Remembrance Sunday

The Sunday nearest to the 11th November is designated to the anniversary when hostilities in the First World War ended (1918). 

The eleventh hour - on the eleventh day - of the eleventh month.

The Soldier
Rupert Brooke

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England.   There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England’s, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

Rupert Brooke Society: www.rupertbrooke.com

Horace
Odes

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori:
mors et fugacem persequitur virum
nec parcit inbellis iuventae
propitious timidove tergo

How sweet and fitting it is to die for your native land:
Death pursues the man who flees,
Spares not the hamstrings or cowardly backs
Of battle-shy youths.

Dulce Et Decorum Est
 Wilfrid Owen

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! - An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And floundering like a man in fire or lime
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfrid Owen Association  www.1914-18.co.uk

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flander’s field.

Take up our quarrel with the foe,
To you from falling hands we throw.
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flander’s fields.

John McCrae 1915 (d:1918)

A Public Memorial Service will be held for  Dame Anita Roddick in Westminster Central Hall, London on Tuesday 23rd October 2007

“..I will miss her every day.   At 6.30pm on Monday 10th September someone reached into my heart and turned out all the lights.   In an instant that funny, vibrant woman who was my wife, lover and closest friend was gone...   Gordon Roddick

“..As Anita loved to say: “the job of a citizen is to keep his mouth open.  So we ask only that you take your spark, go out and do something.  Engage.  Learn.  Be fiercely kind.  Have a child’s sense of wonderment.  Tell someone you love them.  Write a letter to the Editor.  Demand a better media.  Contact your representatives in government.  Talk about sex shamelessly.  Eat pasta.  Give change to a homeless person.  Buy organic.  Donate to - or volunteer for ‘Greenpeace’, ‘Amnesty International’, ‘Reprieve’, ‘Coalition to Free the Angola Three’, - or the cause that most connects with your heart and soul..”  - Gordon Roddick  October 2007

The ‘Downland Art Society’ Autumn Exhibition
St. Nicholas Hall, Arundel Monday 22nd to Sunday 28th October

An ‘Art Society’ was conceived by local artists at the end of the Second World War when the skies were still full of fighter aircraft out of the front line airfields of ‘RAF Ford‘, ‘Tangmere’ and ‘West Hampnett‘. Meeting at the studio of Maurice Randall, an established professional artist, in 1944 their prime purpose in organising the first exhibition of local artist’s works was to raise funds to purchase an ambulance for the Barnham area community.

There was growing optimism at the end of 1944 that the War had been taken back to Germany and on the 8th May VE ‘Victory in Europe’ was celebrated. Seven months later the group of 12 local artists met and the ‘Downland Art Society’ was formally established.

Sixty-two years on the ‘Downland Art Society’ is holding its Autumn Exhibition at the St. Nichols Hall, Mill Road - beneath the Battlements of Arundel Castle
from Monday 22nd October to Sunday 28th October 10.00 to 17.00hrs

Admission is free and the original works by the local members may be purchased on the day. The exhibition provides an opportunity for artists to display their recent works and for the public to meet the artists, view the latest works and purchase original art directly.

Details of how to join the ‘Downland Art Society’ will be available at the Exhibition or contact John Bradbury on 01903-771123 www.downland.org

Henry Arundel, 19 driving for ‘Fortec Motorsport’ has been nominated for the prestigious 2007 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award. The other four nominees are Duncan Tappy, Dean Smith, Callum MacLeod and Stefan Wilson.

The winner will be announced at the 2007 Autosport Awards Ceremony 2nd December at the Grosvenor House, London.

The UK’s passion for Formula 1 has been rekindled in 2007 by Lewis Hamilton’s astonishing run of Grand Prix successes driving his first season for Team McLaren.

Formula BMW UK Championship

Created by BMW Motorsport in 2001 ‘Formula BMW’ is a junior racing formula for single seater cars. Formula BMW has expanded to encompass four championships on three continents.

To be eligible drivers must be 15 years old, not hold an International racing licence higher than grade ‘C’ and not have competed in any international racing series other than karting.

Competitors benefit from BMW Motorsport’s education and coaching programme based at two centres at the ‘Circuit de Valencia’ in Spain and the ‘Sakhir International Circuit’ in Bahrain. BMW provides five annual scholarships (UK£35,000) for the five leading young drivers in each championship

The best drivers from each championship are also invited to the Formula BMW World Final The winner is awarded a Formula One test with BMW - Sauber.

Snake River Press

Snake River Press is an independent publishing house founded in 2006 by Peter Bridgewater, which creates beautiful and collectable cultural guidebooks about Sussex.

The books explore with care and integrity the art, culture, heritage, history, landscape and notable personalities of the county, constructing a unique record of life in Sussex.

Snake River Press publications are beautifully produced, very much in the ‘Arts and Crafts’ tradition. Says Peter, “I apply exceptionally high production values at every stage of the manufacturing process, from the choice of typeface to the stylish bindings and market ribbons.

Peter Bridgewater plans to keep the Snake River Press local, creating enchanting titles of integrity, on Sussex-based subjects.

The Turn of the Screw’
- Grange Park Opera 2002
“Natasha Marsh confirms her star potential ..a Felicity Lott In the making” (The Sunday Times) “Natasha Marsh breathed enough night-sweat into the phrase ‘he could see how well I do his bidding’ to steam up the theatre. Hers is a wonderful performance of gradual unhinging, sung and phrased with levels of suggestion rarely heard.” (The Times)

‘Fortunio’ Grange Park Opera 2001
“The cast is first rate with Jacqueline winningly taken by the soprano Natsha Marsh, imposing of voice and figure, who convincingly twists every man around her little finger” (The Guardian)
“Natasha Marsh” looks as lovely as she sounds and brings a bright, burnished soprano and serious professionalism to her performance” (Opera Now)
“The ravishing Natasha Marsh, the outstanding Grange Park Star this year.” (The Evening Standard)

www.natashamarsh.com    www.arundelfestival.co.uk    www.ticketmaster.co.uk

Alfie Boe - tenor
www.alfie-boe.com

Arundel Castle Friday 24th August 2007
www.arundelfestival.co.uk  www.ticketmaster.co.uk

Alfie’s journey began in Blackpool. His mother, of Irish descent and father, of Norwegian descent, loved family life and Alfie was the 9th child for the Boe household.

“On Sundays we’d sit around the dinner table with my father playing his favourite tenor Richard Tauber. Al these wonderful 1930’s records would drift throughout the house. As a kid I would just sit there itching for my cue to leave the table. I had no idea how much those Sunday afternoons would play such a big part in determining my path. When I was eleven I listened to ‘La Boheme’ highlights album but I didn’t connect to it at all. Then, when I was 19 I was given the CD of the whole opera and it was like ‘Wow!’ all those wonderful memories came flooding back - something kick started inside of me..”

It was at this time Alfie was doing his apprenticeship at the TVR car factory in Blackpool. He was overheard singing by a customer who pushed him in the direction of the D’Oyly Carte touring opera company. He passed his audition and Alfie’s incredible journey had begun.

After travelling the length and breadth of the country with his sights firmly fixed on opera, he decided to return to college. He moved to London and studied at The Royal College of Music, The National Opera Studio and The Royal Opera House programme Villar Young Artists. Luckily, Alfie isn’t shy of hard work. His days were spent studying and at night he found a string of jobs to fund himself through colleg;

“One of my favourite jobs was doing security at Shepherd’s Bush Empire. I used to be a drummer in a rock band and being able to see all the bands AND get paid for it was great.”

It was whilst Alfie was at the ROH Young Artists Programme that he got his first breakthrough. Baz Luhrmann, who had spent two years looking for the lead for his controversial production of Puccini’s ‘La Boheme’, approached Alfie for the role. Lurmann expands, “We came to London to hear a young tenor called Alfie Boe who turned out to be absolutely extraordinary. I couldn’t believe the luck we had..” La Boheme played on Broadway, New York for 9 months and then went on tour across the States. The critics and audiences alike embraced the show with open arms.

Alfie went on to win a Tony Award for his performance on Broadway which today sits next to his John McCormack Young Voice Award and Lyric Tenor of the World Audience Award.

Alfie has performed in some of our most cherished venues including The Royal Opera House and at Glyndebourne. In 2006, another dream came true when he performed at the Royal Albert Hall for classic FM. The Company had created a development label for fledgling artists and Alfie was their first signing. His debut album. Which was simply entitled ’ALFIE BOE’, went straight to No2 in the classical chart and sat there for several months.

The release was successful and in November 2006 Alfie Boe signed to the prestigious EMI Classics label. As he said at the time,

“Its been an amazing twelve months working with Classic FM and now I am extremely excited to be signing with EMI Classics. For me. EMI is the spiritual home of classical music with a history of some of the finest classical artists and recordings anywhere in the world. To sign to a record company with this rich heritage is both unbelievably exciting and very humbling..”

As you enter Alfie’s home town of Fleetwood there is a crest hanging over the Town Hall. Emblazoned with a red rose for Lancashire and an anchor symbolising Fleetwood’s seaside status, underneath there is just one word: ‘Onward’. Nothing could be more appropriate than for 33 year old Alfie Boe to entitle his new album:

“..Obviously there are sentimental reasons for using the title as Fleetwood is my home town, but it’s a word that perfectly describes my approach to life. It suggests movement, moving to the next stage, always striving to do your best,” explains Alfie with a smile.

‘Onward’ offers a rousing collection of uplifting songs: “When we started talking about my album I wanted to create a musical experience that the listener would be inspired by. I feel the arias we’ve chosen are all anthems in their own right and reflect a true spirit..”

‘ONWARD’ by Alfie Boe EMI Classics label

‘Onward’ offers a rousing collection of uplifting songs.

“When we started talking about my album I wanted to create a musical experience that the listener would be inspired by. I feel the arias we’ve chosen are all anthems in their own right and reflect a true spirit..”

The album was recorded with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in the renowned Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.

“The whole creative process has been amazing. Being able to perform works by John Rutter and Karl Jenkins, two of Britain’s finest composers, is an honour in itself, but to have them writing arrangements for ‘Onward’ is just beyond my wildest dreams. Their styles are so different but what they produce is equally magical..”

The incomparable Howard Goodall, who recently won an award for his fascinating Channel 4 documentary ‘Howard Goodall’s 20th Century Greats’ and more recently appointed as ‘ambassador’ for singing in England, has also put a special arrangement together for Alfie’s recording of ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’.

“Balulalow’ is a song I am so pleased to be performing. I first heard it in Westminster Cathedral at Christmas time about 7 years ago. It’s a short piece but I thought it was absolutely beautiful, it made my Christmas and I hoped one day that I’d have the opportunity to perform it - this album was the perfect place for me to do so. One of the biggest and most dramatic pieces on the album is from Stabat Mater, Rossini’s “Cujus Animam”.I first performed
This when I was a student in Dijon and I’m delighted to be able to finally record it..”

In less than one year Alfie Boe has released two successful albums, his eponymous album for Classic FM, which has led to a much coveted Classical Brit nomination for ‘Best Album’ - and his current album ‘Onward’ for EMI Classics.

Alfie Boe recently performed at Clarence House for HRH Prince Charles where he graciously accepted the post of Ambassador for HRH Arts & Kids Foundation. He was also invited to take the stage with Lesley Garrett and Sir Willard White at the Royal Albert Hall.
Arundel Festival Opening Concert Friday 24th August

www.arundelfestival.co.uk

Admission is by advance ticket purchase only.
www.goodwood.co.uk/motorsport
01243-755055

“..Wild, promiscuous and dazzling: the Garman siblings were art connoisseurs who also collected famous lovers.   Cressida Connolly tells the story of a family love affair with Bohemia in ‘The Rare and the Beautiful.” ¹

Cressida Connolly’s family biography delves into the lives of three (Kathleen, Lorna and Mary) of the seven Garman sisters in intense and revealing detail.   Through her skilful retelling of these remarkable lives, we get an intimate portrait of a golden age of romance, passion and art that is an original beguiling read.

                        *                                   *                                   *

Cressida Connolly was born in 1960.   She is a journalist and reviewer.   Her collection of stories, ‘The Happiest Days’ won the PEN/MacMillan Prize. She has three children and lives on a farm in Worcestershire. 2

Cressida Connolly is uniquely grounded in the society and times she has written about: “This name rang a bell.  I remembered that Kitty Garman and her first cousin Michael Wishart had been friends of my parents* whose world had overlapped with that of the Garmans and their children: Chelsea in the1930s, nights at the‘Gargoyle Club’ in Soho, afternoons sitting for Augustus John, lunches with Aldous Huxley in the South of France before the Second World War. … Another link was that some of the Garmans had settled near the sea by the South Downs in Sussex, where I grew up…”

Cressida Connolly is the daughter of the late Cyril Connolly: Editor of Horizon Magazine (1939-1950)  The magazine was an integral component of intellectual and literary life in England and contributed to the maintenance of a vital literary culture. ³

The Rare and the Beautiful

by Cressida Connolly

‘The Rare and the Beautiful’ charts the loves and lives of three sisters, all of them strikingly beautiful, artistic and wild, who inspired and seduced some of the greatest artists and writers of the early twentieth.   Mary Garman married the poet Roy Campbell, who caused a literary scandal with his verse attack on the ‘Bloomsbury Group’, written in the wake of his wife’s affair with Vita Sackville West.  

The enigmatic Kathleen – whose collection of art included Bonnard, Constable, Picasso, Modigliani and Van Gogh – was the love (and finally, the wife) of the American-born sculptor Jacob Epstein, not before Epstein’s first wife shot her with a pistol.  

Lorna, the youngest and most radiant of the sisters, was the lover of the young poet Laurie Lee and the painter Lucian Freud.

The Garmans became involved in the radical, political, and artistic circles of Europe between the two wars.   They lived outside prevailing mores: bisexuality, unfaithfulness, and illegitimate children were a matter of course.   They flew in the face of convention, sidelining their own talents, friendships, material comforts – even their own children – in the cause of Art.  

Cressida Connolly’s exquisite portrait of these sisters brilliantly evokes their extraordinary milieu of scandal, high drama and high culture in London’s bohemia.  ²

Born around the turn of the nineteenth century, most of the siblings were to become involved in the radical literary and political circles of British life between the First and Second World Wars.   Their morals were unconventional; nevertheless they were high-minded and intensely loyal.

They were the last muses: women who were prepared to sideline their own talent, friendships, material comforts – even their own children – in order to beguile and inspire the men they loved.

Lorna Garman, the youngest and the most beautiful of all the family married Ernest Wishart when she was sixteen.   Wishart was a wealthy landowner and publisher living in Binsted, near Arundel; he was a communist and founder of the socialist publishing house Laurence & Wishart.   He spent most of his life turning a blind eye to his wife’s infidelities. 

Throughout their long and seemingly happy marriage, Lorna continued to have affairs: with the writer and free-love advocate Llewellyn Powys; with Laurie Lee, who fathered her third child and wrote of her in his books; with Lucien Freud, to whom she brought objects to paint … a stuffed zebra head from a taxidermist’s in London. ⁴ that appears in many of his early works.*

Lucian Freud		*  ‘The Artist’s Room’ 1943

 “..Lorna, the baby of the family, was perhaps the most flamboyant of the fabulous Garmans.   She wore beautiful and unusual clothes and smelled of Chanel No5, went riding on her horse at night, drove a chocolate-brown Bentley, and would strip naked to swim in inviting lakes or rivers or 10-metre waves.   At 14 she seduced the man who would become her husband when she was 16, the publisher Ernest Wishart”  ²

“Lorna, who had her first child at seventeen, would leave her young family to drive off alone in her huge, expensive car all the way from Arundel in Sussex to the west End of London for a night out dressed in ultramarine sequins to match her eyes.”

“My mother leans over me.   Dressed for dancing in clinging sequins … she resembles a sophisticated mermaid… after mother’s departure, I bury my face into the cool pillow where the scent of Fleurs de Rocaille lingers.    I listen for the familiar purr of the chocolate brown Bentley crunching on the gravel driveway.   My mother, always alone, is speeding through the darkling hawthorns heading for nightclubs…”

Michael Binsted Wishart: Artist and son of Lorna & Ernest Wishart 

“The great thing about Lorna is that she had these amazing eyes …they were profoundly blue and when she looked at you, you felt transfixed.  She was remarkably beautiful”  5

Walking alone on the beach early one morning in Cornwall she met Laurie Lee playing the fiddle on the strand.   He played the violin, wrote poetry and loved the countryside:  ”She drew me in with her blue steady gaze.   I remember the flowers on the piano, the white sheets on her bed, her deep mouth, and love without honour.  Without honour, but at least with salvation.”  

   
Laurie Lee painted by Anthony Devas

“By the end of October 1940 Lee had decided he would get out of London and find a shack to live in near Lorna in Sussex.   By luck he found just the thing: a caravan in a nearby wood close to the Madonna pond. (not like Augustus John’s - a picturesque gypsy caravan; but a simple green tin lozenge).

 Lit by an oil lamp that filled the small space with its sweltery smell.

“Lorna evidently relished this …arriving in her dramatic Bentley with her arms full of presents, cooking aromatic Mediterranean dishes in the little kitchen area, lying across the bed in the flickering light….Eventually the caravan felt too small and remote and Lee took a cottage in Bognor Regis.   He dedicated his first collection of poems: ‘The Sun My Monument’  to Lorna.”

link

Laurie Lee’s ‘journey’ is described in ‘A Moment of War’  the sequel to ‘As I walked out one Midsummer Morning’  Lorna’s powerful allure hangs over the account; never named (until 1969), she is referred to only as “the girl”.   Lee records that: “I told her my plans one evening as she sat twisting her hair with her fingers and gazing into my eyes with her long cat look.   She wasn’t impressed.  Others may need a war, she said; but you don’t, you’ve got one here.   She bared her beautiful small teeth and unsheathed her claws..”  Laurie Lee

He wore her signet ring until the day he died in 1997.

“Only Lorna (of all the seven sisters) enjoyed the comfort of cash (when Laurie Lee went off to fight Franco, she mailed him pound notes that were ‘swoony’ with the scent of the Chanel No. 5 in which she had soaked them)”. 6

 Lorna met Freud in 1943 and after the two men had confrontations, began to see less of Laurie Lee. “It was around this time people noticed a change in his (Freud’s) work.  It was in 1945 that Lucian Freud began to handle oil-paint in a specifically adult way,” observed the art critic John Russell   “This was due to a new density of involvement with individual human beings…he had led until then a life unanchored to specific attachments..”The specific attachment that was ‘Lornie’ began to appear in his work.   He drew her in her ocelet coat, wide-eyed.   She is the ‘Woman with a Tulip’ of 1945, and the downcast ‘Woman with a Daffodil’ of the same year.   Lawrence Gowring later asked Freud who the model for this picture had been to which he replied: “She was the first person who meant something to me” without revealing her name.  “I was more concerned with the subject – she was very wild – than I had been before”

“That was what Lucian meant when he said of her that she (Lorna) was the first person he had met who he could care for AND respect”.  7

When Freud betrayed her with a younger actress, she told him: “I thought I was giving you up for Lent but I’m giving you up for good...”  2

“..Lorna loved spontaneity and surprises.   She went riding on her horse at night, through the steep streets of Arundel where people were sleeping, a small tame goat following behind.   Years later, when she had grandchildren, she would go alone into the woods and decorate a ChristmasTree, complete with candles, before leading the children out to find it glowing mysteriously.   In the middle of these same woods was a clearing with a pond, and this she transformed into an enchanted glade, with lanterns and her own carvings draped in beads.”

Lorna Wishart nee Garman died a day after her eighty-ninth birthday in January 2000.  

The Rare and the Beautiful

By Cressida Connolly

Published by Harper Collins

ISBN I-84115-633-7

www.amazon.com

www.arlindo-correia.com/040205.html

1.          Rachel Cooke ‘The Sunday Observer’
2.          Fourth Estate
3.          Wikipedia
4.          Amanda Vaill   The Washington Post
5.          Pauline Tennant.  Her father David owned the ‘Gargoyle Club, London’
6.          Kitty Garman

RAFA Battle of Britain Air Show – Shoreham

The organisers of the ‘RAFA Shoreham Battle of Britain Airshow’ announce Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra – Patron, will be attending the Airshow on Sunday 17^th September.  

Shoreham airfield celebrates its 70^th anniversary this year making it the oldest commercial airfield in the UK.   The Air Show is the only air show to be held on ‘The Battle of Britain’ weekend and coincides with the 70^th anniversary of the historic ‘Spitfire’ aircraft.

On both days the full ‘Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Association’ fly past display to include one of the only two Avro Lancaster bombers left in airworthy condition and accompanying fighter protection aircraft; the historic Hurricanes and Spitfires and support Dakota.

 John Romain has choreographed a simulated attack on the airfield by two Messerschmits 108s with pyrotechnics and characters in roll play situations around the aircraft including a Spitfire and Hurricane scramble with a total of eight aircraft.

The RAF air displays will include the ‘Typhoon’ which made a fly past debut at Shoreham Air Show last year; the Harrier GR7’Jump Jet’, together with displays by ‘Hawk’, ‘Tucano’ and ‘Tutor’ aircraft.

The RAF Merlin helicopter display team will be putting the RAF’s newest support helicopter through its paces for the first time at Shoreham Air Show accompanied by a Royal Navy version.   The award winning Chinook will be put through manoeuvres and Ian Brown will demonstrate the capabilities of the H900 G-Susx police helicopter.

Aircraft aerobatics will be demonstrated by Denny Dobson in his ‘Extra 300’ , Will Curtis in his ‘Sukhoi 26 M2’ and Guy Westgate in his ‘Fox Glider’ with the ‘Extra 300’ tug aircraft.   Choreographed  displays by the 4 Yakovlevs in their ‘Yak’ aircraft and the 4 ‘Utterley Butterleys’.   The fast jets will include the ‘Red Bull Sea Vixen’ and ‘Vampire T11’ jet aircraft.

The “Red Devils” display parachute team will be jumping both days and linking up with members of the Parachute Regiment recruiting team and their exciting display in the main arena.   The ground arena will feature demonstrations from the RAF Police Dog Team, The RAF Regiment and RAF Air Cadet Corps.   There will be opportunities to try a ‘Red Arrows’ simulator and to meet members of all three Services.

In addition to keep the young – and the not so young – enthralled there will be a fun-fair, a circus, craft tents, trade stands and classic cars to explore.

A number of aircraft will be based overnight at Shoreham as a bonus for static viewing.  However, the skies will be full with fly pasts by ‘Sea Hawk’, ‘Sea Fury’, ‘Mustang’, ‘Kittyhawk’, ‘Harvard’, ‘Sally B’ and the ‘Flying Catalina’.

LEST WE FORGET  Last year £120,000 was donated to the RAFA funds and the target this year is One Million Pounds   Details on the RAFA website: www.rafa.org.uk

LINKS

Michael Lakin Starlight Design Winner of ‘Cannes Festival International d’Art Pyrotechnic  2001 & 2002  www.festival-pyrotechnique-cannes.com

FIREWORKS AT THE ARUNDEL FESTIVAL

To mark and celebrate the first day of the Millennium (January 1^st 2000) Edward and Georgina, the Earl and Countess of Arundel, invited every resident of Arundel into the Castle quadrangle to share an evening of music, mulled wine – and fireworks.

Prayers were led by Bishop Cormack O’Connor with Miles, 17^th Duke of Norfolk, family, friends, other dignitaries and 3,000 people standing under the Duke’s personal standard fluttering overhead on the one thousand year old Keep.

Edward, Lord Norfolk gave a rousing speech from the very spot his ancestor had led out the men of Arundel to fight at Agincourt; reminding everyone of how the ‘Battle of Britain’ had been fought in skies over Sussex and of our debt to those who gave – and continue to give - their lives to protect our freedom.  There followed a spectacular firework display orchestrated to music by Michael Lakin and his company ‘Starlight Design’ culminating in the stirring ‘Dambuster’s March’: as one guest observed:

“..the most spectacular explosion of fireworks any of us had ever witnessed...Thanks to the generosity of the Arundels’, we embark on the new millennium with pride, and a strong sense of community.. The event was inspired, the effort to realise it enormous and its legacy – in terms of the bond between town and castle – will be permanent..”   Dr. John Godfrey: WSG 2000

This bonding continues in the 29^th Arundel Festival; the idea of an Arts Festival in Arundel began from the original inspiration of the Lady Marsha in 1977 and facilitated by her father, the late Duke Miles, the bond of town community and castle continues each year.  Edward, now the 18^th Duke of Norfolk and family have personally involved with the promotion and running of the 2006 Festival  to ensure: “Real festivals should be about community – this festival belongs to this community.”  Edward Norfolk 2006

Following an air display by a historic Spitfire and the opening concert with Welsh classical singer Katherine Jenkins and her orchestra (winner of the Classical Brit Music Award), Michael Lakin is back with his spectacular Starlight Design fireworks.  www.starlightdesign.co.uk

Michael, a graduate of the Cambridge School of Architecture, has specialised in large scale architectural and theatrical lighting for more than twenty-five years.   His company Starlight Design have developed its own computerised and unique detonating system for fireworks allowing large displays to be exactly synchronised to music as never before.   Following the Millennium display in Arundel Starlight went on to win the prestigious Cannes Firework Competition, the ‘Festival International d’Art Pyrotechnique’ in 2001 and 2002. www.festival-pyrotechnique-cannes.com

Starlight Design has grown through their ‘Creativity’ and ‘Originality and the three Directors, jointly manage the company with their individual expertise in Design, Lighting and Fireworks.   They employ fifty full time staff and work on a variety of major events for private and commercial clients worldwide.*

Edward and Georgina, the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk (since 2002) are once again bringing the Arundel community close into the Castle on the Lower Lawns.   The towering walls will provide the most dramatic of settings to launch the Festival week. 

The Arundel Festival runs from Friday 25^th August to Sunday 3^rd September 2006     

*Starlight Design Past projects include: Film Premieres: Dick Tracey, The Flintstones, Star Trek, Rob Roy, Casper, Golden Eye, 101 Dalmations, Fierce Creatures, Lost in Space, Titanix, Tomorrow Never Comes, Cannes Film Festival, Rugrats, The Movie, Tea with Mussolini, Shakespeare in Love, Eyes Wide Shut, The Thomas Crown Affair, The World Is Not Enough, Iron Giant, The Grinch, Mission Impossible II, Stuart Little, Angela’s Ashes, The Hulk, Tomb Raider, Vanilla Sky, Bridget Jones Diary, Die Another Day, Catch Me If You Can, Johnny English, Love Actually, Shrek 2, Cat Woman, Sky Captain, Harry Potter, Thunderbirds, Wimbledon, plus high profile events: Waddesdon Manor Fashion Show, Garrards – Tower of London, De Beers- Syon Park, Bulgari, Dunhill, Aspreys, Tiffany, Sotheby’s, Chanel, London Fashion Week, Miss World, Goodwood Festival of Speed, Glorious Goodwood, Goodwood Revival, Queen’s 80^th birthday fireworks at Kew.

the
book
review

Miles.  A Portrait of the 17^th Duke of Norfolk by Gerard Noel

A sensitively written book about a very special man – Duke Miles – written as only a close friend can.   Gerard Noel’s portrait is essential and uplifting reading for anyone who has association with Arundel, the Fitzalan Howard family and an interest in English heritage.  Published in 2004 by Michael Russell of Wilby Hall, Norwich NR16 2JP  ISBN 085955-289-6 available through www.amazon.co.uk  - or from the Arundel Library.

Miles.  A Portrait of the 17^th Duke of Norfolk by Gerard Noel 2004

“This is an affectionate portrait of Miles Norfolk by Gerald Noel, with a foreword by Lord Carrington, the military sections by John Martin Robinson, and extensive quotations from Miles’ own diaries.   Miles died in 2002, aged eighty-six.   His life was unusual in that he had two completely separate consecutive careers: as a successful professional soldier in the Grenadier Guards and then as premier duke and Earl Marshal of England with all the historic responsibilities which went with those positions.   He had already retired as a major general when at the age of sixty he inherited the Norfolk mantle from Bernard, his second cousin once removed, in 1975.   He then fulfilled his ducal duties for the best part of twenty-six years with humour, energy, dedication and administrative competence.

He served at Dunkirk, in Italy and in the Normandy campaign including the race to Brussels, and was awarded the MC.   Thereafter he was head of Brixmis in Berlin (the British Intelligence mission to the Russian army during the Cold War), commanded the King’s African Rifles in pre-Independence Kenya, and was finally Director of Military Service Intelligence.   After the Army he had a stint in the City as a non-executive director of Fleming’s Bank.   He made wise decisions for the estates and future of Arundel, the great castle-house of the Fitzalan Howards which he restored to glory.

His official life as duke involved leadership of the Catholic peers in the House of Lords where he performed an almost nineteenth-century role and was able to put across the moral views of the Church, even on occasion defeat the government, as over school buses.   As Earl Marshal he restored the College of Arms building and put its finances on a sound footing.

He gives an evocative description of early childhood at Carlton Towers in Yorkshire, his mother’s family’s house remodelled in the 1870s by Pugin and Bentley as a large forbidding Victorian pile.   He recalls pre-war life there with its idiosyncratic mix of frugality and grandeur, with the cheerfulness of a large family – Miles was one of eight – perhaps at the heart of his abiding love for his original Northern home.”

Miles  A Portrait of the 17^th Duke of Norfolk by Gerard Noel 2004

Published by Michael Russell Ltd of Wilby Hall, Norwich NR16 2JP  ISBN 085955-289-6

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