Longleat is one of our great country houses, set in the rolling Wiltshire countryside near Warminster. What better way to spend Christmas Eve than a visit to the magical Festival of Light.  Each year this spectacular has a different theme.

I’d never been round what is now called the ‘ Safari Drive Through ‘ but used to be called the Lions of Longleat.  Now much expanded, the big cats still add even more excitement including the magnificent Tigers.

The Talking Tree, a compelling sound and light show at set times. Visitors were drawn every hour. With Christmas themes pulsing around the tree, it added magic to Christmas Eve.

A Cheetah in repose.

Feeding the Deer before entering the Big Cats enclosures.

You shall go to the Ball ! Cinderella in her coach arrive at Longleat.

TOP TIP : Use the loos BEFORE beginning the Safari Drive Through, particularly the big cats.  Queues of traffic at peak times can mean slow progress, so be advised !       ( I found out the hard way ).

Words and Pictures : Tony Knight photography & MEDIA

comarkuk@ntlworld.com

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Sadly, Clare Hollingworth passed away in Hong Kong on Monday Tuesday 10th January 2017

Truly the doyen of journalism, Clare Hollingworth, is as I was told at the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club in answer to my question about her,  ” She’s still working … I mean she’s still alive. ”     Yesterday she returned there to celebrate her 105th birthday. Just watching the event on BBC television news was a joy.

Always the consummate Englishwoman, Clare Hollingworth is remembered for being the first journalist to report the start of World War Two, when she was in Poland in August 1939…. the rest as they say, is history – quite literally !    In 1995, I was  with a party of journalists as guests of the Peninsula Hotel reporting for the Classic fm Travel Guide programme, on the seamless addition of the helipad topped towers. I’ve only been back twice since, but Hong Kong is perhaps my all time favourite city.     In November 1995, I’d missed a message left for me by a fellow journalist to visit the FCC, and sadly did not meet the then 85 year old Clare who I was told excitedly had been there at the time !

It took me another 20 years finally to get to the FCC, so I was determined, at least to step inside the door on the last afternoon of my third visit in HK last year.  I still  think of her with admiration whenever I re- read my treasured copy of  her book Front Line. Happy Days.

Foreign Correspondent’s Club

There is always plenty of interest going on in Hong Kong.

I was at the opening of Sir Antony Gormley’s inspired Event Horizon on 18 November 2015. Sir Antony’s very distinctive statues displayed on high buildings for 6 months, attracted a great deal of curiosity.

Peace and Joy !

” People watching ” is fascinating and diverse. The city is always on the move. The mobile phone is everything and constantly in use…  just look around you.  Make an early morning visit to Kowloon Park to join in the Tai Chi sessions, as I did.

Interviewing an early morning Tai Chi expert.

Keeping young in Kowloon Park.

I saw so much in 5 days, but it takes stamina to achieve a comprehensive photographic impression.  I hope the next time I go back it won’t take so long, there is so much to see and do.

An English summer day can be a joy to behold, or it can be a a disasterous mix of rain, grey skudding clouds, cold and miserable.  True it doesn’t get that bad too often, but due to the intervention of the North Atlantic Jet Stream, preventing high pressure systems from the south or the general ebb and flow of weather from the west, an English summer day is unpredictable.

The summer of 2016 has had its share of changeable weather. June, for example, had very heavy rain at times. August was changeable, not as awful as the continuous rain and storms of the 1960’s, but enough to take the edge off of some holiday plans. High mackerel clouds heralded a change in the weather from the west and on 5th August. Summer was not to be denied.

Since February I had occasionally walked a tractor track along the edge of a field about a mile or so from my home in the ancient capital city of Winchester.  ( Had the tracks not been there, I would not has crossed the field, but taken another route ). Over the months as spring warmed up the ground, green stalks began to rise upwards, getting longer every few weeks or so.  My final walk along the tracks made some years ago and where nothing grew, was sublime.  The entire field was a joy to behold.  So quintessentially English, it was a rare privilege money just could not buy.  It was a Laurie Lee, special day.  The day grew hot, light clouds drifted overhead and beyond the hedge, the vista towards the village of Sparsholt could not be bettered.

It was one of those rare occasions, with nature at full throttle.  Bees visiting hedge-row blooms.  The first Horse Chestnut had fallen from above, too early yet to burst open.  A few, slowly browning leaves were appearing.  Swallows wheeling through the air, dining on insects, would soon begin departing these shores for hot African skies.

Unlike the rice harvest on my parents-in-law’s rice field 6,000 miles away in Thailand, which is still harvested mainly by hand, these Hampshire fields would all be cut mechanically.

Just slowly walking along this pathway between the nodding heads of corn, bursting with ripe goodness, was a moment to be savoured and remembered in the shortening days, edging their way towards Autumn.  It was the high spot of the year and would soon be but a memory.  It was the day time stood still.  The ground having yielded up its goodness, would lie fallow awaiting the shifting of the winds round to the north.

It was a classic UK August summer day to remember

 A DAY TO REMEMBER WITH PRIDE.   HAPPY DAYS !

LAST SUMMER – A DAY TO REMEMBER WITH PRIDE.

Sunday 1st May 2016 was the 40th anniversary of the ‘ Day We Won the Cup, ! ‘  and was the culmination of a week of celebrations of the Saint’s victory at Wembley Stadium.

Three days of events were held to commemorate the Saint’s victory, culminating in a civic reception; a tour of the city on the same bus they used as the streets were packed in 1976 and a nostalgic evening tribute at the Mayflower Theatre.

Wherever they went, the surviving players and their manager Lawrie McMenemy were mobbed, friendships renewed, excitement re-kindled and many photographs taken.

The players and their families were entertained by Councillor Linda Norris, performing one of her final official engagements in her mayoral year. Writing on the City Council website afterwards, she wrote :  ” An absolute honour to be with The Boss & The Boys-40 yrs on I’m celebrating moving to Soton that very weekend!  ”

With the F A Cup after presentation of player’s Freedom scrolls.

Players and families relax for lunch before their tour of the city.

Thanks for organising the major celebration events are due to Southampton’s own star comedian Mike Osman, who worked tirelessly behind the scenes for over a year to ensure everything went smoothly. Great Stuff, Mike !

Time for one last picture group picture for the album.

Lawrie meets up with the FA Cup again.. 40 years on !

After the civic reception, with Mike Osman cheering on the crowds thronging Guildhall Square, the players and families boarded the same bus, used in the 1976 victory parade to make their way through the streets to St Mary’s Stadium for the match.  To add to the Saint’s joy, they beat Manchester City 4 – 2 !

Photography : Tony Knight photography & MEDIA

E Mail : comarkuk@ntlworld.com

Actor, novelist, director, screen writer, Julian Fellowes, writer of the most successful Downton Abbey TV series then something for the future.

Julian Fellowes photographed at the Croft Hall, Hungerford for Berkshire Life Magazine, Talking to the magazine’s then editor Tessa  Harris ( an award winning novelist in her own right ), about his newly published novel PAST IMPERFECT at a public evening with the author on Wednesday 10th December 2008.

HOTNEWS :

Julian Fellowes, who has been honoured with a Founders Award by the International Emmy Awards has plans for a film of Downton Abbey too !

INNOVATION :

Following in the proud tradition of Charles Dickens, who first published his stories weekly in print, his latest project, has been  accessible via the modern equivalent – an app, online since April 2016.

On his website – https://julianfellowesbalgravia.com, the ever inventive author said :

”  The app will be launched via this website in April 2016, with the first episode free to download. You’ll be able to subscribe to the full 11-episode weekly serial for £9.99/US$13.99 (both text and audio) or you can buy individual weekly episodes for £1.49/US$1.99 which will be delivered automatically to your device the moment they air every Friday. There will be extra material, videos and other bonus features hidden within each episode. If you would prefer to wait for the printed book, the £18.99/US$26.00 hardback will be published in June. “

30 MAY UPDATE – BELGRAVIA will be also available in hardback in the next few days …………

Tony K.