Summer 2015 Issue No. 4

THE BIG INTERVIEW SIR JACKIE STEWART KELSEY GRAMMER AT HOME ON FORMULA ONE THE FUTURE OF THE BBC ANDREW MARR MARK LITTLEWOOD JACOBITE REBELLION 1715 FAREWELL TO BB KING CHURCHILL’S FIRST JONATHAN WINGATE WHISKY & SODA CON COUGHLIN GEORGE BEST THE MOVIE STEPHEN EVANS

WIN TICKETS TO SEE THE LEGEND JERRY LEE LEWIS

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EDITOR’S LETTER

Tuesday 14th July 2015 WELCOME TO SUMMER

Brits really do appreciate good weather more than anyone else on the planet. Personally, when blue skies prevail I am often encouraged to have a really long lunch, which is invariably unjustifiable, usually wonderful and I suppose, when I pause to think about it, my favourite pastime irrespective of the weather. If you enjoy alfresco dining, our Cuban Garden Terrace at Boisdale of Canary Wharf was launched by the Cuban Ambassador, Teresita Vicente Sotolongo, on 15th June (see page 15). It is now open for the whole summer, providing an exotic backdrop of palm trees and tropical plants with a gentle pulse of Cuban music, for lunch, cocktails and dinner seven days a week. Alternatively the award winning bougainvillea (some say the eighth wonder of the world!) Editor & Chief, Ranald Macdonald on the terrace at Boisdale of Belgravia in our Courtyard Garden at Boisdale of Belgravia does give the Cuban Garden Terrace some colourful competition! We ay I offer a warm welcome icons the greatest living legend of the have also put together a fantastic line-up (as I write it is rather hot and Rock’n’Roll era JERRY LEE LEWIS will of live music across all our restaurants humid) to our newly appointed be making a guest star appearance at Monday to Saturday for the summer. Editor-at-Large and International Man Boisdale of Canary Wharf on Tuesday Notably so at Boisdale of Canary Wharf, of Mystery, Paddy Renouf. I am frankly 8th September for an intimate dinner where in addition to the now very well delighted with this, our fourth issue, to celebrate his 80th birthday. The established Friday and Saturday scene, and have great confidence that you will “Killer”, as he likes to be known, is we have created a programme of tributes enjoy it. The subject matter is gloriously the last survivor of the “Million Dollar to the all-time greats (see page 46), diverse. There is simply so much worth Quartet” with Elvis, Johnny Cash and including Elvis, The Beatles and Frank reading. Paddy’s wonderful, insightful Carl Perkins. We are giving away two Sinatra, every Wednesday night until and often moving interview with Kelsey tickets to the this very special evening September. CRAFTING ETERNITY SINCE 1755 Grammer is compulsive and thought- (page 46). I sincerely hope to see you Have a wonderful summer and I do provoking. I would compel you to read there, assuming of course that you are hope that in some capacity Boisdale will 260 years of continuous history is reflected Andrew Marr’s fascinating speculation, who I think you are! be a part of it, even if only just a simply in the Harmony Collection. A new legacy has dawned. as to how the history of the world might I have learnt to adore the weather in scintillating read! have been significantly changed had Great Britain and no longer hanker after there been a different outcome at the a blistering sun. Our variable climate is Battle of Sheriffmuir in 1715. I was also certainly the nation’s principal source touched by Jonathan Wingate’s fond of truly uninspired conversation. HARMONY CHRONOGRAPH farewell to BB King, one of the greatest No subject upon which we regularly musical geniuses of the last century and exchange blatantly apparent, totally Ranald Macdonald clearly a lovely man. unnecessary observations is quite so Editor-in-Chief Boisdale Life Magazine Whilst on the subject of musical well loved by the British people - but we Founder Boisdale Restaurants & Bars Geneva official watchmaking certification

Editor & Chief Editor-at-Large Subscribe to Boisdale Life Any facts stated or opinions expressed Ranald Macdonald Paddy Renouf anywhere in the magazine are the responsibility of the individual [email protected] [email protected] Boisdale of Belgravia writers and contributors. All material 15 Eccleston Street Design omitted intentionally is the sole Managing Director London responsibility of the individual Harry Owen bevanhoward.co.uk SW1W 9LX contributors. Boisdale Life and [email protected] Digital the Editor are not responsible for any injury or loss relative to such vitaminlondon.com Telephone: 0207 259 1261 Publishing Director material. All material is compiled by sources believed to be reliable, but Cartoons by Alice Macdonald Barbara Widera BPA Audited circulation published without responsibility for [email protected] alicemacdonaldillustration.co.uk of 161,152 errors or omissions.

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COMMENT PEOPLE

THE BIG INTERVIEW THE QUANGO QUESTION SIR JACKIE STEWART LUNCHING WITH KELSEY GRAMMER JOBS FOR THE BOYS AT HOME ON FORMULA ONE LORD LONGFORD Paddy Renouf Jonathan Isaby Dominic Midgley John Mcentee 17 28 36 44

CHURCHILL’S FIRST THE FUTURE OF THE BBC IF I RULED THE WORLD B.B. KING WHISKY & SODA Mark Littlewood Martin Gilbert Jonathan Wingate Con Coughlin 30 41 47 22 THE DITHERING EARL GEORGE BEST WHAT MAKES ME LAUGH DEFLATED INFLATION AND THE JACOBITE REBELLION THE MOVIE Lawson Muncaster FOREVER OF 1715 Stephen Evans 82 Roger Bootle Andrew Marr 42 25 33

LIFESTYLE FOOD & DRINK

JAMES PURDEY & SONS LTD

THE BEST GUNSMITHS CHESTER BARRIE A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF I'VE BECOME A WINE SNOB ON THE PLANET Sam Kessler Kirsten Grant Meikle William Sitwell Sam Kessler 58 66 73 51 THE BOISDALE BAD BOYS AND WHISKY AN EXCEPTIONAL VINTAGE THE GERMAN PHOENIX TRAVELLERS CLUB Doug McIvor Charlie Miller Timothy Barber Scott Dunn 67 74 54 60 SHOOTING CHEFS BOISDALE RECIPES THE JAEGER LECOULTRE GOLD CUP BENTLEY BOYS Bill Knott Ranald Macdonald Charles Edwards Freshwater Gavin Green 71 77 56 63 À LA RECHERCHE DE L’ŒUVRE

L’ABUS D’ALCOOL EST DANGEREUX POUR LA SANTÉ, À CONSOMMER AVEC MODÉRATION 13

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DIARY CHESTERTONS POLO IN THE PARK

By the time this issue is published Ascot will be a memory for another year and many readers will be looking forward to Cowes Week, The Open and Glorious Goodwood. However, early summer now hosts one of our firm favourites – Polo in the Park! Run by the outstanding Rory Heron and helped by some libation in the Mahiki tent - Lanson Champagne flowed, the sun came out, Made in Chelsea arrived (of course) and even Flo Rida popped up!

The Made in Chelsea team at the Hurlingham Club

Kimberley Garner stealing the show! Flo Rida enjoying his first Polo outing Dominnique Karetsos and the Cutler & Gross Team

CHIVAS REGAL AT SAVILE ROW

On the 3rd of June it was off to Savile Row, where we teamed up with Alexander McQueen, to present a range of Chivas Royal Salute cocktails for the Open Row event. Modern craftsmanship was celebrated in all its forms, with Master Blender Colin Scott conducting an exclusive tasting of the Chivas Regal 18 & 25 year olds.

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DIARY DIARY MITSUBISHI BADMINTON HORSE TRIALS BOISDALE OF CANARY WHARF OPENS THE CUBAN GARDEN TERRACE

As much as we endeavour to entertain London every day in our three Boisdale restaurants - there are some occasions On Monday 15th June The Cuban Ambassador Teresita Vicente Sotolongo graciously cut the ribbon to open The Cuban Garden Terrace each summer where we – like our customers – are to be found elsewhere! Hopefully you enjoyed one of our Wagyu burgers at Boisdale of Canary Wharf to the public. The “pop up” Cuban Garden Terrace which will be in place for the whole summer is adorned at Badminton Horse Trials, where we partnered up with Freddie Tulloch in his Outside Chance Bar & Restaurant. with tropical plants including banana trees, palm trees and various exotic flowering plants. With a Cuban music playlist adding to the authentic Cuban ambiance the terrace is open for lunch, dinner and classic Cuban cocktails such as Havana Club Mojitos every day of the week.

ABOVE: David Soul, Her Excellency Mrs Teresita Vicente Sotolongo, Helen Soul & Antonio Rodriguez RIGHT: David Soul, Her Excellency Mrs Teresita Vicente Sotolongo, Pamela Jones & Ranald Macdonald

William Sitwell and his Boisdale Wagyu burger William Fox-Pitt celebrates his win at Badminton on Chilli Morning, with wife Alice, family and friends HUNTERS & FRANKAU 225TH ANNIVERSARY

On Friday 19th June Hunters & Frankau celebrated 225 years of importing cigars from Cuba at a sumptuous party in Belgrave Square. Attended by cigar royalty from all over the world, guests were lavishly entertained with vintage Pol Roger Champagne and a magnificent ROLEX BASEL COLLECTION LAUNCH selection of cigars including the delicious Limited Edition Ramon Allones “dropped head” Gordito, especially made and aged for the occasion and exclusive to Hunters & Frankau. We also hosted our members at No 1 Hyde Park, in association with The Watch Gallery, for an exclusive look at the new Rolex Basel collection.

Dag Palmer, Chairman of Boisdale Ltd, Harry Owen, MD of Boisdale Media Group & Mike Cran of Rolex Kate Macdonald and Georgina Thorburn Sean Croley, Sales and Marketing Director, Belen DeCosta, John DeCosta, Rick Zsigmond and Mark George Hunters & Frankau

The Hon. Georgiana Pike Nick Tolfree, General Manager of Rolex by The Watch Gallery shows the collection to Stacy Kivel Edward Sahakian, Jemma Freeman, Managing Director of Hunters & Frankau Edward Sahakian of Davidoff and Nic Foulkes and David Lewis Chairman of Hunters & Frankau

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COMMENT THE BIG INTERVIEW: KELSEY GRAMMER (PART I)

Editor at Large, Paddy Renouf spends a week in New York with Kelsey Grammer

WORDS BY PADDY RENOUF EDITOR-AT-LARGE FOR BOISDALE LIFE

BE THERE FOR WHAT MATTERS. Kelsey Grammer Giles Clarke / Getty Images Reportage gilesclarke.com was thrilled my good friend Kelsey the stage, greet small parties of school Diva…he orders, checks each of our • Best London airport for flight punctuality Grammer agreed to an interview children with their chaperones, Kelsey drinks, attends his wife Kayte, confirms for Boisdale Life, as its fulfillment is gracious and generous with his time her order and charms all the staff. Of • Only 20 mins from terminal entrance to departure lounge required an obligatory fun filled trip to and everyone is enjoying their moment. course in all the fun and chatter, no • On arrival, just 15 minutes from plane to train New York! Kelsey kindly suggested that Kelsey then strides through the opportunity presents itself for him I come to see his new sell-out Broadway auditorium and out through the main and me to have that quiet chat for this show Finding Neverland and have a doors onto Broadway where we slip into interview. Very fortunately his beautiful 14 mins to Canary Wharf chat over dinner afterwards… a waiting Limo. “Kels, this is going to wife Kayte invites me to join them for a 22 mins to Bank The show ended with a standing be a deathbed memory for me” I say. few days upstate at their country home. 25 mins to Westminster ovation and immediately afterwards As we head to dinner a smiling Kelsey The beautiful house is situated in we met in Kelsey’s spacious dressing concedes, “Well, you know, I do still get 500 acres of woodland and pasture, londoncityairport.com room which had been done up to a kind of tingle myself.” with some breath-taking views across Quick, punctual and actually in London. portray Hook’s lair. We sweep across However, there is no post show sweeping valleys. Murmuring brooks

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meander through a rose garden yet justice we have only published part one dad, Gordon. He was certainly playing experienced what that was like. So with to bloom, there is a large ornamental in this issue. the role of my father – he was a very David Hyde Pierce, for instance, I think lake with a pituresque gazebo on the kind man, WWII veteran, Army Corp of of him as my brother. We spent 11 years bank. We stay in the guest house, one PR – I promise I’ll try not to ask rather Engineers, fascinating fella and a pretty relating to each-other as brothers would. of two clapperboard barns made into platitudinous questions! impressive character. I was given the experience of having a dream homes containing interesting art, KG – Well the last thing I did was PR – And he wasn’t too disciplinarian? brother and living with a father through sprawling sofas and a full sized pool for Vanity Fair magazine and it was 20 KG – No, but he was strict and them – which was kinda terrific. I’ve table. It is however unpretentious and questions and it was just dreadful – it of course they went through the always said God provides you with designed for generous entertaining, with was all the old stuff about my drug use Depression. And he changed – he was extraordinary opportunities to make up an emphasis on comfort and tranquility. – which is 20 years old you know. I still always worried about money. He sort of for lost time – there are things you think La douceur de vie enjoyed in the country have a drink and get a little crazy some passed that on to me! you’ve lost and suddenly you are given PR – Do you worry about money? this gift. When I was 38 I suddenly KG – Oh yeah, all the time! Maybe it’s realized how young my father was when not realistic… he died – I thought, my gosh he was only PR – Well you are enormously just getting started. He might be a huge star of stage and screen but successful on that front! PR – Where were you when you heard KG – But there’s always a target on the news about him? Kelsey Grammer has also had to endure what your back! KG – Just in the car with my mom, she Oprah Winfrey called “unfathomable tragedy.” PR – Could you cope with being poor told us “You’re Dad was shot last night again? and he’s gone”. She started to weep and KG – Could I function as a poorer it was pretty shaky and horrible. person? Yeah, sure I could, but I have no PR – On top of the grief it must have interest in staying poor – at best I would been very frightening for a child to deal houses of the very successful. The times and get a little exercise talking be a soldier of fortune between fortunes. Paddy Renouf and Kelsey Grammer Giles Clarke / Getty Images Reportage gilesclarke.com with and life questioning too? property Overseer is the local Sheriff about politics but that’s kind of about it. PR – What about your children, may I KG – Gordon dying was of course 2 and the presence of his police car lends a PR – Well let’s just start out really ask, will you endow them? years earlier and that was tough – we hint of the Dukes of Hazard to the scene. early on, I read somewhere that you KG – Well I’m gonna try and give too many actors… and I think it is a lot PR – In England it’s become very had just moved to Florida and two days A keen surfer in his youth, Kelsey started performing because in the nicest everyone a little something, you know. harder than most people assume it is. fashionable… later he was dead. That really threw me is clearly a petrol-head too, as there way you wanted to impress your mother A helping hand but not enough to mean The good ones make it look easy and KG – It’s just a magnificent way to – I didn’t cry for months and months – are some powerful quad-bikes waiting and get her attention. that they will never have to work… that that’s why there are so many bad ones. live, you do feel like you are in touch, I was talking to my Grandmother one for each of us. Kelsey leads us through KG – Yes, I wanted to make my mom would not be helpful to them. And I They all jump in thinking ‘I can do that’. properly connected with the universe. night on the porch and said, “We had the challenging and picturesque trails laugh – which is where I developed mean man… I’m spending it all haha! But what I do hope for in everyone is PR – Are you able to keep that up? so many plans and wanted to do so he has made through the woodlands, my timing really. What would get her I hope they will be smart enough to be that they find the same kind of joy in KG – It just takes time and effort! But many fun things together.” And that’s stopping to admire the views, examine giggling, whether that was an observation self-reliant and won’t need it. There their work as I have found in mine – and the flora and fauna and sharing his plans about a situation we were in, or a point is great joy to be had in labour. I also I think that is possible for everyone. The for the future. of view she hadn’t thought of – so I want them to enjoy with me the great risks are commensurate with the reward, We all have a delightful time laughing, became a good observer and would toss experiences that my career has brought but there really is great joy in labour – My principle stance when I was a kid was I’m never drinking cocktails (Kelsey mixes one of the occasional witticism out at her. to us as a family, fantastic experiences doing work and above all doing work the meanest Dry Martinis), enjoying a PR – And was that the same with and the opportunity to meet so many well. If everyone cared about what they going to wear a wetsuit and so I surfed in Rhode Island bit of deer stalking (to photograph rather playing the piano? I had the pleasure to interesting people. do as much as I do, they would know in the Spring, which turned me blue but I still didn’t than shoot!) and throwing things at each watch that in your home in Bel Air last PR– And what a magnificent lifestyle great joy. other in the large pool. But hours and Christmas, was that the same thing? - the mansion in Bel Air, the condo in At that moment we clip the curb. put a wetsuit on! then days passed and the opportunity KG – When I was a very small boy, the West Village and this sprawling KG – Oh shit, sorry… a little close to still hadn’t come up for our chat, we are about four or five, my mom gave me some estate, but no yachts or a private jet? the curb there, I hate that, I sure scuffed having too much fun. I am just beginning piano lessons but it kinda disappeared. KG – Haha! Well, I would like the the hubs! to panic slightly, finally concluding the But when my Grandfather died I wanted yacht but not a private plane, it’s PR – Now tell me, I read somewhere I’m not a cold water guy, my principle when I finally just lost it – I sat outside mission lost, when Kayte decides that to write a song about him – so I went financially prohibitive! Occasionally that you were a keen surfer? stance when I was a kid was I’m never our house in Florida and just cried and she and her family will remain in the back to the piano and just practiced we do fly private – it still totally makes KG – I was a big surfer in my old days, going to wear a wetsuit and so I surfed cried. I still miss him, I miss them all. country leaving Kelsey and I to travel making noises and seeing what they sense if there are a few of us and the it was my chief passion from 14 to 18 in Rhode Island in the Spring, which PR – In the short week I’ve been back alone. The Sheriff delivers a very sounded like, what a series of chords dogs etc. and there wasn’t a day I didn’t spend in turned me blue but I still didn’t put a here you’ve done 8 performances, fast looking BMW to the door and I am sounded like and developed it. I’ve still PR – I was surprised when people the Atlantic Ocean. We were in Florida wetsuit on! you’ve performed live at the Tony’s delighted by the turn of events; I also got it in there somewhere, I’ve written criticized Brando for dying what they by then and would drive up the coast to and attended your sister’s testimonial know him to be a very skillful driver. a few songs – but unfortunately they’re called broke… people say that he had Fort Pierce or Coco Beach, sometimes PR – Good for you, I have to say I did in Colorado, where her murderer is up At last, a chance to chat. He might be usually about people that have died! very little. Like it was some sort of Boynton and that was my real love. notice yesterday in the pool that you are for parole after 40 years inside– can we a huge star of stage and screen but Kelsey PR – You’ve not written any love failing? It was when I was 17 that I did a play a very strong swimmer. touch on that? Grammer has also had to endure what songs about anyone that’s alive then? KG– Good for him, he checked out which changed my mind about what KG – Well I used to swim competitively KG – Sure, this is the last time I Oprah Winfrey called “unfathomable KG – Well you know, a couple – right… good timing! Now he always had my future might be and that was Lillian years ago, back in school. think for the next 5 years, that we will tragedy.” When he was thirteen his father but still usually about Grandad! The good timing! Hellman’s, The Little Foxes – foxes did PR – Can I just go back to Gordon for see either of the guys. There were three was murdered, he was only 20 when his frustration is not being as schooled in it PR – Have any of the children not mean the same thing back then! A a second? He had become your father. guys connected to my sister’s death that sister was gang-raped and left to die (the as I wish I was. So it’s more for me and expressed a wish to act? Fort Lauderdale review of the Little In Frasier you are living with your dad – were tried and convicted. The guy I was task of identifying her fell to him and the occasional party. KG – My eldest son is 10 and says he Foxes would be completely different was that quite poignant for you? there for this last trip was not actually also that of telling his mother the news) PR – Having lost your father quite is keen…but hey let’s see. now! But we had great success with that KG – Well there were certainly charged with my sister’s murder but and then when he was 25 he lost two young, your Grandfather was a big part PR – When you look back on what it’s play and I thought, boy this is something moments, in that I didn’t have a father was implicated by virtue of the fact he half-brothers in a diving accident. The of your life? given you, would you encourage people I could do – and the surfer in me said, or had rather lost a father – and the supplied the weapons. I go because transcript that follows is from our three KG – Well my mom left my dad when to take it up? take this wave and ride it – it stays with same with the brother – although I there is another woman whose husband hour car journey and to do the interview I was about 2 and we moved in with her KG – You know I think there are far me, something in me is a surfer at heart. have a half-brother I had never really he killed in a separate crime. It’s kind of

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them because that’s where intense personal grief and the trauma we have to live. But I of that violence, right to the other end don’t see any value in their of the scale, becoming one of the most choices in life leading them famous, affluent men on the planet, if to freedom. It would be a you don’t mind me framing it like that? If it doesn’t gross miscarriage of justice. Well, we are talking range here! PR – Obviously had KG – Hahaha, yes I suppose it’s quite there had been capital a range! punishment they would PR – So to deal with both of Kipling’s smell right, not be able to be considered imposters just the same, takes courage? for parole after 40 years…? Which is wonderful to pass that strength KG – Well what’s onto your children? we won’t invest. fascinating about this, KG – I think this latest round they are is that there was. They probably dealing with the most available were both convicted dad I can be! I had no real blueprint, so I Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce (Frasier) and sentenced to death had to improvise this dad thing the first in 1978. The Supreme couple of times! A lot of my children Court under the justice were born into relationships that were a support system. department of Jimmy Carter basically destined to fail – there was that quality So we don’t just go PR – It must be emotionally exhausting. filed that every State had to rewrite in some of my earlier marriages! But I’m This takes a lot of courage to revisit… their capital punishment laws and still a young man – I think there is great with the flow. KG – Well in my mind when I get every sentence was overturned. So value in being a more fleshed out person a message from the victims unit in every death sentence in America was – men are pretty useless until they are We never invest in a stock because it’s big, Colorado, I think “you gotta be kidding commuted. Some States chose not to 40 at least! I’m very happy where I am well-known or because everyone else is me we’ve got to do this all again?” It become capital punishment States, now. I have many things in mind of calls up so many memories and so several re-wrote their books – these guys course, trying to start a new business up investing in it. In fact, we only ever invest in many horrors. I’ve always thought the fell into a unique position. Life means at the farm. It’s an extension of my pipe a stock because we like it. Which is probably tragedy of what happened to my sister life now in Colorado and they have been dream to live off the land, I guess it’s an why so many people invest with us. American thing – maybe it’s not, maybe it’s a human thing understanding our The value of investments and the income relationship with the Earth. PR – Yes, watching things grow from them can go down as well as up and you I think there is great value in being and producing things is nice! Kelsey, may get back less than the amount invested. a more fleshed out person – men are pretty really thank you for driving me and for useless until they are 40 at least! talking at the same time. We’ve got some For more information please visit wonderful stuff so thank you! Maybe aberdeen-asset.com time for a break. KG – Good, I think I’ve told you some things I haven’t said before! was always her tragedy and not mine. given several life sentences but because The way I dealt with it was probably they were commuted at some point my greatest challenge because I felt they fall into this niche of maybe 5 or responsible for it. I know that doesn’t 6 murderers in Colorado who can come make a whole lot of sense but it’s just up for parole. So it’s a unique position, what we do – it’s what a big brother unique to me and these other families does. If harm comes to your baby sister who suffered from the killing spree. I it’s just your fault. feel some kinda sense of reward about PR – And all that after having lost a my sister that I’m still happy to relive it Grandfather, father figure and Father – I all. assume you had become the man of the PR – I think Chekov wrote, “Since we house? are forgiven it is foolish not to forgive.” KG – Well I became the man of the KG – Forgiveness prevents you house I guess when I was 12. I also from becoming a victim of hate. I’ll looked on it all as a kind of a privilege – give you another quotation from Mary to remember with such detail my loved Baker Eddy, the woman who founded ones – even surrounded by so much Christian Science and I was of course Paddy Renouf is a raconteur and horror and tragedy and the nightmare of raised in Christian Science – “If I should culturalpreneur and has a successful her last hours on earth. So I try to honor wish to harm my enemy, I would make business looking after some of the her by standing up for her – because it him hate someone” world’s rich and famous. In his spare is what I can do and what I couldn’t do PR – Wow! time he paints in watercolours and before was save her. It would take a lot KG – It’s just so full of wisdom and oils. His portrait the 'Flánuer' has for me to think these guys should be I don’t want to live in a state of hatred- been hanging in the National anywhere else but in prison. ness towards anyone – and forgiveness Portrait Gallery. PR – I understand that… and that is the way to avoid that I think? you’ve forgiven them? PR – So to build on that and the KG – Yes, in my soul I have forgiven extremes you’ve gone from, dealing with

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COMMENT

“My father (Lord Randolph Churchill) CHURCHILL'S FIRST WAR for instance, could never have drunk whisky except when shooting on a moor AND HIS FIRST WHISKY & SODA or in some very dull chilly place.” But Winston’s request for a drink Con Coughlin explores Winston Churchill’s more to his liking was denied by the early escapades across the North-West Frontier mess barman, who pointedly reminded the bumptious young subaltern that, as WORDS BY CON COUGHLIN they were currently in the midst of a DEFENCE EDITOR OF THE DAILY TELEGRAPH demanding military campaign, rations were in short supply. The only drink available to officers on the frontier was a whisky and soda. And so it was, initially, with great reluctance that young Winston had his first taste of the drink that was to become a permanent and enjoyable fixture of his long and distinguished life. “Once one had got the knack of it, the very repulsion from the flavour developed an attraction of its own,” he wrote. “And to this day, although I have Winston Churchill during the Boer War in 1899 always practised true temperance, I have never shrunk when occasion warranted it, from the main basic standing recalled in his memoir, My Early Life, and somewhat uncertain.” refreshment of the white officer in the “I was on the lawns of Goodwood From Nowshera, Winston faced East.” in lovely weather and winning my another journey of a further 50 miles As for Winston’s fighting exploits, money” when he learned of the latest through the daunting passes of the his tireless efforts to get to the frontier revolt by the Pashtun tribesmen on Hindu Kush to reach his final destination were not in vain. During the six weeks the Indian frontier. Abandoning his at Malakand. This he achieved by he spent fighting the Pashtun tribesmen summer of social frivolity, Winston set travelling in a tonga, a small cart drawn (and penning the occasional dispatch off post-haste to re-join his regiment, a by galloping relays of ponies. The for the Daily Telegraph) Churchill, as time-consuming journey that began by journey took seven hours, and Winston he later boasted to his mother, came catching the first available boat train recalled that it involved “much beating under fire “10 complete times”, nearly from Victoria Station, and then spending of galled and dilapidated ponies.” getting himself killed in the process. nearly three weeks on a P&O ship as it Finally, on September 2, Winston made The opening sequence of “Young made its leisurely way through the Suez it to Malakand and “yellow with dust I Winston”, Carl Foreman and Richard Canal to India. presented myself at the Staff Office.” Attenborough’s 1972 classic film, refers Winston’s determination to join the fray was given added piquancy by the fact that 1897 was Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, a propitious time for a My Father never drank whisky except when shooting on young officer to win fame and fortune in the service of the Queen Empress. a moor or in some very dull, chilly place. Once one had When Winston finally arrived back got the knack of it, the very repulsion from the flavour at Bangalore, he was still at the other end of the continent from the fighting. developed an attraction of its own. After receiving confirmation from The charge of the 21st Lancers at the Battle of Omdurman, 2nd September 1898, painted by Edward Matthew Hale General Sir Bindon Blood, the British commander of the punitive operations against the Pashtuns, that he could join Like any tired and exhausted to one of these exploits when Churchill, y the time 22-year-old Lieutenant foothills of the Hindu Kush, just a few precocious Winston had declared, in a the expedition, Winston still faced a traveller, Winston’s first thought was to conspicuous on his grey horse as his unit Winston S. Churchill arrived at miles from the border between the Indian letter to his mother, how he wanted to six-day rail journey across the length of find liquid refreshment, and with this in prepares to engage the Pashtuns, prompts Malakand in September 1897 to Empire and Afghanistan. “beat my sword into an iron Despatch the Indian continent in the stifling heat mind he headed straight for the mess bar. the rebuke from his commanding officer, join the punitive raids being carried Winston, a restless but ambitious Box” – the wooden box used by of summer. Until his arrival at Malakand, Winston “He’ll get noticed, all right. He’ll get his out against the restless tribes of the young man, had joined one of the Army’s frontbench MPs to deliver speeches. Sitting in his dark, padded cell of had shunned whisky, having a deep bloody head blown off!” North-West Frontier, he was tired and elite cavalry regiments; the 4th Hussars Thus when, in the summer of 1897, the a railway carriage, Winston spent the aversion to the intensity of its flavour. Despite the ferocity of the fighting, desperately in need of a reviving drink. won its first battle honours fighting for ferocious Afghan tribesmen – the great, journey fretting that he would not make “I liked wine, both red and white, and there was never any serious doubt as It had taken young Winston more than Wellington during the Peninsula War; great grandfathers of the modern Taliban it to the front in time to join the action. especially champagne, and on very to the eventual outcome. For, as the six days to make the gruelling journey and participated in the ill-fated Charge movement – launched another attack on As the train neared its destination, the special occasions I could even drink a Victorian humourist Hilaire Belloc from the southern Indian garrison town of of the Light Brigade in Crimea in 1854, the British frontier posts guarding the British military depot at Nowshera, small glass of brandy,” he recalled. “But remarked: Bangalore – where his regiment, the 4th with the express intention of making Indian Empire’s northernmost territories, he confided in a letter to his younger this smoky-tasting whisky I had never “Whatever happens, we have got… (Queen’s Own) Hussars were garrisoned a name for himself, so that he could young Winston was desperate to get brother, Jack, that he had “perhaps a been able to face.” Indeed, the entire The Maxim gun, and they have not.” - to reach Malakand, the British Army’s trade his military honours for a career himself involved in the heart of the action. good chance of seeing active service and Churchill dynasty eschewed whisky As Winston’s main goal was to “get newly-constructed military base in the in politics. Even at this tender age, the As Churchill later memorably securing a medal. But the future is vague in favour of more fashionable tipples. noticed”, his first direct involvement

24 25 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4

COMMENT in warfare can be said to have achieved the desired results. His efforts won him DEFLATED INFLATION FOREVER? a mention in dispatches (he had hoped to win the Victoria Cross, as did some What is the outlook for inflation, interest rates and asset prices? of his fellow comrades), and the articles he wrote for the Telegraph, together WORDS BY ROGER BOOTLE with the publication the following EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN OF CAPITAL ECONOMICS year of his first book, The Story of the Malakand Field Force, drew his name to the attention of the great and the good. The Prince of Wales commended him on his work, while Lord Salisbury, the Tory Prime Minister, invited Churchill to meet him at Downing Street – the first time Britain’s greatest wartime prime minister entered the building. Churchill’s first war truly set him on the road to fame and glory. As a result of his escapades on the North- West Frontier, in the following year, in The Treaty of Gandamak was signed on 26 May 1879 by King Mohammad Yaqub Khan of Afghanistan September 1898, Churchill took part (centre) and Sir Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari of British's Government of India (second from the left) in the British Army’s last great cavalry at a British army camp near the village of Gandomak, about seventy miles east of Kabul. Afghanistan ceded various frontier areas to Britain to prevent invasion of further territories of the country and formed charge at the Battle of Omdurman the border between the two countries - Afghanistan and British Raj. The Treaty however did not stop where – once again – he came within the warring Afghan tribes from continuing attacks on the border, ultimately requiring the assistance a whisker of losing his own life. From of a young Winston Churchill 18 years later. Also pictured are General Daoud Shah next to the Amir, Omdurman he went to South Africa, Habeebula Moustafi and Mr Jenkyns [Gandamak] at extreme left and right. this time as a newspaper correspondent where, following his capture and escape from the Boers, he instantly became a succeeded in his ultimate ambition by in a dog, there is this fearful, fatalistic household name. being elected MP for Oldham. apathy.” A popular musical hall refrain from Writing my book on young Winston’s If Churchill’s analysis of the Muslim the time went along the lines of: exploits on the North-West Frontier, world appears simplistic, to say the “You’ve heard of Winston Churchill his irrepressible desire to get himself least, his brave exploits on the North- That is all I have to say noticed and achieve greatness reminded West Frontier can at least be celebrated He’s the latest and greatest me of a contemporary young Tory for one memorable reason: namely Correspondent of the day.” politician who also has a notable zest for acquainting him with the delights of a Two years later, in 1900, Winston self-promotion – Boris Johnson. Indeed, whisky and soda, the tipple that would like Boris, Winston was never shy of sustain him throughout the rest of his voicing his opinion on whatever subject remarkable and triumphant life. came his way. Some of Winston’s more memorable remarks from his time on the North- West Frontier concern the very dim view he took of what he called In October 2008 Zimbabwe's inflation rocketed to an astronomical 231 million %, an advance of more than 200 million per cent on the previous “Mohammedanism”, and the primitive year’s figure. A loaf of bread, which in August 2007 was Z$500, 12 months later cost Z$10,000, when it could be found. tribal culture of the Pashtuns. He blamed the mullahs for the Afghans’ lamentable absence of civilised t is difficult to make predictions, it? (The book was translated into ten future? Do we face more of the same? Or development, which kept them in the especially about the future.” That languages – one of which was English. is inflation about to be reborn – leading to “grip of miserable superstition.” They quip of Mark Twain’s is taken to It became a best-seller too – among much higher interest rates? The answer lived free at the expense of the people, heart by most economists. They know books written about economics, you will probably be the leading factor Churchill claimed, and, “more than this, from bitter experience how difficult it understand.) Still, this wasn’t good determining the performance of most they enjoy a sort of droit de seigneur, is to say anything of value about the enough for some. Recently I have received investment portfolios. and no man’s wife or daughter is safe future. That’s why they so often resort quite a bit of hate-mail in response to my The first thing to grasp is that what from them. Of some of their manners to telling you what you know already to column in the Torygraph, much of it from we are discussing is essentially a global Con Coughlin is a former war and morals it is impossible to write.” have happened – or what is inevitable my old adversaries, the massed ranks of phenomenon. Yes, different countries correspondent and now the The following year, after his Telegraph’s Defence Editor. He is and therefore of no value whatsoever. As Disgusteds from Tunbridge Wells. Their have had slightly different experiences participation in the battle of Omdurman, the author of several books, including Keynes put it, they are like people who refrain is: “You said that inflation was with regard to inflation and interest rates where the followers of the Mahdi were “Churchill’s First War: Young Winston tell you: “When the storm is long past, dead but over last couple of months the but, with the exception of a few locations massacred in their thousands by British and the Fight Against the Taliban" the ocean is flat again”. To be frank, most number was 0.3%! Why can’t you just (e.g. Zimbabwe and Tunbridge Wells) the machine guns, he penned a similarly (Pan Books). of them should just put a sock in it. admit that you got it wrong?” Honestly, broad sweep of changes in the inflation dismissive critique of the Muslim world. But, please, don’t tell me to do that! I there’s no pleasing some people. and interest rate experience has been “How dreadful are the curses which @concouglin take risks. In 1996 I wrote a book entitled Putting the Disgusteds to one side, remarkably similar across the world. Mohammedanism lays on its votaries. “The Death of Inflation”, which forecast surely we can all now acknowledge that Given all that, we should overcome the Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is umpteen years of very low inflation and we are currently living in what I termed instinct to be parochial and instead look as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia interest rates. That wasn’t too bad was in 1996 “the zero era”. But what of the for global explanations. alicemacdonaldillustration.co.uk

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Over recent years, there has been a Getting a fix on what might return surplus will fall further. marked tendency for aggregate demand inflation and interest rates to “normal” It is true that fiscal stringency has to fall short of aggregate supply. Putting requires an understanding of what the further to run, not least here in the UK. it more simply, there hasn’t been enough forces are, that have depressed aggregate But the end is in sight. Within four or spending. (Not that there has been much demand and hence pushed central banks five years, if not before, the squeezing sign of this in Boisdale!) Consequently, in into their extraordinary policies. There will stop, thereby removing a drain on recent years the main concern of policy- are, I think, five of them. First, because aggregate demand. makers has been, not the prevention of of high oil prices, the oil producing Admittedly, the euro-zone is still a return to high inflation, but rather the countries amassed huge surpluses a basket case. But even here there ELIZABETH STREET SW1 prevention of low inflation tipping over which they did not spend. That money are grounds for optimism. We are into deflation, as it has done in Japan. came out of the pockets of people in the approaching a crisis point. Electorates The policy the authorities used to boost oil-consuming countries. will not put up with this mess for much demand, was the imposition of extremely Second, the newly emerging countries, longer. Either the euro-zone will be fixed low interest rates. And when rates got led by China, also tended to amass huge or it will break up – allowing aggregate close to the zero mark they supplemented surpluses, following the earlier example demand to rise much more strongly. If you have dutifully followed the argument this far, you will be thirsting, not only for some delicious libation at Boisdale, but also for a conclusion. The zero-era will continue for a year or two more, Here it is. The zero era will continue for a year or two more, but its days are but its days are numbered. numbered. Over the next two years inflation will move up towards the 2% target and interest rates will start to rise, albeit slowly at first. Before very long – I suspect by the end of this Parliament – this with so-called Quantitative Easing set by Japan. These countries sold heavily things will have more or less returned to (QE), or “printing money” for short (even to the west but did not match this success normal. In particular, interest rates will though in the modern world hardly any with spending on goods and services again stand much higher than the rate extra money is actually printed). produced in the west. of inflation, say 4-6%, thereby giving Despite all this massive policy Third, since the financial crash of savers a real return and borrowers a real intervention, in the UK we have just 2007/8, several countries, including fright. dipped into negative inflation, i.e. the UK, have pursued a policy of That is when the property bubble, and deflation, although only to the extent of fiscal stringency, that is to say, cutting the bull market conditions in all sorts of 0.1%. Other countries have experienced government spending and increasing other asset classes, will face the acid test. more of a price fall and some have even taxation. Again, that has had the effect of When you can again earn a decent return had negative interest rates. draining demand from the economy. on money in the bank, or from bonds, all Fourth, the euro-zone has been a total other assets will have to perform or be disaster. Germany has long had a natural dumped. You have been warned. tendency to save rather than spend and the advent of the euro has accentuated that tendency. Meanwhile, in the weaker peripheral economies, a lack of competitiveness caused by the euro has clobbered their economies and caused unemployment to soar. Result: deficient spending. Last, there has been a marked tendency for big quoted companies in the west to avoid heavy investment spending. (Not a subject for today, I fear.) Now, if you go through this list, with The art and craft of the exception of the last factor, you can see that things are starting to change. Roger Bootle is executive chairman Thanks to the drop in oil prices, the of Capital Economics. The paperback surpluses of the oil producers have edition of his recent best-selling book, now almost gone. This income has been “The Trouble with Europe” has just the goldsmith transferred, via lower prices for petrol been published by Nicholas Brealey. and other oil products, to people and [email protected] firms in the oil-consuming countries. Meanwhile, China’s surplus has For the chance to win a bottle of just about halved and Japan’s has Champagne give us your views at – www.devroomen.co.uk – almost disappeared. As the Chinese BoisdaleLife.com government tries to shift the balance 59 Elizabeth Street, London, SW1W 9PP +44 (0) 207 730 1901 of the economy towards consumption, and as the Chinese population ages, the alicemacdonaldillustration.co.uk

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over the Christmas period forced him to expensive PR? the arts in the UK. On face value, it’s THE QUANGO QUESTION - JOBS FOR THE BOYS give it up. The Chief Financial Officer, Now this is not an exercise in naming difficult to disagree. Society values art, Patrick Butcher, hopefully shows and shaming those on high pay in the and so we have an Arts Council. Exposing the virtual worlds of quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations more care with the finances than the public sector. But think about the alternative. If – insulated from reality and hidden from the public organisation’s Remuneration Committee But in the wake of the financial crisis, we didn’t have an Arts Council, would has demonstrated – his pay packet those in the private sector have made we therefore not have art? Last time I WORDS BY JONATHAN ISABY comes in at a weighty £412,000. Robin great efforts to restore the link between checked, John Keats didn’t receive a CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE TAXPAYERS ALLIANCE Gisby, the soon-to-depart Managing pay and performance. Organisations as taxpayer subsidy, and I dare say his Director of Network Operations, is a venerable as the Institute of Directors work remains rather more valuable to relative pauper with a salary of just have demanded that pay rewards in the our cultural life than that of the Welsh Substances Advisory Committee. £388,000, and Group Strategy Director City and beyond, are tied to rigorous writer Richard Gwynn, who was recently And one wonders why the Food Paul Plummer is presumably the butt of and stretching performance targets. given £25,000 of taxpayers’ money to Standards Agency, itself a quango, the jokes at executive meetings, is on a Institutional investors have awoken travel around Latin America in search has a quango below it – the Advisory paltry £364,000. from their slumber to play more of an of “poets and adventurers.” Perhaps Committee on Novel Foods and the final result of Susan Adams’ £20,000 Processes, which does rather pose the grant, helping her to carry forward her question of what a ‘novel food’ might be? “Go! Be a bird” project, will be The Indeed, the labyrinthine nature Fighting Temeraire of its day, but my of quangos and other arm’s length It is all too easy for these organisations to hide in instinct is that it may not quite compare. government bodies were memorably the shadows, immune from the necessary pay restraint Yet those who dished out the funds compared by Bernard Jenkin MP (the – our money – remain in place. The Public Administration Select Committee we’ve seen in the rest of the public sector. revolving door at the top of quangos Chairman) to the film The Matrix, where continues to spin, with lifelong “doors open on virtual worlds which are mandarins jumping from agency to insulated from reality and hidden from agency, department to department. the public and from those meant to be (By the way, it’s worth remembering active shareholding role when it comes Good government must rely on accountable to them.” that David Cameron takes home £142,500.) to remuneration. That cultural change accountability and transparency. The bill to taxpayers for funding these Not bad salaries for four men who is starting to be felt, and it is a key part Without it, taxpayers’ money is unaccountable bodies has risen to quite oversee an organisation expected to be of rebuilding people’s trust in the free frittered and wasted, treated without the literally unknown heights – because of fined for poor punctuality and reliability, markets and capitalism. respect it deserves. Our public finances the different way different departments with a five-year plan already going Yet there has been precious little of remain in a terrible state. We’re spending Yes, Prime Minister ran from 1986 to 1988. 38 episodes were made and the seventh relating to Quango’s qualify their myriad of attached seriously off-track after just a year, and that cultural change in the public sector, around £200 million a day more than we was called “Jobs for the Boys”. It aired in April 1980 and starred Nigel Hawthorne (LEFT), Paul appendages, the total expenditure one which has just been forced to pause a and particularly at the hundreds of bring in, and that adds to a £1.5 trillion Eddington (CENTRE) and Derek Fowlds (RIGHT) remains a little hazy. According to significant upgrade project because costs bafflingly named arms-length bodies. It credit card bill that would be nothing Dennis Sewell, Contributing Editor of were spiralling to unacceptable heights. is all too easy for these organisations to short of immoral to hand over to the next The Spectator, in 2014 some £80 billion It’s not just Network Rail. hide in the shadows, immune from the generation. Tackling Britain’s bloated t is often said that the glorious BBC Looking through the acronyms of of taxpayers’ money is in the gift of The Independent Parliamentary necessary pay restraint we’ve seen in bureaucracy has to be a part of breaking show Yes, Minister, was as much a these various different bodies reads less these quangos, much of which blown on Standards Authority, which is currently the rest of the public sector. When pay our reliance on borrowed money, and on documentary as it was a comedy. like a sensible approach to government administration and bureaucracy. trying to push through a £7,000 pay becomes separated from performance, government. From civil servants deftly manipulating and more like the aftermath of a mishap And that, rather worryingly, is just rise for MPs, is run by Marcial Boo – a the potential problems are obvious. occasionally baffled ministers, to with alphabet soup. here in Britain. Across the Channel, career civil servant who earns £120,000. Irritation at the quangocracy has disastrous broadcast interviews – it Run almost without exception by the Brussels quangocracy is growing. In John Sills, the organisation’s Director of grown. Indeed, it was Gordon Brown certainly had more than a touch of career public sector pen pushers, these 2012 there were some 52 quangos – up Policy and Communications, enjoys a who bought the phrase “Bonfire of the reality to it. bodies carry with them the exact same from three in 1990. Their bill stands at pay packet of £90,000. And yet, despite Quangos” back into the mainstream, Nowhere is that more true than in bureaucracy, group-think and opacity, more than £2.14 billion in total, meaning largely being considered to be completely promising to slash the size of the a wonderful episode on the future that has become the hallmark of the that British taxpayers are on the hook for out of touch with the public and indeed unaccountable bureaucrats who have of quangos – or, to give them their worst of Whitehall. nearly £300 million. Complaints about perhaps reality, there remains precious such a startling impact on our lives. proper name, quasi-autonomous non- And, much like in the fictional the opacity of Brussels’ bureaucracy are little accountability. Admittedly, it was his government government organisations. The minister version, the names and roles of these not new and they’re not just voiced by It’s the same at too many other that set a lot of them up, but better his and Sir Humphrey need to get out of quangos occasionally beggar belief. what might be described as the usual bodies up and down the country. The revelation came late, than never. The a tight spot over appointments to a For instance there’s the Veterinary suspects, but an expanding parallel boss of the Charity Commission is on Coalition Government promised one too, government body, and consider their Medicines Directorate, which differs army of pen-pushers is hardly the sort £135,000. The boss of Arts Council and made a significantly more valuable options. After turning a few ideas over, from the Veterinary Products Committee. of thing that will warm the cockles of England, £157,636. Going through the contribution to the pyre. they come up with a brilliant new Then there’s the Pensions those already suspicious of the cost of remuneration report at HS2 Ltd, the To give credit to the now ennobled plan: they will create a new quango Ombudsman which, until very recently, European administration. body charged with building a train set Francis Maude, who served as Paymaster with overall oversight of quangos, and was different from the Pensions But how do these remarkable costs of questionable value, is startling. It’s General in the previous Coalition staff it with individuals who might be Protection Fund Ombudsman. This in spiral to such formidable heights? Much not so much the top pay – though Chief Government, a series of (fairly obvious) Jonathan Isaby is Chief Executive welcoming of their new roles – and turn remains separate from the Pensions of the bill, at home and abroad, is taken Executive Simon Kirby is paid £750,000 mergers and abolitions saved taxpayers of the Taxpayers Alliance. He was salaries. It would be funnier, of course, Regulator, which itself is separate from up by pay at the very highest levels. a year. More galling is the £200,000 paid around £2 billion a year. a political analyst in the BBC's if it wasn't so entirely believable! the Pensions Advisory Service. All of Network Rail, though by some to Tom Kelly, Tony Blair’s former spin But there remains so much to do. Westminster newsroom until 2003 By some estimates, Britain now these bodies come under the remit of the definitions not strictly a quango, is a pretty chief, for his work as “PR and Strategy In order to reduce the size of the and has written monthly columns for has somewhere in the region of 1,000 Department for Work and – you guessed painful example. Mark Carne, the Chief Director.” Should taxpayers be forking quangocracy, we need to ask fundamental GQ magazine and The Telegraph. quangos. Their remit ranges from it – Pensions. Executive, took home £675,000 last year, out £200,000 for a spin doctor while our questions of what government should, @isaby monitoring education standards, to There’s the Committee on Radioactive and was on course to trouser a £34,000 finances remain in such a terrible state? and should not, do. promoting sustainably-sourced seafood. Waste Management, which is different bonus on top, until a public outcry over the Should one in the deficit reduction The justification for quangos such It is, in short, mild chaos. from the Administration of Radioactive shocking performance of his organisation scheme get rid of wasteful spending and as the Art Council is that they support

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technically be produced but are not Sport can do a better job for a lower a day are dragged into court because THE FUTURE OF THE BBC judged to be viable by the market – price. They should at least be entitled to they can’t or won’t pay the compulsory because they are too expensive to make, pitch for the commission from whatever BBC fee. Dozens are sent to prison. This The BBC Charter review process is about to begin in earnest, with only 18 months to agree a deal, likely to appeal to too few viewers, or pot of money is set aside for otherwise is a very high human price to pay in Mark Littlewood looks at some of the issues to be tackled. both. It seems unlikely, for example, unviable television shows. order to keep EastEnders on free-to-air that a high-end science fiction series This leaves a final, very vague television. WORDS BY MARK LITTLEWOOD with dramatic special effects in which justification for continuing the BBC Next year, the BBC’s Royal Charter DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS all the dialogue is in Cornish would licence fee. This is the assertion that is up for renewal. This means the generate sufficient revenues to justify its the BBC produces the best quality TV British government has an opportunity outlay. If it is judged and decreed that programmes and that other stations to reconsider the corporation’s role, its even if slightly grainy, picture through what society really needs is a modern, the unsophisticated method of attaching but Cornish, version of Star Trek, we a coat hanger to the back of the set. In are going to have to rely on non-market the 1970s, this may even have felt like mechanisms to finance it. cutting edge technological magic, but But if the BBC is relying on this The offence of not paying television tax now it also meant that broadcasting was justification for its reluctance to compete accounts for more than 10% of all criminal basically a non-excludable service. If in the commercial sector, then the you wanted to send a TV signal to the corporation finds itself in a quandary. In prosecutions in the United Kingdom. people at No. 7 who had legitimately essence, it should be deliberately seeking paid for it, their freeloading neighbours to make shows which are unpopular. at No.6 could just as easily watch the The BBC would care little at all about its programme. In rough terms, we either audience ratings – in fact, programmes simply do not inform, educate and remit and the way it is funded. At the needed to make everyone pay for the which secured a very high number entertain their viewers to such a high very least, it is likely to see its wings service or else accept that no one at all of viewers should be earmarked for standard. This is always going to be clipped. But let’s remember Bill Gates’ would do so. decommissioning as this would constitute a subjective judgment, but it seems dictum. We may not see a huge shift in Technology and viewing habits have good evidence that they could be left reasonable to argue that if the BBC how the BBC operates in the next year or changed out of all recognition since to commercial stations to develop and used to have a major advantage in this two. But in a decade’s time, the BBC will then. A majority of British households produce. Mainstream football shows such area, it has diminished or possibly have changed beyond all recognition. now have “pay TV”. They select a range as Match of the Day could be left entirely even disappeared. If you look up those Most likely, it will be drastically of channels they are interested in and to ITV or SKY. The BBC would focus on (admittedly contestable) lists of the best slimmed down, more narrowly pay a monthly subscription accordingly. lesser known and under-represented TV programmes ever made online, an focused and financed by voluntarily Davina McCall’s chat show was commonly referenced as one of the BBC’s most expensive flops of all People are used to the idea that if you sports such as camel wrestling or ferret impressive number are recent American subscriptions or advertising. To all time. Unable to tone down her naturally exuberant style, she grated viewers and her quality of guests was don’t pay a subscription, you’ll find your legging (both of these actually exist, programmes. Breaking Bad, The Wire, intents and purposes, it will probably appalling. While Parkinson was pulling in Tony Blair and Elton John on ITV, Davina was having to make do channels are switched off. Technology but neither seem to get a “fair” slice of The Shield, The Simpsons, Frazier, The cease to exist in its present form. And with former EastEnders stars and Eamonn Holmes! means broadcasting is now tailored to coverage on our television screens). Sopranos, Friends, Big Bang Theory by then, with broadcasting having taken each individual domicile, of course. Just If the BBC sees this as its future, it and Game of Thrones are all critically many more imaginative and innovative e always over estimate the dream of. To all intents and purposes, because the guys at No. 7 love Premier will have to drastically alter its present acclaimed and hugely popular US leaps forward in the commercial sector, changes that will occur over you are forced to buy their product. You League football and tune in to dozens commissioning process. Looking at a imports. Many of the BBC shows which we will look back in wonder and ask the next year and always could throw out your television set, of of matches a year, the people at No. 6 typical daytime schedule on BBC One are rated as fantastic TV are from many why we ever allowed it to exist in its underestimate the changes that will occur course, and that would absolve you of aren’t able to watch Manchester United in the spring of this year, you find a years ago and are no longer in production current form at all. over the next decade, insists Microsoft your duty to pay the annual £145.50 by attaching a coat hanger to their wide mixture of quiz shows, a couple of (and are mainly comedy shows such as founder and multi-billionaire Bill Gates. charge. But the equivalent would be screen plasma television. From this soap operas, two programmes about Fawlty Towers, Monty Python’s Flying He’s right. He made his fortune by being to insist that if you want to own a perspective, forcing everyone with a buying and selling items at auction to Circus, The Office and Blackadder). right in the field of computer software. refrigerator, you are legally obliged to television set to pay for receipt of BBC make a modest profit, a programme But even if you are of the opinion He is also about to be proven right in the buy 300 cans of Coca Cola a year, forcing pictures is now no more justifiable than about making money by purchasing and that BBC television is the best quality field of UK television broadcasting. you to dispose of your fridge if you don’t your purchase of a fridge obliging you renovating domestic properties and a product around, this is a reason to The BBC, we are told, is a national want to pay for Coke. drink Coca Cola. series encouraging people to leave the embrace commercialism, not to resist it. treasure. It rises above the low-grade, In today’s online, interconnected But if we can simply turn off the rat race of Britain’s towns and cities to People freely choose quality products and low-brow TV in the commercial sector world, where we can choose between television channels people decline to move to the countryside alongside a few services – they don’t need to be forced to – especially the sort of stuff produced millions of products and services in pay for, what other justifications might news bulletins. All of these shows could purchase them. If the BBC output is the by the Americans. The BBC is a paragon a matter of seconds, this is a bizarre there still be for a major broadcasting be made by other television companies champagne of the TV world, the 24 carat of broadcasting virtue. Rigorously anachronism. But it’s worth noting that corporation to be funded through a and, indeed, there is a plethora of such gold of broadcasting, then it will flourish independent, highly informative and just a few decades ago, there was some compulsory levy? Defenders of the programmes readily available on the in the open market through voluntary internationally recognised as being the rational justification for such an approach. status quo come up with many varied three or four hundred channels which subscriptions. It doesn’t need protecting or very best in its field. In a fast changing Television broadcasting used to and sometimes contradictory reasons as most households can now access at the ring-fencing any more than Porsche needs and uncertain world, we need to keep exhibit the characteristics of what to why the BBC should continue to be flick of a switch. to be protected against the popularity of the BBC exactly as it is. In particular – economists call a “public good”. This exempt from normal market disciplines. But even if the BBC wishes to shift Trabants or Savile Row needs to be helped Mark Littlewood is Director General and the corporation’s senior employees doesn’t necessarily mean something Their starting point is usually an appeal its focus to Cornish science fiction and to compete against Mr Byrite. of the Institute of Economic Affairs are very insistent on this point – we that is actually any good for the public to the concept of so-called public service the ancient Gloucestershire sport of If you are still not persuaded that we (IEA). He was formerly chief must retain its “unique funding model”. (although it might be) but rather a broadcasting. The idea is that there are cheese rolling, it will still find it hard to can free the BBC from the constraints of press spokesperson for the Liberal For any readers who are unaware of service that can’t easily be provided to certain types of television programmes justify its current existence. If we wish the compulsory TV licence free, perhaps Democrats. what this entails, the BBC’s key revenue paying customers whilst denying such a which are of real value and benefit to the to publicly subsidise the screening of there’s one last argument that will iea.org.uk stream comes from a compulsory licence service to non-paying, free riders. wider public, but would simply not be live cheese rolling from the Cotswolds, convince. The offence of not paying this @MarkJLittlewood fee levied on those who own a television If you’re as old as me, you’ll remember produced if left to the free market. why would we be insistent that the BBC television tax now accounts for more set in the UK. This is the sort of funding the days of black and white TVs and the It is certainly true that there is a should be the company that should than 10% of all criminal prosecutions in model that most companies can only ability to pick up a perfectly watchable, wide range of programmes that could televise it? Perhaps Channel 4 or BT the United Kingdom. About 500 people

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COMMENT THE DITHERING EARL AND THE JACOBITE REBELLION OF 1715 WORDS BY ANDREW MARR JOURNALIST AND POLITICAL BROADCASTER

points in British history. An army of around 12,000, mostly highlanders – Clan Cameron and Clan Macdonald were both heavily involved - would have finished off a Hanoverian force of around half that number; Scotland would have been won for the Jacobites; and with the Catholic north of England on their side, a deal would have been struck. By the time of the rerun, 30 years later, the Hanoverians were much more secure; in 1715 there was a real chance of a change of dynasty. And here's where it starts to get really interesting. James depressed and in exile, nonetheless survived until 1766, longer lived than any reigning British monarch. Right to the end, he was a vigorous and assertive man. Britain would have felt different under his hand. After the horrors of the Wars of Religion in the previous century, I think it is inconceivable that either Catholics or Protestants would have tried to impose their will on the other. The restoration of James III would have had to be accompanied by an act 300 years ago had Andrew Marr’s ancestor the John Erskine, 23rd Earl of Mar been more decisive the of toleration, establishing freedom of course of both British and as a result the world’s history would have been irrevocably changed. Andrew worship of a kind enjoyed nowhere else playfully cross-examines the possibilities. in Europe. With Catholics on the throne, the sad and bloody story of England's religious division from Ireland would have always nursed a slight, if We must assume therefore, that have been an entirely different one. ridiculous, sense of guilt: exactly James III, fortified by the victory of a Louis XIV wouldn't have been happy 300 years ago, the 23rd Earl of slightly more ruthless Mar, would have to see Protestants free to worship, but Mar dithered at a crucial moment on been crowned as a Catholic monarch, he'd have been delighted to have his the battlefield of Sheriffmuir, when who owed almost everything to his cousin in London. Would the Seven he was quite clearly winning, he friend, cousin and mentor, Louis XIV of Years’ War, have happened between inexplicably failed to press home his France, the Sun King himself. That long cousins and co-religionists? Some will advantage against the Hanoverian troops commanded by the dastardly Duke of Argyle. Had he done so, the Jacobites would have had by far their best chance of a Restoration and all of British history That long succession of pudding faced Germans would have been substantially different. on the British throne would never have happened Or would it? King James III - the "Old Pretender" nonsense would by now be remembered only by a few specialist historians – would have undoubtedly clung on to his Roman Catholic faith. succession of pudding faced Germans argue that British and French interests As Queen Anne lay dying in 1714, on the British throne would never have were so opposed that it was inevitable. I English diplomats had tried very hard happened. There would have been no think it's impossible to say but consider to persuade James Francis Edward 1745 rebellion, no Culloden, no sudden this: if it hadn't happened, there would Stuart to convert to Protestantism, and and brutal extermination of the clan have been a diplomatic carve-up of the thereby reclaim his throne, keeping out system. new North American and Caribbean the Hanoverian George. James had been Sheriffmuir, near Dunblane, would be colonies. obdurate, flinty, unmoved. remembered as one of the crucial turning There wouldn't have been the Indian

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to the south of Perth – can produce huge, would have been much less likely had Oddly, the victory of a Catholic exponential changes to what follows. the British monarchy been Catholic, and monarchy, on the back of claymores and Britain doesn't become the Protestant the French an ally. Highland muskets, might have unsettled Empire. We become an experiment in And Scotland? Well here's the twist. things between Edinburgh and London religious toleration instead, and accept Certainly, the clan system would have further. Perhaps Victorian politics might joint dominion with France in the project survived for much longer – though the have been dominated by the demands of of European empire-building. I used to economic pull would have always been the Scottish Kirk and lowland business think that the defeat of an old fashioned there, partly depopulating land to the to be freed from the tyranny of Highland Catholic monarchy cleaving to “Divine poor to sustain millions of people in landlordism; perhaps we have had a Right” was an essential precondition prosperity. Would Highlanders have Scottish independence movement in the for the take-off of capitalism and the eventually revolted against the leaders 1860s; perhaps Scotland and England industrial revolution. But was it really? of their kinship groups, and there would be separate states today. Before the French Revolution, the been earlier and more widespread a Perhaps… Perhaps… Perhaps… The Bourbon monarchy had industrialised crofters rebellion? I think the north glamour of history lies in speculation, highly effectively. The spread of of Scotland today would have more, and the thought that, with a few tweaks, Protestantism in England and southern and larger towns and villages than it it might have been entirely different. Scotland was by the early 18th-century does, and perhaps instead of the rather So I go back to my ancestor, that so strongly established that it would bleak administrative regions, we would indecisive 23rd Earl of Mar known to have been impossible for Catholic have had clan territories marked and his contemporaries as "bobbing John" monarchs to repress it. So some kind recognized. Alex Salmond would be a because he changed sides so often. He's of deal would have been inevitable; the Professor of Gaelic Science and Ibrox, got a lot to answer for. I'm not even sure dissenting radicals, chemists, bankers the most famous Shinty stadium in the if he really is my ancestor – Marr with George I of Hanover succeeded to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland in 1714 after the death of Queen and assorted Gradgrinds would all world. the double r is supposed to signify, or Anne. Although he was the great grandson of James I, there were over fifty Roman Catholics who bore have been born, dug coal, smelted iron, However, boosted by victory in 1715, so I was told, "the wrong side of the On his father's death in 1701, James (right) closer blood relationships to the Royal Stewart line, but the Act of Settlement of 1701 prohibited Roman formed joint-stock companies and so on. the Scots would have been less easy blanket." declared himself King James III of England Catholics from inheriting the British throne. George was initially unable to speak English and spent I can think of no reason why George Watt junior partners in the British project But it's also an ancient Pictish name. and VIII of Scotland and was recognised as nearly a quarter of his reign in Hanover. such by France, Spain, the Papal States and would not have been born in Greenock – they might have demanded more I'm not really a Scot at all. Now, had Modena. James was attainted for treason in and invented the steam condenser. rights, earlier, and given the pride of the the gloriously inventive and mysterious London on 2 March 1702, and his titles were wars in which a young man named scale confrontation with the government On the other hand, had Britain not Stuart monarchy, they might have been Picts followed up our great victory of forfeited under English law. James’ son Prince George Washington made his name. of James III – and the various punitive been engaged in an existential global rejected. The defeat of the Jacobites, Nechtansmere by defeating the kingdoms Charles Edward Stewart, known as Bonnie With far greater French influence in acts which provoked the American struggle with France, our history would bloody and terrible as it was, settled of Strathclyde and Dumbarton… but Prince Charlie, led another attempt to establish his father as King in 1745. what is now Canada, and a huge French rebellion were, none of them, inevitable certainly have been very different. I've the question of the Union for centuries. that's another story entirely. possession to the south, Louisiana, it's or essential, it would have been less already suggested that America would hard to see the modern superpower of likely had Britain and France been in a have evolved differently, though I can't the United States taking shape in the way condition of amity. Then the breakaway see how any British government in the it did. Even if the Bostonians and New English-speaking colonies wouldn't middle of the eighteenth century could Yorkers had found themselves in full- have simply been able to buy what are have imposed its will on the American

Without the British alliance Alex Salmond would be Professor of Gaelic Science and Ibrox, the most famous Shinty stadium in the world.

now the southern states. colonies for a very long time. America It's easy to be Panglossian. Perhaps today would be at least a bilingual James III would have been a rotten country; New Orleans and Québec would monarch; the Stuarts have hardly had perhaps share a flag at the United Nations. Andrew Marr is a Scottish broadcaster an unspotted record. But at the same But that of course is only the start. and journalist. Beginning his career time, James was a hugely cultured Without the Seven Years War and the as a political commentator, he then man, whose mother Mary of Modena British alliance, would bellicose young edited The Independent (1996–98) brought some welcome Italian sparkle Prussia have risen to dominate the rest and was political editor of BBC News to the British monarchy. His son, Bonnie of Germany? Would the British have (2000–05). He began hosting Prince Charlie, may have been vain and taken all of India, or would the Mughals a political programme—Sunday AM, hotheaded, but he was also charismatic still rule in Delhi, with French and now called The Andrew Marr Show— and surely a better bet than the ghastly Portuguese possessions clinging on on Sunday mornings on BBC One, Prince Regent of history? elsewhere? What would that have meant from September 2005. The point is that a tiny shift in history for the ethnic composition of the British While the author’s ancestor the Earl of Mar survived after leading the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion to live @AndrewMarr9 – had the Earl of Mar pursued the Isles today? in France until 1727 the Editor’s ancestor Alan Macdonald 14th Chief and Captain of Clanranald, @MarrShow retreating troops of the Earl of Argyle’s Nearer home, Ireland might well who headed a regiment of 1000 Clanranalds at the Battle of Sherriffmuir, was mortally wounded by a stray musket shot. He had prior to the battle torched Castle Tioram (see above), the ancient Clanranald broken left wing a bit more confidently still be part of the UK – that long tragic stronghold, to avoid it falling to the Hanoverian forces. and vigorously across that soggy meadow period of mutual misunderstanding alicemacdonaldillustration.co.uk

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job for racing right now because they are the championship this year and join It was in a bid to stem this tide of SIR JACKIE STEWART so dominant. Before that it was Red Bull, him as a three-times winner. Can the death that the young Scot became a four world championships back to back Mercedes number one outstrip him by tireless campaigner for improved safety At Home on Formula One – an amazing record. winning four? “I think he could win five standards. At the time, the circuits had “The driving skills today are similar or six,” he says, with feeling. “He’s only no doctor on standby during races, WORDS BY DOMINIC MIDGLEY and there is not the extraordinary talent 30. I retired early at 34 because I’d had grass banks that served as launch pads INTREPID JOURNALIST AND AWARD WINNING AUTHOR that there used to be. Stirling Moss was mononucleosis and a duodenal ulcer and there were unprotected trees. The a great driver, Fangio was a great driver, and I had made quite a lot of money.” culture of the era was such that they Jim Clark was a great driver… The skill In quitting Formula One at a time of called him “chicken” when he started level now is of a different nature. Not that his own choosing, Sir Jackie was quite wearing a seatbelt. But the fact that they’re not good. They are as good as the no Formula One driver has died on a best of their eras – that’s all you can be.” racetrack since Ayrton Senna in 1994 is The good news is that he reckons thanks, in no small part, to Sir Jackie’s Ferrari is ripe for a comeback: “Why efforts all those years ago. not? They’ve got huge budgets, huge When I was racing, Not that he was a killjoy. Indeed, facilities. They’ve had more help and if you raced for five years Sir Jackie claims to be the man who assistance than any other team in the introduced the now totemic practice world but they’re Italian – every now there was a two out of of spraying champagne on the podium and again they lose it!” three chance you were after winning the French Grand Prix of Asked who he rates as the greatest 1969. “It was at Clermont-Ferrand on a driver on the circuit today, he waxes going to die. hot summer’s day in July,” he recalls. philosophical: “Millions of people drive “The idiotic organisers put the bottle on cars. A few thousand have competition the podium at the start of the race in 30 licences. A few hundred make a living degrees of heat. I was given the trophy out of motor sport. But there are only 23 unusual for a driver of his generation, by Mitterand [later to become president Formula One drivers and out of those 23 who all too often left the sport in a coffin. of France] and somebody said, ‘You there are only six that are really good. As he points out: “When I was racing, if should put the champagne in the trophy Out of those six there are only three that you raced for five years there was a two and toast everyone’. As soon as the wire are extraordinary at any one time. And out of three chance you were going to came off, the thing exploded because of there’s usually one genius.” die.” Many close friends, including Jim the heat. Being a Scot, I thought, ‘This He adds: “The genius right now is Clark, Piers Courage, Jochen Rindt, and is terrible’, so I put my thumb over the probably [Fernando] Alonso who is not Francois Cevert, were killed in accidents top and it went even further. Then I tried doing well at all because the McLarens are on the track and they are among the to move it away from everybody but the not doing well, but he will. He’s probably many drivers who are memorialized by more I shook it, the bigger the pressure. got the most up here [taps his head], which 28 brown wooden benches scattered It was going everywhere. By the time I is very important. They’ve all got natural around the 135 acres of Sir Jackie’s estate. learned how to do it properly, I could hit ability. It’s how they manage their head that makes the difference. Alonso’s good at that. But [Lewis] Hamilton’s probably Jackie Stewart in 1966, driving a Lola T90-Ford for John Mecom’s team in the Indianapolis 500 the fastest driver right now and after that you’ve got [Sebastian] Vettel, you’ve got [Nico] Rosberg, you’ve got [Daniel] t may be many years since Formula Formula One championship three times accommodate one of his collection of Ricciardo, you’ve got Jenson [Button]… I One legend Sir Jackie Stewart took – still the only Brit ever to have done so Rolexes. Today he is casually dressed in don’t really want to be accused of leaving the high road to England – but as – he is a crack shot, who only missed out a sleeveless navy blue cardigan, checked anybody out!” I wait for him in what must count as on making the British Olympics shooting shirt and red cords. While the above range in age from 25 his den on his Buckinghamshire estate, team of 1960, after a bad day at the office It turns out that it’s Rolex and UBS to 35, there is an even younger band of there are plenty of indications of his during one of the final play-off rounds. who keep him busy these days. He had drivers vying for the ascendancy – none Scottish heritage. The wallpaper and the Since his retirement from racing been in Monaco for the glamour round younger than the Torro Rosso driver Max curtains are a deep green tartan, there in 1973, he has forged a multimillion of the F1 calendar the week before we Verstappen who joined the circuit at the is a fine selection of single malts on a pound career in business through his met and was due to fly to Montreal for age of 17. What does one of the sport’s console table against one wall and the relationships with a succession of blue- the Canadian Grand Prix the very next elder statesmen make of that? “One’s Jack Vettriano painting above the stone chip brands, including Ford, Goodyear, day. This means he remains deeply got to be careful what one says but the baronial fireplace is just one of a large Moët & Chandon, Rolex and UBS immersed in the fortunes of the sport cars are definitely easier to drive at the collection of works by Scottish artists Wealth Management. He also became a and is not afraid to speak his mind. moment to a high level of mediocrity,” ranging from John MacLauchlan Milne household name in the US thanks to his He is sympathetic to those who feel he argues. “Verstappen is very good to Elizabeth Blackadder. role as a television commentator with that too many grand prix degenerate into but there’s not a Formula One driver in The arrival of the man himself is ABC’s top-rating Wide World of Sports. something approaching a procession, existence who has not started in karts at heralded by the yelps of his Norfolk It’s a glittering career that was recognized rather than a race. “Formula One has the age of eight. I was shooting with the terriers, Pimms and Whisky. Like most by an OBE during his racing days and always had periods of what you might young Finnish driver Valterri Bottas the grand prix drivers, Sir Jackie, 76, is more recently by a knighthood in 2006. call dull racing,” he says. “If you’ve other day and he started at six.” surprisingly diminutive in the flesh – he As a corporate global ambassador, Sir got the very, very best car like Michael Sir Jackie picks out Verstappen, once described himself as of “average Jackie is mostly seen these days in an Schumacher had with Ferrari you’re Bottas, who drives for Williams, and height” – but in every other way he is a immaculately cut suit, with the left-hand unbeatable, at the moment it’s Mercedes. Carlos Sainz of Torro Rosso, as the giant amongst men. Apart from winning cuffs of his shirts tailored slightly wider Hamilton is driving for unquestionably outstanding young talents of the moment Jackie and Helen Stewart celebrate victory at the 1969 Dutch Grand Prix 27 grand prix in the course of taking the than the ones on the opposite wrist to the best team. They’re not doing a great but he reckons that Hamilton will win

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a photographer at 10 metres easily. And, of course, now it’s a tradition.” Our near two-hour interview at an end, we walk out on to the terrace and Sir Jackie reveals that the land now occupied by a mini golf course, a five-a-side football pitch, a tennis court and acres of rolling parkland used to be the game farm for Chequers. In fact, the Prime Minister’s country retreat is just 400 yards away and this has proved useful in the past for gaining the ear of Downing Street. One of the lesser known facts about Sir Jackie is that he is severely dyslexic. When he attended Dumbarton Academy in the 40s and 50s, there was no appreciation of learning disabilities of this sort and this made for a miserable childhood. “My schooldays were the unhappiest time of my life,” he says. “The mental abuse you get. The teacher tells you you’re dumb, stupid and thick and it moves from the classroom to the playground. It was a very bad time. My parents thought I wasn’t concentrating. They got bad reports. They had to go to see the teachers or the headmaster because their dummy son wasn’t doing well.” Perhaps not entirely surprisingly Sir Jackie Stewart was awarded The Johnnie Walker Blue Label Great Scot Award 2009 at a Burns Night Sir Jackie turned out to be an energetic supper held at Boisdale of Belgravia on Monday 26 January. Hosted by journalist, editor and television champion of educational reform in presenter Andrew Neil (left), the audience included leading Scots from the world of film, music, art, literature, sport, media and business. later life and his first powerful ally in this regard was his weekend neighbour Tony Blair. However, worn down by Relations weren’t helped a year later the blocking tactics of the Westminster when Sir Jackie called for Mosley’s bureaucracy, Sir Jackie switched his resignation after he was the subject of attention to his native Scotland. a humiliating sex scandal, following With the support of first Jack an expose by the News of the World – a McConnell, the Labour First Minister position he sticks by to this day. “I just from 2001 to 2007, then the SNP’s Alex thought it was wrong for him to stay,” he Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, he has says. “If you’re the CEO of a multinational succeeded in ensuring that all seven corporation and something like this teacher-training colleges in Scotland has happened you would have to go. It instruct the next generation of teachers in happened in private but it came out and how to deal with children with learning became a global story. I felt he should difficulties – an impressive achievement. resign and therefore I was not popular Next stop is the main house, where the with Max vis-a-vis that.” While Mosley, hallway is dominated by a large portrait who had been president since 1993, of Sir Walter Scott by Landseer. We pass refused to budge at the time, he decided through to a sitting room where Sir Jackie’s not to seek re-election in 2009. wife Helen, the teenage beauty he first Mosley may be gone but that other big met in a coffee bar in Dumbarton when he beast of the sport remains as immovable as Dominic Midgley is a feature writer was 18 and she was 16, is watching TV. ever. “I don’t think any man in the history for the Daily Express and a former Deputy Editor of Punch. He has Sir Jackie interrupts his wife’s viewing of sport has done what Bernie Ecclestone also written biographies of Roman has done. There’s no bureaucracy with to show me the videos made by his son Abramovich, the Russian oligarch Mark, with which he often bookends him, its individual power. He’s 84 and who owns Chelsea FC, and the his corporate presentations. I can’t help still the most powerful and influential late billionaire financier Sir James noticing that they are credited to “Half man in the sport. He’s made it what it is Goldsmith. His English teacher at Wit Productions (Certified)”. This is a today. It’s huge.” school once wrote below one of his tongue-in-cheek reference to his feud So is Ecclestone going to retire any essays: “Waffle, fumble and padding: with the former president of the FIA Max time soon? “Certainly not, I think he’ll more of the first and the third and Mosley, who called Sir Jackie a “certified be there till he drops,” he says. The same less of the second than most people”! half wit” following the older man’s might well be said for the evergreen @DominicMidgley criticism of his handling of the Spygate Sir Jackie, who – 42 years after his scandal of 2007, which led to McLaren retirement – remains, for now at least, being fined £50 million. Britain’s most successful racing driver.

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PEOPLE IF I RULED THE WORLD Aberdeen Asset Management joined the FTSE 100 in March 2012 and has become one of the world’s leading independent asset managers through a combination of organic growth and acquisition. In November 2013, Lloyds Banking Group sold Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) to Aberdeen Asset Management in a £660m deal. The acquisition made Aberdeen Asset Management the largest listed fund manager in Europe, managing £330 billion.

WORDS BY MARTIN GILBERT

T’S very flattering of Boisdale to rule is: think long term. caused by financial professionals buying nominate me Ruler of the World, but If there was one overriding cause of the into complex products they hadn’t a clue frankly it’s not a job I would relish. 2008 financial crisis it could be summed up about and which turned out to be toxic. I just don’t have the Napoleon complex as short-term thinking. Too many people A Ruler of the World must slap down that is surely an essential qualification across the financial services industry were offenders as well as encouraging good for world domination. However, my take chasing a fast buck, instead of investing managers. Here my target would be the on this new career is that it is simply a in strong companies and holding their shortcomings we at Aberdeen call the platform for me to dictate some much- positions for the long haul. In my book, Seven Deadly Sins of multi-asset investing. needed improvements in the financial that’s speculation, not investment. The worst of these is short-termism (the services industry and to mount some Another of the golden rules that has fast buck mentality), following the market favourite hobbyhorses. It’s what people always been central to our investment herd in a rush to invest, neglecting to do when they fantasise about winning the approach is: do your own research. do the hard work of understanding a Lottery – even if they’ve never bought a companies’ operations at first hand and ticket. So, here goes my personal vision succumbing to overconfidence. for building wealth responsibly. Inclusive capitalism is not only about The one feature of this Ruler of conscientiously serving clients’ interests, the World role I feel comfortable with but also actively contributing to the is the fact it entails global outreach. communities in which we are based. Globalisation is increasingly a cultural, Aberdeen is well integrated into its as well as an economic reality and we host communities, notably in emerging need to adjust our mind-set to match. I’ve markets, and we encourage our staff to always felt at home in a variety of cultures volunteer their services to innumerable – I was born in Malaysia – and that kind of community projects. Personal service, international outlook is essential in fund contributing time and effort, is more management and the broader financial mutually beneficial than simply writing a services industry. cheque. I believe the best foundation for an My ambition, when ruling the world, open, global mind-set is to be firmly rooted would be to reform and energise the in your own culture. Aberdeen Asset financial services industry along the Management is a good example of this lines described above. But what would well-grounded but international outlook. Martin Gilbert, Chief Executive of Aberdeen Asset be the point of ruling the world without We are still based in our hometown of Management PLC wallowing in a spot of self-indulgence? Aberdeen, in our original offices, and the At a more personal level, I would decree city remains my home. But we also have a that my golf handicap should be fixed well-established presence in 26 countries We painstakingly investigate any permanently at 13. That would make my with 37 offices and 2,700 staff drawn from company we are considering investing experience on the golf course reliably a diverse variety of cultural backgrounds. in, interview its managers and continue profitable. I would also command instant So, our deep Scottish roots have not in to monitor it closely after investing. access, at any time, to the marvellous any way made us inward looking. On the We believe (another golden rule) that course at Pine Valley golf club in New contrary, we have followed a centuries- companies are about people, not assets. Jersey, as well as all the classic Scottish old Scottish tradition of going out into Other priorities for us are fair treatment courses. the world, respecting and embracing of minority shareholders, keeping a keen Under my benevolent rule, too, I other cultures, and forging good business eye on the strength of companies’ balance think you would find Aberdeen FC relationships. sheets and being wary of symptoms of would win many more trophies than is That is the creative attitude my over-ambition. currently the case. I’d be a largely sea- colleague Hugh Young took to Singapore The other rules I would impose on based Ruler of the World, since I would back in 1992, where he has made the fund managers as Ruler of the World use my power to make sure I spent more most enormous contribution as head relate more to technical operations, such time sailing. I think I’d better stop these of our Asian operations, fostering our as treating benchmarks sceptically and power fantasies now – I blame Boisdale investment in emerging markets. His standing aside from market panics (often for encouraging me to indulge in experience prompted us to draw up Ten an opportunity to buy cheaply). But the megalomania – and come back to sober Golden Rules for equity investing. As chief remaining guiding principle is pure reality. The suggestions for improving Ruler of the World I would want to make common sense: understand what you’re financial services, though, were genuine those rules a compulsory code for fund buying. It seems too obvious to need and I hope to see them increasingly managers. Probably the most important stating, but the crash in 2008 was largely implemented across the industry.

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PEOPLE

footballer of genius who was feckless a futuristic glimpse GEORGE BEST THE MOVIE and squandered his unbelievable ability? of and often sober Yes, I think that’s what the ultimate certainties end up on We ask Oscar winning film producer Stephan Evans about the particular challenges of making his new film. question of George Best must be. Do we the cutting room floor, really empathise with him? or it’s an overdraft, or WORDS BY STEPHEN EVANS Back to where I am now – inevitably, its Oscar time and it’s a task trying to find the boy to play the Champagne is the young George in his formative years. flowing! background for a potential football Although the film is different to “Seve”, The life of an genius. For whatever reason the grand it does require a talented young boy independent movie public schools don’t ever appear to have who must look great on screen but also producer is erratic created even an ordinary Premier League have a look that, when we transfer to cut to say the least. player and I can’t find out why? Wait, footage of the older George (say around Agreed, that covers yes I think I have. Did Best struggle in 17 ½ years of age when the genius is in many people in all his schooldays trying to climb the ladder full operation), the audience is already a walks of life, but of footballing success? As it turns out strong believer that they are one and the the film industry is much more than I had ever thought. same person. Equally as important, the quite extreme in that He was massively well regarded boy must have clear footballing ability area. My movement for his natural talent by the Northern (I’ve found a number of those!) a natural into it, from being a Irish football scouts but they felt he intelligence and a fundamental level of member of the stock was too much like a “stick insect” to self-confidence. Once the camera starts exchange for 16 make it in the then rough and tumble rolling and there is a production crew of years, also involved of the early 1960’s First Division. Does around 50-strong, analysing and staring a young Belfast boy. fate intervene and take a hand? But of at his every move, the young George By mistake I go to course. True genius always has some must rise to the occasion. He’s got to the wrong house George Best in Manchester United kit help even if it’s just to clear the hurdles be his natural self, even more he’s got to and meet the wrong so he or she can climb the mountains. glory in it and enjoy the whole fandango. people. As a result, Best gets a scholarship to the main Consequently the director and I I meet a young unknown actor from local grammar school. He has an IQ of must ensure our young George has that Belfast. We get on and I agree to finance 150. Doesn’t sound like a pro-footballer faculty. On the other hand, child actors his theatre company, before we decide to to me (Lampard probably excepted!) tend to be good. They do not know what make a film together. The casting and The school doesn’t play football, only acting is about so they have no problems the financing done, we go out to lunch rugby. George can’t take to this, plays truant and gets expelled to the local bog standard secondary modern, as Alastair Campbell would say. Things then get True genius always has some help, better for George. A roving Manchester United scout even if it’s just to clear the hurdles, watches him play in a boys Club so he or she can climb the mountains! game. So overwhelmed by the young boys ability he dismisses his frailty and recommends him to Matt Busby, Manager of Manchester United. So begins the start of George’s true genius. with that – they must just be themselves and toast our theatrical success, with Stephen is a highly respected UK Manchester United soccer star George Best surrounded by the Gangsters - four models from Manchester. Ironically, it was just the time of the in front of the cameras. It is only when the naïve cry “here come the Oscars!” film producer who in 1989 launched Left to right, Carolyn Moore, Kathy Anders, Verena and Mandy Preston. They were modelling the outfits swinging sixties and the birth of the the actors learn to and begin to act, that A year later my chum and I do indeed at a Manchester fashion show organised by George Best and a fashion house in London. the film career of Kenneth Branagh paparazzi, which intertwines with they realise how difficult it is. Luck has go to the Oscars where we have three when the duo joined forces to make George’s own decline. been on my side so far and it’s very likely nominations for Henry V and win one – a string of critically acclaimed hits As I write about his fabled career I will find him in the next few weeks. the Belfast boy was Kenneth Branagh. including Henry V, Peter’s Friends aving done around 20 movies sports film? Good idea I say to myself. in total wonderment, I am aware of Let’s see! Having found Britain’s greatest and Much Ado About Nothing. since leaving The City 27 years But what sport? Clearly it must be the his early death, completely alcohol I decided that the young George when entrepreneurial actor by serendipity Commercial and critical success has ago, I have noted experience most popular sport and the lead must be induced. I am reminded of the porter’s he is either practicing on his own or – finding the young footballer to play continued, since, notably with The teaches you little except how to survive, a Brit. The words football and George line at The Savoy, when he was staying playing in a full blooded match, should George Best, by hard work and luck, will Madness of King George. He has a particularly so in the movies. In my Best immediately spring to mind and with Miss World, the bed strewn with be somehow choreographed. I was complete the circle! If the film is half as track record of nurturing upcoming last film, “Seve the Movie”, I decided I’m now up and running. I purchase 100’s of £5 notes, “where did it all go explaining this to my accountant and said good at Ken’s Henry V, I will be as pleased talent including the screenwriting career of Hossein Amini (Oscar- to go forward into the world of sport. the major biographies of Best and bury wrong George!” I’m not a complete idiot that in a perfect world we need a football as punch. I love Belfast, my four recent nominated for his first screenplay, Fortunately I had a good knowledge of my head in them as well as meet and / – I think the final part of the film must choreographer – some hope I thought! Her trips have enabled me to sample the best The Wings of the Dove) directors golf and the film was well received. I or phone people who knew him well. try to show this in a fair-minded way. I reply was immediate, “Stephen I have the restaurants, bars and pubs the city can such as Nicholas Hytner and Iain then moved onto a film about a young Although I loved football when I was don’t believe alcoholism is genetic, yet world’s best football choreographer on offer and boy they are good. When I first Softley, and then-unknown actors Indian Elvis impersonator. No easy task, young and even captained my school, his mother died of the same problem my books”. As a result I met Andy, an ex- flew into “Best” airport it was clear his like Cillian Murphy (Disco Pigs), although I’m sure we will get there, but I found I knew little about Best except in her early 50’s. Talking to different Premier League player who specialises flame is still very much alight. I have Emily Mortimer (Dear Frankie), then I always think that! During the his brilliance as a player and decent people and through extensive reading, in this art, doing everything from major to tie the green ribbon on the movie in Paul Bettany (The Reckoning) course of this, money begins to flow out into alcoholism. As I read and write it was George who unwittingly created football adverts to the feature film “Goal”. the next few months and will then look and Daniel Craig (The Mother). and I rack my brains as to what movie the story begins to unwind. Working his own decline into alcoholism. He Thanks very much Kirsty! forward to George’s premiere at the idea might fill the void. class background, council estate and himself in interviews substantiates this. That’s the life of a producer, things Boisdale of Canary Wharf in the early Hey Presto! What about another loving parents. The classic, Rolls Royce So was he a good person or merely a arrive in your path that you only have New Year!

44 45 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4

PEOPLE

During our chat and his enthusiastic forward on his stomach. excursion was entirely wasted. LUNCHING WITH LORD LONGFORD consumption of sherry Frank’s pockets I reached out and grabbed his flailing And when the Daily Telegraph moved had disgorged a total of ten pound left hand. He pulled and, tripping over from Fleet Street to Canary Wharf in the Frank Longford to his family, but better known as Lord Longford was a British politician and social coins and some assorted shrapnel in an adjoining mahogany chair, I fell on late eighties former editor Bill Deedes reformer. A member of the Labour Party, he was one of its longest serving politicians. He held the form of fifty pence pieces and some top of Lord Longford. Somehow his head quipped: “The only advantage Canary cabinet positions on several occasions between 1947 and 1968. Longford was politically active up coppers. I eagerly told the waiter to use became wedged between the upturned Wharf has over Wormwood Scrubbs is until his death in 2001 and famed for championing social outcasts and unpopular causes. He is the unexpected treasure to pay the bill legs of his chair. The seat had fallen out that Lord Longford will not be visiting especially notable for his lifelong advocacy of penal reform. Longford visited prisons on a regular (about £9) and to keep the change. On and he had somehow introduced his left us there.” basis for nearly 70 years until his death. He advocated rehabilitation programmes and helped create that occasion I was not on expenses but leg to the space created by the missing I liked Lord Longford immensely and the modern British parole system in the 1960s following the abolition of the death penalty. His all of our subsequent nosebags were seat. We were stuck. The door opened knew that he knew he was a fruitful source ultimately unsuccessful campaign for the release of Moors murderer Myra Hindley attracted much covered by various proprietors from and the secretary asked “Is everything of newspaper stories. He liked seeing media and public controversy. He believed that no one was beyond redemption - not even Myra Lord Stevens and Rupert Murdoch, to all right?” I got the distinct impression his name in the newspaper and rarely Hindley, one of the most reviled women in British history. Although ironically by the end it is clear Lord Rothermere. if ever took offence, no that Hindley tired of Longford, believing all the ensuing publicity resulting from their relationship I never begrudged matter how unkind the was the reason that she could never be released. watering Lord Longford. reference. He would not He was always good have been a source of WORDS BY JOHN MCENTEE company and never revenue for the ambulance DAILY MAIL DIARIST complained about being chasing firms of lawyers described as ‘delightfully who now encourage dotty’. celebrities to seek money rank Longford would be almost insisting that he had to make his way to eyed the complimentary cashews and When he published a from newspapers for 110 if he were alive today. As an the House of Lords for a crucial debate. listened to the pianist tip tapping some collection of accidents the slightest infringement enthusiastic trencherman I have no It was a long utilised and successful easy music. As we sat in the lounge suffered by famous people of privacy. doubt he would accept with alacrity an ruse to avoid paying for lunch. I was with a stunning view over the rooftops I interviewed him in the Once in a invitation to a birthday lunch at Boisdale, delighted to acquiesce. It was to be our of Oxford Street and beyond I realised board room of Sidgwick Lebanese restaurant in extinguishing six score of candles and last meal together. the snacks and piano indicated a level & Jackson in Bloomsbury. Kensington he whipped tucking into a meal with of expense I wasn’t prepared His own mishap, included a new volume out of his all the fixins’ washed down for. I had less than a fiver on in the book, occurred in rucksack and said “I am with his favourite Chablis. me and Frank’s reputation 1946 when as Labour’s very proud of this. It’s His Lordship departed for had gone before him. “What Minister for Germany he a proof copy of my new the canteen in the sky would you like?” asked a flew to Berlin and exiting book. The publisher says fourteen years ago (August) waiter. “Could I have a the RAF plane somehow it is very good.” and I still miss him. He was large schooner of sherry?” managed to miss the On the title page was 95 and, until a few weeks asked his Lordship (it was welcoming steps and one word HUMILITY (the before his demise, was still 11am). I ordered a coffee. red carpet. As an Army book also dislodged from up for lunch or dinner, so Frank made short work of Band played God Save the bag a crumpled pair long as someone else was the cashews by the time the King, Lord Longford of striped red and white paying. the waiter returned. Ditto waved from the open pyjamas which landed Frank Longford paid in with the sherry. He asked door of the aircraft and on the floor alongside our gossip. He was an endless for a second schooner. My plunged more than six food laden table. Frank source of stories. No lunch mental abacus confirmed feet to the tarmac. On his looked at the jimjams, was without some gratifying that I did not have descent he didn’t notice Moors Murderer, Myra Hindley looked at me accusingly piece of gossip or drama. enough money to cover our the steps connected to a door further up (Jul 1942 – Nov 2002) and asked “How did they get there?” We lunched and dined refreshments. the aircraft where dignitaries waited to I still miss him. and drank together for more The interview went well welcome the government minister. than 25 years. Our last meal and was only interrupted After we had talked at length that this was not the first occasion she was at his favourite trough when Frank asked “Would about pratfalls and accidents, Frank had found her boss on the floor in the We struggled to find a picture of John The Gay Huzzar in Soho. By you mind if I have another insisted on demonstrating his keep fit boardroom. then he was frail and almost sherry, it’s rather good here. routine. He was then in his seventies Frank received much criticism for his Mcentee, who is simply recognised by completely blind. The staff Will you have one? "No and boasted of regular jogs in the Sussex lifelong campaigning for prisoners his byline and has held a number of kindly cut up his favourite thanks" I replied as I waved countryside near his weekend home. in general and Moors murderess Myra very senior positions in journalism, Hungarian nosh. Peering at the waiter. After polishing This was in an age before Pilates and Hindley in particular. Hindley went including: from his banquette he could off the third schooner Frank designer trainers. “I don’t do press to her grave furious with Longford London Correspondent of the Irish hear but not see Richard asked: “What time is it?” It ups” explained Frank. “But I do some for his well-meaning efforts which Press Group (1975-1987); Royal Ingrams, the late Paul Foot was 12.30pm. “Goodness sit ups and squats.” He then stood up ultimately kept the spotlight of attention Correspondent Sunday Express and Private Eye editor Ian The Right Honourable, The Earl Lord Longford KG I'm expected at the House and demonstrated. Then he ran on the on her. This guaranteed that she would (1994-1996); Executive Diary Editor PC (Dec 1905 – Aug 2001) Hislop about to settle their bill and of Lords,” he said as he stood up, shook spot for a few moments. But when he never be granted parole. Daily Express (1996-1997); Editor depart. hands and walked towards the express spread his arms and legs to show me a Longford’s cousin, Ferdie Mount in William Hickey and columnist Daily He asked me who they were. I told lift. As his tall gangly figure disappeared particular stretching technique a new his memoir Cold Cream recalls Lord Express (1997-2001); Editor Wicked him and excused myself to go and wash Frank’s first close shave with me and I beckoned the waiter over to explain chapter in Lord Longford’s Book of Longford’s glumness when obliged to my hands. When I returned Frank had a bill was at the roof top cocktail bar my predicament. He looked at the Accidents suddenly began. attend a family wedding on the Isle of Whispers Daily Mail (2001-2005); hobbled across to where the trio had at the St George’s Hotel near the BBC leather seat just vacated by his lordship. His left leg became entangled in Wight. He brightened instantly when he Sky Newspaper reviewer (1996-2010) eaten and was blissfully addressing the HQ Boadcasting House in Portland “You seem to have dropped some one of the mahogany chairs next to remembered that the island contained empty table. I led him gently back to Square. As we sat in the lounge with money sir!” he exclaimed. There on the the polished board room table. As he two high security prisons including his already cut chicken. Frank did his a stunning view over the rooftops of brown seat was a cluster of pound coins suspended his helicoptering right arm Parkhurst. “I’ll go and see Reggie Kray.” post lunch usual, asking the time and Oxford Street and beyond I nervously winking in the midday sun. to grab the chair he stumbled and fell he declared realising that no country

46 47 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4

ENTERTAINMENT PEOPLE BB KING: A LIFE REMEMBERED JOOLS HOLLAND 1925 – 2015 BOISDALE PATRON OF MUSIC PRESENTS WORDS BY JONATHAN WINGATE SUMMER SUPERSTAR SPECTACULAR MUSIC JOURNALIST, AUTHOR AND BBC PRESENTER EVERY WEDNESDAY IN JULY & AUGUST 9:30PM AT BOISDALE OF CANARY WHARF

IMAGINE... THE BEATLES JERRY LEE LEWIS 80TH BIRTHDAY The biggest band of all time and a superb tribute by one of the best Beatles cover bands in the world today. A 75 minute journey FAREWELL UK TOUR through the sounds of the 60s. At The London Palladium Wednesday, July 01 and August 05, 2015 Sunday 6 September

With Linda Gail Lewis, James Burton, LEGEND: A TRIBUTE TO BOB MARLEY Steve Cropper and Albert Lee. We welcome back Michael Anton Phillips and his brilliant band whose astonishingly authentic homage to the timeless music of To purchase tickets visit: Bob Marley goes from beautiful ballads like No Woman, No Cry roccobuonvinoproductions.com through to reggae classics such as I Shot The Sheriff. Wednesday, July 08 and August 12, 2015 INTIMATE BIRTHDAY DINNER FOR JERRY LEE LEWIS Tuesday 8 September at Boisdale of Canary Wharf SUSPICIOUSLY ELVIS: UNPLUGGED We present an intimate evening of the hits of Elvis in the style of The “Killer” will be honoured at a very special dinner at which his early Sun recording sessions and as featured in the legendary Linda Gail Lewis will perform and the “Killer” himself will make 1968 Comeback Special. a guest star appearance. Wednesday, July 15 and August 26, 2015 To purchase tickets visit: boisdale.co.uk

FRANK & DEAN’S VEGAS SPECIAL Two classy crooners, Gary Williams and Steve Pert, are joined TO WIN TWO TICKETS for The Dinner for Jerry Lee Lewis at by Pete Long’s fantastic nine-piece Big Band in a wonderfully Boisdale of Canary Wharf Email your favourite Jerry Lee Lewis’ entertaining and authentic Rat Pack homage that has been a huge song to [email protected] winner will be announced on 16 hit every time they have appeared at Boisdale of Canary Wharf. August the 80th anniversary of Elvis’ death. Wednesday, July 29 and August 19, 2015

JULY 01 AND AUGUST 05, 2015 JULY 15 AND AUGUST 26, 2015 Riding with the King blues album by Eric Clapton and B.B. King released in 2000 was their first collaborative album and won the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. The album reached number one on Billboard's Top Blues Albums and was certified 2× Multi-Platinum in the United States selling over 3.5 million worldwide. In his autobiography, Clapton wrote that B.B. King was "without a doubt the most important artist the blues has ever produced."

t was almost 60 years ago that demographics, almost single-handedly its bent notes, heavy vibrato and singing the passing of ‘Big’ Bill Broonzy elevating the form from its humble tone, his signature single-note guitar prompted obituarists to talk about backwater origins into the heart of the style provided the musical blueprint for ‘the last of the bluesmen.’ Even then, it was commercial mainstream. everyone from the Rolling Stones to the a premature obituary, yet it is impossible He was also probably the most Yardbirds, the band that launched the to imagine any blues artist of the future important transitional figure between career of Eric Clapton. “He is without a JULY 29 AND AUGUST 19, 2015 coming close to the spell B.B. King cast upon successive generations of guitar players and millions of music lovers. He passed away on 14th May, aged He is without doubt the most important artist the blues has 89. A contemporary of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and John Lee Hooker, ever produced and the most humble and genuine man you he really was the last of the truly great could ever wish to meet, “ Eric Clapton. bluesmen, the sole survivor of a tradition that stretched all the way back to the JULY 08 AND AUGUST 12, 2015 Mississippi Delta and the early 1920s. B.B. King represented the blues in much the blues and rock ‘n’ roll. Where older doubt the most important artist the blues the same way as Louis Armstrong once bluesmen like Waters and Wolf inspired has ever produced, and the most humble represented jazz. He helped transform English and American bands in the and genuine man you would ever wish FOR FULL LISTINGS GO TO BOISDALE.CO.UK TO BOOK CALL 020 7715 5818 the genre into an international language 60s, B.B. King arguably had more of a to meet,” wrote Clapton in his 2008 that transcended race, geography and palpable influence on their music. With biography. “In terms of scale or stature,

48 49 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4

I named my guitar Lucille to remind me King spent most of his life on the His constant companion throughout not to do a thing like that again.” road. He started out playing more than his career was his beloved Lucille, which He made his recording debut with 300 gigs a year, crisscrossing his way worked as a second voice on his songs. a small local company in 1949 before across the highways of America on the Lucille fell silent when King sang, and signing to a larger, LA-based label called chitlin’ circuit. Named after a soul answered him in electrifying clusters Modern Records. By the early 50s, he had food dish made from hogs’ intestines, of single-string notes when he paused achieved nationwide fame, having held the chitlin’ circuit was the network of for breath. He brought a subtle jazz pole position on the Billboard R&B chart African-American clubs in the racially musician’s sensibility to his playing and for 15 weeks with Three O’Clock Blues. segregated southern states where it was could say more with one note than other It was the first in a seemingly endless safe for black musicians to perform. guitarists could even dream of with 1000. run of timeless hits that included Please His touring schedule became less For B.B. King, every single note was truly Love Me, Ten Long Years and You Upset arduous as his music began to cross precious; he was the undisputed master Me Baby. over to mainstream white audiences of concision and precision. A commanding, charismatic onstage presence with his robust frame and thunderous, visceral voice, King was ranked in third place in Rolling Stone When I heard T-Bone, I flat out lost my mind. magazine’s 100 greatest guitarists of all I thought Jesus himself had returned to earth time, just below Jimi Hendrix and Duane playing electric guitar! Allman. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, won 15 Grammy Awards and sold millions of records in BB King's Blues Club on Beale Street, Memphis today, where Elvis was also a visitor buying his early clothes from the Lansky Brothers shop an illustrious career that spanned almost 70 years, although he is probably best B.B.’s sophisticated, instantly and he progressed to arenas and theatres known for When Love Comes To Town, I believe that if Robert Johnson was dying five years later, leaving him to be an escape route to a better life. When he recognizable style was somehow throughout the world, yet he was still his 1989 collaboration with U2. “I gave it reincarnated, he is probably B.B. King.” raised by his maternal grandmother. reached his teens, King bought his first simultaneously innovative and yet playing up to 150 shows a year when he everything I had in that howl at the start His parents, Albert and Nora Ella King, He started working on the plantation electric guitar so that he could learn to deeply rooted in blues history - a was well into his 80s. He once recalled of the song, and then B.B. King opened were sharecroppers, and their first child, from the age of seven, dropped out of play like his pastor, the Reverend Archie potent cocktail of Louis Jordan, Lonnie how a journalist had criticized him up his mouth and I felt like a girl,” Riley B. King, was born in September school in his mid-teens and scratched Fair. It wasn’t long before he was earning Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson and for abandoning his blues roots: “‘B.B. Bono explained. “We had learned and 1925 in their humble wooden cabin on a living picking cotton for a penny a more in a single day’s busking than he T-Bone Walker. “When I heard T-Bone, – symphony hall, no dirt on the floor, absorbed, but the more we tried to be a plantation near the small Delta town of pound. He performed gospel songs on had previously made in a whole week as I flat out lost my mind,” he explained. no smoke in the air…and that’s the like B.B., the less convincing we were.” Itta Bena. As there was no alternative form street corners while studying the blues a farm worker. “I’d take my guitar and “Thought Jesus Himself had returned blues?’ My answer is, why not? Isn’t a Both in his private and professional of transport, a neighbor set off on foot to with his cousin, Bukka White, who gave play on the streets. A gospel song would to earth playing electric guitar. T-Bone’s symphony hall built for beautiful music? life, B.B. King didn’t do anything by summon a midwife, but she arrived too him some advice that would stay with get me a pat on the head, but a blues blues filled my insides with joy and good And the blues is a beautiful music – it’s halves. His list of excesses included food, late for the birth. Riley’s young parents him throughout his life: “If you want to would get me a dime. So you see why I feeling. I became his disciple.” everybody’s music.” gambling and women (he reportedly separated when he was four, his mother be a good blues singer, people are going stuck with the blues.” fathered 15 children by 15 different to be down on you, so dress like you’re By 1948, he had moved to Memphis partners). He was, in every sense, larger going to the bank to borrow money.” and was still working as a tractor driver than life, and his sound was just as big. B.B. King subsequently spent most of his when he was invited by Sonny Boy career dressed like he actually owned Williamson to perform on his radio show, the bank; on stage he usually sported a King Biscuit Time. He was soon playing sharp tuxedo, patent leather shoes and a regular gigs in many of Memphis’ Beale dazzling array of diamond rings. Street clubs as well as broadcasting as a In the six months between harvesting singer and DJ on his own program on local and planting, he would walk five miles station, WDIA. Originally billed as ‘The and back every day to attend Elkhorn Beale Street Blues Boy’, he abbreviated School. He was eventually promoted his name down to ‘Blues Boy King’ and from cotton picker and ploughman to then to the snappier ‘B.B. King.’ tractor driver when he was 16: “I loved On a freezing cold night in the it. The mule crapped, but the tractor winter of 1949, King was performing at hummed. When I was picking cotton a nightclub in Twist, Arkansas when a they paid 35 cents a 100, and I could fight broke out between two men over a pick over 400 in a day. Then I learnt to woman. One of the men fell over a barrel drive tractors, and driving a tractor on a of burning kerosene that was used to heat plantation you’re kind of a star, because the club, spilling the flammable liquid Jonathan Wingate has interviewed you’re doing something not everyone all over the floor. Everyone ran for the everyone from Paul McCartney to can do. And top wages then was $22.50 front door. Standing outside watching Tony Bennett, writing for a wide a week, which was more than anybody the club burning to the ground, King range of publications including The Daily Telegraph, The Scotsman and else made.” realized that he had left behind his trusty Joe Bihari (left) co-founded Modern Records, the Los Angeles-based record company that discovered Rolling Stone. He can regularly be The dark alluvial soil of the $30 Gibson ES-335 and rushed back in rhythm-and-blues performers like B.B. King (second from left). King became Modern’s best-selling heard putting the music world to Mississippi Delta produced three things: to rescue it. The next day, he discovered artist, though he later expressed frustration with the Bihari brothers’ cavalier approach to publishing. Most of King’s songs were co-credited to Taub, Ling or Josea, pen names for Mr. Bihari and his brother rights on BBC television and radio. cotton, grinding poverty for those that that the woman whose charms had been Jules. “Some of the songs I wrote, they added a name when I copyrighted it,” Mr. King said in a 1999 picked it, and the blues, which served the catalyst for the trouble was called interview for the magazine Blues Access. “Like ‘King and Ling’ or ‘King and Josea.’ There was no such as entertainment, consolation and, for Lucille: “I never did meet the lady, but thing as Ling or Josea. No such thing. That way, the company could claim half of your song!” a lucky few blessed with enough talent, I learned that her name was Lucille, so alicemacdonaldillustration.co.uk

50 51 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4

LIFESTYLE THE BEST GUNSMITHS ON THE PLANET Whether you prefer over-and-under or side-by-side, we take look at the best places to get geared up ahead of the shooting season!

NEW! WORDS BY SAM KESSLER ONLINE EDITOR OF LUX WORLDWIDE

HOLLAND & HOLLAND BERETTA

M a g n u s 1.8 –12 x 50

An adaptable, constant companion Think of Holland & Holland’s Bruton Street as the country One of the most recognised names in firearms, Beretta goes home of an eccentric uncle with a penchant for hoarding. well beyond the typical English gunmaker in scale. Thankfully, Whether stalking on the hill, shooting from a high seat, or driven hunts abroad – few other Whilst William & Son take a pared-down, sleek approach to their London showroom focuses on the realm of sporting guns riflescopes are as adaptable and precise as the new Magnus 1.8 –12 x 50. Outstanding their space, Holland & Holland’s, next door, is wonderfully - after all, turning up to a shoot with one of their famous 9mm contrast, excellent light transmission, a superlative zoom factor and a gigantic field of view eclectic. Every wooden surface and cabinet holds an array of pistols might get a few odd looks. shooting-themed treasures, from cartridge salt cellars to horn The gallery, housed in an old, renovated bank on Jermyn will win you over, even under the most challenging conditions. With its compact length and shaving sets. Every shelf in every corner seems to hold some Street certainly fits well with its surroundings. The antler easy assembly, this scope sets new standards. new unique piece, found who knows where. chandelier hanging from the ceiling, the copious furs and It’s a delightful warren of different rooms, each bedecked trophies nestled amongst the hunting paraphernalia and flexible use, thanks to 6x zoom and universal magnification range in different woods and hunting trophies, mounted deer and remnants of the original bank’s décor, all fit with the area’s bright, high-contrast image, even in low light – because of its 50mm lens stuffed woodland creatures. This changes somewhat when you history. They also serve to make it one of the most striking of exceptional field of view and transmission of approximately 92% get to the clothing area; Holland & Holland’s fashion line is one all of London’s gun shops. maximum ergonomics and intuitive handling – even with gloves of the most cohesive and accessible – in style at least – of all Only Beretta’s finest guns are in attendance, over-and- the gunmakers. Yet here once again, the gun room is the finale. unders and side-by-sides, but for our money the 486 by Marc Discover more at www.leica-hunting.com Racks of Holland & Holland’s bespoke shotguns and rifles Newson has to be the highlight. Astoundingly elegant and with fill every cabinet, along with more exotic fare, elephant guns little touches, such as the lowered tail, that make the design included. It’s an impressive sight for any shooting aficionado that much more refined, is what happens when a world-class and, what’s more, if a firearm particularly takes your fancy designer meets a world-class gunmaker. there’s always the Holland & Holland shooting ground to try it out on.

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Leica - Boisdale Life.indd 1 29/06/2015 11:59 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4

WILLIAM & SON BOSS & CO. JAMES PURDEY & SONS LTD.

Purdey’s home at Audley house is definitely the most historic of London’s gun shops. Not only does it still bear the scars of WWII bombing, but it was here that General Bedell- Smith planned the D-Day landings. Touted as a ‘palace amongst gun manufactories’ it’s certainly worth a visit on the basis of the building alone. While the actual gun making has been moved out to Hammersmith, the store still holds one of the finest selections of guns in London, along with a fantastic range of hunting equipment. Pretty much everything you would need for a shoot can be found in Purdey’s store – be that full shooting regalia or something as simple as one of Purdey’s own hunting knives. As for the guns themselves, the self-opening shotgun always stands out from the rest. The patented system essentially uses the residual energy of the mainspring to open the gun and eject the cartridges, hopefully speeding up loading times. Yes it makes it harder to close once again, which should be the loader’s problem, not yours!

Audley House, 57 - 58 South Audley Street, W1K 2ED www.purdey.com Boisdale Life and Purdey will both be teaming up together on August the 4th 2015, for the inaugural, Balvenie Great British Game Restaurant Shooting Cup! The event will be a celebration of British game, with the very best chefs across London taking part in a clay competition, hosted at the West London Shooting School – expect some Michelin starred competition!

R. WARD GUNMAKERS

Until recently William & Son was an unusual beast. Alongside a gun shop they also had a lifestyle store, essentially containing everything that founder William Asprey happened to like. Combining both their gun shop with their luxury emporium of treasures was the best move that William & Son could have made. The move from Mount Street to Bruton Street, let them completely reinvent the space, into what is For Boss & Co, it’s all about the guns. It has always been and possibly one of the most impressive in London. It seems that always will be about the guns. It’s an ethos that has worked Mr Asprey has very good taste indeed. for the artisan gunmaker over the years – theirs are rightly Open and airy, stepping through the doors, you can see regarded as some of the finest shotguns you can ever buy – clear through to Bruton Place on the other side of the building. particularly their signature over-and-under. It’s worth a visit to Sam Kessler is Online Editor at Lux Worldwide Along the way is a little taste of each domain in which William their Kew Gardens workshop to see exactly why. luxworldwide.com & Son works; silver, watches, leather, and fashion – a bit of Boss & Co’s factory is a workshop to the nth degree, a single R. Ward certainly have a sporting heritage – founder Ray was an expert shot, @LUXWorldwide everything. Most impressive however is the slightly hidden room in which a group of artisans work on their own specialty, winning a good number of national shooting titles throughout his career. Naturally gun room. whether that be lock, stock or barrel. Their size means that this led to the gun trade, setting up in Knightsbridge and becoming one of most Dominated by trophies taken by William Asprey himself – whilst they can’t produce many, it amps up the quality no important gun traders in the capital. not your average stag here think buffalo – the room is lined end. Even the action is as much a work of art as the engraving, Under John Ward, son of the late Ray, they’ve since gone on to start their own LuxWorldwide is the exclusive lifestyle with cabinets displaying both William & Son’s own guns which equals anything in the world. bespoke gunmaking, using their experience in professional shooting to refine their partner of Boisdale Life-providing and a range of second hand pieces from the likes of Purdey All of this has been channelled into their showroom. There designs to precisely what the consummate sportsman needs. They do still trade in unique insight into over 3,500 of and Holland & Holland. Their own pieces are on the more are no superfluities, no fashion, no accessories, just the guns superb second hand guns and the range of guns is complimented by a full made-to the world's leading luxury brands. accessible end of the bespoke gun spectrum – naturally, fully and the guns alone. If you have some of the best guns in the -order clothing service, offering top-to-toe sporting gear. R. Ward may be newer to handmade in Britain. world, why bother with anything else? gunmaking than most, but their expertise in shooting is second-to-none. It’s worth going in, simply to discuss the sport.

34-36 Bruton Street, London, W1J 6QX 12a Cadogan Place, SW1X 9PU 16 Mount Street, London W1K 2RH www.williamandson.com www.bossguns.com www.rwardgunmakers.com

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LIFESTYLE

THE GERMAN PHOENIX Lange left Dresden and established a pocket watch production workshop WORDS BY TIMOTHY BARBER in Glashutte, then a struggling mining WATCH NEWS EDITOR OF QP MAGAZINE, THE UK’S LEADING WATCH TITLE village in the Saxony hills. He trained up apprentices from the local community to Jaeger-LeCoultre’s coloured dial become master watchmakers, invested Reversos – there have been in infrastructure, and developed several red, blue and chocolate brown horological innovations that remain versions – are among those hallmarks of German watchmaking most hunted by collectors, but today. His sons continued building this version in striking green a company that by the 1870s was is something of a case apart. n Dresden’s historic central plaza, producing precious pocket watches for For starters, it’s a UK exclusive Neumarkt Square, the city’s famous Tsars, Kaisers and Europe’s aristocracy, – that’s actually British Racing domed church, the Frauenkirche, while a community of other watch Green, made specially for the thrusts gloriously upwards – an ornate producers and associated businesses brand’s newly-opened London testament to Saxony’s 18th century emerged around it. flagship shop (on Bond Street, Golden Age. Around the square, It’s extraordinary to imagine how naturally). Moreover, it’s set grand late-Baroque facades reflect the such a skilled industry could be to be one of the rarest Jaeger- riches that flowed through the city snuffed out in one post-war blow. More LeCoultres ever made, with as Saxony became a cradle of artistic extraordinary still, arguably, to see how just 26 watches coming to and technological success. It was amid it has been revived since Walter Lange, market. Which means that, this thriving, cultured metropolis that the founder’s great grandson, and Gunter sadly, by the time you read this one Ferdinand Adolph Lange rose to Blumlein, a leading figure in the Swiss they’ll likely all be spoken for. prominence as a court clockmaker watch industry, swept in in 1990 and Those who manage to purchase during the 1830s. started rebuilding. Through investment, one, for a distinctly reasonable The historic buildings we see today training and bloody-minded ambition Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso £6,800, have a rather tasty are, of course, a stupendous illusion. – and with the help of the handful of in British Racing Green investment on wrist. Or at least, a painstaking reconstruction skilled old-hands who remained from Price: £6,800 – “restoration” would be too strong the pre-war glory days – they breathed a word – since there was nothing left new life into what had seemed a dead to restore by February 16, 1945, after industry. Four years later, A Lange & 19th century pocket watch; this year it A Lange & Sohne watches are available at Allied bombs had atomised central Sohne produced its first watches in has brought out its first minute repeater, Watches of Switzerland at 55 Regent Street, London. Dresden. Under the East German almost 50 years, and established a new in its Zeitwerk collection of watches Moritz Grossmann’s watches are newly available regime the few remaining walls of Glashütte Original Grande Cosmopolite template for German watchmaking. with an exotic digital (mechanical, not at William & Son, 34-36t Bruton Street. the obliterated Frauenkirche stood A Lange & Sohne Zeitwerk Minute Repeater Tourbillon A Lange & Sohne’s watches sit in electronic) hour and minute display in as a lonely monument, while most Price: £310,000 Price: £275,500 the same bracket for execution and place of traditional hands. surrounding ruins were razed. It was sophistication as those of marques like And just as it did in the past, A Lange only after the 1990 reunification that Patek Philippe, Breguet or Vacheron & Sohne seems still to influence the Dresden authorities set about recreating Constantin. The key model among the development of those around it. A new the buildings that had once stood and other items. Skills honed over quartet of watches that relaunched the Glashutte haute horlogerie contender here; the Frauenkirche, hand-built to generations were lost in a flash. brand in 1994, the Lange 1, remains the has recently entered the fray, founded exactly replicate the original church, Remarkably, since 1990 and the fall of flagship of today’s collection, with a design by a former Lange watchmaker, Christine was completed in 2005 – a magnificent the Berlin Wall, Glashutte watchmaking that neatly sums up the Lange appeal. Its Hutter, with a brand new factory built achievement of scholarship, craft and has regenerated at a rate that makes unusual features – asymmetrical layout, next door to Lange’s. Moritz Grossman, painstaking dedication. it hard to avoid applying the phrase prominent double date window – add named after a contemporary of Ferdinand Fifteen miles away, in the Saxon “German efficiency”. Nomos Glashutte, up to something both eccentric and Adolph Lange’s who founded Glashutte’s village of Glashutte, a restoration no less a modern brand, has risen from nowhere harmonious at the same time, with surface German School of Watchmaking, remarkable was being accomplished. (well, from the kitchen table at which it finishing that’s as precisely, sublimely appears to be on a fast trajectory of its The watchmaking culture that once was founded in 1990) and is now turning worked as the engineering within. This own. Having launched to market in thrived here, operating from the mid- out thousands of minimalist watches of year the watch has been revamped, 2010 before it had even completed its 19th century at a level that rivalled exceptional quality – all with in-house though outwardly it’s barely noticeable; factory, it has nevertheless produced a the finest Swiss firms, had been movements – at even more exceptional a new movement created for it, however, range of handsome watches that emulate similarly destroyed. The factory of A prices; Glashutte Original, formed from features one or two ingenious details – for the pocketwatch-style watchmaking of Timothy is a writer and editor Lange & Sohne, the company founded the shell organisation into which the instance, when the power runs down, the Lange, with added sober classicism. Not specialising in fine watches, currently so sober, though, that it isn’t afraid of in Glashutte by the aforementioned town’s pre-1951 watch businesses were seconds hand stops at 12 o’clock, making editing QP magazine, the UK's Ferdinand Lange, around which a amalgamated by the GDR, has blossomed it easier to set accurately when you wind eccentric quirks of its own: its key haute leading watch title. He regularly cottage industry of watchmakers and into a producer of sparing, nuanced it up again. horlogerie piece, the Benu Tourbillon, contributes to the Financial Times, suppliers sprung up, was bombed to haute horlogerie. Independent brands As it did in its pocket watch days, employs a tiny brush made of strands Daily Telegraph, Wired, Esquire and pieces on the day Germany surrendered. including Tuttima and Muhle Glashutte Lange has become adept at creating of human hair – Hutter’s hair, in fact City AM. But more devastating was the post-war are flourishing; and at the heart of it all, watches of extraordinary horlogical – as a minutely flexible stop-seconds @TimTomato Communist state’s expropriation of the as in the early days, A Lange & Sohne has complexity. A couple of years ago it component. It’s one more fascinating, entire town’s factories and industrial led the charge, becoming once again one Moritz Grossmann Benu Tourbillon introduced one of the most elaborate ingenious and twist in a German story infrastructure, converting it in 1951 for of the finest watchmakers in the world. Price: £145,000 Grand Complication pieces ever made, whose 50-year gap is now little more than the production of cheap Soviet watches It was in 1845 that Ferdinand Adolph with a £1m price tag, based on a late a fast-receding memory.

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has grown year-on-year in the last half THE JAEGER-LECOULTRE GOLD CUP century, garnering support from some of the biggest names in luxury and drawing AT COWDRAY PARK battalions of crowds to the sacred polo grounds. This year is set to become the World class chukkas at the birthplace of modern British Polo most significant to date. The opening game is a battle for the WORDS BY CHARLES EDWARDS Carlos Gracida trophy, named in honour ONLINE EDITOR AT LUXWORLDWIDE of the eponymous player’s outstanding 10 Gold Cup victories. A number of other cups are up for grabs of course, but all eyes are the Gold one, the Holy Grail of Coming soon: Kurtsystems Training Technology polo accomplishment. Supported by Veuve Clicquot for the past 20 years, this year’s tournament has seen a major change in sponsors, introducing a pair of legends from the luxury world: esteemed watchmaker Jaeger LeCoultre and champagne house Louis Roederer. Jaeager LeCoultre aren’t the only watchmaker to associate themselves with polo – Cartier and Richard Mille both have close ties – but only their iconic Reverso is specifically designed for the players. For those not familiar, the watch is named for its reversible case, turning World No. 1 ranked player Adolfo the sapphire crystal away from play Cambiaso was born in Argentina in case of a stray ball or ill-intentioned and has a 10 Goal handicap. In a mallet – we particularly like the Grand 2011 interview with the Financial Times, Cambiaso said he did not Reverso in British Racing Green, of which know his own net worth – only 26 have been made. “I will never be a millionaire, A high society event like polo naturally and I don’t want to be,” he said, has a certain synergy with champagne. before appearing surprised when Stomping the divots isn't as fun without his representative confirmed he is already one many times over. a glass in hand. Louis Roederer may not have the same long-lived friendship with the sport but the Gold Cup marks something rather important in the life here’s something about polo status to Cowdray Park. After World War of this historic champagne Maison. The so quintessentially British that II, ponies were understandably of limited first major sporting event sponsorship in it’s difficult to believe the sport supply. One of the country’s largest their history, Louis Roederer partnering actually originated in Iran. A veritable collections – a grand herd of just ten or with Cowdray Park is an important step ‘Sport of Kings’ polo has entranced the twelve – belonged to John, 3rd Viscount for both the marque and the British British high society for centuries and Cowdray. Using these as a starting point, polo club in equal parts. In the words of between stomping the divots after each lending them to new players to entice Marketing Director Richard Billett, “we chukka, it’s a sport as involving for them in the sport, John Cowdray grew are extremely pleased to be embarking spectators as players alike. polo back, from the ground up. on this collaboration… the Gold Cup is Kingwood Stud Despite there being a number of high The Viscount himself was an imposing arguably the most prestigious event in profile polo events dotted around the sportsman, an ex-army officer who knew the sport.” 160 ACRES OF SECURE POST AND RAIL TURNOUT/PADDOCKS sporting calendar, there are simply none how to hold a polo stick as well as he did a With fine watches on every wrist and FULLY ENCLOSED OUTDOOR SCHOOL that compare to The Gold Cup at Cowdray gun – all the more impressive since losing spectators toasting the goals with a glass Park. The highlight of the 450 matches his left arm at Dunkirk. Using a prosthetic of fine champagne, this year’s Gold Cup OUTDOOR ALL-WEATHER CANTER RIDE that are played at the estate each season, hook, he was able to guide his horse with is likely to be one of the most extravagant INDOOR SCHOOL/LUNGE RING the Gold Cup is set against a backdrop of apparent ease. It was an impressive sight and thrilling to date. sweeping English countryside, crumbling and with the re-introduction of polo to 2 COVERED HORSEWALKERS castle ruins and the beautifully British the UK, the British team led by Cowdray manor house itself. was invited to compete in Buenos Aires LuxWorldwide is the exclusive lifestyle 61 STABLES IN 2 YARDS INCLUDING 3 FOALING BOXES partner of Boisdale Life-providing Cowdray Park has been hosting polo in 1949. Despite just a few short years 2 ISOLATION QUARANTINE BOXES games for over 100 years (the first games of active playing, the team had huge unique insight into over 3,500 of the world's leading luxury brands. at the park took place in 1910), which is success, so much so that is cemented FULL CCTV & SECURITY PATROLLED PREMISES more than likely the reason this estate is Britain once again as a polo paradise. touted as the birthplace of British polo. The Gold Cup held its first chukkas WWW.KINGWOODSTUD.COM It’s not too much of an overstatement in 1956, less than a decade after that to say that British polo owes its current success in Argentina. The tournament [email protected]

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LIFESTYLE

THE MODERN FACE OF CHESTER BARRIE Savile Row style without the waiting times – or the price tag!

WORDS BY SAM KESSLER ONLINE EDITOR OF LUX WORLDWIDE

kept that distinctive cut, that heritage of bespoke – just without the hassle.” This has allowed Chester Barrie a lot more leeway than many of its neighbours and, incidentally, done the same for its customers. If you’re investing in a suit, you want to make sure you’re getting your money’s – and time’s – worth. When it becomes more accessible… well, it’s time to let your sartorial flair run rampant. “We get customers trying things they never would have considered in a Savile Row tailor,” explains Chris. “Gents can come into the store in plain grey and leave with a powder blue summer suit or an eye-catching pattern. Of course, we still do grey as well.” ack in the 60s and 70s – a little away from the brink and marched it Luckily seasonality and turnaround before my time but the cultural firmly in the opposite direction. Now, haven’t forsaken quality, just necessitated hangover remains – Chester Barrie with shows at London Collections: Men a change of manufacturing location. But was an inescapable sartorial force. Every and a stream of new customers sitting if you’re looking for tailoring outside of board member and pillar of society made up and paying attention, those days of Britain, where else would you look but their annual pilgrimage to the Savile yore feel a lot more than half a decade Italy? After all, it’s rare to find a tailor that Row house and came back out dressed behind. The Secret? Differentiation. doesn’t extoll the virtues of their cloth. immaculately; but also very conservatively “We’re different from the rest of “We sent some of our experts over to - the suit of the establishment if you will. Savile Row,” explains Chris. “We’re Italy to where most of our clothes are Flash forward a few decades and, oh, how more modern, we’re more vibrant and made,” explains Chris. “They taught that has changed. above all we’re more accessible. And, the artisans the tips and tricks of Savile Reduced from their global standing to a after all, we don’t do bespoke.” Row, the iconic cut and how to make a handful of outlets and a single Savile Row ‘But wait!’ I hear you cry. ‘A Savile distinctly British suit. The Italians took store, the turn of the millennium didn’t Row tailor that doesn’t do bespoke? it as a challenge.” see Chester Barrie in the healthiest of What travesty is this?!’ Now imagine The term ‘instant bespoke’ might be states. The company went through a rapid you’ve decided to take a spur of the confusingly oxymoronic but it does have succession of owners, never a good thing. moment trip to Palm Beach. It seems a a certain resonance with what Chester “I saw the brand in Selfridges 25 reasonable destination this time of year Barrie has achieved. The style of Savile years ago, always behind glass in a – sunshine, cocktails and an ocean view. Row, distilled into a ready-to-wear, that section of their own,” says Creative & Idyllic, right? But you have two weeks traditional elegance given a new twist in Buying Manager, Chris Modoo. “They before you leave and, British weather a distinctly modern, seasonal collection. were excellently made but… well, just being what it is, you don’t have a suit to Indeed its position at No. 19 is a good too outdated. Not modern and not old deal with the heat. Bespoke? There’s no indicator. Close as it is to the more… school enough to be cool.” The company chance of getting it in time. That’s when fashion-oriented tailors, Chester Barrie y y y had failed to adapt and move on. you need Chester Barrie. are still firmly on the Row - and set to Invitations Corporate Branding Special Occasions Personal Stationery I popped into Chester Barrie’s Now, don’t get me wrong, Chester remain there. showroom at No. 19 Savile Row on a Barrie is no disposable stand-in for Quality, Prestige and the very best in English Craftsmanship particularly hectic day, with a host of new bespoke. The quality of its tailoring is Chester Barrie suits upwards of £695, LuxWorldwide is the exclusive lifestyle samples and stock crowding the recently second-to-none in the world of ready- with shirts from £95. partner of Boisdale Life-providing refurbished showroom. Chris is dressed- to-wear. On top of that, it maintains that unique insight into over 3,500 of Experts in bespoke stationery and proud holders of two Royal Warrants down for the day, eschewing his normal same characteristic British elegance that the world's leading luxury brands. sartorial attire for a lime green jumper epitomises the Row. knotted over a pink shirt and shorts. “I first fell in love with Chester Barrie 1 Curzon Street, Mayfair, London W1J 5HD Chris arrived at the tailor in 2011, because of its British character, the sort of part of a new team tasked with turning thing you can only find on Savile Row,” Tel. +44 (0) 20 7351 5887 Email. [email protected] the business round. In a relatively short says Chris. “I wouldn’t change that for time they have taken Chester Barrie the world. Yes we modernised, but we www.wrenpress.co.uk

60 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4

LIFESTYLE LOSE YOURSELF ON A WILDLIFE SAFARI IN SRI LANKA

Leopard Safaris specialises in mobile THE BOISDALE camping safaris in Sri Lanka's two major National Parks - Yala, Wilpathu, as well as the National Heritage TRAVELLERS CLUB area of the Knuckles. Embark on an Boisdale and the global luxury travel experts Scott Dunn have created The Boisdale Travellers Club adventurous safari into the wilderness for those of adventurous spirit who desire a real experience – but don’t want to compromise comfort or relax by a river in a hammock. and service. This summer we are showcasing what’s hot in travel and bringing you some of the most incredible journeys and unique experiences Scott Dunn currently offers the discerning traveller. Scott Dunn offers a 10 night luxury tailor- made trip to Sri Lanka including 3 nights with Leopard Safaris from £2,015 per person based on 2 people sharing. Includes experiences, international flights from THE UNEXPLORED London & private transfers. MEDITERRANEAN - DUBROVNIK & MONTENEGRO

This itinerary combines the culture and buzz of Dubrovnik, a private cruise visiting four beautiful and small islands and finishes with a unique experience on one of Montenegro's most iconic islands, Sveti Stefan. A wonderful mix of culture and relaxation.

Scott Dunn offers 7 nights in Dubrovnik & Montenegro from £2,760 per person based on 2 adults sharing a Deluxe Room at Villa Dubrovnik & a Deluxe Cottage at Aman Sveti Stefan on a B&B basis. Includes flights from London & private transfers.

FOR THE ADVENTURER - Scott Dunn is an award-winning EXPLORE ETHIOPIA luxury tour operator that creates BY HELICOPTER tailor-made holidays and honeymoons to amazing destinations all over the From the spectacular Simien world. Why are they different? Their Mountains to the out of this world travel consultants each spend a Danakil Depression to the rock hewn THE AUTHENTIC ALL AMERICAN EXPERIENCE month a year seeking out the best churches of Tigray there is no better properties and fine-tuning their way to explore the wonders of Ethiopia FROM THE CITY, TO THE RANCH, TO THE BEACH local knowledge so they can craft than on this eight day helicopter safari holidays around you. As well as creating bespoke experiences, Scott with Tropic Air. This awesome adventure brings Scott Dunn offers a two week luxury tailor- Dunn also operate their own luxury together three iconic destinations. made trip to the USA taking in New York, ski chalets in the Alps and family This incredible helicopter safari is available Wyoming & Laguna Beach from £7,900 per Begin in the Big Apple, before flying to villas in the Mediterranean sun, from £60,000 per person. This includes all person based on 2 people sharing. Includes Wyoming and living the cowboy life at complete with Scott Dunn staff accommodation, guiding, helicopter trips & experiences, international flights from an incredible guest ranch. Then finish & private nannies. London & private transfers. international flights. with some perfect relaxation on the sunny Californian coast. @ScottDunnTravel For more information on Scott Dunn please visit scottdunn.com or call 020 8682 5000

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LIFESTYLE

stretch that runs across a spectacular BENTLEY BOYS archipelago, built on numerous small islands. You cross eight bridges on a WORDS BY GAVIN GREEN beautifully surfaced road that snakes LEADING UK MOTORING JOURNALIST up and down, surrounded – to the left, right and often underneath – by water. Little wonder it’s so popular for TV car adverts. The new Continental GT is the latest iteration of Bentley’s superb big coupé. The most popular V8S version costs £149,800, the fastest – the W12 powered Speed – can do 206mph (but With you on not in Norway) and 0-60 in a touch over four seconds. Revisions from last year’s model include more power for the 12-cylinder version, mildly revised your journey styling (smaller radiator shell, new front fenders, an aero lip on the boot), some cabin upgrades and in-car wifi. As before, we find a car of superb craftsmanship – hand wrought in the old Crewe factory, where Rolls-Royce Merlin Spitfire engines were once assembled. Each car uses nine hides or 45 square metres of leather. The woodwork artistry is superb. Only Rolls-Royce, of the global car makers, can match Bentley’s Bentley Continental GT Speed Convertible (Prices from £168,300) exquisite cabin quality. No coupé better combines effortless refinement, comfort and grandeur he Bentley Boys would not have Kensington-Moir, Clive Dunfee or other with, when the mood takes you, enjoyed driving in Norway. members of that carefree band – spent breathtaking acceleration and speed. That band of motor sporting time in Norway. Yet here I am in a new But not in Norway! brothers, five times Le Mans winners Bentley Continental GT, 590hp of W12 in the 20s and 30s, drove fast, drank twin-turbo power under my right foot, hard and partied energetically. on some of the world’s finest driving They surely wouldn’t have enjoyed roads, on Norway’s west coast. The driving in a country with a 50mph global press launch of Bentley’s new speed limit, rigorously enforced by an coupe is based in Ålesund, 350 miles observant police force and righteously north of Oslo, a pretty seaport that adhered to by law-abiding locals. Nor regularly hosts the cruise ships that would they have liked the swingeing ply Norway’s fjord-fractured coastline. taxes on alcohol: a bottle of champagne Ålesund is locally famed for its costs four times as much as in the UK! superb art nouveau architecture and Throughout your life we can guide The Bentley Boys were widely is sometimes tagged – by the older travelled, as wealthy young men of the generation – as ‘little London’. This is and support you. Our taxation and financial time often were. Woolf Barnato, the not because of any physical similarity most famous of the bunch, and a three- to the UK’s capital. Rather, Ålesund times Le Mans winner, spent time in was a major centre for Norwegian Gavin Green is one of the UK’s best- South Africa, the USA and had a house resistance during the Nazi occupation, planning advisers can help you protect and known motoring writers. Born in in Bermuda. and was often used as a gateway for Sydney, he was once voted Australia’s Glen Kidston, the most adventurous, flights to Scotland and England. most promising young racing driver. grow your wealth and provide you with peace broke the UK-to-Cape Town flying We stay in the superb Stortfjord His motoring exploits have included record and – as a celebrated big game boutique hotel, 30 minutes drive from the Spa 24-hour race, a journey in hunter – knew Africa well. (He died Ålesund, overlooking a fjord and a 25-year old Ford from London to of mind now and in the future. when his de Havilland monoplane mountains. Forget the high life. This is Sydney and crossing the Sahara in a broke up in dust storm over the the blissful slow life. Land Rover. He now races bicycles Drakensberg Mountains.) Sir Henry At least it is until we drive the not cars. Birkin raced throughout Europe and Bentleys north to Kristiansund, a @greenofrichmond died (from septicaemia) after suffering long day’s drive north up the coast, Contact Andrew Ball by calling haysmacintyre is proud to burns in a race in Tripoli. including a memorable stretch along To my knowledge none of the the famous Atlantic Road. I have 020 7969 5530 or email provide audit, tax and business Bentley Boys – not Barnato, Kidston or driven on many great roads. Few have Birkin, nor Dudley Benjafield, Bertie the visual drama of this five-mile [email protected] advisory services to Boisdale.

65 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4

LIFESTYLE

605004 SMOKIN’ HOT! It's time once again to peruse the shelves of the humidor, with Boisdale Life's resident cigar expert.

WORDS BY NICK HAMMOND CELEBRATED BON VIVEUR AND SPECTATOR CIGAR WRITER OF THE YEAR 2013

s Summer gets into full swing, While I admit nothing in this quarter has The 100 point scoring system explained: I'm pleased to report I have quite scaled the heights of the Partagas tasted plenty of great cigars to Serie C No.2 from our previous issue, 10 points for appearance tantalise the tastebuds. there’s still plenty of inspiration here for 15 points for construction your holiday humidor. 10 points for combustion While seasonal palate changes aren’t 60 points for flavour and finish particularly well documented, I feel So take your pick, wave down the waiter, 5 points for value for money there’s something in the theory; the deep, order a glass of something refreshing and pungent earthy Bolivars and Partagas’s settle back to enjoy the sunshine… seem more often replaced with the light anniversary and sensual Hoyos and Quai D’Orsays. Pictured, Quai D’Orsay

El Rey del Mundo Ramon Allones Choix Supreme TOTAL PTS 90 Specially Selected TOTAL PTS 89 NB – 5ins x 48 Ring Gauge NB - 4 7/8 ins x 50 Ring Gauge RRP around £13 RRP around £14 The Choix is an old friend and a great morning Aah, the blessed RASS; every cigar smoker’s choice when time is not of the essence. This friend and the personal favorite for many an stick was tasted non-blind and had an incredible experienced cognoscenti. This one didn’t cocoa powder texture and taste on the lips. Mild disappoint, although again it was a little badly to medium enchantment, mixed beautifully with behaved, the wrapper cracking and splitting a little gentle gardening. towards the end. These tend to smoke in phases of three for me; starting light and gently moving In the year of our 225th Anniversary we Padron 2000 Maduro through the gears. NB - 5ins x 50 Ring Gauge TOTAL PTS 89 RRP around £11 Quai D’Orsay Utterly reliable, this coarse looking amigo is high NB – 5 ½ ins x 42 Ring Gauge TOTAL PTS 93 would like to thank all our customers for on my list of daily, inexpensive, go-to cigars. RRP around £13 This is a smooth, medium-bodied, full-flavoured Could have been the influence of the light and airy experience which ticks all the boxes. Always French courtyard I smoked this one in, but it was have a few of these on hand. the stand out cigar of recent months. Ethereally many years of loyal support. light – so light in fact, that only a gently sparkling Romeo y Julieta Cazadores water was ordered to accompany it – and mildly NB – 6 3/8ins x 44 Ring Gauge TOTAL PTS 91 creamy, it was utterly delightful. RRP around £15 First time I’ve smoked this vitola, and while Davidoff (Dominican Republic) I was expecting a heavy assault of the senses, TOTAL PTS 92 I was wooed instead. Burnt honey and a dash Corona sized of leather combined to make this a really lovely Unknown cigar, Tubed stick, even though it performed like an unruly It’s lovely when people care enough to gift you mule. A naggingly poor draw couldn’t even a cigar now and then; although sometimes their detract from the performance. choice of cigar leaves something to be desired. But this was one of those ‘hand me down’ gifts Regius Robusto which had been discovered somewhere and NB – 4 7/8ins x 50 Ring Gauge TOTAL PTS 89 made its way to me. I don’t know how old it is, Managing Director RRP around £8 but from the first unscrewing of the tube cap, the This was cracking, right off the bat; straight aroma belied promise. The delivery was better – medium body and rich, spicy tones throughout. smooth as silk and mild to medium, it was rich If current production is all as good as this, grab and flavorful and was smoked on a fine Spring them while you can. afternoon in Norfolk.

Alec Bradley Nica Puro Robusto Montecristo Especiale No.2 NB - 5ins x 50 Ring Gauge TOTAL PTS 87 NB – 6 ins x 38 Ring Gauge TOTAL PTS 91 RRP around £11 RRP around £14 Starts off with a blast of pepper but soon tones Elegant spice from this pencil of a cigar, which into a smooth, leathery affair with a ton of white stood up to a tumbler of Speyside Scotch with smoke production. Has a ‘Nic kick’ from its aplomb. Rarely smoked these days, which is all www.cigars.co.uk Nicaraguan heritage, but it’s not as fearsome as its the more reason to pick some up, should the oily black visage may at first appear. opportunity arise. Class.

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H&F_A4AdvertJuly.indd 1 06/07/15 14:35 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4

FOOD AND DRINK FOOD AND DRINK A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF… BAD BOYS AND WHISKY KIRSTEN GRANT MEIKLE WORDS BY DOUG MCIVOR WHISKY SPECIALIST FOR BERRY BROS & RUDD With international sales of over £1 billion William Grant & Sons is Scotland’s largest whisky distilling company in family ownership. The flagship brand Glenfiddich is both the bestselling and the most awarded malt whisky in the world. Kirsten Grant Meikle is a Director of William Grant and Sons UK, and the great,great-granddaughter of the eponymous founder.

WORDS BY KIRSTEN GRANT MEIKLE

y great, great-grandfather William stayed in the five-star accommodation aged 110, the oldest person in Scotland. Grant left a secure job in 1886 we’ve set up for VIP customers. As a On Sunday, I did an interview and to pursue his dream and set up whisky lover, I am spoiled. We were photograph shoot then drove to the Glenfiddich distillery with his nine drinking 1958 Glenfiddich (£100,000 a Aberdeen airport to be home by 9.30pm. children. Several generations down the bottle in the Glenfiddich Gallery), 1974 I love mornings and I love fresh air so I line, three family members are on the Ladyburn and 50-year-old Balvenie… try to go out with my fitness trainer at payroll as it were: my cousin Glenn On Saturday, the guests toured our 6.30am. No matter what time I’ve been Gordon is non-executive chairman, my Balvenie distillery, which is the brand out – and I have a lot of late, business other cousin Peter Gordon works out of of single malt that is sponsoring the dinners – I wake early. The first thing the Girvan distillery, where we make inaugural Balvenie Great British Game I do is check the sales figures which Grant’s whisky and Hendrick’s gin; and update overnight! I love my role as director of prestige in Over Monday and Tuesday, I caught up the UK! with admin in the office, taking calls from I grew up in Edinburgh, so I’ve never customers, and discussing with Human lived in Dufftown, home of Glenfiddich. Resources about how to support the sixth I go there every six weeks on average generation of the family to come into the and feel a strong sense of belonging as business. In the evening, I jumped on a soon as I head towards Aberdeen. train to get to the Carlton Club in St James’s My great-grandfather Captain Charles for dinner with the Worshipful Company Grant, the black sheep of the family, of Distillers, a City of London livery bought the Glendronach distillery in 1920 company of which I am a Court Assistant. because he had been thrown out of the On Wednesday, I flew to Scotland to host family business by his dad. Our branch of an event at Edinburgh Castle at which the family is called the Glendronachers we launched a 90-second film clip - the and we’re regarded as the renegades. Glenfiddich Maverick Whisky Makers The Whisky Bar at Boisdale of Canary Wharf is probably the greatest and most beautiful whisky bar on earth with over 1000 different malt whiskies including Nobody from my branch has worked in of Dufftown - which will be shown in the Macallan 1946 at £2780.40 a 50 ml shot! @BoisdaleCW the family business since Captain Charles, independent cinema. Back in London on until me. I have the Grant ‘maverick’ Thursday, I dropped in at Boisdale, before gene in that I am fiercely independent, meeting our Head Cooper, Ian Macdonald, icture a scene of tranquility and in the lock. My part addled brain allows go to school. Sean is my youngest lad unmarried and without children, because who has worked with us for 46 years. He domestic bliss. Mrs M has been my eyes to focus on the TV screen and and blessed with a lively imagination. I love travel and adventure – but I also travelled south to do a live demonstration a studious and attentive mother credits are rolling. It is not Thomas the He is in class but the teaching assistant love coming home to the distillery. It’s in Selfridges Food Hall: its rare thing throughout the early years of our sons’ Tank. Instead, a film called Bad Boys is concerned as he looks very sad. a calming place. When I take customers to have a cooperage on site in London lives and now that the youngest chap with an 18 cert. I dive at the buttons and “What’s wrong Sean?” she asks. His there, I tell them they’ll sleep well and Kirsten Grant Meikle, Director of William Grant building a whisky barrel from scratch. has reached school age she trusts them the TV is off. Bad Boys video cover now response is along the lines of ,“Well, dream vividly, and they do. It’s the air. & Sons UK - smoking a Daniel Marsha 24 carat I took him for an early dinner because I both enough to look after me as she is lives under the sofa with lost Lego. The we’ve got trouble at home because my It’s so fresh, but it’s also full of alcohol. gold leaf cigar! didn’t want him to feel alone in London. going on a girls’ night out for the first kids have put themselves to bed but I dad’s an undercover policeman and he The trees and houses are black because He’s a fantastic guy. time in absolutely yonks. I have made of a fungus fed by the angel’s share – the Restaurant Shooting Cup on August Later, I met a big national customer promises to feed them, make sure they alcohol which evaporates in the cask 4th hosted by Boisdale. As my shooting and caught the train back home to wash, brush their teeth and dispatch during maturation. ability is zero, I have nominated my Hampshire. Another late night, but up them to bed by 9pm. She duly leaves Taking last week as typical, my work uncle and cousin to represent Balvenie early to go training, followed by a day in Ch. McIvor at her appointed hour and The teacher is summoned as alarm bells ring. schedule goes something like this. I against teams from Boisdale and 16 the office fuelled by porridge: milk and the boys settle down to watch Thomas Social workers sharpen their pencils… flew to Aberdeen on Friday and had other prestigious game restaurants. raisins – no salt or sugar! the Tank and Friends. I like Thomas but several meetings at the distillery about We like to treat guests to the crown Life in the family business is fast I must have seen this episode a hundred things like looking at options for a jewels. After Balvenie, they visited the paced and continually evolving. I am times and with a few minutes elapsed special copper packing, having a look specialist distillery of Kininvie followed very lucky to be able to work in such plus a large dram of Islay malt efficiently at the new Glenfiddich shop, catching by a sampling in the blending room. a fantastic business with such amazing dealt with I slip into the land of nod. don’t offer this info with any accuracy got caught up in a gunfight yesterday up with the staff and so on. I hosted Later, we went to my late great aunt’s people and brands. As I say, to many At around 11pm I am awakened by surrounding circumstance. Lights go out and he accidentally shot his partner in lunch and dinner for the owner and lovely house for dinner. ‘Wee Janie’ – people, the current generation don’t own some noise outside and begin to realize and off to bed. Phew, close call! the backside and now he’s in hospital on editor of Whisky Quarterly, a magazine Janet Sheed Roberts, the granddaughter the business; we are merely custodians where I am, who it could be and what I am I pick up the rest of this sorry tale tubes and wires”. The plot seems familiar distributed in Poland and the UK, who of William Grant died three years ago, for the next generation. supposed to be doing. Keys are twisting from others. Morning arrives and boys to me. The teacher is summoned as

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alarm bells ring. Social workers sharpen of a purist. Ultimately, it’s up to the that are numbered and single cask their pencils. This situation is escalated owner to decide and wine has proved releases are popular and just as with to the staff room for a mass pow wow to be a good investment for those in the toy cars the packaging should always be involving the head teacher, uncle Tom know or served by a reputable merchant. in mint condition to maximize returns Cobley and all. Whisky oxidizes at a mere fraction of when you go to sell. One of the teachers knows Sean’s the rate of wine so can be viewed as a I add a word of caution without scare- grandmother. Her son is a policeman safe long term commodity as long as you mongering because, as with the world and she’s sure grandma would have keep it in a cool dry place away from the of art and antiquities, fakes do exist. I have seen an attempted copy of one of our own bottles and we take a very firm stance. If you want us to verify that the bottle is authentic send it to us. If we Some of the bottles released by well known brands such cannot guarantee authenticity we will as Balvenie,Macallan and Glenlivet fetch up to £18,000 destroy it. According to Rare Whisky 101, a company that compiles the Apex 1000 index of the 1000 best performing investment grade bottles of whisky there mentioned if Sean’s dad was also in the dangers of sunlight and teenagers. was an increase of 23.8% in value in force. Headmistress points out that if I Whisky has been elevated in 2013 with 2014 expected to show 18%. am undercover it would not be public perception from a fusty old man’s drink Based on a relatively modest forecast of knowledge. That’s the kind of logic that a few years ago to a fashion and status 15% each year a bottle worth £1,000.00 got her to where she is. statement. David Beckham’s recent would be worth over £16,000.00 in So, number one son Andrew is venture with Haig Club is a case in 20 years. But, is this a boom that will brought before all and is asked what his point. Take a look at the duty free shops last? At present the market shows no father does for a living. He thinks for a and in particular, airports such as Dubai, sign of slowing and is fueled by new second then states confidently, “He puts Hong Kong and Changi in Singapore generations of wealthy individuals in whisky into bottles and drinks it”… where exclusive editions are displayed emerging markets, particularly in Asia. In my book there are two types in much the way that an old master is And just like stocks and shares prices of collector, the completionist and hung in a gallery. These venues are the can go down as well as up. The reality the investor. Often the former uses showcases of the world for the distillers’ is that you need to know what you are investment as a veil for what is, in reality, rarest gems and many of the price tags doing and be prepared to take a hit. You a form of OCD. I know a bit about this as make the Black Bowmore’s £6000 seem will also need a lot more storage space I’m an avid stamp collector, endlessly like an entry point product. Some of than I do for my blessed stamp albums! striving to complete sets but never the bottles released by well known satisfied as there is always something brands such as Balvenie, Macallan and else out there I want. Before I caught the Glenlivet fetch up to £18,000. bug I viewed whisky collectors as geeky It’s not only the legendary scotch anoraks. They, however, are having whiskies that are causing a stir although, the last laugh as the value of the rarest unsurprisingly, these remain the most whiskies head for the stratosphere. And collected type of whisky by some if they ever get fed up with dusting their distance. One of the rising stars comes bottles they can sell or drink the stuff. from Japan’s Karuizawa whilst the I can’t envisage myself licking my way American bourbon, Pappy Van Winkle through thousands of little pieces of is a perennial favorite. Nowadays paper backed with gum Arabic. specialist whisky auctions around I’ve had my chances to join the whisky the world see bottles going under the collecting fraternity over the years hammer with Bonham’s in Hong Kong, having been given some rare editions Hart Davis Hart in Chicago, as well as when launched by their distillers but I the familiar Scottish houses and many did the “right thing”, opened them and new on-line set-ups. wrote the tasting notes. One such bottle So, what should you look for if you was a first edition Black Bowmore 1964 decide to invest some cash in whisky? which retailed at around £99 when Provenance is everything and official released in the early 1990’s. I recently bottlings from the well known names are Doug McIvor is the Whisky specialist saw a bottle of the second release with the safest bets. Macallan currently ranks & Spirits Buyer at Berry Bros & Rudd a £6000 price tag. That’s a pretty good at number 1 in the auction rankings return for an occasional bit of careful and Islay whiskies like Ardbeg and Berry Bros. & Rudd dusting but it is an extreme example. Bowmore do very well. It’s also worth 3 St James’s Street, London The wine critic, Robert Parker recently considering rare releases from the less T: 0800 280 2440 stated that first growth clarets should be prolific brands like The Glenrothes who bbr.com drunk (when ready) and not seen just as focus on vintages such as the recent 1968 @berrybrosrudd investment except that what you decide single cask. Official labels from closed to sell should fund the portion you keep distilleries such as Rosebank or Port to drink. Wine is a live product so he Ellen have the “unrepeatable” factor and Available this summer across all Boisdale Restaurants may have a point from the perspective carry a premium because of this. Bottles Bottle £59.50 | Glass £12.50

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ClickForClicquot_BoisdaleLifeA4.indd 1 02/07/15 16:03 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4

FOOD AND DRINK SHOOTING CHEFS Bill Knott on the joys and occasional disappointments of killing what you eat in the company of chefs

WORDS BY BILL KNOTT PREVIOUSLY TV CHEF AND NOW AWARD WINNING FOOD & WINE JOURNALIST

etiquette. "I bagged half a dozen on that drive, and they were all really good, high birds! You know that one you missed, Jamie?" The future 12th Duke of Marlborough looked as though he'd just found a clump of dead flies in his fruitcake. "Well, I got it!" Actually, it was all very jolly: lunch was a venison stew at a cottage in the woods, and a judicious quantity of claret was sunk before the shoot resumed. At least 200 birds were bagged that day - a haul to which I contributed not a jot - and all were destined for Marco's kitchen at the late-lamented Mirabelle, on Curzon Street, where he served them in the classic English manner with game chips and bread sauce. They were delicious: I might be hopeless with a shotgun in my hand, but I bow to nobody in my ability Marco Pierre White caused the future Duke of Marlborough to look as though he’d just found a clump of to polish off a bird with knife and fork. dead flies in his fruitcake. A year or so later, I found myself in the High Pennines as a guest of John Mayhew, owner of the venerable et me make one thing clear: I am not Rover that the main reason he went Rules, on Maiden Lane, and still one the world's best shot. In 20 years shooting was because he liked the clothes. of London's finest game restaurants. of writing about food, I have been Golf, he said, was not an option: he We were shooting rooks - fledglings, invited on many shoots - furred and wouldn't be seen dead in a Pringle sweater. perched on branches near their nest feathered, shotgun and rifle - and you Very dapper he looked too, as the beaters - and I had rather more success than might well suppose, from my appalling trampled through the undergrowth and a before, principally because it was much strike rate, that my few successes have flurry of birds flitted overhead. easier. All you had to do was shoot at a been purely accidental. The esteemed I had been told by a friend who knows tree, a skill I had mastered in Sussex. food writer Matthew Fort once described about such matters that the unforgiveable I even had a few to take back to London. me in The Guardian as "the pheasant's faux pas in shooting - apart from filling one I headed straight for St John, knowing that friend." of your companions full of lead, of course my friend Fergus Henderson, who had My rationale for persevering in - is to brag about your prowess. If anyone made something of a name for himself a pursuit in which I am clearly not were to ask me how the previous drive serving squirrel, would relish the idea of proficient is that I feel it only fair, as had gone, I was instructed, a modest "ah making a rook pie. someone who loves cooking and eating well, warmed the barrels, don't y'know?" He did, and we ate it for lunch. The game of all kinds, that I should get involved in the business end of things too and, that if I have the good fortune to dispatch something edible, I should cook and eat it. I feel the same way about A. A Gill freely admitted to me.. that the main reason he went fishing, a sport at which I am more or shooting was because he liked the clothes. Golf he said was not an less equally mal-adept. option; he would not be seen dead in a Pringle sweater. Anyway, the first time I tried my hand at bagging anything more nutritious than a clay pigeon was in the mid- 1990s. Marco Pierre White invited me on a pheasant shoot in Sussex, at the was as far as one should go. pastry was superb; the gravy unctuously Petworth Estate, and I happily accepted. For me, naturally, this wasn't a rich with slow-cooked pig's trotter... but The other guns included, as I recall, problem: I had nothing to boast about, the rook was hugely disappointing. I Charles Spencer-Churchill, Jamie having failed to hit anything except a had hoped for something akin to pigeon, Blandford, and A. A. Gill, who freely tree. Nobody, though, had told Marco with a hint of gaminess, but rook meat is admitted to me in the back of the Land about this particular aspect of shooting rather tough and very bland.

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Continued… Venison is a different matter. My now than I did. And what I definitely proudest moment in the field was in the YIKES – I’VE BECOME know and am having to come to terms Czech Republic one October a few years with, is that life seems too short now to ago, shooting deer with brothers Tom A WINE SNOB!! pass cheap liquid through my lips and and Ed Martin, restaurateurs (The Gun, onto the flavour-noids of my tongue The Jugged Hare and many others) and and mouth. And while you may scoff excellent shots. I had used a rifle before William Sitwell discovers to his horror that he has at this First World problem, remember - Marco and the gamekeeper at Petworth morphed into the lowest form of life that can be afflicted everything is relative and I live, breathe had taken me lamping one night, and I on a dinner party – a wine bore! and work in the First World. had managed to kill a rabbit - but I hadn't So it makes it hard going into pubs. picked one up in at least a decade. WORDS BY WILLIAM SITWELL I don’t like drinking pints anymore, my After a fruitless night in a freezing body recoils at being filled with warm hide, up a tree, with a forester who and frothy ale. So I’ll have a glass of spoke no English - actually, we weren't wine. Yet how many pubs have a really allowed to move, let alone talk - looking decent white by the glass? And what for wild boar and not even getting a sniff seems like a nice little idea – a quick of one, I was tempted to stay in bed the drink in a pub - becomes a slippery next morning. But no, I filled a Thermos slope to an arrest after I ask for the wine with coffee, shouldered my rifle and set list and then demand to start tasting all The 2004 film Sideways, starring Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church – documenting a road-trip off in search of deer. those proffered. Then realising there is through California’s wine country, ‘Miles’ (Giamatti) famously retorts to ‘Jacks’ proposal to drink Merlot: I am sure it was more by luck than nothing quite dry, aromatic and with “No, if anyone orders Merlot, I am leaving. I am NOT drinking any fucking Merlot!” judgment, but my first (and only) shot that mineral edge I crave, I start to travelled 120 yards and went straight remonstrate with the landlord. through a young roe deer's heart. It Socially it’s awkward too. Of course onto the floor as you go down, is never little harder to fund this new psychosis. crumpled to the ground, while the some of my friends have wonderful the finest way to start dinner. At least I’m not expecting to crash any five other deer in the herd sauntered cellars. But some do not. One great Then there are the bottles friends student parties where the prospect of blithely onwards as though nothing friend can barely discern the difference bring over. Knowing that a decent bottle warm white wine in plastic lurks. had happened. We dragged the beast between white and red so, of course, I is simply pinched by the host and And that’s another thing. I’ve started back to the truck, and the brothers very need to bring my own. popped in his or her cellar, what seems getting picky about the glass I drink wine sportingly had it butchered and sent to As one arrives at a friend’s party, to emerge these days is the sort of bottle in. I mean how can you possibly get the me in London. full effects and pleasure of a Riesling The haunch, suitably marinated in if you drink it from a fat stemless glass olive oil, red wine, juniper and thyme, rather than a tall, slender and slim one. made a splendid Christmas roast; I suppose I could rid myself of this the shoulder, trimmed and chopped, One arrives at a friend’s party.. while your bottle angst and quit drinking. Then again, made a cracking ragù to eat with fresh is squirrelled away you are expected to contend with have you seen how filthy some of the pappardelle at New Year, topped with a waters are out there…? mixture of lemon zest, fried breadcrumbs suppose the rot really set in after myself. Actually I doubtless said it and a warm dose of spew like Oxford Landing. and parsley. And to hell with modesty, a long lunch at The Waterside Inn. then ordered a pint of Guinness. and that nonsense about "warming the I had gathered a good number of On the train back to London, an barrels": I told anyone who would listen foodie scribblers and others to help uncomfortable experience given what how good a shot it had been, exaggerating celebrate that restaurant’s achievement was sloshing around in my stomach, by at least 50 yards. I think Marco would of holding three Michelin stars for 30 I realised that a new dawn had firmly chilled bottle of Montrachet in hand, you might find at a petrol station. In fact, have been proud of me. years. arrived in my life. There was the recent you can picture the horror. One’s host where I live in Northamptonshire, there In the company of Michel Roux Snr horrid bottle of wine I had bought in or hostess gently takes the bottle from is a bottle of cheap Chianti that is still we guzzled a large number of wonderful a bar in Dubai – as disgusting as the you and then directs you to where the doing the rounds. It passed through my dishes, although that is not the point. high price – and a growing number of drinks on offer are. While your bottle is hands briefly before I took it to a Sunday For we also sipped a La Clarté de Haut- awkward social experiences. squirrelled away, you are expected to lunch party. At some point it may end Brion from 2009, a Château Cheval Blanc What has happened is this. I’ve contend with a warm dose of spew like back with the culprit who bought it of 2004, some Mouton-Rothschild 2006 become a wine snob and I can’t help Oxford Landing. in the first place, which will be sweet and copious glasses of exquisite Château it. Over the years I’ve been exposed to Then in restaurants, when not out revenge I suppose? d’Yquem 1990. a great number of wonderful wines, reviewing and larging it at someone else’s Then, naturally, there is the final cost Thus, well and truly and extremely being gently tutored by a number of expense, things can get catastrophic. I of this mid-life problem. It’s crippling happily oiled, a number of us left the sommeliers in the restaurants I’ve want neither to pick the most expensive me. I used to be quite happy to glug a £5 premises at an hour close to tea-time and reviewed and eaten in. I’ve picked up wine as I wish to drink the cheapest. Yet bottle on a school night. Now I shudder William Sitwell is Editor of Waitrose tramped up the road into the village of the odd morsel of knowledge in the wine casting an eye around the table one can at the sight of an average Chenin-Blanc The FT's Gannet, wine writer in Kitchen magazine. He is a judge on Bray. We felt the need to keep the party columns that I’ve commissioned across see the tension between the poverty- sitting chilled in the fridge door. Nothing The Oldie, recipe columnist for MasterChef and also a regular judge Restaurant Magazine, ambassador going so we repaired to The Crown pub. the food magazines I’m involved with stricken chum and the outrageously under £12 seems to caress my palate in on Britain’s Best Dish. His first book for Action Against Hunger. And there at the bar I ordered some and edit. over-paid financier. the way I need it to. I know that wine 'A History of Food in 100 Recipes' was Never skips lunch. wine. I can’t remember what it was. But I’ve had bits of knowledge shoved into Wrestling for the wine list – poor under around £7 is made up chiefly of published by Harper Collins in 2012. it cost £40 a bottle. my head in the course of writing stories friend is happy with the house the likes of tax, production and transport @WilliamSitwell @KnottHungry It tasted filthy, weak, watery, acrid about wine, from France to Greece, from chardonnay, rich mate only with a costs. It’s not until you reach that point and horrible, particularly in comparison Australia to the United States. Romanee-Conti – and enduring a tug of that you actually start to spend money to what we had sipped earlier. I’ve sipped, slurped and quaffed war, before a final wrench which brings on the wine itself. ‘I can’t drink this filth,’ I thought to some terrific glasses. I know a bit more the table cloth and its contents down So I have to dig deeper, and work a

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However the village is gradually gaining A Carnivore's BCW has become London’s AN EXCEPTIONAL VINTAGE recognition, not least as a result of young Dream No.1 jazz venue. winemakers like Marc and Alexandre Very cool for cats. Burgundy is entering a golden age, who better to navigate the best of them Bachelet of Domaine Bachelet-Monnot, Evening than our resident expert, Justerini & Brookes Charlie Miller still in their early thirties and making a Standard Tatler name as the next stars of Burgundy. They WORDS BY CHARLIE MILLER are gradually buying back high quality vineyards sold by their father, with the result that each vintage improves upon the last. Their Maranges 1er Cru Blanc rivals many a Puligny and Chassagne at twice the price. Rully, further south again in the Côte Challonaise, is rather more widely known, and is particularly good for lighter, floral summer reds. Eric de Suremain started using biodynamic methods (an extreme form of organic viticulture that takes account of lunar cycles and their impact on plant vitality) in 1996, long before it became de rigueur. He is the classic vigneron, his time spent permanently in On October 4 2014, Sotheby’s sold a 114 bottle set of Romanée-Conti wine for £1.1 million, setting the the vineyard, and he makes a Rully Rouge, JOOLS HOLLAND record for most expensive wine lot ever sold at auction. To put things in perspective, that breaks down from the 1er Cru Les Préaux vineyard, WHISKY BAR, CANARY WHARF BOISDALE PATRON OF MUSIC TERRACE, CANARY WHARF to £8,958.06 per bottle, and £1,078.66 per glass, for 912 glasses. The sale was made on the first day of that is delicate, harmonious, beautifully Sotheby’s five day Hong Kong Autumn Sales Series. The lucky new owner of this collection, which has bottles spanning from 1992 to 2010, was an unidentified Asian buyer. scented, a truly graceful red Burgundy that offers all the purity that is the region’s calling card. n recent years the gaze of wine storms hitting at the most delicate time in Dominique Lafon is one of Burgundy’s I am honoured to be collectors and investors has shifted June. The low volumes have contributed very greatest super-star names, his Patron of Music for from Bordeaux to encompass to concentration and quality, but several Meursaults offered on allocation only to Boisdale of Canary Wharf, other regions that offer equally terrific producers reckon to have made the the biggest collectors. Some years ago his which features world class jazz, complexity and interest whilst also equivalent of two harvests worth of wine gaze drifted south into the Mâconnais, blues and soul every night. perhaps giving greater value. Piedmont, in four vintages. where he started buying vineyards in order Tuscany, Rhône are all high up on the All of which means that Burgundy to demonstrate the potential of a region Jools Holland, list but Burgundy really seems to have prices are under strain, and prices for that was hitherto regarded as more of a Boisdale Patron of Music become the region of the moment. the top appellations are rising fast. To table wine region. His Viré-Clessé is from The fractured nature of ownership, find affordable value you often need to a 7ha parcel of 75 year old old Chardonnay MACDONALD RESTAURANT, BELGRAVIA some growers tending just a few rows look beyond the best known villages and vines that have power, concentration, and BACK BAR, BELGRAVIA of vines in each appellation, mean that explore a bit further. With that in mind, yet a minerality and precision that recalls production is dramatically smaller than and by way of public spiritedness, below his more celebrated wines further north. in other regions. Consider that Bordeaux is a short guide to villages and producers Burgundy is entering a golden produces an eye-watering 450 million making lesser-known, and terrific value winemaking period, and it is not just bottles per year, or that Château Léoville Burgundy. for those with the fattest wallets. These Las Cases, one of the collectors’ favourites, Marsannay lies at the top of the Côte wines manage to achieve both quality make up to 15000 cases, even the larger de Nuits, north of the iconic villages of and affordability in equal measure. independent growers in Burgundy will Vosne-Romanée, Chambolle-Musigny, They are available on the Boisdale wine make just a tenth of this total. There and Gevrey-Chambertin as the road list and for home consumption with is something thought provoking about winds into the outskirts of Dijon. The Justerini & Brookes. visiting the likes of Etienne Sauzet in top winemaker there, heralded in many a Puligny Montrachet and seeing that the Burgundy guide, is Bruno Clair, who has Charlie Miller has spent 15 years in whole operation takes place in a winery set about demonstrating this appellation’s the London wine and spirit trade, met the size of your average garage, or the potential. He makes both white and red, many of the figures behind Burgundy’s entire stock of Chantal Remy’s maturing his Marsannay Blanc is delicate and fresh RESTAURANT, CANARY WHARF CHAMPAGNE & OYSTER BAR, BISHOPSGATE RESTAURANT, BISHOPSGATE finest labels and visited a large number wines in a single row of barrels in the as well as being more floral than white of those vineyards himself. middle of her cellar. This is a region where Burgundy from further south, aided by the small vineyard parcels might produce addition of a small amount of the aromatic Justerini & Brookes just a single barrel of wine, equivalent to Pinot Blanc to the blend. 61 St James’s Street, London T: 0207 493 6174 Boisdale of Canary Wharf Boisdale of Belgravia Boisdale of Bishopsgate 55 cases, which must then suffice for all Maranges is a geographical opposite, Cabot Place, Canary Wharf, E14 4QT 15 Eccleston Street, SW1W 9LX Swedeland Court, global markets. located at the southern end of the Côte justerinis.com 020 7715 5818 020 7730 9622 202 Bishopsgate, EC2M 4NR Burgundy has seen a run of exceptional de Beaune, neighbouring Santenay. The @justerinis 020 7283 1763 vintages in recent years, and standards village only achieved its own appellation of quality are at an all-time high, but in 1989, prior to which the wine would www.boisdale.co.uk this quality has been set against some be labelled Côte de Beaune Villages, and agonisingly low yields, the result of hail as such it has flown under the radar.

76 77 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4

FOOD AND DRINK

KRIS ZACHWIEJA HEAD CHEF AT BOISDALE OF BELGRAVIA WILD WATERCRESS RISOTTO WITH EARL GREY & GREEN TEA-CURED HEN’S EGG

Although we specialise in Aberdeenshire beef, Highland game and Hebridean shellfish we do take vegetarian dishes very seriously. This is a satisfying and simple dish. Watercress is literally a superfood packed with nutrients and minerals and also with an amazing peppery herbaceous flavour. If you can’t find the wild stuff, regular watercress is fine; and do experiment with the other herbs. For me the tea-cured egg is the proverbial icing on the cake! It is well worth the effort and will astound your friends. Have fun! - Kris

THE RICE FOR THE WATERCRESS & CHIVE PUREE 350g arborio risotto rice Blanch watercress and chives in rapidly boiling water, shock cool in iced water. Squeeze remaining 200g shallots, peeled & diced liquid out of the herbs and blitz to smooth using food processor; if needed add some water. 85g Parmesan cheese 85g unsalted creamy butter FOR THE CURED EGG YOLK 150ml dry white wine Cook eggs in the water bath at 64C for 45 minutes. Shock cool in iced water straight after 1 litre light vegetable stock cooking, peel eggs and whites leaving only set yolks. Brew the tea and cool it down. Cure the Salt & pepper egg yolks by placing them in the tea, leaving them for a day until they change the colour and texture. Just before serving pick them out of the tea and season with sea salt. WATERCRESS & CHIVE PUREE 2 bunches wild watercress FOR THE RICE picked off the stalks Bring the stock to the boil and lower to a simmer. Melt 60g of butter in a pan over a low heat and 1 bunch chives sweat the chopped shallots until transparent. Add the rice and turn to coat. Turn up the heat to medium and add the white wine. Stir continuously, adding the stock - a ladle at a time as CURED EGG YOLK soon as each ladle has been absorbed. Taste after 15 minutes and season with salt and pepper. It 4 eggs should be cooked al dente, but not undercooked. It may need as much as another 10 minutes. If 1g of Earl Grey tea leaves you run out of stock before the risotto is done, add boiling water. The consistency is important: 1g of green tea leaves it should not be too soupy but a creamy, moist texture, every grain separate but all held together. Remember that the rice continues to cook after it is taken off the heat. GARNISH ½ bunch picked wild watercress Turn off the heat, stir in the remaining butter and grated parmesan, add the watercress purée 50g shaved aged Parmesan cheese and stir for another minute. Ladle onto large, warmed soup plates. Place the tea-cured egg in Extra virgin olive oil the centre of the hot rice, scatter over the picked watercress leaves and shaved aged Parmesan, then drizzle with a little olive oil.

COURTYARD GARDEN AT BOISDALE OF BELGRAVIA You can also try Kris's wild watercress risotto at BOISDALE OF BELGRAVIA RESTAURANT & BAR 15 Eccleston Street, Belgravia SW1W 9LX

020 7730 6922 boisdale.co.uk

79 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4

FOOD AND DRINK FOOD AND DRINK

ANDREW DONOVAN SAM NJUGUNA HEAD CHEF AT BOISDALE OF CANARY WHARF HEAD CHEF AT BOISDALE OF BISHOPSGATE HAMPSHIRE BROWN RIVER TROUT, FORAGED SEA GREENS CHARGRILLED DRY AGED ABERDEENSHIRE FILLET STEAK WITH SAFFRON, CORNISH MUSSELS & ORANGE SAUCE FORAGED SCOTTISH CHANTERELLE & PARSLEY SAUCE

This is one of our many truly delicious steak specials this There is nothing quite like the earthy, sweet taste summer. The chanterelles grow wild in the Highlands of of rod caught brown trout and I am very lucky to Scotland. The French refer to this mushroom as the girolle, have a good line of supply. However it's very hard so it's quite confusing!; either name will do as long as to come by so if your local fishmonger is unable to the mushroom is correct - If you are mushroom hunting provide you with native brown trout, the best thing yourself take care as there is a poisonous false chanterelle! to do is go fishing! Alternatively if you don’t have In our restaurants we pride ourselves on only sourcing the the time, the inclination or the necessary skill set, very best grass-fed Aberdeenshire Scottish beef. The beef is you can use either salmon or rainbow trout instead then dry aged between 20 and 40 days to maximise both a - Andrew mild gamey flavour and succulent tenderness. Buy the best you can. It is worth it! Sam

INGREDIENTS METHOD CHANTERELLE MUSHROOM & PARSLEY SAUCE FOR THE CHANTERELLE MUSHROOM & PARSLEY SAUCE 6 160g portions of Brown Trout cut from Place a saucepan on a very high heat. Slide in the washed mussels, followed by the raw garlic 3 tbsp olive oil Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the chanterelle mushrooms with the garlic and thyme, stirring the fillet, pin bones removed puree, diced shallots, saffron, white wine, orange juice and vegetable stock. When the mussels 200g girolle mushrooms, cleaned until softened. Pour in 100ml sherry and cook until reduced to a glaze, about 3 minutes. 1kg fresh Cornish mussels, washed, open remove them from the pot and allow them to cool down. Remove the mussels from the 1 garlic clove, lightly crushed cleaned, any open dead mussels discarded shells, remove any beards and reserve half the shells. 1 sprig thyme Add the vinegar and cook for a few secs more. Mix in the remaining sherry and the stock, bring 50g shallots, diced 150ml dry sherry to the boil and simmer for 3 minutes. 5g garlic, crushed and pureed Reduce the cooking liquor from the mussels by half, add the double cream then reduce by a 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar 120ml vegetable stock further half. Whisk the aioli into the reduced cream sauce, correct the seasoning with the juice 150ml beef stock (could be made Remove the garlic and thyme, then mix in the crème fraîche and mustard. Pour in any juices 1 lemon from ½ a lemon. Pass through a fine strainer and finish the sauce with the orange segments, with a good bouillon powder) from the steak, then finally add the parsley. 2 oranges segmented, all juice reserved mussels, shells and the chopped parsley. Reserve. 2 tbsp crème fraîche 60ml white wine 1 tbsp grain mustard TO COOK THE PERFECT STEAK 100g double cream Season the brown trout on both sides, and then lay skin side down in a very hot frying pan 2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley Pre-heat your char-griddle pan on the hottest heat possible. 1g saffron ground using a little olive oil. Leave for 2 minutes until the fish skin is golden brown, turn over, squeeze 20g chopped parsley the remaining half of lemon and cook for a further minute until the flesh is cooked but still pink STEAK Brush the fillet steaks with a little oil before grilling and season well with salt and pepper. 300g of cooked new potatoes, and juicy. 4x 200g dry aged Aberdeenshire warmed through to serve fillet steaks. Place on the char-griddle (there will be smoke). For a 200g fillet steak (about 5cm thick) cook 200g foraged sea greens (samphire, Boil a litre or water, add a table spoon of salt and blanch the sea greens for 3 seconds, drain off Sea salt & freshly milled black pepper for approximately 5 minutes on each sidefor medium rare, 1 more for medium well, or 1 less for sea kale, sea beets or sea aster; spinach all the water using a sieve. Season with salt and pepper, then dress with cold pressed virgin rare. Turning 45 degrees once on each side to achieve smart cheffy bar marks. could be used instead) olive or rapeseed oil. Then rest in warm place for another 5-10 minutes before serving – this is very important. AIOLI TO ASSEMBLE 30g garlic confit puréed Place the warmed greens in the centre of the plate with some of the new potatoes. Lay over the The results we are looking for is a lovely seared, faintly charred outside edge with the rest of the 80g mayonnaise cooked fish, followed with plenty of the mussel and orange sauce. meat very tender and juicy within. Mix together and reserve

GARDEN TERRACE AT BOISDALE OF CANARY WHARF You can also try Andrew's For the perfect steak you could brown trout dish at also try Sam's at BOISDALE OF CANARY WHARF BOISDALE OF BISHOPSGATE RESTAURANT, GARDEN RESTAURANT & BAR TERRACE & BAR Swedeland Court, 202 Bishopsgate, Cabot Place, E14 4QT EC2M 4NR

0207 715 5818 0207 283 1763 boisdale.co.uk OYSTER BAR boisdale.co.uk AT BOISDALE OF BISHOPSGATE

80 81 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4

FOOD AND DRINK FOOD AND DRINK COOL SUMMER COCKTAILS TIO PEPE AT BOISDALE THE FINEST AND DRIEST OF THEM ALL

HIGHLAND MOJITO This summer, as the trend for sherry cocktails BY RAUL FRANCO OCHOA AT BOISDALE OF BELGRAVIA continues to grow, Boisdale will be serving up Tiojitos, Tio Pepe’s take on the Rebujito. This simple mixed drink is enjoyed in Anda- INGREDIENTS lucia in southern Spain, the home of sherry. 50ml Glenfiddich 15 yr whisky Being half Cuban and working at (or 50ml Havana Club 7 yr rum for a classic) The rebirth of sherry in the UK over the last 1 lime cut in quarters decade has gone hand in hand with growing the original Boisdale Bar founded enthusiasm for authentic Spanish food and 7 fresh mint leaves in 1989 where malt whisky cocktails culture. In many ways sherry, with its diverse were first introduced to London in Dash of soda water styles, is the perfect food wine: a chilled fino, 1 tbsp brown sugar such as Tio Pepe, with its savoury tang and the early 90s this cocktail literally 3 drops of Angostura bitters palate-cleansing properties comes into its came to me in a dream! Mint leaves for garnish own when matched with tapas-style eating, while sweeter styles of sherry are delicious PREPARATION with desserts or blue cheese.

In a glass muddle lime wedges, mint leaves, FRANCO OCHOA, COCKTAIL BARMAN, However, sherry is now also gaining a new THE MACDONALD BAR, BOISDALE OF BELGRAVIA, sugar and bitters. Top with crushed ice. Add the following amongst bartenders who are re- 0207 730 6922 whisky (or rum) and top up with soda water. discovering its versatility as a cocktail in- gredient. Fino is becoming a firm favourite within the high-end cocktail scene as its dry, HENDRICK’S CLEANSE citrus and almond notes allow the bartend- er a freedom to pair it with many spirits and BY DAN DAVIES AT BOISDALE OF BISHOPSGATE robust flavours. Adding Tio Pepe to complex spirits like Mescal or smokey Whisky brings out notes that are lost within the neat spirit itself. Fino can also be used in place of a dry I love science fiction and for me this is a cocktail from vermouth as it is in Frank Sanatra’s favourite the future. It has the fifth dimension! drink The Flame Of Love. Here one part Tio Pepe is combined with two parts vodka, and a dash of orange bitters, garnished with an or- DAN DAVIES, COCKTAIL BARMAN, ange zest and served ice cold. THE OYSTER BAR, BOISDALE OF BISHOPSGATE 0207 283 1763

INGREDIENTS PREPARATION TUESDAY 4TH AUGUST 50ml Hendrick’s gin Muddle ginger, coriander, chilli and honey syrup together. 25ml lemon juice Add gin and lemon juice. Shake together over ice. Strain Tiojito Cocktail Sampling on the terrace 15ml honey syrup into a chilled martini or coupe glass. Garnish with the end at Boisdale of Canary Wharf 1 inch fresh ginger, peeled piece of a chilli on the rim and a coriander leaf. To add 1 inch fresh red chilli more spice, simply rub the chilli around the rim! 8 leaves fresh coriander 6.30pm to 7.30pm exclusively for Boisdale Life readers (plus one guest)

ORANGE BLOSSOM Limited availability RSVP essential: [email protected] TIOJITO BY JOE BOXALL AT BOISDALE OF CANARY WHARF The refreshing mix of Fino Sherry and lemonade makes it perfect for summer drinking. INGREDIENTS To make it at home, simply 50ml Daffy’s Gin pour 100ml of Tio Pepe over We have the greatest selection of 12.5ml Orgeat Syrup ice in a tumbler glass, mix malt whiskies on the planet, but I 25ml Pink Grapefruit Juice with 100ml of lemonade and 3 drops Bob’s Orange & Mandarin Bitters add a slice of lemon and a few love gin and gin is in! Daffy’s is my 15ml Lime Juice mint leaves. favourite and this cocktail is a pure taste of the summer. PREPARATION Shake all ingredients with ice. Double strain into ice filled rocks glass. Garnish with pink grapefruit wedge. JOE BOXALL, HEAD BARMAN, THE WHISKY BAR BOISDALE OF CANARY WHARF CABOT PLACE, E14 4QT 0207 715 5818

82 83 Summer 2015 BOISDALELIFE.COM Issue no.4

BACK PAGE WHAT MAKES ME LAUGH WORDS BY LAWSON MUNCASTER CO-FOUNDER OF CITY AM NEWSPAPER

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Above: Lawson Muncaster (Right) embracing the Daily Telegraphs David Emin. Boisdale Life has teamed up with Mediaweek to run a series of interviews with leading figures from the media and advertising industry - Lawson Muncaster was the first of these interviews conducted by David Emin, which can be read at mediaweek.co.uk. Above right: City AM was clear where they stood on the Scottish Referendum. cityam.com

ONDON! Boris, what are you in floods. It’s so pathetic, it makes you to play more rugby in the garden. My doing?? I’m sitting in the back of laugh! People love honesty. first child will be leaving school in 2018, a cab, coming in from City Airport probably playing sport! to Fenchurch Street. I can’t see left or 2. Alex Salmond not being able to lead So it’s 1 hour 25 minutes and the right as the road is totally engulfed by Scotland away from Great Britain, because mighty price of £43.60. I give him £50. A large filthy trucks. “CROSSRAIL!” my in the end more Scottish people than his few more smiles, a few calories later and taxi driver screams. Relax I tell him, ideologists, decided they didn't want to I’m at my desk… ah, point 3. Laughter... you'll be out of a job soon. “THE CYCLE go. Nicola and her red grab will be found FREEWAY!” he shouts. out in a few months (actually I don't laugh 3. Meeting with people who genuinely So I join in with him, Aldgate, here!) What could get me laughing is if want progress, fairness and above all else Fenchurch Street, Cannon Street, the list they both didn’t make me feel like a traitor putting bad people down. Obviously the is endless. I start to smile... then I start to for not agreeing with them. I am more down word is not jail. How many people laugh. Haha, I’ve got you Boris and your Scottish than the pair of them! have gone to jail over the banking crisis? cycle friends. No, I'm not joining the Tube Zip, nada, none, zero. Ok, forgetting / empty bus / scooter brigade. Instead TIME SO FAR: 42 minutes, £35 on them, I like the sort of person that puts I'm sitting in a cab, working (although I the clock... not even at Aldgate! Loud others first, smiles at people, laughs at hardly call writing this article working?) laughter. Taxi driver and I join in bad jokes from people that are trying – But I've beaten you. Yes it's slow, yes it's together "we love Uber, no experience, you get the picture! expensive, but whatever you throw at me no idea, we love Uber!” I'm going to sit in a black cab working. Ho ho ho here I go again. You guessed Oh, and smiling. Actually, now I’m beginning to feel it, it’s 4pm on a Thursday and I’m in a Laughter is hard to come by these very sick. Was that the BA breakfast or taxi. It takes 20 minutes to cross London days. Is it my age, or is it that the the continued braking and accelerating Bridge… ha ha ha, another road closure, people that don't laugh now try to get us every two yards? Sorry, have got out of the diversion to – and you can't make this laughers to stop through jealousy or just taxi – BUT Fenchurch Street is shut – and up – Fenchurch Street. It's still closed! plain sadness? Good luck to them. the laughter started again! I bid my fellow laugher goodbye, told him to retire. 4. City A.M. sales figures. Obviously So here’s my list of what makes me No more weekend work for me there’s a crying side to this point as well! laugh: either, I’ll just do it in the taxi from the airport. Thank you Crossrail, the energy 5. My family. Zoe my wife, Ben, Ruby, 1. Watching a politician refuse to companies, Aldgate roadworks are due Olly and Zac all at the dinner table. Utter show emotion, then lose their seat and to finish in 2018?! Lucky that City A.M. chaos, noise, squabbling, more noise and suddenly the emotion and empathy has a long lease. Yippee, the kids have LAUGHTER... That's when you realise it pours out, and the sympathy comes back been told daddy is giving up his study all makes sense!

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