Prince Harry makes his debut at Goodwood Motor Circuit
Today, Saturday 15th February, Prince Harry took part in a track day at Goodwood Motor Circuit run by the Royal Foundation Endeavour Fund. (more…)
Tag: West Sussex
-
Katherine “Kate” Mosse OBE
This author and co-founder of the Orange Prize for Literature must often find people confusing her with the model of the same name. Most famous for her international bestseller novel Labyrinth, Mosse is a lynchpin of the “Chichester set”. She has an honorary degree from her hometown’s university and set up the Chichester Writing Festival with her fellow writer husband, Greg. This author has written all of her books in a chair that she bought for £50 in a junk shop and is also a regular guest presenter for BBC Radio 4’s A Good Read. -
Propping up a 'princess'?
Sara[h] Al Amoudi: a supposed ‘Saudi princess’ who has a history with the British court faces two property investors who claim she duped them into handing her £14 million worth of properties in Central London
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: “Where there’s brass, there’s muck”. (more…)
-
Propping up a ‘princess’?
Sara[h] Al Amoudi: a supposed ‘Saudi princess’ who has a history with the British court faces two property investors who claim she duped them into handing her £14 million worth of properties in Central London
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: “Where there’s brass, there’s muck”. (more…)
-
Martha Kearney
This “avid bee-keeper” is the main presenter of BBC Radio 4’s World At One. When interviewed by The Guardian in 2011, Oxford educated Kearney stated: “I wouldn’t think of myself as a Loose Woman”. We’re glad to hear it. This voice of reason is indeed far from that. -
Marina Cowdray: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
The Steeple Times asks artist and sculptor Marina Cowdray: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?
Accepting each moment as it appears.
“Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?
Laugh often and don’t take life too seriously.
Kerry Katona was considered unacceptable in 2007. Who or what is unacceptable in 2013?
The weather has been unacceptable.
Tony Blair misses being Prime Minister. What do you miss most in your life?
I don’t miss anything as everything is all here with us right now.
What might you swap all your wealth for?
Health and happiness and peace of mind for any one suffering.
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 would leave the banking crisis to people that understand banking.
What phrase or word do you most loathe?
There are no taboos in my dictionary.
In the UK, some people consider charity to “begin at home”. What’s your view and what causes do you personally support?
Charity starts at home and in our local community. I have created a place of silence for people needing to step aside from the challenges of daily life. I am hoping to expand on this idea through the sales of the sculpture ’The Meditator’ which I have dedicated to this cause. I also support local charities and I am an international patron of Live to Love and an international advisor to The Oxford Centre of Mindfulness. Both of these charities are ones I feel can make a difference to peoples lives.
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?
Make use of it and enjoy it while we have it.
Artist and sculptor Marina Cowdray. Photograph by Michael Chevis (http://www.michaelchevis.com) If you could fill a carriage on The Orient Express, who would be your fellow passengers?
All my family and if there is any space, Sixto Rodriguez for some great music. I enjoyed watching the film Searching for Sugar Man.
If you were unfortunate enough to end up on death row, what would be your last meal and where would you eat it?
A takeaway primavera spaghetti from Ziani’s restaurant in Radnor Walk sitting beside the Thames watching the boats pass by.
What time is it acceptable to consume the first drink of the day?
I gave up drink years ago although any time you want a drink is acceptable if it is going to make you happy.
A Negroni, a martini or a cup of tea?
A cappuccino.
Whose parties do you enjoy the most and why?
I love a party at home with my children and friends. We generally laugh a lot.
Who is the most positive person you know?
One of my girlfriends who has been in a wheelchair for 35 years.
What’s your most guilty pleasure?
Getting back into bed with a good book and a cup of coffee.
If a tattoo were to sum you up, what would it be of?
A spiral, as it can remind me of a 360-degree turn on another view point.
If you were a car, what marque would you be?
A tuk-tuk as its fun to weave in and out of the traffic and it’s characterful.
Cilla Black presented Surprise, Surprise. Tell us the most surprising thing about you.
Less is so much more.
What’s currently sitting on your mantelpiece?
A pair of bronze hands that I cast of His Holiness the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa.
Viscountess Cowdray is an artist and sculptor.
For more information about The Meditator, go to: http://www.themeditator.com
For details about Live to Love, go to: http://www.live2love.org and for information on The Oxford Centre of Mindfulness, go to: http://www.oxfordcentreofmindfulness.org
-
Adele Adkins
“I don’t know what’s going to happen if my music career goes wrong,” states this Tottenham born singer. Having been named “one of the most influential people in the world” by TIME Magazine and broken the record for the longest number-1 album by a woman in Billboard history, she really need not worry. Adele’s still “Someone Like You,” except she’s now worth in excess of £23 million and is guaranteed a place amongst the music greats. Gordon Brown wrote to this Labour supporter to tell her that she’s a “light end of the tunnel” but we prefer the view of former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash. Of her, he proclaims: “She’s great. She’s a shot in the arm for this industry.” -
Robin Sheppard: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
The Steeple Times asks hotelier and chairman of Bespoke Hotels Robin Sheppard: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom.” What’s your guiding force?
Hunger.
“Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?
“While I breath, I hope.”
Kerry Katona was considered unacceptable in 2007. Who or what is unacceptable in 2012?
Piers Morgan.
Tony Blair misses being Prime Minister. What do you miss most in your life?
The ability to fit into non-elasticated trousers.
What might you swap all your wealth for?
I might swap it for anything. However, I would swap it for nothing.
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 it’s a great shame that people no longer consider their bank manager to be a friend. We’ve lost the trust. It’s very different now to how it once was.
What phrase or word do you most loathe?
“At this moment in time”: What a waste of words.
In the UK, some people consider charity to “begin at home.” What’s your view and what causes do you personally support?
I am affiliated with the Guillan-Barre Syndrome Support Group.
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?
Turn them off when you’re on the loo. Or at least try not to use them.
If you could fill a carriage on The Orient Express, who would be your fellow passengers?
Are we murdering or sightseeing? Either way, the answer’s probably family.
Hotelier Robin Sheppard If you were unfortunate enough to end up on death row, what would be your last meal and where would you eat it?
Presumably I’d have to eat it in the prison I doubt they’d let me go on a picnic. I think I’d have spaghetti bolognaise with a robust Chianti.
What time is it acceptable to consume the first drink of the day?
Immediately after you finish work. Whichever time that may be.
A Negroni, a martini or a cup of tea?
Cup of tea.
Whose parties do you enjoy the most and why?
If I remembered them, they can’t have been that much fun, can they?
Who is the most positive person you know?
My golf instructor. He’s always laughing whenever I take a shot.
What’s your most guilty pleasure?
Pork scratchings.
If a tattoo were to sum you up, what would it be of?
That festival in Edinburgh.
If you were a car, what marque would you be?
A monster truck.
Cilla Black presented “Surprise, Surprise.” Tell us the most surprising thing about you.
I’m an only child.
What’s currently sitting on your mantelpiece?
A handful of birthday cards.
Robin Sheppard is a classically trained hotelier and chairman of Bespoke Hotels. He is also managing director of Alfresco, designed the iconic bottle for Ty-Nant mineral water and is the author of A Solitary Confinement (2007).
To purchase a copy of Sheppard’s book, A Solitary Confinement, go to: http://www.amazon.co.uk/A-Solitary-Confinement-Robin-Sheppard/dp/1905823258. Watch a video interview with him about Guillan-Barre Syndrome at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9SQKayEQEo
For more information about Bespoke Hotels, go to: http://www.bespokehotels.com and for information on Alfresco: http://www.alfresco.co.uk
-
Hugh Bonneville
In his role as Downton Abbey’s Lord Grantham, this actor warned that “scandals” always have a habit of coming out. He graduated in Theology at Cambridge but, according to Adam Helliker of the Daily Express, Bonneville wasn’t especially keen to show Christian compassion towards Lord Archer at a party at The Cadogan Hotel when it was requested that the pair be photographed together. -
“Grockles” and “Emmets”
Matthew Steeples discovers Michael Winner’s links to descriptions of unwelcome “out of towners”
My last linguistic rambling explored two words, “plebs” and “ladettes,” that, like Andrew Mitchell MP, truly need to be eliminated from our culture. The next two in this series, “grockles” and “emmets,” have far more amusing origins and truly sum up the eccentricities of those living in the South of England.
I was led to believe that the word “grockle” was an ancient description of “those not from round here,” but having done a little research I now discover that it actually emanates from the 20th century The Dandy’s comic strip, “Danny and the Grockle.”
“Grockles” and caravans commonly go together 
“The Girl-Getters” (AKA “The System”) starred Oliver Reed, Jane Merrow, Barbara Ferris, Harry Andrews and Julia Foster and was directed by Michael Winner The Dandy’s “grockle” was nothing other than a dragon like creature. There wasn’t anything more to the beast and it wasn’t until 1964 that the term became popularised when it was used in a film set in the Devon resort of Torquay. In The System (renamed The Girl-Getters for the US market), starring Oliver Reed and directed by Michael Winner, one of the characters states:
“Bloody grockles and their caravans, always jamming up the Devon lanes!”
Henceforth, the word became forevermore linked to tourists and thus we can hold Michael Winner responsible for bringing it to the world’s attention. Winner, who describes, himself as: “A totally insane film director, writer, producer, silk shirt cleaner, bad tempered, totally ridiculous example of humanity in deep shit” really should proudly add a reference to this to his Twitter handle.
Other definitions of the “grockle” are more specific and an especially amusing one separates these interlopers very clearly:
“It’s used as an insult towards ignorant and usually posh tourists; those with caravans; those with five kids, a dog, a grandad tagging along and those that have been coming to town for twenty years and think they know and own the place.”
The same commentator on this term continues:
“Someone holidaying in Christchurch who’s from Southampton isn’t a grockle… Foreign tourists aren’t [grockles] either as these generally tend to be considerate people when traveling and don’t make a nuisance of themselves… However, when I went to Puerto Banus near Marbella, I’d heard it was very exclusive but it was full of grockles still.”
The word is now so recognised that it was used in an a 2010 article in The Sunday Times about the sale of Lord Cowdray’s £25 million home in West Sussex:
“Bar a few open-garden events, the Cowdrays have never allowed visitor access to the property, so the eventual buyer won’t have to endure grockles coming up the drive.”
Whilst we have discovered that a “grockle” is a pretty general term, in Cornwall they have a more specific variation. The Cornish use the pejorative nickname “emmet” for tourists.
Derived from the Cornish language word for “ant,” the “emmet” is an analogy for the way in which both tourists and ants are often red in colour and appear to mill around. “Emmets,” it seems, are nuisances who get in the way and whom the locals would rather weren’t there.
Michael Winner wearing a T-shirt complete with his trademark phrase: “Calm down dear”… In this case he states: “It’s only a recession” but we do think he ought to also get one stating: “Calm down dear, they’re only grockles, they’re not from round ‘ere” Be they a “grockle” or an “emmet,” tourists may well generate millions in revenue for the people of the South West but still, as many a local will say: “They’re not welcome round ‘ere.” I’m sure many a restaurateur feels similarly when Mr Michael Winner lands on his doorstep.
Grockles away.
View Michael Winner’s official website at: http://www.michael-winner.com/
Follow Michael Winner on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/mrmichaelwinner