10 NEWS People
THE WEEK 28 May 2022
Escape from Mariupol
Igor Pedin, a 61-year-old
former ship’s cook, was at
home in Mariupol when
Russian troops arrived on 20
April and began going house to
house, shooting people at will.
It was then that he decided to
leave. Packing a rucksack, he
set out with his mongrel terrier
dog Zhu-Zhu for what would
be a 140-mile walk to the
relative safety of the Ukrainian-
held city of Zaporizhzhia. The
journey was fraught with
danger. As he made his way
through Mariupol, stumbling
through craters and past dead
bodies, he managed to make
himself invisible to Russian
soldiers. “I looked like a
vagabond to them, I was
nothing,” he told Daniel Boffey
in The Guardian. But more
dangers awaited in the
surrounding countryside: he
had to dodge the mines that
littered roads and fields, and
cross rivers by picking across
the ruins of bridges; once, he
was stopped at a checkpoint.
“A Russian officer sat in front
of a desk and asked me where
I was going. I lied. I said I had
a stomach ulcer and needed to
get to Zaporizhzhia as I had
paid for treatment. I was told
to take off my top and they
looked for tattoos. I had a
bruise on my shoulder and they
accused me of having a rifle.
He said, ‘You are boring me.
Maybe I should beat you?’”
Others he met on his walk
were rather friendlier. On one
night, five Russian soldiers
gathered around him to hear
his remarkable story, before
stuffing cigarettes into his
pockets and wishing him luck
on his onward trip. When at
last he arrived in Ukrainian-
held territory, he was met by
volunteers offering help. “The
lady asked, ‘Where have you
come from?’ I said, ‘I have
come from Mariupol’. She
screamed: ‘Mariupol!’” He
smiles. “She shouted out to
everyone, ‘This man has
come from Mariupol on foot.’
Everyone stopped. I suppose
it was my moment of glory.”
Vettriano’s defiance
Jack Vettriano is Scotland’s
most famous artist, says
Stephen McGinty in The
Sunday Times. Celebrity
collectors of his work include
Madonna and Jack Nicholson;
his sale prices have broken
records. Yet his art – which
often shows young prostitutes
and old men in compromising
poses – is regularly panned by
critics; one branded it “dim
erotica”. National Galleries
of Scotland, meanwhile, won’t
purchase his paintings. (When
he asked its head about this,
he says he was told: “We are
[collecting] in alphabetical
order.”) Has he had concerns
about being cancelled? “Well,
I don’t much give a f**k and
you can quote me on that,” he
says. “Any artist worth the
name has to be true to himself.”
So he isn’t planning to change,
to suit more sensitive times?
“Christ, no. I’m not worried
about that and my new
paintings reflect that. I’m still
painting from the heart. I’m
not painting so men can get off
on them. I’m painting because
that’s the world that I live in.”
Deborah James is in end times, says Alice Thomson in The Times.
A former deputy headmistress, she was diagnosed with stage four
bowel cancer five years ago, aged 35. In the years since, she has
turned herself into a one-woman cancer campaign: she co-hosts an
award-winning podcast; she has written a book, and raised £6m for
cancer charities. Last week, she was awarded a damehood, in
recognition of all this. But lately, she has had to scale back her work.
“My cancer is now just taking over my body,” she says, from her
parents’ home in Woking, where she has gone to die. “Treatment
is now fruitless because my body can’t tolerate anything.” Her
children – Hugo, 14, and Eloise, 12 – are with her, as is her husband.
Her last days will be spent with them, and doing what she calls
“death admin” – making funeral plans and recording messages for
the children to play when they reach particular milestones in their
lives. Sometimes, the pain of it is overwhelming; but she is able
to reflect with pride on what she has achieved during her illness.
“Getting cancer and campaigning made me realise you can do
anything in life: I felt so alive, strangely, just making a tiny impact.
I could have regretted putting my life on show [to raise awareness
of] bowel cancer, but I don’t regret it,” she says. “I met incredible
people and felt I was having an impact. What else could I wish for?”
Viewpoint:
Intrusive staring
“On the London Underground, posters
warn that ‘intrusive staring’ is a form of
sexual harassment, and urge commuters
to report it. It’s human nature to stare,
explains a spokeswoman for British
Transport Police, but it’s ‘different when
someone is staring, leering or there’s a
sexual motivation’. When, though, does
a stare become a leer and a leer an
ogle? How quickly we arrive at the
ridiculous. Yes, campaigners say a
spectrum exists with staring at one end
and rape at the other. But the majority
roll their eyes, they become cynical
about the #MeToo propensity to take
offence at anything, and gradually the
whole cause of tackling more serious
crimes against women is undermined.”
Clare Foges in The Times
Farewell
Colin Cantwell, designer
and concept artist who
worked on Star Wars,
died 21 May, aged 90.
Dervla Murphy, Irish
travel writer whose
1960s bestseller Full
Tilt told of her solo
cycling trip to India,
died 23 May, aged 90.
Bob Neuwirth,
singer-songwriter
and artist, died 18 May,
aged 82.
Rosmarie Trapp, last
surviving female
member of the singing
family made famous by
The Sound of Music,
died 13 May, aged 93.
Book: The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
Luxury: a diary and pen * Choice if allowed only one record
Castaway of the week
This week’s edition of Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs featured
the Paralympic champion swimmer Ellie Simmonds
1* Proud by Heather Small and Peter-John Vettese, performed by
Heather Small
2 Own It by Michael Omari, Ed Sheeran, Fred Gibson and Damini
Ogulu, performed by Stormzy ft. Ed Sheeran and Burna Boy
3 Toxic by Cathy Dennis, Christian Karlsson, Pontus Winnberg and
Henrik Jonback, performed by Britney Spears
4 Lose Yourself by Marshall Mathers, Jeff Bass and Luis Resto,
performed by Eminem
5 Paradise by Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion,
Brian Eno and Chris Martin, performed by Coldplay
6 Walking on Sunshine by Kimberley Rew, performed by Katrina
and the Waves
7 Unforgettable by Karim Kharbouch, Khalif Brown, Christopher
Washington, Abel Tesfaye, J. Aujla and McCulloch Sutphin,
performed by French Montana ft. Swae Lee
8* Rocket Man by Bernie Taupin and Elton John, performed by
Elton John
