a reading of healthy, benign or malignant within minutes. Another version might handle up to ten samples at a time.

Most people would prefer to have what ails them sniffed out by a sympathetic nose rather than a machine, but that’s not in the cards, according to Bruce Kimball, a chemist at the Monell Chemical Senses Centre in Philadelphia. The number of dogs and handlers that would have to be deployed to the various hospitals and medical facilities around the US is neither practical nor feasible, he says.

An electronic nose prototype has been built, and it’s successful in sniffing out cancer 90 to 95 per cent of the time. That team has also correctly detected different types of cancer, and is building a cancerdetecting device for the National Institutes of Health. Right now, they have a good idea of what compounds or chemicals create the odour, but the team wants more specificity. One objective is to be able to distinguish between early- and late-stage cancer.

“It would be incredible to identify people at an early stage and really have an impact on saving lives,” says Otto.

“The dogs have been able to detect that.” With that ability, a blood test could be sent to a central lab—or, ideally, performed in a doctor’s office—

DeAngelo’s dogs, Grizzly (above) and Prior, also work at the centre

and rolled in as part of one’s annual checkup, making some hidden cancers a thing of the past.

If it all works as DeAngelo and Otto hope—it’s expected that commercial prototypes for the cancer-sniffing device will be complete within nine months—it will be one of the most important victories yet in the war against cancer. Of course, the dogs have no idea what all the fuss is about.

“To them, it’s just a game,” says DeAngelo. “Osa just knows that, 'I was trained and when I find this odour and I indicate on it, then I get rewarded.'”

Osa prefers that reward to be a piece of cheese. It’s a small price to pay since, after all, Osa’s nose could potentially save thousands of lives one day soon. n SEPTEMBER 2021 • 43

8 MEDICAL MYTHS DEBUNKED FOR GOOD We live in a scientific age, but old wives’ tales about health still abound. There’s often a grain of truth in them, but what are the actual facts?

Myth 1: You should put butter on a burn Er, no, you shouldn’t. Butter seals the heat in and risks making the burn worse. Get cold water on it for between ten and 20 minutes instead. It will help to numb the pain and prevent the skin from continuing to burn.

Myth 2: Getting cold gives you a cold Not so. Viruses give you a cold, not the weather. Being indoors in a stuffy atmosphere with other people, however, is the perfect environment to catch bugs. That said, it’s possible that having a cold nose diminishes your ability to fight 44

HEALTH off a cold, according to a Yale University study.

Myth 3: You can pick up germs sitting on a loo seat This particular piece of folklore has us wiping and covering the seat in public toilets. While bacteria and viruses may lurk there for a very short time, there’s a vanishingly small chance they’ll end up inside you. You’re more likely to catch something from water droplets when you flush, so stand well back, or from the toilet- or doorhandle. Always wash your hands.

Myth 4: Chocolate is good for you One square of dark chocolate a day has been shown to have cardiovascular benefits—but who can stop at one square? Chocolate is also full of fat, sugar and calories, so it’s not the best health food. Sorry.

Myth 5: Eggs give you high cholesterol Eggs are incredibly nutritious and, while they do contain some cholesterol, as do prawns and kidneys, doctors are more concerned that you reduce your intake of saturated fat in foods like sausages, cakes and dairy products if you want to cut your risk of heart disease. There are no recommended limits on the number of eggs you should eat.

Myth 6: Alcohol warms you up Who doesn’t think of a cuddly St

Bernard dog with that dinky little barrel of brandy around its neck?

In reality, you will start to feel warm when you first have a swig, because your blood vessels will dilate and move blood closer to the skin, but this makes you lose body heat faster.

Myth 7: Cracking your knuckles gives you arthritis It gives relief to the knuckle cracker and sets your teeth on edge if you have to listen to it, but there’s no harm in it, according to research. And there’s been a surprising quantity of it. One US doctor even popped the knuckles on one hand for 50 years, before concluding in a study that there was no link with arthritis.

Myth 8: If you can move it, it’s not broken Your joints are held together by ligaments, tendons and muscles, so you might well be able to use a broken bone. Seek medical help if you suspect a break. n

For more weekly health tips and stories, sign up to our newsletter at readersdigest.co.uk Susannah Hickling is twice winner of the Guild of Health Writers Best Consumer Magazine Health Feature SEPTEMBER 2021 • 45

H E A LT H

Brain Food You are what you eat, they say. And increasingly research is showing that this applies to your cognitive abilities too. With around 850,000 people in the UK currently living with dementia, it makes sense to choose the right foods to power your brain and stave off decline Eating a Mediterranean diet containing lots of antioxidant-rich fruit and vegetables—which guard against cell damage—fish, legumes, cereals and polyunsaturated fatty acids, found in olive oil, might protect the brain.

A study by the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases found that older people who ate more healthy foods typical of the Mediterranean diet had healthier brains than those who didn’t.

Even more specifically, a study in the American Journal of Clinical Medicine found that people who ate more foods high in flavonoids, a group of plant chemicals (phytonutrients), had a significantly 46 • SEPTEMBER 2021

lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Where can you find these fantastic flavonoids? Look no further than just about all fruit and veg, though the study suggested that a type of flavonoid found in blueberries and strawberries was more strongly linked to a lower dementia risk. Apples, pears, oranges, bananas and even tea are good sources too.

Research from the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine found that quercetin, a compound commonly found in pickled capers, can directly regulate proteins required for important bodily processes, including thought.

Meanwhile, a study in neurology found that older women who ate a diet high in omega-3 fatty acid from fish that wasn’t fried were better protected from cognitive damage caused by air pollution.

Good sources are mackerel, salmon, fresh tuna and sardines.

Eating a little red meat could be good for your mind, according to research from the University of Leeds. Researchers found that consuming 50g of meat such as pork or beef a day resulted in a 19 per cent lower risk of dementia. But avoid processed meats—just one rasher of bacon was associated with an increased risk of 44 per cent. n

Ask The Expert: Eye Health

Glaucoma specialist Alastair Lockwood is a consultant ophthalmologist at Queen Alexandra Hospital Portsmouth and an eye health adviser at online contact lens store, Feelgood Contacts

How did you become a specialist in eye health?

When I was at medical school, the most inspiring people in terms of teaching were the neurologists.

Ophthalmology is a small branch of neurology but the eye is such a beautiful, logical organ. Being able to see is fundamental to the way we live.

To keep it going can stave off other problems as well, such as falls.

What are the main threats to good eye health?

The main threat is lack of awareness.

People often don’t know they have a problem, for example glaucoma, because the brain is programmed to accept a natural rate of degeneration.

If you have diabetes, you need to be more aware that your diabetes needs to be controlled to prevent eye damage. Another threat is poor hygiene if you wear contact lenses.

If you have a piece of plastic in your eye for long periods, bugs like to grow and breed. A key issue is that tears can’t get to them easily to kill and wash them away.

How can people care for their eyes?

Wear protection if you’re playing squash or tennis, or working with anything that could injure your eyes. Eat a balanced diet, including green vegetables and Vitamin B12.

Control blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol. Be stringent with hygiene if you wear contacts.

What should they not do?

Don’t ignore increasing pain, especially in bright light, distortion of vision, any new spots or flashing lights in front of your eyes. Do not wash contacts in tap water or wear daily disposables multiple times.

Why is it important to have regular sight tests?

Eye tests are not just to sort yourself out with a new pair of glasses but to detect when something’s not right.

They can pick up glaucoma and changes that can lead to macular degeneration, a cause of blindness. n For more information head to feelgoodcontacts.com and vision4glaucoma.com SEPTEMBER 2021 • 47

HEALTH

What A Pill Can’t Fix Dr Max recounts how an act of simple kindness was the medicine his patient really needed

S

imone is sitting in front of me and crying. She looks away, embarrassed. “Sorry, doctor,” she says, quickly dabbing her eyes with a tissue and trying to compose herself, “I shouldn’t be taking up your time like this.” At that moment, though, I can’t think of anyone else who is more deserving of my time. Many of my patients are in desperate need, not just because of ill health but Max is a hospital doctor, author and columnist. He currently works full time in mental health for the NHS. His new book, The Marvellous Adventure of Being Human, is out now

48 • SEPTEMBER 2021

because of their financial problems.

As any doctor can tell you, poverty and illness are inexorably linked.

But coming face to face with poverty in the form of Simone is unsettling.

The abstract, detached nature of the word is suddenly made very personal and real. She experiences poverty on a scale that I cannot comprehend.

She is near-destitute, only just managing to keep a roof over her and her daughter’s head and food in their mouths. Each week, after her rent and electricity are paid, she has just £20 left to live on. From this she has to buy food, clothes, travel and pay all other bills. She prioritises her daughter over herself and something as simple as a hole in her daughter’s shoe can mean Simone has to skip meals in order to pay for necessities. In some ways, Simone could be criticised for having a child she can barely support. She herself

but it is a sad truth that there is looks back on her life and wishes no pill that can make Simone’s that she had made different choices. situation better.

But this is of no use to Simone, who has to live with the reality of her But today Simone is sitting crying present situation day in and day out. not because of the bleakness of her She has no idea of what benefits situation. She is crying because or support she is entitled to and in she is overwhelmed by a stranger’s many respects it is admirable that kindness. She shakes her head in she has survived so long, living disbelief as she tells me the story. hand-to-mouth in the way that she One of the administration staff in has, without more help from the the outpatient clinic had just won a state. She works part time in a shop £20 Marks and Spencer while her daughter is voucher in a raffle and at school. Her daughter it to Simone on a is a bright, engaged, I CAN’T THINK given whim so she could treat intelligent eight-yearold. She excels at school OF ANYONE her daughter, who often in the department and Simone proudly ELSE WHO IS plays while her mother sees takes out a photograph me. This simple gesture from her handbag of her MORE effectively doubled daughter receiving the DESERVING has Simone’s income for the end of year prize for her academic achievements.

OF MY TIME week. She’s never even shopped in Marks and Simone is determined Spencer. I think of all that her daughter will the £20s that I have frittered away on have every opportunity in life and bottles of wine or late night taxis and scours charity shops for books suddenly feel very ashamed. That for her daughter. Six months ago, sudden, impulsive act of kindness however, Simone was involved in a and generosity from a stranger has road traffic accident and this seems made all the difference to Simone. to have been the final straw. She It’s not just the financial impact it slid into depression and, although has made: it showed her that in a she continued to work, began to feel world that must often seem cruel that life was not worth living any and scary and dark to her, there is more. She went to her GP who then still kindness and compassion. And referred her to me to see what help there’s not a pill in the world that I could give. The referral letter from I could prescribe that would give the GP had suggested that I might someone that feeling. n prescribe a suitable antidepressant, SEPTEMBER 2021 • 49

HEALTH

The Doctor Is In Dr Max Pemberton Q: I am a 67-year-old male and have just been diagnosed with gallstones.

I seem to have two options: 1) Have the gallbladder removed.

This worries me as I have never had an operation before, particularly as COVID-19 is still around.

2) Live with the pain which I do not look forward to.

Either way it will mean a fat-free diet for the rest of my life. Any advice would be appreciated.

- Paul, 67 A: Thank you for your question. When I was a junior doctor I worked in surgery and used to see a lot of gallstones. It’s surprising how painful these little things can be. Gallstones are produced in the gallbladder—a small sac underneath the liver that produces bile, which helps the body break down fat—a bit like washing up liquid. When we eat a meal containing fat, the gallbladder squeezes the bile into the intestines so the fat can be broken down. If stones form in the gallbladder, then when it squeezes, the stone can get stuck in the tube connecting the gall bladder to the bowel and this is 50 • SEPTEMBER 2021

incredibly painful. This pain is called bilary cholic. The gallbladder can also become inflamed and infected because of these stones—something called cholecystitis. When gallstones cause symptoms or complications, it’s known as gallstone disease or cholelithiasis. It’s understandable to be apprehensive about an operation—especially if you’ve never had one before. Gallbladder removal is a relatively straightforward operation and is mostly done by keyhole surgery which has minimal down time. It’s much better to have the gallbalder removed when it’s not inflamed and painful as this makes the operation much simpler. Leaving the gallbladder does risk repeated flare ups of bilary cholic and cholecystitis and is a risk factor for other things such as pancreatitis. If your surgeon has recommended having the gallbladder removed, then I’d go with this advice. If you’re still apprehensive then have a chat with your GP. n Got a health question for our resident doctor? Email it confidentially to askdrmax@ readersdigest.co.uk illustration by Javier Muñoz

HEALTH

How To Double Your Memory Combining two techniques can supercharge your learning, says our memory expert, Jonathan Hancock

I

n previous columns I’ve explored the power of stories to trigger memory. I’ve also explained how places can be used to boost learning. That strategy dates back to Ancient Greece, where expert memorisers visualised familiar locations, then decorated them with all the things they needed to know.

I used both techniques to memorise large sets of information and become World Memory Champion. So I was delighted to read new research that suggests we can all benefit from putting these two strategies together.

Using both thinking tricks at once is itself an age-old approach. Aboriginal Australians learned vast information by inventing stories, then placing those stories within real world landscapes.

And in a recent study, this twin-track method proved significantly stronger than using either the “story” or “place” method on its own. Try it yourself.

Imagine you’ve got a long list of items to remember for your holiday: Passport, sun cream, towel, shampoo, tennis racket, hat, insect repellent, charger, guidebook, sandals, toothbrush, sunglasses, snorkel, swimsuit, camera, magazine

52 • SEPTEMBER 2021

Pick a room in your house—your bathroom, for example—and store four things in each corner, in the form of a story.

• In corner one, near the doorway, you might imagine yourself (the person in your passport) standing in the doorway while you put on sun cream—so much of it that you have to grab a towel to wipe off the excess, and even use shampoo to get it all out of your hair.

• Then, in corner two, near the window, perhaps Andy Murray is wielding a tennis racket, while wearing a hat to shield him from the sunlight. But insects are flocking to the hat, so Andy sprays on insect repellent—from a high-powered bottle that needs an electric charger.

• Have a go at making up your own story happening in corner three, near the bath, to link guidebook, sandals, toothbrush, and sunglasses.

• And then invent another in corner four by the toilet, for snorkel, swimsuit, camera, and magazine.

Later, when you visualise your bathroom again, simply picture the four corners and recall the stories you imagined to remember all 16 items on the list. And then keep looking for ways to use stories and places to group and store the real information you need to recall.

Even better, get these two techniques working together, to give your brain an extra workout and double its chances of success! n

HEALTH

10 Facts About Apples—And Reasons To Love Them

By Jen McCaffery

1

That forbidden apple in the Garden of Eden? The Book of Genesis does not explicitly say what fruit Eve persuaded Adam to share with her. The Hebrew Bible uses the generic term peri, which scholars have said could be used to describe a fig, a grape, a pomegranate, an apricot, or even wheat.

2

Another Biblical apple reference is in Psalm 17, when David uses it while talking to God: “Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.” Is David rather conceited, assuming he is God’s favourite? Not necessarily. The Bible’s use of “apple” here is thought to be a poetic way to refer to the eye’s pupil, which is also round.

3

Apples have long been associated with love—in Greek mythology, Paris hoped his golden apple would win him Helen of Troy. And it’s been said that in colonial New England, if a young woman peeled an apple in one strip, she’d toss it over her shoulder and see what letter it formed on the floor. This was the initial of her future husband.

4

Apples grown in the US during the 18th and 19th centuries were often more likely to end up in a cider barrel than in a pie. “In rural areas, cider took the place of not only

54 • SEPTEMBER 2021

Illustration by Serge Bloch

wine and beer but of coffee and tea, juice, and even water,” author Michael Pollan wrote in The Botany of Desire.

5

there’s truth to the saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” A large one has about 115 calories and five grams of fibre, and the fruit’s polyphenols and fibre help balance gut bacteria. But don’t peel it: two-thirds of the anti­oxidants and much of its fiber are in the skin.

6

That said, as Snow White can attest, apples aren’t entirely benign. Apple seeds contain a compound called amygdalin that’s part of the fruit’s defence system. If you crush or chew apple seeds, the amygdalin can degrade into hydrogen cyanide, which can be lethal in high doses. But it would take at least 160 apple seeds to put an adult’s life at risk.

7

the enzyme that causes apples to brown isn’t all bad. It counteracts garlic’s pungent compounds. That’s right: eating an apple will kill a case of garlic breath.

8

Displaying your apples in a bowl on a table might look as pretty as a painting, but if you want them to last, store them in the fridge, as lower temperatures slow the ripening process. Farmers can keep their fruit in cold storage for a

month or two; most apple varieties won’t keep much longer than that.

9

How did this earthy fruit become the symbol of one of the world’s wealthiest corporations? One day in the mid1970s, Steve Wozniak picked up Steve Jobs at the airport. The paperwork for their nascent computer company was due the next day. Jobs had just been pruning apple trees in Oregon, and when the men started throwing around potential names (Matrix, Exec­ut­ ek, and Personal Computers Inc were among them), he suggested Apple Computer. “It sounded fun, spirited, and not intimidating. ‘Apple’ took the edge off the word ‘computer,’ ” Jobs said. “Plus, it would get us ahead of Atari in the phone book.”

10

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first supergroup to use Apple as its corporate moniker. In 1968, the Beatles formed Apple Corps to represent their creative interests. After Apple Computer rose to prominence, the two companies worked out an agreement that ­Apple Computer would keep its logo and name out of the music business. That changed in 2003, when Apple began selling music through iTunes. It took seven more years before the Beatles finally “let it be” by allowing iTunes to carry their music. n SEPTEMBER 2021 • 55

INSPIRE

A

The only way to save his friend from the killer bees was to climb up the mountain and back into the swarm

THOUSAND

by Nicholas Hune-Brown illustration by steven P hughes

The rock hills of Hueco Tanks rise dramatically above the scrubby Chihuahuan Desert in West Texas—four masses of weathered syenite that have long been a rock-climbing paradise 56 • SEPTEMBER 2021

In May 2015, Doug April was finishing a six-month stint as a campground host at Hueco Tanks State Park, living by himself in an RV. The lanky 46-year-old was divorced with three kids. He had served two tours of duty in Iraq, where he saw things that were hard to forget.

Throughout it all, climbing had been a refuge. Out on the rock, he could turn off his buzzing mind and concentrate on what was in front of him.

Now that respite was coming to an end. April had officially left the army three weeks earlier, retiring as a major, but he wasn’t through with war zones.

In a few weeks, he was headed to Afghanistan for three months to fly reconnaissance missions as a private military contractor. He wanted to make the most of his last days climbing.

Around 8am, April’s climbing partner, Ian Cappelle, pulled up to the campsite. The 38-year-old geologist had moved to El Paso with his wife, Malynda, five years earlier. Shortly after, while out climbing, he’d met April.

They’d been buddies ever since. Burly and bearded, Cappelle didn’t look the part of a climber. But as soon as he’d tried, he was hooked. He regarded April as a big brother—an experienced climber and generous teacher.

“What should we do today?” April asked as they packed their ropes.

“Well, you’ve been up Indecent Exposure twice already,” Cappelle said. “I’d like to do that route.”

April paused. Indecent Exposure

had always filled him with anxiety.

It wasn’t the most difficult route in Hueco Tanks, but it was the most intimidating. It had two “pitches,” or sections, and both had passages that left you hanging out over big 75-metre drops, unprotected. Midway along the route there was a plaque in memory of a student who had died attempting it.

But when it’s your last climb for a while you want to make it memorable.

The day was beautiful. The sun was just right, the breeze perfect. If Cappelle agreed to lead the first part of the climb, April said he’d lead the second.

Cappelle climbed out to his right, his chalked fingers finding their way to the cliff’s handholds. He and April were tethered together for safety, with two lines of rope connecting them through belaying devices on each of their harnesses that would act as a brake, holding the rope tight if either of them fell.

As Cappelle led the way, he clipped the rope into metal anchors drilled into the rock face for protection.

Twenty minutes into the climb, he saw the memorial plaque and silently paid his respects. He made it to the ledge that marked the end of the pitch and attached himself to an anchor. April followed and they paused for a moment to rest, 40 metres up in the air.

April led the second pitch. The hardest section came early on—a huge step to the right, followed by slim, fingertip-and-toe edges. He’d had SEPTEMBER 2021 • 57

A THOUSAND STINGS

trouble there in past attempts, but this time he nailed it, making his way to a chunk of rock the size of a fridge.

“Oh man, that was great!” he called out across the chasm, a few metres above his partner and eight metres out to the right. Then: “This is weird.

Where did all these bugs come from?”

April slapped the back of his neck. He looked down and watched in terror as a cloud of bees swirled out of the rock—more than he’d ever seen, like a scene from a horror movie. The swarm enveloped him, stinging him over and over again, the pain spreading across his neck and face and body.

Regular honeybees can sometimes be territorial, but Africanised bees are much more aggressive. They arrived in the Western hemisphere in 1956, when African bees introduced to Brazil to increase honey production escaped, bred with European honeybees and quickly spread across the Americas.

When Africanised bees sense a threat, they swarm, chasing for up to 400 metres until the threat is eliminated. If someone is stung 1,000 to 1,500 times, scientists estimate, they’ve got a 50/50 chance of dying.

Since the 1950s, Africanised bees have been responsible for more than 1,000 deaths; there’s a reason they’re known as “killer bees.”

A moment after the bees swarmed, Cappelle watched in horror as April jumped off the ledge, feeling the jerk of tension in his harness as his partner’s weight pulled the rope 58 • SEPTEMBER 2021

taught. “Lower me, lower me, lower me, go, go, go!” April yelled.

From his perch, Cappelle played out all 60 metres of rope, ripping it through the belaying device as fast as he could. Below him, the wall undercut the ledge he was standing on, and April disappeared from view.

That’s when Cappelle saw the first bee. He stood as still as he could, figuring if he just ignored it, it should go away. Instead, it stung him on the neck. The stings came quickly after that—one, two, three, four, and then a crescendo of pain as the bulk of the hive attacked him. Cappelle tried to cover his face, the high-pitched whine drowning out everything as the bees attacked his ears, eyes, nose and mouth.

His mind raced as the bees stung him. Why hadn’t Doug unclipped himself once he reached the ground?

Once he unclipped, Cappelle could pull up the rope, anchor himself into the wall and rappel down to safety.

But April was still hanging there, dead weight on the end of the rope.

Cappelle stood on the slim ledge and sucked water out of his bottle, desperate to stay hydrated to stave off the effects of the venom. What do I do? He reached up to brush the bees off his head and felt a halo of insect bodies an inch thick, stinging him over and over again. Call your wife, he thought. Tell her you love her. But what if he dropped the phone?

The toxins coursed through his

READER’S DIGEST

bloodstream. At a certain point, the panicked thoughts subsided, replaced by a strange calm. It was a terrible way to go. He was so sorry Malynda was going to lose him like this, but there was nothing he could do. The world shrunk around him, squeezing to a pinprick, and Cappelle blacked out, slumping down onto the rocky ledge.

Below him, April hung suspended in mid-air, two metres away from the wall and about 20 metres off the ground.

He’d been stuck for ten minutes, and the bees hadn’t stopped stinging.

“Untie the blue rope!” he yelled up

head in a bad situation. He’d crashed a helicopter in training and seen men die in combat. And no matter the danger, he’d always been able to flick a switch in his brain. Turn off the fear.

Concentrate on what needs to be done.

What needed to be done now was clear: he had to climb down. The mountain was criss-crossed with climbing routes—he just had to find one. About five metres away, he spotted an anchor that was part of another route. He swung himself toward the bolt, caught it on the third try and clipped himself in. Then he released the ropes that were

THE SWARM ENVELOPED APRIL, STINGING HIM OVER AND OVER, THE PAIN SPREADING ACROSS HIS BODY to Cappelle. He wanted Cappelle to use one of the ropes to rappel himself to the ground. But neither man could hear the other. All they could hear was the deafening buzz.

After so many stings, April’s body was becoming numb. He could feel the bees all over him. One flew into his mouth—vibrating and fuzzy, with a slight flowery taste—and he quickly spat it out. After more than a dozen stings, people can experience vertigo, nausea and even convulsions and fainting. April had been stung hundreds of times. He pulled his cap over his face and tried to think.

He had always been able to keep his

attached to Cappelle, leaving them dangling in the wind.

On a good day, this wouldn’t have been a difficult route, but this wasn’t a good day. He was pumped full of bee venom, his body inflamed and his mind swimming. The climb down took him about five minutes, but it felt like forever. By the time April made it to the ground, he was nauseous and nearly delirious. He stumbled toward the road, just as one of the park rangers pulled up.

“Ian,” April gasped, gesturing up at the cliff. He and the ranger called Cappelle’s name. They could see him up on the ledge. He was in the fetal SEPTEMBER 2021 • 59

A THOUSAND STINGS

position, a massive cloud of bees surrounding him. “Ian!” he yelled again. His friend didn’t move.

April did the maths. Someone had called search and rescue, but it would take them an hour to get a team from El Paso. And to get a team that could safely climb down to Cappelle and remove him? That could take climbers who didn’t know the area a few hours more. He didn’t have that much time.

April knew what he had to do.

the one to go and get him. April set an anchor at the edge of the cliff and clipped himself in. One of the other climbers began belaying him down.

For about the first 15 metres, Cappelle was out of sight. Finally, the cliff grew steep enough that April could see his partner, still motionless, covered by a swirling blanket of bees. “Ian!” he yelled.

And this time Cappelle looked up.

“He had the same look I’ve seen too many times in combat, where

TWO PASSERSBY USED THEIR CREDIT CARDS TO SLOUGH HUNDREDS OF STINGERS INTO THE SAND “Drive me back to my car,” he said to the ranger. “I’ve got another rope in there. I’ll go get him.”

April scrambled up the rocks as fast as he could. He’d decided to hike another route up the back of the mountain, then rappel down to Ian. He wore the park ranger’s radio, and a mesh net that he pulled over his cap.

Part way up the trail, he ran into two other climbing friends and conscripted them into the rescue plan. By the time they reached the top, it had been 45 minutes since the start of the attack, and April had no idea if his friend was alive. Even in his nauseous state, it didn’t cross his mind to ask one of his fellow climbers to head down instead. It was his partner down there—he would be 60 • SEPTEMBER 2021

someone’s been blown up or shot,” April remembers. It’s not fear, exactly— more a look of pure incredulity. How the hell did this happen to me? “That’s how he looked at me. Then he put his head back down.”

April made his way down to the ledge. The bees were all over him, but by now he was entirely numb. He attached Ian to his belay device. “I’m going to get you out of here,” he said.

Cappelle was just conscious enough to follow April’s instructions, while April carefully lowered him 40 metres down to the ground. Below them, the first ambulance was just pulling up.

April watched as the rangers and paramedics collected Cappelle. Then he lowered himself as quickly as he could. By the time he reached the ground, Cappelle was in a helicopter

Cappelle and April

destined for the hospital in El Paso.

April turned down the paramedics’ advice to go to the hospital. Although he felt faint, he didn’t believe he was going to die anytime soon.

In the parking lot, he ran into two climbers with wilderness first aid training. April stripped down to his underwear. The best way to remove the stingers, they told him, wasn’t to use tweezers, which squeezes the poison from the venom sacks into your body. The two men used their credit cards to scrape him down, sloughing off hundreds of stingers into the desert sand.

At the hospital, doctors estimated Cappelle had been stung more than a thousand times—a high enough dose to be lethal. He had been lucky.

And with a day or two to flush it out of his system, he would be fine.

Months later, after April returned from Afghanistan, the men planned a

climb—back at Hueco Tanks.

They took a different route this time, and any trepidation they might have felt being out there dissipated in the fresh air of another perfect day.

They reached a little alcove high above the desert and sat down to rest.

In the months since the attack, Cappelle had had plenty of time to think about what could have happened if April hadn’t come back for him. His one memory after he blacked out is a flash of a thick carpet of dead bees covering the cliff ledge and then April’s red shoes.

The two men took in the view. The Franklin Mountains sat out to the west, hazy and indistinct. To the north, you could see the faint outline of the Sacramento Mountains silhouetted against a sky that seemed endless. The sun was just right, the breeze light.

They stood up again, the rope strong and secure between them, and went back out on the rock. n SEPTEMBER 2021 • 61

PARTNERSHIP

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INSPIRE

My Britain:

Bethnal Green

By Anna Walker

I

M O N I C A W E L L S / A L A M Y S TO C K P H OTO

n many ways, the area of Bethnal Green in Tower Hamlets, East London, wears the history of Britain on its sleeve. It is shaped by a strong community spirit, which began with East London's cockneys and has grown to encompass families from Eastern Europe, the Carribbean and the largest Bangladeshi community in the UK. Today the area is not only ethnically diverse, but has brought into its fold a diverse range of "The values of classes too, as city tolerance and love of workers increasingly make their home diversity I learned [in here. Take a stroll Bethnal Green] are down the main what I pass onto thoroughfare of Bethnal Green my children" Road enjoying the - Eddie Marsan buzz of community as family and friends meet to buy homewares, colourful fruit and vegetables or elegant saris. Wander down the infamous Brick Lane and enjoy the tempting smell of foods from around the world (particularly the delicious aromas of its famous curry houses) and admire some of London's most cutting-edge street style. Head to Columbia Road Flower Market and you'll hear the cries of flower sellers that have flooded this Victorian street for over 150 years.

SEPTEMBER 2021 • 65

Rushanara Ali MP Rushanara Ali, 46, has been the Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow since 2010. Born in Bangladesh, she and her family moved to the East End of London when she was just seven. She has represented the area for over a decade

My earliest memories of Bethnal Green are from my school days, taking the bus down Cambridge Heath Road and past Whitechapel Market. The market has been a fixture in my head from a very early age. On the way back from school, my sister and I would walk through the market and enjoy how lively it was in full flow. Visiting the shops and market stalls of Bethnal Green Road with my mum is a strong early memory too. It is one of the places my sister and I would go to as teenagers for shopping and would bump into friends and relatives.

My connection with Bethnal Green is very, very, long-standing. When my father came to the UK in the 1960s, he came on a restaurant worker's visa to work in a restaurant in Bethnal Green.

His uncle came here first—he was a seafarer who arrived in London's East End—from Sylhet via Calcutta to the East

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B EYS BT ROI TF ABI N M R I: TBI SE H THNAL GREEN

M O N I C A W E L L S / A L A M Y S TO C K P H OTO

End of London. He then encouraged my dad to come to the UK when the 1960s labour shortage saw new Commonwealth citizens being encouraged to come from the old Empire.

I felt a really strong pull towards representing the place I grew up in.

I became the first person from British Bangladeshi heritage to win a parliamentary seat in Britain. The constituency I represent has the largest community of Bangladeshi heritage in the country, so it was wonderful that it is this area that elected someone from my background. I also felt it was important to have more women in public life and to make sure the area was represented by somebody who grew up here and knew the area, and the different communities.

I often say to people that I've got the most interesting constituency in the country. I feel incredibly lucky because

it's such a fascinating area, historically, culturally and politically. I would define Bethnal Green as a place where the sense of family and community is very strong. It really is a place that manages to mix lots of different cultures, faiths and social classes.

One of my favourite places in Bethnal Green is Museum Gardens right by the V&A Museum of Childhood. In the summer it's full of beautiful flowers and is a park that I’m often walking through.

Despite being on a busy main road, it is peaceful. When I became an MP, my office was just across the road, so that park has been a focal point for my campaigns and getting together with activists and volunteers who helped me get elected to Parliament. Columbia Road is another favourite spot of mine.

It is always a delight going there, especially on Sundays!

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Antony Nelson Landscape architect Antony Nelson, 49, is the founder of the Bethnal Green Fingers community gardening group.

Follow their work on Instagram, @ BethnalGreenFingers

I lived in South London for many years and I was, like so many Londoners, a firm transpontine. Bethnal Green and East London at that time had an emerging and exciting new scene of art and design, fashion, music, food and young Europeans who were making it their home. I was very drawn to all of this and so I crossed the river for a new life.

I love Bethnal Green's long and rich history and the waves of people who have settled here over the last few hundred years. Huguenot silk weavers, Jewish 68 • SEPTEMBER 2021

pogrom settlers, Bengalis and of course the historic Cockneys. All of them have left a significant trace from their time here. I believe the residents feel they are in one of the most unique villages in London. The scale and tight grain of Bethnal Green means the landscape can change so much within a five minute walk.

When I first moved into our estate, it was denuded of greenery and beset by anti-social problems with little community feeling. As a Landscape Architect I

approached our Housing Association with the idea of setting up a community gardening group and to take personal responsibility in improving the estate by planting hundreds of plants and trees.

After 15 years the improvements are immeasurable. The outside spaces are verdant and beautiful, residents dwell outside more than ever, anti-social behaviour has decreased and the sense of community has vastly improved. Many of us leave our doors open during a summer's day now. I'm sure that hasn't been done in this area for many decades.

The backgrounds of the members of our group really vary. We're a mix of social tenants and leaseholders, young and older and from many different ethnic

backgrounds. There is a sense of comradery when we get together and it often turns into a social event.

It’s not all a bed of roses though and there are challenges in keeping the community gardens going. We are not funded anymore by our Housing Association and sometimes it’s difficult to encourage people to do the harder and more unrewarding work like weeding and maintenance! And tenants who come and go fairly regularly are less inclined to invest their time in the gardens. But we persevere and like all good gardeners, always look ahead to the following year. n

To plan a future visit to Bethnal Green head to visitlondon.com SEPTEMBER 2021 • 69

INSPIRE

If I Ruled The World

Jon Batiste

Jon Batiste is an Oscar and Golden Globe-winning musician, author and activist. His new album WE ARE is out now Everybody would have to tell the truth, all the time. Because if people told the truth, they would have fewer problems, and less shame. Man, how much stuff would get done if people told the truth all the time? It’s a hard thing for people to do because we always want to run from the truth, especially when it’s ugly. But it would be great if we did the opposite of that and ran towards the discomfort.

I would have a very serious discussion about reparations for Black Americans. Reparations are as real as we make them. Race is a construct, and we have made it real.

And it has governed the way that we think and deal with each other and governed the way we categorise people. Souls are categorised based upon their skin colour—just think about how ridiculous that is. Think about how ridiculous it is that a person is judged, and you can create a whole summation of who they are, by looking at them. It is a level of 70 • SEPTEMBER 2021

basic ignorance that we have accepted for centuries. So, if that is possible, I think reparations are also very possible. We decided that we want to go to the moon, so we can come up with a system to figure out how to pay Black people what is owed to them by the government.

There would be free education for all. I think that everybody needs to have the ability to educate themselves to the same degree. And when I say free education, I’m not saying the way things are now, ie, public education that is subpar. I’m from Louisiana and sadly, in the South [of the US], you’re talking about some of the worst public education in the world. What I’m referring to is free education of a standard that is equal to the education that somebody would get if they were going to a formidable private school. Education that will teach people languages, that will teach people things that they need to know to function in society. You

know, people leave school, and they don’t know how to do their taxes.

They don’t know how to speak any other language. They don’t know anything about real history except for the boilerplate American history that we’re taught.

Money would not be the currency that moves things along. In my world, it would be skills or talents.

Do you see the level of corruption that the amount of money and the dependence on money has created in the world? The level of corruption is insane. And it’s all based upon the fact that “I have more of these bills than you do.” So, if it was actually based upon the content of a person’s character, and the skillset that they

bring to the table, we would have a true meritocracy where people can co-exist to be equals and not under some class heirarchy. Now that would be incredible.

It would be mandatory that people would get paid maternity and paternity leave. And everybody would have to have some sort of practice in the arts. This is about making space for people to live lives.

It’s about carving out space for people to be anything other than just a consumer, or a part of the workforce. Family and the arts— these are the things that help us to define purpose in our lives. n As told to Marco Marcelline SEPTEMBER 2021 • 71

INSPIRE

Music From

The Vaults Meet the music custodians whose life mission is to preserve forgotten recordings for posterity

By Simon Button illustration by eva bee

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D

eep in the vaults of the British Library lies a veritable treasure trove for pop music lovers. Housed across the main building in St Pancras and the Library’s Boston Spa site are more than 350,000 CDs and 250,000 LPs, as well as around a quarter of a million 78rpm discs and numerous reel-to-reel and cassette tapes.

Throw in an array of wax cylinders along with old issues of the NME, books, newspaper clippings, catalogues and recorded interviews and you have a vast collection that Andy Linehan, the Library’s Curator of Popular Music Collections, is understandably very proud of.

Every genre is covered, from music hall to metal and jazz to grime, and Andy feels he and his team are not only preserving pop, they’re honouring history. “One of the British Library’s functions is to be the cultural memory of the nation,” he says. “We do that with books, journals and newspapers and it’s absolutely right that we should also do it with music.”

They rely on donations from record labels, artists and members of the public because as Andy notes: “If you publish a book, newspaper or magazine in the UK you’re legally obliged to send a copy to the British Library but that law does not apply to sound recordings.”

Among the treasures are an early voice recording of Florence

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Kelly Pribble at work at IMES

Nightingale and a cassette tape that was sold at gigs in the early 1980s by a sixth-form band called On A Friday, who eventually re-formed as none other than Radiohead. There are also old blues 78s, rare LPs from the 1950s where the covers were designed by a pre-fame Andy Warhol and promotional copies of Beatles singles that only had a couple of hundred pressings.

When it comes to preservation, the team is tirelessly transferring music from media that’s vulnerable and digitising it for prosperity. “So long as it’s stored correctly most media remains stable, but certain types

READER’S DIGEST

IF ANYONE CAN SALVAGE A BATTERED OLD TAPE, IT’S OUR ENGINEERS

of tape can deteriorate faster than others,” Andy elaborates. “But if anyone can salvage anything from a battered old tape it’s definitely our engineers because they have the know-how as well as the equipment to play back everything.”

Private companies and specialist record labels are also doing their bit

to ensure music is safe-guarded for generations to come.

Iron Mountain Entertainment Services has branches in the States, London and Paris, offering digital transfer and preservation services for music as well as other media.

Principal Studio Engineer and Preservation Specialist Kelly Pribble leads the company’s Media Recovery Technology Programme. Among the projects he has worked on is a partnership with the Bob Dylan Archive to save more than 60 original recordings that were suffering from so-called adhesion syndrome.

“With this problem,” Kelly elaborates, “the tape is in a state SEPTEMBER 2021 • 75

M U S I C F R O M T H E V A U LT S

Over at Cherry Red Records, Chairman Iain McNay describes the label’s work as “historical R&R” with a mission to treat catalogue music with TLC. “When we buy the tapes it’s that initial process of discovery because we know roughly what we’re going to get but there are all kinds of things that aren’t listed,” he says. “Then, it’s all about looking after all that material and letting it see the light of day. We’re music fans who are also custodians.”

Musicians are often involved in the process, such as Level 42’s Mark King who has recently been promoting a boxset of the band’s first five albums that also includes extended versions, B-sides and 76 • SEPTEMBER 2021

IT’S ALL ABOUT LOOKING AFTER THE MATERIAL AND LETTING IT SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY—WE’RE MUSIC CUSTODIANS

bonus tracks. And releases are handled with great care, with Iain adding: “For example, we have someone looking after Howard Jones reissues and he’s a huge Howard Jones fan. We try and use experts in the field who are really engaged and want the releases to best reflect what a real fan would like.”

Mastering engineer Alan Wilson from Western Star Records is currently hard at work going through nearly 2,000 items from the Joe Meek’s “Tea Chest Tapes” (so called because they were stored in 67 tea chests), which have been acquired by Cherry Red and include such finds as previously unheard music by David Bowie’s first band The Konrads alongside songs the legendary producer worked on with the likes of Tom Jones and Billy Fury.

The tapes date back around 50 years and they’ve been carefully stored by their owner, former musician Cliff Cooper, otherwise they might have deteriorated too much to be usable. But they’re dirty

@ British Library Board

of decay or degradation and starts binding to itself. If you don’t know this is happening, you can instantly and permanently damage the tape the moment you try to rewind or play it.”

Having already developed a process to safely unbind affected tapes, he was able to apply the process to the Dylan masters and archive the entire collection. He recently helped Mariah Carey with the curation of her Rarities album, going through countless mastertapes of unreleased songs from the last three decades, and IMES has also partnered with the Prince estate to preserve and digitise all the unreleased music from the artist’s famous vault.

Alan Wilson, Cliff Cooper R Eand A D Iain E R ’ McNay S D I G Ewith ST the Joe Meek’s “Tea Chest Tapes”

Collection of 78s records at the British Library

SEPTEMBER 2021 • 77

M U S I C P R E S E R VAT I O N

Close-up of tape adhesion Level 42’s The Complete Polydor Years: Volume One boxset by Cherry Red

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READER’S DIGEST

IMPULSE BUYS OF SUPERMARKET CD COMPILATIONS MAY BE ON DECLINE BECAUSE BUYERS ARE MIGRATING TO DIGITAL and have mould on them, so they need to be painstakingly cleaned before they can be played back and transferred from analogue tape to digital files. Once it’s been decided which material from the vaults will be released, the selected tracks will then be restored and remastered.

It’s a mammoth task that will take 18 months but lifelong Meeks fan Alan is thrilled with the assignment.

“It’s a massive chunk of British rock ‘n’ roll history and important in so many ways because Joe Meek was such an innovative engineer and producer who took on the music industry and beat it at its own game on a shoestring budget in a flat above a leather goods shop.”

Another record company that carefully curates reissues and restorations is Demon Music Group, with Head of Product and Marketing Ben Stanley saying: “I’m a big music fan and I’m disappointed when things are reissued and they

don’t sound or look up to scratch.

We’re all about creating premium, definitive versions.”

Vinyl is a growth market, especially among fans of 1990s music when vinyl pressings of albums by acts like Pulp and Oasis were hard to come by. Impulse buys of supermarket CD compilations may be on the decline, maybe because those buyers are migrating to digital. “But then you have a person who wants to own a 24-CD Donna Summer boxset,” Ben adds of the mammoth Encore tribute to the Queen of Disco which came out on the company’s Driven By The Music label and took more than three years to compile.

“There are huge challenges in bringing these things to market, whether it’s dealing with estates, record companies, licensing issues, publishers,” he says. “But the heritage and history of popular music is so important. People will still be playing Revolver and Bowie’s Station To Station in 50 or 100 years’ time and it’s important they’re taken care of.”

Kelly Pribble over at IMES agrees.

“We can go to a museum and see a book or painting that is 500 years old and is in amazing shape, but we have music recorded on formats 40 years ago that is rapidly degrading.

It keeps me up at night pondering how I can help ensure that all of this recorded history is saved.” n SEPTEMBER 2021 • 79

SAVING NOTRE DAME During European Heritage Days in September 2020, a carpenter demonstrated how wood will be shaped into the beams needed to rebuild Notre Dame's roof

INSPIRE

A devastating fire nearly destroyed Notre Dame de Paris two years ago. Now scientists are leading the effort to restore the beloved cathedral to its former glory

By Christa Lesté-Lasserre from Science

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E

ight restoration scientists put on hard hats and heavy-duty boots, and stepped inside the blackened shell of Notre Dame de Paris, the world’s most famous cathedral. Ten days earlier, a fire had swept through its attic, melted its roof, and sent its spire plunging into the sacred space. Now, it was silent but for the flutter of house sparrows. The air, normally sweet with incense, was acrid with ash and stale smoke. Piles of debris covered the marble floor.

Yet the scientists, called in by France’s Ministry of Culture to inspect the damage and plan a rescue, mostly felt relief—and even hope. Rattan chairs sat in tidy rows, priceless paintings hung undamaged, and, above the altar, a great gold-plated cross loomed over the Pietà, a statue of the Virgin Mary cradling the body of Jesus.

“What matters isn’t the roof and vault so much as the sanctuary they protect,” said Aline Magnien, director of the Historical Monuments Research Laboratory (LRMH). “The heart of Notre Dame had been saved.”

On April 15, 2019, an electrical short was the likely spark for a blaze that threatened to burn the 850-yearold cathedral to the ground. Following a protocol developed for just such a disaster, firefighters knew which works of art to rescue and in which order. They knew to keep the water 82 • SEPTEMBER 2021

pressure low and to avoid spraying stained glass windows so the cold water wouldn’t shatter the hot glass.

But even though their efforts averted the worst, the emergency was far from over. More than 200 tons of toxic lead from the roof and spire was unaccounted for. And the damage threatened the delicate balance of forces between the vault and the cathedral’s flying buttresses: the entire building teetered on possible collapse.

At LRMH, the laboratory tasked with conserving all the nation’s monuments, Magnien and her 22 colleagues apply techniques from geology to metallurgy as they evaluate the condition of Notre Dame’s stone, mortar, glass, paint, and metal. They aim to prevent further damage to the cathedral and to guide engineers in the national effort to restore it.

President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to reopen Notre Dame by 2024. The operation involves many government agencies and has drawn philanthropic pledges of about €1 billion. But it is the LRMH researchers who lead the critical work of deciding how to salvage materials and stitch the cathedral back together.

The LRMH team works in the former stables of a 17th-century chateau in Champs-sur-Marne, in the eastern suburbs of Paris, which once housed a horse research centre. Here, they have analysed samples from France’s

photo, previous spread: ©Photo by Kiran Ridley/Getty Images

SAVING NOTRE DAME

READER’S DIGEST

6:18 pm Fire begins

7:50 pm Spire collapses

4:00 am Fire under control Ceiling holes

illustration by chris bickel/science magazine

The grim progress of the Notre Dame fire, which started on April 15, 2019

top monuments—the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe—in the same rooms where some of the world’s first artificial insemination experiments in horses occurred 120 years ago. The neighbourhood is quiet, but on a day in January 2020, when I visited, the lab was anything but sleepy.

Véronique Vergès-Belmin, a geologist and head of LRMH’s stone division, slipped a hazmat suit over her dress clothes and slid on a respirator mask—necessary when dealing with samples contaminated with lead. In the lab’s storage hangar—once a garage for the chateau’s carriages—she presented several dozen stones that had fallen from the cathedral’s vaulted ceiling.

Fallen stones hint at the condition of those still in place.

Heat can weaken limestone, and knowing the temperatures endured by these fallen stones can help

engineers to decide whether they can be reused. Vergès-Belmin has found that the stones’ colour can provide clues. At 300°C to 400°C, she said, iron crystals that help knit the limestone together begin to break down, turning the surface red. At 600°C, the colour changes again as the crystals are transformed into a black iron oxide. By 800°C, the limestone loses all its iron oxides and becomes powdery lime.

“Any coloured stones or parts should not be reused,” Vergès-Belmin said. Colour evaluation isn’t an exact science. Still, in lieu of mechanically testing each of the hundreds of thousands of stones that remain in the cathedral, colour could be a useful guide to their strength.

Water can also wreak havoc. When the firefighters drenched the stone vault, the porous limestone gained up to one-third of its weight in water. In the lab, LRMH researchers monitored a fallen stone, weighing it to track the drying process. The last of the SEPTEMBER 2021 • 83

SAVING NOTRE DAME

waterlogged stones finished drying in May this year.

Meanwhile, rain continued to fall on the roofless vault. Engineers couldn’t install a temporary cover because of a mangled skeleton of scaffolding, set up in 2018 for longterm renovations. The cathedral walls supported the scaffolding, so it had to be dismantled carefully to prevent a potentially “catastrophic” collapse, Magnien said.

Until the stones finish drying on their own, their changing weights will likely continue to have

“non-negligible” effects on the vault structure, according to Lise Leroux, a geologist in the LRMH stone division.

Not only does the extra weight play with the precarious balance of forces, but when the water freezes in winter, individual stones expand or contract.

A few weeks after the fire, engineers installed steel beams above the vault so technicians could rappel with ropes as they removed scaffolding and stabilised the structure. Leroux earned a rappelling certification so she could take a closer look. When she Lead spire

Lead roof

Scaffolding Attic support timbers

Twin bell towers

Vaulted ceiling

Front entrance

South rose window

illustration by chris bickel/science magazine. photo: ©AP Photo/Francois Mori

READER’S DIGEST

inspected the top of the vault for the first time in February 2020, she found that its plaster coating was still mostly intact and had shielded many stones from fire and rain. “It seems to have done its job,” she said.

The COVID-19 lockdowns slowed the removal of the scaffolding, which was finally completed in November 2020. Work could now begin on the cathedral’s interior. In December, the Grand Organ was dismantled and removed, and the pipes taken for repair and cleaning to remove lead dust from the fire. Next, a 89fthigh scaffold was built to give access to the vaults. Reconstruction of the interior was due to begin in the second half of 2021.

Among Parisians, the fire stirred both grief and fear that vaporised lead from the roof and spire had drifted into nearby neighbourhoods.

In fact, Aurélia Azéma, a metallurgist who leads LRMH’s metal division, and other scientists have concluded that the fire maxed out well below lead’s vaporisation temperature of 1700°C. Most of the lead simply melted at 300°C, pouring into the gutters and dripping into stalactites hanging from the vaults.

In places, however, temperatures did exceed 600°C, at which point lead oxidises into microscopic nodules. “It’s like hair spray,” Azéma said. A yellow cloud that billowed from the cathedral during the fire

Glass researcher Claudine Loisel tests techniques for cleaning lead from Notre Dame's 113 stained glass windows

showed that at least some of the lead did become airborne.

Some nearby schools were decontaminated after samples showed worryingly high lead levels. But it’s not clear whether the lead came from the Notre Dame fire or from some other source, such as lead paint, car batteries, or leaded gasoline.

Much of the lead mobilised by the fire remains in the Notre Dame.

In June 2019, when Azéma and her colleagues brought their first samples from the cathedral back to the lab, tightly sealed in plastic bags, yellow lead dust appeared to be everywhere.

She unrolled small organ pipes from layers of bubble wrap and pointed her gloved finger at their holes. “Even down in here,” she said.

Because of lead’s toxicity, France’s national health agency imposes a legal limit of 0.1 micrograms per square centimetre on the surfaces of any building, including historical monuments. “My first sample was 70 times that,” said Emmanuel Maurin, head of LRMH’s wood division, SEPTEMBER 2021 • 85

SAVING NOTRE DAME

who tested surfaces like the oak confessional and choir seats.

The national work inspection agency has enforced stringent safety requirements. People entering the cathedral must strip naked and put on disposable paper underwear and safety suits and wear protective masks with breathing assistance before passing through to contaminated

areas. After a maximum of 150 minutes’ exposure, they hit the showers, scrubbing their bodies from head to toe. “We’re taking five showers a day,” Zimmer says.

The Ministry of Culture has charged LRMH’s researchers with finding a way to cleanse the cathedral of lead without harming it. For most smooth surfaces—glass, metal, waxed wood,

NEW LIFE FOR A FOREST IN THE SKY reference to its intertwined oak beams. The 2019 fire completely destroyed the roof, and 2,000 oak trees will be needed to rebuild it exactly as it was.

Numerous countries, including Germany, Slovenia and the United Kingdom, stepped forward to offer trees for the reconstruction. Ultimately, the body overseeing the restoration of Notre Dame decided to use only French oaks due to time constraints involved in harvesting and drying the wood.

At the beginning of March this year, before the sap began to rise, foresters from the Office National des Forêts (ONF) felled the first eight oaks in the Bercé Forest, 75 miles southwest of Paris. The wood from these exceptional trees—230 years old, three feet in One of the 2,000 oak diameter, with more than 66 feet of useful trunk— trees that will be used is destined for the base of the rebuilt spire. Five of to rebuild Notre Dame’s roof them had to be perfectly straight, and three had to have a specific curvature needed for the construction of the base.

The remaining trees are being harvested this year from forests throughout France. After the oaks are felled, the wood is left outdoors for several months to allow the rain to wash out the tannins. Then it needs another 12 to 18 months to dry. Once the wood’s moisture content drops below 30 per cent, the Notre Dame carpenters can get to work rebuilding this one-of-a-kind forest above the streets of Paris.

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photo: ©JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER/AFP via Getty Images

Over the centuries, Notre Dame’s roof was commonly known as “the forest”—a

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and even paint—they’ve found that a shop vac and cotton pads, moistened with distilled water, safely remove the lead. Raw wood surfaces require fine sanding first, Maurin said. The best method for porous stones turned out to be cleaning with compresses and latex, supplemented with laser cleaning for the joints.

As the first “emergency” phase of scientific work advanced, Notre Dame started slowly opening to “second phase” scientists interested in studying its history and architecture, now exposed by the fire and available to study without intruding crowds of tourists.

The Ministry of Culture and CNRS created a dedicated science team of about 100 researchers from multiple institutions. “We’re sorting all these thousands of fragments—some from our world, some from another and more ancient world—and it’s like we’re communicating with the Middle Ages,” Dillmann said.

Yves Gallet, an art historian at Bordeaux Montaigne University, oversees a group that aims to study stones that are still in place. Through detailed photographic analysis, researchers want to understand how 13th-century stonecutters designed and assembled the encasements that cradle the fourstory-diameter rose windows.

The charred remnants of attic timbers have stories of their own

to tell. “Wood registers absolutely everything while it’s growing,” said Alexa Dufraisse, a CNRS researcher heading the wood group. Notre Dame’s oak beams grew in the 12th and 13th centuries, a warm period.

By connecting the growth ring record with what’s known about economic conditions at the time, researchers hope to see how climate variations affected medieval society, she said.

Across centuries marked by war and disease, Notre Dame has witnessed cycles of decline and renewal before. The LRMH scientists hope that when the vaults and buttresses are again dry and sound, the lead accounted for, and the great cathedral’s history and resilience understood more deeply than before, the sense of grief and loss surrounding the fire will once again turn to joy and gratitude.

“There’s an extraordinary unity of people coming together to not only save this monument, but to learn from it,” Magnien said. “Notre Dame will be restored! Its artwork, stone, and stained glass will be cleaned; it will be more luminous and beautiful than before.

“Notre Dame will come out of this experience enriched. And so will we.”n Science (March 13, 2020 Vol 267, Issue 6483), Copyright © 2020 by Christa Lesté-Lasserre. This article has been updated since its original publication

SEPTEMBER 2021 • 87

TR AVEL & ADVENTURE

Travellers on Western Australia’s backroads need to be prepared for rough conditions, and to bring plenty of water

88

A road through a remote Australian region leads to glorious landscapes and insights into the nation’s original inhabitants

There’s

Nowhere Like The

Outback

By Bob Ramsay From Canadian Geographic

SEPTEMBER 2021 • 89

THERE’S NOWHERE LIKE THE OUTBACK

we got our flat tyre as we drove into the Mount Barnett Roadhouse on Western Australia’s notorious Gibb River Road. Luckier still, three burly guys changed our tyre, with dire warnings to get to the Over the Range service station to fix it, pronto.

Otherwise, well… I guess that’s why our rented four-wheel drive came with a satellite phone, an emergency locator, and ten gallons of water.

My wife, Jean, and I had wanted to experience one of the Englishspeaking world’s most remote places that non-explorers can navigate on their own: the Kimberley region, an area in the northwestern corner of Australia much bigger than Germany or Japan, with a population of just 34,000 people. And in May 2018, we got the chance to visit.

The Gibb is an iconic, tyre-ripping gravel road that runs 410 miles through the region along, as its name suggests, the Gibb River. In the May-through-October dry season, it’s hot and desolate. Still, your fourwheel drive better have an air-intake snorkel so it can ford the dozens of rivers you’ll cross. Oh, and watch out for the “road trains,” those linked trucks that can measure up to 176 feet—more than three times the longest standard truck allowed on 90 • SEPTEMBER 2021

European roads—and take two miles and clouds of blinding dust to pass.

In the wet season, don’t even think of driving the Gibb. You’ll drown in the rain-flooded plains that for half the year are bone dry.

The only way to explore Kimberley is by this very bad road, or by air. That is, unless you’re an Aboriginal. Young Aboriginal males still take part in a rite of passage called temporary mobility (it used to

photos, previous spread and this one: © getty images

We were lucky

be referred to by the outdated, colonial term “walkabout”), which involves going into the wild as boys and returning up to six months later as men.

We did the latter first, taking the lay of the land from the sky before we set off down the Gibb on four wheels. To do that, we went to the jumping-off point for helicopter tours in Kimberley: the HeliSpirit hangar in Kununurra.

“You from Canada, mate?” asks James Bondfield, our young helicopter pilot.

“Uh, yes, I am.” When we Canadians open our mouths in Australia, we’re almost always

The Kimberley region’s many attractions include (from top to bottom): kookaburras and other wildlife, the Pentecost River, and the King George Falls

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THERE’S NOWHERE LIKE THE OUTBACK

mistaken for Americans.

“I worked in Canada,” says Bondfield, explaining that he had built up his flying hours in the oil sands in northern Alberta. He also flew in the forests of Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and Indonesia before returning home and rising to be, at age 30, the chief pilot of a company whose 25 helicopters are opening Kimberley to visitors drawn

The cave paintings are among the oldest made by humans anywhere in the world to the vast, dramatic, relatively untouched landscapes.

During the next two days, Bondfield, like any great guide, takes us where we want to go, then shows us his own secret places there. We first picnic atop King George Falls in the Balanggarra Indigenous Protected Area, a 1 million-hectare homeland of First Peoples in Australia and whose rock art, dating back to more than 40,000 years ago, is drawing global attention.

Bondfield lands us near some caves covered in the ochre images of ancient plants and animals.

Their brightness is barely faded 92 • SEPTEMBER 2021

despite tens of thousands of years of torrential weather. We crawl into crevices all afternoon, snap photos and return with shots of paintings that are among the oldest made by humans anywhere in the world.

From there, we fly to the remote Berkeley River Lodge, a 20-cabin resort on the Kimberley Coast.

Over dinner of grilled barramundi, Bondfield asks if we’ve had a chance to go fishing in Australia yet. No, we have not—not with local rivers filled with “freshies” and “salties”: freshand salt-water crocodiles. The former may attack you, while the latter will.

“Well, if you want to get up before sunrise tomorrow, I can fly you to my favourite fishing hole,” he tells us.

And so, the next morning at dawn, we land on a ledge of a tributary of the Berkeley River, feeling safe in Bondfield’s charge. And it doesn’t matter that the one barramundi I hook gets away. What matters is the thrill of watching the sun rise over one of the most ancient landscapes on the planet.

Later that day, Bondfield drops us back in Kununurra, the starting point for our journey on the Gibb.

While drivers often carry two spares because tyres get shredded, not just flattened, on the Gibb, the rental company we hire our fourwheel drive from assures us we’ll be fine with just one.

Three days later, after we got our

READER’S DIGEST

photo courtesy of berkeley River lodge

The Berkeley River Lodge is so remote that it can’t be accessed by road—visitors have to be flown in

flat changed by those three burly men, we limp into Over the Range, the garage seemingly at the end of the universe, to get the tyre fixed.

It looks like a junkyard, filled with hollowed-out tyres and skeletons of cars. Owner Neville Hernon— who looks like the Mad Max of tyre repair—lives on-site with his wife.

Their leaflet, pinned up at every roadhouse along the Gibb, says: “Drop in to our depot for advice, have a look at our Wet Season photos, or just to say hello.”

As we wait for Hernon to fix our flat, we do have a look at those aforementioned wet season photos.

All the scraggly desert surrounding us was underwater. Everywhere.

Hernon soon approaches with a

grim smile and bad news: the tyre has to be replaced.

It takes him 15 minutes to do just that, hand me the credit card machine and charge me $385 for a used replacement tyre. And so we continue to our next stop, happy as clams that we had to drive only 12 miles to reach the Over the Range garage, and knowing the law of supply and demand is working perfectly in the Outback.

When we arrive in the tiny settlement of Imintji, we are greeted by a man who appears to be the perfect Aussie Outback wrangler.

John Bennett is tall, dust-tanned, with tall leather boots that even the fangs of the local, lethal king brown snake surely couldn’t pierce.

SEPTEMBER 2021 • 93

“Howdy,” Bennett greets us. “How are y’all?”

Hmmm… Aussie wranglers don’t talk that way. Texas cowboys do. It turns out that Bennett, CEO of the local Imintji Aboriginal Corporation and manager of a campsite and arts centre for tourists, came to Australia in 2005 from Waco, Texas, where he had been a mining supervisor.

Bennett was drawn to the area by the love of a woman. Of Cherokee descent, he understood first-hand the hardships of Indigenous people, and in 2011 he started working for a group of Aboriginal tribes in the Kimberley area whose ancestors are believed to have been the first people in Western Australia.

Imintji, which means “the place to sit down” in the Ngarinyin language, was established as an outstation in the 1950s. Outstations are small communities on traditional land, and this one serves as an important stop-over place along the Gibb River Road. A big part of Bennett’s job as CEO of the tribal community is working with the regional and federal governments to make sure local Aboriginal peoples, specifically the Imintji, Tirrilantji and Yulmbu, get the rights, grants, and respect they’re entitled to.

Bennett and local artist Edna Dale are the public faces of the rise of Aboriginal tourism in Western Australia. Dale is the daughter of community elder Jack Dale 94 • SEPTEMBER 2021

Mengenen, one of Australia’s most revered Aboriginal artists and a custodian of the folklore and stories of his people. Edna learned to paint at her father’s feet. Her work as an interpreter of ancient rock art is sold at the Imintji Art Centre and regional museums. The centre is both a gallery and a school—during our visit, half a dozen artists are at work, nearly all doing rock art.

That tradition is kept alive today through the Camping With Custodians programme, which lets visitors stay on Aboriginal land and learn from locals; the camping fees stay in the community.

During our time in this dusty

Photo by Bob Ramsay

THERE’S NOWHERE LIKE THE OUTBACK

READER’S DIGEST

Photos courtesy of camping with custodians

Left: John Bennett, CEO of the Imintji Aboriginal Corporation, and David Bradman, a member of the Imintji arts community, examine Aboriginal rock art. Above left and right: A Camping With Custodians art class, and some of the artwork created in the class based on Aboriginal techniques and themes

little art-outpost near the middle of the Gibb, we run into a huge subculture of Australian travel known as “caravanning.” The variety of recreational vehicles and people we encounter along the Gibb—from wealthy retirees in super-deluxe caravans to impoverished students in beaten-up Volkswagen vans—speaks to the allure of this lifestyle. A few caravanners stay overnight at small campgrounds such as the one in Imintji; many more stay at big ones like El Questro, which can hold 850 people. They may spend a week on the road or, as thousands do each year, drive the 9,321-mile Highway 1, which rings the country.

Bennett is eager to get more of these caravans to stay overnight at Imintji. Not that it’s short on

business. Most everyone travelling the Gibb stops there for petrol and drinks, and maybe to buy some art.

Before we rattle away from Imintji and on to Derby, the coastal town with the highest tides in Australia, at the end of the Gibb River Road, we wonder if Aboriginal tourism in the region can continue to prosper as it serves time-starved, demanding visitors like us. Bennett is certain that it can.

“It’s easy to think that Aboriginals and tourists have nothing in common, except curiosity for the tourists and paying work for the Aboriginals,” he tells us. “Sure, it may start that way, but I’ve often seen it grow into real mutual respect.” n from Canadian Geographic (September 10, 2020), Copyright © 2020 by Ramsay Inc.

SEPTEMBER 2021 • 95

TR AVEL & ADVENTURE

My Great Escape:

Vickers In Venice Our reader Maggie Cobbett from Yorkshire heads to Italy…

S

alley Vickers’ wonderful book Miss Garnet’s Angel inspired my latest “great escape”. Not only is the novel a most intriguing story, but it includes a map that allows the reader to follow in the protagonist, Julia Garnet’s footsteps in Venice, Italy, all the way from St Mark’s Square to her apartment and the nearby church where she found her angel.

My four-day stay began with the magical sight of Venice rising from the lagoon as my husband and I crossed from the Marco Polo airport in a water taxi.

Our hotel, which was only a stone’s throw away from the world famous Basilica and Doge’s Palace, provided every comfort and had—or so we were told—once accommodated 96 • SEPTEMBER 2021

George Sand (the pen name of the French writer and memoirist Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin), best remembered now, perhaps, for her romantic liaison with Chopin.

My desire to see all the places mentioned in Miss Garnet’s Angel was thoroughly indulged, but my husband and I also found time for

an excursion to the glassmakers’ island of Murano and a highly enjoyable evening of opera in a crumbling palace by the Grand Canal. And of course, we found time for a romantic ride in a gondola. Little restaurants tucked away up side streets provided what we needed in the way of sustenance, mostly pizza and pasta, supplemented most days by glorious Italian ice cream. Venice is definitely a place to which we shall return— there’s so much more to see than can be appreciated in one visit. n Tell us about your favourite holiday (send a photo too) and if we print it, we’ll pay £50. Email excerpts@readersdigest.co.uk SEPTEMBER 2021 • 97

98

D’AMATO RECORDS Valletta

HIDDEN

GEMS

D’Amato Records claims to be the world’s oldest record store.

A small boutique amid the slanted old-town lanes of Malta’s likeable capital, Valletta, it begs to differ where Guinness World Records denotes this status to Cardiff’s Spillers.

D’Amato Records’ frontage asserts that it was established in 1885 (versus 1894 for Spillers). However, its family’s latest owner, Anthony D’Amato, will admit that it was first a furniture shop, and that he doesn’t know precisely when the switch from futons to phonograph cylinders took place. A dogged investigation by Maltese bloggers Trackage Scheme failed to elicit any answers.

The D’Amato family have certainly sold records for a long time, demonstrating remarkable tenacity all the while. They continued to trade as Malta suffered blitzes during the Second World War and during the Spanish flu; it took the COVID-19 pandemic for them to briefly bring down their shutters.

They’ve been fervent supporters of Maltese music, too. In the 1930s, family members doubled as agents for local singers, sending them overseas to record, before later producing those works as a label would.

Close to St John’s Co-Cathedral and the Savoy Arcades, their legendary store greets customers with an agreeably musty, homely smell. Its racks bulge with temptation, and constant visits from DJs confirm D’Amato’s propensity for being able to source specialist vinyl, local or international.

Look out for original issues of Pink Floyd or Queen albums and, outside, an old His Master’s Voice image featuring the iconic dog, Nipper—because the shop served for years as HMV’s sole local agent. n

By Richard Mellor Photo:© Kris Arnold/flickr

SEPTEMBER 2021 • 99

MONEY

Are Premium Bonds For You? This month, Andy Webb uncovers why everyone’s talking about Premium Bonds

100 • SEPTEMBER 2021

T

he last year has seen a rush of cash put into Premium Bonds. Low interest rates elsewhere and the chance of winning £1 million has been enough to tempt millions of savers to take a punt.

So should you be joining them?

Here’s what you need to know.

What are Premium Bonds?

Premium Bonds are issued by the government via National Savings & Investments, or NS&I. In return for investing your cash with them, each bond you buy (at £1 each) is put into a monthly prize draw.

You can save up to £50,000 in Premium Bonds, and the full sum is protected. It’s also an easy-access account so you can take your money out whenever you want, though it’s best to allow eight working days.

Any wins you get are tax-free, though in reality this won’t make much difference as the Personal Savings Allowance on interest earned means most people don’t actually pay tax on savings held elsewhere.

How much can you win?

Prizes start at £25 and go up to £1 million. If you do win, you’re most likely to get something at the lower end. And there’s a high chance you won’t win anything at all.

The 1% prize rate—note that’s a “prize” not “savings”

rate—is currently 1%. At first look this suggests you’d get 1% back on your money. But the way the prizes are structured, you might get far less.

In reality, how much you can expect to get back is dependent on a few factors. Just how lucky you are, and how many bonds you have.

To get close to the 1% rate you need to have the full £50,000.

The less you have, the lower the equivalent savings rate would be.

For example, save £1,000 and you probably won’t get anything in a year. With £5,000 saved you’d hopefully win twice (£50), so 0.5%.

And with £20,000 chances are you’ll get £175, which works out as 0.875%.

Premiumbondscalculator.com is a useful website to see what you’d hopefully win based on your deposit.

The prize rate can also change.

Until late 2020 it was 1.4%, and there’s every chance the popularity of bonds this year could push NS&I to reduce it again.

Buying Premium Bonds Though Premium Bonds cost £1, the minimum you can buy is 25.

It’s easy to buy the bonds online at nsandi.com or by calling.

Andy Webb is a personal finance journalist and runs the award-winning money blog, Be Clever With Your Cash SEPTEMBER 2021 • 101

MONEY

It actually makes sense to buy them at the end of a calendar month rather than at any other time. This is because draws take place at the start of each month, but you need to have bonds invested for a full calendar month before they are entered.

In the meantime, keep the money saved in an easy-access account with the highest rate you can get.

You need to be over 16 years old to buy Premium Bonds, though you can buy them for younger people.

The accounts will be held by parents or guardians until they’re 16.

Claiming prizes If you do win (well done!) you can choose to either reinvest your winnings for the next prize draw or to withdraw the money. There were plans to end payouts as cheques, but this was recently reversed so that option is available to you if you prefer.

Are they worth it?

For most people it really comes down to what rates you can get elsewhere.

If the guaranteed return on savings is better than the expected prize win then you probably want to go with

THE CHANCE OF WINNING £1 MILLION HAS BEEN ENOUGH TO TEMPT MILLIONS OF SAVERS TO TAKE A PUNT that. And visa versa.

And if you have less than £5,000 saved then you will almost certainly get more money in the very best savings accounts.

But if you fancy a flutter, and are willing to potentially walk away with nothing (or less than you’d get in a savings account), you might prefer to try Premium Bonds.

They’re also a good option for anyone who does pay tax on their interest earned, with the £50,000 limit more than twice the size of the annual ISA allowance.

Also, unlike National Lottery tickets, the money that you pay for the bond is still yours if you lose, and it will be entered into each draw until you decide to go ahead and withdraw the cash. n

Tree-ly Terrific There are many more trees on Earth than there are stars in the Milky Way. With 200 - 400 billion stars to over 1 trillion trees, it shouldn’t be hard to find some shade.

Source: nature.com

102 • SEPTEMBER 2021

READER’S DIGEST

On The Money Andy Webb Q: My wife and I lent our son a large sum of money to help him purchase his first home. He is on his own and earns a very good wage, but his saving skills are terrible. The money we lent him was the last of our savings, and as we trusted him, nothing was ever put in writing. But we are now very concerned that we haven’t seen any return of the money lent, and our son is becoming increasingly distant from us, not returning calls or getting in touch. Now we are starting to panic that we will never see the money again. Do we have any kind of case, legally speaking?

- Edward, 65 A: A verbal agreement will be enough for you to take legal action. As it’s a sizeable sum of money you’ll most likely have bank transfer evidence to show he did get the money, which will be on your side. Any other correspondence such as text messages or emails will help too.

However he could argue that the money was intended as a gift.

Ultimately it’ll be up to a judge to decide which is most plausible. And if you win, it could still be difficult to enforce the repayment of your loan.

Hopefully a threat of action will be enough to prompt him to begin repayments—though of course that could see your relationship with him further deteriorate.

Your best step is to talk to a solicitor to take you through the process and costs. You could even talk to your local Citizens Advice Centre in the first instance.

For those thinking of doing something similar to help their children, this shows how important it is to draw up a written agreement that also details the plans to repay the money. n Got a money question for our resident expert? Email it confidentially to onthemoney@readersdigest.co.uk SEPTEMBER 2021 • 103

JANE DUNN

A TASTE OF

HOME

104

FOOD

Salted Caramel-Stuffed NYC Cookies

© E L L I S PA R R I N D E R

One of my favourite things to bake in the world is cookies, and these insanely delicious, salted-caramelstuffed NYC cookies are one of the best. When you combine the idea of giant chunky cookies with the delicious sweet and salty balance of

salted caramel, you find this bake.

I find cookies are a hit with everyone of any age, and you always want to try new flavours—but this will by far go to the top of your list! They are a little life-changing, I won’t lie, so definitely give them a go!

METHOD

INGREDIENTS:

1. Beat the butter and soft light brown sugar together until creamy. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat again.

2. Add the plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and sea salt and combine until cookie dough is formed, then add the chocolate chips or chunks and mix until they are evenly distributed.

3. P ortion your dough out into eight balls— each should weigh about 110g. Once rolled into balls, flatten slightly and put 1 or 2 soft caramels in the middle, then wrap the cookie dough around the caramels and reroll into balls. Put into the freezer for at least 30 minutes, or in the fridge for an hour or so. While the cookie dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan and line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.

4. T ake your cookies out of the freezer or fridge and put onto the lined trays (I do four cookies per tray) and bake for 12–14 minutes. Once baked, leave the cookies to cool on the trays for at least 30 minutes as they will continue to bake while cooling.

• 125g unsalted butter • 175g soft light brown sugar • 1 egg (medium or large) • 1 tsp vanilla extract • 300g plain flour • 1 ½ tsp baking powder • ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda • 1 tsp sea salt • 250g milk chocolate chips or chunks • 8–16 soft caramel sweets

Jane’s Patisserie by Jane Dunn is available from August 5, Ebury, £20 SEPTEMBER 2021 • 105

Ingredients: Serves: 4-6 Pancakes: •1 25g plain flour •2 eggs •1 20ml whole milk •2 40ml water •½ tsp sea salt •1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing Filling: •1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil •2 large leeks (white and light-green parts only), diced •1 garlic clove, minced •2 40g ricotta cheese •1 50g feta cheese, grated •1 20ml hot water •1 tsp sea salt

From Macedonia— Recipes and Stories from the Balkans by Katerina Nitsou 106

FOOD

World Kitchen North Macedonia: Palachinki So Praz (Leek Pancakes) This month, chef Katerina Nitsou invites us to sample a bit of Macedonian cuisine with this light but delicious recipe…

“This is such an impressive dish to serve to guests. My Aunt Niki would often make it for us when we visited, and it was much anticipated. As a child, it was almost like having a slice of cake, but savoury. The combination of sautéed leeks, feta and ricotta is a delicious contrast to the subtly flavoured pancakes.”

Method: 1. In a blender, combine all the pancake ingredients and blend for 10 seconds until smooth. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, make the filling: in a large sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the leeks and garlic and sauté until softened for 3–4 minutes.

3. Remove from the heat and transfer to a mixing bowl. Whisk in the cheeses, hot water, and salt to form a paste. Set aside.

4. To make the pancakes: heat a nonstick frying pan over medium heat and lightly grease with butter.

5. Pour in just enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan and rotate the pan to form a thin layer of batter across the base. Cook until the batter

becomes dry on top, and the edges separate from the pan, takes about 2 to 4 minutes.

6. Using a spatula, gently peel away the edges and flip the pancake over.

Cook the other side for an additional 2 to 4 minutes, then transfer to a plate.

7. Re-grease the pan with butter if needed and repeat until all the batter has been used. You should have 6 to 8 pancakes.

8. Place a pancake on a flat serving plate. Smear a large spoonful of filling (about 60ml) over the surface of the pancake, then top with another pancake.

9. Repeat the layering process until all the pancakes and filling have been used, making sure you finish with a pancake.

10. Slice into wedges and serve.

SEPTEMBER 2021 • 107

CR AFT & DIY

Bag It Up Give your old jeans a new lease on life in ten easy steps

L

ast year, a pair of my trousers got a rip in them.

I sewed it up, of course. But after a few more wears, the hole kept reopening (and the fabric was getting threadbare). Try as I might, there was no salvaging them!

But instead of throwing them away, I stashed them with my craft supplies, knowing that I would cut them up and use the fabric one day. That day has come!

Instead of simply cutting up the fabric and sewing it into something new, I wanted to maintain original elements of the trousers and use them in a different way. Inspired by some drawstring shorts I made recently, I figured out a way to remove the back pockets and transform them into a small, no-sew drawstring bag.

That’s right—absolutely no sewing is required to make these upcycled bags! Just a seam ripper and a dab of glue. Easy.

Mike Aspinall runs one of the UK’s most popular craft blogs, The Crafty Gentleman, where he shares free DIY tutorials 108 • SEPTEMBER 2021

You will need • Old trousers with a back pocket • Seam ripper • Fabric scissors • Fabric glue • Drawstring, rope or ribbon What to do 1 Turn the back pocket of your trousers inside out, and pull the lining as far out as possible. You’ll see that the pocket is basically a little bag, stitched into a hole in the trousers.

2 Using a seam ripper, unpick all of the seams that are holding the pocket to the trousers. There’s no neat way to do this—just keep going until there’s nothing left to unpick!

3 When you’ve finished unpicking, there might be a few sections that you’ll need to cut through to remove the pocket completely. Carefully cut

these with fabric scissors to release the pocket.

4 Remove all of the loose threads and bits of fabric from the pocket.

1

5 Unpick the top 3cm of the side seams (on both sides).

6 Turn the pocket the right way round (if it’s not already), so the raw side seam edges are hidden on the inside.

7 Lay the bag flat. Fold over the top edges by 3cm (ie, up to the point that you unpicked in the previous step).

8 Apply a thin strip of strong fabric glue to the edge of this folded section, to fix it in place (alternatively, you can sew it). Make sure not to glue the entire fold, as you’ll need to thread a drawstring through it—you’re basically creating a long tunnel with open ends.

2

3

9 Turn the bag over and repeat for the other side, folding over the edge and glueing in place.

10 When the glue has completely dried, thread a drawstring through both sides of the bag and tie a knot.

4

This upcycled drawstring bag is great for storing small things like loose change or charger cables. And I love the fact that it’s made from fabric that might otherwise have ended up going in the bin! n

5

FASHION & BEAUT Y

New Season, New Start Bec Oakes explains how to channel the spirit of the "September-start-again" into your wardrobe

S

eptember is a well-known marker of fresh starts, reinvention and that back-toschool feeling. The pandemic has left many of us in a style rut, so let’s harness its power to rejuvenate our relationship with fashion.

Growing up, I lived in delicious anticipation of each September. After the lazy post-exam days of summer, it was a time to start anew; to do up my top button and get back into work mode. There was something quite invigorating thinking about what the new school year might bring. And, with the return to school came backto-school shopping, a task I took very seriously. From immaculate patent leather shoes to a skirt with the perfect placement of pleats, nothing was overlooked. My new school wardrobe came with a sense of rejuvenation and I felt ready to put Bec Oakes is a Lancashire-based freelance journalist with particular passions for fashion and culture writing

110 • SEPTEMBER 2021

my best Mary Jane-clad foot forward for the upcoming year.

While those years may long be over, the distinctive rhythm of the school year remains. And, according to Elle, September is firmly established as the “thinking person’s January”—a time when, fresh from the relaxation of a long lazy summer, we’re ripe for rejuvenation and ready for change.

September brings with it a new season and the autumn/winter collections are hitting the shops at full force. It’s also show season, a four-week whirlwind during which the world’s most influential designers reveal their latest collections. And every fashion magazine on the shelf at your local newsagent includes their definitive guide to the season’s trends.

For anyone who loves clothes, it’s like a new school term and for that you need a new uniform. September remains a time to “new-seasonify” your life and update your wardrobe accordingly. It’s swapping summer sandals for an on-trend loafer; a shapeless linen dress for a tailored wool blazer. It’s knitwear and layering.

It’s ankle boots and outerwear. It’s

a new shape of handbag, a different colour palette, a fresh haircut to complement new clothes and a new lipstick to complement the new hair.

This year's autumn/winter collections are presenting an energetic and vibrant antidote to the past 18 months. Sure, there were lingering notes of lockdown life, with cosy knitwear at Fendi and Altuzarra, practical rubbersoled boots at Bottega Veneta and variations of the trusty puffer coat at the likes of Khaite and Isabel Marant. But at the same time, the AW21 collections were overwhelmingly optimistic, primed and ready for the reopening of the world. As Julien Dossena said of his party-centric collection for Paco Rabanne: “It’s just about girls enjoying themselves, releasing that vibration of genuine pleasure.”

Dense, saturated tones across a number of collections presented a much-needed reprieve from the black leggings and grey sweatshirts we’ve lived in for the past year. And, rather than one standout hue, we saw a whole spectrum of colours—from electric yellow at Versace to cobalt blue at Prada and hot pink at Balmain. Wear

one colour from head to toe for maximum impact.

Feeling brave? The memo is: skin is in. Cutouts were seen everywhere from Givenchy to Self-Portrait to Emilia Wickstead. Beyond being a major trend in partywear, they also added subtle sex appeal to more casual knitted tops and sweaters.

As for getting back into work mode, it couldn’t be easier. The Row, Rejina Pyo and Stella McCartney are just a few of the many designers that presented perfect trouser suits to take us back to the office.

Tones are soft, safe and, most importantly, versatile, while relaxed, loose-fitting silhouettes gently ease us back into the world of tailoring after the pandemic sent it to the back of our minds and wardrobes.

Whether you’re suiting up for a longoverdue return to the office or simply want to have fun with getting dressed again, AW21 has something for everyone.

Use the new collections hitting the shops and the spirit of the September start-again as inspiration to get yourself out of that pandemic-induced style rut and invest in fashion once more. n SEPTEMBER 2021 • 111

FASHION & BEAUTY

Sticky Situation Zit stickers might look cute, but do they actually work? Our beauty expert Jenessa Williams investigates

What are the benefits?

As an easily transportable emergency zit-zapper, these stickers can be very handy to have in your cosmetic arsenal. Application couldn’t be easier—just make sure your face is cleansed and dry, and then apply the sticker to the site of the issue, ideally leaving it to work overnight.

Given that they can be applied to specific areas, zit stickers can be good for those who are prone to absentmindedly irritating acne with their 112 • SEPTEMBER 2021

fingers, lessening the introduction of bacteria and allowing the spot to heal.

For those who enjoy the grim satisfaction of a big reveal, these stickers will clearly display their gunk-removing powers as you peel them off.

Do they actually work?

This gimmick gets a gold star from us, but it all comes down to a matter of ingredients. When shopping for your stickers, look out for those which are made from hydrocolloid bandage (which absorbs fluid like oil and pus) or those that contain salicylic acid, benzoyl peroxide or tea tree oil, longestablished hero ingredients for the soothing of acne. It’s important not to expect miracles. Superficial whiteheads can likely be tamed quickly with stickers, but they won’t do much to shift deeper cystic or cluster spots, especially if they haven’t yet reached the surface. If you’re experiencing particularly painful breakouts, see a dermatologist to get to the root of the issue. But for the odd pesky pimple?

You could do a lot worse than breaking out a fresh new sticker book… n

© S TA R FA C E

What are they?

Like so many of the most aesthetically pleasing beauty innovations of recent years, zit stickers originated as a must-have Korean-beauty trend.

Tapping into our most childlike enthusiasms, they are essentially sticking plasters infused with spothealing ingredients to target pesky pimples as they emerge. As part of a global push towards natural beauty, many brands have adopted zit stickers as a shame-free way to "celebrate" spots, with shapes and styles that allow you to adorn your blemishes with everything from stars and smiley faces to hearts and flowers.

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ART

116

to shop and work! Art changes State Of The Art: was people’s moods. I love the idea of

Camille Walala The multidisciplinary London-based artist speaks to Anna Walker

How would you describe your art?

For many years now, I’ve become known for making very large and ambitious artworks in public spaces all around the world. I like to work with architecture in the city, and to inject positivity into people’s everyday environment. My art has an immediate impact on people. I think this is because I like to work instinctively with bright colours, playful shapes and different kinds of geometric patterns.

I always want to lift people’s moods and make them feel differently about the places they are in.

bringing an element of fun to the street, weaving colour and joy into a city which is sometimes lacking in both. It’s important for cities to have art, but it’s also important for art to be out in the city—to be open to the public and accessible to everyone.

What do you want people to feel when they interact with your work?

To smile! To feel inspired! I always love hearing feedback when I am making work. It is especially good when someone says they feel different about their area. That is special.

How did you come to develop your signature colourful style? Where I grew up in the south of France, my family home was decorated by my mother and she used a lot of colour in her interiors—Italian designs and African fabrics. While on the other hand, my father was an architect who surrounded himself with lots of Memphis-inspired and 1980s pieces.

It felt like a natural continuity to use colour in my work.

Can you tell us about your new statue in Plymouth, “Putting Things In Perspective”? I’ve taken a bit of a new direction with this one. The sculpture creates an illusion with contrasting forms, and was developed using paper collage. The edges are a little softer, and the colour palette is more nuanced. My thinking behind making this piece was influenced by the pandemic—it was a strange and difficult time for so many people.

I took this time to reflect and to try something new. I had a different kind of perspective, and I hope too, that the colour and playful energy to the piece can give someone a smile. n

Why is it important that we have art in our public spaces? What a sad idea it would be if all we could do in cities

“Putting Things in Perspective” is at Tavistock Place outside The Box museum in Plymouth until 5 September 2021 SEPTEMBER 2021 • 117

FILM

HHHHH

R

egardless of how much you know about Oliver Sacks, this documentary film about his life stands a good chance of enriching your own. A legendary neurologist and writer, Sacks is perhaps best known for his work with a group of survivors of the 1920s sleeping sickness who had been unable to move for decades. This experience became the basis for his most famous book, Awakenings.

Here, we meet Sacks at the very final chapter of his life. After receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis, with just a few months to live, Sacks gathered some of his closest friends and sat down with director Ric Burns for a series of filmed interviews in which he took stock of his incredible life, shared some important lessons and lots and

lots of (often off-colour) anecdotes.

Complemented by copious archive footage (Sacks would meticulously document each case) as well as interviews with his nearest and dearest, the film paints a multi-layered portrait of a brilliant but complex man beset with contradictions, doubts and questions. A sombre childhood shadowed by the war and his brother’s illness; a troubled youth fuelled by amphetamine and guilt about his homosexuality; the endless battle for validation within the medical community—Sacks’ path was never an easy one. And yet, the documentary is beaming with his infectious joy, inexhaustible curiosity and a sense of wonder at the world. Above all, it’s a masterclass in empathy and kindness.

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RE A D E RS D IGE S T.C O.UK/CULTURE

By Eva Mackevic

© T H E O L I V E R S A C K S F O U N D AT I O N

OLIVER SACKS: HIS OWN LIFE

READER’S DIGEST

Further viewing…

experience that filled him with happiness, hope, fear and guilt in equal measure, and forced him to contemplate the human condition from a newfound perspective.

Robin Williams took on the complex role of Dr Sayer, a fictional version of Sacks, and underpinned it with warmth, generosity of spirit and empathy that Sacks himself embodied.

Robert de Niro stars as Leonard—the first patient who gets a dose of L-Dopa and makes a complete recovery: he gets a kick out of the simplest activities like shaving and getting dressed, and even develops a crush on a pretty clinic visitor.

The film’s most heart-breaking part comes when the effects of the miracle drug begin to wear off and the patients start slipping back into their previous state. A lot of them have adverse reactions or simply no longer respond to further doses, meaning they have to make peace with spending the remainder of their lives trapped in catatonic stupor.

One of Robin Williams’ favourite films of his own, Awakenings is a tender and purposeful film that earned three Oscar nominations. Eerily, L-Dopa was also the drug used to treat Williams’ own Parkinson-like symptoms shortly before his death in 2014.

AWAKENINGS (1990)

© A L L S TA R P I C T U R E L I B R A RY LT D. / A L A M Y S TO C K P H OTO

A

dramatisation of Sacks’ famous memoir, this film depicts the ground-breaking events that took place at a Bronx hospital in 1969, when he decided to administer the drug L-Dopa— commonly used to treat Parkinson’s— to a group of catatonic patients who had survived the 1917–1928 epidemic of encephalitis lethargica. The initial results were astounding; the patients, who’d spent decades unable to talk or move, suddenly erupted into fullblown life. Reactions varied: for some, it was a fairytale-like return; for others, awakening to a world and bodies they no longer recognised as their own was a nightmarish experience, with one patient saying L-Dopa should be renamed “Hell-Dopa”.

For Sacks, it was one of the most important periods of his life—an

SEPTEMBER 2021• 119

TELEVISION

“Y

ou’ve got a national treasure on your hands, apparently,” jokes Kathy Burke amid Money Talks (All4), her follow-up to 2019’s All Woman. Hard not to agree: this two-part documentary highlights Burke’s ability to empathise with interviewees on either side of Britain’s ever-widening social divide, and to solicit frank, unexpected insights. That empathy is as close as the series gets to proposing a concrete solution to the problems of Essex ghost town Jaywick, for example—but Burke intuits that the sharing of experience, whether enriching or impoverished, is a start.

No such cashflow problems for Paul McCartney. McCartney 3 2 1 (Disney+) ushers the singer-songwriter into a darkened studio with a mixing desk and masters of Beatles, Wings and McCartney’s solo work, where deity-like producer Rick Rubin cues relaxed discussion of

Macca’s career highlights. The archive clips and anecdotes are only part of the appeal; the real joy lies in watching an artist who visibly finds this music every bit as thrilling as he did when it was first recorded. “It was good, you know,” McCartney shrugs of “And I Love Her”. It was better than that, Paul.

The national treasures in the BBC’s gripping summer hit Time (iPlayer) come battered and bruised. Sean Bean is the boozy teacher sent down for four years on a manslaughter charge; Stephen Graham the nononsense prison guard who puts his own neck on the line while protecting this rookie. An unusually self-contained Jimmy McGovern piece, it might have aired at any point in the past 30 years, but it’s sharp on wounded, sometimes wounding male pride, and the leads are outstanding: you won’t have seen Bean this vulnerable before.

by Mike McCahill

Retro Pick: National Treasure (All4) An ironic usage: this taut 2016 drama has Robbie Coltrane as a beloved TV star mired in scandal, with Julie Walters as his disbelieving, increasingly horrified wife.

120 • SEPTEMBER 2021

MUSIC

Album Of The Month:

Happy 30th Birthday To…

Mozart Piano Concertos

by Jeremy Denk

I

t’s difficult to talk about Mozart without sounding trite; after all, he’s one of the most versatile, influential, intriguing and, well, greatest composers who ever lived. A man of unbridled imagination and creative output, he authored countless symphonies, operas, choral works and sonatas. Here, acclaimed US pianist Jeremy Denk along with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra focuses on a small but precious part of Mozart’s oeuvre.

First, we’re treated to the powerful and uplifting concerto No. 25 in C Major, K. 503—a piece that’s regarded as one of the greatest of its genre and the perfect vehicle for Mozart’s uninhibited virtuosity.

We then take a contemplative pause with a short work for solo piano, Rondo in A minor, K. 511, a tender and plaintive piece that could easily be mistaken for Schubert or Chopin, demonstrating just how ahead of his time Mozart was.

Finally, Denk invites us to join him on the soul-stirring journey that is concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466—an intensely fervent trajectory of fiery flourishes and outbursts of passion, imbued here with the pianist’s zealous but gentle urgency and generosity of expression.

Nirvana’s Nevermind Released on September 24, 1991, the grunge gods’ second album sent shockwaves around the world and changed the rock music landscape forever. Heavily inspired by punk rock (the title was partially a nod to frontman Kurt Cobain’s favourite album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols), hard rock and even pop—which it owed its addictive hooks to—the album singlehandedly brought grunge into the mainstream. A follow up to the band’s rather rougharound-the-edges debut Bleach, Nevermind turned out to be a much more sophisticated affair: a diverse mixture of unhinged punk freak-outs (“Territorial Pissings”), acoustic ballads (“Polly”) and jarring pop numbers (“In Bloom”), all defined by Cobain’s witty yet discerning wordplay, the album embodied the voice of a generation.

by Eva Mackevic SEPTEMBER 2021 • 121

BOOKS

September Fiction A dramatic turn of events might induce literary whiplash in this otherwise enjoyable novel

Freckles Cecelia Ahern HarperCollins, £16.99

W

hen Allegra Bird was a girl, she used to join up the freckles on her arms with a pen to create constellations. Now, in her twenties, she’s finding it much harder to make connections, either with other people or between the different parts of her life—although, in her defence, there are quite a lot of those. Among other things, Allegra has a beloved father back in Kerry; a current job as a parking warden in Malahide, near Dublin; a part-time career as a nude life model; a former beau who’s just James Walton is a book reviewer and broadcaster, and has written and presented 17 series of the BBC Radio 4 literary quiz The Write Stuff

120 • SEPTEMBER 2021

made her best friend pregnant; and a desperate desire to track down the mother who abandoned her at birth.

Allegra’s quest to link up these various elements is the premise of the new novel by Cecelia Ahern: daughter of the former Irish Taoiseach Bertie and, for the past two decades, a leading figure in women’s fiction. Or, more accurately, it’s one of the premises— because, somewhat ironically in the circumstances (and a bit surprisingly for such a seasoned pro), Freckles never really succeeds in joining up all of the many things it wants to be.

There is, for example, a central love story, which takes the traditional form of a man who seemed horrible turning

out to be nice. There’s also that other staple of the fiction formerly known as chick-lit: a heroine whose main flaw is that she doesn’t realise how great she is.

But Ahern throws in plenty more besides—including the idea that “You are the average of the five people you spend most time with”: an idea that has Allegra learning to separate the glamorous but ultimately shallow Dublin types from the “real honest to goodness people” she eventually comes to treasure.

The novel undeniably offers plenty to enjoy. Allegra herself is highly appealing, and most of the individual scenes are funny, affecting or both.

Even so, the feeling persists that too much of what the novel has bitten off remains unchewed. Some significant loose ends are left dangling—while the sudden sprint from abject misery on page 331 to the inevitable happy ending just 14 pages later may leave some readers suffering from the literary equivalent of whiplash.

Name the author Can you guess the writer from these clues (the fewer you need the better)?

1. He was the first Irish winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

2. One of his most famous poems begins, “I will arise and go now”.

3. His first names are William Butler.

Answer on p126

Paperbacks Between the Covers Jilly Cooper (Corgi, £8.99).

A collection of Cooper’s journalism dating back to the 1960s—and every bit as entertaining and irreverent as her fiction.

The Last House on Needless Street Catriona Ward (Viper, £8.99).

Stephen King is among the fans of this properly scary tale of a missing girl, calling it “a true nerve-shredder”.

The Haunting of Alma Fielding Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury, £9.99). The author of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher applies her usual calm wisdom to another stranger-thanfiction historical mystery—this one featuring apparently supernatural goings-on in 1930s suburbia.

The Stray Cats of Homs Eva Nour (Black Swan, £8.99).

Powerful, at times gut-wrenching novel of the Syrian civil war, based on a true story.

Really Saying Something Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward (Arrow, £8.99). The terrific autobiography of two childhood friends who went on to become popstars as members of Bananarama.

SEPTEMBER 2021 • 121

BOOKS

READER’S DIGEST RECOMMENDED READ:

Royally Exiled Andrew Lownie recounts the scandal that rocked the Royal Family in the 1940s

S

ome particularly obsessive readers of this magazine might remember that a year ago our Recommended Read was a book about Edward VIII’s abdication in 1936. Now, Andrew Lownie explains what happened next— and the results aren’t always pretty.

As the title suggests, Lownie’s main contention is that Edward’s pro-German attitudes in the 1930s weren’t simply a question of a naïve determination to avoid war. Instead, they stemmed from a mixture of personal ambition and genuine ideology (even after the war, Edward would tell dinner guests that “the Jews had Germany in their tentacles”).

In 1937, Edward and Wallis Simpson—the wife for whom he famously gave up the throne—went on a “fact-finding” tour of Germany that included tea with Hitler. As Lownie pretty conclusively demonstrates, until the summer of 1940 the Duke of Windsor (as he’d become) was—at the very least—interested in a German plan to re-install him on the British throne as part of a negotiated peace.

122 • SEPTEMBER 2021

READER’S DIGEST

Certainly, Churchill was worried enough to pack off the couple to the Bahamas, where the Duke served as governor throughout the war. After that, though, the problem remained of what an ex-king was supposed to do with his life. As the Royal Family made clear, a return to the UK wasn’t an option—any more than Wallis being allowed to bear the title of Royal Highness.

In the event, the problem was never really solved—which is why the post-war sections of the book fascinatingly detail the Windsors’ rather melancholy drift through those parts of high society that would have them (we also get some fairly hairraising information on their sexual habits, both intra- and extra-marital).

But here they are in 1946, moving back to the Château de la Croë, in the South of France, where they’d lived before the war—and which, incidentally, is now owned by Roman Abramovich…

‘‘

The villa had billeted Italians and German troops during the war and was in a sorry state, with curtains and oil paintings stolen, mines in the garden and rusting radar on the roof. Wallis, never happier than when making a new home, set about restoring it and their pre-war life.

Within a month she had a staff of twenty-two and was entertaining furiously, helped by the fact that, as a major-general, the Duke was entitled

to draw rations from the British Army depot at Marseilles.

Here the couple lived the life denied to them in reality; here Wallis was given the status denied to her by the Royal Family. Georges Sanègre, who worked for the Windsors for almost forty years, was taken aside when he first joined the staff by Wilmott the butler. ‘I have been instructed by the duke that all staff must bow or curtsy to the duchess and call her Your Royal Highness.

You must never speak first, but wait until she has spoken to you; never turn your back to her, but take several paces backwards and then turn to leave her presence.’

The Windsors always dressed for dinner—he in dinner jacket or kilt, she in long dress and jewels, and close attention was paid to the food, flowers and guests. They brought in well-known entertainers such as Maurice Chevalier, and guests might include Noël Coward. Once when a member of staff was surprised

Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor

by Andrew Lownie is published by Blink Publishing at £25 SEPTEMBER 2021 • 123

BOOKS

there were only six for dinner, Wallis quickly replied, indeed, ‘but they are all kings.’

Without any other purpose in life, the Windsors’ purpose became to entertain and be entertained. If they could not live in a royal palace or be posted to an embassy, they would create the ambience of one themselves. Their lives would become a spectacle. One guest remembered them taking a party to a gala in Monte Carlo. ‘She had on every jewel. He wore a kilt. It was like watching a couple in pantomime—the studied gestures, the automatic smiles.’

‘In the evening the Windsors arrived,’ wrote Noël Coward in his diary in spring 1946. ‘The hotel got itself into a fine frizz…

I gave them a delicious dinner: consommé, marrow on toast, grilled langoustine, tournedos with sauce béarnaise, and chocolate soufflé.

Poor starving France. After that we went to the Casino and Wallis and I gambled until 5am. She was very gay and it was most enjoyable. The Duke sat rather dolefully at one of the smaller tables.’

‘You can’t imagine the sense of luxury at La Croë in that first summer after the war,’ says the French socialite and friend of the Windsors, the Baronne de Cabrol. ‘It was a really grand villa and to amuse us, the Duchess arranged to serve dinner in a different room each night over the ten days we stayed there.’

124 • SEPTEMBER 2021

’’

“How Nice For The Duke”: More From Traitor King “In August 1950, the Windsors were invited to the second wedding of [Wallis’s old friend] Herman Rogers. His new bride was a widow, Lucy Wann, who had been part of his social circle. What he had not realised was that Wallis, long in love with Herman herself, still had designs on him.

Wallis made her feelings clear, telling Lucy, ‘I’ll hold you responsible if anything happens to Herman. He’s the only man I’ve ever loved.’

‘How nice for the duke,’ Lucy icily replied.

‘Her boredom in her own marriage had become acute, and she was no longer as discreet as before when it came to hiding her feelings,’ according to one friend of the Windsors. Having failed to dissuade Herman from marrying Lucy, Wallis sought revenge in other ways. The wedding present—an antique silver salver—bore the inscription: ‘To Herman Livingstone Rogers on the occasion of his marriage August 9th 1950 from Edward and Wallis.’ No mention of Lucy and the wrong date.”

And the name of the author is…

W B Yeats. The poem in question two is “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”—and the three other Irish Nobel winners (with a bonus point for each) are…

George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney.

Books

THAT CHANGED MY LIFE

The Duchess of York is the author of two historical non-fiction books. Her debut novel, Her Heart for a Compass, is published by Mills & Boon in hardback, eBook and audiobook The Accidental Empress by Allison Pataki The Accidental Empress takes you on a journey back to 1853, where the Habsburgs are Europe’s most powerful ruling family. Emperor Franz Joseph is young, rich and has an empire stretching across Europe. However, this is not a story about his military missions but rather missions of the heart.

When fifteen-year-old Elisabeth “Sisi”, Duchess of Bavaria travels to the Habsburg Court, she is there to assist her older sister who is due to marry Franz. After spending more time around the young Emperor, it is Sisi who has won his heart.

Going back on his earlier proposal, Franz declares his love for Sisi and the two are soon married.

The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon The eight-book Outlander series is the perfect mix of historical, romance and fantasy fiction. Think eighteenth century Downton Abbey meets Doctor Who! Claire, a nurse in the Second World War, accidentally travels back in time and ends up trying to change the course of history.

On her action-packed journey she meets Jamie, a man who has faced unbelievable challenges to protect his family.

Diana Gabaldon transports readers to the Culloden Battle of 1746. Amongst the chaos and brutality of war, Gabaldon also paints a heartwarming picture of love as feelings between Claire and Jamie deepen.

FOR MORE, GO TO READERSDIGEST.CO.UK/CULTURE

Kingsbridge trilogy

by Ken Follett Set in the city of Kingsbridge, Follett brings his rich historical expertise to this immersive saga—full of captivating characters as they navigate their way through ambition, love and conflict.

The first story centres on the struggles of Prior Phillip and his mason-turned-architect Tom as they attempt to build the greatest gothic cathedral in the medieval world.

The characters that Follett weaves are what makes this series so epic. Readers meet villains and heroes, each with their own complex strengths and weaknesses.

You may want to cancel your plans for the day as you read this page-turning series that is absorbing from start to finish.

SEPTEMBER 2021 • 125

TECHNOLOGY

Lost And Found James O’Malley extols the benefits of Apple’s revolutionary new tracking gadget

A

bout a year ago, my partner and I got a little black and white cat.

We called her Hashtag and despite my initial scepticism, a latent parental instinct in my body kicked in. If I don’t see Hashtag for a while, I worry that something terrible has happened to her, even if every time it turns out she was just sleeping under the bed.

So to help put my mind at rest, I bought a tiny tracker made by a company called Tile, which attaches to her collar. It meant that, even if I can’t see her, I can pull out my phone and connect to Tile using Bluetooth, the same technology we use to connect our phones to wireless headphones. If the connection is made successfully, it means that she must be nearby.

But there was still a problem: what if Hashtag were to get out of the house and run further away?

126 • SEPTEMBER 2021

Hashtag wearing his AirTags

Bluetooth range only extends to around ten meters, so any further and her whereabouts would be a mystery. This is why I was delighted when earlier this year Apple released the AirTag, its own Bluetooth tracker.

And the results are, I think, pretty revolutionary, with big implications for our physical world.

AirTags work the same way as Tile.

But Apple has added a twist: instead of just using your own iPhone to look for your own trackers, every iPhone in the world works together to find tracking tags.

It’s pretty ingenious. If your iPhone spots an AirTag, even if it doesn’t belong to you, it will send its location information back to the AirTag’s actual owner.

This means that even if you personally aren’t in range of your AirTag, as long as there’s an iPhone nearby, you can see updates on where it is—and more importantly, where your cat, keys, or whatever you have attached to it are.

This means you can see where your stuff is on a literally global scale—so long as there’s an iPhone nearby. And if you have one of the newest iPhones, it even makes use of another new technology called “Ultra Wideband”. This precisely navigates you to your AirTag, within centimetres

THIS NEW FEATURE

WORKS BECAUSE THERE ARE A BILLION IPHONES OUT THERE

of accuracy—which is brilliant for when your keys have fallen somewhere down the back of the sofa, for example.

Cleverly, Apple has built in privacy controls that keep the location of each tag secret, so that only you can see them, and it has even taken steps to combat abuse. If your phone detects an AirTag that doesn’t belong to you and that is following you around, it’ll warn you so you can make sure you’re not being unknowingly tracked.

And the best bit? Unlike most Apple products it doesn’t even require an expensive charger or special connector—it simply uses watch batteries, and will last for a year before it needs replacing.

As you can probably tell, I find this new technology strangely mindblowing. Overnight, Apple has

created an entirely new, massive network of physical objects that covers pretty much the entire world.

And, slightly scarily, it is only possible because the iPhone is such a huge success.

AirTags revolutionary new feature only works because there are a billion iPhones out there. It gives Apple an enormous advantage, at least in the short term. Though Samsung has announced a similar tracking product that uses its phones, it won’t have the same reach as Apple’s network.

And similarly, Tile has since announced a new partnership with Amazon to attempt to do something similar. Its plan is to use Alexa speakers to sniff out its own trackers.

But again, there simply aren’t as many smart speakers in the world as there are iPhones.

But I think AirTags are important, and will change the world. In the not-too-distant future, it’ll be the case that everything we buy of moderate value that we might conceivably lose will have an AirTag built in. Your headphones, your fancy camera, your suitcase, and so on. In fact, you can already buy a bike—the rather pricey Vanmoof S3—with this capability.

So, brilliantly, we’re never going to lose anything ever again. And if Hashtag ever does escape, then at least I can enlist the entire world to help look for her. n SEPTEMBER 2021 • 127

FUN & GAMES

You Couldn’t Make It Up Win £30 for your true, funny stories!

Go to readersdigest.co.uk/contact-us or facebook.com/readersdigestuk

We had to pick up a few DIY bits much to my son's annoyance. As we parked up, he said, "You know why it's called B&Q, don't you?”

There was a moment’s pause before he gleefully announced, "Because it’s Boring and you sometimes have to Queue to get in!"

me with a description of her dog and a rough estimate of his size.

I suggested I make a house call to measure him, and she replied, “No, he will guess it’s a coat and it’s a surprise for his birthday. Can you make it in stretchy material please?"

PATRICIA HAY, East Sussex

JENNIE GARDNER, Bath

My 99-year-old great-grandfather was going to his first antique auction with my parents and was clearly excited.

My great-grandmother fussed over him before he went. The last thing she said to my parents was, "Don't let people bid on him!" His face was a picture.

DEMI ROBERTS, North Wales

I make made-to-measure doggie coats. Once, a customer contacted 128 • SEPTEMBER 2021

"I am going to grow more vegetables from seed this year,” I said cheerfully to my little granddaughter when we arrived at the garden centre.

She looked at me in amazement as the first thing I put in my trolley was a pack of bird seed."What sort of birds are you going to grow, Gran?" she asked.

RHODA PIPPEN, Cardiff

My great-uncle Joe had just got his first mobile phone. But he was

having problems with it. He texted me, "I don't think my messages are reaching people."

"Trust me," I replied, "They are."

He texted back, "But how can you be so sure?"

KYM YETTON, Cambridgeshire

My husband left a note for the office cleaner at work because he'd noticed the trophy cupboard the firm owned was quite dusty. He left a note saying, "Check out the trophies".

The next day he found it still very dusty with a note added from the cleaner: "Yes, super trophies!"

My husband, Leon, does not like the children texting him when he is downstairs. He got a message recently from our daughter who was in her bedroom, telling him there was a huge spider on the ceiling and he should come immediately and catch it because she was scared.

He ignored it, so she sent some more texts. She then got a text back from him: "Your dad is dead. You're next. Love, Spider." She doesn't text him anymore!

The other day, I overheard a couple of elderly gentlemen venting their frustrations about the woes of modern technology.

"I just can't ever seem to remember my passwords," grumbled one of them.

The other one smiled. "Oh? I can never forget mine."

"How do you do it?" asked the first man curiously.

"Well, I simply set all my passwords to 'Incorrect' so that whenever I'm told that my password is incorrect, I'll remember it!"

LEONA HECKMAN, Clwyd

DAISY DAVID, Hertfordshire

AMELIE GEORGE, Wrexham County

cartoon by Guto Dias

SEPTEMBER 2021 • 129

TRIVIA

By Samantha Rideout

1. Which fast-food franchise is the largest in the world?

8. Which Egyptian pharaoh was entombed with a dagger made from meteorite iron?

2. What fictional character famous in Japan is also key to tourism in Prince Edward Island?

9. Which are more numerous: birds, humans or cattle?

3. If having no religious affiliation were to be counted as a religion, it would be the second largest in the world. True or false?

10. In which European country could you attend La Tomatina, a tomatothrowing festival?

4. Is it possible for a human to get scared to death, literally?

11. How would you write the decimal number 8 as a binary number?

5. Last year, what was born from an embryo that had been frozen for 27 years?

12. Which one of these foods is not a rich source of potassium: lentils, radishes, bananas or avocados?

6. The 17th-century artisan Antonio Stradivari made musical instruments that now sell for very high prices. What kind of instruments did he make?

7. Which country has the European Union’s longest bridge?

13. Did Neanderthals know how to make fire?

14. Which major European city has a wall covered in the words “I love you” in 15. How do emperor penguins 250 languages? tell each other apart?

Answers: 1. Subway. 2. Anne of Green Gables. 3. False. It would be the third largest, after Christianity and Islam. 4. Yes, but it is very rare. 5. A baby girl. 6. Stringed instruments, particularly violins. 7. Portugal. It’s called the Vasco da Gama Bridge and stretches over 17 kilometres. 8. King Tutankhamun. 9. Birds. There are 400 billion birds, 7.7 billion humans, and 1.5 billion cattle.

10. Spain. 11. 1000. 12. Radishes. 13. Yes. 14. Paris. 15. By listening to each other’s unique calls.

130 • SEPTEMBER 2021

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A

fter spending far too much time on apps and social media over the last few years, Gemma decided it was time for a change.

“I’d started to get really frustrated with how I was spending my spare time”, said Gemma, 54 from London. “One day, I realised I’d checked my phone over 100 times. Something had to give.”

“So, I deleted my social media apps from my phone and made a promise to myself to do something more positive with my time.”

At first, it wasn’t easy for Gemma to find things to do.

“I’m embarrassed to admit that I’d stopped reading as much over the last couple of years. But, then a friend recommended Readly to me. I’d always loved reading magazines and thought it was time to give them a go again.

The selection is amazing: food, fitness, lifestyle, culture, crafts and

hobbies are all covered. I’ve been using Readly in the evenings to relax instead of watching TV. I’ve also found it great for inspiration and ideas for new recipes. We’ve been doing some re-decorating, so the interior design section has been really helpful. Having so many past issues to browse through is just fantastic. I can’t think how much I would’ve had to spend to get all that content. If you read more than a couple of magazines, you’ll be saving money each month.

My husband loves the car, sport and business magazines. And we cuddle up and do the puzzles and crosswords together now as well!

As it’s a family membership, I’ve shared my subscription with my daughter who has started using it. She’s a teacher and loves getting inspiration from the kids news, science and history magazines.”

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FUN AND GAMES IT PAYS TO INCREASE YOUR

Word Power

Whether you find it a pleasure or a chore, shopping is a fact of life.

See how many of this month’s retail terms you’ve learned while spending your pounds

BY CRYSTAL BE LIVEAU

1. flog—A: act rudely

6. shrinkage—

11. appurtenances—

towards a customer.

B: damage merchandise.

C: sell aggressively.

A: lost stock.

B: decline of customer base.

C: decrease in buying power due to inflation.

A: accessories.

B: clothing tags.

C: online sales.

2. cosset—A: pamper.

B: make to order.

C: browse.

3. sundries—

A: contraband products.

B: miscellaneous items.

C: styrofoam stuffing.

4. showrooming—

A: buying a product solely to impress your peers.

B: returning a product after using it.

C: examining a product in a store before buying it online.

5. pop-up— A: door greeter.

B: store that opens temporarily.

C: daily markdown promotion.

7. cupidity—

A: narcissism.

B: overspending.

C: greed.

8. catchpenny—

A: cashier’s till.

B: intended for quick, cheap sales.

C: expensive purchase.

12. float—A: cash to

begin the sales day.

B: customer unlikely to buy anything.

C: legless mannequin.

13. upsell—A: place

an item at eye level.

B: push a more expensive product.

C: auction above market price.

9. gleanings— A: bargains.

B: advice from previous buyers.

C: items collected bit by bit.

14. dicker— A: buy in instalments.

B: window-shop.

C: negotiate.

10. popinjay—

15. sybaritic—

A: chatty shopper.

B: person given to vain displays.

C: impatient patron.

A: fond of luxury.

B: inclined to buy in quantity.

C: easily influenced by advertising.

SEPTEMBER 2021 • 133

WORD POWER

Answers

1. flog—[C] sell aggressively. Apple

unleashed an ad blitz in order to flog its new watch.

2. cosset—[A] pamper. The

boutique’s sales strategy was to cosset customers with attention and free samples.

3. sundries—[B] miscellaneous

items. Layton came back from the corner store with pens, soap and other sundries.

4. showrooming—[C] examining

9. gleanings—[C] items collected bit by bit. This weekend’s estate-sale gleanings added up to a rocking chair and two side tables.

10. popinjay—[B] person given to

vain displays. Check out that loud jacket Raj bought—he’s turning into a real popinjay.

11. appurtenances—[A] accessor­ies.

The computer comes with appurtenances, namely a printer and mouse.

a product in a store before buying it online. Before deciding which appliances to order, let’s go showrooming at the Bay.

12. float—[A] cash to begin the sales

5. pop-up—[B] store that opens temporarily. Hurry to check out the new pop-up because you never know when it will close.

13. upsell—[B] push a more

6. shrinkage—[A] lost stock.

14. dicker—[C] negotiate.

Want a good deal on a car? Take my husband. He loves to dicker over prices.

The local bookstore is in danger of shutting down due to too much shrinkage from shoplifting.

7. cupidity—[C] greed.

Aleksandra’s cupidity for shoes was insatiable.

day. The cashier’s float was too small to give me change for my £50 note. expensive product. When I took my watch in for repair, the salesperson tried to upsell me on a new model.

15. sybaritic—[A] fond of luxury.

My ex’s sybaritic lifestyle nearly bankrupted us.

8. catchpenny—[B] intended for

quick, cheap sales. The catchpenny world of fast fashion creates new looks weekly.

134 • SEPTEMBER 2021

VOCABULARY RATINGS 7–10: fair 11–12: good 13–15: excellent

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FUN & GAMES

BRAINTEASERS

Challenge yourself by solving these puzzles, then check your answers on p139 Contact How to play: Draw a line from each number to an outlet. Each line should pass as many empty squares as the number indicates. No square remains empty, and no outlet remains unused.

Example:

5 2 3

2 3 2 6 4

5

2

4

3 4

6

2 2

4

1 2

A 5B A

ABC Example: How to play: Enter in each row and column the letters A, B and C in such a way that no row or column contains the same letter twice.

The letters outside the grid indicate what letter is encountered first from the direction of the arrow.

2

2

C3 C 2

3 2 6 4

4

3

A

5

4 6

2 B A2

Visit WWW.pzzl.com/rd for solving tips and examples of both puzzle types

1 2

136 • SEPTEMBER 2021

A

4

SIXY SUDOKU

£50 PRIZE QUESTION

How to play: Insert the numbers 1 to 6 just once in each a) row, b) column, c) bold outlined area and d) white or grey rectangle.

ROLL OF THE DICE What is the sum total of the dots on the eleven hidden sides of these three dice?

Example:

sixy2109_01 Beware!

The bold outlined areas are no longer Type: [ 1] 2x3!

1 1 6

2 3 5 2 6 6

sixy2109_02 Type: [ 1]

2

1 2 4 3

1 5 4 6 6 2 1 3 4 3 5 1 6 4 2 2 4 5 2 6 1 3 3 3 5 2 4 6 4 1 4 6 5 1 3 2 4 5 3

6 6 1 3 3 2 5 4 2 1 5 6 3 4 3 6 4 2 1 5

THE FIRST CORRECT ANSWER WE PICK WINS £50!* Email excerpts@readersdigest.co.uk

ANSWER TO AUGUST’S PRIZE QUESTION

CRYPTIC EQUATIONS A=2 H=4 C=5 L=6 E=7 Q=8 Z = 11

AND THE £50 GOES TO… LESLEY STEEL, Derby

SEPTEMBER 2021 • 137

BRAINTEASERS

CROSSWISE Test your general knowledge.

Answers on p142

ACROSS

1 7 9 10 11 12 14 16 18 20 23 25 28 29 30 31

Sheets and blankets (10) Unfortunately (4) Partly unrelated female sibling (10) Grain husks (4) Investigate closely (5) Of no value (9) Dog-houses (7) Altar cloth (7) Cases (7) Implore urgently (7) Inflammation of the stomach (9) Wading bird (5) Form of wrestling (4) Beyond the power of Man (10) Hay store (4) The lot (10)

DOWN

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 13 15 17 19 21 22 24 26 27

Qualify (7) Managed (5) Leave out (4) Frankfurter (3,3) Small fish (5) Vehicle for injured people (9) F ormerly the world’s fourth largest lake (4,3) Stop up a hole (4) Wee Willie Winkie’s attire (9) Grass (4) Sea north of Australia (7) Hanging cloth (7) Baby’s feeding bottle cap (6) Point in question (5) Not easily broken (5) Salver (4)

4 6

2 2

4

BRAINTEASERS SOLUTIONS 1 2

Contact

5 3 2 6 4

5

2

4

C A B B C A B C A 4 C A B 6 41 4 A B C 2

3

sixy2109_01

6

sixy2109_02

Type: [ 1]

1 6

Type: [ 1]

2 2

2 3 5

1 2

2 6

6

SIXY SUDOKU 1 2 SOLUTIONS 4 1

ABC

2

2 3

3 1 3 5 4 6 2 6 4 2 3 5 1 5 2 6 1 3 4 4 1 3 5 2 6 3 6 1 2 4 5 2 5 4 6 1 3

2

3 4 5 3 6

4 3

2 1 5 6 3 4 3 6 4 2 1 5 5 4 1 3 2 6 6 3 2 5 4 1 4 5 3 1 6 2 1 2 6 4 5 3

Ugly Medieval Babies Ever wondered why babies in medieval paintings look like wrinkled little old men?

The reasoning has to do with Jesus. Back then, the Church commissioned most of the portraits of babies and children. And they didn’t want just any old baby—they wanted the baby Jesus. Medieval artists subscribed to the concept of homunculus, which literally means “little man,” or the belief that Jesus was born “perfectly formed and unchanged.” This homuncular, adult-looking baby Jesus became the standard for all children. (via mentalfloss.com) AUGUST 2021 • 139

FUN & GAMES

Laugh!

WIN £30

for every reader’s joke we publish!

Go to readersdigest.co.uk/contact-us or facebook.com/readersdigestuk

My girlfriend just complained that I’m rubbish at describing her. She’s got a cheek!

Comedian GLENNY RODGE

into a baby’s mouth?

Orville Wright: But in the air, yes.

Why was it called the “Road Out of Lockdown” and not the “Road to DeMask-Us?” Seen on Twitter

Yesterday, I ate a clock. It was very time-consuming. Especially when I went back for seconds.

Seen on Twitter

Submitted via email

I just left my old job working at the sewer. Ten years down the drain.

Comedian ANDY RYAN

Whenever I leave a restaurant, I always stop by a random table and say, “Thank you for taking care of the cheque.”

Comedian STEVE MARTIN Investor: So it’s like a spoon going 140 • SEPTEMBER 2021

Did you hear the news? The former CEO of IKEA is now Prime Minister of Sweden. He’s spent the first week assembling his cabinet.

Submitted via letter

The owner of a seafood restaurant sends one of his sons undercover to his rival’s restaurant. The owner tells

Why should you never brush your teeth with your left hand?

BECAUSE A TOOTHBRUSH WORKS BETTER!

Kitty Costumes

Seen online

him to get a job as a cook, and figure out the recipe for his rival’s famous clam chowder.

The first day, the son comes home with a basic list of ingredients that the rival uses. They try making the chowder, but it doesn’t turn out the same. The owner sends him back.

The second day, the son comes home having watched the rival chef prepare the chowder. They try again to make it, and it’s close, but the consistency is too watery. The son realises that he was distracted for a minute while the chef did something.

“He must have added a secret ingredient, one not on the list, while you looked away!” concludes the owner. He sends his son back for a third day, this time telling him not to take his eyes off the chef for a second.

The son comes back the next day excited. “You’ll never believe what I saw!” he says. “He did have a secret ingredient, it’s a piece of paper!”

BENSON THE CAT HAS BECOME A VIRAL SENSATION THANKS TO HIS IMPRESSIVE WARDROBE via boredpanda.com

SEPTEMBER 2021 • 141

LAUGH

“A piece of paper?”

“Yeah, he keeps a stack of printed paper in the kitchen. It’s a bunch of Wikipedia articles he’s printed out about various movies. When he makes the chowder, he tears out the synopsis of a movie and puts it in. It’s strange, but that’s the secret ingredient.”

“Ah,” says the owner, a knowing smile on his face. “The plot thickens.”

Seen on Reddit

Two Mafia hitmen are walking in the forest late at night. One says to the other, “I’ve gotta say, I’m scared out here!”

The other replies, “You’re scared? I’ve got to walk back alone!

Submitted via email A child finds a magical lamp, he rubs it, and a genie appears. “What is your first wish?” the genie asks.

The kid thinks for a moment, then says, “I wish I was rich.”

“It’s done,” the genie replies. “What’s your second wish, Rich?”

Seen on Twitter Why are the pyramids in Egypt?

They were too heavy to steal and place in the British Museum.

Seen on Reddit A photon walks into a hotel and is asked if he needs help with his bags. “No thanks, I’m travelling light.”

Seen on Facebook

Moving Mad Twitter users share their “signature moves” @CarrieSmith1123: Instead of flipping the bird when somebody cuts me off in traffic, I like to honk my horn and wave frantically like I know the person. @JoeyDesteFano5: I shop for the EXACT same groceries every week. That way, whenever the total ends up a bit different, I know that I either forgot something, or one of my kids snuck in a chocolate bar. @MichDeGroot: My signature move is to ring the doorbell as I’m walking into my parents’ house and announce, “Ding dong! Your favourite child is here!” My dad then responds with every other sibling’s name before he says mine.”

CROSSWORD ANSWERS Across: 1 Bedclothes, 7 Alas, 9 Stepsister, 10 Bran, 11 Study, 12 Worthless, 14 Kennels, 16 Frontal, 18 Baggage, 20 Beseech, 23 Gastritis, 25 Stork, 28 Sumo, 29 Superhuman, 30 Barn, 31 Everything Down: 2 Entitle, 3 Coped, 4 Omit, 5 Hot dog, 6 Sprat, 7 Ambulance, 8 Aral Sea, 13 Plug, 15 Nightgown, 17 Reed, 19 Arafura, 21 Curtain, 22 Nipple, 24 Issue, 26 Tough, 27 Tray 142 • SEPTEMBER 2021

READER’S DIGEST

Beat the Cartoonist!

IN THE OCTOBER ISSUE

Kim Wilde

I REMEMBER… The British musician looks back on her childhood and career Think of a witty caption for this cartoon—the three best suggestions, along with the cartoonist’s original, will be posted on our website in mid-SEPTEMBER. If your entry gets the most votes, you’ll win £50.

Submit to captions@readersdigest.co.uk

by SEPTEMBER 7. We’ll announce the winner in our September issue.

JULY WINNER

WORDS OF WISDOM Three immigrants on what they would say to their younger selves

+ Our cartoonist can’t believe his eyes—yet again he has been crowned the winner as his caption, “Don’t worry folks, I’m just a basking shark” won the most votes! Think you could do better? Enter using the details above for the chance to steal the title next time…

cartoons by Royston Robertson

HAUNTED FORESTS Get in the Halloween mood by visiting these spooky forests around the world SEPTEMBER 2021 • 143

GOOD NEWS from around the World

BEATING TRANSPHOBIA, ONE NAIL AT A TIME In 2013, when she was 21, Charlie Craggs began her gender transition.

Throughout this time, she experienced physical and verbal abuse on the streets that highlighted the extent of daily transphobia in the UK. In response, Craggs, a nail technician, decided to launch her own pop-up nail salon, which she called “Nail Transphobia”.

The initiative has seen Craggs tour the UK to combat misconceptions about the transgender community while beautifying people’s nails at the same time. Alongside travelling the length of the country, she has set up her stall at famous venues such as Somerset House, the V&A, and the Science Museum.

144 • SEPTEMBER 2021

The Nail Transphobia salon aims to combat transphobia by targeting what Craggs believes is the reason it festers in the first place—fear or preconceptions of people that you do not know. “Nail Transphobia is about giving people the chance to meet a trans person. People can ask me any questions they have about trans stuff.

The point is that they are getting to meet a trans person because most people haven’t,” she says.

She adds: “Despite being a pop up nail salon, it’s not at all about nails, it’s about conversation. The nails are just a catalyst for conversation—that’s what we need more of as a society; we all need to be talking more, especially to people outside of our communities and echo chambers.”

by Marco Marcelline

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Customer Service Office: Windsor Mint, 11 Lowesmoor Wharf, Worcester, WR1 2RS Dedicated Order Line: 01905 886220 Mon-Fri 8am - 11pm, Weekends 8am - 6pm.

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ORDER NOW AND SAVE ALMOST £1,020 YES! I want to order the strictly limited 'Queen Elizabeth II on Banknotes' complete set of 29 stunning strikes (Item No. 194-133-0) – please choose: ❑ I would like to pay in 7 monthly interest-free instalments of £19.95 each. ❑ I would like to pay the full amount of £139.65 (instead of £1,159).

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