Journalist, author and TV presenter Anne Robinson is heading back to our TV screens. Marianne Sweet visited her Costwold home to find out more - and to hear about her support for local libraries.
Forget about climate change melting the polar ice caps. There is an even greater thawing here in the Cotswolds with our own Queen of Mean.
And the reason for Anne Robinson’s mellowing? Two little lads called Hudson and Parker - her grandsons. Their paintings take pride of place, surrounded by a stunning collection of art, in her spacious and welcoming Cotswold barn conversion.
Anne admits she is in possession of many more pieces by these yet-to-be-discovered artists, aged seven and five. “My bedroom is full of their pictures. I’ve had them all framed. They were with me all summer, either here or in France I couldn’t get rid of them,” she says with a hint of a smile.
On a shelf near the door of her home, where she moved just over a decade ago following the divorce of her second husband, is a large handbell, reminiscent of the ones you find in school.
Its purpose is practical. “The children are always outside, miles away. This is six acres around here. I got the bell quite recently because they don’t come to the whistle like the dogs and I can’t shout and ruin my voice.”
Her grandsons offer those simple pleasures of family life which Anne didn’t completely have with her daughter Emma. In 1973 a judge ruled that “he did not find her unfit mother” but decided her “undoubted ambition” - not to mention Anne’s alcoholism at the time – meant that Emma’s dad was awarded full custody. Though Anne had access rights, that separation, when Emma was just two and a half, left a deep impression. “The drinking and the career that helped me lose my daughter have never made up for the pain and shame of that loss,” Anne movingly wrote in her autobiography Memoirs of an Unfit Mother.
Denne historien er fra November 2017-utgaven av Cotswold Life.
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Denne historien er fra November 2017-utgaven av Cotswold Life.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Gloucestershire After The War
Discovering the county’s Arts and Crafts memorials of the First World War
THE WILD SIDE OF Moreton-in-Marsh
The days are getting shorter but there’s plenty of reasons to be cheerful, says Sue Bradley, who discovers how a Cotswolds town is becoming more wildlife-friendly and pots up some bulbs for an insect-friendly spring display
Mr Ashbee would approve
In the true spirit of the Arts & Crafts Movement, creativity has kept the Chipping Campden community ticking over during lockdown
The Cotswolds at war
These might be peaceful hills and vales, but our contribution to the war effort was considerable
Trust in good, local food
‘I’ve been following The Country Food Trust’s activities with admiration since it was founded’
Why Cath is an open book
Cath Kidston has opened up almost every nook and cranny of her Cotswold idyll in a new book, A Place Called Home. Katie Jarvis spoke to Cath ahead of her appearance at this year’s Stroud Book Festival STROUD BOOK FESTIVAL – THIS YEAR FREE AND ONLINE: NOVEMBER 4-8
From the Cotswolds to the world
Most people know that the Cotswolds have featured in a fair few Hollywood movies and TV series.
The Wild Hunt
In search of the legendary King Herla in the Malvern Hills
Fighting spirit amid the flowers
Tracy Spiers visits Warwick, a beautiful town that is open for business and ready to welcome visitors
Final journey
Cheltenham author and volunteer on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway (GWSR), Nicolas Wheatley, recounts the fascinating story of funeral trains