Reader's Digest UK November 2022

Follow Us facebook.com/readersdigestuk twitter.com/readersdigestuk @readersdigest_uk You can also sign up to our newsletter at readersdigest.co.uk Reader’s Digest is published in 23 editions in 10 languages THE GLOBAL QUIET that descended following the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was, for most of us, unlike anything we’ve experienced. Beloved across the world, our longestreigning monarch’s death moved even the most stoical, as we came together to mourn her—whether reflecting on her reign, queuing to see her coffin, or simply watching the Paddington films. Her Majesty had a long and generous relationship with Reader’s Digest. Back in 1985, she sat for a portrait by Michael Leonard, commissioned by us for her 60th birthday. It now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, and you can see it on p61. In it, she sits smiling in an Easter-yellow dress, one…

We pay £50 for Letter of the Month and £30 for all others LETTER OF THE MONTH Words cannot describe how much I needed to read Dr Max’s article about forgiveness. After struggling for years with the effects of bullying at school, I feel like I have finally been given a clear reason to forgive the boys who set out to hurt me. People like Nelson Mandela and Malala Yousafzai famously forgave their oppressors and it is recommended we do so in the Lord’s Prayer, but I have never felt able to, particularly as the boys who bullied me never showed any remorse. Dr Max has clarified it for me in such a way that I have a new determination to set myself free from the effects and release myself from the bullies’ hold…

The Fujian Tulou in southeastern China are a Unesco World Heritage Site. The multi-storey buildings are made of clay—tulou means “earthen house”—and served as both homes and fortifications. The oldest are more than 700 years old and were designed to have no blind spots, and only a single, easily defensible entrance. All other doors, as well as the windows of the lower floors, open to the courtyard. The group of tulou pictured here is nicknamed “four dishes and a soup.”…

Olly Mann presents Four Thought for BBC Radio 4, and the podcasts The Modern Mann, The Week Unwrapped and The Retrospectors When The Queen died, and newscasters were bedecked in black, and Gyles Brandreth was suddenly everywhere, one royal factoid jumped out at me: Her Majesty, it transpires, was an avid collector of stamps. She’d picked up the hobby when her grandfather George V, a pioneering philatelist, passed his precious albums down the family tree (my gramps did this, too; but sadly the stamps he collected were of the Green Shield variety. Worthless in the 21st century, they at least make for a more charming heirloom than a Nectar card). This got me thinking about how few "collections" I keep myself. I certainly possess the collecting gene: Dad sold classic cars for…

Like all the best artists, Idris Elba can surprise you when you least expect it. The British actordirector-DJ is sitting in front of me, espousing on his love of all things literary over his morning coffee. “I love poetry,” he insists when we meet in a suite in Cannes’ Majestic Hotel. “I wouldn’t say I’m an anorak for poets. I couldn’t tell you, ‘Oh, this one said that.’ But I love the art of words and forming sentences and beautifying language.” To look at—6ft 2in tall, six-pack, tattoos—you’d think this 50-year-old spends more time in the gym than the library. He’s frequently played the tough guy in shows like The Wire, “a massive changing point in my life”, when he excelled as drug kingpin Russell “Stringer” Bell. Or movies like American…

I GREW UP IN WHAT I THINK NOW WAS PROBABLY A HIGHLY UNUSUAL HOUSEHOLD just off the King’s Road in the 1970s. My dad is American and he had lots of counter-cultural friends. I remember Benjamin Zephaniah turning up for a dub poetry reading and my mother insisting that the strange smelling fumes coming from the living room were legal. I did believe her then but I don’t believe her now! CHELSEA IN THE 1970S WAS FULL OF ADVENTURE. Our neighbours were Bianca Jagger and John Paul Getty II, who had a red phone box installed in his house as he was sick of people turning up to make long distance calls on his account! I remember looking for a lion with a friend of mine. It was rumoured to be roaming…