IT training readers digest UK TruePDF february 2019

R E A D E R ’ S

HEALTH • MONEY • TRAVEL • RECIPES • FASHION • TECHNOLOGY

D I G E S T

FEBRUARY 2019

|
S M A L L
A N D

Dr Jane

P E R F E C T LY

GOODALL
Talks Primates
And Prejudice

I N F O R M E D

Richard E Grant
“I WISH I WAS
MORE FORGIVING”

|
F E B R U A R Y

HEALTH

Seasonal Sadness

2 0 1 9

6

Ways To Banish
The Winter Blues

readersdigest.co.uk

FEBRUARY 2019

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Contents
FEBRUARY 2019

Features
16 IT’S A MANN’S WORLD

20

Olly Mann revisits his
old university work

p

ENTERTAINMENT

20 INTERVIEW:
RICHARD E GRANT
The actor opens up about his
native Swaziland, friendship
and his love of marijuana

30 “I REMEMBER”:
DR JANE GOODALL
The famous primatologist on
her fascinating life and career
HEALTH

40 WINTER BLUES

72

p
72

How to brighten your mood
during the cold winter months

56 THREATS TO HUMANITY
Is it possible for human
civilisation to be destroyed?
INSPIRE

64 SAVING TIGERS
How an experimental
programme in eastern Russia
strives to protect these majestic
endangered animals
COVER ILLUSTRATION © HELENA PÉREZ GARCÍA

BEST OF BRITISH:
BABY IT’S COLD OUTSIDE
Spend Valentine’s Day in one of
these enchanting spa retreats

82

TR AVEL & ADVENTURE

GREAT LAKES
Anna Walker discovers the
charms and peculiarities of
America’s Great Lake region

90 DISCOVERING WARSAW
Delve into the diverse beauty
and rich cultural history of
Poland’s capital
FEBRUARY 2019 • 1


DIGESTED
N E W M O N T H LY P O D CA S T
Each month Reader’s Digest will navigate the woes and wonders of modern life, weighing in
with leading experts on the everyday tools we need to survive and thrive in 2019.
To subscribe to Digested for monthly episodes—starting with January’s
“How to Give Up Plastic”—visit readersdigest.co.uk/podcast
or search “Digested” on iTunes.

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Contents
FEBRUARY 2019

In every issue
8
12

Over to You
See the World Differently

46
50

HEALTH
Advice: Susannah Hickling
Column: Dr Max Pemberton

96

INSPIRE
If I Ruled the World:
Skin

p

96
98

TRAVEL & ADVENTURE
My Great Escape
Island Getaways

114

100

MONEY
Column: Andy Webb

80

FOOD & DRINK
Tasty recipes and ideas
from Rachel Walker

106

HOME & GARDEN
Column: Cassie Pryce

110

80

116

FASHION & BEAUTY
Column: Lisa Lennkh on
how to look your best
Beauty

118

ENTERTAINMENT
February’s cultural highlights

122
127

BOOKS
February Fiction: James
Walton’s recommended reads
Books That Changed
My Life: Jacqueline Wilson

128

TECHNOLOGY
Column: Olly Mann

130
133
135
139
140
143

FUN & GAMES
You Couldn’t Make It Up
Word Power
Brain Teasers
60-Second Stand-Up

Laugh!
Beat the Cartoonist

p

FEBRUARY 2019 • 3


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winner! best musical all across north america
COMING TO LONDON FROM 30 JANUARY 2019
PHOENIX THEATRE | 0207 400 1238 | Tickets.ReadersDigest.co.uk


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FEBRUARY 2019 • 5


GET YOUR SHAKESPEARE FIX AT THE RSC
THIS WINTER

Kathryn Hunter returns to the Royal
Shakespeare Company for the first time
since she was a member of the 2010-12
Ensemble, when she played Juliet in
Ben Power’s A Tender Thing, Cleopatra
in Michael Boyd’s production of Antony
and Cleopatra, the Fool in King Lear and
Gavrilo in The Grain Store.

Renowned for portraying a wide variety
of characters through her acclaimed stage
career, Kathryn Hunter has played kings,
queens, men, women and a monkey. In this
adaptation of Shakespeare’s dark satire,
Timon of Athens, Kathryn will be playing
the titular role. Timon has it all – money,
influence and friends. When the money
runs out, she soon finds her influence and
friends have also
gone. Left alone,
she flees Athens to
take refuge in the
woods, cursing the
city she once loved.

Kathryn Hunter’s presence on stage
portraying strong male characters such
as King Lear (1997) and Richard III (2003)
show how her personality and creativity
can impact the roles she plays. She has
also portrayed brilliant women, including
Cleopatra and Bernarda Alba (2017), the
matriarch of five daughters in an allfemale play which explores repression,
passion and conformity.
She has gained distinction for her physical
performances: as Red Peter in Kafka’s
Monkey (a solo piece based on A Report to
an Academy), where she played a monkey
who gives a scientific lecture about her

transformation from ape to human.
This is a rare chance to see this engaging
and versatile actor give ‘a searing
central performance’ (**** Guardian) in
Shakespeare’s comic tragedy, which asks
us to question our values and consider
where happiness really lies. n

MORE INFORMATION

Timon of Athens plays in the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon until 22 February.
For more information and a full performance schedule please visit rsc.org.uk


In This Issue…

EDITORS’ LETTERS

Last October I embarked on an American road trip of
epic proportions, passing through four US states in just
one week. Though the weather was temperamental (in
days the 25°C sunshine of Detroit became snow in
Wisconsin) the trip offered an insight into the
contrasts of life in the Great Lakes. You can read about
the journey on p82. The contrast had me thinking
about climate change, and the dramatic impact
human actions are having on our planet. Earlier this
year I spoke to Will McCallum, head of oceans at Greenpeace, about
the way excessive plastic consumption is harming mother nature. You
can hear our conversation on the first episode of our new podcast,

Digested, available through iTunes or at readersdigest.co.uk/podcast

Anna

This month I had the pleasure of talking to the talented
Richard E Grant about his new film, Can You Ever Forgive
Me? A number of surprisingly profound topics flowed
out of our relatively brief conversation: from his deep
loyalty when it comes to friendships to his unapologetic
love of marijuana.
Read all about our encounter on p20 and then head
over to p118 to check out our five-star review of Can You
Ever Forgive Me?—the incredibly witty, smart, and oddly heartwarming biopic of celebrity biographer, Lee Israel.

Eva

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FEBRUARY 2019 • 7


Over To You
LETTERS ON THE DECEMBER ISSUE

We pay £50 for Letter of the Month and £30 for all others

Letter of
THE MONTH

For many years my father
received his monthly copy of
Reader’s Digest and I was
fortunate to receive his used
copies every month.
Unfortunately, when he
passed away my supply of this
lovely magazine ceased and I
didn’t get around to subscribing
for myself.
Then, during a conversation
with a close friend, I mentioned
that I missed all the interesting
8 • FEBRUARY 2019

things Reader’s Digest
produced. To my great surprise
and pleasure—on my 70th
birthday last December—my
dear friend gave me a
subscription to Reader’s Digest
as a gift. I have so enjoyed each
and every edition and realised
how much I had missed it. I’m
over the moon that I won’t be
missing any more.
Pamela Loughrey

READER’S DIGEST

PAPER JOURNEYS

I enjoyed “The Lost Art of Letter
Writing” in the December issue.
Although I rarely write letters anymore,
the article reminded me of my school
days in the 1970s when I loved nothing
more than writing to my many penpals around the globe. My friend and
I competed against each other to see
who had the most pen friends and
between us we had them in every
continent (except Antarctica of
course). From New Zealand to New
York and South Africa to South Korea I
would eagerly “stalk” the postman
most mornings to see if there were any
letters plopping on to the doormat. I
enjoyed stamp collecting too so would
save all the envelopes and carefully
steam off the colourful stamps for my
album. My school friend now lives in
Greece and we keep in touch
via email but occasionally take
the time to send a precious
letter to each other.
Melanie Lodge, Yorkshire

I totally agree with Lynn
Wallis about the very sad
fact that hardly anyone
these days actually puts
pen to paper to write a
letter. Many years ago
when I met my husband’s
cousin, we instantly
clicked and became so
very close it was unbelievable. She
lived in Buffalo, US, and we had
agreed to write to each other. I sent
her a letter so that it would be
waiting on her mat for her when
she returned home. We didn’t look
back, and for years—until she very
sadly died—we corresponded
regularly. I used to start writing
again as soon as I posted a letter to
her—which were always about eight
or nine pages long. Then on receipt
of her reply I would answer what
she had written. The wrong way
around, but she loved it as they
were trivial chat letters which
I added to every time I thought of
something else to say to her. We
laughed and cried and confided to
each other in our letters and I knew

that every two weeks I would have
a nice long chatty missive from
my very dear and much loved
lady. Oh how I miss her and her
priceless letters.
Jeannie Holmes, London
FEBRUARY 2019 • 9


OV E R TO YO U

RONAN THE WISE
I agree with Ronan Keating that
children should spend less time on
their phones and more time talking to
each other. I remember the first
mobile phones which were the sole
privilege of wealthy businessmen and
those strong enough to carry them.
Then they became accessible to
adults in general. Then smartphones
arrived and fell into the hands of
teenagers on skateboards, who would
happily read their Facebook messages
as they surfed across several lanes of
fast-moving traffic. Even small
children in pushchairs have been seen
using iPhones.
So where will it end? Will we see
the day when a baby’s first words are

not “mummy” or “daddy” but
“Cortana” and “Alexa”—just before
uploading their latest breastfeeding
clip to Snapchat? Strange times.

I totally agree with what Ronan
Keating said about the need for
people to recycle more. This planet is
never going to recover if we keep up
our wasteful ways. Individuals and
businesses alike need to take the
need to recycle seriously. Or, better
yet, learn not to be so wasteful in the
first place. Future generations are
going to suffer if we keep destroying
our planet.

David Bennett, Staffordshire

Owen Hollifield, Caerphilly

NO MORE LURGIES PLEASE
Your “Common Cold” article was highly informative and very
timely. I’ve had my flu jab but protection against colds and
treatment for them is far harder. I will be putting the advice to
use, especially the part about taking zinc within 24 hours of
onset to possibly reduce the length of the cold by a day. This is
why I love Reader’s Digest, not just entertaining but helpful too.
Luke Russell, Yorkshire

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10 • FEBRUARY 2019

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12

PHOTO: © GETTY IMAGES/FLORIS VAN BREUGEL/NATURE PICTURE LIBRARY


See the world
TURN THE PAGE…


14

PHOTO: © GETTY IMAGES/PRAVEEN P.N

…differently
According to an old seafarer’s
legend, the colourful pebbles
found on the beach at Fort Bragg
in California are the solidified tears
of mermaids. In reality, however,
they’re nothing more than garbage.
At the beginning of the 20th
century, it was common practice
for people to simply dump their
refuse in the ocean, among which
were many glass bottles, aquariums
and other glass debris. After years
in the ocean, the glass was broken
into smaller pieces and polished
by sand and waves, leaving behind
innumerable jewel-like pebbles.


IT’S A MANN’S WORLD

Stash In

The Attic
Olly Mann goes stationery shopping but finds himself
on an unexpected trip down memory lane instead…

I

t all started because I wanted a

lever arch file. Generally I’m
more of a box file man, but a new
project is generating a significant
stack of notes in sub-categories,
thereby screaming out for a chunky
folder and colourful dividers. So, off
I trotted to WHSmith—relishing not
only the distraction, but also the
opportunity to snap up a discounted
Mary Berry book and two-for-one
pack of Sharpies—when suddenly I
remembered: Mum’s attic.
Stored away in her ceiling rafters
are a dozen lever arch files, most
embellished with a gold University of
Oxford logo, containing notes from
my undergraduate degree. When
I shoved them up there in 2002, I
Olly Mann presents
Four Thought for
BBC Radio 4, and
the award-winning
podcasts The Modern
Mann and Answer
Me This!

16 • FEBRUARY 2019

thought they might be required for
my forthcoming literary career;

surely, it would only be a matter of
months before I again had cause to
reference my notes on Chaucerian
dialect and the contribution of
immigration to mutual intelligibility.
(Instead, my first graduate job was
researching a show for ITV about
gobby estate agents).
But I had also wanted to keep the
folders themselves. In the student’s
union shop I had shelled out an extra
£1 per folder—the equivalent of a
pint of Strongbow in the college
bar—to get ones emblazoned with
the university logo. I’d been the first
in my family to go to university, and
I was proud to get into Oxford, of all
places. I wanted to milk the
opportunity for all it was worth: the
world-class tutorials, the student
media scene, and, yes, the chance to
mince around town clutching at
stationary inscribed in Latin.
For roughly three years, Mum’s


ILLUSTRATION BY DAN M ITCHELL


IT’S A MANN’S WORLD

been hassling me to remove my
dusty stash of Oxford merch from her
attic. I’ve always refused, because
a) she and her house guests can’t see
what’s up there anyway, so what does
it matter, and b) it’s a really old
house that’s pretty draughty in
winter, so dumping piles of
paperwork up there is basically
providing her with insulation, so
really she should thank me.
But, finding myself in need of a
lever arch file, it seemed silly to go
and buy one. As I ventured into
Mum’s attic, an Aladdin’s cave of
junk revealed itself: a broken bicycle
pump, a moth-eaten Santa outfit, 3D
glasses for a Sega Master System,
gravel for a goldfish bowl, some
counterfeit Louis Vuitton holdalls.
It was hard to focus on the prize. But,
right at the end of the loft,

sandwiched between some faded
Halloween decorations and a upsidedown Betamax, there it was: my
hoard of folders.
I’d envisaged it being pretty
straightforward to chuck out the
scribbles contained therein. It is

painfully obvious I will never again
require my teenage thoughts on the
travel diaries of Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu. But, as soon as I opened
up a folder, to rip out the pages, I
found myself scanning the content.
You know, just to be sure.
Hours flew by. Nostalgia, I guess
you’d call it. I’d forgotten so much!
Not only the literature I had studied
—did I really write three-thousand
words on Tennyson’s portrayal of
fruit cake? How is that possible?—
but the style and tone of my
undergraduate writings, too: the
footnotes I had to tediously doublecheck after each draft; the
anonymised candidate number I was
required to print in the header of my
thesis; the double-spaced font that (I
believed) gave my work the
impression of intellectualism… but
also, happily, doubled my page count
so it appeared that I’d done more
work than I actually had.
Reappraising the red marks in the
margins, I reflected that the tutor
who made them—who seemed
scarily omnipotent at the time—was
in fact younger than I am now. There
was one essay in particular, about

Harold Pinter’s presentation of the


READER’S DIGEST

“As I ventured into Mum’s
attic, an Aladdin’s cave of
junk revealed itself: a
bicycle pump, a motheaten Santa outfit, gravel
for a goldfish bowl…”
past, that he picked apart like a
carcass. But, considering his
comments now—some phrases I’d
employed were too journalistic,
some points I’d made were
tautologous—they all seemed
entirely fair. At the time, I’d thought
he was being deliberately harsh on
me, because I hadn’t shown up to all
his classes. But now I realised: if he
had really wanted to punish me, he

wouldn’t have bothered reading my
essay at all. He was just trying to kick
me up the bum. It worked.
I thought back to my classmates
who, the moment they graduated,
threw their notes in the bin
(recycling didn’t really exist in 2002),
or, in one flamboyant example, built

them into a massive bonfire. I was
glad to have a moment to look again
at my archive.
A few hours later, I did throw the
notes away. But I couldn’t quite bear
to part with the essays. I dusted the
files down and, half a bottle of Flash
later, repurposed 11 of them. But one
now has “University Work” written
on its spine, and sits proudly on my
office shelf. I probably won’t open it
for another couple of decades. But I
suspect the fifty-something me will
be pleased I held on to it.

MOTION PICTURE MORONS
Reddit users claim some of our favourite films would have been a lot shorter
if the protagonists had more brain cells…

The Little Mermaid: “If Ariel could write, why didn’t she just write the Prince a note?”
Jurassic Park: “If John Hammond had just shelled out a bit more money for
his IT department…”
Gremlins: “I can’t help but think the instructions were very clear.”
Back to the Future II: ‘Hey Marty, your future kid is an idiot. Fortunately, you
have 30 years to change the outcome. Maybe consider moving to a different
town, or sending him to a private school, or something?’ The end.
Jingle All the Way: “Had Arnie just purchased the Turbo-Man toy when his wife
asked in October, the movie wouldn’t exist.”

FEBRUARY 2019 • 19

“I’m A Loyal

Dog By Nature”
Richard E Grant
Known for his flamboyant performances in Withnail and I,
Downton Abbey and Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula, actor
Richard E Grant talks to Eva Mackevic about friendship,
marijuana, and why he finds it so hard to forgive

I

n a quiet suite of Claridge’s
hotel my blood runs cold as
I begin my conversation with
Richard E Grant. I gather from the
get-go that the actor can be very
picky about the things he shares,
careful not to reveal too much
about himself or tread on any risky
territory—a trait which makes him
both fantastically charming and
frustratingly impenetrable.
We’re here to talk about his new
film, Can You Ever Forgive Me? which
tells the true story of the American
celebrity biographer, Lee Israel,
played by Melissa McCarthy. When
Israel’s writing career took a turn

for the worse, leaving her penniless,

20 • FEBRUARY 2019

she turned to a life of crime, forging
letters of famous deceased writers
and selling them for big money to
book shops and private collectors.
Richard portrays her hedonistic,
larger-than-life friend, Jack Hock—
a cash-strapped British expat who
joined Israel in the pursuit of this
risky illegal scheme.
“There was very little to go on [in
terms of research], other than that
Jack died at the age of 47 in 1994;
had a little cigarette holder that he
thought would stop him from getting
lung cancer, as he was a chain
smoker; and that he had been in jail
for two years for holding a knife to a
taxi driver’s throat, arguing about a


ENTERTAINMENT


INTERVIEW: RICHARD E GRANT

I could

“Isaywish
I was more

fare.” Richard tells me about the role
in his mellifluous, plummy voice.
Hock was also an out-of-control
but extremely charismatic alcoholic
which is very reminiscent of arguably
Richard’s most famous character,
Withnail, I observe.
“I suppose if you play somebody
who’s as alcoholic, verbal and
vitriolic as Withnail, inevitably
there’s going to be an overlap into
this kind of personality, but Jack
Hock wanted to be liked, he was
like a Labrador who would lick
people into submission. A character
like Withnail would not have given
someone as spiky and misanthropic
as Lee Israel the time of day.”
and the
result was a deep, sincere friendship

JACK HOCK DID THOUGH,

22 • FEBRUARY 2019

that both found solace in, despite
the constant verbal sparring and

extortionate pride. When I ask
Richard what he’s like as a friend
himself, he somewhat unsurprisingly
admits that he’s quite rigid and very
loyal when it comes to his personal
relationships. Having moved to
London in 1982, he still remains in
touch with school friends from his
native Swaziland.
“I place enormous value on
friendships. I think that—unlike
being married, or blood related—
they’re this invisible thing that you
have to nurture. I was incredibly
lonely when I first moved to London,
so the friendships that I formed in
the first year really sustained me.
I’m a loyal dog by nature so once
I’m friends with somebody, that’s it.

AF ARCHI VE / ALAM Y STOCK PH OTO

forgiving but
emotionally
I’m incapable
of that”


READER’S DIGEST

And, equally, if they betray me…” he
pauses for a moment. “…I wish
I could say I was more forgiving.
I understand rationally I should
be, but emotionally I’m incapable
of that.”
Richard tells me about a time
he was inadvertently betrayed by a
friend of 30 years, who accidentally
copied him into an unsavoury
email. “It’s still stuff that I’ve never
forgotten and that ended that
friendship,” the actor admits.
With Melissa
McCarthy in Can You
Ever Forgive Me?
(Top left); Withnail is
one of Richard’s most
iconic roles to date

our
shared experience as immigrants in
London and what it was like to move
our whole lives to a different part of
the world.
“Swaziland is physically beautiful.
We had a pool, a beautiful garden, an

THE CONVERSATION TURNS TO

FEBRUARY 2019 • 23