Over the last couple of weeks, within the tiny radius of our extraordinary little town, I’ve been able to indulge four of my greatest passions: food and wine, politics, the arts and social justice.
The Rye Harvest Wine and Food Fair was an opportunity to share a long career in hospitality. This year’s addition of a Food Theatre gave Sergio and I a platform to highlight local produce, suppliers, chefs and vineyards.
Adam Stent, from Rye Fish Market, brought with him joy, knowledge and skill. Laden with all sorts of local fish, he cleaned and prepared mackerel, seabass and slip soles for Chef Alan Irwin to cook.
Chef Matt Drinkwater, from No 50 on Cinque Ports Street, talked about the qualities of Romney Marsh lamb, as he made one of his signature dishes for the audience to taste. And Sergio paired a variety of local wines with each dish, a task much easier today, than fifty years ago when he first tried doing it in London’s five star hotels.
Politics has always been part of my life, mainly because of my father. He was an economics graduate turned chef and one of the great joys of his career was that every Prime Minister, cabinet, shadow cabinet, and political journalist, over a thirty year period, ate in our restaurants. Including one Iain Dale, who came to speak at this year’s Rye Arts Festival.
He was discussing his last two books, both of which are about his political heroine Margaret Thatcher. The Rye Arts Festival committee paired him with experienced former BBC journalist, creator of RyeCast, and editor of Rye News, James Stewart. Iain revealed many details about our first female PM and debunked some of the myths surrounding her.
A story which particularly touched me was how she was more concerned about the waitress who had spilled soup into the lap of one of her ministers than for the MP concerned. Iron Lady by day, he told us how Carol Thatcher would come home in the evening, to find her mother with tears rolling down her cheeks, as she hand wrote letters of condolence to the bereaved families of servicemen killed during the Falklands War.
Sir Tony Robinson’s interviewer, again perfectly chosen, was fellow history and literature enthusiast Martin Bruce. In candid detail, with humour, energy, and brillo, a glorious and varied body of work was lovingly recounted, as if for the first time. And there was a first, Tony Robinson, author of historical fiction, reading a passage from his debut novel.
I have an expression that I’m particularly fond of “Be a WE not a ME”. Without “WEs”, you’d have for example no Rye Arts Festival, no Jazz Festival, no Chamber of Commerce, no Bonfire Society, or indeed, no Rye News for that matter. It’s a sad fact of life that those who volunteer are often viewed with suspicion. And in the case of Peter Tatchell much worse.
For his expert interviewer Simon McGurk, it was a case of déja vu. In 1993, Simon had picked Peter Tatchell up from the station, when he came to lend his support to the students of Salford University, following their erroneous expulsion from the Student Union. Last Saturday, Simon again went to the station, this time Rye, to pick him up for his interview on social activism.
Tatchell too was reliving a journey. When he moved to England from Melbourne in 1971, he spent that first Christmas in a snowy Rye. Caricatured as a firebrand, this brave and passionate believer in free speech, infused with morality, sat before us exhausted by a lifetime of assaults, abuse, and arrests. And despite all of this, deeply courteous, undaunted, hopeful, witty and inspirational.
At all of these events, each audience was rapt by their speaker, seeking and sharing information as when Mayor Andy Stuart revealed insights into the Falklands, unknown to even Iain Dale, or when the audience gave a standing ovation to Peter Tatchell.
And each speaker treated their audience with respect and generosity, Matt giving up his precious afternoon break, or Tony Robinson telling a deeply personal family story.
They say you should never meet your heroes, but in this case they are wrong. My heroes are all the “WEs” who make this town run. Those who organise months in advance, who show up whatever the weather, who raise funds, who entertain, who fight on our behalf, and who part with their hard earned cash to make sure that it all happens again next year. Thank you Rye.
Image Credits: Louise Chapman , Carolyn Gould , Natasha Robinson .
This is a part of Rye that I’m just not familiar with, it consists of locals I’ve never heard of and food I can’t afford.
I do appreciate that Rye has moved on and all the new blood and money are looking to have a town that suits their way of life.
High end restaurants are welcome, fast food outlets not so much.