RETURN of the KING Also Inside

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WINTER 2018 SLUG HERE ISSUE 14

RETURN OF THE KING The Elvis '68 Comeback, by Jonathan Wingate SITWELL BITES BACK William Sitwell on the dangers of joking Also inside about vegans TOM PARKER BOWLES ON FRENCH DINING COURTNEY PINE ON JAZZ THE POWER AND THE POLITICS OF BIG TECH

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Editor’s letter One of the funniest and most utterly without thought or said in exasperation. brilliant films of all time, Monty Now in most moderately civilised Python’s Life of Brian, will be 40 years countries neither church nor state are old when you read this magazine. likely to demand blood for serious A satire on the life of Christ is a transgressions, but the mob mentality particularly precarious and sensitive of festering hatred still exists. It hides subject matter and the Monty Python behind constructs of moral indignation, team created a remarkably poignant as new insidious orthodoxies of offence and hilarious film as relevant today as have evolved into hideous forms of it was in 1979. I don’t think anyone political correctness. need have been offended, but obviously Now, like the worst totalitarian some people were: a peaceful campaign regimes of yesteryear – but enabled condemning the film on the grounds of and accelerated by the internet – blasphemy resulted in it being banned the secret police of public opinion in parts of Britain, the whole of Ireland acts as court and jury to concoct

JAMIE LAU and Norway. Incidentally the Swedish unsubstantiated judgements that would marketed the film as being “so funny cause Maximilien Robespierre to blush. it was banned in Norway”. In the US, To our shame, the state and media boisdale meanwhile, protesters calmly gathered collude and reputations and careers are outside cinemas. Prior to the film shattered before the evidence is even going into production the Canon at St considered by a court of law. On a more George’s Chapel Windsor Castle was mundane level, but in many respects Editor & Chief shown the script and determined that equally shocking, in this the 14th issue Ranald Macdonald the film was definitely not blasphemous of Boisdale Life we learn how William and said it was merely “extracting Sitwell’s attempt to be amusing about a Publishing director Andrew Davies the maximum comedy out of false particular lifestyle preference ignited a Managing editor Timothy Barber religion and religious illusions”. He tirade of appalling abuse and changed Creative director Scott Bentley even suggested the hysterical scene in his life forever. Marketing director Barbara Widera which a scantily dressed old man is to Would or could Life of Brian be made be stoned to death for blasphemy, but is in today’s world? I think probably not. Copy editor Michael Karam reprieved when the crowd turns on the Sub-editor Katia Hadidian hapless Pharisee played by John Cleese, Picture editor Leanne Bracey who had inadvertently said ‘Yahweh’ Cover illustration Pietari Posti at Debut Art himself while trying to control the mob. Editors-at-large Paddy Renouf We all know perfectly well that Contributing editors William Sitwell, throughout history men and women RANALD MACDONALD Jonathan Wingate, Bruce Anderson have been murdered by the state or by Editor & Chief and founder of Boisdale Ben Oliver, Bill Knott the mob for things they have uttered Restaurants and Bars

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FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS LUCIE GREENE Lucie Greene is the worldwide director of J Walter Thompson’s trend forecasting unit, The Innovation Group. On page 46, she considers how BRUCE ANDERSON episodes like the Cambridge Boisdale Life contributing Analytica scandal may be the editor Bruce Anderson is a tip of the iceberg for tech journalist and columnist, and f rms using our personal data the former political editor of for murky political purposes. the Spectator. On page 33 he Her new book, Silicon States: considers what World War I the Power and Politics of Big would have looked like had Tech and What It Means for Britain never joined it. Our Future, is out now.

JONATHAN WINGATE Boisdale Life’s Music Editor is an award-winning journalist and BBC broadcaster, whose writing appears in the national press and magazines. In this issue, he celebrates the 50th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s iconic TV concert, the ’68 Comeback Special.

ROB CROSSAN CONSTANCE WATSON Rob Crossan is a freelance Freelance journalist Constance Watson journalist and radio contributes to publications including the presenter, whose writing Spectator, the Telegraph, the Literary Review, appears in the Sunday Times, Standpoint, the Catholic Herald and the Financial Times, Conde Nast Oldie. In Boisdale Life’s Table Talk comment Traveller, BA High Life and section, she gives her thoughts on how to Monocle among others. On survive the hell that is Christmas. page 28 he asks whether 2018 marked the moment when the UK’s stiff upper lip disappeared forever.

Boisdale Life ISSN 2058-499 Any facts stated or opinions expressed anywhere in the magazine BPA Audited Circulation of 161,152 are the responsibility of the individual writers and contributors. All boisdale material omitted intentionally is the sole responsibility of the © 2018. Published four times individual contributors. Boisdale Life and the Editor are not Twitter @boisdalelife a year by Boisdale Limited, responsible for any injury or loss relative to such material. All Instagram @boisdalelife 15 Eccleston St, London, material is compiled by sources believed to be reliable, but Web boisdalelife.com SW1W 9LX published without responsibility for errors or omissions.

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BOISDALE LIFE WINTER 2018

18 36 38 64

REGULARS TABLE TALK FEATURES PURSUITS 14 28 38 64 BOISDALE LIFE & TIMES OPINION REMEMBERING ELVIS MOTORING The parties, people and Rob Crossan longs for the Jonathan Wingate honours Ben Oliver takes the Bentley places plus the Eat Game return of British reserve the 50th anniversary of pop’s Continental GT for a spin Awards and The King’s greatest ever comeback Ginger Chefs Shooting Cup 30 60 VEGANOMICS 42 RARE CRAFTS 17 William Sitwell wonders why THE PRIVATE FACE OF PR In the workshop with BOISDALE DIARY we can’t take a bad joke James Henderson talks to bespoke jeweller Cleave Residencies by Courtney Pine Dominic Midgley about life and Rebecca Ferguson, Burn’s 31 after the Bell Pottinger affair 61 Night celebrations and our BOISDALE HERO FINE WATCHES win at the Whisky Awards Ed Cumming celebrates the 46 Germany’s A Lange & Sohne life of Burt Reynolds BIG TECH AND I has arrived on Bond Street 76 We face a technologically CIGARS 32 totalitarian future, warns 68 Tobias Gorn reviews the RANT futurist Lucie Greene KENTON COOL seasonal selection from Nick Ferrari laments the Boisdale meets the great the Boisdale humidor lack of political leadership 50 British summitteer THE NEW REGGAE 80 33 The genre has a bright future 72 STARTER’S ORDERS WHAT IF? with this line-up of stars, FRENCH CUISINE Tales from the track with Bruce Anderson on alternate writes Angus Taylor Tom Parker Bowles laments Ed Wray, co-founder of outcomes to World War I the loss of neighbourhood innovative platform Betfair 54 brasseries and bistros 35 MONTENEGRO 82 DEFENCE Ranald Macdonald heads to 78 THE BOISDALE JUKEBOX Con Coughlin prefers military the tiny Balkan gem to ﬁ nd DRINKING Jazz critic Alyn Shipton on hardware to software bliss on the Adriatic coast Henry Jeffreys samples Berry Ella Fitzgerald’s landmark Bros. & Rudd’s Spanish wine recording, Ella in Berlin 36 selection for Boisdale readers COCKTAILS Paddy Renouf praises the bartender’s subtle skill set

11 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 LIFE & TIMES WHAT AUTUMN 2018 LOOKED LIKE AT BOISDALE

THE KING’S GINGER SHOOTING CHEFS CUP 2018 Boisdale, together with The King’s Ginger, celebrated the new shooting season on 25 September at the West London Shooting School, once again pitting London’s finest chefs against each other to discover the sharpest shot. Hunter Gather Cook’s Nick Weston took the prize for the second year running, after which a Routemaster bus brought participants back to Boisdale of Belgravia for a magnificent four-course lunch of seasonal game and shellfish.

Tony Singh Robin Gill of The Dairy All aboard the Boisdale Routemaster

12 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 IMAGE CREDIT Sharp shooter Emile Galvin of Galvin Green Man Greg Marchand of Frenchie Glen King of Boisdale of Belgravia James Knappet of Kitchen Table, and Emile Galvin A furry of shooting chefs BOISDALELIFE.COM Jackson Boxer of St Leonards Nick Gibson of the Drapers Arms, and WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 WINTER 2018 ISSUE 13 LIFE & TIMES CONTENTS 13 Top shot Nick Weston receives his award Rankin (second placed), Joyce de Haas Andrew Davies, Raissa de Haas, Neil Tony Singh takes aim LIFE & TIMES

Guests gathered for the awards ceremony Simon Hart MP, Scott Rea and Annette Woolcock

Adam Henson, James Horne of Purdey and Tristan Prudden THE EAT GAME AWARDS 2018 On 9 October Boisdale of Canary Wharf, James Purdey & Sons and Taste of Game welcomed ﬁnalists from across the UK to celebrate the best in wild British produce and reward the the people behind the country’s ﬁnest game. William Sitwell Mark Hix James Kennedy

The ceremony gets underway The 2018 Eat Game Awards winners and presenters

JB Gill, Emma Sandham Christine and David Laing, Peter Glenser Best chef winner Jessica Noy and Geoff Brown Rose Prince QC and JB Gill

14 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 LIFE & TIMES

Alexander O’Neal

Lulu takes the stage

Jermaine Jackman Fleur East Horace Andy

THE BOISDALE OF CANARY WHARF RESIDENCIES

Autumn 2018 brought scintillating live residencies from Lulu, Brian McFadden, soul superstar Alexander O’Neal, and reggae legend Horace Andy.

Luciano the Messenger Brian McFadden

15 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 Change direction. You know where you are with tradition. In exactly the same place as before. But if you really want to get somewhere, you have to mix things up. Take King Edward VII. Not only did he call for The King’s Ginger (a revivifying and refreshing antidote to the ‘same old, same old’) but, he was also one of the ﬁrst to own a horseless carriage. The rest, as they say, is history.

Next time you fancy a ‘G&T’, why not add a more colourful drink to your tonic? #KingsTonic NIGEL PAQUETTE COMING UP AT BOISDALE VENUES THIS WINTER DIARY BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 17 including compositions, own her of afew alongside numbers, soul and blues jazz, favourite her of aselection 2019, performing be will she 7–18 from January residency, two-week her During January. last there crowds the wowing after ayear Wharf, Canary of Boisdale to returns Soul of UK’s Queen The a two-week Boisdale residency vocalists, is back in January for world’s most accomplished Rebecca Ferguson, one of the call 020 7715 020 5818call visit or [email protected], email To book, Wharf. Canary of Boisdale 7–11 14–18January, and Rebecca. with interview our read to 23 Loved”. Turn be page to How to Me “Teach LIVE RESIDENCY RETURNS REBECCA “ Shoulder to Shoulder” and and Shoulder” to Shoulder boisdale.co.uk DIARY

SPOTLIGHT Just 22 when he was thrust into the popular choice. The music that I make spotlight with his debut album, Journey requires a lot of research, practice, To The Urge Within, Courtney Pine’s dedication and sacrifice in order for me COURTNEY incendiary saxophone solos confirmed to achieve what I want. him as the real deal – a virtuoso whose “I was very aware that there were not PINE sophisticated sound belied his youth. many jazz artists that came from my The album sold 250,000 copies, became corner of the world, and if I could the first British jazz album to enter the represent that, it could be a different As he prepares for his residency Top 40, and Pine hasn’t stopped for a sound to what was going on, and be at Boisdale of Canary Wharf second ever since, with a catalogue that something that I would want to hear. from 5–7 March 2019, the reflects his ever-evolving musical moods. I’ve found jazz musicians from all over saxophonist and founder of Whether playing pure bebop or the world who sound like their region. the Jazz Warriors speaks stirring soul, reggae or hip-hop into his The uniting factor is creativity.” to Jonathan Wingate potent musical gumbo, Pine’s sound is Nobody personifies the dramatic about his life in music instantly recognisable yet difficult to transformation in British jazz over the define. “I’ve always made a conscious last 40 years more than Courtney Pine, decision to incorporate my culture as who has always been on a mission to an Afro-Caribbean European artist in bring the art-form to a wider audience. my music as the basis for exploration,” “It’s imperative that jazz is accessible, he explains. “It’s difficult, because it’s because a lot of music today has been akin to swimming upstream, and there diluted, designed and formularised – are not many of us who go against a single track to be downloaded and

18 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 THREE SEMINAL COURTNEY PINE ALBUMS

JOURNEY TO MODERN DAY HOUSE OF THE URGE JAZZ STORIES LEGENDS WITHIN In 1996 Pine was Pine’s 2012 album Released in 1986 nominated for the sees him take a when Pine was just Mercury Music Prize further turn into 22 years old, and and won a MOBO music outside jazz, featuring singer for this album, which with a plethora of Cleveland Watkiss incorporated hip hop Caribbean themes and pianist Julian and drum & bass including calypso, Joseph. A landmark infuences into his reggae, ska and moment for UK jazz jazz landscape Afro-Latin grooves

to be different. The New Yorker’s took virtuosity in jazz to another level, legendary music critic, Whitney Balliett, giving others the confidence to pursue defined jazz as “the sound of surprise”, their ultimate music.” which seems to sum up perfectly Pine’s With many awards and 19 albums career and his attitude to music itself. to his name, Pine himself is now widely British jazz musician “I’m constantly trying to do regarded as a jazz legend, but like any Courtney Pine, something that I’ve not done before, true artist, he steadfastly refuses to rest left and above, has so I do try to surprise myself,” he says. on his laurels. For his much-anticipated been delighting “I am aware that there are those who shows at Boisdale of Canary Wharf, he audiences with his unique, innovative would rather not be surprised and look is revisiting 2012’s superb House Of compositions for for some form of order, so I try to Legends album, in which he brews a more than 30 years balance both sides. More often than not, potent Carribean cocktail of calypso, I seem to fall on the side of the ska, mento and reggae. listened to on a mobile phone, then unknown. It’s the freedom to express “It’s not difficult to mix Caribbean thrown away,” Pine argues. “The oneself, so I have always wanted to styles in jazz. Caribbean musicians concept of an album that draws on the move forward. I am still passionate, travelled to New Orleans and helped experience of a human being expressing excited and inspired by music, and I am create jazz,” he explains. “One of the themselves for 60 minutes is seen as too still travelling the world looking for first jazz musicians, Jelly Roll Morton, expensive to promote in this day and new inspirations and finding audiences had a Haitian mother. I realised that a age, but jazz music defies this trend. and other musicians who are too. lot of the West Indian musical language “The fact that we still accept new “Miles Davis was not afraid to change that I was conjuring was deeply jazz talent, that people attend concerts his music as his life changed, which represented within the American jazz and artists are not only a massive was one of the most important things tradition; it’s just that it was not named presence on the internet but also on that attracted me to jazz. Thelonious or highlighted. Jazz can incorporate any mainstream TV and radio, just goes to Monk found a way to perform the most form of music without taking away from show that mankind is not willing to lay advanced Western harmony and make its essence, using it as fuel. I do not see down and play dead. As a species, we it sound street, and Charlie Parker really boundaries, I see possibilities.” are alive to creativity. Jazz is the ultimate form of human expression, and it attracts those who require answers to BOISDALE OF CANARY WHARF 5–7 MARCH 2019 the reasons for our existence.” In Miles: The Autobiography, Miles Courtney Pine will be performing a three-night residency at Boisdale of Canary Wharf on 5-7 Davis wrote that in the early Eighties March 2019. To book tickets for this and any other upcoming performances at Boisdale’s four jazz was becoming “the music of the venues (see page 24), email [email protected], call 020 7715 5818, or visit boisdale.co.uk. museum”, but Courtney Pine set out For details of other upcoming events, turn to page 26.

19 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 judges, Terri Brotherston, while while Terri Brotherston, judges, the of one said too,” intelligently it use can expert an not is who anyone but it, read and home this take happily quite would “I menu. drinks its on information” of amount “astonishing the and expensive; eye-wateringly to affordable from gamut, full the run that prices selection; wide-ranging its with judges the impressed winner! the is list whisky Wharf’s Canary of Boisdale London, in Fish Sexy and Mash, &Wild, Mac and Aberdeen; in House, Tippling The Edinburgh; in Advocate, Devil’s The Inverness; in Room, Malt The Club; Whisky Birmingham The UK. the across lists onto way its fnding Germany even and Australia India, from whisky with features, that Scotch just isn’t it And styles. Highland or Speyside usual the beyond categories out well-thought- and water”), with (“mixed mizuwari drinks, mixed to fights tasting –from grasp to easy spirit often-challenging the making are venues way by the impressed particularly are judges its 2018, For lists. whisky strong in increase a huge reports says do, people of Plenty adram? Fancy at Boisdale of Canary Wharf. Canary of Boisdale at whiskies of array the with winter interesting.” is you tells it Everything astonishing. absolutely “It’s enthused, Butt Michael judge fellow OF THE YEAR! OF THE WHISKY LIST BOISDALE WINS collect the award the collect Androvics Pavel and Boxall Joe Boisdale’s So tickle the tastebuds this this tastebuds the tickle So has Wharf Canary of Boisdale includes that ashortlist From Imbibe magazine, which which magazine,

Willie Cochrane Willie Major Pipe and McCann Ferne with Night Burns celebrates Macdonald Ranald Boisdale’s BOISDALE’S FINEST DRAMS FINEST BOISDALE’S BURNS NIGHT AT BOISDALE AT NIGHT BURNS

BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 January 2019, Boisdale is teaming teaming is Boisdale 2019, January involved. Bard’sall are works the of recitations and haggis, the for respect bagpipes, down, sitting and up standing speeches, of say,lot to a sufﬁce but justice, full it do cannot précis A years. 260 for unchanged remained has that ritual a – Burns ‘Rabbie’ Robert poet, greatest their of birth the celebrate world the over all January 25 On In the week commencing 21 21 commencing week the In Surprisingly peaty and smoky, each legendary drop is a taste of history. history. of ataste is drop legendary each smoky, and peaty Surprisingly Themost rarest, valuable whisky in our collection, atfor £2,700 a dram. 46 YO, 56 1946, CASK MACALLAN tones. nutmeg and aromas delicate with gentle and Well-matured & Rudd. Bros. by Berry selected distillery, Islay famous this from single-cask A rare BY BBR BOISDALE FOR YO 25 BOTTLED BUNNAHABHAIN fnish. asmooth and favours citrus by crisp balanced cinnamon and orange of aromas refned subtle, with Malt, Single Scotch Highland-style A classic ATHOL 18 YO BLAIR &CO RIGBY JOHN DIARY 20 every year, Scots year,Scots every Robert Burns Single Malt, Malt, Single Burns Robert crafted specially distillery’s the of drams wee with venues, its all in suppers Burns traditional host to Distillers Arran of Isle with up For details, visit boisdale.co.uk visit details, For 21January for our Burns banquets. from Boisdale at us join Please Robbie! toast to which with dram perfect the is poetry, it liquid of drop true A ﬁnish. spicy and fresh clean, a with fruit summer and honey, toffee-pecan of notes with sweet and malty smooth, is dram The sunshine. Ayrshire of colour the whisky rounded beautifully a for ages different combining by created been has Malt Single Burns Robert The island. the on producer whisky only the is Arran, of tip northwest January.25 Friday on pipers master with frenzy banquet Night Burns a to up building Isle of Arran Distillery, on the the on Distillery, Arran of Isle

NIGEL PAQUETTE; MILES WILLIS; STUDIO LAU Over 300 Shops, Bars & Restaurants Seven Days a Week, 364 Days a Year

Seven Days a Week, 364 Days a Year Over 300 Shops, Bars & Restaurants

DIARY

What’s your choice from the Boisdale menu today? I love the salmon but I also tried the lobster linguini and fell in love.

What’s your favourite drink these days? Cucumber Martinis! I ﬁrst tried them at the Shangri-La Hotel in Paris. The hangover wasn’t as great as the drink.

What’s the best thing you’ve ever eaten? Angel hair pasta with trufﬂe

What is your greatest extravagance? I do like nice things, which is part of my personality. Equally, I place no value in material things – if I lost them all tomorrow I would simply start over.

When and where were you happiest? Paris – it’s a beautiful place and I like beauty. The architecture is simply stunning and unmatched. London competes a little but we can’t compete IN CONVERSATION with Parisian culture – they know how REBECCA FERGUSON to balance life in a way we don’t. Brexit – for or against? The British singer-songwriter leapt to fame in 2010 as a contestant on I found out we were leaving on the The X-Factor, and her subsequent album was the fastest-selling debut Eurostar – I was on my way to rent an of a solo artist in the decade to 2017. She brings her versatile vocals to apartment in Paris. The pound dropped Boisdale of Canary Wharf from 7–11 & 14–18 January dramatically and I lost a fortune! I spent the whole time being lectured by strangers on how stupid and racist they What are you working on right now? Who is your all-time hero and why? thought my country was. I don’t I’m recording my next album with Nile Maya Angelou. I think her words of understand enough about the politics Rodgers and other amazing people at wisdom are so inspirational and they so I didn’t have a comeback, but my Abbey Road Studios. have really helped me in the past year. feeling is that I would rather be in amongst the gang, as right now we What can we expect from your What is your life philosophy? don’t appear to be winning much. performance at Boisdale? To do good even when people aren’t If you were Prime Minister for the day, Fun! I’ll be enjoying myself on stage. watching. Another is that everything is what changes would you make? I absolutely love Boisdale – it’s my energy, so don’t put into the world I would invest more in youth, to ensure favourite place in London. what you don’t want to come back. they have more hope.

Who or what is your greatest musical What is your biggest ambition? Which living person do you most inspiration? I’m keeping that a secret so as not to admire and why? I don’t have just one, I would include jinx it. It involves a lot of champagne My mother – her life has been Lauryn Hill – I think her album, and a lot of land! incredibly painful. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, is one of the greatest ever; Whitney Houston; What talent would you like to have? And which public ﬁgure do you Tracy Chapman; and – of course – To play the piano, which I’m learning. admire at the moment? Kate Bush. Theresa May, as no matter what your Apart from Boisdale, what’s your political views are, that’s a tough thing What’s your favourite song to perform? favourite restaurant or bar, and what to sort out. I would not want to be her. It depends on my mood, but I like songs do you order when you’re there? that get the audience up dancing and La Famiglia in Chelsea is one of the What is your perfect happiness? joining in. But there are times when ﬁrst restaurants I dined in when I Peace. No matter how much money or it’s nice to sing something emotive that moved from Liverpool to the Big success you have, if you don’t have touches people. Smoke, and I keep going back. peace, you can’t have happiness.

23 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 DIARY

VENUES SUPERB DINING, MUSIC & COCKTAILS Boisdale’s four London venues give you the finest in gourmet food and live music

CANARY WHARF BELGRAVIA MAYFAIR BISHOPSGATE boisdale.co.uk/canary-wharf boisdale.co.uk/belgravia boisdale.co.uk/mayfair boisdale.co.uk/bishopsgate With its terrace, oyster bar, cigar Opened in 1989, our original Occupying a converted Victorian This candle-lit ‘speakeasy’ hidden library, and whisky bar with more venue and a London institution. stables off Park Lane, Boisdale away in a panelled 17th-century than a thousand glowing bottles Enjoy the large cigar terrace, of Mayfair offers fantastic cellar is home to the best jazz of rare and now award-winning private dining rooms, and shellf sh, dry-aged steak, great and blues in the City. Start the liquid gold, our largest venue London’s f nest live jazz, blues British tapas, and live music, night in the Champagne & hosts some of London’s f nest live and soul, from 9pm every night. as well as the downstairs Vinyl Oyster Bar on the ground f oor music. Recent highlights include House favourite is Reuben Bar where you can play your before heading downstairs for Jools Holland, Melanie C, Rebecca Richards and The Soul Train on selection from our world-class a sumptuous meal accompanied Ferguson and Alexander O’Neal. Friday nights. collection of vintage LPs. by great live music.

Velvet Lounge tickets from Two-course supper and live Two-course supper and live Two course supper and live £9.50; dinner and live music music: £29.50; three-course music: £29.50; three-course music: £29.50; three-course from £29.50 dinner and live music, £59.50 dinner and live music, £59.50 dinner and live music, £59.50

THE BOISDALE WINTER COCKTAIL BARREL OLD-FASHIONED

50ml Glenrothes 10 Year Old You may think of the Old 10ml demerara sugar syrup Fashioned as a classic American, 2 dashes whisky-barrel-aged bourbon-based cocktail, but bitters replace that whiskey with 2 dashes black walnut bitters something of the single malt Twist of orange zest variety – Boisdale of Belgravia Ice cubes head bartender Paul Hogg recommends an easy-going Stir all ingredients with the cubed Glenrothes 10 Year Old – and ice in an old-fashioned tumbler. you have an altogether more Garnish with orange zest hearty concoction. Perfect for warming the mood as well as the f ngers and toes on a chilly evening, the Barrel Old Fashioned is a classic rich, sweet whisky cocktail with a midly bitter twist from a

daring splash of black walnut. JAMIE LAU

24 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14

DIARY

BOISDALE EVENTS For details of these and more events, go to boisdale.co.uk

Rebecca Ferguson BOISDALE OF CANARY WHARF 7–11 & 14–18 JANUARY AT 9.15 PM Boisdale’s new smoked Three-course dinner and show from salmon is infused with 16-year-old Bowmore £85; show-only from £45 single-malt whisky Tres Amici BOISDALE OF CANARY WHARF 23 JANUARY AT 9.15 PM BOISDALE’S WHISKY SALMON Three-course dinner and show from £49.50; show-only from £35 Boisdale is thrilled to be serving for up to 20 hours before the a classic cold-smoked salmon smoking process, which removes Burns Night Celebrations that has been infused with one moisture and intensifies the ALL BOISDALE RESTAURANTS of the finest whiskies around: flavour. The cured fillets are then 24–26 JANUARY AT 7PM a Bowmore 16-year-old single smoked for another 20 hours with Four courses from £38 malt from Islay. a combination of fine oak dust This exceptional, succulent and whisky-barrel chips. Valentine’s Night Special salmon has been raised in Wester “Next it’s sprayed with ALL BOISDALE RESTAURANTS Ross in Scotland’s Northwest Bowmore whisky, then chilled 14 FEBRUARY AT 7PM Highlands. As the oldest for a minimum of a day, which Three-course dinner from £29 owner-operated salmon farmer allows it to cure further and take in Scotland, Gilpin Bradley and on the whisky flavour. The result Bentley: Cheltenham Festival his team at Wester Ross Fisheries of this wonderful combination CHELTENHAM RACECOURSE are committed to the welfare of is a slightly smokier salmon with 12–15 MARCH the fish and the long-term a hint of whisky. At Boisdale we protection of the environment. recommend it is eaten as simply To book tickets for Boisdale events Andy Rose, Boisdale’s as possible with a hint of lemon and performances, please email [email protected], phone us at executive chef, tells us, “The juice, a crack of black pepper 020 7715 5818, or visit boisdale.co.uk salmon is hand-cured in fine salt and of course our great bread.”

BOISDALE NEWS Boisdale Boogies With Blackwell Rum Mezcal From the House of Friends Our love affair with Jamaica continues with the The world’s most glamorous booze Boisdale’s Yule With Juul introduction of Chris Blackwell’s rich, complex, entrepreneurs, George Clooney and Rande Juul starter kits, devices and nicotine pods Blackwell Rum to all our sites. Best known as Gerber, have turned their attention from are now for sale at all branches of the founder of legendary label, Island Records, tequila to the other Mexican spirit: mezcal. Boisdale. “Vapers should not be treated Chris introduced the world to Jamaican reggae, Enjoying a meteoric rise as a cocktail staple like smokers and banished to the street including Bob Marley, Toots and the Maytals, in the US and elsewhere, mezcal is made from or indeed our beautiful, heated smoking Jimmy Cliff, and Black Uhuru, as well as Grace the agave plant and is known for its rich, smoky terraces,” says Ranald Macdonald. “We are Jones, U2 and Cat Stevens. Chris’ ancestors taste. Casamigos Mezcal Joven is made proud to be the first restaurant group were Jamaican rum distillers and his family artisanally in Santiago Matatlan, Mexico, and in London to permit our patrons to vape, recipe fuses ‘heavy pot’ dark rum with a ‘black comes in bottles designed by Gerber. Find it, or ‘Juul’ in our bar areas.” gold’ style. You can taste Jamaica in each sip. naturally, behind the bar at Boisdale venues.

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SKILFULLY CRAFTED. ENJOY RESPONSIBLY. Glenﬁ ddich® Single Malt Scotch Whisky is a registered trademark of William Grant & Sons Ltd E H T Y B D E S U O R CARIBBEAN RAISED IN SCOTLAND IN RAISED Glenﬁddi c 21 Year Old Rum Ca s Finis 22/11/2018 11:07 P30 P31 P32 P33 P35 P36 NUCLE AR MORE THAN WHITHER TUG OF CASH AND LIFE , ON PLANT MACHISMO LEADERSHIP? WAR CARRIERS THE ROCKS William Sitwell on Ed Cumming Nick Ferrari Bruce Anderson Con Coughlin on Paddy Renouf sings what happens when pays tribute to bemoans the conjures a different the problem with the praises of the you provoke a vegan Burt Reynolds political top order World War One Britain’s warships classic cocktail

ALL ILLUSTRATIONS: MARTIN KINGDOM

hatever happened there’s a war on): these are the Opinion to the Donald characteristics that have defined Trump baby Britain to outsiders and, often, balloon? As the to ourselves, over the centuries. WOBBLE-GATE W Orange-Haired One studiously Yet the legacy of 2018 will avoided the protests that closed be one of a time when that Was 2018 the year that Britain the streets of Central London emotional firewall, which first permanently lost its stiff upper lip during his visit to the UK in July, began to crumble with the eruption in favour of hearts on sleeves? the balloon was a strangely of emotion following the death of soothing sight: calmly floating Diana, Princess of Wales, 21 years across the cerulean skies on one ago, finally collapsed for good; of those endless, lethally hot days swept away by multiple tidal that defined the summer of 2018. surges of overt anger, grief, tears, In between mopping my brow and passion which, seemingly, with a page torn from the Evening we now have no desire whatsoever Standard Magazine and guiltily to manage or control. draining plastic bottles of water The World Cup and the reaction into my mouth, I couldn’t help to the national team’s slightly but notice that something else, above-average performance amply ROB CROSSA N not quite so orange but certainly demonstrated the ease to which Freelance journalist, author and radio as overwhelming, also seemed to England fans have taken to a new presenter specialising in travel and be soaring away into the ether, emotional default state. Namely, a men’s lifestyle features vanishing from view for good. kind of sentimental mourning that, Taciturn, unruffled, demure and until recently, was most readily occasionally stentorian (but only if associated with the tear-streaked

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faces of Latin American football burnt into the British barricade fans after Argentina or Brazil blow of emotional repression. RAF their chances of glory. Clearly there were elements Now that the songs of Oasis of our national psyche that simply have shifted from the first dance had to go. The changes we’ve gone ACES HIGH at a provincial wedding to the through in terms of the recognition soundtrack of our national despair, we give mental health and gender With 2018 marking the centenary of the collective show of unbridled and diversity choices would be the Royal Air Force, Boisdale Life grief outside pubs and bars upon inconceivable to anyone who was offers its pick of the greatest books England’s defeat to Croatia at that Trafalgar Square protest and films it has inspired contrasted astonishingly with my over a quarter of a century ago. memories of England’s last But, concomitant to that is Winged Victory, by VM Yeates (novel, 1934) semi-final World Cup exit in 1990. a new danger. Yes, we’ve learnt The definitive – and frankly terrifying – account of Then, aged 11 yet allowed in how to get in touch with ourselves aerial combat in World War One, during which the the bar of a family campsite, my in a way that Bobby Robson and Royal Flying Corps became the Royal Air Force. clear memory is of an atmosphere Cecil Parkinson could never of collective, fleeting anger countenance, but now that the The Last Enemy (novel, 1942) followed by a return to normality psychological fire hydrant has Richard Hilary was just 22 when he penned his within an hour of Chris Waddle been turned on full blast, we now extraordinary account of his experiences as a Battle blazing his penalty over the bar. have no means of staunching the of Britain pilot, being shot down and horrifically On that vast pitch in Turin, gush of slippery, slightly oily, disfigured. Returning to action, Hilary was killed Gazza may have shed a tear. But melodrama. in action the following year. back on the campsite there was We can choose to blame it on no extended period of mourning Love Island, on GIFs, on a media The Dam Busters (film, 1955) nor any real communal outburst that demands that symptoms of Daaaa da da daa da da da da daaa…. Need we say of pride. There was just a general trauma and upset be publicly more? Well okay then. Michael Redgrave as Barnes air of dissatisfaction and displayed in order for dubious Wallis, and Richard Todd as Wing Commander annoyance with proceedings. sympathy to be deployed. Guy Gibson, in one of the most loved war films of In those dog days of the final Wherever you place culpability, all, filmed in Derbyshire’s Upper Derwent Valley. Thatcher cabinet, displays of anger the reality is that we currently live seemed to define the national in a society in which most Reach For the Sky (film, 1957) mood. The Poll Tax protests, teenagers are still, just about, able Kenneth More was never finer than as Douglas the Strangeways Prison riot: both to differentiate between the Bader, the dashing RAF pilot who despite losing conveyed a rage that somehow emotional distress of a person who his legs, became a Spitfire ace and national hero. couldn’t express itself beyond the is being bullied in the playground initial stages of violent vexation. and the crocodile tears of a reality The Battle of Britain (film, 1969) Fast-forward 28 years and we’ve show contestant who’s been told From the great age of war epics starring every learnt a thing or two, mainly from that he can’t do a very good single person with an Equity card, the Battle of the US and South America in impersonation of Bruno Mars. Britain had Edward Fox, Robert Shaw, Michael terms of releasing a more florid But for how much longer? Caine, Christopher Plummer et al taking on the type of emotion and unblocking Will future generations be able Jerry. The spectacular dogfights inspired the space our emotional constipation. to distinguish between the stage-y battle scenes in Star Wars. Colourful, funny, passionate and the sincere if we decide that and inclusive: the anti-Trump open displays of grief are an Bomber, by Len Deighton (novel, 1970) protests that took place during his appropriate response to everything A scintillating account of a bombing raid over UK visit were like a colossal music from the end of season seven of Germany in 1943, as experienced by multiple festival with a headliner that Game of Thrones to accidently protagonists on both sides of the war, by the spy nobody likes. deleting our Facebook archive? writer par excellence. Compare this with YouTube At the end of the year, with footage of 1990’s Poll Tax riots in Trump making no plans to return Piece of Cake (novel and TV series, 1983) Trafalgar Square. The only colour to Blighty, the England team Telling the story of a Hurricane squadron from the comes from the odd Socialist plodding through the motions, and start of World War Two and through the Battle of Worker placard and the occasional Brexit closing in, perhaps we Britain, both Derek Robinson’s book and the unfortunate shell suit. All is grey. should take a moment to remember subsequent 1988 TV series are magnificently All is rage. There’s not a juggler, that there are advantages to being detailed, multi-layered and laced with tragedy. rainbow flag or balloon to be seen. stoic at the right moments, too. Hardly halcyon days, but At long last we’ve learnt how Going Solo, by Roald Dahl (book, 1986) perhaps we should be thinking to let our renowned, stiff upper lip Roald Dahl served in the RAF, flying Tiger Moths, about the consequences of the wobble. Now we have to learn Gloster Gladiators and Hawker Hurricanes over permanent hole that’s now been how, and when, to make it stop. Greece and Africa, detailed in this autobiography.

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ne chirpy afternoon Soho. I once played Emperor in mid-October, I Veganomics Joseph in Amadeus – it’s the bashed out a few funniest part. I once performed five words on my phone NUCLEAR different roles in a very funny play Oto an unsolicited offer from a called Underworld of Leather at journalist – the proferring of words PLANT a now defunct theatre at World’s for money of a vegan variety – and End in Chelsea. thought little beyond my own Carnivores beware: an ill-considered I love to study the art of comedy, childish chuckle. Mine was a brief joke about vegans can cost you your watching the craft of the comedian, reply, joisting with this unknown dignity – and your career the set-up, the punchline, the very wannabe scribbler. delivery. I have spent hours on “Tee-hee,” I thought to myself YouTube watching the masters: before turning to the next task in his job. He’s probably got bills and Tommy Cooper, Michael hand, proof-reading the tale of a mortage to pay.” “Yes!” I yelled Macintyre, Louis CK, Bill Hicks, a Tuscan Christmas, which would at the radio, splashing in the water. the masterful mimicry of Rory appear in the magazine where I “You tell ’em!” Bremner. I have lapped up, had toiled for nearly two decades. I felt it was right that I resign repeatedly, the funniest films, from The lady who had emailed me, from my role as editor as I had Withnail and I to Sideways. Now it transpired, was a little shocked brought mayhem on my esteemed and then I make speeches, my by my reply. She had suggested a W I LLI A M client and the firm I loved. It was dream being to ape my heroes and series of “plant-based recipes” that SI T W ELL the right thing to do, but it was make an audience laugh. would appeal to those of a vegan also quite annoying to find myself But now look at the fine mess persuasion. My response was that Food writer, out of a job. I’ve got myself into. Known as the rather than feed such people we broadcaster and What was far more annoying, idiot who made an unfunny joke should slaughter them. host of William though, was to suffer the and lost his job. A terrible joke and I forgot all about my gratuitous Sit well’s Supper humiliation of hearing people shocking timing. (It turned out that Club insult to this woman – as discuss how bad my joke was. Waitrose was launching a new unsolicited, perhaps, as her email Because I feel I’ve made some vegan range that week. Whoops!) – until it was leaked to a news quite good jokes over the years. In Actually, if there’s one specific website a few days later and all fact, I have prided myself on thing I remember about sending hell broke loose. writing pieces that are supposed to that email at the time, it was that As was widely reported, the make people laugh. And now and I thought it was a rather poor effort, fallout from my foolish reply was then I have succeeded. I’ve written zapped out too quickly, an that I lost my job. I stepped down funny pieces in the Daily Mail, unhoned remark. There was a from my role as editor of Waitrose Daily Telegraph, Sunday and Daily second email, in fact, in reply to & Partners Food Magazine, and as Express, The Guardian, The Times, the lady’s response to me. I editorial director of the company Tatler, Country Life, even here in suggested another variant of the that published the title, John Boisdale Life. I have tried to be plant-based series. “How about a Brown Media. funny on TV, making jokes about column called ‘The Honest Little was left in the dust of the what food looks like on Master Vegan’,” I wrote. “A millennial’s ensuing media storm but egg on Chef – “It looks like a car crash in tale of earnest endeavour – and my face and the prospect of £500 Toy Town,” I once said of a bacon sandwiches.” Now I reckon in the Bank of Boisdale. In the days pudding, imagining, perhaps, that that’s quite funny. But as it is quite that followed I had the unusual someone watching might chuckle. funny no one has remarked on it, experience of listening to pundits I’ve done jokes on the radio, or, on social media, demanded my discuss my career and demise. My appearing on programmes whose death. Perhaps if I’d just flung out son and I sat watching Newsnight aim is to be funny – a Five Live that missive I’d still have my job. one evening. There in the studio show called The Treatment, a I’d still be proof-reading jolly was a huge image of me on screen, Radio Four programme called The pieces about festive Tuscan feasts and Giles Coren saying that while Now Show. Years ago, at and checking the introductions for it was a terrible joke – and he university, I had a column in the features on mid-week suppers. As would never make such a bad joke student paper, called ‘The Sitwell a comedy lover I think it’s fair to be and his jokes were far better – I Slot’. I took it upon myself to write internationally castigated for should not have lost my job. funny pieces each week. writing an unfunny joke. I lay in the bath one night And, reader, I have even spent In future, I’ll try harder, keep listening to a phone-in on the same time being a stand-up comedian the early drafts to myself and not subject. A Geordie man became my and have performed at venues send out untested material to hero. “What was that girl doing such as Islington’s Tut ’n’ Shive complete strangers in cyberspace. leaking that email? The man’s lost and the Tristan Bates Theatre in They’re a tough crowd.

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the reply. Still, the film catapulted him into the top tier of Hollywood sex symbols. This was also the last time we saw him balding – from then on, Burt was totally toupée. Smokey and the Bandit came in 1977, grossing $300 million at the box office, second only to Star Wars that year. A sequel followed, and The Cannonball Run. He could do no wrong at this time, and was voted the most popular star in America five years in a row. “I don’t have any pretensions about wanting to be Hamlet,” he said. “I would just like to be the best Burt Reynolds around.” His career subsequently went into a well-publicised decline until he was cast as the porn producer, Jack Horner, in Paul be helped around by a couple Thomas Anderson’s 1997 film Boisdale hero of winsome aides. But in a white Boogie Nights. It won him a new tuxedo, black shirt and black bow generation of fans and his third tie he looked every inch the icon. Oscar nomination, but he said no MORE THAN The twinkle in his eyes was to Magnolia, Anderson’s next film. unmistakable. Here was a man In later years Reynolds would MACHISMO who had lived, and loved it. reminisce about the roles he had As with many of Hollywood’s rejected: Jack Nicholson’s part in The late, great Burt Reynolds starred most beloved figures, Reynolds’ One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, in many a movie, but his lasting legacy thespian talent was obscured by Richard Gere’s Pretty Woman gig, may be his irreverent charm Burt Reynolds the star. Handsome, James Bond. Fun as his Bond rugged, and pugilistic, he sold a would have been, imagining how specific kind of beefcake swagger; Reynolds might have played these hen Burt Reynolds a downtown Brando without characters is to miss the point of died at age 82 in pretensions. He never threatened the man. It was always about so September, it felt to inflict his Lear upon us, for he much more than what he said on like the end of an knew that much of his appeal was screen. It was about the swagger W era; of a Hollywood before the physical. He had been a college and the anecdotes, including internet, before Instagram, and football star and always looked turning down Greta Garbo and #metoo, and sanitised, publicist- like he could handle himself in giving Fred Astaire a lift home. trained identikit actors. There was ED C U M M I NG a fight, despite his compact stature. He also came to regret the iconic plenty wrong with that world, but In fact, before his career took off 1972 Cosmopolitan shoot in which it was infinitely more glamorous Freelance fe ature he had various tough-guy jobs, on he appeared naked, smoking, on a than the waxed eight-packs, Goop writer for t he the docks or on nightclub doors. bearskin rug. Back then it was diets, and beauty-vlogging that we national press After appearing in cheap radical for a male star to let himself have today, and it created film Westerns, he broke through with be objectified, as women were. It stars the likes of whom we may Deliverance in 1972, a film about was this side of him that everyone never see again. four yuppies whose canoeing trip warmed to, the modest wiseguy With his rakish moustache and into Hicksville, Georgia goes awry. who described his movies as the his wisecracking, unashamed Apparently the stunt coordinator kinds shown in prison or on planes machismo, Reynolds was one of complained that a doll being used where “the people can’t get out”. them. I met him once, very briefly, in a canoe instead of Reynolds “I realised that people liked me, at the Boisdale Cigar Smoker of looked like “a dummy”. The big that I was enough,” he said. “So if the Year awards in 2015. Actually, man stepped in to film the stunt I could transfer that character – the ‘met’ may be too strong a word. and afterwards, nursing a broken irreverent, self-deprecating side of I nodded at and was nodded to, but coccyx and coughing up water, me, my favourite side – onto the it left a deep impression. By then Reynolds asked the director, John screen, I could have a big career.” his health was failing – he had a Boorman, how the scene looked. He was a good actor, but he was heart bypass in 2010 and had to “Like a dummy in a canoe,” came a magnificent Burt Reynolds.

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English, and he replies “Non!”, even though he’s bilingual and lives with a girl called Louise from Hastings. To reference cricket, if ever there was a time for a batsman to stride to the crease, stare down the bowling, soak up some deliveries that thud into their body, wear out the fielders, control the strike, steady the innings and chalk up a damned good knock, it’s now. But not only is no one on the team, no one’s in the pavilion! The paucity of talent among our current political classes is marked. Admittedly you’d need the rosiest of tinted spectacles to look back through the last century of British Prime Ministers and declare each one a success. For every Churchill there was an Eden; for every Atlee a Callaghan, but it’s undeniable that they were more often than not surrounded by extremely bright, well-rounded colleagues with vision and verve. For many readers, the last PM who was a leader in the true sense of the word was Margaret Thatcher. Notice I didn’t say “best”, rather “leader”, for she knew what she wanted and where she was going. I once interviewed someone who ts origins date back to the Bible worked extremely closely with the Rant and it has been used by nearly Baroness towards the end of her every sports commentator reign and after her unceremonious worth their sheepskin coat, defenestration, and they shared WHITHER I clipboard and headphones, so in a fascinating insight. “Margaret politics has there ever been a more regularly bemoaned the state of LEADERSHIP? appropriate time to recall that modern politics,” they said. “She famous expression, “Cometh the told me, ‘In my day, when Our political class needs to get a day hour, cometh the man”? For the something unfortunate happened, job; decide what constitutes hate crime; hour has well and truly “cometh”, we would ask, ‘What will we do?’ and follow the lead of budget airlines but the right person has not. Now, it’s ‘What will we say?’” The Brexit negotiations, which She was on to something. With have sucked the life out of this a few notable and often close-to- administration, have floundered bonkers exceptions, our politicians as badly as a salmon that’s jumped today are lightweights. Few have the wrong way downriver and worked outside politics and most landed smack on the bank. Every a started as bag carriers or members deal has seemed at hand, or a of the entourage of more senior peaceful accord appeared to be politicians. Their only experience reached, the response has been of the real world comes during a NICK FERRARI precisely what you get when you general election, when they find Journalist and broadcaster, take your new love for a weekend themselves being chased down the host of the LBC weekday in the South of France; are met garden path after stuffing leaflets breakfast show and panellist with a menu written entirely in through angry constituent’s doors. on The Pledge on Sky News French; you nervously ask the Then there’s the forensic focus imperious waiter if he speaks of 24-hour media. Rightly or not,

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if you put your head above the parapet for a job in public life, What if? you’re now fair game. Whether you paid a fine for the late return of a library book, or once wore a TUG OF WAR Stetson to a college party, get ready to be treated as the love-child of A century has passed since the end of the First World War. What Josef Goebbels and Myra Hindley. might the world have looked like if Britain hadn’t joined the fight? But if you’re the person who is reading this and can fix it all, here’s a plea: Please strap on your BRUC E A N DER SON on the Western Front. Events also pads. Your country needs you. appeared to justify his belief in Political columnist and journalist, the cruel futility of war. By the ... former political editor at The late 1920s, economic crises proved Spectator, Can someone help me define hate that far from being the war to end crime? It appears we can build a all wars, the Great War had been giant effigy of Boris Johnson, burn the war to end all peace. Storm it to the ground with everyone clouds gathered. The Armistice roaring their approval, and nobody antalisingly close to the had not been the end of the war, turns a hair. Another politician, end, pathos was added merely the whistle for half-time. Lib Dem’s Sir Vince Cable, says of to tragedy. An unlikely In 1945, after the War’s second Brexiteers: “Too many were driven soldier, he had made half was over, with European by nostalgia, of a time when T himself a good one. An improbable civilisation blasted and blood- passports were blue, faces were officer, he had proved himself in soaked, it seemed likely that there white and the map was coloured combat. His courage had won him would be another, final, fixture. imperial pink,” and it is suggested a Military Cross. Now, seven days “The old bitch gone in the teeth”, thjat this is hate speech and before the Armistice, Wilfred as Ezra Pound had described therefore a hate crime. Sir Vince Owen fell in battle, joining the Europe, might be finished off really is one of the last people on ranks of “these who die as cattle”. altogether. We were saved by the the planet of whom you could Death was swiftly followed by invention of the atomic bomb. make such an accusation. immortality. Once his poems were A conclusion as terrible as it is Meanwhile, Northamptonshire published, there was an aching inescapable, we do not owe our police are obliged to study an sense of loss. The hideous damage survival to any moral lessons that episode of Basil Brush that features that the War had inflicted on war might have taught us, but to a gipsy fortune-teller. “Community civilisation was epitomised in the a technology that the war helped leaders” claimed it was “offensive” death of a poet. That said, one can to accelerate: the weaponry to to the Traveller community. No it’s speculate as to how his talents guarantee mutually assured not. It’s a children’s show about a would have expressed themselves destruction. From 1914 onwards, fox puppet with a funny voice. in peacetime. Once Owen had horror had been piled on horror. This puts into some perspective escaped from the horrors that No wonder Owen convinced so the report that there were 94,000 inspired him, would he have many readers that the First World “hate crimes” last year. The only found new themes, a new voice? War was the second fall of man thing to hate here, is the absurd Keith Douglas, a less developed and that if we British could not waste of valuable police time. poet killed in 1944, might have prevent the conflict, we should been the greater loss. at least have kept out of it. ... He would never have been so Yet it is not that simple. After Words I never thought I’d write: influential – no war poet ever was. Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s Well done, Ryanair! It took time for Owen’s verse to assassination, the momentum It’s hard to applaud a carrier shape events, that said. When towards war was irresistible. that treats its passengers with the Field Marshal Douglas Haig died Britain could have stayed out, but same courtesy as a pack of dingos, in 1928, the crowd that turned out only by betraying her allies. We but its decision to limit the size of to salute his coffin was larger than could have charged a price for our carry-on bags is spot-on. I often use the one for Winston Churchill. neutrality, or even abandoned budget airlines for European flights Owen had castigated “The old lie: our oldest ally of all, Portugal, and am amazed that people feel dulce et decorum est pro patria with whom England had signed entitled to bring a bag that is often mori.” As the decades passed, his the Treaty of Windsor in 1386. half their bodyweight, and then view gradually prevailed. He had After we had seized Angola and shove everyone’s else bag around literary allies, principally Robert Mozambique, we would have so they can squeeze theirs in. Oh, Graves in Goodbye to All That and been in sight of the goal of to be cabin crew for a day! Erich Maria Remarque in All Quiet dominating Africa from the Cape

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to Cairo. At the same time, Royal Navy was rapidly switching both geo-strategic and moral. Germany might have agreed not from coal to oil. In future, its oil Could it have been fought in a to increase her battle fleet. It supplies would have been different fashion? During the Boer would have been worth her while dependent on German goodwill. War, the young Winston Churchill to make concessions, in order to While all these changes were had seen what damage Afrikaner secure a free hand in France. taking place in Europe, the USA riflemen could inflict, without So, no war, no mass recruiting. would still have been distant from many machine guns, on troops Perhaps a few pennies on income the scene by 3,600 miles of cold advancing across open ground. tax to pay for a few more British ocean, with a President who was After 1914, he was desperate for battleships, but no British soldiers a pacifist by inclination and a an alternative to the slogging in the trenches. Would Wilfred population with no enthusiasm match of trench warfare – hence Owen have avoided the Western for gratuitous interference in Gallipoli. But until 1917, when Front and found another outlet for faraway countries. The Germans the tank could be successfully his genius? Or would the Anglo- could have won the war without deployed, the line had to be held German Pact of 1914 have proved sinking a single American ship. the old-fashioned way. as durable as the Molotov- For centuries, British statesmen There might have been another Ribbentrop one, 25 years later? had believed in maintaining the alternative to tragedy, but for that Let us consider likely outcomes balance of power in Europe. scourge of modern life – cancer. In of a First World War without Philip II, Louis XIV, Napoleon – 1888, Frederick III became Kaiser. Britain. France would have been we had helped to frustrate them A liberal, a constitutionalist, an defeated, disarmed, impoverished all. After the German victory Anglophile – Queen Victoria’s and plundered of her colonies. parade in Paris, there would have son-in-law – he had been a In the aftermath, she would have been no balance, only power. We successful general in the Franco- had difficulty in deciding whom would have been a lonely island Prussian War, thus earning the she hated more, Germany or off a German-dominated prestige that his strutting son, Britain. Russia would also have continent, although Germany Kaiser Bill, always craved. But been defeated, potentially leading would have found its new Frederick had also been a to a breakaway state in the fiefdoms difficult to control. This champion smoker. Desperately ill Ukraine under German tutelage, could have led to an uneasy when he came to power, he giving the Germans access to her modus vivendi: They dominate reigned for just 99 days before mineral and agricultural riches. Europe, we have our Empire and dying at 58. His father reached 91. The Turkish Empire would the high seas. But the obvious risk Suppose Frederick had lived have survived as a German ally would have been that, flushed until the 20th century? There was and satellite, with profound with victory, the Kaiser’s military a lot of dry tinder around in geopolitical consequences. Turkey appetites became insatiable. So pre-1914 Europe, and a lot of would have retained sovereignty despite the four years of slaughter, people wanting to play with over the oil riches of Arabia. The there was a powerful case for war, matches in the dynamite factory. It must also and always be remembered that while we know how terrible the First World War became, that was concealed from almost all of those who rallied to the colours and quick-marched off while the crowds cheered and the bands played stirring tunes. Even so, with a sensible Kaiser there might have been a diplomatic settlement. In that case, we would never have had Hitler. Without the bloodshed, impoverishment and exhaustion of two World Wars, Britain might not have succumbed to Imperial fatigue. If so, we might have prevented the ongoing problem of Palestine and Pakistan – two Ps that no number of mattresses can disguise. That good Kaiser died. A bad one took over. Britain’s leaders had to deal with the outcome.

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out of Cyprus, or firing missiles Defence from the Navy’s attack submarines in the Mediterranean. Fortunately, this glaring gap CASH AND CARRIERS in the fighting capabilities of our Armed Forces is about to be When it comes to defending the realm, cyber attacks rectified with the Navy’s new can never match the sheer colossus that is a 21st-century Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft Navy warship carriers, the first of which is due to enter service early in the 2020s. At 65,000-tonnes, the new ships n a blustery morning Harrier saw action in both Gulf are nearly three times the size of in the North Sea in Wars as well as flying close combat their Invincible-class predecessors, 2010, I watched the last missions in Bosnia, Kosovo and which were a modest 22,000 Harrier Jump Jet take off Sierra Leone. Its ability to provide tonnes. The first of the ships, the O from HMS Ark Royal, the Royal close air support to ground troops Queen Elizabeth, has already Navy’s flagship, before it set sail on made it especially popular with received rave reviews after the its final voyage to the scrapyard. the Army and Royal Marines in Queen attended her official As the ship bore headlong into a Iraq and Afghanistan. CON commissioning ceremony at 45-knot wind laced with freezing The decision by David Cameron COUGH LI N Portsmouth at the end of last year. sleet, the mood was dark: Britain in 2010 to scrap the Navy’s fleet of More recently she was the star Defence editor was losing a vital pillar of defence. Invincible-class aircraft carriers, attraction in New York, when she and chief foreign Ark Royal’s final voyage was together with the Harrier Jets that af f airs columnist took a brief break from sea trials in in stark contrast to the jubilant made them a formidable fighting for The Telegraph the Atlantic to host a UK-US trade scenes that accompanied her machine, was, as I wrote at the event. Construction of the second launch by the Queen Mother on time, the most calamitous in carrier, the Prince of Wales, is the River Tyne back in 1981. For modern military history. nearing completion. that occasion, massive crowds It meant that, for more than But while the Navy’s new lined the river banks to celebrate a decade, Britain would be unable flagship has its admirers, a degree the ship’s arrival, cheering loudly to deploy ‘carrier strike’ – the of controversy still surrounds the as she began her maiden voyage military term for using aircraft Government’s decision to invest in defence of the realm. carriers – thereby significantly the Ministry of Defence’s meagre The Swan Hunter shipyard that reducing our ability to defend our budget in aircraft carriers. Critics built Ark Royal closed in 2007, interests around the globe. claim they are too big, too costly, and as she prepared to slip her You only need look at Britain’s and of little relevance to modern moorings for the last time at North involvement in the recent conflicts warfare. Why spend money on Shields, the only sound was Rod in Libya (2011) and Syria (2011 to aircraft carriers, they ask, when Stewart’s “Sailing”. the present day) to see how badly you can easily inflict more damage En route to her final destination our military chiefs have missed on an adversary by a well-executed in Portsmouth, we witnessed the the fearsome firepower of a Royal cyber attack? My reply is that, if awe-inspiring departure of the last Navy aircraft carrier. During the aircraft carriers are antiquated Harrier from the Ark Royal’s 2011 campaign to overthrow relics of a bygone military age, squadron. Having taxied onto the Colonel Gaddafi, Britain was then why are emerging powers, flight deck into flurries of snow, reduced to improvising a carrier by such as India and China, trying so the pilot applied full throttle to the flying Apache gunship helicopters hard to develop ones of their own? aircraft’s Pegasus engines, causing off the deck of a support ship – an As for the cost, that is a matter a sheet of sea spray to batter the immensely risky undertaking, as the Government must consider deck. The plane then hurtled along helicopters cannot fly high enough during its review of future defence the carrier’s alarmingly short, to evade anti-aircraft missiles. spending next year. Yes, the new 400-foot runway, and within Thankfully, in the Libyan conflict, carriers are the largest and most seconds was soaring into the sky. most of the missile systems had expensive ships ever built for the The whole ship reverberated with been put out of action before the Navy, and have been a drain on the the roar of its engines. There were Apaches were deployed. defence budget. But now we have a few muffled cheers and waves Britain has been at a similar them, it makes sense to use them from the frozen onlookers before it disadvantage in Syria, where the properly, and equip them with the disappeared into the leaden skies, Americans, French and Russians new F-35B stealth jets that have bringing to an end one of Britain’s have made good use of their replaced the iconic Harriers. most inspirational aircraft. aircraft carriers to pursue their Otherwise, I fear our gleaming new Having made its name during military goals. Britain, by contrast, carriers will become nothing more the Falklands campaign, the has been confined to flying sorties than floating white elephants.

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time the tray arrives, the ones that Cocktails were made first have already lost their sparkle and zest. No, the key to a great cocktail LIFE, ON THE ROCKS is the connection between you and the barman. Because while there The best bartenders can mix a drink to match your mood – or lift is never any real need to meet the you out of one with a transcendental trip for the tastebuds chef, good cocktails demand that you lock eyes and connect with the person making the drink. The ’m not saying that I drink a lot, of the world’s problems there. rapport becomes one of the but my silver Tiffany cufflinks Erik and I have sipped cocktails ingredients. And this is why both are, I must admit, a gift from in trains, planes, and automobiles. Erik Lorincz and Salvatore Erik Lorincz, the celebrated There is always a sense of occasion Calabrese of the Donovan Bar are I head barman at the Savoy. Erik is with Erik. Hipster bars are all very world class. They are not only both my master and jailer on all well but I have a preference, with alchemists; they own the room and matters alcohol related. the exception of a few gin joints, hand it back to you. The first time I went to the PADDY for the romance and old-world So there are the hotel bars and Savoy’s American Bar, the R ENOU F glamour of the great hotel bars: there are the rest… And from the tuxedoed barman with matinée- The American Bar, the bars at the “rest” I highly recommend Bar idol looks asked me, “What sort Paddy Renouf is Connaught, the Rosewood (where Termini on Old Compton Street. Boisdale Life’s of day have you had?” That was cool meets old school), Claridges, Small, intimate and European, it Editor-at-Large Erik and I think he could tell from the Chiltern Firehouse, the serves cocktails with purpose and my expression that I wasn’t in the Blue Bar at the Berkeley and the grace and a flourish. The Hideout mood for banter, immediately Donovan Bar at Browns. in Bath deserves a shout too. Here adding, “I only ask so that I know But wherever you choose, the I was introduced to the Pickle- what sort of drink to make you. Do important thing is to be at the bar. Back Cocktail, a shot of Bourbon you need perking up or bringing Always. Stake your claim. There with a shot of pickle water. It’s down?” Naturally, I was intrigued is nothing worse than sitting in a from the hangover “kill or cure” and my day got substantially corner, awaiting a drink made by school. Regulars here have their better. Years later, I accused him of someone you haven’t met. If there own bottles locked away. The rest turning me into an alcoholic. “Yes, are a few of you it is even worse are just “alcohol tourists”, says but an elegant one,” was his reply. – mixing four or six different bartender Callum Rixson. Erik, like the best bar tenders, is cocktails takes time and by the There is always a cost. Three always ready with a bon mot. cocktails in a five-star hotel come Over the years, I have come to to about the same as three the conclusion that only the weekends-worth of whisky and classics – Negronis, Dry Martinis, mixers in a nice country house; Manhattans, Old Fashioneds, but that’s not the point. It’s the Sazeracs, Daiquiris and Corpse feel-good factor. You could buy Reviver No2s – deserve my an entire bottle of gin and one of attention and that of my wallet. Vermouth for the price of a Dry You can’t improve perfection. I’ve Martini from Erik and his ilk; but had Martinis with restaurateur you are paying for the postcode, Mark Hix and the jewellery the linens, the pressed tuxedos, designer Stephen Webster, while the lighting, the stage-set costs. getting a short back and sides at It’s all about theatre. Nicky Clarke’s Mayfair hair salon. Cocktails and cocktail bars are (It was then that I was reminded of a great connector. They lead to George Burns’ dictum: “It only good conversation and from good takes one drink to get me drunk… conversation come great ideas. the trouble is I can’t remember if And things start to happen. Erik it’s the thirteenth or fourteenth.”) gave me the Tiffany cocktails after The actor Kelsey Grammer, my I introduced him, over another drinking companion in Manhattan, Dry Martini, to film producer LA and London, loves the Savoy’s Barbara Broccoli at the American Gibson – a Dry Martini with white Bar. She was so impressed that she onions. Actor David Soul loves the commissioned Erik to create the Margarita at the Chiltern Skyfall cocktail and serve it at the Firehouse, and we’ve solved many premiere. Now that’s mixing it.

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hristmas comes at us and understandable response to a like an express train,” traumatic event’. Like Christmas. “ my grandmother Hotels are natural hiding places, would say. It’s only and the ones in London can be supposedC to last two days, but the a real treat. Outside the seething reality is nearer two months. metropolis, which rural retreat you Carnaby Street’s famous Christmas choose depends on the coordinates lights were switched on appallingly of your in-laws and how far away early this year – in October – by from them you’d like to be. the ‘stars’ of Bohemian Rhapsody; Religious conversion could the Coca-Cola advert is back, and be an option, but Christmas, like our covetous minds are exploring St. Valentine’s Day, has infiltrated all the possible presents that our even the most far-flung corners of hearts desire. But it’s not only our the globe: even turning to personal greed that lowers the alternative beliefs is ineffectual. tone; it’s the avarice of others, too. So if you can’t beat it, convert Christmas is, in four words, from it, or ignore it, what are you to complete and utter hell. There is do? The only option left is to no other way to describe it. Sixty endure it. For in spite of days of unsolicited torture: debt, December’s bounty of booze, the too much food and drink, social tsunami of invitations, the exhaustion from making the same shovelling of food down your noises at the same people at the throat until your liver could be same parties. On and on it goes: sold as foie gras, we are built to a whirligig of pain. survive, so survive we shall. And in case you think I’m a There are corners of Christmas Scrooge, science has proven Festivities where quietude can be sought, and Christmas to be a killer. Heart- even enjoyed. Who doesn’t enjoy related deaths increase by 4.2 per HOLIDAY OR a Christingle service, for example? cent between 25 December and St Bride’s on Fleet Street – still the 7 January – a discovery that the HUMBUG? spiritual home of newspapers – Journal of the American Heart offers a beautiful carol service, and Association attributes to emotional If you want to deck the halls with is perfectly placed to dive into stress, change in environment, and poison ivy, then try these strategies various watering holes afterwards. increased food and alcohol for a more enjoyable Christmas Or before. Or indeed during. consumption. What the journal If you prefer more pomp and fails to point out is that alcohol circumstance, go with the is entirely necessary for survival. But the thing is, in this theatre Catholics – it’s the only way – at Even if you manage to dodge of false enjoyment, we are doing either St James’s on Spanish Place cardiac arrest over the Twelve the right thing. For Christmas is or The Brompton Oratory. One Days, you may not have eschewed Christmas and it must be can’t help but concede to all festive misery: January is the countenanced. Christmas after a hearty “O Come, most popular month to start “How?” we all find ourselves All Ye Faithful”. divorce proceedings. Peace on asking. One trick is to set rules, the Surprisingly, children prove Earth and Goodwill to All Men are CONSTA NC E first of which is Thou Shalt Not useful (albeit expensive) at this starting to look a bit unlikely, WATSON Discuss Any Plans Before point. Simply hide behind them: aren’t they? December 1st. This might be others will be so busy cooing at And yet, despite it all, we get Journalist and punchy, but even mothers them that they won’t notice you sucked in, year after year. Like author featured eventually back off, disgruntled downing a vat of mulled wine in lambs to the slaughter we trot in The Spectator, but resigned. Refusing to discuss the corner. Even better if you invite through Advent, bound by some The Telegraph, plans may make you unpopular, the family to yours and take up the and The Oldie compulsion to keep the show on but it will make life more tolerable. Mother of all Agonies: hosting. In the road. We navigate the parties, And, by the time December 1st return, you will receive a lifetime’s we endure bothersome hangovers, comes around, others’ plans are supply of brownie points, should we exchange small talk about firmly in place, and all you have you need them. The best of both where we’ll be ‘spending’ the to do is join the ones you want to. worlds is perhaps spending your festive season, all the while failing The other trick is avoidance. day alone in the car with your to mention the rows, the holes in Confirmed in therapeutic circles partner, traveling between your our purses and the generally as a common coping strategy, respective parents’ houses. In miserable tidings we bring. avoidance is considered a ‘natural blissful silence. Peace at last.

37 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 ALL

THEHAIL

By the 1960sKING! and still a young man, Elvis’s career was in freefall. Jonathan Wingate explains how, fifty years ago this month, the singer pulled off the greatest comeback in music history

n the same week that the Beatles released the groundbreaking contracts that would go on to almost ruin Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, a schlocky Elvis his reputation. By the late Sixties, his Below and opposite: movie, Double Trouble, opened in cinemas across America. iconic early movies such as Jailhouse Bill Belew designed the Although he was only 33, Elvis knew full well that he had Rock and King Creole seemed a long way iconic costumes for Ireached an all-time low point in his career when he shot a scene off, and he was starring in a seemingly the 68 Comeback in which he imitated a clucking chicken while singing the endless run of forgettable personality Special. The all-white children’s nursery rhyme, “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”. vehicles such as Kissin’ Cousins and the “If I Can Dream” suit When you think of Elvis, three distinct phases instantly aforementioned Double Trouble. with blood-red neckerchief was Elvis’ spring to mind: the lip-curling, hip-shaking, rock’n’roll rebel The most important musical foil tribute to fallen soldiers who changed everything from the moment he first burst into the to Elvis’ career, guitarist Scotty Moore, of the Vietnam War spotlight in 1956; the bloated Las Vegas caricature of the 1970s; was by his side from his first audition and sandwiched in between, the achingly at Sam Phillips’ Sun Studios on 5 July cool, leather-clad Elvis in what became 1954 right up to the ’68 Comeback known as the ’68 Comeback Special. Special. Moore played on more than Filmed in June at NBC’s studios in 300 Elvis songs and probably knew him Burbank, California, and broadcast on better than any of his other collaborators. 3 December 1968, Elvis, as the show was In a long and fascinating conversation officially called, was his first television we had before he passed away in 2016, appearance since 1960. It had been seven it was clear that this kind, humble man years since he had last performed in front did not have one bad word to say about of a live audience and three years since anyone, with one exception. he had last enjoyed a Top 10 single with “Parker was an old carnival character, “Crying In The Chapel”. so he was a hustler,” he recalled. “He was Elvis had returned from a two-year very controlling, so although he did a lot spell in the US Army from 1958-60 to of things that were good for Elvis, he did discover that his infamously controlling a hell of a lot of things that were bad for and self-serving manager, Colonel Tom him too. He’d go to the movie companies

Parker, had tied him to a series of ﬁlm and ask them how much they wanted to GETTY

38 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 KING!

IMAGETHE GUARDIAN CREDIT BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 ICON 39 Below and right: In a pioneering move at the time, the director of the TV special, Steve Binder, decided to recreate the informal feel of Elvis’s dressing room, where he and his band would jam into the early hours

pay. They’d say, ‘Well, for this one, we’re of 1968 – with riots in the streets of and laid out the blueprint, blurring the gonna pay $500 000,’ and he’d say, ‘That’s America, the assassinations of Robert blues and gospel, the sexual liberation fine for me. How much are you gonna pay Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr, and and the controversy. It was Elvis who for Elvis?’ And he wasn’t kidding. the hippie counter-culture in full flow – literally changed the way the world felt, “He was working on Elvis’s mamma Elvis must have been aware that he now looked and sounded. and daddy too. Elvis’s mamma knew seemed out of step with the times. Yet Many of the stars that came in his who he was. She could see straight although we don’t really think of him as wake would probably never have even through him in a New York minute. Elvis a political singer, Elvis actually broke stepped onto the stage had it not been didn’t listen, but when all this fame hits down sociological and cultural barriers for Elvis, who effortlessly personified you at 19 or 20, what’re you gonna do?” from the start, which is exactly what the everything that was cool and rebellious Like so many huge stars, fame proved civil rights movement was fighting for. about rock’n’roll. “When I first heard to be fatal for Elvis. He seemed detached Elvis’ voice, I just knew that I wasn’t from the real world, surrounded by orn in 1935, Elvis was raised going to work for anybody, and nobody sycophantic hangers-on as he sat at home in Tupelo, Mississippi, in the was going to be my boss,” Bob Dylan in Gracelands, practicing karate, reading kind of God-fearing, loving but once said, recalling his 14-year-old self, books and watching television while impoverished white family that a high-school freshman from Hibbing, gorging himself on a hamburgers, fried Bwas a staple of the Deep South. His Minnesota called Robert Zimmerman. chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy. astonishing run of early Sun singles and “Hearing him for the first time was like Although he was one of the highest- his electrifying debut on The Ed Sullivan busting out of jail.” paid actors in Hollywood and his films Show in September 1956 – watched by When the Colonel met NBC executive were still big, box office hits, nobody – an incredible 82 per cent of the television producer, Bob Finkel, in May 1968 to least of all Colonel Parker – was doing audience in America – lit a spark that discuss the idea of a television special, much to encourage him to return to the literally started a rock’n’roll revolution. he insisted it be a Christmas show. rock’n’roll music that had made him a It’s almost impossible to overstate It wasn’t until director, Steve Binder, star in the first place. While he was busy the explosive effect Elvis Aaron Presley and producer, Bones Howe, made it clear making movies, exiled in Hollywood had in the mid-1950s. While his musical that they wanted to jettison the decidedly instead of touring and recording, there predecessors built the foundations for uncool Christmas concept and do what had been a seismic cultural shift. rock’n’roll long before the wider world Binder called “something really However far removed from reality woke up and paid attention, it was Elvis important” to re-establish Elvis as a

he may have become by the beginning who broke through to the mainstream performer, that the singer himself was GETTY

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section happened almost by accident. After taking him to NBC to show him the set, Elvis asked if it would be possible to have a bed in his dressing room. “That was the greatest thing that ever happened, because after we ﬁnished rehearsing or taping, he’d go into his dressing-room bedroom and jam until 2am and he’d do songs I’d never heard Left and below: before. I thought, ‘This is gold. I have Another to get a camera into this dressing room.’” groundbreaking feature After Colonel Parker vetoed the idea, of the TV special was its use of hand-held mainly to get back at Binder for rejecting cameras, to fully convey his Christmas theme, the director realised to audiences at home that the only way to capture the mood of the dynamism of Elvis’s the dressing-room jam sessions was to stage presence recreate them on stage for the cameras.

ccompanied by his original band members, Scotty Moore and drummer, DJ Fontana (who beat his sticks on a guitar case Ainstead of a drum kit), Elvis returned to his roots, singing “Heartbreak Hotel”, “Hound Dog”, “Jailhouse Rock” and all the rock’n’roll hits that made his name. “It was a lot of fun,” Moore said, “but Elvis was very nervous at the beginning. He hadn’t been in front of a crowd since he came out of the Army. He told us to sit convinced. “From that first meeting,” Elvis was nervous about returning to the down at the beginning, but after he did Binder says, “I knew he was champing stage but was clearly relishing the the first couple of songs, the crowd at the bit to prove himself again.” challenge. “We figured it was about started getting good, and he started They came up with the idea of using time,” he said, explaining why he wanted feeling good, so he stood up. the set-list to tell Elvis’s life story, starting to perform again. “Besides, I figured I’d “After the show, DJ Fontana and I had with Jimmy Reed’s “Guitar Man” and better do it before I got too old.” dinner at Elvis’ house in Hollywood. He ending with a contemporary hit, but Binder was determined to make the said, ‘When we finish the movie, I want Parker insisted on a Christmas song for show spectacular and contemporary, so to do a tour of Europe. You guys want to the finale. In the end, the show and songs a giant, neon ‘Elvis’ sign was built behind go?’ I said, ‘Hell, yeah, I wanna go.’ Of were fine-tuned up to the last minute. him – an idea borrowed from The Judy course, Parker put a clamp on that real Once the terms of the deal were agreed, Garland Show – and he was dressed in quick, because he didn’t have a visa for Elvis went to Hawaii for a break, coming a bespoke, skin-tight, black leather jacket Europe. That’s when he hooked up in home tanned and trim a few weeks later. and trousers. “I was awed by the way he Las Vegas. But I didn’t go because they At a press conference a few days looked,” he says. “If he wasn’t famous, wouldn’t pay us. We didn’t have a falling before they were due to record the show, you’d still stop and stare. As a director, out, but that was the last time I played for you’re looking to see which is the good Elvis, and the last time I saw him too.” side, the bad side. Elvis was perfect from Fifty years on, it is still considered the every angle. It was like a god walking in.” greatest comeback in rock’n’roll history. The show was shot using hand-held Elvis was at the peak of his powers, “As a director, cameras – the first time the technique had fizzing with energy, looking cooler than you’re looking to been used outside sports broadcasting – ever and the happiest he had been in and also filmed in 360 degrees to really years. “I almost had to get a hook to pull see which is the capture his body language and incredible him off the stage, he was having such good side, the bad stage presence. Fully aware that Presley a good time,” Binder says proudly. was still feeling a little uneasy, Binder Watched by nearly half of America’s side. Elvis was made sure that he had nothing to think TV audience, it was the most electrifying perfect from every about apart from performing on stage. performance of his career. Although the director and his team angle. It was like had meticulously planned every moment Jonathan Wingate is a music journalist a god walking in” of the production, the most memorable for the BBC

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PROFILE

postponed the wedding and, sadly, our relationship came under so much pressure that its collapse was inevitable. So in the space of a few weeks I lost everything – financially, professionally and personally.” Having moved out of the Chelsea townhouse he shared with Heather, he retreated to a property he rented but barely used in Sussex. There, with his possessions still packed in boxes, he spent days binge-watching box sets of House of Cards and The Crown. Lesser men might have contemplated SPIN suicide but Henderson found himself more of sterner stuff. When asked if he ever considered reaching for the whisky bottle and the revolver, Henderson is emphatic: “Ending it all, I have to say, never crossed my mind. You live day by day when you’re really at rock bottom, but I had a very good sense of self- CYCLE preservation so, despite doctors being As recently as 2016, James Henderson PR titan James Henderson all too willing to prescribe tranquillisers, was at the top of his game. As one of the I refused any medication and gave up country’s leading PR consultants, he had went bust overnight. He tells alcohol for around 14 weeks to ensure the ear of some of the most powerful Dominic Midgley how he’s that I was as alert as I could be in the people in the land. He breakfasted, circumstances.” lunched and dined at London’s most fighting back from the brink He admits he was in “a state of fashionable watering holes. His stake shock” for the first two or three weeks, in the company of which he was chief Portraits: Paul Stuart and things weren’t helped by the fact executive was worth £10 million at its that every financial journalist in the peak. And he was engaged to Heather country had his number on speed-dial. Kerzner, the glamorous ex-wife of the “They certainly knew how to get in South African business magnate Sol. touch with me,” he says with a wry Then his world came crashing down. laugh. “One of the issues when you’re In late 2016, the agency he headed, Bell in the middle of a crisis as a media Pottinger – founded by Lord Bell and adviser is that everyone has every single Piers Pottinger – became embroiled in telephone number for you.” controversy after it was accused of His most pressing priority was the stirring up resentment against “white need to make money. The abrupt closure monopoly capital” in South Africa on of Bell Pottinger meant the immediate behalf of Oakbay Investments, a loss of his nest egg as well as his salary. conglomerate owned by the billionaire Each day he would set himself new Gupta family in South Africa. challenges in a bid to increase his energy The company haemorrhaged clients levels. “I really needed to focus as a result of the scandal and, even Opposite: James professionally to generate revenue and rebuild my professional though he was unaware of the sinister Henderson today. career,” he says. “The only job I know is the one I’ve done for nature of the campaign Bell Pottinger Above, with his former over 30 years, which is public relations. I have a lot of friends had mounted on behalf of Oakbay and business partner, Lord who were supportive and one of them gave me office space in Bell, co-founder of PR had no involvement in the day-to-day central London, so that provided me with a base from which I frm Bell Pottinger running of the account, Henderson felt could start to go out and meet as many people as possible. By the only honourable course was to quit. November I was working on my first piece of client work.” Within days of his resignation in early One of the first accounts won by J&H Communications September 2017, his former business – Henderson’s new business – was the venture capital firm went into administration and Henderson Hambro Perks, which was co-founded by Rupert Hambro, lost everything. “My reputation was 75-year-old scion of the eponymous banking dynasty and completely shattered and my personal a contact of many years standing. life also disintegrated,” he says. “I was “One of the things I noticed was that a lot of people who are

SARAH LEE / THE GUARDIAN / EYEVINE THE GUARDIAN SARAH LEE / due to remarry and that all ended. We a generation older than me – in their seventies, given that I’m

43 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 PROFILE

approaching my mid-fi fties – a number of whom didn’t necessarily know me well, weren’t perturbed by what had happened to me,” Henderson observes. “They’d seen it all before and they really Clockwise from left: wanted to help because they could see Tom Singh, James the bigger picture and that one gets Henderson, Stephen through these things.” Shaffer, Janie Shaffer and Dominic McVey at the The Duchess of York – who had made Bell Pottinger Summer the fateful introduction to her friend Party at Lancaster 2017 Heather Kerzner at a charity gala dinner House in 2015; James in 2015 – also remained loyal. “I’ve Henderson at home AMERICAN continued to do a lot of work with the today; Henderson with Duchess and the York family,” he says. Sarah, Duchess of York “They are supportive, lovely people – WINERY friends.” And, yes, he was at Princess Eugenie’s wedding at Windsor Castle. OF THE So what lessons has the Bell Pottinger affair taught him? “I think I’ve been a very trusting, open person and this YEAR process has taught me to be more measured, wary and boundaried.” Asked if this is a reference to his former partner, Tim Bell, he says, “I’m not commenting on anyone or anything.” “The good thing is I’ve always been a positive person, so I’m always looking at things from a glass half-full perspective,” he adds. I’m just as excited now about the opportunity ahead, at what I can do, as I was when I was he says. “In the last 10 years I’ve given setting up my fi rst business 14 years ago. “I was due to advice on a number of very high-profi le It’s nice to have that as a comparison remarry and that crises, but now I feel my judgment is because one can look back on those days crisper because I’ve seen just how easy of enthusiasm and excitement and focus all ended. In the it is for a crisis to escalate and how on trying to rebuild it.” space of a few weeks much one really needs to be in control. Over the past 10 months, he reckons When you’re at the centre of it you get he has worked with around 20 clients I lost everything paralysed. It’s like time stands still. So and has now built up a team of fi ve, – financially, in terms of our offer now, reputation and including two undisputed heavyweights advising on crises is a key specialism.” in James Chapman and George Hudson. professionally and As we sit in the living room of his Chapman is a former political editor personally” home-cum-offi ce around the corner from of the Daily Mail, who became George the British Museum in Bloomsbury, Osborne’s director of communications Henderson looks very much like a man when he was Chancellor before being who has come out the other side. He is appointed chief of staff to Brexit networking with the best of them and, having spent decades in Secretary David Davis. Hudson has a business inextricably intertwined with hospitality, he is a worked as a senior practitioner across fi rm fan of Boisdale. “I love the fact that it has its own distinct fi nancial and corporate PR. personality,” he says. “You’re either a Boisdale person or Between them Henderson feels they you’re not. It also has exceptional food and great music.” offer great service in areas ranging from So how does he see the future? “I think it’s going to be a reputation management and litigation slow process,” he admits. “Sadly things can collapse in PR to the education and charity sectors, seconds but they can’t be rebuilt in seconds. I set up my fi rst as well as industry sectors such as oil business, Pelham, in November 2004. Within fi ve years we and gas and luxury goods. Plus, of generated annual fee income of around £6 million and I’m course, crisis management. completely comfortable that I have the ability to match that “I feel better placed now than I’ve within a similar period within this business.” ever been to advise clients in a crisis POINTS because I can be that much clearer Dominic Midgley is a journalist and author who specialises EDITORS’ CHOICE having had experience at the coalface,” in business, feature writing and interviews PAUL STUART, GETTY IMAGES, REX FEATURES J.G., Wine Enthusiast, April 2018 44 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 2017 AMERICAN WINERY OF THE YEAR

POINTS EDITORS’ CHOICE J.G., Wine Enthusiast, April 2018

Big Data is creeping its way into every single aspect of our lives, writes futurist Lucie Greene, and we would do well to keep as sharp an eye on it as it does on us to avoid a dystopian future

f the Cambridge Analytica scandal as visual recognition technology, verbal shocked you, then it might be time assistants (Alexa, Amazon Echo et al), to avert your eyes. The notorious data ‘Smart Cities’, 5G (Hello, smart cars), breech and subsequent revelations and a universal sensor culture in which about Facebook’s outsize infl uence even your dog can generate data points. on political dialogue and leaky control Thanks to artifi cial intelligence, it is all of personal data has rippled across the instantly analysable, and offers intimate globe, with troubling instances from layers of insight into people’s lives that Myanmar to Brazil and beyond. could easily have political application. But such scandals could be the tip What could possibly go wrong? The of the iceberg when it comes to the tech scandals, data breeches, and blind spots industry’s encroachment into politics unearthed with GAFA (Google, Apple, and society. Silicon Valley is creeping Facebook and Apple) and Uber took into the civic space, from transport place on their core product platforms, networks to city design to healthcare, let alone these new technologies. Biases while technical innovations are making are already starting to emerge in the the internet not just a thing on a screen algorithms, designs, and key functions but literally in the air around us. We of these ostensibly commercial products. have entered a new, hyper-digital era, The fact is, Silicon Valley is now in in which our data is harvested in a position to wield infl uence and power myriad ways, through such things in ways not seen before. It is at once

46 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 ESSAY

government vendor, collaborator, sponsor, communicator, advisor, rival, and enemy on any given day. Its platforms are now integral to democracy, elections, and governments, with funds that dwarf those of the state itself: Apple’s cash reserves in 2017 were more than $250 billion; total Federal Reserves in November 2016 were just over $118 billion. In some respects, Big Tech companies are trans-border Left: The former CEO nation states that do not require government approval for of data-mining f rm Cambridge Analytica, their activities. New York even offered Amazon $1.7 billion Alexander Nix. Below: in incentives to land one of its HQ2 headquarters in Queens, Paying for lunch with and states across the US have competed to offer tax breaks to face-recognition technology in China. Bottom: The all-seeing Gadgets like Amazon Echo Look Amazon Echo and Google Home hub are being given away at knock-down prices because they aren’t the product – we are

the giant. The New York Times has revealed the shocking extent of Facebook’s lobbying and political manipulation since its data crises. Meanwhile, gadgets like Amazon Echo and Google Home hub are being given away at knock-down $30 prices, facial recognition system to unlock it. Google-owned Nest, because they aren’t the product – we which produces ‘smart’ home products including thermostats are. New consumer technologies such and security systems, has recently come up with the $299 as facial recognition, voice activation, Nest Cam IQ with built-in facial recognition technology to and interactive hubs are already differentiate between family members and strangers. becoming the norm. “The Internet of Eyes enables inanimate objects to see by At J. Walter Thompson (JWT), where leveraging computer vision analysis,” says Evan Nisselson, I work, we identifi ed the Internet of general partner at visual-technology venture fund LDV Eyes and Ears as one of our biggest Capital. “Inanimate objects with cameras enable companies consumer tech trends for 2018. The to own the fi rst step in gathering the data for computer vision trend explores how new consumer and artifi cial-intelligence algorithms to analyse. Analysis technologies listen to us, watch us, and may include object recognition, sentiment analysis, gesture then respond rapidly, at a remarkable recognition, and many more human actions, which will rate. Everyday objects are outfi tted with impact all business sectors and humanity.” smart cameras and the latest in visual Amazon’s new AI-powered photo recognition shopping recognition technology, then combined aid, Amazon Echo Look, for instance, has the power to be a with machine learning to analyse cognitive consumer census on steroids: It will snap photos of images, facial expressions, emotions, customers, crowd-source opinions on their outfi ts, keep and and to identify people (and even pets). analyse visual content, and make tailored recommendations. Take facial recognition technology, LDV Capital predicts at least 220 per cent more embedded for instance, which is moving beyond cameras in the next fi ve years. the passport gate to a form of fi nancial Meanwhile, developments in speech recognition and ID. In China in 2018, customers visiting natural language processing (NLP) now allow people to talk KFC branches need only smile to pay to computers and devices in a way that might recently have for their chicken with Alibaba’s (China’s seemed like a sci-fi movie. This technology helps people to answer to Amazon) Smile-to-Pay app. activate products with their voice, converse with virtual

GETTYIMAGES The 2018 iPhone X debuted Apple’s butlers, and ask for information they might otherwise have

47 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 When almost one third of the world’s population is on Facebook, some would say Facebook and Amazon are already near nation-states

typed into a Google search. But it makes the innocuous-looking products that use it, such as Amazon Echo and apps such as Google Assistant and Apple’s Siri, the tech ﬁrms’ ears to our homes: Half of mobile internet searches are now made verbally, according to industry analyst Gartner; 22 million Amazon Echos were sold in 2017 alone. Pretty soon, Big Tech companies will be able to analyse our reading habits, conversations, and even our political discussions – a new layer in what were previously screen-led interactions. Could the information gathered by these applications eventually go beyond consumerism and encroach upon our civic engagement – even to shape an electoral campaign? For instance, could dinner-table political conversations be used to create even more hyper-tailored and targeted advertising and messaging? Could photo recognition on connected TVs read emotions during political advertising? It’s not that much of a step – assuming it’s not happening already. The combining of swathes of personal data with artiﬁcial intelligence already enables the creation of millions of personalised, targeted experiences. So designing a unique political candidate who suited the most people in their individual digital setting is not much of a leap. It’s interesting to consider this leaping off the page, too, as future Facebook technology moves into 3-D avatars, augmented reality, virtual reality, and beyond. If Hillary Clinton was criticised for not appearing Top: Apple COO Jeff speaker. Above left: in key states, a tech-backed candidate Williams unveils the Aerial view of Norman could campaign, virtually, everywhere. new electrocardiogram Foster’s Apple Park in When almost one third of the world’s feature on the 2018 Cupertino, California. population is on Facebook, some would Apple Watch. Left: Coming soon to the say Facebook and Amazon are near Above: The Google sky near you – Amazon nation-states already. But their Home Mini smart Prime Air delivery drone

48 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 ESSAY

platforms and services are still participatory, limited to is selling us an updated, data-driven, tech-enabled future certain behaviours such as socialising and shopping. They with a similar Utopian vision to Moses – with similar are, to an extent, monitored by at least a veneer of consumer prejudices and blind spots. And it’s getting increasingly close power, while the biases and beliefs of their founders are to realising these ambitions. Do we really want a sky full of confined to their philanthropic and investment ventures. But drones delivering everything for us? Should public transport when these are writ large on society, and start to replace the be on-demand? Is the driverless car really the future? state, their power will be magnified. Efficiencies, increased sustainability, and technological advances are vital, but as more of life becomes connected, verything starts innocently, and more of our interactions are commercialised, too. positively. Why wouldn’t you The power dynamic between government and Silicon want data to be freely shared? Valley companies, particularly the bigger brands, continues Why wouldn’t you want to shift gears. The large tech companies, compared to other E seamless service? Many government corporations, have shown a greater interest in making systems will be made more efficient, political statements, a necessary outgrowth of their self- automated, and digitised. In the near representation as forces for good, not just for profit. future, the lines between citizenship, The relationship grows more complex when firms decide to employment, and consumerism could mobilise their audiences when something goes against their blur into a continuous ecosystem that interests: “You don’t want this! Write to your governor!” Uber combines consumer voting, personal used this tactic to help overturn restrictions on its activities. government documents all stored on Airbnb has created an entire platform out of mobilising its Facebook, and people’s CVs available users to lobby governments on its behalf about renting out for public scrutiny. properties. Describing Airbnb-ers as a new sharing economy As consumer tech companies move “guild”, it has made a comprehensive into financial services and identity strategy out of rallying consumers to verification, higher-income consumers campaign for short-term rentals. could be treated more favourably. Silicon Valley wields more financial Financial clout and social influence clout than many governments; it leads could also be combined and assessed innovation in key sectors that these to inform policies or even election governments used to; and it is campaigning. Government itself could increasingly taking on key tasks of become the ultimate algorithmically- governance. More government driven, constantly-updating consumer contracts, from NASA to healthcare, brand, affected by consumer sentiment are going to Silicon Valley because its continuously. Forget the referendum – companies have more money and are blockchain could power our voting on leading more innovation. This has a multitude of issues instantaneously. prompted federal programmes to “I’m here to help you folks do well,” Donald Trump The work of Robert Moses, the actively court and acquire stakes in new told (from far left) Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Google’s legendary mid-20th-century American Larry Page, and Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg in 2016 tech relevant for military and state use. urban developer, is in many ways a The vectors of problem-solving and prophetic warning. Moses imposed his innovation have flipped. In the UK, the vision on post-war America, stripping government is using Google’s DeepMind cities of ‘undesirable’ neighbourhoods, machine-learning for the NHS, and big building new modern developments, data software firm Palantir for analytics parks, and swimming pools – and Soon Big Tech will (the city of New Orleans is reportedly making way for the automobile rather be able to analyse experimenting with Palantir’s predictive than public transport, which he saw as policing techniques). Silicon Valley is central to America’s economic future. our reading habits, becoming the Expert Friend – and that He cut superhighways over and through conversations, and power shift is very visible to all of us as existing historic cities. He built new citizens. Where once government took housing projects, social experiments politics – a new us to space, our government scientists to accommodate the poor, under the layer in what were built the internet, and our prime banner of ‘urban renewal’, many of ministers strategised, private companies which alienated and damaged those previously screen- are leading us into the future. It may not same communities. Moses was immune led interactions be the one we expect. to the existing and largely successful complex ecosystems within cities, Adapted excerpt from ‘Silicon States, The which were observed, championed, and Power and Politics of Big Tech and What highlighted in Jane Jacobs’s famous it Means For our Future’, © 2018 by Lucie 1961 book The Death and Life of Great Greene. Reprinted by permission of

GETTY IMAGES; GETTY IMAGES; UNSPLASH American Cities. Today, Silicon Valley Counterpoint Press

49 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 S energy to energy Jamaica's music scene you bringing new through the artists musical life. Here, Reggae is an of intrinsic part Boisdale's justice, povertyandfaith.ThroughBobMarley’s vehicle forcompletelyoriginalsongsaboutlove, cover versionsofinternationalhits,andhasbeena versatility. Ithasyieldedsomeofthemostinventive its distinctive,off-beatrhythmandadaptive a populationofjustthreemillionpeoplestillretains art form,borntoupliftinthe faceofstruggle. a differentaspectofthisimmortal andmultifaceted been included.Thatsaid,each ofthesesixrepresents and therearemanyworthyvocalists whocouldhave the worldscene.Reggaeisan incrediblybroadmusic artists, bothestablishedandnew, whoareshaping teachings ofRastafaritoafreshaudience. Jamaican performershavecontinuedtoespousethe and inthelastdecade,aresurgenceofyoung reggae’s veteransarestilltouringtoadoringcrowds, in reggae’s instrumentaloffshoot,dub.Yet manyof the remixandproductiontechniquesdeveloped sound systems–toelectronicdancemusic,adopting the useofmicrophonebattlesoverrecordsspunon almost everygenrefromgrimeandhiphop–through of allagesineverycountry. Itsinﬂuenceisfelt in spiritual beliefsystemrootedinAfricanreligion. music, ithasintroducedtheworldtoRastafari,a There followsaselectionofsixJamaicanreggae Today reggaeislistenedtoandplayedbypeople REGGAE export of an island with a brutal history and globe. Nearly60yearslater, thesonic in Jamaica,reggaehasspreadaroundthe already fertileandinnovativemusicscene ince itsbirthinthelateSixties,froman Angus Taylor

BOISDALE GUIDE THE takes takes

McNaughton Jamar "Chronixx" Rising reggae star,

IMAGE CREDIT CULTURE

▼BERES HAMMOND THE ELDER STATESMAN Possessed of a grainy tone as rich as a pint of creamy stout, veteran crooner Beres Hammond still fi lls venues with crowds of screaming admirers for more than 40 years. He achieved superstar status fairly late in his career: Following a stint as the singer in Seventies group, Zap Pow, he became a hit-maker in the Eighties and Nineties with producers Willie Lindo and Donovan Germain. Since then he has been unstoppable. His 2018 UK tour sold out and his latest album Never Ending, topped the Billboard charts. Reggae song- Protoje, a highly writing is often honed with new respected lyricist melodies to existing famous and singer who also ◀ CHRONIXX rhythms. At this Beres excels – collaborates with THE RISING SUPERSTAR Chronixx Soft-voiced Spanish Town vocalist Jamar “Chronixx” McNaughton carries the weight of the reggae Reggae has been a vehicle ▲ PROTOJE industry’s expectation on his THE DEEP THINKER young shoulders. The son of the for completely original A crucial fi gurehead in Jamaica’s singer Chronicle, Chronixx new roots movement, Protoje is revealed musical talent at an early songs about love, justice, a lyricist specialising in cool love age, directing his local church’s poverty and faith songs and scathing social youth choir. Now a proponent of commentary. The son of singer Rastafari, he enjoys a grassroots his keen observations of romantic Lorna Bennett, who had a 1972 following in Jamaica and abroad. encounters or reggae dances mark British chart hit covering Dusty Comfortable with reggae and more him as one of the all-time greats. Springfi eld’s “Breakfast in Bed”, up-tempo dancehall rhythms, he Protoje has gradually ascended the satisfi ed the purists with 2014’s Key album: His catalogue is vast, international reggae rankings with extended EP, The Dread & Terrible but a worthy starting point is an easy-going manner and a steely Project, before experimenting with 2001’s Music is Life, featuring the determination. Following a phase a diverse range of global styles on nostalgic “Rock Away”, and of riding retro rhythms infl uenced 2017’s debut album, Chronology. “Dance 4 Me” with Wyclef Jean. by Eighties studio wizards Sly and Chronixx is a leading fi gure Robbie, he distilled his music in a collaborative group of young down to a highly original, Jamaican artists, controversially seamless blend of contemporary called the “reggae revival”, which roots and conscious hip hop. His includes Protoje, Kabaka Pyramid, 2014 collaboration with Chronixx, Jesse Royal and Jah9. His recent “Who Knows”, was the fi rst reggae concert at Alexandra Palace, with song in years to be play-listed by Protoje as support, was sold out. Radio 1 and in 2018 he repeated the achievement with solo single Key album: Chronology. Reggae “Like This”. purists question the second half, which departs from traditional Key album: A Matter of Time. “one-drop” beats in favour of hip Protoje’s fi fth long-player (his hop and even chant-chorused second with producer Winta Beres Hammond, dance pop. But Chronixx resists who has been James) is his most streamlined and categorisation as purely a reggae performing since innovative to date – a moody, artist and these songs bring his the Seventies late-night rumination on the

THE GUARDIAN Rasta messages to the mainstream. meaning of modern existence.

51 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2017 ISSUE 10 CULTURE

Clockwise from top left: Reggae’s new face, Koffee; and current stars Jah9 and Samory I The Authentic Coastal Spirit

▲ JAH9 THE RASTA POET After decades of under-representation, female reggae artists are becoming more numerous. One of the more striking to come out of Jamaica recently is poet, activist and Rastafari thinker, Janine “Jah9” Cunningham. The daughter of a preacher, who ▲ SAMORY I ▲ KOFFEE walked away from a corporate career to become THE CLASSIC ROOTS THE UP-AND-COMER a musician, Jah9 combines an unconventional yet SINGER At just 18 years of age, has pleasing sense of melody with a mixture of fi erce Where reggae purists might rocketed from Spanish Town commitment and playful humour. Jah9’s question the genre-hopping of schoolgirl to Jamaica’s fastest unapologetically intellectual stance and Rasta a Chronixx or Protoje, devout rising young reggae artist. Her repositioning of modern millennial pursuits such as young Rasta singer Samory I songs, “Burning” and yoga, wellness and veganism make her a feminist offers a gateway to the cultural “Raggamuffi n”, have been played icon – even if she has rejected the label in the past. music of the Seventies. His eerie, at sound-system dances around Her new EP, Feelings, is out now. otherworldly voice helped him the world, she’s appeared at escape a troubled youth in the Jamaica’s famed Rebel Salute Key album: New Name. Jah9’s 2013 debut, built with Kencot area of central Kingston, festival and has travelled to producer and sound system selector Rory Gilligan, catching the ears of Rory Gilligan Europe as the guest of seasoned trumpeted her arrival. It showcases both her and Bridgett Anderson (manager singers Cocoa Tea and Chronixx. A seriousness (the title track’s mystical clarion call) and of beloved Nineties singer Garnett humble, thoughtful, prodigiously her earthy wit (organic love song “Avocado”). Silk). His fi rst album, Black Gold talented vocalist arrived fl awless and fully formed. and lyricist, her progress thus far This year he has been travelling suggests a bright future ahead. the European festival circuit earning rave reviews. Key album: Koffee has yet to Reggae is an immortal release an album but has recently and multifaceted art Key album: Black Gold. Samory’s signed a record deal with Rory-produced fi rst record is one Columbia UK, and is working on form, born to uplift in of the strongest reggae albums of a project with Walshy Fire of \FishersGin

the decade. Major Lazer. REX FEATURES TERI PENGILLEY / EYEVINE, ASSOCIATION, PRESS SKELSEY VERONIQUE SAM POTTS, the face of struggle Handcrafed in Sufolk and inspired by the ocean, \FishersGin Fishers Gin is a natural expression of the English Coast. \Fishers_Gin 52 www.FishersGin.com BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 Please enjoy Fishers responsibly. The Authentic Coastal Spirit

\FishersGin Handcrafed in Sufolk and inspired by the ocean, \FishersGin Fishers Gin is a natural expression of the English Coast. \Fishers_Gin www.FishersGin.com Please enjoy Fishers responsibly. TRAVEL

54 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 BAYWATCH OF THE BALKANS For perfect weather, pristine waters and a thick slice of ancient history and culture, Ranald Macdonald heads to Montenegro and checks in to the Chedi Luštica Bay

hirty years ago I could never Bond’s captivating winner-takes-all $100 have imagined that one day million poker game in Casino Royale is I would have four wonderful glamorously set in Montenegro – a place grown-up children and be in the I realised I knew virtually nothing about. Tfortunate position of considering how to Where was it, I wondered? And what did celebrate my 30th wedding anniversary. it have to offer beyond some lush This was clearly an excuse for a week of vegetation around a grand hotel casino? stimulating indulgence, but where? I did some research, which was I now find myself comfortably placed encouraging. We’ve never been anywhere in the upper echelons of the middle aged near there: tick. The temperature in late and with reasonable possession of my October is usually in the mid-20s and faculties, although my decision-making perfect for us: tick. I discovered it is a abilities are very much diminished by remarkably unspoilt, tiny and beautiful choice, which I consider the greatest mountainous country sporting an curse of the 21st century. The appropriate amazing coastline: tick. The food and destination for a week’s commemoration wine, I read, are good and honest with of half a lifetime together is a tantalising some of the best seafood in Europe: and delicious dilemma. But after far bigger tick. Culturally Montenegro longer than one would have spent with a punches extraordinarily high with an travel agent in the golden pre-internet age enthralling history that includes a of my youth, and having circumnavigated soupçon of virtually everything that’s the world several times with bleary, ever happened in the world right up to aching, Google eyes, I was not one inch the late 20th century. If historical sites closer to the desired elusive destination. and architecture are your thing there’s For a week, we did not want to fly too plenty to go around: massive tick. far, but we did want a unique experience, So where to stay? We clearly wanted some sun, a little pampering, excellent to be on the coast in southern food, inspiring landscape, ideally the sea, Montenegro, so that narrowed it down and hopefully to be immersed in an a bit, and when I saw that the renowned interesting, ancient and hopefully luxury hotel group Chedi had recently relatively unknown culture. Ticking a opened in Luštica Bay, I knew I need look handful of these boxes were Southern no further. Here, beyond all the other Spain and Italy, Greece, Turkey, and the attractions of Montenegro, was like, but nothing really grabbed me. undoubtedly the perfect pampering base It was while watching my favourite for a week of exploration: biggest tick yet. James Bond film for the umpteenth time So I investigated further. Montenegro, that I had my fabulous Eureka! moment. despite being one of the smallest

55 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 TRAVEL

countries in Europe, is called ‘the land of six continents’ because of its extraordinary geographical and climatic diversity. In the north it is dramatic and mountainous, and the south has a gorgeous, fertile Mediterranean coastal landscape. It is on a similar latitude to Rome, is only 300 km from Italy and borders Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Croatia. The country is 14,000 square kilometres with a population of 600,000. To put it into context, Montenegro is three-quarters the size of Wales with only a ﬁfth of the population. It has more bird and wild ﬂower species (22 unique to Montenegro) than anywhere else in Europe, as well as bears, wolves and all sorts of excitement in the wild highlands.

lmost every civilisation has left its mark on Montenegro, making it a veritable crossroads of culture and history. In the ABronze Age of 9th-century BC, what we now know as Montenegro was part of an Illyrian Kingdom that spent most of its amenities, including a private beach, time fighting the Macedonians. The Almost every infinity pool and two excellent Greeks – not at this point to be confused civilisation has restaurants (check out the amazing with the Macedonians – then colonised locally-caught seafood at The Spot on the Montenegro in the 6th century BC and left its mark here sea front, where we ate sublime sea bass). there are rumours of a Celtic invasion in here, making it The spa was world class, with indoor the 4th century BC. Rome took over big pool, sauna, steam room, incredibly well time in 168 BC and for 578 years things a crossroads of equipped gym (not that this is where I stabilised a bit and interesting structures culture and history spent my time!) and most importantly were built, of which there are some absurdly brilliant therapists. If you stay wonderful remains. After the fall of Rome there, ask for a Thai lady called Pensiri, in 410 AD and a brief affair with the who has lived very happily in Goths, the Slavs invaded in the 6th is more like a private airfield, and were Montenegro for nine years and is the very century with pretty much continual met by an ominous-looking black best masseuse I have ever had the lasting effect until the Republic of Venice Mercedes limousine. Please believe me pleasure to encounter. The 1½-hour took control in the South from 1420 for when I say that the driver (soon to be our Chedi Signature Massage, a fusion of dry nearly 400 years, while the Ottomans friend) could have been the stunt double Thai, oil and stretching, is worth the conquered the North. Napoleon took for Daniel Craig. He even wore a fitted journey alone! Montenegro in 1797 for a short spell and Armani-style black suit, white shirt and Unfortunately, breakfast was a independence was regained and lost a tie. He became our travelling companion disappointment – it was really far too few times over the next two centuries and fixer for the rest of the week. Funnily good! For those of us who have difficulty until final restoration in 2006. Overall, enough he was also a professional resisting temptation, a breakfast after the Slavs, the Romans and Venetians bodyguard and his name, which could encompassing everything one could ever left the most indelible mark and Italian have been straight out of an Iain Fleming want to eat in the morning is poor language, culture and cuisine still novel as well as being amusingly preparation for a culinary tour involving permeates modern Slavic Montenegro to appropriate, was Tripo. After a 15-minute fabulous lunches and dinners. My this day. It was, incidentally, the journey from the airport to our hotel, we sincere recommendation is that you Venetians who named the country “black were unpacking in our gorgeous room. order room service and more sensibly mountain” in reference to the densely The Chedi Luštica Bay is a marvel: break your fast with moderation on your tree-clad, jagged mountains that soar discreet, unaffected, pure luxury in a bedroom balcony overlooking the sea. majestically to the heavens and appear glorious setting overlooking the Adriatic. Luštica Bay itself is a small, recently jet-black against the blue azure sky. We were made to feel immediately at developed and sympathetically designed After a 2½-hour flight, we glided home by the extremely courteous and village that looks as if it has always been effortlessly through Tivat Airport, which friendly staff. The hotel has superb there. It has an attractive marina and vast

56 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 TRAVEL

and, to the uninitiated, completely Clockwise from counter-intuitive. In every little port Montenegro is bottom left: the port there are a huddle of charming bars and called the ‘land of Herceg Novi; a suite restaurants that all look worthy of at the Chedi hotel; investigation! We could have easily spent of six continents’ Lustica village; Kate several days exploring by boat as there is Macdonald in Perest, because of its just so much to see. Our lunch that day overlooking the Adriatic was at the superb Galion Restaurant in extraordinary the Bay of Kotor, whose glass walls afford diversity breathtaking panoramic views. We enjoyed an enormous roasted John Dory, fresh out of the sea, with boiled potatoes and chard. Simple perfection. For the are either home-grown or delivered by week we only drank Montenegrin wines, local fisherman at noon. These which were all too eminently quaffable. ingredients are presented as the menu Funnily enough, although our hosts were and cooked according to your preference. far more proud of their reds, which we We had a formidable and scary-looking enjoyed with excellent local goat and Scorpion fish, which was both sheep’s milk cheeses, I thought the white sensationally delicious and expensive, wines better and some truly remarkable. but worth every penny. As compensation, Perhaps the most perfect coastal guests also have access to their choice village we visited was the small, sleepy of four private beaches. fishing village of Perast. Today, it feels The other must-do excursion was a like somewhere passed over by time. In day-trip to the mountains. Our expedition its heyday during the 17th and 18th took us up steeply winding, virtually centuries, it was a bustling hive of vertical hairpin roads, which produced swathes of unspoilt wild countryside on industry and trade, and became the increasingly dramatic views until, at either side as far as the eye can see. In centre of Venice’s shipbuilding projects. 1,675 metres, we could see almost all of addition I am told there will soon be an Perast’s residents, as loyal citizens of the Montenegro from the summit of Mount 18-hole championship golf course Venetian Republic, were granted trading Lovcen. Here the legendary philosopher opening directly above the village. privileges that made them fantastically poet Prince-Bishop Petar Petrovic Njegos From Luštica Bay you can strike out rich, and able to build grand palazzos of Montenegro (1813-1851) is buried in an to everywhere you need to see in the area, and innumerable inspiring churches and astounding marble mausoleum dug deep which will keep you busy for many chapels. Most of these survive today, into the cold mountain. We descended lifetimes. Of all the countless activities albeit with laundry fluttering on their the other side of Mount Lovcen through available, a coastal cruise is a must! weathered balconies, and flowering completely different scenery, at times Popping in and out of idyllic ports for a plants climbing around their balustrades. reminiscent of the West Highlands of little refreshment and finally stopping for Over many grand doorways, the worn Scotland, to the picturesque tiny city of lunch was our itinerary. We took a very stone features of the Lion of St Mark still Cetinje, the old 15th-century capital of comfortable and incredibly fast little proudly stand guard. Montenegro. Here we visited the speedboat, of which James Bond would charming Royal Palace of the last approve, for a glorious coastal tour of the everal days were spent exploring Montenegrin king, Nikola I of the Petrovic Bay of Kotor. It was stunning – amazingly the local villages, churches, dynasty. It was all enchanting, and having clean and sparkling sea surrounded by castles and Roman ruins, usually set off at 10am from Luštica Bay, and after unbridled vibrant nature. The sea has ending up in a charming a lunch of unctuous slow-roasted carved its way into the landscape over Sunpretentious hostelry where remarkably mountain lamb in a family-run farm the millennia as a carpenter might cut a good traditional food and plentiful wine house restaurant, we were back for wooden jigsaw puzzle, giving the false for two cost less than a few gin and tonics cocktails at the Chedi for 6.30pm. impression that one is actually cruising at Claridges. Pricewise this was a We cannot recommend Montengro through a series of vast, connected glacial welcome breeze of nostalgia, similar to highly enough, and when you go you lakes and fjords. With Tolkienesque Southern Europe in the good old days should stay at the Chedi Luštica Bay. mountains rising vertically from the sea, before the euro. For the avoidance of My only disillusionment was being pearl-like white fishing villages are doubt, Montenegro is not party to the told on my return that Casino Royale was strung out on the shore’s edge in sporadic euro, although it is the accepted not actually filmed in Montenegro. By sheltered bays. As you come into the currency. It must also be mentioned that then it really did not really matter, medieval harbours you see that the there are extremely fine and extravagant although I did wonder, why not? clusters of buildings are, surprisingly, restaurants that are definitely worth mini-Venices of stunning 17th- and visiting. Our favourite was Ribarsko Selo For information, bookings and property 18th-century Renaissance and Baroque on the Luštica Penisular, to which you investment, go to chedilusicabay.com architecture. It is really quite amazing can arrive by land or sea. All ingredients and lusticabay.com

57 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 We firmly believe in whisky at its most uncomplicated – simply a blend of some of the world’s finest Single Malt Scotch Whiskies, further matured in first-fill Sherry casks

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The remarkable jeweller Mountain climber Tom Parker Bowles on We lunch with behind Meghan Markle's Kenton Cool reveals the decline of London's Ed Wray, the man ring is now producing what it takes to summit once-beloved French behind online-betting cuff inks for Boisdale Everest 13 times bistros and brasseries behemoth, BetFair,

64 ROAD RUNNER Our review of every aspect of the new Bentley Continental GT – from its performance on the open road to its sleek and sensuous interior

59 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 Craftsmen at work in Cleave’s Sussex studio

Craft A LINK WITH THE CRAFT TRADITION The firm behind Meghan Markle’s engagement ring, Prince William’s garter star and finery the world over, has now produced some exceptional cufflinks for Boisdale, writes Timothy Barber

hen I first speak to Peter Scott by phone, he’s Boisdale cuffinks from in West Africa – on Cleave, £185, in sterling holiday, I presume, or silver and enamel W perhaps sourcing gemstones for his company, the artisan jeweller Cleave? The answer is much more interesting. “I’m in Sierra Leone because we’ve done work for the paramount chiefs here,” he says, referring to the country’s crest of the Macdonalds of Clanranald, tribal chieftains. Cleave has made the ancient Highland clan of Boisdale’s them staffs of office, replacing ones founder, Ranald Macdonald. The motto, originally presented by Queen Victoria. “Dhandeon co heiragh”, is also that of “I realised that since many had been the SAS: it means “Who dares wins”. lost, 140 chiefdoms shared less than Cufflinks are a popular part of 30 staffs of office. And of course it was “That was all top secret, even the the work Cleave does on private inappropriate that a country that had guy who made the ring didn’t know,” commission, as are decorative fountain been independent since 1961 should says Scott. Other recent commissions pens and bespoke jewels. “It’s applying have officials carting symbols with have included an eagle-headed the skills we have as medalists and Queen Victoria’s royal coat of arms on scabbard for the Emir of Qatar to insignia-makers in different ways,” says it, so we made new ones.” present at Sandhurst, a baton for the Scott, founder and managing director Cleave is not your average jewellery king of Swaziland, and the Duke of of Cleave, which has a hard-working business – it has no shop, and jewellery Cambridge’s magnificent Garter Star. studio in Sussex, while also working is the very least of what it produces. To this list one may now add another with London’s rich network of artisans. Regalia, medals, insignia and finery name of rare eminence: Boisdale. The process, Scott says, is much like of the most ornate and highly-crafted Cleave, whose London HQ is a stone’s having a bespoke suit made: a client can kind are its stock in trade, both for the throw from Boisdale of Belgravia, is be involved in every decision as an item British establishment – it holds Royal producing a set of fine cufflinks, made is gradually crafted. warrants from both the Queen and the in sterling silver and vitreous enamel, “People don’t necessarily want Prince of Wales – and for governments and available to patrons to buy. On something that’s standard and around the world. Though it very much one side, in red on white enamel, is commodotised,” says Scott. “This is does do jewellery too: Cleave made the the Lion Rampant, the Royal Banner about doing something unique.” diamond engagement ring Prince Harry of Scotland; while on the large outer For more information, visit Cleave.com

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60 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 PURSUITS

TEUTONIC GLOW CAPITAL APPEAL Pick yourself a London Germany’s most lauded watchmaker, A Lange & Sohne, is limited edition opening a London boutique at last, where you’ll find this wristwatch luminescent version of its spectacular chronograph

Watches

That A Lange & Sohne is today held up as one of the world’s fi nest watchmakers, and fi nally with its own shop on Bond Street stocking German- made watches to rival those of Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin, is all the more remarkable for the fact that, not in the shadows, and led the so long ago, it had all but ceased greatest revival in modern Offi cine Panerai to exist. Founded in 1845 in the watchmaking. In 1994 the Luminor Marina 8 Days Saxony village of Glashutte by brand produced its fi rst new Titanio London Edition Ferdinand Lange and quickly watches in 50 years, and Having opened its smart London established on the world climbed straight back to the shop on New Bond Street earlier stage, the fi rm disappeared top of the horological heap by this year, Italy’s Panerai has during the years of the GDR, mixing Teutonic exactitude produced a titanium version of its workshops – and those of with a level of hand-fi nishing its classic Luminor watch with a the other Glashutte fi rms that that is mesmerising. view of Westminster engraved had proliferated around Perhaps Lange’s most on the back. it – expropriated by the famous watch is its ‘big date’ £5,900 Panerai.com Soviet regime. It seemed chronograph, the hand- that watchmaking in wound Datograph Up/ Germany was dead. Down. A new limited It was Walter edition (pictured) Lange, Ferdinand’s features a smoky see- great grandson, through dial with who returned highly luminescent to Glashutte elements for glow- after Germany’s in-the-dark cool. reunifi cation, Find it now among the ferreted out the other masterpieces in dormant skills A Lange & Sohne’s new and knowledge of home on Old Bond Street. watchmakers who’d For more information, visit endured three decades alange-soehn.com Omega Seamaster, London Boutique Exclusive Edition It’s 60 years since Omega launched the f rst Seamaster wristwatch, and this might be one of the most sublime versions yet. The domed, blue lacquered dial fades to shadowy black at the edges, while London landmarks are engraved around the edges of a caseback revealing Omega’s stunning Master Chronometer movement. Available in late January at Omega boutiques. £5,600 Omega.com

61 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 PURSUITS

BOISDALE APPROVES A foray into the finer things

Luxury

THE CONNAUGHT’S SECRET TOWNHOUSE More discreet than Claridges, more characterful than the Dorchester, and more stylish than just about anywhere, the Connaught Hotel has long been a temple of old-school Mayfair sophistication – and it now has its own, ultra-suave Mews House for those who want to keep their own front door while staying in the lap of luxury. You’ll just need a reported £12,000 handy to book the three-storey house, which of course comes with a 24-hour butler service, artworks by Louise Bourgeois and Camille Henrot, an outside terrace and visits on order from the Connaught Bar’s Martini Trolley. FISHERS GIN X SLOE GIN = HEAVEN Most importantly, of course, it’s just a few minute’s walk, via Grosvenor 25ml Fishers Gin t’s the beautifully designed bottle that ﬁrst Square, to Boisdale of Mayfair for 25ml homemade sloe gin grabs. But on tasting Fishers Gin, it’s the supper. To book, call 020 7107 8945 or 20ml calvados I mysterious botanicals – from plants like email [email protected] 15ml lemon juice spignel, rock samphire, bog myrtle and wood 15ml demerara sugar syrup avens, all of them foraged from the Suffolk Redcurrants coastline – that impart such an enlivening and pleasingly unusual character. They also make it an excellent match for Shake all ingredients with ice and some festive sloe action, should you (like strain into a chilled Martini glass. Boisdale) have been storing some sloe gin up Garnish with redcurrants for a few months ahead of the holidays. Oozing aromatic ﬂavour and as red as Santa’s coat, this fshersgin.com is the perfect gin tipple to see in Christmas.

CIGAR BACKGAMMON THE CIGSOR SET BY ALEXANDRA SENSOR LLEWELLYN The proliferation of smart tech Alexandra Llewellyn is the queen may have its detractors (see of handmade and bespoke page 46), but on the plus side it backgammon tables and sets, can add a satisfying gadgety which include this table-top set angle to just about anything – printed with cigars, smoke trails including cigars. Cigsor, a and drying tobacco leaves. Made Swiss-based start-up, uses a in exotic ziricote wood, lacquer cigar-shaped sensor that and calf leather, it can be monitors the humidity levels in personalised too. £4,700 your humidor. It connects to a alexandrallewllyn.com phone app, and will notify you when values go outside set limits CHF339 cigsor.com

62 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 www.robertburnswhisky.com

Burns Boisdale 210x280mm 071118.indd 1 07/11/2018 17:06 Cars CONTINENTAL RELOADED Bentley’s all-new version of the Continental GT is as good on the school run as let loose on the open road, Ben Oliver discovers

n 2012, Australia’s freewheeling public road. The car that carried me Country Liberal Party won power beyond 200mph in Australia coped with in the Northern Territory. (Please this more mundane task just as easily. bear with me, this does have some Few cars have the extraordinary span of relevance to the new Bentley ability and purpose of a Continental GT IContinental GT.) Despite its endless – but that has always been its appeal. arrow-straight Outback roads and the We motoring journalists didn’t get fact that many were once derestricted, that at first. I wrote about the first road Australia’s speed limits are now test of the ‘Conti’ when it launched enervatingly low and solemnly enforced. in 2003. The great names of British The Country Liberals stuck two dusty, motoring were all being rebooted by new calloused, farmers’ fingers up at the foreign owners then, and Volkswagen’s global trend to reduce limits and once take on the Bentley didn’t seem as more derestricted a stretch of the Stuart successful as BMW’s reinvention of Highway, which runs north from Alice Range Rover and Rolls-Royce. Its looks Springs to Darwin, 1,000 miles away. were a little lumpen by comparison The Stuart is much like a British with Continentals of old, which were A-road, with a lane in each direction glamorous, often bespoke ‘Gentlemen’s and no central barrier. I celebrated its Expresses’ favoured by Peter Sellers, liberation by driving along it in a among other stars. We recognised that standard Bentley Continental GT at a range of ability, but it seemed to bring satellite-verified 329km/h (204mph), too many compromises. The braking and with the full approval of the local police cooling systems required to do 200mph and the assistance of a spotter in a made it monstrously heavy for a helicopter who would advise me by two-seat sports car at 2.4 tonnes, and radio of any ’roos, tractors or sun-crazed its ability to do most things meant locals in my path. The car was so it couldn’t do anything brilliantly – it accelerative and so composed that couldn’t glide like a Rolls nor handle earlier this year. The Continental GT is despite a surface buckled by the furious with the precision of a Ferrari. the most important Bentley ever made, heat and a heat haze that limited my Buyers didn’t care. They loved the simply for the fact that it has given the visibility to a couple of seconds ahead, fact that this prestigious, 200mph company a scale and stability it has long the entire exercise felt oddly undramatic supercar had saloon-like visibility, four lacked. Sales leapt from 1,000 in 2003 to and was over disappointingly quickly. seats, a decent boot, an idiot-proof 7,500 in 2004, and were 11,000 last year. Another Continental GT sits outside automatic gearbox and four-wheel drive, The Continental GT that took the kids my house as I write. This morning I which made its immense power easy to to school this morning is an entirely new put my two small children inside and deploy on all surfaces and in all car but shares the looks, layout and drove them to school. A mile of rough, weathers. They bought 65,000 of them concept of the previous generation: potholed farm track connects us to the before this new version was launched Bentley has wisely chosen not to mess

64 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 PURSUITS

The Bentley “Conti” GT, left and below, has had a beauty and tech makeover, and can reach 60mph in 3.6 seconds

with the chemistry. The looks are shared inasmuch as this is recognisably the new version of the old car. But it is much more handsome. It is longer, lower and rakish, with a lamp and grille treatment that make it look less like a surprised halibut. Its incredibly sharp, pronounced creases have been ‘superformed’ into the bodysides with very high-pressure water jets – an expensive process. This creates an alternating light and shade that break up the car’s visual mass and give the impression of sharp tailoring over a muscular body – like Boisdale’s regulars. On exiting the cabin you’ll remember how it felt more than its looks or smell. There is buttery leather everywhere your hands stray, from the headlining above you to the lining of the door pockets. The backs of the door handles and the ‘organ stops’ that open the air vents are The glamorous interior knurled – a Bentley feature since the features a touchscreen dashboard and Breitling year dot. The veneers are piano-smooth dials, as well as plenty and ﬁt precisely. It’s a sensory treat. of “buttery leather” and It looks extraordinary too, of course. “piano-smooth” veneers There’s little point describing mine in detail as you can have yours any way

65 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 PURSUITS

fully extend their right foot and hold it out, and to have found somewhere safe and socially acceptable to do so. You’ll get the usual physiological effects of such instant acceleration – raised pulse rate, tightening of the chest – but there’s little fuss from the car. It just grips and goes. The exhaust note gives a crisper, harder bark under power, and a lovely deep rumble when you back off the throttle. But it’s muted and never intrusive, like distant artillery. This new model is still struggling to reconcile all its ambitions. The need to cope with a top speed beyond 200mph means the suspension is too

The new Bentley you want – any shade of leather, and Continental GT has wood from your own estate if you wish. been reimagined as But the architecture and underlying tech a sleek, sexy all-rounder, remain constant. Pleasingly, Bentley able to patiently manage has eschewed the trend to simplify car stop-start urban traffc cockpits by controlling everything from as well as top speeds on the open road a touchscreen. Like everyone in the Eighties, my five-year-old judges the premium status of a car by the number of buttons it has, and the Conti has many. There is a touchscreen, of course, which is huge and intuitive to use, but it also motors around like James Bond’s muscular to glide over London’s scarred numberplates and is replaced by three This new version of surfaces, and its huge mass means it Breitling dials with a compass, outside won’t handle with the deftness of a more temperature gauge and stopwatch. the old car is much focussed sports car. Never mind. It does With the screen hidden it may look more handsome. It both well enough for most, and more like 1983 again, but the new Conti’s things well than most of its rivals. impressive safety suite is still looking is longer, lower and Sadly, it will never do its 207mph after you. It shares its platform with the more rakish through the Outback: the Country new Porsche Panamera and so benefits Liberals (what a name!) were kicked out from some very expensive, advanced in 2016 and speed limits re-imposed on tech, developed to be shared with its the Stuart Highway. Later in its life this VW Group siblings. It can read speed experience of the Conti. Modern roads model is likely to get a hybrid electric limits, spot pedestrians in the dark and and speed limits mean you will seldom, powertrain and semi-autonomous report this all to you on the fighter if ever, use all of the 6-litre, 12-cylinder, self-driving abilities. A Bentley owner jet-style head-up display that seems to twin-turbocharged engine’s 626 venturing that far in future is more likely float above the Bentley B on the nose. horsepower. The car has lost a little to be driven to Darwin by his car than Unlike my Australian car, it doesn’t have weight but is still porcine at 2,244kgs. vice versa; the Bentley reading and a spotter in a helicopter ahead, but you Yet that engine renders its mass strictly adhering to the limits while he probably no longer need one. irrelevant, accelerating to 60mph in 3.7 plays with the buttons in that fabulous I’ve described the looks, cabin and seconds (3.7!) and on to a V-Max of cabin. Things could be worse. tech first as these will dominate your 207mph. It requires the driver only to Prices from £159,100

66 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 0818_Boisdale Life_UK_01_Layout 1 8/23/18 5:05 PM Page 1

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© 2018 Jeferies LLC. In the United Kingdom, Jeferies International Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Kenton Cool contemplating the ascent of Mount Everest in the Himalayas. He has reached the summit – which straddles the border of China and Nepal – 13 times. On his wrist is Montblanc’s 1858 Geosphere wristwatch PURSUITS

Adventure THE MOUNTAIN MAN Boisdale Life talks to Britain’s greatest living mountaineer, Kenton Cool

Kenton Cool, 45, is one of the world’s leading alpinists and mountaineers, who if you want to attempt these mountains has climbed the summit of Mount Everest more times than any other Briton. In with very little experience, that’s up to 2007, he even summitted twice in one week. He has led Sir Ranulph Fiennes up you. My only caveat is: Don’t draw the mountain twice, and was also the first Brit to ski down a mountain more than other people in and put them in danger eight kilometres high. He spoke to Boisdale Life on his return from his thirteenth through your own actions. Everest ascent, alongside the TV presenter Ben Fogle, this summer B: What’s your approach as a guide? Boisdale: After you’ve been up Everest cameraman, summitted on 16 May, KC: I work with clients one on one, in 13 times, does it become routine? which was the busiest day ever for the a very bespoke manner. With Everest, Kenton Cool: Absolutely not! It’s life Everest summit, though it didn’t feel the expedition might be five weeks or stripped bare up there: you’re not that way to us. We got ahead of anyone so, but that’s the culmination of two worried about your tax return, or your who may have slowed us up, and it felt years’ worth of preparation together. deadline or whatever other noise we all like a great day in the mountains. I used to rock-up in Kathmandu, meet have in our lives. For a moment you’re five or six clients whom I’d never met in your own little bubble in which B: We hear a lot about long queues on before, and then be expected to take you’re completely focussed on the now. the mountain, about litter and dubious them up Everest. But I had a near miss And when you’re on the summit, it’s operators. Are the scare stories true? with Bonita Norris several years ago still fabulous. I think routine would KC: Everest isn’t a rubbish tip as many [Norris, then 22 and the youngest lead to complacency, which is one of people think it is, and Ben himself has British woman to summit Everest, the most dangerous things in the world. talked about the very positive injured her back on the Hillary Step As soon as it sneaks in, you start cutting experience he had. Having said that, the and had to be rescued by Cool and corners on things, or making mistakes. industry is getting slammed, and I think a Sherpa team]. I looked at the industry And if you make a mistake on Everest, to a certain extent rightly so. At the and thought there must be a better way. it bites you very hard and someone moment there’s a lot more local When you’re climbing one of the normally ends up dying. operators coming into the market, who world’s most dangerous mountains, you potentially don’t have the depth of need a level of service that’s second to B: Is mountaineering more about experience or attention to detail. While none. It means the likelihood of success physical or mental ability? some of my colleagues and I might turn is increased, but the risk involved is KC: Both of course, but on the big down clients who we think aren’t up negated that much more. We’re a team peaks, those who get to the top are the to it or need more experience, all of climbing as friends, rather than a guide ones who have the mental stamina and a sudden there are operators who are and client who don’t know each other. fortitude to see it out, because it’s very looking for profit margins, who will easy to find an excuse to go home. A lot take almost anyone. B: What does the two-year prep entail? of it is actually patience: You have to be We’ve seen a big explosion in the KC: We might start out going to prepared to wait out the weather and Indian and Chinese markets for Chamonix for some climbing, to see i bad conditions and wait for the right adventure travel, so I’m worried we see f we can bond together, and what your time, and that can take weeks. more and more people on the mountain mental and physical abilities are. By who don’t have the experience to be the time we get to Everest, we’ll have B: How did Ben Fogle measure up as there. But that’s also the wonderful climbed in the UK and Europe, we’ll a climbing partner? thing about mountaineering as a sport: have been down to somewhere like KC: I’ve known Ben for many years, and Bolivia, and will have already been to he’s exactly the person you’d hope him Nepal. If you give me enough time over to be: He’s very charismatic and very those two years, I can take you to that caring, and a nice person to hang out The expedition mountain and you can legitimately say with. That’s really what you need in that you deserve to be there. a climbing companion. The Olympic might be five weeks cyclist Victoria Pendelton was also with or so, but that’s the B: Where is somewhere more unusual us, although she didn’t summit, and that holds a particular allure for you? Ben’s father-in-law even came along for culmination of two KC: I’m excited about going back to some of the way. Ben and I, and our years’ preparation Alaska soon. I spent time there in the

69 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 PURSUITS

early 2000s, and the space and beauty of that wilderness is extraordinary. “Ultimately, Nature You can ﬂy to Anchorage, and almost always wins,” Cool from the city limits you are in raw says of his profession, wilderness where you can see bears and whales breaching, as well as climb mountains and go ﬁshing. The great thing in Alaska is that you can hop on a ski plane and get dropped right in the Alaska Range. There’s no 10-day trek to basecamp, which you have to do in the Himalayas. Last year in Papua I climbed the Carstensz Pyramid, an amazing limestone mountain, but we had to trek through the jungle for eight days to get there. I hated it. River crossings, leeches, creepy crawlies, the humidity ruining all the equipment – it was hideous. As it happens, the UK is great for climbing, particularly North Wales. You could go hiking up Snowdon, but some of the hardest rock climbs in the world can be found there. The UK has small mountains, but when it comes to climbing they have big punch.

B: You were the first Brit to ski down an 8,000-metre peak. What was that like? KC: As a mountain guide, skiing is a discipline you have to have, though it was always a weak point for me as I came to it late. But I like challenging myself. It came to my attention that no British person had ever skied an 8,000-metre peak, of which there are only 14 in the world. So we went to Choy Oyu in Tibet, the sixth-highest mountain in the world, which is a good one for skiing. I was the weakest skier in the team, yet I ended up being the only one to ski down. But in order to Himalayas. I’d still love to get there to conquer, it is ourselves.” Ultimately, ski down, you’ve got to get to the top, try the west face, but I’m not sure I will. nature is always going to win. I always and I ended up doing it on my own. In 2000 I was on the first ascent of say with Everest that it’s not a case You ski down the whole way to the the Arwa Spire in northern India. To of us saying, “We are climbing Everest.” snow line – but it’s not exactly knee- enter a valley that almost no one has Rather, we are allowed to sneak up a deep powder snow. It’s combat skiing. ever been into, and then get on a peak flank of Everest if we’re very respectful, I was living in Chamonix at the time that no one has ever attempted, where and when we get to the top we should and everyone there was amazed – I everything is virgin, and to reach its humbly run away very quickly before was considered such a rubbish skier. summit after two years’ of effort... It’s she changes her mind. Mountains will a self-centred sense of accomplishment, be there long after the human race has B: What other summits are on your list? because it doesn’t mean anything to the vanished, and what we actually achieve KC: Gasherbrum IV in Pakistan is not wider world, but it gives you an on those mountains is virtually an 8,000m peak, but it’s a mythical peak incredible sense of satisfaction. meaningless. But the self-satisfaction to the climbing community. I wanted to is certainly powerful. climb it in 2006, but we couldn’t make B: Do you see mountains as something it happen. It’s remote, hideously hard, to be conquered and subdued, as in the Kenton Cool is a brand ambassador very dangerous and has only really seen phrase “Man Versus Mountain”? for Montblanc watches. For his ascent one true ascent, which is considered KC: No. It was Edmund Hillary who of Mount Everest, he wore the one of the seminal ascents in the said, “It is not the mountain we Montblanc 1858 Handwound watch.

70 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 C OURT JEWELLERS

The London Pen

T e London Pen, designed and hand made by Cleave and Company, is an exquiste and delicately enamelled silver pen. Landmarks of London decorate the barrel, and are ref ected in the river T ames which f ows down to the gold nib as if to ensure a constant and steady f ow of ink.

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SHEPHERD'S DELIGHT On the Kentish coast, the intriguing character and charm of a special town have informed the creation of Shepherd Neame's Whitstable Bay beers, now proudly stocked at all Boisdale restaurants and bars

he Old Neptune at Whitstable is one Choose from the citrus notes of Whitstable of very few pubs in the UK to actually Bay Blonde Lager; the balance of sweet malt, sit on, rather than beside, a beach. pine and citrus notes of Whitstable Bay Pale Ale; Its f oors and walls warped by the nutty malt of the Whitstable Bay Organic, Tsuccessive incursions by the sea, the ‘Neppy’, and much more besides. These are beers made as it is known locally, is worth visiting just to with the modern drinker in mind. catch the stupendous sunsets that illuminate the The Faversham Steam Brewery was the sea horizon. In winter, it provides the cosiest of name given to the nearby headquarters of shelters from the kind of coastal storms that Britain’s oldest brewer, Shepherd Neame, after blew away the original Neptune beer house it commissioned a steam engine from engineering (the current building was constructed in 1897), pioneer James Watt. The brewery sits on the while enjoying a pint of Whitstable Bay beer. banks of a saltwater creek that f ows into Whitstable, once famous solely – and Whitstable Bay, and traces its off cial foundation justif ably – for its oysters, is a place that has to 1698, although records indicate its existence developed a charm all of its own. Besides the as far back as 1573. superb seafood, shingle beaches, picturesque Shepherd Neame is not only Britain’s oldest buildings and fresh sea air that you would expect, brewery, but also the only one to hold Protected it has a raff sh, eccentric, yet laid-back character, Geographical Indication status for its strong found in the variety of independent shops, cafés Kentish ales, the same protection that is afforded and pubs that for the weary Londoner make to Champagne and Parma ham. Whitstable all the more satisfying an escape. As well as being renowned brewers, Shepherd As unique as it is hard to def ne, this Neame runs a collection of characterful pubs, character is embodied by the Old Neptune, and bars and hotels in unique locations throughout found too in the Whitstable Bay beers served London and the South East. at its bar. Combining traditional brewing methods From the George Hotel in Cranbrook, and the f nest natural ingredients, the Faversham a charming village on the Weald of Kent where Steam Brewery has created a range of delightful, Queen Elizabeth I once slept, to The Royal Hotel, intriguing beers that quench the thirst and please Deal, favoured by Lord Nelson and overlooking the palate in equal measure. the English Channel, each combines a wealth of history with a stylish, modern outlook. Shepherd Neame's Kentish collection of pubs showcases the best of the county, from country to coast, and provides a perfect opportunity to explore and rediscover the Garden of England. And, of course, they all serve great beer.

shepherdneame.co.uk UNSPLASH

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Fod LA FIN DE L’AFFAIRE Tom Parker-Bowles laments the decline of those former neighbourhood stalwarts, the French brasserie and bistro, and names the descendants keeping the cuisine alive and well

o is this it then, la fin de l’affaire? noir – brains with burnished crust and A time to whisper au revoir to the a centre like blancmange; lapin à la Sbrasserie, bid the bistro adieu? moutarde – delicate bunny wearing Because these great French institutions a creamy sauce shot through with an – lay churches of l’estomac – could go industrial blast of Moutarde de Maille. the way of le dodo, and disappear before And French cheese, oozing and pert, our very eyes. Quelle horreur! perfectly kept, and washed down with It all used to be so easy. Time was, a glass of chilled Vieille Prune. a London flâneur, in search of a decent Equally fine, although bigger, was déjeuner, barely broke a sweat in search Galvin Bistrot de Luxe, pure bourgeois of champignons à la Greque, salade brilliance with a set lunch for £18.50, frisée aux lardons or steak frites. There including a Dorset crab lasagne in was La Brasserie, in South Kensington, lobster bisque, a dish that straddled the London’s petit Paris, filled with irate delicate and bosky. And a properly waiters wearing wonky toupées, and hearty cassoulet à la maison, the sort faded, fraying black jackets, ingrained that not so much requires a post- with bitter sweat. How I miss your prandial kip as demands it. insouciant sneer, your offish Gallic Another London classic was Le Café shrug. At best, their rudeness was on a Anglais, Rowley Leigh’s magnificent par with their brethren at Brasserie Lipp, modern brasserie, with its quenelles the rudest restaurant in the rudest city Nantua, and choucroute garnie, and on earth. Magnifique! The escargots and plump rognons. Now, it too is fermé. gratinée a l’oignon were hellishly hot, so La fin. All closed in the last four years. fierce they’d strip the skin from the top Why, I hear you cry? Well, it would of your mouth. Exactly comme il faut. be too easy to blame Brexit, that awful, Just like the coq au vin and confit de ill-thought out debacle, as much travesty canard, and the pichets of Muscadet and as tragedy. Will hard-working Merlot. There was a joyous bustle to the Europeans, many who have lived and place – the sound of succour and bon toiled here for years, be thrown out santé, the clatter of fork and spoon. along with decency and common sense? Then La Bouchée, a mere Paris-Brest’s For a city not only built upon hurl away, with its precipitous stairway immigration, but one made great by it (that once, after a surfeit of Sancerre, too, it’s a horrible, desperate shame. I actually managed to tumble up, rather Granted, only Galvin and La than down), cramped, candlelit Brasserie shut up shop after the country basement, exquisitely crisp frites and soupe de poisson with the lusty swagger of a drunken cur. Oh, and that marmite de poulpe à la Provençale, all soft cephalopod and sunny Niçoise allure. If you were after something a little more de luxe, then there was Racine, Henry Harris’ billet-doux to French regional cuisine. The classics were all there, but somehow elevated to new heights of edible excitement. Tête de veau, where soft flesh kisses winsome, wobbling jelly; cerveau de veau, beurre

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Left: Brasserie Zédel in Piccadilly, an enormous site that is also home to a cabaret, bar and café. Below: Casse-Croute in Bermondsey

which you visit not so much for the mainly workman-like bistro food, as for the fact that it’s still there; and the ever-reliable Le Colombier in Chelsea (Chapeau, Didier!), which feels as if it’s been there since the French Revolution, but which only opened in 1998. Oh, and not forgetting Brasserie Zédel, that perfectly Parisian Piccadilly paean to bon temps. Casse-Croûte, in Bermondsey, and Terroirs, by Trafalgar Square, manage to There was a joyous be both old fashioned and slyly modern, while a very recent re-opening, upstairs bustle to the place at Soho’s legendary French House, sees – the sound of the great Neil Borthwick taking over the stoves. I ate there in November, and it’s succour, the clatter très, très bon. Equally exciting is Racine’s of fork and spoon Henry Harris and his new family of pubs, bringing old-school bistro cooking to The Coach in Clerkenwell, The Hero of Maida in Maida Vale, and three more voted for Brexit. The rest had gone, sites across London. His cooking is truly destroyed by London’s ever-escalating as exalted as the critics say. The truth business rates and rents, which push remains, though, that the dependable out small restaurateurs in favour of French bistro or brasserie are no longer bland, joyless chains. No one else can as ubiquitous as they were. Once afford such swingeing costs. And it’s a London staple, they now need to be From far left: The interior at Pimlico’s LaPoule au Pot; a vintage not just the traditional French sought out. photograph of L’Escargot – or restaurant that suffers; it’s squeaky- So it’s time to reignite that old L’Escargot Bienvenue as it was pants time for the entire UK restaurant Entente Cordiale – to gird one’s belly, previously known – in Soho, not only industry, at every level. to look beyond the transient and trendy, the oldest French restaurant in But it’s not all gloom and doom. Five and embrace one of the world’s great London but the oldest restaurant in London, dating to 1741; a waiter much-loved classics may have shufﬂed cuisines once more. Vive la France and at Paris’ legendary Brasserie Lipp, off this mortal coil, but there’s hope from Bon appetit! established in 1880 and a famous the old-school stalwarts: Soho’s haunt of Left Bank artists and L’Escargot, with its foie gras and boeuf Tom Parker-Bowles is a food writer, critic intellectuals, such as the poets Verlaine and Apollinaire bourgignon; Pimlico’s Poule Au Pot, and the author of ﬁve cookbooks

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Cigars juniper, citrus and gentle spice. FROM THE BOISDALE HUMIDOR Boisdale's Tobias Gorn gets in celebratory mood with a trio of big-hearted – and just plain big – cigars, suitable for every black-tie occasion over the festive season

PLASENCIA ALMA FUERTE MONTECRISTO DREW ESTATE Also pictured: GENERACION V OPEN EAGLE UNDERCROWN SHADE Cream silk ruff e shirt, £425, and black satin From Nicaragua comes this The biggest cigar of Montecristo’s BELICOSO bow tie, £90, both by medium-to-full bodied, box-pressed Open series – ostensibly dedicated Drew Estate has become quite Turnbull & Asser, Salomon, with a dark Maduro to adventurers and outdoorsmen the success since starting life in an turnbullandasser.co.uk. wrapper and a presentation box – is something of a gentle giant. NYC kiosk 20 years ago. This new Boisdale silver cuff inks with a functioning ashtray for a lid. It’s a light, elegant cigar with great line uses shade-grown wrappers by Cleave Jewellers, £185, The taste is rounded and creamy, complexity and a fantastic draw: for a lighter taste, with a host of Cleave.com. Brunswick with hints of dark chocolate, think fresh hay, coffee and cedar, New World ingredients. The notes ‘Midas’ hand-wound dress watch in gold-plated damson and cinnamon, and f nishing with a bit of citrus peel. Perfect with of toasted almonds and other bronze by Fears Watch Co,

notes of oak and Demerara sugar. a f ne whisky at Christmas, like the nutty characters in this new blend £3,950, fearswatches.com BENTLEYCREATIVE PHOTOGRAPH: Enjoy it with aged Caribbean rum. Blair Athol 18 from gunmaker Rigby. compliment a good brown ale nicely.

76 www.no3gin.com BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 UNLOCK TASTE

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dramatically in the last five years. As Wine a region it’s pulling itself off the bottom shelf of the supermarket. Too bloody right! Cava, unlike Prosecco, is not a SIGN UP TO THE cheap wine to make as it uses the same techniques as Champagne. Gramona, BOISDALE LIFE which is acknowledged to be the finest producer in the region, has been flying WINE CLUB the flag for quality Cava for years. This IN ASSOCIATION WITH BERRY BROS. & RUDD Gran Reserva is a blend of the classic Cava trinity – Macabeu, Parellada, and Xarel-lo – and after bottle fermentation is treated to long ageing in Catalan cellars. The result is appley and saline, with an intense biscuity richness on the finish. Quite delicious, and I’m afraid to say that after a sip of this you’ll never be able to drink supermarket Cava again.

ven good old Rioja is changing. In my view, many bodegas Echanged for the worse in the Nineties by trying to make Super Tuscan-style wines, dense with extract and oak. Those days are over and the accent is now on fruit and fragrance. Allende, founded in 1995, is based in Rioja Alta, the coolest part of the region. It makes Rioja with a Burgundian accent. Sí, señor! A new generation of Spanish wines is putting We’re offering the Rioja Tinto Finca the “Viva” back into España, says Henry Jeffreys Allende 2011, which is crammed with crunchy cherries, stalky floral notes, and elcome back to the Boisdale oak that plays a supporting role to all Life Wine Club (or the BLWC that fruit. We decanted it and drank it W as it’s known in Belgravia). with rump steak. It disappeared fast. This season, with the help of our chums The other great thing about Spanish at Berry Bros, we explore Spain – famed wines is their price. Beyond the very top for its red wines, but whose whites are end, they are cheaper than anything of now making waves. The last decade has equivalent quality from Italy, France, or seen a revolution in quality, with native California. And that’s before Berry Bros’ grape varieties being turned into some special offer for Boisdale Life readers! of the most mouth-watering whites on the planet. You’ve probably heard of Cases contain two bottles of each wine Clockwise from top: The six bottles in the Albariño, and even Verdejo, but what (six in total) for £100 with free delivery. spanish themed in this about Godello, Albillo, or Merseguera? Visit bbr.com/boisdale, email issue's Boisdale Life Our first wine is Bodega Mustiguillo [email protected] or call 0800 280 Wine Club offer; Mestizaje 2017. The word means 2440. Available until March 2018 Interior of the famous miscegenation, for it’s a marriage of two shop on St James; The Berry Bros. & Rudd's Spanish varieties, Merseguera and shop on Pall Mall Malvasia, and one French – Viognier. Scandalous! The producer is based up in the hills near Valencia. It starts off quite crisp with the distinct aroma of white peaches, and before your next sip, it fills out with the most delightful texture. It’s very versatile, great with fish but with enough body to take some spicy chorizo cooked with tomatoes. Next up is a Cava, Gramona La Cuvée 2013. Your average Cava has improved

78 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14

Ed Wray, co-founder of betting website Betfair, keeps his eye on the races from the comfort of Boisdale of Belgravia 80 PURSUITS

Starters Orders ODDS-ON FAVOURITE TO WIN Colin Cameron meets Betfair’s Ed Wray, the man who changed the face of betting

ike pigs finding an acorn, we all support to under-25s. These are causes as his share in Winker Watson, winner of occasionally beat the bookies. But close to his heart and, to some colleagues’ the Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot in L Ed Wray? He nearly broke them, surprise, often move him to tears. 2007. On the day, Wray was at a wedding and revolutionised the betting industry. Wray still has the original Betfair in France, but followed it on the Betfair Along with Andrew ‘Bert’ Black, Wray business plan on an old laptop. He would website. “I had to keep refreshing the is the founder of Betfair, the person-to- reference it had he not lost the password. screen,” he recalls. “The odds kept going person betting site launched in 2000 that “I can imagine that it would be almost down. Later, I thought I should make sure enables punters to wager directly with entirely wrong,” he laughs. “You learn I was at Ascot for the next time we have each other. They began in 1998 from one more in a year running a business than a Royal winner. I’m still waiting.” airless room in a South London business you can from anything on paper.” park. By 2010 they floated Betfair, then At Betfair, things moved quickly. e does like a punt, though. valued at £1.4 billion, after taking the “After six months, we knew we were on Rather than rely on the lucky heartlands of fixed betting giants such as to something, without ever thinking that HBoisdale betting hat – a Ladbrokes. “They were not best pleased,” we had made it. You keep resetting goals. Churchillian Homburg from Bates of Wray chuckles. Understandably so, as Our question was, could we scale it?” Jermyn Street, which certainly does suit Betfair essentially cuts out any significant Potential rivals were a consideration. him – Wray studies the odds. “I was at middlemen – such as bookmakers – by “Within two years of our launch there the Australian Open watching one of the taking a relatively modest percentage of was Betdaq, an exchange supported by Williams sisters lose the first set against turnover in return for providing the scope Dermot Desmond [the deep-pocketed an opponent ranked more than 100 for a market. Moreover, person-to-person Celtic Tiger]. When I advise start-ups, places below her. Once she started to find betting markets don’t have to cover the I always stress the importance of market her range, there was only one outcome.” cost of high-street betting-shop rents, so share relative to your competitors. At Wray’s business tips can also apply to after adjusting the odds in the favour of Betfair we always maintained a decent betting. Be honest with yourself, he says. punters, what profits the betting industry advantage over any rivals. In hindsight, “It’s often too early to say whether there might expect are slim. “They were an we also benefited from there being no is a market and the best ideas take time established business, so they tried to shut opportunities in America at the time.” to blossom.” He then warns that, however us down on regulatory grounds,” Wray At first, Wray says, Betfair was only going much you might kid yourself, numbers recalls. “We used that to our advantage. to focus on Group 1 flat races such as the and markets don’t lie, and adds, “Listen ‘The bookmakers don’t like us; they are Epsom Derby and Grade 1 contests over to customers.” Also, try things quickly to used to winning.’ An effective marketing jumps, such as the Cheltenham Gold Cup. see if they might work rather than perfect message. They weren’t exactly going to “We soon realised this was a mistake.” one idea. “It’s probably better to get five look kindly on something that was going Today, anything other than a Betfair ideas to the point where they are 80 per to eat their lunch, were they?” awash with runners and riders is hard cent ready rather than strive for one to be As he sits comfortably in Boisdale’s to imagine. “We have been 100 per cent 100 per cent.” The initial idea represents Belgravia flagship with a plate of venison, good for racing,” he insists. As to his own as little as five per cent of any success, he he tells me how, six years after standing betting, he rates himself “enthusiastic says. “You actually invest in people.” down as Betfair’s chair, he now divides rather than avid”, and has the odd leg or So in Betfair’s infancy, why didn’t the his time between investments and share in something with prospects, such bookies buy him out and shut him down? philanthropy. The former, which he Is the rumour true that Ladbrokes could steers with a light touch, include Funding have bought Betfair for just £20 million? Circle, LMAX, Prodigy Finance, Property “Nonsense,” Wray says. But if he was Partners, and NESTA. The charities that offered that? He considers a while. “Good he supports with his time include projects question,” is his answer. He then recalls backed by Princes William and Harry (as that Ladbrokes was worth £4 billion in well as Kate and Meghan), such as Mental 2000. “Now it’s worth a fraction of that.” Health Innovation; Coach Core, which A good lunch, you could say. teaches the underprivileged how to coach sport while building their confidence; Colin Cameron is a BBC broadcaster and

PORTRAIT: PAUL STUART PAUL PORTRAIT: and The Mix, which provides a range of contributes to the Financial Times

81 BOISDALELIFE.COM WINTER 2018 ISSUE 14 this liveconcertwasrecorded,Ella T Smith, tooksixmonths’leave fromhis American accompanist,pianist Paul in herownright.In1960, regular package showstoheadlinesuch events his touring“JazzatthePhilharmonic” from nightclubstoconcerthalls; from her manager, NormanGranz,movedher accomplished singeroftheage. confirmed herreputationasthemost Kern, Rodgers,EllingtonandBerlin interpretation ofmusicbyGershwin, pitch, precisedictionandemotional assessed”. Herperfectblendofexact 20th century’s vocalheritagewillbe by whichallsubsequentattemptsatthe Benny Green–created“ameasuringrod had –accordingtotheBritishjazzwriter in herseriesof Fitzgerald hadalreadycutthefirstfive PURSUITS Following the clever promotion.By1960,when is adoubletriumphofartistryand he classicrecord,

Song Books Song Books made made this an concert classic, instant says audacious enough, but some accidental brilliance Doing Mack the Knife for a German crowd was BY ELLA FITZGERALD, 1960 MACK THE KNIFE" N JAZZ JUKEBOX JAZZ BOISDALE’S Ella InBerlin o Jazz 2: albums.She ’ success, "ELLA IN BERLIN: BERLIN: IN "ELLA ,

the 20th century female vocalists of one of the leading Ella Fitzgerald was The groundbreaking

BOISDALELIFE.COM AUTUMN 2018 ISSUE 13 ISSUE 2018 AUTUMN

Alyn Shipton

of theseconcertswasWest Berlin’s across theUSAandEurope.Thesummit regular studiojobtotourwithElla presents Radio3’s Author andmusicianAlynShipton saxophone solo!Atruetour-de-force. Charlie Parker’s famousmodernjazz High TheMoon”,whicheven referenced and herwordlessimprovisationof“How the perfectlydeliveredballad,“Misty”: with IraGershwin’s appallinglyricpuns; the dazzlingrecord:slinky“Lorelei” And weshouldnotoverlooktherestof vocal performanceandforbestalbum. to winhertwoGrammyAwards, forbest commentary onthesituation.Itwent through brilliantscatsingingand she hadthetalenttorescuesong and that,despiteforgettingherwords, singer intheworldhadahumanside, could showthateventhemostbrilliant wreck of‘MacktheKnife’!” “Ella andherfellers,we’remakinga the nextchorustothissong?”andriffed, forget thewords!Shesang,“Oh,what’s Kurt Weill’s “MackTheKnife”onlyto of aGermancrowd)shelaunchedinto surprise –incredulityevenas(infront warmly toeverything.Buttherewasalso concert audience,whoresponded Ella appearedbeforeherlargest-ever 12,000 originallyclaimedbyGranz!). maximum of9,500people(notthe rebuilt afterWorld War IItoholda built forthe1936OlympicGamesand mighty Deutschlandhalle,originally Granz realisedthiswasgolddust.He There wasafrissonofexcitementas Jazz RecordRequests

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ResidenciesAdvertForBoisdaleLife210x280_Nov23.indd 1 23/11/2018 18:17 THE SPIRIT OF THE HUNT