Editor's Blog

It's nearly here!

Can't believe that Christmas has come around so quickly and, yet again, I'm not entirely ready. It doesn't help that I've come down with the dreaded bug that has been felling everyone left, right and centre for the past couple of weeks.Still, the Lemsip is working wonders and I can look forward to a few relaxing days with my lovely family. I hope you will be doing the same and I wish you all a very happy Christmas and a healthy and prosperous 2009.

Festive fun on Radio Berkshire

Julia, a producer on Radio Berkshire, called me this morning to ask if I can go live this afternoon to talk about events over Christmas and the New Year. There's lots going on, so listen out for me at 2.15 today! If you miss it, just look under our events section and you'll find it all there. 

Julian Fellowes at Hungerford

Just put the January issue to bed - yes I've been detoxing for a few weeks already because my Christmas was actually in October. (We're so far ahead with our deadlines.) Thought I'd tell you about my week. On Wednesday I went to the Croft Hall in Hungerford to chair a question and answer session with the lovely actor and writer Julian Fellowes. The Hungerford Bookshop asked me to do the honours and I have to say I really enjoyed myself - and so, it seemed - did everyone else. Julian was so interesting and witty and made my job very easy!

The weekend was spent trying to frantically catch up with Christmas shopping. I was glad to see Windsor so busy, but sad to venture into Woolies in Peascod Street for the very last time. The shelves were empty and they were playing Cliff's 'Misletoe and Wine' on the sound system. It was a bit like something from a Ricky Gervais sketch - a real tragi-comic moment. 

Onto Worthing on Monday to put the finishing touches to our January issue.We're running a feature on various activities and courses and my daughter has already decided she's going to learn to scuba dive next year!

For Thunderbirds fans - and they are legion I know - there's an interview with creator Gerry Anderson. He's such a lovely man. I went to his home near Henley and he and his wife Mary made me feel very welcome. Strange to think I used to have a crush on Scott - well I was only five at the time! 

Went to Marlow today. The sun was out and the town was looking glorious. I found out that there's a new museum planned to open in April, so I'm on the case and you'll be the first to know what exhibits will be on display. It's the town that gave us Frankenstein after all, so the possibilities are endless.

A panto, a lost wallet and a walk in Windsor Great Park

I took my daughter Sophie and a friend to see Beauty and the Beast at South Hill Park on Friday evening. What a truly magical experience it was! If you're looking for something just a  bit different, with a fantastical quality to it, then look no further. If you've ever seen Gifford's Circus, you'll know the sort of thing I mean. Fabulous costumes and set and a very traditional feel to it. No pop songs or sweets thrown into the audience, but catchy tunes, beautifully sung. The three leading ladies had particularly strong voices.What's more, we discovered that Sophie's drama teacher from Hurst Lodge School in Ascot, Bart Lee, wrote the script and lyrics.Congratulations to him and the whole of the team.

I'd also like to thank the cleaner who found my wallet - credit card, driver's licence, cash etc, on the floor of the theatre. I had a phone call at 8.15am the next morning to tell me it had been found - and I didn't even know I'd lost it, thank goodness! Isn't it lovely to know that there are still honest people around!? Thank you so much to the cleaner who handed it in.

Went for a walk with the family in Windsor Great Park yesterday afternoon. Parts of the lake were still frozen and the moon was shining on the water at 4pm. A truly unforgettable site.

  

Welcome to my first blog!

Hello and welcome to the usually hectic, sometimes glamorous,occasionally emotional, often sophisticated, but never boring and always hugely enjoyable world that is my Berkshire and Chilterns life!    

If you're a regular reader of the magazine, you'll already know a bit about me through my editor's letter. I've been married to Simon for 23 years and we have two children, a boy and a girl aged 16 and 11 respectively. We love living in Sunningdale, which has been our home for the last 19 years, and enjoy going to the races, polo, walking in Windsor Great Park and along the Thames, looking around art galleries and museums, eating out and going to the cinema and the theatre.(Sound just like a B&L rader don't I?)

What you don't know, however, is what goes on behind the scenes to bring you your favourite monthly magazine and that is where, I hope, you'll find this blog illuminating and amusing. There are so many great little titbits of gossip and nuggetts of information that I pick up along the way, talking to all the fascinating people I meet - or listening to them on the phone - that I've decided I just have to share them with you. So here goes......

I had such a fun day yesterday. It was lunch at Stoke Park Club where they announced that tennis ace David Nalbandian (one of top ten in the world) would be playing again at the Boodles Challenge. I've been to the event a couple of times and it really is a great - very English! You're even closer to the players than you are in the Royal Box at Wimbledon apparently! I met James from Guards Polo at Smith's Lawn, who updated me on their new clubhouse which will be opened by HM in April.

Then in the evening it was off to Reading to meet the members of the Reading chapter of the Romantic Novelist's Association.We met at the Great Expectations pub - apparently Dickens himself gave a reading there - and had a jolly evening - it was their Christmas party. So many of them are published writers and they all encourage each other. They all brought along their books and Jeff Hopkins took some great photos, which you'll be able to see in the Februrary issue. One of the  writers, Julie Cohen, told me that Asda had given away 50,000 promotional copies of her latest novel! Apparently she's very popular in Malaysia, too!! In all, they've had nearly 30 novels published between them, so if there are any budding novelists out there you know where to turn for help, support and inspiration!

As a result of yesterdays' jolly jaunts I've been chained to my desk today - IT playing up too! It's a love/hate relationship that we have! Time to sign off and go and cook the supper. A woman's work.......