As David Furnish and the Duchess of Sussex’s pathetic pet project ‘Pearl’ gets deservedly kicked into the trash can by Netflix, we ask: “What’s next for the titleless husband of tantrum prone Sir Elton John?”
When not holidaying with his “nightclub hunk” chum Danny Williams in lands where olive oil producing trees blossom, ‘Mr NOT Sir’ David Furnish – a whiner prone to moaning that it’s not fair that he hasn’t got a title himself in spite of his union with tantrum prone Sir Elton John – likes to spend time busying himself helping out the conveniently forgetful wench formerly known as Meghan Markle.
Prone like drippy dullard Prince Harry to seeking out privacy via courts yet constantly like him also courting publicity whenever it suits, 59-year-old Furnish took to Instagram in July 2021 to enthuse about working with the Duchess of Sussex jointly as executive producers on a Netflix series with the “working title” Pearl.
At the time the soppy Canadian born fan of the anti-free speech organisation that is the Web Sheriff blabbed:
“I am delighted that we are finally able to announce this exciting animated series. Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex and I are deeply passionate about bringing the inspirational and positive stories of extraordinary women from around the world to a global audience of all ages. The team collaborating on the series are first class, and @netflix are the perfect partner.”
Now, following news that Pearl was unsurprisingly kicked into the trashcan by Netflix last week as part of a wave of cutbacks at the production company and streaming service, the Duchess of Sussex has removed all reference to it on her Archewell website.
Whilst clearly Pearl won’t now continue her “journey of self-discovery as she tries to overcome life’s daily challenges” and the snotty father hater will most likely move onto her next focus – most likely high office – it is unknown what project the wannabe ‘Lady John’ will seek out next.
A job in Netflix’s stage set carpentry department maybe might suit. After all, like Michael Heseltine before him, here is a chap who has had to buy his own furniture (in addition to all that he snapped up for dear old Danny).
Pictured top – Sir Elton John’s clearly very happy at that moment hubby living up on a yacht with the ‘mate’ he bought an apartment for, Danny Williams (left) and the snarling, sniveling piece of toerag that is married to the Queen’s grandson (right).
The late Alan Clark once said of Michael Heseltine: “An arriviste, certainly, who can’t shoot straight and in Jopling’s damning phrase ‘bought all his own furniture,’ but who at any rate seeks the cachet. All the nouves in the party think he is the real thing.” David Furnish would love a title, but like his wealthy chum The Right Honourable The Lord Lebedev of Hampton in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and of Siberia in the Russian Federation (or ‘Evgeny ‘Two Beards’ to his mates and a man who got a title courtesy of another of their chummy ‘club,’ Boris Johnson), he is able to buy rather a lot of furnishings courtesy of his husband’s estimated £375 million fortune.Sir Elton John and his titleless husband – whom, if you’d believe his April 2016 whining to the ‘Daily Mail’s’ Sebastian Shakespeare, would like to be called ‘Lady John’ – like to spend as much time as possible with Prince Charles’ second son and his avaricious wife. The non-working royals like to sponge off the very, very, very rich popstar and his hubby and, let’s be honest, they wouldn’t be clinging to their coattails if they the 75-year-old old geezer and his 16-year-younger sidekick were living in a council house in Peckham.Given ‘Pearl’ proved anything but a dazzling diamond, instead of seeking out a role at the UN or in American politics, perhaps it is now time for the sloppy seconds actress that is the former Meghan Markle to return to the sluttier side of the screen. With a reputation like hers, this ‘Modern Day Mrs Simpson’ ought to be reminded that scum always floats to the top and that the world has seen through this mendacious minxes antics.
In spite of sticking up a support message for ‘Peace For Ukraine’ on his website billionaire restaurateur Arkady Novikov comes under fire given his links to his billionaire pal President Putin and his billionaire British hating former business associate Alexey Chepa
Launched with an almighty fanfare in December 2011 by the consummately confident Michigan born PR Jori White – whose eponymous and otherwise much respected firm has “worked with it since it opened its doors” and whom lists it prominently on her website still today – Novikov is a 540-seat Mayfair restaurant that’s like Marmite.
Said to have cost £10 million ($13.1 million, €12.1 million or درهم48.3 million) in fit-out costs alone and the haunt variously of the likes of Rhianna, Sir Tom Jones, Tamara Ecclestone, Holly Vallance, Wayne Rooney and Prince Harry – before his ‘Modern Day Mrs Simpson’ wife wickedly whisked the drip off to dine on yoghurt and do yoga in woke California – here is a restaurant which cannot but help be labelled anything but “brash” and “brassy.” There’s nothing modest about either its size or its 900 cover-a-day clientele, but its success in attracting WAGs and TOWIE twerps definitely made it the forerunner of the equally ludicrous Knightsbridge salt-throwing “McDonald’s for rich people” that is Salt Bae.
Pricey to the point that even oligarchs might have to watch their wallets – a simple fillet steak will set you back £65 ($85, €79 or درهم314) and a Peking duck knocks down at £159 ($209, €193 or درهم769) – the Berkeley Street, W1 Asian-Italian joint has now come under fire after the rambunctious critic Jay Rayner took to Twitter to tell his 346,800 followers:
“You may not wish to support London businesses with links to Putin right now. Here’s one: @NovikovLondon owned by Arkady Novikov who boasted to me of his links to the Kremlin. Also, it’s a dreadful place. My review is 10 years old but gives the essentials.”
In his February 2012 review for The Guardian, anything but a fan Rayner remarked: “In a city with a talent for opening hateful and tasteless restaurants, Novikov marks a special new low.” He commented that his dining companion added: “This tastes like cheap Chinese food” and declared also:
“You could, if you wish, hate Novikov on principle. Arkady Novikov, whose name is above the door, owns 50 or so restaurants in Moscow and likes to boast of his connections to Vladimir Putin. He has talked to me of his work as outside caterer to Putin’s Kremlin and once broke off from an interview with me to entertain Putin’s wife Lyudmila with a tour of his next venue. Of course, Putin has been accused in diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks of turning Russia into a wretched kleptocracy. He pursued violent campaigns in Chechnya and is being fingered for nicking Russia’s parliamentary elections. If we know a man by the company he keeps, then perhaps the arrival in London of a big-ticket Novikov restaurant is not something to be universally applauded.”
Bankrolled for a time in part by “outspoken critic of London” Alexey Chepa – whose St Mortiz based son Daniil Chepa was listed as having ceased to have had been a “person of significant control” of a company connected to the restaurant on 15th June 2018 – the curious links between these powerful and wealthy men is worthy highlighting.
Former defence contractor Alexey Chepa who was alleged to be an “ex-Russian spy” by Connor Boyd in the MailOnline in January 2019, has owned the Russky Mir television station and served in the Russian State Duma. He has ties to controversial Israelis including the arms dealer Arkady Gaidamak and once accused the victim of Novichok nerve agent poisoning Sergei Skripal of “selling himself to British intelligence for pennies.” Going further this mouthy menace added: “The harder [the British government] try to intimidate us, the tougher our response will be.” It is not known if he ever dined with Boris Johnson.
Speaking of the Chepa family’s removal from involvement in the business in January 2019 to the Express, “Anglo-Cypriot businessman” Costas Economou – who remains a current active “person of significant control” of Stealthwave Limited alongside Mr Novikov – commented: “He is the one who started the restaurant but Alexey Chepa has been out of it since 2013. He is not allowed to work in the business anymore. He tried to pass it on to his son, but the banks would not accept that.”
Moscow Aviation Institute trained Mr Chepa, meanwhile, responded: “I didn’t want to give up the restaurant, to be honest. It’s a very prestigious place, and I really tried to make it the best around. Arkady and I went around, doing the construction at night because they wouldn’t let us work during the day. These idiotic English laws are very complicated – you can’t carry out noisy work during certain hours.”
Mr Novikov’s time in London has certainly not been without personal drama either. Aside from being snapped with the clearly batshit bonkers self-professed Ruski ‘socialite’ Alina Blinova – whom in September 2013 told The Steeple Times: “You should just step down, and switch to some other subjects to discuss in your peaces [sic]. Maybe – overpopulated UK by its ex colonies [sic]! or Why ppl [sic] Jelouse [sic]? or Why ppl [sic] complain, critic and don’t do things to be remembered for?!” after we featured some examples of her vulgar lifestyle – the restaurant tycoon has had a secretary who was taken to court and cleared for theft and seen those that burgled his Knightsbridge mansion jailed.
In the first instance in December 2017, the “glamorous PA to Putin’s millionaire friend” – as she was termed by the MailOnline’s Tariq Tahir – Tatyana Gorova was accused of “fleecing her employer” out of £28,000 ($36,800, €34,000 or درهم135,300) but “wished the judge ‘good day’ after she was cleared” of using Mr Novikov’s card “to rent a London flat and splash out on lavish New Year’s festivities at the Intercontinental Hotel.” The “Russian blonde” personal assistant had been given a card to pay household bills and her boss had even agreed to act as a guarantor for her new home in Brockley, south east London.
Secondly in February 2020, two burglars, Karim Boutjettif and Amr Abdel-Samie, were jailed for 34 months and 32 months respectively after stealing £500,000 ($658,000, €607,300 or درهم2.4 million) of items – including 29 handbags and 6 jackets – from the £40 million ($52.7 million, €48.6 million or درهم193.3 million) Knightsbridge home of the restaurateur and his wife Nadzeda Advokatova in October 2019. After being spotted by a passer-by in their balaclavas, one of the robbers shouted: “Quick we’ve been clocked,” the Evening Standard later reported.
Elsewhere, in another favoured playground of Putin’s oligarch pals, Lake Como in Lombardy, Italy, Mr and Mrs Novikov paid £27.2 million ($35.8 million, €33 million or درهم131.4 million) for Villa Fontanelle, the former home of the late fashion designer Gianni Versace, in early 2008. They subsequently spent many more millions on a renovation by the Milanese architect Claudio Pozza, but are no doubt watching it very carefully now the Italian government has started to seize Russian assets.
A request for comment to Novikov’s London management was made by The Steeple Times on Monday 7th March, but met simply by a representative – whom declined to give their name – with: “We have nothing to say.”
Previously, in November 2013, father of two Mr Novikov told ES magazine’s John Arlidge: “I’m looking at new sites… [He funds his developments with his own money and money from Russian investors, usually on a 50/50 basis] I don’t have money. I need money. I have so many Russian investors. We need English partners, please!” He could some come to regret not trying harder on that front.
Pictured top – A smug looking President Putin raising a toast and restaurateur Arkady (listed as ‘Arkadiy’ on Companies House) Novikov celebrating a Michelin Guide award. He once described Gordon Ramsay as a “hero” even though the Scottish chef called his own Moscow restaurants as “garbage.”
You may not wish to support London businesses with links to Putin right now. Here’s one: @NovikovLondon owned by Arkady Novikov who boasted to me of his links to the Kremlin. Also, it’s a dreadful place. My review is 10 years old but gives the essentials. https://t.co/UeahQvjt0x
Since uproar about boycotting Russian owned restaurants, Novikov London have somewhat hastily added a “Peace For Ukraine” banner to their homepage. It does not come, however, with any accompanying reasoning. One would have thought with their vast resources, them and their marketing department could perhaps have done better other than to give an arrogant comment to the ‘Evening Standard’ that simply said: “We have lots of Ukrainian customers, we have lots of Russian customers.”On her eponymous firm’s website, hospitality PR maestro Jori White continues to display the restaurant’s logo prominently.Questions about the undoubtedly successful restaurateur and his connections to the evil tyrant President Vladimir Putin and Alexey Chepa (pictured) and his son Daniil Chepa will no doubt dog him further in the coming weeks.Now 24-year-old Daniil Chepa’s current business activities are unknown. He became a person of significant control of the restaurant his father co-invested in 2016 aged just 16. According to ‘Meduza’ in December 2019, he likes to “listens to remixes of the Russian national anthem, as well as some Russian rap.”Famous faces known to have frequented Novikov in ritzy Mayfair have included coffin dodging Putin apologist Bernie Ecclestone’s daughter Tamara, the British professional boxer Anthony Joshua and the likes of Rhianna (pictured left) and Prince Harry (pictured right).Off-her-merry-rocker wannabe television personality Alina Blinova (pictured centre left) is a typical example of the customers of the Mayfair eatery – tacky, tedious and totally tawdry. Personal assistant Tatyana Gorova (pictured right) was cleared from stealing from her restaurateur boss in December 2017 whilst working there.Off-her-merry-rocker wannabe television personality Alina Blinova (pictured centre left) is a typical example of the customers of the Mayfair eatery – tacky, tedious and totally tawdry. Personal assistant Tatyana Gorova (pictured right) was cleared from stealing from her restaurateur boss in December 2017 whilst working there.This intensely wealthy Russian couple not only have a £40 million home in Knightsbridge, London and a £27 million home on Lake Como in Italy (pictured when in the ownership of slain fashion designer Gianni Versace). Mrs Novikov controls the Flowers Studio 55 business in Moscow and there are over 50 other establishments in Moscow and elsewhere that her rags-to-riches husband is seemingly the owner of.
THE BILLIONAIRE RESTAURATEUR’S COMPANIES
The billionaire has been linked to several UK Companies House listed companies. The first, Novikov (UK), has been dissolved whilst Stealthwave Limited remains active:
Barclays puts a stop to £22 million of bonus payments to ex-CEO and Jeffrey Epstein associate Jes Staley as investigation continues; meanwhile frozen-out Barclays customer Ghislaine Maxwell’s mum’s former Belgravia home faces the wrecking ball
With the bank declaring it had “exercised its discretion” to suspend share payouts related to his deferred bonus and long-term incentive plan “pending further developments in respect of the regulatory and legal proceedings related to the ongoing FCA and [Prudential Regulation Authority] investigation regarding Mr Staley,” the Boston born fat cat will now no doubt be regretting his decision to communicate with Epstein using codewords still to be deciphered including “snow white.”
Staley – who reportedly last met with Epstein along with his wife Debbie when they sailed to ‘Paedo Island’ Little St James in 2015 and whom also visited the sex mad monster whilst he was serving a sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2009 – continues to claim his innocence and is continuing with his plans to challenge the investigation’s findings.
Meanwhile, in other news, it’s finally D-day for the former Belgravia home of mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell’s late mother, Dr Elisabeth Maxwell-Meynard (AKA ‘Betty Maxwell’). Dr Maxwell – whose daughter had her Barclays account frozen a day after £130,000 ($174,000, €155,000 or درهم640,000) was deposited in it by the buyer of her Kinnerton Street mews house in February 2021 – lived in Lockmore House, Cundy Street in the wake of her husband’s death and exposure as a crook.
Lockmore House and its neighbours – which at one-time counted the Duchess of Cornwall, Baroness Boothroyd and Patricia Routledge as residents – is being razed to the ground by the new Duke of Westminster to make way for far ritzier residences.
“I was her parents’ worst nightmare” – words said by James Staley his very self – will be ringing in the ears of Debbie Nitzan Staley in the wake of her husband’s former company’s decision to not yet payout £22 million the couple were expecting. No doubt that’ll mean one less holiday for her and her two daughters on their 90-foot long gin palace ‘Bequia’ this year. Jes Staley, at the time a senior JP Morgan executive (left), with former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers and Jeffrey Epstein in 2011 at the latter’s Lenox Hill, New York mansion.The now left-out-in-the-cold banker was listed in the infamous ‘Little Black Book’ sometimes wrongly accredited to being Jeffrey Epstein’s – but mostly that features the addresses of contacts of ‘The Bouncing Czech’s’ decidedly deviant daughter – and had six contact numbers as well as an email there. He was clearly a very close associate of the dodgy duo, whatever he now claims. In times past Labour peer Lord Mandelson – ‘Mandy’ to his dear and always very wealthy muckers – described the former Barclays boss Bob Diamond as “the unacceptable face of banking.” Peter Mandelson, meanwhile, was quite happy to hang out with Jeffrey Epstein, a mutual mate of his successor Jes Staley, at his £10 million Paris paedo pad circa 20th January 2007 in spite of the taxi driver turned sex trafficker having been charged with soliciting a woman for prostitution in August 2006. Lord Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein are pictured here celebrating the latter’s birthday with wine and a cake presented by a diminutive butler named Valdson Viera Cortin.Ghislaine Maxwell is like a rotten curate’s egg – she is a woman of multiple parts, but sadly most of them are bad, very bad in fact. On the one hand there’s the sexually deviant mucky madam who sex trafficked and abused young girls with Jeffrey Epstein and then there’s the clearly very intelligent daughter of an abusive father and a less abusive mother. That mother, Dr Elisabeth Maxwell-Meynard (or Betty to her friends), once arrogantly declared: “My name is my name and what can I do about it? I don’t give a fig what people think of me.” Try telling that to the pensioners of the company her husband plundered to the tune of £500 million.Lochmore House, Cundy Street, Belgravia, London was Betty Maxwell’s last home in the United Kingdom. It is now being demolished by the Duke of Westminster’s Grosvenor Estate to make way for far more luxurious residences much to the distress of existing residents turfed out. The neighbouring Stack House – also being demolished – was where the then 25-year-old Camilla Shand (now the Duchess of Cornwall) first entertained her now husband Prince Charles, at the time 23, over coffee in the early hours after a night out at Annabel’s in 1972.
Matthew Steeples delves into the connections between the Palm Beach Ponzi schemers Jeffrey Epstein and Bernie Madoff, the money motivated mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell and the recent supposed ‘suicides’ of their associates
Jeffrey Epstein and Bernie Madoff participated in two of the largest Ponzi schemes in history.
Some of the still missing £500 million stolen by Robert Maxwell likely passed through the hands of one or both of these monsters-not-men.
Ghislaine Maxwell, her father’s favourite child, undoubtedly hooked up with Epstein at the instruction of him for reasons financial; she clearly benefitted given she was able to offer up £22 million when seeking bail in spite of having been broke in the 1990s.
Jeffrey Epstein had known connections to the pension pot plunderer Robert Maxwell prior to his rather too convenient suicide in 1991.
Epstein was a guest of honour at a memorial lunch for ‘The Bouncing Czech’ in New York in 1992 and sat at the top table with widow Betty Maxwell.
Both Epstein and Madoff maintained homes in Palm Beach and “most definitely had business associations.”
The rather too convenient suicide of the Epstein and Maxwell associate Jean-Luc Brunel in Paris comes days after the rather too convenient murder-suicide of Madoff’s sister Sondra Madoff Wiener in Palm Beach by her husband.
“Buckingham Palace isn’t half as flash as this” enthused Giles Coren of London’s ritzy The Lanesborough hotel in the final episode of his and Monica Galetti’s BBC series Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby last night.
Continuing of a hotel “not so known as The Dorchester or The Ritz” and “extra discreet” when it comes to protecting the privacy of its very, very, very wealthy and often very, very, very secretive guests, Coren and Galetti waxed lyrical about a rather large guest book.
That book featured not only Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, but also entries from Arnold Schwarzenegger, Madonna and Stevie Wonder – the latter played the piano in the bar in December 1994. They rather conveniently forgot to bring up, however, two of the property’s more notorious and now deceased Barry Big Bollocks bigspenders, the late convicted criminal Ponzi schemer paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and the late Ponzi schemer ex-NASDAQ chairman Bernard L. Madoff.
Originally St George’s Hospital and subsequently converted into a 93-room – 47 of which are suites – hotel in 1991, The Lanesborough, Coren pointed out, was decorated “with no expense spared” by Alberto Pinto. Mr Pinto happened to also be the decorator of Jeffrey Epstein’s homes in New York, New Mexico and Paris and thus one can see why that the creepy taxi driver turned sex trafficker likely felt that The Lanesborough was his favoured “home-away-from-home” when in London.
With his non-sweating bestie Prince Andrew effectively a “neighbour” – if traversing the 39 of acres of ‘Buck House’s’ gardens was ever on his agenda – and Ghislaine Maxwell’s Kinnerton Street mews house just a block’s walk away, one could see why the location suited Epstein a treat. The now notorious leaked ‘Little Black Book’ credited as belonging to the since croaked paedophile, but actually mostly containing the connections of the now convicted mucky madam contains three numbers for the hotel and its then manager – one of which tellingly is listed as “private.”
Whilst staff at the palatial property that is The Lanesborough have not openly declared anything of Jeffrey Epstein’s preferences – the hotel keeps notes on all its guests and even has motion sensors in every room to help them predict their wants and needs – in January 2009, Insider reported on what the notoriously demanding Madoff liked to have when visiting.
Of him, after his arrest, his London office manager, Julia Fenwick, claimed “two of his vices are cigars and pork sausages, even though he is Jewish, he loves pork sausages” and told Insider: “There is still a trunk full of his clothes [at The Lanesborough]. They stored it for him and would clean and press the clothes and hang them in his suite in time for his arrival, as though he had a wardrobe there.”
Said to be a “terrible flirt” but not “really lecherous,” unlike the clearly sex crazed abuser Epstein, Madoff shared using the “F-word liberally” and being a “cheeky chappie” with his fellow New Yorker. Beyond that, there is much, much more that connects this pair of once uber wealthy men of money, mayhem and mystery.
Equally secretive in their business dealings and both known for having obsessive compulsive disorder tendencies about how their homes were run, both monsters-not-men maintained residences in Palm Beach, Florida and of them an investor formerly connected to Madoff just yesterday told us: “They most definitely frequented the same establishments and they most definitely had business associations.”
Like the world’s most infamous Ponzi schemer Madoff, Epstein, of course, was involved in another of “the largest Ponzi schemes in history,” that that occurred at the bill collection agency founded by Steven J. Hoffenberg, Towers Financial. Though he wasn’t himself jailed at the time, Epstein clearly benefited substantially from being participant in that particular nefarious scheme.
With suicide by hanging being a seeming connector in terms of it allegedly – though questioned by some – being Epstein’s choice of death and that also the choice of one of Madoff’s sons – though once again that has been questioned by some – here are two now dead deviant men who are known to have pandered to the desires of equally demanding money motivated women, Ghislaine Maxwell and Ruth Madoff (née Alpern).
The timing of the latest ‘suicides’ are undoubtedly curious and given that in the wake of Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction in December, the judge in her trial was appointed to a higher court by President Biden as America seeks to protect America by protecting other associates of Epstein and Maxwell including Presidents Clinton and Trump, there is a certain stench of a bit of final “cleaning up” apparent.
With Prince Andrew having supposedly paid upto £12 million to a sex trafficked woman he supposedly never met, Jean-Luc Brunel dead and Jes Staley removed as CEO of Barclays – which curiously also turfed Maxwell out as a client – this “stain” that has for too long now upset royals, politicians and financiers is being put out to pasture.
Equally, with Bernie Madoff dead of “natural causes” and conveniently cremated in April last and his sister and children passed also, the embarrassment caused by the Wizard of Lies having duped the wallies of Wall Street will soon be a chapter closed if the powers that be get their way.
Today, it is time to remind these people that that will not be the case. In this, the Internet age, there are still people out there searching and as I have previously urged in these matters it always a case of one thing: “Follow the bloody money.”
Convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell pictured on the ‘Lolita Express’ living it up with her associates Jean-Luc Brunel and Jeffrey Epstein. Now, with both alleged and awaiting trial sex offender Brunel and convicted and deceased whilst awaiting a second trial Epstein having supposedly both committed suicide whilst in jail, many are questioning how such could have been allowed to come about and whether such events were really actually even suicides.On Monday, crusading author of ‘Ghislaine Maxwell: An Unauthorized Biography’ shared her thoughts about how she believes Bernie Madoff was linked to Jean-Luc Brunel, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Of such people, she observed: “All connected. Now Bernie Madoff’s sister, Sondra and her husband, are dead.Sondra Madoff Wiener and her husband Marvin Wiener’s ‘murder-suicide’ at this time seems a little oddly timed given though they lost their fortune when her brother’s scam came crashing down in 2008. This couple lived for 14 years with the shame and loss of their Palm Beach mansion, so the question must be in the wake of the death of Bernie Madoff in 2021 and the suicides of Jeffrey Epstein and Jean-Luc Brunel: “Why now?”
In cultivating a new variety of snowdrop Joe Sharman – known to many as ‘Mr Snowdrop’ – has brought joy to ‘galanthophiles’ everywhere and made himself £1,850 from just one bulb also; amusingly there’s even a variety named ‘John’s Y-Fronts’
It’s always great to improve one’s grasp of etymology and this morning I learnt about a word that describes a charmingly endearing collection of people. That word? Galanthophile.
A noun of 19th century origin that takes the snowdropgalanthus’s taxonomic name from the Greek gala, galkt ‘milk’ and antho- ‘flower,’ those that so enthusiastically collect these “magical and really special” bell-shaped flowers are known as galanthophiles.
The official flower for January birthdays and brought to Britain by the Romans, the “milk flower of the snow” – as it is sometimes described – is said to symbolise hope, purity, innocence and sympathy. It is the first flower to bloom at the end of winter and though Victorians associated it with death and bad luck, on Saturday, The Guardian’s Steven Morris charmingly reported on “hordes of galanthophiles” descending on Buckland Monachorum on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon this week to “take in the sight of a beloved flower that this time of year provides a vivid reminder than warmer, cheerier seasons are ahead.”
Grown by Cottenham, Cambridgeshire plantsman Joe Sharman (AKA ‘Mr Snowdrop’) of the Monksilver Nursery, ‘Golden Tears’ received 55 bids and finally hammered down to a buyer “unidentified.” It was listed as:
“A narrow-flowered yellow pterugiform with a very large mark and bright yellow ovary. Very beautiful and distinct. Quite different from Golden Fleece. Exceptionally vigorous. 25cm. The result of a deliberate cross by me using the same parents that created Golden Fleece. First time sold by us on eBay only named 2 weeks ago. Only one for the season.”
In 2015, in an interview with The Guardian – clearly the paper with the most enthusiasm for snowdrops on the planet – Joe Sharman concluded:
“They come up early in the year when nothing else is growing, so if you have the kind of brain that needs lots of things to think about, you focus in.”
“They seem to be almost infinitely variable. You collect the 10 you recognise, then you realise that you can recognise 20 and it just goes from there. I don’t think there is another group of plants quite like it.”
Pictured top – Joe Sharman (right) and the now famous £1,850 flower he has spent years cultivating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQv7kHDHb5E
Britain’s leading botanist by far Dr Shirley Sherwood OBE – the widow of the late buccaneering businessman and one-time owner of hotels including the Cipriani in Venice and the Venice-Simplon Orient Express train service also James Sherwood – is a noted enthusiast on the subject of snowdrops. In December 2021, this delightful lady took to YouTube to discuss a painting of the flowers by Susan Ogilvy and commented: “I love snowdrops. I have lots in my garden and we have a very particularly version of the snowdrop. Whole groups of people, clubs of people who like snowdrops and grow every single kind they can think of. I think there are many, many varieties and of course there are wild snowdrops too.” Of her painting, she endearingly declared: “This is a lovely painting and it justifiably is one of the favourite ones in my collection.”Speaking to the ‘Daily Mail’ yesterday, gardening writer Val Bourne remarked of the bulb sold of eBay: “[It’ll] go under the knife. They’ll cut it into 20 pieces and start selling individual plants. They’ll get their money back in three or four years. It’s a mad hobby.” Going further previously, Mr Sharman commented: “Security is a big problem. I know people who have opened their gardens and had everything stolen. I don’t open my garden or nursery. But stealing snowdrops is like stealing a Van Gogh. If it’s rare, all the galanthophiles will know who propagated it and where it was stolen from.” In 2019, two men were arrested for stealing 13,000 bulbs from the Walsingham Estate in Norfolk and amongst famous collectors are Lord and Lady Heseltine. The former Deputy Prime Minister under John Major has accumulated over 700 varieties at Thenford House in Northamptoshire in his “garden of major importance.” Whether they have the variety named ‘John’s Y-Fronts’ is unknown.Anyone who picks an endemic variety of the plant in the national park will be fined £5,954 ($8,070, €7,113 or درهم29,600, 110,000 Turkish Lira) according to a report published in the ‘Hurriyet Daily News’ in February 2022. The fine has risen from £4,330 ($5,870, €5,174 or درهم21,600, 110,000 Turkish Lira) last year and of why, Halil Ernalçacı, the head of Mount Spil Nature Park, told the paper: “Our visitors should be cautious when they walk in the park. They should look for where they take their steps.”Artist, botanist and horticulturist Edward Augustus Bowles (1865 – 1954) of Myddleton House, Enfield, London was a well known “snowdrop enthusiast.” In January 2013, the blog ‘Plant Heritage’ delved into his connections to the flower after visiting a snowdrop sale at his former home.
Types of Snowdrops
Snowdrops bloom from September through to March and peak in January and February. Amongst the many types – there are in excess of 1,700 in the collection of Joe Sharman alone – are:
Galanthus ‘Dionysus’
Named after the god of the grape harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit.
Galanthus ‘Elwesii”
Named after H. J. Elwes, an English plant collector who found the original plants in Turkey. Its leaves “neatly fold inside the other” and its “flowers have two green spots on the inner petals, which sometimes fuse together.”
Galanthus ‘Fly Fishing’
Features a “long, slender pedicel (stalk) that looks like a fishing rod.”
Galanthus ‘Golden Fleece’
Joe Sharman spent 18 years developing this and sold a bulb of this variety for £1,390 ($1,884, €1,661 or درهم6,920).
Galanthus ‘Golden Tears’
A new variety and record breaker in terms of the £1,850 ($2,508, €2,210 or درهم9,210) price Joe Sharman sold it for, this variety features a “narrow-flowered yellow pterugiform with a very large mark and bright yellow ovary” and is noted as “very beautiful and distinct” and “exceptionally vigorous.”
Galanthus ‘Ivy Cottage Corporal’
“Features two green Vs resembling a corporal’s stripes.”
Galanthusnivalis ‘Norfolk Blonde’
Rather like a blonde bimbo, this snowdrop features “pale leaves and pale yellow flowers” and has a “long ovary” also.
Galanthus ‘Ophelia’
Named after Shakespeare’s tragic young noblewoman of Denmark who ends up in a state of madness that ultimately leads to her drowning.
Galanthus ‘Nothing Special’
Modestly named though lauded by Joe Sharman as “one of the best forms I have selected,” this “very clean white and wonderfully scented” snowdrop is supposedly “vigorous” also.
Galanthus ‘Primrose Warburg’
Described as a “dainty snowdrop with yellowish leaves” and named after the “legendary galanthophile Primrose Warburg.”
Galanthus ‘Trumps’
Described as having “an elegant flaring pagoda shape” and thankfully has nothing to do with the 45th POTUS of the same name.
Galanthus ‘Wendy’s Gold’
Described as “far more vigorous than [other] yellows.”
Galanthus ‘John’s Y-Fronts’
This variant is described as “small, late, neat, single with a very clearly Y-shaped mark on inner.” It has grey leaves. Could it’s name have been inspired by the former British Prime Minister John Major’s “underpant episode” with Edwina Currie where he allegedly tucked his shirt into his allegedly grey Y-fronts?
As Naomi Campbell gets called out for pulling a ‘Catherine Meyer’ at the charity she runs, we remind her that her “rum chum” choice of friends including convicted sex offenders Ghislaine Maxwell and Harvey Weinstein do her no favours
Guffawing gadabout and notorious grabber of money from anyone who’d give him a dime Prince Andrew pictured with the ghastly guffawing ex-charity tinbanger Lady Meyer and her pompous pillock husband Sir Christopher Meyer in New York on 14th October 2001.Lady Meyer was exposed by ‘The Telegraph’ over a number of days in May 2011 for having received “almost 70 per cent” of the funds raised by the charity she then ran, Parents & Abducted Children Together (PACT). Though she technically broke no law, the public outrage that followed was quite understandable.Streatham born model Naomi Campbell’s charity Fashion For Relief (FFR) – charity number 1159995 – seems to have adopted a very similar approach to Lady Meyer in allocating the funds it raises.In the past Adam Luck has called out the notoriously temperamental “drama queen” model out for the “rum chum” company she keeps. He remarked of her as she turned fifty: “No doubt Campbell plans to celebrate her half century in style, but she’d be wise to strike some old acquaintances from the guest list.”
Now listed as having a “regulatory alert” on the official Charity Commission for England and Wales website, Fashion For Relief – which curiously claims to “raise funds via events and donations to help prevent poverty, sickness and distress, to advance education and training and improvements in conditions of life” yet seems to just spend money on brash bashes – Luck revealed is “currently under investigation.”
An artist named Pierre Musa, who donated to Campbell’s ‘charity,’ told the paper he was “infuriated” by the shocking figures. He added:
“The reality is that the FFR donations are a fraction of the money raised. Instead, the money has gone on extravagant events and ‘other expenses.’”
“FFR gathers the richest, most influential personalities in the world to raise funds. I have seen the donor lists and we are talking private wealth in the dozens of billions.”
“It is difficult to see any philanthropic ambition in these numbers.”
“I have now cut all ties with Naomi’s charity and I have contacted the Charities Commission to offer to help them with their investigation.”
In response, a spokesman for Fashion For Relief arrogantly answered: “FFR is not solely a fundraising charity.” In doing so, they proved only one thing and that is that this so-called ‘charity’ – just like the then Lady Meyer’s before it – is nothing but an opportunity for a self-promoter to do yet more self-promotion. Shame on Naomi Campbell.
Pictured top – Model Naomi Campbell with the since convicted sex offender mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell and the now accused of being a financial fraudster Donald Trump and his now wife, the former Melania Knauss.
With the ‘socialite’ daughter of a pension pot plunderer turned now convicted sex trafficker and abuser, Ghislaine Maxwell.With (circled) victim of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, Virginia Roberts (now known as Virginia Giuffre).With the accused of being a sex abuser actor Kevin Spacey.With the film producer turned convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein.With Bernie Ecclestone’s decidedly dubious accused of being all sorts of things associate Flavio Briatore.
As it looks like Sarah, Duchess of York won’t be able to help Carrie Johnson with wallpaper, her teabag operation plunges £262,000 into debt and leaves her in further hot water
After having been exposed for having taken £232,000 ($314,100, €274,300 or درهم1.2 million) in “loans” from “Chinese investors” in January 2020 and repeatedly failing to declare whether she ever repaid the £15,000 ($20,300, €17,700 or درهم74,600) “loan” and “further assistance” she took from the since croaked paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, Sarah, Duchess of York yet again finds herself in boiling hot water regarding her teabag flogging company.
Highlighted in The Mail on Sunday this morning, Ginger & Moss, a company that the chaotic car crash that is the live-in ex-wife of Prince Andrew is one of five active directors of has recently filed accounts showing it to be £262,063 ($354,782, €309,868 or درهم1.3 million) in debt.
Sarah, Duchess of York controlled “75% or more” of the shares in the company between April 2016 and April 2018, but since April 2018, the only active party listed as having “significant control” is a firm named Solamoon Limited – a firm that has just one director, Sarah, Duchess of York.
The Mail on Sunday’s showbusiness editor Katie Hind reported that Ginger & Moss has “cut its range to four products, including a box of 80 teabags for a staggering £20 ($27, €24 or درهم99)” and stopped selling other items including “earrings, bed linen and high-end toiletries.”
Whilst clearly 62-year-old ‘Fergie’ – a cringeworthy creature forced also to “pause” the Fergie & Friends YouTube channel where she bizarrely read about farting and monsters – thinks the nation still needs her extremely expensive tea, she’s also given up on selling “luxury textiles, homeware and wallpaper.” Lulu Lytle is one person who will be relieved; Carrie Johnson will still have to stick with her for the £840 a roll stuff.
Pictured top – Sarah, Duchess of York poses in an odd costume prior to reading from a book about farting (left) and right on the London Underground with a bag featuring the faces of her daughters.
Sarah, Duchess of York has been listed as a director of Ginger & Moss since 13th March 2015. The other active directors of the company are Amanda Jane Lockley and Ian Wallace Tyson listed at 17 Old Park Lane, London, W1, Nicholas John Redwood Robinson of Frogmary Green Farm, South Petherton, Somerset and Mary Kate Waddington of Beacon Farmhouse, Oxenwood, Wiltshire. An additional director, Geoffrey Stanton Morrow, also listed at the 17 Old Park Lane address, tellingly resigned in December 2021. Over the years, the somewhat intellectually challenged ex-wife of the Queen’s second son has repeatedly tried to sell tea and tea related ephemera without thus far any notable success.When not off her skull or on a bender (left and right), ‘Fergie’ has been known to attempt domesticity and in April 2020 posed mopping floors (centre) at Royal Lodge, Windsor in photos shared on her assistant Antonia Marshall’s Instagram account. ‘The Sun’ labelled said images – which were captioned: “It’s chore time” – “bizarre.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNYktvml-d8
In January 1999, Sarah, Duchess of York and Oprah Winfrey teamed up to drink tea and make scones on the ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show.’ She guffawed as Winfrey mixed up the ingredients for the scones and poured tea in what was termed “Duchess-like” fashion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFThVZ4HzUM
In 2019, Sarah, Duchess of York planned to launch a range of hampers containing scents and teas. Unsurprisingly given pathetic past performance being a guide to her feckless future, the right royal embarrassment’s intentions resulted in yet another disaster. Whatever became of the items produced remains unknown, but most likely lonely and isolated Prince Andrew has enjoyed keeping himself entertained with the leftovers.
2021’s redoubtable “Queen of Zoom” Jackie Weaver moves on from pesky parish council punch-ups and commandeers comedy and literary lavishness after one of those infamous councillors is convicted of calling his neighbours “tarts” and “Peeping Toms”
After having “barely blinked when being yelled at” by some especially unctuous male councillors and made a guest appearance in The Archers even, “2021’s Queen of Zoom” Jackie Weaver has put-pen-to-paper and written about her experiences “getting things done without fuss, keeping cool in the face of adversity and pressing mute on the noise.”
In You Do Have the Authority Here!: #What Would Jackie Weaver Do?, this “indomitable lockdown sensation” and “feminist political icon we didn’t know we needed” shares her “standing orders for life” in what she terms a “non-nonsense, witty and incisive way.”
Contrasting with an especially Victor Meldrew-esque “maverick” member of Handforth parish council, of which she remains the “doughty clerk,” named Brendan Murphy – featured in The Steeple Times in March after he was convicted of harassing his elderly neighbours and calling them “perverts, tarts and peeping Toms” – Jackie Weaver has also moved on and put her ‘fame’ to use on the comedy circuit.
In February, this fearless female hosted an evening titled The Comedians’ Council in Balham, London. Described as “the ultimate council meeting,” the event challenged “comedian-councillors” to “tackle tough audience questions.” They included: “‘Is wearing socks and sandals a criminal offence?’ or ‘Can you really trust people who prefer baths to showers?’ These important questions will be posed by the live audience and, just like a real council meeting, the panel will engage in friendly debate before voting each issue.”
What’s on the agenda next for Jackie Weaver as we move into 2022? A cheese and wine standoff with Boris and Carrie Johnson at 10 Downing Street or a non-sweaty Sloppy Giuseppe with Prince Andrew at Pizza Express, Woking? Subject to ‘Bosie The Clown’ actually making any kind of decision whether to allow us freedom or not in the New Year, we’ll all be waiting, watching and wishing this wonderfully wacky woman well.
This would have to be totally the best Christmas present ever for anyone in the world!!! (oh – except possibly for me – I'm holding out for emeralds) pic.twitter.com/xUBOMckq6j
Elsewhere yesterday in ‘The Times,’ chief officer of the Cheshire Association of Local Councils Jackie Weaver shared her thoughts on how she would deal with Christmas fall-outs and declared that for her “this year has been a whirlwind.” A pesky parish council meeting most certainly turned her into a star whilst ‘Good Housekeeping’ recently rather appropriately suggested her book to be “an essential guide.”Handforth parish councillor and “the first Macclesfield Tory to ever be sacked” Brendan Murphy was convicted of harassing his neighbours Christopher and Margaret Boyd over a 13-year period in March 2021. When deservedly dragged before Stockport Magistrates’ Court, without an ounce of remorse this bombastic bore pontificated pugnaciously and stated: “I call Mr Boyd a ‘Peeping Tom’ and his wife a ‘Tart’ for a good reason and I think my legal response is justifiable. I saw a CCTV camera on the wall filming me and I jokingly said, ‘I see you are a peeping Tom.’ I also said: ‘Mind you don’t fall off that roof, I cannot give you the kiss of life,’ but that was a joke too. On one of the occasions, I was out with my dog. Mr and Mrs Boyd were walking down the road hand in hand swinging their arms looked very happy. I said: ‘I’m glad to see you are so happy’ but instead of crossing the road she lurched into me and the dog whimpered in pain and that is when I called her a tart. I think they are making a big deal out of this. I do not do it every day. I am an elected active councillor and I do a lot of community work. There have been instances where I did say in response to them and they would stare, laugh, and sneer. Mr Boyd is a very active DIY man with improving the garden, etc. His garage is his workshop, and he makes a loud noise that I do not want to hear. People use the word ‘tart’ in lots of different ways and I will continue calling them a Peeping Tom and a tart as long as the cameras are still there. I say these words 100 times when I see the cameras and it just gets it off my chest. There are nastier things I could say.”Elsewhere in 2021, ‘The Steeple Times’ reported on a similarly stupid debacle in Henley-on-Thames. “Henley’s 9/11,” as Henley’s “BinGate” saga was somewhat crassly branded, involved an eccentric actor “in many popular soaps” turned councillor named David Eggleton “storming away from his camera” and resigning after he didn’t get what he wanted over the installation of bins in this especially tony town. “I don’t believe in waste… I think the report was misleading and taking out the option of refurbishing is not democracy. I have the knowledge and expertise around waste and they are not listening to me… Okay, goodbye” declared gobby granddad Eggleton before he threw one of many tiresome tantrums.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB3P_0GAi0I
During the “chaotic” Handforth parish council meeting that made Jackie Weaver famous, this “doughty clerk” dealt with “argumentative male councillors by kicking them off the Zoom call.” She “kept her cool” and “got her revenge with another remorseless click of her eviction button.” Speaking of the experience, in an interview with ‘The Guardian,’ the Cheshire Association of Local Councils employee stated: “It’s harsh to take some pleasure from that, but I’m afraid when you are being bullied, if you can see that the other person has lost it, then there is the sense of: ‘I did OK there because I managed to hold it together.’ There is an element of bullying and bad behaviour in local councils and a lot of us are working very hard, and that includes central government, to try and do something about that.”
Prior to her cameo in BBC Radio 4’s ‘The Archers,’ “Internet star” Jackie Weaver declared on Twitter in March 2021: “I really feel the #TheArchers need a parish council advisor – I am their girl! Parish councils are in their ascendance – let’s use every platform we can to encourage engagement. #TheArchers please get in touch!” They most certainly did and in August this year, she put a stop to a protest in the fictional village of Ambridge even.
Matthew Steeples suggests prosecutors at the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell are right to follow the money; where did the £500 million her father plundered disappear to?
Speaking of this potentially filthy money, at a time when it was estimated at lower sum, to Time magazine in July 2020, Jordan Waxman, managing partner of New York wealth management firm Nucleus Advisors, said: “£15.2 million ($20 million, €17.7 million or درهم73.5 million) seemed a low amount for someone using offshore accounts. It was possible that was just the tip of the iceberg.”
Going further, Waxman added:
“I would venture to say 20 is probably what they found so far and that the net worth would be substantially more. The other thing is Jeffrey Epstein allegedly was worth £432-or-so million ($570 million, €505 million or درهم2.1 billion). What was she doing as his No. 2 and only with $20 million?”
“It could be an elaborate shell game – where the peanut’s underneath the shell and it keeps moving around and there are more and more shells.”
Whilst Mr McHugh was called to the stand on Monday to describe the transactions his firm conducted between the on-off couple, what prosecutors have not yet been able to unravel – aside from the fact that Epstein likely transferred funds from other sources to Miss Maxwell also – is how the deviant actually originally met and who actually introduced them.
Kirby Sommers’ tweet about the Maxwell memorial evidence.A beaming Betty Maxwell at the event with an image of her evil conman, crook late husband behind her.
First highlighted by crusading author of Ghislaine Maxwell: An Unauthorized Biography Kirby Sommers, ‘The Bouncing Czech’s’ dodgy daughter was pictured sitting next to evil Epstein at a memorial lunch to the pension pot plunderer on 24th November 1991. This image is telling in that the pair clearly were connected prior to Robert Maxwell’s death as if Epstein hadn’t known the tyrant tycoon, why would he a) have been there and b) why would he have been given such a prominent place on the seating plan?
Going further of this image and suggesting the pair met “as early as 1988,” in September 2020, Broken: Seeking Justice podcaster Emily Saul remarked:
“In addition to these accounts, there’s also a photo, snapped a mere 19 days after Robert Maxwell’s death [on the 19th November 1991], that intimately links Epstein and Ghislaine. Shot at the Plaza Hotel during a memorial event for Robert Maxwell, the picture shows Ghislaine and Epstein in conversation. Wearing a blue silk jacket, Ghislaine smiles coyly at Epstein, who is seated to her right, wearing a white bowtie and an enormous grin. It doesn’t look like a first date.”
“If this is true, then the power dynamic between them shifts significantly. Perhaps she was the boss and Epstein did her bidding. Or, at the very least, they may have been equals.”
“Chronologically, geographically, the idea that Robert Maxwell setup his daughter with Epstein makes sense. Epstein and Robert Maxwell both had offices at the same address, the historic Helmsley Palace Hotel in Midtown Manhattan… Robert Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein did business together.”
As I have always suggested of this case, there’s a key detail that most miss the point on and that is missing money. After Robert Maxwell’s death in 1991, £500 million ($660 million, €585 million or درهم2.4 billion) vanished from his company’s pension fund and his daughter, Ghislaine, moaned about penniless and that even her knives and forks had been seized, yet within a year was living in a New York mansion and the beneficiary of at least fifteen bank accounts with balances “as high as £15.2 million ($20 million, €17.7 million or درهم73.5 million).”
Interested parties should finally examine the matter of where that money actually originated and whether this charade actually centres on the matter of a Maxwell to Maxwell transaction with Epstein simply as a financial functionary. As is always the case with this story, the truth is stranger than fiction and yet again I would suggest that this evil empire was a very dirty laundry.
Pictured top: Since croaked paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and since incarcerated alleged sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell at the memorial event for her father in New York in 1991.
Whilst unsuccessfully trying to get bail for Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-lover and clear associate, Maxwell’s family and her ‘secret’ husband since 2016, Scott Borgerson, offered to pony-up £21.6 million ($28.5 million, €25.3 million or درهم104.7 million) in assets. The key question is: “How did this supposedly ‘broke’ in 1991 woman amass this vast fortune and how much else does she really have to her name?” Equally: “Where is Mr Borgerson now and why isn’t he in court to support his wife?”
Unemployed graduate Haider Malik’s decision to seek work by standing with a pop-up-stall outside Canary Wharf tube station paid off with a top job offer
In a move that echoes the story of 22-year-old Mohamed Elbarkey, a Libyan refugee who took enterprising actions to find work and whose story we featured in August 2018, the MailOnline today reported on the similar story of an equally inventive 24-year-old named Haider Malik.
Unable to find a job since graduating with a first-class degree in banking and finance from the Middlesex University London because of the impact of the COVID-19, Mr Malik decided to set-up a pop-up stand in Canary Wharf earlier this month.
Stood with his CVs and a billboard with QR codes announcing where interested parties could download his details from 6.45am on a Tuesday morning, Mr Malik “took a chance and within days had secured a job offer.”
In August 2018, ‘The Steeple Times’ featured the story of Mohamed Elbarkey, a young man who came to Britain as a refugee from Libya, graduated in rocket science from UCL and then got a job by standing outside Canary Wharf tube station with a sign pleading for work. At the time of his reasoning for doing such, he commented: “I found this young man, David, he did the same stunt in Silicon Valley. He wanted a job in technology and what better place. I found that he had over 200 job offers and I thought I only need one. Why don’t I try and see if my story resonates with these executives at these large financial firms and see if they wanted to take me under their wing, even offer me an internship and a job or genuinely just some advice.”Haider Malik’s enterprising actions resulted in him being rewarded with his “dream job” at the Canary Wharf Group.
Of his strategy, the Seven Kings, Ilford based youngster announced:
“The first five minutes or 10 minutes I felt nervous because I was standing there empty-handed. I found it really awkward. I didn’t know what I was doing, I found it really weird.”
“I had all my CVs in my bag. I was standing there empty-handed trying to look at people and hoping to meet people rather than being proactive and speaking to them.”
“I held my CV in my hand and I was just saying good morning to people, just trying to engage people in a conversation. A lot of people gave me their cards, they gave me their phone numbers, and started talking to me.”
“There was one person called Emmanuel who actually posted a picture of me online. He actually came up to me, he put his hand out and said: “I wish you well.’”
“He said he wanted to do something similar two years ago but he didn’t have the courage to do it. He was happy that I put myself forward to do it and that he wanted to share a picture of me on LinkedIn.”
Going further of what happened next after being contacted by the Canary Wharf Group, Mr Malik added:
“I got a text message from the director of the department at about 9.30am saying: ‘Come in for an interview at 10.30am.’ I had my car in the car park, so I took the board and took all my stuff. I was like: ‘Wow, this is crazy.’”
“They interviewed me on the 30th floor of a building and I’m overlooking Canary Wharf thinking: ‘Wow, I never expected to be interviewed here let alone potentially about to get a job.’”
“That same day my life changed because when I got back in the car to go home after my interview, I checked my phone and I had about 10 missed calls from loads of different numbers.”
“I didn’t know that the LinkedIn post went viral straight away and my number was on my CV so people were scanning it and calling me. For the first three days my phone was non-stop ringing, it never stopped ringing and LinkedIn was really busy.”
“It was going crazy and I had to have my family help me to respond to DMs and get in contact with people.”
“It was really cool the way it happened – I took a chance. The first interview was the same day, which was a Tuesday morning, and then I got a second interview on Friday. And then by Friday evening they were happy with me and I accepted the role.”
Today, we join those saluting Haider Malik and urge others in a similar position to follow both his and Mohamed Elbarkey’s lead.
Malik had become frustrated with Zoom interviews and had been searching for a role since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, despite holding a first-class degree in Banking & Finance. pic.twitter.com/aQXRxd9UMY
