22.03.15

‘Moviesand me’

plus:+ seafood with

a sea view

+ how to love your lawn

+ jenny agutter on set in cornwall

why exmoor’s ella hunt is one to watch

INsIDE:

43+ new botanics +

cheerful Macs & hi-tech facials

Spring style must-haves

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6 THE WISHLISTOur best buys for the week ahead

8 GILLIAN MOLESWORTHOut and about on a spring day

9 JUST BETWEEN US...Sh! We have the latest gossip!

12 NATURAL SWEETNESSAlly Mac cooks healthy puds

16 A STAR IN THE MAKINGMeet Ella, Westcountry movie actress

22 COSY BUT LUXURIOUSHow one young mum transformed her Cornish home

26 ANNE SWITHINBANK In praise of the garden lawn

29 FINDING A FACIAL?We know one that really works

30 TAKE A RAIN CHECKWhat-to-wear answers to April showers

32 THE NEW FLORALSFashion chucks out the chintz

36 CULTURE VULTUREGreat ideas for things to do

40 FOOD WITH A VIEW Fine dining beside the sea

46 MAN & BOY Phil Goodwin looks back with gratitude

contents[ [Inside this week...

‘Graze your guinea pigs on it, let the kids build camps on it or

just lie down and look through the stems’

Anne Swithinbank on the great British

garden lawn, page 27

16 EXMOOR’S NEW STARMovies, Oscar-winners and me 12 GOOD STUFF

Healthy but delicious recipes

22 COSY LUXURYThe Cornish cottage that’s just gorgeous inside

APRIL SHOWERS?The best what-to-wear solutions30

10 SURPRISE!How Twiggy measures up

40 FOOD WITH A VIEWThe � nest restaurants for dinner

Contents_March22.indd 3 18/03/2015 11:26:38

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[[ [[welcome[ [

And one of them is Jenny Agutter, pictured above. Perhaps best known these days as Sister Julienne in Call the Midwife, Jenny has also been working on a micro-budget fi lm about tin mining, made in Cornwall. Why? Because she lives near Helston - and loves the Westcountry, as she explains today on page 37.Another exciting South West star is young actress Ella Hunt, who lives with her family on Exmoor. Ella’s about to hit the big time with her starring role in a new family sci-fi movie called Robot Overlords, which is out this Friday. We met up with Ella to talk about ,working with Sir Ben Kingsley and Gillian Anderson - read all about her rather amazing life, aged just 16, on page 16 in today’s magazine.

This week’s West also features an interview with our new food columnist Ally Mac, from Kings-bridge in south Devon. If you’ve ever wanted to cook things that are sweet, delicious and yet also good for you, then you’ll love her recipes. Turn

to page 12 today to try a few of them, and fi nd out where she gets her culinary inspiration (clue: she’s travelled, a lot).We’ve also got

great spring fashion (including rainwear - we’re realists!) and lots of fun ideas for days out in the Westcountry right now. But before you sally forth, make time to read Phil Goodwin’s wonder-ful tribute to his mum Nancy on page 46 today. It’s really something - and so was she.

CONTACT: westmag@westernmorningnews.co.ukTel: 01392 442250 Twitter @wmnwest

@WMNWest

We’re so looking forward to @MACcosmetics

opening in @princesshay #Exeter. All together now:

Ruby Woooooo!

[ [Jenny Agutter has been working on a micro-budget

  lm in Cornwall. Why?

Becky Sheaves, Editor

Tweetof the week

MEET THE TEAM

Becky Sheaves, Editor Sarah Pitt Kathryn Clarke-McLeod Catherine Barnes Phil Goodwin

Some amazing people live around here...

COVER IMAGE Faye Thomas[

SISTER ACTDiscover Jenny Agutter’s Cornish connections

37

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COVER IMAGE Faye Thomas

Make a mobile for a treasured baby’s room with this DIY baby mobile kit, £28, from ButtonFaceCo on the cra� ing website www.etsy.com Good news: all the   ddly bits have been cut out in advance!

If youone thing

buy

this week...

EdsLetter1thing_Mar22.indd 5 18/03/2015 12:43:53

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HELP AT HAND

This independent boutique in Okehampton celebrates its 15th birthday on Wednesday, a testament to its popularity. Owners Angela Jones and Amanda Bright pride themselves on stocking a number of independent labels, including casual Danish brand Part Two, White Stuff and dressy clothes by Canadian designer Frank Lyman, along with shoes and accessories. “Our customers include 16-year-old girls through to ladies in their late 70s,” says Angela. “We do a bit of everything and we try to fi nd something a bit different. The high street goes a good job, but we think people come to us for something nicer, and for the service we offer.”Angel is at 29 Fore Street, Okehampton, ladiesfashionokehampton.co.uk and 01837 659300

Angel, Okehampton

Store we adore

the

West’s top picks for springtime shopping this week

wishlist

Keep your sticking plasters in this retro rst aid tin £15 from the www.iwmshop.org.uk

Vintage pearl and crystal bracelet £20 www.rockmyvintage.co.uk

Splendid Sparkle

Wear your art on your sleeve with penguin ice cube cu� inks

£147 www.madebyhandonline.com

Cool cu� s

Bring the meadow into your living room with this Lara

Sparks bird and butter� ies cushion

£70 www.rume.co.uk

Field of dreams

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Wishlist

WHERE AM I?Wear your location with a You Are Here magnetic brooch from www.garudiostudiage.co.uk

A stylish reminder to put your watch forward next Sunday

(that’s March 29), National Railway Museum pocket watch

£25, www.nrmshop.co.uk

FORWARD!

Think colour for little girls with this Gilly dress £25

www.oliveandmoss.com

Cute

Van Gogh’s wheat� eld mini umbrella £20 www.nationalgallery.co.uk

Oh My Gogh!

Keep time with this

lovely watch £29.50 Marks

& Spencer

CHIC

Cecile Bertrand necklace, £119, Polka Dot Gallery in

Taunton and Exeter www.polkadotgallery.com

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went the other day to see Admiralty Row in Mount Wise, Plymouth. Lots of people don’t know where it is or what

is there – this is due in no small part to a big solid wall encircling the buildings, which were previ-ously owned by the Minstry of Defence. Well, the wall is coming down, and a lots of new homes are going up.

Plymouth is a real mishmash. You’ve got the pockets of historic architecture that weren’t levelled by German bombs: lovely rows of Georgian and Victorian properties, and landmarks such as the grand Edwardian Duke of Cornwall hotel. There are various post-modern 1960s and 70s cement rectangles, and some ultra modern buildings such as Drake Circus.

By the waterside, you’ll fi nd the living legacy of Plymouth’s centuries as a naval base. Its latest chapter can be seen in the hulking grey ships etching their silhouette against the harbour skyline, and earlier ones are writ in structures such as the fancy clock tower of HMS Drake, covered with all the bevels, pediments, balustrades, cornices and wrought ironwork that the Victorians could throw at it.

In addition, Plymouth has some very fi ne public sculpture. The white war memorial is imposing and grave. Sir Francis Drake is a big inspirational bronze, gazing out to sea from his towering plinth, and looking very manly despite the pantaloons. And where else

but Plymouth do you have a stripy lighthouse in a public park?

As I parked on Mount Wise I came across a monument to Scott of the Antarctic, another Plymothian. A bronze angel, wings outspread, stood behind the polar explorer with a bristling moustache. There was only one other car parked up there, and no one walking by. What a shame this isn’t in a more accessible spot, I thought. Nearby on Mount

Wise is a building called Admiralty House, an imposing (if rather stolid) stone structure. In fact it wasn’t the admiral’s house originally – it was built in the late 1700s for Plymouth’s governor. It was only in the 1930s that a swap was agreed, as the governor’s house

had a sea view and the admiral’s did not.

Now it’s up for sale at £1.5 million (as a 21 bedroom hotel in need of renovation, if you’re interested). Around it is going up a network of new homes, a nice blend between contemporary and historic.

I’m happy that the site has found a new purpose, another chapter in the city’s ever evolving story– and that soon, dog walkers and children will be drawn in to admire Scott of the Antarctic. He deserves it.

Story of my life...

Gillian Molesworth

A chance to explore, and nd out more

Gillian Molesworth is a journalist and mum-of-two who grew up in the USA and moved to north Cornwall when she met her husband

talking points

I

Between posing for the paps, performing and scooping Best British Female Solo Artist, Paloma Faith showed off no less than three different outfi ts at the Brit Awards recently, all of them gorgeously gothic.

Our favourite? It has to be the tulle and sequin-drenched Armani couture number she wore on arrival.

Such a frothy confection might be a bit much in the real world, but Pearce II Fionda’s appliqued prom dress is a more wearable option, or work the red-meets-black vibe with these two pretty summer versions.

Red, blackOR BOTH?

steal herstyle

OR MAKE IT YOUR OWN

OPTION ASummeryDebenhams Debut £100

OPTION BParty pickPearce II Fionda Dolce Vita prom dress, Debehams £165

OPTION CFloralsPhase Eight Ninette dress £140

The wall is coming

down, and lots of new homes are

going up

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Justbetween us!Gossip, news, trendsetters and more - you

heard all the latest juicy stu here � rst!

BRAND NEW!

We can’t wait to see DAWN FRENCH parading through the streets of Falmouth on Thursday March 26. Dawn, who comes from Plymouth and lives in Fowey, is to be part of a celebration parade when she becomes the fi rst Chancellor of Falmouth University The parade will be yellow-themed, with children giving out daffo-dils, and led by the Kernow Pipe and Drum marching band. Sounds like a lot of fun.

FRANKIE BRIDGE has told how she refused to go to hospital as she battled morning sickness so severe she felt she could not move.

The 26-year-old star of The Saturdays and Strictly Come Dancing is pregnant with her second child, and had to pull out of the Strictly tour when her morning sickness kicked in.

Frankie tells OK! magazine: “It’s probably the worst I’ve ever felt.

That feeling of nausea, I’ve never felt anything as strong in my life. Even to move my eyes made me feel sick.

“They wanted me to go to hospital at one point and I refused because there was no way I could get in a car, I couldn’t even get off the fl oor.”

Frankie and her footballer husband WAYNE BRIDGE already have a 17-month-old son Parker. West says: Hang in there Frankie, it will be worth it in the end.

FRANKIE: I’M FEELING ROUGH!

Devon farmer (oh, and music star) Marcus Mumford is working on his new album with his band Mumford & Son. They recently played almost their entire new collection of songs at a tiny London gig in a bar in Hackney.

Marcus told the crowd: “We decided pretty last-minute to play these songs

live, so you’re guinea pigs basically, pretty lovely looking guinea pigs, but guinea pigs. If this goes well, we’re going to do this in other places, probably.”

Marcus and his actress wife Carey Mulligan own a 350-acre farm near Ide on the outskirts of Exeter. The new album is set to be called Wilder Mind.

DAWN’SRoll up!

PARADEFalmouth

Carey’s husband rocks up for a micro-gig - with guinea pigs...

MARCUS MUMFORD

Carey’s husband rocks Carey’s husband rocks Carey’s husband rocks Carey’s husband rocks Carey’s husband rocks Carey’s husband rocks

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in pictures

Cornish pride: Brothers Alfie and Morgan Sears celebrate St Piran’s Day at Perranporth

Purple days: Evelyn Rees, three, enjoys the crocuses and warm weather in Newton Abbot

Lots of pots: John Leach marks 50 years of making pottery at Mulcheney, Somerset

Congratulations!Lee Lane (in green) celebrates her 100th birthday with four

generations of family at Capera Care Home, St Austell

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Blossom

10 trees and shrubs that herald the beginning of spring

1. Hawthorn

2. Cherry

3. Camellia

4. Magnolia

5. Crab apple

6. Forsythia

7. Japonica

8. Pussy willow

9. Viburnum

10. Mock orangeThe happy list

talking points

10 edible shell� sh found on our shores

1. Mussels

2. Venus clams

3. Winkles

4. Carpet shell clams

5. Razor clams

6. Whelks

7. Oysters

8. Brown crabs

9. Lobsters

10. Dog cockles

She sells

At their height

10 successful models who are not as tall as you might think:

1. Kate Moss (5’8”)

2. Jean Shrimpton (5’7”)

3. Devon Aoki (5’5”)

4. Liberty Ross (5’8”)

5. Laetitia Casta (5’7”)

6. Twiggy (5’6”)

7. Isabella Rossellini (5’8”)

8. Lottie Moss (5’5”)

9. Georgia May Jagger (5’7”)

10. Charlotte Free (5’7”)

This week:

Famous faces who come from the Westcountry

ONE OF US

Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin (38) grew up in the village of Whitestone, near Exeter. He went to Exeter Cathedral School, then Sherborne School in Dorset

Chris Martin

Early years: Christopher Anthony John Martin was born on March 2 1977, the eldest of � ve children.

Family: His father, Anthony, is a retired accountant and his mother, Alison, is a music teacher. The couple divorced in 2011.

Dad dancing: Chris’s father, a Conservative Party fundraiser, o� en follows Coldplay on tour and is said to be the life and soul of the tour bus. Chris says: ‘He’s living the dream. I have to check he hasn’t trashed the hotel room before we leave each city.’

Beginnings: Chris met future Coldplay manager Phil Harvey at Sherborne School. The band was formed in 1996 when Chris was studying Maths at University College London.

Name change: Coldplay was was originally called Pectoralz, then Star� sh, until � nally they were

o� ered the name Coldplay by another band who did not want it anymore.

Success: Coldplay’s � rst album Parachutes (2000) was a huge hit. The band has released six studio albums in total, and their third album X&Y was the best-selling album of 2005, selling 8.3 million copies.

Marriage: Chris was married to actress Gwyneth Paltrow for ten years a� er they met at a Coldplay concert. They have a daughter, Apple, and a son, Moses. The couple split in March 2014, which Gwyneth described as a “conscious

uncoupling”.

Girlfriend: Chris was seeing Hunger Games actress Jennifer Lawrence (24) recently but they are said to have split up.

By Abbie Bray

DID YOU KNOW?

Chris was named the

World’s Sexiest

Vegetarian in 2005 but

a� er his split with Gwyneth he started

eating meat again

10 things to make you smile this week1. Simple Minds back to the

80s, Plymouth Pavilions Apr 17

2. Pasha from Strictly in the South West this May

3. Primroses scent of spring

4. Daylight on its way

5. Rhubarb in season

6. Simnel cake why not try baking one?

7. Dylan Moran hilarious at Hall for Cornwall, Mar 25

8. Girlfriend jeans a seri-ously good idea

9. Cra� knit, sew, solder = fun

10. Wedding guest out� ts time to plan them

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People

lly Mac knows all about nature’s sweetness. She spent her earli-est years on the Greek island of Thassos, within sight and smell of her grandmother’s cooking

pots, and she loved the taste of the local honey. “I have a sweet tooth,” she admits. These days, though, the former cupcake baker, who lives with her husband in Kingsbridge, is finding ways to make her baking taste

Sarah Pitt introduces West’s exciting new cookery columnist, Ally Mac from south Devon, whose recipes are both healthy and delicious

good without wheat flour, dairy products or re-fined sugar.

Ally, 32, will be sharing her ingenious recipes with West magazine readers over the coming weeks. She starts today with a recipe which does not actually involve cooking at all. Her Holy Balls look a bit like chocolate truffles. Their unctuous texture, though, comes not from big dollops of butter and cascades of sugar, but from succulent Medjool dates and bananas, while the flour is a pulsed up mixture of almonds and pecans. Ally devised these little morsels as a healthy alterna-tive to the bar of chocolate many office workers chomp down to appease hunger pangs at four in the afternoon.

“They do give you a boost, because they have all sorts of goodness in them, and you can make them with just a few ingredients kept in your cupboard,” she says. “I put the dates in and pulse them to bind the ingredients together, roll them into balls, roll them in desiccated coconut and goji berries and then put them in the fridge of a couple of hours. They are delicious!”

Ally’s first culinary influences were felt when she was a small girl. “My mum is Greek and my dad is English. I was brought up in a busy kitchen,” she says. “My first memory as a child was watching my grandmother make homemade granola served with local yoghurt and the fresh-est forest honey straight off the honeycomb.

“Later, we moved with my dad’s job to Libya, Switzerland and Bahrain in the Middle East, where my parents and my sister still live. I’ve got a real love for trying anything and everything from living in these different cultures. And every

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People

member of my Greek family is food obsessed. I go back to Thassos every summer.”

Ally came to the UK in the year 2000 to attend university in Bristol. Being separated from the family kitchen, though, does not stop her col-laborating with her mum back in Bahrain in her cooking. “We are constantly on Skype, sharing recipes,” says Ally.

Later, working for BBC Magazines, Ally start-ed bringing in her grandmother’s granola - which she calls Yia Yia’s muesli - to colleagues. She got an equally enthusiastic response to the cupcakes she started to bake. “Then my mum bought me a subscription for BBC Good Food Magazine, and in it was an advert for the Great British Bake Off, so I decided to enter.”

Ally was accepted onto the iconic baking programme for its first series, and took part in several heats. She treasures fond memories of Mary Berry coming to her rescue when whisk-ing up a coffee cake mixture. “She took me to the sink and ran my hand under the tap, as it had total-ly seized up,” r e m e m b e r s Ally. Alas, her contribution ended up on the cutting room floor “but it was a fun experience” she says.

She then launched a cupcake business in Bristol and subsequently moved to London with hopes of launching a pop-up shop there. These plans fell through, and she had to take an office job to make ends meet, but life looked up when she met her husband-to-be Andy Mac, a photographer, through internet dating. He per-suaded her to move to his home county of Devon and the couple, who married last year, now live in Kingsbridge. Here, Ally has wholeheartedly embraced a new healthy way of cooking, along with the peaceful Westcountry way of life.

“Being in London, working hard and not pre-paring my own food, going out to eat and drink-ing, I was generally not feeling very good,” she says. “Now I’ve cut out a lot of dairy, gluten and sugar and I’ve noticed I feel 100 times better. I also rarely get ill or catch colds; my diet has really boosted my immune system.

“I still cook lots of sweet treats now, but there is no refined sugar in them. I’m using the natural sugar in dates, maple syrup and bananas. It costs more and takes more time and effort to prepare everything, but I see it as an investment in my health.”

Many of Ally’s recipes do not involve heat at all – she’s a great enthusiast for the raw food trend. “I do lots and lots

of raw juicing,” she says. “I in-vested in a machine that keeps as many vitamins in the juice as possible. Today, for instance, I

whizzed up a beetroot and some celery,

then added cin-namon, turmeric and saffron, because I was writing about what the vari-ous spices can do for you. I put in a bit of raw honey in it as well, and it was delicious.

“Because I go back to the

Middle East two or three times a year to

see my family, I love to experiment with ingredi-

ents from there. I was there in December and I bought lots

of dry rose petals and made a really lovely granola using rose petals and dates,

which has just a hint of the flavour of rose.”Ally also cooks with nuts – particularly cash-

ews and almonds – which take the place of wheat flour in her cooking. She is also a great fan of coconut – coconut oil, coconut sugar (she uses an organic brand called Coconom) and untreat-ed organic desiccated coconut. Coconut oil is a saturated fat but has recently been embraced by

nutritionists as not so unhealthy after all. “Apart from using coconut oil in cooking, I also use it on my face, because it is a wonderfully hydrating treat for my skin, It keeps the skin’s connective tissue strong which prevents wrinkles,” she ex-plains.

Ally says living in Devon is starting to have an influence on her recipes, too. Blackberries for-aged from the hedgerows make an appearance in this muesli recipe she is sharing with West read-ers today. “I love wild walks and foraging which I’ve discovered living here,” she says. “It was a big change moving here from London - I was used to sirens ringing in my ears and I was not used to cows - but everyone I have met has been so lovely. I love supporting the local farmers and using or-ganic local ingredients in my cooking. I’m con-stantly experimenting.”For details and to buy Ally’s products, visit www.allyskitchenstories.co.uk

Chia Spiced Blackberry PorridgeAlly says: “This combo is a match made in heaven.”Ingredients:1/2 cup gluten-free oats, 1 cup almond or cashew milk (homemade is best), two tbsp chia seeds, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, handful of blackberries, banana, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds and goji berries to drizzle. Use blueberries if blackberries aren’t available.

Method:Add all ingredients apart from the banana, blackberries and pumpkin seeds into your pot and simmer for 5 minutes stirring occasionally. Add the cinnamon and dress ther= bowl with the rest of the ingredients. Sit back, relax and enjoy this wholesome goodness.

Chia Spiced Blackberry Porrige

Ally_March22.indd 14 18/03/2015 10:16:22

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Holy BallsAlly says: “The magic sprinkling ingredient in these balls is maca, a superfood powder made from a Peruvian root, plus the chia seeds - a sort of Mexican mint.”

Ingredients:2 cups of almonds, 2 ripe bananas, 1/2 cup ground flaxseeds, 2 cups Medjool dates, 3 tbsp maca powder, 3 tbsp chia seeds. They are decorated with chia seeds, coconut flakes and Coconom coconut sugar (which can be found online).

Method:Blend the almonds in your food processor to form a nice flour-like mix. Add the pitted medjool dates, bananas, flax, maca and chia. Your mix should look super sticky after a couple of minutes of blending. Drum roll... your balls are ready to roll!

Use a teaspoon to scoop a batch of the mix and roll in your hands. I rolled my energy balls in chia seeds, coconut flakes and Coconom coconut sugar.

Place in a fridge or freezer for a couple of hours to form. I had trouble restraining myself from eating all the mix before I rolled them out.

The nutritional lowdown: Maca is rich in vitamins and provides plenty of calcium, zinc, iron and amino acids, while chia seeds are have more Omega-3 fatty acids than salmon, plus a wealth of antioxidants and minerals, and are a complete source of protein.

See more of Ally’s recipes at www.facebook.com/allyskitchenstories.

Holy Balls

Ally_March22.indd 15 18/03/2015 10:18:42

16

Interview

Intr

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uci

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ctress Ella Hunt is seriously under the weather, in the grip of a stream-ing cold. But you wouldn’t guess so to look at her. Aged just 16, she has youth and beauty on her side,

which certainly helps. Yet it’s talking about the profession she loves that warms her spirits just as effi caciously as hot lemon and honey.

Ella is about to star in a major new family sci-fi movie called Robot Overlords, which opens on March 27, just in time for the lucrative Easter holidays market. In it, she appears alongside Sir Ben Kingsley, who recently described the fi lm as “a modern fairytale, in which I play the wizard and Ella is the beautiful princess”.

Like many a fairytale princess, Ella grew up in seclusion, on the Exmoor farm where she still lives with her family. But today we’re in a cosy Barnstaple coffee shop to talk about her role in

Robot Overlords. Ella’s part of a stellar cast that also includes Gillian Anderson and Geraldine James as well as Ben Kingsley.

That’s Sir Ben, to virtually everyone else in the world apart from Ella, who got on with the actor like a house on fi re and is now on fi rst name terms with the Oscar winner. “We had lots in common - I found out Ben keeps ducklings, while I have chickens,” she tells me.

Robot Overlords is set in an ordinary British town, albeit conquered by an invading horde of automatons now holding humankind in their thrall.

While the fi lm may be primarily aimed at a younger audience, there are shades of Orwell’s 1984 that set it apart from your traditional Hol-lywood blockbuster, with wonderful bursts of humour and, of course, that formidable cast of actors.

“Our director, Jon (Wright), who co-wrote the script is very good at making fi lms the whole family will enjoy,” says Ella.

She plays Alexandra, who with brother

Ella A major new � lm out this Easter stars Sir Ben Kingsley, Gillian Anderson and a certain 16-year-old actress from Exmoor. It’s time to � nd out more about the talented Ella Hunt, poised to hit the big time in the blockbuster sci-� movie Robot Overlords

By Catherine Barnes

A

Ella_Hunt_March22.indd 16 18/03/2015 10:04:35

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Nathan (James Tarpey) has lost her parents in the robot invasion. The siblings form a family unit with handsome teen hero Sean Flynn (Aus-tralian-born Callan McAuliffe) and the orphaned baby of the group, Connor, played by Milo Parker, a young actor who’s also co-starring with Ian McKellen in the soon-to-be-released Mr Holmes.

“I was outnumbered by boys!” laughs Ella, who adds: “I was thankful to have grown up with two real life brothers that tease me - it’s a real asset, as film sets can be a predominantly male place.

“Originally my part was written as a boy. I wanted to be a strong girl, one that my age group could relate to. She’s the sensible one, the one who keeps things together. I had a quite a big sis-terly relationship with Milo off-set and felt quite protective. I think that came through on film - you can see the chemistry between us all.

“For me, James and Milo it was the first film in which we were on set for such a big block of time. And to be working with Ben Kingsley and Gillian Anderson was amazing,” she says.

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One to watch: Exmoor’s Ella Hunt

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Interview

“Jon’s a special director and gives actors a chance to improvise. The first takes are filmed as scripted and then it’s let loose. I think that’s what brings the film to life. Most of James’s funny lines were his own improvisations.

“Ben plays quite an evil character in the film and for the first few weeks of filming, he was quite distant with all of us. Then in the last few days he came out of his evil shell and it was ob-vious he’d been doing it to keep us in character and disliking him.

“It was great to be on set with Gillian Ander-son, too. There’s a scene where she’s running through the crowd and is supposed to hit a guy, but his leg accidentally went up and hit her in the face. The director said afterwards, you could have cut... but she just kept going.”

This may be Ella’s first major film role, but she had quite the Hollywood-style career break at the tender age of 11. She was decked out in a fat suit and playing the role of Katisha in a pro-duction of the Mikado at Somerset’s Millfield School. One of the parents in the audience was an agent and signed her up on the spot.

Ella’s first professional role was in a commer-cial for Netflix, before she auditioned for a part in 2011 Spanish horror film Intruders, starring Clive Owen. “I was up for the lead, but didn’t get it as I’d had no past experience. But the di-rector created a smaller part for me and I was

Ella stars alongside Gillian Anderson in her new film

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Interview

also asked to write and sing one of my own songs for the film, although that scene ended up on the cutting room floor.

“That was a steep learning curve for me at the time, but it’s good that it hap-pened when it did, as working in this industry is as much about coping with rejection as the highs.

“Whether or not I get a part, I love it all regardless. If I haven’t been cast, I still like to watch the girl who got the part perform and see where she takes the role. It’s magical.”

Ella’s mum, Louise, nods: “You have to enjoy the process and take something from it, other-wise you just end up feeling awful about yourself.”

Louise is a sculptor and was herself a profess ional actress before starting her family. Hus-band David is an art dealer and eldest son William, 22, has com-pleted a fine art photography degree at Falmouth University. Younger brother Arthur, 13, has been begging Ella to arrange a private screening of Robot Overlords for him and his school pals. “He’s so excited about this film,” Ella says.

“He also asked you if you could cut your hair off, as he’d heard you can get quite a lot for actor’s hair on eBay,” Louise reminds her and they both laugh.

As warm and funny as her daugh-ter, Louise’s own working knowledge of the industry has helped to support Ella and kept her down to earth. “I was

aware my own experiences could help support her career, if she respected her craft,” Louise explains. “I saw she stood a chance of a career with longevity and the opportunity to play intelligent roles that she and other intelligent young women would be interested in.”

Ella’s finished with school - for now at least - but says she’s learning just as much outside the classroom. Already almost fluent in Spanish, she’s keen to improve on her language skills, with an eye on the Spanish movie industry. “It would be a joy to work in it,” she says.

Music, too, is a major passion for Ella and will be the focus of her next

acting role. She’s been song-writing and performing at local music festivals since the age of nine and trained with professional opera singers to prepare for her next part, which is her first leading movie role. She’s shortly head-ing off on location to the Czech Repub-

lic to star as a young opera singer in a soon-to-be announced project, details of which are still under wraps. Suffice to say, it is a dream part for Ella: “It feels amazing to be 16 and filming such a wonderful leading role,” she says.

All in all, I found Ella to be sweet, nat-ural and level-headed, presumably a joy for any director to work with. “It helps living in Devon, not being involved in too many boozy glamorous events. There’s nothing like a little boredom to inspire you,” says Louise sagely.

“I love living in Devon,” agrees Ella. “It keeps me grounded.”Robot Overlords is in cinemas from Friday March 27, certificate 12A.

‘Whether or not I get a part, I love it all, regardless. Acting’s magical’

A scene from Ella’s new film, Robot Overlords

Ella_Hunt_March22.indd 20 18/03/2015 10:06:37

21

styleinteriors22 fashion30

interview36 eat out40

Intro_March22.indd 21 18/03/2015 11:03:33

22

Family friendly

Kahdine with husband Charles and baby Rupert spent their first family Christmas

together at their Cornish cottage

A new mum tells Sarah Pitt how she transformed a quaint Cornish cottage with upcycled furniture and glamorous touches into a cosy � rst home for her baby son

Interiors_Mar22.indd 22 18/03/2015 09:45:00

Interiors

Before you start, gather together a mood board of inspirational images using the Pinterest website

STYLE TIP:

eginning a major restoration project when you are expecting your fi rst baby sounds like a brave move. But for Kahdine Roseveare-Shazell and

her husband Charles, the opportunity to buy a 300-year-old cottage a short drive from the surf-ing beaches of Newquay was too good to miss.

The couple were searching for a home not too far from the sea to transform into luxury self-catering accommodation. And when Kahdine found this two-bedroom cottage in Kestle Mill she could immediately see its potential.

“I’ve lived here all my life. My family is Cor-nish and so is my husband, and I have always wanted to have an investment property,” she says. “It was just a case of persuading my hus-band to agree.”

The cottage, which dates back to 1680, was then furnished in a traditional style with horse brasses hanging from the exposed stone fi replace and dark beams. Kahdine had dreams of creating something quite different, a look she calls “vin-tage country glamour” and enlisted the help of Devon-based interior designer Holly Keeling.

First, though, the cottage needed major struc-tural work. “We stripped it right back to the walls, even putting on a new roof,” says Kahdine. “We have tried to retain all the character, but it did need modernisation, so we had to carry out lots of work to bring it up to scratch.”

As is often the way with building projects, one thing led to another. A plan to replace asbestos roof tiles with reclaimed slate also meant replac-ing the roof timbers so they were strong enough to bear the weight of the slate. The couple also installed a new heating system, ripped out fi tted wardrobes in the main bedroom, rebuilt the chimney and installed a skylight to let in more light.

Kahdine drew on a trusted network of local builders and tradespeople, including roofers from her family fi rm, to do the work, which was completed to a fairly intense schedule in fi ve

23

B

Interiors_Mar22.indd 23 18/03/2015 09:45:28

24

Interiors

Buy well-made dark wood furni-ture cheaply at auctions or online, then give it a fresh, light look with a few coats of paint

STYLE TIP:

initially, and then rent it out as a luxury holiday let from this spring. Kahdine and family have moved out and are living in a mobile home on Charles’s par-ents’ farm in nearby St Columb Major, where they are planning to build a larger home of their own.

At Sweetpea, meanwhile, they have just welcomed their fi rst guests, complete with nine-month-old baby. One of the two

bedrooms is a nursery, which Kahdine created for her own baby, and which she has left all set up for their smaller guests.

“There’s everything you need, such as a play-gym, baby bath and toys,” says Kahdine. “It means that if you are a parent for the fi rst time, you don’t need to worry about bringing eve-rything with you, you can just come here and relax.”

Kahdine says that Sweetpea – a name which refl ects the cottage’s small but perfectly-formed-style – has been a wonderful fi rst home for her new family.“It was great living here with a baby because there is so much for them to look at,” she says. “My son just loved looking at all the twinkly lights. I still have family photos in the property because I want people to know it is, at heart, a family home.”

Sweetpea in Kestle Mill is available to rent for short breaks and holidays from Unique Home Stays, www.uniquehomestays.com, 01637 881183

months. And then, when the structural work had been completed, Kahdine worked with inte-rior designer Holly on the furnishings.

Her starting point for the scheme was a mood board which she’d assembled from images which inspired her, collected on the website Pinterest. “I had been gathering all the images of the style I was aiming for and I gave that to Holly,” she says.

The scheme for the interior of the cottage has a glamorous feel which works surprisingly well with its thick walls and small windows. Cottages can be dark, but this look is all about light. The pale furnishings include a chinoiserie fabric used for cushions and a painterly print of hydrangeas on the bathroom blind. Next came sparkly light fi ttings in the kitchen and bed-room.

“It is nice to have some quirky lighting,” says Kahdine. “One light in the kitchen comes from The White Company, while the chandelier above the dining table we found on eBay. The light in the bedroom gives lovely patterns on the walls and ceiling.”

Holly sourced antique fur-niture for the house, which she then repainted in lighter colours. Finds include a pretty dresser in the kitchen and the magnifi cent carved bed in the main bedroom.

“The bed is a second-hand one we got at an auction. We’ve upcycled it, repainting it in a lighter colour so it fi ts in with the room, while the chest of drawers in the lounge is from the 1800s,” says Kahdine. “A lot of things in the property are second-hand – I think that is how you get the individuality.”

The project came at a busy time for the couple, as Kahdine was pregnant throughout the refur-bishment, which they started a year ago and completed in June last year. Their son Rupert was born in July, just a few weeks after they had moved into the cottage, called Sweetpea.

It was always the plan to live in the cottage

‘A lot of the things in the property

are second-hand. It think that is

how you get the individuality’ [[

Interiors_Mar22.indd 24 18/03/2015 09:45:57

25

Shopping

LOOKSo� colours and natural designs set the scene for a country cottage in spring

GET THE

Needle pendant, £66, www.darlighting.co.uk

Botanical-inspired ceramic vase, £8.99, table lamp, £29.99, and

selection of glass vases and bottles £5-£8.99, Dunelm Mill

Beeston mirror, £395, www.chandeliersandmirrors.co.uk

Cecile dressing table,

£425, www.withinhome.com

Design Disasters aviary compact

mirror, £7.99. www.mollieandfred.co.uk

Interiors_Mar22.indd 25 18/03/2015 09:46:26

hey set off borders to perfection, soft grasses tickle bare feet, they’re cool to lie on and are often teeming with life. You can play badminton on them, make daisy chains from

them, blackbirds and thrushes take worms, bees gather nectar and pollen from selfheal and clover and we can play at making mini meadows and creating 3-d shapes with our mowers. Such is the versatility of the lawn, that green sward of tightly knit grasses that thrives so well in the British climate.

At home, our lawn has taken its fi rst mowing of the season and I feel at ease with it. We’re blessed with a moist climate and rich soil, so our grass grows strongly, competes well with weeds and never needs feeding. In fact, I’d be quite scared to apply fertilizer for fear the grasses would rise up and knock us on our chins. There are plenty of weeds but they are small-leaved kinds that mingle with the grass and still give me the smooth, mainly green, expanse I’m looking for. I fi nd just grass rather sterile and if I like my ‘weeds’, then they become wild fl owers don’t they?

I wouldn’t be too keen on dandelions and plantains, because their large rosettes show up. Fortunately, they are easy to winkle out with weeding tools or a screwdriver. Under fruit trees and in the wilder parts of the garden, I let the grasses grow up as meadow and only cut them once a year. This gives us interesting contours, allows perennial wild fl owers such

as ladies smock and knapweeds to develop and encourages a wider diversity of garden wild life to prosper.

Problems start when you don’t like the reality of your lawn and need to improve matters. Grass might be sparse, allowing too many weeds to move in and there could be bare patches. The fi rst step is to mow, setting the blades a little higher than for midsummer cuts and then trim and neaten the edges. Regular mowing is number one with lawn care, as this encourages the grass to tiller, or thicken up laterally. Lawns left to grow too long make mowing hard work and will always look tatty.

Bare patches are usually a problem on smaller lawns where regular use causes compaction. Consider replacing narrow walkways with paving but if children are playing, you might just have to wait until they are grown up. The most you can do is aerate soil by pushing a fork in repeatedly as far as it will go and brush in some sandy lawn dressing. Try resowing in autumn, so the grass has until summer to settle. Shade causes thin areas too, so consider pruning to let in more light, use special grass seed mixtures for shade or perhaps give up on grass and redesign the area.

Where there is compaction and moisture, moss often grows but I’m happy to live with this, as long as the effect is thick and green. Gardeners who fi nd moss and weeds offensive can apply products to kill them off and feed at the same time. The lawn is then raked to be rid of the dead growth and usually recovers quickly.

Poor, sandy soils don’t suit lawns too well,

26

ANNE SWITHINBANK

How to love your lawn

How to love

Gardens

T

Devon’s Anne Swithinbank, panellist on Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time, is a fan of the great British garden lawn

That green sward of

tightly-knit grasses

thrives so well here [[

Gardening_Mar22.indd 26 18/03/2015 10:30:36

I’ve been given a large and slightly spindly old house plant which I think is a dracaena. Long stems spiral somewhat and have tufts

of long, red-edged narrow leaves towards the tips. The compost has just been replaced but is soft, fluffy and slightly dry. How should I look after it?

This sounds like a Dracaena marginata (often known as dragon tree) of great character. These are long-lived and very forgiving house plants but yours has been repotted loosely without being watered in afterwards. It is a mistake to remove too much old soil from around an established rootball, because this risks damaging a lot of root hairs, which are responsible for the uptake of water. By not watering the plant in, root hairs will also have frizzled up. I would water now, preferably with a rose (sprinkler) fitted to a can to prevent too much displacement of compost. But don’t water again until the surface of the compost begins to dry out. Only feed (monthly) when the plant is showing signs of new growth, proving the roots have recovered. Stand out of full sun, as your description suggests the plant has been used to low light.

27

I’ve planted some asparagus but can’t remember the rules for how soon I can harvest the spears and for how long

they can be cut.

First, I hope you planted the crowns into raised or mounded beds because the one thing they will not tolerate is waterlogged soil. Even on light soil, it is important that rain can drain easily away and doesn’t sit around the roots. Don’t cut anything this year but you can take a few spears next year, a month’s worth the year after and then in subsequent years, cut all the spears for six weeks before letting the fern grow.

Q

Question time with AnneWest reader queries answered by Anne Swithinbank

Send your questions to Anne at westmag@westernmorningnews.co.uk

Q

especially when they consist of fine, fussy grasses and you might find feeding is necessary at least every spring while the soil is moist, to give it a boost. Otherwise the grasses struggle and can be overpowered by vigorous and better adapted weeds. I don’t believe in watering lawns, as grass is incredibly resilient and will regrow after droughts.

Whether you make a diamond of aromatic chamomile in it, plant groups of bulbs, mow a maze or make a meadow, be sure to celebrate your lawn. Graze your guinea pigs on it, let the kids build camps on it or just lie down and look through the stems and grass blades at eye level to marvel at the grass world of ants, moss, spiders and speedwell.

This week’s gardening tipsAnne’s advice for your garden

• Plant out broad beans raised from seed under glass. I generally set down a line to mark the row and then plant in a staggered pattern either side, setting the beans a generous 20cm/8in apart with 25cm/10in or so between the rows.

• Sow seeds of herbs like common thyme and sage if you want lots to line pathways and edges. I sow into pots or half trays under glass, transplant singly to pots and then grow on and plant out when they fill 9cm/3.5in pots.

• Sow celeriac, as this veg with swollen stems needs a long season to grow. I find this easier to grow than celery

but grated raw in salads or added in chunks to soups and stews, it adds a celery flavour.

• Rudbeckias are a great choice of bedding plant for their generous daisy-like flowers in russetty autumnal shades - they go on flowering until the first frosts too. Sow under glass or buy in young plants to grow on and plant out during May.

• Continue to move round beds clearing dead stems, tickling the soil over and removing weeds. Feed plants that didn’t grow too well last year and mulch over the soil surface with well rotted garden compost or other soil conditioner.

Gardening_Mar22.indd 27 18/03/2015 10:31:06

28

Beauty

Tried& tested

We present the beauty treats and cheats of the week, all trialled by West magazine’s Catherine Barnes, with help from daughter Tilly, 17.

Tried

Here’s � ve oils in a bottle (including rosemary and geranium) to pep up your skin and stimulate your senses - a great wake me up a� er a shower.Circulation Boost Skin Oil, £37, www.inner-soul.co.uk

WAKE UP!

HIP, HIPBare Minerals’ Mineralixirs contain

moisturising rosehip oil. Its facial cleansing oil (£21) gently wipes

away the remains of day.www.bareminerals.co.uk

This pretty coral multi-blush by Autograph and M&S will put some bloom in your cheeks. £12.50 at www.marksandspencer.com

Blush!

We’ve been promised an unseasonable heatwave and Sothy’s is ready to hit the beach with this summery coral (£19) which has a lip-smacking fruity � avour. Find at selected salons; � nd your nearest at www.sothys-uk.co.uk.

SUMMER’S HERE?Lush has blended frankincense, vanilla and caramel into this fragrance for disco divas Stayin’ Alive, £75, www.lush.co.uk

GROOVY

Beauty_Mar22.indd 28 18/03/2015 10:32:22

29

the review

Want a review? Send your request to westmag@westernmorningnews.co.ukWant a review? Send your request to westmag@westernmorningnews.co.uk

acials are one of those things women don’t really seem to talk about, but as soon as I told my friends I had one booked it was met with, “Oooh, I

love a facial” and “How have you never had one?!”.

Everyone seems to have secretly been looking after their skin while I’ve been taking no notice. So a fortnight before turning 28, with a few lines starting to appear, I took the plunge.

The Environ treatment, which I had at Nikita salon in Plymouth, was completely different to anything I had expected.I thought a few scrubs and lotions would leave me with a clean-feeling face, but with skin which hadn’t really been improved. But I immediately noticed a difference, particularly in the lines around my eyes.

The facial started with a quick chat with Krissie Staddon, therapist and owner of the salon, who asked me all about my skin routine and general health. She told me electric pulses and soundwaves would drive a special combination of vitamins deep into my skin.

The leafl ets say the procedure gives results to rival those previously only achievable with invasive procedures or skin-thinning techniques like laser and chemical peels – cue a sudden panic that I would be leaving the salon with sensitive skin and a bright red face.

But instead of stripping layers away, leaving skin vulnerable, the Environ treatment boosts penetration of anti-

ageing ingredients into the skin by up to 40-fold, and is extremely relaxing in the process.

Lying on the bed (complete with heated blanket) my eyes were closed through-out the facial. My skin was cleansed, and the gel - made up of anti-ageing and re-hydrating vitamins A, C, E and beta-carotene - was put onto my skin before an electric pulse was used to push the mix even deeper.

Krissie warned me I might be able to see fl ashing lights, even with my eyes closed, but it was just a faint fl icker. The sensation of the electrical pulses is really diffi cult to describe. Not at all uncomfortable, the

closest thing I can compare it to is like being very lightly fl icked, and she can target areas such as around the eyes, mouth or neck for even better results.

A mask followed, which felt cooling and refreshing, and was left on for 10 minutes while soundwaves were omitted. Again there were faint fl ashing lights, but by the time the mask came off I was utterly relaxed.

This is defi nitely different and I’d say it is a must-try, given the results. My skin really did feel refreshed, smooth and plump. Celebrity fans of the Environ facial treatment include Oscar winner Hilary Swank, Sadie Frost, Lynda Bellingham, Mariella Frostrup and Anthea Turner. And if it’s good enough for them it’s defi nitely good enough for me.

The Environ Advanced Ionzyme Active Vitamin Facial costs £60 at Nikita Beauty Salon, Houndiscombe Road, Plymouth. Call 07792 218016 or send an email toinfo@nikitasalon.co.uk.

F

First-time facialSian Davies takes the plunge and tries The Environ Advanced Ionzyme Active Vitamin Facial - her � rst ever professional beauty treatment.

One to try

I immediately noticed a

di� erence in my skin,

particularly around the eyes

There’s a free makeup pouch while stocks last at Mawgan Porth boutique Roo’s Beach (near

Newquay) when you buy any item from the Paul & Joe Menagerie collection. Prices start at £12 for

a nail enamel, so bag a bonus while you can! www.roosbeach.co.uk

Here’s one cocoa-based treat that your waist, hips and thighs will love you for: Organic Trevarno’s body lotion (£21) - and proudly made in Cornwall. www.trevarnoskincare.co.uk

CALORIE-FREE

CREATURE COMFORTS

Beauty_Mar22.indd 29 18/03/2015 10:33:38

30

Fashion

Spring’s here, but sunshine is by no means guaranteed. Colour-ful cover-ups are the answer

ere in the South West, April can mean beach weather - or pouring rain. Or both, in the same day. Thank goodness, then, for this season’s col-

ourful and downright attractive rainwear. You can safely get caught out in an April shower in this little lot and still look good.

There are lots of spring macs, parkas and trench coats to be had right now. We like Lorraine Kelly’s classic design for JD Wil-liams in traditional beige but if you want to look springlike, many labels are offering versions in bright pinks, blues and orang-es. Wellies and brollies, too, don’t have to be boring, as these picks from White Stuff and Cath Kidston show. Have fun this spring, whatever the weather.

April Showers

H

PEOPLE TREE Orla Kiely print dresses £80-£90

YUMI lace rain mac

£95

Fashion_March22.indd 30 18/03/2015 09:36:03

31

LOOK AGAIN parka £49.99 www.

lookagain.co.uk

DEBENHAMS H by Henry Hol-land cagoul £35

SIMPLY BE mac £50

HOME CANDY ‘Waiting For

Rain’ teatowel £14

CATH KIDSON sky print brolly

£35

WHITE STUFF short wellies

£29.95

JD WILLIAMS Lorraine Kelly collection mac

£59 PEOPLE TREE raindrop tee £30

Fashion_March22.indd 31 18/03/2015 09:36:41

lorals for Spring. Groundbreak-ing.” That has to be one of my fa-vourite lines from The Devil wears Prada. I mean, can Meryl do no wrong? She’s right though. It seems

that without fail, botanical prints rear their head for spring. So, what’s different this season? I’ll level with you, the trend still involves fl owers, birds and a hint of tropical escapes. This time however, there is less in the way of literal inter-pretations. Think geometric patterns inspired by foliage, matching separates in shades of green, and unexpected glimpses of the exotic that appear like your very own Secret Garden.

This gorgeous jumper from Oasis is a great example. Not only is the bright yellow sure to lift spirits in the face of even the most stubborn grey skies, but you have the rare opportunity to make just as much of a statement leav-ing a room, as when you enter it. The back is a soft semi-sheer panel adorned with clusters of highly-stylised fl owery illustra-tions.

For SS15, it is all about the de-tails, designs, and bold brights. Look for the most vivid piece you can fi nd, and you are on the right track. It’s more ‘the power fl ower’ than ‘fl ower power’ this time around, and I couldn’t be happier for more than one reason. Firstly, I think that traditional chintzy fl oral prints belong on wallpaper, not on women. There is something dreadfully passé and unimaginative about your stock-standard cream shift adorned with red blooms. To me, these dresses say noth-ing about their wearer, and fashion is nothing if not an attempt to showcase what it is that makes you, well, ‘you’.

Lack of personality aside, another reason to embrace this seasons bolder and edgier inter-

pretations is a joyful one. They’re slimming. It’s pretty hard to pull off the pale dress with large red petals if you have been munching on lovely cakes all winter. I like my clothes to be my allies in the battle to look my best. Pick anything with geomet-ric shapes, as they confuse the eye just the right amount. Smaller details and illustrated garments in deep jewel garden colours are also favourites of mine for disguising a multitude of sins.

Remember, you don’t have to be going to the Queen’s garden party to rock this season’s fl oral. These are meant to be worn every day, and mixed

with other patterns and fabrics for real impact too. Pair graphic trousers with a khaki tee and a statement necklace for cocktail chic, wear your favourite denim dress with a brightly fl owered bag, and look for kimonos with delicate Japa-nese illustrations to add a layer of interest to your look.

Final bit of advice, wear with heels – high ones. I never believed any of that tall poppy pop-pycock anyway.All fashion in these pictures is from Princesshay Shopping Centre, Exeter, www.princesshay.com

32

Trend

It’s more ‘the power

� ower’ than ‘� ower power’

this time around

Kathryn Clarke-Mcleod chucks out the chintz for spring

HOW TO WEAR IT:

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The new botanics

Top, Oasis, Princesshay, £38

Jeans, Oasis, Princesshay, £45

Bag, Next, Princesshay, £12

Shoes, Oasis, Princesshay, £40

“

Trend_Botanics_March22.indd 32 18/03/2015 09:42:03

33

GET THE

look

STREET STYLE HERO

Elsia Reyna, R&D for Lush Cosmetics,

Bournemouth Coat – Superdry

Jeans – River IslandBoots – Jones & Jones

Cross body bag – Gusti Leather

MONSOON SS15 Marielle trousers

£89

CAROLINE CHARLES Parrot

dress £595

NEW LOOK Black Hawaiian platform

sandals £44.99

NEXT Floral bomber £38

NEW LOOK Palm print shirt dress

£22.99

Trend_Botanics_March22.indd 33 18/03/2015 09:42:34

+

34

Shop

Joe Browns £50

Vienna tote £265 Florian (www.florianlondon.com)

M&Co £26

Oliver Bonas £59.50

F&F for Tesco tote £18

White Stuff £55

Land’s End £59.95

The editYour straight line to style. Shi� dresses, cardigans and statement bags = sorority chic

East £150

+

Folli Follie tote £320

+ + +

+fave!

GRID_EVENTS_MARCH22.indd 34 18/03/2015 12:38:32

35

Events

1. Magical cinemaWadebridge, tonight, 7.30pmBe spellbound by silent movie star Louise Brooks in a silver screening of her 1929 film Diary of a Lost Girl at Wadebridge’s vintage Regal Cinema. Brought to you by wow-tastic Cornish band Wurlitza, they’ll be accompanying the action with a live musical soundtrack in the traditional way - but listen out for The Doors and Magic Numbers hits among the classical tunes. Tickets £9/£8/£7 (01208 812791)

2. Macbiketh Exeter, Wednesday eveningThe HandleBards are four actors who convey themselves, cos-tumes, props and camping equipment from venue to venue by bike. Don’t miss their quirky version of Macbeth at Exeter Cathedral’s 13th century Chapterhouse on Wednesday. Seats cost £10, or bring a comfy cushion and sit on the floor for a fiver! www.handlebards.eventbrite.co.uk

3. Twinkle, TwinkleKestle Mill near Newquay, FridayStargaze with Kernow Astronomers in the grounds of the Na-tional Trust’s Elizabethan house Trerice and discover what’s where in the night sky. Gates open at 4.30pm (last admission 6pm) and the stellar fun goes on until 9pm. Suggested dona-tions £2 per adult, children free. Call 01637 875404

4. Monkey!Great Torrington, Thursday, 11am & 1pmPuppetCraft’s show at The Plough arts centre is based on Michael Rosen’s version of the classic Chinese story about mischievous Monkey’s adventures. Mums and dads may re-member the cloud-riding character as the stuff of 80s TV legend and all audiences aged four and over should love this colourful string-puppet production. Tickets: £6/£5/£4, box office: 01805 624624

There’s plenty to do right now in the Westcountry, from magical movies to string puppet plays

the hotlist

#3

#4

#2

#1

GRID_EVENTS_MARCH22.indd 35 18/03/2015 12:38:57

36

Discover

culturevulture

The superb new guide to the arts scene in the South West by our woman-in-the-know, Sarah Pitt

Theatre Royal, Plymouth, Tuesday, March 31Famous soprano and northern lass Lesley Garrett will join the fantastic singers of the

Welsh National Opera in Chorus! – a fabulous collection of the most hummable moments in opera. Directed by its creator David Pountney, the repertoire, accompanied by live orchestra, includes the Humming Chorus from Puccini’s

Madama Butterfly and Va Pensiero from Verdi’s Nabucco. There’s also the less highbrow A

Policeman’s Lot from Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance. In their annual visit to

these parts, the Welsh company also presents The Magic Flute at the Theatre Royal on April

1-2, and Hansel & Gretel on April 4. Tickets £11.70-£50.70,

www.theatreroyal.com and 01752 267222

Opera funTell Tale by Mark Sennen, published by Avon, £7.99I’ve not come across Mark Sennen’s crime novels before, but having devoured his latest, book four in his DI Charlotte Savage series, I’m going to have to go back and read the first three. In Tall Tale, DI Savage has found out who killed her young daughter Clarissa in a hit and run accident. As she struggles with her compulsion for revenge, terrifying events start to unfold on the moor. First a bag containing a missing girl’s clothes and passport is found floating in a reservoir, then the body of a man is discovered, entombed in a pagan grave. With the feisty Det Insp and her team working out of Crownhill in Plymouth and much of the creepy action taking place near Fernworthy reservoir on Dartmoor, Tell Tale is doubly compelling – first for the local references and secondly because it is a brilliant story, with deeply unsavoury villains and police officers who are all-too-human themselves.

A very good read

Saturday, March 28Musician Phil Beer is best known for his multi-instrumental wizardry as one half of Devon-based acoustic roots duo Show of Hands. He’s taking a break at the moment, though, to tour with his own six-piece Phil Beer Band. Phil, who can coax magic out of just about any stringed instrument known to man, will be playing guitar, the fiddle and the mandolin as well as providing vocals. He’s joined by Liv Dunn on fiddles, Gareth Turner on the melodeon, Nick Quarmby providing bass and vocals, Steve Crickett on drums and Emily Slade on guitar and vocals. Expect a lively cocktail of folk, rock, country and blues, or folk ‘n’ roll as Phil calls it, when he plays his only Westcountry date on the tour at The Plough in Torrington on Saturday, March 28. Tickets £17/£16. www.theploughartscentre.org.uk and 01805 624624

Memorable music

CultureVultureWeekendIn_Mar22.indd 36 18/03/2015 12:40:04

37

Jenny Agutter has been one of Britain’s best loved actresses since the 1960s, thanks to roles in The Railway Children, Logan’s Run and An American Werewolf in London. She talks about the ongoing success of Call The Midwife and her new movie, � lmed in Cornwall, called Tin. Jenny, 62, has a home near Helston in Cornwall, and was born in Taunton.

Is there going to be a new series of Call The Midwife for next year? We’re missing it already!Yes, we start work again in May.

Are you allowed to get a Cornish tan during � lming?I go on a spring holiday and then let the tan fade before I start fi lming - hopefully! I do stay out of the sun. I’m quite dark. The trouble is with a white wimple, any amount of colour shows up next to it.

Give us some clues about the next series!I honestly can’t. The last email I sent was to the producer saying how lovely that we’re starting a new series, and had she any idea what the storylines are? This year’s series was very much about the beginning of the Six-ties, and with that, you see all the wonderful opportunities that people start to have. You have the NHS and people starting to take things for granted. Then the other side of that, there’s quite a lot of anguish; suddenly one looks at the rotten parts of soci-ety, realising how bigoted people are; realising how stuck one is with certain things. It’s the beginning of ‘What about me?’ [decade]. And that brings with it a sort of dis-content.

You’ve just worked with legendary � lm director Warner Herzog, how was that?I really, really enjoyed it. What’s so good about working with different directors is what they bring to it, and he brings a whole experience that is quite different from anyone I’ve ever worked with before. He loves his actors; he absolutely loves fi lm. Everything belongs to him on a set and he doesn’t want anything to get between what he and his actors are doing and the storyline. He doesn’t want the clapperboard to be in there; he doesn’t want the make-up or the costume people

to be in there. He doesn’t want anything to happen between that moment where he’s discussing what it’s all about, and all the ideas are there and the fi lming happening, which is interesting.

You’ve also worked on some big budget Hollywood � lms such as Avengers Assemble – what’s that like?Always with those things, maybe a month before, maybe three weeks before, they’ll say: ‘Well, we’re doing the fi lm and such and such is hap-pening.’ Then you don’t get a script, you don’t

know anything and that’s it, and one has to take it for granted that it’s going to be all right. The Russo brothers were lovely to work with [on Captain America]. Quite, quite different from Joss Whedon with Avengers Assemble. Joss went for an epic, almost operatic piece of fi lmmaking; everything is larger-than-life, and the Russo broth-ers... the fi rst day I met them, they said: ‘We want this to be fi lm noir. We want it to be dark, and real.’ I would like to do more. I loved working with the stunt team on the last thing. It was fun to do.

What’s next for you?There’s a very small fi lm I have made in Cornwall, called Tin. They called it a ‘micro budget movie’, but they’re the sweetest people and very imagi-native, and it’s all done on green screen. I would walk through a door and there would be no fur-niture, no walls, no nothing, and all of that was painted in afterwards. It has a slightly super-real quality about it when you look at it. But I have yet to see it. It was a good story; I fi rst saw it as a play [by Miracle Theatre], and it’s going to end up at the fi lm festivals and hopefully they will get a proper release at some point.

Call The Midwife Series 4 DVD is available now from www.bbcshop.com

Jenny Agutter:

‘There’s a very small � lm I

have made in Cornwall, called Tin. They call it a micro budget

movie’

10 minutes with:

Enjoy

CultureVultureWeekendIn_Mar22.indd 37 18/03/2015 12:40:33

38

My Secret Westcountry

Emma Gri n

My favourite...

View: At this time of year this has to be at my favourite place, Kynance Cove.

Things: Our countryside and the light. We have amazing light here in Cornwall all through the year. I adore the landscape here, which changes according to which coast you are near. The lifestyle here suits me as a mum but is also perfect for my job. I work with out-of-county clients who send me products to photograph here because of where I live and the locations I have on my doorstep.

Arts venue: I love Millennium art gallery in St Ives, the Exchange gallery in Penzance and I fi nd the guys who run The Beside The Wave Gallery in Falmouth very helpful and friendly.

Activity: It has to be walking with our dogs on beaches and in the countryside.

Photographer Emma Gri� n , 39, works in the fashion industry as well as undertaking shoots for commercial clients. She recently held her � rst contemporary art exhibition, Enchantment, which depicted her subjects as Disney heroines. She lives with her family near Truro.

The Alverton, Truro

Kynance Cove

Emma Griffin

MyWestcountry_Mar22.indd 38 18/03/2015 10:35:02

39

Food: Fish! I love the fi sh festival held in Newlyn in August, where you can try out amazing fi sh recipes made by local chefs.

Pub: My favourites are the Gylly Beach Café in Falmouth and Blue Beach Bar in Porthtowan. For a family, they’re ideal.

Restaurant: The Thai Orchid in Falmouth. The food there is incredible, I love the venue and the people there are so friendly. All in all, it’s great place to eat out.

Chill out: Having a day off and visiting a harbour or beach. I’ll take some photographs, have a stroll, cup of coffee and some still-time.

Weekend away: The eco-friendly Emerald holiday retreat at Carnon Downs, The Alverton in Truro, The Merchant Manor country house hotel in Falmouth and Greenbank Hotel in Falmouth Harbour.

Shop: If I’m buying gifts, I go to Truro or St Ives. For really special one-off items I like The Four Crows gallery in Porthleven.

Secret place: A real little secret heaven near to me is Stithians Lake. In the late afternoon the sunlight is stunning on the water, there’s tons of wildlife and it’s constantly changing. It never looks the same.

People

Brave: one of Emma’s portraits

Four Crows Gallery

See more of Emma’s work at: www.gri n-photography.co.uk

Newlyn Fish Festival

MyWestcountry_Mar22.indd 39 18/03/2015 10:35:30

40

pologies in advance, as I know there is nothing worse than a pushy parent. I can’t bear it – especially when parents show off in that particularly British back-handed

fashion, eg: “Jerome is driving me mad! He just won’t stop practising for his bassoon Grade Eight exam. He’s playing his scales morning, noon and night. I don’t know how he fi nds the time to do his 12 GCSES and Duke of Edinburgh Gold award.”

But anyway, when I took my kids up to Saunton Sands Hotel the other day, I have to admit to a little frisson of maternal pride when Luke (13) looked around the modernist white dining room, with its glittering, angular chandeliers and Empire-State-Building style mirrors, and said: “I feel like I’m in the Titanic”.

Exactly, I beamed. This hotel was built at around the same time - the whole hotel is in full

Art Deco ocean-liner mode. Really, Luke, you should consider a career as an architect – you’d be brilliant.

Sorry. Allow me to preen a little. Ok, I’m over it now – on to the food. The best way, I think, to appreciate a dinner at this lovely hotel is to spend the day on the beach there beforehand. By luck, we had an exceptionally springlike visit, and so we walked on the huge expanse of soft yellow sands, paddled in the frothy waves, admired the fl ocks of oyster catchers scurrying about on the shore and either read a book in the sunshine (me) or yomped around in the sand dunes while chucking a rugby ball about (the kids). So we were properly hungry by the time we’d smartened up and were joined for dinner by my husband John, who had been busy at home on our farm all day.

We all went for the set three-course menu, as it seemed good value and full of enticing options. To start with, we all had an “amuse bouche”. Which, naturally, I saw as an educational opportunity for getting the kids to translate the French: see earlier for my comments on being a pushy parent

A

[REVIEW

Saunton Sands Hotel

By Becky Sheaves

[

RestaurantReview_March22.indd 40 18/03/2015 12:01:23

41

the best way to tackle turbot). However, an impressive stack of fi llets arrived instead, each

perfectly cooked. In fairness, I love, love, love turbot and I loved this dish. Finally, I had a fresh, springlike dish of poached fruit with bergamot sorbet, while the kids had excellent ice-cream and John went for a fabulous lemon tart with chocolate granola.

This hotel offers seriously good fi ne dining, with lots of healthy options as well as luxurious treats. I’ve eaten here before, but not for a couple of years, and I’d say the standard (always high) has gone up by leaps and bounds in that time. We had beautiful

food in a beautiful place –and you can’t ask for more than that, can you?Saunton Sands Hotel, Braunton, north Devon 01271 890212 www.sauntonsands.co.uk

How they scored...

Food

Atmosphere

Service

Price We ate from the Tabled’Hote menu, £36 per head

The best way, I think, to

appreciate dinner at this

lovely hotel is to spend the day on

the beach there beforehand [[

– I really don’t know how they put up with me sometimes. This was a guinea fowl ballotine with raisin puree, and set the tone of the whole meal from the get-go by being properly delicious.

The service was old-school and attentive, with a separate wine waiter (and a huge wine list). We opted for a bottle of white Dart Valley Reserve from the Sharpham Vineyard in South Devon, one of my favourite wines of all time. If you’ve ever had a prejudice against English wines, do try this one. It’s fruity but delicate, lightly aged in American oak and very, very good.

To start, I had the home smoked salmon and lobster salad, as did Luke. Along came generous portions, balanced by an excellent lemon mayonnaise and carefully peeled slivers of blood orange. John had scallops with home-cured bacon which were also terrifi c and William (aged nine) opted out – he’s a small eater.

For their main course, the kids both went for chicken pie, which arrived somewhat deconstructed, slightly to their surprise. It was very good, with a hearty chunk of confi t leg and thigh of chicken, a slice of crisp pastry and mash, plus wild mushrooms which, alas, the kids totally did not appreciate at all. Why my children hate mushrooms I will never understand – I adore them.

John and I had turbot with braised gem lettuce, new potatoes and sea herbs. I was, I admit, expecting to see it cooked on the bone (always a challenge to the chef but I think

4 of the bestHotel restaurants

1 Abode ExeterThe Royal Clarence Hotel on Exeter’s Cathedral Green is run by top chef Michael Caines as part of his Abode chain. Expect proper � ne dining,and great service too.Dish of the day: Roast ling with sa� ron potatoes Price: Set evening menu £22.95Contact: 01392 319955 www.abodeexeter.co.uk

2 Harbour Hotel, SidmouthThe Westcli� Hotel has been revamped and renamed, but its reputation for great food still stands. Right now, you can quote ‘West magazine’ when booking for good deals on accommodation.Dish of the day: Duck and wild mushroom terrine starter Price: Mains around £19Contact: 01395 513252 www.sidmouth-harbour-hotel.co.uk

3 Tresco Cottages, Isles of ScillyThe luxury holiday cottages on beautiful Tresco are family-owned, as is the excellent beachside Flying Boat restaurant, a must-visit when you’re there.Dish of the day: Chargrilled pollock � llet Price: Mains around £10Contact: 01720 424068 www.tresco.co.uk

4 Hotel Tresanton, St Mawes This lovely and very luxurious hotel on the waterfront in Cornwall has a fantastic restaurant serving � sh-and-chip favourites as well as more haute cuisine dishes, all with a wonderful view.Dish of the day: Wild bass with crab cake and clams Price: Traditional favourites around £12, � ne dining dishes around £20Contact: 01326 270055 www.tresanton.com

Hotel Tresanton

RestaurantReview_March22.indd 41 18/03/2015 12:01:57

Tim Maddams is a Devon chef and writer who o� en appears on the River Cottage TV series

42

arch is upon us like a breath of fresh air and suddenly the hedgerows are bursting into life with green of-ferings that seem to sing out from the margins. They simply must be

eaten! Not only do they want you to eat them, but your body, after its green-deprived winter, is des-perate to take them up on the offer.

While the nettles, wild garlic and sea-beet are all popping up, do not overlook the somewhat strangely fl avoured Alexanders on your forays to the hedgerow.

This tasty herb was introduced to the UK by the Romans as a fodder plant for their animals. But it would be an affront to its many culinary uses to regard it as cattle food. A taste that is hard to describe resides within this tall, perennial plant and the steamed stems make a sweet and aromatic addition to the seasonal table. The leaves, too, are pungent and fragrant with a strangely celery-come-fennel fl avour. These are very strong indeed, so caution must be used when fragrancing dishes with this aromatic plant.

The Victorians were fond of Alexanders and

used it in many ways. The most common was in the form of candied stems which were sold as sweets and the oddly soapy fl avour is well suited to the confectionary counter.

As with all wild plants, it’s important to make the correct identifi cation before eating. If you are in even the slightest of doubt as to what you are dealing with, a quick rub of leaves and a sniff will be security enough that you have the correct plant. Collecting Alexanders is a joy, as they grow in great clumps.

The stems, washed, cut into lozenges and steamed are delicious. They are best cooked with a little butter along with the water with a tight lid on the pan so that they sort of braise down. Remove the lid and cook a little more to evaporate off the liquid and concentrate the sweetness, but make sure they are tender without being over-cooked. They make a rather excellent accompaniment to fi sh and adding a small amount of the chopped leaf to a shellfi sh stew is a real winner.

The sweetness inherent in the plant also lends itself well to rather unusual desserts. I love to cook the stems as above and lightly sweeten them

with honey. Then place in jars and cover fi rst with creamy yoghurt and top with a nice crunchy crumble for perfect picnic puddings. However you decide to use Alexanders, do look out for them as they are a real forager’s treat at this time of year. Oh, and a curry of the stems and sea beet leaf is also a delightful seasonal treat.

Ingredient of the Week

Alexanderswith Tim Maddams

M

Alexanders gin martiniYou can make a satisfying gin infusion with Alexanders stems and leaves.

Wash and push as many as you can into a bottle and add a little sugar. Then fill the bottle with gin.

Leave for a fortnight. After two weeks, it will be ready and an excellent base for a dry martini.

Shake two shots of Alexanders gin over ice with freshly squeezed lemon.

Pour into a chilled glass, garnish with a little Alexanders leaf.

@TimGreenSauce

TIM_BEER_Mar22.indd 42 18/03/2015 09:40:27

Drink

CAMRA has published a list of General Election candidates who have pledged support for real ale and community pubs. They have all agreed to:support well-run community pubs; promote Britain’s breweries and represent pub-goers and beer drinkers. Check www.camra.org.uk/supporters_list to see if your local candidates have signed up.

Moving onStuart Howe, head brewer at Sharp’s for many years and subsequently head of cra� beer and innovation at parent company Molson Coors, has been appointed head brewer at Butcombe Brewery, near Bristol. I wish him all the best at the brewery, newly acquired by the Channel Islands-based Liberation hospitality group. Stuart’s among the elite of British brewers, responsible for Sharp’s innovation Connoisseurs range – he also once created a beer � avoured with woodlice!

TAKING THE PLEDGE

43

Beer of the weekBrooklyn Brewery: Sorachi Ace

Sorachi Ace is one of those hops which should come with a warning for brewers: “Use responsibly.” Dry

and sharp, it o� ers herbal, grassy, citrus peel notes, but mated here

with German Pilsner malt the bitterness is kept in check while

the hop � avour shines through in a dangerously drinkable brew (7.6%

ABV). I tried it on keg at HAND (see main article).

Darren Norburytalks beer

’ll have a pint, please” is a time hon-oured phrase heard in pubs up and down the country (along with the soaps, of course. Although in those nobody seems to ask for anything by

name, with the exception of the hugely popular Shires in The Archers). But could the pint be re-placed?

Before you get that pen out and start a green-inked missive to the editor, I don’t mean losing imperial measures and going all half-litre. Heaven forbid. No, I’m taking about thirds of a pint (and two-thirds), both now legal measures for the serving of beer in the UK. And I think they will shake up the way we drink.

Craig Cawson, new manager of the HAND Bar in Falmouth, agrees. His venue, well-known for its wide selection of mainly keg and bottled beers from around the world, has just started serving thirds and two-thirds.

He and owner Peter Walker (the pair are both ‘old boys’ of the pioneering Leeds craft beer venue, North Bar) decided thirds would enable customers to drink in way they want to, at a price they can afford.

“With some imported craft beers hitting the pumps at £6 or over, it makes sense for us to provide a range of options for the customer,” Craig told me. “This makes even more sense

“Iwhen you consider the ABV of some beers as well. Thirds provide a reasonable taste of a beer at a reasonable price, allowing you to cover a number of beers over an evening.”

There’s the conundrum, too, that for a customer who prefers a more substantial measure than a third, a half doesn’t always fi t the bill.

Craig said: “Two-thirds of a pint [known as a schooner] provides a more robust measure for the drinker, but one that doesn’t break the bank or result in a sore head.”

Let us not forget, also, the aesthetics of the third or two-third glass. Most are not traditional straight-sided, tumbler-style vessels, but attractive stemmed glasses which all helps to broaden the appeal of beer, perhaps even attracting the wine drinker to try something light, hoppy and fl avoursome instead.

I’m a huge fan of the third-pint, despite having many friends who don’t consider them a proper way to drink beer. I shall persist, though, in drinking my third, in bars like HAND, at the increasing number of beer festivals adopting the measure and perhaps one day in pubs generally (hopefully schooner rather than later).

Darren Norbury is editor of beertoday.co.uk @beertoday

No half-measures, but there are times when a

smaller glassful is best

TIM_BEER_Mar22.indd 43 18/03/2015 09:41:04

44

Living

Car guru Scott Squires of Plymouth road-tests the updated Audi A7

he Audi A7 which came swinging into sight in 2010 as a rival for the Mercedes CLS has been to the clinic for its fi rst nip/tuck. With the facelift Audi has given A7 its ‘Ultra’ badge,

which for the likes of us means eco/green or (as Audi say in their press releases) “a very German way of saying incredibly effi cient.”

What has Audi done to the A7 to give it the ultra-badge? It has taken the standard 3.0-litre TDI engine, which is good for 268bhp, and given it a substantial update to improve its effi ciency and fuel economy.

The updated engine is down on power at 215bhp, down on CO2 emissions and up on fuel effi ciency – from around 54mpg to 60mpg.

It all sounds good but, let’s face it, this is a

for the seat with the most legroom, as even the passenger behind me had plenty of room and I’m well over six foot. One slight criticism is the sloping roofl ine which looks great, but does mean you lose a bit of headroom on the inside.

And it is with the sloping roofl ine that I got my biggest surprise. The boot from the outside looks small but I think Audi engineers have somehow got hold of the plans for the Tardis, as it can swallow up a whole lot more than you would think. I managed to get our huge pram in and still had room left for a shopping spree.

When it comes to driving you have a choice of four drive select modes – eco, dynamic, auto and individual. When set to eco everything is turned down to about three and the throttle feels like a wet sponge, while at the other end of the scale

big car and big cars need power to make them shift. You need not worry: the A7 still has more than enough torque and a silky smooth seven-speed s-tronic gearbox to move things along effortlessly.

Let’s move on to the cabin and interior as this is the part that really matters for the A7 as this is a luxury salon, and a roomy one at that.The interior is your typical Audi affair. Everything you need is there and in the place you would expect it, and has the fi t and fi nish of a top Savile Row suit.

All but the essential controls are controlled by what is one of the best infotainment systems around – Audi’s MMI. Inside is when you begin to notice just how big a car the A7 is. Four adults can sit in luxury without the usual squabble

A good car, made even better

MOTORS

T

44_45Todays_Gadgets_Mar22.indd 44 18/03/2015 09:32:39

45

gadget notebook

22 March 2015

TECH TIPS: BACK-UP STORAGE

With these dull-but-vital back-up devices, you’ll keep all your pictures, les and info safe forever. You know it makes sense!

At a glance

Price: £45,8750-62 mph: 7.3secTop speed: 148mphEconomy: 60.1mpgCO2 (g/km): 122g/kmEngine: 2967cc, V6, turbocharged dieselPower: 215bhp at 4000-4750rpm

you have ‘dynamic’ where everything is set to 11 and the throttle is like a hair trigger on a sniper’s rifl e.

If you want to get your 60mpg, you had best leave the car in eco mode. And if you spend most of your time on the motorway then the eco mode won’t bother you as this is where the A7 is happiest, and where its refi nement comes in. Stick to the speed limit and all you can hear is a very slight rumble from the tyres and the eerie lack of wind noise.

But if you like to take to a few B-roads then the eco mode isn’t for you. You’d best switch to dynamic which also stiffens up the suspension to give you that sportier feel. When you start to wind your way down a nice sweeping B-road you do begin to notice the size and bulk of the A7 with a little bit of body roll. Don’t let that put you off trying to have some fun as it is very capable, but it’s just more at home munching the miles on a motorway.

All in all, the updates to the A7 take a very good car and make it ever so slightly better. And as the biggest improvement is to the running cost, this makes the ultra A7 a very appealing car indeed.

This stylish portable unit has up to a terabyte (one TB = a trillion bytes) and has data transfer rates of up to 136 megabytes per second. It comes with a three-year warranty and is Mac and Windows compatible.G-Technology 1TB G-Drive USB 3.0 Hard Drive - £99.95 from store.apple.com/uk

Punch packer

Claiming to be the world’s thinnest portable hard drive at just 7mm thick, this gadget has incredible capacity, with 500GB of space available. Expect lightning transfer speeds with its USB 3.0 transfer.500GB Seagate Seven Ultra Slim Portable Drive - £99.99 from ebuyer.com

Slimline unit

Tough nutThis tough portable

500GB product is aimed at photographers and can be taken

on shoots to back up snaps. You can transfer a 700MB � lm � le

in around seven-seconds.LaCie 500GB Rugged Mini

Portable Hard Drive £68 from wexphotographic.com

Everything inside

With a whopping � ve terabytes of storage space

inside, you can � t more than 6,500 � lms, two

million or more smartphone sel� es or 1.5 million music

� les - quite a collection.LaCie 5TB d2 USB 3.0

Desktop Hard Drive £218.40 from jigsaw24.com

44_45Todays_Gadgets_Mar22.indd 45 18/03/2015 09:33:05

46

man and boy

a mum in amillion [[

my life

ou may have noticed that my weekly musings in these pages on fatherhood and family life over the past nine months were recently interrupted. The cause?

The death of my mother, Nancy, aged 89. My attempts to break the news of her imminent passing to her five-year-old grandson left young James a little confused and slightly dis-turbed and I didn’t take him to see her in the final days. He is a little too young and impres-sionable. But now that she is gone, I find myself pondering the profound effect she had on my life and what that means to me as a father.

In the days leading up to the funeral, I had planned – should I say imagined– I might say a few words in the church. However, having heard others struggle to read lessons at such times, I guessed, correctly as it turned out, that

I would be unable to compose myself sufficiently to do her justice. Emotions are powerful and physical – in the end it was all I could do to hold myself together as the priest conducted the service and delivered his own, impressive tribute. And I didn’t want to look like I was trying to grab the limelight. Grief is not exclusive and everybody has their own memories.

The reason why I had wanted to honour Nancy is because after giving me life, she saved me on

so many occasions. She believed in me when it was hard, supported me through the bad times and was always positive. Thanks to the teachings of the Catholic Church on contraception, I came late in her life, the last of four brothers and 12 years after the third. She had married a man 16

or so years her senior, my dad Tommy, who died when I was just three, effectively making her a single mother of a toddler in her early forties.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, when she had turned her dressmaking career into a safer

and better paid job as a social worker, I went spectacularly off the rails. One day a colleague spotted us together and asked if I was ‘the famous juvenile delinquent’. At the time I didn’t understand the term, but I saw from Mum’s face it would be a bad idea to pursue an explanation.

My teenage rampage brought shame on the family and put her single-parenting skills unfairly under the microscope – you

can imagine the naysayers…she was too soft… no father figure… spare the rod, spoil the child and so on. It must have hurt. But despite the humiliation, she never once turned her back or gave up on me. Instead she always encouraged me to ditch my tearaway instincts. When I tried to join the Armed Forces aged 15, she called in the heavy mob of brothers to prevent it. Her brother had died

after his merchant ship was torpedoed in 1944 – there would be no second tragedy.

When I tried to leave school for an engineering job, at the age of 16, she persuaded me to go to tech-college by offering me her £25 a week family allowance. She encouraged me to go to university, to spread my wings, as she did with all of us. This cost her dearly in her later years as she ended up with a family scattered far and wide.

Her advice on affairs of the heart was as sound as her motherly skills. When I first took James to see her she divined the breastfeeding problem in an instant – ‘that baby has got hungry eyes’. And when things fell apart, you could always rock up and stay for months on end, no problem. So now, as I struggle to deal with the gaping hole she leaves in my life, I realise my real problem is not how to tell my son she has gone, but how the hell I am going to live up to her high standards.

Y

Phil Goodwin, father of James, five, looks back with gratitude

Mum saved me on so many occasions, believed in

me and supported me[ [

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TO learn more: CALL 01752 432738 OR EMAIL memoryresearch@nhs.net VISIT WWW.ResearchForTomorrow.COM

Ads.indd 3 18/03/2015 13:47:32

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