Author Archives: Margaret Graham

Young Voices Thread: Kinky boots review by Megan Cannell

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I love musicals. In fact I love them so much that I listen to “Wicked”s sound track every morning on the way to school. When my grandma offered to take us up to London to watch Kinky Boots, I could not refuse. My friend went to see it on Broadway and told me it was amazing and that the songs were so catchy.  At first I was a bit sceptical because of the name but when it started I knew that I was going to enjoy it so much.

 

The story is about Charlie Price, who turns an Northampton shoe factory which is on the brink of closing, into a success by making boots for drag queens who want thigh-high red boots. Hence the name, Kinky Boots.

 

At the same time, we see how Lola, the project’s design consultant who is also a drag queen, makes Charlie and his co-workers overcome their dislike of men in frocks. All ends happily at a Milan shoe fair where the collapsing business is joyously ‘rebooted’.

 

The songs were super duper good and the story line was very interesting and personally, I had my eyes glued to the stage the whole time. I would say that this particular musical is great for lots of people, but I personally would recommend it for ages 10+, just because of some of the language and scenes. The show was really funny and had me and my sister laughing, but some of it was quite emotional. Don’t worry I won’t spoil it. All in all I would really recommend this musical and I have been listening to the songs nonstop after seeing it.

 

 

See it at the Adelphi Theatre, The Strand, London.

 

 

Despite the Falling Snow by Shamim Sarif Review by Frances Colville

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despite the following snow book reviewDespite the Falling Snow by Shamim Sarif was first published in 2010 but has recently been reissued by John Blake to coincide with the release of the film (starring Charles Dance and Rebecca Ferguson) written and directed by Sarif herself.  Two previous books, I Can’t Think Straight and The World Unseen have also been made into films.

 

Set partly during the Cold War in the post-Stalinist Moscow of the 1950s and partly in Boston forty years later, this is a vivid portrayal of love, life and loss.  It’s a very visual book, made to be filmed, and at the same time a gripping read with some interesting twists and turns.  A thriller with a difference, in fact.

 

But what I really like about this book is that it is essentially a love story with a spy story background, rather than – as is so often the case – the other way around.  And although the main character, the central character, is a man, we are drawn from the beginning into the lives of the women in the story and much of the story is told through their eyes rather than Alexander’s.  This might sound confusing, but in fact it makes for a clever, well-plotted and well-written novel which works on several different levels.  I think it will make an excellent film and it’s certainly a good read.

 

Despite the Falling Snow by Shamim Sarif pub.   John Blake. £7.99

 

The Late Summer Sun is a Great Excuse for a Cocktail

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However, cocktails are a bit of a fiddle aren’t they? No, no,  not always it seems. Try these recipes which hit the spot and take no time at all. They are ideal for accompanying a September BBQ or, if autumn arrives, ask the gang over and have one, at least, before a roast dinner.

All Star Martini

This refreshing martini has been created by All Star Lanes, Brick Lane, East London, using J.J. Whitley Rhubarb Vodka who have created a range of spirits inspired by the British countryside. The Rhubarb Vodka really is reminiscent of freshly picked rhubarb, is a delicate colour and ideal as a cocktail base. So here we go:

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Ingredients (single serve): 25ml J.J. Whitley Rhubarb Vodka, 25ml J.J. Whitley London Dry Gin, dash of Fee Brothers Plum Bitters, 10ml fresh lemon juice, 5ml vanilla and passion fruit syrup, 10ml pressed apple juice, shot of Prosecco, a dried lemon wheel, dehydrated cornflower petals (or other edible dried flowers)

Method: Put all ingredients, except the prosecco into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a coupette. Garnish with the lemon and petals and serve with a chilled shot of prosecco.

And what about this:

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Botanical Martini

This gin lover’s dream has been created by popular Manchester cocktail bar, Tusk. The Botanical Martini is made using Whitley Neill, a premium gin inspired by Africa and carefully blended with nine botanicals, including the superfruit baobab which has six times more vitamin C than an orange.

Ingredients (single serve): 50ml Whitley Neill Gin, 10ml Noily Prat, dash Peychaud’s Bitters

Method: Stir the ingredients together and pour into a coupette glass- what could be more simple, especially if you have had a few of the others first!

Liverpool Gin G & T
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My parents spent quite a long time in India. In fact I was born there. They swore by a gin and tonic as the sun went over the yard arm, and trust me, this  is a very fine gin. Founded at the Bankhall distillery in Liverpool, Liverpool Gin is premium spirit handcrafted in a copper still. This small batch, aromatic gin recreates flavours of the past with the finest organic botanicals. Believe me,  you can almost see the ships masts in the port, the warehouses filled with spices, juniper, sugar cane. It really is one of the finest gins I have tasted.

Ingredients (single serve): 50ml Liverpool Gin, 100ml Fever Tree Tonic, wheel of orange and spring of mint

Method: Pour the gin and tonic over ice and garnish

Cheers everyone – enjoy.

You can buy J.J. Whitley Rhubarb Vodka from Amazon for £27.24 for 70cl. @JJ_WhitleyUK   facebook.com/JJWhitleyUK

Whitley Neill is available in Sainsbury’s and Tesco as well as Drinksupermarket.com for £23.29, 70cl. @WhitleyNeill  facebook.com/WhitleyNeill

Liverpool Gin is available from The Whisky Exchange for £44.95, 70cl. @LiverpoolGin  facebook.com/liverpoolgin

J.J. Whitley, Whitley Neill and Liverpool Gin are crafted and distributed by Halewood Wines & Spirits. (www.halewood-int.com)

 

 

 

Teresa Mills’ Mosaics Review by Margaret Graham

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At Frost we love to see something just that bit different, and Teresa Mills’s products certainly fit the bill.

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Teresa is the author of four best selling books on mosaic art which I found interesting  even before I laid eyes on the Pixelated Mosaic Kits, because I have had  a fascination with mosaics ever since I saw my first Ancient Roman floor. But wouldn’t Teresa’s kits be a fiddle? Wouldn’t any child end up having a tantrum as they struggled to cut and grout the tiles?

No, actually, that’s the beauty of the kits. The tiles fit the pixelated design exactly without cutting and grouting so absolutely no need to run screaming from the room with grout in your hair, pursued by your child, or grandchild who has been driven to fury by the fiddle of it all.

These tiles are a manageable size, and the quality is excellent. My favourite (because I like them)  is the butterfly. Everything comes in a cotton bag, the base board is wooden, and the tiles are glass, glitter and silver.

Megan Cannell, who edits our Young Voices thread, had a go. She is 15 but you’re never to old to be creative and she found, as did I, that the tiles are not too small, and are easy to fix. The colours are vibrant, and we felt they’d be just right for Mabel, who is eight, or for a young lad we know.
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I do like quality products and I hope that Teresa is on to a winner here, especially with winter and Christmas not too far away. Grannies, who seem to do a fair bit of child care these days, will welcome these kits with open arms. I just feel that anyone, young or old, who produced the finished article would find a sense of satisfaction – a piece of creative craft well done. Let’s face it, it must encourage the creativity that lies within everyone, and that is always a good thing.
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These Pixelated Mosaic Kits are handmade in the UK, and the team at Frost highly recommend them. They are reasonably priced too. The three above are £11 each.

Available in a variety of designs, from insects and animals to shapes and letters, they are an ideal way to delve into the wonderful world of mosaics.  Each kits contains all you need to make your very own mosaic masterpiece.  Handmade in the UK from high quality materials, each kit comes in its own beautiful cotton bag with the design printed on the front.  They are suitable for all ages and are perfect for keeping the kids busy or as a boredom buster.

For more details: www.teresamillsmosaics.com

 

Great Fire of London 350th Anniversary by Margaret Graham

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Frost Magazine is always concerned about the safety of children and felt we must share this with our readers. It’s 350 years since the Great Fire of London broke out, and educating our youngsters about fire safety has certainly come a long way since then. It’s so important that children know what to do in an emergency, outside of the home as well as in.

In honour of their 150th year, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) have teamed up with much-loved toy brand PLAYMOBIL to teach young children about fire safety through play. Free station open days are being held throughout 2016, with limited-edition LFB versions of the PLAYMOBIL fire engine and a catchy sing-a-long fire safety video available to watch and play along at home.

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Does your child know what the Brigade can help with outside of the home? LFB have recruited a specialist crew of firefighters to ensure children know who to call when they are in danger with a fun sing-a-long fire safety video, available here: http://bit.ly/PLAYMOBIL_LondonFireBrigade_Video. Why not settle down to watch it with your little ones and play along with our special quiz?1. What is the second emergency our PLAYMOBIL firefighters are called to?

  1. What do the firefighters use to put out the fire at the outdoor campfire?
  2. What catches fire at the PLAYMOBIL castle?
  3. What is the name of the colourful clown last to be rescued by the Brigade from the road accident?

 

What really happened during the Great Fire of London? Find out how much your budding little heroes really know about what happened during the Great Fire of 1666, with our online quiz here: http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/Flash/great-fire-of-london-quiz.asp

 

Can you spot the fire hazards? It’s important to teach your children how to spot hazards just as well as you do. Get them started with this interactive game: http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/Flash/EscapePlanningGame.asp

great-fire-of-london-350th-anniversary-by-margaret-graham2Play firefighter at home: It could help your children to learn what firefighters do if on their next birthday, granny could give them Limited-edition LFB versions of PLAYMOBIL’s fire toys created for little ones to learn through play at home. 10% of proceeds will be donated to the Brigade’s charities of choice.

 

Toys available to purchase at the LFB open days, online at Kerrison Toys and from PLAYMOBIL customer services.

 

 

The Inheritance by Katie Agnew Review by Frances Colville

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Pic 1 If you like a good story with a variety of locations and some interesting characters, you'll love this new novel from Katie Agnew, whose first novel Drop Dead Gorgeous won a WH Smith Fresh Talent Award. The Inheritance is essentially the story of Sophia Beaumont-Brown who used to be an IT girl, but is currently single, cut off from her family and reduced to sofa-surfing. An appeal for help from her dying grandmother offers her the opportunity to turn her life around and to make sense of the past. Can she unravel the stories of her family's history and find what her grandmother wants her to find before it is too late? But The Inheritance is not just Sophia's story. Several different threads draw us into the lives of other characters in the book with settings ranging from pearl diving communities in Japan through pre-war and wartime England to 21st century London and New York. The plot is well handled and you'll be kept guessing until the last chapters as to exactly how it is all going to work out. An easy-to-read but fascinating story with some intriguing twists. The Inheritance by Katie Agnew was published in trade paperback by Orion on 21 July 2016 priced at £13.99.If you like a good story with a variety of locations and some interesting characters, you’ll love this new novel from Katie Agnew, whose first novel Drop Dead Gorgeous won a WH Smith Fresh Talent Award.

 

The Inheritance is essentially the story of Sophia Beaumont-Brown who used to be an IT girl, but is currently single, cut off from her family and reduced to sofa-surfing.  An appeal for help from her dying grandmother offers her the opportunity to turn her life around and to make sense of the past. Can she unravel the stories of her family’s history and find what her grandmother wants her to find before it is too late?

 

But The Inheritance is not just Sophia’s story.  Several different threads draw us into the lives of other characters in the book with settings ranging from pearl diving communities in Japan through pre-war and wartime England to 21st century London and New York.  The plot is well handled and you’ll be kept guessing until the last chapters as to exactly how it is all going to work out.  An easy-to-read but fascinating story with some intriguing twists.

 

The Inheritance by Katie Agnew was published in trade paperback by Orion on 21 July 2016 priced at £13.99.

 

 

GransThread Jan Speedie Talks About Her New Phase

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Jan Speedie: Surrey Reviews EditorRetirement is entering a completely new phase of life; I am not going to say final phase. I have to admit when faced with retirement after 30 years working in the NHS I was worried what life would bring  – daytime TV, expanding waist line with too many coffee and biscuits, aches and pains of a maturing body.

Being one of the three Grannies who helps administer the charity www.wordsforthewounded and faced in 2015 with the Mud Challenge, our fundraiser for that year, it was off to the gym to get fit and not let my team down. I remember the bemused faces of the staff at Ash Manor Sports Centre when I explained that in 6 weeks I needed to be fit and ready for the challenge – well they did it and now I am a regular at the gym and will even admit that I enjoy the hard work and friendship.

The fundraiser for 2014 was a tandem skydive: pushing 70 and strapped to a gorgeous young RAF instructor what more could a girl want – it was an amazing experience. Then there is feeding 40 people lunch at the W4W Litfest with little experience of mass catering which has proved to be an interesting and rewarding event.

Back to everyday retirement – I have 4 grandchildren who still want to be with granny, but are totally unimpressed with my technology skills – but I am learning. I have been cajoled in to doing book reviews for Frost Magazine which is great as it keeps me reading and the brain ticking over.  It’s great to be able to holiday anytime and fly off to interesting destinations – Canada, Portugal, Italy, Poland and skiing in France and soon to add Australia to my list.  Then there are days out with friends completing things on our bucket lists. I take a renewed interest in cooking, gardening, decorating and even cleaning my house. Still need to investigate U3A, the WI and many more.

Some weeks my calendar is empty but it’s amazing what turns up or just occasionally it is nice to do nothing. Remember that 70 is the new 50 so let’s go for it and enjoy.

 

 

99 objects about Europe & us by Margaret Graham

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In this year when our political relationship with the continent has been so hotly debated, the National Trust have put together a selection of objects from their vast collections that help examine our nation’s rich and ancient cultural connections to our neighbours. This is a fascinating digital diary, and we’ve included a couple of excerpts here. It is a great idea to check in each weekday to find out what stories our objects have to tell.  But here are a couple to be getting on with.

Day 35. Campi phlegræi. Observations on the volcanoes of the Two Sicilies as they have been communicated to the Royal Society by Sir William Hamilton … Date 1776 Place of origin Italy. On show at Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, East of England, National Trust.

Not sure that I’d hang about as a live volcano does what it likes to do, but Lady Emma Hamiliton’s husband, Sir William Hamilton was made of sterner stuff. Campi Phlegraei or ‘Flaming Fields’ is a first-hand report of the spectacular eruptions of Mount Vesuvius written by Sir William Hamilton, the British envoy to the Neapolitan royal court and expert volcanologist. Perhaps he saw it as a metaphor for his wife’s raging affair with Lord Nelson which was burning strongly at the time? As a diplomat, Hamilton entertained many visitors and frequently accompanied them on the perilous ascent of the live volcano without a hard hat or flame-proof jacket in sight.  The area’s history of volcanic activity, including the recently excavated nearby classical sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum, made it a popular tourist destination for wealthy travellers making the Grand Tour.   Hamilton’s text is a wonderful example of a beautifully illustrated treatise from the Age of Enlightenment – when science clearly came before health and safety.

Day 8  Harp. Sebastion Erard 1732 – 1851 On show at Lyme Park, Cheshire.

The maker of this particular harp was the Frenchman, Sébastien Erard. Prior to establishing his firm in London, Erard was closely associated with the Bourbon court including the harp-playing Marie Antoinette, whose arrival to Versailles in 1770 fuelled the rage for the instrument amongst the French elite.   But by the early 1790s, with many of his clients facing certain death by guillotine, Erard fled France for London where he established a shop on Great Marlborough Street. There he honed his craft to such a degree that by 1794 he took out the first British patent for the harp to protect his innovations. In 1800, the Princess of Wales bought one of his harps and the success of his firm was ensured; by 1810 he had sold nearly 1400 of his stringed instruments from his London outlet alone.

http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/.