Latest news with #JamesDoyle
Yahoo
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Colin Brazier: The day I discovered my millionaire grandfather
Five years ago, while explaining his conversion to Catholicism, America's vice-president, JD Vance, wrote that coincidences were evidence of 'the touch of God'. But how improbable need events be before rational explanations falter? I ask this, not for a friend, but myself. Last month, on Friday the 13th no less, something happened which stretches statistical credulity. And since I am already a Catholic, I am not minded to dismiss it as happenstance. I was sitting with my daughter at Lord's Cricket Ground when a message landed in my LinkedIn inbox. It was from a stranger, a woman claiming to be my aunt. A recent DNA test had apparently revealed the link. Without going into details, her story checked out. She also included two pictures of a man, bearing an unmistakable likeness to me, standing in front of a very grand house. This, she said, was my paternal grandfather, James JJ Doyle. Her disclosure was, to put it mildly, a surprise. I was raised knowing nothing about my father's side of the family (indeed, I had only learnt my father's true identity as a young man). Now, out-of-blue, came my grandfather's story. James 'Jimmy' Doyle was born in 1930 into extreme poverty in Hastings, where – coincidentally – I spent half a year training to be a journalist. He was a poor boy made good, up to a point. A spell in prison for handling stolen antiques (he was exposed by Esther Rantzen on That's Life) did not prevent a social ascent of Becky Sharp velocity. He became a property developer and in 1971 pulled off the biggest coup of his career. After 20 years of trying, he finally bought Wykehurst Place, a 105-room country house set in 180-acres of Sussex countryside. Doyle spent millions in today's money on a huge restoration project. Nikolaus Pevsner and Ian Nairn, in their influential series The Buildings Of England, described it as the 'epitome of high Victorian showiness and licence'. The house became the setting for films like The Eagle Has Landed starring Michael Caine. According to my newly-discovered aunt, her father was a man of strong dynastic instincts. His yearning for a male heir to inherit the family pile was never requited (he had seven daughters). The reality, unknown to him, was that he had fathered a boy as a teenager in Brighton. That baby, adopted by a couple far away in Yorkshire, became my father. Neither knew of the other's existence. Sadly, Doyle's life ultimately ended in ruin and despair. After divorce and bankruptcy, he killed himself in 1995. Learning of all this made me reflect that in a world where DNA home-testing kits are cheap and widely available, the discovery of hidden branches of family trees must be increasingly commonplace. Doyle's story was simply more colourful, and ultimately tragic, than many. But the genetic science that has made this possible is about more than ancestry tests. In the eternal debate about what makes people who they are, DNA now dominates the argument. Geneticists talk of characteristics as something we are born with, innate – not bred into us or learnt. When I look at the parallels between my life and that of my grandfather, do I see coincidence or genetic predisposition? Doyle had seven daughters and a son. I had a son and five daughters. Does that suggest a biological sex-bias in our DNA, something in our genes which made us both more likely to beget girls? Or, is it broader than that? There is evidence to suggest a genetic predisposition towards the decision to have children at all. What might feel like an act of free-will may actually have more to do with what lurks in our double-helix. Some scientists even believe that personality-traits like an openness to religion are genetically encoded. God-botherers like me are just born that way, it seems. But how to explain the other stuff? As anyone who has followed my 35-year-long career in television will testify (BBC, Sky, GB News), over the decades I have moved sharply and publicly to the Right. On X, I post regularly about immigration issues, motivated to a great extent by my upbringing in Bradford, a city used (disastrously in my view) as a giant laboratory for multiculturalism. Doyle, though ostensibly a businessman, was also of the Right. He founded the Racial Preservation Society, which campaigned in the 1960s and 1970s for an end to mass immigration. Until Friday the 13th, I had never heard of the Racial Preservation Society, nor of The British Independent, a newspaper founded and funded by Doyle. When I discovered Doyle's politics I was half-way through proof-reading a book about anti-Semitism for a Jewish friend. I have no time for racists. But I am also part of a growing cohort of commentators online and elsewhere who refuse to be shutdown by ideological enemies who use that slur to limit legitimate debate. I think Britain faces tough questions about its demographic future, and I am trying to explore them in the pages of The Salisbury Review, a conservative quarterly founded by the philosopher Roger Scruton and where I am now assistant editor. I have no idea how it compares to Doyle's British Independent. Yet it is odd that we should both be involved in Right-wing writing. If family formation and religiosity can be attributed to DNA, what about politics? But where does genetics stop and coincidence begin? And, indeed, where does a coincidence become so improbable that it veers beyond the bounds of reasonable likelihood? It is odd that I should call my only son John Joseph, even though I never knew James JJ (John Joseph) Doyle. It is strange that my grandfather, when he sold Wykehurst Park in 1981, should buy a slightly lesser mansion, now apparently inhabited by a famous English journalist and media personality (Piers Morgan). Yet these are everyday coincidences. How, though, to account for Bolney? I had never heard of Bolney, a village in Sussex, until a friend gave me a Virgin voucher as a wedding present last year. It was for a tour around a vineyard located there. We forgot all about it until, while my wife was organising her desk six weeks ago, she stumbled upon the card and noticed that the gift was about to expire. We decided to book a room there and spend a day walking on the South Downs. That was a few days before Friday the 13th. There are more than 6,000 villages in Britain and yet the one that had come to our attention was the very village in which Wykehurst Place sits. The home, not just of a vineyard, but of my paternal grandfather. What are the odds? The dictionary defines a coincidence as 'a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection'. I prefer the definition given by the late Alistair Cooke, long-time and much-loved host of BBC radio's Letter From America. Extreme coincidence was, he said in a letter about the subject in 2001, a potential gift of grace. 'Somebody,' he said, 'is saying 'stay the course' … reminding you that they have you in mind.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Colin Brazier: The day I discovered my millionaire grandfather
Five years ago, while explaining his conversion to Catholicism, America's vice-president, JD Vance, wrote that coincidences were evidence of 'the touch of God'. But how improbable need events be before rational explanations falter? I ask this, not for a friend, but myself. Last month, on Friday the 13th no less, something happened which stretches statistical credulity. And since I am already a Catholic, I am not minded to dismiss it as happenstance. I was sitting with my daughter at Lord's Cricket Ground when a message landed in my LinkedIn inbox. It was from a stranger, a woman claiming to be my aunt. A recent DNA test had apparently revealed the link. Without going into details, her story checked out. She also included two pictures of a man, bearing an unmistakable likeness to me, standing in front of a very grand house. This, she said, was my paternal grandfather, James JJ Doyle. Her disclosure was, to put it mildly, a surprise. I was raised knowing nothing about my father's side of the family (indeed, I had only learnt my father's true identity as a young man). Now, out-of-blue, came my grandfather's story. James 'Jimmy' Doyle was born in 1930 into extreme poverty in Hastings, where – coincidentally – I spent half a year training to be a journalist. He was a poor boy made good, up to a point. A spell in prison for handling stolen antiques (he was exposed by Esther Rantzen on That's Life) did not prevent a social ascent of Becky Sharp velocity. He became a property developer and in 1971 pulled off the biggest coup of his career. After 20 years of trying, he finally bought Wykehurst Place, a 105-room country house set in 180-acres of Sussex countryside. Doyle spent millions in today's money on a huge restoration project. Nikolaus Pevsner and Ian Nairn, in their influential series The Buildings Of England, described it as the 'epitome of high Victorian showiness and licence'. The house became the setting for films like The Eagle Has Landed starring Michael Caine. According to my newly-discovered aunt, her father was a man of strong dynastic instincts. His yearning for a male heir to inherit the family pile was never requited (he had seven daughters). The reality, unknown to him, was that he had fathered a boy as a teenager in Brighton. That baby, adopted by a couple far away in Yorkshire, became my father. Neither knew of the other's existence. Sadly, Doyle's life ultimately ended in ruin and despair. After divorce and bankruptcy, he killed himself in 1995. Learning of all this made me reflect that in a world where DNA home-testing kits are cheap and widely available, the discovery of hidden branches of family trees must be increasingly commonplace. Doyle's story was simply more colourful, and ultimately tragic, than many. But the genetic science that has made this possible is about more than ancestry tests. In the eternal debate about what makes people who they are, DNA now dominates the argument. Geneticists talk of characteristics as something we are born with, innate – not bred into us or learnt. When I look at the parallels between my life and that of my grandfather, do I see coincidence or genetic predisposition? Doyle had seven daughters and a son. I had a son and five daughters. Does that suggest a biological sex-bias in our DNA, something in our genes which made us both more likely to beget girls? Or, is it broader than that? There is evidence to suggest a genetic predisposition towards the decision to have children at all. What might feel like an act of free-will may actually have more to do with what lurks in our double-helix. Some scientists even believe that personality-traits like an openness to religion are genetically encoded. God-botherers like me are just born that way, it seems. But how to explain the other stuff? As anyone who has followed my 35-year-long career in television will testify (BBC, Sky, GB News), over the decades I have moved sharply and publicly to the Right. On X, I post regularly about immigration issues, motivated to a great extent by my upbringing in Bradford, a city used (disastrously in my view) as a giant laboratory for multiculturalism. Doyle, though ostensibly a businessman, was also of the Right. He founded the Racial Preservation Society, which campaigned in the 1960s and 1970s for an end to mass immigration. Until Friday the 13th, I had never heard of the Racial Preservation Society, nor of The British Independent, a newspaper founded and funded by Doyle. When I discovered Doyle's politics I was half-way through proof-reading a book about anti-Semitism for a Jewish friend. I have no time for racists. But I am also part of a growing cohort of commentators online and elsewhere who refuse to be shutdown by ideological enemies who use that slur to limit legitimate debate. I think Britain faces tough questions about its demographic future, and I am trying to explore them in the pages of The Salisbury Review, a conservative quarterly founded by the philosopher Roger Scruton and where I am now assistant editor. I have no idea how it compares to Doyle's British Independent. Yet it is odd that we should both be involved in Right-wing writing. If family formation and religiosity can be attributed to DNA, what about politics? But where does genetics stop and coincidence begin? And, indeed, where does a coincidence become so improbable that it veers beyond the bounds of reasonable likelihood? It is odd that I should call my only son John Joseph, even though I never knew James JJ (John Joseph) Doyle. It is strange that my grandfather, when he sold Wykehurst Park in 1981, should buy a slightly lesser mansion, now apparently inhabited by a famous English journalist and media personality (Piers Morgan). Yet these are everyday coincidences. How, though, to account for Bolney? I had never heard of Bolney, a village in Sussex, until a friend gave me a Virgin voucher as a wedding present last year. It was for a tour around a vineyard located there. We forgot all about it until, while my wife was organising her desk six weeks ago, she stumbled upon the card and noticed that the gift was about to expire. We decided to book a room there and spend a day walking on the South Downs. That was a few days before Friday the 13th. There are more than 6,000 villages in Britain and yet the one that had come to our attention was the very village in which Wykehurst Place sits. The home, not just of a vineyard, but of my paternal grandfather. What are the odds? The dictionary defines a coincidence as 'a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection'. I prefer the definition given by the late Alistair Cooke, long-time and much-loved host of BBC radio's Letter From America. Extreme coincidence was, he said in a letter about the subject in 2001, a potential gift of grace. 'Somebody,' he said, 'is saying 'stay the course' … reminding you that they have you in mind.'
The Sun
23-06-2025
- Sport
- The Sun
Huge Lazzat update after Royal Ascot hero almost KO'd helpless man – as trainer admits ‘freak' mistake caused meltdown
TRAINER Jerome Reynier has issued a big update on awesome Royal Ascot winner Lazzat - who almost kicked a man's head off after the race. Lazzat had just beaten Japanese challenger Satono Reve to win the Group 1 Platinum Jubilee Stakes last Saturday when he lost control. 3 3 First he dumped jockey James Doyle to the turf then galloped loose over the track. Moments later, ITV footage showed one poor helpless soul who tried to get him to calm down coming just inches from being kicked in the head. There were fears the worrying scenes could lead to Doyle being disqualified as he was unable to weigh in without his saddle - which was still strapped to Lazzat's back. But fortunately there was a happy ending for the Wathnan-owned horse, who is now back home in Reynier's French yard and doing well. Speaking to Sky Sports Racing, the trainer admitted Lazzat's meltdown was all his fault. It was Reynier who stood in front of the sprinter with the winner's cloth - and it was like waving a red rag to a bull. He said: "The horse is all good, nice and settled and he doesn't even seem tired. He's ready for more. "Me and James were laughing about it. It's my fault with the winning sheet. I came too close. I should've gone round the side. "But we were so happy and it was a freak (accident). "If I could have jumped on the horse with James I would have done! "But it was an amazing moment to share with all my friends on the day." Lazzat was made 5-2 favourite for the July Cup on the back of his 6f win at Ascot. But Reynier confirmed his next start will not be until August when he aims to defend his Maurice de Gheest crown in Deauville. He said: "This race will suit him well once again and obviously he will be the favourite. "On the European racing programme - he doesn'y mind the ground so the plan would be to stick with Group 1 sprinting races and Haydock and Ascot could be the next targets for him. "But we are focused on August 10 for Deauville and the Maurice de Gheest. "He is young and they often get better with age. "Maybe the best is yet to come." Commercial content notice: Taking one of the offers featured in this article may result in a payment to The Sun. You should be aware brands pay fees to appear in the highest placements on the page. 18+. T&Cs apply. Remember to gamble responsibly A responsible gambler is someone who:
Powys County Times
22-06-2025
- Sport
- Powys County Times
Humidity too much for Chesham rivals
Humidity made his rivals feel the heat in the Chesham Stakes thanks to a fine front-running ride from James Doyle at Royal Ascot. Trained by Andrew Balding, he was an impressive winner in the colours of Cheveley Park Stud over six furlongs at Newbury on debut, but transferred to the ownership of Wathnan Racing ahead of stepping up to seven furlongs for this Listed event. Humidity (4-1) was quickly away and never passed by his rivals, showing great resolve when challenged late in the day to replicate his brother Holloway Boy, who won this contest on debut at the 2022 Royal meeting. Balding said: 'I am so pleased and at the beginning of the week we felt this horse was probably our strongest chance. 'He's a lovely horse who had to battle hard today, and he's done nothing wrong. I would hope he would stay further, but he's not short of speed either. This was always the plan but we will now work back from something nice in the autumn. 'He's so laid back. I'm a big fan of Ulysses – I think he's an under-rated stallion, so this is good for him and we've got a couple of other nice horses by him, but he (Humidity) is an absolute dude, very relaxed. 'I think he could be a Guineas horse. He's not short of speed and he's got a lovely long stride, so he's got a bright future.' Coral make Humidity a 14-1 shot for next year's 2000 Guineas. Thesecretadversary followed Humidity home a length adrift at 12-1, with trainer Fozzy Stack predicting a bright future for the son of St Mark's Basilica. 'He ran a great race. It's annoying we didn't get there, but he ran a great race,' said Stack. 'He's been very straightforward, he's always looked a bit above average from the minute we started doing a bit with him. 'I know he's quite colourful, but he's actually a very good model. Seamie (Heffernan, jockey) was delighted with him, he said he has the pace of a good horse, he feels he will mature in time. 'We have all the options, we can run back at a maiden, we can keep pitching in at a higher level, we will see.'
BBC News
22-06-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
In pictures: A week at Royal Ascot
Royal Ascot 2025 has officially finished, having seen tens of thousands of people gather in Charles attended alongside Queen Camilla for the fifth and final day of the annual event on pair presented jockey James Doyle with his trophy after his victory aboard French runner Lazzat in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee temperatures posed an extra challenge for event organisers this year, as dozens of people required medical assistance because of heat-related illness on the second day. Free water was provided to racegoers and horses were kept cool using misting fans and a mobile water bowser with a 1,000-litre (220-gallon) total, an estimated 250,000 people attended the five-day event, which was founded by Queen Anne in well as being a sporting event, it has become well known as a key social occasion, with many donning extravagantly designed headwear. You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
