HEALTH • MONEY • TRAVEL • RECIPES • FASHION • TECHNOLOGY

MARCH 2021

KATE
MOSS
On Modelling,
Motherhood
And Maturity
DAME OLIVIA
NEWTON-JOHN
“I’m Grateful
For Every Day”
RESTAURANTS
THROUGH THE AGES
Inside An Industry
Built On Survival
OF THE

6 BEST MOVIES
From The
Sundance
Film Festival readersdigest.co.uk

MARCH 2021 £3.99

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ones or a fully-trained care team at the touch of a button
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Contents
MARCH 2021

Features
16 IT’S A MANN’S WORLD
What to do when your kid gets
COVID-19? Olly Mann offers p20
his first-hand account

ENTERTAINMENT
20 INTERVIEW: DAME
OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN
The star of Grease on her life
in lockdown, family, and her
battle with cancer

28 “I REMEMBER”:
KATE MOSS
The British supermodel
looks back on growing up in
Croydon, getting discovered,
and her life in the spotlight
HEALTH
38 KNOW YOUR BODY
Does your doctor always know
what’s best for you? Ronny
Maye’s story proves that’s not
always the case
56 LONELY IN LOCKDOWN
Why maintaining social
connections is more important
than ever for your health
p82
INSPIRE
74 RESTAURANT EVOLUTION
From revolutions to global
pandemics, the restaurant is no
stranger to the art of survival
82 MY DOG, THE WAR HERO
The heartwarming story of
Dyngo, the military dog, settling
back into civilian life
90 ICE ICE BABY
Meet the people whose idea of
fun is a dip in freezing water

MARCH 2021 • 1
cover illustration by Yordanka Poleganova
Open minded advances in
healthcare from wellness
innovators Medicaleaf
Over 200 million people in the UK and mainland
Europe suffer from debilitating chronic pain, seizures
and sleeping disorders as well as an equal number of
increasingly enlightened people who can appreciate
the recuperative benefit of cannabinoids.
There is a clear movement away from the ‘traditional’
medical practitioners and pharmaceutical companies
and we aim to provide trusted and licensed products
that can be bought legally and administered safely.
Public awareness and open-mindedness towards
alternative cures for lifelong conditions are growing;
and the World Health Organization (WHO) reports
research suggesting that CBD may have therapeutic
benefits for many conditions, including:
Research is ongoing: clinical trials to test the
effectiveness of medicinal cannabis in all its forms
will prove best use and lead to more government
approved cannabis-based medicinal products
(CBMPs) containing cannabidiol or (CBD), joining
those such as Epidiolex, which is already available
on prescription in the UK for the treatment of
seizures caused by two severe forms of epilepsy:
Lennox- Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome.
Medicaleaf™ was founded by a team of business
leaders, marketing & technology experts, scientists,
caregivers and advocates who are committed to
producing safe, reliable products and promoting
wellness from nature.
The widening interest in ‘wellness’ as an
alternative, preventative lifestyle, particularly in
Find Out More about how you can get involved and profit
from the £135B European Health and Wellbeing market.
www.medicaleaf.org.uk
• Multiple sclerosis;
• Arthritis;
• Spinal cord injury;
• Epileptic seizures;
• Alzheimer’s disease;
• Parkinson’s disease;
• Huntington’s disease;
• Hypoxic-ischemic injury;
• Chronic and acute pain;
• Psychosis;
• Nausea;
• Inflammatory diseases;
• Rheumatoid arthritis;
• Inflammatory bowel disease;
• Cardiovascular disease; and
• Diabetic complications.
these times, fuels our fire. As an organisation, we
are committed to creating a business that will
assist in the alleviation of pain and suffering and
collaboratively create products to assist in better
wellbeing and healthier living.
Medicaleaf expects to see its valuation increase
five fold before floatation in three years’ time.
Medicaleaf is looking to complete their £10 million
initial investment by the year end.
Capital raised will be invested in Product
Manufacturing, Sales and Marketing campaigns and
distribution infrastructure but will also be used for
suitable acquisitions and joint ventures that will
catapult the growth of the company in suitable
strategic moves.
Contents
MARCH 2021

In every issue
10 Over to You
12 See the World Differently

HEALTH
46 Advice: Susannah Hickling
50 Column: Dr Max Pemberton

INSPIRE
72 If I Ruled the World:
Nadia Sawalha
p108
TRAVEL & ADVENTURE FASHION & BEAUTY
98 My Great Escape 114 Column: Jenessa
100 Hidden Gems: Trinidad Williams’ Fashion Tips
116 Beauty
MONEY
102 Column: Andy Webb ENTERTAINMENT
118 March’s Cultural Highlights
FOOD & DRINK
106 A Taste of Home BOOKS
108 World Kitchen: Sweden 122 March Fiction: James Walton’s
Recommended Reads
DIY 127 Books That Changed
110 Column: Cassie Pryce My Life: Robert Thorogood

ENVIRONMENT TECHNOLOGY
112 Column: Jessica Lone Summers 128 Column: James O’Malley

FUN & GAMES

130 You Couldn’t Make It Up
p70 133
136
Word Power
Brain Teasers
140 Laugh!
143 60-Second Stand-Up
144 Beat the Cartoonist

MARCH 2021 • 3
 DO YOU WANT TO HELP
MONITOR THE SAFETY OF
COVID-19 VACCINES?
(DSRU)
Currently we are not studying all vaccines so your
eligibility will depend on which vaccine you receive.

The new COVID-19 vaccines have been

shown to be safe and effective, but like all
new medicines and vaccines they must
still be monitored once they are in
“real-life” use. The DSRU is conducting a
study to monitor the safety of COVID-19
vaccines in the UK public.
Are you interested in taking part in
our questionnaire study about the
COVID-19 vaccine?

Please use this link to register your

interest now (with no commitment):
goto.dsru.org/covid

Tel: 0800 619 6222

DSRU, Southampton, UK www.dsru.org

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 You don’t have
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Or Tolstoy Or Proust

You just have to be you

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In This Issue…
Have you ever
visited your GP with a
burning issue, certain
that you’ll walk away
with answers, only to
leave feeling slightly
deflated, that your issue
hadn’t been taken seriously? We’re
extremely lucky to have the NHS in
this country, an army of heroes who
wake up every day with the mission
to heal complete strangers. But
sometimes, unconscious biases can
get in the way of people receiving the
treatment that they need. Ronny
Maye is an expert in this. As a Black,
plus-size woman, she has often felt
that the stigmas associated with her
physical appearance have proven a
barrier to getting the healthcare she
needs. If this is a problem you’ve
faced too, she’s here to help. On
p38 she shares her top tips for self-
advocacy. You’ve only got one body.
It’s important to fight for it.
Anna
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Reader’s Digest is published in 27 editions in 11 languages
EDITORS’ LET TERS
It’s a well known fact
that loneliness can be
linked to countless
mental and physical
health conditions—
even death. So how can
we stay socially connected when
meeting people is the riskiest thing
you can do during a pandemic? On
p56, we talk to health experts as well
as people who have struggled with
isolation, and round up practical tips
on how to stave off loneliness.
Human contact is not the only thing
we were deprived of by COVID-19;
one of life’s simplest pleasures, eating
out, is now also a distant memory.
This last year has been a challenging
time for the restaurant industry, and
yet, numerous establishments are
finding new, inventive ways of
bringing their food to the customers’
tables. On p74, read all about the
fascinating history of restaurant
reinvention in times of crisis.
Eva
twitter.com/readersdigestuk @readersdigest_uk
MARCH 2021 • 7
 Over To You
LETTERS ON THE January ISSUE
We pay £50 for Letter of the Month and £30 for all others

LETTER OF THE MONTH HEALTH • MONEY • TRAVEL • RECIPES • FASHION • TECHNOLOGY

I’ve been finding
lockdown number
three challenging as
DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY
JANUARY 2021
Angella Nazarian’s “If I Ruled The
Sir MICHAEL
world,” was the perfect choice for
PARKINSON
“I Don’t Think
I Ever Behaved
the January Edition to guide us in
Badly In Public”

I’m sure many others GARY NUMAN

On Autism, Anxiety
And Alan Patridge
our making of resolutions for the
are. I think, for me, MONEY ON
MY MIND
Mental Health
year ahead! We should all start 2021
& Your Finances

the biggest challenge LIFESTYLE by taking on board her suggestion

7 TIPS
For A Happy
& Healthy
of all is feeling 2021
readersdigest.co.uk
to “commit to being happy.” How
lonely. A lack of JANUARY 2021 £3.99

radical, and how ridiculous that it is

communication with so radical! Perhaps we should go
other adults left me feeling rather low. I’m the whole hog, and challenge
furloughed from my full-time job which ourselves to commit to being happy
is customer-focused. I’m used to talking for the whole year (and in doing so
to people all day so it is a strange feeling kickstart a worthwhile, life-long,
being home with only my young children habit). Because surely this is the
for conversation. I went online to search new year’s resolution of all new
for a magazine subscription, not really year’s resolutions?
knowing what sort of magazine And, if you’re feeling stuck,
I might like. I wanted something that Nazarian has even provided a few
would be current, informative, with a useful pointers; travel (near and/
variety of interesting articles. I came or far), spend more time with
across Reader’s Digest, subscribed and it people of different generations,
gave me free access to the online version and be emphatic.
of the January issue. While I wait for my It’s so empowering to think 2021
first physical issue, I’m so glad I found could be our happiest year yet and
you! It is a great issue. I love your mixture that really, it’s so simple—all we have
of content, fantastic articles, letters, jokes to do is choose to listen to our hearts
and puzzles too. This issue has kept me and then follow them (although her
occupied for hours and put a smile back suggestion to attend at least one
on my face. I’m looking forward to my “happiness course” wouldn’t go
ongoing subscription now. Thank you! amiss either!).
— KERRIANN BRIGGS, Devon —JENNIE GARDNER, Bath

8 • MARCH 2021
TOUCHY FEELY EDUCATION, EDUCATION
I think many people would Angella Nazarian made
agree with Olly Mann’s take some insightful points in her
on January as a Christmas “If I Ruled the World” article.
hangover, although, unlike I particularly agreed with
Olly, I struggle to drum up her comments on early child
enthusiasm for the fresh start of the education putting stronger
new year. It tends to take a little while for me emphasis on compassion
to move on and perhaps that’s something and empathy to others.
about nostalgia for the past and resisting the What better learning could
march of time and the ageing process! a young child have than
Don’t get me wrong—2020 was clearly to respect themselves and
a horror show and this time last year, my others around them?
Australian wife, Bec, and I, naively thought In these days when
that the year would be most remembered for religion is often in decline
the huge and scary bush fires that maimed and many children do not
the landscape, culled huge numbers of native have a stable and supportive
animals and their habitats, destroyed homes, home life, a knowledge of
lives and came a little too close to Bec’s family right and wrong and doing
for comfort. How wrong can you be? unto others as you would
I did love Olly’s lessons from 2020 and I think expect to be done to you
it was a year that gave us some absolute gems. is an essential lesson in life.
But one thing that really chimed with me, was Starting children on the right
Olly’s third lesson—that massage is affordable. path must surely lead to an
I wholeheartedly agree as my wife is a massage improvement in behaviour.
therapist! If ever asked what I’d do if I won A grounding in compassion
the lottery, my younger self would say “I’d would give children
get a personal masseur”. And then I married increased self-esteem and
one! She hasn’t been able to work much on respect for others and help
strangers this year (she usually goes to offices towards a more considerate
to massage staff), but I have grudgingly allowed and accepting world.
her to keep her skills sharp! — MIA DUNLOP ,
— LISA BEST, Cheshire Tyne and Wear

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

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MARCH 2021 • 9
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 Photo: © John-oliver Dum/500Px/Getty imaGes
12
SEE turn
THEtheWORLD...
page
 …DIFFERENTLY
The male of the “European orchard“
or “mason bee“, (Osmia cornuta) is
recognisable by his impressive hairdo.
As you can see in the photo on the
previous two pages, the face and
underside of the head are covered in
long, white hairs. The female of the
species is considerably more discreet
with her plain black hairstyle. Native
to almost all of Europe, these wild
bees are also “solitary”, meaning they
do not live in hives or have queens like
honey bees but rather live on their
own. In May they start building their
nests. After mating the male leaves and
the female stays behind to care for the
next generation.

Photo: © BiosPhoto/alamy stock Photo

15
IT’S A MANN’S WORLD
Comfort Food
A difficult diagnosis leaves the Mann family in a tough spot
this month, but Olly has his coping mechanisms…
y son, Toby, 17 months
M old, has just tested
positive for COVID-19.
We half-expected it—that’s
why we’d taken him to be tested,
after all. But it was still unpleasant
news to receive at five am; the NHS
text flashing up at precisely the
moment he coughed in my face
for the fifth time that morning. Er,
OK, I thought: this temperature and
runny nose are indeed the Dreaded
Lurgy (as opposed to just, you know,
Lurgy). But what exactly can I do
with this information?
Our whole household has to
Olly Mann presents
Four Thought for
BBC Radio 4, and
the award-winning
podcasts The Modern
Mann and Answer
Me This!
16 • MARCH 2021
self-isolate for ten days, that much
is clear. To be honest, there isn’t
an enormous difference between
"lockdown" and "self-isolation",
apart from all those really indulgent
trips to buy stamps we’ll so valiantly
sacrifice. But Toby is the first in our
household to test positive, and all
the information provided for people
in this predicament is designed
for adults who are (or should be)
concerned about protecting their
families. Toby, obviously, cannot
comprehend such advice. He cannot
keep a distance from everybody
else, or eat and wash in a separate
room. There’s a word for asking a
baby to behave like that, and that
word is "neglect".
Because we don’t have symptoms,
my wife and I can’t divide up our
parenting tasks based on risk of
exposure, or receive NHS tests to
illustration by Daniel Mitchell
IT’S A MANN’S WORLD
determine our status. We called
111, and the medic we spoke
to agreed that the official
guidance didn’t really apply
to our situation. "The advice
is an ideal world scenario", she
said. "But there’s not much you
can do".
Indeed. Not much we can do.
So, here we are, trapped within
our four walls with a babbling,
gurgling, tottering Vector Of
Transmission, who steadfastly
continues to climb on us, spit in our
faces, love us, hug us and flob on us.
It seems inevitable that we, and our
elder son, are going to get COVID
now. Not much we can do.
Up until this point, we’d done
all that was asked: stocked up on
hand sanitiser, joined Disney+,
downloaded Zoom, clapped for
the NHS, cancelled our Christmas,
raided Ocado for wine and created
a special "APOCALYPSE!" cupboard
full of chopped tomatoes and bog
roll. We’d obeyed the lockdowns
to the letter—and continued to
send Toby to nursery, because the
government said we could.
At the first sign of a splutter, we’d
whipped him down to the drive-
thru testing centre. We’d obeyed all
the signs telling us to remain in our
car—even though that meant I had
to ungainly climb over the back seats
to stick a chopstick up my son’s nose,
thereby becoming jammed in our
foot well for two minutes, bum crack
18 • MARCH 2021
aloft, until I
managed to
squirm back
into the driver’s
seat and pretended
nothing had gone wrong.
My first reaction, after absorbing
his diagnosis, was to cook sausages.
I didn’t even know that was my
comfort food of choice. Perhaps
an afternoon crisis would have
triggered a different culinary desire?
Anyway, a full stomach helped
me take stock. Yes, it may now
be inevitable that we’re going to
contract the very virus we’ve spent a
year studiously avoiding, but as long
as we don’t contract it at the same
time, then, hopefully, one or other of
us will be available to look after our
kids (thus answering my five-year-
old’s most pressing concern: "…but
who will make the pudding?").
So, to minimise asymptomatic
transmission, we’ve opened all the
windows. It turns out, in the depths
of winter, that this makes for a
rather bracing environment.
We’ve bought an airbed from Argos
(same-day delivery!), so my wife
and I can sleep in separate rooms
(or at least, separate bits of the same
room—I’m in the corridor by the
en-suite). And we’ve decided to
wear face coverings whenever we
are with Toby.
 READER’S DIGEST

This last decision has been
insignificant to him—I imagine
he literally cannot remember life
before masks—but for me, it’s
discombobulating. I’ve become
accustomed to wearing masks in
supermarkets and coffee shops, of
course, but to actually walk around
with half my face obscured in my
own house is quite another matter.
It’s a constant reminder that my
home has been infected. That it’s no
longer a safe space.
And so it was, when I sat down
to write this column, that I ended
up writing about COVID, which is
probably the last thing you wanted
to read. Sorry about that. I recall a
similar impulse when I was studying
for my degree in 2001, and 9/11
happened, and suddenly the very
idea of writing essays about Keats
and Wordsworth seemed utterly
preposterous when—as it seemed to
me then—the entire free world was
under attack.
COVID has coloured my thoughts
today, even though I know that in all
likelihood I’ll probably just have a
flu-like condition for a week or two,
and my wife and children will be
fine, and that really we should just
be grateful we haven’t passed it on
to my grandmother.
I predict there will be more
sausages in the morning. n

Mythic Musings

How well do you know your ancient mythology? Answers below.

1. Who was condemned in Hades to forever push a boulder uphill, only for it to come rolling
down before it reached the top?

2. In Norse mythology what type of animal was Audulma, the wet nurse of giants?

3. In Greek mythology, who was visited by Zeus in the form of a swan, and became the mother
of Helen and Pollux?

4. Which mythical creature has the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a dragon?

5. Translated to "woman of the fairy mound" name the female spirit in Irish mythology that
heralds the death of a family member?

Answers: 1. Sisyphus, 2. A cow, 3. Leda' 4.Chimaera' 5.The banshee

MARCH 2021 • 19
 ENTERTAINMENT

Olivia Newton-John
On Family, Fulfilment And
Fuelling Your Own Health
By Simon Button

Acclaimed actress and singer,

Dame Olivia Newton-John, talks lockdown,
finding her voice again and how alternative
medicine has changed her life

eing forced to stay to do things like clean out closets

B home has been something

of a blessing for Olivia
Newton-John.
“I feel guilty for saying it,
but I’ve actually enjoyed not being
able to go anywhere,” the singer
admits down the phone from her
California home. “My life has always
been about being on planes and
travelling and staying in hotels, so to
be in one place for almost a year has
been blissful.”
Olivia and her entrepreneur
and garages. I’ve also learned how
to make bread, I’ve done arts and
crafts-y things, and have hung out
with my animals and my husband.
I haven’t been bored for one second.”
Not that the 72-year-old multiple
Grammy winner and seller of
100 million records worldwide is
resting on the laurels she’s earned
from nearly six decades in the
business. She’s recorded a new
single, prepped a duets album and
launched her own foundation to
© M I C H E L L E D AY

husband, John Easterling, live on a fund research into holistic care for
horse ranch near Santa Barbara. cancer. The single, “Window in the
“And it’s been wonderful having so Wall”, carries a message that’s dear
much time at home. I’ve been able to Olivia’s heart.

20 • MARCH 2021
 21
JANUARY 2021 • 21
INTERVIEW: OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN
“It’s about having compassion for
each other and realising that we all
have different ways of thinking and
just accepting that. There seems to
be so much conflict and we have to
realise we’re all humans sharing the
same planet. We need to get along.”
“THE BODY WANTS TO
HEAL SO MY ATTITUDE
IS, GIVE IT THE RIGHT
NOURISHMENT”
22
It’s her first new record in a decade
and she wasn’t planning on making
new music, saying: “I didn’t think
I was going to record anymore. I was
thinking, I’m just gonna enjoy my
life.” Then Olivia heard the track and
loved it so much it made her cry.
“It really touched my heart and
I was compelled to record it.”
She opted to create the track as
a duet with her daughter, Chloe
Lattanzi (from her previous
marriage to actor Matt Lattanzi).
“And I think it’s turned out really
quite nice,” the ever-modest Olivia
Olivia on Loose Women
in November 2020
I T V/ S H U T T E R S TO C K

says of a song that was recorded
in the same studio but at separate
times. “Chloe was nervous about me
being there so I went for a walk while
she did her vocals.”
The duo have enjoyed some
quality mother-daughter time lately,
with 34-year-old Chloe staying at
the family home for a spell and her
mother practically cooing: “We’re
great friends and we have so much
in common with our love of animals
and nature. I’m very proud of her.
She’s a lovely young woman, we have
a lot of fun together.”
R E U T E R S / A L A M Y S TO C K P H OTO
READER’S DIGEST
The Physical singer has been very
open about her health issues since
she was first diagnosed with breast
cancer in 1992.
The cancer came back in 2013 and
2017 and has metastasised to her
bones, but she’s a fighter who now
swears by the use of cannabis and
other plant-based remedies with
the help of husband John—who
founded the Amazon Herb Company
in 1990 and is an advocate for herbal
wellness treatments.
“In the past five years or so he’s
been growing cannabis for me and
With partner, John Easterling
INTERVIEW: OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN

I’m doing extremely well,” a

very upbeat-sounding Olivia
says. “I feel wonderful, I don’t
have pain, I’m mobile and I
feel healthy.”
Launched last October,
The Olivia Newton-John
Foundation is raising money
for research and treatment
programmes, with a particular
focus on plant medicine.
“I want to find kinder
treatments for cancer,” she
elaborates, “having gone
through chemotherapy and
radiation thinking, There’s
got to be a kinder way we
can treat this. The body
wants to heal, if given the
opportunity, so my attitude
is, Let’s give it the right
nutrients and nourishment
to heal.”
Some in the medical
profession have expressed
scepticism about the
efficiency of such treatments.
“There’s always going
to be that, but we have to
remember we started with
plant medicine. It was all we
had before pharmaceuticals
and nearly everything in
the pharmaceutical world
is derived from plants. They
© M I C H E L L E D AY

take out what they think is

the main ingredient but we
believe you need the whole
plant to get true benefits.”

24

With growing cannabis and its
medicinal use now legal in most US
states, Olivia adds: “When I had a
reoccurrence of cancer and was in
hospital a couple of years ago,
I weaned myself off morphine with
cannabis and that was a major thing
because I didn’t want to remain on
a powerful opiate like that. I want
to tell people, ‘Hey, you can do this
and it’s safe’. ”
Olivia feels re-energised when
it comes to music too, with a duets
album in the pipeline. She’s keeping
READER’S DIGEST
details under wraps for now but
“Window in the Wall” will be on it,
along with ones from the vaults.
Making music and movies, Chloe
is following in her mother’s footsteps,
although Olivia has never felt the
need to advise her on her career path.
“I’VE FULFILLED ALL MY
DREAMS, EVERYTHING
ELSE IS THE ICING ON
THE CAKE”
Olivia with
her daughter,
Chloe Lattanzi
 INTERVIEW: OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN
“I encouraged her to explore other
avenues but it was kind of a natural
progression, especially when she
has such talent as a writer, singer
and actress. I saw no reason to
discourage her because I’ve had a
wonderful life and career.”
Cambridgeshire-born Newton-
John, whose family relocated to
Australia when she was six, started
a girl band at age 14, switched to
singing on TV shows, returned to
Britain to cut records and became a
star with a string of hit singles like
“If Not for You”, “Banks of the Ohio”
With John Travolta in Grease
26
and “Take Me Home, Country Roads”.
“I just kept going and went with the
flow,” she says of a subsequent career
that has taken in chart-topping
records, movie roles, a performance
at the opening ceremony of the
2000 Sydney Olympics and a 2020
damehood for services to music,
cancer research and charity.
Then, of course, there’s the 1978
blockbuster musical Grease—the
enduring love for which she puts
down to “the cast, the choreography,
the director, the energy of the story,
great music, and a larger-than-life

colourful and cartoonish feel”.
As for some in the Twitter-sphere
denouncing it as outdated and sexist,
Olivia is both amused and bemused.
L A N D M A R K M E D I A / A L A M Y S TO C K P H OTO
“I think it’s hilarious they take it so
seriously. It was set in the 1950s and
that was then, this is now.”
Career-wise, Newton-John is
happy to say: “I’ve fulfilled all my
dreams and more, and everything
I’m doing now is icing on the cake.”
As for her eternal optimism in the
face of her ongoing cancer battle,
she reasons: “You have to make
READER’S DIGEST
a decision when you go through
something like this. There are always
going to be challenges in life but
it’s how you respond to them that
determines the quality of your life.
Your mind and body aren’t separate
and if you keep reinforcing negativity
you’re going to reinforce bad health.
That’s why I choose to be positive
and grateful for every day.” n
The single “Window in the Wall” is out
now on Greenhill Records. For more
about The Olivia Newton-John Founda-
tion visit onjfoundation.org
 ENTERTAINMENT

28
 Kate Moss
I REMEMBER…
Household name Kate Moss rose to fame in
1990 when her striking face caught the
imaginations of fashion photographers
everywhere. CountlessVogue covers and
hundreds of runways later, the supermodel
looks back on growing up in Croydon, being
secretly shy and mastering the art of a shoot

MARCH 2021 • 29
A B A C A P RESS / ALAM Y STOC K PHOTO
I REMEMBER…

Kate as a young school girl;

(right) with Naomi Campbell

30 • XXX 2021

…I WENT TO SCHOOL AT
RIDDLESDOWN HIGH IN PURLEY.
It was an established school that
epitomised the harder edge of
Surrey in that era. I think it’s much
improved now, but I was never the
sort of child who could get inspired
by education—it just wasn’t for me.
…MY DAD WAS IN THE TRAVEL
INDUSTRY AND WOULD ALWAYS
TALK ABOUT HOW BRILLIANT IT
WAS TO SEE THE WORLD. Travel
was a real ambition of mine when
I was a kid. It quickly became my
focus over school. Of course, I never
dreamed that I’d be able to fulfil that
through modelling, so when the
READER’S DIGEST
opportunity came it was something
I jumped at. But as far as growing up
in Croydon went, it wasn’t a time
I look back on longingly, certainly in
so much as the place itself. I was
keen to get away.
…MYSELF AND MY FRIENDS
WOULD DRIFT AROUND
CROYDON ON A SATURDAY
AFTERNOON looking for
inspiration. Surrey Street Market
was a popular hangout—a rough
and ready part of the town centre
bordered by record shops and stalls.
There is definitely a part of me that
misses the innocence of it all, but not
the place.
MARCH 2021 • 31
 I REMEMBER…
Kate with Virgin
entrepreneur
Richard Branson
…MY PARENTS SPLIT UP AND IT
BROUGHT ABOUT A KIND OF
REBELLION where I didn’t pay too
much attention at school. I was
definitely mature for my years—
though not as mature as I thought
I was—and from very early on I was
focused on evolving a social life and
getting out in the world.
I lived with my mum, Linda, and
she encouraged me; while my father,
Peter, and his work for Pan American
World Airways, opened up for me a
world of opportunity that I found
hard to resist.
32 • MARCH 2021
…I WAS DISCOVERED AT 14 BY
SARAH [DOUKAS] OF STORM
MODEL AGENCY AT JFK AIRPORT.
It was a simple chance encounter and
one of those moments where you
have to contemplate what would have
happened if we’d been on a different
flight. The truth is most models are
discovered through chance encounters.
…THERE WERE MANY SHOOTS IN
THE EARLY DAYS WHERE I FELT
TERRIBLY UNCOMFORTABLE.
I think everyone understands the
lifespan of a model, and the fact you

will be starting young. That was the
case with me, but even so there were
some photographers who wouldn’t
agree to shoot you unless there was
a nude element. That was very
common then and still is now. For
PA I MA G E S / A L A MY S TOCK P H OTO
a very young woman that could be
incredibly intimidating.
…I WAS ONLY 16 WHEN I DID THE
FACE MAGAZINE. It was 1990 and
that really kicked everything off.
I’d already been modelling for 18
months or so, but when you are on
the cover of a national magazine,
READER’S DIGEST
With fashion
photographer
Corinne Day in 2007
the whole thing just explodes. I did
get teased mercilessly for it though,
as I was still at school.
…CORINNE DAY WAS THE FIGURE
BEHIND MY EARLY SHOOTS for
The Face and Levi’s. I was so
nervous for those early photoshoots
and it all passed by in a blur, but the
diversity that they gave me—from a
music and culture magazine to the
biggest denim brand on the market
and a leg-up into clothes—was
really so valuable. We fell out along
the line but came back together
MARCH 2021 • 33
I REMEMBER…
(Right) Kate and
her daughter Lila
attending a fashion
show in 2019
some years later and everything is
good now.
…I DIDN’T HAVE A PLAN. I was
always one of those young people
who was just happy to be exposed to
new things and experiences—there
wasn’t a plan or a route that I wanted
to go down. But it soon got to the
point where I just couldn’t fit all my
engagements into the week. At that
point I knew I had to get serious and
be a bit fussier, but until then it was
really just a case of taking the offers
and seeing where they went.
34 • MARCH 2021
…IN THE EARLY DAYS I BECAME
LINKED WITH THE PHRASE
"HEROIN CHIC", which I always
thought was awful. There is no
positive interpretation of that and
I certainly never felt one. At the end
of the day I was always thin and
small and no amount of eating
would put weight on me. I see
models now who are similar to me
and sometimes the criticism they get
is unfair because—up to a certain
age at least—there are some of us
who can just eat what we want
without too many real consequences.
 READER’S DIGEST

That definitely changes in later life to be photographed and a desire

though, as I found out after the birth
of my daughter Lila.
…A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO MODEL
DO SO BECAUSE IT IS THE
ULTIMATE PARADOX FOR A SHY
A BA CA P R ES S / A LA M Y S TOC K PH OTO
to be desired—it is difficult not
to return to that. Yes, there is a
bit of arrogance that goes with
the industry, but speaking
personally, I’ve always tried to keep
a level of respect in everything that

PERSONALITY. It is the shyness I’ve done.

that dares them to get up there We are all "at work", and I think you
and continue to push forward; need to remember that. Everyone
and with the addictions that wants to get their part of the job
come with modelling—a desire done and go home! n

Try Your Hand

Poker enthusiasts, beware! The odds of getting a royal flush are exactly one in
649,740. So, not particulary likely
Source: goodhousekeeping.com
MARCH 2021 • 35
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 INSPIRE

Over the past year, while the world

has been combating a global health
care crisis with the coronavirus
pandemic, there has been a
simultaneous ongoing crisis for Black
women: health care discrimination

I KNOW
MY BODY
BY Ronny Maye

38 • MARCH 2021
39
XXXX
A
ccording to the
Equality Act of 2010,
discrimination in
health care is defined
as unfair treatment
by a healthcare provider based on
characteristics such as age, disability,
race, religion, sex, sexual orientation,
gender or pregnancy. In the United
States, this definition can be
extended to include insurance, or the
way a patient can or can not pay for
their medical care and treatment.
Although doctors, nurses and
other health care professionals take
an oath to treat all patients fairly,
health care discrimination does still
take place and at higher instances
for women and Black women,
40 • MARCH 2021
according to cardiac intensive care
nurse, Brittany Lincoln*. She believes
that discrimination in healthcare
affects these groups more frequently
because medicine is predominantly
a white male-dominated and taught
industry, leading to the presence of
implicit bias.
Her views align with those of
a student doctor, Melanie Rae*,
who has witnessed discrimination
both as a healthcare provider and
patient. Rae explains that healthcare
discrimination is the direct
result of both implicit and overt
biases, structural racism, sexism,
xenophobia and homophobia,
that has been bred into the
core curriculum, beginning in

"BLACK WOMEN ARE ROUTINELY
GETTING THE SHORT END OF THE
STICK FROM THEIR PHYSICIANS"
undergraduate premedical studies.
Combined with factors such
as perceived education levels,
socioeconomic status and insurance
coverage, Black women are routinely
getting the short end of the stick
from their physicians.
Black women are generally seen
as strong individuals, and while this
may be true, this belief has also put
an innumerable amount of women
at a disadvantage in terms of the
READER’S DIGEST
quality of care they are given at
hospitals, emergency rooms and
doctor's offices.
Lincoln explains that while
"hysteria" is no longer a medically
accepted diagnosis, it has been
replaced with a new way to dismiss
patients: anxiety. In her experience,
women of all races and sizes are
more likely to be diagnosed as
anxious the moment they enter the
hospital, leading to a delay in care.
MARCH 2021 • 41
I KNOW MY BODY
As a plus size Black woman, my
own health journey has not been free
from discrimination from healthcare
providers. In March of 2018, I laid in
a hospital bed at my local emergency
room for the second time within
days, bleeding out because my body
was going haywire from a period
which had been irregular since the
age of 16.
I was nauseated, cramping, faint,
dehydrated and over the course of
mere hours I had resorted to using
36 super tampons and a pack of
overnight pads to
try and stem the
bleeding, before “I HAD TO FIND
finally heading to the
emergency room. THE STRENGTH
Little did I know, TO ADVOCATE
this was only the
beginning of a 90- FOR MYSELF”
day mayhem which
would involve more
emergency room
visits, two hospitalisations and
surgery that consistently pinpointed
my weight as the underlying cause.
The attending physician at this
particular visit was a middle-aged
white man, who came into the room
several hours after my arrival to
ask, “Are you sure you’re bleeding as
much as you say you are?”
I was baffled by his question
because in the hours it had taken
for him to get to me, nurses had
already given me several doses of
medication to control the bleeding
42 • MARCH 2021
and pain as well as to bring
down my blood pressure. A blood
transfusion to replace the copious
amounts of blood lost due to
menstruation had left me anaemic.
The doctor’s line of questioning
told me three things: that he
believed I didn’t know my body, that
he thought that I was exaggerating
and that his actions were rooted in
biases towards women.
In fact, this doctor was so
confident that I was wrong, he
decided that I could be discharged
because my
symptoms did not
seem severe and were
apparently under
control. As I laid
there bleeding out,
I had to find the
strength to advocate
for myself, and in
doing so, I might
have saved my life.
P ersonal stories like mine,
combined with data research,
show that such experiences are
not uncommon for Black women.
When Black women are dismissed
and unheard, it can lead to more
complicated health issues and
preventable deaths.
In both the United Kingdom
and the United States, one area
of medicine where healthcare
discrimination manifests repeatedly
is in gynecological (or reproductive)

health, particularly childbirth. US-
based blogger and mother Ashley
Sullivan recalls her experience
during an appointment last year.
"I was experiencing severe
symptoms that were unlike anything
I had endured during my first
pregnancy. I repeatedly asked
the nurse to conduct testing but
my requests fell on deaf ears. My
concerns were swept under the
rug and attributed to my being
overweight and a woman of colour.
I insisted that something was
wrong, prompting the doctor to
initiate some tests. A day later, I was
diagnosed with cholestasis which
is deadly at the 37-week mark and
beyond for both mother and baby.
I was 36-weeks pregnant at diagnosis.
Although my first pregnancy was
almost a decade prior, another
READER’S DIGEST
healthcare provider was insistent that
my daughter be delivered through
a cesarean section, which was not
medically necessary. Had I not
advocated for myself, things could
have taken a turn for the worse."
According to a report published
by MBRRACE-UK in 2019, Black
women are five times more likely to
die from pregnancy complications
than their white counterparts.
For American Black women, these
odds drop to two to three times
more likely, however the risk
increases with age, according to
research published by The Center
for Disease Control. Additionally,
there is a higher prevalence
of miscarriage and stillbirth
among Black women as well as
reproductive diseases such as
endometriosis and fibroids.
MARCH 2021 • 43
XXXX
While task forces and agencies
have been assembled in the US and
UK to reduce these statistics and
eradicate the disparities that plague
Black women in healthcare, there
is no quick or overnight solution
with which to dismantle decades of
discrimination. Though it may appear
that the odds are insurmountable,
the greatest weapon we have as Black
women is self-advocacy. After all, you
know your body more intimately than
anyone else.
Self-advocacy begins with being
honest with yourself and the
physician about the symptoms
you may be experiencing and the
timings of their onset. Another
critical part of self-advocacy is
44 • MARCH 2021
research. While your doctor is a
medically trained professional,
you can do your own research
too, giving you more confidence
and knowledge to reach from
when discussing with your doctor.
Research provides an opportunity
to present your doctor with areas
of concern, and create a game
plan that might include a referral
to a more specialised physician,
necessary testing, adjustment of
medications or the introduction of
alternative treatment options.
If you are receiving a diagnosis
that involves surgical procedures
or extensive treatments such as
chemotherapy, seek a second opinion
where possible, making sure to have

THE GREATEST WEAPON
WE HAVE AS BLACK WOMEN
IS SELF-ADVOCACY
printed copies of your records from
each visit, as electronic records can
be altered or lost.
Finally, if you have an
appointment with a physician
who declines your requests for
medication, testing or referrals,
always ask them to make a note of
your request and their reason for
declining in your patient file.
*Names have been changed for anonymity
READER’S DIGEST
Be adamant and firm in what you
need from your health care providers
by knowing your rights as a patient.
The NHS Constitution (gov.uk/
government/publications/the-nhs-
constitution-for-england) outlines
these rights, as does the American
Patient Rights Association for
American patients (americanpatient.
org/who-we-are). n
MARCH 2021 • 45
 HEALTH

9 WAYS TO GET Around a third of us have

SLEEPY
Struggling to get some
shut eye? You're not
alone. These tips will
help you to get some
much-needed rest
Susannah Hickling
is twice winner of
the Guild of
Health Writers Best
Consumer Magazine
Health Feature
insomnia. Long-term sleep
problems are associated with
health issues, including Type 2
diabetes, depression, weight
gain and heart problems, but
there are proven strategies that
can help you drop off at night
Love the dark
1 Bright light delays the
production of melatonin, a
hormone that regulates your
body clock and promotes sleep,
so make sure your bedroom is
as dark as possible. Consider
blackout blinds or an eye mask.

46 • MARCH 2021
2 Get moving
Wear yourself out with exercise
and you’ll sleep better. Just 30
minutes of physical activity can help.
But don’t exercise too near bedtime,
as it will wake you up at just the time
you need to be winding down.
3 Be a sun seeker
Too much light at night is a no-no,
but a blast of sunlight in the morning
can wake you up and keep your
circadian rhythm—this regulates the
sleep-wake cycle—on track. We’re not
talking about hours of sunbathing—
that’s just bad for you—but take your
morning coffee in the garden or your
daily walk before lunch.
4 Turn on the white noise
A snoring partner, noisy
neighbours or even the local cats can
stop you falling asleep. If you’re going
to have sound, it’s better for it to be
consistent. Try a white noise app or
YouTube video, or even a sound
machine. In summer, a fan can serve
a similar purpose.
5 Cut back on bevvies
Caffeine remains in your body
for hours after you consume it,
so opt for decaf tea or coffee after
noon. Alcohol can make you restless.
It can also exacerbate sleep apnea,
in which you momentarily stop
breathing and wake up gasping for
air. Lay off the booze for several
hours before bed.
6 Check your screen time
Smart phones, laptops, tablets,
TVs—they all emit blue light, which
can stop you nodding off. Avoid
screens an hour before bed if you
want uninterrupted ZZZs. It’s also a
good idea to switch off notifications
or put your phone on silent.
7 Read an actual book
If you’re not reading or watching
something online, then a physical
book (rather than an e-reader which
emits blue light) is a great option.
Concentrating should make you feel
more sleepy (hands up all those who
nod off a few paragraphs in!).
8 Get your timing right
Sticking to a routine helps your
sleep cycle. Don’t be tempted to stay
up late and have a lie-in at weekends.
Go to bed at a set time every night
and get up at the same time. That
said, don’t go to bed too early before
you feel tired.
9 Ask for help
Stubborn insomnia, especially
if you have anxiety or depression,
probably needs professional help. And
sleep apnea can raise the risk of high
blood pressure and stroke, as well as
putting you at higher risk of accidents,
so always consult a doctor. n
For more weekly health tips and
stories, sign up to our newsletter
at readersdigest.co.uk
MARCH 2021 • 47
H E A LT H
Lady Bits
There’s a lot of
misinformation about what
goes on “down there”, so it’s
important to sort the fact
from the fiction when it
comes to vaginal health
Female fact: The vagina’s only one
small part of your private parts
We often use the term for the whole
of our intimate anatomy, but the
vagina is merely the tube that links
the vulva—the outside bits, including
the lips or labia and clitoris—with
the cervix and uterus.
Female fiction: You need to clean
your vagina You don’t. It’s full of
good bacteria. Upset the balance
and you can end up with infections
like thrush or vaginal dryness.
Wash the vulva using a gentle,
unperfumed soap, and leave the
vagina alone. No douching,
perfumed wipes or deodorants.
48 • MARCH 2021
Female fiction: You just have to put
up with vaginal dryness If your vulva
is dry, see a doctor, as it could
indicate a health issue, such as a
thyroid or autoimmune problem.
Vaginal dryness can be caused by
menopausal oestrogen deficiency,
making sex painful. This can be
sorted with vaginal oestrogen or a
water-based lube. Avoid moisturisers
that aren’t meant for your vagina.
Female fact: Vaginal oestrogen is
safe There’s been hot debate over the
years about HRT and whether it raises
your risk of breast cancer. But the low-
dose oestrogen creams and other
topical preparations prescribed in the
UK are not considered harmful, as
very little oestrogen is absorbed into
the bloodstream. But don’t use them
if you’ve had breast cancer.
Female fiction: Pain during sex is
normal. It never is. But it’s common
and the causes are legion, from an
infection to stress; from lack of
arousal to illness, including cancer.
Always see a doctor.
Female fact: You need to get to
know your nether regions Women’s
genitals vary hugely, but sometimes
we get hung up on not being
“normal”, and hate looking at them.
But regular self-examination using a
mirror can help you find sores,
lumps or spots that could be an early
sign of vulval cancer or an STI. n

Ask The Expert: Foot Health
Emma Supple is a qualified podiatric surgeon and
vice-president of the College of Podiatry
How did you become
an expert in foot health?
When I was 18. I knew I had to grow
up to be something and a friend
suggested podiatry, or chiropody as it
was called then. I said, “I’m not
looking at dirty, smelly feet,” but I
spent a day with a podiatrist at the
Royal Liverpool Hospital and
absolutely loved it. I have worked in
the NHS and now have my own
private podiatry clinic, Supplefeet, in
Enfield, Middlesex.
Why is it important to
look after your feet?
No one asks that after they have
experienced foot pain! You only
have one pair of feet for your
lifetime. It’s part of wellness, of
being fit and healthy.
What are the common
foot problems people have?
The most common are corns or
calluses, which are to do with
your way of walking or the
shoes you wear, and
toenail problems like an
ingrowing toenail or
thickened nails from
fungal infections.
There’s also foot pain
READER’S DIGEST
from trapped nerves, bones out of
place, claw toes, hammer toes. And
diabetic ulcers are a huge issue.
When should people seek
the help of a podiatrist?
Most of the time podiatrists can
make you better. If you have a
foot problem, seek a podiatrist’s
help before going to your GP. You
can refer yourself directly, but you
might have to go private unless
you’re high risk, for example, if you
have diabetes.
What can people do
to care for their feet?
Scrub your feet every day in hot
soapy water. This dislodges dirt.
Keep toenails short. Both of these
make a massive difference to fungal
infections. Apply a good urea-based
foot cream every day, and be shoe-
savvy. Wear dancing shoes for
dancing, walking shoes for walking,
and don’t walk around barefoot
all the time if you have pain.
If you’re standing a
lot, wear light trainers or
yoga sandals. n
Visit supplefeet.com to learn
more about Emma's work
MARCH 2021 • 49
 HEALTH

f course, as a doctor

Don’t Believe
Everything
You Read
Dr Max Pemberton
muses over the
confusing scientific
studies that could lead
us astray...
Max is a hospital doctor,
author and columnist. He
currently works full time in
mental health for the NHS.
His new book, The
Marvellous Adventure of
Being Human, is out now
O I like to promote good
health and well-being at
every given opportunity.
For this reason may
I suggest that you put down this
magazine, scrape your All-Bran into
the bin, and make yourself a hearty
fried breakfast? Preferably with extra
lard. Several studies in recent years,
including research conducted by
the US Centre for Disease Control
and Prevention, appear to show that
overweight people live longer.
And while you’re at it, why not pour
yourself a glass of wine and book
yourself in for a session on a sun
bed. Despite everything we’ve been
told, sun-bathing has been shown to
slow ageing by five years. But don’t
eat any potatoes. Oh no, that would
be fool-hardy—or is it bananas that
are bad for you at the moment? Or
perhaps it’s having children? I forget.
And while on the subject of memory

50 • MARCH 2021
problems, why not light up a
cigarette, because some studies have
shown this decreases your chances
of developing Alzheimer’s. In fact,
don’t eat. Or breathe. After all,
oxygen contains free radicals which
are implicated in cancers. Hold your
breath and live in a tent somewhere,
away from all civilisation. But avoid
being isolated, which is linked to
suicide but also being with other
people, which is linked to homicide.
It seems that not a day goes by
when some activity or food stuff or
lifestyle choice isn’t
linked to death and
disease. And then, in THE LIST OF
increasingly bizarre
about-turns from the DO’S AND
scientific community,
research is then DON’TS IS
published which
completely contradicts NEVER-
this advice. For every
study that seems to
ENDING
suggest that being
overweight or drinking wine is in
fact good for us, there’s a multitude
contradicting it.
I wish researchers realised how
confusing it was for the general
public. The benefits of eating fish
have long been espoused, and yet
it has also been linked to diabetes.
Take plenty of exercise, although
research has also warned against
getting sweaty near someone else as
this has been linked to contracting
hepatitis B. I could go on and on,
because the list of conflicting “do’s
and don’ts” is seemingly never-
ending. And yet, strangely, we still
love to read it. We seem to derive
a perverse enjoyment from being
scared. Forget Nightmare on Elm
Street, there’s far more fear to be
had perusing an isle in your local
supermarket. While I’m sure the
scientific research is well-meaning,
it’s got to the stage where no one in
their right mind pays any attention
to these contradictory scare
stories, because if you did, you’d be
paralysed by indecision
as what to believe and
what not to believe. We’re
suffering from health-
advice fatigue where we
become desensitised to
such warnings. I point
the finger of blame at
the universities and
institutions who put out
these studies in press
releases, often with over-
blown and sensationalist headlines,
knowing that few will really delve
into the data. The subtle nuances
of statistical risk are lost on most
people without a science PhD, so
we’re left unable to properly evaluate
the claims made. The only sensible
response is to take all this scare
mongering with a pinch of salt—but
only a pinch, mind you, given how
it’s linked to high blood pressure,
heart disease, strokes, and God
knows what else. n
MARCH 2021 • 51
 HEALTH
The Doctor Is In
Dr Max Pemberton
Q: With reports of COVID-19
affecting BAME people more than
white people, I’m worried about
other areas of health where this
could be true. My parents are from
India—am I more at risk of some
health problems? -Adi
A: I agree it is quite confusing. It’s still
not clear why BAME people are at
more risk. It could be a genetic factor
or it could be down to a secondary
factor. It could also be down to social
factors. People from BAME
communities are more likely to have
public-facing, higher-risk jobs, such as
bus drivers, nurses and cleaners. It’s
likely to be down to a combination.
Leaving COVID to one side, we know
that certain groups are more
susceptible to certain conditions.
This is a very complex topic,
because it’s sometimes difficult
to differentiate between what is
the result of social factors and
genetic factors. We’ve known for
more than 50 years, that the
risk of heart disease is up to
50 per cent higher in first-
generation South Asians
than in the white
52 • MARCH 2021
European population. Even within the
South Asian group, there are
differences in risk. Those at highest
risk are the Bangladeshi population,
followed by Pakistanis, Indians and Sri
Lankans. Lifestyle factors may play a
role. Traditional fats such as ghee are
high in saturated fat, for example.
Studies have also shown that South
Asian women are less likely to
exercise. Rates of smoking are also
higher in this ethnic group. But part of
it is genetic. Body shape and diabetes
plays a big role and we know that this
ethnic group have an increased
genetic risk of diabetes and they tend
to be diagnosed at a much younger
age than other ethnic groups.
So, if you’re of Indian heritage then it’s
important that you follow health
advice—eat a balanced diet,
watch your weight, don’t
smoke, exercise regularly and
have your blood pressure and
cholesterol checked regularly.
Got a health question
for our doctor? Email it
confidentially to askdrmax
@readersdigest.co.uk
illustration by Javier Muñoz
 HEALTH
Your Memory
Needs
Attention!
These three strategies
will focus your mind on
learning, says our memory
expert, Jonathan Hancock
t’s all too easy to confuse
I familiarity with knowledge.
Psychologists often demonstrate
this with objects like coins or
leaves. We’ve all seen these
things many times, and we recognise
them instantly. But when we’re asked
to describe them from memory,
we usually fail. Try it yourself. Pick
something you see regularly, like
an apple core or your own watch.
Describe it out loud, then check your
success. You might be surprised at the
difference between being familiar with
something, and having accurate recall.
Of course, you don’t need to
remember everything. Your brain
is right not to waste its energy on
commonplace information. But
when you do want it to work, you’ll
need to switch it on by paying
attention. Modern life makes this
active approach more important than
ever. Our busy world defocuses our
thinking, training us to see general
54 • MARCH 2021
patterns in the action around us, and
tempting us to do lots of things at
once—without paying attention to
anything in particular.
But here are three strategies that we
can all use to activate our attention,
and start getting much more out of
our memory.
Do one thing at a time. There’s
1 plenty of research to show that
multitasking is a myth. If you divide
your attention, you dramatically
reduce your thinking power—and
your memory can take a damaging hit.
2 Get out into nature. Studies
have demonstrated that natural
environments make us more inclined
to spot details, and better at focusing
our thoughts. So try doing your exam
revision in the garden, or rehearsing
your next presentation in the park.
Do something stimulating. You
3 won’t just switch on your attention
and learning while you’re doing it.
Research shows that the positive
effects last beyond the activity itself—
and help you in whatever you do next.
So play a game or practise a tricky
dance move. Then, when you turn to
“serious” learning, your brain will be
primed to shut out distractions and
zone in on the details that count.
So when you need to learn
something properly, take these
simple steps to give your memory
the attention it deserves! n
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 HEALTH

56
 Loneliness,
OUR OTHER
HEALTH CRISIS
Maintaining regular social connections is essential, not
just for our self-esteem, but also our all-round health

BY Helen Signy

W
HEN WILLIAM
YEATES was
diagnosed with
dementia at the
age of 59 last year,
he felt desperately alone. A former
secondary school deputy head
teacher who was married with three
adult children, he felt as though he
were sinking into quicksand with no
one to throw him a lifeline.
I L LU S T R AT I O N G E T T Y I M AG E S
Everyone feels lonely from time to
time, but research has shown there
can be serious health consequences
when loneliness becomes chronic.
A study by researchers from
Brigham Young University in the US
looked at the links between mortality
and loneliness. They found people
who said they were experiencing
loneliness, social isolation or who
lived alone were about 30 per cent

“I wanted to be sociable and to be more likely to die earlier than

around my friends, but I didn’t know
how,” he says. He was aware that his
social skills were diminishing, and
he grew increasingly fearful of being
ridiculed and judged. “I became
anxious, my depression got worse
and the quality of my sleep changed.”
everyone else—a rate comparable
with obesity or smoking.
Loneliness increases the risk of
depression, low self-esteem, sleep
problems, cognitive decline and
dementia. Once people start to
experience poorer mental health,

MARCH 2021 • 57
LO N E L I N E S S , O U R OT H E R H E A LT H C R I S I S

they develop a greater level of anxiety could be costing businesses up to

about meeting other people, socialise £2.5 billion a year due to absence
less frequently and then develop even and lost productivity.
more negative emotions.
Clinical psychologist Dr Rob THE 2018 AUSTRALIAN
Gordon describes how people can LONELINESS REPORT by the
spiral from loneliness into negative Australian Psychological Society
self-image and critical self-talk, and Swinburne University found
especially if they had a pre-existing one in four Australians feel lonely,
tendency to low self-esteem. with many reporting anxiety about
“People tend to drift from ‘I am socialising and 30 per cent saying
feeling lonely’ to ‘I would like to talk they didn’t feel part of a group of
to someone’ to ‘No one is talking to friends. Both young and old people
me, no one likes me, I’m not a nice are affected, though people over
person, no one cares about me, I 65 are the least lonely. People with
don’t really need to exist’,” he says. disabilities are at increased risk, as
This cycle, in turn, puts people’s
physiology under stress. Loneliness
can lower resistance to disease PEOPLE CAN
and create higher inflammatory SPIRAL FROM
responses in the body, leading to an
increased risk of heart disease or LONELINESS
stroke. To make things worse, people INTO NEGATIVE
who are lonely are less likely to get SELF-IMAGE
enough exercise and are more likely
to smoke or eat an unhealthy diet. AND CRITICAL
Studies have shown loneliness SELF-TALK
is associated with poorer general
health and wellbeing, suicide and
dementia. Lonely people are more
likely to be readmitted to hospital
after discharge, to stay in hospital
for longer, and to be taken into
residential care. They are also
more likely to visit their GP or the
emergency department more often
than others. At work, loneliness is
linked to poorer performance; in
the UK, it’s estimated that loneliness

58 • MARCH 2021

are people who live alone. “People
tell me their friends don’t ring them
anymore—loneliness is absolutely
real for people with dementia,” says
Yeates, who now runs webinars
to bring together others who are
affected. “One lady told me she
doesn’t get any visitors; the only time
she has any human contact is in the
weekly webinar. I invited her out for
lunch but she couldn’t do it, she was
too fearful.”
Worryingly, one in eight young
people aged 18–25 report a very
high intensity of loneliness, and are
more likely than older people to feel
greater levels of social anxiety. Even
school-aged children report feeling
lonely and isolated and say they don't
have meaningful connections with
people around them.
While people have always felt
lonely—it’s part of the human
condition—there’s no doubt that
the modern world, with longer
commuting times and greater
numbers of people living alone, has
exacerbated the trend. Irene Verins,
a manager at Mental Wellbeing,
VicHealth, says loneliness in younger
people aged 18 to 25 is often driven
by unrealistic expectations based on
social media.
So serious is loneliness
internationally that the UK
government appointed a Minister
for Loneliness and in 2011 launched
a Campaign to End Loneliness. It’s
estimated that every £1 spent on
READER’S DIGEST
tackling loneliness in Britain has
delivered a £2-£3 saving in costs
for the economy. That’s because
the loneliness of individual people
impacts the social cohesion of the
whole community. The fewer lonely
people, the lower the healthcare
costs and the greater the wellbeing of
everyone. “This is a national issue,”
says Verins.
THIS YEAR, public health experts
have raised the alarm about an
increase in loneliness caused by
forced isolation during the COVID-19
pandemic. Crisis organisations such
as Lifeline and the Red Cross have
fielded hundreds of thousands of
calls from people who have no one
else to talk to.
Although loneliness and isolation
are not the same thing, they
reinforce each other. Loneliness is
a personal experience of feeling a
lack or loss of companionship. It’s
about how we see the quality of our
relationships and whether we have a
connection with people in our lives.
It is possible to live with a family or
have a large group of friends and still
feel lonely.
Isolation is being physically cut off
from our normal social connections,
and can lead us to feel lonely. At the
same time, people who are lonely
tend to self-isolate. The more they
withdraw from social interaction, the
lonelier they become.
An Australian government survey
MARCH 2021 • 59
 round to my wife—I have
to remind myself that
they have lives and
thoughts of their own.
Before lockdown, I
was starting to go to
local theatres and
cinemas, that was fine,
but I always noticed that
on the way out almost
everyone had someone
LIVING ON MY OWN else to talk to about the
“It’s almost like having an empty play or film—I was very
bubble around you” conscious of the fact
that I didn’t.
Larry Signy, 89, has there, you frequently Now, far too often I
been living alone look across to her seat to have to force myself to
since his wife, June, check. When you go to leave the house. It’s
entered a dementia bed, you are conscious almost as if when I’m
care unit last year. that you are alone. Even indoors I’m in a friendly
Here, he explains how when you turn the lights atmosphere—outside is
he feels: out you see the dark a much bigger
“The worst thing shape of a second pillow environment and I’m
about loneliness is that next to you, with no even more alone.
although you talk to head on it. “But although I meet
people, your thoughts It means that you neighbours, chat to
are always with your find you have emotions checkout people in the
wife. You get a physical you never before shops, have phone calls
ache and tears in your realised you had. with friends and
eyes when you wish, Living in the relatives come in and
almost beg, for just one countryside means out, I’m always aware
more conversation everything is quiet. I that there’s no one in the
with your wife. Your turn on the TV as soon as house with me.
mind continually I get up. It’s background It’s hard to explain,
reminds you that she is noise, human voices. but it’s almost like
not there. You sit When I do talk to having an empty
watching TV in the people, though, I often bubble around you.
evening, and although find that I always want to Well, not only hard to
you know she is not bring the conversation explain, impossible.”

60 • MARCH 2021
 READER’S DIGEST

in April found that the majority of
respondents (57 per cent) reported
feeling lonely and isolated more often
since the outbreak of the coronavirus.
The COVID-19 Monitor, a research
project from Vox Pop Labs, found that
the number of people reporting poor
mental health more than trebled from
before the pandemic to the end of
April 2020.
short term and is already starting
to resolve, says Rachel Bowes,
Lifeline’s head of crisis services and
quality. But, “for those with existing
mental health problems,” she says,
“it will be harder for them or take
longer to recover and go back to
what they would consider to be
normal for them.”

R
People have dealt with isolation ED CROSS VOLUNTEER Kath
in two ways, says Dr Catherine Cooney is a social worker
Barrett, a clinical psychologist trained in psychological first
and academic who founded the aid who has been making up to 30
Kindness Pandemic community wellbeing calls a day during the
in the early days of COVID. Some pandemic to people facing isolation.
have enjoyed the time spent alone
and have understood that it was
temporary. Others have felt lost and ALTHOUGH
disorientated, which has made them
sad and lonely.
LONELINESS AND
“We lost the unsolicited ISOLATION ARE
communications that are part of NOT THE SAME
everyday social interaction—the chat
in the lift after a meeting, the coffee
THING, THEY
with a work colleague,” Dr Barrett REINFORCE
says. That unsolicited interaction EACH OTHER
shows us how we are perceived by
others—it forms our sense of who
we are. “Those who have a well-
established identity will be able to
do without it. But others lost their
markers, their anchor for their sense
of self.”
It is still too early to gauge the
long-term impact of the loneliness
that so many of us experienced
during COVID-19.
For many the impact has been

MARCH 2021 • 61
LO N E L I N E S S , O U R OT H E R H E A LT H C R I S I S
One call has stuck in her mind.
“She was an older woman in her
nineties. She lived on her own, but
she went out three days a week to
lunch programmes where she was
helping, she went to the library, she
had a full life. Then all the things that
kept her from being lonely were gone
overnight, and there was nothing to
replace them.”
The lady was not sleeping and
could not find the energy to get out of
her chair. She was frustrated because
she could not choose her groceries
herself and she had lost interest in
eating. “Everything was hard,” says
Cooney. The Red Cross enrolled her
in its Telecross programme, which
offers a daily telephone call to check
on people’s wellbeing and provide a
friendly voice.
For Cooney, the conversations
were mutually beneficial—reaching
out to relieve the lady’s loneliness
also helped her feel like she was
doing something positive during
the pandemic. “She had such good
stories, she wasn’t hard to listen to,”
says Cooney.
Reaching out is something we can
all do.
“We know at Lifeline how important
just a phone call can be,” says
Lifeline’s Rachael Bowes. “We just talk
to people, build that connection and
create a space where they can talk
about what’s on their mind. We can
all do that.”
She says it’s important to be
62 • MARCH 2021
proactive in initiating contact with
people you think may be lonely. That’s
because there is stigma attached to
loneliness, and lonely people may feel
like they’re a burden on others.
The good news is that dealing with
isolation during the pandemic has
forced us to develop new ways of
connecting and looking out for each
other—an investment that will reap
rewards into the future.
Peter Gordon, 37, a visually
impaired student from Hobart,
Tasmania, has found a bunch of
new friends during daily online
"happy hour" chats organised by
Blind Citizens Australia to respond
to their members’ needs during the
pandemic. “We got together to talk
about cooking, exercise, music. We
got to talk about the good parts of
coronavirus and the bad parts. We
could relate to each other. I’ve met
all sorts of people and I’ve stayed in
contact with them via social media.”
TACKLING LONELINESS might
mean nothing more than bringing
in a neighbour’s bins, paying for
someone’s coffee, or stopping to chat
to an acquaintance in the street.
“All these little generous acts help
build relationships that address
loneliness,” says Dr Barrett.
“Kindness impacts upon the
other person, on you and on the
sharing group. It’s about human
connection—after all, we all breathe
the same air.”n
 READER’S DIGEST

WHAT YOU CAN DO IF YOU’RE FEELING LONELY

Start small. Initiate contact with one other
person. Don’t overthink things. Chances are,
they will welcome the chance to connect.
Chat to your neighbours. They are always
around you, even during lockdown.
Smile at a stranger. Unsolicited connections
will improve your mood.
Think about one or two close relationships.
What can you do to talk to that person more?
Find small ways of adding yourself back
into your community. If possible, go for a
coffee in a local café or visit the library.
Consider volunteering. It’s a great way to
remind yourself that you are valuable.
Offer help to someone.
Postpone major life changes, like moving
house or changing jobs.
Don’t compare yourself to other people.
It’s not about the number of relationships you
have, it’s the quality that matters.
Exercise regularly and eat healthy food.

The Power of Song

Estonia, which had endured foreign occupation for centuries, joined its fellow
Baltic Republics of Latvia and Lithuania in a nonviolent movement that enabled
them to become independent from the Soviet Union. Between 1987 and 1991 the
"Singing Revolution" saw thousands of people gather in public places, raising
the banned Estonian flag aloft and singing the songs of their heritage, despite the
national ban on such actions. The movement eventually gained the support of the
republic’s ruling Communist Party in defying Moscow, faced down Soviet tanks,
and successfully declared Estonian independence

Source: nonviolent-conflict.org/estonias-singing-revolution-1986-1991/

MARCH 2021 • 63
 HEALTH
Body, Heal
Thyself
Why do wounds mend
more slowly as we age?
BY Christina Frangou
illustration by paige stampatori
HEN A CHILD gets a scrape,
W a kiss from their grown-up
and a day or two with a
plaster is usually all that’s needed.
When it happens to an adult, it takes
more time to heal—in fact, a 40-year-
old’s wound can take twice as long as
the identical wound on a 20-year-old.
And the process slows more the older
you get.
We’re all familiar with this
phenomenon, of course, but you
might wonder what’s behind it.
“We actually don’t have a complete
answer,” admits Dr Dennis Orgill,
medical director of the Wound Care
Center at Boston’s Brigham and
Women’s Hospital in the US. “But in
my experience, it’s a slow decline
from birth on.” That delay in healing
can put us at higher risk of infection
and prolonged pain.
64 • MARCH 2021
To repair a wound, the body
embarks on a complicated and
spectacular process, recruiting a
variety of cells to work together
to stop the bleeding, then restore
and rebuild the skin. And as we age,
changes in our bodies can disrupt
that process.
Our skin is put together like a
three-layer cake. At the top is the
epidermis, home of hair, freckles and
wrinkles. Only about half a millimetre
thick in places, it’s made up mostly of
keratinocytes, cells that slough off to
be replaced with younger, healthier
ones—a turnover that slows as we get
older. We also lose lipids and amino
acids in this layer with age, leading to
dry skin that’s prone to tearing.
Bacteria can get in through even the
tiniest of slits in the skin, so seemingly
small cuts can take longer to heal.
Just below the epidermis is the
dermis, which gives skin its thickness.
The dermis regulates our body’s
temperature and supplies the
epidermis with nutrient-rich blood.
This layer houses blood vessels, lymph
vessels, sweat and oil glands, and
collagen, a protein that gives your
skin its elasticity and resilience. After
COMPLETE CELL
TURNOVER
OCCURS EVERY
45 TO 50 DAYS
IN ELDERLY ADULTS
turning 50, a person loses
approximately one per cent of
collagen a year—making its vital task
in skin repair less effective.
But beyond skin changes, there
are other factors that can come with
being alive for a while. Although not
exclusive to seniors, many diseases
are more common among older
adults which can delay healing,
including congestive heart failure,
rheumatoid arthritis and chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease.
Most notably, diabetes is linked to
over 100 known contributors to
delayed wound healing, including
hormone disruption and altered
collagen accumulation. This disease
causes other complications, too,
that can impede healing, like poor
kidney function, vascular disease
and neuropathy.
Even if you don’t have any of those
conditions, medications for other
afflictions—steroids and non-
steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs,
chemotherapy and radiotherapy—can
have the same slowing effect.
Besides trying to dodge all those
wound-delaying factors, there are
some active measures you can take as
you age to shore up your body’s power
to heal itself. Leading the list: avoid
sun damage and stop smoking.
Moisturising regularly and staying
hydrated can help. Keep wounds
moist by covering them with a
bandage. And, a somewhat surprising
one: muscle strength can aid with
wound repair. Since physically
inactive people lose between three
and eight per cent of muscle mass
every decade after age 30—and even
more after 60—it’s never too soon to
start exercising.
Finally, there’s truth to the cliché
that an apple a day keeps the doctor
away. “Remember the old days when
people on boats would get scurvy
and have wounds that fell apart?” says
Dr Orgill. If your cuts are healing
slowly—at any age—he suggests
getting a lab test to check for
deficiencies in vitamins and minerals
like vitamin C and zinc. n
MARCH 2021 • 65
 My Britain:
Canterbury
A Unesco World Heritage Site, the city
of Canterbury was rendered immortal
by Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury
Tales. Written between 1387 and 1400,
the collection of stories tells the tale of
a group of pilgrims travelling to the
city's famous cathedral to visit the
shrine of St Thomas Becket. The city
retains its religious connections today,
with the magnificent Canterbury
Cathedral (one of the oldest Christian
structures in England) serving as the
seat for the Archbishop of Canterbury,
the leader of the Church of England.
66
The city of Canterbury is a popular
tourist destination, both for the
cathedral and its array of independent
restaurants, boutique shopping
experiences and other historical
landmarks. The largest Medieval
gateway in Britain is here, as are the
ruins of St Augustine’s Abbey, dating
back to 613 AD.
Canterbury is also home to an array
of green spaces, including Dane John
Gardens. Formerly a Roman cemetery,
the gardens encompass the old city
walls and bountiful natural beauty.
 INSPIRE

S TE WA R T M CK EO WN / A L A MY STO CK PH OTO
B EYS BT ROI TF ABI N
M R I: TCI SAHN T E R B U R Y

is probably the remains of the Old Mill

Jon Mills
Jon Mills, 52, is the director of
Canterbury Brewers and Distillers
operating out of The Foundry Brew
Pub and has lived in the city for
20 years. Visit thefoundrycanterbury.
co.uk to learn more
in Abbots Mill Gardens. It's great to sit
there in the summer watching our kids
play and enjoy the sound and sight of
cascading water as it flows through the
old mill and watch the punting boats
lazily floating by.
The main change that I have seen
in Canterbury over the years is
in the high street. We have lost two
department stores recently, but I am
very optimistic that Canterbury will
rise to the challenge and we will see
an increase in our already flourishing
independent trade. Our wonderful
world class tourist attractions will be

I've lived in Canterbury for 20 years

now and my wife and I love the city—my
four children all go to school here.
I really enjoy walking or cycling into
work passing through parks, the
cathedral, the punting boats on the
Stour, and Victorian street lights that
were made in the Foundry building
where I now handcraft beer and grain-
to-glass spirits to serve in our restaurant
and bar, The Foundry Brew Pub. I love
what I do and I am a very lucky man.
You are never more than a few yards
away from greenery or the river in
Canterbury. My favourite spot in the city

68 • MARCH 2021
complemented by a great explosion of
local produce including fabulous wine,
cheese, beer and spirits. We are
working hard at The Foundry
on producing English whiskey in the
heart of the city.
Canterbury and its history has had
a huge influence on what I do. The
cathedral is in the branding of our
products such as Canterbury Gin.
The specific influence of the historic
building that we call home has been
immense. The Foundry Brew pub and
restaurant building was a Victorian
foundry supplying the southeast railway
and repairing the winding engine to the
Crab and Winkle Line. They constructed
one of the very first torpedoes under
the design of Admiral Harvey and their
19th-century lamp posts can still be
found in Canterbury and indeed all over
the world. I am very proud to still be
making products here in the centre of
our city.
The Canterbury community spirit is
amazing and I think the coronavirus
pandemic has only reinforced that.
At The Foundry, we have had
enormous local support during our
business lockdowns. We have
continued to deliver to people's houses
and we even learned how to make hand
sanitiser so that we could give it away to
local organisations in need.
If the city were a pint, it would have
to be a rich, flavourful hoppy porter—
complex, bursting with flavour, rich in
history with a modern twist, refreshing
and full of quality local ingredients.
67
MARCH 2021 • 69
B EYS BT ROI TF ABI N
M R I: TCI SAHN T E R B U R Y
Cressida Williams
Cressida Williams is the archives and
library manager for Canterbury
Cathedral. You can learn more about
her work by visiting canterbury-
cathedral.org/heritage/
I came to Canterbury to work in a shop
on St Margaret’s Street, having never
been to the city before. I left to pursue
my studies to become an archivist, and
had the wonderful fortune to secure a
position at the Canterbury Cathedral
Archives and Library in 1997.
Today, I am archives and library
manager at the cathedral. I lead a small
team which cares for the written
collections of the cathedral, including
handwritten documents dating from the
ninth century onwards and a rich
collection of printed books. We also
house the historic archive of the City of
Canterbury, which dates from the 12th
century onwards, the historic records of
70 • MARCH 2021
Church of England churches in eastern
Kent, and records of other individuals
and institutions in the Canterbury area.
Overall, it’s a fascinating resource for
anyone with an interest in local history,
family history, church history and much
more. We provide public access to the
collections. COVID restrictions have
made it impossible to welcome people
on site to consult the collections;
however, the Archives and Library have
remained open online.
I love Canterbury for its history and
heritage and it’s everywhere in the city’s
streets and buildings, from Roman times
onwards. It’s a busy city, but there are
always quiet corners to be found.
The cathedral is one of the three
elements of the Canterbury World
Heritage Site (with St Augustine’s Abbey
and St Martin’s Church), so it's part of
the reason for the city’s international
importance. It is the oldest cathedral
foundation in England, and the seat of
the leader of the Church of England, the
Archbishop of Canterbury.
Since medieval times, the cathedral
has brought visitors to the city.
I particularly like spending time in the
cathedral’s herb garden. It is a peaceful
spot, which links to the cathedral’s
medieval past, as in the Middle Ages the
monks grew herbs nearby for use in
cooking and in medicine. The herbs
themselves attract butterflies and other
insects in the summer. n
To plan a future visit to Canterbury,
head to canterbury.co.uk
69
 INSPIRE
If I Ruled The World
Nadia Sawalha
Nadia Sawalha is a British actor, TV presenter and author, best
known for EastEnders, Celebrity MasterChef and Loose Women
I would get rid of GCSEs. I think our
education system is very flawed.
Children in Britain are some of the
unhappiest in Europe, according to
research, and, apparently, it’s due to
stress and anxiety. I’m certain it’s
linked to all the exams that kids have
to go through. Even the people who
initially developed the GCSE system
are saying it’s time to rethink it. There
are a lot of kids who could be brilliant
students but just aren’t good at being
tested. I think coursework is a much
better way.
Every dog owner would have their
dog on a lead on the street. When
my kids were little, they used to be
terrified when dogs would come up
to them. My oldest sister is terrified,
too, she’s got a phobia. She could see
a perfectly nice dog just trotting along
in front of its owner, and that would
send her into an absolute tailspin.
Nothing scares me more. It’s probably
because I was attacked when I was
little by a dog. It just enrages me when
people walk along with a dog. In fact,
72 • MARCH 2021
a dog trainer told me once that there
is never a reason to have a dog off the
lead on the road or pavement. I don’t
understand why it’s not the law.
Cyclists would be required to wear
helmets and they’d have number
plates. They can do whatever they
want and never get caught. Why can
a cyclist just go through a red light
and get away with it? Because there’s
no way of recording what they do.
So they need little number plates.
A couple of months ago I was walking
on the road and this cyclist came onto
the pavement and sent me flying.
Luckily I was OK, but people get
horrendously injured by cyclists
knocking them over, and yet they can
just do whatever they like.
Crisps would be good for us. We can
send people to the moon and perform
organ transplantation. So why can’t
we make crisps really good for us?
I am a crisp addict, I cannot have a
sandwich without a bag of crisps,
I can’t drink alcohol without crisps.
When I was a kid, I used
to steal money from my
parents all the time so I
could buy crisps. I loved
them. I don’t understand
why scientists haven’t
put their minds to this.
I know they’ve been
dealing with a global
pandemic, but crisps are
much more important.

We wouldn’t pour oil down our

sinks. “Fatbergs” are the same as
icebergs and people don’t realise that
it costs millions every year to get rid
of them. They form when we pour oil
down the sink after we’ve fried
something. What happens is the oil
goes into the water system and sticks
to all the little bits of food that might
be down there, or non-biodegradable
items like face wipes, and all of that
causes these huge fatbergs. Now, a lot
of people know that you shouldn’t
deep-fry and pour the oil down the
sink. But what they don’t realise is
that even just a little bit of oil in a pan
is really bad. So you just have to wipe
it out with kitchen roll and put it in
the bin. If you’ve got a lot of oil
leftover, you just pour it into a
container and put the lid on.
going to cope with the real world?”
I don’t think bullying makes a person
stronger or better prepared for the
world. For example, if you were in
a workplace and somebody was
threatening you or making your
colleagues not speak to you, giving
you the silent treatment or punching
you in the lift—how long would you
stick that out? How long would your
friends and family expect you to
endure that before saying, “Well, if
your boss isn’t going to do anything,
you need to get out of there”? But
people don’t apply the same rule to
children. It’s really, really weird. n

We would change the narrative As told to Eva Mackevic

around bullying. I’m always shocked
when someone asks me, “If you’re Honey, I Homeschooled the Kids by
taking your child out of school Nadia Sawalha and Mark Adderley,
because they’re bullied, how are they published by Coronet, is available now

MARCH 2021 • 73
 INSPIRE

The Great
Restaurant
Reinvention
The past year has been turbulent for the
restaurant industry but, writes Lizzie Enfield,
the restaurant was born after a period of
chaos and will survive this one, too

74
75
XXX
I
n the past 12 months restaurants
have been forced to adapt and
reinvent themselves. Since
Britain's first lockdown was
introduced at the end of March
2020 they have become takeaways,
delicatessens, and purveyors of
online cookery courses and sellers
of do-it-yourself home cooking
kits. A year of lockdowns, curfews,
new hygiene and social distancing
regulations has presented huge
challenges to the hospitality industry.
The UK’s hospitality sector saw sales
plummet by 48 per cent in the third
quarter of 2020 according to research
commisioined by UK Hospitality,
and over 50 per cent of businesses
are expected to fail before the end of
the first quarter of 2021.
76 • MARCH 2021
“FIFTY PER CENT OF
BUSINESSES ARE
EXPECTED TO FAIL BY
THE END OF THE FIRST
QUARTER OF 2021”
Necessity is the mother of
invention and the inventiveness
and ingenuity those in the
restaurant trade have drawn on to
survive the global pandemic has
been impressive. It’s also perhaps
unsurprising, given that the
restaurant as we think of it today
emerged from another period
of turbulence and crisis—the
French Revolution.

Eating out goes a long way back.
The Romans had their taverns
serving set meals and cook shops
called thermopolia selling hot ready-
to-eat dishes of lentils and stews. In
the Middle Ages, inns would provide
communal buffets of cold meats or
roasts to cater to the many people
who didn’t have kitchens. Prior to
the revolution in France, there were
plenty of places where you could eat
out but fine dining was a privilege
enjoyed by the aristocracy in the
comfort of their own homes, palaces,
chateaux and manoirs.
In 18th-century France, while
the aristocrats were enjoying haute
cuisine prepared by personal chefs,
harsh winters and oppressive taxation
had left the bulk of the French
READER’S DIGEST
La cafe du
Bosquet; Paris
during the
French
Directorate
period, late
18th century
population unable to afford bread.
When the starving masses finally took
to the streets of Paris in 1789, the
aristocrats fled to the countryside,
leaving their chefs and their fine
wines behind. Both found their way
to the cities' existing eateries and
within a year, a host of new elegant
restaurants with extensive menus had
been established.
"These restaurants were a
microcosm of the New France," says
David Gilks, a lecturer in Modern
European History at the University
of East Anglia. "They were the places
where the nouveau riche, who had
profited from the revolution were to
be seen. There were still shortages
of basic food stuffs in many parts
of Paris but in the nicer parts you
MARCH 2021 • 77
T H E G R E AT R E S TA U R A N T R E I N V E N T I O N
would see people tucking into fine
food in elegant surroundings."
In the 1760s the health-obsessed
merchants of Paris developed a
taste for light broths known as
"restoratives" or "restaurants", and
dining halls where customers could
sit at individual tables and sip them
began popping up around the city.
The new post-revolutionary
restaurants took their names from
these and the new class of French
deputies and businessmen flocked
to them, booming in the early 19th
century when Napoleon decided that
if people were sipping champagne
and supping on lobster Thermidor,
they'd be unlikely to rebel again.
78 • MARCH 2021
Citizens were granted the "freedom
of pleasure" and restaurants began to
compete with each other for ornate
décor and salacious entertainment.
They were featured in travelogues
and became tourist attractions in
their own right.
The restaurant became the symbol
of the "new" France in much the
same way that the wine bar became
a symbol of Thatcherite Britain, a
place where striped-shirted city
traders knocked back expensive
bottles of wine in ostentatious
displays of newly-made wealth.
“Intended or not, restaurants
have always been symbols of
transformation,” says William Sitwell,
author of The Restaurant: A History
of Eating Out. “They can signpost
both the decline and success of a
nation—or indeed an Empire. The
extraordinary sophistication of the
dining scene of ancient Pompeii was
indicative of the Roman Empire’s
vision breadth, sophistication and
prosperity. While, the grim restaurant
scene of the United Kingdom after the
Second World War showed quite how
the horrors and disruption of conflict
had damaged the country's food,
culture and palate.”
Fast-forward 75 years and the UK’s
restaurant trade was buoyant and
flourishing. The late designer and
restaurateur Sir Terence Conran
described London’s dining scene as
the “absolute envy of the world” but

COVID and its repercussions has
caused damage the extent of which
is not yet known.
“We have experienced disruption
on a scale hitherto unknown in
our sector,” laments Kate Nicholls,
chief executive of UK Hospitality.
“Venues have been restricted to
either takeaway only, or to opening
at a fraction of capacity. Businesses'
ability to generate revenue has been
severely undermined and consumer
confidence has taken a beating.”
To get through the most testing
of times restaurateurs have been
forced to think far outside the
takeaway box. The Roux brothers’
Michelin-starred La Gavroche,
the restaurant which was at the
forefront of the UK’s post-war dining
READER’S DIGEST
“RESTAURANTS CAN
SIGNPOST BOTH THE
DECLINE AND SUCCESS
OF A NATION—OR
INDEED AN EMPIRE”
transformation, launched an e-shop
selling Gavroche memorabilia
and wine. Renowned Danish chef,
René Redzepi announced that his
famous Copenhagen Michelin
starred restaurant, Noma would
be serving hamburgers. And, in a
move that almost brought us back to
pre-revolutionary France, chef and
restaurant owner Adam Handling,
owner of five food and drink venues
MARCH 2021 • 79
T H E G R E AT R E S TA U R A N T R E I N V E N T I O N
across London, including the
flagship Frog in Covent Garden,
launched a fine dining in your own
home venture with considerable
success. "Hame"—the Scottish word
for home—delivers pre-prepared
high-end restaurant food (think
lobster and Wagyu beef ) with a
code for an accompanying online
chef video tutorial so that people
could enjoy his restaurant food in
their own home (his dishes weren’t
suitable for takeaway).
Across the country and across
the globe restaurants have adopted
similar survival strategies but many
did not make it. Big names like Pizza
Express and burger chain Byron
were forced to close restaurants
and cut jobs, Carluccio's went
80 • MARCH 2021
“CATERING IS AS FULL
OF SERENDIPITY AS
THE HISTORY OF THE
RESTAURANT IS FULL OF
UNINTENDED OUTCOMES”
into administration as did Mark
Hix’s restaurant empire. Others
are teetering on the verge of an
uncertain future and the challenge
of catering to a nation whose
economy has shrunk and customers
whose finances are stretched.
Greek restaurateurs found
themselves in a similar position
following the country's debt crisis,

which began in 2010. This cut deep
into the pockets of ordinary Greeks,
but restaurants adapted and met
their desire to continue eating out
and socialising. They changed
their menus, dropped their prices,
tightened up their turnaround times
and turned cities like Thessaloniki
into thriving gourmet hotspots.
Former banks became pizzerias
selling single slices with a beer for a
cheap €3 a pop, former car salesmen
opened hole in the wall souvlaki stalls
and coffee shops took on fortune
tellers, hoping to give customers a bit
of hope by reading good things from
the grounds of their coffees.
“It would be a brave person to
put money on what might emerge
from this crisis,” says Kate Nicholls.
“The important point to remember
is that when we return to a degree
of normality, restaurants will be an
essential part of life.”
And perhaps the history of
the restaurant industry is reason
READER’S DIGEST
enough for hope. Many familiar
foodstuffs and dishes were created
by mistake: cheese when an Arab
nomad decided to transport milk in
a container made from an animal's
stomach, Worcestershire sauce after
a failed attempt by John Lea and
William Perrins to recreate a much-
loved Indian sauce, and potato crisps
when a customer at a restaurant in
Saratoga Springs complained his
French Fries were too thick.
Catering is as full of serendipity
as the history of the restaurant is
full of unintended outcomes. “The
French revolutionary Maximillien
Robespierre did not foresee that his
politics would usher in an era of fine
dining,” says William Sitwell. “Nor
did Richard and Maurice McDonald
predict their businesses spiral would
make their names synonymous with
the burger, and no one imagined
that Yoshiaki Shiraishi would raise
the global consumption of sushi by
inventing a system of serving it on a
conveyor belt.” n
MARCH 2021 • 81
INSPIRE

Before I adopted
MY
Dyngo, he spent
nine months
sniffing bombs
and saving lives DOG
THE
in Afghanistan.
Could I help him
settle back into
civilian life?

BY Rebecca Frankel
FROM SMITHSONIAN

WAR
PhotograPh by SuSana raab

HERO
83
MY DOG THE WAR HERO
t was late—an
I
indistinguishable, bleary-
eyed hour. In front of me was
a large dog, snapping his
jaws so hard that his teeth
gave a loud clack with each
bark. His eyes were locked
on me, desperate for the toy
in my hand. But he wasn’t
playing—he was freaking out.
As I cautiously held my ground, his
bark morphed from a yelp to a shout.
Then he gave a rumbling growl. That
was when my unease gave way to
something far more primal: fear.
This was no ordinary dog. Dyngo,
a ten-year-old, had been trained to
propel his six-stone body toward
insurgents, locking his jaws around
them. He’d served three tours in
Afghanistan, weathering grenade
blasts and firefights. This dog had
saved thousands of lives. Now he was
in my flat in Washington, DC. Just 72
hours earlier, I had travelled across the
country to retrieve Dyngo from Luke
Air Force Base near Phoenix, Arizona,
so that he could live out his remaining
years with me in civilian retirement.
That first night, May 9, 2016, after
we’d settled into my hotel room,
Dyngo sat on the bed waiting for me.
When I got under the covers, he
stretched across the blanket, his
weight heavy and comforting against
my side. As I drifted off to sleep, I felt
his body twitch, and I smiled: Dyngo
is a dog who dreams.
The next morning, I gave him a toy
84 • MARCH 2021
and went to shower. When I emerged
from the bathroom, it was like
stepping into a henhouse massacre.
Feathers floated in the air. Fresh rips
ran through the white sheets. In the
middle of the bed was Dyngo, panting
over a pile of shredded pillows.
Throughout the morning, his rough
play left scratches where his teeth had
broken the skin through my jeans.
On the flight home, Dyngo was
allowed to sit at my feet in the roomy
first row, but he soon had bouts of
vomiting in between his attempts to
shred the blanket I’d brought him.
The pilot announced Dyngo’s military
status, inspiring applause from the
whole cabin. When we reached my
flat, we both collapsed from
exhaustion. It would be our last bit of
shared peace for many months.
I met Dyngo in 2012 at Lackland Air
Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.
I was working on a book, War Dogs:
Tales of Canine Heroism, History and
Love, and had heard about how Dyngo
had saved many lives in Afghanistan.
His bravery had earned him and his
handler, Staff Sergeant Justin Kitts, a
Bronze Star.
In early 2011, Kitts and Dyngo
boarded a helicopter on their way to a
remote outpost in Afghanistan. Dyngo
wore a wide choke chain and a vest
that said “MWD Police K-9” to indicate
that he was a military working dog.
The plan for the day was familiar.
The platoon from the US Army’s 101st
 READER’S DIGEST

Airborne Division would make its way pulled him down to the ground, his
on foot to nearby villages, connecting back against a mud wall. The next
with community elders to find out thing Kitts heard was a whistling
whether Taliban operatives were sound, high and fast, flying past them
planting improvised explosive devices at close range. Just feet from where
(IEDs) in the area. Kitts and Dyngo they were sitting, an explosion shook
walked in front to clear the road the ground. Dyngo whimpered and
ahead. After six months of these whined, his thick tail tucked between
scouting missions, Kitts trusted that his legs. The grenade explosion had
Dyngo would keep him safe. registered much deeper and louder to
They were on a path in a field a little his canine ears. Knowing he had to
more than half a mile outside the distract Dyngo, Kitts grabbed a twig,
outpost when Dyngo’s ears perked up, and both dog and handler engaged in
his tail stiffened and his sniffing a manic tug-of-war until Dyngo
intensified. It wasn’t a full alert, but relaxed. Then Kitts dropped the
Kitts knew Dyngo well enough to branch and returned fire over the wall.
know he’d picked up the odour of an It turned out that Dyngo’s nose had
IED. He signalled the platoon leader. been spot-on. There were IEDs buried
“There’s something over there, or in both places. The insurgents had
there’s not,” Kitts said. “But my dog is planned to trap the unit in the grape
showing me enough. We should not field and attack them there.
continue going that way.”
The rest of the soldiers
took cover while Kitts Air Force staff sergeant Justin Kitts
walked Dyngo to the other and Dyngo on duty in Afghanistan
end of the path to clear a
secure route out. They’d
gone barely 270 metres
COURTESY JUSTIN KITTS/LUKE AIR FORCE BASE

when Kitts saw Dyngo’s

nose start to work faster.
His ears perked and his
tail stopped. He was on
odour again. If Dyngo was
right, there were two
bombs: one obstructing
each path out of the field.
They were trapped. Then
the gunfire started. Kitts
grabbed Dyngo and

MARCH 2021 • 85
MY DOG THE WAR HERO

Altogether, during their

nine months in Afghanistan,
Kitts and Dyngo spent more
than 1,000 hours patrolling.
They discovered more than
420lbs of explosives and were
credited with keeping at least
30,000 US, Afghan and
coalition forces safe.

the UnIteD StateS has

deployed thousands of dogs
to combat zones. Depending
on the war, their tours have
lasted months to years. When Rebecca Frankel formed a bond with Dyngo in 2012
it’s time for war dogs to retire, while researching a book about war dogs
the law specifies they be
released into the care of their
former handlers, if possible. The around new people, seemed to like
second option is “other persons me. When Dyngo laid his head in my
capable of humanely caring for lap, I felt the tug of love. Kitts asked
these dogs” and the third is law- whether I would consider taking
enforcement agencies. Dyngo when he was set to retire.
According to Douglas Miller, the For me, adopting Dyngo would
former manager of the US Department mean adopting new schedules,
of Defence Military Working Dog responsibilities and costs, including a
programme, retired war dogs are in move to a larger, more expensive, dog-
higher demand than they were a friendly apartment. The list of reasons
decade ago. “When I first took this job to say no was inarguably long. Even so,
in 2009, there were about 150 people over time, that little feeling tugged
on the list,” he says. “That has now harder. I weighed all the pros and cons
grown to about 1,200.” But not every and then disregarded the cons.
civilian anticipates the adjustments
SUSANNA RAAB/INSTITUTE

the dogs will have to make. “yoU SoUnD ScareD”

When we met, Kitts told me he’d
always hoped he could bring Dyngo
home, but his daughter was allergic to
dogs. He said he was impressed with
how much Dyngo, usually stoical
I’d called Kitts as soon as I heard
Dyngo growl. He counselled me
through that first night back in DC,
and intuited that Dyngo needed a
crate to feel safe. My friend Claire had

86 • MARCH 2020

a spare one and helped me put it
together. We’d barely had the door in
place before Dyngo launched himself
inside, his relief palpable and pitiable.
The next day, and during the rest
of the first week, I had just one
objective: to wear Dyngo out. I chose
the most arduous walking routes, the
steepest leaf-strewn trails. The pace
was punishing.
Other challenges presented
themselves. Dyngo had arrived with
scabs and open sores on his
underbelly. Tests revealed a bacterial
infection that required antibiotics and
medicated shampoo baths. Since
I could not lift Dyngo into the bathtub,
I would shut us both into the small
bathroom and do the best I could with
a bucket and washcloth, leaving water
and dog hair on the floor.
Then there was Dyngo’s nearly
uncontrollable drive for toys—or
anything resembling a toy. Instilled
in him by the rewards he’d received
during his training, this urge sent him
after every ball, stuffed animal or
abandoned glove we passed. The
distant echo of a bouncing basketball
filled me with dread.
My desperation grew when Dyngo
began to twist himself like a pretzel
to clamp down on the fur and flesh
above his hind leg, gripping himself in
rhythmic bites, a compulsion known
as flank sucking.
Struggling for order, I set up a rigid
Groundhog Day–like routine. Each
day, we would wake at the same hour,
READER’S DIGEST
eat meals at the same hour, travel the
same walking paths and sit in the
same spot on the floor together after
every meal.
I don’t remember when I started to
sing to him, but under the street lamps
on our late-night walks, I began a
quiet serenade of verses from Simon
and Garfunkel or Peter, Paul and
ON OUR WALKS, I
WONDERED HOW TO
CONVEY TO DYNGO
THAT THERE WERE NO
BOMBS HERE
Mary. I have no idea whether anyone
else ever heard me. In my mind, there
was only this dog and my need to
calm him.
One night that summer, I called my
father and told him things weren’t
getting better. “Give it time,” he said.
“You’ll end up loving each other, you’ll
see.” When Dyngo would pull away,
straining against my hold on the leash,
I found that hard to believe.
Sometimes, when Dyngo stared at
me from behind the bars of his
borrowed crate, I wondered whether
he was thinking back to his days of
leaping out of helicopters. Did he
crave the adrenaline rush of hopping
over walls and the struggle of human
limbs between his teeth? What if, in
my attempt to offer him a life of love
MARCH 2021 • 87
MY DOG THE WAR HERO

developed a fear of
thunderstorms—which
was strange, Hatala says,
because he had never
before been scared of
thunder, or even of gunfire.
Among the former
handlers who’d worked
with Dyngo was Staff
Sergeant Jessie Keller, who
had arranged the
adoption. As Dyngo and
I struggled to adapt to our
After months of adjustment, Dyngo now walks in new life, Keller offered
his neighbourhood without feeling that he’s on duty thoughtful suggestions.
But something changed
for me when Keller sent a
and relaxation, I had stolen his sense text shortly after I’d adopted Dyngo—
of purpose? “If u don’t feel u can keep him please
let me know and I will take him back.”
mIlItary DogS get to a point where In some ways, this was the thing I most
they’re living for their jobs, just as wanted to hear. But a resolve took hold:
human service members do, says Matt I was not going to give up this dog.
Hatala, a former Marine handler who During our early months together,
deployed to Afghanistan. “That has Dyngo admirably maintained his
been their identity—that is it—for military duties. As we made our way
years and years. And when you get down the hall from my flat, he would
out, you kind of go, ‘What the heck do drop his nose down to the seam of
I do now?’ And you can never really each door we passed and give it a swift
find that replacement. but thorough sniff. He was still
“That dog’s been through situations hunting for bombs.
you’re not going to be able to Every time I clipped on his leash, he
understand and might not be able to was ready to do his job, even if, in his
handle,” Hatala continues. He mind, I wasn’t ready to do mine. He’d
acknowledges that things weren’t turn up his face, expectant and
always easy after he brought home chiding. And when I didn’t give a
Chaney, his former canine partner. command, he would carry on, picking
The black Lab was still ready to work, up my slack. I tried to navigate him
but there wasn’t any work to do. Chaney away from the line of cars parked

88 • MARCH 2021

along the leafy streets, where he tried
to set his nose toward the curves of the
tyres. How could I convey to him that
RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN ANY MEDIUM IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
there were no bombs here? How could
COPYRIGHT 2019 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM SMITHSONIAN ENTERPRISES. ALL RIGHTS
I make him understand that his nose
was now entirely his own? Over the
next nine months or so, Dyngo
gradually learned to let his guard
down, and I adjusted to life with a
retired war dog.
It haS now been more than three years
since I brought Dyngo home. He has
learned how to play, maybe for the
first time, without anxiety. The
borrowed crate was dismantled two
years ago. His flank sucking has all but
disappeared. All the rugs lie in place,
the couch cushions and pillows sit idle
and unthreatened. Dyngo and I are
rarely more than a few feet apart—he
follows me around, my lumbering
guardian. He is now truly my dog.
Every once in a while, as I run my
thumb along the velvety inside of his
left ear, I see the faint blue of his ID
tattoo, #L606. He exhales a low
grumble, but it’s one of deep
contentment. I can take Dyngo out
without worry now. He is gentle with
dogs who are smaller or frailer than he
is. He has even befriended a feisty
black cat.
FEELING OFF-COLOUR
The "ugliest colour in the world" is Pantone 448C,
a drab dark brown often used for plain cigarette packaging
Source: theguardian.com
READER’S DIGEST
Dyngo’s dozen years of rough-and-
tumble life are finally catching up with
him. His stand-at-attention ears have
fallen into a crumple. The marmalade
brown of his muzzle is swept with
swirls of white and grey. He is missing
teeth and walks with a bit of a limp.
early In 2018, Dyngo and I drove up to
my parents’ home. It was an unusually
balmy day in February, and we rode
with the windows down, Dyngo’s head
raised into the slanting sun. He made
friends with the neighbours’ dogs,
dragged branches across the muddy
yard and took long evening walks with
my father in the downy snow.
Back in DC, when we pulled into
our building’s circular driveway after
two weeks away, I looked on as he
jumped down onto the concrete. His
face changed as he reoriented
himself to the surroundings, finding
his footing along the uneven
sidewalks and making a beeline
toward his favourite tree. As we
entered my flat, he nosed his way
inside, then pranced back and forth
between his bed and bowls. He
danced toward me, his eyes filled to
the brim with an expression that
required no interpretation: We’re
home! We’re home! n
MARCH 2021 • 89
 TR AVEL & ADVENTURE

A "hooker," whose job is to

pull swimmers in need of help
from the -1°C water, walks
alongside two competitors at
the 2020 Memphremagog
Winter Swim Festival

90
 COME ON IN,
THE WATER’S COLD
More and more swimmers are embracing
ice swimming as an actual sport. To make sense of the
lunacy, writer Marty Munson dives in
from men’s HealtH
C O M E O N I N , T H E WAT E R ’ S C O L D
don’t want to
“I
scare you, but if
you don’t have
a little anxiety
about being out
there, don’t go
out,” says Greg
O’Connor to the
93 swimmers who
have committed
to launching themselves into a lap
pool that has been carved into thick
ice. “It means you have no idea what
you’re getting yourself into.”
It’s a Saturday morning in late
February 2020 at the Memphremagog
Winter Swim Festival, held over two
days at Lake Memphremagog in
Newport, Vermont.
O’Connor, 51, who serves as safety
director for the annual festival, is
holding a briefing inside a tavern
that doubles as a staging area. The
popularity of ice swimming has
spiked in recent years, so about half
the field is new.
As basically the only subzero event
in North America, the Winter Swim
Fest makes its own rules. The frigid
“pool” is limited to two lanes and
25 metres. Races range from 25 to
200 metres and include the freestyle
and butterfly strokes and various
relays. While parka-clad volunteers
Getting in “feels like someone took a large steel
band and clenched it around your chest”
92 • MARCH 2021
clock times, competitors’ race attire
must be chillingly confined to a cap,
goggles, and a standard swimsuit.
This setup means no flip turns
(“If you turn wrong, you end up
under the ice,” O’Connor says). No
holding the ladder or the wall too
long at the end (“Your hand can
freeze to it”). And no matter what,
stay in touch with how you’re feeling
(“You can go downhill really fast”).
It started as a half-joke in the
winter of 2014. Race director Phil
White, then in his mid-sixties,
posted a photo of himself on
Facebook standing on the ice of
Lake Memphremagog with a three-
foot circular saw and the phrase,
“Anybody want to go swimming?”
Darren Miller, a marathon
swimmer and race organiser, saw
the post and called to ask, “Are you
serious?” One year later, 40 hardy
swimmers turned up for the first
event, and over the next half decade
participation doubled with little
obvious reward at stake. Bragging
rights and pool records aside, the
top finishers receive little more
than Vermont maple syrup and
homemade beef jerky.
After the briefing, several
swimmers around me chatter
nervously about how maybe this

wasn’t such a good idea. I can
empathise. A warm-water marathon
swimmer, I’ve signed up for the
25-metre breaststroke. In less than
five hours, I too will be forcing myself
into the frigid water.
old-water swimming is
C considered “ice swimming”
when it’s done at temperatures
of 5°C or less. It’s not easy to be
in water that cold for very long.
While it takes about 30 minutes for
hypothermia to set in, you can feel
sluggish and winded far faster.
The Winter Swim Festival—where
the water temperature is 0°C—sets
the time limit for its longest events at
four minutes. But that hasn’t stopped
people from going longer elsewhere.
Last year’s Winter Swimming World
Championships, in Bled, Slovenia,
hosted more than 1,000 swimmers
from 36 countries and included a
one-kilometre race that took people
between 18 and 34 minutes to
Shawn Booth cuts through the
ice on Lake Memphremagog to
create a swimming pool for the
Winter Swim Festival. Ice will begin
to form again within 90 minutes
complete. Extremists push things
even further by completing ice
miles—about 50 per cent longer.
At Lake Memphremagog,
the lineup contains some ice
milers—notably Elaine K Howley,
who has also earned the triple crown
of swimming (crossing Catalina
Channel and the English Channel
and circumnavigating Manhattan)—
and a little bit of everyone else. They
range in age from 12 to 77 and run
the gamut from serious ultrarunners
to guys who’ve had cancer and heart
attacks, and even some who aren’t
all that nuts about going in water
over their heads.
Plenty of high-profile cold-water
advocates like Wim Hof and Britain’s
Ross Edgley espouse the health
benefits of exposing yourself to
extremely cold water. But the diverse
pods of people who have turned up in
Vermont seem driven by something
more communal. They have cheeky
team names like the Buckeye Bluetits
MARCH 2021 • 93
C O M E O N I N , T H E WAT E R ’ S C O L D
and Boston’s L-Street Brownies, who
sport T-shirts with the slogan “When
L freezes over.”
fter a few hours of
A competition, some of the
shorter events give way to
the 200-metre freestyle. About 30
swimmers line up inside the tavern,
including Louise Hyder-Darlington,
who stares out the door into snow.
“It’s focus time,” she says under her
breath, unsmiling.
The shock of the cold can hit hard,
make your heart beat faster, and
literally take your breath away. Rick
Born, 57, a returning Winter Swim
Festival contender who’s also swum
in competitions abroad, admits that
getting in “feels like someone took
a large steel band and clenched it
around your chest.” That can make
you involuntarily gasp for air and
suck in water.
The more often you get into
cold water, the more you can
temper that response, says Michael
Tipton, a professor at the Extreme
Environments Laboratory at the
University of Portsmouth. Even five
to ten three-minute immersions
within a short period of time can cut
down the involuntary reaction.
In longer events, the next
challenge that hits you, Tipton
explains, is “the cooling of the
superficial nerves and muscles,
particularly in the arms.”
Says swimmer Thomas
94 • MARCH 2021
Young-Bayer, 40, “Your muscles get
really cold and stop doing what you
ask them to… It’s like swimming
through jelly.”
Even for ice milers and open-
water champions, the 200 in this 0°C
water is no joke. Two of the fastest
competitors all day, Christopher
Graefe, 45, and Steve Rouch, 35,
speed through the first 100, but by
the last 25, even they start slowing
down (Rouch wins in a swift 2:38.36).
Ice swimming reveals your
vulnerabilities quickly. If you haven’t
had good sleep or good food, you
feel fatigued faster. The edge of your
physical and mental capacity seems
closer. “I think it’s more mental than
physical,” says Howley. You need to
focus on what you’re doing and how
you’re feeling.
Even getting in the water is
mental—working through the
challenge is part of the reward.
Another return is in the post-race
rush. “There’s a feeling of being alive
that’s hard to put into words that the
cold amplifies,” says Born.
Suddenly cooling your skin cues
your body to release a flood of mood-
and energy-boosting chemicals,
explains Tipton. “You become active
and alert, and that can last for some
time after you leave the water.”
That may help swimmers tough
out unpleasant sensations. “The
first five minutes can be so painful
and you think, I don’t want to do
this,” says Talbott Crowell, 52, who
 Sam Levinson celebrates as she is wrapped up and escorted to the warming hut by her
teammates from the L Street Brownies after competing in the 200-metre race
has competed here for the past five
years. “But when you’re swimming
PHoto: Jessica rinaldi/tHe Boston GloBe via Getty imaGes
in training, within ten minutes,
your body goes numb and there’s
this adrenaline and a thrill. I don’t
understand it, but it’s incredible.”
fter lunch, volunteers
A with skimmers harvest the
thin layer of ice that has
crusted over the pool. Next is the
50-metre freestyle. More than 50
people are participating.
Shivering swimmers are escorted
into the recovery area, a small, warm
building with sofas, blankets, and
buckets of room-temperature water
to gently thaw your hands and feet.
You can’t warm up too fast, or the
cold blood in your extremities will
return to your core too quickly,
lowering your body temperature and
blood pressure, which may cause
fainting and heart palpitations.
Recovery is an individual thing,
depending on the day, your body, and
how long you swam. It might take ten
minutes, maybe 20, maybe 60.
By about 2:30pm, the energy in the
warming room shifts as fatigue sets
in. “Normally when we ice-swim, we
do it once and we have that rush,”
says Graefe. “But here, we’re doing
it again and again. It just becomes
exhausting,” he says.
People start to drop out of their
MARCH 2021 • 95
XXXX
Marty Munson emerges from the water ecstatic after completing her first icy race
races. Ice swimming is tiring,
yet nobody would really call this
conventional exercise. What passes
for “rigorous training” might consist
of a ten-minute dip and maybe an
axe to create the training spot if your
local pond freezes over. And maybe
that’s part of the appeal. “It’s a fairly
portable, or quasi-accessible, means
of doing something really outrageous
that looks really hard,” says Howley.
grew more anxious as we
I approached go time, worried about
how fast I could get my breath
under control once the cold shock hit.
Finally the time comes. My heart
beats faster than usual as volunteers
escort me onto the slippery ice deck.
They help me kick off my shoes and
thermal tights.
My lane mate, 49-year-old
96 • MARCH 2021
ultraswimmer Derek Tucker, and
I descend wooden steps and stand
on a submerged platform that runs
between them. We fist-bump, then
grab the ice-crusted rail behind us in
a set position. Someone shouts “Go,”
and we’re off. Within a few strokes I’m
able to duck my head under the water.
My 25-metre race takes all of 25.97
seconds—and even though Tucker
beats me to the far wall, I finish
tingling and ecstatic.
The hallmark of this festival, as
much as it is the ice pool itself, is the
wrap—the move a volunteer does
PHoto By mina elnaccasH
with a towel or giant robe to bundle
the swimmer back up when they
emerge from the water. Now it’s my
turn to feel it, as the volunteers make
sure my frozen feet get into my shoes
and my robe is zipped.
Earlier, I spoke with one of the

young up-and-comers in the sport,
the Dutch athlete Fergil Hesterman,
28, who described the ice-swimming
community as “one big family that
helps each other out.” It’s easy to feel
what he means.
y time placed me tenth out
M of 21 women—and yet I spent
the rest of the day feeling
victorious. I’d tapped into the mind-
over-matter part of the sport, which
is incredibly satisfying.
Toward the end of the day, more
names get crossed out, more people
are re-paired up, and everyone
rolls with it. By dinnertime, it’s like
Christmas night, people strolling
around in their pyjamas (wear your
PJs, get one free shot of vodka from
the bar) and feeling the effects of
adrenaline fatigue, of pride, and of
being with people who totally get you.
The next day, the temperature
remains low. That’s lucky, in a way,
because warmer weather caused
the water at the recent British Ice
Swimming Championships to
hit a balmy 6°C—too warm to be
considered an ice swim. At least one
extremist, Lewis Pugh, a British-
South African endurance swimmer
and activist, is embracing that sad
Story Time
Instead of saying “Once upon a time,” Korean fantasies usually begin with,
“Back when tigers used to smoke”
Source: waywordradio.org/when-tigers-smoked
READER’S DIGEST
fact by doing swims in places like
the North Pole to bring attention to
global warming.
The final event of the day is a set
of spirited relays. There’s a flurry of
activity as swimmers and volunteers
race around to coordinate who’s
about to go into the water, and to
make sure everyone exiting the pool
is wrapped and cared for. Choruses of
“Sorry! Sorry!” and “Go! Go!” mingle
in the air while volunteers shuffle dry,
warm clothes around on deck.
Cheers erupt everywhere—for your
team, the other team, the volunteers.
I’m cheering too. It’s all, as Tucker
once warned me, so silly and
unnecessary, and yet energising and
fun and empowering to watch.
“I think the sport is growing
because it connects us to a real feeling
of being alive,” says Margaret Gadzic,
41, a soft-spoken swimmer and
organiser on the Buckeye Bluetits.
“This is something you can do to feel
your breath catch, your heart race,
and your blood pump in your veins.”
Once the commotion stopped, the
ice returned, and barely 24 hours later
the pool sealed over. Nothing lasts
forever. But there’s always someone
willing to crack another spot open. n
men’s HealtH (aPril 30, 2020), coPyriGHt © 2020 By Hearst
maGazines media, inc.
97
 TR AVEL & ADVENTURE

My Great Escape:

Romantic
Reykjavík
Claire Bradley from
Buckinghamshire
discovers Iceland’s
frozen wonderland

W
hen my partner
suggested that
we travel to Iceland
in the middle of
the winter, I’ll be
honest: I wasn’t thrilled. I’ve never
been a big fan of the cold, or the long
dark nights of winter. But I ended
up in Iceland anyway, and I have
never been more surprised at how
beautiful a place could be.
Having packed every warm item of
clothing that I could find, I stepped
out of the airport, and found that
Iceland was every bit as cold as I had the churches and the bars, and there
imagined it would be. was so much culture to absorb. We
We got onto a lovely heated coach even visited a penis museum, where
and ended up in the centre of the I learned far more about mammal
capital city, Reykjavík, where we genitalia than I ever needed to know!
checked into a beautifully warm, There were so many well organised
self-catering accommodation, right coach tours to choose from during
next to Hallgrímskirkja church. our stay in Iceland. We plumped
Everything about Reykjavík first for the Golden Circle Tour,
surprised me. I loved the museums, where we experienced some of the

98 • MARCH 2021
most beautiful sights I have ever
seen in my life.
Thingvellir National Park was
definitely the highlight of the trip, as
was the Northern Lights tour. While
the lights did not put on the most
spectacular of displays (we were
actually told that we could rebook
as the tour company didn’t think
they’d been bright enough to count
as an official sighting), I still found it
magical and exciting to be exploring
the snow-covered landscape in
the dark, chasing such a stunning
natural phenomenon.
One exciting trip took us along the
south coast, where we explored the
small villgae of Vík í Mýrdal, famous
for its lovely little red-roofed church
and eerie rock formations. We were
there as the sun began to set, and
the sky put on a very otherworldly
display for us.
During our stay, we also had
time to visit geysers, waterfalls and
glaciers, all of which were stunning.
We were only in Iceland for a week,
yet it was possible to pack in so many
adventures. Everything about Iceland
enchanted me, from the breathtaking
natural beauty, to the traditional
elvish folklore.
My only regret? That I didn’t
discover this wonderful country
years ago! n

Tell us about your favourite holiday (send

a photo too) and if we print it, we’ll pay
£50. Email excerpts@readersdigest.co.uk

MARCH 2021 • 99
 HIDDEN
eaches, beautiful villas,

B watersports, rainforest activities

and rum bars are classic
GEMS
Caribbean temptations, all allied to
that warm weather and warmer temperament.
Abandoned US radar bases? Not so much.
Visitors to Trinidad, however, should definitely
check out a former tracking station on the island’s
North West Peninsula, not far from capital Port of
Spain. There are various reasons to do so.
Firstly, for the intriguing history. During the
Second World War, this whole lush peninsula was
leased to the US by its British Empire overseers for
the construction of a naval base. Two decades later,
as part of an Early Warning System during the tense
Cold War, that scaled-back base had instead been
repurposed to alert the US to imminent missile
attacks. It was one of the first such tracking stations
to be constructed.
Operating until 1971, despite much objection,
the station gradually became symbolic in the fight
for sovereignty led by Eric Williams (later the Prime
Minister); in having been sold and built without
local-authority permission, it represented every
violation of Trinidadian rights.
If you don’t visit for the politics, do so for
the photography. With that large dish and its
lighthouse-like tower ringed by lush trees and
glittering seas, the abandoned base has a cinematic
setting. Get there by driving to the Bamboo
Cathedral—a tree-hugged avenue popular with
newlyweds—and then walking uphill.
Or go for the stargazing, an increasingly popular
activity in this less-developed Caribbean corner.
Local adventure firm Nature Trekking in Trinidad &
Tobago runs guided hikes to the site on certain full
moons (naturetrektnt.com). n

By Richard Mellor
TRACKING
STATION
Trinidad

101
 MONEY

ave you got some

H
money put aside?
For the last couple of
decades the Individual
Savings Account, aka
the ISA, has been an
integral part of the savers toolkit
through giving us the chance to earn
tax-free.
But with other allowances helping

Do You us to do the same thing with our

savings and investments, it might be
that ISAs aren’t really worth it.
Really Need With the financial year ending
soon, and with it the annual “ISA

An ISA? deadline,” here’s my guide to getting

the most from ISAs.

THERE’S AN ANNUAL ALLOWANCE

Andy Webb on whether you
need an Individual Savings
Account, and how to get the
most out of it, if you do
You can put up to £20,000 of new
money into ISAs each financial year,
running between April 6 and April
5. This allowance starts again each
year, when you can start paying in
again or open a new account.

Andy Webb is a YOU CAN TRANSFER

personal finance MONEY BETWEEN ISAS
journalist and runs If you’ve got old ISAs earning
the award-winning very little interest you can move
money blog, Be Clever the money to new accounts with
With Your Cash better rates.

102 • MARCH 2021

 Whatever you do, don’t close the
old account and withdraw money.
Instead you should look to transfer
between ISAs. Not all new accounts
will allow transfers in, so check.
THERE ARE FOUR TYPES OF ISA
You can spread your allowance as
you like between the different ISA
types, or you can stick to just one
type. But you can only pay into one
of each type each year—whether
it’s an existing one or a new one
you open.
CASH ISA
With this account you’ll earn tax-free
interest on cash savings, generally
easy access or fixed for a set time.
But with interest rates consistently
low of late, this type of ISA is largely
redundant. That’s down to the
Personal Savings Allowance (PSA)
which means we can all earn up to
£1,000 in interest a year tax-free,
wherever it’s held.
To provide you with a bit of
context, you’d need an interest rate
paying 1% on a pot worth £100,000
to breach that allowance. The former
is unlikely and the latter, if you even
have that much money, is far more
than the majority of us will need in
a cash account.
So they’re pointless? Well, for
most of us, yes. It’s better to find the
highest paying interest rate wherever
that might be.
But they can still be useful for
anyone who will earn more interest
than the PSA allows.
That £1,000 allowance is for basic
rate taxpayers, but it reduces to £500
for higher rate taxpayers. And there’s
no allowance for additional rate
taxpayers. So ISAs will help anyone
earning interest above those levels.
It’s also worth noting that if the
PSA allowance was reduced or
interest rates were to rise, then
even more of us could start paying
tax on our savings. So using your
allowance now could hedge against
potential changes.
SO ARE THEY
POINTLESS? WELL, FOR
MOST OF US, YES
STOCKS & SHARES ISA
This ISA is for investments, and you
don’t pay tax on any returns made.
It’s worth saying the £20,000 annual
allowance is on the money you
pay in rather than the value of the
investment. If it goes down below
that threshold it doesn’t mean you
can pay more in.
For the casual investor though,
there are once more other
allowances which give you tax-free
returns outside the ISA. Each year
you can earn £2,000 in dividends
before tax is due, and the capital
gains allowance is currently £12,300
a year.
MARCH 2021 • 103
MONEY
YOU CAN SPREAD YOUR ALLOWANCE AS YOU LIKE
BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT ISA TYPES, OR YOU
CAN STICK TO JUST ONE TYPE
Still, with most investment
platforms offering ISAs for the same
fees as non-ISAs, it makes sense to
use the ISA “wrapper.”
LIFETIME ISA
As well as the return you’ll get in
a “Lisa” (it can be in cash or in
investments) you’ll also get a 25%
bonus from the government each
year. Sounds good, right?
Well once money is added it can
only be withdrawn penalty free for
two purposes—buying your first
home and at retirement at 60 years
old. The former can be a great way
to boost your deposit, though there
104 • MARCH 2021
are restrictions. The latter can be
beaten by workplace pensions for
most people.
It’s also only available to under-
forties, though you can keep paying
in money and getting the bonus until
you are 50. The Lifetime ISA has a
smaller £4,000 annual allowance.
INNOVATIVE ISA
These ISAs allow you to invest
money via peer-to-peer lending.
Though returns can potentially be
high, the risk is you’re relying on the
businesses with your money being
able to pay you. Right now that won’t
always be the case. n

On The Money
Andy Webb
Q: I’ve accidentally exceeded the
amount I am allowed to pay into
my new ISA and I’m worried about
the consequences. Will anything
bad happen and do I need to do
anything to remedy the mistake?
- Harriet, 59
A: Often when you pay more than
your £20,000 allowance into a single
ISA, the provider will return the
money to you. But it sounds like
that’s not the case for you.
It’s easy to see how
overpaying can happen,
particularly if you have
multiple types of ISA or
have withdrawn some
money in the year, before
putting more in. It can
happen too when you
have ISAs from
different years and
accidentally pay into
both old and new
accounts.
READER’S DIGEST
Don’t try to fix it yourself by
removing the excess savings. You
can wait until the end of the tax year
for HMRC to get in touch to sort
things out—and probably a warning
letter too.
Or, to get ahead of things you can
go direct to them now via the HMRC
helpline (0300 200 3300). Let them
know the details of the ISA with too
much money and they’ll help you
sort it out.
Don’t worry too much about
this—there won’t be a
penalty. Of course, you
won’t get the tax-relief on
the interest or returns
earned from that additional
amount. But don’t forget
you’ve still got your
personal allowance for
savings and the dividend
and capital gains
allowances for
investments which might
cover the excess. n
MARCH 2021 • 105
 FOOD
A TASTE OF HOME:
DAYASHANKAR
SHARMA
Stuffed Tandoori Squid
There are so many dishes which I
like to cook at home, but this is one
of my favourites because I love fresh
seafood. While I was in Sri Lanka
opening a new five star hotel, there
was fresh seafood available in
abundance; this was where I tasted
fried baby squid for the first time and
thought I could put my own twist on
106 • MARCH 2021
it and create my own recipe by
following traditional Indian methods.
After trying many variations and
ideas, Stuffed Baby Squid has
become a favourite; it’s a dish that
I cook at home and it has become
a popular choice on the menu at
Rajesh Suri’s Grand Trunk Road
restaurant in South Woodford.
METHOD INGREDIENTS:
1 Heat a splash of vegetable oil in a Starter: Serves 4
saucepan over a medium heat. Add the Cooking time: 1 hour 30 minutes
mustard seeds and curry leaves—once
they begin to crackle, add the turmeric For the squid:
powder and cook for 1 minute • 16 baby squid,
2 Add the tilapia, prawns and crab meat cleaned and prepped
and cook for 2 minutes, then stir in the • 300g of tilapia, roughly chopped
red chilli powder, deggi mirch powder, • 200g of crab meat
ginger, mango and green chillies. • 200g of king prawns,
Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and cook, roughly chopped
stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes over • 100g of green mango,
a low heat finely chopped
3 Once the fish is cooked, stir in the • 1 tsp black mustard seeds
coconut milk powder, cook for a final • 10 curry leaves
2 minutes then set aside to cool • 15g of ginger, finely chopped
4 While the stuffing cools, prepare the • 10g of green chillies,
marinade. Fry the mustard seeds, finely chopped
ginger, chilli and turmeric for 1 minute • 1 tsp turmeric
in a splash of oil, then mix into the • 5g of red chilli powder
Greek yogurt with a pinch of salt • 10g of deggi mirch,
5 Make the mango salsa by mixing (a mixed Indian chilli powder)
together all the ingredients in a bowl • 50g of coconut milk powder
6 Once the stuffing has cooled to room • vegetable oil, for cooking
temperature, stuff the baby squids with • salt, to taste
the mixture, packing it in tightly. Coat
the stuffed squid with the marinade and For the marinade:
leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes • 1 tsp black mustard seeds
7 To cook the squid, thread them onto • 15g of ginger, finely chopped
skewers. Preheat an oven to as high • 10g of green chillies, finely
as it will go, then cook the squid for chopped
8 minutes until tender throughout • 2 tsp turmeric
and very lightly charred. Serve with • 100g of Greek yogurt
the mango salsa
For the mango salsa:
Hacks: How Chefs Make Dishes Go From • 50g of mango chutney
Good to Great (£14.99, Food Publishing) is • 20g of coriander, finely chopped
out now, featuring the culinary secrets of 25 • 20g of mint, finely chopped
leading chefs, including Dayashankar Sharma • 15g of red chillies, finely chopped

MARCH 2021 • 107

108
 FOOD

World Kitchen
Sweden: Raggmunk
For a hearty breakfast, lunch or an in-between-meal
snack, try this beloved Swedish staple. Raggmunk
literally means “hairy monk”, but it’s actually the name
for a potato pancake originating from southeastern
Sweden, where they’re so popular that they come in
ready-to-use packages to make them on the go.
A distant cousin of the Jewish latke, raggmunk are
usually served with fried bacon and/or cranberry jam
and are really simple to prepare!

Method: Prep time: 45 minutes

1 Whisk together the milk and flour in a bowl Cook time: 30 minutes
2 Add the salt, egg and potatoes. Mix well Serves: 4
3 Preheat the oven 100°C
4 Heat a small knob of butter in a pan and, Ingredients:
most importantly, prepare one raggmunk at • 500ml milk
a time • 50g flour
5 Roll out ¼ of the mixture into a pancake • 2tsp salt
and, using a spatula, even out the surface so • 1 egg
that the grated potatoes are not in a pile • 450g potatoes, peeled
6 Fry over medium heat for about 4 minutes and grated
on each side until golden • 10 bacon rashers
and crispy (optional)
7 Gradually pile the fried • Lingonberry jam
raggmunk in a large dish (optional)
and keep them warm in • Butter
the oven
8 In a skillet, heat the bacon
over medium heat until
crisp. Place on a paper
towel to get rid of extra fat
9 Serve the raggmunk hot
with fried bacon and
lingonberry jam
MARCH 2021 • 109
 HOME & GARDEN
How To Paint
Wooden Floorboards
Revive tired flooring with a lick of paint to give any room
a quick and affordable makeover in just a few steps
Ensuring that your existing
1 floorboards are in good condition
is key to getting a good finish
with your paintwork. Fix any loose
boards and fill dents and gaps using
a good quality wood filler, then sand
the surface either by hand or using
an electric sander for speed. If the
floor already has a thick layer of
varnish or old layers of paint on the
surface, you may want to strip it right
back to the timber for a neater finish.
Once the dust has settled, give
2 the floorboards a thorough
vacuum and clean, then leave
to dry completely. Depending on the
floor paint you are using, your project
may require a primer to be applied
first. If so, apply this using a brush or
paint roller and, once dry, lightly sand
the surface and wipe clean.
Homes and gardens
writer and stylist
Cassie Pryce specialises
in interior trends
and discovering new
season shopping
110 • MARCH 2021
We recommend opting for a
3 specialist floor paint to ensure
the finish is durable. A satin
base is generally preferable to
matt or gloss for flooring, as this
can withstand wear and tear
without looking shiny. If you’re
looking to brighten up a room,
go for a light colour like white or
pale grey for a Scandi-inspired
feel or, to create a cosier and more
formal atmosphere, choose a darker
shade of paint.
4
It’s best to apply floor paint
in two or three thin coats and
use a brush to cut in around
the edges, before rollering the
middle area. Long-handled rollers
or paint pads will make the process
easier and less arduous. Note that
using a brush will leave brush marks,
and a roller will have a stippled
effect, so it’s up to you which tools
to use for the job. Always leave
the paint at least 24 hours before
walking on or moving furniture back
into the room. n
111
 ENVIRONMENT
Cleaning Up
Our Act
The products we use around
our homes everyday might
clean up in the short term,
but in reality they’re tainting
our planet
t seems counter intuitive to
I imply that cleaning products
could be harmful. By their very
nature they are removing unsightly
grime. However, once you take a
look at the ingredients list on the
back of the packaging and begin to
understand what some of those words
mean, the idea that cleaning products
could dirty our planet doesn’t seem so
ridiculous anymore.
Take bleach, for example. Found in
most household cleaning products
and excellent at ensuring a sanitary
bathroom, once it’s vanished down
the drain it starts to mutate and tell a
very different tale. When mixed with
water, highly toxic products called
dioxins are created (among other
chemicals) and released. Dioxins are
known to be carcinogenic and can
harm human and animal reproductive
systems. According to the National
Centre for Biotechnology Information,
research has already shown that our
fish populations have been affected
by dioxins. While the bleach found in
112 • MARCH 2021
household products is certainly
not an amount we can ignore,
it’s nowhere close to the amount
produced by large companies.
However, that doesn’t mean we
can’t all choose to be a little kinder
on ourselves and our surroundings
when it comes to choosing the
chemicals we use at home.
Despite popular opinion, we don’t
actually need harsh chemicals to
retain a clean home. Many companies
now offer non-toxic alternatives and
there are several recipes for at-home
formulas that are just as effective.
For an extremely simple option, soap
and water will clean most dirty or
greasy surfaces and fabrics. If you’re
looking for something a little stronger,
bicarbonate of soda and white vinegar
is an age-old mixture that works
wonderfully on tougher dirt, without
being corrosive or harmful.
If you miss the pretty scents that
shop-bought products contain, just
add some lemon juice or a drop of
your favourite essential oil. n
by Jessica Lone Summers
 Expert Q&A: Homethings
Tim Keaveney, Founder
What does Homethings do to help our
planet? We are reinventing everyday
household products to design out the
waste. Our first products to market are
concentrated cleaning tablets that allow
our customers to refill the same bottle
using just tap water. These save 100 per
cent of the plastic and an estimated 94
per cent of the transport emissions when
compared to a conventional cleaning
spray. We also believe that using eco
friendly and non-toxic ingredients is
absolutely “table stakes” for any new
product in our industry—all our products
use eco friendly ingredients with an
emphasis on naturally derived or plant-
based formulations.
What are the biggest environmental
challenges we currently face from the
hygiene industry globally?
In developed countries, the biggest issue
is the huge burden that consumption of
hygiene products places on our natural
resources. That’s most evident in the
plastics pollution crisis that we face as a
result of the linear consumption model
where we use a product and dispose of it.
What changes need to happen to
tackle ecocide? According to the Ellen
MacArthur Foundation, if we are to reach
net zero emissions by 2050, 45 per cent
of the carbon savings must come from
transitioning to a circular economy. At
the moment, we waste so many valuable
resources. I also think we need to hold
big corporations’ feet to the fire and use
our voices as consumers to demand
change. For too long, corporations have
used slick PR machines to maintain the
status quo by pushing the narrative that
it is consumers behaviours and habits
that need to change. Big corporations
need to lead the way by expediting their
responsibilities under the Paris Climate
Agreement and fundamentally realigning
their businesses around the UN
Sustainable Development Goals.
What do you predict for the future?
In my opinion, we are in a mitigation
phase. It is increasingly clear that human
activity over the past century has already
triggered a chain of events that will cause
irreversible changes to our planet and
our climate. If nothing changes and we
don’t go further and faster over the next
decade, the consequences this century
will be catastrophic. I highly recommend
reading The Future We Choose by
Christiana Figueres, who negotiated
the Paris Climate
Agreement, for
a stark and fact-
based look by a
true global expert. n
Visit gethomethings.
com for more
MARCH 2021 • 113
 FASHION & BEAUT Y

A Maximalist he annual "Spring Clean"

Case For A
Clear Out
T often feels like an arduous
task, one that is best tucked
back under the bed until
the days are lighter and the need for
warmer-weather clothing forces us
to finally confront the excess that
If you’re using lockdown as has accumulated around the edges.
But with more time at home on our
an excuse to streamline
hands than ever, a global pandemic
your wardrobe, don’t has really highlighted the things in
forget to remember your life that do and don’t spark joy—one
life outside the pandemic, of them being our wardrobes.
says our fashion expert, I’m sure I’m not alone when I say
Jenessa Williams that over the past few months, the
only clothing I have really reached
for has been of the mismatched,
stretch-cotton variety, worn and
re-worn until saggy bottoms, gaping
waistbands and unravelling hems

114 • MARCH 2021

are permanent features. This isn’t
always a bad thing—in the face of
fast fashion and alarming landfill
rates, we should be proud of giving
our clothing a long and appreciative
life. But there needs to be a place for
frivolity too. The outlandish party
dress that feels as fun as it looks, the
heels that require close
proximity to seating,
the tiny impractical
handbag that only
WE
survives each clear-out SHOULD
because of the youthful
nostalgia woven into BE PROUD
its seams… does
practicality always have OF GIVING
to win out over joy?
As somebody who OUR
often struggles to let
sentimental things CLOTHES
go, the wrangle of the
minimalist "capsule
A LONG
wardrobe" is one that
always gives me a bit
LIFE
of a headache. Though
I find myself unfurling the same
familiar favourites from their hangers
each day, I like to have choice, or
at least the illusion of it. What if
getting rid of that cardigan is akin
to forgetting the person who bought
it for me, or the amazing news I
received while I was wearing it? What
if those shoes are the perfect fit for
the daughter I haven’t yet had? It can
be difficult to know where to limit the
exhibits of your own life’s museum,
or to prophecise which items will
continue to feel like the most keep-
worthy version of "you".
The answer to most of these things,
I’ve found, is eBay. Remembering
that there are very few fast-fashion
items from the last 20 years that
can’t be tracked back down via
secondary selling sites takes a lot of
the pressure off, as well as
that philanthropic glow
of sending your unloved
clothes off to enjoy a new
lease of life. The mere
process of browsing is
often enough to sate the
endorphins craved from
an actual spend, but if you
do find yourself needing
anything new, second-
hand shopping can be
an affordable way to buy
better quality once instead
of cheap on repeat.
If you’ve found yourself
tugging on the same
cosy leggings and t-shirt
without complaint for the last eight
months, maybe it’s true that less can
indeed be more. But before you do
away with your wardrobe entirely,
it’s important to remember the
fashionable person you were before
the pandemic, and can be again.
Hold onto the hope of the life you
might still lead when all of this is
finally over. If that glittery purse or
dry-clean-only gown makes you feel
something, I say it’s definitely worth
clinging onto. n
MARCH 2021 • 115
FASHION & BEAUTY
Probiotics
Though the world's current focus on
germ-management is well founded, our
squeaky-clean skin isn't thanking us
What Are They?
A live bacteria, probiotics have long
been evidenced as beneficial to our
dietary and skin health, allowing us
to break down nutrients and helping
to regulate our moods through
delicate balance of the microbiome
(all the material that resides within
the body’s tissues and fluids).
What Are The Supposed Benefits?
We spend millions of pounds a year
on products that promise to "cleanse"
our skin and rid it of any spots and
toxins, but it turns out that hanging
on to a few of these microbes might
actually be beneficial. Regulating your
pH levels and counteracting the
stripping effects of overly-harsh
soaps, probiotics help to build back
your body’s natural defences,
reducing inflammation and dryness
where we’ve been a little too eager
over the years. For those with eczema,
rosacea or psoriasis, probiotics are
said to make a visible improvement.
Depending on your skin type,
different probiotics will have different
effects. While using moisture-heavy
products might feel
116 • MARCH 2021
counterproductive for oily skin, a
hydrating probiotic such as
lactobacillus or glycolic acid will
regulate your pores' oil production,
giving moisture without slickness.
Sensitive skin types may need to tread
more carefully, but as a general guide,
products that list "lactococcus
ferment lysate" or other plant-based
serums should steer you right.
Do They Actually Work?
Before you go out and splurge on a
whole new beauty routine, it is worth
bearing in mind that probiotic
skincare products often have a very
short shelf life. Read instructions
carefully, and support their effect by
catering to your internal health, with
a diet that incorporates fibre, water
and fermented, gut-friendly foods like
kombucha, yogurt and sauerkraut.
Balance is key—giving your skin room
to breathe can be just as important as
incorporating lots of products, and a
"natural" face can be just as healthy as
a "clean" one. n
by Jenessa Williams
 SPONSORED CONTENT
We are fearful of the present,
uncertain of the future and longing for
the past that used to be.
Even in the Blitz of World War 2 people
went about life as best they could.
But, the country fell silent to Covid-19
How did lockdown affect you?
People lost their jobs and incomes,
children’s schooling was interrupted,
weddings were postponed and even
funerals could not occur in the usual
manner.
Unable to bid farewell to a loved one
was one of the saddest events in
lockdown. Death lives long in the minds
of those who are left behind.
We saw ‘the good, the bad and the
ugly’ of human nature being played out
during lockdown.
Could things have been done
differently? Would they have made a
difference?
Would you have chosen to be in the
shoes of the Prime Minister in handling
this crisis?
LOCKDOWN 2020 touches the lives of
most people. Read it and identify your
life in the words of the author.
We have to accept the new normal and
look after ourselves. We would then be
able to return to a semblance of the
quality life we had.
Will Covid-19 be the last or could
it happen again? The answer is in
LOCKDOWN 2020
The book is currently
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 FILM
HHHHH
MINARI
f you feel like your head’s about
I to implode from the onslaught
of true crime, sex and violence
that’s trickling from every streaming
platform, hit pause for a moment,
and let yourself get lost in Minari.
This poignant take on the American
Dream tells the story of a young
Korean family that leaves California
in search of a better life in rural
Arkansas. As they begin to settle
into their new environment, we get
acquainted with the father, Jacob, who
wants to prove himself by starting his
own business; the isolated mother,
Monica, longing for connection; the
daughter, Anne, who wants to blend
in with the other kids and the young
boy, David, who, well, just wants to
run around. But due to a dangerous
heart condition, he’s resorted to
reluctantly stomping around in his
118 • MARCH 2021
wellies. Their lives reach a turning
point with the arrival of a swearing,
gambling, pro-wrestling-loving
grandma from Korea, who teaches the
family some valuable life lessons.
It’s a loving, tender story that reaches
far beyond the immigrant experience,
exploring the topics of loneliness,
growing up and family values with a
gentle touch and infinite time and
sympathy for its rich, lived-in characters.
Since I first watched this film over a
year ago at the Sundance film festival—
that hazy, pre-pandemic era—I found
myself coming back to it over and over
again during the bleak winter of the soul
that the rest of 2020 turned out to be,
looking for solace and comfort. And
solace and comfort I found. I very much
© A LT I T U D E
hope it’ll do the same for you.
by Eva Mackevic
R E A D E RS D IGE S T.C O.UK/CULTURE
 More From Sundance 2020…
Minari was an immense success at the Sundance 2020 film festival,
winning both the US Dramatic Grand Jury Prize, as well as the US
Dramatic Audience award. But it was just one of the numerous dazzling
cinematic offerings of the festival. Here are some of the other Sundance
highlights that are well worth looking out for
BY Eva Mackevic

THE FATHER DISCLOSURE AND THEN WE DANCED

A deeply-affecting drama The problematic tropes of The story of a smouldering,
about dementia, starring trans in film are so illicit romance set in Tbilisi,
Anthony Hopkins and ingrained in our thinking Georgia, featuring
Olivia Colman. The film that they can often have a dreamlike cinematography,
offers a unique take on this destructive effect on how intoxicatingly intense
harrowing topic, putting we view trans people and folk dance and sublime
us in the shoes of the how they view themselves. debut performances.
affected person rather This provocative yet
than their close ones, and empathetic film will bring
hence, effectively painting you one step closer
how terrifying this towards a deeper
condition can be when understanding of what it
experienced first-hand. really means.
THE GLORIAS
MISS AMERICANA It can be easy to forget
A (supposedly) intimate look at country-pop megastar what a powerful force of
Taylor Swift’s rise to fame as well as her never-ending nature Gloria Steinem was
struggles with feelings, self-worth and, er, when it came to women’s
burritos. Whether you’re a “Swiftie” or not, the rights—this star-studded
doc turns out to be moreishly entertaining and biopic based on her own
reveals a lot about Tay Tay’s admittedly autobiography serves as an
impressive songwriting craft. inspiring reminder.

MARCH 2021• 119

 TELEVISION
ome-schooling became
H the watchword of early
2021, with Children’s BBC
enlisted as a substitute teacher for
COVID-grounded youngsters. But
how might grown-ups train their
minds in these difficult times? One
eminent solution: the return of
Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema
(iPlayer), as good a film studies
course as you might enrol on,
distinguished by its accessibility,
broad frame of reference and
inspired juxtaposition of clips. All
three new episodes are enlightening,
but the spotlight on cult movies will
be a particular education (and eye-
opener) for most.
Make sure those youngsters are
safely to bed before you
start on History of
Swear Words (Netflix),
a brisk primer in the
origins of the d-word,
the f-word, the p-word
and the s-word. Hosted
by Nicolas Cage
and featuring
Retro Pick:
Grange Hill (Britbox)
The original bad education: Phil Redmond’s
era-defining teatime controversy-magnet,
centring on the lives of teachers and pupils at a
North London secondary school, is being
revived—series by series—over the course of
the spring term.
120 • MARCH 2021
input from various professional
pottymouths, this is one of those
series that often looks and sounds
dumber than it is; endure the
endlessly riffing comedians, and
the assembled supporting cast of
lexicographers and academics will
have some interesting points to
make about the evolution of our
fouler language.
As a reward for all this homework,
treat yourself to Pretend It’s A City
(Netflix), in which Martin Scorsese
invites a fellow native New Yorker, the
writer and raconteur Fran Lebowitz,
to hold forth on her philosophy.
She emerges as both a waspish wit
and a defiantly analogue throwback,
someone who refuses to carry a
mobile phone, longs to smoke in
restaurants again and has amusingly
scant time for such modern concepts
as “wellness”. You’ll likely join
Scorsese in chuckling heartily at
her tales—but there may now be no
teaching her anything.
by Mike McCahill
@BBC IMAGES
 MUSIC

Album of the Month: Also out this month:

Deep England
by Gazelle Twin & NYX

S
ometimes, you listen to
the first few opening bars
of a song, and you instinctually know you’re
dealing with something of great importance. Gil
Scott-Heron, Bob Dylan, Slowthai—the voices that
challenge those with power and question the status A Call to Arms
quo. And that’s the guttural reaction one gets when by Visionist
dipping into the latest Gazelle Twin, aka Elizabeth
Bernholz, record. Electronica is clearly
A grand symphony of electronic soundscapes and having a moment right
female choir, Deep England reflects on Britain at a now as our other top pick
juncture, contemplating its many faces, cracks and this month is this
biases. The album is rooted in pagan and sacred experimental gem from
music, bringing to mind mystifying, occult imagery Louis Carnell, aka
borrowed from The Wicker Man, and transplanted Visionist. A rich, vivid
into the context of post-Brexit Britain. Though it’s panoply of computerised
politically charged, it never attempts to preach, sounds and genres, the
opting instead for intelligent satire wrapped in album spans everything
radical sounds and punchy compositions. from mournful neofolk to
Though it consistently ups the ante from song to thumping techno,
song, the album reaches its climax halfway through moulding the disjointed
with the nightmarish “Better in My Day”—a samples, synths and
frenzied, rabble-rousing orgy of voices repeatedly vocals into one beautiful,
panting, “Just look at these kids now, no respect, cinematic narrative—a
no proper job” like a medieval chant at a sacrificial difficult feat to achieve in
ritual—with The Prodigy overseeing the playlist. the world of electronic
It’s an intense, hair-raising work that’s mature music. An immersive,
and assured in its message; even if it knows that the trippy work, A Call to
future is nothing but certain. There’s one thing we Arms will beguile fans of
know for sure though: Gazelle Twin did not come James Blake and Current
to play, and we’re keen to keep observing the world 93, while also effortlessly
through her lens in the coming years. demonstrating that
Carnell’s chosen moniker
is more than justified.
by Eva Mackevic

MARCH 2021 • 121

 BOOKS

March Fiction
Horror master Stephen King strikes again with a
gripping story of a boy with special powers…
Later by Stephen King
(Titan Books, £8.99)

he philosopher Søren

T Kierkegaard wrote
that “Life can only be
understood backwards;
but it must be lived
forwards.” The same problem is
laid out at the beginning of Stephen
King’s new novel, as the narrator
Jamie apologises in advance for his
overuse of the word “later”. “I know
it’s repetitive,” he explains, “but
I had no choice.” This is because the Not surprisingly, when he tells his
story opens when he’s six and “only single mother Tia about this, she fears
later” has he come to understand “she might be raising a crazy kid”. But
much of what went on. Then again, once Jamie finds out from a recently
Jamie does have more to understand deceased neighbour where she put the
than most. Not only can he see dead wedding ring her husband is frantically
people, but he can also talk to them searching for, Tia has no alternative but
and learn their secrets for a few days to believe him.
after their death. Despite Jamie’s warning on the first
page that “this is a horror story”, King
James Walton is a initially plays things mostly for deadpan
book reviewer and laughs (no pun intended). In one
broadcaster, and has terrific section, Tia—a literary agent by
written and presented
17 series of the BBC trade—uses her son’s skillset to
Radio 4 literary quiz discover what her star author was
The Write Stuff planning to write in the last instalment

122 • MARCH 2021

of a preposterous but hugely bestselling
saga so she can ghost-write it herself
(still no pun intended). After a while,
however, a horror story is precisely
what we get. Tia’s cop girlfriend forces
Jamie to unearth the secrets of a serial
killer who’s just shot himself in the
head. The trouble is that, unlike the
other dead people of his acquaintance,
this one—complete with brains
running down his face—doesn’t fade
away after a few days…
Over the years King has received
plenty of deserved acclaim for his
ability to chill the blood, as he duly does
again here. Often overlooked, though,
is how good he is at everything else too,
including character, dialogue and
narrative voice. Above all, there’s a
quality that’s on especially brilliant
display here: rooting the horror in a
world entirely and vividly recognisable
as our own—which, of course, makes it
even more horrifying.
Name the author
Can you guess the writer from these
clues (the fewer you need the better)?
1. Of the five consonants in his first and
second names, three are Ns—and the only
vowels are Is and As.
2. The surname of his most famous
character is also a type of word puzzle…
3. …that character being Inspector
John Rebus.
Answer on p126
Paperbacks
House of Glass by Hadley Freeman
(Fourth Estate, £9.99). The renowned
journalist goes in search of what
happened to her Jewish family during
the 20th century. Both page-turning
and eye-opening.
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
(W & N, £8.99). Smart, funny novel
about a young Irish woman in Hong
Kong. One for fans of Sally Rooney.
Britain’s Best 100 Railway Stations
by Simon Jenkins (Penguin, £14.99).
Beautifully illustrated guide to the
architectural splendours of British
stations—and the fascinating social
history behind them.
For When I’m Gone by Rebecca Ley
(Orion, £8.99). Diagnosed with terminal
cancer, 38-year-old Sylvia writes a
handbook for her husband about the
life they shared, and her hopes for their
children. Somehow uplifting as well as
extremely sad.
The Dreamer: An Autobiography
by Sir Cliff Richard (Ebury, £7.99). From
his childhood in India, through to 1950s
Soho and on to enduring stardom—Cliff
looks back on his extraordinary life.
MARCH 2021 • 123
BOOKS
READER’S DIGEST RECOMMENDED READ:
Canine Companionship
An in-depth look at the long, often surprising
history of one of the most enduring bonds of all
W
hat is it with
human beings
and dogs? Why of
all the species in
all the world have
these two formed such a close bond?
A bond, moreover, that not only has
obvious practical benefits to both
parties, but that from all available
evidence—scientific as well as
anecdotal—often appears to be one
of genuine mutual love? In seeking
to answer these questions, Simon
Garfield ranges widely: from cave
paintings to today’s therapy dogs by
way of greyhound racing, dog acts,
DNA sequencing, cartoons, high art
and much else besides. At one point,
we meet a dog who can recognise the
names of more than 1,000 objects and
bring them when asked.
Garfield also suggests that the
human-canine relationship is still
evolving. Until the mid-19th century,
most dogs were expected to work for a
living. Then came the transformation
to purely domestic pets. Now, over the
past 30 years or so, they’ve become
more like members of the family—a
fact reflected in their changing names.

Gone are the Fidos and Rovers of
yesteryear. Instead, we’re far more
likely to give our dogs the same
names that we give our children,
with Alfie, Charlie, Poppy and Bella
leading the way in Britain. (One
of the book’s many great snippets
is that, for parents, looking at photos
of their dogs produces very similar
brain activity to looking at photos
of their kids.) Garfield, mind you,
is clearly uneasy about what seems
to be happening next: dogs designed
primarily to look cute—not least
on Instagram.
Even so, the darkest passage in
what’s essentially a joyous and
celebratory book comes with this
account of an (understandably)
almost totally forgotten incident in
British history…
‘‘
In June 1939, the popular monthly
dog magazine the Tail-Wagger
was so full of doggy optimism that
newsagents probably had to restrain
it from bouncing off the racks and
licking you in the face. There was
good news in the very first article: the
‘dog tax’ was not being raised by the
Chancellor as feared. Elsewhere there
was a report of training advances
for guide dogs for the blind, and on
every page there were hounds looking
happy: the future could not have been
brighter. But look at that date again.
The years to come were to prove as
traumatic for dogs as they were for
humans. In fact, the *weeks* to come
READER’S DIGEST
would bring a tragedy to dogs on a
scale never experienced before or
since.
In the first four days of the war, an
estimated 400,000 domestic dogs and
cats were killed voluntarily in London,
an act dubbed by the historian Angus
Calder as ‘a holocaust of pets’.
A holocaust of pets? Four hundred
thousand? How can this possibly
be? And how can this miserable
breakdown of the indestructible
bond between humans and their
companions be afforded so little
space in today’s collective memory?
Perhaps one’s horror at the number
provides an answer to the question:
the thought of the massacre is almost
too much to compute, and certainly
too much to bear.
The figure is all the more
astounding because relatively little
documentary evidence exists to add
much detail. One example, however,
from the art critic Brian Sewell,
provides a chilling account of how
routine the death of a pet could
become. ‘Robert shot him and left
his body on the beach for the tide to
Dog’s Best Friend:
A Brief History of
an Unshakeable
Bond by Simon
Garfield is
published by
Weidenfeld and
Nicolson at £16.99
MARCH 2021 • 125
BOOKS
sweep away,’ Sewell wrote in Outsider, the
first volume of his memoirs. Robert was
his stepfather, the beach was Whitstable,
the dog was Prince, his Labrador. ‘Packed
among the suitcases in the car, I saw Prince
led towards the sea and heard the shot. I
did not cry, as I would now…’ And so this
was us: the soft-hearted, British, dog-loving
nation forced to destroy the very things we
adored the most, horribly and literally killing
our friends with love.
What led to this calamity? It seems that
at least one cause was officially sanctioned.
Just before the war began, the Home
Office Air Raid Precautions Department
drew up a special booklet for animal care,
advising the removal of animals to the
countryside. Failing that, it advised those
facing enlistment or a similar dislocation,
‘If you cannot place them in the care of
neighbours, it really is kindest to have
them destroyed.’ The booklet contained
a full-page advertisement from Accles
and Shelvoke Ltd, selling its Cash Captive
Bolt Pistol: ‘Provides the speediest, most
efficient and reliable means of destroying
any animal, including horses, cats and all
sizes of dogs.’
’’
And the name of the author is…
Ian Rankin. The 23rd and
latest Rebus novel,
A Song for Dark
Times—an inevitable
bestseller in
hardback—is out
in paperback
next month.
126 • MARCH 2021
Simon Garfield’s
Favourite
Canine Novels
Oliver Twist by Charles
Dickens. Poor old Bull’s-eye, to
have such a terrible owner as Bill
Sikes. Dickens was a dog lover,
but here he got Victorian cruelty
spot-on. Will make you want to
hug your own dog a little more.
Go, Dog. Go! by PD Eastman.
My childhood favourite, in which
a posh poodle and an arrogant
mutt flirt and discuss fancy hats.
The vivid, hallucinatory pictures
will sear your brain.
The Life and Opinions of Maf
the Dog, and of His Friend
Marilyn Monroe by Andrew
O’Hagan. You get carried around
by Marilyn, you get the real
celebrity picture. The narrator is a
fluffy Maltese terrier who reveals
the lonely truth as never before.
The Last Family in England
by Matt Haig. A loving
Labrador’s take on domestic life,
although prepare yourself for a
real-life ending.
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez.
A woman inherits a Great Dane
when her friend dies. What could
possibly go wrong?
Books
THAT CHANGED MY LIFE
Writer Robert Thorogood is the brains behind
the hit BBC series Death in Paradise. His latest
novel, The Marlow Murder Club, is available now
(HQ, £12.99)

Peril at End House by Agatha Christie

This was the first “adult” book I read and I didn’t know that it was a murder mystery.
When I discovered at the end of the book that the author had been unreliable and
used slight of hand to hide the killer, it blew my tiny mind. I fell hard and fast in love
with golden age murder mysteries and that obsession is something I’ve never
shaken. In my thirties I spent a lot of time trying to think of a light-hearted murder
mystery that I could set up on the telly, because I’d been obsessed with the genre
for my entire life. So much so that after Death in Paradise, I wanted to do another
light-hearted murder mystery with the The Marlow Murder Club.

Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen Cold Comfort Farm

by P G Wodehouse
P G Wodehouse was the greatest
crafts person who ever lived—his
ability to create the perfect
sentence is unparalleled—but the
thing I took from him was his
extraordinary plotting. Jeeves will start off
wanting to go on a cruise, then he has to steal a
cow creamer, then there’s an instance with a
policeman’s helmet—these all seem to be
unrelated events, yet Wodehouse’s genius is to
tie them up in a bow right at the end so that
you’re left with the feeling that a complete story
has been told that started off in chaos and ends in
a sublime place of accord. The Marlow Murder
Club is a love letter to the sort of plotting that
Wodehouse could do in his sleep. All of my
plotting I learned from Wodehouse.
by Stella Gibbons
I’d been told that this
was the funniest novel
ever written, but when I
first tried it at 14, I just
couldn’t get on with it. It
sat on my shelf for years
and every six months I’d pull it down and
mournfully have another go. Then, when I
was 17, I finally found it funny, and it was
such a relief. If I could find Cold Comfort
Farm funny, then maybe I was right to want
to be a comedy writer. From Cold Comfort
Farm I learned about writing characters in
a comic setting. The ending is genuinely
beautiful writing that makes you feel warm
and happy inside. When I got married, we
had the very closing lines as a reading.

FOR MORE, GO TO READERSDIGEST.CO.UK/CULTURE MARCH 2021 • 127

 TECHNOLOGY
New Chip On
The Block
James O'Malley on Apple's
major computer change
hen we look
W back at the
evolution of
computing
technology, there
is one constant: our computers
just keep getting faster. However,
though we have come to expect our
next computer to be significantly
more powerful than what we have
currently, this isn’t something that
happens by chance. It’s the result
of a lot of hard work, and fierce
competition between chip makers.
And this is why at the end of last
year, Apple did something truly
dramatic in the world of computing.
Instead of resting on its laurels as the
world’s largest company, it decided
to make an enormous technical
change to all of its Mac computers.
The consequences are important too.
If you’re thinking of buying a Mac
any time over the next few years, this
is definitely something you need to
pay attention to.
128 • MARCH 2021
SO WHAT EXACTLY DID APPLE DO?
If you take a look at Apple’s most
recent MacBook Air and MacBook
Pro laptops, and the most recent Mac
Mini desktop computer, you could be
forgiven for thinking they look and
function much the same way as what
came before. They’re thin, shiny and
are significantly more expensive
than their Windows equivalents.
But Apple is betting that it is what
is on the inside that counts, as it
has decided to switch from using
processors designed and made by
Intel, to chips based on designs by
British firm ARM.
This isn’t a simple change to
make, as the "architecture" of the
new chips is radically different and
fundamentally incompatible. This
means that every single app—
everything from Microsoft Word to
Zoom to Spotify—will need to be
rebuilt from the ground up to make
them work on the new Macs.
Needless to say, Apple has created a
lot of work for app developers to
switch over to the new system.
The reason behind the change
goes back to that desire for faster
chips. Fundamentally, when making
chips there is a trade-off between
three things: power consumption,
how much heat is being generated
and performance. The faster the
computer crunches numbers, the
more power is consumed and the
more heat is generated. This is why
APPLE CREATED A
LOT OF WORK FOR
APP DEVELOPERS
the more powerful a computer is,
generally the more fans you’ll find
strapped to it, whirring away like a
jet engine to keep the processor cool.
Apple’s belief is that by designing
its own, it can create chips that are
more efficient. This is partially due to
fundamental technical differences
between Intel and ARM, and also
because unlike Intel, who supply the
chips that must work inside of tens
of thousands of different types of
computers, Apple can concentrate
on optimising its own chips for the
handful of different computers that
it makes.
And by all accounts, Apple’s gamble
on improved technical performance
appears to be correct. These first three
computers using the new chips have
been widely praised for being more
powerful than most other laptops,
while remaining whisper-quiet, with
batteries that last all day. In fact, I’m
typing these words on the new
MacBook Pro myself—and I can
personally attest to how much the new
chips improve on what came before.
SO WHY DOES ALL OF THIS MATTER
TO PROSPECTIVE MAC BUYERS?
Because for the next few years there
will be a transition period where
some Macs on sale will use the old
Intel chips, and some will use the
new ARM chips. So it’ll be important
to know what you’re buying.
In most cases, it should be fine to
take a risk on the new chips. Apple is
doing everything it can to help
developers transition across. It has
even made special software that will
automatically enable most older
apps to work on the new system. And
most of the big, household-name
apps like Microsoft Office and
Google Chrome will work just fine.
But—and it’s a big but—if there is
an absolutely critical app that you
absolutely cannot live without,
especially if it's a specialist app not
used by many people, it may be
worth waiting until your critical app
has been rebuilt for the new system.
Otherwise you might find yourself
with a new Mac that is certainly
shiny and beautiful to look at, but
isn’t actually useful for getting any
work done. n
MARCH 2021 • 129
 FUN & GAMES
You Couldn’t Make It Up
Win £30 for your true, funny stories!
Go to readersdigest.co.uk/contact-us
or facebook.com/readersdigestuk
I was welcoming in my class of ten-
year-olds when a boy came over
looking very upset.
"What's up, James"? I asked.
"My uncle has died this morning,"
he replied.
"I am so sorry, James," I consoled.
"How old was he"?
James told me that he was 85.
"He's lived a long life. Is that why
you're so upset"? I asked.
"No," he replied, "I'm upset
because he hadn't given me his
sponsored spelling money."
PAUL SCHLEISING, Flintshire
While realising that subtitles may
not always give perfect renditions of
what is said on television and
frequently being amused by mistakes
such as, "Her Majesty has 'rained' for
nearly 70 years", I choked into my
cup of tea at the one I saw today on
Bargain Hunt.
In search of a brass item to fulfil a
personal challenge, the contestants
were led by the incomparable Phil
Serrell to a very attractive ewer and
130 • MARCH 2021
basin not as the subtitles said, a “urine
basin”. MAGGIE COBBETT, Yorkshire
I kept harping on at my husband to
go on a diet. We were taking a walk
one day and he leapfrogged over a
bench. Looking mighty pleased with
himself he exclaimed, “How many
overweight men do you know who
can do that?”
“One,” I said.
He didn't like my response.
SHONA LLOYD, Denbighshire
My brother who's a policeman
comes across some good excuses
for speeding in his job.
One couple he stopped recently,
were a man and his wife. He spoke
to the man who stated indignantly
that it was in fact his wife's fault they
had been speeding.
“She's doing all the driving," he
said, I'm just the one behind the
wheel.” ALEXA MILLWARD, Holywell
My maiden name was Love.
One day I was ringing a company to

"OUR BABY SENT HIS FIRST MESSAGE! "
book an engineer to come fix my
washing machine and I was asked
what time preference I had for an
appointment. When the engineer
arrived, he was bemused. He showed
me his job sheet.
It read, “Love urgently needed in
the morning.”
JENNY MOYNEUX, Denbighshire
I was talking on the phone to my
mum about the chance of the Beast
from the East coming back.
My son was obviously listening
because as I tucked him into bed, he
asked me, “When is the monster
coming? And why will we have to
wear gloves to fight him?”
JENNIE GARDNER, Bath
My daughter told me she wanted a
pony but I had to tell her that it was
impossible as her dad was allergic to
horses. She had a think about this
cartoon by Guto Dias
and then asked again.
"When Dad dies, can I have a
horse? JESS WARD, London
I was talking to my partner about all
the birds we were currently seeing in
the garden.
"There's been an abundance of
them lately," I said.
My eight-year-old, who I'd thought
was in the other room, piped up, "I'd
love to go to one of those."
"One of what?" I asked.
"A bun dance. A dance where you
just eat buns. Yum!"
I thought about it and have to say
I agree!
ESTHER NEWTON, Nottinghamshire
My husband showed our five-year-
old son a picture of himself when he
was 16 and asked Harri if he knew
who it was.
He stared at it for a long time
before replying, “It's me when I'm
bigger!”
SHULAH CLARKSON, Great Yarmouth
While working in the men's
department of a large retailer,
I noticed that a gentleman was
behaving rather suspiciously.
I immediately telephoned the
CCTV room to ask them to watch
the individual.
I could hear some laughter in the
background and then the response,
“That’s the new store detective!”
MICHAEL G PHILLIPS, Leicestershire
MARCH 2021 • 131
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Quoting code RDN084


IT PAYS TO INCREASE YOUR
Word Power
The trench and fedora may no longer be de rigueur, but spies still use
specialised lingo to talk to each other. Could you be a spook?
BY GE O RGE M URRAY
1. black bag job—A: break and
enter. B: stashed documents.
C: requires a body bag.
2. nugget—A: bait offered to a
potential defector. B: small bomb.
C: decoding breakthrough.
3. clean—A: wiping fingerprints.
B: unknown to enemy intelligence.
C: room free of bugs.
4. cobbler—A: shoe-phone
maker. B: forger of documents.
C: assignment chief.
5. funkspiel—A: covert planting
of surveillance equipment.
B: breached security status.
C: electronic transmission altered
to spread disinformation.
6. dangle—A: fake defector
using info as lure. B: interrogation
technique. C: sniper roost.
7. executive action—A: change
of orders. B: snooping on a high-
ranking politician. C: assassination.
8. floating box—A: equipment
drop over water. B: sealed coffin.
C: hidden agents moving in
formation with target.
9. hard man—A: field agent who
FUN AND GAMES
has defected. B: has killed. C: has
been killed.
10. honeytrap—A: use of seduction
in an operation. B: booby-trapped
case of money. C: an agent offered
a deal he or she can’t resist.
11. shoe—A: agent’s phone. B: false
passport or visa. C: escape-and-
evasion tactic.
12. wet job—A: arrival by sea.
B: mission involving bloodshed.
C: delivering news to a spy’s widow.
13. chicken feed—A: harmless
info divulged to enemy to establish
credentials. B: giving different
versions of a story to different
sources. C: decoy one intends
to sacrifice.
14. brush pass—A: cleaning site
of evidence. B: fingerprinting
technique. C: encounter in which
intel is exchanged.
15. window dressing—A: props
to make cover story credible.
B: system of simple code words used
together. C: act of saying one thing
but meaning another.
MARCH 2021 • 133
 ANSWERS
1. black bag job—[A] break and around the van on the highway.
enter. The black bag job at enemy
9. hard man—[B] field agent who has
headquarters yielded invaluable intel.
killed. Agent Vasilisa came back from
2. nugget—[A] bait offered to a that mission a hard man.
potential defector. Political asylum
10. honeytrap—[A] use of seduction
was the best nugget CSIS could offer
in an operation. Given the target’s
the Chinese agent.
love of blondes, Agent Jones
3. clean—[B] unknown to enemy volunteered for the honeytrap.
intelligence. Agent Gompertz chose
11. shoe—[B] false passport or visa.
the intern for the job because she
Agent Aqidi marvelled over his
was clean.
Spanish passport and slipped the shoe
4. cobbler—[B] forger of documents. into his bag.
Agent Pangalos was assigned to
12. wet job—[B] mission involving
Madrid for six months, but needed to
bloodshed. Agent Zhang checked the
visit the cobbler first.
clip in his Beretta and steeled himself
5. funkspiel—[C] electronic for the wet job ahead.
transmission altered to spread
13. chicken feed—[A] harmless info
disinformation. The CIA’s funkspiel let
Iran believe the captured spy cracked divulged to enemy to establish
during the interrogation. credentials. The safe house
address was all the chicken feed Agent
6. dangle—[A] fake defector using Abel needed to sell his story.
info as lure. A dangle for years, Agent
14. brush pass—[C] encounter in
Singh fed the US false intel on his
country’s nuclear programme. which intel is exchanged. After the
brush pass, Agent Sager checked his
7. executive action—[C] pocket and found the flash drive.
assassination. With such a
dangerous 15. window dressing—[A] props to
operative, the prime make cover story
minister was forced credible. Agent Azad’s
WORD OF THE DAY*
to order an study of dentistry
executive action. OBVENTION proved useful window
An incidental occurrence dressing for his
8. floating box— or advantage mission in the
[C] hidden agents medical building.
moving in formation Alternative
suggestions: VOCABULARY RATINGS
with target. The
"Trying to fit five pans on a 7–10: fair
black Volvos formed four-ring cooker" 11–12: good
a floating box 13–15: excellent

134 *POST YOUR DEFINITIONS EVERY DAY AT FACEBOOK.COM/READERSDIGESTUK

 11. Pantomimes are a
British holiday tradition.

TRIVIA Which of these celebrities

has not acted in one: David
Hasselhoff, Kristen Bell or
BY Samantha Rideout George Takei?

1. What hot beverage,
enjoyed throughout the
Western world during
the holiday season, goes
back at least as far as the
ancient Romans?
2. Which of the following
things would you not
need to complete a
modern pentathlon: a
horse, a bicycle, a sword,
a pistol or a swimsuit?
3. Barack Obama’s
mother, Stanley Ann
Dunham, studied
and worked in what
academic field?
6. Winter is caused when
the earth is furthest from
the sun. True or false?
7. In 2020, a British man
was sentenced to four
years in prison for trying to
steal what national relic?
8. The four letters on a
dreidel stand for “Nes
gadol haya sham,”
meaning what?
9. The first time Erno
Rubik tried to solve his
own invention, the
Rubik’s Cube, how long
did it take him?
12. Some say they can fly,
but can reindeer swim?
13. Bacteria called Xylella
fastidiosa can infect certain
trees and may also drive up
the price of what fatty
cooking staple?
14. What African-American
athlete annoyed the Nazis
by setting three world
records at the 1936 Olympics
in Berlin?

4. How long is Diwali, the 10. What holiday do

Hindu festival of lights?
5. Roughly what fraction
of the world’s population
caught the infamous
1918 flu?
Iranians celebrate on the
longest night of the year
with pomegranates and
watermelons, among
other foods?
15. According to the
Bible, how many wise
men brought gifts to
the child Jesus?

13. Olive oil. 14. Jesse Owens. 15. The number of wise men isn’t specified in the Bible.
8. “A great miracle happened there.” 9. Over a month. 10. Yalda. 11. Kristen Bell. 12. Yes.
caused when your hemisphere is tilted away from the sun. 7. An original copy of the Magna Carta.
Answers: 1. Mulled wine. 2. A bicycle. 3. Anthropology. 4. Five days. 5. One-fifth. 6. False. It’s

MARCH 2021 • 135

 Brainteasers
Challenge yourself by solving these puzzles,
then check your answers on p139
Lighten Up
Three digital alarm clocks are sitting in a pile.
The numbers inside the squares of this grid
indicate how many of the lines adjacent to
3
that square are lit. Can you fill in three 0
numbers (with three digits each) so that the
numbers on the two top clocks add up to 1 2
the number on the bottom clock? The digits
0 through 9 are shown for your reference.

2
1
1
3 3 4

Times Square (Lighten Up) Darren rigby; (times sqUare) Fraser simpson
45 Fill in each cell of the grid with a
digit from 1 through 9. Each
16 number outside the grid is the
product of multiplying the digits
in its row or column. The
98 number 1 will appear exactly
once in each row and column.
54 Other numbers can be
repeated, and not every digit
48 63 42 30 from 1 through 9 will be used.
Can you complete the grid?

136 • MARCH 2021

 FUN & GAMES

Symbolism
Based on these equations, what’s the
missing symbol?

+ =

+ = Feeling Lucky?
You enter a casino and are
presented with a game where you
+ = must draw the ace, king, queen
and jack of diamonds, in that exact
order, out of a standard deck of
+ = ? 52 playing cards. What's your
probability of winning?
(symboLism anD FeeLing LUcky?) sUe Dohrin; (str8ts) JeFF WiDDerich

Str8ts
Fill in the white cells with
8 5 4
digits from 1 through 9 so 1
that no number repeats in any
row or column. Black cells 5 2 1 4
divide the rows and columns
into “compartments.” Each 1 4 7 8
compartment needs to contain
a “straight.” A straight is a set 3
of numbers that have no gaps
between them, but they can 6
appear in any order (for
example, 2, 3, 5, 4). A clue in a 9 7
black cell removes that number
as an option in the cell’s row 3 5 8 2
and column, but it is not part 7 8 6
of any straight.

MARCH 2021 • 137

BRAINTEASERS

       CROSSWISE
Test your
 
general
knowledge.
Answers
 
on p142

 

       



 

 

 

ACROSS DOWN
8 Straddling (7) 1 Type of effigy museum (8)
9 Farm vehicle driver (7) 2 Short dagger (8)
10 Well-being (7) 3 Predatory South American fish (7)
11 Type of tobacco pipe (7) 4 Eg, revolver (8)
12 Move by degrees (7) 5 Deliberate damage (8)
13 Midpoint (7) 6 Back and forth (2,3,3)
14 Small blemish (4) 7 Fruit drink (8)
17 Bowling Elizabethan admiral (5) 15 Pocket tool, originally a quill cutter (8)
19 Is indebted (4) 16 Strangle (8)
23 Disrobe (7) 17 Space between two objects (8)
24 Prior (7) 18 Submerged halfway up the legs (4-4)
25 Alternatively (7) 20 Incandescent (5-3)
26 Move down (7) 21 Finely chopped (8)
27 Trouble grievously (7) 22 Flourish (7)
28 Something unpleasant to look at (7)
138 • MARCH 2021
 READER’S DIGEST

BRAINTEASERS £50 PRIZE QUESTION

ANSWERS
Squares
Lighten Up How many squares are
there in this diagram?
3
0
1 2

2
1
1
3 3 4

Times Square
1 3 3 5
4 1 2 2
2 7 7 1
6 3 1 3
THE FIRST CORRECT ANSWER
Symbolism WE PICK WINS £50!*
Email excerpts@readersdigest.co.uk
+ =
ANSWER TO FEBRUARY’S
Feeling Lucky?
1 in 6,497,400. PRIZE QUESTION

Str8ts
ARITHME-PICK
8 9 5 6 7 3 4 5 + 7 ÷ 3 × 9 – 4 = 32.
9 8 1 5 6 7 4 3
5 2 1 4 8 9
1 2 4 3 5 7 8
6 7 3 2 4 8 9
7 6 2 1 3 4 5
AND THE £50 GOES TO…
3 4 9 5 6 7 GAY JACKLIN, Worthing
3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2
4 5 7 8 9 6 2 1

MARCH 2021 • 139

 FUN & GAMES
Laugh! WIN £30
for every reader’s joke we publish!
Go to readersdigest.co.uk/contact-us
or facebook.com/readersdigestuk
I’ve had clap-activated lights
installed in my house and now I
can’t listen to the opening titles of
Friends. Comedian OLAF FALAFEL
I went to a restaurant that was
serving badger last night. It was from
the sett menu.
Comedian PERIWINKLE JONES
I’ve cancelled my gym membership.
Just didn’t workout.
Submitted via Twitter
That ABBA tribute band were
incredibly loud last night. You could
hear the drums from Nando’s.
Comedian SANJEEV KOHLI
140 • MARCH 2021
Midge Ure’s real first name is Matt.
He changed it because he thought it
sounded too cheesy.
Comedian IAN POWER
Our vicar is so blind that he has to do
baptisms in a massive font.
Seen on Twitter
A man decided that he wanted to
make his own honey, so he
purchased 100 bees from his local
beekeeper. When he got home, he
counted his new bees and discovered
that he actually had 101.
Being an honest man, he called
the beekeeper back to tell him that
he had taken home one too many.
 I ate a clock
yesterday.
It was very
TIME
CONSUMING!
Seen online

Daddy-Daughter Time

DADS SHARE THE HILARIOUS

“That’s okay,” the beekeeper said. MAKE OVERS THEY’VE
“That one’s a free bee.” RECEIVED COURTESY OF
HELEN EVANS, Chester THEIR DAUGHTERS

I took all the wheels off of my car, so via boredpanda.com

now it has plenty of 00mph.
Comedian GARY DELANEY

I’ve always fancied becoming a

Georgian monk. Chants would be a
fine thing. Comedian PAUL EGGLESTONE

My optometrist thinks I should see

other people. Seen on Twitter

What if Bruce Wayne really just

wanted to be a “bar man” but was
too embarrassed to admit the typo
after Alfred had spent so long
ordering the equipment?
Submitted via Twitter

I wonder if the inventor of the

shoehorn ever tries to bring it up in
conversation… Seen on Facebook

MARCH 2021 • 141

LAUGH

People always ask me where I got my

incredibly detailed tattoo done, but they
Making
never believe me when I tell them Madrid.
Nobody expects the Spanish ink precision.
A Meal
Seen on Reddit Of Things
A Collie dog was bragging about all the work Twitter users share
that he did around the farm. A nearby sheep hilarious stories of their
piped up, “You don’t work hard, all you do is worst cooking experiences
boss us around!” @BoneNibbler: My mum had
“What did you say?” the Collie demanded. spent hours cooking. I was
“You herd me.” Submitted via Facebook sweeping the floor and the
broom handle hit the overhead
I arrived early to my favourite restaurant and lamp. Loads of old bugs fell
the manager asked, “Do you mind waiting a down straight into the sauce…
bit?” When I said no, he replied, “Good. Take She looked at me and said, “Shh”.
these drinks to table nine.”
@ACSTucker: My dad tried to
JAVIER GOOSE, Halifax
make my grandmother’s
mashed potatoes but broke
Somebody recently told me that I should the masher. He didn’t know
clean my pet pig using vodka. you had to boil them, he just
Sounds like Absolut hogwash to me. thought she was super strong.
Seen on Twitter
@CindiHuston: I made a dip
and wanted my boyfriend to
Ada’s friend asked to borrow her donkey.
try it, so I dipped my pinkie
“My donkey isn’t here,” she explained as the finger in for him to taste. He
donkey brayed loudly in the background. wasn’t paying attention and
“I thought your donkey wasn’t there?” thought it was a baby carrot.
“Who are you going to believe,” she asked. You could hear the crunch
me or a donkey?” Seen on Reddit when he bit down.

CROSSWORD ANSWERS
Across: 8 Astride, 9 Wagoner, 10 Welfare, 11 Corncob, 12 Ratchet, 13 Halfway, 14 Spot,
17 Drake, 19 Owes, 23 Undress, 24 Earlier, 25 Instead, 26 Descend, 27 Afflict, 28 Eyesore
Down: 1 Waxworks, 2 Stiletto, 3 Piranha, 4 Repeater, 5 Sabotage, 6 To and fro, 7 Lemonade,
15 Penknife, 16 Throttle, 17 Distance, 18 Knee-deep, 20 White-hot, 21 Shredded, 22 Prosper

142 • MARCH 2021


60 Second Stand-Up
We talked to the hilarious comedian, Mike Wozniak
WHO INSPIRES YOUR COMEDY?
Spike Milligan ever since I was a
nipper. Even now if I’m ever feeling
lost I take a dive into Spike Milligan
and the unbridled joy comes back.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE PART OF
PERFORMING? The rewards, because
always give myself a biscuit when
I come off stage.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE ONE-LINER?
It’s a Peter Cooke one-liner: “I’ve
learned from my mistakes and I’m
sure I could repeat them exactly.”
DO YOU HAVE ANY FUNNY TALES
ABOUT A TIME YOU BOMBED ON
STAGE? In the worst stand up gig
I ever had I was booed off the stage
three times on the same set. Every
time I tried to leave the stage they
called me back for a kind of kangaroo
court of why I was so terrible, then
they’d boo me off again.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE COMEDY
MOMENT? I did a live show called
The Golden Lizard with Henry
Paker and it was a little piece
of chaos. Sometimes when
performing live, he would
change the scene we were
doing in the middle of the
READER’S DIGEST
scene. Partly because he can’t
remember what he’s doing and partly
because he decides it needs a rewrite. It
was a mess but the audience loved it.
WHAT IS YOUR PET PEEVE? I’m tempted
to pretend that I’m very easy going and
peeveless… But peeves that have come
up only today have included dog poo
bags left on trees, splinters, stubbed
toes and bad table manners.
IF YOU COULD BE A FLY ON THE WALL,
WHOSE WALL WOULD IT BE ON?
I’d be a time travelling fly and see
Prince. I’ve read a lot about Prince but
he’s still a complete mystery in many
ways, so I’d just like to be there person
to person. Or Prince to fly…
WHAT SUPERPOWER WOULD YOU
CHOOSE? During lockdown I’d have
the power to shrink so my bathroom
could become a heated waterpark, my
giant rubber plant could become a
giant adventure and a Mars Bar
becomes a very big Mars Bar. The dog
might be a problem though… n
Taskmaster is on Channel 4 and 4oD
and Mike Wozniak’s podcast
St Elwick’s Neighbourhood
Association Newsletter Podcast is
available on all podcast platforms
MARCH 2021 • 143
LAUGH

Beat the Cartoonist! IN THE

APRIL ISSUE

Mental Health
And Gaming
The surprising ways
video games have
Think of a witty caption for this cartoon—the helped us survive
three best suggestions, along with the cartoonist’s the pandemic
original, will be posted on our website in mid-MARCH.
If your entry gets the most votes, you’ll win £50.
Submit to captions@readersdigest.co.uk
by MARCH 7. We’ll announce the winner
in our May issue.

LIVING WITH
JANUARY WINNER HYPERHIDROSIS
It’s not just damp
patches and
deodorants; the
condition carries a
heavy, invisible burden

+
If I Ruled The World
Tony Hicks
Our cartoonist has finally reclaimed his crown as his caption,
“I’m postponing my New Years Resolution until Chinese The world according to
New Year” won the majority of our voters over, claiming an the legendary guitarist of
impressive 50 per cent of the total votes. Congratulations pop-rock phenomenon,
cartoonist! But can you keep your crown next month? The Hollies

144 cartoons by Royston Robertson

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