Victor - the adorable limited edition Victory Bear has been lovingly created by world famous Merrythought, using the finest materials and softest golden brown mohair, to create a unique and very special teddy bear commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Second World War His smart Victory & Peace ribbon sash is adorned with the exclusive Victory & Peace 75 badge and he is proudly wearing a genuine Victory & Peace Medal. To complete Victor ’s distinguished finish and to ensure this teddy is far more collectable than your average bear, the Merrythought and Victory & Peace badges have been hand stitched onto the pure wool felt paws.
Only 250 of these handsome, highly collectable bears will be made, each with their own special number and individual character
Victor is approximately 12”(30cm) tall and comes in a luxury, bespoke gift box.
Code: VPMB £149.50
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16 IT’S A MANN’S WORLD
Olly welcomes some feathery new additions to the Mann family
ENTERTAINMENT
20 INTERVIEW: SALMA HAYEK
The Mexican actress and producer on motherhood and her “witchy” instincts
28 “I REMEMBER”: DANIEL O’DONNELL
Ireland’s beloved singer and TV personality looks back on his legendary music career and personal life
HEALTH
38 PAY ATTENTION TO PAIN
We reveal the nagging pains that you should never ignore, with real life stories from those who wish they hadn’t
INSPIRE
56 MEET THE ROBOT CARERS
We discover the ways that developments in AI are changing the care industry Features
64 MY BRITAIN: CARDIFF
Three local residents share their love for the Welsh capital, including its impressive history and love of rugby
74 LADIES WHO BREW
Sisters are brewing it for themselves, as women begin to dominate the beer industry
82 MONEY FARMERS
A shocking investigation into EU agricultural corruption
YOU MAY HAVE heard wellness warriors talking about turmeric, only to be left wondering how the popular household spice had garnered such a following.
But the truth is, they’re onto something. More and more people are sticking with turmeric after trying it for themselves.
FutureYou Cambridge, a leading nutritional supplement company, has received praise for their Turmeric+ supplements thanks to a special formulation that allows more of the active ingredient to get where it is needed.
Curcumin is the active ingredient in turmeric, but unfortunately it is difficult for the body to absorbmeaning that powdered turmeric sold in the supermarket isn’t suitable. FutureYou Cambridge’s Turmeric+ formulation is 30x more absorbable than standard turmeric, and also contains vitamin C which contributes to normal collagen formation for the normal function of cartilage.
The impressive formula was developed in Cambridge, a city known across the globe for its academic and medical excellence. Each one of FutureYou’s supplements is backed by a scientific advisory board that includes pharmacist, nutritionist and author Aidan Goggins BPharm, MSc Nutr Med, and Dr Nicholas Shenker, a leading rheumatologist and chronic pain expert at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The results of Turmeric+ speak for themselves, with thousands more people signing up for a
regular supply in 2019.
Sylvia Pilgrim from Manchester is one of the long-term subscribers. Now in her sixties, Sylvia has always liked to keep fit.
‘I am retired now, but even when
“The difference it made was unbelievable”
I was working I always liked to stay fit. Unfortunately, I began to slow down due to wear and tear,’ she says.
‘I had seen the advertisements for Turmeric+ but thought it was just another fad, then I thought I had nothing to lose by trying it.
‘The difference it made was unbelievable. I was able to work-
out and can now continue with my fitness regime. I have been taking it for around two years now. My husband suggested I came off it as I was feeling so much more like my normal self – I told him I’d rather give him up than my turmeric tablets!’
‘The strangest thing was, I happened to mention Turmeric+ to my doctor, when I went to the hospital for an unrelated issue. I couldn’t believe it when he said that he was taking it too!’
To help other people find out if Turmeric+ is right for them, FutureYou Cambridge are offering people their first month’s supply for free.
‘We’re very happy to give people their first pack for free so they can experience it for themselves,’ says Adam Cleevely, the company’s CEO.
‘It might sound bonkers but it really isn’t. We’re that confident in the effectiveness of our formulation.
‘I can’t think of a better way to convince people. If they like it, they will stick with it. Tens of thousands of customers already do.’
Bladder problems can strike at anytime but they are particularly prominent for women who have had children and hit the age of 50. For men, bladder problems are more common over the age of 40...
Bladder control was ruining my life... then I discovered Biovit Miracle Cranberry
INthis special report we talk to two Reader’s Digest readers who have suffered from bladder health problems and how Biovit Miracle Cranberry helped them get on with their daily routines without the worry or embarrassment of bladder control problems.
Opposite, Dennis from Devon explains why he kept his bladder problems a secret not only from his friends, but from his wife, too!
But first, 55-year-old mum of two, Helen from Doncaster explains how she regained her independence from her struggle of bladder problems.
“As every woman knows, after childbirth your bladder control is never the same again. My problems seemed to get worse and worse, with discomfort, toilet trips, feeling bloated with painful cramps.
“For years I thought that it was just a way of life. To avoid embarrassment, my routine was based around toilet breaks. It worked out okay, but I was often caught out due to a lack of toilet facilities nearby.
“I tried the bladder control pants but I didn’t like them – they were not for me!
“My best friend was having bladder problems, so she knew what I
“Biovit
has given me back my independence.”
Helen, Doncaster
was going through. She told me how she’d discovered Biovit Miracle Cranberry which was excellent in her opinion.
“She told me how cranberry has been used for centuries to treat urinary tract infections, and that all I had to do was take 2 tablets a day and the fast acting formula would go to work naturally.
She also reassured me that Biovit Miracle Cranberry is a totally drug-free formula, so it wouldn’t cause issues with my other medications.”
“Why not try something new to stop my bladder problems? No tricky procedures or exercise regimeswhich at my age weren’t healthy options!
“Within days I could feel the healing power of Biovit Miracle Cranberry. My bladder was less sensitive and sore. Over the next few weeks I noticed a massive improvement.
benefi ts of cranberry and it sounded ideal. I wanted something that was
Dennis from North Devon says: “I kept my bladder problems a secret for years, even from my wife and closest friends. I reduced my liquid intake so that my bladder didn’t hurt or an leave me in an embarrassing situation. Also, after I went to the toilet I hadn’t actually finished going! It caused me lots of issues especially when out and about. I read about the benefi ts of cranberry and it sounded ideal. I wanted something that was easy to use and also 100% discreet. I didn’t want my wife or friends realising I was using something to help me with bladder issues.
“It’s so easy to use and 100% discreet”
“Today, my life is no longer controlled by toilet breaks and I feel normal and active again… what a relief!”
Cranberry tablets are used by women and men seeking to help prevent urinary tract infections (UTIs) Can also be used to help maintain bladder control The high levels of proanthocyanidin anti-oxidants (PACs), prevents some bacteria from adhering to the urinary tract walls
I first noticed the difference a few days feeling.
It’s not the sort of thing men discuss, but Biovit Miracle Cranberry is so easy! I simply take two tablets a day. I first noticed the difference a few days later, I felt more confident and didn’t even think about where the nearest toilet was. Brilliant...the tablets worked automatically! I’m now in control again which is such a great feeling.
“It’s not the sort of thing that men discuss over a pint..”
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My school days may now be a distant memory, but the coming of September still always finds me in a “new beginnings” frame of mind. It’s a great time to take stock, refocus and make plans for the rest of the year.
In this issue, new beginnings are something of a theme. On p74, we discover the way that women are reclaiming the beer industry, heralding a new era of female-led breweries. On p16, Olly Mann introduces some new, feathered family members to his home and finds a renewed sense of peace. Meanwhile on p64, a father and son discover that a joint business venture is the perfect way to reclaim their independence and discover a fresh perspective on the city they’ve always called home.
If, like me, you do an internal scan of your body every few minutes to look for subtle aches that signify the indisputable arrival of your personal four horsemen, you may either want to skip the premonitory feature on Pains You Shouldn’t Ignore on p38, or keep it bookmarked and carry it with you everywhere you go.
Either way, you’ll finally have a weapon to use against your loved ones when they tell you you’re not going to die from that faint pang.
While you’re looking for those signs, grab a giant jar of lau hai (rice wine) while exploring the mysterious Plain of Jars in Laos on p90. Some believe that these enormous monoliths were used to store the beverage for a mythical giant… Just keep an eye on that liver!
LETTERS ON THE July ISSUE
We pay £50 for Letter of the Month and £30 for all others
Your article “Regrets, We Have A Few” made so much sense. I’ve had many “wish I had” and “I shouldn’t have” moments.
When I look back in the rear-view mirror of my life and see those “could have” and “shouldn’t have” episodes, I’ve wish they could go away, or at least far enough away from my regrets that I couldn’t see them in my mind’s eye. And what I’ve learned from reading those four stories, is that I can learn to live with less regret and free myself from the guilt that has been chaining me.
In the future I’m going to let go of my regrets and put them in the past where they belong— I’ll look around me and see what’s happening now, and plan for the future.
I can see now that we all make mistakes, but it’s what we can do to correct them and move on that counts.
HANNAH BYRON, Merseyside
JE NE REGRETTE RIEN
I wanted to thank you for your article “Regrets, We Have A Few”. Like many people, I sometimes find myself stewing over past mistakes and while I know that there’s no point in dwelling on them, it can be difficult to switch off negative thoughts once in that frame of mind. We could all benefit from Dr Greenberg’s advice to learn self-compassion and practise mindfulness. Whenever I catch myself raking over regrets now, I first acknowledge the thought, then step back from it and think about what I would say to a friend in my situation. It is surprising to discover how much harder we are on ourselves than others. Life’s too short to be worrying about things we can’t change!
EMMA WORTHINGTON, YorkshireI loved reading what Jo Caird had to say about historical dolls’ houses. I always make a beeline for any I happen to spot.
The house I’d really like to own now, though, was built for me by my father when I was nine years old. He toiled over it for months as a surprise for my birthday and I loved it. Each subsequent birthday and Christmas saw wonderful additions to its furniture and fittings. My dolls’ house family even owned a complete set of cutlery, the items almost too small to handle.
Money had become tighter in my home by the time I reached my teens, though, and I still recall with shame and horror how I sold my dolls’ house and all its contents for just enough to afford a cheap record player. Dad, bless him, never uttered a word of reproach, although he must have been very hurt.
For the family who bought it, of course, it would have been a real bargain and I sincerely hope that their children enjoyed playing with it as much as I had and passed it down in good condition to their own.
Maybe one day I’ll come across it in an auction room, in which case I’ll scrape together every penny I have in order to buy it back.
MAGGE COBBETT, YorkshireI loved “If I Ruled The World” according to Jay Rayner, especially because he feels we should reinstate free education at universities. Bravo! Free university education would benefit our whole society, not just the individual students who take advantage of it. Education that is open to all would lead to a more educated workforce. At the same time, higher numbers of graduates and researchers would mean higher levels of innovation and productivity. Also, the simple reason higher education should be free is for the sake of equality. A lot of bright students who come from poorer families may not be able to afford university tuition fees, which is unfair. Intelligent students should not be unable to get into university because they are poor, while idle students can because their parents are rich enough to afford to pay for their tuition. This is discriminatory against those capable students.
JOLENE COOPER, DevonInventor Alexander Miles explains how he came up with this unique product.
Like so many people I was desperate to nd a pillow that kept its comfort and support all night. How many of us have bought pillow a er pillow trying to nd the right one, very few can put their hand up and say they found it, until now?” Alex’s search was all the more important as he was trying to help his daughter to recover a er a horri c accident. “She just couldn’t get comfortable while convalescing and I’d purchased dozens of pillows none of which worked. I’d asked all my family and friends if they could recommend anything and everyone admitted to the same problem – it seemed that no-one had a pillow with which they were perfectly happy.”
Rather than give in, Alex, a furniture and product designer, decided to engineer his own solution, he takes up the story again: “All the pillows I’d bought spread out and attened as the night progressed, the solution was to brace the pillow internally, pulling the sides together so that the pillow couldn’t atten. Using cotton ties internally meant that the pillow would still be so and comfortable but that it would keep its plumped-up shape throughout the night. We now have international patents on the pillow, the design is a world rst”
Actor Rula Lenska was an early convert, she emailed out of the blue to say: “It is rare that something advertised as unique and life changing turns out to be true!! I have a chronic back and neck situation and I can honestly say these pillows make a huge di erence!! Comfortable…supportive…and positively magical for my neck!! Congratulations! Many, many thanks.”
is revolutionary pillow, designed and manufactured in the UK, has already helped tens of thousands of customers to sleep better. If you have spent a lifetime looking for the perfect pillow, your search may well be over! “
All of a sudden Alex was in the pillow business! “People spend a fortune on expensive mattresses and luxury bedding but forget that a great night’s sleep starts with a great pillow, if your head, neck and shoulders are not comfortable it doesn’t matter how good your mattress is. Since we launched the pillow the response has been incredible, the way the pillow cradles the head with perfect comfort and support really works for people.”
Harley Street Consultant and back pain specialist, Dr Deane Halfpenny also recommends Gx Pillows: “I can honestly say that your pillow has made the world of di erence…and fully endorse your pillow as being quite unique in its ability to maintain support throughout the night.”
Our promise to you: Sleep on the Gx Pillow for 30 nights and if you are not completely satis ed, we’ll give you your money back*
In Japan’s Hitachi Seaside Park thousands of summer cypresses transform a small hill into a fiery red sea. In autumn, the near-perfectly round plants take on their crimson colour, luring thousands of visitors to the popular spot near the Pacific coast. The Kochia Scoparia, as it is known in Latin, isn’t just spectacular to behold: gourmets also enjoy the seeds of these three feet-high bushes. Shelled and cooked they are a bit like caviar, and in parts of Japan are considered a delicacy.
Photo: © Piith h ant/ a lamy s toc K
Two new residents of the Mann household have a surprisingly soothing effect this month…
We have purchased some chickens. As pets. This was not my idea. But, when it became apparent we were going to be spending spring confined to our garden, with two kids to entertain, amidst an egg shortage on Ocado… it seemed churlish to object.
They are called Skye and Flower. That wasn’t my idea, either. Harvey (our four-year-old) initially christened them Skye and Rubble, after his two favourite characters on Paw Patrol; then changed Rubble’s name to Flower once he realised that "he" was a girl (he could have re-named her Everest, after the other female puppy in Paw Patrol, or even
Olly Mann presents Four Thought for BBC Radio 4, and the award-winning podcasts The Modern Mann and Answer Me This!
Chickaletta, after the character who is an actual chicken, but que sera).
I knew naff-all about chickens, so my first fear was that our cat, Alvin, might try to eat them. My wife—who was raised in the countryside with a veritable petting zoo in the garden— reassured me that cats and chickens happily co-exist and rarely bother each other. This turned out to be halftrue. In fact, Alvin spends perhaps a third of his waking hours prowling up and down their fence, growling and occasionally even taking a spirited sprint across the garden to charge at them. But they just keep their heads down and ignore him. Moreover, when he’s had opportunities to truly take advantage —when the door to their pen has been accidentally left open, for example—he has not helped himself to a paw-lickin’ chicken bucket, but, rather, sheepishly retreated to the kitchen. Our chickens are crossbreds—a hybrid
variety called Black Rock. This tickles me because a) it’s the name of the investment management firm George Osborne works for, and b) it’s a hilariously macho, powerful term for such a patently idiotic, flappy pair of hens.
However, whilst they may not be especially stately creatures, I do think they’re attractive: with their thick plumage, soft black feathers and fiery orange chests, their appearance is understated and autumnal, which suits our rainy corner of Hertfordshire rather well.
every waking minute hunting, and seem to be continuously preoccupied—but their existence is so straightforward, so uncomplicated, that the effect of their presence is comparable. When I turn my deck chair to face the chicken pen, suddenly 15 minutes has gone by. I’ve done nothing more than get lost in their lives as they groom each other, co-operate to unearth a worm, or cluck and coo as the sun goes down. It’s meditative.
If you think that sounds like I’ve spent a bit too long looking at them, you’d be correct. Perhaps the biggest surprise of welcoming these two birds to our family has been how soothing it is to simply watch them pecking and strutting about.
As every cat-owner knows, one of the pleasures of feline companionship is to witness them luxuriating in decadent selfishness. Sitting aside a well-fed, sleepy cat encourages relaxation, because their life is so wholeheartedly, unembarrassedly devoted to self-pleasure. Our hens couldn’t be more different—they spend
Plus, the eggs! The eggs are great! For the first five weeks, Skye and Flower were alarmingly barren, but then one day in June they started laying and they haven’t stopped since—two eggs, sometimes three, per day. They’re not special or speckly or gooey, just your standard supermarket-style free range eggs— but because they are so fresh, they definitely taste better, with bright yellow yolks and still-warm shells.
We’ve been making more quiches and cakes than we’re used to, and still have plenty of eggs left over, so we’ve also started gifting them to visitors. It’s amazing how appreciated a "home-made" eggy gift can be: had I bought them from a service station, presenting my
grandma with a box of three eggs rather than a bunch of tulips would not go down very well.
So, I’m something of a convert, but a few steps short of an evangelist. For one thing, there’s the cost. Our "free" eggs are pretty pricey, by the time you factor in the hutch (£200), fence (£80), chicken feed and grit (£100 per year), and of course the chickens themselves (a tenner—astonishingly good value considering the cost of everything else). Then there’s the obligation—when we go on holiday, we are going to have to recruit a chicken-sitter. Absurd. And am I really going to take a hen to the vet when it gets a gammy leg (answer: yes I am. I’m a sentimentalist. I’m not going to wring its neck, am I?)?
I also feel a faint sense of guilt that we are keeping two animals in quasi-captivity—though, compared to a battery farm, it’s paradise—and also that I occasionally munch on
"I FEEL A FAINT SENSE OF GUILT THAT I OCCASIONALLY MUNCH WINGS IN VIEW OF THE CHICKENS"
barbecued buffalo wings within full view of the chickens. Then I remember that they have absolutely no interest in or awareness of anything I’m doing. And I feel relaxed again.
As life around us has sputtered and stopped and started again this year, they’ve provided a welcome distraction, a great education opportunity for my kids, and, best of all, some fabulous eggs Florentine. I’m drawing the line at a dog, though. For now. n
In 1846, a dead specimen of a species of land snail known as Eremina Desertorum was glued to an index card in the British Museum. In 1850, the snail awoke—it had not been dead after all! The Canadian writer Grant Allen wrote of the event, "The Museum authorities accordingly ordered our friend a warm bath (who shall say hereafter that science is unfeeling!), upon which the grateful snail put his head cautiously out of his shell, walked up to the top of the basin, and began to take a cursory survey of British institutions with his four eye-bearing tentacles."
The Mexican film star on her journey from soaps to Marvel, being best friends with Penélope Cruz, and meeting “the love of her life”
“Ineed to take water,”
exclaims Salma Hayek, a little dramatically, when we meet in a five-star Berlin hotel. Dressed in figurehugging black jeans and a white poloneck, she’s sporting gold-rimmed glasses and an excitable aura. After relieving her thirst, she digs into her handbag, touches up her lipstick and applies sanitiser to her hands. It’s just before the coronavirus lockdown when we meet but the Mexican star is evidently taking no chances.
So often a chatterbox when we’ve met in the past, Hayek is in a reflective mood today.
“The things that have happened in my life are unimaginable,” she says, musing on a glittering 30-year career that began in Mexican soap
Teresa when she was 23. “I think at some point in your life you settle for doing the right thing the best you can, instead of thinking about what you want and what you didn’t get or what you’re not getting.”
Not that Hayek, 53, has much to lament. Married to French billionaire and Kering CEO, François-Henri Pinault, since 2009, her work has expanded far beyond acting on the silver screen. As a producer, she was behind the hit show Ugly Betty, winning a Golden Globe, and the movie Frida, which also saw her nominated for an Oscar for playing iconic artist, Frida Kahlo. As an entrepreneur, she’s launched a range of skincare and cosmetics called Nuance.
Now she’s back with The Roads Not
Taken, the new film from acclaimed British director Sally Potter (Orlando, The Party), which might just explain why we’re talking about the way life can lead you towards so many disparate paths.
“There is not a road that I didn’t take that I regret—except exercising when I was younger!” she laughs (she has no need to worry on that front; the night before, she dazzled on the red carpet in a black sleeveless gown).
There was only one road she didn’t take “that haunted me for many years”. Growing up in Coatzacoalcos— her Lebanese-Mexican father worked in oil; her mother was an opera singer—Hayek’s early interest was gymnastics, with ambitions to train for the Olympics. But her father refused her moving to a special school for gymnasts in Mexico City.
surprised by my witchcraft instincts. A lot of the things I do impulsively make no sense even to me, but I just know I have to do them.” Her brown eyes widen. “I was very, very lucky not to take the other roads—and some of them looked quite good.”
“A lot of the things that I do make no sense, even to me”
“He said, ‘I didn’t want you to not have a childhood.’ And I said, ‘I never wanted a childhood—I wanted to do gymnastics!’ I was obsessed.”
Hayek’s sporting career would now be long over had she continued. “I am so glad that I didn’t take that road.” It’s been a theme of her life.
“I look at the roads not taken and go, ‘Phew! How did I know to go in this direction?’ I am very grateful and
In the end, all roads led to Hollywood—where Hayek met director Robert Rodriguez, who cast her, among other things, in 1995’s hit gunslinger tale Desperado opposite Antonio Banderas. She never looked back, winning roles in blockbusters like Wild Wild West and the animated Puss In Boots. More recently, she’s found acclaim in indies like The Hummingbird Project (as a ruthless corporate leader) and Beatriz at Dinner (as a maid who turns the tables), which saw her nominated for an Independent Spirit Award.
As for The Roads Not Taken, it casts Javier Bardem as a man suffering from a rare form of dementia; Hayek plays Dolores, his long-lost love from Mexico who suffered with him a great tragedy in their past history. Working for the first time with Bardem—husband to her beloved friend and regular co-star Penélope Cruz—was exhilarating.
“The abuse of power and disrespect of women has strong consequences”
“It was such a fraternal thing, it was amazing,” she says. “It was very interesting for me; we were really supporting each other in the process.”
She recalls being on set with Bardem on the very first day, calling Cruz at lunch, deliriously speaking in Spanish. She and Cruz first worked together on the 2006 comedy-western Bandidas, a film now probably more famous for cementing their friendship than any commercial success of its own.
“My relationship with Penélope is stronger every day,” says Hayek. “I was with her and the kids two, three days ago. I talk to them all the time.”
While her character in The Roads Not Taken is bereft and broken, it seems a light year from Hayek.
“She’s fearless. She’s like a force of nature,” says Bardem. “[It’s like] she just woke up and has 500 different emotions.” Nevertheless, her Latin
temperament needs channeling when it comes to her work; you need a good writer, director or co-star to steer you emotionally, she explains. “It’s easy when you have the right conditions. But when you don’t, it’s hard.”
Last night, when the film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, it took Hayek—literally—back to the same cinema where she presented 1995’s Midaq Alley. No wonder she happens to be in such a reflective mood.
“It made me think about all the roads that brought me back here, in a strange time in my life where I feel
like I’m starting again. Just because I feel different. So many things have closed, including deaths. And it just feels like everything is new. The world is new. I am new. Everything is new.”
Among the changes that 2020 has brought about—Hayek has just signed a deal with HBO Max to produce shows with her company, Ventanarosa. It’s also seen the demise of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, now serving 23 years in jail for rape. Back in 2017, just as the #MeToo movement was forming in the wake of multiple allegations
surfacing against Weinstein, Hayek wrote an opinion piece about how she repeatedly refused his sexual advances, despite threats to derail her career. Weinstein’s conviction was vital, she feels.
“I think it’s very, very important in this evolution that we’re all going through to make it legal, to make it palpable, that the abuse of power and the disrespect of women, has strong consequences. It shows a maturity in our society and in the world of taking responsibility and sending the right message. For women, it gives us strength to think
(Top); With Penélope Cruz on set of Bandidasin 2006 (Below); With husband Francois-Henri Pinault
our voices are heard, that our pain matters to someone else. And that it is OK to fight for our dignity and to demand respect.”
Fortunately, Hayek has found happiness with her husband, “the greatest love of my life”. She and Pinault met in 2006, at a gala at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice.
“We never go without seeing each other for very long,” she says. It’s not hard to imagine both inspired by the other’s creativity and spirit. “He’s very relaxed,” she smiles. “He’s not the kind of person who needs to show all the time that he’s the smartest or the most powerful or the toughest. He doesn’t have this.”
In a recent Instagram post, on the anniversary of their first encounter, she called Pinault “my soul mate”, adding: “The more I discover you, the more my love grows”. Their union also led to the “other greatest love of my life”, 12 year-old daughter Valentina. “She can act, she can direct, she can absolutely write,” coos Hayek. “They’re very impressed at her school. I produce and I said, ‘I wish my writers could write like this! I wish I could exploit her and get her to write me this script!’ ”
proud parent, explaining how her daughter is also a talented musician. Piano, guitar, trumpet, ukulele—you name it, Valentina plays it. “She can definitely be a director. Or a lawyer,” adds Hayek, who then starts to fret. “How do you protect someone’s soul when they become a lawyer?! My fear is that when someone has too many talents, they end up doing none of them. When it comes so easy, they’re not used to [having to] push and push and push. That’s what worries me.”
“How do you protect someone’s soul when they become a lawyer?!”
Parental concerns aside, Hayek is feeling “re-invigorated” of late, especially with the work that’s coming her way.
“It makes no sense! I try not to make sense of it, but it’s been really strange. You know what? Strange things happen to strange people!”
She’s just completed The Eternals, her first Marvel movie, in which she’ll play Ajak, the leader of a group of immortals opposite Angelina Jolie.
“At 53—finally!—I can be a superhero that belongs to a family called the Eternals.” It would seem that immortality beckons. n
Hayek is now gushing like any
The Roads Not Taken opens in cinemas on September 11. Read our full review on p118
After finding fame in the 1980s, Ireland’s Daniel O’Donnell has sold more than 10 million records. The 58-year-old singer looks back on his early life in County Donegal, performing at the world’s legendary venues and why Strictly was the most terrifying thing he’s ever done
…THE HOUSE I WAS BORN IN WAS a two-storey house that belonged to my mother’s family. Her uncle had built it and they let us live there because they lived in Scotland and weren’t using it themselves. It was in Kincasslagh, in County Donegal, and I remember it being a lovely home—with people visiting and a big open fire with a chain that the pots hung on—even though my room was just off the kitchen and the toilet was a tin hut across the road.
…WHENEVER MUHAMMAD ALI, or Cassius Clay as he was known then, was boxing on the telly, we’d all watch. The matches were around 8pm in the US so it was the middle of the night for us. Myself and my brothers and sisters were allowed to get up to view the live broadcast, but you’d only just be out of bed when he’d knock his opponent out. Sometimes you’d miss it because by the time you’d gotten downstairs, the match was over.
…MY FATHER DIED WHEN I WAS
SIX. He worked on farms in Scotland and was away from home a lot, so it was left to my mother to raise me and my two brothers and two sisters. Dad was only 49 when he died from a heart attack and then she was very much on her own with us kids. I was the youngest and because I was only six, his death didn’t really affect me, although it hit my older siblings harder. My mother was quite a strong character, very involved in everything, and she lived to be a great age. She
was almost 95 when she passed away in 2013.
…I STARTED SINGING IN THE CHURCH CHOIR and music was always a big thing in our house. All my cousins sang and my uncles sang, and even though I didn’t know my grandparents, both my grandfathers sang too—not for professional gain but for the love of it. In the choir we’d sing at masses, services and devotions, and I loved it.
…AS A BUSINESS STUDENT I WAS REALLY UNHAPPY. I went to Galway Regional College after finishing secondary school but I longed for home. Also, music was my real love and I thought, I’d rather try and not succeed than never try at all and always wonder what it would be like. So I quit college, thinking if things didn’t work out I could always go back, and I joined my sister Margaret’s band. She was a very successful singer in Ireland so that was a major break for me.
…BY AGE 22 I WAS READY TO MAKE MY OWN RECORD so I used my savings to record four tracks, including a song called “My Donegal Shore”. I physically sold all of the copies myself and in truth, it took a few years for my career to gain traction, with me forming a couple of bands before being introduced to my manager Sean Reilly (who is my
manager to this day) in 1985 and embarking on a series of successful concert tours in England.
…NOT TAKING ENOUGH TIME OFF TOOK ITS TOLL. I was performing six nights a week, every week, and I was the sort of person who couldn’t say no to work. After a few years I was exhausted and needed a break. Then I made my official return to the stage at The Point in Dublin in July 1992 and it was wonderful. I’ve learned that you need to have a balance between your work and your life, rather than just working hell for leather, but I love performing.
…IT’S HARD TO PICK OUT
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Doing Top of the Pops, performing at Wembley
Arena…when I was starting out I never imagined I’d have enough fans to fill that venue. Singing at the Opera House in Sydney, Carnegie Hall in New York. Walking out onto the stage of the Royal Albert Hall thinking about all the great artists who had performed on that same stage. Singing at the Grand Ole Opry, which for someone who loves country music is like Mecca. And it amazes me when I’m parodied on shows like Father Ted. It’s really nice to have that level of success, where people know me well enough for others to take me off without them really saying it’s me.
…THIS IS YOUR LIFE WAS A COMPLETE SURPRISE. I was doing one of those variety shows at
the London Palladium in 2000, where Bruce Forsyth was the presenter and Engelbert Humperdinck was also on the bill. At the end of the show, which seemed to be taking longer to record than usual, Michael Aspel appeared. Thinking Aspel was there for him rather than me, I stood back to get a good look at Engelbert to see how he’d react and if he’d be genuinely surprised. But the next thing I knew Aspel was there to surprise me, not Engelbert, which was a great honour because I was a huge fan of This Is Your Life.
…I MET MY WIFE WHILE ON HOLIDAY IN TENERIFE. That was in 1999, when I visited a bar run by my friends Tom and Marion Roche. I got chatting to their daughter Majella and it felt like we’d known each other all our lives. You think
you’re in clover, as I did, until you realise clover is having someone in your life who can make it so much better. We were married three years later in County Donegal and it rained all day. It never stopped drizzling but it didn’t seem to matter; there were loads of people outside the church who’d come to wish us well. And it was such a busy day. We were married at 1pm, didn’t sit down to eat until 9pm and the festivities went on until seven the next morning. We have a great relationship and always have fun together.
…MEETING MY IDOLS HAS BEEN THRILLING. My three favourite singers are Loretta Lynn, Charley Pride and Cliff Richard and I’ve got to meet all three of them, work with all three of them and get to know them away from the work. Cliff is
sing with them, was just unbelievable. We’ve stayed in touch ever since. She’s 88 now and her health isn’t what it was, since she had a stroke a few years ago, so I call her up every now and then to see how she’s doing.
AN HONORARY MBE was even possible. As far as I knew, the MBE
probably the one my wife and I know the best. He’s a dear friend and I’ve sung on his shows and did a song with him on his duets album. I’ve been on stage with Charley too and also Loretta, and sometimes I think, My God, how did this all happen for me?
…THE FIRST TIME I MET LORETTA was when I was doing a TV show in Ireland in 1989 and she came on as a guest. She’s my favourite singer of all time so to be interviewing someone you admire so much, then getting to
was only awarded to British subjects and members of the Commonwealth, but in 2002 I received an Honorary MBE myself. I was absolutely thrilled, more so because it was requested by fans. Prince Charles presented it to me at the British Embassy in Dublin and he was very nice and friendly.
ABOUT STRICTLY COME DANCING IS THE TERROR. I competed on the
show in 2015 and couldn’t believe I was asked to do it and just how nervous I was—in fact, it’s the most nervous I’ve ever been in my career. It was so hard, so I was quite happy when I went out in the fourth week.
NEVER TIRE OF BEING ON STAGE. Getting that instant reaction from an audience is incredible and it gives you such a buzz. I’ve never had any big mishaps on stage. Sure, I’ve forgotten the words occasionally but you just keep going. I travel with such a nice team and we have such fun on the road, travelling and sleeping on the bus together. That’s why, having had to postpone this year’s tour dates because of Coronavirus, I can’t wait to get back on the road next year. n
As told to Simon Button
Tickets for Daniel O’Donnell’s rescheduled UK tour are on sale now. Visit danielodonnell.org
Miss Violet “Unsinkable” Jessup was a stewardess who survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic, HMHS Britannic and RMS Olympic ships. Even after those near-death experiences, she continued to work as a stewardess until her retirement in 1950.
The Titanic’s interiors were loosely inspired by the Ritz hotel in London. Facilities on board included a gym, pool, Turkish bath, a kennel and a squash court. It even had its own on board newspaper—the AtlanticDailyBulletin.
One notable victim was Benjamin Guggenheim, a US businessman. Realising that the ship was going down, he and his valet, Victor Giglio, reputedly changed into their evening wear while he remarked: “We’ve dressed up in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen.” They were last spotted on deck chairs drinking brandy and smoking cigars.
Find out today why so many over-55 homeowners have accessed their home’s wealth
For the UK’s over-55 homeowners, a large proportion of their wealth is tied up in the bricks and mortar of their homes. If you are in this situation and in need of finding a way to access some of that wealth tied up in your home, there are options available to you.
You might consider downsizing to a smaller home and releasing some of the equity in your home that way. If considering this, there will also be the accompanying costs of moving, not to mention the emotional stress of having to say goodbye to the family home.
If you wanted to remain in the family home whilst still gaining access to your home’s value, you could consider an equity release product. The most popular of these products is a Lifetime Mortgage, which will allow you to borrow a tax-free cash lump sum against the value of your home, without being required to make any monthly payments.
You will maintain 100% ownership of your home, with the mortgage and interest only needing to be repaid once you and your partner have either passed away or entered permanent long-term care. In most cases this is achieved with the sale of the home.
At Reader’s Digest Equity Release Service, we can offer you a free no obligation phone call with our Information Team. They cannot sell anything to you and are only there to answer the questions that you might have, as well as provide an estimate of how much you could release. Should you be interested in learning more, the Information Team can book you a no obligation appointment with your local fully qualified equity release specialist. Your local adviser will be able to tell you if equity release is your best option, as well as assess the impact it could have on the value of your estate and entitlement to means-tested benefits.
The choice of what to do with your taxfree cash lump sum is entirely up to you, but if you need a little inspiration here are some popular uses:
• Clearing an existing mortgage
• Boosting disposable income
• Undertaking home improvements
If you want to learn more about your financial options in retirement, then contact us today and request your free copy of the Reader’s Digest Guide to Equity Release. n
We all feel a twinge once in a while. When is it no big deal, and when is it a warning sign that something needs attention—now?
By Jen Babakhan and Tracy Middleton
From thehealthy.com
Maybe your feet have started to tingle every so often or you’ve developed a mild fever. Nothing to worry about, right? Maybe. But given the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, you don’t have to be a hypochondriac to consider whether a niggling symptom is a clue that something more serious is afoot. But when to shrug and when to panic? These stories feature people who faced that quandary and discovered that their discomfort emanated from conditions far different from what they had suspected. The welcome result: after a proper diagnosis, they each got the treatment they needed.
When Amy Driben-Salcedo felt a burning sensation in her abdomen in the summer of 2017, she ignored it for four or five months. “I have three kids and was just busy with life,” says the high school guidance counsellor, who was 47 at the time.
After the pain moved to her back, “I googled my symptoms and decided it must be an ulcer, so I changed my diet to bland foods,” she recalls. Then she began losing weight rapidly.
Further googling showed that her abdominal pain and weight loss
were both classic signs of colorectal cancer (often called colon cancer), but Driben-Salcedo dismissed the possibility because she felt she was too young. By the time she made it to her GP, she had dropped nearly two stone. Her gastroenterologist did blood work and X-rays, but everything came back normal. He prescribed medication for IBS. After a few weeks with no relief, Driben-Salcedo called the doctor again. “On the way to the CT scan he ordered, I told my husband, ‘This must be what cancer feels like. I’m in so much pain.’ ” The scan showed a shadow on her liver.
A follow-up colonoscopy revealed that she did indeed have colorectal cancer. Driben-Salcedo had three days of chemotherapy every other week for a year. The treatment caused brutal side effects, including sleepless nights and weakness and numbness in her
hands and feet. But it was worth it; the treatment wiped out her tumour.
Unfortunately, Driben-Salcedo is now battling a new tumour in her liver. Still, having beat cancer once, she is optimistic that she can do it again—and she says, “I’m now vigilant about listening to my body and taking care of myself.”
We all have tummy troubles now and again, but belly pains sometimes signal serious conditions. A sharp pain in the lower right side of the abdomen could spell appendicitis; in the lower left, diverticulitis; in the middle to upper right, gallstones; and closer to the pelvis, ovarian cysts or a UTI. Dull or burning pain or cramping is sometimes caused by an ulcer, IBS, or an inflammatory bowel disease such as Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis. Stomach aches accompanied by fever could be viral gastroenteritis.
“My
Carol Gee stood at the car-rental desk at Rapid City Regional Airport in South Dakota and began to tell the agent her last name. That’s when
she noticed her mouth had gone completely dry. Finding it hard to speak, she finished the paperwork and handed her husband the keys.
Gee, 59 at the time, tried not to panic. “It was the weirdest feeling. There was no moisture in my mouth whatsoever.” She attributed it to the long flight she had just taken, though the dry mouth became a feeling of endless thirst. “Water wasn’t helping at all. I drank and drank. That led to me using the restroom constantly.”
A few months earlier, she’d had a checkup with her doctor, who had noted that Gee’s blood glucose level was higher than usual. “Since she didn’t offer medication, I assumed it wasn’t a big deal.”
Though she did her best to enjoy her stay, Gee remembers the fatigue that hit her on the way home. “Walking from the airport to our car, it took every bit of strength I had to roll my carry-on luggage. It was so hard to put one foot in front of the other.”
The next day, she called her doctor, who recommended a trip to the emergency room. “When they tested my blood glucose, the doctor said, ‘You have type 2 diabetes, and you’re in bad shape. Your glucose level is so high, it’s a wonder you’re not in a diabetic coma or worse.’ That’s when it hit me how serious it was.” When Gee was admitted, her blood glucose was 900 mg/dl, a long way from a normal result of less than 140 mg/dl.
Now 70, Gee says she’s obsessive
about taking her insulin and testing her blood. “I wish I had been more proactive and asked my doctor about my high glucose level when she first found it. I would have said no to that cake, my blood sugar never would have gotten that high, and this all wouldn’t have been such a surprise,” she says.
Smell something funky when you open your mouth? If you also have white spots on your tongue, it could be an oral yeast infection—or a tumour. If your breath smells like sour milk, you might be lactose intolerant; like nail polish remover, you’re probably eating too much protein. Red lesions on the tongue, loose teeth, canker sores, or red or white patches inside the mouth that last longer than two weeks could signal cancer. White, yellow, or brown spots on your teeth might indicate coeliac disease.
“My
Earlier this year, 20-year-old Jonah Stillman, an author and a public speaker, travelled to Thailand, South Korea, Australia, and England. On the flight home to Minneapolis, he says, “I had a minor sore throat and cough.”
News about the spread of COVID-19 was just breaking, but at the time it seemed to be affecting mostly older people, so he didn’t think that could be it. “I don’t get sick often, I work out six days a week, and I have a very clean diet,” he explains. Still, he called his doctor the next day.
“Once they heard all of the places I had been,” Stillman says, the doctors “definitely wanted to test me. They met me at the back door of the office in full PPE and led me to a room. The entire process took about 15 minutes. That was on a Wednesday.”
That Saturday, he received the news that he had tested positive for COVID-19. “It was shocking because it was still relatively new. It still seemed like a foreign issue,” he says. By Sunday, his sore throat had worsened considerably, his violent coughs would not stop, and his fever spiked to 39.4 degrees. “The body aches were unlike anything I’ve experienced.
I could barely move.” Among the most disturbing symptoms was his lack of taste and smell. “I couldn’t differentiate between cake and pizza. The texture was the same, and there was absolutely no taste. I had to force myself to eat because my gag reflex was so strong.
His recovery took two full weeks, and Stillman urged young people to take the disease and social distancing seriously. “Even if you don’t have symptoms, this impacts other families and individuals,” he says now.
Coughs can linger a long time, but if yours persists without other cold symptoms, you might have acid reflux, chronic bronchitis, heart failure, pneumonia, or lung or throat cancer. ACE inhibitors and betablockers taken for high blood pressure can also cause a cough. Generally, if you’re coughing up blood or green or yellow phlegm, let your doctor know.
Cathy Chester was fresh out of university and making a name for herself. When she noticed numbness and tingling in her feet, she attributed it to stress and long city walks in cold weather. “I chose to ignore the symptoms, and they grew incrementally worse,” she says. When the numbness began to move up to her lower legs, Chester decided to get some medical advice. The doctor told her that her shoes were too tight.
She bought larger shoes, but deep down she knew he was wrong. The numbness progressed toward her knees and thighs, causing her to stumble. A few times she was even accused of being drunk. Along with weakness, fatigue often overtook her. “I figured I was exhausted from living alone and trying to keep up in a competitive job market. It felt like I had the flu, but a thousand times worse,” recalls Chester, who was working as a copywriter at the time.
One evening when on her way to catch the bus home, she says, “I looked down and saw that one of my high heels had come off ten feet behind me. I didn’t even notice it because my feet were so numb. That was a real wake-up call.”
After a neurologist ordered a spinal tap, a CT scan, and an MRI, she finally discovered what plagued her: multiple sclerosis (MS), a disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information to the brain. Chester had endured five years of numbness, weakness, and fatigue. Still, she says, “I was one of the lucky ones who got an immediate diagnosis. My test results were very clear. That brought a sense of relief because I finally knew what to do to help myself.”
Today, Chester, 61, says, “I never got the feeling back in my right leg, even after therapy, and the fatigue is awful—I have to take a nap every day at two, no matter what.”
Chester, now a health advocate, looks to the future with hope. “It’s my mission to educate, inspire, and bring awareness about MS. For so long, none of us had a voice.”
A pins-and-needles or numb feeling is often just a sign that a part of your body has “gone to sleep.” But if the feeling lingers, it could be a blood clot, a pinched nerve, or peripheral neuropathy (itself often caused by diabetes). If you also have trouble seeing, speaking, or understanding words, you may be having a stroke. A feeling of numbness in the chest that has lasted longer than 30 minutes could be a heart attack, especially if accompanied by dizziness or nausea.
In 2013, Latarsha Jones got a strong headache. Jones, a mother of three, assumed that her busy schedule and long hours working as an assistant principal of a primary school were just taking their toll. The aching persisted for several weeks and was often so bad that Jones had to hold her head when she coughed or sneezed. One afternoon, the pain suddenly intensified. “I felt like everything was going in slow motion. I couldn’t get words out, and my speech slurred. I was numb on the left side.”
When the ambulance arrived, Jones was unable to lift her left arm or say her ABCs, two tests used to determine whether a patient has suffered a stroke. At the hospital, an MRI revealed she had indeed experienced an ischemic stroke, which occurs when a vessel supplying blood to the brain becomes blocked.
“Doctors are still looking into factors that may have caused it, because my blood pressure was not extremely high and the other tests were borderline. I believe my obesity was the main factor,” Jones says.
In response to her terrifying ordeal, Jones has stepped up her activity and cleaned up her diet.
Nearly everyone gets skull-throbbers. Dehydration, poor posture, certain foods, and stress are common causes, but some head pain indicates a bigger issue. If a headache wakes you up in the morning or doesn’t get better with medication, it might be a brain tumour. And if it’s coupled with a fever and a stiff neck, you might have meningitis. Headache accompanied by blurry vision or trouble focusing could be an aneurysm.
Muscle soreness is likely normal if you can pinpoint the reason and it dissipates over time. If it doesn’t, ask your doctor whether it could be arthritis, influenza, Lyme disease, lupus, fibromyalgia, polymyalgia rheumatica, or rhabdomyolysis. Some medications can also cause muscle pain.
When you just can’t get enough air, it could be a bacterial infection, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, or COVID-19. Call your doctor if breathing troubles come on suddenly or worsen after 30 minutes of rest.
Dementia, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, menopause, or an underactive thyroid can all cause changes in concentration and memory. Some medications can also be to blame.
Dehydration, stress, inactivity, a poor diet, or the wrong wardrobe (high heels or too-tight outfits) could be to blame for back aches. If your back hurts when you first get out of bed, the pain may be from osteoarthritis. Pain in the lower and upper back, on your side, or in your groin can be a sign of a UTI that has spread to the kidneys. A herniated disk can hit the nerves in your spinal cord, causing pain.
Chest pain can be a scary red flag for a heart attack—and you should call 999 if you think you’re in cardiac arrest or if you experience shortness of breath, cold sweats, nausea, light-headedness, overwhelming fatigue, and/or a feeling of doom.
But those pangs in your chest could also be a sign of anemia, shingles, pancreatitis, a stomach ulcer, a panic attack, or lung cancer. If the pain worsens with deep breaths, you may have costochondritis.
You might blame your exhaustion on a busy schedule or just feeling lazier than usual. But anemia, depression, diabetes, heart disease, and sleep apnea are other possible causes.
A temperature of 38 degrees plus is normally a sign that your immune system is fighting off an infection, such as strep throat, influenza, or COVID-19. But if you also have abdominal pain, you might have appendicitis; tenderness and swelling in your legs, deep vein thrombosis; skin that is red and painful to the touch, cellulitis; a cough or shortness of breath, pneumonia; or bloody urine or pain when you urinate, a urinary tract infection.
If you didn’t spend last night at a rock concert and your ears are sore, it could be an ear infection, referred pain from an infection in your teeth or temporomandibular joint (TMJ) syndrome. If you’re experiencing hearing loss on one side or a constant ringing sensation (tinnitus), you might have a tumour in the temporal lobe,
the part of the brain responsible for processing sound. Some diuretics for heart disease, chemotherapies, and antibiotics can damage your ears, as can type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Feeling queasy is often a side effect of motion sickness, pregnancy, or gastroenteritis. But heart attack symptoms can also mimic stomach problems such as nausea, vomiting. If nausea is accompanied by pain in the upper right side of the abdomen, you may have had a gallbladder attack. If you have back pain and a fever along with nausea, chances are a UTI has morphed into a kidney infection.
An intensely itchy, blistering rash can signal coeliac disease, while dark skin patches called acanthosis nigricans are often a sign of diabetes. A red, angry rash can be a symptom of leukemia. A painful rash that appears in a strip on one side of the face or body is characteristic of shingles.
Most acne can be attributed to clogged pores or hormones but blemishes can also indicate leaky gut syndrome or polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
With additional reporting by Charlotte Hilton Andersen, Alyssa Jung, Marissa Laliberte, Karyn Repinski, Jenn Sinrich, and Lindsay Tigar
The past few months have taught us a lot about isolation. But it’s worth making the effort to connect—or reconnect—with family and friends
BY Susannah HicklingUnderstand that you’re not the only one
More than 8 million people live on their own in the UK, with the number increasing by a fifth in the last 20 years. It doesn’t follow that you’re lonely just because you’re a solo dweller, but there’s evidence that it can have an effect on your health, upping your risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and mental health problems. So if you do feel lonesome at times, don’t dismiss it. Acknowledging it and understanding what’s causing you to feel that way is the first step to doing something about it.
It’s easy to feel as if you just don’t have time to devote to meeting new friends, but you need to prioritise your social life. Instead of watching the TV or checking your phone, go for a walk and chat to someone. Better still, offer to take a neighbour’s dog for a walk—dog owners love other “doggy” people!
Change the things you can
What can you fix? For example, if you live far from friends, family and activities you enjoy, and it’s not easy to reach them, consider moving. And, if it’s possible, do it.
Obviously, moving isn’t an option for everyone, but the internet has the potential to bring like-minded people together. However, it needs to translate into meeting up in real life. Try the Meetup website, which lists local groups and events, bringing people with common interests together. Facebook too will point you in the direction of people who share your interests.
Or, even better, start a video call on Zoom, Skype or Facebook Messenger— there are so many ways you can talk face to face now. Don’t wait for family and friends to make the first move; get in touch for a chat. Make it a regular habit.
Just as you would with a relationship prospect, find out about potential friends. What do they like doing? Join
one of their activities. What subject are they passionate about? Find out more about it and discuss it with them.
Volunteering has been shown to be good for physical and mental health, reducing stress, taking your mind off your problems or illnesses, and giving you the opportunity to connect with people. Helping at the local food bank or in a charity shop, say, will give you a warm, fuzzy feeling and you’ll also get to know the other volunteers. It’ll also give you something to talk about with friends and family.
Everyone’s busy, so getting people together can take organisation and motivation. Rather than vaguely suggesting meeting up, follow it up quickly with a proposed date. Send out a Doodle poll if it involves a lot of people—this is a free phone app that helps you schedule events. 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
Yes, what is it actually? You may know sepsis by its other name, blood poisoning. It affects 245,000 people a year in the UK and is essentially an immune-system overreaction to an existing infection or injury. Something as banal as an infected insect bite or as serious as a burst stomach ulcer might lead to sepsis. Instead of fighting infection, the body attacks itself.
Why is sepsis so serious? It can cause organ failure and death. Every year, 48,000 people in the UK die of sepsis. According to the UK Sepsis Trust, that’s more than the death toll from breast, prostate and bowel cancer combined. Survivors may have crushing fatigue or life-changing
after-effects, such as amputation.
The good news is that if you develop sepsis, it can be treated with antibiotics, but time is of the essence.
Tell me about the symptoms. Here’s the thing—sepsis can be tricky to spot. You might think it’s the flu, a stomach bug or a chest infection. But the UK Sepsis Trust has an acronym to help you spot the signs that you need to act on straightaway. Appropriately enough, it’s SEPSIS—S for slurred speech or confusion, E for extreme shivering or muscle pain, P for passing no urine in a whole day, S for severe breathlessness, I for it feels as if you’re going to die, and S for skin that is mottled or discoloured. If you have any of these symptoms, seek urgent medical help.
Can coronavirus give me sepsis?
It appears that some people who get COVID-19 go on to have sepsis.
What’s more, if you’ve had sepsis, there is evidence that you’re more likely to catch other infections afterwards, including COVID-19.
Who’s most at risk? Sepsis can affect anyone, but some factors increase your risk. These include being very young or very elderly, having diabetes, being on steroids or cancer treatment, serious liver disease or a serious illness affecting the immune system or experiencing an infection following an operation. n
Greg Shaw is a leading prostate cancer surgeon specialising in robotic surgery. He works at University College London Hospital and privately at Princess Grace Hospital
How did you become an expert in prostate cancer?
I first got interested in prostate cancer when I was shadowing the England football team doctor. I thought I wanted to do sports medicine! We got talking about this fascinating PSA (prostate-specific antigen) test which could help identify cancer. From there my training took me into radical prostatectomy, I lectured at Cambridge for five years and I learned about robotic surgery.
What symptoms should men look out for?
You need to get something done before symptoms appear so that the cancer is treatable. Men over 50—or over 40 if there’s a family history or they are African-Caribbean—should ask their GP for a PSA test. If PSA levels are raised, an MRI test will then pick out the men who have cancer. Men who have difficulty passing urine, blood in urine, slow flow, want to pee all the time, feel as if they haven’t finished, wake up to pass urine or have incontinence should see a urologist.
What treatments are available?
If it’s caught early enough, prostate cancer can be cured through surgery or radiotherapy. Once it’s spread, you can control it successfully with drugs and chemotherapy for five to ten years.
What messages of hope can you give to men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer?
Prostate cancer can be cured if it’s caught before it’s spread. With robotic radical prostatectomy we can do nerve sparing to prevent impotence and can lower the risk of incontinence. When we’re investigating, we don’t biopsy as many men as we used to and when we do, it’s only when there’s an abnormal lesion on the MRI. And biopsies are less dangerous now.
What can men do to lower their risk of the disease?
Stay healthy, eat a balanced diet, exercise regularly, have a PSA test and don’t smoke. Make sure you’re not overweight. n
Dr Max Pemberton revisits a controversial prodecure in the interest of a patient’s mental health
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
look at the man lying down in front of me. I move my hands away from his temples as his feet begin to twitch and the assembled nurses and doctors watch him. After about 30 seconds the twitching in the feet stops and the anaesthetist steps forward to bring him round. Another doctor looks at the readings being spewed out of a machine on a seemingly never-ending ribbon of paper. It cascades onto the floor as he scrutinises it carefully. My hands are still shaking slightly. I am aware that what I have just participated in is controversial. The man wakes up and opens his eyes.
“Is it all over then?” he asks me with a calmness that would make it easy to forget that he has just had a current of electricity passed through his brain. He has, you see, just undergone electro-convulsive therapy, or ECT. This is where an electrical current is passed through the brain via two paddles placed on either side of the head until the person has a fit. It is used as a way of treating untreatable depression. In the past ECT has had bad press. It was used as a panacea in the
1950s and 1960s and the legacy of this is difficult to erase. Despite being part of my training I have avoided participating in ECT. Given the connotations of institutional barbarism that this procedure conjures up, I wanted to satisfy myself that it really was in the patient’s best interest. I wanted to hear from people who had actually had it so I started to speak to patients about their experience and was astonished by the number of people who told me that ECT had helped them; how it had saved them when they were in the quagmire of despair, when all other treatments had failed; how it had saved their lives.
I began to wonder about where my initial repulsion to the idea of ECT had come from. Had popular culture, with images from things like One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest not irrationally prejudiced me? So I tried to approach the subject rationally. I read about the research, about the evidence base, and alternatives. And I was amazed to learn how safe and effective it was. The image I had was of some screaming patient, tied down, being electrocuted until they were gibbering wrecks in some grotty back room in a 1950s asylum. The reality couldn’t be further from this. It takes place in an operating theatre surrounded by doctors and nurses. The patient is anaesthetised and given a muscle relaxant to stop them jerking during the seizure. The
patient doesn’t shake wildly, doesn’t scream, there aren’t any bolts of electricity flying around the room. In fact, there’s barely anything to see. ECT still has its critics, but
“THE MAN WAKES UP AND OPENS HIS EYES
‘IS IT ALL OVER THEN?’
HE ASKS ME WITH CALMNESS”
I wonder how many of them have seen the practice in its modern context? It’s a bit like condemning leg amputations carried out by orthopaedic surgeons because of images of sailors having their limbs cut off in the Napoleonic wars. In fact, it has far fewer side effects than many of the drugs I happily prescribe. Certainly the science behind how it actually works is not fully understood, but this is the same for many of the treatments that we as doctors use. A few days later I walk onto the ward and see the man sitting there, drinking a cup of tea. He smiles and waves at me, and I wave back. This is a man who has battled with suicidal depression for years. In fact, he’s made such a dramatic improvement after just a few sessions of ECT, there’s talk of discharging him home soon. It’s clear that for him ECT is not controversial. It’s a life-saver. n
Q: I keep waking up gasping for air and my husband says I often seem to “stop breathing” in my sleep. I’m starting to feel very anxious around bedtime. What’s going on? Willow, 57
A: This sounds incredibly scary and I’m pleased you’re asking for help now, because I worry that if this goes on untreated, you might start to associate bedtimes with anxiety. This would lead to a disrupted sleep pattern, which can have a real impact on people’s lives.
It’s particularly interesting that your husband says he’s noticed that you “stop breathing” during sleep. This very much sounds like sleep apnoea. This is a condition where the person stops and starts breathing while asleep. While they are not breathing, the oxygen levels in their blood start to drop and when the brain detects this, it wakes the person up. Sometimes they just wake a bit and don’t recall it—often the only thing they complain
of is feeling tired during the day because they aren’t getting restful sleep. However, if the oxygen levels drop further then the person will wake up entirely and often be gasping for breath. You need to see your GP who may refer you for further, specialist tests at a sleep clinic to investigate. If it is sleep apnoea then there are some things you can do yourself.
Losing weight if you are overweight is very helpful. Others find sleeping on their side helps. Stopping smoking and avoiding alcohol also help. If patients are still having difficulties, there is a device called a C-PAP machine which people use. This is a machine that gently pumps air into a mask that the sleeping person wears. This ensures they get enough oxygen into their lungs and means they don’t wake up and can get restful sleep. n
Got a health question for our doctor? Email it confidentially to askdrmax@ readersdigest.co.uk
This thinking trick from Jonathan Hancock will show you just how amazing your memory really is!
For thousands of years, people have been demonstrating mind-boggling feats of memory. They’ve shown off their skills using poetry, religious texts or playing cards. But in recent years, one particular set of information has become the classic test for super-power memories: the never-ending sequence of seemingly random digits known as “pi”.
By using mental tricks and techniques, pi experts learn thousands of digits. The current record is held by Rajveer Meena: an unbelievable 70,000 digits, all recited in perfect order from memory.
Thankfully, you can learn much less of pi and still enjoy the benefits. In the process, you’ll stretch a range of thinking skills.
Pi memorisers have various ways of doing it. They invent images to bring the digits to life, for example, and arrange them in complex scenes and stories in their minds.
But here’s a simpler way to get a taste for this kind of learning.
For each digit of pi, pick a word with that number of letters. You can then create phrases and sentences that will trigger your recall (for zero, pick something that looks like a
zero—a life-ring, say, or a doughnut!)
For example, 314 could be eat a cake. For 15926, how about a sheep frightens my mother. The more visual and unusual your ideas, the more memorable they’ll be.
So how far will you go? Here’s an example of how you could store the first 14 digits:
“Can I give a quick storyline to assist those who would normally disregard numbers?” That’s an easier way to remember 3.1415926535897!
And to take it up to 25, you could imagine that “Quasimodo sat in his Parisian room, dining on creamy fish pie”. Again, that should stay in your head longer than 93238462643— especially if you “see” it happening, and practise saying it aloud.
Try it yourself. Here are the first 100 decimal places of pi:
3.1415926535897932384626433832
79502884197169399375105820974944 59230781640628620899862803482534
21170679.
Use my trick to learn the first 25, but then challenge yourself to go further. And then, start looking for clever ways to remember anything. Because, with a trick or two up your sleeve, you can start counting on your memory to work wonders! n
Turning ideas into investments.
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The robots are coming… to look after us. And they're already helping out in nursing homes and beyond
BY Susannah HicklingRobot Zora is a valuable addition to conventional care PHOTO: ZORABOTS.COM
Justin Santamaria moves his fingers across his iPad and suddenly the creature comes alive. The size of a baby, Zora rises from the floor onto her feet, flexing her white plastic limbs, joint by joint. She stands there, her eyes round and appealing, and the five elderly ladies seated in a semi-circle in front of her are full of anticipation.
“She’s giving me the eye,” laughs a lady in a wheelchair. But that’s impossible, because Zora is a robot. Since February 2019, the management of this nursing home in Paris’s 15th arrondissement have been using her to complement the care they offer their elderly residents.
Zora leads her class through a gentle workout. She moves her head up and then
down to her chest, then from side to side, all the while accompanied by calming music. Her five students follow her every movement.
The next exercise gets them working their arms. Everything, including Zora’s speech, is preprogrammed by Justin on his tablet. But Justin is no mere puppet master. He is a specialist fitness instructor for the elderly and disabled, and while Zora shows her students the moves, Justin is free to give them individual attention. He walks over to a lady in a wheelchair and encourages her to stretch her arm fully. “I know you find it difficult,” he says sympathetically. He explains to the group that circling their arms will help with picking things up.
The members of this chair-based gym class at Villa Lecourbe obviously adore Zora. All have poor mobility, some have cognitive problems, too. But they do as Zora tells them and when she—they always refer to the humanoid robot as a “she”— plays "La Vie en Rose", they sing along, smiling.
“No one has the impression they’re working,” volunteers another senior. “It’s a welcome little distraction.”
But for Maisons de Famille, the chain of private nursing homes which has adopted Zora across its 16 centres throughout France, she’s much more than a bit of fun. She’s the future.
Robotic technology is all around us. We’re already used to autonomous devices that vacuum clean our homes. We may even have come across robots that help surgeons operate or disinfecting bots that clean operating theatres afterwards. But, increasingly, robots—especially ones that look like mini humans—are being used to help care for people and improve their quality of life.
ZORA'S PRESENCE HELPS RESIDENTS BE LESS ANXIOUS AND MORE RELAXED
“Zora brings a fresh approach to the activities and overall care we offer to our elderly residents,” explains Delphine Mainguy, director general of Maisons de Famille.
“It’s like a toy,” one 90-year-old lady says after the session. “It’s like being a child all over again. At our age we have a lot of childhood memories.”
At Villa Lecourbe, that translates into a set of personalised care and activities for each resident. They might be exercises for strength and balance, singing, dancing or reading books or newspapers aloud in a
Zora
group setting, or individual sessions for those with cognitive problems who are not at ease in the company of others.
Zora might help staff coax residents to get up when they prefer to stay in bed, or entertain a resident who dislikes having her hair done. “Her presence helps them be less anxious and more relaxed,” explains Elisabeth Bouchara, manager of Villa Lecourbe. “We try our best to find solutions that don't involve medication.”
Studies have suggested that Zora and other social robots add value to conventional care. But, because their use is still in its infancy, most of the evidence to date is anecdotal.
Maisons de Famille tells of
elderly people who don’t talk but have begun to use gestures to communicate after copying Zora.
“In a centre in the south of France, one resident wouldn’t allow anyone to touch him in order to change a dressing. Thanks to Zora, who was able to distract him, he finally accepted treatment,” says Boris Prévost, head of marketing and innovation at Maisons de Famille. “Some residents with dementia manage to concentrate for twice as long in sessions involving Zora.”
Zorabots, the Belgium-based robotics company which designs and develops the software for several different humanoid robots, has brought Zora to life in almost 400 healthcare establishments
in countries including Australia, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the US and some countries in Asia.
The company reports how one elderly person with dementia, who no longer spoke, rediscovered his taste for conversation thanks to his robotic carer, and how another, who had forgotten the notes in a piece of music, managed to remember the whole work while interacting with Zora.
The disadvantages? Residents at Villa Lecourbe do complain that Zora’s voice is tinny, a drawback for the hard of hearing. Justin Santamaria feels that the technology still needs refinements. “It’s not difficult to programme,” he says, “but it does take time.”
Staff and some relatives were concerned at the outset that robots were being recruited to take the place of nursing staff. Not so, insists Elisabeth Bouchara. “The robot accompanies, it does not replace,” she explains. “Zora is a little character who becomes familiar to our residents, but she is programmed by a professional. On her own she is nothing.”
Justin Santamaria agrees. “It’s another tool, like a ball or a stretch band,” he says. “It encourages contact with residents but it’s not going to replace humans.”
In the UK, the Southend-onSea council in Essex has also successfully integrated a robot into its social care team. Going by the name of Pepper, the child-sized humanoid is used both with elderly people with dementia and with children who have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
Maxine Nutkins, the council’s community engagement manager, professes amazement at the transformation she has seen in both groups. She was present at a recent session in a dementia care home when Pepper prompted the residents to talk about their memories by asking them questions.
One lady in her nineties wasn’t participating, but when she had a one-to-one session with Pepper, she suddenly got up, started dancing,
Programmed to help: Pepper (far left) and the Probo, for kids
maintain concentration. No one gets distracted.” Soon the children are working together, crafting illustrated stories based on their own experiences and the things that are important to them. All too often they are unable to communicate these passions to others, let alone work in a team.
talking and holding hands with the robot, at one point even caressing its face. Her daughter, who was present, said: “I wish you’d seen my mother before. She’s never done this. This is unbelievable.”
But Nutkins has seen the most benefit with children who have ASD. Pepper goes into two schools for children with special educational needs and runs creative writing workshops. The robot is programmed with information about each child; they are thrilled that Pepper knows them.
Thanks to Pepper’s creative writing sessions, Jacob, one teenager with ASD, has undergone a remarkable change in the space of a year. Previously, he would hide under headphones and rarely speak, but now he's a confident business student at a local college. “He’s a busy young man,” says Maxine Nutkins. “And that’s great, because he wasn’t a busy young man before.”
Nutkins believes the value of Pepper lies in the fact that the robot doesn't have human emotions and can’t communicate unconsciously, and so, doesn’t put people off.
“PEPPER ENCOURAGES THE CHILDREN TO COMMUNICATE. NO ONE GETS DISTRACTED”
“The children are captured straight away,” says Nutkins. “He encourages them to communicate and tell Pepper more. He motivates them to
“There’s no pressure—that’s been one of our main observations,” she says. “Pepper is consistent. If you’re finding it hard to engage with Pepper, Pepper’s not going to pressure you to talk. Pepper will still be there two hours later with the same offer, speaking in the
same tone of voice, still looking at you, still engaged with you, and that's really important for these young people.”
Clinical psychologist Professor Daniel David agrees. “In the case of ASD, there is an openness for interaction with artificial beings and technologies, often more so than in interacting with humans,” he says.
Professor David believes that robots’ contribution to the treatment of mental health issues could go further still. Rather than the so-called "Wizard of Oz" method used both for Zora and Pepper, where operators have to programme the robot’s actions and reactions, he is working on a European Commission-funded project to develop a supervised autonomous robot to work with children who have ASD.
Outwardly identical to Zora, but driven by different software, Nao is used for role playing so that the children learn how to imitate, take turns and develop other social skills.
The exciting thing about this work is that it's aimed at developing the next generation of robot therapy: artificial intelligence.
“ROBOTS WILL ALWAYS COMPLEMENT HUMANS, AND WILL ONLY EVER BE AN EXTRA SUPPORT”
Robots will be able to learn from their experiences in order to assess behaviour and select the appropriate therapeutic response. They will also act as a diagnostic tool by collecting data during sessions with a child. The project team hope to publish their findings shortly.
“We have already used it in real-life settings in about ten centres in Romania for 79 children with ASD with good results,” he says.
His team have been using two robots. One is a soft, elephant-like robot called Probo that models communication skills, such as asking for things and saying thank you. The other is called Nao.
Professor David is convinced that robots have a role in the future of mental health treatment, whether for children with ASD or for elderly people and other adults who need emotional and cognitive support at home when therapists aren’t available.
“Technological development is inevitable and robot-based technology is unstoppable,” he says. “That is why psychologists should be proactive and be those who design this future.”
The innovations are coming thick and fast. In Toulouse, French start-up New Health Community is developing a medical care robot
called Charlie for use in hospitals. He not only keeps patients company but can entertain them with games or dispense information from a touch screen. There’s even a video conferencing facility so that patients can talk to a doctor.
Charlie’s creator, Dr Nicolas Homehr, a family doctor, came up with the idea after his young son was seriously ill in hospital: it occurred to him that it would be beneficial for children in such a position to have a robot companion.
Meanwhile, AV1 from the Norwegian company No Isolation is available to rent for children with chronic illnesses who miss a lot of school and feel isolated. The small desktop robot can go to school in their place and enable the student to join lessons remotely thanks to its live-streaming technology.
Technology giant Samsung will shortly be introducing its Bot Care robot which will help and monitor sick, disabled and elderly people in their own homes. Bot Care is a moving, talking robot with a screen that doubles as a face with cute digitalised eyes. It can measure blood pressure, heart rate and breathing, remind users to take their medicine, tell them what’s in their diary for the day, play music and even alert family members if there’s an emergency, such as a fall. Autonomous caregivers like this could be a boon in years to come.
UN projections indicate that in 2050, people aged 80 and over will number 434 million, having more than tripled since 2015. But the founders of Zorabots insist that robotic technology is there to help and not to take over.
“So-called social robots have already made all the difference by encouraging people to stay fit, by being involved in the care journey, as a tool for physiotherapy, by finding new ways of detecting pain or communicating with people with autism, for example,” says Tommy Deblieck, who co-founded the company with Fabrice Goffin. “But robots will never replace human warmth and expertise. Even if tomorrow artificial intelligence can help with care or diagnosis, robots will always complement humans, and will only ever be an extra support for patients.” n
"IN CARDIFF, WITH THE ROOF CLOSED AGAINST A GOOD WELSH TEAM, THE NOISE IS IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE. THE WELSH UNDOUBTEDLY POSSESS SOME OF THE MOST PASSIONATE FANS IN THE WORLD"
James HaskellEngland rugby player,
The Welsh capital city, Cardiff, is renowned the world over for its rugby, castle and miles of traditional shopping arcades. It also has a reputation as an extremely friendly city, the centre point of the renowned Welsh hospitality. Incredibly, Cardiff was just a small town up until the early 19th century, when its role as a port for the Welsh coal industry propelled its rise to major city status—it was officially declared as such in 1905, becoming the capital of Wales in 1955. Since the 1980s, the city has undergone major developments, resulting in the huge Principality Stadium, BBC Drama Village and Wales Millennium Centre. Despite these continual shifts in the appearance of Cardiff, at its core it remains a cosmopolitan, sociable city which deeply honours its roots and traditions. And its residents are always ready to welcome an outsider— especially if they have the opportunity to thrash them on the rugby pitch.
STUART TALBOT, 45, has lived in Cardiff his whole life and his son Levi, 27, was born in the city. Together they run the vintage gentleman’s outfitters, Hatts Emporium, in Cardiff Market
Stuart: I was born and bred in Cardiff and I could never leave. As a young man, you dream of travelling the world and living your life in a tropical paradise, but as you get older you realise that roots run deep and love binds you.
I love the people of Cardiff. I always feel proud when visitors comment on how warm Cardiffians are. It’s true that the whole of Wales is a very friendly place, but Cardiff is so cosmopolitan that it brings the best of people to one place. The spirit of Cardiff lives through its people—warm and welcoming and always offering a friendly word and a cup of tea to anyone who may need it.
Cardiff has changed quite a bit during my life—the town has expanded upwards as well as out and everything seems quicker and newer. When I was little, the market was such an
adventure, nothing like it anywhere else. There were puppies, rabbits, monkeys and any produce you can think of. Over time, big shopping malls and supermarkets have come to the city bringing people from all walks of life with them, but it’s still kept its soul which is quite a feat in this day and age.
Our business began out of necessity. My mum had Alzheimer's and I’d been looking after her at mine for a few years. My wife had left and I found myself caring for my mum and young son at home.
Then, Levi came back from uni and could see things needed to change. He decided to open a business that would enable us to pay our way and also give us the freedom to care for my mum, trading in something we know about and feel passionate about. Over the years Hatts has organically grown into the business it is so it hasn’t really changed with the city—it more or less evolved with the city. We listen to our customers, then we serve them to the best of our abilities.
Cardiff market is super special—the architecture, the history, the fact that all of the steel beams were shipped to America to be drilled and then shipped back in order to be installed, a feat that shows this was something to be marvelled at when first constructed. It's the centrepiece of Cardiff, full of diverse and wonderful people selling absolutely everything you can think of. It still has a real market atmosphere, full of exciting sounds and smells. If you
visit, be sure to look out for the clock tower. When I was little, my dad told me that the Lord Mayor lived in it.
Levi: I grew up in Grangetown, just around the corner from my grandmother, uncles, aunties and cousins. After graduating and setting up shop, I chose to stay and raise my children in Cardiff because it’s genuinely the greatest city in the UK! It’s got just the right level of bustle and even though it rains a lot, when the sun does shine you're close enough to the coast or country to imagine being anywhere in the world.
I established Hatts Emporium around six years ago as an opportunity to work and help care for my grandmother and brother. We’ve always operated with the idea that you leave a little room to grow, so we don’t force our arguments
or ideals too hard and just let people enjoy the experience. Cardiff Market is the heart of the city. It’s home to over 60 of the capital's smallest and oldest independents. Its history is a conversation of how Welsh society was, is and is going to be.
I certainly love Cardiff unconditionally. It's home.
ERFYL PARRY has lived in Cardiff for 38 years. A former actor, he's now one of Cardiff Castle's most beloved tour guides. Visit cardiffcastle.com
I came to Cardiff to read drama at the prestigious Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and after graduating in 1985 fell in love with a local girl, got married and made Cardiff my home.
The first thing I love about Cardiff is its size. It's quite small compared with all the other major cities in the UK, which means you can cycle from one
end of the city to the other in about half an hour. The city is surrounded by stunning landscapes—within 30 minutes you could be in the heart of the Brecon Beacons and just over an hour to the west you could be lying on the beautiful, unspoilt beaches of the Gower Peninsula.
My favourite Cardiff moments happen when I’m sitting in the Principality Stadium with my English friends, joining 70,000 rugby fans in singing the Welsh National Anthem, while watching Wales beat England and making my friends buy the beer! The Principality Stadium is the best sports stadium in the world. Plus its sliding roof covers the whole playing area, meaning you don't get wet when it rains! When Wales play rugby at the stadium the whole city centre comes alive with a carnival atmosphere, and there's singing and dancing on the streets.
Most stadiums are on the outskirts of cities but the Principality is bang in the centre, so it generates millions of pounds for our local economy. Indeed, if you haven't booked your accommodation in advance when Wales are playing, then don't be surprised if Visit Wales sends you to Weston Super Mare because Wales is full!
I work as a tour guide at Cardiff Castle—the most important building in Cardiff. It began life as a Roman Fort approximately 2,000 years ago. It's very important to preserve Cardiff Castle as it's part of our history. Throughout history the castle has been owned by several royals and medieval barons but between 1766-1947 it was owned by the Marquesses of Bute. The second Marquess of Bute was responsible for modern Cardiff.
In 1801 the population of Cardiff was 6,342. The second Marquess built our docks with his own money, exploiting the coal industry. As a result, a huge amount of people descended on Cardiff from Ireland, Somalia, Sudan and other far away countries all to find employment within the coal industry— not necessarily as miners, but in wagon building, railway, sailing, steam ships and saw mills. By 1851 the population of Cardiff had grown to 26,630 and soon it became the biggest coal port in the world.
The third Marquess of Bute was known as the richest man in Europe and he set about changing the exterior
of Cardiff Castle with heightened medieval-style towers with a sequence of dazzling interiors showcasing various types of marble, gilded gold ceilings and carved woodwork inlaid with precious metals and stones. A true Victorian extravaganza all made possible by his friend, the artarchitect William Burges. The result is mind blowing.
During the Second World War, air raid shelters for the people who worked or lived near the vicinity were built within the castle walls. It accommodated 1,800 people and the shelters can still be seen today. The castle was gifted to the city by fifth Marquess of Bute on September 10, 1947. The citizens of Cardiff can apply for a "Castle Key Card" which gives them free access to the site and a generous discount in the cafe and shop. Well over 350,000 visitors a year come to marvel over its grandeur.
Glasgow has Mackintosh. London has Pugin. But Cardiff has Burges. n
Rock legend and father of three, Peter Frampton, has worked with everyone from Ringo Starr to David Bowie, and sold over 16 million albums worldwide
I would make sure that everyone had access to a great education. Education is the thing that we need more than anything. Good quality schooling is important because without it, we witness exactly what’s happening right now: people get told lies over and over again. And what happens when you tell a lie is, at first it’s just a lie, but when you tell it 25 times, it becomes normalised. That’s what Goebbels did.
I would solve the climate crisis. We’ve got a problem here. And whether we caused it or not—I tend to believe we did—climate change is devastating this world and there are going to be fewer places to live because water is rising. We need to solve the major causes; we know about fossil fuels, but also the deep deforestation of the rain forests. I used to think this was just because of cheap beef but believe it or not, it’s also coffee. I’m switching to organic coffee from now on, because I realise that something as simple as coffee
being grown sustainably can make a big change. Nowadays, they cut down the forest to lay down the beans to quickly dry them whereas the original way of making coffee took a lot longer. The large coffee chains know this but continue trading this way because they’re not going to be around long enough to worry about it, so we need to put our money where our mouth is. We are also totally underfunded in green technologies, and we need clean air.
Human rights would be the standard. We always seem to have a problem. We have come far, but we seem to go backwards as well. From very small things like losing the ability to say “please” and “thank you” to civility, respect for other people, and their dignity. If the US president has his way, we’ll be back in the dark ages. We need gender awareness, and freedom to be gay. We’re all human beings. I think bullying comes into this too, and racism is recently rearing its ugly head yet again.
I would share the wealth. No child should go hungry. And I go back to my corporation statement, these huge companies make so much money and yet they don’t pay tax and people around the world are going hungry, they don’t have clean water. Many have limited access to electricity and that’s not necessary anymore, because we have devices that use
power from the sun. Companies need to actually help the people.
Religion would not cause tension. A big one for me is our freedom. As a world. My mother told me that fighting for religion will never be sorted out in her lifetime or mine and I’m beginning to realise she’s right. We need religious tolerance. We need leaders who don’t try to rule the world as a gang.
I would hand over the power to women. I believe the women should rule the world, not men. Which leads me to the fact that still to this day, a woman can do the same job as a man, and do it just as well but gets paid less. I don’t get that. I just don’t understand. We need to change the norm, which is this toxic boys’ club attitude.
I’d ban bad drivers. It’s illegal to text and drive yet annoyingly some people still do it. But I think the thing that bugs me the most is when someone slows down in front of me without signalling and then they turn right or left. And it could cause a really bad accident. Just signal and don’t stress out the driver behind you! n
As told to Jessica Summers
Peter Frampton’s album, All Blues is out now on UMC and his memoir, Do You Feel Like I Do? is published on October 20
My doctor was astonished when he examined me ...
“How at age 63, I had the prostate of a very young man!”
Here is Damien’s moving story. For the past ve years, the su ering and discomfort linked to his prostate had only been increasing: it had become hell for him. At night... he would have to go to the toilet up to 6 times without really being able to relieve himself. As for his sex life, it was becoming more and more di cult. All this until the day... (Let’s let Damien tell you about it in his own words.)
Goodbye
friends and do what I want... freely.
My wife, Anne, and I, are once again very much in love with one another. To the point that we no longer watch television on an evening. Now we have better things to do together in bed!
10 ml per day is enough to make a big difference
To take full advantage of the “Prostaphenol” Serum, take it on an empty stomach, 20 minutes before your two main meals , or failing that, 2 hours afterwards. Take 5ml pure or mixed with water, juice or fruit. A measure accompanies each bottle. Once open, the Serum will keep for up to 7 weeks in the refrigerator. Unopened, it will last for one year.
Isu ered in silence for a long time. Only men who are in the same situation as I can understand the physical and mental su ering caused by prostate troubles.
Consider that I would have to get out of bed up to 6 times a night and most of the time for nothing. My wife couldn’t do it anymore because, of course, every time I got out of bed, I woke her up.
Sexually, it was a nightmare, if I may say so. I could not manage satisfactory erections. I didn’t dare drive, go out with friends or go to the cinema. I was stuck living in hell.
A er trying several more or less natural remedies, I thought there was only one solution le for me: surgery! It terri ed me because I dreaded the possible complications and the long recovery period.
Everything changed thanks to my wife. Without telling me, for some time she had been researching to nd me a natural solution rather than spending it on pool. One morning, she returned with a le that would change my life as a man.
It was the wife of a doctor who she met in Geneva that gave her this
By releasing the amazing concentration of pomegranate polyphenols directly on the prostate walls, the Prostaphenol Serum can relieve your symptoms very quickly. Once the inflammation is reduced, your prostate will gradually return to normal size.
The result?
In just a few days, you will regain the ability to urinate comfortably, have a full night’s sleep an omproved sex life, pleasure being with your friends, going out and playing sport with no worries.
Atrophic, your prostate dilates, until it presses painfully on your bladder and urethra. Therefore you have urinary problems and difficulty maintaining erections.
le about pomegranate polyphenol serum helping to overcome prostate problems. e prostate was compared to an oxidized fruit which, like an apple, swells under the e ect of this disorder.
e tests showed that by giving the prostate a large number of antioxidants, it allows it to return to its normal size. is is where the “Prostaphenol” Serum comes in, a concentrate made of antioxidants and anti-in ammatories targeting the malfunction of the prostate.
e facts were precise and detailed, the results quanti ed and proven. e pomegranate polyphenol Serum seemed to be the ultimate natural remedy for ghting against the ravages of prostate hypertrophy. ere was evidence to support it; I read the testimonies of men who, like me, had su ered in silence for too long.
All had experienced the relief of normal urination with a powerful and free ow, a normal frequency, peaceful nights and erections that met their partner’s expectations.
I then told myself that if this remedy worked on so many men, it could also bring a lasting solution to my prostate problems. So, I decided to try this famous
After Normal prostate
Your prostate will gradually return to its normal size. You will be able to urinate normally again and be more successful sexually
serum for myself. A er two weeks it was already much better. In six weeks, my prostate was back to normal.
My life has changed. It’s been four months now since I have felt a very clear di erence when I go to urinate. I now have an excellent ow that really empties my bladder. I no longer get up in the night and I have a peaceful sleep.
My wife too... and both of us have regained our long-forgotten sex life. I now have rm and powerful erections. I can go out again and see friends without being worried like before. I found con dence in myself again. In short, I could live again.
I went to see my doctor again yesterday a ernoon. He could not believe his eyes: my prostate had shrunk and returned to its normal size. “At 63 years old, you now have the prostate of a 30-yearold”, he told me. e funniest thing was that he asked me for the Elite Trade address himself. To all men su ering with their prostate, I would like to say their su ering is no longer fatal and that they should try this surprising Serum.
Personally, If I had known such a treatment existed sooner, I think I would have given several years of my life to take it immediately!”
As far as current scientific knowledge goes, it is probably in the fruit and the flower of the pomegranate that the highest concentration of natural polyphenols is found. Scientists have succeeded in extracting these active polyphenols to make it the first serum which, with its targeted action to the prostate, allows the latter to decongest quickly by significantly reducing its oxidation. In a short time, the prostate returns to normal size and you can once again urinate with ease and comfort. In addition, the prostate can once again contribute to sperm production and therefore to a more plentiful ejaculation.
This tree makes a substance that can change your life by putting an end to your troubles.
The Serum of polyphenols extracted from part of the fruit and sap of the pomegranate flowers fights against the oxidation of the prostate; no.1 cause of often serious disorders that can make people suffer, sometimes a lot.
to those pressing feelings and need to urinate. Now, I go out with myYou already know that you have a prostate problem otherwise you would not have read this article to here. Take this little test to confirm it Do you get up more than twice a night to try and urinate?
You already know that you have a prostate problem otherwise you would not have read this article to here. Take this little test to confirm it
Do you get up more than twice a night to try and urinate?
During the day, do you feel pressing needs that ruin your life?
During the day, do you feel pressing needs that ruin your life?
In spite of your best efforts, you can no longer fully empty your bladder.
In spite of your best efforts, you can no longer fully empty your bladder.
On the sexual side, do you have trouble getting satisfactory erections?
On the sexual side, do you have trouble getting satisfactory erections?
Do you feel that your urinary flow is weaker than before?
Do you feel that your urinary flow is weaker than before?
❒ YES ❒ NO
❒ YES ❒ NO
At least 3 “yes” answers confirms that you have a prostate disorder. It isn’t fatal. The “Prostaphenol” Serum will allow you to naturally regain the prostate of a young man.
At least 3 “yes” answers confirms that you have a prostate disorder. It isn’t fatal. The “Prostaphenol” Serum will allow you to naturally regain the prostate of a young man.
Powerful and abundant urinary flows and powerful erections, there are the first effects that you will soon experience...this experience will not cost you anything.
Powerful and abundant urinary flows and powerful erections, there are the first effects that you will soon experience...this experience will not cost you anything.
Your treatment will be dispatched immediately upon receipt of your order, and upon receipt of your package, you will have a 90 day no-commitment trial period. You will very quickly see a real renewal of the well-being of your prostate: no urge to urinate that wakes you up several times a night, better urinary flow, a return of your sexual prowess. If you do not quickly see these results, simply return your vials, even if empty, and upon receipt of your returned package, a cheque for a full refund will be sent in your name. This is without condition. No questions asked.
Your treatment will be dispatched immediately upon receipt of your order, and upon receipt of your package, you will have a 90 day no-commitment trial period. You will very quickly see a real renewal of the well-being of your prostate: no urge to urinate that wakes you up several times a night, better urinary flow, a return of your sexual prowess. If you do not quickly see these results, simply return your vials, even if empty, and upon receipt of your returned package, a cheque for a full refund will be sent in your name. This is without condition. No questions asked.
IMPORTANT:
IMPORTANT:
To ensure optimal quality for the main active ingredients, the “Prostaphenol” serum vials are manufactured each month in limited quantities. In order to not have to wait for the next production and thus ensure delivery within 3-5 days, return the order form below the same day.
To ensure optimal quality for the main active ingredients, the “Prostaphenol” serum vials are manufactured each month in limited quantities. In order to not have to wait for the next production and thus ensure delivery within 3-5 days, return the order form below the same day.
D.
the “Prostate Master” from the scienti c research laboratory: “I am convinced that the “Prostaphenol” serum can truly transform your life as a man... Let me explain how:
serum can truly transform your life as a man... Let me explain how:
he rst time I heart about pomegranate polyphenol was in Dublin, Ireland, at a science conference.
he rst time I heart about pomegranate polyphenol was in Dublin, Ireland, at a science conference.
I was stunned when I attended a conference by a colleague which talked for some time about the comparison between oxygenation of the prostate and fruit. To a silent room, he demonstrated to an audience of luminaries that when an oxidised fruit is nourished with pomegranate polyphenols, it is not only regenerated but it recovers its original form!
I was stunned when I attended a conference by a colleague which talked for some time about the comparison between oxygenation of the prostate and fruit. To a silent room, he demonstrated to an audience of luminaries that when an oxidised fruit is nourished with pomegranate polyphenols, it is not only regenerated but it recovers its original form!
He then continued his demonstration by proving that it was the same for the prostate. His observations were clear: all the men who had followed the pomegranate polyphenol Serum treatment had seen amazing changes in their daily lives (or in their daily hell, should I say!)
He then continued his demonstration by proving that it was the same for the prostate. His observations were clear: all the men who had followed the pomegranate polyphenol Serum treatment had seen amazing changes in their daily lives (or in their daily hell, should I say!)
Now they could all empty their bladder e ectively with a free and powerful ow.
Now they could all empty their bladder e ectively with a free and powerful ow.
e result? Peaceful nights without the need to get up to satisfy an urge and rm erections that are energetic and rich in sperm.
e result? Peaceful nights without the need to get up to satisfy an urge and rm erections that are energetic and rich in sperm.
As soon as I got back to the lab, I also started
As soon as I got back to the lab, I also started
the same experiments with a group of volunteers with prostate disorders. My conclusions were also clear and con rmed what my colleague had found in Dublin: the pomegranate polyphenol Serum is without contest the more powerful natural remedy known to date for helping regain the prostate of a young man. Many scienti c publications on the subject are available to everyone!
the same experiments with a group of volunteers with prostate disorders. My conclusions were also clear and con rmed what my colleague had found in Dublin: the pomegranate polyphenol Serum is without contest the more powerful natural remedy known to date for helping regain the prostate of a young man. Many scienti c publications on the subject are available to everyone!
To my knowledge, never has a natural product been so bene cial!
To my knowledge, never has a natural product been so bene cial!
Now, when a man su ering with prostate trouble comes to see me, I recommend the only remedy that to my knowledge can prevent him from turning to painful and radical solutions: the “Prostaphenol” Serum.
Now, when a man su ering with prostate trouble comes to see me, I recommend the only remedy that to my knowledge can prevent him from turning to painful and radical solutions: the “Prostaphenol” Serum.
So why continue to su er from urinary troubles, disturbed nights and lack of sexual prowess? You can now also regain a normal prostate to fully enjoy life just like many men much younger than you. So do not miss this unique opportunity to try the “Prostaphenol” Serum. You will be grateful for it for the rest of your life.
So why continue to su er from urinary troubles, disturbed nights and lack of sexual prowess? You can now also regain a normal prostate to fully enjoy life just like many men much younger than you. So do not miss this unique opportunity to try the “Prostaphenol” Serum. You will be grateful for it for the rest of your life.
See for yourself with no commitment at all that this powerful treatment can help you to:
See for yourself with no commitment at all that this powerful treatment can help you to:
Decrease your frequent urge to urinate all the time.
Decrease your frequent urge to urinate all the time.
Restore the power of your urinary flow.
Restore the power of your urinary flow.
Be sure to have impressive erections.
Be sure to have impressive erections.
Restore YOUR self-confidence.
Restore YOUR self-confidence.
Go out and live a normal life again.
Go out and live a normal life again.
Together, a new generation of women brewsters are changing the face of the beer industry
BY Norman MillerBack when water supplies could be pretty yucky, a lot of people drank beer as a much safer option. And that beer was mainly made by women. In fact, women brewers—brewsters—remained in charge of our beer industries for centuries, up to the Industrial Revolution when Victorian societal constraints and growing industrialisation untied to push them out of the brewing front-line.
Now women are back at the helm at an ever-growing number of British brewers, large and small. People like Emma Gilleland, head brewer at major Midlands beer-maker Marston's since 2007, who was once described by the BBC as “the most influential woman in beer today”.
“When I took the role of head brewer at Marston’s I was the first female head brewer in its 175 years— and the first female head brewer in England. But women have been brewing beer for a long time, and it's reported they invented beer,” says Gilleland. When she first entered the brewing industry 26 years ago, though, she didn't have much sisterly company. “I was one of just two women working in production at the time. But in the early 2000s that started to change.”
At the forefront of driving that change was Sara Barton, who set up her own brewery (aptly named Brewster's) in the Lincolnshire town of Grantham back in 1998. She's gone on to brew gold-medal winning beers, and in 2012 became the first woman to win the prestigious Brewer of the Year Award from the British Guild of Beer Writers.
“We were brewing a range of 'famous women in history' beers since around 2000,” says Barton. “Now, Mothership and other female-led breweries are following our lead. A lot of pubs now run female brewer beer festivals— hopefully inspiring more female drinkers to try beer and see it as a femaleinclusive product.”
Perfectly epitomising that female-inclusive idea is Jane Frances LeBlond's
Ruby red ale "Harper's Brewing Co." brewed by Marston's
“BREWING BECAME A WAY FOR JANE TO 'SUSTAIN HER IDENTITY' WHILE RAISING HER YOUNG CHILDREN”
all-women brewing team at Mothership. Jane came indirectly to brewing via a career in graphic design which she entered partly because the idea of women having brewing careers just didn't seem viable at the time. But her interest had begun burning early, after a teenage summer wine-making job at Kent vineyard Chapel Down, when she “fell in love with the idea of fermentation”.
Jane took up brewing seriously by chance, after buying her husband a home-brewing kit that he left languishing until its use-by date. “So I brewed it!” As she became
increasingly involved in brewing at ever larger scales, it became a way to “sustain her identity” while dealing with the myriad stresses of raising young children. “Mothership began as an idea formed in the early hours of mornings, during long walks pushing a buggy round the park, snatching moments while babies sleep. Mashing in test brews at 5am and bottling after putting kids to bed.”
Beer and babies clearly can mix, as Mothership scooped a major industry award as Britain's most exciting new brewery within months of starting up in 2019. As well as
“WOMEN CAN FEEL THEY HAVE TO WORK TWICE AS HARD AS A MAN TO PROVE THEY ARE CAPABLE”
being an all-women brewing team, their range focuses on women in other ways too. A celebratory series of brews under the heading 'Extraordinary Women', for example, has kicked off with Codebreaker, a Double IPA dedicated to Joan Clarke, whose work in helping crack Germany's Enigma Code during the Second World War saved thousands of lives.
Sara Barton's Project Venus provided a further boost to Britain's brewsters. It was set up in 2011 to
provide a networking forum, and a chance to come together regularly to make collaborative craft beers with a 100 per cent female touch.
“At the time I launched there was no real talk about female brewers and their place in the industry,” says Barton. “I'd come across women brewers over the years just getting on with doing their job.”
So is there a different vibe when women brew together? “With all collaborations there's a great level of fun,” says Barton. “But I don't think it is too different… Maybe we're not as
competitive with each other—but that could be me using a stereotype!”
The diversity of the women in British brewing makes stereotyping the last thing you'd think of. Take Catherine Maxwell Stuart, 21st Lady of Traquair—and the only aristocratic lady brewer in the world. Catherine makes globally-celebrated beers from a grand 12th-century house on the banks of the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders. Not only is this the oldest inhabited house in Scotland, but a place that has hosted 27 Scottish kings and
queens—plus "the monarch who never was", Bonnie Prince Charlie.
But today Traquair is known for the ales made in its tiny riverbank brewery. Using historic equipment, Catherine and her team produce bottled beers such as the House Ale and Jacobite Ale voted best of their type in the world—“poetry in a glass” as one US expert put it.
Research suggests a brewery was active here when Mary Queen of Scots visited in 1566—but by the 19th century it had fallen into disuse. Its very existence remained unknown
until Catherine's father, Peter Maxwell Stuart, stumbled upon the old oak mash tuns—brewing vats— and 19th-century wooden stirring paddles hidden in a long-overlooked outhouse in the early 1960s.
“When my father walked into the brew house it was just a repository for family junk and lots of old champagne bottles,” Catherine reveals. “We knew it must have been forgotten about because of all the copper—if anyone had known about that during the Second World War, it would have been taken off to be melted down for munitions.”
There was never much doubt about her brewing destiny. “My early memories are of helping my father when I was about ten,” she says. “It was a great treat to help cool the beer. I'd stand on ladders and stir with old wooden paddles. Then I was employed to clean out the vessels. I did a bit of everything… It was very much part of my growing up.”
While people like Emma Gilleland pioneered the breakthrough of women at major brewers like Marston's, Catherine's family were pioneers at the small-scale end. “Traquair was the pioneer of microbrewing in Scotland,” Catherine says. “In 1965 nobody was remotely interested in this kind of beer—it was the time of the lager revolution. There was more interest in my father being the first to get a licence to brew in a private house!”
The blue blood pedigree in Traquair's DNA also gives rise to some regal irony. “We do a lighter ale called Stuart Ale for spring,” says Catherine. “We originally called it Royal Stuart—until the government said we weren't allowed to call it 'Royal'… Though we have better Royal Stuart connections than the present Royal family!”
In contrast to a Scottish aristocrat, is the former Colombian chocolatetaster brewing up a storm in Cornwall, Paola Leather. She's now quality manager at St Austell Brewery, after heading brewing teams at other producers including Skinner's, Camden and Brains.
Beer formed a backdrop to Paola's childhood, as her grandfather worked in a brewery back in South America. “I grew up in the Colombian capital of Bogota, and worked in quality control for a chocolate company and a coffee federation. I was always interested in how every small change during the production process could transform the final flavour of the product.”
Another fine British brewster hailing from foreign parts is Italian Alessandra Confessore. Now head brewer at Yorkshire's Ilkley Brewery, she explains that being a woman in a male-dominated industry hasn't always been easy.
“Women can feel they have to work twice as hard as a man to prove
“IT WAS HARD TO BE CONFIDENT—PEOPLE AROUND ME THOUGHT THAT I WASN'T STRONG ENOUGH FOR A MANUAL JOB”
they are capable,” she suggests. “I met quite a lot of scepticism when I decided to study brewing—it was hard to be confident when people around me thought that I wasn't strong enough for a manual job!”
Like Paola, Alessandra believes tastes from her home country have informed her brewing. “Italy is a wine country—culturally we look for complexity and balance when we talk about taste. Taking a traditional style and trying to create this poetry of flavours is way more inspiring to me than using unusual ingredients.”
While research suggests that women may generally have more nuanced taste buds than their male counterparts, no-one I talk to really suggests that women have different tastes in beer to men. Instead, attitude has proved the most notable gender division.
“One of the biggest challenges years ago was the perception by women they do not like beer, when many hadn't even tasted it,” says Emma Gilleland.
Now women are not only tasting beer, but once again taking charge with making it. Welcome back, brewsters! n
Under Communism, farmers laboured in the fields of Fejér County, west of Budapest, reaping wheat and corn for a government that had stolen their land. Today, their children toil for new overlords, a group of oligarchs and political patrons who have annexed the land through opaque deals with the Hungarian government. They've created a modern twist on a feudal system, giving jobs and aid to the compliant, and punishing the mutinous.
These land barons, as it turns out, are financed and emboldened by the European Union.
Every year, the 27-country bloc pays out 59 billion euros in farm subsidies intended to support farmers and keep rural communities alive. But across Hungary and much of Central and Eastern Europe, the bulk goes to a connected and powerful few. This is because governments in Central and Eastern Europe have wide latitude in how the subsidies, funded by taxpayers across Europe, are distributed.
A New York Times investigation in nine countries, uncovered a subsidy system that's deliberately opaque, undermines the EU’s environmental goals and is warped by corruption and self-dealing. Europe’s machinery in Brussels enables this corruption
Ferenc Horváth discovered belatedly that the state-owned land around his tiny farm in Hungary had been sold
Oligarchs and populists are milking the European Union for millions in farm subsidies
By Selam Gebrekidan, Matt Apuzzo and Benjamin Novak
because confronting it would mean changing a programme that helps hold a precarious union together. European leaders disagree about many things, but they all count on generous subsidies and wide discretion in spending them. Bucking that system to rein in abuses would disrupt political and economic fortunes across the continent.
This is why, instead of rooting out corruption or tightening controls, lawmakers are moving to give leaders more authority on spending—over the objections of internal auditors.
The programme is the biggest item in the European Union’s central budget, accounting for 40 per cent of expenditures. Yet some lawmakers in Brussels who write and vote on farm policy admit they often have no idea where the money goes.
VIKTOR ORBÁN’S GOVERNMENT HAS SOLD THOUSANDS OF ACRES TO HIS FAMILY MEMBERS AND CLOSE ASSOCIATES
One place it goes is Fejér County, home to Hungary’s populist prime minister, Viktor Orbán. Though a harsh critic of Brussels and European elites, he's happy to accept EU money. Orbán’s government has auctioned
off thousands of acres of state land to his family members and associates. Those who control the land qualify for millions in subsidies from the EU.
“It’s an absolutely corrupt system,” said József Ángyán, who once served as Orbán’s state secretary in the Ministry of Rural Development.
Farmers who criticise the system say they've been denied grants or faced surprise audits, in what amounts to a sophisticated intimidation campaign. “It’s not like when a car comes for you at night and takes you away,” said István Teichel, who farms a small plot in Orbán’s home county. “This is deeper.”
The brazen patronage was not supposed to happen. Since the earliest days of the EU, farm policy has had outsized importance as an immutable system of public welfare. As the system has expanded, accountability has not kept up.
National governments publish some information on recipients, but the largest beneficiaries hide behind complex ownership structures. Although farmers are paid, in part, based on their acreage, property data is kept secret. The EU maintains a master database but, citing the difficulty of downloading the information, refused to provide a copy.
In response, the Times compiled its own database that included corporate and government records; data on land sales and leases; and leaked documents and non-public
Farmland near Csákvár, Hungary. The EU spends $65 billion a year on agricultural subsidies
land records received from whistleblowers and researchers. The Times confirmed land deals that benefitted a select group of political insiders. The investigation built on the work done by Hungarian journalists and others who have investigated land abuses despite a media crackdown by Orbán’s government.
the EU champions the subsidy programme as an essential safety net for farmers, but studies have shown that 80 per cent of the money goes to the biggest 20 per cent of recipients.
In the Czech Republic, the highestprofile subsidy recipient is Andrej Babiš, the billionaire agriculturalist who is also prime minister. The Times analysis found his Czech companies collected at least £33.5m in agricultural subsidies in 2018. The Czech government has, in recent years, ushered in rules that make it
easier for big companies to receive more subsidies. Yet Babiš still denies any wrongdoing.
In the spring of 2019, the Bulgarian authorities carried out raids that exposed corrupt ties between government officials and agricultural businessmen. One of the largest flour producers in the country was charged with fraud and is awaiting trial.
In Slovakia, the top prosecutor has acknowledged the existence of an “agricultural Mafia.” Small farmers have reported being beaten and extorted for land that receives subsidies. A journalist, Ján Kuciak, was murdered in 2018 while investigating Italian mobsters who had infiltrated the farm industry and built relationships with politicians.
Despite this, EU officials dismissed a 2015 report that recommended tightening farm-subsidy rules. The European Parliament rejected a bill
that would have banned politicians from benefitting from the subsidies they administer. And top officials swat away suggestions of fraud.
Few leaders have attempted such brazen exploitation of the subsidy system as Orbán in Hungary.
The European Union officially absorbed much of the breadbasket of Central and Eastern Europe on May 1, 2004. Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia—all former Soviet satellites—were among the ten nations that joined the bloc that day.
Amid the celebrations, Orbán was in political purgatory. He'd been the prime minister who helped guide Hungary into the union—only to see voters turn him out of office in 2002. Now one of the first protest groups in the new Hungary emerged: farmers. Hungarian farmers clogged Budapest’s narrow streets in 2005 for a mass demonstration. They wanted the subsidies they were eligible for under the bloc’s Common Agricultural Policy, or CAP, but the payments hadn’t arrived. Hungary’s left-leaning government was too disorganised and unprepared.
The programme was designed after the Second World War to ramp up food production in countries laid waste by conflict. Over time, it became a critical foundation in creating the borderless economy that would grow into the modern European Union. At
its heart, the programme is defined by a simple proposition: farmers are mostly paid based on how many acres they harvest. Whoever controls the most land gets the most money.
“THIS IS A CRONY ECONOMY WHERE FRIENDS AND POLITICAL ALLIES GET SPECIAL TREATMENT"
Central and Eastern Europe had lots of land, much of it still stateowned, a legacy of the Communist era. European officials worked closely with incoming governments on issues such as meeting food testing standards, or controlling borders, yet only limited attention was paid to the subsidies. Before Orbán left office, he sold 12 state-owned farming companies to politically connected buyers. They got cut-rate deals and exclusive rights to the land for 50 years, making them eligible for subsidies when Hungary joined the EU.
“This is a crony economy, where friends and political allies get special treatment,” said György Raskó, a former Hungarian agriculture minister.
Out of office, Orbán saw the potential power of countryside subsidies. He also was intrigued by the man who negotiated on behalf of the protesting farmers: József Ángyán.
After the fall of Communism, Ángyán, a rural economist, made the case that small landholders could keep villages alive through sustainable practices. He founded an environmental programme at one of the nation’s most prestigious universities and helped build an organic farm called Kishantos with 1,100 acres of wheat, corn and flowers.
Orbán again ran for prime minister in 2010 and wanted to court the rural vote. Ángyán was now a member of parliament, and his ties to the farmers gave him political clout in the countryside. Orbán summoned him to his home, where the two men spoke about the future of Hungarian farms. Ángyán envisioned a government that gave small farmers more clout. Orbán made it clear that he wanted to implement Ángyán’s ideas and offered to make him under secretary of rural development.
“When Orbán speaks, he speaks with such conviction,” Ángyán said. “You believe him.”
After Orbán’s landslide victory, Ángyán called on the government to carve up its massive plots and lease them to small and midsize farmers. But Orbán wanted to lease whole swaths of land to a coterie of his allies.
“I had no chance to carry out what I wanted to do,” Ángyán said.
In 2011, Orbán’s new government began leasing out hundreds of thousands of acres of public land. Much of it went to people close to Orbán’s party.
New leaseholders paid low rates to the government, even as they became eligible for European subsidies. The deals drew sharp criticism in the local media, yet ordinary farmers stayed quiet, despite being left out. Ángyán, feeling betrayed, quit the government in 2012 but remained in parliament.
At a closed meeting in early 2013, Ángyán confronted Orbán in front of his most trusted allies, saying, “You’re going to destroy the countryside!”
Orbán launched into a soliloquy comparing politics to a battlefield.
Those who are loyal, he said, could count on protection. “But those who aren’t? We will also fire at them.”
In 2015, Orbán's government sold hundreds of thousands of acres of state farmland, much of it to politically connected allies. Technically, it was an auction. But many local farmers say they were told not to bother bidding because winners had been predetermined. Many more didn't even know about the sales.
Ferenc Horváth, 63, who lives in a shack in Fejér County, belatedly discovered that the government had sold all the state-owned land surrounding his tiny plot. “It happened so fast,” he said. “We had no idea you could buy land here.”
His new neighbour was Lörinc Mészáros, a childhood friend of Orbán. Fences sprung up overnight.
Mészáros, along with his relatives, has bought more than 3,800 acres in Fejér County, according to a Times analysis of land data. Orbán’s sonin-law and another friend have also bought large estates a short drive away.
It is a type of modern feudalism, where small farmers live in the shadow of huge, politically powerful interests—and EU subsidies help finance it. According to a Times analysis of Hungarian payment data, companies controlled by Mészáros and Sándor Csányi, an influential
businessman in Budapest, received £22 million in subsidies in 2018.
They're eligible for a range of subsidies—direct payments based on acreage, subsidies directed at livestock and dairy or rural development programmes—all distributed by Orbán's government.
“I’m always accused—and I'm very angry about it—that I got the biggest subsidies,” Csányi said in an interview. The reason, he said, is not politics. It's pigs. “I produce one-sixth of the Hungarian pig production.”
Rajmund Fekete, a spokesman for Orbán, said that Hungarian subsidy procedures “fully satisfy” European regulations but declined to answer specific questions.
In Brussels, European officials were warned about problems in Hungary. A May 2015 report, commissioned by the European Parliament, cited “dubious land deals”. More broadly, the investigators found that wealthy, politically connected landowners had the power to annex land across Central and Eastern Europe. “This is particularly so when they conspire
with government authorities,” the report said.
Investigators said the farm subsidy programme encouraged companies to acquire more and more land.
“The CAP in this sense has clearly failed to live up to its objectives,” said the report, prepared by the Transnational Institute. In response, European agricultural officials denounced the findings as unreliable, and declared it was up to leaders to enforce national land use policies.
That deference to national governments is a hallmark of the EU. But it has left the bloc unable or unwilling to confront leaders who try to undermine its efforts, said Tomás García Azcárate, a long-time European agriculture official. “The EU has very limited instruments for dealing with gangster member states,” he said.
Out of government, Ángyán meticulously studied the Orbán government’s land sales, interviewed farmers who had been abandoned by the government and mapped political connections among the buyers.
In Csongrád County, for example, associates of János Lázár, a lawmaker, were among the biggest buyers, obtaining about 1,300 acres. And in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County, associates and relatives of Orbán government officials were among the biggest winners in the land auctions.
While political patrons get rich, many small farmers count on the
subsidies to survive. That discourages them from criticising the system, especially in the face of retribution.
Ferenc Gal, who raises cows and grows alfalfa on his family farm, said he applied to lease about 320 acres because the subsidies would have made it profitable before he planted. Local farmers were supposed to get preference, but the land went to wealthy out-of-town investors.
When he complained, Gal quickly found himself a pariah. He said government inspectors showed up at his farm, suddenly concerned about environmental and water quality. He said local officials told him not to bother applying for future rural grants. “Once you’re on a blacklist,” Gal said, “that’s it.”
Retribution also found József Ángyán. Months after he quit the cabinet, government officials retracted the lease on his organic farm. They gave the land to political loyalists. Farmers saw what happened to the man who spoke up for them. “If Ángyán can’t do anything, what can I do?” said Teichel, the Fejér County farmer. As long as the government administers grants, nobody can afford to speak up.
Since working withe the Times, Ángyán has receded from public life. When Teichel saw him recently at a funeral, he looked defeated and asked: “How should I continue when nobody is behind me?” n
The quest to solve one of archaeology’s greatest puzzles
BY Bonnie Munday
Ancient stone jar sites in Laos recently received Unesco World Heritage status
struggle to penetrate the mist that's hanging over the forest on a mountaintop in the northern reaches of the Annamite Range in Laos. It’s a cold day in February 2017 and a metal pot of coffee simmers on a fire. Nearby, archaeologist Dr Dougald O’Reilly, in a canvas stockman hat and army trousers, black puffer jacket and Grateful Dead T-shirt, is crouched in a precisely cut, four-by-four-metre trench. At its edge is an oval stone disk roughly one metre across. It’s lying flat near a huge stone "jar".
This is Site 52 of the Plain of Jars, so named for the plateau where the best-known group of jars, Site 1, is situated, near the city of Phonsavan. From Phonsavan, Site 52 is an hour’s drive on a paved road, then another 45 minutes up a precipitous dirt track. Scattered all around this forest floor are some 400 stone vessels, one to three metres tall, some lying on their sides. A number of the jars are broken, with trees growing through them; a few disks, some of them perhaps lids, can be seen too. The jars are empty except for stagnant rainwater and spiders.
These megaliths are found in some 80 locations scattered across north-eastern Laos. Little is known about them, but they were likely made 2,000 years ago
O’Reilly, 53, is an assistant professor at the Australian National University and chief investigator
on this three-week field trip—part of a fiveyear effort to solve the mystery of the jars.
“The two most common questions I get are, ‘What were the jars for, and how old are they?’ ” says the dark-haired, blue-eyed O’Reilly. “That’s what we’re trying to find out.”
It’s a team effort that includes O’Reilly and his project partner, fellow archaeologist Louise Shewan of the University of Melbourne, together with Laos government and
archaeologists led by Dr Thonglith Luangkoth, director of archaeology with Laos’s ministry of information, culture and tourism. “We couldn’t do this research without some amazing people on the ground,” adds O’Reilly.
One of their main goals in this project—the first of its scale in some 80 years—is to map the sites and the jars with remote sensing and GIS (geographic information systems) technology.
This proved crucial in Laos’s bid for Unesco World Heritage status for the jar sites two years later. Laos is
one of the world’s poorest countries, so it's hoped that the World Heritage status will boost tourist numbers and preserve the jar sites.
LITTLE IS KNOWN about the megaliths, which are thought to have been made a couple of thousand years ago. There are some 80 jar sites scattered around northeast Laos, and a handful in remote eastern India, hundreds of miles away. Many were quarried a few miles from where they sit, further adding to the Stonehengelike mystery: weighing as much as ten
tons a piece, how did they even get here from the quarries? Were they transported on log rollers, dragged by elephants, or somehow rolled to the sites? O’Reilly calls the search for answers “invigorating”.
No major excavation has been done since the 1930s, when famed French archaeologist Madeleine Colani first studied these jars in what was then part of French Indochina. Then, in the 1940s came civil war and later the Vietnam War, during which the US bombed Laos for a decade. It’s said Laos is the most heavily bombed country per capita in history. About 30 per cent of the 260 million bombs dropped never detonated, so the
Site 1 was declared clear about ten years ago. During the 2016 excavations of that bomb-cratered plateau, home to some 300 jars, the archaeology team found human bones in smaller ceramic vessels buried underneath flat stone disks beside the jars. The theory is that the jars were for mortuary practice. “The people of perhaps the Iron Age—2000 years ago—might have used them to rot their dead, then later transferred the bones to the smaller vessels for burial,” says O’Reilly. Archaeologists including Colani (whom O’Reilly admires so much he named his daughter, Madeleine, after her) and Julie Van
“TWO THOUSAND YEARS AGO, IRON AGE PEOPLE MIGHT HAVE USED THEM TO ROT THEIR DEAD”
unexploded ordnance, or "UXO" has been a deadly obstacle—not just for archaeological work, but for everything from road building to farming. The British non-profit Mines Advisory Group (MAG) has been in Laos since the mid-1990s to remedy that. It’s slow, painstaking work, but the group has now cleared UXO from various locations for a total of about 25 square miles, indicating cleared areas by embedding the ground with bricks engraved "MAG". It has helped keep about 1 million people safe.
Den Bergh, a Belgian who mapped some of the jar sites in the early 2000s, believed this. “But until we get lab results from samples we’ve taken, that remains unproven,” says O’Reilly. So far there aren’t really any other plausible theories. A fanciful one is that some villagers believe the jars were used to store rice wine for a mythical giant.
Back at Site 52, which had no UXO, only machine-gun shells, eight of O’Reilly’s and Shewan’s team members have been using mattocks—pickaxe-like tools—to dig
a precise trench into the crumbly red soil beside an oval disk. They want to see what’s underneath; O’Reilly suspects human bones, as at Site 1. But the disk is thicker than expected—about 25 centimetres—and too heavy to lift without the help of levers. O’Reilly walks off into the forest with his machete, cuts down a couple of tree limbs and drags them over.
Members of the research team at Site 52—reached by a steep dirt track winding up into the mountains— have marked jars with orange tags for the project’s inventory
As they use the levers to lift the lid, the moment of truth reveals… nothing. They take a few more hours to dig down another foot or so—and still nothing.
“Oh, that’s very interesting,” remarks O’Reilly dryly, rubbing his chin in faux contemplation. Sure,
he’s disappointed, but “sometimes you find things, sometimes you don’t,” he says with a shrug. He’s been doing this kind of work for more than 25 years, including leading an excavation in Cambodia at the 12thcentury Angkor Wat—the world’s largest religious complex—in which he and his team made a major discovery in 2010: another temple underneath. “Even when what you’re hoping for isn’t there, it’s still about gathering information. And you just keep going.”
OVER THE THREE WEEKS at Site 52, the team didn’t find bones but, significantly, they discovered
four previously unknown quarry sites. They also tried a new type of testing. In simple terms, says Shewan, stone can’t be dated, “so we took core samples from the bottoms of the jars for ‘optically stimulated luminescence’ testing.” They hope it will reveal when the jar bottoms were last exposed to sunlight—therefore, when they were placed on the ground where they sit. The process of taking those stone samples was tricky, as no light can be present: black lightproof tarpaulins were tented over the extraction site, and O’Reilly held a torch covered in a red filter while he used a drill to extract the core.
Back at their base in Australia, O’Reilly and Shewan can "visit" Laos any time they like thanks to the CAVE2 3D facility at Monash University in Melbourne. Drone photos gathered in 2016 have been used to create a virtual Site 1. They also collected drone photos at Site
In the spring of 2020, the team discovered ancient skeletons.
52. CAVE2 is the world’s largest virtual reality facility of its kind, no VR goggles required. “We can return to our excavations to do things like take measurements and interpret data,” says O’Reilly. And thanks to drones, they’ll have a safe way to check out jar sites that may not yet be clear of UXO. “Of course, you can’t excavate without being there, but you can gather a lot of information on site location and the surrounding landscape.”
It could be a year until the team has results from soil and other physical samples—including a human tooth—gathered at Site 52, and up to two years for the optically stimulated luminescence results. But O’Reilly hopes the data will provide some answers about these massive megaliths on remote, mist-shrouded mountaintops. “Archaeology,” says O’Reilly, “is largely about untangling mysteries, and the Plain of Jars is one of the world’s enigmas.” n
Helping to preserve Cambodia’s past Heritage Watch was founded by Dougald O’Reilly in 2003, when he was working in Cambodia and witnessed looting of ancient antiquities across that country.
“I felt the looting was an incredible tragedy,” says O’Reilly. “One can’t blame folks for digging near their homes to find anything of value, since poverty is what drives looters. But the sites give us clues to the rise of civilizations.”
Sites include Angkor Wat (right) near Siem Reap. The 12th-century temple dedicated to the Hindu deity Vishnu covers 208 hectares and is the world’s largest religious complex. “When I was a kid, National Geographic dedicated an issue to Angkor Wat, and I was in awe,” recalls O’Reilly. He went on to do archaeological work there, and to author An Interactive Guide to Angkor
In the early 2000s, he resolved to help preserve prehistoric sites across Cambodia. From his flat in the capital, Phnom Penh, he mobilised his former archaeology students, paying them with his own money. “We began with projects like village training sessions, to educate locals on the importance of preserving the past.”
The non-profit, which O’Reilly believes is the first of its kind, also promotes responsible tourism: visitors are
discouraged from buying antiquities; businesses are certified with signage to help travellers identify ethical companies; and locals are employed to work on excavations.
And Heritage for Kids teaches children about the issue. “We have a pilot programme in schools in north-west Cambodia involving hundreds of kids,” says O’Reilly. “The government loves it, and the kids love it.”
In 2009, O’Reilly won the prestigious Archaeological Institute of America’s Conservation and Heritage Management Award for his work with Heritage Watch.
Our reader, Trevor Johnson, from Wolverhampton, shares his memories of a stirring trip to the heart of New Zealand
Christchurch, the largest city of New Zealand’s South Island, has had more than its share of disasters, both natural and man-made, in the last decade. Such sombre thoughts were far from my mind, however, as our Airbus A380 started its descent over the Tasman Sea and the stunning Southern Alps came into view. Soon afterwards, we landed at the city’s international airport and my holiday in New Zealand had begun.
The following day, I started my exploration of Christchurch with a walk in the early morning sunshine through Hagley Park, which has over 400 acres of attractive woodland and broad open spaces. It was clearly
popular with walkers, joggers and, perhaps inevitably in the land of the All Blacks, rugby players.
Adjacent to the park is the Canterbury Museum, which houses many interesting exhibits, especially the display of Maori woodcarving and the skeleton of the giant moa, an extinct bird which grew to a
height of three metres. Many cities have hop-on hop-off buses, with stops at the main tourist sights, but Christchurch has a fleet of hop-on hop-off heritage trams. My first tram journey was from the museum to the city centre.
After lunch—seafood chowder, a local speciality—in one of the numerous restaurants in New Regent Street, I caught the shuttle bus from Cathedral Square to Mount Cavendish, where a gondola ride to the top rewarded me with great views over the Canterbury Plain and Lyttelton Harbour.
Returning to the city centre, I visited the Quake Museum, which tells the story of the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. The scientific explanations and displays were interesting but it was the personal tales of tragedy and heroism that moved me the most.
A short walk along the Avon River brought me to the Earthquake National Memorial Wall. On the wall are engraved the names of the 185 people who lost their lives in 2011 and this moving inscription, which reflects Christchurch’s spirit of unity, “We offer thanks to those who came for us, to those who risked their lives for ours and to those who supported us. Together we are stronger.” 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
Cobbled streets, pastoral greenery and Victorian cottages—this month, Richard Mellor basks in the bucolic beauty of Dean Village
Most Edinburgh-goErs gallivant along the Royal Mile, bound for the castle, or climb Calton Hill or Arthur’s Seat. Some inspect the parliament buildings at Holyrood, or embark upon the Royal Yacht Britannia.
Few, however, ever stumble upon Dean Village. This snoozy enclave is arranged along a gorge surrounding the tree-lined Water of Leith (waterofleith. org.uk), itself a little-known river which twists and trickles 22 miles through Edinburgh to the port of Leith.
Northwest of central Edinburgh— usually about a ten-minute taxi ride— Dean Village appears to be nearly a millennium old. It grew as flour mills were established along the Water, lured by strong currents, with cottages then built to accommodate their workers and the four-arched Dean Bridge built to improve access.
Trade diminished after more modern mills were installed at Leith and Dean Village had become poverty-stricken halfway through the 20th century. Restoration programmes in the 1970s established it as the desirable, tranquil spot it is today, however, with warehouses and mills converted into characterful housing.
There’s much to see on strolls: carved stone plaques carry images of bread, referring to that former industry, while original millstones dot cobbled lanes. Red and brown-brick Well Court is the most impressive surviving workers’ accommodation, and neighbours handsome half-timbered cottages.
Past the bridge you’ll also find St Bernard’s Well, where an unexpected Roman-style classical temple and statue of Hygeia, the goddess of health, mark a former healing hotspot. n
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Sadly the likelihood that you or someone close to you will lose their job due to the fallout of COVID-19 is high
Unemployment is expected to hit 11% of the workforce as the coronavirus furlough scheme winds down and some firms are forced to close and let people go.
If this does impact you or a family member, then there are a few steps it’s important to take to help you manage your finances until you find a new job.
Fingers crossed you and your job will get through this unscathed,
Andy Webb is a personal finance journalist and runs the award-winning money blog, Be Clever With Your Cash
but just in case, it’s best to be as prepared as you can.
First off, find out what your rights are at your workplace. Check your contract or speak to HR to find out what you’re entitled to.
The notice period will be at least one week, though the longer you’ve worked somewhere, the more you’ll get. And if more than 20 people will be cut from the workforce (within a 90-day period) there needs to also be at least 30 days of consultancy.
If you’ve been on furlough you’ll be treated the same and have the same rights as staff who continued working.
You can also speak to ACAS or
your trade union if you think you’ll need some support.
Work out what you could get A redundancy payment might only be a minimum statutory level, or it might be more generous.
The amount is going to depend on a few factors, largely your age, how long you’ve been employed for and your salary.
If it’s just the statutory payout, then the older you are and longer you’ve been at the same place the more you’ll get.
So for example, anyone aged over 41 will be paid one and a half’s week pay for each year over that age, one week’s pay for full years worked between 22 and 41 and just half a week’s pay for each year under the age of 22.
So someone who’s 50 years old and has been at the same employer for 15 years will get nine times the value of one and a half week’s pay plus six times one week’s pay—a total of 19.5 weeks pay.
There are some restrictions on the total that you can get as statutory. For a start you can only get a pay-off for a maximum of 20 years with your employer. There’s also a weekly wage cap of £538 and total cap of £16,140.
Sadly if you’ve been employed for less than two years then you aren’t entitled to any payout.
Employers can choose to pay you more—again check that contract.
If they do, then it’s worth noting that any money you are paid out above £30,000 will then be subject to income tax.
Consider redundancy insurance
Double check to see whether you have any protection insurance policies to cover things like your mortgage and expenses if you can’t pay them. If not, then it’s worth considering starting one. You can get income protection for losing your job, mortgage protection insurance to cover repayments on your home and payment protection policies for things like loans and credit cards.
However, if there are rumours of cuts or if it happens in less than three months time then policies might not pay out. You’ll also likely not be covered if you volunteer to leave. So read those terms and conditions in full. A REDUNDANCY PAYMENT MIGHT ONLY BE A MINIMUM STATUTORY LEVEL, OR IT MIGHT BE MORE GENEROUS
If you work in an industry or profession that you think is at risk, then cut back now as much as you can, if you haven’t already. You want to make sure that you’ve got much cash as possible put aside to support yourself if you lose your regular income.
This means spending less, switching as many bills as you can and cancelling services and subscriptions that aren’t essential. It might be tough to do, but the pain will be worth it later on.
It’ll be harder to pay any debts you have if you don’t have your normal income—and that’s not just because
you’ll have less money. Your credit score will also drop, so if you think you’ll need to transfer a credit card balance or apply to remortgage do it while you’ve a better chance of getting accepted for the cheapest deals.
Most forms of borrowing—from mortgages to car loans—can currently be frozen so long as you make the request to start or extend a holiday by the end of October. You’ll need to speak to your lender to put this in place. Bear in mind that you’ll still have to pay the money, you’re just pausing payments, and interest will continue to accrue.
If it gets to the stage that you can’t make some bill payments, prioritise the ones that could have the most
severe consequences. You’ll want to make sure you pay rent, energy bills and council tax to ensure you don’t get evicted or cut-off.
Beyond this you should be getting some free help with your debts from the likes of StepChange and the NationalDebtLine.
If you’ve already been made redundant
Obviously you’ll be looking for a new job, but in the short term you should be applying for benefits. The most common will be Jobseeker’s Allowance or Universal Credit, but you might also be able to claim extra support such as for housing costs.
It’s best to check out a website like entitledto.co.uk or turn2us.org.uk or speak to your local Citizen’s Advice Bureau to make sure you apply for the most suitable benefits.
Once that’s sorted you’ll need to update your CV and start applying. The harsh reality is that if we do see such high levels of unemployment there’ll be less new jobs available, and there’ll be more competition for those that do get advertised.
You might want to start thinking about retraining or learning some new skills. Keep a look out for any financial support or bursaries that might be available to help you in this process. n
Can you match the emojis to the title of a famous album?
A taste of nostalgia with chef, presenter and I’m a Celeb favourite, Rosemary Shrager
• 300g ox kidney
• 50g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 900g chuck steak, trimmed and cut into 3cm cubes
• 2tbsp olive oil
• 60g butter
• 1 large onion, finely sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 200g button mushrooms
• 1tbsp chopped thyme
• 800ml good beef stock
• 2tsp of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 x 400g packet of puff pastry
• 1 egg, beaten
• fine sea salt and black pepper
This pie brings me right back to my childhood when my mother would make this for Sunday lunch. I would help her by making the pastry and I loved cutting different shapes to decorating the top of the pie. If you’re one of those people who doesn’t like kidney, just leave it out and add more steak.
1 Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6. First, prepare the kidney. Slice the kidney in half to expose the tough white core inside. Remove this core by cutting around it with a sharp knife, then cut the kidney into large pieces. Put the flour in a large bowl and season it with salt and plenty of black pepper. Add pieces of kidney and steak and toss to coat them in the flour.
2 Heat the oil in a large, flameproof casserole dish and brown the meat in batches over a medium heat. Don’t overcrowd the pan or the meat will steam and not brown. Set the meat aside as it is browned.
3 Turn down the heat and add the butter, then sauté the onion and garlic until softened. Add the mushrooms and thyme and sauté for another few minutes, then add any leftover flour, and cook for a further minute. Pour in the stock and the Worcestershire sauce.
4 Put the meat back in the dish and bring to the boil. Cover the casserole dish with a lid, place it in the middle of the preheated oven and cook for 30 minutes. Turn the temperature down to 170°C/ Fan 150°C/Gas 3½ and cook for another 1–1¼ hours, until the meat is tender. Check for seasoning. Tip everything into a deep pie dish, either an oval dish about 26 x 19cm or a rectangular one with a similar capacity. Leave the meat to cool. It’s good to get all this done the day before you want to serve the pie, if possible.
5 Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6. Roll out the pastry on a floured work surface to a thickness of about 3mm and about the same shape as your pie dish. Cut a 2cm-wide ribbon from the pastry and place this strip around the rim of the pie dish, pressing it down. Brush the rim of pastry with water.
Trim the rest of the pastry to about 2.5cm bigger than the top of the pie dish. Sit a pie funnel in the centre of the filling to support the pastry.
6 Roll the pastry lid on to the rolling pin and place it over the filling. Trim off any excess pastry, then press the edges with a fork to seal it firmly. Brush the top of the pie with beaten egg and make a hole in the centre over the funnel. Bake for 35–40 minutes until the pastry is golden and crisp and the filling is hot. n
Extracted from Rosemary Shrager’s Cookery Course, (BBC Books, £20.00)
Teriyaki is a traditional Japanese cooking technique in which foods are broiled or grilled with a glaze of soy sauce, mirin, and sugar. Oily fish do particularly well with a teriyaki glaze and this is a classic way to prepare mackerel. The alternative to broiling here is to cook slowly over charcoal embers on a barbecue grill.
1 In a small saucepan, bring the soy sauce, mirin, and ginger juice to a lively simmer over mediumlow heat and cook, swirling the pan, for about 10 minutes, until large bubbles appear and the liquid has reduced to a thick syrup—about a quarter of the original amount.
2 Cut the fillets into thirds. Holding your hand 12 inches above the fish, sprinkle both sides using the flaky salt (this ensures a light, even coating).
3 Position a rack 4 inches from the heat source and preheat the broiler.
4 Lay a piece of foil over a wire rack and set in a rimmed baking sheet. Broil the mackerel for 1 minute on each side, starting with the skin side up. Remove from the broiler and brush with the teriyaki sauce on the flesh side. Broil for 1 minute, flip, brush the skin side, and broil 1 more minute. Repeat the brush-and-broil method on each side. Brush and broil each side for 30 seconds more, ending with the skin-side up.
5 Serve hot or at room temperature on individual plates as part of a Japanese meal. n
Serves: 6
Preparation time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins
Ingredients:
• 125ml soy sauce
• 125ml mirin
• 4tbsp finely grated fresh ginger, squeezed to make juice
• 1 fresh mackerel (600g), cleaned and filleted
• 1⁄4tsp flaky sea salt
Japan: the Cookbook by Nancy Singleton Hachisu is published by Phaidon
Group together your favourite prints, paintings and photographs to create a stylish focal point in any room
1
Begin by choosing the artwork and frames to use in your gallery wall. You may prefer to opt for matching styles for a sleek, contemporary look, or mix and match for a more eclectic finish. Remember that gallery walls don’t have to be limited to framed prints—mirrors, hanging ornaments or decorative plates can all be incorporated, too.
2
Use regular paper, newspaper or plain wrapping paper to create templates for each of your frames. Simply draw around the frame onto the paper and mark with an X exactly where the nail will need to be positioned. Double check
Homes and gardens writer and stylist
Cassie Pryce specialises in interior trends and discovering new season shopping
the templates and nail markings are accurate, as this will save time later on when it comes to hanging each piece.
3
Carefully cut out the templates and position them on the wall using a small tab of masking tape at the top and bottom. Play around with different layouts until you’re happy with the configuration of the frames and the spacing in between them. A general rule of thumb is to use larger pieces in the centre and work outwards with smaller frames for a balanced look.
4
Once you’ve decided on the final layout for your gallery wall, hammer a nail into the centre of the X on each template. Carefully remove the masking tape and tear away the paper, leaving just the nail in place. You’re now ready to hang your frames—just take care to remember which one goes where! n
Among the many travesties the pandemic has brought upon us, the recent rise in plastic waste is certainly nothing to be scoffed at. Although the first reports of COVID-related environmental matters showed clearer waters, a drop in fossil fuel use and a reduction in noise pollution, over 2 billion articles of PPE equipment have been ordered throughout the UK and over 28 billion units have been ordered globally—much of which is ending up in our oceans.
In 2015, studies showed that 381 million tons of plastic were manufactured around the world while 55 per cent of plastic waste was discarded, 25 per cent was incinerated (triggering carbon emissions), and only 20 per cent was recycled. Yet in May, plastic packaging was expected to grow by 5.5 per cent during the pandemic. The packaging sector is already the most dominant in the plastic industry (accounting for 42 per cent) and on top of that, the short-natured lifespan of the products makes it the most wasteful too. However, where the pandemic is concerned, these
issues were seemingly unavoidable when it came to public safety; previously banned single-use cups were now mandatory at cafes, the 5p charge on plastic bags was halted with online supermarket orders (which had soared by 48 per cent), the plastic straw ban was delayed by six months, Perspex screens were installed at companies and a drop in oil prices meant plastic was cheaper to produce than recycle. Yet the argument that all this was unavoidable isn’t totally true. Research shows that reusable cups are safe when social distancing is in place, washable masks can be worn and plastic-free visors are available—health and safety is the obvious priority but needless plastic production where other solutions are available is careless.
Whether we see a drop during post-pandemic life that is significant enough to counter the plastic rise remains to be seen, but in the past the public and government have been most responsive to plastic waste when it comes to environmental discussions, so perhaps we’ll become more innovative with our endeavours. And, with some estimating that the pandemic will mean a 5.5 per cent drop in annual carbon emissions, perhaps we can hold on to the notion of cutting back on things we don’t need, and save our home. n
by Jessica Lone SummersHow did you become an authority in conservation? I started working in this field 11 years ago when I decided to produce our film, A Plastic Ocean. It took eight years to complete and during that time we witnessed the global effects of plastic in the ocean. I’ve watched beautiful marine animals die from plastic ingestion and entanglement.
What are the biggest challenges regarding plastic pollution? It’s the thought that plastic pollution and climate change are two completely different problems competing for attention! They have so much in common—both are linked to overconsumption, both are linked to fossil fuels and both pose major threats to our ocean and to some of the most vulnerable communities.
The most recent report on global plastic pollution concluded that if we carry on as usual, the amount of plastic entering the ocean will triple by 2040!
Plastic in the ocean breaks up into small fragments until it enters the food chain at the lowest levels. Half of all plastics sink, so collecting them is already difficult but the tiny fragments mix with silt and mud on the sea floor so
retrieving plastic waste from the ocean becomes almost impossible.
What does Plastic Oceans do to help our planet? Our mission is to stop plastic reaching the ocean within a generation. We’re developing behaviour change programmes based on a novel (Plastic Intelligent Framework) we are about to publish. Our programmes are designed to empower a wide range of change-makers, especially young leaders who face barriers in engaging in environmental action.
What are some ways people can help stop the cycle of plastic pollution?
Check out our fun plastic treasure hunt activity sheet for getting young changemakers to understand the pointlessness of single-use plastic and how to design their own solutions.
Identify products in your daily life and rank the top five items based on how pointless they are and how difficult it is to phase them out of your life—what are the barriers to change and who is responsible for those? Share the analysis—with us, your friends and online communities!
Lisa
September is one of my favourite months. Probably because in fashion, it has always been the month of "the big drop"—the month when fashion magazines are at least triple the usual number of pages, and land with an almighty thud through the letter box. The September issues always thrill me with their fastforward look at autumn and winter
Lisa Lennkh is a banker turned fashion writer, stylist and blogger. Her blog, The Sequinist, focuses on sparkle and statement style for midlife women
clothes. By the end of summer, seeing cashmere, tights, boots, coats, and scarves feels like a peek into another (better dressed!) world.
These days, fashion has gone digital. The September issues of magazines are shadows of their former selves. Instead of hosting shows in the world's fashion capitals, which editors then analyse and report on, many runway shows are now streamed live on the internet. COVID-19 has helped speed up this transition from live to virtual fashion shows, but it has been well underway for a few seasons. Designers now rely on celebrities and influencers to promote their new collections, rather than models and fashion editors. Fashion magazines are less influential than they used to be, but the anticipation of the changing season and thrill of novelty never goes away, no matter how it is presented to us. So what trends or items bring me fashion excitement this September?
A new pair of boots, as usual, since I wear mine to death every winter. This gives me a new pair for best and extends the longevity of the ones I have. I buy black boots to go with nearly everything, but buying a punchy bold green pair has been much more useful than I'd imagined.
Once again, animal print is strong this winter. I like to warm up my black winter wardrobe with golden leopard accents. Timeless pieces like a pair of leopard print flats, and
a (faux) leopard coat in a vibrant colour are always on my wish list.
I've still not found the perfect longer cape, so a wear-forever one is still on my list. There are quite a few designers showing capes for autumn/ winter 2020, so maybe I'll finally find my holy grail cape at a good price point. My only rule is that it can't be black. The colour blocking trend is so flattering that I don't think it will ever go out of style. This has been Armani's trademark for years; everyone looks taller and pulled together wearing one colour. Head to toe outfits in attention-getting shades like red or winter-white work just as beautifully as a head to toe look in elegant navy or classic camel. This winter there is bright yellow, bright pink, along with quite a few spice-toned monochrome looks.
If you dare, shoulder pads are making a comeback. I love this trend. They look incredible on some people, but I'm afraid I'm not one of them. The sharply tailored suits and dresses that designers are showing with shoulder pads create a strong silhouette and send a message of confidence. This trend feels like a real shift of gears after a summer of floaty floral dresses.
September ushers in some fresh fashion ideas for autumn and winter, allowing us to reinvent ourselves just a little. It seems especially useful to do that after all that we've collectively dealt with in 2020! n
Can you really grow your eyelashes in quick time? Jenessa Williams looks at the science behind the serums
With mascara, extensions and semipermanent lifts, we’re a nation obsessed with tweaking our lashes. We coo over those with lengthy ones, and covet the wide-eyed look of plentiful lashes. Eyelash serums have entered a lucrative gap in the market as a product that claims to boost natural lashes, in the same way that a nail or hair treatment might work.
Packed with peptides, multi-vitamins and conditioning agents, lash serums are easy to apply, normally found in either a liner-type pen or a mascarawand bottle. Coating the lashes with hydrating elements, they are said to counteract the natural breakage that occurs when we rub our eyes, sleep or apply make-up. Some products claim to boost lash density by plumping the lashes you already have, while others state that they will actively stimulate new growth. For best results, users are encouraged to apply the serum daily to a cleansed face, either first thing in the morning or last thing at night.
It can be hard to tell as results vary from person to person—where some may see changes in weeks, others take months to notice a difference. Products that aim to reduce breakage as opposed to promising growth are normally more trustworthy, particularly if you’re looking for quick results.
The FDA-approved, prescription serum Latisse regularly comes out on top in reviews testing, but as with any prescription product, it’s important to speak with a doctor about potential side effects before use. Eyes are of course very delicate, so be sure to do a patch test first.
Teamed with a good mascara, a lash serum might well be your ticket to doe eyes, but consider other options too—a protein-rich diet does wonders for hair growth and strength, while a gentler make-up removal regime (more melting cleansers, less scrubbing) will put less strain on your eyes. In your quest for longer lashes, it might be best to see serums as a supplement, not a saviour. n
After 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.”
To find out more about Readly, and to try 1 month for free, please go to www.readly.com/digest
Sally Potter tackles mental illness and family ties in her harrowing new drama, dedicated to her late brother
It’s a simple premise: the film centres around a single day in the lives of Leo (Javier Bardem), a man suffering from an advanced form of dementia, and his young daughter, Molly (Elle Fanning).
Molly comes to pick up her father for a couple of simple routine health checks, which turn out to be anything but. As she puts on a brave face and tries to make light of an increasingly distressing day, Leo drifts through a world of his own. He journeys back to the days of his first marriage, touched by personal tragedy, and a summer spent on a Greek island, while working on a novel. As we become more and more privy to the details of his
tumultuous life story, hard lessons learned about regret, second chances and loss begin to emerge.
The casting is, of course, superb. Bardem is haunting as he drifts in and out of clarity, while Fanning is a picture of inner strength as his doting daughter. Sadly, though, the scintillating performances aren’t enough to mask some very jarring incongruities that puncture the film. For all its emotional depth, the movie can’t resist the urge to over-explain the story to us, using dialogue to fill in the gaps like a Looney Tunes voiceover, and there’s a clumsily handled motif around immigration that feels completely out of place.
Having said that, if the complexities of familial drama are your cup of tea, this tender, emotional work will certainly strike a chord.
Films based on true stories— especially ones depicting darker chapters of human history—have the important role of reminding us of our past mistakes and cautioning against repeating them: Schindler’s List, 12 Years a Slave, Blood Diamond the list is endless.
on constant high alert, hostility runs amok and everyone’s on the edge of pulling the trigger.
The three friends in the centre of this chaos are the volatile Vinz (a young, lanky Vincent Cassel) who loves reenacting scenes from Taxi Driver in front of the mirror, the level-headed Hubert (Hubert Kounde) who tries to keep the lads in check and the feisty Said (Said Taghmaoui), mediating between his two older pals. The trio bicker, shove, swear and “yo’ mama” joke their way through the 24 hours following the riots and encounter an equally eccentric collage of characters along their way.
What makes La Haine (“Hate”) different and, thereby, quite shocking to watch today, is how relevant and, in fact much more searing, are the issues it tackled 25 years ago. A gritty tale of three young men caught up in the urban riots within a poor Paris suburb, it demonstrates how quickly prejudice and mistrust can turn into brutal violence with tragic consequences. With tension in the air and the police
The film’s most hard-hitting element though, is the way it intertwines poverty and brutality with hilarity and even a bit of magic—as if to distract us from the impending doom. It’s a notion reflected in the film’s most iconic line: “Heard about the guy who fell off a skyscraper? On his way down past each floor, he kept saying to reassure himself: so far so good… so far so good… so far so good. How you fall doesn’t matter. It’s how you land!” We can only hope that we’ll land on our feet coming out of 2020, and not on our back, in a broken heap.
When COVID-19 went global in early 2020, Netflix commissioned the Chilean Pablo Larraín—currently the world’s most exciting filmmaker—to assemble a squad of fellow creatives and produce a series of short films reflecting life in lockdown. The results, Homemade, now present as a latter-day plague diary, to be dipped into or binged in one sitting. The short proves the perfect form for the corona moment: at once a marker of limited horizons, with a running time tailored to our suddenly reduced attention spans.
Several directors turn their cameras on their children, the only actors available to them. Larraín contributes a tart fable about a care-home rogue reaching out to an old flame via Zoom, countered by the sweetness of Rungano Nyoni’s text-based romcom. The ever-fascinating Kristen Stewart films herself, capturing some of lockdown’s weird contradictions: the
M*A*S*H (Sony Channel)
simultaneous lethargy and insomnia, the immobility and dislocation. Ana Lily Amirpour cycles around an eerily empty Hollywood, and returns with perspectives altered. That’s the least this year can provide at this stage.
Homemade isn’t the season’s only breach of the boundary separating television from film. Few caught 2016’s cult Irish comedy The Young Offenders on the big screen, but the third series of its sitcom spinoff landed on BBC iPlayer over the summer, as daft and cosy as a wellworn shellsuit. Further out (in every sense) but no less fun is Coincoin and the Extra-Humans (Curzon), French auteur Bruno Dumont’s follow-up to his 2014 series P’tit Quinquin: it establishes Bernard Pruvost’s oddball copper van der Weyden, here baffled by alien activity, as the closest anyone has come to a 21st-century Clouseau.
by Mick McCahill
The most successful film-to-TV crossover in history—a still-staggering 106 million Americans watched the finale in 1983—continues to fight the Korean War in the darkest recesses of your Freeview box.
Sure, we all love a traditional versechorus-verse-chorus song structure, or a catchy rhythm, but just like the same old packed lunch or a much-treaded jogging route, “conventional” music can lull us into a state of stagnation. And this month, we have just the thing to shake up your music diet. Permanence is a 30-minute deep-dive into the loopy world of abstract electronica which Guy Andrews describes as “a chapter of his autobiography.”
Rolling your eyes? Yeah, we did too, but as you listen to the piece, you know exactly what he meant. See, the music here unravels like a film or book narrative. Andrews takes us on a journey through clearly articulated moments of sorrow, bursts of anger and glimpses of serenity—it’s an entire life folded into one track. It takes some serious chops to tell a good story through music, let alone music that’s purely instrumental and created on a computer, but trust us, you’re in good hands with this one.
by Eva MackevicIt’s no secret that the lineage of pretty much any contemporary electronic music can be traced back to the godfather of ambient music and all-round Renaissance man, Brian Eno. This mesmerising 1978 record was the first ever to be explicitly created under the “ambient music” label and its dreamy soundscapes influenced everyone from Ultravox to Burial. The album consists of four compositions created by layering tape loops of various lengths, and was designed to be continuously looped as a sound installation—an idea Eno came up with while spending several hours waiting for his flight and getting annoyed at the “uninspired atmosphere” of the airport. Boredom really is the mother of invention, eh?
A look at liberal love and a mysterious abode are this month’s top literary picks...
The title of Nick Hornby’s new novel works in two ways. As in his previous fiction, the setting is liberal north London where most people spend most of their time with people just like them. This, however, certainly doesn’t apply to the two main characters: Joseph—22, black and working several jobs—and Lucy, a 42-year-old English teacher and single mother. Nevertheless, much to their own surprise, they find themselves embarking on a relationship—because, well, they just like each other.
identify the black people in the picture round). But the book also mixes sharp-eyed observations with great tenderness as Joseph and Lucy negotiate their differences—which, in the end, have more to do with age and education than colour.
Some more sceptical readers might wonder if at times the novel portrays the world as it could and should be, rather than as it is. For my money, though, this only adds to its considerable charm.
Piranesi
Hornby has plenty of mischievous fun with the many anxieties that middle-class liberals face in their quest to be good (when Joseph accompanies Lucy to a school quiz, her white teammates are mortified that they can’t
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
by Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury, £14.99)In 2004
Susanna Clarke hit the literary jackpot straightaway with her first novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, it imagined an alternative Britain where magic was real—and became an international bestseller and a sevenpart BBC drama series. Now, 16 years later, comes her second, which again imagines an alternative Britain where magic is real, but this time in the present day.
It begins very mysteriously indeed, with Piranesi living in a mysterious house of infinite size, consisting of mysterious halls filled with lots of mysterious statues. His only human contact is during his twice-weekly meetings with a (let’s face it, mysterious) character called the Other who may or may not know more than he’s letting on.
Annoyingly for a reviewer, what the house turns out be and how Piranesi came to be there really can’t be revealed. What can, is that it’s definitely worth persisting through the disorientating early sections—because the patience required is richly rewarded as the book’s grip on us tightens and tightens. By the end, everything is beautifully tied up and the novel proves to be magical in more ways than one.
Can you guess the writer from these clues (the fewer you need the better)?
1. He shares a surname with the author of the play The Lady’s Not for Burning
2. His books include Mythos and Moab Is My Washpot: An Autobiography.
3. As an actor, he’s played Oscar Wilde, Jeeves and General Melchett.
Answer on p126
ConfessionsofaBooksellerby Shaun Bythell (Profile, £8.99). Funny, self-deprecating and sometimes entertainingly grumpy tales from behind the scenes at the largest second-hand bookshop in Scotland.
TheTestamentsby Margaret Atwood (Vintage, £8.99). Atwood’s eagerly awaited sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale didn’t disappoint, going on to win the 2020 Booker Prize.
Dresdenby Sinclair Mackay (Penguin, £8.99). A thoroughlyresearched account of the controversial Allied flattening of “the Florence of the Elbe” in 1945. Both powerfully vivid and thoughtful.
TheDilemmaby B A Paris (HQ, £7.99). Should Livia’s husband give her some disturbing news just before her 40th birthday party? Dark family drama from a rising— or perhaps risen—British star of thriller-writing.
HomeWorkby Julie Andrews (W&N, £9.99). The second volume of Andrews’s memoirs covers the Hollywood years, including Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music—but also finds room for some more personal revelations.
READER’S DIGEST RECOMMENDED READ:
Exciting tales of an electrifying yet altruistic woman. Sarah Aspinall recounts the many adventures of her mother’s life
Audrey Miller was born into the Liverpool slums in the 1920s—but it didn’t take her long to decide that she wouldn’t be staying there. By six, she was appearing in pantomimes at the Liverpool Empire. In her teens, evacuated to the grand seaside town of Southport, she caught glimpses of a more glamorous life that she was determined to make her own.
Not that everything always went to plan. After the war, she returned from a trip to America to find that her dashing RAF fiancé was engaged to somebody else. Following her
coronation as a Southport beauty queen (something she remained proud of), she became pregnant by a sweet but disappointingly ordinary local man, and felt obliged to marry him.
The resulting child, Sarah, has now written this terrific memoir of her mother in all her maddening, charismatic glory. In fact, Sarah’s father died when she was seven: at which point Audrey’s life took a turn for the rackety as she set off around the world in search of adventure (aka men) with her eight-year-old daughter in tow.
Eventually, the two came back to Southport where Audrey duly bagged herself a rich widower.
As Sarah pieces her mum’s life together, the book bristles with astonishing anecdotes of Audrey’s escapades—and many meetings with the famous. Now a successful film-maker, Sarah also reflects on the personal consequences of having had a mother who belonged to that
now-highly-unfashionable category of women: the old-fashioned man-pleaser.
But here’s Audrey, aged 17 in 1943, when she was lucky enough to be working at a centre for convalescing American airmen in Southport’s Palace Hotel—and when, as you’ll see, she was already an accomplished chancer…
At the dances, held there three times a week, a band played swing, bebop and jazz and Audrey was delirious with pleasure as the airmen swung her around to the new American dance music that transported her to another planet. The war had drained the colour out of British daily life, but here on her doorstep was a piece of amazing Technicolor America. She was already imagining more than her childhood dreams ever encompassed, and who knew who, or what, would be her ticket to this brilliant future? Above all, she wanted love—epic, sweeping, and passionate, the kind of love that she now lay awake at night aching for. She scanned the faces of the young men at the club, with their eager shining eyes, but they seemed such boys, and she was imagining a manly man, who would sweep her up into this new life.
Then something happened that was beyond even her more fantastic dreams.
It is a hot summer’s day in 1943 and Audrey is arriving for her shift when a jeep roars up, passing her on the driveway of the Palace Hotel Red Cross Centre, and out jump two men in air-force uniform. Quickly one of the men holds up a film camera to his eye and is following his buddy’s every move. His buddy is handsome, very handsome, with dark features and a grin that seems oddly familiar. As the news spreads into the hotel and staff begin running about in a frenzy of excitement, she realises that this is the long-rumoured visit that no one had ever believed would happen. This is a real-life visit from Hollywood star Clark Gable.
She had seen him not long before as the reckless adventurer in Gone With the Wind, sweeping Scarlett O’Hara off her feet, and she was a passionate fan, along with millions of other women. Not only was he the biggest star of his day, but he had also made several trips flying in dangerous combat missions over Europe so he was now a hero outside of the screen. The crew was there
Diamonds at the Lost and Found: A Memoir in Search of My Mother by Sarah Aspinall is published by Fourth Estate at £14.99
making Combat America about the American war effort, and to film Gable meeting the convalescing airmen at the Palace Club.
Audrey pushed her way through the crowd standing on the terrace to watch Gable and his entourage, and she saw that he was chatting to the matron and assembled dignitaries. She stepped forward with a cheeky ‘Hello!’, her hand held out towards Gable, as if she was part of this awkward welcoming committee and the one who was meant to liven things up. The manager and matron were too taken aback by her sudden appearance to stop her.
Gable shook her hand politely.
‘Welcome to Southport, Riviera of the North West!’ she said with a wry smile.
‘Well, that’s quite a claim!’ He grinned back at her.
‘I think you’ll find we live up to it. When you’ve seen the Palace here, you should look around the town.’ ’’
1. “The Bolter” in Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love is a fabulously delinquent mother “too beautiful and too gay to be burdened with a child” in this entertaining look at upper-class parenting during the 1930s and 40s.
2. No one could contrast more with the Bolter than saintly Marmee March in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. Jo is always more exciting, but Marmee is the true heart of the book.
3. Lady Marchmain in Brideshead Revisited is a brilliant study in the destructive power of a dominant mother in Evelyn Waugh’s beautiful portrait of doomed youth.
And the name of the author is… Stephen Fry Mythos was a bestselling 2017 retelling of Greek myths. The title of Christopher Fry’s The Lady’s Not for Burning (1948) later inspired Mrs Thatcher’s one-liner, “The lady’s not for turning”.
4. The fanatically religious Mrs Winterson in Jeanette Winterson’s astonishingly honest and brilliant memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is one of the most monstrous portraits of a mother in literature.
5. In Mona Simpson’s Anywhere But Here the flamboyantly nutty Adele August drags her daughter around America in this powerful, funny look at the mother and daughter bond.
Emily Henry has written bestselling novels for both adults and teens. Her latest, Beach Read, available now (Penguin, £7.99)
I was a late bloomer when it came to reading, so when it finally clicked, my voraciousness had more to do with a feeling of accomplishment than with actual enjoyment of books. I’d been tearing through books like they were items on a checklist, but the Narnia series were the first books to give me that out-of-body rush that a great story delivers, the desperate urge to turn pages—not so you can reach the last one but because you are so immersed in the story that your wellbeing is at stake alongside the characters’. The story becomes your reality. You go somewhere without ever leaving your house, and fall in love with people who don’t even exist. Once I knew that was possible, there was no going back for me.
The Giver was the book that taught me the true power of fiction—not only to sweep you away into a world outside your own but to leave you fundamentally changed even once you’d returned from it. The book was assigned reading for my class when I was around nine, and I remember returning to school afterward with the feeling that I’d experienced some kind of magic. It might have been my first true revelation, a realisation that not everyone experienced the same world as I did, and that language could change our very perception of reality. That was when I knew I wanted to write.
Even as she playfully skewers so many aspects of society and traditional femininity, the beating heart at the centre of her novels is still always the love story. Her authorial voice rides a fine line between that of a cynic and that of a romantic, someone who sees all the little cracks and flaws in the idea of picture-perfect happily ever after and yet allows herself to hope anyway. Reading her books feels like having a whispered conversation late at night with your best friend: sharing the secret longing you still hold for a great love story of your own.
James O'Malley on why you should replace the apps built into your phone
Apple and Google are two of the world’s most powerful companies. And with good reason—they make great products that improve our lives. But they also exert a degree of control that we’d consider unusual in other industries, as Apple doesn’t just make phones, and Google doesn’t just make operating systems: they make apps too.
So, if you have an iPhone, chances are that you probably use Apple’s own email app, and if you have an Android device, you probably use Google’s own Gmail app. But did you know there are other options?
In fact, head over to the app store and there are some really excellent alternatives that often don’t get a look-in because we’re happy with the defaults that we’re given. Here are four you might like to try out.
The built-in Gmail app on Android and the iOS Mail are completely fine for handling your email. But what if you want something a little more powerful? Spark works on both platforms and just adds that little bit of extra customisation and polish. For example, you can customise what actions you can perform from a notification, enabling you to send emails straight to your archive or trash—or wherever you like.
The best feature, though, is a must for anyone who feels like they are drowning in emails: The "smart inbox" feature will automatically sort your inbox to help you make sense of it, grouping together important correspondence from individuals, notifications from companies (such as an update on where a delivery is currently), and email newsletter. It’ll
declutter your inbox and declutter your mind, too.
Over the last few years, the world has become increasingly addicted to podcasts. And today, Apple and Google’s own podcast apps have become two of the biggest apps for listening to them in the world. The only problem is that both have some annoying flaws. Apple’s tries to be too clever for its own good, and will stop downloading new episodes if you don’t listen to a show in a while. And Google has tried to catalogue podcasts using its search algorithms—meaning that the database of podcasts it hosts can be unreliable.
This is why you need PocketCasts. It is an app that does what it says on the tin: you subscribe to a podcast, and it will download it. The app also contains controls to play podcasts at different speeds, without everyone sounding like a chipmunk, and there are powerful filters enabling you to generate different playlists: so, for example, you can have one automatically filled with news podcasts, and another for when you don’t want despair at the world and need some escapism.
If you’re a news junkie, then there's no better way to follow events than Twitter. But it can be annoying: the
official Twitter app will show your tweets out of order, and offer highlights from people you don’t follow. So if you want a purer Twitter experience, it's worth making the jump to Tweetbot if you have an iPhone, or Fenix on Android.
Both apps will by default show you tweets in the order they were posted—as God intended—and will deliver a much cleaner and more reliable experience. Admittedly, these apps cannot do everything that Twitter does—such as vote on polls or view your likes. But if all you want is a super reliable way to access Twitter’s core functionality of conveying news and information in a clean and coherent way, these are the apps for you.
Maps: Google Maps
Android users—you can be smug for this one, as you already have the best mapping app. But if you’re an iPhone user, you should download Google Maps—which is vastly superior to Apple’s own Maps app. Not only does it contain more detailed mapping data, meaning you’re more likely to find the points of interest that you’re looking for, it is more deeply integrated with Google’s other apps.
So if you use Google Calendar, you might see locations for upcoming events marked on the map—plus, you can bookmark locations on your computer, and have them appear on your phone, too. n
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My neighbour said that she was exempt from wearing a face mask as she has arachnophobia… I think she meant agoraphobia! At least I hope she did…
JANE WHITAKER, Kent
Halfway through eating a spring onion, my son decided he'd had enough and put the rest of it in the fridge for later, saying, "I'm just going to put this onion in iceolation!" A sign of our times!
JENNIE GARDNER, Bath
Having been fobbed off with a telephone consultation rather than a face-to-face conversation with a doctor, my friend was surprised to find the word "cirrhosis" included in the back up letter from the hospital. As far as he was concerned, the topic of conversation had been psoriasis!
MAGGIE COBBETT, Yorkshire
I put my two young children into bed and after reading a story to them,
said firmly, "I am going to close the door now and I do not want to hear a peep from you."
I had almost closed the door when I heard the younger child say very defiantly, "Peep, peep!"
ARIANNA TAYLOR, Moray
We went to watch a ballet and I took my young seven-year-old and her friend. Her friend whispered to me, "Why do the ballet dancers always stand on tip toes?"
Before I could reply, my daughter whispered back, "They can't find any dancers tall enough, that's why."
AMELIA BARNES, Clwyd
"Look at all these caterpillars on your cabbages, Grandma," said my fouryear-old grandaughter.
"Oh no!" I said. "Shall we pick them off the leaves?"
"No, it's OK. Butterflies are better than cabbage." There's no arguing with that, is there?
PAT METCALFE, Derbyshire
cartoon by Guto Dias
I was ill in bed so left my husband to make dinner. He did a good job, but when he came to dish up, our son and daughter looked horrified as he served the salad onto their plate. "Dad," they screamed at him, "That's the cat litter shovel!"
They wouldn't eat the salad, even though—thankfully—it was a new one that hadn't been used yet!
KENDRA SEVILLE, Merseyside
My young son's teacher was showing me his work at parents' evening and we came across his language book. On one page, he'd been given the task to write down which teacher he liked the best in the school.
He'd written "Mrs Smith. She is my teacher and she does meth with me." We both had to smile! (He meant "math" of course!)
PIA AINSWORTH, Manchester
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.”
– Dr SeussI told my husband that he should join me at a new class I was going to. He had said that he would, but then he didn't turn up. I found him in the pub on the way home.
His excuse: "I thought you said pie and lattes."
A likely story!
HOPE BRYAN, LiverpoolThe company I worked for decided to run a course for all senior staff. The course was pretty dull and we were all looking forward to the lunch break. The tutor announced that after lunch the subject would be delegation. I put my hand up and asked if I could send my assistant along for that one as I was a bit busy.
My colleagues thought that was hilarious but unfortunately the tutor was not amused!
CLIFFORD RICHARDSON, Essex
Each must-read monthly issue covers life,
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Based on the number of searches at merriam-webster.com, millions of people are stumped by these terms. How does your vocabulary compare?
BY ASA BOXER1. rapport—A: echo of an explosive device. B: relationship marked by mutual understanding. C: quick place to dock a boat.
2. visceral—A: pertaining to things in general. B: encompassing a full 180-degree view. C: dealing with instinct rather than intellect.
3. plutoid—A: elements that behave like plutonium. B: planet-sized object at edge of solar system. C: chemical that masks steroid use.
4. defenestration—A: action of throwing someone out of a window. B: enclose in a metal mesh.
C: deprive of something important.
5. peloton—A: main group of riders in a bicycle race. B: second eyelid in certain mammals. C: small projectile used in a slingshot.
6. pleb—A: opening remarks in a debate. B: person with low social status. C: blister or bubble.
7. liaise—A: contact and maintain a connection. B: announce one’s intentions openly. C: maintain the secrecy of an action.
8. vitriol—A: petroleum pollutants. B: ground-up glass used in making lenses. C: cruel and bitter criticism.
9. schadenfreude—A: taking pleasure in another’s misfortune. B: shadow puppet theatre. C: sounds made by ghosts.
10. nugatory—A: central part of an argument. B: aerated chocolate. C: having no value or force.
11. furlough—A: average time of a hayride. B: equivalent to the length of four kilometres. C: temporary layoff or leave of absence.
12. trepidation—A: state of alarm or dread. B: very small earthquake. C: carefully performed action.
13. Pecksniffian—A: picky person. B: affecting high moral principles. C: malodorous object.
14. didactic—A: overexcited communicator. B: skillful in personal relations. C: tediously professorial.
15. doppelgänger—A: double of a living person. B: sidecar to a motorcycle. C: tandem bicycle.
1. rapport—[B] relationship marked by mutual understanding; as, Emily and Amadeo had such a strong rapport, the twins could sense when the other was in danger.
2. visceral—[C] dealing with instinct rather than intellect; as, What drives a lot of American conservatives is a visceral feeling about the government’s untrustworthiness.
3. plutoid—[B] planet-sized object at edge of solar system; as, Your proposal is so far-fetched, it’s practically a plutoid
4. defenestration—[A] action of throwing someone out of a window; as, Every good action movie needs at least one victim of defenestration.
5. peloton—[A] main group of riders in a bicycle race; as, He realized how out of shape he was when the peloton swooshed by.
6. pleb—[B] person with low social status; as, In New York, one way for famous actors to pretend they’re plebs is to be seen on the subway.
7. liaise—[A] contact and maintain a connection; as, She liaised with the marketing staff while overseas.
8. vitriol—[C] cruel and bitter criticism; as, The vitriol displayed in
the reviews of his new movie sent M Night Shyamalan into a funk.
9. schadenfreude—[A] taking pleasure in another’s misfortune; as, Juliana felt schadenfreude when her sister finally lost a round of Monopoly.
10. nugatory—[C] having no value or force; as, Kristof’s guarantee that he won’t lose another shipment is as nugatory as his fake remorse.
11. furlough—[C] temporary layoff or leave of absence; as, While Adelina’s on furlough, she plans to read the complete works of Dickens.
12. trepidation—[A] state of alarm or dread; as, Now that he was unemployed, Toussaint opened the electricity bill with trepidation.
13. Pecksniffian—[B] affecting high moral principles; as, There’s something Pecksniffian about my sister-in-law’s child-rearing advice.
14. didactic—[C] tediously professorial; as, Spiros tired of his mother’s didactic lectures on politics.
The reduction of a disease Alternative suggestions:
"The bathroom aroma left by some men... and women"
15. doppelgänger [A] double of a living person; as, If it wasn’t you I saw on the street, I swear it was your doppelgänger.
VOCABULARY RATINGS
7–10: fair
11–12: good
13–15: excellent
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Challenge yourself by solving these puzzles, then check your answers on p139
Let’s get to work! Fit these industrious terms in the grid— and put your back into it.
Daniel, Emily, Marciano, and Christina are all wearing solid-coloured shirts. The colours of their four shirts are red, yellow, green, and blue. Only the person wearing blue tells the truth, while the other three lie. They make the following statements:
Daniel: “Marciano is wearing red.”
Emily: “Daniel is not wearing yellow.”
Marciano: “Emily is wearing blue.”
Christina: “I’m going to wear blue tomorrow.”
Can you determine each person’s shirt colour, and whether we can expect to see Christina in blue tomorrow?
Here’s a flat template that can be folded into a cube. Which of the views below does not represent the resulting cube?
All the letters in Ohio appear—albeit in a different order—in both North Carolina and South Carolina (but not in Washington, which has only one o). Can you figure out the state whose letters appear in a total of three state names?
A visiting professor from a distant galaxy tells you that on her planet, half of 10 is 6. If the same proportion holds true, what would she say is one sixth of 30?
Daniel is wearing yellow, Emily is in red, Marciano is in green, and Christina is in blue. Christina will wear a blue shirt again tomorrow, indeed.
The letters in Utah appear in South Carolina, South Dakota, and Massachusetts. Alien Math 6
Do The Maths
Replace the question marks with three different mathematical symbols (+, -, ÷ or x) to get the right answer
WIN £30 for every reader’s joke we publish!
Go to readersdigest.co.uk/contact-us or facebook.com/readersdigestuk
My therapist told me that I seemed highly susceptible to peer pressure and that I should stop. So I did.
Submitted via email
To really simulate the Broadway experience, when I watched Hamilton at home, I streamed it through my living room TV, but watched it from my neighbour’s roof.
Comedian MATT JENKINSA man was lying in bed sleeping soundly at 3am when the phone rang. He picked it up and said, “Hello? No, you’ve clearly got the wrong number, try the Admiral.”
His wife looked over, confused, and
asked who it was. “Oh, nobody,” he replied. “Just some fool asking me if the coast was clear.”
Comedian MAX BYGRAVESMy dad told me to invest my money in bonds, so I bought a thousand copies of Goldfinger.
Comedian NICK HAL LIn my last relationship I hated being treated like a piece of meat. She was a vegan and refused to touch me.
Comedian DANIEL AUDRITTSometimes, when I need something to look forward to, I put my fan on rotate.
Seen on Reddit
I used to be addicted to swimming, but I’m proud to say I’VE BEEN DRY FOR SIX YEARS! Seen online
Radish-ing
A group of engineering professors were invited to fly on the plane. Just as they were comfortably seated, they were informed that the plane had been built by their students.
All but one professor jumped from their seat in a panic, and frantically headed to the exits.
When the lone professor who stayed put was asked why, he replied, “I have plenty of confidence in my students. Knowing them, this piece of junk won’t even start.”
Seen on Reddit
I tried going on a Zoom date, but there was no connection.
Comedian GIANMARCO SORESI
I have been looking at buying a house and seeing all the recently remodelled homes has led me to one conclusion: I am not attractive enough to have glass shower doors.
Seen on Reddit
THESE HILARIOUS PHOTOS OF PECULIARLY-SHAPED RADISHES ARE STRANGELY ALLURING… via sadanduseless.com
My horoscope said that I was going to get my heart broken in 12 years’ time, so I bought a puppy to cheer myself up.
Seen on Facebook
I love it when people use the phrase “colour scheme”, because it sounds so sneaky.
“OK, we’re going to make this room look great, and here’s how we’re going to do it: blue, grey, beige, shhh! Somebody’s coming, don’t talk about colours!”
Comedian DEMETRI MARTIN
Twitter users share some of the funniest quotes from the 2020 COVID lockdown
@JamieBoge: “There is no longer am and pm. There is just coffee time or wine time.”
Did you hear about the corruption scandal in the ladder industry? It goes all the way to the top!
Josiah Stovell, London
When you buy a V-neck top, there’s a V of material missing. Do you know what they do with that extra piece?
They send it to Ann Summers and she makes those fancy pants.
Comedian HARRY HILLGetting on a plane, I told the ticket lady, “Send one of my bags to New York, send one to Los Angeles and send one to Miami.”
She said, “We can’t do that.”
I said, “Well, you managed it last week!”
Comedian HARRY YOUNGMANCROSSWORD ANSWERS
@MarketingProf: “I can’t wait to see which groceries Sainsburys is going to substitute today…”
@StraytLadyK: “Now I understand why pets always try to run out of the house when the door opens.”
@HollynHeron: “I’d better be going now. One of my Sims is getting married.”
@WebHank: “I said to my family, ‘I can’t imagine three people I’d rather be quarantined with.’ My 11-year-old immediately said, ‘Oh I can!’ ”
Across: 9 Extremist, 10 House, 11 Solve, 12 Palestine, 13 Accelerate, 14 Ends, 16 Limpopo, 19 Student, 21 Owns, 22 Measurable, 26 Afterlife, 27 Conga, 28 Ganja, 29 Expensive
Down: 1 Mess hall, 2 Italic, 3 Rebellion, 4 Kipper, 5 Athletes, 6 Shush, 7 Audience, 8 Renews, 15 Lubricant, 17 Monotony, 18 One-sided, 20 Teenager, 21 Orange, 23 Sleepy, 24 Bandit, 25 Trial
We chat to the hilariously funny comedian, Pierre Novellie
WHAT’S THE BEST PART ABOUT PERFORMING? When I’m on stage it’s always the most fun to try something new or risky. At the moment there are no shows so I’m doing Twitch live streaming. It’s this generation Z, futuristic, live show performing. You get a little chat room next to your show and I’ve got viewers from random places in the world. Pretty cool. I’ve created my own little cult! I’m playing video games and chatting to people, sometimes I do puzzle solving games which is quite funny because people heckle you for being an idiot.
WHAT INSPIRES YOUR COMEDY? I’ve learned over the years that my own reactions to the world are not necessarily standard so that’s a good way to be accidentally funny.
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT A FUNNY TIME
YOU BOMBED ON STAGE? I once did a gig in Hull years ago and we were not speaking the same language at all. I could hear ice in people’s glasses— that’s when you know it’s quiet.
DO YOU FIND ANY PARTS OF THE UK TO BE FUNNIER THAN OTHERS? Lots of places think they’re funnier than others but everywhere has their own charm. Glasgow is the funniest.
IF YOU WERE A FLY ON THE WALL, WHOSE WALL WOULD IT BE ON?
The head of MI6. I don’t care who they are I just want to know what’s going on. Just so I could finally see if it’s like the mad conspiracy theories or James Bond—what’s this guy’s day like? They’re probably just filing.
IF YOU COULD HAVE A SUPERPOWER WHAT WOULD IT BE? Immortality. I want to see how everything goes. I’m the kind of person who watches TV box sets all the way to the end even if I hate the show. n
You can watch Pierre Novellie’s Medieval Monday, Warzone Wednesday and Thinking Thursday on Twitch at Twitch.tv/PierreNovellie
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 October issue.
Our cartoonist’s reunion with his crown is short lived, as his caption, “Thanks for reaching out” was beaten hands down by our reader Franca Gatto’s caption, “I thought you said you were going out to stretch your legs?”. Congratulations Franca! Follow the instructions above for your chance to be crowned our winner next month.
How justified are fears about our increasing surveillance state? Chris Menon investiagtes
Exploring the role of the media in helping Northern Ireland to heal from its fractured history
Legendary Israeli-English chef Yotam Ottolenghi shares the recipe that reminds him of home
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In this advert each word represents one mil e dri ven in an electric car. So far you’ve driven eighteen miles and all’s well. You’re on full charge, the kids are dropped o ff and you’re heading out for the day. T h e driving’s smooth, quiet and you’re clocking up brownie points for being emission free . But which car are you drivin g ? Well, by the end of this wor d, you’ve reached sixty five miles and the battery still looks very healthy. You’re on your way to pick something up from your sister’s before the trip this weekend and you know t he traffi c o n the B roads is going to be a nightmare. But off you go regardless. After an hou r, you turn onto her road just before this comma, or one hundred and twenty five miles, confident you won’t need to plug in for a while yet. Job done you hit the road again, you’ve still got further to go. Back at the school gates, you bundle the kids into the car and you’re ready to go, heading up the motorway for a weekend away and a chance to flee the urban jungle. Finally, you pull up at the hotel and plug the car in, amazed you’ve driven two hundred and f i ve mile s on a single charge, not far off your car’s whopping two hundred and forty five mile r ange. Which means
t h ere’s just fourteen
w ords left to reveal
w hich electric car
y ou’ve been
t
R
Zero tailpipe emissions. CO 2 while driving: 0 g/km, MPG: n/a according to WLTP homologation tests. Model shown GT Line R135 238 miles. Play R110 up to 245 miles. WLTP figures for comparability purposes. Figures obtained after the battery was fully charged. Actual real-world driving results may vary depending on factors such as accessories fitted after registration. For details visit renault.co.uk/zoe. 5 year warranty on cars ordered from 18 December 2019 – 5 years or 100,000 miles (whichever comes first). Exclusions apply visit renault.co.uk/warranty.