Good Guys

19/05/2013

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11/03/2013

Pictures by Martin Bond

Our 440 Strand window has been transformed to showcase all 21 Beautiful Boxes which go on auction on 14 March. Learn more about the auction here - http://bit.ly/16luRdu

17/01/2013

Is Winning All That Counts?

Vitoria-based athlete Iván Fernández Anaya refused to take advantage when his rival stopped short of the finishing line in a cross-country race. Spanish athlete Iván Fernández Anaya was competing in a cross-country race in Burlada, Navarre. He was running second, some distance behind race leader Abel Mutai – bronze medalist in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the London Olympics. As they entered the finishing straight, he saw the Kenyan runner – the certain winner of the race – mistakenly pull up about 10 meters before the finish, thinking he had already crossed the line. Fernández Anaya quickly caught up with him, but instead of exploiting Mutai’s mistake to speed past and claim an unlikely victory, he stayed behind and, using gestures, guided the Kenyan to the line and let him cross first.
“I didn’t deserve to win it,” says 24-year-old Fernández Anaya. “I did what I had to do. He was the rightful winner. He created a gap that I couldn’t have closed if he hadn’t made a mistake. As soon as I saw he was stopping, I knew I wasn’t going to pass him.”
“It was a very good gesture of honesty,” says Fiz. “A gesture of the kind that isn’t made any more. Or rather, of the kind that has never been made. A gesture that I myself wouldn’t have made. I certainly would have taken advantage of it to win.”
“But even if they had told me that winning would have earned me a place in the Spanish team for the European championships, I also think that I have earned more of a name having done what I did than if I had won. And that is very important, because today, with the way things are in all circles, in soccer, in society, in politics, where it seems anything goes, a gesture of honesty goes down well.”

29/12/2012

Sir Patrick Moore, who died died 9th December 2012 aged 89, did more than anyone to educate the British public about astronomy and space travel. Most of us are familiar with his monthly Sky at Night programme on BBC Television which attracted millions of viewers and made him the world’s longest-running presenter of a single television show.

Originally I thought about electing Brian May for an award in connection with Sir Patrick's demise as it was revealed by The Times that he had bought Farthings, Sir Patrick's house in Selsey, West Sussex for £480,000 in 2008, paying about £40,000 above the market value to ensure the astronomer could stay in the home he had lived in for four decades. According to The Sunday Times, Brian leased the property back to Moore on the same day he bought it - charging 'one peppercorn if demanded' for a 25-year lease. A noble gesture for sure but perhaps it is more important to look at the man who found himself in need of this assistance and the reasons why he wasn't able to secure his own finances.

Sir Patrick bough Farthings for £4,000 in cash in 1967 but the house was never financially secure. Neighbours said Sir Patrick instead spent his money on telescopes, annual New Year's Eve parties for the village and helping young astronomers through university. Neighbour Eileen Nolan, 73, said: 'He never was aware how much money he had or how little he had. He gave away any income he made to the point where he had no security himself except that which his friends supplied'. He wrote more than 70 books during his lifetime, most of the manuscripts banged out on a 1908 manual typewriter. The space enthusiast had an abhorrence of new technology. With his boundless energy and many interests, Patrick Moore could have made a fortune, but he said his astronomy would have suffered.

Patrick Moore (Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore), astronomer, television presenter, writer and Good Guy, born 4 March 1923; died 9 December 2012.

13/11/2012

We set up 2 cameras for this one. Perhaps we'll try some panning?
Hope you like it.

Watch a short time-lapse film of our latest window display being installed. This time, we feature Carrie Green, winner of MADE festival's Changemakers compet...

10/09/2012

Here's the time-lapse. Like it!

10/09/2012

How I spent last Saturday.

We are the main sponsors of this year's MADE Festival (20 - 21 September) which celebrates the best of British business..

14/05/2012

Still photos from Sunday's window installation at Coutts Head Office in The Strand

A new display in support of our sponsorship of the Victoria & Albert museum's Ballgowns: British Glamour since 1950s exhibition, which opens on 19 May and runs until January 2013.

Learn more at www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/ballgowns