Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Reader x27 S Digest UK - June 2021
Reader x27 S Digest UK - June 2021
JUNE 2021
SIGOURNEY
WEAVER
On Alien, Artistry
And The Big Apple
THE VOICE
OF FOOTBALL
Clive Tyldesley
Looks Back
LOVE, LOSS
AND LIBIDO
The Grief We
Don’t Discuss
7
SUPER
SHROOMS
To Boost
Your Health
readersdigest.co.uk
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Features
14 IT’S A MANN’S WORLD
Olly Mann shares the wisdom
he has gleaned from reaching
the infamous middle age
ENTERTAINMENT
18 INTERVIEW:
SIGOURNEY WEAVER
The Alien star on New York,
making films for women and
modern-day Hollywood
26 “I REMEMBER”:
ANOUSHKA SHANKAR
The Grammys star looks back
p52
I M A G E B R O K E R / A L A M Y S TO C K P H OTO / C L A I R E H U N T L E Y
JUNE 2021 • 1
cover photograph Christopher Patey / Contributor / Getty Images
Contents
JUNE 2021
In every issue
8 Over to You
10 See the World Differently
HEALTH
42 Advice: Susannah Hickling
46 Column: Dr Max Pemberton
INSPIRE
68 If I Ruled the World:
Lorelei Mathias
p106
TRAVEL & ADVENTURE FASHION & BEAUTY
98 My Great Escape 114 Column: Fashion Tips
100 Hidden Gems: Athens From Catherine Summers
116 Beauty
MONEY
102 Column: Andy Webb ENTERTAINMENT
118 June’s Cultural Highlights
FOOD & DRINK
106 A Taste of Home BOOKS
108 World Kitchen: Lithuania 122 June Fiction: James Walton’s
Recommended Reads
DIY 127 Books That Changed
110 Column: Mike Aspinall My Life: Axel Scheffler
ENVIRONMENT TECHNOLOGY
112 What can we do 128 Column: James O’Malley
to save our
bees? FUN & GAMES
130 You Couldn’t Make It Up
133 Word Power
p68 136
140
Brain Teasers
Laugh!
143 Beat the Cartoonist
JUNE 2021 • 3
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EDITORS’ LET TERS
In This Issue…
As you’re reading this Ravi Shankar, the
magazine, Britain is legendary Indian
preparing for the final sitar virtuoso and
step in the easing of composer, single-
COVID lockdown handedly changed the
restrictions. Finally, Western popular music
family can be embraced and landscape in the 1960s, influencing
friends can be reunited—love can everyone from The Beatles to Jimi
resume uninterupted. It’s fitting then, Hendrix. I grew up with his music
that so many of our stories this month playing in our house and so, the
focus on love. On p78, a writer is Indian raga became an unlikely
forced to move in with his elderly soundtrack to my childhood.
mother to care for her during the Therefore, it was a huge honour for
pandemic, and is amazed to find they me to speak to his daughter and
share a deeper connection than he long-time music collaborator
ever thought possible. On p86, a Anoushka who became a formidable
former-bookworm is encouraged by a artist in her own right, earning seven
new connection to rediscover her love Grammy nominations and working
of the written word—and finds her with the likes of Herbie Hancock and
very own romantic lead along the way. Mstislav Rostropovich. On p28, she
There’s also advice on love lost. Our tells me all about growing up
feature on grieving the physical between London and Delhi, her
companionship of a partner on p70 peculiar affinity for numbers and, of
facilitates a long-overdue conversation course, playing alongside her iconic
on how grief impacts our sexual selves. father since the age of seven.
Anna Eva
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Reader’s Digest is published in 27 editions in 11 languages
JUNE 2021 • 7
Over To You
LETTERS ON THE April ISSUE
We pay £50 for Letter of the Month and £30 for all others
GAMING FOR GOOD will pull them in and hold hear him on his games
Your article “Meditative their attention, so you can playing with pals, his
Gaming” struck a chord forget, for a while, what’s mood changes and I feel
with me. Coronavirus has going on in the outside it really has helped his
impacted us all. Stress, world. But video games mental health. Gaming
anxiety and isolation too, can play their part. is definitely an important
in an uncertain world My 24-year-old son’s work way of socialising—and the
have all taken their toll. contract finished during importance of gaming’s
I’ve found reading has lockdown, his relationship social function has
helped me. People want broke down, and as a become more significant
to be absorbed, and that result, he has been quiet than ever during the
means picking up a book and miserable, which is COVID-19 pandemic.
where’s there a story that very unlike him. When I — ALAN JACOBS, Frodsham
8 • JUNE 2021
GRANDMA KNOWS BEST
Your article on folk remedies made fascinating
reading for me. It brought back memories of my
grandmother, who had “strange ideas” according to
some of my relatives, but whose advice was always
sought when there were medical problems.
She advocated the use of goat milk for babies
when they suffered from eczema, smeared mould SUPPORTING
cut from cheese on wounds, gave us elderberry SCIENTISTS
wine for coughs or sneezes and something involving With so many online
marigolds which seemed to help keep spots at bay. videos out there promoting
I would reluctantly accept some her medications, misinformation about
complaining about how revolting they tasted but the pandemic, it was
never querying the fact that they worked. I wish now, refreshing to read
of course, that I had listened more and asked more Dr Paul McKay’s article on
questions. I remembered my grandmother when, vaccines. It’s shocking that
for years, I rinsed my hair in sage water. Maybe that some will quickly dismiss
is why at my very old age I still have hair its original the findings of scientists,
colour! Every day I would have to rub the same leaves but then eagerly accept
in my gums “to strengthen them”. Well, I still have my the word of someone who
own teeth! I recall spitting out the cider vinegar drink churns out monetised
she recommended my mother give me. Now I quite videos from their
enjoy a glass, and know it does me good. bedroom. We’ve clapped
Drug companies may try to stop us using folk for nurses, so maybe we
remedies, saying they don’t work and never have. should give a round of
How odd it is, then, that we still take willow bark applause for scientists.
from the willow tree of the Salix species, aloe vera, Who knows, if we clap
honey, liquorice—my grandmother knew them all. hard enough, maybe even
With love and gratitude I remember my grandma conspiracy theorists will
and raise a glass of elderberry wine—what else—in get the message.
her memory. — DAVID BENNETT,
— MARY ANDERSON, Dorset Staffordshire
JUNE 2021 • 9
photo: © euskera photography/alamy stock photo
10
SEE THE WORLD...
turn the page
…DIFFERENTLY
Toronto’s Kensington Market has
always been famous for its local art
scene, but when a now-dormant
activist group called “Streets are for
People” created their first car-planter
in 2006, they couldn‘t have imagined
that the idea would become a city
landmark and an international tourist
attraction. Fifteen years, a few
replacement cars, several parking
spaces, innumerable discussions with
local officials and a handful of paint
jobs later, the “Kensington Market
Garden Car” now not only has city
approval but also a parking permit!
Mid-Life-What?
As he approaches middle age, Olly Mann ponders the
randomness of life, ageing and sports cars
H
ow did YOUR mid-life crisis I remember aspiring to be 40: it
arrive? An affair with the seemed the perfect age to be! Old
milkman? A Lamborghini? enough to have achieved financial
A three-week bender in independence, young enough to
Las Vegas? I haven’t done any of remain physically fit. Old enough to
these things—although I’ve only just be excused from nightclubs, young
turned 40, so who knows, perhaps enough that my politics would not
they’re yet to come. yet have turned full Fascist.
I didn’t think I was bothered But now I’m here… I don’t know…
about looking youthful, or ticking off the "half-way" thing is playing on my
my bucket-list, or sowing my wild mind a bit. My dad died at 70. His dad
euphemisms. As a kid, I actively died at 62. So, being optimistic, I’ve
wanted to be middle-aged: the reached the half-way point. All the
diary I kept when I was 13 records food I’ve ever eaten, all the sunsets
my school computer password as I’ve ever seen, all the live gigs I’ve
"I6Want7To8Grow6Up." Indeed, ever attended, all the laughs I’ve ever
laughed… I’ve eaten up about half of
Olly Mann presents my allowance. That’s sobering.
Four Thought for Does this troubling thought
BBC Radio 4, and process explain why I’ve suddenly
the award-winning
podcasts The Modern taken up outdoor swimming?
Mann and Answer Perhaps there is no other
Me This! justification. I mean, I’ve always
16 • JUNE 2021
READER’S DIGEST
Lucky Charms
Analysing the jewellery, hair and lip colour of every female Oscar winner since
1930, jewellery specialists Steven Stone reveal the luckiest styles to wear on the
big night
Diamond drop earrings are the luckiest accessory overall, with almost half of winners
wearing them
Sixty-seven per cent of winners do not wear a necklace, including Julia Roberts, Hilary
Swank and Laura Dern, making this the most unpopular piece of jewellery
Nude lip shades win Hollywood smiles, with just 35 per cent wearing red lipstick and three
per cent opting for pink
Pearl necklaces are favoured over diamonds, thanks to winners in the 1930s, 40s and 50s
who opted for elegant strings rather than large statement pieces
Most leading ladies wear their hair down, rather than up. Since the very first Academy
Awards, 61 per cent of winners have worn their hair down, or in a half-up, half-down style
JUNE 2021 • 17
ENTERTAINMENT
Sigourney Weaver
“It’s One Of The Greatest
Times To Be In The World”
By Anna Walker
I
t’s hard to imagine any actor “I like workman jobs, you know,”
more equipped to handle a Weaver, who turned 71 in October,
© C H R I S TO P H E R PAT E Y / C O N T R I B U TO R / G E T T Y I M A G E S
global pandemic than Sigourney explains. “I like knowing how to do
Weaver. Over a career spanning things. The only time [I’m a] ‘movie
five decades, she’s battled star’ is on the red carpet, or at the
parasitic aliens (Alien), survived Oscars. The rest of the time I’m
demonic possession (Ghostbusters), running around in sweaty clothes
come face-to-face with serial killers like everybody else, working very
(Copycat) and even fought off hard in all kinds of conditions doing
poachers (Gorillas in the Mist). my best—and I love it.”
I’m hardly surprised then, when When she’s not been in the tank,
she shares that her past few months much of Weaver’s quarantine has
have been spent not cautiously been spent surrounded by nature.
relaxing at home like the rest of us, “I’m going to go to the New York
but thrashing around in water tanks, Botanical Garden, which I’m a
while filming action scenes for the trustee of, on Friday to see the cherry
hotly anticipated Avatar sequel. blossoms. I feel like one of the things
18 • JUNE 2021
19
INTERVIEW: SIGOURNEY WEAVER
20 • JUNE 2021
READER’S DIGEST
JUNE 2021 • 21
INTERVIEW: SIGOURNEY WEAVER
escaped for a couple of hours and and alongside Bette Davis in The
goes to a matinee and just wants to be Letter (1940).
taken out of herself—I always feel like As a native of the Big Apple,
the work I’m doing is for her.” filming for My New York Year offered
Weaver a sense of nostalgia. Her
AT L A S P I X / A L A M Y S TO C K P H OTO
22 • JUNE 2021
24
READER’S DIGEST
“AFTER ALIEN,
IT WAS LIKE I WAS
EXPECTED TO HAVE
A FLAMETHROWER
IN MY PURSE OR
SOMETHING”
Though Weaver had already
begun to build a reputation in
theatre, it was being cast in Ridley
Scott’s sci-fi horror masterpiece,
Alien, (the audition for which left
Scott feeling as though he was “out
for dinner with Mummy” as Weaver’s
already impressive 5,11 height was
accentuated by what she describes
With Ridley Scott on the set of Alien, 1979
as her “hooker boots”) that tipped
her into global star status. But
despite falling in love with the script,
success. It was about whether you Weaver could never have imagined
could have a conversation or not. To the impact her turn as Ripley (the
me, [the film is] an ode to that time. pioneering heroine who finds herself
What I loved most about growing the lone survivor of a space-bound
C O L L E C T I O N C H R I S TO P H E L / A L A M Y S TO C K P H OTO
up in New York was that the grown- parasitic alien attack) would have on
ups were very occupied with the world.
themselves. It wasn’t an era where “I’m so glad that Ripley’s had
they were helicoptering—the city that staying power,” she muses, on
was ours. Growing up in cities the film’s remarkable longevity.
breeds a certain amount of caginess “In those days, films would always
and resourcefulness. have a scene where the girl in the
I remember a friend of mine was skirt is doing something heroic and
riding a horse in Central Park, and then she’ll break down. Well, Walter
this little boy started throwing rocks Hill and David Giler never wrote
at him. He cantered up to the boy, Ripley like that. These were guys,
who stood up and said, ‘Get your like Ridley, who loved women and
w*****g horse off my grass’,” she were with strong women, so it was
laughs. “That’s a New York kid.” natural to them to create a character
JUNE 2021 • 23
INTERVIEW: SIGOURNEY WEAVER
A L L S TA R P I C T U R E L I B R A RY / A L A M Y S TO C K P H OTO
In those days, if you could imagine, Despite the huge popularity of the
there weren’t sequels. So, we did franchise, Weaver has always evaded
this little movie in England that we being type-cast, a feat she attributes
thought was going to be terrific and to her love of the stage. “I wanted
scary and, ground-breaking in terms to do theatre, but I wasn’t very
of the cinematography, and what encouraged at Yale Drama School
Ripley was doing—but we never [where she enrolled after changing
expected to do another one until her mind about a PhD at Stanford,
James Cameron wrote it. When the university where she’d achieved
I went into [casting] meetings after her BA in English]. My dream was
Alien, it was a wonderful thing. It to find a repertory company—an
was almost like I was expected to ensemble where you could play the
have a flamethrower in my purse or maid one week and the queen the
something,” she laughs. other. I loved the variety of that work.
26 • JUNE 2021
24
READER’S DIGEST
JUNE 2021 • 25
ENTERTAINMENT
26
Anoushka Shankar
I REMEMBER…
Anoushka Shankar (39) is a seven-time
Grammy Award-nominated British-Indian
sitarist, composer and producer who has
worked with everyone from Lenny Kravitz to
Herbie Hancock. She is the daughter of the
legendary sitar virtuoso, Ravi Shankar
A CHILDHOOD SPENT BETWEEN got married when I was seven, and
LONDON AND DELHI. Before I was that’s when my dad moved in with
IMAGE BR OKE R / ALAMY STO CK PH OTO
JUNE 2021 • 27
I REMEMBER…
28 • JUNE 2021
READER’S DIGEST
JUNE 2021 • 29
I REMEMBER…
30 • JUNE 2021
READER’S DIGEST
JUNE 2021 • 31
I REMEMBER…
and have fun, but I ended up making difficult. And then, my best friend
an album. The album, Rise, was the from California happened to be
first album that I self-composed and visiting that week, and I kept on
self-produced, and it just feels like telling her how tired I was the next
I started to find my voice in a morning, and she was like, “You’re
different way. unusually tired and your boobs look
bigger. Let’s go get you a test.” And
FINDING OUT I WAS PREGNANT so, that was that.
WITH MY FIRST CHILD. I was in a
relatively new relationship and I was MY DAD HOLDING MY BABY SON.
quite young. It was a moment of It was one of the cutest things I’d
feeling overwhelmed, joyful and ever seen. My dad wasn’t much of a
fearful in equal measure. I had done baby-holder. But with my kid, he just
a show the day before, and I was fell in love and was constantly
unusually tired, I was just finding knocking on my door, wanting to
rehearsals and the show really come over.
32 • JUNE 2021
READER’S DIGEST
JUNE 2021 • 33
34
photo: ©getty images
HEALTH
By Lina Zeldovich
W
B E AT I N G B L A D D E R C A N C E R
36 • JUNE 2021
READER’S DIGEST
Frances also learned that smoking patients have to spot the troubling
could have been the cause. “I quit signs themselves.
13 years ago, but I smoked two
packs a day for 40 years,” she says. SYMPTOMS
“I thought that if I got anything,
it would be lung cancer, but I got The most telling sign of bladder
bladder cancer instead.” cancer is the sudden appearance
Frances had surgery to remove of blood in urine, a symptom
the tumours within days, but on the called haematuria, which Frances
follow-up test a few weeks later, more had. The moment you see it,
cancer showed up on the screen, so you should call your doctor right
she had a second surgery. She also away, rather than waiting for it to
started a regimen of chemotherapy disappear. Haematuria may not
drug infusions, once a week for six be accompanied by any pain, so
weeks, into her bladder to kill the some patients wait for it go away,
remaining tumour cells.
When her next checkup revealed
another tumour, Frances needed
WHEN YOU QUIT
more infusions. “But because SMOKING, THE CHANCE
I saw my doctor as soon as I spotted OF BLADDER CANCERS
DEVELOPING OR COMING
symptoms," she says, "and because
the tumours aren’t growing into my
muscles, my prognosis is good. I try BACK DECREASES
to stay optimistic.”
JUNE 2021 • 37
B E AT I N G B L A D D E R C A N C E R
38 • JUNE 2021
READER’S DIGEST
cent—develop less-aggressive
urothelial carcinomas,
which start in the urothelial
cells that line the inside of
the bladder. Most of these
tumours are slender, finger-
like protrusions, growing
from the bladder’s inner
surface and towards its
hollow centre rather than
into its walls and out of the
bladder into the surrounding
tissues. Dr van der Heijden
adds that some types of
urothelial carcinomas can
be more aggressive
than others, so doctors
differentiate them by grades
that range from zero to four,
with higher numbers being
Frances Dobrowolski's cancer was caught early,
more invasive.
and she remains optimistic about her outcome
The remaining 25 per
cent of patients have
more aggressive cancers.
Carcinoma in situ, or CIS, begins as a DIAGNOSIS &
non-invasive tumour but it tends to TREATMENTS
grow and spread more quickly and
has a higher chance of recurrence. As Frances discovered, to diagnose
Nearly half of CIS patients will the cancer, urologists perform a
eventually develop a muscle-invasive cystoscopy. This allows the doctor
tumour, says Dr van der Heijden. to view the bladder’s inner lining on
Certain rare types of bladder a computer screen and get a sample
cancers can be muscle-invasive from for a biopsy. Sometimes doctors also
photo by sampaiowalz
JUNE 2021 • 39
B E AT I N G B L A D D E R C A N C E R
determine the exact type and stage to grow again. But with
of the cancer present. careful monitoring, future
Non-muscle-invasive cancers, cancers can be prevented
as in Frances’ case, are removed from taking hold.
by a procedure called a Piet van Klaveren* can
"transurethral resection of the attest to that. His bladder
bladder tumour". A thin instrument cancer fight began in 1996.
is inserted through the urethra and It was detected because of
into the bladder. It has a wire loop blood in his urine—which
at the end that removes the tumour. he ignored at first. “Like
An electrode or laser is then used to most men, I postponed
destroy remaining abnormal cells, it, hoping it would go
which may not necessarily be part of away,” recalls the 73-year-
the tumour. old pharmacist from
After the surgery, doctors may also Wageningen, Netherlands.
use a catheter to inject a liquid drug When he finally
directly into the bladder to kill any mentioned it to his GP a
few months later, he was
TO DIAGNOSE THE
immediately referred to a
urologist who diagnosed
CANCER, UROLOGISTS him with a non-muscle-
USE A PROCEDURE invasive urothelial carcinoma—so
his prognosis was good.
THAT LETS THEM SEE Piet had surgery, but a year later
INSIDE THE BLADDER the cancer came back. This time,
after scooping it out, Piet’s doctor
used intravesical therapy, injecting
remaining cancer cells. This type a chemotherapy drug into his
of treatment is called "intravesical bladder over the course of a year. Piet
therapy". More aggressive cancers remained cancer-free for a decade
might require multiple applications when in 2011 he spotted blood in his
administered over months and urine once again. And once again he
even years, with the exact regimen had surgery followed by intravesical
designed to address the patient’s therapy over four years.
specific case. “I’m currently free of cancer,” he
Patients must also have regular says, noting that regular surveillance
cystoscopy check-ups after surgery to is key to staying that way. “My
make sure the cancer doesn’t return,
because urothelial carcinomas tend *name changed to protect patient privacy
40 • JUNE 2021
READER’S DIGEST
JUNE 2021 • 41
HEALTHY
INVESTMENTS Home blood pressure monitor
Home monitors are accurate and
easy to use—get one with an arm,
What can you buy rather than a wrist, cuff. They allow
you to keep a regular check on
that will give you the blood pressure without even
biggest health bang leaving your armchair. This could
lower your risk of a heart attack and
for your buck? prevent white coat syndrome—
where your blood pressure shoots
up at the sight of a medical
professional and gives a higher
reading. Contact your doctor if your
reading is consistently high or low
(between 90/60 and 120/80 is
considered ideal).
Susannah Hickling
is twice winner of
the Guild of Pepper grinder
Health Writers Best Rather than filling your grinder
Consumer Magazine with pepper, load it with healthy
Health Feature linseeds and grind over cereal,
42 • JUNE 2021
HEALTH
JUNE 2021 • 43
H E A LT H
44 • JUNE 2021
Ask The Expert:
Incontinence
Tet Yap is a consultant urologist at
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust,
London, and privately at The Princess
Grace Hospital What can people do to prevent
incontinence or stop it worsening?
How did you become For stress or urge incontinence, it’s
an expert in incontinence? important to maintain a healthy
Incontinence is one of the main issues weight, and cut down on alcohol—I’d
we address as urologists. For me it suggest just six units a week if you
started as a piece of research at have an issue—and caffeine, including
university and just developed. My cola. Just being active and pelvic floor
experience is unique because I’ve exercises also help.
treated incontinence in the young right
through to the later stages of life. When should people seek help?
See your GP if you have any type of
What are the main causes of urinary incontinence. It’s very common;
incontinence in men and women? around 70 per cent have it at some
Incontinence is when the normal point in their lives and it causes a lot
process of storing and passing urine is of psychological issues.
disrupted. The main types are stress
incontinence—when you cough or What treatments are available?
laugh—and urge incontinence, when There's a ladder of treatments. When
you feel a sudden urge to go to the loo. incontinence is quite mild, lifestyle
Stress incontinence can be caused changes might be enough. Then
by damage during childbirth or treatments range from physio and
prostate surgery, obesity, neurological bladder training to medicines and
conditions like MS and Parkinson’s, different surgical interventions. If
and some medicines. Urge conservative measures don’t work,
incontinence can be caused by too the next step is usually surgery for
much alcohol or caffeine, not drinking stress incontinence and medication
enough water, infections and for urge incontinence.
constipation. Another type, overflow
incontinence where the bladder is so For more information, visit finder.
full that urine leaks out, is often caused hcahealthcare.co.uk/hca/specialist/
by an enlarged prostate. mr_tet_l_yap
JUNE 2021 • 45
HEALTH
Baby
Blues
A visit to a neonatal
seeing me as a patient when
intensive care unit helps I worked in a drug rehab clinic. She
Dr Max with a seemingly was addicted to heroin and initially
I had mistakenly thought that being
impossible decision pregnant would mean she would
immediately want to engage with
ou aren’t going to treatment and stop injecting. Surely,
46 • JUNE 2021
size, they experience horrendous shown that she is prioritising illegal
withdrawal symptoms, which can drugs over the welfare of her child.
prove fatal. I have sat and talked to This, of course, is her choice, but
many people addicted to drugs in equally in making such a choice she
an attempt to get them to stop using. is communicating a level of disregard
These people deserve our compassion for her unborn child that cannot be
and care; many have turned to ignored. A child being raised in an
drugs to anaesthetise themselves to environment where illegal drugs are
horrific traumas, abuse or neglect being used is not receiving the best
they experienced as children. Many care. They are at risk of abuse and
more have suffered loss or disruption neglect and are more likely to develop
in their adult lives, which they were serious behavioural problems,
unable to cope with, or are dogged by mental illness and drug addiction
psychological difficulties. But what later in life. They are at increased
I learned from my time risk of having to go into
working with drug temporary foster care for
addicts was that part EVERY TIME periods throughout their
of being human is that childhood, leading to
we all have choices. SOMEONE further trauma as a result
Certainly some people’s of upheaval and a lack of
choices are harder INJECTS security and stability.
than others, but Around the same time
these are choices, DRUGS, IT’S that I had to write the
nonetheless. Every time
someone injects drugs
A CHOICE social services report
about Rachel’s drug use,
it is a choice. I was shown around the
In recent years it has been common neonatal intensive care unit by a
practice to do everything possible to friend, Flora, who was the doctor
ensure that children are kept within there and I saw a baby who had been
the family home, rather than being addicted to heroin. She was limp,
removed by social services. As a grey and unresponsive. She was
general rule, I believe that the state given morphine in order to stop the
should intervene as little as possible withdrawal from heroin.
in people’s lives. But a baby is entirely As I held this tiny, desperate scrap
dependent on others for its welfare of a human being in my hands, I knew
and therefore the state should act as that she deserved a better start in
an advocate to ensure that its welfare life. And in that moment, I also knew
is paramount. In failing to enter a what the answer to Rachel’s question
detox programme, the mother has should be. Q
JUNE 2021 • 47
HEALTH
The Doctor Is In
Dr Max Pemberton
Q: I’m in my mid-sixties and have when you were, say in your thirties
always lived a very healthy lifestyle. or forties, you’re likely to notice
Though my weight is constant, and weight gain.
I have a healthy BMI, I have In addition, when people retire,
developed quite a tummy in recent unless they make a concerted effort to
years, and have no idea how to shift keep busy and exercise, they’ll often
it! Is it a sign of anything to worry find that their energy output drops,
about, or simply a fact of later life which in turn means they are more
that I need to accept? It’s affecting likely to put on weight. Finally, as we
my confidence too. - Cherie, 65 age, the composition of our body
naturally changes. We lose muscle
A: Well, the first thing to say is that mass—a process known as
you’re not alone with this problem. sarcopenia—and instead hold on to
That’s not to belittle your concern, but fat stores. This can be difficult to stop,
to reassure you that what you’re but it can be slowed by taking up
experiencing is very common. In fact, weight training to try to hold on to as
the vast majority of people find that much muscle mass as possible. Some
their body is changing and they are doctors have even advocated low
putting on weight despite maintaining doses of testosterone for older women
a healthy lifestyle as they get older. to combat this loss, though the
And, as you point out, it can really benefits are still debated.
knock your confidence. Reducing your calorie intake will
There are several things that are help. Accept that your body doesn’t
going on and—you’ll be pleased need as much food as it once did
to hear—some things you can and push yourself with exercise—
do to address it. As we age our take the stairs, commit to daily
metabolism changes. This is a exercise, and you should be
normal part of ageing but it able to keep on top of things.
means we often don’t need as
much food as we did when Got a health question for our
we were younger. If you doctor? Email it confidentially to
keep eating what you did [email protected]
W
e visited Rome for the always photographing ourselves.
first time a few years Posed, static selfies reveal little about
ago, and my memories what’s happening around us, or how
aren’t ones of buildings, we were really feeling at the time.
statues, or even the food. It’s the So take photographs to remind
selfie-sticks—being sold on every you of key details, to be creative,
street corner, and being put to use and to show to family and friends.
everywhere we went. At the Trevi But get into the habit of capturing
Fountain, inside the Colosseum, experiences with your mind too.
even under the magnificence of the Consciously take in everything
Sistine Chapel ceiling, people were around you. Use all your senses,
photographing themselves, often not just your eyes. Be aware of your
without bothering to look at all the thoughts and feelings, too. Later, you
beauty behind them. can use the pictures on your camera
Occasionally I joined in myself, to kick-start your recall. But you can
taking pictures as souvenirs of my trip also add all those extra layers of detail
to share with others. But I also made back in, to relive the moment in its
an effort to look around, and full glory.
to record with my memory—because It’s a great habit to get into. You’ll
I know just how important that is. experience more because you’re not
Research shows that we’re fussing with your phone. You’ll create
distracted by photography. When we more durable memories by returning
take pictures, we may improve our to them again and again. You’ll also
chances of remembering the facts, be exercising your brain, which is the
like where we were or what we ate. best way to keep it working well for
But we miss out on other details, and everything. And in the process, I bet
don’t see the “big picture”because you’ll discover that your memory is by
we’re too focused on the small picture far the most interesting lens through
on our screen. which to look back at your past. Q
50 • JUNE 2021
“I trust Wellman for
my health and have
relied on it for years”
Martin Bell OBE
Veteran BBC foreign correspondent for
over 30 years & former independent MP
‘The man in the white suit’, age 82 years
SCIENCE OF
HEALTHY AGEINGTM
30 nutrients
To help maintain
MEDICINAL
MUSHROOMS
By Katie de Klee
M
edicinal mushrooms are beginning to now understand is their
rapidly becoming part of mighty health-promoting potential—
the wellness movement, mushrooms can help us to fight
and their magical illness, focus on work, alleviate stress
properties have nothing to do with and enhance our general wellbeing.
psychedelic trips. Funghi make up an Adaptogenic mushroom tonics,
entire living kingdom, and modern elixirs, coffees and lattes are popping
scientists are starting to understand up in all the trendiest health cafes and
that mushrooms are closer in DNA to stores. Companies like Four Sigmatic,
humans than they are to plants. They Moon Juice and Sun Potion are
“breathe” oxygen and release carbon helping us to appreciate the uses and
dioxide, they digest rather than doses of these powerful shrooms.
photosynthesise, and mushrooms Mushroom powders are great
even produce their own vitamin D additions to smoothies and
when exposed to sunlight. superfood lattes, and are readily
Our ancestors were fascinated by available as blends, capsules, teas
mushrooms; the benefits of reishi and tinctures.
mushrooms were recorded in texts Make yourself a reishi hot
as early as the 29th century BC and chocolate to soothe you to sleep,
ancient healers brewed up chaga swap out your morning coffee for
mushroom teas and used puffballs a lion’s mane latte, or add chaga
to treat wounds. Mushrooms are the to your smoothie if you’re feeling
original superfood; indigenous a bit run down. Wondering what
cultures have used these powerful you’re going to have for supper
funghi for thousands of years, but for tonight? Go grab some shiitake
a long time we have under- mushrooms from your local shop.
appreciated their role in supporting You’re about to find out why. Here’s
life on earth. What we are only a list of our favourite shrooms…
54 • JUNE 2021
READER’S DIGEST
REISHI
Ganoderma lucidum
Reishi, the “Queen of Mushrooms”, is often referred to as nature’s
Xanax because it is a natural relaxant. Popular in Eastern medicine and
known as the "mushroom of immortality" in ancient China, the reishi
mushroom has a bitter taste but immense health benefits.
Reishi has been reported to help with weight loss, and contains beta-
glutens that support a healthy immune system and is even believed
to battle cancer cells in the body.
JUNE 2021 • 55
MEDICINAL MUSHROOMS
CHAGA
Inonotus obliquus
Hard as tree bark and dark in colour, chaga mushrooms grow almost
exclusively on birch trees and are found in the forests of Eastern
Europe, Russia and North America. Shamans in Siberia call chaga the
"gift of heaven” and the powerful adaptogen is used to fight viral
infections. It also fights inflammation and helps sustain energy levels.
This particular mushroom is packed with antioxidants, which makes it
particularly potent in the fight against free radicals. As well as helping
combat signs of ageing, chaga has shown to lower cholesterol and slow
the growth of cancer cells.
“Chaga has been used by a variety of cultures for hundreds of years as
a tea and tincture,” says Tero Isokauppila, a Finnish funghi foodpreneur.
“Like all of our functional mushrooms, chaga is an adaptogen, meaning
it works with the system to encourage the body to bring balance to
itself. In Finland, chaga was also used as a coffee substitute during the
Second World War when beans weren’t available.”
Interestingly, chaga can also be used as a tinder mushroom: the dry
inside of a chaga mushroom will ignite with even the smallest spark.
56 • JUNE 2021
LION'S MANE
Hericium erinaceus
A well-known edible mushroom (the
texture is quite like cauliflower) lion’s mane
literally has the appearance of the mane of
a lion. The benefits of this shaggy white
mushroom are its ability to boost brain
function, memory and cognitive ability.
“History suggests that lion’s
mane was used in traditional Chinese CORDYCEPS
medicine specifically for stomach and
digestive problems,” says Isokauppila. Ophiocordyceps
“It was also used as a general restorative
due to its anti-inflammatory, and
sinensis
immunomodulating properties. Newer
research has recently pointed to lion’s The cordyceps mushroom is one of the
mane's ability to support productivity, strangest out there. Known as the
focus, and creativity.” “caterpillar fungus”, cordyceps spores
Taken regularly, lion’s mane has grow parasitically on the backs of insects
been known to help provide mental high on the plateaus of China and Tibet.
clarity and support brain function, Sherpas have traditionally used cordyceps
because it encourages the production of teas to help them climb to insane altitudes,
both a bioprotein called nerve growth leading to the theory that cordyceps
factor (NFG) and myelin, which insulates improves the body’s ability to oxygenate
nerve fibres. the blood.
This adaptogenic mushroom boosts
stamina, increases sex drive and reduces
fatigue. Cordyceps can increase energy
and help with athletic performance. World
records have been broken by athletes
supplementing with cordyceps, and it can
also be used to speed up muscle recovery
post-work out.
Cordyceps supports the adrenals and
has also been used to treat lung disease,
respiratory illness and fatigue.
JUNE 2021 • 57
MEDICINAL MUSHROOMS
TURKEY TAIL
Trametes versicolor
Even more than most funghi, turkey
tail stimulates and supports the
immune system because it contains
polysaccharide-K, a compound used
in Japan in prescription anticancer drugs.
It has been shown to aid recovery and
reduce nausea in post-chemotherapy
patients and can help the body fight
leukaemia and cancer cells.
Turkey tail also aids the digestive
system, with gut-healing prebiotics that
feed your good bacteria.
According to leading mycologist Paul
Stamets, turkey tail mushrooms have been
used to treat various maladies in Asia,
Europe and by Indigenous Peoples in North
America. There are records of medicinal
turkey tail teas being brewed during the
SHIITAKE
Ming Dynasty in 15th-century China. When Lentinula edodes
Stamet’s mother was diagnosed with
terminal breast cancer at age 84, he If many of the mushrooms on this list are
encouraged her to take turkey tail. She sounding strange, this is probably the one
lived to 93. that most people have eaten or cooked.
Popular on dinner plates, this mushroom
lowers cholesterol and contains
phytonutrients that help maintain healthy
blood pressure and circulation. Shiitake
also contain compounds that support
cardiovascular health and may help to
fight cancer.
Shiitake have symbolised longevity in
Asia for thousands of years and are served
at Chinese New Year as a symbol of
immortality. They are available in most food
shops and are full of vitamins B, D and zinc.
58 • JUNE 2021
READER’S DIGEST
PSILOCYBIN
Psilocybin is a naturally occurring compound found in over 200
mushrooms. Michael Pollan’s bestselling book, How to Change Your
Mind focuses on the revolution that is taking place around the
therapeutic use of psychedelics and he talks at length about his own
experiences with various compounds, including psilocybin.
It’s not just Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop team who are experimenting with
psilocybin. In 2016, a clinical study at Johns Hopkins Medicine reported
that—under carefully supported conditions—psilocybin treatment
significantly decreases anxiety and depression in patients with terminal
cancer. Subsequent studies conducted at John Hopkins University and
New York University have revealed that psilocybin relieves major
depression, OCD and anxiety and can help in the treatment of addictions
to cocaine, alcohol and nicotine.
A note on foraging:
Some mushrooms are tasty, some are tonics, but many are toxic. So, a word of
warning, while mushrooms are truly powerful, if you decide to go foraging, be
prudent: many specials are incredibly poisonous and to the untrained eye these
are very hard to tell apart from the edible and medicinal.
There are about 4,500 known species of mushrooms in the UK. Many are too
tough to chew or are totally tasteless, maybe 200 are edible and 50 of them
are poisonous.
JUNE 2021 • 59
You’ve
lived
You’ve Perhaps
made more than
a mark you realise
And children
“Glasgow is a
wonderful city —
warm and funny
and full of kindness”
- Author Gail Honeyman
62
My Britain:
Glasgow
K
nown as the "Dear Green Place" thanks to its history of
creating and protecting its parks and green spaces,
Glasgow has emerged over the years as one of Britain's
finest "destination cities". Scotland's largest city is
renowned for its culture, sport and the distinct character
of its people—the Glaswegian sense of humour (or crack) is world
famous thanks to comedians such as Frankie Boyle, Billy Connolly,
Limmy and Susan Calman.
Glasgow is well known for its musical offering, with a host of live
venues encouraging an export of successful musical acts, including
Primal Scream, Simple Minds, Franz Ferdinand, Lulu and Chvrches, to
name just a few.
Artistic practices also thrive in the city thanks to the Glasgow School
of Art, many of the buildings of which were designed by the renowned
artists Charles Rennie Mackintosh. And the city's many galleries
regularly attract high profile exhibitions.
B EYS BT ROI TF ABI N
M R I: TGI SL H
ASGOW
64 • JUNE 2021
without bumping into someone restaurants in the city with 3 AA Rosettes
I know or who knows me! and Michelin Guide Plate listings and a
host of accolades over the years. As well
The Gannet was one of the first as the amazing food on offer, we aim to
restaurants that opened in what is make every visit an experience—the
now the destination dining area of comfortable and relaxed environment;
Finnieston in Glasgow’s West End. warm, friendly and approachable service
Started in 2013 by chef/owners Peter style—allowing guests to enjoy the very
McKenna and Ivan Stein, I joined them best Glasgow and Scotland has to offer.
in 2014 to lead the front of house team.
Over the past eight years we've built It's hard to name my favourite spot in
a strong network of local suppliers and the city—there are so many to choose
artisan producers furnishing us with from, and over my lifetime Glasgow has
some of the most fantastic ingredients become a destination city, building a
from Scotland’s rich larder, recognised reputation as a centre of academia,
by many as the best in the world, culture, business, conferencing and
including sustainably caught seafood, tourism. But I think the spot that reminds
grass-fed heritage aged beef, free-range me most of Glasgow and growing up in
poultry and wild game. We have gained the west end is the Kibble Palace
a reputation as one of the must-visit glasshouses in The Botanic Gardens.
67
JUNE 2021 • 65
B EYS BT ROI TF ABI N
M R I: TGI SL H
ASGOW
66 • JUNE 2021
INSPIRE
68 • JUNE 2021
least £3 a month on sanitary own mini-shift in the supermarket
products. And when you add that up at the end of a long day at work.
the total cost is in the thousands, and I know it’s a very quick shift, but
it’s just really arbitrary that we have when I’m tired I actually can’t cope
this expense and men don’t. with operating the self-checkout
machines. Let’s ban them!
I’d ban all automated phone
and chat lines. I don’t think I would implement
it’s ever helped me to be COVID-offsetting. The
stuck in this kind of effects of the pandemic
Kafka-esque loop have been really
of “Press one, press arbitrary. There’s people
two, press three”. who ended up winning
And it’s never ever from COVID and earning
got me through to the loads because of their
right person at the role, like food delivery
end of it all. companies and Zoom, for
I spent three hours instance. But then the flipside
on the phone to my is that people in industries like
bank yesterday just live theatre and comedy
going round and have really suffered.
round and round and There are so many
round. There’s people with small businesses
nothing quite like who have had to close and it’s
these things for really tragic. So I would set up
fanning the flames a new tax that ensured that
of anxiety and anyone who has benefited
rage, and it also over a certain amount
increases our through the pandemic
sense of paid into a fund. And
isolation. Plus that fund would then
it’s taking away jobs! pay out to the people
who have had their lives
All self-checkouts would closed. ruined by it. Q
Big supermarkets have probably
saved millions from the reduction in Melon Comedy’s new sketch show Batshit
staff and yet that discount is not is out with Comedy Sauce, available
reflected. So shoppers are online now. Visit @lemoncomedy on
essentially being asked to do their Twitter for more information
JUNE 2021 • 69
INSPIRE
70
We’re getting better at acknowledging
that sex in later life is important, but
grieving physical intimacy when a
partner dies is rarely discussed
SEXUAL
BEREAVEMENT:
THE GRIEF WE
DON’T TALK
ABOUT
BY Natalie Healey
71
S E X U A L B E R E A V E M E N T: T H E G R I E F W E D O N ' T T A L K A B O U T
JUNE 2021 • 73
"disenfranchised grief," says Radosh. “SEX IS SO MUCH MORE
But how do you talk about sexual
bereavement when it feels like it is
THAN BODY PARTS—
a subject people draw the line at? IT'S CONNECTION,
INTIMACY, EXCITEMENT
LOSING TOUCH AND PLEASURE”
One taboo we are getting better
at talking about is that people are
enjoying sex well into later life.
Research shows people in their dying, asks Radosh—and that the
sixties, seventies and beyond loss of a long-term partner will leave
consider physical intimacy a their other half grieving the end of
vital component in their lives and this shared sexuality?
relationships. This can even have Author and sex educator Joan Price
unintended consequences—charity from California felt this like a ton
Age UK found rates of sexually of bricks when her husband Robert
transmitted infection diagnoses rose died from cancer in 2008 when she
by 23 per cent between 2014 and was in her early sixties. “People are
2018 in those aged 65 and older. But so sex negative that they think we
why are we not also acknowledging as grievers shouldn’t be feeling our
that people in this demographic are sexual urges or that it dishonours
74 • JUNE 2021
READER’S DIGEST
our partner,” she says. “But sex is happens when sex and grief collide.
so much more than body parts. It’s She and her colleague Linda Simkin
connection, intimacy, excitement mailed an anonymous survey to 104
and pleasure.” Even though Price women in the US, who were all over
has made a living writing about 55 years old and in relationships.
and educating people on sexuality, They asked the participants how
she found the experience of sexual often they had sex, whether they
bereavement gruelling. “I was numb enjoyed it and if they thought they
in my body most of the time,” she would miss it if their partner died.
shares. “But I would have other times The researchers also asked the
where I just needed the touch and to women if they felt they’d be able to
feel the excitement of being aroused talk to friends about this aspect of
by a person that I am attracted to grief. The results were stark. Almost
and feel comfortable with.” Like three quarters of women said they
Radosh, Price was dismayed to find would miss sex if their partner died.
that none of the grief books she But while many (67 per cent) said
came across mentioned sex, so she they would want to talk to friends
decided to write her own. Sex After about sexual bereavement, more
Grief: Navigating Your Sexuality (72 per cent) said they would rather
After Losing Your Beloved includes have the friend be the one to bring
not only Price’s own story, but many up the topic first. Yet 57 per cent
other people’s experiences of sexual of participants reported it would
bereavement and how they dealt not occur to them to initiate a
with the difficult feelings. discussion with a widowed friend
As well as being a topic that about sexual bereavement. The
is rarely openly discussed, findings are published in the journal
sexual bereavement is also Reproductive Health Matters.
under-researched. Radosh, a
neuropsychology researcher, set THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
out to change that and find out how Sexual bereavement is a stigmatised
other people really felt about what issue because people are not keen
JUNE 2021 • 75
S E X U A L B E R E A V E M E N T: T H E G R I E F W E D O N ' T T A L K A B O U T
problems down the line when the sexual pleasure retailer Jo Divine.
bereaved person does feel able to While she advises many older
seek out intimacy again. people who have lost a partner, she
Rather than bottling up uneasy acknowledges there are many others
feelings, Peter Saddington, sex and “who wouldn’t dream of buying a sex
relationships counsellor at Relate, toy and are suffering in silence”.
encourages people to discuss the
topic with a potential new partner. NO RIGHT OR
“It becomes a bigger issue the more WRONG APPROACH
you keep it a secret,” he says. “It’s Of course, sexual bereavement is
much better to talk about it and not just a phenomenon that applies
say what you’re thinking and how to older people. Sadly you can lose
you’re feeling.” He also recommends the love of your life at any age—and
speaking to a trained grief or sex during the coronavirus pandemic,
and relationship therapist. These we are more aware of that than
76 • JUNE 2021
ever. Alex Delaney from London
was 34 when her husband died of “THERE IS NO RIGHT
a pulmonary embolism three years OR WRONG WAY TO
ago when he was just 39. “You’re GRIEVE—AND THE SAME
not just missing them because of
their character, you’re missing them APPLIES TO SEX”
because of their physical presence,”
she says, revealing that she sought
casual sexual encounters early on in
the grieving process. While most of bringing sexuality back into your life
her friends were very understanding, after you lose a partner. “What I want
she says others were baffled when to reassure people of is whatever your
she told them she was having one- timeline is, it’s OK,” she concludes.
night stands. “If you need the relief of being with
The important thing to bear in someone quickly, don’t judge yourself.
mind, says Price, who has since met If you go years without being ready
a new long-term partner, is there is and your friends are pushing you to
no right or wrong way to grieve. And move on, don’t judge yourself. And
the same applies to sex. Whatever it doesn’t have to be all or nothing—
your age, gender or sexual orientation, there are a lot of things in between
there’s no prescribed method for being alone and falling in love.” Q
JUNE 2021 • 77
INSPIRE
Studies
74 • JUNE 2021
78
79
CHARACTER STUDIES
L
ast spring, when the first lockdown began, the
task to check in daily on our elderly mother fell to
me. I was no longer working in an office, and
since I lived alone I could more easily limit social
contacts and ensure her safety.
My brother and sister-in-law handled the
weekly food shopping (dropped off at the side
door) as well as Mum’s monthly haircut (with her
seated smack in the centre of the back garden on
a white-gone-grey plastic lawn chair).
Mum is 88 and lives on her own in the home she
and my father moved into after their retirement.
Dad passed away about 12 years ago—he fell ill
just as my parents were about to celebrate their
50th anniversary.
80 • JUNE 2021
She’s blessed, of course, to have her MUM AND I AGREED
two sons and three grandchildren LONG AGO THAT
nearby, and my brother and I are
lucky even to have been able to visit WE HAVE CLASHING
her. Still, I wasn’t sure how the visits PERSONALITIES AND
would go. Mum and I agreed long ago OUR DIFFERENCES ARE
that we have clashing personalities
and, even as I’ve crossed into my late STILL CHALLENGING
fifties, our differences still present
challenges. She appreciates discipline
and order; I favour improvisation. We found ourselves rooting for the same
do share a facility with language—but, contestants or comparing the relative
unfortunately, when directed at each appeal of the various hosts.
other, it can be biting. Mum became fascinated with my
Initially, I timed my visits to coincide ability to find out trivial information
with the Greek game shows she almost instantly on my smart phone:
watches every afternoon on satellite the age of a Greek pop singer, the
TV. The ice-breaker worked: soon we selling price of the house down the
JUNE 2021 • 81
away from the TV, however, was that
MY MOTHER ALSO my mother knew things Google didn’t.
REVEALED FAMILY Soon I set aside my phone and made
HISTORIES I WASN’T Mum my preferred search engine. I
learned, for instance, that the German
AWARE OF: THAT AS A soldiers occupying her hometown
CHILD SHE ENJOYED south of Sparta during the Second
CLIMBING TREES AND World War sunbathed in the nude
every afternoon, and that the trick to
THROWING STONES cooking wild dandelion greens so they
are only slightly tart and deliciously
tender is not to over-boil them.
My mother also revealed family
street, the year that a family histories I wasn’t aware of: that as a
acquaintance married. child she enjoyed climbing trees and
“How can that little thing know throwing stones; that in 1934 my
so much?” paternal grandparents lost their
What I discovered when we turned twins—two boys not yet six months
82 • JUNE 2021
READER’S DIGEST
JUNE 2021 • 83
might have spotted her somewhere,
THERE’S FILO or at least I could report her as a
PASTRY WAITING IN missing person, I decided.
THE FREEZER FOR THE As I swung into the shopping centre
car park, there was Mum walking
DAY SHE CAN BAKE FOR down the adjacent street, sunglasses
US ALL AGAIN shading her eyes, a shopping bag
hanging at her side.
I was too relieved to chastise.
rooms, the basement. No Mum. “I’ll drive you home,” I offered.
I realised I hadn’t checked the “I’m fine, thanks,” she said. “I just
bathtub. I steeled myself for the worst, needed to do something myself.”
pulling the shower curtain aside. I smiled. “I was ready to have the
Nothing. police track you down.”
I got into my car and headed down “Don’t worry,” she said. “It won’t
the street. Maybe she’d taken a walk. happen again. I don’t like all the new
I spotted a police car parked outside a rules. The cashier scolded me for
fast food restaurant. The officers resting my purse on the counter.”
84 • JUNE 2021
READER’S DIGEST
JUNE 2021 • 85
INSPIRE
86
Where do bibliophiles
exchange sweet nothings?
Falling
In Love,
By The
Book
By Karla Marie-Rose Derus
adapted from the new york times
But I realised it had been more “Let’s find books we’ve read and leave
than two years since I had read most reviews in them for the next person.”
of those titles. I had stopped reading We wandered the aisles for an hour.
gradually, the way one heals or dies. In the end, we sat on the floor among
I tried to maintain my bookish the poetry, and I read him some. He
persona. I joined book clubs that listened, his head tilted down, asking,
I never attended. I requested a library “What is it you like about that one?”
book everyone was reading, only to That spring, as we picnicked
return it unread. outside, I said, “If I tell you
I still loved the idea of reading. something, will you not judge me?”
Whenever I found a bookstore, David raised his eyebrows.
I would linger between the shelves “I’ve only read one book this year.”
for hours as if catching up with old “But it’s June,” he said.
friends, picking out volumes I had “I know.”
read and buying new ones. But it was “But you like books,” he said. “You
clear to me: I was becoming a person like bookstores. You like libraries.”
I did not know. “Is it a deal breaker?”
David was my first online date. His “No, but still. Read a book!”
profile said he liked to read, so I asked I was painfully aware of the glaring
him about his last book. His face lit hypocrisy in my life. I defended the
up and his fingers danced. David read virtues of bookstores in the age of
much more than I did, about a book online retailing and bought books
or two a week. We seemed an unlikely whenever I got the chance, but
couple: me, a five-foot-three Black I hardly read them. They sat on every
woman born to a Caribbean mother, surface until my house appeared
and him, a six-foot-four white man. to wear books the way one wears
But as we got to know each other, our clothes. They piled up on chairs and
shared faith and mutual love of books draped across sofa arms.
bridged our gaps. The Japanese language has a
When we compared libraries, word for this: tsundoku. The act of
we had only four titles in common. acquiring books that go unread.
David preferred history and non- Each of my bookshelves holds
fiction, whereas I gravitated toward two rows of books, an inner and an
fiction writers of colour and outer. Surrounding the bookshelf are
immigrant narratives. stacks containing different categories
On our seventh date, David and of books: Books I Have Read. Books
I visited the library. I Want to Read. Books I Started but
“I have a game,” he said, pulling two Did Not Finish Because I Did Not Like
pens and sticky notes out of his bag. Them. Books I Started and Loved but
88 • JUNE 2021
Could Not Justify Reading Given Their Whenever he turned to discussing his
Graphic Sexual or Violent Content. current non-fiction book about the
The next time I visited a second- rise of Silicon Valley or environmental
hand bookshop, I bought five titles for philosophers, I would tell him
myself and two for David. His charge of fiction, of men who left their
to “read a book” echoed in my head. countries by hiding in boxes only to
One afternoon, I picked up one I’d climb out and turn into birds. I would
bought solely for its poetic title. remind him that sometimes the only
I had a hard time getting into it. way to explain the world we live in is
The narrator was an old man, but to make it all up.
he sounded more like what a young I asked David once what he liked
woman thought an old man might about me.
sound like. Whenever I was tempted He paused, then said, “You make
to give up on it, I thought of David. me less cynical. I see the world as a
I pushed through the first two more wonder-filled place with you.”
JUNE 2021 • 89
TR AVEL & ADVENTURE
Fishermen with lobster
traps, an iconic scene on
PEI; (Opposite page) Oysters
can be enjoyed at countless
eateries across the island
90
Where The World
Is Your Oyster
Prince Edward Island serves up rural charm
and a seafood feast that doesn’t end
By Janie Allen
Photos, previous spread: ©Tourism PEI / Yvonne
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND: WHERE THE WORLD IS YOUR OYSTER
W
e arrived on a wet of Canada’s yield, and PEI lobsters
September day and account for one-fifth of the country’s
drove for miles past production. The island is the leading
fields and farms to our oyster producer in eastern Canada.
lodging, a golf resort and spa tucked We were here for the Fall Flavours
into western Prince Edward Island. It Festival. We’d catch a few events,
was the end of a two-day drive north meet locals and explore the island.
from New York into eastern Canada. But after our first night, we added
In the early evening chill, my chowder to our agenda, and looked
husband, Glen, and I hurried to the up the list of 63 restaurants on the
photos, this page: (beach) ©tourism pei/sean landsman; (charlottetown) ©shutterstock; (lobster man)
soon-to-close restaurant and ordered “Chowder Trail.” As the days passed,
seafood chowder. our affection for the “garden of the
Generous bowls of steaming, Gulf” grew.
©tourism pei/stephen harris; (green gables) ©tourism pei/john sylvester; (soup) ©janie allen
creamy goodness were brought. New Our first destination the next
England clam chowder has nothing morning is the biggest tourist
92 • JUNE 2021
Clockwise from top left: Basin Head
Provincial Park, at the east end of the
island; Charlottetown; cooking lobster
on the beach at Fall Flavours Festival;
museum at Green Gables; PEI clam
chowder, the ultimate comfort food
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND: WHERE THE WORLD IS YOUR OYSTER
up to 2,000 pounds. Fishermen get will market a million oysters from his
around CAD5,50 (GBP5,20) a pound, 32 acres of leases on the Foxley River.
but licenses are limited. I ask him what it takes to grow
“Ideally, you have to get one from them to market size—around
somebody who is getting ready three inches—and I get quite an
to retire,” Gavin explains, “or buy unexpected answer. “We’re just
someone out.” babysitters,” he says. “We provide
94 • JUNE 2021
habitat. They eat algae and
plankton that grow in the rivers.” East Point
Each summer during spawning, Lighthouse is
many oyster farmers gather oyster still operating
larvae, called spats (Buchanan gets more than 150
years after it
his at a hatchery). As they grow, they
was built
are transferred to mesh bags, then
suspended in cages in the river for
up to four years.
PEI oysters, widely referred to
as Malpeques (after PEI’s second-
largest bay), are special, he says,
because they’re small—“easy to
eat”—and the water’s salinity is
high compared with oysters from
other regions. “We have a good
sweet-salty taste.”
Matthew, Buchanan’s helper,
scoops two and hands them to us. rolling spruce-covered hills. We
I take a dripping shell, uncertain. detour to Victoria by the Sea, an arts
“I’ve never eaten a raw oyster!” I admit. community, but are disappointed to
“There’s no neat way to do it,” find it all but deserted on this autumn
Buchanan says. weekday. The cosy Landmark Oyster
I take a bite, and it’s extremely House is open, and we enjoy some
tender. Scraping it off the shell chowder, with a new appreciation of
releases an exquisite burst of its the oysters in it; salmon, haddock,
briny flavour. mussels, and bacon add to the bold
Together we drive down a bumpy flavours. A homemade biscuit is a
track to Foxley River, where we nice touch.
see rafts of cages suspended from Our server says they’ll close soon
photo: ©tourism pei/paul baglole
floats. “Here we’d be well into tens for the winter. I ask where locals go
of thousands of cages,” Buchanan when they want to eat out at that
says. “Probably the most expensive time of year, and the server replies
leases in PEI are in this river.” The that only about 40 people stay
leases trade for up to CAD40,000 year-round.
(GBP23,100) an acre. “Forty!” Glen whispers to me
In the afternoon we head to amazed after the exchange. “They
Charlottetown, centrally located could all eat together!”
on the south coast. Fields yield to We are taken aback by how few
JUNE 2021 • 95
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND: WHERE THE WORLD IS YOUR OYSTER
people live on PEI. The population the elegant Great George hotel, on a
is only about 158,000; the capital, quiet street behind the 1847 Province
Charlottetown, has a mere 36,000, House, and walk around the corner
small for a city with a deep-water to the Brickhouse Kitchen & Bar—
harbour, university and even a spot after all, it’s on the Chowder Trail.
in history as Canada’s birthplace Its bowl was judged best at the 2018
(an 1864 conference here led to PEI International Shellfish Festival.
Canada’s unification). The broth of milk, lobster sauce
In Charlottetown we settle into and spices is more sophisticated
than we’ve had so far. It’s packed
with lobster, mussels, haddock and
TRAVEL TIPS scallops, and splashed with olive oil.
Delicious! We’re quickly learning that
the basic ingredients are similar, but
getting there Air Canada and
no two chowders are alike.
WestJet fly to Charlottetown. You
can also take a car ferry to PEI from We’ve signed up for a half-day
Nova Scotia, or drive across the cooking class at The Culinary Table
13-kilometre Confederation Bridge Studio, a Fall Flavours venue in New
from New Brunswick. London, on the north coast. The
former church building is a stylish
lodging Mill River Resort, millriver.
ca; Great George hotel, Charlotte- space with a modern kitchen and big
town, thegreatgeorge.com; The Inn harvest table.
at Spry Point, innatsprypoint.com We are eight: three couples and
two single women from New York,
dining Clam Digger’s Beach House
Florida, New Brunswick, Alberta and
& Restaurant, Cardigan, entrees
CAD16-30, clamdiggerspei.com; PEI, respectively. Owner Derrick
dining room at the Culinary Institute Hoare introduces Chef Taylore
of Canada, Charlottetown (prices Darnel, a Vancouverite with short hair
comparable to area restaurants; and blue-grey eyes, and confidently
or Marché has inexpensive grab-and- announces, “By 12:30 you’ll be sitting
go), hollandcollege.com/dining; down to a beautiful lunch.” On the
FireWorks, dinner set menu, menu: lobster risotto, fennel-steamed
CAD165, innatbayfortune.com. mussels and a surprise dessert.
Check prices/availability of hotels, and We don aprons and each pick up
restaurant hours, on their websites or a live lobster. After carefully sliding
at tourismpei.com (which has travel re- the rubber bands off the claws, some
striction updates). Note that some PEI of us eye the steaming pot with
tourist attractions are closed in winter. apprehension. “They don’t have a
central nervous system… so they
96 • JUNE 2021
READER’S DIGEST
don’t feel pain,” Darnel reassures us. cookbook author, and the island’s
I’m not sure if that’s true, but there’s official food ambassador, offers an
nothing for it but to drop the lobster eight-course set menu. His concept is
gently in. simple, sustainable home cooking, all
Nine minutes later, we take them done over fire.
out, their dark shells now bright red. Much of the food served is raised
Soon we’re up to our elbows shelling and grown on FireWorks’ biodynamic
lobsters; stirring risotto; debearding farm, and after Kevin Petrie, its
and washing mussels; and learning manager, leads diners on a garden
knife skills for dicing vegetables. tour, we head to a firepit where chefs
We feel gratified as we enjoy lunch. are grilling oysters on the half-shell.
The risotto is perfect, “not gloopy, not “Chef Michael’s one rule is that you
soupy,” as Darnel says. The mussels must chew your oysters!” he says.
are delicately flavoured. And we’re all “You gotta open up the flavours.”
wowed by dessert: “Scallops on the You don’t have to tell Glen and me
Beach.” The seared scallops garnished twice. The oysters, raw but warm, and
with candied lemon peel and crushed seasoned with melted lovage-herbed
shortbread (the beach) are tender butter, are every bit as good as that
and sweet. It’ll be a talking point back first one I tried.
home: “Scallops! For dessert!” At 7pm we take our seats for the
parade of food. The menu is a wonder,
O
ur final three days from “100-Year-Old Bread” made from
include time at the Culinary heritage flour, to a salad of shoots,
Institute of Canada; browsing stems, leaves, and flowers. “Everything
Charlottetown’s shops on Grafton on your plate is edible,” we’re told,
Street; and a walking tour of historic including the tops of roasted carrots
homes. We head to North Rustico and beets. There’s pork belly, and
one evening for a “roving feast” in a bluefin tuna; the boat captain who
harbour-side tent, where we devour caught it is named on the menu. The
more oysters, and, another day, we chowder is a feast: mussels, bar clams,
take a boat tour with a fiddle-playing lobster, scallops, rock crab, seaweed,
fisherman. In the village of Cardigan, and more. By the end we’ve lost count
we find a new twist on chowder at of the courses—and the calories.
Clam Digger’s restaurant: mussels in The end of our trip comes too soon.
addictively good curry broth. We loved the green countryside,
For our final night, we’ve planned beautiful coasts, friendly people, and
a special dinner at Chef Michael all that fresh food. Did we find our
Smith’s FireWorks restaurant at The favourite chowder? Not quite. All the
Inn at Bay Fortune. Smith, a TV chef, more reason to return! Q
JUNE 2021 • 97
TR AVEL & ADVENTURE
My Great Escape:
Cramond
Island
Our reader Poornima
Ramesh explores
scenic Scotland
I
f you’re looking to spend
a little bit of time by the sea,
then Cramond Island makes the
perfect day trip from Edinburgh.
Home to oodles of history,
beautiful scenery, and of course, the
peaceful sound of crashing waves,
it makes for the perfect escape from
the hustle and bustle of the nearby
busy city life.
Tucked away in a little-known area
of Edinburgh, the village of Cramond
lies sleepily by the sea. Complete
with a tidal island once inhabited by
the Romans, you can’t go wrong by
taking the number 41 bus from the it, you can reach Cramond by foot.
city centre and spending a couple of Around a kilometre and a half walk
hours exploring the area. When we from the mainland, the journey is
arrived, the island was full of mist very pleasant and the path littered
and thanks to the low tides, we ran with seashells.
all the way via the pathway from Once on the island, the views
the mainland. At high tide, the tidal over the surrounding bay are
island is cut off from the rest of the breathtaking. Rising to a height of
world by the sea. At low tide and 68 feet above sea level, many of the
a few precious hours each side of surrounding towns and islands are
98 • JUNE 2021
visible from Cramond. The island
is the perfect place to walk around,
have a picnic or simply enjoy a good
book. It’s also possible to see many of
the abandoned buildings around the
island, which are now covered in lots
of colourful graffiti.
As the only way to reach Cramond
is by foot, make sure you check the
tidal times before crossing so that
you don’t find yourself trapped on
the island. This happens more than
you might think as the water comes
in quickly and the footpath is rapidly
submerged in seawater. A notice board
lies at the end of the walkway to the
island on the mainland, listing tidal
times for that day.
We had spent plenty of time
relaxing and walking around, we’d
watched people taking their pets for
morning walks and we’d enjoyed the
misty weather, but when we walked
back to the mainland after three
hours, many other people had only
just started visiting the island.
The ice cream truck near the water
was most definitely a welcome sight
upon our return! Munching on my
refreshing ice cream and waffle
cone, we began planning for our next
nearby sightseeing—the picturesque
Lauriston Castle with Edwardian
interiors, which is situated nearby, in
the opposite direction to the island. Q
JUNE 2021 • 99
ANAFIOTIKA HIDDEN
Athens GEMS
Want to experience a hint of Santorini in
Athens? Then head for Anafiotika, a pretty
timewarp huddling just below the imposing Acropolis citadel’s
north flank and reached by trudging up unpromising stair-
alleys on the ancient district of Plaka.
This teeny village’s key moment came in 1841, when
King Otto I encouraged the transformation of Greece’s
then-tiny capital into a modern city. Amid the influx,
carpenters and masons from the Cycladic island of Anafi
hastily began assembling small stone houses on empty
rocky terrain atop Plaka.
Named Anafiotika, or “little Anafi”, the resulting village is a
Cycladic vision of whitewashed cubic homes, tiled roofs and
blue-painted shutters or doors. Today, less than 50 originals
remain—most still inhabited by descendants of those original
immigrants—but a tranquil island feel magically persists.
Bougainvillea spills over narrow, cobbled alleyways that wind,
wiggle and dead-end. Potted geraniums line pastel-shade
patios; cats sun themselves on sills.
Look out for two pretty 17th-century churches, Ayio
Georgios tou Vrachou and Ayio Symeon, both given a
Cycladic makeover. Visit Anafiotika’s high point and the
underrated Kanellopoulou museum, its handsome neoclassical
mansion housing 6,000 archaeological finds from Ancient
Greece. And, most of all, admire the vistas from several
viewpoints, over Plaka’s red tiles across greater Athens’ sprawl
to distant Mount Lykavitos.
You won’t find souvenir shops (happily) nor tavernas—
© AMPHITHOE / FLICKR
By Richard Mellor
101
MONEY
Questions About
Contactless
Not everyone has welcomed the
arrival of contactless with open
arms. Our money expert is here
to lay your concerns to rest
102
C
ontactless cards are The same chip technology can also
being used more and be found on things like phones and
more, with two-thirds of smart watches, which can be used
debit card transactions to pay in the same way if they are
now made via a quick connected to your bank cards.
tap. And with the These sometimes have no upper
payment limit increased from £45 to limit as you’ll need to use biometrics
£100, use is likely to keep growing. such as your fingerprint or a face
With people using cash less due to scan to approve the purchase.
the pandemic it’s never been easier
to spend with your debit or credit Does contactless always work?
card without entering a PIN. But Though the individual transaction
does this boon for convenience have limit on these cards is now £100, it
any downsides? doesn’t mean you’ll never have to
Here’s what you need to know enter your PIN. Regulations require
about using your contactless cards retailers to ask for the PIN after
and devices, and just how safe this you’ve spent a cumulative total
payment method is. of £300 on the card or made five
separate transactions.
How does contactless work? This is also probably why your
You’ll know if your card is contactless transactions are rejected from time
thanks to a universal symbol of four to time, rather than you not having
curved lines (similar to the Wi-Fi enough money in your account. If
symbol). This same icon indicates it does happen you simply need to
that the retailer or business you’re at enter your card and type in the PIN
accepts contactless payments. to approve the purchase. This not
Embedded in each contactless only limits any potential fraud (more
card is a chip which uses radio on this in a bit), but means you’re
frequencies to communicate with less likely to forget your number!
near-field communication (NFC)
technology. So tap your card on a Can scammers use contactless?
reader and they can talk to each In theory, a crook with a card reader
other to process the payment.
In fact you don’t even need to tap Andy Webb is a
the card. It just needs to be within personal finance
a few centimeters of the reader to journalist and runs
connect. Within seconds you’ll get the award-winning
confirmation that the transaction has money blog, Be Clever
gone through (or hasn’t) and that’s it. With Your Cash
On The
Money
Andy Webb
INGREDIENTS:
Serves 4
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 lemon
• 1 small bunch chives
DAIRY
• ¾ cup labneh or plain
whole-milk Greek yogurt
MEAT
• 2 large boneless, skinless
chicken breasts or 4 chicken
cutlets (about 2 pounds)
PANTRY
• 2 cups kimchi
sizzle like crazy, you’re in the right ballpark • 3 tbsp kimchi brine
for frying. • 1 tbsp plus
Bread the chicken: 2 tsp onion powder
• Place 2 cups of panko in a medium bowl. • 1¼ tsp cayenne pepper
• Working one at a time, use tongs to dip each • Kosher salt
cutlet into the panko and use your fingers to • ½ cup mayonnaise
press and pack the panko onto the chicken • 2 cups neutral oil, such as canola,
until very well coated. Transfer to a plate. vegetable, or grapeseed
Fry the chicken: • 2 cups panko bread crumbs
• Line a rimmed baking sheet or a large plate
with paper towels.
• Once the oil reaches 200°C, working in
2 batches, fry the chicken cutlets until
deeply golden brown all over, flipping
halfway through, 3 to 5 minutes per side.
• Transfer the cutlets to the paper-towel-lined
baking sheet and season well with salt.
Transfer the cutlets to a cutting board and
slice across the grain (perpendicular to the
point of the breast) into ½-inch-thick pieces.
Plate ’em up:
• Spread some kimchi ranch on each plate, Reprinted from Cook This Book.
add the cutlets and the remaining 1¼ cups Copyright © 2021 by Molly
kimchi, top with the reserved chives, and Baz. Published in the UK by
serve extra ranch alongside. Robinson, Little, Brown, £26
World Kitchen
Lithuania: Šaltibaršciai
(“Cold Borscht”)
Coasting Along
This quick, easy craft will give you an instant boost
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
B
ees have been and sharing campaign details.
around for over Read all you can about bees
100 million years, in your area to see what
and in that time factors are affecting them
they’ve found a niche in almost locally, and look out for
every part of the globe. There are action groups to see if a
over 20,000 species of bee, but these plan is in place to help. Search
wonderfully adaptive insects—who’ve for “bee corridor” initiatives
survived a whole host of changes since and see if you can help with
they first appeared on our planet—are establishing these, or consider
now under serious threat. With around supporting beekeeping projects,
one-third of bee species in decline, it’s which give something back to the
a critical time for us to do everything community as well as bees.
we can to support them. There are also bee projects that
It’s easy to see why the loss of bees businesses can support—by either
would be catastrophic. Bees are part adopting a hive or sponsoring one—
of our planet’s delicately balanced to improve their green credentials.
ecosystem. If a bee species dies out, Bees for Business have more
the plants and trees that depend on it information on this.
are affected too; in turn the creatures There are plenty of consumer
who feed or live on those plants are choices you can make that benefit
affected and so on up the food chain. bees: buying your food supplies from
While it may seem that we can’t do local producers, for example, means
much as individuals, we can certainly that you’re supporting smaller, less
work together with others to bring intensively farmed initiatives, which
about change. Friends of the Earth, are far better for our pollinators. Some
Greenpeace and other charities are producers who promote pollinator
working hard to raise awareness well-being label their items as bee- or
of the problems bees are facing. pollinator-friendly, so look out for
Supporting these groups is one way of these too. Q
helping bees—through fundraising,
membership and signing petitions, or Extract from The Little Book of Bees
simply following them on social media by Vicki Vrint, Summersdale, £6.99
Play By
Your Own Rules
As COVID restrictions lift in Britain, Catherine Summers
considers the impact on our wardrobes
C
ould it be? Are we really In my humble opinion, there’s no
free from all lockdowns such thing as a "fashion faux pas".
and restrictions? It’s time I say, "Just wear what you want" (and
to celebrate where style is don’t worry about it). Thankfully,
concerned. Jogging bottoms are no following the advent of social media,
longer de rigeur. The 15 month-long attitudes have shifted with regards
leisure wear phase will hopefully to women and what they wear. It’s
be over sooner rather than later. created an attitude that didn’t exist
We’ll now have to dress ourselves 20 years ago, that is, to forget fashion
for events far more fancy than just “rules” and social expectations. It’s
taking out the bins or popping to never been easier to see what regular
the supermarket. women all over the country (and the
One thing’s for sure: we need world) are wearing on an everyday
to celebrate dressing up again. All basis. We’re no longer restricted
those smart or “saved for best” to being exposed to models or
clothes need an airing, an outing, celebrities only—we can take
the overdue realisation that they’re inspiration from anyone, anywhere.
loved. But do we now need to Attitudes on social media can be,
consider our style choices more however, very different from those
carefully—and will we worry about of the general population. Social
making a fashion faux pas after media users often forget that not
spending so long in our comfy jim everyone is online sharing photos
jams at home? of themselves and what they wear
every day. Many women aren’t aware
Catherine Summers is an of the freedom that comes with
award-winning fashion embracing your own style (whatever
blogger, posting it may be) and going against all those
regularly on her website,
notdressedasalamb.com
outdated fashion rules.
and on her Instagram The fear of what others will say
account, @NotLamb about what we’re wearing is the
Brush It Off
Jenessa Williams scrubs away the layers of ambiguity
around body brushes
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FILM
+++++
T
he click-clacking of nonsense. One of her core jobs is
old typewriters, huge polka managing the notoriously reclusive
dot blouses, the crinkly and eccentric writer JD Salinger
rustle of envelopes sliced who, one day, surprises everyone by
with a paper knife—there announcing he wants to publish his
are so many delectable little touches first book in decades. We watch all
to My New York Year. A deliciously of this unravel through the eyes of
nostalgic film set in the 1990s, it the peppy Joanna (Margaret Qualley
follows an old-fashioned literary known for her breakthrough in Once
agency steadfastly resisting the Upon a Time in Hollywood)—a
looming tech boom—you can’t help recent graduate and aspiring poet
but smile upon hearing lines like who takes on a clerical job at the
“I hope this email craze is just a agency and makes a peculiar
phase” or “computers make work connection with Salinger. While not
rather than alleviate it”. without its grating fantasy sequences
© VERTIGO RELEASING
118 • JUNE 2021 REA DER SDIGES T.C O.UK/ C ULT URE
Further viewing…
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA (2006)
F
or some more frothy
entertainment in its purest
form, why not revisit this 2006
cult classic that we still can’t get
enough of? Following the similar
trajectory of a young ingénue
landing a prestigious job in New
York and working for an impossible
boss, The Devil Wears Prada features
career-making performances, clothes
to die for and dialogue that remains
an internet GIF and meme goldmine
many years later.
Let’s start with the performances. Then there are the outfits. One
The “devil” in question, is Miranda of the most expensively costumed
Priestly—the editor of an iconic films in history, The Devil Wears
fashion magazine Runway, whose Prada is an agony of Gucci, Versace,
character was clearly inspired by de la Renta and, of course, Prada.
the notorious editor of Vogue, Anna Outrageous necklaces, chic high
Wintour. She’s played here by the heels, head-turning dresses and
unflappable Meryl Streep with her quintessentially early-Noughties hats
blood-chilling whispery diction and are on constant display, making you
cutting insults (“Florals? For Spring? want to burn through your credit
Groundbreaking.”)—a performance card on some online shopping sites.
that earned her an Oscar It’s a film that left a lasting
© D E V I LW E A R S P R A D A M O V I E .C O M
S
ometimes the most fun TV following Mike Minogue and Karen
comes from TV mocking itself, O’Leary—the suburban coppers who
and there’s plenty of that about proved clueless around the film’s
this month. To plug a post-COVID bloodsucking—as they blunder into
programming gap, Fox is offering a further spookiness: crop circles, cows
belated UK runout to The Grinder stuck up trees, sentient fatbergs.
(Fox; NOW TV), a 2015 sitcom with a Sample dialogue: “I know a lot
solid-gold premise: the former star of about the walking dead.” “How?”
a slick legal drama (Rob Lowe) moves “By watching The Walking Dead.” (It
in with his brother (Fred Savage), an hardly helps.)
actual lawyer. Cue relentless razzing Finally, a second run confirms
of procedural clichés, and Lowe again Mythic Quest (Apple TV+) as an
proving what a precise comic actor he early contender for sitcom of the
is; even his over-waxed hair amuses. decade. Why has a show centred on
It’s a one-series wonder—canned the gaming industry engaged even
after 22 episodes by mirthless suits— non-gamers like me? Partly it’s the
so enjoy while you can. writing, waspishly funny yet sincerely
The second spinoff from 2014’s sweet, but it’s also sharp-eyed indeed
What We Do in the Shadows— on wider shifts in workplace culture.
following the sitcom of that name Between two poignant standalone
(itself streaming via iPlayer)— episodes, the new season even
the agreeably daft Wellington generates inspired comedy from the
Paranormal (Sky fact F Murray Abraham (as veteran
Comedy; NOW TV) yarnspinner CW Longbottom)
redoes The X-Files spent some of shooting in self-
as Police Camera isolation. Typical gamers—they
Action-style can’t stop problem-solving.
fly-on-the-wall.
Here, we’re by Mike McCahill
Retro Pick:
It’s Always Sunny in
Philadelphia S1-14 (Netflix)
Team Mythic Quest’s ongoing side-project: an
ever-risky, oft-hilarious morality play with a
peerless ensemble—not least Danny DeVito
as the world’s worst human.
M
usic and now done and dusted, it’s certainly
emotion are not too late to check out these
intrinsically sublime soundtracks which were
linked to one another nominated for Best Music
in the human brain
so it’s no surprise, Soul
then, that what often A joint effort between the Nine Inch
contributes to the Nails duo, Trent Reznor and Atticus
greatness of a film Ross as well as Jon Batiste, the score
is a well-planned soundtrack which can to the uplifting Pixar feature Soul
elevate the emotional weight of what we was the 2021 winner of the Best
see on the screen. Such is the case with Music category
T. Griffin’s atmospheric, textured score to
The Proposal—an art-world docudrama Da 5 Bloods
about the legacy of Mexican architect Spike Lee’s war drama starring the
Luis Barragán, which raises questions of late Chadwick Boseman was scored
intellectual property, appropriation and by none other than the acclaimed
obsession. T. Griffin, who’s been creating trumpeter Terence Blanchard, with
film music for some 20 years now, mirrors loads of references to the 1970s like
these themes via smooth-flowing peaks Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On?
and valleys of ominous electronica, gentle
Spanish guitar and nods to the timeless Minari
sounds of Celtic music. This moving drama that took the
He also has a penchant for breaking into world by storm features the music
unexpected drum patterns that shoot out by Emile Mosseri who had
of tracks like a battle cry, eliciting an almost previously garnered widespread
primal fight or flight response in your gut. acclaim for his soundtrack to TV
Though closely linked to the film text, T. hit, Homecoming
Griffin’s soundtrack works exquisitely well
as a standalone album with the power to The News of the World
conjure up beautiful imagery in your mind Award-winning composer James
and set your imagination on fire. Newton Howard took an unusually
minimalist approach to scoring this
The Proposal is out on June 11 via Constellation Western starring Tom Hanks as a
Civil War veteran
by Eva Mackevic
June Fiction
A masterfully crafted central character is the key to the
appeal of June’s fiction pick
Sorrow and Bliss
Meg Mason
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £14.99
M
artha Russell,
the narrator of Meg
Mason’s blisteringly
good new novel,
is funny, clever,
fundamentally kind and much-loved
by her husband Patrick. But she
also suffers from a severe mental
illness that began on the morning
of her French A Level when “a little
bomb went off in my brain”. Ever
since, she’s had debilitating bouts causes her to hurl wild insults and
of depression and an overall sense heavy objects at him.
that she finds it “more difficult to be However sorry you feel for her, then,
alive than other people”. And as time Martha shouldn’t be much fun to be
goes on, what she once regarded as around, either for the other characters
Patrick’s charming quirks become or the reader. Yet, while we’re left in
sources of deep irritation: a process doubt as to how infuriating she can
not unknown in relationships, of be—including to herself—the book
course—but which, in her case, does a miraculously effective job of
never letting us lose sight of her
James Walton is a inherent likeability. No matter how bad
book reviewer and things get, she remains ruefully witty
broadcaster, and has and heartbreakingly self-aware
written and presented
17 series of the BBC (basically, she knows when she’s being
Radio 4 literary quiz unreasonable, but can’t reason herself
The Write Stuff out of it).
M
any boys, of course,
dream of becoming
footballers. The young
Clive Tyldesley, though,
wasn’t one of them.
According to his thoughtful, often funny
and above all heartfelt new book, the
only thing he ever wanted to be was a
football commentator.
Well, as we know, this was one
boyhood dream that came true. Clive
began his career in local radio, before
moving to television, where he was
made ITV’s chief football commentator
after Brian Moore’s retirement in 1998.
He held the post until last year when, to
his clear but not over-dwelt-on distress,
he was informed by a Zoom call that
ITV was “refreshing” him out of a job.
One of Clive’s justified bugbears
is the kind of commentator whose
commentary essentially translates
as “Look at me!”—something he
himself manages to avoid even in his
autobiography. We do get occasional
glimpses of his private life, but the focus
is firmly on football. As well as revealing
plenty of secrets of the commentator’s
trade, Clive makes the most of his the club’s own. My carefully-chosen
four-decade ringside seat to show wardrobe was set off by a Persil-
us how much the game has changed white button-down shirt. I looked
since the days when players could ready for a golf club prize giving.
reliably be found at the local working I was first to take my seat in one
men’s club having a pint, a fag and of the club’s two allocated private
a game of snooker. coaches… by about 20 minutes.
He also gives us plenty of great When Brian arrived, he breezed
first-hand stories about pretty past me with a boisterous ‘good
much everyone who’s been anyone morning, young man’ before
in football during that time: from checking his stride and returning
Kenny Dalglish personally consoling to the table I was now sharing with
the bereaved after Hillsborough to a trusted friend, John Lawson of
what it’s like to be on the receiving the Evening Post. The manager’s
end of a tirade from Alex Ferguson two hands came to rest on the table
(not much fun, apparently). He as he leant over me and took an
writes unsparingly, but with obvious exasperated breath before delivering
sadness, about Brian Clough’s his sermon.
decline into alcoholism in his later ‘Young man, you’re very welcome
years at Nottingham Forest. to travel with the Nottingham
Here, however, is Clough in Forest official party, but when you
happier—if perhaps no less do, we expect you to wear a tie,
intimidating—form back when understood?’
Clive was a just rookie reporter at ‘I’m sorry, Mr Clough. I didn’t know.’
Radio Trent… First black mark of the day
‘‘
gathered in record time. I put on
It was 21 August 1976. My 22nd my stern, sad face and waited for
birthday, the opening day of the manager to move on to the more
the new league season. Forest’s first
fixture was at Fulham and I had been
granted permission to travel with
the club party by train to London. Not for Me, Clive:
Departure was at 9.30. I was at Stories from the
Nottingham Midland station by 8.45. Voice of Football
It was a sun-kissed morning but
I was formally dressed in a double-
by Clive
breasted blazer, grey pleated ‘slacks’ Tyldesley
and shiny black shoes. The jacket is published by
was even a similar shade of blue to Headline at £20
’’
to roll south. novels is Judas Horse.
HowAI
Plays Ball
This month, James O'Malley
gives us the lowdown on the
tech that's fuelling football
I
better sense of the action on the pitch.
n a world as complicated as Have you ever watched a football
ours, what could be purer and match and wondered how they can
more wholesome than a good, flash up on a screen so quickly which
old-fashioned game of football? team has had more possession or
When Euro 2020 finally kicks taken the most shots at goal? For every
off this month, we can put aside football match, Stats Perform have a
the spreadsheets, mute the email team of three watching live—one
notifications and power down our person monitoring each team, and
laptops to enjoy the simple pleasure one to check—and recording every
of watching 22 men kick a rubber ball “on ball event” into a database.
filled with air around a field, just as we The company also uses artificial
have done for generations. intelligence and machine learning
At least, that’s how we might like to technology to analyse video footage
imagine it. But the reality is that the of games, to calculate the precise
world of football is today just as much locations of players, and the trajectory
about technology and data as of the ball.
everything else that we do. And I’m Even training sessions have been
not just talking about VAR (Virtual transformed into data-points, as teams
Assistant Referees). have their players wear sensors to
Today, having good quality data is track them around the pitch, as well
an essential part of managing a top- as health data like heart rates—with
flight sports team, and collecting that all of the data sent in real time to iPads
data is big business. Specialist sports for coaches to analyse.
data companies like Stats Perform But collecting data is only useful
exist to collect and analyse every pass, if you actually do something with it.
volley and shot to help teams, So what sorts of insights can coaches
broadcasters and bookies all make make use of? One now common
When I was around six, I used to long queue to the cashier, "Don't
attend mass with my family every beat me again, Mummy. I don't like
Sunday. Once, I got very confused it." I got some very suspicious looks!
and I said to my mum,"Well, I AVA JACOBS, Frodsham
understand there's Jesus and God
the Father and the Holy Spirit but I read out the results of a survey
who is this Peter God?" to my husband, Neil, about who
My mother looked at my uses the most words in a day: a
quizzically: "What do you mean?" woman or a man. The outcome was
I said, “Well, at the end of the mass, that a woman uses 28,000 to a man's
we say, ‘Thanks Peter God.’" 14,000. I added that it was probably
"I think you mean, ‘Thanks be to because women always have to
God,’” said my mother with a repeat themselves because men
sympathetic smile. don't listen.
STEVE GILDERT, Cheshire Neil turned round and said,
"What?" LOIS JONES, Ruthin
When I played games with my son
Luke, aged seven, I used to let him I thought my children were fussy
win. But then I decided he should about food but last Halloween I took
learn that in life things don't always my nephew round with me for trick
go your way. So I won the next game. or treating. When someone handed
This clearly bothered him. him a bowl with sweets to take his
In the supermarket later that day pick, he would inspect them and if
he said in a loud voice while in a he didn't care for what sweets there
were, he would look up and say, "No, with the fish. I can’t imagine how I
thank you," and then march onto the would be able to explain the splodgy
next house! blue puddle on my shoulder blade.
CORRINA WILLIAMS, Denbigshire SUSAN KENNEDY, North Ayrshire
Word Power
This month marks the 800th anniversary of the signing of the
Magna Carta, the monumental English charter that set a precedent for civil
liberties. Want to enhance your political vocabulary? Start here!
BY R O B LUT E S
134
DIGESTED
T U N E I N TO O U R P O D CA S T
Over the past year, Reader’s Digest has navigated the woes and wonders of modern life,
weighing in with leading experts on the everyday tools we need to survive and thrive in the
modern world. And what better time than lockdown to catch up?
SUBSCRIBE
TODAY
FREE
Brainteasers
Challenge yourself by solving these puzzles,
then check your answers on p139
A B C
Cryptic equations
Each letter in these equations stands for one of C+ L=Z
the seven numbers listed below. No two letters
have the same numeric value. Match each letter
to a number to make the equations work.
Z– H=E
2 4 5 6 7 8 11
AX H =Q
Q— : A = H
136 • JUNE 2021
FUN & GAMES
Contact
how to play:
Draw a line from each number
to an outlet. Each line should
pass as many empty squares
as the number indicates. No
square remains empty, and
no outlet remains unused.
example:
ABC
how to play: example:
& %
Enter in each row and
column the letters A, $
B and C in such a way
that no row or column %
contains the same
letter twice.
%
The letters outside
the grid indicate what
letter is encountered %
first from the direction
of the arrow.
$ $ &
ACROSS DOWN
1 Fabric (8) 2 Breathtaking (7)
9 Longing (8) 3 Vague (7)
10 Merchant (8) 4 Ailment (7)
11 Imagine (8) 5 Small harp-like musical
instrument (4)
12 Candidate (7)
6 The gathering of crops (7)
13 Precarious (8) 7 Uncommon (7)
14 Turns around (8) 8 Cuddle (7)
18 Exceptionally tense (8) 13 Doorkeeper (5)
22 Portuguese jellyfish (3-2-3) 15 Stonework (7)
23 Austere (7) 16 Portal (7)
24 Hallway (8) 17 Like Abba (7)
26 The world of schools and 19 Make clear (7)
universities (8) 20 Underwater missile (7)
27 Its capital is Little Rock (8) 21 Inhabitant of, eg, Tehran (7)
28 Locate exactly (8) 25 Coarse file (4)
% & $
& $ % AND THE £50 GOES TO…
% $ & LUCY PESARO, Middlesex
I’m delighted to announce that I’ve the door on me. Parents can be so
just won a “Drinking Milk Like a Cat” rude! LUKE HAMMETT, Cheshire
competition! Just doing my lap of
honour. Seen on Twitter Imagine how offended whales would
be if they found out that we listen to
They should name those tags that their conversations to help us fall
they put around babies’ wrists in the asleep. Seen on Twitter
maternity ward “The Born Identity”.
Comedian OLAF FALAFEL RIP to boiling water. You will be mist.
Seen on Facebook
I still can’t believe that I ran into the
man who invented the globe. It’s a Despite my very best efforts, I’m still
small world. Seen on Twitter a terrible ventriloquist, and I say that
through gritted teeth.
I recently passed the house I grew up Comedian GARY DELANEY
in while driving, so I stopped and
asked if I could go in to look around. A “onesie” is a selfie taken by the
The owners said no and slammed Queen. Seen on Twitter
Angry Birds
CROSSWORD ANSWERS
Across: 1 Material, 9 Yearning, 10 Retailer, 11 Envisage, 12 Nominee, 13 Unstable, 14 Reverses,
18 Electric, 22 Man-of-war, 23 Spartan, 24 Corridor, 26 Academia, 27 Arkansas, 28 Pinpoint
Down: 2 Awesome, 3 Evasive, 4 Illness, 5 Lyre, 6 Harvest, 7 Unusual, 8 Snuggle, 13 Usher,
15 Masonry, 16 Doorway, 17 Swedish, 19 Explain, 20 Torpedo, 21 Iranian, 25 Rasp
Laurence
Llewelyn-Bowen
I REMEMBER…
British TV star and
Think of a witty caption for this cartoon—the “homestyle consultant”
three best suggestions, along with the cartoonist’s looks back on his life
original, will be posted on our website in mid-June. and career
If your entry gets the most votes, you’ll win £50.
Submit to [email protected]
by JUNE 7. We’ll announce the winner
in our July issue.
APRIL WINNER
WE CURED COVID:
WHAT’S NEXT?
Scientists developed
vaccines for coronavirus
TO M M Y LO N D O N / A L A M Y S TO C K P H OTO
+
Our cartoonist’s caption, “Easter Bunny, huh? Enjoy it while MADS MIKKELSEN
it lasts. I guess no one remembers the Harvest Festival We sat down with the
Hamster” failed to beat our reader Davina J Maric, who won Danish actor to talk
the vote with her caption, “Mate, I told you, it’s not good to about his latest project,
keep all your eggs in one basket.” Congrats Davina! Another Round
THE AUTHOR
Sean McGlynn is a retired solicitor/
lawyer from, and living in, Letterkenny,
County Donegal, Ireland. He is married
to Catherine for over forty years and is
a father, and grandfather. As a solicitor
he ran his own practice from 1990 to
2011. During that time he has dealt with
many legal issues, including the abuse
of women by their partners. One victim,
sadly, did not survive. ‘Control Freak’ is
his first novel based on his experiences.
facebook.com/sean.mcglynn.752
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Art 6 (1f), also with the help of trusted suppliers. You can find further information in our privacy statement, which you can
see at any time on www.windsormint.co.uk or request in print from our customer service. You can cancel the use of Today’s Date Signature
your details for marketing purposes at any time by sending a simple message to Windsor Mint, 11 Lowesmoor Wharf,
Worcester, WR1 2RS. All orders are subject to our Terms & Conditions, available on
Please fill in your details above and post in an envelope to: Windsor Mint, 11 Lowesmoor Wharf, Worcester, WR1 2RS Or, for request or at www.windsormint.co.uk Your trade partner:
faster delivery, order by phone: 01905 886220 • www.windsormint.co.uk HMK V AG, Leubernstrasse 6, CH-8280 Kreuzlingen