People : Bloomsbury, Duncan Grant

Duncan James Corrowr Grant (21 January 1885 – 8 May 1978) was a British painter and designer of textiles, pottery and theatre sets and costumes. He was a member of the Bloomsbury Group.

His father was Bartle Grant, a “poverty-stricken” major in the army, and much of his early childhood was spent in India and Burma. He was a grandson of Sir John Peter Grant, 12th Laird of Rothiemurchus, KCB, GCMG, sometime Lt-Governor of Bengal.^‪ Duncan was also the first cousin twice removed of John Grant, 13th Earl of Dysart (b. 1946).

Early life

Grant was born on 21 January 1885 in Rothiemurchus, Aviemore, Scotland. He attended school in England from 1894, where he was educated at Hillbrow School, a preparatory school in Rugby, and St Paul’s School, London. Grant showed little enthusiasm for studying but enjoyed art classes. He was encouraged by his art teacher and also his aunt Lady Strachey, who organised private drawing lessons for him. Eventually, he was allowed to follow his desire to become an artist, rather than join the army as his father wished, and he attended Westminster School of Art in 1902. He then studied art at the Slade School and in Italy and Paris.

He was a cousin, and for some time a lover, of Lytton Strachey. Through the Stracheys, Duncan was introduced to the Bloomsbury Group, where John Maynard Keynes became another of his lovers.

Career in art

Grant is best known for his painting style, which developed in the wake of French post-impressionist exhibitions mounted in London in 1910. He often worked with, and was influenced by, another member of the group, art critic and artist Roger Fry. As well as painting landscapes and portraits, Fry designed textiles and ceramics.

After Fry founded the Omega Workshops in 1913, Grant became co-director with Vanessa Bell, who was then involved with Fry. Although Grant had always been actively homosexual, a relationship with Vanessa blossomed, which was both creative and personal, and he eventually moved in with her and her two sons by her husband Clive Bell. In 1916, in support of his application for recognition as a conscientious objector, Grant joined his new lover, David Garnett, in setting up as fruit farmers in Suffolk. Both their applications were initially unsuccessful, but eventually the Central Tribunal agreed to recognise them on condition of their finding more appropriate premises. Vanessa Bell found the house named Charleston near Firle in Sussex. Relationships with Clive Bell remained amicable, and Bell stayed with them for long periods fairly often – sometimes accompanied by his own mistress, Mary Hutchinson.

In 1935 Grant was selected along with nearly 30 other prominent British artists of the day to provide works of art for the RMS Queen Mary then being built in Scotland. Grant was commissioned to provide paintings and fabrics for the first class Main Lounge. In early 1936, after his work was installed in the Lounge, directors from the Cunard Line made a walk-through inspection of the ship. When they saw what Grant had created, they immediately rejected his works and ordered it removed.

Grant is quoted in the book The Mary: The Inevitable Ship, by Potter and Frost, as saying:

“I was not only to paint some large murals to go over the fireplaces, but arrange for the carpets, curtains, textiles, all of which were to be chosen or designed by me. After my initial designs had been passed by the committee I worked on the actual designs for four months. I was then told the committee objected to the scale of the figures on the panels. I consented to alter these, and although it entailed considerable changes, I got a written assurance that I should not be asked to make further alterations. I carried on, and from that time my work was seen constantly by the Company’s (Cunard’s) representative.

When it was all ready I sent the panels to the ship to put the finishing touches to them when hanging. A few days later I received a visit from the Company’s man, who told me that the Chairman had, on his own authority, turned down the panels, refusing to give any reason.

From then on, nothing went right. My carpet designs were rejected and my textiles were not required. The whole thing had taken me about a year….. I never got any reason for the rejection of my work. The company simply said they were not suitable, paid my fee, and that was that.”

Personal life

Duncan’s early affairs were exclusively homosexual. These included his cousin, the writer Lytton Strachey, the future politician Arthur Hobhouse and the economist John Maynard Keynes, who at one time considered Grant the love of his life. Through Strachey, Grant became involved in the Bloomsbury Group, where he made many such great friends including Vanessa Bell. He would eventually live with Vanessa Bell, who though she was a married woman fell deeply in love with him, and one night succeeded in seducing him; Vanessa very much wanted a child by Duncan, and became pregnant in the spring of 1918. Although it is generally assumed that Duncan’s sexual relations with Vanessa ended in the months before Angelica was born (Christmas, 1918), they continued to live together for more than 40 years.

Living with Vanessa was no impediment to Duncan’s relationships with men, either before or after Angelica was born. Angelica grew up believing that Vanessa’s husband Clive Bell was her father; she bore his surname and his behaviour toward her never indicated otherwise. Duncan and Vanessa formed an open relationship, although she herself apparently never took advantage of this after settling down with him and having their child. Duncan, in contrast, had many physical affairs and several serious relationships with other men, most notably David Garnett, who would one day marry Angelica. Duncan’s love and respect for Vanessa, however, kept him with her until her death in 1961.

Angelica wrote: “(Grant) was a homosexual with bisexual leanings”.^‪

Later years

In Grant’s later years, his lover the poet Paul Roche (1916–2007), whom he had known since 1946, took care of him and enabled Grant to maintain his accustomed way of life at Charleston for many years. Roche was made co-heir of Grant’s estate. Grant eventually died in Roche’s home in 1978.

Duncan Grant’s remains are buried beside Vanessa Bell’s in the churchyard of St. Peter’s Church, West Firle, East Sussex.

Royal Botanical Gardens Kew : The Worlds Largest Collection Of Living Plants ….

Kew Gardens is the world’s largest collection of living plants. Founded in 1840 from the exotic garden at Kew Park in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, UK, its living collections include more than 30,000 different kinds of plants, while the herbarium, which is one of the largest in the world, has over seven million preserved plant specimens. The library contains more than 750,000 volumes, and the illustrations collection contains more than 175,000 prints and drawings of plants. It is one of London’s top tourist attractions. In 2003, the gardens were put on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

Kew Gardens, together with the botanic gardens at Wakehurst Place in Sussex, are managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (brand name Kew), an internationally important botanical research and education institution that employs 750 staff, and is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The Kew site, which has been dated as formally starting in 1759, though can be traced back to the exotic garden at Kew Park, formed by Lord Capel John of Tewkesbury, consists of 121 hectares (300 acres) of gardens and botanical glasshouses, four Grade I listed buildings and 36 Grade II listed structures, all set in an internationally significant landscape.

Kew Gardens has its own police force, Kew Constabulary, which has been in operation since 1847.

History

Kew, the area in which Kew Gardens are situated, consists mainly of the gardens themselves and a small surrounding community. Royal residences in the area which would later influence the layout and construction of the gardens began in 1299 when Edward I moved his court to a manor house in neighbouring Richmond (then called Sheen). That manor house was later abandoned; however, Henry V built Sheen Palace in 1501, which, under the name Richmond Palace, became a permanent royal residence for Henry VII. Around the start of the 16th century courtiers attending Richmond Palace settled in Kew and built large houses. Early royal residences at Kew included Mary Tudor’s house, which was in existence by 1522 when a driveway was built to connect it to the palace at Richmond.Around 1600, the land that would become the gardens was known as Kew Field, a large field strip farmed by one of the new private estates.

The exotic garden at Kew Park, formed by Lord Capel John of Tewkesbury, was enlarged and extended by Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales, the widow of Frederick, Prince of Wales. The origins of Kew Gardens can be traced to the merging of the royal estates of Richmond and Kew in 1772. William Chambers built several garden structures, including the lofty Chinese pagoda built in 1761 which still remains. George III enriched the gardens, aided by William Aiton and Sir Joseph Banks. The old Kew Park (by then renamed the White House), was demolished in 1802. The “Dutch House” adjoining was purchased by George III in 1781 as a nursery for the royal children. It is a plain brick structure now known as Kew Palace.

Some early plants came from the walled garden established by William Coys at Stubbers in North Ockendon. The collections grew somewhat haphazardly until the appointment of the first collector, Francis Masson, in 1771. Capability Brown, who became England’s most renowned landscape architect, applied for the position of master gardener at Kew, and was rejected.

In 1840 the gardens were adopted as a national botanical garden, in large part due to the efforts of the Royal Horticultural Society and its president William Cavendish. Under Kew’s director, William Hooker, the gardens were increased to 30 hectares (75 acres) and the pleasure grounds, or arboretum, extended to 109 hectares (270 acres), and later to its present size of 121 hectares (300 acres). The first curator was John Smith.

The Palm House was built by architect Decimus Burton and iron-maker Richard Turner between 1844 and 1848, and was the first large-scale structural use of wrought iron. It is considered ” the world’s most important surviving Victorian glass and iron structure.” The structure’s panes of glass are all hand-blown. The Temperate House, which is twice as large as the Palm House, followed later in the 19th century. It is now the largest Victorian glasshouse in existence. Kew was the location of the successful effort in the 19th century to propagate rubber trees for cultivation outside South America.

In February 1913, the Tea House was burned down by suffragettes Olive Wharry and Lilian Lenton during a series of arson attacks in London. Kew Gardens lost hundreds of trees in the Great Storm of 1987^. From 1959 to 2007 Kew Gardens had the tallest flagpole in Britain. Made from a single Douglas-fir from Canada, it was given to mark both the centenary of the Canadian Province of British Columbia and the bicentenary of Kew Gardens. The flagpole was removed after damage by weather and woodpeckers

In July 2003, the gardens were put on the list of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.

People : Joanna Lumley, National Treasure, Co Designer of London’s New Park …. A Bridge Park !!

Joanna Lamond Lumley, OBE FRGS (born 1 May 1946) is an English actress, voice-over artist, former model and author, who starred in the British television series Absolutely Fabulous as Edina Monsoon’s best friend, Patsy Stone, as well as in The New Avengers, Sapphire & Steel, Jam & Jerusalem and Sensitive Skin. In film she has appeared in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) and James and the Giant Peach (1996).

She later appeared in Maybe Baby (2000), Ella Enchanted (2004) and Corpse Bride (2005). She appeared alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in the Martin Scorsese crime drama, The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). She has also appeared in several stage roles and in 2011 was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in La Bête.

She has spoken out as a human rights activist for Survival International and the Gurkha Justice Campaign and is now considered a “national treasure” of Nepal because of her support. She is an advocate for a number of charities and animal welfare groups such as Compassion in World Farming and Vegetarians’ International Voice for Animals. She is patron of the Farm Animal Sanctuary. She also won the Special Recognition Award at The National Television Awards in 2013.

As of July 2012, she is planning, in collaboration with the designer Thomas Heatherwick, a pedestrian bridge across the Thames in London, ‘Garden Bridge’. This is planned to feature trees and gardens.

Early life

Joanna Lamond Lumley was born on 1 May 1946 in Srinagar, in the princely state of Kashmir and Jammu, which was then part of the British Raj. Her parents were Major James Rutherford-Lumley, who served in the 6th Gurkha Rifles, a regiment of the British Indian Army, and Thya Rose (Weir), who were married in 1941.

After the independence of India in 1947, the Lumleys moved to Kent, England. The family also spent time in Malaya (now Malaysia). Lumley was educated at St Mary’s Convent School in St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, England, and afterwards attended the Lucie Clayton Finishing School, after being turned down by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the age of 16.

Career

Lumley spent three years as a photographic model, notably for Brian Duffy by whom she was photographed with her son. She also worked as a house model for Jean Muir. Over forty years later, she participated in another photoshoot – again with her son – for Duffy as part of a retrospective of the photographer’s work.

Lumley appeared in an early episode of the Bruce Forsyth Show in 1966. She appeared in a British television advertisement for Nimble bread first screened in 1969. Lumley did not receive any formal training at drama school. Her acting career began in 1969 with a small role in the film Some Girls Do and as a Bond girl in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service; she played the English girl among Blofeld’s ‘Angels of Death’ and had two lines. She went on to have a brief but memorable role in Coronation Street, in which her character turned down Ken Barlow’s offer of marriage. She appeared as “Jessica” on the big screen in The Satanic Rites of Dracula, released in the UK on 13 January 1974, which was the last of Hammer Film’s Dracula series starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

She has worked with Tim Burton on two film projects, in James and the Giant Peach (1996) and Corpse Bride (2005). She has also appeared alongside Hugh Laurie in the British romantic comedy Maybe Baby (2000) and alongside Anne Hathaway in Ella Enchanted (2004).

She has appeared twice in Agatha Christie’s Marple, in the episodes; ‘The Body in the Library’ (2004) & ‘The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side’ (2009). In 2010 she appeared in a 4-episode guest arc on the BBC drama, Mistresses as Vivienne Roden.

In 2013, she appeared in the Martin Scorsese crime drama, The Wolf of Wall Street.

Major roles

Throughout her career, she has specialised in playing upper class parts, and her distinctive voice has reinforced this. Lumley’s first major role was as Purdey in The New Avengers, a revival of the secret agent series The Avengers. Although critical reaction to the series was lukewarm, the casting of Lumley was seen as inspired and following the tradition of Avengers actresses Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg and Linda Thorson.

In 1979 she appeared in another series which acquired a following: Sapphire & Steel, with David McCallum. Conceived as ITV’s answer to Doctor Who, Lumley played a mysterious elemental being (“Sapphire”) who, with her collaborator, “Steel”, dealt with breaches in the fabric of time.

Over a decade later Lumley’s career was boosted by her portrayal of the louche, solipsistic and frequently drunken fashion director Patsy Stone, companion to Jennifer Saunders’ Edina Monsoon in the BBC comedy television series Absolutely Fabulous (1992–1996), (2001–2004), and (2011–2012).

In 1994 and 1995 Joanna starred alongside Nadine Garner and John Bowe in the British television show Class Act, playing the part of Kate Swift an upper class lady who had fallen on hard times.

Other work has included: Lovejoy as widow Victoria Cavero, In the Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon (1996), a film about a journey made by her grandparents in Bhutan, and A Rather English Marriage (nominated for a BAFTA for Best Actress 1999) and Dr Willoughby (1999). In 1995, she provided the voice of Annie the rag doll in the animated series The Forgotten Toys. In 1999, she also provided the voice for Sims the chicken in the BAFTA award winning animated series The Foxbusters. In 2000, she co-produced a new drama series The Cazalets. She has also appeared in a TV series on Sarawak, where she spent time in her childhood. She has demonstrated her ability to go beyond stereotypical images, most notably in the monologue series of playlets Up In Town (2002), written by Hugo Blick, and focusing on a society hostess’s realisation that her star is fading.

Lumley starred as the elderly Delilah Stagg in the 2006 sitcom Jam & Jerusalem with Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Sue Johnston. In July 2007, she starred in the second series of the drama Sensitive Skin where she played the main character Davina Jackson. The BBC said this will be the final series of the dark comedy.

She starred in David Hirson’s La Bête – Comedy Theatre, London, 26 June – 28 August 2010 with David Hyde Pierce and Mark Rylance, directed by Matthew Warchus. She also starred in La Bête at the Music Box Theatre, Broadway, New York which opened on 14 October 2010. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play, for her performance.

Media work

As the possessor of one of the most recognised voices in the United Kingdom, Lumley has gained prominence as a voice-over artist. Users of AOL in the United Kingdom are familiar with Joanna Lumley’s voice. She recorded the greetings “Welcome to AOL” and “You’ve got post” for that company. She also did a voice over for the BBC series Posh Nosh as a voice-over usually saying “From the Posh Nosh range (a faux product).”

She appeared as a guest host on Channel 4’s The Friday Night Project, which aired on 3 August 2007.

From 2005 to 2006 she appeared in adverts for insurance brokers Privilege.

Lumley has also appeared on the last run of ITV1’s Parkinson as a guest, on 27 October 2007, discussing the subject of young girls across the UK and how they need to behave better if they hope to be successful. She was asked to write the introduction to a re-edition in November 2007 of the book called The Magic Key To Charm written by the pioneering female journalist Eileen Ascroft.This is a book of tips to women, first written by Ascroft in 1938 about how to be glamorous. “I thought it was absolutely enchanting, it’s how young women were told how to behave in the old days and I think it might be just coming back for a bit of a revival,” she explained in the interview.

“Because, I have to say I adore our young ones and I think we have got some of the prettiest and loveliest girls in the world but I think sometimes the behaviour gets a bit bad and I think the girls let themselves down. They are so pretty and so lovely but they should behave better, I think, then they will be more successful.”

In 1999 she appeared in the Comic Relief Doctor Who parody The Curse of Fatal Death as the final incarnation of the Doctor. She also appeared with Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French and Sienna Miller in the French and Saunders pastiche of Mamma Mia for Comic Relief 2009 in which she played the role of Tanya (named Patsy in the spoof).

In 2004 Lumley appeared as the “Woman with the Sydney Opera House Head” in Dirk Maggs’s long-awaited radio adaptation of the third book of the Douglas Adams series The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

In 2005 she published her autobiography, No Room for Secrets, which was serialised by The Times, for which she was once a regular contributor.

In September and December 2008 and April of 2009, the BBC aired Joanna Lumley in the Land of the Northern Lights, a documentary about her search to see the Northern Lights in northern Norway

In May 2009 she supported the Green Party during the 2009 European Elections campaign. For Lumley, the work of Green MEPs in the European Parliament in pursuing human rights and animal rights made the Green Party “the obvious choice” and urged UK voters “to cast a positive vote for a better future by voting Green in the European Elections. Lumley also appeared in literature to support changing the British electoral system from first-past-the-post to alternative vote for electing Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in the Alternative Vote referendum in 2011.

In 2009 she portrayed a rock star, believed to be dead for 35 years, but more predominantly, her twin, in the “Counter Culture Blues” episode of the British television mystery series Lewis (known in the U.S. as Inspector Lewis).

In 2010 she donated £1,000 to Caroline Lucas’s campaign to become the first Green MP during the 2010 General Election campaign.

In 2011, Lumley appeared in “Uptown Downstairs Abbey”, the Comic Relief parody of the critically acclaimed historical television dramas Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs. Playing herself and the character of Mrs. Danvers, she starred alongside Jennifer Saunders, Kim Cattrall, Victoria Wood, Harry Enfield, Patrick Barlow, Dale Winton, Olivia Colman, Tim Vine, Simon Callow, Michael Gambon and Harry Hill.

In recent years, Lumley has worked extensively with ITV, and in 2010 Lumley was executive producer and presenter of Joanna Lumley’s Nile, where she journeys up the River Nile from sea to source in Rwanda, for ITV. This was broadcast in four parts on ITV1 beginning on 12 April 2010, and repeated in June 2013.

Lumley travelled again for ITV in 2011, this time visiting Greece for a four-part series titled Joanna Lumley’s Greek Odyssey. The series aired on ITV1 beginning on 13 October. Once again, in 2012, Lumley travelled for ITV, now in search of Noah’s Ark. The trip, that encompassed 3 continents and also involved adventurously venturing into Iran, will air in late 2012 as a single 90-minute documentary titled Joanna Lumley’s Ark.

In March 2014 she appeared in a BBC One hour-long documentary featuring American musician Will.i.am

Activism

As an activist, Lumley is best known for her support for Gurkhas, the exiled Tibetan people and government, the Kondha indigenous people of India and the Prospect Burma charity, which offers grants to Burmese students, for whom she broadcast a BBC Radio 4 charity appeal in 2001. Her father was a decorated Gurkha officer who fought in World War II.

Gurkha Justice Campaign

In 2008, Lumley became the public face of a campaign to provide all Nepalese origin Gurkha veterans who served in the British Army before 1997 the right to settle in Britain. Those serving after 1997 had already been granted permission, but the UK Government has not extended the offer to all of the Gurkhas, who are natives of Nepal. They have served Britain for more than 200 years with over 50,000 dying in service, and 13 have been awarded the Victoria Cross. On 20 November 2008, Lumley led a large all-party group including Gurkhas starting from Parliament Square to 10 Downing Street with a petition signed by 250,000 people. She supports the Gurkha Justice Campaign.

On 24 April 2009, she stated that she was “ashamed” of the UK administration’s decision to affix five criteria to the Gurkhas’ right to settle in the UK. With the support of both Opposition parties and Labour rebel MPs on 29 April 2009, a Liberal Democrat motion that all Gurkhas be offered an equal right of residence was passed, allowing Gurkhas who served before 1997 residence in the UK. Following the Government defeat, the Minister for Immigration Phil Woolas announced that a further review would be completed by the middle of July.

On 5 May 2009, Lumley said that she had received private assurances of support from a senior member of the Royal Family, and attended a meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street the following day. Afterwards, she described the meeting as “extremely positive”, and praised Mr Brown, saying, “I trust him. I rely on him. And I know that he has now taken this matter into his own hands and so today is a very good day.”

However, on the day following the meeting with Brown, five Gurkha veterans who had applied for residency in the United Kingdom received letters telling them that their appeals had been rejected – many saw this as a betrayal, despite the fact that for the letters to have been received the day after the meeting they might have been sent before it (and certainly after the 29 April Commons vote). Ms Lumley confronted Phil Woolas at the BBC Westminster studios about the issue and, after pursuing him around the studio, the pair held an impromptu press conference in which Woolas agreed to accept Gurkha Justice Campaign input in developing new guidelines by July while giving sympathetic treatment to Gurkhas not meeting the then current immigration guidelines before the development of new guidelines.

Following a Commons Home Affairs Committee meeting in which talks were held between campaigners, the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office on 19 May, Gordon Brown announced to the House of Commons on 20 May that the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith would make a statement on the issue the following day. Ms Smith subsequently announced that all Gurkha veterans who had served four years or more in the British Army before 1997 would be allowed to settle in Britain.

As a result of her campaigning skills, there were calls for Joanna Lumley to stand as a Member of Parliament at the forthcoming general election. However, she has dismissed the suggestion. During an appearance on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on 29 May, she reiterated that she had no desire to run for election to the House of Commons.

In July 2009, Lumley went on a visit to Nepal, upon her arrival at Tribhuvan International Airport she was greeted by crowds of Gurkha supporters, Lumley said in a statement, “I feel so humbled by the fact I’m going to meet so many ex-Gurkhas and their families, and see where they are and how they live.” Whilst there, Lumley was hailed ‘Daughter of Nepal’ by the crowds of fans at the airport.

In August 2010, Lumley teamed up with British food company Sharwood’s to help develop a limited edition Mango Chutney with Kashmiri Chilli, an ingredient from her birthplace. Sharwood’s will donate 10p from each jar sold to the Gurkha Welfare Trust.

Work for Survival International

Lumley has long been a supporter of Survival International and the cause of indigenous rights, and narrated Survival’s documentary, Mine: story of a sacred mountain. The film tells the story of the remote Dongria Kondha tribe in India and their battle to stop a vast bauxite mine from destroying their land and way of life. In defence of the Dongria, she has said,

“It greatly disturbs me that a British company will be responsible for the destruction of these wonderful people. I urge the public to support the Dongria, who simply want to be allowed to live in peace. Unlike so many of India’s rural poor, the Dongria actually live very well in the Niyamgiri hills, and it’s a terrible irony that what Vedanta is proposing to do in the name of ‘development’ will actually destroy this completely self-sufficient people.”

Lumley also contributed her writing for the book We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples, released in October 2009 with profits going in support of Survival. A collection of photographs, statements from tribal people and essays from international authors, the book explores the richness of the cultures of indigenous peoples around the world and the risks to their existence. In her essay for the book, Lumley speaks of the Dongria way of life and the threats they face in the name of corporate interests, and calls for action to stop such decisions.

Patron of Tree Aid

Lumley has been a patron of the UK charity Tree Aid, since 1993. Tree Aid is a charity which enables communities in Africa’s drylands to fight poverty and become self-reliant, while improving the environment.

Patron of PENHA

Joanna Lumley is also a patron of the Pastoral and Environmental Network in the Horn of Africa, or PENHA. PENHA is an international NGO, founded in 1989 and based on the commitment of professionals and development workers from the Horn of Africa to address issues of pastoral concerns from a regional prospective. Lumley’s commitment to support the pastoral communities of the Horn of Africa is of paramount importance to PENHA.

Patron of Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust

Ms Lumley is patron of the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust. Moat Brae was the favourite place for author J.M. Barrie to play as a child and the house and gardens are said to have inspired Barrie to create Peter Pan. The trust is undertaking a £4 million fundraising project to renovate the Georgian house and gardens to operate as an educational and cultural centre for local schools and JM Barrie enthusiasts and scholars.

Patron of Trust in Children

Joanna Lumley is patron of the UK charity Trust in Children which aims to help children from poor backgrounds to access education and opportunities for non-academic development.

Patron of Action on Addiction

Ms Lumley was patron of Action on Addiction, a UK-based charity that works with people affected by drug and alcohol addiction, from 1999 to 2000.

Patron of The Friends of Kadzinuni

Joanna has been patron of The Friends of Kadzinuni since it was established in 2003, a small charity based in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire, UK which is enabling the village of Kadzinuni, (40 km north of Mombasa, near Kilifi) to be transformed into a self-sufficient wealth creating community by focussing on facilitating community-led developments for Healthcare Education and Agriculture. UK Registered Charity No. 1098881. Website http://www.kadzinuni.org.uk

Influence

In February 2013 she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4.

Personal life

Following her rise to fame, Lumley revealed that she had been an unmarried mother during the 1960s when it was socially unacceptable; her son, James, was born in 1967. James Lumley’s biological father is the photographer Michael Claydon and is of Anglo Indian ethnicity. The first of her two subsequent marriages was to comedy writer Jeremy Lloyd. In 1986, she married conductor Stephen Barlow; they live in London They also have a house near the village of Penpont in Southern Scotland. Lumley is a grandmother to her son’s two daughters, Alice and Emily.

Lumley was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1995. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS). She was made an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Kent in July 1994. In 2002, she was awarded an honorary degree from Oxford Brookes University. In 2006, she was awarded an honorary degree from the University of St. Andrews and in July 2008, she was also awarded an honorary doctorate from Queen’s University Belfast.

Alongside her work for the Gurkhas, Lumley is a supporter of many charities, including Suffolk Family Carers and Kids for Kids. She has been a vegetarian for forty years, and a keen supporter of animal rights charities, including CIWF and Viva!. She has donated signed books for the literacy and international development charity Book Aid International. She is patron of the Born Free Foundation and passionate about the Free Tibet campaign.

Other charities supported include Mind, ActionAid, SANE, Kidasha (formerly CWS) which works on behalf of children in Nepal, and the Spike Milligan statue memorial fun

People : DDDD Deborah The Dowager Duchess Of Devonshire, Gardener On A Scale Like No Other…

Deborah Vivien Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire DCVO (née Deborah Freeman-Mitford; 31 March 1920 – 24 September 2014), was the youngest and last surviving of the six Mitford sisters who were prominent members of English society in the 1930s and 1940s.

Life

Known to her family as “Debo”, Deborah Mitford was born in Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire, England. She married Lord Andrew Cavendish, younger son of the 10th Duke of Devonshire, in 1941. When Cavendish’s older brother, William, Marquess of Hartington, was killed in combat in 1944, Cavendish became heir to the dukedom and Marquess of Hartington; in 1950, upon the death of his father, he became the 11th Duke of Devonshire.

The Duchess was the main public face of Chatsworth for many decades. The Duchess wrote several books about Chatsworth, and played a key role in the restoration of the house, the enhancement of the garden and the development of commercial activities such as Chatsworth Farm Shop (which is on a quite different scale from most farm shops as it employs a hundred people); Chatsworth’s other retail and catering operations; and assorted offshoots such as Chatsworth Food, which sells luxury foodstuffs which carry her signature and Chatsworth Design which sells image rights to items and designs from the Chatsworth collections. Recognising the commercial imperatives of running a stately home, she took a very active role and was known to run the ticket office for Chatsworth House herself. She also supervised the development of the Cavendish Hotel at Baslow near Chatsworth and the Devonshire Arms Hotel at Bolton Abbey.

In 1999 the Duchess was appointed a Dame Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (DCVO) by Queen Elizabeth II, for her service to the Royal Collection Trust. Upon the death of her husband in 2004, her son Peregrine Cavendish became the 12th Duke of Devonshire. She became the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire at this time.

She and the duke had seven children, four of whom died shortly after birth:

• Mark Cavendish (born and died 14 November 1941)
• Emma Cavendish (born 26 March 1943, styled Lady Emma Cavendish from 1944), mother of the fashion model Stella Tennant
• Peregrine Cavendish, 12th Duke of Devonshire (born 27 April 1944)
• An unnamed child (miscarried December 1946; he or she was a twin of Victor Cavendish, born in 1947)
• Lord Victor Cavendish (born and died 22 May 1947)
• Lady Mary Cavendish (born and died 5 April 1953)
• Lady Sophia Louise Sydney Cavendish (born 18 March 1957)

She was also a maternal aunt of Max Mosley, former president of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), as well as the grandmother of Stella Tennant, a fashion model.

Death

Her death, at the age of 94, was announced on 24 September 2014. The Duchess was survived by three of her seven children, eight grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren.

Selected interviews

She was interviewed on her experience of sitting for a portrait for painter Lucian Freud in the BBC series Imagine in 2004.

In an interview with John Preston of the Daily Telegraph, published in September 2007, she recounted having tea with Adolf Hitler during a visit to Munich in June 1937, when she was visiting Germany with her mother and her sister Unity, the latter being the only one of the three who spoke German and, therefore the one who carried on the entire conversation with Hitler. Shortly before ending the interview, Preston asked her to choose with whom she would have preferred to have tea: American singer Elvis Presley or Hitler. Looking at the interviewer with astonishment, she answered: “Well, Elvis of course! What an extraordinary question.”

In 2010, the BBC journalist Kirsty Wark interviewed the Duchess for Newsnight. In it, the Duchess talked about life in the 1930s and 1940s, Hitler, the Chatsworth estate, and the marginalisation of the upper classes. She was also interviewed on 23 December by Charlie Rose for PBS. She spoke of her memoir and other interesting aspects of her life. On 10 November 2010, she was interviewed as part of “The Artists, Poets, and Writers Lecture Series” sponsored by the Frick Collection, an interview which focused on her memoir and her published correspondence with Patrick Leigh Fermor.

Titles from birth

• The Honourable Deborah Vivien Freeman-Mitford (1920–1941)
• The Lady Andrew Cavendish (1941–1944)
• Marchioness of Hartington (1944–1950)
• Her Grace The Duchess of Devonshire (1950–2004)
• Her Grace The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire (2004-2014)

Quex Park & Gardens , An Odd But Perfect Place To Buy A Curry ….

Quex Park is 250 acres (1.0 km²) of parkland and gardens, along with Quex House and other buildings, located in Birchington-on-Sea in England. It is home to the Powell-Cotton Museum and to the Waterloo tower, an unusual secular bell tower.

History

There has been a house on the Quex site since the early 1400s, and gained its Quex name from the ownership of the rich wool merchant Quekes family in the 1500s. The house was purchased by John Powell-Cotton in 1777, and his nephew, also John, demolished the existing mansion, and replaced it with a regency home. The house is still owned by the Powell-Cotton family.

In the 19th century, the family amalgamated two farms to form Quex Park, and began a programme of tree planting and landscaping to create the current park land.

During World War I, Quex House became an Auxiliary Military Hospital run by the Birchington Voluntary Aid Detachment. In 1923, the Memorial Ground was donated to the village by Mr H. A. Erlebach for sport and recreational use. Mr Erlebach owned the village’s now defunct Woodfood House School and purchased land from the Quex House estate for the school. He gave the southern part of the land to the people of Birchington and dedicated it in memory of his three sons who had been killed in World War I. The land is now owned by Thanet District Council.

Powell-Cotton Museum

In 1896, Major Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton, F.Z.S., F.R.G.S., a Major in the Northumberland Fusiliers, founded the Powell-Cotton Museum at Quex Park to display his collection of mammals and artefacts acquired on his expeditions to Africa and Asia.[7] The animals were mounted by the noted taxidermist Rowland Ward. His expeditions were conducted for scientific research, and would sometimes take 18 months.

The Powell-Cotton Museum houses three galleries of stuffed animal displays, depicting more than 500 African and Asian animals against their natural habitats.[10] Further galleries display a vast collection of African artefacts, European firearms, European and Asian cutting weapons, European and Chinese porcelain, and important archaeological finds from Thanet and East Kent. The total amount of artefacts have not been counted, though the ethnography items alone total approximately 18,000.

Several rooms in Quex House, decorated with oriental and English period furniture, are open to visitors, and guided tours are provided.

Current uses

In addition to the museum, Quex Park also hosts a variety of events, including music concerts and festivals, alongside weddings and corporate entertainment. The estate also has its own food range, Quex Foods.

People : Zandra Rhodes, From Designing Punks With Safety Pins To Designing City Parks ………

Dame Zandra Lindsey Rhodes, DBE RDI (born 19 September 1940), is an English fashion designer.

Early life and education

Rhodes was born in Chatham, Kent, and was introduced to the world of fashion by her mother, who was a fitter in a Paris fashion house and a teacher at Medway College of Art Les Fawcett, now the University for the Creative Arts. Rhodes studied first at Medway and then at the Royal College of Art in London. Her major area of study was printed textile design.

Career

Between 1966 and 1969, Rhodes and a fellow student, Sylvia Ayton, opened a boutique together called the Fulham Road Clothes Shop. Sylvia Ayton designed the clothing and Rhodes supplied the textile designs from which they were made. In 1969, Rhodes and Ayton went their separate ways, with Rhodes establishing her own retail outlet in the fashionable Fulham Road in West London. Rhodes’ own lifestyle has proved to be as dramatic, glamorous and extrovert as her designs. With her bright green hair (later changed to a pink and sometimes red or other colours), theatrical makeup and art jewelry, she stamped her identity on the international world of fashion.

Rhodes was one of the new wave of British designers who put London at the forefront of the international fashion scene in the 1970s. Her designs are considered clear, creative statements, dramatic but graceful, bold but feminine. Rhodes’ inspiration has been from organic material and nature. Her approach to the construction of garments can be seen in her use of reversed exposed seams and in her use of jeweled safety pins and tears during the punk era.

Rhodes designed for Diana, Princess of Wales, and continues to design for royalty and celebrities. She notably designed several of famous costumes for Freddie Mercury of Queen. She has a strong following in the US, UK, and Australia. She was appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1997 and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to British fashion and textiles.

Rhodes splits her time between homes in Del Mar and London. The San Diego Opera commissioned her to design the costumes for her first opera, The Magic Flute, in 2001. Rhodes continued her association with the San Diego Opera in 2004 when she designed the set and costumes for Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles. She designed for Verdi’s Aida at the Houston Grand Opera and English National Opera.

Rhodes is the founder of the Fashion and Textile Museum in London which was opened in May 2003 by Princess Michael of Kent

On 22 September 2006, she appeared as herself on the long-running BBC Radio 4 soap opera The Archers.

Rhodes also appeared, as herself, in an episode of Absolutely Fabulous during the BBC show’s second season.

Rhodes was a Guest Judge for the first episode of the third season of Project Catwalk.

In November 2009, Rhodes was appointed Chancellor of the University for the Creative Arts, one of the UK’s newest universities, and only the second to focus specifically on art and design. An official installation ceremony took place in June 2010, accompanied by a fashion show highlighting the best designs from the BA (Hons) Fashion Design and BA (Hons) Fashion Innovation Management courses at the Rochester campus in Medway, Kent – where Rhodes studied, under its former title of the Medway College of Art and BA (Hons) Fashion at Epsom in Surrey.

Marks and Spencers introduced the upmarket Zandra Rhodes collection, modelled and made by Rhodes, into the bigger stores by late 2009.

Rhodes also has her very own collection of jewellery. The Zandra Rhodes jewellery includes five separate collections, which are Oriental Whisper collection, Punk Chic Collection, Lovely Lilies collection, Signature collection and Manhattan Lady Collection. A more recent jewellery collection created in collaboration with Adele Marie London, called Zandra Rhodes for Adele Marie, launched in August 2011. This collection features iconic pieces of Rhodes’ early textiles work remade as jewellery.

Rhodes launched a handbag range made under license by Bluprint in 2010 and has also collaborated to produce a bed linen range and an outdoor clothing range.

On 26 March 2013, Rhodes launched a Digital Study Collection of 500 of her iconic garments from her private archive, as well as drawings and behind-the-scenes interviews and tutorials in her studio. The Zandra Rhodes Digital Study Collection was developed through a project led by the University for the Creative Arts and funded by Jisc.

Personal life

Rhodes has been linked with former president of Warner Brothers Salah Hassanein since 1975.

On 30 June 2009, Rhodes smashed her car into an Ace Hardware store in La Jolla community of San Diego, injuring a 42-year-old woman.

Zandra Rhodes and Joe Swift create Greenwood Theatre pocket park

The blank brick 1970s facade of the Greenwood Theatre will be brightened up this summer thanks to a collaboration between fashion designer Zandra Rhodes and TV presenter Joe Swift.

Project organisers Team London Bridge and Cityscapes have joined forces with King’s College London, Network Rail and the Mayor of London’s Pocket Parks Programme to transform the corner of Snowsfields and Weston Street.

With the support of Southwark Council, Joe and Zandra will work alongside Cityscapes to make it a centrepiece of their 2014 landscape design festival.

“The London Bridge area is becoming very vibrant and exciting,” said Zandra Rhodes.

“Once, one could only go to the London Dungeon and look down the lonely railway tunnels to Sweeney Todd land.

“Then I persuaded Ricardo Legorreta to design the Fashion & Textile Museum which many regard as the initial starting point of the regeneration.

“Since then has come The Shard and the total rebuilding of London Bridge station. The area is thriving and exciting.

“With many people moving into here to live and many more walking through to the restaurants and station, it is essential to both green and liven-up all the ‘dead’ areas so that it becomes a pleasure to pass through, regardless of the weather.

“The Greenwood Theatre has been a large brick eyesore for many years, so when I was approached to work with Joe and enliven this space I jumped at the chance!

“I felt we needed colour to spread ‘sunshine’ into the area, and the plants to make it a fabulous place to sit and linger in. It really is a lovely exciting project.”

Joe Swift said: “We are embracing the London microclimate to grow an eclectic and varied mix of plants including some exotics to provide plenty of all year round interest, colour and scent.

“The aim is to give the Greenwood Theatre and surrounding area horticultural depth and a strong identity to stimulate those who use it and pass by.”

People : Piet Oudolf, Mr Perennial, Form Flat Lands Of Holland To The New York Highline ….

Piet Oudolf (born 27 October 1944, Haarlem) is an influential Dutch garden designer, nurseryman and author. He is a leading figure of the “New Perennial” movement, using bold drifts of herbaceous perennials and grasses which are chosen at least as much for their structure as for their flower colour.

His books include Gardening With Grasses (1998) (with Michael King and Beth Chatto), Dream Plants for the Natural Garden (2000) and Planting the Natural Garden (2003) (both with Henk Gerritsen), Designing With Plants (1999), Planting Design: Gardens in Time and Space (2005) (both with Noel Kingsbury) and Landscapes in Landscapes (2011), and the most recent Planting: A New Perspective (Timber Press, 2013).

His list of design projects includes the High Line (New York City, 2006), Battery Park (New York City, 2003), ABN Amro Bank (Netherlands, 2000), Hoogeland (Netherlands, 2001), the Lurie Garden, a gigantic green roof over the car park of Millennium Park (Chicago, 2003 – with Kathryn Gustafson) and Scampston Hall (England, 2002-2003). He is the designer of the interior garden of the 2011 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London, in collaboration with the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor.

His own garden, at Hummelo, near Arnhem in the Netherlands has been created since 1982. It has gone through many changes which reflect Oudolf’s constantly developing planting design. Initially it was designed with a series of yew (Taxus baccata) hedges and blocks, reflecting Oudolf’s architectural style which owed much to Mien Ruys, the designer who dominated Dutch garden design in the post-war period.

Plant Hunters : John Tradescant The Younger, The Real Lord of the Aster….

John Tradescant the Younger (4 August 1608 – 22 April 1662), son of John Tradescant the elder, was a botanist and gardener, born in Meopham, Kent and educated at The King’s School, Canterbury. Unlike his father, who collected via other people bringing back specimens, he went in person to Virginia between 1628-1637 (and possibly two more trips by 1662, though Potter and other authors doubt this) to collect plants. Among the seeds he brought back, to introduce to English gardens were great American trees, like Magnolias, Bald Cypress and Tulip tree, and garden plants such phlox and asters. He also added to the cabinet of curiosities his American acquisitions such as the ceremonial cloak of Chief Powhatan, one of the most important Native American relics. Tradescant Road, off South Lambeth Road in Vauxhall, marks the former boundary of the Tradescant estate, where the collection was kept.

When his father died, he succeeded as head gardener to Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France, making gardens at the Queen’s House, Greenwich, designed by Inigo Jones, from 1638 to 1642, when the queen fled the Civil War. He published the contents of his father’s celebrated collection as Musaeum Tradescantianum — books, coins, weapons, costumes, taxidermy, and other curiosities — dedicating the first edition to the Royal College of Physicians (with whom he was negotiating for the transfer of his botanic garden), and the second edition to the recently restored Charles II. Tradescant bequeathed his library and museum to (or some say it was swindled from him by) Elias Ashmole (1617–1692), whose name it bears as the core of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford where the Tradescant collections remain largely intact.

He was buried beside his father in the churchyard of St-Mary-at-Lambeth which is now established as the Museum of Garden History.

He is the subject of the novel Virgin Earth by Philippa Gregory, sequel to Earthly Joys on his father.

The standard author abbreviation Trad. is applied to species he described.

Plant Hunters : Tom Hart – Dyke, Young Inspirational Man on a Mission….. His Story Would Make For an Exceptional Film…..

Thomas Guy Hart Dyke (born 12 April 1976) is an English horticulturist and plant hunter. He is the son and heir of Guy and Sarah Hart Dyke at the family seat of Lullingstone Castle, Eynsford, Kent. He is the designer of the World Garden of Plants located on the property. The World Garden contains approximately 8,000 species of plants, many collected by Hart Dyke from their native environments. He presented an episode of Great British Garden Revival in 2013.

Early life and education

Hart Dyke attended a state primary school in Eynsford and then transferred to St. Michael’s School in Otford. He attended Stanbridge Earls in Hampshire until age seventeen and then entered Sparsholt College Hampshire, near Winchester, where he studied tree surgery and forestry.

In an interview in 2006, Hart Dyke credits his grandmother as having first interested him in plants at age three.

Tom Hart Dyke is first cousin of the English comedian Miranda Hart.

Kidnapping

Hart Dyke follows a tradition of Victorian and Edwardian British plant hunters, such as Francis Masson, who risked life and limb to acquire rare species of plant. In 2000, Hart Dyke was kidnapped by suspected FARC guerrillas in the Darién Gap between Panama and Colombia while hunting for rare orchids, a plant for which he has a particular passion.

He and his travel companion, Paul Winder, were held captive for nine months and threatened with death. He kept himself going by creating a design for a garden containing plants collected on his trips, laid out in the shape of a world map according to their continent of origin.

Tom wrote about his experiences in Colombia in his book, The Cloud Garden. The story of his kidnapping ordeal was dramatised in the Sky1 documentary series “My Holiday Hostage Hell”.

World Garden of Plants

On his return home, Hart Dyke put his design into practice within the walls of the family’s Victorian herb garden. The story of the creation of The World Garden of Plants was the subject of a BBC2 6-episode series, “Save Lullingstone Castle” (KEO Films) in 2006. This was followed by a second 6-episode series, “Return To Lullingstone Castle” on BBC2 in 2007.

In May 2006, Hart Dyke managed to get an Australian Eucalyptus caesia plant (common name Silver Princess) to flower for the first time in the UK. He was inspired by orchids at his first school, St. Michaels, Otford, Kent.

Hart Dyke featured in the PBS Nova programme in 2002, Orchid Hunter that documented his return to hunting rare orchids in dangerous terrain in another politically unstable area in Irian Jaya in the rainforests of Western New Guinea.

Toms books are a fascinating read and a real inspiration and i highly recommend them both. As for the ‘World Garden’ this is developing beautifully now and i enjoy going throughout the season to appreciate differing elements. Well worth a visit, the whole family really welcome you and are happy to talk and explain. Tom’s enthusiasm is infectious and i challenge anyone not to want to pick up a trowel the moment you get home.

People : Beth Chatto , Plantswoman, Garden Designer, Gardener , Author, Aged 91 And Still Going Strong…

Beth Chatto, OBE (born 27 June 1923), is a British plantswoman, garden designer and author best known for creating the Beth Chatto Gardens near Elmstead Market, in the English county of Essex. She is also known for writing several books on gardening for specific conditions. She has lectured throughout the UK, United States, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Germany. Beth Chatto’s gardening and writing use the principle of the right plant for the right place, developed from her husband Andrew Chatto’s lifelong research into the origin of garden plants.

The Beth Chatto Gardens

Construction of the Beth Chatto Gardens began in 1960 as a garden attached to the Chatto family home on land that had previously belonged to the Chatto family fruit farm. It had not been farmed as the soil was considered too dry in places, too wet in others and the whole area had been allowed to grow wild with blackthorn, willow and brambles. The only plants that survive from the earliest days are the ancient boundary oaks surrounding the Garden. The Beth Chatto Gardens comprise a varied range of planting sites totalling five acres, including dry, sun baked gravel, water and marginal planting, woodland, shady, heavy clay and alpine planting, and now include the Gravel Garden, Woodland Garden, Water Garden, Long Shady Walk, Reservoir Garden and Scree Garden. It was the development of these sites that prompted Beth Chatto to write books on gardening with what could be considered as “problem areas” using plants that nature has developed to survive in differing conditions.

Today Beth Chatto continues to work within the Beth Chatto Gardens, write for international and national press and appear in international media.

Exhibitions

In January 1975 Beth Chatto created a small winter garden at one of the Royal Horticultural Society Halls, London SW1. More exhibits followed and eventually the Beth Chatto Gardens “Unusual Plants” exhibition arrived at the Chelsea Flower Show. Exhibits by “Unusual Plants” were awarded eleven consecutive Gold Medals at the Chelsea Flower Show from 1977 to 1987. Exhibits by The Beth Chatto Gardens can still be seen at the Tendring Hundred Show in Essex