Why write a biography? It only pins you down. Suffice to say I was born in Africa. And already that’s seeing the world without its skin. My father was the local gynaecologist. My mother was born in Strasbourg. My grandmother lived with us. In many ways I loved my childhood but not in others. I would have been cheating myself if I hadn’t left to study English literature in Britain. Before that I was lucky enough to live in Paris on the threshold of womanhood, in the spring, on my own, and of course that stays with you forever. We ate well and cheaply and I learnt to love wine and got engaged. At Edinburgh I got a First class MA Honours and the Janet Christie Bequest to study abroad. So we drove to Florence and lived in an old farmhouse for 8 months, learning Italian, studying at the British Institute.
In the slipstream of your life you imagine you’ll be a great writer, another Virginia Woolf, have the perfect family, be the best mother. So many impossible aims. I ended up being a journalist. A mother to one daughter. A lover. As a journalist I did quite a lot of good in the beginning. Campaigning stories, saving a horribly mistreated lioness in Italy, seals in the Hebrides, premature babies at Dulwich hospital in need of incubators, endangered leatherback turtles in Tobago. I have done a lot of travel articles, restaurant and hotel reviews, and many years of exciting seat-of-the pants Showbiz stories, travelling with Freddie Mercury, Rod Steward, Spandau Ballet, interviewing Angelina Jolie, Leonardo di Caprio, Bono, Jude Law. Now I’m writing a novel set in Venice and its working title is Behind the Mirror. With a novel, which takes years to write, you’re not the same person at the end of the book as you were at the beginning. The story has changed, the characters are deeper, but you have changed with them. You fall in love with all of them. I’m nearly ready to say goodbye to them and let them stand on their own.
Whether you’re in sunny Cape Town or wintry London, take time to recharge and unwind. Should the Mrs. mention a spa retreat pour deux, be the first to suggest the spa at Babylonstoren, in the Drakenstein valley. It’s not the usual steam-and-cream experience but rather an escape to an idyll where understated luxury meets country … Continued
Liam Gallagher is so furious with brother Noel after an Oasis song featured in the John Lewis Christmas advert he banned him from their family’s local pub. The band’s former frontman branded Noel, 48, a “sell-out” after he allowed Half The World Away to be used as the soundtrack for the department store’s hugely popular … Continued
Her work with the free telephone counselling services ChildLine and The Silver Line has helped millions of vulnerable children and isolated elderly people but now Esther Rantzen has admitted she is suffering from acute loneliness herself. “There is a stigma to admitting you are desperately lonely,” said Rantzen, the TV presenter and campaigner whose husband, … Continued
Young British Muslims are lured to Syria by ISIS fanatics who tell them they will live like James Bond – and even dodge bullets like 007 does. They are shown pictures of smart houses by ISIS recruiters and promised plenty of money and girlfriends. In reality they end up living in squalor. Jurgen Todenhofer, a … Continued
Bond star Naomie Harris’s car crashed off the road, flipped on to its roof, rolled five times then burst into flames. She managed to clamber to safety through the sunroof and stagger clear before the explosion – in an escape worthy of any 007 film. But the cameras weren’t rolling. This wasn’t an action … Continued
Oscar Pistorius is set to receive the harshest bail conditions ever handed out in South Africa when he is released on Tuesday. He will be confined to his uncle’s house for the remainder of his fiveyear sentence for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, 29, in 2013. The strict conditions dash the 28-year-old’s hopes of working with … Continued
Lord Jim’s is the place to go for a long, relaxing, fishy lunch or dinner on the river in Bangkok. It’s like being under the sea as you walk past fish tanks into the oval, glass room with it’s blue hue. The swirling lines on the carpet and ceiling glimmer like the ripples of waves. … Continued
The grandson of Auschwitz’s infamous commandant Rudolf Höss this week revealed he is on the frontline of the German government’s battle against Islamic State. In an exclusive interview with Jewish News, Rainer Höss, 50, the closest surviving relative of Rudolf Höss – who presided over an estimated 1.1 million deaths at the camp – revealed … Continued
