This witty New York based fashion journalist and author’s first book, Classy: Exceptional Advice for the Extremely Modern Lady, was a New York Times bestseller in 2010. (more…)
Tag: Author
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Derek Blasberg
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Lord of the Bond
The sale of a £400,000 castle owned by a man who was an inspiration for the creation of James Bond’s nom de plume Sir Hilary Bray, Bt and for many elements of 007’s character also
Count Robin de la Lanne-Mirrlees (1925 – 2012) is largely thought of as the man whose persona Ian Fleming “borrowed” to create James Bond’s assumed identity, Sir Hilary Bray, Bt. Now, following on from his death last year, there is an opportunity to buy one of his many properties, Inchdrewer Castle, and the title that goes with it, Baron of Inchdrewer.
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Libby Purves OBE
This British radio presenter, journalist and author is a much respected and reassuring voice of reason. Whilst at Oxford she was the librarian of the Oxford Union and then wrote a travel book, One Summer’s Grace, based on a 1,700 mile sailing journey she made around Britain with children aged three and five in 2002. Those who follow her Midweek show on Radio 4 find her a joy to listen to. -
Sasha Reid: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
The Steeple Times asks author, designer and band manager Sasha Reid: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?
“Anything is possible”. I love knowing that you can take a little idea and create anything out of it. The possibilities are endless.
“Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?
“Kill people with kindness”.
Kerry Katona was considered unacceptable in 2007. Who or what is unacceptable in 2013?
For me, people being cruel to animals is something I find unacceptable. I hate the fact innocent creatures are being killed. We should respect the animal kingdom and allow them to share our precious planet.
Tony Blair misses being Prime Minister. What do you miss most in your life?
I miss having Christmas with all my family. When I was growing up I was looked after by a nanny. She wasn’t my granny – she was a proper nanny and had looked after my mum and my uncle when they were little before coming to look after my brothers and me. Our Christmas used to be my mum, dad, 2 brothers and me, nanny and my grandparents.
What might you swap all your wealth for?
Happiness. What is the point of being able to have everything if you can’t be happy?
Donald Trump was once a case of: “If you owe the bank a thousand, they close you down; but if you owe the bank a billion, you own the bank”. What’s your view on the banking crisis?
I hope my money is safe.
What phrase or word do you most loathe?
The word “grand”.
In the UK, some people consider charity to “begin at home”. What’s your view and what causes do you personally support?
I was recently on tour with Kasabian and Jersey Budd who did the Teenage Cancer Trust gig at the Royal Albert Hall. I was inspired to see the good work that the charity does and meet some of the young people who have been helped and hear their stories. I also like to support animal charities.
The judge in Law Abiding Citizen states: “I can pretty much do whatever I want” before being blown up whilst answering her mobile phone. What’s your view on the appropriate use of such devices?
I think mobiles are great as long as they are used at the right time and place.
Sasha Reid If you could fill a carriage on The Orient Express, who would be your fellow passengers?
I would want my mum and brothers (Charlie and Sam), and of course my mum’s little dog, Honeybear. I would also invite the Kasabian guys: Tom, Sergio, Dib, Kealey, Ian and Tim so that I could have great music.
If you were unfortunate enough to end up on death row, what would be your last meal and where would you eat it?
I hope I would never end up on death row but if I had to choose my last meal it would be risotto, pancakes, chocolate and a banana cupcake from the Chelsea Teapot on the Kings Road. I would want to eat it all on a beautiful beach watching the sunset.
What time is it acceptable to consume the first drink of the day?
Anytime: It’s always evening somewhere in the world.
A Negroni, a martini or a cup of tea?
A watermelon martini.
Whose parties do you enjoy the most and why?
Matthew Steeples has the best parties. They are full of the most interesting and lovely people in London.
Who is the most positive person you know?
My brother Charlie. He is always so calm and always sees the glass half-full .
What’s your most guilty pleasure?
I love watching American television shows. Nashville and Revenge are my favourites at the moment.
If a tattoo were to sum you up, what would it be of?
It would be a phoenix as I love what this mythical bird symbolises. There is going to be a phoenix on the scarves I’m designing.
If you were a car, what marque would you be?
I would be a red Cadillac.
Cilla Black presented Surprise, Surprise. Tell us the most surprising thing about you.
That I am related to General LaSalle who was first General to Napoleon and I can get married in Les Invalides in Paris. I’m sure the James Bond character was based on him. I am also related to Prince Yusupov who murdered Rasputin.
What’s currently sitting on your mantelpiece?
I have family photographs, candles, a clock that was my granny’s and my Kasabian AAA pass.
Sasha Reid trained to be a teacher before becoming a headmistress of a nursery school. She was then responsible for discovering a Leicester band called Kasabian and worked with them until they were signed to a major label. Currently, Sasha writes children’s stories, manages singer-songwriter Jersey Budd and is designing a range of rock and roll scarves.
Download Sasha Reid’s children’s stories onto your iPad at: http://store.interactivetouchbooks.com/books/sasha+reid+and+amy+withers+riedl
Follow her on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/rockchicksasha
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Kathy Lette: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
The Steeple Times asks author Kathy Lette: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?
I only write because it’s cheaper than therapy. Therapy and revenge. You can always impale an enemy on the end of your pen. Poetic justice is the only true justice in the world, and I say that married to a lawyer!
“Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?
Firstly: “Don’t wait to be rescued by a Knight in Shining Armani”. Secondly: “A woman must stand on her own two stilettos”. Oh, and thirdly: “Your female friends are your human wonder bras – uplifting, supportive and making each other look bigger and better”.
Kerry Katona was considered unacceptable in 2007. Who or what is unacceptable in 2013?
I would like to say misogyny is unacceptable in 2013, but as women still don’t have equal pay – we only get 80 pence in the pound, plus we’re constantly getting concussion hitting our heads on the glass ceiling, while also being expected to Windex it whilst up there, any woman who call herself a ‘post feminist’ has kept her wonder bra and burnt her brains.
Tony Blair misses being Prime Minister. What do you miss most in your life?
I miss smooth, youthful skin with no sun-damage or wrinkles. Ageing to women is like kryptonite to superman. Show me a woman who is happy with her age and I’ll show you the electro-convulsive therapy scorch marks. The trouble is, women suffer from facial prejudice – we get judged on our looks in a way that men don’t. For women, wordplay is foreplay. How else is Woody Allen still getting laid? But don’t resort to cosmetic surgery – a woman should never pick her nose, especially from a catalogue. Dimmer switch – greatest beauty aid known to womankind!
What might you swap all your wealth for?
The best things in life really are free – walking, talking, laughter, air and orgasms. Which is just as well as authors don’t make a lot of money. We’re in a constant state of debt-lag. I don’t understand finance. I thought ‘stag flation’ meant stalking something elk-like in the Scottish highlands with minor royalty.
Donald Trump was once a case of: “If you owe the bank a thousand, they close you down; but if you owe the bank a billion, you own the bank”. What’s your view on the banking crisis?
It seems that the only banks we can count on, post crash, are sperm banks. Write a cheque these days and the whole bank bounces. And yet bankers receive bonuses for this? It’s mind-boggling.
What phrase or word do you most loathe?
“It’s not the done thing” because once I do it, its done – so then it’s the “done thing”. I adore my British pals, but they do have Eyore-itis and a sense of impending failure. But optimism is not an eye disease. If you try something new, it might just work.
In the UK, some people consider charity to “begin at home”. What’s your view and what causes do you personally support?
What I really like about the British is that you give generously to charitable causes and developing countries. You don’t believe in the skimmed milk of human kindness. As I have a child on the autistic spectrum (I adore him and he’s without doubt, the most original and interesting person I’ve ever met and the inspiration for my latest novel The Boy Who Fell To Earth, about the mother of an autistic boy and her quirky quest for love), I am an ambassador for the National Autistic Society. As I’m also a feminist, I am an ambassador for Plan, The White Ribbon Alliance and Women and Children First – three charitable organizations devoted to making sure that women are not runners up in the human race.
The judge in Law Abiding Citizen states: “I can pretty much do whatever I want” before being blown up whilst answering her mobile phone. What’s your view on the appropriate use of such devices?
I have no idea what this question means. If you’re talking about mobile phone usage, I love my phone. I’m not on the Atkins Diet, but the Talkins diet – I just talk the weight off.
Author Kathy Lette If you could fill a carriage on The Orient Express, who would be your fellow passengers?
As I adore wit and wordplay, I would have Mae West and Dorothy Parker – two women who have black belts in the art of tongue-fu. Plus Oscar Wilde, Spike Milligan, Douglas Adams and Shakespeare – all excellent cunning linguists. And of course, Emily Pankhurst and Simone de Beauvoir and other heroines of the women’s movement because without them, where would the rest of us be? Our talents would still be lying doormat, sorry dormant for decades as men walked all over us.
If you were unfortunate enough to end up on death row, what would be your last meal and where would you eat it?
My last meal would be a toy boy on a bed of meringue, eaten in a suite at the Savoy Hotel – ah, parting would be such suite sorrow. I was writer in residence there in 2004.
What time is it acceptable to consume the first drink of the day?
Children’s bath time – a stiff G and T is mother’s little helper. This habit continues well into their teens. Advice for any mothers of teenage daughters – next time your daughter hits you and kicks you and says “I wish you’d just die!” take a big drag on your cigarette and a big gulp of wine and say “I’m doing my best darling”. No mother can remain an aqua-holic.
A Negroni, a martini or a cup of tea?
Champagne – the least calorific drink and so effervescent. Otherwise a martini. But they make me tipsy so fast I get severe bottle fatigue.
Whose parties do you enjoy the most and why?
I’m a socialist and a socialite, so my favourite parties combine a little of both – passion and politics, frivolity and fervor, flirtation and fierce debate. I’m leaving money in my will for the most chandelier-swinging send off ever. Plus I’ve thought of my epitaph – “Finally, a good plot”.
Who is the most positive person you know?
Eve Ensler who works with rape victims in the Congo and manages to restore their faith in life and humanity. She also organized One Billion Rising campaign, to stop violence againt women – one in three women on the planet will be raped or beaten in her lifetime.
What’s your most guilty pleasure?
Ah, you see, I don’t think pleasure should be guilty. Guilt – the gift that just keeps on giving! Guilt, or rather gilt should only be on rings. If you’re asking me what I like to do in sneaky moments – bubblebaths, when I should be doing housework. It’s scientifically proven that no woman ever shot her husband while she was having a soak and he was vacuuming.
If a tattoo were to sum you up, what would it be of?
My tattoo would say: “This is why I’m such a good lay. If the sex gets boring, at least I’ve given you something to read”.
If you were a car, what marque would you be?
Once again, I have no idea what this question means. The only thing I know about cars is that men thinks “sex drive” means doing it in the back seat of one – possibly because of that sign on the rear vision mirror which reads: “Objects in this mirror may appear larger than they are.”
Cilla Black presented Surprise, Surprise. Tell us the most surprising thing about you.
Even though I pretend that the only thing I run up are bills, I am actually very fit. I run, jog, swim or cycle every day.
What’s on your mantelpiece?
Well, I’d like to say “My Nobel Prize for Literature” presented to me by George Clooney who then whisked me off to tropical isle to lick the roe of virgin sturgeon from my navel – but actually it’s all the little finger-paintings my kids did when they were young, which are haphazardly but endearingly framed.
Kathy Lette is an Australian born author who lives in London. Her novels have been published in seventeen languages around the world and her first, Puberty Blues, was made into both a film and a television miniseries. She cites her career highlights as once teaching Stephen Fry a word, Salman Rushdie, the limbo and scripting Julian Assange’s cameo in the 500th episode of The Simpsons. Lette’s latest novel The Boy Who Fell to Earth has just been published in paperback by Black Swan.
View Kathy Lette’s official website at: http://www.kathylette.com
Follow her on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/kathylette
Buy The Boy Who Fell to Earth at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Boy-Who-Fell-Earth/dp/0552776823/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367056571&sr=1-1&keywords=the+boy+who+fell
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Margaret Thatcher: Strong lady, weak men
Author Sarah Tucker shares her thoughts on the reaction to the death of Margaret Thatcher
I can’t really remember much about when Maggie Thatcher was in power. I know my parents were full of praise for her because our country was almost third world when she became PM, strikes crippling industries, rubbish being left on the streets and she broke the unions – something that was thought impossible. She stood up to them and it took a lot of courage to do so.
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Taking a view
The sale of a historic £22 million residence on London’s Cheyne Walk
Cheyne Walk in Chelsea is amongst the addresses that an estate agent would describe as “the most sought after in London”. Up there in the company of the Bishops Avenue, Grosvenor Square and Cadogan Square, it has moved from having been home to artists such as Whistler, Turner and George Eliot to now being where such people as Mick Jagger, Roman Abramovich, Terry Venables and Sally Greene choose to live.
Belle Vue House, 92 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, SW10 0DQ Of the houses there, No. 92, known as Belle Vue House is particularly impressive. Built in 1771, this terraced property stands in the original grounds of Beaufort House, the London residence of the Duke of Beaufort. It is currently for sale for £22,000,000.
The building was reputedly designed by Robert Adam and though no reference to this can be found in the collections of his designs at the Soane Museum, it certainly echoes his style. Constructed from stock brick, this Grade II listed house is nearly 50 foot wide and enjoys southward views across the River Thames.
The builder and first owner of Belle Vue House was John Hatchett, an “eminent 18th century coachbuilder”. He planted a mulberry tree in the garden of the house in 1776 that was described by the historian Faulkner as being what he “reckoned one of the finest trees of its kind in England”. It remains to this day. Hatchett let the house to Lady Prime from 1778 to 1797 and in due course the property passed to his son, Charles Hatchett F.R.S. (1765 – 1847), a chemist and “voluminous writer”.
The next resident was the Scottish pre-Raphaelite artist and poet William Bell Scott (1811 – 1890) and his wife, Laetitia. A friend and contemporary of Rosetti, he used the building as a “veritable museum” and lived there between 1871 and 1890.
The Right Honourable The Earl of Beaconsfield KG PC FRS, Benjamin Disraeli (1804 – 1881) lived in Belle Vue House during his second term in office 
The canopy installed by Disraeli that protected Queen Victoria from the elements At various times, other distinguished occupiers have included John Marshall F.R.S. (1818 – 1891), a “distinguished anatomist” and professor of anatomy at the Royal Academy and the British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli (1804 – 1881). Disraeli lived in the house for two years during his second premiership and is said to have constructed the canopy that links the front door of the house to the road so that Queen Victoria could “visit in privacy and be protected from the weather”.
Sir Rex Harrison (1908 – 1990) and his actress wife Kay Kendall (1927 – 1959) lived in Belle Vue House in 1958 British film actor Sir Rex Harrison (1908 – 1990) lived in Belle Vue House in 1958 with his actress wife Kay Kendall (1927 – 1959). Their short-lived marriage from 1957 to 1959 ended a year later when the Genevieve star died from myeloid leukemia. Terence Rattigan later immortalised their love story in his 1973 play In Praise of Love and in it Harrison played himself.
Ken and Barbara Follett are amongst other famous occupants of the property The politician and army officer Sir Patrick Wall (1916 – 1998) took up residence during the 1960s and he was followed by the author Ken Follett and his politican wife, Barbara. Famous for smartening up the Labour Party during the 1980s with what became known as “Folletting”, the house no doubt made the perfect base for the couple’s political salons. The view of the Thames no doubt also provided Mr Follett with inspiration for several of his best-selling novels.
Visitors to the house pass through a grand entrance hall 
The staircase is especially impressive 
The house features a double drawing room 
The dining room is perfect for grand scale entertaining 
One of a number of other reception rooms The last documented sale of Belle Vue House records that it was sold for £3,000,000 in May 2000. Since then, this house, now limewashed in a most distinctive Tuscan colour, has been sympathetically renovated and includes 8,400 square foot of internal accommodation. Grandly proportioned reception rooms number a first floor double drawing room, dining room, library and sitting room and in addition the house features a large kitchen, breakfast room, study, three bedroom suites, a gym and wine cellars.
In the basement, there is is a large and well equipped kitchen 
In addition, there is a separate breakfast room 
One of three bedroom suites 
A bathroom in Belle Vue House 
The 64′ garden features a mulberry tree from 1776 The rear garden is especially large for the location and measures some 64’2” by 47’7” and in addition there is a three car garage and additional parking.
Whilst the “beautiful view” has clearly changed since Belle Vue House was built, whoever purchases this house will undoubtedly be someone who will add to its remarkable history.
Belle Vue House, 92 Cheyne Walk, London, SW10 0DQ is for sale through Tancred Lidbury of Christie’s International Real Estate. For more information contact him on +44 (0) 20 7389 2478.
View further details at: http://www.christiesrealestate.com/eng/sales/detail/170-l-78252-302918/belle-vue-house-chelsea-london-en-sw3
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Alex Preston: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
The Steeple Times asks author Alex Preston: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?
Books, cooks and good looks.
“Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?
“Do no harm; or if you do, make sure it’s beautiful harm”.
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Sandi Toksvig
In 2013, this Danish-British former Liberal Democrat author and presenter stated: “The Duchess of Cambridge lacks a single [relevant] opinion”. The nation were far from impressed. “Toxic Toksvig”, as some refer to her, is a Cambridge educated lesbian and mother of three whose works number Hitler’s Canary and Heroines & Harridans. She started her career on the appropriately named Motormouth and once stated: “When I see comedian – and ‘comedienne’, of course I hate it – I think ‘Oh, really?’ because I think of myself as a writer and broadcaster”. Miaow! -
Alexandra “Lexi” Abrams
Social yet serious, this talented Cambridge graduate is now the UK youth advisor for the World Council of Peoples for the United Nations in the UK. (more…)