The Telegraph Magazine

9 JULY 2022

His greatest
challenge

Sir Ranulph Fiennes
battles Parkinson’s

2 The Telegraph Magazine 9 July 2022

0 9.0 7 2022

REGULARS FEATURES

MY SATURDAY Still unstoppable:
Garden pottering and Sir Ranulph Fiennes

chatty running at 78

KATIE DERHAM ALEX PRESTON

P. 5 P.6

COVER: NIK HARTLEY. GROOMING: LAUREN RIPPIN AT JOY GOODMAN.THIS PAGE: SIMON EMMETT/TRUNK ARCHIVE AGONY UNCLE The tragic
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gambling addiction
RICHARD MADELEY
JESSAMY CALKIN
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& GUY KELLY
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FOOD
STYLE

The glamour of the Stateside-inspired salads
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changing world of work and devilled kidneys
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LISA ARMSTRONG MARK HIX
SONIA HARIA
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JAN MASTERS VICTORIA MOORE

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9 July 2022 The Telegraph Magazine 3

4 The Telegraph Magazine 9 July 2022

Katie Derham
My Saturday

with pals – a little running and a Sunny, to a neighbour’s for tea
lot of chatting. I don’t consider and a natter. Sunny used to be
exercise at all unless it involves my running companion but after
company and the outdoors. a mile he sits there as if to say, ‘Do
I have to keep going?’
11am I have brunch with my hus-
band John [Vincent, co- 5pm I tinkle on the piano, seeing
founder of fast- if I can still make my fingers
food chain Leon] and work. My mum and dad both
daughter Eleanor, 16: had talented pianist mothers,
poached egg, avocado and my siblings and I all played
on toast, big coffee. instruments. When the chance
John proposed the first came along to get involved in
time we met, at a university ball. classical music broadcasting, I
I didn’t take him seriously, but jumped at it. I’m so excited that
apparently he told his dad that the Proms is back in its full glory;
The radio presenter, he would end up marrying me. I’m presenting the first Saturday
52, on the joys of Sussex – John Wilson is conducting the
steak, garden centres 12.30pm I take Eleanor to a gui- fantastic Sinfonia of London.
and Grey’s Anatomy
tar lesson. (My elder daughter [The Proms start on Friday on
Natasha, 22, is a drama student the BBC.]
8.55am I try to get up by 9am. in New York.) I’ll also pop into

I can still hear my parents Butterbox Farm for grass-fed 7.30pm Saturday is often steak
saying, ‘You’ve wasted the best beef – we’re trying to eat less red night, with sautéed potatoes,
part of the day…’ The first thing meat, but it’s too tempting. chilli kale and red wine. Noth-
I do is water the greenhouse. I ing makes me
happier than a
live on the edge of a village in 2pm My current project is dredg-
rural Sussex and didn’t know ing and planting our overgrown big feed-up in
AS TOLD TO CLAIRE WEBB. GETTY IMAGES, ALAMY much about gardening when pond. My mother-in-law lives front of the telly.
we moved down here 14 years nearby and we’re also revamp- Eleanor and I got
ago. But the older I get, ing her courtyard, so there’s through 16 seasons of Grey’s
the happier I am to always an excuse to go to the Anatomy in lockdown.
just potter in my garden centre.
vegetable patch.
12am We do the Wordle and try
3.30pm A gentle walk with our to avoid getting sucked in by
10am A clamber around fields creaky old golden retriever, tomorrow’s headlines.

9 July 2022 The Telegraph Magazine 5

At 78, after criss-crossing the globe and scaling Everest, our greatest living explorer is

Words by
ALEX PRESTON

6 The Telegraph Magazine 9 July 2022

facing his biggest challenge yet – living with Parkinson’s and accepting old age

Photography by
NIK HARTLEY

9 July 2022 The Telegraph Magazine 7

One of my earliest memories is of reaching up to take body is falling to bits,’ he says in the film. He has faced his own Previous page:
the enormous hand of a tall, wind-blasted man who I mortality before, notably after a heart attack in 2003 that almost Fiennes
knew, despite my two and a half years, to be a hero. It killed him. ‘I used to be frightened of death,’ he says. That heart photographed last
was the early summer of 1981, and I’d gone to Disney- attack marked the turning point. month. Above:
land in California with Britain’s greatest living explorer, Sir at the North Pole
Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes. Fiennes was at the ‘I didn’t feel [anything] – no pain, and I suddenly woke up during his
time halfway through perhaps his greatest achievement – the days later in a hospital bed with wires… So I knew I had been Transglobe
Transglobe Expedition, a polar circumnavigation of the globe. dead for three days and nights and how many angels did I see? Expedition in 1982.
My dad, Anthony, was the expedition secretary. None. It was complete, wonderful nothingness.’ It’s not the end Right: his third
that seems to scare him now, but rather the journey between – and ultimately
I have known Ran – as everyone calls him – for my entire life, here and there, the loss of the dignity and control that have been successful –
and yet there’s still something surprising about the fact that he so central to his remarkable life. attempt to climb
is an old man now. Age seems to have crept up quickly. Ten years Everest, 2009
ago he was still contemplating the first winter crossing of the The film covers the full span of Ran’s 78 years, and charts his
Antarctic, having become the oldest Briton to summit Everest a successes and failures, his ceaseless drive to go further and
couple of years earlier. He seemed for so long to have discovered higher than anyone else – he was a hero of the Dhofar War in
the secret of, if not eternal youth, then a perpetual vigorous the ’70s; one of the world’s great polar explorers; he has
middle age. He’s now 78, suffering from Parkinson’s, his body a climbed great mountains and, just months after his heart
tattered record of the extremes to which he has subjected it over attack, he ran seven marathons on seven continents in seven
a life of dazzling adventure. days. Along the way he has contracted frostbite and had to
hacksaw the ends of his fingers off.
I’m speaking to him on the release of Explorer, an extraordi-
nary film about his life, intercutting home videos of Ran with ‘The mind wants to do things
his late wife Ginny as teenagers, footage of his adventures, and but then suddenly finds that the
then shots of Ran as he is now: shaky, dignified, looking with his body is falling to bits’
vast forehead and shaggy eyebrows like a druid, or a craggy
Roman senator.

Ran was diagnosed with Parkinson’s three years ago, the
culmination of a long period when he felt that something
wasn’t right. He forgot words, lost his balance, began to shake.
‘The mind wants to do things but then suddenly finds that the

8 The Telegraph Magazine 9 July 2022

But Explorer is also a love story. Ran met Ginny when he was Right: Fiennes were no circumpolar satellites, no GPS, we had to navigate just
12 and she was nine; they loved one another deeply and cease- and first wife Ginny as Scott and Shackleton did because that’s all there was. If you
lessly until her death from stomach cancer in 2004. She was with their dog, couldn’t see the sun, you couldn’t tell where you were.’
just 56. Bothy, after the
Transglobe The London-based Expedition Committee took the difficult
Ginny’s voice is the first thing we hear in the film, a recogni- Expedition in ’82 decision to recall the adventurers and so, only a few thousand
tion of the driving force she was in his life, the way she made miles from the end of the 100,000-mile expedition, after almost
GETTY IMAGES, EYEVINE things happen. The Transglobe Expedition was her idea. ‘I can a decade of planning and three years of brutal travelling, it
remember back in 1971 she had this idea that I should be the first looked like everything was over.
person to circumnavigate the globe pole to pole,’ Ran tells me.
‘She sent me to the library at the RGS [Royal Geographical Soci- Ginny had handled the communications for the entire expe-
ety] and I came back and said, “I don’t think we can do this. It’s a dition, becoming a highly skilled radio operator. She was at this
stupid idea.” She got quite annoyed and sent me back.’ time based in a hut in Greenland. The committee sent Ginny the
message to recall the duo – there was a ski plane at the Arctic
Ginny kept sending him back until he agreed to do it. Then base that would be sent to extract them. ‘Ginny knew,’ Ran tells
she took a small tin globe that she’d had since school and, using me, ‘that if we flew one mile, one metre, the whole expedition,
a red crayon, marked out what she estimated as the best course 10 years of our lives, would be ruined. Now, that message from
for the expedition to take. It was a path that was more or less the committee was the message that Ginny didn’t get. The first
followed, eight years later, when Ran and his fellow explorers, time in four years she’d missed a message. And that sums her up.’
Oliver Shepard and Charlie Burton, set off from London.
Another important figure in the Transglobe Expedition was
Ginny’s greatest contribution to the Transglobe Expedition, HRH the Prince of Wales, its active and opinionated patron. The
though, was an omission. At the very end of the journey, having beginning of the relationship was not so auspicious, though. ‘I
crossed the North Pole, Ran and Charlie (Shepard had dropped wrote to Buckingham Palace with a letter [explaining] that we
out by this point) found themselves trapped on a shrinking ice were going to do this expedition and we were looking for a
floe, faced with a terrifying dilemma. The ice was melting fast; patron,’ Ran tells me. ‘I admired him, you see.’ The team were
this meant both that there was only a limited time for a plane to duly invited to the Palace to meet the Prince. ‘He took us to a
land and pick them up, but also that the floe that was carrying little sitting room. The day before he’d come back from America.
them might melt altogether, leaving them stranded in the Arctic There had been pictures of him in the papers with Sophia Loren
Ocean. ‘That was when it really looked like we wouldn’t make it and Farrah Fawcett Majors either side of him. We turned the
back,’ Ran tells me. ‘That the ship would never find us. There lights off to show him a film we’d put together for him. I heard…’
Here, Ran makes a snoring noise. ‘He woke up and was obvi-
9 July 2022 ously so embarrassed that he agreed to be patron. He was a won-
derful patron and has been for 46 years now.’

I’ve read every book Ran has written – 25 at the last count –
and am always struck by an essential blankness at the heart of
them. In Explorer, however, the director Matt Dyas manages to
get closer to the heart of who Ran is, what really drives him on,
than all of those books combined. There’s a wonderful scene
where he walks past a photograph of his father, picks it up, says,
‘I love you Dad,’ and carries on. Ran didn’t know his father, or for
that matter his grandfather. His father died four months before
he was born, stepping on a mine while serving in the Royal Scots
Greys in Italy. His grandfather died at the Battle of Arras. In the
film, Ran speaks of ‘inviting the ghosts’ of his father and grand-
father into his head whenever he’s at a difficult spot.

I ask him whether this is still what drives him on. ‘I can

The Telegraph Magazine 9

10 The Telegr a ph M aga zine 9 July 2022

‘I found that when Ginny died I was looking exhausted. I took the cup of tea and realised what
it was sort of the end of the world a wonderful lady she was.’ So does he have to step carefully with
and I just folded up’ Louise around the subject of Ginny, who was such a massive part
of his life? ‘Naturally,’ he says. ‘You’ve got to keep some things…
Left: crossing the every human person has thoughts of their own.’
Thames on floating
‘Jesus boots’, 1979. Ran and Louise had a daughter, Elizabeth, in 2006. Years
Below: with earlier, Ran and Ginny had spent 17 years struggling to conceive
second wife Louise – they endured a lengthy IVF battle and were turned down as
Millington in 2005; adoptive parents because of their adventuring lifestyle (and a
in Iceland lack of regular income). Elizabeth has come as a gift to Ran and
he clearly adores her. ‘She works to defend animals,’ he says. ‘She
spoke at Trafalgar Square next to a 7ft stuffed lion to protest big
game hunting. She’s a brave girl. Despite the fact that she’s got
mild dyslexia like me, she works so hard that she gets [top
grades], and I just sit back and bask in her glory.’

I ask Ran about his life now. He exists somewhere between the
house he shares with Louise and Elizabeth in Cheshire, his office
in Exmoor, and the road – the seemingly endless lecture circuit
where he speaks about his life, sells his books and makes a living.
The film contains footage from the Exmoor farmhouse where Ran
and Ginny lived. I remember going there as a child – the steeply
sloping valleys, the cows all around, the sense of being in as wild a
place as England can offer. The fact that he’s kept an office there –
‘leased, not owned’, he tells me – is a sign of its importance to him.

‘Home is where Louise and Elizabeth are,’ he says. ‘When I
sold Exmoor after Ginny’s death, the people in the village – a
farmer from next door and the ex-headmistress from the village,
both of them retired – were doing my office work. They’re still

GETTY IMAGES honestly say that in no way has it diminished… Those times that
I really wanted to give up, I [chose not to] because of the thought
of shaming my father and grandfather. I would imagine them The Telegraph Magazine 11
walking beside me, particularly when I had bad frostbite and
was on my own on some of the recent expeditions.’

Ginny’s death undid Ran. It was a swift illness and you saw
this man who for so long had been master of the world about
him suddenly losing control. ‘I found that when Ginny died it
was sort of the end of the world basically and I just folded up,’ he
says. ‘I thought I’d become totally useless. I needed to drag
myself out of it. I needed to make myself a man of action again.’
He decided to climb Everest, both as a way of engaging with fear
– a way of feeling again – and, I suggest to him, a kind of suicide
mission. ‘I’d always been scared of heights and had vertigo and
so I thought of Everest. Turns out there are no real drops on
Everest, unfortunately.’

Iask if Ginny lives in his head now as his father and grand-
father do, whether he speaks to her as he speaks to him.
‘Exactly,’ he says. ‘Obviously two years after Ginny died, I
married again. So you’ve got another lovely lady without all
the history, but you’ve been lucky enough in this world to marry
two wonderful people. But Ginny was just without a doubt the
most amazing lady you could imagine.’

That second wife is Louise Millington, 56, a horse trainer. ‘I
was giving a lecture in Chester,’ Ran says, ‘and halfway through
the lecture Louise came up and offered me a cup of tea because

9 July 2022

12 The Telegraph Magazine 9 July 2022

there. I try to go down at least once a fortnight to collect the mail
and to make sure that they’re happy. Louise and Elizabeth are up
north and the office is down there in the south.’ When he’s in
Exmoor he sleeps in the office. ‘Although you can’t really call it
sleeping. It’s more comfortable in the Mondeo.’

Here, then, is one of the great strangenesses of Fiennes’s life.
Despite being a national treasure, despite all his achievements
and almost £20 million raised for charity, he lives like a pauper.
When in London, he sleeps in his car – a battered old Ford Mondeo
with 280,000 miles on the clock. ‘I sleep in the back, where I can
stretch out. It’s fine as long as you’re up and about before the res-
idents’ permits kick in.’ He talks in the film about ‘needing to pay
the gas bills’, about how there’s ‘always the worry that one might

‘I sleep in the back of the Mondeo.
It’s fine as long as you get up before
the residents’ permits kick in’

REX FEATURES From top: climbing not be able to make an income’. It was the incongruity of this that the beginning I realised that I just needed to push, push, push,
has always been a initially attracted film-makers to Fiennes’s story. to get ahead of the people I was against. It goes back to DNA. I
draw for Fiennes; find myself needing a driving force, a point to aim for.
Prince Charles ‘I was obsessed by the contradiction,’ Dyas tells me. ‘It was the
greets the thing that got me going on the film in the first place. Man living ‘If I didn’t have a book to be working on or researching for
returning in Mondeo and world’s greatest explorer. How do those two that would be a big bad problem for me,’ he says. ‘It would mean
Transglobe things come together? But I’ve had fun with Ran on the road. I the system had gone badly wrong.’
Expedition can see that it gives him satisfaction that he’s not just sitting at
explorers, 1982; home. Somewhere in between Ran floating on an ice floe and A s to the future, he has no grand notions of legacy. ‘Maybe
a 2017 solo sleeping in his car is where the greatness of the man lies.’ [people will remember my name for] 10 years or some-
expedition thing,’ he concedes in the film. ‘But I don’t mind about
9 July 2022 For his talks, Ran receives somewhere between £5,000 and that because it’s irrelevant. We have a time down here
£10,000 a pop. His books appear regularly on bestseller lists and and when it’s done, it’s done.’
he has made a number of TV and film appearances. I don’t buy
the story that he’s broke, and I tell him as much. ‘I need to make He still has ambitions, though; there are books he wants to
a living like anyone else,’ he says, ‘but ever since school I’ve got write. He says that he intends to climb Barna Barrow, one of
used to needing to be pushing very hard all the time. Right from Exmoor’s highest peaks, every year until he is 85. But the man in
the film, the figure before me now, tells a different story.

Perhaps the most moving scene in the whole film sees Ran,
fully clothed, holding a pair of sticks, stepping into the sea at
Porlock Weir. It’s a grim day, but he has seen something on TV
that suggests cold water might help his Parkinson’s, and so he
immerses himself. I ask him how’s he’s dealing with his illness
and he holds up a shaky hand. ‘The three things that the doctor
summarised were, firstly your shaking, secondly your balance
and thirdly your memory. I can look at my hands and say “Stop
shaking”, as you would to a Jack Russell terrier and the shaking
stops. The balance I find I can deal with if I run, or if not run then
jiggle, without sticks up and down some small hills. The mem-
ory on the other hand, it’s a problem. You’ll have seen I’ve for-
gotten a few words in the past five minutes. They just go and
then they come back again, but if you’re lecturing that’s very
frustrating. You don’t know when it’s going to go.’

Clearly the illness, and age more generally, has been a surprise
for Ran. The great figures in his life all died young. The ‘ghosts’
who inhabit his head all left the world when they were a fraction
of the age he is now. After heart attacks and avalanches, falls into
icy water and his time on a shrinking iceberg, after frostbite and
crotch-rot and all the other agonies, Ran is still here.
Explorer is in cinemas from 14 July

The Telegraph Magazine 13

Yes, she’s screen royalty. Yes, she’s Words by
SONIA HARIA

famously played the Queen. And
yes, she’s a real-life dame. But
Helen Mirren’s attitude towards
fashion and beauty is far from
imperious. In fact, in an often
dispiritingly youth-obsessed
culture, her joyful, adventurous,
often surprising approach has
made the 76-year-old actor a style
idol for women of all ages. Here,
she talks us through her recent
red-carpet hits, and shares the
fashion and beauty lessons that
guide her glamorous choices –
including when to pare back,
when to ramp things up, and
when to dye your hair pink
A real
influencer
14 The Telegraph Magazine 9 July 2022



16 The Telegr a ph M aga zine 9 July 2022

These days, the word influencer gets ban- Trust your instincts – and take your
died around a lot, a catch-all term for any- skincare down to your neck
one trying to get noticed on social media. ‘When it comes to the outfit I choose for
But if you want to see a real influencer, an event, I’m really quick. I work with
take one look at Helen Mirren, who at 76 either a stylist or a fashion designer and
has more fashion and beauty industry see what they’ve got and what they can
clout than most young Insta stars could lend me. And I can see what will work
ever dream of. Sitting across from me via immediately. I won’t fuss around. With
a screen – Mirren is in Cannes, while I’m this blue gown at Cannes in 2018, I had
in London – wearing a slim-cut, round- decided I'd had enough of frills and
neck green dress with her hair slicked sequins and I didn’t want to sparkle that
back in a modern ponytail, she looks year – I just wanted something sculptured
every inch an idol. The actor has the sort and tailored, and I loved the slightly medi-
of presence and confidence that is allur- eval feel of the dress. It was low-cut, so my
ing in anyone, whether 17 or 70. make-up artist took my make-up down to
my neck. I always take my skincare right
But make no mistake: she is a charm- down to my décolletage, even though I
ingly un-grandiose interviewee, making don’t tend to go so low-cut any more.’
relaxed chit-chat. Her well-trained eye
immediately zones in on my cheesecloth On the red carpet in Jenny Packham this year Above: a medieval feel in 2018.
blouse: she squints and asks if it’s vintage Feel comfortable, look better Below left: pink hair at Cannes in 2019.
(it is). She tells me about the ‘very hot’
weather in Cannes, and asks me whether ‘For this year’s Cannes Film Festival I Below: Dolce & Gabbana in 2021
it’s sunny in London as if we’re old friends chose a Jenny Packham dress. She’s a
PREVIOUS PAGE: SIMON EMMETT/TRUNK ARCHIVE. THIS PAGE: GETTY IMAGES catching up. I’m speaking to Mirren the wonderful British designer whose dresses It’s all about balance
day before a red-carpet appearance. She I’ve worn a few times. I don’t know how ‘Sometimes the dress you wear
tells me she’ll be wearing a sparkly Jenny she does it – she creates these incredible says it all. You put it on and that’s
Packham gown and no, she hasn’t sparkly things and they’re always really it, enough said. That’s why with
thought about how she’ll wear her hair or comfortable to wear. I’ve learnt over the this yellow silk Dolce & Gab-
make-up yet (as it turned out, she had years that to find something that is com- bana gown last year, I wore
hair extensions put in to create an XXL fortable is almost the most important my hair up in a relaxed bun to
half-ponytail). thing. Even if it’s not the most glamorous balance out the impact of the
item in the world, you can do fancy hair dress. It was so bright, and if
Mirren is as chic as she is charming. or wear beautiful jewellery, but comfort you have one extreme you
Her irreverent style and ‘so what?’ attitude is terribly important because then you’ll need to make sure you don’t
to beauty are so appealing in this cookie- actually look like you’re enjoying your- go too extreme elsewhere.
cutter world. A regular on the red carpet self. It makes a big difference for me.’ What I really loved about
and a permanent fixture on the awards this dress was how it
circuit, her fashion choices get braver and Hair and make-up are temporary, so floated and the way the silk
bolder every year, making her a frequent why not take risks? moved when there was
feature on best-dressed lists, too. Whether ‘I love being creative with my hair and just a little bit of wind. I do
she’s in a pretty floral dress toughened make-up, because nothing is perma- sometimes love very tight
up with Russell & Bromley biker boots, as nent. A few years ago, I had this things, but I also love
seen on The Graham Norton Show earlier gorgeous pink and gold Elie dresses that float.’
Saab dress. I thought, “Ooh,
Mirren’s ‘so what?’ attitude maybe I’ll do my hair the The Telegraph Magazine
to beauty is appealing in same colour.” It was com-
this cookie-cutter world pletely my idea: hair can be
an accessory, too. The pink
this year, the waist-cinching sugary-pink was wash-in, wash-out. At
Dolce & Gabbana dress and matching 6pm I was my hair colour, by
padded headband she wore to collect her 7pm I was pink and by 11am
Lifetime Achievement prize at the Screen the next morning I was my
Actors Guild Awards, or the megawatt colour again. Why not?’
bright-yellow frock she sported at
Cannes last year, her approach is never 17
timid. And Mirren, an ambassador for
L'Oréal Paris, is up for adventure when it
comes to beauty, too – trying pink hair,
‘badass’ eye make-up and just about
everything in between.

So who better to discuss her past
red-carpet looks than Mirren herself ?
With some pictures to hand, I ask her to
talk me through some of the most inter-
esting from recent years, and the seven
lessons in beauty and style that make her
an inspiration to women of all ages.

9 July 2022

18 The Telegr aph M aga zine 9 July 2022

‘The reaction from people
was amazement and a tinge
of horror… a good reaction
as far as I’m concerned’

Being badass can be Don’t try to emulate anyone else Hair accessories add wow factor
a lot of fun ‘I don’t have the easiest shape to deal with. ‘I’ve only recently discovered headbands,
‘I’m very free with my make-up – I’m not tall or slim, I’m curvy and short, so and have worn a few on the red carpet. I
I get to work with amazing only certain things look good and some always worried they looked a bit Sloane
make-up artists, so I just let very edgy things just don’t work. And Ranger so had a resistance to them, but
them do whatever inspires that’s fine. There are people whose style I now I think they add a lot to an outfit. I also
them. For this L’Oréal Paris love but wouldn’t necessarily try to emu- love a scarf tied around my hair, or a tur-
runway show last year, late because everyone’s different. I love ban… and I used to like hats. In 1995 I went
which was right in front of Helena Bonham Carter’s fashion sense and to the Oscars the first time I was nominated
the Eiffel Tower, the how Kristen Stewart dresses. Tilda Swin- and wore a hat – I don’t know what pos-
make-up artist Val Garland ton and Cate Blanchett have great style too: sessed me! I thought it was like going to an
just said, “I feel like doing they’re all women who I think really push English wedding, or even Royal Ascot. I’ve
something really, really the boat out and that’s something I admire.’ never worn one on the red carpet since.’
extreme.” The reaction
GETTY IMAGES, ALAMY from people to the thick,
heavy eyeliner was a
mixture of amazement The Telegraph Magazine 19
and a tinge of horror,
which is a good reac-
tion as far as I’m con-
cerned. I thought it was
so fun! And of course I
had an amazing outfit on, so
the whole thing worked. The
whole look was very badass.’

Right: Mirren walks the runway in
Azzaro last year, and (above) in
Giambattista Valli in 2019. Top right:
wearing a headband at this year’s
Screen Actors Guild Awards. Far
right: with Tilda Swinton in 2011
9 July 2022

Athgeainst

Hundreds of people in the UK die every year in gambling-related
suicides. One of them, Jack Ritchie, was just 17 years old when he
started visiting a bookie’s during his school lunchbreaks. So what is
the Government doing to make this multibillion-pound industry safe?

Words by Illustrations by
JESSAMY CALKIN JULES JULIEN

20 T h e T e l e g r a p h M a g a z i n e odds
9 july 2022

9 july 2022 The Telegr aph M aga zine 21

22 The Telegr aph Magazine 9 July 2022

I n August 2018, 10 families gathered at the possible from a small proportion of the population intended to ensure that gambling regulations be
Friends Meeting House in Birmingham. as quickly as possible – meanwhile creating the made fit for the digital age. This has been repeat-
They were a disparate group – they came next generation of addicts.’ edly postponed, with the review launched back
from all over the country, and from all walks of in December 2020 and the white paper originally
life; they held different political opinions and Charles, who was head of higher-education promised before the end of 2021.
views of the world. But they had one thing in research in the Department for Business, Innova-
common: they all had a son, or a brother, or a tion & Skills, and Liz, a former psychotherapist, One of the biggest culprits in instigating
partner who had taken their own life because of have thrown their lives into their charity. It now addiction, aside from that sinister online world,
an addiction to gambling. employs nine people, and is directed towards is the fixed-odds betting terminal, or FOBT, a
awareness around and prevention of gam- type of electronic slot machine found in high-
The families put up photographs of the young bling-related suicide; calling for action to be street bookies, which has been termed ‘the crack
men they had lost (they were all young men, taken on addictive new products; advocating cocaine of gambling’ in reference to its ability to
though in 2020 one charity reported a 76 per affordability checks to introduce some sem- draw people into a sort of trance of addiction by
cent rise year-on-year in the number of women blance of protection for the gambler; and the speed of its turnover. Before the maximum
seeking its help for gambling addiction). They demanding a complete ban on advertising. stake was reduced from £100 to £2 in 2019, peo-
talked and grieved and expressed outrage at ple could lose thousands of pounds in a single
what had happened, and a slightly surreal note Long-overdue reform is anticipated this session. Bookies were limited to having only four
was struck by a gospel choir that was rehearsing month, with a white paper resulting from the machines in each premises, but national figures
in the next room. But a community was formed, Government review of the Gambling Act, show that each machine was making roughly
and the meeting was the beginning of the charity £50,000 on average per year.
that became Gambling with Lives.
With the reduced stake the losses are less ‘but
It was instigated by Liz and Charles Ritchie, it’s more of a drip-feed addiction’, says recovered
whose 24-year-old son Jack had died by suicide gambler Martin Paterson. ‘You can still quickly
the year before as a result of his addiction to gam- waste £50, but it took away the jackpot incentive.’
bling – and who have since dedicated themselves
to raising awareness of the issue. Jack was not In One Last Spin, a short documentary about
hugely in debt, and in the last 18 months of his the harm caused by gambling, 62-year-old Pater-
life, he had only gambled on 15 different days; but son describes his final session on a FOBT a cou-
he was, he said in an emailed suicide note to his ple of days before he attempted suicide – how he
parents, powerless over the addiction, and he spun over and over again for hours, even wetting
couldn’t see a way out of it.

We are not talking about playing the National
Lottery here, or a flutter on the Grand National.
The statistics are stark and brutal – between 400
and 500 people die by suicide related to gambling
issues in the UK every year; and this is an indus-
try that makes a profit of £14 billion annually in
Britain, £5 billion of that online. An industry that
actively encourages participants to get in as deep
as possible, via predatory marketing, targeted
advertising, bonuses, free bets and ‘VIP’ schemes.
A 2018 study found that two out of three teenag-
ers felt bombarded by gambling adverts on tele-
vision. Though guidance on targeting children
has been revised since then, such advertising
remains highly prominent.

The restrictions put in place by the Gambling
Act of 2005 became particularly inadequate with
the rise of smartphones, which enable people to
keep a casino in their pocket. The worldwide
online gambling market was worth $72.3 billion
in 2021, a number expected to climb to $131.4 bil-
lion by 2027. This is an unbelievably rich indus-
try: in 2020 Denise Coates, CEO of Bet365, was
paid £421 million.

‘It’s an industry that relies on addiction,’ says
Charles. ‘An industry that takes as much money as

‘It’s an industry that relies
on addiction’

9 July 2022 The Telegraph Magazine 23

24 The Telegr aph Magazine 9 July 2022

himself rather than leave the machine, until he What particularly irks them is the Government much help. He managed to get back on track
had lost £2,000. Two days later, in total despair, message that everything’s fine if you ‘gamble after each episode, and each time his parents
he drove to a secluded spot and tried to kill him- responsibly’ – putting the onus on the gambler thought he had things under control.
self. Fortunately he was spotted by some locals and not the industry. ‘Take heroin responsibly’ is
who called the police and rescued him. He finally not a message we are likely to hear. Jack did a lot to change his life, says Charles.
gave up a few years later when his son died of ‘He left a job he didn’t like and found himself a
a heart attack; it was the trauma of that, he says,
that finally gave him the resolve not to waste his ‘Electronic gambling
life any further. He now devotes himself to rais- products are engineered to
ing awareness of gambling addiction. exploit our vulnerabilities’

‘Research has shown that electronic gambling ‘We get accused of being prohibitionist but volunteering opportunity in Kenya working
products, such as FOBTs and slots, have been “gambling” as such isn’t a single homogenous with young entrepreneurs, then did a course in
deliberately engineered over decades to exploit product,’ says Charles. ‘Putting a pound on the Spain on teaching English as a second language
our reward systems, decision making, cognition, National Lottery every week is light years away and got himself a job in Hanoi, doing just that. He
and vulnerabilities,’ says Matt Gaskell, consultant from playing high-speed electronic games with loved it and made lots of friends. I don’t know if
psychologist and clinical lead for the NHS North- incredibly high addiction rates.’ he would have carried on teaching but he’d
ern Gambling Service. found a direction, something he wanted to do,
‘It’s not just the speed,’ adds Liz. ‘It’s deliber- and he would have been a great success. He was
‘The goal of gambling operators is to extract ately engineered addiction – these particular very personable, made friends easily and was
maximum revenue per available customer, and kinds of games have a higher addiction rate than very clever.
to maintain time on the product for as long as heroin – 48 per cent of people who play them
money allows. This is achieved through a host of become addicted, or at risk of serious harm.’ ‘He actually hadn’t gambled for six months
“structural characteristics” or psychological until the week that he died – we found this out
design features built into the products [such as When Jack started playing, he had two very later by looking at his bank account.’ But in
FOBTs and slots] that are responsible for rein- early wins: his parents learned later from one of November 2017 he called his parents from Hanoi,
forcement and motivation to persist (especially his friends that he won £500 in two successive saying he felt down, and admitted that he’d been
in the face of losses). spins. ‘So for a 17-year-old who goes to school with gambling again. They offered to pay for his flight
his dinner money and comes back with £1,000, home and clear his losses, but he said he was fine
‘Much of the industry’s advertising and mar- that’s a big deal. And research shows there’s a very and had lots of friends there. None of them knew
keting is spent on promoting products or “cross high correlation between people who get big he had a gambling problem.
selling” them to bingo or sports punters. There is early wins and the development of addiction.’
no public-health messaging about their high-risk Charles and Liz bought him more blocking
nature, and little in the way of regulation, par- That was the start of Jack’s addiction – he car- software, which was never installed, but had no
ticularly online. Restricting access, introducing ried on visiting bookies, and eventually went to idea how serious things had become. ‘If I’d
mandatory stake limits and time limits, signifi- his parents, very upset, and confessed that he’d known about the suicide risk we would have
cantly slowing down the speed, and preventing lost £5,000 that his grandmother had given done so much more,’ says Liz. ‘We would have
unaffordable financial losses would make a dif- him. The family took action. He self-excluded gone out there or contacted the friends he was
ference here. The current position of allowing from all the local bookmakers – leaving a photo- with.’ On 22 November Jack took his own life. In
customers 24/7 access to these products online graph and signing a form so he would not be his suicide note, he said he feared he’d never be
with so little regulation is a disaster as far as pub- admitted again. free of his addiction.
lic health is concerned.’
It seemed to work. But when Jack turned 18 His parents decided never to hide this. ‘We
J ack Ritchie started gambling on FOBTs and went to university, he took up online gam- knew that gambling had killed Jack. It was abso-
when he was 17 and still at school, going to bling. When he gambled away his student loan, he lutely clear and we felt that this was something
the local bookies with his mates in his again turned to his parents, who bought blocking that the world needs to know.’
lunch hour. His parents, who also have two software for his computer, rendering him unable
daughters, live in Sheffield, from where they to gamble online; it also blocked the adverts that At Jack’s funeral, Liz says, they decided to take
run Gambling with Lives. The loss of Jack has plague the inbox of every frequent gambler. It action. Charles made a speech. ‘I talked about
left an enormous gap in their lives, and they are worked – but what they hadn’t realised is that the Jack’s addiction, because all his friends knew
clearly still dismayed about how little they knew software licence expired after 12 months. Jack that Jack gambled, like so many of them – but
then of the consequences of gambling addiction started again, taking out a bank loan. they had no idea why he had suddenly taken his
– the true risk of gambling products is hidden life, and they needed to know. Our community
from the public through advertising and a lack ‘There was one month where he lost £8,000,’ needed to know.’
of public-health information. says Charles, but that was the only time he lost a
substantial amount. ‘When we discovered the ‘There were hundreds of people at his funeral,’
‘We thought it was just a phase,’ they say sev- scale of Jack’s gambling by looking at his bank says Liz, ‘and they came back here and we had
eral times in our interview, ‘a bit of fun.’ Even after accounts he hadn’t lost that much. He wasn’t one a fire stack in the garden built by some of our
it became apparent that it was more than that, and of those people who lost tens of thousands of friends. Everybody knew Jack. We’re a small
they stepped in to help Jack, they still had no idea pounds – it was fairly small amounts consistently community in some ways, and the parents of kids
of the desperate vortex it could lead to. Their son, over the whole period of his life. I think he prob- that were in Jack’s cohort, from primary school
who was an outgoing, happy and sociable young ably lost £30,000 over a period of seven years.’ up to university – they all came.’
man, had got involved with something they real-
ise they had not taken seriously enough, and they At various times he discussed the problem Afterwards Liz and Charles started doing
have committed themselves to trying to prevent with his parents, went to his GP and attended research – into gambling in general, into suicide
that from happening to other people. Gamblers Anonymous, though he didn’t find that figures – and they heard tragic stories from

‘Jack was engaging in a high-street activity The Telegraph Magazine 25
that’s advertised on TV as a bit of fun with your
mates, and that is the lie which is sold to us,’ says
Charles, ‘whereas in reality it’s much more akin
to hard drugs.’

9 July 2022

26 The Telegr aph Magazine 9 July 2022

other families who had experienced the same
thing. The Ritchies were shocked by what they
discovered: by the lack of regulation, by ‘the
massive lie that we’ve all been sold – that this is
a fun leisure product’. And by the numbers: a
landmark study conducted on behalf of
GambleAware in 2021 found that 1.4 million peo-
ple in the UK are being harmed by their own
gambling, with a further 1.5 million at risk. And
according to research by the University of Bris-
tol, 55,000 children aged 15 and under have a
gambling addiction.
It is an addiction like any other but gambling
is not only legal, it is actively encouraged by
incessant marketing.
Gambling with Lives was born around the
kitchen table, with several families putting in
some money to start it off, and they initially had
help from a benefactor, Derek Webb, a former
professional poker player who funded the Cam-
paign for Fairer Gambling and Stop the FOBTs.
They appointed a board, and in November 2018
booked an event at Parliament; they instigated
debates and harangued politicians. And via
Jack’s inquest, they held the gambling industry
to account.
The inquest into Jack’s death took place ear-
lier this year, partly delayed because of Covid. Liz and Charles Ritchie, photographed at home by their daughter Jo

‘We had an amazing legal team,’ says Liz, ‘who Bigger stakes mean bigger wins and more support the idea that all gambling advertising
advised us that it might be possible to get Article seduction into debt. should be banned on radio and TV before 9pm,
2 status under the Human Rights Act – which There have been other victories: in October and only 14 per cent of people opposed the idea
means asserting that the government didn’t pro- a ban will come into force to prevent betting of all ads being banned at any time.
tect Jack’s right to life.’ and gambling companies from using celebrities So cavalier and under-regulated is the indus-
The coroner’s verdict was damning. He found who would appeal to young people in their try that companies have been known to target
that the regulations in force at the time of Jack’s advertisements. consumers trying to quit their addiction. And
death had failed to prevent him from gambling But there is a lot further to go. What do the ‘VIP’ status, for example – whereby the gambler
even though he was addicted, and that the state Ritchies most want to achieve in terms of legis- is offered free bets and cash bonuses (which
of information and the treatment available were lation? ‘Stronger regulation – some of it is just must be spent on gambling) as well as gifts – is
typically given to people who are losing large
amounts. In his book Jackpot: How Gambling
In his note, Jack said he Conquered Britain, journalist Rob Davies writes,
feared he’d never be free ‘In 2019 online casino Casumo had to retract an
advert offering free spins and bonuses which
popped up when people tried to bar themselves
from gambling. The complainant had searched
“How to unsubscribe from all gambling”, only
for an advert for a Casumo app to pop up instead
of the advice they were looking for.’
both ‘woefully inadequate’. He issued a preven- implementing what already exists, but it also
tion of future deaths report, which went to three needs to be a lot tougher.’ J ohn Myers, 63, is a fierce advocate for ban-
different Government departments to respond to ning all kinds of advertising and sponsor-
– the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & They want gambling products to be made safer; ship. He was one of those who went to the
they want a complete ban on celebrity sponsorship
Sport, the Department of Health & Social Care, and the abolition of things like free bets to seduce Ritchies’ original meeting in Birmingham. John’s
and the Department for Education. new gamblers or win back old customers. And they son, Ryan, a carpenter, had killed himself four
Over the years, there has been some strong want affordability checks to be mandatory, which years earlier. Neither Ryan’s parents nor his
support within government. In 2018, Sports could be triggered at a fairly low level, in the same fiancée had even known he had a problem, until
Minister Tracey Crouch resigned when the then way that financial checks are mandatory if you are they found a betting slip on the floor of the house
Chancellor, Philip Hammond, announced that taking out a mortgage or buying a car. The Ritch- he died in, which stated that his card had been
the cut in the maximum stake for FOBTs from ies also want help to be more readily available to declined. John thinks that – as with cigarette
£100 to £2 would not take effect until October people with a problem and their families. advertising – it is wildly irresponsible to encour-
2019, rather than April 2019, as she had They want a statutory levy to be introduced – age a practice that is clearly so risky for so many
expected. Following that, Iain Duncan Smith, forcing gambling firms to contribute towards people. ‘All the ads are about people having a
who has been very supportive to the cause, addressing gambling addiction. At the moment good night out, off for a flutter – there’s no down-
organised a rebellion; the government backed contributions are voluntary, and the amount can side. Where is the bit about people losing their
down and the change was implemented in April be negligible. houses or splitting up families? Where is the bit
JO RITCHIE 2019 – to the consternation of betting shops They also want an end to advertising. Accord- about them losing their sons?’
but the relief of many families like the Ritchies. ing to a 2021 YouGov survey, 77 per cent of adults gamblingwithlives.org

9 July 2022 The Telegraph Magazine 27

Cheoandfteesasciohnoerfs
It’s no wonder no one wants the job...
As the UK faces a shortage of teachers,
Nick Smith, who was a grammar school
headteacher for 14 years, shares an
exclusive extract from his diary. He
charts how his dreams of making a
difference were ground down by lack
of funding, helicopter parents and
government red tape – and don’t mention
the disastrous Year Seven sleepover

Photography by Pictured right
ALICE WHITBY NICK SMITH

28 The Telegr aph Magazine 9 July 2022

a battleworn

9 July 2022 The Telegr aph Magazine 29

T wo years after becoming a deputy six education secretaries, five of whom lasted less I asked her to step outside, expecting contri-
head I attempted to fulfil my quest than three years. This hasn’t stopped each from tion and an apology. Instead, she ranted: ‘This is
by going for the big one: head of trying to impose their ideas. What schools need our school, not yours. Who do you think you are?’
Torquay Girls’ Grammar School. are prolonged periods of stability but we have
This was my chance to do things my experienced the opposite from the DfE, whose Later in the year, I heard the head of Year Eight
way and really make a difference. I spent months motto is ‘Mutatio est nostrum modo constant’ – spend a good 10 minutes of assembly outlining the
furiously planning but in the end, nothing pre- change is our only constant. As I discovered type of earrings compliant with my newly imposed
pared me for what was to come when the starting first-hand while at the helm of Torquay – and behaviour and uniform code. If she felt comforta-
gun fired on 1 September 2007. eventually it got the better of me. ble dedicating this much time to this level of trans-
gression, other things, I concluded, must be fine.
The enormity of it all hit me as I was outlining October 2007
my vision to parents. Most nodded in general The behaviour at Torquay Grammar was not Still, expectations of behaviour have changed,
agreement, satisfied that I had at least thought quite as I’d imagined. During my first assembly, as was highlighted when some visiting ‘old girls’
about it. However, for one rather intense mother, the Year Elevens unashamedly talked while I was recounted the misdemeanours regarded as major
this was not enough. When precisely, she asked, speaking. In the end I rebuked the whole year crimes in the 1940s. If they were seen removing
would I achieve this vision? This threw me. group, a necessary but exceedingly awkward their beret on the bus or walking on the wrong
course of action, far removed from the positive side of the corridor, they were clapped into deten-
‘Maybe by my third year?’ I answered, which message I’d hoped to deliver. tion. Talking during a lesson was such a heinous
placated her. transgression that they were sent to stand in the
That afternoon, while popping into lessons to entrance hall, normally strictly out of bounds.
The truthful answer was: ‘We will never get a feel for the school, I witnessed one of those Even now, they hover at the front door looking
achieve it. Despite our best intentions someone Year Elevens being rude to her physics teacher jittery, unsure if the rule still applies.
will always be left behind.’ However clear your during an astronomy lesson. As well as being
vision, it’s hard to make it a reality because the generally disruptive, she shouted out the old June 2008
blood and guts of everyday school life gets in the classic, ‘How big is Uranus, Miss?’ Keen to make my mark, I upgraded school sig-
way, and because government policy is built on nage, organised a parents’ Curry and Quiz Night
shifting sands.

During my 14 years as a head, I served under

30 The Telegr a ph M aga zine 9 July 2022

and provided a tea lady in the staffroom. Unfor- Blunt*. I’m in Paris and Ruth Adams* has been hit It was 2.30am before they quietened down,
tunately, an end-of-year parents’ survey con- by a bus,’ she sobbed. and I could finally retire to sleep in the PE room,
firmed there was still work to be done, as one sadly without my top-of-the-range duck-down
simply wrote: ‘The Head is a lightweight.’ After It took five minutes to calm her down and sleeping bag. One of the girls had forgotten hers,
less than a year in post, this seemed harsh, but I extract the details: during scheduled shopping so (begrudgingly) I’d loaned her mine.
redoubled my efforts. time, Ruth had stepped into the path of a bus and
been knocked unconscious for several minutes, I fashioned a bed out of my coat on the cold,
October 2008 sustaining a head injury. Someone had called an hard floor. Whenever I moved a sensor turned on
Mrs Rumbold*, the formidable head of sixth ambulance that whisked her to hospital, leaving the light but two hours later, I finally drifted off
form, was a no-nonsense matriarch who taught Darcy alone: she didn’t know which hospital to the sound of someone sobbing. Twenty min-
classics. She was about to retire but one day she Ruth was in and couldn’t get hold of the teachers utes later I was woken again: the sobbing girl’s
nearly left us in spectacular fashion. (a presidential visit had affected mobile signal in mum had arrived to take her home. It was 5am.
the area), nor find her way back to them.
The secretary called to say there had been an I put it all down to a terrible mistake – I’d
incident in the sixth form centre and I dashed We quickly turned the office into an listen to my deputies in future – but the next
there, only to be met by a ghost. Mrs Rumbold impromptu incident room. A French teacher week I received a letter:
had been sitting at her desk drinking coffee when rang around the major Paris hospitals, while I
she heard a crack above her head. Before she directed Darcy, who was lost somewhere off the Dear Dr Smith, I would like to thank you
could react, the whole ceiling had collapsed. She Champs-Elysées, back to the teachers. for lending me your sleeping bag at the Big
emerged, covered in white plaster dust and Sleepover. I am extremely grateful for your kind-
clutching a rubble-filled mug. Two passing sixth Luckily, Ruth’s injuries weren’t life threaten- ness. I wanted to express my gratitude by doing a
formers asked if she was OK. ‘Yes, thank you, ing; when she returned her main concern was that letter. You were there in my hour of need and you
girls,’ came Mrs Rumbold’s curt reply. ‘And Grace, she’d missed out on visiting Disneyland Paris. are a fabulous headmaster. Sincerely, Isabelle
that top you are wearing is not school uniform.’
November 2010 What a perceptive young girl! I had a feeling
November 2008 The Big Year Seven Sleepover was a well- she would go far.
Danger is inherent in many old school buildings intentioned idea that went horribly wrong. My dep-
but the biggest danger is the students them- uties pointed out the obvious flaw: if you put 120 April 2011
selves: they slip on the slightest bit of ice, trip adolescents in a hall overnight, they won’t sleep. The beginning of austerity measures in the UK. If
over their bags, some seem to trip on thin air. But I forged ahead, thinking that Year Seven could only I’d known what a financial bonanza the previ-
They collide with friends, accidentally whack do with a bit more bonding. In my mind’s eye, ous three years had been in comparison. We
each other with hockey sticks, super-glue their proceedings would conclude at 11pm, with them couldn’t buy the latest textbooks, couldn’t afford
fingers together. And then there is the danger of tucked into their sleeping bags with a hot chocolate. to fix the leaky roof and had to axe subjects like
school trips… design and technology at a time when schools
I knew things had gone awry at 9pm when I were accused of not doing enough to encourage
June 2009 arrived back at school from another event. Corri- girls into this area. I found myself repeatedly ask-
The hysterical phone call came one Friday after- dors were strewn with rubbish, students ran ing parents to donate money for replacement com-
noon. ‘Is that Dr Smith? Oh, thank God. It’s Darcy around screaming, two girls were crying in a cor- puters, minibuses and sports equipment.
ner. Mr Charlwood, who had compèred the quiz,
looked shell-shocked as he told me that they had The only way to generate more income was to
consumed unfeasibly large quantities of sweets retain your own students – and steal more from
and energy drinks. The quiz had been manic, with other schools. This meant that students were
answers shouted out and rival teams falling out. bombarded by charm offensives from competing
schools, and more of my time was taken up with

At the sleepover,
corridors were strewn
with rubbish, students
were screaming, two
girls cried in a corner

9 July 2022 The Telegraph Magazine 31

32 The Telegraph Magazine 9 July 2022

producing a glossy prospectus and commission- finished me off. If these were the typical thoughts victorious. As this term seemed to have gone
ing promotional videos. We put on all-singing- of all Year Eights, surely the future well-being of well, I secretly dared to liken myself to this great
and-dancing open evenings, gave out school the nation was in doubt. leader, spurring my troops on to greater things –
badges like confetti and offered potential sixth brilliant, indestructible, flawless.
formers personal tablets, free gym membership Five years later, during mock Oxbridge inter-
and everything short of guaranteeing three A*s at views, I came face to face with Sabrina again, and Luckily, in education you are never far from
A level. It’s not what the public purse should be was intrigued to see she was applying to read something that will bring you rudely back down
used for, but schools had to use all means availa- politics at Cambridge. Our panel set-up was intim- to earth and remind you not to be a conceited
ble to survive. idating but Sabrina appeared assured and I arse… For me, this was a calamitous assembly.
wondered how long until this faux confidence
However, there was a rather unfortunate end ebbed away. As the first question was asked, I genuinely enjoy giving assemblies. You get
to one particular school tour. Despite my best ‘Should a political party define ideology, or should to be the centre of attention, tell some humorous
efforts, a couple of parents still looked sceptical, ideology define the party?’ I braced myself. anecdotes and, unlike in my social interactions
so I accompanied them to the entrance but while where people tend to move off when I start
I was talking, something behind me caught their Oh, me of little faith! It was a good few min- talking, the audience is trapped. This particular
attention. At the same time came a strong, unmis- utes before Sabrina eloquently drew the strands morning I was trying to raise spirits at the end of
takable smell of cannabis. The parents looked at of her argument to a conclusion and we were a busy term. What I meant to say was, ‘We have
each other and abruptly left. able to catch our breath; her masterful delivery all had a ridiculous amount of success recently.’
blew us away. We fired more difficult questions Unfortunately, what came out was: ‘We have
I turned around and there, on the grass verge at her but there was nothing she could not riposte all had a ridiculous amount of sex recently…’
behind me, was a cluster of condoms. These were with ease. Afterwards, we all agreed that she Quickly followed by: ‘Success. Success. A ridicu-
the innocent residue of Year Eleven’s last-day would most likely next come to our attention as a lous amount of SUCCESS.’
shenanigans when they had been blown up to dec- member of the Cabinet.
orate our school sign. The cannabis cloud, mean- There was a short pause, then the hall erupted.
while, came courtesy of a neighbour who used the July 2014 They shrieked and hooted, while I fixed a neutral
shed at the end of his garden for ‘relaxation’. My first seven years had passed in the blink of an expression on my face and stared at my speech.
eye. My original Year Sevens had experienced
Desperate, I considered chasing after the par- their entire secondary education under my lead- Shortly afterwards, I replaced my Napoleon
ents to explain. Instead, I moved closer to the ership. Our academic results had improved con- painting with a different one of him, slumped in
shed, took several deep breaths. Suddenly I felt a siderably too; in 2011, Ofsted had upgraded us to a chair alone and out of shape. Disappointment
whole lot more relaxed about losing the sale. ‘outstanding’. However, there were hurdles at and anger can be read on his face. His downfall
every turn: DfE interference, mountains of admin- is looming, the destruction of his empire has
July 2011 istration, parental complaints, staffing issues and been decided. I find this picture really helps to
I first encountered Sabrina Petersen* during the a daily inbox of nonsense. Seeds of resentment keep me grounded.
annual sponsored walk. She and her friend were with the system began to take root in my mind.
lagging and, as designated ‘sweeper’, there was October 2015
no way of escaping their rambling conversation, April 2015 One Monday morning in the autumn term, two
which covered such weighty topics as: whether On the wall in my office hung a picture of Napo- large boxes of chicken kievs mysteriously disap-
pink or white marshmallows taste nicer and the leon crossing the Alps on horseback, his posture peared from the kitchen. We will probably never
last time they had stepped in dog mess. know the fate of those 32 chicken fillets but there
was a considerable difference of opinion among
For five hours, their continuous stream almost staff over who had taken them, with accusations
flying. The ensuing investigation involved wit-
ness statements, a timeline, a stocktake, inter-
views with chief protagonists and their union
reps, a tour of the walk-in freezer and the scan-
ning of CCTV footage. The investigation report
compelled me to set up a governors’ hearing,
which took a full morning. After all of this, there
was no evidence to charge anyone.

Once again, more time had been wasted. The
kievs were still missing and none of this had
made an iota of difference to the education of
our students.

June 2016
A recurring belief of older generations is that
growing up nowadays is far easier. After a frac-
tious holiday with my children, I became a paid-up
member of this school of thought and delivered an
assembly on the subject, explaining how I’d had
things tougher: I’d been fed a diet of beef dripping
not kale and quinoa, and unlike them, hadn’t
received constant technological stimulation.
Instead I had to learn to amuse myself for hours
with something as simple as a stick.

Halfway through, it dawned on me that some-
thing terrible had happened: I had morphed into

9 July 2022 The Telegraph Magazine 33



The relentless stream
of half-baked
strategies and bungled
initiatives had left me
punch-drunk

*SOME NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED my father. Even my hands were clasped in an groups with four friends, based on the lifelong grades’ – but guidance didn’t arrive for three
identical pose. It happens to us all but it’s still a friendship groups in Japan known as moai. months, leaving teachers just 12 weeks to com-
shock to discover you have become an irritating plete this monumental task.
old fart. There was no coming back, though I did Our programme gathered some interest and
briefly consider growing a hipster beard. we were asked to present at conferences. How- I had begun my headship keen and eager to
ever, the wholescale adoption of this sort of cur- please but over time my attitude towards the
The more I considered all of this, the more I riculum is problematic, as it requires funding decision-makers at the DfE and Ofsted had
realised that the younger generation are under and the freedom to escape the straitjacket of an become increasingly belligerent. Even before the
greater mental strain than we ever were. Our exam-orientated curriculum. Still, if it was imple- pandemic, the relentless stream of half-baked
students are the first generation born into a mented country-wide, it would be the single most strategies and bungled initiatives had left me
digital age. They have no escape from addictive, important investment a government could make. punch-drunk. I was battle weary. And by the end
24-hour online culture or relentless peer judg- of the summer, I reached crisis fatigue.
ment via social media. Many lack the stability March 2020
that faith and family previously provided. Physi- On 20 March, UK schools closed down in Headteachers felt like lions being led by don-
cally, things are no better, with rising childhood response to the pandemic. My daughter had keys, any faith I’d had left in the authorities
obesity and diabetes. Covid-19 symptoms, so I moved into a house on having been shot through. The final straw came
the school site that we used as the base for out- when I came across an old newspaper article writ-
Attempts to counter this resulted in an explo- door education, and from here managed on-site ten about me shortly after being appointed. The
sion of support personnel: suddenly we provision for key worker children. person staring out of the page looked ridiculously
employed all sorts of pastoral heads, counsellors, optimistic. The person staring back from the mir-
safeguarding officers, mental health practition- After several days of rattling around an empty ror every morning did not. Now was a good time
ers, student mentors, catch-up coordinators – school, things started to affect me in a way remi- to pass the baton to someone with fresh energy.
but it was never enough. niscent of Jack Nicholson in The Shining. I started
a regular Friday Pandemic Bulletin, designed to In September 2020 I notified the chair of gov-
I decided to implement a ‘health curriculum’, keep staff informed of what was happening back ernors of my intention to retire at the end of the
based on the work of geographer Dan Buettner at mothership, which inadvertently charted this academic year: I would twist and turn to the tune
who had identified the five ‘blue zones’, or places mental decline. One was signed off: ‘That’s all for of the DfE and Gavin Williamson no more; this
where people live the longest and have low levels now, as I have to go. I think something exciting old git was no longer for turning.
of chronic disease – Japan, Italy, Greece, Costa might be happening in the corridor – it looks like
Rica and California. All had certain habits in com- one of the lights has started to flicker. Dr Smith’ Ultimately, I never managed to become the
mon: family was priority; they set aside daily time ‘hero head’ I’d set out to be – I came nowhere
to escape the commotion of life; they ate moder- The DfE’s response to the Covid crisis, mean- near, really, but I don’t think I ever realistically
ate amounts of fresh, unprocessed produce; they while, heralded in a golden age of educational stood a chance. It would be easy to conclude that
did not go to the gym or run marathons as their mismanagement, characterised by eleventh- being a headteacher is simply not worth the
exercise came from movement in their daily lives. hour announcements, policy flip-flops and an trauma but, despite the frustrations and the gov-
impenetrable tsunami of rules and guidance, ernment meddling there are many glorious rea-
Our modified version of the blue zone habits often calling for immediate action. sons why it absolutely is.
involved replicating a quarter-mile circuit through
our grounds – students were expected to walk One day we were dividing the site into seven The best school motto I have seen is ‘Work
around it a certain number of times each half- separate bubbles for each year group, the next Hard, Be Kind’. It says it all really. If you can instil
term. We provided tai chi and yoga, offered blue- we were converting the exam hall into a field this in your students, everything else is a bonus.
zone food choices in the canteen, we started a gar- hospital. Then we were informed that summer Head Trauma: The Bruising Diary of a
dening club, even mid-lesson movement sessions, exams would be replaced by ‘teacher assessed Headteacher, by Nick Smith, is out on 18 August
and we asked students to form social support (Michael O’Mara, £16.99); pre-order a copy now
at books.telegraph.co.uk

9 July 2022 The Telegraph Magazine 35



‘For the
producers,
these bottles
are a financial

lifeline’

VICTORIA MOORE

FoodON UKRAINIAN
WINE
P. 5 3

MARK HIX SALAD DAYS
Inspired by inventive offerings from across the US, salads can
HOLY SMOKES!
SALMON AT be both thoroughly satisfying and full of surprises
ITS BEST
P.4 5 By DIANA HENRY Photography by HA ARALA HAMILTON Food styling by VALERIE BERRY 37
The Telegraph Magazine
9 July 2022

I have a notepad full of dressings – ranch, blue cheese, green in Paris as the ‘greatest recipe to
scribblings from my first trip goddess and Thousand Island – were originate in the Americas in 50 years’.
to the States. Europeans can less lovable (apart from green goddess)
be disdainful of American because they were often too sweet. In decades of trips I’ve seen American
food – it is the home of the fast and the salads thriving, especially in California,
highly processed – but I was plugged In the more down-to-earth Oregon and New York. ABC Kitchen in
into it, mostly through books and restaurants, the ‘chef ’s salad’ could be New York used to serve a salad of roast
magazines. I wanted the chimney- made of anything as long as it contained carrots, avocado and pomegranate seeds
smoked lobster at Arcadia in New York greenery. Cucumber, chopped eggs, that was much copied (including by me),
and the wood-roast chicken at Zuni Café olives, tomatoes, chicken, bacon, pecans and at Bäco Mercat in LA you could
in San Francisco. I was most excited and cheese could all feature. The Cobb, order salads that were impossible to
about eating in California but visited which originated at the Brown Derby imagine, such as Castelfranco (a mild
Boston, New York and New Orleans on restaurant in Hollywood, put all this in radicchio) with cheddar and miso-
the same trip. The dishes I wrote down a salad and added avocado, too. There’s a fenugreek dressing (I mean, where in
fill the notepad, and many are salads. freedom in these salads. You can wander the world are we with that one?). Chain
I kind of knew what to expect – perfect round your plate finding new flavours. restaurants specialising in salads, such
minimal salads of figs and locally as Sweetgreen and Chopt, have boomed.
produced goat’s cheese (even in 1990 Caesar salad has stood the test of time
this was becoming the butt of jokes); and successfully made its way to America is still a great place for
grain salads that contained wild rice Europe. It was created by Cesare inspiration. Today I offer an old-
(always visually impactful) and smoky Cardini at his restaurant in Tijuana, fashioned American salad (the steak
roasted corn; and slaws that weren’t Mexico, where he used to make the salad one), my interpretation of a modern
dressed with mayonnaise. I tasted tableside, building it from the romaine classic, Zuni Café’s roast chicken and
classics that had been around for years leaves and the egg yolks, emulsifying the bread salad, and something new with
too, namely Cobb and Caesar salads. The dressing as he added the other Californian vibes – fennel, cherry and
ingredients. In the 1950s, it was hailed black lentils. Salad days are here again.
by the International Society of Epicures And they’re anything but boring.

Warm chicken and migas salad

Prep time: 20 minutes – 2 tbsp chopped herbs, – 3 tbsp extra-virgin Roast for 50 minutes, tablespoons of the oil in bubble, add the balsamic
Cook time: 1 hour a mixture of thyme, olive oil (a fruity one) until cooked through. another frying pan and and sherry vinegars and
plus resting time oregano and rosemary fry the pieces of bread about 75ml water. Bring
Serves 4 – a pinch of sugar Prepare the migas on a high heat for about this to a boil, scraping
This is very much – 1 garlic clove, finely METHOD while the chicken is 40 seconds, then turn the base of the tin with
inspired by the wood- grated Heat the oven to 190C/ roasting. Moisten the the heat down and cook a wooden spoon to
roast chicken and bread 180C fan/gas mark 5. chunks of bread with for another 15 minutes, dislodge all the flavours
salad at Zuni Café in San – a good squeeze of the milk and three turning every so often. that are stuck to it. Taste
Francisco. When I first lemon juice Mash the butter with tablespoons of water, They should be mostly and decide whether you
ate there, its then chef the herbs, garlic, lemon and leave to sit for about crisp on the outside and like the flavour. You
the late Judy Rodgers – 1 chicken, about 1.6kg juice and some pepper. 15 minutes. fluffy inside, but it’s might want to add a little
hadn’t yet written a – 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar Cover and put in the good if you end up with water if it’s too strong.
cookbook, so I had to – 1 tbsp sherry vinegar fridge until it is firm Put the raisins in a a mixture of textures
guess how to make it For the migas and salad enough to use, but not small pan with a mixture (soft bread and crisp Quickly whisk
when I got home. I use – 250g slightly stale, for so long that it of the saba or sherry and bread). Put these in a together all the
Spanish migas – chunky becomes solid. You need water (enough to cover broad, shallow bowl and ingredients for the
bits of bread that are open-textured to be able to work it with the raisins). Bring this to cover tightly with foil. dressing. Taste to see
soaked in milk and then country-style bread, your hands. a boil then pull the pan whether you need to
fried – as they have a torn into chunks off the heat and leave so Take the chicken out make any adjustments.
great texture, both crisp – 3 tbsp milk Dry the chicken on the raisins can plump up of its roasting tin. Put it
and soft. A key – 55g raisins the outside with kitchen for 30 minutes. on a warm dish then Throw the salad
characteristic is a – 30ml saba or sweetish paper. If it’s dry it will cover. Leave it to rest for leaves, warm migas and
crispy-skinned chicken sherry roast better. Lift the skin Add one tablespoon of 10 minutes. raisin mixture into a
and only small chickens – 3 tbsp extra-virgin on the breast – without the olive oil to a frying broad, shallow bowl.
achieve that well. olive oil tearing it – and carefully pan and sauté the spring Pour the fat and Add the dressing. Toss
INGREDIENTS – 125g spring onions, push the butter down in onions until slightly soft, cooking juices out of the around. Pour over about
For the chicken trimmed and chopped between the leg meat a couple of minutes, roasting tin into a glass three tablespoons of the
– 30g butter, at room on the diagonal and skin – as far as you then add the pine nuts. jug. Throw in some ice chicken juice and
– 55g pine nuts, toasted can go – and over the Drain the raisins and cubes so that the fat can vinegar mixture, and
temperature – 225g lettuce leaves breast. Season inside add them too. Set this rise to the top. Skim this toss again. Joint the
For the dressing and out using sea-salt mixture aside. off. Set the roasting tin chicken and put it on
– 1 tbsp white-wine flakes – the sea salt will over a medium heat, add top. Spoon on a little
vinegar help the chicken to go Lightly squeeze each the cooking juices and, more juice and vinegar
– ¼ tsp Dijon mustard golden with crisp skin. piece of bread, not to when the juices start to mixture, and serve.
remove all the moisture,
just some. Heat two 9 JULY 2022

38 THE TELEGR APH M AGA ZINE



40 The Telegr aph M aga zine 9 July 2022

Lentil salad with cherries, fennel and goat’s cheese

Prep time: 15 minutes – 100g black lentils, if METHOD overcook). The older a bowl. Trim the tops of Choose a broad,
Cook time: 20-30 you can find them, or Put the bulgar wheat in the lentils, the longer the fennel bulb then shallow bowl or platter
minutes Puy lentils a heatproof bowl. Heat they will take to cook. quarter it, pulling off for this – you want the
Serves 6 the stock or water to I always check after any fronds you find salad to be spread out.
Californian salads make – juice of 1 lemon boiling and pour this 20 minutes. (reserve them). Remove Mix the fennel –
good use of fruit, as – 1 large fennel bulb over the bulgar. Cover the coarse outer layer including the lemon
they have it in such – 15g mint with a plate and leave Drain the lentils and on each quarter and juice – with the bulgar
abundance. This is from – 200g cherries, pitted for 20-30 minutes. The run cold water through discard it. Trim the and lentils, any fronds
my own head but I like – 150g soft goat’s wheat will absorb the them. Toss the bulgar base. Using a very sharp you pulled off the
to think it’s a salad that liquid. Fork the grains and the lentils together, knife, or a mandolin, fennel, the mint leaves
you might find there. cheese, broken into to make them fluffy. and set aside. cut the fennel into and three quarters of
INGREDIENTS chunks wafer-thin slices, the dressing. Season
– 100g bulgar wheat For the dressing At the same time, Make the dressing adding it to the bowl well and put on the
– 150ml vegetable or – 1 garlic clove, finely cook the lentils. Put by whisking the with the lemon juice as serving plate. Scatter
grated them in a saucepan, ingredients together you go (toss the fennel the cherries and goat’s
chicken stock, or – 2 tbsp white balsamic add boiling water – it with a fork. Taste to see in the lemon juice with cheese on top and
water vinegar doesn’t matter how whether you have your hands). The lemon drizzle on the rest of
– 6 tbsp extra-virgin much – and cook until enough sumac – it juice stops the fennel the dressing. Serve
olive oil the lentils are tender should taste slightly discolouring. immediately.
– ¼ tsp sumac (don’t let them sharp and lemony.

Put the lemon juice in

9 July 2022 The Telegraph Magazine 41



Steak salad with blue cheese and buttermilk dressing

Prep time: 15 minutes, – 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar METHOD tomatoes are slightly only need pepper as the four minutes. This will
plus cooling time – ¼ tsp ground cayenne Heat the oven to 190C/ shrunken and the tops blue cheese makes the give you rare steak.
Cook time: 50 minutes, – 2 tbsp extra-virgin 180C fan/gas mark 5. are caramelised in dressing salty.
plus resting time Put the tomatoes in a patches. Leave sitting at Leave the steaks to
Serves 4 olive oil small roasting tin where room temperature. Dry the steaks using rest for seven minutes,
This seems a – 2 tsp caster sugar they can lie in a single kitchen paper – wet covered with foil.
quintessentially layer. Mix together the Take the steaks out of meat doesn’t get a good
American salad. (optional) vinegar, cayenne and the fridge while the colour on it. Brush Divide the leaves and
Romaine leaves, rare – 4 hanger steaks (also olive oil with some tomatoes are cooking. with groundnut oil and tomatoes between four
steak, buttermilk and seasoning, and pour it Lower the oven season all over. Heat plates and drizzle over
blue cheese tick all the known as onglet), over the tomatoes. Turn temperature to 150C/ a large pan – or two the dressing.
boxes. I make it with about 165g each the tomatoes round in 140C fan/gas mark 2. smaller pans – until
Cashel Blue, but you – groundnut oil this and finish with Put a roasting tin in it. very hot. Add the steaks Slice the steaks,
could use another blue – leaves from 1 head of them cut-side up. and brown for 1-3 cutting against the
cheese, though romaine, separated, Season again and For the dressing, minutes on each side, grain, and add them to
Roquefort is too salty. washed and carefully sprinkle on the sugar if mix the buttermilk, turning them over with the plates (I prefer to
INGREDIENTS dried you’re using it (some mayonnaise and vinegar tongs, until they have a keep the steak slices
– 8 plum tomatoes, For the dressing tomatoes just don’t together. Work the blue good dark colour and together, served on top
– 100ml buttermilk have much sweetness, cheese into this with a crust all over. of the leaves, but you
halved – 50g mayonnaise even in the summer). fork, completely might want to toss
9 July 2022 – 2 tsp white balsamic Cook for 30-40 mashing some of it and Transfer the steaks to everything together).
vinegar minutes, or until the leaving other little the roasting tin that’s Serve immediately.
– 50g blue cheese, chunks whole. Taste for been heating and cook
crumbled seasoning – you should in the oven for another

The Telegraph Magazine 43



MARK HIX

Smokin’ hot

I’ve been smoking my own at Felicity’s Farm Shop near Bridport, or
salmon for 16 or so years, and Ammonite deli in Lyme Regis, they never
occasionally I do some hot- go back to that supermarket stuff that seems
smoked salmon, or bradan rost, to have more plastic packaging than salmon
which is basically cured fish that’s itself. Smoked salmon has sadly become
hot-smoked instead of the traditional cold a cheap commodity and the quality
smoking. I particularly like it paired with deteriorates when it’s sitting in a packet
pickled cucumber in the salad overleaf. until the sell-by date. As with most things,
When I sell a customer my smoked salmon the fresher the better.

9 JULY 2022 Photography by M AT T AU S T I N THE TELEGRAPH MAGAZINE 45

HOT-SMOKED 9 July 2022
SALMON,
PICKLED
CUCUMBER AND
HORSERADISH
SALAD
Prep time: 10 minutes,
plus pickling time
Cook time: 10 minutes
Serves 4 as a starter
Hot-smoked salmon can
be used in all sorts of
dishes but I rather like
it in a salad with a
horseradish-spiked
dressing.
INGREDIENTS
– ¼ cucumber, halved

lengthways and
seeded
– 100ml cider vinegar
– 1 tsp caster sugar
– 300-400g hot-
smoked salmon
(bradan rost)
– ½ tbsp strong
horseradish cream
– 3 tbsp rapeseed oil
– 12 cooked new
potatoes, halved
– a handful of dill fronds
METHOD
Slice the cucumber as
thinly as possible and
mix with the cider
vinegar, sugar and
some seasoning. Leave
for 30-40 minutes then
drain, reserving the
pickling liquid.
Preheat the oven to
160C/140C fan/gas
mark 3. Place the
salmon in the oven for
about 10 minutes to
warm through.
Meanwhile, for the
dressing, whisk
together the
horseradish cream, oil
and a tablespoon of the
reserved cucumber
pickling liquid (keep
the rest for marinades
and dressings).
Break the warm
salmon into pieces and
arrange on serving
plates with the
potatoes, cucumber
and dill fronds.
Spoon over the
dressing, to serve.

46 The Telegr a ph M aga zine

ROASTED HISPI – 6-10 black shallots, peppercorns
CABBAGE WITH peppercorns, coarsely and cayenne pepper in
DEVILLED crushed a saucepan with the
KIDNEYS vinegar and three
Prep time: 20 minutes – a good pinch of tablespoons of water.
Cook time: 35 minutes cayenne pepper Simmer gently until the
Serves 4 liquid has almost
I’ve made a similar dish – 3 tbsp cider vinegar evaporated then add the
in the past using roasted – 40g butter butter and stir in the
cauliflower, but there – 2 tsp plain flour flour. Gradually add the
are some lovely pointed – 200ml beef stock (a beef stock, stirring to
hispi cabbages around avoid lumps forming,
that transform once good cube dissolved in season lightly, then add
roasted and slightly 200ml water will do, the mustard and
caramelised. You can though fresh is better) simmer gently for 10-12
cook the cabbage in a – 1 tsp English mustard minutes. Add the
conventional oven or, – 2 tbsp double cream double cream and
better still, a wood-fired – 8 small gherkins, continue to simmer
oven or barbecue. You finely chopped until the sauce is of a
can use any kidneys for METHOD thick, gravy-like
this – lamb, pork or veal Trim the cabbage of any consistency. Stir in
– and it makes a great discoloured outer the gherkins and
economical and tasty leaves but leave the keep warm.
main course. stalk end on. Cook the
INGREDIENTS whole cabbage in Melt the butter for
– 1 hispi or sweetheart boiling salted water for the kidneys in a heavy
five minutes then drain frying pan until
cabbage in a colander. foaming, then season
– rapeseed or vegetable Preheat the oven to the kidneys and add to
220C/200C fan/gas the butter, cooking for
oil, for brushing mark 7. Quarter the a couple of minutes on
– 40g butter cabbage, place the each side over a high
– 14 lamb’s kidneys, quarters in a roasting heat, keeping them
tray, season and brush pink in the centre.
halved and sinew with a little oil. Roast Drain on some kitchen
removed for about 20-30 paper and drop them
For the sauce minutes, turning the into the sauce. Simmer
– 4 small or 2 large pieces a couple of times for 20 seconds or so
shallots, finely during cooking, until then place the cabbage
chopped tender and nicely quarters on warmed
coloured. Turn the oven serving plates and
off and keep warm. spoon over the kidneys
Meanwhile, to make and sauce.
the sauce, put the

9 July 2022 T h e T e l e gr a ph M ag a z i n e 47

RASPBERRIES Temperley’s Somerset bottomed copper, steel
WITH SOMERSET Pomona, which is an or heatproof glass bowl
POMONA apple aperitif made with (not aluminium or it
ZABAGLIONE his cider brandy and may go a nice grey
Prep time: 15 minutes apple juice, and works a colour). Beat well with
Serves 4 treat with this dish. a whisk for 2-3 minutes
In posh restaurants INGREDIENTS then beat in the
zabaglione was For the zabaglione Pomona or Marsala.
traditionally made in – 4 medium egg yolks
front of you at the table. – 50g caster sugar Hold the bowl with
If you have a portable – 60ml Somerset a cloth and sit it over a
gas burner and a nice saucepan containing
copper bowl, and want Pomona or Marsala 3-4cm of simmering
to show off to your To serve water. Whisk
dinner guests, you – 300-350g ripe, sweet continuously for a few
could try that at home. minutes (use an electric
It’s also traditionally raspberries, or other whisk if you prefer)
made with Marsala, soft fruits, or a mixture until the mixture is
but I’m keeping it local METHOD thick and frothy.
and using Julian To make the zabaglione,
put the egg yolks and To serve, put the
sugar in a round- raspberries in bowls or
plates and pour over
the warm zabaglione.

48 The Telegr aph Magazine 9 July 2022



50 The Telegr aph M aga zine 9 July 2022