#The Great British Pantomime Awards

[yorkcalling]

Beauty and the Beast Announced as This Year’s Pantomime at the Grand Opera House York

The Grand Opera House York and Martin Dodd for UK Productions have today announced a brand new pantomime for York, opening in December 2024.With side-splitting comedy, sumptuous costumes, fabulous scenery, a thrilling transformation scene and an award-winning script by Jon Monie (Winner Best Script – Great British Pantomime Awards), this magical Panto is one not to be missed!  Belle and The…

[centrestagereviews]

The 2018 GB Panto Award Nominees

The Great British Pantomime Awards have announced their nominees for 2018.

Best  Ensemble:  - Hexagon Reading - Towngate Basildon - Sailsbury Playhouse - Sheffield Lyceum - York Theatre Royal

Best Song Sheet: - Ed Thorpe - Richard Ellis - Matt Slack  - Mark James - Craig Hollingsworth

Best Lighting: Sponsored by Production Light and Sound - Birmingham Hippodrome - Glasgow Kings Theatre - Lyric Hammersmith - Greenwich Theatre London - Newcastle Theatre Royal

Best Double Act: - Paul Zerdin & Sam - The Chuckle Brothers - The Grumbleweeds - Pickle & Lilly - The Dolls

Musical Supervision: - Gary Hind - Robert Hyman & Trish Cooke - Elliot Styche - Ben Goddard - Bryan Hodgson

Best Choreography: - Nikki Wilkes - Ashley Johnson - Dee Jago - Richard Roe - Twist & Pulse

Best Speciality Act: - Pete Firman - Diversity - Ashleigh & Friends - The Timbuktu Tumblers - Phil Hitchcock

Best Staging & Set: - Morgan Brind - Keith Orton - William Fricker - James Button - Victoria Spearing

Best Script: - Michael Harrison & Allan Steward - Morgan Brind - Daniel Buckroyd - Alan McHugh & David McGillivray - Sarah A Nixon & Mark Chatterton

Special Effect:  - Flying Bus - Twins FX - Flying Carpet - Tivoli Theatre Wimborne - Beast Transform - Derby Arena - Three Headed Dog - Loughborough Town Hall - Fire Breathing Dragon - Hall Fo Cornwall Truro

Best New Comer: - Ronan Parke - Beverly Knight - Al Murray - Danny Beard - Pete Firman

Best Fairy: - Elaine C Smith - Lisa Davina Phillip - Janine Duvutski - Amanda Coutts - Robyn Mellor

Best Supporting Male: - Nigel Havers - Richard David Caine - Ian Kirkby - Luke Adamson - Stephane Anelli

Best Dame: - David Robbins - Andrew Ryan - Ben Roddy - Donovan Christian Cary - Anthony Stuart Hicks

Leading Male: Sponsored by Encore Radio - Danny Mac - Edward Rowe (Kernow King) - Charlie Stemp - Sam Harrison - Dale Mathurin

Best Comic: Sponsored by Freedom Flying - Andy Colins - Aiden O’Neil - Johnny Mac - Danny Adams - Tweedy

Best Pantomine - 1500+ Seats: Sponsored by Gallone’s Ice Cream - Birmingham Hippodrome - Kings Glasgow - London Palladium - Derby Arena - The Bristol Hippodrome

Best Ugly Sisters: Sponsored by Molly Limpets - Ian Smith & Matt Danies - Jack Lane Noble & Graham Hoadly - Ben Stock & Neal Wright - The Harper Brothers - Jamie Morris & Tarot Joseph

Best Director: - Phil Clarke - Eric Potts - Chris Nelson - Christian Patterson & Jonny Wilkes - Damian Sandys

Female Baddie: - Grant Stott - Carli Norris - Elaine Paige - Zoe Birkett

Male Baddie: Sponsored by CME - Vikki Stone - Kit Hesketh-Harvey - Lawrence Boothman - David Leonard - Steve Serlin - Stefan Pejic

Best Pantomime - Under 750 Seats: Sponsored by Gallone’s Ice Cream - Lougborough Town Hall - Sailsbury Playhouse - Mercury Theatre Colchester - Yvonne Arnaud Guildford

Best Pantomime - 750 - 1500 Seats: Sponsored by Gallone’s Ice Cream - Weymouth Pavillion - Regent Theatre Stoke - Sheffield Lyceum - Theatre Royal Norwich - Waterside Aylesbury - Belfast Grand

Leading Female: - Faith Omole - Lucy Jane Quinlan - Devon-Elise Johnson - Hannah Boyce - Cara Dudgeon

Best Lighting: Sponsored by Production Light and Sound - Ben Cracknell - Peter Watts - Tim Deiling - Nathan Long  - Ben Cracknell

Best Costume Design: Sponsored by Maxine’s Feathers - David Shields - Hugh Durrant, Ron Briggs, Teresa Nalton & Mike Coltman - Michael Batchelor - Paul Shriek - Alison Brown

The 2018 GB Panto Awards will take place at the New Wimbledon Theatre on Sunday 15th of April 2018. The event will be hosted by Christopher Biggins and will feature performances from special guests. For more information or to book tickets head to the official The Great British Pantomime Website. 

Images courtesy of The Great British Pantomime Awards Twitter. 

[scotianostra]

Happy 95th birthday Scottish comedy great Stanley Baxter born in Glasgow May 24th 1926.

Like so many comedic talents, school wasn’t a happy place - but Stanley could always make people laugh. Encouraged by his mother Bessie into pursuing an acting career, he made his debut at the Citizens Theatre and developed a love for classic Scottish pantomime - something he’d return to later in life.

After gaining a degree at the University of Glasgow, he joined the entertainment services during national service where he met comedy actor Kenneth Williams and film director John Schlesinger. Their influence persuaded him to become a performer rather than a teacher.

He returned to Glasgow and spent the next three years at the Citizens Theatre, where he was highly successful, and later appeared in panto with Jimmy Logan. He left Scotland in 1959 to work in television.

He won a Bafta for light entertainment in 1959, for co-hosting the satirical sketch show On the Bright Side. He won two years running, in 1973 and 1974, for The Stanley Baxter Picture Show, and again in 1981 for The Stanley Baxter Series. Some of his best-loved comedy sketches include Parliamo Glasgow, in which the Glaswegian dialect was presented as a foreign language. It included phrases such as “Izat a marra on yer barra, Clara?” and the uniquely Glaswegian word “Sanoffy”, as in “Sanoffy cold day”.

He remained a favourite of the Scottish panto circuit, often playing the gloriously costumed dame alongside Angus Lennie, Jimmy Logan or Ronnie Corbett, until he retired in 1992.

In 1994 he returned to radio, appearing in plays and sitcoms. In 1997, he was honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the British Comedy Awards. The Stanley Baxter Playhouse ran on Radio 4 from 2006 until 2014.

Even though he retired from TV comedy some 30 years ago, Stanley Baxter continues to hold a special place in the viewing nation’s heart.

He eats well, likes a glass of wine and enjoys a quiet domesticated life. Well into his 80s he was still cycling and swimming. Even when he was in the public eye, he shunned personal publicity, rarely doing interviews or appearing on chat shows.

In his retirement he has written an autobiography but refuses to allow it to be published until after his death, not apparently because it contains any hugely scandalous stories of his celebrity friends, but because he didn’t fancy schlepping round the country doing promotional appearances, press interviews and book signings, let’s hope it is a good few years before it is released then! A widower since 1997, he says he doesn’t find it difficult to fill his days. “You wonder how you ever had time to work,” he says.

“I miss talking to actors. I can relate to actors better than real people. I have so few friends left.“I suppose I’m a bit of a loner. I’m not the kind of person to drop in on the neighbours.”

I hope Stanley is asking  Whenrahelza party startin? Let’s hope it’s soon and Stanley has a great day.

Check out the video Upatra burd's with the classic  "It'll be Ella an er fella" from the Parliamo Glasgow sketches. I love how they switch from the "BBC English" to the Parliamo!

[kalluun-patangaroa]

Suede: All That Glitters

England’s new Band of the Century hits a glam slam

Rolling Stone, May 27, 1993 

By Steven Daly 

Photo by Denis O’Regan

Brett Anderson puts his bare feet up on a Columbia Records conference table and rakes back his lank fringe. Suede’s gaunt frontman wonders why no one back in balmy London troubled to mention that he’d be arriving in New York on the heels of an early spring snowstorm. In the corner of the room, a pair of sodden moccasins pays mute testament to his climatic misjudgment.

As befits its neo-glam reputation, this month’s English Band of the Century travels with only carry-on luggage. Suede’s glamour, though, is of a distinctly seedy stripe. Anderson’s leather bomber jacket is peeling quite badly, and his black needle cords have seen better days, while bass player Mat Osman’s pin-stripe jacket, desert boots and suede appliqué shirt are equally unlikely to spawn a collection of designer rip-offs.

With its triptych of instantly classic singles – “The Drowners,” “Metal Mickey” and “Animal Nitrate” – Suede announced a changing of the guard in British music, powerfully confirming it with a debut album, Suede, of formidable grace and authority. Anderson’s sterling writing partnership with guitarist Bernard Butler lends much-needed gravitas to the singer’s arch vocal style, a pained cockney whine that recalls London pop lineage from the Small Faces and David Bowie through the Sex Pistols. If Suede has done anything to deserve the mark-down tag of glam, it has been introducing the post-acid-house generation to pelvic posturings.

The trajectory that dumped these threadbare dandies in New York has been a sharp one. Brett Anderson grew up in Haywards Heath, a glorified stoplight between London and Brighton, and after the standard-issue alienated adolescence he lit out for the bright lights of the capital with fellow Smiths buff Osman. They placed a small ad seeking a guitarist for their “eminently important band” and reeled in Butler, at 22 three years their junior, who was later joined by drummer Simon Gilbert.

The nascent Suede slogged around lowly London stages until its penchant for preening drama got the band members laughed out of town. They slunk off to spend the last half of 1991 in squalor, a siege mentality shrouding intense bouts of writing and rehearsal. “We started out with the idea that we wanted to be in a great band, but it was a while before the musicianship caught up,” Anderson now admits. “We began listening to classic songs like ‘A Day in the Life,’ more for their sense of elegance than anything specific in the chord structures.”

When Suede emerged, the turnaround was alarming: Melody Maker anointed it Best New Band of 1992 before one new song had been committed to vinyl. So strong was the avalanche of media that the band’s publicist garnered an industry award for “campaign of the year.” For once, though, the press hype has a toehold in reality.

“We’d have been birched on the streets of Bermondsey if people didn’t think we’d got it after that,” says Anderson. “But it was the new year, and people were getting bored. London was overrun by these shoegazing bands, and there was a feeling of ‘I’ve had enough of this. . . .’“

And sure enough, the nation was soon gripped in the throes of Suedemania. The band’s turn-on-a-dime dynamics not only counterpoint Anderson’s falsetto flights, they put a jut in his strut that provokes followers to hysterical displays of worship at live shows. So violent are these reactions that Suede has actually had to tone down its stagecraft of late.

“This group appeals to people who are isolated in some way,” says Osman of Suede’s dramatic rise. “Geographically or socially or sexually or fashion-wise.”

“Or biologically,” says Anderson with a laugh. “I think there’s a section of music lovers in Britain who are in certain dead-end situations who flock to certain sentiments in music. And I think for that to happen, the artist has to have felt them themselves. That’s probably where a lot of the Smiths comparisons came from. I think there’s a parallel to be drawn.

”One early Suede convert was in fact Morrisey himself, who sent the group perfumed regards before covering its stately, decadent anthem “My Insatiable One” (from the B side of Suede’s first EP, The Drowners) on his world tour. Like Manchester’s Nabob of Sob, Anderson has been the subject of intense sexual speculation. An oft-quoted – and much-regretted – remark about being a bisexual man without homosexual experience only furthered an impression given by lyrics slathered with NC-17 imagery, where a third person of transient gender nibbles freely at the whole carnal buffet; now he leers, “She’s a luvverly little numbah!” (from “Moving”) and now “we kiss in his room to a popular tune” (“The Drowners”). Before you can say, “It’s Pat!” this switch-hitter is imploring, “Have you ever tried it that way?” (“Pantomime Horse”).

“I think I’ve got scope as a writer, so not everything I write is completely autobiographical,” explains Anderson thoughtfully. “I feel vague when it comes to where I stand sexually; I don’t know what to say – I’m willing to be persuaded, whatever.”

In a climate clogged with infantile techno-novelty records and TV-marketed oldies, Suede has rushed through the British charts like a hormone shot – even if no one knows which type of hormones. As one of the most subversive stars ever to taste Top Ten action, Anderson’s seamy subconscious terrain bears greater resemblance to the world of, say, the Sixties playwright-provocateur Joe Orton than it does to the lazy lexicon of contemporary rock, with its calcified sentiments of indolence, infatuation or “rebellion.”

“My mind has always been much more encased in reality than that,” says Anderson. “And the reality that everyone knows involves a certain amount of sexual failure. Not everyone’s stomping ground is Venice Beach – I can’t think of anything more boring than Baywatch set to guitars, which is how a lot of music treats the idea of sex.

“Most music is lazy; it speaks in pop-speak, prodding your memory about things you’ve heard before,” Anderson adds. “I’ve never wanted to write like that. I wanted to do something with a bit of tension, look at things through different perspectives. It’s the Oscar Wilde thing of lying in the gutter and looking at the stars. Life has always been cinema to me, even when I’ve been sitting in the dole office. That’s the only way to do it sometimes.”

The following afternoon sees Suede visiting the influential alternative radio station WDRE in an office block in suburban Long Island. The band is, it seems, coming to terms with the New York weather. Six-and-a-half-foot Osman has scored some inexpensive socks at J. Chuckles, while Anderson has economically stuffed a plastic bag inside his shoes.

Suede might find America’s cultural climate a little harder to accommodate. Several U.S. record companies tend, bizarrely, to set their clocks by British hype (Suede’s reputed $500,000 Sony pact is unexceptional), as does a significant cohort of media Anglophiles. When the bicoastal greeting parties are over, however, things can get a little sticky. The freeways of the Midwest are littered with the bones of pale, snaggletoothed hopefuls who came to grief on America’s punishing concert circuit.

As Osman takes the Columbia promo man’s rental Ford Taurus for an unscheduled spin around the DRE parking lot, he muses. “We’re completely aware that we’re a bunch of insects over here compared with even Screaming Trees or Soul Asylum,” he says, “a horrific thought, but one we recognize.”

[ohyesitiz-blog-blog]

Mother Goose Traditional Family Pantomime 8th December 2021 - 2nd January 2022 Gorleston Pavilion Theatre, Pier Gardens, Gorleston-on-Sea, Great Yarmouth NR31 6PP Book tickets here Call the box office: 01493 662832

Pantomime is back on stage and what better time to round up the family and join in the good old British tradition at Christmas time. Join Mother Goose and her new friend Priscilla in the quest for true happiness; dancing around greed, good and evil, wholesome gags and… golden eggs! Mother Goose is the most classic tale of rags to riches with all the ingredients of a great pantomime adventure including magic, romance, comedy and song all wrapped up in this year’s egg-stra special spectacular featuring colourful costumes and a talented cast. Like previous years, the show comes from the big heart of panto King (and did we mention Olivier award-winning actor?) Desmond Barrit. With award-winning actor Desmond Barrit and renowned broadcaster and presenter Helen McDermott at the helm, OhYesItIz prides itself on the values of tradition and quality when it comes to pantomime. “We should count our blessings that we’ve got something  of such high quality on the coast.” BBC’s Tony Mallion on an OhYesItIz pantomime

[softrobotcritics]

Tiller Girls

Precision chorus dancing in large, industrial-scale numbers and geometric figures

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiller_Girls

Tiller Girls

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Tiller Girls were among the most popular dance troupes of the 1890s, first formed by John Tiller in Manchester, England, in 1889. In theatre Tiller had noticed the overall effect of a chorus of dancers was often spoiled by lack of discipline. Tiller found that by linking arms the dancers could dance as one; he is credited with inventing precision dance.[citation needed] Possibly most famous for their high-kicking routines, the Tiller Girls were highly trained and precise.

John Tiller's first dancers performed as 'Les Jolies Petites'. He originally formed the group for the pantomime 'Robinson Crusoe', subtitled 'The Good Friday That Came on a Saturday', in 1890 at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Liverpool. From this were founded the Tiller School of Dancing and the Tiller Girl troupes. The number of troupes grew to dozens, and their fame spread around the world.

The troupes were all slightly different, but within each troupe the girls were matched very precisely by height and weight. Individuality within the troupes was discouraged in favour of a strong group ethic. The Tillers performed as resident dancers at the Folies Bergère in Paris, the London Palladium, the Palace Theatres in Manchester and in London (as the Palace Girls or Sunshine Girls), the Blackpool Winter Gardens, on New York's Broadway, where Tiller had a dance school, and at hundreds of other theatres throughout Europe and the United States. One Tiller group, the Pony Ballet, earned success in the U.S. in musical comedy and vaudeville, performing from 1899 to 1914. The leader of the Pony Ballet, Beatrice Liddell, in a 1911 newspaper interview described the Tiller school of the late 1890s as having a boarding school facility in Limehouse, Manchester where girls aged five to ten were taught academic subjects as well as dance, to gauge their aptitude for dancing. Promising students graduated to Tiller's Covent Garden, London facility.

Contents

1Tiller routines and line-ups

2After John Tiller

31950s heyday

4The 60s Tiller Girls

5Re-launch

6Plans

7The Radio City Rockettes connection

8Former Tiller Girls

9References

10External links

The Tiller Girls performed a 'Tap and Kick' routine, which was originally called 'Fancy-Dancing' but today is known as 'Precision Dancing'.[citation needed] The routines may consist of straight lines or geometric figures.

Siegfried Kracauer stated in 1923, "These 76 energetic women dance about in geometric shapes: the regularity of their patterns is cheered by the masses, themselves arranged by the stands in tier upon ordered tier."[1]

In certain shows a Tiller line-up could be as many as 32 girls who were selected for uniform height and weight. In 1923 the stage play Nifties of 1923 featured twelve Tiller Girls.

After John Tiller's death in 1925, the Tiller schools in the U.K. were kept alive first by his wife Jennie Tiller, then by some of the head girls. The U.S. Tiller school in New York City was continued under the leadership of Mary Read until 1935.[2] By the 1940s The John Tiller Schools of Dancing were managed by its 3 directors. Mr John Smith, Miss Doris Alloway and Miss Barbara Aitken (also choreographer and a former Tiller Girl). During the 1940s the Tiller Girls were popular, appearing in summer seasons, pantomimes, variety tours, London West End shows, and cabaret.

During the 50s, as travel became easier after World War II, Tiller Troupes began to work abroad again. The Tiller Girls' popularity continued to increase. They were invited to make several appearances at the Royal Variety Performance, notably in 1953 at the London Coliseum when there were 40 girls in the line-up. As far as is known, neither before or since, has there been a longer line of girls performing a kicking routine (the Rockettes have 36).

On Sept 24th 1955 a Tiller Troupe appeared in the first Saturday night variety show transmitted on the new ITV channel which had been launched 2 days earlier. During the remainder of the 1950s and during the 1960s the Tiller Girls established themselves as the premier dance troupe on British commercial television, being associated particularly with the iconic Sunday Night at the London Palladium.

During the 1970s, management of the troupes was taken over by the impresario Robert Luff and also around that time dance troupes with different styles were emerging. For the first time since their inception the popularity of Tillers went into decline until the formation of the Sixties Tiller Girls.

Towards the end of 1988 a former Tiller Girl, Sandy Jones, received a surprise call from a friend, George May, who was working on a production named Joy to the World, to be staged at the Albert Hall in London. He wanted the Tiller Girls to take part in "The Twelve Days of Christmas" song as the "nine ladies dancing." Sandy made eight phone calls to original Tiller Girls from the 50s and 60s, and all eight immediately agreed, with her making the nine needed. The ladies truly enjoyed the experience, made especially poignant as none expected to be Tiller Girls again after so many years. Then, in later 1988, there was a news bulletin on the actor Terry-Thomaswho was suffering with Parkinson's. Jack Douglas, the Carry On comedian was putting on a charity show at the Drury Lane Theatre to aid both Terry and Parkinson's UK, a research and support charity.

Bruce Vincent, husband of June Vincent (née Labbett), herself a former Tiller girl from 1958 to 1969, phoned Jack Douglas and asked if he would like a troupe of Tiller Girls in the show, to which the answer was a resounding "Yes". From there on in, a busy four months started to get a full troupe of sixteen girls together (all bona fide former Tiller Girls), together with full costumes, music and of course rehearsals. Wendy Clarke, a former Head Girl[clarification needed] took up the responsibility of the choreography and when the troupe of sixteen girls performed on the stage that night the response from the audience was electric and The 60s Tiller Girls were quite literally born. This original troupe of ladies, ages ranging from early 40s to late 50s, carried on kicking in shows for over a twenty-year period in over 180 shows under Bruce Vincent's stewardship.

This re-formed troupe were fortunate enough to appear in many different shows, mainly for charity, and ranged from appearances from Sevenoaks School to Buckingham Palace, Westcliff-on-Sea to the West End's London Palladium. The shows at the London Palladium were always the ladies' favourite shows as they considered the Palladium their "spiritual" home. To this day,[when?] some of the original 1960s Tiller Girls do backstage tours at the London Palladium in full costume, as arranged by the Palladium's box office. After many prestigious charitable events all over the UK, including 40 Glorious Years, for H.M. The Queen, and being semi-adopted[clarification needed] by Lily Savage, aka Paul O'Grady, for his shows and videos in the 1990s.

The 1960s Tiller Girls formally announced their retirement and final show in April 2011, a cabaret show in aid of Vera Lynn's Children's Charity. The ladies were then in their late 60s and early 70s, a fantastic achievement for any dancer, and the joy and pride of bearing the Tiller Girl name was thus passed on into its third century, with the baton being firmly and happily passed to the relaunched Tiller Girls.

World Dance Management re-launched the Tiller Girls on 16 May 2012, having been awarded worldwide rights and an exclusive trademark licence agreement to Bernard Tiller, great grandson of John Tiller, founder of the original troupe. He owns the exclusive rights to the name.

Marina Blore, director of World Dance Management said: "As an ex dancer and choreographer, I remember The Tiller Girls of the late 60s and 70s and professional dancers everywhere held them in very high regard. Being a Tiller always commanded respect. It is a huge honour to be handed the reins to re-launch The Tiller Girls and whilst we plan to make the look and choreography relevant to today’s audience, the original traditions and disciplines of precision dance will be an integral part of the new look Tiller Girls."

World Dance Management plan to launch The Tiller Girls and they already have interest from television in following the reformation of the dance troupe and the appointment of a choreographer/artistic director, costume designer and nationwide auditions of the dancers.

Bernard Tiller explains: "For a number of years I have been looking for a partner who can revive the Tiller Girls. World Dance Management is without doubt the best company to take the Tiller Girl name forward. This is something that I have been working on and dreaming for over thirty years and hope this will again see 'The Tiller Girls' name up in lights and the tradition of the past dancers carried forward to a new generation."[3]

The Radio City Music Hall Rockettes, an American dance troupe, follow and keep alive the Tiller Girls' tradition of high-kicking precision dancing.[citation needed]

Russell Markert, founder of The Rockettes, reminisced: "I had seen the Tiller girls in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1922. If I ever got a chance to get a group of American girls who would be taller and have longer legs and could do really complicated tap routines and eye-high kicks, they'd knock your socks off!"

The Rockettes first came to life in 1925 as the "Missouri Rockets" and made their show business debut in St. Louis, the realisation of a long-time dream of their creator, Russell Markert.

Some of the Tiller Girls and American girls who trained with Mary Read also danced in the Rockettes. Lily Smart who trained with the Tiller School of Dance in Manchester and was with the 1922 troupe in the Ziegfeld Follies, settled in America and joined the Rockettes after leaving the Tiller Girls, performing with them for many years. She was then involved with the training of new dancers, Lily was in constant contact with Bernard Tiller until her death in 2010, aged 106. Lily explained how Russell Markert added his own style to the Precision Dance routines; this found its way back to the Tiller girls in the United Kingdom.[4]

Girls who had visited the United States during the late 1930s and 1940s danced for the troops and liked the American style of dancing and the costumes with headdresses that they saw. American films also featured showgirls and had a big impact on the British audience. From the late 1940s through the 1970s the Tiller girls adopted a lot of American showgirl styles that could trace their roots back to the Folies Bergère in the late 1890s.

Betty Boothroyd, Speaker of the House of Commons (1992–2000)

Aimée Campton, Anglo-French actress

Wendy Clarke (half of the famous 1950s Blackpool Belles photo by Bert Hardy)[citation needed]

Gretchen Franklin, EastEnders actress

Rosalie Kirkman, Queen Ratling of the Lady Ratlings, 2014[citation needed]

Avril Owton MBE FIH, Honorary Member of the Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World[5]

Gloria Paul, actress/dancer (Darling Lili, The Intelligence Men)

Sunny Rogers, pianist who accompanied the comedian Frankie Howerd

Doremy Vernon, actress (Are You Being Served?) and author

Diana Vreeland, former editor-in-chief of Vogue

^ Siegfried Kracauer, "The Mass Ornament," The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays, trans. Thomas Y. Levin (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), 74-75.

^ Boltz family archives

^ Bernard Tiller http://www.worlddancemanagement.com/the-tiller-girls/

^ http://www.tillergirls.com/Tiller_Page_3.htm Lily Smart and Joan Johannes

^ Avril Owton MBE FIH

General

Tiller's Girls. Hobson Books. 1988.

[aamernaeemuk]

Penny Appeal CEO Receives an OBE for Services to Muslim Communities

“If you don’t know much about Muslims,” opens comedian, Tez Ilyas, “you’ll recognise us from that hit TV show… the News.” His joke points to a more sobering reality as study after study has demonstrated portrayal of Muslims to be at best simplistic and stereotyped, and at worst, grossly inaccurate and violent.

The reality, however, is a world away from the tired typecasts of taxi drivers and terrorists, in fact Muslims are our country’s most diverse religious community. From the 400,000 who fought for Britain in WWI to the tens of thousands of healthcare professionals who serve in our NHS, British Muslims are woven into the fabric of the UK’s past, present and indeed its future.

British Muslims can be found contributing to society on every level and from amongst them has emerged exceptional individuals, who are shaping the industries in which they are working in and redefining what it means to be a Muslim of Britain today. One such person, who encapsulates British Muslims at their best, is charity CEO and Leadership Consultant, Aamer Naeem who has just been awarded an OBE for services to the Muslim community in the Queen's New Year Honours List.

Qualifying with a 1st class honours as a pharmacist and rising up the ranks in a multi-national chain over the years, Aamer found himself in state of shock when the news of the Kosovo crisis captured the world’s attention in 1999. As a young man, witnessing the persecution of a Muslim minority on European soil, he knew that he needed to do something to help and so he traveled to Albania as a volunteer Pharmacist.

Working with the doctors in charge of the largest refugee camp in Tirana, it became clear that the cause of the vast majority of illnesses was poor sanitation. Ever the pragmatist, Aamer went about knocking down the grossly inadequate port-a-loos, and then worked to build a proper sanitation infrastructure for the camp. Within 3 months, the rate of illnesses in the camp had been reduced by 80% and Aamer’s intervention had also created almost a dozen jobs for refugees to work as cleaners and maintainers of the the new facilities. It was then when Aamer had had his first taste of humanitarianism and he’s never looked back since.

With a passion for leadership development and effective governance, Aamer works as a consultant and leadership trainer providing strategic and operational guidance to a broad range of organisations and initiatives spanning the public, private and voluntary sectors. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and has sat as a fitness to practice committee member on behalf of the General Pharmaceutical Council of Great Britain as well as the General Teaching Council for England.

His primary focus, however, is serving as the Global Chief Executive of Penny Appeal, a multi-award winning relief and development agency working in over 30 countries around the world and at home in the UK. In the 5 years that Aamer has been leading Penny Appeal, he has grown their annual income from £400k to in excess of a staggering £24m.

Notably, Aamer introduced a strict policy in Penny Appeal in 2016 that for each programme they do abroad, they have a twin-sister project here in the UK. This was an industry-first and bold move for a Muslim-led charity which historically has focused spending abroad. However, in keeping with the increasingly rooted identity of Muslims to Britain, Penny Appeal has made it their mission to raise the profile of domestic poverty and empower people to help tackle it. In doing so, the charity has also helped address negative portrayals of British Muslims by bringing to the fore positive narratives that seldom make the headlines.

Just like Christianity, Judaism (and most other religious traditions for that matter), Islam emerged from the East and yet within its DNA is the ability to marry with local culture and custom, growing where it’s planted and thus inspiring Islamic civilisation from as far as China to the South of Spain. This process of indigenisation for British Muslims has been met with a number of challenges, and so being conscientious of these, Aamer has diligently worked to identify solutions and create institutional responses that empower communities to feel confidently Muslim, and comfortably British.

Thus, as well as being credited as one of the fastest growing charities in the faith-led sector, Penny Appeal is also considered to be one of the most innovative and dynamic faith-led organisations in the country too, reconciling the timeless values and traditions of Islam with the contemporary challenges of modern day Britain and beyond.

Examples of this process in action include bringing together fostering and adoption experts with classically trained Islamic scholars to address the massive under-representation of Muslim families as potential foster carers and adopters. Preliminary research indicated a de-contextualised understanding of Islamic scriptures was perhaps at the root of this poor uptake and thus Aamer facilitated a series of symposia that brought traditional teachings up to speed with contemporary challenges. The result was the publication of ‘The Penny Appeal Islamic Guide to Adoption and Fostering’ which was endorsed by over 100 Muslim scholars and was launched in the House of Commons. The document is now a cornerstone advisory paper that highlights the communal responsibility for Muslims to adopt and foster and is directly responsible for the narrowing of this under-representation.

Another example is in the type of events Penny Appeal has been able to put on. Championed by Aamer, the charity has toured the country, consecutively for four years with The Super Muslim Comedy Tour. Using the medium of comedy as a form of cultural catharsis, the tour affords Muslims with a safe space to laugh, reflect and raise money for great causes too. A further example, and in what is thought to be a world’s first, Penny Appeal founded and toured The Great Muslim Pantomime, a family favourite which perfectly exemplifies how British Muslims are bringing together the different elements of their identity and living out what it means to be confidently Muslim and comfortably British.

Likewise, Aamer has embedded this philosophy of integration into the charity’s volunteering scheme, its marketing and branding and its work with ambassadors including the renowned singer-songwriter, Yusuf Islam / Cat Stevens.

Under Aamer’s stewardship, Penny Appeal has become more than a charity, it has become a movement, led by British Muslims and serving the most vulnerable and neglected in society, regardless of who they may be. The Times revealed that British Muslims are the country’s most generous group of people, and as the CEO of one of the country’s biggest Muslim charities, Aamer is channeling that generosity in a way that opens minds, starts conversations and creates a radically positive narrative about what it means to be a British Muslim today.

Ultimately, stereotypes are lazy and there is much more to Muslim communities than what they are made out to be in the news. By shining a light on the immense positive contributions British Muslims are making to Britain and beyond, perhaps we can shift the rising tides of Islamophobia and inspire a generation of young change-makers that are able to look up to the likes of Aamer Naeem as a role models and be inspired to do their bit to make the world a better place for all.

It’s an honour to call Aamer Penny Appeal’s CEO; he’s an individual with incredible vision, compassion and wisdom. Exemplifying what it truly means to be confidently Muslim and comfortably British, Aamer really cares about positive representation for British Muslims.

In his words, once we as British Muslims feel comfortable and secure in our own identity, we can spend more time looking outwards and helping others. We couldn’t be prouder – well done, Aamer!

Resource: https://pennyappeal.org/news/penny-appeal-ceo-receives-obe-queens-new-year-honours-list

[365daysoflesbians]

JULY 4: Gertrude Lawrence (1898-1952)

Bisexual actress Gertrude Lawrence was born on this day in 1898 and is remembered for having ascended her impoverished, Cockey-accented roots to become a legend in both Broadway and London’s West End.

Although famously claimed by the Brits, Gertrude’s true surname of Klasen was given to her by her Danish birth father. She later adopted the name Lawrence from her father’s stage name of Arthur Lawrence (x). 

Gertrude Alice Dagmar Klasen was born on July 4, 1898 in Newington, London. Her parents’ show business careers kept the family in poverty, which was exacerbated when her father’s alcoholism caused them to separate. Gertrude’s mother eventually remarried and it was on an outing with her stepfather when Gertrude got her first taste of the spotlight; while attending a concert in Bognor, young Gertrude was invited on stage to sing a song and was given a prize for her participation. The experience planted in Gertrude a love of performing that would stick with her for the rest of her life. In 1908, Gertrude joined the chorus of a Christmas pantomime at the Brixton Theater and began taking dance lessons with Italia Conti. At the age of 16, she left home and joined the Bohemian world of the theater in earnest when she moved into the Theatrical Girls' Club in Soho.

She worked and toured steadily with various theater troupes, but it was her multiple relationships with powerful men such as Captain Philip Astley, who was a member of the Household Cavalry, and the wall street banker Bert Taylor that really cemented Gertrude’s position in British high society. In 1923, she performed the lead role in the musical London Calling! and became an overnight sensation in her own right. Throughout the years, Gertrude would also perform in other iconic musicals such as Oh, Kay!, Treasure Girl, Private Lives, and of course, The King & I for which she won a Tony Award in 1951.

Gertrude performs a scene from The King & I with her co-star and lover Yul Brynner, 1951 (x). 

In her day, Gertrude was known as one of theater’s most voracious “man eaters.” She was married twice – first to a director named Francis Gordon-Howley in 1917, with whom she had her only child, and then later to a theater owner named Richard Aldrich. However, one of Gertrude’s lesser-known affairs was with the famous playwright and novelist Daphne du Maurier. The two first met in 1948 when Gertrude played the lead in one of Daphne’s plays titled September Tide, and both Gertrude’s second husband and official biographer agree that the two had an instant and unmatched connection. Daphne’s nicknames for Gertrude included “dear Gert” – which she used in their letters to each other – and “Cinder” in reference to the rags-to-riches story of Cinderella. The relationship was maintained through frequent letters and infrequent visits from 1948 to Gertrude’s death; reportedly, it was Daphne’s location in London that caused Gertrude to always return home from her excursion trips to New York, and in her later years, Daphne joked with friends about Gertrude’s sexual prowess.

Daphne (left) and Gertrude (right) are photographed on a public outing together. Although to the public the two were simply good friends, their romantic relationship was later shown in the 2007 film Daphne (x). 

As she grew older, Gertrude began a career in film and television. Her most famous roles included Amanda in the movie adaptation of The Glass Menagerie and a televised production of the play The Great Catherine. She eventually took a teaching position at Columbia University where she taught courses such as “The Study of Roles and Scenes.” On 16 August 1952, she fainted backstage during a production of The King & I and it was discovered that she had liver cancer. Gertrude passed away on September 6, 1952 at the age of 54. Over 6,000 people crowed the streets of New York City for her funeral and today she is remembered as one of the greatest theater legends to ever live.  

-LC

[peckhampeculiar]

Reflecting on his success

Former Nunhead resident Charlie Stemp has been nominated for an Olivier award for his role in hit musical Half a Sixpence. He tells us why he’s loving every minute of his newfound stardom

Words: Emma Finamore; Photo: Luke Wolagiewicz

“Probably my first memory is being on the New Kent Road. I always knew coming into London that when I was near the New Kent Road, I was near home. It was those traffic lights.”

Charlie Stemp is talking in a building only about half an hour’s drive from those lights (or a 20 minute journey, if you take the Bakerloo line) but metaphorically speaking it’s a world away: the West End’s Noël Coward Theatre, where he’s currently starring in hit musical Half a Sixpence.

Born in Camberwell and living on St Mary’s Road in Nunhead as a child, before moving to Elephant and Castle and settling in Blackheath, Charlie is a true south-east Londoner.

The 22-year-old has been nominated for a prestigious Laurence Olivier Award for his role in Half a Sixpence – in the Best Actor in a Musical category – with the winner to be announced on April 9. It’s an incredible feat for anybody, let alone someone who says he hated dancing and drama when he first tried it at school.

Charlie went to a large secondary school with about 4,000 kids, but says it didn’t work for him – “I was just lost, it was a bit too much for me” – so he moved to a small theatre academy with about 60 pupils or so, above an Argos in Eltham.

“I was able to have much more of a personality,” he says. “But I was forced to do musical theatre – it was compulsory. I hated it at first, the jock straps and tights and ballet… I think I was told by society that dancing’s not for boys. Then I got over myself, once I realised it was OK to enjoy these things.”

Charlie can pinpoint the moment everything changed. He was in a dance class one day when a teacher came in and pulled the dance instructor to one side, pointing at him: “I thought, ‘Oh God, I’m in trouble’, like maybe I’d forgotten to put on the jock strap or something.”

He wasn’t – in fact he’d got an audition for Billy Elliot. He was cut in the first round for being too tall, but it was the beginning of his career. Charlie gave up rugby and judo – he was in the Team GB squad and fought for Kent – for tap class and dancing. “I never looked back really,” he says.

After GCSEs he headed to Laine’s theatre school in Epsom – “I loved it” – and landed a role in a pantomime at the Orchard Theatre in Dartford aged 18. Funnily enough, the first place he was paid to be on stage was the same theatre he used to watch shows every Christmas as a child (his nan lives nearby).

A year later, he landed a spot in Wicked in Victoria, and after that went touring the world with Mamma Mia!, surfing in Tel Aviv – “It was so hot, like melt your sandals to the floor hot” – exploring the Christmas markets of Luxembourg, seeing Portugal and France and making friends with pub landlords in Dublin. “It was just brilliant, I think I slept at one pub twice – they put me under the bar,” he laughs.

His Olivier nomination is propped up on the table behind us, but of all Charlie’s experiences so far he says the most exciting has been receiving a call from one of his heroes, Ian McKellen, on the phone just beside where we’re sitting. “I remember shouting down the phone to him, ‘Shut up, you’re not Ian McKellen?! No you’re not?!’” he says. “He was really lovely.”  

Press night for Half A Sixpence comes a close second, as Charlie (and his mum) got to meet Barbara Windsor. “I’m a big fan, I love the Carry On films,” he says. “She said she thought I was amazing, and that was so lovely. I said, ‘Miss Windsor, thank you so much,’ and she said, ‘Call me Babs.’ I said, ‘Yeah I will, forever!’”

Despite clearly being over the moon about the Olivier nomination accolade, Charlie is keeping it in perspective. “It doesn’t feel like hard work that’s paid off,” he says, “because I’ve just enjoyed every second of it.

“When we started in Chichester [where Half a Sixpence had its first run] everyone loved it, we would get stopped in the streets, in this little conservative town. But then to bring it to London, and for it to run really well, that’s as much an achievement as the nomination, I think.”

He talks about the particular challenges of moving a production from a smaller town to the West End. “People expect more here, when you bring something to town. There’s an expectation that it’s going to be good. People – at first – are distant and reserved, and that’s not a negative, you just have to rise to the occasion.”

It’s something Charlie (and clearly, the theatre critics) believes the Half a Sixpence team has successfully pulled off, despite going up against and being compared to musical giants like Les Misérables, Wicked and The Phantom of the Opera.

“I believe our show is as good if not better, because we bring something to the West End that nobody else has: old fashioned British charm,” he says enthusiastically.

Despite being updated, the musical is firmly rooted in modern British history. Based on HG Wells’ 1905 novel Kipps, it centres around a humble draper’s assistant called Arthur Kipps (played by Charlie) who comes into money after a surprise inheritance.

As his new-found wealth propels him into high society, he must choose between Ann Pornick, the childhood sweetheart he left behind, and the beautiful and classy Helen Walsingham.  

It was originally written as a vehicle for another famous south-east Londoner – entertainer Tommy Steele – in London in 1963, before hitting Broadway in 1965 and the silver screen in 1967 as a film adaptation.

“All the shows in the West End at the moment are just Broadway copies, shows that have done so well on Broadway that they just bring them over here and they do so well over here that they just keep churning out shows,” Charlie says.

“There’s always an audience for them, because everyone knows The Lion King, everyone knows The Book of Mormon. And that’s wonderful, don’t get me wrong – I’ve been in those casts and done those things and it’s so much fun.

“But to do something that you have created, and that you have been part of from the beginning is incredible. You feel so much more pride in it, because you’re an active cog in the machine instead of just doing exactly what the person 10 cast members ago did. It’s great.”

And the reviews seem to agree with him. His dad jokingly used to email Charlie all the bad reviews from the early Chichester days, and the good ones that had got his name wrong (“Charlie Stump” sticks out as a favourite) but he needn’t have worried – before long the rave reviews were rolling in, from both London and national papers.

The Telegraph called Charlie “one of those fairytale finds that’s the stuff of legend”, and said “in his elastic, fantastic company – and that of the terrific, 24-strong ensemble too – two hours whiz-bang-hurtle by”.

“For older generations it’s a classic that they can relate to, it’s part of their childhoods, and for younger people it’s just a bloody good show,” says Charlie. “The cast is incredible – two of my peers have already been nominated for Oliviers, both about four times each – and it’s such an ensemble show, so that’s great.”

The show features music from the late David Heneker – an award-winning writer and composer of British musicals – updated by Anthony Drewe and George Stiles, with songs about rain, garden parties and dreaming about pay rises in the pub.

Combined with a new story by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, it’s no wonder, really, that the show has been a hit in London. “We kind of have an ‘A team’ creatively,” says Charlie. “It’s the only show around with that Britishness, and we’ve brought it up to the 21st century.”  

But it’s not just the production that’s proved a hit, of course – it’s Charlie himself. “I enjoy it, I really do, and so does everyone else,” he says, refusing to be drawn into talking about his own individual talents and treating the whole thing as a team effort.

“I think that’s what people like when they come to see us –we’re having so much fun, so they start to have fun – it’s our infectious happiness.”

And happiness is clearly the most important thing for him right now, in life as well as in his career. When asked what is next on the cards, Charlie says: “Honestly my motto is ‘just be happy’. I keep bugging my manager to be Bert in Mary Poppins, but I don’t mind what I do, as long as I’m happy.

“In this industry it’s so easy to forget that we only do it because we love it. We don’t do it for the money or the fame – we do it because we enjoy it. When money and fame happen it’s a bonus, but you do it because you love it. And I want to stay that way.” Despite all the “whiz-bang”, there’s a wise head on those young shoulders.

....................................

Half a Sixpence is playing at the Noël Coward Theatre on St Martin’s Lane and tickets are currently on sale up to and including September 2. To book call 0844 482 5140 or go to halfasixpence.co.uk

[sustainhealthmagazine]

Former Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer Lauren Jamieson has announced she will be returning to THE CAMPUS

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Former Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer Lauren Jamieson has announced she will be returning to THE CAMPUS, Europe’s newest five-star multi-sport and wellness hub at Quinta do Lago in Portugal, this week to host another series of fun and engaging dance camps. Lauren will host the camps for juniors aged 8 - 16 years of age, over the summer holiday period from 9th - 12th July and 15th - 19th July.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Lauren is preparing to return after her dance classes at Easter proved to be a huge success, with youngsters relishing the chance to learn from a professional dancer who has worked with the likes of Dua Lipa and appeared on television shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and the Brit Awards. Children attending Dance Camp will learn a variety of dance styles, routines and tricks, and use their creativity to develop their own dances. The camp will conclude with a final dance show for family and friends.

Lauren says:

"I loved every second of my time at The Campus and can't wait to return to and work with more enthusiastic kids in July this summer. The ethos of the class is to have fun and develop their dance skills and the smiles on all the faces confirmed we found the perfect balance last time.”

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Sean Moriarty, Chief Executive of Quinta do Lago, says the dance camps are a great addition to The Campus as Europe's premier multi-sport and wellness destination for family sports and activity holidays.

Sean says:

"Lauren is a great addition to our impressive list of high-profile ambassadors at The Campus who partner with us to create incredible experiences for young people. We look forward to having Lauren back in the dance studio after the successful camps at Easter."

Lauren Jamieson joins a line-up of high-profile stellar sports stars partnering with The Campus to offer a world class level of sports coaching and mentoring. Also set to return is former England and Manchester United football legend Rio Ferdinand.

LAUREN JAMIESON DANCE CAMPS

Lauren Jamieson camp from:

-      9th to 12th July & 15th to 19th July from 10:00 to 12:00.

Dinah Josephs camp from:

-      22nd to 26th July & 26th to 30th August from 14:00 to 16:00.

-      225€ per children.

-      For children aged 8 to 16. 

CHILDREN TAKING PART IN DANCE CAMP WILL

-      Learn a variety of dance styles, routines & tricks

-      Create dances on their own

-      Work together to create a final show

-      Perform to friends and family

-      Get a free T-shirt size

TO BOOK

-      Call us now on +351 289 381 220 to book

-      email us the-campus@quintadolago.com

-      More info at - www.quintadolago.com/en/the-campus/summer-camps/

Follow The Campus on their Socials

-      Twitter  - https://twitter.com/TheCampusQDL

-      Instagram   - www.instagram.com/thecampusqdl/

-      Facebook -  www.facebook.com/TheCampusQDL; 

-      YouTube - www.youtube.com/user/TheQuintadolagogolf/videos

ABOUT LAUREN JAMIESON

Lauren began dancing at the age of 15 at a local dance school that purely focused on street dance. She quickly began competing and at the age of 17, won UDO World Street Dance Championships.  After spending some time studying in Glasgow, Lauren moved to London on acceptance to The Urdang Academy where she trained for four years.

In her 4th year of training, she was very fortunate to experience the dance industry as well as continue her training. She danced on the opening of Strictly Come Dancing and was cast in the pantomime, Peter Pan as Tiger Lily and a dancer alongside a celebrity line up. 

Just before graduating in 2016, Lauren secured herself a once in a lifetime contract with Celebrity Cruises and for 9 months, travelled to 25 different countries as a dancer and aerialist.

Since returning to London in summer 2017, Lauren has danced for pop artists such as Dua Lipa, Mabel, Not3s, Steps and more. She has appeared on The Brit Awards, a Bollywood movie and worked for companies such as British Airways, Adidas, Apple and Wella.

Lauren is still working as a professional dancer, plus she has started her own business, ‘The Wedding Steps Company’, teaching couples their first wedding dance. She is also a qualified yoga instructor.

Lauren is currently in Abu Dhabi working towards the opening and closing ceremony of The Special Olympics. Lauren will be performing with a number of well-known artists in the coming weeks before heading to The Campus for Dance Camp.

Please see links to some of Lauren's recent dance videos on Instagram.

-        www.instagram.com/p/BiPtkGkHQ6X/?hl=en&taken-by=laurenjamiesonx

-        www.instagram.com/p/Bhe05D8nSA4/?hl=en&taken-by=laurenjamiesonx

-        www.instagram.com/p/Bd0rJFLFmUI/?hl=en&taken-by=laurenjamiesonx

ABOUT THE CAMPUS 

Built in the summer 2017, The Campus provides training, coaching and wellbeing programme to Quinta do Lago residents and guests alike. The sports and wellbeing resort and high performance training center catering for adults and juniors as well as elite professional athletes and teams. The Campus welcomes everyone - from future Olympic Games competitors through to amateur, grassroots and families enjoying a family sports holiday.

The Campus is located just 15 minutes from Faro airport and the resort offers guests an unparalleled location benefiting from a year-round temperate climate. The resort offers a variety of lifestyle and sporting pursuits, a strong sense of community and offers residents, guests and holiday makers alike the chance to train, exercise and socialise.

What’s on offer:

-      Stadium quality DESSO GrassMaster hybrid pitch

-      Technical area

-      High performance gymnasium

-      Centre for active living and sports medicine

-      Recovery suite including hot/cold plunge pools and sauna and steam rooms

-      Studios for cycle and group exercise

-      Stadium specification locker room

-      Team rooms with high tech analysis capability

-      25m heated indoor swimming pool

-      Four acrylic tennis courts

-      Two synthetic clay tournament specification tennis courts

-      Four padel courts with shock pad features

-      The Bike Shed – a hub for cycling

-      Dano's Sports Bar & Restaurant

ABOUT THE MAGNOLIA HOTEL

Guests can stay at The Magnolia Hotel, situated on the doorstep of The Campus and Quinta do Lago resort. It has a range of accommodation including 74 boutique rooms, three suites and seven cottages.   The rooms have been recently been fully refurbished and the five-star service will help guests unwind and destress at the end of their day.

The Magnolia Hotel offers a beautiful heated outdoor pool and the pool area is at the heart of the hotel. Guests can also visit the spa and holistic rooms and reconnect with mind and body.

For guests that are feeling energetic and in need of a good stretch then there is a fully equipped gym with premium quality equipment. The experienced personal trainers are available to help guests work out. There’s a shuttle bus service to The Campus for all guests too.

ABOUT QUINTA DO LAGO 

Synonymous with elegance and privacy, Quinta do Lago is an exclusive golf and residential estate of nearly 2,000 acres bordering the Atlantic Ocean and nestled within the privacy and security of the Ria Formosa nature reserve.  

Quinta do Lago is one of the most desired resorts in Europe and allows you to live an active outdoor lifestyle all year round, offering real estate plots between deserted dunes, sheltered pines, breath-taking beaches surrounded by three award-winning golf courses.

Since its inception, Quinta do Lago has been at the forefront of European golf with three award-winning championship courses matched by outstanding practice facilities including

Europe’s only Paul McGinley Golf Academy and the only Taylor Made Performance Centre in Southern Europe. 

Among its recent accolades, the resort was voted ‘Europe’s Best Golf Venue’ at the 2015 and 2016 World Golf Awards. Quinta do Lago has enjoyed the honour of hosting eight Portuguese Opens as well as numerous other international golf tournaments and its world-class golf facilities are some of the best anywhere in the world.

Away from the fairways, Quinta do Lago now adds to its portfolio extensive state-of-the art leisure and racquets facilities guaranteed to keep families occupied with regular tennis and padel tennis events,  cycling tours of the West Coast, family bike trips, a wide range of water, beach and lake sports as well as cultural and nature trips. 

The resort’s stunning location by the beach offers the perfect place to relax and unwind while its wide array of restaurants, both formal and informal, take advantage of the fresh Mediterranean produce that the resort has become famous for. 

Sports, fitness and wellbeing activities

-      Padel - www.thecampusqdl.com/en/padel/

-      Cycling  - www.thecampusqdl.com/en/cycle/

-      Tennis - www.thecampusqdl.com/en/tennis/

-      Fitness - www.thecampusqdl.com/en/fitness/

-      Wellness - www.thecampusqdl.com/en/wellness/

-      Dano's restaurant  - www.quintadolago.com/en/restaurants/danos/

-      The Magnolia Hotel - http://themagnoliahotelqdl.com 

-      Quinta do Lago villas – www.quintadolago.com/en/rentals/properties-to-rent/

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

READ NEXT

[danieljonesfilmmakercritic]

‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ (2018) Film Review ★★★★★

Awards season 2018 has been so far dominated by the latest British (yes, British!) film, ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’. The latest film in Martin McDonagh’s impressive collection, ‘Three Billboards’, has proven itself to be a hard hitter, both as a film and more importantly, a revolution statement.

Mcdonagh’s other films to date, proved that his comedic timing and sharp wit, were something to be admired but never matched.

The power of three however seems to be McDonagh’s greatest strength. The fantastic, ‘In Bruges’ (2008), showcased three excellent leads in the form of Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes. The massively understated, ‘Seven Psychopaths’ (2012), Colin Farrell, a superb Sam Rockwell and the underdog Christopher Walken (who acted his best performance in years).

Which leads us firmly onto ‘Three Billboards’. The huge talking point of the film to date has been the stellar cast that McDonagh has moulded together beautifully. Using past alumni from his previous films, McDonagh not only plays to their strengths but presents to the world a host of new and powerful traits we have yet to see from these illustrious actors.

Firstly, I have to start with the dynamite performance of Sam Rockwell. His career to date has been a mixed bag of performances. Not mixed as in good or bad, but mixed as in he has yet to do a film that genuinely disappoints me. Even in some diabolical films (See ‘Charlie’s Angels’) his performance was unmatched. McDonagh however, seems to have cracked a hidden Rockwell code. Undoubtedly in ‘Seven Psychopaths’ (2012) his performance was the funniest and most noteworthy, but within ‘Three Billboards’ (2018), he has upped his game to the next level. Playing a self centred, far right, homophobic, racist, police officer, it would have been easy to ham up the performance to pantomime villain standards. Thankfully he doesn’t. With an Academy Award nomination already in the bag (and the favourite to win on the night) , Rockwell adds layer upon layer to this otherwise two dimensional character. You hate him, then love him, you laugh at him, then cry with him, the emotional rollercoaster that Rockwell endures as Officer Dixon, throughout a story that doesn’t focus on him primarily is outstanding. Without revealing any spoilers, an impressive direction ‘One Shot Sequence’ decision, really showcases Rockwell’s ability to shock and heartlessly dominate the screen before him. A performance which will resonate through the rest of his career, and hopefully McDonagh can bring out more from Rockwell in his future films to come.

Secondly, the always lovable Woody Harrelson shows audiences a completely different side than that of his previous roles. It could be argued that since the surprise hit of ‘Zombieland’ (2009) , Harrelson has appeared to keep his acting decisions rather safe. Sticking with franchises (‘The Hunger Games’ and the upcoming ‘Solo’) and bit part roles (‘2012 and ‘Friends with Benefits’,  to name a couple). With ‘Three Billboards’ (2018) however, Harrelson pours his soul into a role he clearly feels passionate about. McDonagh’s previous film of ‘Seven Psychopaths’ (2012), was a great attempt at Harrelson to sink his teeth into a role that was completely different and non-surprisingly with the talent Harrelson holds, he made it look easy on screen. Out of all the characters within the film, Harrelson’s is the most grounded. Playing Chief Willoughby, he’s a family man, happily married and well respected within his redneck small town. The role (like Rockwell’s) could have been extremely two dimensional, but the more you learn of Willoughby’s demons and life (no spoilers!) Harrelson absolutely nails the shift in tone, from the strongest man on screen to the weakest. Absolutely flawless, and rather unsurprisingly he has an Academy Award Nomination alongside Rockwell. Will he win, sadly against Rockwell’s performance probably not, but well deserved regardlessly.

Finally, the femme fatale that is Frances Mcdormand. Let’s make this abundantly clear, this is Mcdormand’s film through and through. In recent years, it’s tough to recall a female anti-hero that genuinely splits in an audience in two as much as this performance does (possibly ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’, if we clutch at straws). Simply put, Mcdormand f**king kills it as the powerhouse Mildred Hayes, a mother hellbent on catching her daughter’s killer, in a town blinded by its own political and lazy stances (more on that later). The power that she portrays on screen is simply mesmerising. She’s strong, she’s independent and she doesn’t care who she crosses in the process. The agony that she conceals throughout the entire film, makes you tense and almost nervous for how far her character will go to get the answers she desires. You feel the frustration, you feel the anger and you want the answers as badly as she does. In this day and age finding an actress to pull this off seamlessly is no easy feat, and the fact that McDonagh wrote this part specifically for Mcdormand, only cements how far he knew she could take this role.

Needless to say the awards have come flowing for Mcdormand. After ‘The Shape of Water’ (2018) and Sally Hawkin’s performance, it would have been easy to say that Mcdormand stood no chance, but after viewing ‘Three Billboards’ (2018), you couldn’t be more wrong if you tried.

The only problem however with casting throughout the film itself, was the hit and miss selection of the minor characters. Peter Dinklage only appears for approximately two scenes but is a huge hit and owns the screen with his sad expressions and pining for the destructive Mildred. Caleb Landry however, was a distraction that felt hugely out of his depth, every movement was exaggerated and often just absurd. His movements can only be described as a cross between Mick Jagger and a bad impression of Heath Ledger’s Joker performance. Just bizzare from the off. Finally, Abbie Cornish has to be simply one of the most bizzare casting choices I can ever recall seeing. She had zero chemistry with her on screen husband Woody Harrelson (she looked like his daughter!) , her accent made Dick Van Dyke look like Laurence Olivier in ‘Mary Poppins’ (1964), and basically she just looked out of her depth in amongst these legendary actors and actresses, really disappointing on her behalf.

The plot of this film is simple. A mother who’s grown tired of her local police unit’s negligence, places three billboards calling out the law enforcement for their lack of answers regarding her teenage daughter’s brutal rape and murder. Thus entails a battle of class and justice, resulting in some interesting and rather disastrous scenarios for the disgruntled mother, as she faces that powers that be.

Simple yet massively effective and politically thought provoking. You can’t help but feel the entire frustration from the lead protagonists, and that they are nothing more than physical interpretations of the American people as a whole, fighting a power that’s way out of their reach. None so more than the NRA and student debate currently dominating the American media, with Mcdormand even praising copycats in America for standing up for what they believe in, just like her character did.

To summarise, this review may seem disjointed and often mixed, but that’s the point of the movie. You have so much to decipher and contemplate, that you feel almost tired upon viewing it. But that’s the point of a great movie. It makes you talk and debate and apply this to the real world around us. A truly remarkable and surprising film of high caliber. Gloriously funny and hauntingly beautiful. An almost guaranteed Best Film Oscar Winner.

My Verdict -  ★★★★★

Stunning performances from the front three as they remind us all of what cinema is truly about. Causing debates and making us think. Winner of the Best Film Oscar? I can see it.

The Girlfriend Verdict -  ★★★★

Impactful performances and subject matter.

[yorkcalling]

Pantomime Favourites Return To York Theatre Royal For All New Adventures Of Peter Pan

Pantomime Favourites Return To York Theatre Royal For All New Adventures Of Peter Pan

Two of the most popular and applauded stars of last year’s Cinderella are returning to York Theatre Royal for this year’s pantomime All New Adventures of Peter Pan. Robin Simpson and Paul Hawkyard won much praise as the Ugly Sisters double act and were nominated as Best Uglies in the Great British Pantomime Awards. This time Robin will play Mrs Smee while Paul is the villainous Captain…

[esprit-de-corps-magazine]

FINDING A SAFE HAVEN: The Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Program Offers Many Life Skills, Including Confidence

(Volume 24-02)

By Deborah Morrow - The Navy League Of Canada

CPO1 Caitlin Jarvis started out early in life as a child in foster care and has since become one of the nation’s most remarkable Royal Canadian Sea Cadets.

The journey began when Jarvis was apprehended from her childhood home for neglect. As if in some kind of pantomime of social injustice, every foster home that was called would not accept her. Finally, after finding an emergency home for the weekend, little Caitlin Marie Jarvis arrived there in the arms of a police constable, her only possession a small stuffed toy. Little did she know that she would soon find herself in a permanent and loving family, ultimately to become a part of the Royal Canadian Sea Cadet community.

Meeting Miss Jarvis, one can quickly see why her foster parents fell in love with her those years ago and eventually adopted her. They took this fragile child as a gift and developed her into a young Canadian with endless possibilities. “We believed in her right from the start,” said her mother, Jill-Marie Jarvis. “We’re the lucky ones.” Jarvis came to the family for a weekend when no one else wanted her and became a daughter and sister.

Now 18 years old, Jarvis is trading in her flat top for a stethoscope as she embarks on a career in nursing at UBC Okanagan. Armed with a Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Educational Foundation scholarship, her dream of becoming a nurse has become reality. “I owe this to my parents and to the Sea Cadet Program,” she says.

Jarvis plans on becoming a nurse in the Royal Canadian Navy. “That’s my goal,” she says, “a nursing career in the RCN.” She is applying to the Regular Officer Training Plan (ROTP) this year and hopes to be accepted by her second year of UBC Nursing School.

Jarvis’s road to success was fraught with barriers. The stigma of being a foster child held challenges for her in her daily life. School was a nightmare for Jarvis who always felt like an interloper; fitting in to her school environment where she endured severe and prolonged bullying was difficult. “The kids were mean because I was different.”

Always feeling like an outsider, Jarvis finally felt like she fit in when she started the Royal Canadian Sea Cadet programme and found her sanctuary.

“I was nervous at first but was really wanting to try it. On my first day I walked in wearing Uggs and a sweatshirt. The coxswain told me I looked great and then she placed me in formation, put her arm around me and said I fit right in and that I was welcome there. She took me under her wing right away and I felt wonderful and like I belonged. She taught me everything and I soaked it all up,” says Jarvis. “That was the day my life changed. I found my safe place. I really had a sense that this was right for me. I never looked back.”

Jarvis describes how she wore her Sea Cadet uniform like a mantle of belonging, a cloak of protection. She describes how she felt the day she put on her uniform for the first time: “It gave me immediate strength. Every time I wear it, I have confidence, and to me it is a symbol of fierce pride and of how much I love being a Sea Cadet. I am in charge, not necessarily of others, but of myself. This is a very empowering feeling for me.”

By age 16, Jarvis was British Columbia’s top Sea Cadet with an impressive accrual of accomplishments. She was selected for a tall ship deployment on the British sail-training vessel The Royalist, and travelled to the United Kingdom for the sailing voyage where the Sea Cadets were taught to crew the large brig. That year Jarvis also won the prestigious Canadian Vimy prize for an essay she wrote about the Canadians who fought alongside the French in the battle to take Vimy Ridge in 1917. The prize included a trip to France to experience the memorial site at Vimy. “Standing there on Vimy soil in France was the moment I knew I wanted to join the Canadian Armed Forces,” she says.

Jarvis says that, by far, her favourite Sea Cadet activity was the SAR Tech Youth Boot Camp. In 2016 Jarvis was one of three top British Columbia Sea Cadets to be selected for a youth Search and Rescue Technician pilot program with the Canadian Coast Guard, where she excelled.

Jarvis describes how she has taken advantage of every opportunity the Sea Cadet program has to offer adding, “Where else could I have learned these skills: scuba diving, radio operation, sailing, marksmanship, leadership, drill? I’ve been to Europe twice and have my Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.”

Even more importantly, Sea Cadets gave Jarvis a life no one else could have provided. “I was accepted for who I am and supported,” she says. “ I even felt support from the people I met in the Royal Canadian Navy.”

Jarvis remembers the words of Rear-Admiral Gilles Couturier, who frequented Sea Cadet events during his tenure on the West Coast: “Admiral Couturier told us that we can become anything we want because of the Sea Cadet Program; that we could even become admirals. Those words touched me at my core — I will always remember them.”

Jarvis learned how to pick herself up under difficult circumstances and to learn from every opportunity. “Sea Cadets gave me the strength to do that,” she says. “I have lifelong friends. I’m alive because of it. Every shred of confidence I have is because of cadets.”

[anglocubano-blog]

Sunday Afternoon Comedy in Havana

One of the things you can do on a Sunday afternoon in Havana is go to a comedy matinee at one of the theatres. We went to Teatro Mela on La Linea in Vedado. The place was packed but it was refreshingly cool and the massive converted cinema had elegant sweeps of what I assume must be simulated white marble. We bought not quite the last tickets and made our way up to the back of the circle. This had a great view of the stage in the distance. That was until the young family that had bought the last tickets sat in front of us. I had once been advised to avoid going into a Belfast comedy club that I passed with small group of fellow visitors and our host. He suggested that even if we could understand the language of the Belfast comedians, the local references and in jokes would be lost on us. So we did not go in probably because my host wanted to take us to his favourite pub instead where you do not have to pay for someone to be your amusing and insightful friend. If I was not able to cope with a Belfast accent, why should I be able to cope with in jokes about Cuban life spoken in rapid Spanish with additional Habanero slang? Had I made a bad choice in coming to this show rather than something more geared to foreign visitors? The question was irrelevant as I was now there and had to go along with the experience. I persuaded myself that it cannot be more incomprehensible than Shakespeare at its most abstruse and I have sat through and ‘enjoyed’ a few of those. The family in front also had young children with them so the show must have something in it for them to enjoy. Perhaps, there would be some visual bits or a familiar songs perhaps that would also be at my level? On the stage, there were two guitar stands and a drum kit alongside some microphone stands so maybe that was a good sign. Very quickly the show began and a well-known TV comedian Kike came on stage. His familiarity won over the audience very quickly as he delivered a topical set of jokes. He was joined by the more famous comedy band ‘Pagola la Paga’- the payment who do parodies of well-known songs as well as comedy. It would not be right to steal their act and give a verbatim account of the jokes like some reviews of comedy acts. More accurately, my Spanish was not up to reporting the actual jokes. Perhaps you had to be there or, more importantly, you had to be a Habanero. In this theatre on this Sunday evening there were jokes about the new US ruling on Immigration that now will stop the preferential awarding of US citizenship to those who reach US soil. This was repeated as a version of the pop song ‘Maria en la playa’ (Maria on the beach).There were jokes about people from Pinar del Rio. If you want to know what these were just remember any ‘Irish jokes’. There were jokes about the way that Havana Police who come from Guantanamo speak with a southern drawl. Another joke was concerned with the influx of Chinese technological goods into Cuba and Kike informed the audience that China was now assembling neighbourhood gossips, who can tell you everything about what your neighbours are up to, to send them to Cuba. This version could do this without you having to go to the back yard fence to find him or her. Maybe, that could be a localisation feature of Amazon’s ‘Alexia’ which actually exists but has not found its way to Cuba as yet as so few people have home access to the internet. The backyard gossip in English comedy was immortalised by Les Dawson and Roy Barraclough who, in turn, were copying a Northern Music hall comic of the thirties. Returning to the subject of web access, the band adapted the famous love song by Polo Montanez about a delicate and pale flower to sing about how precarious WIFI (pronounced ‘WeeFee’) internet connections can be in public places. (The big influx of public WIFI spots is noticeable and people e now adept at spotting the transmitter and finding a place with the best reception even if this means standing on a road traffic island. Later in the show Kike appears on stage as a fashion conscious young black woman and mimics various mannerisms that the audience instantly recognise including an exaggerated shrug of the shoulders and a slow loping gait. This could be a typical ‘mullata' (black girl stereotype but the Kike’s character is also confident, funny and can get her way. Wait, I think that is part of the ‘sassy girl’ stereotype as well. Another sketch mimicked a traditional Cucalambeana which is usually a verbal competition between two singers backed by country music. In this case it is a between advocates for being gay compared with being heterosexual. It tries to be affirmative and affectionate as far as I can tell, but it uses stereotyped mannerisms that would have been the staple of seventies British comedy and some gestures that would not have seen a flicker on a British screen but might have been included in performances in “working men’s clubs’ of the time. How did the young family in front of us cope with all of this? Well this was intended as a treat for the family but the limited number of tickets meant that one of the family had to sit on a parental knee which after a while became uncomfortable for parent and child. At the same time, the talk on stage just went over their heads and I sympathised. After requesting and being taken to the toilets, they found that this was more interesting than what was happening on stage so they repeatedly asked to be taken. This required some adjustment of seating arrangements so children and parents kept popping up and down out of the darkness providing my companions and I our own version of a shadow theatre. Eventually, the parents decided the central strategy to keep the children occupied was with some snacks so the elder daughter went to off with the father for copious supplies so that the parents could watch the show in peace. I always found a resource of chewy sweets was a good strategy with younger children at British pantomimes which can often fail to grab the family audience. You can make what you want of all of this. I am only telling you what I think I saw and heard. It reminded me of comedy show groups of the seventies in the UK. A bit like the Barron Knights perhaps or, perhaps, the now highly popular Mrs Brown who I have heard about but have failed to see, so what do I know? Maybe I am just being a snob about popular culture? @Mike_Blamires

[viralhottopics]

Piers Morgan: Im just putting opinions out there. Its my job

This week Morgan has taken on the Womens March, argued with Ewan McGregor, and boasted about being Donald Trumps best British friend. Why does he do it? Does he even believe what he says?

Piers Morgan last cried when his grandmother died, a little more than three years ago. Before that, he cant remember. Im not a crier, really. He sees himself more as a pantomime villain, and I thoroughly enjoy playing up to it. I cant even imagine the pressure of being some kind of national treasure. So for me, the panto villain part, I actually enjoy that whole thing.

Even by his own notorious standards, Morgan has had a fractious week. His Daily Mail column on Monday, which criticised last weekends womens marches, provoked Ewan McGregor to cancel an appearance on Good Morning Britain in protest. Morgan retaliated with another column calling the actor a paedophile-loving hypocrite. Feminists were furious with him all over again when he defended the right of employers to compel female staff to wear high heels.

Then, as Theresa May prepared to meet Donald Trump, he taunted Downing Street by firing off a public memo in the Mail, advising the PM or, to put it another way, showing off about how to approach his friend, the president. If its all going horribly wrong, dont hesitate to mention my name or even give me a call directly from the Oval Office and I will smooth things over. Its the very least I can do for my country. A memorable highlight came with his mute appearance at the National Television awards. He stood beside his Good Morning Britain co-presenter Susanna Reid, who had gagged him with his own tie.

It was Susannas idea, he says. We were in the car on the way, and she said, I think I know exactly how to get a joyous reaction from the nation. And it was indeed one of the great moments in British television, and the nation rejoiced.

The only detail of the weeks dramas that appears to have troubled Morgan was the discovery that working with him makes Reid cry.

I was surprised, he says, suddenly quieter. Because shes never cried at work, never seen her like that at all. So it was an interesting thing for me to discover this week that my co-host quite often goes home from work and cries. Its probably not always unconnected to me. How does he feel about that? A bit uneasy, actually. Quieter still. Yeah. A bit uneasy.

Ive known Morgan a little ever since he was the loud, precociously young editor of the Daily Mirror in the 1990s, and have always enjoyed his company tremendously. But our paths havent crossed since Trumps bid for the presidency propelled the journalist into his surprise new role as the leader of the free worlds best friend in Britain. The pair have been on close terms since 2008, when Morgan won the first series of Celebrity Apprentice, and Morgan now performs the role of Trumps tirelessly loyal defender while constantly claiming to be not a political sympathiser but just a personal friend.

When I watched Morgan reduce a young female guest to tears on Good Morning Britain two weeks ago, berating her as the worst kind of mother, I wondered whether I would still enjoy his company. The tone felt uncomfortably ugly, more in keeping with an altright online troll than the mischief-maker who used to conduct playful feuds with clowns like Jeremy Clarkson. This weeks events could be read by critics as further evidence to support the unhappy impression that cheerleading for Trump has soured Morgan, and turned him into a rightwing, misogynistic bully.

If one is looking for further evidence to confirm that impression, Morgan doesnt disappoint. The 51-year-old bounces into his local pub, just off Kensington High Street, and opens with his reaction to Trumps comments about waterboarding and torture he is exercised by the BBCs misreporting of what Trump said. There is, as you know, a massive debate in America about waterboarding. I dont personally subscribe to torture. But its an arguable point as to whether waterboarding constitutes torture which is startlingly tepid for a man who once campaigned against the abuse of Iraqi detainees by coalition forces.

Morgan has been friends with Trump since he won Celebrity Apprentice in 2008. Photograph: Photowire/BEI/Shutterstock

He refers to a swarm of migration through Europe, and defends Trumps comment about wanting women to be punished for having illegal abortions. It would be a pretty logical thing for somebody who believes abortions a crime.

Critics who suspect Morgan will say anything to generate attention might equally seize upon his admission that this weeks controversies are completely connected to the fact that he has a new series of Piers Morgans Life Stories on ITV next week. He is strategising to maximise publicity all the time, he says freely. Of course! Everyone on TV is. Im just better at it than most of them.

Whether or not Morgan would welcome this, the truth is that I nevertheless find him much more nuanced and less cocksure than his public persona or Twitter feed might suggest. The reliably consistent theme in all of his feuds is intolerance of hypocrisy.

So his objection to the womens marches, he explains, is simply this. How does it help the cause for any woman on that march fighting for genuine issues, for equality and everything else, for one of the lead speakers Madonna to talk openly about having had dreams of blowing up the White House? Im not sure why Morgan would take Madonna seriously, when she herself has said she was speaking metaphorically, and he was willing to take Trump at his word last year (he denied he had meant to incite Hillary Clintons assassination during a rally speech). Because if you make a threat like that at an airport, youd be arrested and put in jail. Why should it be a different rule for Madonna? I point out that she wasnt at an airport, but another speakers incest joke about Trumps daughter struck Morgan as similarly offensive.

Ivanka Trump is a mother of three, very hardworking. I know her very well and I felt really incensed on her behalf when the sisterhood decided to be incredibly offensive about her whilst at a rally designed to counter the anti-women rhetoric of the President Donald Trump. Theres a hypocrisy there which I just found ridiculous. If your main issue with Trump is the way that he talks to people, and the language and the belligerence and the bombast and the wording, then I dont think you should be doing the same thing to him.

What drives Morgan quite mad is hypocritical virtue signalling masquerading as political engagement. Ewan McGregor was basically trying to position me as a great woman-hater. So, I decided to just take a look at his own record in this area, and load of interviews he gave about his great friend Roman Polanski, what a fine man he was, how sorry he was that he had to go to prison, blah, blah, blah and Im like, Really? I wonder how the sisterhood who currently have you down as the No 1 hero for womens rights in the world would feel knowing that Roman Polanski admitted his crime, then left the country to avoid justice when he was facing a long prison sentence for raping, drugging and sodomising a 13-year-old girl?

Why does McGregors affection for Polanksi discredit his feminist credentials, but not Morgans for Trump? Trump hasnt been convicted of raping anyone. Look, my position has been consistently, from day one,that I wouldnt vote for him. But I do know him very well, and I would just like to slightly offer a more tempered view of the man that is being described everywhere as the new Hitler and the monster. I just think now hes there, its like Brexit; I voted remain, but Ive always been a glass-half-full person, and Im prepared to have an open dialogue with people like Nigel Farage about how we now maximise the opportunity of Brexit. The same with Trump. I find the hysteria just pointless and absurd and self-defeating and ridiculous. Ive got friends of mine literally losing their minds. And Im like, calm down, please calm down. I know this guy.

Coming from Morgan, who personally wrote the paedophile-loving headline for his McGregor column, this will strike some as a bit rich, but he goes on: Its very important in this extremity of debate, the kind of thing that led to Jo Cox getting killed, to be calm. Isnt Morgan himself an arch professional provocateur? But Im just putting opinions out there. Im a columnist, its my job. Isnt anyone else allowed to hold contentious views? Of course! And coming from a highly opinionated family, Im drawn to people who have opinions and are prepared to argue them.

I would have thought Madonna, who Morgan never tires of attacking, would fall into that category. No, because she has an opinion quota based on this pure ability to shock and offend, which I find pointless, quite cliched and increasingly very nauseating.

Morgan never tires of attacking celebrities such as Hugh Grant or Steve Coogan either, for whining about the press. But all the complaints made by those two actors wouldnt amount to a fraction of Trumps grievances with the mainstream media, of which Morgan with two newspaper columns and three TV shows is unquestionably a member.

I dont particularly consider myself to be MSM. Id probably be more a kind of renegade; Im RMSM, renegade mainstream media. I dont think the mainstream media has ever fully made me a paid-up member of their club.. As he breaks off this line of thought to tweet about his latest Daily Mail column, I suggest hes on a sticky wicket here. OK, alright. But I am afraid that the journalists have to stop whining.

It was an interesting thing for me to discover that my co-host quite often goes home from work and cries Morgan with Susanna Reid at the National Television awards. Photograph: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images

As a fanatical champion of a robust free press, surely he thinks Trump should stop whining? Its a good point, he concedes. My honest answer is I think theyve all got to calm down . I think Trump has to have a more respectful relationship with the media and they have to have it with him.

For all Morgans ferocious rhetoric, he is surprisingly willing to concede points. Id found his defence of employers forcing women to wear heels suspiciously unpersuasive, and the more we talk, the more ground he gives. Im only saying it to keep the debate going, he admits at one point and when I remind him he praised Julia Roberts for going barefoot on the red carpet at Cannes last year, in protest at the festivals insistence that women attending screenings wear heels, for a fleeting second he looks sheepish. I thought that was quite cool, yes. In an interview with the Times last year, he in fact offered up Robertss protest as an example of what real feminism looked like, didnt he? OK, I think thats a fair point.

Real feminism, Morgan maintains, is not about being a man-hating victim but a strong woman. My mother is an incredibly strong, independent woman. My sister is. My grandmother was. I was brought up around incredibly strong, independent women. Im married to a strong, independent woman. I absolutely define myself as a feminist and take issue with people who think Im not, because by the yardstick of what I give to feminism, which is genuine pursuit of equality in all things for women, I think I pass that test, I do. I do, I love women. Ive always been surrounded bywomen who would never dream of being pushed around by men.

This, I suggest, might be the problem. Go on, he says, genuinely interested. Because Im actually on a learning curve here. When ones only ever known strong women, it can be easy to feel exasperated with those who have suffered experiences that make Morgans idea of strength a pretty tall order. It becomes dangerously easy to get angry with women who stay with their abusers, say, and mistake their predicament for weakness.

I get that. I get it. Totally. He thinks for a moment. I take your point. When I hear that Susanna went home and cried after the show, I would like to have known why, but she would see it as weak to tell me and I dont want her to feel that. He thinks again. You remember, we were put together on Good Morning Britain like an arranged marriage, and I think weve just got to know each other a lot better, and she sees a the upside of having these debates about sexism on air in real time, with me perhaps going on a little bit of a journey of discovery.

Morgans crusade against hypocrisy is, of course, somewhat undermined by the fact that he admits to being a total hypocrite himself Of course! All journalists are! For anyone looking for a reliable rule to explain his wild enthusiasms and fierce feuds, the secret, he says, is really quite simple. Im a human being. If people are nice to me, Im nice to them. An afterthought crosses his mind, and he laughs. Donald Trumps actually pretty similar.

Read more: http://ift.tt/2k2tFbF

from Piers Morgan: Im just putting opinions out there. Its my job

[aamernaeemuk]

Penny Appeal CEO Receives an OBE for Services to Muslim Communities

“If you don’t know much about Muslims,” opens comedian, Tez Ilyas, “you’ll recognise us from that hit TV show… the News.” His joke points to a more sobering reality as study after study has demonstrated portrayal of Muslims to be at best simplistic and stereotyped, and at worst, grossly inaccurate and violent.

The reality, however, is a world away from the tired typecasts of taxi drivers and terrorists, in fact Muslims are our country’s most diverse religious community. From the 400,000 who fought for Britain in WWI to the tens of thousands of healthcare professionals who serve in our NHS, British Muslims are woven into the fabric of the UK’s past, present and indeed its future.

British Muslims can be found contributing to society on every level and from amongst them has emerged exceptional individuals, who are shaping the industries in which they are working in and redefining what it means to be a Muslim of Britain today. One such person, who encapsulates British Muslims at their best, is charity CEO and Leadership Consultant, Aamer Naeem who has just been awarded an OBE for services to the Muslim community in the Queen's New Year Honours List.

Qualifying with a 1st class honours as a pharmacist and rising up the ranks in a multi-national chain over the years, Aamer found himself in state of shock when the news of the Kosovo crisis captured the world’s attention in 1999. As a young man, witnessing the persecution of a Muslim minority on European soil, he knew that he needed to do something to help and so he traveled to Albania as a volunteer Pharmacist.

Working with the doctors in charge of the largest refugee camp in Tirana, it became clear that the cause of the vast majority of illnesses was poor sanitation. Ever the pragmatist, Aamer went about knocking down the grossly inadequate port-a-loos, and then worked to build a proper sanitation infrastructure for the camp. Within 3 months, the rate of illnesses in the camp had been reduced by 80% and Aamer’s intervention had also created almost a dozen jobs for refugees to work as cleaners and maintainers of the the new facilities. It was then when Aamer had had his first taste of humanitarianism and he’s never looked back since.

With a passion for leadership development and effective governance, Aamer works as a consultant and leadership trainer providing strategic and operational guidance to a broad range of organisations and initiatives spanning the public, private and voluntary sectors. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and has sat as a fitness to practice committee member on behalf of the General Pharmaceutical Council of Great Britain as well as the General Teaching Council for England.

His primary focus, however, is serving as the Global Chief Executive of Penny Appeal, a multi-award winning relief and development agency working in over 30 countries around the world and at home in the UK. In the 5 years that Aamer has been leading Penny Appeal, he has grown their annual income from £400k to in excess of a staggering £24m.

Notably, Aamer introduced a strict policy in Penny Appeal in 2016 that for each programme they do abroad, they have a twin-sister project here in the UK. This was an industry-first and bold move for a Muslim-led charity which historically has focused spending abroad. However, in keeping with the increasingly rooted identity of Muslims to Britain, Penny Appeal has made it their mission to raise the profile of domestic poverty and empower people to help tackle it. In doing so, the charity has also helped address negative portrayals of British Muslims by bringing to the fore positive narratives that seldom make the headlines.

Just like Christianity, Judaism (and most other religious traditions for that matter), Islam emerged from the East and yet within its DNA is the ability to marry with local culture and custom, growing where it’s planted and thus inspiring Islamic civilisation from as far as China to the South of Spain. This process of indigenisation for British Muslims has been met with a number of challenges, and so being conscientious of these, Aamer has diligently worked to identify solutions and create institutional responses that empower communities to feel confidently Muslim, and comfortably British.

Thus, as well as being credited as one of the fastest growing charities in the faith-led sector, Penny Appeal is also considered to be one of the most innovative and dynamic faith-led organisations in the country too, reconciling the timeless values and traditions of Islam with the contemporary challenges of modern day Britain and beyond.

Examples of this process in action include bringing together fostering and adoption experts with classically trained Islamic scholars to address the massive under-representation of Muslim families as potential foster carers and adopters. Preliminary research indicated a de-contextualised understanding of Islamic scriptures was perhaps at the root of this poor uptake and thus Aamer facilitated a series of symposia that brought traditional teachings up to speed with contemporary challenges. The result was the publication of ‘The Penny Appeal Islamic Guide to Adoption and Fostering’ which was endorsed by over 100 Muslim scholars and was launched in the House of Commons. The document is now a cornerstone advisory paper that highlights the communal responsibility for Muslims to adopt and foster and is directly responsible for the narrowing of this under-representation.

Another example is in the type of events Penny Appeal has been able to put on. Championed by Aamer, the charity has toured the country, consecutively for four years with The Super Muslim Comedy Tour. Using the medium of comedy as a form of cultural catharsis, the tour affords Muslims with a safe space to laugh, reflect and raise money for great causes too. A further example, and in what is thought to be a world’s first, Penny Appeal founded and toured The Great Muslim Pantomime, a family favourite which perfectly exemplifies how British Muslims are bringing together the different elements of their identity and living out what it means to be confidently Muslim and comfortably British.

Likewise, Aamer has embedded this philosophy of integration into the charity’s volunteering scheme, its marketing and branding and its work with ambassadors including the renowned singer-songwriter, Yusuf Islam / Cat Stevens.

Under Aamer’s stewardship, Penny Appeal has become more than a charity, it has become a movement, led by British Muslims and serving the most vulnerable and neglected in society, regardless of who they may be. The Times revealed that British Muslims are the country’s most generous group of people, and as the CEO of one of the country’s biggest Muslim charities, Aamer is channeling that generosity in a way that opens minds, starts conversations and creates a radically positive narrative about what it means to be a British Muslim today.

Ultimately, stereotypes are lazy and there is much more to Muslim communities than what they are made out to be in the news. By shining a light on the immense positive contributions British Muslims are making to Britain and beyond, perhaps we can shift the rising tides of Islamophobia and inspire a generation of young change-makers that are able to look up to the likes of Aamer Naeem as a role models and be inspired to do their bit to make the world a better place for all.

It’s an honour to call Aamer Penny Appeal’s CEO; he’s an individual with incredible vision, compassion and wisdom. Exemplifying what it truly means to be confidently Muslim and comfortably British, Aamer really cares about positive representation for British Muslims.

In his words, once we as British Muslims feel comfortable and secure in our own identity, we can spend more time looking outwards and helping others. We couldn’t be prouder – well done, Aamer!

Resource: https://pennyappeal.org/news/penny-appeal-ceo-receives-obe-queens-new-year-honours-list