Tag: royalty

Ross Barr-Hoyland – What’s on your mantelpiece?

A 20-question interview with British men’s knitwear designer Ross Barr-Hoyland

The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?

To aim to leave the world a better place than you found it.

“Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?

To strive to achieve and be better than the best person you could be.

Kerry Katona was considered unacceptable in 2007. Who or what is unacceptable in 2017?

The wars in the Middle East and Chechnya and what the regimes there are doing to gay men are unacceptable.

Our world is full of divisiveness and prejudice and Kerry Katona evidently went through an incredibly turbulent time in her life. The press unscrupulously had no shame in reporting such and instead of judging, we should be there to offer help and support and perhaps show some empathy and understanding.

Our lives are not always fairytales and “let they who are without sin cast the first stone” is a saying that springs to mind.

Tony Blair misses being Prime Minister. What do you miss most in your life?

I don’t think there is anything in my life as such that I miss. I am working on my business – which is a dream many would wish for. It is by no means easy, but I am lucky in many, many respects.

What might you swap all your wealth for?

I wish I had great wealth to swap, but if I had immense wealth I would give it to all the causes I support in many ways from The Prince’s Trust to Style for Soldiers, Children with Cancer UK and RUComingOut. Even if I only had pennies, I would still like to give what I could as there is always someone in need of help.

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 state of the financial system?

I am by no means an expert but I do know everyone is finding it tough with cuts happening in every sector of business. I just keep my head down and focus on what I do in fashion and the revival of British manufacturing. What I will say is that my bank has been utterly incredible in supporting me with my business venture.

What phrase or word do you most loathe?

Being told I cannot do something.

In the UK, some people consider charity to “begin at home”. What’s your view and what causes do you personally support?

Aside from supporting the charities previously mentioned, I am honoured to have been supported myself by The Prince’s Trust. I serve them in whatever capacity they as a Young Ambassador and with the brand.

More generally, we might be an island nation but no man is. I think charity should be given where it is most needed.

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 am never without my phone, but I would never condone using any devices to cause harm to others.

Mobile phones do have their perks and do allow us to literally have the world at our fingertips, but I do wonder what we would be seeing if we perhaps looked at the world around us and lived in the moment a little more.

If you could fill a carriage on the Orient Express, who would be your fellow passengers?

With every single family member and friend who has supported and there for me and my business. We would have a good old knees-up and some much needed time off.

If you were unfortunate enough to end up on death row, what would be your last meal and where would you eat it?

Well, I hope to never end up there, but if I did, I’d choose my mother’s Sunday roast at home surrounded by my nearest and dearest. That would be the best way to go.

What time is it acceptable to consume the first drink of the day?

That depends on the type of day you are having.

A Negroni, a martini or a cup of tea?

A martini.

Whose parties do you enjoy the most and why?

I have enjoyed many so it would be rude to pick one in particular – especially as the memories of some are rather hazy.

Who is the most positive person you know?

I have to pick seven perpetually positive people who keep me going daily and they are Natasha Babar-Evans, Melissa Hulme, Sandie Chapman, Stephanie Ackrill, Sarah Agar-Brenan and Craig Burton.

I would also like to single out a person whom has inspired me immensely. Her name is Gaynor and she has just started a business called Holiday Hack. Over the last year, she’s faced some of the biggest obstacles anyone could have thrown their way but she hasn’t cried and she hasn’t crumbled. She is an incredible lady and always has a smile on her face – and she can also get you savings on a holiday too; maybe even on the Orient Express.

What’s your most guilty pleasure?

Having a long sleep wrapped up in my bed covers.

If a tattoo were to sum you up, what would it be of?

A phoenix and a stag.

If you were a car, what marque would you be?

Someone answered this for me at a networking event a while ago. They described me as a Range Rover.

Cilla Black presented Surprise, Surprise. Tell us the most surprising thing about you.

People think I’m a ‘social butterfly’ but I’m actually a ‘pub with a just a few people’ kind of guy.

What’s currently sitting on your mantelpiece?

Pictures of my family.

Ross Barr-Hoyland established his own men’s knitwear brand, Ross Barr, in September 2015 after being sponsored by the Enterprise programme of The Prince’s Trust. He focuses on reviving the British textile manufacturing industry by manufacturing in Britain.

Follow Ross Bar on Twitter at @RossBarrUK and Instagram at @RossBarrUK.

June 11, 2017
Shifty & Shiftier

In posing for pictures with ‘Sir Shifty’ Philip Green in Cannes, Sarah, Duchess of York showed herself to be nothing but shameless

Sarah, Duchess of York is one of those people who has no need for money given she’s always close to it. Yesterday, however, at the 70^th Cannes Film Festival, this avaricious former royal took her love for wealth to a new level when she and her daughter, Princess Beatrice, posed for photos with the nauseatingly repugnant businessman Sir Philip Green (AKA ‘Sir Shifty’).

Famed for her lack of judgement and friendships with the likes of the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, yesterday ‘Simple Sarah’ showed herself for what she truly is: Embarrassed by nothing and shameless enough to stick two fingers up to ordinary folk.

#ShameOnSarah

May 22, 2017
A Georgian Gem

Grade I listed Georgian mansion in Worcestershire for sale for the first time since the 1720s

Few houses remain in the ownership of the same family for three hundred years, but an example of such, Ombersley Court at Ombersley in Worcestershire, has just been placed on the market for £3.5 million ($4.5 million, €4.1 million or درهم16.7 million).

Designed and built for the 1^st Lord Sandys by the master builder Francis Smith of Warwick between 1723 and 1730, Ombersley Court was substantially alerted by the landscape architect John Webb in 1809. Grade I listed and featuring impressive entertaining spaces, the 27,449 square foot house comes with a 13,188 square foot Grade II* listed stable complex and 39 acres of land. A further 11 acres and a three bedroom cottage are available as separate lots.

Richard Michael Oliver Hill, 7th Baron Sandys of Ombersley (1942 – 2013) accompanying the Queen on her inspection of the Yeoman of the Guard

An image of Ombersley Court before the service extension that provided kitchen and staff accommodation (right) was demolished in 1964

Of Ombersley Court, Matthew Beckett of The Country Seat blog remarks:

“With the death of Lord Sandys in 2013 the house passed to Lady Sandys but following her recent death, concerns were raised and rebutted via letters in Country Life that this wonderful house would be forced (for complicated reasons) to become a care home; a fate which would have despoiled this jewel of a house. Instead, for the first time since it was built in 1724, it has been placed on the market. This is a house created by one of the finest craftsmen of the early-Georgian period, with connections to a wider, distinct Midlands architectural tradition which epitomises all that one would hope to see in a country seat”.

“As an important house which deserves respect, one hopes that the new owner will appreciate this remarkable situation and that perhaps the best approach would simply be to buy the house and contents and perhaps another couple hundred acres to truly secure an Arcadian ideal, one which would be hard to better anywhere in the country”.

The selling agents are Savills.

May 6, 2017
The Commerce of Selfies

A review of the showcase of vanity that is the Saatchi Gallery’s ‘Selfie to Self-Expression’ exhibition

The first ever ‘selfie’ was supposedly taken on the roof of the Marceau studio on Fifth Avenue in New York. Featuring a photographer named Joseph Byron and his colleagues, the image was captured in December 1920 and now, an exhibition at London’s Saatchi Gallery examines the story of what has become a modern day social phenomenon.

The first ever selfie

Aside from images of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 American election and lookalikes of the British royal family by Alison Jackson, this exhibition – sponsored rather appropriately by a mobile phone manufacturer plainly desperate to get its product into the public eye in England named Huawei – features everything from selfies taken with selfie sticks to selfies taken underwater. It is an array of ridiculousness and most definitely a display of extreme vanity that is present here, but with opportunities for visitors to participate, it is also something that anyone except a true killjoy will have a little fun with.

The word ‘selfie’ was announced as the Oxford English Dictionary “word of the year” in 2013 and subsequently, Business Insider, published a story that referenced selfies of groups as “usies”. Huawei Technologies, it transpires, trademarked the word “groufie” around the same time and thus it’s no wonder they managed to cut a deal with the ever-so-commercial Charles Saatchi.

‘Selfie to Self-Expression’ is on display at the Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York’s Headquarters, Kings Road, London, SW3 4RY until 30^th May. The exhibition is free and open seven days a week, 10am to 6pm.

#SaatchiSelfie

May 4, 2017
Blabbermouth Burrell

Butler-turned-blabbermouth Paul Burrell sinks to a new low; he should retreat to Siberia and live out his days privately

Cat-like Paul Burrell again and again reinvents himself. Somehow, in spite of already having undeservedly exhausted more than nine lives, this ghastly individual is back in the press and this time he’s milking the story of his marriage to a corporate lawyer he met on a train.

“Diana’s rock”, as the traitorous butler-turned-blabbermouth likes to call himself, chose not to keep his wedding to Graham Cooper private but instead bared the story of his union with his “soulmate” to various media outlets.

Mr Burrell, in spite of being born in Derbyshire wore a kilt to the ceremony (in a bizarre pattern of tartan he’d, of course, commissioned himself in 2006) at the Linthwaite House Hotel in the Lake District and in comments to the Mail Online remarked:

“There’s no more hiding my unbridled happiness now. Life is about being true to who you are and, for the first time ever, I’m able to stand proudly beside my husband and say: ‘This is who I am’”.

Burrell also told the newspaper of how he walked into the ceremony to Barbara Streisand’s Some Enchanted Evening and “danced out of [it] to Kylie Minogue’s Better the Devil You Know” and disrespectfully remarked on references to his late employer, Diana, Princess of Wales, being made during the ceremony. He again showed himself to be a master of the kiss-and-tell and even, in case anyone cared, shared the menu for his “three course wedding dinner”. It consisted of: “A starter of ham hock terrine, egg and chipped potatoes followed by pot-roasted breast of Goosnargh chicken served with Pommes Anna and wild mushroom fricassee and finished with a dessert of apple Tarte Tatin with a Calvados caramel and vanilla ice cream”.

An anything but credible individual according to Lord Justice Scott Baker, Burrell – a man prone to crying on a whim – was severely criticised by Princes William and Harry in 2003. In a statement, at the time, they remarked:

“We cannot believe that Paul who was entrusted with so much could abuse his position in such a cold and overt betrayal”.

“It is not only deeply painful for the two of us but also for everyone else affected and it would mortify our mother if she were alive today and, if we might say so, we feel we are more able to speak for our mother than Paul”.

“We ask Paul please to bring these revelations to an end”.

Burrell plainly paid no attention to this request and now, fourteen years later, it is again time to urge this self-serving toad to do the decent thing: May Paul Burrell please stop peddling tat and may he please retreat to Siberia.

April 4, 2017
You Can Say That If You Like

Belgravia apartment in building where Diana, Princess of Wales’ maternal grandmother lived, plotted and died for sale for a sum 165% higher than it sold for in 2003

The residence of brewery baron and Unionist politician The Rt. Hon. George Younger, 1^st Viscount Younger of Leckie (1851 – 1929) in the 1920s, 36 Eaton Square in Belgravia is the key building in what is often termed “London’s most sought after residential address”.

Later the home of Ruth Roche, The Rt. Hon. The Lady Fermoy, DCVO, OBE (1908 – 1993), a first and second floor maisonette within this Grosvenor Estates owned building is currently for sale through Knight Frank for £7.95 million ($9.90 million, €9.38 million or درهم36.38 million).

Royal confidante and aristocrat Ruth Roche, The Rt. Hon. The Lady Fermoy, DCVO, OBE (1908 – 1993) and brewery baron and Unionist politician The Rt. Hon. George Younger, 1st Viscount Younger of Leckie (1851 – 1929)

The drawing room of Flat D, 36 Eaton Square, Belgravia, London, SW1W 9DH

Sold last for £3 million in December 2003 (the equivalent of £4.4 million, $5.5 million, €5.2 million or درهم20.1 million today), the 2,230 square foot flat offered is held on a lease with 54 years remaining. This could be extended to 144 years by separate negotiation and presently the space is arranged to provide a double height entrance hallway, a large drawing room with a 12’8” ceiling height and access to a balcony, a dining room, a small kitchen, a study, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a utility room and a cloakroom.

A confidante of Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother and the maternal grandmother of Diana, Princess of Wales, Lady Fermoy gave up her career as a pianist on marriage and became an Extra Woman of the Bedchamber in 1956. Though she is said to have engineered the union between her granddaughter and the Prince of Wales, when asked she always remarked: “You can say that if you like – but it simply wouldn’t be true”.

Lady Fermoy died at 36 Eaton Square on 6^th July 1993, aged 84.

February 27, 2017
Cheltenham Festival 2017

Excitement over the 2017 Cheltenham Festival has already begun and punters are already eagerly placing their bets

In 2016, our man ‘The Tout’s’ tip for the coveted Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in Gloucestershire, Sprinter Sacre, romped home and beat the favourite by seven lengths. This year’s festival is looking equally exciting and punters are already lining up to eagerly place their bets with guidance from such places as Cheltenham Festival 2017 Tips.

Dating back to 1860 and running between 14^th to 17^th March this year, the Cheltenham Festival is a National Hunt meeting with prize money second only to the Grand National at a total of £4.1 million. It has an average attendance of 62,000 people per day and is famous for the ‘Cheltenham Roar’, the enormous amount of noise that the crowd generates as the starter raises the tape for the first race of the festival. Ruby Walsh has been top jockey at the festival ten times whilst Paul Nicholls has been top trainer six times. Willie Mullins comes a close second having trained winning horses five times.

Rivalry between British and Irish trainers is intense at Cheltenham and a cup, named ‘The Prestbury’ in honour of the nearest village to the course, celebrates this annually. The first country with 14 winners or more takes that but the true highlight of the four-day event is ‘The Gold Cup’, this year coinciding with St Patrick’s Day.

Past winners of this legendary race have included such stalwarts as Desert Orchid, Master Oats and Lord Windermere but the greatest successes have come in the form of five times winner Golden Miller (1932 at 13/2, 1933 at 4/7F, 1934 at 6/5F, 1935 at 1/2F and 1936 at 21/20F) and three times winners Cottage Rake (1948 at 10/1, 1949 at 4/6F, 1950 at 5/6F) and Arkle (1964 at 7/4, 1965 at 3/10F and 1966 at 1/10F).

For those more interested in socialising, the Cheltenham Festival provides plenty to do. In 2015, ex-glamour model Katie Price even managed to secure a couple of selfies at the event with The Duchess of Cornwall.

The Cheltenham Festival runs from 14^th to 17^th March 2017 at Cheltenham Racecourse, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL50 4SH.

To book tickets, click here or telephone: +44 (0) 344 579 3003.

For betting tips, go to Free Bets, a one-stop shop for betting promotions.

Cyclist turned jockey Victoria Pendleton at the festival

Happy racegoeers

Pippa Middleton at the event

Katie Price and HRH Duchess of Cornwall pose for a selfie

February 10, 2017
Sex and the Single Zillionaire

Belvedere, CA home of late tech billionaire and author of ‘Sex and the Single Zillionaire’ Thomas Perkins for sale; he entertained amongst others Sophia Loren and Rupert Murdoch there

Thomas Perkins (1932 – 2016) had it all. Born in New York, this Harvard University and MIT graduate made his fortune in Silicon Valley, California when he co-founded Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 1972 and invested in amongst others Amazon, AOL, Compaq, Google, Macromedia, Netscape and Segway. He was said to be worth £6.4 billion ($8 billion, €7.4 billion or درهم29.4 billion), was briefly married to famed author Danielle Steel between 1998 and 2002 and wrote a novel of his own, Sex and the Single Zillionaire, in 2006.

Aside from an £8 million ($10 million, €9.3 million or درهم36.6 million) country house in East Sussex, England named Plumpton Place and ‘The Maltese Falcon’ – his 289-foot long, £104.3 million ($130 million, €120.9 million or درهم477.5 million) sailing yacht – Perkins owned a French style residence on Belvedere Island in Marin County, California. He purchased it with his Norwegian first wife, Gerd Thune-Ellefsen, in 1972 and continued to live there after her death in 1994.

Danielle Steel and Tom Perkins remained friends even after their divorce

Steel even hosted a party for Perkins’s novel at her Pacific Heights, San Francisco mansion when it launched in 2006

The tech billionaire’s yacht, The Maltese Falcon, was the largest sailing yacht in the world when it was launched in 1990

Perkins at his English country home, Plumpton Place in East Sussex

The exterior of Perkins’s Belvedere home, 345 Golden Gate Avenue, appears modest

But what is to be found within includes this spectacular ‘Grand Salon’

Extending to 8.885 square foot in total, the house – which was put up for sale last June by Perkins’s children – was built to the designs of architects Julia Morgan and George Kelham in 1928 and features 16th century linenfold wood-paneled walls in a room described as a ‘Grand Salon’. Here, Perkins entertained European royalty, his fellow News Corp board member Rupert Murdoch and the Italian actress Sophia Loren and given the room’s outlook to the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay, these luminaries cannot have failed to have been impressed.

Known simply as 345 Golden Gate Avenue, Perkins’s former home is for sale through Sotheby’s International Realty for £13.2 million ($16.5 million, €15.3 million or درهم60.6 million). It includes a formal dining room seating 18, 6 bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms, a guest apartment, an outdoor swimming pool and stands on a plot of 0.85 acres.

Prior to his death, in 2014, Perkins attracted controversy when he penned an article for The Wall Street Journal. At the time, he wrote:

“Writing from the epicentre [sic] of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its ‘one per cent’, namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one per cent, namely the rich”.

He later apologised for making comparisons to Nazi Germany but subsequently added: “In the Nazi era it was racial demonization, now it’s class demonization”.

February 6, 2017
Picture of the Week – Come Fly With Hawks

Saudi royal buys plane tickets so his hawks can fly (first class, of course)

Nothing is insurmountable it seems: A Saudi royal, according to a Reddit user named @lensoo, was told a maximum of 6 birds of prey were allowed in the cabin on a Qatar Airways flight this week.

His response? He bought tickets for all 80 of his hawks. He even went as far to pay for them to go first class. You couldn’t make it up.

January 31, 2017
A Happy House

Berkshire country house named “Gays” for sale

Not connected with the LGBT community in any way, but in fact named after a man named John Gays, “Gays” at Holyport, near Maidenhead in Berkshire dates to around 1456 and is currently for sale for £5.95 million ($7.36 million, €6.88 million or درهم27.05 million).

Gays or John Gays House, Langworthy Lane, Holyport, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 2HN, England, United Kingdom

Also referred to as “John Gays House” and offered to the market by Christie’s Real Estate, this 12,482 square foot “bijou old world residence” stands in 20.75 acres and is predominantly built of red brick elevations with attractive sash fenestration, under a tile roof. It is Grade II listed, dates to the Tudor period and also includes later Queen Anne, Georgian, Victorian and 20^th century additions.

Less than 30 miles from central London, Gays has been owned by a Swiss family for 20 years according to Country Life and includes 6 reception rooms, a conservatory, a master bedroom suite with 2 bedrooms, a bathroom and 2 dressing rooms, 6 further bedrooms and 5 further bathrooms. In addition, the property also comes with a 2-bedroom lodge cottage, a 2-bedroom staff cottage, an indoor swimming pool, wine store and 4-car garage.

Aside from a large lawned garden with an irrigation system, a lake adjoins the house and there is also an orchard with apple and pear trees. A stable block, a manège and paddocks stand beyond whilst a 1-kilometre long sand and rubber chip horse exercise track circles it. The Duke of York, it transpires, borrowed these facilities in the late 1990s for his own horses.

January 22, 2017