Daily Grind Of Still Water

You can gaze forever across peaks of a scale not seen in Colorado or Utah towards 20,000ft Denali (Mount McKinley); and you can experience the strange sensation of riding above the salt water of Turnagain Sound. Alaska is a dream, but an accessible one.The only British tour operator serving Alyeska is Inghams (020-8780 8811) Prices from £550 per person per week. Yet another depressing week in the markets. The reason is not, of course, hard to see; we’re all very worried indeed about what a war on Iraq will do to the world economy. The only assets that seem to have done well out of this uncertainty are gold and, naturally, shares in hedge funds. At $320 an ounce or so, gold is probably still quite cheap, only around a fifth up on its nadir a couple of years ago. It probably has some way to go, although it will never yield you any income.

But the question is, is there any reason to go into the market at these levels?

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Yet another depressing week in the markets. Investors, large and especially small, are staying out of the market and don’t show many signs of coming back. Confidence is indeed fragile.As the chairman of Close Brothers, Sir David Scholey, said: “In market-making, the green shoots of recovery that seemed to appear in the autumn of last year swiftly withered and this year ended on a subdued note. Despite a 23 per cent fall in the FTSE All Share Index, Winterflood Securities made a profit every month except September and a 33 per cent return on capital, which is commendable. We remain confident of our strategy for the longer term; in the short term our stance remains continued caution”.I don’t have any shares in Close Brothers at present as they always seemed a bit too pricey, even to a mug like me during the bull run, even if they had the legendary Brian Winterflood on their team. The business should be a growth one, as we become more environmentally conscious, well, those of us who don’t dump fridges in parks, that is, and the controls on disposing of rubbish get more stringent.Even if its landfill side declines it has many interests in composting and recycling. Exciting, eh? The company operates an “energy from waste” incineration plant and sewage farms at Leeds and Sheffield, and quarrying, in Yorkshire Someone has to.

And local authorities award lots of contracts to Waste Recycling for rubbish collection, recycling or disposal.Such a strong background kept the shares high, but investors dumped them last month when the company said tighter accounting had cut its profits in half. Interestingly, the day after the announcement, Paul Rackham, a non- executive director, spent £140,000 to buy 50,000 shares at 280p. Nigel Sandy, chief executive, and Hugh Etheridge, finance director, each bought 3,600 shares at 275p. James Newman, non-executive chairman, bought 5,000 at 275p, and Christopher Cox, commercial director, bought 1,500.A complicating factor is the intentions of the former Yorkshire Water, Kelda, which has a 45 per cent stake in the group. I am inclined to follow the directors’ lead, but, as for the last few weeks, I’m not in any hurry. We can all afford to wait in this market, and we all do.s.o’grady independent.co.uk.

Colin McLean of Scottish Value Management, now renamed SVM Asset Management, is convinced the stock market will stay depressed for a long time, placing even more emphasis on the ability to separate the winners and losers. It is worth taking his views seriously, because he is among Britain’s most successful and far-sighted investors and listened to closely by the rest of the fund management community. Moneynetsavingssearch Colin McLean of Scottish Value Management, now renamed SVM Asset Management, is convinced the stock market will stay depressed for a long time, placing even more emphasis on the ability to separate the winners and losers. There are no generally safe areas, such as utilities, at present. There are companies with borrowings or with cash flow, and you can’t just go for high-yield shares either Keep away from companies that might cut their dividend.

Searching for elephants is a good excuse to explore the beautiful forests, with their majestic yellowwoods – try the walking trails in Diepwalle Forest, about 20km from Knysna.Ostrich racingOudtshoorn, an hour’s drive inland from Wilderness, is worth a visit for the nearby Cango caves, but whether you’ll want to visit one of Oudtshoorn’s ostrich show farms is another matter. If you do you’ll see “jockeys” riding the birds in races, or even get to sit on one yourself, but bear in mind that this is cruel and can lead to broken legs for the unfortunate birds. The show farms are chiefly memorable for some of the tackiest souvenirs you’ll ever see. Best of the bunch is probably Cango Ostrich Farm (0027 44 272 4623, R29/£1.70 adults, R11/70p children).Post office treeBack in the 16th century, mariners used to leave messages for passing ships in an old boot under a milkwood tree in Mossel Bay. Outside the maritime museum, part of Mossel Bay’s Bartolomeu Dias Museum Complex, you’ll find a tree with a plaque optimistically claiming “This may well” be the same tree.

The museum itself is worth a visit for the life-size recreation of Dias’s tiny ship, a testament to the bravery of these early Portuguese explorers.Noetzie’s castlesEccentric holiday homes built like medieval castles, complete with turrets and battlements, Noetzie’s castles enjoy an idyllic location on a lovely surf beach about 10km east of Knysna. The sea is dangerous for swimming, but there is a sheltered lagoon. For an unusual place to stay, rent one of the castles (00 27 44 375 0100, , from R500-750/£30-45 per person).Fossil fishKnysna’s unassuming little angling museum (entry by donation) is home to an unusual biological curiosity, a preserved coelacanth. The coelacanth is a “missing link” fish, with fins resembling primitive arms and legs. It was thought to be extinct until a specimen was caught in a deep-sea fishing net off the South African coast in 1939.

Since then divers have discovered several colonies in the depths of the Indian Ocean. Taste your way round the region Feast on oysters, springbok and local red wine The Garden Route is famous for its seafood. If you can’t make the Knysna Oyster Festival in July, a tasting of six oysters at the Knysna Oyster Company (0027 44 382 6941) costs just R30/£2, while oyster and champagne sunset cruises on Knysna lagoon cost R350/£21 with Springtide Charters (0027 82 470 6022, ). The farms of the Little Karoo, just over the scenic mountain passes, have put ostrich meat and organic lamb on to many restaurant menus as well providing the perfect excuse to sample some of the local Karoo reds. The Garden Route is also famous for locally brewed beers from Mitchell’s Brewery – there’s even a brew based on Yorkshire ale called Bosun’s Bitter (0027 44 382 4685). If you want posh nosh to go, Farmhouse Picnics (0027 44 356 2707) will deliver gourmet picnic baskets for two anywhere in Wilderness, Sedgefield or Knysna for about £7.

You are then taken up the hill to the guestrooms by driver Guiseppe, who displays an alarming nonchalance towards pedestrians. Back down the hill, the reception area, restaurant, bar, and disco – open only in summer – are in the same whitewashed building, with open terraces and panoramic views.Despite the slightly gratingly loud music played at most times of the day in the restaurant, dinner is a highlight. Not just for the food, but also for the natural spectacle on offer, which few hotels anywhere could rival. As you dine by the light of an oil lamp, you can watch Stromboli erupting in the distant darkness, glowing like the tip of a giant cigar.Location, location, locationVia San Pietro, Panarea (00 39 090 983 013, ). The hotel gazes out to sea towards Stromboli and the crags of Basiluzzo, Dattilo, Lisca Bianca and Bottaro.Time to international airport: You have to be determined.

The closest international airport is Naples, four and a half hours by hydrofoil, €130 (£85) return.Are you lying comfortably?The 30 guestrooms are located in a terraced pink-and-white building traditional to these islands. Rooms all have terraces, and are furnished in Indonesian style. These are a five-minute walk down the hill from the village, but there is a tiny bar nearby. Bathrooms are compact, with showers only.Freebies: The shower gel and shampoo are kept in small pottery bottles, presumably not intended to be removed.Keeping in touch: All the rooms have direct-dial telephones, but no televisions.The bottom lineDouble rooms from €268 (£180) per night, including breakfast.I’m not paying that: The Hotel La Piazza (00 39 090 983 154, ) has doubles from €154 (£102) per night.. Sorry to disappoint, but the Garden Route tag is a misnomer.

If you’re expecting a horticultural holiday with a string of designer gardens to inspect, seed catalogues in hand, you’re going to feel short-changed. This region of South Africa is so-called because the densely vegetated stretch of stunning Western Cape coastline, rich in diverse natural beauty, contrasts so sharply to the country’s arid interior. A few lakes, lagoons, gorges and mountain passes are then tossed into this scenic salad for extra garnish. Tourist development, logging and population growth may have taken their toll on the forest and fynbos, but the Garden Route remains a breathtakingly beautiful natural playground Correct – yet it is very popular. Despite, or perhaps because of the fact that the Garden Route has little of what many feel is the “real” Africa about it, the area appeals to plenty of European visitors to South Africa. In the northern hemisphere’s midwinter, it has the added bonus of a sunny, warm climate.Under apartheid, the area was popular with Capetonian families and the landlocked wealthy of Johannesburg Now, it is capitalising on this tourist infrastructure. You can find extreme adventure, tranquil retreats, plus plenty of arts and crafts galleries, good restaurants and characterful accommodation.

The Garden Route even has its own gay pride carnival, the Pink Loerie Festival, held each May in Knysna. And the present favourable exchange rate – around 16 rand to the pound – allows you to enjoy the region in considerable style. The two obvious gateways are Cape Town – from which the Garden Route is only half a day’s drive – or George airport, easily reached from Johannesburg. Fares for most of the winter are around £500 return to Johannesburg, £600 to Cape Town, so long as you avoid the Christmas/New Year period – when it also gets uncomfortably crowded, and accommodation prices can double.

We start at six with a paper round and close at 9pm and only have 20 hours of help a week. We made a few mistakes at the beginning which irritated some people but generally we have had wonderful support. The older people particularly depend on us and really enjoy coming into have a laugh and a chat.”The Maberleys’ move was not just prompted by an entrepreneurial spirit. Like many others, they were prepared to take a cut in income to enjoy a better quality of life. “In that respect, it has been like a dream come true for us,” Mrs Maberley says “Our son is so much happier here. He goes out on his own and has many more friends and that makes everything worthwhile.”But not everyone who dreams of setting up in the country is prepared for the tough times.

John Kinsey, director of the licensed leisure and hotels department at Chesterton in Exeter, tries to make sure potential buyers are aware of what they are taking on. “Living in and running a pub in a small place is quite different from being in a large town. You become the focus for the community and you have to remember that if you upset customers they are gone forever.”Since the properties are valued on a commercial basis of income generated, they can represent good value for money.

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“But new owners have to understand that when they take over from someone who has been running a business for 20 years and is related to half a village, they have a lot of ground to make up.” In other words, you can’t buy goodwill.Mr Kinsey says he has often seen families take on an enterprise, only to break up a year later. “Not only have they never worked together, but they have never done that kind of work in their lives.”For local people, as the gap between their earnings and property prices increases, it is also becoming harder to buy into businesses with accommodation. In Tavistock, Devon, a market town near the Maberleys’ shop, an estate agent says there is a shortage of first-time buyers too.

Helen Chappell, of Kivells, says a new development in town has prices of £90,000 and up, beyond their reach. “I bought a two-bedroom Wimpey house four years ago for £44,000 and it is now worth £90,000 But I could not afford to buy it today. No one’s earnings have kept pace.”Stephen Gill, chief planning officer for West Devon, wants to see more affordable homes. “Although we will be asking for new sites with more than 15 houses to provide 40 per cent affordable housing, the situation is so grim the study showed we needed 60 to 65 per cent, which would be unrealistic to expect of developers. In smaller settlements the threshhold is two homes, which will be challenging.”For many young local people buying a home, let alone one with a business is a pipe dream. But, John Kinsey warns, those who cash in on property price increases elsewhere should not be blinded by an over-idealistic picture of the countryside.. Britannic Retirement Solutions this week threw the spotlight on how little protection from dodgy operators there is for those tempted to unlock the value of their property to use as ready cash.

But you may be tempted never to step outside: you can tuck in to complimentary afternoon tea with Mallorcan pastries, served daily in the Cocina Monet (a bright yellow rustic kitchen, apparently recreated in every detail from one of his paintings), having first worked out in the gym and sweated in the sauna. Or you could just sit and admire the view from the rooftop terrace.ARE YOU LYING COMFORTABLY?There are five double rooms, one junior suite, two standard suites and four luxury suites. All are individually decorated, with antiques and original artworks. The bathrooms come complete with Jacuzzi, heated mirrors, bath-robes and slippers.THE BOTTOM LINEA standard double costs €250 (£167), a standard suite is €340 (£227) and a deluxe suite €370 (£247).

Breakfast, which is served from 8.30am to 11am in the baronial-style El Caf?icks, is €17 (£11) and parking – a rarity indeed in this overcrowded part of town – will set you back €12 a day (£8).I’m not paying that: Hotel Born at Carrer Sant Jaume 3 (00 34 971 712 942, ) has rooms from €69 (£46).. A TRAIN

A TRAIN
You can sleep your way between London and Scotland for a bargain fare if you book online at Scottish train operator runs sleeper services between Euston and Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Aberdeen and Fort William. ScotRail offers internet-only “Bargain Berths” for as little as £19 each way; fares increase by increments of £10, in the same manner as the low-cost airlines.A series of test bookings made for December show plenty of space, apart from the Christmas/New Year period, and even some cheap deals – at £39 each way – on Friday nights. Fares of £19 are mostly available if you book well in advance (up to about five weeks ahead), for midweek trains, though you can book up to noon on the day of departure.It appears that availability is most limited, and fares highest, on the Fort William line – the only destination where ScotRail does not have competition from the no-frills airlines.Your ticket comprises an e-mail that you have to print out and show on board the train.A BOATMont St Michel is likely finally to arrive on 17 December. The flagship of Brittany Ferries (08705 360 360, ) is set to start sailing between Portsmouth and Caen, enhancing standards of comfort on the company’s premier route. She was originally due to enter service in July.A PLANECelebrate the ending of the “Saturday night rule” that has been imposed by traditional airlines for decades, taking a cheap day return to Paris before Christmas from one of several UK airports The chances of a good fare are best on a Saturday.

Research conducted on Monday of this week found the following fares for travel to Charles de Gaulle airport and back on Saturday 14 December; they may be higher if you book through an agent rather than on the internet: British Airways (0845 77 333 77, ) from Birmingham for £99; Flybe (08705 676 676, ) from Bristol for a hard-to-believe £418; BA from Edinburgh for £189; BMI (0870 60 70 555, ) from Heathrow for £83; easyJet (0870 600 0000, ) from Luton for £80; and BA from Manchester for £116. Some fares will increase steeply before departure.A ROUNDA three-centre golf holiday around the Clyde is the latest innovation from Bill Tinto, the island-hopping wizard of Scotia Travel of Glasgow (0141-305 5050, ). Four golfers who travel together can visit three courses – in Arran, Campbeltown and Islay – and play a total of 78 holes for a price of £499 each. This includes flights and ferry travel from and to Glasgow (which you could reach on ScotRail’s “Bargain Berths”, see above) and four nights of dinner, bed and breakfast in a hotel..

The hall’s own piano is a “C” model Steinway, one size down from a full concert grand. It’s only a few years old, nothing for a good piano, but its sustaining power is soaked up by the expensive carpet and curtains. It probably needs a lot more playing-in than it has had, and Stanislav Ioudenitch, the Uzbek joint winner of the 2001 Van Cliburn Competition in Texas, had a hard time of it last Wednesday. Mozart’s popular A-minor Sonata, one of his most nakedly emotional, also exercised Ioudenitch’s powers of persuasion, though if the first movement felt driven to the point of breathlessness, that wasn’t altogether against its nature.

The middle movement showed up the piano’s reluctance to sing, or the room’s unco-operative response, and all the pianist’s eloquence seemed to fall on stony ground. In the finale, Ioudenitch moved his body about much more than you’d think necessary in any piece by Mozart: the flesh was perhaps more willing than the spirit.But all this was nothing compared with the athletic exertion needed in Stravinsky’s Petrouchka. Stravinsky may have composed it on an exhausted old upright, but a performance needs to ring out on the biggest grand possible. Ioudenitch certainly got round the notes, and he also got the angular stiffness of the puppets’ gestures from the original ballet, but it was also obvious that he wasn’t achieving the pigmentation of tone he was after, nor the sheer weight or richness of sound. He did, however, get some laughs from the audience at the end of the first dance. In the circumstances, it was a brave effort.Ioudenitch certainly won’t forget London in a hurry, for after all the tuner’s hard work on the piano during the interval, Schubert’s late, great A-major Sonata had to compete with scaffolders on a nearby building site At least the audience was silent.

Not a cough, nor even a sniffle was heard, which says something for the sense of commitment Ioudenitch put across. Despite the thankless acoustic, he didn’t pull the music about too much by way of compensation. There was everything right about this performance except for the sense that the music itself was travelling under its own momentum, which was lacking. At another time, in another place, it might all come together.. The rock and world music star Peter Gabriel has been named composer of the best movie musical moment. The list names Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” from the 1989 film, Say Anything, as the best ever.

It is a relatively obscure choice, with more familiar titles lower down the list.Other memorable moments include Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs Robinson” from the 1967 film The Graduate in sixth place and Wagner’s “Ride Of The Valkyries” from Apocalypse Now, made in 1979, in seventh. The Beatles are the only band to make two appearances – “A Hard Day’s Night” from the 1964 film of the same name and “Twist And Shout” from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, made in 1986.The list is printed in the December edition of Empire. The magazine says of its top choice: “If they had boomboxes and Peter Gabriel back in Shakespeare’s day, this is exactly what the balcony scene from Romeo And Juliet would have looked like. Probably.”One choice that will not please the star of the film involved is the number 27 entry, “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” from the 1969 movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Robert Redford admitted recently he had never seen the completed film. He said that when viewing the rushes he was appalled to see that the song had been dubbed on to a scene featuring him.

The helicopter lacked a winch, so its pilots hovered 50ft above the river and used their rotor blades to blow the men to the bank. When they were pulled from the water, one was almost unconscious and the other was “severely fatigued”.Mr Wakefield, a Coldstream Guard, said he had been celebrating in a bar with Mr Cairns. It was his first night on leave after serving in Northern Ireland and in what he described as a “stupid prank”, Mr Cairns slipped into the water from the Swing Bridge, which links Newcastle and Gateshead. Mr Wakefield dived in to try to save him.Sergeant Phil Lee, of the air support unit, said: “The rotors smooth out the water and change the flow, and it was used to drift them towards the bank.

Clearly there is a risk but you have to make a calculated assessment.”. Sir Winston Churchill’s cousin was a Bolshevik sympathiser who passed details of conversations with him to Soviet agents, documents released today show. In 1925, MI5 interviewed Churchill, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, about his cousin.A record of the interview released by the Public Record Office states that Churchill would not defend his cousin and was prepared to take action against her if asked.”Winston informed him [the interviewer], in answer to his question as to what he thought about Clare, that he was not prepared to go bail for her, in fact he was prepared to believe anything … told him about her,” it said.The interview followed intercepted telephone calls from Ewer, who was foreign editor of the Daily Herald, in which he relayed remarks made earlier by Sheridan.

These were summarised as: “Winston [said it] was not certain that the French could hold in Syria.”Another document includes details of conversations between two Russian agents which showed she had given one of them the same information.Sheridan, who was related to Churchill through her American mother, was born in London in 1885 and became a sculptor, writer and traveller. She was invited to Moscow in 1920, where she made busts of Zinoviev, Lenin and Trotsky but found herself ostracised when she returned to London.MI5 recorded that she “preached Bolshevism” in Rome in 1922, and two years later, her files state, she “conducted herself in a disloyal manner in various foreign countries, adopting a consistently anti-British attitude”.She was still being monitored in 1942 when agents intercepted a letter to an acquaintance known as “Alice” in New York.It showed Sheridan had advance knowledge of when Churchill, who by then was Prime Minister, would be leaving Washington.. HE WAS the new head of Britain’s secret wartime department responsible for running spies behind enemy lines. She was “the Cat”, a seductive French triple agent notorious for changing sides as often as she changed lovers. She enthusiastically began betraying former comrades, became the lover of the German agent who had won her over, and continued sending messages to London as if Interalli?as still functioning. Carr?then 34, travelled to England in February 1942 with her main lover, the French Resistance leader Pierre de Vomecourt, under instruction to expose the workings of the SOE.

After arriving in London she admitted working for the Germans but agreed to change sides again and help the Allies by sending false information about SOE’s activities to her Nazi contacts in France.MI5 and the SOE remained deeply suspicious, however, and were alarmed when Carr?whom they codenamed Victoire, charmed Selbourne, who had just taken over as head of SOE, at Claridge’s on 2 May.An SOE informer, known only as Mrs Barker, who was living with Carr?said Selbourne had asked her out to dinner, had offered to mention her to Churchill and to get her “everything she needed”.The message, which is contained in the papers released by the Public Record Office, said: “Victoire seems to be dreaming of becoming Lord Selbourne’s mistress. According to her, he has all the attributes she admires in a man except that he cannot dance.”Lord Selbourne may be merely playing up to her but even if only half of what she has told me is true it seems that he is behaving exceedingly foolishly and is not doing himself any good nor, for that matter, us.”The next day Captain Christopher Harmer, from the SOE, said it was unlikely that Selbourne would know Carr? full history and suggested sending an agent to ask him “what the position was” between them. “From the point of view of running the case I don’t much mind whether she goes on seeing Selbourne or not but whether we owe a duty to him to prevent him making a fool of himself is a matter which I must leave for someone else to decide,” he said.As concern grew, Mrs Barker warned Captain Harmer that Carr?as an “utterly egotistical woman who cares for nothing and nobody but herself” and would burst into fury at any opposition.”Given a chance, she would sell any information she has to the other side Added to all this, there is, of course, her interest in men. She feels she is irresistible to men anyhow and to sleep with a man seems a necessity to her. Once she gets hold of a man it is up to her to drop him and be unfaithful to him and God help the man or for that matter the service he is in, if he dares to drop her.”I think she is an exceedingly dangerous woman …

I took another, smaller path off through the grassy meadows, where the Routeburn meandered down a steep valley. Below the flats I crossed the river, which dropped down in a series of waterfalls into a narrow gorge. I stopped by a series of deep, blue pools and sat on a fallen silver trunk. Then it was down through the gorge to reach the cool forest floor. The valley widened and I crossed three swing bridges to meet the driver who was waiting to take me back to Queenstown.The Abel Tasman TrackThis trail follows the golden beaches of the Abel Tasman National Park, at the top of South Island, named after the Dutchman who, in 1642, was the first European to sight New Zealand.The national park opened in 1942 and is one of the most popular in New Zealand.

I flew into Nelson and then took a tiny four-seater plane up the coast. Below me were low, rolling hills and a series of beautiful sandy bays. (Forget the Caribbean: these beaches are the best ever.) I carried my bag over the sands to the Homestead Lodge at Awaroa.The next day I took a sandy track across the Tonga Saddle to Onetahuti beach and then followed the coastline down the Tonga Quarry, over the hill to Bark Bay and on to Meddie’s Beach for lunch and a swim. I crossed Falls River by a swing bridge high over the water, then climbed around the Torrent Bay.The next day I walked up the Torrent River estuary, then climbed to the top of a ridge. Dropping down the other side, the path was wide and graduated. This was the track the settlers had cut more than 90 years ago, but it was abandoned until the 1960s, when the Department of Conservation restored it.As I approached civilisation, my route crossed abandoned sheep pastures.

After a walk along a vast beach and a boardwalk over a reedy estuary, my journey ended at Marahau, from where I got a lift back to Nelson.Queen Charlotte Freedom WalkI walked a two-day stretch along the bays of the Kenepuru and Marlborough sounds of North Island. This series of deep inlets and peaceful waters is serviced by a series of mail boats, launches and water taxis. From Picton, I sailed to Ship Grove, the furthest point on the trail, where Captain Cook anchored five times in the 1770s.Our first steep climb took us over a pass with great views, north and south, under large beech trees, the way strewn with palm fronds. We dropped down to Resolution Bay, then took a small path around the headland through steep, ridged meadows. At Endeavour inlet I stopped for lunch, then continued around the inlet and over pastureland The path climbed gradually around the headland into Big Bay. This was reclaimed farmland where ferns, grass and meadow flowers were interspersed with native species.The next day’s walk was billed as eight to nine hours (over 22km) along a ridge to Portage The track was easy, but took a surprisingly long time. I climbed the bush on one side of the hill through shrubs, pine and beech.

To the left lay a lovely farmed valley at the head of the Kenepuru Sound On the dirt road below us I glimpsed the odd car. It made civilisation seem closer, the wilderness more fragile. Picton gradually came into view and big car ferries leaving for Wellington steamed past. I enjoyed a long stretch through a cool beech forest before emerging on to a dusty exposed track, and the final stretch down to the road linking Torea Bay and Portage.The walk took six hours, including stops At Torea Bay the water was clear and still. I climbed down the jetty steps and enjoyed a therapeutic swim before taking the ferry back to Picton.The Deep SouthStewart IslandThe last stopping point before Antarctica, reached by ferry from Bluff, near Invercargill, or by small plane. Stewart Island was settled in the 19th century and became a centre for whaling and timber.

“And if a writer has an understanding of what performers have to do, then they write lines that people can say.” Munro was still a performer when her TV writing career began, first with work for local telly then, in 1989, on Doctor Who. It was her first script for the BBC; she didn’t know that, after 26 years, it would be the sci-fi series’ last. “What a lousy ending for the last one,” she says now, ruefully “The BBC were so determined to axe it. But you think, ‘Oh God, if only we’d made it really special, maybe it would have been saved.’” But her own career soldiered on. The MsFits, which she co-founded with the actress Fiona Knowles, went from strength to strength. Since Munro’s retirement from performance, the pair have made a stream of one-woman plays together – Munro scripts, Knowles performs It’s a far cry from the 1980s, says Munro. “When we started, there were women’s cabaret events, and Latin American solidarity events and Help the Miners gigs – there was so much theatre of an overtly political, get-up-and-do-some-comedy nature.

And it’s all gone.”Does she lament its passing? “Yes I do,” she says. “But things have to move on, and you kind of hope that in 20 years time, if we haven’t all blown ourselves up by then, things may have moved on again.” She doesn’t regret, however, having progressed beyond the political certainties of her own youth. “My writing’s got more mature in the breadth of experience it shows,” she says “It’s very reassuring to have political certainty But when you get on a bit, that certainty evades you. And yet, in a way, that’s a stronger thing: to say important things but not make them dogmatic statements.”Which brings us back to Iron: thoughtful, substantial but never partial.

“The only certainty I do feel that I have at the bottom of my work,” concludes Munro, “is some kind of belief in the triumph of the human spirit.” Then she stops, and cringes, because “this sounds so pretentious. But bleak as the subjects often are, or bleak as the situations often are,” she says, “people are being pretty amazing within them.”‘Iron’: Royal Court Downstairs, London SW1 (020 7565 5000), now previewing, opens tomorrow to 1 March. Mime Festival

Turn out the light in a crowded room, shine a torch on the wall, and it won’t be long before someone starts making rabbits with their fingers. That same childish impulse lies at the heart of Light!, one of the most outr?fferings at this year’s Mime Festival, a season in which the fantastical and unexpected have become more or less the norm.
Belgium’s Compagnie Mossoux-Bont?as been a frequent visitor in the last 10 years with its complex illusionism, but its new show is altogether simpler and spookier. Employing just one human figure, a blank screen and a search-lamp beam, it aims to “reconcile us with the pocket of darkness which created us”, manufacturing along the way sufficient monsters, creepy-crawlies and corporeal disfigurements to feed a lifetime of bad dreams.The cleverest thing about Nicole Mossoux’s presentation is its deft continuity. Rarely offstage for more than two seconds, she almost magically affects at least a dozen costume changes, and many more changes of mood. Stalked by a stranger late at night (the encroaching presence created by a studied positioning of her own torso and clothes), you can almost smell the fear on her.

A large hairy spider, King Kong, and a pair of vultures greedily gorging on what appears to be Mossoux’s dead body, are pure schlock but brilliantly etched. The pace hots up briefly for a strobe-lit tussle with an assailant (herself), but for the best part of an hour the mood is sombre to the point of ghoulishness. The effect is magnified by an electronic soundtrack (music by Christian Genet) that not only matches one’s idea of how blood rushing through arteries, and hairs pricking the backs of necks might sound, but persuades your own blood and nerves to behave likewise. Ultimately, I’m not sure I swallow Mossoux’s belief that all our bump-in-the-night fears are a deliberate distraction from thinking about death. Dark equals obliteration: it’s all part and parcel, isn’t it? But I marvel at the precision Mossoux brings to her rather obscure craft, and cheer that the term “mime” is now so broad as to contain it.Gentler and more varied entertainment was to be had with Circus Ronaldo, also Belgian, yet this, too, defies all regular expectations of its genre. Ronaldo strips away all circus’s spangles and cheesy smiles to reveal a tremulous ego and a delicately beating heart.

Curried goat

1.5kg/3lb trimmed goat meat, cubed
2 tablespoons hot curry powder1 teaspoon dry thyme1 medium onion, grated1 clove garlic, crushedSalt and pepper1 tablespoon each masala paste, powdered ginger and molasses2 teaspoons powdered cumin, coriander and allspice600ml/1 pint beef or chicken stock3 or 4 hot green chillies, chopped5 or 6 dried bird chillies, crushedMarinate meat with curry powder, thyme, onion, garlic, salt and pepper, and leave for a few hours. Heat some oil in a heavy pan and, when very hot, sprinkle with sugar – it will quickly caramelise. Stir in meat and cook until it starts to colour and stick; turn and continue to brown Add masala, cumin, ginger, coriander and allspice and stir Add stock and bring to boil Add molasses and chillies. Cover and simmer on lowest heat for two to three hours, until tender Serve with rice, sweet potatoes and a green vegetable.. Curried goat

1.5kg/3lb leg of goat, trimmed and cut into 2cm/1in cubes
1 large onion, grated1 clove garlic, crushed and chopped2 teaspoons each powdered allspice and brown sugar1 teaspoon each dry thyme and powdered corianderSalt and pepper2 chilli peppers600ml/1 pint beef or chicken stockMix onion, garlic, allspice, coriander, thyme, salt, pepper Rub on meat Leave for a few hours. Heat oil in a heavy pan and, when very hot, sprinkle with sugar.

Once caramelised, stir in meat and cook until browning and sticking to the pan Pour stock over, add chillies and bring to the boil Lower heat, cover and simmer for two to three hours Serve with rice, sweet potatoes and a green vegetable Curried goat. 2 x 250g/9oz steaks (from leg)2 teaspoons jerk paste
Juice of 1 limeSalt and pepper2 spring onions, finely chopped1 tablespoon brown sugar1 large tomato, skinned, deseeded and chopped2 or 3 chilli peppers, chopped100ml/3fl oz water or stockRub meat with jerk paste, lime juice, salt and pepper, and leave overnight. Simmer remaining ingredients on low heat for 15 minutes to make a sauce Strain and reserve. Cook steaks under a very hot grill, or in pre-heated grill pan, for about two minutes each side (test with finger – it doesn’t want to be hard) Serve with the sauce, some garlic butter and coriander..

The north London mosque raided by police last week has been closed by health officers for three weeks because it is filthy and dilapidated. The raid was linked to the discovery of the poison ricin in north London earlier this month.The raid ended a six-year occupation by Abu Hamza and his hardline Supporters of Shariah group, after they ousted the board of trustees who legally run the mosque.But the board now fears they will try to wrest back control after it reopens, since Abu Hamza is still free and has not been charged with any offence. On Friday, he and his supporters staged public prayers on the pavement near the building.The trustees were given back the keys and control of the building by police on Thursday night, but their hopes of quickly reopening the mosque to worshippers have been dashed by local environmental health officers..

05/11 – 07/11 Purchase Kid Rock Tickets staging in Borgata Events Center, California Mid. Kid Rock is staging in Atlantic City, Paso Robles and Thackerville. Kid Rock tickets

07/11 – 08/11 Find Sade Tickets playing in Time Warner Cable Arena, Toyota Center. Sade is playing in Charlotte, Houston and Chicago. Sade tickets

07/11 – 09/11 Purchase Chicago Cubs Tickets staging in Minute Maid Park, Nationals Park. Chicago Cubs is staging in Houston, Washington and San Diego. Chicago Cubs tickets

ast your mind back 20 years: interest rates started 1983 at 10 per cent, rising to 11.25 per cent in the summer; unemployment was on the up; average earnings were around £9,000; and the average house price, according to the Halifax, was £29,993. Now, interest rates are at 4 per cent for the 14th consecutive month; unemployment is falling; earnings average £26,519 and the average house price stands at £121,742. Not surprisingly, Greater London and the South-east have been the most expensive parts of the UK for house buyers throughout that time, with prices in London having gone up by 456 per cent.

The costliest town in Britain is Esher in Surrey, where the average price is £416,326, followed by Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, where you’d pay an average of £388,105.But you have to look outside the South-east for the town showing the greatest rise over the last 15 years (that’s when the Halifax index started analysing price differences between towns instead of just regions) In Lymm, Cheshire, prices have soared by 301 per cent. The average property there now costs £244,893, up from £61,114.At the other end of the scale, Corby in Northamptonshire has seen the least growth, with prices just 40 per cent higher And the cheapest UK town is Abertillery in Gwent. Despite a 110.3 per cent rise since 1988, the average house still costs just £37,872.Although prices are up across the board, the rise hasn’t been constant. The boom and bust of the late 1980s and early 1990s was sparked by the announcement in the March 1988 Budget that double tax relief on mortgages would no longer be available to married couples from August that year.