Tag: Somerset

Stephen Bowman: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

The Steeple Times asks bass-baritone singer Stephen Bowman: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

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

Gravity mainly, followed by a healthy fear of dying young. Avoiding skydiving tends to keep both of those fears at bay.

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

“Even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day” – I’m very sure it’s a brilliant ancient proverb, but I stole it from Withnail and I.

Kerry Katona was considered unacceptable in 2007. Who or what is unacceptable in 2013?

Kerry Katona has redeemed herself greatly since 2007, so I’d say that after his little tantrums in London recently, Justin Bieber is the next in line who needs a little humility injected into his life.

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

I miss long misspent summers in the south of Spain. Long, lazy, hazy days of doing nothing more than sleeping off hangovers and chasing girls. Both were far less painful as a teenager and much less expensive.

What might you swap all your wealth for?

A trip to the moon. I wanted to be an astronaut just before I wanted to be a rock singer; 4-year old children can be so flippant about career choices.

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?

The stupidity and greed of the few created a bed that the rest of us sleep in every day. It’s affected every industry, including music. We now perform most of our big private shows overseas, the UK is very slow and no one wants to be seen spending money on entertainment.

What phrase or word do you most loathe?

“It’s like…”: Massively overused and makes it near impossible for half the population to explain what a simile is.

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

Once you have a smidgen of public profile you have the opportunity to help charities with fundraising and it’s something I jumped at. Over the last 6 years of Blake we’ve got behind many amazing charities, including the British Legion, Variety the Children’s Charity, War Widows’ Association, Help For Heroes, Make A Wish and Nordoff Robbins to name a few. It’s great to think you can make any difference.

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 travel by tube quite a bit, where you regularly see the scary sight of an entire carriage of commuters with heads bowed in deep reverence to their ‘iThingamajigs’. The art of conversation on the tube has all but been lost. No one ever looks up long enough to make eye contact. Sad.

Singer Stephen Bowman

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

I’d invite the top 50 speakers from TED, the best panel from QI and Emma Thompson. Between them I’d have enough fantastic conversation to last a train journey to the moon and back, although I’m sure at least a few of the TED company would quickly explain that said journey wouldn’t be technically impossible.

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

The finest meal I’ve ever had was at a restaurant in the Philippines called Antonio’s. It’s up in the jungle surrounding a mighty volcanic crater in the Tagaytay region about an hour from Manila. The owner is obsessed with sourcing the best meat and vegetable produce in the world. A meal is in the region of £120 a head in a country where £120 rents a room for a year. If it was my last meal though, what the hell!

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

Sadly alcoholism runs in my family, so when it comes to how early in the day you can drink, I’m rather conservative on the subject. As a rule I’d say that a gin and tonic at 6pm is a safe start. Earlier, not so.

A Negroni, a martini or a cup of tea?

I’d be lying if I said I knew what either was, showing my lack of knowledge in both classic cocktails and speciality teas. I must study harder in both areas, but never before 6pm for the former of course.

Whose parties do you enjoy the most and why?

Over the last 6 years with Blake I’ve been to some truly wonderful parties, including film premieres, summer car festivals and polo days a plenty. The best yearly event for me is the Audi Royal Polo. We watch the Audi team lose to William and Harry (every year, strangely), Blake perform a cappella on the mainstage (a yearly tradition now, always after a few drinks and with a few slight ‘alterations’ to the lyrics of our songs) and finally dance till 1am. We go all topped and tailed with a private chauffer from Audi there and back. I have an Audi S8 as my personal ride and these parties alone warrant the investment into their fine automobiles.

Who is the most positive person you know?

A rather wonderful lady who works as both celeb booker for Variety the Children’s Charity and as Mike Oldfield’s personal PA. Caroline Monk can giggle you out of the worst depression and bring sunshine to your dullest day, a great friend and an amazing lady with many stories to tell. She’s battled many things in life and will help you find some perspective on those days when all seems against you.

What’s your most guilty pleasure?

Have you ever stumbled across one of those really old episodes of Top Gear on YouTube, with a silly number of views and thought: “Who the hell watches this stuff”? It’s me. I’ve got this thing about watching old car reviews, convincing myself that it’s developing ‘automotive knowledge’ when in fact it’s as pointless as watching ‘talking cats’. Although I can tell you what Jeremy Clarkson’s hair looked like in any year of the last two decades, admittedly a skill in short demand.

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

Probably the Maserati or Alfa Romeo badges. I’ve almost got petrol running through my veins, such is my love for engines and speed. I might as well wear the permanent mark of the two marques who in my opinion and have made the most beautiful machines ever to live.

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

I’d love to be a Maserati, but in reality I’d be one of those cars made in a barn by an eccentric German, using English body parts and a teutonic engine; generally reliable but with occasional breakdowns.

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

I’m no where near as ‘British’ as the PR and marketing of Blake would have you believe. My father is German, my mother is English but descended from the family which Napoleon married into. I got married to a Guatemalan girl when I was 21, divorced when I was 26 and have only dated 2 English girls in my life. All the others were Latino. I almost turned full-tilt ‘Eurotrash’ in 2004 when my hair reached my shoulders in a swept back slick hairdo, a style low point!

What’s currently sitting on your mantelpiece?

As I travel the world singing with Blake (we’ve sung in 22 countries to date) we meet fans who present us with ever more unique personal presents. On my mantelpiece I currently have a Russian Babushka doll with my face painted on it, alongside a crystal reproduction of my Honda Fireblade superbike. Both were given to me by a fan from Russia. I also have ‘fans’ from fans in China and Japan, along with a wooden ‘love spoon’ from the Mayor of Cardiff. It’s useful for tossing salad apparently.

Stephen Bowman is a member of the Blake, the vocal group widely known for having been formed on Facebook in 2007.

View Blake’s official website at: http://www.blakeofficial.com

Follow Blake on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/TheBandBlake

Follow Stephen Bowman on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/StephenBowman

‘Like’ Blake on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/TheBandBlake

April 9, 2013
Jules Knight: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

The Steeple Times asks actor Jules Knight: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

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

Vino, feminae et Carmen.

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

“Ask, believe, receive”.

Kerry Katona was considered unacceptable in 2007. Who or what is unacceptable in 2013?

I find the fact that we make celebrities of people in reality TV shows unspeakably depressing.

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

I miss my father who died a few years ago.

What might you swap all your wealth for?

If I had a choice between being wealthy and alone or poor and in love, I’d definitely choose the latter. Preferably someone like Mila Kunis if you can arrange it.

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 think a lot of people and companies made mistakes driven by greed and no one seemed to learn from historical mistakes. I’m not against big bonuses if they reward success. I believe in a meritocracy.

What phrase or word do you most loathe?

“We are experiencing high call volumes (today, yesterday and every other day you’ve called). Your call is important to us (so important that we have 2 non English speaking people working to answer 5000 calls a day). Please Hold (whilst you are charged 50p per minute so that when we answer we can tell you that what you want us to do is not possible”.

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

Over the years I’ve performed at a lot of charity events and helped them raise money in all sorts of ways. On a personal level, I think the British Heart Foundation is a great charity and I have a soft spot for WWF. But aside from wrestling, that wildlife charity is good too.

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?

They’re a blessing and a curse. I use mine to run my whole life. It practically brushes my teeth for me. But when I lose it or it breaks I feel completely helpless. Sad really.

BBC1’s “Holby City” actor and former member of vocal group Blake Jules Knight

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

Ricky Gervais, Stephen Fry, Anthony Hopkins, Christian Bale and Jennifer Aniston. A few drinks, a few laughs and then perhaps make love. Not all together. There isn’t room in that bar.

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

I have a feeling they’d make me have it in prison but if they were foolish enough to allow me to have it in, let’s say, The Fat Duck, I’d do that and then have a couple of pints in a pub in Bray, chill out for a few hours and then, well, go home and relax. Phew that was close.

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

I never really drink before 6pm unless there is a plan to start early. In which case, I can be persuaded.

A Negroni, a martini or a cup of tea?

A vodka martini with Grey Goose and a twist. That gets things started nicely.

Whose parties do you enjoy the most and why?

There is a yearly polo party that Audi put on for about 200 people that is the best of the year. Talented, interesting guests from the world of sport, acting and music, lots of champagne, cocktails, amazing food. It turns into one big house party in a field.

Who is the most positive person you know?

My old boss, Nigel Evans MP. He’s a lovely chap.

What’s your most guilty pleasure?

Pickled eggs.

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

“Get it Here”.

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

A Range Rover Evoque. A fusion of classic and contemporary, urban and rural.

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

I wanted to be in the army. Now I prance around treading the boards.

What’s currently sitting on your mantelpiece?

My Classical Brit is wedged between my two degree certificates: a woeful 2:2 MA in Art History from St Andrews and my MA in Acting for Screen from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Jules Knight is an actor and former member of the Blake, the vocal group widely known for having been formed on Facebook in 2007. He appears in BBC1’s Holby City from 14^th May 2013 as Dr Harry Tressler.

Follow him on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/MrJulesKnight

April 9, 2013
Just the tonic

Fever-Tree sells a 25% stake for £12 million

In recent years, the premium spirits market has boomed in both Britain and America. Drinkers have traded up and become more and more demanding in their choices. Spirits brands have seized on this trend and created what they claim to be better products and enclosed them in fancier packaging. Many, such as No. 3 gin, Sipsmith and Purity Vodka, are truly excellent but frankly a lot of it is marketing hype.

Accompanying the change has been a desire for a better mixer. The premise that it was illogical that a consumer buying a bottle of vodka for £50 would then mix it with cheap tonic water was the starting point that set Charles Rolls and Tim Warrilow on the road to create Fever-Tree.

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March 14, 2013
BT phone home

The future for red telephone boxes

The red telephone box is something that tourists often cite as being symbolic of Britain. Just like the red London bus and the red pillar box, though, these Sir Giles Gilbert Scott designed kiosks are sadly disappearing from our streets.

Decaying red telephone boxes are an increasingly common sight throughout Britain

Traditional red “K6” model telephone boxes being removed from Warwick town centre

Killed by the mobile phone revolution, British Telecom successfully lobbied to remove public telephones as usage has declined dramatically. The company state that calls from payphones have fallen by more than 80% in the last five years and that around 60% of the boxes cost more to maintain than they generate in revenue.

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March 12, 2013
Five of the best: Holiday rentals

Five of the best places to escape to with family and friends in 2013

Farmhouse, Blackberry Farm, Walland, Tennessee, USA

Crafted of materials from an 1800s Pennsylvania bank barn, this classic American farmhouse forms part of the exclusive Blackberry Farm, one of America’s most celebrated luxury culinary escapes. Set in 4,200-acres, this stylish property includes 3 bedrooms and is perfect for families and small groups. An on-site chef service is available and rates start at $4,800 per night.

Branche d’Olive, Aveyron, midi-Pyrenees, France

Owned by a well-known English journalist, this large stone gîte in the South-West of France comfortably sleeps a family of four and is just 20-minutes from Villefranche. It has an outdoor pool, a private terrace and even an ancient stone pizza oven. Prices start at £425 per week.

Mill Cottage, near Taunton, Somerset, England

Spacious Mill Cottage on Sir Benjamin Slade’s Maunsel House estate in Somerset sleeps up to 10 people. Prices start at £675 per night and for those looking for a location for a wedding or somewhere for a corporate event, the welcoming and efficient team here can cater for your every whim.

The Old Kirk, Kilninver, near Oban, Scotland

With views across the waters where Enigma and Ring of Bright Water were filmed, The Old Kirk in Argyll provides accommodation for 6 to 8 people. Fishing is available on the owner’s 3,000-acre estate on 3 lochs and the River Euchar. Prices start at £495 per week.

The Samling, Windermere, Cumbria, England

The Samling can be rented in its entirety from £4,500 per night. Set in 67 acres, this 11-bedroom property has been used by Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Stella McCartney and David and Victoria Beckham amongst others. It is the perfect base from which to explore the Lake District and the views across Lake Windermere are stunning.

Blackberry Farm: http://www.blackberryfarm.com

Branche d’Olive: http://www.branchedolive.co.uk

Mill Cottage: http://www.maunselhouse.co.uk

The Old Kirk: http://www.kilninver-estate.co.uk

The Samling: http://www.thesamlinghotel.co.uk

December 17, 2012
Richard Caring

Of Italian-Jewish descent, Caring is of the “supermarket-sweep” school of empire building. This billionaire started out in the rag trade but now controls the majority of the top restaurants and clubs in Central London. He survived the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and viewed that to be a wakeup call. Since then he’s donated millions to charity and focused on his two passions: golf and shooting. This buccaneering businessman generally passes on breakfast and lunch and lives between a converted stable block set in 500 acres near Dulverton and a mansion on The Bishops Avenue. What will he buy next?

November 25, 2012
Liz Jones

This mouthpiece was born in Rettendon, Essex in 1958 and vents bile on all manner of subjects. Articles such as: “Why don’t more women moan like me?” and “Liz Jones’ baby craving drove her to steal husband’s sperm in ultimate deception” are frankly illustrative of why she’s so unpopular. After she got banned from the majority of fashion shows and her husband left her, she quit London for Somerset in 2007 to feed organic muesli to the rats in the barns of a 47-acre farm she purchased as her “rural idyll.” That misadventure came to a sticky end in November 2012 after she’d alienated the whole county by calling them, amongst other things, “smelly” and “faintly Amish.” Goodness knows whom she’ll choose to offend next. Phillip Schofield sums her up best: “She is inconsistent, bitter, nasty and unhinged.” Our advice: Just steer well clear of this acid tongued poison pen.

November 15, 2012
The battleaxe in the Beemer

Matthew Steeples examines the truth behind Liz Jones giving up on her “rural idyll”

The Mail’s Liz Jones is a waspish woman who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Those who’ve paid even a moment’s attention to her bleating, will be familiar with lines such as: “Last week, my brand new £1,300 MacBook Pro broke” and “Phil Spencer wanted his £46,000 and he wanted it now!” She never stops talking about money and the size of what she both owns and owes.

Liz Jones

In today’s Femail, Jones bores on about about how she feels “like a cross-dresser” trying out the Kardashian Kollection of clothing in a pointed attack on Kim Kardashian, but it was for her diatribe yesterday that she truly got the goat of the nation in “[bidding] a ferocious farewell” to life in the country in an article entitled “Goodbye… and good riddance!” 2,151 people have commented so far and most of them have been far from sympathetic.

When Upcott Farm at Brushford, near Dulverton in Somerset came up for sale in 2007 at a price of £1.6 million, it featured in an article by The Telegraph’s Caroline McGhie. The 5-bedroomed farmhouse came with a 2-bedroom annexe, a courtyard of barns and stables and 47 acres of land. McGhie waxed lyrical about the merits of moving to this location: “People come here for the peace and quiet, the night skies, the dramatic coastline, and they work from home,” she stated before adding: “You can find everything here, including butchers, bakers, afternoon tea and cake, fish and chips, an art gallery and a shop selling fishing tackle.” Of Upcott Farm itself, she concluded:

“This would suit a member of the new wave of buyers dubbed Droppies (Disillusioned Relatively Ordinary Professionals Preferring Independent Employment Situations).”

McGhie got it half right: Upcott Farm sold to someone who considers herself far from “relatively ordinary” and someone who is far from “professional.” The purchaser, however, was certainly someone who’d become “disillusioned” with what she’d bought and someone whose desire to be “independent” and create a “situation” just alienated all she encountered. The buyer, you’ve guessed it, was none other than Elizabeth Ann Jones.

Jones was born in Brentwood, Essex in 1958 and studied journalism at the London College of Printing. She became editor of Marie Claire in 1999 but was sacked, she herself suggests, for “listing in the magazine the freebies she had been offered in the previous month.” Here, it seems, began Jones’s obsession with all things material and here she also met an Indian BBC radio journalist named Nirpal Dhaliwal in 2000.

Jones married Dhaliwal but the union was to prove an “utter disaster” as he had affairs with women she terms “younger, dimmer [and] slimmer.” “I’m no racist” Jones was divorced in 2007 and said goodbye to her “3,000 square foot of Islington real estate” and “easy, if super-busy, London life” in favour of the green, green grass of Somerset.

Upcott Farm, Brushford, Dulverton, Somerset, TA22 9RS

Whoever’s side you see it from, five years of hell followed. Jones baited the locals and they grew to loathe her. She wrote columns and a book, The Exmoor Files, where she attacked them as “faintly Amish… feral, old and smelly” and another hack and neighbour, Jane Alexander of The Telegraph, responded: “Dulverton [was] positively fizzing with fury” after each and every publication.

Of the local restaurants, Jones stated:

“I have given up trying to eat out in restaurants here on Exmoor… It is still stuck in the Seventies, with only things in baskets and rum babas on the menu… If you tell the waiter you are vegetarian, you are stared at, incredulously, as if you are black.”

She whinged about her inability to find love:

”I will never, ever meet a man here in the middle of a moor, where even to be in possession of your own teeth is a bonus.”

And whined about fieldsports:

“I didn’t increase my popularity by being unable to pass a party of men and often children with guns, shooting rabbits and deer, without getting out of my BMW and saying: ‘Do you really have nothing better to do with your Saturday morning?’ The look of shock on their faces that I had the cheek to challenge them was priceless. I would stop, too, and shout at huntsmen on horses, galloping on tarmaced roads, one hand on the reins, the other clamping a mobile phone to their heads. ‘You will ruin your horses’ tendons!’ I would wail.”

Whilst Jones found little to like in her new community, they found nothing positive in her arrival either. Her dog was blamed for worrying lambs, and Jones’s inability to control it, locals say, was an indicator of the chasm between her life and theirs. In 2009, one neighbour went as far as to tell Danny Brierley of The Independent:

“We have got nothing in common with her, really. I think she may find it difficult to make any kind of life here now. She is not a very friendly person and we are all sick to death of talking about Liz Jones. A hatred has been building up for months. She is actually having a go at people and they are not going to tolerate that. She has feelings like all people, of course she has. But everyone wants her to leave and leave now. No one can make her, but we think she will go. I don’t see how you can live in such a small community with people who think that way about you.”

Matters came to a head when Jones’s precious black BMW convertible, “bought in 2005 for £26,000,” was pelted with eggs and teenagers fired shots at her letterbox with an air rifle. A local councilor even dressed up as her in the local carnival and yesterday Jones took revenge on those she blames for her “five-year prison sentence” and deprivation from Space NK, Cath Kidston and Illy coffee.

Instead, the article just shows the true reality of this bombastic harpy. The lines Jones penned speak for themselves. Country people don’t welcome someone who planned to “hack for miles across the open moorland in my Prada jodhpurs” anymore than the folk of Knightsbridge welcome Arabs treating their roads like racetracks. The gardener who had to endure Jones yelling “walk faster!” at him didn’t deserve such anymore than a bus driver in SW11 deserves abuse from his passengers. Jones concludes:

“I’m now a different person. I became so lonely. I would often get in my car, not just for the warmth, but for the kind voice of the satnav lady. I’ve learned that an amazing view and a pair of nesting grey herons are not enough to make me happy.”

27 acres of land including paddocks and a fishing lake remain on the market through Savills and Strutt & Parker at a price of £200,000 at Upcott Farm

Miss Jones bleats that she’s taken a £500,000 loss on Upcott Farm, which languished on the market at first at £1,900,000 and then £1,750,000 for three years. The “unexpected” sale of the property has given her the ability to “flee back to the city” but the locals and even the “Droopies” should be warned: there’s still 27 acres of the farm unsold and on the market at a price of £200,000. Halloween may have passed but the battleaxe in the Beemer could still call again.

Read yesterday’s “Goodbye… and good riddance!” article by Liz Jones for the Mail on Sunday at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2231033/Goodbye–good-riddance-During-catastrophic-years-country-Liz-Jones-greeted-gun-attack-relentless-abuse-Now-flees-city-bids-ferocious-farewell.html

To purchase Liz Jones’s book, The Exmoor Diaries, go to: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Exmoor-Files-Husband-Found-Rural/dp/0297854437

For more information about the remaining 27 acres at Upcott Farm, contact Strutt & Parker on +44 (0) 1392 976005 or go to: http://www.primelocation.com/for-sale/details/18314693?search_identifier=71cbb8a2fb43a12182bfa7b79b5de0a3

November 12, 2012
Sir Benjamin Slade Bt.: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

The Steeple Times asks the right-wing businessman and owner of Maunsel House and Woodlands Castle, Sir Benjamin Slade: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

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

Money, power, sex, success, land, trees, books and fine wine.

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

“If it f**ks, floats or flies: Rent it, don’t buy it and don’t marry it!”

Kerry Katona was considered unacceptable in 2007. Who or what is unacceptable in 2012?

David Cameron and Sir Mervyn King.

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

Being in London full-time.

What might you swap all your wealth for?

Good health and two healthy sons.

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’s like putting bartenders on commission and allowing them to give credit to alcoholics who die and go bankrupt.

What phrase or word do you most loathe?

I’ve got three: 1. “Sustainability.” 2. “Stakeholder.” 3. “Human rights.”

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

UKIP and Help for Heroes.

The judge in “Law Abiding Citizen” states: “I can pretty do whatever I want” before being blown up whilst answering her mobile phone. What’s your view on the appropriate use of such devices?

They are useful for ringing up if late, doing deals and arranging dinners with girls.

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

Warren Buffett, Bobby Faber, Philip Gibbs, Bettany Hughes, Brian Kingham, Lady Kitchener-Fellowes, Francis Fulford, Robert Lyle, Sir John Madejski, David Ord, General Sir Michael Rose, Roger Seelig, Alexander Stockton, Jonathan Sumption PC, Norman Tebbit, Lord Westbury, the Duke of Westminster and Mrs William Worsley. Adrian de Ferranti can sit in the luggage car and serve wine.

Sir Benjamin Slade Bt.

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

It’d have to be at La Tour d’Argent in Paris.

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

1pm and 6pm.

A Negroni, a martini or a cup of tea?

Green tea.

Whose parties do you enjoy the most and why?

Sotheby’s and Christie’s and those hosted by Liz Floyd and Philip Gibbs.

Who is the most positive person you know?

My friend Bobby Faber.

What’s your most guilty pleasure?

Drinking claret at £100 per bottle.

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

A big castle with lots of walnut trees, good books and bottles of wine. And girls’ hips.

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

A Ford Fiesta.

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

I’m self-made, have a great knowledge of history and am a seriously good doctor with over 120 patients. And, you’ll be surprised to learn that I was a spy in the Middle East for Britain.

What’s currently sitting on your mantelpiece?

Tankards, invites, various Mouser and Walther pistols, cows horns, Roman artifacts, decanters, pewter cups, silver, an 18th century bottle of port and a Russian machine gun.

Maunsel House, North Newton, Near Taunton, Somerset, TA7 0BU. Telephone: +44 (0) 1278 661076. Website: http://www.maunselhouse.co.uk

Woodlands Castle, Ruishton, Taunton, Somerset, TA3 5LU. Telephone: +44 (0) 1823 444955. Website: http://www.woodlandscastle.co.uk

Read Sir Benjamin Slade’s blog at: http://sirbenslade.blogspot.co.uk/ and follow him on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/sirbenslade

October 22, 2012
The Rt. Hon. The Lord Archer

Jeffrey’s invented a lot of tales but is rightly renowned for spinning them brilliantly. This former politician wrote some brilliant diaries whilst in prison and now is mostly likely to be found doing charitable deeds. His shepherd’s pie and Krug parties are still the stuff of legends.

May 7, 2012