OVERSEAS Quarterly journal of the ROSL Issue 3, September-November 2014

Telling tales Winning words Building the future Exclusive shorts Charting a resurgence in Music Competition Gold A look at planned Specially commissioned storytelling, from the 1st Medallist Huw Wiggin improvements, and stories from top ROSL Burma book festival to on preparing for the renovations to the Bar authors and the 2013 work by our arts scholars performance of his life and Brabourne Room Caine Prize winner 14632_Steinway Overseas ad_Layout 1 15/01/2014 15:49 Page 1

OVERSEAS

OVERSEAS

ISSUE 3 September-November 2014

The Royal Over-Seas League is a self-funded Commonwealth organisation that offers clubhouse facilities to members, organises Commonwealth art and music competitions and develops joint welfare projects with specific countries. 20 18 Overseas editorial team Editor Ms Miranda Moore Deputy Editor Ms Christine Wilde: +44 (0)20 7408 0214 x205; [email protected] From the Director-General; A winning performance . . . . 20 Design Ms Hannah Talmage A view of the Annual Music Competition from Display advertisements Mr David Jeffries: Editor’s letter ...... 4 +44 (0)20 8674 9444; [email protected] the Gold Medallist; plus a review of the heats Royal Over-Seas League Incorporated by Royal Charter World Five literary gems ...... 22 Patron Her Majesty The Queen Specially commissioned ‘ultimate’ short stories Vice-Patron Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra KG GCVO The return of the storyteller . . 5 President The Rt Hon the Lord Luce KG GCVO DL Charting the resurgence of the performance art Books ...... 23 Chairman Sir Anthony Figgis KCVO CMG* Vice-Chairman Sir Roger Carrick KCMG LVO* Titles by some of our most successful authors Hon Treasurer Mr Simon Ward FCA* Turning the page ...... 6 Over-Seas House, Park Place, St James’s Street, A personal view of developments in Kenyan How to start a ROSL group . . 23 London SW1A 1LR; +44 (0)20 7408 0214; storytelling by Caine Prize winner Okwiri Oduor Advice from the founder of the new Book Group Fax +44 (0)20 7499 6738; [email protected]; www.rosl.org.uk A Prayer ...... 7 Branches: what’s on? ...... 24 Over-Seas House, 100 Princes Street, Edinburgh EH2 3AB; +44 (0)131 225 1501; Fax +44 (0)131 226 3936; An exclusive short story by novelist Tope Folarin [email protected]; News and Views ...... 26 www.rosl-edinburgh.org Pictures that paint a Central Council thousand words ...... 8 Bright young things ...... 28 Mr Graham Archer CMG*, Mrs Mae Barr MBE, Mr Clive Carpenter, Prof Monojit Chatterji, ROSL Visual Arts Scholars reveal their literary Scotland’s flourishing scene for Younger Members Mr Sohail Choudhry, Prof Meryll Dean, Mr John influences and the narrative elements of their work Edwards CMG, Mr David Fall CMG*, Mrs Patricia Farrant*, Mr Simon Gimson LVO, Mr Peter Hamlyn*, Miss Maureen Howley MBE*, Mr David Jamieson, A valuable history ...... 10 In the UK Mrs Frances King, Miss Sheila MacTaggart LVO, Why the story behind an object can be Mr David Nicholson, Miss Caroline Roddis, worth more than the item itself Ripping yarns ...... 29 Ms Lindsay Ross, Mrs Judith Steiner, Mrs Pamela Voice, Mr Frank Wibaut Inspiring storytelling centres near the clubhouses *Executive Committee A Burmese tale of Director-General Maj Gen Roddy Porter MBE: literary adventure ...... 13 Drama in an intimate space . 30 +44 (0)20 7408 0214 x201 Reviewing the first book festival in Mandalay Actor Janet Prince’s pick of the best small theatre Director of Admin and Finance Mr Shakil Tayub: +44 (0)20 7408 0214 x209 Director of Marketing Ms Gemma Matthews: Could tablets be the best London and Edinburgh +44 (0)20 7408 0214 x204; [email protected] Director of Humanitarian and Education Projects medicine? ...... 14 Top 10 ...... 30 Ms Margaret Adrian-Vallance MBE: How iPads are transforming people’s lives Our recommendations for attractions this autumn +44 (0)20 7408 0214 x307; [email protected] Director of Arts Mr Roderick Lakin MBE: +44 (0)20 7408 0214 x325; [email protected] My St George’s Town ...... 16 Asst. to D-G Ms Arabella Beresford-Mitchell: Insights from a ROSL member living in Bermuda Events +44 (0)20 7408 0214 x201; [email protected] Membership Secretary Mrs Angela Farago: Christmas and New Year +44 (0)20 7408 0214 x214; [email protected] ROSL news at ROSL ...... 31 Catering Operations Director Ms Louise Leighton-Rees: +44 (0)7809 322 591; Don’t miss our festive packages and activities [email protected] Members’ benefits ...... 17 Edinburgh House Manager Mr Daniel Campbell: Make the most of your membership, with ROSL ROSL calendar ...... 32-38 [email protected] wines and new travel and golfing partnerships All of ROSL’s fantastic events, one handy calendar Print Hastings Printing Company: +44 (0)1424 720 477 Building for a brighter future . 18 Full booking information The journal is published by the Royal Over-Seas League, Over-Seas Important update on vital works at the clubhouse House, Park Place, St James’s Street, London SW1A 1LR. Any views and contact details ...... 38 expressed in editorial and any advertisements included are not For information on Steinway & Sons pianos or to arrange a private appointment to visit our London showrooms, necessarily endorsed by the Central Council. ISSN 00307424 FRONT COVER: A detail of ‘Subspace Transmission of the Magnetically Ordained Architect’ please call 0207 487 3391 or email [email protected] by ROSL Visual Arts Scholar Mehreen Murtaza © Mehreen Murtaza

WWW.STEINWAYHALL.CO.UK September-November 2014 OVER SEAS 3 OVERSEAS WORLD

From the Director-General Editor’s s I write, we are enjoying a real make transactions easier to conduct, letter summer with the ROSL Garden in searches more straightforward and full swing. The clubhouse in information much more accessible. hen A Edinburgh is looking good, with its In Edinburgh our near-term improvement Okwiri new coat of paint throughout, and is gearing plans include a re-modelled Reception and Oduor, up for another frenetic festival season. We an external staircase at the rear of the W this year’s have had a tremendously busy few months, building to access the roof viewing area. Caine Prize winner, sent with music and arts events, and refurbishment Events in the autumn will include a tour of me her article about FOCUS of clubhouse facilities very much to the fore. several wineries (bodegas) in Rioja, developments in East The changes to the Brabourne Room and supported, as last year, by Grape Escapes African storytelling (page Bar have been well received and I am and Davy’s wine merchants. We plan to 6), the text was an grateful to the many members who have conduct a similar tour each year and I hope unusual colour. ”It has to expressed their views on the outcome. On also to include a shorter visit to English be in blue or I am unable to move my The return of page 18, Sir Roger Carrick, ROSL Vice- vineyards in 2015. I am very much looking thoughts along,” she apologised. It is this kind Chairman and Chair of the Buildings forward to visiting ROSL members in Canada of fascinating glimpse into the creative process Sub-Committee, explains our plans to in October and our hard-working chapter that this issue’s Focus aims to provide. improve and refurbish other areas of the club. presidents are planning events in Vancouver, ROSL Visual Arts Scholars talk about their We have three major projects this winter. Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary and Toronto. literary and narrative influences on page 8, the storyteller We will be undertaking major refurbishment I draw your attention to the Christmas while, on page 10, we look at how the stories work in the third-floor bedrooms, essentially packages we are developing, the details of behind objects can increase their value, ahead a comprehensive refit. This will reduce which are on page 31. We would like to give of our forthcoming Antiques Roadshow-style Ben Haggarty charts the rise of performance storytelling in the availability in London by 11 bedrooms from more members the opportunity to enjoy the event and talk by the author of The First 24 November until early 2015, so please London clubhouse at Christmas, and I hope World War in 100 Objects (see the Events UK since the 1980s, and his role in promoting it as an artform bear this in mind when planning your visit. that these options will be of interest both to section for details). Some of ROSL’s top We will also start work on the sun terrace individual members and family groups. authors have contributed exclusive 50-word r Haggarty, when I was eight you came to was as much demand for storytelling for adult audiences mesmerising: outside the Bar, once the Garden closes in Please let us know if you are interested. stories (page 22), and they have so inspired tell stories in my school. I remembered as among children, so I organised the UK’s first Ben Haggarty late October. That work should be complete As ever, may I thank all our wonderful the editorial team that we have been writing your name and I’ve come to this event,” international storytelling festival at Battersea Arts Centre enthrals the by Christmas. May I thank members for staff in London and Edinburgh, and our some ’ultimate’ short stories of our own. the event being an evening of ‘Fairy Tales in 1985 – an event so popular that it sparked further audience during a M storytelling event at their forbearance over the Park Side lift in branch/chapter officers and honorary One of the biggest eye-openers has been for Grown Ups’ at Soho Theatre. This frequently heard festivals at Watermans and the Southbank Centre. London. It is being replaced this autumn corresponding secretaries around the world the number of storytelling shows and clubs comment is a testament to more than 30 years of work. With Hugh Lupton and Sally Pomme Clayton I formed the Crick Crack Club; and that will make a great difference. for all you do for ROSL. I am very much in that exist across the UK. I was mesmerised In 1981, I embarked on a mission to reintroduce the the Company of Storytellers – a touring storytelling troupe and (inset) US- Members may also be glad to hear that your debt and thank you, on behalf of our by the dramatic rendition of Welsh folktales I telling of traditional tales at all levels of society – from performing almost exclusively for adults and sharing our based The Moth we are upgrading the London clubhouse’s members, for your tireless energy. saw at the Crick Crack Club in north London comedic folktales through transformative fairytales to skills through workshops. By 1987, the demand had storytelling group telephone exchange at the same time, and and, on page 5, its founder discusses the epic mythology. I wanted to reimagine and recreate reached such a level that I founded the Crick Crack Club came to the UK for launching a refreshed website that will Roddy Porter resurgence of performance storytelling in ‘storytelling’ as a viable branch of professional, – the first organisation dedicated exclusively to the the first time in July Britain. For shows close to you, why not performance-based entertainment – something lost in promoting and programming of the artform for adults. The popular event: Director-General Roddy Porter with toastmaster Barry Dorn check out www.sfs.org.uk/events? Britain since the late Middle Ages. sector continued to grow and, today, hundreds of events and guest Lena Broad at the House of Lords afternoon tea in June For people with dementia, the stories of Storytelling uses a repertoire of tales that are the are programmed annually, filling mainstream theatres, their childhood and early adulthood are common inheritance of humanity, in which the story is arts centres and festivals. Using little or no set, costume particularly important, as these are usually not ‘the words’; it is the ‘what happens’. When told well, or production, storytellers deploy expertly controlled and their clearest memories. The role that they have the power to interest, entertain or haunt people highly developed techniques of composition and technology can play in helping them to from all walks of life, whether via a few satisfying belly performance. While the finest fill public auditoriums, access and talk about those memories may laughs bundled in a cunning trick, or a sequence of equally skilled educational storytellers enthral classes of not initially be obvious. I was surprised to strikingly rich metaphorical images, such as the blinding children and immerse museum artefacts in deep narrative learn how the immediacy and ease-of-use of of a one-eyed all-devouring monster or a deity’s self contexts; parents tell bedtime stories with renewed iPads and similar handheld devices are sacrifice on a tree. These are stories that can travel confidence, and pub rooms host lively, community- transforming care and improving the through time (frequently counted in millennia) and across building amateur events. Mission accomplished! wellbeing of vulnerable people (page 14). continents. Collectively they represent an intangible This year’s ROSL Annual Music cultural heritage, which can produce a phenomenal Performance storyteller Ben Haggarty is Artistic Director Competition was a triumph, and we have quality of listening in live performance, as audiences are of the Crick Crack Club. See www.crickcrackclub.com or a special article by the winner, Huw Wiggin, taken through the gamut of human emotional responses. www.benhaggarty.com for details of forthcoming shows. about his unique experience of the contest, In 1981, performance storytelling didn’t exist in the UK as well as an account by one member who and the rich content of traditional narrative was not being went to all the heats. If you missed Huw’s served well by other contemporary media. In the wake of impressive performance, see our Events political riots in major cities across the UK, two colleagues section for details of his next ROSL concert and I founded the country’s first educational storytelling These are stories that can travel (pages 32-38). organisation, the West London Storytelling Unit, with the aim of telling stories from all over the world to children through time and across continents Miranda Moore from all over the world. It soon became evident that there

4 OVER SEAS www.rosl.org.uk September-November 2014 OVER SEAS 5 WORLD Self-publish Your Memoirs, Family History, Novel A Prayer or Non-fiction book with A specially commissioned story by 2013 Caine Prize winner Tope Folarin few days after my new mother and stepbrothers arrived in America, my father authors asked all of us to gather in the living room. As online A we stood there awkwardly gazing at each other, he informed us that he had decided that we had to Authors OnLine have been helping authors to self- pray together at least twice a day. I looked up and publish since 1997 and are one of only four companies noticed my new mother shaking her head. When I recommended by ‘The Artists and Writers Yearbook’, caught her eyes she smiled widely. She nodded and winked at me. the ‘bible’ of the publishing industry. That evening my father inaugurated what would © iStock become a decade-long tradition in our family: after dinner If you have a manuscript you want to bring to the FOCUS we gathered in the living room and my father asked us to market place, or just print a few copies privately for hold hands and close our eyes. He began to pray. His family and friends, talk to our friendly staff today: © iStock voice sounded more assured, more powerful than I’d ever heard it. I was so frightened when I heard his new voice that I suddenly had an urge to pee. I squeezed my Free phone 0800 107 2423 (from UK only) legs shut and tried to listen to his words, but all I could +44 1767 652005 (from overseas) hear was his voice, so loud and confident and alien to [email protected] Turning the page me. I thought of the scene in The Ten Commandments – www.authorsonline.co.uk Dad’s favourite movie – when Moses returns from the A personal account of storytelling in Kenya by Caine Prize winner Okwiri Oduor mountaintop bearing a stone tablet in each hand, his face Quote ‘OS2013’ and receive 10% discount off instantly old and more handsome, a white beard lining any of our publishing packages. s a child, I was convinced that I lived in the open book: his jaw. I expected that my father would be similarly wrong world. If I had my way, I would have In Kenyan cities, transformed when I opened my eyes, but he was the elected to be Jo in Little Women, or Wendy in many children Stories introduced them to same man, short and stout with a slightly receding Peter Pan, or even Anne of Green Gables. grow up reading hairline, a joyful, almost goofy smile on his face. I could A books but without Sometimes, I wanted to be Pollyanna and play glad ancestors who prowled the not reconcile his voice with his face, but then I noticed games out of my little miseries. As it was, they traditional oral his eyes. The teasing glint was gone, replaced by a focus consumed me. I realised very early that I was not like the storytelling villages in howling winds and hardness that made him almost unrecognisable. other girls my age. Me, I was a strange, mute thing that (above left) Immediately I knew that my father had been replaced lived inside its own head. by someone else. We were first generation Nairobians or, as people Okwiri Oduor: Deep in thought referred to us both reverentially and derisively, born-towns. howling winds, to ghouls that made the shingles tumble, recognition: (above right) We were the children whose parents had performed the to women that gave birth to snakes and men that kept Tope with the bust rural to urban migration we learned about in school. and with the those snakes in cooking pots. Stories warned little of Sir Michael Our parents told us about the villages they came from. other shortlisted children not to answer-answer just fwa when someone Caine, in whose They told us about huddling at the hems of their writers (below) called their names – what if it was a lonely spirit that was memory the grandmothers’ skirts and nibbling on maize cobs as they seeking out their company? prize is awarded listened to night-time stories. Sometimes I wished that my parents had never left the For them, stories were an instrument of education, of villages. I imagined how it would have been – each PRE-ORDER YOUR DIARIES passing on history, culture and social values from evening I would have taken out a reed mat and spread it AND CHRISTMAS CARDS TODAY! generation to generation. Stories gave them the tools to in the centre of the yard and hurled rocks at squawking Keep up to date all year round - place your order for your ROSL navigate the material and metaphysical worlds. Stories chickens and told the people gathered there, branded 2015 diary now to ensure delivery before Christmas. introduced them to ancestors who prowled the villages in Hadithi, hadithi? For those on the go pocket diaries make a great gift; available And they would have said to me, in burgundy for just £5. While those who prefer a desk style Hadithi njoo. diary the A5 size in navy blue is only £7. (P&P extra) And I would have told them things that mesmerised them. Place your ROSL Christmas card orders before the festive rush. This year the card features our Patron the Queen at celebrations And the winner is… to mark the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Okwiri Oduor was awarded the 2014 Caine Prize for £0.50 each or 10 for £4.00. (P&P extra) her story ‘My Father’s Head’ at a celebratory dinner at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, in July. The £10,000 TO ORDER prize, supported by ROSL, is awarded annually to an Email [email protected] African writer for a short story published in English. visit www.rosl.org/shop or The other finalists were Diane Awerbuck (South call 020 7408 0214 ext 215 Africa), Billy Kahora (Kenya), Efemia Chela (Ghana/ (Monday – Friday 9.30-5.30pm) Zambia) and Tendai Huchu (Zimbabwe).

6 OVER SEAS www.rosl.org.uk September-November 2014 ROSL_XmasCard_Diary_Ad_AW.indd 1 OVER SEAS11/07/2014 7 07:59 WORLD

FOCUS Pictures that paint a thousand words ROSL Visual Arts Scholars explain the narrative elements of their work and how literature and real-life stories inspire them

Lerato Shadi pen to write. You could say I wrote on to the Mehreen Murtaza Your work is performance red carpet or ‘scroll’. I was recording myself Could you explain how science based and plays with folktale – how I was feeling, whether I was getting fiction informs your work? Courtesy gallery Grey Noise and the artist gallery Grey Courtesy Noise and the artist gallery Grey Courtesy and autobiography. Why do sleepy or energised or resisting nature’s call. I was reading a lot of American writers, like these forms interest you? That is also a form of storytelling. William Gibson and Philip K Dick, and this parallel worlds: The left and middle What are you working on now? For me, life is a story that you tell to yourself became my departure point. I started working panels of ‘Triptych’: (above) ‘President of A narrative about theoretical physicist and and to the people you are living it with. So In ‘Seipone’ you wrote your with photomontage, sourcing images from the the Imaginary Solution’ and (above right) Nobel Prize winner Dr Abdus Salam. I re-wrote storytelling is important because I am telling life story on a wall and rubbed internet, books, magazines. This eventually ‘The Glare of an Accustomed Totem’ history with him time-travelling. I weaved myself and I am telling ‘us’ in the works, it out before the gallery transpired into grander narratives of Islam. together ideas that are in Islamic religion to performances and videos. opened. Isn’t it important for Islam and the idea of institutionalised religion ‘grotesquely overwrought’ with a lot of do with the apocalypse and parallel worlds, Unlike theatre, which might have a storyline your story to be heard? is similar to a lot of speculative fiction that information. I like this idea of formulated chaos; which exists in some strands of Sufism. with a beginning, middle and end, my I thought if I had an audience, the details was written in the 1960s and 1970s. it implies something that our generation is performances deal with ideas and might not would go through a form of self-censorship. going through – the conversation of our times. Is your work with sound have a visible storyline. I wouldn’t think of Without an audience to read what I am Which writers have most tied to your love of film? storytelling in a traditional way of sitting down writing, it’s like standing in front of a mirror, influenced you? Your work has been described I think so. With ‘Score for a Film’, the idea was and telling an audience a linear story, but I which is what seipone means in Setswana. I am really interested in Middle Eastern as ‘visual narratives’. Was that to make a show that is about a film that never might see storytelling in the performance as a When the audience looks at the piece, what science fiction, which has undergone a your intention? exists but you have all this evidence leading concept, which becomes the story that is told. they are ultimately faced with is their own resurgence. There is a history of science In Pakistan, we have our own, vernacular to it. There was a script, which never made it story, not mine. It is the impossible process of fiction writing in Islam that is now being history, and storytelling is a really important part into the show, but there are snippets in parts What is the audience’s role? trying to erase a life and then rewriting re-contextualised as science fiction. It got me of our culture. I think that has seeped into my of the work. Films have informed the way I ERASING A LIFE: I like the audience to become the storyteller. yourself. That is more important than the interested in history and what’s happening work. A lot of art is rooted in historical contexts, work because there is a narrative, some kind Lerato’s ‘Seipone’; I like the concept of the audience also details of the story. right now in science. They seem paradoxical which are again stories, so I think storytelling is of sound design, a theatrical set. Then you and (above) performing the work, in them coming to the but somehow to fit together. an inherent part of a lot of work. It is something orchestrate these elements to form one idea. ‘Mosako wa Nako’ space and viewing the work, and the idea You grew up in Johannesburg Recently, I came across several writers who that I have become conscious of over time. I A detail of Mehreen’s artwork appears on that they complete the work by seeing it. and moved to Berlin two years are mixing theory and fiction. That’s what I’ve feel like I have been writing a book of sorts. I the cover. Her exhibition ‘To Sail Beyond the There is a triangular relationship between the ago. How have the different wanted to do with my work so I had an like the idea that my last body of work is a Sunset’ is at Generator Projects, Dundee, performer, the work and the viewer. It is cultures influenced your work? immediate affinity with their work. It is also narrative that is stringing itself together. 23 November- 14 December (see page 37). important that the viewer sees themselves in I’m more influenced by my South African the story that is being told it. background. The white male history is the predominant story; I’m more interested in the Adele Todd – it has experienced great wealth and great What narrative were you black female history – in my own history, my You tend to work in challenge because of wealth – and I am weaving with ‘Mosako wa own folktales, retelling that. embroidery. Why do you fascinated by how crazy I find the place to be. Nako’, in which you crocheted particularly like that medium? I did a lot of work on crime because it’s really a red carpet? Which stories have most I started to work in thread in 1999 for a show affecting my society. Everybody I know has Most of the performance took place before influenced your work? on domestic violence. I was looking at the some story to tell. the opening; what’s left in the space is the You should ask me that question every day! I whole idea of women being in the home and carpet and a bit of the ball of wool. It was just sent an email to my family, so the stories the word ‘domestic’ because there were a lot Could you describe your about finding a way to take over the gallery of my family, of my great-great-grandmother, of stories in Trinidad and Tobago about women creative process? space, inscribe myself within it. I was looking who is still alive, how she lived her life and being abused. I also like thread because, I spend a lot of time organising and sketching, at how red carpets have to do with who is how she was part of apartheid before it was unlike when you’re drawing or painting – when contemplating, making errors and living with allowed access – celebrities, dignitaries, legalised and after it was no longer in law. people hover – with thread, they leave you the thing – just like writers. If I’m embroidering winners – and who is denied access. Then Looking at the community I come from, and alone because it’s ‘an old-lady kind of thing’. something on a victim, I think about victims, I you can talk about historically ‘me’, as the how they tell these stories and live them, and read about victims, I try to stay true to the thing. ‘other’, having been excluded, and ideas of the majesty, beauty, dignity and humanity that How do you decide which At one point, I felt as though I was encouraging who writes history and what they exclude. is contained in all of that – those are the stories narratives to focus on? crime because the more I focused on it, the I did crocheting rather than knitting that are inspiring at the moment. A personal At the base of all the work I do is this desire more I would hear. It came from life, from the

© Erik Dettwiler because you use one needle, like you use one history for me is also an international history. to understand my island. It’s a complex place everyday crimes that would be in the papers. © Adele Todd © Adele

8 OVER SEAS www.rosl.org.uk September-November 2014 OVER SEAS 9 WORLD WORLD

added value: challenging: FOCUS St Vralkomir was A still from Adele’s performance piece, bought for $3 and ‘Playground’ sold, with a short story, for $193.50; and (right) A valuable Significant Object’s spotted dog figurine was auctioned with Curtis Sittenfeld’s history short story From a spotted dog gift item to a poppy from WWI, how the story behind an object can increase its value. By Samantha Whitaker

re you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin. From

© Adele Todd © Adele the moment we’re born, we collect stories, and figurine of St Vralkomir, bought for $3, which, together things to remind us of those stories. Often our with a story by American author Doug Dorst, sold for What are you working on now? A most treasured possessions are not the most $193.50. “The original project was successful almost ‘Story hunters’ have obsessions I have been experimenting with what I call expensive things we own, but those that help to recall a immediately: from the first auction, we demonstrated ‘dimensional embroidery’, using wire, wadding person or a particular moment in time. Photographs are that the stories added measurable economic value to about a person or event and thread to create sculptural detailing where an obvious example, but it might also be a soft toy, a objects,” explains Walker. One of his favourites was a the thread is no longer on fabric but exposed as graduation certificate or your child’s first drawing. spotted dog figurine with Curtis Sittenfeld’s simple but itself. I like the fact that it’s this delicate thread but In the case of American journalist Rob Walker, it was powerful short story about choosing between two received following a speedboat accident in September the thread is weighty because of the colour and breaking a souvenir coffee mug from a special holiday with potential husbands. 1963, in which he broke his nose. “We didn’t really know form it takes. This body of work is about female his wife that made him realise how valuable the item was to A second phase of the project saw another 100 objects how to price them,” explains Brenan. “We put £150-£200, sexuality and I call it ‘Stain’ because, despite him because of its story. This got him thinking, and with sold in two rounds, raising a total of US$4,351.50, this but they sold for several thousands of pounds. It’s a great women’s liberation, we still are living with lots of his friend and fellow writer Joshua Glenn, he devised an time for literary-related charities. There was even a example of where a thing – in this case a piece of paper stereotypes. I’m looking at where that behaviour anthropological experiment, entitled Significant Objects, mystery object, only revealed at the end of the auction, – is only valuable because it details something quite comes from, particularly as it relates to my to test whether invented stories about seemingly worthless which they bought for 99¢ and sold for US$103.50. personal about someone very famous.” Importantly, the island. And I chose to do so using language, objects could increase their value. They bought 100 trinkets Walker and Glenn have since published a book of medical card could be crucial in identifying someone because using typical imagery of the female for a total of US$128.74 and recruited a team of creative their 100 favourite stories from the project, proving that thought to be Lord Lucan, which adds the possibility of a body would just be stoking the stereotypes. writers to invent short stories about them, ranging from Life story: these have a value of their own. “The bidding is long future story to its worth. letters, memoirs and diary entries to operating Justin Croft over, but the stories are still out there being read and Brenan calls those who buy items such as these ‘story Is it important for you to instructions and public notices. Then they put each evaluates a 15th- clearly have taken on a life beyond our original hunters’. They have obsessions about a person or event challenge the audience? object up for auction on eBay, along with the story as its century locket book, experiment,” says Walker. Of course, in this project there and collect ephemera – paperwork, letters, clothing etc People look at my work and they are warmed by description (plus a disclaimer about its true provenance). revealing Perth local was an element of novelty involved, a sense of being part – in order to feel a connection. “These items are not the it because it’s embroidery and then, when they Most of the items had been bought for a dollar, but history of the time, of something new and exciting. But these items will type of things a normal antiques collector will go for,” she see what it’s about, they feel tricked. I think that some sold for more than US$100, raising a total of on BBC One’s forever prompt the retelling of the story of their origin – explains. “They appeal to a very specific type of person, is successful because I want to move my US$3,612.51 – a mark up of more than 2,700%, which Antiques Roadshow both true and fictional. and these people spend a lot of money on their nation, I want people to look at the work and went to the storywriters. The bestseller was a Russian in Scone This sense of originality and individuality is obsessions. They want the story.” feel it resonating with them. We are an island of increasingly what we’re craving, according to Ambra However, there doesn’t have to be a celebrity involved people who like to cover up things. We are Medda, co-creator and Creative Director of L’ArcoBaleno to generate a profitable story. Brenan recalls stumbling enrapt by hearing negative news stories that (www.larcobaleno.com), an online marketplace that upon an ancient Egyptian canopic jar while doing a authentic: bombard us, so we are very anxiety filled as a brings together extraordinary design from around the valuation at a home in Dorset. The family had inherited The only verified nation. But our writers and our artists are in a world. “Every object contains a story, but some are more the jar, had no idea what it was and were happily using it poppy from the place where confronting these difficult issues meaningful and more valuable than others,” she says. as a flowerpot. Despite being thousands of years old, battlefields of WWI, seems too close to the surface, too scary. “Because we’re inundated with the generic and the canopic jars are not as rare as you might imagine, and sold by Duke’s at virtual, we increasingly want to surround ourselves with they seldom make more than £300. This one wasn’t in auction for more How important is it for you to special objects that have been made by hand, showing a particularly good condition, but Duke’s used the press to than £6,000 get a story or message across? human touch and spirit at work.” publicise the tale of its discovery – the unknown treasure I did my first solo show, which was called ‘A Amy Brenan, an auctioneer and valuer at Duke’s, in the garden – and it sold for more than £2,000. Further Visual Narrative on Domestic Violence’, because agrees. In fact, she believes the provenance or history of proof of the economic value of a good story. I got really angry about the way women were an object can be more valuable than the item alone. being treated in Trinidad. I never wanted to have “Sometimes, the idea that a famous person has touched If you think you might have a hidden treasure or an a show until I felt I had something to say and or used an object is as intriguing as the object itself – and object with a story to tell, come to Over-Seas House with that I had something to say. One of our some people spend a lot of money buying into these London on 15 October for ROSL’s free valuation day with senators, Diana Mahabir-Wyatt, wrote in every stories,” she says. Duke’s Auctioneers. See page 34 for more details. newspaper on the island that the show was Last year, Duke’s sold some medical notes relating to something the whole nation needed to see. Lord Lucan, whose fate still remains a mystery. Written Samantha Whitaker is a Sub-Editor at Sunday Publishing

That tells me that what artists do is important. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Scone, Antiques Roadshow, Reid, © https://www.flickr.com/photos/ninian_reid/”Ninian by Dr John Watson, they detail the treatment Lord Lucan and was previously Deputy Editor of Overseas.

10 OVERSEAS www.rosl.org.uk September-November 2014 OVER SEAS 11 WORLD FOCUS A Burmese tale of literary adventure Martha Kearney explains why authors, publishers and thousands of adoring fans flocked to Mandalay for the first Irrawaddy Literary Festival

ven the title has a romantic ring, named after the author, whose glamorous outfits left the rest of us feeling CELEBRATION: magnificent Irrawaddy river which flows through even more crumpled than usual in the strong heat. School children the centre of Burma, carrying giant logs of teak, Our subject was ‘Literary Heroes and Heroines’, and I have a day at the bamboo and people from one part of the country began on a positive note by asking Daw Suu for her festival (left); and a E workshop with to another. The festival brought giants of the literary world to thoughts. She immediately said “Lizzie Bennet”, with an Mandalay to discuss writing and culture, in a society that affectionate tone that suggested a much-loved friend rather author Dr Rupert has been for so long repressed under a military dictatorship. than a character from a book. This was a woman who Arrowsmith (above) The Irrawaddy Literary Festival isn’t exactly like wasn’t afraid to speak her mind, she suggested, who was Cheltenham or Hay. For a start, it’s unlikely that a British prepared to challenge the rigid conservatism of her day. festival would be invaded by thousands of adoring fans, I think the resonances for that audience were clear. Jean yet that’s precisely what happened at the plush hotel in Valjean from Les Misérables provided similar parallels. The Mandalay where this celebration of writers took place. other panellists selected the little boy who challenged the The star attraction was Aung San Suu Kyi, who is emperor with no clothes, Maggie Tulliver from George patron of the festival. Everywhere she goes, this Eliot’s Mill on the Floss, and a Burmese homage to a good diminutive figure of 68 – her hair tied up with traditional housewife, which was chosen by U Thaw. That met with a sprigs of jasmine – is mobbed. So when word got out retort from Aung San Suu Kyi: “Typical man!” that she would be appearing, her loyal supporters came My favourite moment came at the end, with a rather in their thousands. The session that I was chairing was tricky question from the audience. Who would the panel packed, so most of the people watched on a large pick for an anti-hero? De Bernières questioned whether screen outside – rapt, I was told, though they couldn’t there was any real difference between a villain and an benefit from the simultaneous interpretation indoors. anti-hero. After the session, Daw Suu turned to me and Aung San Suu Kyi, or Daw Suu as she is respectfully whispered, “Molesworth, isn’t he an anti-hero?” As I known, was taking part in a panel discussion. One of the laughed, I realised that the memory of the miscreant other guests was the English novelist Louis de Bernières, schoolboy must have come from her earlier incarnation as a man who takes his guitar with him everywhere, so a mother and housewife, living a domestic life in Oxford strains of Albinoni could be heard gently wafting through before her world turned upside down. his hotel door in the afternoons. U Thaw Kaung is well known in Burma as a long-standing man of letters. ROSL member Martha Kearney is a broadcaster and Completing the line-up was Jung Chang, the Wild Swans journalist, who presents BBC Radio 4’s The World at One.

September-November 2014 OVER SEAS 13 ABTA No.88888

0000-ROSL advert Dec-Jan issue_V1.indd 1 08/07/2014 11:26:13 WORLD WORLD Could tablets be the best medicine? Miranda Moore finds out how iPads are improving the lives of vulnerable people, and giving them back their independence and self-confidence © iStock

easy to get hold of.” This helps carers to respond to the engaging: interests of each individual, with options ranging from iPads enable users creative apps such as Let’s Create! Pottery to the ever- to learn all kinds popular YouTube, which gives instant access to almost any of new skills, music, film or video clip in the public domain. In addition, including apps that it’s intuitive: you don’t have to use a mouse or understand teach you to play operating systems to make it work. “We’re using this the keyboard (above) ancient interface between mind and hand that means that we don’t need a big instruction manual,” says Lloyd-Yeates. individual It was after visiting his mother-in-law in a care home for interests: the first time that he began working in the sector. Seeing Tim Lloyd-Yeates her sitting in front of a large TV – a machine she despised supports an elderly – made him realise how isolated people can become resident with when they are unable to act as their own advocate. His dementia during an aim now is to help clients by giving them what they want, Alive! Activities not what their carers may think they want, and this means session (right) focusing on each person’s story: “What they used to do, © iStock where they lived, what they like to do now. That helps ix years ago, Tim Lloyd-Yeates was doing a iPad, and we’ve been using them every day, all day with intuitive: with the work you’re going to do on the iPad, because it’s guided reminiscence session with an Alzheimer’s vulnerable people ever since,” he says. In 2011, a Three generations different things to different people,” he explains. patient called Dorothy when a slip of the tongue research team from the University of Worcester use an iPad together Colin Moody, an activities presenter for Alive!, led to a life-changing discovery. The Executive concluded that touchscreen devices could improve the (above left); and understands this only too well. At a recent session Tim’s recommended apps S designing a vase Director of Alive! Activities, a charity supporting people quality of life of people with dementia. Interactions involving an iPad connected to a TV screen, he was able • Piccolage: a free, easy-to-use app that allows you with dementia, asked not what Dorothy wanted to hear but between residents, staff and family members improved, using the ‘Let’s to take the group on a virtual tour of the cathedral in Udine, to manipulate images and includes a search facility what she wanted to see. The answer – the Bayswell Hotel people were better able to make everyday decisions and Create! Pottery’ Italy, where one of the participants was from. Tears of joy that means you can use and adapt pictures from in Scarborough – seemed impossible to deliver. “I had lots there was a potential rehabilitative role as well. app (above) ran down her cheeks, and soon Moody, his colleague and the internet. of things in my bag but this hotel was not one of them,” he Dementia support charities across the country are others in the group were crying too. Lloyd-Yeates had a • Let’s Create! Pottery: an incredibly engaging app smiles. Then he remembered his iPhone. Within seconds, slowly beginning to take note, yet only 10% of people in similar experience when he found out that a client had that enables you to create virtual pieces of pottery he had found a picture of the hotel using Google Maps. care homes have access to the technology that can have been a locomotive driver and brought up a video of his by moving fingers across the screen. To some clients, such technology may seem like such a positive impact on their lives. Tom Christie, who train, the Clun Castle, on YouTube. “He’s in tears, I’m in • YouTube: the all-time favourite now includes witchcraft, but the real magic was the incredible change works with Stirling University’s Dementia Services tears. It’s priceless – better than any medicine,” he says. every Pathé news reel, from royal weddings to that came over Dorothy. “She went from being closed Development Centre, believes this will change, with an This highlights the benefits of the technology for presidents of the United States. Paul Robeson body language – closed legs, crossed arms, distant, increasing number of apps being designed specifically for people from all backgrounds, whatever their age, as well singing Ol’ Man River is always a hit. memories confused, not at all sociable – to ‘My dear boy, people with dementia, including medication alerts, as the ease with which people who are not IT-literate can • Skype: free video-calls for staying in touch with let me tell you about this hotel’. She told me all about the reminder messages and other memory aids. learn. “It gives us access, in an intuitive and immediate friends and family. menu, the dining room, the chandeliers,” he says. For Christie, there are two things that make tablets so way, to things that people find interesting,” he says. That • Bloom HD: a beautiful app where you touch the “What we’d done is found a part of her memory that effective: the diversity of applications and the ease of use. can really brighten up people’s lives, while also revealing screen to change the zen-like music and ripples of was still working, as is often the case with people living “It’s the variety that is really the selling point – the fact that the tablet’s greatest gift: the ability to validate people’s colour that move across the screen. I’ve had with dementia.” Running reminiscence sessions using there’s a really diverse range of apps and they are really interests and individuality. people with mobility issues play it with the back of music, objects and art, he had found it difficult to respond their hand or the end of their nose. to spontaneous requests in clients’ more lucid moments Technology event for members • Morris Lessmore: the first generation of animated, – how to show a clip from a film or a picture of a church ROSL members in Scotland who would like to learn how interactive storybooks, this app is enchanting. It that the person suddenly recalls before the moment has It’s the variety that is really the selling to use touchscreen devices, apps and other information reads you a story and when you move your fingers passed. When the iPad launched in 2010, he realised it technology, or brush up on existing skills, should see the across the screen, the pictures move accordingly. had the potential to deliver all that and more. point – there’s a diverse range of apps Events section for details of our forthcoming free • See memoryappsfordementia.org.uk for more ideas. “On the day that they were released, we bought an Technical Thursdays sessions.

14 OVERSEAS www.rosl.org.uk September-November 2014 OVER SEAS 15 ROSL NEWS Members’ benefits Susanne Pride Notman’ s Gemma Matthews highlights some of ROSL’s most exciting new partnerships and services for members

St George’s Town, ur vibrant New Members’ the perfect way to show off your club and Reception on 29 May was the recommend a friend. Please contact Clubhouse wines perfect opportunity to introduce Ellie Locke, Guest Relations Officer, at Onewly minted members (as well [email protected] for information We are delighted to launch our very as those thinking about joining the club) about bringing a guest to this event or to own ROSL wine club, allowing you to © Susanne Notman Bermuda Rian Castillo, ‘Port of St George’, to the full spectrum of ROSL benefits. book a showaround of the clubhouse. enjoy your favourite clubhouse wines creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/ Princess Alexandra Hall was buzzing with from the comfort of home. Working in port town: conversation, as members met each other partnership with independent wine How long have you lived in Bermuda? How has living and working in cultural highlights: On a blustery February day in 1971, I stepped off the St George’s Harbour and the ROSL team to find out about merchants Davy’s, we will introduce Bermuda influenced your writing? George Harwood-Smith introduces plane with my Bermuda-born husband. “Welcome to Bermuda’s outstanding beauty, historical and cultural is a focal point for clubhouse catering and accommodation in you to fine wines from the club’s members to the ROSL ARTS programme your new home,” said he, and it has been ever since. I diversity, biological and marine life, and much slower pace the town on St London and Edinburgh, our branch network, excellent cellar and provide an grew up in Montreal so I had to learn to adapt, but my of life has inspired a myriad of writers, including Mark Twain, George’s Island ROSL arts and humanitarian projects and our exclusive opportunity to buy bottles or adopted island and I evolved together. The past 40 years Eugene O’Neill and Shakespeare who, on learning of the popular events programme. cases and have them delivered directly have seen a burgeoning cultural identity and a collective ‘Sea Venture’ wreck, crafted his own Tempest. I find natural charm: Many partner organisations that offer a to your door. pride in ‘homeland’. inspiration in the rich tapestry and layers of history that is Water Street in range of additional benefits, such as Grange Why not stock up in time for your the foundation of this magical isle. My first cover story for the centre of town Hotels, DAKS clothing and insurance Christmas and New Year celebrations What do you love about living there? The Bermudian took readers into the deep, where the (below); and providers HMCA, were on-hand to answer with a tempting selection, including I can enjoy a rich, cultural community, including annual myriad shipwrecks surrounding the island offer up stories of Bermuda’s most questions. And everyone enjoyed sampling Maison Gardet champagne and claret international film and performing arts festivals, local brave and valiant souls seeking a new life; and of plundering famous beach, the clubhouse wines from La Tour de Chollet from the club cellar – Château La Tour theatrical and musical productions of a high standard, an and greed as Spanish galleons, swollen with rich treasures Horseshoe Bay, is and Davy’s (see right for more details). We Carnet, Haut Medoc 2002. eclectic visual arts scene and a circle of talented writers, of gold and emeralds, sank to their watery graves. a short trip from will be holding further New Members’ Visit www.davy.co.uk/rosl to find filmmakers, raconteurs and historians. There are also the My most recent inspiration has come from Jane St George’s on the Receptions in London on 7 October and out more or to place an order. sandy beaches, sunsets across the harbour, short Austen and her ‘particular little brother’ Charles, who Main Island Edinburgh on 22 October; these events are commutes and near-year-round mild temperatures. spent time in Bermuda from 1805, as commander of a (below left) Bermuda-built sloop. It was an adventurous, dangerous St George’s is often described as a five years of his life, chasing French frigates up and ‘jewel in Bermuda’s crown’. What is down the American coast. He became immersed in New partnerships unique about the town? Bermudian life and married the Attorney General’s Part of the charm of this World Heritage site is that very daughter. After extensive research of diaries, letters and Exploring Sri Lanka Golfing links little has changed since its settlement in 1612. Visitors log books, I am developing an original screenplay, with Earlier this year, a small group of members HOLE IN ONE: We are delighted that Edinburgh Clubhouse can meander down narrow lanes where merchants sell St George’s taking a lead role. embarked on a trip organised by Experience Crail Golfing Society Manager Daniel Campbell has introduced their wares. Guided tours of the original limestone Travel Group to Sri Lanka. Specifically course with sea views Crail Golfing Society, the seventh oldest golf buildings, with their unique architectural features, start in Susanne Pride Notman is a freelance writer and designed for ROSL members, this 15-day club in the world, as a partner organisation. King’s Square on the harbour. During the National Trust’s journalist. She has been a Programmer for the Bermuda tour took in the sites of the ancient cities of This means our members will be able to enjoy Christmas walkabout, the old town is aglow and International Film Festival and is co-author of a book of Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura, Sigiriya some of the finest links golf in Scotland – many decorations in local greenery abound. It is an image that rare, archival photographs of the island. Her current rock fortress and the Royal Botanical say, the world – at a specially reduced rate. has been captured by writers and artists for centuries. project, Becoming Charles, is a historical drama set in Gardens in Peradeniya. Members also Established in 1786, the club has a Bermuda, Burma and England. enjoyed a safari in Yala National Park, which distinguished history: golfing legend Old Bermuda is a draw for archaeologists. Interview by Christine Wilde. has one of the densest populations of Tom Morris laid out the Balcomie course in Tell us something of its heritage… leopards anywhere in the world. 1895 and, in 1998, a second course, I find it thrilling to learn of new digs telling of the tenacity of Experience Travel Group are organising a Craighead Links, was designed by Gil Hanse. each person who arrived on Bermuda’s soil. On Ordinance ROSL Sri Lankan tour for March 2015. For It is located on the coast, 85 minutes’ drive Island, there is a magnificent bronze statue of Admiral every booking, Experience from the Edinburgh clubhouse, and with George Somers, who landed the ill-fated ‘Sea Venture’ on Travel will make a 5% green fees at just £15, reduced from Bermuda’s treacherous reefs in 1609, and a replica of the donation to ROSL £45-£80, ROSL members can afford to ‘Deliverance’, the crude ship that carried the survivors. humanitarian projects. improve their handicap. You will be required See page 12 or contact to show your membership card on arrival What’s your favourite restaurant? +44 (0)20 3468 4524 and an advance reservation is essential. The White Horse Tavern on King’s Square is a family to find out more. Contact [email protected] or favourite. The main attraction is the verandah by the +44 (0)1333 450 686 to book, or visit waterside. Wahoo’s is a lively bistro on the water where, ON tour: www.crailgolfingsociety.co.uk for more © Experience Travel Group Travel © Experience yes, the wahoo (fish) is delicious, as well as the gelato. © www.gotobermuda.co.uk Sri Lankan drummers Golfing Society © Crail information about the course.

16 OVERSEAS www.rosl.org.uk September-November 2014 OVER SEAS 17 ROSL NEWS ROSL NEWS

their fine qualities. We are particularly glad to Wing from the courtyard, and better have brought the rare crinoline staircase movement from there to and from the Central lower landing into proper use for members, Lounge and Reception. There are architectural and to have ‘lifted’ the staircase with new and other complications to resolve: this carpeting, decoration, lighting and artwork. It project will also take a good deal more time is one of the many jewels of Over-Seas House than the Sub-Committee would wish. and, again, only a (very) few dislike that change. Delays to high-priority projects may, almost Members will also have noticed a less perversely, allow earlier work on less vital but radical but necessary ‘uplift’ in the main productive building projects, such as a terrace Restaurant, especially in the lighting. Breakfast beyond the Bar and over the edge of the is widely enjoyed there now, and the menu Garden nearest Over-Seas House, to give improvements are welcomed. To suit more members more space in tolerable members, Graysons plan more menu changes. weather to enjoy the Bar drinks and light Before and After: They, too, would welcome comments. meals. English Heritage have approved this The old Bar; and (right) The BSC are seriously disappointed that, so project. We hope to start work this autumn to the Duke of York Bar far, we have not been able to implement two finish in time for summer 2015. important projects. One is a matter of health We should dearly like, ‘ere too long, to and safety, and is our highest priority: provide more bedrooms for members (our brabourne room: essential changes in the courtyard to install a current 83 are often all taken). In a listed Before and (left) after goods delivery lift and make other allied building, the difficulties will be legion, but we the renovations improvements to the movement of staff in shall have a good try, when finance permits. this area, on which we all depend. This Maintenance of our listed buildings is a project is complex; it is also fraught with constant concern, requiring Herculean efforts, practical, regulatory and bureaucratic delays expert troubleshooting, skill and devotion. and complications, for example the need for a Fortunately, all these are readily available in noise survey (we all believe that the end result the persons of Maintenance Engineer Paul will be less noise). The Director-General and Streat and his splendid team, who daily our ROSL architect Jim Cumming, are battling achieve miracles. on with this essential work, whose The BSC has some longer-term embryonic completion will herald a huge sigh of relief, as thoughts about how best to meet members’ transformation: service and staff operations become much future needs in our beautiful and much-loved Installing the new Bar (above); and safer and more efficient. buildings. With the Director-General, we think (below) staff enjoy the benefits of the Then there is the need to improve disabled a lot and, with the help of many others, we new, improved Brabourne Room access to and movement in Over-Seas seek to achieve some good things that serve House: another multi-faceted project, you, the members. The ‘proof of the requiring careful research and study, and pudding’: we monitor members’ use, and expensive to get right. We hope to provide a welcome your views – by email, letter or Building for a brighter future much improved entrance to the Westminster conversation with ROSL officers, please. Sir Roger Carrick, Chairman of the ROSL Buildings Sub-Committee, Setting the Bar reviews the work being done to improve the London clubhouse Younger Member Amelia Voice reviews the new Duke of York Bar

he Buildings Sub-Committee (BSC), Room. New and quite major work in the room The Duke of York Bar (named after the Grand s a ROSL Younger Member who has formed in 2012 at the behest of the was overdue. When the rather wobbly floor Old Duke, who died in an armchair in the room been living in London for a number Central Council and on behalf of was taken up, the remains looked like flotsam beyond) was very tired; its furnishings badly of years, I am scrupulous as to T members, has been beavering in a moderate sea. Laser-levelling, timber worn, its logistic support crumbling. The new A where I spend my free time. ROSL is away. It is time to say something more replacement and reconstitution was the basis stock, menu and prices represent a real a smart, sophisticated and really friendly club; widely about its efforts. There have been of a radical and carefully designed refit of the improvement. There will be more to come. even so, I was initially ambivalent about the some much-needed changes at Over-Seas whole room, expertly designed and financed The new look is almost universally valued as significant overhaul to the Bar. However, having House London, thanks to careful principally by Graysons, who saw the need for historic yet modern and tasteful, and the spent an hour quietly losing myself in the management and cost control by the changes in menu and pricing. Staff members atmosphere as comfortable and welcoming: ambience of the new, charcoal grey and Director-General Roddy Porter, and the were involved in decisions, including their much needed change. flawlessly cool Duke of York Bar, I can confirm Finance and other directors; the work of the smart new uniforms. The result is generally There were discussions along the way with that ROSL has done something quite different Finance Sub-Committee; and professional admired, much used and disliked by only a English Heritage, who are responsible for from simply ‘rearranging a few sofas’. Instead, and productive cooperation from our fine (very) few. ensuring that listed Georgian buildings retain one sees large modern chairs, clever lighting catering company, Graysons. There are and an array of monochrome textures. further plans too, made possible in large part Wifi (yes free wifi to all guests) is fast. The by the introduction of a Capital Reserve fact that my coffee tasted luxurious and my Fund, to which a modest sum is now When the rather wobbly floor was taken food was delivered on slabs of black slate were intended to be allocated each year. added validation that this place is somewhere Members visiting Park Place have already up, the remains looked like flotsam to come back to. In fact, I’m popping back with been enjoying the refurbished Brabourne chums to celebrate my 24th birthday.

18 OVERSEAS www.rosl.org.uk September-November 2014 OVER SEAS 19 ROSL NEWS ROSL NEWS In search of the ‘tingle factor’ Kate Fearnley saw every stage of the competition. She picks her highlights

he awfulness of February is always alleviated by the prospect of six Tuesday evenings of music in Princess Alexandra Hall. This year’s cohort of T promising musicians presented themselves to A winning an array of distinguished adjudicators and enthusiastic listeners in the ROSL Annual Music Competition section finals for wind, singers, strings, keyboard and two separate ensemble sections. The adventure started with the wind competitors, five performance of them: a flautist, a recorder player, two saxophonists and, puzzlingly, a percussionist. Saxophonist Huw Wiggin Gold Medallist Huw Wiggin on why he’s been preparing carried all before him with a showy programme and a for the ROSL Annual Music Competition Final his whole life great personality. The six singers on the following Tuesday played a game of ‘anything you can sing, I can sing louder’. Soprano Anna Rajah emerged as the winner, but hen I arrived at Queen Elizabeth Hall on Alexandra came on to the stage with all 13 judges. I had Making an the beautiful soprano Nardus Williams was the one who 6 May, I was extremely nervous, as I felt as never felt so nervous, and when Gavin Henderson impression: gave me the ‘tingle factor’ and I shall look forward to if I had been preparing for the Final my whole announced my name as the winner, it was such a shock I (Clockwise from hearing her again; she was the youngest by several years. life. I had entered the ROSL Annual Music didn’t know what to do. I hadn’t prepared a speech but main image) A surprise winner in the string section was – a ROSL W Huw Wiggin; the Competition a number of times, both while studying and somehow pulled a few words together. first – a double-bass player. A week later, the pianists were while working as a professional musician, but it was my Winning the Gold Medal and First Prize is my biggest rapt audience; consistently splendid. I particularly liked Peter Foggitt (not accompanist, James Sherlock, who encouraged me to achievement to date and has already opened many doors. Block4; HRH afraid to play quietly, I scribbled in my programme) and give it one last shot this year. Before I went on stage, I now have an agent and manager to help me with concert Princess Alexandra the very young Dominic Degavino. Jan Hugo was declared everyone kept saying how anxious they would be, but I opportunities, and I will have a chance to appear at festivals presents Huw with the winner but I wasn’t enamoured of his programme. tried to breathe deeply and relax, and a few minutes into in the UK and abroad. I am so grateful for this accolade. the First Prize; Toby The ensemble finals are always my favourites. The the performance, I really started to enjoy myself. Huw Wiggin will perform with other ROSL prizewinners Hughes; and Solem Quartet from Manchester were winners from a I knew that I was performing first, so I had to find a at Wigmore Hall on 13 October. See page 34 for details. Gavin Henderson very strong field, and in the second section the winners way of being remembered. I started with Stockhausen’s were Block4, an unusual group of recorder players. My In Freundschaft for solo soprano saxophone, as it involves favourites were the Ferio Saxophone Quartet, slightly extensive use of stagecraft and advanced techniques dominated by Huw Wiggin’s soprano. such as circular breathing, as well as fast, virtuosic Annual Music Competition 2014 And what of the grand Final at Queen Elizabeth Hall on passages. Marcello’s Concerto in D Minor provided an In February and March, more than finalist three times previously. He is the Southbank? It is always a great party occasion. The extreme contrast; originally written for the oboe, it is very 400 musicians from Australia, only the second saxophonist to win moment that stays in my memory is Anna Rajah’s first melodic and played at a slow pace, creating a completely Canada, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, the Gold Medal; the first was Amy note – an exquisite pianissimo growing into a beautiful, different atmosphere. I chose to finish with Pequena Malta, New Zealand, Singapore, Dickson in 2004. Other past warm mezzoforte, then melting back to pianissimo. How Czarda by Pedro Iturralde because it is the lightest of the South Africa and the UK participated saxophonist prizewinners include did she do it? But the well-deserved winner was Huw three and has the feeling of an encore piece. in auditions at Over-Seas House John Harle (1980), Gerard McChrystal Wiggin, yet again. All of these delightful artists will keep After the ensembles had performed, we met the judges London for the 62nd ROSL Annual (1988), Sarah Markham (1995) and appearing in concert brochures during the next few backstage and the adjudication followed. Then Princess Music Competition. At the Final on Sarah Field (2000). years. Good luck to them! 6 May, the panel of judges was The accompanist award of £5,000, chaired by Gavin Henderson CBE, equal in value and importance to the Principal of the Central School of solo awards, was won by James Speech and Drama, and prizes worth Sherlock (winner of the 2010 solo £68,000 were presented by ROSL keyboard award). The Ensemble Vice Patron HRH Princess Alexandra. awards of £10,000 each were won The solo finalists, Anna Rajah by the Solem Quartet (string quartet) soprano, Toby Hughes double bass and Block4 (recorder quartet). and Jan Hugo piano, received £5,000 Overseas Award winners included each, with First Prize winner Huw Emily Sun violin (Australia), Gerard Section winners: Wiggin saxophone receiving £10,000. Schneider tenor (Australia), Isabella (L-r) Toby Hughes, Huw, who studied at Chetham’s Moore soprano (New Zealand), Anna Rajah, Jan Hugo School of Music, RNCM Manchester Carson Becke piano (Canada) and and Huw Wiggin and RCM London, had been a wind Jan Hugo piano (South Africa).

20 OVERSEAS www.rosl.org.uk September-November 2014 OVER SEAS 21 ROSL NEWS ROSL NEWS Books In Memoriam Recent works by ROSL members Trisha Paul Doherty Her beloved’s faded photograph Ashley, Suzette Hill and Paul Doherty stood close-by. He’d vowed to return, The Venetian Venture to tap at the rose-window overlooking Suzette A Hill the turtle-doves’ nest, only to be killed Allison & Busby, 2014 at Ypres an eternity ago. She smiled, ISBN: 978-0749016555, £19.99 as she always did, when dusk fell and Rosy Gilchrist jumps at the chance to escape the turtle-dove began its passionate her daily routine at the British Museum to visit Every Woman for Herself Roseblood pattering against the darkening glass. Venice in search of a rare, first edition of Trisha Ashley Paul Doherty translated poems by Horace. Little does she Avon, 2014 Headline, 2014 know that she’s not the only one searching ISBN: 978-1847562821, £7.99 ISBN: 978-0755395965, hardback £19.99 for this valuable book. Adventure and Every Woman for Herself, by Sunday Times It is England, 1455, and as the animosity mayhem ensue as Rosy bumps into old bestseller Trisha Ashley, is a witty tale of life between the houses of York and Lancaster friends along the way. after divorce. Forced to move back to her increases, Simon Roseblood, who is loyal to Misty waterways and shadowy piazzas childhood home with her eccentric family, King Henry, and Amadeus Sevigny, a provide the setting for suspected blackmail, Charlie reignites her passion for painting and henchman of Richard of York, find double crossing and murder in this comic meets an exciting new flame. The oddities of themselves embroiled in a bloody conspiracy thriller set in 1950s Venice. The elegant social the family’s rural village life, mixed with that threatens to plunge the entire country whirl of bellinis at Harry’s and espressos at comedic extracts from the Skint Old Northern into chaos. Tense and compelling, this Cafe Florian offer light relief and tempting Woman magazine, make for highly enjoyable historical thriller paints a vivid picture of the descriptions of Italian delicacies – so much so reading, while the blossoming romance corruption and brutality of 15th-century life, that you’ll be planning your very own Venetian threatens family traditions and made this a as the dark tale of political intrigue and holiday by the end of the book! book I simply couldn’t put down. vengeance unfolds. Five literary gems Gemma Matthews Ellie Locke Christine Wilde We set some of our successful ROSL novelists a How to start a ROSL group challenge: to write a short story in just 50 words. The Book Group has gone from strength to strength since its first meeting last The results were surprising, moving and inspirational, year. Eve Mitleton-Kelly explains what setting up and running a group involves exploring themes of war, loss, mortality and friendship s a new ROSL member, one of the Mantel, and some enjoyed Shostakovich’s things I was looking for was a 7th Symphony after reading The Conductor. book group, and last autumn the I like to keep in touch with members Bite Flight A club didn’t have one. When a regularly via email, and a week before a Gillian Philip Trisha Ashley group of interested members had a meeting meeting I remind them to let me know if they How could he know the thing would grow Flocks of words wheeled and turned until, in December, Sara Brouwer, ROSL Events are staying for dinner so that I can book a flesh on his fairytale words? His kids grown one by one, they alighted, aligned Coordinator and Marketing Executive, was table. In addition, people contact me for and gone, and still it came, greedy now. One themselves and were still: her first sentence very enthusiastic. She helped us to book a details of forthcoming books, requirements molar left, and then? Sucking his gums, he was born. room and encouraged us to set dates for for becoming a member and dates of future shrank under the blankets. Tiny claws His anger being light-sleeping, she future meetings. meetings. What I did not expect was the scratched the night window, tiny wings scribbled in the dark. At dawn, the pencil We decided that prospective members number of ROSL members who are not on fluttered. He listened, waited, whimpered. was broken, the paper blank. should choose two or three titles each, and email and have to be contacted by phone. She left, slamming the door: the last bird select the next books from those. We sent a Setting up a ROSL group requires a degree War of Words had flown. list of titles and dates to Sara, who put them of organisation in setting dates and making Hilary Robinson on the website, and we also had some information available. These are regular “Listen,” said Grandpa, sitting beside the England – August 1940 leaflets printed. Yet for the first three months commitments, so if you are thinking of setting campfire. “We native American Choctaws Suzette A Hill we had very few new members. The big up a group, do not underestimate the amount have a powerful weapon.” That dog was such a thumping liar – swore breakthrough came when an announcement of work involved. Nevertheless, I would “What is the weapon, Grandpa?” he had a bone which flew like a Spitfire! was put in the March-May issue of Overseas; recommend it. Our small initial group was “Our language, Marty.” Being a cat of cynical bent I replied that month we had 15 participants. made very welcome indeed, and Sara’s support “We had no civil rights during the First World scathingly that my saucer was actually a New members have continued to join and and encouragement made all the difference. War but we manned the communications and camouflaged Stuka… As we spun our yarns, A new chapter: the Book Group has grown to be an absolute Contact [email protected] to start confused the enemy spies. Within weeks the crouched on the innocent lawn, the skies Eve Mitleton-Kelly reads the latest delight. Many went to see the play of Bring Up your own group, or email e.mitleton-kelly@

war was over.” exploded with epic dogfights. © iStock Photos Book Group title at Over-Seas House the Bodies while reading the book by Hilary mitleton-kelly.org.uk to join the Book Group.

22 OVERSEAS www.rosl.org.uk September-November 2014 OVER SEAS 23 ROSL NEWS ROSL NEWS

SUMMER FUN: (Clockwise from Wednesday 5 November top): Taunton non-drivers at Tarr ‘The wonderful world of glass’ Meet Sally Roberts, ROSL West Steps; a Tasmania Branch coffee Somerset College; 11am ROSL West came into being in 2006. I was morning; and the Chairman’s Branches: Talk with a two-course lunch. Secretary of Taunton Branch when Robert Reception in Edinburgh Guests welcome. £14.50. Newell, who was Director-General at the time, asked me to consider running the Bath Branch, Saturday 4 October Wednesday 3 December which could not form a committee. ROSL West what’s on? Coffee morning ‘ROSL worldwide’ was formed so I could do this and run the Over-Seas House Edinburgh; Somerset College; 11am London weekend, which I had taken over from Taunton Branch. 10.30am Talk by Major-General Roddy Details of forthcoming events This is now open to all the branches I am connected with, Talk by Mary Fleming on Porter with a two-course lunch. ROSL branches provide an opportunity for members in all parts of ‘The Edinburgh Skyline’. £3. Guests welcome. £14.50. including Exeter. I took over as their Secretary five years ago. I got involved in the Taunton Branch because my father, David the world and across the UK to enjoy a range of social events close Roberts, who had been Chairman of the West Cornwall Branch to home. To find out more about getting involved, simply contact Saturday 1 November West Cornwall © Bill Barr your local representative. Coffee morning Thursday 25 September and then Treasurer of the Taunton Branch, knew they needed a Secretary. We think the branch was founded in 1947, when the Over-Seas House Edinburgh; Baroque music recital Somerset Light Infantry returned to Taunton. Exeter is one of the enjoy the ‘race that stops a 10.30am Trevethoe House, Lelant; 7.15pm oldest, established in Budleigh Salterton before WWII. Australia nation’. Email [email protected] Talk by Christine De Luca on Music for cello and piano with a The most popular events are the lunches. In Taunton, we use Tuesday 2 September by 30 October to attend. $40. ‘Shetland Muse and Musings’. £3. buffet and wine. Guests welcome. Somerset College where, after a talk in a lecture theatre, we have South Australia Branch lunch Call +44 (0)1736 333460 by an inexpensive gourmet lunch, cooked by students. Taunton The Public Schools Club, New Zealand Friday 5 December 22 September to attend. £5. also arranges outings for non-drivers, in an eight-seater taxi, Adelaide; 12pm Wednesday 3 September, Bridge Club Christmas lunch allowing them to get out and about. Our recent trip to East Two-course lunch with talk by 1 October, 5 November, Over-Seas House Edinburgh; Thursday 16 October Exmoor (see picture, opposite) was so successful that we are Mark Pharaoh on the Antarctic 3 December 12pm ‘Berlin: A divided city’ going to West Exmoor in September and the National Trust explorer and scientist Sir Douglas Southland Branch morning tea Lunch with sherry for Bridge Club Carbis Bay Hotel; 2.45pm Tyntesfield in October. © Sally Roberts © Sally Mawson. Guests welcome. Club Southland; 10am Jones © Stephen members only. £12. Illustrated talk with Cornish cream The thing I most enjoy about my role is the contact with the Email [email protected] by There is always a speaker and all tea. Guests welcome. To attend people, providing them with a service that works well so they 28 August to attend. $30. members are welcome. Email UK Thursday 11 December Exeter call +44 (0)1736 333460 by can get the maximum enjoyment out of their membership. [email protected] for details. Bath Christmas lunch and raffle Friday 26 September 14 October. £5.50. Wednesday 1 October Wednesday 10 September, Marriott Highcliff Hotel; 12.30pm ‘The Work of a JP’ Tasmanian Branch outing Wednesday 10 September, 8 October, 12 November, Two-course dinner with coffee Great Western Hotel; 12pm Thursday 20 November Fern Tree, Hobart; 2pm 8 October, 12 November 10 December and mince pies. Proceeds to Talk by Diane Deane JP with ‘Madeira and Tenerife’ Tour of Dr John Tooth’s Christchurch Branch tea Monthly coffee morning A Touch of Light charity. Call +44 lunch. Guests welcome. £13. Carbis Bay Hotel; 2.45pm contact details rhododendron gardens with Holly Lea Retirement Pratt’s Hotel; 10.30am (0)1258 480887 for details. £23. Illustrated talk with Cornish cream Alberta: Cynthia Cordery, Nova Scotia: Liz Stern, afternoon tea. Members are Village; 10am Meet-up every second Wednesday. Friday 31 October tea. Guests welcome. To attend [email protected], [email protected], invited to bring a dish. Proceeds There is always a speaker and Guests welcome. Donation for Cheltenham ‘Harrods Department Store’ call +44 (0)1736 333460 by +1 780 477 0001 +1 902 678 1975 to Médecins Sans Frontières. all members are welcome. refreshments appreciated. Wednesday 17 September Great Western Hotel; 12pm 18 November. £5.50. Bath, Exeter, Taunton, Ontario: Ishrani Jaikaran, Email [email protected] to Email [email protected] for ‘Spitzbergen: Icebergs and Talk by Yvonne Bell with lunch. Torbay: Sally Roberts, www.rosl-ontario-canada.ca, book. $5 donation. details. $NZ7. Thursday 9 October Polar Bears’ Guests welcome. £13. West Sussex [email protected], [email protected], Autumn lunch Church House, Cheltenham; Wednesday 1 October +44 (0)1823 661148 +1 416 760 0309 October Sunday 9 - Friday 28 November The Bath and County Club, 2.30pm Friday 28 November Branch lunch Bournemouth: Queensland: Sharon Morgan, South Australia Branch Pettman/ROSL ARTS Queen’s Parade; 11.30am Talk by Dr Peter Ormorod with ‘The Life and Work of Windsor Hotel, Worthing; Gordon Irving, [email protected] annual dinner prizewinners’ tour With talk by Donald Ruffell tea. All members welcome. £2. Lady Butler’ 12.30pm [email protected], South Australia: Michael Kent, Naval, Military and Air Force Tamsin Waley-Cohen violin, on ‘France: The end of an era’. Great Western Hotel; 12pm Two-course lunch with +44 (0)1258 480887 [email protected] Club, Adelaide; 7pm Bartholomew LaFollette cello Price tba. Wednesday 15 October Guests welcome. £13. coffee. Guests welcome. Call British Columbia: Liz Murray, Switzerland: Jo Brown, Three-course dinner with speaker. and Tom Poster piano tour with ‘Sicily’ +44 (0)1444 458 853 for details. [email protected], +334 5040 6631 Email [email protected] for details. trios by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky Bournemouth Church House, Cheltenham; Glasgow £18.50; members £17.50. +1 604 922 1564 Tasmania: Robert Dick, and Mendelssohn. See Thursday 11, 18, 25 September 2.30pm Contact +44 (0)141 884 6342 Cheltenham: Barbara Snell, [email protected] Tuesday 4 November www.roslnz.org.nz for details. 2, 9, 16, 30 October Talk with refreshments. All for meeting details. Wednesday 5 November +44 (0)1452 813373 Thailand: Vincent Swift, South Australia Branch 6, 13, 20, 27 November members welcome. £2. Branch lunch Edinburgh: Mae Barr, www.roslthailand.com, Melbourne Cup lunch Wednesday 3 December Weekly coffee morning Taunton Windsor Hotel, Worthing; [email protected], [email protected] Royal Coach Motor Inn, Christchurch Branch Marriott Highcliff Hotel; 10.30am Wednesday 19 November Wednesday 3, 10, 17, 12.30pm +44 (0)131 334 3005 Victoria: Coral Strahan, Adelaide; 12pm Christmas lunch Guests welcome. £2.90. ‘Historic Gloucester’ 24 September Talk by Deputy Editor of Overseas, Glasgow: Bill Agnew, www.rosl.org.au, Put on your finery, enter the Venue tba; 12pm Church House, Cheltenham; 8, 15, 22, 29 October Christine Wilde. Guests welcome. +44 (0)141 884 6342 [email protected], sweepstake and feast on the best All members welcome. Email Wednesday 22 October 2.30pm 12, 19, 26 November Call +44 (0)1444 458 853 for Hong Kong: Kate Yau, +61 (0)3 9654 8338 smorgasbord in town as you [email protected] for details. Autumn lunch and Chris Illustrated talk with refreshments. Weekly coffee morning details. £18.50; members £17.50. www.rosl.org.hk, West Cornwall: Ian Wood, Bladen Memorial Address All members welcome. £2. Miles at the Riverside; 10.30am [email protected] +44 (0)1736 333460 Marriott Highcliff Hotel; 12.30pm Guests welcome. Wednesday 3 December New South Wales: West Sussex: Marilyn Perth Branch farewells Two-course meal with coffee and Edinburgh Christmas lunch Lily Murray, Archbold, +44 (0)1444 458853 At the Perth Branch AGM, three long-serving members retired. talk by renowned author and Friday 5 September Wednesday 1 October Windsor Hotel, Worthing; [email protected] Western Australia: Jeff Turner MBE served as Chairman for more than 20 years, ably columnist Allan Mallinson on Bridge Club lunch ‘VSO’ 12.30pm New Zealand: Lyn Milne, Anthony Abbott, supported by Anne Bluntish and Mary Innes. ROSL thanks them ‘1914: Fight the good fight’. Over-Seas House Edinburgh; Somerset College; 11am Three-course lunch and fundraising www.roslnz.org.nz, [email protected], for their contribution and wishes them all the best for the future. Guests welcome. Call 12pm Talk on the branch charity with raffle. Guests welcome. Call [email protected] +61 (0)8 9368 0379 +44 (0)1258 480887 to book. £23. Bridge Club members only. £12. lunch. Guests welcome. £14.50. +44 (0)1444 458 853 for details.

24 OVERSEAS www.rosl.org.uk September-November 2014 OVER SEAS 25 ROSL NEWS ROSL NEWS

Cinco de Mayo The Rutland and Bennet-Clark Rooms were transformed into a mini-Mexico for the YM’s First News and views Thursdays drinks in May. After feasting on chilli and churros, and The latest from the clubhouses in London and Edinburgh sampling the delicious mojitos, ROSL Younger Members and friends created their own gorgeous Members’ tours and grotesque designs in a ‘day of From the Elgin Marbles to Arne Jacobsen’s chair and portraits of George I, the the dead’ face-painting workshop, Members’ Events programme explored some of the cultural highlights of London this led by talented, up-and-coming spring. In June, our Blue Badge tour showcased the V&A’s 20th-century Scandinavian artist Jade Louise Makeup. design collection (below left); the sell-out ‘First Georgians’ tour, with a talk by an exhibition curator at the Queen’s Gallery, provided an intriguing insight into the Kampala Music School impact of the Hanoverian succession on life in Britain (right); while members were ROSL ARTS hosted a fundraising concert expertly guided through the relics of 7,000 years of human civilisation on the Best at Over-Seas House for the Friends of of the British Museum tour (below right). Kampala Music School in May. Founded in 2001 by Fiona Carr MBE, the school has grown from modest beginnings to become a centre of excellence in classical New faces music in East Africa. ROSL Director of ROSL welcomes Tomas Nesvadba, Arts Roderick Lakin and Fiona Carr (centre our new Breakfast Manager, who joined right) are pictured with (l-r) school Director the catering team in May. Tomas joins Kiggunudu Fred Musoke piano, ROSL us from The Arts Club and is very much prizewinner Iwan Kiwuwa piano, Claire looking forward to welcoming and Hawkes clarinet and Terrence Ayebere meeting more members. baritone, who all played in the concert.

Tea at the Chairman’s Lunch House of Lords ROSL welcomed General The Lord Dannatt At the kind invitation of ROSL as Guest of Honour to the Chairman’s President Lord Luce, members Lunch in May. Following a delicious enjoyed an afternoon in the three-course meal, the former British Army Cholmondeley Room and Terrace Chief, pictured with Lord Luce (l) and host Central Council at the House of Lords. After the Sir Anthony Figgis (r), spoke about his Broadcaster and formal announcements by official experience in the British Armed Forces, as journalist Ashish toastmaster Barry Dorn and a short well as the future of national security. Ray (centre), pictured speech from Lord Luce, members with Sir Anthony Figgis (l) tucked into a tasty spread while and Roddy Porter, was taking in views of the Thames, the popular guest the London Eye and Westminster speaker at the Central Palace in the sunshine. Council lunch in June. ROSL was also pleased to welcome several new and returning members to the Central Council.

The Madness Divine sensations of July Easter provided the perfect excuse to indulge in a One of the UK’s Matisse: From chocolatey treat. Under the compelling instruction best-known and darkness to light of expert chocolatier Gloria Lilley, members used all respected Radio 4 Art aficionados and the curious alike filled five senses to travel through the history of broadcasters, Jim Opera at ROSL Princess Alexandra Hall at this popular chocolate and discovered that the tonality of the Naughtie, signed In May, postgraduate singers from the Royal Discussion Group event in collaboration with ‘snap’ of a bar of chocolate indicates cocoa content copies of his debut Conservatoire of Scotland gave an evening of song at the Art Fund. Art Historian Hilary Guise (l) (the higher, the more cocoa). Later in the evening, novel The Madness of Over-Seas House Edinburgh. This was followed by a offered an intriguing insight into the life and members volunteered their most memorable July following a ROSL Gala Opera night in June, with RCS students Oliver work of Matisse in a lecture that served as chocolate experience, with one recalling his first ARTS book event at Rundell piano, Luperci de Souza tenor, David Horton the perfect companion piece to the Tate taste of chocolate, donated by American GIs in Over-Seas House baritone, Hazel McBain soprano and Eirlys Davies Modern’s recent exhibition ‘Henri Matisse: WWII Britain, as a little boy. London in June. mezzo soprano performing favourite operatic arias. The cut-outs’.

26 OVERSEAS www.rosl.org.uk September-November 2014 OVER SEAS 27 IN THE UK

BEER TASTING: The first Scottish Clubs Group event Photos: © Alex Lamley Photos: Bright young things Ripping yarns Alexander Lamley on the Christine Wilde discovers a world of storytelling in Edinburgh and London

burgeoning scene in Scotland ld buildings are often said to be full of stories, with walls that could tell a thousand tales, and ince I wrote in the March-May issue, the YMs of in the case of John Knox House, this is the ROSL Scotland have been busy. On 24 May, the O literal truth. Dating from 1470, Edinburgh’s Scottish Clubs Group (SCG) met for its first oldest residence is now part of the Scottish Storytelling Sinter-club meeting: a beer tasting. The event was Centre, the heart of a lively arts community dedicated to hosted by the Scottish Arts Club and saw members from Scotland’s stories and the art of oral storytelling. each of the SCG clubs and their guests meeting and Halfway along the Royal Mile, less than 15 minutes’ relaxing with food and drink in the bar. This was followed walk from the Edinburgh clubhouse, the historic building by a champagne and croquet party, hosted by ROSL at the has joined with the former Netherbow Arts Centre to form Meadows Croquet Club in Edinburgh, on 3 July. the first purpose-built storytelling centre in the world. At the Scottish members’ dinner on 20 June, I hosted a Hosting an exciting programme of live storytelling, theatre table of YMs, who met in the bar for drinks before joining and music, as well as the Scottish International the main reception and moving on to dinner. The evening Storytelling Festival (see page 30), the centre celebrates Minchella © Image Virginie was an excellent mix of rowdy banter, good food and great Scotland’s rich narratives and oral traditions while bringing and the Spoken Word’ series, the centre also runs company, not to mention a very interesting speaker. The them up-to-date, creating opportunities for people of all workshops and poetry slams, welcoming poets, rappers YMs stayed at the clubhouse well into the night before ages to engage with the stories around them. and storytellers of all ages and nationalities as part of a heading off into town for some dancing. Stepping through the low doorway, beneath the lintel vibrant programme of literary festivals. YM movie and wine nights are set to continue on every proclaiming ‘Luf God abufe al and yi nychtbur as yi self’, Across the Thames, the British Library regularly Paris © Reuben third Friday of the month, and further SCG events are being visitors are welcomed into a cosy bookshop, with tales old celebrates its exhaustive collections with a variety of Interactive planned. Watch this space for further updates. and new crowded beneath the aged beams. Beyond the immersive exhibitions aimed at capturing the glory of space: reception, the medieval architecture opens out seamlessly storytelling for different genres and generations. ‘Comics An exhibition at the LAWN GAMES: Croquet for the Scottish YMs into the bright, modern Storytelling Court, a myriad of Unmasked: Art and anarchy in the UK’ traces the British Scottish Storytelling exhibitions adorning its walls. This inviting, airy space hosts comics tradition as far back as medieval manuscripts and Centre (top); and a plethora of regular activities, including Tiny Tales for the illustrated reports relating to Jack the Ripper. In the a young visitor under threes, lively ceilidhs and literary-themed displays. coming months (3 October - 20 January 2015), the library enjoys its Storywall Families can sit in the public café and share stories over will also host ‘Terror and Wonder: The Gothic imagination’, (above right) coffee and cake, or explore Scottish tales from Wee Willie which explores the gothic influence on film, art, music, Winkie to The Gruffalo at the interactive Storywall. The fashion and culture over the last 250 years. weaving tales: venue also houses the Netherbow Theatre, an intimate Those with younger children or grandchildren will enjoy An exhibitor creates auditorium where literature and performance combine and, the Discover Children’s Story Centre in Stratford, East colourful pieces at in the words of an old Scottish Traveller proverb, the story London. While, if you have time for a trip outside the the centre’s Craft is told ‘eye to eye, mind to mind and heart to heart’. capital, you could become Champion of the World at the Fair (above left) For further information or to book online please visit the Journeying south, the Southbank Centre remains one of Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in Buckinghamshire, conference and events section of the Christ Church website the focal points of London’s storytelling culture. Inviting riding the (Great Glass) elevators to the Fantastic and www.chch.ox.ac.uk the best writers and spoken-word artists to discuss their Marvellous activities that are bound to inspire all but the work and present new writing as part of the ‘Literature biggest of Twits.

28 OVERSEAS www.rosl.org.uk September-November 2014 OVER SEAS 29 IN THE UK Drama in an Top 10 London Christmas and intimate space and Edinburgh Need Istock image London Literary Poetry for the Palace Actor Janet Prince’s favourite small Pub Tour The Queen’s Gallery at the Palace This three-hour guided of Holyroodhouse explores the New Year at ROSL theatres close to the clubhouses performance visits the pubs that role of the Poet Laureate, and the inspired generations of writers, close relationship between poet Celebrate at your home-away-from-home with our including Charles Dickens, Virginia and monarch over the last three Woolf and Anthony Burgess. and a half centuries. special festive packages in London and Edinburgh Every Saturday, Tuesday and Until 2 November. Tickets £6.50. Thursday. Tickets £24. www.royalcollection.org.uk London Double/twin Single londonliterarypubcrawl.com By planning ahead you can take advantage Christmas Eve-Boxing Day (three-night offer) £518-£593 £383-£413 The Crucible with of special rates for accommodation at the Christmas Eve-Christmas Day £348-£398 £258-£278 The Great Tapestry Ten Poems London clubhouse in December. Choose to Christmas Day-Boxing Day £372.50-£422.50 £282.50-£302.50 of Scotland Scottish Ballet brings together the stay for one, two or three nights from See the 143m-long tapestry stylistic language of Arthur Miller Christmas Eve to Boxing Day, and let us illustrating Scotland’s fascinating and Dylan Thomas in a powerful worry about the turkey, decorations and Included in the price (details above): Boxing Day history, culture, industry and study of words in motion. washing-up while you enjoy scrumptious Christmas Eve Enjoy a delicious Boxing Day brunch, available politics at the Scottish Parliament. 3-4 October. Tickets £20.50. three-course dinners, winter walks, sparkling Get into the festive spirit with mulled wine 10am-1pm, before spending the afternoon © Robert Boulton © Robert Until 13 September. Free. www.scottishballet.co.uk drinks receptions and festive films. Choose and mince pies at our drinks reception exploring London on our special winter s an actor and former Artistic www.scotlandstapestry.com any number of nights, or why not make the (5.30-7.30pm), followed by a screening of a walking tour with an expert guide. (Alternatively Director of a small London theatre, most of our special three-night offer? classic Christmas movie in Princess Alexandra prices for one night are £125 -£195pp.) this is a welcome opportunity to Digital Revolution Hall. Information on local church services will A share some of my favourite ‘Off Artists, filmmakers, musicians be available from Reception. (Alternatively Booking information West End’ venues. The best place to start is and game developers explore the prices for one night are £100.50-£180.50pp.) To book your one, two or three night with Jermyn Street Theatre, right on ROSL’s rise of digital creativity in the package, contact [email protected] or

Barbican’s interactive exhibition. Ballet of Scottish © Nisbet Wylie, courtesy +44 (0)20 7408 0214 x217. Members and doorstep. This intimate space produces Ullathorne © Steve Christmas Day consistently interesting and exciting theatre. Until 14 September. Tickets The Christmas celebrations begin at midday their guests not staying at the clubhouse are Coming up is Flowers of the Forest Janet Prince: £12.50. www.barbican.org.uk/ Lord of the Flies with a sparking drinks reception and a also welcome to join our Christmas activities. (22 September - 18 October), a powerful First In Durang Durang digital-revolution Matthew traditional three-course Christmas meal, For prices and information, contact Members’ World War love story by John van Druten, one at Jermyn Street Bourne’s thrilling including half a bottle of wine, coffee and Events (see page 38 for contact details). of the most successful playwrights of the Theatre (above) Where Do I End new production, mince pies. Lunch will be followed by a visit 1930s. Audiences will also have a rare chance and You Begin inspired by from Santa with gifts for everyone, as well as Christmas Day lunch to see Mordaunt Shairp’s compelling exciting At the City Arts William Golding’s an opportunity to watch the Queen’s Speech. Members just wishing to dine on psychological drama The Green Bay Tree, theatre: Centre in classic dystopian After lunch, family board games will be Christmas Day can feast on a festive which made Lawrence Olivier a star on Cory English and Edinburgh, novel, comes to available in the Drawing and Mountbatten three-course lunch for £82.50pp.

Broadway (24 November - 20 December). How Lisa Caruccio contemporary Sadler’s Wells. © Helen Maybanks rooms, along with complimentary tea, coffee For lunch bookings only, contact fantastic to have these little-known plays just Came in Dream artists from 8-11 October. Tickets £12-£45. and biscuits. (Alternatively prices for one night [email protected]

ten minutes’ walk from the clubhouse. of Perfect Sleep at around the www.sadlerswells.com © iStock Photos: are £157.50-£227.50pp.) or +44 (0)20 7629 3881. A little further afield in Earl’s Court, the the Finborough world explore

Finborough Theatre, above a lovely bar Theatre in June the myths of Gallery MoMo © John Hodgkiss. Courtesy Scottish International serving food, has the European premiere of (main image) underpinning the notion of Storytelling Festival Rachael, the first play by an African American ‘Commonwealth’. Live storytelling, oral traditions and Edinburgh woman ever to be produced professionally Until 19 October. Free. cultural diversity are celebrated Two-night Christmas shopping break Three-night Christmas package Three-night Hogmanay treat (30 September - 25 October). While the www.edinburghartfestival.com by Scottish and international What better excuse to visit the Edinburgh Stay Christmas Eve to Boxing Day and Welcome in the New Year in traditional Scottish Arcola in Dalston (also newly refurbished) storytellers and musicians at clubhouse than for a spot of Christmas enjoy a tasty, cooked breakfast on each style with this three-night stay at the Edinburgh brings A Ghost from a Perfect Place by Phillip Daydreams and venues throughout Edinburgh. shopping? Situated on Princes Street, in the morning. On Christmas Day, start your clubhouse. Breakfast is included, as well as a Ridley (11 September - 11 October). Diaries: The story of 24 October - 2 November. heart of the city’s most prestigious shopping celebrations in style with a glass of Kir Royale ticket to our Hogmanay dinner and dance, In Edinburgh, the Traverse Theatre is a great Jacqueline Wilson Prices vary. www.tracscotland. district, Over-Seas House Edinburgh is within and canapés with fellow ROSL members. where you will be treated to a Kir Royale on choice for new writing. Do check out their The Museum of Childhood org/festivals/scottish-international strolling distance of all the major retailers, Then sit down to a delicious three-course arrival, a four-course dinner with three glasses listings for current shows. The King’s Theatre celebrates the life and work of -storytelling-festival including Harvey Nichols, Jenners and John Christmas meal with coffee, followed by a of wine and coffee, followed by a ceilidh presents Regeneration, a play about the life of the much-loved children’s author. Lewis, as well as the German Christmas visit from Father Christmas, with gifts for all disco. Champagne, black bun and shortbread Siegfried Sassoon, commemorating the Until 2 November. Free. Richmond Literature markets and outdoor ice rinks. Breakfast is the family. A cold buffet will be served in the will be served shortly before midnight, centenary of the First World War (30 September www.museumofchildhood.org.uk Festival included and ROSL members will also bar at 7pm. allowing time to head up to the rooftop - 5 October). The King’s panto – this year Talks, workshops and activities led receive 20% off all food and drink. Double/twin £249pp; single £199. terrace to watch the spectacular fireworks Aladdin, starting on 29 November – is a by high-profile authors, journalists display from the best vantage point in the city. Christmas tradition for me. It is truly and commentators at locations Double/twin Single Booking information Members can also purchase tickets just for spectacular and always very funny. A great way throughout the London borough. Sunday-Thursday £139pp £119pp To book the Edinburgh packages, the Hogmanay dinner and dance for £125pp. to end the year and a great way to round up my 1-30 November. Prices vary. Friday & Saturday £199pp £139pp contact [email protected] Superior/suite £499pp; standard £449pp

recommendations for the coming season. Stories, Seven for © Barry 2011 Pells, Books Children’s for National Centre www.richmondliterature.com or +44 (0)131 225 1501. (double occupancy); single £549pp.

30 OVERSEAS www.rosl.org.uk September-November 2014 OVER SEAS 31 EVENTS EVENTS

Guy Masterson: Anthem for a Doomed Youth Friday 3 October - Sunday 25 January Friday 31 October The Grand Tour exhibition rosl calendar Princess Alexandra Hall, Over-Seas House, 7pm Multi-award-winning actor and director Guy Masterson brings his sell-out Edinburgh Festival SEPTEMBER Wednesday Thursday Wednesday Fringe one-man show to ROSL. Anthem for a 3 September 4 September 10 September Doomed Youth is a powerful compendium of the Until Sunday Friends of ROSL ARTS First Thursdays: Black-tie Dinner in the finest stories and poems from both sides of 7 September Champagne Garden Party History of Clubland talk Tower with MSJA no-man’s land. From our greatest war poets, Hatti Pattisson exhibition Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke and Siegfried Sassoon, to excerpts from Erich Maria Remarque’s

Over-Seas House London, daily All Quiet on the Western Front and the Christmas © Tim Le Breuilly Scottish painter and textile Truce, Masterson brings the trenches Over-Seas House Edinburgh, designer Hatti Pattisson exhibits to life in a compelling and moving daily her latest collection of work tour de force. An exhibition of new works by focusing on landscapes around Tickets £20; £15 Friends of ROSL Liesel Thomas and Tim Le

Fife in Scotland. This exhibition Compton © Jethro ARTS. Includes wine and canapés. Breuilly. Thomas has exhibited in © Historic Royal Palaces Royal © Historic follows on from a successful 2.0) BY-SA (CC Mall’, ‘Pall Bentley, © Leonard Berlin, London and Edinburgh, show at Over-Seas House Over-Seas House London, 6pm Hall of India and Pakistan, Over- Tower of London, 7pm while Le Breuilly is currently Edinburgh in 2012. Exclusive to Friends of ROSL Seas House London, from 6pm A second Dinner in the Tower, Tuesday have taken her across the UK, OCTOBER undertaking a residency at Fettes Free. ARTS, the Annual Champagne In a joint social event at this this time in collaboration with 16 September Europe and the USA. Her royal College and has been shortlisted Garden Parties are the highlight month’s drinks’ night, Younger the Mayfair and St James’s Edinburgh film night photographs have been exhibited Until Friday for the John Moores Painting Until Sunday of the summer calendar. A Members will be treated to a Association. The evening at Holyroodhouse, Buckingham 24 October Prize. He has also contributed 28 September champagne reception in the lecture on a subject guaranteed to begins in the Fusiliers Over-Seas House Edinburgh, 5pm Palace and the National Portrait Rob Tucker exhibition curatorially to exhibitions at Edinburgh Printmakers Garden will be followed by an pique their interest: the history of Headquarters, with champagne Classic American drama, with Gallery, among other venues. Talbot Rice Gallery. Contact exhibition hour-long concert by a selection clubland. Together with members and a three-course dinner as coffee, popcorn and ice-cream. Free. LG members and overnight Over-Seas House London, daily [email protected] of ROSL prizewinners. Afterwards, of the Riding Club London, a usual, and concludes with the Tickets for entry and refreshments guests at Over-Seas House only. See September listing for details. to attend the Private View Commonwealth wines and sweet members-only equestrian club, Ceremony of the Keys. £7.50. Free. on Thursday 2 October, pastries will be served. we will enjoy reception drinks Tickets £79. Guests welcome. Friday 19 September 6-8pm. Wine and canapés will Invitations to attend one of the before sitting down to the talk by Thursday Inter-Club: A night Thursday 2 October be served. Garden Parties were sent to Seth Alexander Thévos. Friday 12 September 18 September at the opera First Thursdays Free. existing Friends in June. Joining £6. Includes a glass of wine. Visit to Armourers’ Hall A History of the First the Friends costs just £30 for Guests welcome. Advanced World War in 100 Objects Duke of York Bar, Over-Seas Tuesday 7 October ROSL members or £35 for booking required. Princess Alexandra Hall, House London, from 6pm Edinburgh film night

© Nicola Murray Murray © Nicola non-members. Benefits include Over-Seas House London, 7pm We want all our YMs to feel Over-Seas House Edinburgh, discounted tickets to all ROSL Tuesday 9 September A History of the First World War in at home in our clubhouses Over-Seas House Edinburgh, daily ARTS events, invitations Visit to Denbies Wine 100 Objects by John Hughes- and to use them as spaces to 5pm Some of Scotland’s best-known to private views of exhibitions Estate, Surrey Wilson is published by the Imperial relax, bring friends, engage in Enjoy an evening of classic Ealing printmakers return to exhibit and regular mailings. War Museum and tells the stories culture and form new comedy, with coffee, popcorn

more stunning prints. Exclusive to Friends of ROSL behind 100 items from the conflict, Hanning Scarborough © Laura connections, so join us at our and ice-cream. Free. ARTS. Call +44 (0)20 7408 0214 including weapons, Over-Seas House London, 7pm monthly drinks. Tickets for entry and refreshments

x219 or email [email protected] & Brasiers of Armourers Company © Worshipful paintings and letters. In a sparkling evening of culture, Free. Guests welcome. £7.50. Tuesday 2 September to become a Friend. Coleman Street, Moorgate, Tickets £7; £5 ROSL brings opera to clubland. Black-tie Dinner in London, 2.30pm Friends of ROSL After a drinks reception and a the Tower Wednesday Occupying the same site ARTS. Includes wine. pre-performance picnic or dinner, quick Booking information 3 September – since 1346, Armourers’ Hall the Olivier Award-winning Opera

Friday 24 October © Denbies Wine Estate tells a story of survival through Thursday Up Close will take guests to For full booking and Rob Tucker exhibition Leaving from Over-Seas House the Great Fire of London and 18 September 1950s Hollywood, resetting contact details, see page 38 London, 9.45am the Blitz. Members will have The Royals in Focus Donizetti’s comic opera L’elisir Situated in the Surrey Hills, an exclusive tour of the d’amore with English lyrics and a ROSL ARTS ROSL Scotland Denbies is one of the largest wine building before being served surprising, interactive element. +44 (0)20 7408 0214 ext 219; +44 (0)131 225 1501; producers in the UK. This London refreshments. Entirely rebuilt True to opera style, guests are [email protected] www.rosl-edinburgh.org.uk Group visit includes a walking in the 19th century, the Hall required to wear evening dress

© Historic Royal Palaces Royal © Historic tour, with a recorded commentary still carries an atmosphere – and we request a 1950s touch. Members’ events London Group Tower of London, 7pm exploring the highlights of this of antiquity, untouched by Refreshments will be available in Book online at www.rosl.org.uk; Clive Carpenter; The ever-popular Dinner in the beautiful vineyard. An indoor the modern era, with deep the interval, and after the [email protected] +44 (0)7798 824193; clivedavid Tower starts with a reception in guided tour of the working winery mahogany furnishings, performance guests can see out [email protected].

the Fusiliers’ Museum, followed Tucker © Rob follows, with the opportunity to impressive Dutch and the evening to the mellow strains Younger Members For outside visits: Doreen Regan

by a three-course dinner with wine Over-Seas House London, daily sample their produce. Elizabethan portraiture, and, © Joan Williams of 1950s jazz in the ROSL Garden. Book online at www.rosl.org.uk; c/o Over-Seas House London in the Fusiliers’ Mess. Afterwards, 2012 ROSL Visual Arts Scholar Tickets £42; LG members £40. well, quite a considerable Over-Seas House London, 6pm Tickets are sold through the [email protected] the Yeoman Warder will escort us Rob Tucker exhibits his latest Travel and entry included. Lunch volume of armour. London Group talk with Inter-Club website. For further Discussion Group to the Ceremony of the Keys. work at the London clubhouse. and refreshments available but Tickets £15. Refreshments Joan Williams, former BBC notifications, please ensure you No advanced booking required. Tickets £79. Guests welcome. Free. not included. included. One guest per member. photographer, whose assignments are on the ROSL YM mailing list.

32 OVERSEAS www.rosl.org.uk September-November 2014 OVER SEAS 33 EVENTS EVENTS

Wednesday 8 October Wednesday 8 October Wednesday Thursday 16 October Friday 17 October day. An audiovisual presentation Friday 31 October Tuesday 4 November Art and Music in the Edinburgh Arts Lunch 15 October Contrasts of Conservation: Inter-Club Reverse Dinner on the architecture and life of the Guy Masterson: The Lion’s Roar: Time of War ROSL’s valuation day Lapland versus Scotland bank will follow, after which there Anthem for a Doomed Youth WWI history walk Princess Alexandra Hall, Over-Seas House Edinburgh, Savile Club, London, time tba will then be an opportunity to Princess Alexandra Hall, Over-Seas House London, 3pm 12 for 12.30pm Rutland and Bennet-Clark Held in the Savile’s beautiful enjoy some refreshments at the Over-Seas House, 7pm In association with the Art Fund. Talk by George Sutherland on rooms, 11am-5pm ballroom, the Reverse Dinner is a Royal Exchange nearby. Guy Masterson brings his The First World War left more ‘WWI and Gallipoli’, followed by a Duke’s Auctioneers will host our tried and tested formula, and well Tickets: £14; LG members £12. sell-out Edinburgh Festival powerful and poignant imagery delicious two-course lunch, very own Antiques Roadshow- worth attending. Refreshments not included. Fringe one-man than any war before or since. We including wine and coffee. style event. Experts will appraise Visit www.inter-club.co.uk for show to the London can only speculate on how Tickets £20; guests £25. everything from jewellery to details and booking information. Thursday 23 October clubhouse. See different Western art would have furniture and fine art. As it might Technical Thursdays box-out on page 33 © James Borrell been without the loss of Franz Monday 13 October be tricky getting some items to Monday 20 October in Edinburgh for details. 2.0) BY-SA (CC Square, ‘Trafalgar Bentley, © Leonard Marc, August Macke, Henri The Monday Platform the clubhouse, verbal valuations Over-Seas House London, 6pm Zeppelin Nights: London London, 2pm Gaudier-Brzeska and countless can be conducted via a selection James Borrell is a conservation in the First World War NOVEMBER As part of our WWI Centenary young men who had not yet had Wigmore Hall, 7.30pm of good quality photographs, taken biologist, writer and speaker, with programme, ROSL is offering time to express themselves fully. ROSL major prizewinners, Huw from all angles (including any a passion for expeditions and Until Sunday members a tour through the By contrast, there were artists Wiggin saxophone (2014 Gold signatures and makers’ marks). adventure. He has been involved 25 January Royal Parks to explore London’s such as Otto Dix, Stanley Spencer Medallist), James Sherlock piano If you decide to sell your items, in conservation projects around The Grand Tour exhibition memorial art and celebrate the and Paul Nash whose greatest and the Tempest Flute Trio, will have a valuation for insurance the world and went to Lapland in modern Commonwealth of work was inspired by the war. amaze and beguile members in a purposes or conduct further 2013 to study climate change Over-Seas House Edinburgh, Nations. Our Blue Badge guide The music of Elgar, Ravel, Ivor programme designed to showcase research, Duke’s will be able to and habitat fragmentation. His daily will explore the monuments in Gurney and Ivor Novello will their performance flair and artistry. arrange this. Duke’s Auctioneers illustrated talk to the London Over-Seas House Edinburgh, See October listing for details. Green Park and Hyde Park Corner, illustrate the composition (See page 20 for Huw’s account was established in Dorset in 1823 Group will contrast conservation 11am, 1pm, 3pm Free. and recall the support given by element of the lecture, delivered of his prizewinning performance). and continues to maintain its approaches in Lapland and Over-Seas House London, Following our tremendously Britain’s colonies in defence of the by Patrick Bade, Senior Lecturer Tickets £10-£18 from traditional values while operating Scotland, and will explain 7-8.30pm popular Technical Tuesdays at the Tuesday 4 November Motherland when they answered at Christie’s Education, London. www.wigmore-hall.org.uk; in a global marketplace. why the Dwarf Birch Tree has Discussion Group talk on the London clubhouse last year, the Vernon House WWI ‘the Lion’s roar’ in 1914. The tour Tickets £14. To book contact the Friends of ROSL ARTS £12, Free. Members only. Contact an important role to play in bombing of London ROSL IT brigade is coming to Memorial Service includes a visit to the special Art Fund on +44 (0)844 415 4100. available only from ROSL ARTS. [email protected] to both countries. by award-winning Scotland. With an increasing Over-Seas House London, exhibition ‘We Will Remember Includes tea and coffee, served Includes post-concert reception register your 15-minute slot. Free. LG members and overnight historian Professor number of club activities and 10.30am Them: London’s before the event. with wine for Friends only. Places are limited. guests at Over-Seas House only. Jerry White. benefits publicised and Led by ROSL President Great War memorials’ Free. documented online, it is our aim Lord Luce, Chairman Sir Anthony in Wellington Arch. to help members who are not Figgis and the Very Reverend Tickets £20. Tuesday 21 October completely confident with John Hall, Dean of Westminster, Guests welcome. Midori Komachi violin, computers, or want to brush up this act of remembrance is Ian Brown piano on their digital skills, to become central to the ROSL’s First Tuesday 4 November Princess Alexandra Hall, an active part of our online World War Centenary Edinburgh film night Over-Seas House London, 7pm community. So come and join us programme and signals the Japanese-born violinist Midori at one of our Technical Thursdays start of the club’s Over-Seas House Edinburgh, Komachi and pianist Ian Brown sessions. They will cover a commemorations. It 5pm perform Mozart’s Sonata for wealth of topics, cater to all skills will be followed by a An Oscar-winning biopic, with Violin and Piano in G Major, levels, and run alongside the coffee reception. coffee, popcorn and ice-cream. Walton’s Sonata for Violin and Europe-wide Get Online Week. Free. Guests Tickets for entry and refreshments Piano in A Minor, Brahms’s Free. Refreshments included. welcome. £7.50. Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1 Members only. Places are limited. in G Major and Ravel’s Tzigane. Call +44 (0)131 225 1501 to In association with the Medical register your 60-minute slot. quick Booking information Music Society of London. Tickets £28; Friends of ROSL Saturday 25 October For full booking and Over-Seas House, Park Place, ARTS £22. Tickets with two- Yuri Zhislin violin/viola, St. James’s Street, London, contact details, see page 38 SW1A 1LR www. rosl.org.uk course buffet, wine and tea/ Katya Apekisheva piano coffee £56; Friends of ROSL Princess Alexandra Hall, ROSL ARTS ROSL Scotland ARTS £48. All tickets include Over-Seas House London, 7pm +44 (0)20 7408 0214 ext 219; +44 (0)131 225 1501; wine, tea and coffee. Russian virtuosi Yuri Zhislin and [email protected] www.rosl-edinburgh.org.uk Katya Apekisheva give a sneak Wednesday 22 October preview of the programme for Members’ events London Group Bank of England tour their debut recital at the Carnegie Book online at www.rosl.org.uk; Clive Carpenter; Hall, New York, including [email protected] +44 (0)7798 824193; clivedavid To register your place, please contact Bartholomew Lane, London, Brahms’s autumnal Sonata in [email protected]. [email protected] 1.45pm E Flat and favourites by Younger Members For outside visits: Doreen Regan with your preferred time slot. This London Group tour will Tchaikovsky and Gershwin. Book online at www.rosl.org.uk; c/o Over-Seas House London begin with a visit to the Bank of Tickets £20; £15 Friends of [email protected] England museum to explore the ROSL ARTS. Includes sparkling Discussion Group history of the bank from its wine on arrival, and wine and No advanced booking required. foundation in 1694 to the present canapés afterwards.

September-November 2014 OVER SEAS 35 EVENTS EVENTS

Wednesday Professor Norman Bonney will Friday 21 November Secession. Writer, broadcaster Monday 1 December Group celebration. There will be 5 November explore the history ROSL WWI Centenary commemorations Inter-Club Scottish ceilidh and cultural historian Gavin C19th Russian Art in the musical entertainment and a free Edinburgh Arts Lunch of the famous war ROSL’s WWI Centenary programme begins this autumn with a Plumley will place these totemic Search for National Identity prize draw, with some excellent memorial in series of events marking the Great War. On 4 November, we hold Caledonian Club talents in context and question prizes. To attend, apply to Celia Over-Seas House Edinburgh, Whitehall. our own act of remembrance, led by the Dean of Westminster at The Caledonian warms up what fundamentally links and Goh, London Group, c/o Porters’ 12pm Free. the Vernon House Memorial site. On the afternoon of the same November with a dram and a divides them. Desk, Over-Seas House London, Historian Eric Graham explores the day, Members’ Events holds a specialist walking tour to explore wee jig. Don your kilt and take Tickets £14. To book, contact the enclosing a stamped, addressed origins of the classic adventure Sunday 16 November the war memorials around Green Park. Focusing on the arts, the your lassie, let the sound of Art Fund on +44 (0)844 415 4100. envelope and noting dietary story Treasure Island in a talk on Peter Moore trombone with London clubhouse will host a powerful spoken-word production bagpipes brighten the night. Includes tea and coffee served requirements and seating ‘Robert Louis Stevenson and the Joseph Middleton piano on 31 October: Anthem for a Doomed Youth, a Visit www.inter-club.co.uk for before the event. requests. If you have any queries, Pirates’. A two-course lunch with collection of the finest WWI poetry and accounts details and booking information. call +44 (0)20 8567 1525. wine and coffee follows. from both sides of no-man’s land. Friday 28 November Tickets £53; LG members £48. Tickets £20; guests £25. For further details and booking information see Sunday 23 November Inter-Club Thanksgiving Over-Seas House London, 3pm individual listings. – Sunday 14 December dinner In association with the Art Fund. Wednesday Thursday 6 November To Sail Beyond the Sunset The Reform Club, time tba After the Crimean War, Russia 3 December First Thursdays: film night In the stately surrounds of the turned its artistic and political Edinburgh film night Reform Club, Younger Members attention inwards. From the Duke of York Bar, Over-Seas give thanks before tucking into a 1850s, the arts pursued

House London, from 6pm © Jules Lawrence cracking holiday dinner. ‘Russianness’, defining it as much Movie nights come to ROSL, Over-Seas House London, 7pm Visit www.inter-club.co.uk as investigating it. The liberation as this month’s Younger Earlier this year, 18-year-old for details and booking of the serfs led to schools that Members drinks is paired with a Peter Moore was appointed information. focused on the countryside, such special screening. Meet in the co-Principal trombone of the as the ‘Wanderers’; while Bar from 6pm, followed by a film London Symphony Orchestra – Saturday composers including Borodin and

at 7.30pm. Cinema-goers can the youngest ever player to join Murtaza © Mehreen 29 November Balakirev incorporated folk tunes

order delicious food and drink the orchestra in its 110-year Generator Projects, Dundee, in their music. In this lecture, © iStock

© Leonard Bentley, ‘Charing Cross Hospital’, (CC BY-SA 2.0) BY-SA (CC ‘Charing Hospital’, Cross Bentley, © Leonard St Andrew’s Night dinner from the Bar. history. This summer, he 12-5pm daily Roderick Swanston will explore Over-Seas House Edinburgh, Free. Guests welcome. performed with pianist Joseph 2013 ROSL Visual Arts Scholar the interconnections between 5pm Middleton to sell-out audiences pedagogy. Klee once said, “The art Wednesday Mehreen Murtaza will exhibit her these developments. Watch a seasonal classic, with Friday 7 November- at ROSL’s 15th Edinburgh Festival of mastering life is the prerequisite 19 November latest work at Generator Projects Tickets £14. To book, contact the coffee, popcorn and ice-cream. Thursday 27 November Fringe concert series. This for all further forms of expression, The War Behind the Wire (www.generatorprojects.co.uk). Art Fund on +44 (0)844 415 4100. Tickets for entry and refreshments KCAC presents concert at Over-Seas House is an whether they are painting, with John Lewis-Stempel Last year, Mehreen took part in a Includes tea and coffee served £7.50. New Art Now opportunity for London audiences sculpture, tragedies or musical Princess Alexandra Hall, ROSL ARTS/Hospitalfield Arts before the event. to experience exceptional compositions.” The music of Over-Seas House London, 7pm residency in Arbroath, Scotland Thursday 4 December music-making by one of the most Mozart, Fox, Weber and Bach, as From records of prisoners’ diaries with two other Commonwealth Tuesday 2 December YM Christmas mince pies

gifted of the ROSL Annual Music well as musical techniques, will to letters home, military historian artists. To find out more about her ©VisitScotland/ScottishViewpoint London Group and mulled wine Competition alumni. illustrate this process. and author John Lewis-Stempel creative processes, see the Over-Seas House Edinburgh, Christmas lunch Duke of York Bar, Over-Seas Tickets £20; £15 Friends of Tickets £14. To book, contact the reveals the lives and deaths of interview with Mehreen and other 7pm Princess Alexandra Hall, Over- House London, from 6pm ROSL ARTS. Includes sparkling Art Fund on +44 (0)844 415 4100. soldiers in Prisoners of War ROSL ARTS scholars on page 8. Three-course dinner with a Seas House London, 12.30pm The last First Thursdays of the wine on arrival, and wine and Includes tea and coffee served camps during WWI. Contact +44 (0)20 7408 0214 x213 reception drink, wine and tea or Enjoy a wine and soft drinks year brings special mince pies canapés afterwards. before the event. Tickets £7; Friends or [email protected] coffee. The guest speaker is reception, and a three-course and mulled wine, and obligatory

© Sunita Maharjan of ROSL ARTS £5. for more information. Councillor Eric Milligan, former lunch with wine and coffee at Christmas jumpers. Over-Seas House London, daily Monday 17 November Tuesday 18 November Includes wine, Free. Lord Provost of Edinburgh. this popular annual London Free. Guests welcome. Exhibition by Nepali artists Koshal Paul Klee: Making visible Chairman’s Lunch served afterwards. Tickets £30; guests £35. Hamal, Manish Harijan, Mekh through the model of music Monday 24 November Limbu, Sanjeev Maharjan, Sunita Thursday Gustav, Gustav and Co DECEMBER quick Booking information Maharjan, Soni Shakya and Subash 20 November Thebe, celebrating Asian Art in The Life and Times of Until Sunday For full booking and London week. In association with Dame Daphne Du Maurier 14 December contact details, see page 38 the Kathmandu Contemporary Arts Hall of India & Pakistan, To Sail Beyond the Sunset Centre (www.kathmanduarts.org). Over-Seas House London, 6pm ROSL ARTS ROSL Scotland Contact +44 (0)20 7408 0214 x213 Lady Tessa Montgomery will give a Generator Projects, Dundee, +44 (0)20 7408 0214 ext 219; +44 (0)131 225 1501; or [email protected] fascinating insight into the life and 12-5pm daily [email protected] www.rosl-edinburgh.org.uk to attend the Private View on works of her mother, Daphne Du See November listing for details. Thursday 6 November, 6-8pm. Princess Alexandra Hall, Hall of India and Pakistan, Maurier. The British author was Free. Members’ events London Group Free. Over-Seas House London, 3pm Over-Seas House London, 12pm granddaughter of the brilliant artist Book online at www.rosl.org.uk; Clive Carpenter; In association with the Art Fund. The biannual Chairman’s Lunch, and writer George Du Maurier Over-Seas House London, 3pm Until Sunday [email protected] +44 (0)7798 824193; clivedavid Monday 10 November This talk by Simon Shaw-Miller hosted by ROSL Chairman and daughter of Gerald, the most In association with the Art Fund. 25 January [email protected]. The Cenotaph will explore the marvellous art of Sir Anthony Figgis, with famous actor/manager of his day. Klimt and Mahler dominated The Grand Tour exhibition Younger Members For outside visits: Doreen Regan the Swiss-born artist Paul Klee reception drinks at midday and A drinks reception will follow. the arts in Vienna at the turn of Book online at www.rosl.org.uk; c/o Over-Seas House London Over-Seas House London, (1879-1940). Spanning his entire a three-course lunch at Free; drinks reception £10 the last century, both within Over-Seas House Edinburgh, [email protected] 7-8.30pm creative output it will emphasise 12.30pm. Guest of honour and on entry. LG members, their Imperial-endorsed institutions daily Discussion Group At this Discussion Group talk, the the role of music as a model for speaker to be confirmed. guests and overnight guests and as part of the breakaway See October listing for details. No advanced booking required. social and political writer his drawing, painting and Tickets £58. Guests welcome. at Over-Seas House only. culture of modernism and the Free.

36 OVERSEAS www.rosl.org.uk September-November 2014 OVER SEAS 37 EVENTS KIRKER HOLIDAYS Sunday 7 December Friday 13 December Festival of Nine Lessons Inter-Club Christmas Ball Full booking and Carols MARRAKECH St James’s Church and Over- Royal Automobile Club, time tba information & Seas House London, 3.30pm The Inter-Club Christmas Ball will Marrakech is an exhilarating, enthralling experience, which should be at the top of The annual ROSL Christmas come around before you know it, every discerning traveller’s wish list. Over the summer months, visitors can expect service, followed by a delicious and this year it’s taking place in Contact details festive tea in the Hall of India and the roaring RAC. sunshine and warm evenings, whilst some of our favourite hotels and riads offer Pakistan, with a visit from Father Visit www.inter-club.co.uk ROSL ARTS Outside visits can be booked exclusive special offers for Kirker clients. In addition, all Kirker holidays include a Christmas himself. for details and booking For bookings contact: by sending a cheque payable to private guided tour of the historic medina and its souks with a local expert – an Tickets £22.50. Guests welcome. information. +44 (0)20 7408 0214 ext 219; ‘London Group, Royal Over-Seas invaluable introduction to this intoxicating city. [email protected] League’ and a stamped, addressed Monday 8 December Tuesday 16 December envelope to Doreen Regan (details After experiencing this feast for the senses, one of the pleasures of a holiday in Britain, Northern Rhodesia Clubhouse carols ROSL Scotland below). Cancellations and refund Marrakech is to escape from the crowds into the private oasis of an elegant hotel, and the Great War For bookings contact: requests must be made at least traditional Moroccan riad, or perhaps a relaxing countryside retreat. We have selected Over-Seas House London, Over-Seas House Edinburgh; two weeks before the event. three of our favourite properties, each of which provides a different experience. 7-8.30pm +44 (0)131 225 1501; Please note that the London Dr Edmund Yorke, Senior Lecturer [email protected] Group is a voluntary organisation in the Department of War Studies and cannot take outside visit at Sandhurst, explores the East Members’ events inquiries and bookings by email complimentary walking tour of the medina Africa Campaign at this Book online at www.rosl.org.uk or telephone, only by post. All Kirker holidays to Marrakech include a half day walking tour with an expert local guide Discussion Group talk. Booking confirmations will be sent Tickets are sent approximately Free. within 14 days of payment. To 10 days in advance. reserve a ticket for popular events Contact: Clive Carpenter, Wednesday Central Lounge, Over-Seas or if you have trouble booking +44 (0)7798 824193; Villa Des Orangers Riad El Cadi The Capaldi 10 December House London, 6.30pm online, contact Sara Brouwer. To clivedavidcarpenter@ Carol singing Join us for carols as the whole pay by cheque, please send compuserve.com. ***** Deluxe **** Superior **** Deluxe club community comes together separate cheques (sterling) for Outside visits contact: Doreen Over-Seas House Edinburgh, and gets into the festive spirit. each event, payable to ‘ROSL’, to Regan, London Group, c/o 3-4pm You will be spoilt with tasty Members’ events, Marketing Porters’ Desk, Over-Seas House, Carol singing with Brigitte Harris, mulled wine and a feast of Department, Over-Seas House, Park Place, St James’s Street, Choirmaster of St Andrews and home-baked mince pies. So start Park Place, St James’s Street, London SW1A 1LR. St George’s West, followed by dusting off those vocal chords! London SW1A 1LR. tea, coffee and mince pies. Free. Guests welcome. Drop-in, Contact: Sara Brouwer, Discussion Group Tickets £8. no booking required. [email protected]; Meetings are held monthly at +44 (0)20 7016 6906. Over-Seas House London on Monday evenings. There is no Villa des Orangers is a stylish boutique In the heart of the medina, just five For those who prefer the peace and Black-tie dinner and ceilidh Younger Members charge, no need to book and hotel, located on the edge of the medina minutes from Djemaa El Fna Square, the tranquillity of the countryside, this Friday 30 January 2015, Over-Seas House London, 7pm For members aged 35 and under. all ROSL members and guests in the centre of Marrakech. There is a El Cadi is our favourite Marrakech riad. luxurious retreat is set amid immaculately In honour of Burns Night, the London clubhouse will host a lively Book online at www.rosl.org.uk/ are welcome. swimming pool and sun terrace where The traditional riad design consists of kept private gardens, 45 minutes from Scottish dinner, complete with traditional dance and music. events Contact: John Edwards, dinner is served by candlelight. A an open air courtyard, decorated with central Marrakech in a peaceful location complimentary light lunch is served in one plants and fountains, and surrounded between the desert, city and the Atlas Members and guests will be welcomed at a drinks reception in Inter-Club events must be +44 (0)1732 883556; of the courtyards and there is another small by rooms which face inwards, creating Mountains. The property has two large one of our beautiful function rooms, before sitting down to a booked independently; visit [email protected] rooftop swimming pool. The 27 rooms a tranquil, cool environment even swimming pools in the gardens, an sumptuous three-course meal, including haggis and whisky. www.inter-club.co.uk for details. and suites are all beautifully furnished and during the heat of the day. The El Cadi atmospheric roof terrace with panoramic Afterwards a folk band and caller will lead the crowd in a ceilidh. For information about the Visit www.rosl.org.uk/events for some offer private terraces and views of combines several original riads, to create views, a spa with traditional Moroccan Tickets £70. Guests welcome ROSL YM programme join more information on the full the Koutoubia Mosque or the distant Atlas a series of connecting courtyards which hammam and an excellent restaurant. For the YM Facebook page at programme of events. Mountains. The stunning master suite - are decorated with the former owner’s the more adventurous, there are many facebook.com/groups/roslym or perfect for a special occasion - is set over remarkable collection of antiques. Each activities on offer in the surrounding contact: Sara Brouwer, two floors with a balcony overlooking the of the 12 individually furnished rooms countryside and the owners take great [email protected]; or gardens and pool. is unique, and there is a small swimming pleasure in sharing their intimate Ross Lima, [email protected] 3 night price from £975 pool, a hammam and a rooftop terrace. knowledge of the area. Includes complimentary light lunch and 3 night price from £689 5 nights for the price of 4 all year - London Group hammam access for all Kirker clients price from £799, saving up to £100 Talks and outside visits are open to London Group members, their Simon Varwell, ‘Our Wedding (by Kieran Turner)’ (CC BY 2.0) BY (CC Turner)’ Kieran (by ‘Our Wedding Simon Varwell, guests and ROSL members PRICES INCLUDE: Flights, return Kirker transfers, accommodation with breakfast, Kirker Guide Notes to restaurants, Burns Night supper staying at Over-Seas House museums and sightseeing, the services of the Kirker Concierge and a half day walking tour with an expert local guide. Saturday 31 January 2015, Over-Seas House Edinburgh, 7pm London. To become a member, Celebrate the life and work of the great Scottish bard in style at request an application form from this black-tie dinner. Tuck into the traditional three-course meal, Clive Carpenter (details below). Speak to an expert or request a brochure: including wine and a glass of whisky, with the Immortal Memory Talks are drop-in and held given by the Rt Rev Brian Smith, former Bishop of Edinburgh. once a month at Over-Seas Tickets £33; guests £38. House London on Thursday 020 7593 2283 quote code GRO evenings at 6pm. www.kirkerholidays.com 38 OVERSEAS www.rosl.org.uk VaLLe TTa InT ernaTIonaL Baroque FesTIVa L W ITH ProF essor a s HLey s o L omon • January 10–16, 2015 Worldwide Cultural Tours Exclusive Access • Expert Leaders • Small Groups

Cultural experiences, not just tours Like-minded travellers Our tours cover every aspect of the arts, from fine Our travellers share a curiosity for cultural subjects, art, architecture, archaeology and history to music, and our small groups are particularly welcoming for theatre and the natural world, many providing the single traveller. exclusive access to people and places. Five decades of Philanthropy Hosted by experts Owned by the charity, the ACE Foundation, all our Our Tour Directors are true specialists and engaging profits support the communities that host our tours hosts, keen to share their knowledge and passion. or worldwide educational projects.

CRETE: BiRdS, FlowERS & MinoanS SRi lanka: a wildliFE odySSEy noRThERn liGhTS BoloGna, ManTua & PaRMa

To request a free brochure call us on 01223 841055 or email [email protected]

ACE CULTURAL TOURS No: Providing exP ert-led tours since 1958

Stapleford Granary, Bury Road, Stapleford, Cambridge, CB22 5BP, England Tel: 01223 841 055 [email protected] www.aceculturaltours.co.uk