The 24th Annual Saint Hill International Arts Festival 2015 - A Great Success!

The annual Classical Concert was performed this year, for the first time, outdoors in the grounds of Saint Hill Manor under a beautiful old Cedar tree.

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East Grinstead - From 2nd to 9th August 2015, Saint Hill Manor was host to a wide range of artists from many countries around the world during this year's Saint Hill International Arts Festival.

The week consisted of performances, an Arts Quiz and many different workshops on subjects including creativity by South African documentary maker Chris Dresser, film-making by local videographer Mark Gibson, writing by award-winning author Roger Ellory, drawing by local artist Jane Moore and how to make a living as an artist from a business management point of view by local businessman Tom Shuster.

Film-making by Mark Gibson. Photo: Jane Billing

RJ Ellory's talk on writing for a living. Photo: Vicky Ellory

Local artist Jane Moore. Photo: Jane Billing

Tom Shuster's talk on how to make a living as an artist. Photo: Jane Billing

Mike Ricketts is quizmaster for the Arts Quiz. Photo: John Wood

The Art Garden, which took place on Saturday 8th August, has become a Saint Hill Arts Festival favourite even though it is only its 2nd year running! The Art Garden was the invention of Neil Lemon and is coordinated by Angie Lemon. It had the highest number of artists participating in one day during the festival and this year, it included 25 artists from Mexico, Australia, Venezuela, Hungary, Holland and many local artists and painters. Many children enjoyed the facepainting and painting activities with Katy Newell while musicians entertained everyone all day long, and the Art Garden was attended by around 150 people.

Hungarian painter Judit Szabo with her paintings and those of Magdolna Szabo also. Photo: Angie Lemon

The ever-popular Art Garden. Photo: Jane Billing

The grand finale of the festival on Sunday 9th August was a performance of Schubert's Octet in F Major by The Blaze Ensemble of London. Since the weather on the day was so glorious, it was decided to hold the concert in the grounds beneath one of the magnificent Blue Cedar trees which made for a beautiful setting. The concert was well attended and guests included local dignitaries.

The Blaze Ensemble of London performing under the Cedar tree. Photo: Tabitha Hardy

Each year, Sheila Gaiman, the festival's Executive Producer, presents the Lifetime Achievement Award to an artist of great merit. This year, it was presented to bassoonist and director of The Blaze Ensemble of London, Tom Hardy. Tom has played with many of the UK's leading orchestras and ensembles including the English Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the Welsh National Opera.

Tom Hardy receiving his Lifetime Achievement Award from Sheila Gaiman. Photo: Jane Billing

"Thank you to everyone who attended this year's festival. Art, whichever form it might take, is inherent in all of us; it reaches and simulates our deepest emotions. L. Ron Hubbard, himself an exceptional artist in many fields, wrote in his book Science of Survival: "The elevation of a culture can be measured directly by the numbers of its people working in the field of aesthetics." We look forward to welcoming you to next year's festival, our 25th, which promises to be a very special quarter-of-a-century International celebration," said Sheila Gaiman.

About the Saint Hill International Arts Festival

The Saint Hill International Arts Festival was inspired by Scientology's founder, L. Ron Hubbard who stressed the importance of the role that art plays in society and he strongly encouraged artistic creativity in all its forms. The purpose of the Festival is to inspire artists into greater productivity. Saint Hill Manor was L. Ron Hubbard's family home from 1959-1967.

Contact details:

Festival management:
comm@arts-festival.org
www.arts-festival.org

Media relations:
John Wood
jw@worldwidepr.net
+44 777 152 0001

The 24th Annual Saint Hill International Arts Festival 2015 - A Great Success!

Unique Personal Account of the Liberation of Belsen Concentration Camp Marks its 70th Anniversary

Liberating Belsen Concentration Camp - A Personal Account
by (former) Lt-Colonel Leonard Berney R.A. T.D.

"Liberating Belsen Concentration Camp - A Personal Account by (former) Lt-Colonel Leonard Berney R.A. T.D." is the only book published that recounts the events that led up to the British Army’s uncovering of the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp and its 60,000 prisoners, and their subsequent liberation.

Forewords by Nanette Blitz Konig, Belsen survivor and former classmate of Anne Frank, and Major-General Nicholas Eeles CBE, with the introduction by the Oscar®-nominated film director Joshua Oppenheimer.

London - In this first-hand memoir, former Lt-Colonel Leonard Berney captures the drama and horror encountered by the British Army, and recounts the heroic efforts by the liberating troops to provide food, medical care, housing, and rescue the thousands upon thousands of concentration camp survivors. 

On 15th April 1945, the then 25-year-old Leonard Berney (now 95 years old) was one of the officers of the advance party detailed to take over Belsen Concentration Camp from the Germans and one of the first of the liberators to go through its gates. 

"We drove the length of the camp and back; it was nearly half a mile long. Announcements were made in German and other languages that the British Army had arrived to take over the camp; the inmates were now safe but had to stay where they were. As we drove along the camp’s main road we saw dead bodies lying beside the road, and many hundreds of emaciated men and women prisoners still mostly behind barbed wire. 

"We saw many long wooden huts with corpses littering the ground between them. In open areas at the rear of the huts, more piles of corpses. At the end of the road, we saw a large open mass grave containing hundreds of corpses. The sights, the stench, the sheer horror of the place, were indescribable." 

"Then at the end of the road, we arrived at a large pit partly full of corpses, both men and women—there must have been several hundred."

This is the only book to be published that recounts:

• the events that led up to the British Army’s uncovering of the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp and its 60,000 prisoners
• how the Army dealt with the unprecedented horror that existed in the camp
• how the surviving prisoners were rescued
• how the inmates were evacuated
• how the Royal Army Medical Corps established the world’s largest hospital to care for the many thousands of sick and emaciated ex-inmates
• how the survivors were rehabilitated and cared for
• how they were repatriated to their own countries
• why many thousand refused to return ‘home’ and 
• the eventual establishment of the Belsen Displaced Persons camp, the largest DP camp in Germany. 

It includes a foreword by Belsen survivor Nanette Blitz Konig, a foreword by the General Officer Commanding Scotland and Chairman of the Royal Artillery Historical Trust, Major-General Nicholas Eeles CBE, and an introduction by Oscar®-nominated film director Joshua Oppenheimer whose work includes "The Act of Killing" and "The Look of Silence", both of which document the genocide that took place there during the Indonesian Killings of 1965-66.

Leonard Berney was a senior British Army officer who participated in the liberation of the Camp, who was in charge of evacuating the ex-prisoners to the vast Rehabilitation Camp that the Army set up, and who was then appointed as the Commandant of that Camp until its management was handed over to the United Nations, and who gave evidence against the SS guards at the Belsen War Crimes Trial.

Leonard Berney as a 2nd Lieutenant, aged 18 in 1939 before the outbreak of war.

The book is available on:

• Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1511541709 and 
• Amazon US http://www.amazon.com/dp/1511541709/ref=cm_sw_su_dp and 
• CreateSpace https://www.createspace.com/5404219 and has a presence on 
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/LiberatingBelsenBook and 
• Twitter http://twitter.com/BelsenBook and its website is
• http://www.LiberatingBelsenBook.com

Some responses to "Liberating Belsen Concentration Camp":

"I wept through much of your account of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen. Minutes after I reached the end, I felt the urge to start again from the beginning." 

Joshua Oppenheimer

"The importance of your historical observations are more relevant today than ever before. Thank you for devoting your energy and talent to the task."

Judy Sheindlin (Judge Judy)

About the Author

Leonard Berney was born in London in 1920. After leaving St Paul’s School, Hammersmith in 1938 he joined the Territorial Army as a Second Lieutenant. At the beginning of 1939 he and his Anti-Aircraft Regiment were mobilized for full-time military service in the defence of London. He took part countering The Blitz and the V1 flying bomb attacks. In August 1944 he was in Normandy as the Staff Officer, Anti-Aircraft Defence, of XIII Corps of the British 21st Army. This is his personal account of his experience of the Liberation of Belsen Concentration Camp and as the Commandant of the Displaced Persons camp that housed the survivors. Following his time at Belsen, he was appointed Military Governor of Schleswig-Holstein and was released from the army at the end of 1946, rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He pursued a business career until he retired. Today, Leonard Berney is regularly asked to deliver lectures on the Liberation of Belsen, by groups such as Congregation Ner Tamid, Las Vegas and Greenwich University, London and he is often asked to take part in documentaries on the Holocaust such as Night Will Fall which was broadcast on television in twenty countries around the world to mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2015. Leonard now lives on the residential ship The World. In his 95th year when he wrote this book, he has to be one of the very few survivors of the liberators of the infamous Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp.

Leonard Berney today

For more information, please contact:

John Wood

+44 7771 520001

johnalexwood@gmail.com

Unique Personal Account of the Liberation of Belsen Concentration Camp Marks its 70th Anniversary

An Intriguing and Highly Individual 5-Bedroom, 5-Reception Room Older Style Property For Sale in East Grinstead

Woodside, Medway Drive, East Grinstead, West Sussex, RH19 4NB

Guide Price: £500,000

An intriguing and highly individual 5-bedroom, 5-reception room older-style property nestled in a peaceful private road in one of East Grinstead's most sought after locations is now on the market. This property has great potential to create a lovely family home.

Positioned at the end of a peaceful private road just off Coombe Hill Road, backing onto open fields, an extended five-bedroom, five-reception room property forming part of a former country house dating back to the early 1900s, with great potential to create a wonderful family home, with no onward chain.

The property has a B&B certificate and has been established successfully as a guest house since 1987 (proof of income available). The house has the potential for another 6 to 10 rooms by building on an additional 2 to 3 floors above, as the existing building is mainly on the ground floor. In addition, the next door property (within the same building) has already been granted planning permission to extend to 3 stories.

There is a driveway providing parking for a number of vehicles with woodland to the side. The garden comprises a patio, giving over to lawn backing onto open fields.

For more information, please contact Elana Grossi:

elanagrossi@yahoo.com

07889 859109

The sitting room

Its Entrance Hall includes oak flooring and radiator, while the sitting room includes a wood-burning stove set in the fireplace with brick surround, exposed floorboards, stairs to first floor, under-stairs
cupboard, two double glazed windows and radiator.

The sitting room, alternative view

The kitchen includes a range of wall and base units, stainless steel sink and drainer, oven with extractor over, space and plumbing for washing machine, space and plumbing for a tumble dryer and tiled flooring with radiator.

The wood-burning stove 

The bathroom suite comprises low level wc, wash hand basin, bath with shower over, tiled flooring and double glazed window.

The family room

The family room comprises a study with double-glazed window and radiator. The shower room comprises a walk-in shower cubicle, wash hand basin, low level wc and fully tiled walls. The cloakroom comprises a low-level wc, wash hand basin, half tiled walls and window to side.

Bedroom with built-in cupboard

The bedroom with built-in cupboard includes a double-glazed door, double-glazed window and radiator.

Bedroom with double-glazed door, double-glazed window and radiator

The Floor Plans

For more information, please contact Elana Grossi:

elanagrossi@yahoo.com

07889 859109

An Intriguing and Highly Individual 5-Bedroom, 5-Reception Room Older Style Property For Sale in East Grinstead