Harper's Bazaar UK June 2022

VICTORIA BECKHAM ‘For this historic shoot, we wanted to honour Her Majesty with a traditionally regal colour, so I reimagined an A/W 22 runway look in a rich purple shade. A sequined dress forms the base of the outfit, sitting underneath a delicate, fine knit that is wrapped around the body, distorting the shine of the sequins to give a truly refined aesthetic, fit for a Queen.’ Sequin and knit dress, Victoria Beckham A/W 22 Worn with hat, Molly Goddard. Earrings; rings, all Stephen Webster RICHARD PHIBBS

GILES DEACON ‘The Queen’s fashion legacy has been in making the formal fabulous. This long-line coat nods to the work of the Hardy Amies period, when Her Majesty’s tailoring was becoming more streamlined. My favourite style moment is when she wears the Order of the Garter: the detail, fabrication and splendour transcend fashion, and I adore the history, theatre and pomp it delivers.’ Duchesse silk jacket dress, Giles Deacon A/W 16

MICHAEL HALPERN, HALPERN ‘As an American, I look at the Queen as this otherworldly figure. Although she is quite classic in her silhouette, it’s her exuberant choice of colour that people will continue to reference for a very long time.’ Tartan coat; matching miniskirt; polka-dot shirt, all Halpern S/S 17

IAN GRIFFITHS, MAX MARA ‘In 1977, the Queen came to Derbyshire on her Silver Jubilee tour, dressed head to toe in a single shade of teal, and this was my first real-life encounter with a true icon. Day after day, she appeared in colours you had never seen outside a paint factory. Here, I’ve chosen a powdery primrose yellow, and I’ve designed a teddy-bear coat with the year of her accession embroidered on the back.’ Alpaca and silk coat; hat; brooch; knitted gloves; bag; shoes, all Max Mara (Custom) RICHARD PHIBBS

RICHARD QUINN ‘The Queen once wore an amazing matching hat and coat in acid green, with patent black shoes; to me, that’s daring and subversive. So, I wanted this Tudor mini-dress at the Tower of London. It’s a play on the royal look – crystals, silk duchesse satin, a little crinoline… and then a bit of latex.’ Duchesse satin dress; velour tights; latex gloves, all Richard Quinn A/W 20 Hair by Paul Donovan. Make-up by Zoe Taylor at CLM Agency. Manicure by Michelle Humphrey at LMC Worldwide. Stylist’s assistants: Crystalle Cox and Gal Klein. Production by Raw Production. Set design by Gillian O’Brien. Model: Kukua Williams at Premier Model Management. Shot on location at HM Tower of London with kind permission of Historic Royal Palaces RICHARD PHIBBS



‘Queen Elizabeth II (Lightness of Being)’ (2007) by Chris Levine BEHIND HER EYES Over the decades of her reign, the Queen has shown herself to be as remarkable away from the limelight as she is in the full glare of the public gaze. Nine figures with an insight into her life reveal what makes our monarch such an extraordinary and inspiring figurehead

THE ENIGMATIC Helen Mirren in SOVER EIGN ‘The Queen’ By Chris Levine, artist THE OR DER LY THINK ER n 2004, it had been 800 years since the island of Helen Mirren, actress Jersey broke away from France and pledged alle- There was one thing I learnt about the giance to the Crown, and they wanted to mark that Queen that I put into the film, which I got from the book by Crawfie, her nanny. She relationship with a contemporary portrait. When had been the nanny for Elizabeth and Margaret until they were about 17 years old, I got the phone call about it, I thought: ‘Why me?’ so she knew them really well. The Queen always loved horses, and she had these little It really was daunting because I wanted to create something worthy. toy horses, and Crawfie said she would get up in the middle of the night and arrange If I was going to take on the commission, I wanted to instil into it them very neatly, so they were all in a row. She said sometimes in the night she’d get something iconic. Creatively, I was given complete agency. I got to up and check that they were still neatly arranged, that their little feet were still in style the Queen, which I did with her PA Angela Kelly, and chose a a straight line. And there was a moment [in The Queen] when she’s on the phone to Tony single line of pearls, a selection of capes and the Diadem Crown, Blair and she’s got some pens, and I said: ‘I want a shot of her arranging these pens very which is beautiful and understated, with a simple cross. neatly, equally distanced and exactly lined up.’ And it was a tiny detail that the audience The appointment had been in my diary for three years, and when will never really know, but you know, and when as a character you walk onto the set, the big moment arrived it was surreal. The Queen came into the you feel: ‘This is where I live, this is mine.’ Yellow Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace wearing the dress I had picked out, and I almost had to pinch myself. Angela Kelly brought the crown in a large jewellery box; you might think putting it on would be a big ceremonial affair, but they just did it in front of the mirror. I had been briefed on how to address the Queen – ‘Ma’am’, not ‘Marm’ – and to shake her hand as she put hers out. She was very The reason the composed and observant, rather portrait has than reactive. She looked at me and didn’t give anything away. touched so many people is because I had some incense burning in the it has a spiritual room because I wanted to create an ambience of calm. I used a camera dimension that takes eight seconds and shoots 200 frames, so I stood next to her to time it with her breathing. I wanted to capture a sense of exhalation and stillness; to see her as a human, rather than be distracted by the fact that she is the Queen. I spoke with her about meditation practices, and learnt that hers is gardening, which I thought was quite beautiful. The resulting portraits have really resonated with people. In 2012, the National Portrait Gallery opened its show of 16 of the most powerful images ever made of the Queen (including those by Lucian Freud, Andy Warhol and Pietro Annigoni) with Equanimity, and closed it with Lightness of Being. Equanimity was the official portrait, showing the Queen with her eyes open, looking straight ahead. Its PHOTOGRAPHS: © CHRIS LEVINE, SHUTTERSTOCK title reflects how she manages to stay composed, despite all the demands made of her. I asked her how she felt about the title of the work, and she said she thought it was appropriate. The second is Lightness of Being, where her eyes are closed. This was actually an outtake, and I think the reason it has touched so many people is because it has a spiritual dimension. Some people who are not necessarily royalists have collected versions of Lightness of Being, and now there are editions hanging on different walls all over the world. There’s something about it that you just connect with – it has a certain serenity. I think if a work of art can give you a moment of peace, then viewers naturally respond to it.

Clockwise from below left: the Queen with her horse Highclere at Epsom in 1974. Clare Balding THE and her brother Andrew with Valkyrie the Shetland pony. The Queen on Derby Day in 1988 EQUINE E NTHUSI A ST By Clare Balding, broadcaster When I was small, the Queen gave my brother and me a Shetland pony called Valkyrie, which we learnt to ride on. My father used to train some of her racehorses, and when she’d come to visit them at our yard, there would be a line-up of several gleaming thoroughbreds, and at the end, little portly Valkyrie. Her Majesty was always so thrilled to see her. While she is passionate and exceptionally knowledge- able about racing, her love of horses isn’t just about sporting achievement. You can see this in her enthusiasm for Highland ponies – naughty, stocky little things. If one of hers comes top in show, they might win her a Tesco voucher or something… the prize isn’t the point. Of course, she loves a sweepstake win, too, and the gossip of the racing world. Horses are a great equaliser – a horse isn’t going to behave itself around her because she’s a monarch, and I think she enjoys that. It says quite a lot that some of the Jubilee celebrations have been arranged to give the Queen time to return from Epsom that evening. Whatever the commemorations are, watching the Derby is non-negotiable. THE BENEFICENT M ATR I A RCH By Joanna Lumley, actress and author of ‘A Queen for All Seasons’ ne summer evening, I was too late for a Royal life to the service of her people, and she has never wavered. I don’t Academy event attended by the Queen because think I could have made such a vow at 21 and been true to it for of catastrophic traffic in London. I leapt from evermore. I think people see her as a mothership, the mater familias, my taxi and raced down Piccadilly, only to see the bedrock; everything she does is measured, kindly, reassuring – in the royal car slowly pulling out from the Royal fact, everything we long for in a happy family life. I believe she sees Academy. ‘Oh!’ I screeched and dropped a curtsey where I stood on us all as extended members of her family and loves us very much. the pavement. The Queen looked out of the car window, our eyes met and she gave me the dearest, warmest smile. I love the way she Most people can only ever remember the Queen on the throne, notices things about the outside world; when we imagine that we are and she will go down in history as the longest-reigning British staring at her, she is looking back and watching what goes on. monarch. But I think we shall treasure her most for being so She made a promise when she was only 21 years old to devote her unutterably special. We are lucky to have her as an inspiration and – in a weird way – as a true friend.

The Queen feeding THE CORGI her corgis at WHISPE R E R Balmoral in 1976 By Roger Mug ford, animal psychologist and trainer of the Queen’s dogs The Queen absolutely adores her corgis. At the time I knew her, in the mid-1980s, she had nine, two of which were dorgis that appeared from her sister Margaret and became part of the Queen’s group. As Prince Philip gently pointed out, it was perhaps too many – but she was very good at managing them. She takes enormous pride in their health, and personally supervised the feeding, which she demonstrated for me by having somebody come in with a whopping-great tray of bowls. They were all individual battered household pots and pieces of silverware, each containing a unique supper of various home-made concoctions, some with homeopathic additions. Imagine nine little dogs all sitting in a semicircle waiting to have their bowl of food placed before them, following their mistress’ commands to ‘sit’ or ‘stay’! This is a woman who exerts imperious control, but with a very loving and personalised approach. THE CONSUMMATE HOSTESS By Tom Parker Bowles, food writer and critic PHOTOGRAPHS: GETTY IMAGES, COURTESY OF CLARE BALDING, MILTON GENDEL/FONDAZIONE PRIMOLI Everything I’ve learnt about the Queen’s The State Dinner preferences is from Mark Flanagan, the for the President of personal chef to the Queen. She likes sea- Ireland at Windsor sonal ingredients – asparagus, lamb – and food from the estate, such as grouse or Castle in 2014. venison from Balmoral. She’ll have pheas- Above left: the ants from Sandringham (in season from menu for a 2008 October to February), and she even has her own cheese made using milk from the cows State Dinner at the royal dairy in Windsor. When it comes to banquets, all the menus are traditionally written in French, even if they’re describing English dishes; that’s just the way it’s done. Happily, the Queen speaks flawless French, and she has the most incredible memory, so she remembers what every single guest likes and doesn’t like. She’s intricately involved in what’s on each menu, which is important if you’re hosting the president of France or Japan. ‘Her Majesty The Queen: The Official Platinum Jubilee Pageant Commemorative Album’, with contributions from Tom Parker Bowles (£49.95, St James’s House), is out now.

THE ETERNAL The Queen MUSE photographed in her Coronation By Nicholas Cullinan, director of the robes by Cecil National Portrait Gallery Beaton in 1953 From the iconic paintings of the Plantage- hologram form. While the official images of Her Majesty show a leader dressed nets and Tudors to the early photographs in robes of state, other photographs of her at home with family provide a fasci- of Queen Victoria and her family, images of nating insight into royal life, including those unseen moments of rest and quiet, as monarchs have always been hugely popular captured so beautifully by Chris Levine. No icon has influenced artists quite as with visitors to the National Portrait Gallery. much as the Queen because, ultimately, she represents so much more than herself. While many are familiar with our most famous faces, there is only one person who can claim to be not just the most repres- ented royal, but also the most represented person in history: Her Majesty the Queen. Our earliest portrait of the Queen shows her in May 1926, barely a month old, on her mother’s lap. Elizabeth II’s coronation was the first to be televised and broadcast inter- nationally, and our photographs by Cecil Beaton are an evocative celebration of that historic day. Countless artists have inter- preted her likeness, from Pietro Annigoni’s monumental painting commissioned in 1969 to Andy Warhol’s colourful Reigning Queens (1985) and Annie Leibovitz’s ethe- real depiction of Her Majesty at 90, walking with her corgis – now icons themselves. The Queen has lived and reigned through a period of extraordinary change, and with that change has come the evolution of por- traiture. While the monarchs of old were drawn and painted, our Queen’s likeness has developed with the advancement of photo- graphy. In 2012, she was even depicted in THE STYLE SETTER PHOTOGRAPHS: © CECIL BEATON/VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON, GETTY IMAGES By Gerald Bodmer, CEO of Launer London When the Queen ascended to the throne, I was still a young man, sometimes we put a mirror or a purse inside. In person, she is always in my twenties and in the Royal Air Force. I could never have absolutely delightful – like a lady from next-door, with a very good imagined that, 70 years later, I would be her handbag designer sense of humour and a great interest in everything around her. of choice. Her Majesty likes a classical bag – you’re not going to In celebration of the Jubilee, we are reviving a handbag she carried be a rock chick if you’re the Queen. We make them a little lighter in the 1970s. I hope it will reflect the Queen herself: classical, elegant, for her to carry now, at her request: practicality is essential, so one of a kind.

OUR 27 million Britons and 55 million Americans to participate in the ‘show’ from the comfort of their homes. It was a new kind of intimacy that demanded more from Elizabeth II than any previous monarch. STE A DFA ST The Queen had resisted being filmed, but having been convinced by Prince Philip of its necessity, she worked to master the medium. She practised reading off a teleprompter so that her 1957 Christmas HOPE speech, the first to be telecast, would appear warm and natural. Harking back to Elizabeth I, she admitted: ‘I cannot lead you into battle, I do not give you laws or administer justice, but I can do some- By Amanda Foreman, author and historian thing else, I can give you my heart and my devotion.’ She vowed to fight for ‘fundamental principles’ while not being ‘afraid of the future’. In practice, embracing the future could be as groundbreaking as instituting the royal ‘walkabout’, or as subtle as adjusting her hemline f you’ve ever had a dream involving the Queen, you to rest at the knee. Indeed, establishing her own sense of fashion was are not alone. After her Silver Jubilee in 1977, it was one of the first successes of Elizabeth II’s reign. Its essence was pure estimated that more than a third of Britons had glamour, but the designs were performing a double duty: nothing dreamt about her at least once, with even ardent could be too patterned, too hot, too shiny or too sheer, or else it republicans confessing to receiving royal visits in wouldn’t photograph well. Her wardrobe carried the subversive their slumbers. For the past 70 years, the Queen has been more than message that dresses should be made to work for the wearer, not the just a presence in our lives, subconscious or otherwise; she has been other way round. In an era when female celebrity was becoming a source of fascination, inspiration and national pride. increasingly tied to ‘sexiness’, the Queen offered a different kind of When Princess Elizabeth became Queen in 1952, the country confident femininity. Never afraid to wear bright blocks of colour, was still struggling to emerge from the she has encouraged generations of women shadow of World War II. Her youth offered to think beyond merely blending in. a break with the past. Time magazine in the The opportunity to demonstrate her United States named her its ‘Woman of the ‘fundamental principles’ on the interna- Year’, not because of anything she had tional stage came in 1961, during a Cold War achieved but because of the hope she repre- crisis involving Ghana. The Queen was due sented for Britain’s future. A barrister and to go on a state visit, until growing violence political hopeful named Margaret Thatcher there led to calls for it to be cancelled. She wrote in the Sunday Graphic that having a not only insisted on keeping the engage- queen ought to remove ‘the last shreds of ment, but during the wildly popular trip, she prejudice against women aspiring to the also made a point of dancing with President highest places’. After all, Elizabeth II was a Kwame Nkrumah at a state ball. Her adept wife and mother of two small children, and handling of the situation helped to prevent yet no one was suggesting that family life Ghana from switching allegiance to the made her unfit to rule. Soviet Union. Just as important, though, Thatcher’s optimism belied the Queen’s was the coverage given to her rejection of dilemma over how to craft her identity as a contemporary racism. As Harold Mac- modern monarch in a traditional role. At millan noted: ‘She loves her duty and means the beginning, tradition seemed to have the to be Queen and not a puppet.’ This deter- upper hand: a bagpiper played beneath her mination has seen her through 14 prime window every morning (a holdover from The Queen on a visit to Cardiff in 2021 ministers, 14 US presidents, seven popes Queen Victoria). The Queen knew she didn’t and 265 official overseas visits. want to be defined by the past. ‘Some people have expressed the At the beginning of the Covid epidemic in 2020, with the nation hope that my reign may mark a new Elizabethan age,’ she stated in in shock at the sudden cessation of ordinary life, Elizabeth II spoke 1953. ‘Frankly, I do not myself feel at all like my great Tudor forbear.’ directly to the country, sharing a wartime memory to remind people Nevertheless, the historical parallels between the two queens are of what can be endured. ‘We will succeed,’ she promised, and in that instructive. Elizabeth I created a public persona, yet made it desperate moment, she united us all in hope. The uniqueness of the authentic. Fakery was impossible, since ‘we princes,’ she observed, Queen lies in her ability to weather change with grace and equa- ‘are set on stages in the sight and view of all the world.’ Although nimity – as the poet Philip Larkin once wrote: ‘In times when Elizabeth I was a consummate performer, her actions were grounded nothing stood/but worsened, or grew strange/there was one con- in sincere belief. She began her reign by turning her coronation into stant good:/she did not change.’ That steadfast continuity, so rare a great public event. Observers were shocked by her willingness in a world of permanent flux, is an endless source of inspiration for to interact with the crowds, but the celebrations laid the foundation artists and writers, designers and composers, all of us. for a new relationship between the queen and her subjects. The introduction of television cameras for Elizabeth II’s corona- tion performed a similar function. In the 1860s, the journalist Walter Bagehot observed that society itself is a kind of ‘theatrical show’ where ‘the climax of the play is the Queen’. The 1953 broadcast enabled

A RSOCYEANLEFSAFNRTOAMSIA In a dream-like celebration of monarchical dressing, classic Cecil Beaton-style settings get a 21st-century update with contemporary fabrics, bold silhouettes and outré grandiosity Photographs by ERIK MADIGAN HECK Styled by LEITH CLARK All prices throughout from a selection, except where stated. Silk dress, about £3,455; straw hat, both Giambattista Valli



ERIK MADIGAN HECK

THIS PAGE: cotton and silk dress, £6,100; body, both Dior. Silk satin and velvet hat, £2,680, Edwina Ibbotson Millinery. White gold, aquamarine and diamond ring, £6,260, Chaumet. OPPOSITE: lace dress, Harris Reed. White gold and diamond necklace; matching ring, both Bulgari High Jewellery

Chiffon dress, £3,345, Alberta Ferretti. Silk hat, £1,885, Edwina Ibbotson Millinery. Leather gloves, £310, Paula Rowan

ERIK MADIGAN HECK

THIS PAGE: silk waistcoat; silk skirt; flared trousers, all Harris Reed. OPPOSITE: tulle dress, £7,400; crinoline stole, £3,450, both Giorgio Armani. Platinum and diamond earrings; matching ring, both Tasaki ERIK MADIGAN HECK



Metallic Tyvek dress, about £8,000, Balenciaga. White gold and diamond earrings, Chopard. Recycled-satin platforms, £595, Vivienne Westwood

ERIK MADIGAN HECK

Embroidered cotton and lace dress, £8,870; faux-fur jacket, £3,800; metal and crystal tiara, £1,490; satin gloves, all Gucci. Recycled-satin platforms, £595, Vivienne Westwood ERIK MADIGAN HECK





THIS PAGE: embroidered tulle jumpsuit, Dolce & Gabbana. Straw, cotton and silk hat, £4,385, Edwina Ibbotson Millinery. White gold, amethyst and garnet ring; gold, tourmaline, amethyst and sapphire necklace, both Chopard. Leather and crystal heels, £950, Sergio Rossi. OPPOSITE: silk, mesh and net dress, £7,600; metal and pearl earring, £490, both Alexander McQueen. Satin flats, £895, Manolo Blahnik ERIK MADIGAN HECK



THIS PAGE: embroidered dress; straw hat, both Giambattista Valli. OPPOSITE: embroidered silk and lace dress, Louis Vuitton. Rose gold and diamond earrings, £14,500; matching ring, £10,400, both Cartier. Hair by Neil Moodie at Bryant Artists. Make-up by Natsumi Narita. Manicure by Marie-Louise Coster at Caren. Stylist’s assistants: Tilly Wheating and Crystalle Cox. Production by Lucy Watson Productions. Set design by Charlotte Lawton at Patricia McMahon. Model: Lily Nova at IMG Models ERIK MADIGAN HECK

Lydia Slater meetsPtheARoyalSSION PROJECTBalletstarsofLikaesWpiartieterdFaodraCphtaotcioolnatoef,themagicalMexicanlovestory

Photographs by BETINA DU TOIT Styled by HOLLY GORST All prices throughout from a selection, except where stated. THIS PAGE: the Royal Ballet principal dancer Francesca Hayward wears silk, mesh and net dress, Alexander McQueen. White gold and diamond earrings; matching ring, £11,200, both Van Cleef & Arpels. OPPOSITE: principal dancer Laura Morera wears tulle top, £280, Molly Goddard. Tulle skirt, £3,200, Dior. Gold and diamond earrings, £6,300, Van Cleef & Arpels

I t is always slightly surreal going backstage at the Royal Opera House, as I have been privileged to do a few times; you are liable to find yourself suddenly walking into an enchanted castle or face to face with a giant rat. The scene in the Fonteyn Studio, where Bazaar’s photo-shoot is taking place, is more than ordinarily odd, however. As the centre of the Earth or having a character suddenly telescope Francesca Hayward, in a lacy Molly Goddard gown and Van Cleef in size is child’s play for the Royal Opera House’s team, which diamonds, poses elegantly on her pointes, a model of a corpse is lying includes Bob Crowley on stage craft, Natasha Katz on lighting and under a cloth with only its feet showing, alongside a platter of roast Joby Talbot creating the score. Yet at the same time, the whole cast quails in rose-petal sauce and a many-tiered wedding cake. is mindful of keeping the production as authentic as possible. Talbot If this strange collection of props immediately rings a bell, you has joined forces with the Mexican conductor Alondra de la Parra have probably read (or seen) Like Water For Chocolate. The first (a frequent Wheeldon collaborator) to add texture to the music, and novel of Laura Esquivel, a former schoolteacher, it was published the dancers have been reading up on Mexico’s history and traditions, in Mexico in 1989 and became a cult hit around the world; the as well as diving into the original text. ‘There are things about Mama ensuing 1992 film adaptation won numerous awards. Spiced up with Elena that I might not like or respect, but she has to survive in a magical realism, this turn-of-the-century man’s world, she has to be tough,’ says Laura fairy tale tells the story of three sisters and ‘It’s not a Morera, who is creating the role of the their tyrannical Mama Elena. Tita, the straightforward repressive matriarch. ‘You have to find out youngest, is born in the kitchen, and con- boy meets girl, why she is the way she is to make the demned by a family tradition never to marry, girl turns into character your own.’ Wheeldon has choreo- but instead to devote her life to looking after swan, swan falls graphed the lead roles of Tita and Pedro her mother. Unfortunately, Tita has already specifically for Francesca Hayward and fallen in love with the handsome Pedro, a in love with the Portuguese principal dancer Marcelino neighbour’s son; in desperation, Pedro weds prince thing’ Sambé. ‘When you’re learning other ballets, Tita’s elder sister Rosaura, so that he can stay you’re always aware of who it was created close to his true love. Meanwhile, Tita pours for,’ Hayward says. ‘Every other dancer who all her frustrated emotion into the food she comes after has to fit into your mould, in a cooks for the family; the title compares the way, so that’s pretty iconic. It’s amazing to boiling of water for hot chocolate to the sim- think we’re making ballet history.’ mering passion of the forbidden lovers. Unfolding over many years, the narrative She and Sambé debuted together in La Fille Mal Gardée and have a visible chemistry requires characters to run amok in the nude, that augurs well for this production. ‘Frankie to make love on a galloping horse, to inflate and I have so much complicity and we laugh and to spontaneously combust; furthermore, each separate scene a lot together,’ agrees Sambé. ‘Creating with her is easy – she moulds begins with the creation of a recipe. into anyone’s body and she’s so generous as a dancer, and so con- Not, therefore, an intuitive choice for transforming into a ballet. nected with the movement. Whereas with Mayara Magri, who’s ‘We’re still workshopping a lot of these ideas,’ says the choreogra- Rosaura, it’s interesting choreographically because nothing works, pher Christopher Wheeldon when we catch up the day after the the motions are really jarring.’ shoot. ‘It’s challenging, for sure, but I enjoy that. It’s not a straight- Wheeldon has wanted to adapt the story for years. ‘I was intro- forward boy meets girl, girl turns into swan, swan falls in love duced to the movie first, in 1993, and I remember falling in love with with prince thing…’ the characters in the film, and particularly with the strength of the Anyone who saw Wheeldon’s wildly imaginative Alice’s Adventures leading women. I love the combination of the intimate domesticity in Wonderland will know that recreating a fall down a rabbit hole to of the tale, and how Tita’s power is woven into it,’ he says. ‘And food does speak to me in an emotional way; I’ve always been attracted to the idea of cooking as an art form. In a sense, we’re all alchemists, we’re all trying to make something that people will connect to. ‘With the state of the world today, I feel very fortunate to be coming in and hopefully transporting the audience somewhere else for a while, with a story of liberation and the final triumph of love.’ ‘Like Water For Chocolate’ is at the Royal Opera House (www.roh.org.uk) from 2 to 17 June.

From left: principal dancer Marcelino Sambé wears wool and satin trousers, £1,180, Alexander McQueen. Hayward wears tulle shirt; wool jacket, £1,395; ruffled tulle skirt, £1,795, all Simone Rocha. Gold, diamond and mother-of-pearl earrings; gold and diamond ring, £7,850, both Van Cleef & Arpels. Morera wears embroidered organza dress, £3,795, Erdem. Gold and diamond bracelet; matching earrings, both Van Cleef & Arpels BETINA DU TOIT

‘ We’re all alchemists, trying to make something that people will connect to’ BETINA DU TOIT

THIS PAGE: Sambé wears fringed satin jacket, £1,300; satin trousers, £550, both SS Daley. White gold and diamond brooch, Van Cleef & Arpels. OPPOSITE: Morera wears organic-chiffon dress, £2,430, Alberta Ferretti. White gold and diamond earrings; yellow and rose gold and diamond rings (top), both £5,800; white and rose gold ring, all Van Cleef & Arpels. Hair by Declan Sheils at Premier Hair & Make-up, using Electric London. Make-up by Justine Jenkins and Lucie Pemberton, using Hourglass. Manicure by Jenni Draper at Premier, using Chanel Le Vernis in Ballerina and La Crème Main



BEAUTY Edited by KATY YOUNG e foundation of the monarchyWhat ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS: LUCKY IF SHARPTh beguiling new rose fragrances ation by Illustrregime?Plus: LISA BARLOW-WRIGHT makes up the Queen’s beauty

SECRETS OF A BEAUTY QUEEN A bold lip, a fresh complexion and never a hair out of place: Her Majesty’s aesthetic is a masterclass in understated elegance By JENNIFER GEORGE 136 | H A R P E R’ S BA Z A A R | June 2022

BEAUTY BAZAAR ‘I can never wear beige because nobody will know who I am,’ the Queen once joked. Just as a rainbow wardrobe has become the monarch’s style signature – vibrant, mood-boosting and uniquely her own – so she has created a hallmark beauty look. ‘A statement lip has always been the focal point, with her com- plexion enhanced only delicately with base and blush,’ says the make-up artist Lisa Eldridge. For her coronation ceremony in 1953, the Queen commissioned a bespoke ruby-red shade from Clarins FIT FOR ROYAL that ‘specifically matched her ceremonial robes, but also brightened The smudge- her eyes and complexion’. Eldridge notes that throughout her proof reign, our sovereign has explored a spectrum of feminine lip- mascara TY PHOTOGRAPH: YOUSUF KARSH/CAMERA PRESS stick shades, ‘from deep, regal hues to bold, elegant fuchsias’, BBB BE AUTY BUYS London without straying too far from the classics (orange and purple Iconic palettes are out of the question). Tubing Mascara, Other than subtle tweaks to the tone of her lip colour, £22 the Queen’s beauty aesthetic has barely changed – much The subtle skin like the perfectly set curls she has sported since the early perfector Hermès Plein 1960s. According to the journalist and author Robert Air Complexion Balm, £65 Hardman, who has recently published the comprehensive The weatherproof biography Queen of our Times: the Life of Elizabeth II, Her hairspray Oribe Imperméable Anti- Majesty is mindful of being ‘instantly recognisable’. ‘Sophie, Humidity Spray, £45 Countess of Wessex once told me that the Queen knows when The perfect she goes somewhere, people want to be able to say, “I saw the flush of Queen!”,’ he says. ‘It’s not showy, it’s considerate.’ blush Jones Steadfast though her style may be, it remains difficult to find Road Lip and a shopping list of the exact products she uses. One reason is that, Cheek Stick, according to her long-time personal assistant and senior dresser £44 Angela Kelly, the Queen likes to do her own make-up – as indeed she The regal lip did for her wedding to Prince Philip in 1947. For her coronation, Guerlain KissKiss Bee Glow Tinted she brought in the make-up artist Thelma Holland (‘who, in one of Balm, £32 those extraordinary links in history, was married to Oscar Wilde’s son,’ notes Hardman). Holland subsequently served as her beautician for 12 years, but for the past few decades, the filming of her annual Christmas Speech has apparently been the only time the Queen calls on the professionals for her on-screen appearance, ensuring that her make-up secrets remain closely guarded. What, then, do we know about Her Majesty’s regime? It is well documented that her nail polish of choice is Essie’s Ballet Slippers – a chic pale pink – and there are strong rumours that she keeps a tube of the Royal Warrant holder Elizabeth Arden’s Eight Hour Cream within reach at all times. We also know that Clarins has remained a favourite: in fact, the Queen’s only recorded experience of shopping at a make-up counter was with the brand. ‘It was a rather sweet moment on her way back from the Commonwealth summit in 2002, during a stop-over in Singapore,’ recalls Hardman. ‘She’d always wanted to go to a duty-free shop, and headed to the Clarins counter with her lady-in-waiting in the middle of the night. She bought two or three things.’ While we can only guess at what those purchases were, we can assume they were unlikely to frighten the horses. ‘She’ll treat her make-up as she does with handbags – you can give her as many Prada and Gucci bags as you like, but she’ll always use her familiar Launer,’ says Hardman. ‘She’s very straight- forward like that.’ Favouring classic minimalism over outré glamour is a fail-safe formula: perfectly polished and impeccably turned out, Her Majesty is always a picture of elegant composure at royal engagements. ‘Her regime is about simple things that work and don’t let you down,’ observes Hardman. ‘A bit like the Queen herself, really.’ www.harpersbazaar.com/uk June 2022 | H A R P E R’ S BA Z A A R | 137

ROSE AGAIN Why the queen of flowers is enjoying a fragrant renaissance By HANNAH BET TS

BEAUTY BAZAAR Back in 2004, I interviewed Jean-Paul Guerlain – then 67, and the Yet despite its frequent appearances in the perfumery canon, culmination of four generations of perfume genius – at Les Mesnuls, rose has always elicited something of an ambiguous reaction when the family seat to the south-west of Paris. I discovered the begetter used in fragrance. On the one hand, it is nature’s great scent, with of Vétiver and Samsara sighing over yet another incarnation of his a complex molecular make-up that means it is one of the most rose concoction, Nahema. The perfume had been released in 1979 faceted elements in the industry. On the other, it can feel obvious – in its 500th version, already testament to an obsession (compare naive, in the sense of a child mashing petals to make rosewater; less Coco Chanel picking her No 5 out of a mere nine). Two decades on, simple than simplistic. Coco Chanel famously opined that a woman and in its 900th guise, it remained his fixation. Later, he presented shouldn’t smell of flowers, by which she meant perfumers should me with a rose from his garden. I have it – pressed – to this day: take a bouquet and create something more composed and profound a talisman of its creator’s ever-blooming compulsion. than a floral arrangement. After all, it is not only floral perfumes that have blooms at their heart: so, too, do the oriental and chypre genres. Known as the ‘queen of flowers’, the rose has been beloved of the gods and cherished by royalty across the ages: from Cleopatra, via Nahema achieves this, as does that other Eighties power rose, Marie Antoinette, to the Queen herself, who is said to wear White Sophia Grojsman’s Paris for YSL (£76, www.yslbeauty.co.uk). Azzi Rose by Floris (from £60, www.florislondon.com). Dating back to Glasser’s sensual Amber Molecule sends youthful trend-setters such 1800, this soapily clean fragrance has hints of carnations and as Iris Law, Kaia Gerber and FKA Twigs into raptures, in the way greenery, on a rose, violet, iris and jasmine bouquet, set in a powdery their mothers swooned over YSL’s Paris – without necessarily real- base. It is an ingenious choice for a monarch: something that has ising that it is a rose they are relishing. In Perfumer H’s haunting stood the test of time, ostensibly straightforward yet unreadable, bestseller Ink, it is, as the fragrance’s creator Lyn Harris notes, ‘the suggestive of depths she chooses not to reveal – and, perhaps, sym- rose absolute that brings the wet, inky blue note to the woods fused bolic of England itself. with angelica and frankincense’ (from £110, www.perfumerh.com). And, in Delphine Jelk’s Santal Pao Rosa for Guerlain (£280, Two centuries on, a new generation is revelling in this paragon www.guerlain.com), the rose is dry in texture but no less sublime. of florals. Tom Ford commissioned the puckish Rose Prick (from £240, www.tomford.com), a discreet cocktail of rose de Mai, Turkish Since 2000, Frédéric Malle’s Editions de Parfums range has and Bulgarian roses, with a hint of spice. Musc Noir Rose by Narciso created a new era of rose legends, from Ralf Schewiger’s fruity Rodriguez (from £51.50, www.johnlewis.com) is a jammy amber Lipstick Rose to Edouard Fléchier’s carnal Rose Tonnerre and floral, while Diptyque’s Eau Rose (£107, www.diptyqueparis.com) Dominique Ropion’s towering duo, Portrait of a Lady and Geranium unites the flower’s more unexpected accords of camomile, artichoke Pour Monsieur (from £40, www.fredericmalle.co.uk). Trust Malle, and lychee. Elsewhere, Hermessence Rose Ikebana by Jean-Claude then, to articulate the status of the flower so impeccably. ‘Asking me Ellena for Hermès features a sober, woody haiku, in which dewy my feelings about the rose in perfumery is like asking me, “What is petals sit alongside rhubarb (from £197, www.hermes.com). your feeling about nudes in drawing?” It is the classical theme, par excellence,’ he tells me. ‘Rose is a fantastic actor that can play any Those seeking a classic rose scent, however, will not be disap- part – you can turn it into whatever character you want.’ pointed. This spring, Dior – a house that has a rich relationship with the flower – will give us Miss Dior Rose Essence; and, of course, there are the many petal-strewn Malone roses, be they original Jo Malone or her subsequent venture, Jo Loves. posi es Fresh Contemporary takes on a classic scent PHOTOGRAPHS: MIERSWA-KLUSKA/TRUNK ARCHIVE Boy Smells Byredo Young Rose E11even Perfume Oil Guerlain Aqua Aesop Rozu R o s e  L o a d Sichuan pepper is A unisex fragrance Allegoria Rosa Rossa Eau de Parfum This sensual perfume layered over oil that opens with Top notes of blackcurrant Seductively green, fuses rose absolute with Damascus rose to rose and geranium woody and smoky smoked papyrus zesty effect are entwined with rose (£80, www.e11even (£135, (£105, www.spacenk.com). (£127, www.byredo.com). fragrance.com). (from £83, www.aesop.com). www.guerlain.com). www.harpersbazaar.com/uk June 2022 | H A R P E R’ S BA Z A A R | 139



ESCAPE Edited by HELENA LEE PGLREEAESANN&T Britain’s finest rustic retreats and city sanctuaries. Plus: a cultural pilgrimage in the footsteps of Jane Austen; and Tracey Emin’s Margate Hadspen House at the Newt in Somerset

COGUOONUOTRDRY’S Whether you opt for Cotswolds charm or Scottish spirit, a gourmet getaway or a spa sojourn, you’re sure to find splendour on our shores THYME COTSWOLDS Set in the rolling hills rising up from the Thames near the picturesque village of Southrop, Thyme is a showcase for the Hibbert family’s hospitality, whose love of nature shines through everything in the property – from the food served at the Ox Barn restaurant, using produce from the kitchen gardens, to the designs on their range of homewares and tablecloths. Even taking a bath is an opulent pleasure: guests are provided with soap bars enriched with mint, apple blossom and, of course, thyme. The site is also becoming a cultural centre: talks with authors are regularly held in the barn and, this summer, there will be an exhibition of works by the artist Kate Friend. Thyme (www.thyme.co.uk), from £335 a room a night. BUXTON CRESCENT HOTEL DERBYSHIRE www.harpersbazaar.com/uk In the centre of Buxton, one of Britain’s loveliest Roman spa towns, St Ann’s Well is never short of locals filling their jugs with calcium-rich water straight from the hills. Moments away is the Crescent Hotel, built in the 1780s by the 5th Duke of Devonshire, above the communal spa. Following a £70 million, 17-year refurbishment, this Grade I-listed establishment offers saunas, steam rooms and treatments. Rejuvenate yourself with a Himalayan salt massage and a dip in the thermal pool, into which the ancient natural spring emerges. The Buxton Crescent Hotel (www.ensanahotels.com/buxton), from £155 a room a night. 142 | H A R P E R’ S BA Z A A R | June 2022

PHOTOGRAPHS: SUSSIE BELL, RICH STAPLETON, RACHAEL SMITH, JOHN ATHIMARITIS, SAM CANETTY-CLARKE, RICHARD WAITE, ALAMY. ESCAPE GLENMORANGIE HOUSE ROSS-SHIRE Enthusiasts of whisky and whimsy will be beguiled by Glenmorangie House, a convivial micro-hotel owned by the nearby distillers of the same name. Russell Sage, the design mastermind behind the Fife Arms’ theatrical interiors, has worked his maximalist magic on this 17th-century property, which provides the perfect base for exploring the Highlands. Head out in a boat to spot seals, learn the art of beekeeping, explore the distillery or join a guided walk to forage for ingredients the chefs will use to prepare supper. Although the summer solstice means dusk doesn’t descend here until after 11pm, it is worth staying up for: on a clear night, the stargazing – dram in one hand, telescope in the other – is spectacular. Glenmorangie House (www.theglenmorangiehouse.com), from £290 a room a night. MONKE Y ISL AND ESTATE BERKSHIRE A secluded seven acres of bucolic land on the rippling Thames, Monkey Island was the much-loved haunt of Queen Victoria and inspired Rebecca West’s 1918 novel The Return of the Soldier. The Palladian hotel was originally built as an angler’s pavilion, but recent years have seen it transformed into the cosseting country retreat it is today. To one end of the isle is a chicken pen and a row of active beehives, which provide fresh ingredients to the restaurant; and moored along its banks is a blue barge housing the spa, which guests can board for indulgent treatments using oils infused with botanicals from the garden. Come nightfall, unwind in one of the 41 uniquely decorated bedrooms, or toast marshmallows on the fire outside the cosy shepherd’s huts. Monkey Island Estate (www.monkeyislandestate.co.uk), from £275 a room a night. FOUR SEASONS HOTEL TEN TRINITY SQUARE LONDON Built on an ancient trading site, the Grade II-listed, Corinthian- columned Four Seasons Hotel Ten Trinity Square has a fascinating history, tangible from the moment you enter its sleek lobby. Here, you’ll find a display of artefacts from the capital’s bygone years – some dating back to 8500 BC – that were recovered by archaeologists during the hotel’s redevelopment in 2014. Each of the spacious bedrooms is equipped with chic furnishings in soothing tones and some have views over the city, although with Tate Modern, Borough Market and the Tower of London a stone’s throw away, you’re not likely to find yourself staying indoors for too long. Be sure to return in time for dinner at La Dame de Pic, which holds two Michelin stars for its dishes, including Dover sole with smoked beetroot and fresh pasta parcels filled with Baron Bigod brie. Four Seasons Hotel Ten Trinity Square (www.fourseasons.com), from £500 a room a night. www.harpersbazaar.com/uk

THE NEWT SOMERSET Since opening in 2019, the Newt has firmly established itself as a destination brand, its proximity to Hauser & Wirth’s Somerset gallery and the Michelin-starred restaurant Osip attracting a well-travelled and culturally discerning crowd. Finding an available room may be harder than booking tickets to Glastonbury, but this summer, city dwellers can enjoy a day out in the country courtesy of the hotel’s Great Garden Escape, which includes first-class return rail tickets from London Paddington (breakfast and afternoon tea are served in your carriage), a guided tour of the manicured gardens, lunch in the glass-walled café and a ‘cyder’-tasting experience. Those lucky enough to secure an overnight stay can choose between rooms in the elegantly designed main house, with its Georgian origins, and the more rustic farm buildings. The Newt (www.thenewtinsomerset.com), from £385 a room a night. THE CONNAUGHT LONDON This timeless hotel – located just off Berkeley Square – is an exercise in effortless luxury. The interiors have the cosy feel of a townhouse, combining dark walnut panelling with David Collins’ slick design, and are adorned with artworks from a 3,000-strong collection that includes pieces by Julian Opie and Louise Bourgeois. The food-and-drink offering is an embarrassment of riches: choose from the Michelin-starred delights of Hélène Darroze’s restaurant or the Connaught Grill, overseen by Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Need to relax? The Aman spa will leave you feeling pampered. The Connaught (www.the-connaught.co.uk), from £870 a room a night. 144 | H A R P E R’ S BA Z A A R | June 2022 G R AYS COU RT HOTEL YORK The six-course tasting menu at the superb Bow Room restaurant makes a stay at Grays Court Hotel special, but it’s the comfort and friendliness of this lovely place that will bring you back. Standing within York’s ancient walls, it occupies the oldest inhabited house in the city and stands right in the shadow of York Minster. During our visit, we stayed in a room overlooking the beautiful garden, which was split over two levels – the expansive bathroom with its deep copper tub was up a little winding staircase. There is also a cosy, well-stocked library, which makes the perfect base for a peaceful break when you’re tired of sightseeing. Grays Court (www.grayscourtyork.com), from £220 a room a night. www.harpersbazaar.com/uk

ESCAPE BARNSLEY HOUSE COTSWOLDS A sojourn at Barnsley House, where guests can pop down to read a book by a log fire or take afternoon tea in the dining-room, feels a little like staying over at a friend’s chic country home. Its intimate and unpretentious appeal goes hand in hand with a superb attention to detail: local produce, much of it grown on site, is served with imaginative flair at the Potager restaurant, while there is the opportunity to watch a film of your choice (complete with popcorn and a martini) in the on-site cinema. At the heart of the beautifully planted grounds – the vision of the garden designer Rosemary Verey, who once owned the property – is the spa; a sanctuary of relaxation, where the views are as calming as the treatments. - Barnsley House (www.barnsleyhouse.com), from £329 a room a night. PHOTOGRAPHS: JAKE EASTHAM, DOOK PHOTO, RAY MAIN, OWEN HOWELLS, PHIL BOORMAN. THE GROVE OF NARBERTH PEMBROKESHIRE Originally built in the 15th century, this luxury hotel is a gem of the Pembrokeshire countryside. The Grove takes pride in its roots, and the interiors are an ode to local artistry, displaying handmade furniture, vintage lace and fine pottery. Nature abounds here; wander through the herb and vegetable gardens and meadows, or venture further afield to explore beaches, harbour villages and coastal paths. In the evening, enjoy a tasting menu at the Fernery restaurant, where the modern Welsh dishes pay tribute to ingredients native to the area, such as Perl Las cheese and pigeon. The Grove (www.thegrove-narberth.co.uk), from £350 a room a night. THE MERCHANT HOTEL BELFAST Commanding the former 1860s Ulster Bank, the Italianate Merchant Hotel is in the heart of Belfast’s vibrant Cathedral Quarter, which is full of bustling bars, cosy pubs and live-music venues. The 62 bedrooms range in style from art deco to eccentric Victoriana, featuring monochrome furniture, king-size beds and marble bathrooms with free-standing tubs. For added extravagance, explore the city in the hotel’s Rolls-Royce Phantom, or drive to the Giant’s Causeway, returning in time to enjoy a high tea of sandwiches, scones and cakes in the dining-room. The Merchant Hotel (www.the merchanthotel.com), from £104 a room a night. www.harpersbazaar.com/uk

MIND PALACE The playwright Nina Raine finds literary connections – and ample inspiration – amid the Georgian glamour of Heckfield Place W riters have long decamped to hotels to work. That’s their story, anyway. After the success of Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov promptly moved to the Montreux Palace Hotel on Lake Geneva, where he finished Pale Fire – and stayed for the rest of his life. Evelyn Waugh regularly wrote at Easton Court in Chagford, Devon, taking only his manservant. On his first night there in January 1944, he completed 1,300 words of Brideshead Revisited. While he was away on another trip, his favourite daughter Margaret came down with suspected mercury poisoning; her headmistress, when she telephoned the hotel, was firmly told that Waugh couldn’t be disturbed. Above: Heckfield With these thoughts – and without my two- and five-year-olds Place in Hampshire. – I arrived at the fabulous Heckfield Place. I can’t live there, sadly, Left: the gardens. Below: the hotel’s but I can pretend. Ochre room A sumptuously reappointed Georgian mansion in the north- Hampshire countryside, Heckfield is in the neighbourhood of Jane Austen’s last home. Bought in 2002 by the billionaire philan- thropist Gerald Chan, the house has an intoxicating and surprising mix of aesthetics that makes me wonder whether it is telling me its own story – that of Chan and his pas- sions, and the next chapter of Heckfield’s life. Its bones are classical, but the interior is a mix of Scandi chic and modern farmhouse,

ESCAPE PHOTOGRAPHS: HELEN CATHCART designed by Ben Thompson, a protégé of Ilse Crawford. It also acts as Right: Hearth a gallery space for Chan’s incredible collection of art: 432 pieces and restaurant. Below counting. The works that hang here – largely British 20th-century right: the hotel’s and contemporary – are frequently changed, and a leather-bound Guernsey cows. iPad in each room catalogues the collection punctiliously. Below: the secluded Our room has lovely details. The drawers of the cabinet adjoining Long Room the minibar slide out to display leather pockets containing brass tea- making implements and a spoon made out of horn. I walk into the But it is Heckfield’s food that furnishes the bathroom and realise I haven’t yet seen a single piece of plastic; every- most vivid details for my murderer. Because thing is in delicate wooden boxes or wicker baskets. Who knew being she also happens to be a gourmand, I think she ecologically sound was so elegant? The light-coloured wood and would really like it here. When we enter the glasshouse restaurant, linen save the rooms from feeling antiseptic, as do quirky rustic Marle, we’re struck first by the beauty of the powder-pink exposed touches – the vases of fresh wildf lowers, a brown paper bag of brickwork behind one bar, then the green-veined chunk of marble of walnuts posed artfully on a black metal tray with a statuesque the second, and finally by the incredible food. After all, Skye Gyngell nutcracker. Even the fire extinguishers are made of brushed copper. is the culinary director, and much of the produce is from Fern Verrow farm. A melt-in-the-mouth culatello di zibello (cured meat And everywhere, there is illumination. Movement-sensitive from Parma) is followed by smoky cuttlefish with carrot shavings, lights warm to a glow around your feet when you walk into the bath- full of sunlit brightness. Our lunch at Hearth, the more informal res- room at night, and there are soft spotlights taurant below, is even better. It’s rare for a menu to undersell its wares, throughout. The effect is deeply relaxing. but ‘mussels with wild garlic’ does not even begin to do justice to this incredible dish, with splashes of green oil and tiny charred leeks. My experience is that even the tiniest As with Gyngell’s London restaurant Spring, all the produce is hotel room has a remarkably focusing effect farmed in line with biodynamic principles, meaning herbal remedies on writing. You’re not surrounded by your are used instead of fertiliser. The plants are cultivated according usual guilt-inducing clutter, and you don’t to the phases of the moon: ‘leaf days’ and ‘root days’, solstices and have to think about food until the moment equinoxes. In the 1800s, there were pineapples and grapes grown you sit down to eat it. This one, however, year-round in the fire-heated glasshouses. Now, there is the luxury takes you to a whole other level of zen. of a plant hospital, to revivify the vegetation parched through its decorative service in the hotel. Hotels can also inspire a story – often, Sitting in the morning-room on our last day, I look up at the glass a dark one: think of the opening of Ian grapes on the chandelier, then at the fresh gourds and pumpkins McEwan’s The Comfort of Strangers, with the adorning the alcoves of the room. In this house, the past truly troubled couple staying in Venice. They grow co-exists with the present. so used to the invisible presence of the Someone should write a story about it. maid tidying away their daily squalor that Heckfield Place (www.heckfieldplace.com), from £450 a night. when they return too early one day and find the room in exactly the dishevelled state they left it, they cannot cope with the affront to their senses. As it happens, I’ve been writing and developing a TV series partly based on Jane Austen’s own life. Coincidentally, Austen knew the original owner of Heckfield Place, Mrs Lefevre, who attended the ball at which the author flirted with a young Irishman called Tom Lefroy (an incident she writes about in her earliest surviving letter of January 1796). The property was designed with the path of the sun in mind: the ‘morning room’, where there is a table with a fiendishly difficult jigsaw puzzle, gets the early rays, while the glasshouse dining-room is at the other end, catching the sunset. I think how easy Austen had it. No need for contrived coincidences: a whole plot can revolve around a collection of people staying in a house, trying to amuse themselves, naturally encountering one another in varying combinations, falling in and out of love over games of cards or tea. And of course, there’s the Agatha Christie-esque murder in the country manor, where all the guests are suspects. I’m also writing a show about a serial killer; in one episode, the murder takes place at a spa hotel. I jog around the scenic grounds, seeking out a location for the crime. There are two beautiful lakes below the house and a sign warning ‘Deep Water’. A convenient drowning, perhaps? A few fields away, I find Heckfield’s impressive market garden, with its many greenhouses and polytunnels, fudge-coloured Guernsey cows that provide the golden butter and – bingo – several black saddleback pigs. They can dispense with the body. www.harpersbazaar.com/uk June 2022 | H A R P E R’ S BA Z A A R | 147

ESCAPE TRACEY EMIN Above: the Reading Rooms The pioneering British artist on her Margate’s sandy seaside hometown of Margate beach. Below: local resident Tracey Emin BAZAAR TRAVEL Mussels vinaigrette at Three words that An insider secret PHOTOGRAPHS: ANTHONY ALLSTON, KIRSTIN MCKEE/STOCKSY, GETTY IMAGES, COURTESY OF TRACEY EMIN Dory’s restaurant describe Margate ‘Young’s Nurseries (www.youngsnurseries.co.uk) ‘Windy, sunset, pioneering.’ sells apple-trees for £25.’ Best place to stay Best holiday read ‘The Reading Rooms ‘Elton John’s autobiography Me.’ (www.thereadingroomsmargate.co.uk), What’s in your but I am really looking forward to Fort Hill hotel opening carry-on luggage? later this year.’ ‘Urostomy bags, antiseptics, perfume, Favourite restaurant a hairbrush, reading glasses, a notebook and sometimes ‘Dory’s (www.angelasofmargate.com).’ a sketchbook, watercolours and paint brushes.’ Ideal travelling companion Beauty essentials ‘At the moment, my cats Teacup and Pancake, going up ‘A toothbrush and toothpaste.’ and down the M2.’ What do you pack? An unforgettable view ‘My Elton John book, which I have been carrying around ‘Today, it was on the scaffolding of the corner of Cecil Square and for a year and a half, and which I love.’ Union Crescent. I could see the whole of Margate and across Favourite holiday soundtrack the sea to the Channel.’ ‘David Bowie.’ Best tip for relaxation Tracey Emin’s ‘A Journey to Death’ is at Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate (www. ‘Swimming, always swimming in the sea. That’s how I relax.’ carlfreedman.com), until 19 June. A treasured memory ‘Eating jellied eels with my mum, sitting on the harbour wall.’ Where to go for an adventure ‘The Margate Caves (www. margatecaves.co.uk), Shell Grotto (www.shellgrotto.co.uk) and Scott’s antiques (www.scottsmargate.co.uk).’ Left: the Margate Caves 148 | H A R P E R’ S BA Z A A R | June 2022