Rich List 2017
The Sunday Times Magazine • 83actually hard to spend
your way through all of
it, and most people don’t
do that.
“So, you can either save
it or give it all away. The
problem when people
save a large amount of
money is that what was
once their servant
becomes their master.
They get very hung up
about their money; they
worry if they are good
stewards. Where is the
fun in that?”
“I happen not to have
a ‘rich ’ lifestyle and I don’t
want to be made a
monkey of by my money,”
he says, “ So the only thing
to do is to give it away.”
Ruff er is adamant that
he doesn’t want to be
portrayed as a visionary,
generous or engaged in
some form of saintly
sacrifi ce. “Please keep the
cheese away from your
piece,” he implores.
“Saint Jonathan is a very
dreary prospect.”
Self-deprecating, Ruff er
describes himself as being
“very short of natural
talents”, but admits to two
skills : encouraging people
and unifying them. “I am
a good force in bridge
building,” he says.
He also tells the story of
Bertie and Dora, his two
dandie dinmont dogs.
Small and hardly looking
the part of trained killers ,
they made light work
(about four minutes) of a muntjac deer that
accidentally strayed into the courtyard of
a former home. Bespectacled and fl oppy-
haired, he draws a comparison to himself.
Outside Ruff er’s front door, earth
movers and tipper trucks are hard at work
transforming Auckland Castle and its
grounds into the year-round tourist
attraction t o complement what should
become the annual Kynren spectacular.
There will be a new Spanish gallery for the
Zurbaran paintings, a research centre for
Spanish and Latin American art partnered
by Durham University , a restaurant andreconstructed walled garden and fi ve
further gardens within the castle precincts.
And there is Kynren, the concept
borrowed from the Pu y d u Fou production ,
so successful in the Vendée region of France.
When Ruff er spoke to Philippe de Villiers ,
the founder of that long-running show, he
was told that he did it for the glory of God
and the good of the Vendée. It precisely
mirrored Ruff er’s own vision and motives.
“If you put on a great show , in terms of
choreography, light and sound , and populate
it with groups from the community who all
want to make it as good as it can be, then you
have something more powerful than the
slickest professional show ,” Ruff er says.
He believes the results have been tangible,
living on long after the lights had dimmed
and the smoke dispersed from last summer’s
fi nal show. “The mood and atmosphere of
Bishop Auckland has been transformed by
friendship and a sense of community pride
in doing something excellent — which was
what I always had in mind.”
Yet he is under no illusion as to the scale
of the task in hand. “The tide is still running
hard out in the town itself. Shops are still
closing, businesses still failing — but the
corner has been turned.”
He draws on the history of the place that
is bankrolling the project — the City.
“It’s like the stock market back in 1974.
On December 8, 1974, the big insurance
companies came in to support the market,
and a month later, on January 8, 1975, the
market turned. The cavalry ha s arrived and
we will see the results.
“Kynren has helped with the street
credibility. Kynren took the project out of
the castle gates. We are not wholly there,
and there are a few people who are out for
us. It’s a cliché , but one person can do so
little — yet with lots of people there is no
end to what you can do.”
As with many philanthropists, Ruff er
is driven by a fi rm religious conviction.
“I would not have attempted this without
a deep, deep belief that it was what I was
being called to do.”
He draws on the story of Abraham in the
Old Testament , who is sent on a journey by
God , but doesn’t know where he is going.
“I don’t really plan anything. I walk in
obedience one day at a time. It’s a bit like
driving a car in the fog: gradually things
come out of the mist and then you can see
where you are.” ■Kynren runs f rom July 1 to Sept 16. Tickets
from £25; elevenarches.org“You can either
save it or give it
all away. I don’t
want to be made
a monkey of by
my money”
ONWARD, CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS
More than 1 00,000 people watched
last summer’s Kynren spectacular
near Auckland Castle, performed
by hundreds of local volunteers