Latest Homes Sussex magazine

Sometimes shocking, but always funny, the self confessed grumpy old woman Jenny Eclair returns to Crawley with her new tour. After all, she explains to John Clarke, she has to pay for a pension somehow.

Jenny Eclair is musing on the deep sense of hurt you feel when a favourite item of clothing lets you down. “Isn’t it awful when your best dress turns against you and you can’t zip it up? That’s a terrible betrayal. You’d forgive girlfriends more easily for sleeping with your husband.”

Forthright, feisty and - above all - killingly funny, this is typical of Jenny. And you’ll be very pleased to hear, there is much more where that came from. For the first time in six years, Jenny is setting off around the country on a solo stand-up tour.

After time spent co-writing and performing in the enormously successful Grumpy Old Women Live tour – to say nothing of writing and starring in her own plays, penning a wellregarded novel (Camberwell Beauty), and hosting a regular Saturday morning radio show on LBC – Jenny can no longer resist the call of the stand-up stage. She is embarking on a major nationwide jaunt, with her felicitously titled Because I Forgot To Get A Pension Tour.

“When it goes well, there is nothing to match the buzz of live comedy,” she beams, unable to suppress a grin at the very thought of returning to her first love. Jenny adds, with characteristic wryness, that “obviously I won’t be standing up all the time - I’ll need to sit down now and again to stop my ankles swelling.”

Jenny, who became the first solo woman ever to win the coveted Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1995, is coming soon to a theatre near you. She urges you to laugh and clap very loudly, “because I’m a bit deaf and my hormones are all over the place.”

The comedian, a huge favourite with audiences who lap up such winning selfdeprecation, is offering lots of material about “being the mad side of forty, the odd joke about front bottoms and a bit of swearing.” As a bonus, Jenny also promises to wear a shiny new jacket from the sale at Selfridges, “down from £199 to £49.99 – what a bargain!”

“If Amy Winehouse had a northern mother, she wouldn’t be getting up to all these terrible things. She’d be sitting quietly at home eating meat and potato pies with her elbows off the dinner-table”

Jenny, now a vivacious 47-year-old mother of an 18-year-old daughter, goes on to be more specific about the subjects she will be covering in her hotly anticipated new show. As well as a lustful tribute to the actor James McAvoy, the stand-up is going stomp through, “a big diatribe about the rom-com. I despise the mawkishness and the emotional manipulation and the contrivance of those films,” she fumes. “All those overheard phone conversations and unlikely coincidences. And as for the infuriating taglines - ‘it’ll make you laugh, it’ll make you cry.’ No, it’ll make you puke!”
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Andrew Kay travels to a remote spot near Piddinghoe to catch upwith besoke tailors to the stars Gresham Blake and his wife Fal

I first met Gresham Blake and Fal six years ago. It was early days at Latest Homes magazine and I was asked to interview up-and-coming young business people. Gresham, recently graduated, was working from home, a small three story terracced house in Brighton’s Hanover. They had no business premises, no retail outlet and already he was making suits for an impressive number of clients. The Gresham Blake look was soon established, a return to the sharp cut suits of yesterday, fine tailoring, exquisite detail and a quirky, sometimes bizarre twist. He had the knack of marrying fabulous fabrics to traditionally styled suits. The effect was amazing, truly British, a quality that he upholds as being key to his look, but at the same time adventurous.

Pretty soon, he had found city centre premises and the list of clients grew. Business men and women with a desire for something unique started to clamour for his clothes alonside a huge list of celebrities from the world of music, film and theatre. To this day, the client list reads like the gossip page of a celeb magazine and there is no sign of their empire abating, on the contrary it continues to expand.

For some time you lived ‘above the shop’ in Bond Street, when did you decide to move out of Brighton?

Gresham: When Bond Street became too squashed and noisy, about two years ago. It was so noisy that we cut a foam panel that fitted the window but it was like a padded cell.

‘‘We had Heather Mills in, she was doing the whole celeb thing, you know, baseball cap and dark glasses, and I really didn’t recognise her. But in the end she turned out to be really lovely, very easy to work with”

Fal: It did help economically when we were setting up the business but you could never get away from work. Two years was enough of that.

Where did you move?

F: We rented in Partridge Green, a barn conversion, and we fell in love with it but it was just that bit too far away. We had been to the Isle of Skye and stayed in a barn there and fell in love with barns.

G: We found this one for sale on the internet, it was only third property that we had seen as we were only prepared to look at ones that were not in chains. We walked in and saw the height of the space and the layout and we simply fell in love with it.

It’s far more isolated, very diferent from living in town.

G: Yes it is, but it is very easy to get in and out of Brighton and the traffic is never really bad along the coast road, I can do it there and back in 35 minutes.

Do you find that you work more from home?

G: Yes I do, Ideas don’t come to me 9-5 so I will often find myself working late at night.

F: He does a lot of the design work at home as he doesn’t get as distracted as he can in the shop.

When I first interviewed you both you were operating from home.The business has now grown massively.

F: Yes, the business this year has turned over £1,200,000 and it is still growing.
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Celebsussex with Jo Brooks: Who are the biggest names living in Sussex? We find out where the stars live

Welcome to the shiny, new celebrity column for the whole of Sussex. Now you can read all about of your famous neighbours in Celeb Sussex. Let’s face it, we all like to know what’s been going on in the lives of the rich and famous and this column’s aim is to keep you right up to date.

If you spot a famous face walking up Horsham High Street, pushing a trolley around Waitrose in Burgess Hill, or looking for bargains in T K Maxx, Worthing, then I want to know about it.

If you run a business and have a good story connected to a celebrity, then I also want to hear from you! Get your business mentioned and email me at: info@jb-pr.com. Don’t forget to take a picture! To get things started, this month let’s take a look at my current top ten Sussex-based celebs.

1. Jack Dee, comedian

The straight-faced funnyman and one-time winner of Celebrity Big Brother lives near Chichester with his wife, Jane, and four children. Locals in the area report that they are yet to see him crack a smile.

2. Heather Mills, charity campaigner

The ex-missus of ex-Beatle Paul McCartney. Over the last year Hovebased Heather has been in and out of the papers more times than a former Big Brother contestant falls in and out of limos outside nightclubs! With her high-profile divorce case, tireless campaigning for animal rights charity PETA, and recent appearance on hit American show Dancing With The Stars, this Sussex sexpot’s life is anything but boring!

3. Bryan Ferry, singer

Not a lot of people know this, but the Roxy Music frontman now lives in Sussex with his girlfriend Katie. Another little-known fact is that Ferry’s father was called Fred and was a farmer who also used to look after pit ponies.

4. Chris Evans, broadcaster

The ginger millionaire recently married part-time model Natasha Shishmanian, and I’m pleased to report the pair have since built a lovely love nest in mid-Sussex.

5. Holly Willoughby, TV presenter

Fresh-faced Miss Willoughby, who was born and raised in Brighton, also recently tied the knot with producer Dan Baldwin, who she met while working as a presenter on kids show Ministry Of Mayhem. The ceremony took place at Amberley Castle in beautiful West Sussex.

6. Norman Cook, DJ

Brighton’s very own superstar DJ – better known as Fatboy Slim – lives on Hove seafront with wife, Zoe Ball, surrounded by celebrity neighbours. His young son isn’t a celebrity yet, but chances are, that with a name like Woody Cook, he will be one day!

7. Natasha Kaplinksy, broadcaster

Thinking man’s crumpet Natasha lives in the wilds of mid-Sussex with her investment banker husband Justin Bower, just a short commute from her job reading the Six O’Clock News each night. Interesting fact: she was actually brought up in rural Barcombe and, at the age of 16, attended Varndean College in Brighton.

8. Nick Cave, musician

Aussie singer and rock god Nick Cave leads the group Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, with a wild reputation that has garnered him legions of fans worldwide. He has recently swapped the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle for a peaceful existence in coastal Rottingdean.

10. Greta Scacchi, actress

The star of hit film White Mischief now lives near Ditchling.

It looks like more celebs could be hitting a high street near you soon, as rumours surround certain A-listers looking to buy places in Sussex at the moment. The hot one at the moment is Robbie Williams – has he or hasn’t he got a place in Crowborough? Let me know if he is your neighbour! Also actor Jude Law, most famous for his roles in The Talented Mr Ripley and Alfie, has been spotted several times around Lewes, looking for property. I will keep you posted on that one as the story unfolds.

Until next time, keep spotting and don’t forget to send any celeb sightings in to info@jb-pr.com

The Duke and Duchess of Norfolk are pure A-list, appearing in Tatler’s Top Ten Most Invited. But the hottest events of the summer are held at their own home at Arundel Castle as part of the town’s celebrated festival, as the Duchess of Norfolk reveals to Ian Trevett

Nestling directly above Ben and Kate Goldsmith, Keira Knightly and Elle Macpherson, at eighth place in Tatler’s Hot 100 are the parents of five children, who have established themselves as one of the friendliest and most popular couples an the A-List Circuit. The Duke and Duchess of Norfolk may not be as instantly recognisable as many of the big-name celebrities on the 2006 list, but according to Tatler, they are one of the couples that are on every guest list. "Cosy up to the country’s top catholic twosome," proclaims the society bible. "They’re a breath of modernity in the 1,000-year-old castle, Arundel."

They may be one of the ‘most invited’ but its difficult to imagine how the Duke and Duchess have time to accept many invitations. As well as looking after the magnificent castle, attending to the myriad of charity commitments, and organising the headline events for the recent Arundel Festival, there is a small matter of raising five children, whose ages range from 19-year-old Henry, down to ten-year-old Philip. However, the Duchess was still able to make time to invite me into the family wing of the castle to chat about the festival, the incredible and often deadly-dangerous family history and their life in the castle.

It is easy to see why the Duke and Duchess are such popular company. Despite the splendour of the surroundings, the welcome is warm and relaxed. Dressed casually in jeans and an elegantly frilled shirt and cardigan, the Duchess immediately dispenses with rules of etiquette and asks to be called Georgina, rather than the formal ‘Your Grace’. So laid back is Georgina, that the first time we met at a festival launch, I chatted easily with her, totally unaware of her title. The Duke (or Eddie) is just as approachable.

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