Archive for September, 2007

How We Met: Jennifer Saunders & Dr Tanya Byron 

Jennifer Saunders 49is a Bafta-winning comedian, best known for TV’s ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ and her work with Dawn French. She and her husband, Adrian Edmondson, have three children and live in Devon. She stars in the BBC2 sitcom ‘The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle’ .

‘My childhood was ruined by the trauma of the Nazi death camps. Now I want compensation’ 

One of Edna Noy’s earliest memories is of tiptoeing into a room where her mother was taking an afternoon nap and helping herself to a sweet from a jar on the dining-room table. Some of the hard sweets spilt out of the jar and clattered on to the table awakening her mother.

PJ Proby: Could the now-penniless singer be ready for a comeback? 

Forty years ago, PJ Proby travelled to Soweto, where he consulted a Sangoma, or Zulu clairvoyant. The Texan singer ? already world famous for the aberrant talent that prompted writer Nik Cohn to describe him as a genius and “with James Brown, the most electrifying performer I ever saw” ? watched as the fortune-teller cast bones from a leather cup. The Sangoma related extraordinary facts about his visitor’s past. When he addressed the rock star’s future, the fortune teller fell silent and then began to weep.

Amy Sacco: New York’s most celebrated socialite opens a branch of her A-list nightclub in London 

The Americans are coming. Last week, on the first floor of Covent Garden’s St Martin Lane Hotel and away from the flashing light bulbs of London Fashion Week, a discreet new watering hole quietly opened its doors for a very selective list of clientele. Behind the heavily guarded entrance at this preview event, Sienna Miller clinked champagne flutes with designer Matthew Williamson, Jade Jagger sashayed away to her ex Dan Macmillan’s DJing while publisher Jefferson Hack talked shop with the week’s most talked-about new British designer, Christopher Kane. Its opening marked the first assault for years by an American on London’s booming clubland.

Allard to pocket £10m as All Leisure floats on AIM 

Roger Allard, the colourful head of All Leisure, the cruising company, is set to pocket more than £10m from the £110m listing of the group on AIM tomorrow, just a decade after he bought the company for a token £1.

Northern Rock takes £100m in penalty fees 

Northern Rock savers were forced to pay more than £100m in penalty charges when the £2bn run on the beleaguered bank began earlier this month.

BMW maps plan for fourth brand and new direction 

Luxury car maker BMW is looking at launching a fourth brand alongside the Mini, Rolls-Royce and BMW.