Table of contents for 13-2020 in Best

She’s only just turned 40, but Katherine Kelly – whose big break was stepping on to the Cobbles as Becky McDonald in 2006 – already has an impressive CV. From Corrie to The Night Manager to Mr Selfridge, to Gentleman Jack, Katherine – currently starring in ITV thriller, Liar – is a household name. Asked recently how she’d sum herself up, she responded ‘contrary’, adding, ‘I’m not interested in playing it safe. Failure doesn’t frighten me.’ Well, she certainly wasn’t playing it safe with her Liar character, DI Karen Denton, who she describes as ‘unemotional’ – the blunt detective who has no problem posing awkward questions to victims in her quest to find the murderer of rapist Andrew Earlham. Katherine explained, ‘She has an innate ability to leave her emotions at the door… I can’t do that. I’d…

TOP TIP! Cape sleeves are the most fashionable and flattering way to disguise your upper arms. TOP TIP! Going to an early Spring wedding? A cropped jacket in a contrasting shade will keep out the chills softly. TOP TIP! Give a smart shirt dress a feminine feel with a bold print. A wide belt instantly transforms the shape.…

It was the hottest day of the year. The air conditioning was broken. The hospital tests had been long and uncomfortable. And I was hungry. Having had to go nil by mouth before the day-long tests, I was looking forward to a tuna sandwich and a cup of tea. But the food and drink failed to arrive. And I felt myself start to melt… or at least lose my cool. I had what an onlooker would probably have described as some kind of epic toddler tantrum. But I was 45, not a toddler. A kindly nurse talked me down. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she soothed. ‘You are autistic and we should have looked after you better.’ And just like that, years of confusion, fear and the feeling I was constantly failing…

Q My eyes are puffy and anything I apply – make-up, skin care – seems to make it look worse. How can I treat and disguise this? Anita, Bournemouth A DR AAMER SAYS: Ageing, a lack of sleep, excess alcohol, salty meals, or even a cold can all contribute to puffy eyes. Fraxel, a CO2 laser, can smooth and tighten the skin under the eyes. It is a one-off treatment, with a week to 10 days’ downtime where you could be swollen and possibly bruised, but results will last up to five years. From £2,000. Alternatively, you could have three to four SmartXide laser treatments which don’t require as much downtime as Fraxel, about three days each when you’ll look red and swollen. Most patients require three to five treatments,…

Twice-divorced and now in her fifties, Coleen Nolan has revealed that, while she’s loving single life for the moment, she’d like to lose some weight. But it’s not to impress a prospective partner – quite the opposite, in fact. The Loose Women favourite confessed, ‘I don’t care if men fancy me or not!’ ‘I’d definitely like to lose at least 2st, but that isn’t to aesthetically please other people.’ she explained. ‘It’s because I’m 55 and all of a sudden my joints are aching more. So it’s more of a health reason…I will get around to it, but I feel happier now and more comfortable in my own skin than I did 10 years ago. I think that comes with age and wisdom and maybe also because I’m not married,…

MAJOR BEACH BODY PANIC I’m going to Greece this summer – flights and virus advise permitting – but the closer it’s getting, the more I’m panicking about showing off my flabby middle-aged body in a swimsuit! My new partner’s daughters are coming with us. They’re both young, lithe and beach body perfect. I can’t help but think I’ll look like a beached whale next to them! I know it shouldn’t bother me, of course, they’re going to look gorgeous… but I want to feel slightly better about all this. Should I do a healthy detox? Buy a tent?! Lorraine, Newport Are you going to be stalked by paparazzi? Is Simon Cowell going to be giving you points out of 10? Get a grip! This is your own personal, private holiday…

DON’T PANIC Working from home or not working at all, travel and holidays completely disrupted, going to sports events and concerts a thing of the past… we’re all part of this problem. But we’re also all part of the solution. Panic buying – what’s that all about, in case of what?! Curfews on the streets? I don’t agree with it, but I understand it. I, too, have got extra tins of soup and some bread for the freezer. But watching folk cart away crates of bottled water – do they expect the taps to run dry? Seriously? For those of us who can afford it, everything we buy means there is less for people on low incomes, who just don’t have the money to stock up. By now, we understand…

ARIES 21 March – 20 April My Heart Will Go On singer, Celine Dion, Good Morning Britain presenter, Piers Morgan, and other Arians will be glowing with satisfaction and elation after celebrating a recent success. This is a great time to negotiate contracts and new agreements. Also plan a big get-together for your friends. TAURUS 21 April – 21 May3 Someone you live with is in a sensitive frame of mind, so you need to tread carefully when you are around them to avoid any upset. Friends and workmates aren’t as cooperative as you thought they would be. Make a special effort to socialise, even if it means mixing with people you aren’t getting on with. GEMINI 22 May – 21 June Even though a task you took on is…

I didn’t take the decision to have a baby on my own lightly. I’d always wanted to be a mum – but it’s quite tricky to achieve when 50 per cent of the vital ingredients are missing. You could say I’ve been unlucky in love. I’ve also been very career-focused–I’m passionate about my job as a head-teacher. My 30s passed and friends started having families. My two nephews were born and my biological clock was ticking loudly. When I reached 39, that ticking was more like a siren! I realised I could take a risk and keep waiting to meet someone to have a child with, and perhaps never have one. Or I could take a risk and have one alone. It was a big decision – exciting, but scary.…

..his wife Samantha’s advice about going into a soap She just takes the mickey out of me, because I’m terrible at learning lines. She said, ‘Learn the lines, don’t knock anything over, just get on with it.’ …his new role as DI Malone He’s very Machiavellian. He’s just up to no good from the moment he arrives. I think that’s why he’s there – to shake the whole thing. There are a lot of fun and games, plenty of juicy stuff to come. …joining the Emmerdale family From day one you feel included in the whole thing – they are really warm. You have a buddy system, where one of the actors takes you under their wing. I had Jeff – who plays Cain – he was brilliant, he showed…

Trudi Beswick is CEO of Caudwell Children, which provides support for children with 652 different conditions including autism and whose celebrity ambassadors include Sir Rod Stewart, Dame Joan Collins and Elizabeth Hurley. In May 2019, the charity launched the Caudwell International Children’s Centre and a new autism assessment, intervention and research service to help the estimated 2.5m people in the UK directly affected by autism. Trudi told best: ‘We support children pre- and post-diagnosis, with a comprehensive multidisciplinary assessment over two consecutive days, instead of the months or years it can take in community settings.’ She added: ‘A detailed feedback report, which highlights a child’s strengths as well as where they may need support, can be used to inform family, teachers or Special Educational Needs staff. Post-diagnosis, we can provide workshops…

Sweeping sets, warring dynasties, explosive secrets and ‘awful’ corsets – the next Downton Abbey made its grand entrance on Sunday night – headed up by the brilliant Tamsin Greig, 53. This lavish six-parter, based on a novel by Downton writer Lord Julian Fellowes, follows Kent-born Anne Trenchard (Tamsin) and her businessman husband James (played by Life On Mars actor Philip Glenister) as they flaunt their new money, in the well-heeled neighbourhood of 19th-century Belgravia. Cracks within the upper classes soon begin to surface when Anne deals a shocking blow to her rival Lady Brockenhurst (Harriet Walter) which will change the course of events for good. It’s a nail-biting series, which – like Downton – explores the dramas of the ‘downstairs’ staff, too. And, though filming in gold-plated drawing rooms of posh Regency squares might sound like the…

Former rugby ace Ben Cohen and his partner, Kristina Rihanoff - aka the ‘Marilyn Monroe of the dance floor’ – swiftly became the talk of Strictly Come Dancing back in 2013. The dance-floor pairing blossomed into a romance after Ben left his wife – the two went on to get engaged and have a baby girl, Mia, now three. But what of the woman Ben left behind? After 11 years of marriage and two children, Ben was adamant there was no third party involved when he and wife Abby announced their split in 2014. A year later, he and Kristina went public. A devastated Abby commented, ‘I’d supported this man throughout his career. We were going to grow old together, but Ben chose a different path and I didn’t fit in with…

When the love of my life died, I no longer wanted to live. I’d cry all day. I watched TV, ate junk food, didn’t wear make-up – sometimes I didn’t even bother getting dressed. I took painkillers to numb my grief and drank whisky to help me sleep at night. When we met in 1996, Jeremy Lucas – then my neighbour – was a 40-year-old divorcee with three daughters. I was a 21-year-old student from a strict Indian family. Not an obvious match, but within weeks, we were in love. Jeremy – with his piercing blue eyes – shared my life for almost 20 years. A persistent pain on the right side of his back in 2014 turned out to be a tumour. The cancer spread, and in July 2016,…

LIZ GIVES EAMONN THE BRUSH OFF Every morning Eamonn wakes up, he has another woman on his mind – Elizabeth Hurley! Eamonn and Liz met at a recent lunch, and now he is literally bending over backwards for her. Comparing notes about backache, Liz has convinced him that a really effective way of strengthening his lower back was to squat while brushing his teeth. Carried out repeatedly, day after day, she says it’s helped her tremendously. Good job it’s only me who can see what he looks like when he does this! CAREHOMES, BUT NOT CARE-FREE Much praise for the new Chancellor’s Budget – but yet again, no help for the hundreds of thousands of people forced into a social care system that can’t cope, or to hand over whatever…

Fighting back the tears as my husband packed his clothes into a bag, I begged him to give our marriage another chance. But Sean wasn’t having any of it. He told me he had lost interest in me, that we’d drifted apart – then he made a snide remark about us eating too many takeaways. I was a size 24 and 18st at the time, and I knew he was having a dig about my weight. ‘You’ll thank me one day,’ he said curtly, as he closed the front door behind him. Our little girl, Phoebe, who was four, started to cry. ‘When’s Daddy coming home?’ she sobbed, tears streaming down her cheeks. I tried my best to sound strong, but inside, I was devastated. Eight weeks later, Sean moved…

Treasure of a high-flying star Suzanne Richeux, from London, needs help to repair a mechanical birdcage that belonged to her mother – an internationally famous trapeze artist. ‘My mother was from Hartlepool and she was the world’s best trapeze artist,’ says Suzanne, 62. But while Inga-Lise loved to perform, she didn’t bother with possessions. ‘She loved animals and she loved travelling, but she didn’t really hold on to things. ‘This [birdcage] is one of the few things that she bought and she loved. It makes my heart so sad to see it not working. ‘My mother was an extraordinary woman and this birdcage is a part of our family history. I would love to be able to hand it down to my daughter, her granddaughter, Natalie.’ Suzanne recalls asking her…

Kim Wilde is one of the most adored female singers of the Eighties. In 1981, her debut single, Kids in America, was a global hit and she went on to sell 30m records. Seen as the voice of a generation of rebellious youth, Kim’s punchy vocals hit the airwaves around the world – and she still holds the record for being the most-charted British female solo act of the Eighties. Here, Kim opens up about 40 years in the music business – and why, at 60, she’s only just begun! You’re celebrating 40 years in music… how does that feel? I remember when I was 20 years old and Olivia Newton John had just turned 30 – I thought that was such an old age to be still singing! My…

Pulling off the perfect proposal takes courage. For some men, it can be a smooth process, as they whisk their other halves off to romantic locations like Paris or Rome, to get down on one knee with flowers and buckets of champagne. For others, it can be a slightly awkward moment – rather like when former This Morning host, Richard Madeley, 63, popped the question to his now-wife of 33 years, Judy Finnigan. Judy – with whom he has children Jack, 33, and Chloe, 32 – revealed recently that, when Richard broached the idea of tying the knot, romance couldn’t have seemed further from his mind. ‘I knew that we’d get married because it wasn’t a sordid office affair’ Discussing the perfect proposal of ‘alpha-female’ Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating…

Looking at images of Kate and William during their Ireland visit earlier this month, body language expert Judi James said, ‘Kate seems to be carrying the Royal firm almost single-handedly right now.’ The Duchess looked like she was taking the lead, she added, showing the ‘energy and power she is putting in as she steps up to the plate.’ Kate was, she said, ‘approaching the hosts first, instigating the humour, and engaging in conversations using some very active gesticulation… She also looks quietly watchful of William, throwing him several cues of encouragement, suggesting the split from his brother is taking its toll.’ Perhaps all the recent Royal drama will bring our future King and Queen, closer than ever – it would be one positive to come out of these turbulent…

Her new look in Belgravia is a world away from Tamsin Greig’s usual pixie cut and slacks. But Tamsin’s cropped hairdo and tall stature has meant that she’s been mistaken for the opposite sex before. She laughed, ‘It happens quite a lot. We will go out for a meal and the waiter will say, “And for you, sir?” And it’s happened more than once!’ Tamsin added: ‘I was walking down a street once and there was a toddler naming things. He was pointing and saying “car” and “tree” and “birds” and then he pointed at me and said, “man”.’ Oh, dear……

‘My earliest memory of the Miss World competition is from1967, when our whole family was watching it – an annual ritual. We were fully expecting the UK’s Jennifer Lynn-Lewis to win, but she came fifth and – shock horror – Miss Peru won. We’d never heard of Peru at the time, but aged just seven, I looked it up in the encyclopaedia and found out all about it. So, it wasn’t entirely devoid of educational value, and we loved it. We thought nothing of the idea of women parading around in swimsuits. I was shocked when I found out it had been going for 70 years, but I was more shocked to discover that it is still going! How angry feminists haven’t put a stop to it is anyone’s guess.…

Top of the crops Ankle grazers work well with heels and flats. Flower power A bold print instantly transforms your wardrobe. Take cover! Ditch your winter coat for a lightweight mac. Dress the part Figure flattering and suitable for any occasion.…

1 Stain-proof your pearly whites ‘After having coffee or tea, drink a sip of water and pass your tongue on your teeth to clean them: the majority of the stains will disappear straight away.’ DR NINA BAL, DENTIST AND AESTHETIC DOCTOR 2 Plump up your pout ‘In a small bowl, mix together ½ tsp sugar, ½ tsp honey and a pinch of grated ginger. Using your fingers, apply to dry lips in a circular motion and leave for 15 minutes. With a hot cloth wipe your lips, rinse with warm water, pat dry and apply a soothing balm.’ HAYLEY HEMS, FOUNDER OF HHSKIN 3 Prevent a patchy tan ‘When showering for the first time after applying your tan use shower gel, but don’t exfoliate your skin.’ MARISSA CARTER, FOUNDER OF COCOA BROWN…

Roasted squash with coriander pesto Serves 4 Ready in 50 minutes 2 medium butternut squashes, halved, deseeded and cut into wedgesLow-calorie cooking spray1 tbsp ras el hanout2 small packs of fresh coriander1 garlic clove, crushed2 tbsp lemon juice½ tsp chilli powder2 tsp paprika200g fat-free natural Greek yogurt 1 Preheat the oven to 220˚C/fan 200˚C/gas 7. 2 Arrange the squash in a large non-stick roasting tin (you might need 2 tins), spray with low-calorie cooking spray and sprinkle with half the ras el hanout and a little seasoning. Turn the wedges over and repeat, then roast for 25-30 minutes or until tender and nicely browned at the edges. 3 Set aside a handful of coriander sprigs and put the rest of the coriander in a food processor. Add the garlic, 1½…

Amanda Redman knows all about the emotional and physical scars left behind after a traumatic injury. At 18 months old, the actress, 62, suffered 75 per cent burns after she was scalded at home by a pan of boiling soup. She subsequently spent four years in hospital and has said, ‘It’s what my earliest memories are of’. Now, she has bravely decided to revisit them after urging The Good Karma Hospital writers to include an acid attack storyline in the upcoming series. Her character, Dr Lydia Fonseca, treats nurse Jyoti Gill, played by Sayani Gupta, when she’s maimed in a horrific ambush. Here, mum-of-one Amanda – married to second husband, businessman Damian Schnabel, 47, since 2010, opens up about those tough scenes, being a stepmum and - having previously admitted she is open…

HOW IT WORKS 1 Eating the rainbow simply means trying to eat at least seven different colours of fruit and vegetables – i.e. different greens, purples, reds, oranges, yellows and whites – every day, and that’s important for weight loss for a number of reasons. 2 The obvious one is that the more fruit and vegetables you eat, the fewer calories you’re likely to consume overall. However, there’s a bit more to it than that. A diet full of fruit and vegetables fights inflammation that experts think makes weight loss harder. It also helps create a good mix of bacteria in your gut – and these can help determine how easy, or hard, you find it to lose weight. On top of this, a high intake of fruit and vegetables…

She might be battling dementia, and Coronavirus is no doubt on her husband’s mind, but that doesn’t mean Barbara Windsor can’t have a laugh, from time to time. The former EastEnders star, 82, astonished friend Christopher Biggins, 71, recently – by regaling him with music hall songs and jokes from her old Carry On films, over a bite to eat. ‘I had lunch with her recently. She’s fantastic. We laugh and tell stories’ ‘I had lunch with Barbara recently. She’s fantastic. We laugh a lot and we tell stories,’ he confirmed. ‘She’s great on the past… She can remember her Carry On jokes and also songs from old-time music hall – the other day, she sang to me, The Boy I Love Is Up In The Gallery. But with the…

KEEP THEM CLOSE A newborn western lowland gorilla holds tightly on to mum’s hair and will be carried by her for the first three to four months of her life. Any excuse for a little cuddle! HIGHLAND HIGH JAPES Highland cows Sweetpea, Fudge, Iona and Emmanuel live at Pennywell Farm, though we sure they’re tempted by the pot of gold at the end of that gorgeous rainbow… PIGLET PARTY These three little babes were born last month and are already as thick as thieves, keeping cosy with mum. EWE WANT A HEAD MASSAGE? It’s not just us humans who have their kids climbing all over them, as this little lamb proves! TOP TRUNKS Asian elephant Sundara gave birth to baby Riva last month and is settling in well at Chester…

THE DUTCH HOUSE – ANN PATCHETT Tom Hanks’ delivery matches the brilliance of this great novel – a decade-spanning saga about a devoted brother and sister’s turbulent relationship with their stepmother. SWEET SORROW – DAVID NICHOLLS Rory Kinnear narrates this bittersweet coming-of-age story from the pen of the One Day author. A touching tale of first love, it follows 16-year-old Charlie through romance and family breakdown. THE GIVER OF STARS – JOJO MOYES In 1930s Kentucky, a band of intrepid women form a mobile library – using horses to take books to remote mountain dwellers. A fabulous adventure story from the author of Me Before You.…

Christine McGuinness is brave and honest, as she talks about life with three autistic children and how her nine-year marriage to comedian and Top Gear presenter, Paddy, 46, has been put under strain as a result. The stunning 32-year-old model who last year appeared on reality show The Real Housewives of Cheshire, recently confirmed that her three-year-old daughter, Felicity, has the same developmental disorder – characterised by difficulties with social interaction, and restricted, repetitive behaviour – as her six-year-old twins, Penelope and Leo. But tough as the journey sounds, what shines through is Christine’s love for her family – and how she’ll protect them like a tiger with her cubs… Christine, not long ago you revealed your third child has autism, like your twins. Was it a shock? We expected it with…

TRUE ROMANCE READ THIS IF YOU LIKED ONE DAY The Weight of Love Hilary Fannin Doubleday Ireland, £13.99 When Robin introduces Ruth, the girl he loves, to his best friend Joseph, the connection is instant. The story follows them over the next decades, as they try to forget the past. Tender, romantic and with brilliantly realised characters, it’s a book to lose yourself in. In Five Years Rebecca Serle Quercus, £14.99 New Yorker Dannie likes to be in control of her life. But when a strange, lucid dream reveals an alternative future to the one she expects, the rug is swept out from under her. This quirky love-letter to friendship contains some unexpected twists. SPINE-CHILLERS READ THIS IF YOU LIKED GONE GIRL Seven Lies Elizabeth Kay Sphere, £12.99 Jane and…