Nika Talbot
I had the pleasure of interviewing Paul O’Brien, CEO at Virgin Experience Days, to talk about current trends in travel and the growth of the ‘experience economy’.
Last year, searches for experiences rose by 58% according to a new report by Hitwise and memory has now become the product. So what’s driving the trend and how can brands win in the experience economy?
Here’s what Paul had to say… Read more.
“Nice shoes.”
“You don’t miss me in these,” I laughed looking down at my battered fluoro Converse. I fit in with the colour scheme at Ethel Loves Me, a new interiors store in Rye, East Sussex. It’s busy too, always a good sign, which is what drew me in as I wandered up Conduit Hill to Rye’s main shopping street. “Come and have a look, it’s all work by local artists and makers.”
Part art gallery, part lifestyle store & gift shop, plus experimental space, Ethel’s aim is to showcase original pieces and collectables made in Rye. An elegant jumble of arts, craft, curios, upcycled, salvage, vintage and fun fashion – it’s a joy to stumble across something handmade that I really don’t need but have to have – funky bottles for Fairy Liquid or these fabulous knives (stick ’em in your herbs!). I also love the oversize striped furniture and adventurous paintings by Tina Kaul – (a journey to Berlin, New York and other places she’s lived) and work by former graffiti artist James Tomlinson.
So, I have a rare day to myself in Rye, a very nice feeling. It’s been a while since I last visited and I never get bored of coming here as there’s always a new shop, gallery or cafe to sit and read in. It’s a foodie place (annual Scallop & Oyster festival) and has an entrepreneurial, upmarket vibe. This goes back a long way. It has always been a port town trading in luxury goods and has had to reinvent itself since invasion. Ryers are very proud of the town’s ‘royal’ status, independent shops, literary connections, festivals, and it has some high-end places to stay. With excellent train connections to Brighton, Ashford & beyond (just 38 minutes to St Pancras on the high-speed rail), it’s easy to get to from London and there’s plenty to do in a day, weekend or longer break.
Ready to hit the Rye Trail? Here are my suggestions…
For book lovers… my first port of call is always Rye Bookshop. I can lose hours in the travel section, browsing biographies, local history and reading their recommendations (I love those handwritten stickers). All genres, regular new stuff and the staff are knowledgeable and enthusiastic. The woman next to me was addressed by her first name. Rye is the setting for the fictional town of Tilling in EF Benson’s popular Mapp & Lucia books (adapted recently by the BBC – a very funny tale of social climbing). The American author Henry James also lived in Lamb House, just around the corner and wrote three bestselling books here (ghostly turns and very atmospheric, it’s now a National Trust property which you can visit during the summer).
For local history… Rye Castle – Ypres Tower and Women’s Tower
It’s the first time I’ve had a proper look around Rye Castle Museum and it’s well worth it. Ypres or ‘wipers’ as the locals call it was built in 1249 to help defend the town against attack, and has had many reincarnations since – it’s been a private residence, women’s prison (thought to be the only women’s prison to survive unaltered from the 1800s to present day), a mortuary and is now home to the castle museum. Great views of the town and harbour from the top and a humble medicinal herb garden hidden behind its walls.
For quiet time… St Mary’s Church, Church Square
This is the biggest church in Rye and in a prominent spot at the top of the hill. The only pre-1200 building to survive in Rye and the former lookout point before the castle was constructed. Great views from the top of the tower. My favourite church in Rye, however, is the only Catholic one, St. Anthony of Padua, just opposite on Watchbell Street. It has a welcome sign outside the door in various languages, beautiful stained glass windows and is less busy so more peaceful. It’s where I always go to light a candle and say a prayer.
For a pint… Mermaid Street at dusk
I couldn’t resist this beautiful photo by Helen Hotson, a landscape photographer based in Cornwall. She has captured Mermaid Street at its best, at dusk when you can nosy into other people’s homes (there was scaffolding up when I visited during the day so not quite so enticing to photograph). Once Rye’s main street (Middle Street), this is the vision in all the postcards. Cobbled streets and a pretty steep hill so not great for heels or buggies (took me ages in both). Have a drink in the Mermaid Inn, an ancient pub which is now the mainstay for celebrities, festival events etc. Charming house names too, ‘The House Opposite’ … ‘The House with the Seat’. I wonder if the owners get fed up with all the gawping?
For shopping… luxury and vintage goods…
Rye is excellent for homewares, interiors, art, photography, books and unusual gifts. New since I last visited: Ethel Loves Me, Rye Chocolates, WiDEYE, an ethical beauty shop & treatment room, Rye Weddings, Rye Candy, Art & Soul Gallery, and Corridor Café. I’m lusting after several pairs of beautiful retro Italian brogues from Crispin’s of Rye. There’s also Rye Pottery, Glass Etc where misery, moans and frowns are banned – run by the Decanterman Andy McConnell – who once gave a talk at one of my Salons and had us all rolling around on the floor. Byzantium for jewellery and watches, butter knives and Beryl Woods Ware in Crock & Cosy on Strand Quay.
For tea and treats…
I had a cream tea in Hayden’s – a lovely organic coffee shop and B&B with a lovely view from its courtyard and bought some Sicilian pastries (gluten free!) to take home from Rye Deli.
It’s a pleasure to wander around Rye on your own but if you want to make a connection with a local to uncover Secret Rye (buildings not open to the public like the Town Hall), I recommend booking a two-hour walking tour from Rye Heritage Centre (Thursdays, Fridays and some Saturdays).
If you’re here for longer take a walk or cycle out to Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, a conservation area just two miles out of town that’s home to 4,275 species of wildlife (more than 300 are rare and endangered in Britain). There are several walking routes depending on energy levels and you can visit the ruins of Camber Castle (guided tours during the summer). I also like to walk or cycle to Camber Sands, about an hour’s walk, for book and beach time. A pretty flat track and not that exciting but the view from Camber Sands more than makes up for it.
Getting there: www.visit1066country.com for accommodation and transport.
Photos: Nicci Talbot, Mermaid Street – Helen Hotson, Shutterstock.
I went to Farley Farm House last week for a guided tour around the home of Surrealist painter Roland Penrose and American photojournalist Lee Miller. It is a low-key 18th-century house in Chiddingly, East Sussex managed by their son Antony Penrose.
Lee Miller started her career in photography as a fashion model in New York. A chance encounter – stepping out in front of Condé Nast’s car one morning, led to her modelling for Vogue. For the next two years, she worked for various brands and was the first person to feature in a menstrual hygiene ad for Kotex, which almost finished her modelling career. She told a journalist that she wanted to “enter photography by the back end,” and sought inspiration from various artists including May RAY who she followed to Paris in 1929, introducing herself as his new student. She became his lover and muse and together they developed a new artistic technique called Solarisation, which you can see in some photographs in the house.
Lee came back to New York in 1932 and ran her own photography studio for two years before closing it down to move to Cairo with her new husband, Egyptian businessman Aziz Eloui Bey. This sparked a series of desert photography shots with abandoned villages and barren landscapes. There’s one photo in Farley Gallery of a desert landscape behind a torn net – a prophecy of what was to come when she became a war correspondent in the 1940s. Boredom and restlessness brought her back to Paris in 1937 and she met Roland Penrose at a ball, who she married 10 years later.
Lee moved back to London in 1939 just before the Second World War broke out, resisting orders from the US to return home and instead worked as a freelance photographer for Vogue. In 1944 she became a war correspondent with the US Army – and possibly the only woman to cover the front line in Europe – photographing various key events including the siege of St Malo, the Liberation of Paris, fighting in Luxembourg and Alsace, the work of WRNS, ATS, the Land Girls, WRVS and the nurses. She also photographed refugees in Europe, women forced into slave labour and prostitution and concentration camp victims. She stayed in Hitler and Eva Braun’s houses in Munich documenting Hitler’s house at Berchtesgaden in flames prior to Germany’s surrender.
In the sitting room at Farley Farm House, there are various artefacts, photos, books and mementoes from various assignments and their travels together. One photo shows her sitting in Hitler’s bathtub, her muddy boots staining the white bath mat. Another is a group photo of May RAY and his lover Ady Fidelin, Penrose and Miller, Nusch and Paul Eluard picnicking in the sun, the women topless and relaxed. In the corner, there’s a silver tray with her brand of cigarettes and alcohol. Doctors told her to drink to help her relax and forget what she had seen in Europe, which led to her alcoholism.
Lee and Roland lived at Farley Farm House for 35 years, entertaining visitors from the art world including Man RAY, Picasso, Max Ernst, Joan Miro, Echaurren Matta, and British counterparts Antoni Tapies, Eileen Agar, Kenneth Armitage, William Turnbull, John Craxton and Richard Hamilton. In the kitchen, there are humorous paintings by Picasso and above the Aga, a tile he decorated set in the wall. Surrealism was about finding the magic in every day, exploring what happens when inner and outer worlds collide and Lee wanted art to be part of the everyday.
In the study alongside her modelling photos and various vintage magazines, there are lots of cookbooks. Lee developed a taste for surrealist cooking – becoming a gourmet cook and frequently told her guests to roll their sleeves up and get chopping.
I saw Antony’s performance piece, The Angel and the Fiend a couple of months ago in Hastings, which is a fantastic biography told through stories, letters and music. Restoring Farley Farm House and founding the Lee Miller Archive has been a lifelong project for him (he found her photographs in the attic and says growing up, he knew little about her war photography). I suspect it has healed some rifts over his mother being away for a large part of his childhood and given him a deeper understanding and appreciation of his parents’ lives.
I left the house feeling emotional, humbled and inspired by the rawness of the work and the richness of the life they created together. Outside is a beautiful sculpture garden, a peaceful, healing space overlooking the South Downs, which has been enjoyed by many visitors over the years. Roland Penrose died at Farley Farm House on 23 April 1984, seven years after Lee Miller died from pancreatic cancer. He had been ill for some time but was holding out for something, which was Lee’s birthday.
Farley Farm House is open from every Sunday from April to October with an additional opening day on Saturday 3rd October.
Lee Miller: A Woman’s War – an exhibition of 150 photographs depicting women’s experience of the Second World War by Lee Miller – opens on 15th October at the Imperial War Museum. It is the first exhibition to address Miller’s vision of gender and features photographs, objects, art and personal items not before seen on display. Book tickets online here.
Lee Miller: A Woman’s War is published by Thames & Hudson.
Image © Lee Miller Archives, England 2015. All rights reserved. www.leemiller.co.uk
Photo: Thanks to Thomas Curryer on Unsplash
I have just moved into a lovely flat in Markwick Terrace, St Leonards on Sea – the last great Regency seaside resort. St Leonards has been part of Hastings since the late 19th century, but it has a distinct character thanks to the vision of London architect James Burton who bought land here to create an upmarket pleasure resort. Markwick Terrace is high up on the hill and one of the most beautiful residential streets – a row of white Victorian properties with huge windows and decorative balconies with cast iron railings. My balcony is still intact – the one at no 11 was damaged during the war.
Markwick Gardens was formed in the 1860s for residents in the terrace to enjoy. It is privately owned and since WW2 has been managed by the Markwick Gardens Association whose aim is to restore it to its former Victorian/Edwardian splendour. “Much history has been lost or forgotten, and we are trying to piece it back together again.” You don’t have to be a resident to join, and they host free events so you can come and have a look around. I went to the dog show a couple of weeks ago – a proper parade of various breeds with judging, rosettes and doggy book stalls (this is a doggy town). Next weekend there’s a barn dance & supper, a summer fete in July and the fantastic Rude Mechanicals touring theatre in August. The gardens are well maintained and bigger than they look from outside. They have a high fence so feel very secluded, like being in your private retreat. There’s a bandstand, BBQ facilities and in the far corner, the head gardener’s house. “It’s a lovely location, especially when you’ve got access to the gardens as well”, I heard a man in the street say this morning.
The prolific author and novelist Sheila Kaye Smith was born at 9 Dane Road and lived there from 1887 and 1924. She used the gardens as a setting for one of her books, “Selina is Older”; well worth a read for an insight into what the gardens were like at the time. Her work focused on the changing role of women, provincial life and the effect of industrialisation.
I love the flat. It’s light and peaceful and I feel quietly focused. It’s fantastic to have a space to create, grow my little Mediterranean garden and plan my next adventure. It’s amazing what a difference high ceilings, big windows and outdoor space make. I’m motivated to get up and have coffee outside, watch the street wake up and plan my day. It’s all residential around here but it doesn’t feel suburban, perhaps because of the literary history, beautiful architecture and activity in the gardens from dawn to dusk.
St Leonards is full of open gardens. I’ve lived in Anglesea Terrace opposite Gensing Gardens, on The Mount behind the recently renovated St Leonards Gardens and St Michael’s Hospice Garden, and on the seafront near Warrior Square with its lovely rose garden. I walk through there to go to work and see the same crew out walking their dogs and having a chat; it’s a friendly community.
St Michael’s Hospice in Maze Hill has just launched its 2018 Open Gardens season. Part of the National Open Gardens scheme, it’s very popular – last year they raised over £36,000. This season 40 beautiful private gardens will be open from May to August in Hastings Old Town, St Leonards, Winchelsea, Northiam, Westfield, Udimore, and Mountfield, all in aid of the Hospice. It’s a beautiful way to explore Sussex through the eyes of keen gardeners and get some inspiration for your own. Every summer beauty writer Jo Fairley hosts a cream tea at her home in Hastings Old Town. She raffles off beauty products she’s been sent throughout the year to raise funds for charity. There’s also a well-known gardening writer who opens up her place in Croft Road. For a small fee, you get the chance to see Sussex through someone else’s eyes, access private spaces, learn something new and gain inspiration for your own garden.
Find out more:
Words: Kavida Rei
Shh… is a new women-only retreat which aims to help you reclaim your sexuality and femininity and find support in sisterhood. Tantric healer and author Kavida Rei went on a taster workshop to find out more…
For over 30 years I’ve been exploring the far reaches of the world of personal development and spiritual growth. During that time I’ve been actively researching how to achieve optimum physical health and well-being and most of all, psychological and emotional happiness. So when it comes to workshops, I’ve been around. I don’t frequent them anymore, after all, there’s not a lot of spare time when juggling giving sessions as a therapist and facilitating my own Tantra groups and spa retreats. However, having recently met the girls who run Shh…, and being impressed by what they’re offering – residential retreats and London classes – I decided to jump in on a women’s workshop to find out more.
The surprise was not that I enjoyed it – of course, intimate time with women, away from my regular schedule is always delicious and deeply appreciated – but that I learned so much about my body (and mind) in four hours.
I did a fair bit of rebirthing in the 80s when it was all the rage, and since jumping onto the Tantric path in 2000, I’ve consistently practised Tantric methods of breathing with beautiful results, so I figured that when it came to breathwork there wasn’t much more I needed to learn. How wrong I was!
The workshop space itself was exquisite. The Shh… girls do things with panache and there wasn’t a detail overlooked: beautiful blankets, Back Jack chairs for those with dodgy backs, a top-notch sound-system and excellent music throughout the breathing and yoga sessions (anyone who knows me knows that I’m very fussy about my music).
All of the therapists and teachers possess the precious skill of being able to put anyone at ease. Every one of the healing modalities they present is manageable for all levels of fitness. The group consisted of women of all ages and backgrounds, which I find makes a workshop far more interesting an experience. I wasn’t bored for a minute.
The first facilitator Aimee guided us into the breathing practice with grace, humour and compassion. Initially, as we began to breathe, there was tiredness to deal with. I wasn’t the only one struggling with this issue, which is understandable considering we are hardworking women, juggling lots of balls, and living in London. Just laying down with a blanket made us all want to go to sleep…
After a surge of yawning, I made a decision to dive right into the waves of breathing without resistance at which point two trouble spots in my body, chronic problems that I thought I was stuck with forever, suddenly reached peak-pain intensity. Aimee and her two assistants were giving full attention to every participant in the group and someone appeared every time I needed loving hands on my body. They were always encouraging us to go deeper which gave me great confidence to let go even more into the process.
At one point it felt as if my entire system went ‘pop’. I had the physical sensation of diving off a cliff, alongside the realisation that I’d held on to this physiological and emotional pattern since I was in the womb. It was my mother’s fear and grief that I’d absorbed at the time. I was born carrying it in my cellular consciousness, and it has stayed with me through my whole life until now, hidden in the darkest corners of my body and psyche.
Of course! It’s totally understandable – during womb-time, you are One with your mother. This symbiosis between my mother and myself, her experience transmitted directly through the umbilical cord to me, had contributed to my own difficult experience of giving birth to my sons many years later, leading to two brutal caesarian sections. Clarity came, the pattern was cleared and I was free of the tension at last.
In the Transformational Breathing sessions, they have created an additional strategy, which differentiates this modality from say, re-birthing. Between the breathing cycles, you are taken into a particular vocal and physical release technique. This movement counter-balances the intensity of bodily reactions to the breathing, helping to move the energy through, cleansing the body of stored negative emotions.
A cathartic release came next then tears of relief and understanding. Long-held stiffness in my back, directly in line with my heart chakra let go as if by magic, and finally the two blockages in my chest and pelvis were gone! It felt as if I had a new set of arms and legs – the oxygen was flowing up and down them in a way it probably never has. I could sense the chi moving up and down my entire body in surges…I was suddenly, and unexpectedly blissfully orgasmic.
There was such peace in the group when we came to rest. You could have heard a pin drop, not a muscle was moving.
After a short break we were back on our mats, ready for Yin Yoga. The teacher Emma was such a delight, full of enthusiasm and charisma. Her voice was reassuring and calming throughout the whole practice.
Yin Yoga, as its name suggests, is perfect for women. It’s non-competitive and nurturing, feminine and flowing. Enough with the power yoga already. Let the men carry on with Ashtanga if they feel so inclined. It’s not good for us girls! We indulge in enough self-deprecation, constantly comparing ourselves to others. I have noticed a desperate lack of support between women in our society. How wonderful that Shh… brings women together in nurturing environments like this so that we can reclaim our sisterhood. The bottom line is – yin yoga feels right. It feels nourishing in a way that working out in a gym simply doesn’t.
We were encouraged to stretch to our own point of tension and not into pain. It was reiterated through the process that we were not to ‘push’ ourselves. Yin Yoga is an internal experience, in which we maintain full awareness in each and every moment, discovering what feels comfortable and right for us, individually. Another enjoyable aspect of the class was that we laughed a lot. Some of us were steadier on our mats than others, but there was no judgement, no one-upmanship, and that is a rare phenomenon these days, in our crazy world of stressing and striving.
I want to thank the whole Shh… team for the delicious space they created in which we all journeyed together. There was safety and love in the room at all times and it seemed to me that by the end of the afternoon, every woman had had a profound personal shift. Everyone I spoke to said they’d be back for the second workshop in a month.
It’s incredible what can be achieved in a 4.5-hour class when you have safety, trust and expert teaching. On the Shh…retreats, which are three or six nights long, the small group of participants journey even deeper together, supported by ten fully-qualified therapists. The residential retreats are luxurious to say the least. They are held in opulent surroundings with no comfort overlooked. It can be challenging to look so rigorously inside oneself, unveiling destructive patterns we may have carried, unconsciously all through our lives, but the challenge is made so much more palatable with the large doses of pampering, spa time, gourmet food, and divine massages.
Personally speaking I shall be adding Transformational Breathing to my daily practice and during my stretching routine I shall certainly be more loving towards myself!
As we left the team handed each of us the sweetest ‘goody bag’ full of treats and after-care information so we could look after ourselves properly, post-workshop. In true SHH… style, they’d thought of everything.
More info and bookings at www.sensualhealingharmony.com.
Kavida Rei’s best-selling book: Ultimate Erotic Massage is out now.
Photo: Thanks to Caroline Hernandez on Unsplash
Nika Talbot 