The Saturday Guardian - 11 June 2022

106 Pages·2022·99.5 MB·English

ISSUE N°37 | 11 JUNE 2022
Pete
Doherty,
back from
the brink

PAGE 28

How Bluey
changed
modern

parenting
PAGE 41

YOU
BETTER
BELIEVE

is the most
exciting actor
of his generation
—hejust doesn't

know it yet
INTERVIEW PAGE 16

tian
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bakes well

Really well actually. -
Charlie built an entire kit
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4 Drizzle, Chocolate Fondant and
<< ys other delicious pudding
in the range.

Find Charlie Bigham’s
delicious range in your
local supermarket

Obsession is my secret ingredient
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THIS PAGE: AMIT LENON, LAURA STEVENS/BOTH THE GUARDIAN; RACHELL SMITH

CONTENTS

11.06.22

SATURDAY

The Guardian
Kings Place

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Byline illustrations:
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Spot illustrations:
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CUTTINGS

Pages... ae 5715
Ee
Smart shot

A big smile in Nice

P5

Why do we forget books
we’ve read?

Coco Khan asks the
experts the big questions
P7

Down the rabbit hole
Lost in the flow of
The First Lady

P7

Flashback

DJ Fat Tony and his
mother Dawn look back
Ps

Dining across

the divide

Two strangers chew over
positive discrimination,
refugees and more

Pil

Q&A

Standup comedian
Shazia Mirza

P13

Experience

Thave collected more
than 8,000 teapots
(below)

FEATURES

POBCS scwssweversresseeveveswsesswesseeseseeesssecewewe 16-39
ee
Avery good actor? Me?

Paapa Essiedu tells Simon Hattenstone why he still
doubts himself before every new job
P16

Oh do grow up!

When does adulthood really hit, asks Moya Sarner?
Plus Kendrick Brinson’s photographs of dazzling
cheerleaders aged 58 to 89

P22

‘It’s not a big drugs area here so it’s easier to be
clean, even for a conniving scoundrel like me’
Hadley Freeman visits Pete Doherty (above) in
France to see if he really has started a new chapter
P28

‘A woman playing football is a feminist act’
Lifelong Arsenal fan Suzanne Wrack on falling in
love with football, and the little-known, turbulent
history of the women’s game

P37

Edith Pritchett A week in Venn diagrams

Hearing the

Love Island
theme tune

Stray socks
when I’m
hoovering

Cotton buds
not supposed
to be put
inside your
ear

Getting immediately sucked in Going to take it as more of a loose

suggestion than an absolute

This product is made from sustainable managed forest and controlled sources. Printed by Walstead Group, Bicester

CULTURE

Pages... «41-73
ee
True Bluey

Why does the Aussie
animation make parents
feel insecure?

P41

James Brolin

The actor on shyness and
being Mr Barbra Streisand
P46

Cultural prescription
For feeling homesick
P49

MUSIC... eeseeeseeeeteeeteeeeee 5O
What to do this week.... 52
Vistial OF 1SsccsssecsimacaeS4
Stage (belOW) .........000 56

Books

Bird brained?
Animal intelligence
P61

Nonfiction reviews........ 64
Fiction reviews .........00.04+ 67

The books of my life
Author Jan Rankin
P71

The big idea
Why we shouldn’t be
levelling up

P73

At the airport
when your
flight gets
cancelled

Waiting in queues, getting drunk,
sleeping on the floor, having a little

ISSUE NP 355

a\

LIFESTYLE we
Pages... 6
50 best summer dresses
From botanical prints to
multicolour - buy, rent or
thrift them (above)

P75

Blind date

Anna and Petra talk with
their mouths full

P80

Tim Dowling
Conversations with
friends? Only when tipsy
P81

You be the judge

Should my boyfriend
keep his phone on silent?
P82

Ask Annalisa Barbieri
My boyfriend sleeps in
our bed just twice a week
P83

Style & Body..
Plants.

Travel

Hidden Portugal
Unspoilt beaches and
fairytale castles away
from the Algarve

P92

How far to the pub?.........96
A local’s guide.
Puzzles.

Guardian angel

The walking football
coach creating a
community of

older players

P102

Summer
festivals

cry because you're overwhelmed

The Guardian | 11.06.22 | SATURDAY | 3
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PEOPLE, ISSUES & CURIOSITIES of MODERN LIFE

_

Smart shot
The best pictures
taken on phones

Shot on iPhone 10

If you look closely under
the red umbrella at the
centre of this photo,
you'll see four distant
feet. The anonymous
duo they belong to

had just taken off

ona parasailing trip
above the sea at Nice

in the south of France,
captured by Hannibal
Renberg with his iPhone
10 while on holiday.

“I was walking
down the Promenade
des Anglais, and
noticed these people
on the bench. Just
below them is the
canopy belonging to
a parasailing company,
and they seemed to be
watching the world go
by. It was serendipitous
timing to capture the
parachute in flight
where it is.”

Renberg, whois
French, defines himself
as a street photographer
with the simple aim
of making people feel
something when they
see his work. “If one
of my images makes
someone smile, or feel
sad, or feel anything,
that’s good enough
for me.”

He used Instamatic
and Snapseed to capture
and edit the photo.
“But not too much, or
it becomes artificial.
You always need a good
subject to make the
photo interesting.”
Grace Holliday
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CUTTINGS

with Coco
Why do we forget
books we've read?

ver thought about a book you’ve
k read, and had no recollection
of the plot? Or followed a
recommendation to watch a TV show,
only to find you’ve already seen it? We
live in an age of mass content, with
TV, books and films consumed at some
of the highest levels in recent years.
Could this be wreaking havoc with our
ability to remember them? I asked Dr
Sean Kang, a cognitive psychologist
who specialises in memory: why do
Ikeep forgetting the books I’ve read?

I did English at uni and it’s
embarrassing how often a former
classmate will mention a book I have
no recollection of. My theory is it’s
because I’m a journalist, and dealing
with words all day is doing something
to my brain.

Interesting intuition! One of the
prominent theories of why we forget is
interference. I’m going to assume you
have read many other books?

Shucks, Sean, I think that’s the nicest
thing any interviewee has said to me!
But yes, I'd say so.

You probably read many books before
and after the book your classmate is
talking about. What happens is, when
you’re trying to retrieve a memory of
that book, all the information from
other books interferes. Probably in
your profession there’s even more

y

\

opportunity for similar information
to interfere.

Interesting! Is that why I still can’t
quite remember the route to my
in-laws despite having driven it

a dozen times? I always thought it was
something to do with using satnav.
Over time you will learn the
directions. But relying on satnav is
different; without satnav you’d need to
chart your route in advance, and you’d
pay close attention to every turn. That
would help your learning.

It’s an active v passive

engagement thing?

Absolutely. There’s also a new area

of memory research that looks at our
ability to remember stuff if we know
the information is stored externally, for
example, on a computer. The idea here
is that our “working memory” - ie what
we're focusing on at any given moment
- has a limited capacity. If we exceed
that capacity by, say, paying attention
to five things at once, we might try to
offload some of that remembering to
the external. Andif we come to have

an expectation that the information’s
always at our fingertips, we might not
encode the information in our mind
very carefully when we do encounter it.

So we don’t remember stuff because
we know it’s always there on Google.

I don’t necessarily see this as bad. It’s
not that different from when someone
gave you their number before mobiles.
You could come up with a memory
strategy to remember the numbers, or
you could write them down, allowing
you to use your working memory to
focus on other things.

Or in the case of remembering
birthdays, you could do as my
husband does, and offload it to an
external drive - me. I’m the USB
stick. What does all this mean for our
longest-term memories?

I’m not sure what you mean ...
researchers like me only use long-term
and short-term. Short-term refers to
information we hold on to for a few
seconds. Long-term is anything we
remember for more time.

Anything? Wow, my long-term
memory must be absolutely massive.
It’s limitless. It’s not as if you learn one
other new thing tomorrow, so you’re
going to forget your friend’s name.
It’s why, whatever our age, we always
have the potential to learn.
Coco Khan

Illustration: Lalalimola

Down the rabbit hole

Lost in the flow of pop culture
This week: The First Lady

by Larry Ryan

Political theatre
Few roles in public life are stranger than the
partner of the US president. Now comes a series on
Paramount+ from 22 June dramatising the lives of
Eleanor Roosevelt, Betty Ford and Michelle Obama.
Gillian Anderson, Michelle Pfeiffer and Viola Davis
play the first ladies.

When
Steven met
Sally

Checkin’, checkin’ in
Betty Ford’s troubles with addiction led her to
co-found a rehab clinic, whose services were
invoked in The Simpsons with Kickin’ It: A Musical
Journey Through the Betty Ford Center. Betty and
Gerald’s son Steven Ford had minor roles in Heat
and Escape from New York. He was also Sally’s
handsome boyfriend Joe in When Harry Met Sally.

When Carl met Margaret

That film’s writer, Nora Ephron, is no stranger

to political shenanigans, having been married
to Watergate’s Carl Bernstein: their breakup,
after his affair with James Callaghan’s daughter
Margaret Jay, was the inspiration for her novel
Heartburn - and a film directed by Mike Nichols.

Add some colour
Nichols turned his attention to more troubled
political couples with Primary Colors, his thinly
veiled story of a philandering Bill Clinton on the 92
campaign trail, based on the novel of the same name
by Joe Klein, the artist formerly known as Anonymous.

Hard choices
Of course, things didn’t go well when Bill’s wife,
Hillary, threw off the first lady shackles and ran for
president in 2008. She was primarily defeated by
Barack Obama, and the rest is, as they say ... the
source of one-third of prestige drama series The First
Lady. Viola Davis has prompted puzzled responses
with her studied process of becoming Michelle
Obama. “Critics serve no purpose,” Davis told the
BBC. “I feel it is my job as a leader to make bold
choices.” Spoken like a true politician.

Pairing notes

American Wife offered a fictional version of Laura Bush, while
Rodham imagined Hillary’s solo political life if she had rebuffed Bill.
Eat When Michelle Obama visited London in 2009, she was

spotted at traditional Mayfair pub the Audley. She had the steak;
her daughters, fish and chips.

The Guardian | 11.06.22 | SATURDAY | 7
CUTTINGS

Flashback

DJ Fat Tony and his

mother recreate an old
photo and recall drugs,

drama and devotion

Interview: Harriet Gibsone
Main portrait: Pal Hansen
Styling: Andie Redman

up the road in my heels Dawn

1966 If Tony hada chance, he'd be off
(

.

8 | SATURDAY | 11.06.22 | The Guardian

|

at Tony - realname Tony
Marnach - went from
London council estate to
best mate of Kate Moss
and Boy George, and one
of the party scene’s most
notoriously hedonistic DJs. Since
becoming sober 15 years ago, he’s
forged a career as fashion’s go-to DJ
and an LGBTQ+ activist. His new
memoir, I Don’t Take Requests, charts
his ascent from difficult beginnings to
kingpin of the 80s and 90s club scene,
his drug addiction, HIV diagnosis,
rehab and recovery. It is out now.

Fat Tony

How she is in this picture is how
Iremember Mum growing up:
glamorous. Always made an effort.

I look at her now and think she’s just as
amazing as she was back then, even if
she’s shrunk a few inches.

Iwas such amummy’s boy.

When I was little, ’d dig through her
jewellery box and clothes. I’d look at
her and think: she’s so beautiful, my
dad really doesn’t deserve her. He was
supportive, but a real big geezer and
not at all who I aspired to be. ’d much
rather dress up like my mum.

There was never any need for me to
come out as a gay tomy mum. I used to
run around the estate in drag, sol was
hardly trying to hide it. She always
encouraged me, no matter how
ridiculous my suggestions were.

I went to Margate when I was six and
she let me buy some fake boobs. And
when I was 11 she let me get my hair
permed. She just let me be whoever
I wanted to be.

Istarted clubbing when I was 14 and
my circle of friends grew really
quickly. [Boy] George would drive to
my parents’ house so we could all get
ready to go out together. It was chaos.
We'd be off our nuts and trying to hold
it together in front of Mum and Dad.

By the time I’d come home I’d
normally want to hide in my room.
The only way Mum found out what
I was getting up to was because
she talked to all my friends.

George still knows Mum’s phone
number off by heart. She’d call

[the hair stylist] Sam McKnight and
say: “I’m worried about Tony. Is

he doing this? Is he doing that?”

I tried to keep a lot of it away from
her - [knew taking drugs wasn’t the
right thing. But it didn’t stop me.
Most people have common sense;
Ihave uncommon sense. If someone
says: “Don’t do that! It’s really
dangerous!” I’ll definitely do it.

When the Aids crisis happened, and
I was diagnosed with HIV, Mum was
really clued up. Partly because I’d
buried Tom [Hammond, Tony’s
partner] and my mum supported me
through that awful process. But she
also kept up with what was going onin
the world. Some parents might be in
denial about their children’s sexuality,
especially back then, but she wasn’t.
And when it came to finding me dying
on the floor at home at the pinnacle of
my drug use, she knew exactly what to
do and was never blinkered.

The lack of judgment in our
relationship meant I knew she would
always support me. Whenever
something bad happened I didn’t grab
a coffee or cigarette - ’d call my mum
straight away. Even during the worst
times throughout my crack addiction,
we never lost touch.

Our relationship is much stronger
now I’m sober. She was always waiting
for a phone call to tell her that her son
was dead. No mother should have to
ive like that. She couldn’t trust me
before, and now she can because
Ihave no ulterior motives. I just want
her love and approval.

Dawn

My husband took this photo. It was in
our front room at home and Tony was
about nine months old. I used to
straighten my hair with aniron! I’d
always do it, no matter what. You learn
to get ready quickly when you’ve got
kids - half an hour at the most.

I wanted to look the best I could afford.

As a baby, Tony was as good as gold.
You didn’t even know you had him -
I'd have to wake him up to feed him.
Most boys were into cowboys and
indians, but if Tony had a chance he’d
be running up the road in my high
heels. He loved drama. Always had an
audience around him, especially girls.
He was into cutting everyone’s hair on
the estate at one point. I’d have all the
mums screaming at me.

Iwas brought up by my
grandmother as my mum disappeared
with some bloke when I was little.
Ihad a very closed-off childhood and
I wanted my children to have total
freedom. I studied at Chelsea art
school, and I suppose it gave me quite
a bohemian outlook: I believed that
everyone should be themselves.

When Tony started going out I never
worried about him, but I did tell him:
“Don’t ever walk home on your own at
3am. If you haven’t got any money for
acab I’ll sort it out at the other end.”
He definitely took advantage of that!

GROOMING, HAIR AND MAKEUP: NEUSA NEVES USING MAC MAKEUP AND AVEDA HAIRCARE. ARCHIVE PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF TONY MARNACH
Si

~ 02

At six, my mum let me buy fake boobs.
She let me be whoI wanted to be Fat Tony

One time, I heard a bang on the
front door at about 5am. I knew it was
Tony - he’s always losing his keys. I
went down and there he was, along
with a few other friends - one dressed
up ina black bin bag with rags in his
hair. Tranny Paul [actor and Blitz Kid
Paul Dawson] - who is the prettiest
man I’ve ever met - was dressed up as
a bunny girl. He was bending down
with his bum up in the air inthe
middle of the road, making a racket.
They were all expecting me to go mad
and say: “How dare you bring my
15-year-old son home like that!” But
Ijust stood there laughing. I thought it
was hilarious. The neighbours didn’t
find it so funny.

Iwas a silly mum, really - naive. His
father made him pay rent when he
lived with us. Tony would give the
money to his dad, then his dad would
give it to me, then I’d go and give it
back to Tony, who would spend it all
on drugs. He had this squat with
George on Kings Road, and he’d go
there if he was off his head. Looking
back, I didn’t really know how serious
it was. In my day there were purple
hearts and people smoked a lot [of
cannabis] but I never had any because
I didn’t like the idea of it having been
in someone else’s mouth.

There was a time before Tony went
into rehab when I visited him in his
squat. When I arrived, I couldn’t get him
out of bed. He wouldn’t wake up, like
he’d overdosed. I thought ifI called an
ambulance it would cause a big scene
- I didn’t want the police or the press
to find out. So I called a private cab
company nearby; they helped me get
him out of bed and we got him to the
hospital. They took one look at him
and rushed him away. They thought he
had a brain tumour, but it was fluid in
his brain. He was ever so ill.

Since then, I’ve been amazed at how
Tony’s turned his life around. He was
marvellous to me when Mick [Tony’s
dad] was dying. Mick used to have an
alcohol problem - if he had a drink,
you were walking on eggshells. But
that time they spent together towards
the end took all those bad years away.
Tony would come down every Tuesday
and shave him - he wouldn’t let me do
it, he took care of me in that way.

There were a few moments when
I thought I was going to lose Tony. At
one point he weighed seven stone. His
teeth were coming out. Tony’s gone
right the way down, but he fought his
way back up again. He isa very strong
character, is Tony. And I’m so very
proud of him.

The Guardian | 11.06.22 | SATURDAY | 9
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