Reader's Digest UK May 2022

Tourists from across the world flock to the UK each year for a glimpse at traditional British life—cosy pubs lit by warm log fires, quaint corner shops stocking delicious local produce and the smile of the village greengrocer, surrounded by glossy fruit and veg. But the swift tide of modernity is threatening many of the hallmarks of our traditional villages with extinction. On p72, we meet the communities taking matters into their own hands. From the Trawden Forest Community Pub Group, who clubbed together to save their local watering hole, to the baker who has turned abandoned telephone boxes into pop-up cake shops, their stories are inspiring, and sure to give you a dose of good old fashioned community spirit. Grace Dent might be best known for her restaurant criticism, but looking…

We pay £50 for Letter of the Month and £30 for all others LETTER OF THE MONTH Jordan Stephens is talking sense when he says that if he ruled the world, he’d destroy phones. They are isolating, squirrel us down rabbit holes, and never follow through on their promise to make us feel better. We use them to fill the holes in our lives and the spaces in our days. Like shields to block out the real world, to keep real people, places and conversations at bay because a carefully edited version of reality is infinitely more appealing. It’s exhausting and we are exhausted, constantly “on” waiting for the next nudge from our devices and giving all our power away. So, how about next time you’re stood at the bus stop, queuing at…

The white powder arrived in a brown paper bag. I ripped it open to reveal the plastic packaging within, temptingly labelled "PURITY GREATER THAN 99 PER CENT". Endorphins triggered, I eagerly licked my finger, dipped it in, and applied a small quantity direct to my tongue, just to get a hit. I felt the impact immediately. It tasted like Chinese takeaway. Such was my first experience mailordering MSG. It won’t be my last. Monosodium glutamate, the umami seasoning frequently added to Chinese cuisine, is something I’d always been led to believe was harmful to your health. Growing up in the 1980s, I heard my parents discuss it in the same disdainful tone as carcinogenic sweeteners and tooth-rotting sugar, and can recall restaurants displaying "NO MSG" signs in their windows. Olly Mann presents Four…

In a career spanning two decades, Hugh Dancy, 46, has largely flown under the radar, carving out a solid career as a versatile actor who chooses weighty roles. After catching our eye as Daniel Deronda (2002) and the arm-candy of goofy heroines in movies like Ella Enchanted (2004), Dancy moved toward meatier roles like that of FBI profiler Will Graham in the cult psychological thriller Hannibal (2013-15) opposite Mads Mikkelsen, and of a charismatic spiritual leader in The Path (2016-18) with Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul. Half of a reluctant showbiz couple—Dancy’s wife is Homeland powerhouse Claire Danes—Dancy will have to start getting used to the spotlight. He’s just joined two of the world’s biggest franchises, landing a role in the second Downton Abbey movie, A New Era, and in the revival…

THE VERY FIRST THING I REMEMBER is being thrown out of a pram by our dog when I was barely a year old. Our dog was a big labrador named Joey who was very boisterous and I think he just jumped up to look into the pram. I was such a light-weight baby that I flew out of the pram and landed on my head. I ended up with a bump I’ve still got. DAD WAS AN ENGINEER AT A HOSPITAL IN SHOREHAM-ON-SEA and Mum was a nurse in Ireland who met him after she moved to England, just before the war. She was a staunch Catholic and my father converted in order to marry her. He was very straight-down-the-line and when I brought home the “Great Balls of Fire” record…

Of all the sensations we can feel, pain shouts the loudest. A tender touch, a delicious taste or a beautiful sound—these are all silenced instantly by a stab of pain. It makes the most noise because it has the most urgent job to do, to protect you from harm. Without pain in our lives how would we know to pull our hand back quickly from a fire, or rest an ankle while it heals? For the rare few born with a congenital insensitivity to pain, their lack of suffering is more than outweighed by the constant peril of injury, simply because they don’t have the pain-sharpened sense to keep out of harm’s way. As a sufferer of chronic pain following a double-ankle break 14 years ago, I’m aware that pain has an…