'Brave and beautiful people' remembered in Aids quilt display
Frankie O'Reilly was nine-years-old when he met his future partner Georgie Long at primary school in Northern Ireland.The pair moved to London at the start of the 1980s, where Frankie worked as a traffic warden by day and a drag queen by night. By that time the two had long been inseparable - first as childhood best friends, and then as partners.In 1985, both aged 25, Frankie and Georgie were diagnosed with HIV."I started seeing friends slowly dying," Frankie says. "It was like being at a bus stop with your friends and they start getting on buses, and then you're the last person at the stop." In 1992, Georgie died of an Aids-related illness.Now, Georgie and hundreds like him are being remembered as part of the UK Aids Memorial Quilt, a patchwork creation of 42 quilts and 23 textile panels representing nearly 400 people who lost their lives to HIV/Aids in the UK, made by the people who loved them.The huge quilt will be on display in the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall in London between 12 and 16 June. Although different parts of it have been on display before, the showing at the Tate will be the largest public display of the quilt in its entirety since it was created in 1994.
It was a month after Georgie died that Frankie decided to take part in the memorial quilt project, which had been brought to the UK from America by Scottish activist Alistair Hulme, who had seen an early display of the American version of the quilt, which was created in 1985, in San Francisco."I had nursed Georgie at home while he was sick and the last three years had been just awful," Frankie says, adding that helping to create the quilt helped him through the worst of his grief. Now 65 and describing himself as the "last man standing" of his friendship group, he says the quilt is a "reminder of the bravest and most beautiful people" he knew.
Cathy John and Grace McElwee also took part in creating the UK Aids memorial quilt in the 1990s by making a panel for friend Michael Trask, who died in 1993."We were both librarians and got on like a house on fire as soon as we met in 1985," Cathy says.Michael became ill five years later, but "didn't want to talk about it" at first. For a while Cathy says they "didn't know what was wrong with him", before eventually coming to terms with the fact that he had Aids.
She chose to take part in the project after Michael died as a way to "create an enduring tribute to him".It took Cathy and Grace around a month to complete the textile, which Cathy says was "part of the healing process".
The women chose to stitch on to their panel the houses of Camden, where Michael lived, and the tree of life, to represent the parks in London he was fond of. The quilt was last on show in Hyde Park in 1994, when Cathy worked as a volunteer on the display. The project has always been more than a display of activism for Cathy - she says the quilt has "got the stitches of love in it". She says she is excited to see the quilt on display at the Tate Modern as an "outpouring of love and friendship and dedication".
Author Charlie Porter initiated the exhibition after writing to the Tate's director in July 2024 asking them to display the quilt. "The history of the quilt involves it being displayed in iconic locations," Porter tells the BBC, referencing how the US quilt was displayed for the first time on the National Mall in Washington DC, during the national march for lesbian and gay rights.He hopes the UK quilt being on display again will allow more people to see it, but also "give people a chance to grieve", after many were unable to do so properly at the time of their loved ones' deaths in the 80s and 90s due to the stigma attached to HIV. The 384 people commemorated on the quilt include notable figures such as novelist Bruce Chatwin and actors Denham Elliot and Ian Charleston.
Alongside the quilt, a documentary will be played that captures footage from when the quilt was last displayed in 1994 in Hyde Park. "A documentary was made at the time but no one would take it," Porter says."We thought the footage was lost, but it has been found and digitised." In the mid-90s there was no treatment for people living with HIV, and Porter says the documentary along with the quilt highlights "the breadth of devastation" caused by the disease. Karin Hindsbo, Tate Modern director, says the quilt is "an incredible feat of creative human expression" and believes it will be a "deeply moving experience" for those who come to see it.
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Times
34 minutes ago
- Times
Caroline Hirons: Britain's most powerful beauty expert
Caroline Hirons is going through some of her bêtes noires with me. Face wipes? 'You do not need one. They're not biodegradable, whatever they might say. Piss off.' The 'clean beauty' movement? 'Are people even still using 'toxic' to describe products? Is it 2011? Move on!' Face sheet masks? 'My main beef is they're not eco-friendly, but they also don't work.' Her voice rises nearly an octave. 'And then Neutrogena came out with individual face wipes in their own plastic [wrap], so you could travel with them. Has everyone lost their mind?' Even if you've never heard of Hirons, the former Saturday girl at Harvey Nichols, now a 55-year-old mother of four children aged between 33 and 20, and grandmother of two, you have probably, unwittingly, been influenced by her. Her verdict on a skincare product has created, what is known in the industry as 'the Caroline effect'. Case in point: when Clinique was about to discontinue its Take The Day Off cleansing balm, after poor sales in 2013, Hirons listed it in her blog's Hall of Fame. Sales rose 1,432 per cent. It is still Clinique's No 1 selling make-up remover. Or take Clarisonic, an electric face-cleaning brush, all the rage in the early 2010s — as she said, 'the Chanel handbag of the beauty world' — but a product that gave her 'the worst acne breakout of my life'. Clarisonic was shut down in 2020. Or the astoundingly pricey Dr Barbara Sturm skincare range, about which she has expressed some scepticism. In her defence, Hirons is positive about far more brands than she's negative about. 'But the industry is terrified of her,' one beauty insider tells me. She's called the most powerful woman in the British beauty industry. 'Allegedly,' she says, with a quiet smile. 'I'm sure there'd be people like Charlotte Tilbury who'd have something to say about that. Maybe the most powerful woman in skincare. I'd take that.' OK, but I ask her if she is more powerful than the beauty director of Vogue. Hirons nods and beams even more broadly. Not that this means — in today's lingo — she is an influencer. 'I've always pushed against that term,' she says. 'I get that it's cute, but from day one I didn't want it, because I spent a lot of time and money going to college to train. I'm someone who has influence, but I'm qualified to do so. I give advice [to skincare brands] around the world and it's not cheap.' In person, Hirons is certainly a commanding — although perfectly friendly — presence. She is far more relatable to me, as a fellow Gen Xer, than the typical duck-lipped, Fake-Baked millennials who dominate beauty social media channels. Having started blogging ('How old-fashioned that sounds now') about skincare in 2010, today Hirons's posts have been viewed some 200 million times. She estimates she's answered 250,000 skincare questions. She has 779,000 Instagram followers. Her first book, Skincare, became the bestselling British beauty book of all time. Three years ago, she launched her own skincare range, Skin Rocks, which is stocked in Liberty and Space NK. Skin Rocks is reported to have brought in £10 million in revenue in three years and recently secured investment to expand internationally. The family (her husband, Jim, gave up his job with the local council to bring up the younger children as her career exploded) used to live in a flat in West Kensington. Now, with only one child left at home, they've moved to a slightly grander place in nearby Shepherds Bush. She doesn't do hobbies or holidays. Couldn't she retire on her riches? 'If I hadn't started my own brand, we'd be really comfortable. But I had to dip my toe in the pond, didn't I?' Born in Liverpool, Hirons grew up in Warrington, Cheshire, from the age of nine. Her father was a mechanic while her mother and her grandmother worked on department store beauty counters. Aged 17, she moved to London, worked at HMV ('Just a dream, such a good time') and met Jim. When her two older children were toddlers, she found a Saturday job on the Aveda counter at Harvey Nicks — then Cool Britannia AbFab central. She only wanted some extra cash, but she found her vocation. 'I thought, this is what I'm supposed to do. I called my mum and was like, 'Why didn't you tell me beauty was this much fun?' ' One Saturday, alone on the counter, she made more sales than the entire team usually managed together. She was promoted to manager and began working full-time, while two nights a week (around the births of her two younger children) studying for her beautician diploma from the Steiner School of Beauty Therapy. Her first job after that was at Space NK, then she was hired by Sylvie Chantecaille to develop facials for her brand. She moved on to companies such as Liz Earle before becoming a freelance consultant helping US brands launch in the UK. Then came social media. Initially, her blog was intended to be a place to describe the travails of family life, but almost immediately she realised hordes of (mainly older) women were desperate for definitive answers on which of the gazillion products out there worked and which was best for them — and she was uniquely qualified to advise. What makes Hirons so beloved by her 'Freaks' (the name of the 150,000 members of her Facebook group) is the fact, as she puts it, 'I never kiss or blow smoke up anyone's arse.' This made her a rarity in an industry where everyone's lovely to everyone else (at least to their faces), because brands need coverage, while influencers (or, in the olden days, the likes of Vogue) need content, not to mention enjoying access to the glitzy junkets and freebies lavished upon them. Does she ever get pushback from brands she's dissed? 'Once or twice. But it didn't end well for them. My followers are like a swarm of bees: 'How dare you?' Heads of big, big companies email their PRs — 'How do we get this post removed?' They say, 'You don't understand. This is Caroline.' You can offer me ten grand; I ain't going anywhere.' No matter how hard she tries to stop herself, she is frequently political. Past targets have included antivaxers and Boris Johnson, after he joked in parliament during the pandemic about the delay in reopening beauty salons. 'I've never felt rage like it. I'd have been over that dispatch box at him.' The Beauty Backed campaign she launched to help those affected by the lockdowns raised £600,000. She likes to joke that Jim once marvelled, 'Who would have thought that being gobby and opinionated would become a career?' Yet she doesn't appreciate the dozens of headlines describing her as 'opinionated' or 'no nonsense'. 'That's a really good way of dismissing me,' she says. 'They say, 'Oh, you're very confident.' It's fine for men to be confident, but for women it's a passive-aggressive insult. Men will still speak over me at meetings, and I go, 'When I'm finished, I'd love to hear your point. But I wasn't finished.' ' She pulls a face and flicks the bird at her imaginary interlocutor. 'It's their audacity. You can disagree with me, but in a lot of cases I can prove to you I'm right. There are people out there who don't like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. That's absolutely fine. I don't expect everyone to like me. I don't like everyone. But what I know they will do is respect my opinion. So go with God, my friends.' We're sitting in a studio in east London, where she has just finished the Times photoshoot with her only daughter, Ava, a 23-year-old TikToker with 826,000 followers, compared with Hirons's 53,000 on the same platform. 'On TikTok I call myself 'Ava Hirons's mum'. Her success is her success; it's nothing to do with me. I can't go into a Space NK without being mobbed; she can't go to Westfield [shopping centre]. I could not be prouder.' Now Hirons has written a book for Ava's fanbase, Teen Skincare, which briskly explains how young, hormonal, often spotty skin needs and (more importantly) doesn't need to be treated, with routines outlined and products recommended. As a mother of two Gen Z daughters, I wonder how it can compete with the source of all their knowledge: TikTok. 'They're exhausting, the TikTok myths,' Hirons says. 'It's mostly bad information or misinformation and it feels like you're pushing water uphill sometimes trying to correct it. So it's just easier to write a book. Point your kids in that direction and hope they read it.' I hope mine do, because the book contains — among others — an invaluable 'Pile of Shit' section, which debunks viral trends such as beauty fridges ('Make it stop') and celebrity skincare brands ('Most celebrities don't give a toss about skin. They just want to slap their name on something and get the money/glory'). 'Stop buying shit you don't need with money you don't have to impress people you don't know,' Hirons pronounces. The book is an antidote to the recent, quite gobsmacking 'Sephora Kids' phenomenon, where not even teens but girls aged as young as nine are being influenced into buying high-end beauty products at ridiculous prices, with ingredients designed for much older skin. 'I mean, the interest in the teen skincare book is because of this phenomenon, so obviously I'm being a hypocrite saying, 'Oh, it shouldn't happen,' ' Hirons says. 'But … Insanity! • Viral beauty videos have Gen Z hooked on second-hand make-up 'I'd be in Space NK, see groups of teenagers buying things and I would say, 'That's not for you. You should be buying that for your mum. You do not need it. Put it down and get a Krispy Kreme.' Obviously, they're going to take more notice of me than they are of their mum. But if a girl is 14 and she babysits, has saved £100 and she wants to spend £80 on a moisturiser, let her — she's only going to do it once. Sometimes, they have to learn a lesson the hard way.' Like many mothers and daughters, Hirons and Ava are in a great place now, but were continually 'locking horns' during the latter's teens. It didn't help that Hirons, who had just started the blog, was enduring perimenopause. 'It was a grim time. It's the clash of peak hormones on both sides. I was tired. I put on loads of weight. I was fed up. I wasn't depressed; I was just exhausted. I had no energy and brain fog. I thought, there's something wrong with me. I'm miserable. I'll show you a fat pic,' she says, scrolling her phone to show me some snaps where she's quite startlingly larger and frumpier-looking than today. 'Every part of me was bloated; I was so uncomfortable. Ava says you shouldn't say 'fat', but the body positivity movement's all good and well. I fully respect if that's how you feel. I wasn't feeling positive so I changed it.' She began lifting weights, scoffing protein and (latterly) having Mounjaro jabs, although she says these are 'for my bloods' rather than weight loss specifically. Either way, a decade on, she's 3st lighter. 'I've turned into a clichéd menopausal woman who's never more than 10ft away from a pack of collagen and I feel better than I did at 35.' In other respects, in the course of her 15-year ascent, she has certainly become glossier, her hair no longer scraped back in the bun she adopted for the school run. Her skin — obviously — is glowing, but she's frank she's had some Botox and fillers ('No amount of skincare will stop you ageing or change the structure of your skin'). Most importantly, she says, she is now on hormone replacement therapy. 'That got me a life. I'm chill.' She now tries to stay out of online arguments about, say, whether SPFs give you cancer ('I don't even hope people listen to me about that. I'm like, 'It's on you' '), but still doesn't shy from using Instagram to tackle causes bigger than pore size. Right now, she's fixated on abortion rights in the US. 'I was raging during the election because the Democrats were saying you've got to think about abortion from the perspective of a young girl who's been abused. No, you don't. You have to think about this from the perspective of women as human beings, not incubators. I've had four children, three miscarriages and one abortion. The whys and the wherefores are no one else's f***ing business.' Yet, compared with most social media personalities I've met, Hirons is notably relaxed about the vast amount of trolling she receives. 'I saw a great quote. It's a bit inappropriate – 'If I haven't been inside you or you haven't been inside me, I don't care about your opinion.' That applies to my mum, my husband, my kids. If they thought I was a horrible person, I would think, oh God, I need to look at myself. But if some fat doris from Tunbridge Wells is pissed off because I said her cleanser wasn't very good, I'm not going to lose any sleep.' Some potential Skin Rocks investors told her they would only fund her if she stopped blogging. 'I pushed back. That would be impossible. Imagine not being able to say, 'I'm so envious of this facemask — it's excellent'. It would be like having a limp.' Others have questioned how Hirons can continue consulting for other brands (in her book, she recommends a handful of her own products, alongside plenty of her rivals'). 'I'm not going to suddenly say your brand is shit and mine's the best. You'd lose credibility. Do you think Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White only eat at their own restaurants?' Teen Skincare by Caroline Hirons (HQ, £16.99) is published on June 19. To order a copy, go to or call 020 3176 2935. Free P&P on online orders over £25. Discount for Times+ members Hair: Sydnie Bones using Sam McKnight. Make-up: Amelia Hunt at The Rae Agency using Make-up by Mario and Refy
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
West End star Elaine Paige ‘astonished' to be given Damehood
West End performer Elaine Paige said she is still in 'complete disbelief' that she has been given a Damehood in the King's Birthday Honours for services to music and to charity. The music star was born Elaine Bickerstaff in north London 1948 and became an overnight star with her portrayal of Eva Peron in Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical Evita. After the show debuted in 1978, Dame Elaine, who had been nominated alongside her co-star David Essex, won the Olivier Award for performance of the year in a musical. Dame Elaine told the PA news agency: 'I'm kind of still in that mode of complete disbelief. You know, it's been such a shock. And I think probably the word to say is 'astonished'.' She added: 'I received a letter in the post, and I opened the letter and I read it once, and then I thought, no. 'I read it again and probably three times. I couldn't believe it. 'I was absolutely astonished to receive such a great honour from the King in recognition for music and the charitable organisations that I support, it's the ultimate privilege, and I'm just over the moon about it and absolutely thrilled. 'It's all very exciting. I've got all these different emotions coming at me all at once. I'm proud and I feel grateful and I'm thrilled and surprised, and so it's been quite a lot to take in.' The 77-year-old has had starring roles in Cats, Chess, Piaf, and Sunset Boulevard, and has more recently starred in pantomimes at The London Palladium. Across her career she has recorded more than 20 solo albums and has had one chart-topping single with I Know Him So Well featuring Barbara Dickson. She has also won a number of accolades including the Gold Badge of Merit from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA) in 1993. In 2014 she celebrated five decades on stage with a concert titled I'm Still Here, staged at the Royal Albert Hall and screened in cinemas. Accompanied by the 60-piece BBC Concert Orchestra, Dame Elaine's show included highlights from across her career, which saw her originating the roles of Eva in Evita, Grizabella in Cats, and Florence in Chess. She currently appears on BBC Radio 2 with her own lunchtime show, Elaine Paige On Sunday, which has been running for more than two decades. On TV she has appeared in TV series Marple, Where The Heart Is and Midsomer Murders. Outside of her work she has supported a number of charities including The Children's Trust, the Royal Voluntary Service and Dan Maskell Tennis Trust, which she has been president of since 2010. She told PA: 'Music has been the mainstay of my life. It's been all of my life, musical theatre in particular. 'But of course, I've recorded many albums, something like 22 solo albums, aside from the musical theatre albums I've been involved with. 'It's been the mainstay of my life from the very get go, I don't know that I could live without it, really. 'And in fact, I'm considering, or started to work on a new album. So yes, in my 60th year as well. I can't believe I'm still here, I'm still doing it, but I've had an idea… working with a lovely young man to produce a new album, and we're looking at songs and working on that right now. 'So music has played a great deal in my life, and of course, it's for charity as well. 'And I've been involved in lots of charities as well for many, many years, particularly The Children's Trust. I've been involved with them for over 40 years. I've been President of the Dan Maskell (Tennis) Trust for 15 years, and I'm also an ambassador for the Royal Voluntary Service and I sponsor, or sort of nurture students at Mountview drama school, as well as the Brighton Institute of Modern Music (BIMM). 'So there's quite a lot of different charities across the board that I'm involved with. 'And now that I'm not performing quite as regularly as I used to doing eight shows a week, I've got more time to be able to devote to these charities, which is pleasing me very much.' Helen Thomas, head of Radio 2, said: 'I'd like to send huge congratulations from everyone at BBC Radio 2 to our very own broadcasting legend Elaine Paige on becoming a dame in the King's Birthday Honours list. 'She keeps the nation entertained every Sunday lunchtime with the perfect mix of musical theatre anthems, and this is a truly fitting honour in her 60th year in showbusiness. 'We all know there's nothing like a dame and now she has the official title to match.' Paige was previously made an OBE for services to musical theatre in 1995.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
David Beckham ‘immensely proud' of knighthood in King's Birthday Honours
Former England captain David Beckham said he is 'immensely proud' to have been given a knighthood in the King's Birthday Honours. The sports star, who celebrated his 50th birthday last month, is being honoured for services to sport and charity. Sir David said in a statement to the PA news agency: 'Growing up in East London with parents and grandparents who were so patriotic and proud to be British I never could have imagined I would receive such a truly humbling honour. 'To have played for and captained my country was the greatest privilege of my career and literally a boyhood dream come true. 'Off the pitch I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to represent Britain around the world and work with incredible organisations that are supporting communities in need and inspiring the next generation. 'I'm so lucky to be able to do the work that I do and I'm grateful to be recognised for work that gives me so much fulfilment. It will take a little while for the news to sink in but I'm immensely proud and it's such an emotional moment for me to share with my family.' Sir David married his wife Victoria in 1999 and the couple share four children together – Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz and Harper. He had been set on becoming a professional footballer as a child and as a teenager he joined Manchester United as a trainee, forming part of the class of '92 that won the FA Youth Cup, along with Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville. The sports star from north east London made his Premier League debut for United in 1995 and was part of the team that earned a dramatic Champions League final victory in 1999 when they beat Bayern Munich with two late goals. In total he scored 85 goals and collected honours including six Premier League titles and two FA Cups as a footballer, before retiring from the sport in 2013. Alongside his football career Sir David has supported a number of charity causes and launched a fundraising appeal for Unicef in April ahead of his milestone 50th birthday. He has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for humanitarian aid organisation Unicef since 2005 and is a founding member of the charity Malaria No More UK's leadership council. Philip Goodwin, Unicef UK chief executive said: 'We're so thrilled that our Unicef Goodwill Ambassador, David Beckham, has been awarded a knighthood in the King's Birthday Honours. 'David Beckham has done an incredible amount to advocate for children's rights over the last 20 years. 'He became a Goodwill Ambassador in 2005 and launched 7: The David Beckham Unicef Fund in 2015 – with the goal of helping children around the world, especially girls, break down barriers including bullying, violence, child marriage and missed education. 'He's travelled extensively to see Unicef's work and used his profile to raise awareness, as well as support our flagship fundraising campaign Soccer Aid for Unicef and launch global fundraising appeals.' Last year the former sports star, who has described himself as a 'huge Royalist', was named an ambassador for the King's Foundation, an educational charity established by the King in 1990. In February Sir David appeared in a video helping to launch the hunt for '35 under 35', a network of influencers who can fly the flag for the charity which reflects Charles' vision. He is also known for his stylish clothing choices, and in 1998 was named most stylish man of the year by GQ magazine and he has modelled for the likes of H&M, Armani and Boss. In 2018 he was appointed Ambassadorial President of the British Fashion Council where he assisted the BFC in its search for young British talent from all backgrounds. His wife, Victoria, turned her hand to fashion designing after her time in the Spice Girls and Sir David and their four children are often spotted at her shows. Sir David is currently a part-owner of MLS side Inter Miami, and is also the co-founder of Studio 99, the production company behind the hit Netflix series Beckham. He was formerly appointed an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2003.
