Speaking out: Catherine Fletcher
(Picture: Sheffield Cathedral)THE TATE has defended itself after it was accused of “relying on unpaid labour to deliver its queer history programme”.
“LGBTQIA+ artists and stories are celebrated across Tate’s programme, from exhibitions and commissions to collection displays and events, as well as through our free tours,” a spokesperson told The Londoner.
Catherine Fletcher, an academic and author, had hit out a flyer recruiting LGBTQIA+ volunteer tour guides. Fletcher, above, said it was “not a serious approach to diversity”. She added to The Londoner that many of her students who want to work in museums were having to do part-time jobs and did not “have the time to get unpaid volunteering experience”.
She explained: “Without that experience, they’re then at a disadvantage in a competitive museum job market. I appreciate the financial pressures all museums are under, and think there is a role for volunteering, but I don’t think the Tate has got the balance right here”.
The Tate spokesperson said: “As a charity, Tate receives a lot of interest from people who want to support our mission. While we recognise volunteering is not something that everyone is in a position to do, we are hugely grateful to our guides and wider volunteering community.”
Double avo-7: Bond’s odd tastes
AUTHOR David Nicholls appreciates good food in novels — but when it comes to James Bond author Ian Fleming he’s on the fence. “I’m always taken aback by the food in the James Bond novels,” he says. “It’s fantastically eccentric, a very post-war notion of luxury and sophistication — both absolutely right and completely wrong.” One example? “In Casino Royale [with Peter Sellers, above] he orders an avocado pear for pudding, which is a truly horrible idea.”
Clanchy’s fresh publishing page
KATE CLANCHY has a new publisher — and they’re looking ahead. “We hope to be Kate’s publisher for future books,” Swift Press told The Londoner. Clanchy and Picador cut ties “by mutual consent” after accusations of racial stereotyping in her teaching memoir. In a recent interview Clanchy described how the row had left her feeling suicidal. Philip Pullman said this week he hoped Clanchy found a different publisher “one who combines editorial competence with moral courage”.
Memoir needed a little surgery
ADAM KAY’s memoir about his time as a junior doctor is being adapted for TV next week, and the author is likely to feel relieved — because hopefully he won’t end up doing time. “The big things in terms of writing things,” Kay told a recent Q&A, “was to make sure I didn’t go to prison.” Ben Whishaw plays Kay’s character in the comedy-drama based on his bestselling book This Is Going to Hurt. Kay added that he had to change “personal details” in the clinical situations to avoid being sued and alter details of people in his personal life “because I still want some of them to speak to me”. Some?
One love for Marley as show opens
DIRECTOR Don Letts and DJ Jazzie B were feeling the love at the opening of the Bob Marley: One Love Experience at the Saatchi Gallery last night. Also there were New Romantic icon Philip Sallon, who made a splash in red and white, and former footballer Ian Wright. Across town, India Rose James hosted Isaac Carew and others at a viewing of new group exhibition, An Arcadian Kind of Love, at her Soho Revue gallery.
SW1A
JACK DROMEY was a veteran campaigner, but even the late Labour MP, above, was prone to the odd misstep. During tributes in the Commons yesterday, John Cryer described Dromey opening his speech to trade unionists at company S&A Foods by saying: “Right, what I want to talk to you now about is S&M.” Freudian slip?
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IT’S not just politicos with sharp elbows in Westminster. Journalist Jon Craig recalls being a junior reporter and overhearing veteran Michael Jones filing copy via telephone.“Every time Michael came out with a good phrase,” he told Iain Dale’s All Talk, “I put it in my copy…rat-like cunning — that’s what you need!”
