In pictures: Austen fans don their Regency finery for fair
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Times
23 minutes ago
- Times
Stephen Bacon obituary: media lawyer for national newspapers
Burning the midnight oil as he scrutinised the next day's newspaper for defamation and contempt gave Stephen Bacon a thriving career in media law. Much of it was spent with Express Newspapers, including the Daily and Sunday Express titles and the Daily Star whose editors were renowned for pushing the legal limits. From time to time he appeared in court apologising for the misdemeanours of his client paper and disclosing a financial settlement to the judge. In 1989 the cricketer Ian Botham heard Bacon withdraw the Daily Star's libellous claim that he had been involved in a pub brawl, while in 2007 Danielle Lloyd, a former Miss Great Britain, donated her damages to charity after he apologised for allegations that she had been intimate with a nightclub DJ. On one occasion he apologised to Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman after what started as a laudatory newspaper feature was mistakenly leavened by the inclusion of unsubstantiated rumours. Cruise attended the hearing and afterwards they spoke directly, with Bacon expressing his sorrow that things had gone awry. 'I believe he genuinely accepted this and I came away thinking what a thoroughly nice person he was,' Bacon said. He once came face to face with Ian Brady, the Moors murderer, who was pursuing the Sunday Express over a story alleging that he had tried to force himself on a female visitor. For security reasons the hearing took place at Ashworth Hospital, Liverpool, though Bacon had to explain firmly to his insistent editor that he would be in contempt of court by surreptitiously taking a picture of Brady for the paper. Among the cases that gave Bacon the most pleasure was the one in which Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare was ordered to repay a £500,000 libel settlement from 15 years earlier, having been jailed in 2001 for perverting the course of justice. Afterwards he gave a satisfied interview to Legal Director magazine under the headline 'The long wait for justice'. Despite being a man of forthright opinions, Bacon had a great affection for journalists even though they constantly solicited free legal advice or requested his signature on passport photographs. 'I was usually told that I would be bought a drink by way of thanks; such drinks almost never materialised.' However, there were also surreal occasions. When the Coronation Street storyline included the arrest of Deirdre Rachid (later Barlow) for murder, the Daily Star took up the character's cause under the banner 'Free the Weatherfield One' and Bacon was required to write a legal opinion under the headline 'Our legal eagles will fight for her'. Stephen Francis Theodore Bacon was born in Oldham in 1945, the only child of Dr Frank Bacon, a theologian, and Cecila (née Pursglove), who became headmistress of a Manchester comprehensive school. As a boarder at the Perse School, Cambridge, he excelled at cross-country running but never learnt to swim. He read law at King's College, London, where his degree included an element of theology that he later used in debates with the local vicar. He was called to the Bar 'one balmy summer's evening' in 1969, a few minutes before Brenda Hale. Both joined the Northern Circuit as pupil barristers in Manchester, though she became president of the Supreme Court while 'after some ten years as a general common lawyer' he 'ended up in the rough and tumble of being 'the lawyer' at national newspapers'. Bacon's connection with the Daily Express began in 1971 as an occasional night lawyer in the paper's Manchester office, checking stories before they went to press. Winnie Johnson, whose son Keith Bennett was murdered by Brady and Myra Hindley, worked in the paper's canteen and 'always kept Daily Express journalists up to date in any developments [and] also made a very good sausage barm cake'. In 1973 he married Susan Johnson. He is survived by their son Nicholas, who has served in uniform. Their daughter, Hannah, died in 2009, aged 29. The marriage was dissolved and in 2001 he married Felicity Quant, a journalist whom he met at the Express offices. She survives him with their daughter Clio, who is studying law. Bacon formally joined Express Newspapers as an in-house lawyer in 1978, shortly after it launched the Daily Star as a red-top rival to The Sun. In the mid-1980s he moved to the company's London offices, having previously provided holiday cover there. New owners and policies at the turn of the century brought fewer high-risk stories, though a steady flow of complaints remained, notably about the titles' coverage of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in May 2007. 'In this case sales increased with each new twist to the story. Not a bad thing, until a legal problem arises,' he wrote. Again it fell to him to clear up the mess, draft an apology and negotiate a financial settlement. 'Forcibly retired', as he put it, in 2011, he took locum work at The Times, Sunday Times and The Sun. Despite living for many years in Kent, he retained a taste for northern cuisine, including pork pies and chips fried in beef dripping. He was a fine cook, often threatening to enter MasterChef, and had a wide range of interests including steam and model railways, horse racing at Sandown and following the fortunes of Lancashire county cricket club. After more than 50 years spent offering advice to editors and journalists, Bacon was well placed to observe how media law has developed, especially in relation to privacy. 'The law was comparatively straightforward when in the 1980s the Daily Star was censured by the Press Council, a predecessor of Ipso, [for publishing] a photo of Princess Diana taken from an adjacent Caribbean island with a long lens,' he wrote in a letter to The Times in 2023. However, he concluded with a note of caution: 'Today the law of privacy is far more complex, uncertain and strict.' Stephen Bacon, media lawyer, was born on September 3, 1945. He died from prostate cancer on July 13, 2025, aged 79
Daily Mail
23 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Maura Higgins displays her toned physique in a summer minidress as she gives followers a glimpse of her lavish lifestyle
displays her toned physique in a summer minidress as she shared a glimpse of her lavish lifestyle in an Instagram post on Sunday. The former Love Island star, 34, stunned as she enjoyed a picnic in the sun while wearing an ivory and pink milkmaids dress. In a second image she looked happier than ever after pulling on a pair of thigh-skimming shorts and fedora hat for a bike ride. In another snap, Maura enjoyed a mint ice cream which posed with while wearing a ruffled dress in a similar colour. She also shared a glimpse of herself in more casual attire, including a bright pink T-shirt dress branded with the Love Island logo. The brunette later posed for a fun snap with her pals as they made funny faces for a photo collage. Alongside the snaps, she wrote: 'Previously on……' The post comes after Maura moved into her £1.25million five-bedroom 'dream house' in Essex. The TV personality, who has amassed an estimated £3.2million fortune from her TV appearances, took to Instagram earlier this month to share the news that she had finally moved in. Sharing the news she posted a picture of stunning black French doors looking on to a garden, with a huge bouquet of glowers in a vase, Ferrari sparkling wine and a Diptyque candle. 'After the busiest few months.... she's finally in,' the former Love Island star captioned the snap. Sharing another snap of the kitchen featuring her pal, celebrity hairdresser Carl Bembridge, she wrote: 'No chairs yet but he always finds something to sit on.' As a young woman in rural Ireland, Maura's future was set - stay in the town, marry her teenage boyfriend and open up a hair salon. 'But that's not what I wanted. That was not my dream. That was my father's and boyfriend's dream. I wanted to do more,' Maura previously defiantly declared. Maura also shared a glimpse of her in more casual wear as she wore a bright pink T-shirt dress which was branded with the Love Island logo The brunette beauty also posed for a fun snap with her pals as they made funny faces for a photo collage And leave Ireland she did, going on to star in two ITV reality shows, Love Island and most recently I'm A Celebrity, as well as taking on presenting duties. In her next big move, the girl from remote County Longford purchased her huge house in Essex. Her riches have allowed the presenter to upgrade from her previous one-bedroom property in Essex to one with an en-suite master bedroom with four further rooms. Overjoyed, Maura shared to her Instagram followers a picture of her new kitchen with a chandelier and grey floors, which she bought in October, with the caption 'Bought my dream house'. An expansive kitchen, with an island, leads out past the dining area, out bi-folding doors to a large walled garden with a neat lawn. Maura's previous home was raided by three-masked men and so the Love Island star has ensured her new home was in a gated development which provides privacy and security.
The Guardian
23 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Alan Davies: Think Ahead review – comedian addresses his childhood abuse in return to stage
It's been 10 years since Alan Davies's last standup show, since when, he says, he has had a third child, and surpassed – by distressing margins – the ages of lance corporal Jones in Dad's Army and 'the mad old git in Back to the Future'. Another significant development was his 2020 book revealing the story of his childhood sexual abuse by his father. In his new show, Think Ahead, Davies addresses that on stage – and demonstrates, with reference to his laboured breathing, that he is experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder while doing so. That can't be anything other than a compelling stage moment, to see a 'people-pleasing comedian' (his words) of 30 years' standing open up – and so rawly – about a difficult subject unaddressed in his comedy until now. Davies does so with honesty and a lightness of touch. He acknowledges that it's an awkward topic for mirth, and makes good choices about when to set the jokes aside and when to find the funny. The funny? This was a dad who made colour copies of his child sexual abuse images on the household printer ('How many trips to Rymans?!') and whose diary, when unearthed by Davies years later, focused exclusively on golf. Davies's abuse is not the main focus of Think Ahead, far from it, and the remainder delivers one big-laughs set-piece after another. There is material about his youngest son, now nine, and some choice ranting in Alf Garnett-alike character as a man apoplectic about Ulez. There's also plenty of blue humour, of a type that couldn't fail to tickle a crowd, but which Davies elevates with his vivid image-making – of the sexual position you should adopt in the event of Viagra-induced heart attack, say, or of his experience delivering a poo sample for cancer screening. How do these very disparate routines fit together? You could argue that the childhood abuse material is dissonant with the broad sex comedy elsewhere. It also underpins it somehow, offsetting with shade the light of Davies's default people-pleasing superficiality, making the laughs wilder because they are harder won. The upshot is a striking new show, a cross-section of the 59-year-old's life now that reveals parts his previous shows couldn't reach. At Orchard at Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh, until 10 August. All our Edinburgh festival reviews. The NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331
