1. T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R M E M B E R S O F T H E C I V I L S E R V I C E R E T I R E M E N T F E L L O W S H I P
M A G A Z I N E
AUTUMN 2015 www.csrf.org.uk
P L U S : N e r y s H u g h e s • N H S H E L P • L E T T ER W R I T I N G
Healthy
Bones
Indian
inspirations
Thrilling
books
Last Chance to Buy
Golden Raffle Tickets
Over £14,000 of raffle
prizes to be won!
4. 4 AUTUMN 2015 www.csrf.org.uk Celebrating Years
1965
2015frontdesk
Help us to hit
£150,000
How can I enter the
Golden prize draw?
If you still have your envelope
from the Summer issue:
1. Detach your tickets and return the
counterfoils (don’t separate the
counterfoils from each other please)
with your name, address and contact
number written on them
2. Enclose a cheque made payable to
‘The CSRF’ for the correct amount.
You can also include a donation on
the same cheque.
3. Check you have completed the
response slip and then put this with
your counterfoils and cheque in the
FREEPOST envelope and post it off.
If you have mislaid your envelope
or would like to buy some more:
1. Fill out the form opposite with your
name, address and contact number.
2. Select how many books of tickets
you’d like to buy (minimum order is
one book at £5) and send your form
along with a cheque made payable
to ‘The CSRF’ to Fellowship Office
using the following address:
The Golden Jubilee Raffle,
The CSRF, Suite 2, 80a Blackheath
Road, London SE10 8DA.
3. Once we receive your form/payment
we will send you your tickets by return
and we will ensure your counterfoils
are entered into the draw for you.
Buy Online
If you’d prefer, you can buy raffle
tickets online via the CSRF website
www.csrf.org.uk/golden-jubilee-raffle
Have you bought your Golden
Jubilee Raffle tickets yet?
If you have bought your own tickets, have
your friends and family bought theirs?
We’ve still got tickets on sale, so
even if you’ve mislaid the tickets
included in the Summer issue of
avanti don’t worry. All you need to
do is contact us and we’ll send as
many books as you’d like.
We’re aiming to make a grand
total of £150,000 from Golden
Jubilee Raffle ticket sales and
we’ve still got some way to go.
So please do help us sell as many
tickets as possible. The more we
sell, the more we can raise for the
Fellowship. The draw closes on 2
November, so there’s still plenty of
time to reach our total, but we can’t
do it without you!
CSRF Golden Jubilee Raffle
Please return by 2 November 2015
Count me in!
Freepost RTRU–KBSB–RESC
The Civil Service Retirement Fellowship
80a Blackheath Road
LONDON
SE10 8DA
TATTTDATFDFFTADDFFATTTDDDATTFFDAAAAF
Each book of five tickets costs
just £5 and there are some great
prizes on offer. Our First Prize
(donated by benenden) is a
£5,000 cash prize, our Second
Prize (donated by the Civil Service
Insurance Society) is a £3,000
cash prize and the runners up
prizes include a weekend break
donated by Warner Leisure.
There’s no limit to the number
of books you can buy, so do
stock up for yourselves and
encourage your friends and
family to buy books too. All the
funds we raise will go directly
to supporting the Fellowship, so
your support and generosity will
really make a big difference.
4 AUTUMN 2015 www.csrf.org.uk Celebrating Years
5. 5
golden jubilee raffle
If you have any questions
about the raffle please call
us on 020 8691 7411 or email
enquiries@csrf.org.uk.
Please note: The closing date for the raffle is 2 November 2015. The
draw will take place on 12 November 2015. Any tickets received after the
closing date will not be eligible for entry to the draw and the money will
be treated as a general donation.
If you are a UK taxpayer The CSRF can reclaim the tax you’ve paid on your
donation. Please tick the Gift Aid declaration box below
If you pay Income Tax at the higher or additional rate and want to receive the additional tax relief due to
you, you must include all your Gift Aid donations on your Self Assessment tax return or ask HM Revenue and
Customs to adjust your tax code.
I confirm I have paid or will pay an amount of Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax for
each tax year (6 April to 5 April) that is at least equal to the amount of tax that all the
charities or Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs) that I donate to will reclaim on
my gifts for that tax year. I understand that other taxes such as VAT and Council Tax do
not qualify. I understand the charity will reclaim 28p of tax on every £1 that I gave up to
5 April 2008 and will reclaim 25p of tax on every £1 that I give on or after 6 April 2008.
make your gift worth
a quarter more at no
extra cost to you!
Your Name:
ADDRESS:
POSTCODE:
TEL NO:
EMAIL (if you have one):
I would like to make an additional donation of £
I enclose a cheque for the above order made payable to: The CSRF
Please tick the box below to enable us to claim Gift Aid on your donation
Item Quantity Price Total
Raffle Tickets £5 per bookOrder Form
£10,000 worth
of cash prizes
(our first prize of
£5,000 and 50
prizes of £100)
£3,000
cash prize
(our second
prize)
Weekend break
in London and
a three course
meal for 10
people (two
separate prizes)
Weekend
break in a
Grand UK
Hotel
Long
weekend
break
in the UK
5
6. 6 AUTUMN 2015 www.csrf.org.uk Celebrating Years
annual general meeting 2015
Chairman’s opening remarks
The Chairman welcomed all company
members, observers, the CSRF’s Civil
Service Champion Edward Troup, Vice
Presidents Peter Jones and Roi Milburn,
Chris Furlong and Charles Cochrane,
trustees of the CSIS Charity Fund, Kevin
Holliday, Chief Executive of the Civil
Service Insurance Society and Derek
Kinrade, the former editor of the first
national magazine. He also thanked
Fellowship Office staff and volunteers for
their ongoing hard work and then went
on to congratulate CSRF Chief Executive
Jean Cooper on being awarded an MBE
in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
The Chairman highlighted the
activities that had taken place during
the Fellowship’s 50th anniversary year,
in particular the Fellowship Holiday at
Thoresby Hall in April and the many
group events that had been held around
Fellowship Day (9 April). He also went
on to encourage those present to help
promote and sell raffle tickets for the
Golden Jubilee Prize Draw that would
take place in November and thanked
all those organisations who had
donated prizes.
He went on to acknowledge the
work carried out by Fellowship Office
specifically in building new partnerships,
operating the National Visitors
Network and Phone Buddy scheme
and the exploration and development
of new projects. He noted that with
all the activities celebrating the 50th
anniversary year it was an opportune
moment to consider how the Fellowship
operated in the future.
The Chairman concluded by advising
attendees that Sir Jeremy Heywood KCB,
CVO had agreed to take over the role of
President following the departure of Sir
Bob Kerslake and Edward Troup (present)
had kindly agreed to take on the role of
Champion with the retirement of Sir Paul
Jenkins KCB last year.
There were 38 eligible voting
members present.
Accounts
The company’s accounts for the year
ending 31 December 2014, together with
the Chairman’s Statement, the Report of
the Board of Directors and the Report
The eighth Annual General Meeting of the company was held from 1pm on
Wednesday 24 June 2015 at Admiralty House, 26 Whitehall, London SW1A 2DY
of the Auditors were presented by the
Treasurer Jenny Rowe and received
without question.
She thanked Tracey Darby for her
help in the production of this year’s
accounts and noted that the deficit
for the year was expected due to the
significantly reduced last grant-in-aid
payment received from Cabinet Office
and a lower than hoped for number of
membership subscriptions. Fellowship
Office had maintained a tight grip on
spending and the challenges for the
future were on how to increase CSRF’s
income. A general discussion was had
that specifically focused on this with
suggestions including payroll giving
and possible engagement with serving
civil servants by way of a subscription.
All the views expressed from the floor
were noted by the Chairman and would
be included for consideration in future
discussions by the Board of Directors
about setting a new financial strategy for
the Fellowship.
Auditors
It was resolved to appoint Moore
Stephens LLP as the auditors of the
company and that the Board of Directors
be authorised to fix their remuneration.
Election to the Board of Directors
Margaret Carter from Branch 14, Torbay
South Devon, was elected to serve as
Director for 2015-2018.
Resolution
Emergency Special Resolution
That the Board of Directors when taking
into account the income available for
2016 to enable the CSRF to meet its
required aims, objects and obligations
as a registered charity be able to
increase annual subscription rates from
£27.32 to £32 and single life membership
from £250 to £320 (this would be
amortised over 10 years) with effect
from 1 January 2016.
Carried
The Meeting then formally closed.
It was followed by a special audio
visual presentation given by Fellowship
Office staff on their activities during the
Golden Jubilee year.
1
8
8
4
9
7. 7
1. CSRF Champion Edward Troup with Chief
Executive Jean Cooper 2. Chairman John
Barker with fast-stream secondee Rosie
Jacot 3. CSRF staff Sophia Hill, Belinda
Stalker and Rosie Jacot 4. Peter Ferrozznolo
and Pam Davis (28) 5. Vice President
Peter Jones with Belinda Stalker 6. Office
intern Mathias Nizan, volunteer Ian Fenn
and NVN Administrator Duncan Packer 7.
Tony Hazeldine (BD), John Lloyd (BD) and
Keith Sullens (BD) 8. Mike Smith (75), Chief
Executive Jean Cooper and Deputy Chief
Executive David Tickner 9. Chief Executive
Jean Cooper with Vice President Roi Milburn
10. Chairman John Barker and Vice Chair
Sue Jarvis cutting the 50th birthday cake
11. Adrian Howlett (111), Doreen Beck (90),
Betty Adlam (17), Sylvia Edgell (BD) and
Michael Wailes (BD)
2
7
10
6
3
5
11
8. 8 AUTUMN 2015 www.csrf.org.uk Celebrating Years
The Fellowship
sends best wishes and
congratulations to the Civil
Service Insurance Society on its
125th anniversary this year and
also for being voted UK’s Most
Trusted Car Insurance Provider in
the Customer Service category
of the 2015 Moneywise
‘Most Trusted’ Customer
Service Awards.
2015
Seniors’
Golf Tour
You can still get involved with
the 2015 Tour, which will be
taking place at the St Pierre
golf course in Chepstow on
Tuesday 8 September 2015.
All CSRF members are eligible
to participate and there is an
individual tour entry fee of £50,
which includes a full day’s golf,
evening meal, set of golf balls
and a golf tag.
For more information contact
John Toman, Tournament
Director, on 01291 620345
or 07768 406233 or by email
johntoman@btconnect.com
news
Thanks to Vic Griffiths, Vice President of the NHS Retirement
Fellowship and member of the joint CSRF/ NHS Retirement
Fellowship (NHSRF) working group. This joint scheme to
promote CSRF group cooperation with NHSRF branches is
well under way and is looking very encouraging already.
CSRF has been working with NHSRF for the past three
years in developing and promoting a number of the joint
leisure activities offered as ‘member benefits’ to those
supporting both organisations. These include the annual
golf tour, photography group and book club, all of which
have benefited from contributions towards their running
costs from the Civil Service Insurance Society.
The partnership has evolved, with a pilot scheme to
encourage greater collaboration between CSRF groups
and NHSRF branches. So far about 20 of our groups have
started to benefit from this and joint events have been
scheduled. Swansea group will be getting together for a
joint harvest Festival celebration and a skittles match, while
Bexhill-on-Sea group is planning a shared outing and has
decided to hold a joint ‘getting to know you’ meal.
The ever increasing costs of speakers and trips out is
becoming a cause for concern for many of our groups, so
the positive feedback received to date suggests that this
pilot has been warmly received throughout the CSRF group
network. We hope it will provide groups with an opportunity
to save money in the future.
If your group would be interested in applying to
participate in this pilot scheme, please contact
David Tickner at Fellowship Office on 020 8691 7411 or
email groupsupport@csrf.org.uk
Working together
Many congratulations to Jean!
Our Chief Executive Jean Cooper was
awarded an MBE for services to the CSRF in
the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in June.
The award is a fitting acknowledgment of
her 36 years of dedication and service to our
charity. Since receiving the news, she has been
touched to have received so many messages
of goodwill from members. “I’m very honoured
and proud to receive this award for doing a job
that I’ve enjoyed very much.”
9. 9
The latest photography group
competition, on the theme of Fun
and Fitness, was judged at the
beginning of July during the NHSRF
Conference in Leeds. Judging was
carried out by Mik Webb (NHSRF
Trustee), Dr Margaret Abban from
Cornwall and
Professor Tony
Moffat from
Cambridge.
There were
17 entries
from CSRF
members and
winner of the
first prize
was Marianne Rowcliffe with her
picture entitled ‘Off the wall push
ups’. Runners up were Eric Marsh for
‘Ladies’ Rugger’ and Malcolm Gibbon
for ‘Catch me if you can’.
The current competition theme is
History and Heritage and entries can
be accepted up to 30 November
2015. To join the photography group
(free for all CSRF members) email
photography@csrf.org.uk or call
020 8691 7411 to register
Photography
group winners
Winner
10. 10 AUTUMN 2015 www.csrf.org.uk Celebrating Years
befriending schemes
We need YOU!
Could you help in
any of these areas?
Being a Visitor can be a
terrifically rewarding way of
making new friendships of
your own, while helping us
make a difference too. We will
cover your costs to participate
in our training seminar and
reimburse your travel costs
when you start visiting. If
you’re a serving civil servant,
by joining us you can also
benefit from CPD (Continuing
Professional Development)
accredited training seminars
and reimbursement of travel
costs for your visits.
If you’re interested,
just call 020 8691 7411
and a member of the
Fellowship Office team
will call you back for a
confidential call. Alternatively
you can email us on
visiting@csrf.org.uk with
your name and telephone
number. You can also find
out more in the Volunteer
Section on the CSRF website,
www.csrf.org.uk and even
download the application
form immediately from there!
Towns include:
Bracknell
Wokingham
Marlow
Plymouth
Clacton on Sea
Maidstone
Leicester
Belfast
Leicestershire
Hertfordshire
Essex
SURREY
KENT
Buckinghamshire
BerkshireDEVON
Northern
Ireland
Wiltshire
11. 11
September is ‘Remember a Charity’
month, highlighting the benefits that
leaving a legacy can have on your
favourite charity. CSRF has received
a number of legacies this year that
have helped make an important
contribution to our work. We’d ask
you to consider helping to safeguard
our future by leaving a legacy.
We know very well that today’s
cost of living makes it harder than
ever for many people to donate
money. Extra financial burdens,
from supporting grandchildren with
university fees to moving into
a care home, make it
increasingly difficult
for people to give
as much as they
would like to
their favourite
charities in
their lifetime.
However,
every donation,
whatever its
size, makes a
difference to
our work.
By remembering us
in this way, you’re ensuring
that the work we do to combat
loneliness through the group
network, our befriending schemes
and all our activities, lives on.
If the time is right for you to
remember CSRF in your will, this
would be very much appreciated.
It is very easy to do. Whether
you already have a will or are
yet to draw one up, all you need
to do is make a simple addition to
your other arrangements to leave
either a fixed sum or a percentage
of the overall estate value to the
CSRF. Your will is completely
confidential, so you are not
obliged to tell us if you do decide
to leave a legacy.
However, if you do, please let us
know so that we can ensure
the money is spent as
you wish and so we
can also thank you
for your greatly
appreciated
contribution.
We promise
that your
legacy will
be spent
wisely and
make a genuine
difference to the
people we help.
To find out more about
legacies you can download the
free information sheet on legacies
from within the members’ area of
the CSRF website, www.csrf.org.uk,
or call 020 8691 7411 to request a
printed copy.
Introducing our
new NVN trainer
We’re delighted to introduce you to our
new NVN scheme trainer, Christopher
Robertson, who joins us from the charity
Community Network. Chris now works
with our NVN Administrator, Duncan
Packer, to deliver the training seminars
for our Visitors and, judging by the
feedback, he’s made a very positive
impression so far. “I am really thrilled to
help the NVN scheme and help reduce
the loneliness felt by so many people. I
look forward to seeing more NVN recruits
in the coming months,” he tells us.
NVN training day
In June 2015, we trained another
group of serving civil servants who
have volunteered to join the NVN.
We are really pleased to welcome
all of them as NVN Visitors and are
working hard to match them to
their beneficiaries. In the meantime,
they have already joined our CSRF
Departmental Ambassadors Network,
which provides support to the NVN
and Phone Buddy schemes and helps
promote CSRF’s work as well.
ABOVE: Chris Robertson (left) with
Duncan Packer during Volunteers
Week in June 2015
Our latest NVN recruits trained and
ready to meet their new friends
Phone a friend
Feeling lonely and in need of a regular
chat? Our Phone Buddy scheme might
be just the right thing for you. We’d
love to hear from anyone who would
welcome a regular friendship phone
call. We can usually match you up pretty
quickly. It’s easy to register and of course
we’re more than happy to chat you through the
process and establish exactly what you might want.
Call 020 8691 7411 and a member of the Fellowship Office team will
ring you back for a confidential chat or email phonebuddy@csrf.org.uk
with your name and telephone number. Alternatively you can find out
more in the Volunteer Section on the CSRF website, www.csrf.org.uk
and you can even download the form directly from the website.
WANT A BUDDY
BE A BUDDY
CSRF’s legal helpline is operated
by McClure Solicitors and they offer
advice and information on how to
review or create a will, as well as a
range of other later life legal issues
such as powers of attorney.
For more information,
call 08451 800939 or email
csrf@mcclure-solicitors.co.uk
did you know
Remember your charity
12. 12 AUTUMN 2015 www.csrf.org.uk Celebrating Years
social media
Connecting to the internet for the
first time can be daunting if you’ve
never done it before but it’s well worth
sticking with it! In fact, recent research
from the International Longevity
Centre has found that people who use
the internet are far less likely to feel
alone (just 38 per cent) than those who
are not digitally connected (63 per
cent). The internet can be a huge help
in keeping you in touch with family,
friends, colleagues and even other
CSRF members; and it can also help
you to remain independent and active
by helping you with shopping, banking
and finding help and information, all
without leaving home.
You won’t need the latest or most
expensive technology to access the
internet. In fact, many modern devices
can get online, such as:
• desktop PCs and laptop computers
• tablet PCs (such as an iPad or
Kindle Fire)
Rosie goes Digital
Rosie Jacot is on secondment from the civil service,
working at Fellowship Office for six months on all
things digital. She explains some of the advantages
and some of the first steps in ‘going digital’
• modern mobile phones
• even many modern TVs.
Even if you don’t own any of these or
don’t have an internet connection at
home, you’ll find many local libraries
will have PCs with internet access.
Getting started
To access the internet you’ll need
an internet browser – an easy-to-
use computer program that lets
you search for and view millions
of web pages on any subject you
can think of.
Most computers come with an
internet browser already installed.
Here are some common web
browsers you might come across:
• Internet Explorer
• Firefox
• Google Chrome
• Safari
They all work in a similar way, allowing
you to ‘search’ the internet, so don’t worry
too much about which one you use.
Once you’ve got your browser set up,
the next step is email! Email is a great
way to stay in touch with your family
and friends cheaply, instantly and easily.
Emails can be short or long, you can
email one person or a whole group, and
you can also use email to send photos
and documents. An email account is also
the first step into the world of social
media, as you will need an address to
set up a social media account, or an
account for programmes that allow
video calling. Setting up an email
account is easy. You can get one from
your internet service provider (ISP) or
you could use a web based service such
as Gmail or outlook.com.
Starting out on social media
What?
Twitter is an information
network made up of
140 character messages
called Tweets. It’s an
easy way to discover the latest news
related to subjects you care about.
Who?
Twitter is made up of profiles from
HM The Queen to BBC news, to
your next door neighbour, your
grandchildren, your local councillor
and CSRF!
Why?
Twitter contains information you will
find valuable. Messages from users
you choose to ‘follow’ will show up
TWITTER on your home page for you to read.
It’s like being delivered a newspaper
whose headlines you’ll always find
interesting; you can discover news
as it’s happening, learn more about
topics that are important to you, and
get the latest update in real time. If
you can’t think of anything to write,
don’t feel you have to. The real magic
lies in reading content from sources
you follow on Twitter. By ‘following’
CSRF on Twitter you can also keep up
to date with all the latest information
and work the Fellowship is doing.
How?
Signing up to Twitter is easy. Just
head to www.twitter.com and follow
the instructions! Have a look at the
‘help’ pages to get you started, or ask
someone with an account already
to show you how it’s done!
What is a #?
Putting the #symbol in front
of a word or phrase allows you
to click on that word and see
other ‘tweets’ connected to that
topic. It’s a great way to start a
conversation around something
that interests you.
13. 13
Staying safe
There are a lot of
warnings about
internet security:
and one of the
simplest things you
can do is use an
email address that
doesn’t give away
your name. Be very careful about
giving away any other personal details
when you’re using social media too.
If you want to find out more, AgeUK’s
free guide to Internet Security can
be downloaded directly from
www.ageuk.org.uk/publications/ or
can be requested from the free
advice line on 0800 169 6565.
If you already have an email address
then let us know what it is and we can
add you to our CSRF E-Newsletter.
Do you use Facebook, Twitter or other
social networks? We’d love to hear your
positive and negative experiences.
Email: enquiries@csrf.org.uk or write
in to Fellowship Office.
What?
The world’s largest
social network,
Facebook has over
1.4 billion users.
Who?
It allows you to connect with
‘friends’ that you know in order to
keep in touch. You can also join
‘groups’ with likeminded people,
to generate discussion and share
information.
Why?
You can use it to catch up with
old friends and colleagues,
to keep in touch with family
members, to see ‘pages’ of your
favourite celebrity, charity or
politicians, or even to play games!
Most importantly, if you search
‘CSRF’ on Facebook you can join
our new members’ group to help
you meet other CSRF members
and keep up to date with what
is going on around the country,
as members share pictures and
stories of their group activities.
How?
To create an account, go to
www.facebook.com to sign up.
Have a look at the ‘help’ pages to
get you started, or ask someone
who has an account already to
show you how it’s done!
FACEBOOK
Many local libraries offer classes on
getting online, as does the charity
Age UK. The charity IT Can Help
also provides volunteers who can help
with connecting to the internet and
using email. Contact Age UK on
0800 169 6565 or IT Can Help
on 0800 269 545.
CSRF online
We currently have a presence on many social media sites which we use
to help promote CSRF and build new working partnerships. You can
find us by using the following links:
- https://twitter.com/THECSRF
- To find us on Facebook search ‘CSRF’ to ‘like’ our page or join our
members group
- Check out the CSRF website, www.csrf.org.uk and log in to the
Members’ area using your member number and surname (with
upper case first letter)
If you experience any difficulties with logging in to the CSRF website
then call 020 8691 7411 or email: enquiries@csrf.org.uk
talk to us
14. 14 AUTUMN 2015 www.csrf.org.uk Celebrating Years
This year health and wellbeing provider
Benenden celebrates its 110th birthday
and though its services have changed
over the years, it is still based on the
principles of mutuality.
The Benenden Personal Healthcare
mutual model began with post office
workers clubbing together in 1905 to
help provide treatment for tuberculosis
(TB). The dusty, cramped offices in
which sorting clerks and telegraphists
worked were ideal conditions for the
highly infectious disease to flourish
and many of the sorting clerks died
of it. They could not afford to visit the
‘sanatoria’ offering treatment, which
were often in mountainous European
countries such as Switzerland.
Post office clerk Charles Garland
proposed an affordable solution: each
person joining the new Benenden
scheme should contribute just two
shillings a year, direct from their salary.
It was an instant success, with 30,000
post office workers joining in just six
months. Their contributions, added
together, easily covered the cost of
treating the 120 or so people in need
each year.
Now, 110 years later, almost 900,000
people still benefit from that very
simple idea, with everyone paying the
same low monthly contribution of just
£8.45 into a communal pot. This is then
used to help those members who need
to request personal healthcare services.
Such is the level of loyalty to the
organisation that some existing
members have been paying
subscriptions since they ‘signed on the
dotted line’ as teenagers starting their
civil service careers in the 1950s!
Looking after members’
health for 110 years
news
Of course, the range of healthcare
services has grown considerably. Back
in 1905, when Charles Garland set up
the organisation, there was no NHS
available. Since the health service’s
foundation in 1948, Benenden’s
offering has evolved alongside it with
the aim of complementing rather
than replicating its services. This has
helped relieve some of the stress of
long waiting lists, helping to achieve
speedy diagnosis and alleviating some
of the pressure from the public purse.
Today, members of Benenden
can request a wide range of services,
including consultation and diagnosis,
treatment and surgery in clean and
comfortable private hospitals, plus
physiotherapy, support and advisory
services such as a 24/7 GP helpline
and 24/7 stress counselling helpline.
Since 1905, Benenden has been
run for the good of members and
these mutual principles will never
change. The cost of membership is
the same for everyone. What’s more,
there are no complicated forms, no
excesses and also no need to divulge
medical history. Each person’s case is
assessed on its individual merits. The
focus is still on offering high quality
discretionary healthcare services when
they are needed most.
From small beginnings as a fund
for postal workers with TB, Benenden
continues to promote a community led
ethos more than 110 years on, with any
surpluses invested in services for the
benefit of members and their health.
Benenden is already looking to the
future and has plans to expand its
services and continue the development
of Garland’s simple, but continually
relevant, ideal of people coming
together to work towards a better
future for all.
You can join Benenden whatever
your age (there is no upper age limit).
To find out more, call 0800 414 8152
and quote CSRF.
The Fellowship sends best wishes
and congratulations to Benenden
on its 110th anniversary this
year and also for being voted
UK’s most trusted healthcare
provider for a fifth year in the
2015 Moneywise ‘Most Trusted’
Customer Service Awards.
FROM TOP: The new National
Sanatorium at Benenden, which
took its first patients in March 1907.
RIGHT: Charles Garland poses
with sanatorium staff as patients
look on (c.1910)
FROM LEFT: (Photos from 2015 Benenden
Conference) Matron Ali Curtis and charge
nurse Phil Golding; Chief Executive Marc Bell
15. 15
Your Name:
ADDRESS:
POSTCODE: TEL NO:
EMAIL (if you have one):
I enclose a cheque for the above order made payable to: The CSRF
We’ve still got some great goodies for you to purchase
Item Quantity
Suggested minimum
price (each)
Total
Buttercup Badges £2.00
Buttercup Bag for Life £3.00
Flower Cards (minimum order – 1 set) £4.00
Flying Piggles £5.00
Total
Golden Goodies
Bag up, write a note, wear your Buttercup Badge and fly with a piggle!
Please complete and return your order form along with your cheque to: The CSRF, Suite 2, 80A Blackheath Road,
London SE10 8DA or you can place your order online via our website, www.csrf.org.uk
We’d love to receive
photos of lots of people
wearing the buttercup
badge, carrying a bag
or holding piggles.
Or all three!
16. 16 AUTUMN 2015 www.csrf.org.uk Celebrating Years
feature :
You have a lot more control over your NHS care
than you think, from the time of your hospital
appointment to which surgeon will operate
on you, explains Kaye McIntosh
health service
the NHS
Finding your
way around
D
o you know your CQC from your
CCG? Can you spot the difference
between an HCA and a Band 5
at 20 paces? No, we thought
not. It’s hard to find your way around
the maze of services, organisations and
professionals in today’s NHS. However,
the right information (and possibly
someone to assist you if you’re not
computer savvy) can help you take
charge of your own healthcare.
Doctor, doctor
The average GP appointment takes
between eight and 10 minutes and it’s in
both your and the doctor’s interests to
make that time slot as effective as possible.
“There’s evidence that empowered and
assertive patients do better,” says GP Phil
Hammond, author of Staying Alive: How to
get the best from the NHS. Before seeing
your doctor, think about what you want
to ask and what the problem is, advises
Hammond. What are your symptoms?
How long have you had them? What are
your concerns? What do you want from
the consultation? After the discussion,
ask what you need to do now: what if the
symptoms don’t get better? It can help to
have someone with you for support and to
take notes.
“Decisions about treatment don’t always
have to be made in one hit,” Hammond
adds. “The discussion can take place over
a month. You may be committing yourself
to taking a drug for every day of your life.
Take your time and do your research.”
Changing your GP
You also have the right to choose a GP
practice. Local surgeries must accept you
unless there are reasonable grounds to
refuse. Some surgeries will also take on
patients who live outside their area but
perhaps work nearby. You can find details
of local surgeries at your nearest library or
in the phone book.
If you are turned away from a practice, it
should tell you why. However, it ought to
Jargon buster
CQC Care Quality Commission,
inspecting hospitals and other
care providers
CCG Clinical Commissioning
Group, commissioning
services from your local
hospital
HCAs Health Care Assistants, helping
nurses to provide care
Band 5 Medical staff are ranked on
a pay scale from Band 1 to
Band 9
17. 17
the NHS Constitution you can also go
outside this list.
So how do you pick the best hospital or
clinic for you? There’s been a huge drive
for greater transparency in healthcare
through league tables that compare
the performance of different hospitals
and surgeons. Yet this isn’t always the
best way to choose, says heart surgeon
Samer Nashef, an expert in the study
of risk in medical care. His book, The
Naked Surgeon: the Power and Peril of
Transparency in Medicine, takes a closer
look at league tables. A surgeon who looks
good may simply be better at playing the
system, he reveals.
Conversely, a good surgeon may be wary
of taking on high risk patients for fear of
falling in the league tables if something
goes wrong through no fault of their own.
A third of the surgeons who responded to
a survey carried out by Nashef admitted
denying procedures to patients for this very
reason. He and his colleagues at Papworth
Hospital, Cambridge, on the other hand,
share responsibility for higher risk patients
so that no individual surgeon’s reputation
suffers if something goes wrong.
It is possible, though, to get some
clear information. Heart surgery was the
first medical specialty to move towards
publishing individual surgeons’ results.
These aren’t yet routinely available yet for
be straightforward to switch. You usually
need to fill out a registration form and
give details of your previous doctor so
your records can be transferred. Some
practices also like you to come in for an
appointment to discuss your health needs
and history.
Hospital help
Your right to choose extends to hospital
appointments if your doctor refers you
to a specialist. According to the NHS
Constitution, you have a legal right to
say which hospital you prefer among
those offering suitable treatment that
meets NHS standards and costs (with
some exceptions for urgent care and
cancer services).
Your local Clinical Commissioning Group
(CCG), which pays for most hospital care,
might try to limit that choice to the ones it
commissions. If you want to go elsewhere,
you may need to argue your case, pointing
to your constitutional right.
You may be able to arrange your
appointment online direct from the GP
surgery, using the new NHS e-Referral
Service, which lets you decide when and
where you want to go. Alternatively, you
will be given an appointment request
letter, which includes your unique booking
reference, NHS number and a list of
hospitals or clinics to choose from. Under
• How many of these procedures do you
carry out every year?
• How many of these patients are my age,
with the same kind of condition and to the
same degree?
• How many have you considered
‘successful’ and what do you mean by this?
• How many cases have resulted in
complications?
Questions to ask a
surgeon if you’re
considering a procedure
18. 18 AUTUMN 2015 www.csrf.org.uk Celebrating Years
all surgical specialties, but vascular and
orthopaedic surgery are likely to be next in
line, Nashef says.
For this, you’ll almost certainly need
to go online. You can find the results
of some surgeons’ work on the NHS
website: look for things like how
many times they have performed
a procedure, as well as quality
measures such as complication
rate, adverse events and mortality
rates. You’ll also be able to compare them
with other consultants. If you can’t find the
surgeon you’re interested in, their records
might be on the hospital website or they
may have their own website too.
Alternatively, you can always ask directly
through the hospital or when you go to an
appointment: remember, you are entitled
to this information. With this in mind, it’s a
good idea to take someone else with you
to any consultant appointment to be your
advocate. Get them to ask the questions,
make sure everything is explained clearly
and write the answers down so that both
of you have a record for later. Don’t worry
that you’re bothering the consultant: a
good surgeon should be happy to share
this information and explain what it means.
In fact they’ll probably be extremely
relieved to see you’re handling it in such a
thorough manner.
In it for the long term
The NHS has a responsibility to us; but we
also have a lot of responsibility for our own
healthcare, Hammond points out. More
than half of us live with a chronic disease,
such as diabetes or arthritis, by the time
we hit our 60s. If that applies to you, it’s
up to you to find out as much as you can
about your condition, as you’re the one
who will be living with it.
“You need to get on top of it. Learn
as much as you can about it. That will
improve your care. You will only see the
GP two or three times a year; the rest of
the time it is up to you,” he says. Most
conditions have a charity or support
group that offers a wealth of information
and support; the bigger ones have
helplines and expert advisers who can
also help you work out what care you
need and sometimes even act on your
behalf in difficult situations.
Last of all, whether you face
important decisions about surgery,
live with a long term condition or are
just keen to stay well, you need to
look after your physical, mental and
emotional wellbeing. Fresh air and
exercise, cooking and enjoying healthy
food, meeting other people, learning
something new and helping other people
are more important to our health than
we acknowledge.
As Hammond concludes: “For most
symptoms, you are better off with a dog
than a doctor.”
If you’re prescribed any
medication, don’t forget to ask
about possible side effects, and also
tell them about any medication
you’re already taking.
The NHS Constitution. This sets out your rights, from being treated
within agreed waiting times to being able to access drugs and
treatments recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care
Excellence (NICE): tinyurl.com/c9qmsac
The facilities offered by different GP surgeries and ratings from patients:
tinyurl.com/3kstb2m
It’s Your Practice – A Patient Guide to GP Services from the Royal
College of GPs www.rcgp.org.uk/information-for-patients.aspx
If your research takes you online,
it’s worth taking a look at:
19.
20.
21. 21
feature :
In an era of instant electronic communication,
letter writing is in sharp decline but is it a dying art?
David Porteous is not quite ready to write its obituary
Letter writing
Last post?
I
’m gonna sit right down and write
myself a letter,” sang Fats Waller
in 1935. Nearly three decades
later, Elvis Presley gave a letter to
the postman and got it back addressed
‘return to sender’. Only six years ago, the
Grammy Award for Record of the Year
went to Please read the letter, sung by
rock and bluegrass legends Robert Plant
and Alison Krauss. Purloined letters,
letters gone astray in the post, letters
never sent and letters received in the
nick of time: they’ve played a central
part in our culture.
Yet is this tradition coming to its end?
In today’s digital age of email, texting
and tweeting how many of us still take
the trouble to write by hand even a short
message to a friend or loved one?
Boxing clever
People have always written letters but
it wasn’t until the middle of the 19th
century that it became open to all.
Rather pleasingly, we owe a lot of the
letter writing culture to civil servant and
prolific writer Anthony Trollope, whose
‘day job’ ran in tandem with his career
as a novelist (he wrote them early in the
mornings before setting off for work at
the Post Office).
Before the radical changes made to
the postal service during the Victorian
era, sending letters was largely the
preserve of the rich and privileged. Rates
were high, based on distance and the
number of sheets in a letter, and the
recipient, not the sender, had to pay (or
quite often refused to pay).
Rowland Hill, a Warwickshire
headmaster and social reformer,
campaigned for a uniform letter rate
of one penny, to be paid by the sender.
“ This was adopted in 1840 with the
introduction of the Penny Black, the
world’s first postage stamp. Overnight
the postal service became accessible
to almost the entire population and
within a year the number of letters sent
more than doubled.
Then came Trollope with his invention:
the pillar box. These first appeared on
the streets in 1853. As demand grew they
were emptied several times a day, from
early morning to late at night. Some
households in London could expect
as many as a dozen daily deliveries by
the end of the 19th century. A letter
posted in the morning could arrive in the
afternoon. Ladies dedicated time most
days to correspondence, sitting writing
assiduously in their drawing rooms.
Steamships and railways extended
the reach and speed of the service. With
an increasingly literate general public,
letter volumes grew exponentially.
Authors such as Dickens and Thackeray
became prolific correspondents,
while private citizens sent letters and
postcards across the world (see Dearest
Margarita: an Edwardian Love Story in
Postcards on page 36). A whole genre
of ‘epistolary novels’ (novels written in
letter form) developed.
By 1914 the Post Office was
handling 5.9 billion items a year and
the early decades of the 20th century
brought in the first airmail services too.
The Post Office also went on to take
responsibility for the nation’s telegraph
and telephone systems.
Boom and bust
The development of alternative forms
of communication for people keen
to keep in touch with each other
22. 22 AUTUMN 2015 www.csrf.org.uk Celebrating Years
Debrett’s, the definitive guide
on British etiquette and
manners, provides these general
rules on letter writing (whether
you stick to them or not is, of
course, up to you):
• If you do not have
letterheads and are writing
on blank paper, the address
is written in the top right
hand corner.
• Write out the date in full:
8th October 2015, not
8/10/15.
• If you addressed the letter to
‘Dear Mr Smith’, sign off with
‘Yours sincerely’. If addressed
to ‘Dear Sir/Madam’, then use
‘Yours faithfully’.
• For personal
correspondence, letters
can begin with informal
greetings such as ‘Dear John’
and be signed off with ‘Best
wishes’ or With love’.
• It is acceptable to write
on both sides of a sheet
of writing paper. If a
second sheet is needed,
use a plain (unheaded)
continuation sheet.
• On the envelope, the
address should be centred,
with each new line
increasingly indented.
The formal rulestook a long time. Letter
writing remained
popular for decades, but
once the computer and
phone took over, letter
writing fast became
redundant.
Royal Mail delivered
13 billion addressed letters last
year, compared with just over 20
billion in 2008 and most of today’s
post is business and direct (‘junk’) mail.
Compare that with 1910, when the
average person in the country sent 116.7
items of post, and it’s easy to agree
with Simon Garfield’s musings in To the
Letter: A Journey Through a Vanishing
World. “I hope I’m wrong but letter
writing is probably in terminal decline,”
he says. “If technology advances at the
same pace for the next 20 years as it has
for the last 20, there will be very few
people left writing letters.”
Garfield adds, “Letters are largely how
we have communicated for 2,000 years
and I do wonder how we are going to
tell our history in the future from emails,
tweets and texts saying ‘I’m on the train’.
I’m not against new technology and I
send emails all the time but I still write
letters and the people who do tend to
be of a certain age. We need to do more
to inspire the younger generations
about the value of letters and their
wonderful physical qualities.”
Enduring popularity
In present day Britain collections from
pillar boxes are being cut and the
postie is no longer a daily visitor to
many houses. Yet letter writing hasn’t
completely finished.
“We’ve seen dramatic changes in the
way we communicate and writing is
certainly under threat. However, there
are plenty of reasons for thinking it will
not become a lost art any time soon,”
says Christopher Leonard-Morgan,
organiser of National Stationery Week.
Leonard-Morgan points to an
enduring belief not just in the letter but
the handwritten letter. “Handwriting
was reintroduced to the secondary
Do you still write letters? Indeed,
do your friends still write to you?
What’s the best letter you’ve ever
received? Do let us know (and
yes, you can email us too)!
talk to us
school curriculum last year and sales
of fountain pens are going through the
roof,” he says. “A handwritten letter
shows courtesy and etiquette. Love
letters are treasured while emails
declaring ‘I love you’ just don’t cut it.”
Public opinion appears to back him
up. More than two thirds (68 per cent)
of people surveyed by YouGov ahead
of this year’s National Stationery Week
agreed that handwriting remains a
very important skill, while 97 per cent
agreed that it is important to teach
handwriting to school children. In a
separate survey carried out by the
National Handwriting Association, the
majority of people (64 per cent) said
that receiving a handwritten note made
them feel special.
Don’t write it off
Today, it’s true, Fats would probably
have sat right down and sent himself
an email and Elvis would have
found his texts blocked. Yet we’re
still communicating and we’re still
entranced by letters.
The popularity of Garfield’s latest
book, My Dear Bessie, a love story
told through letters between a soldier
and his girlfriend during the Second
World War (and profiled in the Summer
issue of avanti), shows there is still
widespread public interest in that art,
even among those who do not practise
it. Newly edited or newly discovered
collections of correspondence penned
by historical figures such as Paul
Cézanne, Ernest Hemingway and TS
Eliot have been literary hits in recent
years. Letters have adapted and evolved
rather than died out.
Tomorrow’s collections of letters may
not be sent through the post, and the
formats and conventions may differ, but
the basics of written communication,
and all that means for human contact,
should never be allowed to die out.
Some of the earliest novels
were written in letter form
23.
24. 24 AUTUMN 2015 www.csrf.org.uk Celebrating Years
feature :
We dip into the world of today’s crime fiction
CRIME FICTION
Move over
Miss Marple
25. 25
Then, in the 1980s, there was
another change of direction. “There
was an explosion of different sorts of
sub genres, with the bookshop shelves
increasing their ranges,” Dr Sabine
Vanacker of the University of Hull points
out. Feminist crime, lesbian and gay
crime, left wing crime, black crime fiction
and others all came onto the scene.
Publishers today are much more
cautious; it’s unlikely that they would
publish books like Barbara Wilson’s
Murder in the Collective or Manuel
Vázquez Montalbán’s Murder in the
Central Committee, because they would
be seen as ‘niche’ books that wouldn’t
sell. In fact, both novels were snapped
up by plenty of readers and the wide
breadth of today’s crime fiction owes a
debt to that cheerfully varied period.
From whodunnit to whydunnit
One of the huge differences today is
that the characters are often as, or
more, interesting than the actual crime.
“One of the things about early detective
fiction was the purity of purpose that the
detective seemed to have and you don’t
get that in contemporary fiction very
often,” says Gillis.
Nowadays, instead of the lone
detective fighting evil, the central
character is often a flawed, complicated
human being. They can be pretty
lonely too: the dysfunctional divorced
policeman who drinks too much is a
modern stereotype.
“A lot of crime fiction plots turn into
the detective detecting themselves.
They’re very much about identity, with
the whole surge towards the solution
of the mystery leading them back to
themselves,” adds Vanacker.
“Character has to come before plot. In
fact, character is plot,” says novelist Elly
Griffiths. “Crime writers like Phil Rickman,
whose protagonist has a daughter who
grows up as the series continues, don’t
always get the credit they deserve.”
This storytelling technique is
something we owe to PD James, says
Vanacker. “She published over 30 years
and the readers grew old with her. I
think that is something distinctive with
crime fiction. Nowadays in particular,
the novels are written in series and
once you’ve read one you stick with
credited with creating the first fictional
detective, Sergeant Cuff in The
Moonstone. The first Sherlock Holmes
novel, A Study in Scarlet, followed 19
years later.
“In the UK, certainly, detective fiction
came out of sensational novels and
gothic fictions, genres concerned with
the individual’s place in a domestic
scene and with secrets,” says Dr Stacy
Gillis of Newcastle University. “In the
US, it was rather different, emerging
from Westerns. So in one country
there’s the lone figure, while in the
other there’s the gunslinger.”
She adds: “Later on, around 1916,
there is a whole slew of women like
Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and
Margery Allingham writing ‘family
mysteries’. For the first time, people
understood what it was to say ‘I like
reading detective fiction’.”
Yet however popular the books were
during this time (and they certainly
were), they were still not considered
serious literature. Many novels were
also, frankly, not well written. Writers
such as Rendell and James, along with
the likes of Patricia Highsmith in the US,
started to change this.
Today’s detective is flawed,
complicated and human
T
wo of the great figures of
English writing have died in
the past year: PD James last
November and Ruth Rendell in
April. Between them these two friends
succeeded in bringing their crime fiction
into the mainstream; especially Rendell’s
novels written under the pen name
Barbara Vine, which moved into new
areas of psychological suspense.
By the time they died, even the few
people who never touch the genre had
to acknowledge that it had long left
behind the tired clichés associated
with the ‘crime novel’.
Once upon a time, crime writing
was an often formulaic genre that
many people might read with a guilty
pleasure. There is still a fair amount of
social and peer group snobbery that
can prevent people from declaring their
enjoyment of crime (along with fantasy
and romantic) novels. “So instead of
admitting their favourite kind of books
might be crime fiction, they’ll say they’ve
read all the Man Booker Prize winners
for the past 10 years,” says crime novelist
Sophie Hannah. “They’re anxious that
their tastes show them in a certain light.”
However, you can’t argue with
the facts that crime is increasing in
popularity, especially as more and more
books are adapted for TV and cinema.
Despite some remaining snobbery crime
fiction has moved up in the world, with
people of all intellectual pretensions
happy to admit they’ve seized on the
latest by Hannah, or by Val McDermid,
Lynda La Plante, Harlan Coben, Elly
Griffiths, Nicci French, Kate Rhodes, CJ
Box, Linwood Barclay … or many others;
while on big and small screens actors
Ian McKellen and Benedict Cumberbatch
have both recently refreshed Sherlock
Holmes for a modern audience.
Unsurprisingly, with such a big pool
of authors contributing to the genre, the
novels are becoming less predictable.
There’s everything from tense
psychological dramas to police studies
to novels with offbeat protagonists such
as archaeologists.
Gothic and gunslinging
It was Charles Dickens’ contemporary
(and friend) Wilkie Collins, a writer
of ‘sensational novels’, who is often
26. 26 AUTUMN 2015 www.csrf.org.uk Celebrating Years
it and grow with the character.”
Women detectives such as Lisa
Gardner’s DD Warren, Tess Gerritsen’s
Jane Rizzoli and Laura Lippman’s Tess
Monaghan deal with the challenge of
having babies while solving crimes.
Sophie Hannah and Val McDermid
feature couples who grow and
change but continue to struggle with
fundamental difficulties between
them. Meanwhile, one of Harlan
Coben’s characters goes from
psychotic to recluse.
Unsurprisingly, crimes have also
changed. Yes, there’s murder (often
in ingenious and really quite nasty
ways) but the focus is as much
whydunnit as whodunnit. “I think the
motivation interests me as much as
the crime itself. Maybe we’re all
fascinated by aberrant minds,” says
novelist Kate Rhodes. “People who
transgress and aren’t afraid of doing so.
This kind of fiction allows us to explore
what we fear most in our society.”
Watching the detectives
The police detective is alive and well in
the new crime scene, but so are other
protagonists. The fourth in Rhodes’
Alice Quentin series, River of Souls,
was published in June. “There’s a reason
why I’ve chosen a forensic psychologist:
we’re both trying to get under the skin
of the criminal mentality,” she says.
“I think crime readers are demanding
that. The popular vote isn’t always with
the action novels, but with the subtle,
more complex books that stand on
the borderline between literature and
crime. There’s nothing wrong with the
kind of writing that sweeps you along,
but there’s room for more than that.
I wanted to create a modern woman
as well, who felt very conflicted about
her job and whether her own mind was
strong enough to cope with her job. It’s
a broad church these days, with a lot of
good writing out there.”
Rhodes started off as a poet
before moving into novel writing.
Hannah did the same, and other
novelists such as Kate Atkinson and
Susan Hill wrote novels in other
genres before turning to crime.
Griffiths has written several other
novels under her real name, Domenica
de Rosa. “My agent thought my name
wasn’t ‘crimeish’ enough when I started
writing crime novels about eight years
ago. However, I don’t think there’s much
difference between the writing. I’ve
always liked to have a mystery there.”
She’s written seven novels featuring
forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway
(The Ghost Fields was published earlier
this year). She’s also written two novels
set in 1950s Brighton featuring former
members of the ‘Magic Men’ unit and
set in the world of variety theatre. They
are based on her grandfather’s music
hall experiences (The Zig-Zag Girl was
published last year and Smoke and
Mirrors is due out this November). Both
offer the opportunity to look at crime
from yet another angle.
“I was fascinated when I found out
there was such a thing as a forensic
archaeologist, and archaeology itself
is interesting because it’s both quite
scientific and quite mystical,” she says.
The Magic Men books probably
won’t run to a series the length of
the Ruth Galloway novels but she
says this won’t be the last one.
“Publishers do think in terms of series.
It’s given lots of writers the chance to
write about one character through a
whole chunk of their lives.”
Again, it’s the characters (and the
wider cast) and their complex, often
flawed relationships that hold the
readers’ attention as much as the
crime itself.
We’ve only been able to mention
a few writers here. If you’re a
fan of the genre, which are your
favourites and why? Do write
and let us know.
talk to us
End game
“One of the things readers enjoy
with crime novels is that there’s an
element of puzzling out and getting
closure,” says Rhodes. “We all have
elements of our lives that don’t have
answers, whereas in crime novels you
always get an answer.”
Griffiths isn’t so sure. “I think
there’s always a convention in British
and US novels to tie it up neatly, but
European crime novels can be more
ambiguous,” she says.
Where both agree, though, is that
writing crime fiction is enormously
enjoyable. In Rhodes’ words: “It’s a
pleasure to write them. It enables you
to indulge all of your hobbies.”
Gillis concludes: “Some time in the
1990s, one of the Man Booker Prize
judges said it would be perfectly fine
if a detective or fantasy novel won.
Neither has so far, but detective
fiction has done the most to move into
this category.” In any case, she adds,
“most people aren’t reading the books
on the Man Booker long list. Many of
them are reading crime fiction
instead and hugely enjoying it”.
the focus is as much
whydunnit as whodunnit
27.
28. 28 AUTUMN 2015 www.csrf.org.uk Celebrating Years
feature :
The importance of keeping your skeleton solid
HEALTH
B
one health becomes
increasingly important once
we reach the age of 50,
particularly for women. Diet,
exercise and, if necessary, medication
can all help. So can practical help to
prevent falls, and being aware of the
necessity for a proper bone scan if you
have a fracture. There are plenty of
things you can do to protect your bones.
Living skeletons
It may not seem like it but bone is living
tissue, both the thick outer shell and the
inner mesh. Throughout our lives this
tissue keeps breaking down and being
renewed. In fact, the density of bones
continues to increase (strengthening
that inner mesh) long after they’ve
stopped growing in length and probably
right up to our mid twenties.
After that, we can never improve on
that peak of bone health, though we
can keep as close to it as possible. Once
Bones are made stronger principally
through load bearing exercise and diet.
‘Load bearing’ means any activity where
you are working against gravity, from
dancing to weightlifting. “This type
of exercise pulls on the muscles and
promotes that bone building cycle,”
explains Sarah Leyland, who’s
a senior osteoporosis nurse and
helpline manager at the National
Osteoporosis Society.
Diet matters because bone, as living
tissue, needs to be fed properly. Most
important, it needs protein, calcium (the
average human body contains around
a kilo of calcium, 99 per cent of which
is in our bones) and vitamin D to enable
us to absorb that calcium adequately. It
also means eating enough, overall.
“Women don’t often realise that their
bones are in danger if they’re not taking
in enough of the right nutrients and
minerals,” points out Susan Ringwood
of eating disorder charity Beat. “Often,
28
we reach the age of 35, we lose bone
more quickly than we gain it, a process
that accelerates for women after
menopause because oestrogen plays
an important part in stimulating bone
renewal.
Genetics and family heritage,
including your ethnicity (people from
African and Caribbean countries are
usually lucky enough to have stronger
bones) and how well you’ve looked
after them, are important factors too.
Them bones,
29. 29
them bonesthose minerals require sufficient fat in
our diet, too, to reach the right places in
the bones.”
On top of the diet and exercise
recommendations, Leyland says, the
need for healthy bones is yet another
argument against cigarettes. “Smoking
has a directly toxic effect on bones,” she
explains. “Stay within the recommended
alcohol limits too, because this also has
a direct effect on bone cells; and
because salt and caffeine affect the rate
at which your body excretes calcium,
use them in moderation. Important
recent research shows that these things
really do increase the risk of fracture.”
Leyland continues: “Also, stay active.
Quite apart from the direct effect on
your bone density, there’s good
evidence coming through that if you
remain active into later age, this can
help prevent fracture because you’re
less likely to fall.”
Don’t break a leg
Osteoporosis (literally ‘porous bone’)
means that the inner ‘struts’ of our
bones become weaker, so they can
The best way to measure bone
density is through a scan called ‘dual
energy Xray absorptiometry’ (DXA),
which uses a small dose of radiation
to measure bone levels of calcium
and other minerals. Most people
only get this after they’ve already
fractured a bone.
There are other warning signs,
including a history of eating disorders,
rheumatoid arthritis, an early
menopause or other conditions that
affect the way you absorb food or keep
you immobile. Often, however, there’s
no indication that your bones are at risk.
This is why the National Osteoporosis
Society has launched its Stop at One
campaign to have anyone over 50 who
fractures a bone automatically assessed
for osteoporosis through the hospital
where they are treated.
If you’ve had a fracture in the past,
one that shouldn’t have damaged
a healthy bone (a classic is a wrist
fracture after you put your hand out
to break a fall), but you didn’t have an
assessment, the NOS recommends
making an appointment to see
snap or fracture easily. At the moment,
that leads to about 300,000 fractures
a year in the UK. In fact, it’s estimated
that one in two women in the UK and
one in five men over the age of 50 will
break a bone for this reason.
However, there’s a lot you can
do to keep yourself out of this
category. The really important issue
with osteoporosis is to understand
how it works and how to cut down
your risk of developing it. If you
are diagnosed with fully fledged
osteoporosis, take advantage of all
the treatments on offer and protect
your bones from damage.
Find out if you’re at risk of
osteoporosis by visiting the
National Osteoporosis
Society’s Stop at One
website stopatone.nos.org.uk
and taking the special bone
heath quiz. Or ring the charity
directly on 0845 130 3076.
30. 30 AUTUMN 2015 www.csrf.org.uk Celebrating Years
your GP. It should be enough to tell
them that you haven’t had a scan
despite a fracture but if your GP really
doesn’t seem particularly clued up,
try suggesting they look at the new
website developed by the NOS and the
Royal College of General Practitioners
(www.osteoporosis-resources.org.
uk). It’s been written directly by and
for GPs, so it is written in the kind of
language that communicates directly
to them and gives them a very clear
briefing on the condition.
The osteoporosis assessment itself
puts together all the different risk
factors, including your bone mineral
density score. If you’re shown to be at
risk, the next step depends partly on
age. If you’re still close to 50 and your
bones aren’t overly fragile, you may be
advised to start with lifestyle changes
alone. If you are older, you’ll probably
be moved immediately onto one of
the various drug treatments available.
These slow down the cells that break
down old bone and may also stimulate
the cells that build new bone.
However, it’s still important to
complement that treatment with
lifestyle, partly to preserve the bone
density you’ve got and partly to make
sure that they’re protected from failing
in other ways.
You can also do some advance work
of your own. Try the International
Osteoporosis Foundation’s quick online
test at www.iofbonehealth.org. Or
if you’d prefer to speak to someone
directly, the National Osteoporosis
Society runs a helpline on 0845 450
0230 from 9am to 5pm every week day.
“Life changes but doors open”
Many of us do end up with some level
of bone damage but
that doesn’t have to
mean the end. Phillippa
Russell, 80, pictured right,
from Birmingham, has
had pretty extensive
osteoporosis for the
past 23 years, and has
suffered successive
fractures and now walks with a
frame. But as she points out, she has
continued to be extremely positive.
“Life does change, of course,” she
says. “People think of doors shutting
but not those that open. I can’t ride
my bike but I have a scooter. I had
nearly a year when I couldn’t play my
cello, so I got out my old paintbox and
painted instead; I wasn’t getting out
much, so I had great fun doing this.
You have to think positive, and that is
a message I do try to put across.”
Russell adds that her experience
is probably very different to that of
someone diagnosed today. “That was
20 years ago. Nowadays it would
probably have been spotted early and
I would have been given medication
to halt its progress. You can receive
one of the many options for
medication that have been developed
in recent years so that you can
maintain a sufficiently
healthy skeleton.”
Despite this, she is
keen to remind us that
our skeletons need
care and attention:
“Please look after
your bones!”.
Whatever state your bones are
in, one very basic way to protect
them is by preventing yourself
from falling over in the first place.
Five top tips:
• Keep your balance: you can do
specific exercises (Age UK has
some suggestions on its website),
or sign up for a class in yoga or
t’ai chi. The more supple you are,
the less likely you are to fall over.
• Clear the clutter: keep your
floors free of anything lurking
unexpectedly underfoot or in
front of you.
• Take a look: make sure you
can actually see what’s in front
of you too. Good lighting is
important, especially in
hallways and on stairs, as are
regular eye checks. If you do
have sight problems, it’s even
more important to cut down
on clutter you might trip over.
• Get a grip: wear shoes or
slippers that fit your feet
properly and don’t slip
around. If your carpets or
rugs skid on the floorboards,
you can buy ‘carpet grips’ to
keep them steady.
• Ask the doctor: if you do find
you’re falling more than you
used to, it could be caused by
anything from an ear infection
to side effects from other
medication you’re taking.
Staying upright
World Osteoporosis Day is on
20 October. Read more about
National Osteoporosis Society
supporter Nerys Hughes’
Favourite Things on page 62.
31.
32. 32 AUTUMN 2015 www.csrf.org.uk Celebrating Years
feature :
Eve Ahmed looks at some of the people and trends
(and the words!) that travelled here from the Indian
subcontinent before the First World War
Indian influence
meets West
F
ancy a curry? Well, people in the UK have
been able to pop out for a poppadum ever
since 1809, when Sake Dean Mahomed
opened his Hindostanee Coffee House in
London. Centuries before the hippy trail brought
one wave of Indian influence to Britain and the
influx of postwar immigrants brought another,
the subcontinent has contributed to the British
mainstream in many different ways.
First arrivals
In 1599, when another Queen Elizabeth was on
the throne, a group of traders set up what would
become the ‘corporation that ruled the world’:
the East India Company. The Company went
on to account for half of the world’s trade in
commodities, including silk, cotton, salt, tea and
opium. It ruled great swathes of India with private
armies and it eventually led to the British Raj, with
the British Crown assuming direct control.
Inevitably, the people they encountered made
their way here too; sometimes willingly, sometimes
less so. When British families returned from their
overseas stint, for instance, they often brought
servants and nannies (ayahs) with them. Company
agents grown wealthy retired to Britain with their
financial gains and, on occasion, their Indian wives
and children too.
Their ships, meanwhile, were crewed by Indian
sailors. Some of these ‘lascars’ remained in British
Indians were baptised and buried
in London from 1616
ports and continued to ply their trade. Others set
up cafés, lodging houses and curry houses. The
unemployed made pennies where they could, as
hawkers, street musicians, sweepers and beggars.
The first known record of the baptism of an
Indian immigrant to Britain took place in 1616 in
the City of London. Little is known of ‘Peter’, except
that he’d converted to Christianity and then went
back to India as a missionary, but there are several
other notices of baptisms and burials of Indians
in London parish records from the 1600s. There is
also a record of an Indian man, Samuel Munsur,
marrying an English woman, Jane Johnson, in
Deptford, south east London, in 1613.
Second wave
A more well to do set arrived in the next century.
Scholars came to study astronomy and anatomy,
to teach or to work as interpreters. Businessmen
came to stake claims against the East India
Company. To work in the higher levels of the
Indian civil service required a British qualification,
so ambitious, well connected young men came
to Britain to study at Oxford or Cambridge
universities.
By 1800 there were at least several hundred
Asians living in Britain, ranging from sailors
and ayahs to students and nobility. An Indian or
black servant was quite sought after, while a few
enterprising Indians set up their own businesses.
In addition to his coffee house, Dean Mahomed
subsequently set up Mahomed’s Baths in Brighton,
treating patients with muscular ailments using
herb and oil filled baths, followed by a massage
(or champi). He acted as ‘personal shampooing
East
33. 33
FROM TOP: ; The Kirkpatrick Children (Oil on canvas,
154 x 118.1 cm) George Chinnery: Courtesy of HSBC
Archives’ indian silk scarves at market; Abdul Karim,
Queen Victoria’s munshi
surgeon’ to two successive
kings, George IV and
William IV. Later in the
19th century, Queen
Victoria (whose titles
included ‘Empress of India’)
employed Abdul Karim
as her munshi (secretary)
and her affection for him
caused a major scandal in
court circles.
Those who had settled
in Britain often married
and had children here.
Dean Mahomed married
Irishwoman Jane Daly, and his descendants still
live in the Brighton area.
Alongside the people whose parents or
grandparents had emigrated came a number
of children of British men who had married or
lived with Indian women while working for the
Company. Many such children stayed in the
country of their birth, but men with enough money
often sent them ‘home’ to Britain (though the
children themselves were going to a strange land
and would never see their mothers again).
James Kirkpatrick, the subject of William
Dalyrmple’s book White Mughals, was one of many
men who sent away very young children (his
daughter was only three) to become part of
British people with
Indian relatives
include:
• Virginia Woolf (left)
• Lord Liverpool
(Prime Minister
from 1812 to 1827)
• William Makepeace
Thackeray
• Anna Leonowens
(the ‘Anna’ of
Anna and the
King of Siam)
• Boris Karloff (left)
• Cliff Richard
Family legacies
34. 34 AUTUMN 2015 www.csrf.org.uk Celebrating Years
the English mainstream. Noor oon Nissa grew
up as Kitty Kirkpatrick. Quite a few pillars of the
English establishment grew up without knowing
their Indian roots or, if they did, they went to
great lengths to conceal them.
Fabrics and buildings
Yet if Indian relatives were not widely
acknowledged, Indian influences certainly
were. British traders were inspired by Indian
artistry and brought back carpets and textiles
from their ventures. They were particularly
impressed by calico and muslin (Britons only had
access to linen or wool at that point) and British
industrialists began to produce these themselves.
They also took a fancy to the shawls with
decorative motifs that originally came from
Kashmir. Scottish manufacturers reinterpreted
these to create paisley, a print that is thought of
as quintessentially British; but look closely and
you’ll see that it is in the shape of a mango.
Rosemary Crill, senior curator in the Asian
department of the VA, is one of the leading
people behind the museum’s Festival of India this
Autumn. “India was hugely influential. Indians
had been experts in dyeing for hundreds, if not
thousands, of years and the British fell in love
with the colours, especially indigo. For the first
time, people could afford bright, easily washable
clothes,” she points out.
She hopes the forthcoming India Festival will
remind visitors of the Indian origins of textiles
and colours we now take for granted (without
indigo, there would be no blue jeans: a different
world indeed).
The passion for all things Indian extended to
tableware. The scenes that decorate many blue
and white ceramics of the early 19th century
were often taken from popular topographical
prints of India.
FROM LEFT: The
Royal Pavilion,
Brighton;
Sezincote,
Gloucester.
BELOW: the
Durbar Room,
Osborne House
The popular paisley is in
the shape of a mango
35. 35
talk to us
It also influenced architecture. The first notable
building was probably Sezincote in Gloucester.
Its owner, Charles Cockerell of the East India
Company, commissioned his brother to build
the house with advice from the painter Thomas
Daniell (who had spent 10 years in India) in the
latter part of the 18th century. The resulting house,
garden and orangery mix Hindu and Muslim
traditions, complete with a Moghul paradise
garden, a temple to the Sun God Surya, statues of
Brahmin bulls and a coiled three headed snake.
Sezincote was one of the inspirations for the
Prince Regent (George, Prince of Wales, and
subsequently George IV), who visited Sezincote
in 1807 and changed his own plans for the
Royal Pavilion in Brighton. Designed by John
Nash, the pavilion was built between 1787 and
1823 along Mughal lines, complete with domes,
minarets and pinnacles.
Sixty years later, and indeed after the Indian
display at the Great Exhibition of 1851 had brought
the subcontinent to a much wider audience, Queen
Victoria commissioned an Indian style banqueting
hall for Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.
At the same time, Indian aristocrats were
commissioning works of their own, including
Elveden Hall in Norfolk (home of the Maharajah
Duleep Singh) and the Maharajah’s Well in
Stoke Row, Oxfordshire (endowed by the
Maharajah of Benares).
Glorious food
The spice trade was one of the boom areas for
the East India Company. Nutmeg, cloves and
peppercorns were traded for exorbitant prices,
while other spices ended up on those Indian
patterned plates.
“It was the British who invented curry powder,”
says Dr Lizzie Collingham, author of Curry:
A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors. “The civil
servants, or nabobs, retired to the UK having
acquired a taste for the exotic, bringing their
Indian cooks with them.”
The British were satisfied with a ready made
blend rather than the complex array of spices
that any self respecting Indian cook would grind
themselves. However, even in this form, curry
became immensely popular. An 1852 cookbook
stated, ‘Few dinners are thought complete unless
one is on the table.’ Queen Victoria was a fan,
while writer William Thackeray even penned a
Poem to Curry. By the 1860s Isabella Beeton was
including Indian dishes in her famous books. Spicy
food was mainstream.
The home cooked variety had fallen out of
favour by the start of the 20th century and most
people took to a fairly mass produced version until
a revival of interest in ‘real’ subcontinental food,
and indeed in different types of Asian restaurants,
took us full circle to the days before curry powder.
However, chicken tikka masala (itself a hybrid
curry house creation) is often said to be our
national dish, while tea, the national drink, was in
fact first cultivated by the British in India.
WWI and after
During the First World War, 1.5 million Indian
men volunteered to fight alongside their British
counterparts (and many were nursed in the
Brighton Royal Pavilion, which was converted
specially for them). Indians were living in Britain in
considerable numbers, including aristocrats such
as suffragette Sophia Duleep Singh and cricketer
Ranji (considered second only to WG Grace), as
well as more ordinary people.
“Nowadays, most South Asians in the UK were
actually born here,” concludes Dr Shinder Thandi,
one of the authors of A South Asian History of
Britain. Yet as Thandi and other historians have
revealed, Indian people and trends have been here
for centuries.
Indian words and expressions:
Pyjamas, Bungalow, A cup of char (chai),
Catamaran, Shampoo, Typhoon
What is your favourite Indian
influence? What about your
favourite Indian food: and do
you have a recipe you’d like to
share with other readers?
36. 36 AUTUMN 2015 www.csrf.org.uk Celebrating Years
Our regular mix of books, culture and entertainment
Noonday
Pat Barker,
(Hamish Hamilton,
out August)
The Booker winning author
of the Regeneration trilogy
turns to World War II. Paul
Tarrant, Elinor Brooke and
Kit Neville first met in 1914
at the Slade School of Art before their
generation lost hope, faith and much
else on the battlefields of Ypres and the
Somme. Now it is 1940, they are middle
aged and another war has begun. As the
bombs fall and Elinor and the others
struggle to survive, old temptations
and obsessions return and they are
all forced to make choices about
what they really want.
The Book of
Human Emotion:
an encyclopedia
of feeling
from anger to
wanderlust
Tiffany Watt Smith (Profile,
out October)
Recent research has us
believe that there are as
few as six ‘basic’ emotions,
but if this makes you
uneasy, suspicious or even
a little sad, The Book of Human Emotion is for
you. Ranging across literature and art, medicine
and psychology, philosophy and pop culture, it
explores the secret histories of our feelings and
the surprising connections between them. As you
explore the hidden routes that link boredom and
disgust, excitement and rage, grief and mirth,
you’ll discover more about why you feel the
way you do.
Dearest
Margarita: an
Edwardian
love story in
postcards
(Viking, out October)
In 1900, aged 20 and travelling
from Havana to Europe,
Margarita Johnson met and
fell in love with the dashing
gold prospector Charles Lumb. Her father
disapproved and after three years of secret
postcards the couple eloped to London. Cut
out of her father’s will, Margarita was never
welcomed again in Havana. These are the
postcards she treasured from Charles, her
family and friends who wrote to her from
England, America and Europe: from the
charming to the jocular to the romantic.
entertainment
SPQR: A history
of Ancient Rome
Mary Beard
(Profile, out October)
Ancient Rome matters. Its
history of empire, conquest,
cruelty and excess is
something against which
we still judge ourselves. Its
myths, stories, debates and
controversies still strike a chord with us.
SPQR is a new look at Roman history from
one of the world’s foremost classicists. It
explores not only how Rome grew from
an insignificant village in central Italy to a
power that controlled territories from Spain
to Syria, but also how the Romans thought
about themselves and their achievements,
and why they are still important to us today.
books
37. 37
No Picnic
on Mount
Kenya
Felice Benuzzi
(Maclehose Press,
out 5 November)
The Great Escape
meets Touching
the Void. Imprisoned in a British
POW camp in East Africa in
1943, Felice Benuzzi looks out
onto beautiful Mount Kenya and
dreams of freedom. This classic,
compelling narrative of derring
do recounts how, using only
makeshift equipment, Benuzzi and
two companions planned a daring
escape past armed guards, and
set out to scale the 17,000 foot
mountain.
NUMBER 11
Jonathan Coe
(Viking, out
November)
Jonathan Coe’s
new novel is the
story for our times,
from the distant
rumble of the Iraq war to the austerity
years of the Britain we know now.
Surviving characters from his earlier
novel What a Carve Up!, Coe’s classic
1990s satire, stalk five vividly imagined
worlds. Among them, a minor pop star
tries fruitlessly to revive her career,
an unusual detective investigates the
murder of three standup comedians,
and a bewildered Oxford graduate
finds herself catapulted into the world
of private tutoring for the super rich.
Strange Magic
(Disney, out 28 August)
A madcap fairytale musical inspired
by A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Popular songs from the past six
decades help tell the tale of a
colourful cast of goblins, elves,
fairies and imps, and their hilarious
misadventures sparked by a battle
over a powerful potion.
The Intern
(Warner, out 2 October)
Ben Whittaker, a retired widower in
his 70s, answers an advertisement
seeking senior interns at a new
Brooklyn business. With Robert de
Niro and Anne Hathaway.
Suffragette
(Pathe/Fox, out 30 October)
The story of Maud, one of the
working women willing to risk
everything in the fight for women
to get the vote. Meryl Streep stars
as Emmeline Pankhurst and Carey
Mulligan as Maud.
Bill (Koch Media, out now)
The story of what really happened during Shakespeare’s ’lost years’, when
hopeless lute player Bill Shakespeare leaves his family and home to follow
his dream. It’s a tale of murderous kings, spies, lost loves and a plot to
blow up Queen Elizabeth. The BAFTA Award winning lead cast of BBC TV’s
Horrible Histories and Sky One’s Yonderland play 40 roles between them.
film
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MANY OF THE NATIONAL CINEMA CHAINS OFFER SPECIAL DISCOUNTS FOR
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40. 40 AUTUMN 2015 www.csrf.org.uk Celebrating Years
Sophia’s CornerYes, you can eat well without blowing the budget,
our resident cookery expert explains
METHOD
Preheat your oven to 110ºC/225ºF/
gas mark ¼ . Crush the garlic in a
pestle and mortar or finely chop it,
then use the flat side of the knife to
make it into a paste. Add the paste
to a large bowl along with the egg
yolk and whisk together. Very slowly
add the oil, whisking continuously so
that the mixture thickens. Finish with
a generous squeeze of lemon and
season with salt to taste.
Spread the grated courgette out on
a clean tea towel and sprinkle with
salt to get rid of the excess moisture,
which will stop the fritters crisping up.
Leave for 15 minutes. Finely slice the
spring onions and then combine all
the ingredients in a bowl to make
a thick batter. Heat a couple
of tablespoons of oil in a frying
pan. When the oil is hot, drop in
dessertspoonfuls of the batter, being
careful not to let the oil splash or to
overcrowd the pan. Repeat until all
the batter has been used, keeping
the finished fritters warm in your
preheated oven. Serve all the fritters
on a dish with a bowl of aioli in
the middle and let your guests
help themselves.
Ingredients
For the fritters:
2 coarsely grated
courgettes
1 lightly beaten egg
1 egg yolk
50g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 spring onions
Zest of half a lemon
Pinch of salt
For the aioli:
2 egg yolks
½ a lemon
1 clove of garlic
200ml olive oil
Courgette Fritters with Aioli
Thyme after Time
Peel off four long strips of lemon
rind with a peeler and set aside
with four sprigs of thyme. Zest
and juice what is left of two and a
half lemons and pour into a pan
with 500ml water, a small handful
of thyme and 60g sugar. You can
adjust these amounts depending
on how sweet you like your drinks.
Let it simmer for 15 minutes and
then leave it to cool. Put a few ice
cubes in a cocktail shaker (a jam jar
with a lid will do just as well), pour
the liquid over and shake it to cool.
Strain and pour into martini glasses
over the lemon strands and thyme.
If you like, you can add a shot of gin
per person before shaking over ice
to make it into a cocktail.
Living on a tight budget as
a student taught me that
with a little creativity you can
do a lot more than beans on
toast for tea! While it’s worth
spending a little more on some
ingredients, it is often difficult
to taste the difference between
a supermarket’s own brand
and much more expensive
alternatives. So these recipes use
the cheapest option available.
For just £10 you can make
a three course meal and a
mocktail for four people. The
only extras you’ll need are a few
cupboard basics, such as oil and
flour. Serve them at a dinner
party to impress your family
and friends or enjoy them as
standalone dishes.
Starter
41. 41
METHOD
Chop the chocolate into small
pieces. Place a heat proof bowl
over simmering water, making
sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t
touching the water. Pour the cream into the bowl and tip in the
chocolate, stirring constantly for one minute. Remove from the
heat and continue to stir until the cream and chocolate is fully
incorporated.
Separate the eggs (keep the yolks for the starter) and beat
the whites until they form stiff peaks. Spoon a third of the egg
white into the chocolate and mix until it is an even colour.
Then fold the lightened chocolate mixture into the rest of the
egg white (do this carefully so you don’t knock out the air).
Serve it into four ramekins, glasses or teacups and leave to set
in the fridge for at least two hours.
If you wish to add an extra element to your mousse, you
could crush some biscuits (amaretti biscuits work well) over the
mousse, top with nuts or garnish with berries before serving.
cooking
Puttanesca
Ingredients
100g roughly chopped
black olives
2 tbsp of capers
4 cloves of finely
chopped garlic
1 tsp chilli flakes
10 anchovies
400g passata
350g spaghetti
Olive oil for cooking (or
other cooking oil if you
don’t have olive)
METHOD
In a large pan, heat salted water to a ‘rolling
boil’. Add the spaghetti and cook for 8 minutes
or until it is almost, but not quite, cooked. While
the pasta is cooking, fry the garlic in oil over a
low heat in a frying pan. Add the chilli flakes and
the anchovies until they start to break down.
Throw in the olives and capers, then turn up the
heat to medium and pour in the passata and stir.
Continue cooking the sauce until the pasta is
cooked. Once drained, tip it into the sauce and
combine so that all the pasta is covered. Serve it
into four bowls or plates and top with parsley.
Dark Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients
150g dark chocolate
100ml double cream
3 eggs
Cut Thyme 30g £0.70
Plain Chocolate Bar 100g x 2 £0.60
Double Cream 300ml £0.85
Flat Leaf Parsley 31g £0.70
Spaghetti 500g £0.20
Anchovy Fillets In Olive Oil 50g £0.70
Crushed Chillies 28g £0.85
Melis Capers In Brine 180g £1.40
Eggs Box of 6 £0.70
Lemons x 3 £0.90
Bunched Spring Onions 100g £0.49
Courgettes Loose £0.80
Pitted Black Olives 330g £0.75
Passata 500g £0.35
TOTAL £9.99
Three courses for
under £10
Main
Course
Dessert
(Tesco own brand products used)
42.
43. 43
teabreak
SUDOKU EASY MEDIUM HARD
Afghani
age group
ages
aqua
beckon
blurb
bolero
CODED WORD PUZZLE
22 4 12 10 16 9 20 11 5 25 12 19 9 9 8
19 9 17 9 17 24 4 5 1 9 7 12 8 18 10
15 1 5 15 6 12 6 6 15 21 5 10 15 17 9
13 5 2 4 20 4 20 24 9 13 22 22 17 7 5
25 14 10 9 20 14 9 12 20 14 18 19 14 20 13
19 12 24 18 26 8 20 18 1 18 18 7 19 15 1
20 15 26 14 20 9 8 3 9 8 13 12 10 10 26
12 24 25 16 8 14 17 14 3 15 2 17 26 15 25
21 15 3 9 4 21 14 2 2 12 21 9 25 14 22
7 2 22 20 26 3 25 2 15 14 18 18 22 25 15
15 3 9 3 20 14 5 24 7 8 9 25 15 4 9
15 7 22 20 2 4 22 10 24 12 3 10 22 21 4
6 15 10 15 22 4 12 15 18 4 14 5 4 9 20
14 18 17 26 26 12 15 21 14 9 17 20 23 18 3
10 12 18 9 23 24 20 9 4 4 12 25 10 9 21
Starting clue – number 6 is ‘M’
1 2
3 4
5 6
7 8
9 10
11 12
13 14
15 16
17 18
19 20
21 22
23 24
25 26
debase
enthral
Episode
gossip
immaculate
inexpressible
iodises
ironwork
jumping-off place
Kill
lease
lily-white
Malaysians
obscene
office boy
overgraze
razor edge
sequoia
silver jubilee
user
“Doctor, doctor, I keep
thinking I am living in
the future!”
“When did you first
start doing this?”
“Next Tuesday!”
Thank you to
J M Beechey from
Peterborough
The Past, the Present
and the Future went
into a bar.
They were all tense.
The barman didn’t
know if anyone else
was going to turn up.
“Are you all here?”
he asked.
“No, we’re not
all present.”
A time
traveller
went into
a pizzeria and
ordered a margarita.
He enjoyed it so much
he went back four
seconds.
It’s about
TIME
44. 44 SUMMER 2015 www.csrf.org.uk Celebrating Years
WORD SEARCH
Find the following nautical terms in the grid above
Aboard
Aft
Beam
Below
Boat
Bow
Bridge
Crow’s Nest
Davits
Deck
Fall
Frames
Freeboard
Galley
Gangway
gunnel
Gunwale
Head
Ladder
List
Mess
Officer
Port
Purser
Ship
SOS
Stack
Starboard
Stateroom
Steerage
Stern
Steward
Tackle
Thwart
Topside
Wings
The Teasmade, that
peculiarly British
combination of alarm
clock and kettle, was
all the rage in the
1960s, when about
300,000 were sold
every year. Their
popularity continued
throughout the 1970s
but slowly sales
dropped away over the next couple
of decades.
Today, if you’re really determined, you
can still find a few (they’re now termed
‘vintage’). However, while most modern
kitchens are equipped with up to the
minute coffee makers, those determined
to stick to the old favourite are forced to
hunt through charity shops and table top
sales to find replacement parts.
Yet the Teasmade has a long history.
The Science Museum in London has a
collection of them dating back to 1902.
Samuel Rowbottom’s Automatic Tea
Making Apparatus was patented 10
years before that, with James Alfred
Greenhalgh adding the clock the
following year. The earliest models were
heated using methylated spirits, which
would be lit by the automatic striking of
a match when the alarm clock went off
(unsurprisingly, they frequently resulted
in house fires).
The first mass produced Teasmade,
made by Goblin, arrived in the 1930s and
production resumed after the war. The
next few decades saw the apparently
inexorable rise of the mechanical
teamaker, with many of us awakening
to the not so gentle hiss of boiling water
and a search for the milk.
Were you one of the many
Teasmade owners? If so, do you
remember it with fondness or did it
turn out to be more trouble than it
was worth? Do let us know
and send us a photo if
you’ve still got it!
talk to us
We want YOUfor avanti!
Whether it’s your career
highlights, your hobbies or your
group activities, do let us know
either by email or by writing to
Fellowship Office.
Looking back at …
the Teasmade
“If you can’t get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you’d
best teach it to dance.” George Bernard Shaw
45. 45
Across
7 Old gold coin (5)
8 System operated or moved
by fluid (9)
10 Flint is a form of it (6)
11 An information giving bulletin (8)
12 Chinese restaurant offering (5,3)
13 Blender sound (4)
15 Point at which passengers get on
or off (3,4)
17 Baby slang for sleep (3,4)
20 Coagulate (4)
22 The science of jet design (8)
25 Device for flashing light
signals (8)
26 Small long-tailed crustacean (6)
27 Material arranged collectively on
the wall (9)
28 Bats (5)
Down
1 Absurdity (9)
2 The state of being on guard (8)
3 Nightwear (7)
4 Private road for a house (8)
5 Breakfast cereal (6)
6 Place to note appointments (5)
9 Boor’s lack (4)
14 Loss, damage, disadvantage (9)
16 Furtively (2,3,3)
18 Edible bulbous dark red root (8)
19 Current (7)
21 Surgeon’s tool (6)
23 Snug, warm (4)
24 Drink with a straw (5)
Please tick if you do not wish to receive our e-newsletter
NAME:
ADDRESS:
POSTCODE: EMAIL:
TELEPHONE NUMBER:
TO ENTER: Please send the completed crossword, along
with your name, address and postcode to:
PRIZE CROSSWORD, CSRF, Suite 2, 80A Blackheath Road,
London SE10 8DA. The judges’ decision is final. Winners will
be notified by post. Closing date: 30 October 2015
Solution to Summer
Prize Crossword
1 1 2 2 3 4 4 5 6
7 8
9 9
10 11
11
12 13
13 15 14
15 16 17 18
17 17 19 18
19 20 21 22 23
21 24
25 26
24
27 28
27
Prize CrosswordCongratulations to Mr Kenneth Carling from Scarborough who was our lucky winner for the
Summer crossword. Try your hand at this issue’s prize puzzle and you too could win £100 worth
of MS vouchers. Good luck!
