Gooseberry Crumble

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/19076869/jake-mclean-dead-car-crash-yazmin-oukhellou-injured/ Reality tv star Yasmin Oukhellou seriously injured in a car crash in Turkey that killed her friend Jake McLean

On this day 14 years ago in 2008 british actor Clive Hornby died aged 63. He is best known for playing the role of Jack Sugden in ITV soap Emmerdale for nearly three decades.

British musician, songwriter and on half of the pop band Erasure, Vince Clarke celebrates his 62nd birthday today.

I have decided to view the end of this pool under your brilliant stewardship not as a liquidation but as a frozen embryo in a fertility clinic. On pause with no definite date or plan but hope, promise and potential theoretically kept alive for future possibilities!

I really need to read some of Beryls novels. Both my mother and my aunt have spoken highly of her books. Is there a particular one you'd recommend as a first dive in to the world of Beryl Bainbridge?

You should have kept that one to yourself as a strong potential unique pick!

On this day in 2010 Liverpool born author Beryl Bainbridge died aged 77. Beryl was born in the Allerton area of Liverpool but moved to and was raised in the posher quiet Merseyside suburb of Formby. She had shown a deep interest and flair for the creative writing of fiction from the age of 10. In some instances too much so some of her teachers thought!! She was expelled from the private Merchant Taylors school for Girls in Crosby after she was caught with a 'dirty rhyme' in her pocket at school as a teenager. A bit too sexually explicit. In her writing career Beryls main genre was psychological fiction and her writing could be quite macabre and mainly focused on the working class. Observations about society and people carefully illustrated through quite an eccentric colourful lens at times. She won the prestigious literature award the Whitbread Prize twice , Every man for himself (1996) a fictional imagining of how passengers and crew behaved and reacted as the Titanic was sinking and Injury time (1977). Her novels were also shortlisted numerous booker prizes. Other novels include An awfully big adventure (1989) , The bottle factory outing (1974) and The Dressmaker (1973). In 1961 and in an unhappy marriage Beryl tried to commit suicide by putting her head in a gas oven. Divorce followed soon afterwards leaving Beryl as a single mother of two children. She later had a third child with scottish writer Alan Sharp. The relationship didn't last but as a fellow writer Beryl found her relationship and time with Alan assisted her creativity and gave additional impetus with her writing. Aside from writing Beryl appeared in one episode of Coronation in 1961 as an anti nuclear protester .

On this day in 2018 musician Alan Longmuir , a founding member of Scottish pop band The Bay City Rollers died in Scotland aged 70 after recently contracting an illness on holiday in Mexico and arguably being wrongly cleared by doctors to fly back home.

American swimmer and four times Olympic gold medallist Ryan Murphy celebrates his 27th birthday today.

Former British Conservative cabinet minister Kenneth Clarke turns 82 today. He has served in the cabinets of Margaret Thatcher, John Major and David Cameron in numerous roles , Health Secretary, Home Secretary, Justice Secretary, Chancellor of the exchequer and Education Secretary.

On this day in 1999 former Conservative Home Secretary under Margaret Thatcher and defacto Deputy Prime Minister from 1979-1988 - Willie Whitelaw died aged 81. He also served as employment secretary, Leader of the House of Commons and Northern Ireland Secretary during Margaret Thatchers premiership. Margaret Thatcher found him to be reliable and indispensable and once said about him - Everybody needs a Willie!

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tv/19066084/rachel-stevens-alex-bourne-marriage-split/ Former S Club 7 singer Rachel Stevens has split from her husband after more than ten years together.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/breaking-eastenders-brooke-kinsella-gives-27360125 Former EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella has given birth to her second child.

On this day in 1348 Joan of England, daughter of King Edward lll (she was born in the Tower of London)died as a result of the black death plague. King Edward lll is regarded as one of the more successful English monarchs , restoring royal authority during his 50 years on the throne after the disastrous unorthodox reign of his father King Edward ll. But on a personal note life wasn't always so good with the death of his teenage daughter Joan during the plague . Joan had been promised or betrothed in marriage to Peter of Castile, son of King Alfonso Xl of Castile and his wife Maria of Portugal. With her parents blessing Joan, also known as Joanna, was travelling to Europe to see hee future husband protected by a huge group of armed forces- probably at that time the most protected woman in Europe! It was on this ill fated journey in Europe that Joan became infected with the black death and died after what is thought to have been a very brief but intense illness in her case. When she left England to travel nobody in England was aware of the plague that was just beginning to spread through Europe and eventually England too. Joan seems to have been one of the earliest prominent casualties of the black death.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/01/chris-pincher-loses-tory-whip-over-misconduct-allegations-conservative-mp Tory whip loses the whip.

French American actress and dancer Leslie Caron celebrates turning 91 today.

My sort of cynical political theory is that as both a personal ally of Boris Johnson and deputy chief whip keeping mps on the pms side in terms of passing legislation and avoiding the ousting of Johnson. Also being privy possibly to any shenanigans or plotting mps are trying - he may have been seen as one of the key pillars in the house of commons keeping him in office. In other words tory mps that want Johnson gone know they need to take out/weaken his support structure and his key supporters if they are to succeed soon. This guys previous bad behaviour was well known but tolerated and ignored in the main by the same people who are now happy to see him resign. Lots of dirty politics going on here behind the scenes besides arse grabbing imo.

https://www.hellomagazine.com/healthandbeauty/health-and-fitness/20220630144248/linda-nolan-coleen-nolan-health-update/ Linda Nolan cancels a work gig due to health reasons and says she will reschedule with a new date when possible.

The one and only Debbie Harry celebrates her birthday today. The singer songwriter turns 77 .

On this day 25 years ago in 1997 American actor and Hollywood legend Robert Mitchum died aged 79. He is ranked 23rd on the American film institutes list of the 50 greatest American screen legends of all time. His acting style is generally regarded as being an early foretaste of the more layered untypical antiheroes that became more commonplace in movies in the 50s and 60s . Initially he found success in film noir but his roles became broader as he became a mainstream star. Some directors he worked with such as Howard Hawks and John Huston thought he deserved to be on the same pedestal as actors like Laurence Olivier, Marlon Brando and Richard Burton. One of americas best known film critics Roger Ebert called Mitchum "the soul of film noir ". Films he starred in include Colt Comrades (1943) with William Boyd, When Strangers marry (1944) alongside Kim Hunter, Nevada (1944) Desire me (1947) opposite Greer Garson, His kind of woman (1951) with Jane Russell, The Hunters (1958) Robert Wagner and May Britt costarring, River of no return (1954) opposite Marilyn Monroe and The Story of G.I Joe (1945) for which he was nominated for the best supporting actor Oscar. One less known part of Mitchums life is that he was a singer who released a number of albums and singles in the 1950s. He continued to act until the mid 1990s. A lifelong smoker he died of complications of emphysema and lung cancer.

On this day 56 years ago in 1966, English novelist Margery Allingham died of breast cancer aged 62. She was regarded as one of the best writers in the murder mystery genre became less popular andduring what is referred to as the 'Golden age of Detective Fiction' - an era primarily in the 1920s and 1930s and mainly but not exclusively made up of English writers. Along with writers Dorothy L Sayers, Ngaio Marsh and Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham were referred to as 'The Queens of crime' Fictional sleuth Albert Campion was the character Margery wrote the most novels about. The popularity of the light hearted straight forward who done it detective novel , at which Allingham excelled , waned in the aftermath of world war two and has never quite reached its huge successful heights of the 1920 and 1930s again.

Jack McConnell , former Labour First minister of Scotland who lost power at the Holyrood Scottish Parliament to the SNP in 2007 and now a peer in the House of Lords, celebrates his 62nd birthday today.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-10967743/Tom-Hiddleston-fianc-e-Zawe-Ashton-expecting-child-actress-debuts-baby-bump.html British actor Tom Hiddleston and his fiance Zawe Ashton are expecting their first child together.

Five years ago on this day in 2017 british film critic, television presenter and journalist Barry Norman died aged 83. Most famous for the many years he presented the BBCs Film review show where he most of interviewed the majority of the biggest film stars of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

Retired former competitive swimmer and the most decorated olympiad of all time with 28 medals , Michael Phelps, celebrates his 37th birthday today.