Radio Gorgeous

Judith Durham tells us all the secrets  around the recording of the iconic song "Georgie Girl" which was The Seekers greatest hit, nominated for an Oscar and number one around the globe. The Seekers are celebrating 50 years in the music business. They have just released a new DVD and video to celebrate!

#RadioGorgeous #1960s #Music

Imagine a judge passing a sentence to you when you are not guilty? This happened to my guest today on Radio Gorgeous, Teresa Njoroge. Teresa tells us her moving and harrowing tale. And how she is now tackling injustice for women in Kenya. 

http://cleanstart.co.ke/

Follow:https://www.facebook.com/Cleanstartkenya/

#RadioGorgeous #Kenya #Women

Emma talks intimately with Josephine about how to understand our bodies and the process of arousal better (including sensate focus exercises, cultivating play, and vibrators), and to increase sexual enjoyment as a couple. Emma also provides advice about common sexual issues – including erectile dysfunction, difficulties with vaginal penetration, pain during sex, early or delayed ejaculation, and low sexual desire or arousal - and ways in which they can be treated and/or resolved, as well as examining the damaging impact of pornography. We also discuss women's sexual problems Dyspareynia, Vaginismus and Low sexual desire disorder. 

Buy the book for more advice: Seasons of Sex and Intimacy by Emma Waring 

https://www.emmawaring.com/

#RadioGorgeous #Wellbeing #Sex

Lizzie talks about performing at New York Fashion week, her Latin music influences and her brilliant version of 'Knocking on Heaven's Door'. She explains how a latin singer can crossover to the US and UK music scene. 

https://lizzieblazquez.com/

Twitter: @lizzieblazquez 

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/lizzieblazquez/

 You TUBEhttps://www.youtube.com/user/lizzieblazquez

#RadioGorgeous #Music #LizzieBlazque

Fair is foul, and foul is fair:

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

The opening lines of Macbeth could also set the scene in Bath for three adolescent girls bound or intent? on: "double toil and trouble!"

Each of Kate Hamer's books (The Girl in the Red Coat & The Doll Funeral) starts with a strong image. Crushed, which takes place in crucible shaped Bath and its ancient bubbling, sulphurous core, snuck up on Kate, much like the angels climbing Bath Abbey but when it came, the central image was a body floating down the Avon.

Three teenage girls, isolated and under pressure, come together one sultry summer. Power, obsession, need, naivety and self-absorption lead to disaster. After all, weren't the Furies once teenage girls? 

@FaberBooks @kate_hamer www.katehamer.co.uk

Persistent rumours swirled around Anna of Kleve…

Alison Weir introduces us to a fresh version of Henry VIII's fourth wife who is mostly famous for not living up to her flattering portrait. On the other hand, Anna of Kleve was popular and spirited and she had the wit and skill to survive her marriage to the fickle king. She was a privileged yet powerless princess, did she also have hidden depths never before imagined? 

#AuthorOfTheWeek #RadioGorgeous #Tudors 

www.sixtudorqueens.co.uk @AlisonWierBooks @headlinepg

There is a beauty and symmetry to the streets of Charleston. The buildings and architecture are enchanting with their porches and the gardens, peeked at through the wrought iron gates, overpowering the senses with mimosa and honeysuckle, jasmine and roses. Like walking into an aromatherapy bath. There is a lot of Englishness in the gardens as many of the plants were taken direct from English and French gardens in Versailles, as the landowners liked to travel through Europe, emulating the lifestyle of the English and French aristocracy and taking with them not only the art and furnishings, but also the plants. The live oaks cast long shadows over the streets which somehow manage to allow brightly coloured four wheel drives and trucks to manoeuvre around horse power of a slower, four legged variety, allowing tourists to sample the historic streets at a slower pace. The people of Charleston talk slow and walk slow. Even in the high end Kings Road, which has the designer labels necking with home brands, every second Sunday in the month, the road becomes pedestrianized from two till six and you can walk along streets and listen to musicians play jazz. There are churches on every street, bells ring in succession, and graveyards and cemetaries (not attached to a church), are places to walk round and meditate. Close your eyes, smell the jasmine, hear the clip clop of horses hooves and you are back in the 1800s.  

For the wealth and the walls of each house on each street was built on the backs of slaves. And slavery is still a raw point. While I was there, the headline of the Independent newspaper was on modern day slavery, and even the increase in veganism, focuses on how animals are farmed in conditions which is slavery. 

Charleston has an uneasy relationship with its past. Some guides refer to the slaves as slaves. Others call them ‘enslaved people’ because they are ‘people’., which somehow makes it more acceptable. You can kill the practice but the idealogy remains, making some of my fellow black journalists uncomfortable as they talked to people who’s grand parents and great grandparents had been slaves.  

Plantations such as Middleton Place, where cotton, indigo, rice made the fortunes of the few, their buildings made of cement, made to look like bricks, things made to look like other things. The land passed on down from father to son. Listen to my podcast to find out more. 

#GorgeousEscapes #Charleston #USA

It’s difficult not to think pink when you arrive at Village Castigno, Wine Hotel & Resort situated in the village of Assignan, in the Languedoc, just over half an hour’s drive from Beziers airport. Everything, from the walls of the buildings, the tables and chairs in the courtyard, the large umbrellas, the bed linen in the 24 rooms, to the plates and cups at breakfast, even the flowers and trees have been chosen it appears to bare only various shades of pink. 

The hotel is a village within a village with a collection of buildings, a winery and three restaurants - one of which (La Table) is Michelin starred. There’s also a lounge room with its own pool. It reminded me of a pink version of Babington House in Somerset, one of the Soho House group of hotels, and it’s a growing trend to create French resort villages out of original villages. I remember visiting Crillon le Brave in Provence several years ago, when ironically a former partner of Soho House decided to create a collection of villas, restaurants and spa for guests in the same way as Castigno. It’s a concept that works well.   

My room was a former grape pickers cabin (vendangeurs), from the outside, resembling a purple shed. This sounds unglamorous, but each room has been stylishly designed thanks to the owner, Tine, with clever touches. The lights for example, by the beds, are lit by touch rather than switch. All the mirrors are round, the walls various shades of purple or red. There’s intriguing Asian antiques and all the images on the paintings are sensual, although mine was of a fat woman shopping, which may do it for some people but alas not for me. 

There are junior and prestige suites in the Maison D’Amis in the former wine storage house at the edge of the village where one room, Chateau Blanc, even has a decadent stand alone bath at the end of the bed. There are other prestige suites in other buildings closer to La Petite Table, with the trade mark hot pink and deep purple walls inside and out.  

There is also the two bedroom Villa Rouge which can be booked per week. , It curiously doesn’t follow the fifty shades of pink colour scheme. It does have its own pool and veranda and some intriguing furniture and artwork. The perfect place to relax in complete privacy.

Guests take breakfast in La Petite Table on the main square. Breakfasts are served on pink and purple plates, traditional (croissants, bread, cheese, cured meats, yoghurt, honey, bread of course) but all served with flair by red and white gingham shirted staff (nice touch).  

The Thai (aptly called Le Thai) restaurant is next door which offers excellent fayre even if, like one of our group, you are vegetarian.  

The Michelin star restaurant, a five minute walk from the main square, (a good idea, because it means guests need to walk along the narrow village streets and admire more of the buildings which are stunning if not wine coloured). The Michelin star is well deserved. Staff are attentive (I dropped a fork – they realised I dropped it before I did). The décor is interesting, eccentric and edgy. You walk into an oversized room with the skins and furs of teddy bears and children’s toys on one traditional stone wall and a giant bone half hidden behind an inner balcony. There are red and purple velvet curtains strategically placed as though you are either part of the performance or about to see one. There’s stag heads with antlers which light up and a kitchen where you are able to watch the two chefs prepare your meal. The carefully but not overly manicured gardens outside are fully exposed as the remaining two walls are floor to ceiling window, allowing a view of the hens and roosters which roam freely outside. You need to walk outside to get to the outdoor ‘privy’. The food is exquisite, and I was fortunate to have a wine pairing with each course (I tried a five course tasting menu). The hors d’oeuvres are superb. On the day I was there, I tried caramalised carrot with endive and sweet potato and pumpkin tartlets. There was fresh peas with langoustines, a green gazpacho, but nothing does it justice. Not even the photos. It is a sensual eating experience which is difficult to describe – it is just sublime and one of the elements of the Castigno experience which isn’t pink or purple. Maybe worth mentioning there is not menu as the element of surprise is part of the experience. 

There’s a yoga room which is ironically the only place you are able to connect to the internet (it is a digital detox village rather than an alcoholic one), and also a charming little house, which was home to a former villager, where you receive massages. These are special thanks to the therapist Shahirah from Brazil, who is also a reiki healer. 

There’s bikes, a 2CV (bright red) and vespas you are able to use to drive to the local market in St Chinian ( only ten minutes away), 4x4 wine safaris across the estate and vineyards taking you to beautiful view points and through a truffle forest, and you can walk to the Castigno cave (winery) itself (or fifteen minute walk), which on approach looks like an alien spaceship looming over the surrounding vineyards. It is actually an acclaimed architecturally designed building coated in cork shipped in from Portugal made to look like the bark, created in the shape of a huge wine bottle. Inside even the wooden casks containing the wine and fermentation pods (which resemble alien eggs in Alien), are pink and purple. The bottles are all various shades of pink and purple, and you are able to not only do wine tastings but see if you are able to identify which blends have created the wines themselves (a lot of fun, but learn to spit rather than swallow – you will end up very drunk otherwise). The grape harvest is mostly picked by hand and they still use horses to pull the cart. The vineyard has also diversified into gin and beer – the grapes are caramelised and sent off to Belgium to complete the distilling process.  

While we were there it rained a lot (yes I did hum Purple Rain) but it says much for this place that the weather failed to dampen the fabulousness, the charm and colour of Castigno. It is sexy, dramatic, intoxicating even if you are tee total, and ever so slightly fifty shades – in that it is tastefully sexy, if that is possible. It’s for lovers rather than honeymooners. And even on cloudy days - anything but grey. 

A night at Village Castigno Wine Hotel & Resort starts at 130 euros for the Vendageurs Rooms, Prestige Suites costing from £225 per night. The Villa Rouge may only be booked for the week. 

#GorgeousEscapes #Wine #France 

https://villagecastigno.com/en/

Time to #GetLippy in the Month of May with our special guest on the Latte Lounge this month, we meet cancer survivor and comedian Karen Hobbs from The Eve Appeal. Katie also tells us about her birthday celebrations, anniversaries and what's coming up on the Latte Lounge this month. 

You can find our more and join the  Latte Lounge, details below:

https://www.lattelounge.co/

Twitter: @lounge_latte

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/loungethelatte/

The Eve Appeal

https://eveappeal.org.uk

@eveappeal 

http://radiogorgeous.com/

#RadioGorgeous #LatteLounge #EveAppeal

Eleanor Anstruther is a woman who always knew that her aristocratic father carried a dark secret. He was shockingly sold to his aunt by his mother for the sum of £500.

Eleanor Anstruther, an author like her father, interviewed him near the end of his life about his secret. He gave permission for Eleanor to have access to the family archive of letters and court orders surrounding the  case. This story reimagined beautifully and is now a book: A PERFECT EXPLANATION.

Eleanor has been shortlisted for the The Desmond Elliot Prize 2019. 

https://www.eleanoranstruther.com/

Buy the book

#RadioGorgeous #Author #DiscoverADebut

Follow: https://twitter.com/ellieanstruther

You will always find fascinating women on Radio Gorgeous