February 08 - Travel Special
If you’d rather the world was your oyster rather than the oyster your world, this might just be the issue for you. Welcome to GT’s Travel Special – fasten your seatbelt, make yourself comfortable and settle in for the flight.
Winter has become a bit of a grind, so our thoughts have turned to warmer climes. Flying in the face of global warming, we’re globe-hopping to some of our favourite destinations: Bologna, Buenos Aires, Salvador, Beijing and… Liverpool (well, it is City of Culture this year). We have well-packed bags of advice about how to get the best out of all these destinations and more. Why, oh why, do most of us only get 20 days’ holiday a year? Sigh. Julian Clary, no stranger to a glittery costume, has interviewed the super-glam Queen of Burlesque, Immodesty Blaize, for us – they nattered over cream cakes about Betty Paige, show biz, childhood and dungarees. They’d both be on my dream-dinner party list, so it’s great to have a chance to earwig their conversation (p 64).
Last month, my boyfriend Mark (pictured) and I, along with GT’s Dr Jessen, were privileged to be invited Shirley Bassey’s 70th birthday party, generously hosted by von Essen chairman, Andrew Davis, at his rather grand Cliveden House Hotel – where Keeler and Profumo unwittingly helped kick off the sexual revolution in the early 60s. It was an amazing party, attended by a surreal cavalcade of top entertainers, including Bruce Forsyth, Christopher Biggins, and Rolf Harris, Joan Collins – icons whooping it up for another icon. Speaking of the very lovely Christopher Biggins, we’ve talked to him for our ‘In The Know’ column (p 62) and, fresh out of the jungle and always entertaining, he had plenty to say about his I’m A Celebrity compadres and the joy of his Civil Partnership.
Elsewhere, and more seriously, we have a report from the States about the US presidential election (p 120), we investigate why Scottish equality legislation lags behind England’s (p 110), and we receive a letter from Dublin (p 115), telling us about gay life there.
Come fly with me.