Latest news with #Edith
The Irish Sun
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Huge radio DJ signs up for Celebrity Bake Off alongside Molly-Mae Hague and JoJo Siwa
RADIO fans are in for a treat as one huge star from the airways has signed up for the celebrity version of The Great British Bake Off. The Sun can exclusively reveal that the famous DJ is preparing to don an apron and try her luck in the iconic tent. 5 A popular radio DJ has signed for Celebrity Great British Bake Off 5 Edith Bowman will be trying her luck in the tent Credit: Getty Edith Bowman is the latest star to sign up to the Channel 4 show and will be whipping up a storm alongside some big names. Scots-born Edith, 51, will be joined in the Celebrity GBBO tent by stars including Sources believe mum-of-two Edith, who hosts BBC3 Unwind, will do well in the tent because she's used to "juggling" while live on air. A TV insider said: "Edith always goes down a treat with viewers. READ MORE ON GBBO "She's warm, enthusiastic and a lot of fun, and show bosses are delighted to have her on board. "Her radio day job sees her juggling lots of different things all at once so it should stand her in good stead when she films her episode in the tent." News of Edith's signing comes just days after The Sun revealed The former Love Island star turned businesswoman will be one of the biggest stars taking part in the Stand Up To Cancer spin-off of the cookery contest. Most read in Reality Other Love Islanders who've been on the Bake Off spin off have included former contestant and former host Laura Whitmore. Molly Mae drops HUGE C4 show hint as she returns to reality TV for first time since Love Island Meanwhile, another famous face who will be Fresh from The 38-year-old Celebrity Gogglebox favourite has a good relationship with Channel 4 bosses and it is understood Have YOU got a story or an amazing picture or video? Email and you could even get PAID The celebrity version of Bake Off, whose participants have yet to be confirmed by C4, is being made just before filming of the 'civilian' version gets underway. Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond will be returning to host, while Paul Hollywood coming back to give the celebs some serious scrutiny in the tent. Channel 4 star Prue Leith has stepped back from all GBBO specials, with cooking expert and pal Caroline Waldegrave filling her shoes. The Stand Up To Cancer celeb special is due to air this summer. 5 Bake Off bosses are delighted to have Edith on board Credit: Getty 5 Molly-Mae Hague has also signed up to the celebrity special Credit: Getty 5 JoJo Siwa is also in the UK to secretly film the show Credit: Getty
Scottish Sun
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Huge radio DJ signs up for Celebrity Bake Off alongside Molly-Mae Hague and JoJo Siwa
Channel 4 bosses are 'delighted' to have her on board GETTING HER BAKE ON GETTING HER BAKE ON Huge radio DJ signs up for Celebrity Bake Off alongside Molly-Mae Hague and JoJo Siwa RADIO fans are in for a treat as one huge star from the airways has signed up for the celebrity version of The Great British Bake Off. The Sun can exclusively reveal that the famous DJ is preparing to don an apron and try her luck in the iconic tent. 5 A popular radio DJ has signed for Celebrity Great British Bake Off 5 Edith Bowman will be trying her luck in the tent Credit: Getty Edith Bowman is the latest star to sign up to the Channel 4 show and will be whipping up a storm alongside some big names. Scots-born Edith, 51, will be joined in the Celebrity GBBO tent by stars including Molly-Mae Hague and JoJo Siwa. Sources believe mum-of-two Edith, who hosts BBC3 Unwind, will do well in the tent because she's used to "juggling" while live on air. A TV insider said: "Edith always goes down a treat with viewers. "She's warm, enthusiastic and a lot of fun, and show bosses are delighted to have her on board. "Her radio day job sees her juggling lots of different things all at once so it should stand her in good stead when she films her episode in the tent." News of Edith's signing comes just days after The Sun revealed Molly-Mae Hague will be taking part in the next celebrity version of Bake Off. The former Love Island star turned businesswoman will be one of the biggest stars taking part in the Stand Up To Cancer spin-off of the cookery contest. Other Love Islanders who've been on the Bake Off spin off have included former contestant Ovie Soko and former host Laura Whitmore. Molly Mae drops HUGE C4 show hint as she returns to reality TV for first time since Love Island Meanwhile, another famous face who will be whipping up a storm is JoJo Siwa. Fresh from her Celebrity Big Brother stint, the 22-year-old Dance Moms star has returned to the UK to secretly film the C4 show. Babatunde Aleshe will also be bringing the laughs to the tent. The 38-year-old Celebrity Gogglebox favourite has a good relationship with Channel 4 bosses and it is understood they are thrilled to sign him. Have YOU got a story or an amazing picture or video? Email exclusive@ and you could even get PAID The celebrity version of Bake Off, whose participants have yet to be confirmed by C4, is being made just before filming of the 'civilian' version gets underway. Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond will be returning to host, while Paul Hollywood coming back to give the celebs some serious scrutiny in the tent. Channel 4 star Prue Leith has stepped back from all GBBO specials, with cooking expert and pal Caroline Waldegrave filling her shoes. The Stand Up To Cancer celeb special is due to air this summer. 5 Bake Off bosses are delighted to have Edith on board Credit: Getty 5 Molly-Mae Hague has also signed up to the celebrity special Credit: Getty
Irish Examiner
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Author interview: 'What are the politics of belonging if you don't have it'
Back in 2020, anxious to escape from post-Brexit Britain, Sarah Moss left Coventry, where she was teaching, and brought her family to live in Dún Laoghaire. The novelist had accepted a post teaching creative writing at University College Dublin and, in spite of the lingering covid restrictions, the family felt happy and settled at once. But it got her thinking of the whole theme of belonging. 'My father was Russian-American Jewish, and my mother is Yorkshire working class,' she says. 'I grew up in a bunch of places and have lived in a bunch of places. I've never been able to say, 'that, there, is where I come from'.' This had never much bothered Sarah, because her friends are also internationally mobile, but coming to Ireland where there is more investment in belonging, ownership, identity, and land made her investigate her sense of place. 'Can you make belonging if you don't have it?' she wondered. 'What are the politics of making belonging if you don't have it, and particularly if you are an English person in Ireland? 'It's not up to me to say, 'I belong here now'. That doesn't have a good history.' We're in a Dublin's Brooks Hotel talking about Sarah's ninth novel, Ripeness, which centres on Edith, a happily divorced 73-year-old who has found utter contentment since settling in the Burren. Daughter of a woman who lost most of her family in the Holocaust, she's wondering if she's finally found a place to call home. Why did she choose an older woman as the third person narrator? 'It never feels like a decision,' says Sarah, explaining that she has characters living in her head. I've been living with Edith for years in different ways. I tried to write about her in the forties, but that didn't work, and she sits quite nicely here Alternating chapters take us back to the sixties, when, at 17 and soon to start at Oxford University, Edith spends a summer at an Italian villa, helping her sister Lydia through late pregnancy and childbirth. Lydia's friends, fellow dancers from her company, are also there. Although on holiday, dance practice remains a constant in their lives. Sarah had been thinking about writing a ballet book for years, and seeing photos of Margot Fonteyn taken by Joan Leigh Fermor — the wife of the famous writer scholar and soldier, Sir Patrick — gave her a focus. The couple, living in Greece, had set up a glamorous bohemian house. 'There is a sequence of photos of Fonteyn on holiday, including a set of her with Frederick Ashton on a boat. 'They are practising, using the side of the boat as a bar. You can see the sails behind them. There's another of Fonteyn sunbathing naked. Her poise is exquisite — she is totally in control, and that gave me the idea of dancers at play. They are still inhabiting the dance with their bodies, though not with discipline.' This idea came to Sarah when she was on a six-week writing retreat on the shores of Lake Como in the spring of 2023. 'Ripeness' is a gorgeous book; sunny, sensual and absorbing. The author writes so brilliantly about the physicality of dance, and the scenes of childbirth and new life are exquisitely described. 'The villa was absolutely gorgeous. It had been used for artists since the 19th century as a place to go to support yourself in the summer, and that gave me the setting. 'But being liberated for six weeks didn't work for me at all. It turns out that I actually need the rhythms of domestic life. I need to be cooking and doing laundry and looking after people. Though, obviously you need a balance.' Sarah's first novel, Cold Earth, was published when her two sons were small. 'My entire career has been as a parent. I have never known it any other way. It's a shifting balance, like standing on a wobble board.' The Burren was the obvious Irish setting because, having lived for a year in Iceland, Sarah adores the barren limestone landscape. Which isn't to say that she doesn't find it frustrating. 'These walking guides say: 'This is 10k, and it will take you five hours.' You think, don't be ridiculous, what nonsense, but it does! 'I like to stride out and cover ground and get there, but the limestone won't let you. It insists that you slow down, pay attention, and read the land under your feet. If you don't, you're going to fall over or fall down a hole. I really love that. It's frustrating, but I think it's good for me, both as a hiker and as a writer.' Ripeness is a gorgeous book; sunny, sensual and absorbing. The author writes so brilliantly about the physicality of dance, and the scenes of childbirth and new life are exquisitely described. 'I was a friend's birth companion shortly after my son was born, and it made me realise that most women never see birth. 'My son was five months old, so it was vivid. I knew exactly what she was going through and how it felt, but it made me think that the only women who see birth now are professionals, and it must have been so different in the days when you helped your friend or your sister and would have known what was going to happen.' Lydia's baby is going for adoption, and she refuses to see him. My second son was a home birth, and the midwife told me that one of her most important roles, straight after the birth, was to hand the baby to the mother. She said that otherwise the mother might walk off 'I thought, how could anybody do such a thing, but I can, kind of, imagine it. All that work; hours and hours and hours of it — and you just want to lie down and have a cup of tea.' Sarah has always taught and has no trouble with public speaking. 'Put me in front of an audience of 500 and tell me to talk for an hour — I will be fine. But send me to a party, and I will want to hide behind a curtain with a book. I met the woman who is still my best friend at somebody's seventh birthday party. 'I hid behind one end of the curtain, and she hid behind the other. We met in the middle.' Currently on a year's break from UCD, Sarah is doing some freelance teaching. 'I absolutely love it,' she says, 'and can't imagine not doing it in some form. I find it very generative because it forces me to think properly about what I'm doing. So much of my practice is playful and experimental. It's a good being made to think rigorously about it.' What is the benefit to students of an MA in creative writing? 'It won't make a good writer out of people who are not, but it can intensify a process that would have happened over a long time. 'You can help people to experiment, to think well about reading and writing, and to bounce off each other. Done well, it can be exciting, productive, and generative, but that's not to say that it produces publishing contracts.' As someone who came from England half my lifetime ago, I can vouch for Edith's feelings about a dual nationality. I tell Sarah that she has got Edith's emotions exactly right. Currently applying for an Irish passport, Sarah says she wrote the novel as a hymn to Ireland, and to the Burren in particular. Does she intend to stay in the country indefinitely? 'I hope so,' she says. 'Friendship is hugely important in my life, and I have good friends here. They're the joy of my life. I have the occasional yearning, but you have to stop somewhere and its pretty good here.'
Daily Record
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Netflix fans say 'exquisite' and 'impeccable' period drama is 'enchanting'
The Dig tells the story of the 1939 excavation of Sutton Hoo in Suffolk - and fans are already in awe of the 'beautiful and moving' film Period drama enthusiasts are in for a treat as the 'impeccable' film The Dig is currently available to stream on Netflix. The 2021 cinematic depiction of John Preston's acclaimed novel brings to life the tales of the 1939 excavation at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk. Inhabitants were required to clear out as archaeologists uncovered an undisturbed ship brimming with enigmatic Anglo-Saxon artefacts. The motion picture showcases a stellar cast, featuring Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes portraying Edith Pretty and Basil Brown, respectively. The narrative follows landowner Edith's resolve to explore the burial mounds on her estate with the assistance of self-taught archaeologist Brown, who she employs in the hope of unearthing their secrets. Boasting a lofty score on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has garnered recognition for its 'excellent' performances from viewers. A critic says: "This isn't my type of film usually, but I found it to be enchanting and captivating. Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes are excellent, as is the young lad. A window on a dangerous time but also captures the charm of England back then , when everyone had manners and everything was done with TLC." Another viewer added: "I just watched The Dig, and I have to say, it's such a beautiful and moving film. I knew a little bit about the Sutton Hoo discovery, but this film really brings the whole story to life in such a heartfelt way. It's not just about the archaeology; it's about the people behind it and everything they went through.", reports Surrey Live. In the nascent stage of their working relationship, Edith presents an offer matching what Brown had been getting from the Ipswich Museum, yet upon his declaration of its insufficiency, they settle on a more substantial sum for his expertise. Initially, Brown would cycle long distances daily until Edith extends the hospitality of on-site accommodation, shared with her driver and chef, plus two assistants to aid in his endeavours. Despite attempts by his previous colleagues to draw him back into their explorations, Brown remains steadfast in his solitary excavation. His persistence soon pays off when he stumbles upon enigmatic iron rivets from a ship, hinting that the site might be the final resting place of a figure of supreme stature—perhaps an ancient king prompting an unforeseen voyage of discovery. A fan wrote: "Beautifully shot and carefully written. It's a well-crafted story about discovery, death, love and hope, set in a turbulent time where Great Britain is about to go to war with Germany. Though this historical film suffers from pacing issues, particularly in the first half of the movie, it delivers an emotionally compelling and resonating story that we rarely see these days." For those keen to delve into the true tale of the Sutton Hoo excavation and immerse themselves in a period drama, The Dig is currently available for streaming on Netflix.
Irish Times
28-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- Irish Times
Ripeness by Sarah Moss: A captivating novel about the unwritten codes of Irish social interaction
Ripeness Author : Sarah Moss ISBN-13 : 978-1529035490 Publisher : Picador Guideline Price : £20 Have you no homes to go to? The line once used by Irish bar staff to clear a crowded pub at the end of an evening has a more unsettling ring in the modern age. What if you have no home to go to? What if you are not overly keen on going home? What if 'home' gets defined by someone else and not by you? Sarah Moss's latest novel, Ripeness, is, among other things, an extended meditation on what home or belonging might mean in a period of disruption and displacement. The narrative shifts between 73-year-old Edith, who has settled in the Burren, and her 17-year-old self, who ends up in a villa near Lake Como dealing with her sister Lydie's unwanted pregnancy. Edith and Lydie are the daughters of a French Jewish mother married to a northern English farmer. Edith inherits from her father an acute sensitivity to the changing moods of the landscape and from her mother – lost in the aftershadow of the Holocaust – an innate scepticism about the permanence of any form of belonging. Moss perfectly judges the prickly absolutism of the younger Edith, on her way to Oxford, a bookish teenager dealing with events in a foreign land that fast-track her to adulthood. Some of the most affecting pages in the novel describe the burgeoning sense of care she feels for her newborn nephew in the days before he is taken away for adoption, the carefully orchestrated outcome of the catastrophic circumstances surrounding his conception. READ MORE The older Edith memorably combines a clear-sighted forthrightness with the sarky petulance of advancing years ('we had a wireless at home but no record player, none of us feeling a need for music. It was only later that everyone started to have a taste in music, as if it were food or clothes, no opting out'). As an English woman in Ireland, Edith is continually aware of the trip wires of reproach, the random observation that is chalked up to colonial condescension or the accent that potentially makes any critical comment a hostage to the high-horsiness of empire. Forty years of married life in south Dublin and her subsequent move to the west of Ireland make for a long apprenticeship in the unwritten codes of Irish social interaction, where she notes 'friendliness isn't friendship'. Continually navigating the uncertainty of home and belonging is, as Sarah Moss's beguiling tale reminds us, an important skill Edith's northern English plain-speaking continually runs aground on the island shores of the unsaid and the unspoken. Questions around assimilation and integration come to a head when Méabh, Edith's closest friend, becomes involved in a local protest against the provision of accommodation for asylum seekers. This event coincides with the imminent reunion between Méabh and a newly discovered half-brother from the United States, another victim of an unwanted teenage pregnancy, having many years earlier been spirited off to the US for adoption. Edith contrasts the ready acceptance of the half-brother – who has never set foot in Ireland – as being of the place, with the rejection of the young asylum seekers – who actually live on the island – as having no right to be there. [ Sarah Moss: Irish dog-walkers are kinder than English dog-walkers Opens in new window ] Lying in bed with her German lover, Gunter, she wants 'another immigrant to agree that national identity isn't genetic, that blood doesn't give you rights of ownership'. To an ageing Edith, the malign legacies of blood-and-soil thinking are evidence not only of the dangers of forgetting but also of the foreclosure of possibility, the denial that newcomers have the regenerative capacity to 'belong by caring for people and places'. Moss's writing has always been characterised by its range, and the latest novel does not disappoint. Whether describing the shift of the northern Italian landscape from summer to autumn, the granular changes of light on a wet day in Clare, or the brittle exchanges between two damaged siblings, Moss's prose is unfailingly spare and alert. The images are often arresting: 'a bowl of brassy dimpled pears'. Equally, they are telling in their unfussy accuracy, such as when she evokes spring in the Burren, 'its tiny flowering in the crevices and rain-cups of sedimentary rock, in the pinprick markings of the planet's bone'. Part of the attraction of this captivating novel is Moss's curiosity about different ways of knowing. How the world looks through the lens of a different language – French or Italian, in this instance – and how you try to build another version of yourself in that language while foxed by the snares of grammar and idiom. Or how differently the world is felt and understood when it is measured out in steps, twists, turns and leaps, as is the case with Lydie and her ballet-dancer friends. The ripeness of the title comes from Edith's reading of King Lear . She contrasts Hamlet's insistence on readiness, on the triumph of the will, with Edgar's 'ripeness is all', which stresses how much is out of our hands, how much happens 'regardless of agency or volition'. Continually navigating the uncertainty of home and belonging is, as Sarah Moss's beguiling tale reminds us, an important skill if, in our fractious age, last orders are not to give way to last rites. Michael Cronin is Professor of French at Trinity College Dublin
