Esther Freud remembers the day on which she was asked to leave drama school: she is still bothered that she did not protest. Still a teenager at the time, she was one of 20 in a class of 30 told they did not have the necessary talent.
"Now I'm older and wiser, I wonder if it wasn't a bit of a scam," says Freud. "But what is painful to look back on is that none of us dared to say, 'Hold on, we've paid for this course and we're not getting our money's worth.' And I've realised that it's because when you're a young actress, in your bones there's always this feeling that perhaps you really aren't any good, and that's why you're being treated this way. It means you are intensely vulnerable.
"So instead, we just faded away. It turned out to be the best thing that could have happened. I left, got my Equity [union] card, and found that the world of acting was nothing like they'd told me at the school. But of course, it's still hard: all that waiting for the phone to ring."
Freud was an actress for the next six years before she sat down to write an early draft of the novel that would be her 1991 debut, Hideous Kinky. She drew on that previous career for her seventh novel, Lucky Break, released in paperback earlier this year, which follows a cast of aspiring young actors from drama school in the early 1990s and across the decade that follows: one full of ambition, disappointment, love, heartbreak, failure and, occasionally, unimagined success. Plenty, then, around which to weave a compelling plot; but Lucky Break is also full of a gentle empathy for its young protagonists, and full, too, of affection for a world to which Freud is still connected: her husband is the British actor David Morrissey and they have three children.
No wonder Freud says she wanted to move beyond the easy ridicule that is characteristic of most fiction about actors. When it comes to her characters - the insecure, overweight Nell, glamorous Charlie, thrusting Dan and headstrong Jemma - Freud wanted something more.
"Most novelists use actors just as a bit-part, for some humour: so the actor is vain, selfish, self-obsessed. That can work, but I wanted to show that there are all kinds of actors. And that acting is a really tough life choice.
"It becomes such a fine balance, because I know so much about that world and how ludicrous it can be, and how funny. But I wanted to show that from the inside, so that we're not simply laughing at these people. Really, it's a novel about a group of people finding out who they are and what they want to be as they grow up."
It was after drama school that Freud began to experiment with fiction, and during a period of unemployment - "after a particularly gruesome production" - that she began to write her first novel. Freud, great-granddaughter of Sigmund, is one of more than a dozen children fathered by the late British painter Lucian Freud, who died this summer at 88. She grew to know her father in her teenage years, when she was his subject.
"I sat for him for the first time when I was 16," Freud told The Times in 2004. "That's how I got to know him. We'd never lived in the same city before."
Freud drew on her peripatetic, bohemian childhood for Hideous Kinky, which presented a young mother's quest for spiritual fulfilment in Morocco as seen through the eyes of her daughter.
Hideous Kinky brought her to greater public attention in 1998 when it was made into a film starring Kate Winslet. Subsequent fiction, including 2007's Love Falls, has also orbited around childhood and adolescence, making Freud something of a literary specialist.
"I find myself drawn to writing about young people," she says. "I don't know why, but I just feel that I automatically understand how it is to be under 25. I find it much harder to write about adults, with their knowledge and disappointment."
Lucky Break pays such close, honest attention to its characters that London's young, struggling actors will surely recognise something of themselves in its pages. They might catch a glimpse of their future, too.
"Being young is hard: you are always wondering, 'Is my life going to come to anything?' A year goes by, and you think, 'Why haven't I done this yet, why haven't I done that?' But perhaps if I hadn't had those thoughts, my life really wouldn't have come to anything. I certainly had a determination to find something that made me happy. I was the opposite of resigned, if you know what I mean."
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Fund-raising tips for start-ups
Develop an innovative business concept
Have the ability to differentiate yourself from competitors
Put in place a business continuity plan after Covid-19
Prepare for the worst-case scenario (further lockdowns, long wait for a vaccine, etc.)
Have enough cash to stay afloat for the next 12 to 18 months
Be creative and innovative to reduce expenses
Be prepared to use Covid-19 as an opportunity for your business
* Tips from Jassim Al Marzooqi and Walid Hanna
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Business Insights
- As per the document, there are six filing options, including choosing to report on a realisation basis and transitional rules for pre-tax period gains or losses.
- SMEs with revenue below Dh3 million per annum can opt for transitional relief until 2026, treating them as having no taxable income.
- Larger entities have specific provisions for asset and liability movements, business restructuring, and handling foreign permanent establishments.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
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Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
How to apply for a drone permit
- Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
- Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
- Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
- Submit their request
What are the regulations?
- Fly it within visual line of sight
- Never over populated areas
- Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
- Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
- Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
- Should have a live feed of the drone flight
- Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Scoreline:
Everton 4
Richarlison 13'), Sigurdsson 28', Digne 56', Walcott 64'
Manchester United 0
Man of the match: Gylfi Sigurdsson (Everton)
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 201hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 320Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.7L/100km
Price: Dh133,900
On sale: now
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Various Artists
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk)
RESULTS FOR STAGE 4
Stage 4 Dubai to Hatta, 197 km, Road race.
Overall leader Primoz Roglic SLO (Team Jumbo - Visma)
Stage winners: 1. Caleb Ewan AUS (Lotto - Soudal) 2. Matteo Moschetti ITA (Trek - Segafredo) 3. Primoz Roglic SLO (Team Jumbo - Visma)