Old Friends

‘DON’T know about you, but we find ourselves getting more and more concerned by what we find in Hello! these days.

On a clear day you can see the refugees getting off the boat

Frankly we’ve never heard of half of them, and when one asks them who their people are, they give you the name of an agent or a PR girl. So it’s good to see some familiar faces this week.

Look, there’s John and Anthea Warde, revealing ”the truth behind their charmed life at Squerryes Court”, Kent. This should be interesting.

”I suppose sometimes visitors see me sitting here and imagine that I lead some sort of charmed life,” muses Anthea, ”but the reality – as with all these privately-owned and lived-in family seats – is somewhat different.” How true.

Indeed, it transpires that she tackles most of the domestic duties herself, with the assistance of a gardener and a part-time help, who is of course ”marvellous”.

We are then taken on a tour of the house in all its splendours, the highpoint of which is the Picture Gallery with its masterpieces by Rubens and Van Dyck, and what looks like a Tracey Emin creation, but which turns out to be a pile of laundry that Anthea hasn’t yet got around to.

”Only the distant rumble of traffic on the M25 is a constant reminder that Westerham is no longer the quiet backwater that it once was.”

That, and the sound of gunshots as the drug dealers, gangsters and refugee-smugglers of this historic county go about their traditional way of life.

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Posted: 11th, September 2002 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink