Amanda Barrie

OK, by popular demand, here it is again! The Mail on Sunday’s lead review of my new book. I mean, really! Moi? ⁦@TheMirrorBooks⁩ ⁦@Hilary_Bonner⁩

Childhood memories the instant whip for sunday dessert

Margaret Rutherford with her husband Stringer Davis at Buckingham Palace on the day of her OBE investiture 1961. Rutherford was elevated to Dame Commander (DBE) in 1967.

Marie Empress ( 1884-1919) British singer, dancer and actress. Her films are all lost, no recordings survive, and she herself became lost forever during her journey from England to the US on the Cunard Liner SS Orduna. Missing the day before docking, she was never seen again.

George III kept his daughters under extraordinarily tight control, rarely allowing them to marry, rarely allowing them to leave. Elizabeth was the seventh of his fifteen children, artistic, cheerful, and trapped inside a court that had no idea what to do with her energy. She designed prints, illustrated books, produced a series called The Birth and Triumph of Cupid that was engraved and published at the king's expense, and waited. She was forty-seven by the time she was allowed to marry. Her husband, Frederick, was the Landgrave of a small German territory measuring eighty-five square miles. It was the smallest principality in Europe and one of the most indebted. Elizabeth's dowry and annual allowance rebuilt the roads, restored the castles, and funded an English garden at Homburg planted with seeds she brought from home. She used her own money to found a school and care center for the children of working mothers in Hanover. She said she had never been happier. She wrote after her husband's death that no woman had ever been happier than she was for their eleven years together, "and they will often be lived over again in the memory of the heart." She outlived him by eleven years, spent her widowhood painting and running her charitable work, and died in Frankfurt in 1840. Her father had kept her caged for nearly half a century. She made the most of what came after. Born on this day in 1770, Princess Elizabeth of the United Kingdom, Landgravine of Hesse-Homburg. One of the most overlooked daughters of George III, and one of the happiest. -History Roadshow

This is the best preserved medieval street in Europe. Recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, The Shambles in York, England has had shops trading on it for nearly a thousand years. It's older than the Crusades.

Painting the top of Blackpool Tower with no harness.

Remembering the brilliant English actor Nigel Davenport (Arthur Nigel Davenport) who was born on this day in 1928. He died in 2013. #NigelDavenport #AManForAllSeasons #MaryQueenOfScots #ChariotsOfFire #TheRoyalHuntOfTheSun #SinfulDavey #NoBladeOfGrass #TheLastValley #ZuluDawn

Going way back now and 1970 ❤️ Najinsky winning the Epsom Derby, the last horse to win the triple crown! Will it ever happen again?

Istabraq was born 34 years ago today ❤️ The three-time Champion Hurdle winner enjoyed a long and happy retirement before passing away two years ago. The greatest of all time 🐐

Childhood memories the packet of plasticine Marla and that nice smell when it was new

The oldest surviving royal crown of England: The Crown of Princess Blanche (c. 1370-1380). Made of gold, sapphires, rubies, emeralds, diamonds, and pearls. It became part of the Bavarian treasury when Princess Blanche brought it as a dowry for her wedding in 1402.

In late 2014, a six-week-old baby boy was brought into Evelina London Children’s Hospital barely alive. His tiny body had been so badly abused by his birth parents that doctors feared he would not survive his first Christmas. He underwent emergency surgery on Christmas Day. He had eight broken bones. Head trauma. Organ failure. Toxic shock. Sepsis. Both of his legs became infected beyond saving. At just three years old, Tony Hudgell had both legs amputated below the knee. Most people would understand if a story like this ended there. But Tony survived. And then, quietly, slowly, unbelievably… he began changing the lives of other people. Paula and Mark Hudgell from Kent became Tony’s foster carers and later adopted him. They stood beside him through 23 operations, years of recovery, and the painful process of learning to walk again using prosthetic legs. In 2018, Tony’s birth parents were sentenced to 10 years in prison for child cruelty the maximum sentence available at the time. But Tony’s story was never going to be defined only by what happened to him. In 2020, during the pandemic, five-year-old Tony watched Captain Sir Tom Moore raising money for the NHS by walking laps of his garden. Tony turned to his mum and said: “I want to do something too.” So he decided to walk 10 kilometres on his prosthetic legs to raise money for the hospital that saved his life. His family hoped to raise £500. Day after day, Tony walked. Through pain. Through exhaustion. Through moments where every step hurt. He ended up walking 12 kilometres. And by the end of it, that little boy had raised £1.7 million. The entire country fell in love with him. He received messages from Prince William and Catherine. His face appeared in Piccadilly Circus. He was invited to Downing Street. And in 2024, at just nine years old, Tony became the youngest person ever to receive the British Empire Medal. But the most important thing Tony helped change wasn’t public attention. It was the law. His adoptive mother, Paula, campaigned tirelessly for tougher sentences for people who abuse children. In 2022, “Tony’s Law” was passed in the UK, allowing much harsher prison sentences including life sentences in the worst child cruelty cases. A law now exists because one little boy survived long enough to tell the world something had to change. Then in 2025, Tony decided to do something else. He climbed the O2 Arena in London. He was terrified of heights. But he climbed anyway. Forty-five minutes later, the boy doctors once believed would never survive infancy stood at the top of one of London’s most iconic landmarks. That climb raised more than £120,000. And Tony used that money for something beautiful. In December 2025, 61 children who had experienced trauma were flown to Lapland, Finland a place filled with snow, reindeer, Santa Claus, and a few precious days where they could simply be children again. No hospitals. No courtrooms. No fear. Just joy. Tony once called Lapland “the most magical place in the world.” So he shared that magic with children who needed it most. That may be the most extraordinary part of all. Tony Hudgell took the worst thing imaginable unimaginable cruelty inflicted on a helpless baby and turned it into hope for other children. He changed laws. Raised millions. Helped families heal. And gave traumatised children memories they will carry forever. All before turning eleven. Some people survive terrible things. Tony Hudgell survived terrible things and decided to help other people survive too. That is something truly rare.

Who Remembers.

Her neighbors in La Jolla, California, knew her only as a gentle older woman who lived alone, drove herself around, and dressed simply. She had no chauffeur. No private chef. No bodyguards. No staff. She bought her own groceries. She opened her own mail. She walked her own little dog. If you had asked her name, she would have smiled and said, “Margaret.” Just Margaret. She did not mention her last name. Because her last name was Cargill. Margaret Anne Cargill was born on September 24, 1920, in Los Angeles. Her grandfather, William Wallace Cargill, had founded the Cargill grain company in 1865 from one tiny storage building in Iowa. By the time Margaret was grown, the family business had quietly become the largest privately held company in the United States. Today, Cargill Inc. is part of the backbone of the global food supply, helping feed hundreds of millions of people every day. Margaret inherited that fortune. She could have chosen almost any life imaginable. She could have lived in mansions. She could have owned yachts. She could have traveled with an entourage. She chose almost none of that. She never married. She had no children. She never bought a grand estate. She lived quietly in Southern California. She loved fiber arts, beadwork, jewelry making, and the beautiful textiles of Native American tribes. She loved nature. She loved animals. She loved older people. She loved books. She loved being alone with her thoughts. And quietly, almost invisibly, for decades, she did one thing that very few people knew about. She gave. Whenever she found a cause that mattered to her, she wrote a check. Large checks. Quiet checks. The American Red Cross. The Smithsonian Institution. The Nature Conservancy. The Salvation Army. The San Diego Humane Society. The National Museum of the American Indian. St. Paul’s Senior Homes & Services. Programs for Indigenous communities, teachers, children, animals, and the elderly. Over her lifetime, she gave away more than $200 million. But every gift came with one firm, non-negotiable condition. No one could know it was her. No plaques. No buildings carrying her name. No press releases. No interviews. No thank-you dinners. She had no interest in fame. She had no interest in praise. Her philosophy was simple and quiet: the giving was not about her. It was about the work being done by the people and organizations she supported. Dr. Mark Goldstein, president of the San Diego Humane Society, met her once. He said, “I have been in this business 30 years and I have never met a more compassionate, humble person of such great wealth who cared about people and animals, and cared nothing about being recognized for it.” She came to that meeting in an old, worn-out van. He said, “You could never even imagine that she could afford the van.” But Margaret had one small, tender secret pleasure of her own. She liked quietly attending the dedications of buildings she had helped pay for, slipping into the crowd as if she were just another visitor. She walked through the new halls of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington and listened as people thanked an anonymous donor. She stood inside the new senior care center near her home and watched elderly residents smile. No one recognized her. She loved every quiet, hidden minute of it. She did make one small concession to history. She agreed that after her death, the world could finally learn the truth about her giving. On August 1, 2006, Margaret Anne Cargill died peacefully in La Jolla. She was 85. And then the world discovered who the anonymous angel had been all along. Her estate had been carefully arranged into the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, made up of two sister foundations. One carried Margaret’s name. The other honored her mother, Anne Ray Cargill. The plan was simple. Her wealth would continue giving long after she was gone, to the very causes she had quietly studied, loved, and supported throughout her life. In the years that followed, those foundations grew. And grew. And grew. By 2021, they held a combined value of about $9 billion, making them one of the largest philanthropic organizations in the United States. Every year, they send hundreds of millions of dollars into the arts, environmental protection, animal welfare, disaster relief, Indigenous communities, and care for older adults. The same causes Margaret had loved quietly while she lived among us. She had wealth. She had freedom. She had privacy. She used all three in service of others and refused to take a single bow. The size of a life is not measured by how many people know your name. It is measured by how many people you helped, even if they never knew yours. Margaret Anne Cargill. September 24, 1920 to August 1, 2006. The silent philanthropist. That was exactly how she wanted it.

Did you have one of these

David Attenborough is so old that there’s a photograph of him already an adult while meeting King Charles III when Charles was still a child. The photograph was taken in 1958, when David Attenborough was 32 years old and King Charles III was only 10. By that point, Attenborough was already an established broadcaster in the 1950s, laying the foundation for the career that would eventually make him one of the most recognizable nature presenters in the world. Meanwhile, the future King Charles III was still a child, years away from becoming Prince of Wales and decades from ascending the throne. Attenborough had joined the BBC in 1952, meaning his television career had already begun before the televised coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

Who remembers Nigel Hawthorne

Remembering the great English actor, John Gielgud (Arthur John Gielgud) who died on this day in 2000. He was 96. #JohnGielgud #JuliusCaesar #Becket #Elizabeth #Arthur #NoMansLand #TheSchoolForScandal #Home #MurderOnTheOrientExpress #BridesheadRevisited #ChariotsOfFire

Divine Kay Kendall, who was born today and died way too soon, aged 32.

I leave you with this image. Queen Mary, the japester!