2024
Click on the underlined links shown in bold to display a photograph of the subject, and click again on the x in the top-right corner, or anywhere on the page, to close; other (non-bold) underlined links are to related websites, and will open in a new window in your browser. For a printable version of the letter, with photographs displayed alongside the text, click here to download (PDF version, <1 MB in size).
19 December 2024
Dearest friends
Having excelled ourselves on the 'last minute' front in 2023 (we wrote our newsletter literally on Christmas Day), we're doing our best to get a little more ahead this time! We no longer have the excuse of a recent house move - we have, somewhat unbelievably, been living here for just over a year now - and the fact that our good friend Ted, who has printed our cards and newsletters for us (for the few we still send by post) is finally retiring in a week's time, has ensured we get our act together. Today we completed the Christmas decorating of our beautiful cottage, and we are now enjoying the process of reviewing the last twelve months; lots of new experiences and old friends, changes and familiarity, celebrations and frantic busy-ness. So here's our usual update - in a form that you can freely read or ignore as you wish - and which also happens to be the thirtieth such letter since we were married in April 1995. Which means that another celebration is on its way - the last one (twenty-five years) having been derailed by a certain pandemic!
So where to begin? Well, after the extraordinary events of the tail end of 2023, it took a wee while for us to get our respective acts together. However, things soon picked up speed. We have delighted in welcoming many friends and relatives to our new home, and this started with a splendid Twelfth Night celebration with many of our (mostly theatrical) Norwich friends - which was therefore, of course, a combined birthday party, housewarming and Wassail celebration, including serenading our 200-year-old apple tree and baptising its roots with cider.
Other visitors to Orchard Cottage, as we (unofficially) call it, have included many dear theatrical friends, as well as Cassie's uncle Bob and cousin Kent. We've also been delighted to share the celebrations of others, including Jonathan & Alison's 10th anniversary of the founding of Norfolk Gin (much favoured by the local theatre community), and the 80th birthday just the other day of Rick Fuller (our much-loved licensee at, and long-term supporter of, the Sewell Barn).
There was also a particularly special birthday in October: unbelievably, Selwyn's 70th birthday. He didn't want a major event - and we also reckon that the aforementioned 30th wedding anniversary in 2025 will be a good opportunity for a gathering of some kind. However, he was surprised to be taken to the very upmarket Caistor Hall Hotel for a wonderful meal, and we paid visits (in beautiful autumn sunshine) to the Old Vicarage Gardens in East Ruston, and to the wonderful Happisburgh Owls - a three-hour (nearly 4, actually) private meeting with, and handling of, a selection of these beautiful creatures, guided by their gentle and knowledgeable owners, Sandra and (appropriately) Darwin.
Naturally, it didn't take too long to work our way back into the theatre world. We were (as always) delighted to see a wide variety of entertainment. In the professional world, we started off 2024 with a glorious and bonkers New Year visit to Inverness to see Cassie's dear friend from Bretton Hall days, Steven Wren, in his regular dame-and-director role at Eden Court; in this case, Sleeping Beauty. A magical, beautifully created old-fashioned panto, full of colour, energy and laughter. (We also enjoyed a few extra days in the area, including driving around in Stevie's generously-loaned Alfa Romeo, to some of the amazing beauty spots.)
Another local highlight, early in the year, was a visit to the Norwich Theatre Royal to see the matchless Fascinating Aida. As always, they were a superb combination of the deeply moving, hilariously funny and downright filthy. (There will be an extra FA footnote further on in this letter!) Also at the NTR we went to see the first ballet we'd watched in probably 25 years - a totally magical interpretation of A Christmas Carol by Northern Ballet; and not forgetting a great evening with TV potter Keith Brymer-Jones and his lovely wife Marj Hogarth.
Our other main pro-theatre visit was an outing to London in August. Here, the main purpose was to see our very dear friend Harriet Waterhouse, as she took her first steps into the professional acting fraternity at the Camden Fringe Festival: her one-woman show Sex Chat Granny was quite superb, funny, emotional, gripping and truthful. As we were in London, we thought, hey, let's take in a large-scale show too; so it was Imelda Staunton in Hello, Dolly! at the Palladium. We met up with our lovely musical friends from London days, Mel and Zoe, and shared a magnificent evening.
We managed a few visits to the cinema, too, all much enjoyed: Wicked Little Letters, the remarkable Ian McKellan Hamlet, and the frankly astonishing The Motive and the Cue - an award-winning examination of the stormy relationship between Sir John Gielgud and Richard Burton.
As for community theatre outings: the Sewell Barn, the Maddermarket and other local venues kept us royally entertained all year. Especially notable among these were Pride & Prejudice, directed beautifully by my fellow Barn artistic director, Sabrina; a quite remarkable junior Les Miserables from the talented Echo Youth Theatre; Crude Apache's Singing the Fishing, an imaginative, unusual and very moving evening about the herring-fishers of the east coast; a first-rate dramatisation of the award-winning The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Drama Mavericks; a stunning performance of A Doll's House with the above-mentioned Sabrina as Nora (honestly, is there nothing the girl can't do?!) and, well, we have to be biased and say everything presented at the Sewell Barn!
Then, of course, there are the times that we direct plays ourselves. (There hasn't been any board-treading for either of us during this year!). Cassie's offering was The Memory of Water, a painfully funny and (given her 'orphan' status as of last November) very relevant examination of family life and dynamics. Cassie's cast was quite simply magnificent, and it was one of her most enjoyable projects - which, given the exceptional teams she's worked with over the years, is saying a great deal. We had some difficult and stressful times, with one of the two male actors needing to drop out for health reasons at the start of the rehearsal period (and Jamie did a sterling job stepping in); but more seriously, the lovely and talented Greg, who had returned to the Barn after some decades' absence to play Mike, was suddenly taken very ill across tech weekend - just four days before we opened. Thankfully he is now fully recovered, and we hope to tempt him back to the theatre soon; but he was sadly unable to take part in the show (although we were so happy that he saw the final performance). We were incredibly fortunate that the talented John Holden (who has done this sort of thing before!) and whose partner, Ginny, was already in the play, was able to 'act his book away' for the entire run - many of the audience simply not realising that he was a stand-in.
Usually Selwyn's contributions to these productions are to be stage manager, to Cassie and others: but this year he took on his own directorial project. Just a few days ago he completed a triumphant run of The Lives of Bosie - a remarkable play written by his American friend of many years, John Wolfson, about the young lover of Oscar Wilde. Most people don't know what happened to Bosie after Wilde passed away; he turned against his youthful self, denying his own personality, and essentially turning into his frightful father. The play pitches the young Bosie against his older self, Lord Alfred, who is at the point of death, as they dissect his/their life, with much humour and many strong moments of drama, and assisted by one talented actor as 'Memory' - who plays all the other characters who appear in the story. It played for four performances to great acclaim, and mutterings are now underway about the possibility of taking the show to some other venue next year. Watch this space!
A little footnote to Bosie: on the final night of the run, Cassie was on front of house duty. She looked up and was somewhat flabbergasted to see Adele Anderson - of Fascinating Aida fame (see above) - walking through the door… It turns out that Adele is a friend of many years' standing of Jonathan (Memory). Adele was charming, friendly, a great member of the audience, and she stayed afterwards to chat with us all and share the after-show celebrations.
Our life in 'Orchard Cottage' is everything we could have wished for. During this first year, we have invested in a few improvements (thank you, mum: we could not have afforded it otherwise) in the shape of several window replacements and a new front door, and a lovely new patio; the garden is starting to take shape, and there is plenty of opportunity for creativity as we move into a new season. Meantime, Selwyn has been adjusting to real retirement. It's still somewhat bewildering to him to be master of his own timetable, after 70 years of being directed by school, university, theological college and the church! Happily, his work on the rewriting of Egypt Itself - his book about the nineteenth-century Egyptologist, Robert Hay - has given a shape to his days, and that project is approaching its conclusion; we hope that the publication will happen during the coming year. (We're presently at the final proof-reading, permission-for-illustrations, indexing, tidying-up stage.) Once that is finally off his desk, he will need to think again (while Cassie continues to help her decluttering and admin clients), but he has several ideas on that front. And of course, we are thrilled to have more freedom for travel.
Which leads rather neatly to holiday-times. After the pretty spectacular stresses of Peggy's death & funeral, Selwyn's retirement, and our house move, all happening across about four weeks (followed rapidly by Christmas, which was delightfully shared with Cassie's sister and family), we were ready for a real break. We spent the rest of January getting the house fully to rights, and then took off in February on one of our most exciting adventures yet: a cruise to the Far East. (Once more, thank you, mum.) We flew from Gatwick to Singapore, and spent an extraordinary fortnight experiencing that city, as well as Langkawi, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Phuket and Vietnam. We were treated royally throughout, had the relaxation time we so needed, saw a part of the world that was entirely new to us both, and were so fortunate to have the opportunity.
In April we took a very special trip to Paris: we celebrated the thirtieth anniversary (almost to the day) of our first, very romantic, visit, which in 1994 was taken just weeks after we became a couple. Photographs were re-created, memories new and old, and we behaved like love-struck teenagers all over again...
In September, we took advantage of the fact that for once there were flights out of Norwich airport going somewhere more interesting than oil rigs on the North Sea, and took ourselves to Malta. We spent a highly enjoyable week on the island of Gozo, followed by a week in Malta itself; self-catered in two delightful AirBNB apartments; hired a little car, and explored all manner of fabulous towns, theatres, gardens, churches, restaurants, markets and the rest.
Finally, a brief but lovely trip up north in September allowed us to spend time with our dear friends Dorothy and Milton, as well as meeting up with several of the folks who had graduated from Bretton Hall with Cassie forty (ouch) years before. A great lunch followed by a (damp, but enjoyable) yomp through the grounds of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and a nostalgic meander around the sad remnants of the College, much reminiscence, and many hugs and renewed friendships.
Health activities of note: Cassie started working in March with a delightful personal trainer, young Anthony (yes, young enough to be her son), and is now taking great pleasure in 'pumping iron' 2-3 times each week, as well as continuing to aim for (and just about managing!) a 1,000 mile walking target per year. This has included occasional longer 'yomps' with her beloved 'hiking big brother', James, who is always happy to plan routes involving double-figure mileage. As a result, the weight has thankfully kept in a very healthy range. Oh, and she's also had another go at indoor climbing, or 'bouldering'; and just the other day played at being a mermaid for an evening...
In among all this, it was time to find a new spiritual home (as it's really not right to impose on the new incumbent of a parish where one has ministered). We still miss our dear friends at St Mary Magdalene - we are individually in touch with some of them - but we needed to establish a new place of worship. Happily, after a few weeks, we found ourselves feeling absolutely at home with the good folks of St Giles-on-the-Hill in the centre of Norwich, under the guidance of the delightful Fr Alaric Lewis. We have been made so welcome, and it didn't take long for us to land on the reading / intercessions / chalice rotas; Selwyn takes a service, either Sunday or a weekday, once every few weeks (but no admin responsibilities!); and this Sunday sees the Christmas Carol service, which Cassie has been delighted to be involved in organising.
At the November All Souls' service, we remembered some of our own loved ones who had passed away. We give thanks for the lives of Jack Gentle, Vivienne Hillier and Becky Sweet from the Norwich theatre community; Babs Taylor and Carol Kingsley from our days in Beddington; Lal Lord and Pat Ball, mothers of close friends, and Winifred, beloved aunt of our dear friend Rachel; Derek Skingsley, via Cassie's family history contacts, and Edward Jackson from St Mary Magdalene. May they all rest in peace and rise in glory.
So there we have it. Another year of challenges, love and laughter. We continue to be eternally grateful for all opportunities and blessings as we move on through our lives, and as we approach thirty years of marriage, for the joy of each other; and for the support, affection and inspiration of every one of our friends and family. We send our greatest love and thanks to you all, near and far, and wish you a peaceful, fulfilling and joyful 2025.
With our love -
