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Tamara Kennedy - Actor
Tamara is a Stage and TV actor and has appeared in Taggart and High Road. Born in Edinburgh, she was a Brownie."Cultivate a thick skin, robust sense of humour and extremely good relationship with your bank manager!"
My brother Nigel co-owns a catering company in Edinburgh called Appetite Direct, and anything
he cooks is pretty hard to beat; it's dead handy having a brother that's a chef, if a little
humiliating that he's a million times better with a pinny and a rolling pin than I am.
The most delicious meals I've had in Scotland have taken place in my parents' garden in Edinburgh
and comprise Nigel's barbequed chicken - for which he makes THE best baste, bar none - accompanied
by my Dad's Polish potato salad and his cold baked bean and onion ensemble (you just have to
trust me on that ….) accompanied by a mixed salad generously drizzled with Nigel's mind-blowing
basil and garlic dressing.
The best pudding I've had was by the sea in Portmahomack and it was my nephew Edward's barbequed
Flake and banana extravaganza! I do eat things apart from barbeques. Occasionally.
Rosa's Dad, Robin, being a Fifer, introduced me to the East Neuk. A perfect afternoon for me
would be a crisp, autumn day in and around that area. We'd stop for a pub lunch by a roaring
fire at The Grange just outside St Andrews, then we'd have a wee wonder round the old town.
We might take in a matinee at The Byre Theatre, preferably with a couple of my friends in the
cast. After that we'd drive to Crail, have a donder (wander) round the harbour and probably drop into
Crail Pottery and try to find a quirky little piece to take home.
Further along the coast we'd finish off in style at The Cellar Restaurant in Anstruther - definitely
one of my favourite places to eat in Scotland…or anywhere else for that matter.
Despite the fact that Fanny Osbourne had many detractors and was unpopular with Stevenson's friends, who felt she was a brash, American gold digger, I believe that theirs was a genuine love story. Fanny had already endured the tragedy of her youngest son's awful death by the time she met Robert, who was himself more or less a full time invalid.
I don't think anybody whose primary motive was self-interest could have lived as she did with Robert and cared for him so steadfastly. She went along with his wander lust and lived a sort of nomadic existence in order that he could fulfil his quest to find the environment that would best suit his health.
Part of that adventure involved their epic journey to Samoa where they finally settled and where he died nine years later. Despite suffering appalling sea-sickness she endured months at sea in the belief that this would lead to a better life for Louis.
Having been pitifully sick myself for the 6 hours it took to film this part of their story on board a sailing ship, I can only say if it had been me, one or the other of us would have ended up overboard long before Samoa hove into view.
She tended to him when he was ill, took on most of the physical labour when they arrived in Samoa and had to cultivate the land for their home.
For his part, although she could be a difficult woman, Fanny was definitely the love of Louis' life; he could have probably had his pick of well-heeled Edinburgh girls, but instead, he fell hook line and sinker for this older, divorced, gun-slinging American and all her accompanying baggage, including two surviving children and a sizeable slice of tragedy.
The thing I found most surprising and admirable about Louis was the way in which, in spite of his privileged and conventional Edinburgh upbringing he had no truck with the prudery of the times. He defied his father, convention - even his illness - in the most courteous but determined manner and stayed true himself in the face of strong adversity.
If becoming a writer (rather than following the family tradition and becoming an engineer as was expected of him), meant living in poverty, so be it.
Despite his poor health he had a fantastically gung-ho attitude to life. In Samoa he unflinchingly supported the local people against British, American and German imperialism at the risk of his own safety. He was a man of enormous courage and integrity who didn't just sit in an ivory tower writing loftily about life, he well and truly lived it.
Giggling for no good reason at inappropriate moments
with my friend Elaine Henry.
Also
biting into campfire-toasted
marshmallows on sticks; oh yes…mmm…that moment
when the carcinogenic charcoaled outer crust gave way
to the oozing pink sugar heaven within and scalded my
tongue and it was agony, but I didn't care because eating
toasted marshmallows off a stick is one of those extreme
experiences where the pain only intensifies the pleasure.
Life's too short to get stressed over how to tie really, really complicated knots. Non-intrepid types like me will only ever use knots to a) tie shoelaces b) ribbons c) to secure the broken door of my cat Purdy's wicker basket.
Campers Badge. I failed it the first time (the knot tying issue…) but succeeded on the
second attempt. I remember being excessively proud of a little tripod I made out of sticks -
no knots required - which was to be the foundation for a roaring campfire…well, it's roaring
in my memory anyway.
Marshmallows-on-sticks may well have been toasted on that fire. I think I also had to do fairly
unpleasant things involving waste matter and dug out pits, but thankfully I've forgotten the
details.
There are many women whom I admire for a variety of reasons; the nurses and carers who looked
after my Mum when she was ill, teachers I have worked with who perform miracles under difficult
conditions, friends with demanding jobs (Elaine Henry for one, who has stopped giggling now
and runs her own bookshop, Word Power, in Edinburgh).
But there is no question as to who has been the biggest inspiration in my life: my mother. Not only for the way in which she lived her life, but particularly for way she lived the last two years of it, knowing it was ending.
She bore terminal cancer with enormous courage, dignity and even humour (I blame her for the giggling thing; she was frequently collapsed in hysterics for no good reason) in her usual unassuming way, under conditions which were often far from dignified and seldom funny.
She didn't consider herself courageous and would be tutting at me for writing this, but to me that's just another measure of her character. She always made me feel that everything would be OK, no matter what, and while she was around, somehow everything always was.
Cultivate a thick skin, a robust sense of humour and an extremely good relationship with your bank manager!
If I had a million pounds to give to a charity I'd choose Cancer
Research. Obviously my life has been touched by cancer because of my mother's illness, but
sadly I know many, many other people who have had to endure the pain of watching somebody they
love suffer. Cancer is a cruel disease; once a diagnosis of cancer has been received it's a
rollercoaster of highs and lows for the sufferers and their families.
Happily there can be, and often are, triumphant endings thanks to the treatments available now,
but equally many people, like Mum, endure the horrible indignities and the false hopes of the
disease and still don't make it through.
There has been amazing progress in the understanding and treatment of cancers of all kinds in recent years, but the organisation desperately needs more funding in order to continue its invaluable research and make the breakthroughs needed to really conquer this disease.
The love and support of my family and friends and, touch wood, good health.
To find out more about Tamara please see www.radiotalent.co.uk/tamarakennedy
