Tim Metcalfe’s apt title for this month’s castaway feature (June 2015) is ‘What Katie Did Next.’ The Katie in question is director and publicist Katie Read. At only 37 she already has a string of achievements in the theatre. Now a young mother living in Woodstock, balancing work and life, her latest project is The Saturday Matinee Company. You can read all about it and about Katie in this pdf. The idea behind the new company is fine theatrical quality with no frills but new writing on contemporary issues and at a price that makes it accessible to all. What a fabulous idea!
Meet the King of La-di-Dah: ‘Legs Larry Smith’
George Harrison of the Beatles gave the name of ‘Legs’ to my January 2015 castaway, Larry Smith of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. George also called him King of La-di- Dah and even wrote a song about him. He introduced him to New-age guru Depak Chopra.Legs Larry Smith
Lady Fiona Carnarvon : the mistress of the real DowntonAbbey
Lady Fiona Carnarvon the mistress of the real Downton Abbey is my February 2015 castaway. I took a trip to Highclere Castle to interview her.
She is an avid reader and writer. Her books tell the true stories of the Herbert/Carnarvon family and they are more interesting than the tales of the fictional inhabitants of the TV series.
I met her when she and her husband opened the Discovering Tutankhamun exhibition at the Ashmolean. His great grandfather funded Howard Carter’s excavations.
She has written about him in her book ‘Egypt at Highclere’.Lady Fiona Carnarvon
Georgina opens the door to Science and to the inspirational Dorothy Hodgkin
Our March 2015 castaway is the author,broadcaster and journalist Georgina Ferry. Georgina is brilliant at communicating science and telling stories about scientists to non scientists.
She is the biographer of Dorothy Hodgkin of whom she said,
“She was the least materialistic of people. She went to the States for three months in 1947 taking only one suitcase and most of that was filled with a model of penicillin. Another time a colleague encountered Thomas and Dorothy at Oxford Station carrying two carrier bags. He thought they had been shopping but no – they were off to Moscow.Georgina Ferry (March 2015)
