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FOR MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF OCCUPATIONAL PENSIONERS ISSUE 455 • MARCH 2022
NFOP
magazine
The magic in
new beginnings
is truly the most
powerful of
them all.
Josiyah Martin
Levelling UP – The The way we bank is Member initiatives
White Paper changing Page 28-29
Page 9-10 Page 16
Reviews
March at the movies
Cinema... The Duke his father’s campaigning zeal, and his need to write disguised
autobiographical stories and plays for publication, are his way
(now playing) Cert 12A, 95 mins.
of dealing with the pent-up guilt and grief over the accidental
Although best known as the director of Notting Hill, nobody death of their daughter, Marion, which Dorothy refuses to
does films for and about the over 60s like Roger Michell. vent. Bunton promises his exasperated wife that he will settle
And that makes his death last September, age 65, all the down and get a job after one last visit to London to sell his
more tragic. In The Mother, Le Week-End, Nothing Like a writing. Though the sequence is nocturnal, and we see only
Dame and now The Duke, starring Jim Broadbent and Helen the burglar’s feet, it seems Bunton is going to visit the National
Mirren, Michell gives older characters meaty roles, and they Gallery, too…
are neither patronised, idealised nor clichéd. They are not Not surprisingly for the playwright of One Man, Two
in Zimmer-frames, care homes, on cruises or supported Guvnors, scriptwriter Richard Bean ensures we shed a tear
by accomplished children. Michell’s over 60s are working in the Marion subplot, but he lightens the rest of the film
JOYCE GLASSER (some lucratively, most not) and feel envy and regret. They with Dorothy’s one liners and Bunton’s hilarious courtroom
have sexual desires, aspirations, a sense of humour and – performance. If the middle section is flabby, the tone a bit
prominent in The Duke – a timely political conscience. too twee and if Mirren is underused, Broadbent’s courtroom
testimony provides the kick that sends us home smiling.
mindset: ‘a widow should only do housework, The Phantom of the Open underdogs, does the rest, nailing Flitcroft, the
The Duke is based on a true story, and from the respect her in-laws and stay at home.’ But after 46-year-old shipyard crane operator in Barrow-in-
protagonist’s name to his wacky Robin-Hood heist of the Jeremy Hutchinson (Matthew Goode), the QC of lost causes (March 18, 2022) Cert 12A, 106 mins.
seven years of waiting, Fahrije, who has two Furness facing redundancy.
National Gallery’s newly acquired Goya portrait in 1961, you who defended the spy George Blake and Christine Keeler and children and a wheelchair bound father-in-law, Twelve years before Maurice Flitcroft was When, by chance, Flitcroft catches the end of the
couldn’t make it up. A blue-collar worker whose democratic the publishers of Lady Chatterley’s Lover – devises the perfect Haxhiu, (Çun Lajçi), to support, makes a decision declared the world’s worst golfer with a score of 1974 World Matchplay Championship on television,
principles make it difficult for him to keep a job, Kempton defence strategy and then lets his client’s oratory do the rest. that changes their lives, and, in time, the lives of 121 (49 over par) at the 1976 British Open Golf he is inspired to follow his dreams. He marks the
Bunton (Broadbent), lives in a street of Newcastle terrace 50 unemployed women. Fahrije defies convention, Championship, Bob Dylan opined, ‘you know there’s entry form to the British Open “professional” to
houses straight out of a L.S. Lowry painting, with his rankled Cyrano malicious gossip, physical danger and even her no success like failure, and failure’s no success at avoid including his handicap – which he doesn’t
wife Dorothy (Mirren) and one of his two sporadically (now playing) Cert 12A, 124 mins. daughter’s insults, to take advantage of a grant all.’ have. To his credit, Flitcroft practises long hours in
employed sons, Jackie (Fionn Whitehead). to obtain a driver’s licence so that she can get a Some of our top film directors have managed to all weather and on all surfaces save a golf course.
Our review of this musical version of the timeless 1897
Bunton takes on the world, but his cause célèbre is the job. Her missing husband, Agim, made a living as turn failure into box office success by recognising Deadly serious, he rationalises his inauspicious
play Cyrano de Bergerac appeared in the January issue.
TV licence which he petitions to have scrapped for OAPs. a beekeeper who never got stung. But the honey the appeal of dedicated failures who win our debut: ‘I think my problem today is that I left my 4
Subsequently, after publication the distributor moved the
Below: Jim Broadbent and Dorothy, who cleans the upscale home of a local politician, Fahrije, covered in bee-stings, produces is not hearts. Dexter Fletcher (Rocket Man) celebrated wood in the car.’ But when his playing attracts the
release date to 25 February, and so this delightful, but also
Helen Mirren in The Duke insists on paying up when the inspectors pay the Buntons a the same quality and Haxhiu struggles to sell it at ski-jumper Eddie the Eagle, who, representing professional player’s attention, and his score of 121
moralistic and moving love story is awaiting you in cinemas
humiliating visit. If the TV licence penalises the poor, Bunton market. When Fahrije is introduced to a friendly Team GB in the 1988 Winter Olympics, came attracts the press, the Secretary of the St Andrews
now.
Opposite page: Sally is equally incensed by the news that, the government has supermarket owner, who claims shoppers love last. Stephen Frears (The Queen, My Beautiful R & A, Keith MacKenzie (Rhys Ifans), takes Flitcroft’s
Hawkins and Mark spent £140,000 of taxpayer’s money to keep Francesco Goya’s
Rylance in The Phantom
Hive homemade food, she joins ranks with Nazmije Laundrette) paid tribute to opera lover Florence unapologetic ineptitude as a personal affront and
portrait of the Duke of Wellington in the UK. Jackie knows that (Kumrije Hoxha), an older, independent-minded Foster Jenkins, of whom Stephen Pile wrote, “No Flitcroft is banished. But the unstoppable golfer, to
(January 18, 2022) Cert. tbc, 84 mins.
widow, to embark on a more lucrative enterprise… one, before or since, has succeeded in liberating paraphrase Samuel Becket, Tries again. Fails Again.
Kosovan born writer-director Blerta Basholli’s compelling One of the joys of the film is watching the themselves quite so completely from the shackles Fails Better.
feature debut is a war story without guns, bloody battlefields, two women start their business and gradually of musical notation.” Roberts and Farnaby also try hard to turn
uniforms, heroic soldiers or graveyards. There is, however, attract the clandestine cooperation of neighbours Pile, who published The Book of Heroic Failures Flitcroft into an endearing rogue, while hammering
a courageous heroine: Fahrije, played by the remarkable, originally too afraid of public rebuke to associate in 1979 had reason to omit Flitcroft. He was an home the film’s “every dreamer deserves a shot”
charismatic actress Yllka Gashi on whom the camera is glued with Fahrije. Even better is the depiction of Fahrije’s artful dodger who, as depicted in actor-turned- motto. But before Flitcroft becomes tiresome, Sally
until, without a word of expository dialogue, it reads her relationship with her family. Her most challenging director Craig Robert’s often hilarious biopic, Hawkins comes to the rescue as his supportive,
thoughts. Fahrije means “one who thinks.” job is to convince them that moving forward does The Phantom of the Open, continued entering indebted wife, Jean, who startles a sports reporter
Like other widows and mothers of her village, Fahrije lives mean forgetting. There is no more beautiful shot competitions under a stream of outrageous aliases, (Ash Tanton) when she equates the high score
in limbo from year to year, when the new batches of bodies in any film this year than the close up on Fahrije’s like Arnold Palmtree – always outstaying his with victory. If you don’t remember Flitcroft, don’t
dribble into the morgue for identification. The unknown fate face as she sneaks a look at her young son, Edon welcome. ruin the fun by reading up on him. Just when you
of the men and boys missing after the Serbian massacre of (Mal Noah Safçiu) in the shower after he warns Unlike Roberts’ under-par features as writer- don’t know what is dramatic licence and what
Krushe e Madhe in March 1999 has left the villagers frozen her not to look because, ‘you’re a girl, mum.’ She director, Just Jim and Eternal Beauty, here he is true, you’ll meet the Flitcroft’s twin sons, Gene
in the past. Fahrije knows she must start building her family a smiles with pride and tenderness until her eyes lets Simon Farnaby (Mindhorn and Paddington 2), and James. With their parent’s blessing, they are
future, but the odds are against her. are infused with sorrow. Agim will not be watching adapt his own humorous biography of Flitcroft, co- chasing their own dream of becoming world disco-
In this patriarchal society, uncertainty and grief are not Edon grow up with her. written with Scott Murray. Mark Rylance (Bridge of dancing champions. The ebullient actors Jonah and
Fahrije’s major barriers. The real-life Fahrije summed up the Spies), a master of deadpan humour and loveable Christian Lees give us a demonstration.
34 NFOP Magazine | March 2022 NFOP Magazine | March 2022 35
Collecting
Collecting whiskey Who collects
YVONNE THOMAS FLAGS UP ANOTHER ROUND OF COLLECTIBLES flags?
W
hat can you do with a collection of 680
Football
flags? Not small ones, but full-size
national flags such as those flown
above important buildings, palaces and
programmes
embassies, a flag to represent every country you can
think of, even though your home is a small bungalow?
The enthusiastic flag collector is 74-years-old Alex
T
Adlam, a retired painter and decorator who with his
his must be a record. “Better than buying gold,” said wife, Susan, lives in a bungalow in Cheltenham,
the advert. Are they talking about diamonds? No, just Gloucestershire. Twelve years ago he started
old football match programmes. And perhaps to prove collecting the world’s flags and now he has 680
the point there are some impressive records, like an of them, all full-size. The colourful collection has
1882 FA Cup Final programme, old Etonians versus Blackburn attracted a lot of attention from neighbours
Rovers which was auctioned a few years ago to a collector for and from interested strangers, especially
£35,250. after the flags were featured in a television
The only time a non-English club won the FA Cup was Cardiff City programme.
who beat Arsenal in 1927 (Cardiff won – one nil) and a programme Six hundred and eighty flags make a big
from the match has sold for £2,500. A dealer, Mr Frank Jones says splash of colour in the bungalow garden.
that many old programmes, which only cost thruppence at the time Mr Adlam changes the display every day
of the match, sell from £15 to a few hundred £s today, and prices because there isn’t room to show the
go up year by year – which means there are some serious football whole lot together. There are four flag-
programme-collectors among the fans. poles, two at the front and two at the
back of the house and his wife updates
Contact: Frank Jones, telephone 01903 609511. the changes on an outside notice
board daily because so many people
are interested.
One of the rarest exhibits, and
A remarkable collection of 10 rare a favourite of Mr Adlam’s, is a
pre-prohibition bourbon and rye United States flag with only 48
bottles. finestandrarest.com stars (today’s have 50 stars) which
was presented by Americans to a
“F
Bristol post office at the end of the
reedom and whisky gang years in the hope that the prices will have gone up.’ whisky, the prized part of a collection which was war. There are all sorts of myths and
together” wrote the Scottish And the prices do – by about 11% a year estimates opened to celebrate the Queen’s jubilee in 2012. stories about flags and one is that in
poet Robert Burns. Well he one dealer. But in the world of whisky, these figures are not the thirteenth century the Danish flag,
would say that, wouldn’t he? A collection of six bottles of Macallan whisky unusual, in fact they could almost be classed as one of the oldest, fell from the skies
Some people think that it’s freedom and money was auctioned at Sotheby’s in London two years small change. Early last year, a private collection among their soldiers fighting in Estonia in
that go together – and to be on the safe side you ago – the estimated price was £200,000. It of 3,900 bottles sold online for over nine million 1219, helping them to victory.
need both. But if there’s any choice in the matter, attracted buyers from all over the world and it sold dollars (close to £6.7 million at prevailing exchange Flags must be treated with respect,
go for the whisky. It holds its value better than for £756,000. rates), making it the highest-value collection ever Mr Adlam says. He can’t display the 680
gold. And if you have the very best of a long-saved A bank manager who resisted drinking his sold anywhere in the world. together and those that are not on show are
vintage don’t drink it. Just put it somewhere where collection, two cases of Tobermory which had cost The best wines have increased in value at a neatly folded in drawers until their turn comes.
your friends can see it. him £4,700, recently made the news when he sold higher rate than gold writes the economist Linda
Why? Do some people actually drink the stuff, or it for £225,000 and retired early on the profits. Davies in her readable book, 10 Things Everyone
do they just look at it and collect it? And will it have A bottle may reappear for sale a few times, the Needs to Know About Money, illustrated with witty
Above: 1882 FA Cup Final
gone past its best by the time someone eventually price hiked each time because it is a collector’s cartoons by Nick Bashall. Fine whisky has earned programme
opens the bottle to take a sip? investment and more. That’s if you don’t drink your on average 15% tax free every year. The only snag
Right: The 1927 FA Cup
Mr Will Males of the wine seller Hatton and collection. Mr Males recalls sipping a tot from a is, you must not drink it. Just collect it.
Final programme
Edwards in north London explained, ‘I think some £100-a-bottle of Balvenie whisky. ‘It was delicious, • 10 Things Everyone Needs To Know About
people don’t buy it for drinking. They just collect it great depth of flavour,’ he said – though perhaps Money by Linda Davies, £10.15 from Amazon,
as an investment, and maybe hold it for five to 10 not as good as the £4,900 bottle of Macallan or £12.99 from Atebol
38 NFOP Magazine | March 2022 NFOP Magazine | March 2022 39
Reviews
This brave new world
Book reviews looks worrying...
I
’ve never been tempted to join any of those for Susan but for all those people
KATE GOODMAN DISCOVERS THAT IT’S NOT JUST SPRING THAT IS IN THE AIR... DNA sites that trace your ancestry – I don’t
think there are any skeletons hidden in my
who want disease-free babies,
brighter babies, prettier babies,
genetic closet, but I really don’t want to stronger babies – because
A little girl lost…
find out! A sample of genetic material can reveal gene editing can go “off target”
so much about our past, so it’s not a far stretch – with increasingly tragic
to believe that it could also alter our future. That’s consequences. As Susan and
the premise of this slightly dystopian, more-than- her daughter find themselves
T
slightly disturbing novel from best-selling author caught up in the fallout from
his disturbing yet utterly compelling story takes her tragic past if only she can finally forgive Eve Smith. scientific experiments gone
us into the mind of a troubled little girl who herself. Schoolteacher Susan Rawlins has been trying wrong, can there be any
commits an unspeakable crime and now, as a This is so much more than a story of a to conceive for years, so when she finally gets that future for them at all?
young woman, is living with the consequences. tragic crime and its consequences. The positive pregnancy result, she should be over the With an intriguing and
Eight-year-old Chrissie killed a little boy of two, and spent examination of the mother-daughter moon. The problem for Susan is that the baby is not well-paced plot, the reader
years in a secure unit before being released at 18 with a new relationship between Julie and her daughter her husband Steve’s, but the result of a drunken is pulled with Susan every
identity. Now a mother herself, will her past impact on her Molly, between Chrissie and her mother one-night stand. step on her path to guilt
future? Will she lose her little girl as she feels she deserves, Eleanor, and between the “mammies” and With genetic tests and profiling part and parcel and despair as she makes
having taken away another mother’s reason for living? their children is a fascinating aspect of the of prenatal care in this near future, Susan knows increasingly desperate
Told in a dual timeline toggling between past and present, book, as is the friendship between Chrissie she has no way of hiding her betrayal from Steve. decisions that may lead
and in the first person, the story gives us a unique insight and her best friend, the somewhat dim Then her friend Carmel comes up with a daring to her losing everything.
into the mind of a child who regards herself as a “bad seed”. Linda – a relationship in which it seems suggestion – one that will alter the course of Susan We should pay heed to her tale, because,
Chrissie’s desperate need for attention makes our heart ache much brighter, cheeky, defiant Chrissie and her unborn baby’s life. grounded in the reality of gene therapy, this is
for a hungry, unloved, dirty, despised little girl, failed by all has all the power. Gene editing may be in its infancy, but Susan is a story that could all too easily happen. And Off Target by Eve Smith is published by Orenda
the adults around her. Despicable as Chrissie’s crime was, I willing to take a chance … enthralling a fiction story as it makes, I don’t think in paperback, RRP £8.99
Her own mother tried to get her adopted, while the don’t think anyone will be able to read Of course there are repercussions, not just we’re quite ready for this new brave world yet.
homogeneous group of “mammies” who are her peers’ this without crying for a lost girl whose
mothers treat her with scant kindness. Her teacher thinks jealousy of other’s children security
There’s no cure for evil
she’s too clever for her own good, which may be true – but in their family’s love leads her down
sadly at eight, Chrissie does not have the understanding to the wrong path; and gaining some
realise that dead means dead forever. understanding of why a child who
T
Themes of poverty, vulnerability and abandonment, kills is not necessarily a monster.
shame, guilt and fear pervade the pages, but underlying it The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker is published by he village of Eyam chooses heightening our alertness to the very real
there is always hope that Chrissie, now Julia, can transcend Penguin in paperback RRP, £8.99 to cut itself off from the world dangers that Mae faces. Further clues as to
in order to contain the plague how far he will go are contained in his diary,
that has arrived there from which the reader is allowed to glimpse.
Torturous, tortuous, and oh so thrilling London in 1665. But there’s something
more menacing than the plague
threatening the life of Mae, 14-year-
Despite the patriarchal society they live
in, the women in the story all come into
their own. Isabel, the local midwife and
DI
Ava Callanach is grieving the loss relationship she is trying to disentangle herself from. But old daughter of apothecary Wulfric, a Mae’s champion, is a particularly engaging
of her friend, pathologist Dr Ailsa how could a domestic scenario escalate to this horror? religious zealot obsessed with witchcraft. character, facing her own family challenges,
Lambert, murdered horrifically in a It’s enough to keep you turning the pages at breakneck Somehow she must escape his malign but ready to do battle for her late friend
targeted attack in her own laboratory, when news speed! influence before he destroys her life. Florence’s only surviving daughter.
comes in of another threat to life on the streets of Be warned, I did find some of the scenes truly With its air of mysticism, magic The prose is rich and beautiful and I
Edinburgh. stomach-churning – though I like a good murder mystery, and menace, this was such a particularly liked the fantastic descriptions
In a tense and gripping narrative, there follows I’m a bit squeamish reading about the torture inflicted on gripping story right from the start. of the healing arts employed at that time,
a series of horrific attacks on first responders still-living victims. They’re an integral part of the story, Meticulously researched, it captures from herbal draughts to bezoar stones.
of the emergency services by an unknown though. The serial killer is ever more inventive in their use the atmosphere of a 17th century This was a very different take on the
assailant. Attacks that threaten the lives of of seemingly random victims as an end to justify their village reeling under grief and fear, usual story of plague-stricken Eyam as a
Callanach and her team, even as they battle means – but it’s these victims that might finally provide its inhabitants trying to do the right collective of brave martyrs, but it evoked
to hunt down the culprit and discover their the clues Callanach so desperately needs to solve the thing for themselves and the wider the times superbly to give us a haunting
motive for killing the very people tasked with case. community, but caught up in their and atmospheric historical read.
keeping Scotland’s capital safe. Gruesome, yes, but the writing is so good, the plot so own superstition.
Who is responsible? And why are they well-constructed, and Ava Callanach such an empathetic Mae’s story is beautifully The Hemlock Cure by Joanne Burn is
doing such terrible things? The reader is character that I couldn’t put this down. told through the eyes of her published by Sphere in hardback, RRP
offered tantalising glimpses with clues in late sister, who offers the £14.99
interspersed chapters telling the story of One For Sorrow by Helen Fields is published by Avon reader insight into Wulfric’s twisted mind,
a young woman, Quinn, and the abusive in paperback, RRP £7.99
44
44 NFOP
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