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Before they laid a finger on the battered, brown-leather book, the conservators at the Bodleian library in Oxford just sat and stared at it, working out how to do as little as possible.

The sorry looking volume is one of the most famous books in the world: the  1623 First Folio of the plays of William Shakespeare, published within seven years of his death by his friends and fellow actors, and the only reason the world inherited plays including The  Tempest, Twelfth Night, Macbeth and Julius Caesar.

The conservators have already made an extraordinary discovery: far from the traditional story suggesting the Bodleian’s was the finest example of the finest work of an Elizabethan printer, a luxury volume for an elite audience, the Stationer’s Company may have palmed off a shoddy copy, poorly printed on inferior paper full of production flaws, which should never have passed the quality control standards for paper makers and printers.

Some damage including folds in the paper and torn corners, assumed to be the work of careless hands over four centuries, was almost certainly there from the start.Today the university library launches a £20,000 appeal fund to digitise the book so that anyone in the world can read its tattered pages, with the backing of Stephen Fry, the director Sir Peter Hall, Dame Vanessa Redgrave, and Jonathan Bate, curator of the Shakespeare exhibition at the British Museum, who called it “the most important secular book in the history of the western world”.

Scores of copies survive, but the Bodleian’s is unique – the buckled splitting leather is the original binding of the loose leaf pages as they came from the printers in 1623.

At the time the rule of the library’s stern founder prevailed, barring all “riff raff and baggage books”, particularly contemporary plays.

Clive Hurst, head of rare books, said the fact that the First Folio was bound, chained and given shelf space, showed how Shakespeare was already moving from being seen as popular entertainment to the ranks of serious literature,

Most of the shelves had Greek, Latin and Hebrew volumes. The tattered pages of the folio showed that the scholars fell on such rare diversions: Romeo and Juliet was read almost to disintegration, King John left pristine.

The book is also a horrible warning to all librarians of the perils of disposal. In 1664 the library got the much smarter Third Folio, and a few years later sold off the First as a duplicate. It would pass through many hands until one day in 1905 a man walked in with the book in a bag, and asked what they thought of it.

A brilliant young librarian recognised the Bodleian library binding and the scars of the chains: it cost them £3,000, also raised by a public appeal, to get the book back. Since then it has scarcely been opened, and has spent almost all its time locked in a strong room.

Hurst feels very twitchy when the volume is out of the building in the conservation studio.

Permission is occasionally given to scholars who really need to use it, but it was the inspiration of Emma Smith, of the English department, who itched to get her hands on it, to get it digitised and available for the first time to the world.

Every page has to be photographed in the highest possible resolution, and the challenge for the conservators is to stabilise the book so that it does not disintegrate in the process – but without destroying any of the historically fascinating damage, or the heroic efforts of one 18th century owner to carry out homemade repairs.

They had to repair a split in the leather – which, comparison with superb 1905 photographs showed, had lengthened ominously and risked ripping completely – just so they could open the cover.

“Usually when a book comes to us the object would be to restore it to a condition when it could be given out to readers again, but that is never going to be possible, or desirable, with this book,” Nicole Gilroy, the team leader, said.

They have made scores of almost invisible repairs with slivers of Japanese paper almost as fine as surgical stitches, attached with wheat-starch glue, and they have straightened out some folds that were obscuring text.

But many more folds in plain paper, or tatters that were not actually about to fall off, were left alone.

They worked in pairs, one with the glue brush, one with a pencil recording every intervention: “The one with the brush always wanted to do more, the one with the pencil was always arguing for less,” Gilroy said. “It’s in our nature where we see damage to want to repair it.”

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/aug/02/bodleian-shakespeare-first-folio-online

Chris Moyles has slumped to his lowest audience for more than five years, as his departure from the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show approaches.

The self-styled saviour of Radio 1, who will leave the biggest job in UK radio in September, saw his audience fall to 6.93 million in the three months to the end of June, according to the latest official Rajar listening figures published on Thursday.

Moyles lost more than half a million listeners year on year, slipping below the seven million mark for the first time since the end of 2006, when he had an audience of 6.82m.

BBC Radio 1 controller Ben Cooper announced the much-anticipated departure of Moyles from breakfast last month, although he is expected to move to another role at the station. He will be replaced by the station’s late evening presenter, Nick Grimshaw, who at 27 is 11 years younger than Moyles. Cooper has come under pressure to retune the station to a younger audience.

Moyles’ imminent departure from breakfast is one of a number of changes instigated by Cooper, such as a clearout of many of its specialist DJs, including Gilles Peterson who has moved to BBC Radio 6 Music, and Greg James’s move to drivetime in place of Scott Mills. Overall, Radio 1 had an average weekly reach of 11.27 million listeners in the three months to the end of June, up 1.2% on the previous quarter but down 3.6% year on year.

It remains the second most popular station in the country, behind Radio 2 which had 14.46 million listeners, down 0.7% on the previous quarter but up 3.5% on last year.

Radio 2 breakfast DJ Chris Evans remains by some distance the DJ most people choose to wake up to. Evans’ audience of 8.95 million was down from 9.23 million the previous three months but up from 8.67 million in the second quarter of 2011.

Moyles had long harboured hopes of presenting the nation’s number-one breakfast show, particularly in the wake of Sir Terry Wogan’s departure from the Radio 2 breakfast slot.

The Radio 1 DJ steadily grew his breakfast audience from a debut of 5.93 million in 2004 to a high of 7.9 million at the beginning of 2010.

But up against Wogan, and now Evans, whose lead is more than two million listeners, the number-one spot eluded him.

Of the other BBC national stations, BBC Radio 4 was up 2.1% on the previous quarter but down 3.1% year on year to 10.52 million. Radio 4′s flagship Today programme pulled in 6.76 million listeners.

Its digital sister station BBC Radio 4 Extra added another 8.9% listeners on the previous quarter to a record 1.64 million and now has Radio 3, which had an audience of 2.04 million, in its sights.

Not such good news for BBC Radio 5 Live, which was down 3.4% on the previous three months and down 6% year on year to 6.15 million. But its sister station, 5 Live Sports Extra, piled on the listeners, breaking through the one million barrier to 1.07 million.

Among the BBC’s other digital stations, BBC Radio 6 Music was down 5.2% on the previous three months but up 8.6% on the year to 1.38 million.

BBC Radio 1 Xtra also had a record audience, up 24.1% on the previous quarter, to 1.14 million.

But the BBC World Service suffered a big year on year drop in its UK audience, down 19.1% to 1.39 million, up 6.8% on the previous three months.

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/aug/02/chris-moyles-radio1-ratings-slump

Almost 45 years after Tony Elliott launched Time Out, charging a shilling an issue, the grandaddy of listings magazines is set to be reborn as a free title in London with hundreds of thousands copies handed out each week.

Time Out’s flagship London edition, which has a circulation of 55,000 and costs £3.25, is set to join the growing ranks of free titles in the autumn as part of a three-year plan to reinvigorate the magazine.

The title, which began life in 1968 with a print run of 5,000, will boost circulation to 300,000 in the hopes of increasing the amount charged for advertising space to counter the loss of cover-price revenues.

The move highlights the changing nature of the publishing business, with most paid-for newspapers and magazines seeing circulation fall as readers look online for free news, reviews and listings information.

Some publishers are responding with free titles of their own. The men’s title Shortlist and women’s counterpart Stylist, both distributed free in London and other big UK cities, have been two of the most successful consumer magazine launches of recent years. The London Evening Standard also made a successful switch from paid-for to free distribution nearly three years ago.

Tim Arthur, editor-in-chief of Time Out UK, said becoming free in London was not prompted by ailing sales and that the title was profitable.

He also denied that the decision has been forced on the magazine by Oakley Capital, the private equity firm run by Peter Dubens that bought 50% of the business from Elliott in 2010.

The deal was reported at the time to have valued the title at £20m, including £10m debt.

“This is not driven by private equity, it is something that has been looked at over a good amount of years on and off,” said Arthur. “It is still a profitable magazine, this has not been driven by decline, it is driven by opportunity. As a magazine it was the next thing to look at really, and now feels like the right time.”

At its peak in the mid-1990s Time Out sold more than 110,000 copies, double the most recent official circulation figures for the six months to the end of December.

A high proportion of the magazine’s circulation is made up of subscriptions – about 32,000 – with only about 10,000-12,000 copies sold on newsstands for the full cover price, with the remainder given away for free as bulks. Time Out will continue to charge subscribers a small fee to cover postage.

More than half of the 300,000 free copies will be handed out by a team of 200 distributors spread across central London’s underground and mainline rail stations.

A significant number will also be available at cultural venues, such as Tate Modern, and in coffee shops, although talks could secure distribution deals.

There are versions of Time Out in 37 cities, although all but three are licensed to third parties. Time Out will not be make free the other two that it owns directly, including the one for Paris.

Time Out’s publication day will remain Tuesday. Stylist is distributed on a Wednesday, Shortlist on a Thursday and Sport on Friday.

Time Out has had to convince media-buying agencies to buy into an increase in advertising rates to try to make up for the loss of cover-price revenue.

Greg Miall, the former Sport magazine executive who is project director on the Time Out relaunch, said the loss of the cover-price revenues was not as severe as it might seem.

“We have a large base of advertising already in the magazine,” he said. “In the past, as the circulation has declined, advertisers have kept it on their schedule but they do want reach.”

He said that a Time Out average issue had 124 pages – although the relaunched magazine will be slimmer – with a 70/30 split of editorial pages to advertising. The new-look title is likely to be more 60/40 editorial to advertising pages.

He added that taking the magazine free suited the multi-platform business model, which included free iPad, iPhone and Android apps, as well as a website.

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/aug/02/time-out-free-london-edition

Tens of thousands of remand prisoners who are yet to be convicted are treated far worse in jails in England and Wales than sentenced prisoners, according to an official watchdog report.

The chief inspector of prisons says that as many as 29,400 people who are remanded to prison to await their verdict or sentence each year are released immediately after their trials because they have been acquitted or not given a custodial sentence.

There are between 12,000 to 13,000 remand prisoners held at any one time. They spend an average of nine weeks inside and represent 15% of the prison population, with women and those from minority ethnic backgrounds over-represented.

The chief inspector, Nick Hardwick, says that despite a long-established principle that remand prisoners should have rights and entitlements not available to sentenced prisoners, many in fact endure a poorer prison regime, with less access to support services and less preparation for their release.

The prisons inspectorate’s thematic report on remand prisoners published on Thursday says that it is now the “norm” under prison service policy for remand prisoners to share a cell with a sentenced prisoner despite it being expressly forbidden that they be required to share under prison rules. Few of the remand prisoners interviewed by inspectors could recall being asked for their consent.

The report based on findings of surveys and inspections at 33 local prisons, fieldwork at a further five jails and focus groups of remand prisoners, says that they are at an increased risk of suicide and self-harm with nearly a quarter saying they felt depressed or suicidal when they arrived at prison.

The remand prisoners told the inspectors that few staff were able to distinguish between remand and sentenced prisoners on the wings and had limited or no knowledge of their entitlements.

“The right to vote had not been facilitated at two of the five prisons visited. Remand prisoners were allowed to wear their own clothes at most establishments, but this was often hindered by complicated and prohibitive processes,” says the report.

It also discloses the scale of legal problems facing remand prisoners with nearly half reporting difficulty in getting information about applying for bail. Many reported difficulties in maintaining contact with solicitors because they could not get access to a phone or afford the calls.

The fact that remand prisoners make up a transient population temporarily held mainly in large, old, inner city jails makes it hard for prison governors to provide much in the way of purposeful regime. More than half the unconvicted prisoners reported spending less than four hours a day out of their cells on weekdays although all had the right to choose to attend work or education classes.

“Most in our groups said they wanted to take part in activity as this increased their time out of cell and ability to earn money, but a lack of places and/or the prioritisation of sentenced prisoners meant some were unable to do so.”

The chief inspector said the specific circumstances of remand prisoners needed to be recognised: “This is not just a question of addressing injustice in the treatment of individuals, but ensuring that costly prison places are not used unnecessarily and that everyone is given the chance to leave prison less likely to commit offences than when they arrived.”

Michael Spurr, the chief executive officer of the national offender management service, said the report raised important issues that were being addressed: “Our existing policies recognise the distinction between remand and sentenced prisoners and set out the privileges and entitlements that reflect remand prisoners’ status. We have already taken action to reinforce requirements on cell sharing and access to work for remand prisoners.

“We will continue to reinforce the management of remand prisoners, to ensure we are meeting the statutory requirements and the findings from this report will further inform this work in due course.”

Spurr added that a “no real prospect” test was being introduced aimed at reducing the number of those who were unnecessarily remanded into custody who subsequently did not receive a jail sentence.

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/aug/02/remand-prisoners-treated-worse

A split appears to be emerging within the coalition over the future of Royal Bank of Scotland.

It is believed that Liberal Democrat Vince Cable is arguing that it should be nationalised to bolster lending to small businesses, but the business secretary, who has made no secret of his belief that 100% control of RBS compared with 83% now would boost lending, appears to be failing to win the support of Cabinet colleagues, including the chancellor, George Osborne.

The bank, which is due to report a first-half loss on Friday, is arguing that it is lending as much as it can, but Cable is thought to feel that Osborne could do more to foster lending given the lack of growth in the economy.

The Treasury is adamant that full-scale nationalisation, which would cost another £5bn, is not on the cards. “We are committed to repairing and returning RBS to full health so that it is able to support the UK economy in the future, and the current strategy is working to achieve that. The government’s policy has always been to return RBS to the private sector, but only when it delivers value for money for the taxpayer,” the Treasury said.

In March, Cable wrote to David Cameron to urge him to use RBS as a vehicle for lending to small businesses. Cable gave a speech shortly afterwards acknowledging the problems with EU state aid.

Last week, the Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott wrote in the Guardian: “If RBS, the worst non-lender by far, won’t do its basic job, we must nationalise it”.

But the RBS chief executive Stephen Hester indicated in an interview with the Guardian last week that his aim remained to loosen the state’s ties on the bank. He expects the bank to exit the asset protection scheme -set up to insure £300bn of the bank’s most toxic assets (loans) – later this year.

The business secretary is thought to feel emboldened by the botched lending schemes already introduced by Osborne who presided over an economy which contracted by 0.7% in the last quarter. A national loan guarantee scheme has already been replaced by funding for lending which was launched this week.

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/aug/02/royal-bank-of-scotland-future-divides-coalition

The disappearance of the businesswoman Carole Waugh is now being treated as murder by detectives at Scotland Yard.

A 47-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of the 50-year-old’s murder, the Metropolitan police said. The same man was first arrested as he arrived at Luton airport on a flight on Tuesday night, on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and suspicion of kidnap.

Waugh went missing after visiting her family in Durham over the Easter bank holiday weekend in April. Scotland Yard said the last confirmed sighting of Waugh was on 16 April in London. It is known that she spoke to her mother on the phone the next day. But after that, contact seems to have stopped.

Her family reported her missing in early May. The case was handed to detectives from homicide and serious crime command of Scotland Yard 10 days ago. Within hours they realised her bank accounts had been the subject of high value suspicious fraudulent activity and appealed for information about her.

It emerged last week that Waugh, whose family believed she was an executive in the oil industry in Libya, had perhaps had a mystery life as a high class escort in London. Police said that was one definitive line of inquiry in their hunt for Waugh, who has been missing for three months.

Scotland Yard on Wednesday released pictures of valuable jewellery which has gone missing from her flat in Marylebone, London. The police have previously revealed that suspects in her disappearance tried to sell her flat and also defrauded her out of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Police have arrested 10 men and women in the investigation into Waugh’s disappearance.

Detective Chief Inspector John McFarlane, leading the murder hunt, has appealed for information about Waugh’s life in London.

She had worked in Libya for the nationailised oil industry for eight years before returning to London. Originally from a mining village in County Durham, her family have made emotional appeals for information about her whereabouts.

The announcement that the police were now engaged in a murder hunt will have confirmed their worst fears.

Mcfarlane said: “Information has been received which has progressed this inquiry and we are now treating Carole’s disappearance as a murder investigation.

“I am unable to go into further detail about the nature of the new information at this time, however, we now believe that Carole has not been seen alive since 16 April. Since that time, significant plundering of her estate has taken place to the value of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

“In addition to a number of fraudulent transactions associated with Carole’s bank account there are also a number of her personal possessions that currently cannot be located.

“I am releasing images of items of Cartier jewellery, identical to that worn by Carole, which are amongst items missing from her personal possessions.

“The jewellery that is missing is as follows: a Cartier ring, a white gold bracelet; a yellow gold bracelet and a yellow gold necklace, which are all in the same style.

“Carole wore the jewellery regularly and I appeal to anyone may have been offered such jewellery or has any knowledge of its whereabouts to contact us with information.

“Anyone with information that can assist this investigation is urged to contact the incident room at Sutton on 020 8721 4205; if you wish to remain anonymous please call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/aug/01/carole-waugh-murder

Sean Rigg’s family say police complaints commission let us down Link to this video

An inquest jury has concluded that police used unsuitable and unnecessary force on a man who died in custody, with officers failing to uphold the detained man’s basic rights as he collapsed after being pinned down for eight minutes.

In one of the most damning verdicts in recent times concerning a death in custody, the jury in the inquest of Sean Rigg, found that the Metropolitan police made a catalogue of errors which “more than minimally” contributed to Rigg’s death.

During his detention, the jury found Rigg was held down in a V shape, in a prone position for eight minutes, despite it taking 30 seconds to handcuff him.

During the restraint he was placed face down, with his legs bent back, in a caged footwell of a police van. The jury found that Rigg was struggling but not violent and officers failed to spot the deterioration in his health.

Rigg, 40, was a musician who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.

The jury found the NHS was also culpable. The South London and Maudsley NHS Trust had not ensured that Rigg had taken his medication for two months, nor did they conduct a mental health assessment, which the jury found also contributed to his death. The jury found the trust care was inadequate and that for 10 days they had missed signs that his mental health was relapsing. The case draws together several issues of acute concern to Britain’s black communities; from deaths in police custody to concerns about their treatment by mental health services.

Rigg’s family called for a public inquiry into the number of deaths in custody and for criminal prosecutions.

Rigg was living in a south London hostel in August 2008 as his mental health deteriorated. One afternoon he smashed up a gazebo and made karate moves which staff viewed as threatening. They called the police who did not respond to several pleas for help.

Rigg was then thought to have attacked passers by. Three hours after the first 999 call, police responded. He was restrained by three officers on the Weir estate in Brixton.

The jury at Inner London South coroner’s court returned a narrative verdict which said that:

• The police failure to respond to 999 calls for help from hostel staff was “unacceptable and inappropriate.”

• There was poor communication between police officers when they arrived. Rigg’s history of mental health problems which made him vulnerable, was known to police and “readily accessible” but the information was not passed on.

• Despite other deaths involving police restraint, the jury said in this case it was “questionable” if guidelines meant to prevent such deaths were sufficient or followed.

The jury said: “The level of force used on Sean Rigg whilst he was restrained in the prone position at the Weir Estate was unsuitable.

“In addition there was an absence of leadership; this led to a failure to take appropriate control .”

Police did not assess Rigg’s condition which was “inadequate” and they failed to treat him as a vulnerable person, taking him to a police station instead of a hospital or specialist facility, said the jury.

The jury’s criticism of the police continued: Once in the police station, where he was losing consciousness, “there

was an absence of appropriate care and urgency of response” which again contributed to his death and “both the action and decision of the police to stand Sean Rigg up was unacceptable and inappropriate.”

The jury also found that police doubts that Rigg was really unwell was another failing as was the “failing to secure an ambulance as quickly as possible”.

The jury said: “Whilst Sean Rigg was in custody the police failed to uphold his basic rights and omitted to deliver the appropriate care.”

Efforts to revive Rigg, who had previously been physically healthy, failed.

The jury said that death was caused by cardiac arrest, partial positional asphyxia, that is the position officers held him in, aschaemia, which is the restriction of blood flow to body tissues leading to oxygen or glucose depletion, and acute arrhythmia.

The seven-week inquest had seen police accused of lying. Rigg’s family issued a statement calling for the Crown Prosecution Service to bring criminal charges and for a public inquiry into deaths in custody.

IRigg’s family said the inquest had been painful: “This pain has been compounded by officers at best misleading the jury and at worst lying under oath. The evidence we have heard has left us in no doubt that Sean died as a result of the wilful neglect of those who were meant to care for him and keep him safe.

“When the police did eventually arrive, they restrained him, arrested him for theft of his own passport, put him in the back of a police van, drove him with sirens, not to the hospital for urgent medical care, but to Brixton police station, left him in a perspex cage in the van and finally brought him to the caged area at the back of the station where he died on a concrete floor, surrounded by police officers.”

Julia Tomlinson, widow of Ian Tomlinson who died during the G20 protests, said: “We know the challenges they will have faced in fighting for justice and hope this outcome will pave the way for stronger accountability of police officers over their use of force.”

Commenting on the verdict the Met’s Assistant Commissioner Simon Byrne, said: “We sincerely regret the death of Sean Rigg and on behalf of the Metropolitan Police Service I wish to extend our deepest sympathy to his family and friends. It is always a matter of deep concern when someone dies in our care.

“It is clear from what the jury said and our own conclusions that the way we handled the calls about Sean’s behaviour let us down and set off a series of events that resulted in him being taken ill whilst being restrained and dying in police custody.

“Despite the best efforts of a doctor who was in the custody area at the time and the officers who tried to resuscitate him, Sean died.

“Our officers deal with challenging situations every day and in this case they responded to a difficult set of circumstances. We recognise the sensitivities involved in dealing with people suffering from mental health issues. We have clear policies and procedures in place for dealing with these situations and work with a wide range of organisations to improve our care of such vulnerable people.”

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/aug/01/sean-rigg-police-used-unnecessary-force

A statement from the family of Sean Rigg is read outside the coroner’s court after a jury found police used an ‘unsuitable level of force’ on the schizophrenic musician before he died in custody

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2012/aug/01/sean-rigg-police-complaints-commission-video

Heather Stanning’s mother Mary was breathless with delight after watching her daughter’s gold medal win from the lakeside at Eton Dorney.

“Wow, goodness me. How would you feel if it was your daughter? I’m totally thrilled, absolutely totally thrilled,” she said.

Mary and Timothy Stanning had travelled to Windsor for their daughter’s event from their home in the coastal town of Lossiemouth in Moray, north-east Scotland, which is best known for its RAF base and is close to Heather Stanning’s former school, Gordonstoun.

Stanning, 27, took up rowing late at Bath university, but was a gifted athlete at Gordonstoun, where she was an army scholar from 1998 to 2003, setting several records at a school known for its stress on physical fitness and outdoor sports.

The school has already celebrated a silver medal win by a former pupil: Zara Philips, the queen’s grand-daughter who won silver as a member of Team GB’s eventing team on Tuesday, studied there shortly before Stanning.

The school said it was “incredibly proud” of both women’s achievements.

Simon Reid, the school’s principal, said: “The whole Gordonstoun community is so excited at this news. Both Heather and Zara have achieved at the highest level in their chosen sport and I am immensely proud of them.

“To be chosen to represent your country is a huge achievement in itself but to win a gold medal is the icing on the cake. With our new sports complex due for completion later this year, I have no doubt Heather’s example will inspire our students to make full use of it.”

Councillor Allan Wright, leader of Moray council and a local ward member who knows Stanning’s parents, said he was “absolutely delighted” about the local girl’s gold medal.

It was a “real tonic” to the town, which has been grieving since early July afterthree airmen from RAF Lossiemouth were killed when their Tornado jets crashed in the Moray Firth, Wright said.

There had been growing anticipation about the rowing final in the area this week, as Team GB searched for its first gold medals. He said newspaper billboards in the town, known locally as Lossie, had been shouting “Lossie girl goes for gold” in recent days.

“There has been a numbness around Lossiemouth for a few weeks now, so the gold medal coming to someone from the area is a real tonic,” Wright said. “As leader of the council I’m delighted and as a ward member too I’m overwhelmingly delighted. I’m just over the moon on behalf of the parents.”

Richard Devey, Stanning’s PE teacher at Gordonstoun, said: “Heather was a very powerful all-round, natural athlete and games player. She was very hard working and always had a huge smile on her face. She still holds some school athletic records.

“As well as being a superb athlete, Heather was guardian [head girl] in her last year at school and was a very valuable member of the school’s fire service. It is no surprise to me that she has done so well at the Olympics – she was always destined to go far in the sporting world.”

Her rowing was noticed at Bath university, the school said, where she took a degree in sports technology and took up rowing socially. There her talents were noticed by Paul Stannard, a rowing coach based at the university, and she took up more intensive training in the sport while finishing her degree and serving in the university’s officer training corp.

After graduating from Bath in 2007, Heather took up a commissioning course at Sandhurst officer training school with her brother, Martin. Now a Royal Artillery captain, her unit is currently on active service in Afghanistan.

Gordonstoun said that watching the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a spectator made her think she had far greater potential as a rower, and, supported by the army, she trialed for the British rowing squad in 2009 and was eventually paired with Helen Glover in 2010.

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/aug/01/heather-stanning-lossiemouth-olympic-gold

Apparently it’s not just stadium seats that are empty at London 2012. Shop owners and restaurateurs have complained that their businesses are suffering as tourists and locals abandon the West End.

Bernard Donoghue, director of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, says visitor numbers at its flagship London venues had fallen by 30-35% last week.

But hold on. If London is empty, isn’t this the perfect time to get into the best restaurants and shows? Martine Ainsworth-Wells from Visit London says we should take advantage and “enjoy London’s world-class restaurants”. Perhaps she’s right.

Since its opening in January, Dabbous has become the most booked-out restaurant in London. Clearly now is the time to sneak in and enjoy the £54-a-head, seven-course tasting menu. Sadly, the Olympics doesn’t seem to have put gourmets off a trek to Fitzrovia. The receptionist says that there is no table until May 2013. A call to the three-starred Michelin restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea is equally unsuccessful – no table until January. Luckily the two Michelin-starred eateries Le Gavroche in Mayfair and The Ledbury in Notting Hill aren’t quite as busy. They can squeeze me in in October. At Noma at Claridges, the pop-up restaurant that chef René Redzepi is running during the Olympics, seats sold out months ago, and there won’t be any cancellations as the £195-a-head tickets are non-refundable I’m told, rather firmly.

But just as I am about to give up, Pollen Street Social, Jason Atherton’s venture that opened to great fanfare last year, says it can give me something at 7.30pm, while The Wolseley has space at 9pm. Result.

Perhaps I’ll take in a West End show beforehand. The hottest ticket in town is the musical Matilda. My hopes are initially raised when the sales assistant tells me there are two seats left. But by the time I’ve said I’ll take them, they have been sold to someone else. There are two tickets left for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the National, but they’re not together. “The run is almost entirely sold out,” apologises the guy on the other end of the phone. “Unfortunately we haven’t had many cancellations from the Olympics.”

Standing-room-only seems to be the most likely option if I want to see Mark Rylance in Richard III at the Globe too. But Chariots of Fire, the ultimate sporting choice, has tickets left for the rest of the week. I fear that might be more to do with the reviews than the lack of tourists though.

And then at last, unlike much of Team GB, I strike gold. Madame Tussauds, notorious for its year-round, hours-long queues, tells me that because the Olympics have “significantly impacted normal visitation patterns”, it is putting together a two-for-one offer until 12 August. With Jessica Ennis as one of the star attractions, it’s one way to see an Olympian.

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/shortcuts/2012/aug/01/london-empty-during-olympic-games