The Max Factor with Max Clifford
Above: Max Clifford reveals all for Surrey Life
- Max Clifford has kindly donated his fee for this column to the CHASE children’s hospice, near Guildford, of which he is a patron. For more information on them, visit their website at www.chasecare.org.uk
A fishy story
There was a considerable amount of national newspaper and TV coverage last month dedicated to the horrendous robbery that happened to Kerry Katona who was held up at knifepoint by masked intruders late at night in her Cheshire home.
Horrible for anybody, but Kerry also suffers from bi polar, which is a severe form of depression, and not surprisingly this violent intrusion had a particularly devastating effect on the young mother of three.
We quickly got her into The Priory, Roehampton, where she has previously been treated for her depression, and because of their experience and understanding of Kerry and her problems, I’m glad to say within 10 days she was feeling a lot better.
Knowing Kerry loves her food almost as much as I do, I agreed to take her out for a slap up meal when she was well enough to leave the Priory. As her favourite restaurants include Cipriani’s and Gordon Ramsey’s in Mayfair, as well as two of Surreys finest, The George in Esher and The Toby Cottage, Ripley, I was looking forward to a mouth-watering if expensive evening.
However, to my surprise and delight the celebratory “slap-up” meal was at Superfish, West Molesey, where I first took her a couple of years ago and she described as the best F&C she’d ever had. Congratulations to Denise and everyone at Superfish who deservedly made a tasty and lasting impression on our Kerry.
A real inspiration...
Anyone who has followed the worldwide success of TV and music mogul Simon Cowell will most likely be aware that apart from creating some of the biggest shows in the UK, USA and the world, he is also a confirmed bachelor. Even his long term girlfriend, Terri Seymour, has admitted that getting Simon down the aisle is something she no longer believes will ever happen.
Yet, I can exclusively reveal to Surrey Life readers that Simon recently accepted a marriage proposal from a beautiful young Mitcham girl.
Simon met teenager Susannah O’Cansey during a visit to the wonderful CHASE Children’s Hospital in Artington, near Guildford, early last year. Susannah’s sunny smile, happy disposition and courage in spite of her terminal illness made an instant and lasting impression on Simon. To be fair, Susannah had a similar effect on many of us who came into contact with her at CHASE, where she had been for the best part of four years.
I arranged for Susannah along with another young star of the hospice, Sian Tolfree, 12, to appear as a guest on Simon’s This is Your Life ITV show. Those of you among the millions who watched the programme would have witnessed Susannah’s dazzling smile when asking Simon to marry her.
We found out a few weeks later that Susannah had taken a sudden turn for the worse and Simon phoned her in hospital to accept her proposal. He explained this was on the strict understanding that she got herself better as soon as possible.
Although clearly delighted by the news, sadly Susannah didn’t recover and passed away a few days later.
Her funeral, which I was privileged to attend, was a personal and revealing celebration and tribute to Susannah.
St Teresa’s Roman Catholic Church, Morden, was packed with hundreds of people paying their respects to this remarkable young lady.
Susannah packed a lot into her short life and made the most of every moment in a happy and positive manner making her parents Charles and Agatha, sister Teresa and brother Charles Junior justifiably proud. I know Simon and I are all the richer for the time she spent with us.
A happy coincidence...Not having been to Lugano, Switzerland, for 35 years I was very happy to be invited to address an aviation conference there a couple of weeks ago by one of my PR clients, Canadian company, Bombardier, who are the world’s largest private jet manufactures, distributors and charterers with over 900 jets in operation.
Lugano was as warm and beautiful as I remember, and the lakes and mountains simply stunning.
But what a small world; three days into this visit, I was in a little boat on the lake close to the Italian border when we came close to another boat enjoying the spectacular scenery and a distinctive voice broke the tranquil
silence. “Do you come here often, Max?” … “Only in mating season,” I began to say. … “Nothing’s changed then,” replied this increasingly familiar voice.
By now the boats were getting closer and I recognised the mystery occupant of the other boat as an elderly version of Alan Field, a mate from my early days in the music business over 40 years ago and someone who I haven’t seen in a very long time.
Alan played a pivotal role in the careers of Tom Jones, Englebert Humperdinck and Leo Sayer. He also enjoyed success as a manager to Adam Faith and still represents The Searchers.
I first met Alan Field in the ‘60s, together with his PA Mary Hinge, when he was closely involved with Hilda Baker, the comedy actress, which only the very senior readers of Surrey Life will remember.
Alan reminded me of when we first worked together with new singer Tommy Scott who was struggling to make a name for himself. However, with a new nose and name change, Tom Scott released It’s Not Unusual under the name of Tom Jones. The rest as they say is history and Tom was well on his way to lasting international stardom.
Back in the 1970’s, Tom Jones, Englebert Humperdinck and their manager Gordon Mills all lived in St George’s Hill, Weybridge. Their favourite restaurant at the time was Casa Romana at the top of Monument Hill, in Weybridge, where many of their media interviews took place. It has recently changed hands and is now called Mondo. I look forward to trying it out!
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