Contents
Editor’s Note
Have you got ‘winter
wrapped up’ yet?
Welcome to the January 2017
involved throughout the year – even if that only
edition of The NFOP Magazine – and may I
means attending a Branch Meeting or function.
start off by wishing you all a very happy and
Conference will be upon us in Blackpool before
prosperous New Year.
we know it – can I ask all of you to ensure that
We enter a New Year with hope, but also with a
Your FREE guide
to keeping well and
warm this winter
adhered to. This is your Conference – so once
to be a challenging year for us all, as I highlight
again please do get involved.
on pages 06 and 07 of this edition. I’d love to
And so to The Magazine and another packed
hear your thoughts – do write to me at the normal
issue for you with some helpful and useful
address.
practical advice. If there are any features or
I know that throughout 2017 your Chairman,
FREE room
thermometer inside!
Winter
wrapped u
p
Get your free copy
TODAY
A guide to
ke
and well th eping warm
is winter
the deadlines for submissions printed overleaf are
degree of trepidation - 2017 will no doubt prove
articles that you would like to see me cover in
Chief Executive and Executive Committee will
future issues then please do let me know. I
continue to represent you, the Members, and
can’t promise – but I will do all that I can! I hope
to ensure that pensioners continue to have a
you enjoy it as much as usual – whatever your
voice. Remember, without you, the Members, the
thoughts please do get in touch and tell me, as
Federation is nothing. I would urge you all to get
always I love to hear from you.
Ed.
Fr
rm ee
ins omet
ide er
the
This free guide is packed full of tips and suggestions to help
keep you warm, healthy and comfortable this and every winter.
and
Keep warm er
nt
well this wi
room
eye on your
to keep an
or
mometer
t sunlight
Use this ther
ing it in direc
. Avoid plac
t.
temperature
ces of hea
other sour
too close to
Get your free copy today!
F (21°C)
Above 70°
Warm
70°F (21°C)
perature
room tem
Ideal living
• FREEPHONE: 0800 169 65 65
• FREEPOST: complete your details and return the below coupon
(no stamp required) to FREEPOST RTAC-TELC-RHAK, Age UK,
Linhay House, Ashburton, Devon, TQ13 7UP
64°F (18°C) temperature
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36
Charlotte Courthold interviews
BBC comedy’s John Lloyd
visit: www.ageuk.org.uk/guides to see the complete range
We’d like to let you know about the vital work we do for older people, our fundraising appeals and opportunities to
support us, as well as the products and services you can buy. We will never sell your data and we promise to keep
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For further details on how your data is used and stored: www.ageuk.org.uk/help/privacy-policy. WWUNFOP2017
10
Charity giving - beware of what
you are donating for
From page to screen
- we look at fictional
detectives
49
on the box
Contact us
Managing Editor Malcolm Booth
Unit 6, Imperial Court,
Laporte Way, Luton LU4 8FE
Editorial Assistant Anna Blake
Tel
01582 721652
Fax 01582 450906
Email [email protected]
Website www.nfop.org.uk
News, views & services
4
Comment: Should we be
6
worried or optimistic
News from the CEO
8
Charity giving - beware of
10
what you are donating for
Finance: new year, new will 12
Julia Langdon: what a surprise! 14
New travel insurance scheme 16
Legal: how to avoid a winter 18
nightmare
Car insurance premiums soar 19
Health: winter deaths
20
Health: action to increase
21
shingles vaccine take-up
Helpdesk
22
Community: a little sit down 24
while shopping
Keeping a watch on
25
the weather
Online
26
Your letters
28
Crafts: quilts and marquetry 31
Joyce Glasser on cinema
32
Views: Tina Foster meets
34
the Yorkshire Shepherdess
Interview: John Lloyd
36
Interview: General the Lord
37
Dannatt
Collecting: Cigarette lighters 38
Lakes Distillery Offer
40
Book reviews
42
Out and About: in Norway
44
Branch page
46
Cousins - first, second and
47
removed
Puzzle page
48
From page to screen
49
Editor Andrew Silk
Advertising Landmark Publishing Services
020 7520 9474
Printing Precision Colour Printing
Published by Highwood House Publishing Ltd
Views of contributors do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor or the
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and all other material are sent at the owner’s risk and neither the
magazine nor its agents accepts any liability for loss or damage.
Community
Say Goodbye to bathing difficulty.
Say Hello to showering comfort.
Charity giving – beware of
what you are donating for!
W
e will all remember the saying ‘where
there’s muck there’s brass’ from our
younger days – well I’m sure we’ll all also
recognise the sentiment ‘where there’s
brass there’s trouble!’ Or that is what it seems like in the
charity fundraising world at the moment.
Only recently two of our most respected charities the
RSPCA and the British Heart Foundation have been fined
£25,000 and £18,000 respectively by the Information
Commissioners Office (ICO) for breaches in relation to the
Data Protection Act. Both charities were accused of ‘secretly
screening millions of their donors in order to target them for
more money’ – they routinely carried our checks on their
wealth and in some cases they tried to work out how much
they would leave as a legacy in their wills. What also came to
light in this investigation is that the ICO was relatively lenient
in applying the fines – saying that they could have been up to
ten times more – or £250,000.
Andrew silk
warns of
the tactics
charities have
usEd to get
their hands on
your money
with an easy-access shower from Bathing Solutions.
The Princess – the
same size as your
existing bath
Charity muggers
These are not isolated cases – earlier in 2016 it came to light
that charity fundraisers had been fined more than £165,000
across the last three years for repeated breaches of their own
rules in seeking on-street donations from the public. Known
as ‘chuggers’ – short for charity muggers – the on-street
fundraisers were found to have harassed passers-by, used
obstruction in order to engage people in conversation, had
failed to fully disclose the cost of fundraising and had sought
to solicit donations from children.
And I’m sure that those of you with slightly longer
memories will recall the tragic story of Olive Cooke from
Bristol who jumped to her death in May 2015 close to the
Clifton Suspension Bridge after being pestered by charities
for money. At the time of her death, Olive apparently had
27 different direct debits coming from her bank account
to charities and received a peak number of 466 begging
letters in one single year – although an official report by the
Fundraising Standards Board into her case said that this
figure was likely to only represent one sixth of the total charity
mailings she would have received!
Good work!
Whilst I’m not denying that many, many charities do
exceptionally good work and operate within the letter of the
law, these stories do highlight what goes on in real life. But
what makes these tales even more cautionary is the fact that
the people targeted invariably seem to be the elderly who,
charities know, are more likely to give.
But it is the fact that people are harassed that makes the
tactics used by the charities hard to stomach – and I’m sure
that these tales will make you think twice the next time you
are asked to donate to a ‘good cause’.
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Do you have experience of this? Have you ever been the
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please do let me know – write to me at the usual address.
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of easy-access showers and walk-in baths.
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10 NFOP Magazine | January 20170 NFOP Magazine | January 2017
Tel No.
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Postcode
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7
Community
A little sit down when
shopping
Keeping a watch
on the weather
W
L
ith more and more transactions being done
online a visit to the shops is in decline and
High Streets are struggling to remain viable.
A shopping trip or just an excursion into
town to meet up with friends or visit a café is often a vital
link to the outside world for people who live alone or have
mobility issues.
A recent survey show that 78% of older people do not think
their town is suited to their needs and this is mainly due to the
lack of seating in shops and outside areas.
‘Standing Up 4 Sitting Down’, is a new campaign calling
on shops to do their bit to reduce older people’s loneliness
and subsequent health issues by ensuring there are plenty of
places to sit down.
Polling
showed
78% of
those over
the age
of 70 say
the High
Street is
not suited
to their
needs.
• 66% think the lack of seating in shopping areas is an issue
• One in five go out to shop less due to a lack of seating
• 69% think seating in shopping areas is declining over time
New report
The campaign is being launched as a new report titled
About The Missing £Billions is published by The International
Longevity Centre - UK (ILC-UK) which is an independent, nonpartisan think tank dedicated to addressing issues of longevity,
ageing and population change.
The report analyses the drop in consumption among older
consumers, due to a series of barriers, such as poor health and
lack of connectivity, which are related to the built environment.
It describes patterns of spending among older consumers, that
is, consumers aged 50+, with a special focus on the 75+ and
summarises how often they go out, and whether they would
like to do more.
The report illustrates that having a walking difficulty is
one of the toughest barriers to consumption among the 50+.
It calculates that, if consumers aged 50+ with a walking
difficulty were to spend as much on eating out, clothing
and leisure, as consumers of the same age and with the
same socio-economic characteristics, but without a walking
difficulty, the economy could have an increase in annual
spending between £470million and £3.84 billion. Even focused
on the 70+, we could have a boost to the economy of up to
£1.2 billion a year.
It suggests that supplying more seating or resting places
may give older consumers, who are likely to have a walking
difficulty or arthritis, an incentive to spend more or engage in
cultural activities more often.
As well as impacting economic growth, it also highlights
the link between poor accessibility and a lack of seating to
loneliness and the related health problems it causes.
24 NFOP Magazine | January 2017
Polling showed 78% of those over the age of 70 say the
High Street is not suited to their needs, rising to 88% for
women, with two thirds of older people (66%) believing that a
lack of seating in shopping areas is a problem.
Including chairs in stores would benefit the one-in-five of
those aged over 70, who said they visit their local shops and
High Street less often, specifically because of a lack of seating.
Despite the fact our ageing population is growing, accessibility
is thought to be worsening with 69% believing seating in
shopping areas to be declining over time.
Standing Up 4 Sitting Down is supported by MPs and
a host of organisations. A panel of experts were also
convened to tackle the issue. The panel have made various
recommendations and agree that seating is a straightforward
first step that will help older people as well as parents,
children, and those living with disabilities.
Support
Organisations supporting the campaign are: Debenhams
PLC, Care England, Grandparents Plus, Friends of the Elderly,
United for All Ages, Kensington and Chelsea Forum for Older
Residents, The Opportunity Group, ARCO, Independent
Age, Ataxia UK, Arthritis Action, Royal Airforces Association,
Lewisham Pensioners Forum, National Federation of
Occupational Pensioners, Employers Network for Equality &
Inclusion, Civil Service Pensioners’ Alliance.
Malcolm Booth, Chief Executive Officer, NFOP has added his
voice to the campaign:
“It is important for our members to be able to enjoy the
local High Street, and essential for High Streets to survive. As
our members age, conditions affecting an ageing population
mean that they often need to take a few moments to rest and
recuperate. The lack of places to rest can, and will, discourage
them from leaving their homes and risks increasing the
problem of isolation.”
Of course, it is not just those mentioned who may need a
seat. One of the main hazards of shopping is aching feet and
personally I may well stay longer in a store or centre if I can
have ‘a little sit down’. Let us know if you would be happier
knowing there was seating available when you go shopping.
Or if there is anything else that may encourage us onto the
High Street.
If you want to support the campaign you can do so through
social media with the Twitter hashtag #SU4SD, visit
anchor.org.uk and pledge your support or call 0800 731 2020
to get involved.
ast year the BBC launched Weather Watchers, an
online crowd-sourced weather club for people who
want to join in the nation’s favourite conversation
and help tell the story of the UK’s weather.
Open to everyone with an interest in what the weather is up
to, BBC Weather Watchers plays a key role in bringing a wide
audience together - and in particular, an older audience – on
this much-loved topic. Not only can they have fun creating
their own weather reports, but even have their pictures and
observations appear in BBC broadcasts. A first for the BBC, the
club will connect the audience’s passion for weather with BBC
storytelling on local radio, regional and network TV and will
also aim to grow relationships with regular weather watchers,
getting them on air to help tell the latest on their local weather.
The website is easy to navigate and works on whatever
platform it is accessed from: PC, mobile or tablet. Irrespective
of scientific knowledge and equipment, people will be able to
sign in and create simple digital weather reports to ‘now-cast’
whatever the weather is doing where they live.
Working with the Royal Meteorological Society - the
project’s academic partner - BBC Weather Watchers also
provides information about the science behind the weather
and behind-the-scenes info from BBC national and regional
weather presenters.
Liz Howell, Head of BBC Weather, says: “BBC Weather
Watchers is for everyone. Easy to use, it will bring the nation
together on a topic they love so that wherever they are in the
country, they can be a part of BBC Weather. It will help some
take steps into the digital world and boost existing skills,
whilst fulfilling the BBC’s public purposes such as supporting
education and learning, representing the many communities
in the UK and delivering the benefit of emerging media
technologies.”
But BBC Weather Watchers is more than a map of the UK
weather: weather watchers can also learn about the science
behind the weather through their partners at the Royal
Meteorological Society, and get behind-the-scenes info from
their favourite national and regional weather presenters.
BBC Weather Watchers is open to anyone over the age of
16 with an interest in what the weather is up to. Currently
133,000 people have already signed up and almost one
million reports have been submitted.
BBC Weather Presenter, Carol Kirkwood said:
“As we are an island, our weather is quite diverse – cold
continent, warm sea and we cross latitudes – so as a result
we can receive starkly different pictures from all over the UK
taken at the same time e.g. dense fog in southern
England, frost and clear skies in the Highlands, and showers
in Newcastle.
If I was really pushed to choose which pictures are my
BBC Weather Presenter: Carol Kirkwood
favourites, it would definitely be sunrises and sunsets so it’s
just as well as I am usually on BBC Breakfast in the morning.
We love your pictures so thank you for sending them and
please keep them coming in.”
This is a topic the British public is passionate about.
The weather shapes the decisions we make every day, from
going out; to what to wear or whether to hang the washing
out to dry.
Most of us will have seen the beautiful photographs that
appear on our screens to accompany the forecasts. So even
if you do not use a computer you can still enjoy the weather
scenes from around our country.
Sign-up for Weather Watchers and read more about it on
www.bbc.co.uk/weatherwatchers
BBC
Weather
Watchers
is for
everyone.
It will bring
the nation
together
on a topic
they love
NFOP Magazine | January 2017 25
Reviews
January at the movies
Jackie (20th)
Another talented Chilean writer/director, Pablo Larraín (No!,
Tony Manero), has ensured that Natalie Portman (Black
Swan) will be considered for a second Academy Award for
her frighteningly intense and nuanced performance as the
eponymous Jackie Kennedy. Seldom has an actress been
asked to convey such psychological depth with her face, voice
and body language. Larraín is known for examining questions
of identity and personal mythmaking against the political
repression of his native country. In Jackie, he transports his
unique lens to Dallas and Washington DC during the week of
November 22nd, where Jackie struggles in her grief to shape
her, and her husband’s place in history.
Cinema...
Christine (27th January)
An astonishing, career best performance from Rebecca Hall
is just one reason to see American director Antonio Campos’
Christine, another biopic of a troubled woman. The superlative
supporting cast, which includes Tracey Letts and Michael C
Hall, Craig Shilowich’s powerful script and a riveting script that
takes on the topical issues of mental-illness and exploitative,
blood-and-guts news stories, are a few more reasons. The
29-year-old television journalist Christine Chubbuck (Hall)
wanted to be known for her serious, issue based stories.
Her legacy is to have shot herself on air in 1974 in what she
announced was, ‘a television first, in living colour’.
joyce glasser
looks at the
month ahead
Denial (27th)
The perfect antidote to ‘the new truth’ of the Trump/Brexit era,
this sometimes smug, but ultimately uplifting film is in part a
biopic of the indignant, brash American Holocaust expert and
academic Deborah Lipstadt (Rachel Weisz); in part a riveting
court-room drama set in London’s High Court; and in part a
tribute to the British legal system, now under attack. Script
This page: Lucas Hedges
and Casey Affleck in
Manchester by The Sea.
Courtesy of Amazon
Studios and Roadside
Attractions
Opposite page, bottom
left: Rachel Weisz in the
compelling courtroom
drama, Denial
Top right: Natalie Portman
stars as the late first lady
Jackie Kennedy
A
fter the long Christmas/New Year’s festivities,
January is a bit of a letdown, but not when
it comes to cinema. With an eye on the prize
during award season, there are some terrific
performances to mention - and a few great artists and
directors over 70 doing some of their best work.
Endless Poetry (6th)
Endless Poetry, an alluring, surreal treat from 87-year-old
polymath Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo) - who claims writer/
director/actor/production and costume design credits - kicks
off the New Year and is a hard act to follow. The film is not
only autobiographical - it begins where his 2013 The Dance
of Destiny, left off - but is also, appropriately enough, a family
affair. Jodorowsky’s charismatic son Adan plays Alejandro in
his early 20s as he breaks away from his bullying, moneyworshipping shopkeeper father Jaime, (brilliantly played by the
director’s eldest son, Brontis) and his loving, but subjugated
mother, Sara (Pamela Flores). In contrast to Jaime, who hurls
insults, Sara sings her benevolent thoughts in an operatic
voice. Determined to become a poet, Alejandro leaves home
and is introduced into the bohemian artistic circle of 1940’s
Santiago, Chile. He befriends Enrique Lihn, meets the great
32 NFOP Magazine | January 2017
writer David Hare lifted his alternately hilarious, fascinating,
chilling and moving dialogue from the case transcripts and
Lipstadt’s memoir. The Oscar-worthy (or BAFTA-worthy, at
least) performance here is from Timothy Spall who plays the
bombastic, chilling Holocaust denier David Irving. The litigious
anti-Semite never thought that Lipstadt would defend his libel
suit in London where the burden of proof is on the defendant.
Princess Diana’s brilliant privacy and divorce lawyer Anthony
Julius (Andrew Scott) takes on the case pro-bono. Denial is
also a triumph for 73-year-old Essex-born Mick Jackson
(The Body Guard, LA Story), who has not made a feature film
since 1997.
Rules Don’t Apply (27th)
‘Howard, I’m finding it very hard to run your companies
without ever having seen you,’ moans Frank Maheu (Alec
Baldwin) in Rules Don’t Apply. Come to think of it, we haven’t
seen the 79-year-old actor/writer/director Warren Beatty
(Shampoo, Bonnie and Clyde) for fifteen-years. For Beatty, this
might be a nostalgic, semi-autobiographical trip back to the
early 1960s when he burst on the scene with Splendor in the
Grass. For younger audiences, it will be a wild time-travel trip
with the four-time nominated actor - who might now be in
the running for a fifth nomination. It’s just a shame that Beatty
thought the film was about a forbidden romance between
an ingénue (Lily Collins) under contract to Hughes and his
driver (the, brooding, young star-in-the-making Alden Caleb
Ehrenreich). To be kind, Beatty’s shambolic script mirrors the
mind of his character, billionaire Howard Hughes, and, with
that seductive twinkle still in his eye, he is the best thing in
this lavishing produced, star-studded romantic comedy/drama.
poet and physics teacher Nicanor Parra (now 102), and falls
madly in love with the domineering, ghoulish poetess Stella
Díaz Varín (played in a nice Freudian twist, by Pamela Flores).
Jodorowsky senior intermittently appears to talk to his younger
self (Adan), and, in a moving reconciliation scene, to his father
(Brontis). A truly original coming-of-age film, Endless Poetry is
a visual and lyrical wonder.
Manchester by-the-Sea (13th)
Another wonder is New York playwright (This is our Youth)
- turned-filmmaker Kenneth Lonergan, whose third feature
should afford Casey Affleck his second Oscar nomination in
this personal odyssey of redemption. Relentless tragedy is
somewhat off-set with subtle humour when Lee (Affleck), a
troubled, lonely janitor in Quincy, Massachusetts, travels to
the picturesque coastal town of Manchester, on Cape Ann.
His rock-solid brother has just died and Lee is obliged to take
temporary custody of his teenage nephew (Lucas Hedges). The
other knock-out performance is from Michelle Williams (Blue
Valentine, Brokeback Mountain), Lee’s ex-wife who, like Lee, is
still struggling to survive the tragedy that drove them apart. In
one, brief, late scene, she will bore a hole through your heart.
For Beatty,
this might be
a nostalgic
trip back
to the early
1960s when
he first burst
onto the
scene.
NFOP Magazine | January 2017 33
Views
Ultra safe
ultra stylish
Meet the Yorkshire
Shepherdess
by Tina Foster
imagine
living and
working on
a 2,000 acre
farm, fifty
miles from
the nearest
town
tending
1,000
sheep, nine
children
and a
husband.
Safe, walk-in showers beautifully
designed by experts in mobility bathing
Fitted in
I
a day*
t was William Wordsworth, who suggested the idea of
a National Park when he wrote in the 1835 edition of
his Guide to the Lakes, that the Lake District should be
regarded as a “sort of national property in which every
man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive and
a heart to enjoy.”
Now one of 15 National Parks in the U.K. the Yorkshire
Dales has been enjoyed by visitors for over 60 years and is
the site of many spectacular vistas. To quote from the official
Dales website:
The Yorkshire Dales has many moods; it can be wild and
windswept or quietly tranquil.
It includes some of the finest limestone scenery in the UK,
from crags and pavements to an underground labyrinth of
caves. Each valley or ‘dale’ has its own distinct character, set
against expansive heather moorland tops.
Stone-built villages sit amongst traditional farming
landscapes of field barns, drystone walls and flower-rich hay
meadows, and show how the area has been shaped over
thousands of years by the people who have lived and
worked here.
Spectacular waterfalls and ancient broadleaved woodland
contrast with the scattered remains of former mine workings
and other rural industries which remind us of the area’s rich
industrial heritage.
Together, nature and people have created a special
landscape of immense beauty and character.
Safe and easy
Bathing and showering should be a pleasure, not a chore.
But if you have problems with your mobility even the simplest
movements can be difficult.
At Premier Care we install stylish and
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around your individual needs. We consider
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We will talk to you about where your
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A wonderful life
So, imagine living and working on a two-thousand-acre
farm, fifty miles from the nearest town tending 1,000 sheep,
nine children and a husband. This is the life of a remarkable
woman known as The Yorkshire Shepherdess. Amanda Owen
has gained fame through her eponymous first book and her
appearances on The Dales with Ade Edmondson on ITV in
2012. You may also know her from the documentary made
with Ben Fogle, New Lives in the Wild, shown in 2015.
Amanda has now written a second book, A Year in the Life
of the Yorkshire Shepherdess, taking us through the season
on their farm Ravenseat in Swaledale which she runs with her
husband Clive.
I chatted, well actually more sat and listened to Amanda
tell me of the amazing life she and her children enjoy. Sitting
snugly in the farmhouse kitchen, temporarily escaping the
snow outside, she shared with me the pleasure she takes in
her children and her farm. Occasionally interrupted by one
of her brood, I was impressed with the way she encouraged
them all to be independent and responsible for their own jobs
around the farm.
34 NFOP Magazine | January 2017
It all sounded idyllic until you remembered the icy weather
and the necessity to be out there tending the animals as well
as making sure the children were fed and cared for.
The children range from 6 months to 16 years and she has
never taken maternity leave. She just straps the latest baby
in appropriate clothes, to her front and gets back out there.
Raven, Reuben, Miles, Edith, Violet, Sidney, Anna, Clemmie
and Nancy were born in various locations, only two in
hospital, but are already children of the environment and have
their own tasks and responsibilities – except maybe the baby.
I cannot imagine how and when she finds time to
write. “When I am in bed or between the children’s tea
and bedtime” she told me. If she writes as quickly as she
talks then perhaps this helps. Full of laughter, warmth and
compassion she comes across as a remarkable woman and
her enthusiasm is infectious. She juggles her children, sheep,
horses and cows with television appearances, catering,
books and a blog with relish and still found time to make me
feel welcome, and despite the snow outside, envious of her
overflowing life.
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NFOP Magazine | November 2015 35
12/12/2016
10:46
Collecting
Collecting cigarette lighters
Yvonne Thomas sparks up an interest in the humble lighter
There are
some now
that are worth
thousands of
pounds – but
even those that
still sell for just
a few pounds
are sought by
enthusiastic
collectors.
W
ho uses cigarette lighters these days?
I’m looking at five of them cluttering up a
drawer, not used for years and wondering if
a charity shop would deign to take them.
They are only cheap things brought back from France in the
days when to travel anywhere abroad was an adventure: quite
pretty, but not quality. Not like the table lighter Bonhams the
auctioneers recently knocked down to a Middle Eastern buyer
for £32,000. But that one was three feet high and made of
gold shaped like a lighthouse, standing on an amethyst base.
Now that so few people smoke anymore there must be
lots of ordinary cigarette lighters lying forgotten in drawers,
unwanted, not worth a bean, far from rare. Zippos for instance
were dirt cheap, less than two dollars new. The lowest earner
could afford one – many millions were sold and they are still
turning them out in Pennsylvania today.
It’s the cigarette lighter tough-guy actors used on screen:
one hand to flick open the lid and turn the metal wheel to
spark a flame, works in wind and rain. And if it dropped
through a hole in your pocket, you wouldn’t waste too much
time looking for it. It’s the sort of lighter you see today on a
market stall for two or three pounds and the next week it’s still
there, because who wants to buy stuff like that?
Jack Bond does. He is secretary of the Lighter Club of
Previous page: A selection
of Thorens (Swiss) lighters
Left: L to R : German
lighters. Stambul,
Champion and Triumph
Great Britain, a club he didn’t know existed when he first
went round market stalls picking up a lighter here and there
because they were so cheap and he liked the look of them.
Some years later he found to his surprise that he had 400
cigarette lighters. He said ‘I ended up with a boxful and not
knowing what to do with them. I tried to repair a few. Then I
saw an advertisement in a magazine about a swap-meeting
in London for members of the Lighter Club of Great Britain.
So I went along, and I found I could get £40 to £50 for some
lighters I’d bought for 50p to £1. I thought, this is great, so I
joined the club. It’s a really good hobby. I’m really involved’.
He’s not the only one.
Below: PIC (unusual wind
guard)
www.lighterclub.co.uk
light up. Or Ronson’s ‘master pack’ that includes lighter, watch
and cigarette case in one. And some with built-in make-up
compacts to attract women customers, finely enamelled,
decorated with precious metals and jewels, which were
expensive when sold in the 1920s, and very expensive highclass vintage now.
Yet the really iconic ones, the lighters that have collectors’
clubs dedicated to them alone, are the Zippos and IMCOs.
And anyone could afford those in their day because they were
produced on such a low budgets. There are some now that are
worth thousands of pounds – but even those that still sell for
just a few pounds are sought by enthusiastic collectors.
Club Magazine
The club has a magazine called Blaze, and John Clayton
edits it. For the day job he works in the complaints
department in a bank, but at home he has just short of
a thousand cigarette lighters. He is one of a relatively
small number of connoisseurs in what he says is ‘a huge
international collectibles market.’
The attraction for him, he says, was that ‘cigarette lighters
went right across the classes’. They weren’t just for rich
people, though some were – like the Dunhill with a watch
(concealed under a protective panel) that winds up when you
A lot of lighters
IMCOs were first made in 1907 in an Austrian button factory.
In 1918 they were made from spent munition shells and they
sold in their thousands. Eventually more than five hundred
million were bought before the factory closed in 1907.
Zippos, invented and made in Pennsylvania by George
Blaisdell in the 1930s have sold even more and are still being
made. One of their great selling points then as now is that they
are guaranteed for life.
Although IMCOs and Zippos are both reliable in wind and
rain and just keep on working and have their followers, Zippos
are the more iconic of the two. It’s the Hollywood influence and
their wartime history as the front-line soldier’s friend.
James Bond and tough-guy fighters in films have Zippos.
A nonchalant one-handed flick of the thumb to open the lid,
spark the flint, and the flare-up of a two to three inch flame
even in a high wind gave the right image for their time.
Thousands of Zippos were shipped out to Europe for
American troops fighting in the second World War. Instead
of brass which was needed for munitions, black-coated
steel was used. They didn’t reflect light; in the breast pocket
they had been known to stop a bullet; they could be used
for signalling, for brewing-up - and of course for lighting a
cigarette.
Thousands more were sent to US troops in Vietnam who
carved their own messages on the small metal rectangles:
‘Let me win your heart and mind or I’ll burn your goddamn hut
down’ … ‘Mom, from a lonely paratrooper Tony’… Collectors
want them now.
Old brass and wartime steel Zippos from the 1930s bought
for peanuts have a place in American museums and a rare and
interesting specimen in good condition with the right pedigree
could tempt a member of the Zippo ‘Click Club’ to part with
sums up to the low thousand pounds.
John Clayton says he spends most weekends looking for
lighters. ‘Some are extremely rare,’ he says. ‘Once I could go
to a fair and bring back twenty. Now I can only get two
or three.’
Recently he went to a show in Germany and saw on a stand
the one he had sold in the UK a few years ago, so he bought
it back for less than he’d sold it for. But why did he want it
back? Well, he explained, ‘there was a lever on the side, like a
motorbike kick start: you push it back, so the lever slides back
and raises the arm….’ Are you following? ‘Then the arm flies
forward, which turns the wheel… It cost £2 in York and I sold
it for £185-worth of Zippos…’
Not just the money
But the attraction of cigarette lighters, says the collector, is
not the money, which can be insignificant: it’s the history,
the ingenuity of the design, ‘the one that when I first look
at it I can’t fathom how it works. Sometimes,’ says Clayton,
‘the unusual mechanism is impractical so that sort of lighter
doesn’t sell well. You can be talking to an antique dealer and
there will be four or five lighters in the cabinet and the best
will be the cheapest.’
Would that be because it
doesn’t work?
‘A broken lighter is not
a useless one’, Mr Clayton
explains to one who might
foolishly have thrown it away.
‘A lot of collectors buy them
because they are broken and
they enjoy mending them.’
So take another look at any
old cigarette lighters lying
discarded, broken, forgotten
in a drawer. They may not be
worth much. But someone
wants them.
Although
IMCOs and
Zippos are
both reliable in
wind and rain
and just keep
on working
and have their
followers,
Zippos are the
more iconic of
the two.
NFOP Magazine | January 2017 39
Reviews
Book reviews
Intrigue and chaos in Post war Berlin
A
multi-layered tale full of high diplomacy, subterfuge, lies,
duplicity, betrayal and murder - an insightful and provocative
page-turner. The author has a wonderful sense of time and
place making this a riveting read that’s hard to put down.
IItt reminds us that the end of conflict is all too often the start of a long,
troubled road to recovery.
Set in Berlin in 1947, this is the third novel in the Gregor Reinhardt series.
An unlikely protagonist, Reinhardt is a former Berlin detective chased out
of the police by the Nazis. Unwilling to join the Party, he resisted being
transferred to the Gestapo, eventually becoming an officer in military
intelligence.
This novel sees Reinhardt brought back into Berlin’s civilian police
force at a time when it is riven by internal factions and rivalries. The city
is struggling with the infrastructural and social destruction of the war and
the complexities of a city divided between the victorious Allies. Escalating
tensions, the desire to hunt down war criminals and the drive to obtain
German scientific knowledge combined with the threat from those who
refuse to accept the war is over forms the volatile cocktail that is the
backdrop to this tale.
Reinhardt soon discovers that whilst the war may have ended the
bloodshed has not. A man is found brutally murdered in a dilapidated
apartment block and Reinhardt is dawn into a macabre investigation. The
discovery of other victims makes it apparent that a serial killer is on the
loose and Reinhardt is determined to unearth whatever links the victims and
to discover the killer’s motive. These are dark times where all may not be as
it seems and where choices made have far reaching implications.
TINA FOSTER RECOMMENDS A FEW GOOD READS TO KEEP YOU BY THE FIRESIDE THIS WINTER
T
Compelling modern family drama
he most prolific female contemporary
fiction writer in the UK is Amanda
Prowse, with a legion of loyal readers,
she goes from strength to strength.
She has been crowned ‘queen of domestic drama’
by the Daily Mail.
Her new book, The Food Of Love, like so many
of her previous novels is set in a seemingly
conventional family with the curtains opening on a
happy ever after scene.
Mother, Freya Braithwaite has been married to
her husband, Lockie, for 19 years and they have
two teenage daughters. Freya is confident that
she can deal with the day to day dramas of her
life and when she discovers all is not well with her
youngest, Lexi, she is shocked but convinced she
can deal with it.
This is a tale of how mental illness, specifically
anorexia can destroy even the most secure family
unit and the subsequent narrative takes on an
agonising voyage leaving the whole family with a
sense of helplessness and bewilderment.
I did not want to read this book, I did not want
to share the family’s grief but I could not put
it down. I suffered with them all and even at
times wanted to shout at Freya to stop making
excuses and insist on doing things her way.
This may not be the experience of every
family who are thrown into confusion by this
debilitating and incomprehensible condition
but I certainly have a better understanding
of food related problems now.
Cleverly Prowse takes a well-known
disorder, as she has done in previous
novels, and sets it in a family that we can
identify with. Then she lights the blue
touch paper and allows us to watch the
fireworks with that element of danger
that it may go horrible wrong.
The Great Plague of London
P
icture the London of 1665
gripped by a heat wave
and an outbreak of plague.
The King, his court and
anyone
anyone rich enough has fled the
beleaguered city and decamped to
Hampton Court. The only ones left
in London are those government
officials ordered to remain and
those too poor to go elsewhere.
Empty houses, half deserted
street and bells tolling for the
dead give London a desperate
air of abandonment. Those
who do remain put their faith
in the many dubious potions
toted around by less than
scrupulous medics in a vain
42 NFOP Magazine | January 2017
The Ashes of Berlin by Luke McCallin published in hardback
RRP £16.99
The Food of Love by Amanda
Prowse is available from Lake
Union Publishing in paperback
RRP £8.99
attempt to ward off the pestilence.
The war between the Dutch and the English is raging and a large number
of Dutch prisoners of war are being held in an old theological college in the
village of Chelsea amidst rumours that they are planning to escape. On top
of that, there are tales of a spectre roaming the lanes of this rural backwater
and a strangler is on the loose. Thomas Chaloner is sent to investigate a
series of thefts from Gorges – a private sanatorium for gentle ladies – and
the murder of one of the residents.
This is the eleventh volume of the wonderful Thomas Chaloner
adventures from Susanna Gregory. The author has the remarkable ability to
bring the past to life and invokes a fabulous sense of time and place. As you
would expect from a good murder mystery, tall tales, blind alleys, strange
night-time antics and elusive suspects abound. If you like historical murder
mystery but haven’t read any of this series before, don’t let that put you off.
This is a gripping tale with great characters and plenty of humour. Not to be
missed!
The Chelsea Strangler by Susanna Gregory published by Sphere on 6
October 2016 in paperback RRP £8.99
Books for Grown-ups
F
ollowing on from the hugely successful Ladybird Books re-written
for adults in the series How it Works we now have a new take on
Enid Blyton’s Famous Five.
Written by Sunday Times bestselling author Bruno Vincent and
inspired by Enid Blyton, The Famous Five’s grown-up adventures will remind
older readers of the unbreakable bond between Julian, Dick, Anne, George and
Timmy, while introducing newer readers to the lashings of fun you can have
with a few friends and a dog.
Enid Blyton’s best-loved characters are reimagined for grown-ups, in these
five funny, clever new tales that see them confronted with the challenges
of modern life. The five find themselves on a puzzling ‘strategy away day’;
attempt to find a good gluten-free cream tea; prepare for parenthood; and, in
perhaps the ultimate test of their friendship, grapple with the Brexit referendum
and in the latest volume, forsake alcohol.
In an increasingly confusing world it is comforting to know our childhood
companions are struggling to cope with modern life complications.
Five on Brexit Island, Five go Gluten Free, Five go on a Strategy Away Day,
Five go Parenting and Five give up the Booze are all published by Quercus
and are now available in hardback RRP £7.99
NFOP Magazine | January 2017 43
Puzzle Page
Win
£25
#187
Please send entries for this month’s Prize Crossword to the address on page three to
arrive before Friday 27th January. Mark envelopes ‘Crossword 187’ in the top lefthand corner. Remember to enclose your name and address.
1
2
4
3
5
6
7
8
11
18
19
Down
1 Game with ladders (6)
7 Acts (7)
8 Ugly buildings (8)
9 Large meal (5)
10 Keyboard instrument (5)
11 End word of prayers (4)
13 Changes (6)
16 Bungling (5)
18 Look briefly (6)
21 Promise (4)
23 Resources (5)
24 Jewel (5)
25 Careless (8)
26Punishment(7)
27 Joined (6)
1 Canine assistant (8)
2 Roman Catholic prayer (3,5)
3 Thrifty (10)
4 Affirmative word (3)
5 Aptitude (6)
6 Hot water spring (6)
7 Second Greek letter (4)
9 Writing implement (4-3,3)
12 Chart (3)
14 Large mammal (8)
15 Brought to an end (8)
17 Mesh (3)
19 Seeped (6)
20 Conventional (6)
22 Devout (4)
25 Animal pen (3)
12
13
16
ACROSS
Sudoku
9
10
14
2
9
22
23
4
25
27
Cryptic Crossword
ACROSS
Down
1 A glebe can become a hound! (6)
7 Scare an amended old Arab (7)
8A ban thou can use for foreign
motorway (8)
9Initially every rabbit runs over rubbish
by mistake (5)
10Barrel very often includes a young
fish (5)
11Hand over a winger inside (4)
13Start of wise senior craftsman (6)
16Steeple hauler (5)
18Quake is remoter without energy (6)
21Central part of Near East sector (4)
23Rose gawped and held back salaries
(5)
24Dull and sounds like a small boat (5)
25Ted’s plea to make a stand (8)
26Asset resulting from fine bet perhaps
(7)
1Couple allowed bangle (8)
2Initiate first part of play against mixed
tea (8)
3Try a lob or a mixed research location
(10)
4Criticize Peter perhaps? (3)
5Mini-bar relies on hidden cask (6)
6Exist with warning ahead (6)
7Throw off shack (4)
9He, wry reeve is all over the place
(10)
12Sounds like a letter of being in debt
(3)
14Issue of huge dart reformed (8)
15After backward knight shoe parts
produced cakes (8)
17Mineral centre does not start (3)
19A drier outcome for a bandit (6)
20Short periodical with exact force
provider (6)
22A wager can help (4)
25This hole could be mine! (3)
48 NFOP Magazine | January 2017
2
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3
1
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3
26
27New brides’ remains (6)
2
6
8
1
7
24
4
3
5
20
From page to screen
Fill in the empty squares from 1-9 without repeating
the same number in any grid, row or column.
3
15
17
21
Views
Quick Crossword
2
6
4
1
2
4
9
7
5
Some favourites
186 Sudoku and Crossword Answers
Quick Answers
Across: 1 Plea; 4 High Tea; 8 Original; 9 Oat; 11 Claret; 13 Bobbin; 14 Robin; 15 Earl;
16 Beta; 18 Reign; 20 Eleven; 21 Outfit; 24 Ali; 25 Indebted; 26 Engines; 27 Rude.
Down: 2 Larva; 3 Angler; 4 Hand; 5 Gallon; 6 Trouble; 7 Attendants; 10 Accelerate;
12 Token; 13 Bingo; 16 Reeling; 18 Resign; 19 Number; 22 Field; 23 Odes.
Cryptic Answers
Across: 1Plus; 4 Subside; 8 Envelope; 9 Top;
11 Ignite; 13 Merger; 14 Amber; 15 Inca;
17 Grim; 18 Libel; 20 Gravel; 21 Racoon;
24 Owl; 25 Gradient; 26 Mystery; 27 Lyre.
Down: 2 Lenin; 3 Siesta; 4 Shoe; 5 Brewer;
6 Integer; 7 Experiment; 10 Dining Room;
12 Email; 13 Meter; 16 Cradles; 18 League;
19 Labial; 22 Owner; 23 Vary.
Crossword 186 Winner:
Mr A Worthington, Southport
4
7
2
3
1
8
O
ur most popular television detective has emerged
from the pages of the Queen of Crime, Agatha
Christie who has given the world Miss Marple
and Poirot but our love for the genre provided
viewers with a few more favourites in recent time.
I spoke recently with the writer Ann Cleeves, the creator
of both Jimmy Perez, the detective in Shetland and Vera
Stanhope, sleuth of Northumberland. Her writing is set in
locations where she herself has lived and both programmes
have the sense of place as integral to the action. I asked her
which character was her favourite and was told “whichever
I am writing at the time. I tend to alternate them and they
become my children so I cannot say who I prefer.”
Another author who has spoken of his protagonist is Ian
Rankin and is so close to John Rebus that he is actually
concerned with the Scottish detective’s health in the new book
Rather be the Devil, the 21st John Rebus novel. Inspector
Rebus was first introduced in a novel in 1987 and has been
active on our television screens between 2000 and 2007.
Repeats of the four series are currently being broadcast on
the Drama channel proving the popularity of the Edinburgh
investigator.
Police Crime dramas are all over our screens via many
channels and while we clamour for more new scenarios we
still enjoy the old faithfuls. In my opinion it is the characters
who emerge from the imagination of some of our best writers
who really endure.
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Christmas Hamper Winners
Congratulations to the winners of our Christmas Hampers Competition in the November
edition: Mr J Cuerden - Preston, Mr F Welch - Halesowen, Mrs A Rose - Bexhill-on-Sea,
Mr Magin - Portree, Mr V Roots - Wantage, Mr A Breeze - Hemel Hempstead, Mr M Tolhurst
- Tunbridge Wells, Mr A Brain - Wroughton - Mrs Russell - Heathfield & Mr R Eyre - Preston.
Val McDermid has given us Hill and Jordan in the acclaimed
drama, Wire in the Blood, which was made from 2002 to 2008
and was based around a criminal psychologist working around
the fictional town of Bradfield in West Yorkshire.
P.D James created Adam Dalgleish who was originally
played on the screen by Martin Shaw and then followed by
Roy Marsden, in episodes from 1983 up to 2005 - both played
the New Scotland Yard police officer who worked his way
through the ranks up to Commander.
Another great crime writer, Ruth Rendell, used a fictitious
town, Kingsmarkham, in Sussex to set the location for the
investigations of Wexford played by George Baker from 1987
on television. The character first appeared in a novel in the
author’s 1964 debut From Doon With Death and remains a
firm favourite.
Inspector Lynley, the troubled aristocrat, is a character who
the author, Elizabeth George, has developed through her much
admired books.
A Touch of Frost is a television detective series produced
from 1992 until 2010, initially based on the Jack Frost novels
by R. D. Wingfield. Sir David Jason brings his acting talents to
Charlotte
Courthold
investigates
the Top TV
detectives
from the books
of modern
authors
The late John Thaw and Kevin Whately as Colin Dexter’s
Inspector Morse and DS Lewis
the role of the Inspector who cares little for police procedure
and authority. The town of Denton in Greater Manchester
provides a gritty backdrop for the action.
The long running series based on the novels of Colin Dexter
starring the late John Thaw as Inspector Morse uses Oxford
as its setting. The buildings of this city provide an attractive
backdrop but also offer the theme of academia as storylines.
Deeper understanding
There are many excellent detective series in the television
archives and being made currently, but for me, reading the
books on which the cast are based, gives me a better, wellrounded, knowledge of the characters.
Of course, often they do not look the way I had imagined
them in the book but it also works the other way and reading
the novels I can depict the characters more clearly.
It is also interesting to note how few of the main roles in this
genre are female. We have a few such as Vera and the Lynda
La Plante creation, Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect, but I think
as more women take up high profile jobs in the real world of
policing we shall be watching more fictional women cops.
Who are your favourites? Have you read any books that you
think will make good detective series?
Police
Crime dramas
are all over
our screens
via many
channels and
while we
clamour for
more new
scenarios we
still enjoy the
old faithfuls.
NFOP Magazine | January 2017 49