On Sunday 8th May, we had an Open Day at Bakers Mill in the Cotswolds where everyone was invited to come for picnic by the lake.
My mother, Daphne Neville, gave a Q&A on otters and I began signing books.
It was held in aid of the local wildlife rescue. Rudi the Otter was in residence.
Add a message in the comments below if you are able to come!
My mother, Daphne, who appears as a vibrant character in a number of my books, took part in ‘Come Dine With Me’, broadcast on Chanel 4 and in Australia.
Whilst, we her family, find Mum’s appearances daunting, if not traumatic, she has made quite a splash with viewers. By the end of the first episode #comedinewithme was trending on Twitter:
‘There’s an eighty-year-old lady on Come Dine With Me who has a pet otter and this is who I want to be when I grow up.’
‘#comedinewithme Daphne is what is great about Britain..cute polite nice classy positive welcoming….’
‘Daphne is lovely #comedinewithme’
‘I’m watching #ComeDineWithMe how cute is that old lady Daphne!! Ahhh’
‘Yes and we love Daphne too!! #comedinewithme
‘#comedinewithme I could not love Daphne anymore than if she was my own Nan!’
‘Aww I do love Daphne!! #comedinewithme’
‘We are only tuning in to watch daphne #ComeDineWithMe
‘Aww isn’t Daphne just the best!! #comedinewithme
‘I love Daphne on #comedinewithme
‘Daphne the perfect dinner guest #comedinewithme
#comedinewithme I totally want to adopt Daphne!!
Oh I LOVE Daphne, I’d score her night a 10 even if the food was crap! #comedinewithme #cdwm
Daphne opened Episode 5, being ‘first off’, with a can of tomatoes.
She was interviewed in her kitchen and we met the guests as they came downstairs. The fact that she lives in a converted mill wasn’t made clear to the other contestants.
‘Keep to the left, its a spiral staircase’, one viewer cried.
However, every detail of the meal had been carefully planned. The wine was chilled, the table looked lovely and there was almost constant laughter. Viewers seemed to be engaged: ‘Go daphne!! #comedinewithme
Mum prepared tomato and mushroom soup for her four guests, (quite good but looks disgusting on camera) followed by wild salmon, only to find out that two of the guests disliked fish, which was a bit of a pity.
Viewers on Twitter were appalled: ‘Seriously…. Who don’t eat fish?’ & ‘So James wouldn’t eat Daphne’s main cause he doesn’t like fish but his starter is lobster? #comedinewithme
One of the guests, who was a stickler for good manners, became irritated by another member of the party and walked out before pudding, which was quite dramatic.
‘Anne’s bottled it…. We have a reserve.’ #comedinewithme
Anne rather blew her own words out of the water, although Daphne said she later wrote to apologise. There was a roar from viewers on Twitter:
#comedinewithme ‘OMG how rude is Anne?! Lecturing the others on manners and then walking out on Daphne?! Bitch!’
Suddenly there was one less. Mum’s fans on Twitter were in uproar:
‘#comedinewithme Poor Daphne, completely bemused!!’
‘Why do people bother applying for Come Dine With Me when they can’t handle social situations and drop out early?’
Daphne ploughed on and the evening became increasingly enjoyable, especially when Rudi the Otter was brought down to meet everyone.
In the end, she was awarded 28 points by her four dinner guests. The Twitter-atary added their opinion:
‘Everyone needs to protect and look after Daphne, that woman is a legend!! #comedinewithme
‘If Daphne doesn’t win I’m going to kill someone #comedinewithme
‘Anyone see the water sossig on #comedinewithme ? (an ottter)
‘Daphne is our winner #comedinewithme
#comedinewithme Can we have Daphne on every week please!
‘Absolutely love #Daphne on #comedinewithme . . . What a legend! I want to meet her and her otter.’
This is difficult due to lockdown but can certainly read more about her-
You can read about the antics of Daphne and her tame otters in ‘Funnily Enough’ by Sophie Neville available online or to order at your local library. She is also portrayed in ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons’ as she worked behind-the-scenes on the 1974 movie. If you prefer reading ebooks, the same story is available under the title ‘The Secrets of Filming Swallows and Amazons’ for £2.99
~Tavistock Festival – from the original painting by Celia Duncan~
The Tavistock Music and Arts Festival is in full swing. Do take a look through the brochure and take part in some of the events on offer, especially if you are planning to visit Dartmoor over the next few weeks. You can find the online brochure here.
The talk and Q&A on ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons (1974)’ went down well, with audiences made up of Arthur Ransome enthusiasts, those who loved both the old film and the Lake District. There were also young people interested in acting and film-making who said they had watched the DVD a number of times. One couple remembered Titty Altounyan who had lived in Coniston and was so well-loved by the people of the Lake District.
Questions included: ‘How did you get the part of Titty?’, ‘What was the most difficult scene to film?’ and ‘Where did you stay when you were filming?’ The answers, of course, can be found in ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons’ published by The Lutterworth Press.
~Sophie Neville after opening the Tavistock Festival: photo-Helena Ancil~
The Plymouth Pipe Band heralded the beginning of the festival outside the Church of St Eustachius where the Chamber Ensemble of London played later that evening.
Christopher Kirwin, Chairman of the Festival, took me to Tavistock Library where I found a copy of ‘Swallows and Amazons’.
They had created a display of Arthur Ransome books, including a vintage copy of Robinson Crusoe, and now have ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons’ on their shelves.
Was he a Devon lad? I forget! After being interviewed by the Tavistock Times, I was called on to open the Festival in the portrait room at The Bedford Hotel when I met the Trustees and President, the composer Andrew Wilson. It was good to see Simon Dell, an expert on Dartmoor, who will be giving a talks and leading walks during the festival. I first met him in 2015 when visiting Lundy Island with The Arthur Ransome Society.
On Sunday 22nd April, the original film of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ was screened at The Wharf Cinema on the Tavistock Canal. We held a book signing directly afterwards, when festival members gathered to chat about films and film reviews, books and book reviews, along with all manner of things.
I met David Harrison, the projectionist, who told me that he first screened the movie when it came out in 1974. He worked at the Drake Cinema in Plymouth from 1967 to 2000 and is quite an expert on film with what sounded like an impressive private collection of DVDs. Dave told me I was ‘His favourite girl’ in the movie and presented me with a bunch of narcissi.
~Sophie Neville at the Wharf cinema with David Harrison~
In the foyer of The Wharf, where Virginia McKenna once gave a talk on making her iconic movie ‘Born Free’, they have new star: a glitzy otter called Rosie who was happy to pose wearing a red Amazon hat. She is one of many otters made for the Moor Otter Trail, that is becoming popular with visitors. You can read how they raised £126,000 for Dartmoor National Park here.
~Sophie Neville, Patron of the UK Wild Otter Trust: photo-Helena Ancil~
You can see pictures of the otters hand-reared by my family here
The Chairman of the Tavistock Festival, Christopher Kirwin, chatted to Belinda Dixon on BBC Radio Devon’s Sunday morning programme for about thirty minutes. You can listen to this, 1hr.26mins into the programme here:
A British film starring Talulah Riley, Martin Compston, and Joe Thomas of In Betweeners fame, has come out on DVD. It also features our tame otters. I travelled up to Dunoon in Scotland to help with the scenes that, in the story, entail an injured otter brought into a wildlife conservation centre set in a beautiful location outside Glasgow.
Belinda the Otter with Sophie and Daphne Neville
The romcom is written and directed by Talulah Riley who was keen to use our very energetic young male otter Rudi in a scene where the otter is released back into the wild. To achieve this on film, without losing him altogether, was quite a feat but he enjoyed himself and the result looks endearing.
When one of the producers asked if I had worked on any other films featuring animals, I had to admit there have been quite a few. We once had a baboon in the studio and I became quite used to filming with trained elephants. I worked with a whole variety of exotic animals on the vet series ‘One by One’ from a pelican to a full grown leopard. In the mid 1980’s I was lucky enough to spend four months on Corfu making the first BBC adaptation of Gerald Durrell’s autobiography ‘My Family and Other Animals’ with Brian Blessed and a huge number of tortoises. As it happens, Rudi appeared in the second series of The Durrells, playing both the male and female otters.
To see more about what the otters have been up to, please go to Daphne Neville’s website here.
You can read about living with tame otters in my book ‘Funnily Enough’ available in the UK here in paperback or on Kindle here
There are more photographs of the otters here
The DVD, which will be released on 3rd October, is available for pre-order here
One of our hand-reared otters who stars in ‘Scottish Mussel’
The Times. What author would not be thrilled to have their ebook profiled in a Saturday feature article? But look at the headline. I shall never live it down. Far from being scandalous, my story is appropriate reading for any age group.
Richard Kay’s piece in the Daily Mail seems to have sparked off quite a bush fire. A News journalist from the Telegraph rang, as mentioned in my last post. Before I knew it, there was an over-excited headline on the internet
I was told-off by our Church Warden, who then handed me a clipping from the Saturday Telegraph, which read: ‘Swallows and Amazons a debauched adventure’. I didn’t dare look in the tabloids.
Anecdotes about Ronald Fraser’s legendary drinking habits are mounting up. Spare me from being a prattler, but Ronnie would have loved this. Star of thirty post-war movies and numerous television programmes, he liked nothing more than to sit in a pub sharing scandalous stories with his friends from the press. A showman to the end, his coffin was carried by Sean Connery, Peter O’Tool, Simon Ward and Chris Evans.
Peter Walker e-mailed me from Cumbria:
In 1973 I worked for Post Office Telecommunications (now BT) as a local maintenance engineer. One summer’s day I had been given the job of repairing a fault on the payphone in the White Lion Hotel in the centre of Ambleside. As I pushed open the door to the bar it slipped out of my hand and the handle caught a customer in the back who happened to be taking delivery of a large drink.
I apologised, and he said “No damage done my boy… haven’t spilt a drop!”
I said I was referring to his back, “Don’t worry,” he said, “being stabbed in the back is normal in my line of business!”
A wonderful story that I have already added to the ebook:
…long after the filming, when Ronald Fraser was having a pint with his friends, he was fond of muttering ‘Natives!’ especially if someone ate the last of his crisps.(As you probably know, this was one of Titty’s lines in the film used when the Swallows were nearly run down by a Windermere steamer.)
His fans and old drinking pals added comments below the online feature in Friday’s Telegraph:
Ronald Fraser sounds like he was well cast for the part, the black sheep of the family who was also the favourite uncle and usually totally p-ss-ed.
Ronald Fraser – a joy and wonderfully in-character as the freeloading drunk on the trans-Atlantic liner in the original TV adaptation of Brideshead.
“Debauchery” implies REAL shenanigans. Ronnie was usually too plastered to do more than stand, let alone move, let alone “do” anything. I assume the word is used ironically.
I had the pleasure of meeting Ronnie Fraser several times in the Richard Steele on Haverstock Hill in 1969/70, and of conversing and drinking with him. He was a total lush, but charming, funny and scandalous. His fund of acting stories was endless. I’m surprised he made it safely through S&A! (Swallows and Amazons)
I also remember Ronnie Fraser from the Richard Steele. One evening he was serving behind the bar, in his cups he served me 4 drinks and instead of adding up the price he just said “that looks about 10 shillings worth to me!”
The Richard Steele was a proper boozer with a mixed clientele which included Anthony Booth, Rupert Davies and Eric Sykes. And a great selection of posters on the walls. I went back in there a couple of years ago and it has lost the buzz it had back in those days.
he also was in the star in st.johns wood too dont think i ever saw him sober either.that would be about 1975 -1979
Yep. I too drank with him in The Richard Steele in 1976/7. Total gentleman and a great character. He used to drink with Alan Browning. Glynn Owen was another regular and one or two others of note.
I loved that film and thought it very faithful to the source book. My sister has met Ronald Fraser and as well as being a boozer he was also apparently something of a swordsman.
I thought that Ronald Fraser was miscast – he was too much the buffoon and his speech impediment wasn’t appropriate to the role.
General comments about the film were also added to the Telegraph site:
I had a slightly surreal experience 10 or 12 years after it came out. It was on TV and I sat happily through it, then I put in the video of the John Hurt movie 1984. In it, the girl I’d just been watching playing Susan as a 12 year old instantly aged 10 years.
It was raining in the Lake District- that’s a major surprise. One place there has recorded 200 inches of rain in a year!
It’s good to find someone else who shared those lovely £sd days!! I remember the posters vividly.
It was indeed largely a time of great adventure for a child at that time. As kid’s, at weekends & holidays, we often wouldn’t be seen from morning ’till evening, off exploring our surroundings. Totally unlike the generally mollycoddled, world wrapped in cotton wool that you usually see with today’s parents and their children.
Great book and an excellent, very English film! Pity that Arthur Ransome was a traitorous Communistic Guardian hack! I imagine that Soviet Commissars, used to Black Sea dachas, would have found The South Lakes far too drizzly for a summer holiday. No doubt Mr Ransome would have been keen to host them.
Well, you have to admit it was excellent cover for his job of reporting everything the Bolsheviks did to MI6.
Your comments are invited below.
For those who have not already seen it, here is some behind the scenes footage of filming on that houseboat in 1973.
Since promoting my books at the London Book Fair, great things have been happening ~ we have made it into the rank of ‘Bestselling Books’.
Funnily Enough has raced up the charts, and at the time of writing is in the upper Top Ten for Humour.
~ Please see my ‘News’ page for stories ~
Ride the Wings of Morning is selling well. It is about the ‘Swallows and Amazons’ type of lifestyle that I led in Southern Africa after leaving the BBC. It is a book of letters, illustrated with sketches and maps that are in keeping with the inheritance Titty left me. Richard Pilbrow, the Producer of the movie Swallows and Amazons has kindly reviewed it ~ please see Reviews page
NOW AVAILABLE IN HARDBACK AND PAPERBACK FROM LULU.COM
My memoir about working in film and television is now out as an ebook on amazon Kindle and all online retailers for £2.99
Sophie Neville 