http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk Politics, celebrities, interviews, opinions, travel, and more... Sun, 11 Oct 2009 12:10:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/10/11/subodh-gupta-india%e2%80%99s-hottest-new-artist-talks-about-skulls-milk-pails-and-cow-dung/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/10/11/subodh-gupta-india%e2%80%99s-hottest-new-artist-talks-about-skulls-milk-pails-and-cow-dung/#comments Sun, 11 Oct 2009 12:07:21 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=246 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/10/11/subodh-gupta-india%e2%80%99s-hottest-new-artist-talks-about-skulls-milk-pails-and-cow-dung/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/09/28/paula-rego-on-her-museum-to-celebrate-the-brutal-world-of-portuguese-storytelling/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/09/28/paula-rego-on-her-museum-to-celebrate-the-brutal-world-of-portuguese-storytelling/#comments Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:08:19 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=241 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/09/28/paula-rego-on-her-museum-to-celebrate-the-brutal-world-of-portuguese-storytelling/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/09/07/the-man-who-changed-the-world/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/09/07/the-man-who-changed-the-world/#comments Mon, 07 Sep 2009 03:25:55 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=232 Photo: Graham Wood Mikhail Gorbachev may be pushing 80 but when he talks, people still listen, particularly (or, perhaps, exclusively) outside his own country, and that includes the 44th president of the United States. The first and last President of the former Soviet Union is telling me about his meeting with Barack Obama, during the latter’s extended honeymoon period, not so long ago, when he said: “‘I congratulate you because two months after the election your popularity was growing and your popularity is still growing.’ He looked at me and said, ‘Just you wait, it’ll go down.’” A gusty blast of a laugh. “And I liked him saying that.” The man who was determined to modernise the USSR through glasnost and perestroika (the last time Russian words tripped off the tongue), which led to its collapse and transformed the world beyond, is now greatly in demand as a speaker in the United States. He remembers one particular lecture, three years ago during the Bush administration, when he was faced with the following question: “What would you recommend for America now that we are in a very difficult situation?” “I said, ‘Well, to give advice to other countries, particularly to Americans, would be wrong. It’s for you to sort out what you need to do.’ But nevertheless, they said, ‘What’s your advice?’ ]]> http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/09/07/the-man-who-changed-the-world/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/08/12/tracey-emin-on-a-year-of-living-dangerously/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/08/12/tracey-emin-on-a-year-of-living-dangerously/#comments Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:44:29 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=228 Tracey Emin is serene. That is not a sentence that comes naturally. She has emerged from her year of living dangerously — nothing to do with wild antics and everything to do with ill health — purged of both her demons and a giant, Gothic-sounding tapeworm. We meet in Spitalfields, East London, where Emin lives and works. She was a little bit late for our interview and so I had a chance to potter around her studio. This is where her embroidery and appliqué pieces are created and the room resembles a well-stocked children’s day centre. There is a row of orange washing baskets brimming with brightly coloured fabric and a wall of plastic boxes filled with all manner of things, neatly labelled: “Bits and bobs”, “Postcards and diaries” and “Voodoo dolls”. At the far end of the room is a trio of antique French chairs and a circular table, a glass top protecting an Emin oeuvre/tablecloth of appliquéd letters of the alphabet, and a ridiculously large bean bag on which Emin and her team of seamstresses sprawl, a (literally) laid-back sewing bee, to protect their spines and necks while they work. A glass door opens on to a small courtyard just large enough to contain a wrought-iron table and a couple of chairs. In the corner, next to several bicycles, is an impressively full rack of wine bottles which, on closer inspection, all bear the same label: Château de Tracy (sic). ]]> http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/08/12/tracey-emin-on-a-year-of-living-dangerously/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/08/12/goldies-bittersweet-proms-symphony/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/08/12/goldies-bittersweet-proms-symphony/#comments Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:30:32 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=223 Photo: Jude Edginton Goldie is the very model of concentration, his wide topaz eyes taking everything in. There’s a massive thunderclap of drums rolling, followed by a spooky whispering, hissing sound from the 70-odd sopranos and altos of the London Philharmonic Choir, the basses come in, quietly at first, their voices gradually swelling to another crescendo, a banging of a metal sheet, the BBC Concert Orchestra builds as one, as the whole choir sings out in full majestic force… and then silence, followed by applause. The drum’n’bass pioneer, who experienced the harshest start in life, has just heard his first orchestral piece, which will have its world premiere at this year’s Proms. Sine Tempore (Without Time) – only seven minutes, but each one a thrill – is his response to the concert’s theme, evolution; not one big bang but a series of explosions heralding the birth and growth of new life. Just before the orchestra started up, he and his Maestro mentor, Ivor Setterfield, gave each other a quick hug. It was hard to tell from their expressions which of the two men was more excited – and apprehensive. ]]> http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/08/12/goldies-bittersweet-proms-symphony/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/07/16/how-friends-ferran-adria-and-richard-hamilton-inspire-each-other/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/07/16/how-friends-ferran-adria-and-richard-hamilton-inspire-each-other/#comments Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:42:35 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=221 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/07/16/how-friends-ferran-adria-and-richard-hamilton-inspire-each-other/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/07/16/the-many-lives-of-rebecca-miller/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/07/16/the-many-lives-of-rebecca-miller/#comments Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:13:29 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=209 Photo: Mark Harrison About five minutes into the interview, Rebecca Miller starts to cry. We had been talking about writing, and I read out a line from the end of one of her short stories about different women’s lives which touched me. Louisa, a painter who has a complicated relationship with her mother, has come home to lick her wounds after an emotional collapse in New York. The family are around the table and her mother is drinking, as usual, which enrages the daughter, but when she looks up, “Her mother was looking at her with such love that Louisa could hardly bear to see it: it was like looking into the sun.” ]]> http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/07/16/the-many-lives-of-rebecca-miller/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/05/25/driving-san-francisco-to-la-chlling-out-in-style-on-the-west-coast-of-america/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/05/25/driving-san-francisco-to-la-chlling-out-in-style-on-the-west-coast-of-america/#comments Mon, 25 May 2009 20:20:02 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=195 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/05/25/driving-san-francisco-to-la-chlling-out-in-style-on-the-west-coast-of-america/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/05/25/a-hip-hop-tour-of-new-yorks-harlem/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/05/25/a-hip-hop-tour-of-new-yorks-harlem/#comments Mon, 25 May 2009 20:15:31 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=192 So there I am with my solid crew, two teenage sons and me in Kangol berets, dripping in bling, on loan from our hosts Grandmaster Caz and Reggie Reg, the grandaddies of hip-hop, manoeuvring our way through Harlem and the Bronx in a tour bus rapping to “It’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from going under”. What a great way to start a family holiday in New York. Caz (short for Casanova) is an A* teacher; no slacking permitted as he fires out questions, checks whether his pupils have been listening, points out places of interest — where such and such a gangsta rapper was shot dead (“We always pause here to pay a little love . . . a little respect”) — and lists the four cornerstones of hip-hop culture: the DJ, the MC, breakdancing and graffiti. And then there’s the clothes. ]]> http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/05/25/a-hip-hop-tour-of-new-yorks-harlem/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/05/25/how-do-you-pen-a-song-for-the-brighton-festival-fringe/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/05/25/how-do-you-pen-a-song-for-the-brighton-festival-fringe/#comments Mon, 25 May 2009 20:09:25 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=190 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/05/25/how-do-you-pen-a-song-for-the-brighton-festival-fringe/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/05/25/who-is-david-cameron/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/05/25/who-is-david-cameron/#comments Mon, 25 May 2009 20:03:18 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=188 Photo: Tom Stoddart If David Cameron wants to survive to become the next prime minister, he should avoid being driven at all costs. We are hurtling through the narrow, winding country roads of West Oxfordshire, having left his constituency headquarters in Witney (Tory-blue carpet and chairs; wobbly round table; rough Cotswold stonewalls) a fraction behind schedule for the 20-minute journey to Chimney Meadows nature reserve, where Cameron is to deliver a speech. ]]> http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/05/25/who-is-david-cameron/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/05/25/david-hockney-on-why-iphones-are-the-future-for-art/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/05/25/david-hockney-on-why-iphones-are-the-future-for-art/#comments Mon, 25 May 2009 19:59:17 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=186 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/05/25/david-hockney-on-why-iphones-are-the-future-for-art/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/04/04/peter-hall-my-memories-of-harold-pinter-and-samuel-beckett/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/04/04/peter-hall-my-memories-of-harold-pinter-and-samuel-beckett/#comments Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:48:43 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=182 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/04/04/peter-hall-my-memories-of-harold-pinter-and-samuel-beckett/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/03/25/british-press-awards-2009nominations/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/03/25/british-press-awards-2009nominations/#comments Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:46:57 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=177 Interviewer of the year Cole Moreton, Independent on Sunday Decca Aitkenhead, The Guardian Elizabeth Day, The Observer Ginny Dougary, The Times Lynn Barber, The Observer Robert Chalmers, Independent on Sunday]]> http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/03/25/british-press-awards-2009nominations/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/03/24/steven-berkoff-angry-man-or-cursed-by-the-past/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/03/24/steven-berkoff-angry-man-or-cursed-by-the-past/#comments Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:42:51 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=171 You definitely don't want to be around Johnny Friendly when he smiles, and the same could be said of Steven Berkoff, who plays the murderous, most unfriendly, union boss in his play of Elia Kazan's classic film On the Waterfront. The acting-directing-writing-theatre-company-founding polymath has his own intimidating form when it comes to interviewers (particularly women) as well as theatre critics, whom he has abused in various ways, with insults, bannings, even a death threat.]]> http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/03/24/steven-berkoff-angry-man-or-cursed-by-the-past/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/01/31/tony-blair-on-gaza-catholicism-iraq-and-cherie/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/01/31/tony-blair-on-gaza-catholicism-iraq-and-cherie/#comments Sat, 31 Jan 2009 22:25:31 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=152 Photo: Nick Danziger It’s an exhausting business interviewing Tony Blair. For a start, everyone has an opinion about him and feels the need to express it, usually with some force. Cab drivers, handymen and the like – certainly in the UK – call him all sorts of unprintable names. Their main complaint is Iraq, as is everyone else’s, but they also blame him for the spend-spend-spend culture which in their opinion has landed us in the mess we’re in now. Related news

• Guardian - January 30, 2009 I suffer doubts over Iraq war, says Tony Blair
• Telegraph - January 30, 2009 Tony Blair admits daily doubts about the war in Iraq
• Evening Standard - January 30, 2009 TONY Blair has admitted he suffered doubts over Iraq in an interview with Ginny Dougary in The Times and he thinks of the fallen every day. Millionaire publisher Felix Dennis confessed to the same interviewer last year that he had killed a man before retracting the disclosure. What does she put in their tea?
• The Times - January 30, 2009 Tony Blair: I suffer doubts over Iraq
• The Times - January 31, 2009 Hamas must be brought into peace process, says Tony Blair

]]> http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/01/31/tony-blair-on-gaza-catholicism-iraq-and-cherie/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/01/30/tony-blair/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/01/30/tony-blair/#comments Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:12:31 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=163 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2009/01/30/tony-blair/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/11/02/arianna-huffington-the-superblogger/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/11/02/arianna-huffington-the-superblogger/#comments Sun, 02 Nov 2008 11:54:27 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=141 Vince Bucci There’s a perfect Arianna moment during our long interview in the heat of the Los Angeles summer, when I ask her whether she’s seen Swing Vote, a highly topical film that had just opened in America, starring and bankrolled by Kevin Costner. “Yes,” she says. “I am in it…” Pause. “I play myself.” ]]> http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/11/02/arianna-huffington-the-superblogger/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/10/25/heston-blumenthal-the-alchemist/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/10/25/heston-blumenthal-the-alchemist/#comments Sat, 25 Oct 2008 22:33:27 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=147 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/10/25/heston-blumenthal-the-alchemist/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/10/13/celia-birtwells-flower-power/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/10/13/celia-birtwells-flower-power/#comments Sun, 12 Oct 2008 23:35:54 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=139 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/10/13/celia-birtwells-flower-power/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/07/27/kay-saatchi-on-life-after-charles-saatchi/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/07/27/kay-saatchi-on-life-after-charles-saatchi/#comments Sun, 27 Jul 2008 11:22:03 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=137 ]]> http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/07/27/kay-saatchi-on-life-after-charles-saatchi/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/07/06/lady-antonia-frasers-life-less-ordinary/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/07/06/lady-antonia-frasers-life-less-ordinary/#comments Sun, 06 Jul 2008 20:56:14 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=134 Lady Antonia Fraser adjusts her pearls, gazes out of the french windows opening out to the garden, and tells me to f*** awf. This, five minutes into our interview, comes straight after her waving a two-fingered salute at Private Eye.]]> http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/07/06/lady-antonia-frasers-life-less-ordinary/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/07/05/the-gentrification-of-irvine-welsh/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/07/05/the-gentrification-of-irvine-welsh/#comments Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:25:07 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=136 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/07/05/the-gentrification-of-irvine-welsh/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/06/20/how-my-group-of-fixers-made-my-flat-my-home/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/06/20/how-my-group-of-fixers-made-my-flat-my-home/#comments Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:20:19 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=130 After my six-month odyssey to find a flat in London, following on from decades of family living in Nappy Valley in Wandsworth, I finally had a new home - but fresh challenges lay ahead. ]]> http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/06/20/how-my-group-of-fixers-made-my-flat-my-home/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/06/14/is-john-humphrys-really-the-pussycat-of-radio-4/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/06/14/is-john-humphrys-really-the-pussycat-of-radio-4/#comments Sat, 14 Jun 2008 10:52:00 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=132 John Humphrys, the so-called rottweiler of Radio 4, is in fact a pussycat. This would have been more of a surprise if I were one of the six million-odd regular listeners of the Today programme, where Humphrys has honed his interrupting skills with filibustering politicians over the past 21 years, but since I can think of nothing less soothing than starting my day with the soundtrack of argumentative discourse on governmental policy, this is not the case. ]]> http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/06/14/is-john-humphrys-really-the-pussycat-of-radio-4/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/06/13/how-buying-agents-found-my-dream-home-in-london/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/06/13/how-buying-agents-found-my-dream-home-in-london/#comments Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:46:53 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=128 This time last year I was renting an open-plan flat high up in a mustard-coloured tower next to Tate Modern and thinking of writing something AbsoLoftly Fabulous about the renting life, with its bank of 24-hour porters and fishbowl windows. After my decades in Wandsworth's Nappy Valley, it was more like the glamour of Sex and the City (without the racy bits). ]]> http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/06/13/how-buying-agents-found-my-dream-home-in-london/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/05/19/music-food-of-hove-ginny-dougary-prepares-some-shockingly-filthy-numbers/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/05/19/music-food-of-hove-ginny-dougary-prepares-some-shockingly-filthy-numbers/#comments Mon, 19 May 2008 15:17:47 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=127 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/05/19/music-food-of-hove-ginny-dougary-prepares-some-shockingly-filthy-numbers/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/05/14/really-good-snares-mum-how-shlomo-taught-my-son-and-me-how-to-beatbox/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/05/14/really-good-snares-mum-how-shlomo-taught-my-son-and-me-how-to-beatbox/#comments Wed, 14 May 2008 08:37:19 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=125 Shlomo, beatboxer extraordinaire, is a courteous, cleancut young man with good teeth. This I know because he bared them repeatedly while demonstrating the basic skills of a percussive vocalist - a lip-smackingly resonant “B-uh”, followed by a wide-grinned “T-uh” and the finale of an open-mouthed primal pout “K-uh” - in a masterclass conducted for the benefit of my 17-year-old son and his mother. ]]> http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/05/14/really-good-snares-mum-how-shlomo-taught-my-son-and-me-how-to-beatbox/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/04/07/a-close-encounter-with-george-clooney/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/04/07/a-close-encounter-with-george-clooney/#comments Mon, 07 Apr 2008 16:25:46 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=119 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/04/07/a-close-encounter-with-george-clooney/feed/ 0 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/04/07/the-need-to-share-a-dark-secret/ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/04/07/the-need-to-share-a-dark-secret/#comments Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:58:55 +0000 Administrator http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/?p=124 http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/04/07/the-need-to-share-a-dark-secret/feed/ 0